A/N: Okay this chapter should be the final part of the riot, other than that thanks once again for sticking for this story and onto answering reviews!

aoe lockdown and shattering soul- Thanks for your kind reviews and I'm glad you continue to enjoy this story despite it's dark and bleak moments.

JustSomeGuy23- It's fine you don't have to apologise, the fact I made you so angry concerning the story is actually an achievement for me and shows my writing is affecting people emotionally which is exactly what I wanted to achieve. Also regarding the character deaths, yeah it was sad and like you said no one is safe in the walking dead world. Lilly's death is mostly Stef's fault as she could have easily not followed Nick and stayed with the kids, however this is starting to reveal a major fault in her character. From going to wanting to be alone to becoming almost too "clingy" to Nick, her guilt and anger at herself and the cultists will be explored more this chapter.

catwoman286- Interesting view on Gertrude, she's a tough cookie but still does have a vulnerable side, also on your review on WrItInG LiKe THis to show insanity is something I've always done but I appreciate your honesty on the matter and glad that you think my writing is good enough to show this, without that type of writing. As for the to and too thing, I'll try to work on that. I'm glad you are liking TT and Scott despite their flaws and the ending... a lot more will be revealed this chapter.

Kristal-Dynamite- Well fellow brit your going to need a lot more holy water this chapter, I wonder if you can predict the deaths this chapter and I'm glad your loving the characters still!

ffapathy- I'm glad you pointed out Clem's dark mindset, she watched Carver die but then again so did everyone else, Josh was in blind anger and she didn't relish in killing the stranger, it was more of (let's get it done and over with) but I wanted to connect the dots. The only time I noticed Clementine get this dark was (during the original timeline) where she killed Arvo. Some could say this was in blind anger but I think there was something more malicious and cold about her killing of Arvo and in the canon episode 5 I felt like she was going down that dark road. Note this all occurred after Sarah died, so now Sarah is gone, we can expect to see a much darker Clem. Brandon's death was meant to be somewhat unexpected as he still had his little incest sub plot going on. But like Lizzie not all plot points can be resolved due to the massive cast, but Brandon's death will not go to waste.

Also about there being no walkers yet, I'll explain that this chapter I know why there aren't any walkers about but I've forgot to mention it with so much going on.

Chameishida- Glad your still loving the story and as for your LIS question, I think Clem would overuse her power very quickly, she could constantly rewind while interacting with the likes of Tavia or Troy and actually try harder to comfort them over their insecurities and maybe even try and get them on her side, I think Clem would play it tactical had she been given the rewind power. As for Luke I imagine he'd rewind after sparing Vince on the lake and then shoot him,saving the group being separated and Wyatt and Mike's deaths.

Okay I'm sorry I can't get round to everyone but rest assured I appericate all of your reviews and now onto the next chapter!


"AJ!"

Rebecca screamed her son's name at the top of her lungs, grief and horror propelling her forward as she scent of burnt wood flooded her nostrils. She turned a corner to find Gertrude's house, it was a smouldering pile of blackened wood and masonry that had fallen in on itself. Sickly looking grey smoke oozed out of the wreck that was once Gertrude's home.

"AJ!" Rebecca screamed once again, the curly haired mother sprinting forward like an Olympian. Running past burnt and torn of limbs that lay on the blackened gravel and past the smears of blood on the side walk, Rebecca reached the front lawn and her eyes dilated at the site that was laid out in front of her.

Sarah and Lilly, their corpses lay on the green grass of Gertrude's front lawn, a red hole was indented in the middle of their heads to ensure they wouldn't be coming back. A blooded piece of glass lay next a lifeless looking Stephanie. Her eyes had red patches around them, her strong blue iris' looked completely dead as she gazed at the corpses in a depressing silence, after all the screaming she had done. After all the anger at the people who killed Sarah and Lilly had faded and after all the grief dried up on her tongue. In her silence she let the overwhelming sense of guilt consume her.

"Don't leave Mummy"

Lilly had uttered those words at her, but Stephanie had the coldest heart imaginable. She left her daughter to die, she left her daughter to die alone, terrified and in that fire. While she was off busy babysitting a grown man who could have looked after himself, she loved him so much, but her stupidity had blinded her. If only she listened to Nick in the first place and stayed with the kids... than maybe things would have been different. Maybe Stephanie could have saved Sarah too.

