The Dead Parade

by walkingdeadgram

September 2017. A Pandemic sweeps across NYC creating monsters out of good people. I saw the line between nightmare and sanity become lost. This is the story of how I've made it to this point. How WE have survived this long. We lost so many good people, so many have fallen to the curse of this world. I promised I'd tell their story. Welcome to the Dead Parade.

Prologue:

The Dead Parade.

September 2017.

It's funny how life used to work. Everyone used to live in a fixed routine, an endless cycle of achievements and failures. From birth to death, people were constantly striving for the upper hand. To be on top of the world, having it all and "living the life" as it were. That all changed when there was no longer a future to look forward to. No big paycheck, no benefits, no fast cars or big houses, the only thing left was trying to survive. No one was prepared for this. Life never taught us what to do when the system fails. There is no escape, no evacuation plan, and no one is coming to help. We learned a long time ago when the routines stopped and time wasn't important that chaos is upon us. I remember it all like yesterday. The way this great city collapsed in itself and how the millions of people who lived in it became monsters. I was there. I saw the line between nightmare and sanity become lost. This is the story of how I've made it to this point. How WE have survived this long. We lost so many good people, so many have fallen to the curse of this world. I promised I'd tell their story. No one deserved this. If this new world taught me anything its that you always keep fighting. This fight is our new routine. The motivation to wake up the next morning, to see the ones next to us safe, and to rebuild what was taken from us. We will never stop fighting. Welcome to the Dead Parade.

Chapter 1: One Year Ago.

My name is JC and if there is anything you need to know about me its that I hate Mondays. I get up from bed grouchy with one eye open. I turn on my radio to start my "lets get this day over with" routine. I hear Paramore from the bathroom and it puts a small smile on my face. It takes me 30 minutes every day to get ready. Not bad considering 20 of those minutes is figuring out where the other pair of my matching sock is in case I ever have to take my shoes off. When I'm finished I head downstairs where I'm greeted by my brother. "Sup little bro, you workin' today?" he says. "Yeah, I'm already late. Can you do me a favor and tell mom I'll be home a little late I'm going to go see Hayley after class. "Sure, don't be too late though I'm making my famous burgers today" he responds with a proud smile on his face. I leave my house and get on the train. One of my favorite things about New York is that everything is accessible by public transportation. I only have to take one train, the 7 line which goes from Flushing Queens all the way to Times Square in Manhattan. I basically grew up on trains so the only thing I like to do on one is sleep. I sit down in my favorite seat by the conductors box and pass out, dreading the sound of my stop being announced on the PA system. It felt like a short nap but I finally wake up to the sound of "Grand Central- 42nd street, transfer here for the 4-5 and 6 trains." I get off on the next stop. I stand up and face the door, staring at the lights and they pass by the fast train. I stare at a little girl as she plays with her doll, when suddenly, like a scene from a movie a woman screams from the front of the train. Everyone stopped to look at her and than BOOOOOM! the train comes to a screeching stop which sends me flying halfway across the train car, hitting a pole on the way and knocking me out. I remember hearing the screams around me as people panicked. The lights powered down and the last thing I remember was not being able to hear the sound of the woman screaming. I force myself to get up but my body isn't responding. My eyes shut and I slip into an abyss of screams and chaos.

(Some time later) I'm hearing voices again. This time they sound more worried than scared. "Dude just leave him! We have to go," someone says. "No, he's still breathing we can't just leave him here. What if you were the one lying down here?" the other one responds. "You know what fine, you deal with it than," the first voice says as I hear him run away. I feel the head of the voice who stayed behind on my chest trying to find a heartbeat, a sign of life. I try to open my eyes but nothing is responding.

"C'mon man GET UP!," he says. He shakes my shoulders violently. "C'mon, c'mon!" Finally my eyes open and I start coughing as if I'm taking my very first breath of air. "That's it, welcome back man," the kid says. "Shit, what happened?" I ask. "From the looks of that bump on your head you probably knocked yourself out." I touch the top of my head and feel the pain of the lump. "What the hell happened?" I asked. "No idea man, the train just stopped, the power went off and everyone jumped out the train and walked to the next platform. Me and this other guy carried you over here but he just left," he responds. "Damn. Thanks for getting me out of there. Name's JC," I say, reaching my hand out to shake his. "I know who you are JC. You're Allan's brother right?" he asks. "Yeah, how do you Allan?" "He was in my fireteam in Afghanistan. Hell of a soldier. My names Mayte Vasquez," he replies. "Nice to meet you Mayte. We should go above ground, see what's going on," I say already walking toward the stairs. The sign above me says "5th Ave - Bryant Park." I look up the stairs and can hear sirens in the distance, growing louder and louder each step I take towards the surface. When we get to the surface we see flashes of red and blue reflecting off every window in the city. The sirens are blasting through the air. People are running in every direction. The screaming continues and the feeling of change is suffocating me. I look at Mayte, "we have got to find some answers," I say. Mayte looks nods and we start heading towards one of the cop cars blocking off an intersection on 5th Avenue. When we get to the car we find the doors swung open and a pool of blood next to the drivers entrance. "What the hell?" I look at Mayte as he looks around for signs of the cops. He points up the block at yells at me, "LOOK!"

Chapter 2: A New World

I follow Mayte's finger and my face solemnly drops. The two cops are eating a man in the middle of the street. Everyone is watching, horrified at the sight. "What the hell is everyone just standing around for?!" I yell, trying to understand why no one is putting a stop to this. I wave Mayte to follow me to the scene and run at the cops. "Stop!" I yell, shoving one of the cops off the man. The cop rolls over, blood dripping from his mouth. Something is very wrong with this man. I look at him closer and notice he chewed his own lips off and his eyes are solid white. "Mayte check this guy out." Mayte starts to head my way when suddenly the cop drags me to ground and tries to bite my face. I feel my adrenaline rushing. His teeth white with stains of blood. I have my forearm stuck right underneath his chin, preventing the bastard from biting me. "MAYTE, GET THIS GUY OFF ME!" I yell, as I feel my arms getting tired. Mayte kicks the cop in the stomach but it doesn't budge. I can feel my arm losing weight. I push as hard as I can and the cop sits upright on top of me. Right then a gunshot blasts and knocks the cop right off me, splattering blood all over me. "What the fuck!" I look at Mayte but he's already looking behind me. I look upside at my savior, who has now put a bullet in the other cop who was too busy eating to bother us. She walks up to me now, putting her pistol in her belt. "My name is Faye, and that son of bitch who tried to kill you was my step father," she says. I look at the dead cop, blood pouring from the open hole in his head. What the hell is going on?

Faye looks at me stern. "Whatever it is, we should be prepared. There's a gun shop not too far from here. My friend Elizabeth and her dad run it. It's a little hidden but well stocked. Let's go." she says. I look around once more. The streets have become littered with debris. Cars piled up everywhere. It looks like people just tried to get out as fast as possible. I reach into my pocket and grab my phone. Shit. Service is down. "YO JC!" Mayte yells out across the street. "You coming man?" he says. I start to jog after them. Faye is right, of there are more of those flesh eaters, I want to be ready. Faye turns into an alley and walks about two blocks. We finally get to a small staircase with a sign that says "Lizzie's Arsenal" with a smiley face. Doesn't look too promising since the power is out. "You think your friend is still in there?" I ask Faye. "She should be, she basically lives here," Faye replies. I walk down the steps and open the door, a loud creaking noise followed by the chime of the bell. It's too dark to make out anything. I take a step forward. The silence of the shop is unsettling. I take my next step and freeze, my breath gasping and my heart jumping. "Take another step and I'll chop your fucking head off." I feel the cold steel of a katana on my throat. "Take it easy," I reply to the unknown stranger. Faye walks in behind me, "Elizabeth is that you?" she says. The power turns on and the a girl stands before us. Bodies of headless people scattered throughout the store. The red overpowering my sight as I stare at the girl who almost made me another prize. "Hey girl," Elizabeth says with a southern country accent. I feel relieved and look around at weapons displayed for the taking.

Chapter 3: Sibling Love

"These guys are with me," Faye says, with a sign of a reassurance on her face. "That's cool. You guys should load up, it's hell out there," Elizabeth replies. I look around the shop and finally with Maye as Elizabeth and Faye catch up. I finally decide to grab the Sig .556. I have a little experience with it ever since my brother showed me how to shoot. Damn, I wonder if this is happening at home too. I look over at Mayte as he's shining up his new Colt .45. "Haven't seen one of these in a while," he says. I pack up four extra magazines and put them in my pocket. "So you have any idea what's going on Elizabeth?" I say. "No. I was sleeping upstairs when I heard noises coming from the shop. I came down here and found all these things down here," she replies. I look down at all the heads. "You did all this by yourself?" I ask. "You bet I did. Piece of cake too," she replies. Just as I was about to compliment her we heard something coming from outside. Elizabeth runs to the door, putting her ear on the glass. "Damn, they're coming," she says. "How do you?" I ask. "These things make a lot of noise. They groin all the time. We better get out of here," she replies, grabbing her sword and heading to the back. We go down a hallway and exit the back door. They are everywhere. "THIS WAY," Elizabeth shouts. We run down the alley and are met with at least a dozen more of those flesh eaters walking right to us. They got is bottled in. We look around frantically. "THERE!" Mayte says, pointing at an open red door. We run through it and shut it behind us. I lock it shut while Mayte and Faye push a dresser to block it off. "That was close," Elizabeth says. "We should split up and see if there's anything we can use. Food, water, and bandages," Mayte says. I head for the basement, Mayte takes the bedrooms, Faye goes into the kitchen and Elizabeth checks the living room. I don't find much down there except for some old comics and a broken TV. I walk towards the back when...BLAM! BLAM! Two gun shots fire off from upstairs. I race to the stairs and run up with my gun pulled out, safety off.

I reach the first floor and look around. Gun raised and finger near the trigger. Faye and Elizabeth are near the door, cautiously looking around. I motion for them to move towards the bedroom. We hear yelling from inside the room. "PLEASE DON'T!" Says one voice. "What are you doing here?!" Says another. I walk up to the door. Gun still raised with one hand reaching for the doorknob. Elizabeth on my right, and Faye over my left shoulder with her gun raised. I swing open the door. "DROP IT!" I yell, pointing my gun at two guys who have theirs pointed at Mayte. I see blood sliding the wall where Mayte's body is propped. "Mayte you alright?" I ask. "Yeah, this asshole shot me," he responds. "Hey! You broke into OUR house! You're lucky I didn't shoot you in the head," the guys says. "Lower your weapon, I'm not gonna ask you again," I say, with a little more force. The guy looks at me nervously. He lowers his weapon. "Shit man I didn't mean to shoot the guy. I thought he was one of those damn things," he says out loud. I walk over to Mayte. "How's it look?," asks Mayte. "It's a clean shot, went right through" I respond. "Hey man, my brother Jonathan knows a thing or two about first aid maybe he can help him out" says one of the guys. Jonathan steps forward, "yeah I can take a look" he says. He looks at his brother, "Nick fetch me the kit," he says. Nick goes into the closet and pulls out a red box and hands it to Jonathan. He starts to patch up Mayte while Nick walks over to me. "How the hell did you guys get in here anyway?" He asks. Elizabeth overhears and answers abruptly, "you guys had your door wide open." The brothers look at each other nervously. Nick looks at me and pulls out his gun, "that door has been closed for days." Just than we heard something break from the kitchen.

Chapter 4: Saints

I turn around and take out my gun. I look over to Jonathan. "Keep him safe," I say. I look over to Nick. His eyes are wide and filled with adrenaline. He tosses Jonathan the .357 he was holding and tells me to hold on. He goes into his closet and pulls out a bat wrapped in barbed wire. "This is for times like this," he says as he kisses the bat. I motion for him to take the lead and he walks out the door. We hear more shuffling of feet coming from the kitchen. Nick creeps up next to the door leading into the kitchen. He turns his head to look in and puts his hand up in the air to tell me to wait. He turns at me and puts 2 fingers in the air. He makes more hand signs for me to kill the intruder on the left and he'll kill the one of the right. I nod my head and holster my gun. He looks at me and signals..1..2...3! We rush inside, Nick slams his bat into the guy on the right and he immediately drops to the floor with a loud thud. I grab the guy on the left and put him in a chokehold. "READY?" I yell at Nick. "DO IT, NOW!" He replies. I force the guy on his knees and slide back while Nick pulls his arm back and swings a massive homerun across the guys left temple. It falls back on the floor, motionless. "Nice shot" I say. We hear a crash from the front door now, looks like we weren't quiet enough. We run towards the front and see arms and heads making their way through the broken glass from the windows. "Oh no." I say. I tell Nick there's too many of them and we run back to the room to get the others. "LETS GO! We need to move now!" I yell. Everyone gets up and starts following Nick. I wait for Mayte. "You sure you're alright?" I ask. "Don't worry bro, it's not my first bullet wound" he replies as he playfully punches me in the arm. I look one last time in the room and follow everyone out. Nick is leading us up to the roof, he says we can get to the next building from there. We reach the roof and shut the door behind us.

The sun is setting. I look down at the ground and see hundreds of those damn things. I can't count them all. Faye looks up at the sky, "LOOK!" She yells out, pointing up. We all look up and I regretted that moment for a long time. It was a messenger plane with a long advertisement on its tail. The old ad was spray painted over and it read "THE DEAD ARE ALIVE" with a black skull next to it. "The dead are alive?" Elizabeth says. "What the hell does that mean?" Jonathan asks. I look at Mayte. "Think it's a joke?" I ask him. "I dunno. Seems like a sick joke at a time like this," he replies. I watch as the plan continued flying. "Something isn't right," I say. The plane continues flying, it gets lower and lower until finally it crashes into the side of a building. "Well at least we know it wasn't a joke," Elizabeth jokes. We watch as the plane catches on fire, burning the advertisement. I stared at the skull until it became ash. "What do we do now?" Nick asks. I look around for any signs of life. "There," I pointed towards the skywalk where my school is. "My friend Hayley is there. I don't expect you all to come with me but that's where I'm heading," I say. Faye and Elizabeth look at each other. The brothers give each other a glance. I just look out towards the school, hoping Hayley is still alive. Mayte puts his hand on my shoulder. "I'll go," he says. "Me too," says Faye, followed by Elizabeth. I look at the brothers. "How about you guys?" Nick answers first, "I'll help you get your friend. Our chances are better together." "Yeah, Nick is right. We should stick together. Let's round up everyone we know in this area. They may still be alive," Jonathan says. "So let's do it," I say. I take a deep breath and try to clear my head. I hope it gets easier.

