TwentyFour - Kyle

I rolled over, realizing I was alone before I registered the alarms blaring through what I assumed was the entire building. I jumped to my feet, searching first the room for Ella though in my gut I already knew it was pointless.

"Shit," I muttered as I dragged on my pants. I sung the door open hard enough that it slammed into the wall loudly though it's crash was obscured by the still ringing alarms. Ignoring everything else, pushed as fast as my legs could carry me back to the lab we'd spent most the day in, hoping beyond hope that she was in there looking for something or, hell, making a mess of the whole place again. My gut crashed with disappointment when I saw just how painfully empty the room was, even if I wasn't surprised by it's lack of Ella. Shaking my head, I left the lab we'd made our own hideaway for the last couple of days and jogged back up the stairs until I reached the lobby.

She wasn't there, but I didn't expect to see her. What I did see instead was Joel and Miles at the top of the stairs looking equal parts confused and ready for a fight. Joel yelled something that I couldn't make out because of the alarms so he opened his mouth to yell again. "What—" his scream filled the lobby as the alarms shut off. Glancing around curiously he tried again without the yelling. "What the hell was that? We need to be ready for assholes trying to kill us?"

I shook my head. There was a chance, I supposed, that someone could have been trying to break in, but I really didn't think that was the case. I'd bet my life on.

"Any chance Ella's up there?"

He looked around, clueless. "Naw, man. We thought she was with you?" He scratched his head, looking to Miles questioningly.

Miles grunted. "No. Did she cause the damn alarm? I was having a really good dream— bro, what were you doing?" He said suggestively, noticing my state of undress. Ignoring the remark, because, come on, we didn't have time for this shit, I quickly buttoned my pants.

"God damn it," I said more to myself than anyone else. "She left. Two minutes and we leave." We all had to get our things because there was a good chance we weren't coming back here, but we had to do it quickly. I didn't want Ella getting too far ahead because who knew how quickly she'd run into trouble. And she would run into trouble. She wasn't prepared to go out there by herself. I'd be pissed as hell later, but right then, I was just concerned about stopping her before she got too far.

"What do you mean she left?" Joel asked.

"Z's not here either," Hunter's voice shouted and he appeared at the top of the stairs moving slower than everyone else due to the fact that he was still injured. So was Ella for that matter, of course that hadn't stopped her from running off like a damned idiot on a suicide mission. Maybe I would be a little pissed right then after all. Hunter already had his shoes on nearly ready to go, as if he knew exactly what happened. I doubted he did, but the fact that Zero was gone had set off his own alarms and he knew his girl well enough to know... It probably made me a douche-bag since I could see the worry in Hunter's expression, but his announcement that Zero was missing as well was relieving. I had assumed Ella was entirely alone. I had pictured her stuck somewhere, terrified or worse, being torn apart by zombies... worse still, having God knows what done to her by other people. Knowing she was with Zero eased an ounce of the worry weighing me down. "She took her bag, but we're not more than a couple minutes behind them."

With a quick explanation, I ran back down stairs to the lab where all my gear was left. I grabbed my shirt from the floor and laced up my boots as quick as my fingers would move before reaching for my gu— well, shit. No guns. My bag was exactly where I'd left it and next to it were the knives I had—No, not the knives I'd set there when I disarmed myself. Two of them I'd carried with me the entire time, the third was missing, replaced with the one I had given Ella. She'd given the knife back and taken the guns. My stomach dropped, not because I would be going out there without guns, I wasn't worried about that at all. Actually, I was impressed, surprised, but impressed and thankful she'd thought to take a weapon she could use without being intimately close with someone, zombie or otherwise. No, my gut sank because she gave me back the knife and I had a feeling it was because she didn't think she'd see me again.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to punch the hell out of something. I wanted to strangle the girl, shake her, ask her what the hell she was thinking and then hold her. Fuck. Picking up what she'd left me, I readied to go but stopped short after slinging the pack over my shoulder as a memory, just hours ago, popped into my head. I replayed the conversation we'd had when she told me she wanted to leave on her own and I had laughed her odd. I'd told her she couldn't keep us from coming with her.

"Actually, I can," she'd said. She'd smiled then, like she had a secret that she'd nearly divulged, but just managed to stop herself. With a groan of frustration, I let the pack slip off my shoulder, not caring as it dropped to the floor. I didn't think I would need it anyways. I jogged up the stairs and found the first door I could, the one we'd entered through. I pushed at the bar, but the door wouldn't budge. A few more times I tried, putting all my weight behind it before kicking the door.

"Fuck." I started yelling as I ran toward the lobby, hoping I wasn't too late but already knowing I was. "Check the doors!"

"Where's your shit?" Miles asked, still hunched over as he laced up his boots.

"Check the door," I said again, out of breath.

I didn't wait for any of them to move, I ran for the doors and shook them, attempting to force them open. When they didn't move, I kicked the door. "Fuck." My voice echoed in the lab. "They locked us in."

"What?" Hunter stormed over, trying each of the doors himself. Yelling in frustration and pain when he pulled with his arm that had been dislocated and was still sore. "Where the fuck did they go?" He roared.

"Are you sure they're not just off somewhere doing girly shit?" Miles asked. "This place is pretty big and Ella's not stupid enough to leave."

"Yeah, maybe one of them just tripped an alarm. They'll show up any minute," Joel quickly added though it didn't sound like he believed the words anymore than the rest of us.

"Yes," I corrected. "She is."

"What?" Joel asked, his brow furrowed as he shook his head trying to come to terms with how the intelligent and cautious girl we'd all gotten to know would come to do something so foolish. "No... No. She's hurt. And she's going through some sort of PTSD episode, last I saw her she was practically rocking back and forth."

