"Please don't do this" Brendan tried to reason, "I'm begging you here. Look, send me then. Send me but leave the rest of them, please"
Catherine started to tear up, "Look, you can't do this. You just can't, you're killing us. You realize that, right? You're basically sending us out there to die"
"You mean exactly what you were about to do to us?" Hannah asked.
Emma crossed her arms over her chest, "And what you already did to Mohamad"
Brendan objected, "This is- he was a murderer"
Sam spoke up, "Liar!"
"We never said we were gonna kill you!" Brendan turned to Sam.
"Liar" Sam said in a slower tone.
"We didn't" Brendan kept objecting, "Someone here is killing people and it wasn't any of us, it's one of you"
The group got quiet for a moment as Catherine took her chance, "Don't you hear what he's saying?"
"Grab your stuff" Axel said, "Let's go"
"Don't have more blood on your hands" Brendan shook his head, "Come on!"
"I can't go back out there" Catherine cried, "I can't!"
Brendan spoke up, "Just give us another chance"
Axel wiggled his rifle, "Let's move"
"Just be lucky we're sending you out now and not at dark" Hannah followed the group, "I wanted to send you out at midnight"
"It doesn't matter!" Catherine turned and looked to her, "Morning, midnight, during the brightest time of day here, feeders will come. They always do! Come on, you guys know that, right?"
Normally, Emma would feel a great swell of pity for Catherine and even try to reason with Axel. But not this time, not after what they did to them in their own home. Hannah must've thought she was going to object to this also as she could see her younger sister side glance her. Emma kept her head held high as the small group trudged down the stairs with their equipment. You can never trust anyone nowadays in the apocalypse.
"If you hadn't played us like you did, things would've been different" Emma decided to say to the group, "You guys thought you saw something good and wanted it for yourselves"
"Noon's your best shot" Axel said, "Now, get outside of the city, you might have a chance"
"Listen, man" Brendan tried one last time, "I'm begging you, don't do this. Let's work something out"
Axel stared at him for a moment before his eyes drifted over to Emma's and stayed there. At first, she didn't know why he was staring at her for so long but then realized that he was asking a question. With a simple shake, Emma replied with a no. Axel didn't even hesitate as he turned and typed in a code and opened the door.
Hannah stated, "We've already made up our minds"
"Okay, go now" Axel said once he cleared the area, "Go now"
"No, no, Callie!" Susan screamed out once the little girl snuck outside the door, "Callie!"
"You changed the code!" Susan said as she tried to type in a code, "What's the code? What's the fucking code?!"
"You can't open it again" Axel told her calmly, "It's too dangerous, I'm not doing it. Besides, she's with her people. She's where she wants to be"
"She's just a little girl" Susan sobbed.
Emma heard Susan's sobs as she glanced outside to the five members of the group cautiously walking away. Emma blinked harshly before turning back around and walking up the stairs, trying to fight back her own tears. Axel was right, they couldn't risk opening the doors once more.
A couple of hours later, Emma was sitting in Vanessa's room staring down at her unconscious body, hoping it won't be another three years until she wakes up again. Footsteps approached as Axel's camo pants came into her line of view.
"Hey, there, Ems" Axel greeted, "Where's the Doc?"
"She's in the cafeteria, eating" Emma informed, "I told her to go and eat or sleep before coming back to Vanessa"
"That's good" Axel glanced to her.
"As of right now, she's testing her blood in the centrifuge" Emma nodded to the machine, "As far as I'm understanding, she's like a mirror image. Doc is hoping to synthesize it, undo vampirism forever but it's a long shot"
"So you're starting to care again?" Axel jokes.
Emma scoffed and looked up to him, "It's a mystery, that's all. I mean, would we really want the world back the way it used to be? After everything we've been through?"
Axel looked to her in a peculiar way, "Yeah, you wouldn't?"
"Greed, ignorance, who's to say we wouldn't make all the same mistakes again?" Emma shrugged.
"So what, we just hang out here for as long as we can survive?" Axel asked, "That's it that's all we got?"
Emma sighed, "Maybe… maybe it's all pain, suffering and loneliness now"
"Emma, come on" Axel placed one hand on her shoulder and lifted her chin up with his finger to look at him in the eye, "We're gonna get out of this. You and me, I promise you"
"In your case, I hope you're right" Emma answered honestly.
Before Axel could tell her anything more, the lights started to flicker and die down as he cursed and turned to walk out the door.
Flesh could be heard running, "We got a problem!"
"What now?" Emma turned around tiredly.
"Julius is leading a contingent" Flesh informed.
"Well, ain't that fantastic" Axel left.
"And here I was thinking I can take a nap today" Emma said sarcastically, "Where's Doc?"
"Here, I'll stay with her" Doc entered the room.
"Everyone else is all hands on deck" Flesh ordered, "Julius is one of the worst"
"That's not comforting" Emma stopped and looked to him, "Do we still have a chance?"
"Hey!" Axel shouted out, "What's everybody standing around for? Grab your gear, it's game time"
Doc shouted out, "What is happening?"
"As far as I can tell, Julius is about to tear this place a new asshole" Axel informed in the most Axel way possible, "Come on! Let's go, move!"
Emma and Hannah were assigned with Nicole to try and attempt to barricade off the steel door. Unfortunately for them, the door was malfunctioning just like the rest of the building so even with all of her strength, it barely budged. A loud banging made Emma jump and turn to the noise as she realized that the vamps had gotten past the UV lights. She turned around and looked to her sister who was full on yanking the doors now just to get them to close. Emma walked over, reached out, and pulled her away from the doors and into the bunkers room.
