I Don't Believe You

Today's song is I Don't Believe You by the Thermals

The shock of the phone call left Bella immobile upon her bathroom floor. There was no doubt in her mind that Ben had been telling the truth or that he was now gone forever. The thought caused a strangled cry to rip through her throat, alerting Emmett to her distress.

The pounding of his heavy footsteps could be heard coming rapidly up the stairs before Emmett tentatively knocked on the wooden door, unsure of what was taking place on the other side. Growing up with two younger sisters had made him wary of all tears and closed doors.

"Bells?" He asked sounding unsure of himself. "Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself again?"

Clutching her chest with one arm, Bella wiped away the tears streaming freely down her face and reached for a tissue to blow her runny nose. "No," she choked out in a garbled voice before the tears began again.

"No you're not alright or no you're not hurt?" Emmett asked anxiously he shifted his weight nervously from one foot to the other and back again.

"B-both," Bella stuttered between sobs.

Her answer gave Emmett enough reason to begin jiggling the locked doorknob. "Bella can you open the door for me?" He pleaded worried. Even when Bella hurt herself, which was often, she almost never cried. "Otherwise I'm going to have to break it down and I really don't want to do that, Charlie will be pissed."

With a pathetic sniffle, Bella managed to drag her body close enough to the door to unlock it. As soon as he heard the tumbler click, Emmett threw the door open and stepped into the room, praying silently that she hadn't done something stupid like falling out of the shower. He didn't know if he could handle seeing his grown sister naked, again.

Emmett let out a relieved breath he was unaware he had been holding when he saw that Bella was in fact fully dressed. 'Thank god for small favors' the thought before crouching concernedly by her side.

"Are you hurt Bells?" he asked as he scanned her body for any obvious signs of trauma. She was a mess, with wet hair, puffy red eyes, and snot flowing freely but other than that she didn't appear to be hurt.

Sniffling Bella shook her head while staring into the pair of kind chocolate eyes that were so similar to her own. Unlike Alice, Emmett was easily identifiable as her sibling. They shared the same eyes and wavy brown hair that they had inherited from their father and Bella had always found it comforting. For some reason it had always made her feel closer to her brother.

"Alright," Emmett said slowly, unsure of what to do now. "Well, uh what's wrong?"

Instead of an answer he was met with more hysterical crying. Deciding he was in way over his head he decided to take Bella to the one person he knew who was fluent in hysterical females, Alice. Crouching down he hoisted the much smaller body of Bella into his muscular arms and quickly made his way downstairs to where Alice was repainting her nails as the news continued playing in the background.

"Al, I need your help," he stated nodding his head toward Bella's shaking form.

Instead of jumping up immediately to help like he felt she should. Alice just rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to applying another top coat. "Why, did she trip over air and hurt herself again?" She asked in a bored tone.

"I don't know," he huffed in frustration. "You know I don't do well with tears. I have no idea what's wrong, that's why I need your help."

Alice furrowed her brow as she blew gently on her wet nails. "Why do you need my help?"

"Because," Emmett answered as he lowered Bella gently onto the couch and untangled her fingers from where they had been clutching at his shirt before turning to face Alice, "you're a girl and I don't know anyone who has been hysterical nearly as many times as you."

"Uh really Em?" Alice snorted. "I seem to remember someone being quite a cry baby when they were younger. I do believe it was you, not me, who used to cry at the dinner table anytime you didn't get the pretty fork or felt that we were looking at you mean."

Narrowing his eyes and folding his arms Emmett came to stand before her. "Although I will swear on my deathbed that none of those things ever happened, this isn't about us," he gestured between the two of them. "This is about her," he said while pointing toward Bella who was now shaking nearly silently on the couch as her eyes stared off into space, "I need your help. I've never seen her like this, well not since… you know never mind. I just need your help."

"Fine," Alice snapped as she screwed the top back on her nail polish and rose from her spot on the floor. "But you owe me."

Seeing his chance to avoid possible girl talk, Emmett spun on his heel and exited the room with a speed and grace that would normally be unexpected for someone of his size.

With a shake of her coifed head, Alice rolled her eyes as Emmett's antics before settling herself next to a now silent Bella.

"Emmett's worried about you," Alice stated. "What's wrong Bella? You never cry."

"He's dead," Bella whispered stoically while staring off into the middle space at nothing in particular causing Alice to feel incredibly uneasy. "Ben is dead. They killed him so he had to kill himself."

Alice's bright blue eyes grew wide at her sister's admission. "What are you talking about Bella?" She demanded urgently. "What do you mean Ben is dead? You're not making any sense."

Bella seemed to snap back to reality at that moment as she struggled to focus her eyes on those of her sister. "We have to get out of here, Alice," she said determinedly. "We have to get out of Phoenix or we'll be next!"

"What the… what the hell are you going on about? Did you hit your head Bella?"

"No!" Bella shouted angrily, her heartache quickly being pushed aside by desperation and resolution. "We have to leave, Phoenix isn't safe. The virus is almost here and we need to leave while we still can."

