Hello again! Thank you all for the feedback on the last chapter! It was great to see an interest in this story again! I don't really have much to say, except for two things.

1) Don't know if you're interested, but one song has been on my mind and has really helped me writing this story, especially with Emaley, and it's Lost Boy by Ruth B. I highly recommend listening to it! Also, take it as a sneak peak, again, especially for Emaley.

2) I'll make a list for your guys of the OCs mentioned in this story on the next author's note if you want one. I realize, now, that there's quite a few and if you need help knowing which is which I can either, like I said, make a list in the the next chapter or just send you a PM. Whatever you guys want.

Now, with all that said, onto the story! :)

The moans from the Corpses slowly faded from hearing range as the two slowly marched their way through the woods, careful not to attract any attention to themselves. They had a few close calls while still in town, but were able to fight their way out. They hadn't spoken to each other since leaving the hospital.

Jenni glanced over at her exhausted husband and frowned. Her mind had been buzzing with questions ever since she saw him in the hallway. What was the door about? What had happened since the last time she and Caleb had seen him? Why was he the only one left? How can an entire town jump ship in less than a month?

Jason trudged a step behind Jenni as she started leading the way to the little camp site where she knew her kids would be waiting for her. He was dead on his feet and seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open. Jenni wondered why he was so wore out, but she had a good guess. Probably the same reason she seemed so drained.

"You've...you've been living out here? Since the start?" Jason asked groggily as he rubbed at his eyes.

"Somewhat. We have a tent and we just keep moving. I try not to stay in one place for too long." Jenni answered breathelessly. She prayed that she would start to build some endurance if they were all doomed to continue living this life.

"You left Caleb out here? Alone?" Jason's tone went from half-awake to panicked as he slowed to a stop.

Jenni stopped as well and looked back with a small grin. "No, of course not. I...We have people. Friends. Maybe even family, at least maybe one day."

"You found a group?" Jason asked hopefully, his worried expression settling.

She shook her head. "No, two other children. They lost their family and were forced to live alone. We went to that park you were talking about before and saw them. The place was overrun by Corpses. They were in trouble and no one stopped to even try to help them. Caleb and I took them in." She responded proudly. It had been a couple of weeks, if that long, but so much progress was already made in their little family. She thought of them as her own now.

"And you just left them out here alone? Jesus Christ, Jenni!"

He seemed upset, maybe even angry at her decision, but she just smiled. She didn't blame him for his reaction, she was sure she'd have the same reaction if they switched places, but she knew he'd have a change of heart once she saw them. Once she saw Jamie.

Jenni chose not to respond until they reached their camp site. Jason called out to her a few times, but fell quiet when he realized that they were out in the middle of the woods with no idea what could be surrounding them. The last half of the walk home was silent.

Jenni slowed to a stop and looked back at Jason, seeing the weapon in his hand. "Put your gun down and your hands up. We don't want to scare them."

Jason did what she said with a furrow in his brow. "You let them just run around alone?"

"C'mon, Jason, you gotta give me more credit than that."

The sound of a zipper alerted them and their hands shot up. Jamie peeked out of the opening, slowly crawling out, gun ahead of her. Jamie had become quite the marksman over their short time together and never missed. She also shot at anything that she thought was a Corpse. They all had their strengths and their flaws.

"Jamie, it's me. You can put your gun down."

Jamie relaxed and smiled, placing her gun in the holster on her hip. "I was scared you got stuck out there."

Her smile faded when she saw the much taller figure walk into the light provided by the moon. She knew Jenni had hoped to find Jason while on her mission, but she didn't know she'd actually find him. Seeing another person scared her. It had been so long since they had seen another living, breathing human. It both thrilled and worried her.

Jason seemed just as shocked. His hands were still held up as he flashed a nervous, crooked smile in her direction. "I suppose you're one of the kids Jen told me about."

Jamie swallowed back her fear and straightened. "Yeah. I'm Jamie. You're Jason, right?"

"Yes, I am. I'm, uh, happy to meet you. I'm happy to hear that Jenni and Caleb took you in." Jason glanced back at Jenni as she walked up to his side and held his hand. "And I'm glad that Jenni still talked about me."

Jenni laughed and held his hand tighter. "Of course I'd still talk about you."

"Yeah, she never shuts up about you. She even talks about you in her sleep." Jamie added with a giggle.

Jenni blushed and playfully glared at the much younger girl. Before either of them could respond, the sound of another body waking up rustled through the tent. The sound was followed by an identical one that called after the other.

"Caleb, wait! We can't just run out there! There could be Corpses!" Billy called, squirming out from his sleeping bag.

Caleb ignored his warnings and kicked himself out of his tangled bed. "My mama's out there! I'm good."

The two boys crawled out of the tent and Caleb immediately started toward the sound of his mother's voice. His body lurched when it came to a sudden stop. Jason took a labored step towards him, tears welling in his eyes.

