Women in Black

Laura's heart skipped a beat. She couldn't blink neither could she move. She was frozen to her place. 'He knows.' She thought. 'They will now hand her over to those people. Who knows what will happen to her then?'

"You seemed familiar the second you walked in. But it took me a while to realise where I have seen you. You are Laura Alcott, I am sure of it." Laura looked anywhere but at him. He stepped back.

"I won't tell anyone, if you tell why Rhodes is looking for you?" Heath's expression turned soft. But Laura frowned in confusion. She had heard the name somewhere.

"Rhodes who?" Laura asked him. He rolled his eyes.

"Victor Rhodes, the boss of those morons in black." Heath spat and Laura's eyes widened. Victor Rhodes?

"Ilsa's father?" She murmured to herself but Heath heard it.

"Yes, your best friend Ilsa."

"How do you know her?"

"I just do. I am the one asking questions here. Why is he looking for you? What did you do?" Laura couldn't answer because she didn't know herself.

"I-I don't know." She managed to speak.

"Don't lie to me. You hid your name from us, how do you explain that?"

"I swear, I didn't mean to-" She stopped because the door swung open and Melissa hurried in.

"I am sorry if you two were in the middle of something, but Noah and Peter have returned and some drama is about to happen. Come quickly." She went out with the same speed she came with. Heath turned around and before he left, he said to her

"We'll have this conversation later." Laura went after him. She understood the meaning of Melissa's word 'drama', when she reached the lounge. Noah was sitting cross-legged on the floor and there was small gash on his forehead. Maxine was dressing his wound. While Peter was talking about something with Robert. Peter was a man in his early thirties, with a well built body. He had sharp eyes and short hair. He had chestnut coloured skin with a beard. What shocket her was that there was a dead body of a woman lying on the floor. She was stabbed in the heart multiple times and her shirt was soaked in her blood. Laura flinched at the sight.

"Who's she?" Peter asked.

"Riley. Noah brought her." Robert spoke for the first time. Peter nodded.

"What happened?" Heath asked.

"Peter took out his anger on her, when she was patrolling around their area." Noah said lokking at Peter with anger.

"Stop looking at me like that." Peter said, scowling at him.

"I respect you Peter. But what you did might put us all in danger. They are definitely going to notice her missing." Noah stood up despite Maxine's protest to keep sitting.

"We are already in danger. They threatened me to leave otherwise they would force us to. God knows what they do that they don't want anyone near them."

"And killing that woman helped us how exactly?" Noah yelled then he sighed. "I am sorry, I just- I feel like we are gonna go back to square one, living in fear, hunger, pain, exhaustion." Noah collapsed on a couch, beathing heavily.

"We are not gonna go back to square one." Peter lurched towards Noah and put his hand on his shoulder in order to comfort him."Because we all are gonna be together."

"It wouldn't matter. The safehouse is the only place that can keep us from becoming a meal to those mutated braindeads. Out there, we wouldn't last a week with this amount of ammunation."

"Noah you are already loosing hope." Maxine tried to console him. But he shook his head.

"I don't wanna loose someone again." He cried, tears started buliding up in his eyes and he blinked to not let them flow. Laura felt sympathy towards him. He seemed so vulnerable. Laura saw him trying to fight back the tears. She fought the urge to hug him right there, to reassure him, but she didn't even know what happened with him. So she stood where she was. Robert helped Noah get to his feet and took him to his room. He came back immediately, knowing well that he only needed to be alone at the moment. But despite Maxine's curses, Heath went to Noah's room Laura's eyes met Peter's who was looking at her then he looked at the woman then back at her.

"Riley? Come with me." Peter said and left the lounge. Laura hesitated for a moment but then decided to follow him. He brought her to a small room which contained a small table and two chairs. Peter sat own one of the chair and motioned her to have a seat too. She obliged.

"So Riley, tell me about yourself." Peter said, but Laura could tell something else was on his mind. She took a deep breath in.

"When the virus started spreading, I was alone. My parents were out of the country and the lockdown kept them from coming back. My friend let me stay with her in a bunker that her father built. She had wnough provisions to last half a year but she still shared it with me. After about three months we ran out if food, she was already weak, and the anxiety and hunger didn't helo either. She couldn't live and I had to leave the bunker. I managed to survive a week without facing any of the mutated ones. Then Noah found me, and brought me here."

"So, do you like it here?" Peter scrutinized her face.

"Yeah, it feels like home but why are you asking?"

"To see what lengths are you ready to go to keep the dream of living safely alive?"

"I would anything in my power."

"You remember that woman in the lounge?"

"um, yeah?"

"She looks exactly like you, hair, body, skin and she was wearing a mask like all of them wears"

"I don't follow." Laura frowned in confusion.

"I am asking you to go in their area and find their facility in the woman's disguise."

"What?!" Laura stood up.

End of chapter 4