( Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Dawn of the Dead Franchise. George Romero does.)

Chapter 4

Blood,Cage, Tribe

His vision began to darken as he drew closer and closer to his destination. Jake knew this was because of the considerable amount of blood he lost. He checked the bullet wound once as he was driving down the road and found that it went straight through. A clean shot.

He thanked his lucky stars that there wasn't a bullet lodged in his side or there might have been even more trouble than he was already in. The wind flew through his hair and dried his squinting eyes. It was irritating but not as much as the throbbing that he had in his side. That was almost enough to make him forget the dryness his eyes now suffered.

"Why did this have to happen?" He wondered out loud.

He saw lights in the distance and knew that it was the biker's campsite. He figured he'd be there in maybe ten minutes. He slowed the motorcycle down and then killed the engine. He had to go the next five or so miles on foot otherwise they would know he was coming. He grabbed the pistol and a bandanna that was tied to the handlebars and began to make his way to the camp.

He walked a mile on pure stubbornness before he collapsed and began to pass out. Panic was setting as he realized he was out in the open, exposed to the many things that were now dangerous and wild. Without a moments hesitation he jammed a thumb into his side and let out a scream. He felt more awake then and began to tie the bandanna with a piece of his shirt, around his waist.

He staggered along through the shaggy knee high grass and made his way towards the camp. From this distance he could actually hear music and laughing. He stumbled up to a tool shed that was near a burnt out husk that had once been a farm house. He staggered into the shed and slammed the door making sure to put something in front of it. He didn't do much else because of the blood loss he sustained. The last thing he remembered before passing out was seeing the dying embers of the sun as thin shafts of light crept into the cracked wooden walls of the flimsy shelter he now hid in.

Hope

From what she had gathered, Lesley and his gang preferred to be called The Tribe. They claimed that that was what they had become after the epidemic struck. Lesley only allowed the strong to stay in his tribe, he didn't allow anyone that was weak or showed any kind of sympathy towards weakness. He was completely insane.

She and Rae Ann sat inside of a makeshift cage. It was big and was made from an old Van. She and Rae weren't the only two female people inside of it either. There were seven women in there altogether. None of them spoke to each other and all of them had that same scared look in their eyes. The look that said, What are they going to do to me?

Hope was staring at a young woman that looked no more than seventeen or maybe even younger. She crawled over to where the woman sat and spoke to her.

"I'm Hope and this is Rae Ann." She said and stuck her hand out.

Surprisingly the girl took her hand and shook it. "I'm Belle." She said.

"Look Belle, I think we need to get out of here before something bad happens, do you agree?" She asked.

Belle nodded, glancing timidly at the others.

None of the other women looked in her direction. None of them except a husky red head that looked to be in her early thirties. She glared at both Hope and Belle. Hope made a mental note about how the woman looked, for some reason she looked different from the rest of the captured women.

"I think we should find a way out of here soon, while everyone is sleeping. For now we should just play scared." Hope said.

"I overheard them talking about using us for their wives. Not just that either..." Belle said looking sadly at Rae Ann.

"Mommy, I have something I can give you." Rae said.

"Not now Rae, we have to figure out how we can escape." Hope said.

"But mom-" Rae started.

Just then the husky woman stood up and approached them. She stopped in front of them and glared at Hope. She said nothing but Hope and Belle could both see with terror why she had looked so different from the other women. She was bitten and was starting to die.

"You conniving little bitches!" She barked out.

"Excuse me?" Hope said politely.

"You heard me! They're going to be good to us and give us a good home and your out to make it like they're a bunch of murderers and rapists! How dare you!" Husky said.

"They are murderers! They killed my whole family just to take me and my fathers guns!" Belle shouted. There were fresh tears standing out in her eyes.

Hope stood up and looked at the woman, there was no mistake looking at the bite wound. She was probably changing right before their eyes. Hope got into a defensive stance and then gestured toward the woman.

"Let's get this over with then." She said.

"Bitch I'm gonna break you in half!" The husky woman screamed.