But no. They were dead because of her. Nick would be fine, even though he was being reckless, Stephanie just knew he'd be alive because she knew she'd have to face him. Well, she was going to do that herself.

"STEPHANIE!" Came a demented screech, Stephanie was shook out of her stupor and looking up at a weeping Rebecca.

"Alvin..." she sobbed, her lower lip quivering.

"I don't know" the raven haired woman mumbled sadly.

Rebecca stifled a cry of anguish, she didn't give Stephanie a second glance as she passed the grieving woman and the corpses of two innocent girls. She wanted to find her son's body in the wreck of the house, she wanted some sort of closure.

Meanwhile, Stephanie managed to rise to her feet, did she really delude herself into thinking she was a good person and a good mother? No. Nick would blame her for this and Stephanie could hardly blame him. He deserved better, someone who would make him happy.

Stephanie was going to find him and end this relationship.

As Stephanie stumbled away, Rebecca's eyes adjusted to the shiny objects laid out on the front yard. Gertrude couldn't hide anymore, the elderly woman peered from behind an old sofa. For a few seconds her watery blue orbs locked with Rebecca's brown one's.

"Gertrude" Rebecca muttered "Did you save your possessions, rather than watch Alvin?"

Gertrude felt herself nod, it was as clear as day that Gertrude had tried to save her possessions. It didn't take Rebecca long to clock on what had occurred here. Although Gertrude couldn't help but add (in her defence)

"Rebecca" she gasped "I couldn't find him! I...!"

"Save it" Rebecca growled "I'll find my son's body, then I'll deal with you"

Gertrude knew (being a mother herself) a mother's wrath was lethal, with a saddened expression on her face. She watched Rebecca wade through the rubble of her blackened home, looking for a part of Alvin's body. Yet as Rebecca searched she approached the backyard and she saw a familiar form and heard the faint mumble of "Mum... Mum..." she soon became aware of two, crystal clear green eyes peering up at her from out of the grass.

"ALVIN!" she roared, she ran over to where her soot covered, injured son lay prone in the grass. AJ coughed as Rebecca squeezed the life out of him.

"I thought you died!" she squealed, hysterical tears dripping from her eyes.

"I.. I...ran... out of the house..." AJ babbled, relieved at finally being found and upset himself from all that had occurred "But I fell and hurt my leg mum! I couldn't move! I thought...!"

"Ssssh" Rebecca soothed her son, she placed his head on her shoulder and rocked him gently. The 3 year old sobbed onto his mother's shirt. His leg still throbbed horribly in pain and everything he had experienced that day had scarred the little boy for life and he still don't know his friend Lilly was dead. Or that Sarah was dead.

"I'm never leaving you again..." Rebecca wept, why on earth had she left AJ at the house? Next time she was certain AJ would be by her side at all times.

Gertrude watched the reunion with a small smile on her aged face, maybe because she had just been spared Rebecca's wrath. But also because out of all this death and misery, at least something had survived all of this horror.

Also watching the scene from a distance was Tom, but the African american man's expression was more grim. He could see Lilly and Sarah's bodies, by the looks of it Sarah had been shot. So, Nick was telling the truth and if that was the case then... he must have shot and killed the Hispanic teenager.

He had to find his brother. Before Nick did, yet he was unaware of one 14 year old girl who was also hunting down his twin brother.

and Clementine was getting closer to finding Tim.


Why did this always happen to Eddie?

He always ended up separated from the main group and ended up playing some sort of lackey when serious shit went down. The rebellion at Howe's he got shot within the first minute and spent the whole rebellion passed out and trying not to bleed out while his friends went to go get him meds. Which resulted in Shel's death, "great going there Eddie" he spat to himself shortly after the rebellion.

During the raid to get Sarah back from the cult, he and Rebecca had fled to Wellington with the kids. He didn't get to kick any cultist ass, he was simply sidelined and tasked with the easy job.

and now, during the riot Eddie found himself alone and sidelined once again, running through the alley's of Wellington, passing torn up bodies (all shot in the head so they wouldn't be coming back) it seemed that despite the chaos around Wellington. Some semblance of common sense survived, or maybe it was simply fear of the airborne strain of the virus, that had caused many people to shoot corpses in the head, or for any they weren't sure, bodies were blown to smithereens. Cultist, Rioter, Bystander, whoever you were in this riot it was second nature to ensure that you made sure no one came back.

