"All set," Janelle said while closing the storage compartment of the van. 

"Great," Liam, one of the military juniors said as he made his way to the passenger entrance. 

"Just remember the protocol, okay?" Janelle cautioned and smiled gently after receiving an affirmative nod from the squad.

She watched as everyone got inside the van and sped off into the woods. 

"Janelle" Gabriella panted behind her.

"Why are you in such a rush?" Janelle asked. 

"I got it," Gabriella said, beaming. She raised the recorder in her hand and played it for Janelle. 

"That's Arthur" She muttered.

"And Renee" Gabriella finished. 

"You have any idea what they're talking about?" She asked after listening to the entire recording. 

"Yes, they're talking about Caden," Gabriella exclaimed,  unable to contain her excitement. 

"Who's Caden?" Janelle asked.

"My brother" Gabriella replied. "He also suspected Arthur and went out to find evidence against him, that's when he heard this"

"I hope you didn't reveal anything about us," She said.

"I can keep a secret you know," Gabriella said, placing the recorder back in her pocket. "You realize this is what we've been looking for, don't you?"

"It's great, but doesn't prove much" Janelle replied. "Still, we can send it, hoping we get the higher-ups on his trail"

"Exactly my point," Gabriella said. "We have to mail this to them" 

"They might not see it because of all the work they have right now," Janelle doubted. "Still it's worth a shot" She admitted. 

They walked back inside the safe house and began walking towards the meeting rooms, where the computers and phones were there. 

"Transfer the recording to my mail," Janelle instructed. Once she received a copy of the recording, she typed in an email addressed to Arthur's superiors, warning them about him. 

"If Arthur does end up being innocent, we'll be in big trouble" Gabriella mumbled.

"You still think he's innocent?" Janelle asked, raising an eyebrow. Gabriella shrugged in response. 

"A not guilty Arthur would never take such attitude from a random civilian" Janelle reminded. 

"I suppose" She finally said. 

"Is this good to send?" Janelle asked pointing to the computer screen. 

"Yes, it's perfect" She replied after reading the mail.

The striking of the 'send' key was simultaneous with a familiar, defeaning growl. One that belonged to the undead. 

Janelle and Gabriella looked at each other for a moment, before bolting out of the meeting room. Gabriella pulled out her gun and ran in the direction of the sound. 

She immediately came to a halt, when she saw Liam standing at the entrance, covered in blood. 

"Liam?" She choked. Behind him, she saw the rest of the squad standing in fear Janelle raced towards his body, which was now lying on the floor.

"What happened?" Janelle asked him, but soon received the answer herself when she saw a bite mark on his shoulder. 

His bones began to crack as his eyes turned a deep shade of red, his veins began to bulge and slowly, his skin turned from a warm beige to a sickly green. Janelle threw his body away from her when she realized what was happening, and slowly crawled back.

"Stand back, Janelle" She heard someone say. She turned back to see Arthur speeding towards the commotion.

"Shoot!" He ordered Gabriella. 

Shoot Liam she did, but not before he sunk his claws into the flesh of another civilian. 

Arthur nodded at Gabriella, signalling her to shoot the newly bitten civilian. But she couldn't do it, not while she looked so human. 

"Now!" Arthur roared. 

Janelle sprung up from her crouched position and swung Gabriella's hand in the direction of the woman, forcing Gabriella to shoot. 

Janelle heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the woman's body lifeless. 

"She wasn't going to survive either way," Janelle said, trying to comfort Gabriella. "The only thing we could do was try to save the others"

"You're right," She said. "But it doesn't make it any easier" 

They stood there for a few seconds, trying to catch their breath. 

"Watch out!" Caden said suddenly and pushed Gabriella away from another undead. Gabriella recovered balance quickly and shot the undead before it could harm Caden.

"Where did that come from?" She wondered. But when she turned back, she saw that the undead was quickly spreading inside the safe house. Civilians were using lamps, curtain rods and anything else they could find to defend themselves. But amongst the furore, they found it hard to distinguish the undead from the normal people. 

Gabriella looked at Arthur, who was shooting all the undead, and all those who had been bitten by the undead. 

"Stand behind me," She told Caden and started shooting as well while glancing at Arthur once in a while hoping to receive instructions. Backup from the military soon arrived and assisted with the termination.

She knew the noise made by the firearms would attract more undead from the outside, but there was nothing else they could do. 

"Open all gates!" Arthur bellowed and the soldiers obeyed. 

With all gates open, the civilians fled out of the safe house, which wasn't safe anymore. This meant that the civilians were now exposed to the undead outside the safe house as well as those inside. But, being in an open space gave them more chances of surviving.

"What about the civilians?" Gabriella asked. "Shouldn't we get them to safety?" 

"Safety where, Marshall?" He snapped back. "The nearest safe house is at least fifteen miles and we don't have the preparations for such a long journey. Just eliminate all the undead and we can go back inside the safe house"

Gabriella nodded and turned back to face the undead. She'd lost track of Caden in the few seconds she spent talking to Arthur. Panic rose within her, had he been bitten? From the corner of her eye, she saw Janelle shooting the undead, while the commoners were using whatever was available to them to fight off the undead. 

She pushed her worry for Caden aside and aided the other military officers in the shooting. The faster they eliminated this mob, the faster they could get back inside. 

  As she was shooting, she realized that the number of undead closing in on them made no sense. The number of undead in this area was well-scouted before the safe house was built. That approximate number added with all the people present in the safe house would never add up to the number they were facing right now. 

That problem, however, would have to be dealt with later. Gabriella's firearm quickly ran out of ammunition and did not have any to reload. She tossed the firearm aside and began killing the undead with her pocket knife. This method was a lot more time taking and put her at a greater risk of being bitten, but she had no other weapons and was not going to be a liability. 

After a few minutes of shooting, Arthur pulled her aside. 

"Stand near the main entrance and start loading the civilians back in" He instructed. "Make sure none of them are bitten"

Gabriella nodded and pushed through the crowd and made her way to the exit. 

"Attention!" She screamed as loud as she could, hoping it would pass through all the noise. "Please make your way back into the safe house!" 

It didn't take her long to realize that no one had heard her. She knew there was no way she could scream loud enough to be heard over all the screams and gunshots. She looked up at the sky and realized it was getting dark. 

She took her phone and turned on the flashlight, then directed the light to the walls of the safe house. She brought her free hand in the direction of the flashlight so that the shadow of her hand would reflect on the walls. She hoped this would draw people's attention and began using sign language to tell them to return to the safe house. She knew that the majority of the people might not understand sign language, but just one person's understanding could alert everyone else. 

After about a minute of this, she saw a group of three people entering the safe house. She checked their body to make sure they weren't bitten and led them inside. 

The undead followed the civilians and began crowding near the exit. Arthur however, had warned the team of this beforehand and they were all focused on shooting the undead heading towards the safe house. 

Soon, everyone was evacuated inside and all that remained were the pile of corpses on the floor. Arthur may be a terrible person, but Gabriella couldn't deny the fact that he handled the situation well. 

He instructed them to do a headcount of everyone so that they could send a list of the people they'd lost that day. Gabriella began counting while anxiously looking for Caden amidst the crowd. She hadn't seen him since she lost him earlier. 

When the count was over, she felt her whole world stop. Caden wasn't in the crowd and neither was Renee. Without hesitation, she ran outside to see if Caden was one of the corpses outside. She turned on her flashlight once again and placed it over everybody but he was nowhere to be found.

He simply disappeared.