A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with the second chapter! So who else is excited for Fever Code? Too bad it's coming out in 2016...the wait had better be worth it!-

Chapter 2

Thomas stopped with shock. He swallowed before speaking. "What do you mean I died a week ago?"

"Quiet down. We'll give you all your answers in a while, but right now you need to just follow us," Minho said.

Alby shushed both of them as he motioned for Minho to lead on. Minho adjusted his shirt sleeves that covered his thick arms and shouldered his backpack. They left the food storage room through a large steel door and came out in a long hallway. Several more doors that looked like they led to offices lined both sides of the hallway. Minho led the way down the hall at a brisk pace.

Thomas looked up and down the many doors in the hallway and read the signs. He realized these were all offices of doctors and physicians.

Kenneth Easley, MD one sign read.

Richard Alberts, MD another read.

"Are we in a hospital?" Thomas asked.

Alby replied first. "That's what we think. Half these offices are for doctors and judging by the way we got here, I'd say it's some medical facility at least."

"You woke up in the cot too?" Thomas asked.

"We all did. Now be quiet," Gally ordered.

Thomas came upon another plaque. Some of the words were smudged out but one word was still clearly visible.

Janson

Thomas's head felt like it was about to split open. He opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. He crashed into something he couldn't see and lay there.

He was looking up into a bright light. Blurred faces in masks looked down at him. Some looked concerned.

"What happened to him? "
"Who knows?"
"30cc's of morphine."
"Here."
"Why don't we just prep another?"
"We have to keep this one. He has the best chance out of all of them."

His eyes closed to the faces hovering above him. All he felt was pain.

"Clotting paste."
"Here."
"He's gonna have to be put on heavy antibiotics for a while."
"We have a week."

"Thomas!" someone whispered his name loudly into his ear. He opened his eyes as someone began to shake his shoulder. He was collapsed against the wall, leaning in it for support. Minho's face loomed in front of him, a raised eyebrow pronouncing itself. Thomas quickly got up.

"Sorry, I'm fine."

"What the shuck was that?" Gally hissed

"Watch your step next time," Alby chided. Minho pointed to a pile of wooden boards that had been stacked against the wall. One was dislodged from the stack.

Did he really just trip over a stack of boards? He felt something more than a bump on his head for sure, but he couldn't tell what it was. Like something was knocked loose from his brain and an unknown force was trying to break free.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Quit making noise or you'll really be sorry. Ought to feed you to the Shriekers if you don't-" Minho punched Gally in the arm, silencing the boy's rant. Gally shot a glare at Minho menacingly but Minho's face looked serious as he held a finger to his lips.

A quiet moan began to swell up from a distant hallway, sending chills up Thomas's spine. The moan echoed through the empty halls and bounced back and forth between the walls. Thomas thought it might have come from behind him, but the echoing made it difficult to tell. Minho pointed toward a stairwell sign at the end of the hallway. Alby nodded and began to tiptoe his way to the stairwell. Gally followed suit. Thomas was still transfixed by the haunting sound when Minho grabbed his arm and tried to pull him toward the stairwell.

"We need to get to the Safehouse on the ninth floor," Alby whispered to Thomas.

"What floor were we on?" Thomas asked.

"The third. I hope you like stairs," Minho replied.

After six flights of huffing and puffing, Thomas was quite sure he did not like stairs. When they got to the top, Minho carefully cracked open the door. He listened for movement first, then cautiously peered out the door. He gave a thumbs up to the others and walked through.

"There." Minho pointed at a door at the middle of the hallway.

"What's through there?" Thomas asked.

"The rest of your family," Alby said, grinning.

Minho pushed open the door to reveal a large room with tables lining the walls and ratty looking mattresses strewn about. Many faces looked back at him in surprise.

"Who's that?"

"Hey there, Thomas."

"Is my shuck brain not working or is he a day early?"

"Oh yeah... isn't he early?"

"Tom?"

He turned to see a girl looking at him quizzically. Her long dark hair framed her face, which was filled with concern and question. Her gaze seemed to trigger something in his mind and he found himself unable to speak.

"Um. Yeah, I'm Thomas," he responded dumbly. Nearby, another blond haired boy Thomas didn't recognize snickered. Thomas looked at the boy confused.

"What's so funny?" Thomas asked with a hint of annoyance.

"Well she's only your bloody girlfriend," the boy said, causing a few other boys to chuckle less than discreetly. "You could do a little better than 'it's me, Tommy'."

"My... what?"

"Come on, Newt, he's lost his memory," the girl crossed her arms.

"Ah, completely forgot about that. I'm Newt," the boy said, extending a hand. The girl shot him a glare. A look of realization dawned upon his face and he added, "No pun intended."

