BETTER SAFE THAN ZOMBIE

OZTS 25 | Stay

"Where are my parents, you assholes? I want to see them!"

A clang, and then an unfamiliar man's voice, speaking low and deliberate. "You will when we're done testing, Miss. For the moment, please stay quiet inside your cell."

"Like hell I will!"

I opened my eyes, feeling my head pounding. The throbbing in my shoulder and abdomen had suddenly come back with a vengeance, and I moaned.

"Kath! Kath, are you okay?"

I blinked, trying to focus my eyesight, and a face slowly surfaced into my field of vision, peering at me from behind a set of iron bars.

"Hazel?" I croaked.

She grinned, but it was a distracted one. "Yeah, its me. We're in Charleston, at Fort Sumter. Do you still remember what dad told us?"

My eyelids felt heavy, and it was a struggle to open them. "Hmm-hmm. The back up lab?"

"Yeah, that's right. But dad told us there was a military stationed there too, and apparently they're now the ones in charge, and not the scientists. We've been kidnapped from the shelter, Kath. They took the children away too."

My hands clenched into loose fists. "Are they alright?"

Hazel waved a hand airily. "They're fine. They've been tested already, and none of them had the virus. They gassed us when we arrived at the shelter Kath, fucking rude assholes. We've been stripped of our weapons too. Ethan and Christian are still out of it, and we don't have much time. I heard we're each going to be put on a separate isolation ward soon, and not be allowed to have contact with anyone for at least a few days."

My eyes fluttered closed. "So what's the problem?" I mumbled. "They're just trying to make it safe for—"

"Christian," she hissed. "Christian's bitten, or have you forgotten? He has the virus!"

I snapped awake. "Fuck!"

Eyes wide I stared at her, feeling all the drowsiness of sleep and waves of pain drain out of my body in one single stroke.

"What are we going to do?" I asked her in panic. "They can't take him away!"

She looked just as helpless as I did. "Dad would have tried finding a cure for him, but I don't think he can even do that anymore with the military controlling everyone, even the lab. They've probably been trapped here ever since they arrived."

"Then we've got to convince them! I'm immune, they could test my blood—"

Brisk footsteps ricocheted off the stone walls, and Hazel gave me a quick hard nod, her face resolute. "Just wait after they saw the bite mark. Then we'll do our best persuading them."

A heavily bearded man peered at us, red-faced with kind eyes that seemed to be crinkled as if he laughed a lot.

"Och, are yee all awake lass? Your man's still asleep over dere? Sleepy bastairds."

"Ahoy me' hearty, whar ye have be ye scallywag?" shot back Hazel, in a mocking pirate voice. "Ye left us in 'tis foyn place."

I nearly kicked her through the bars. Didn't she know persuasion come hand in hand with being courteous?

But to my surprise the Irishman threw his head back and gave a loud belly laugh, his large hand slapping his left thigh in what looked like hard and painful smacks.

"What chalent ya have, lass! Dat's roy. We do sound like pirates. Sounds way better, doesn't it?"

But I wasn't looking at him. I was looking at the guys, who seemed to be stirring, jerked awake by the Irishman's boisterous laugh.