The young woman tied up in the chair wore the same dress that Zain had seen her the last time. She looked like an office lady who was wearing a tight skirt, stockings and a light blue shirt. Zain could never understand why one would choose to wear such things in the situation they were in.
But it was because of these clothes that Zain went to take a second look at the person. Her face was quite badly beaten, and one of her eyes was black, while her lip was busted and swollen.
That's when he glanced carefully at her face, and without a doubt, this was Kelly. The person Zain had met in the supermarket and the one who had let him inside that store.
'So they decided to come to the city of all places, and what's happened that's made her get herself into this situation?' He couldn't help but wonder.
Closing the door behind him, Zain quickly went to inspect her body. She smelt like a human, so it was unlikely that she had been bitten, but he just wanted to make sure, and it was as he thought. He couldn't find any bite marks.
At least not where her skin was visible. Anyway, if he wanted to do a thorough check, he would have to take all her clothes off, but Zain assumed that if she was hiding the bite, it would mean she was bitten a while ago, and by now, he would have detected the scent, so there was no need to go through any more trouble.
As Zain was observing her, Kelly was screaming. While making muffled noises, her eyes widened, and her heart jumped consistently. It was as if she had been left in a room with a tiger.
However, this fear wasn't towards Zain, it was toward the person behind him. With his mouth left slightly open, his arms dragging by his side, and his pale skin, Kelly was afraid that the zombie was about to eat her.
"Will you calm down, Kelly?" Zain finally couldn't hold back, "You remember him, don't you? He's my friend Skittle."
Hearing these words, images flashed through her head. She hadn't noticed the person who had entered. She was just thankful that someone had found her, and she would be saved until she saw the zombie.
With her struggle coming to a halt, she noticed that the zombie just stood by the door and was doing nothing. It wasn't attempting to attack her or anything like that. Although she was no longer screaming, her heart was still racing for what she was seeing in front of her.
With her having calmed down, her thoughts finally straightened after a while, and she soon realised who exactly had come into the room.
"It's Zain…he survived that...he survived the attack from the supermarket that day, but his friend…what happened to him, why is he like this?" Kelly had a hundred questions, but she could only blankly stare at the situation.
Pulling out one of the knives from his belt, Zain went behind her and was ready to cut her free, but his blade stopped for a second.
'Wait, if I set her free, then what?' Zain thought. 'I can't bring her with me, not while I'm with the Reborn group, and if the others find her…I don't know what they will do.
'From what I have noticed about Shark, if he believes the group really needs a brain, then he will kill her for the group's survival. And it's not even strange because I know that's what I would have done as well. The only thing was, she did me a favour back then, and I need to do the same for her.'
Instead of cutting the ropes that were tied around her arms, Zain went toward the tape that was on her mouth instead. He pulled it off and also could see something similar to a sock had been stuffed in there, making it almost impossible for her to speak anything and was another reason behind her muffled voice.
"Don't make any noise. We can't let anyone know you're here or attract anyone's attention, okay? If you do, I'm going to shove this sock right back into your mouth," Zain warned her.
Kelly nodded, and Zain pulled out the sock. Immediately she took in a few deep breaths and spitted a few times on the floor.
"Thank you…thank you so much, and I'm glad it's you who came here…I was so scared."
"I'm sure there are a lot of questions you want to ask me," Zain said. "And there are a lot of questions I want to ask you as well."
When thinking about this, Zain wanted to ask about Buke and what made him turn around that day.
"However, we need to get out of this situation first. It's dangerous outside, so let's stick to the essential questions that will help us understand our current situation." He added after the thought. He was afraid of the others barging into the room and finding Kelly. It wouldn't do him any good, especially when he had not gotten any answers.
Kelly understood, there were a lot of questions on her mind, like why Skittle was with him, how they got out of the supermarket and ended up in the situation they were in now, but she also understood that they weren't out of the danger zone yet.
"Who tied you up here? How many people were there, and where are they now?" Zain asked.
"It was a group of five men," Kelly answered. "I don't really know them, me and Cody came across them, and we joined their group since they seemed pretty strong and nice as well. They shared food and water with us and brought us back here.
"When we returned though, they started to act strange, one of them…one of them grabbed me… me from behind. Then, he started to pull at my shirt…it was obvious what they were planning to do. They wanted to **** me!
"Cody had caught on pretty quickly, and the others were trying to convince him to get involved, but Cody…he…he…." Kelly started to sniffle.
"I know he's a good kid," Zain replied, remembering it was because of the latter that he was able to get his weapons to defeat the Stage 2 Spitter. He was quite talented for his age and resourceful as well.
"He tried saving me, he fought back against them, but their leader was faster. Still, Cody didn't give up, and I tried to help him as well. I don't know what happened and where they have gone, but they locked me in here while they took Cody somewhere else…Zain, I know it's not fair of me to ask you this...but you're strong, I have seen it first hand. Please help him, please save Cody." Kelly pleaded.
When she lifted up her head, she saw a deep frown on his face, and his eyes had turned a little bloodshot as he clenched his fists hard.
Zain was not a hero, and neither was he trying to be. But if someone does him a favour, he would surely return it.
"I'll kill them." He muttered.
****
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