When Alison opened her eyes, the sight that greeted her was not one she expected. Instead of the usual white ceiling she saw the sky. There was definitely no sky in her bedroom. She realized she was not in it. Then the events of the previous night came back to her. She didn't make a habit of sleeping on the porch but it was so loud in the house, kids playing, Donnie watching TV at a ridiculous volume, she went out to get five minutes of peace and fell asleep. She got up from the bench and looked around. As it wasn't strange enough that no one woke her up and she spent the entire night outside it was oddly quiet, not a soul in sight. She walked into the house and glanced at the clock. 3 PM. I guess I really needed some rest, she thought. But why nobody woke me up?
Her husband and kids should have been back by now and yet the kitchen was empty.
"Oscar! Gemma!" she yelled, hoping to hear footsteps on the stairs that would reassure her that her children are home. When she heard nothing, the worst scenarios immediately started forming in her head. "Donnie?"
But her husband was nowhere to be seen either. She grabbed her cell phone dialling his number and praying to god that he answers.
The number you're trying to reach is currently unavailable. Please, try again later.
Panic started to rise inside her. What could have happened to make them all disappear? Maybe the clock is broken and it's actually much earlier than she thinks it is? Maybe they're not back yet.
No, she thought, shaking her head, That's impossible, I changed the batteries last week. The clock is fine. I'll go ask Aynsley, maybe she saw them leave.
She walked out and headed towards her best friend's house. It was going to clear everything up, she was sure. She probably forgot about something or they forgot to tell her and this created a problem. They were all going to laugh about it later.
The door to Aynsley's house was slightly ajar.
"Aynsley?" she called out, knocking lightly. No response.
She tried again, this time louder. "Hey, Aynsley, are you home?"
She slowly peeked inside. No one seemed to be rushing to greet her. Did Aynsley forget to lock the door when she was leaving? She wouldn't, would she? Suddenly, she heard someone moving around in the kitchen. Convinced that she'll finally find out what's going on she walked there quickly. When she reached the doorway, she froze. She was standing face to face with the strangest creature. Sunken eyes, pale complexion contrasting with the red blood dripping from it's chin. Pieces of skin falling off it's face making it look like some kind of disgusting disease. Alison tried to move but she couldn't, the fear completely paralysed her. The creature started moving towards her.
I'm going to die, she thought, tightly shutting her eyes. I am definitely going to die.
Next thing she knew she was falling to the floor. She heard gunshots but didn't open her eyes, too afraid of what she was going to see.
Then she felt someone touch her shoulder.
"Are you alright?" the someone asked. It was a woman. She had a nice, warm voice. Alison opened her eyes, then almost had a heart attack. The woman kneeling next to her, it was like looking into a mirror. Besides a different haircut and the dried blood on her face, they were almost identical.
"W-who are you?" she stuttered. "Why... what is happening? What was that?"
The woman held out her hand and after a moment of hesitation Alison took it. They both got up from the floor and Alison found herself getting pulled towards the exit.
"My name is Beth," The woman spoke. "There's no time, I'll explain everything once we get out of here."
"Wait, no!" Alison wriggled out of her grasp. "I need answers!"
"And you'll get them, just not here."
"No way, I am not going anywhere," protested Alison.
The woman, Beth, was getting impatient. "Do you want to live or not? Because if you don't then I am not stopping you, stay here!"
"I want to live, that's a stupid question! But I also want to know what is going on!"
Beth rolled her eyes before quickly moving towards Alison, unceremoniously picking her up fireman style. "I will explain the situation shortly. Now please be quiet and let me continue saving your life."
Beth ran for a minute, then she slowed down and put Alison on the ground. There was no one around, the whole neighbourhood looked abandoned. Beth grabbed her hand.
"Come on, we have to move."
Alison frowned. "You promised me answers."
"And you'll get them, once we get to a safe place."
"From what?" She was getting desperate. "Just tell me this, safe from what?"
"Bloody zombies, man."
It wasn't Beth who said that. Alison turned around quickly.
"Yeah. Just tons of them."
The newcomer was a spitting image of Beth, but somehow she seemed different. While Beth despite the situation appeared pretty composed and rational, she was much more brutish. In her right hand she held a clearly recently used machete, Alison flinched at the sight of blood dripping from the blade. She decided it would be best if she tried not to get in her way.
"What are you doing here, Sarah?"
Sarah, that was her name. Alison really did not care much what she was doing here as long as she was not going near her with any kind of weapon.
"We were looking for you. You were gone quite a long time."
"We?" repeated Beth. "Who's with you?"
"Who do you think?"
