Adam wondered why they had separated them.After the shock of seeing the general at a place they least expected, the phone rang, and the man handed it to Layla.Adam could see from the look on her face that it was her dad.Her answers were monotonous, but each syllable resounded with the pain she must have been feeling.Adam could see that even Maddy noticed it.After disconnecting the call, she gave the phone back to the general and told Adam and the others.“You go ahead to the house. I will join you later.”“Why?” Adam asked immediately.“I need to talk with my dad,” she said in that same infuriating toneless voice.“Well, I will not stop you from doing that. I will go with you and step aside while you have all the talk you want with him."She looked at him for a while and said, “I am going to him, and none of you are coming with me. I will join you at the house.”With that, she looked at one of the two men by the other car and walked towards them.One of them opened the car, and s

“I never get the surmon,” Jared Walton, Layla’s dad, said smoothly without any change in his countenance. Layla scoffed. “Of course, how convenient.” Her father shrugged again “I guess it is up to you to believe me. We were also battling those vermin back at home. There we were one day, planning board meetings and how to make things work, and then the next day we were fighting off crazy brain eaters. Everything was in chaos. We almost lost our lives too. Patricia was hysterical. We almost didn’t get to Gwen on time, and..." “And of course, it didn’t matter what happened to me. Inasmuch as your precious daughter and wife are okay, it was not necessary to look for the prodigal daughter, was it?” “Layla…” “No, it is fine. I totally get it. Why did you get me here this time? You don’t look like you are dying to me.” “You wish I was dying?” he asked as he leaned back against his chair. “Oh, don’t flatter yourself. I stopped wishing anything concerning you a long time ago. Why would I

“No!” Even Maddie was startled by Adam’s outburst. The men who were carrying Layla ahead of her father stopped, and they all looked back. “We are not going in there with you. Whatever you have to say, say it out here. What the hell did you do to Layla?!” he asked firmly. Walton looked at Walton and they both turned to Adam. “I will not hurt my daughter. I just need her to sign something and you will all be on your way” the man Adam assumed was Layla’s father said. “So you knocked her out? You would hurt your daughter because of whatever the fuck you have going on here? She left where she was immediately she heard that you needed to see her, you asshole. She left everything for you, and what did you do? You knocked her out?” Not even a semblance of guilt crossed Jared Walton’s face as he said “Stop being dramatic. I didn’t knock her out.” “Then wake her up. Whatever the hell you did that made her like that, make it stop now or I swear this precious daughter of yours will be dea

The black blood of the zombie spewed.As the zombie groaned in the hold of the blade, the men standing nearby were already riddling its brain with bullets.Even before he was finally cut in half, its feral cries had died in its throat.Maddie rushed aside and threw up violently.“You are sick, man. What the...? oh my God,” More vomit stopped her words.“You see that,” Sybil’s dad said calmly as he faced Adam and Layla.“You would do that to me?” Layla asked in a disbelieving tone. “My dad would let you do that to me?"He shrugged. “Seeing that you are family, I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but just as you said, you are hardly family in the real sense. So, yeah. I would. I want your consent on this, you see, and I will get it. What I am going to do is huge. It will save a lot of people. We will turn things around. You see, if you happen to still be here in the new world I will create, I don’t want you pestering me later about the unauthorised usage of your land. So, you see, we have

Rotten-faced, black saliva dripping, the zombie got up close to her, as it said in a guttural, growling voice.“You are mine!”Maddy jerked out of her dream with a half-scream in her throat.Layla, who was pacing not far from her, turned around and quickly came to her when she saw the expression on her face.“What is it?” Layla asked with concern in her voice. “Bad dream?”Maddy tried to talk, but she found her throat parched.She swallowed hard and said, “Nothing. Nothing, just a silly dream.”"That scream doesn't seem silly to me,” Layla answered as she sat close to her.“Any luck?” Maddy asked in a thready tone in a bid to change the conversation.She wished she could guzzle down about a gallon of water to soothe her throat and calm her raging nerves, but since that would mean she was bothered by the dream, she simply turned her head towards the closed door near where they were.Layla looked in the same direction as she said, “No, Theo has not been out of there yet. He did say it w