Chapter 20 - If only that was the case... Im sorry... (1/2)

We approached the two-gated compound now as I stopped before it to scan around. The nearest gate to us is much wider than the one next to it. If you walk inside that gate, there will be a house in front of you with two windows and you'll see the small gate that connects the two on the right side. On the left side, you will see a walkway but you can't see where it leads from where we stand, but the door to the house in front of us is located at that walkway.

Surprisingly, the gate in front of us is not locked by anything. I carefully opened it and slowly crept to the small gate to lock it with the bolt attached to it. This time I made Jared and Kaley stand guard on the gate while we three proceed to the walkway. I peeked while hugging the wall and I saw the door to this place a few feet away from the walkway and at the end of it, another door can be seen though it has another passage leading to the right. Before we even took a step, a man's voice rang out.

”Who's there?! Are you Ivan?!” the man said.

The group looked at me and I replied to the voice.

”No, this is Sky, a few gates back.” I said.

”Sky? What are you doing here? I thought everyone was at the camps. Have you seen Ivan?” he said.

”Is this Derek? We stayed at our compound. We're patrolling here to check on other people. We haven't seen Ivan though, sorry. Can you let us in?” I replied.

”Yeah, this is Derek, wait a few, I'll come down.” Derek said.

A few moments we heard a few locks clicking and the door opened for us. Derek has a surprised look when he laid his eyes on us. ”Come in, my family and Ivan's family are in here.” he said. I come in and saw a few more people though one woman is carrying a baby.

”Where did Ivan go?” I said to them.

”He went out yesterday afternoon after the broadcast to grab their baby some fever medicine, he told us to not leave this house but he never came back since.” Derek said. The woman carrying the baby is visibly upset as he told the story.

”Since yesterday? Could he have come to the DDR camps?” I said.

”No, he wouldn't, his wife Clara is still here with his child.” Derek said.

”What I mean is he could've come to that place to get some? Mark, can you switch with Kaley for a minute? She could check the baby” I said.

”You got a doctor with you? Please check him! We're pretty low on medicine, the one the doctor prescribed us won't work and he's been restless since yesterday!” Clara said.

As Mark was switching with Kaley, I glanced at Derek's family, he has an older daughter who's probably 18-ish and a son who's probably 10-ish. Derek and his wife seem to be the same age as I looked at them. I then looked at Clara while she's still lulling the baby while she's swaying back and forth, I noticed the baby covered from head to toe. I was about to say that doing that would only make the fever worse but I saw the baby's foot leave the covers.

From this distance, I could only see the foot up to the thigh.

”F.U.C.K!” I shouted in my mind.

As Kaley arrived, I placed a hand in front of her to stop her.

”Wait.” I said sternly as I look at her.

”Why? That baby is having a fever since yesterday Sky!” Kaley looked at me.

”Please! Check on him! We don't know what's wrong!” Clara bellowed.

”What are you doing Sky! Do you want payment?! It's a baby for christ sake!” Derek shouted.

I looked at them dead in the eye and I held Kaley's wrist tightly and said, ”Remove the covers first.”

A wave of cold air hits the room as I said the words.

”Wait, What?!” Julie, Derek's wife said.

”What's going on Sky?” Kaley said.

Clara just started sobbing uncontrollably as her knees touched the ground. Kaley gave me a look of confusion then it slowly turns to realization as the covers slowly fell to the ground.

The baby is very discolored, black lines are all over its body, its body is twitching on different directions as it moves it's jaws up and down. Clara just sat there holding the baby while giving a pleading look.