DEAD TERRITORY

8 - Shortcut

When they get off the boat on Ellis island in America they walk around the empty dock looking around.
"I never thought I'd see New York this empty" Lory says looking at the empty streets and newspaper sheets flying by.
"Look at this" Kevin says holding a newspaper in his hand. The others gather around him and look at the newspaper. The headline says 'The end of the world is near' and there is a picture of a horde of infected running through New York city. The picture is takes from the rooftops and hundreds of people are seen running from them.
"Hopefully more immune people will turn themselves in" Charlie says and walks away again.
"Turn themselves in?" Colton asks but Charlie ignores him. "What do you mean by that? Turn in where?" Colton asks and walks up to Charlie.
"NCLC. The New City Laboration Center. Logan told me about it. It's a city built in with walls to keep the infected out. In the middle of the city is a skyscraper called NCLC where they're trying to find the cure." Charlie turns around to him as he explains.
"Hopefully all of the immune people will turn themselves in" Seven says and walks up to them.
"And you wanna turn me in?" Colton asks. Mathilda looks at him a bit worried.
"You can save the humanity" Felix says and looks at him.
"If you're gonna start something I'm leaving. I don't want to hear it" Kevin says and looks at Charlie and Colton.
"Why didn't you tell me about the NCLC?" Colton turns to Charlie again.
"Why don't you ask Logan about that?" Charlie says and looks into Colton's blue eyes. Seven walks away with Kevin not wanting to hear anything they say about her dead best friend.

"Why would he fucking say something ike that?" she asks as they walk away.
"I don't know. It sounds like he has some kind of death complex. That's the second dead person Charlie brings up with Colton" Kevin says looking down at the ground.
"He's fucking childish. And he can't think for himself. He needs to think one step further sometimes" Seven complains being angry about it.
"Yeah I know. Are you okay though?" Kevin asks and looks at her. Seven tears up a little and looks away from him sobbing. She bites her lip to hold it in and doesn't know what to say. She shakes her head and turns back to him as the tears approaches her eyes and she can't keep a straight face. Kevin stops and hugs her tightly. Seven breaks apart in his arms and cries out.
"She was one of my best friends. I tried to save her but I was scared of that fucking captain and I didn't act sooner" she says still crying as he strokes her hair.
"I understand that. The important thing  is that you should know it's not your fault. You tried to save her which was more than what any of us did. No one had time to react before she was shot" Kevin comforts her. She sobs a little and steps away from him wiping her tears away.
"I just want to take the chance to say that I'm really sorry about what I said earlier. I've been a bit of an asshole and I'm sorry about that" he says and Seven nods trying to stop crying.
"It's okay. I get it. We're all stressed and nobody knows how to react to anything. It's a lot of mixed emotions" suddenly Felix catches up with them and runs up to her when he sees Seven is crying. He looks at Kevin.
"What did you say to her?" he asks a bit angrily.
"No, Felix, he didn't say anything bad" Seven says and looks up at her younger brother who's about a head taller than her.
"I apologized for what I said earlier and she's crying because of Logan" Kevin explains looking at Felix. Seven turns to Felix and slenders her arms around his waist carefully. Felix holds her tightly and rests his chin on her head.
"Because of what Charlie said about her" Seven sobs.
"Yeah, I know..." Felix says quietly.
"Speaking of it. What happened?" Kevin asks looking at Felix.
"They're not fighting. At least not yet. Colton is just going off about how he never agreed to turning himself in and how we can't force him to do something. Lee and Mathilda are trying to convince him to do it. Lory is getting sick of their shit and yelled at Charlie to back down" Felix explains. Kevin looks around and sighs. Felix looks down at Seven and wipes her tears away.
"Please, don't cry okay? I don't want to see you crying. You're strong, you can handle this" he says and smiles at her. She takes a deep breath and nods at him.