Chapter 5: The Mission

We set foot for the school. Luckily the buildings are so close together that we can jump across them. I watch as we get closer and closer to the school. Finally, we reach the last building. "This as far was can go, we gotta go down," Mayte says. "Over here!" Elizabeth yells out, waving us over to her. She's going down the fire escape. We all start heading down, the fire escape shakes as we reach the next flight. Suddenly we hear a loud bang. "You heard that?" Faye asks. I look up and see that one of

the hinges of the fire escape has blown off. "Everybody STAY STILL!" I scream. Everyone stops moving. The fire escape creaks from the weight of us all. I yell down at Elizabeth, "Move VERY slow-" *BAMMMMM! The fire escape breaks off, and we are sent flying down two stories. We all scream. I stare of the ground as it gains speed, until finally I hit it. The loud crash of metal surrounds us, throwing up dust and trash. I hear coughing and painful woes. "Ahhhhh help me!" I hear Faye screaming. I try to untangle the bar under my foot. Damn I'm stuck. I look to my left, Elizabeth's body motionless under some stairs. "Mayte! Nick!" I yell. "I'm here, I'm here," Mayte replies, appearing before me. He lifts the bar from my leg and I wiggle free. I look behind me and find Jonathan helping out Faye who looks like she sliced open her wrist from the fall. "Guys help me get Elizabeth," I say. We start digging out the metal pieces. *UNNGHHHHHHH. Groaning in the distance. "We gotta hurry this up," Nick says.

We start to move faster. Frantically tossing the pieces aside. Finally, we get to her and pull her out. She's unconscious, but breathing. Mayte puts her in his arms. "Let's GO!" I yell. We run down the straight and head straight for the school entrance. The doors have large paper written on it with giant words that say, "STAY AWAY, DEAD TOOK OVER." I swing open the doors and we all run in. "Holy shit," Nick says. The entire lobby of the school is flooded with dead bodies. Bullet holes plaster the wall as if it were art. Blood runs endlessly from corner to corner. "Jesus, this looks like warzone," Jonathan says. Mayte places Elizabeth down. "Alright I think we should split up," I say. "Faye you stay with Elizabeth and make sure no one walks in or out of that entrance. Nick, you and your brother go check out the first floor. Mayte and I will take the second. We are looking for a girl named Hayley, she has red hair, about 5'1. Be careful she doesn't trust anybody so when you see her call her "Flames," she'll know you're with me. "Flames? Why do you call her that?" Nick asks. "She set accidentally set our tree house on fire" I say, smiling at the memory. We load up and head out. I watch as Nick and Jonathan strategically walk into their first room. Meanwhile, Faye has dragged Elizabeth behind a counter and has barricaded herself for shelter, smart girl I think. Mayte and I reach the second floor and already met by one of the dead feasting on a girl. I signal to Mayte that we have to be quiet. We improvise. I lock my arms around its neck and Mayte runs to it's legs, it starts squirming, it's mouth open biting the open air. We lift it up and throw the damn thing over the railing and watch it as it falls to the ground and smashes its skull on the floor, sending out a blackish liquid in all directions. I see Faye look up at me and she throws up a middle finger with a smile. "I think she's jealous," Mayte says with a chuckle. We turn around and walk into the first room.

(POV: Nick) Meanwhile, Nick and Jonathan have made their way into a large lecture hall. "How the hell are we supposed to find one girl?" Jonathan asks. "If she's alive, she'll find us. Just keep looking," Nick replies. Jonathan spots something in the corner of the room, "check it out, there's someone over there!" Jonathan says. They walk over and find a girl propped up in the corner, blood dripping down her neck. "Damn looks like one of those dead bit her," Nick says. Jonathan begins to examine her. He wipes away some blood and puts a bandage on her neck. When he touches the wound, the girls eyes open wide and she grabs Jonathan's arms. "KILL ME!" She screams. Jonathan shakes his arms free and takes a few steps back, startled. "W-we can help you. We have others with us," Nick replies. "Don't let me become one of them," the girl says. Nick and Jonathan look at each other. "We can protect you, it's okay," Jonathan says. "You don't understand.." the girl begins and than she reaches forward and swipes Jonathan's .357 from his hand and points it at them. "You get bit, you die," she says. "NO!" Jonathan and Nick scream, as she takes the gun and shoves it in her mouth, pulls the trigger and falls to the ground. The noise wakes up the dead in the lecture hall, who have begun to groan at the sight of fresh food. "We gotta go man, get your gun," Nick says. They jump on stage, hoping there's a back exit with at least thirty dead following their tracks.

(POV: Faye) Meanwhile, Faye continues watching the entrance, checking on Elizabeth for any signs that she will wake up. She starts breathing slower each minute. Faye see's a sign that says "Cafeteria" and decides she will check to see if there's any food or water. As she opens the double doors she sees three dead behind the counter, dressed all in white. She sneaks past them and heads for the vending machines. She hears the faint sound of a radio and walks towards it, it's set up on a small table near the back. It's repeating a message in a loop. "If you are still alive and can hear this, there's a cruise ship at the Hudson River. We have survivors here. Remember, shoot them in the head it's the only thing that will put them down. Good luck, we will wait as long as we can." Faye shuts it off. She wonders how long ago the message was sent. She hears the groans too late gets pulled down by one of the dead falling right on her. It starts screaming with hunger heads for her neck. Faye quickly reacts and grabs her gun from her waist. She shoots it in the head right as it was about to take a large bite and it collapses. "Shit," she says. She pushes it off her and hears more. Faye quickly breaks open the vending machines and takes a couple bottles of water and chips. She runs back the way she came, shooting three dead along the way with a single bullet each. She passes the double doors and shuts it closed. She turns to check on Elizabeth but she's gone, just her sword lies on the ground where she once was. Faye drops down to her knees, feeling guilty that she left her friend alone. But than she notices something more threatening, the entrance doors are opened.

Chapter 6 - The Search

(POV: JC) The first couple rooms were completely empty. Just books and laptops where students used to be. Shattered glass on the floor. "There," I say, pointing at a sign that says RM 224. "That's where Hayley had class." I walk up to the room and open the door. The smell of death choking my lungs. "Ugh what is that?" Mayte asks. I find the source. The professor is on the table, his body ripped in half. The skin on his face peeled off rotten. "Jesus. That's sick," Mayte says. I look around for traces of Hayley. A moment of relief comes when I spot her laptop, I run to it and open it. A note is inside, "JC, I hope you find this. The alarms went off and people just started eating each other. I hid out here until three of those things came in here, Professor Kape saved me and told me to run but when I came back he was dead. I'm heading to the gymnasium. There's an office down there with a locked gate, I think I can climb it. You better come get me JC." I fold it and put it in my pocket. "She's pretty demanding for someone who has no place to go," Mayte says with a smirk. I look at him with a smile, "I owe her a few life savers." "Lets head back downstairs, we know where to go now," I say, as I walk towards the door. I hear Nick screaming from the floor below, "GET US OUT OF HERE!" I look at Mayte and start running for the stairs. I hear banging followed by Jonathan's yell, "NICK HURRY! THEY CLIMBED UP!" "IT'S LOCKED! I CAN'T!," screams back Nick. I run down the stairs and find the locked door. It's closed shut with chains. "Shit." I look through the window, there's at least four dead 15 feet from them.

"STEP BACK!" I yell at Nick as I grab my gun and shot it off the lock. It untangles and drops on the floor. Nick comes flying through the door yelling at Jonathan, "lets go! Doors open !" We see Jonathan on the stage, he just took out three of the dead and starts retreating to us. "Hurry!" Jonathan runs passed the door and we shut it closed. Mayte finds a nearby fire house and we use it to close it shut. "Damn that was close," Nick says. "Thanks." "Don't mention it," I reply. I tell them about the note from Hayley and we start heading downstairs. The dead are the door banging. Groaning with hunger. As we reach the entrance, we see Faye shutting the doors and placing debris in front of it. "What happened?" I ask. Faye turns around, a somber look on her face. "I went in the cafeteria to find food. When I came back the doors were open and Elizabeth was gone," she says, looking down embarrassed. "Maybe she went to the bathroom," Mayte says, pointing at the ladies sign around the corner. "Wouldn't hurt to check," I say. Faye volunteers to go. As she opens the door she hears an unfamiliar noise. She steps inside and is surprised to see Elizabeth bent over a security guard, her long hair dirty with dust. Faye holds back a painful sigh and draws her pistol and takes a step forward. She pulls the gun, up and takes another step forward. "I'm so sorry Lizzie," she says, as tears fall down. She puts her finger on the trigger. Another step closer and Elizabeth turns around, standing up quickly with a pair of walkie talkies in her hands. "Hey, hey, hey..- BLAM! A gun shot goes off.

Chapter 7: Hero

We hear the gun shot from inside the bathroom and run inside. "Faye! You alright?" I ask running up next to her. Her hands are shaking as she looks up ahead. "YOU ALMOST SHOT ME!" Elizabeth screams, the bullet hole a few inches away from her head. "I'm sorry girl, I thought you turned into one of them," Faye says with a nervous voice. Elizabeth walks over to Faye and gives her a wink, "must be my lucky day," she says. We exit the bathroom and Elizabeth hands me a radio. I told her to keep the other. I tell them about the gymnasium and we head out. We follow the signs along the way until we come to a long hallway. There's blood smeared along the walls, bullet shells piled up on the floor. "Lets go," I say. I hear Paramore's "misery business" playing from a speaker. "Yeah, that's definitely her," I say. We. We walk until we get to the door, the music is louder. I look at everyone and nod, we take out our weapons and swing open the door. "It's about damn time dork," Hayley says, her eyes wide with both excitement and relief. There are three others inside the cage with her, along with food and a half empty jug of water. I walk up to the door. "Everybody meet Hayley," I say, giving off a sarcastic smile. Everyone exchanges there hello's, and we join Hayley and her friends inside. "This is Keegan, Justin and Madi. We all had class when shit went down, Hayley says. "It's nice to meet you guys," I reply. Elizabeth's radio suddenly blares, "you guys better get out of there, NOW!"

Mayte grabs the radio, "who is this?" he says. "That's not important right now. There's a window in the office next to you, jump out from there," the man says. "You heard him lets go!" Mayte shouts. Outside we start to hear a mass amount of gun fire. I find the window and smash it open. We start jump out onto a car not too far underneath us. Mayte splits us up into two teams, Hayle, myself, Mayte and Faye in one, Jonathan, Nick, And Elizabeth in another. We head towards the gun fire. We move along one side while Nick moves along the other. We peek over a fence and see a guy on a mounted machine gun on the back of a truck. "Holy shit look how many he's killing," Hayley says. We jump the fence and head over to him. "FORM A LINE," Mayte yells. We follow his command and form in a line next to the truck. "FIRE!" We all shoot at the crowd of dead are trying to reach us. At least fifty fall apart from the bullets ripping through their flesh. Some are even crawling, using bloody stumps as hands to pull themselves forward. Finally, the crowd becomes few. Justin and Keegan run up and finish off the rest. Taking turns with each kill. Madi turns to the gunner, "that was awesome! Where the hell did you get this truck?," she says. "I put it together when the world went to hell," the man says, jumping down from the back. He looks at us, "you kids shouldn't be out here. There's a safe house not too far from here with a giant red X on it, head there and camp out for the night," he says. "You're not coming?" I ask. "No. I gotta go," he says, jumping in the drivers door and hopping in. He starts to pull away. "Hey wait! Where are you going anyway?" I shout, loud enough for him to hear me. "He shouts from the window, TO FIND MY BROTHER." We all stare as the truck drives into the sunset, the license plate reflecting light. It reads "DIXON."

Chapter 8: Safehouse

"We should head to that Safehouse," I say. We start moving along the street, moving as quietly as possible. Hayley taps me on the shoulder. "Have you heard from your brother?" she asks. I look at her, the feeling of pain in my gut. I shake my head no. "I haven't heard from mine either," she says. I hear Justin from across the street, "Hey guys! You might wanna see this." We head across the street and can see what's wrong. Down the block are about five guys with guns pointed at a building. They have bandanas on their faces. "Shit can anything be easy?" Elizabeth says. "Look! The red X, that's the Safehouse!" Madi says, pointing at the building facing the five guys. "You think whoever was inside got overrun?" Keegan asks. "I don't think those are the good guys," Mayte replies. "GIVE US THE GIRL AND WE WON'T KILL YOU ALL," one of the masked man says. "GO TO HELL," another guy says from inside the building. "FINE, HAVE IT YOUR WAY," the masked man says. He signals to one of his buddies and grabs a bottle with a cloth hanging from it. "Shit, that's a Molotov cocktail," Elizabeth says. The man throws it in the window and a burst of flames exits rapidly. The bandits begin to laugh. "We have to help them!" Hayley says. I look at her and she has that look I remember so well. We devise a plan and start moving closer in. The building starts to catch on fire now, smoke billowing from three windows. Finally two people run out the front door with their hands up, coughing and blackened by the fire. "DON'TSHOOT!," one of them says. Hayley and I are behind a car right next to the bandits. I can see Mayte and Nick with their pistols up and ready to fire. I look up and see the Safehouse burning, the silhouette of five men with a devilish laugh in my view. They start walking towards the two people on the floor now. "I love you Abigail" the man from the Safehouse says. Abigail looks over to him, and reaches out her hand. "I radio in to Elizabeth, Do it. Do it now!"

Elizabeth and Madi both start screaming from down the block, waving there arms and yelling, "hey assholes! Over here!" The bandits turn to them. One of them starts shooting while two others start running towards them. Two of them are left at the building I signal Mayte and Nick to shoot the guy on the left while Hayley and I jump the guy on the right. We pin him down break his arm, immobilizing him for the moment. Down the street Madi and Elizabeth walk out with their hands up. The three bandits reach them with their guns up. "You stupid kids," one of them says. Meanwhile Justin, Faye and Keegan start crawling out from underneath a car nearby. Madi distracts them a little longer, "you guys must be tough taking down a bunch of kids huh?" she says. Faye, Keegan and Justin get closer to the bandits, inching their way. Finally Elizabeth puts her arms down and smiles at them saying "Gotcha!" Justin grabs the first bandit and stabs him in the neck, dragging him to the ground with a loud groan. Faye kicks another one in the groin and shoves her pocket knife deep in his spine. And Keegan swings his hand axe right into the temple of the last bandit, letting out a splatter of blood. "All good here," Elizabeth says on the radio. I grab the last bandit and turn him over to his back. "You're starting to have a real bad day," I say. Abigail runs over and kicks the bandit in the head. "YOU MONSTER!" She screams. She looks up at me, "thank you, you-you saved us. I thought Logor and I were dead for sure." Logor walks over to us, "hey thanks guys," he says, with a sigh. The bandit starts laughing. Mayte walks over and punches him in the face, "what's so funny?" He says. The bandit spits in his face, "my friends are coming." I look up and see the faint headlights of a car speeding our way.

