"Runner Five, Runner Eight, ready?" Sam asks.

"Ready!" Sarah grins as I give a thumbs up.

"Alright then. Raise the gates! Covering fire... and go!"

We run out of the gates as always, although this time I have to jump to the side as a nearby zombie tries to sink its teeth into my shoulder, but the only thing that gets on my shoulder is the grey-red blood of the zombie as a sniper shoots it in the head.

I shudder at the feeling as Sarah grins cockily. "Looks like a couple of those zoms were a bit too close to the gates. Nearly got Five. I guess you're happy the guys on the roof got them, aye?"

I narrow my eyes at her as Sam speaks, "Yeah, they always do. Well, almost do. Heh, there was this one time with that bloke who claimed to be a sharp shooter."

Maxine laughs lightly. "But it just meant he played a lot of Red Redemption."

I roll my eyes and shake my head. Some people can be so stupid.

"Yeah, turns out there's no auto-aim in real life."

"Shame. Okay, you all clear on where you're going?"

"Yep. Yep," He answers. "I've briefed everyone. Straight down to Pro. Van Ark's house."

'Since you say you barely knew the guy, how do you know where he lives?' I question with a raised brow.

There's a mumbling of Sam translating my Morse Code before Maxine immediately answers. "Paula got invited to a cocktail party there once; We both went. It's a pretty fancy place."

I nod. I can imagine with him being a scientist and a genius and all that. I'd find it hard to imagine him living in a mobile home.

"You have to go on a bridge over a ravine to get to it," She continues. "He had it specially built."

"And we're looking for what?" Sarah questions, glancing over at me. I shrug in reply.

"Anything we can find to work out where he might've gone or what he might be doing now."

'But if he wanted to destroy evidence wouldn't he want to get rid of the evidence at his house first?' I question.

"Let's try to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and try to think we're not too late," Sam stutters. "But uh, Max, why aren't we going back to the lab in Hurtston that we thought was just a Corner Shop? I'm sure the zoms must've calmed down by now."

"We'll get to that eventually," She answers."Runner Five and Runner Eight did look around some while it was still burning. There was clearly more there than just a Corner Shop but um, I should take a look at it myself to see if I can tell what the equipment was used for.

"In the meantime we need to pursue every lead we have, especially if someone is trying to destroy evidence. Pro. Van Ark's house might have some clues."

I sigh through my nose. Might is such a strong word.

"Yeah, it's not too far from here. Should be an easy run." As soon as the words leave Sam's mouth there's a snarl-well, many snarls-that come from behind me.

Sam, you moron. I face palm.

"Has anyone every told you, Sam, never to say, 'it should be an easy run."

He scoffs in reply. "You'll be fine... apart from the zombies."

I swear if I had a voice I'd be doing those high pitched mimicking all children do to their parents. I grab my axe that's strapped to my back and swing it forward at a zombie that's way too close to Sarah. It falls to the ground but I have to rip my axe from its skull to keep from being dragged and essentially slowing me down.

"Aww, you really do care," Sarah coos almost mockingly, and I clench my jaw and hands as I struggle to keep from signing something I'll regret.

A growl sounds just behind me, and with a slight jump of fear I blindly twist and swing my axe around, the blade penetrating the zom's neck so far in the head is nearly hanging off. The blow slows it down a bit but still it pushes on, as do I.

Sarah and I make ourselves sprint as fast as we can, hoping to lose the tail, or at least put some good distance between us. We can't have them behind us when we reach Van Ark's house, since we have no idea what might be waiting for us.

If this guy is half as bad as my subconscious thinks he is, then we need to extremely cautious when we get to our destination.

Meaning no distractions.

"We're losing them," Sarah says, casting a glance behind her. "Keep this up for as long as you can. We should be out of their sights in a few minutes."

•

"You're halfway there, guys," Maxine says. "Only a little more to go until you reach Van Ark's place, and you're doing so in amazing time."