She charged at Hope inside the cage, and swung her bulk at her like a wrecking ball. Hope, having little room to dodge, had to take the brunt of the attack and was sent slamming into one of the cage walls. She quickly jumped up and swung behind the husky woman putting her in a head lock. She squeezed tightly around the woman's round neck.

"Chogging me to def...tch is chogging me to def..." Husky choked out.

Her tongue was starting to flop out of her mouth as Hope continued to choke her out. Husky could feel her vision start to escape her and she panicked rushing backwards as fast as she could slamming her back into a part of the cage with all of her might.

Hope could feel the air escape from her lungs as the bigger woman slammed her body into the cage. She lost her grip and fell to the floor nearly losing consciousness. Her blurred vision caught Rae Ann in Belle's arms crying at what she was seeing. Hope managed to scramble to her feet and dodge the wild swing that the husky woman threw.

She waited for the next one, saw it coming, and leaned to the left catching it. She pulled on the arm locking it with one of her own and brought the husky woman to her knees. She bent the arm back as far as she could snapping it. The husky woman screamed out in pain and then fell to the floor of the cage in a heap.

"You're bitten! Why didn't you tell anyone!" Hope said.

"It's not a bite, just a scratch from my daughter! She wouldn't wake up for the longest time, but she did wake up! She was mad and she scratched me!" Husky wailed.

"It's a bite!" Hope hollered out.

Just then a tall dark man in a leather duster showed up and opened the entrance to the cage. He walked in and looked at the mess that had happened. He saw the husky woman on the ground with a broken arm, he noticed the bite wound she had as well. He pulled out a gun and shot her in the head twice and dragged her body out. He closed the cage and locked it.

"Hope is everything going to be okay?" Another woman asked. She was older than Hope by a few years, but she acted younger. They all did.

"It will be as soon as we can figure out a way out of here. Does anyone have any idea how we can get out of here?" She asked the group.

"Mommy here!" Rae said and handed her a knife.

"How on earth did you get this?" She asked.

"I hid it when those bad guys started to take us away." She replied.

"This is a good start, a very good start." Hope said.

Her thoughts began to go to Jake, she wondered if he was okay. She knew she had to put her emotions away for the time being. But she still couldn't help but wonder if he actually managed to get out of the predicament he was in.

Lesley

He sat in the dark waiting to hear from the voice that always spoke to him. It was silent tonight and that was bad for him. He knew that if the voice didn't speak soon, he would have to act on his own and he was afraid to act on his own. He never made a real decision in his old life. In the one before all of this happened. It wasn't until he witnessed his mother and father being eaten that the voice suddenly spoke to him. It was as clear as day. It told him to get out of there.

He ran that day, ran for hours on end. He collapsed in front of a bar. It was when he woke up in the dark that the voice began to speak to him.

"Your not Thomas anymore, you'll be taking my name from now on." It said.

"What is your name?" He asked it timidly.

"Lesley." It whispered.

If he had been thinking hard enough about it, he would have known that he was going insane. That long ago when he was a child he was abused and had hid himself from the pain by creating a persona called Lesley. When he was hiding in his quiet place, Lesley would manifest itself from his mind and take all of the abuse for him. He never knew of Lesley's existence.

Now he waited patiently in the dark for the voice to speak to him, to tell him what to do next. He could feel the panic welling up inside of him. Making him want to scream in frustration at the voice that wouldn't answer him. He wanted badly to hear it.

"Lesley..." It suddenly spoke.

He smiled at the sound of it's sexless voice. He listened as it spoke it's next plan to him. He fell asleep as it spoke and it filled his head with the new plan.

Jake

Jake woke up a mere two hours after he had passed out. The pain in his side was beginning to worsen and he knew he needed to clean out the wound soon. He went outside and looked around seeing almost nothing in the moonless night. This worried him because it meant he had to be even more careful then before. There might be zombies prowling around and he wouldn't be able to see them until it was too late.

Jake began to walk into the direction of the camp. It was the only place with a dull glow in the darkness. It reminded Jake of a lighthouse signaling boats that land was near. He walked towards the camp carefully and began to plot something.