Gina slowly opened her eyes to discover florescent lights hanging high over her head. To her left, she could hear a humming sound coming from behind a metal wall. She lifted her hand and touched it. The wall vibrated beneath her fingers.

She was in a bed… more like a cot, if she had to guess, and someone had cleaned her up and dressed her many wounds.

Hospital? she wondered. Gina turned to her right and smiled.

Tony was sitting in a chair with a book in his lap. He had fallen asleep.

She decided not to wake him… not yet. Gina slowly lifted herself up in the bed, feeling every muscle in her body ache. She was blown away by the gymnasium-sized open area she found herself in. There were cots lined up in rows which ran the entire room, reminding her of an emergency shelter for people who had lost their homes after a tornado or some other major catastrophe. There had to be at least a hundred cots set up if not more.

“You’re awake,” Tony said with a wide smile running across his face. He groggily sat up. “How do you feel?”

Gina reached over and took his hand and smiled. “Better now… just a bit confused at the moment. Where are we?”

“Well… we’re not dead. That was the question on everyone’s mind yesterday when the bomb blew up half of the wilderness preserve.”

Gina still looked confused.

“How much do you remember?” Tony asked.

“I remember being tortured and hung on a tree. I remember that asshole, Micom, was about to inject me with something to turn me into a zombie. I remember Charlie showing up with a horde and the camp was attacked… and then Marcus was there trying to get me out… and you were there, too. Although, I thought I dreamed you up at the time. I guess I was wrong.” She smiled and squeezed his hand. And then her heart sank as she remembered the bag. “Frank’s dead. They cut off his head and…” She stopped short as a flood of horrific memories surfaced.

It was Tony’s turn to look confused. “Oh… no, Gina… Frank is very much alive. He was pretty beat up when they found us… but still in better shape than you.”

Gina wiped the forming tears out of her eyes. She was overjoyed by the news. “You said ‘they’?”

“Yes. Meredith, Stephen, Frank and one of my hunters who you haven’t met yet, named Diane… they all survived the blast.”

She had a million questions. “They all… came?”

Tony smiled. “Yes, Gina. We all came to rescue you and Frank after we found out where you two went. There’s a bit more to it when you’re ready to catch up.”

Gina tried to get up, but collapsed back in the cot when her limbs wouldn’t cooperate. “Seems I have some time before I’m ready to do anything. Why don’t you start and I’ll just shut up for a while.”

Tony laughed. He took a deep breath and began filling her in on everything that had happened since they left Andover, and ending with what happened leading up to the blast.

Gina sat and listened, completely stunned by Tony’s tale. She was especially concerned when she found out that Samantha had been murdered.

“I guess Frank’s told you about what happened to us,” she said.

Tony frowned and said, “I’m so sorry, Gina. I think Frank spared me the worst parts… but he told me enough… and those bastards even cut your hair off?”

Gina laughed and said, “No… that butchery was my own doing. So much for going incognito.”

He ran a hand through her short hair and said, “It will take a little getting used to… but I like it.”

“You’re just trying to make me feel better,” she said, shaking her head. “Just keep the mirrors away from me and I’ll eventually get used to it, too.”

Tony beat her to the obvious questions. “After Micolad detonated, we felt the ground shake above us and thought the tunnel was just going to collapse. And then it was over. Marcus and I pulled you out of the tunnel and found a scorched forest and that evil camp was up in flames. We headed south out of the preserve just in case the explosion attracted more zombies to the area and set up camp where you and Frank spent your last night. Marcus stayed to watch over you and I went back to find out what happened to the others near the waterfall cave… and that’s when I ran into the others.”

Gina covered her mouth in horror as she thought about the destroyed camp. “They were being treated like dogs… all those people in the camp… Micom had them all locked up in cages. My God, Tony, they were so miserable and wanting to die. I guess they got what they wanted.”

They both fell silent as they considered the implications after the explosion.

And then Gina’s eyes went wide. “We never found her! We never found Megan, the pregnant girl!” She slammed her fist into the wall and finished, “After everything we went through… she probably perished in that camp with all the others.”

Tony’s face changed.

“What… what is it?”

“She’s here, Gina,” he finally said.

“What? Where? And just where exactly is ‘here’, anyway?”

Tony sighed and finished. “The others found this facility at the back of the cavern. They were here when the bomb went off. According to Frank, they thought they were dead. As best as he could figure, this place was part bomb shelter as well as a few other things. The facility held. The blast collapsed the tunnel that led them in here, killing off the yellow-eyed monsters that had followed them in. But they eventually found another way out… and that’s also when they found Megan.”

Gina looked concerned. “What is it… is she dead?”

Tony looked away. “If you’re able… I’ll show you the rest of this place. It’s easier to see than it is to explain. And then I’ll try to answer any other questions you have. Besides, I’m still trying to put the pieces together.”

She couldn’t look away from Tony’s disturbed face as she got dressed in some kind of one-piece tan jump suit he’d provided.

After painfully getting into the jump suit, she asked, “Tony… just tell me… is Megan alright? I need to know.”

