Chapter Eight: Reunited

Harper and Elyza shared a look before they both bolted down the hallway towards the direction the shot had come from. Harper's stance shifted as she withdrew her handgun from its holster at her waist and held it up. It vaguely reminded Elyza of the times she watched crime shows and the cops swept through a potentially dangerous house.

Without a gun of her own, Elyza quickly yanked the ever-present knife out of her pocket and flicked it open. She attempted to hold it in a way it would be most effective, but she wasn't exactly sure how to go about doing that. She was almost certain she looked like a complete idiot next to Harper.

She didn't have much time to think about that before they fell upon a grim scene. A body lay bleeding out on the ground. It was pale with its arms splayed out in a way that showed the person was struggling before death. The dead person was male, with filmy blue eyes and a bloody abdomen. The face was unrecognizable due to a large bullet wound that entered through the mouth and flew through the back of the skull.

The sight sent Elyza's stomach clenching and she had to turn away, barely able to contain the bile that threatened to make an appearance if she kept looking. Her eyes landed on a hunched over figure against the far wall as she sucked in her breath.

Harper was unhelpfully feeling for a pulse on the neck of the clearly deceased man. Elyza grabbed her attention and pointed to the person.

"Hello?" Harper called, grasping her gun with both hands again. She flicked her head behind her, giving Elyza a pointed too. Stay behind me, it said, but Elyza didn't listen. She stayed put as Harper edged her way forward, "Hey, are you okay?" the soldier reached her hand out and touched the heaving shoulders of the man before her.

He jerked and turned around. His face was nearly as pale as the corpse on the ground, but his eyes were wild and full of fear. They were dark, a steep contrast from his fair skin. "Is it—is it dead?" He asked desperately, clutching at his arm and looking around desperately. "He attacked me, I knew he was sick…but I didn't think…I never would have…" he was gasping and hyperventilating.

"Hey," Elyza rushed forward and rested a hand on his shoulder until he looked at her, "breathe." She said firmly. "It'll be okay. You did what you had to do to survive. That's all we ever do these days. Try to calm down and tell us what happened." She kept her eyes firmly on the distraught man before her, unable to look anywhere else for fear of getting sick.

Harper stood back silently, glancing around as he began to speak. "His name is—was Richard Ellison, he was a friend of mine. I was coming down to see him, he hadn't been feeling well. He was getting a cold or something. But when I got down here and opened the door he like…attacked me. He was rabid and crazy, I tried to reason with him and I tried to fight him off. But he, well, he bit me." He frowned, as if realizing the ridiculousness of what he was saying as he said it. "I know things are…falling apart on land, but I've never seen it before. Was he infected?"

Elyza glanced at Harper, trying to process what had happened. The guy on the ground had the same eyes as the ones she had seen while on land. From Elyza's perspective the filmy blue eyes were a sign of the infection, what she'd heard so far sounded like the Ellison guy had been infected.

"I think so…" she replied slowly, after it looked like Harper wasn't going to say anything. "You said he bit you? Can I see?" she held her hand out, resting her finger tips on the hand covering the wound.

Ellison nodded and removed his shaking, bloodied hand. Elyza tilted his arm towards the light so she could see it better. He was shivering, but with what, Elyza wasn't completely sure. Adrenaline? Fear?

As she examined the wound, she knew what it meant. From all of the cliché movies and what she'd experienced so far. He was infected too. The mark was quite obviously a bite. A large chunk of the flesh and muscle was missing, leaving a gaping, bleeding hole in the brachioradial muscle of the forearm. It was shaped in the form of a mouth and clearly ripped due to the bluntness of the teeth trying to separate it from Ellison's body.

Elyza was lucky she didn't have a particularly weak stomach because she would have thrown up in that moment, looking at the injury. How Ellison wasn't crying or freaking out even more than he already was was beyond her. Maybe he's too high on adrenaline to really feel the effects yet.

Harper finally said something, "We need to report this and get you some medical attention."

