Four months after the Outbreak.
Everyone had gathered in the entrance hall, except for Caroline, who they let with Peter. From the right, her soft wept echoed in the silence. White butterflies flew danced above until they disappeared in a flash of light.
All of them had their eyes directed at the floor.
Peter, their leader, was gone. He was gone.
After a while, Caroline came back; colors had left the woman's face.
"I'm gonna kill him," she said under her breath. "I'm gonna kill David."
Michael took and a step back and froze.
"Caroline." Ariel paused. "Do you-"
"Ariel, please." Caroline cut her off. "I appreciate it, but the only thing I need right now is blowing up that bastard's skull."
Ariel crossed her arms. "Caroline, your emotions are talking, we need to think of a plan first."
"Well here's a plan, we use Michael as a bait and then we shoot David and his men down!" Caroline shouted.
"We don't even have guns," Ariel replied.
"Ariel." Michael gazed at her.
Jack gestured outside. "I think that first, we need to be sure nobody is around the library right now." Jack softened his voice, "Is it okay, Caroline?"
The woman sighed. "Fine."
The group gathered with cautious steps near a window toward the right corner. Jack grabbed a tore off wooden rail post and held it up. Slowly, Michael rose his head from behind the wall to the glass.
"Here's how it works," Michael whispered. "If a red dot appears on my forehead, I'm fucked."
Ariel furrowed her brows. "Stop messing around, you could be in danger."
Michael peered between the floorboards nailed to the window. "Sixth birthday."
Jack lolled his head to the right. "Sixth birthday?"
"Well, like at my sixth birthday, there is nobody in sight." Michael gestured outside.
"Why would they leave?" Ariel checked through another window.
Jack glanced outside. "I don't know." He turned his head toward the other side of the door, his eyes widened. "There are people in front of the door."
"Oh fuck," Michael muttered.
Boom!
The two entrance doors flung open before it was soon covered by a cloud of smoke. Ariel and Bob covered themselves with their arms into a cross position. Whereas, Caroline, Jack, and Michael got flown away by the explosion. The sun glared through a curtain of dust. Large boots stomped as a tall man with a buzzcut appeared. Instantly, Bob ran behind a shelf.
When he loaded his rifle, the man's large tan biceps bulged while his pecs rubbed against his bulletproof vest.
Michael stared at him. "Wow."
Jack glared at him and elbowed his boyfriend.
Other people stepped after the armed man, a woman with a disheveled appearance, a man a skater boy look, another man with a mauve suit, and a businesswoman who held a child by the right hand.
"Wait, some of you are from the hospital?" asked Michael.
Caroline shot daggers at them. "You're working with David?"
"No no!" The mauve man rose his hands up. "We're what you call la Résistance," he said with a posh accent.
"I prefer the Zedders," the skater replied.
"And why should we trust you?" inquired Caroline.
The tall man shook his weapon a bit. "You don't really have a choice anyway."
"Wait, let's not fight." The businesswoman spread her arms between the two of them. "I'm Mathilda, this is my son, Jonas."
The little boy hid behind his mother and watched Caroline. He smiled at Michael and the young man recognized him. He was the child who gave him the angel drawing.
The latter sighed. "I'm Caroline."
"Jack." The young man put his hand up.
Ariel made a step toward Michael. "Ariel."
Michael curled his fingers back. "You guys already know my name anyway."
"Anyway, our little troupe is composed of a mother and her child as you can see. I'm Howard." The mauve-suited man said before he gestured at the skater. "This young man with the atrocious clothes is Simon." Howard made a head tilt at the disheveled pale woman. "This ghost of a literature teacher right here is Judith." Then he pointed at the armed man. "This brute is Lieutenant I. Marriott."
"You're the only one I never saw at the hospital," Michael said to the soldier.
"I got lucky," he replied.
Ariel tilted her head to the left. "What do you mean?"
Marriott sighed. "It's a long story."
"Make it shorter, then," Caroline replied.
He glared at her. "If you insist." The soldier paused. "I'm part of an organization called the Security On Bioterrorism."
Michael giggled a bit. "SOB?"
"Yes, SOB..." The soldier shook his head. "About five months ago, a small team was sent to investigate Little Brook as a bioterrorist was suspected to happen here."
"Was one of them named Lisa?" wondered Ariel.
Marriott furrowed his brows. "How d'you know?"
Ariel exhaled. "David, the one behind the outbreak, he knew about your organization."
"I'm not surprised." The soldier looked down. "We got betrayed by our medic, Isaac, wish I could kill that bastard right now."
