Roy continued to pace as the time ticked by. It had been an hour and Tim still hadn't shown his face. As far as he knew, we were all oblivious to his involvement. We hadn't let Karla leave; she would more than likely warn him. I used this time to eat some of the food the girls had rounded up. I was able to eat the crackers and drink another juice box, but my nerves were preventing me from eating anymore.

We barely talked other than explaining what had happened to Karla. She vehemently denied that Tim could have done anything like that until she was red in the face. Mac had said that she was too close to Tim to see clearly and I swear Karla considered punching Mac in the face.

Mac came over to me, taking a cracker from the box.

"What should we do?" Mac almost whispered.

I set down the piece I was nibbling on. Why did he ask me?

"I don't know," I said back just as quietly. "Short of locking up Roy, there's nothing we can do until Tim shows up."

Elaine joined our little think-tank, "This will go really bad once Tim shows up. Roy is just getting angrier."

We all looked over at Roy. I could almost feel his waves of anger.

"We need to intercept Tim before Roy does something," I suggested. "Maybe handcuff Tim as soon as we see him. The element of surprise is all we have."

"There are some zip-ties in the storage room, I'll go grab some," Mac took off in search of our secret weapon.

Karla glared suspiciously at us, but remained sitting and chewing her nails. Mac came back and showed only us the black zip-ties in his coat pocket.

"How do we do this?"

"Unless there's a secret entrance you guys didn't tell me about, there's only one way in," I strategized. "Maybe have someone strong open the door when Tim comes in so that they are behind him. We will talk to him and distract his attention, while the person behind him tackles him to the ground and we tie up his hands behind his back."

"Why not just grab him?" Elaine asked.

"He's military. I'd say he's trained in combat. Our best bet is to knock him down and use weight against him to pin him there while we tie his hands up." This was all a guess on my part.

"I take it I'm to be the doorman?" Mac raised an eyebrow.

I bit my lip, "Sorry, it's nothing personal. But the more weight to hold him down the better."

Mac grinned, "That's the nicest way to call someone fat I've ever heard."

I shrugged. I had nothing to say that would make it any less rude.

"You should probably get up there then," Elaine said. "Who knows when he might return."

Mac grumbled, but went to go play doorman and give José a break. Karla watched him disappear with narrowed eyes. She got up, but the glare Roy sent her had her returning to her seat. I didn't see Bernice down here with her sniper rifle; she must have gone back to the roof. There were only seven of us in the common room in total. Hardly a worthy defense.

Elaine grilled me again on how I was feeling. My head was starting to throb where the wound was, so she went to get me some painkillers. She still had not returned when I heard a loud cough from the front. Mac must have been signaling that Tim was here. I got up.

"I'm just going to bring him a water bottle. I'll be right back. Tell Elaine if she comes back before me," I announced, trying to sound aloof.

Roy looked suspicious, but returned to his fidgeting. I slowly walked to the entrance. Please let this work. I was in no shape to fight and this would be messy if we had to resort to that. Mac jerked his head to the doors as I approached.

"Just saw the truck headlights pull up."

A figure was becoming more visible as it came closer to the front door.

"Hand me the ties!" I hissed as I got to Mac.

This was not very well planned out, but I had me to thank for that. I grabbed the ties and retreated back as I stuffed them up my sleeve. Mac opened the door and Tim walked through. I made it look like I had just come around the corner and approached the door.

"What happened?" Tim had the gall to ask.

"There was another attack," I started as I saw Mac prepare.

With a shoulder in the lead, Mac flattened Tim. They flew to the floor and I ran up to them as fast as I could. Tim had been shocked but was recovering as he tried to buck Mac off. Mac had managed to gather Tim's hands and I tightened the zip ties around his wrists, binding them together.

"What is this?" he demanded, bringing in our audience from the other room.

With his arms secured behind his back, Mac yanked Tim up. Roy made a dash towards Tim, his eyes full of pain. I jumped in front of Tim, intercepting Roy.

"Settle down! We need to do this the right way!" I yelled.

Roy shoved me out of the way and before I could grab at him, he took a swing straight at Tim. I heard the sound of cartilage snapping and when I looked back at Tim, his nose was bent to the side and blood began to trickle down his lips. Mac let go of Tim in favor of restraining the enraged Roy. Tim fell backwards with a groan, his arms still behind his back. Karla went to run for him but Elaine got in her way.

