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Chapter Fifteen

Playing in the Rain

Melody's P.O.V

"Hold it right there!" A voice yelled as I was pushed against a wall. Three men surrounded me as a large black gun was pointed towards my chest.

My heart beat rapidly in my chest as I stared at the three stern faces looking down at me. I dared to look down at the gun and regretted that choice almost instantly. The man holding it was wrapped in military garb with his index finger wrapped around the delicate trigger. One small movement could end my life forever. That wasn't fair. One squeeze of his goddamn finger and my life would be over, everything I had fought for would have been for nothing. I would have killed all those sick people for nothing. Anger overwhelmed me and I soon found myself pushing the three men away from me.

"Get your hands off of me!" I yelled. Alan, Robyn and Carl appeared from the corner of the building and froze at the sight of the three men. Each of their outfits looked identical and each carried a heavy black gun. And they each pointed them at Alan, Robyn and Carl.

"Don't move!" The man in the middle shouted. Alan and Carl raised their hands in the air while Robyn merely crossed them in defiance.

"Officer Carl Hornsby! These civilians are with me." Carl said, digging in his pocket and pulling out a small badge.

"I don't give a fuck who you are! Just don't fucking move!" His harsh words scared me. This wasn't exactly the welcoming party I had envisioned. The man in the middle unhooked a small radio from his jacket and held it up to his lips.

"Aye' Doc we got some people here for you to look at." I vaguely heard a mumbled response on the other end of the radio. My mind was racing with any and every possible scenario. Surely they were going to help us? Weren't they?

"Doctor Hammond is gonna come and have a look at the four of you, if you pass the test you can come inside where it's safe." The man with the radio explained. He was looking at each of us like we were diseased and he would catch something if he came near us.

"And if we don't pass?" I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me, his eyes dancing with evil delight. He was enjoying this, I could tell. The other two soldiers just looked bored with a mixture of fear, like they were waiting for something bad to happen. Robyn cleared her throat and we all looked towards her.

"Is one of yous gonna tell us what the fuck is goin' on?" She asked, swapping her gaze between each soldier. The three men glanced at each other, as if they were having a silent conversation. The man in the middle shook his head and looked back towards Robyn.

"If you pass the test we'll tell you what we know." He stated.

"Well what's the test?" She asked. Her patience was wearing thin and I could tell. It would only be a few more minutes before she blew up in one of their faces.

"You'll see when the Doc gets here." He stated. Robyn rolled her eyes and tapped her foot loudly. I didn't understand why they wouldn't tell us anything until we passed this 'test'. But I guess with everything that was happening I shouldn't bother questioning the little things.

After a few minutes of silence passed a frail old man in a white lab coat shambled towards us. His wrinkled hands held four long needles that were already half filled with a red liquid. He walked up to Alan and stabbed one of the needles into his arm without notice. Alan scrunched his face up in pain but quickly composed himself. The doctor drew his blood and soon after removed the needle from his arm. He held the needle up close to his face and stared at it intently for several moments.

"Clear." He muttered, sticking a cap on the needle and sliding it into the pocket of his coat. He did the same to each of us and presented the same result every time. Stepping back and looking at each of us he huffed out a breath of air. "They're all clear, let em' in."

Breathing out a sigh of relief we followed the soldiers as they lead us into the crowded building. Stopping in the centre, the soldier who promised us answers turned around. "Alright so listen up. You probably know as much as we do at this point. We have no clue what the hell this disease is, how it's caused or where it came from. What we do know is that tomorrow morning a helicopter is gonna arrive at the Royal North Shore Hospital. In a few hours we're gonna get everyone, pile them up into the trucks we have and go there. When the helicopter arrives we're gonna tell them to send more so we can get everyone out of here. Until then, just find a place to relax." Although his words were friendly his tone was condescending. After looking at each of us the three soldiers walked back outside and left us with more questions than we had originally arrived with.

I looked at Robyn, Carl and Alan in turn and they all held the same expression I was sure was plastered on my face.

