Shelly's tears rained down her face, her hysteria worsening with every minute. "We have to go back!" she shouted over and over. Unable to take it anymore Mark slapped her hard across the face.

"Get a hold of yourself Shell!" he commanded. "He's gone! We can't go back there, he's one of them now, it'd be suicide!"

The force of his slap was enough to turn her head to the side, but it was his words that stunned her momentarily. "David," she cried out after a pause, more of a whimper now as her sobs overtook her once more.

"Way to be compassionate Mark," Jessie said in disgust. She wrapped her arms around the other woman, hugging her tight. "Shhhhh…It'll be okay. It's all going to be okay. You've got to calm down honey."

"No…it won't, it'll never be okay," Shelly choked out between sobs. "You killed him Kurt! How could you do that to him? How could you!" She almost dove into the front of the vehicle, beating at him with her fists. "Murderer!" she screamed.

"Geezus Shelly! Stop! It was an accident!" Kurt responded defensively, trying to dodge her blows as he spoke.

From the back, Mark and Jessie tried to wrestle her into the seat once more, but her grief gave her added strength and she fought them off as well. As her wild swings became more and more volatile, Cally found herself ducking to miss being struck, nearly causing the Hummer to swerve off the road. She yanked the wheel hard, her foot reflexively hitting the break simultaneously. There was a squeal of tires as she fought to regain control.

At last, she managed to bring it to a halt, slamming it into park. She whirled around, just as Kurt managed to get a grip on Shelly's upper arms. Cally was afraid he was going to start trying to shake some sense into the woman, but instead he spoke calmly. "Listen to me Shelly, it was an accident. David was my friend; I'd never fire at him, not intentionally."

"Murderer," she said again, this time spitting into his face.

Even as the spittle ran down the side of his face, he continued to try and reason with her. "It was an accident Shell, an accident," he kept repeating over and over.

"The rain can't fix him, not now, not anymore," Daniel started saying in a little sing-song chant.

"If you gotta blame someone for what happened to David, blame the real cause," he told her, jerking his head towards the crazy man. "Blame that insane sack of shit, or blame that fucking zombie ass thing back there. They're the ones that really killed him."

"I didn't kill him, I didn't kill anyone. I was trying to save them both, but you had to shoot. The rain…"

Kurt's fist connecting with Daniel's jaw effectively silenced the crazy man's prattle about the rain, in fact, it left him unconscious. It was a welcome silence, and the sight of him falling back against the seat seemed to have a calming effect on Shelly too. She stared at him for a moment before collapsing back into her seat, the fight leaving her body. She slumped against Jessie's shoulder and continued to cry softly.

"Cally? Why aren't we moving?" Kurt asked as he wiped the spit from his face at last. He turned forward in the seat once more, settling himself more fully into the seat.

"Seemed the prudent thing to do, what with all the flying fists and swerving off the road and shit."

"Well let's roll before anything else goes wrong," he suggested wearily.

With a nod, she smoothly shifted the H3 into gear and they headed down the road once more. Unlike before, silence eerily filled the inside of the vehicle, broken only by the occasional muffled sob.

The next hour passed in much the same way, nobody in the mood to joke as they'd done earlier. Before seeing David die before their eyes there was still a sense of unreality about it all. Now though, as David's blood began to congeal on the door of the Hummer, it was impossible to deny. Dead people really were walking and they were attacking, and the six of them were in a world of shit.

As one hour turned into two, Shelly finally cried herself into an exhausted sleep, and Daniel was either still out cold or playing 'possum. Nobody really cared about him though, as long as he wasn't whining about the rain everyone was happy, so to speak. Even Mark and Jessie seemed to doze off, which left Kurt and Cally with some semi-private time to talk.

Kurt was the first to speak, breaking the silence when he finally thought to ask, "You okay Cal? Driving I mean. You need a break or anything?"

"Do you know the way to the lake house from here?"

"No."

"Then don't ask stupid questions. I'll be fine."

He chuckled, but the sound was forced, humorless. "Well can I ask you something else then?"

"Shoot. Just not literally.

He ignored her rather tasteless joke. "Why do you keep calling this place a lake house? David said it was a cabin in the woods."

