Adira felt like he was looking directly into her eyes. He didn't make any movement besides tilting his head to the side, standing under the entranceway to where Adira and her family were hiding. They tried to keep as quiet as possible and not make any movements that would give away their presence. The man squinted at the ceiling before trying to reach out to the opening of the attic. Adira stopped breathing and lay frozen as his hand came closer.

"Wow, boys. We just hit the jackpot," another loud deep voice boomed through the house, causing the black-haired man to stop what he was doing and look to his side at the sound of the voice's laughter. "Get a load of this."

"I'm coming," the one with black hair called out.

The man looked back up at the ceiling before he walked out of the laundry room. Adira was able to hear his footsteps going down the stairs. A few minutes later, the family heard even more voices. Adira dropped her head and let out a sigh before standing back up very slowly in an attempt to remain quiet.

"What do we do?" Steve asked quietly.

"They are going to eat all our food," Madison semi-yelled.

"What can we do?" Adira whispered.

"Go down there and kick their butts," Taylor responded automatically. "We can't let them take our food. It's all we have."

"How are we going to get them to leave?" Steve frowned in question.

Steve was the middle child out of his two other siblings, Matt and Adira. Adira and him looked nothing alike, while Matt and Steve looked like replicas of each other. Matt and Steve were both stood above 6 feet, and they both had brown hair, except Steve's was slightly curled at the end while Matt's stood straight. Matt looked a lot more aggressive than Steve, but both of their heights made them intimidating to look at, along with their slight muscles. Apart from Adira, who had light brown skin just like Tyler's, Matt and Steve both had light skin.

"Well, we can't just go down there and be like 'hey, guys. That's our food, so can you please leave?'" Adira sarcastically replied. "That guy doesn't exactly look friendly."

None of them knew what to do. All of them were freaking out besides Adira, who didn't seem worried at all; instead, she was looking at them trying to remember the last time that she ever saw her family this freaked, but she couldn't remember a single time where she'd seen them this worried.

"We have to do something." Taylor said. The sound of laughter erupted through the house, along with the sound of glasses tapping together. "They're making too much noise. Those things might come back."

"Do something," Madison's tone was filled with desperation and fear.

"Like what? What exactly are we supposed to do?" Lydia asked Madison and Taylor.

"I don't know," She shrugged slightly.

"Kill them if they don't leave," Taylor suggested as if it was simple.

It wasn't odd for any of them that Tyler would say such a thing. He wasn't a violent kid. He did have a collection of very violent video games, but that was it. In the virtual world, he was the most violent out of all of them, but in reality, he was not.

"We can't just kill them, Taylor," Matt sighed.

"Well, why not?" Taylor asked. "They're taking our food and might be attracting those sick people here."

Taylor was a 5'2, 14 year old boy. He looked just like a boy version of his mother: light brown hair with brown eyes, chubby cheeks and a slim figure. The only difference between the two was their skin color; while Darla had light skin color, Tyler had light brown skin. Madison, on the other hand, looked just like her father.

"They are still human beings," Lydia reasoned.

"We should at least try to stop them." Madison looked at Adira and her uncle's.

"Fine, let's go check it out," Matt said, motioning to Adira and Steve to signal that they were to go with him.

"Me?" Steve asked incredulously, pointing to himself. "Why me?"

"We can't take anyone else," Matt replied as if it was obvious.

"Matt's right, Steve. We're older and mom can't go down." Adira glanced at Steve. "We have to make sure we keep them away from here."

She shuddered at the thought of her own mother in the same state as the little girl's mother yesterday. She couldn't stand the thought of her losing her mother or any more of her family to the infected, and it shook her to the core imaging having to kill her own mother just for her own good.

Adira and her brothers grabbed their weapons. Adira got her M Tech 6-inch Handcuff Folding Pocket Knife gripping it until her knuckles turned white. Steve got a baseball bat, while Matt got his Ulaks before going to the attics entrance. They looked at each other one by one.

"Ready?" Matt asked Adira and Steve.

With that thought and image in her head, Adira was ready with a whole new set of determination. Do what you got to do, Tyler's words repeated in her mind. That was what she needed to be able to do to protect her mother, niece and nephew and a little girl who she was now responsible for.