Elyza shook her head. There was no medical attention for this wound. He was going to die. He was going to be infected and turn into one of them. "Not right now. Were there any more sick people besides your friend?"

Ellison frowned at the question, "Not that I know of."

She didn't know how to break it to him. He was doomed to die and he didn't even realize it. How was she supposed to break that news to him? How did her mother—everyday—tell people they were terminally ill or dying?

Taking a deep breath, Elyza tightened her hand on the muscled forearm of the man before her. She let that one breath clear her emotions and settle on what she had to do, "I'm sorry, Ellison. You won't be able to get any help for this…after you're bitten…you turn into one of them…You're infected. There isn't a cure. There's nothing we can do to stop it."

Harper stepped forward, "Hell no, we can take him to the medical wing. They can patch up his wound. They can do something!"

To Elyza's disbelief, it was Ellison who shot down her positivity, "No. She's right. I knew it when I got bit. You knew it too, Harper. We've seen the reports, we've been trained with how to deal with this. You need to end it. I can't infect anyone else or it's going to spread like a wild fire and you know it."

Harper shook her head, frowning and flicking the safety on her gun back on. She moved to put it away, "No. I'm not killing you. We have to get you to Medical. Now."

Neither Elyza nor Ellison made a move to assist her.

"Harper, please. You have to shoot me." He dropped to his knees. The side of his gray shirt was covered in a dark patch of his own blood. His face was splattered with—what Elyza assumed—was his attacker's blood and he was pale from blood loss.

Harper hesitated and shook her head, opening her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Tears clouded her eyes and Elyza noticed. She stepped forward and held out her hand. "I can do it," she said softly. She didn't want to seem like she was doubting Harper's ability to solve the problem here, even though that was exactly what she thought.

The dirty blonde attempted to plead with her again, using only her eyes because her voice couldn't seem to work. She held the gun tightly in her hand, behind her thigh as if thinking about trying to fight Elyza over it.

After a moment, Elyza wiggled her fingers, "Give me the gun." She said more firmly.

Reluctantly, Harper placed the warmed metal weapon in her hand. Elyza turned away quickly, facing the kneeling man before her. He seemed even worse; his forehead was covered in a layer of sweat and his face was even paler than before. She tried to push away her feelings, she had to do this. If the disease spread through the ship, there would be nobody left to keep safe. She would be on her own again.

Her thumb found the safety and she played with it for a moment before doing thorough check of the gun. She examined the magazine within quickly and mechanically before turning the safety off, cocking the gun and aiming it. "I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Ellison had his eyes tightly closed, sweat dripped down his face and his forehead was creased. He uncovered his wound and instead, grasped the dog tag dangling from his neck. He ran a bloodied thumb over it before reopening his eyes.

"Take this," he yanked it from his neck, popping open the metal clasp but not breaking it and held it out. "I need someone to remember me. I want you to have it."

Without knowing what else to do, Elyza nodded and reached out to grab the necklace, holding it tightly in her free hand. She rubbed her thumb over the wet ridges of the engraving, trying to focus on that instead of what she had to do.

Richard Ellison closed his eyes once again after flashing a sad, brief smile. Elyza repositioned the pistol at his head, her finger hovering uncertainly over the trigger. A moment passed.

"Thank you," he whispered almost imperceptibly, but Elyza heard it. Without allowing herself another moment to think, her finger closed around the trigger. The recoil jarred her arm and she winced as her shoulder popped uncomfortable. It wasn't injured, only cracked from the sudden, slightly unexpected movement.

The noise made Harper jump and turn away, covering her eyes as Ellison fell to the floor. Blood sprayed in every direction from the force of the bullet and Elyza came away with splatters on her face and clothes. So much for that shower. She rubbed her shirt over her face, staining it with blood and smearing it over her cheeks.

"We should go."

"What about the bodies?"

