There is a siren blaring, sounding muffled through the windows. But it is loud enough that it wakes me up. Finn is still passed out next to me, his front pressed against my back, and his legs twined with mine. While I love being cuddled with him, it makes it a little difficult to get off the bed without waking him.

Harry lets out a huff of irritation from the blankets moving while I slide out of bed but falls back asleep once he gets comfortable. Wrapping my arms around myself, I try to fight off the brisk air biting at my skin. The lights from outside are what draw me over to the window, but it is still difficult to see what is going on.

The rain is coming down hard, but still, the large flood lights that surround the hospital illuminate the large fields that sit in front of the building. Guards are running out of the hospital, while others are already slowly approaching the field, guns raised.

Squinting my eyes, I try to see what has them so riled up. The answer to my question comes into view only a few seconds later. The mutants that we had encountered in the beginning are pouring out of the woods. There are about ten of them, too difficult to count them with the limited visibility.

They are faster, stronger than the last time we encountered them. The first few guards are taken out with ease, the beasts sweeping them up with enlarged arms and catching some between their strong jaws. The creatures seem to be getting less human, becoming more like a cross between television zombies and aliens.

It takes three guards to take down one of the beasts, the sounds of gunshots ringing through the air. My attention is so focused on what is happening outside, that I don't hear Viola start fussing in her crib like I usually do.

Arms wrap around my waist, a warm chest pressed against my back. Finn rests his face in my neck, placing sleepy kisses along my skin before finally looking out the window. "What's going on out there?"

Leaning back into him, I try to soak up his warmth. "Some of the monsters attacked, but it looks like they got it under control now."

Viola fusses again, and Finn hands her to me before walking over to warm up a bottle. She cuddles into me as I continue to watch what is going on outside. The guards seem to be gaining ground, the monsters taken out one by one. Soon enough, there is only one left, swatting at the guards until they are able to make it stumble to the ground. Once it is down, four guards hold it down while another stabs it in the head.

Once they are all taken down, the guards go around, seeming to be double checking that they are really dead. More guards come out of the hospital then, helping to move the dead monsters over to a hole. They seem satisfied once all the bodies are moved, the floodlights and sirens turned off.

Finn comes to stand next to me, handing me the bottle. Viola calms immediately as she starts to eat, the room becoming filled with silence.

"Did they take them out?" Finn asks, wrapping his arm around my waist.

Nodding my head, I allow him to pull me back to bed, the blankets a comforting warmth. The sun is already starting to rise in the distance, the sky changing from a murky gray into a dark orange. The rain never stops, though.

Finn is out like a light, as soon as his head hits the pillow. My hand finds its way to his hair, winding through his auburn strands and reveling in the softness. He lets out a contented sigh before relaxing completely into the mattress.

He has been exhausted lately, spending most of his day down in the labs. Every time I go down to visit, they have him doing some sort of endurance training, whether it is running or riding a stationary bike. His body has been aching every time he comes back to the room, and I have been helping him to stretch the soreness away, rubbing some soothing cream into his muscles.

There have been a few times this stretching has turned into more fun activities. Luckily, Danny has a room right next to ours, and he doesn't mind watching Viola or Harry for a few hours. It took a lot of convincing for me to even consider the idea of having someone else watch Viola. Finn had convinced me by making Danny have one of those baby radios in his room so that I could hear if anything was wrong.

Thank god the radio didn't go both ways, only one. That would have been embarrassing.

Just thinking about that right now has me squirming uncomfortably. Viola spitting out her bottle effectively kills the mood.

She stares up at me with her bright eyes, ones that have gone from newborn blue to a dark cobalt. For a while, I thought she was going to have brown eyes since they had changed into such a murky blue color, but now, it is easy to make out the more intense blue.

Now that she is awake, she is not going back to sleep. She usually sleeps in for a little longer, but the gunshots outside must have woken her. It's alright, seeing as I am already too wired to go back to sleep.

Those monsters had gotten close to the hospital, but they had still taken out quite a few of the guards. At least three were killed, I have no idea how many were wounded. This place is like limbo, we aren't safe inside these walls, but out there is dangerous as well.

Viola sucks her thumb as I get her ready for the day, only fussing when I have to pull it out of her mouth so that I can slip her onesie on. Finn sleeps the entire time, rolling over into my vacated side as we walk out of the room.

A few others are also awake, eating breakfast down in the cafeteria. The usual lunch lady coos as she always does when she seems Viola, giving me a few extra slices of canned peaches. It's a good deal.

