9

I quietly laid in bed, Ellie's arm was draped over my waist. She didn't want to leave me alone after what happened at the pharmacy yesterday so she offered to stay with me for the night.

I've been lying awake for the past five hours because I was haunted by the faces of the people I killed back there.

I carefully turned onto my side and my thoughts slowly but surely drifted to Ronan. The outlines of his face, his long eyelashes, his blue eyes and his soft, soft lips. 

There's so much that I want to tell him but I'm afraid that he'll say the wrong thing back. I'm afraid that he wants to hurt me the same way as I hurt him. 

I wish I could figure him out. 

Dangerous, dangerous boy...

I closed my eyes and forced myself to fall asleep. At least when I'm asleep I won't be forced to think about what happened today. Or to think at all.

***

The next morning I stood in the kitchen, talking to Ellie. Luke's lab turned out to be a great place for us to hide. 

There's hot water, wifi, radios, generators, gas to fill up our tanks, weapons, and food that could last us approximately six months. 

Oliver entered the kitchen and poured himself a cup of steaming hot coffee. He frowned over at me before setting his cup down on the countertop. 

"You look like shit." He uttered and I let out a bitter laugh. "It's because of Dad isn't it?" He asked me so I shook my head at him. 

"No, I couldn't get any sleep last night." I tiredly uttered. 

"Why what's wrong?" He curiously asked. 

"Everything." I softly muttered under my breath. "What have you been up to, you've been so scarce lately." 

"I was securing the area, I'm trying to put up a fence that'll keep the rotters out." He explained and I slowly nodded in understanding. 

"Can I help?" Ellie asked him and he smiled over at her. 

"Sure," he uttered in amusement, he seemed shocked that Ellie would want to help him set up a fence. 

"I'll clean the facility. There's still a lot of blood downstairs." I told them. "And the bathrooms look like something from a horror film, seems like Luke forgot to let the cleaners come in this- year." I uttered and Ellie laughed at my words. 

"Men," she uttered before taking a sip of her coffee and Oli just smiled at her words. 

"Speaking of men- where's Ronan and Cooper?" I asked Oliver since I hadn't seen either of them all morning. 

"They went hunting for rotters. They need to bring one back alive. Apparently Luke needs it for his research." Oliver uttered with a raised eyebrow.

"And put everyone's lives in danger? Don't we get a say in this?" Ellie wildly asked him. 

"No, I don't think we do. A desperate man does what a desperate man does." Oliver blankly stated.

"I'll go talk to him." I briefly stated before leaving the kitchen. I angrily made my way up to Luke's office and found him sitting behind his desk while looking through a microscope. 

He briefly looked up at me and the glass door slid open. I made my way inside and before I could start questioning him my eyes landed on his arm. His wound was bleeding through the bandage wrapped around his arm. 

"Your arm-" I uttered with a frown on my forehead. I grabbed the medical aid kit before I gently removed the bloody bandage from his arm. I took some cotton wool out of the first aid kit and dumped some alcohol onto it. I carefully cleaned Luke's wound with the cotton wool in my hand but he showed no reaction to the burning alcohol that made contact with his skin.

I finished wrapping a bandage around his arm and he just quietly continued working 

"Thanks," he shortly responded once I was done. He hadn't taken his eyes off the DNA samples since I entered the room. 

"What are you doing, Luke? Hunting rotters? Really?" I asked him in disbelief and he finally looked up at me. 

"What exactly do you want me to do, Hailey-Jade? I need their blood in order for me to create a cure." He pointedly stated. 

"It's dangerous, Luke. You're not alone in this facility anymore, there are other people living here now. You don't have to consider us but think about your brothers because your serum won't last forever. Those were your words not mine." I uttered while looking into his eyes.

"You asked me to do this, to make the cure because you didn't want to lose me. So why are you acting as if I wanted this? If it was up to me I would've been dead a long time ago but then you showed up." He uttered in a gentle tone so I removed my gaze from his. 

"If you're gonna do this then- safety comes first." I pointedly stated and he nodded at me. 

"I promise." He said before smiling at me. I sighed before leaving his room and going back downstairs. 

"Anything?" Ellie asked me as I walked past her. 

"We're doing this." I uttered before entering the next room. I grabbed some cleaning supplies and started cleaning the facility, from top to bottom.

Once I was done I put the cleaning supplies away and made my way into the laboratory. 

"Be careful," Ellie uttered in fear and I saw Ronan and Cooper leading a rotter upstairs. 

I can't believe Luke's doing this. 

Ellie and I waited downstairs for them to return and after an hour went by Ronan and Cooper finally came back downstairs. I pulled Cooper into a hug before going over to Ronan.

"I'm fine." He told me in a reassuring tone and I tightly wrapped my arms around him. He rubbed my back in a comforting manner and I closed my eyes while resting my head against his chest. 

"What about you? What have you been up to all day?" He asked me before wrapping his arm around my shoulder and together we joined Oliver in the kitchen. 

"I stress cleaned. Thanks to you." I told him and he chuckled at my words. 

"I didn't wanna wake you up this morning. We left pretty early." He uttered and I rolled my eyes at him. 

"Or you didn't want to upset me so you just left without telling me." I told him. 

"Wait-" Oliver uttered from beside us as he took a sip of coffee from his cup. "Are you guys a thing again?" He asked us. 

"No, what's it to you anyway?" I asked him. 

"What's it to me, she asks." Oliver uttered in disbelief. "Stay away from my little sister, alright? She's off limits." He angrily told Ronan. 

"Oh my God. We were just having a civilized conversation, please stop embarrassing me and go help Ellie with the fence outside." I told him and he angrily set his cup on the countertop before leaving the kitchen. 

"I think we just got the talk." Ronan uttered from behind me before he pulled me into his chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist and his fingertips brushed over the skin that my crop top couldn't cover. 

"Ronan-" I started but was cut off by him placing fiery kisses down my neck. My eyes fluttered shut and my breathing started racing as his hands trailed down to my waistband.

His hands slipped past my panties and over my hipbones. I gasped at the realization and turned around in his embrace. 

"I have to go." I told him while staring into his eyes and he smirked at me. 

"Sure you do." He uttered and I blushed a deep shade of red before dismissively waving his words away. I left the kitchen and found Cooper standing in front of the window inside the lab. 

"Coop? Are you okay?" I asked him but he didn't say anything. 

I walked all the way up to him and placed my hand on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at me with tears running down his cheeks. 

"I can't do this anymore, Hailey-Jade. It's too much for me. What I saw out there today was fucking disgusting and its eating at me. I can't- accept the fact that my brother is going to turn into one of those fucking things one day." He angrily told me and I pulled him into my chest. He broke down into sad, sad sobs and a painful knot started forming in my throat. 

 "I'm so sorry." I whispered into his ear and held onto him as tightly as I could. Until his tears had dried out and his sobs had turned into silence.