Part 13 (2/2)

Andy and Amie were as resilient as any child could be. They didn't like the situation they were forced to live in, and they wanted to be with their real family again. They knew, however, that it wasn't possible to go back, and for their families sake they would need to survive. Neither of them knew much about death, but they saw enough of it that they knew it was awful.

Fresh air filled Emalynn's lungs as she sat on the ladder watching out over the wall. The strawberries she picked from the greenhouse in the bas.e.m.e.nt burst with flavor as she bit into them. She didn't really like them before, but now everything tasted so much better. Being outside was also a pleasure greater than she ever thought it would be after spending so much time confined to the news building. Her skin was tanning with as much time as she spent out in the sun.

The flash caught her eye as the sun reflected off the BMW as it turned the corner onto the street just a few blocks up. She couldn't help but clap excitedly before jumping down from the ladder and running inside to tell Sophia. Both girls and the twins came rus.h.i.+ng out of the garage just as the gate began to open. With the streets being as clear as they were there was no hurry to make it through.

Deacon pulled the car into the garage and the group climbed out, b.l.o.o.d.y and sweaty. Emalynn smiled at Jonathan as he pa.s.sed her in the garage. He could not help but smile back. Jonathan found her quite beautiful, yet he knew that her heart still belonged to Bradley. Her soft crying in the middle of the night made it obvious.

Sophia pulled Deacon to her and kissed him. ”I hope we never have to be apart again,” She said as she pressed her body into his. The sound of his heart beating was comforting as she rested her head against his muscular chest.

”We found a few things, but nothing really great. Jon just needs time to go through the notes he picked up to see if there is anything useful to learn. If there is, and I'm sure there is, we could be about free of this nightmare,” Deacon a.s.sured her as he held her tight.

Jonathan had moved everything from on top of the dresser that used to belong to his father, and he moved it away from the wall so he could work around it freely. Setting out all the papers they brought back on one end, while the bottles of the fluoroantimonic acid were placed on the other. He wasn't quite sure yet what he would do with the acid, but he knew it was too strong to leave behind.

There would be no sleep for Jonathan tonight. What had begun as an organized process had quickly turned into smaller piles of research papers, then into an unorganized mess of papers scattered about everywhere. There were far more papers than Jonathan had previously thought. This would surely take him days to read through everything here.

After those days had pa.s.sed by, the answers seemed just as far away as they were before he started. He was delighted to see that much of the research done there used different insects to cure diseases. His grandmother always told him when he was younger that one day roaches would be used for this very thing. One researcher was using c.o.c.kroaches to help people with various cancer treatments.

Jonathan also spent many hours trying to come up with the best way to use the acid he found. He had set up Bunsen burners, beakers, and test tubes. He attached a drier hose to the vent in the bathroom to pull away any fumes that would cause harm to him or the house. The liquid bubbled; vapor was captured in gla.s.s tubes to separate any unnecessary moisture from the acid, creating a much stronger acid.

He took many samples in between reading doc.u.ments over the couple of days that he worked with nothing more than a short rest every few hours. With each sample, the acid became stronger. He planned to turn this into a form of aerosol to spray into the air with the intent of dissolving the skin of the fiends, but by the time the acid became strong enough to dissolve skin rapidly it had turned into a thick paste.

Emalynn often came to inform him when meals were ready. He welcomed her sweet smile and beautiful brown eyes that seemed to grow larger and more vibrant when she stared deeply back at him. Her intoxicating scent filled his nostrils, causing his heart to pound with excitement. His teenage hormones sparked and popped like an overloaded circuit.

For his own safety, he didn't eat in the bedroom, but he felt blessed for the time he was able to spend with the others at the dining room table. The group continued to share stories, laughing and joking with one another. Each of them feeling as though they were truly part of an amazing family, and in a way, they were.

Jonathan took his time eating every meal. He knew his work was important, but he had been alone for so long that all he wanted to do right now was have a normal life. He wanted his parents to wake him up every morning with breakfast ready. He wanted to ride his bike to school and learn, spend time with his friends and be a teenager. Instead, he would not do any of that ever again.

Emalynn sat at the table with him long after everyone else had taken their plates in and cleaned up. He knew he wanted to be with her, yet he felt that he would be just a second option for her, and this was enough to keep him from confronting her about how he felt. Despite being a teenage boy, he wanted more from a relations.h.i.+p.

”How are things going in your secret lab?” she asked with a smile.

”Pretty well, I suppose, but it is not really a secret lab. I just worry for the safety of everyone else.” He told her about the acidic paste he had created. ”Although I am not finding anything really useful in the research papers we brought back with us.”

”If there's anything to find in them, you'll do it. I'm sure,” Emalynn spoke confidently.

Jonathan could feel his face turn red. ”Thanks.” His voice cracked a little as he said this. He could tell by the way she smiled just then that she had heard it. ”So, how have you been?”

”Fine. I'm glad to be here. What you've done for us is amazing. I know we've all thanked you before, but by giving us a home you have really saved us. We have a family again. I do miss Bradley and Tyson, though. They would have loved being here.”

Rage swelled up in him as he thought about just being used as a rebound or last chance at love. He knew that she loved Bradley, and he respected that. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance with her if Bradley was still alive. h.e.l.l, she wouldn't even notice him. With his emotions running rampant, Jonathan stood, said good night, and returned to his work.

It wasn't her fault, so he wasn't mad at her. She had to watch as the love of her life was killed just a few blocks up the street. Jonathan could understand that she loved Bradley, but after walking out he began to wonder if she was in love with Bradley. Perhaps she wasn't and she knows the difference. It was too late to turn back now though, and he let himself become lost in his work once again.

