Abe, Rosita and Ethan took off down the dirt path towards where Danny had gone.
"He should be down the road here…" Ethan mused. Both Rosita and Abe glanced down the path.
"Y'know, I'm starting to agree with Abe," Rosita spoke up, "this path looks like something bad has happened here. Look at the trees."
The trees all had the same carved Z etched into the bark. Abe muttered something under his breath.
"I really hope those walkers didn't get to him." Ethan frowned. "He said something about knowing this friendly lady at a department store, claiming that it was down this way."
"Pfft. Can't find many friendly people nowadays." Rosita scoffed.
Abe froze in his tracks, raising his rifle. "What was that?" Ethan had his handgun ready.
"That better be Danny…" He hoped.
A growl was heard from behind the bushes. Rosita clutched a sword closely to her chest, ready to swing any moment. Ethan was also at the ready, his aim rather focused.
A arm appeared above the rough leafage, before a zombified man popped out. He growled, and stumbled over the bush. Ethan wasted no time shooting once at the zombie's head.
The walker stumbled, and collapsed in a heap on top of Rosita. She screamed as it grabbed her hair, pushing itself up.
Ethan told Abe, "Let's get that thing off her!" He reached for one of the hands and yanked. The walker flipped over on its back, but Rosita was still trapped under its weight. With that, Ethan pushed it off of her and shot at it again.
The walker lay still, and Abe helped Rosita up. "Any bites?"
Rosita wheezed. "No, no." Abe looked slightly dissatisfied.
"With all these zombies around, I'm wondering how Danny managed to get past." Ethan wondered aloud.
"What did you just call them?" Rosita asked. "They're walkers. Zombies are so cliche."
"Ugh, force of habit." Ethan apologized.
A shout was heard further down the path. Rosita looked at Ethan. "Is that…."
"Dammit…" Ethan raced down the path, seeing Danny fleeing from an oncoming walker.
All three re-aimed their weapons. Danny got out of their way, allowing them to shoot, stab, whatever at that walker.
In 5 seconds, the walker was down, and Danny was on the ground, panting.
"Ethan, oh my God, this just…" The bartender panted.
"This just isn't your day?" Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, it's a shame."
"Dude," Abe hollered, "What were you thinking?"
"Shh!" hissed Rosita. "They'll hear us."
"I thought that my friend would be there, but she told me to go before they came." Danny explained in a hushed voice tone. "And now the place is probably overrun."
"Well...that's just life." Ethan sighed in the same voice tone.
Rosita glared daggers at Ethan. "No man left behind."
"I was being sarcastic." Ethan countered. "Get up, Dan. We're going to get your buddy."
Rosita pulled Ethan ahead. "I don't like your attitude, mister." She hissed. With that, she shoved him forward. The two led the way there, Ethan taking point and Danny staying behind.
"Who's your little friend anyway?" Abe questioned. "A girlfriend?"
"More like a...yeah…" Danny responded. "Her name's Madison."
Rosita rolled her eyes. "Great, another girl afraid to get her hands dirty. Just what I needed."
"She better not be reluctant to fight." Ethan muttered to himself.
Rosita and Ethan were both a bit grumpy now, and completely zoned out.
Out of nowhere, a small girl showed up on the path.
"Hello?" she called. "Anyone?"
Ethan and Danny heard the voice, and looked at Abe. "Well?" The latter of the two asked.
Rosita shook her head, while Abe sighed. "Is this her?"
"No, Madison's at least 21." Danny responded.
"Well, who's this then?" Rosita wondered, walking up to the girl. "Wait...this is a teenager…"
The girl looked down shyly. "Hello…."
"Hey kiddo. Where's your parents?" The bartender inquired.
"Well, my mom's dead," The girl replied coldly, "And my dad's at the farm, with Maggie."
"Who's Maggie?" Rosita questioned.
"My sister," The blonde-haired girl informed, "Well, half-sister."
"Sorry about your mother, little girl." Danny sympathized.
The girl jerked forward, shoving Danny. "I'm not a little girl!" she screamed.
"Hey, he didn't know." Ethan defended. "We'd be more than happy to help you get back with Maggie and your dad, alright?"
"They sent me out here. Y'know, to look for 'recruits'. Ugh." she replied.
Rosita smirked. "I like this chick." The girl grinned.
The girl's gaze hardened upon returning to Danny and Ethan. "Who are you?"
"Name's Ethan Gold." Ethan told her.
"Danny Scotch. I am...well, was a bartender in town, but now with this whole thing going on, I uh...you get the idea." Danny added.
"Rosita Espinosa." Rosita chuckled, then pointing at Abe. "And that's my dude, Abe Ford."
"Beth." The girl looked down. "Beth Greene. You know Maggie, and my dad is Hershel."
"Good to know. We were on our way to find Dan's girlfriend, Madison. Care to help us out?" Ethan asked.
Beth shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
"Alright. Danny, what store was Madison in?" Ethan inquired.
"She's actually a model...I'll let you put the pieces together." The bartender responded.
