Chapter 5: Left To My Own Devices

"Raise the gates!" Sam commands. "C-Covering-"

The snipers above the township start firing as we run out, effectively taking out the few zoms before Sam can even finish the sentence. Tony snickers quietly.

"Looks like they know what to do without you, mate."

"Yeah, alright," He replies, and I can easily picture him rolling eyes in annoyance. "I just-it's the form of the thing, alright?"

Paula nods. "It makes you feel better to say it. I understand."

"I think it'd be a little weird if he didn't say it." I shrug. "I think I might miss it."

Amelia hums in response through my headset. "You know, there's probably someway this whole business could be automated. It's all rather repetitive, isn't it?"

"Automated?" Sam gasps. "This-this is a highly skilled job."

"Yes... just a thought. Leave it with me," She replies. "Now, Runners, I need you going cross country today. Quick time. I'll brief you as you go. Get moving."

'Get moving,' she says as if we're not already running.

I sigh and try not to think anymore sarcastic thoughts. I actually need to be a bit grateful since Amelia hasn't bothered me anymore on my whole name situation, although it's only been one day since that discussion.

But I guess that doesn't really matter at the moment. Right now I believe we're going to be going after one of Comansys's bases. Of course, we haven't been told that yet, but I doubt they'd send three people out on a entertainment run.

I hope this is it, because I want to help in finding Caleb. I want my children to know we're getting closer to finding him. Penelope asks me a lot if he's going to come back and if he's going to come back normal. She asks if he'll be like a robot forever, and I always have pause before I lie and tell her 'no', because it hurts that I don't truly know the answer.

Milo doesn't ask, because he's not like Penelope. He knows that I don't know the answers. He knows that we've got not much of anything in finding our people, except in what we found when meeting Tony, which hopefully will lead to another discovery.

I pray it will.

"Good. Good," Amelia praises. "You're making excellent time. Very important mission today. Let's see. We have Runner Five, Runner Twenty-three-that's you, Dr. Cohen."

She nods. "Present."

"Yes, very good. And Runner-oh, you don't have a number, Antony."

"Just Tony. Never needed any other names."

"Hmm, unlike some people," She mutters under her breath before clearing her throat. "Well, the Ministry of Recovery requested the three of you particularly. Because of your very useful information about the ongoings in London, Tony, and after what you discovered at the Comansys river base, the Ministry has devoted a good part of its resources to investigating local known Comansys offices, laboratories and other places."

"Haven't found anything though, have they?"

"No. That's what you're here for. We know Comansys was on the Scottish Islands, but the Ministry has set up a team out there. And whatever they were doing in the past, it's just sheep up there now. Comansys buildings have been found to be, for the most part, entirely clear, but we're hoping that perhaps one of you with your expert knowledge-"

"What we're saying is you might spot something the Ministry's boys missed, and the more we know about Comansys, the closer we are to getting our people back, okay?" Sam interrupts, and I nod.

"Yeah. Whatever it takes."

"And incidentally, I've cleared with the Ministry that we here at Abel should keep hold of that very useful device you brought back from London, Antony," Amelia says, and I wrinkle up my nose at how happy she is when she says the word 'device'. Of course, that little box is very interesting and has been of great use to us in just that one situation, but the way she's interested in it is almost... alarming.

Or maybe I'm just letting my feelings of dislike towards her change every little bit of what she says into something suspicious.

"Oh, yeah?" Tony replies. "Chrysalis told me to take it to New Canton."

"Well, the Ministry thinks that we can make better use of it. One of the benefits of having a manager around who really knows people at the top." There's a certain smugness in her voice. "No need to thank me, and no need to mention it to New Canton either."

"Why?" I ask.

"Well, don't want to start another turf war, do we?"

"Is that really... alright?" Sam questions hesitantly.

"Wouldn't have said so if it wasn't," She answers. "Carry on then. You can take it from here, Samuel. Runners, make sure you're there and back within ninety minutes. The Ministry will be expecting a full report. Might dock our rations shipment if we don't keep up with schedule."

I grimace at that. The shipments that the Ministry has sent since Amelia's arrival have been a great help. I think we got nine crates the first time, three having food, three containing medicine, and the last three containing warmer clothing since it's getting so much colder. I pray it won't be like last year and snow for months, but this is England, so my hopes for such a thing is pretty stupid, especially since I already know what will happen as the months go by.

But we were told we would get a shipment every few weeks, which is pretty good since it's food and medicine we weren't getting before. Of course, the things we get are still not as good as what you could get before the apocalypse, but at least I might be able to get the ingredients to make tomato soup.

