Chapter 31 - RED DAWN

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The steps woke her.

From down the hall, whoever it was, took their time.

To her co-prisoner, Ana Maria casts a weary gaze. Though Russell Wolfe had once been her enemy, her target, and then a friend, he's now her last ally.

Together, they were in this. At the mercy of the colonists and James Doyle, the Sergeant in charge. Expecting him to enter, or Hannah to gloat in her victory, the former Sheriff chokes on her expectations when Isaac turns the corner.

How, in God's name he got in the colony and what this meant for her, Ana Maria is at the bars when she bursts, "How the hell did you get in here, Isaac?!"

Revealing herself finally as a betrayer to Russell, the lowly male chuckles to himself on his bench. As far as Ana Maria knew, Russell had no suspicions until this very moment, that she had ties to the group of outcasts at the beach. The group, he always knew, would come for him, lead by the man who closed the gap of the triangle.

"I shoulda known better, Sheriff," Russell says, then begins to applaud in a slow capricious beat, "Shoulda known the one I trusted most in this forsaken shit-hole would be the one to stab me hardest in the back. First Kate. Now you."

Though her treachery ran deep not just with Russell, but with Isaac, Ana Maria kept her silence and the gaze of Isaac that never quite settled well with her. They were simply two energies, too alpha to co-exist before at the beach. With her background as a cop, Ana had her suspicions that Isaac spent some time behind his own bars. It's simply an instinct, in knowing a hardened criminal when she saw one. Though Isaac had never shown any violence, or instability in her direction, she knew there were secrets waiting to be plucked from the inured commander.

Dreading, just what he'd do, Ana Maria waits for Isaac to reveal his own darkness. As she had, before her own arrest.

As he approaches the far wall behind the desk, grabbing the set of keys that used to belong to her, Ana takes her steps backward in her rising phobia of Isaac.

"What are you doing?" She asks, but expects the silence humming over the rattle of keys.

To Russell's cell, he enters the lock.

Back to the bars, she clutches, her tawny skin whitening at the knuckles with the passing seconds. She speaks, knowing it's for Russell's life, "Isaac, whatever it is you're thinking of doing, don't. Don't do it. He's already lost. What more do you want?"

As he swings the cell open, Russell does nothing but wait on that bench. Knowing himself, what's coming.

"Justice." Isaac imparted, his grief of what Russell had taken, glazes over his brown eyes. Though what he took from Isaac stays between the two men, it's only now that Ana Maria sees Isaac's motivation all along in getting into this colony. Yes, he always wanted him dead. Most of their group, assumed it was revenge for being outcast .

Whoever Isaac grieved flied in the solitary word and then, the solitary bullet he expressed from the chamber of his handgun. Barely a sound escaped. The explosion of Russell's skull, louder than the bullet, passed through the silencer of Isaac's weapon.

Bearing a strong stomach and having seen murder, even by her own hands, she should be hardened enough to barely feel it. Ana Maria, nevertheless, turned her face away. Not for the sake of Russell, or for the carnage, but for the fear of her own fate.

He turns, bringing those tearing eyes her way. She backs up and though she's terrified, she won't cry, won't beg for her life. Perhaps, she deserved it. Hell, she knew she did. Somewhere along the line, she became one of the bad guys. The person, who belonged to rot behind the cell to pay for her crimes.

As the rusted hinges creak open in Isaac's false veil of freedom for her, she stares on. Waiting, in the crux of her fate he holds in his hands, for him to take.

"Go ahead," She says, "I deserve it."

His jaw shifts form side to side, before he steps away and leaves the gap for her to open.

"Paige and Emma are out there in the woods, on their own. We have to find them. Both of them, aren't doing well, if they're still alive." Isaac announces, surprising her again as he adds, "And I know you're the only person here who can help me."

She nods, caring more for pregnant Emma lost out there than the nurse who meddled into everyone's affairs. "Yeah, you bet."

Taking caution, her stride shows it as she passes into the room outside of her cell. Over her shoulder, she says to him, "But once we find them, I can't come back here."

With her vanishing, they'd probably suspect she was the one to murder Russell. Already, she presumed they'd kill her with the danger she presented in trying to annihilate them all.

Isaac blinks in a slow, concerning way, before he answers her with the ghosts of something new haunting his gaze.

"I'm debating myself if I want to come back, but they need medical attention."

As he hands his gun over to her, Ana Maria is gritting her teeth in rising anxiety for pursuing what might already be dead. Yet, though everything, Isaac had always been right. Seeing that now and grateful that he chose her, she checks the gun for bullets before bringing it to close again.

"Then let's get the fuck out of here." She slips the gun to hold in the waistband of her jeans, before they make their way outside.

Dawn readies to break. The air, is thick with the smell of new promise for the colony and new horrors for others.

On the precipice of the only choice Ana Maria has ever known, new danger awaits.

As the dust kicks up behind them, she stares back at the disappearing colony and the zombies that stagger in to follow their vehicle.

Through her aviators, she then watches the horizon. The sun, rising over the simmer of blood beneath it. A red dawn, that would soon blend into the era of red days.

Author's note: Please leave a review in the comments for a chance to be featured in the trailer for the next installment, "His Eve"! 

Thank you all for reading "ALIVE".

You might be asking: What about Paige and Emma? What's going to happen with Abel's cult? Etc, etc.

The next installment of The Aftermath Chronicles will be up in a few short weeks, sometime in February, with daily posts! Please follow my account to stay posted on the details. Expect the trailer for "His Eve": The Aftermath Chronicles, to be posted on here soon. Thank you again! Please comment with a review and with what you'd like to see in the future! <3

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