WE WHO LIVE

Chapter 9: Encountered

The morning sun greeted everyone while the trio were wide awake. Adrianne took care of Amie while Isaac guarded the whole night with Stella and Liz. There was no coffee maker, so Adrianne made coffee on the stove. She wanted to somehow say thank you to them for guarding the whole night. When she was done with the coffee, she poured it inside the three cups she found in the cabinet. Amie was woken up by the smell of the coffee and decided to help her. She picked the hot cup to give to the trio while Adrianne held the other two cups. "Good morning guys!" greeted Adrianne, and gave the two cups to Isaac and Liz. Amie gave the warm cup to Stella, and Isaac smiled at the sight of the coffee.

"You made coffee for us?" he asked, and she nodded smiling nervously. "This is my way of saying thank you for guarding the whole night, I bet you're tired." she figured and he shook his head. "I lost my sense of sleeping a long time ago, but thank you." he replied, while drinking a sip of the hot coffee. "Oh! I had no clue, well I hope you at least you like it". Adrianne giggled, and went inside with Amie.

"I'm so hungryyyy..." The little girl looked at Adrianne pouting. "Oh! I'll go to the kitchen and check what we have okay?" Adrianne said. Amie nodded, and she walked toward it. By her surprise, Angela and Zoe were making pancakes on the stove humming a song. "What.. are you guys doing?" Adrianne asked, with her eyebrow raised. "Pancakes, duh!" Zoe replied, and Angela giggled, pouring another batter onto the griddle. "Where did you find the griddle?" Adrianne asked, crossing her arms. Angela replied, "We just happened to find it, relax Adrianne". Zoe got a hold of the pancakes.

Adrianne sighed, and walked to the living room where Amie was sitting. She sat down on the couch and noticed Amie was coloring in her Disney coloring book. "What you coloring there?" she asked, trying to see what it was. "Mickey Mouse with his friends." Amie mumbled, focused on her coloring book. Isaac walked inside and sat down next to Adrianne. "Hey, that coffee was sweet. Are you sure you made it or was it a coffee maker?" he said joking, and she giggled. "What can I say? I'm a pretty good barista." she replied.

He laughed, and so did Adrianne. "So, how come you lost sense of sleep?" she asked, while Isaac was messing with the ring on his finger. "I lost sense of sleep when I was injured during a military training a while ago." he replied, and she nodded, surprised. "How are you holding up, Adrianne?" he asked. She played with her hair a little and took a deep breath. "If I was honest with you, I don't know...." She looked down and Isaac's forehead puckered as he looked at her. He replied, "Hey... it will be okay, you got your group. They seem to care about you."

Adrianne smiled and looked up at him. "They are my second family, after all." she replied, and he smiled too. "The pancakes are ready!" yelled Zoe, and everyone ran to the kitchen. The aroma of butter and syrup on the pancakes made everyone's mouth water. They all sat down in the kitchen table, each getting their pancakes. Amie took a bite, making her eyes sparkle and kept eating. "You like it, Amie?" Angela asked, smiling, and Amie nodded quickly while stuffing more in her mouth.

"Amie, you don't want to choke on it, be careful with it." Isaac warned her, and she stopped herself, chewing it slowly. "Silly girl, I didn't think it was that good." Zoe chuckled, and everyone looked at her astonished. "Girl, you know what you two were doing! Don't be lying to us!" Veronica replied, and everyone laughed. Angela and Zoe shrugged, giggling. "How did you guys sleep?" Liz asked, and everyone replied by moaning. "Hey, at least appreciate the fact that me, Liz, and Isaac stayed up all night watching out for zombies." Stella disputed.

"True, but we made you delicious pancakes so please eat up!" Angela told her. Stella gave a glance at her but then started to proceed eating her pancakes. "Well, I'm all done, thanks Zoe and Angela for the pancakes!" Amie said, and stood up with her plate and cup, putting it on the kitchen sink. "You're welcome!" they both said, and Amie left the room. "Alright guys, now that she is gone we have to talk." Liz said, and Stella nodded. "Last night I got a notification in my phone. It was CNN talking about the zombie outbreak and the reporter said that it... escalated, and it's all over Florida all the way up to Georgia." Stella confessed, and everyone gasped. "How...did it escalate so quickly?" Veronica asked. "Well, people could have been infected, and developed from there." Isaac answered.

