Chapter 5 Edward's POV
There was something about this girl that drew me in. Something inexplicable, primal even, as if every instinct I had screamed that she was the one who had to help me on this journey. I couldn't ignore the pull. It wasn't just her courage in knocking on our door—it was her presence, her composure, the way she stood even now, surrounded by chaos, with a strength that seemed to radiate from her.
Carlisle moved to the cabinet where we stored our small arsenal, pulling out weapons and carefully handing them to her group. His movements were deliberate, his voice calm but firm as he explained the necessity of being armed. "This is a precaution," he said, meeting each of their eyes as he spoke. "If she's completed the change—if she's turned—we need to be ready."
I watched as the girl—Bella, she'd introduced herself—accepted a weapon without hesitation. She checked it over instinctively, as if she was already preparing for the worst. Her group followed her lead, though their unease was written on their faces.
Jasper broke the silence, his voice edged with doubt. "If she's turned, are we supposed to just kill her? And if we do, what can we possibly learn from that?"
His question hung in the air, heavy with the weight of its implications. I glanced toward the door to the other room, the one we'd closed off to keep her contained.
"If it comes to that," Carlisle said solemnly, "it will be the last resort. But we're not doing this blindly. If she's turned, there are things we need to observe first—how she reacts, how she moves, what her behaviors tell us about the infection. Killing her immediately would be a loss of information we can't afford."
Bella's eyes flicked toward the door, and I could see the wheels turning in her mind. She wasn't afraid. She was thinking, calculating, and readying herself.
"We're not going in there to execute anyone," I said, my voice low but resolute. "But Jasper's right—if it gets to that point, it'll be a decision we have to make as a group. Until then, we do everything we can to learn from her."
Bella turned to me, her gaze steady. "And if it's too late for her?"
I hesitated, searching for an answer that didn't feel like a betrayal of what little humanity we had left. But the truth was unavoidable. "If it's too late," I said quietly, "then it's about making sure it's not too late for the rest of us."
She nodded in understanding and headed toward the door that shielded the woman. I guess she was taking the lead in this situation. I followed behind her close like a protector. Once the door was open Bella could see that she was restrained to a chair in the center of the room, her wrists bound with thick straps, and her head was no longer covered. Bella paused, her hand gripping the frame of the door. I could see her shoulders tense, but she didn't hesitate. She stepped inside, and I stayed close behind her, my hand instinctively resting on the grip of my Carlisle was already moving, setting up a small table in the corner with medical instruments and notes, his expression grim. "We don't have much time to observe her," he said. "She's progressing faster than the others that Edward remembers encountering." Before all this happened Carlisle was an emergency nurse working on becoming a nurse practitioner. "Is she still… aware?" Bella asked, her voice steady but low."We believe so," Carlisle said, glancing around at his family. "But it's fleeting. Sometimes she can answer questions, though her memories seem to be fragmented."
"Do you remember your name?" she asked the woman gently. For a moment, there was silence, then a strangled whisper: "M-Maria…" The response was faint but clear enough to make everyone freeze. Jasper, standing by the doorway, muttered under his breath, "She can talk."
They all looked at me. "That's the thing even the fully turned zombies were communicating in the lab, just not as clear or as intelligent as Maria here. gun at my waist.
The woman's head jerked in the direction of us walking into the room and a raspy hiss escaped her throat. Her movements were sudden, jerking in ways that no human should. I could tell she wasn't fully gone yet—her skin hadn't turned the sickly gray that marked the final stage like the others I saw in the lab—but the wild look in her half-visible eyes told me time was running out. Bella turned to glance at me for reassurance to continue.