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𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐔𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐓𝐒 𝐄𝐂𝐇𝐎𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐁𝐒. Eliza's eyes flashed open, blinking a few times as they adjusted to the brightness in the room. The gunshots had disappeared but the horrifying scream continued bringing the rest of the inmates to a sitting position. They all stared at the door in silence, listening as the screams got closer, traveling through the tombs outside.

"It's the military! We're saved!" Jules shouted and hurried over to the door. The rest of the group followed her pressing their hopeful ears against it. Everyone pushed and pulled eagerly as they piled up against the double doors. The gunfire started again and got louder and louder. Soon they sounded like they were right outside. With great force, someone from the outside pushed themselves against the door. The force pushed both Jules and Tomas back.
After failing to break through, the crowd outside broke into panic as they started to rattle and pound on the door. Screams in agony were heard amongst other muffled and shaking voices.

The inmates started to back away from the door and stood in silence at the other side of the room. Soon, the door flew open and a group of people poured inside. Two men from the group swiftly closed the doors while the rest of the group hurried over to the middle of the room where they placed a man they had been carrying. Eliza saw blood gushing out of a wound in a man's leg but couldn't see what happened. The wounded man on the floor was crying in pain as the rest formed a crowd around him.
The door was being pounded on by whatever had been chasing the group, leaving the two men by the door to hold it closed. One of the men shoved a metal spare between the handles before slowly backing away and joining the rest of the group.
"Only one way of keeping you alive," a sweaty brunette man raised his axe in the air before driving it into the leg of the person on the ground. Panic and confusion gripped Eliza. Her stomach twisted at the sight and she took a sharp step back and her mouth fell open. She stared in silent horror as the man continued to swing his weapon into the screaming person's leg. Everyone around them gasped and froze at the scene in front of them.

This is the first sign of life that the inmates had seen in months but nothing could've prepared Eliza for what she was seeing.
An Asian man from the group turned around before hunching over. The man seemed to have the same struggle of keeping his food down as Eliza as he leaned over and gagged at the sight. But as he did Eliza managed to catch a glimpse of the injured man.
It felt as though all the air in her lungs was being forced out of her body. Her mouth stood agape and she blinked repeatedly as her eyes met his.

Eli.

Her brother's familiar gaze stared back at her before his eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head, slipping out of consciousness. Without hesitation, Eliza grabbed Jules's pocket knife which she had tugged into her belt, and rushed over to the axe-winding man. She threw herself over him with her arms raised and her knife ready.

"Let go of him!"
The brunette man quickly spun around at her words before skillfully dodging the knife. He grabbed her arm and threw her aside. Her body met the hard ground with a thud but she was in too much shock to feel any pain. Eliza stood to her feet quickly and jumped on top of him again. She swung her weapon at him repeatedly as he tried to push her off.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head causing her to fall over. She looked up to see a sweaty man with a crossbow in his hands which he had used to knock her over. The man with the axe had made his way over the Eliza and was now holding her down as she kicked and screamed.

"Get off of me, you freaks!" She shouted.
The man grabbed her wrist tightly. The pain caused her to drop her knife and it fell to the floor with a clanking sound.

"I'm gonna kill you!" She continued to kick and scream violently as her heart race rose. A million questions were ringing in her head. Why were they here? Who were they? Why was her brother with them and why were they cutting his arm off?

"Eliza?" She froze instantly at the sound of his voice

Her eyes flashed across the room before meeting his. At least a million more questions flooded her mind, tangling themselves into a web of confusion and shock. His voice stole the air from her lungs and brought tears to her waterline.

"Liz? Is that really you?" Her oldest brother asked, dropping his gun to the floor as he stared at his sister in disbelief.

"Sawyer?" Eliza's vision blurred.

Staring at her older brother's eyes, it felt like time stopped for a second. She felt a wave of memories washing over her- like a movie played in her head.
Suddenly she was brought back to reality. She realized she was in a vulnerable position, being held down. She used her elbow to hit the man holding her on his nose, freeing her from his grasp. The sweaty man aimed his crossbow at her once again but Sawyer shot in front of him with his hands in the air.

