A/N: Hey guys! Happy 2019 to all, to celebrate I'm finally going to update this darn story! Get ready for a nice update with some time jumps. Thanks for sticking with me for so long! So here's to a great 2019, enjoy this update!

Chapter II: Welcome To The Family

Pharmacy 5:15 PM

"We're back from doing our perimeter check." Carley said as they entered the pharmacy. Inside of the pharmacy they're were two other people. The first one was a tall woman who looked to be in her late 20's early 30's and seemed to have a permanent scowl on her face. The other one was a tall man who was at least 6'4" and in his 60's who looked like he was already in a bad mood. The older man immediately spoke with an enraged voice: "Who the hell are these people!?" Carley was about to speak when the other woman spoke: "Why are they here? What the hell were you thinking bringing them back here?" Carley finally able to speak spoke very quickly; "Lilly, Larry. Please relax, this is Hunter and Jamie. They're people. Normal people, who aren't sick." Lilly quickly retorted; "Normal? We don't know these people, you were supposed to check the perimeter not bring extra people in." Carley who apparently knew Lilly would say this already had a response in mind. "Oh my God Lilly, now is not the time to think that everyone is out to get us, we need extra people." Hunter was now a little angry as he didn't like being spoken for and let them know it. "Whoa now! We and Jamie aren't staying here. We were just gonna grab some extra supplies and be on our way." Carley then turned to Hunter to talk to him; "Hunter, that wouldn't be a good idea." Hunter chuckled a little bit before speaking again; "Oh yeah? Why is that? Afraid We'll get sick?" Finally Doug spoke up: "No, it's because of what happens after they get sick." Hunter then saw everyone's faces falter in some way. "Are you telling me you don't know?" Lilly said in surprising soft voice. "Know what?" Hunter asked. Carley was about to speak before her chin began to quiver when Doug spoke up again with his hand on Carley's back. "When you get sick, you die then become a ghoul and eat people...And whatever's left comes back." Larry then decided to say something as well: "And if you get bit. You...you turn into one of them as well."

Hunter and Jamie stood there in shock. They really didn't know what to say. Hunter decided to finally muster up the ability to speak again. "Are you serious? This sounds like a horror movie." Lilly who was rubbing her right arm looked up at Hunter; "It's even worse then that. I was at Robin's Air Force Base when I saw it. At least 15 of those monsters swarmed us and only I was able to get out alive. It happens so fast, I don't know how I made it out, but once I was in my car I immediately got my dad and we we're going to get out of the city. But on our way through the city I hit one of those things and we had to take shelter inside of here." Before Hunter could express his sympathies to Lilly Jamie grabbed his wrist; "Hunter...We need to get out of here. We need to get out of the city, just like you said." Hunter then put his hand on Jamie's shoulder and spoke to her in his calmly voice: "We will Jamie, but first we need to try and get a handle on things. I'm not taking us anywhere if I don't know what's going on." He then looked directly at Lilly and spoke to her again. "Would you mind if we stayed here until I can get a plan together for me and Jamie?" For reasons that Lilly couldn't figure out she felt something while looking at the man who not even five minutes ago she wanted to kick to the curb. Maybe she knew she'd be giving them a death sentence if she did, but she decided to give him the answer he needed to hear: "Yes, you can...but one foul up and you two are gone." Hunter stuck his hand out for her to shake and spoke with an excited tone: "Thanks, you are a life saver." Lilly stared at the hand for a few seconds before turning away and speaking in her slightly annoyed tone: "Yeah, whatever." Hunter brought his hand down and then he remembered something: his truck with all of his and Jamie's things! "Oh shit! I need to move my truck! It has all of our things in it." Immediately Carley walked up to Hunter and suggested something: "Well you can't go out there by yourself, come on I'll come with you." And with that they both left the pharmacy.

Pharmacy 8:00 PM

Things had settled down a little bit since the semi-hostile welcome. And now the group of six were in a fairly strange silence. But then Lilly broke the silence; "Alright someone needs to keep watch tonight, just in case something happens." Not wanting to wear out his and Jamie's welcome, jumped at the chance to show what he could bring to the table. "I'll do it, I need time to think anyways." Lilly looked over and nodded her head; "Sounds good, everyone else should try and get some sleep we need to be ready for anything tomorrow." With that last sentence everyone started to look for somewhere to hunker down for the night. "Hunter, are you sure you want to do this?" Jamie asked her roommate, she has seen Hunter in this state before where he slips into a crazy attempt to become a hero when he didn't need to. "I'm fine. Get some sleep Dizzy." He said back with a small grin. Jamie then half punched his shoulder; "Fine. And I told you to stop calling me that."

Everyone had more or less fallen asleep within 20 minutes of laying down, probably due from the exhaustion. So Hunter finally had a chance to clear his head and try to get a plan together. He knew his family had things in order on the other side of the country, but he was missing them and hadn't been able to get in contact with any of them. But didn't think even for a second that anything had happened to them. He knew his family, they knew how to prepare for a crisis. So he sighed very deep and decided to pace around the store to get his brain going, but to no avail. He hated when he couldn't think straight and decided to let it go for now and went to his favorite pass time and started to hum some of his favorite songs while checking the front door to the pharmacy.