Alice relaxed slightly, used to her sister's overreacting. "Not this again, Bella we're fine where we are. It's just a stupid virus, just like all the other times. As long as we stay in the house-"

"No, you don't understand," Bella interrupted as she jumped to her feet and began darting around the room, throwing seemingly random objects into a rapidly growing pile. "It's no normal virus. Ben called to warn me, to warn us before it's too late. It's turning people Alice, making them into monsters."

"Alright that's it. Emmett!" Alice shouted up the stairs, "Bella has hit her head. We need to get her to the hospital."

"Jesus, not again," came the muffled grown from a room on the next floor.

Momentarily pausing her search, Bella spun around angrily to face her smaller sister. "I did not hit my head," she hissed. "I'm telling the truth. Ben called to warn me just before he had to kill himself to stop from becoming one of them."

"What do you mean one of them?" Emmett's concerned voice asked from where he was leaning against the doorframe.

"I mean it's the big day Em," Bella explained taking a step forward, urging him to believe her. "It's something I never really thought would happen, I mean we talked about it, a lot, but now it's actually happening and –"

Bella continued to babble as she once again began searching through their cabinets and throwing canned goods upon the rapidly growing pile.

"Oh no," Emmett groaned in exasperation before throwing himself heavily into their father's recliner. He had realized what she was talking about and didn't relish spending the next few hours in the Emergency Room waiting for her to get a CAT scan.

"Alice, go grab a book or something to do," he ordered while beginning to rub circles on his temples in an effort to relieve some of the tension he was experiencing. "I have a feeling we're going to be at the hospital for awhile. Bella seems to think this is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse."

Alice didn't even try to hold in the loud guffaw she let loose. "OMG!" She squealed in delight. "That's a new one! I can't wait to post that on my Facebook status, I'm sure to get tons of comments!" she scrambled for her phone and began typing furiously upon the unfortunate device.

Overhearing the conversation Bella slowed her movements, desperate to convince her only siblings that she was in fact not crazy and telling the truth. Of course she couldn't really be mad at them. If she were in their shoes she would probably not believe her either. Hell she hadn't believed Ben at first but then… It was best not to dwell on that any longer. She had cried out her hurt as much and as quickly as possible and though she knew there would be many more pain filled moments in her future she also knew that if she didn't convince her brother and sister that this threat was real than there would undoubtedly be far less moments, pain filled or otherwise, in her future.

"Em," she pleaded, coming to stand before her brother. "I need you to trust me on this. I know you got into our talks about this, you know the signs, tell me you can say one-hundred percent without a shadow of a doubt that you don't believe me, that you think I'm crazy."

"Bells you know I don't think you're crazy."

"I do," Alice piped up.

"But you don't believe me," Bella stated, ignoring her sister's unhelpful comment.

"Ah come on B, you have to admit you sound nuts."

"Of course it sounds nuts!" Bella shouted passionately. "How could it not? But look at the signs Em. The mysterious illness, the lack of information, the way the government is being all hush, hush. What else could it be?" she demanded. "Ben called me to warn us. They have already taken over Tucson and it's only a matter of time before it gets here and a big city like this is the worst place we could be!"

"That's enough!" Emmett shouted as he shot up from his chair. "There is no such thing as zombies Bella! You've obviously hit your head and are experiencing delusions so Alice and I are going to-"

The sound of Alice's phone ringing interrupted his impassioned speech.

"Hi Dad," Alice trilled happily into the phone before the smile slid off of her face and she held the phone away from her ear. "He wants to talk to you," she said in a shaky voice as she passed the phone to Emmett.

"Yeah Dad?" Emmett grunted. He was silent for a few moments, the frown on his normally jovial face becoming deeper and deeper. "Yes sir, I understand sir. I won't let you down. I love you too."

With a heavy high he pushed end on the phone as he sank heavily back down into the chair, his need to take Bella to the hospital entirely forgotten.

Chewing on her bottom lip nervously, Bella and Alice exchanged a worried look before Bella tentatively placed her hand on her giant of a brother's broad shoulder. "Em?" she asked.

Emmett let out a slow breath before rubbing his eyes and rising to his feet. "That was Charlie," he explained as he tried to convey his apology to a worried Bella with his expressive eyes, "it turns out Bella isn't completely crazy. This illness is creating zombies. Charlie's on his way home now. We have to get out of here while we still can. "

"No."

"What?" Emmett and Bella turned their shocked faces toward Alice's defiant form.

"No. I don't believe you and I'm not going anywhere. Obviously you two are trying to mess with me, just like you did when we were younger and now you've gone and gotten Charlie in on your little joke. Well I don't think it's funny at all and I refuse to be the butt of your sick joke." She spat before turning and marching her way upstairs after silently flipping them both the double bird.

"Well that went well," Bella stated dryly after they felt the house shake slightly from the force of a door being slammed shut.

"You think?" Emmett asked.

"Eh," she replied nonchalantly, "it couldn't really have gone much worse so I guess that's good."

"Whatever, she'll come around eventually," Emmett said with an equally nonchalant shrug of his shoulders. "Now what do we get first?" He asked, clapping his large hands together. "Food or weapons?"

Exchanging a brief nearly identical smirk both Swans answered at the same time, "weapons."

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I hope you like the story so far. I'm really playing off of my own family dynamic as a template for this story so it's very OOC but I hope you enjoy it. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think so far.

XOXO,

Bellarella