So the threat of possibly getting less is enough to make us pick up the pace.

None of us speak, since our minds are most likely all on the same thing, which is whether or not this will actually lead anywhere. I mean, Amelia just said that the Ministry's people found nothing in the Scottish Islands, so what if that means there's nothing here either?

It's a bargain, but it's the only thing we have that could be considered to be a lead .

I hate it-bargaining. I hate the risk-the maybe. I want to know. I want to be sure. Because without the assurance of something actually being there, the worry inside me eats at everything I am, consuming my thoughts with anxiety and doubt of this plan working. It's something that never stops, no matter what I do. It's always there in the 'maybe situations'. I can push them away, try to put my focus on something else, but it never disappears; It never leaves.

And I don't know how many more disappointments I can take. I want to be here to see the clues, but I'm not sure I want to keep risking the pain of finding nothing instead.

"Guys, Amelia's gone now," Sam says over my headset, and Tony grins widely.

"Oh, thank God for that. She's a bossy one."

"Yeah, well... maybe we need that. We were better when the Major was in charge. Things have been going a bit... difficulty."

"The waves of fast zoms haven't helped," Paula sighs.

"Or the Phantom of Abel." Sam lets out a mocking evil laugh, and Tony perks up while I roll my eyes and shake my head.

"You've got a ghost? I saw a ghost once. Victoria Station-old lady dressed in gray, reachin' her hands out. There one minute, gone the next. Gave me the shivers."

Paula laughs. "No, it's not real; Just a rumor people have been saying since stuff started going missing."

"It's-it's just people taking stuff without writing it down in the book, probably," Sam chuckles. "They wouldn't have stood for that in Comansys."

"Yeah. Remember those ads for those automated systems that delivered basically anything you've ever wanted to your desk?"

"Everyone wanted to work there."

"I think I can see why," I say. "Getting unlimited ice cream delivered to you sounds pretty awesome."

I remember seeing a few interesting things in that Comansys vault when I was Chrysalis. I remember there were a few different things beside that box-mostly small and shiny, which is why they caught my eye for a quick second-but I didn't pay that much attention to it since I had something I was looking for specifically.

Paula smiles. "As far as I remember, they were a sort of co-op. When their founder died about twelve years ago, maybe... she left the company to the employees equally."

"Yeah, they were supposed to be really good," Sam states. "They did all that think tank stuff around Parkington stores. You should be able to see the building on the horizon now."

The sunlight gleams off the glass, making it hard to see it clearly. But I do see it somewhat. It's glass, as in the entire building is glass. It's dusty and dirty, but still glass. And... what the hell is on the roof?

"Is that a fairground up there?" I gape, and Tony looks just as surprised as me. Paula nods.

"Yes."

"Are you sure we're at the right building?

"We are. That's Comansys."

"But... but it's a fairground... on the roof."

She nods. "That's right."

"Oh, I've gotta get a better look at this," Tony says before I can. Then he starts sprinting for the building, and I'm quick to follow because I want to see if this is an actual thing or some sort of joke. I mean, a fairground... on the building? What sort of big tech company does that?

Paula sort of has no choice but to run after us.

The closer we get, the more we can see through the glass windows that are so dirty they look almost like wood. But good Lord, this looks like a nine-year-old's paradise. I've never seen so much color in one place in all my life. Nor have I see such large stuffed animals. I think the purple bear leaning again the wall weighs more than me, Paula, Tony and Sam combined.

And we're still about 200 yards away from the building, so it might be bigger than it looks from here.

"So these Comansys people," Tony says skeptically, "they make fairgrounds?"

"No," Paula says. "It's a bit hard to explain."

"Did they make enormous soft toys? 'Cause I can see a giant pink teddy bear inside which is literally the size of an escalator."

"Okay, because we discuss on this more, I need you all to promise me something," I say seriously. "Promise me that you will not utter a word of this to Penelope because I highly doubt I can snatch that and bring it back to her. I'm a good thief, surprisingly, but I'm not that good."

"We promise," She says. "They got their reputation for being a cool place to work. They wanted to make their offices fun to be in."

"Yeah," Sam agrees. "You know, I had an interview in that building once to see if they wanted to do industry sponsorship for my course. But they wanted someone with-well, you know, actually good grades. They did this whole 'we're the good guys' thing. I suppose not encouraging me to do electrical engineering was a step in the right direction."

I can't help but laugh, and hope he doesn't take any offense of it.

It doesn't take too long for us to reach the building, since we were sprinting, but by the time we reach it we are very much out of breath. I grab a stone on the ground, ready to throw it at one of the many glass panels, but Tony grabs my wrist to stop me.