"Already done." Caroline gestured at the giant squid-like corpse behind them.
"Oh, Lord." Howard put a handkerchief in front of his mouth.
"I don't understand though. You guys could have just overpowered Isaac?" marveled Jack.
"We could have had the superiority indeed." The soldier clenched his fists. "But I didn't expect David to... to know about whatever we wanted."
Caroline shot daggers at him. "So you guys just got played by a bunch of fancy words?"
Marriott threw his hands up. "You don't understand! He has a way of knowing you, of studying you. Shit, the man didn't even cry over his brother's death... Of course, a few tried to resist." He took a short breath. "But once David had the upper hand over the majority of the group, the minority didn't matter. "
"So, you're the only SOB left?" asked Jack.
The soldier nodded. "I ran away from the hospital and survived as much as I could outside until I stumbled on them." He gestured at La Résistance.
"As soon as we got Michael's message, we knew we had to leave the hospital," Mathilda said.
"You made the right choice," Ariel noted.
"Hell right we did," intervened Simon. "You're single by the way?" he winked at Ariel.
Ariel crossed her arms. "I'm not for you."
"Anything crazier than the usual happened at Eden?" inquired Michael.
"Thirteen, bilabial, nose, nose, nose!" screamed Judy.
Howard put his hands over his ears. "I told you, we should have left her behind."
"Is she okay?" asked Ariel.
"She clearly isn't, but whatever." Howard showed his palm at Judy. "To answer your previous question, David has been experimenting on the idiots who believe in his little cult."
Mathilda brought her son closer to her. "He's using the virus as if it was some kind of toy... I have no idea why, but it had horrible consequences on people."
Ariel covered her mouth with her index. "I think I know what's going on..." She put papers out of her backpack and read them. "David is trying to mutate the zombie coral into a weapon to turn people into slaves."
Jack took a step back. "You mean, he wants to take over the world?"
"One more reason to shot his ass," said Caroline.
"Wait, you want to kill David?" Mathilda hugged her son.
Howard rubbed his chin a bit. "Well, this is where we differ."
"We're heading toward the bridge to escape," informed Marriott.
"But you're the Resistance? Aren't you supposed to resist?" wondered Michael.
"We can't resist if we're dead," responded Howard.
Caroline glared at them. "Then it was a waste of time." She walked toward the doors. "Let's go to the hospital."
"Please!" Mathilda shouted. "We thought that perhaps you could help us reach the bridge."
"And then what? Giving you a liver?" spiced Caroline with sarcasm.
"I think we should help them," suggested Jack.
Caroline thrust out her chest. "Peter wanted to help people too, look at what happened to him."
Thud.
Mathilda dropped on her knees. "We're begging you, we can't make it without your help."
"Plus, it's kinda on your way, the hospital is rather close to the bridge," Marriott added.
Howard pointed at Simon. "That delinquent right there has grenades and ammo, he can give you some to help you on your crusade."
"And I can give you my gun too, I'm not good with it anyway," Mathilda pleaded.
Caroline and Mathilda stared at each other. The former sighed and bent against the doorframe.
"Michael, that's your people, you make the choice," Caroline said in a low voice.
Michael blinked a few times. "Me?"
"I don't know if this is a good idea," Ariel mumbled.
"Go ahead, Michael." Jack smiled at him. "You're free to make your own choice."
Michael took a deep breath. "Well..." He paused. "Normally I would have said, let's drug them and steal their stuff."
Mathilda looked down.
"But, I think we can't go fight David without some backup, so..." The young man sighed. "Yeah, we're gonna help you."
Mathilda clasped her hands together and cried. "Thank you! Thank you!"
Caroline swept her hands through the air. "Let's get started then."
Jonas pointed at a shelf. "Mom, is it Santa behind?"
"Wait, that's an infected!" Marriott aimed his rifle at Bob.
Michael jumped in front of the soldier. "Wait wait! He's friendly!"
The soldier glanced at the winged-zombie. "You trust a monster?"
"He's not a monster, he's ill," Michael replied with a sharp tone. "He comes with us or y'all can go become zombie-food."
Marriot gazed at Bob, then at Michael. "Alright." He lowered his weapon. "But don't let that thing near us."
"Okay, bitch," responded the young man.
The soldier glared at Michael before he walked away. After this, Michael eyed at Bob and made a warm grin at him.
"It's gonna be better," Jack said to his boyfriend. "We're stronger together."
Michael pursed his lips. "Jesus was surrounded by people before those jerks crucified him."
Jack tapped Michael's back. "You should believe more in people."
Michael snickered. "You should believe less in people."