Aleigha stood at the door of her quarantine room, watching guards escort all the humans that were once zombies into a dorm with an isolation shield encompassing the entire dorm so that no one could leave it.

She overheard that it was a precaution to keep those infected with the virus or who had been infected with the virus quarantined. The dorm was a precaution to keep those affected by the virus separate so they didn't come in contact with others and infect them, too.

As she watched, a medic passed by with her own infant in his arms. The medic was heading toward the med clinic.

"Hey! What are you doing with my son?" she yelled. A sudden surge of panic entered her as she watched her infant son Finn pass by, heading for the clinic.

The medic ignored her like he didn't even hear her. She knew he could. There was no way he couldn't hear her.

"If you hurt my son, I will kill you!" she screamed. Worry for her son seeped through each word as she yelled. There was no question she wouldn't do as she threatened if he or anyone else harmed her infant. Stuck in the quarantine room, she could do nothing.

The medic disappeared with her son through a door, the door sliding smoothly closed behind him. She could no longer see her son.

Two guards arrived at her door. One held bindings. The barrier fell, and the guards rushed into the room and pressed her against a wall, using the bindings to bind her wrists, then pushed her out of the room and toward the isolation dorm. She didn't recognize the two guards. Looking around her, she realized that all the others going into the dorm were not bound. She was the only one.

"Why are you treating me like a criminal?" she hissed. Her own words washed through her. She remembered her dream the night she slept at the camp, making her worry grow. Fear added to her worry. Thinking the worst, that the dream was a warning, a premonition.

The guards stayed quiet, not speaking, as they roughly pushed her into the isolation dorm. With one quick movement, the guard removed her bindings, pushed her into the dorm, and the isolation shield closed, sealing her inside with all the others. She was given no time to react.

Aleigha scanned the room. There were lines of beds with small partitions for privacy. A washroom was in the back of the dorm. She didn't see any replicators. She frowned. They thought ahead. She could escape if there were a replicator.

All the others in the room looked around at the other occupants. Fear in their eyes as they looked around them. Aleigha knew something was wrong. She could feel it in the air. She didn't know what was happening. She needed to find a way to find out what was really going on.

Looking near the entrance, two guards stood guarding the doorway. She walked up to the barrier that separated them. "Why are we isolated?" she asked them as calmly as she could. "What are they going to do with us?"

One of the guards turned to her. "The medic is going to scan and treat all of you," he stated evenly. His voice not matching the information he was given.

Scanning and treating everyone was needed. If they become ill, they will die. Thinking about it. She was already scanned and treated. She was no longer infected by the virus, making her wonder why she was still here and not allowed to leave and return to her mate and son.

Aleigha studied him. It kept playing over and over in her head that his tone didn't match his words.

"Why are we treated like criminals then?" she asked him, changing her tactics. "I was already treated. I was brought here in bindings. Why?"

"You are here to be quarantined by Council Leader Vorik's orders," he stated, then turned away, standing rigid at his post.

"And being brought here in bindings is part of that?" she asked, a hint of irritation in her tone.

The guard ignored her, not saying anything. He continued to stand at the doorway; his eyes fixed forward in silence.

Aleigha paced in front of the doorway for what felt like hours before a medic showed up. It was Medic Kaul.

He had a display pad in his hand. He called the name of someone in the room. The man looked up and slowly moved forward toward Medic Kaul.

"Kaul? I saw a medic with my son. Is he all right?" she asked him. She couldn't keep the worry out of her tone.

Medic Kaul looked at her briefly, then moved his gaze to the man he had called, watching him approach.

"Kaul? Please, is my son all right?" she begged him. "I need to know if my son is all right."

Medic Kaul looked over at her. "Please step back," he told her, his voice hard.

Something in Kaul's voice she didn't like. He was talking to her like they weren't friends. He was speaking to her more like the way he spoke to the prisoners that he treated in the clinic than to a friend. She knew right away that something had changed, but she couldn't think of what it could be or why.

Aleigha stepped back slowly, letting them open the barrier for the man he had called. They disappeared down a corridor. Within seconds the barrier was already replaced.

She resumed her pacing. Her worry and confusion consumed her. The entire day, one after the other, someone was called and then taken. They returned later; then, another was taken. Through the window, she could see the sun had gone down, and the mood had risen. They still had not fed them. She wondered if they were going to.

Another hour had passed, and two guards arrived with Jada, bound like she had been when she was brought in. The barrier opened, and like with her, with one quick movement, she was unbound and pushed inside the isolation dorm. She stumbled forward, falling onto the concrete floor.

"Hey! Be careful! She's pregnant!" Aleigha hissed, helping Jada up.

Jada's two guards ignored her, turning and walking away.

When she helped Jada up, she could see tears in her eyes. "What happened?" she asked her friend.

"They scanned me. Then they did the procedure to take out the residue that was making us sick.

Then I was scanned again. They told me my baby was infected, and then they did the procedure on my baby. I am no longer pregnant. It terminated the pregnancy." She cried. Renewed tears began to flow. It was a steady stream down her cheeks.

Aleigha wrapped her arms around her friend, holding her for a moment to comfort her. "Why did they bind you?" she asked Jada in a whisper.

Jada looked up at Aleigha. "They didn't say. They told me my baby was gone at the same time they bound me," she sobbed.

Aleigha hugged her again. "I think my son is gone, too. Kaul wouldn't tell me anything when I asked him if my son was okay. He ignored me and told me to step back. He wouldn't tell me anything. He was talking to me the same way he talks to the prisoners that come into the clinic to be treated."

Jada looked up at her friend. "We need to get out of here. Something is happening. There has to be. Why would they bind us like we're criminals? We've never done anything to deserve it."

"I've been in here all day. They haven't even fed us. There are no replicators either, so we can't get any food on our own," Aleigha complained. "I was the only one who came into the dorm bound until you were brought. No one else was bound when they brought them here."

A shadow fell over them. Aleigha and Jada looked toward the doorway. The barrier was still intact. Medic Kaul held his pad up, calling out another name. "Is he the one who murdered your baby and mine?" Aleigha asked, her voice in a whisper. She didn't want anyone to hear, but it was most likely loud enough for Kaul to hear.

Jada nodded, not saying anything. Medic Kaul ignored them. It was unclear if he even heard her.

They watched as another stood up and headed for the doorway. The barrier opened, and the woman walked out, following Medic Kaul. The woman was unbound like all the others. It was still only Jada and herself that had been bound.

Once they disappeared into the clinic, Aleigha turned to Jada. "Kaul will be the first to die," she hissed quietly.

Jada nodded. "I want his head separated from his body," she said evenly, wiping the tears from her eyes. "When it was discovered that my baby was dead, he didn't even care. He acted like it didn't matter."

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