"Hey!" Axel called after her, "You alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine" Emma breathed out as she stopped walking and leaned on a table, "Just a little bit shaken up, is all"
"So I've noticed" Axel commented, "You got cut, you know that right?"
Emma picked up her hand, "Oh, I didn't really notice"
Axel sighed as he sat down and brushed away some of her hair to see her neck. For a small cut, it looks deep, he could even see it bothered her when she swallowed. He went over and took the first aid off of the wall and went back to her side. Axel took out the alcohol wipe, placed his hand on the back of her neck, and started to dab her wound. Emma flinched but still stayed in place as he continued to patch her up.
"I should've known it was John" Axel sighed.
"We all didn't know" Emma commented, "Plus, we were too busy on getting out of the hospital"
Axel shook his head, "Killing his wife must've blew a gasket out from inside of him"
"What would've happened… if the tables were turned?" Emma looked to Axel, "And it was me down there and you were on the rooftop"
Axel stopped as he looked back up to her face, "First of all, I never would've let you out of my sight, even for a second if I was in your group. You mean way too much to me, you're the only family I have left and- and you know that"
Emma hesitated to say something but Axel roughly threw down the wipes and got up as he paced around for a little bit. She remembered how he looked the second John had ripped her away from the group; he looked helpless. She got up and walked over to Axel and wrapped her arms around his waist, brought herself up and kissed the back of his neck. Emma rested her head on the center of his back as he didn't even move, taking in the warmth of how she felt.
"He's dead now, Axel" Emma said, "He won't kill anymore"
"I just wish I was the one who had done it" Axel breathed, "But he knew that I was the man who would've put him down… made sense how he went after you"
"Let's not talk about it" Emma straightened up, "I'm kind of tired… can you join me?"
Axel turned around and looked to her, "Of course, baby"
Emma deeply inhaled as she stretched before she heard, "Morning, sunshine"
"Morning" Emma opened her eyes to see Axel putting back on his pants, "What are you doing?"
"I'm going to go help Flesh dispose of John's body" Axel commented.
"Where?" Emma asked, "We're underground and there's no way up"
Axel shrugged, "Maybe stick his ass in the freezer"
"Oh, well, that could work" Emma got up, "Do what you gotta do"
Axel smiled, "It's still kinda early, lie back down. I'll be back soon, I promise. We have no agenda whatsoever"
"That sounds nice" Emma smiled, "First time where we didn't have to check the perimeter or get to sleep in. Hurry back, okay? Bed's not warm without you"
"I'll be back" Axel leaned in and kissed her on the lips, making Emma suck in.
It felt almost as if there was a hunger that he awoke inside of her as she opened her eyes, "I've missed you so much"
"I missed you too, baby" Axel breathed out.
Emma traced the bottom of his lip, "I forgot how it felt to kiss you"
"Well… that's insulting" Axel commented.
Emma laughed, "Come on, you know what I mean. It's been a while"
"Three years is a while?" Axel said, "The most difficult three years of my life. Come on, back into bed"
"Alright" Emma sighed.
"I'll be right back and we can pick up where we left off" Axel said.
Emma giggled as she heard him quickly leave the room the sectioned off away from the other group. She glanced over her shoulder before settling down and getting comfortable, actually wanting to know what sleeping in would feel like. Her mind drifted off into sleep as she felt it was only a minute before she heard Axel come back into the room.
"Well, at least we now know where the deceased went" Axel said, "Flesh and I found some stuck up in the freezer about to do a dead body run. Looks like our little cuddle session will have to wait"
"Should I go with you?" Emma glanced over to him.
"No, no, I got this" Axel said.
Emma slowly got up, "I should get up anyways, sounds like everyone is starting to walk around"
Axel shrugged, "Do what you want, it's alright. I'm sure Hannah is still trying to sleep off her first hangover"
Emma groaned as she ran a hand through her hair as she completely forgot about her younger sister. The poor girl was probably moaning on the floor surrounded by her vomit.
"I should probably check to see how she is"
"Yeah, you do that"
"I feel like shit" Hannah moaned.