Maybe because we've been sprinting for the last mile or so? I think as sweat stings my eyes, and I have to blink multiple times to make the pain cease.

"So... this Van Ark whose house we're about to break into-" Sam starts before the doctor cuts him off.

"If the zombies haven't broken into already."

"Sure, sure. What's he like then?"

"I never really knew him, you know," She replied with a shrug in her voice. "I think we only met him a couple of times. He was quiet, hardworking, and dedicated-very ambitious."

I blink and purse my lips together. This doesn't sound like the guy in my dream. The Van Ark my mind makes up is terrible, cunning, and almost to be considered evil.

Of course, my dreams are nothing to go off of. Maxine actually met the man, even if only a few times. She knows him; I don't. If I should trust anyone on him it would be her-a person who has met him.

"Paula respected him, though..."

"Though?" Sam prompts, and the two have regained my attention.

Maxine sighs. "He had a temper, that's all. Some lab assistant mixed up some slides and he threw a tray of glass beakers against a wall. That's a story I heard about him."

Now that sounds more like the Van Ark in my head. My eyes gaze over to Sarah who hums in thought. Her eyebrows draw together as she looks skeptically at nothing in particular.

"And we know he was trying to get them to cover up Patient Zero?" She asks

"We think so," The doc corrects. "We don't know for sure, but we might find some clues at his house."

There's that word again: Might. I don't like 'might's. I don't like them and I don't like 'if's. I want assurance. I want something I can firmly believe in.

I guess you can't get that with humans though, only with God.

But still the thought haunts me-the doubt plagues my mind. What if there's nothing? What if this entire trip is a waste? What if Van Ark is dead and we have nothing to lead on?

Of course we can always try to find another lead-another way to get the information we need for a vaccine, but I still don't know who shot down my helicopter; I still don't know if Paula's alive; I still don't know what Project Greenshoot is.

I don't know much of anything it seems.

With a sigh of both frustration and depression I look ahead, trying to focus on the tapping of my footsteps and the crunch of the grass, dirt and rock from underneath my feet. That paired along with the music in my headset is enough to keep me from my thoughts from wondering too far.

At least... it does for a little while.

"There's the house," Maxine states. "Do you see it?"

I blink a few times as I snap back to the present, and I nod, shaking my head cam slightly. There's hill that dips down and a gorge, with his house in the cut off part of said gorge to the far side.

It's quite beautiful really, from what we can see. The high fencing keeps us from seeing the entirety of the house, but what we can see looks simply magnificent.

"The only way into the house is via a footbridge which you'll see when you get over the hill. Our cameras can't see it from here."

"A house on a rock-sphere in the middle of a gorge accessible only via a footbridge?" Sam repeats incredulously. "Is he a Bond villain?"

I giggle at that, but my smile quickly forms into a scowl when I see the smirk Sarah is sending me. I look ahead and pray I'm not blushing.

"I think he inherited money and spent it on modern architecture," She explains. "He almost got into grand design when he built it, except someone was converting a castle into uh..."

Her voice trails off as she tries to remember, and Sarah and I make it over the hill, and I feel my face pale at the sight before me.

The amount of zombies around the footbridge is sickening, and terrifying. I send Sarah a look which she is quick to mimic.

"Guys," She says into her headset.

"Or was it an old swan tower?" Maxine mumbles.

"Guys!" She yells. "We've made it over the ridge and can see the footbridge. There's only one problem." She turns her head toward the bridge to show them what we see. "I don't think they've spotted us yet. If we want to get into that house, we're going to have to get some ways away and set off a noise maker to distract them."

She points over at the forest area about a third mile away. "Come on, Five. Let's run."

I nod in approval and take off with Sarah beside me. Our steps are equally in sync, and our movements the same. Each step we make is thought of before hand to make sure we won't make any type of noise that will attract the attention we don't want-at least, the attention we don't want yet.

