Apocalyptic Love - The island

Chapter Twenty-Eight - Answers

I knew what I did was wrong, part of me was sorry but the other part knew I was only trying to keep my family safe. My decisions were irrational most of the time, but that was just me.

I watched the small waves brush against the pier, small drops landing on my bare feet as they grazed the shoreline. This place was peaceful, but it was built on secrets and that's the one thing that made me uneasy. Carter was right when he said I hated the unknown, but is that a bad thing?.

"You look like you could use a friend" A deep voice echoed behind me, the wooden decking creaking as he sat next to me. Ryan sat a few inches away, his hand rubbing against his beard as he followed my sights. "Matt told me your dad was Thomas".

I nodded slowly not wanting to say anything "he told me what happened. I'm really sorry, everyone has a darkness, it just takes something to make it snap".

"What makes you say that" I looked to his bright green eyes which grew softer.

Ryan sighed "No person is built without those thoughts that you know you shouldn't be thinking, some people let them take over. Makes them do bad things, hurt people, it's up to that person whether they fight it or not. You can't tell me, especially in this world that there hasn't been times you've thought about hurting someone".

"I guess, but there's a difference between hurting someone to protect something else and doing harm for no reason" Ryan nodded again "My father had his morals backwards, he said he turned into that man to avenge my mother, when in hindsight he turned into the people who did that to her. That makes him no better than them, and in the end he lost everything because of it".

"You're a smart kid you know, you remind me of him. The person he was before all this" Ryan was right. I was in ways a lot like the man who raised me, and I would do anything to stop myself from becoming the person he was after the apocalypse.

"I guess I have his stubbornness" I laughed "I guess you've heard I broke into the creepy looking building".

"Mhm" Ryan muttered silently "Word gets around this place faster than you would think".

I turned to him, crossing my legs "What's with that place. You know they are keeping a corpse in there?".

The man looked dumbfounded, his face mirroring mine the moment I saw the glass cage "I didn't know that. That place is off limits to all of us except a certain few guards who were here when the island was started up".

I sighed leaning my chin into the palm of my hands "I thought this place would have been the best thing to happen to us you know, we'd be away from all the danger and we could just live" Ryan looked sympathetic "I just can't get out of my head".

"You aren't imagining things Katie, we all know something isn't right here but most of us are scared to speak up. We don't want to loose somewhere safe" Ryan couldn't hold eyecontact as he spoke, it's like he knew he shouldn't be talking to me "When this place started rumours spread around like a wildfire".

"What rumours?".

I was dying for answers, anything to calm the chaos I'd created in my mind. I couldn't sleep, I could think and worst of all I'd hurt Carter.

"The lab cut off all connections to the rest of the world the moment this shit show started" Ryan looked around cautiously before turning back to me "Some people said the government shut them down, but others said this is where the virus started" My eyes widened searching his face for any glimpse of a lie but the man was stern.

I stood up pacing the deck as I let the words sink in. This is where the virus started. Whoever was in that lab could have caused the apocalypse. All the loss, the pain, the exact reason we all lost our lives.

"They.." I couldn't speak, I was angry, confused. "They did this".

Ryan nodded, his green eyes saddening as he looked over me "None of us wanted to ask. We didn't have to live out in that world, watch it tear people apart and we didn't want to lose that".

"But you knew what was happening" The man nodded "People were dying.. are dying. While the ones who started it live safely on this island and you all just kept quiet".

"It isn't just about us. There's kids here Katie. My kids are here, I had to keep them safe" Ryan was pleading, he knew he shouldn't have told me because this whole place was about to blow up. I get it, he was trying to protect his family but what about the ones who couldn't do that, they didn't have a choice.

"What about the kids out there" I pointed to the horizon, the sun setting over the ocean brighter than the anger coursing through me "I had a brother. He didn't get to grow up because those monsters tore him apart, my mother. My best friend. They didn't get the same chance did they".

Ryan stepped closer, his eyes stuck to the wooden decking "I'm sorry Katie" when he finally looked up his eyes were sparkling, the rough exterior he always wore breaking "We were scared. It wasn't right, we should have spoken up but we just wanted to keep our families safe".

"I get it" I nodded, shaking my head as I turned on my heels.

The truth is I wasn't angry at Ryan. There was one person who could answer to this and he sat safely in the guarded lab, but this time I wasn't going to lose the people I love doing it. I was going to do this the right way.