Dead Zone

II

     "I'm going after her," I say forcefully. I put on my shirt slowly as the pain is still there.

     "We know," Damon says, turning around.

     "We are too, dummy," Ria stands up from the bed, "like we'd leave you to go after her through a cult."

     "If you wanted to blend in, you couldn't manage." Damon walks up to me to give me the gun that I kicked at the man at the entrance. "You did stick out with all that hair."

     I grab my hair, sliding it through my fingers. "Should I cut it?"

     "Up to you, but we'll leave in a few."

     I nod, "Alright." I grab Sophia's switchblade, going to the bathroom. I started taking sections, cutting them to my shoulders. I never really cared about my hair. I just always grew it out.

     "Hey, don't forget," Ria knocks and walks into the bathroom, "oh, you are cutting it."

     "Yeah," I mumble, looking at myself in the mirror. "Does it look okay?"

      She shakes her head and smiles, "You act so tough, but you're are just a girl. It looks great."

      "Thank you," I smile back at her. "What were you going to tell me?"

      "Fill your water bottle and get as many supplies as you can. Bullets and all. Sophia wouldn't be so proud of me if you got sick after a gunshot."

      "Okay," I nod. I follow Ria to our room and grab my bottle to fill it up in the kitchen. We're lucky that the building still has running water. The night Sophia got taken, we found a circuit breaker and turned on the power completely. It was a nice hot shower. Probably the last time we'll have any for a while.

      "It's time to go," Damon yells at the apartment door, "We're burning daylight."

      I walked down to a hallway. Damon and Ria were scoping out the area about two blocks away. I turned left, finding part of the wall blown up. Any further down the hallway was a no-go since it's filled with debris. I moved against the wall, sneak a peek through the opening. I saw two people grouped at the bottom of an escalator. The escalator goes up to a floor where. There is a ledge. It must have broken off into the floor below it. There was an opening where a window used to be, where they put wood planks to make a path to what I assume is the radio control room.

     One of the two men started speaking, pressing something on their ear. It must be an earpiece. I could hear what he was saying, but I could forget about what the person on the other side was responding to.

     "There is a storm coming in. Are you taking shelter?" I look up at the sky, it was true. The clouds were gray and angry. They can pour at any moment. "Okay, we will hold up the place here," he pauses, nodding at whatever the person says, "alright. How are the prisoners holding up? Are they warming up to you and the others?"

      I tense up, pressing myself against the wall to hear him more clearly. "Is the blonde still causing trouble?" I gasped, quickly moving my hand to cover my mouth and hoping they could not hear me. "You know she bit me? She bit me after I touched her hair," he pauses for a moment, moving to sit on some creates, "Smacked the shit out of her, she let me touch her then." He must be talking about Sophia. It is a long shot. I have no choice but to listen to find out more.

     He laughs, the other guy walking away to light a cigarette. He is closer to me than the one speaking. I moved away and pressed my back against the wall so he wouldn't see me. A rock fell with my movement. It hit something metal, bouncing with a clang! Once it hit the ground, I heard footsteps and the sound of the guy speaking, "She is a pretty one, too bad she is such a bitch. She will not convert easily." Convert? Convert how? Convert to what?