All rights go to the amazing mind that is Cassandra Clare for all the characters in this story.
Clary's POV
It was almost afternoon of the next day and everyone was now awake, still sitting silently in the room. Wyatt, Grace and Mike saw me and began walking over. Jace, Iz and Alec all followed. They all looked up at me. I didn't speak, just put my finger to the curtain and pushed it back slightly so they could see out. They looked out at the zombies, all having the same reaction. I sighed as I crossed my arms. I spoke quietly, not wanting to cause a panic. "There are hundreds of them out there. There is no way I can get 30 people through that horde and have everyone still alive at the end. Not the usual way, at least. We can't just walk out of here." I could have suggested portalling out but not only was I worried about physically being able to do it but also what everyone would have thought of me. I know that some people wouldn't take it as well as Jace, Iz and Alec did.
"You have any sort of plan?" Wyatt asked. "Cause I don't. I mean, we can wait it out. See if they move along. But I don't think that'll happen for a while and we don't have enough of anything to stay here for more than a few days."
"What are we going to do?" Alec asked. I gave a look up at Jace.
"What?" He asked.
"I have an idea. But you won't like it." They all looked at me as I picked up my two blades, putting them on the sheath on my back. I grabbed my daggers too, sliding them into place on my thighs.
"What are you doing, Clary." But he already knew.
"I'm going out there."
"No." He shook his head. "No way. What can you even do?" I looked to the group of zombies.
"The only way they're leaving is if someone leads them away." Everyone suddenly realised what I wanted to do. "I can do it. Make enough noise to distract them. And you'd be able to walk straight out the front door."
"No, okay? We will find another way that isn't a death wish." I looked up at him and spoke calmly.
"There is no other way, they aren't moving any time soon." I explained. "I've been up all night. Going over it for hours. And this is the only option. Someone has to lead them away. I've made my peace with it."
"Don't be a martyr." He said angrily.
"I'm not trying to be." Everyone just watched us.
"Fine, I'll go with you. Help lead them away while the others escape."
"It doesn't work with two people, Jace. I can't be watching your back as well as mine. But you know that."
"Then I'll go instead of you."
"No. You're one of the best fighters I've ever known. They need you to lead them away from here." He was about to argue. "Jace." I just looked up him.
"Don't do this. You can't-"
"What's wrong?" A voice said. We all looked down and saw Max staring up at us. I bent down and smiled.
"Nothing, sweetheart. I have a plan that will make things all better."
"Clary, don't do this." Jace said. "We can both go, we will-" I looked back at Max, cutting him off.
"Max do you remember me from yesterday?" I asked. He nodded.
"You're the boss." I smiled slightly. "You helped everyone." I nodded.
"That's right. And because they all listened to me, everyone was safe." I looked up at him. "Now, do you want Jace to be safe?" I asked. Max gave a small nod. "And do you trust me?" He nodded again. "Good." I took his hand. "Then I have a big job for you." I placed his hand in Jace's. "I need you to stay with Jace."
"Clary." Jace warned. I ignored him as I carried on looking at Max.
"I need you to promise that you won't let go of his hand until you can't see this building anymore, okay? Can you do that?" He nodded.
"Clary, you can't just-"
"Max, don't let go of his hand okay? If you want him to be safe, if you want everyone to be safe, don't let go. Can you do that?" He nodded again and I gave a smile. I stood up and looked at Jace.
"That was not fair, Clary." I smiled, sadly as everyone watched us.
"Life isn't fair. Especially in a world like this one." I stepped towards him, taking his head in my hands. I leaned forward and kissed him, pulling back just as quickly. "Love you." He looked up at me, his face a mix of shock and sadness and joy but before he could say anything I was walking away. I went to leave but Jace grabbed my arm with his free hand.
Jace's POV
"Don't." I said as she looked back at me. I could see the tears in her eyes threatening to fall. She smiled.
"Keep them safe." She pulled her hand free and walked away.
"Clary! Clary, wait! Clary!" I bent down to Max. "I'm going to be right back, okay buddy? I'll be right back, I promise." I said pulling away.
"No, don't go!" He said, holding on tight. "Clary said not to let go, that's what she said!"
"I know, but-"
"No, don't go Jace! You have to stay, that's what she said! She said don't let go!" I looked up to the others as he flung his arms around me. "You have to stay here." Wyatt looked down at me.
"I can go after her." Grace looked at her brother.
"Wyatt no!" She said angrily. We all knew it would be suicide for anyone who wasn't Clary. We all knew if anyone had a chance of surviving it would be her.
"She saved our lives." He said. He looked down at me. I shook my head.
