"Do you think it's them?" Cooper said and took a couple of steps towards the stairs. "The zombies?"

Oliver ignored Cooper as he stood and walked over to Claire. "You drank the water."

She nodded. "I do, every day. It's not terrible." A tear slipped down her cheek that she wiped away with her sleeve.

"Guys, we need to go," Cooper hissed as the sound of another window breaking reached their ears

"Claire—" Oliver said..

Claire put a hand on Oliver's arm. "I'm fine, I feel fine. Don't worry about it. I think I would have felt something by now if my water was contaminated." She smiled, locking eyes with Oliver for a mere moment before she walked over to Cooper.

"Follow us," Cooper said over his shoulder as Claire headed up the stairs.

Oliver took Armstrong's diary from the desk and followed them up the stairs. Above them, he heard the sound of deliberate steps, of items being knocked down onto the floor. As they reached the top of the stairs, Claire opened the door down to the basement less than an inch, then put her finger to her lips.

Moments later, on her signal, they proceeded down the hallway that took them back in the direction of the living room, one step at a time. Just as they approached the living room, a shadow appeared on the other side of the living room. Dressed in stained jeans and a dirty short sleeve T-shirt, what had once been a man in his mid-twenties stared back at them with blood red eye whites. His arms hung straight down, a random finger twitching as he stared at them.

"Move slow," Claire whispered over her shoulder. "Follow me. Back door."

Step by step, they moved towards the door. They were halfway across the living room when they heard a snarl behind them. Cooper spun around, his shotgun facing a dark-haired woman with a red sweater and black skirt. She stared at them with her red eyes, her mouth wide open in a grin, saliva seeping, dripping from the extended tongue. As if by signal, the first man took a step closer, his hand raised partly, his finger stretched out towards them.

"Claire," Oliver whispered and grabbed her shoulder. "We need to move."

She nodded and pointed towards the back door. "Cooper. Slowly. Out the same way we came in."

They continued across the living room towards the back door. Claire pushed the door open and waved Cooper and Oliver out. As soon as she let go of the door, both zombies rushed towards the back door.

"Run!" Cooper said as he fired through the window of the back door. The male staggered backward, his chest exploding with blood. He fell and pulled the woman backwards, but she pulled herself free and charged out the door. By the time Claire and Oliver reached the hole in the fence, she had closed the distance to Cooper and threw herself towards him just as he fired a second shot. By some miracle, the shot missed the woman, and she collapsed on top of Cooper in a pile of limbs.

"Claire! Help!" Cooper struggled with the woman. He tried to push her away as she clawed at his face and eyes, biting his wrists until blood poured.

Claire turned and gasped. She raised her shotgun and was just about to fire when the male rushed through the door, heading straight towards them.

"Claire, we've got to go," Oliver hissed. "Now!"

She hesitated for a moment, then fired at the approaching figure. The shot hit him in the chest. He flew backwards towards Cooper and the struggling woman with a growl. Oliver rushed through the door and ran towards the Jeep as fast as he could, Claire right behind him.

"You drive," she said between breaths as they reached the driveway. She ran around the vehicle to the passenger side while Oliver jumped into the driver's seat.

In the same moment the engine roared to life, half a dozen zombies rushed the Jeep from the shadows of the fence.a

"Go, go, go!" Claire aimed out the side window and moments later, a head exploded in red. As Oliver gunned the accelerator, the Jeep shot forward. Claire lost the shells in her hand, cursed and fumbled around on the floor as Oliver jammed the gearbox in drive and left Armstrong's home behind just as they were about to be overtaken.

Their speed increased as they rushed down the street, past other gate homes. One by one, gates opened as they pasted by and Oliver glimpsed figures in each driveway and doorway, all staring directly at them.

"Which way, Claire, which way?"

"Follow the street to the end, then take a left, up the hill," she said as she fumbled on the floor for the shotgun shells. Oliver flipped the switch for the overhead light as he raced down the street as fast as the Jeep allowed. Claire got a hold of her shells just as Oliver reached the turn in the street.

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"Take a right up here, then stop at the payphone," Claire said and glanced over her shoulder out the back window.

"Payphone?"

"Yes. I need to make a call. I lost my radio in the house."

"Why not just head back to the station?"

"Do you really think that's a good idea? With everything going on?"

"Right." Oliver nodded. He knew Claire was right. The entire village seemed to be waking up from the wrong kind of sleep. "We really need to get out of here."

"Exactly. We need to get the town locked down. The teams at headquarters in Tansitee can make that happen."

"That's who you're calling?"

Claire nodded and looked at Oliver. Sweat was running down her forehead, and her lips were dry, as if she was severely dehydrated.

"Claire, are you ok?" he said as he pulled over next to the payphone booth."

She locked eyes with him for a moment, then smiled. "I'll be right back."