Newt reached out and Thomas shook his hand hesitantly. "It really is good to have you back, Tommy. Sorry 'bout that, I forgot what happens when someone... it's just been a while since someone... well ya' know-"

"-died." Thomas finished his sentence. Newt nodded sheepishly. "Er, yeah. That."

"Grab the cinder blocks. We need to barricade the stairwell. And here's your meds, Clint." Minho tossed a bottle to Clint who began to distribute the pills to several other boys, shouting back a thank-you to Minho. Minho and another boy with medium length hair left, dragging a stack of cinder blocks away on a cart.

Alby walked up to Thomas. "A few of them had a bad run in with a group of Shriekers and got scraped up pretty bad. Some lucky shank got a nasty infection. That's why Minho, Gally, and I were down in the kitchen in the first place. Usually the med-jacks-" he pointed a thumb at Clint and another boy Thomas didn't recognize, "-have extra, but we ran out and needed them bad. We weren't supposed to be down there until we picked you up tomorrow. Come on..."

Alby motioned for Thomas to follow him into another more secluded room where they could talk more privately. Thomas sat down on a rusty looking chair and Alby did the same. Thomas started before Alby could ask any more questions.

"But why do you and everyone else here keep saying I'm a day early? What does that even mean?"

Alby held up a hand to slow him down. "Look, we don't really understand it either, but we're all in the same situation here. We all woke up in that cot, and none of us remember anything about ourselves. And no one really gets the whole resurrection thing either. Honestly to me, it's kinda freaky. But what I'm telling you is what I know. It always takes a week and you always lose your memory. How did you get out a day early?"

Thomas's eyes narrowed in frustration. "You think I actually know? I didn't even know my shuck name when I woke up! All I know is that I got up and I broke out of those cuffs."

The word left Thomas's mouth before he realized what he said. That term, shuck. What did it even mean? He had heard it being thrown around between the other boys but it seemed to be more of a made up slang word than anything with meaning. What scared him was that it seemed to flow so naturally with his speech, almost like he said it by instinct.

Alby's brow furrowed. "Well then how did you break out of the cuffs? Those are made of solid steel. On the days a person is supposed to get up, that outer door is opened and someone goes in to unlock the cuffs. There's no way you broke through those cuffs on your own."

"I'm telling you, that's what happened!" Thomas yelled angrily. "I wake up, I have no idea who I am or what this place is, then I see the cuffs. I tried to break out for a bit but nothing worked. Then suddenly they just broke off. I didn't care if there was some dumb schedule I had to keep! I just bolted!"

"Then how did you get past the outer door?"
Thomas was starting to get irritated by this Alby guy. So many questions, and to his frustration, his best response was always that 'he didn't know'. "I picked the lock with a bit of wire I filched from the lights."

"And the electricity?"

"I wrapped my hands in the bedsheets to prevent myself from getting electrocuted," Thomas said, almost smugly this time. He knew he was innocent of whatever he was being accused of, and at this point showing he could outsmart the system better than the others seemed to be good payback.

But as much as he hated to admit it, Alby was right to ask those questions. The whole circumstances surrounding his situation and early break out didn't seem right to him. Not that anything else around here seemed right. Everyone had lost their memories and were being chased around by monsters called Shriekers. Then he had a flashback of an operating room where someone said he would get up in a week. There was a sinister breath to the very air he breathed that set Thomas on edge. No, something about this place wasn't right.

A knock on the door interrupted his recount of the day's events. Newt poked his head inside the room with worry and panic written together in a blur all over his face. "Alby, you better hurry over here. Something happened and the others aren't back from barricading yet."

Everyone was abuzz, grabbing supplies and stacking tables near the door. Someone pushed past him and Alby, mumbling what sounded like "excuse me." Clint and that other boy were directing others who were helping to carry the bandaged injured. The girl Newt introduced as "his bloody girlfriend" had jumped into rapid discourse with Gally, who kept shaking his head and motioning toward the door with his long arms. Whatever it was that was going on was obviously heated.

"Alright, what the shuck is happening?" Alby bellowed. The room quieted down a bit after his booming voice jolted everyone to attention.

"Minho and Ben aren't back yet and... well you have to see this for yourself," Newt said with warning.

Alby followed Newt to the door that led to the hallway. Newt was cautious as he slowly opened the door. He peered out, then waved his hand towards Alby. Alby walked up to the door and crept out into the hallway. His mouth went dry.

Roaming up and down the entire hallway were at least a dozen Shriekers. They lolled about absent mindedly, walking with no specific purpose or direction. Worst yet, were the knocked over pile of cinder blocks and a cart that was tipped on its side. Minho and Ben were nowhere to be seen.