Chapter 9 - Trouble

The lights get brighter as the car comes closer. I radio in to Elizabeth "he we've got trouble heading our way, see if you and the others can get us some cover," I say. No response. I turn around and don't see anyone. Faye, Keegan, Justin, and Elizabeth are gone. I wave Mayte over to me and we lift up the bandit. I tell Hayley, and Abigail to hide behind the car and I give Logor a sidearm. "If anything happens, you don't hesitate to shoot," I tell him. Finally the car pulls up, three figures exit with M4's suited in Army gear. "Well well well, look what do we have here," one of them says. He's an older man, about 6'1. "Look, your guys were attacking this Safehouse. We had to stop them," I say holding the bandit in front of me like a shield. The man's face gets serious, "you had to? You didn't have to do anything boy," he replies. He takes a step forward. "Stop," I say, pulling out my pistol and pressing it against the bandits head. "No one else has to die. Just get back in your car, and I'll leave your friend alone. The man laughs. "Hey, Keke you hear this guy?" He says, looking at the blonde girl to his left. The man gives her a nod and she starts walking toward us. "Hey! I said stop," I repeat, this time more threatening. Keke ignores my warnings and walks right up to us, she takes out her machete strapped to her waist and keeps walking for us. "STOP!" I yell, one last time. I'm about to pull the trigger when Keke grabs the bandit by the neck and sticks her machete right through his chest, the sound crunching as the bandit lets out a loud screaming yell. Keke pulls out her machete, dripping with blood and smiles at the bandit. "Hurts, doesn't it?" she says.

"What the hell!?" I yell, pointing my gun at Keke, "he wasn't one of yours?" I say. "One of us? Hah! We've been tracking down this asshole for days," the man says, walking toward the bandit and putting a bullet in his head. I lower my firearm. "I'm Sgt. Jones. This here is Private Keke and Staff Sgt. Winchester. "Thanks for taking all the fun out of it," Winchester says with a hint of sarcasm. "Where the hell are the rest of the army?" Hayley says, coming out from behind the car. "We got scattered. There were too many of those damn things and we got overrun at Central Park. Me and these two are the only ones left of my unit," Jones says, his face becoming emotionless. "So what's the deal with this guy?" I say, pointing at the dead bandit on the floor. "He raided one of supply trucks a couple days ago. He also swiped a map of our other depots, we couldn't let him have it," Jones says, searching the bandits body now. "Shit, it's not here," he says. Suddenly a loud beeping noise goes off from the car. Winchester runs toward it. "Sir, we've spotted our mark," he yells at Jones. "Come with me," Jones says. Jones pulls out a tracking device and explains to us that if bandits were in control of that map that was stolen, it could be bad news for everyone. Jones triangulates the coordinates on a device and then looks at Winchester, "they're here..." he says, his face suddenly alarmed. A red laser appears on Jones forehead. "SHIT!" Keke screams and a shot goes off, sending Sgt. Jones to the ground, his body limp and motionless.

"Sniper! MOVE!" Winchester says. "That building over there!, go!" Mayte yells, pointing at an apartment building a couple yards away. We make a run for it, Logan shoots the glass doors before we reach it and all run inside. "Damnit," Keke says. " "The bandits must've communicated before we got here. We have to take out that sniper. " Winchester says. We hear another blast from the sniper rifle go off. "Come out, come out, wherever you areeee," says the shooter. The dead heard the noise from our entrance and start crawling out from the shadows. "Stairs! Go!" I yell, following Keke and Winchester. Keke chops off a dead's head, while Winchester grabs another and smashes it's head against the railing. We run make it up a flight and are still met by more dead in the hallway. "Shit! Keep moving, GO GO GO!" I hear Mayte screaming. Finally we get to the second floor, Logan kicks open the door and we fly in, shutting the door behind us. "Clear the room," I say. Mayte walks to the kitchen and finds a dead on the floor, he stomps it's head with his boot, crushing it instantly. Winchester checks the bedroom and finds a woman who hung herself. Keke finds another dead in the bathroom, she shoves her machete in its mouth and sticks it to the door. "Bitch," she says. We regroup near the front door. I look around, adrenaline rushes through my body. "MAYTE!" I yell. He turns to me, "where the HELL is Hayley?!"

Chapter 10 - Light Brigade

Elizabeth ( POV ) ( 15 minutes earlier ) "all good here," I say to JC. I see him bent over a bandit. "Let's go join them," Madi says. "Wait," Faye says, staring down the alley. "Nick and Jonathan should've came out by now," she says again. Elizabeth walks over to Madi staring down the alley. "NICK! JONATHAN!" She yells. No response. "Look at this," Keegan says, picking up a gun off the floor. "That's Jonathan's," Faye says. Elizabeth starts walking down the alley, "something's up," she says pulling her katana from her waist. Justin spots something up ahead and it catches everyone's attention. "The hell was that?" He says. They move quietly now, more cautious. Elizabeth sees a light turn on in a nearby window. She motions for everyone to keep low and walks toward it, crouched below the windowsill. Elizabeth and Faye poke their heads up to check inside. "Son of a bitch," Elizabeth says under her breath. Inside, Nick and Jonathan are tied up to chairs, duct tape wrapped around their mouths. Jonathan doesn't seem to be moving and Nick has a gash on his head and is losing a lot of blood. Two men walk are standing in front of them. One of them has an aluminum bat and the other has a pistol. "I'm going to ask you one more time. Where is Abigail?!" one of them says. Nick starts to speak but is muted by the tape. "Oh that's right, you can't say anything." The man replies, then he swings his bat at Nick, making him fall over, opening the gash even more. He catches a glance at Elizabeth and passes out.

(POV: Justin) "We can't just sit around and do nothing!" I whisper. I look at Elizabeth and Keegan, their faces unsure. "Elizabeth, you come with me. Faye, Keegan, you guys stay here, when we give the signal you guys open this window and shoot those bastards," I say. I walk towards another window on the left. I look inside and it looks clear. I open it and help Elizabeth climb up, and then follow. "What's the signal?" Keegan asks. "When you see blood," I say, closing the window. It's dark in the room, I feel around for anything nearby and touch a shower curtain. I whisper to Elizabeth, "bathroom." She starts to open up the curtain, we see the light from the other side followed by heavy footsteps. "Wait, wait," I say. The door opens. I quickly lay down in the tub, grabbing Elizabeth and throwing her on top of me, ducking from the shadow. I look at Elizabeth, her heads on my chest. I nod at her, making sure she's ready. I turn the water on gently. The man hears it and walks to the curtain. "What the?" He says. He opens the curtain and I grab his head cupping his mouth closed so he can't scream while Elizabeth uses the edge of her sword to slice open his neck. The mans eyes roll back, as blood fills up the tub. "Go," I whisper. We look out from the bathroom door, the two men are still in the room while one man stands by the door. I walk out, getting the mans attention, my hands raised. He pulls his gun up walking towards me, "who the hell are you?" He says, still walking. I lure him closer, seeing Elizabeth in my peripheral vision until his arms come into her view, one slice of her katana and both of his arms get chopped off. He screams loudly as I grab him by the neck and break his neck. I hear gun shots coming from inside the room. "BLAM, BLAM!"

( POV: Jonathan) The gun shots open my eyes. Elizabeth and Justin run in the room, weapons up and ready. "Clear!" Keegan yells from behind me. I turn my head around and see him climbing through the window, followed by Faye. Justin runs over to me and cuts the duct tape covering my mouth and then unties me. Faye hears a gun shot from outside. "That didn't sound like any of our weapons," she says looking out the window. "Help me get my brother," I say frantically, realizing he's on the floor. We untie Nick and take the tape of his face. "We have to go!" Elizabeth yells. I roll nick on his back, the amount of blood he's lost seems unreal. "No, no, no NICK! Wake up bro, c'mon" I say gently slapping him on the cheek. No response. "Damnit NICK get up!" I yell, frustrated and scared at the thought that its too late. "I'm sorry Jon but we have to go, Justin says grabbing me by the shoulders. "Fuck you man! I'm not leaving him!" I say, tears forming in my eyes. I think about my parents, and our life before all this. How Nick always looked after me. How he never gave up protecting me. "No, no, no" I repeat, tears start falling down my face. Faye has her hand over her mouth in shock and Elizabeth can't even bare to watch. I can't leave him here. He can't be dead. He can't be. "NO! GET UP!" I yell as I take my knife and stab Nick in the arm. Nicky's eyes burst open as he screams in pain, "AHHHHHHH!." He's still alive.

Back Outside* (POV: JC) "She was right behind us!" Mayte says, nervously looking around realizing she is missing. We hear banging on the door. Winchester runs to open it. "No WAIT!" I yell but its too late, the door swings open and three dead stumble in grabbing Winchester. "SHIT!" We all run to his aid. Winchester tries to pull away but the dead have a strong grip on him. One of them bite him in the chest. Another tries to bite him in the arm but I shoot it in the head. Logor pulls Winchester by the shirt and they both fly backward. Mayte and Keke shoot the last two and shut the door again. We all look at Winchester. Rotten teeth can be seen stuck in on his shirt where the bite is. Keke walks over to him. "They get you?" she says. Winchester stands up and brushes off his arms. He then takes off his short revealing a bulletproof vest. "Not even a scratch," he says, smiling proudly. We all start to chuckle when a bullet goes through the window and we all hit the ground. "Shit!" Keke screams. I crawl to the window to try and spot the sniper. Keke hands me her binoculars. "You see anything?" Mayte asks. I spot the glare of the snipers scope. "I see him!" I reply. I shift my view up the street. There's a school bus speeding up heading right for the sniper who is mounted behind a car. "Oh shit," I say. I watch as the sniper turns around in fear, the bus ramming right in him pinning him instantly with the car and creating a loud BANG! as his body gets pulverized. We all stand up now, staring out the window. "HELL YEAH!" Abigail screams. The driver's door opens and we all watch as Hayle jumps out, "GRAND THEFT AUTO BITCHHH," she screams up in the air, her fist above her head.

We all head back to meet up with Hayley at the bus. Elizabeth and the others join us coming down an alley. Jonathan is holding Nick up, his arm over his shoulder. "Damn, what the hell happened?" I ask. "Couple of bandits jumped Nick and I while we were waiting in the alley. They beat up Nick pretty bad," Jonathan replies, looking at his brother who is wincing in pain. We all jump on the bus and close the door. We sit Nick down and try to patch him up. "W-w-ait," Nick says, pushing Jonathan's hand aside. We all look at him. "The girl," he says. I look at Hayley but she looks confused. I turn back, "what girl?" I reply. "They wanted the girl," he says, pointing at Abigail. We all turn to Abigail. She stands up, a look of guilt on her face. Nick starts to cough up blood, forcing himself to speak. "They said she had something of theirs," Nick manages to get out. "Uhhh, guys?" Winchester says, interrupting the conversation. Abigail starts to walk towards the front of the bus, I pull my gun out and point it at her. "What the hell did you do?" I ask demandingly. "GUYS!," Winchester repeats, louder this time. Logor jumps in front of Abigail, "She didn't do a damn thing!" he replies, anger all over his face. Mayte, pulls out his gun now pointing it at Abigail as well, "we're gonna ask you one more time, what did you do?" he says. "WILL YOU GUYS LOOK!" Winchester screams, standing up in his seat. We all look out the windows of the bus, a herd of the dead have just surrounded us. Hayley jumps in the drivers seat and starts the bus. "Wait!" I tell her. Returning to Logor and Abigail. "Either you tell me what you did, or you guys are getting off this fucking bus," I say, my eyes beaming, I don't trust them.

Abigail walks in front of Logor. "Just, take it easy," she says to me. She reaches into her shirt and pulls out a folded piece of paper. She unfolds it and shows it to us. "Holy shit, that's the map!" Keke says, standing up and grabbing it from Abigail. I still hold my gun up, unsure if I can trust her. "How the hell did you get it?" I ask. Abigail begins telling us the story. "You know those bandits you killed back there? Well I used to be one of them. It was my brother leading us at first. When he died his asshole friend took over and just wanted to steal from people and kill whoever got in his way. We spotted an army depot and they told me we were going to ask for help. I asked one of the soldiers if they knew about any place where people were still alive and they told me about the safehouse. When I went back to check on my group I realized they lied to me. They killed them all and took this map. That night I snuck out and stole the map. I ran for the safehouse and that's when you guys came," she says, her expression is sincere. I look at Mayte and Hayley for confirmation and they both nod in approval. "How far is the nearest depot," I ask, looking at Keke. "About 20 minutes heading south," she replies. I kneel next to Hayley, "alright let's go," I say, gently patting her on the shoulder. As she pulls away, rolling over countless of the dead I think about my family. I wonder if they're okay. We all watch as Hayley continues driving, bodies bouncing off the windshield, smearing blood from side to side. No one says a word, we just take it all in. I look over at Hayley. Right now she's the only family I've got, and I promise myself I'm not going to let anything happen to her.

Chapter 11 - The Fallen

"Make a right," Keke says, looking at the map. Everyone checks their weapons and gets them ready. For a bunch of kids, we're ready for anything, I think to myself. Hayley turns the car and we all watch in horror as the army depot appears. It's completed destroyed. Cars are flipped over and bodies are piled onto one another. The faces of the soldiers still showing the fear they had when they died. "How can the dead take out some many?" Elizabeth says, looking at the hundreds of bodies lined up on the floor. "Keep going Hayley," I say, sitting back in the seat next to her. Hayley steps on the gas when suddenly the car hits small bump, "BOOOM!" The windows shatter from the explosion and we are sent rolling in the air. I try to grab on to something but I can't. We finally land upside down, smoke and glass everywhere. A pitch sound ringing in my ear. I start coughing and reach out for Hayley, "Hey! You alright?" I yell at her, shaking her hand. She doesn't respond. I hear the groaning of the dead coming from outside. I'm too dizzy to act the way I would like. "Mayte! Elizabeth!" I yell, turning my body to face the back of the bus. "Oh no," I say. The bus was torn into two halves. The dead are starting to enter towards the rear. I can hear gun shots go off and I try and get up, my body's not responding. I'm stuck, pinned down between two chairs. One of the dead start walking toward Hayley from outside the front. "HAYLEY!" I yell, trying to force myself free. I try and reach for my gun but its too far. "HAYLEY! BEHIND YOU!" I yell. The dead starts to crawl in from the front, groaning, reaching for Hayley's still body. "HAYLEYY!" Two arms fall in front of me and pull me out of the bus, "NOOOOO!" I yell, "SAVE HAYLEY!"

