From Death

Chapter Ten

The sun was hidden behind the clouds, ready to begin its slow descent. Laura checked all the vehicles, syphoning gas into a container. Aaliyah had to admire how prepared they were. "How long since you were last at the safehold?"

"Gotta be almost a month now." The woman answered.

"Why have you been out here so long?" Aaliyah asked warily. There was something they were hiding. Aaliyah had to remind herself of that when she came close to trusting them.

Laura shot Thomas a look, who then nodded hesitantly. "We had another task to finish before we could go back." Aaliyah and Esther glanced at each other. "We needed to collect samples from the undead."

Aaliyah's eyes narrowed. "You're working on a cure."

Esther's eyes shot to the scientist, her breath catching. Laura sighed, "We were. With all of our resources, we are yet to collect samples from each of the infected ranks."

"You need a Brute," Esther joined in the conversation with dull eyes.

Laura nodded to confirm her statement. "They're the hardest to track down, must be one in a million. We did find one, but he killed the men imprisoning him and escaped." She told them grimly. "To add to our problems, Brutes can only be made by Brutes."

"Then what made the first?" Aaliyah asked. 

"Genetic fluke, I'd say." Laura shrugged. Esther stared at the ground, nails digging into her palms. "We briefly had contact with the bases across the states, but they hadn't found a single genetic trait that connects them either. "

Esther glanced at Aaliyah, holding a tense posture. The look the scientist sent back wasn't comforting. "When did you lose contact?"

"A few weeks after we set up, so nearly five months ago," Thomas answered. "It's weird to think about."

"Yeah, six months since the world went to hell."

The group fell into silence for a moment, before Laura hauled up the half-full gas can and they moved on.