After the conversation was over, Nora handed the phone back to her sister, and the group hit the road again.Shane looked at her, pensive.
He was not surprised that she said nothing about him.
She wasn"t stupid.
Only, the discussion between her and her father revealed a slight detail.
His knowledge of the Rainfrews may have been limited, but people working in architecture and the like shouldn"t have such ... calculated reflections?
Who in this family had enough composure and experience for that?
After delving into this question for a few minutes, he shrugged.
He will find out sooner or later, after all.
They continued their advance, and faster than they thought, they were a few corridors from the car.
Then appeared a first body that the four men had left behind.
Compared to what Nora had seen before, there weren"t a lot here.
And to her relief, the body wasn"t in pieces.
Strangely, the pieces of corpses horrified her much more.
Faced with this first corpse, Jamie took care to hide this vision as much as possible from Daisy, but that did not prevent the latter to pale.
Millie wasn"t in a better shape.
Her movements had become a little stiff, but she managed to maintain a fairly calm expression on her face.
Knowing that the car was close, that the carnage would soon be far behind helped them greatly.
Soon they pa.s.sed this body and continued their advance.
Several meters away awaited a second body.
Then a third.
And one more.
What the group didn"t notice at first was Nora"s change.
After the first corpse, everything was going pretty well, given the circ.u.mstances.
But the more she met those dead bodies, the more she became aware of something.
She was hungry.
Nora hadn"t felt this call for some time, and her stomach seemed to wake up at the touch of the dead.
It was not the painful need she had felt upon waking from her coma, but more like a reflex.
There was food so she was getting hungry.
She who avoided looking at these inanimate zombies felt her gaze sliding more and more in their direction.
At the memory of the meat so delicious that she had already tasted, the water rose to her mouth.
She almost didn"t care where that meat came from.
Arrived in front of the fourth deceased, she nearly even stopped.
To enjoy a good meal.
Fortunately, she was still in control of herself and immediately pulled herself together.
Her determination grew.
She wouldn"t eat this stuff!
Slap!
Surprising the other members of the group, she slapped her cheeks before resuming her walk with a confident step.
Shane watched her go,a bit stunned and amused.
This rabbit has really funny reactions.
They continued on their way and at a turn in the corridor, saw their objective.
The car was only a few meters away.
Seeing it, Millie forgot everything else and wanted to rush towards this gift from heaven.
Almost a week locked up in this hospital, dreading the zombies behind the door.
To ration candies in hope not to die from hunger.
Finally freedom was at hand!
Unfortunately, her momentum was nipped in the bud.
"We don"t run in the corridors, young girl. "
Jake made her step back before resuming his place in the group.
"Especially when you don"t know where the zombies are. "
Kyle added, which made the teenage girl feel like cold water splashed her face.
Back in the situation, Millie was much more obedient and continued cautiously the rest of the way.
The car was in a half-finished garage, created to accommodate ambulances.
Fortunately, the garage door had been finished long before the zombies arrived, so the four police officers were able to close it.
And thus prevented the zombies from the outside from chasing them.
Shane unlocked the car and everyone entered the cabin.
Shane sat in the driver"s seat, Kyle next to him, while everyone else was in the back.
The car was quite large, with seats for eight people.
In front of the middle seats stood proudly a cooler and several other bags, all closed.
The three young women did not take their eyes off the cooler.
All those days without a proper meal was a painful memory for Millie and Daisy, and Nora felt that her stomach awakened by the presence of the zombies still asked for food.
While Jamie held his sleeping son in his arms, Jake opened the cooler, and quickly handed everyone something to eat: sandwiches, bottles of water, etc.
While they were eating, everyone felt a load falling off their shoulders.
They were finally in the car.
All that remained was to wait for the "surprise" from the father of the two sisters.
Nora grabbed her sister"s cell phone and called their father back. The discussion was very simple.
"h.e.l.lo again."
"En."
"We"re in the car."
" Alright. "
"Waiting for your good news."
The young woman hung up under the surprised eyes of her neighbors.
That"s all ?
"Say, little monster ..."
Nora didn"t answer to Shane"s call.
"Mutant rabbit ..."
Still not seeing any reaction, Shane crumpled up a paper towel and tossed it towards her.
The dumpling landed directly on the knees of the young woman who immediately straightened her head.
By meeting the glare she threw him, the young man felt his smile widen.
"Disgusting psycho."muttered Nora.
"It was a clean towel, so just psycho. Before hanging up, did your father give you any clue about his surprise ?"
Nora shrugged.
"No. We will know sooner or later anyway. It"ll give you time to revise your manners."
"Oh, the little missy would like to personally teach me good manners? I am flattered."
"With phrases like that, I bet you"re still single."
Jake"s stifled laughter echoed through the cabin as Kyle whispered a "Touché." that everyone heard.
Shane raised an eyebrow.
"We"re not afraid of anything, as I see."
Although he was watching Nora carefully while speaking, this sentence was just as good for the others, and Jake"s laughter resounded.
Obviously, his unconvincing threat did not have much effect.
Nora continued to chew her sandwich.
The food, or rather the meat that she tasted, had minimized the fear that Shane caused.
In fact, the more time pa.s.sed, the closer she got to the exit.
There was considerably less chances for him to kill her.
Now the threat he posed had once again subsided after her father"s phone call.
Her father was aware that she and her sister had both been rescued.
Doing anything would be suicidal.
Plus, profits were at hand, why refuse to save the two Rainfrews and get a nice reward?
And if Nora could think of that, Shane certainly could too.
This was why Nora"s impression of Shane went from "potential threat" to "impolite pervert".
After all, she remembered that he dared to stare at her behind in the air duct.
Shane continued to watch her, entertained by her slightly "I don"t care" face.
He didn"t know when her father"s "intervention" would take place, and continuing their little discussion was a pleasant distraction.
Just as he was about to provoke her once more, the sound of a stampede and roars suddenly reached their ears.
His gaze immediately fell on the garage door, which could be seen through.
So he had an excellent view of hundreds of zombies running across the street.
All of them ran with grunt and howling force, ignoring the others and stomping tirelessly.
Shane"s face darkened.
If the zombies had no prey in front of them, they wouldn"t be running.
The four men had experienced it, and Millie and Daisy had also witnessed it.
Although the zombies were not moving towards them, this situation was too abnormal to not consider it dangerous.
All the eyes of the members of the group were focused on this zombie race.
But what were they chasing?