(I visualize their rifles like the AR-15/ M16??? Yes I did search it up, and yes I am probably on the NSA watchlist)

ɪɴsɪᴅᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟs ᴏғ ʜᴀᴠᴇɴ
ᴅᴇᴏʀᴜᴍ ᴍᴏʀᴛᴇᴍ, ʜǫ

sɪᴏʙʜᴀɴ

I stand at an electronic desk and change the live camera feed to Avila. The girl who has no idea how long we've been searching for her. I can't help but smile and place my finger onto my lip. I just can't wait.

I slide my finger across the desks screen and change the feed again, to the cameras at the walls. The white vans enter the city, and the huge gates close behind them.

More kids for the flushing.

"Siobhan!" A masculine voice says I turn around.

"Dorian! It's great to see you!" I say reaching out my hand and grinning.

He shakes it and nods. Dorian is my coworker Reagans husband, he is in charge of the public, he knows what to tell them. What lies to whisper in their ears.

His wife Reagan appears from down a hall and greets him with a hug, "Siobhan!" She says softly.

My smile slides to snark, I have an urge to yank her back and correct her, she doesn't call me by my name.
But not in front of Dorian. I'll reprimand her later.

"What brings you over here Dorian?" I ask, having them follow me along to the elevators.

"Well, people have been questioning when is the 'hope' coming?" Dorian says.

A week ago I had a conference with a few journalists, hinting that our worrying with the virus may end soon, that hope is coming. We all enter the elevator and the glass doors close behind us. We can see directly out of it, at the suits and dresses worn by my workers.

His wife Reagan seems to be amused, so I let her answer for me, "well our hope- she is basically miles away."

"She?" Dorian asks confused.

"Yes, our hope resides on a girl. If you come to my office I'll be able to explain everything." I say to him, the elevator doors zip open and we all slide out.

Reagan taps my shoulder, "I am sorry but I have a meeting to go to, the kids are almost here." She slides away waving bye to her husband. Dorian and I walk down the hall to my office.

I walk up to a scanner by my door and stare into its reader, it scans my iris then dings, and the doors slide open. My office glows as the bright, but cloudy sky illuminates everything inside. The windows are very large, they start at the top of my ceiling and stretch towards the floor and straight across the room.

I walk up to a mirror as Dorian takes a seat in front of my desk.

Dorian begins, "You see, this flushing system isn't working. Some of those kids do have immunity to The Blood Genesis. But there is no way it's doing anything. Flushing those kids- of their blood... it's becoming a hassle lying to the public."

I adjust my tight black dress and then slide my hand across my hair that's tied into a ponytail. I turn away from the mirror and walk up to him, "we've been lying to the public for years Dorian."

I lean on the front of my desk so I'm facing him and shrug, "What's wrong with flushing the kids? We tell the public that we have serum's to keep them safe. Some are even able to get the kids blood injected into them. Meanwhile, we actually flush the kids and try to figure a cure."

Dorian shakes his head, "No Siobhan- the kid's blood is doing nothing to those people. People from around the world are in here trying to figure out a cure. We are very important people Siobhan and we are getting nowhere. What's the purpose of this? We are killing innocent kids. These people here in Haven will never have to see the abominations outside, why do you continue this? Year's of hatred?" He asks, his cheeks turn pinker the more frustrated he gets.

My tone gets sharper, "I continue this because for generations my family has worked to fix the population, make it perfect. We still aren't done-"

Dorian stands up and laughs, "but Siobhan we are! It's over. We have safety away from those creatures."

I glance at him, "Dorian. Hun, you never get like this-"

"Its because we aren't sleeping together right now, we are discussing business, Siobhan," Dorian says.

I look towards the floor and shake my head, "The girl. She may have what we need."

"What girl?" Dorian asks irritated.

I spin around and begin scrolling through camera feed on my desk, it shows Avila and a group of others walking down a block of ruins in the rain. She is 4 miles away from the walls.

I smile, "This girl. Her name is Avila and she is very special to Deorum Mortem. Her mother used to work here- until they betrayed us and sent the baby to that rebellion group we decimated."

"The group was called Elysium wasn't it?" Dorian chuckles, "I wonder if they ever made it to their treacherous paradise?"

He walks up behind me eyeing the desk, "and what's so special about her?"

"She's the cure." My smile widens.

"How do you know if this is even the girl you are looking for? There are thousands of girls out there." Dorian says, trying to lower my expectations.

I laugh, it was unimaginably easy, "We've spotted different girls on the cameras-"

"She could be dead-" Dorian interrupts.

"But she isn't. That's her. We used facial recognition to different girls out there. She is the closest match to when she was a baby. Avila Ridley." I say nodding. "Our hope."

"What if she doesn't cooperate?" Dorian asks.

"You take me for stupid?" I ask him, "she has someone she is attached to, a boy. So trust me she will."

"And if she doesn't have the cure? Have you thought that far ahead? What do we tell the public, why is it so necessary for you to have a cure when we are safe in here?" Dorian says as he begins to pace around my office.

