❣ Crossed Lines ❣

[Kicks]

http://fotos.fotoflexer.com/50aaddda45eeff90bdc8995d8fad0135.jpg


Recap and new stuff:

Three years ago there was a terrorist attack on America. By use of a virus, the terrorists planned to completely wipe out America starting with California which held a great percentage of Americans. However, the president was quick thinking and issued a military led secession from California- basically, they blew California off of America's mainland. Now all California is an island some miles away from America. It is crawling with the walking dead and worse monsters. But you're safe from that.
What you're not safe from however is the outbreak in New York. The state has been put on lockdown, but zombies and monsters wreck havoc on the state. The terrorists are behind the mess and work nonstop at bringing America down.
The infection isn't the only thing endangering America though. The next election is coming up and the terrorists are working at gaining complete control of the government.
There's only two ways this can end: taking down the terrorists or America's destruction. With secrets and mysteries unfolding, the end is drawing nearer and nearer.


Anything Important:

Anything important will go here. (E.g clues, updates, news, etc.)

[Kicks]

Opening post:

While New York slept, something awful awoke. Monsters broke free of their furniture confines, zombies burst from the sewers, and blood began to pour. By the orders given by the terrorists, their army of the undead rose. People began to scramble for protection, locked their doors, hid away. They did anything they could to protect themselves from the horrors they thought they were isolated from.

From deep within New York City, a red-eyed woman smiled to herself. Victory seemed just within her reach. Soon enough the whole organization would be in control and then the downfall of America would become reality.

The morning after the attack was silent. Eerily so. The streets were thick with dried blood and disembodied dead humans. Monsters hid in the dark once more; sewers, houses, anything they could find. It was too early for the zombies' liking so there was nothing dead moving besides bodies as birds picked at them.


You may begin.

[Kicks]

The old man carried the teenager in his arms up the steps to the house. He opened the front door and found himself in a dark house where he could hear others moving around. He laid the unconscious captain down on the couch and went into the kitchen where he found the sergeant checking the metal. There were no dents in from last night's attack, but he had to make sure anyways. When he turned around and saw the old man standing there and watching him, he reached for his gun.
"Shooting me will do nothing." Admiral Thomas informed him calmly. "It will only prove I am as real as the zombies about to come out."
"How did you get in?" Sergeant Wilson asked warily. He still wasn't so sure if he were really seeing what he was seeing or not. But he had put his gun back in its place nonetheless. "Why are you here? I thought you were dead."
"It's a long story." The old man told him with a small smile. He sat down at the table but still faced the man. "The simplest of which I shall answer with that I am able to manipulate health of myself and others." He pulled up the sleeves to his dark blue Navy jacket and revealed multiple bite marks. "I'm as immune to the monsters as Tamara is. I wish I had known that back in California though. I'm afraid I may have traumatized Cap by making him shoot me."
The sergeant looked hesitant to step forward. But he did carefully anyways and examined all the scars and bites. "How is that possible? You're a mutant?"
"Yes. Some time before the bunker went under attack, I had taken a unit out to district eight to push back the zombies. But one of them got me." The admiral informed while pulling back the collar to his jacket and showing his neck where a large scar stretched over his neck. "Ironic considering I was one of the people doing experiments on mutants." He chuckled out lightly as if the matter weren't morbid. "I would explain the science to you, but I fear the only person who would understand the anatomy is the one who almost got himself killed if it hadn't been for me."
"You brought back the cap?" Sergeant Wilson asked while making a move to go into the living room. But he was stopped by the admiral pushing out his feet so that he couldn't pass by him.
"I wouldn't if I were you. Think about what Richard had done when someone woke him up the first time he was back from California." Admiral Thomas stated calmly. "We were able to take his gun and subdue him, but his younger brother is a mutant. It's not smart to wake a mutant who just faced off with Tamara. We'll be lucky if he wakes up and doesn't start attacking something." When he saw the sergeant back away again and take a seat at the table, he smiled. "Now, fill me in with what I have missed."
The sergeant tore his eyes away from the living room and focused them on the admiral before him. "How did you get to America?"
"The terrorists captured me." Thomas answered back in a serene voice as if he were distancing himself from the events. "Brought me here to New York. They thought with my experience and knowledge of mutants that I would be able to assist them in taking over America. Such a silly request. So when I refused to do assist them, they began to demand what I knew. Torture is an interesting thing. It's all in the mind, you know. They soon figured out they couldn't get me to spill what I knew through torture, so they locked me up inside that awful fort while they commenced in carrying out their plan. I managed to escape my confines when Colton electrocuted Tamara. The electricity caused a circuit malfunction in the fort long enough for the locks to fail. It was a few minutes after I escaped that I came across the two. What a gruesome sight that was. You have no idea what that woman is capable of doing when she's mad. Now back to what I have missed. I heard about the execution of mutants, the conference meeting, the explosions and terrorism. Anything else?"
"We returned to California." Sergeant Wilson told him after a long pause in thought. "To get information from the terrorists' base in Redding."
"And by we you mean who?" Admiral Thomas asked curiously. "I mean, I figured Colton wouldn't be in New York alone. Probably still with that little boy I like- Zakai, right? Anyone else besides you?"
"Three mutants." Jerome told him while a smile flickered onto his face. "Two cousins and a girl. The girl and one of the cousins has a thing for each other. But they're all more than capable of surviving something like this."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

The screaming and growling from outside didn't stop. The pillow on the ground just sat where he left it. "You're not alive. You won't feel it. You're like the monsters and they're like you. You can't feel anything... right? You... you can't..." He started shaking even harder and then glared, "DIE!" He shot the pillow. Then he did it again and again. Luckily for the pillow, he ran out of ammo. Unluckily for the pillow, he still didn't feel any better so he went over to the survival pack to get more.

[Kicks]

Blake didn't have much trouble finding sleep despite the screams and hissing outside the window. A funny thing happened to him in California. He had been able to learn to block that kind of stuff out. He had learned after one almost fatal mistake that just because there was screaming, didn't mean you should ever get involved if it meant costing your life. But Faye in California had been another thing. They had spotted her from where they were on a roof and Blake immediately set out to getting her inside before she could be destroyed. There was only one other time in California- the time he had learned from- that he did something like that. And that was opening the door for a monster who looked human but wasn't. He learned then and there to ignore screams and pleas for help.
Sleep wasn't peaceful in the least for him though. It felt heavy and exhausting. But he was able to fall asleep. He hadn't a problem staying asleep until he heard nothing but silence outside. That disturbed him and woke him up. Then he heard the front door open not too soon after the silence came. Someone had come inside the house.
He brought a hand up to his face and rubbed his eyes to clear them of the sleepy fog. He felt hung over, but didn't remember drinking any alcohol.

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas and Sergeant Wilson both shot their heads up when they heard shooting from upstairs. "That doesn't sound good." The admiral commented but made no move to get up. "You should probably go check what's happening."
"Yea." The sergeant agreed shakily. Why would someone be shooting? This didn't make any sense to him. Hopefully they weren't shooting each other or themselves.
He stood up from the kitchen table and left the area. When he was upstairs and traced the sound of the shooting, he found Zakai, empty shells, and a destroyed pillow.
"What are you doing?!" He exclaimed with wide eyes. Not only did the sight look absurd, but he was certain the kid had lost his mind. He went over and tore the pack away from him to keep him from shooting anything else. "My God, man! You could be attracting zombies with all that shooting and you've wasted ammunition!" He held up the survival pack with stern eyes directed at the child. "You'll get this back when I can trust you're completely sane. Now get downstairs, I can't trust you alone."

[Lil]

Faye never truly fell asleep. You'd think that screaming would become a normal thing to her, but it never did, and she didn't think it ever would. Her night mainly consisted of her just lying there, listening to Blake's steady heartbeat as he slept. So when he popped up, she was more than shocked. "You okay?" Faye asked quietly, seeing the blonde boy rub his eyes sleepily. She sat up beside him and ran her fingers through his hair softly and smiled.

[Kicks]

Blake had completely forgotten Faye had been there. Had she slept at all the previous night? He knew she had been tired. But there had been a lot of screaming, hissing, and growling. He dropped his hand from his eyes and put it on her shoulder. "Headache." He yawned in answer. It made sense though. All that noise from last night and a restless sleep normally amounted to waking with a headache. Which was weird because despite all the chaos he had been so comfortable next to Faye. "Did you sleep?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai was surprised when the sergeant suddenly yanked the pack away from him and he tried to grab it back for a moment, but he wasn't fast enough. When he was yelled at about wasting ammunition and attracting zombies, he came out of it slightly, staring at the pillow and wondering for a moment, what was he doing? Why was he doing this? When the man told him to get downstairs, however, his eyes widened with fear and he backed away shaking his head.
"No. Uh-uh. Those things are down there. They're trying to get in! I can't! I can't! They keep scratching at the doors and windows! It's safer up here! They're down there right now! It's safe here!"

[Lil]

Faye dropped her gaze. "Not much. You think I'd be accustomed to the noise by now but it hasn't turned out that way it seems." Faye sighed and dropped her head down onto Blake's shoulder. She messed with the sheets of the bed in between her fingers nervously.

[Kicks]

The sergeant was certain then at the kid's wild remarks. It was silent outside and nothing was scratching at the doors. The kid had totally lost his mind. Unfortunately Jerome never had to deal with people who had PTSD before, so he just picked the kid up, threw him over his shoulder, and dragged him downstairs.
"That looked professional." Admiral Thomas commented as he watched the display of the sergeant carrying the kid into the kitchen and forcefully sitting him into a chair. "You could have at least bribed him into coming down with hot cocoa."
The sergeant ignored him though and pointed a finger at Zakai. "Nothing is down here, see? No scratching, no monsters, no zombies. Everything is fine. This place might just be the most safest place in New York at the moment. Nothing is going to hurt you."
"Besides your own mind." Admiral Thomas added, but the sergeant refused to pay attention to him still. "Come now, Sergeant, this place is bound to have some tea bags. Go make some over a fire. It settles people down."
"Admiral Thomas, are you in charge?" The sergeant questioned back. "I hardy think tea is going to make all of this any better. The kid has lost his mind-"
"He's suffering. That doesn't mean he's lost his mind." The admiral calmly interrupted, "Last night Colton was doing the same thing. I couldn't keep him still long enough to stop the bleeding in his neck until I had to knock him out. PTSD is commonly misunderstood. It's not insanity. Now, if you would go make some tea, please."
The sergeant stared at him for a long moment before deciding it was no use in arguing with the man. He vanished into the kitchen to go start up some tea. In the mean time, the admiral beckoned for Zakai to come close.

Blake rubbed her back soothingly in response to hearing about her pitiful attempt at sleeping last night. "It's okay. You're only human." He assured her before stepping out of bed. "I think I'm going to take the hour we have before the zombies come out to go find some food. I don't think this place will have very much food to feed all these mouths. And there's not really any time to waste." He commented while looking around the room with a confused expression on his face. "This is totally a girl's room."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai freaked out even more when the sergeant picked him up and he started struggling and writhing to get free of his grip. "Stop it! They're there! They're trying to get in! Let go! You don't understand!"
When he was plopped down onto the chair, he only started shivering even more violently. He was going to die! Those things were going to come in and get him. When the sergeant pointed at him, Zakai only shook his head, "You're lying." he said softly. He could still hear them. When he said that he had lost his mind, Zakai almost felt like yelling at him. He hadn't lost his mind! He could really hear them! Why wasn't he listening? Before he could, however, someone spoke up in his defense. He looked over at the other person at the table. He hadn't been paying attention to anything except the noises and the guy who had yanked him down here. He was still visibly shaking, but he froze up. Admiral Thomas. What was he doing here? He was dead. Colton had shot him. He remembered. The sergeant left and the Admiral was motioning for him to come over. Zakai stared at him blankly for a moment before cautiously standing from the chair and approaching the man, his shaking becoming even more violent with every step he took because... well, for a lot of reasons. The one that stood out most was the fact that the only things that came back to life were zombies and monsters. He stopped in front of the man and continued staring.

[Lil]

Faye frowned when Blake got out of the bed and said he was going to get some food. She didn't want him out there by himself but she also didn't have the energy to go along with him. "Well hurry back." She said sadly and got out of bed herself with intentions of checking on the others. Faye wrapped her arms around Blake though in a deep hug then placed her chin on his chest and looked up at him. "Be careful." She whispered softly.

[Kicks]

When Zakai drew near to him, the admiral reached out and patted him on his shoulder. "I believe you, kiddo. Because you're right. They're out there." He whispered to him while pointing towards the front door. It was the truth in a sense. Monsters and zombies were outside. But they were hiding and waiting for their right times to come out just as they had in California. "But they're not right outside. They're hiding for another hour. I was outside about five minutes ago and nothing was moving." He retracted his wrinkled hand away and rested it on the table. "So why don't you sit down for a minute and take a few deep breaths, okay?"

- - - Updated - - -

"Ah but danger is my middle name." Blake joked back with a chuckle. He gave her a quick hug though just to reassure her, and then he left the room. "Carson! Let's go be raccoons!"
"Is raccoons a real word?" The brunette asked as he appeared downstairs. He had been awake all night watching over a certain redhead. She didn't know anything about it, but that was a good thing because he didn't want her to know. He had just been worried is all. She had been exhausted from making so many things and had just passed out on the couch downstairs. So he took the liberty of being her angel for the night.
"I frankly don't care if it is or isn't." Blake answered honestly while he led the brunette towards the door. "Are you hungry or not?"
"Hungry!" Carson agreed while following out earnestly.

[Lil]

As the two left Faye felt slightly relieved that Carson had gone along. She also went down the stairs and wandered the house searching for the others to find the Captain and Red both passed out on the couches. Thank God the captain had made it back alive, he looked exhausted though, so Faye continued on through the house and into the kitchen where she found it empty.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at the admiral for a moment. He believed him. A monster wouldn't do that. He wasn't a monster. He was alive. He wasn't dead. The sounds were still echoing through his head, but he did as he was told and took a deep breath, calming down a little, still shivering slightly. Gradually the sounds subsided and he wasn't as scared, but he wouldn't stop shaking. This was just like when they had first met it felt like, except he wasn't nearly as suspicious of him as he had been then. He looked at the admiral.
"W-w-what the heck? I thought you were dead." he stared at the man, then held his arms out, "Can I hug you?"
It was a very weird question, but he was happy and relieved. Admiral Thomas was okay. He hadn't actually died. He was okay.

[Kicks]

After they were a block away, Carson finally spoke up to break the silence between them: "Your cousin is hot when she sleeps. If I didn't have so much self control, I would have taken advantage of her."
"I'm going to punch your bloody face in if you say something like that again." Blake promised him in a calm voice. He stopped at the supermarket he had been expected to be a mess. There were abandoned shopping carts, murdered civilians, and blood all over.
"Fine." Carson sighed back before following in after him. A horrified expression crossed his face as he looked around. He rose a hand to his mouth to fight back the stench of decay while a hard lump formed in his throat.
"You'll get used to it." Blake told him with a somber expression. He grabbed a cart and separated from the other teenager who he assumed would find things all on his own.
Carson hesitantly grabbed a cart and went into another direction. He was still gagging as he walked along. Every time he came across a new body bile would rise in his throat.

[Kicks]

"You're taking me being alive a lot more calmly than Colton did." Admiral Thomas commented after their silence was broken and Zakai had calmed down substantially. "He thought I was a monster, which I can't really blame him for. Still, electricity doesn't feel too good when it hits you." He murmured thoughtfully. He was still wondering why the captain had used electricity instead of a gun to take him on. Probably because the gun hadn't killed him the first time. "Anyways, each mutant has their own ability. Mine just happens to be useful in situations involving health." He looked at the child as a bemused expression crossed over his face. He had never been asked for a hug before. But the gesture of it was adorable and childish, reminding him once more how extraordinary this kid was. "Yes, I suppose you can hug me so long as you don't bite me."

[Lil]

Faye didn't find anyone else in the house which made her wonder where Zakai and the Sergeant had gone. Sitting down at the table, Faye dropped her head onto it and sighed. She wondered how long they'd be on this house? Would she get another night to attempt to sleep or would they be up until four a.m. only to start another day at five? It was becoming essential for Faye to get some good sleep or her health would probably start falling more.

[Kicks]

The sergeant came out from the fire he had made somehow outside. He had put the fire out with a hose and made sure there was no smoke to give away their position to the zombies. He grabbed the kettle he had boiled the tea in and came back inside through the front door. Into the kitchen he went where he found enough cups for the people at the table.
The man poured the tea into the cups. He then grabbed a cutting board to use it as a tray that way he didn't have to make two trips or spill anything in one. He placed the cups down on the cutting board and then left back into the dining area where he not only found that Zakai wanted a hug from the long lost Admiral, but Faye had also joined them.
He glanced down at the tea, frowned and then returned to the kitchen. A moment later he returned with more tea and put it down on the table with a victorious grin. "Ha! Enough for everyone!"

[Lil]

Faye shook her head politely at the offer of tea then went back to resting her head on the table. She had never been one to drink warm tea, she was more of a coffee girl herself but everyone else seemed to enjoy the tea so she didn't argue. Faye already felt herself starting to drift off. With all these others around, one of which she didn't know bit also didn't give much thought for the moment, Faye felt a lot safer and that if anything were to happen they'd wake her up.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai laughed at the statement. "Why would I bite you?" He hugged the admiral. He was alive! He wasn't dead! He was okay! It was a good thing! He released the admiral and smiled, "Colton's just paranoid. Oh! Colton! Is he okay?"
His eyes darted around as if he would be in the kitchen, but even he figured the captain would be exhausted and sleeping somewhere. He looked at the admiral. "And what happened? How are you alive? I mean, yeah, you guys have magic powers and stuff, but weren't there a lot of zombies? Why are here? Did you know we were here? Did you see us on TV? Did you meet that awful lady? Oh, thanks Jerome."
He took some tea and then looked eagerly back at the admiral.

[Kicks]

Jerome chuckled at Zakai's sudden excitement and Faye's parallel feeling. The girl looked exhausted and not at all excited, but the kid could just be bouncing off the walls. He sat down at the table and kept his laughter and comments to himself.
The admiral tilted his head to the side at the question of him beating him, but was more than obliged to hug the kid back. He pulled away and leaned back in his chair once more, his old smile on his face and pulled wrinkles in either direction. "Well, I suppose it was a joke. Just making sure you're still human is all." He assured the kid through a wink.
He made a gesture towards the living room where he had dragged the captain to. "I don't blame him. He did shoot me after all. In his eyes I should be a monster if I were to be alive at all. But yes, he's fine now. It was a stupid move he pulled at the fort. He should have known he stood no chance of surviving that woman. Even I know she's worse than those monsters." He sighed out, still disappointed that his star student from medical school had pulled such a ridiculous stunt. It was like the time he wanted to punch the captain in the face for the terrorist stunt.
His graying eyes moved back to the kid again and he chuckled. Zakai was just so full of questions. But that he didn't blame either. He had a lot of questions too when he first came into the house. But the sergeant had helped him sort those out. "Well, my ability is a lot more... different than I first perceived. I thought it was only good for healing things like scrapes and bruises or restoring someone from the flu. It turns out it can do a lot more than that. The science would be hard to grip for anyone here who hasn't enrolled in medical school, so I will just stick with the simple answer that my ability allowed for healing and regeneration. Not in just myself, but others as well. As for why I'm here is a little more simple. I was captured by the terrorists and such who thought they could manipulate me into helping them. They don't have the best scientists- you know. But by the end of it, I refused to help them and they locked me inside of that fort. Colton accidentally set me free by shorting out the electrical grid." He raised his eyebrows to the TV thing and he nodded his head. "Oh yes. Tamara was very mad over that. I remember hearing her plan to take down a building to show you guys what you just got yourself into. I heard a lot about you all by just eavesdropping in my confines. To me, you're all very humorous. You piss her off more than she lets off. I think it's because she knows you guys stand a chance at prevailing." He turned his head to the side to hear the front door opening and two teenagers coming in with carts.
"Oh my gosh." Carson remarked as he noticed everyone at the table. "Who's the old man?"
"Admiral Thomas." The sergeant told the teenager while motioning for the two to come into the dining area with their carts. "How's it looking out there?"
"Lots of dead." Blake sighed back. A grim expression was on his face as he spoke of the dead. "We didn't see anyone alive. But there's bound to be survivors."
"Of course." The admiral agreed through a small smile. "People are a lot stronger when they have to be after all. Isn't that right, Zakai?"

[Lil]

Upon hearing Carson and Blake come back Faye popped up with wide eyes. "Foooooood." She moaned out before jumping onto Blake's back. She was completely starving and was now extremely happy they had returned so quickly. "Please tell me you got something to eat. It doesn't even have to be that good, but at least edible." She said desperately.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to the admiral with much interest, nodding sometimes and cocking his head at others. At the end he scratched his head.
"Wow. Being captured by terrorists sounds a lot more boring than I thought." he thought for a moment, "Yeah. She did end up blowing up a building. We saw it. It was a block away from the hotel we were staying at."
Zakai looked up when Blake and Carson walked in and smiled at Carson's response to everyone at the table. His face fell when they mentioned the dead. That didn't sound good. What if this really did turn into California all over again? He was surprised when Admiral Thomas mentioned him being strong. He wasn't very sure about that. He didn't really view himself like that. If anything, he was weak. He beat up a pillow in the attic for Christ's sake! He always freaked out and stuff, but without a doubt, there had to be other survivors. He smiled, "Y-yeah." He didn't really know what else to say to that. In the end he just blurted out, "If anything, I should be the one being called 'Awesome'." Then his mind froze. Dang it! What was I thinking? "I mean... I mean..." Dang it.

[Kicks]

Blake laughed as he was jumped on by the pretty blonde. He pulled out a box of poptarts from the cart and opened it up. He passed her one of the packages, and then tossed the rest of the box onto the table for everyone else.
"Of course we got edible food." He reassured her with a chuckle. "You act like you haven't eaten in centuries."
"I thought it was funny how she just kind of latched onto you like a zombie would trying to get food." Carson commented through his own laughter. While Blake had a cart of food, Carson had a cart of other essentials like toilet paper!
"Well, I tried to keep the details out of it. You don't want to know what happens." Admiral Thomas told him reassuringly while he heard some kind of stirring from the living room.
When Zakai stated he be called 'Awesome', the admiral tried his best to keep a straight face. But when he heard laughter erupt from the living room, he folded and started laughing as well. Memories came into his mind of that fateful meeting with the soldier who presented himself to the president under that name. Oh how the soldiers laughed and teased each other after that, demanding to be titled by their rank and 'awesome'.
Colton appeared in the doorway still laughing his head off. He sat down at the table and buried his face into his arms as he laughed. Despite the pounding in his head and the throbbing at his throat where an inflamed scar was, he was functioning. He had been awake for around ten minutes trying to figure out where he was and what was happening. He had been listening into the conversations and when Zakai stated he should be addressed by 'Awesome', Colton found himself laughing his head off.
"What?" Colton asked at last breathlessly when he had picked his head up from the table. "Zakai, how dare you be so cocky!"
"I feel as if my world has just been made complete." The admiral stated while chuckling.

[Lil]

Faye stayed on Blake's back as she opened her thing of poptarts and ate one with a smile. Her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms dangled over her shoulders as she let out a very satisfied sigh. Strawberry. It was her favorite flavor of poptart. "You did awesome. Just like Zakai!" She pointed out before taking another bite.

[Kicks]

Carson took on a horrified look that he shared with Blake when Faye exclaimed that Zakai had been awesome. "What?!" Carson shrieked in disgust, "Did he bone you?! Oh hell no! Hold my earrings, Blakey. Some playah's going down."
"Calm down, Cali boy." Blake laughed out while putting a hand down on his shoulder. "You Californians always jumping to the nasty. I bet he can't even get... ya know... Health class stuff."
"I just died inside." Colton whispered to the table before starting to laugh all over again. "What is wrong with you people?!"
"I hope a mutant doesn't breed with a human." Admiral Thomas commented with wide eyes. "That could be disastrous."
"Oh then this is going to be awkward." Carson remarked jokingly. "Because Bells and I kinda-"
"Did nothing." The redhead stated with a scowl. She had come in from the basement with bags under her eyes. "So help me, Carson."

[Lil]

"Carson!" Faye exclaimed as her cheeks grew red. "Get your mind out of the gutter." She murmured and buried her face in Blake's shoulder. That was a horrible thing to say, especially considering how young Zakai was. Now Faye was embarrassed and she could only imagine how Zakai felt.

