It took Malcolm several days to come to. Even then it was still a waiting game. After the commotion the group came to two very clear conclusions. Someone had let the zombies in and Job was not to blame for anything, having been locked up the entire time. Rebecca still felt uneasy about her former patient, but now having a new patient and Job proving his innocence of involvement in the clear and present sabotage that was last night, she was forced to move on. Day by day Malcolm showed tremendous signs of recuperation.

Karina would often fall asleep in his room, sometimes even on the bed. One morning she woke up still sitting in the visitor’s chair they rolled on but leaned onto his chest. She was woken up by the damp cloth of his shirt soaking her arms and hair in the blood that was draining down from his severed neck. The fit was very real. Karina kicked the chair back and ran out of the cell screaming. She was not screaming for help. She could care less about Malcolm, her face was covered in blood and so was her conscience. Karina knew it was her the entire time. She knew it was…Hamilton who murdered Echo and unleashed the horde. She must have done it in her sleep or something.

Rebecca and Atticus were frozen. They did not know how to address her, or whether they were addressing her at all. Rebecca saddled up her courage and ran past Karina losing her mind to get to her patient. It was too late. Malcolm had died sometime in the night. Rebecca felt anger in her heart. Not for anyone in particular, but in herself for letting her guard down, forgetting that there were threats out there unchecked, unchallenged. And in that anger she summoned the sword to her black hand and put Karina up against a wall. Her fit was satiated by the point of Rebecca’s moonsword touching her chin. Rebecca simply asked the poor girl who was now thinking clearly from the fear for her life, “Did you do this?”

Karina confessed, “No…No, I had nothing to do with this. I swear.”

Rebecca loosened her grip and Karina collapsed, crying. She got a hold of herself and only one thing remained on her mind.

“Who would do this?”

Rebecca did not answer her with words. She looked around and felt a bad feeling move into her stomach. It was time to check on the other cell block. Atticus and Marcus followed her. Job was nowhere to be found, which was not a good thing in the slightest. The sweat on Marcus’ brow gathered into beads ready to drop. Another member of their group was down with no explanation as to why. None of them were any kind of a detective or investigator. The only one who seemed to have an inkling as to what was going was little Ruby. Poor Ruby…

Only one of them made it their business to follow Ruby and try to find out what she knew. Jesse spent the last couple of weeks keeping an eye on her. She didn’t do much at all. For a little girl she lacked typical curiosity and imagination. Most of the time she stayed with the group, there was nothing suspicious about that. Then there was the night her cell was empty. Jesse asked Harold if he had seen her. He was the only person left in the cellblock since Karina had been spending so much time with Malcolm.

When they both turned to talk to everyone in the other cellblock they were already standing behind them: Rebecca with her sword and the boys, Karina covered in blood. Jesse went to ask about Ruby but something struck him, something no one else noticed until right now, including Marcus. There weren’t two people missing. There were three people missing. What many failed to realize was that this whole time Annie had not been accounted for. Marcus had been so distracted with keeping tabs on Job he forgot about the person closest to him.

After dinner was portioned out to everyone Ruby carried it into D-block. She pretended to be interested in the guns to lure Atticus over and give her reason to be there. Jesse unwittingly ate his grub in his own cellblock. Job finished his bowl of food and left it in his cell next to Marcus. He walked out of the block into the hallway leading to the shower room. Ruby dropped her food and followed him out. One bite was taken out of the bowl that got left on the gun table. Atticus looked down only momentarily befuddled before writing off Ruby’s behavior as just a kid who didn’t like how the food tastes.

The halls of the prison were very dark, even in the daylight. Only the cellblocks and main rooms like the commissary and the bathrooms that had windows for light, windows too high to reach for obvious reasons. Ruby trailed far enough behind Job not to get noticed. Back inside the cellblock Annie finished her food and went to go use the lavatory. She walked down the same hallway, and for hours no one saw or heard from all three of them.

Atticus split everyone up into search parties. Now that the ruined cellblock was sufficiently neutralized they could roam freely. Two groups would split up, circle the prison and meet in the middle. Karina went with Jesse down the eastern corridor. Harold followed Marcus down the middle, through the main C.O. room. Atticus and Rebecca started through the shower room and worked their way through the western corridor. Atticus dipped his fingers near the drain on the floor. Diluted red drew down his hand as he showed it to Rebecca. They both silently agreed they were on the right path. They literally followed the blood out of the room.

Karina and Jesse heard a feint pounding coming from down the hallway. The echoes led them to a door to the Visitor’s Center.

“Listen,” Jesse told her.

“What?”

“The pounding is slow.”

“What does that mean, Jesse?”

“It means that whatever is behind this door is either wounded or dead.”

Karina stepped back.