They both nodded before Matt bent down to open the door and slowly let Adira and Steve down to the floor. Once all of them were on the floor, Taylor handed Matt his weapons and put the square board back into place. Adira and her brothers nodded their heads slowly at one another as they separated, Matt going into the master bedroom right in front of the staircase and Steve to the bathroom between Madison's room and the laundromat, while Adira went to the loft across the hall to scope out the area below. Adira slowly kneeled on the couch and looked over the railing to see that the area around the front door was cleared. Again, the loud laughter began, along with the glass clinking together. Adira stretched herself over the railing to get a better look at the guys and lifted four fingers at Steve and Matt, signalling that there were four men. She retreated back behind the railing as the garage door opened and two more men emerged. When she thought it was clear to look, she peeked, lifting up six fingers.

"Is the place cleared?" One of the men asked, looking around.

"Yes, all cleared, Bob," another answered him.

Bob turned around and looked at the area that Adira was peeking out of. "Hey, imma go make sure no one missed anything upstairs, kay?"

"What are you scared of? That the boogieman is going to get you?" Another laughed.

"Shut up, John." Bob threw a piece of bread at him. "Just want to make sure we are actually cleared."

"Yo, there's food in here to last for months!" One of the other men called out from the pantry but his wasn't as deep as the others. "I love rich people."

They were not rich at all. They worked just as hard as anyone else. The only reason that they could afford a two story home with four bedrooms was because there were three adults who provided the income. Darla wanted the big home for her four people family, but her income combined with John's could only get them so far with the bills, so when Lydia had problems with her apartment, she moved in with her daughter and helped them out with the bills.

Adira scowled at the comment that the guy had made, but soon forgot about it as Bob started walking towards the stairs. She dropped herself in an empty spot between the couch and the wall while her brothers hid somewhere else. They could hear the footsteps coming up the stairs and Adira squeezed her eyes shut tightly, hoping that Bob wouldn't come anywhere near the loft's window. Moments later, she heard the footsteps walk right past her followed by a door opening. She finally got the guts to get up out of her hiding place and carefully tip-toe to the little corner, where she hid again.

Adira could see Bob's shadow on the wall across from her. His boxed-shaped figure appeared--his back facing her--as he made his way into the bathroom. He walked past the two connected sinks and entered the bathroom, flipping the light switch on. She heard the curtains being pulled back followed by a gasp.

"Hey!" Bob yelled.

Adira ran up behind him and stabbed him in the shoulder without hesitation.

"What the fuck?!" Bob screamed.

Matt quickly moved to the bathroom, trying not to be seen. "Shut him up." He whispered panickedly.

Steve stabbed him in his abdomen hoping that he would stop making a noise, but it didn't. Bob shrieked again in pain, causing even more commotion. Adira jumped on him in reaction, swinging her arms around his neck and then taking her pocket knife and sliding it across Bob's throat, finally making him go silent and limp. Matt and Steve gaped in shock before noticing that Bob's dead body was falling. They quickly caught it, wondering what they should do with him. Their younger sister looked around, trying to find an answer, and her eyes landed on Taylor's room.

"Put him in there," Adira ordered, "Put him on the bed."

"Why?" Steve asked.

"Make it look like he's sleeping," Adira simply answered.

"Oh," the brothers said at the same time.

"Hey Bob! Everything okay up there?" A guy called from downstairs.

The gang looked at each other in panic before rapidly starting to shove the body between the bed and blanket. Once down, they heard footsteps clearly.

"Bob!" The same guy called. "Hey, you up here, man? You still alive, right?" he joked.

The trio scrabbled to a hiding spot, which ended up with Steve running into Madison's room across the hall and Matt into the bathroom they had just come out of. The pair closed the door behind them, leaving Adira in the room with the dead man. As the voice got closer and the footsteps got louder, Adira finally hid in the closet, making sure to leave the bedroom door slightly open. She also fully closed the closet sliding door, thankful that Taylor's closet door didn't squeak as much as the other doors did.

Adira held her breath as she heard the door open, a laugh following the sound.

"This fat-ass is asleep up here!" The man shouted downstairs and laughed. "Hey Bob, get your ass up and get something to eat."

Nothing.

Adira was shaking at the possibility of getting caught. She listened carefully, trying to pinpoint where the man was in the room, but neither the man nor Bob was making a sound. That was until she heard a small squeaking sound.

"Bob?" The guy questioned. "Hey, man, wake up."

From the squeaking noise, Adira could tell that the man was near the bed. She froze as she felt a tingling sensation in the back of her throat, causing her to quickly put her hands to her face and cover her nose and mouth. When she removed her hands and opened her eyes, she saw a pair of sinister eyes in front of her. She gasped and jerked backwards, hitting boxes behind her. The banging caused a toy to fall off and hit Adira in the head. She cussed under her breath nervously.

