Undead Rises

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴇᴇɴ

ᴀʀɪᴀ ꜱᴍɪᴛʜ'ꜱ ᴘᴏᴠ

I hated being back in this place. The feeling of being surrounded by people who would never understand me and having my father looming over me the entire time. Being in the same uniform, eating the same food, and being in the same room felt overwhelming. Every time I tried closing my eyes, all I could see was the hundreds of memories resurfacing. 

The bed beneath me squeaked as I leaned my elbows onto my knees and placing my head in my hands. There were so many emotions circling my mind, and I didn't know what to do.

I was angry at myself for lying to Cora. Nervous about being back here with my dad. Scared over the fact that my father might hurt my friends if he found out Ben and Cora were bitten. 

I took a deep breath, hoping to calm the storm and try regaining control. When I was able to still my mind, I decided that I couldn't just sit here and feel sorry for myself. I stood up and walked towards the door. I didn't have the power to control the universe and I understood that, but I could apologize to Cora, try and remain calm around my father, and make sure that he never finds out about the bite marks.

The door swung shut behind me as I walked through the empty hallway with only one goal in mind, find Cora.

The conversation between my father and I resurfaced, when Cora asked me to leave the room. He told me that they would get food after the talk so, I assumed that they were in the cafeteria meeting up with the others. 

In a matter of minutes, I was entering the cafeteria. My eyes darted through the green uniforms and white lab coats until the landed on the outstanding grey. Everyone who had gone through the processing was now in grey sweats, making them stand out compared to the familiar green and white. 

They were sitting at one of the stainless-steel tables, eating and laughing. The only one who looked out of place was Cora. She made no effort to join the conversation. Instead, she was leaning her head into her hand and pushing around the food in her plate, not taking a bite. She was clearly stuck in her own thoughts, most likely replaying the event of discovering the fact that I had lied to her. 

I took a deep breath before walking towards the table, I kept my head tall but clenched my fists before straightening out my hands. They were clammy. I was nervous, I didn't know how she was going to react.

Kai was the first one to notice me. "How come you get the cool uniform? Here we are in sweats and there you are looking like a damn soldier." he complained before turning to face Jasper, "I want to look like that." he finished. Jasper rolled his eyes and looked back at me. I suddenly felt self-conscious over the fact that my hair wasn't gelled back into a bun like it should have been. "Kai, you would never look like that. Authority isn't something you deal well with." Jasper commented. Everyone was looking at me now, except for Cora.

"Cora, can I talk to you? Please?" I asked her, hoping she would look up at me, but she didn't. All she did was place her fork down on her plate. "Why do you have the uniform on? Aria?" Joseph questioned, he wanted an explanation, but I couldn't give him one, I just needed Cora to look at me. "Aria?"

"Tell them." Cora uttered the words quietly but forcefully; I noticed her clenched hands as she kept her gaze down. I remained silent. "Tell them!" she yelled, slamming her hands down on the table. The sudden commotion caused everyone in the cafeteria to turn in their seat, eager to find out what was happening. I could feel my father's eyes burning into the back of my head, but I didn't turn around.

"She is wearing the uniform because the commander of this base, is her father. She lied about accidentally finding the map," she spoke, her gaze shot up towards me. I saw the anger in her eyes, the hurt of my betrayal. She started to approach me before continuing, "she lied about not being sure we could get in, maybe she was lying about wanting us to be here. Maybe she lied because she needed a group to get her here."