Chapter 1

Travis' gaze travelled from 'Abigail' to Madison for a moment before he looked back up at the well-dressed man by his side. He didn't know what to say to him exactly; the last that he had expected was for the man to say what he had, to show him a boat in the distance before inviting him and the others to come, to flee to safety.

"There's no obligation for you to come, if you would rather stay put," the man told him when he saw the doubt in Travis' demeanor, "but I am damn sure that we'll have a far better chance not being confronted with this infection or with the infected at sea than on land. You've saved me, and I would like to offer you a chance at survival in return, so that we can be even. You're not safe as long as your feet touch earth, far as I know. If you aren't interested, if you do not take your chance, it will not be my fault."

Travis' dark eyes slid to his blonde lover once again. Madison had taken all of the bigger decisions since they had seen the first person come back to life from the death. Whereas she had always had a bit of a bossy attitude, she had become more so since. With his eyes, he begged her to give her opinion, to tell him what to do, to guide him when he felt so lost. He wanted their safety. He had seen too many people die already from this infection, and he wanted to stop it, and if he couldn't, he at least wanted to be able to stop it from happening to them, to people he loved. He tried to get that across by the look in his eyes. Remarkably, unsurprisingly, he could tell she understood in the look she returned to him.

"I believe we should take the chance to escape whatever this all is. What he says really makes sense, Travis," Maddy spoke in a casual and logical tone. "We should get cleaned up, get all of the blood from those infected people off, and then follow him to the boat. That's the best chance we have. We don't know how fast it has spread so far or how wide it has, but from what I have seen, it doesn't look good for us if we stay."

He agreed with all of two nods: one towards Maddy, one towards Victor. The man simply inclined his neatly-shaven head towards the house, as if to tell him and by extension the rest of the company that they could and should make use of his facilities in order to 'clean up', as Maddy had put it, so that they could be on their way.

Without words, first Madison before everyone else turned and began to walk to the house. In silence they had all somehow learned to accept the blonde's decisions, had learned to rely on her for their own safety. They all knew now what to do. They all knew they had to do it fast but very thoroughly, too. Christopher looked over his shoulder every few steps as he walked up to the house beside Alicia in quiescence. The dark-haired girl knew the reason why he looked back, and she swallowed the lump she felt form in her throat. My mom is alive.

She hadn't understood the Matt situation back then, hadn't understood why first her parents and then he hadn't wanted them to be too close when they were clearly a couple. Part of her wished she still didn't know, because by the haunted look in Chris' eyes, she knew that the knowledge that someone who had loved you so much had sacrificed their entire life for the sake of others, for you, was a heavy one.

Travis didn't bother to try the bathroom first but let Madison and the children do what they had to do. He would go rinse off and slide into clean clothes later, before they had to go. He had learned to do so after years of having to always wait on Alicia or Nick to be done before school and taking far longer than they had said they would. As everyone drifted off to another corner of the house, Travis was left to himself in Victor's wide clean kitchen.

He sighed, loudly, and leaned both of his hands on the counter by the sink, bowing his head down as he realized he had a pounding headache. He wasn't exactly surprised after their last few days. Last month, he would have called anyone insane the way he had Nick when he told him what precisely he had seen. It was surreal that this was happening. People died and came back to life to turn the un-infected into the same walking dead as themselves, looking to feed and to spread the end of the world as they had experienced.

He briefly considered the idea of a good, effective painkiller, but he knew that he couldn't have the potential side effects of drowsiness or sleepiness. He needed to stay alert at the moment. It would be better after some rest, he sternly told himself. No need for any medicine. He didn't know when that 'good rest' would come, though. He didn't know when he had last had one of those either. He rubbed his hands in his face.

As he brought his head up, eyes opening, Travis' gaze fell upon a person across the road, partially bent, holding onto an unlit street light: from what he could tell, an un-infected as well.

Author's Note: Please review. I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr as well, by the way ── feel free to hop on and have a look and follow me; I'm BrokePerception on all three!