Almost as if on cue, a blonde woman jumped off the building behind them landing next to Alison. Alison backed away and moved closer to Beth, deciding that she feels safest near her. She's nice and probably the least insane, she thought.
The blonde turned to Sarah.
"I see you found her." she spoke. She had a strong slavic accent. "They are coming, I saw them. They will catch up with us in a matter of minutes."
The brunette patted her on the shoulder. "You did good." she said. The slavic woman smiled. It was nothing like Sarah's mocking smirk or Beth's comforting smile. It was strange, almost scary.
Sarah looked at Beth.
"Take this one," she waved her hand in Alison's direction. "And go back to the house. We'll meet you there soon."
"You're not coming with us?"
"Since we're already here we might as well get some supplies. Besides," she glanced behind to check how far away the creatures were. "Someone needs to take care of that."
"It's a small group," added the blonde. "We will be fine."
"Yeah," Beth didn't look very convinced. "Okay."
Alison was slightly annoyed at not being included in the conversation, she wanted to yell 'don't I have a say in this?'. And she probably would if she didn't already know the answer. Beth took her hand and pulled her towards one of the cars parked down the street.
"Is this your car?"
"No," Beth shook her head. "We're just... borrowing it."
"You mean stealing." scowled Alison.
"Stealing is such a strong word." muttered Beth quickly removing the plastic from under the steering wheel. She bit her lip appearing to be in deep thought.
"Okay, and this does not mean I'm fine with this, but really, now is not the time for contemplating the meaning of life. Would you just do it already?"
"Be quiet, I'm thinking."
Alison raised her eyebrows. "Do you even know how to do it?"
"Well I'm sorry, I don't do this on a daily basis!" Beth finally lost a bit of her composure. "I'm a cop, I don't steal cars!"
"See! I told you. It's stealing."
"Please, I don't mean to be rude, but will you shut up? I got this."
"Yeah, sure," scoffed Alison. "You got this."
"I do. I just need to remember which ones I need to use. Damn it, I should have taken notes when Sarah was explaining it."
After a few minutes of Beth staring at the wires and not actually doing anything, Alison felt that her patience was running out.
"Oh for God's sake, try the screwdriver!"
"What?"
"The screwdriver. Give me that," huffed Alison grabbing the screwdriver sticking out of Beth's pocket. She climbed into the car practically sitting on Beth's lap.
"Yes, this is the best way you could have done this."
"We don't exactly have time to do it differently. I don't mean to be rude, but will you shut up?" Alison repeated Beth's earlier words. "I got this."
She pushed the screwdriver in the lock and twisted it. To Beth's surprise it actually worked. Alison grinned proudly.
"How did you do that?"
Alison turned her head to look at Beth. "I watch TV. It's really not that difficult."
"Okay, I get it," Beth rolled her eyes. "You're better than me at stealing cars. Now, get off."
She pushed Alison off her lap and onto the passenger seat.
"Hey!" protested Alison. "I started the car, why do you get to drive?"
"Because I'm the one who knows where we're going."
The longer they drove, the less buildings they were passing. After an approximately half an hour (Alison wasn't sure because she didn't think to grab a watch or her phone when she was leaving the house) they reached the edge of the city. Beth pulled into the driveway of a small farmhouse. The walls were probably originally painted white, but over the years in some places the color changed to brownish grey. It didn't look unkempt, though. The lawn was mowed and the fence was freshly painted.
"Not what you expected, huh?" smiled Beth.
"To be honest, I'm not sure what I expected."
"Well, it's safe. At least for now."
Beth reached to open the door but she stopped, feeling a small tug on her sleeve. She turned to Alison.
"What is it?"
Alison frowned, crossing her arms.
"Will you finally tell me what's happening?"
"Just wait five more minutes. Once we'll get inside, Cosima will explain everything to you."
"Who?" Alison asked, but Beth was already out of the car. "Beth? Who's Cosima?"
Realizing Beth wasn't planning on giving her an answer, she ran after her. She quickly caught up and soon they both entered the farmhouse.
When they crossed the threshold, the first thing Alison noticed was a big, green coat on the hanger. She briefly thought that she saw that coat before. She didn't have time to think when exactly was that, because Beth pulled her further into the house. They entered a big kitchen. It looked very warm and inviting, Alison would have smiled but she stopped herself when she remembered why she was here. By the clearly old, but solid looking wooden table sat a woman. She was another copy of Beth, but for some reason she seemed a few years younger. Maybe it was the way she was dressed, or the dreadlocks and nose ring. Probably her younger sister, thought Alison. Does that make her also my younger sister? After all we're almost identical, we must be related somehow.