Simon used to take hold of my wrist when we went on runs together, My mind so kindly reminds me. I yank out of his grip, sending him a glare that makes him flinch back.

The last thing I need is to be thinking about someone who's been dead for months.

"Sorry," Tony apologizes, raising up his hands in surrender, "but just-just look. The lights are still on. Someone might be in there. Pretty sure shattering the glass would get their attention."

I take a look and find that he's right; The lights are on. So with a frown, I drop the stone.

"I've managed to get into their systems, opened up their security cameras," Sam hums. "They're all about open source anyway, so it wasn't too hard, and the solar panels on the roof power the place."

I pick up the stone again. "So, can I break the glass now?"

"Mmm, better not. I can take down any security alarms so you can go through the entrance. Plus if there are any zombies around we don't want them hearing you, right?"

"Yeah, you're right," I sigh, starting for the entrance.

"You know, Van Ark was obsessed with them," Paula says, and I raise a brow in interest.

"Yeah, I remember you saying something about that a couple of days ago."

"He was even before the apocalypse because they kept coming out with that string of inventions. I think he felt competitive with them, and afterwards, he blamed them for everything that had happened. Never had any evidence though."

"Not sure I trust anything he said," Sam grumbles, and I subconsciously reach up and touch my neck, a slight burn spreading through my veins.

"He had files on them somewhere, I think, but we haven't found them in any of the labs we know about. He might've known something about what they were up to."

"From what I saw in London, they're not tryin' to make the world better anymore," Tony states. "It was them turnin' my mates into mind controlled things, orderin' 'em around and that."

"Yeah," Sam agrees, "I think we have to face the fact that their corporate image might've been a tissue of lies."

Paula rolls her eyes as we reach the door. "Don't break my world like that, Sam. I thought all companies had the best intentions for their consumers at heart."

Tony scoffs. "Yeah, and McDonalds made healthy food."

Sam snickers. "And Silka just wanted us to switch brands."

"And Target isn't an evil cooperation that wants to crush little children's dreams," I say, but no one seems to laugh at that. Instead both Paula and Tony are looking at me with quite a bit of concern in their eyes.

"Five," Sam says slowly, "did something happen to you at Target?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"Oh, um, anyway, why don't you guys head inside. Have to do this quickly, remember?"

Tony grabs the door handle and opens the door, giving me a dramatic bow. I'm guessing it's an attempt to cheer me up after what I said about Target.

"After you, milady."

I grin. "Why thank you, kind sir."

"Hey, I bet I could climb to the top of that teddy bear in thirty seconds. It'd be a good viewpoint too."

I raise a brow at him, a mischievous grin starting to appear on my face as Paula rolls her eyes. "Don't be ridiculous-"

"Do it."

•

"Anything in there?" Paula asks.

Tony huffs as he looks into the next room. Paula banned us from touching the stuffed bears since Tony nearly fell off one after he managed to climb it in twenty-five seconds. I think Tony's still a bit angry since he was having quite a bit of fun with the gigantic toy.

"When you say 'anything', do you include some kind of bar filled with like, a billion wooden marbles?" He asks. "'Cause I can't think of anything you can do with that except maybe some really weird sex stuff."

I pause for a moment, then shudder. Those are definitely not things I want to think about.

"But out those wooden marbles together with the river flowing under a glass floor Runner Five found in the basement, and..." Paula sighs, "you've got nothing that could have anything to do with the zombie apocalypse."

My heart sinks. As much as Tony has tried to make fun with the stuffed toys and other, he can't mask the fact the we've found nothing that can help us. This, so far, has been a complete waste of time.

"This place doesn't just feel cleaned out, right?" Tony questions.

"Yeah," Sam says, "looking at it, it feels-"

"Brand new," Paula says, pulling out a brochure we'd found in the lobby. "Those computers we looked at all had 'Create New User' screens-not a finger mark, not a coffee cup, not a stain on the floors or those ugly chairs."

I cast a glance at the neon orange, egg shaped chairs.

They are pretty damn ugly.

"Even the solar panels on the roof look like they've just been installed-well, installed three years ago."

Tony shrugs. "Maybe they hadn't moved in here yet. New building or something just before the apocalypse? Might want to move in myself except, you know, building made of glass... not that secure against the zombies."

"Yeah," Sam says, "Amelia says some of the other places were cleaned out, but I didn't realize it'd be like this."

"We still haven't checked upstairs," I say, not wanting to give up just yet.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Go check it out."