Elyza turned away, looking at Harper who was staring at the body before them. The blonde knew that if she continued to dwell on what she had just done, there would be tears and she really could not deal with that right now. I need to find Bellamy, I need to focus on what I can actually do. Not what I can't change.

With a deep breath she flicked the safety back on the gun and shoved it into the waistband of her pants. "Leave them. There's nothing we can do about it."

"But we have…we have to report this…there's protocol to follow. Reports to fill out." Harper sputtered, tears turning her fair skin into a splotchy mess.

"Not now, I need to get the hell off of this ship and find my people. You need to figure out if there are any more infected on this one. If everyone knows about what's going on they're going to freak out. I know you're military but everyone here has family. We're all human, they'll freak out." Elyza grabbed Harper's arm to steady her.

Harper still seemed to be disoriented and unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her. When she didn't reply, Elyza jerked her arm, sending her stumbling. "Focus, Harper. You're a soldier. Protect your people. How are you going to find out if there are any more infected on this ship?"

The shorter blonde blinked and looked at Elyza and her eyes seemed to focus. "I can get some people to help me. They'll know how to hack into the computer systems to find out whose visited the doctor or gotten sick."

"Can you trust them to keep it quiet?"

"Yes," Harper replied instantly, conviction evident in her voice.

Elyza didn't ask for any more information and pulled Harper down the hallway, back the way they had come. Together they found new clothes since theirs—particularly Elyza's—we're a bloody mess. They shoved their sodden ones into a bin filled with other dirty clothes and changed quickly into new shirts.

Afterwards, Harper led Elyza back up the stairs and within fifteen minutes after her murder of Ellison, she was aboard a raft that could only contain—maybe—half a dozen people. She was set up with a life jacket and told to stay seated the entire ride.

Elyza wasn't at all new to riding in a boat, she had grown up in a beachfront town. Her family had friends who owned boats and they would normally go out on the weekends. But she wasn't really worried about anyone knowing that. She was careful to keep her mind away from specific memories, blocking off that part of herself seemed like the best possible idea with the situation at hand.

The ride itself was a little rough. The driver—a total stranger—drove at a pace that sent everyone bouncing in their seats with every wave that slapped against the hull with astounding force. Elyza's head hurt as it jolted uncomfortably every couple of seconds. She enjoyed the sea breeze and the salty smell that accompanied it, attempting to clear her conscious and head of any thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Harper leaned up behind her and shouted in her ear. She had told Elyza that she needed to accompany her back to the Pearl Harbor and get the friends she said could assist her in further investigating the situation on the U.S.S. Freedom.

Elyza nodded and pulled away from her, not feeling like it was necessary to provide a verbal response. She could see the Pearl Harbor—or at least the boat she thought was the Pearl Harbor—growing larger in the distance. As they approached though, it grew into a hulking metal beast before her eyes. Much larger than the Freedom, and much more dangerous-looking.

There were satellite dishes sat atop the uppermost story and several other objects sticking off in many directions that Elyza didn't know the uses for. There were a couple of life rafts and small boats hanging over the edge of ship as well. Guns and missiles were perched on the deck in several different areas as they approached and Elyza's neck was forced to stretch backwards to capture everything.

The much smaller boat slowed considerably and bumped lightly against the hull of the Pearl Harbor, near a Jacob's ladder drilled against the boat. Soldiers shouted from above and the ones on the boat jumped into action, tying ropes to keep the smaller boat anchored against the larger vessel.

Harper stood up and patted Elyza's shoulder. "Come on, we're the only ones getting off." The girl seemed to have regained some of her composure from the event that had occurred and Elyza was glad for that. If she had started acting weird then their secret wouldn't be safe.

She stepped onto the edge of the boat, jumped up quickly and grabbed onto the ladder. Elyza watched her before tightening the straps of her backpack on her shoulders and attempting to mimic Harper's movement.

She managed to grip tightly at the slipper metal bars with one hand and not slip off by flexing her feet on the lower one. Once she was steady with both hands and feet firmly grasping onto the ladder, Harper began guiding her upward.

