"Alden, hide our stuff, everything that you can. I'll wake the others." He must see my questioning look on my face, because he pulls me closer, resting his forehead against mine. "We need to stow some things away, just in case something really is going on, but we are going to try and run first."
"Okay," I breathe, fear already coursing through me.
"We'll make it through this," Finn breaths, "together."
"Together."
He presses a quick kiss to my lips before running off, and I look down at Viola. She gives me a smile, which motivates me to get moving. We have to make it out of here before whatever is out there comes across us.
Setting Viola down on her blanket, I start to pack up our bags. Luckily, most of our stuff is together. The only things that are out are our tent and sleeping stuff. Finn takes some of the packed bags from me running over to the kayaks and tying them down. The brothers look groggy as they get out of the tent but immediately start to help.
Another scream rips through the air, but this time it is much closer.
"Leave the stuff," I say, loud enough so that Danny and Jacob can hear me. "Come on, we have to go."
Leaning down, I pick up Viola, holding her tight against me and running down to the stream, where Finn is already holding the kayak in position. Harry is close behind me the entire time, and Finn picks him up as soon as the dog is within arm's reach.
We are just starting to push off from the creek when a gun shot rings through the air, close enough where it makes my ears ring. All of us stop short in surprise. Danny is the first to get moving again, dropping everything that he was holding and pushing his brother in the direction of the kayak.
Finn pushes us away from the shore, arms working as fast as they can to get us away from our little camp.
"Stop!" a deep voice yells. "Stop or we'll shoot."
"Finn," I whisper, watching as at least ten men and women come streaming out of the woods, guns raised as they slowly approach.
Viola starts to fuss against me, but I just hold her tighter, my heart pounding from the predicament we are in. According to the man on the radio- if he can be trusted- these people are hunting others down and taking them someplace. If that doesn't sound ominous than I don't know what does.
"Just stay still," Finn says, his words gruff. I bet if I were to turn around right now and look at him, he would be tense, gritting his teeth in agitation.
"Put the paddle down," the guy I can assume is the leader says. He walks closer to the shore, only leaving about five feet between us. Finn must do what he says, because the leader gestures with his head, and two people walk into the water, grabbing the ropes on the side of the kayak and pulling us back into shore.
Finn gets out first, quickly making his way around the kayak so that he is standing in front of me. The leader drops his gun, but the others keep theirs raised, not letting down their guard. It is a bit of a struggle to get out of the kayak while holding onto Viola, but I manage, not willing to set her down. By the time I am actually standing upright, Jacob and Danny are pulled back onto shore, both of them glaring at the people holding onto their kayak.
Viola starts to fuss against me, drawing the attention of the leader, who takes a step closer to us. "Oh, what do we have here?" he asks, trying to look at Viola.
Shushing her, I cover her with her blanket, not wanting the guy to see any part of her. Finn steps back, blocking the man from seeing either of us. He reaches back, wrapping an arm around me, as if trying to assure himself that I am right here.
The leader just smiles, not saying anything else about Viola. He looks over to his accomplices, turning his back to us. "Let's get moving. We need to get back before more of the mutants find us."
He starts walking again, and a woman comes up behind me, giving me a harsh shove when I don't immediately start moving. Finn whips around, glaring at her when he feels me collapse against him, but she just gives us a sick smile, pushing me again with the butt of her gun.
"Move it, or I will make sure you will get to see how much it hurts to get shot."
Finn gives her one last glare, looking like he is barely restraining himself from attacking her.
"Come on," I whisper, wrapping my arm around his waist and forcing him to start walking.
Finn resists for all of a second before pulling me as close to him as possible. He looks away from our captures for a second, his eyes running over my face and checking over Viola. None of the people holding a gun talk the entire time we are walking. The only one chattering is a guy who is being pulled along by two people, every other word a curse.
"You fuck heads," he growls, twisting away from one of the people holding onto him. "You are going to regret every goddamn second of this."
"Shut up, Delaney," someone from in front of us yells. All this does is cause the guy to turn his ranting on them, and it stays that way for a solid five minutes.
He eventually looks over at us. "You guys should have ran when you had the chance," he says.
Now that he is walking beside us, it is easier to see him. Finn must not like having us so close together, because his arm tightens around me as he gives the guy- Delaney- a hard look.
"Oh, I am not the one you need to fear, ginger," he says, raising an eyebrow at Finn.
"I wouldn't push him too far," Jacob says from in front of us. "He gets overly protective of those two."
Delaney nods his head in understanding but doesn't stop his talking. "They aren't going to like that you two are together," he says, looking in between us.
"Oh great," I mumble, readjusting Viola. "All I need right now is to deal with homophobes.
"Oh, they're not homophobic," he says. "They just can't breed the two of you if you're together now, can they?"
His words cause me to jolt in place, head whipping over to look at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Delaney," the leader in the front of the group yells, and looking away from the man beside me, I see that the leader does not look too happy. "Best keep your mouth shut before we get back to camp. You're already in enough trouble. We wouldn't want to push it, now would we?"
Delaney snaps his teeth at the guy, looking like he wants nothing more to kill the leader. But he does stay quiet after that, allowing the people holding onto him to drag him forward with little protest.
"Finn," I whisper, just low enough so that he is the only one who can hear me. "What are they going to do to us?"
