2 month pass before Lindsay recovers, her cause unknown, but believed to be some spores they found by the campsite. They were removed and that was that, but Michael was just glad she was fine. In fact, he stayed by her side through her whole recovery, which forced others to work more with Michael tending to her, putting all the other members on double time trying to find and retrieve supplies and food for the group.
Caleb, however, was not so cooperative. At times, he would refuse to leave his makeshift bed for days. It was proving harder for him to get over the death of his brother, Jordan. Along with his distress, his state of person had slowly begun to change. He became paler each day, and left camp less and less; he hardly ate, and hardly drank, and he refused to talk to the other party members, accept for the occasional grumble or sigh. Until one night Burnie finally addressed the problem.
"Hey, Caleb's not looking so hot, huh?" He said to Ryan in a hushed tone, looking at the small man in his baseball cap as he just picked at his food, the whole group gathered around a small fire in the middle of their camp site.
"Yeah, I think he might be sick." He replied, not taking his eyes off the fire. "And I don't think we have enough medicine to have anyone else get sick." He sighed. "This couldn't have happened at a worse time."
"I have to agree. I know that Lindsay is healthy again, but things are only getting worse. The doctors are over overwhelmed and medication is running low. We should hind him help soon."
"Yeah, but where the hell would we hind that, Burnie?"
Just then, Barbara walked up to the group gathered around the fire, a sack of supplies on her back. "Pack up everybody, we're leaving."
"Wait, what? Why?" Gavin squawked. "What's wrong with what we got here?"
"Its not safe." Barbara stated, "And just look at Caleb! He's sicker than a dog near death." She gestured to Caleb, who had moved from lying on the ground, to throwing up behind an old news paper box. "We need to find help and a safer place to camp out.
"She's right." Blaine agreed, setting his food down next to him. "Food and medicine is getting sparse and so are the people. It's the smartest decision right now."
"Hold the fucking phone. Who put you in charge?" Michael replied to Barbara, standing quickly. "If anyone should be in charge it's me! If it weren't for me you'd all probably have died!"
"Like hell I would have!"
"Then why are you still here, huh?!"
"You took me in, and I've known you for years. What else was supposed to do?"
"Said no! You could have said no! If you could have survived on your own, then why didn't you!"
"BECAUSE YOU ASSHOLES ARE ALL I HAVE LEFT!" She yelled back, as the group fell silent. Barbara had let tears slip through. When she felt a hand rest on her shoulder, she looked up to meet Ryan's face.
"Barb, we've all lost loved ones. Burnie lost Ashley, Gavin lost Meg, you and Blaine lost Aaron, Caleb lost his brother, I lost my wife and children, and Michael lost some of his best friends and his brother. We are all lucky to even be alive, and to have each other in this time." He said, trying to console her. Don't know why he would try to console her with reminders of death, but hey, what can a guy do.
Michael looked at member of the party for a brief moment before leaving and going into his tent, calling behind him "Fine! Go ahead! Make all the decisions without me!" Ryan sighed and followed suit a moment later. He folded his arms at the door, watching Michael rummage through his things, grumbling curses under his breath.
"She is right Michael."
"I don't give a shit if she's right. I'm the leader. Not little miss Barbara Punkleman. When the hell did she start acting serious anyway? It's not even like her." He rambled as he continued to rummage though the backpack next to his bed.
"I don't know, but now is not the time to argue about who's in charge or not. It doesn't matter anyway, but right now, it's in our best interest to head out. We've been here too long. If we leave, maybe we can find a doctor for Caleb, see if he can get healthy."
"... Fine. We leave at dawn." He said, clearly disheartened by this decision. "You can go tell the others. I'm going to bed."
"Everyone get up!" Frantic yelling is was woke up the gang early that morning, around 2 AM. It was Blaine, and he was clearly distressed. The group exited their respective tents and rubbed the sleep out their eye, grumbling as they do so.
"Ugh, what is it now Blaine?" Burnie asked, frustrated with the early wake up call.
"It's Caleb- He's gone."