I had been careful to watch the first group coming, more out of interest to see the methods my two captors would use during a close fight like this. Trey was as predictable as any man seemed to be. Spraying bullets this way and that with an almost gleeful grim smile upon his face. I almost fired the first bolt from my cross-bow not at the screaming horde at the door but at him as he barely missed firing into the back of Celine. But I held back and watched.

I felt a deep stirring within me as I watched her fight, she was not a natural fighter perhaps, but she had the fire and skill to hold her own…and more. Since my choice of weapon was running low on ammunition I prolonged the moment I joined into the fray further. I was watching the woman who had captured me fight for her life so perfectly. She kept glancing at her arm, as if something was there and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize what she was concerned with. Infection…I smiled without humor. Something we all faced and yet I had never suffered a day’s illness for as long as I could recall. She moved with such self-assuredness and boldness of stroke that I felt a heat growing within me despite the carnage.

Trey was in the middle of changing his ammunition clip just as another two of the monsters burst through the open doorway. I dispatched one with my first bolt and inwardly cursed as I lost sight of the other. Quickly I reloaded and swung towards my left. As Celine lifted from her latest kill, knife still red and her face twisted in a way that both frightened and stirred me I saw the second beast. I lifted my bow and aimed. I was aware of Celine staring at me. She made no move towards me or motion to alert Trey and I let loose the bolt. She did not flinch as it flashed through her hair and into the man behind who went crashing to the floor. My gaze remained locked with hers I had saved her life…would she do the same for me? Why did she want me alive…why was she and Trey so white, yet…otherwise so healthy? I wanted to reach into her mind and grab the answers I desired…but her depths were locked shut once more with Trey’s shout.

She broke away and we both moved towards Trey’s position by the door.
“Which way,” Celine asked quietly.
I pointed to the floor plan across the hall…and twisted my head in frustration when they didn’t move. I pushed through the pile of still twitching bodies that Trey had shot down and pointed to the emergency staircase on the outside of the building. The fire exit door was about fifty feet further down the corridor. Without further consultation I began to move towards. It was padlocked and Trey pulled me back and pulled a gun out to shoot away the lock. He kicked the door open and then bowed slightly indicating I should go out first. This time I made sure Celine saw the shy grin I gave him before stepping out onto the steel landing of the stairwell. I looked out over flooded London and the air was torn away from my mouth by the storm.

Together we began a slow descent of the stairs…