The bars were slick with sea water and it was a difficult and wet experience climbing up the side of a ship. She didn't know how long they kept shouldering upward, but her arms were beginning to ache.

"Whatever you do," Harper shouted over her shoulder, "don't look down. Especially if you're afraid of heights."

Elyza didn't intend on looking down, but after Harper said it, she had the sudden urge to do the exact opposite of what she said. She knew it was stupid and childish to do so out of spite, but she looked down anyway. Curse my inability to listen when someone tells me something.

Instantly her stomach rolled and her heart jumped into her chest. Her blood felt like fire in her veins as the fear lurched through her body. She turned her face back to the gray metal of the ship, taking a couple of deep breaths to try to steady her center of gravity.

They continued their ascension of the ship and once they reached the top, they were both helped over the railing and Elyza wanted to collapse with exhaustion. Her upper arms burned, her shoulders ached and her legs felt like Jell-O when she glanced over the edge of the ship and realized how high they had climbed.

Leaning heavily against the railing to recover her breath, Elyza didn't hear someone shouting her name until they were right behind her. She turned and noticed Bellamy standing a couple of feet away, Finn, Octavia and his mother slightly behind him. They were accompanied by three soldiers who seemed to be corralling the group as if to keep them in one spot.

"Elyza?" he repeated.

She straightened her shirt and nodded, "Yeah. Hey, how's it going?"

Finn chuckled, "Oh, you know, just the zombie apocalypse. No biggie deal, Dave." He leaned his elbow on Bellamy's shoulder casual. "How's the whole family-search going?"

Elyza shook her head, "Not very well. I got attacked by these bloody Navy guys. Now they're kind of—well, they're holding us hostage I guess." She crossed her arms, not caring that there were several of said "Navy guys" surrounding them who gave her insulted looks.

Maybe these ones weren't holding them hostages, but there was clearly some corruption over on the Freedom. Humans tended to become selfish creatures when their lives and ways of living were threatened. They would do anything to keep things from changing.

She glanced over Bellamy, who looked tense with a small recently acquired cut on his jaw and split lip that looked new and swollen. Finn, who looked the same as ever, even if a little worn out. Octavia just looked plain pissed, with her arms crossed and chin up, sending anyone who stepped near her a sharp glare that kept them at bay. She had a developing black eye that she wore with pride. Aurora stood by her daughter's side, glancing cautiously around. She was the only one who didn't seem to have any visible injuries.

"We Navy guys saved all of your asses, so we deserve your service. This is a new world that we're trying to survive in. People are dying left and right." A deep, male voice resonated from the opposite side of the deck.

Elyza turned, searching for its source. She knew she'd found it when her eyes landed upon a tall middle aged man with a graying buzz cut and a dark blue uniform. He had medals around his neck and pins along the collar of his shirt, expressing how decorated he was within his branch of the military.

His face was heavily lined even though he didn't look all that old, maybe his mid-thirties. He was barrel-chested with a stomach that slightly protruded over his belt. He wasn't out of shape, but he definitely wasn't as in shape as he possibly could be. Elyza was about to add another snarky comment when Bellamy spoke first.

"Who are you?" he asked, keeping his eyes trained on Elyza's before stepping in front of her and looking directly at the man. She was a little insulted by that and shouldered around him, so she could stand right next to him, their shoulders brushing. Elyza knew it was some sort of dominant man thing; he was trying to protect her. She might have thought it was sweet if she didn't feel demeaned by the action.

A smirk played on the soldier's thin lips and his jaw thrusted upward in a show of authority. "I'm the commander of this fleet. Marks, Commander Marks. I had my men rescue you from certain death at the hands of those undead creatures. I should be accepting proper appreciation from you, yet you're out here insulting my soldiers."

Bellamy raised up his hands, palms facing outwards to placate the angered commander. "We do appreciate everything you've done for us, Commander."