Abe whistled. "Of course, you went for the hot model. Big surprise." Both Rosita and Beth giggled at this. Ethan just smirked at this.
"She's not all about showing skin, guys." Danny defended. "Madison's actually a nice girl."
"Okay then." Rosita laughed. "Let's go find her."
Beth pranced ahead of the group, while the others marched at a moderate pace. Abe patted Danny on the back, smirking, then whispered in his ear, "We don't blame ya."
"Thanks for that." He responded.
A gray-black building came into view.
"Wait," Rosita froze, "why is this in the middle of the woods?"
Ethan was quiet, looking over the structure of the building. For some reason, he felt like he knows of this place...but he just couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Something on your mind, Ethan?" Danny wondered.
"I feel like I've seen this place before…" Ethan told the group. "I don't know why…"
"You're probably just thinking things." The bartender shrugged.
"Whatever it is, it's creepy as hell." Beth muttered.
"Abe? Got any idea if we should go in or not?" Ethan wondered.
"Eh, just go for it." Abe gruffly replied.
So with that, Ethan entered first, slowly mind you.
All of a sudden, something grabbed his arm from behind.
And Danny would grab the something and pry it off Ethan.
A blue bracelet dropped to the floor, clattering.
"What's this?" The bartender picked up the bracelet, examining it, as Ethan looked around for a light switch.
"It's mine, you silly goose." A voice replied from the darkness.
"Oh, sorry." Danny apologized.
"Well, at least you didn't have to find my corpse on the floor." the woman replied, taking the bracelet.
"Yeah, thank goodness for that." Danny mused. Ethan finally found a light switch and flicked it on.
Madison appeared, fully dressed in purple. Rosita rolled her eyes in disgust. Well, not exactly fully dressed in purple. Her blonde hair had a noticeable purple streak in it, and her top was the same color, but it was covered up by a denim jean jacket, and she also had on a yellow skirt with black leggings and wore white running shoes, which were rather out of place.
"Oh thank God we found you." Danny was relieved. "Wait, weren't you at the store?"
"Well I was, but then I had to get my stuff together and run, since those monsters were coming in. I grabbed these running shoes and bolted out the back." Madison explained.
"I wish they could've just gotten her," Rosita muttered to herself, perhaps a bit too loudly.
"What? Why?" Madison asked, a little offended.
Rosita quickly covered up, "Oh no...I was talking about..her." She pointed at Beth.
Beth showed no sign of offense, knowing what it was about. Meanwhile, Ethan was rummaging through some of the desks, looking for any sign of people being here. He soon stumbled across a peculiar folder marked in black sharpie as 'Research Notes' and began reading through them.
"What's that?" Abe asked.
Rosita snatched a few papers. "Um…"
If Rosita would look at one paper in particular, she would see the name 'Stephen Gold' on the bottom of it.
"Ethan, what's your last name again?" Rosita asked.
"It's Gold. Why?" He inquired.
"Is your father's name Stephen?" He nodded, then asked,
"How much you wanna bet he's been here this past week?"
She shoved the paper in his face. "Shut it, silly boy."
Ethan's eyes widened, visibly. "Oh for the love of...I knew it…" He sighed deeply.
"Is your father a madman or something?" Rosita asked.
Ethan didn't say anything for a few seconds, but responded. "My father is...was...one of the higher ups of a rather notorious group known as Umbrella. When the US Government shut them down due to their experiments, he took their notes and ran off to keep working. Hell, that's what some others did, and I bet you he's still working with those few."
"So, he's been here before? And you?" Beth inquired.
"He left me and my mother to work for Umbrella, and she had to work overtime to pay for all the bare necessities. And when I found out about their atrocious deeds? You know what I did?" Ethan asked. Danny and Madison sure did. "I had to resort to a life of crime to pay for myself. I became a con-man, but I only robbed people that were criminals themselves. I conned lowlives and scumbags for a living. And it hurt."
Everyone was silent for a minute.
"Wow," Beth whispered, "I'm sorry…"
"On that day I found out, I made it my life mission to find him, and find out why he did all this." The con-man told them. "And I still haven't had much luck, but maybe now I might be able to."
"If we find him…" Rosita fired another blank, startling Madison and Beth.
"Yeah. I was thinking the same thing." Ethan agreed.
"Horrible." Abe muttered.
Danny nodded in agreement, Madison just letting out a deep sigh.
"You knew you'd have to tell us eventually, right Ethan?" The bartender wondered.
"From the second that lady became one of those walkers, I knew that I couldn't hide it." Ethan frowned. "For now, let's just take these notes, and find Maggie's dad. I'll look them over and see if I can't find any info on my father."
"I told you, we have to go to the farm." Beth sighed.
"Then let's go to this farm." Madison agreed. "I'm curious as to what Ethan can find with those notes."
"And it'll be much safer there." Danny assumed.
"Well, I'll lead the way." Beth stated, gesturing to a path leading down into another set of trees. And the group would follow Beth down said path.
"Well, let's just hope we don't run into any spooks." Abe chuckled.