2. A Beacon of Hope

Happiness depends on ourselves

-Aristotle

~.~

I hold out my rifle and shoot at whoever's coming at us. Their heads blow, shoulders break, and they fall on the ground at the impact of the bullets. Eric imitates me and shoots in all directions. But we are outnumbered by hundreds, and even the fallen ones rise to their legs right in front of us.

We step back while shooting at the people. And suddenly, we hear the roaring of a vehicle. Within a few seconds, in front of our eyes, a vehicle smashes over the infected ones and stops in front of us. Its door flings open in front of me.

"Get in!" someone shouts from inside.

Without giving another thought, I get into the vehicle while shooting at the infected ones who are still coming after us. Eric gets behind me, and we close the door. The pounding in my heart drops as the door closes, putting a barrier between the walking dead and us. After calming down, only I look around the vehicle.

The inside of the vehicle is too dark to see anything, but I can feel someone next to me who's not Eric.

I hold my rifle tightly in my hand and struggle to breathe. My mind gets fogged up with the images of the infected ones. I killed a lot of people today. But I can't say for sure whether they are human or not.

The vehicle drives on for a while, and no one speaks a word. That's when suddenly the lights inside switch on, and I can see Eric sitting in front of me. I look around in alert and look at the man next to me.

That's how I meet him—my to-be-lover. And my eyes get captured by him the moment I see him next to me. He's the most handsome man I've ever seen.

He spares a slight glance at me and looks away. I've heard with beauty comes the ego. Still, I can't keep my eyes off him even when infected ones are outside waiting to kill us.

"Hiyaa. Are you two okay??" A girl's voice asks from the front. I notice the one who's driving the vehicle is a girl, and there's a guy sitting next to him in the passenger's seat. He turns back to look at us and smiles at our shocked faces.

"Y-yeah. Who are you guys?" Eric asks them.

"Some survivors. We didn't know we'll find more survivors like this." the girl replies. "By the way, how did you guys get those weapons? Share the location as a thank you for saving you!"

"It's not like that," I mutter. "We are from another country."

"Hah!" the ones who are at the front exclaim, but the handsome man next to me keeps silent. "I think we have a lot to talk... right there."

It becomes silent afterwards, and I keep on looking out of the dark windows at the blood-stained streets and ruins. I spare a glance at the man next to me before clearing my throat and looking out of the window again.

And I see the vehicle entering a dark tunnel. It comes to a stop after a while, and we hear a door closing sound. I look around and realise it's a secret passageway to some kind of place.

"What is this place?" I ask the handsome guy next to me.

He looks at me and eyes my face. Without saying anything, he gets down from the vehicle. Oh, that stings.

Everyone gets down, and the girl comes to us. She reaches out to us, but before she can touch our hands, the handsome guy stops her.

"They might be infected," he says to the girl.

"We are not," I say.

"How can you be sure?"

"I don't feel pain anywhere," I say with bitterness in my voice.

"Neither do I." Eric agrees.

"We can examine their bodies later. Let's take them inside for now," the girl says, linking her arms around mine and Eric.

She leads us inside through two doors, and we come to a dimly lit place that is jammed with all kinds of things. One could spot books and all kinds of electronic devices in this place. I look around in wonder at the jammed place.

Then my eyes meet with two more people, a guy and a girl, in front of us.

"Who are they?" the girl among the two asks.

"They say they are from another country." the girl who has her arm linked with mine says. She leads us to a small area where there are broken sofas and old cushions.

"Take a seat." the passenger seat guy says.

We take seats awkwardly and wait for the new ones to ask us questions. Eric looks kind of uncomfortable with all eyes on us while I look at each of the new ones.

"I am Sasha." the girl who drove the vehicle says. She points at the other girl, "This is Bailey." then she points at the passenger seat guy, "Henry." points at the other guy, "Derrick." and finally points at the handsome, rude man, "Ivan."

"I am Andrea Foster. This is Eric." I introduce ourselves.

"So... what you said about coming from another country... Is it true?" Bailey asks.

"Yeah. We are from Ocasta." I say.

"Oah. How are you here? And wearing like you are ready to fight?" it is... Henry, who asks that.

"We are a volunteer group. Not only us two but there are also more of us... there were more of us. However, we volunteered to find survivors and get them out of here to Ocasta." I shortly explain the situation.

"More like you need our help," mutters Ivan.

I continue talking, "We aren't a military-trained crew. We are only here as volunteers. Now that we know there are survivors, do you know more who have survived this whole thing?" I ask Bailey.

She shakes her head, "We didn't find anyone except us." she says.

"Okay. Let's get moving to the borders. We can escape here." I say.

"We can't," Ivan says.

"Why not? Do you want to live with the zombies?" 

"Yeah," he says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. "We stayed back for a reason."  Although he's handsome and his looks are captivating, his words are simply sharp arrows dipped in bitterness and sarcasm. And so I feel like slapping or kissing that attitude away. I might choose the latter. No! This isn't time for this! Focus!

"What do you mean? So you guys weren't actually left behind but stayed behind?" Eric asks, confused.

Bailey nods, "We are all a detective and a research group here. It's a long story."

"We have time," Eric says.

"Well... the outbreak of the virus happened so suddenly that the capital of Cargo got infected first. Scientists named it "La Folie Nerveuse", also known as Nervous Madness. But no one had the time for any research to know where this shit started from, how and when. We had no clue. Before we knew it, everyone around us got infected. Everyone fled to other countries."

She continues, "Without knowing how this started, we can't create any medicine, neither can we point out a suspect who started this if one did. We stayed back for investigation, to learn more about the infected, whom we also call 'zombies' and get to know how they became like this and if we can cure them or not."

"I don't think this is curable," Eric says. "They didn't seem human."

"We don't know for sure." Ivan intervenes.

"One thing... It says that a bunch of scientists worked on the case. But they died before anything could be sorted out. Do you know about it?" I ask them.

"Do you mean in the Central Lab?" Sasha asks.

"Yeah. The military told us about that laboratory."

"Hold on a second. Since the military is involved in this... what's the plan after taking us from here?" Ivan asks me.

I take a deep breath, "Destroying the country, it seems."

My words create an eerie silence inside the place. Eric looks at me with wide eyes and mouths, 'Why did you tell them?' to which I shrug and mouth, 'I can't lie'.

"You can go back." Ivan deadpans.

"We can. But you can't. The doors to the border of Ocasta will only open to a smoke signal." Eric says.

"So you are telling us, even if we find everything, they'll destroy this country as soon as you return?" Ivan asks, sounding angry.

"Yeah..." Eric looks at me for help, but I keep silent.

"How much time did they give you?"

"Three months," I reply.

"That's more than enough. You two will stay here and help us with everything. One way or another, the information we find should be delivered to an outer country so they'll be able to find the cure." Ivan says.