"What the hell?!" Hannah said angrily.
"I need you to go into Vanessa's room and stay there" Emma instructed.
"What? No!" Hannah said, "I'm not playing babysitter"
"It's not about playing babysitter, Hannah!" Emma yelled out, "It's about you being safe, alright? I need you to stay with Vanessa in case the vamps reach this level"
"Why?" Hannah asked, "What are you planning on doing? You can't barricade by yourself"
"I'm not" Emma shook her head, "I'm going down there to help Axel and the boys on fighting them off"
Hannah's face dropped, "No, no, no! Emma, listen! You can't go down there! They're almost about ready to come in"
"Which is why I need to back them up, I can shoot a gun" Emma reminded her.
"Yeah, at one or two ferals but this is a whole army, we're talking about here" Hannah looked behind her, "You don't have to prove anything. Axel knows what you're capable of"
"It's not about proving to Axel" Emma objected, "It's about protecting you, now go!"
Hannah looked like she was about to say something more but rubbed her lips together and ran down the hall. Emma breathed out a sigh of relief that she didn't try to argue this time as she grabbed a rifle and ran down to the entrance. Flesh and John ran by and by the looks on their faces, things weren't going so well. She bounded down the stairs and locked her rifle into a ready position while giving Axel a glance as to tell him not to argue.
A sudden roar filled the bottom floor as a loud and final bang filled the room. Emma took a slight step back before she leaned back into line with Sam, Emma and Axel. She turned and looked to Axel as he gave her one last worried glance.
Susan breathed out, "Here they come"
"Yeah, they're gonna be coming up quick through this kill box" Axel advised, "Hit them in the head and heart in short controlled bursts, conserve your ammo"
Emma whispered, "This is it"
"This is it" Axel repeated.
A screech echoed down the stairs as a figure came running up to them. A mass quickly came after the first vamp as Emma didn't have enough time to realize what was going on.
Axel shouted, "Game on! Here they come!"
Together, Sam, Emma, Axel, and Susan all started to shout with rapid fire.
The more they shot, it appeared the more vamps who came around the corner as Axel shouted out, "Everybody pull back now! Go!"
Emma called out, "What are you doing?"
"Finishing this" Axel commented as he went to the side.
Emma wanted to stay and see what he was planning on doing but Susan pulled her back as they ran up the stairs. She only glanced back once and noticed that Axel was already leaping three at a time up the stairs to catch up to them. The group rounded the corner to Flesh's barricade as they pushed everything into the door. An explosion burst downstairs, flickering the lights as Emma turned and looked to Axel. He gave a sidenod as if to tell her, it was him who had done that.
Nicole came out from around the corner, "Did we do it?"
"Check the roof" Axel ordered everyone.
Emma turned to follow the others but Axel pulled her back, "Hey. How are you doing?"
Emma glanced around, "Are you seriously asking me that right now? I'm only surviving on pure adrenaline, I don't know what's next"
"It's going to be alright" Axel told her.
"I'm not convinced" Emma answered honestly.
"Hey, Emma… I lost you once" Axel whispered, "I'm not prepared to lose you again, alright? I'll die trying"
John asked once the couple emerged on the roof, "How long before you think they come back at us?"
"Julius will never give up, no matter how many warriors he has to sacrifice" Flesh said.
"Why?" Axel asked.
"Why do you think?" Flesh asked back.
Nicole asked, "She really means that much to him?"
"No, not to him" Flesh objected, "Dmitri and Rebecca. Julius knows they want Vanessa, it's a play"
"For leverage?" Hannah asked.
"Possibly" Flesh shrugged.
"For what?" Emma looked to him.
"Who knows what vampires plan" Flesh told them.
"Well, you're one of them" John turned to Flesh, darkly.
Axel said slowly, "So Dmitri, Julius, Rebecca, they're all what, they're all different?"
"Look… as far as I understand it, they're, uh, they're older… they're ancient" Flesh tried to explain, "They were around before all hell broke loose"
Nicole shook her head, "You sure know a lot about how they think, how they operate"
Flesh answered, "Well, it comes with the territory"
"Hey!" Sam shouted, making everyone jump.
Axel turned as everyone started to notice gunfire in the distance, "Those are M4s, AR-50s, that's military issue"
John responded, "Someone's giving someone hell"
Nicole voiced out, "That's gotta be the resistance. No one else has that many guns"
Axel pointed, "Those are soldiers, I promise you"
"One and the same" John commented.
"What's going on?" Susan ran out to join them.
"Firefights out here" Hannah informed.
"How's Vanessa?" John asked.
Susan turned to John, "She's doing better, Doc says you're a big reason why"
John seemed amused, "I just did what she told me to, but thanks"
Susan responded, "It's what saved her"
"Yeah well, I'd have done the same for any of these guys, I guess... mostly" John glanced to Flesh.
"Mohamad?" Sam spoke up as Emma turned and noticed a flare was being shot on the other side of the building.
Emma sighed, "Could be, could be anybody"
Susan pushed through, "It's a warning… there!"
"They don't look friendly" John commented as rows of slowly moving cloaked figures were making their way to the hospital.
"Oh, God" Flesh let out, "Dmitri's death squad… the elite. We're dead"
