Still Not Safe

Training Wheels

The walls seemed to stretch forever, they almost touched the clouds they were so high. I had no idea how we had missed this, or how long it had been there, but there it was. Our new home.

"Where's the door?" Louis asked as he climbed out the back of the truck. "How do we get in?"

"This way." Jeff said, motioning for us to follow. "The place is zombie-proof."

"Zombie-proof?" I repeated, "But they're not zombies. The term 'zombies' implies that they're dead, and they're not dead."

"What are they then?" Marcus looked extremely intrigued with this new information, while Jeff looked confused.

"They're infected, it's like a disease." I explained. "They're still alive, when you die, you die."

"A disease?" He raised his eyebrows, "How do you know this anyway?"

"I..uh..I just do." I said, averting my gaze. "If they were zombies then everyone would turn after they died, but they don't."

There was no way in hell that I was going to tell them the truth. Who knew how they would react if they knew my own mother had created this disease. And apparently Harry's parents had accidentally spread it. I didn't think that information would help us get a permanent home here, it would probably get us a one way ticket to deathville.

"I guess that makes sense." Marcus shrugged, leading us around the wall.

"Where are we going?" Zayn changed the subject, sounding exhausted. I didn't blame him, we hadn't rested properly for days, and food was scarce.

"Just up here." Jeff reassured, pointing somewhere ahead of us. "Not too much further."

"What happens when we get there?" Louis asked, "What's on the other side?"

"We'll run you through a few tests and then go from there." Jeff replied, stopping in front of the wall, it looked exactly the same as every other part we had passed, until I noticed a tiny gap that split the wall in two. "As for what's on the other side..." He grinned, and the wall split open to reveal a sight that took my breath away.

Row after row of houses, children played in the streets, an elderly couple sat on a park bench, cuddled together. There were people everywhere.

I felt tears prick my eyes, a few escaping and sliding down my cheeks as I smiled. My gaze fell on a young couple, the girl was heavily pregnant and the boy was laughing at her as she waddled down the path, complete adoration on his face.

Harry's grip on me tightened, his chin on my shoulder and his hands lightly resting on my stomach.

"There are so many people..." I whispered, eyes wide with awe. I couldn't believe something so beautiful, so alive, had been hiding just around the corner, waiting to be discovered. It was so perfect, it was everything I had been wishing for. Somewhere for us to settle down, to be safe. We didn't have to worry about what was lurking all around us, the wall would keep them out. Things were finally looking up.

"Follow me." Jeff chirped happily, leading us passed row after row of houses. There were neatly trimmed hedges lining the yards, and leaves littered the streets, painting the concrete with shades of orange and yellow.

"How long has this been here?" Liam asked, eyes wide with awe.

"We started bringing people in about two months ago," Marcus stated, "And it took all of us over a year to build everything."

"All of the houses were here already." Jeff added, it was obvious by the tone of his voice that he was immensely proud of what they had achieved. "All we had to do was clean them up and build a wall."