I'm pulled through the window, with Hayley disappearing from my view. My leg gets cut on a shard of glass. The person drops me on the ground, "WAIT HERE!" he says, and runs toward the back. I drag myself to the front of the bus, my body woozy from the last 5 minutes that passed. I continue, inching my way to get to Hayley. I hear the shredding of flesh, the sounds of bones being crushed. I feel a deep pain in my heart and keep going. "No Hayley, please no," I say, dragging forward. I finally reach the front of the bus and peek around the edge. A girl stands above a dead, hacking it to pieces with an axe. She finally cuts its head off and tends to me. "Hey you alright?" she asks. "The girl in the front, where is she?!" I ask. "Over there," she points, I see Hayley with her hand on her head next, and she looks okay. The man comes back over to the front of the bus, "Let's move it Helene," he yells. "I got the girl!" she says. They each grab one of us and walk us into what looked like an open garage and then shut the door closed. They prop me up against a wall and I see everybody else. They look like shit. The man walks up to me, "you guys just rolled over a land mine," he says. I look at him gratefully, "you saved our asses out there. Thank you," I say. "It's our pleasure. Glad to see some people still alive out here," he says. "What the hell happened to the depot," Mayte asks, taking a large gulp of water after. The army started putting dead people into body bags, not realizing they get back up. Before you know it they were overwhelmed by them," he says. "Hey we didn't get your name," I say, standing up now. The man turns to me with his hand out, "Trevor. Trevor Hurst."

"Nice to meet you, Trevor," I say. I shake his hand. I look over at Helene, and then back at him, "how did you guys end up here, anyway?" I ask. "We came here to find refuge and were sent out on a supply run. When we got back the dead were already attacking," Helene says, her eyes looking downward as she remembers the event. "Helene watched her sister die," Trevor interrupts. Helene leaves the room, she seems upset and unable to continue. I look at Trevor. He sighs and walks over to a window. "I've been looking for my sister" he says, "I couldn't find her among the bodies. I know she's still alive," he continues. "We'll help you find her," I say, putting my arm on his shoulder. I look around at the group, everyone looks banged up. "You guys rest up," I say. I look at Trevor and he nods, leading me to the other room. A large map of the area is displayed on a table where Helene is. Trevor has colored in all the areas he has already checked for his sister. He explains to me that there's a department store down the block he hasn't checked yet because he's afraid there many be too many dead inside. "Let's start there than," I say. We load up and head outside. "Winchester, Hayley, Mayte, the hell are you guys doing?" I ask, looking at the three who have their gear strapped ready to go. "Call me Brian," Winchester says, loading his gun. "Couldn't let you have all the fun dork," Hayley says, smiling. "We stick together," Mayte says, giving me a stern and sincere look. "Thank you guys," Trevor begins but I stop him before he continues, "Don't. It's the least we could do," I say. Trevor nods. "Let's do it than," he says and starts running down the block. Helene, Hayley and Mayte follow, while Brian and I trail in the back. We have to find that girl.

Chapter 12 - Hello Cold World

(POV: Helene) We get to the store with no problems, the new guys seem experiences enough. I feel safe with them. I see Trevor and JC walk over to the entrance, the whole building is on lockdown. "How about there," Hayley says, pointing at a vent on the side of the building. "I got it," I say. Trevor and I have been doing a lot of searching ever since he lost his sister. This wouldn't be my first vent crawl, and it won't be my last. Mayte opens it and I crawl in. It's dark, as expected. I grab my flashlight and start heading in. It smells like death. I pull out my blade, and continue crawling. Finally I reach the inside, I pop open the vent covering and look inside. There's at least twenty dead walking through the aisles. "Fuck," I say under my breath. I grab a flashbang from my pocket and throw it to the far side. The flash doesn't both the dead so much, but the sound always gets their attention. They all start walking toward the sound and I jump down. I head to the front and unlock the door for the others. "There's at least 20 of them," I say. "Kill them. Kill them all," Trevor says. We all take turns bashing in the heads of the dead. Our arms soaking with blood. Trevor identifying each mark, making sure it's not his sister. He goes into a rage and starts stabbing them in the heads more than once. He takes out the remaining ten alone. He let's out a yell of frustration, "WHERE ARE YOU!?" JC starts to walk up to him but Hayley stops him from advancing. Trevor turns to us and then we all hear, "TREVOR!" Trevor puts his head on the floor, "It's her! That's my sister! She's downstairs, GO!"

We run down the flight of stairs and follow the screams. "TREVOR!" the girl screams again. "I'M COMING MAYA!" Trevor yells back. We burst open a door and we see Maya up ahead, "NO!" Trevor yells. Maya has found herself on top of a cabinet, at least eighty of the dead underneath her, reaching up to grab her, shaking the wood underneath her feet. She looks at Trevor, a look of desperation on her face. We all stare helplessly, trying to figure out what to do. There's too many of them. Brian steps forward and turns to Trevor, "get the girl," he says. We all look at Brian confused. He then turns to Keke, "hoorah" he says and we all watch and he runs toward the crowd of the dead. "BRIAN DON'T!" Keke yells as he runs away. He stabs one of them in the back of the skull and pushes it towards the rest. They all turn to his attention now. He kills the next one who tries to grab him, then another. "NOW DAMNIT!" Brian yells, slowly backing up, the dead following him. Trevor runs along the edge of the room and grabs Maya from the cabinet and heads back to the door. Brian stumbles on his back. "GO! GET OUT OF HERE!" He yells. A piece of the crowd starts heading to us, we run through the door, I grab Keke and pull her through, she yells for Brian, fighting to break free of my grip. We shut the door closed, we hear Brian screaming inside. "COME GET ME YOU UGLY BASTARDS!" He screams. Keke punches the door, "Goddamnit Brian," she says. We hear groaning coming from the staircase above. "We have to go, NOW!" Mayte yells. We turn and head for the back. Keke waits another minute, her hand on the door. She rips off her dog tags and places them on the doorknob. "Hoorah," she says, and then runs after us.

(POV: Private Keke) I follow JC to the back. All I can think about is Brian. "I shouldn't have left him back there," I say. "He made a choice Keke, there's nothing you could've done," replies JC. We continue running, the dead gaining on us, I can hear their feet stampeding. We reach the others. "SHIT SHIT!" Hayley says, trying to open the door. "IT'S LOCKED!" She screams. Trevor starts kicking the door, trying to break it open. He fails. I turn to the hallway, I can see the shadows of the dead getting bigger. "Shit!" I say, "get that door open! I'll buy you guys some time!" I yell, and then I turn around and head for the hallway. I run right to them, gun up an ready. I shoot 20 rounds off and release my empty clip. "DIE! JUST DIE!" I yell. I reload, the dead keep walking toward me, seems like my bullets aren't even slowing them down. I can still here Trevor trying to kick the door open. There's not enough time. I keep shooting, taking thirty down. They just keep coming. I start backing up, realizing they are in arms reach. I'm out of ammo. "FUCK YOU!" I say and I throw my M4 at the nearest dead. Another one knocks me on my back. "AHHH!" I yell, crawling backwards on my back. This is it. I take out my pistol, and fire it off, emptying it out in seconds. I have nothing left. I give up, waiting for them to get me. I close my eyes. I feel the weight of body give way, I'm being dragged backwards. They hand me their gun and I start shooting as I'm being pulled away. They keep dragging me away from the dead and finally outside, Mayte shuts the door behind me. "What the fuck!" I scream. I fall on back, exhausted. Then my dog tags fall in front of my face, "hey Rambo, you dropped this," my savior says, I look up and see Brian with a big grin on his face.

Chapter 13 - Pair of Aces

(POV: Nick) I wake up, my left eye barely opening all the way. My head is spinning, and the gash on my head is throbbing. I hear a car stop outside and I get up to go to the window. "Shit!," I say, ducking down. "Jonathan, get over here," I whisper. Jonathan comes over and looks out the window. It's those same bandits form the safehouse. They have someone hostage, a bag over their head. "Fuck man, where do they keep coming from?" Jonathan says. The bandits hop out and look at the destroyed depot. "Fuck!" One of them yells. "Take him inside!" He says, and the other bandits lead him into a building about four houses down. I look over at Jonathan, "we've gotta stop them. That was us last time remember?" I say. "I'm with you bro," Jonathan says, we grab our weapons and head out. I tell Madi to keep an eye out and she nods. Jonathan and I run through the backyard and get to the house. We climb up the side to the second floor and go in the house. We can hear the bandits talking from downstairs. "Where is the rest of your group?" One of them asks. "I'm not telling you shit," says the hostage. We watch as the bandits take turns punching him. I signal to Jonathan to shoot from the top of staircase while I move down closer. The bandits are getting impatient, they pull a gun on the hostage. "Let's try again," he says, pressing the gun against his head. Another bandit reaches into the hostages pocket and pulls out his wallet and tosses it to the leader. He opens it. "Glenn huh? Glenn Rhee is it?" He says. Glenn looks up at him and attempts to punch him, another bandit stops him and hits him in the head with the back of his pistol, knocking him out.

(POV: Jonathan) I watch my brother slowly go down the stairs. My eyes on the bandits, kicking Glenn even though he's not moving. Nick gives me the ready signal and I pull my gun up. Time for these assholes to die. Nick whistles and the men turn around, I fire off two rounds and Nick shoots three. We take them out easily and run to the aid of Glenn. He's out cold. Suddenly bullets start flying in from the front windows. "SHIT! Get down!" I yell, covering my head. Nick drags Glenn to the kitchen in the back while I grab a table and flip it over for cover. I start shooting back. More bullets fly in, this time two of them hitting me in the chest, I fall on my back, instantly feeling pain. "NO!" Nick screams and runs back to me. He starts shooting out the window, "go to hell!" He screams. Another set of shots go off, hitting Nick in the arm and stomach. He lands on top of me, I feel his blood on my chest. I feel my body slipping away. I grab Nick and hug him, blood starting to come out of my mouth. Three men walk into the house now, laughing at the sight of us dying. They walk on top of us now. I give them a cold, hard stare. I'm not afraid to die. "Go Fuck Yourselves," I say, and then I roll Nick over on his back, we both pull up our guns and shoot the three guys, putting rounds in their necks and chest. Nick and I start to laugh. Got those fuckers. We lay on the ground for a minute, accepting our fate. Finally, Nick looks at me, "you ready?" He says. I nod. We pull our guns up to our heads and close our eyes. Feeling free at last. "Let's go see mom," Nick says. We pull the trigger. BLAM! BLAM!

Chapter 14 - Romeo & Juliet

(POV: Logor) Meanwhile back at the garage the rest of the group begin to wake up. "Abbi," I say, gently shaking her awake. "Let her sleep Logor," Faye says. I get up and head to the bathroom. Elizabeth and Faye are eating at a table, talking about memories that had to be before this all happened. Madi it sitting on the floor, sharpening up a katana. Keegan and Justin are busy arm wrestling. It almost feels normal now. I get something to eat, and it worries me that Abigail is still asleep. I go check her out, her face is turned to the wall. "She went through a lot," Elizabeth says, her and Faye are looking at me from the table. "I know," I see, I put my head down, remember all that we've been through. I sit next to Abigail, I put my hand on her arm. It's cold. Huh? I start to turn her over, "Abbi?" I say softly. I turn her over, her face is pale and sweaty, like she's fading away. "ABBI!" I yell, nervous now. Faye and Elizabeth run over. "Was she bit!? what's wrong with her?" Elizabeth says, putting her hand on her head. "Shit, no, no" i say, I start looking in Abigail's pockets frantically. "The hell you looking for?" Faye says. "Abigail, she's-she's diabetic. Shit, she must've been out for a while. She needs her insulin!" I say, still looking. Finally, I find the vial containing her medicine. It must've broken from the accident. I look up to Faye, "it's empty!" "Stay with me Abigail!" I say, grabbing her cold face, I can hear her breathing becoming faint.

(POV: Keegan) We've just learned that Abigail is sick and needs insulin. I spotted a hospital on the way in and I volunteer to go with Justin, Logor and Madi to go get it. The others haven't gotten back yet and we don't have time to wait. We find a nearby car and put Abigail in the backseat, Logor says she's running out of time and thinks its best if we take her and administer her shot when we get there. We reach the hospital, a large sign hangs from the top, "Do Not Enter." I look at Logor who starts walking in, Abigail in his arms. "We have to go in," he says. We follow Logor, knowing this is not a good idea. The doors are open, inside the lights flicker, burnt corpses lay on the ground. I look at some of the bodies on the floor. "Shit," I say, Justin comes and see's what I'm looking at. "These people weren't even one of the dead," I say, staring at a woman with a bullet in her head, he face soft and innocent. "This way," Madi says looking at a sign on the wall that says "Emergency Room." Madi leads the way, taking out two dead with one swing of her katana. I watch our rear while Justin takes point. I hear groaning from behind us, "pstt," I say, loud enough for everyone to hear me and I motion that there's dead following. We hurry the pace and reach the doors to the emergency room. Justin opens it and we are face to face with at least a hundred dead inside, turning to us groaning. "CLOSE IT!" I yell, and shut it immediately. "That was a lot of them," Madi says. Abigail starts to cough and breathe violently, "we must hurry," Logor says looking at her. The dead behind us are gaining on us. A door swings open behind me, I raised my weapon, ready to fire. A man comes out in a white coat, "this way," he says waving us in. "Hurry!"

(POV: Madi) I close the door behind us, turning around to face the man. The room he's been in looks a mess, food wrappers everywhere. A nameplate on the desk says "Doctor Konnor." "She bit?" Konnor asks. "No, she needs insulin do you have any?" Logor asks, pushing the stuff off his desk and placing Abigail there. "Yes, yes hold on," Konnor says, going into a nearby cabinet and pulling it out. He takes out a shot and fills it up, then walks over to Abigail and injects it in her arm. "I guess you guys didn't see the sign huh," Konnor says looking up at us. "We had no choice," Keegan says, defending our actions. Logor checks on Abigail. "It's working!" He says, gently brushing her hair aside. We can see the color coming back in her skin. I clean the blood off my katana. "The hell happened to the hospital?" I ask, looking at Konnor. "And why aren't you dead?" I ask. I don't trust anybody easily. Konnor walks over to a laptop near the wall and places it in front of us, he pulls up a video and presses play. "This is what happened," he says. The video is a security film of the main entrance. We watch as soldiers barricade the front, preventing people from exiting. We watch as people panic, they start to retaliate. The soldiers look at one another and start shooting everyone down. Innocent people who just wanted to get out. "Jesus Christ," Justin says, turning away from the screen. I start backing away from the screen in disbelief. I hear a faint groan coming from the room next door. I walk to it and take out my katana. "No, don't go in there!" Konnor says. I ignore him and open the door. There's a dead strapped down on an exam table, trying to break itself free.

