Anxiety made Adam forget the fact that he didn’t want anyone to learn about the storehouse and its powers. It was not until the boy backed away from him in renewed terror and Bo started barking erratically that he understood what he had done unconsciously. He had withdrawn the Jeep from the storehouse. Seeing the gigantic Jeep suddenly in a place where there had been nothing earlier was too much for the boy and canine to take. Swearing under his breath at his foolish act, Adam looked sternly at the boy, who seemed to have gone into a coma of shock as his eyes bulged bigger and bigger until it seemed they would take up his whole face. If it had been another time, he was sure he might have dredged up the paternal instinct that he was not sure he possessed. But at the moment, he just wanted to get out of there as fast as possible before zombies would get attracted by Bo’s momentary barking. Though the limping Chihuahua was currently hiding behind the equally terrified boy’s leg, Ada

Adam didn’t see Trent click on the device this time, but the chairs moved dizzyingly fast! Away from the enclosure. Adam lurched forward as if to reach for his parents. He was shocked beyond words though, when the ground seemed to give way beneath his parents’ chairs. The last thing he heard was his parents’ muffled grunts as they disappeared and whatever opened beneath them closed back. The paddock looked on innocently as if it did not just swallow up his parents. “What…?” Bo’s bark as he limped back to Adam, stopped what he was about to say to Trent. There was no time. “Take Bo! Run to the stables!” was all he could say to Yoshi, with the hope that the boy would not freeze up in fear this time. “Idiot” he heard Trent say as he moved forward to hit the first zombie with a customised spike-headed club. The zombie fell back just as Adam saw Yoshi run through the midst of five burly men, just like the one that beat the gong. Just as the stable door closed behind the boy, Adam a

“You did good, boy” Adam said absentmindedly as he bent down to rub Bo’s shivering body as the dog nudged him over and over. The only sound coming from Bo was a keening sound deep from his throat as he turned his tawny eyes to Adam’s. He nudged him over and over until Adam lifted him off the floor. Bo immediately moved closer to Adam’s face and gave him a lick. “Eew, I didn’t say we are friends now, did I?” Adam said with a hint of a smile as he turned Bo away from the gory sight not far from them. He saw Yoshi still looking away “And you. Never pull such bullshit again,” he said as he approached the boy. “I was…” “Yes, yes. I know. It was all Bo’s fault” he said as he slung his free arm around Yoshi’s neck and steered him towards the stable. The boy was freezing. Bo whined when he heard himself being blamed. Adam only smiled and ignored him as he went towards the entrance. He knew his task was not about to be easier. Accidentally or not, he just killed a Troy. One who had

“Let me help” Marriane Smith said when they finally got to the back room where the young lady was bent over the unconscious man.The blood had not stopped and it made the part she wanted to stitch together slippery.Frustration and sweat filled her face but as she looked back and saw Marriane, she said “You have been through enough already. I can do this”Marriane disinfected her hands, then reached for the needle without another word “I heard that you saved us” she said when the lady didn’t let go of the needle. “Let me do this for you. I am a certified nurse”She finally let go of the needle and moved back as she said “I did not do anything. I only showed him the way” Then she nodded at the man on the cot. “I think he is beginning to wake up, he twitched the other time, so I think I can do this before he wakes finally”“You have done a great job already,” Marriane said as she swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw the damage done up close.She started sowing the man’s torn

“I still do not understand why you are trying to feed him like a kid.” That was the first coherent word that Adam heard, hours after he fainted. It was his father again. Inexplicable anger rose inside Adam toward the man he had respected for most of his life. “Does dad hate me?” he thought drowsily as his eyes finally focused on the person sitting close to his head while she tried to put a straw in his mouth. Sophia. “I swear to God, Caleb... Adam, son, are you awake?” Marriane, who was about to let her husband have it, quickly asked when she saw Adam’s eyes flicker. Adam would have loved to respond to her. He would have loved to erase that pain from her voice. He would have loved to tell her he was just tired and goddamn hungry. Yet all he could do was look at the person with something close to food in her hand. He made a move to talk to her but all he could do was move his head. Yet she understood. She put the straw back into his slightly parted mouth and with a little re