“Don’t open it.”

“What if it’s Ruby?”

“What if it’s the horde?”

“RUBY!” Jesse tried yelling through the door.

“There’s no answer that means it’s them.”

“These walls were built to be soundproof. We need to open it to be sure.”

“I’m leaving then.”

“You need to stay and help me.”

“If it’s them I’m useless.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Please Karina, I can’t let this girl die.”

“Okay,” she pulled out a gun from her jeans that she wasn’t supposed to have, “Okay, I’m ready.”

Jesse opened the door to the Visitor’s Center.

Marcus and Harold hesitantly walked into what could only be the lounge room for the Correction Officers. It had a billiards table with no felt and no cues, a half empty magazine rack, and a soda machine. The only other thing in the room besides a table, couch, and a couple of chairs was Job, holding a knife against Annie’s neck.

“Brother…” Marcus put his hand out, “What are you doing?”

“You never believed me,” Job laughed.

“What?”

“You never believed that I was capable of what I did.”

“All you did was try to save that girl.”

“You think I was trying to save her?”

“The lawyers…”

“The lawyers were the best thing I ever bought.”

“Are you saying you actually abducted that poor girl?”

“I didn’t just abduct her.”

“Stop.”

“The only truth you got from that hearing was the beginning and the end. Bookends!” He drew the knife closer to Annie’s neck.

“My lawyers did a fantastic job of spinning everything.”

“You… murdered that poor girl.”

Harold looked back and forth at the two of them, utterly confused.

Job laughed again.

“I got drunk at Barney’s, on the way home I picked her up, she was grateful at first.”

“Job, don’t-”

“When she realized she wasn’t leaving the car things got out of hand. I had to do something with the evidence.”

Annie started openly sobbing.

Job continued, his smile growing, “the accident forced my hand and my lawyers did the rest.”

Marcus tried to put it all together in his head. An attempt to figure out the maze of lies and deception distracted him from the matter at hand.

“You kidnapped and murdered that poor girl, and after getting in a car accident because you were drunk you decided that… there was no way to escape jail time. So you might as well frame the other driver and drag him down with you, but how did you get her body out of the car when the police found her?”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to hear the answers to.”

“Why would you kill Echo?” Harold gripped his gun, “Malcolm?”

“Malcolm, that’s easy, I wanted to frame the schizo for everything.”

“And Echo?”

Job looked straight into his brother, Marcus’ eyes, “because I felt like it.”

Job slit Annie’s throat from ear to ear, letting her body fall, allowing Marcus to take his shot.

“You son of a bitch!”

Marcus unloaded his clip into Job’s chest, thrashing his body back to the wall. Harold went for Annie and called for help. Atticus and Rebecca charged onto the scene. It was one of the first times Atticus had seen Rebecca panic in a while. Marcus tried to console Annie as she choked on her own blood. She looked up at him, speechless, and grasped at his hand holding hers.

“It’s okay, Annie, I’m here, it’s going to be okay.”

Marcus switched with Harold and brushed her hair back as Rebecca gave him a solemn look. The gash on her neck amazingly matched the one on Malcolm’s. Harold kneeled next to Job as he died. Atticus walked up behind him.

Harold asked, “Why did you let the zombies in here?”

Job gave out one last garbled laugh before dying, “Hah. I didn’t.”

Harold stepped back nearly bumping into Atticus.

“You heard that?”

“I did.”

“What does that mean?”

“Karina...”

Atticus and Harold pulled Rebecca and Marcus off of Annie. She was lost, and no matter how hard they wanted to try there was no way to bring her back.

Jesse opened the door and was pushed back by zombies waiting to get in. Karina was right and going to pay for it. Even though it sounded like just one, all the commotion from the rest of the group going off in the background drew a legion of zombies, almost enough to call the horde. Jesse fought them off one by one as Karina shot around him.

Then suddenly it didn’t matter anymore. The room shook. The sound of walls crumbling brought the fury upon them. The moonsword carved the broadside wall down around Karina and Jesse. Rebecca gave them a chance to regroup with the rest. Rebecca honestly did not expect them to be working together.

Everyone was convinced that Karina, or Hamilton would be responsible for all of this. Karina successfully fought them off without turning into Hamilton. If only Malcolm had been there with her to see it. Rebecca looked around at the mess she had caused. The strange alien artifact was getting the best of her, giving her a lust for destruction. She had nearly torn the prison to shreds. Atticus helped Harold carry Marcus away from the settling rubble. Jesse looked around for Ruby who was still missing.

That’s when Rebecca made a decision for the group. They could not stay here, it was no longer safe. Marcus can’t remain in this prison after what transpired either. The answer was clear.

“We have to go to Cape Canaveral.”