"No. Just get everyone ready." They all looked at me. "Now." They did as I said, starting to grab their bags and everything they would need. I stood up and went to the window, Max still holding on. It was just then that I saw the door fling open. My free hand went to the glass. Clary started to fight off the zombies, making a path through them. Once she did she started to lead them away from the building. She looked up at me.
"GO NOW! GO JACE!" Everyone looked up as I turned to them.
"You heard her. Let's go!" And I did as she said. We all ran down the stairs and over to the door, the barricade was gone where Clary must have gone through. We walked out seeing the street almost completely clear. "Come on, we have to leave, everyone follow me and stick close." She did as promised, we got out of the building and we ran down the main road, away from the town. Max let go of my hand.
"I can't see the building anymore. I can let go now, right?"
"Yeah Max, that's right." I turned to Isabelle and Alec. Mike, Grace and Wyatt just behind them looking at us as everyone else kept walking.
"I can't leave her." I saw Grace look sadly at her brother.
"Jace-" Wyatt started.
"No, I can't. I won't. I'm going back."
"Jace, we have to go, she bought us the time we needed to get away. Don't let it be for nothing." Grace said.
"She's not dead and I won't leave her, I'm going back."
"Jace-"
"She saved our lives! More than once. You said it yourself."
"Jace-" Alec shouted again.
"What?" I followed Alec's eye line. As I turned around just past the fog, I saw an outline of a body. Apollo started to bark and Isabelle held him back. Without having to even think, I started to run.
Clary's POV
I saw him running towards me as the fog cleared. I stumbled and he caught me as I fell, our knees hit the floor at the same time. "Clary, are you okay?" He said panicked as he looked me over, seeing the dark red blood.
"I'm fine, Jace. I'm okay." He pulled me towards him, my arms wrapped around him as he did the same.
"Don't ever do that again. You hear me?" It was then that I noticed he was shaking. I pulled back to see his face. Nobody had ever been worried about me, not like this.
"You're shaking." I pointed out.
"I was scared. I thought you were-" He didn't finish.
"I'm okay, I promise." He put his hands on either side of my face.
"Just don't do that again, okay? Please." I nodded and he gave a shaky sigh before wrapping his arms around me again. My head settled into his neck. "I love you too." He said, making me pull him closer.
Jace had given me a stele so I could heal myself then we walked back to the others, who were amazed I was still alive. "They might have followed me when I doubled back around, we should get the hell out of here." Wyatt gave me a pat on the shoulder.
"You sure you're okay to do this?"
"I've gotten you this far, haven't I?" He smiled and we all started walking.
***
We must have been walking on and off for around two days now. We had to stop a lot because of the younger kids and it felt like we would never get there. Until we did. "Half a mile to Merton." Jace said as we passed the sign. "10 more minutes." He smiled. And he was right, we got there. Wyatt looked down at me.
"I think that's it." He pointed to a wall that had been built around the inner town. I looked around to everyone.
"Okay, we're going to take a break. Everyone settle for a minute." Everyone sat down but Wyatt looked up with a frown.
"What are you doing?" He asked. "We're here."
"I'm not about to walk up to the heavily guarded gate into wonderland with 6 children standing next to me." Jace smirked.
"Good point." Wyatt said.
"I'll go check it out first." Jace looked down at me.
"Nice try." He began walking ahead. I rolled my eyes.
"Stay here. We'll be back." I followed after Jace. We walked up to the gate and I put my hands in the air, showing I was no harm. Jace copied me.
"Stop where you are!" We heard a man shout. Suddenly four guns were being pointed at us. Jace looked over at me.
"Great."
"What did you expect? A welcome mat?" He rolled his eyes.
"What is your business here?"
"We're just looking for a place to go. Somewhere safe. We heard about this place and thought you could help." I shouted up. Everything was silent for a minute. I heard talking behind the gate and listened in.
"Go and get the Mayor." I heard someone say. Jace clearly heard too and gave me a look. After a few minutes, the metal gates opened and we could finally see inside the town. As the gate opened wider, a man in a tattered suit walked out, five more men with guns behind him, their weapons pointed at us.
"This feels welcoming." Jace muttered. The man stepped forwards as we kept our hands in the air.
"We mean no harm." I assured. The man smiled.
"I'm sure." He nodded. "What's your business here?" He asked, a slight southern brawl to his voice.
"Like I told your friends there, we were just looking for a place to go. We heard about this place and decided to try it out. See if this place was actually real. We travelled 40 miles to get here. Doesn't seem like a long time but it is when you have to walk it." He smiled again.
"What's your name?"