To many hardened survivors who had flocked to Wellington, this was merely of their second nature. Eddie was glad not to be dealing with walkers, especially with all the human threats around, Eddie tried to convince himself he was missing out on the action, when the truth was, he was scared of it.

He wasn't only scared of dying, but also of fucking up once again. Maybe it was in his nature to be sidelined as he didn't fare well with a gun. First time he shot Nate's friend causing the insane man to chase him across the country and then the second time he had shot Vitali in a panic. Leading to widespread panic, the group being stranded in the middle of nowhere and all the events that followed. Maybe the first time Rebecca had handed him AJ it was a message to him "You're not the action man you think you are, you are the stupid comic relief of the group. Now stay out of the way and don't fuck up again".

To Eddie this thought was depressing, but maybe that was the truth. He wasn't the man he wanted to be, he wasn't a gun wielding badass, he was a guy that was (deep down) scared to wield a gun.

With these depressing thoughts in mind, Eddie ran out onto a street, to find a small crowd gathered around a house, the crowd seemed to be cheering. But not in a malicious manner. More in a genuine manner that signalled there was something to celebrate, an intrigued Eddie approached the crowd to see what the hell they were cheering about.

"Hey, what's going on?" Eddie asked of a nearby woman.

"You don't know?" The woman asked turning to face him, as the bearded man shoulders slumped, the woman smiled at him before continuing to explain.

"The wolf's dead!" she exclaimed "They caught him! Turns out it was the chief of police the whole time!"

"That Trevor guy?" Eddie inquired.

"Yep! The woman mused "and he was a...!"

A shrill scream cut off her sentence, someone Eddie instantly recognised as Violet was screaming "NO! NO! HE WASN'T! YOU'VE GOT THIS ALL WRONG!"

"Violet" Eddie muttered in horror, his gut sinking in sympathy, for the teacher he had taken a fancying too a few days prior.

"You know her?" the woman asked, as Eddie slowly nodded "Ah, well you should probably go comfort her at some point, the poor woman's in denial. She never knew her brother was the Wolf, she's lost her other sister as well. Apparently Trevor tried to stop the Domesday report from being published, so he shot his own sister dead! Can you believe that? What a monster..."

Eddie wasn't paying attention to the scandalous news the woman was telling him, his eyes locked on where Violet was sobbing on the ground. She was being held back by some big men, she looked as if she was trying to run back into the house. As Eddie saw the body of Trevor being removed from the house (amidst many boo's and hisses from the crowd) as Violet wept ever harder. Eddie went to approach her, but he already saw sympathetic crowd around Violet's sobbing form. They whispered encouraging words in her ears, trying to comfort her and make her feel better.

But Eddie knew, it was just like the school playground.

It was false. They didn't care about Violet at all, they were simply trying to make themselves look better in public.

Eddie realised then, any action man would have swept in and offered his shoulder for the girl he had a crush on, to cry on. But Eddie was no action man, he didn't want to offer any false sympathies or make himself look good in public.

Maybe he was finally accepting what type of man he was.

But he was going to wait for the aftermath of all this to talk to Violet.

He had to check that his group were okay for a start and ensure this riot would die down and that everyone would be alright. The Wolf was dead, so that surely had to be the first sign this madness was drawing to a close.

Right?


"You want to kill me, don't you?"

Terri's eyes turned towards Luis, with murderous intent.

"Yes" she replied honestly.

Luis turned back towards the sky and inhaled, he knew the second he left Brandon to die, that Terri would somehow survive this and that Terri would put a bounty on his head. and now here he was, crouched behind a tree root with a girl who wanted to kill him, a bully he never liked and a completely helpless teacher. Between them all they only had one chainsaw and seven murderous teenagers merely feet away. Added to the fact Luis had just watched a friend die and he had no idea how everyone else was fairing, he could certainly say he was at his lowest.

But he was also furious at himself.

He had snapped and fled like a coward and now Brandon was dead because of that.

"We are so fucking screwed" Luis muttered sadly, letting his thoughts be known.