Delaney is sitting at our usual table in the corner, staring out the window while sipping at something from a mug. He startles slightly when I sit down in the chair across from him but gives me a crooked smile once he recognizes me. "Morning."

"Good morning," I say, readjusting Viola into a more comfortable position. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Probably for the same reason you are," he says, nodding his head over at the window. Turning, I see that since the rain is down to a soft drizzle, the guards are back out, flames roaring from the pit they had thrown the bodies into. "Eight of those monsters, almost got through, too."

Scrunching my brows, I look back over at Delaney, seeing that he has a soft smile on his face. "What do you mean? It looked like the guards were able to take them out easily enough."

Delaney raises a brow at me, taking another sip of his steaming drink. "Nah, those beasts were able to take a few of them out, a lot more got injured." He gives a small shake of his head. "The beasts are growing stronger, and the guards here are only getting weaker."

"How?"

"When I first got here, there were nearly a hundred guards, maybe more. Everyone was sent here since they deemed it to be the research facility where they would search for a cure. Now, there are only a little over sixty guards."

"Still seems like a lot."

He shrugs, looking back out the window. "Yeah, but that also means that nearly half of them are gone. This place won't last much longer."

His words are accompanied by the door to the cafeteria being slammed open, Alena running in. She lets out a sigh of relief when she sees me, jogging over to our table.

"Alden, thank god you're awake."

"What's wrong?" I ask, fear coursing through me. My mind wanders over to Remy and something happening to him.

"I'm sure you saw the fight this morning." She motions for me to get up, not talking again until we are out of the cafeteria and taking the stairs two at a time. "There are three guards up on my floor, and I need an extra set of hands."

"How bad?" I ask, stepping through the door to her wing that she is holding open for me.

"A broken leg and cracked rib in one, deep back lacerations in another, and..." she looks at me, a grim look on her face, "and a neck wound, a bite from one of the monsters."

Pausing, I look over at her with wide eyes, pulling Viola tighter against me. "They brought someone inside who had been infected? What's the incubation period?"

Alena runs over to the sink washing her hands before she snaps on a pair of gloves. "Anywhere from three to forty-eight hours."

"Three hours?" I ask, calculating in my head how long ago the attack was. "They have less than an hour left before a possible full blown infection?"

Alena nods her head.

"What the hell is he doing inside?" I ask, my voice coming out harsher than I was intending. "We have children on this floor and he is going to become one of those things at any moment?"

Alena comes to stand right in front of me, her calm façade not quite covering up the fear in her eyes. "I don't make the decisions around here. I just have to follow them."

"Tell them to take him to a different floor, someplace where we can lock him inside!"

"I can't, Alden!" she shouts, before taking a deep breath in an effort to gather herself. "If I don't follow every order they give me, then my patients get killed and then I get killed."

"Remy," I breathe, and Alena gives a shaky nod of her head.

"Yes, Remy, he would probably be the first one they hurt, since I had to beg to keep him here." Her lips press together tightly. "They wanted to kick everyone out who they deemed a burden. Luckily, Remy is a fertile, so they deemed him worthy enough to stay."

She stares at me, waiting for my response. Licking my lips, I give a small nod of my head. "Alright, but I am putting Viola in Remy's room with him, and then you are locking them in, so if that man turns into one of those things and escapes, he can't get in there."

Nodding her head, we walk over to Remy's room. "I'll grab my other patients. They can wait in here. Risk of being infected by the bitten man is higher than the chance they can spread something amongst themselves."

She runs back off in the direction of the other rooms, while I quickly open Remy's door, seeing that the little boy is still asleep.

Walking over to him, I gently brush his hair away from his face, smiling when he lets out a small whine at being disturbed.

"Remy, peanut, time to wake up," I whisper, watching as he blinks open his eyes with a pout on his face.

"Ally?" he says, looking at me with squinted eyes.

"Good morning," I say, setting Viola down on the bed. "Peanut, I need you to watch Viola for me. Can you do that?"

Remy's eyes widen immediately, and he gives a quick nod of his head. Viola settles down against his side, not minding the movement. "Yeah."

"Good morning, Remy," Alena says, wheeling Margaret, a thirty-one-year-old who suffers from severe asthma, so badly that she will have flairs if she catches a whiff of anything other than sterile air.

Margaret is one of the friendliest women I know, always telling us new riddles that she has come up with. She has a doctorate in creative writing and was a professor at the private university a little over an hour away.