With each ragged breath and focused step we get closer to our target; With steady hands and fast feet Sarah grabs a noise maker from her bag, and I'm quick to do the same.

"Good thing we thought to bring these, aye, Five?" She asks, and I grin in reply. With a quick look back she gives me a small nod. "Okay, this is far enough away that we'll be able to stay ahead of them. Come on, Five. Let's make some noise."

We both click the buttons on the sides of the noise makers and raise them in the air as various, loud sounds erupt from them. The sounds of roaring fire truck horns and high pitched beeping as well sirens ring into my ear making me wince.

But at least they get the job done.

"Ah, that's grand-they're after us," Sarah says genuinely and I raise a brow at her now completely blank face. "Did I just say it was grand that the zombies are after us?"

I give her a half shrug in response as I continue to wave the noisemaker in the air, the sounds emitting from it nearly drowning out the noises coming from the zoms.

"Anyway, we'll get them to chase ya toward that forest and then dump the noise maker out there and come back as quiet as mice. Got it?"

I nod instantly, my eyes snapping ahead at the forest only a short distance away. I start to pick up my pace as Sarah does the same, knowing we'll have to go somewhat deep into the area to keep from being spotted while circling back around.

Hopefully the noise makers will be loud enough to drown out any noise we might make leaving.

When we make it to the forest, we don't slow down one bit. We use caution and keep a watch on each of our steps to make sure we don't trip and fall, but slowing down is something we can't do right now. Not with a swarm of zombies following behind us.

I duck down below a tree branch to keep from smacking into it, but don't see the tree stump to my right. My ankle skids across the bark, and I hiss at the pain that erupts from the now broken skin.

"Okay. This is good," Sarah says as she slows to a stop. "I'll just leave this here and this'll give us a clear way back."

She takes my noisemaker from me and puts it and her own into a hollow log. "You're doing quite well, Runner Five. We ran quite a distance with this detour. I'm glad you're keeping up."

I nod and give a small smile in acknowledgement before reaching down and wiping away at the blood that's slowly leaking from my wound. This catches Eight's attention immediately.

"You're bleeding," She states, taking a quick glance around. "We need to hurry then. If the theory of zoms being able to smell blood is true then we should start running now. This is our only chance to get to Van Ark's place and investigate. Come on."

•

"Hey, that was a great plan," Sam praises as we draw nearer to our destination. My lips twitch up in a smile. "The zoms have mostly drifted away from that... Bond villain footbridge and towards the woods. Mostly. Looks like there are still one or two slow ones around."

"We can see that," Sarah replies, and I grab my axe from my back.

"You should be able to take care of them-" His words are cut short as I slam my axe into one of the zombie's skull, causing it to fly backward into the other zom resulting in them both tumbling off the footbridge. Whether it dies are not I'm unsure, but it's fallen too far to ever be coming up to get us again. I don't look down for too long. I don't particularly want to see how far down that is.

"Well done, Five," Runner Eight says with an impressed nod.

"Yeah, way to get it done," He agrees. "Now hurry over that footbridge. We haven't got cameras over there, but your head cams can give us some grainy footage so that the doc can advise you on where to look, what to bring with you. That's if there's anything that's of any use-Woah, that's-that's quite some estate he's got there."

'You got that right,' I tap in agreement.

Seeing it up close I come to realize this place is less of a house and more like a mansion. It's large and sturdy and the more I think about the more I see why Sam thinks Van Ark is a Bond villain. The only thing that doesn't make this look like it's a movie bad guy's home is the little summer house not too far away.

"Yeah-a fortress home standing more than a square mile of its own land," Maxine informs us.

If I could whistle I totally would, because damn, that's impressive.

We start our walk towards his front door, still marveling at the house and land surrounding it. It's beautiful really.

"And you reckon he bought all this from money he inherited? No chance he was a bit... uh, you know, dodgy?"