"Calm down. She's good." Sawyer told the man.

"What, you know her or something?" He asked.

"She's our sister," Sawyer told him before turning to his sister again.

Eliza shook her head as she tried to understand what she was seeing. It was really him. Her eyes misted over upon the realization and she launched herself into his arms. She felt him wrap his arms around her and she cried into his shoulder.
"You're okay."

Sawyer squeezed her tightly as she buried her face into his neck. She couldn't barely breathe or think as she was too overwhelmed with emotion.

The woman was then hit with a sudden realization. "What the hell happened Eli?" She pulled away from the hug and hurried over to her brother. Eli already looked pale and blood continued to pour from his arm.

"He's been bit." The man with the axe said.

"Bit?" Eliza questioned. She couldn't bear to look at her brother's leg, her mouth filling with a sour taste at the sight of his decapitated leg.

"We'll explain later, but right now he's bleeding out. We've got to get him back." Sawyer said as he tried his best to put pressure on the wound using a rag.

"Glenn, go get something we can carry him on." The axe man instructed. The Asian man, apparently named Glenn stood up and ran into the kitchen.

"Hey, what the hell you doin', man?" Big Tiny tried to stop him but failed. The rest of the group froze slightly as if they had just noticed the rest of the inmates. Even Eliza had forgotten about them. The five other prisoners stared in horror at the new group.

"There's more of you?" The man with the crossbow asked.

"No, it's just us," Eliza explained. Panic began to rise in her throat as she stared at her bloody brother on the ground. Glenn arrived from the kitchen with a table with wheels. Eliza helped the rest of the group to lift Eli from the ground to the table.

"Sawyer, the door!" The man with the axe shouted out instructions.

"Are you crazy?! Don't open that." Jules took a sharp step back, crashing into a table behind her as Sawyer rushed over to the double doors. Ignoring the woman, the brunette grabbed the metal spare they had shoved between the doors to keep it locked from the animals outside before taking a few steps back.

Everyone held their breath as the doors slowly opened. A figure appeared in the doorway. It was... a person? Eliza frowned in confusion as a prison guard stumbled into the room. He wore dirty guard gear and walked as if he had been drinking for hours straight. Stumbling into the room, Eliza finally allowed herself to breathe steadily again seeing as the person clearly wasn't a threat.

Suddenly, Sawyer attacked the man and pushed him against the wall before using the metal bar to pierce the guard's head. Eliza lost her ability to breathe. Her mouth shot agape, unsure whether to scream or cry. She had no time to comprehend the scene in front of her before the group stormed out into the dark tombs. Eliza stumbled out into the hallways she had once known well. Now everything seemed unfamiliar. The smell, the air thick with dust from being abandoned for a long time. The blood-stained walls and floors, and the scattered and decomposed bodies of the guards and other inmates she had once known. A hand flew up to cover her mouth, trying to suppress the release of a disgusted gasp or gag, whichever came first.

She followed the new group close behind as she heard the rest of the inmates, walking closely behind her.

They hurried inside what used to be their cell block. Cellblock C. The rest of the group rushed inside one of the main cellblocks, leaving Eliza and the others in the dayroom in between the cellblock and the tombs.

"Hey, stay back!" The one who seemed like the leader said and pointed his revolver at Eliza who was about to enter the cellblock.

"Don't point that thing at me." She barked at him. "That's my brother for God's sake!"

"Rick, she's good. Let her in." Sawyer said. "We can trust her."

"I don't." The man with the crossbow said.

"Just her. The rest, stay right there!" Rick finally agreed. Eliza gave him a hard and long glare as she walked around him before the two of them rushed inside the cellblock.

Eliza was overwhelmed by the amount of people inside the cellblock. In addition to the people she had already met, there was a young boy, two older women, two teenage girls - who looked like siblings- and an older man with a white beard.