I nod, heading towards the stairway. There's only one large upper area, and then there is the roof which contains the fairgrounds, I think. There might be a closed off area or something somewhere. That seems like something Comansys would have. They're pretty stretchy, as we've seen.

But when we reach the next floor, all there seems to be is spotless desks with the same empty computers, along with toys... some of which I take.

"Five!" Paula hisses as I put a few... a lot of Littlest Pet Shop plushies in my backpack.

"What? Penelope and Molly will love them, and it's not like anyone here's using 'em."

She deadpans but doesn't say anything on it, even though I grabbed more than two plushies... indicating I grabbed some for me, which I might've done.

I look around at everything else, all the toys and brightly colored rooms and computers and desks... but everything's clean. Well, clean-ish. There is an layer of dust on everything. It's probably an inch thick.

But, I can understand why everyone wanted to work here, as Sam said. I've honestly never seen anything like it. No work place in America was ever like this. If there was, I'm sure a lot of people would have applied there, even the bums who never wanted to do anything. This place honestly seems like a cool place to work, which is why it's not all that surprising that this company might have something to do with mind controlled people.

Nobody's perfect. The better the display, the more that's hidden. You'd think movies would have taught people this by now.

"Yeah, that half-sized replica of an eighteenth century pirate ship-that seems to be as clean as everything else," Sam sighs tiredly. "Just the roof to try now. There are some storage areas up there. Might be something useful. Oh, yeah, and something you've done seems to have set the carousel going on the roof fairground."

"Probably Five since she likes to grab things," Paula says, pursing her lips, and I gasp in offense.

"I take the toys. I don't press buttons. That's how bad things happen, like activating death rays or the self destruction system."

"This place has a self destruction system?" Tony questions.

"I don't know. Maybe. Honestly, with everything that's happened, I'm up to believe almost anything."

We all share a knowing look of agreement, and start to head towards the stairs. Suddenly a high pitched ringing goes off.

It sounds like a timer.

"What's that?" Tony asks. "Was Five right about the self destruction system?"

"No, sorry," Paula says, reaching her hand into her pocket. "It's me. Sorry. I'll just..."

There's a click and the ringing stops. Tony raises a brow. "Why're you tickin', mate? Everythin' alright?"

"It's-it's because of my... condition. I set a manual alarm to remind myself... I've got six hours until I have to be at New Canton for plasmapheresis."

"Oh, yeah. I heard about that. You're actually a zombie, but like, in disguise, right?"

Her face goes hard as stone. "I'm not a zombie."

"She's not," Sam agrees. "It's different."

Tony clicks his tongue. "Yeah, but like, if you bit me, I'd turn into a zombie."

"Yes, I have to be very careful about my blood. Can't work in the kitchens, can't chop wood for the fire, can't work as a doctor, obviously. That's why I'm out there. At least I'm some use. Anyway, my condition seems to mean I need less sleep than I used to and I have more stamina."

"That is so cool. You're like a superhero, kinda. Would you, like, be able to keep going if you lost your arms or your stomach or something?"

"I uh, haven't tested that. I feel pain less intensely than I used to."

"Cool."

"If you think so," She sighs. "I think we're done here, Sam."

"You haven't reached the roof yet. Just try it. There might-there might be something. If you're feeling tired you can take the lift, but there's still the stairs to the left-"

The lift dings as the doors open up, revealing the one thing we definitely don't need right now.

"They came up in the bleedin' lift!" Tony exclaims as the zombies all tumble out of the lift.

"Crap. I didn't see them coming. This building's been cleaned out. What could've attracted them?"

"Maybe a working carousel on the roof?" I question with a hint of sass in my voice.

"Stairs. Now. Go!"

I dart towards the stairway, Paula and Tony right behind me. My hands are itching to grab my axe, but I don't-not yet. I need to wait since swinging downward could end up with me falling on top of a group of zombies.

The sound of our steps are almost drowned out by the groans of the zoms. They're fast ones, staying right on our heels as we climb higher and higher.

There's a door at the top of the stairs that leads to the roof, but it's closed. Hopefully, it's not locked. But even if it isn't, we don't have that two seconds' worth of time to open the door. The zombies will be on us by then. I'm not sure we'll even have time to scream.

I push myself to go faster, skipping steps in attempt to get to the door faster. I don't look back. I just keep running, the growling of the zoms and the uneven breaths of my friends spurring me on.

I reach the door, grabbing the door handle and swinging it open, rushing inside. I only have to wait a few seconds before Paula is rushing in. A zombie grabs the back of Tony's shirt, but he elbows it in the chest to push it off. Then he runs inside. I close the door just one second before the zombie lunges, and I lock it.