"Uh, yeah. We knew he was a bit dodgy," She answers with a sigh. "I just wish we'd known it then. But maybe there'll be something in his house that sheds the light on..."

Her voice trails off as I sweep my gaze over the grounds, and I raise a brow in confusion.

"What?" He asks.

"Yeah, there's something in his home that sheds the light on him. Five, turn to the right again."

Confused but wanting to please, I obey, looking to the right as my eyes seeing a figure-a human-standing there in the distance.

No way.

"What? What are you seeing? Five and Eight aren't even into the house yet; Just coming through the grounds and-Oh my God!"

I feel my heart rate pick up as my breathing quickens. His face... how is it... it's not possible.

It's just the distance... but I have to find out.

"It's Van Ark," Dr. Meyers says, stating the obvious. "He's there... he's actually-Run now! Get him! Go before he spots you!"

I'm already rushing toward him. My heart pounds into my chest, the loud noise drumming against my skull as I my legs carry me toward him. I don't know whether Sarah is coming up behind me or not, and really I don't care. I just have to know. I have to see his face-to make sure it's not-

"There he is! There he is!" Maxine tells, her breathing erratic almost as if she's the one running.

He's caught sight of me by now and is attempting to run off and escape, and I wish-I pray that he'll just look back so I can see his face. I need to know if I was just imagining what I saw while I was farther away.

I glance over at Sarah who has surprisingly caught up. I don't know how but she is mysterious like that.

"You're almost on him. Boy, was he that fast a runner back in the day?"

"Who are you? Who as you?" Van Ark yells, turning back a fraction but not enough for me to really see his face.
"What do you want? I-I've got a gun. I'll use it. Don't think I won't!"

"Hey, there. Steady now," Sarah calls out, and I roll my eyes.

God, Sarah. He's a scientist, not a horse.

"We just want to talk to you, Professor!"

"If you want to talk then stop chasing me," He demands fearfully as he waves his gun around like an idiot. "I tell you I'll use this pistol! I tell you!"

"For the love of God would you stop waving that thing around?" She shouts.

"I've done nothing wrong. I have-"

His words are cut off as his gun goes off, a loud shot exploding in our ears. Thankfully his aim was at the sky and not at either of us runners.

"Would you put that thing away? You could have killed someone you know, if you knew how to use it."

"Uh, guys," Sam cuts in, "I think the zoms are being attracted back to you because of the noise... Uh, yeah. They're on their way back to the footbridge and moving pretty fast."

Sarah turns to me, sweat forming on her brow and determination settling in her eyes as she points to the left and make a circling motion with her hand. "You head that way while I keep talking and try to cut him off."

I nod and take off, pushing myself to go faster and veering just a bit.

"You can't get away from us!" She tells. "We just want to talk to you!"

I'm beside him now, slowly veering closer, but just before I can make a grab for his gun he turns his head, no longer focused on Sarah and instead me.

His eyes fill with horror, as do mine. He points his gun right at me, and my breath hitches as I realize I'm staring my death in the face, but before he can pull the trigger he's tackled to the ground by Runner Eight.

His gun is dropped, and I'm quick to grab it as Sarah forces her knees to dig into his back. But still I can barely breathe, from my near-death experience but also... his face...

He... He looks like...

"I've got ya," Sarah says, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and cuffing his wrist to hers. "Just like we use in the military. Now you can't get away."

Van Ark looks up and directly at me, and my eyes grow wide and my mind fearful.

He looks exactly like he did in my dream. Exactly. There's not one thing different about him now than there was in my dream state.

This isn't possible.

Sam's voice cuts through my headset, momentarily taking my focus off Pro. Van Ark. "This is all great, guys, but you've got to drag him with you and get back to the footbridge. There's a horde closing in on the only exit to the fortress home. Run!"

A/N: Here you go, guys! Hope you enjoy and please be sure to vote and comment because it means so much to me when you do! Thank you and have a blessed day!