"David's idea of what constitutes a cabin in the woods is different from mine. He was of the opinion that anything up north on a lake, in the middle of the woods was a cabin. Myself, I think cabin kind of understates a 4000 square foot, 5 bedroom lake front house, don't you?"

"Holy shit," Kurt said, surprised.

"Exactly."

"So why didn't the two of you like people to know you're family?" he asked, not really sure what kind of answer to expect. She was quiet for so long that he was afraid she wouldn't answer at all.

"I don't know really," she replied at last, a small, sad smile on her face. "Old habits I suppose. We could have been poster children for the modern dysfunctional family while we were growing up."

He laughed, sure she was exaggerating. "How do you figure that? It'd take a lot to beat the foster homes I grew up in."

"Let's see, his dad married my mom when David and I were 8, and we absolutely hated each other on sight. After one long hellacious summer under the same roof, I begged and pleaded until they let me move in with my dad for the school year. They weren't really crazy about the idea, well, except for David, but they let me go anyway. After that first year, I'd spend two months every summer and every other holiday with my mom and lived with my dad 'til I was 17 and he decided to get married again."

"You don't do well with stepparents I take it. Or did your dad just decide he didn't want you around anymore?"

"Oh, I got along great with her before they got married, when I didn't know that they were dating," she said.

"Damn, dating the baby-sitter? Or was it the lonely, divorced next door neighbor? I had a few incidents like that in foster care."

"No, nothing like that. In fact, we'd been best friends for awhile in high school, even though she was a few years older than me."

"Holy shit!" Kurt said again, completely taken by surprise. Clearly he wasn't capable of saying anything else when someone through something out at him that caught him off guard.

"Indeed. We were both on the varsity swim team together and just stayed friends after she graduated. She never went away to college, and we hung out on the weekends sometimes, so I knew all about how she was seeing some old guy, just not who he was. Almost every time we got together, within 15-20 minutes her cell phone would ring, and she'd ditch me to run off to meet this guy. I actually used to tease her about her 'sugar daddy.' Anyways, long story short, I find out about them after they ran off to Vegas and got married. I was so dumb that I didn't put two and two together that he waited to call her after I'd left the house, he didn't know we were still friends," Cally laughed.

"So you decided living with your mom wasn't such a bad idea."

"Yeah, her freakazoid clan was looking pretty good compared to my dad and my new, 19-year-old step mom."

"Damn. I don't suppose you guys ever thought about going on the Springer show?"

"Yeah, for a little while, but then I figured we were still way too normal for that. Maybe if David and I had started sleeping together, and then he cheated on me and banged my step mom we woulda been fucked up enough," she joked, making them both laugh.

"Nice story Cal," Mark said from the back seat, startling both of them. "Sort of even explains your fucked up relationship with David. Shelly swore you two were sleeping around behind her back, won't she be surprised."

"How long have you been awake?" she asked him.

"Long enough. You got any idea how much longer it's gonna take us to reach this lake?"

"Half an hour, maybe. Maybe a little more," she answered noncommittally.

"So what aren't you telling us?" Mark pressed.

"What makes you think I'm keeping something from you?"

"Your answer just now. Sounded kind of defensive to me."

Cally smiled. She'd walked right into that. "The house is more or less isolated, just like David said, no neighbors within 5 miles."

"But? I know there's a 'but' coming."

"But in order to reach it the way we're going, we're gonna have to go through this little tourist trap town. And we've all seen how the towns we've passed through already looked."

"You're sure there's no other way?"

Cally sighed, already guessing what his reaction was going to be. "The only way to avoid the time would be if we came in from the highway."

"Now there's some irony for you. We get off the highway to avoid passing through any towns, and now you're telling me that the only thing keeping us from making it there without any more run-ins with those dead people is the fact that we're not on the highway?"

"Basically. And for the record, we left the highway because it was a parking lot, avoiding as many towns as we could was just a fringe benefit," she pointed out.

"Guys! What the fuck does it matter? We got one town between us and safety, just deal with it," Kurt said, unable to keep the irritation from his voice.

"If those things are there though, won't they follow us to the house?" Mark asked.