"Why have you always got to be so negative" Scott snapped at him "We'll be fucking screwed if you don't keep your fucking loud, pessimistic mouth, shut"

Luis felt his temper flare.

"You think just by alerting me you were behind this puny root!?" Luis growled "That I owe you something? We're doomed regardless and it doesn't change the fact you're a pathetic bully..."

"Give me a fucking break!" Scott retorted "Lizzie's dead, all of my friends are probably dead! I've walked through fucking hell to get here, only to discover some fuckers have locked themselves in the school leaving us to die! I don't need some drama queen cripple, making me feel any more down than I am already am!"

"Call me cripple" Luis snarled "One more time..."

"Or what?" Scott counter argued "You'll do what? Punch me and break my arm like that insane friend of your's?" Scott laughed cruelly at this "I don't think a useless cripple like yourself can do anything, other than run and leave your friends to die".

"Scott!" Miss King squeaked, knowing Scott had made a low blow.

"Fine, if that's the way you see me" Luis retorted, before anyone could so much as move, Scott had stood up tall and (rather than punch Scott with his good arm like everyone expected him too) Luis reached over for the chainsaw. He lifted it before chucking the object at Terri's feet.

"Here" he told Terri "You heard Scott here, I'm useless Terri. You want me dead, so pick up that chainsaw and get your vengeance for Brandon" Luis crossed his arms (well arm) over his chest and shut his singular eye, as he awaited Terri to gut him like a fish.

"But... think of the noise it will make!" Miss King hissed over to Terri, before she suddenly realised the error of her words and why Scott was looking at her so oddly.

"I mean... don't even think about doing it!" Miss King babbled "It's wrong to murder your classmate" her mini lecture left an unimpressed silence in it's wake. In the silence Miss King hung her head in shame while Terri looked down at the chainsaw, before looking back at Luis. She knew what the Mexican boy had in mind, either he was really expecting her to finish him off.

Or he was hoping for Redemption.

Her thoughts lingered to her deceased brother, despite feeling completely lost without him, she knew that he wouldn't want her killing his friend just for fleeing the scene. However Terri wasn't as forgiving as Brandon once was, but a tiny part of her could forgive Luis. On one condition and he knew what that condition was.

"You're looking for a chance to prove yourself" Terri muttered, handing the chainsaw back to Luis "Then go ahead and do so".

Luis opened his eye and wrapped his singular hand around the chainsaw, without much warning he grabbed the shoelaces from his own shoes and began to tie the white laces around the chainsaw, using these laces he then began two wrap them around the stump where his arm once was.

"What the hell are you doing?" Scott snapped at him.

"Proving myself useful, for fucking once" was the grim reply straight from Luis. Luis was so sick of himself, he hated the fact he was all talk and no action. He hated himself for not living up to his intimidating appearance. All of the self-loathing he harboured for himself... it was going to end today. Today would be the day he finally started to help rather than hinder people with negative talk.

"Your planning on fighting those freaks!?" Scott nearly screeched in disbelief.

"What the hell else have I got to lose?" Luis questioned of him, it was true. His mother was probably dead at this point, Oscar and Ana were likely dead, Brandon was dead. Wilbert was in a feeble condition physically and JJ mentally. Tim was in hot water with everyone, other than him and Terri the only person he could possibly see surviving this was Tom. and there was every chance their gruff leader was also dead too, so what if he died too? He'd rather die with everyone else that die a useless, pessimistic asshole.

Without another word to the others, Luis leapt from out of cover, the chainsaw still attached to his stump of an arm.

"Are you just going to let him do this!?" Scott asked, clearly appalled with where Terri sat not even glancing over the root, a small smirk was plastered on her features that made Scott even more disgusted with her. He never liked Luis, but was she actually happy about the high chance of her friend dying?

"Either Luis kills them, or they kill him" Terri muttered as her smile grew wider "Regardless of the result, I'm happy"

"Jesus..." Scott muttered, completely lost for words. He thought he had it bad with his groups, but the relationships between Terri's group must have all been as toxic as a cobra's bite, for all this to occur.

"His... his acting like that guy of that horror film..." Miss King muttered (trust her to be as blank as ever) "You know the one with the zombie people in and all that...?"