She leaned over slightly as Sam brought a pail to her mouth, waiting for it to be filled with more vomit.
Emma walked over and touched Sam's shoulder, "Thank you, I'll take it from here"
Sam moved a trashcan closer to the side, "I will clean this out!"
Emma nodded at the deaf man as he got up and walked away from Hannah. She turned and looked back down to her sister as she buried her head into her pillow. Emma shook her head and sat down on the bed and offered her a drink of water. Hesitantly, Hannah drank the water before she slumped back down. Emma placed the water bottle on the nightstand and leaned on the bed as Hannah tried to find some sort of comfort for her morning.
"I'm never going to drink… ever again" Hannah moaned.
"You should've limited yourself" Emma responded, "Everyone knows that"
"Shut up" Hannah cursed.
Emma couldn't help but smile at her sisters misfortune. It felt almost like karma to see her in this state of mind; always being a know-it-all just to suffer at her own hands. She heard a couple of pair of footsteps coming closer before she saw Sam and Axel making their way to them. Emma got up from the bed as she noticed the look on his face.
"What is it?"
Axel said, "There was a feeder… of some sort in the Quarantine area. I wanna check it out"
Emma figured that sense he was telling her, it meant she was supposed to come, "Alright, let me get my gun"
"Get better" Axel lightly kicked the bunker.
Hannah cursed again at the sudden movement as Emma left to go grab her weapon. She checked the mag just as she always does before doing something like this, grabbing a spare one as backup. Then she followed Axel down to the Quarantine area with Sam in tow to stand guard over the button.
"You ready?"
"Not really" Emma answered honestly as Sam opened the door, "But we'll find out"
Axel explained, "He was dragging a leg, must have got hit by a landmine. Looks like he was blind too, eyes were seared right out of his head"
"Huh?" Emma commented as Axel turned on the flashlight on his gun, "And why didn't you bring Vanessa down to investigate with you?"
Axel sighed, "She got mad because I didn't tell her I saw her file back at the base"
Emma glanced to him through the dark, "Care to elaborate?"
Axel swiped his gun off to the side, looking at every corner as they ventured further and further down the hallway. By him not immediately saying what was on the file suggested he wasn't ready to talk about it just yet.
"I can see why she got mad" Emma commented.
"I'm only trying to keep her safe" Axel turned and went to a closed door and silently pushed it open with his feet.
Emma sucked in a deep breath as she saw blood splattered everywhere, "Holy shit! What the hell is this place?"
Axel answered, "I don't know and I don't want to know"
"Blood trail looks like it's dried up" Axel said as he tried to find the drops again, "Must have healed. I say the hell with it, let's close up here. Button is only on one side of that door anyway"
Emma asked, "Are you sure it can't get back to the other side?"
"Baby, I'm not sure of nothing" Axel answered truthfully.
"We checked the hallway but didn't find it" Axel told the group.
Gorman said from the corner, "You said it was blinded?"
Axel nodded, "Yeah, eyes blasted out of its head, it's not changing but it's healed
"So it's pissed, it's in pain" Flesh said, "And it's somewhere in here ready to strike, that's great"
Axel continued, "We've got to flush it out one way or the other"
Susan said, "Not if those doors work or if there's some other way back in here"
"That's a big 'IF'" Emma replied back.
"Well, how did it get in here anyway?" Gorman asked, "Stairway collapsed"
"I don't know, could've been here for weeks…" Axel then looked around to everyone in the room before he asked, "Where's Doc?"
Gorman pointed, "Still shut up in her lab, working on that soldier, I guess"
"You left her there alone?!" Axel said.
Gorman commented, "I'm not the one that let a feral in here"
"Neither did I, dipshit!" Axel yelled back as everyone ran out the room.
Everyone ran out the door and made their way over to the lab, Emma in tow half carrying her sister.
"Doc!" Axel yelled as he pounded on the door, seeing her unconscious, "Doc!"
Axel's pounding stirred the woman awake, "Come on, I need you to open the door now! Come on!"
"Axel" Doc said weakly.