[Kicks]

Carson completely ignored Faye when the redhead had joined them. His eyes followed after her and watched as she sat down beside the old man at the table. A smile had folded onto his face, hiding something there.
Blake put a hand on top of Faye's head and patted her hair. "It's just Carson. Nobody knows what he's going to say next." He reminded her with a chuckle.
"On a more serious note that doesn't involve reproduction..." Admiral Thomas commented while he brought his eyes to the tired captain. "I'm actually disappointed in you, Cap. So many mutants on your team and I bet you haven't even tried to help them understand what they're capable of doing."Colton gave the man an irritable look, as if he weren't yet ready to deal with anything serious this early with so little sleep. "I made an attempt. Once."
The admiral began to laugh at that comment given. "Well, believe it or not it's kind of required they come to terms with what they have." Thomas commented more to everyone this time. "Guns can only get you so far. But when battling monsters and Tamara, you're going to need to rely on your abilities. Your weakness has to be your greatest strength." He spun a finger around his glass and his eyes cast down to look at the cup. "I can help with that. I know more about the mutation than even Tamara does."
"I make no argument." Colton agreed while resting his head down on the table. "Bells seems to have her's under control. Her cousin on the other hand..." His eyes went to Blake, "Needs a lot of help. He hardly has his under control."
"Lies." Blake smoothly retorted with a cool expression on his face. "I am perfectly capable of-"
"Shut up." Colton cut off his lying there and turned his eyes back to the admiral. "He's like Ishmael was. Ya know how you had to push him in some way to get him to use it? Even last night I had to zap him to get him to blow down a door."
"Hey!" Blake exclaimed in a defensive manner, "I don't need to know how to use it when I am perfectly capable of other things."
"And I bet you are capable." The admiral agreed, stepping in their conversation to calm down the younger teenager. "But in this situation you're going to need to get it under control otherwise you're going to end up hurting the ones you love. Or yourself. Isn't that right, Cap?" He asked, recalling the first day Colton had been turned and zapped himself every few minutes.
"I'm too tired to deal with your comments right now, Ads." Colton told him while covering his face with his arms. "Hey, ask Faye what she can do."
Admiral Thomas covered up a smile and turned his eyes to the blonde girl. "And you. What can you do?" He felt almost as if he were asking a little girl what she wanted for Christmas. Not that he was opposed to being Santa Claus one year. He always imagined the day he would retire from the military. He knew the lies about how vets got benefits. He'd end up on the streets (despite previously being a doctor) and get a job as Santa Claus. He wasn't complaining about that.

[Lil]

Faye looked between the two kinda confused. What was she supposed to say? I can move stuff. "Uhhh... Well, I can move stuff. With my mind?" Faye said slowly trying to get the words out coherently.

[Kicks]

Colton chuckled to himself as Faye answered the question. He would have been laughing harder, but he wanted to seem inconspicuous.
Admiral Thomas blinked a few times at the girl's response. Honestly, he had never heard a girl seem so confused when answering something like that. "Is that all you think you can do?"
Colton lifted his head up a bit from the table, "Don't answer that, Faye." He advised her before lowering his head back down.
The admiral shook his head at the captain and then turned his eyes back to the girl. "What I mean is that a mutant's ability can have different associations and uses. For instance, at first all Colton could do was zap things. And now he's perfectly capable of electrocuting someone, shorting out a power grid, giving electricity to something, messing with technology, and so on. Now, if your's is like telekinesis or similar, then you could very well be able to cut something open... Like decapitating a zombie. Or you could fly!"

[Lil]

"I've actually done the second." Faye commented thinking back to when the first arrived in San Francisco on their mission. On the pier when it collapsed beneath them and she managed to levitate her, Red, and Blake. It also sparked the idea of the flying scooter in her head. Thinking about it, se had done a lot more flying than it she had actually remembered.

[Kicks]

"You're so cool." Admiral Thomas decided while thumping his down on the table. "My investigation and questioning is almost done. I shall inform of my analysis when I am through. You, blonde boy enjoying girl on back- what are you capable of doing?"
"I don't know." Blake laughed back, honestly finding the question funny. "Ask Colton. He knows all. He's like a super genius condensed into a military genie who grants wishes when someone rubs him the right way."
"BLAKE!" Carson screamed while now howling. "STOP IT. STOP TALKING. STOP."
"He wants to get punched in the face with a fistful of fiery electrocution." Colton whispered to his hands. He brought his head up again and rested his chin on his fist. "You're going to have to see what he does. My brain is like half-functioning right now. So just... I'm not even here. Poptart me, macaroni!" He called to the blonde.
Blake tossed him a poptart simply because he was afraid he actually might get punched.
"Analysis complete then." The admiral decided while clapping his hands. "I believe that the blonde girl is more than capable with her abilities and will even learn different ways to use it on her own. As for the blonde boy, you are so lost. I can't even begin to describe how lost you are. I bet you're so lost that your abilities function out of your control half the time."
"Pretty close." Colton hummed in agreement through a mouthful of poptart.
"But that's perfectly fine because I can assist." Admiral Thomas added while ignoring the captain. "Come, child. Let us go out into the world. We shall return in an hour."
"Are you being serious?" Blake questioned while raising his eyebrows. "You're a total stranger."
"A trustworthy total stranger." The admiral corrected with a wink. "Come now, I taught Colton what he knows."
"Go. I'm sick of seeing your face." Colton instructed the blonde while throwing a crumb at his face.

[Lil]

Faye hopped off Blake's back and say down at the table beside Colton before eating another bite of her poptart. She hummed out in content once more before looking at the Captain. "Are you doing okay?" She asked quietly while nudging him in he elbow. He didn't look to good, but Faye knew that's what exhaustion could do to a person, almost make them look like a zombie themselves.

[Kicks]

Blake more than reluctantly left the perfectly safe house with a man he didn't know, didn't want to know, and didn't trust. The guy was so old he could drop dead at any moment it looked like. How he was an admiral and not retired just went over his head. Obviously he shouldn't be here. Obviously he should be in a retirement home. But somehow this old man's mind was working at the speed of lightning and he was evidently a genius of some sort. But he had discovered that about the Navy. Those soldiers in the Navy all seemed to have a high-functioning brain.
Colton didn't finish the second tart that was in the package of two. He pushed away the silver wrapper and put his head on the table again. His eyes went to Faye who had sat down beside him and he attempted to move his elbow when she nudged it, thinking that maybe it was in the way. He rose his eyebrows at her and her quiet question, then glanced around before his eyes settled back down on her. "Are you?" He questioned back.

[Lil]

"I mean. I've been better but considering the circumstances, yes I'm doing alright. I can't say the same for you though." Carefully Faye placed her cold hand against the Captains forehead to feel if he was possibly sick but he felt cool to be honest. She retraced her hand and put it in her lap but didn't remove her gaze from Colton's.

[Kicks]

The captain stared at the girl in doubt when she said she was doing okay. "You look like you need sleep." Colton told her while going cross eyed when her hand came so near to him. He moved his head back a little and scrunched up his nose. "What was that? Did you just like attempt to give me Jedi powers?" He asked her as his eyes went from cross eyed to normal again when she moved her cold hand away from the proximity of his face.

[Lil]

Faye just shook her head. "I was just feeling if you had a fever." She said simply. Why was he freaking out over something so simple, he acted like no one had ever felt his forehead for his temperature before. "I'm not a Jedi." She added and leaned back on her chair. "And who out of us doesn't need some sleep, it's not like I'll be able to catch up on it any time soon anyways." She shrugged and lowered her gaze to where her feet sat under the table. Faye probably couldn't fall asleep now, even if she wanted to. First of all she had become a bit accustomed to sleeping beside another warm body and she also wouldn't be able to sleep due to all her worrying.

[Kicks]

Colton looked at her as if she were absolutely insane. But he shook it off and frowned when she said she wasn't a Jedi. That was a disappointment, but the whole reality of it. At least she knew a Star Wars reference when she heard one unlike those insufferable carnivorous adolescents he went to high school with. He held respect for those who knew Star Wars and Star Wars references.
"They did a study in the military a few years ago that human bodies can be trained to operate with thirty two hours of no sleep." He told her, "The soldiers that were involved in the experiment claimed to have better senses and reflexes. But to hell with that. Bunch of lies. They've obviously never operated under these circumstances." The captain forced himself to stand up from the table and push in his chair. "Well, I'm going to just go pass out on the couch now. If anyone asks, no they're not allowed to wake me up even if someone is dying because the admiral is more than capable of handling such situations."

[Lil]

Faye nodded as he went off and stood up herself, not having much to do anymore. She began to wander the house, not looking for anything in particular but came across a large room with a piano towards the center. A quick grin flickered across Faye's lips before she closed the door behind her and went over and sat down on the bench. Nimbly she ran her fingers over the keys but didn't press down hard enough to make any ring out. It was a beautiful piano, it'd be a shame if it never got used again. Slowly Faye placed her hands on the appropriate keys and softly played an old melody her mother had taught her, who had learned from her mother and so on. It went back a long time to say the least.

[Kicks]

Sometime after the captain had fallen back asleep on the couch, the front door opened and closed quickly. Blake leaned against the door, panting hard but looking so pumped full of energy he could be some kid with ADHD. Against the door he could feel the thumping and pounding of zombies, but they wouldn't be able to get through.
As for the old admiral, he dragged his feet to the chair and sat down. He reclined the chair and let out a sigh of relief one would give after a long day of walking and finally they were able to rest their feet. "That went better than I expected." He hummed out more to himself than anybody else.
"I feel like I just drank ten million coffees." Blake stated while bouncing away from the door. He leaned over the couch and peered down at the sleeping body there. "Caaaaaaaaaaaap, Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap, Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap are you awake?" He whispered loudly.
"You're going to get punched, and I am going to laugh." Admiral Thomas commented with a little laugh. "Let him sleep. Not everyone is as hyper as you right now."

[Lil]

As the song came a long, closing note Faye rose her hands to her face and cried quietly. It had been a long, long time since Faye actually thought about her mom. She missed her so much it made her chest and head ache with longing. Just to be able to hug her one last time or talk to her once more. She sighed before wiping the tears away and letting the red steaks that marked her cheeks fade away. Pulling her arms across her chest, Faye walked out of the room and returned to the living room area where she found Blake and the Admiral had returned and Blake seemed like he was pumped with energy.

[Kicks]

"Faye!" Blake shrieked merrily when he saw her come along the way. "OMG IT'S YOU!" Suddenly he felt a hand grip his arm and pulled him over the couch. He flipped over the couch and landed on his back with a hard thump. He stared up at the ceiling for a moment or two until he saw that the captain was glaring daggers at him. "Somebody's pissy." He hummed out. "But I can fix that!"
"Blake, please don't attempt." Admiral Thomas chuckled out. "He might just tear you apart if you touch him."
"Behold!" Blake shouted, completely blowing off what the old man had said and grabbed the captain by his arms. "THE ONE WHO SLEEPETH SHALL BE RESTORED TO ENERGY!" He let out a little cry when Colton's arms began to crackle with electricity. It only grew worse when Blake surged some of his energy into the man. He released him and rolled away, holding his hands close to his chest.
"I told him not to." Admiral Thomas told the captain who had sat up and rubbed at his eyes. "He didn't listen though. He's too hyper right now. He needs to blow off some of that energy. I feel like I gave him candy or something."
"It's fine." Colton answered back after he had dropped his hands from his hair. "It actually helped. It feels like I had a full night's sleep." He watched as the blonde teenager continued to roll around on the ground. "What did you guys do out there?"
"I taught him a few things." The old man told him while a smile cracked onto his face. "I showed him how to take the energy of other beings; don't worry, it was just with birds. And how to use that energy to make other people um... more awake, so to speak. I'm glad it seemed to work with you. The other thing he tried it on... well that bird had a heart attack."
"And there goes my anxiety levels. Through. The. Roof." Colton shuddered back. "Thanks, now I'm going to be paranoid all day whether or not that kid right there would have caused me to have a heart attack."
The old admiral laughed out loud and slapped his knee. "Worry not, young one. Electricity is used to restart the heart."
Blake stopped rolling around to catch his breath. He seemed to have remembered Faye was there and pounced to his feet. He bounced on over to her and put his arms around her. Before the admiral could tell him not to, he transferred energy from him to her like he had with the captain.

[Lil]

Faye watched the whole scene unfold not surprised in the least bit. "This isn't anything out of the ordinary." Faye said to the Admiral with a shrug. Part of it bothered her, it seemed like Colton always made Blake seem inferior, but she didn't let the subject drag her down too much. Blake didn't seem to mind so Faye wouldn't mind either. Instead she focused on the Blake now bounding towards her. "What're you do-" but Faye was cut short by Blake squeezing her tightly and the sending what felt like a shock through her. This caused Faye's eyes to grow a little wider and her body didn't seem to slump as much. It was like she had a whole new amount of energy and it turned out that's what she had apparently. "That's sick." Faye smiled up at the blonde boy. Thinking of that also made Faye want to show him something but they needed to be alone first off and it wasn't exactly an ideal time.

[Kicks]

"Hmm, that doesn't surprise me to hear that." Admiral Thomas replied to her through a chuckle. "The cap's always wanted a younger brother. I suppose messing with Blake is the closest thing he'll ever get to having one."
"I don't know who told you that, but they're liars." Colton declared while laying back down on the couch. "Blake, I require water. Get me some, peasant."
Blake kissed Faye on top of her head and then released her from his arms. He wasn't so jittery with energy now that he had passed some off to the captain and to the blonde girl he adored. But if he could just give some to his cousin or something it would bring his levels back down. One day he would conquer the hyperness or channel the energy into something else, but he was only beginning to understand what he could do. So for now, this is what he would do.
He grinned back at the captain who blew off the younger brother comment with demanding water from him. "Whatever you say, big bro." He cackled back before taking Faye by the hand and leading her off to the kitchen.

[Lil]

Faye stumbled after him into the kitchen and shook her head. "You two do act like siblings." She smiled and looked at their linked hands. "Hey Blake. Can I show you something a little later?" She asked quietly. What she had been so anxious to share involved them being able to have some time to take up because she imagined it to be a long process right now considering it was a new thing for her to try. It would take a lot of work and concentration but with her new energy Faye felt more up to it than she had before, now she just needed the right time and place.

[Kicks]

Blake kept one hand linked into her's and the other one fumbling around with a glass and getting water from the tap. He poured water into the glass, turned off the tap, and then smiled at her. "Sure. Any time you want. The admiral says because the terrorists are trapped in New York that we have some time to blow before we get serious." He told her while moving back into the living room. "Isn't that right, old man?"
"Pretty much." He agreed in response. "I mean obviously we have a huge problem. But we can't do anything about it right now until we get word from the president. So for now we have quite the amount of time on our hands. You can use it to catch up on sleep, figure out how to use your abilities, and such."
"But don't make babies." Colton added while taking the glass of water from Blake. "Please don't make babies. It causes unnecessary stress on you, and things just... I just..." His head fell into one of his hands. "What am I going to do?"
"Yes, learn from Colton's example." Admiral Thomas agreed through a sigh. "Disastrous repercussions to baby making can take place during these times... Though I am curious what a purebred mutant cross would look like and be. I'll soon know about the human and mutant. But mutant and mutant? Maybe you two should... I'm just saying, there are seven rooms in this house."
"Are we seriously getting into that kind of talk?" Blake questioned with a twitch of his eyebrow.
"Keep the hypothesis to yourself, Ads." Colton hinted at with a disgusted look on his face. "Are you sure you're not working for the terrorists? You have the mind of Hitler's favorite doctor."
"I'm speaking from a doctor's point of view is all." He reassured with a flip of his hand.

[Lil]

Faye couldn't help but bury her face in her hands. Things like this always embarrassed her, and now that they were actually targeted and based on her, only made it worse. "We won't be making any babies. I promise." Faye said trying to escape the room as quickly as possible while pulling Blake behind her. She did happen to pull them into a bedroom though because that seemed like the best place for them to try this out for the time being. It was relaxing and contained very little distractions. Faye sat down and crossed her legs on the bed before motioning Blake to come sit with from her.

[Kicks]

"As they vanish into a room." Colton sighed out, but he couldn't help but to find it sort of humorous.
"We'd hear them if they tried anything." Admiral Thomas pointed out with a grin. To which the captain gave him a horrified expression. "You're an adult, Colton. It's not like you don't know."
"I don't want that picture in my head!" He exclaimed back. "Gosh dang you sick freak. You nasty."
Blake also found being pulled into a bedroom funny. But only because it was ironic and he knew they weren't going to do anything. He sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. "Are you doing okay? You seem distracted."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

The response he'd gotten for making the 'awesome' statement was pretty much what he had expected.
When everyone else just sort of disembarked, Zakai finished his tea then wandered around a little before walking into the room with the sleeping captain and plopping down on the floor across the room from him. He was so stupid, but he always managed to live. Maybe he should put more trust in the guy that promised not to let anything bad happen. After all, if he couldn't stay around without disappearing, why promise in the first place?
Then all of the sudden everyone came back and they started talking about why Blake and Faye should sleep in separate rooms because they were afraid they'd have sex. Zakai wasn't afraid of the word. He wondered where he would sleep that night. He freaked up in the attic, but he'd seriously felt safe there. Sure, he was acting crazy, but it was safe. Poor pillow. It was now dead. Heck it wasn't even his. Then again, now he was also probably going to be somewhat wary of the attic since he'd gone through that, but what about when the monsters came out again? Were they out already? Maybe he should just sleep in here? He needed to find a place that didn't seem threatening. He wouldn't have his survival pack since Sergeant Wilson had taken it. He wondered if he should apologize to the guy for being so crazy. Then his mind drifted to the picture of his family. It was still in the attic! He had to rescue it! He'd freaked, but he couldn't just leave it up there! Was he allowed to go up there again? He didn't know. Everyone seemed preoccupied right now though. He stood up and left the room, going back up to the attic, being as quiet as possible. I'll just grab the photo and come right back down. There's nothing wrong with that.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

(This thing got stupid. Disregard this post.)

[Lil]

Faye nodded. "Yeah, I'm alright. I just want to try something out. I've been attempting it on my own but it's kinda hard to do with one person." Faye rose her hands or her face. "Gosh, that sounds like it should be something really gross." She sighed and shook her head quickly. "Here." Faye said and took both of Blake's hands in hers and sighs. Sitting in Indian style, Faye moved so she sat across from Blake and looked into his eyes for a moment. "This may seem really strange but it's gonna take a little time, patience, and concentration." Finally, she closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing.

[Kicks]

"Oh! I remember now! Crap!" Colton exclaimed while searching his pockets desperately for his phone. At last he found it and pulled it out of a pocket. After a quick dial, he held his phone up to his ear after what felt like forever. "Richard! The furniture routes-"
"We saw it on the news." The man cut him off, "Why have you waited this long to call me? What the hell, man? Everyone thinks you guys are dead!"
"You mean... Wait, did you lose connection to us?" Colton asked with raised brows. "You should have been hearing us on the earpieces."
"Let me rephrase that so you can understand: YOU should have called ME. All I heard on this end through the communication systems was that you pulled some idiot stunt, and then an address for a place." Richard stated through a scowl. "And where was your voice? What were you doing?"
"Does it matter? Did you secure the other states?" Colton asked, blowing off all of that for what was more important. "How many states?"
"Four." Richard answered back after a long pause. "You wouldn't believe what's going on over here. Dad's opponent is staying at the White House to have meetings with dad like every day. I think he's looking for some kind of sign that you guys were here."
"What about Ada?" Colton asked, "Is she okay? Is she there?"
"No, she's not here. We had to move here because this guy seems to know a lot about that situation." Richard sighed back quietly, kind of hoping his brother hadn't heard that.
"WHAT?!" Colton shouted, snapping to his feet. "What do you mean she's not there? Are you even around her? Where the hell is she?!"
"Calm down. She's safe." Richard stated before hanging up on his brother.
Colton glared down at the cellphone, even more angry that he had been hung up on without a thorough explanation. "If I could reach through the phone-"
"Huh." Admiral Thomas cut him off as he watched Zakai go back up the stairs. "Odd. He was shooting a gun earlier up there. Hope he doesn't freak out again." He commented casually. But he had the effect he wanted from the captain nonetheless.
Colton's eyes shot up to the stairs. "Shooting a-? Why?"
"I don't know. Sergeant Wilson thinks he's lost his mind." Admiral Thomas mused, "I just think he was upset is all. It's not like he can shoot anything now after the sergeant took away his toys. You might want to keep a close eye on him anyways though."

Blake's eyes shot up when she made her comment and got all flustered about it. But his mind didn't normally go the dirty route unless someone made point to it or got worked up about it. So he remained relatively calm- as calm as he could get all hyped up. When she took his hands though, he was a bit surprised. He was uncomfortable too, feeling as if though she were about to do some witchcraft. Which in that case he would have to exorcise her or something. When she said a little time and patience he started getting antsy. "Okay." He agreed, though he didn't know how long he could really stay still for thinking she was going to cast a spell.

[Lil]

Faye popped one eye open quickly to see Blake growing nervous. "You'll be fine." Faye promised quietly before reclosing her eyes and taking a deep breath. It took a lot of concentration and also a lot of courage for Faye to prepare for this. She thought up what she wished to say and slowly repeated it in her head. Faye allowed the thought to materialize in her head before swallowing a lump that had formed in her throat. Her thumbs grazed over the back of Blake's hand and she allowed the thought to float from her mind. It carried through the air until she placed it in Blake's mind. Like telepathy, well actually, that's exactly what it was. Using her powers of moving things with her mind to move her thoughts into Blake's. Blake. I think, I love you.
Faye's heart beat pounded in her ears as she finally said it, well thought it. That was a big step for her.

[Kicks]

Blake settled down a bit when she said that, but didn't understand what was happening. He glanced down at her thumbs going across his skin and then back up at her face. She seemed to be really concentrating and she looked absolutely nervous. He wondered what had made her that way especially when it was only the two of them in this room.
Suddenly though, a thought intruded on his own and his eyes widened. "Jesus?" He asked the air, "I love you too, Jesus!" He couldn't help it. The voice in his head wasn't his own, it was Faye's. Which was weird and astounded him at first. But then he recalled she could do amazing things with her mind. Yet still, he tended to lean towards nervous joking to break tension.
And there was tension. Not the kind that grew in the air during a fight or awkward argument. But the one that manifested itself when two people were alone and sharing deep secrets of their hearts. When the voice had popped into his head and after he had recognized it as Faye's, a funny feeling came over. He didn't know how to describe it or what it was, but it certainly made his heart race.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai found the picture and was about to run back down when he caught sight of the pillow he'd messed up and sighed looking down. What on earth is wrong with me? He looked around the attic and located some paper and an old looking pencil, then started writing.

Dear Owner of this Household,

I am very sorry for messing up the attic and shooting your pillow. I hope it wasn't an antique. If it was, then I'm sorry, and if we ever meet and you know that it was me, then I will try to pay you back through manual labor since I don't have any money, unless I have a job by then and then I'll try to just pay you back. I am very sorry about that. I kind of went crazy I guess. I think. I don't know. Today's been crazy. We're barricading ourselves in your house right now, and I kept hearing the zombies outside. But anyway, if you ever come back, then I just wanted to apologize. You might not, but I believe in hope and miracles so maybe you will, and good luck with getting back too. Oh, and I sorry about your son. I know about that because I read your mail and I'm sorry for that too. If you're the son, then great job surviving! I'm from District 1 too! I know how hard it was. Anyways, thank you for not letting us use your house, but we're using it anyway, so I'm thanking you. I hope you have a great rest of your life and are safer than we are now. May the world be kind to you.

Your friend, Zakai

P.S. I know I don't know you, but I figured 'Your friend' sounded friendlier than 'signed' or just Zakai.

P.P.S. If we ever do meet, then let's be friends.

[Kicks]

Colton looked away from the stairs when he heard no noise of shooting, screaming, or otherwise harmful and endangering noises. He moved towards the front door and without thinking opened it. Outside the zombies were harvesting the dead bodies from last night. Staring at them he thought just how ingenious Tamara's virus truly was. The zombies had come first, the mutants, and then the monsters. But the order didn't matter. What mattered now was that the monsters destroyed and killed- but they didn't feast. In the morning zombies would come out and they would feast and make new zombies. The cycle continued on, and somewhere along the way a zombie bit a live being who either turned into one of them or turned into a mutant. That was Tamara's flaw with the virus. Somehow she miscalculated and got mutants. Which is probably why she was having them destroyed. To see mutants in America with the chance of them fighting back, joining the military and making America only more powerful. The military were sadistic geniuses for realizing that and taking their chances. They used and experimented with mutants. As far as they were concerned, mutants were their perfect soldiers if they listened.
"Ads, they're not planning to use this virus to maybe create some kind of army of mutants, right?" Colton asked from the front door. He liked looking outside so long as the zombies didn't turn this way it was fine. He hated closed spaces, absolutely despised them. The bunker was the main cause for his claustrophobia, but the terrorists had only made it worse when he was stuck in a room with monsters back in California. Which is why he liked to open the door and peer out. Made him less tense and stressed.
"I suppose you mean our people and not the terrorists, guessing by the fact that the terrorists already have their army of undead." The admiral commented back. "But at one point, yes they were planning just that. I don't know if they are anymore or not. Congress kind of made them rethink their ideas with the whole mutant annihilation thing."
Colton bobbed his head slowly in response. But he didn't feel anything. So instead of answering to that, he shut the front door again and went to the basement to find the circuit breaker. The house still needed electricity and once they had, there would be showers and working toilets and stoves and such.