"I'm gonna do a quick scan and see if I can find the Lieutenant. I'll meet up with you guys later." Carl explained as he stepped past me and disappeared into the crowd of people. Although the soldier seemed certain of his plan to escort everyone to the hospital, I had high doubts that everything would go to plan. There had to have been hundreds, maybe even thousands of peopel crammed in the building. It was hard to believe that the solution would be as easy as 'calling for some more helicopters'.

"I'm just gonna have a quick look in that shop over there. I see me some prada!" Robyn exclaimed as she gently moved me out of her way and slowly jogged over to the small shop that was clearly closed. Looking left and right she knelt down on her knees and began fiddling with the lock of the door. Scrunching my face up in scrutiny I quickly turned away from her.

"You don't look very happy." Alan observed with a grim expression.

"Say's the person who didn't want to come here." I cunningly replied, quirking my eyebrow at him.

"I never said I didn't want to come here." He said slowly, quickly averting his gaze to the floor. I scoffed at him and playfully slapped his arm.

"Sure buddy, whatever you say." I replied, rolling my eyes at him.

"Okay I was wrong, completely and utterly wrong. Happy now?" He asked, looking up at me with a devilish grin.

"A little." I smiled, shrugging my shoulders lightly.

"I guess all we do now is wait huh?" He asked, walking over to me he enveloped me into a tight embrace. Standing still, momentarily shocked by his sudden show of affection I soon wrapped my arms around him. With everything that had happened I never really took the time to register the thought that Alan was my friend. And Carl, and god help me even Robyn was my friend. After everything that happened to the four of us it would have been stupid not to consider them friends.

After a few moments of his blissfully warm embrace I stepped away from him. A flash of emotion crossed his face as I stepped away but it was gone too soon for me to recognise it. As much as I would have loved to stay wrapped in his arms there was still a small feeling I had that I couldn't shake off. Despite the many soldiers with their big guns and the several doctors that were running past, I still felt extremely unsafe. As if something extremely bad was going to happen at any moment.

"You hungry?" Alan asked.

"Starving." I replied, not really paying attention to him but rather to the small group of children that ran outside and began chasing each other. After observing them for a moment I noticed that they were playing tag, their faces alight with joy. They were clearly unaware of everything that was happening. That or they were too young to understand or care. I found solace in the fact that a group of soldiers were paying extra attention to the group of children. I was surprised that they let them outside at all.

"Come on there's a cafe open upstairs." Alan gently grapped my shoulder and began leading up towards the bustling cafe. It looked to be the only shop open in the entire Q.V.B. Walking up to the counter I barely bothered making small talk with the man taking our order. Apparently he was all too happy about what was going on because he was making 'mega bucks' thanks to it. Being the only business open I could only imagine why. I scowled at him as he handed us our food. People had died and he was happy because it gave his shop a chance to sell more food? I shook him out of my mind as Alan escorted me to a small table with two seats. We put our plates and drinks down and sat down in the empty seats, our eyes sweeping over the building.

Some people looked sad while others look terrified, a few small children were clinging onto the mothers as they bawled their eyes out. It was a miserable sight. Quickly averting my eyes from them I looked down at the sloppily made burger in front of me. My stomach was roaring with hunger yet the idea of eating repulsed me. Dipping my head down a bit I peered past the metal railing and could vaguely see the small children still playing outside.

"You okay?" Alan asked. I snapped my eyes back to him, rather embarrassed that I had forgotten he was there.

"Is anyone 'okay'?" I asked sarcastically. He smiled but it never reached his eyes. Brushing it off I tentatively picked up the burger off the paper plate and as cleanly as I possible could took a bite out of it. As much as I didn't want to admit it the burger was actually delicious. Before I realised it I was licking the sauce off my fingers. Alan's laughter filtered through my ears, curiously I peered up at him and found he was laughing at me.

"What?" I asked innocently. Shaking his head he stood up from the table.