Pharmacy 2:46 AM

Carley jolted up with a huff. She had just woken up from an awful dream. All she saw was her boss and coworkers getting ripped apart inside of their news van. She then looked down the same aisle where she was sleeping and saw the reason why she was alive: Doug. The man ran in like a super hero and carried her away from the death and destruction and got her to the pharmacy. After she thought about that she saw Hunter writing in a notebook with a small glow stick around his neck so he could see what he was writing. He also had a fierce look of determination, she was trying to figure out what was driving this man to be so calm. She got up from the floor and walked up to the man who was watching over the group while they slept. Hunter saw Carley walking over to him so he closed his notebook and put his pencil behind his ear. "Hey Car, trouble sleeping?" She then stretched her arms and gave a small smile; "Yeah, can't really sleep on tile. Shocking as that may be." This earned her a small chuckle from Hunter who responded to the slight joke; "Neither do I. Unless I've had too much to drink then any semi flat surface will do." His bad joke also earned a laugh. "Mind if I keep you company. Don't think I'll be getting anymore sleep tonight." Hunter thought about it for about a half second before nodding his head: "I could use the company."

Pharmacy 4:55 AM

"So, you're a personal trainer and you run your own business? That's pretty cool." Over the last few hours Hunter and Carley had been swapping stories with each other about their lives. "Yeah, it's fun. It's my dream job and honestly I love going to work everyday. Which now in days is a good thing to be able to say." Hunter said in response. "But you're a reporter, that has to have some great perks." Carley then chuckled before responding to Hunter. "It's not as glamorous as you might think. I mostly cover fluff pieces like animal fashion shows and things of that nature. In all honestly I'm probably going to be doing a blog before the year is over." She finished with another small chuckle. This conversation went on for a few more minutes before they both went silent after hearing distant gun fire. "Do you think that's the police finally getting a handle on things?" Hunter asked Carley. "I don't know but I hope so, maybe they got the national guard into the city." She said in response. Then a tired voice came from behind the two. "Everything alright? I heard gun fire." The pair turned around to see it was Lilly. Hunter then answered the question. "Yes, we're all good at this end. We're hoping that might be the police or military getting a grasp on things." Lilly then sighed and looked at Hunter and spoke again; "Maybe, but I wouldn't get your hopes up." Lilly then once again looked at Hunter and could see the bags under his eyes and decided it was time he got some rest. "Hey Hunter, why don't you get some rest, you look like crap. Me and Carley can take over from here." Hunter then let out a bigger laugh then was expected; "Jeez tell me what you really think. You sure though, I feel fine." Carley then gave him a smile and gave him the answer he was hoping for. "Yeah Hunter, get some sleep, we've got this." Hunter then gave them both a thankful nod and went behind the counter of the pharmacy and fell asleep within moments of laying down.

Pharmacy 3:00 PM

Everyone was on edge inside of the pharmacy as only a few hours ago a few of those things had smashed through the windows and almost got in. After they cleared them out they had to board up the windows. They also decided to lock the security gate outside of the front door with a combo lock. And possibly the biggest issue, Larry needed nitroglycerin pills for his heart and they didn't know where the keys to the over the counter pills were located. Along with the stress of needing his pills Larry had been more angry than he had been in the last 12 hours. Hunter and Doug were busy trying to use a small metal stick to try and pry open the security gate that kept the pills out of there reach. "Well it looks like the two cavemen can't open a gate with a stick." Larry spat out with anger. Doug then looked down at the ground and spoke to the grizzly bear of a man; "Sorry Larry, we're trying our best." Larry then let out a huge laugh and immediately put the younger man down. "Aw, you're trying well la de dah. Jeez you two are pathetic!" Hunter had finally had enough and decided to step up to bat for himself and Doug. "You know what Larry, I get that you're mad but for God's sake. If we're not doing this properly by all means you can do it yourself or leave us the fuck alone! Got that you old fuck!" Larry was now so angry that his face was as red as an apple but before he could respond they heard something outside.

"That sounds like people." Carley said. "Yeah and it sounds like they need help." Hunter said to add on to Carley's statement. "No way! Out of the question!" Lilly said immediately. "We need to focus on ourselves. We can't help everyone." She continued. "Well I don't care we need to help them." Carley said in retaliation as she pulled out her gun and started to walk towards the door. "I'm going with you Carley. Let's go!" Hunter said as he opened the door. Before Lilly could do anything the pair was gone to try and help the people outside.

Once the two of them were outside they saw the people in question. It was five people, the first one was an African american man who stood at about 6'1 who was standing in front of a little girl who was wearing a hat and couldn't be older then about 7 years old. The third and fourth people were a man with a mustache wearing a fishing company shirt and the other was a woman who was a little bit on the chubby side and they were trying to distance themselves from the horde that was closing in. There was also another small child who was about to become a meal for a ghoul when suddenly a gun shot rang out. Carley had shot the thing right between the eyes. "Everyone inside let's go!" Carley said. Hunter then ran up next to Carley "Let's move it I need to lock the gate!" Hunter ordered. The second man scooped up the other child and they made a run to the door. As they went through the doors to the pharmacy Hunter went to close the gate and as he was getting the lock on, he was almost grabbed by one of the ghouls. "Oh shit, Carley help!" Carley turned and saw Hunter struggling to get out of the grip of the monster. Carley immediately shot the monster through it's eye and with that Hunter ran to the door, but not before he finally locked the gate. But things inside the pharmacy were about to get even more wild than Hunter and Carley would ever think.

A/N: Alright sorry if this update was a little uneven with it's pacing but I need to get this story moving a little bit. BTW anytime there's a time jump just know that unless stated the story from the game will be pretty much the same. So here's to an awesome 2019 where I can continue this story and not be so crazy!