"Clary." I said. "This is Jace." The man put his hand out to the side and brushed his hand down. The men behind him lowered their weapons. We slowly lowered our arms. The man stuck out his own hand.
"I'm Lou. People around here call me the Mayor but it isn't a rule." He joked. I smiled. "You're welcome to stay. That's what we made this place for. Trying to get as many people safe as we can."
"That sounds amazing." Clary smiled. "But I do have a confession." The man, Lou, looked up at her. "We aren't the only ones in our group. We wanted to come over and see if it was safe before the others came. I understand if you turn us away, there are a few of us." Lou looked up curiously.
"How many?" He asked.
"We've been travelling with just over 30 people now." He looked back at the other men and gave a laugh before turning back to us.
"Well, it might be a struggle but how could I say no?" He laughed again. I smiled.
"Thank you." I turned around and gave a loud whistle. We watched as Wyatt stepped out. I motioned my arm forward, telling them it was okay to come over. One by one they all came into sight and started to walk to us. I looked back at Lou and the men and they just smiled.
"Open up the gate." He shouted. The men opened the gate wider as we all started walking in. I looked to Lou.
"Thank you." He gave a nod. As we all walked in, people began to circle around us, introducing themselves and welcoming us. Even now that I was here and could see it for myself, it felt too good to be real. Jace looked over.
"We made it." He said, his hand on the small of my back. I smiled but couldn't help feel at little uneasy.
***
It was beginning to get darker and so we were shown to our buildings and rooms. I chucked my bag down on the bed and sat, looking around the room. I walked to the window and looked outside, seeing a few people huddled around a fire in the middle of the town square. I sat back down on the bed. For the first time in years, I didn't know what to do with myself. I could relax, knowing I was safe... I wasn't sure if I liked it.
There was a knock on my door. I got up and walked over to answer it. "Hey." I said as I saw Jace.
"Hey, just wanted to come and get you. There are some people here who know about the virus, how it started and stuff." He grabbed my hand. "Come on." I closed my door and he pulled me along. We walked over to the small group of people around the fire. Wyatt, Grace and Mike were already there with some other from the group. We went and sat down with them as we heard a woman speaking. Izzy and Alec joined us.
"So it was the CDC that made the virus?" Wyatt asked.
"Wait CDC?" Jace asked. I looked over.
"Centre for disease control. If there was ever a medical outbreak of some kind they would be the ones to sort it out. You know try to find a cure." I told him. He nodded.
"Yeah." The woman said with a nod. "But no, it was actually made by an independent contractor then-"
"Karen, this is classified." I heard a voice. It was only now I saw the man sitting a few seats away in an army uniform. I looked over at him.
"Classified. Really?" I asked.
"I will follow my orders." He said, looking back at me.
"Look around you. There isn't anyone left to take orders from."
"It doesn't change the fact that it's classified to tell you this."
"Well, I think we have the proverbial need to fucking know." The guy sighed. I saw Jace smirk as I looked back at the woman. He pulled me closer as we sat listening, his hand on my leg.
"As I was saying, it was made by a company called Kingston Consolidated and they sold it to a scientist who worked in the CDC."
"Why would someone working for the CDC want to buy a virus that kills people?" I asked. The army guy gave the woman a look. "Don't tell me. Classified? I thought we talked about this." The woman sighed.
"It's true that the CDC wanted to cure disease. But a group of people working there had some different beliefs. They spent their whole lives studying viruses and they figured that the worst threat to mankind was modern medicine. They said they would create all these vaccines and antibiotics, cures for diseases that should never had been cured. They said how the earth hadn't been made to support 8 billion people. And with all the cures that were being made, less people were dying causing the population to rise. So when they were told about this new type of virus, something that attacked the DNA strands, they wanted it. And they got it. Then they decided to infect themselves and fly around the world, spreading the disease. And it did kill people. They just didn't realise that the people didn't stay dead. But initially they thought they were saving the world. They thought if they did nothing, our destruction was guaranteed. That if they didn't do what they did, there would be famine and drought and poverty on unimaginable scales. They thought what they did was courageous."
"How do you know so much about this?" I asked.
"I worked at the CDC. I knew the people who did this. And we only worked out their plan after it had started spreading. For weeks I stayed in the CDC with other scientists trying to find a cure but in the end, we knew it was hopeless." We were all speechless. Karen sighed. "In the end, we were our own worst enemies."
***
We'd been at Merton for two days now and everyone seemed to be fitting in. All except me apparently. I told Jace when we first met that I didn't play well with others. I was better off alone. If it wasn't for him, I would have been gone already. But honestly, I didn't know how much longer I could stay here. It was weird. I felt safer outside these walls. There was something about this town.