[Lil]

Faye looked at Blake as he only replied with a joke. It was a actually a difficult thing for Faye to admit but she had the feeling Blake didn't reciprocate the feeling. "Umm." She said quietly and dropped her hands from his and turned away so that her gaze met with the floor. She rubbed her palms on her legs nervously as her hair dropped down at her face almost as if she was trying to hide. What an embarrassing thing to do? Especially when she had no clue how Blake felt, she just thought it felt right finally. It was weird how awkward she felt now because quiet honestly, Faye had never said that to a guy before and now that she had it seemed like it was supposed to be perfect. It hadn't seemed to turn out that way though.

[Kicks]

"I love cake." Blake commented as he patted her hands. "We should make a cake. Though... now thinking about it I don't think we have eggs. No wait! Yes we do! I recall taking some!" Despite his comments, it was all part of an avoidance act. He had no idea what was possessing him to react that way. But he couldn't bring himself to saying those three simple words of I love you. They had been through so much together. Through zombies, monsters, and much more. They had seen each other at their strongest and their weakest points. They knew things about each other that other people didn't know. So then why on earth was he incapable of speaking those three words that meant so much?! It was frustrating and confusing and he didn't understand himself. But he knew if they didn't talk about this and avoid it like they had attempted to do with the whole "you had a thing for this guy/girl" in New York, it could lead to disaster. He didn't want disaster to strike.
So the teenager awkwardly shifted on the bed. He brought a hand up to his neck and rubbed it nervously. "You think you love me?" He echoed her thoughts aloud from what he had heard.

[Lil]

Faye couldn't help but feel everything inside her sink. Like she had been filled with rocks instead of organs. Cold, heavy rocks. "You know. It doesn't even matter." Faye said quietly when Blake tried to bring it up. "Sorry for making you uncomfortable." she sighed and glanced at him for a short second before darting her view back to the ground. Doing so, she managed to offer a weak, unmeaningful smile so she wouldn't make Blake feel bad. She couldn't blame him for didn't feel the same. That's not how feeling always worked.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. That's how Faye felt now. Carefully she tucked some hair behind her ear and stood from the bed awkwardly. What was she supposed to do now? Act like it hadn't happened or go further into it like Blake desired. It would lead to trouble of they didn't talk about it but she also didn't want to take on an emotional roller coaster. Quite frankly, taking a short ride of the emotion coaster would work better in the end most likely.

[Kicks]

Blake let an obnoxious sigh when she stood up and tried to avoid the topic. She shot off one of those comments girls made that if he answered back to incorrectly would lead to his demise. Girls were so confusing sometimes. They said one thing, but totally meant the exact opposite! Obviously it mattered to her otherwise she wouldn't have said anything. Obviously it mattered to her if she were reacting this way to his response to her thought-driven impulse or whatever he was going to call it. But it's not that he didn't feel the same way back, it's that- He shook his head clear and took her by her hand.
"Faye, we need to talk about this. This isn't going to end well if you say it doesn't matter when it really does."

[Lil]

"Blake. I don't want to make you uncomfortable or feel awkward." She said with a shrug. Faye felt like that's exactly what she had done now, just gone and messed things up. "Things were going good but I had to go and share my thoughts. I don't want it to get messed up." Faye said simply and studied her shoes while Blake held her hand.

[Kicks]

"It's not that! Well, okay I did feel a little uncomfortable." Blake admitted sheepishly. How was he supposed to explain that without upsetting or insulting her? "It's not you, it's me. I mean, okay that sounded corny and just so modern. But really, you're amazing, Faye. And you went out of your comfort zone to express that kind of thing! I don't know why I can't... It's confusing..." He trailed off with a desperate look suddenly becoming a shadow on his face. "The circumstances we're in... I..." He let out a strangled sigh, finding it difficult to find the words. "I would do anything for you!"

[Lil]

Faye didn't know how to respond. No, it's not exactly what she wanted to hear but it was a start wasn't it? "I guess I can live with that." Faye said quietly as she looked at their interlocked fingers. A small, weak but yet still a smile spread on her lips as she looked up at him. Faye wasn't exactly sure why but she felt like she was always the initiator of these types of things and honestly she was getting tired of being let down time and time again. Her heart beat felt solemn and slow but at least it was still beating. It did fill her with a little joy to know that he would do anything for her. It gave Faye confidence in Blake. That maybe, one day, he could get to the same point as her, but she didn't want to force it upon him. Faye wanted it to be genuine.

[Kicks]

She said that, but she still looked so sad. Blake didn't like that look on her. He liked seeing that cute, adorable smile she gave. Or that fantastic giggle that would escape her now and again. Blake couldn't help but stand to his feet, draw her near to him, and then kiss her; hoping to all hope she would give an authentic smile.

[Lil]

Faye was taken by surprise when Blake swept her up and kissed her. Whenever he held her it made Faye feel so much safer. She returned the kiss until her head started to feel dizzy, like it was full of air. Faye found it funny how his kisses could do that to her. Every single time was like that too. Faye separated their lips from each other's and smiled softly. Her forehead leans against Blake's as she closed her eyes.

[Kicks]

When she pulled away, Blake was quite breathless. And he got the response he wanted out of her. Her cute little smile was back on her face. Just seeing that made the corners of his lips pull up. He reached up and stroked the side of her face. "You're adorable." He informed her as if she didn't already know that.
His eyes though didn't remain on her's for long. They flickered towards the ceiling when the light suddenly filled the room. The bulb was burning its bright greeting down at them. A sure sign that the electricity was once more flowing into the house.
"Cap must have got tired of not seeing his feet." He remarked with a chuckle. "That's just fine. I was getting tired of not seeing you."

[Lil]

"You're quite the charmer aren't you?" Faye said with a lopsided, amused smile. She was also happy light filled the room though, she couldn't help but let her grin grow at the sight of Blake's handsome face. "Gosh." You're so perfect." She sighed and shook her head. Faye released a small chuckle before quickly pressing her lips to his once more. Instead if dreading on the previously discussed topic she'd rather get that feeling she got when she kissed Blake.

[Kicks]

"No. I just tend to do what's on my mind at the time." Blake insisted with a bashful smile. He was taken in by her lips suddenly on his so he had no other room to speak about her pure beauty. He could feel his heart fluttering in his chest the way it did when they got close. Or the way it she did something that stunned him. Like having transferred her thought into his head, jumping on his back and demanding food (which he found totally adorable). So he was more than happy to draw her even closer to him and kiss her back.
"Hey, Faye-" A voice began as the door opened. "What the hell? To think I was starting to trust you two alone." It was Colton with a frying pan in his hand.
Blake groaned as he pulled away from Faye and gave the older one a look of resentment. "Five minutes! Five minutes alone is all I ever ask!"
"Five minutes is all a teenage boy needs. I know this." Colton answered back, "Anyways, Faye... So... Not to be sexist... But... Do you know how to... Maybe... cook?"
Blake looked dumbfounded by the question. "Do you know how to cook? What kind of soldier doesn't know how to cook?"
Colton shrugged casually, "I can make Ramen pretty good without burning it. But some idiot didn't bother to think of Ramen when they were out and about! And Ramen doesn't feed like six mouths!"

[Lil]

Faye pouted her lip as Blake pulled away. Five minutes alone would be nice and she knew they wouldn't do anything. Neither of them were ready for that, not for a loooooong time, she assumed. "What do you need me to cook?" She asked raising an eyebrow

[Kicks]

"Ah so you do know how to cook!" Colton exclaimed, feeling a little less sexist then. He had only been assuming before simply because a lot of girls bragged that their food tasted amazing. "Whatever comes to your mind first. I don't know. I just figured everyone was hungry." He passed off the frying pan to Blake and patted his shoulder. "And by the way, if you really want to wow a girl-" He leaned in and whispered something to the blonde before leaving.
Blake's face had turned completely red at the whisper in his ear. He swallowed hard and then stiffly left the room. "Some things you keep to yourself!" He choked out loudly after a full minute had passed.

[Lil]

Before Faye could hear much else after he handed her the frying pan she had walked out and headed into the kitchen. There wasn't a lot to choose from unless everyone wanted poptarts and beans. She shuffled through the groceries until she found a few boxes of Mac and cheese, a bag of peas, and a frozen bag of chicken nuggets. It wasn't really that fancy but it's not like anyone was expecting a gourmet meal. She poured water into two pans before preheating the oven and allowing the water to boil.

It didn't take long until the food was ready, half an hour at the most. She put some paper plates out for people to serve themselves before calling out, "Food's ready!"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

After writing the letter, Zakai had fallen asleep. He was really tired from sleeping in odd places and not sleeping at all, not that this place much different.

When he woke up again, he forgot where he was and just looked around a bit confused when it all came flooding back to him. He looked at his letter and put it on a box in the attic, the put the picture of his family into his pocket and left the attic. Still extremely sleepy, even though he was clearly awake, he was sort of on autopilot, just wandering, trying to find a better place to sleep than the attic floor. His eyes were half shut and his hair was mussed up, almost as if he'd been asleep for ages and he wasn't really paying attention to anything so his stare was blank. Hearing someone yell that food was ready, he dragged himself to the kitchen, sat at the table and laid his head down as he tried to make his brain decide what it wanted to do.

[Kicks]

Colton peered into the kitchen like a cat would when it was trying to be sneaky and inconspicuous. He stared at the food for a moment or two before casually strolling in. He passed the table, then backed it back up and stared at Zakai for a long moment. Then he continued on, grabbed two plates, filled them up, and then went back down to the table. He slid a paper plate over to Zakai and sat across from him, getting his head down low so he could try to take a glance at the kid's face on the table.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" Carson screamed merrily as he bolted up from downstairs. At the top of the stairs he tripped and smacked his head against the ground. But he recovered quickly and lolled into the kitchen as if he had the most style and grace in the world.

[Lil]

Faye shook her head at Carson. "You're too crazy." She sighed and slid into a chair at the table without even serving herself. For the moment she wasn't very hungry and decided to let the others eat first instead. Zakai didn't look to good though which caused her to frown and look at Colton in concern.

[Kicks]

Colton continued to gaze at Zakai, wondering how the zombies and monsters had affected him now that they were in America. He imagined not too well. He had heard about the whole freak out with the gun and the pillow explained graphically by the sergeant who could have sworn Zakai seemed more like a wild animal than a child at the time. Which was hard to believe for the captain because even if the kid was holding a gun or running like mad, all he ever saw was just a little kid.
He turned his head towards Faye when he felt her frown and saw the concerned look on her face. He didn't blame her. Zakai looked like one of those zombies they were always putting up a fight against. He turned his placid eyes back to Zakai and reached across the table with his hand. He poked the kid. "Pst. You alive?"
"I am a doe gracefully skipping through the woods!" Carson defended himself. Though he was grinning anyways and wasn't putting up much of a tough guy act. He grabbed a plate and filled it with the cheesy substance he adored. Then he sat down at the table near the end and started filling his cheeks like a chipmunk.
In disgust, Colton shook his head at him. "Some kind of doe you are, princess."
"Thank you for noticing." The brunette spat back through filled cheeks and oozing cheesy teeth. "I shall name my kingdom Glitter." He swallowed his mouthful and pointed a fork towards the kid, "So what's up with the little man? Too little sleep or something? I know whenever my little brother didn't get enough sleep he'd look like that. That's how he got his nickname. The Zombie. Pretty dramatic, but I couldn't help it what with the messy hair and dead looking eyes and all."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

When Colton poked him, Zakai simply responded with "Mm." and looked up at the captain. His vision was a little fuzzy though and he laid his head back down. They were talking about does and princesses and zombies or something. He wasn't really paying attention. He stared at the food beside him but made no move to eat it. He was too out of it to even realize that he was supposed to eat it. He put his hand on the edge of the table as his brain slowly realized that he was supposed to pick it up and let it drop when it couldn't figure out why. His eyes were fighting to close again and he let them and soon the words of the others around him were becoming harder to understand.

[Kicks]

"Oh no now he's groaning like a zombie!" Carson exclaimed in a half joking way. Though the other half was partially scared. He had added up the numbers. There were three humans in this team. That made three of them vulnerable to the zombies.
But Colton reached over and punched him to keep his mouth shut about the kind of topics. That made Carson believe that maybe Zakai and Colton had a more personal relationship than just teammates. Or maybe Colton was just the kind of leader to not put up with bullying among the team members. It was hard to guess with this guy.
"What? It's true. Look, he's got those dead looking eyes and he can't even function." Carson pointed out in a defensive manner.
"Ever heard of lack of sleep?" Colton spat back through tight lips. "Drowsiness can make people like this." There were many things wrong with the picture of Zakai being a zombie. The first was that he hadn't been exposed to a zombie since the sewers a mere two days ago. Or was it three? He had lost track of time. The second was that he just refused to believe Zakai could have taken on the infection. The kid had survived through worse: jumping off a building, District 1, San Francisco, and so on. He had faced terrorists and hadn't been murdered. There was no way in Colton's mind that Zakai could so easily become a zombie.
"I've heard of it alright." Carson retorted with narrowed eyes, "I also know that the infection takes on a lot of similar characteristics to normal things wrong with a human. Grogginess, sluggish, incapable to communicate, the list goes on. They're all signs pointing towards an infection."
Colton broke into a scowl. "If he were infected he would be having a seizure and wildly thrashing around, you imbecile."
"Well, it's not like you've really been keeping an eye on him, have you? You were too busy trying to take Tamara head on!"
"I was busy trying to get everyone out alive! Not like you would know having run off on your own like that. Just tell me, Carson what the hell were you doing anyways?"
The two had their different eyes locked on each other. For a long time they were both silent until Colton said in a low voice: "Carson, I think you need to go and take a nap. Get your mind in the right place. Got it?"
Stiffly, the younger teenager stood up from the table with a stone set face. He said no word as he left the room and went back downstairs.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

The hostile exchange of words had somewhat brought Zakai out of it, but all he knew was that they were talking about him first and then stopped and started talking about each other. He looked up and watched them for a moment before laying his head back down. He closed his eyes again for a moment before suddenly his brain decided it was time to wake up and he finally sat up straight, or at least as straight as he could at the moment and looked at Colton for a moment before rubbing his eyes and looking down at the plate and finally realizing it was food.
"What time is it?" then he remembered the hostile exchange of words, "Were you fighting with someone?"

[Kicks]

Colton let out a deep breath when Carson had left the room as if all the tension had left with him. He ran his hands through his hair, contemplating something deep in the back of his head where he sent all the thoughts that were too harsh to come up with a solution or good enough to.
When he heard Zakai's voice, his green eyes skimmed to the kid and settled upon him. For a moment he stared blankly at him and then he said: "Day time." Figures as much. He was never one to give a straight answer even if it were such an easy question.
"It's almost time for the zombies to go back into hiding." The admiral added as he came into the kitchen. He sat down, heaving out a sigh that all old people did when they found themselves in a comfortable seat. "I can't wait for retirement."
"Should have taken it before the war." Colton remarked, though it was casually and didn't have much weight to it. The truth was that the man had been in retirement. He had been discharged from the military and went to teach students about the medical field. But when the war started up, he figured his skills were needed elsewhere than teaching brilliant minds.
"Too late for that now." Admiral Thomas chuckled back lightly. "Besides, I don't think I would enjoy life without a little excitement." Before the captain could respond, he waved on over at Zakai. "So, kiddo. I was eavesdropping, not intentionally but you hear a lot of things in such a big place with such few people. And I heard that you were acting like a zombie. Probably just really tired, huh? I can't blame you. It's not easy to sleep under this conditions."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at Admiral Thomas. "I was acting like a zombie?" They were probably right since he was half asleep, "Yeah I guess so. I got in trouble with Jerome after I killed that pillow and now I'm exhausted. I said I was sorry though. Not to Jerome. To the house people." Upon saying so, he yawned and stretched then started eating his food. He had been pretty weird lately and even surprised himself by what he had done. He swallowed the food in his mouth then put his head in his hands and sighed, "I think I'm going crazy."

[Kicks]

"According to them, but they don't have enough knowledge over zombies to really know how a zombie acts." Admiral Thomas answered casually while a grin started to pull up on his face. "And don't worry, midget, you're not going crazy. The crazies never know when they're going crazy."
Colton let out a sigh of relief when he saw Zakai start to eat. Carson's words had really dug a hole into his head over the whole infecting thing. The teenager had been right, and that was the worst. It was true that the captain had taken Tamara head on, but not because he wanted to. He never wanted to do that again. It was because he saw it as the only way for them to get out alive without her tearing them to shreds; which come to find she was capable of. But after that, after that long night he had spent between hallucinations and convulsions caused by whatever poison laced her knife, he hadn't known what happened to the team. For all he knew they could have been attacked by zombies. Despite the hysteria and episodes, when he was able to think even if it were only briefly, he could only think about the team and what had become of them. He didn't know if they came across zombies or monsters or terrorists. Whether they were safe or not.
The captain stood up from the table and left the room.
Admiral Thomas' eyes watched the young man as he left in silence, and then he turned his eyes back to Zakai. "It's only been a few months since we've seen each other, I think. I lost track of time... But since then, everyone has changed so much. I hope that's for the better."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai felt a little relieved when Admiral Thomas told him he wasn't going crazy. If he recognized it it was a good sign then? "That's good then. I'm worried sick about the way I suddenly seem to act sometimes so I'm glad I'm at least not going insane." He took a bite of one of the chicken nuggets then swallowed, "And don't call me Midget."
He couldn't remember who he'd told not to call him midget, whether it be the Admiral or Adalia or both. He actually didn't not like it, but he felt it was still his job to tell them not to for some reason. He looked up when Colton left then looked at Admiral Thomas again when he made his statement about everyone changing.
"Yeah, I guess so, but a lot's happened. Things got a whole lot weirder." he looked in the direction where Colton left, "He's been watching all of us. If it weren't for him, we probably wouldn't all be here but he's such an idiot. He puts himself in too much danger and I know he has good reasons, but... it's not good for him." Zakai looked at Admiral Thomas, "You're older than him. Can't you watch him?"

[Kicks]

"No, but you aren't healthy either. Not crazy. But not stable." Admiral Thomas informed the kid he once thought was just that- a child. But he looked at him through new eyes, as if California had changed the way he saw children. They could be strong. They could be brave. But it wasn't good for them. It wasn't good for anyone to go through this. "If you were completely fine, I would be worried. Because then you would be insane. Only an insane person would come out stable after this." The strongest men he knew came back from California broken. Men from all ranges of the military broken and wrecked. "But there's a way to prevail. There's always help." He added. And he wasn't just saying that. He really meant it. And he would try his hardest to find that help for Zakai when this was all said and done with.
The admiral tilted his head to the side as a laugh bubbled out from him. This felt so familiar to him. Like the first time he had met this astounding kid all over again. When Thomas tried to figure out what to call him. Midget was one of the names, that he could remember. He could also remember Zakai's response now hadn't changed from what felt like years ago it had been.
"That is true. I wasn't expecting the terrorists to make such moves. I was hoping Cali would the last."
Now though he pushed his thoughts from that and stared down at his hands at Zakai made his stance. He could agree that the captain could certainly be an idiot. Half the time he disagreed completely with the decisions he made. And the other half of the time he wasn't sure what to make of the decisions. He smiled though when he was asked if he could watch him.
"I do watch him. When he gets all silent and thoughtful is when I become the most concerned. That's when he starts planning. And it gives him a headache if he keeps at it for too long. He thinks too hard, too deep; eliminating possibilities, choices, and taking in variables." He tapped his index finger on the table as he glanced up from the oak again. "Controlling and watching though are two different things. I watch all the time. But I don't try to control even though I know he's hurting himself. I fear he might break before this is over. But there is nothing I can do but watch. I think he'd rather see himself hurt before other people. And that's his flaw." He turned his eyes away again and stared towards the wall. "Which makes me wonder what everyone else's flaws are. It'd be nice to know so that we could fix them. Make them our strengths, ya know. So that the terrorists can't use them against us."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to the man before him, who even though he was so strong, Zakai was realizing was old, through looks, yes, that was one thing, but also through experience. He reminded him somewhat of Clayton in the sense that they both seemed very much like fathers. Zakai understood the whole watching being different from controlling, an he was right. Zakai looked down at his plate that was almost empty, then tilted his head back so that he was looking at the ceiling.
"I wish I was an adult. I can't really do anything since I'm still a kid. I'm always the one being protected. I don't like it."

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas' lips curled into a smile. He watched the child for a long moment, finding his remark to be shocking. "Then that's your flaw, midget. You don't have to be an adult to be strong. You just have to believe you're strong in order to be strong. But know when to ask for help." He pressed his hands onto the table and stood to his feet. "Well, I might as well catch some sleep with nothing else to do." He commented before walking away.
Colton opened the front door and let the cool air hit his face as the wind swept over the empty streets. His eyes looked over the display, drawn in by how the bodies from this morning all seemed to have vanished. But he knew how and it made his stomach turn. All of them... now gone. He didn't let his mind linger on it for too long. He knew what he was doing and he needed it. He had been stuck inside too long. It was making him feel claustrophobic. That and the worrying that accompanied being in that house. He didn't plan to go more than the front yard away so that he could keep an eye on everyone still, but be allowed to have more open room.
Though the air was crisp and dropped by degree every minute, it still felt nice. It was more welcoming than the warmth of the house. But it reminded him of the weather in Washington D.C and he suddenly felt a pang go through his midchest. Ada's been moved. Richard won't tell me anything. Something is wrong. Something isn't right. Dad's rival is at the White House. He knows something. What does he know? He knew should be more concerned with New York and how to save it, but his heart was aching for the worry over someone who meant so much. The aching was too much to bear and he found himself squeezing the fence until his knuckles turned white. Focus. The immediate problem is New York. Tamara was after something here. She wouldn't have just shown up because we were here. Something here in New York she came for. She's trapped here with us. The population is huge but so is a lot of other places. That rules out the whole zombie thing. They must be a distraction then. Throwing us off the real path. She's after something."But what?" He wondered out loud.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai watched Admiral Thomas go and then stared down sullenly at his plate. But... being strong isn't enough... It wasn't. Not anymore. Being strong hadn't saved anyone but himself. Being strong got everyone else killed. Being strong had kept him living through their deaths and was keeping him alive now. He'd thought about it before. He'd thought about killing himself before from wanting to see others so badly. Sometimes he felt like he hated being alive, but now he couldn't even die. He had to live because so many others had died for him. He didn't want others to keep dying for him. He couldn't save any of them. He already knew how strong he was, but being strong wasn't good enough. Not after everything that had happened, it wasn't good enough. That had been proven through the long string of deaths that he felt he had caused. All in order to protect him and he was starting to see the same quality in Colton as he did in them. It worried him.
He stood up and went into the hallway, catching a brief glimpse of the captain himself going outside. What was he doing? He didn't follow though. He couldn't follow. It was obvious that the guy needed his space. Zakai backed away and went into one of the many bedrooms that existed in the house. He'd told Adalia that he'd try to sleep in a bed and the Admiral was right about him being unhealthy. The bed was pretty large for one twelve year old kid, but it didn't matter. He had been wearing his armor for a while now and he walked over to a dresser and started going through the clothes inside. They were all too big for him. He wandered up to the attic and started going through boxes. If anything would fit him, it would probably be up here. He found some smaller clothes, probably left over from someone's childhood, and changed out of his armor, putting them on instead. They felt a lot better, but even the armor was warmer than this. It was freezing. He went back to the bedroom he'd been in and laid the armor out on the dresser then curled up into the large blanket and stared at the wall. He'd left the door open a crack. The house was strange and he wasn't used to it, so there was no way he was shutting himself up completely, especially considering how shaken up he'd gotten in the attic. He wasn't falling asleep though, really, so he just stared.