I shake my head and laugh, "We want to explore Dorian, create more Havens across the world! The other countries leaders can agree, and if that bitch doesn't have the cure, we do what we do, kill her."

sᴏᴍᴇᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴜɪɴs

ᴀᴠɪʟᴀ

The rain began to slow down, but the thunder kept rupturing in the sky above us. We left the market sanctuary a few hours ago. The sky slowly gets darker, retreating back to its horror climate. Thunder erupts, but the rain stops. We've decided to take a break and stop in the middle of the street in the ruins. The block is filled with abandoned cars and debris from crumbled buildings.

Jeremiah sits on a fallen light pole, Azrael and I sit on a decaying silver car. It looks really old compared to the high tech white vans that pick up children.

Everyone eats through cans of fruits and vegetables. I'm getting sick of eating this the only hot meals we get are from those market sanctuaries we stop at, and we have every right to question what's inside of the food.

I don't think we should be sitting on these metals as lightning writes like a script in the sky.

Azrael and curly haired Sasha continue chatting, she stands beside the car and continuously places her hands in his lap. I look away to my boot as this slight feeling of jealousy spirals through my thoughts.

"Avila? What do you think?" Sasha asks me.

I look over, "I'm sorry what? I wasn't listening."

"Do you think the cure is in Haven?" She smiles, I can tell she wants me to say yes.

"Definitely," I say. Though I meant to say definitely not. I re-tie my black boot for the fifth time.

Azrael taps my leg, "you can't get it right or something?"

"Huh?" I ask, he points at my boot. "Oh.. just trying to make it perfect."

I tie them again and then a loud growl startles everyone, I hear everyone grab onto their weapons.

I grab onto my rifle and look around.

Sasha points down the street by a destroyed truck.

"There!" Sasha shouts, "I got this!" She stealthily creeps towards the creature who looked up at her, it seems unbothered because it continues ravaging through the destroyed trash on the floor.

"Shoot it!" Devon shouts.

She continues walking closer, the closer she gets the more I'm able to notice the height difference, Sasha at least stands at 5'6 with me, those creatures are above 7 feet. But it's hunched- so it's even larger when it stands straight.

Devon becomes irritated, "fuck this, are you walking into your death or are you going to kill it?"

Sasha turns back to look at Devon following behind her, "I'm going to kill it." She says aiming the rifle, but Devon pulls the trigger before her. The creature lets out a growl of pain then collapses onto the floor.

"Fuck you, Devon, I had the shot!" Sasha yells spinning around throwing her arms up.

Devon shrugs his shoulders and walks back to us, Sasha takes her time walking back pissed. Then right before our eyes, a giant creature speeds right into her knocking her on the floor. It raises its claw ready to slash down.

We all jump up, Azrael aims his rifle,  but I beat him to it and shoot the creature off of Sasha. She gets up and runs back to us.

Then least expected more creatures turn down the corner, in ridiculous speed, they scurry at us, and we begin shooting.

"Headshots!" Jeremiah bellows.

Each creature drops before they can even get close to us. I rush over to Sasha, "are you okay?"

She nods, "yeah, just a little shaken up. Who shot him?"

Azrael walks beside us, "Avila did, you okay Sasha?"

Sasha nods and smirks up at Azrael. I turn away from them both.

Then gunfire breaks out right in front of us. "What the hell?" I scream.

We all run behind the destroyed cars. Jeremiah looks over to us, and the rest of the group behind him, "it's coming from above! Aim up at the building!" We hear faintly over the gunfire.

The gunfire stops and then Jeremiah reaches up and begins shooting at the side of the building. The gunfire returns.

"It's coming from the fourth floor! It must be only one person." I shout. "We may not be able to shoot whoever from down here. Distract them, and I'll go inside." I say.

"I'll go too." Azrael says behind me checking his gun, then Devon hits the car with his hand, "So will I!"

We all duck and run from behind the cars to the entrance of the building, the gunfire continues outside.

We run up the stairs and make it to the fourth floor, "I'm killing this fucker!" Devon shouts pushing ahead of me.

He slams different doors open down the hall, but chooses all the wrong ones. The lights that still work faintly show a path down the hallway. I quietly step into a room, I push the door open and see someone on a chair at the window, gunfire lights in front of them.

I aim my gun at their head, the room is completely dark. "Where is that fucker!" Devon yells, the person sitting theirs realizes we are here and turns around.

Lightning strikes outside lighting the room up, it startles whoever is sitting there and they pull their trigger.

I duck and run over to a different side of the room. Azrael and Devon rush in and begin shooting but miss completely, until lightning strikes again and lights the room up.

The person pulls the trigger and shoots at them both, the thunder outside erupts. My heart drops as I look back, Azrael and Devon both hit the floor.

"Azrael." My voice says softly.

ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ! 💔

ɪ ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏᴇᴅ ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ, ᴅʀᴀᴍᴀ ɪs ᴄᴏᴍɪɴɢ!

sɪᴏʙʜᴀɴ ɪs ᴏʙsᴇssᴇᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ғɪɴᴅ ᴀ ᴅɪғғᴇʀᴇɴᴛ ʜᴏʙʙʏ ɢɪʀʟ.

ᴅᴏɴᴛ ғᴏʀɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴠᴏᴛᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴇɴᴛ!!!