"Ca-Caleb?"

"Daddy!" He hollered, sprinting towards his father.

Jenni or Jason didn't bother to quiet him as the two collided against each other. Jason fell to his knees and held the boy tight against, much in the same fashion he held Jenni. Jenni walked over to Jamie and Billy, wrapping her arms around both of them, and looked down at her two loved ones reuniting.

Billy wrapped an arm around Jenni's hip and sniffled. It was then that Jenni realized what kind of affect this could have on the siblings. Now, she felt bad for their joyous affection as the two tearfully looked on. Surely this was a shot to the heart after their loss. Jenni almost wished she could hide the two and their moment away, but that would be unfair to them.

So, Jenni decided to pull them in closer to her side and squatted down so she was near their level. "I'm sorry that you won't get to see your daddy and mom again and I'm sorry if seeing the two of them hurts you. It's all up to you, but I already told Jason that you were family. I love you two so much already. We could never take your parents' places, but we'd both like to be there for you two."

Billy wiped his nose with his shirt tail and looked up at Jenni with tears sparkling in his big, innocent brown eyes. "I want you to be there, Jenni. We'd be dead if it weren't for you. I love you, too." He whispered affectionately and hugged her side.

Jenni resisted the urge to cry right there as she turned to Jamie who seemed to be using all her strength not to cry. "What about you, Jamie?"

Jamie swallowed loudly and blinked away the tears in her eyes. "We're with you. We're family." She stated with a tight voice, careful not to reveal too much emotion.

Jenni was satisfied with that answer. As Jason stood with Caleb in his arms, Jenni placed a kiss on both foreheads before taking their hands and joining her husband and son.

She couldn't run anymore. Her legs wobbled underneath her and her lungs burned with shallow breaths. Her heart thumped loudly in her ears and tears blurred her vision. She wanted to stop, but she couldn't. She was supposed to run far, far away from the chaos of the camp. That's what Elizabeth told her.

A tree root made her decision for her as she tripped and crumbled to the ground, what little breath she had left knocked out of her. She was sure she scraped her knee of the ground, but she didn't bother to check it. She was too tired and laying down in the middle of the woods seemed like a much better idea.

Her eyelids were heavy as she stared up at the dark sky. How long had she been running? She didn't even notice the change until now.

Her mind drifted to her former camp as she slowly regathered her breath. How many were able to escape and how many perished? She only knew one death, but she didn't want to recall that one. Not now. Not ever. How did those men even find them? Why did they attack them? They were all human; they should've been helping them! She couldn't understand why someone would want to hurt someone else when everyone was equally having a difficult time. After all the losses they shared, why would they want to make things worse for other people?

She supposed that was what this new world was. One full of killing and evil. To survive you had to lose who you were, who you are. You had to kill or be killed. That was how it been just hours ago.

She refused to be like them. She wouldn't lose herself; she wouldn't lose who she was. She still had so many people waiting on her, she couldn't just change. They'd be disappointed. Her mother would never recognize her if she changed.

Tears began to pour at the mention of her missing mother. Where was she? Why was she still missing? Why was she forced to be alone now? Did Matt find Chase and Jenni? What had happened to her family and why weren't they there to protect her?

She started to shake with sobs when she thought about Elizabeth. She had promised to come find her, but she was still alone. Wasn't she supposed to be right behind her? She had to come back. She just had to. She promised.

Her sobs and moans must've attracted attention from Geeks since rustling snapped her out of her self-pitying trance. She wiped her tears away and looked around her. About three Geeks were approaching her, almost in a jog, and Emaley screamed.

"Go away!" She shouted through her new tears.

That only increased their desire. Emaley scrambled and crawled to her feet, looking for somewhere to hide. That was what she was supposed to do, right? She could run, but they'd only chase her. She was still so tired, there was no way she'd make it. They were monsters who didn't have to worry about being tired or sore. She thought about shooting them, but Mandy told her that was a bad idea when there was only a couple of them. It would just attract a lot more.

Emaley spotted a fairly large, sturdy tree behind and ran to it. She had always been good at climbing and was already used to spending hours in a tree. She just had to get up there and she'd be safe. The Geeks were right behind her as she weakly sprinted towards her safe harbor and clung to the branches.

She didn't factor in her fatigue when she saw the tree. She had a hard time getting a grip and reaching the tall branch. If she could just grab that one branch, she could pull herself up and she'd be golden. She just had to...stretch.

She grabbed a hold of the branch and smiled, struggling to pull herself up. She just had to reach the other…

A dead hand snatched her leg before she could and tried to pull her back down. Adrenaline ran through her as she pulled against it, tears streaming down her face as she frantically fought for the next branch.

"Please, stop! Leave me alone!" She shrieked at the undead attackers even though she knew they couldn't understand a single word she said. She was desperate and terrified. She wished someone would just save her.

