Evie's greatest mistake was leaving Zoe alive.
Shortly after Eveline took control, it became apparent that something about Zoe made her immune to mind control. She was still infected, and on a good day it seemed as though Evie could even read her thoughts. But for the most part, she was allowed to do her own thing without fear of the family or the molded. And it was that freedom which let Zoe forge her plan.
Zoe had always been fairly sharp – not smart like Lucas, but certainly more clever. Daddy had taught her about hunting and some basic survival techniques, back before everything changed. She knew which plants were good and which were bad. She knew what you could put on a wound to keep down the swelling. She'd learned how to survive with just a knife, and how to improvise weapons. Zoe was a dangerous beast to leave unattended.
For a long time, Zoe used the patience that she'd learned on those hunting trips to watch everyone and see what they were doing, to get some understanding of what Evie's plans were. Over the following months, Eveline would send out Jack and Marguerite along with crews of the monsters to raid things from the ship, and occasionally they would even kidnap strangers from the area for... some horrible purpose. And then there was Lucas, who did little except for working away at all hours in that creepy playhouse of his.
When she wasn't spying, Zoe was tracing a slow spiral out from the center of the Baker estate to see just how far away she could get before Evie's "gift" would kick in and make her feel like vomiting up her entire stomach. It wasn't a fun process, but information was going to be one of her most crucial weapons in the weeks and months to come.
The passage of time also made her bolder, and she found she could no longer sit idly by and let people die needlessly in that house of horrors. The first time she freed someone, it was a major rush, even if the poor fools didn't make it too far. Zoe was happy just to make that little shit's life more difficult. After that, she felt brave enough to start stealing things from the raids on the sunken ship, usually documents since they were the easiest to grab.
Still, if Zoe was being honest, there was another reason she continued to make dangerous excursions back into her old home.
Constantly looking over her shoulder, she snuck into the guest house and down into the basement. For some reason, that Mia woman was living here instead of the main house. Well, less 'living here' and more 'a prisoner'. Which was confusing because Zoe had definitely seen her participating in both kidnapping and raiding. Maybe she had a stronger will, like Zoe did. Not enough to avoid being monster-ified, but at least to find some moments of sanity.
Mia sat up, startled at the sight of someone she didn't really recognize, gasping softly. "You're... Zoe right? And here I was starting to think you were a myth, a legend. Or maybe they just got rid of you."
Zoe leaned up against the bars of the door and smirked at the woman, giving her a proper look now that things weren't so tense and insane. Even worn down by everything that had happened, she was pretty. Auburn hair and presumably pale skin under all that dirt, and a mouth that was made for big toothy grins. God, Zoe, get your head out of your ass. You came here for a reason, not to just ogle the pretty girl. "Well, I am kind of a legend. And they did kick me out for not playing along. So you're not wrong." What did I just say? No flirting!
Still, mission accomplished, because Mia actually cracked a tired smile, if only for a few seconds. "That explains why no one wants to talk about you. So... why did you come here...?"
"Answers. I'm trying to figure out what's going on here, and everything points back to you. Well, mostly back to that little girl, obviously. But she came here with you. And she seems to think you're her mom."
Mia sighed and looked down at her hands where they were folded together in her lap. "You're probably right. I assume that's the case. But I'm afraid I don't remember a fucking thing so... I'm not gonna be much help to you..."
Zoe didn't get where she was without being pretty stubborn, so she was willing to take this information in stride. "Damn, gonna have to switch to plan B then... Unfortunate..."
Mia perked up a bit, perhaps encouraged by the fact that Zoe even had a plan B to begin with. "What would that be?"
"Well, that there is the shitty part. I can't tell you. I can barely even trust myself to keep this information secret from our guest's mind-games." She shrugged and began to push back from the door before looking back at Mia, trying to conjure another winning smile. "But uh... that doesn't mean I can't sneak back over here from time to time. It's not always gonna be possible, but I'm sure you'd like the chance to talk to someone who's not overcome with mania and bloodthirst."
"Can't say I'd object to a visitor now and then. Just... stay safe. I hear it's a nightmare out there."
Zoe winked at her, unable to help herself. Mia didn't seem to mind so much. "Darlin'... You don't know the half of it..." She turned and left before impulse control failed and she stuck around for a few more hours. Things were quiet and she made it back to her trailer without incident. Intrigued by the realization that Mia had lost some of her memory, Zoe started fine-tuning her new move – an antidote to this bullshit.
Once they ditched Eveline's 'gift', Mia might be able to help her craft a way to kill that monster.
