Walking Amongst Them (Among Us, Book 2)

what is happening?

My cavalry wasn't pleased with the lack of information I could provide about what was going on. I'd been running off of mostly trust, when it came to Cody and Stephanie. I knew that we were trying to deliver Clara and Stephanie back to the quarantine, and I knew that Cody was trying to keep Stephanie at least, safe from the people she'd come to find herself traveling with. My father was a variant that was as unpredictable as he was cruel.

I told them about Polly.

I wanted to ask them about the conditions of the quarantine, why exactly they were shooting each other. But I couldn't, just like I couldn't bring myself to ask about any of the people that Trish was supposed to be with. We had things to take care of first.

The blonde woman's name turned out to be Ray.

I stood behind her, and Trish stood behind me, as we all three walked close to the buildings. We'd managed to get Micah into the back of the van. We'd left him with a gun and closed the doors mostly, hiding him from any passing corpses. It wasn't ideal, and Ray looked angry and anxious as we left.

Before we'd left him he'd tried to sooth her, his hand running from her shoulder to her elbow.

"For Clara," he said.

This seemed to have meaning to Ray, because she stared into his eyes for a moment, then nodded. She took the lead, then, getting us across the street and to the back side of the small strip of buildings.

Micah seemed to have a particular admiration for the girl. I wondered, silently, how admirable it was to put yourself and others at risk for something you weren't prepared to handle. She'd gone out, unprepared, and this wa sat least the second set of people sent out for her.

We were only a few doors away from the one we needed, walking along the back of the buildings, when a too familiar sound broke the silence that had settled in the area. It was another gunshot, I was sure of it.

I glanced back at Trish. She wore a grim expression, but motioned me onward. By the time we'd reached the door, there had been three more shots fired. None of them had been outside of the building, and they all sounded as though they were in the front.

Ray reached for the door, finding it unlocked as she pushed it open.

I'd come to find that most doors decide to be loud when you want them to be quiet. This one was silent as it invited us into its dark interior. I knew the building was clear, that no dead people walked around within it, but my gut still wished for me to remain outside.

Trish shut the door behind us. I knew it was the smart thing to do, zombies couldn't open doors. But we were suddenly in the dark, with only a little bit of light from the hall that led towards the front to see from. Still without speaking, we split up.

Ray was meant to watch the door, while Trish played back up for me. My job was to find out what was going on... and go from there. It wasn't solid, but...

It wasn't hard for me to find them all. My father's voice was deafening compared to the silence around it. I couldn't understand what he was saying until I made it halfway up the stairs. He was threatening someone with another's safety, saying he'd shoot her.

I quickened my steps.

How it hadn't occurred to be to be worried about who was still living after those gunshots, I wasn't sure. For some reason, until that moment, the gunshots had simply been dramatic effect. Nothing to seriously concern myself, only a warning to walk quicker. I didn't have a concrete plan as I launched over the last step and threw myself through the partially open door of the office I'd been in just earlier.