Her and Remy immediately hit it off, which makes me more comfortable about leaving Viola in here. Alena leaves to bring in her last patient, Mr. Wilks, an elderly man who has been in a coma for the last seven years of his life. Leaning down, I press a kiss onto both Remy's and Viola's foreheads, reluctant to leave them when we are in such a precarious situation.

My unease is only slightly appeased as Alena takes out her keys, turning the lock so that they remain safe within the room. Alena waits as I grab my lab coat and slip on my own pair of gloves before leading me down the hallway to the room farthest away.

We exchange a nervous glance before she opens the room, and the sight makes me gag. Alena immediately closes the door, as quietly as she can, but it doesn't help.

The man who had been bitten became one of those monsters sooner than we were anticipating. The other guards were injured making themselves vulnerable to the monster's attacks. So, now, there is one fully changed monster and two in the process, with the beast peeling away parts of their skin while a fresh green layer grows over the exposed area.

I guess that answers the question as to how they become what they are. The process is revolting. The beast that had once been the bitten guard is pounding on the door, making the familiar clicking sound.

Alena looks over at me, both of us leaning against the door as the wood starts to creak from the pressure of the monster's blows. "I have to call this in or we are all doomed."

"Then call it in!"

"I can't! My radio is at the front desk."

"Oh god." Gritting my teeth, I force myself to push back even further against the door before looking back over at Alena. "I'll stay here, just get the radio."

"The door is going to break. I can't leave you here!" she says, voice sounding frantic.

"If you don't make the call, we are all going to die anyway. Just do it!"

She hesitates, so I make the decision for her, pushing her away from the door and in the direction of the front desk. "Hurry!"

Alena scrabbles, trying to get her feet under her before sprinting to the front desk. She is out of view in a matter of seconds, and I close my eyes, praying that the dreaded guards make it in time.

A crack appears in the door, right next to my face, making my fear skyrocket. This beast is going to break this door down soon, maybe even before the guards get here. Sure enough, the crack grows, become longer until that section of the wood splits away completely, leaving a basketball sized hole.

A pale green arm shoots through, sharp nails at the end. The hand tries to grab onto me, but I manage to dodge it, just barely able to keep myself presses against the door.

"Alden, move!" Alena yells, and I don't question her, throwing myself down onto the ground as far away from the splitting door as I can get.

Gunshots ring through the air, my eyes closing automatically from the loud noise. The silence that comes afterward is what makes me finally look up from where my face is pressed to the linoleum flooring. Alena is standing about ten feet away, chest heaving as she holds a gun in the direction of the now silent room.

I must make a sound or something, because she quickly drops it, running over to check on me. Falling to her knees, she checks for spinal injuries before helping me to sit up. "Oh god, Alden, are you alright? Did that thing scratch you?"

"No, no, it didn't manage to get me." My hands are shaking as I run them through my hair. Adrenaline is still pumping through me, and I try to calm myself. It is hard though when moans start to come from the room again. Footsteps start to come up the stairs, and Alena quickly runs over to her gun, picking it up and tucking it into the back of her pants, her lab coat concealing it.

"Not exactly supposed to have that," she whispers, just as four guards come running through the stairway door. They don't even acknowledge us, just move over to the room, opening the door and stepping inside. The moans from earlier are abruptly cut off by the shots fired by the guards.

"Let's get cleaned up," Alena says, helping me to stand up and motioning me over to another room.

Inside is the customary contamination shower. Alena allows me to go first, and I am ever grateful. I quickly change into a fresh pair of scrubs, leaving the room as she starts to strip down. The guards ignore me as I make my way over to Remy's room, too busy carrying out the bodies of the infected guards.

Looking down, I see that Alena handed me the key to Remy's room without me even noticing. I guess I am more shaken up than I had initially thought.

Viola is screaming when I come inside, Remy having tears streak down his face. Margaret is holding his hand but looks just as frightened. Quickly, I make my way over to them, scooping up Viola and cuddling her close to my chest. Remy leans into my side as I sit down on the bed. Eventually, I end up laying down, Remy cuddled into my side as Viola lays on my chest.

Alena quietly wheels out Mr. Wilks first before doing the same with Margaret, leaving me alone with Remy and Viola. I don't know how long I lay there, both of them exhausted from the scare they just had and fast asleep, while I stare silently up at the ceiling.

I had thought this place was at least safe from the mutants, but it looks like we have to deal with every type of monster here. Closing my eyes, I wish that Finn was here, knowing that he would be able to comfort me. I just hope that he managed to stay safe wherever he is in this building.

A blanket gets laid over us, but I don't open my eyes, allowing my exhaustion to come over me and joining the kids in the land of sleep.