As it turned out, getting an antidote together was tough enough. From what scraps and pieces Zoe could cobble together, it seemed like she needed a head and an arm from something called the D-Series. It took multiple trips out to the ship to find the head, though that word was misleading. The damn thing was like a movie prop, all shriveled and sad.
That was when the molded stopped being so nice. She was at least able to avoid them during the day, and the big lumps weren't advanced enough to understand complicated door technology, so she was safe as long as she got back into her trailer before nightfall. It also became a part of her daytime routine to pop in on Mia and see how she was doing. Since they obviously couldn't talk too much about how Zoe's plan to save everything was going, they just shot the shit instead. She would bring her food or books if she could swing it, things that wouldn't raise too much suspicion.
Mia could at least remember that she had a husband – fucking shame, that – and the fact that she'd lied to him about being on nanny job for some rich family. Zoe nodded her head and smirked. "Sounds like the kind of thing a secret agent would do, ya know? Are you some kinda James Bond type, Mia? Hiding a bunch of badass moves under that unassuming mask?"
"I don't... think so? Hard to know for certain until I get free or find a gun in my hands or something. But I imagine that would be dangerous for the time being if I get turned while I'm holding a weapon. I'm safe, alive, and only occasionally being forced to commit horrible crimes against man and god. But the sooner you do the thing you want to do the better."
"Bet you look amazing in a tux though. That's gotta count for something." This time, she actually managed to get a laugh out of the captive, which was a good boost to Zoe's confidence. "Ooh, do you prefer martinis when you drink? Maybe Agent Winters drives an Aston Martin~"
Mia was still giggling softly, trying to keep herself from making too much noise. "Stop, stop, Jesus! You're gonna get both of us caught!"
Zoe shook her head, her face instantly becoming hard. "It's not as bad as you think. Daddy might hack off a limb, or maybe mama will spit some bugs in your face. Lucas is the one you wanna watch out for, he was sadistic even before this started."
Mia sat up and scrambled closer to the door. "Wait, so it's true? Becoming infected with the bacteria allows human hosts to reattach limbs? They said it was possible but I haven't actually seen it before."
"Uh, Sugar, I thought you said you couldn't remember everything..."
Just as suddenly, the light drained back out of Mia's face as she slumped to the floor of her cell once more. "I can't. But... Ahhh" she groaned, gripping the bridge of her nose. "It's there, just out of my reach or... Gah, I knew, for a second I knew! Dammit!" She kicked out her foot, striking the wall and wincing. "I hate this so much." Mia finally looked in her direction again, eyes pleading.
That look said it all, and shattered Zoe's heart into a dozen pieces. She shot up to her feet and looked at the other woman with a resolute nod. "You just sit tight, hon. I'm real close to getting this sorted. And then we can get the hell outta here. You gotta husband waiting on you. And I need a hot shower and a goddamn drink. Everyone's got something keeps 'em going."
Despite Zoe's positivity, the arm was not nearly as easy to hunt down as the head was. Whether Eveline actually realized the damn thing was important or was just driven by pre-programmed impulses, she had squirreled it away somewhere in the old house. And while the molded didn't give her too much trouble once she hunted down a shotgun, bugs didn't have the same level of sapience. If you set foot in that building, they came after you – save for mama and her magic lantern anyway.
But Zoe had been prepping for this day. Lucas might have had the know-how when it came to elaborate traps and computers. But Zoe knew how to engineer something dangerous at a much more basic level. For example, a homemade flamethrower that would let her torch the everloving fuck out of some annoying bugs.
The baby dolls around the entrance were a nice touch, they really accentuated the terror of it all. Never mind the fact that the number of nests had doubled since her last visit, but half the floor was starting to cave in, forcing Zoe to massively slow down her search of the building. Even if it was still daylight hours, making too much noise would bring mama around to investigate. But sneaking around bugs was basically impossible. So Zoe had to crawl a few feet around, torch some bugs and burn down a nest, and then move forward a few more feet to repeat it all over again.
A glance at her watch told her that she didn't have long left, and she was running out of rooms to search. Her quest brought her to a place she only vaguely remembered from when she was young, a room that essentially went unused. But according to daddy, it had once upon a time been used as a detention cell to send bad children and lock them away. Bad voodoo.
Of-fucking-course, the arm was behind a secret panel, inside a creepy shrine, and attached to a dried-up corpse. Still, Zoe had it, she had the arm! She crawled out through the door and came face to face with Eveline. Zoe hadn't seen her in what felt like ages, but that still didn't explain why she looked like a woman in her late twenties. That should have been shocking, but it really wasn't at this point.
"Sister. We need to talk."