[AN] I have started another series, called "Lost in the Darkness", about how Joel deals with the loss of Sarah and how Ellie enters his life. Please give it a read, it would mean a lot to me.

I'm sorry this has taken so long for me to upload, I'm having some trouble figuring out what to do with this series. It will continue to be uploaded, but I won't be updating it every day.

Sorry for the short chapter. The next one will be longer.


[September 19th, 2:00 PM Mountain Time]

Kathryn walked over to Anna, who was sitting on a cot in their makeshift hospital crying. Marlene was sitting next to her, comforting Anna.

"What happened to her?" Kathryn thought. She had never seen Anna cry before.

She sat next to Anna on the other side of the cot. "What happened Anna?"

She heard Anna choke out, "Miscarriage."

Oh fuck. Kathryn thought to herself. She couldn't imagine what Anna was feeling right now. She sat there for a minute, speechless before she got up and walked away, feeling useless for being unable to help her friend.


[September 20th, 4:00 PM Mountain Time]

"Fire!"

For what felt like the thousandth time, a line of 5 soldiers standing in front of her opened fire at the targets down range.

"Inspect targets." She called out. As trained, the soldiers put their weapons down with the chambers opened, clearly indicating no bullets were inside them.

She saw the soldiers walk back, all of them were smiling. I've trained these guys well. She thought to herself contently as she checked over their results.

"You all did excellently. You can go back to your families now." She said.

She walked back to HQ, where she had meeting with Marcus and the rest of the staff. I'll probably never get used to the fact that I'm a commanding officer in a revolution designed to overthrow the military dictatorship running the United States. She thought to herself.

She walked into HQ, and was greeted by a man in military clothing from the quarantine zone. She reached for her pistol (reaching for her Barrett M95 bolt action would have been overkill, she was 5 feet away from the guy), when she heard her husband say, "Honey, meet SWAT Commander Jack Barrett. He's my cousin." Kathryn offered her hand, and Jack shook it.

"Pleasure to meet you Kathryn." He said.

"And you. Marcus told me a bit about you before, well, everything went to shit." Marcus, who was watching them this entire time, motioned for them to take a seat at a nearby table. Handed both of them glasses of lemonade. He lifted up his own glass (also filled with lemonade), and said, "A toast: to the land of the free." Kathryn and Jack both returned the toast, and they all drank.

Inexplicably, Kathryn saw a look of agony on Jack's face as he shot up and ran towards the bathroom. She heard several spitting and gagging noises. she looked over at Marcus, who was laughing uncontrollably.

"What the hell Marcus!" Jack said from the bathroom. "What type of sadistic motherfucker would mix lemonade with godforsaken Red Bull!" Kathryn burst into laughter at this.

Jack walked back to the table 5 minutes later, "Now that I have extracted every speck of Red Bull from my mouth, " he glared at Marcus, who was still chuckling. "Lets get down to business."

He looked to Kathryn and said, "Marcus told me you're in charge of training your rebels how to shoot. And from what I've been told, you are one hell of a marksman."

"At this point, almost everyone here is. " Kathryn replied.

"I've also been told that you have absolutely no training in military or police tactics. Mainly, because you weren't in the military or police force."

She had to admit that much.

"Zachary found out about me shortly after Marcus turned him over to your cause. He told me about this place, so I came here to find you, and to offer you my support."

"Great. We are always in need of more men." Kathryn said. The three of them talked for hours.


[September 28th, 8:00 PM Mountain Time, 2013]

"Marcus, I'm five minutes away from base." Tony said through the walkie talkie.

"Understood." Marcus replied. Tony had insisted on being part of the team that went to the Air Force base to try and salvage anything.

I can't imagine what he's going through. Marcus thought to himself. Tony had been working much harder than normal since Anna's miscarriage. I wish there was something I could do for him. Something to ease his misery a little bit. Marcus sighed. He couldn't think of anything to help his friend.

Marcus walked to the gate a few minutes later, and found Tony getting outside one of their trucks. "We didn't find too much." He said. "Oddly enough, we did find a completely operational C-130 that was untouched. All it needs is some fuel. Not that it will do us any good, its not like it could land at our landing strip."

As soon as Tony mentioned the cargo transport aircraft, an idea came into Marcus's head. "Come to HQ Tony. Tell you crew they have the night off." Tony gave the group that scavenged the air base the good news, then followed Marcus to the HQ.

"Tony, can I get you anything?" Marcus asked. He really wished he could help his friend, but couldn't think of anything remotely useful.

"I'll be honest. I could really use some fucking alcohol right now."

Marcus grabbed a beer and handed it to him. Tony took a giant swig as he sat down. "Thanks."

"If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask me." Marcus said.

Tony had his face in his hands, but he looked up and nodded. "Thanks."

Marcus was about to begin speaking, but Tony cut him off, "There is actually something you can do for me. Mind if we have this conversation tomorrow. I just want to sleep right now."

Marcus looked at him and nodded. "Get some sleep. God knows you need it badly."

Marcus saw his best friend walk out of the room in silence.