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“Laurel Hill?” I hear someone say my name as if they are shocked at my existence.

The voice is far away, muffled by a wall perhaps.

I’m still fighting to open my eyes after what feels like a century of being trapped in a nightmare.

Images I wish I could forget keep swimming to the top of my mind.

The sounds of bones breaking and flesh tearing echo in my ears.

Those poor little orphans.

Doctore did that to them.

He turned them so I would be forced to put them down.

This wasn’t for science.

This was pure entertainment and spite.

The look on Doctore’s face as I threw a spear into his gut.

Gun shots. Jonah was shooting the zombies in the arena, screaming my name as they tore into my flesh.

Was I really saved from that hell?

Did Jonah save me? No.

He might have saved me from being ripped apart again.

But he was not the one to bring me out of the arena.

I have a vague memory of an angelic figure pulling me from my prison.

I don’t know what’s real.

I’m terrified to open my eyes just to find out that none of it happened.

That I wasn’t saved.

Or if I was, then where am I now?

Anything is better than where I was though, right?

I dive deeper into my mind, trying to remember anything about what happened to me after I threw that spear.

A vision of golden eyes appears in the front of my mind.

Not an angel, but a man I’ve never met before.

He somehow hijacked the car that was transporting me to the lab.

I don’t know if he killed the guards.

Part of me hopes he did after he pulled me out of the black SUV.

Amos took care of me, gave me water, and talked to me like a human being.

He said he would take me somewhere safe.

Is this that place? Am I safe?

I open my eyes to a slit, taking a peek at my surroundings.

I’m lying on a bed in what looks like a hospital room.

My clothes feel much softer than the coarse gray uniforms I wore in the bunker.

The all too familiar sound of a heart monitor and hospital setting makes me bolt upright and throw my eyes open.

I’m not in the dank bunker lab.

There’s a large window to my left looking out onto an open football field, pond, and what looks like a college campus.

“Lori!” My head whips around to see a person I thought only existed in my memories.

Without waiting for my response, her arms wrap tight around me so hard I feel like she might pop my bones apart.

“Mom?”

She doesn’t answer right away, as she is too busy sobbing into my hair.

The shock of seeing my mom again after years of not knowing if she had survived the apocalyptic zombie outbreak delays my reaction.

When I finally wrap my arms around my mom, the tears hit me hard.

I cannot stop. Neither can she.

My mom! We hold each other for a long time, letting each other feel every emotion we’ve felt on our own these past years.

Our bodies bob in unison to our sobbing and our voices wail with relief.

After what feels like hours of crying, we finally unlatch our arms and look deeply into each other’s eyes.

My mom’s stark blue eyes stare into mine, seeking to unveil all of my past anguish, hoping to extinguish it.

Her face is just as I remember it, pale and covered in freckles.

Though there is a scar across her cheek that wasn’t there before.

The shoulder-length blonde hair she once had is now cut short into a pixie.

“Mom,” I say. “You’re alive.”

“So are you, my darling little girl.”

“Did you…is Hayden okay?” My voice shakes as I ask this question, not really wanting to hear the answer if she has one.

“I don’t know. New York City was hit hard. Few survivors made it out. That we know of. What about Jonah and Sarah? All the folks back home?”

The quick change of subject leads me to believe that my mom has no hope that Hayden made it out alive.

She probably never expected to see me again, just as I had stopped believing anyone I loved was still alive.

But my mom survived.

We found each other.

“Prom night was rough.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, honey.”

“Jonah and I got out. It was just us for months and then we…got captured. And Jonah he…”

My hesitation must have made my mom think the worst, that Jonah died because she starts crying and says, “I’m so sorry you lost Jonah.”

“He’s not dead. He’s just different. Being in that place changed him. It changed me too, but…I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about everything that happened there just yet.”

“That’s okay, honey. Come here.”

We hug each other again, but someone interrupts before we can resume our sobbing fest. “Excuse me, Cathy, but we will need to ask the girl some questions now.”

My mom turns toward the man who entered my hospital room and gives him a look that would scare a viper.

“The girl is my daughter, and I will let you know when she is ready to answer your questions, Norman.”

“Cathy, we put it to a vote and agreed that we need to ask first before we can trust her. It’s been four and a half years since you saw her. You don’t know what’s left of your daughter.”

“I can trust her,” my mom says with such devotion.

“But can we all trust her? Please, Cathy, do not make me use force.” Norman pushes his chest out in a show of dominance that makes me laugh.

I can’t help it. My laugh deflates his confidence instantly, but before he can accuse me of anything, a tall, dangerously handsome man steps forward.

“Calm down, Norman. We also agreed to give Cathy a moment with her daughter.”

Amos.

I remember him being flirty, kind, straight to the point.

I see the latter now, but the flirty and kind has gone out the window.

He’s all business here, barely sparing me a glance.

But at least he has some manners.

“She has had her moment,” Norman snaps back at Amos.

Big mistake.

Amos puffs out his chest, and when he does, Norman shrinks back.

“Do not for one second think you hold all the power here. We voted. Cathy gets to have some time with her daughter before we interrogate her.”

“Interrogate?” I ask.

“Yes, girl. Interrogate. We need to know everything you know about Dr. Gabriel Tuwile.” Norman attempts to walk into my room, but Amos grabs him by the arm and growls.

“No one goes into this room unless Cathy says it’s okay. Do you understand, Norman?”

“Amos, this is not what the five of us agreed on.”

“No. You didn’t agree to this. Jeremy, Anna,” Amos calls to two people I can’t see from my bed.

“What did we vote on? Can you remind me?”

“To give Cathy time with her daughter,” a female voice responds.

“And Cathy will invite us in when she’s ready for us,” a man says from behind Norman, who huffs as he pulls his arm from Amos’ grasp.

“Fine,” Norman says, then stomps away like a toddler.

Amos looks at my mom to apologize for Norman’s behavior, completely ignoring my existence.

He even bows his head to avoid my stare as he closes the door.

“Are you and Amos close?” I ask my mom.

“Yeah. We are good pals. He was a professor here when shit hit the fan. I don’t think I would have survived without him.”

“A professor? Where are we?”

“My alma mater. I was having drinks with a few alumni when the town was attacked. We didn’t get hit hard in the beginning and we worked fast to set up barricades around the safe parts of campus. Me, Amos, Norman, Jeremy, and Anna. The five of us took the lead and made this place what it is today. A safe zone. We haven’t had an outbreak inside our walls for three years. And though there have been attempts from outsiders to get in, we have not been breached. There are quite a lot of survivors here, but we have protocols in place for new arrivals. Even my daughter has to follow them.”

“I understand. You can’t really trust anyone in this world. I’ll do whatever I need to.”

“If you aren’t ready to talk, you don’t have to, but you’ll have to stay here. In this room. Under constant surveillance.”

“Nothing I’m not used to.” I close my eyes and sigh.

I know I’m safe here.

My mom is here. She is one of the leaders.

“I’m not ready to talk about all of it, but I’ll try. Jonah, he’s not a subject I wish to discuss yet.”