Finding A Safe Haven

Chapter Six

There is a woman in her late 20's wearing a spotless white suit standing at the top of the stair. Beside her, is the President who had ordered for this test to be put in place despite the several arguments from the remaining senators of the nation.

The other Presidents living in their bunker city underground just proceeded to gave their votes on it without thinking. In their mind, the unjustifiable deadly plan would be worth it in the end.

A meek smile appeared for a second in the woman's smile as the guards with their all-black suits and big guns entered as they brought several kids and teenagers inside the blinding white lab expanse. They all wore a hopefulness in their youthful faces.

They were already thinking they were safe here inside the President's underground facilities hidden in the White house.

But the hope in their eyes faded quick as a lightning as soon as they saw the other side of the mirror, keeping them apart from the first hunted preys who were all now looking soulless in the lab metal bed.

Their hands and feet straddled by leather straps, stopping them from moving away in the needles prodded by the doctors and scientists and their cries for mercy were repeatedly ignored.

However, that's not the worse part.

All the way to the back is what made all of their hope slipping away into the shadows. There is a wide glass dome monitored by this hunters of the innocents and inside, even in a great distance, they could hear clear as crystal the loud guttural growl.

The zombies.

And it looks like now those wretched creatures were not the worse of their nightmares. Why?

They see it with their own eyes, a new level of horror creeping through their hearts as one of the doctors injected the creature's blood into one of the kid's arm, not even age older than ten, and they watch it all with bated breath, she convulsed for a whole intense minute before her veins started to beat turning from red into yellow.

She turned into one of them and the doctor could only shook his head in disappointment.

"Where could we even find a kid who's immune to the virus?", he asked aloud to his co-workers.

Another looked up from her work of cutting up a flesh from the kid who was now a zombie. "What do you even mean? Is that really possible?"

"That's why we're here. To find a cure"

Then the oldest of them, Mr. Kim cleared his throat, making all of them turned towards him. "There is really a possibility. If one of this kids were immune, he will get the zombies abilities without turning into one"

Someone asked the obvious. "How? Could you please explain it, Sir?"

Mr. Kim smirked in bliss. "Simple. He will get their unusual strength, their numbness to pain and resistance"

All his co-workers gasped in awe, the discovery exciting them even more to continue this new experiment, regardless of who will be affected.

They were about to comment more but Mr. Kim raised up his hand and they all got quiet knowing he would give more information.

"What more?", he says, taking a look on the new kids listening to them on the other side. "He will be able to walk through the zombies without them wanting to eat him"

"Wait", Someone butted in. "In other words--"

Mr. Kim continued. "He's invisible"

"And if we find one?"

Mr. Kim then looked up to his wife who were talking in a heated conversation with the president.

"We will not stop experimenting on him until we find the cure"

_______________________________________

Disbelief couldn't even described what the three of them were feeling inside as the two men leads them through the desolate city for a few hours and they were asking them from time to time of how the hell did they survive for long in their own.

Takashi in his personality almost answered him without a thought if not for Nicholas glaring at him whenever the new strangers looked away. Howard on the other hand, kept to himself, alerted to any changes in his body.

When they reached their destination at last, the sun had already risen up and sunlight warms their tired bodies from all the walking they had done, although their tiredness changed once they realised where they are.

A pier.

The inviting blue water had lifted up their mood as the river gently sways the boat waiting for them. Flocks of seagulls flied above them, enchanting them in a way and forgetting the people who brought them there, were still strangers.

They still haven't introduced their names to the three boys.

The first man who made fun of them first by scaring the three the night before turn to faced them and the blonde stepped in the boat, preparing it to sail to wherever they are going.

"So before anything else. Before we brings you to our safehouse", the first man says. "I should know your names first, boys. So please introduce yourselves to me"

Howard and Takashi nstinctively looked at Nicholas. As the leader of them, he should be the one deciding especially when he had kept them alive this long.

Nicholas's eyes narrowed on the first man. "Shouldn't you first introduce the two of you? Particularly when the two of you had kind of offended us by your stupid antic yesterday?"

He will never forget it. The intense fear for Takashi's life being threatens by this man who revealed it was just kind of his joke. Who in their right mind would make a joke like that in this worse times?

The man looked at him with curiousity. "I like your guts. Keep it up and you will survive 'till the end"

"Will you introduce yourself? Or will you talk more of nonsense?", Nicholas says quite coolly, catching the attention of the blond man.

"Look at his gaze at you!", he pointed out to the boy's chilling gaze, making the first man smiled and look back to his friend.

"It looks like he could destroy me with that gaze", the first man then nearly laughs but was stopped by Nicholas's retort.

"Sorry to intrude in your clowneries but can I say this?", he didn't wait for their answer. "You two are wasting our time here"

The two strangers looked at each other with this, mouths opening in slight amusement to Nicholas's gutsy attitude. And the one who's searching for his daugher wishes she was like him. In that way, he will surely find her safe and alive.

Although before he could think more of her whereabouts, Nicholas grew tired of them prolonging the moment of introducing themselves and think they will not say it, so he turned to his two friends.

"Let's go", he nods for them to follow him, tightening his clutch on his bagpack. "We will gain nothing from this old idiots"

His friends can only look conflicted, trapped by their own curiousity of how it would go with the two strangers and their trust on Nicholas's choice who had always been right.

Before they started to turned their backs on them, the first man shouted his name.

"Rainier! That's my name, kids!"

Nicholas returned on looking at him, pointing to the other one who wasn't still saying his name.

"Zander. My name is Zander", the blond smiled at them, removing the rope tied to the dock and pushed the boat off a little ways away.