[Kicks]

Colton stared straight ahead at another house as he thought over what New York could possibly hold. She had been in this city specifically. No other city. But maybe that was because they were here. She made it pretty obvious she wanted them dead. He had been told by another terrorist that was because they stood a pretty good chance. She couldn't predict this team like she seemed to predict everything else. Maybe she was only here because of them then. Maybe she already had gotten what she wanted- no. After all his training in terrorism analysis, everything pointed that that was invalid. She wasn't the type to do that. He knew her personality well enough to know that she wouldn't come to them after getting what she wanted.
So what does she want?
It must be in this city. And whatever it was, she didn't want Colton to put the state on lockdwon. That was pretty clear when she almost killed him. He had a feeling his hands would have gone with his life. She probably would have cut them off just in case someone else tried to use his hands to activate the barrier. That was a sick, twisted thought that made his stomach turn.
But one has to think like a terrorist to figure out what a terrorist wants. He reminded himself, and that unraveled some kind of knot in his stomach.
So he knew she didn't want to be locked in, she wanted them dead, whatever she wanted was in this city, the zombies and monsters were a distraction.
That wasn't a lot to work with. So what did they do then?
"Penny for your thought?" An English voice asked. He hadn't even heard him coming. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts. So when he did hear Blake's voice, the captain tensed and then relaxed. "Calm down, not like you can get what I'm carrying anyways." He reminded with a chuckle.
Colton stared at him for a moment, his head going right over that joke because his mind was still thinking about what that woman wanted and what they had to do about it. After a few seconds though, he made an attempt to smile at the joke. "Well, that's true enough." He commented back. "You have family, don't you? Besides Bells? Outside of America?"
Blake hesitated for a moment at the question, unsure where it was leading to. But he had seen the way this man answered questions before and knew it was some kind of diversion from Blake's original question. "Well, yea. But they're not of much concern. England is a lot safer than America, I hate to remind you." He saw Colton's eyes return to the house across the straight and knew he wasn't listening. "So, how was it like taking on Tamara?"
Colton tensed again at the thought of being alone with that woman for so long. He knew it had been around six minutes altogether, but that was enough to make him want to stay far from her. Was he really afraid of a girl? No. He thought to himself. Not a girl. A monster unlike the rest. He did hate to think that he was afraid of her though. But he couldn't help it. She was unreal.
"It was a stupid move to try to take her. But I wasn't really thinking about beating her." Colton answered back, "But I underestimated her. It takes more than just one to take her. I don't know why she's so strong." Should he even call her by 'she' or 'girl' or 'her'? The feminine title seemed absurd. She looked like a girl, had the voice of a girl, but she was no girl.
"Everyone thinks you were a real idiot for doing that." Blake pointed out to him just in case he didn't. "Me included. Though at least I can see some reasoning behind it. I mean, it's not like we pose much of a threat to her after all. Our hands don't activate the barrier. She wanted your hands. Probably to deactivate it. But I don't think you were thinking about that at the time."
Blake was right on a lot of points there. Colton hadn't been thinking about that. He had only been thinking about keeping Tamara away from them. He didn't want any of them to be getting hurt. He had only been thinking that if he could distract her long enough, they could get away. And then he would pull one of his escapes. But she wasn't like the other terrorists. She was inescapable.
"I don't really care about their opinions." The captain reminded stiffly. He released his hands from the fence and turned his eyes away from the house across the street. "If I did, I would have asked for them."
That was a response the blonde had been expecting. "I don't know if you know this or not, but even if you don't care about opinions, people are still going to have them." When he got no reply this time, Blake looked closer at the young man. "Sergeant Wilson makes for a terrible team leader, ya know that? He wasn't meant to be one. I think he knows that. That might be why he vanished the second you were back. I know he's somewhere in the house, but I don't know where in the house."
Colton couldn't deny that the sergeant wasn't a capable leader. He knew the man sucked at making snap decisions, giving orders, and dealing with the stress of that role. He would have given the man another day or two before he snapped under these conditions. "He shouldn't have yelled at Zakai. I heard about that. That made me a little mad. I don't understand why he yelled. I don't think he's ever dealt with kids before." His hands were tight around the fence again, his knuckles showing white once more. "He's a soldier, I know. It's his job to protect first and care second. At least, that's what we're told."

[Lil]

Faye paced in the bedroom until she flopped down on the bed and sighed. She was exhausted once again and had barely done anything all day. Faye rolled onto her side and closed her eyes trying to take a nap once more.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai rolled up into the blanket until it was wrapped tightly around him. Then he rolled off the bed. "Ow!" Then he rolled under the bed. He honestly didn't know what he was doing. He couldn't sleep even though he was tired and there was nothing to do since he was trapped inside. If he went out, he was pretty sure he'd be told to go back. That, and he didn't want to get into anyone's space. He wasn't sure what he would do though. Lying down under the bed didn't seem like it would help him much.

[Kicks]

The silence was long between the two outside. But not because of awkwardness, though Blake's shuffling did draw Colton's attention. He seemed taunt, hunched, and nervous as if something were troubling his mind.
"What?" Colton asked at long last. He made a gesture towards the teenager in case he hadn't noticed how he looked. "Is something wrong? You got something you need to say?"
Blake shook his head at first. But then nodded it slowly. The real reason he had come outside was to ask the captain something he couldn't figure out on his own. But he was afraid of asking it because of who Colton was. Slowly though, his lips seemed to be able to form the words: "How did you know you were in love with Adalia?"
Colton blinked in surprise at the question. A smile tried to twitch itself up at the corners of his lips, but he somehow managed to keep a straight face.
"And don't answer the way you always do to questions, Cap. I really... would like... to..." Blake trailed off, figuring Colton would know what he was getting at. And the captain did. He could see it in the way that he was trying to keep a completely blank face.
"I just knew." Colton told him at last, the smile spreading onto his lips now that they were moving. "We were friends for a long time and talked about everything. High school came around and things changed. Suddenly I didn't see her as a gal-pal that I played basketball with or teased anymore if she put on a dress. I couldn't even if I tried anyways. She was- is stunning. But I didn't let myself believe for a minute I liked her like that. I didn't know the first thing about love. But I did like her. Really liked her. And one day I couldn't stand it any longer. Keeping all that inside, I felt like I was going to burst. It was scary asking her on a date. You just don't ask your best friend that, ya know? But it became easier... a lot easier. Everything came with ease, and a certain kind of... it was a feeling that just overwhelmed me when I saw her. Everything is so captivating about her. I think I've always loved her. Just never really acknowledged it until I was eighteen. That's when I asked her to marry me. There's no point in wasting time when you know you love someone; when you know that person is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. That's how we saw it where I grew up anyways. As for telling someone you love them... Do it while you got the chance. You never know how much time you have left with them." He turned his eyes back to Blake from the house he had been peering at. "Every day in California I wished I had just one last kiss, one last hug, one last time to say goodbye to her because I feared it would be the last time I saw her. I wanted to tell her everything would be okay. We'd see each other soon and after I come home we'd settle down and explore our dreams together. Perfect, happy family. But I couldn't tell her that because we both knew the truth. Not a lot of soldiers came back alive from California. All I could do was tell her that I loved her and hoped it wouldn't be the last time I said those words to her."
As he listened, Blake felt something inside of his chest tighten. He didn't know that the captain was capable of having deep feelings for someone. He knew him and Adalia were head over heels for each other. But he figured it was only a teenager thing and that they would be divorced in another year. But hearing this young man talk about her like that, it opened his eyes up to a new perspective he had never known.
"But you're both so young." Blake found himself saying breathlessly. "How do you know it's not just hormones?"
Colton chuckled at the question, finding it more hilarious than he should. "There's a difference between lust and love, Blake. The line is thin, but it's there. Once you see that line and know which side you stand on, you'll know if you're really in love or not." He watched as the teenager moved his blue eyes towards the grass. "We may only have until next week to live. Nobody knows. Maybe we'll all die tonight. So the question is: do you want to spend every moment of your time with Faye?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai untangled himself out of the blanket, but still held it around himself like a cloak as he left the room. I can't sleep. I'm never going to get any sleep. He went to the kitchen and found hot chocolate and started making himself some, heating up the water first and just staring at it. There wasn't a lot to do here. Up in the attic, there were only a bunch of heads and stuff of animals. He wandered around, not going into any of the bedrooms since he knew people were sleeping. After walking around for a while, he found a door that he hadn't seen yet or gone into. He opened it and saw that stairs lead down, not too low but underground. He shut the door behind him and smiled brightly at this discovery because... he was bored out of his mind. "It's a basement!" Wrapped up in the blanket, he dove headfirst and tumbled down the stairs, protected by the thick bedding.

[Kicks]

Carson glanced up from the gun he had been loading and reloading again and again. Earlier after he had seen Zakai act like a zombie and Colton get all yell-y at him, he had went back downstairs. Now though he heard a tumbling. He was pretty certain that only him and Bells had been in the basement. But now someone else was going down too. He wondered who it could be. Hopefully not the captain looking for him. He didn't want to stand the sight of him right now. As far as Carson was concerned, he had been right.
So when he saw that some thick-bedding'd short person came down the stairs, he loaded his gun again with a final snap. A bullet slid into its place and he tried not to smile at the sound of it.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai landed at the bottom with a plop and sat up, feeling a little dizzy from the tumble. When he was little he used to do that in his house and his mother was driven crazy because she was so afraid he would hurt himself. Well, he hadn't gotten hurt yet. He shook his head, let his vision settle, then heard a sharp snap somewhere in the room which he recognized as a gun and he jumped and scrambled backwards onto the steps, but it was only Carson. His face fell slightly.
"Aww. I wanted to find something new but you're already here."

[Kicks]

Carson watched as the figure unfolded and shook, shedding itself from the confines of the blankets. His hand pulled the gun up, risen so he was pointing the barrel between Zakai's eyes. "I didn't know you were talking again." He stated in a cold voice. If it were any other occasion, it would have looked as if he were being a joker again and making light of things. But his hand was hard-pressed to the gun and his eyes weren't flickering with mischief.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at Carson in too much shock to be afraid as he tried to figure out the situation. Why was Carson aiming a gun at him? You weren't supposed to aim at anyone, even if it was empty.
"What?" he slowly stood to his feet, "Carson?"

[Kicks]

Carson's expression sickened as he registered the surprise on the child's face. He wanted to wipe that look off of him. He didn't understand why it infuriated him so much, but it did. He watched with tensed muscles and a taut jaw as the kid slowly got to his feet. There it was. He figured any moment the kid would turn into a raging beast. If he weren't already.
"You don't fool me." The words left his mouth without explanation and were spat cruelly.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at Carson. He wasn't joking. What was he doing? He felt himself begin to shake and he backed up a little ways. Had he done something wrong? Why was Carson acting this way? Was the guy even seeing straight? That was the only thing Zakai could come up with as an explanation. Why?
"Carson..." Zakai shivered even more, "Carson stop! What are you talking about?"

[Kicks]

Carson's expression didn't change when the kid said his name. If anything, he grew even more infuriated. He was enraged and it was showing on his face, in his eyes, through his muscles, the shaking of the gun in his hand.
"Shut up! You know exactly what I'm talking about!" He yelled back. His words were slamming into the other in a furious rush to get out. "I know what you are!"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

"What I-" it didn't take long for Zakai to fill in the blank. "You think... I'm a monster...?"
He shivered even more. What? He... why!?
"Carson... you... you idiot! I'm a person! I haven't changed! I'm a person! My eyes are green! They're green! Not red! Stop it! Carson, I'm not a monster! I'm a person! I'm Zakai!"

[Kicks]

Carson clenched his teeth to the point where he felt his gums start to bleed from the pressure. The gun in his hand was shaking even more than it had before. He put his finger over the trigger.
Then he drew it back.
Once more he put his finger on the trigger. Hesitation crossed his eyes. Confusion settled onto his expression and then he seemed horrified. He dropped the gun from his hand and stared down at his hands that had turned white from holding the gun too hard.
For a long time he stared down at the gun he had almost used to send a bullet into Zakai. But in another moment, he tore his eyes away from the gun and dashed towards the stairs. He shoved past the kid and bounded up the stairs quicker than he had ever made a flight before. He was frantic and his heart was racing faster than it ever should. It was pounding in his ears.
He tore outside but he wasn't watching where he was going. He slammed right into the captain who had been walking back up the path to go inside. He stumbled back them, but his hands were on Carson's to steady both himself and the teenager that had almost went down with him.
"Whoa. Where are you off to?" Colton asked in a curious, unsettled way. He didn't like the expression on Carson's normally tan, but now pale face. "What? Did some kind of zombie or monster get inside?"
Carson struggled for a moment to get out of the grip of the captain, but the young man was a lot stronger than he looked and held him in his spot. "I-..." He began after struggling for a moment. "Let me go!"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at the man, afraid to move for fear that he would shoot. He was starting to shake more violently than ever. This was worse even than when he was face to face with the dead. It was even worse than a monster or that woman or the terrorists. This was Carson. Carson was his friend. Carson was the guy who'd gotten drenched in sewage just to help him and ArraBella, but now... was Carson going to kill him?
It wasn't until Carson dropped the gun that he realized... Carson was shaking too. Slowly, Zakai's demeanor changed and he stopped shaking himself. Something was wrong. Something was really wrong. He took a step forward. "Carson..." Suddenly the man raced towards him and fear ripped through Zakai as he raised his arms up in front of him, trying to protect himself in case Carson attacked... but instead he was shoved aside. The boy fell back, landing on the blanket he'd used to slide down the stairs, shaking once more. He stared after the young man who had just had him at gunpoint and who he now felt sorry for but also... afraid of. He looked over at the gun the man had dropped. Slowly, Zakai stood to his feet and walked over, picking it up off the ground. He grabbed the large blanket and walked up the stairs, peering out the door, making sure no one was there. Then, he quickly but quietly raced up to the attic and ran over to one of the boxes that looked big enough. He put the gun inside, closed it, and started packing other boxes around and on top of it, but not all of them, no, certainly not. He stared at it for a moment, then yanked up his blanket and left the attic, once again, making sure no one would see him. He threw the blanket onto the bed in the room he'd gotten it from and then crept into the kitchen, remembering his hot chocolate. By this time the water was boiling over, so he turned off the stove and moved it to another burner. He heard the others at the door, so he didn't dare go over to them. He turned and crept back to his room. He'd wait for the water to cool a little after boiling so much.

[Kicks]

Carson's throat was tight and his chest ached when he stared into Colton's light green eyes that used to remind him of algae, but now reminded him of snake skin. A poisonous snake who if he knew that Carson had just held Zakai at gunpoint, would bite into him.
"I'm sorry." He strangled out at last. He saw the confusion thicken on Colton's face and knew instantly he hadn't the slightest clue of what he was talking about. "Nightmare. I used to have night terrors. That's when you act out your nightmares. They're back. Not too surprising, huh? With all this going around?" His voice was shaking, quavering and so was he. But he thought he had Colton convinced that the shaking was caused by his lie instead of the truth.
Colton released Carson's arms after a moment of hesitation. "You should get inside now. The monsters will be out soon."
They already are. The deadly thought crept into Carson's head as he stared back at the man.
"Okay." Carson choked back. He was relieved he had been released, but still frightened. He backed up a little ways, keeping his eyes on the captain. And then when he was nearer the door, he turned away and went back inside. But where would he go inside? He felt awkward just standing there. He didn't want to return to the basement. He didn't want to be left alone to his thoughts in a bedroom.
So he sat down on the couch with his legs pulled up to his chest. As he sat down, Blake and Colton entered into the house and shut the door behind them.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai waited in his room, staring at his feet. He didn't move until he was absolutely sure things had calmed down at least a little. When he felt it had been long enough, he left his room, calmly this time. He didn't look around to see if anyone was there. He only hoped that if anyone was there, it wouldn't be Carson. He walked down the hallway and caught a glimpse of the young man on the couch, but he didn't stop to stare or even look for a second longer. He slipped into the kitchen before the guy could look up and finished making the hot chocolate. He looked frantically around after that and then slid into a cupboard. Even though he was a little too big for it, he stayed there. He didn't want Carson, or anyone for that matter, to see him.

[Kicks]

Blake put his hands over his torso as if to state like how his old man used to: time for bed. But before he could, he heard a knock at the front door. He froze in his spot and with wide, frantic eyes he found Colton who looked at Blake with a 'if you do it, I'll kill you' expression. He figured he deserved that after the yogurt shop.
Colton moved towards the front door and glanced out the window. There was a man at the front door step with a gun slung over his shoulder. It made the captain's heart beat faster and his chest flutter. The way the man held himself... the stone cold expression on his face... the dead eyes...
"Finally." He breathed out as if this moment is all he had been waiting for since the fort. And it had been. Finally. At last. A terrorist has come. He was expecting this, knowing it would happen. He knew Tamara more than she would like him to know. He knew her mind and how she reacted to certain things just by studying what she has done and how she acts. This terrorist was sent here formally to give them a warning. One last chance. Or it was a distraction. She wished he would see it as a warning. If she knew he was onto her, she would find him personally and destroy him.
Colton opened the door and grabbed the man quickly. He shut the door and threw the man to the ground. His foot went crashing down onto the man's chest, causing the terrorist to go breathless. When Colton put his foot on the man's throat, he sneered.
"What the-?!" Blake began before realizing that the man had a gun. "Cap, is he...?"
"A terrorist? Yes." Colton answered back, his foot pressing down on the man's throat when he tried to reach for his gun. "This sets everything into action."
"You mean... you've been waiting for this?" Admiral Thomas questioned from his chair. Why was he so surprised? He let out a long sigh, "Oh, what have you been planning now?"
"Get a chair and some duct tape." Colton told Blake. He completely blew off the question about planning, but he didn't deny anything. He had been waiting for this and he had been planning. As soon as he figured out she was after something in this city, he started planning. Planning and figuring things out.
When Blake returned to him with what he requested, he tore off the man's gun and caught his fist before he could get smashed in the face. The terrorist was struggling. He knew what was coming. But in minutes Colton had him taped to the chair and was dragging the chair into the kitchen towards the sink.
"You don't know what you are doing!" The terrorist cried out as he was dragged into the kitchen. "I came here to warn you-"
"Shut up." Colton cut him off sharply. He stopped at the sink and slammed the chair up against it. "I have some questions and you're going to answer them." He was face to face with the man now, their noses practically touching. "Because if you don't, you will experience the worst torture of your life."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Things got quiet outside it seemed. Zakai sipped his hot chocolate calmly within his little shelter when he heard the front door open and close. What? He didn't move, but he listened as the sounds of struggle erupted from the next room over and then he heard the others yelling. Their voices were muffled, but then he heard... a chair dragging? Closer... and closer... until, how wonderful. It, which Zakai assumed was the chair, was slammed right up against the cupboard door that he just so happened to be in. He heard their voices loud and clear now and knew that leaving was impossible, because first a chair was just slammed against his way out and by the strength of the impact when it hit the wood, he knew there was a person in it, so he couldn't open it up himself. Second, if he did make his presence known he would get in so much trouble. Either way, he was as trapped as the guy who Colton had just dragged in, and he wished that he had just gone back to his room.

[Kicks]

Blake soon discovered that Colton knew a lot more about torture than what he ever wanted to know about the man. He filled the sink with water and when it was full he dumped the man's head into it. He pulled him back and the chair slammed down, scattering onto the ground so the man was sideways.
"What does Tamara want from the city?" Colton asked the man who was laughing. But when all he got was more laughter, he picked the man and the chair back up and ducked him back under water. Longer this time. And he even added jolts of electricity.
Though this wasn't the first time Blake had seen Colton hostile, it always surprised him. He had seen four different sides to the man. One side was playful, the other caring and thoughtful, the decisive quiet side, and then there was this side. He wondered which side was the real Colton. He would risk his life to save people's, but towards terrorists the ones who hurt those innocent people he could be just as bad as them.
"What does Tamara want from this city?" Colton demanded again. By this time the man was soaked from the head to the middle of his torso in water. When he didn't answer, Colton ducked his head into the water again and sent some electricity down into it. The man jittered and spazzed beneath the strength of his arms.
The captain pulled him out of the water and punched the man in the face. "What does Tamara want from this city?"
Two or three more times he went through the same process until at last he kept the man submerged for a full two minutes, shooting electricity into the water every ten seconds. He brought the man back out and went to punch him in the face when the man finally spat out:
"I don't know! I don't know! She doesn't say much!" He cried out while tears stormed from his eyes. "I don't know!"
"So then tell me what you do know." Colton hissed. Something inside of him twisted though when he saw the tears and he hated to think he had been the cause of them. But it was easy to forget that when he remembered what these people had done to innocent civilians.
The man was shaking from head to toe even though only half of him was wet. Well... sometime during the process another part of him got wet.
"It has to do with the imports. That's all I know! She was talking to another and commanding them to retrieve some kind of injection from the import station." He sobbed out. When he saw that Colton had pulled a knife from his pocket, he flinched. "Please no! I'm telling the truth!"
"But not the whole truth." The captain pointed out as he put the blade beneath the man's eye. "What aren't you telling me?"
The man was trying to pull his head away from the blade, but every attempt was useless. "Okay okay! The station... she sent in others because it is filled with monsters. She rarely gets her hands dirty when she has us at her disposal."
Colton's stomach wrenched. But not because of the monsters. Because these men working under her were loyal enough to take her orders without hesitance. They would go in on a suicidal mission to retrieve something she wanted. They were dedicated. Dedicated to murder and destroy.
His knife slid to the man's ear and he pressed the blade down on it, a trickle of blood pooling. "There's more though. What does the injection look like?"
The man was shaking even worse now. "Please..." He whimpered out. "I'll tell you what I know... just no more..." When the knife was pulled away, he looked relieved and spoke as quickly as he could before Colton could change his mind: "It's in a small, silver box stored in what she said was a... glass case of some sort. Artillery case, I think. Says it looks like the other boxes except for the corners are round."
Colton would keep that in mind. But there was also something else he had to know. "How does she know about everyone?"
"I don't know. Somehow. It's frightening. She's... terrifying." He looked around then as if she might be looking. Then he lowered his voice, "There's something else you should know... She said there is a traitor among you. A mole."

[Lil]

Faye woke up to screaming and yelling that echoed through the house. She exited the room groggily before ending up finding the Captain, Blake, and another person, that she didn't know, all occupying the room. As her eyes fell upon the unknown man she felt her stomach twist. He looked horrific and she could only imagine what had previously been happening. Faye wasn't able to sand the sight so before she witnessed anymore she left just as quickly. She rubbed her eyes and started into the kitchen where she sat and dropped her head onto the table.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai shivered at everything he heard outside. He covered his ears, wanting so desperately for it to stop but he didn't make a sound the whole time. It got hard not to though, so he covered his mouth instead of his ears, but it seemed even worse now that he heard everything clearly. The man who was trapped outside was a terrorist from what Zakai could gather due to the questions Colton was asking. Zakai heard everything once the guy finally squealed. He almost felt bad for the man. Even though he was a terrorist, working for that woman sounded just terrible. He listened calmly,to the explanation of Tamara's presence here and then... about the mole. About the traitor. His eyes widened. This was bad. Not only the fact that there was a traitor, but the position he was in right now under the sink and the fact that he knew about the mole at all now. If they found him... it would definitely look suspicious. He remembered Carson having him at gunpoint. That had been absolutely terrifying. Imagine if it were someone else... like Colton.
Zakai squeezed his eyes shut. Let this be over soon! Make it all stop! I don't want any more torture! I want to go back to my room! I want to go back! I want to hide under the bed now! I want to go anywhere but here!

[Kicks]

Blake seemed to have been the only one there that had noticed Faye. He tore his eyes away from the sight that somehow he had managed to stay calm through. He didn't agree to inflicting pain or fighting, and he most certainly didn't agree with the terrorists. But he couldn't do anything about it. He could though go comfort Faye.
He followed after her in silence, and then when the two were alone he sat down in a chair beside her and put an arm around her shoulders and the other arm around her waist.

