Undead Hearts

Chapter Three: Lakehouse

Gaten's POV

I was up the entire ride. I couldn't fall asleep, so I closed my eyes for the five hour drive to San Jose. I knew of the city being outside San Francisco but I had never visited before. We pulled up to a gate made from scrap metals and wood. There were two men standing at the top of the gate, guns in hand. One of them sent a hand signal down behind him and the gate opened. We drove through into a blocked off street with a few buildings. There was one apartment complex and the rest were stores. I just then thought about my parents and freaked out.

"SHIT!" I yelled.
"Jesus kid, what?!" The driver asked.
"My parents! They're probably pissing their pants wondering where I am!" I explained.
"Kid... Glendale was one of the first towns to be overrun. Meaning anyone who wasn't inside that school or any other schools, is probably dead." 

I hung my head down with a tear in my eye and began to sob. Finn hugged me.

"It'll be ok bro. You got all of us now." He tried to reassure me.
"My parents though!" I yelled.
"Gaten! We're five hours away from Glendale now. This is California, chances are your parents aren't even at your house." He said.
"That's probably not helping." I heard Noah say from the front.
"We're good." The driver said as he shut the down.
"You kids are lucky we were still in the area. And that we picked your school over any other. I guess it is like the only high school in Glendale." 
"Thanks." Millie said.

The driver smiled as we all got out of the car and looked around. It had only been eight hours since the outbreak became known but it seemed like this place was untouched. People were walking around, sitting and talking, this place was still running like a normal populated street. The driver walked all of us over to the other truck and Jacob, Sadie, Caleb and Maddie jumped out. Millie ran over and hugged Maddie and gave Jacob a look before we walked over to another man. He stood waiting with two men beside him who wore body armour and helmets, while he stood in the middle of the two of them. He wore a suit and tie with some dirt on it, and had a slicked back haircut. 

"Hello children! My name is Matthew Modine but you can call me M." The main guy told us.
"Thank you so much sir. We are grateful that you brought us here." Sadie said.
"No problem. If you have any questions you can ask these two beside me, Rob and John, anything." M told us.

Rob and John led us up to our apartment and showed it too us. They gave us one of the two grouped apartments on the top floor, but it's basically just two apartments put together. One bathroom, three bedrooms, and they stocked the fridge for us. Each bedroom had two double beds. Millie and Maddie took a room, Jacob and Noah took another room, and Sadie and I took the last one leaving Caleb on a cot in the living room and Finn on the couch.

Finn's POV

After we decided who slept where, we all headed down to the street to check the place out. We walked into the grocery store that was here, then to the hardware store, it seemed like these people have everything. Afterwards we all went over to the little fountain park in between the apartment complex and a little convenience store. We sat down and talked.

"This place is awesome!" Gaten declared.
"Yeah, they even have jobs around here. I mean, it's like they aren't even knowing of the world outside this place." Sadie said.
"The name Lakehouse even sounds cool." Gaten said.
"I'm just loving on the apartment." Maddie laughed.

Just as we were talking three other older kids walked over. They looked at least over 20. It was a girl and two other guys. The girl spoke up first.

"Hi there! I'm Natalia, this is Joe, and then that's Charlie." She said.
"Hello." Charlie said.
"We noticed you guys arriving and I was wondering if Glendale was okay because I had some family there." Joe said.
"I'm sorry. Glendale is gone." I said.
"That's ok." Joe said.
"Hey do you guys want to come over to our apartment after for some grub." Joe continued.
"Sure." Caleb said.
"Awesome!" Natalia said.

They walked off back to the complex and we headed up to our room too. We all did our own thing for the next hour until we went down to the clothing shop that they had in the area. We all grabbed some new clothes and left with a bag full each. We got ready and went down to the trio's room. I knocked on the door and they welcomed us. We walked in and the room was all decorated, it was obvious that the three had lived in the apartment for a while now. We all sat and ate and talked. It was like there weren't zombies roaming the streets. I've seen enough movies and TV to realize what a world like this can do to someone. It'll change them. And I just have a strange feeling like this place isn't as safe as I thought. That night we all went back to our room and settled in. I noticed Jacob and Millie sitting as far away from each other as possible. Jacob eventually walked over and pulled Millie off to the side and into a room.

Millie's POV

Jacob pulled me into Sadie's room and he had an annoyed look on his face.

"Millie listen ok. I'm really sorry. I realized everything I haven't been doing after you mentioned it today. I'm sorry for everything." He said.
"Jacob. Honestly I don't care." I said.
"Really? Oh thank god, that's gr-"
"No Jacob! I don't care in a bad way. You made me that way and Finn made me realize something. And that's that when we first got together I was so happy. But now being around you makes me feel like crap." I explained.
He grabbed my arms and shook them slightly as he talked.
"Millie, I don't want you to feel that way I'm sorry. But I really do love you." He repeated.
"SHUT UP! IF YOU REALLY LOVED ME YOU WOULDN'T BE SUCH A DICK TO ME! I CAN'T TAKE ANYMORE OF YOUR CRAP JACOB. We are done here. I'm done with you." I yelled at him.
"Millie no! I'm sorry!" He said.
He reached out and tried to kiss me.
"No! Stop it!" I yelled at him.
He grabbed me and tried to kiss me.
"JACOB STOP!" I yelled.
He kept trying.
"HELP!" I tried to yell but he covered my mouth.
I just mumbled trying to speak. I pushed at him trying to pry him off. He got closer to me and put his hand on the back of my head grabbing my hair and pushing my head forward.
"I love you." He mumbled.
"I LOVE YOU!" He yelled.
He pulled me up and came an inch from my mouth.
"What the fuck?!" Finn yelled.
He ran over and pulled Jacob off shoving him into the wall. Jacob's eyes widened at Finn then he swung at him. Finn dodged him and punched Jacob in the face knocking to the ground. I got up and walked over to Jacob to kick him in the stomach. He flailed around trying to breathe. I kicked and kicked and kicked him. 
"Please. stop. please. please." He cried and cried for me to stop.
My inner demons kicked over and I bent to my knees and punched him in the face over and over while crying. I just unloaded on him. He flailed and cried while the blood ran down his face and he tried to breathe.
"Millie." Finn said.
I ignored him and just kept hitting Jacob. Finn ran over and pulled me back.
"Millie stop, please." He said.
I cried and cried. Finn pulled me back and fell down. He sat up and held me, hugging me tightly.
"It's ok. It's ok Millie." He said softly.
I cried as I laid back in Finn's arms. Jacob was knocked out on the floor. 
"I'm. I'm sorry." I cried.
"Shh. It's ok now. You did what had to be done." He whispered.
I looked up at him and looked at me.
"Thank you Finn." I said.
"We can't break down like this. Not now." Finn said.
I just looked at him and smiled. He smiled back.
"That's the Millie I know." Finn said.

We got up and took Jacob down to the lobby and sat him on the couch. We went back up and locked the door before we all went into bed. It poured rain and thundered. I laid in bed awake, thinking of the events of today. I watched out the window until I fell asleep.

This was only Day One.