Ps. You Are My Happiness

3. Unwelcome Intrusion

Being happy never goes out of style

-C. E. Jerningham

~.~

"Don't mind, Ivan. That's how he is." Bailey takes me to a separate room. "You and Eric can spend the night here, the conditions aren't that good, but you can at least live here without worrying about death," she says.

"Yeah. That's more than enough." I sit on the mattress that's on the floor.

"So, tell me about you." she sits in front of me.

"Why don't you go first?" I ask.

"Alright. I am Bailey, as you know. And I am a scientist and a detective to the forces. I am a junior of Ivan. Actually, he's the only senior here, and he's currently our team leader. When the infection outbroke, we got teamed up to rescue people. Then we stayed back and built this place as Ivan didn't want to go without knowing the sole reason." she says.

"So you all stayed back because of him?" I ask.

"No." she points behind me where there's a steel door. "That's an isolation room. Three zombies are in there."

"What?!"

"Yes. My mother, Derrick's sister and Ivan's little brother. That's the main reason we haven't moved yet. But still, we haven't found a single thing about anything." she says with a sad smile.

"It's okay. We can be of help." I say.

"But seriously. If you guys don't want to stay here, you can return. Don't think Ivan forced you or something."

Oh, he sure did. But it's not like I am complaining.

That handsome man caught my eye.

Night falls, and the darkness inside the place thickens. Eric sleeps next to me, snoring like a pig while I stay wide awake. I can hear growls and groans coming from the room next to us, where the three zombies are in.

I get up from the mattress and walk toward it. Then I carefully keep my right year on the steel door to listen to the sounds well. I can hear bone-cracking sounds that sound so inhuman. My heart pounds hard in curiosity and fear.

Before I can move away from the door, someone grabs me from behind and twists my arm behind me. I was about to scream out, but that same person keeps his hand on my mouth. Then he pulls me out of the room.

I try to fight him, but it's in vain. He's too strong.

I cannot turn around because of the deadly grip. We only stop when we are in another separate part of this place. He releases me only then. I hold my hands in front of me, ready to fight and finally get the sight of the person in front of me.

Talk about the devil.

"Ivan," I mutter.

"The hell were you planning to do in there?! Get them out so everyone gets infected??" he asks.

"N-no. I was only listening to the sounds-"

"Like I would believe the shit you say." he walks over to the cooker that is placed separately from the middle section, separated by a half wall. I keep silent, follow him and sit on one of the boxes on the floor.

"You won't believe me anyway," I mutter, which goes ignored by Ivan. Why is he so grumpy?

He takes out what looks like a kind of instant noodle from a box. At the sight of the food, my stomach grumbles all of a sudden. Ivan glances at me, and I look away, totally embarrassed and cursing my stomach for being so blunt. Things cannot get any worse.

"You like it spicy or what?" he suddenly asks.

"Huh?"

"Noodles."

"Oh. Not spicy."

He takes another packet and starts making the noodles. It feels awkward without a single word exchanged between us, so I try to make a conversation.

"So.. are you also a  scientist like Bailey or only a detective?" I ask.

"A detective."

"Oh. And-"

"I can't believe your military sent some random guys on a dangerous volunteer mission like this," he says.

"Wha- we are not random. They- they tested our talents!" I exclaim.

"What talents?"

"Like, shooting and physical things."

"I see."

"And- you can't judge me like that."

"I wasn't judging."

"You see, I almost made it to the special forces."

"But you didn't."

"Because I am colour-blind, yeah! They failed me on that test." I say with a frown. "What does colour have to do anything with it anyways?"

"If they ask you, is this blood, sir? You might say it's apple juice. Colour is important."

"Sarcastic much? I can identify colours though I am colour blind."

"What is your colour-blind type?" he asks.

"Achromatopsia. All I see is black and white."

"Right.."

He takes out two bowls and puts the noodles separately. I watch him with a growling stomach as I haven't had anything since morning. He serves me a smoking hot bowl, and I take it gratefully. Then I dig in as if I haven't seen food in years.

"We are making our way to the central lab in a few days. Are you going to stay back with Bailey and Derrick or come with us?" Ivan asks.

"Who else is going?"

"Everyone except Bailey and Derrick. They are going to stay back, taking care of our place. You two can join if you want."

"You'd appreciate it if we come or don't?"

"As long as you don't turn into a zombie. Yeah."

"I am in. Since there isn't much of a choice." and I get to be with you.

I finish the bowl of noodles.

"Were you that hungry?" he asks.

"Kinda. Couldn't eat since morning."

He nods and takes my bowl from my hands. Then he puts them aside and looks at me.

"Go and get some sleep now."

"Okay.."

I get some sleep, but the low growling from the room next door keeps me awake. I feel like they might crash the door and come at us, so I toss and turn the whole night. When Eric wakes me up the next dawn, I feel like a walking dead myself.

I pull out my body and walk out of the room. As soon as Bailey sees us, she hands both of us new toothbrushes. I look at her in surprise to know they have these things.

"We were able to crash the nearest supermarket and get everything," she says.

So Eric and I brush our teeth under minimum luxury, though we appreciated the help we got from others.