Oblivion {n.h.}

Chapter 37.

I awoke to Niall shaking me lightly, being the only person left in the room of beds; unusual for my sense of tending to wake up early.

"Huh?" I mumble, not really meaning it as to ask him or anything, groaning as I stretch my arms.

"Breakfast is ready, you can come eat when you're ready." Niall kisses my forehead lightly before joining the small talks I can faintly hear from the lounge.

Stretching once again, I sit in silence on my bed for a minute before getting up in a haze. Andrea was right; it must have been somewhere around 6:30 now and I slept for a damn long time.

I pull my jeans over the spandex I had been wearing at night, and grab my green jacket off of the floor and pull it around my shoulders and over my green tank top.

Brushing my hair out with my fingers before pushing it behind my ears, I turn the handle of the door slowly and silence the room before me.

"Morning beautiful." Perrie announces, picking up her plate off of the table and bringing it over to the built in sink along the wall; she was obviously one of the first to wake.

"Thought you'd never wake up." Jackson chuckles as he gets up and does the same as Perrie, Carly not far behind him.

I smile goofily before taking the seat next to Niall he'd saved for me at the end of the table. Rewarding an arm around my neck and a look from around me.

Grey brings me a plate silently, smiling gently before scooping the rest of his into the trash.

"My brother still sleeping?" He asks, not looking away from the trash can, his voice hoarse and croaky due to his recent awakening.

"No?" I reply, confusion locked with my voice. "I was the only one in there."

He looks up finally, his blue eyes glimmering as they collide with mine.

"Was he not in the bathroom?" Niall asks, looking at me with the same confusion I had seconds ago.

Referencing to James made me remember his evil doings yesterday, and the suspicion grows inside me of what he may be up to now.

"I'll go check." Perrie tells him, retreating to the room, not long before she's back and still having no sign of the boy.

"Good morning!" Andrea announces, joining us from the door leading away from the bedrooms, cheerfully striding over to the table.

"Morning-" Liam replies back quickly, "you seen James at all recently?"

"Not that I remember since you all went to bed yesterday, no?" She edges on, now a bit unsure about the whole situation as well. "Why?"

"We can't find him." Jade stands up, carrying her plate with her only hand to the sink to wash it.

"I thought it was about time to show y'all around anyway, when you're done eating I'll give you a tour and we'll look for him on the way." She tells us before quickly reclusing back to her room, most likely to warn the others about our missing suspect.

"He wouldn't be up to something, would he?" Andrea snakes her head around her doorframe and looks in Niall and I's direction.

Grey and I both answer at the same exact time, except my reply was yes and his was no.

Not long until I was the last one to stuff my face with eggs, and begin to follow Andrea down the narrow hallways as we had yesterday.

"So down here is all of the extra storage units and old things people had randomly put here." Andrea calls behind her as she walks down the orange filled corridor. "You guys are welcome to go through them if you'd like, most of them are just old toys and furniture, but I'm sure one of these things is a gold mine." She bangs on a shutter for emphasis to her last words.

"Here's the last hallway that leads down to the garage where you guys found yours-" She stops mid-sentence with a gasp, stopping forcefully and sticking out her arms in order to hold everyone else back.

I move to the side of her, Niall and Steven following my ideas, somehow trying to take an eyeful on what so generously stopped the tour.

Lying at the end of the hall, propped up against the wall was James; dead, but not walking either. His brother lays there like a slaughtered cow, whatever is left of his body, just a bloody mess.

Grey pushes through everyone forcefully, nearly shoving Andrea over as he runs toward his brother, panting loudly.

"James? James- oh god James." He cries out as he shakes his brother from where he sits against the orange door.

The rest of the group slowly walks forward, not to quickly and trying not to make a sound. Any sudden word or movement may cause him to break; we've seen this far too many times.

James's stomach being stabbed several times, last one through his temple, his blood smeared everywhere all over his arms and clothing.

Someone did this on purpose.

"Wh-who?" Grey stands up slowly, turning around and facing us menacingly. I take a step backwards in fear.

"Grey..." Louis speaks slowly, raising an arm up at the boy, trying his best to calm him down. Take it easy now." He shushes, not doing so well as Grey stands there with an angrily annoyed face.

"Grey we've dealt with this kind of thing before, we know how you feel." Harry helps Louis out, not budging Grey at all as it seems.

"WHO DID IT!?" Grey yells, his booming voice echoing throughout the compound.

"ANSWER ME!" He yells louder, beady eyes scanning the group scarily.

"Whoever it was was probably just scared after what he did to Em-" Jackson tells him, his calm voice doing nothing to soothe Grey.

"SCARED?" Grey screams, tugging Jackson by the shirt, pulling him closer. Both boys are around the same height and Jackson seems unamused at most by his actions.

"Don't fucking touch him." I press my hand on Grey's where it tugs at my brother's shirt.

His eyes lay on mine for a few seconds before he lets go and continues to raise his voice at us.

"How are you people okay with this? I'M scared of the fucker whoever did this let alone what my little brother did." He gives in, his voice still booming and almost babyish now.

"We'll find out who and come up with a rational punishment, okay?" Steven calms him, gaining a nod and 'mhm' from Andrea.

"Now I think we should all go back to the conference room and-" Andrea tries to speak again, but was interrupted and not by her own gasp this time.

A scream from a girl, most likely Kaya, shakes the shutters around us, Steven pushing through and running as fast as he could up to the conference room, Carly pulls out her revolver and cocks his silently as she runs closely behind.

Steven was about to turn the corner before he was almost ran into by Thomas, gasping for air and gesturing his hands towards the opposite hallway he came from.

"Walkers- they're in!"