Subject 48

Alliance

"Terra, huh? Cool name," Brett hands the notepad back to me. I rip off the page with my name on it, put in a pocket in "my" lab coat, and start writing on the next page.

I don't mean you any harm.

I slowly start advancing towards the group. The woman stares at me. I hold out the notepad to her so she can read it first. She hesitates before taking the notepad.

"You must think I'm rude. My bad," she says to me. "I'm Trix. What's your name again?"

I pull the piece of paper out of my pocket and pass it to Trix. "Terra. Isn't that Latin for earth?" I think it is. I can't remember. Maybe that's why I picked that name. I'm not really sure why I picked it. Terra was just the first name that came to mind and I thought it sounded nice.

Trix is smiling. I look at her, confused as to why she's smiling all of a sudden. Then she says, "Did I catch you off guard? I'm smarter than I look. I took Latin in high school." Trix looks around. She's probably making sure there aren't any more monsters. We do need to stay alert.

I look over at the older man. He introduces himself as Drew. Feeling like he can trust me he opens a door on the large metal thing. He says to the people inside, "The zombies are gone. We had a bit of help taking them down."

"What do you mean by that?" A slim man wearing glasses comes out of the metal thing. He looks to be in his late twenties, maybe. When he sees me his eyes widen. "Is she the help?" He sounds surprised. I'm guessing he expected a group of people with guns and military training, or something.

Drew nods in agreement to the man and says, "She said her name is Terra. Actually, I don't know if 'said' is the word I should use."

"She's mute," Trix adds to their conversation. She's coming over with her rifle in hand. She suddenly places it into the man's arms. "Axel, do something with this, would ya. I'm driving."

Oh so his name is Axel. Also, what? What does she mean "driving"? Never mind that, I need to get my stuff. I go and pick up my backpack and bat from off the ground. I put my notepad and pen in a pocket of my lab coat. As I put on my backpack I here somebody behind me say, "Are we gonna leave or are we hunkering down here?" It didn't sound like Brett or Trix or Drew. If anything the person sounded like a younger version of the slim man, Axel.

I turn around to see a boy that doesn't just sound like Axel but looks like him, too, except the boy is shorter, tanner, and doesn't have glasses.

He looks over to see me standing awkwardly a couple yards away from the rest of the group. I don't think the fact that I'm holding a spiked bat and wearing a face mask makes me any less suspicious. The boy eyes me for a bit before half waving at me and continue talking with Axel. "So, are we staying or not?"

"No," Axel responded firmly. He walks to one end to the large metal thing that I still don't understand the purpose of and opens it up like a giant hatch. He them puts the rifle inside the metal thing and closes the hatch back up.

I . . . don't understand what happened. This is probably a normal thing for them so I try to contain myself and hide my confusion and bewilderment.

I shake my head to snap myself out of it. Something catches my eye when I'm doing so. It looks like a big group of people. No. Those aren't people.

"Uhh, guys?" Brett says hoarsely.

"What?" Trix asks. Then everybody goes silent. I don't know what they look like or what they are doing because I can't take my eyes off of them. The monsters. The big group of monsters who have now seen us.

"Get in the car," Axel exclaims. I can hear the monsters making odd sounds. They out number us by about 10-15 people. "Now!"

The group opens doors to the large metal thing and jump inside. Drew ushers me inside though the large door they had all come out of earlier. Hesitantly, I get in. There are a bunch comfortable looking chairs inside, two of them still empty. I sit in the one furthest from the door so Drew can get in easier. Drew pulls the door shut. I throw my bat onto the floor.

Trix and Brett are sitting in the very front seats, Trix on the left side and Brett on the right. Trix has a weird wheel in front of her. She has both hands on the wheel. Everybody has a strap over them and Drew was pulling one over himself. I think I should pull mine over me. I see one to the right of me and reach for it. As soon I grab hold of it Trix yells out, "Hang on to something!" The metal thing revs up for a second before jerking to a start.

I'm stunned, but I think I know what the stap is for safety. I pull it over myself. There is a little box with a slit in it. The strap has an odd looking metal thing on it. It's slim. Testing my luck, I plunge it into the slit in the box. It goes in with a click. And just in time as well. Just after it clicks the metal thing pulls me harshly to the left. The strap keeps me in my seat.

"Are we far enough away from them?" asks Brett, who is sitting in the seat in front of me.

"Depends. By them do you mean the herd of zombies from before or the ones that are literally everywhere else?!" says the boy I still don't know the name of, who is sitting right behind me.

Something hard is pressing into my back. Oh, yeah. I still have my backpack on. I take it off and place it on the floor. The large metal thing suddenly pulls everybody to the right. I sit upright in my seat and look out the window on my right. Outside the window, the world was zooming by us at an unbelievable speed. I thought the hatch in the back of this thing was weird, but now this? What kind of odd device did I just hop into?