She ignored every pair of stunned eyes that were aimed at her and the mumbling that erupted as she stepped inside. Instead, the girl rushed over to her brother. She hunched over Eli's fragile body. Tears were covering her sight which might have been a good thing since she wasn't sure if she could handle the sight of her brother in the state he was in.

She felt ill to her very core. The woman clutched onto his shirt, sobbing into his chest. She made hopeless attempts to suck in the oxygen around her which seemed to have evaporated.

Eliza tore her gaze from Eli as she heard a distant voice. It was low and faint but it managed to pierce through all other sounds in the room. Eliza snapped her head up and her gaze met hers. She choked on her own breath trying to comprehend what she was seeing. It was her. Her little sister. It was Evelyn.

Despite everything she had seen today, seeing Everlyn was the most shocking thing. She looked so different, older, and more mature. She had to have grown at least five inches. Her once short hair, now fell long over her shoulders framing her heart-shaped head. Her features looked older. Her brown eyes seemed to have darkened like they held cruel memories behind them. A cut trailed over the side of her chin and Eliza even managed to spot a dark bruise, peaking up from her collar.

"Liz?!" Everlyn exclaimed, dropping the book in her hand before running over to her older sister. She stopped right in front of her older sister, her eyes traveling manically over her as she was trying to comprehend what she was seeing. All Eliza could do was stare back at her in shock blinking rapidly at the sight. Almost like she couldn't believe that she was real. After a moment of silence, Eliza wrapped her arms around the younger girl, desperate to know if she was actually real or if the day's events had made her hallucinate. The two crashed into one another, Evelyn wrapped her arms around the older, clutching onto each other for dear life. The two collapsed in tears, overwhelmed by emotions.

Evelyn pressed her face into Eliza's shoulder.
"Evy," The older cried.

She squeezed her small frame.

Eliza's mind felt clouded, every question and thought swimming in a hazy fog of confusion. But in that moment all panic and disbelief vanished as she held her younger sister, seeping in her scent, her presence.

____________________

The older man, apparently named Herhsl had managed to stop the bleeding. Now, there was nothing more to do than wait and pray for him to wake up.

Eliza had been forced back out into the dayroom along with the other inmates for some sort of questioning. She had refused at first, not wanting to leave her siblings for even a second. After yelling, fighting, and being shoved outside by the man with the crossbow she now stood with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes narrowed at the men in front of her.

Anger pulsed through the woman's veins over the fact that she was out there and not with her brother. They had just reunited and every minute felt like it was bringing her one step further away from him. Despite the fact that the doctor in the group had stopped the bleeding, there was still a risk of him catching an infection or dying from shock. Every possibility felt like a stab in Eliza's gut and she tried her best not to think about it.

"What you got going on in there?" Tomas asked.

"It ain't none of your concern." The man with the crossbow spat at him.

"Don't be telling me what's my concern." Tomas lifted his gun at the man.

"Shut up!" Eliza shouted sending Thomas a menacing glare.

"We're free now. Why are we still here?" Big Tiny questioned.

"Man's got a point." The archer stated. His crossbow remained aimed at them and Eliza didn't doubt that he would put an arrow between their eyes if they tried anything.

"Why am I even out here." Eliza's voice remained calm but her eyes were thundering with anger. "I should be in there with my brother."

"Calm down, Liz," Sawyer muttered from the other side of the room, where he sat with his legs resting on the table in front of him.

"Calm down?! You're expecting me to be calm? After everything that just happened." Her chest rose and sank rapidly.

"Civilians breaking into a prison they have no business being in?" Tomas spoke up before letting a humorless shrug touch his shoulders. "Got me thinking that there's no place for us to go."

The thought hadn't hit Eliza yet. She still hadn't seen what the outside looked like but she had assumed it was just as it had been before she got locked in the room. The whole situation got more and more bizarre for every minute that passed.

