We are the Living Dead

Clues

"She's getting worse, we need a doctor or we need to find someone who can figure out what is going on with her" Josh followed Ava into the bathroom as she gathered dirty laundry. She did not reply to him but Josh could tell that she was taking it into consideration. He seemed frustrated as Ava walked passed him towards the laundry room.

Out of the blue, Josh turns Ava around and smacks the clothes out of her hand and onto the floor.

"ENOUGH" he shouts, Ava just stares at him blankly. "Please, I am begging you, enough, please. I was there too, I was there when we lost our dad." As soon he said dad Ava turned and walked back out again. Josh did not want to lose this opportunity he felt as though he needed to push her. She was walking towards her room and Josh followed. 

"I'm alone Ava" just as she closed the door without looking he finished off saying "I don't want to be." 

Ava hears Josh slowly retracting his footsteps down the stairs, she takes a deep breath and slums down on to the floor with her back against the door. It was a low blow from Josh to bring up dad like that. He knew that would get to her. Yes he was there when it happened, yes it's not affecting him the same way as it was affecting her, why can't they accept that and leave her to it and concentrate on surviving instead of picking her apart. All Ava has been thinking about today is figuring out on how to help her mother from this fever. Her instincts told her it was not a normal fever and that it needed something specific or both her and Josh would lose another parent and that is not happening to them. 

Shaking the thoughts out of her head she stood up feeling a little uneasy but pushed herself towards the box under the bed which contained all her dad's personal items that she collected before his personal office was wiped clean by the MI6. Ava had an inkling that they would swipe his office clean so she managed to download all the files on to a USB stick and grab his personal diary from the floor board under the rug that was placed in the middle of the room. She only found out about this place during her fathers last week alive. 

He was frantically pacing around the room as if he was waiting for something when he stopped and stared at something in the room for ten seconds and then looked around to see if anyone was watching him. At this point Ava was watching her dad through the keyhole she kept quiet and started to breathe slower. After another good ten seconds, he walked towards the centre and then was out of sight,  Ava counted his footsteps, timing them to figure out where he stopped. 

That night Ava retraced her father's steps, she stood where her father was standing and then counted fifteen steps towards the centre of the room just like her father did. This brought Ava to the centre of the room right before the Morrocan rug. Ava stood there confused not knowing what to do next because after those fifteen steps her father went dead silent but the look on his face before those fifteen steps looked as though he was thinking about something and then looking around the room to see if he was being watched. There was definitely something in the room that Ava's father wanted to keep hidden and he had hidden it pretty well because that night Ava did not find anything. For two nights in a row she sneaked into the office and retraced the same steps but she always ended up in the centre of the room and on the side of the rug. One night she dragged a chair in the centre and slammed it down quite hard, at that moment it made a hollow bang.

Ava halted for a moment and then looked down at the rug she pushed the chair back into its usual position and returned to the centre and crouched on all fours and slowly knocked on the part she slammed the chair down on. It definitely had a hollow sound to it which meant that there must be an empty space beneath the floors which meant a hidden storage. Her palms were getting sweaty with excitement as she pulled the Morrocan rug out of the way which revealed the shiny wooden floors that looked immaculate. She switched on her light on her iPhone and peered carefully and started to tap, the hollow sounds seemed to be in a rectangular form. 

Now with anyone else they would have assumed that it was just a defect within the floor and they would have given up but Ava she had an eye for detail so she noticed a tiny chip on one of the floor boards which meant the entrance to the storage was from that angle. Grabbing her tweezers from her crossbody bag she wedged the tweezers until it sat comfortably on the chipped part of the wood, she slowly started to wiggle it until it the corner part of the wood lifted enough for her to pull it and reveal the secret storage.  

The storage was at least 30x30cm, there was a small leather bound notebook with her father's initials along with a black laptop. Before she could do anything she heard her father's footsteps coming up the stairs. She quickly put everything back into place, fast and quietly and sat at her father's desk, flicking through a magazine. Her father was not usually surprised to see her there but this time he was taken aback by her presence. 

"What are you doing here?" He asked as he looked around the room, his eyes flickered to the centre of the room towards the Morrocan rug. 

"Just reading papa, I haven't been inside this room in a while, I miss it" Ava replied coolly and calmly as she gave direct eye contact to her father. Part of that was the truth, she used to sit in this room whilst her father worked on his missions or did his paperwork. 

"I can't have you in this room Ava, hence why I built the secret basement for you and Josh." He seemed to scan the room once more and then head inside towards his file cabinet. "Things are not the same anymore, we all have a purpose." He started to mumble again, this became a habit for Ava's dad he was always talking to himself.

"Ava, please leave the room." That time he said it quite harshly and sternly. 

At this point Ava didn't mind her father speaking to her like that it was something she could over look. Her father always treated her like his only child, never once said anything bad to her. Treated her with lots of love and respect but the past month he was paranoid, suspicious and quite harsh with not just her but her mother and her brother too. 

She silently stood up and started to head towards the door before walking past her father she hugged him and squeezed him. "I miss you pops." 

He didnt respond so she let go and walked out, she needed to get that diary and laptop.