Alice in Zombieland, Cole Pov

Pretty Poisonous Flowers

As I woke up this morning, the scene from the night before found its way through my mind. Damn it. I should never have done that. Now even if we acted like we didn't care about her, she and Anima knew that we had noticed her. After seeing her there, I just left, I didn't even take the time to finish the job. If she was from Anima, she must already be protected, and if she wasn't, what I'd done would be enough for now.

Of course, as I expected Dr. Wright had talked to my father, and of course "as the leader of my group I was not allowed to skip class for no reason because I had to show others how to behave and if there WAS something to deal with then we'd have to all talk about it after school."
My father was such a pain in the ass ... sometimes.
Anyway, he asked me about that Ali-girl again and I could no longer deny knowing her. Well, knowing her is probably excessive ...

"I did talk to her. But I didn't learn anything new. She just seems really affected by the death of her family. Obviously." I said with a chill.

As crazy as it sounded, part of me wished I could make all her pain go away. It made me feel bad. Of course, I knew more than I was telling my father. But if I mentioned the visions, or even hinted at anything suspicious, he and Mr. Ankh would order her capture. Even if we still suspected Ali, I'd refuse to act that way. The consequences of false accusations are the worst of all. And after all, since my father developed an allergy to the antidote and can no longer fight, I've become the leader, in spite of myself and all that implies. I should act as such.

"And what about when you went after her at school ?"

"I couldn't find her; she probably called her grandparents to take her back home." Better to keep it to myself and find out. It wasn't a lie. I'd speak when my information would be reliable.

In the car, with Bronx and Mack, we could all feel the tension. Mack was so mad at me for whatever reason. I didn't feel like getting into a fight with her this morning. I parked my Jeep at my usual spot and jumped on the ground.
I entered the hall with firm steps. I was grumpy so I'd better go straight to my class before I slapped anyone. But as I looked up, I saw her. I froze. She was walking towards me, talking to someone. She wasn't looking where she was going. Was there going to be a vision if she didn't have time to plan it ? There's gonna be a collision in 3. 2. 1. Now.
I winded my arms around her waist to prevent her from falling. She grabbed my T-shirt and I just stopped breathing. It was like she was telling a story, and my brain was just hanging on every word she was gonna pronounce.

"I'm so — "
Everything around us turned into a blur. So we were having that vision.

We were in a forest, our backs were pressed against each other. We were surrounded by twenty-some Zombies. They were pretty old zombies. Harder to kill. Great.
I had my two broadswords ready to attack. But she didn't have any weapons. I was going to have to protect both of us which meant I had to have access to a 365, all around me.
"On my count, go low."
I was just going to wait for the zombies to get a little bit closer.
"The count of what ? Three ?"
She was hysterical. I could now feel the panic and the stress arising from her body.
"One."
Despite the adrenaline, she was shaking. And suddenly, my brain understood something.
"Two."
Damn! I didn't have time to think about that. I had our lives to protect, we were totally surrounded, and the zombies could almost bite us.
"Three."
She pounced on the ground as I rotated to slash the zombies all around me. They all fell, creating a wall around us and then rose to close the wall smaller and smaller. This was bad. This was really bad. I had to call my team for backups. I couldn't fight all of them alone. Did I have some shots of antidote on me ? Some zombies were already reaching Ali. Damn it. I —

"—Ali !"
Reality was back just like that. No zombies. No forest. And Ali ... I was still holding her thank God.

Wait. I found out something. Yes. What was it? Oh God. Fuck ! She didn't know. She fucking didn't know about them, about what was happening to us. I could feel it. It was probably the first time she got that close to zombies, and she made it alive. If she got bitten in a vision, would it be true ? Was she playing a role even during the visions ?

We jerked away from each other. I couldn't breathe. I could see in her eyes that she was still shocked by what we saw though. That is if we saw the same thing... I would give so much to know what was going on in her head right now. She was dangerous. Too dangerous but I felt close to her in a way I never did before. I wanted to take her away from here. I needed to know. And that was exactly why I stepped back. I didn't trust myself right now.

I felt Mack behind me, wrapping her arms around my waist but I was too overwhelmed to do anything about it. She was now pulling me away from Ali and that was probably the best thing to do.

Only then, I noticed Justin. He'd put his hand on her shoulder, asking how she was feeling, as if he were a friend to her. Wait, was he ? It didn't make any sense. I stopped backing up. I was not gonna wait here when I could throw my fist in his jaw. I started moving to get him.
Before I could reach him, Ali took his hand and started running in the opposite direction. What the fuck was she doing !? So that was it ? She really was with Anima ?! I couldn't believe it. She would have known about zombies. She wouldn't have been so terrified.

I was so enraged and ashamed that I could fall into Anima's trap. Again. I began to run behind them, but this time Bronx and Lucas got in front of me to block my way.
"Bro let them go. We'll get them ass at night but not at school man." Lucas said.

Damn. They were right. Kids were already staring at us in the hall. I jostled them to get loose.

"I need some time. I'm skipping this morning." I groaned.

They both nodded.
"And if you really do it this morning, don't forget to call us. I wouldn't like to miss the fight." Mack screamed at me through the hall.
I didn't answer anything and turned away.