Levi's Last Hope

3.

Rosie

(now)

        ROSIE WASN'T SURE WHY SHE BOTHERED tying him to her dining room chair. The set had been small, compact enough to fit in the corner of her living room. But that man made the chair look like it was made for kids instead of your average adult.

        She was also pretty sure he could snap the wood with his bare hands. Same with the rope, really. Rosie didn't have the knowledge to tie it in a way that could contain him, not if he wanted to get out of it. But, in the end, he was sitting on her dining chair without complaint, hands tied behind him and feet secured to the legs which hadn't looked so fragile before.

        By the time Rosie finished, Lily was beginning to fuss again, her cries getting louder as she worked herself up. Rosie had no choice but to retrieve her, keeping her distance from the bulky man sitting by the window. It was his suggestion. You'll feel better if you can get to the front door without me in the way.

        She stood at a distance with her back to the door as he'd mentioned. Not that she knew how to use it, but if he showed any signs of aggression she'd be outside of her flat and grabbing his gun off the floor where he'd left it along with the rest of his belongings.

        "Why'd you stay?" he asked, breaking the ice.

        "You asked me that already," Rosie pointed out. Lily sat on her hip, cooing and trying to grab at the long ponytail which hangs from the back of Rosie's head.

        "Still curious about your answer. You must've heard about the safe zones being set up."

        Rosie scoffed. "Safe-zones. Nowhere is safe." She didn't miss the way he kept looking at Lily like he'd just seen the sun after a lifetime of darkness. It unsettled her, to say the least. Thank god she'd decided to tie him up. What if he was some unhinged nutjob and her instincts about him not being a danger to her were way off?

        "You've not heard 'bout the Isle of Wight?"

        Rosie faltered at that. "The latest one? Yes, but I don't drive. And even if I did, others have fallen. One week they're promising safety, the next they're warning people to stay away. What's to say this one is any different?"

        "Because it is," he said, completely serious.

        Her tummy flipped at that. At the thought of safety, but then a dark cloud forms.

        She lived too far away to travel there on foot. It was one of the main reasons she'd dismissed the first so-called safe zones. There had been a neighbour, one who offered to take her a few days after the zombie plague began, but he was an elderly man with multiple health problems. Rosie couldn't risk something happening to him on the drive there, nor did she want the responsibility of looking after him as well as Lily.

        So, she'd stayed and listened as they'd all fallen.

        "How'd you know?" she questioned with her heart in her throat.

        "'Cause those soldiers who set it up, made it safe? They're my guys."

        Suddenly it dawned on her. The strange way he'd spoken downstairs now made sense.

        "You're military." The words were heavy on her tongue and there was a strange feeling in her stomach at the revelation. A memory flashed through her mind.

        "What does he do for a living?" Rosie asked, his profile loaded up on her laptop. Compared to the others it was so. . .empty. Filled out to the bare minimum. For some reason, that had caught her attention.