"No you don't," she calmly said to Karla.

Karla's hand flew to her belt.

"I don't think so." One of the older ladies pointed her gun at Karla.

We all stood frozen. Roy was still struggling against Mac to get to Tim.

"Roy you need to calm the fuck down," I pointed at him. "We won't get anything out of him if you beat the shit out of him."

Tim was military. Brutal force wouldn't work, but I had to admit, I found myself wanting to kick his teeth in. That would have to wait. Cooler heads always prevail. I reined in my own temper and turned to Tim who was wiggling his face trying to access the damage.

I walked up to him and Tim eyed me through narrowed slits. I leaned down, hovering over his side.

"I'm sure you know playing dumb won't work," I said carefully. "We know you lead those assholes here. And we know you sent them here for me. You know I'm immune. What was in the bag Tim?"

His eyes lit up before he could school his response. He knew I saw.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he deadpanned.

"I thought you were smarter than that." I knocked my head to the side.

We just stared at each other as he refused to admit to it.

"He didn't do anything, you heard him!" Karla pointed at him.

"That's because he's a fucking liar!" Roy renewed his struggles, but Mac had him pinned in his arms.

"Get up," I grabbed one of Tim's bound arms and helped him to his feet.

I lead him to the common area, everyone else followed right behind like a funeral procession. I grabbed a plastic chair, sticking it in the middle of the room and plunked him down. Tim wasn't resisting, but I'm sure he had something up his sleeve. Maybe more of his buddies were out there right now.

"Those guys that you were talking to, they were part of that gang?"

No answer.

"I'm really tempted to let Roy at you," I tsked. I hardly recognized the cold voice emanating from my lips.

"What do you want me to say?" Tim redirected.

"I want the truth, not just what you think we want to hear," I looked him in the eyes. "I have a pretty bad head wound and had to kill a man thanks to you and a little girl had to see a person die in front of her. So I think you owe us a fucking explanation!"

I was getting angrier with every word. I felt a hand rest on my shoulder and I turned to see Elaine. She motioned for the corner. Once we were out of earshot, she started to talk in a hushed voice.

"Okay, you're getting a little emotional too. Maybe we should have someone else try."

I went to run my hand through my hair, only to be stopped by the bandage wrapped around my head and a flair of outrage surged through me. Maybe I was too close to this.

"I think we should let Roy at him," I said and Elaine looked shocked.

"I thought you said that would be a bad idea," Elaine pointed out.

"Yeah, that was before he made my blood boil," I said through clenched teeth.

He was playing coy and I honestly thought he would have more of a spine.

"Let Roy go," I barked to Mac.

"What?" Mac asked confused and even Roy looked surprised as he stopped struggling for a moment.

I look directly at Tim, "I honestly thought you would have a backbone, but I guess my people reading skills aren't very good. Maybe you will grow one after Roy questions you." I glanced at Mac. "Let. Him. Go."

His arms opened and Roy took a hesitant step then regained his composure as he almost ran to Tim.

"Where's my wife you mother fucker?" he spit in Tim's face.

Tim steeled his expression and remained silent. Roy wound up his fist and let it fly again. Tim's head was whipped back from the impact and he gurgled as blood dribbled from his lips. Slowly, he brought his head back up, spitting the fresh blood on the floor.

Roy's eyes were glassy with unshed tears, his seemed to tremble with his fists clenched. He looked like Bruce Banner trying to contain the Hulk.

"We know it was you." Another hit; this time to the gut.

"My little girl is dead because you brought them here!" Tim's lungs wheezed from the next punch.

"What about Kyle, Linda, Elijah, José, Bernice!"

I stilled. José and Bernice were dead? I turned to Elaine.

"Those two that broke in tonight, shot them when they tried to defend this place," pain evident in her voice.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I was almost hysterical. This was too much.

"You have a concussion. That was the last thing you needed to hear when you woke up," the nurse tone returned.

No wonder I hadn't seen them. I felt like a fool wondering where they were, all while they were dead. Killed by those would-be kidnappers. The infected were supposed to be the enemy! This wasn't fair. Lives were being wasted for no reason while the real bad guys were terrorizing us in undead droves. This new world was disgusting.