[Kicks]

Colton stared at the man for a long moment. A mole? Planted inside of this team? But they had known each other so long. There was no possible way. He had picked three of them by chance when they were caught by scanners at a hospital. One he had met in California. Two of them were his military brothers. He had known Carson's family for ages. He had been called out to this by Richard who no matter what, he knew he could trust.
He turned away from the man and towards those who gathered in the kitchen. Carson was watching with a torn expression on his face, the sergeant was tense, and the admiral was calm.
Colton was doubtful.
"What do we do with him now?" The sergeant asked at last. "He'll just go running back to Tamara."
"We kill him." Carson's voice was cold when he spoke. "He's a murderer. He's part of the cause for an entire nation to be in terror. I say we throw him to the monsters."
The sergeant found himself nodding in agreement. "If no one here wants to pull the trigger, why not let him die by what he caused?"
Colton looked between each of them. "Are you serious? We were talking to Americans just a few days ago about murder and doing what's right. And now you want to kill him? We got what we wanted from him. We release him."
"Tamara's just going to kill him anyways." Sergeant Wilson pointed out hesitantly. "What's worse: facing her or the monsters?"
"You wouldn't know! You've never had to face either head on!" Colton spat back. "We got what we wanted from him. He cooperated. He can go free."
"Colton." The darker skinned one stated firmly, "Would they have let you go free if you cooperated in their torture?" He saw the soldier stiffen and he knew he had hit the spot. "You know they wouldn't have. They were just going to kill you anyways."
"That's why we let him go. We're not like them. If we kill him, what makes us any different from them?" Colton demanded, "He cooperated. He's free."
But the final decision or closing argument was never made. The knife that Colton had put on the counter, Carson had grabbed up. He shoved it through the man's head and the terrorist let out a strangled cry of pain before going limp in the chair. The teenager took out the knife and tossed it into the sink. Without looking back, he left the room.
When Carson left, that meant cleanup for the one who agreed with him. Colton stared at him with fire practically leaping from his eyes. The sergeant shrunk under the stare and he knew what he had to do. He picked the limp man and chair up and went to the door. He knew the monsters would be out now. So he tossed out the chair and man as quickly as possible before shutting the door.
When the admiral thought it was only Colton and himself left in the kitchen, he put a hand down on his ex-protege's shoulder. "This isn't going to be easy from here on out. We have a traitor. It should be our first priority to figure out who."
"Unless there isn't one." Colton whispered back. He refused to believe it. The very idea of a traitor on this team made him sick and his head spin. So he sat down on the ground and put his head in his hands. "She could just be playing with us. Maybe setting this whole thing up. Letting him hear what she wanted him to hear."
"She's smart, but she's not that smart." The admiral answered to that. A frown had consumed his face. "It may be hard to grasp, but that man was telling the truth, Cap. Everything he said was the truth. You and I both know it."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to them argue about what to do with the man. He especially shivered at Carson's voice. If he hadn't come out of it when he had... would Zakai be dead right now? He didn't want to think about it. He covered his mouth even harder when he heard the terrorist cry out one last time and then things seemed to settle down for the most part. Zakai thought that maybe it would be safe to leave soon, but then he heard Colton and Admiral Thomas's voices. He stayed where he was, still frozen stiff as they talked. He didn't like this. He didn't like hearing all of this. He wished he wasn't in the cupboard. He wanted to leave, but he had nowhere to go. He shivered slightly, but not a sound could be heard. He'd wait. He'd wait for hours if he had to. No one could know about what had happened tonight. No one could know about him and Carson, and no one could know that he'd been in the cupboard listening to the torture, to the explanations, an especially not to this private talk here. If he were found out, everything would fall apart. He knew it wasn't him and he had to make sure the others knew that too.

[Lil]

Faye was startled by arms wrapping around her and her head popped up. She sighed in relief seeing that it was just Blake. Faye dropped her head back down and just allowed herself to sit there with him holding her. That was a rough thing to walk in on but Faye would survive no doubt. It wasn't like that was the first horrific thing she had seen recently.

[Kicks]

Blake let the silence sink in until he heard people leaving the area of torture. He moved his head a bit so that he was whispering to her rather than having everyone else in on this conversation.
"You look exhausted." He commented as his eyes moved to the chair and the body that the sergeant was dragging to the front door. He turned his body so that he was blocking Faye's view from it. He hadn't known they would have killed the man. But something tells him that it wasn't part of the captain's plan. Someone else must have done it judging by the sloppy blood sprayed across the man's face and dripping from his forehead. Or it was because of the sergeant's cold expression as if he were furthering himself from what had been done. He had seen that look on criminals when he went to the jail to visit his father. They all had that cold look that said they were guilty of something but had too much pride to admit to it.

"What happened the last time we found a traitor among us?" Colton asked the admiral rhetorically. "I don't want that to happen again. If we find a traitor, we are not going to execute them."
"Then what are we going to do then? Leave them to our government? Our government will torture and kill them." Admiral Thomas reminded him.
The captain shifted uncomfortably where he sat on the ground. He pulled his hands away from his face and stared up at the old man. "What if I told you I would want to protect them?"
"I would say you were insane. But I already knew that." The old man laughed back. He grabbed the captain's hand and pulled him up to his feet. "So that's that then? We don't dig out the mole?"
Colton shook his head in response to the question. "We focus on getting to the warehouse and finding that injection. Whatever it is, it's important to her which means it's dangerous to us."
"We start in the morning then. The streets will be clear." The admiral decided with a curt nod, "Think we should leave some of them behind to man this place just in case more terrorists stop by?"
Colton looked uneasy at the question. "Yea. Probably. We'll go ahead and leave Bells and Faye. If there's any trouble she'll just make something to destroy them like a giant jellyfish who eats squirrels or something. And Faye can be quite the feisty one."
"Funny how you choose the only girls on this team to stay behind." Admiral Thomas remarked, "That's a bit sexist and they might see it as so."
"Do you think I care if they think it's sexist?" Colton retorted with a scowl, "I chose them because they're both mutants. And no offense to the humans on this team, but they can't be turned into monsters. And since we're facing monsters it's better to have the least amount of mutants going."
The admiral began to laugh a bit at the logic behind that. "Whatever, you're a Southern boy. You'd rather it be guys getting hurt than girls."
"And there's a problem with that?" Colton replied evenly as he walked out of the kitchen. "Because I see no problem with it!"

[Lil]

"No. I'm okay." Faye lied into her arm so it came out very muffled. She didn't lift her head from the table because she was in fact exhausted. A sigh escaped her lips which was then followed by a yawn.

[Kicks]

Blake laughed at her answer. "It wasn't a question, Faye. It was a matter of fact."
After all, how could it not be? She looked like she just might pass out. And she was acting like how Zakai was earlier. The fact of it all was that this team needed some sleep. He was afraid that if nobody got an adequate amount of rest, they would be more at risk to... He didn't let himself think about it.
Instead though, he picked the girl up out of her chair and into his arms. "Time for bed." He decided with a curt nod and official look. It was with this attitude that he found the room from earlier and put Faye down on it.

[Lil]

"No. I'm not tired." Faye argued as he picked her up. She felt like the past few days she had been completely useless and had just lounged around and slept all the time. But no matter how much she slept she never seemed to be able to catch up. Faye crossed her arms and pouted her lips as he placed her down.

[Kicks]

Blake moved to the window and tapped his knuckles on the metal that had been placed over the glass. He glanced back at the looks of her and broke into a grin at the sight of the pout on her face. She looked like a child that didn't want to do something. Or a child that didn't want to go to bed even if they were tired.
"Well, I'm not a good storyteller so I don't know how to help you with 'not being tired'." He commented back to her.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened. So they weren't going to unearth the mole? But wasn't that dangerous? Zakai didn't want anyone to die either, no matter what, but wasn't it better to at least know who it was so they could keep an eye on them? Otherwise they wouldn't be able to get anything done! Unless they just didn't tell anyone anything. Zakai scowled for a moment at the thought, but but calmed himself down. He hated being kept in the dark, but they were inclined to whatever they wanted to do. He couldn't do much about it and he couldn't let them know that he had heard all this. He was still nervous.
He heard footsteps walking out of the room, but he decided to wait a moment longer just in case. He had to get out when no one would see him.

[Kicks]

"We could have you here and I go." Admiral Thomas suggested once they were in the living room. "That way we have adults in both places."
Colton glanced at him uneasily. "I don't think leaving you with Sergeant Wilson is a good idea. I see the way he looks at you. Captain Austin was under your command after all."
"Okay, so I'll stay here and you go." The admiral answered back with a casual shrug. "That way it won't cause a problem." He then noticed Colton's hesitance and frowned. "What? You don't trust me? You think I'm the mole?"
The captain's eyes went to the admiral and hardened. "No." He stated to the whole spy thing. "But I don't trust you either."
"Colton! I've explained this to you before!" The admiral exclaimed in an exasperated manner. "Come off of it already. I'm not some monster."
"That's not why I don't trust you." The captain stated calmly back. "You know the reason." He gave a solemn look before moving down the hallway.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

After waiting, Zakai peeked out of the cupboard. No one was there. He carefully crawled out, ignoring anything else and looking around, fearful that someone would see him. He looked out of the kitchen. Still seeing no one, he was glad but not relieved. Not yet. He couldn't be relieved until he got back to the room. He slipped into the hallway, just to see Colton was there already. He but his lip and backed out as quietly as possible. He was scared. He was nervous. He needed to calm down. He stood completely still, not daring to move, though he was faintly shivering with worry. Stop it! Just stop shivering and wait for him to go!

[Kicks]

Colton was heading down the hallway when he heard movement behind him. He glanced backwards just to see nobody standing there. Which was odd, because he was pretty certain there had been someone just there. He stepped backwards to check out what it could be but stopped himself. This is insane. No one was there. Just my imagination. He thought to himself with a sigh before moving on and vanishing into a room that he locked behind him.
The showers were working again because of the electricity and water, but he was straying away from stranger's showers. The last time he had checked to see if one actually worked was in California. That had ended with the mutation and a zombie locked behind a shower's sliding glass door. He shuddered at the thought and pushed it to the back of his mind.
Tomorrow the team would be off to getting that injection in the morning. The girls would stay behind and man the house. He hoped no trouble did arise for them though. He wanted to leave Zakai with them, but he had a strong feeling that they would be needing Zakai.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai waited again, then when he heard a door close, he looked into the hallway. Seeing no one, he decided to stop sneaking and just made a mad dash back to his room, closing the door behind him, not daring to leave it open. He shivered. Tonight had been awful. He dove into the bed, buried himself in the huge thick blanket and curled up into a ball. There was no way he was going to leave the room this time.

[Kicks]

Sometime later in the night long after Colton had fallen asleep, he was brought around by a terrified shout. He snapped his eyes open and looked around the dark room. Somehow he had ended up on the floor during his sleep and a pillow was thrown across the room. But he couldn't remember his dream. He had a feeling the terror in his chest had to do with his dream as well as the scream that had awoken him.
He left the room and trailed downstairs where he had heard the shout. Despite having just been awoken, he was completely aware and not the least bit drowsy with the adrenaline coursing through his veins. When he entered into the basement he saw that ArraBella had her hands on Carson's shoulder and was whispering something. The boy had a pale face and was shaking so bad the couch was vibrating.
"What's going on?" The captain asked as he drew near them. Maybe Carson had been telling the truth about night terrors after all.
"Nightmare." The redhead stated with a frown on her face. "He was thrashing around and shouting something I couldn't make out. Something about voices in his head. Monsters."

[Lil]

Faye sighed. "I'll just lay here then cause I have a feeling you're not going to let me leave." She said with a skeptical look to Blake. It was strange no matter how long she slept, she always woke up more exhausted than before she fell asleep

[Kicks]

"You would be right." Blake agreed with that same ol' smile. He moved away from the window and laid down beside her. "If it's any consolation, in order to keep you in here I have to stay here as well." He whispered to her as if this could be the greatest secret of all time.
Though he was being a bit of a hypocrite. He wasn't tired in the least bit. The sight from the kitchen still burned behind his eyes of the terrorist and the torture. He tried his best to just go with the flow on it because there wasn't anything he could do and the man deserved it... Yet still, when he saw the body being dragged towards the door it made him feel sick.

[Lil]

Faye rested her head in the crook in Blake's neck. She sighed softly and closed her eyes but of course she couldn't sleep at all, instead she really did just rest her eyes. Faye used her hand to brunch some hair from his eyes then pulled her hands down close to her and smiled softly.

[Kicks]

Blake rested his head against the pillow and slipped his arms around her. Funny how two people could just fit together so smoothly and perfectly without words or needing instruction. But he could tell despite how comfortable the position was, neither of them were going to be able to sleep soon. Which made this a bit uncomfortable for him because he had something tell her. But he wasn't a very expressive person so it was going to be a bit difficult for him.
The silence continued to tick by them. He didn't know how long it was until he finally brought his lips down to her ear. "I may just be in love with you."

[Lil]

Faye felt herself grow tense as he whispered into her ear. That wasn't something Faye had been expecting to hear. She looked at him timidly, he wasn't just saying that because she had earlier, was he? "You mean that?" Faye asked quietly but a small smile spread on her lips.

[Kicks]

Blake his head away from her face so he could really examine her reaction. She looked surprised, almost suspicious but a smile was on her face. "Of course." He answered to her back softly. He hesitated for a moment, unsure whether he should explain himself or not. "Cap and I were talking earlier and I realized a few things. The first was that we're going to make it out of New York." Of course they would. The captain was way too determined to get back to Adalia. He had a feeling he would do anything to get out of this state. "The second was that I'd risk my life saving you. And the third is that I love you. How could I not after what we've been through?"

[Lil]

Faye smiled and pressed her lips to Blake's. "I love you." She said and pressed her hands against his cheek softly as she pulled away from the kiss. Faye couldn't be more happy than she was at this exact moment. Everything seemed so perfect in a time that was so disastrous.

[Kicks]

"If I knew Shakespeare, this would probably be the time to recite some." Blake commented with a small smile creeping across his face. "But alas, I hated Shakespeare probably more than I should. He died so long ago and people are still hungry over his rubbish works. It's like get out of the past, guys, come on." By that time though she had kissed him and told him those three magical words. This time he didn't shy away from it or hesitate though. When she pulled away, he drew her back into a real kiss. Not just a peck, but a real one. How many of these will we share before we die here? The awful thought crept into his head and shattered something in his stomach.

[Lil]

Faye wrapped her hands around his waist as he kissed her and felt the electricity tingle through her body. She shivered slightly which was followed by a giggle but she was sure not to completely break the kiss. It was too sweet to even think about that at the moment.

[Kicks]

Blake was the one to break it when he heard her little giggle escape. He drew back and laughed, for some reason finding her giggle amusing. He would have attempted to laugh and kiss at the same time, but that sounded like only something a professional could do and he was far from a pro.
"Why are you giggling?" He asked her while his hand went up to her hair and stroked it. "Please do not tell me you are high."


Meanwhile, Colton came over from the bottom of the stairs and crouched beside ArraBella. He put a hand on the teenager's shaking shoulder and frowned. "Carson?"
Something snapped in the teenager's mind. His eyes widened and he made to bolt towards the door. Though his attempt was in vain for Colton had grabbed him and locked him in his strong arms to keep him from going anywhere both for the safety of him and everyone else.
"No! Let me go! I'm sorry!" He cried out with wild eyes. "Please! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I can't... I don't want... I can't die like this! Just let me go." He dropped his head down to Colton's shoulder and began to sob into it. "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me."
"I don't think he's really here." Bella stated, her eyes wide and afraid. "Should we wake him up?"
But Colton feared that he was already awake. Under some delusion, but absolutely awake. He had seen a person trapped in a night terror before. Though how similar they were to how Carson was acting now, he was awake. But definitely hallucinating.
"Shhh." Colton hushed the shaking teen. He put a hand up to his hair and hugged him tightly. "Carson, you have to snap out of it. It's okay. Everything is fine."
"I don't know what's happening to me, Cap." Carson's whole body was racked with terrifed sobs. "They're everywhere. You're one of them. She's one of them. Zakai's one of them!"
Colton had a guess of what he was talking about because of earlier, but he was afraid to ask about it. Instead he tried to calm him down. "It's okay. In the morning things will be better."
The longer he reassured the more calmer the brunette became until he stopped shaking and fell back into the waves of sleep.
But even after Carson had fallen to sleep and ArraBella went away, the captain stayed where he was. He was leaning against the couch that the younger teen was sleeping on with his head in his hands. What the hell is happening?

[Lil]

"No I'm not high." Faye shook her head. "I just like how that feels." She giggled again and pressed a kiss to his cheek. She smiled widely as she pulled herself a little closer to him.

[Kicks]

Well she wasn't the only one who liked how it felt. But he had a lot more self control than that and instead of making out with her face, placed a kiss down on her forehead. He reached over to the lamp and shut it off. "Well I hope with how giddy you're feeling now, you'll be able to sleep a lot better tonight." He hinted while a smile twitched at the corners of his lips.

[Lil]

"I think that this is gonna make it a little harder actually." Faye said and closed her eyes and breathed in the intoxicating scent that Blake held. She smiled and rested her head in the crook of his neck once more and attempted to fall asleep.

[Kicks]

Blake tried not to laugh at that because he was afraid of encouraging her. So he kept his mouth shut and closed his eyes. After some time of listening to her breathe, he was able to find sleep.
In the morning, Colton left the couch but not before making sure the teenager was fast asleep and not troubled. He moved into another room in the basement and found ArraBella asleep on a fluffy human-sized pillow with a big ol' fluffy blanket wrapped around her. He knelt down beside her and shook her shoulder gently.
"Bells, wake up." He told her soft enough not to wake up the other sleeping teen. When he saw that she had opened her eyes, he backed up so she could sit up.
"Yea?" She asked while pushing her red hair out of her face. "What's going on? Is something wrong?"
"I'm leaving Carson here with you and Faye while the rest of us go and get something from an infested warehouse." Colton told her quietly. "Can I trust you to make sure he doesn't flip?"
The girl nervously glanced towards the door of the room where she thought the teen might appear at any moment. She changed her gaze back to the man and gave a hesitant nod. "He's been really weird, Cap. Ever since he got back from the fort he's seemed... not like himself. He wakes up screaming from sleep, and sometimes he gets this cold look in his eyes. Other times he'll say something that makes me think he's not really here."
Colton nodded back to that. "I know. I don't know what's gotten into him. So I'm leaving him here. You're closest to him, so if he does start acting weird you might be able to pull him out of it. If you're concerned, the sergeant can stay-"
"No it's okay." She interrupted him quickly. "I can manage him. So long as you find his guns and hide them." She seemed hesitant once more. But if she knew one thing Colton was, he was the type of person you could tell anything to. "The other day he tried to shoot Zakai. I saw from the hallway down here. He thought Zakai was a monster. It doesn't make sense. He risked his life to save the kid from the sewers, and then he turns a gun on him."
Of course Colton was stunned by the information. To think Carson would turn a gun on the kid was enraging, but the fury died down when he thought back to last night's display and the kitchen scene. Besides, he didn't shoot Zakai. But there was definitely something to worry about here. Carson was delusional and because of that he was a threat to himself and the others.
"This is a lot more serious than I thought it was then." Colton stated at last as he stood up straight. "Don't worry, I'll find the guns and take them with me. That way he won't have access to them. And Bells, if he does act up like what you just said, don't be afraid to knock him out."
He left the redhead downstairs and silently moved back upstairs. He checked the room that he had found Blake and Faye in the other day and once more found that they were together. He tried to keep from sighing. But he found it even harder to fight the temptation of pulling Blake up by his ears. Instead, he slipped to Faye's side and tapped her in the forehead. "Hey, hey, hey. Faye. Pst. Faye. Faye. Faye. Heeeeeeeeeey, Faye. Faye. Faye."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai didn't know how long he lied there buried until he finally fell asleep. All he knew was that he woke up in a cold sweat and he had no idea why. He was shivering and he had no reason to be cold since he was buried in blankets, but it felt cold anyway. He looked around nervously. He'd heard a voice. A soft voice. He stood to his feet and looked around. No one was in here. He sighed and sat back down on the bed, wiping his eyes. He'd been crying in his sleep or something because his face was wet.
He stood up and went to the bathroom to look at himself. He looked terrible. His eyes were red, his face was covered with both dry tears and wet tears, and his hair was all over the place. He washed his face and wet down his hair so that he wouldn't look like a monster and then left the bathroom and just stood in the hallway for a minute before sinking down to the floor and pulling his knees to his chest.

[Lil]

Faye woke up to the sound if Colton repeating her name over and over. Apparently she had been able to fall asleep and didn't even realize it. She scooted away from Blake uncomfortable due to what Colton may think of it. "What?" She asked and ruffled her fingers in her hair.

[Kicks]

"Nothing. I was just making sure you were still a virgin." Colton whispered back with a laugh. "No, but seriously I'm leaving you here. We should be back tonight if everything goes according to plan. If not, then tomorrow morning." He moved away from her side then and grabbed Blake by the collar to his armor. He tossed him out of bed and to the ground where the blonde let out a surprised cry.
"I didn't do anything!" The English teenager shouted in a distraught way. "Why are you so mean to me?!"
"Shhhh." Colton whispered back as he took Blake by the arm and helped him up. "Come on, we're going to go get that thing the terrorist was talking about."
Blake didn't bother to question the order. He rubbed at his eyes as he followed the man out of the room. By the door the sergeant and admiral were already waiting to leave. He found himself standing by them as he tried to wake himself up.
Colton found Zakai sitting on the ground looking much like a child did. He took the kid by the arm and helped him to a stand. "We're going to need you and your smallness. And we have about an hour to get there and do what we have to before the zombies come out."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai closed his eyes as he kept telling himself that he would stand up and go do something more productive but didn't. Then someone pulled him to his feet by his arm and he looked up to see Colton. He stared at the man as he told him they were going to need his smallness. Zakai sighed and nodded. He knew that meant he had to get ready.
"Can you tell Jerome to give me back my survival pack then?"

[Kicks]

Colton stared at Zakai oddly for a moment, mouthing back the question in thought. What?
"Oh yea. I almost forgot!" The big guy cried out from the front door. He dashed off somewhere in the house and then returned a few moments later with the pack. He handed it over to the kid just as he started leading him out the door. "Hopefully I won't have to take that away from you again."
Colton shook his head on confusion and followed after the two out the door. He shut it behind him and found that the admiral was leading the way. Which meant he knew where they were going. Which was weird.
"You've never been to New York before the terrorists nabbed you." The captain pointed out as he caught up with the old man. "How do you know where you're going?"
"Well, I imagine that the warehouse is in the direction of the fort." He replied back calmly, "It would only make sense, Cap. Besides, the terrorists wouldn't travel over half the city to get what they wanted. They would want it at the ready access. And since they've taken over the fort, then the warehouse must be in that direction."
"That's some mighty presumptuous deductive reasoning." Sergeant Wilson added with a chuckle. "You were just guessing, weren't you old man?"
"A wise man never tells his tricks." Thomas stated back, but a smile was cracking at his lips.

[Lil]

"Gosh Colton. Gross." Faye said pushed him away only for him to jump over to Blake and order him to get up and that they were leaving. She didn't have much energy to worry until she was already dozing off once more. Now that she had slept Faye felt extremely attracted to some more of it.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai took the survival pack and felt himself being pulled out the door when he suddenly started to panic and pulled against them.
"No, wait wait wait!" He started jumping up and down like a little kid, "I'm not wearing my armor right now! I took it off last night because it was uncomfortable and stole some clothes in the attic to wear! It's still in the room I slept in last night! I need it right?"
He was wearing a short sleeved hooded shirt and sweat pants. Hardly the clothes you'd need to go out and battle anything.

[Kicks]

"Are you kidding me?" Blake immediately began to laugh as the kid started to freak. "Zakai, you've faced these things without armor before."
"Blake has a point." Sergeant Wilson agreed through a chuckle. "The worst that will happen to you is getting scratched by a vent."
"You won't need armor." Colton told him a much less teasing manner than the other two. "You won't even be in contact with any of the undead unless you count being separated by metal and reinforced glass. Really, you're the safest out of all of us going on this assignment."
"Don't just tell him that. You have to tell him what he's doing." The admiral sighed out as if the others were a pack of morons. "Zakai, you'll be going in through a vent duck. You're the only one small enough to do it. The first vent you come across is the one you open and jump through. It will land you inside of the only room in the building that won't have monsters in it. The room is protected by reinforced glass and steel doors. In the room there's a control panel. On the panel there's a blue button you have to press. It will open the semi truck garage door that will allow us access to the inside."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to them and nodded then stopped nodding and stared at them almost suspiciously. He was so used to not hearing all of the details that he was sure that he was only knowing what he was actually doing at skin depth. He'd been told over and over 'Oh it's so easy' while going in to do things that weren't easy at all.
"Where exactly are we going and am I just going to wait inside this locked up room until someone comes to get me after this and why do I have to go through an air vent to get there?"

[Kicks]

Colton awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck as if they were keeping secrets. But he was only messing with the kid by doing that. "Don't be so suspicious, kiddo. I told you we needed your smallness."
"It was Colton's idea if that makes you feel any better." Admiral Thomas added then paused, "Shouldn't have said that. You're probably even more nervous now." He ducked his head as Colton's fist came towards him and laughed. "I'm kidding, Cap!"
Colton rolled his eyes back at the man and glanced back at Zakai. "We're going to the warehouse. Ya know the last time we were in New York? Yea, we're going to that place again. But it locked down when the state went on lockdown. Which is why I need you to get in there and let us in by pressing that blue button. And yes, you're going to wait inside that room until I give you a thumbs up to open the door."
He pointed towards the structure they were approaching. The windows were covered in sheets of metal and the doors were all covered by steel barriers. Outside the complex were terrorist bodies. Their insides were torn out and strewn about as if the monsters had left them there for the zombies to infect them. By the looks of it, the terrorists had attempted this last night and failed their mission. Which meant Tamara probably didn't know about that yet, if at all.
Colton led them around the back of the compound. The back looked different than the front with no windows and a large garage door meant for a semi-truck. Behind the door he could hear hissing and growling. Pounding came at the metal to the garage door which meant only one thing: the monsters had heard them.
But that was no worry just yet. Colton continued on until he found the vent opening. It was covered by metal like the rest of the place but when he motioned for Blake, the metal no longer was a problem. He would have had Blake done this to get them in, but that would have caused a lot more problems than this plan. The metal fell off and revealed a hole big enough for Zakai to comfortably squeeze through.
"Remember, first opening is the one you jump through." Colton reminded the kid.


