Warning ⚠️: This book contains graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised.

September 15 2020 at 5:23 PM.

That was the day Joelee Lowell felt the sun on her skin for the first time in four years.

The wind blew through her long, dirty blonde, hair, breeze carrying the magnificent scent of freshly mown grass.

The gentle sway of the trees around them was the only sound around them as she stood, basking in the sunlight.

She felt a warm hand slip into hers as she looked over to see Nathan looking around in awe.

" We did it." Nathan whispered as he met Joelee's gaze, the rest of the group slowly walking up behind them as they realized they hadn't heard gunshots.

" We did." Joelee smiled as she turned to look at all of her friends who seemed to be in awe of the fresh air.

" It's beautiful." Rachel whispered as tears began to run down her pale face, glancing up at Kevin who put a hand on her shoulder with a remorseful smile.

" It is." He agreed as he found himself admiring her in the sunlight, her skin hot to the touch as if she had a very bad sunburn but her skin basically glowed in the sunlight due to how pale she was.

Alyssa knelt down in the grass, plucking a strand from the ground to play with as she looked around in awe.

" Who knew that The Monarch was so beautiful on the outside?" Killian murmured as he looked up at the large, white marbled building.

" Looks can be deceiving." Connor said before he suddenly stiffened as his eyes went blank, seemingly void of any life now as he stared straight ahead.

" Connor?" Joelee whispered to her friend, taking a step towards him as she lightly removed her hand from Nathan's.

" Surrender now and come quietly or be exterminated." Connor said in a emotionless voice, eyes suddenly flashing to life in a glowing silver color.

" Connor, what are you-" Nathan started to say before Connor interrupted more forcefully.

" Surrender now or be exterminated." Connor's arm opened to replace his hand with a large gun which he pointed at Nathan who quickly backed up.

"I'm not going back down to that hell hole." Killian said as he raised his hands, but Connor was incredibly fast as he whipped around and shot Killian in the leg instead.

"Surrender or be exterminated." Connor said yet again as Killian fell to the ground with a yell of pain.

"Connor, stop! Why are you doing this?!" Joelee yelled as she made a movement like she was going to run to Killian but Connor pointed his gun at her now.

" Oh, he cannot hear you. You see... The last time we removed his memory... We... Did a bit of tampering and placed a remotely activated chip in his head. I can control him whenever I want to." The Boss gave an evil smile as she emerged from the trees, pointing a gun at Joelee who froze.

Joelee narrowed her eyes dangerously and let out a deep guttural growl which made The Boss smirk.

" Cripple another one as a warning." The Boss ordered which caused Connor to point his gun at Brianna, shooting her in the spine which caused her to cry out as she collapsed to the ground with tears of pain in her gray eyes.

" Stop!" Joelee yelled as she began to rush towards The Boss, only for Nathan to grab her arm and pull her back.

" What to you want?" Nathan snapped as he glared at the dark red haired woman.

" Revenge." The Boss said before shooting Brianna in the head, eyes completely void of emotion at killing such a young girl.

" No!" Joelee exclaimed as she tore from Nathan's grip, running full speed towards The Boss who grinned as she shot Killian in the head before she disappeared in a puff of blood red smoke.

Joelee let out a scream before running over to Killian, checking his pulse with tears running down her cheeks.

" No, no... Please, no. You can't be dead. We did it. We're free. Please..." Joelee sobbed as she hugged him to her chest, not caring that blood was staining the front of her shirt.

" Killian..." Joelee whispered as she let his head fall back a bit so that she could brush the curls from his face, blood dripping from his wound and causing his curls to stick to his forehead despite her efforts but she ignored it as she sniffled.

" You can't..." She tucked her head down as she pulled him close once again, tears leaving streaks through the blood on her face as she sobbed loudly.

" Joe... He's gone... Please, hun. We have to go." Alyssa whispered as she put a hand on Joelee's shoulder, causing Joelee to jerk from her grip as she glared at Alyssa.

" I'm not leaving him." Joelee growled which made Esther narrow her eyes as she stomped forward, pointing a finger in Joelee's face.

" If I have to leave behind my sister... Who is STILL alive, by the way. You can leave behind Killian. He's dead, Joe. I know he was your friend, I know he was important... But we need to leave." Esther practically yelled as angry tears ran down her own cheeks, ignoring the glow of Joelee's eyes as she turned her attention to Rachel and Kevin instead.

Joelee looked back down at Killian, studying his features one last time so that she wouldn't forget his face like she had her parent's so long ago.

" I'm not forgetting you too. Or... Our memories. You mean too much to me." She whispered as she kissed the clean part of his forehead, tears dripping onto his face as she sobbed.

" There's really nothing we can do?" Esther asked Kevin who shook his head gently, removing his hand from Rachel's shoulder finally as he released a low sigh.

" What about..." Esther rubbed her hands together for a moment before she raised her hand, hovering it just over Rachel's wound as she narrowed her eyes in concentration.

Joelee's head lifted as she turned to look at Esther and Rachel now, looking a lot more angry now as she watched the wound on Rachel's shoulder close.

" You had HEALING THAT WHOLE TIME AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!?" Joelee yelled as she gently laid Killian on the ground, eyes almost black now as she shot to her feet now.

" It doesn't work if it's a fatal wound. I can only heal minor injuries. If I tried to heal someone who was going to die anyway, it would kill me! But this is just an infection..." Esther paused as she rubbed her eyes before turning her harsh glare on Joelee.

" You could've saved Sam!" Kai snapped as he stepped forward, clenching his fists which cracked loudly at the sudden force.

" You could've saved MARY! She wasn't fatally wounded!" Kevin yelled as all kindness left his eyes, replaced instead with pure disgust as he glared at Esther.