Veronica nodded and Adrianne looked at Stella. "What are we going to do?" she asked, and out of nowhere they heard a thud outside on the cabin's porch. "Y'all heard that right?" Veronica asked, and they all nodded. Everyone walked toward the door, and Adrianne peeked out the window, it was her brother Jeremiah, down on the floor with many wounds around his body. His shirt was torn up and his pants were dirty. "Jeremiah!" Adrianne screamed, and ran out the door. She put his arm around her neck, Liz volunteered and put his left arm around her neck. "Adri... anne." He had a raspy voice and Adrianne started tearing up, Veronica held the door for them as they helped walk him inside.

They laid him on the couch and he let out a moan. Angela gave him a water bottle and he drank it all quickly, you could tell he was dehydrated. "Jem, how did you find us?" his sister asked. He smiled weakly, took out his phone, and showed them how he tracked her down with an app. "That's really clever." Stella admitted. "What happened to you?" Isaac asked, and Jeremiah stared at the ceiling as he reminiscence. "The school was crowded with zombies as victims were infected and I quickly climbed the big tree on the courtyard to hide." They all listened as he kept going.

"It felt like it was going to last for a long time, eventually it was less crowded and I ran for my life, I went home and mom told me that she saw you a while ago with your friends, and a relief came over me." He kept on going looking at Adrianne. "But....as I was going to leave, zombies came in and attacked mom and she became a zombie Adrianne..." Adrianne started to tear up, and Liz hugged her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything. The last thing she said was to find you and that's what I did. The only reason why I'm wounded is because zombies tried to attack me." he last said, and everyone was silent.

"Are you infected?" Isaac asked and Jeremiah shook his head. "I don't trust you." Isaac said and held his gun at Jeremiah's head. "ISAAC STOP!" Adrianne yelled at him, and the others were shocked. She tried to get a hold of his vector and it shot the ceiling. Adrianne started attacking him by punching him, he pushed her to the floor, and she was screaming. "How dare you, how dare you?!" she cried and Stella grabbed Isaac's vector. "Leave her alone or I'll shoot your fucking brains out." she threatened, and Isaac slowly stopped, Adrianne left the room, fumed. "Sorry about that, Jeremiah." Liz said and he nodded. "I got something to show you guys, it's important." Adrianne heard that, and stood in the corner, listening. He took out his phone and showed an interview.

In the interview, A man in his late 30's appeared. He was pale and had brown curly hair. "Who is that?" Veronica asked, the others shushed her and she rolled her eyes. "Seth Carter is one of the scientists in the Florida lab who managed to survive that horrible tragedy that his colleagues took." The lady reporter said and Seth nodded. "Thank you for being here, Seth. I know it has been a hard time for you to comprehend." The man reporter said and Seth smiled a little. "Ah, it's alright." he reassured them both. He had a British accent. When the video ended, they were all confused. "And why you showed us that video, bro? " Adrianne asked, crossing her arms.

"Seth Carter, he seems suspicious don't you think? He must be the mastermind of all this. He didn't seem to care of what his colleagues went through." Jeremiah replied, and Angela nodded. "I agree with you, I mean look at him, he had no emotions really, it all seems forced." she said. "I mean his mourning, everyone mourns in a different way." Veronica suggested, and Stella sighed crossing her arms. "We are wasting time here, guys. If he is the mastermind behind all this, why don't we pay him a visit?" she asked, and Zoe shook her head. "More like we are meeting the grim reaper!"

"Don't be afraid, he should be afraid of US, We Who Live!" Stella yelled, with her fist up. "Yeah!!" everyone yelled, with their fist up. "Then what are we fucking waiting for? Let's go!" Stella lead the way, and everyone followed with their weapons. We who live is coming, Seth Carter.