Oliver watched as Claire dialed and waited for the other line to pick up. She said she had drunk the city water. Was it possible she was feeling the effects of whatever compound Armstrong had concocted in his lab and released in the water supply? If so, how long would it be before she turned from a rationally thinking human into a mindless monster?

Oliver gasped. "Rational thinking. That's it!" Unlike zombies he had encountered in the last outbreak that seemed ravenous beasts, driven only by hunger, the zombies here were different. As he looked back at what had transpired at Armstrong's house, on the street before that, it was as if they all moved in unison, with a shared goal. They all moved at once, they all stopped at once, they all attacked at once. It was as if something connected them.

In the phone booth, Claire hung up and redialed another number. Oliver furrowed his brow. A second call? Who is she calling now?

"Two calls?" he said once she returned to the Jeep.

Claire nodded. "HQ and Matthew. I had to give him a heads up too."

"About what?"

"That it'll be a while before I get home. With all of this going on, you know?"

"Got it. Listen, Claire, I think I understand the behavior of our zombies a bit more?"

"Just like that?" Claire raised her eyebrows. "While I made a phone call?"

"It just clicked, you know. Let me expl—"

Claire put up her hand in the air. "Can you talk and drive at the same time? We really don't have time to waste."

"Sure." Oliver put the Jeep in drive and pulled away from the curb. He followed Claire's directions to get to the road to Tansitee. When the seaside community was firmly in the rearview mirror, Olive explained his discovery, how the zombies seemed connected.

"It's just like the bees," Oliver said. "The zombies here behave like a hive mind, like a single organism, with one purpose."

"That's a bit of a stretch, don't you think? I mean, they're humans, not bees."

"Perhaps, but it explains the behavior. So far, what they're doing doesn't fit the patters I've seen before. It's totally new, it requires a new mindset."

"Better tell that to the boss when we get there, Oliver."

Just then, they passed a convoy of military and police vehicles heading the opposite direction, blue lights flashing as they drove towards the seaside community at top speed.

"Reinforcements?"

Claire nodded. "Yes. I'm surprised they could turn it around that quickly."

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Usually, it takes hours and hours to organize a response from the central district to outlying communities and even then, I've never seen it this huge."

"Maybe it was something you said?"

"I don't know. Their reaction to my phone call, it was almost as if they were expecting it."

Oliver hit the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road. "Expecting it? Do you think they already knew about it?"

"I don't see how they could have mobilized so quickly otherwise."

Oliver sighed. "That only means that this goes beyond Armstrong himself. We need to go back to his place. We need more data."

"Oliver! Later, maybe. Right now, we need to get back to town. First things first. We don't have a lot of time."

"Looks like they're on their way. They don't need us anymore."

Claire looked at Oliver. He felt a shiver down his spine when he saw a pink tint to the white of her eyes. "That's not what I meant. I don't think I have a lot of time."

Oliver didn't know what to say. He knew she had drunk the water, but he had pushed the implications of this out of his mind, hoping it would never happen just because it was Claire. It wasn't supposed to happen to her. He put the Jeep in drive and prepared to turn out on the road when Claire put her hand on his arm.

"No, Oliver. I'm serious. I'm feeling feverish already, a little dreamy, you know, one of those dreams when you watch yourself do things but have no control. I've been fighting through it so far."

"Claire, you can do it, fight it!"

She reached into her pocket and held up a set of shiny handcuffs.

Oliver laughed and shook his head. "No, Claire, I will not cuff you."

"You have to." Claire looked him in the eyes. A tear ran down her cheek. "For your own safety."

They both sat in silence for a few moments. Oliver knew she was right, it was the only reasonable thing for him to do. He reached for the cuffs and cuffed her to the passenger door handle.

"Tighten the seatbelt around me too. Pull it quickly, then release. It'll enable the belt lock. That way, I won't be able to reach you to bite you."

"Bite me?"

"Whatever these things do. Just do it, Oliver."

"All right, all right."

With Claire secured, Oliver continued the journey towards the city.

"You need to take Matthew."

Oliver glanced at Claire. "Matthew?"

"Yes, when you leave. Take him off the island."

"What about you, Claire? I can't leave you here."

"You know you must. There will not be much left of me soon. Just hurry, ok? That was my second call. Matthew will meet you at HQ." She grunted and shook her head as she pulled on her restraints. "It's close, Oliver, I can feel it. The HQ, follow this road. The second traffic light, take a left there. The building will be on the right, then—"

Claire screamed and shook, her fingers twitching as she looked at Oliver, fear in her eyes while tears ran down her face. "Oliv—" she tried before spasms overtook her body and her eyes rolled back, revealing bright red eye whites.

"Oliv—" she tried before spasms overtook her body and her eyes rolled back, revealing bright red eye whites [https://img.wattpad.com/721aaa167b0f81adb62c15ee00bb2f8c846ba48c/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6862567048635f6e5546334f77673d3d2d3837393534313030352e313630633261323664343038373463313535303639333637323334302e706e67?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]