Why else would anyone break into a prison? Why was she even locked in the prison in the first place? Her mind trailed back to the creature that had attacked them at the door.

He's been bit.
Which was what Sawyer told her when she asked about the wound. She hadn't had time to ask about it since all her attention had latched itself onto getting her bitten brother to safety.

She frowned as her gaze traveled back to her brother. "Sawyer?" She looked at him for an explanation. She prayed it was nothing, that everything outside was still the same but something in her gut told her that she was wrong.

Her brother exhaled deeply and looked like he was about to elaborate when Tomas began to snap at the crossbow-carrying man. The two seemed to share the same short temper and it soon turned into a heated argument. It wasn't until what seemed like the leader of the group rushed into the room that the men quieted down.

"Hey! Calm down. There's no need for this." His hoarse voice came out with a hint of aggression. A shiny revolver rested in his hand and something told Eliza that his aim was better than Tomas's.

"How many of you are in there," Tomas asked, tightening his grip on his weapon.

"Too many for you to handle." The leader's words sounded like a threat to which he added a head tilt giving his words a strong dangerous touch.

Tomas's mouth twitched before he looked over at the man with the crossbow. "You guys robbed a bank or something?"

Eliza almost let a scoff slip past her lips at the thought of her brother, a cop and military-trained officer who valued the lawn more than anyone, robbing a bank.

"Why don't you take him to a hospital?" Tomas kept asking questions. Eliza took a small step forward, still confused by the fact that her brother might be dying in a cell instead of being halfway to the hospital by now.

The group in front of them exchanged a few glances before Sawyer shot up from his seat, making the metal chair rasp against the concrete floor. He marched forward and stopped next to the leader of the group.

"There are no hospitals." The words that left his mouth lingered in the air for several beats. "There's no government, no army, no police. It's all gone."

Eliza's mouth became dry and her chest tightened slightly as she tried to make sense of her brother's words.

"What?" Her words came out as a faint whisper.

A moment of silence passed before Sebastian spoke up. "What about my mom?" His voice was shrill sending a stab into Eliza's gut. Sebastian would always talk about his mom. Whether it was old stories or plans of what he would do with her once he got out. Eliza had listened to him going on and on about a trip to Europe that he wanted to take his mom on. "I need to reach her. I- I need to call her. Tell her I'm out." The boy stumbled over his words as he tried to keep the tears from his waterline but Eliza could see his struggle.

"You've got a cell phone or something that I can reach her with?" Sebastian asked, taking a few steps forward.

"You just don't get it do you." The man with the crossbow said making Eliza dart forward.

"Don't talk to him like that." She spat at him, watching anger cast itself over his expression.

"There are no phones, no computers," Sawyer informed the group. "As far as we can see, at least half the population has been wiped out."

Wiped out

He spoke as if it was the most casual thing in the world. Yeah, by the way almost everyone's dead, and, yeah that sucks.

Wiped out. Dead. Half the population.

The words weren't making any sense in Eliza's head.

"Ha.ha." Jukes let out a humorless laugh. "You're funny. Now where's the damn cameras." Her eyes flickered around the room, scanning every corner and wall.

"See for yourselves." The leader told them, nodding towards the door.

𝟑𝟐𝟕𝟏 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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—𝐚𝐯𝐚'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞—

It's been almost a year since I updated this! I'm in my Rick obsession phase rn I'll probably be focusing more on this than on my maze runner fic but do tell me if u think it should be the other way around.

this book might be a little confusing since I have sm oc's but go to the first part and it might get clearer.

but ti sun it up:
Saywer- Eliza's oldest brother
Eli - Eliza's younger brother
Evelyn - Eliza's youngest sibiling
Sebastian - another inmate( Eliza's closest friend)
Cora - Beth and Maggie's sister (she's not been introduced yet but she's with them in the prison)

I know it's a lot and confusion but they're all part of the plot. please tell me if it's too much and I'll remove one or two but you'll love them all I know it