Elyza couldn't stop the snarky addition from escaping, "But I was completely capable of taking care of myself. Your soldier knocked me unconscious—"

"After killing an infect that was ready to kill you. Appreciation, Ms. Lex. You should be grateful we saved you." He clasped his hands behind his back. His shoulders were strong and broad, relaxed but alert all at the same time. The commander was the epitome of in control, while Elyza was slowly beginning to bubble with rage. She tried to tamp it down; she knew the commander was only trying to bait her.

She crossed her arms over her chest and clenched her jaw tightly to refrain from saying anything insulting, "I am grateful that your men saved my life." But the indent in my head begs to differ.

The commander nodded, stepping closer to the two teenagers pressed close together. The smirk was still on his lips as his eyes analyzed the new members of his ship. He wanted to integrate them, to turn them into a working part of the system he had created aboard his fleet. They all needed to work together to survive this disaster and he was willing to do anything to live.

After a moment of silence Marks spoke again, his voice louder so everyone within earshot could hear, "You will be lead to the barracks and settled into a recruit wing. You will have the day to catch up and come to terms with your new rolls on this ship. Tomorrow your training begins. You will also be given work duties for when you are not training."

With the end of the sentence soldiers jumped into action. Harper stepped up cautiously to Elyza. "Come on, I'll show you guys to your room." She looked like she was going to reach out to touch Elyza's shoulder, but thought better of it and lowered her arm. Their eyes met and an unspoken we need to talk passed between them.

Clearly Harper wanted to talk to her about what she was going to do once she got back to the other ship. It was odd how quickly she'd begun treating Elyza as a leader and respected peer. Maybe it was because she had done something Harper was too afraid to do. A mercy kill, Elyza struggled to convince herself.

Bellamy nodded at her and the five of them followed Harper down into the depths of the ship. They were lead through twists and turns, down staircases and through doors. This is going to be hard to navigate, Elyza thought, trying to come up with a way to map herself through this place.

If they ever needed to leave—or escape—they would have to find a way to get out without the help of other soldiers. She thought about marking corners, but how would they do it so discreetly that nobody really noticed them? They could carve in notches or letters in the upper corners. But how would they start doing that without others noticing?

Elyza's mind ran at a mile a minute and Finn noticed, slowing his steps until he matched hers. Harper was up ahead, talking adamantly to Octavia and Aurora, pointing out different areas of the ship as they moved. It oddly reminded Elyza of her University tour back when she first started, which made her uncomfortable thinking about due to the new, much more dangerous circumstances she was in now.

"You think too much, Aussie," Finn nudged her shoulder.

She narrowed her eyes, "I'm just trying to come up with a way to map this place out the easiest way possible."

"Why? Because you want to know where to go? Or because you need to know how to escape? Think about it, Aussie, these guys are trained in military survival. If we stay here, they'll train us and keep us safe. We're not out their fighting for our lives. This seems like the best situation to me." He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. He flashed Elyza a flirty half smile, she knew he was trying to flirt, but she wasn't into it. In fact, she wasn't into his gender at all.

She rolled her eyes at him and mimicked his stance, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "I was thinking we could find a way to mark the corners and doors, but I was still wondering how to do that without the other soldiers noticing." She lowered her voice considerably, sending a sideways look at Harper. Every time Elyza thought about staying on the Pearl Harbor for a long period of time her stomach twisted, as if she knew they wouldn't be lasting out their long.

Maybe she was just being pessimistic, but there was just a very bad feeling settling into the core of her being.

A/N: Alright, friends. I apologize for the long wait. I just spent the last two hours figuring out the best way to fix the mess I made. It might take me some time to continue editing for the next chapter, but I think I have the basics down, I just have to find the time to do it. Haha. Hopefully I can get it done after this coming Wednesday. After the next update (which will most likely come at the end of next week) the rest should be much more structured. Meaning: we will be returning to the regularly scheduled program.

Hope this is worth the wait! J

~Nina