R I S E N

Chapter 10

Shelly

"Mom, are you going to tell me what's going on?"

I fold my arms uncomfortably against my chest watching my mom who's packing away all the documents from the drawer to her desk, frantically. We're in her office. There's two family photos sitting at the front of her desk, but she grabs the one that doesn't have dad in it.

She finally makes eye contact with me, "yes, later! Come! We don't have much time."

All she was really taking with her was a folder which was filled with the important documents she needed to obtain from here. That, and the picture frame she was holding.

I follow my mom out of the office. She locks it up before we go and sirens suddenly start going off.

"Everyone, please evacuate the building, this is not a drill. It is an emergency."

It played on loop through the intercom, while everyone started rushing out of their offices and down the hallways to the emergency exits. You'd think everyone would be leaving in a more professional manner considering they teach us to leave the building in a calm, straight line. No pushing, shoving, or cutting in line at school. But no.

Mom looks up at the camera on the ceiling next to us, "we're already too late, they know!"

She starts running down the hallway towards the elevator but stops once she realizes that they're all in use and packed. She runs for the staircase which not many people were using. Me, following anxiously behind her and dodging people.

A woman starts screaming out of nowhere and all I could hear was the frantic voices of people rushing and panicking. This was definitely no ordinary drill.

"Mom!" Comes racing out of me as we become so close to closing in on the staircase but once we get to the intersection of hallways, this man out of nowhere starts attacking her.

"Mom!" I scream when he grabs a strong hold of her and bites her wrist before she could get him off her. She yells at me to run.

He was one of them, he was one of the infected people we saw on the news. I'm about to go psycho on this freak when gunshots sound from the end of the hallway and that's when I realize this dude handling a gun, shot the infected dude point blank through the head. Not only that though, that bastard shot my mom!

"Mom!" I scream again, horrified as she starts spitting out blood and dropping to her knees. She was shot in the chest.

I go to her side, helping her to the ground and pulling her into my arms.

I touch the side of my face my mom streaked with blood, my eyes filling with tears as I remember that awful day. I close my eyes as a heavy, silent breath of air escapes my mouth. I can still feel the imprint of it on my face.

"You need to get to your sister, and when you do, don't let the government find her, including your dad. They know what I did."

Those words were engraved in my memory. It was the last thing she said to me before she died.

"Shelly, you good?" Kaleb breaks my train of thought.

We were hiding out in the house across from the home we were forced to leave after the world went dark.

I nod at Kaleb, and instinctively wipe aware the lone tear that ran down my face as he gives me a small smile before going over to Lance who was peering out the living room curtains, waiting.