ArraBella left the basement and came up to the main part of the house. She trailed into the kitchen and found a box of poptarts. Taking one from the package, her eyes skimmed over the place. It was a lot more quiet with so many people from their team gone. But she wondered how long the silence would keep up.
When she sat down at the table she saw that Carson was also up. He came up the stairs in a sluggish manner and sat down at the table. There were dark circles under his eyes and his skin had paled considerably from his California tan. His eyes were far away but he could see perfectly clear.
"I have a headache." He told the redhead across from him. "You know what's a cure for headaches?"
"Say making love and I'll kick you." She promised with a firm look.
Carson smiled a little bit, but shook his head. "What kind of person do you take me for? I was going to say making love with protection."

[Lil]

Faye rolled out of bed after what seemed like an hour and slugged down the stairs with her entire body feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. "Good morning." She yawned and stretched her arms tiredly.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai gave Colton an annoyed look when he rubbed the back of his neck in response to his question.
"Yeah, I know it was his idea. Only he would come up with it."
When Colton finally said where they were going and Zakai realized that backing out was against the rules, but that was okay because he wasn't going to back out anyway, he watched as they approached the building. When they stopped and got out, Zakai glanced nervously at the garage then looked at Colton after the metal from the vent was removed.
"Just don't do anything stupid okay?" he knelt down to enter the vent, then looked up at Colton with a smile on his face, "And you know, when you tell a kid that they 'are' going to do something like you did to me when you said I was going to wait for your thumbs up, they're just that much more likely to disobey you, right?"
He then crawled into the vent to look for his first opening. It didn't take that long to find. He was supposed to... jump through it. It was kind of hard to jump in here, so Zakai assumed that meant there would be some distance between him and the floor. He went through the opening and landed on the floor. It wasn't too bad. He stood to his feet and looked around. The button's blue right?

[Kicks]

Carson raised his hand as Faye greeted the morning good. "But is it the morning that is good or the good that is morning?"
"Pretty sure the morning is just good." ArraBella stated as a matter of fact. "Hey there's poptarts." She told the blonde while tossing a box her way. "And fish sticks in the freezer... Mmm fish sticks."
"Bet they're not as good as the ones at Fisherman's Wharf though." Carson sighed out while tapping a finger against the table. "I wonder if Florida is like California in any way? Because if it is, then I want to move there."

Well, Colton didn't know how to define a stupid act so he just gave the kid a smile instead of making any promises. But his smile fell when Zakai made the comment about a child disobeying. Before he had time to say anything about that though, he had already vanished down the vent.
Colton turned away from the vent and made a motion to Blake to follow him. The teenager listened and followed the man to a fire hydrant. "Pop it open." He ordered while tapping a bolt. "Just this one." When Blake obliged and water shot out like a bullet racing for its target, Colton and him stood back. The water, once calmed down, had made a steady stream. It was like a large line that stretched across the back of the building. It started from the hydrant, passed the garage, and ended on the far side of the building.
The sergeant stood on the opposite side of the water with a heavy gun pointed towards the garage in case the plan failed in any way. The admiral was standing in front of the stream with a smoke grenade in his hand. He was tossing it up and down, ready to take out the pin when the garage started to come open.
Blake was up in a tree on the opposite side of the stream like he had been instructed. He was supposed to send some blast skyrocketing at any monster that didn't get zapped. And Colton was beside the hydrant with his hand stuck in the water that was lapping out and joining the stream.

[Lil]

Faye caught the box of poptarts and popped it open then grabbed one of the metallic silver wrappers. She tore it open and took a bite from one if the strawberry breakfast treats. "I'm good with poptarts." Faye said with a smile and sat down at the kitchen table.

[Kicks]

Carson picked up another box and then put it back down when he decided he wasn't hungry enough to eat it. "I'm tempted to go rob a store and sugar-free gummi bears and feed them to Blake. I bet he's never had them before."
ArraBella started to choke on her poptart with laughter. When she caught her breath again, she shook her head. "Oh gosh no! I don't want to be in the same house with a walking volcano!"
Carson burst into laughter at her remark and slapped his hand down on the table. After a good few minutes of an intense ab workout of laughter, he regained himself.
"Okay, you have a point." He replied with a small sigh of content.

[Lil]

Faye was extremely confused by how gummy bears would turn Blake into a volcano but she didn't comment. Instead she continued to eat her poptart in peace, enjoying the delicious strawberry filling.

[Kicks]

"Speaking of human volcanoes, this human has to blow." Carson stated in a maneuverable way. He got up from the kitchen table and pranced down the hall with a swagger.
"Sugar free gummi bears cause people to crap themselves." ArraBella told Faye after her silence. She knew she didn't know because people who did know would piss themselves laughing. "In our Freshmen year there was a kid named Daveed who was a foreign exchange student from Israel. Poor guy got fooled into eating them by a bunch of seniors. Sent him running for the bathrooms leaving a brown trail that the janitors weren't too happy to clean up." She finished off her poptart with a little giggle. "I think it was on the porcelain queen that he realized what it meant to be American."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai looked around before finding the blue button and walking over. It was only supposed to open the garage door, right? He pressed it and then just stared at it as if it would do something here that would show him it actually did something. He turned away from it after a moment and then leaned against the wall opposite the button. He was a little nervous about waiting in here. They had a mole. If a mole had told Tamara that they were here, then what would that do to them? There was no way they were safe here or anywhere at that matter. He sighed and then sunk to the floor and pulled his knees to his chest, much like he had in the hallway. He was uneasy, but he was also tired. Still, if something came in here, he'd be toast, so he took his gun out of his survival pack and slid the rectangle thing in place. He waited calmly for the thumbs up or whatever and switched his sitting position so that he could hold the gun in his lap as he waited. He suddenly started thinking weird thoughts. What if the others didn't come back? What if something bad happened? What if they were all captured? What if just one of them was captured? What would he do then?

[Kicks]

The team waiting outside the garage braced themselves as they heard the gears grinding. The metal started to pull itself up and some monsters started scratching at the bottom to be let loose. The admiral took the opportunity then and drew the pin from the smoke grenade with his teeth. He tossed the grenade under the garage and watched as smoke furled itself around the monstrosity. He moved behind the stream quickly just as the garage opened enough for the blinded monsters to come running out.
Electricity pulsed from Colton's arm and came out his hand into the water and into the stream. As the monsters touched the stream, they were electrocuted. It was a brilliant plan that seemed impenetrable. Things were going better than he had expected. The blinded monsters stumbled into their awaiting doom and became fried monsters instead of murderous ones.
But not all plans could go smoothly. As soon as the monsters had all emptied from the warehouse, the team made for the garage. They entered into it and as soon as they were all inside, Blake shut the garage door with the button beside the metal. They were cast into a florescent room with blood pools and stains on the ground. Artillery was protected by metal and cases were much the same.
"That one." Colton stated as he pointed to a case three away from the room that he could see Zakai in through the glass. He gave the kid a thumbs up to mean that it was safe to come out now. If there were any monsters left in here they would have come out to kill already.
The admiral went to the glass case and put his hand to the scanner there. It buzzed and then the metal rolled up to reveal the glass beneath. He opened the glass up and searched through the different ammo cases. When he found the correct one with the rounded edges, he pulled it out and stuffed it into his pack.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai looked up when the lighting in the room changed slightly and realized that he could see the garage from here. Smoke filled the glass then cleared to reveal the rest of the team which he waved at immediately because he felt like he should all of the sudden since he could see them through the glass. When Colton gave him a thumbs up, he left the room and went out to the others. When he heard a buzzing sound, he looked over to see the admiral at a metal case and walked over curiously and peeked at the ammo, cocking his head to the side at the sight of it. These military places were always so interesting.

[Kicks]

"Maybe you are of use to me." A female voice rang out into the warehouse. "Even when you try to fight against me." The voice was silky and venomous as it always was. Every word seemed to be laced with poison.
Colton groaned and tossed his head back. "What? Just how? How could you have possibly known we would have been here? Your men are dead outside!"
Tamara appeared from the top of the rail going all around the room to look down upon the operations in the work space. She smirked at the exclamations of the captain. But then she frowned realizing he wasn't bleeding from his neck.
"That's detestable." She sighed out while swinging her legs over the side of the railing. She sat down on the pole and gazed down at them, looking as if she might jump down and join them. Colton had seen enough of her reflexes to know if she did jump she'd spring back up and approach them like a cat.
"Not the fact that they're dead. I knew they would die. They were expendable." She added, "But I really wanted to see you bleeding when you came in here. What happened to my babies?"
So they're her babies now? Colton thought to himself with a twitch of his eye. "They're electrocuted." He stated slowly. "Just like you'll be if you try to get this injection."
"You don't even know what it does." She purred back. Tamara then jumped down and landed on her feet with a snap of her ankles. As she walked towards them, he could see her ankles snap into place and heal over. "But I can tell you it's wonderful."
"Which naturally means it's awful." Admiral Thomas commented with a chuckle. "Come now, Tamara. Secrets are no fun. Wouldn't it be a lot more entertaining to watch us freak out over what this injection does?"
"But you already know what the injection does." Tamara smoothly replied. "Or haven't you noticed the way one of your teammates has been acting? I have to say, he's one of the more successful cases I've tested this on. The other ones had heart attacks within the first twenty four hours or tried to kill the ones they're closest to." She put a hand on the sergeant's cheek. "The sad thing is that it only works on humans. I bet you would go into cardiac arrest immediately. The younger the more fortunate." Her red eyes skimmed over to Zakai. "I bet he'd last even longer." But before she could step towards him, the big Black soldier grabbed her by her arms and trapped her between his hands. Her arms were skinny so it was easy for him to wrap a hand around just one arm.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Hearing the voice, Zakai jumped and looked around automatically. He knew who was speaking and he didn't like it. When he located her, he gripped his gun in his hands and backed away slightly, though she wasn't all that close. He was scared, but he forced himself not to show it. This didn't seem like a good situation. He remembered the terrorist she'd sent after them the night before and suddenly wished he'd gotten a chance to speak to them for some reason. It just popped into his mind just then as the lady started towards them. He didn't take his eyes off of her as walked over to Jerome and made yet another odd threat towards Zakai, causing him to back away again. He was mad at her to say the least. He gulped suddenly and then spoke up, "Why do you know about this? You didn't answer. Or is he the the-" Zakai stopped himself. He wasn't supposed to let them know he knew about the mole! He shut his mouth and backed away again, glaring at the ground. This was really hard! Why couldn't he talk to the stupid terrorist?

[Kicks]

Tamara's red lips curled up into a wicked smile. "Fear excites me. Makes me feel alive." Just something about the way she said it made the sergeant's hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Admiral Thomas hummed as he thought over what the woman had said. "So it only works on humans, then. And you mentioned one of the mates has been acting off color... That means-"
"Carson." Colton realized with wide eyes. It made sense now that he took the time to think about it. The teenager had disappeared and was separated from their group. He had warned them the fort wasn't safe and was there when he arrived. He made no explanations as to why and then after that he started to act different. "Is this injection a hallucinogen?"
"Of a sort." Tamara proudly boasted back. "It lasts longer though and targets a certain area of the brain. Makes you see and think things that aren't really there. For instance, he probably thinks a few of you are monsters, right? Probably tried to kill one of you. Wouldn't surprise me. Nightmares, paranoia, the list goes on. It's actually very interesting how it works. Makes them go insane." She struggled a bit to be rid of the sergeant, but the man was powerful for a human. "I'd very much like my creation back. It does belong to me after all. I'm not afraid to kill you people to get it back."
"And I'm not afraid to sacrifice my life to see that you never get it." Sergeant Wilson barked to her. "Your reign of terror on this nation is over."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai just watched the whole thing go on for a moment. Likes fear? Makes you feel alive? That's gross. He was nervous, but at the same time he wasn't all of the sudden. This woman in front of them was saying a lot and being menacing, but the injection was in someone else's hands right now, and even though it was only a few paces away, she was being held back. She was saying a lot, but he felt kind of safe where he was seeing her held back so easily and the calmness made him feel both relieved and afraid. This could either mean two things: this woman was full of shit, or something really bad was about to happen. He suddenly went on full alert and started looking all over the place. If something really bad was about to happen, he wanted to be ready. Or maybe he should just shoot the terrorist lady here and end it... but then he froze. That was a scary thought. He still hated killing. He shook his head again. Getting the injection, which she seemed to want to give it to him pretty badly, suddenly didn't feel like it would change much. He was as scared as ever and probably already going insane and poor Carson... the guy was so happy and go-lucky before this. He wasn't sure what to do at this point... with himself or the others. What should he do? Run? Shoot? Wait? Waiting seemed like the best option.

[Kicks]

Blake slid beside Zakai while the adults were busy. He said nothing but instead linked his arm with Zakai's and slowly backed up towards the door. In all garages there was a door that led outside/inside. This was the same case. Since Zakai had pressed the blue button, this door was accessible. He knew something terrible was about to happen and he didn't want Zakai to have to witness it. He also didn't want to be a witness to it either. Judging by Colton's personality, he knew the man would have encouraged this.
He opened the door and slipped outside. He released Zakai's arm then and glanced around. The zombies still weren't out yet, but he figured they didn't have a lot of time either before they were out. Zakai was human and wasn't wearing armor. If they started back now they would make it before the zombies came out and tried to feast upon humans.
"Come on, they got everything under control in there." Blake told the kid while gesturing towards the way that they had came. "You're not wearing armor and we don't have a lot of time. Guessing by what's happening inside, our only choice is to return back to the house. I'd rather you did that now before the zombies came out."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai felt someone link arms with him and looked up to see Blake. His first impulse was to yank his arm away for some reason since he knew this meant he was going to be pulled away somewhere, but he reluctantly allowed Blake to back away out of the garage and even stepped in unison with him so he wasn't being dragged along. When they were out of the garage and Blake release his arm, Zakai looked up at him as he talked about leaving. He wanted to protest. He hated leaving others behind, but Blake was probably making a good decision going back. They'd only get in the way... or... he would. He sighed and nodded.
"Okay. I'll go. Are you coming with me?"

[Kicks]

The English one raised his finger up for a moment before vanishing back inside. When he came back out there was screams of rage behind him in the garage. He shut the door quickly and gazed down at the kid as if he had done nothing. But he had done something. He had switched packs with the admiral.
Blake found the question odd. Why would he let the kid go back on his own? It's not that he didn't think the kid couldn't fight for himself. It's that he didn't want the kid to go alone just in case. But besides that, he now had the injection. "Of course I'll go with you. If I didn't, what kind of teammate would that make me?" He smiled a bit and began in the direction they had come. "From the looks of what was happening, I think Cap was bound to send you out anyways. You have an amazing shot, but I've heard Tamara is a real nasty one to deal with."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai stared at Blake awkwardly for a moment. There was something wrong with that gesture just now for some reason and Zakai knew it from the many people he'd teamed up with in San Francisco who had been trying to hide something and did a good job, but he eventually was told later or learned later from someone else that something had been wrong at the time.
"Blake, what are you..." he stopped, "No. Never mind. Let's go."
He turned and started walking. They had to go. That scream told him so. They were getting in the way of the others.

[Kicks]

Blake didn't bother looking back when noises started coming out from the warehouse. By the sounds of it, something or someone was being destroyed. And since he heard no girl screaming, he was guessing she was probably pretty angry about the whole injection thing and taking it out on them. But the admiral was with them. He was glad at that moment from all the noise that he had decided taking Zakai back was a good idea.
Luckily, the walk wasn't too long and they were able to make it back just as the sun started to shine brightly. That was the sign the zombies were about to come out. He could hear a rattling somewhere, but before he could find out from where, he stepped inside the house.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai walked inside the house too and shut the door behind him. He smiled up at Blake. Today had been a crazy day and everyone seemed on edge which wasn't not understandable but too many bad things were happening. He looked around at the house calmly then walked in a little more ways. He knew Blake had done something, and they'd probably catch hell for a it later but he had to keep his mind off of that.
He yelled out, "WE'RE HOOOOOOOOOME!"

[Kicks]

ArraBella gasped from the table. She craned her neck to see if they were really back. She had been certain that they weren't supposed to be back until tonight or tomorrow morning.
"Why'd the plans change?" She called back curiously, "Did you guys get your asses kicked?"
Blake took off the pack from his bag and pulled out the silver, rounded cornered box. He tossed his bag onto a chair while he moved to the kitchen. "No. Well. Maybe. Not us. But we couldn't stay at the warehouse and take what we needed like planned. Tamara showed up and the zombies were about to come out. So we left the adults behind. Admiral Thomas gave this to me to take and hide. But I have no idea where I'm supposed to hide it!"
"Well what is it?" ArraBella asked while reaching her hand out to take it. She wasn't expecting it to be so light, but she figured it was better not to toss it around either.
"Something that forces people into a long lasting hallucinating state." Blake told her with a frown. His eyes swept over her and Faye, but he didn't see Carson. "Where's he at?"
"Bathroom." She answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Must be taking the two because he's been in there for awhile."
Blake's eyes shifted to the bathroom door and then back to her. "Hide that box somewhere safe. Make whatever you have to in order to hide it." He told her before going to the bathroom door and tapping on it. "Come on, mate, I gotta go!" When he heard no answer, he put a glowing hand down on the knob and heard the knob crack until it opened. He'd be in trouble for breaking the knob, but he had good reason to. When he stepped into the bathroom, at first he didn't see anyone or anything suspicious. "Carson?" He asked slowly while turning his head this way and that.
Behind the door, Carson stepped out with a hair straightener and knocked Blake forcefully over the head with it. When he saw him go down, the teenager shot out of the bathroom. He stopped running though with the hair straightener though when he saw the others. Slowly, he began to back up the way he had came.
ArraBella looked up from the box she had been examining and wondering how to hide when she saw the wild-eyed teenager. She knew that look on his face and knew what he had probably just done. But he looked even more scared this time, less deadly. He reminded her of a frightened child during a thunderstorm.
"Dude, a hair straightener isn't a smart choice of weapon." She told him with a cocked eyebrow.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai smiled at ArraBella when she came over and then looked around. His face fell when he didn't see Carson. He was afraid of him, yes, because he had held him at gunpoint, but he was also worried about the guy. If he really was hallucinating then that must really suck. When ArraBella mentioned him being in the bathroom for a while, Zakai figured in his head that the guy was hiding. It made the most sense to him. His thought was only confirmed when Blake went to knock on the bathroom door, broke the knob, and Carson came out holding a hair straightener. Zakai stared at the young man. Actually, the image of the guy standing so helplessly reminded Zakai of himself when he had met Colton and had missed when he tried hitting him in the head. Zakai cocked his head to the side, suddenly not afraid.
"Carson? What's wrong?"

[Kicks]

Carson tensed up when he saw Zakai. His eyes grew huge when the kid started speaking. He rose the hair straightener in the air with his other hand out before him. Slowly he put the iron down on the ground and then put his hands behind his head in surrender.
"Don't... Just... just don't kill me." He told them quietly, "I won't tell them what you are." His eyes suddenly landed on the discarded pack that Blake had put down. It wasn't Blake's pack, he had switched with the admiral.
Carson slowly circled around with his hands still up. He didn't take his eyes off of them as he moved.
ArraBella got up from her seat only to see Carson drop to the ground with his arms over his head. "Just kill me already! I'm tired of this! I'm tired of this!" He cried out in a panicked way. "Just make it quick!"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

A pained expression came across Zakai's face. What I am? What I- He glared suddenly and walked over to Carson, stopping and kneeling down right in front of him.
"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not a monster! Now shut up! No one is going to kill you! Stop talking like that! You're only hurting yourself! I know that nothing I say will probably reach you, but I don't care because I'm going to try anyways, even if you try to shoot me again! No one's going to hurt you! Just calm down!"

[Kicks]

ArraBella began to clap but had to stop herself. It was one of those urges you got when you saw something cool happen or something you wanted to encourage, but she had to stop because his yelling was making things worse. Carson had went from mildly panicked to having difficulty breathing. She had seen a kid in her history class have a panic attack before. They had been watching the news and talking about the terrorists and their history when the kid started having a panic attack. Nobody knew what to do except the teacher who instructed the kid to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. She figured the same thing applied to now. It had worked when her dad went into a hallucination because of PTSD. Once she got his attention and told him to breathe, in a few minutes he was up and going again.
"I loved that, but I don't think that worked." The redhead told Zakai with a little laugh. She knelt down and forced Carson to look at her. "Hey. Playboy magazine." What better way to get attention from a teenage boy like him, than making some reference to something dirty?
It worked. His eyes focused on her in confusion instead of fear. "What?" He gasped out.
ArraBella mentally hi5'ed herself. But she was totally going to tease him later about the magazine. "Stop hyperventilating. You're going to pass out." She cupped a hand over his mouth and pointed to his nose. "In." At first he started to struggle, but when he couldn't get her hand away he did as he was told. She moved her hand away. "Out." She told him while plugging his nose. He let out a shaky breath and she uncovered his nose. "Repeat."
After a few minutes of doing that, mist lifted from the teenager's eyes and he stared at her in confusion. Then looked over at Zakai. He glanced back to the redhead and reached his hand out towards her face. But then dropped it suddenly to her chest. Before he could touch her, she grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back.
"You dirty perv!" She shrilly cried out, resisting the temptation to kick him in the side when he began to laugh.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai watched ArraBella in astonishment as she got the guy to calm down. He decided right then that he would never do that. First, he was too small to hold him down and second, the whole process just looked weird like something that two lovers would do and yeah. He wasn't going to do that. When Carson came to and... started acting weird on another level... Zakai just smiled, stood to his feet and backed away. He watched them for a moment longer before his smile faded and he looked towards the front door nervously. Suddenly he wasn't feeling all too good and he went to the couch and lied down.

[Kicks]

ArraBella kicked him in the side when he grabbed her shoe. "Ugh! I try to help you and you repay me by doing that?! Never again." She huffed out while leaving the room.
Carson continued to laugh even after she had left him there on his butt, laughing his head off. After some minutes he stopped laughing when he saw Blake manifest from the bathroom, holding a hand up to his head.
"Now I see what Tamara meant about the injection." He mumbled while picking up the pack. "Carson, do you know what you did to me?"
Carson stared back at him with a confused expression on his face. "What?"
Blake sighed back in answer. That's what he had figured. He passed the teenager and back into the living room just in time for the front door to open. The admiral and Colton pressed their backs up against the door and forced it shut against a wave of zombies. What skin that wasn't covered by the armor was either scratched, bleeding, or bitten. The door clicked shut and all that was left was pounding at the front door. But soon enough even that died down.
They were both breathless, but somehow the admiral managed to find some words: "Is everyone okay!?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Hearing the zombies when the door opened, Zakai cowered and scooted himself backwards to the farthest point he could get away from the door while still being on the couch and curled up into a ball there. When the door shut and he heard Admiral Thomas's voice he looked up and sat up and nodded.
"I think so." Then he lied back down. This was weird. Was he alright? He really wasn't feeling too well all of the sudden. A lot had happened during the last few days. Maybe it was all just catching up with him. After all, he was sleep deprived.

[Kicks]

"Good." The admiral breathed out in relief. He stood to his feet and grabbed Colton up by the arm. "Where's the injection?"
"I forgot to hide it." The redhead answered while bringing her hand up to her forehead. "But I'm not sorry!" She also added in her stubborn way. Even so, she gave over the silver box.
The old man laughed shakily back. "Of course you aren't." He remarked before turning his eyes on all of them. "We're getting out of New York."
Colton nodded his head in agreement to that. "It sounds crazy. But there's a way we can get out without unleashing the virus to the rest of the country." He took in a breath to catch up with himself. "Tamara doesn't know about it. And if she does, she won't be able to use it anyways."
"But there's a catch." Admiral Thomas added in a serious voice. "We have to get to the port. That's where the barrier meets the border with the water. You're going to have to swim out for a mile or so until Richard comes in with a helicopter to pull you out of the water. A lot of things can go wrong. From here to the port is a long ways. Zombies, monsters, and terrorists will await us. They want what we got and they'll stop at nothing to destroy us."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

That sounded crazy. Zakai was not a swimmer. He buried his head in a pillow on the couch and punched it once then looked back up, turning over on his back.
"Um... what do I do if I'm no good at swimming?"
He never had been nor did he think he ever would be. Funny, considering he lived in California all his life, but he had simply never really learned. It was not a good thing but it was what it was and now he didn't feel good and he had to swim. Oh well. That didn't matter. The whole not feeling good barely happened just now so it would probably go away. The only thing that was bad was swimming.