The sliding door flew open, revealing a tall scary-looking man with light skin, dark brown eyes, and dark hair, with a bald spot covering his scalp. He smirked down at her with his arms crossed over his large chest, revealing a few tribal tattoos on his forearm.

"Well, well, well. Looks what we have here," The man drawled, towering over Adira. "Come here, little missy."

He grabbed Adira from the arm, lifted her to her feet and dragged her out of the closet. There was no doubt that she fought back, trying her best to get out of his tight grip. Unfortunately, she couldn't escape his clutch, so instead, she tried to bite him--unsuccessfully.

"We are going to have fun with you, little one," he smirked menacingly.

Adira finally got a hold of his arm and bit him as hard as she could. The man screamed in pain, releasing her and clasping his arm in pain. He looked down to find teeth marks and small beads of blood oozing out of his wound. He looked down at her with anger evident in his eyes, growling at her.

"You son of a-" He paused as he lifted his hand and backhanded her, causing her to fall back and knock into the wall behind her.

The crashing noise echoed through the house as Adira gasped and panted. She clutched her bruised cheek and turned her head towards the man. His eyes filled with satisfaction at the sight of blood dripping from the corner of her mouth.

"Hey, is everything okay up there?" Another one of the intruders called out. "Ya'll don't get too rough up there, you here?"

The man took hold of Adira's arm again and dragged her out of the room. She saw Steve and Matt as the man hauled her passed the bedroom and bathroom. Both doors were cracked open a little, enough for the boys to see Adira being pulled away by the man. Matt was about to come out, but stopped when Adira was shaking her head at them and mouthing 'no.' She was lucky that the man was in front of her and not paying any attention to her--besides maintaining the tight grip on her arm.

Once the two were downstairs, Matt and Steve cautiously ran to the loft and watched to see what would happen to Adira.

Downstairs, there were two men in the dining room; one with black hair, a long black beard, brown eyes and of a medium build, but still tall, and another sitting at the table with light brown hair and green eyes. The green eyed man was sitting at the counter, fixing what looked like their knives. Another one was in the living room. He looked just like the one with black beard, except a little younger and with blonde hair. He seemed to have a more muscular upper body as he sat at the end of the first couch, facing his back towards the kitchen. The fifth and final one--apart from the dead man upstairs, of course-- was searching through the pantry to see what Adira and her family had in stock. This one was a lot younger than the rest. He seemed more in his late teens to mid-twenties. He had black hair, which was spiked into a crown, and one very light brown eye and the other green. This one wasn't built like the rest; he was slim with a light skin tone.

The man who had taken Adira walked down the hall so that the others could see him, his big grin stretching itself from ear to ear in pride. The first one to notice the man with Adira was the brown-eyed, bearded man. He was inspecting a deck of cards, but put them down as soon as he noticed the man and Adira.

"Hey, boys, look what I got here," the man said as he pushed Adira--who was trying her best to get out of his grip--forward.

The only one who didn't look was the man searching through the pantry.

"Where did you find this one, Dan?" The guy at the edge of the table asked.

"Found this purdy one hiding upstairs in one of the closets," he answered.

"Hey, does crème of mushroom taste good?" The guy in the pantry questioned with a tin of soup in his hand. "No on-"

As he looked up, the first thing in sight was Adira. He stared at her with raised eyebrows as she scowled at him. "Who's this?"

"This here, Elijah, is a purdy girl," Dan replied.

The man on the couch, John, got up and walked towards Adira. "She sure is a pretty one," he said, licking his lips and brushing her hair over her shoulder.

"Yeah. Too bad she's a thief," Dan said.

"Thief--you're calling me a thief?" Adira gasped. "You broke in here! This is my house. You are the thief."

Adira took a step back, looking at him in disgust. The men let out a laugh, except for Elijah, who smiled slightly before looking at her disturbingly. "So what are we going to do with her?" Elijah quietly asked without making eye contact with anybody else.

The men all laughed at the question before one spoke up. "She's a girl." Dawn, the man playing with the cards, pointed to Adira and then at himself. "We are men. You get what I'm sayin'?"

Elijah knew exactly what Dawn was saying, feeling a lump in his throat. He didn't know what to do at this point except look at Adira with sad eyes. She returned his gaze with an emotionless expression.

"Can't we let her go?" Elijah asked, sounding scared.

"The apocalypse may have happened, son," John informed him with a laugh. "But we are still men."

"I get that, but do you really need to do that to every woman we come across?"

"Boy, we can't go on dates or go to bars or strip clubs, if you haven't noticed." John stood up quickly.