(POV: Konnor, Ph.D) "What the fuck is this?" Madi says, looking at me with anger. "You guys got the wrong idea," I say walking toward the door and closing it. I put my head down, trying to find the right words to say. "Well?" Justin says, waiting for an answer. "That dead inside is special," I say, clearing my throat. "The hell you mean special?" Keegan says, grabbing me by the throat and pinning me to the door. "Just listen, please," I say, hoping they don't kill me. I decide I have no choice. "That guy in there turned into one of the dead without actually dying," I say. The others in the room look at each other confused. "Look I know how crazy that sounds," I begin, "you damn right that's crazy. What do you mean he didn't die?" Logor says. I walk over to my chair and pull out the document in my chair, it's labeled "Subject 088" I open it and pull out a picture of the man and show it to them. "His name was Roger Craft," I begin, "he entered the office the day this all happened complaining about having chest pains," I say. "I took him to get an MRI, and something went terribly wrong. He began to grow rabid, almost like a dog with rabies," I continue. " Madi looks at me, "so what are you saying? This guy caused the fucking apocalypse?" She asks. I shake my head no. "That's what I thought until I saw the security feed," I say, "the dead were already walking by that time." Keegan steps up to me now, a concerned look on him. "So what happened?" He says. I look at them. I have no choice but to tell them. "We don't have control of it," I say looking out the window, "being bit isn't the only way of turning."

Chapter 15 - The Long Road Ahead

(POV: JC) We head back to the garage. Trevor holding Maya close to him, happy to have found his sister. I look over at Brian, who starts playfully tripping Keke. I still can't believe he's alive. We finally reach the garage and no one is inside. "Where did they go?" Trevor asks. I look around, I don't see any traces of where they could of gone. We walk outside. "Check that out," Hayley says pointing down the street. A small truck is in the middle of the street. "That wasn't there before," she says. We decide to go check it out, and see the bullet shells near the car leading towards the house. The windows are shattered and filled with bullet holes. "What the hell happened here?" Mayte says. We walk up to the door and walk inside. Six dead bandits are on the floor, blood soaking the carpet. "Damn," I say. We find two others dead on the floor, a blanket covering each with a note on top. I pick it up and open it, "I'm sorry about your friends. I owe them my life." Mayte uncovers the blankets, and we see Jonathan and Nick. "God damnit," Mayte says stepping away from the bodies. No one says a word, we just stare at their lifeless bodies. I start to think of my brother and it pains me that I don't know if he's okay. I look over to Hayley and she already knows my intentions. I start heading to the front, "I have to go home," I say. Hayley follows after me. "You guys don't have to wait around for me. I'll keep in contact with the radio Elizabeth has," I say. Mayte nods, unsure of what to say. We walk outside and jump in the car the bandits left for us. Hayley looks over to me, "let's do it," she says. I pull away, heading for home. "WAIT UP!," I hear Mayte yell. I stop the car and he jumps in, "what I tell you about sticking together" he says, smiling.

*One hour later. I pull up into my driveway and shut off the car. "Home sweet home," I say, as I get out the car. We start walking up to the front door. I check the windows and don't see anything inside. I turn to Hayley, "no matter what we find in there, if they turned you take them out," I say. Hayley nods and I turn to Mayte, he gives me a nod, "we got you JC," he says. We walk inside, the house is a wreck, still no signs that anyone is here. I run upstairs while Hayley and Mayte check the rest of the house. Nothing. "C'mon Allan, where are you," I say to myself. I walk downstairs. Hayley and Mayte are in the basement searching. I hear something near the backdoor. Then I remember what my brother said before I left my house. "I'm making my famous burgers tonight," I say, imitating Allan. I walk the backdoor and open it. I walk out to the back and find my family. My mother is dead. Her flesh torn to shreds, revealing her skeleton. I fall to my knees. "Allan," I say, tears starting to come up. My brother is one of the dead, walking toward me. I just stare into his white glassy eyes, frozen by the loss of reality. He gets closer to me. I raise my gun up to him, unable to pull the trigger. Tears fall down my face. "Damnit Allan," I say, angry at my weakness. He's closer now. I can't do it. I can't kill my brother. I push him back. "Why Allan?! WHY!?" I say, sobbing in pain. My whole world is crashing on me. I pull my gun up again. My brothers expression looks sad, like he knows it's me. I aim at his head. "Forgive me," I say. "AHHHHHH!" I hear Hayley scream and quickly turn towards the house, alerted by the idea of losing her. Allan grabs me and sinks his teeth into my arm.

The bite is painful and strong. I fall to my knees and shove my gun into Allan's face, pulling the trigger. BLAM! He collapses on the floor. I hold my arm, it hurts like hell and I start to run inside, hoping Hayley and Mayte are alright. "HAYLEY!" I yell, I run downstairs. Mayte and Hayley are standing over my father who lies dead on the floor. "I'm sorry JC," Hayley says, "he almost got me," she continues. Mayte starts to walk towards me, "you alright man?" he says. My body is woozy, I can feel my temperature rising. I stumble on the stairs. "JC!" Hayley screams, she runs to my aid. She see's my arm, her face drops and she looks horrified. "No, no no no," she says. "Shit! Your bit," Mayte says. "NO!" Hayley screams, her hands covering her face. I sit up on the stairs, the pain excruciating. "I'm sorry Hayley," I say, feeling guilty that I have to put her through this. I look at Mayte. "Go. Get Hayley out of here," I say. "Like hell I'm leaving!" Hayley yells. I get angry, scared at the idea that I could soon turn. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" I yell back. I pull my gun out and point it at Hayley. "Mayte. Either you get her out of here, or I'm putting a bullet in her head," I say. It's the only way. Hayley looks at me shocked, tears roll down her face. "Fuck you!" she tells me. Mayte starts to pull her away. "No! No! Get off me Mayte!" Hayley screams. I keep my gun up. Mayte lifts Hayley up and carries her up the stairs, she screams the whole way up, cursing me and yelling. I start to cry as I hear her being put in the car, and then the tires screech and they drive away. "I love you Hayley," I say to myself, regretting my life up to this moment. I rest my head against the railing and close my eyes. "Home sweet home."

Chapter 16 - No Way Out

(One Week Later) (POV: Hayley Flames) I've never felt like this before. So much anger, so much pain. The inner battle of my emotions is getting the best of me. I can't believe JC is gone. I've know him almost my whole life and it seems unreal. When we got back to the garage we found the others with Doctor Konnor, who apparently informed us that whatever is going is starting to get more serious. As if we don't have enough problems. When I told the others about JC it hit them hard. I think people looked to him for guidance, hoping he could get us all out of here. We made three graves for him, Nick and Jonathan and saying something was the hardest thing I had to in my life. I can still JC, alone on that staircase, his gun pointed at me. "Clear!" Mayte yells, I snap out of it and join the others. We've been scavenging for supplies. We decided to head for the Hudson River. Faye gave us information that she heard a radio broadcast saying there are survivors there on a cruise ship. We've been getting there slowly, not able to drive through all the cars blocking the streets. "This is a good spot for tonight," I say, looking around the apartment we've found ourselves in. I stare out the window, I can see the water from here. "We're not too far now," I say. We all get some rest. In the middle of the night I have a nightmare about JC and wake up screaming. I walk over to the window, sweat dripping from my body. "What the hell?" I say, I see a flash of light coming from a roof not too far away. It keeps turning on and off, on and off. "Mayte, get up," I say and he comes over. "That's morse code," he says. "Well what are they saying?" I ask. Mayte looks at me, "they're saying get out of there."

(POV: Hayley Flames) "Everybody up! NOW!" I yell. We have to trust them, I think to myself. Everybody is up and ready. Justin take point, Konnor fall behind. "But I can fight," he says. "You may be the last doctor on this planet," I begin, "we can't take any chances," I say. Justin opens the door and a bandit stands in the doorway, lunging his knife at him. Justin dodges it, grabs the bandits arm and shoves the knife right into his neck. He then starts pushing him back and then throws him over the railing. We all watch the body falls down. We then hear footsteps coming up the stairs. Justin looks over the railing, "there's more of them" he says turning to us. We turn and head upstairs being as fast as we can. "GET them!" We hear one of the bandits say. They start shooting at us as we run away. "Why are they after us?" Konnor says. "Because we fought back," I say. We head to the roof and barricade it. I look for the person with the flashlight and see them pointing down. I can't hear what they are screaming. Keke hears a loud mechanical noise, "you guys hear that?" she says. Suddenly a large blast goes off, BOOM! A large chunk of the roof blows off and is sent flying in the sky. "SHIT! DOWN, EVERYONE DOWN!" Mayte yells. Maya starts to crawl to the edge to get a better look. She looks at us with wide eyes, "it's a goddamn TANK!" She says as another round goes off.

(POV: Maya) "What do we do!?" Abigail screams. We can't just stay on this roof and wait to die. Brian starts to get up, "I'll get there attention, you guys get off this roof," he says starting to get up. Keke grabs him and pins him to the floor, "like hell you are Brian," she says, preventing him from moving. Brian's right, we need to get his attention. I look over to the roof next to us, it's not that far. Another round goes off. I look at Trevor, knowing he's gonna be mad at me, but I'm the fastest one here. I get up and start running for the roof. "MAYA NO!" Helene screams, alerting Trevor. Trevor gets up to go after her but Mayte stops him. "MAYA!" Trevor yells. I put my head down and run. I make my jump, another round goes off, ripping a whole on the roof I'm about to land on. "Shit!" I say. I fall inside, to the floor underneath hurting my leg on my fall. I can hear the others screaming for me on the roof over. I manage to get up and poke my head out of the rubble for them to see. "I'm alright!" I scream, realizing I just got really lucky. "Throw me a gun!" I say. Trevor grabs a rifle and tosses it to me. "Be careful!" He says, a worried look on his face. I limp over to the window and spot the tank, at least a dozen other bandits surrounding it. "Alright assholes, let's play a game." I say. I aim my gun and wait for the tank to fire. It fires and I shoot my first target, taking it out without alerting them of my presence. Then another. Finally a bandit spots me. "THERE!" they scream from the street below. The tank turns and aims at me. Time to move, I make a run for the next apartment, I hear the explosion behind me go off. "Not even close bitch," I say.

(POV: Elizabeth) I watch as Maya takes down two bandits and then runs inside. The tank turning to her attention. "HELENE! Follow me!" I yell as I head to the rear of the roof. Helene grabs her axe and follows. We climb down the side of the building on a drain pipe, more blasts from the tank go off from the roof next door. "Hurry up!" Trevor yells from the roof above. We make it to the bottom and run to the edge of the building and peek out. Maya has taken down at least seven of them now. "Lets move" I say. We start to run quickly behind cars, not getting anyone's attention. I look up and see Brian and Keke on the roof, waiting for my signal. We finally get close to the tank. I tell Helene to run up the front of the tank and get their attention while I wait behind. I give Brian and Keke the signal. "NOW!" I yell. Everyone on the roof opens fire on remaining bandits. Helene starts climbing the tank. It fires but can't hit Helene. The latch opens up and a bandit pops out with a gun, I'm waiting behind it. I slice off his head and it rolls down the tank. "DO IT!" I yell. Helene takes out a grenade and throws it inside, I shut the latch and we jump off the tank. BOOM! "Hell yeah!" Helene says as we regroup. I look up to the roof and everyone's cheering us on. Maya runs out the building with a big smile on her face. "Too easy," she says as she walks with her head up. Everyone starts to head down now. "Let's go thank that guy," I say, looking at the man still standing on the roof a few houses down.

Chapter 17 - Bittersweet Symphony

(POV: Hayely Flames) We reach the building our mystery man is on top of. We walk to the front door and the door opens. A man and woman appear before us. "That was impressive," the man says with a smile. "Couldn't have done it without your help," I reply. "Come on in," he says. We walk up to his apartment and close the door, inside it's well stocked with food and supplies. We all take a seat in the living room, exhausted from the day. "My name is Ron Henson and this here is my sister Kaitlyn. We spotted you guys last night but weren't sure if we could trust you," he says. "After we saw the bandits pull up we knew we had to help. Those guys are bad news," he continues. "Have you guys been up here since the beginning?" I ask, looking around at the amount of stuff they have. "No," Kaitlyn says. "We actually came from the Hudson River." We all let out a exasperated sigh. "So there's no cruise ship? No survivors?" I ask. Ron gets up and walks to the window overlooking the city. "That cruise ship belongs to the bandits," he says, putting his head down. "They lure people in, rob them and then kill them," Kaitlyn says. "Holy shit," Faye says. We all just sit there, thinking about how messed up this world is. Elizabeth goes to the bedroom and then comes back, "Hayley can you come here?" She asks. I walk up and follow her, she closes the door and tells me to sit down. She puts the walkie talkie in my hands and looks at me with saddened eyes. "Hayley...my radio went off," she says. I look at her, not comprehending. I choke up, unable to swallow. "That's-that's not possible."

(POV Hayley Flames) I look at the radio. Can it be? "I don't know what to say Hayley," Elizabeth says, putting her arm on my leg. I look up to her, I already feel like crying. "I'll be outside if you need me" she says and gets up and walks out. I can hear Elizabeth telling the others and they all start to whisper to one another. They must be just as concerned as I am. I take a big sigh. I click the button on the side, "JC?" I ask. I'm not sure what to hear as a response. I don't know what I'll feel. I wait for a minute. No response, just static. "JC, is that you?" I ask again. Still nothing. I feel like I'm losing my mind. It can't be him. An hour passes by. I'm just staring at a radio as if It's supposed to transform into my JC. The door knocks. "Come in," I say. Mayte walks in. "Hey kiddo, you alright?" He asks walking in and closing the door behind him. "What if he's alive Mayte," I say, wiping the tears off my face. "You saw it yourself Hayley. He got bit. I know it's hard, but you can't do this to yourself," he says. I start to cry more. Mayte gives me a hug and I just let it out. Another knock on the door. "Yeah, come in," Mayte says. This time it's Doctor Konnor. "The others told me about your friend," he says, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry." He takes a seat and faces us. "Listen, there's something you two should know," he says. Then the radio goes off, "Hayley I-" it cuts off. We all stare at it. My heart jumps. "JC! JC! ?" Nothing. "NOO!" I scream, the radio's dead.