[Kicks]

The admiral looked at Zakai oddly. He had never heard of someone from California who didn't know how to swim. "I did not think about that." He answered honestly before looking at Colton for a solution.
"No problem. I'm a great swimmer so I can help you out in the water." Colton told him with a shrug of his shoulders. "We'll only have to be out there for about twenty minutes before we reach the drop zone." Though growing up in Texas it was hot, he hadn't swam a lot. He preferred basketball. But in the Navy it was sort of the thing to swim considering they did sea work. If you went out on the sea, you had to know how to swim. Especially if you were a captain and commanding a ship. So he had gotten pretty good at swimming.
He looked more closely at Zakai then and frowned. "You okay? You look kind of ill."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai nodded when Colton said he'd help him. "Okay."
He then just turned onto his side and stared ahead at whatever was in front of him, but he wasn't really focusing on anything. His head was starting to hurt a little. He wasn't sure about this. If this went on then swimming would only be twice as hard! He sighed and looked down at the ground before hearing Colton's voice asking him if he was okay. Zakai sat up immediately.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Just tired is all." he looked down for a moment, "Yeah. That's gotta be it."
He stood to his feet and went to his room upstairs. That had to be it. He wasn't feeling like this at all before.

[Lil]

Faye lied on the couch until Blake and Zakai returned to watch the whole scene unfold, completely confused. "What just happened?" She asked but it didn't require a reply. Instead she sat down on the couch and grabbed her head.
This plan seemed insane and extremely risky but it's not like Faye had much of a choice at this point any longer.

[Kicks]

Colton watched the kid as he left the room. He was hoping the kiddo wasn't coming down with some kind of disease. A thought sprung to his head and he turned to the admiral: "You don't think he could have gotten whatever was going around here, right?"
"I don't know." Admiral Thomas answered back with a shrug of his shoulders. "He said he was tired. You're worrying too much. Just let him rest up. You and I have to work out some kinks to this plan to lower the risk."
Colton slowly nodded his head in agreement. But he wasn't so sure about Zakai. He really hoped the kid wasn't sick. It would suck to get sick in these kinds of conditions.
As for Blake, he sat down beside Faye and put an arm around her shoulders. "You okay?" He asked her curiously. She had her head in her hands and looked very uncertain. But there was nothing he could do for her about that, and that sucked.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai lied down on his bed once he reached his room. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but he knew that usually rest helped a lot. He was indeed tired, though he had learned to ignore that which was not the best way to go about handling exhaustion. He buried himself in blankets and stared at the wall. He just needed to sleep and then get out of here. He would be fine he decided... though... it wasn't really something to decide he supposed. If you were sick, you were sick. But I'm not sick! I can't be sick! He started shivering in fear. What if I'm sick?

[Lil]

"I've just got a migraine." Faye sighed and looked over at Blake with tired green-blue eyes. She smiled though, happy he had returned safely. What they had done seemed very risky but also necessary.

[Kicks]

Colton sat across from the admiral with a pen in his hand and a blank sheet of paper before him. He started writing some things down like locations. His pen slowed down the curve of his writing and he glanced up at the admiral. "Nobody's been wearing their mask. That must be it. Maybe he did pick something up. If he did-"
"Cap, I used to be a doctor, and you just need your license to practice. If he's sick, he'll be fine." Admiral Thomas told him sternly. "Now will you focus? I need your brain on this. There's more variables than I can wrap my head around."
Colton pulled the map away from him and focused on it. Or at least seemed to. His mind was going around the scary thought that maybe Zakai had come down with something. If he did there were hospitals and clinics that had things like- "Antibiotics." He stated with a nod of his head. "If he's not feeling better in the morning, I'll go to a pharmacy and get some antibiotics."
The admiral brought his hands up to his hair and let out an audible sigh. "Colton! Focus!"

- - - Updated - - -

Blake lifted his hands up to her head and began to massage it. "My mum used to have me rub her head when she got those. It's because there's nerves in the head. The ache isn't actually inside your head, ya know that? It's caused by the nerves or whatever. So when you massage your head, the migraine goes away after awhile. It also helps if you drink water and get some sleep if the massage fails."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

After tumbling around the possibility that he was sick, Zakai had finally found refuge in sleep from the worries of his mind. In his sleep though, he kept having weird dreams about lights and apparitions and other weird stuff. Not his usual nightmare... too weird to even be called a nightmare even. Another thing, he kept hearing a voice calling out his name. He was both afraid of it an comforted by it. He didn't know the voice, but there was an odd familiarity as well as the sense of danger behind it. He kept tossing and turning in his sleep. When he would wake up later, it wasn't likely that he'd be all that rested.

[Lil]

"This is a little weird ya know?" Faye responded as Blake massaged her head. It probably looked crazy from an outside view. She laughed lightly but what Blake was doing didn't really relieve her head ache.

[Kicks]

After hours mapping out their path and deciding plans, Colton let out a sigh and rubbed his head. "What if by morning he's really sick though?"
Admiral Thomas gave him a look of annoyance. "Why are you so worried? It's not going to do anybody good by worrying over it. If he's really sick then you can get antibiotics in the morning for him. But chances are it's probably just him being tired."
Colton ran his hands through his hair at the admiral's reply to that. "As soon as we can, I'd like to put this mission into action. Tamara knows where we are now. She knows we have what she wants. Sooner than later she's going to show up with monsters and who knows what else."

- - - Updated - - -

Blake removed his hands from her hair and gave her a sheepish look. "Sorry. It was out of instinct." He told her while clamping his hands together as if to keep them under control. "Maybe you need some water. Are you dehydrated?" He suggested to her as his blue eyes went towards the kitchen. He could go get her some now.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai woke up more nervous than afraid, but the mere nervousness of him was enough to have him shaking and sweating. That was a really weird dream. He hardly even knew what it was about or if it was a about anything. It just seemed to be a bunch of weird nonsense. Even worse than that, he wasn't feeling any better. If anything, he was feeling worse. He sat up. He wasn't sure what it was, but he really just was not feeling well. He stepped out of the room and then walked out to the kitchen. He decided to drink tea. Tea usually helped out in these situations. Then he'd go back to bed. He put some water into a kettle and set it on the stove, then sat down and laid his head on the kitchen table while he waited for it to heat up. He'd be fine. He would be okay. This was nothing but being tired. Right? He didn't know. Suddenly he wanted his mom. That was always a bad sign.

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas watched as the kid came into the kitchen and then sat at the table with them. He looked over at Colton who he knew would have his attention on the kid rather than the map and papers. He leaned back in his chair, knowing very well they would not get anything done when the captain was worried about the kiddo.
"Are you feeling any better?" Colton asked the kid worriedly. "Need anything? I could make some chicken noodle soup..." Okay. That was a lie. He'd find Blake and made him make the soup. Colton sucked at cooking. It was a miracle he didn't burn the prepackaged food from the military in California.
Thomas snorted as he caught the tell tale lie. "You couldn't make chicken noodle soup even if it were canned."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai shook his head.
"I don't need soup. I'm making tea. I'll be fine."
He made sure not to answer directly the 'are you feeling any better' question because they were working and he was feeling worse. But he was going to be fine he decided and he decided that that was enough of an answer. He'd get better in a moment. He looked over at the kettle and when it started whistling, he stood up and walked over, turning off the burner and then picking it up to pour the water into a mug. It was then that he realized it. He was slightly shaking, except this time it was involuntary. He hoped the others wouldn't notice. If they did he would just tell them he had weird dreams and was spooked. He set the kettle down and then took some tea bags and put them into the water. He stared as the water changed color and became more and more aware of the fact that he wanted his mom. Okay. Okay. he thought to himself, If I admit that I might possibly be sick can I get better?

[Kicks]

"See, he's fine." The admiral stated while putting his head back down to the papers. "Now will you focus on working instead of worrying?"
Colton wasn't listening to the old man though. His eyes were on Zakai's hands as he poured the boiled water into his cup. Maybe the kettle had been too heavy for him, or he hadn't enough, but he saw some shaking.
"He's not okay." The captain insisted while turning his green eyes on the old man. "What time is it?"
The admiral let out a loud groan and tossed his hands into the air. "Even if he were sick, there's nothing we could do until tomorrow morning besides let him sleep and drink plenty of fluids. We have so much to think about for getting to the port, Cap. And we don't even have enough time to plan all of it. Tamara won't make a move tonight but tomorrow she will. We need to get going by tomorrow morning. So focus."
"Ads, you underestimate me." Colton sighed back, "I already have it figured out. Look, we have an hour and a half in the morning before the zombies come out. At high noon it's the more intense waves. So by noon we have to be holed up somewhere. Which is here-" He pointed to a place he had starred on the map, "That night when the zombies have gone, we move to this spot-" He pointed to another place. "-In the morning we move here. That night we move there. That morning we move here. That night we make it to our final destination. In the morning we set up the smoke grenades and the wire. We wait until that night to make our move on the barrier." When he explained the most simplest of the plan, paraphrasing a lot, he turned his eyes back on Zakai. "Come over here. Are you feeling feverish?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to the other two as he sipped his tea. Colton was really worried it seemed and Admiral Thomas wanted him to focus. Zakai wasn't feeling good at all, but he saw the Admiral's point. Then again, Colton explained the whole plan, very quickly, to the admiral then told Zakai to come over. Zakai stared at Colton for a moment, then looked at Admiral Thomas. He wasn't sure which one he was supposed to oblige at the moment. They were both making a certain amount of sense. Or maybe his head was just too under the weather because Colton never made sense about these sorts of things. Either way, he finally started walking towards Colton and stopped in front of him not answering his question. He didn't feel good. He was starting to feel worse even after drinking the tea. He sat down in a chair and stared at the map on the table until finally he said, "I want my mom."

[Lil]

Really Blake, I'm okay." She smiled at him and patted his hand comfortingly. "I can take care of myself you know, I'm perfectly capable." She pecked him on the cheek. "Thank you though. You're too sweet." Faye smiled and leaned back on the couch.

[Kicks]

Colton brought his hand up to Zakai's forehead and immediately withdrew, acting as if he had been burned by fire. He shook out his hand and glanced over at the admiral. "He wants his mom, Ads. When a kid wants his mom, he's sick." He then showed the old man his hand, "I got third degree burns just by touching him."
The admiral went from serious and focused on their plan to concerned. "Take him up to whatever room he's staying in." He told the captain while he stood up from the table. "If he has a fever, he's going to need something like Advil. I'll find that and get some water."
Colton complied with what the admiral stated. He stood up from his seat and made a gesture towards the stairs. "Come on then. In the morning I'll rob a pharmacy and get some antibiotics."

Blake leaned against the cushioned seat and kicked his feet out before him. "I can't wait until we're out of New York. I will not miss this place at all." He informed her with a crooked smile. "But I wonder what's going to happen after we do leave. Obviously they're taking the injection somewhere. But what about New York...?" He trailed off then as he thought back to this morning. The warehouse. He and Zakai had left the three adults in there with Tamara before the zombies could come out. When they returned, the admiral and captain shut the door. "Where is the sergeant?" He wondered with wide eyes and glanced around. "Did you see him?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai sat still as Colton touched his forehead and then pulled away, then presumed talking to Admiral Thomas about how Zakai was sick. When the admiral cot concerned, the kid knew then that he really must be coming down with something. Colton told him that he was going to rob a pharmacy in the morning and he nodded, stood to his feet and walked over to the stairs, climbing up a little shakily. For some reason it was harder than usual to walk up the stairs. He walked over to his room, opened the door and stared at the bed inside. He looked up at Colton with worried eyes.
"What about swimming? What will I do if I get worse?"

[Kicks]

Colton followed the kid up the stairs, making sure he didn't go tripping down them or dying all of a sudden. He looked down at him when he asked about swimming and getting worse. "I will find a way to get you out of New York. If you get worse, that's even more reason to get you out." He put a hand down on the kid's head, "And if you're puking your lungs out or so sick you can't walk, I'll just carry you. You don't weigh a lot, in case you didn't know."
Admiral Thomas came up the stairs with two pills in his hand and water in the other. "Here. These should keep you from frying your brain." He told Zakai while handing over the pills and water.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai took the pills from Admiral Thomas and also the water before sitting on the bed and swallowing them accordingly. He was beginning to feel worse all of the sudden, but he'd be fine. He just needed to give the pills time. He was tired. He wanted his mom really badly. He laid back into the bed and burrowed into the thick covers, then stared off into space for a second before looking back up at Colton and Admiral Thomas.
"Are you going to go away?"

[Kicks]

The admiral nodded his head in answer to that question. "I most definitely am. Sorry, midget. I find you adorable but I gotta go rest these old bones for tomorrow." He gave a tired sigh, patted the door, and then left to go back downstairs.
Colton on the other hand sat down on the ground and leaned against the wall. "I'll stay just in case." He answered while he slid his arms behind his head and rested his head against them. He stared at Zakai with a judging look for a long moment, trying to figure out what kind of illness had stricken him. The flu hadn't been rampaging lately and it wasn't even the season for it. The cold gave off different symptoms. But he was only listing off those diseases because he had a feeling he already knew what Zakai had and didn't want to believe it. Though the cure was found, the disease was awful and rendered those ill from it to bed rest. There was no way Zakai would be able to move around like normal while sick. Which was okay, because Colton was determined to get him to the barrier and get him out of New York any way he could.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai watched the admiral go and then turned to Colton when he said he would stay. Zakai was relieved that Colton was staying. For some reason being sick always had a habit of making being alone unbearable. He stared back at Colton for a while until he closed his eyes and settled into the blankets. His shivering was becoming more violent and throat was beginning to feel funny. He wasn't liking how this was going right now. He opened his eyes and stared at the wall for a moment then took out the picture of his family and looked at it. He put it down beside him and closed his eyes again. He remembered getting sick back when they were still alive. His mother, of course, was always there with him right by his bedside whenever she could be and made him feel a lot better just having her there. He remembered once, when he'd been sick for almost a whole week, he'd woken up in the middle of the night and saw his father sleeping in an armchair he had in his room with a book on his lap. Even his little sister had been there for him, though her presence was often more annoying than comforting and his mother would chase her out of the room. He missed them a lot more now that he was feeling sick. He laid his hand on the picture and in this position, fell asleep.

[Kicks]

It wasn't hard for Colton to stay up all night. His mind never stopped working when it had a lot to think about. That was one of the things that used to annoy Adalia to death. She'd wake up in the middle of the night to find him writing down things in a notebook or drawing out a map of something only his brain could determine. When she took away any notebook and pens she could find and hid them from him, he would spend his nights drawing it out in his mind. Which was less disturbing for her, but then she'd have to put up with him being off in his own head the next morning.
Tonight his brain wouldn't stop because he was worried over Zakai and how they were getting out of New York. It swiveled around the pharmacy on the route that led to the barrier, Tamara and what she would do, timing things perfectly, any unforeseen variables, and the day they got into the water. Swimming with a sick person and moving around so much was an awful idea. But they didn't have a lot of choices. They had to start moving before they were found out.
Wait. We don't have to swim. He realized then while he shut his momentarily.Bells can make things with her mind. I've seen her make a monster truck before. A boat should be a piece of cake. And he hoped so. Boats were faster and helped out a lot.
After that relieving thought, he opened his eyes again to find that a good amount of time had passed. Had he really caught some sleep between opening his eyes and realizing ArraBella could make them a boat? It seemed that way because suddenly he couldn't hear monsters outside.

[Lil]

"Yeah I have to say. I'm not a big fan of New York anymore." She agreed and traced her fingers on Blake's knee softly. "Where are we supposed to go though?" She asked not exactly sure how the whole plan would play out.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

It didn't take long for Zakai to start having weird dreams again, most of them concerning his family somehow. There was no plot to them. Just a bunch of weird clips. A bomb, snakes, weird distortion of people walking by, but his family members were always clear. It was really weird, until at one point, he was there too. He was staring at the back of someone who was not distorted but couldn't tell who they were. When he ran forward and called to them, right when he got to them they turned around and it was Carson hold a gun with a frightened look in his eyes, swerving around and shooting Zakai in the chest. Then he woke up, gasping, sitting up abruptly.
He was shivering more violently and aware of the fact that he was having slight trouble breathing in but only enough so that he had to stop and breath more slowly. His throat was getting worse and his head had a weird groggy feeling to it. His eyes landed on Colton once and he calmed down a little, but he couldn't stop the shaking. He backed up against the wall and rubbed his head.
"I don't feel good."

[Kicks]

Blake wasn't paying attention to her as she traced over his knees. He probably would have laughed if he had noticed because of being ticklish there, but his mind was elsewhere at the moment. Girls could focus on so many things at once. Their minds were so flexible, but men tended to think like waffles. Their minds were made up of boxes. They could put things in those boxes and go between the boxes whereas women minds seemed to touch everything from emotions to logic within one single strand of thought.
The teenager looked around quickly once more, put at unease. It was morning, he knew that by the silence outside. Morning meant action. But what actions were they going to take? Tamara knew where they were now. She was determined to get the injection.
"Hopefully we leave soon." He finally stated at last while getting to a stand.
"We are." Came another voice from the hallway. It was of the admiral who had arisen from sleep when he heard silence outside. "You should both get ready now. I'll go tell the others."

Colton's eyes snapped open again when he heard gasping. His green eyes landed on the kid who had awoken from sleep. The captain hadn't even realized he had shut his eyes and stopped watching the kid until now. He got up from his position against the wall and came over to the kid's side. He put a hand on his forehead like he had the night before and after a moment, withdrew it. He was frowning as concerned flickered onto his face.
"I know you don't. You strong enough to walk?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai watched Colton walk over and feel his forehead, but gave no major reaction to Colton's concern aside from slight nervousness rising in his chest from it, but even then he didn't feel it much. He looked up at the captain when he asked him if he could walk and nodded.
"Yeah. I can walk." he stood to his feet and swayed a little, but trudged on. He could walk. He didn't know where they were going though so he stopped, using the wall to support himself, and waited for Colton.

[Kicks]

Colton watched Zakai for a moment, determining whether or not the kid could hold himself steady enough or not for this immense journey. He seemed to be stumbling and swaying a lot, but he was keeping on his feet. On the go, Colton would have to keep a close eye on him.
"Kay, put on your armor. We'll be leaving in five minutes." He the kid before vanishing down the stairs. He came down to find the sight of ArraBella sneaking up on Carson who was reading the ingredients to a trail mix.
"Bells, I don't think that's a smart move." The captain stated with a cocked brow. It would have been funny on any normal circumstance, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't work out like she had planned. The teenager would probably slip into a hallucination. Colton didn't want that. He wanted to keep that from happening.
Carson's head whipped around and his blue eyes landed on the redhead. He smirked and tossed the bag at her. "Not as sneaky as you think you are."
ArraBella broke into a scowl and glared between the two of them. "Watch it, Spazz, I'll get you."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai watched Colton go then changed out of the clothes he had on and put them in his survival pack before putting on his armor again. He then put his picture in the pack as well and made a lousy attempt to make the bed which ended with him lying on top of the wrinkled blanket and he decided the task was impossible. He slung the survival pack over his shoulder which he swore, had gotten heavier since the last time he ha carried it, then left the room and stopped at the top of the stairs. He stared down, contemplating whether he'd be able to make it down or not himself. He took a step and ended up almost falling before, by some miracle, he caught himself on the railing. In the end, he backed up and sat in the hallway. It was impossible. He'd wait here.

[Kicks]

Colton grabbed a pack of poptarts and shoved it into Carson's pack. While the teenager was facing forward and trying to spin around to see what the captain was doing to his pack, Colton pulled out the guns and stuffed them into his pockets. He zipped up the pack again and pressed a fork into Carson's hand.
"Sorry, bro, but I heard about what you tried in the basement the other day." Colton told him while patting his shoulder. "And since we'll be facing off with all sorts of horrific things, there's a pretty good chance you're going to lose your head more than once."
Carson didn't look so amused at the captain's findings. He held out his hand for his guns back. "I stole them fair and square from the fort. They belong to me."
"Technically they belong to the military. And who works for the military?" Colton asked back before pointing to himself, a bright smile on his sarcastic face: "Oh that's right! I do!" He let out a satisfied breath, "I'm just repossessing what's mine."
Carson watched with a glare as the captain went back up the stairs. He turned to ArraBella and held out his hand. Before he could even demand a gun from her though, she tossed her hair and headed for the front door.
Colton slipped up the stairs to go and see what Zakai was doing and why he was taking so long. It was then that he found the kid sitting in the hallway. The captain didn't even bother to ask questions, he already figured what it could be. He knelt down and scooped the kid up into his arms, then headed down the stairs.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai was a little surprised when he was scooped up because he kind of dozed off while he was waiting. He opened his eyes and stared at Colton who was carrying him down the stairs, then looked back up from where they came. He tugged at Colton's shoulder and pointed up the stairs.
"Carson's gun is in the attic if you want it." he said in a slightly raspy voice when he remembered that he'd hidden it there. He then closed his eyes, not falling asleep, but not completely conscious either. He was really tired and they were refusing to stay open.

[Kicks]

Colton's eyebrows slowly raised up as he was told about the gun in the attic. He wouldn't question that sense, but so long as Carson didn't know about it then he wouldn't have to go get it. By the time he was down the stairs, the admiral had joined the others with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Did you get into contact with the sergeant?" Colton asked him as he joined them at the bottom of the stairs. "He should have made it to the first checkpoint."
"If he made it, he's not answering." Admiral Thomas answered, "We'll figure out later today whether he was able to make it." He made a gesture towards Zakai then: "How's the midget doing?"
Colton glanced down at the kid and then back up to the admiral, "Hopefully better after we find those antibiotics."

[Lil]

Faye stood from the couch and nodded to the Admiral. "What am I supposed to grab?" Faye asked in a whisper to Blake not sure how they were supposed to get anymore ready for this.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai listened to the sound of the others talking around him. He felt really cold for some reason. Focusing was really hard for him at the moment. He recognized the admiral's voice and did his best to hang onto it, but his mind kept bouncing around several worries he had about this whole thing and it only really felt the need to respond to one thing.
"I'm not a midget." he mumbled, but he kept his eyes closed and didn't even move. He was extremely tired, even more so than usual and he wanted to sleep but his brain wasn't letting him. He coughed.

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas gave Faye a thumbs up. "You need yourself and your pack." He told her before turning his now dancing dark eyes on Zakai. "Oh? So then you're a dwarf?" He chuckled back but moved out the front door before he could get a response.
Blake followed after, his arm linking with Carson's for a moment when the captain moved ahead of them. He watched in front for a moment or so before he pulled a gun out of his pack and passed it to Carson.
The brunette glanced at him suspiciously. He didn't know where Blake had gotten the gun from considering he couldn't shoot so wasn't issued any, but at the moment he couldn't care less. He was now armed and could defend. He had found it rather ridiculous that his guns had been stripped from him and saw no logic in it. But couldn't argue with the captain because he knew what the man was capable of doing.
It was a block from them that the admiral slipped into a pharmacy. For a moment, Blake was certain he had caught the exchange, but the admiral's eyes didn't linger long enough to reveal anything. Instead, his image disappeared from the windows as he progressed deeper into the pharmacy.
After a few minutes, he came back out with a heavier bag. There was a small packet in his hands that had the word "AMIKACIN" printed in bold on its blue front. He flipped it open and revealed sealed vials strapped into place. There were five small vials filled with a blue liquid in it. It was supposedly 'blue raspberry' flavored. The admiral took one of the vials and popped the seal to the top of it. He handed over the plastic vial to Zakai.
"Drink it." He instructed while passing the packet to Colton. "It's going to be harder for him to recover while on the move, but supposedly in five days the disease is supposed to be cured."
"We'll be in D.C by then." Colton stated while pocketing the packet. "If he hasn't shown improvement, we might have to hold off on going to D.C and get to the nearest hospital instead. We can't let the disease spread, and we can't let the kid die."

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai opened his eyes again when the admiral called him a dwarf, but the man was out of the room before he could say anything. He felt himself growing more tired and he coughed again. This seemed a lot different from a cold or a flu. He finally admitted fully to himself that he was sick and managed to stay calm about it too... mostly anyway. In his head, he was doing flips and spins all over the place and getting even more nervous since he wasn't identifying anything as possible illnesses he might have. When the admiral was suddenly back and handing him a blue vial, Zakai took it from him and listened to him and Colton speak to each other using the words 'disease' and 'hospital' and 'not letting it spread'. Zakai figured it out by that time. So I have the death plague going around lately? Great.
He drank the liquid in the vial. He would have thought it tasted terrible, but he wasn't paying attention to that. Suddenly being sick became a whole lot more dreadful because suddenly there was the possibility that he would die. He'd gotten out of California without being changed and through various towns without getting sick. He figured it was about time he was affected in some way by all of this. Even so, he was surprised.

[Kicks]

Moving on from the store, Colton shifted uncomfortably. They had to have been walking for at the very least an hour. Even through boot camp and all of his training though, years of basketball, and the likes carrying around someone for that amount of time went from being as light as a feather to heavy as bricks. His arms were cramping and his elbows needed to pop. So while the admiral went ahead of them, he put Zakai down briefly and stretched out his arms. Two pops sounded off from his elbows and he let out a sigh of relief while rolling his eyes back.
"Oh that feels so good!" He breathed out. Now that he had the time to stretch his arms just for only a minute he could feel the blood circulating and throbbing underneath his skin. It was fantastic.
"Think you could ride on my back?" He asked while making a gesture towards his own back. "We only got a little while longer before we stop for the afternoon."