"I'm gonna go get some napkins." He replied, chuckling as he walked past me. Starting to eat the chips on my plate, and stealing a few from Alan's I almost had a heart attack when Robyn appeared at my side, clutching onto a bunch of bags.

"Oh my god Mel Mel! You do not even know how weak the locks on these doors are!" She squealed loudly as she began hopping up and down. "I'm goin' on a shoppin' spree! Want me to pick anythin' up for you?" She asked looking down at me. It took me several seconds to actually realise she was shoplifting. Under any other circumstance I probably would have gone ape shit and told her to put it all back. But under these very extreme and unreal circumstances, I honestly couldn't give a fuck.

"Ugh... No, I'm good thanks." I said smiling up at her, still trying to conceive exactly how crazy she actually was.

"Suit yourself, but I found a dress that would look scrumptious on you, and girl even if it kills me you're gonna wear it before we leave. So finish eating I'll be back in ten." She dumped the bags on the floor beside the table and quickly walked off. I stared after her in shock. The idea of playing dress up with her scared me shitless. And it wouldn't be happening. After a moment of stunned silence Alan returned with a wad of napkins. Thrusting them in my direction he quickly buried himself in his own burger.

"So do you have any family overseas? Besides your sister?" I asked, trying to make a conversation that could distract my mind from Robyn's threat and the infected outside.

"Nope, just my sister. How bout' you?" He asked.

"Just me." I replied, rather deflated. I don't know why I thought that conversation might have made me feel better. It only made me feel worse.

"Are you alright? I mean really? You look kind of..." He trailed off but never finished his sentence. I don't know why but I just found myself getting angry at him. Clenching my fists I couldn't help but curl my lip as I looked at him.

"Jesus Christ Alan I don't know! We almost died ten fucking times! Sorry I'm not as okay about that as you are!" He dropped his burger on the plate and held his hands up defensively in front of him.

"Hey whoa! I didn't mean it like that!" He exclaimed. Before I had time to reply Carl walked up to us. Exchanging a glance between Alan and I he seemed to pick up on the tense atmosphere pretty quickly.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna see what I can do to help around here, keep the radio on in case we need to contact each other." He spoke fast and walked away before I had time to reply. He obviously didn't want to stay any longer than he had to. I looked back at Alan and sighed at the worried and hurt expression he held.

"Sorry," I muttered. The hurt slowly faded from his eyes but I could see the worry still etched into his features. He looked down at the crowds of bustling people before he slowly returned to his food. Every now and then I would pick a chip off my plate while he finished his burger. For the most part we ate in silence. I spared a glance downstairs and noticed the scattered pattern of rain drops on the pavement outside. Ducking my head slightly lower I noticed the children continuing to play, despite the increasing heaviness of the rain.

After a few more minutes of running around and chasing each other the small group of children ran back inside. There were six of them in total and they were all utterly drenched from the rain. I couldn't help but smile at their innocence as they all spoke with one another. One boy broke away from the group and ran up to a woman who I presumed to be his mother. Stopping in front of her he fell to the ground and began violently convulsing. His small body began thrashing around on the floor as pain filled screams left his throat. His mothers small screams quickly built up into piercing shrieks as the boy showed no sign of stopping.

My mouth fell open in horror as the other five children dropped to the ground and began thrashing about, their mothers soon crowding around them. Within seconds the children's skin discoloured and dropped into a pale grey. They were infected.

Screams began to erupt in the crowds of people as they all began running away from the group of infected children. My mind was slow in calculating all that was happening. Partly because it was happening so fast but mainly because I didn't want to admit that it was happening. The childrens screams slowly transformed from that of a frightened child into the deathly shrieks I had only heard from the infected. Within minutes they were on their feet running towards whoever was nearest them. I quickly looked away as the soldiers raised their guns. Wincing as shots rang out.