The girl's voice broke her out of her thoughts.
"Hey, Beth. Is that her?"
"Yes," Beth nodded, pushing Alison forward. "That's Alison Hendrix. Alison, this is Cosima."
"Hi!" Cosima smiled brightly, gesturing to the chair next to her. "Sit. I'll tell you everything."
Suddenly they heard someone yelling from the other room. "Beth? Is that you?"
"Yeah, it's me. How did you two get here so fast?"
"We didn't get here fast, you just drive like a grandma. Now get your ass over here, we need to have a talk."
Alison briefly glanced at Beth who gently squeezed her hand, trying to reassure her that it's okay. "Go on. I'll be back in a minute."
When she walked out of the room, Alison hesitated for a moment before deciding it will be best if she sits on that damn chair and finally figures out what the hell caused this. She fell asleep somewhere around 6 pm and when she woke up the next morning something as ridiculous as zombies started existing. She felt like she deserved some explanation.
"Okay," started Cosima. "So, it all began with a man named Dr. Aldous Leekie and something called the Dyad Institute. Basically they're a bunch of scientists who were not careful with stuff they definitely should have been careful with. Some of them were working on a secret project. They had this whole theory about how society should consist only of the strong specimens, the ones that are able to evolve. The weak ones wouldn't survive the process, so to avoid wasting time and resources they decided they're going to eliminate them first. They created a virus. It was going to exterminate everyone whose organism is not strong enough to fight it off. Unfortunately, they got pretty ahead of themselves. There were some mistakes, everything got out of control. They created a disease transforming people into what you saw earlier. It's transmitted through saliva."
"How do you know all this?" asked Alison. She was too shocked and confused to be scared.
"My... my girlfriend," Alison noticed a slight change in Cosima's voice. "She worked for the Dyad. As soon as she realized what was really going on she managed to send us some of the files on the project before she... got infected."
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah," muttered Cosima looking away, but just for a second. Then she seemed to remember what they were talking about and her expression quickly changed. "Anyway! So, that's what happened."
"Now, tell me this one thing. I noticed that Beth, me, you, this Sarah woman, we all look really alike. Are we related? I didn't know I had any siblings."
Cosima bit her lip. From the look on her face Alison was pretty sure it's wasn't going to be a happy family reunion.
"We're not sisters," she said after a moment. "Remember, I told you it was connected to Dr. Aldous Leekie. Well, it wasn't the only project he was involved in. It might sound... ridiculous, but he was one of the scientists working on human cloning."
"Human... human cloning?" repeated Alison. "Are you implying what I think you're implying?"
"Well... yes. But, just don't freak out, please."
"How can I not freak out?" Alison said, her voice rising. She stood up from the chair, gesticulating heavily. "You're basically telling me - there are zombies running around eating people, oh and by the way we're clones, but don't freak out?!"
"Come on, Alison," Cosima also stood up putting her hand on Alison's shoulder. "Just calm down. We'll talk about this."
"What's all the shouting about?" asked Beth walking into the room.
Alison looked at her and suddenly felt lightheaded. The next thing she knew she was falling to the floor and everything went black.
Alison slowly opened one eye, then the other. Beth was sitting next to her with a worried expression.
"Are you okay?"
Alison didn't know how to respond. Was she okay? She didn't have an answer for that. She simply shrugged and tried to get up but she felt dizzy again.
"Come on, lie down," said Beth. "I'll get you a glass of water."
She left before Alison had a chance to say anything. Once Alison was alone, she lifted her head to take a look at where she was. It was a tiny room with not much furniture in it, there was a bed that she was currently occupying, a small chest of drawers and a desk. The walls, clearly not repainted for quite some time (the paint was peeling off in a few places) were light blue. It hasn't been cleaned either, there was a thin layer of dust in places dust is able to visibly gather. In one of the corners she spotted a small spider. She flinched. She hated spiders.
She didn't have time to continue her observations because Beth walked back into the room with a cup of water. Alison tried to get up again but Beth stopped her.
"Slowly, okay? We can't have you fainting again," she smiled. "I'll help you."
Alison wanted to protest and she was already opening her mouth to explain that she is in no way an invalid and she's perfectly capable of getting up by herself but instead she said:
"Okay."
And she leaned on Beth, slowly sitting up. Beth sat next to her on the bed handing her the cup. She gratefully accepted it and took a few sips.
"Thank you."
"So," Beth started. "That's quite a lot to take in. I'm not surprised you reacted so... strongly."
"Are you making fun of me?" Alison narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"I'm not. I'm just saying that I get it," Beth looked at her, she seemed concerned and Alison had no idea what to make of it. "You don't have to be so defensive about everything, you know. I'm not trying to attack you. None of us are."