" Sam was FATALLY wounded. I can't heal fatal wounds. And I didn't even know that Mary hadn't been fatally wounded. You all just popped up and said she was dead so what was I supposed to do?" Esther hissed in response which caused the two males to falter a bit but they still looked incredibly angry.

" You could've told us at literally any point. Oh, by the way... I have healing powers so if you break a leg or something, I can help you." Kai said in response which made Esther roll her eyes as she put a hand on her hip.

" I could've told you while they were shooting at us? Or maybe when we were running from zombies and guards... Or maybe-" Esther ranted as she began to grow louder over time, only for Rachel to silence her by putting a hand on her shoulder.

" We get it. Calm down." Rachel murmured, not looking any better than she did before as she looked at her sister with a gentle smile.

" It must take a bit to help." Esther said as she finally turned her attention to Rachel, noticing despite the wound being healed, the spot was still covered in green veins that were already evident all along Rachel's neck.

" It... It's..." Rachel paused as she looked down thoughtfully, seemingly forgetting what she was going to say as she narrowed her eyes a little in concentration.

" Still bad?" Rachel said after a moment, looking back up at Esther who looked incredibly confused.

" Still bad? What does that mean?" Esther asked as she eyed her older sister curiously.

" It means she's still infected. You just healed the bite." Kevin said which caused Esther to whip around to glare at him as tears formed in her eyes once again.

" No! It just takes time! You'll see!" Esther exclaimed as she turned and began to walk towards the forest in front of them.

" Come on, Rache." Esther called over her shoulder as she paused to look back at her sister.

Rachel walked towards Esther, eyes watering as she looked at her little sister with a pensive expression.

" Go." Rachel urged with a reassuring smile as she ruffled Esther's long, light brown, hair.

" Not without you." Esther whispered as everyone began to walk towards the two.

" Yes. Go." Rachel said sternly as she wrapped her sister in a hug, body like an oven in the already hot air to Esther but Esther didn't care as she hugged her back tightly.

" I love you." Esther whispered as she sniffled, finally admitting to herself that she would have to leave Rachel there.

" I love you too." Rachel murmured before pulling away quickly as she backed away from them, waving her hands as a way to tell them to leave.

" We love you. Both of you." Joelee murmured, sparing one last glance at Killian before they all wrapped Rachel in a group hug.

Kai and Kevin hung back, not feeling comfortable enough to intrude on the personal moment.

" Let's go." Joelee murmured as she began to walk into the trees, the others following after a moment with Esther laughing behind for a second to spare Rachel one last hug before she hurried after the group as well.

" Joelee... I... I'm so sorry..." Connor's voice startled the group as they realized he had followed them into the trees.

" You're sorry? YOU'RE SORRY??!" Joelee yelled as she turned to glare at him, some of the group continuing to walk as they let the angry woman handle him instead. Most being too disgusted to even look at him at the moment as only Nathan and Alyssa hung back.

" THEY'RE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!" Joelee shouted as she got up in his face, eyes glowing brown now as she clenched her fists.

" Do you even feel any remorse? Or are you just saying you're sorry just so that we won't leave you behind?" Joelee growled out as black veins began to crawl up her neck.

" I feel remorse. I'm not a monster." Connor said softly which caused Joelee to release a harsh bark of laughter.

" You could've fooled me." Joelee snapped as she shoved him away from her, her strength causing him to hit a tree but he didn't react with anything other than sadness and remorse.

" I didn't mean to. She did this... I would never..." Connor began but Joelee ignored him as she turned and walked away, leaving Connor to watch her leave with a desperate expression.

Alyssa shook her head slowly before she turned and followed Joelee, not even sparing him another glance as she walked.

" Alyssa?" Connor begged but she ignored him, causing him to whimper as he turned his brown gaze to Nathan who returned it with a disgusted expression.

"....Nathan?" Tears ran down Connor's cheeks as he stared at his raven haired friend.

" I'm sorry. It wasn't me." Connor whispered but Nathan immediately shook his head as he turned around.

" Don't... Just.... Stop. You can follow us to the nearest city but then we're done." Nathan said before walking away, causing Connor to frown as he slowly began to follow his friends.

Kent kept close to Esther, holding her hand as a form of reassurance that she wasn't alone through this.

" She's not dead. We could come back someday and they will have found a cure or something. You'll see. It's just like a hospital stay." Kent reassured her but she shook her head sadly as she sniffled before releasing a shuddering breath.

" He's not wrong. They have some of the best scientists in the WORLD. If anyone were to find a cure it would be someone from there. There's still hope for her." Kevin assured Esther who looked up at him with a slow nod.

" Thank you, guys." She murmured before looking forward once again, tears still running down her face but she had hope now that her sister could still have a chance.

Joelee kept her gaze low as she walked by herself at the back of the group, complete ignoring Connor's existence as he stayed far away from everyone else.

" I just realized that we have no idea where we are. What are we going to do now?" Blake suddenly piped up which caused everyone to turn their attention to him.

" Find civilization." Kent said which caused Blake to roll his eyes as he put a sassy hand on his hip.

" And then? In case you haven't noticed we kind of look like we escaped from prison. Joe looks like she straight up murdered a guy... Well... Even more than she already did before. If someone sees us, they will flip." Blake motioned to Joelee as he spoke before putting his hand down slowly as he made his point.

" He's right." Kevin agreed after a moment, which caused Joelee to heave a small sigh.

" I smell water nearby. We can at least clean up." Joelee murmured as she began to walk in a different direction while everyone exchanged glances before following her.

" Cleaning up is a good start." Alyssa agreed as she followed Joelee closely.

" Yeah a good start. Hopefully they won't shoot us instantly if we're spotted." Blake muttered to himself but everyone ignored him as they continued on their way, wanting nothing more than to be rid of the reminder of the deaths they had witnessed.