A sick part of me hoped they had managed to shoot the children. But when I looked down I saw that that wasn't the case. Several people were already on the floor, surrounded by pools of blood. People were pouring out of the building onto the streets, their screams of terror filling the air. Too shocked to move I slowly tilted my head towards Alan. He was watching the disturbing scene down below with a glacial expression. In an instant he was on his feet and grabbing a hold of my arm. The shouts and gunshots of the soldiers became increasingly loud and as we began our decent down the stairs.

"Wait!" I screamed, tugging my arm out of his grip. "We have to find Robyn!" Turning around I began running up the stairs once again before an arm wrapped itself around my waist.

"She's downstairs come on!" Alan roared as he flung me around and began leading me down the stairs again. Frantically I swept over the area but couldn't see any sign of Robyn. A sickening feeling was building in my stomach at the idea of abandoning her. When we got downstairs Alan reached his arm out and grabbed onto a woman, swinging her around I was relieved to see it was Robyn. Forcefully Alan pulled the three of us against a wall and paused for a moment. His eyes frantically looking everywhere for an escape route.

A soldier on the other side of the building was shooting an infected when another came up behind him. Screaming wildly he squeezed down on the trigger and fired frantically everywhere. My eyes opened wide as the gun swung around towards us. A bullet left the barrel and whizzed forward. Piercing Robyn's stomach a scream escaped her lips. A spurt of dark red blood painted the wall behind us. Falling backwards she leaned against the wall for support. As she clutched onto her bleeding stomach she slowly slid down, a trail of blood following her.

I barely heard me screaming her name as I dived towards her. Placing my hand over hers I pushed down on her stomach. Apply pressure. That's what you were supposed to do wasn't it? I snaked my other arm under hers and pulled her up. Alan picked her up off the ground and carried her in his arms. He screamed at me to follow him.

Everything was happening so fast, and yet so slowly. And at the same time everything was so loud, yet it was silent. I couldn't hear a word Alan or I screamed. Yet the gun fire was clear in my ears. People running past seemed so fast, yet it felt as if I was moving in slow motion.

We ran past the brown haired boy on our way to the exit. His head snapped up from his mothers neck as his lifeless yet hungry eyes landed on me. Jumping up from the ground he began sprinting towards us, his lips pulled up in a snarl. I withdrew the pistol from my jeans and pointed it at him as best I could despite Alan's grasp on me. Aiming carefully I fired. The bullet pierced his skull and sent his small body flying backwards. A stream of blood flowing from his small corpse.

As we ran out of the large building and into the streets we stopped in shock. The utter chaos and bloodbath halted us in our steps. It was as if the road had been replaced with a river of blood. More and more people were being replaced with infected as the screams of the living quickly turned into the screams of the dead. The street was thick with infected.

"We have to run now!" Alan shouted, tightening his grip on my arm. Furiously he tugged me forward as we ran down the street, sticking to the wall as much as we possible could. We turned around the street and continued to run as far as we could. All the commotion from inside the Q.V.B had attracted hundreds, if not thousands more infected to run out into the streets. Several soldiers clambered into their heavily armoured jeeps that they had parked outside. Three soldiers ran around the corner and after several seconds appeared in a large rolling tank.

My eyes widened in fear at the sight of the large vehicle. If they were panicked who knows what they would do. The tank in front was blocking us from going any further and it would have been sure death to turn back, so we ran into the nearest shopping centre, running up the nearest escalators. At the top of the stairs we stopped momentarily to catch our breaths. I looked over at Robyn, limp in Alan's arms. Fear spiked inside me at the sight of her limp body. Alan shook her gently to rouse some life back into her.

"Robyn. Robyn! Come on!" His whispers slowly built up into yells as she didn't respond. At the sound of his voice several infected ran inside and began their ascent up the stairs. Nodding his head towards the next set of escalators we quickly ran up them. Running round the corner we stopped dead in our tracks at the sight of a group of them. We were trapped in the middle of a shopping centre. Slamming my body against the nearest wall, I slammed my fist down on the elevator button. I was too panicked to even look where the elevator would take us. Just as the elevator doors opened the infected from downstairs reached us.