Chapter 18 - Ghost Protocol

(POV Hayley) "NO NO NO!" I scream. I don't know what to do. That was him. I swear that was JC's voice. What's going on? Why now! I look to Mayte, "please tell me you have batteries!" Mayte looks at me shaking his head. "Those radios need to be placed in a charging station, I'm sorry Hayley" he replies. The others run in, trying to find out what's wrong. "He's alive?" "What do you mean you heard his voice?" "Didn't he get bit?" "What did he say Hayley?" The questions keep piling on. My head is spinning, I don't know what to do. Doctor Konnor is still sitting there, a look of concern on his face. I get up and grab him by the collar. "You know something! Talk! NOW!" I say, yelling at him. Mayte grabs me and pulls me away. I kick him off and head back to Konnor, pulling out my knife. "WAIT!" Konnor says, putting his hands up. "Hayley listen to me," he begins. Everyone's eyes are on him. "When I was at the hospital I saw many horrible things. So many people died. I saw people get eaten like animals; men get shot down like wild beasts. But there was this little girl..(he pauses), there was a little girl in the emergency room who got away. She was bitten by her own mother, I saw it with my own eyes," we all look at each other, waiting for this to all make sense. He continues, looking me in the eyes, "Hayley, I saw that little girl weeks later running through the halls." My heart drops. "WHAT?!" Elizabeth yells. I get up and push everyone out the way. I run down the stairs, my heart racing with the hope that this isn't a dream. I open the front door and see him, standing, right there in the middle of the street. "No, this isn't real," I say in disbelief. JC walks up to me, grabs me and hugs me tightly. "It's me Hayley," he says, and kisses me on the forehead.

(POV: JC) We hug for a long time. I hope Hayley can forgive me for all this. I wipe away her tears and she finally puts on a smile. "You're an asshole, you know that right?" She says. "Yeah, I know," I say, we both laugh. She leads me upstairs and we walk in. I didn't expect people to react the way they did. Everyone walked up to me and hugged me, as if I were a missing child just rescued. I feel loved. "Damn it's good to see you," Mayte says, right before he hugs me. "Back from the dead?" Elizabeth says smiling. Afterwards we all sit down. "So you gonna tell us what happened or what?" Faye says sarcastically. We all laugh. I look around at everyone, eagerly waiting. "Well," I start, "after Hayley and Mayte left I went to get a drink of my dad's whiskey and sat in my room for a while. I could feel my body changing. I went to the backyard and buried my parents and my brother. Around midnight I knew I didn't have much time. I sat in the backyard next to my family. I said my last goodbyes, put my gun to my head and pulled the trigger," I say. Everyone looks at me confused. I start to laugh. "Damn thing was empty. I fell asleep waiting to turn that night and woke up two days later. After a couple more days my bite started healing and I guess I just stopped waiting around to die. I made my way back into the city and have been following your trail ever since," I finish. I show them my arm, the flesh is still raw but healing. Doctor Konnor walks over to me to take a look. "Fascinating," he says. "You're immune," Konnor says. Everyone looks at me like I'm some answer to the world. Even with the groans coming from outside no one feels threatened anymore. I have a purpose now, given a second chance. This is my duty now. To fight the dead, and fear the living.

Chapter 19 - No Mercy

I had a dream about Allan last night. We were playing baseball on an island, drinking beers under the sun. As much as I miss him, I'm happy he doesn't have to deal with any of this. I roll over from bed and get up. I look around at everyone, they are still fast asleep. I find Ron awake in the kitchen making coffee. "Good morning," he says handing me a cup. "Thanks," I reply taking it from him. "I've been waiting for you to wake up, mind if we talk?" he says. "Sure, whatsup" I reply. He takes a long sip and than looks at me. "I need to talk to you about the situation at the cruise ship he," he begins, taking another sip. I learned last night about how the cruise ship is run by bandits who are kidnapping and killing people for their supplies. Ron goes hands me a fold and I open it, a picture with a man in a leather jacket and files detailing his criminal work are in it. "Before all this happened I was a Captain in the NYPD," Ron says. "The man you see in that photo is the leader of the bandits," he continues." I start looking at the files. He's wanted for 20 counts of murder, grand theft auto, kidnapping, and drug smuggling. "Jesus Christ," I say looking at the photos of his victims. Ron puts his head down, knowing all that this guy has already done. "I was tracking him down the day this all went down. I chased him down to the Hudson River and he jumped on that cruise line. That's when I started seeing the dead coming out. I had no choice but to run home and get my sister," he says shamefully. "It's not your fault," I say to him, trying to comfort his pride. I look down at the convicts name, and see just a single "Negan," written on the profile. Suddenly, we hear a loud motor coming from outside. It sounds like a helicopter.

(POV Kaitlyn) "Get up guys! JC says. He's looking outside. "What's wrong?" Brian says. "There's a helicopter out there," JC says. "Kaitlyn go check it out," Ron says. I grab my shotgun off the wall and start to head upstairs to the roof. "Hey wait up!" Logor says, grabbing a sword and running after me. We run up. There's a dead on the staircase but Logor easily takes it down. I look at it puzzled. "What's wrong?" He says, wondering why we've stopped. "Nothing it's just, this building was cleared out. There shouldn't be dead here," I say. I ignore it and keep going. We open the door to the roof and see the helicopter. It's going in a big circle. It has a giant red cross underneath it and I can see at least two people inside. Logor runs out further waving its arms, "HEY! DOWN HERE!" he waves. The helicopter notices Logor, "stay there we're coming to get you," someone says via speaker from the helicopter. I don't like this. "LOGOR!" I yell, "get back here!" Logor hears me and becomes aware that we don't know who they can be. He starts to jog back to me. The helicopter turns and heads to him. "Oh no," I say. "RUN LOGOR!" The helicopter opens fire on us, shooting up the roof and hitting Logor in the back, he falls down. "NO!" I yell. I shoot at the helicopter but at this range the shotgun is useless. It starts to turn. "Shit shit," I say. I can't leave him. I make a run for Logor and start dragging him to the door. "C'mon damnit!" I say. I can see the helicopter starting to turn heading back our way. I don't have enough time. "C'mon Logor get up!" He's not responding. I keep pulling. It starts shooting. I pull Logor into the doorway and shut the door, I hear the bullets hitting the door as a I shut. "Shit that was close."

(POV Abigail) I hear gun shots coming from the roof. "Shit, are they shooting at us?" Mayte says, trying to get a better view. Then Kaitlyn bursts through the door, an exhausted look on her face, "THEY GOT LOGOR!" she yells. I get up immediately running for the door. "ABIGAIL WAIT!" Ron yells. He runs into the other room and comes back with an RPG in his hands. "Does anybody know how to use one of these?" He says. Mayte takes the RPG from Ron's hands. "Doc go with Abigail, Brian and Keke you cover me. Maya, I'm gonna need that speed of yours again kiddo," he says. They all get up, and get ready. Maya heads downstairs to the street with Brian and Keke. Konnor, Mayte and I run upstairs. We reach the door to the roof. "Where's Logor?!" I yell, looking at a puddle of blood on the floor. Mayte see's a trail on the floor. "Doctor, go with Abigail and FIND LOGOR," he says. Konnor and I run downstairs and follow the trail while Mayte waits by the door, waiting for his chance to shoot the helicopter. We follow the blood trail one floor under. "He couldn't have gotten far," Konnor says. I'm worried about the amount of blood I see on the floor. I hope Logor's okay. The blood leads to an open apartment door. "In here," Konnor says. I take my pistol out and pull it up. "LOGOR?" I yell. I don't hear anything. Konnor watches the door as I check inside. "Logor, talk to me baby where are you," I say again. Damnit, nothing. I finally see him, "Logor!" I yell relieved to see him moving. His body is propped up against a bedroom door, he has his hand up to me. "W-wait," he says lowly but I can't hear him. I run right for him, not noticing the dead standing in the doorway to the left. "NO!" Logor yells as it grabs me and pushes me into the wall. My gun falls to the floor and I scream.

(POV Brian Winchester) We make it outside and I can still hear the chopper. "That thing's gunning for us," I yell at Keke. "Over there," she says, pointing at an 18-wheeler with an open back. We climb up and get ready get in position. We can see Maya below, choosing the path she wants to sprint to. "You be careful!" I yell to her, she looks over to us and gives us a thumbs up. We hear the chopper heading our way. "I hope you're ready Mayte," Keke says, pulling up her rifle. I follow her lead and raise mine. "Wait for it," I say. The chopper goes over the street now. "NOW! MAYA GO NOW!" I yell. Maya dashes across the street, the chopper focused on her attention. Keke and I unload our whole clip into the chopper to no affect. "Shit! Reload Keke," I yell. We still see Maya running. "What's going on?! Why is Mayte taking so long?!" Keke says looking at the roof. The chopper is still firing on Maya. "C'mon Mayte," I say. We finally see Mayte running out. "There he is! Shoot again! NOW!" I yell. We unload on the chopper again, this time it turns to us. Mayte waits for it to get closer and than takes his shot, hitting the chopper in the tail and sending it into a frenzied spin. "Shit, move move!" I say. We retreat to the back of the truck, trying to avoid the crash. The helicopter keeps spinning until it finally crashes into the building and than falls hard to the street, immediately engulfing in flames. We run out quickly to check for survivors. "Got that son of a bitch," Mayte yells from on top of the roof. We run to he crash site, two of the bandits are dead, burning inside the wreckage. "Oh no," Keke says, looking down the street. I see Maya's motionless body lying in the street.

(POV Abigail) I can hear Logor screaming for me, his body useless as I struggle to fight back. The dead on top of me is strong. I can't believe I'm going to die this way. Right in front of Logor. I scream. Louder and louder hoping to scare it. It starts to open its mouth. "NO! Please GOD NO!" I yell. It's right in front of my face. BLAM! I watch as the bullet enters it's head and sends blood flying on the opposite side. It collapses on top of me. "GET THIS THING OFF ME!" I yell. Konnor runs next to me and lifts it up. "You okay Abbi?" he says. I couldn't believe how close that thing was. "Nice shot Konnor," I say. We go to Logor, still sitting, back on the door. "This doesn't look good," Konnor says, examining Logor's bullet wounds. "Mehh-ehhh nuhh" Logor says in a muffled voice. "What's wrong? Say that again honey," I say. Logor raises his hand and points up, "b-behind you." Konnor and I give each other a terrified look. We turn around and see seven dead entering the hallway. "SHIT!" I raise my gun and shoot, only taking down one. Konnor pulls up his gun to shoot, "DAMNIT! IT'S JAMMED!" he yells. I turn to try and open the door, it's locked from the other side. We're trapped. The dead are closer now. I kneel next to Logor and grab his hand. At least I'm with him, I think. I close my eyes and start to pray. I hear the sound metal and look up. "KONNOR LOOK!" I yell. JC is on the other side, behind the dead. He has two machetes in his hand. He stabs the first one in the head and pushes it down. He then swings both arms, simultaneously chopping off two heads, blood flying everywhere. Then, he pushes two up on a while and kills them both with a single stab through the mouth. Finally, he stabs one in the throat while throwing another machete at the last one, pinning it to the wall.

(POV Keke) Brian starts to run to Maya, she still hasn't moved. "MAYTE! GET TREVOR!" I yell. Mayte runs inside. I decided to stay near the chopper and try and pull any information out before it all burns. I'm able to grab a small tin box that's near the cockpit and drop it. Damn it's hot. I see Trevor run out the door. "Trevor! Over there!" I say pointing to Brian who is now kneeling over Maya. Trevor runs over, a look of pain on his face. I can hear him screaming from here. "MAYA! Talk to me!" he screams. He's over her now, trying to shake her awake. I see some dead walking near them. "Hey! HEADS UP!" I yell. Brian gets up and starts shooting. Trevor stands up and pulls out his magnum, killing three with ease. One of them walks closely to Maya. Trevor spin kicks it in the head and than stomps it on the curb. "GO! Pick her up we have to move!" Brian yells. Trevor picks Maya up and they start running toward me. I start shooting behind them, covering their every move. "Go! Get inside!" I yell still shooting. Brian leads Trevor inside. "Let's go!" Brian yells at me. I pick up the tin box and head for the stairs. Before I make it to the door someone grabs me. "BR-" I try to yell for Brian put the person cups my mouth closed and drags me back. I try to fight back but they are too strong. I drop the tin box and the person takes my gun and throws it away. "On no you don't" the person says. Shit, I've never felt so helpless before. I watch as Brian and Trevor leave me, not knowing I'm in danger. I bite the person on the hand, and they release me. "BRIAN!" I yell. Then almost immediately I feel a large strike on my head and I fall to the ground. I look up and a man in a leather jacket comes into my view with a baseball bat in his head. My eyes roll back and all I can't feel anything.

Chapter 20 - Calm Before the Storm

(POV JC) We grab Logor and bring him back to Ron's apartment. Konnor says he's lost a lot of blood. When we go in everyone starts to look worried. "Justin, Keegan, there's dead walking in this apartment. Kill them all." I say, motioning for them to go. "Hey, I want in!" Elizabeth says, standing up with her katana. The three of them run out the door. We set Logor down on the floor and Konnor takes his shirt off. "Jesus," he says. Logor has three bullets in his back. "I need a knife, towels, and plenty of water," Konnor says. Ron and Kaitlyn run around the house and bring the doctor what he needs. Then Trevor runs in, his sister in his arms. "HELP!" Trevor yells. Brian runs in after. Trevor sets Maya down next to Logor. "Please! HELP HER!" he says, looking at Konnor. Konnor looks at both bodies and I realize he can only work on one at a time. He continues to work on Logor. "Trevor apply pressure to her wounds, I will work as fast I can!" Konnor yells. Trevor pulls out his gun and points it at Konnor, "SHE DOESN'T HAVE TIME KONNOR!" he yells, his arms shaking. "NEITHER DOES LOGOR!" Abigail screams pointing her gun at Trevor. "I'll kill him, I swear to God I'll kill him," Trevor says, still having his gun up. This can turn ugly real quick. "Just take it easy," I say looking at them. "Fuck you man!" Trevor says. "We're not all as lucky as you are," he says. "Look Trevor, if you don't put down your gun both of them are going to die," I reply. I know he's scared. "DOCTOR KONNOR! HELP HER!" Trevor yells again. I step in front of Konnor. "You want to shoot him? You better hope it can get through me to do it.," I say. Trevor puts his finger on the trigger. I can see him slowly start to pull it. "AHHHH!" Trevor yells and puts his gun down. Everyone is on edge. Brian stares at the door. "Where the hell is Keke?" he asks.