"You got to unlock the door, Doc"
Everyone crowded the windows as Axel kept pounding and pounding, making Doc slowly limp over to the door. Emma looked around inside the lab but couldn't see why Doc was unconscious, no one was in there to knock her out. Hannah let out a slight moan as she leaned her head on the glass. As much as Emma was worried about Hannah's hangover, Doc's unusual incident came first. Finally, Doc was able to open the door as Axel grabbed her from falling and sat her down.
"Whoa, whoa, what the hell is going on?" Axel demanded.
"It's radiation" Doc said breathlessly, "It's radiation! This whole place is contaminated"
"What?"
"These soldiers must've holed up in here when their base fell until the radiation got them" Doc explained.
Vanessa asked, "Axel, what is this place?"
"The guys called it The Farm" Axel said, "They said they did experiments here, that's all I know. I promise you"
"Yeah, if we don't get out of this place-"
"How are we going to do that? The front door caved in" Axel turned to Doc.
Vanessa suggested, "Maybe it's time to start digging"
"Are you kidding me?" Axel said, "We gotta be 50 feet down, at least"
"You got a better idea?" Vanessa challenged, "Maybe you can steal a pick-axe and a shovel from someone"
"What the hell was that all about?" Hannah mumbled as everyone but Emma, Hannah, Doc, and Axel stayed behind.
"Nothing" Axel turned to her, "Listen to me, you're sure about the-"
"Dead sure" Doc answered, "As in dead, we've gotta get out of this place right now or we'll all die soon"
Doc glanced over to Hannah before looking around and finding a bottle, "Here.. take this, you're probably having just as much radiation process as I am"
"Will it stop it?" Hannah asked weakly.
"No, but it'll slow the process" Doc handed a pill to Emma before the group left the room to find the others, "Everything and everyone in this place is contaminated, take these iodine tablets"
Flesh asked, "What caused it, Doc, do we know?"
"Isotopes maybe" Doc shrugged, "Radioactive particles used to alter DNA, something they were doing down here in this place called the Farm"
"More like a slaughterhouse, Axel and I found this room covered in blood. Didn't look like vampires, I think it was those tests he was talking about" Emma spoke up.
"Yeah, you wanna elaborate on that, Axel?" Vanessa cut in.
"I don't know anymore about this place than you do" Axel said.
"I wonder, you wanted to bring us down here pretty badly" Vanessa said.
"Because I thought it was safe"
"Right"
"Enough!" Emma yelled out, "That wasn't the point I was trying to make, if you have some sort of issue with him, wait for another time"
Axel changed the subject, "How much time do we have, Doc?"
"I don't know" Doc shrugged, "The iodine will keep us feeling better until we run out of it, but the Geiger counter reading 6 units. If it gets to 10 we'll die a slow and painful death whether we get out or not"
"Ha!" Susan let out, "God, you're always such a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"
Doc turned to her, "I'm just telling it as it is"
"Yeah, with such care and compassion, sometimes I wonder if you're not still just a little bit-"
"What? Say it!"
"You know" Susan commented, "Vampire"
"You are going to say that to me?!" Doc screamed out, "You!"
Susan screamed out, "Because you're so calm and collective telling us how we're all gonna die!"
"Screw you!"
"Take it down a notch" Axel said.
"I'll do what I want, thanks!" Susan argued.
"Like almost get yourself killed by screwing a murderer" Hannah taunted.
Susan turned her eyes on Hannah before Sam jumped to his feet, "Stop! Enough!"
"Sam's right" Vanessa said, "We're all just sick and bitchy, so let's not…"
Axel looked to her, "You don't seem sick at all"
"What do you mean?" Vanessa asked.
"Radiation is not affecting you?" Axel questioned.
"You know something, don't you?" Vanessa turned back to him.
"It's just an observation"
"Axel! Tell me what you know!" Vanessa yelled out.
Axel responded, "I don't know shit"
"Maybe you're the next step in this whole evolutionary mess; part us, part them" Flesh gave his theory, "Able to survive whatever this dying planet throws at you"