"So that's it," announced a defeated Penny to her fellow survivors, refusing to keep her head level. Conveniently, the office that they were sitting in had exactly five places to sit, with a desk chair and two benches.

"We have to wait, Penny. It's going to be fine," Aarav declared.

"Do you trust what that woman said, Isabelle?" Penny really wanted to know for sure that her sister was coming back. Lana might've not agreed with her, but she was all Penny had.

"She'll be back." Isabelle stood up and put her hand on Penny's lap. "I just know it."

Inside, Lana was cheering for her safety and for the fact that she was still breathing while in the back seat of the leader lady's car again traveling back to the office building. But at the same time, Lana was sweating out of concern for her allies. Without their protection, she would be alone. In the moment, Lana was trying to ignore the hostile driver's constant swearing and negativity.

Eventually, Lana's head was buzzing with questions when she, the leader and her comrade arrived at the scene of a sizable herd circling around the shelter. A few of them, the more heavy ones were blocking the special door, which Elena was not happy about.

"What? Wha- no! Could this day get any worse?" she yelled.

But to her companion's slight relief, around five brave souls were fighting against them - standing on the rooftop. In the back of her mind Elena knew that the use of shotguns only attracted more of the sick.

"Okay. Whatever your name is, we need your help. Here's your chainsaw," said the lady, whose name was still a mystery to Lana. She ripped open Lana's backpack and took hold of her chainsaw, then she gave Lana it with both hands.

"Thanks," Lana told the woman, but not wholeheartedly as with her chainsaw she assumed what she thought was the appropriate position.

"We have to be in and out of there quick, right?" asked Lana for confirmation. The other two were already out of the car by then because the lady opened the door for Lana. She was being nice to her, or so Lana thought.

"Come on, already!" the leader shouted out of frustration stemming from her family possibly still being in the office.

So there they went through the pack as quickly as they could take five breaths. Really, Lana only got a chance to brutally slaughter one younger infected, noticeably shorter than the rest. Dressed in jeans, Lana didn't pay attention to if she was one of the recent victims.

Unexpectedly, the glass of the thought-to-be secured door shattered into pieces on the ground when the warriors inside began to shoot through them in an attempt to eradicate the threat.

"Stop!" Elena tried to order her co-workers, some of them dressed in those navy coats. No. She was the boss of most of them and she always would be.

Lana and the man that traveled with her in her car were trying their best to cover Elena as she was swiping her card as fast as she could in order to pass through. Right after she was granted access, the guy next to Lana was cornered in his standing position and was brought down to his knees in weakness. Two of the most overpowering infected came into close contact with him, with one biting his pants and another his arm. Almost immediately after that, Elena targeted her rifle at his chest, and fired successfully.

"We have to go, Elena," one of the men shooting alerted when Lana and her captor were successful in entering the building. Most of the time, Elena was looking up at her former employers. She hated that but this situation was not the time for feeling emotions.

"Ugh! Fine," Elena surrendered and exited out with the other adults, ensuring to take down the obstacles that were creeping through the door when it was open for far too long. Finally the door shut completely as everyone outside was left to fight.

The only person who was standing there witnessing all this was Lana, who used this as an opportunity to search the entire complex for Penny and the rest. She wanted to start with the top floor, because chances are if the group heard what was going on Lana would already be reunited with them.

But most importantly, just in case, she decided to check all of the rooms downstairs. The first seemed to be like any old workspace: it had a computer sitting on a desk with two chairs and bookcases were lined up on either end of it. Nobody there, as far as Lana examined. But when Lana found herself inside the room directly across from that one, she heard faint whimpering noises. She didn't think anyone would be downstairs still. Nevertheless, Lana ventured further into the darkness, focusing her vision on behind the desk. Then, she crouched down to the ground.

It was that girl who Lana's captor was talking to earlier. However this time, she was sitting on the floor, grabbing her knees. She too possessed hair that had the ability to rest anywhere it wanted to. Just like her mother, Lana inferred.

"Get out from there." 

Lana's voice was stern, but that was because she was in a hurry, not because she was trying to be. Sure enough, that did the trick and the girl obeyed, coming out when directed.

"Are you her?" She wanted an answer from Lana, stopping her tears and dropping her mouth a bit.

"Come with me," Lana offered to take her to upstairs before voices were heard outside. Not quite blood-curdling screams, but the woman's daughter still covered her ears with her hands.

"What's your name?" asked Lana politely when the two began up the wide staircase.

"Nina. And what's yours?" Lana was taken aback by her willingness to talk to a stranger.

"Lana!" Penny rushed up to her and gave the biggest hug imaginable. Behind them, Caleb, Isabelle, Aarav, and Bianca appeared in Lana's peripheral vision in the hallway, wanting to find out if Lana actually was able to be seen for real.

"We need to get out of here," Caleb suggested, but he didn't want to have an argument.

"What are you doing here, Nina?" Bending down to her level, Isabelle thought that there was a big chance that her mother wanted to leave her by herself. Elena was always bringing her to the office and she kept leaving her there unattended. "Where's your mom?"

She just shrugged.

"Let's see, shall we?" brought up Penny.

Nina was lagging behind, not wanting to find out the truth about what happened outside. What Aarav saw, as the first person to look through the shattered glass, baffled him.

No infected outside were close to the door. He saw a group of shadows on the road ahead. But there were bodies on the ground.

What?

Everyone was staring when they could have been moving on to the truck.

"They're dead! They sucked the life out of them and just left!" Penny screeched like a bird.

"Mommy escaped," Nina insisted to her, looking at Penny directly in her eyes, which seemed to change over time from ocean blue to sky blue.

"Well I hope she didn't, okay?" Aarav replied honestly, spit building up in his teeth. "She tried to kill someone and she ended up hurting someone else. My uncle."

"Even if she made it out alive, she left you behind. That says a lot," Lana remarked with certainty, keeping her head focused on the window, purposefully refraining from making eye contact with the girl.

"Whatever. She's alive. I know she is." Nina crossed her arms in defiance.

"We should go back to the house, guys," Isabelle prompted. "Nina, you can come with, okay?"

An unsettling feeling was present in Penny's stomach. Was this the same woman who locked her in a room? Who killed people just to get into a building? Why was she all of a sudden being nice?

"Let's," seconded Bianca, nodding. Everybody went out the front entrance without real caution, not paying any mind to the lifeless bodies. Not even Nina, because her mother was alive and anyone who tried to tell her otherwise would be dead to her.

The ride back seemed longer than before, probably because the day was so taxing. All of the group except Isabelle sat apart from each other yet again. Though Lana was sitting close enough to Bianca to notice a red scratch mark on her finger.