[Lil]

Faye trudged along behind the rest keeping up nicely. Se didn't pay much attention to what was going on but instead just stared blankly at the sky ahead of them. She was excited to get out of New York but also felt bad for everyone they were leaving locked up in here. It didn't seem like a fair trade to her, but it's not like she could do a lot about that at this point.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai had closed his eyes again but he opened them once he felt himself being lowered and was set down. He watched Colton stretch then looked down. He felt bad that he had to be lugged around all day. It had to be tiring. He stood up and tested his step but it was worse than this morning and he almost fell. He was beginning to feel like a baby that was learning how to walk. He sat down again, then looked up when Colton asked if he could ride on his back. It took him a moment to process what he had said since he was kind of out of it. He nodded but didn't move. His eyes kept wanting to close and he was shivering even more now. He covered his mouth and coughed. His throat felt like it was closing up for some reason. He let his hand drop and closed his eyes again, not feeling much like moving.

[Kicks]

Carson started laughing at the sight. He passed the captain, tossing his head back and continuing to laugh obnoxiously. Blake on the other hand didn't find it was so amusing. He rolled his eyes at the brunette and turned around to help out.
"Don't worry, Cap, I got this. I don't think he would stay on your back anyways." Blake insisted while leaning down and picking Zakai up. "Besides, I'm not very good with a gun and you can't exactly shoot if your arms are full."
"Oh wow, Blake! Your logic is so correct! Maybe someone should give me my guns back so I could assist in some way!" Carson exclaimed in a sarcastic manner from ahead of them. "Because close distance forking with a zombie is sure to really spread a good infection! Yay for being zombies!"
Colton looked ahead at the immature one before looking back at Blake. "Thanks." He said before moving ahead. He took out a gun and began to toss it between his hands while passing Carson. "Oh how nice it feels to have a gun in my hands! Why, if I ever tried to shoot one of my teammates I'd have them taken away! I don't want that to happen, do I?"
Carson narrowed his eyes at the display. But he kept his mouth shut anyways, figuring if the captain could drop to his level of immaturity while still holding a weight over his head, it wouldn't be a good idea to keep up his attitude. Besides, nobody aside from Blake knew he had a gun now.
"Hey, how contagious is this disease?" Blake called up to them. He had been temporarily living in New York with his cousin and Faye for a few days before they were caught by the sergeant at the hospital. During that time the disease was rampaging, but he hadn't really seen anyone with it besides the people getting shot.
"Didn't you ever pay attention in history class?" Colton replied with, "Or health class? Or just generally watched kids around you get the flu? It's the devil, Blake."
"That doesn't answer my question." Blake sighed back in answer. "If we do make it out of New York, what's keeping this disease from spreading to other people if Zakai has it?"
Admiral Thomas glanced back at them with a smile on his face. "I guess we'll just have to find out, won't we?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai coughed. He was starting to feel bad since he probably wasn't making this any easier for Colton. He heard Blake talking and then felt himself being scooped up. He glanced up at the teenager briefly before closing his eyes again and listened to them talk about the contagion that came along with this disease. It wasn't the most pleasant thing to listen to, but it was hard not to come to attention when someone mentioned it because thoughts on those sorts of things plagued him. He coughed again, afraid that this might be becoming a problem. He didn't have much time to think on it though because his exhaustion was catching up with him and eventually he was asleep.

[Kicks]

Very few of the undead they had come across even after the sun had come up. But Colton knew that would happen. He had discovered in California that the zombies became most active in the afternoon. So they traveled carefully for another hour. By the end of that hour they had finally made it to their destination.
It was a pizza joint looking bland against the dark dried blood in the streets. The sign flickered red to show would be customers it was open. But it was a signal to them that the sergeant haad made it and it wad safe to come.
Blake wished the moment he was in that he was out again. Inside were two dead elderly bodies. The floor was soaked around them in in drying blood. The place reeked of decay. But in the sergeant's arms was a baby. He was in the furthest corner away from the bodies.
Blake set Zakai down in a booth. He kept his own back turned on the horror behind him. He did not even want to think about what had happened.

[Lil]

"Oh gosh." Faye murmured covering her eyes and turning away. It smelled of rotting flesh which was a smell Faye wished she hadn't gotten to know but at this point it was all too familiar. You would think this would have gotten old and that this would no longer bother her but every time it only seemed to get worse.

[Kicks]

"What happened here?" Colton demanded after assessing the situation. There were two bodies and a baby. There were no bullet casings. Judging by the blood all over there would have been a fight very recently.
The sergeant came out of his corner and handed the sleeping baby to the captain. Despite his dark skin he was looking pale and sorrowful.
"They were infected... I had to kill her grandparents." He whispered in answer. "I don't think I can do this anymore, Cap."
Colton glanced down at the baby. He only stared down at her long enough to determine she was sick, starving, but seemingly not infected. It was after figuring that that he lifted his eyes back up to the big man. "I do not expect you to be able to kill someone and take it calmly. Even if they were infected. You are human, Jerome. Not a monster."
Carson crossed over the threshold without taking a look at the bodies. He could smell them and that was enough. When he reached the bug guy, he put his arms around him (or at least attempted to). "Cheer up, big buddy. We'll take that baby out of New York and find a nice place for her to stay."
The sergeant returned the hug momentarily. When he released the brunette he was frowning. But he did not say anything. Instead he took the baby back and glanced at the admiral. "What do babies eat?"

[Lil]

Faye covered her ears at the story then turned once she assumed it was over and she had regained her composure. "Baby food and soft foods of course." She said flatly raising a brow. What did he think a baby would eat?

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas gestured towards Faye in agreement. Hr saw no reason to impressed here when the girl made for a great source of information. But he did go back into the pizza place's kitchen to find the baby some food. After rummaging around back there he was able to rescue some canned applesauce. He took it out with a spoon and tried to hand it over to the big man.
However, Jerone declined it and take passed the baby off to Colton. "I ain't never handled a child before... and besides, her grandparents' lives are on my hands."
"Their blood is on Tamara's hands." Carson corrected while a scowl came across his face.
Colton shifted the now awake and crying child uncomfortably in his arms. "Well, don't pass her off on me. Dang it, she is crying now!" He exclaimed as he tried to pass her off on Blake. "Here. You take her."
Blake frowned at the two men. He understood how Colton had no experience with children, but he was about to be a father and had to get used to this. He did not understand how Jerome knew nothing of children though. He was a grown man! But Blake accommodated nonetheless and bounced the child until she was calm enough to be spoon fed apple sauce.

[Lil]

"You are ridiculous." Faye said to the two and gesturing to then with a wave of her hand. Colton was about to be a father, how could he not have any clue on how to take care of a baby. That poor kid of his. Hopefully Adalia was more knowledgable. The baby ended up in Blake's hands who rocked it and treated it with surprisingly good care. "Never thought you'd be so good at this Blake." Faye said and nodded towards him. She had never been around babies that much or children for that matter and up until now Faye never really thought about the fact if she liked them or not. It didn't matter that much now though.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

As Zakai slowly came out of his sleep, he realized right away that something seemed out of place. He turned his head and saw blood and corpses and immediately turned onto his other side to face the... wall? Where was he? As he gradually became more and more aware of his surroundings, the first thing he thought of was panic because he was no longer being carried around and he was in some place with blood and corpses... but... something caught his attention that stopped all his feelings of panic completely. Crying. What? He recognized this sound, and he had a sudden random memory of his mother cradling the tiny child that was his little sister. Was he dreaming? A baby? In this sort of place? As weak and sick as he felt, he struggled to pull himself upright and leaned against the sides of a what he now recognized as a booth and saw Blake holding and bouncing a baby. He didn't take his eyes off of the image. It seemed so out of place. He watched shakily from where he sat as the scene somehow seemed to calm him and he began to wonder what had happened and whether or not the baby was okay.

[Kicks]

Blake glanced up at Faye when he had fed the baby as much as she would eat without spitting it back out. "Oh. At my school in England we had to take these courses for 'teen living' or 'early parenthood'- they sucked. We basically had to learn how terrible it was marrying young and having babies in your teens, and blah blah blah. And then we had to watch over real children. Awful. Just awful. Obviously they're being unrealistic. I mean, yay we learned how to care for babies. But during these times, teens have more of a chance to succeed than older people do."
Colton started laughing as Blake explained why he was so good with children. "That's funny! We were taught the benefits of early marriage and babies in your teens. But we didn't have to take care of real children. They would give us a doll or a bag of flour."
Blake chuckled in response to that. "Well, it seems Texas and where I'm from are two very different places."
"She's sick." Sergeant Wilson finally stated at long last. He fidgeted uneasily where he stood. "Whatta we do about that?"
"Nothing too bad." Blake commented while taking a napkin from the table. He wiped the baby's face clean of the food and snot. "She's what? A few months old?"
"Looks like it." Colton agreed while curiously peering over at the baby. "It might just be RSV. It's the most common illness that young get. Runny nose and the cough, fever. With the recent lockdown, it doesn't surprise me. Babies develop it a lot more commonly in unsettled environments. She'll be fine." He pulled off his pack and grabbed out his mask from it. "Put this over her face. Zakai's contagious and she looks human."
Blake took the mask from him and eased it around the baby's face. He glanced back at Zakai and gave him a small smile. "Sorry, buddy. Don't mean to insult your existence or anything. Get better, aye?"
Colton slid into the opposite side of the booth that Zakai was sitting at. "You doing better? Need some water? A puke bowl?"

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai was beginning to hate his sickness. In response to Blake he gave a small wave of his hand to let him know he understood and didn't mind. In response to Colton, he shook his head. He was answering no for all of those questions. He'd seen enough scenes like this to be used to it. Heck, this was no different from his classroom massacre and he'd caused that to happen. He didn't feel like eating or drinking anything. He felt like if he tried, he really would puke, and he wasn't feeling any better. Sure, he was holding himself up, but he was slipping ever so slowly. He could feel it, and he kept having to climb up to adjust himself so that he could see the baby. He did turn away, however, when he went into a spout of coughing which calmed down, but he let himself drop onto the seat of the booth and curled into a ball, shivering. He felt really cold for some reason. He coughed again, not as violently, but it was obvious they were becoming a bit more frequent and his throat wasn't doing to well. At one point, he leaned his head over the side of the seat and spat out a ball of phlegm that had crawled its way out of his mouth which was even gross to him, but he didn't feel like there was much he could do. The floor was dirty anyway.

[Kicks]

Colton had figured just as much from him. He slipped away from the bench once more and vanished into the pizza joint's kitchen. It was there that he pulled different things from their places and putting them on the center island where the pizzas were made. He did suck at cooking, he really did. But he had worked at Pizza Hut in Texas during high school to pay for sports. It was there that he learned he could survive off of pizza if it was all he ever learned to cook. Which it pretty much was aside from microwaveable things or take out that needed to be reheated.
As he worked at the dough, his mind couldn't help but doddle over what they could do to make this trip easier on Zakai. He was going to get the kid out of New York, that was certain. But he didn't know in what state Zakai would leave New York in. Hopefully he would be getting better with the antibiotics. Even then, he wasn't anticipating five days to get out of here. At most, he was guessing three. So there was a good chance they would have to take Zakai to a hospital even if he had improved. Just to keep him in isolation because a person was still contagious even after they were feeling well. Nobody wanted this to spread to the rest of the nation.
"I don't like dad's rival for this campaign." Richard rang into his head through the earpiece. He had went so long without contacting them that Colton had figured the guy got held up with other important things. "I really want to shoot him. His smile... it's too pleasant. I can see evil in his eyes."
Colton couldn't help but laughing hearing the same politic speech he had heard last term. He lifted up his shoulder and pressed the button. "Why is he still hanging around? You have to get rid of him."
"Don't know." Richard answered back suspiciously, "How are things holding up over there? I haven't heard anything."
Colton spread the sauce and cheese over the pizza before answering: "Gonna need a helicopter a mile from the port in two days at night. We have an injection that Tamara wants."
"Speaking of the devil I learned something else about our favorite villain." The admiral purred back, "Her mother was shot to death here in America. Doesn't say much else about it, but that left the girls orphaned."
Colton tossed the pepperoni and olives onto the pizza while he listened. "Well, that gives her a motive, sort of. She has to be mentally ill. Maybe schizophrenic. See if you can find any medical records."

[Lil]

Faye ended up lying down in one of the booths and rested her hands under her head. She closed her eyes trying to imagine she was somewhere different, a beach or a snowy ski resort. Anywhere but an old, abandoned, pizza join that smelled of death and blood. She was ready to be done with this and zombies and monsters and terrorists. She was done with all of it. Faye promised herself that after this was all said and done she would take a nice little vacation. The end didn't seem to close though, it seemed like it would never end.

[Kicks]

After Blake showed the sergeant how to hold a baby without breaking its head or hurting it while it slept, he returned to Faye and knelt down beside her. He stared at her face for a moment or two, reveling in the fact that even with all the dirt and grime she was still beautiful. He wondered how that was possible. He probably looked like a coal miner. Which wasn't all that different to how the guys looked after a football game with their game face paint smeared with sweat and blood.
He slipped away from his spot on the ground and sneaked into the booth parallel to her so that he could see her beneath the table. Despite how strong he knew she was, he was wondering how much more of this she could take. It was only by being careful that they had managed to evade turning into monsters. They knew to hide during the night. But thinking about it now, the odds had changed. The monsters were Tamara's army after all. Once she knew their location... He could only imagine the hell that would break loose.
But he tore his mind from that and felt the familiar fatigue that used to sweep over him at any hour of the day. Except instead of it being caused by something he never understood, it was because he hadn't slept the night before. Suddenly he felt as if he weighed a ton and he rose a hand up to his eyes to shield them from the lights above their heads. But despite how tired he was, he smelled something wonderfully familiar. Maybe it was just pizza staining the seats or something though.

[Lil]

Faye peeked her eye open at the squeaking of loose plastic covering being squished down. She smiled at Blake before reclosing her eyes and letting out a soft breath. The smell of pizza started to overwhelm her senses but Faye wasn't very hungry so she didn't pop up or even really stir at all. Instead she lied there and just rested

[Kicks]

Blake was laying very still with his hands over his eyes. Until suddenly he began to laugh loudly. He turned a little as he laughed; his body shaking from the laughter. When he was able to control himself, he opened his eyes back up and peered over at Faye. His shocking blue eyes were hard and serious as he stared at her.
"Do you want to be cremated or buried? Because we could mix our ashes together and hug forever."

[Lil]

Faye opened one eye and glanced at Blake as he erupted in laughter. "Uhhh- I don't know." Faye replied towards the odd question. "I don't like to think about death if I don't have to." She said and rolled to her back then stared at the ceiling and biting the inside of her cheek.

[Kicks]

Blake continued to laugh a long time after that. He grabbed his abdomen and pressed his face into the cushioned seat to keep his laughing to himself. He only stopped laughing when he smelled pizza again. Looking up he saw the captain come out with a pan of pizza. He set it down at a booth and went back into the kitchen. A moment or so later he returned with plates and tall glasses for drinks. Once more he disappeared and then reappeared this time with a refrigerated bottle of 7UP.
"I thought you couldn't cook!" Blake called out with confusion masking his face. "What happened?"
"I can't." Colton answered back with a shrug. He put a slice of pizza on a plate and passed it over to the admiral, then got a plate for the sergeant. "But you don't have to eat if you don't trust it." He added while pouring some of the clear, bubbling liquid into a tall glass for Zakai. "I haven't made pizza since I was like sixteen. So maybe you shouldn't eat it."
"I'll eat his." ArraBella offered while taking up a slice. "Pizza is pizza. There is no such thing as bad pizza."

[Lil]

Faye remained lying down while the others talked about the pizza.16 wasn't that long ago for Colton and Red was fight, you can't really go wrong with pizza. Faye sat up in the booth and looked around before leaning against the wall and staring at the opposite wall. "We shouldn't stay too long."

[Kicks]

Colton nodded in agreement with Faye. But his mouth was full of hot pizza so he couldn't say anything yet without looking like a pig. He chewed and chewed, but by that time the admiral had answered to it:
"We aren't. We're waiting until the zombies' traffic has died down to get moving again. But we'll have to hole up after that at our next location before the monsters come out."
Colton let out a big breath after he finished chewing. "Yea." He said with a nod. But figuring it needed more of an explanation, he stopped eating for just enough time to give her some more details; "It should take three days to get to our destination. The times we're most at risk for being caught is at night because we'll be staying somewhere longer. But we also have humans on this team, so we can't go out when the zombies are the most crowded in the streets. That increases the chances of infection. We'll leave around five. So you have two hours to sleep or whatever."
"So how are we going to distract Tamara if she does find us?" Blake questioned while getting out from the booth.
Colton started chewing his pizza again and pointed towards the admiral to answer that one.
The old man chuckled a bit from his seat as if he found the exchange most humoring. "Well, if she does find us she'll have terrorists, monsters, and zombies. So our chances aren't so good. But don't worry about that. We won't get caught... at least until the very end."

[Lil]

"Sleep sounds like a plan." Faye said and flopped back in the booth and sprawled her arms out. She yawned and then curled into a ball on her side, much like a kitten would do. She wasn't really sleepy yet she was tired so she decided trying to sleep never hurt anyone.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

When the glass of 7up was set down for him, Zakai stared up at it with the thought of 'Do I have to?' going through his head. It wasn't because he didn't want to drink it, but because if he did drink it, he would have to sit up and that was such a hassle for some reason. The only thing was, he knew he would have to grab it eventually and drink because even though he wasn't feeling particularly thirsty or hungry, he was unhealthy as it was without the disease and this was probably one of the only chances he'd have in getting to eat or drink anything. Colton was right though about not taking the pizza. Zakai wasn't sure if he would be able to stomach it.
Finally, after thinking it through, he pulled himself upright and sat in a slouched position. As he drank, he thought about his coughing which was becoming more periodic now. He was worried. Once they were outside, what if he attracted attention to them? Would he have to hold it in? Worry over coughing and such was becoming too much for him. Thinking in general was becoming too much for him because that somehow only made him more aware of the fact that he wasn't feeling well. He sipped his 7up calmly and felt like curling up again, or rather, cowering. He was putting everyone in danger just because he was sick.

[Kicks]

Sergeant Wilson poked an eye through the shades to see how things were outside. They were still thick and numerous, but he could also see that their numbers were decreasing. Another half an hour and they would be able to go. In the mean time he tried to pass the baby off on Colton again who maneuvered away by spinning around the big man and then walking off into the kitchen.
"Cap, don't be like that!" Jerome called after him with a sigh. "What am I supposed to do with her when I gotta shoot? I can't handle her and a gun at the same time!"
"I'll take her." Carson offered as he stuck out his arms. "He won't let me shoot, so I'm pretty useless anyways."
Sergeant Wilson almost did pass her off. Almost. Until Blake intervened and took the child. He cast a suspicious glance over to Carson who merely shrugged with a sly smile on his face. The sergeant looked between them, but didn't make much of what was going on. Instead, he turned to address the admiral.
"So the kid is sick, huh? With what?" He questioned curiously while jabbing a thumb in Zakai's direction.
The admiral pushed his empty plate aside and folded his hands before him. He raised his eyebrows up at the sergeant, just now recalling he hadn't been with them until this morning. "That plague that hit here, Bozeman, and Austin. We have the cure though- the antibiotics- but it takes five days to get into the system and fight it to the death."
Jerome grimaced upon hearing the news. "That's a real nasty bug. How'd he get all the way here? Looks like he can't move enough to drink. And how're we going to get him to the barrier?"
The admiral made a gesture towards the kitchen where Colton had disappeared to evade holding the baby. "No need to worry about it, Colton has it covered for the most part."

[Lil]

Faye watched as Blake took the baby and bit her lip in thought. "Mind if I hold her?" She asked, extending her arms towards Blake timidly. Faye had held a baby before but it had been VERY few times and it's not like she had held one recently. It was a big responsibility to hold such a precious life in her arms and she was actually nervous.

[Kicks]

Blake shrugged in reply. He had only taken the baby because he didn't trust Carson with a child with how he acted towards his younger cousin. He didn't care if it were all in good fun or normal teenage flirting. He was doing it with his cousin, and he had a natural protective instinct over the redhead. That's why he had come to California in the first place.
The blonde carefully passed the baby off into Faye's arms. "You have support her neck and head otherwise you can really hurt her for life." He told Faye in case she didn't already know.

[Lil]

Faye nodded looking at Blake with large, doe like eyes. She held the baby carefully and made sure to hold its neck and head up. Out of instinct Faye bounced and rocked lightly and as the baby giggled a small smile spread onto her lips. "You're a cutie aren't you." She cooed down at the blue eyes girl.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

After drinking a bit of the soda, Zakai pulled away from the cup, coughing again. His stomach had settled a bit, but there seemed to be no end to the coughing fits that kept coming. Stuff kept building up in his throat and he set the cup down as he lied back down onto the seat which didn't help. Actually it made things worse. Before he knew it, he was wheezing for air and each time he tried to inhale, it felt like something was blocking the way. He sat up again and hunched over, coughing and wheezing more until he was finally able to clear a path in his throat for air to come in again and he fell back onto the seat, his shivering becoming more rapidly than before. He couldn't stop for some reason and it still felt cold. He huddled into a ball again and closed his eyes, trying to fall back asleep. At least then he couldn't feel it.

[Kicks]

Blake could not help the smile that came across his face upon gazing down at Faye and the baby. The blonde girl acted as if she had little to zero experience with babies. Which he found funny because he had always thought women were naturally maternal. Guess not. But the sight was still adorable.
On the other hand the admiral had become concerned as he watched Zakai carefully. The kid seemed to be having issues with his respiratory system. Luckily though the admiral had been smart and stolen more than just some antibiotics. He pulled a vial of cough drips from his pack. It was like cough drops except more effective.
"Here. Two drops should help ease your symptoms." The old man told the kid while passing over the small bottle to him with a dropper.

[DizzyMaelstrom!]

Zakai looked at Admiral Thomas and took the vial from him, putting two drops into his mouth. Almost immediately, his throat was starting to feel better, thank god for that too. Zakai handed him back the vial.
"Thanks. You want this back?" he started thinking about their new companion, "Is the baby okay? Is it a boy or a girl? What it's name?"
Even while he was sick, he felt he had to know these things.

[Kicks]

Admiral Thomas shook his head when he was offered back the vial. "Nah. I got it because it looked cool." He was joking of course. He had heard about the symptoms to this disease and figured it would be a good idea to grab a few things to relieve those pains.
His eyes glanced back towards Faye holding the baby and then back to Zakai. "Yea, she's fine. I don't think she even knows her grandparents went zombie." That felt like an odd term to use in this situation. It should be spoken with more care, he knew that. But after so long seeing these kind of things happen, he had grown used to them. Which he wasn't sure was a good or bad thing. "She's a girl, but I don't know her name... Maybe the sergeant does...?" He trailed off as his eyes went to the big man watching Faye hold the baby very closely. "Wilson, what's her name?"
The big man shrugged his shoulders in answer to that question. He wasn't taking his eyes off of the baby but he did bother to answer: "I don't know. Gran'parents didn't say much before they started trying to eat me."
"But they didn't try to eat the girl?" Colton questioned as he stepped out of the kitchen again.
"Didn't look like it." Sergeant Wilson answered back in an odd voice. "That's weird, huh? She had been sleeping all bundled up in a blanket in one of the booths when they turned. I didn't even know they were infected to begin with... But I figured they were hiding something because the old man walked with a limp and the old woman grimaced whenever she moved her arm. When they turned they didn't even take a look at the baby. Just went straight for me."
Colton blinked a few times as he tried to make sense of that situation. Zombies abandoned all reason. They were predators. They attacked and ate whoever or whatever they wanted. So why ignore the child? "I wonder who her real parents are."

[Lil]

"She's very cute." Faye said to Blake with a smile. "Do you want kids one day?" She asked as she swayed and bounced the child. A small giggle escaped the baby and Faye's eyes lit up and her smile grew.

[Kicks]

Blake sat down beside Faye and put an arm over her shoulders. His blue eyes stayed on the child as his mind wondered what she would grow up wondering. Her family, home, and world crushed. At least they were able to process that and understood what was happening. But this baby girl would not.
His eyes wondered up to Faye as she asked him about wanting children. He had at one point but now he was afraid of it. He did not know what would be born from a mutant or mutant parents. A monster? Zombie? He feared the latter and he knew Colton did too.
"I don't know anymore." He admitted with a sigh. He had always seen fatherhood as a blessing. But he wondered now what would come from it. He would have to find out when Adalia gave birth. That was a frightening thought.