"She's hurt, but she's fine. I mean, for what she went through, she's fine." I blew out a breath and slid down the safety glass of the door, letting my head bang back against it. "The virus wasn't here. She's spent the last day trying to figure out where it could be and she came up with one location. Her house."

"They went to get it," Hunter said, resigned.

I dragged a hand down my face and looked over at Hunter who was sitting in the same hopeless position I was. "I'm sorry man. She mentioned going alone, I didn't expect her to leave, much less recruit Zero."

"She wouldn't have had to... Zero, she was probably just looking for an excuse to leave here," he said. "She was ready to hunt those bastards down."

We all had been ready to do that, at least in some part. And maybe if given the chance, we would have each jumped after the opportunity to kill the people who'd hurt Hunter and Ella too. Part of me couldn't blame Zero for wanting revenge. But the rest of me was rational and wished she'd stopped Ella instead of helped her so that she could... what? Maybe get to kill the people who'd hurt someone she loved?

She could have stopped Ella. She could have.

"Well, I'm impressed," Joel said. "What?" He asked when I glared at him. "I hate that she's out there just as much as - well, maybe not just as much as you. But I wouldn't have thought she had it in her. It brave."

"The hell it is," I shouted and Joel backed off, holding his hands in surrender.

"How the hell do we get out of here?"

"I don't think we can."

"What the fuck was she thinking?" Joel wondered after I filled them in on what I knew to be her plan.

"She was thinking she wants to protect us," I told him. He and Miles both laughed though it lacked humor. Earlier when it seemed like she'd pulled the idea out of her ass and was ranting about what she wanted to do, it was funny. Now, it was a reality and there wasn't a damn thing to laugh at.

"She can't even protect herself!" Miles yelled, no sign of humor. He was furious or worried, or maybe, like me, he was both. I stood, maybe to try to calm him down. "She could die out there!" Hearing someone else confirm aloud what I feared set me off.

"You think I don't know that?" I yelled back. "Do you think I encouraged her to leave, Miles? I'm going out of my damn mind right now. Ella put herself in danger and there's not a single fucking thing I can do about it."

"You were supposed to be watching her! Keeping her here, safe," Miles shouted. "Not fucking her!"

My hand balled into a fist aimed at Miles' face and I swung, not holding anything back. I connected with his jaw hard enough to send a wave of pain through my arm and cause Miles to grunt him pain. But Miles was a big guy, he wasn't the type to drop from one punch. Before he could retaliate or I could get in another punch, Joel and Hunter were between us, separating us.

"Shut your damn mouth."

"Kyle," Joel pulled my attention. He pushed me off and I walked, putting space between us so that I could breath and cool down and Miles would too. "That was fucking low. You know it wasn't his fault," I heard him say to Miles in a harsh tone.

After a moment, when I was sure I wasn't going to take out every ounce of aggrivation on Miles' face, I turned back around. Miles sighed, hanging his head. "Yeah, I was out of line." He held out a hand and asked, "We cool?"

"Whatever, yeah," I said and slapped my palm against his.

"How far are they going?" Hunter asked bringing us back on topic.

"A couple miles, she said."

He nodded thoughtfully. "Okay. Zero's done runs before, she's gone out there with just one other person - even by herself. She knows how to avoid trouble and move quickly. And this is where Ella grew up, right? She's gonna know the fastest route and every other way they can get where they're going. We give them three hours before we worry."

"Three?"

"One to get there, one to get back, and time for Ella to get what she's after. That gives time for having to change routes or whatever issues they may run into."

"So what? We just wait?" Miles asked.

"I'm not really seeing any other options, here. Short of those doors popping open."

I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. Hunter was worried already. We all knew that this wasn't like Zero going on a run with someone from her group. Someone who would and could have her back. Ella would try, but she wouldn't be much help. We were all trying to convince ourselves that this wasn't going to end horribly, but I don't think any of us were buying it. I turned, walking off.

"Where you going?"

"Check the rest of the doors and see if there's a way to reset it all."

I couldn't stand still. I had too much energy and if I didn't move, I was gonna punch someone else. Probably Miles again. Because I couldn't get it out of my head that he was right. Instead of making sure she understood that we weren't the ones who needed protection - instead of keeping her safe like I should have been, I took advantage.

I was an asshole.

And I'd let her leave, even if it wasn't my intention.

I wandered around the whole damn building, checking every door and window for some way out. But these people took their lock down shit seriously. We had no way out. I found myself back in the lab Ella had made a mess of. And then, thinking maybe her father had some sort of code to end this in his office, I headed that way. His desk was clean, but the floor wasn't. A page of paper had been placed on the floor - something I'd missed when I woke up in a rush to find Ella. Sighing I walked over and picked up the page.

Kyle,

Please don't hate me.

If I don't make it back, the doors will unlock in 3 days.

I traded you knives, just in case I don't make it back. I wanted to make sure you had it.

Ella

P.S. I hope you don't think my only intention was to sex you into submission.

Reluctantly, and hating every second of it, I huffed out a short chuckle at the last line of her note. Despite being amused, that wasn't the part of her note that hit the hardest. Three days. If she didn't make it back... if something happened to her... By the time those doors opened on their own, she'd be dead. Twenty-four hours, we might have stood a chance at getting to them in time to help if they were in trouble. But three days? Three damn days? She was on her own. Well, they were on their own.

Damn. We had to get the hell out of there.

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AN - Sorry it's  a little late!! But hope you enjoy nonetheless. :]]