Alison nodded, shifting uncomfortably on the bed. Beth was sincerely worried, it was nothing like the behavior she was used to and she didn't know how to respond to that. It would be so different with any of her neighbors, or even Aynsley... Suddenly she felt physically sick. With things happening so fast she didn't even had time to process everything and in this moment it finally dawned on her. All the people she knew, her friends, parents, her husband and kids. They were gone. Dead, or turned into monsters.
She felt Beth touch her hand.
"Are you alright?"
"No," Alison got up from the bed and slowly headed towards the door. "Not really."
She walked out the room and into a narrow corridor. She had no idea where she was going to go, she just knew she had to get as far away as possible. Deciding that going down the stairs and sneaking out to the backyard was a brilliant idea, she did that. It was not a brilliant idea. She was already opening the front door when she heard someone speak.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
She quickly turned around and saw the Sarah woman. She wasn't any less terrifying even without the machete. She was still wearing the dirty clothes from before but she washed the dried blood from her face.
"Outside." Alison might have been a bit scared of her but she didn't let that stop her from pretending that she's not.
Sarah wasn't pleased with the answer.
"No, you're not." she grabbed her arm dragging her back into the house.
Against her better judgement, Alison started struggling in her grasp. "Let me go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that."
"Let her go, Sarah."
Alison froze. Sarah's grip on her arm loosened a bit and she scowled at the newcomer.
"Go away, it's none of your business."
"Of course it is. Let that poor woman go." smiled the strange woman.
Before Sarah had a chance to respond, Beth appeared in the doorway. She grabbed Sarah's wrist and gently shoved her away from Alison. "Don't."
"I told you so."
"Rachel..." sighed Beth. "Why did you come up here?"
"I wanted to meet the famous Alison, of course."
"Go back downstairs, please. We really have enough things to deal with right now, we don't need any more trouble and it will happen if you don't leave."
The Rachel woman looked at Beth for a while, then slowly nodded. "Alright," then she turned to Sarah and winked. "See you later."
Sarah visibly tensed scowling at her. She opened her mouth to reply, but Beth was faster.
"Helena! Could you come here for a moment?"
A few seconds later the door to the basement opened and the blonde friend of Sarah walked out holding a bowl of jello. She passed Rachel on her way out. The other woman turned her head to glance at Sarah one last time and smirked, which made Sarah clench her fists in anger. Then she walked down the stairs closing the door behind her.
"What did you want, Beth?"
"I need you to take Sarah with you and calm her down a bit, okay? We had a little... situation."
"What happened?" Helena quickly rushed to Sarah's side. "Who upset you, сестра? Do you want me to," she paused, looking for the right word. "Beat them up?"
Sarah shook her head. "No, Helena. There's no need. Also, I see you asked about beating them up, not killing. You're making progress," she smiled slightly. "I'm proud of you."
Helena grabbed her hand and Sarah let herself be led out of the room. Beth sighed, relieved that she managed to avoid a potential disaster. She looked at Alison, who was standing in the corner, no longer planning on leaving.
"I'm sorry, Alison. I didn't mean to upset you."
"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left like that."
And there was that concerned expression again. Alison was confused, why did that woman care so much? She was just a stranger. Before she could stop herself, she asked.
"Why do you care? And I don't mean to be rude, I'm just curious."
For a minute Beth didn't say anything and Alison was beginning to think she wasn't going to get an answer. She began walking away, but stopped when she heard Beth's voice.
"I don't want you to be sad."
Once again Alison didn't know what to do. They just met literally a few hours ago and Beth was already treating her like they've known each other for years. She was going out of her way to make her feel comfortable. The effect was exactly the opposite.
"You know that from the moment we met you haven't smiled once?" Beth continued. "I bet you have a really beautiful smile."
"I don't have a reason to be smiling," Alison interrupted her before she could say anything else. "And really? You're doing this right now? During a zombie invasion? With your clone?"
"Well, it could be our last night on earth..." Beth smirked, then burst out laughing seeing Alison's disgruntled expression. "Relax, I'm kidding."
"It wasn't funny." Alison crossed her arms.
"Come on, it was a little bit funny."
"How can you even joke in a moment like this?"
Beth's smile fell a little. "If I didn't joke during moments like this," she stopped for a second, as if thinking if she should finish that sentence. "If I didn't learn to treat difficult situations with a bit of humor, I probably would have killed myself a long time ago."
"Beth..."
"No, it's okay," she smiled, walking up to Alison and patting her on the back. "So, I see you're feeling better, that's good. There are things to do, people to see. Let's go."