"Evil Dead" Scott told her, as she nodded. Scott always quite liked that horror film and always loved seeing Ash become a complete badass by attaching that chainsaw to the remains of his arm. Now, suddenly he was being presented with a scene like that in real life and the tension Scott used to feel while watching horror films was amplified times one thousand.

Luis crept up to the wall, he took a deep breath and did something he never thought he'd find himself doing. His mother always used to pray to God or to his father whenever the situation got tough. Luis never knew his father and always presumed his old man to be a good for nothing criminal. Yet Luis simply couldn't help it, growing up with a religious mother and on the brink of death, he found himself uttering a short prayer.

"Dad" he mumbled under his breath "If Mum's right about you, don't let me die here, I... I don't want to go just yet" and with that Luis inhaled deeply, steeling whatever inner courage he had. Now it was the time to do or die, to kill or be killed. If he was right about his father... than he imagined he'd able to see the bastard himself in hell, if he was wrong then he lived.

Luis pulled on the chainsaw, it revved to life almost instantly.

"GOD-DAMN THING AIN'T WORKING!" Luis bellowed in a feigned voice of panic, this certainly got the cultists attention. He could hear their excited footsteps as the sprinted over the grass towards the prey they thought they had lost. Luis knew what drew these sadists in.

The sounds of the weak, the sounds of those who were inferior to themselves, whether or not they were simply scared teenagers, killing everything hostile to protect themselves. Or mass murderers, one thing remained in common for them all, his allies, the cultists... everyone. They all underestimated him, they all thought he was weak. Luis had been lying to himself for the longest though, he had convinced himself that he was strong, he had boasted about it and tried to persuade others to see the world from his "hardened" perspective. Unaware that he was wrapped up in his own egotistical cocoon.

They would be on him in "3..." Luis counted under his breath.

"2" This was it.

"1"

"Hel..."

VROOM

Luis felt his heart leap out of his mouth as he swung the working chainsaw at the mass of cultists in front of him, for a second there was nothing. He had hit them at full force as well, his useless arm swinging with as much force as he could muster. So why couldn't he feel a thing?

Then he heard the sound of the blades of the chainsaw tearing through flesh, he found his vision blinded by a torrent of blood that completely blinded him, the cultists screamed as Luis felt his chainsaw get stuck on something, he applied more pressure and he was aware he had cut through something... His feet slipped because the ground was drenched with blood, but Luis couldn't see a thing. His one eye was stinging and clenched shut, all he knew now is that he was roaring in fear, a fear that could have easily been mistaken for a battle cry.

From the black abyss above him, Luis heard a gun click near his face, using his free arm he grabbed the person's wrist and swung his chainsaw at them.

A girlish high pitched scream, emitted from above the chainsaw wielding Mexican boy, he felt her arm hit the ground with a thump and the felt the spray of blood that dampened his facial hair. Grunting and thrashing wildly to get to his feet, his free hand clutched on a leg, whoever it was tripped and Luis' chainsaw found itself embedded in whoever this person's was, stomach. Feeling someone's innards get caught in the blades of the chainsaw made Luis feel strangely sick, he tugged the chainsaw away from the clearly deceased person below him.

For the next couple of minutes, Luis felt himself tear through flesh, the cultists (he heard) kept on slipping over the blood on the ground. Losing their guns in the process, their panicked curses and scrambling for their weapons made it easy for Luis to find them in this bloody blindness, it was only when he felt his chainsaw cut through an ankle that Luis was finally able to wipe the blood from his eyes and see the damage he had done.

6 Cultists lay dead, limbs missing, stomach's torn open, bled out white. The leader was currently looking up at Luis, blood dribbling from his mouth as his lower lip quivered in fear. Tears squeezed themselves from his eyes as he held the stump (where his foot once was) in agony.

"You... you... monster" he weakly muttered to Luis.

Then, with his wide, fearful eyes clamped shut as he fell backwards, whether he had died or passed out in shock didn't concern Luis. All he knew was that this was over.

He turned around to find Scott, Terri and Miss King behind him.

"Well" Scott said after a short silence "That's that"

Miss King didn't utter a single syllable, the British woman merely whimpering under her breath. Her face a sickly shade of green.

"We better pick up their guns" Terri instructed her voice as cold as ice as she surveyed the bodies "To make sure they don't come back and to protect ourselves" without any hesitation she reached down and grabbed a gun from the pools of blood surrounding the bodies. Luis watched in a numb disbelief as she and Scott put down the torn up cultists for good. Miss King made one futile attempt to reach for a gun before she fled the scene and vomited behind the tree root.

