DAY ZERO

Elena

The room had about fifteen mattresses on the floor and a few cots along the walls. One light on the ceiling that buzzed. No windows. The air was warm and stale and smelled like too many people in a closed space.

Lia counted nine girls.

Different ages, different faces. All of them sitting with their shoulders pulled in, eyes low. A few glanced at Lia when she walked in. Most didn't bother.

She scanned the room slowly.

Corner cot. Far left.

Dark skin. Blue eyes staring at the floor.

Elena looked exactly like Kai's sketch. She also looked exhausted in a way that had nothing to do with sleep. She was picking at a loose thread on her shirt, not looking at it, just pulling slowly.

Then the bolt on the door slid back.

The room changed fast. Girls who were sitting got to their feet. One near the back moved toward the wall without seeming to think about it. Another started crying before Joseph had fully stepped through the door. Just the sound of the bolt was enough.

Joseph walked in grinning.

"Daddy's here," he said.

He crossed the room straight to Elena. She stood up and turned her face slightly to the side as he leaned in and kissed her cheek. She kept her eyes on the wall behind him and held herself still.

"Got you a new friend," he said. He looked back at Lia. "What's your name."

"Lia."

He looked her over slowly. "You're my favorite now." He turned back to Elena. "Still got love for you though."

He reached out and touched Elena's face.

She pushed his hand away.

The room went quiet. Even the girl who'd been crying stopped.

Joseph looked at his hand. His expression barely changed. He slapped Elena hard across the face and she stumbled back onto the cot. He grabbed her arm and pulled her upright before she could recover and hit her again.

"I have been patient," he said. Same flat voice throughout. "Saving you. Keeping you safe. And you want to put your hands on me." He let go of her arm and she sat back down hard. He stood over her and looked at her. "Tonight I'm done waiting." He licked his bottom lip. "I'll make it worth your while."

He walked out.

The door closed.

Three seconds of silence. Then crying from a few corners of the room at once. The girl by the wall slid down it and sat on the floor hugging her knees. Elena sat where she'd landed with one hand pressed to her cheek, staring at the floor.

Lia walked over and sat beside her.

"Hey. I'm Lia."

Elena didn't look up.

"I just want to talk."

"Okay," Elena said. Flat and tired.

Lia looked at her cheek. Already swelling along the jawline.

"It's going to be okay," Lia said.

Elena looked at her. "You just got here. We've been here for weeks. Nobody came, nobody knew where we were." She looked back at the floor. "Nobody's coming."

"I came," Lia said.

"You got caught."

"I walked in on purpose. I was looking for you specifically."

Elena stared at her. "You don't know me."

"Derek and Tanisha sent me."

Elena went completely still.

"My parents..... are..... alive". Elena asked with tears springing out of her eyes

"Your parents are alive," Lia said. "Both of them. They're at the house and they're waiting for you."

"That's not—" Elena shook her head. "Joseph told us our parents were dead. He said the sickness spread through the whole area, wiped through everyone who stayed." She was still shaking her head. "He said there was nothing to go back to."

"He lied."

Elena looked at her.

"Your mum described you to us," Lia said. "Blue eyes, the scar on your chin, the birthmark on your left wrist. Your dad drew us a map to your school." She paused. "They haven't stopped."

Elena put her hand over her mouth.

She cried quietly. Not falling apart, just sitting there with her hand over her mouth and her shoulders shaking. Lia put her arm around her and left it there.

A girl across the room, maybe fourteen, said quietly, "Our parents too?"

"I don't know about everyone," Lia said honestly. "But I know Joseph lied to all of you. That much I'm sure of."

The girl pressed her lips together and looked at the floor. But she sat up slightly straighter.

Elena wiped her face with her sleeve and took a few breaths.

"How many of you came in?" she asked.

"Three others. They'll be put with the work detail."

"The boys. Yeah, that's what he does." She wiped her face again. "He works them until they're not useful. Then he opens the east wall." She said it plainly. She'd had weeks to get used to saying it. "There are eleven men I've counted, probably more. The gate runs off a panel in the guard room. He keep the infected along the east wall outside, herded there. I've thought about getting out, I've thought about it every day, but alone with nowhere to go and nothing to go back to—" She stopped. "We thought there was no point."

"There's a point now," Lia said.

"If tonight comes before they do anything—"

"It won't."

"You can't know that."

Lia thought about David's hands on her arm at the gate. Holding on past the point it made sense to hold on. She thought about Tobey promising a woman he'd just met that he'd bring her daughter home. Kai drawing a face in silence in the back seat because somebody needed to do it.

"I know them," she said. "They'll figure it out."

Elena studied her face for a moment. Then she lay back on the cot and stared at the ceiling.

Lia sat beside her. She put her hand on Elena's hair and moved it slowly. Her mother used to do that for her when she was young and couldn't sleep. She hadn't thought about that in a long time.

Elena's breathing slowed and evened out.

Lia stayed where she was and listened to the sounds of the compound outside the door. Somewhere on the other side of the walls David was working through the layout, watching the guards, counting the doors.

She was sure of it.

She kept her hand moving until Elena was fully asleep. Then she sat still and waited.