Fear is coursing through me, and my hands are starting to shake from all the adrenaline. The voice over the radio combined with what Delaney had said makes unease sit in my stomach. These people have no intention of letting us go. This is exactly why I wanted to stay away from all the safe houses and compounds people had been talking about. You never know what kind of people are running those places and their ulterior motives.
Finn has a hard look on his face, but I am familiar enough with that expression to know that he is just as terrified as the rest of us. When he is upset, it is like he wears a mask, keeping his facial expressions in check as if not wanting to give anything away.
"I don't know," he tells me, and it looks like it pains him to say the words.
We are walking so long that my arms are starting to ache from holding Viola, and she is starting to fuss. By the way she is rubbing her face across my chest, I know that she is hungry. Finn looks over at us when Viola starts to voice her anger at not finding food. He doesn't even have to ask what she wants, instead, quickly pulling off his pack and pulling out a bottle.
It takes him a minute or so to mix everything up. Luckily, I had placed clean water in all the bottles, making it easy to just add the formula and shake it up. Readjusting Viola, I take the bottle from Finn, quickly giving it to the hungry baby. She quiets as soon as she starts to eat, staring up at me with her big blue eyes.
"Oh, she's a cutie," someone says from beside me. Looking up, I see that the leader had fallen into step beside us without me even noticing. Viola startles slightly at his voice, but I shush her while also falling closer against Finn. The leader looks up at me, a weird smile on his face. "She yours?"
"Yes," Finn snaps, his voice harsh. The leader doesn't seem to take offense. In fact, his smile only grows as he looks away from Viola over to Finn.
"Well, we'll make sure to take great care of her." He gives us one last wide smile before walking back towards the front of the group, starting a conversation with some other gun wielding person.
His words make me hold onto Viola tighter. The way he talked made it seem like they were going to take her away from us, and that is unacceptable. We have risked our lives for this baby and have raised her for the past month. If they think they can just rip her away from us without a fight, then they have another thing coming.
Viola falls asleep after her bottle, and with great reluctance I hand her over to Finn. It feels wrong to hand her over, but my arms were starting to cramp from holding her so long. Finn easily cradles her against his chest, allowing me to tuck the blanket around her so that she doesn't get cold in the brisk November air.
"We're here," Delaney mumbles, his first words in hours.
The forest around us is starting to clear up, a path becoming visible around us from heavy use. A large building slowly comes into view, a few lights making it visible in the darkening sky. The place looks like it used to be a hospital, but now it has armed guards roaming around out front.
Someone must notice us, because they let out a shout. The leader of our little gang yells something back, and pretty soon we are surrounded my more people. We are led into the hospital through the Emergency Room entrance.
And that's when I realize that we were not going to have any dignity in this place.
The people standing in the room order us to strip, raising their guns when we delay. Delaney whispers to us that there is no use in arguing with them. Apparently, when he first came here someone was shot for refusing.
My heart is pounding the entire time, and I want nothing more than to run as far away as possible. With shaky hands, I force myself out of my clothes, my hands coming to cover myself so that I can have some semblance of dignity.
Finn holds a crying Viola against his chest, his face hard. He looks over at me briefly, his eyes softening, He never looks away from my face though, and a feeling of gratitude comes over me.
"Alright, let's go," someone orders.
Someone wearing a hazmat suit opens a set of doors and forces us into a room. Looking around, I see that it is a shower room, like the ones they have in locker rooms. Another person in a hazmat suit is waiting for us inside the room. She shoves something against my chest and I scramble to catch it before it can fall to the floor.
"Wash everything," is all she says, before pushing me in the direction of the shower. The door closes behind us once we are all in the room and all handed out own bags of supplies.
"You go first," Finn murmurs, "I'll watch Viola."
Nodding my head, I walk slowly over to one of the showers, turning it on. Cold water comes shooting out, and I flinch at the harshness. It takes me a minute to open the bag because my hands are shaking so badly, but I finally manage. A small bar of soup and a rag falls out of it.
"They want to avoid contamination," Delaney says, already washing himself down. "Everyone who enters this place after being outside has to take a shower. The others, though, get to have privacy and hot water."
"How do you know do much about this place?" Jacob asks, and I take advantage of the focus being off of me to quickly wash down, making sure to scrub my hair as well.
"I've been here since the outbreak reached our state. My wife became infected when she went on a business trip down south. When she came back, I brought her here for treatment, but she passed away anyway." He walks out from under the water, picking up a flimsy towel sitting on a shelf outside of the shower room. "They don't let you leave once you're here, so I was stuck. Managed to get out of here with the help of an old friend, but they managed to track us down."
"Where are the others?" Finn asks, quickly washing Viola down before handing her over to me so that he can wash himself. Viola shivers against me, and I wrap another towel around her while pulling her close.
"They were killed," Delaney says, not giving any further explanation.
Before any of us can ask any more questions, another door opens, and someone yells for us to hurry up. Finn wraps his own towel around himself before coming to stand beside me.
"What the hell is this place?" I whisper, huddling close to Finn.
"Depends on who you ask," Delaney says, running the towel through his shoulder length hair. "The leaders of this place claim they are the saviors of the human race. For the rest of us though, it's prison."
"Never been to jail before," I murmur and this causes Delaney to let out a surprised laugh.
"Well, kid, guess there's a first time for everything."