He finally looked her in the eye and said, “No, Gina… she is definitely not alright.”

~~~

Tony led her out of the sleeping quarters large enough to accommodate a small army and they turned right down a faded-white hallway which led back into the main room where the control console stood silent.

Aside from feeling disorientated by her strange surroundings, Gina quickly dismissed it all when she saw Frank and Stephen sitting in leather chairs, along with the young woman she assumed was Diane.

Frank stood up with a huge smile on his face. “Well… I’m glad to see you got your beauty sleep out of the way… although, it probably wouldn’t hurt to catch another hour or two.”

“Fuck you, too, asshole,” she said and gave Frank a big hug.

Frank embraced her back with a wince. “Watch it! I’m still a little tender from the torture-fest yesterday.”

“I thought you were dead,” she said through tears. “They held up a bag and told me your head was in it… I never felt more alone in that moment.”

“Well,” Frank said, “as you can see, my head is still firmly attached… for now, anyway.”

She looked at Stephen and smiled.

Stephen looked like he was about to cry as he stood up and said, “I… I don’t know what to say… we thought…”

Gina hugged the ex-school teacher and said, “Thank you. Thank you for coming for us.”

Stephen simply nodded and let the tears fall.

Diane rose to her feet and nodded toward Gina. “I’m glad you’re okay. You must be tough as nails. Frank told me what you two went through.”

Gina felt like a blubbering idiot. She walked over to the female hunter and hugged her as well, catching Diane completely off guard. Gina said, “Thank you. I’m sorry about your friends who died trying to get us out.”

Diane got a little choked up, and uncomfortably returned Gina’s embrace.

This made Tony chuckle. He’d never seen Diane so close to vulnerable.

Gina let her go and looked around. “Where’s Meredith… Marcus?”

Frank shot Tony a quick glance.

Tony sighed and said, “Gina… I haven’t told you everything yet. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“What? Just tell me already.”

Frank took over. “Meredith’s back in the lab. Marcus is trying to get her to talk… but she stopped talking shortly after she tended to your wounds.”

Gina looked confused.

Diane spoke up. “I insisted that Meredith be placed under… observation… until we could understand how she knows about this place.”

Gina looked angry and confused now. “I don’t understand what’s going on. Just take me to this lab. Is that where Megan is, too?”

No one said a word.

“I’ll take you,” Tony said.

He led her back down the main hall as the others lagged behind. They turned to the door on the right which led down a second narrow hallway with large protective glass observation windows on both sides, providing an open view into both rooms on either side.

The room on the right appeared padded and empty except for a bloody overturned cot laying in the center of the room. There were streaks of blood on padded walls which ran along the back. There was also blood on the floor. It looked like someone had died very violently in that room.

“Meredith?” Gina asked concerned.

Tony pointed to the left. “It’s okay, she’s in there.”

On the left, was the room where Meredith was being held. The older woman was sitting in a chair staring down at the floor while Marcus appeared to be speaking with her as he sat on a cot in front of her. The room was filled with all sorts of medical equipment.

Meredith looked up, saw Gina, and smiled.

Gina smiled back and touched the glass. “Before I lose my fucking mind over this, please tell me why my friend is being treated like a prisoner and being interrogated, Tony?”

Marcus turned and nodded to Gina. He got up and started toward the door which opened up at the other end of the hall.

“Gina… she’s not a prisoner. In fact, after Diane expressed her concerns, Meredith was the one who insisted they lock her in here.”

“And why would she do that?” Gina asked, staring at the woman who was now staring back at the floor.

“Because when we were trapped in the tunnel that’s now collapsed,” Frank said, “there was a security door that led into this place. When we couldn’t get it open on our own… Meredith provided the code and got us inside.”

Gina turned to Frank. “She did what?”

“It’s true,” Stephen added. “The door not only required an access code, but it also required hand verification. Gina, not only did the security system accept her code… it recognized her hand print. She would’ve had to have been in the database long before we got here, which means, at some point, Meredith had been enrolled into some program that allowed restricted access.”

Gina was stunned. “You do realize what you’re implying, don’t you? You’re saying that our Meredith, the woman in that room who has saved our asses more than I can count, is somehow involved with these people? That’s she’s part of this fucked-up nightmare organization that goes by the name Mother?”

Frank looked away and remained silent.

Stephen lifted his arms and said, “I’m as shocked as you are, Gina. But… she was authorized to gain access. In her defense, if Meredith hadn’t let us in, we’d all be dead right now.”

Marcus joined them in the hall. “I’m glad you’re alright, Gina.”

She turned and hugged the strange man and said, “Thank you, Marcus… again.”

He nodded and told them all, “I’ve tried to reason with her. She refuses to speak of anything related to this place or the people behind it.”

Gina shook her head. “This is too much. Where is Meg-”

Just then, a woman in a bloody-white gown with disheveled blond hair jumped up above the partition between wall and glass from the opposite room and started hammering the glass with her fists.

Gina gasped and stepped back.

The woman was clearly insane as she…it… screamed at her.

Gina went pale when recognition set in. And then she saw the woman’s eyes… her mercury-colored eyes.

Gina fell to the floor and placed her hands over her face. She couldn’t look at Megan anymore… not like this. Not ever again. “No… no… NO!” she shouted.

Tony was there. He wrapped his big arms around her as Gina wept for a very long time.

~~~

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