(POV Elizabeth) "Where the hell did all these dead come from?" Keegan says as he stabs one in the head. "No idea," I reply slicing another. "Clear" Justin says running from the hallway. "The hell you got in your hands Justin?" I ask. He's holding a bow he must've gotten from Ron's apartment. "What you never seen one of these before?" holding it up sarcastically. "She means why the heck are you using it?" Keegan says laughingly. "Hey I know how to use one of these things pretty well," Justin says imitating a pull of an arrow. "Yeah my ass," I say, looking at him funny. We hear groans coming from behind us, shit we weren't paying attention. Keegan and I turn around quickly, not before an arrow goes through the skull of one dead, and then another sending it flying down the stairs. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Peter Pan," Keegan says bowing down at Justin. "It's Robin Hood you moron," I say, looking at Justin who is already shaking his head. We start walking to the next floor when I hear a low beeping noise. Beep, beep, beep.. "The hell is that?" I say looking at my body and then the floor. "Hey I hear it too, Keegan says looking down. "Is it coming from the dead?" Justin asks, looking at the corpse laying on the ground. We turn the body over and the beeping gets loud. "Justin, give me your knife," I say. He hands it over and I rip open the stomach of the dead. "Ugh that smells like shit," Keegan says covering his nose. "Got it!" I say, pulling out a small electronic box flashing red. I suddenly realize what it is. "Guys, I don't think these dead got here by accident," I say holding up the tracking device.

(POV Brian) "KEKE!" I yell from top of the stairs. What's taking her so long. Mayte and Faye come out of the apartment. "You find her yet?" he asks. "No, something's up," I say starting to head down the stairs. Both of them follow me. We reach outside and see no trace of Keke. "KEKE!" I yell. Nothing. "This hers?" Faye asks picking up a small tin box. "No I don't think so," I say taking it from her. I place it on the ledge and open it. It's a bunch of pictures. "What the-?" I say before I hear the muffled sounds of Faye and Mayte. I turn around, putting my gun up. "Drop it," one of them men say. Two men have Mayte and Faye in a headlock, a gun pointed at each of their heads. "I SAID DROP IT!" He repeats. I ignore the demand. "What the hell do you want from us?" I ask. "Blood" the man holding Mayte says, than he grabs his knife and stabs Mayte in the back. "AHHHHH!" Mayte screams. "Drop it! Or the next one goes in his neck," he yells. I lower my weapon. They start backing up. "You can tell your leader Negan sends his regards," one of them says with a grin. "You follow us, and your lil soldier girlfriend gets a bullet in the head," the other man says. They walk over to a car and put Faye in. They release Mayte and throw him to the ground and drive off. I run over to Mayte, he's still conscious. I pick him up and start walking up the stairs, knocking over the tin box. The pictures of Keke, Faye, Elizabeth, Abigail, Maya, Madi, Hayley, Kaitlyn and Helene fall out of it. "They're after the women Mayte."

Chapter 21 - Sacrifice

(POV JC) "Shit, put him over here," Konnor says to Brian who has Mayte wrapped in his arms. "The hell happened Brian?" I say looking at a Mayte who is moaning in pain. "Those damn bandits jumped us. They took Faye," Brian says. "They did what?!" Elizabeth says, walking in the apartment with Keegan and Justin. "They took Faye! They have Keke too. Oh and it gets worse, I found a box on the floor with pictures of every woman we have here," Brian says. I look around, all the women seem confused and angry. "How the hell did they get pictures?" Hayley asks. We all hear a loud rumble, followed by motors. "Everybody load up," I say, grabbing my gun. At least ten cars pull up in front of our building. A man steps out with a loud speaker. "Fuck, it's Negan," Ron says looking out the window. "Goooood afternoon shitheads," Negan begins, "it seems we have a little misunderstanding on how things work around here. I'm a reasonable guy as you will soon find out," he says, starting to laugh. "Jesus they have a lot of men," Trevor says. "How about we make a trade, hmm?" Negan says, taking a pause. "You give me all your women and food, and I'll let you guys live. How's that sound?" He says. "Screw this guy," Hayley says grabbing a rifle. "Nu uh I wouldn't do that if I were you sweetheart," Negan says holding up a small device. "This little puppy in my hand is called Sherry, and she sure loves to blow," he says, all of his men start to laugh. "I've got the whole building rigged with C4. I want you to be real smart about your next move," Negan says.

(POV: JC) "What do we do!?" Abigail yells. "JC?!" Elizabeth says looking at me nervously. "I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" I say. I don't know what to do. Either Negan walks out with these girls or we are all dead. Doesn't seem fair. "We don't have all day here," Negan says. "Sherry is very impatient." "Shit, we have no choice," I say. Than I look at Maya's body, still lying on the floor. I think about how cruel these men are, and what they have in store for everyone else. "FUCK!" I yell. Hayley walks over to me. "JC is right," Hayely begins, "we have to go." The other women know it too. Hayley picks me up off the floor and hugs me. We watch as they start walking out, heading downstairs. We all say our goodbyes. Hayley is last to go. She gives me a nod. "I'll see you soon," she says and gives me a wink. The guys watch from the window as the girls head out to the street. "Smart move," Negan says. They load them up into their cars. I watch as Hayley looks up and puts her hand on the window. "Hey, hey, you're one short!" Negan says. "She's dead asshole," Trevor yells, looking at Maya with saddened eyes. "Awwww that's a shame, she was one of the cute ones," Negan says and laughs. We watch as they drive away, feeling helpless and defeated. I turn to the remaining few. "Please tell me you have a plan," Brian says. I pick up my gun and load it up. "Yeah," I begin, "we're going to war."

(POV JC) "How's she doing Doc?" I ask looking at Konnor. "She's stable. We're lucky he bought it," he replies cleaning up Maya's stitches. "Good work," I say. "We're gonna need her." It's been two days since the women have been taken from us by Negan. Two days of scouting around looking for them. We thought it would be easy. Brian and Mayte were able to track down the cruise ship but no sign of them were on board. Maya is our only hope of ever finding them. "It's time JC," Justin says, his how strapped around his arm. Every night we go scouting, we figure it will be easier to spot lights in the dark, than movement in the day. Tonight, Trevor and I have our shift. "Alright lets go. We drive around for hours. Finally, we see what we've been searching for. "Kill the engine," I say, seeing a flashlight in the distance. We hop out and run to a large building.l It's a large parking garage. We follow the trail. We finally reach a small gate and then we lose it. "Where did he go?" I say. We try and look through but it's completely dark inside. "I don't know should we jump it?" he says. I think about it for a second and realize we don't have much of a choice. Trevor and I jump it and land quietly on the other side. We move forward cautiously until something triggers my attention. I signal to Trevor to hand me his flashlight. I put my hand over the light to block it and turn it on. Holy shit. The whole floor is full of the dead. All acting as a barricade to the rest of the parking lot. Trevor and I start to retreat. Trevor's watch alarm goes off, signaling our shift is over. "Shit! Run Trevor!" I yell heading for the gate. I can hear the dead after us. "Move it!" I yell. I make it over. Trevor is still climbing. One of them grab his feet. "Shit! KILL IT! KILL IT!" He yells. I grab my knife and stab it through the fence, releasing Trevor in the process. Trevor makes it over. Alarms go off in the building, and flood lights fill up the floor. "We're fucked."

(POV JC) Bandits come out of everywhere. Too many of them to shoot them all. They have us surrounded, no way out of this. "Don't fight," I tell Trevor, already putting my gun on the ground, "let me take care of this," I say. A spotlight turns on to a little stage on the far side of the parking lot followed closely by Negan. He starts laughing. "You really didn't think it would be that easy did you? C'mon I thought you were better than that," Negan says, his bat clenched in his hands. "We didn't come to fight Negan," I say, putting my hands up." He starts to laugh more now. "Well fuck me and call me Sally, this really is a small world," he says. "I don't suppose you just looked me up on google did you?" He continues. I look at Trevor, realizing Negan never did actually tell us his name. "Look, we came to give you an offer," I say. "An offer? Hell, I'm always down for some free shit. What do you have?" Negan says, his bandits laughing at his every word. "We've got another girl for you," I say, hoping Maya is ready back at the apartment. "Hmmm I can't say no to that!" Negan says, grinning. "Tell you what, for being such nice people I'll give you something in return," Negan says signaling one of his bandits behind us. The bandit comes up to us and punches me in the face, knocking me to the ground. "No, no you moron, not that!" Negan says to his goon. The bandit than takes his gun and shoots me in the arm. BLAM! "Yessss, that's more like it!" He says. "I'll be by in the morning for my prize," he continues. Trevor helps me up and we start walking out. The bandits open a path and let us through. "Oh hey by the way, tell Ron I said hey for me will ya?" Negan says. Trevor and I share a look of confusion. "I didn't realize my brother had such nice friends."

(POV JC) Trevor and I make it back to the safehouse and start to head inside. "Hey you alright?" Trevor asks me staring at my arm. "Yeah, nothing to it," I reply. We head upstairs. I already know this new information isn't going to settle well with the others. That's why I wasn't so surprised when Trevor went right for Ron as soon as we stepping in the house. "YOU BASTARD!" Trevor says, punching Ron in the face. Brian comes to intervene. "Hey what's going on?" He says, grabbing Trevor off of Ron. "This prick is Negan's brother! Isn't that right Ron?!" Trevor says. "What!?" Brian says, taking his own swing at Ron and kicking him to the ground. "Please! Stop!" Ron says, not putting up a fight. The guys back off and let Ron speak for himself. "Look it wouldn't have made a difference if I told you or not," he begins. "Oh no!? How about the fact that you didn't even try talking to him? That ever come across your mind asshole?" Mayte says. "I'm sorry. He would've taken us all if he knew I was with you guys," Ron says. "Bullshit," Brian says pacing back and forth. They continue arguing but something else becomes important to me. "Konnor can I talk to you for a second?" I ask, walking toward the room. He follows and I take off my shirt showing him my bullet wound on my arm. Konnor's eyes light up. "This is interesting," he says, peeling off a piece of skin from the wound. My arm stopped bleeding on its own, and is already looking to be healing. "Konnor," I begin, "I didn't even feel it." I say, looking at him seriously.

Chapter 22 - Changing Tides

(POV JC) Doctor Konnor looks at me suspicious now. "Let's keep this between us for now," I say, putting my shirt back on. "Of course," Konnor says, still amazed. We walk back outside where the arguments have ceased. Ron is sitting down with an ice bag on his eye while the other guys are talking over the next steps. I go into the next room to check on Maya and Logor who are sleeping peacefully. I walk up to Maya and gently wake her up. "Hey, Maya how are you feeling?" I ask. She wakes up and looks up at me. "Better," she says. I push her hair back behind her ear. I never realized how innocent she was until now. What a shitty life this poor girl has to go through now. "Listen Maya, I'm going to need you to help me with something," I say. "Anything," Maya says starting to sit up, rubbing her eyes. A loud bang comes from outside the room. "We'll talk later Maya," I say rushing out to see what it was. The guys have their guns pointed at the front door. Three more bangs come from the door. I pull my gun up now. "I don't suppose you were expecting company?" I ask. "Yeah we just ordered pizza," Brian says sarcastically. I motion for Mayte to open the door. We have our guns pointed, ready for anything. He slowly opens it. "DON'T SHOOT!" a kid yells, holding his hands up in the air. "Who the hell are you?" Justin asks. "Ace" he says. We pull him inside and search him. Keegan finds a bandit bandana in his back pocket and tosses it to me. "Give us one good reason why we shouldn't kill you right now," I say to him holding my gun to his head. The kid looks around, "because we want the same thing," he replies. I lower myself to him now, "so you want Negan dead too huh?" I ask. "No," he replies, "I want them all to die."

"Why should we trust you?" I say to Ace, still pointing my gun at him. "What? You guys think you're the only ones to have someone taken from them?" We all look at each other. "He's got my sister, " he says, putting his head down. I reach my hand out to pull him up, "than let's get to work," I say, lifting him. "What can you tell us about your base?" Mayte asks. "Completely surrounded by the dead. Negan lured them in and shut the gate," Ace says. "Any way around it?" I ask. "Yeah but it's suicide. Negan has guards at both underground entrances," Ace begins. "So do you have any good news?" Brian asks, impatient. "Yeah, actually I do. You know that C4 surrounding your building?" He says, we all look at him, "I'm the one who planted them." I motion for Keegan to get something from the bedroom. He brings out a duffle bag and tosses it on the floor. "You mean this C4?" I say proudly. Justin and Keegan had already gathered it a day ago and have been trying to figure out how to arm it. "Perfect," Ace begins, "I can rearm them and set them off at the base. Someone give me a piece of paper," he finishes. Ron goes into a drawer and hands him a sheet. Ace begins to draw an outline of the base while I walk over to the window. "Ace," I say, everyone turns to my attention, "whatever you're doing make it fast," I finish. "We've got company," I say, looking at the headlights in the distance. "Shit, there's no way he knew I left," Ace says. I look around the apartment and it finally hits me. I grab my gun off the wall and look at everybody. "It's time to kill this son of a bitch."

(POV JC) The cars pull up in front of our building. "Maya, you ready?" I say. Maya is standing at the doorway, a nervous look on her face. Trevor walks over to her and gives her a hug. "Be strong Maya, you can do this," he says. "Let's do it," Maya says and she heads out the door. We see her run outside and heads straight for Negan. "HELP ME!" she screams at the bandits. Negan looks confused. "Those men up there," Maya says pointing up at our floor, "they attacked me. They tried to make me come down here and kill you," she continues. He laughs at Maya and takes out his speaker. "I think it's time for you to die," he says. "Go get 'em boys!" Negan commands his bandits, we see at least two armed men run into our building. "Let's move!" Mayte says. We run out and head for the roof. Mayte has Logor on his back, he's still unable to walk much after getting shot by the chopper. We run to the rear of the roof and throw down a rope Ron had in his house. "Quickly! Go!" Brian says. We all repel down. We head for the street, making sure no one is spotting us. We hop into our cars and wait for the signal. "NEGAN!" a bandit shouts from our window. "THEY'RE GONE!" the bandit says. "NOW! Do it!" I yell. We all start our cars, getting the attention of Negan and the remaining bandits on the street. Ace pops his head out, "Hey asshole," he says to Negan, "looks like Sherry dumped you," he says holding out the trigger. We can hear Negan yell as Ace detonates the C4 that we set up on the floor. The explosion was huge, we could feel the heat from in the car. "Step on it!" I yell to Brian, as he drives away toward the parking garage. Ace takes out the second trigger, and clicks it, this time detonating C4 he had placed in the street. I turn around at an infuriated Negan and give him the finger. "Let's go save our friends."

