The Apocalypse Adversaries

Part 6: Grace

Everyone got up and slowly followed Cece out of the room. Audrey leapt from Casper's lap onto the floor. It seemed as if even she had a bad feeling about this. Cece and Logan had their guns in hand, and Casper grabbed his axe on the way of the kitchen. They all walked until they reached a small classroom, with loud noises coming from it. Things were clearly being knocked over, and there was a lot of screaming and yelling. Whoever was in there, they weren't happy. Cece slowly opened the door.

Standing in that room, shrieking, tied by her wrists to the handle of a closet, was Grace. Except, she looked different. It couldn't have been more than half an hour since Logan had last seen her, but she had undergone a complete transformation. Her once tanned skin was now deathly pale, and her blue eyes were sinking back into her skull and starting to fade to white. Her lips were peeled back, looking almost as if they could fall off at any moment. The denim jacket she had worn was on the floor, revealing a bloody scarlet gash on her shoulder. She'd lied to everyone. She got bit.

"Grace, what the fuck?" Logan yelled, obviously angry. "You fucking lied? You can't put everyone at risk like this? What the fuck were you thinking?!"

She grinned back at him, looking grotesque and disgusting, her teeth yellow.

"Because, you guys never respected my authority. When I got bit, I knew it was your fault. So I thought I'd make you pay. I wasn't going to tell you until I knew I was infectious. Now, I could bite any one of you. God knows how long I'll be smart enough to do this. At any moment, I could become one of those brain dead creatures outside. No one knows how long it takes. But I promise you that every moment until then will be spent trying to untie myself, and then I'll bite each and every one of you, one by one."

She laughed. It was a dark, terrifying sound that clearly made everyone uncomfortable. Violet stepped back, out of the room entirely. Cassie grabbed Cece's arm again, hugging it tightly. Logan glanced at them and noticed a slight blush appear across Cece's cheeks. He'd have to confront her about that later. Casper reached forward and grabbed his hand. The two looked at each other blankly. No one knew what to do. This girl was clearly very fucked up, and she was prepared to kill each and every one of them. She'd managed to free one of her hands, and she was lunging at them. It wouldn't take many more tugs before she'd be free.

"You're first, Cassie, you backstabbing little bitch. You left me for this group of fucking nobodies! Who do you think you are?"

Cassie was crying hard. She looked up at Grace apologetically.

"I'm sorry! But they're so nice to me, and they can keep me safe!"

"Safe? How can you feel safe when this group's so called leader just nearly got killed and you're all pretending like it didn't happen?"

Cassie didn't respond. She just buried her face in Cece's shoulder and kept crying. Cece, on the other hand, looked angrier than ever before. Logan noticed her loading her gun as Grace continued. 

"Then you, Logan! I barely know you and I'm already sick of you acting like you're better and smarter than everyone else. You're an irritating, controlling little prick, you're not a leader! And maybe your dumb boyfriend was there to save you last time but he sure as hell won't be this time."

He turned to Casper, who was looking back at him, an expression of pure fear on his face. Neither of them knew what to do. 

"He's not my boyfriend," Logan announced. "And I'll do whatever it takes to protect this group."

"Oh really?" she asked, smirking. "You'll shoot me? While I'm still half human? That would make you a fucking murderer. You'd be no better than me. Hell, you'd be worse. You can't protect everyone. You've got to either look out for number one, or you'll end up dead. You got that?"

"And how did that attitude work out for you?" he responded, hoping that his fear wasn't evident in his voice.

She continued with her plan.

"After I've bitten you, I'll go right for your little friend there," she said, motioning towards Casper. "I'll get him and his little cat. He won't last a fucking minute."

Casper let out a whimper, and Logan could see he was trying to hold back tears. He lifted his gun, pointing it at Grace.

"Do it!" she shrieked. Blood was starting to run from her mouth. "I fucking dare you. Shoot me! Except you won't. Because you act all tough when really you're nothing more than a fucking useless coward. You're just a-"

BANG.

An ear-splitting gunshot echoed across the room. Everyone was silent as Grace's body hit the floor. There was a huge bullet hole in her forehead. Logan turned around quickly to see Cece, still in her shooting stance, smoke pouring out of the barrel of her gun. Cassie was still clinging to her arm. Casper was crying. Logan was so shocked that he dropped his weapon.

Of all the people to shoot Grace, Cece was the last one he'd have expected. But there she was, holding the gun, looking completely blank.

"What did you do?" Logan asked, looking at her.

She looked at him, her expression completely serious,

"What had to be done. Anything to protect the group, right?"

The kill hadn't been out of hatred. She was fiercely loyal and scared that Grace was going to hurt them. Logan forced a smile. 

"Yeah. Anything to protect the group."

After all that, they all decided to settle in for the night. Violet was locked in a supply closet to sleep. She said she understood why. After she held a gun to Logan's head the group weren't quite sure they could trust her. They gave her a coat to keep her warm and promised to unlock her in the morning. Cassie shared a mat with Cece, each of them using a coat as a blanket. Casper grabbed Audrey and the two of them crawled into the nest of fabric they called a bed. Logan wrapped himself in his blanket and waited about an hour until he thought the others were asleep. Then, he cried. It was hard for him to keep up spirits and try and seem like he knew what he was doing, like had all the answers, and today's events just proved that he was absolutely not in control. He'd almost died, and he'd witnessed someone turn into a zombie. That was a hell of a lot of mental stress and he hadn't been able to cry because the others needed him to be strong. In that moment, he let out all the feelings he'd been holding back. Feelings about his family abandoning him, everything changing so suddenly, almost dying, being responsible for all these people. It was all so overwhelming. He was almost starting to fall asleep when he heard a voice.

"Logan?"

It was Casper. He crept over to Logan's bed slowly and pulled back the blanket to reveal Logan's tear stained face. Logan frantically tried to wipe the tears away.

"I'm fine, Casper, go back to sleep."

Casper wasn't fooled. 

"I can't say I'm surprised. I don't think I've seen you cry once throughout this whole thing. I know how stressful it is. It's okay. Everyone needs to cry sometimes."

As Logan looked up, he realised that Casper's eyes were red. He had been crying too. He sat up and wrapped the blanket around both of their shoulders. 

  "Are you okay, Casper?"

"Yeah, I cry all the time. You know that. It helps, though."

Logan pulled Casper into a hug and Casper rested his head on Logan's chest, wrapping his arms around his waist. The two of them spent their night just sitting together, talking, crying, laughing, until eventually they fell asleep.