"Bloody hell," Tony pants, his eyes wide and terrified. "It's been a while since a zom got that close to me. The box Chrys gave me has kept 'em off. Can't believe I came here without it."

"Why did you come here without it?" I question, and he grunts.

"Amelia says she wants to make sure it works properly before sendin' any of us out with it, and that she doesn't want it to get messed up again. Funny though, since she was the one who broke it." He scrunches up his nose as he looks back at the rattling door. "I forgot how bad they smell. Man, they reek; Like old fish and apes and bins and, like, did you ever use a bog at a festival?"

"This door isn't secure," Paula says, "They'll be up here soon."

"There's another staircase on the other side of the roof," Sam says. "Check the storage lockers on your way, but don't waste time. More zoms are on their way."

"How many?" I ask, reaching behind me.

"Too many to try and kill them all with your axe. Now go."

•

"Five, we have to go," Paula says, that terrible carnival type music playing in the background. "We've gone through every locker. There's nothing here. It's clean as a whistle."

I don't want to believe that. I don't want to believe that this has all been an entire waste besides some freaking toy plushies. There's no way we could have done all this to be disappointed.

"Come on, Five," Tony rushes.

There's a loud clang from across the roof, and when I turn my head I see the locked door on the ground with zombies stumbling over it.

After a second or so of shock we rush to the other stairway. We opened the door a few minutes ago just in case, but now that I'm looking inside, I see that there's a room there with the stairs off to the side. At least, I think that's what it is.

"More zombies are approaching through the woods. They'll cut you off if you stay. You'll be fine if you head off now."

We reach the room-it's definitely a room-and we shut the door as quickly as possible.

"Quick," Paula says, "help me push this-what is it? A giant Pegasus?-help me push it against the door. That'll buy us some time."

Tony and I quickly do as told. I have to use all the strength in me to get it to move, but it does. It's screeches against the floor, the sound like nails on a chalkboard, and I cringe.

"It's heavy," Tony grunts, and I can't help it roll my eyes.

"No shit, Sherlock."

We finally push it in front of the door, and Paula lets out a small huff.

"That should hold it." Her eyes focus on a small piece of paper on the floor, and she tilts her head to the side in slight confusion. "What's that?"

He shrugs. "Must've fallen behind the big horse."

She swoops down and picks it up, her brows furrowing as she reads what exactly is on the paper. "It's-that's weird. If no one had ever moved in here, how could they have a sign up sheet for the 'Simpson's Corner Shop gang' here? I guess it was meant to be a flyer on the wall."

"And the people who destroyed Simpson's Corner Shop?" Runner Eight asks, and Van Ark simply shrugs.

"I don't know anything about that. There might be some other group involved but it's a mystery to me."

I remember Van Ark saying those words to me. It was before we found out he was indeed a bad guy, but after we did find out that he was lying about being good and not knowing much about Paula and all that, I thought he was just lying about that too. Maybe he wasn't.

"Just a sec," Sam says. "Simpson's Corner Shop definitely rings a bell."

"Yeah, well maybe your bell can ring when we're away from the zombies," Tony says with a frown, but Paula ignores him and heads over to a nearby desk. She sets the paper down and lets out a small breath.

"Look at this-signatures for the drinks. A couple of people have written little notes on it." She flips the paper over. "Blue tag on the back. It must've fallen down behind the statue."

"But this whole place is so... You can't clean anything like that. I think that's what my mum used to want me to do."

"And if they wanted to hide something there, why would they wipe all the computer hard drives and clean it like that? Why wouldn't they just torch the place?"

"I think they might've tried that before," I mutter, and she gives me a raised brow.

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated. Sam, help me out?"

"Yeah," He says. "So Simpson's Corner Shop, that's where Patient Zero worked. We thought it was just a, you know, corner shop, but when Five went to investigate last year, we found there was a hidden lab under there."

"Simpson's Corner Shop was a front for some kind of Comansys operation then? Something they didn't want anyone to know about?"

"Yep," I say, taking a peek at the sign-up sheet. I stop reading after the third name.

Arthur G.

"You see that name, right, Sam?"

"Arthur Gurken. Patient Zero. First person to ever become a zombie; Start of everything."

"Patient Zero worked for Comansys?" Her eyes go wide and she gasps. "So Van Ark was right. Comansys might've really caused the apocalypse."

A/N: Well, here you go everybody. The plot thickens, am I right? This chapter is dedicated to jettmanas

Please be sure to vote and comment. Thank you and have a blessed day!