It was obvious Beth wasn't planning on saying anything more about that, so Alison didn't push. They left the room and walked into the kitchen. The wooden table where Alison saw Cosima before was now occupied by not only her, but also three other woman. She recognized Sarah, her blonde friend Helena and the woman from before. When did she get out of that basement, Alison thought. We were near the exit the entire time and I didn't see her leave. Damn sneaky ninja.
"Okay," started Beth. "So, this is Alison Hendrix."
Cosima smiled at her, Sarah frowned. Helena didn't react, she was busy playing with a small toy car. The woman from before looked up from some blueprints. Their eyes met for a second. Alison suddenly felt a lot more uncomfortable.
"Alison, you already met Cosima, Sarah and Helena. That woman over there is Rachel, and she might look intimidating but she won't do anything to you because she knows better than to piss me off," Beth said, staring at Rachel menacingly. "Now, that we did the introductions, we can begin. Rachel, do you have the plans?"
"Yes, I have them," Rachel stood up, grabbing some of the papers. "See, we can go in here," she pointed at what appeared to be the entrance to something. "The files are on the third floor, in the room 308. Now, we don't know how many of the infected are there, so we have to be ready for anything."
"Can you hack into the surveillance system?"
"It's presumptuous to say that I can, but I will try."
"Alright, Sarah, Helena and me will go in, but we're going to need back up. The operation is in three days. That's how much time we have to teach you two," she pointed at Alison and Cosima. "How to use a gun."
"Hey," interrupted Alison. "I didn't sign up for this."
"That's too bad," Sarah looked at her, scowling. "Everyone here has a job to do. Suck it up."
"Sarah, stop that," Beth protectively stepped in front of Alison. "She understands. She just got thrown into this mess, she needs time to adjust."
"Yeah, well, we didn't have time to adjust and we're fine. She needs to get over herself."
"And you need to learn when to shut up, so I unless you're planning on doing that, leave her alone."
Helena stood up, glaring at Beth. "Don't talk to Sarah like that."
"It's okay, Helena," Sarah stood up as well and put a hand on the blonde's shoulder to keep her from doing anything stupid. "I think we're going to go. Let us know what you decided."
Beth sighed. "Alright, just wait a second. We need to discuss sleeping arrangements. Also we need to keep watch during the night. There's six of us, so we change every four hours."
"Okay, well, there's one room here and two upstairs." said Cosima.
"Sarah and Helena, is sleeping down here okay with you?" asked Beth.
Sarah nodded.
"Me and Alison will sleep in the blue room and Cosima, you'll be with Rachel in the other."
"Hey, why don't you sleep with Rachel? Why do you get to decide?" frowned Cosima, not very pleased to hear who she will be sharing a room with.
"Because I brought Alison here, her safety is my responsibility."
Alison wanted to protest and say she doesn't need protection, she can take care of herself. Then she remembered Sarah's machete and decided she actually appreciates Beth protecting her very much.
"One thing left. Who wants to take the first watch?"
"We'll do it," said Sarah. "Now can we go?"
"Yes, wake us up in 4 hours."
Sarah and Helena headed to the roof and Cosima grabbed Rachel's wrist, tugging her upstairs. Rachel quickly snatched her hand away, scowling, as if she wanted to say 'how dare you touch me, peasant'. Or at least that's how it looked to Alison. Soon the only ones left in the kitchen were her and Beth.
"So... are you okay with sharing a room with me?" Beth asked, suddenly not so sure if she made the right decision.
"Yeah," nodded Alison. "Thanks for looking out for me. Not that I need someone to look out for me. But it's nice of you to do it."
"Shall we go, then?"
Alison smiled for the first time in hours. "Yeah, okay."
When they walked into the room, Beth looked unsure again.
"You take the bed," she said grabbing a blanket. "I can sleep on the floor."
Alison scoffed, taking it and placing it back on the bed. She wasn't going to let someone who just saved her life sleep on the floor.
"That's stupid. The bed is big enough."
It was indeed big enough and Beth was too tired to continue arguing, so she just nodded, took off her shoes and got into the bed.
"Are you going to sleep in that?"
"I don't exactly carry pyjamas around in my bag in case of a zombie invasion," smirked Beth. "Unless you want me to sleep naked, which I'm not opposed to as long as you'll do it too."
"Hey, it's not too late for you to sleep on the floor."
Once they both were in bed, it suddenly seemed a lot smaller than before. Alison would never admit it out loud, but she was kind of comforted by being this close to the other woman. She felt safe with her. At first Beth seemed a little tense, but after a few minutes she relaxed and soon they were both asleep.