"Assholes." I heard a voice. I looked round and saw a girl talking to a boy. I walked over and saw they were looking at two men walking into a dark and run down building.
"You don't like them very much huh?" The girl looked up surprised as stepped closer. "Who are they?" I asked.
"Better hope you never find out." She said, looking far too comfortable for the situation.
"Why?"
"They're the Barton brothers." The boy spoke up. "We mostly leave them to their own devices. They stay away from everyone else. They're weird ones, I tell ya. They scare people." I frowned.
"Why do they scare people?" I asked, sitting down next to to boy. They both shared a look before the girl nodded, as if deciding to tell me. She looked up at me, inching closer and talking quieter.
"A girl died last year. Wasn't a zombie. I'm still convinced it was them."
"You think they killed someone?" I asked, shocked. "Does the mayor share that assumption?"
"Nah." The boy said. "But a few others do."
"And it's not just that one girl either." She said. "There's all the people that have been going missing."
"Missing?" I asked.
"Yeah. One day they're here and then the next they're gone."
"Sure they didn't just leave?" I asked. The girl scoffed, amused.
"That's what they want you to think. Would a 24 year old leave her newly and happily wed husband? Or a 9 year old leave her mother?"
"You think they took a 9 year old?"
"I think they killed a 9 year old." The boy said.
"A little while ago now." The girl added. "But you know. That's just what we think. We tried to tell Mayor Jones but he didn't believe it. And we searched where they sleep and didn't find anything. But it doesn't make me believe it any less."
"Here's the latest one." The boy said as he pulled down a piece of paper that was pinned to a tree nearby. He handed it to me. It was a photo of a girl around my age. The sign read 'My name is Mia.' 'Have you seen me?'
"Missing signs even in the apocalypse."
"What else could we do?" I looked up at them seriously.
"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked.
"Because you're actually still listening. Which means, you think something weird is happening here too. Maybe people will listen to you. Before it's too late."
As I walked around town, I found more and more missing posters all around. They went back around a year. Someone going missing almost every month like clockwork. How had nobody but two kids ever seen the pattern? How had nobody realised this was happening? I went back to my room with the posters, looking through again. I heard a knock on my door. I quickly put all the posters into the drawer and walked to the door, opening it. Jace smiled down at me. "Hey." I said as he walked in. He sat down on the bed then frowned up at me.
"You okay?" He asked. I nodded.
"Yeah, fine."
"I know when something is wrong, Red. You've been weird ever since we got here. What's up?" I sighed as I sat down next to him.
"There is something not right about this place." Jace sighed as I said it. "What?"
"Clary, we've been here two days. We just got here. To this safe and away from infection town. Give it a chance."
"I'm just getting a bad feeling okay? I don't like it here." He sighed again as he shook his head. "Just listen, okay? I've been talking to people. And there was this girl and she was telling me how people have been going missing and she thinks-"
"Clary, stop. Okay?" He took my hands. "Look I think we should just keep our heads down and-" I pushed him away and got up.
"Do you trust me?" Jace sighed. "I got you this far didn't I? So I'm telling you, something is wrong here."
"Okay. And maybe you're right but please, for me, just leave it alone." I looked down at him. I scoffed.
"Leave it alone?" He looked up at me.
"Clary-"
"Leave it alone?" I repeated. I shook my head. "People could be dying and you want me to forget about it? They could be getting murdered and you-"
"Murdered? Clary, come on. This is all bullshit. Everything is fine here. It's safe and it's good." I shook my head as I looked down at him. I walked to my drawer and got out the missing posters, throwing them at him.
"Tell that to them!" I said, angrily. "14 people. Each one going missing a month after the last. One of them was a 9 year old. So you look at their faces when you tell me it's safe here." I stormed out the room and went back to where the girl and boy had been sitting.
"You okay?" She asked as I walked over.
"I'm gonna find out what's in that building."
"Woah, you sure about that? I mean, they're dangerous peop-"
"I just needed someone to know where I was going. In case."
"Shit. Hardcore." The boy said. I walked over to the building and walked straight inside. As I walked in, the smell of alcohol hit me and I realised it was an empty bar. There were old crates and boxes everywhere, broken bar stools and glass on the floor, rusted pipes on the ceiling, cracks in the walls. The place was a mess. I frowned. They can't live here. I was just about to turn around when I felt the back of my head get bashed in. I hit the floor in pain before blacking out.
Ooh shit, girl got knocked out lmao. Anyway, thanks for reading :) As per, leave a comment or vote if you feel like it. Peace.
OneUniversalThought