Emalynn found herself feeling hurt by Jonathan's actions, yet she was smart enough to understand that he was going through too much for any young man to have to go through right now. She saw the way he looked at her, he seemed mesmerized most of the time, and then he would pull a complete one-eighty, and he would walk away. When she went to sleep each night, however, she was thinking of Bradley, and how it felt to lay in his arms, but she knew that she would have to let him go and move on.

The beautiful southern California sun warmed the earth as it slowly moved upward into the sky. The tall figure stood alone on the warm concrete a few blocks away. The figure was no longer that of the man it used to be. But the eyes that caught sight of it were blinded by hope.

”Where is Ema?” Jonathan asked as he came out of his room after a long night of research followed by a short nap. Breakfast smelled amazing this morning. Sophia and Amie had made pancakes, some with blueberries, and others with chocolate chips.

”Outside, last I saw her. Probably taking a walk around the yard to get some sun. She looks much better with a tan.” Sophia gave Jonathan a nudge with her elbow and winked.

”Probably waiting for you to go smooch her. Ee even harder. By the time she reached him it was like she was looking at him from underneath the water in a swimming pool.

”Bradley!” she yelled, as she threw herself into him, knocking him off balance. He stumbled slightly but managed to stay on his feet. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her, pulling her close. Then the smell hit her in one solid wave. She pushed away from him just enough to look up into his once handsome face. Wiping the tears away with her arms, she saw what Bradley had become.

She let out a high pitched scream, but it wasn't from the shock of seeing the love of her life like this. It was from the pain that exploded from her leg, just above the knee. She looked down past her blue tank top and cut off shorts to see Tyson, kneeling on the street, ripping flesh and muscle from her long slender leg by the mouthful.

Bradley's mouth dropped open; his breath was enough to make her dry heave. She struggled to keep him off of her, while kicking at Tyson. The pain was too much for her to bear. All she wanted to do was give in, allow the man that once stole her heart to eat it out of her chest. Let it end quickly, please, she thought.

Tyson was pulled off of her leg, muscle and sinew hanging from his mouth. He was knocked to the ground by Jonathan, who charged Bradley, driving his right shoulder hard into his rib cage. A move he had learned when Shane had done it to save his life in the BCRC building. Bradley released his grip on Emalynn as he tried to make it back to his feet. Jonathan pulled her up, but she could barely stand on her own.

Tyson stood and reached for the two, but Guillermo had grabbed ahold of him by his hair. The last thing Guillermo ever wanted to do is take the life of a child. Although he knew that the fiends were not alive, nor were they children, anymore, it was still hard for him to do. He raised his blade to Tyson's neck and began sawing through it. All Guillermo wanted was for Tyson to know how sorry he was. The sharp blade required little effort before the boy's head dropped to the street, followed by his body.

Jonathan held onto Emalynn as she tried to stay on her feet. He couldn't even imagine the pain, physical and emotional, that she must be experiencing right now. He was furious that he let this happen to her. He knew that he could have prevented this if he had tried harder to be involved with her.

Roger ran past from out of nowhere and kicked Bradley hard in the stomach. The dead man was knocked back several steps by the impact, yet he managed to stay on his feet. Contents from his stomach was forced up and out of his mouth. ”I'm not getting puked on again,” Roger said. He kicked Bradley's knee in backwards, causing the dead man to fall awkwardly forward. With several good stomps to the head, Bradley's brain burst onto the concrete.

”NO!” Emalynn screamed as she watched Bradley die once again. She knew this was no longer the man she loved, yet it was still hard to watch his head burst open in the street.

”Why aren't you running?” Roger asked as he turned back to Jonathan, showing no concern for the young woman screaming. ”Oh.”

The road back to the house was filled with fiends moving toward them. The sun, just coming up in the sky to the east, cast shadows off of the horde that stretched far out of sight. The group instinctually moved in close together while they planned out how to make it through this alive.

”We won't be able to move through that group. Maybe we can take the long way around. Run down this street here.” Guillermo pointed behind him without looking toward the road just down from them. ”From there we can loop back around and hope enough of them follow us to give us a clear shot at the gate.”

The soft sc.r.a.ping of shoes on concrete made the group turn. Another group of the undead moved up the street behind them. This one was too close to the road Guillermo was hoping to take. There is no way they would make it before that second group tore into them.

”Well it looks like this might be the end for us,” Roger said without much emotion. Maybe I can be with my family now.

”I'm so sorry,” Emalynn said as she began to cry harder than before. ”You shouldn't have come after me. I'm sorry. This is my fault. Leave me here on the street and run. Jonathan, please run.” She placed her hand on his face and looked him in the eyes. Her eyes displayed pain, terror, and sadness.

Jonathan looked into her pleading eyes. Their beauty mesmerized him now as much as ever. ”That is not going to happen. We will find a way through. I just wish I didn't live in a neighborhood where everyone had a d.a.m.n wall around their yard.” He looked around knowing there was a way to run; he just had to find it. For a brief moment Jonathan believed he had seen Sam moving through the horde.

Before he could find the boy once again, the sound of the powerful BMW roared over the commotion made by the incoming horde. The screeching of the tires breaking free of their grip on the pavement echoed across the town. The black sedan came into view as it parted the sea of undead. Fiends rolled off the top and sides while others were knocked down and run over. The car slid to a stop in front of the group, who just stood there amazed for a moment.

”Well. Get the f.u.c.k in!” Deacon yelled through the window as it slid down into the door. He looked more stunned then them that they were not moving faster. He continued to swear under his breath as the window rolled up.

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