Kurt and Cally both rolled their eyes. "Dude, use your brain," Kurt laughed.

"They're dead Mark, how fast do you think they can run?" Cally added.

"They were doing a pretty good job of it back home," he pointed out. "If this town is overrun, then road's most likely gonna be blocked, right?"

"He's right, it's possible," Cally agreed.

"Geezus, someone please tell this isn't happening," Kurt groaned. It'd been so much nicer when he could make fun of Mark's dumb questions.

"So we make a Plan B if the road's blocked," Cally insisted.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's Plan B?" Kurt retorted.

"If we can make it as far as the center of town, there's a hotel with its own private docks. Speed boats, paddle boats, jet skis, the works. We make a beeline for that and go by water."

"You think a hotel is just gonna keep the keys inside their boats? I don't think so."

"You got a better idea?" Cally demanded angrily.

"Why not go around the lake from the other side?"

"There are plenty of back roads around there, but none of them lead to the house. It's got a private road, it's the only way in or out…except…."

"Except what?"

"Except for the old two-track," she said frowning.

"Why don't we take that?"

"Well, we could," she drawled out, "if you can pull a set of Super Swamper IROK's out of your back pocket, oh and maybe slap a ten inch lift under this thing."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

Kurt sighed, dropping his head back against the seat. "She's saying that we can't get through that way."

"Fuck! I thought these things were made for shit like that."

"Don't believe everything you see in the commercials man," Kurt added.

"This is great, just great. You're telling me we either make it through the fucking town in this, or you honestly believe we're going to miraculously find a boat, with the keys in it and gassed up to boot and just sail off into the fucking sunset? Unfuckingbelievable," Mark pouted.

"Chill, if we have to make a run for the lake, getting our hands on a boat like that is the least of our worries. Making it there without being tagged by one of those crazy fucks, now, that's gonna be the miracle," Cally pointed out.

"Zombies, Cal, they're fucking zombies. Call 'em what they are."

"Give it a rest Kurt; this is real life, not a dumb horror movie."

"You got a better name for dead people who get up and attack the living?"

"You really need to lay off all the horror movies man," she replied, avoiding the question.

"What are you guys talking about?" Jessie asked groggily, rubbing her eyes as she came awake.

"Nothing," Mark quickly answered, not wanting to frighten her any more than she already was.

"Just the usual, flesh eating zombies, our imminent death, that kind of thing," Kurt said at the same time. Jessie kind of focused on his reply and quite understandably freaked, which awoke Shelly too.

"What do you mean 'imminent' death? We're gonna die? We're not really going to, are we? Please tell me you were joking," she rambled.

"At least I'll be with David again," was all Shelly could add. Sadly, her words were kind of a comfort to the others; it meant she'd accepted his death. Hopefully it also meant that there wouldn't be anymore hysterical outbursts.

Daniel still remained quiet, his eyes closed as though sleeping. That alone seemed suspicious; Kurt hadn't punched him that hard. But maybe it was a good thing, since the town was just now coming into view.

On the very outskirts of town sat a Citgo station on the right, away from the lake, and a building boasting a business named Bob's Bait & Tackle to the left. Two old pick-ups sat in the parking lot of the bait shop, and a single late model Buick was parked outside the gas station.

"Looks….normal," Kurt said cautiously.

"There should be a campground up ahead, and some rental cabins," Cally detailed.

"Maybe there aren't any of those crazy people here," Jessie added hopefully.

As they neared the campground though, their hopes were totally destroyed.

"Is that blood?" Jessie squeaked out, pointing to the side of a big white motor home. "Its blood isn't it?"

"Keep your eyes open," Cally said, gripping the steering wheel a little more firmly as they continued on.

"There's gotta be better than 40 campsites out there, where the fuck is everybody?" Mark asked, peering out the side window as they passed by.

"I don't know, but this is starting to creep me out more than anything else we've seen today," Cally said.

"What do you mean? Other than the blood smears at the campgrounds we haven't seen anything," Kurt told her.

"Exactly. Look, the streets are almost clear, there's nobody out on the lake, at beach. Nothing."

And then they heard it.