"Plus, this is the finest one we caught for days," Dan smiled. He tried to touch Adira's face but was rejected when Adira slapped his hand away and stumbled backwards.

"Don't touch me," she growled.

"Feisty. I love a girl who is feisty." Dan tried to grab her again, but she took another step away from him, only to fall on the floor in front of Elijah.

Elijah saw that Dan was inching closer and would not stop until he got what he wanted. Adira scrambled back before pulling herself back onto her feet and standing up straight, trying not to show that she was intimidated. Elijah's chest was rapidly falling up and down as he watched Dan trying to capture Adira. His chest tightened as he stared, having flashbacks of his mother and sisters, but before either of the men knew it, he had grabbed Adira's arm and pulled her back.

"C-Claims," Elijah spoke up, keeping his head up high. "I call claims." He stuttered.

"What?" Dan questioned as he towered over him.

"What was that, son?" Dawn asked.

"I said that I call claim."

There was an eerie silence for a second.

"Boy, there ain't no claim on her," Bill said taking a step towards him as he shook his head.

"She needs to go around," Dan complained. "That's not fair."

"Life isn't far," Elijah retorted. "I call claim. I could call claim on anything, and whoever claims first owns it. Isn't that what you taught me? I called claim on her first, which means she's mine until I say otherwise, right Dawn?"

"The hell? I am not anyone's property!" Adira spoke. "I am not an object you could just claim!"

"Shush," Elijah's eyes fell to her before he turned his attention back to the others. "I call claims."

Dawn chuckled. "Shoot. This boy beat ya to the good one."

"Dawn, tell that boy she's everyone's," Bill said. "And that he can't call claim on her."

"Yeah, give her here." Dan stepped towards the two and reached out to grab Adira.

Elijah pushed Adira behind him and blocked Dan from taking hold of her. This only made Dan and Bill chuckle as if they had heard a joke.

"Very funny, boy. Now hand her over." Dan reached his hand out again. "But that was quite entertaining."

"Yeah, that's real funny, Elijah," John said with a small smile. "Hand her over to us."

Elijah didn't give them what they wanted; instead, he stepped back and wrapped his arm around Adira's waist from behind him. He stood his ground and didn't let them grab her.

"Boy, give me the fucking girl now!" Dan yelled. "I've waited weeks for another one to come by and I will have my time with her!"

"Claim," was all Elijah said, making both Dan and John even angrier than before.

"Dawn, tell this little shit to hand her over." Bill nudged Dawn.

"Don't nudge me again," Dawn ordered. "Can't do that."

"Well, why fucking not?" Dan yelled.

"You heard the boy, boys," Dawn said, lifting his glass cup towards Elijah. "The lady is his. He called claim on her so she's his. We all heard him say it."

"That's not fair," they argued.

"Life's not fair."

Both men backed down and Dan punched the wall, causing Elijah to jump a little. Adira was in shock, while Elijah let out a sigh of relief.

"Enjoy your girl, son," Dawn told Elijah, who nodded. "Have fun while she lasts."

Elijah turned to face Adira, whose face relaxed into another emotionless expression. Without any warning, Elijah smiled, showing off his pearly whites and his dimples before taking hold of Adira, lifting her onto the counter and looking up at her.

"Oh I will," he grins up at Adira, who was in shock.

Dawn and Harry--the man fixing the knives--smiled and let out a chuckle while shaking their heads. Adira didn't seem entertained nor did she seem very pleased. She sat with a straight face and her arms crossed over her chest. Elijah, on the other hand, continued to stare up at her with a grin on his face. The two men, Dan and John, both said something under their breath that was impossible for anyone to hear.

Eventually, Elijah took Adira off the counter top and put her back on the floor. He put his hand on her lower back and guided her to the pantry where he had first started out in.

Upstairs, Matt and Steve looked at each other before getting off the couch and walking off, leaving Adira at the bottom of the stairs.

In the pantry, as Elijah started touching and separating everything, Adira began to put things back to the way they were before the disaster happened. Elijah let out a sigh and separated everything again before Adira put it back again.

Elijah put his arm out to lean against one of the shelves as he looked at Adira with his eyebrows up. Adira, on the other hand, crossed her arms over her chest in one swift motion and now stood motionless. He removed a random can off one shelf and put it on another, where, seconds later, Adira picked up the same can and put it back. Again he took another can from its place and placed it near the door, but once he released it, Adira grabbed it and put it back where it had belonged. This went on for a few minutes before Elijah bowed his head slowly inhaling and exhaling.

"Would you stop that?" Elijah told Adira.

She didn't answer.

