Infected

Chapter 3

"I'm never doing that again." Ivy snaps as she desperately tries to wipe the dirt, muck, and grim off her body with very little success.

"I still can't believe you punched a dead guy." Ethan comments as he opens the door that's at the end of their deep-water diving experience.

"Motherfucker literally popped out of the water. Like a fucking flower. In my face." Ivy sneers with a glare, her eyes narrowing further as her brother chuckles in amusement. "I think I still have some of his rotting flesh on my knuckles, too."

"That's just gross, Ivy." Ethan mutters in disgust, making Ivy deadpan at him as she follows her brother through the trashed basement, which is in even worse condition than the house above them.

"Well, excuse me for defending myself against what I thought was an enemy." Ivy states as she looks at the various things around the tiny halls of the darkened basement, leaning in to read the disturbing words on a board to her left.

"The guy was dead. How could he be an enemy?" Ethan asks her over his shoulder, making Ivy mutter out a few threats as she lifts her bat towards him, but that just makes her brother chuckle.

The two turn the last corner to find a room with a very lit up prison cell inside it, and after getting closer to the cell door, they find a woman lying on the bed inside. While Ethan immediately recognizes his wife laying there, it takes Ivy a few seconds to realize that Mia is in fact still alive, and right in front of her no less.

Quickly, Ivy looks around the room that they're in, trying to find a way to unlock the door to Mia's prison cell, which really makes Ivy want to get out of there. She finds a piece of paper covered in names with the words dead or turned next to them, but she quickly puts it back down, not wanting to know what the hell 'turned' means.

"Yes!" Ivy cheers as she finds a set of bolt cutters, quickly bringing them back over to her brother, who looks like he's about to go to war with the cell door. "Here. Try these."

Thanking his sister, Ethan makes quick work of the chain before he practically rips open the cell door and runs over to his wife, shaking her shoulder gently. "Mia, thank God, we finally found you. Mia, come on, wake up. It's me, Ethan."

"Ethan?" Mia asks softly as she turns over, almost as confused as the two siblings, and Ivy frowns from her spot in the doorway. "Ethan! Ethan, you shouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?" Ethan asks, confused about literally everything that's happened in the last half hour, though it's felt like it's been an entire afternoon. "Mia, you contacted me."

"No, I wouldn't." Mia stresses as she slowly starts to stand up before she furrows her brows, sitting back down as she frowns in confusion. "Did I?"

"Yeah, Mia. You sent my brother an email." Ivy responds as she walks into the cell, making Mia look over at her with wide eyes.

"Ivy, you definitely shouldn't be here!" Mia exclaims before gasping as she quickly jumps up, grabbing onto their arms. "Did anyone see you? Did he see you?!"

"He? Who else is here?" Ethan asks his wife, and Ivy has to bite her tongue to keep from reminding her idiot brother that there's still the murderer running around. "Mia, what the hell is going on?"

"Daddy's coming. We need to go!" Mia cries as she starts to move out of the cell with a confused Ethan staring after her, making Ivy's face scrunch up in disturbed disgust.

"Yeah, whoever the hell that is, I don't wanna meet them." Ivy says as she quickly follows behind her sister-in-law, grabbing her brother's hand along the way. "Ethan, we have Mia, now let's get the fuck out of here."