She frantically kicked at the Geeks as they swung their limbs and ripped her jeans. She continued to scream at the Geeks and plead for her life as she struggled to make it up the tree trunk. She was beginning to think this was the end of her as she felt her grip loosen and the Geeks mouth grew closer to her leg the more she kicked and squirmed.

She felt her foot finally make contact with one of the Geeks and she finally snatched the next branch above her. With one mighty pull, she swooped her leg over the other branch and pulled herself to safety. She carefully scampered up the tree until she felt that she was far from their reach.

Huffing and puffing, she looked down at them and began to cry again. She almost died...What if they never left? What if they'd just wait until she made a wrong step, climbed back down, or just starved to death? What was she going to do? How was she supposed to survive? She was just one girl!

Pulling her knees to her chest, she carefully sat on one of the branches and cried until she couldn't cry no more; until she found herself falling asleep.

"So, which one is Emaley?" Kelly asked with a photo album opened across her lap.

Matt pointed at Emaley in the group picture since Chase was busy driving the truck. "Right there. The boy beside her was her best friend, Carl. She talked about him all the time and they spent nearly every weekend together. Jenni and his parents didn't let him come over if I was home."

Kelly chuckled and arched a brow. "Were you really that bad?"

Chase and Matt shared a knowing look and tore away with a laugh. "You could say that."

Kelly rolled her eyes at the two and looked back down at the picture, absentmindedly dragging her fingertips across Emaley and Carl. "She was goregous. It's funny though...she looks almost nothing like you guys. Did she get all her looks from her mom?"

Chase laughed first this time and shook his head. "Oh no. She looks more like mine than she does her own mother."

Kelly looked confused so Matt took the album and flipped ahead until he stopped at one page that had a picture of both Emaley and Jenni. "There, that's Emaley and her mother."

Her eyes widened at the revelation and smiled with the brothers. "Okay, I get it now. Wow….she looks nothing like her. That's weird."

"Yeah, it's always been a bit of a joke in our little circle. She has another kid, a boy named Caleb, that looks nothing like her too. He has curly blonde hair and blue eyes; spitting image of his dad." Chase replied with a warm smile. It felt good to reminisce on the old times, even if they weren't really that old.

"You'd think her genes would be more dominating. I mean, she's darker skinned and has dark eyes. I failed Biology, but I did understand the simple concept of dominating genes." Kelly joked with a dimpled smile.

"Yeah, it's always been a mystery to us, too." Matt agreed, flashing a smile back.

Kelly tried to hide her blush and changed the subject. "So, Chase, are we getting close?"

Matt chuckled at her aversion and looked out the window as Chase answered. "Yeah, should be any minute now."

They had spent hours, maybe even a whole day, driving back to the group and they were all sore and exhausted. After waiting and failing to see Jenni and her family back at the house, the group of three devoted their time to getting back to Emaley and Elizabeth. They had spent the hours talking, sleeping, and informing the newcomer, Kelly, on all of their family drama. They had become close in that time, maybe even friends, and were all looking forward to a reunion.

Matt and Chase both worried about how Emaley would react when she found out that they were unable to find Jenni, Jason, and Caleb. They knew she was expecting all of her family to be reunited after such a long time apart. They just hoped she'd, eventually, understand.

Chase was looking forward to seeing Emaley and Elizabeth. It felt like years since he had seen his little girl or little sister. It had only been a matter of weeks, but the time went agonizingly slow. The whole way home he dreamed about what he'd feel when he got to hold her in his arms once again. His arms ached for her and just the thought of seeing her at any second made him nervous and on edge.

Matt pointed Chase the rest of the way and they turned into the field where their new home would be. Kelly closed the photo album and gathered all her things as the brothers tensed in their seats at the sheer anticipation of it all. Chase sped up and Matt had one hand around the door handle, ready to wrench it open the second he could.

That's why their hearts fell in a broken pile when they pulled into the field and saw the disaster that was awaiting them. Trucks, almost the size of theirs, crushed tents and weapon caches through the camp and bodies lay strewn about. A few Geeks munched on the bodies left behind as the three screeched to a halt.

Kelly held one hand over her heart and the other pressed against her mouth as she surveyed the damage. She couldn't find the courage to look at either of the men sitting mournfully beside her, but her heart shattered for them and the lost they felt right then.

Matt stormed out of the truck, not even bothering to slam it shut as he dashed towards the Geeks, hatchet drawn high.

Chase followed him, tears in his eyes, and tried to call back his raging brother. Kelly stayed behind for a minute before reluctantly crawling out Chase's side.

Chase was able to calm down his older brother, but he fell to the ground when he spotted a piece of crumbled paper held in place by one familiar boot. It was Elizabeth's. Her favorite pair. The same old marker scribbles covered an ugly tear in the material. With tears blurrying his vision, he read the last shred of evidence of his family that he had left.

We're alive, but separated. Emaley's in the woods. She escaped, I didn't. Go find her. I love you, Chase. I love you, Matt.

-Lizzybeth