I didn't get much sleep that night.

My nightmares were plagued with the faces of my mother and sister...or at least their faces after they had changed. While I hadn't actually seen Ava change, that didn't stop my mind from conjuring up a picture of what she probably looked like.

I woke up sweaty, breathing heavy, and completely disoriented. Given that we were in a basement it was hard to tell exactly how late or early it was without any windows.

"Bad dream?"

The sudden sound of Cory's voice pierced the otherwise silent space and I jumped before quickly turning my head in the direction his voice had come from.

Illuminated by the pale light of one of the electric lanterns, I found him sitting up on top of his sleeping bag, both arms resting on his knees as he stared at me.

I swallowed once, before nodding my head slowly.

"Who was it?" He didn't have to elaborate for me to know exactly what he was asking.

Who were my nightmares about.

I could've lied. It would've been easy to spout something, anything, but the actual truth about what I knew was going to haunt my dreams every night from here on out, but I found the truth spilling from my lips instead.

"My mom and little sister." My voice came out barely above a whisper.

Despite the sleeping bag it suddenly felt twenty degrees colder down here. I wrapped my arms around my knees and pulled them to my chest as I stared down at the lantern.

"It's my parents for me."

My eyes lifted from the lantern to Cory's face. He was still looking at me.

"Was it..." I trailed off, not exactly knowing how to ask him how they had died but he seemed to understand anyway.

He nodded once. "We were having dinner out on the deck in my parent's backyard." He gave a small laugh. "My mom insisted on us meeting to have dinner as a family every chance she got. With me already out of the house and Arden getting ready to head off to college she thought she'd see us less and less."

He shook his head. "I didn't really want to be there. Shifts at the hospital kept me up more than they let me sleep and on my one day off  that week that's really all I wanted to do. I basically told her as much, but hey," he gave a little shrug. "What was I going to do? Tell my mom no?"

I found myself smiling softly along with him. I could relate to that. My mom wasn't someone you told no either.

The small smile that was gracing his lips slowly disappeared as he continued. "I had just finished my food and was ready to get back to my apartment so I could finally crash. I was literally two steps from the back door when they came out of no where." He finally broke eye contact to look down and stare blankly at the lamp like I had been earlier. "It was only two of them but it might as well have been a hundred. I couldn't do anything for them. Couldn't stop it. I was just barely able to get Arden out."

He let out a shuddering breath before finally looking up to meet my eyes again.

"We got in my car and went to the police, but there wasn't anything they could really do. They thought I was on drugs and almost locked me up when I told them two giant wolves with rotting flesh had just killed our parents." He gave a humorless laugh. "By the time we realized that it wasn't just a freak sighting, that those things were popping up everywhere, I took Arden and we hid here in our parents store and we've been here ever since."

"How long has it been?" I asked.

"A week."

An entire week. These things had been wreaking havoc for an entire week and the news had just only started reporting on it.

Looking at Cory, I knew a simple "I'm sorry" was the last thing he wanted to hear right now after telling  me about how he lost his parents. I knew because I didn't want anyone saying it to me.

"We'll get through this." I said instead. "We don't really have a choice. They need us to." I gestured to a sleeping Arden. "So, we will."

Cory gave me a look, like he wasn't quite sure what he was looking at before finally nodding. "We will."

The rest of our conversation was cut short by a painful groan from behind me. I quickly glanced over my shoulder and almost cried in relief as I saw my dad start to stir.

I quickly leaned over him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Dad, can you hear me?"

Instead of answering, he gave another painful groan and I frowned. It was only then that I noticed the sheen of sweat coating his forehead. I placed the back of my hand against his forehead and my frown deepened.

"Something's wrong. He's burning up."

There was shuffling behind me and then suddenly Cory was kneeling next to me.

Just like I had done he placed the back of his hand on my dad's forehead and frowned. "He shouldn't be burning up like this from a simple concussion."

Panic started to set in. "What's wrong with him?" I asked, my eyes darting over his body trying to figure out exactly what was wrong.

Cory began to push and prod on different parts of his body with his hands before he suddenly stopped when his hands touched the left part of his lower back.

When he pulled his hands away the tips of his fingers were covered in blood.

"Shit" he swore under his breath before quickly but steadily flipping him onto his side. He pulled my dad's shirt up and there on his lower back was a nasty looking gash, slowly oozing blood, and clearly infected.

I looked frantically from the wound back to Cory.

"What do we do?" I asked as another painful groan escaped my dad's mouth.

Cory sat back on his knees and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "He needs medicine."

It felt like a rock had suddenly become lodged in my throat.

"And the medicine he needs..." I promoted.

Cory sighed. "I don't have it here."

I shut my eyes and slowly started to count to ten.

This couldn't be happening. I couldn't lose him too.

"I know where to get some though."

My eyes flew open.

"Where?"

"The hospital, where I work. It's not that far from here. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes by foot."

That was great news but there was only one problem.

To get to the hospital and get the medicine we'd obviously have to go outside.

Where they were.

"I'll go and get it. Just tell me where the hospital is and what medicine I'm looking for." I blurted out.

He and his sister had already done more than enough for us. I couldn't ask him to risk his life on top of it.

He surprised me by shaking his head. "No, you won't. I'll go." He stood up and walked away like it was final.

Like hell it was.

"What do you mean no? He's my dad. If anybody should go out there it should be me."

Cory turned around from where he was stuffing supplies in a military green backpack.

"And how do you expect to get there on that leg?" He gestured to my bandaged leg.

It did hurt like hell still, but it wasn't anything I couldn't manage.

"I'm fine." I said standing up to prove that my legs were working just fine.

Cory continued to look a me for a second longer before turning around and returning to filling the bag. "The answers still no."

"Funny. I don't remember asking for permission."

Cory stopped packing once again and spun around to face me completely this time, his expression hard.

"This isn't some game. Those things, they will kill you if they have the chance and I don't need someone else's blood on my hands."

I felt my face heat in anger.

"Don't you think I know that? This is my dad's life we're talking about. I'm not asking you to babysit me. Now, you either take me with you or I'll find it myself but either way I'm going." I looked over my shoulder at my dad who looked like he was getting worse by the minute. "He's all I have left."

Cory's expression softened a fraction before he blew out a breath. "Fine, but you listen and do exactly what I say, understand?"

I scoffed. "Yes, daddy" I replied purposely making my voice softer, high pitched, and clearly mocking.

It wasn't until the words were out there where I couldn't take them back that I realized how that may have just sounded.

The intention was to sound childlike not like-

Well, you know.

Cory blinked once, slowly, before spinning around fast enough to give himself whiplash and hurriedly threw the last few items into the bag.

Well then.

If those things didn't kill me I'm sure I could just as easily die of embarrassment.

***