Now that they know their names, the three suddenly have no idea what to do next. The one named Rainier then gives them a choice.

"Introduce your name and the three of you will go with us", he waved to the boat where is obviously full of supplies and different guns they could use at will beneath the seat.

"You can all share it with us but if you'll stay on your defiance, go out there again. We will not going to stop you"

This is where Howard and Takashi leaves the choice again onto him. Both of their eyes pleading to him just to agree when he met their eyes and looks away quickly - letting him see the gentle waves of the water and the birds flying.

Looking at them flying out there without a worry to the new horror down in their spot before the pier, he could only think of something ahead of his choice. His answer.

Freedom.

He will one day get it back.

"We'll be going with you"

The instant he said it, Zander fired his rifle, the boom of its sounds carries across the pier like a thunder. In only a few seconds later, did they all hear the growls of the zombies reanimating from the sand.

"We have to go now", Rainier says, his eyes landing on Takashi and pulled his bag, signalling for Zander to help the kid into the boat.

"Many of them will still come"

Nicholas let Howard climbed to the boat first before him and he turned to Rainier pulling up his submachine gun, making sure there will be no zombies attacking them, unattended.

"Thank you", he said it honestly.

Rainier didn't look at him, too focus on the zombies appearing behind the buildings. "Forget it. Just come aboard", and so he did.

As the boat pulls away from the dock, for the first time in days, Nicholas felt a peace calming him as he, Howard and Takashi watched the zombies trying to chase for them drowned in the water. Their gnarly hands resurfacing once, twice until they never goes up again.

If only it would always be like this.

Away from the destruction of the city with zombies waiting for you everywhere and the chaos getting stronger every seconds that passes.

______________________________________

Everything is changing. For the worse.

Inside and outside the haven I thought was safe enough for us to stay at.

One by one, every kid of the families living here longer than I were disappearing. They turned this issue on the Governor of this place, bidding him to take actions but it's already a month and he hadn't move from his house in the center of the haven.

Twenty kids were already gone by the time Takumi and I decided to go out there, to better face the outside world than be here, waiting for either him or I to get taken by anyone who's k********g the kids and teenagers for some reason.

"Why are we going?", Aera, the little girl we've been taking care of asked.

She followed every moves of ours inside the room, packing things in our bags quietly ad making sure no one will hear outside of our departure.

I couldn't trust anyone especially when we have a six year old girl trusting us to keep her safe and I made it as a promise.

Takumi seeing I'm still putting bullets in the magazine of my revolver went towards her and tries to distract her by carrying her up in front of the window, telling funny stories he had once did to his brother.

After I completed my last task, we looked at each other's eyes, the thing we usually do now and in all times I've been with him, I started to know every meaning behind the emotions in it.

And he in return does as well to me.

"Ready?", he whispered, putting the hoodie of Aera up on her head.

Smiling weakly at him, I pulled the safety off my gun. "As always"

He gives Aera to me who happily wrapped her little legs on my torso as I hugged her small body and felt a little better at her cheerful smile while Takumi opens the door, trying to be quiet and points at me to follow him outside.

Slowly and very quietly, the two of us hide ourselves in the shadows of the houses, all of their lights were turned off and when the lights coming from the two watch towers sways in our direction, did I see in one of the windows how a one father is hugging his daughter, his eyes on their door.

He caught my eyes but he never said a thing.

It was in his best interest to keep his daughter safe than to tell on I and Takumi on the bosses of this place not doing anything to protect the innocent ones.

Once we we almost at the gates? I quickly clasped my hands on Aera's ears when we started to hear the familiar noises of the zombies. Takumi stopped walking, looking back at me and put a finger to his lips.

On the corner across the storeroom for the weapons, he pulled out a key from his pocket and opened the door to your way out, he let me and Aera first to go before him.

And there it is. The three of us was back into the woods. Back to the never ending chaos.

I smiled, closing my eyes at the sensation of the fresh air compared to staying inside the haven but my sense of peace does not last long.

"Help!"

"Get her!"

Takumi quickly dragged me and Aecha towards the shadows of the trees, hiding ourselves as another form of misery showed itself in only a minute, a girl in my age appeared from the end of the woods.

She was wearing a lab gown, stained by what you could only think were a blood of zombies for it's green and yellow spots. She was so pale, nearly all bones, and her grimy hair clings to her face.

She's looking back behind her again and again.

I wanted to move. To be able to help her from whatever she's running from but the voice of Takumi whispering to me and with Aera's hold tightening on my nape made me stop.

"You can't always save everyone"

Four suspicious looking guys rushed out of the trees, holding not a gun and something much worse. So much worse.

I couldn't ever imagine that night Takumi and I would find out why and how the kids and teenagers were disappearing.

Tranquilizer is what they were using.

They shoot it at the girl, right at her shoulder, her fragile body falling down to the grass without even a thud. I find it strange that the four guys backed up a few feet, instead of taking her away from the sight like they were supposed to do.

The case is, they looked to be waiting for something to happen.

"s**t", I heard Takumi curses for the first time as my eyes widens like his at what we were seeing on the girl's body.

It shaked violently for a whole long two minutes then stopped. Her eyes and mouth opened up into a snarl, the color of her orbs green and her fingers have gotten sharper.

She became one of them in only one shot of that tranquilizer.

One of the four guys stepped up and shoot her in the head, saying something that will lead for us to run faster than we ever did before.

"She's not immune to the virus. We have to search for more kids in there"

Just what had happened to the world?

How many more horrors will be thrown in my way before I could find peace?