"They're not coming for us," Abigail says, laying on the floor in the corner of the room. "You heard what that bandit said yesterday. Someone was here last night. I bet it was JC," I say, biting my fingers nervously. "It could've been anyone," Elizabeth says, throwing a rock at the bulletproof glass. The women find themselves enclosed in a room guarded by bandits, security cameras inside and out along with a bulletproof one way mirror near the far side of the room. "Believe what you guys want, but I know JC, and he wouldn't leave me hear," I say. I really do believe that. "Well if Brian leaves me in here I swear to God I'll kill him," Keke says. We all start to laugh. The couple days we've been in here no one has really bothered us. We even made a couple new friends. There's a girl in here named Rachel who says her brother is one of the bandits. Must've been hard for her to accept her brother doing all this shit. The door opens and in comes three bandits. They walk up to Rachel and slap her across the face. "Your brothers gone missing, know anything about it?" one of them says. She shakes her head no. "Get up, you're coming with us," the bandit says grabbing her by the hair. We all watch as they drag her across the room. "You cowards," Madi yells. The door slams as they leave. A few minutes pass and we all start to hear the faint sound of music getting louder and louder. I stand up and put my head against the door. My eyes open when I realize it's "Ignorance" by Paramore. I look at the girls and grin. "They're here." We get ready, just as we have been planning ever since we got in this shit hole. "Ready? I say, looking at everyone who now has their back against the wall. "1!...2!...3!..."

Chapter 23 - Stronghold

(POV JC) "GO GO GO!" Mayte yells as well pull up to the parking garage. We have one shot to do this right. We hop out of one car and pour gasoline all over it. "Put it in drive," I say. Ron reaches inside and wedges a bat on the gas pedal. It starts to run right into gate holding in the walkers. "JUSTIN! NOW!" Brian yells. Justin lights the tip of his makeshift arrow on fire and shoots it at the car, we watch it as it flies, hoping it doesn't miss. BOOM! Perfect shot. The car goes ablaze, causing a large explosion and flaring up the garage floor with fire. "ACE! You're up!" Keegan says. Ace runs down to a manhole on the floor and opens it. Trevor takes out a grenade, pulls the pin and throws it in. We hear the screams of the men below before it goes off. "GO!" I yell, we climb down the ladder, walking over three dead bandits as we head for the entrance to Negan's hideout. We open the door and are met by an array of incoming bullets. Ace shuts the door closed. "Mayte, you're up!" I say. Mayte takes out two flash bangs and tosses them inside. He then runs in there, his gun up killing everyone in sights. "CLEAR!" he says. We walk in and see four bandits dead. "Let's keep it moving gentlemen," I say. Ace leads the way. He turns the corner and heads down a hallway. "They're in here!" He yells. A bandit pops out of the corner, Ace slides forward and kicks him in the groin, followed by a bullet from Brian's gun. Then another bandit comes up from behind us. Keegan takes care of him by throwing a knife right into his skull. We run up to the door. Adrenaline is kicking in, we only have a few minutes left before Negan and his whole army show up. "WHERE ARE THEY?!" Brian yells at Ace. The door to their prison is wide open, two bandits are dead inside.

(POV JC) I look around and see no signs of them. Where the hell did they go? "Let's keep moving! Go!" I yell heading for the next level. We run up a flight of stairs. Two my bandits are dead on the way up. This has to be them, I think to myself. We reach the second floor of the parking garage. We can hear the cars pulling up in the front. Shit, its Negan. We've got to find the girls and get out of here! Up ahead we hear commotion. "Get down now!" I hear a bandit say. We move in closer. Four bandits have the girls surrounded in the middle of the floor. I motion for Brian and Keegan to move up for the kill. I have Justin cover us with his bow and Mayte is our distraction. We circle around the them and wait in on Mayte. Mayte starts to walk toward the bandits now with his hands up, "hey fellas, you guys know where I can find the bathroom?" He says, the bandits put their guns up to him. "MAYTE!" Yells Elizabeth. We start to creep up to them. I grab my guy and break his neck, Brian stabs another in the throat and drags him down. Two left. One bandit walking toward Mayte, the other in front of Keegan. Keegan cups the bandits mouth and slices his neck, blood pouring out. The girls start laughing now, as the last bandit remains clueless. No one noticed the fifth bandit behind us. "JC LOOK OUT!" Justin says from the other side of the floor. Both bandits turn in our direction guns in the air. "GET DOWN!" I yell. Gun shots go off and I run to the bandit behind us, I use my body to block the girls behind me, taking three to the chest. I kick the gun out of his hands and Justin sends an arrow right through his eye. Mayte already took care of the other one. We got them. "LET'S MOVE IT!" I yell, looking at everyone now. They all get up but we are stopped by the sound of Negan's voice, "Hey Ace, I think your sister has a few words to say before she dies."

(POV JC) "NOOO!" Ace screams running toward the hallway leading to the ground level. "ACE, WAIT!" I yell. "It's suicide and you know it," Brian says. I look around and think we almost made it out of here in one shot. I look at Mayte and he gives me the nod. Hayley comes over to me, "what are we gonna do?" She says. I take out my radio. "Plan B, Konnor you're up!" I yell. "On my way," Konnor says. "One more thing, do no target the girl, I repeat do not target the girl she's friendly," I say. "You got it JC," we hear Maya say. Everyone looks at me with eagerness. "What's plan B?" Elizabeth says. We start hearing the loud engine and I motion everyone to run to ledge of the second floor. Outside we see Konnor driving the 18-wheeler and Maya mounted on top of it with a machine gun. The bandits underneath us start to turn around and yell. "Wait for Maya to shoot and than unleash everything you got!" I yell. We pick up our guns and lean them over the ledge. I can see Negan pushing his bandits ahead of him and running inside. Maya starts shooting and we unload out weapons on the bandits below. At least twenty of them went down before we had to reload. "GET READY!" I yell seeing how close the truck was now. Konnor drives right into the parking garage, running over two more bandits in the process, we can hear him shooting from his window. "GO! Now!" I yell, jumping off the ledge and landing on top of the 18-wheeler near Maya. Everyone follows. I jump down to the street level to help out Konnor. I grab Rachel and help her to the roof. "LETS GO KONNOR!" I yell at him pulling him into the drivers seat. He puts it in reverse and starts pulling away. Konnor and I see Negan walking out from the fire, a big smile on his face. I take a closer look and realize he's...clapping. We start to drive away, and that's the last thing we see. Negan clapping in defeat. I can hear everyone on the roof cheering.

Chapter 24 - Land of the Dead

(POV JC) It's good to finally win one I think, staring out the passenger window, the breeze hitting my face. We've been on the road for a day now, hoping to find some place we can stay and rebuild. "How's that chest of yours?" Konnor says from the drivers seat. I lift up my shirt to take a look. The three bullet holes that used to be there now look like bruises. I shrug my shoulders. "Can't complain" I say smiling. I check the others in the back of the truck and everyone's doing fine. I guess anyone would have a better day outside of captivity I think. "Hey we're hungry back here," Logor says from the back. It's good to see him back on his feet. Konnor looks in the review mirror, "how about McDonald's?" He says and we all start to laugh. I looked forward just in time to see the girl on the street waving her arms to get our attention. "SHIT! LOOK OUT!" I yell at Konnor, he jolts the wheel in a fit of panic and we skid to the side of the road, right into a tree. "Jesus Christ who the hell was that?" Konnor says, trying to deflate his airbag. I look around and see the girl running toward our car. "Hey everybody alright?" I yell to the back of the truck. "We're fine! What the hell happened?!" Mayte says. Konnor and I jump out the car to meet with the girl who we just realized was screaming this whole time. "RUN! GET BACK IN THE TRUCK!" Konnor and I look at her confused. She finally reaches us and points down the road. Holy shit it's a herd of the dead. Konnor and I run in the truck, we let the girl jump in the back with the rest of them. "Lets go Konnor!" I yell. He starts to turn the truck on. It's not responding. "It's-it's dead!" Konnor says slamming on the wheel. We look at the hungry rotten faces of the dead heading right for us. There's no getting out of this one.

(POV: Elizabeth) "Who the hell are you?" I ask the mysterious girl who decided to just climb in the back of the truck. "Cassidy, she replies. "You alone?" Keke asks. "Look nows not the time, we have a serious problem," she replies. We start hearing the dead outside, their groans filling up the air. I grab my sword and head for the front of the truck. "How bad is it?" I ask. JC and Konnor are in the front seats still trying to turn the truck on. "This is NOT good," Konnor says. "Tell everyone to get ready to move," JC says to me. I turn around and tell everyone. I kick open the door and We jump out, there's dead waiting for us outside. I chop their heads off easily. "WHERE DO WE GO!?" Madi yells. "RUN!" Mayte yells, we all turn around and start running. We can hear the dead grow louder and louder. "Head for the woods!" I hear JC yell, I turn around and see some people missing. "KEEP RUNNING!" I hear a voice yell in the distance, I don't stop. I run right into the woods, flying by trees and jumping over rotten corpses. Finally I stop to catch my breath. I think I lost them. The sound of the dead is weak, almost gone. I turn and see no one in sight. I decide to climb a tree to get a better view. I reach the top and just see an army of the dead heading to the woods, none of my friends are anywhere to be seen. Where is everyone? I think to myself. Suddenly I hear gun shots go off, all different directions, just guns blazing. We're scattered. I start yelling but no one is answering me. I see more dead behind me and keep running forward, I can't stop. I didn't see the ledge in front of me. I run off the edge and start tumbling down, trees spinning, the sound of the dead encircling my thoughts, I just keep falling and falling until I land. Lights out, I'm knocked unconscious, in the woods filled with the dead and alone. The last thing I see is the dark shadows of the dead creeping out from beyond the woods and the sounds of my friends screaming for help.

(POV: BRIAN) "WHERE ARE THEY?!" Keke yells. I look around and can't see anyone. "Shit, I don't know. We can't stop Keke lets go!" I say. We keep moving forward. I don't know what happened. Once we got into the woods we got separated and then the dead started coming out of everywhere. It's just Keke and I now and we have one thing on our minds, staying alive. "What should we do Brian?" Keke asks me. "Just keep moving, we'll find them Keke. Don't worry." I say trying to comfort her. I can tell she doesn't like the odds. "Lets stop and take a breath," I say, exhausted from our run. We sit next to some rocks and drink water. Keke looks around nervously. "Hey listen, I wanted to talk to you," I say, thinking this may be my only chance. Before I finish I hear the dead coming from the left of us, "shit!" I say pulling up my gun. It's a little girl no older than nine years old. Keke and I just stare at her, saddened by the sight. I aim and close my eyes, pulling the trigger. Three more dead come from behind us. "Fuck, we gotta move Keke!" I say shoving one of the dead into the other two. We keep running until Keke gets tripped up by a dead on the floor. "BRIAN!" She yells, trying to kick it off. I run over and bash it's head in with a hammer. The blood running down my arm. I lift her up off the ground and we keep going until we reach a small river. There's dead across and dead behind us, surrounding us with each step. Trapped. I look at Keke, and we give each other the look every soldier gives when they know it's time. "Keke-I just wanted to say-" she stops me and kisses me. "I know," she says. She takes out her gun and reloads. "How about one last hoorah?" She says. I laugh and reload. "Fuck the dead."

(POV: Justin) "JUSTIN!" I hear my name being yelled by I can't find the source. "Where the hell are you?!" I yell back in a panic. Everything goes quiet. Shit shit. I pull my gun out and keep looking around. Finally I hear someone running, I pull my gun up and get ready for anything. Keegan comes flying out, "RUN YOU IDIOT! RUN" he says pushing my gun away. I follow him, full on sprint. "There's so many of them man," he yells out. "Look over there!" He says making a sharp turn uphill. On top there's a small cabin. He starts running toward it. "KEEGAN WAIT!" I yell, trying to keep up. He runs inside and I follow. "Keegan! Where the hell are you," I whisper, it's pitch black in here. I try turning on the lights but the power is out. Goddamnit I do not want to be here. I pull up my gun and take out my flashlight. "Keegan!" I repeat. Still nothing, just the creaking of wood underneath my feet. I hear a crash coming from straight ahead and stop moving. I pull my flashlight up. "C'mon man it's not funny!" I say. I try pointing my flashlight but it doesn't pick up anything in the dark. I start creeping forward, my hand starts to shake. "I swear to god Keegan if you get me killed," I begin, and then I start to hear groans. I start to move quicker now, scanning the pitch black as fast as I can. "J-Justin." I run forward and freeze in my tracks, dropping my flashlight in the process. It rolls on the floor and illuminates Justin's body, two of the dead over him eating while he reaches out to me with a bloody arm. "NO!" I yell, I shoot both of them in head and push them off. I can see his bones through the bite marks on his neck and chest. I drop my head down, what the hell do I do. He grabs my gun and puts it in my hand, than points it at his head. "No, I-i won't," I say. He closes his eyes, "do it Justin, I'm-I'm not asking you," He replies. I hear the groans of the herd behind me and stand up. "Damn it Keegan," I say, than I point my gun at him and pull the trigger. BLAM! "I'm sorry."

Chapter 25 - Lost

Faith. The true test comes when we find ourselves alone, facing the evil of the world with nothing but a free spirit and fear. We yearn to breathe, yearn to live another day. Our friends fall, yet, we continue to pursue that goal we all wish to attain. Is it freedom? This world is already free. No government to hold us back. What we seek is more personal. Treacherously scarred in our hearts. We want hope. Hope that this land will one day return to the living. To wake up one morning and not feel the fear suffocating the very air that we breathe. Danger is real, the only difference now is we know how to deal with it. Death used to have a purpose. A continuous circle that meant the end of an era. Death is now a crusade. A genocide for mankind, a plague of revelation. There is no escaping this. The more time passes by the more we realize our turn is coming up. To survive is a gift. Handed down not by god, but by the man watching your back. Against all odds we stand together, fighting to protect the ones we love, and the ones we have yet to meet. We won't stop trying. I will find you among the darkness, and I will gladly die for you to reach another day. Never stop fighting. For the day you realize hope is unattainable, you are already dead.

END OF BOOK 1