Elijah did it again, and of course, Adira put it back. Eventually, Adira extended her arms and slid all of the canned goods off the shelf, letting them hit the floor.

"Was that necessary?" Elijah asked.

"Hey, boy, everything okay in there?" Dawn asked from outside.

"Yeah everything is wonderful," he shouted back.

Adira turned around and started walking to the door while Elijah picked up the cans.

"Where are you going?" Elijah looked up at her.

"To the bathroom. Or is that part of my home unacceptable?"

"No, that's fine," Elijah frowned a little. "Just call if you need me. Who knows what they might do when you leave my sight."

"Will do...Not." Adira sarcastically smiled.

Adira kept her eyes on the men as she walked to the bathroom. As she turned around, she could feel their own eyes on her back, but didn't let it bother her. She closed the door, and the shower curtain immediately slid back, causing her to jump a little. She breathed rapidly and held her chest, trying to catch her breath.

"Jesus Christ, you scared me," she said, looking up at a smiling Steve, who was standing in the shower.

"Sorry," Steve replied but really didn't mean it. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," Adira admitted defeatedly. "I thought that you two might have planned something while you were up there."

"Besides just going out and attacking them? Because that's the only one we came up with."

"There are too many out there," Adira informed him. "We won't be able to take all of them."

"How many are there?"

"Four or-" she was cut off by a knocking on the door.

Another one came and Steve quickly hid behind the shower curtain once more before the door burst open. Steve listened as Adira started speaking to someone.

"Get out of here," Adira told them.

"Girl, he may have claimed you, but I will get what I want." Dan walked into the restroom.

"Well, too bad," Adira spoke. "I don't belong to fat-asses like you."

"Watch your mouth," Dan snarled angrily.

"Fuck you," Adira spat back.

Dan slapped her swiftly, causing her to fall to the floor again. He grabbed her by her arm and tossed her to the wall across from the bathtub. He closed the door and pushed one hand onto Adira, keeping her in the position that she was in while the other hand was taking off his belt and unzipping his pants. Adira tried to move as his hand wandered over her body. No matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get his hands off of her. The side of Adira's head was up against the wall, forcing her to look in the mirror. As his hand got to her lower torso, she slid herself towards the door, causing Dan to fall forward and giving her a chance to take his head and smash it into the wall. He pushed himself off the wall and was about to turn until his torso was met with a blade.

Dan looked down and saw the long blade coming out of his stomach. He opened his mouth but nothing would come out. The sound of the blade quickly sliding out of flesh danced through their ears. The two watched as the body fell to the floor. Adira turned to look at Steve.

"Well, took you long enough," Adira told Steve.

"I would have stabbed you too," Steve explained. "I had to wait till he wasn't so close to you."

"Whatever." Adira folded her arms. "Help me put him in the tub."

With that, both of them dragged Dan's body into the tub before Adira stood up and took a deep breath.

"Whew, he weighs a ton," Adira huffed as she put her hands on her hips. "Alright, two down, four more to go."

"Wait, where you going?" Steve asked as Adira was about to leave.

"I know what I'm doing," Adira assured him. "Just go and hide in my room and wait there."

Adira exited the bathroom at the same time that Steve ran into the room and closed the door behind him. Soon after, Elijah appeared, walking down the hall. A smile painted itself across Elijah's face as he saw Adira walking towards him.

"You okay?" He asked as he saw the door to Adira's room closed. "I saw Dan come over here, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything."

"No," She shook her head and turned to look at her bedroom door. "He went to go and fix the window so that none of those crazy people could come in."

"Oh, okay. Cool," he shrugged. "Let's get back to the kitchen, shall we?"

Adira nodded and walked beside Elijah as he led her back to the kitchen. They could still see Bill on the couch, and John pulling out yet another cigarette, leaning against the wall next to the garage door.

"Can you, like, not smoke in here?" Adira glared at John.

"Can you mind your own damn business?" John shot back.

Adira shot daggers at him with her eyes. "Second hand smoke. That smoke that you're letting go all around the house is going into my lungs and is starting to give me lung cancer, and it is also starting the process of Oxidation, which harms my body. Therefore, it is my business."

John rolled his eyes and stopped smoking.

Adira gave him a sarcastic smile. "Oh, and Bill? Dan wants you to help him board the window back up."

Bill let out a long sigh before pushing himself off the couch and into the bedroom. Once she heard the door close behind her, a small smile made its way to her lips. Elijah walked in front of Adira, heading back to the pantry, as Adira watched Bill close the door to her room. A small smile creeped on her face but she soon hid it when she walked towards Elijah.  

*Edited