"Now, I'm going to see whose in that school" Terri muttered, not even glancing in Miss King's direction.

"How are you going...?" Scott began.

Terri responded by simply shooting a nearby window, the glass shattered and Terri hauled herself up and proceeded to enter the building.

"By the way" she called back "Thank you Luis" and with that she left the trio of them outside. Luis vaguely realised Terri's "Thank you" meant he was off the hook. He was alive, he had killed the cultists, he should have been happy that he was alive. That he had succeeded and he had proved to himself that he had what it took to survive. But... he just felt empty.

The winter winds chilled his blood drenched skin and clothes, he shivered. What that cultist had spat at him, with his dying words had hardly affected Luis at all. He wished he was the monster that he looked like. He wished he didn't feel so empty after proving himself, he wished his heart would stop thumping in his chest. He felt like he had just sang in front of the nation and done a poor job of it. All the build-up, all of his nerves... he had performed and the adrenaline he felt coursing through his veins had vanished quickly. He was left with an empty feeling, a dissatisfaction.

He looked around to find Scott was looking directly back at him, the black haired boy was almost tempted to ask if he was alright, but resisted the urge to do so.

Elsewhere Miss King was still wiping the last droplets of vomit from her chin.

Luis looked around, this...this didn't really seem like the scene of victory he imagined it would be.


Creeping along the empty hallways of Wellington High, even Terri had to admit there was something eerie about it. It wasn't just because all of the lights were off and the walls concealed all of the noises of the riot outside. It was because of all of the people Terri knew who wouldn't walk the halls again. Although she had only been in school three days, the students who walked it's halls seemed to give it a sense of life. To many people in Wellington the fact the school-system had started once again, was enough to fill them with a new sense of life and hope.

Now, merely days later most of those students who walked these halls were now lying dead. and the hope of a future through the youth had died with them. Terri could almost say the halls felt... haunted. She was never one to believe in ghosts, but something about the heaviness in the air around her... it didn't feel right. All of the bright people who had once resided here had been cruelly extinguished.

Just like Brandon.

Terri gasped and went to lean on some nearby lockers, trying as hard as she could to try and keep her brother's death out of her memory. But the more she tried to ignore it, the further her grief continued to devour her. He... he was truly gone and it had barely been an hour since his passing. He and many others were now lying dead outside of the school, because of the cowards that lingered in here...

Her grief warped into anger in a mini-second.

She made Luis do something he clearly wasn't comfortable with, she could have possibly killed him. But in her grief she didn't care, she just wanted the cultists to feel like she did. To watch them be ripped to shreds, to watch them scream in pain... it was only thing that soothed her soul. She wasn't going too rest until every person responsible for killing her brother were 6 feet under. She had let Luis off her hit list, seeing as he had finally done what had needed to be done. Just like she had taken the kitchen knife from JJ and blackmailed him, just like she had exposed Tim for what he was, the group needed some tough love and she was there to provide it.

Deep down, she did care greatly about the group of people she was with. She had travelled with them for years, when JJ was JJ and not off eating raw meat in the woods he was a friendly and funny boy, he was easily likeable. Although Wilbert was the polar opposite, Terri had to admire his stubbornness on many things, it wasn't often you'd find a man as old as him surviving this apocalypse. Luis had always been gruff, but a very sensitive soul deep down. Maria had always gotten along with everyone and was very gentle and understanding of them all. Tim, a likeable idiot. Tom, a likeable leader. Oscar, the mute comedian of the group and Ana, the stoic bad ass who watched over the group and of course her brother...

She gulped down, with Brandon gone that group now looked like a distant memory, with Ana and Oscar also running away...

Terri was so lost in her thoughts she almost didn't notice them, but she saw them, huddled into an empty classroom.

She didn't recall what they said, but she knew they were 14 of them exactly. She imprinted all of their faces in her mind as they sat there, continuing to play poker, drink alcohol and engage in lewd acts that Terri's eyes had long since adjusted too. They were here... enjoying themselves! As everyone else died outside! She wanted to go in there and gun them all down... one by one right now. But she was beyond angry with these people, she remembered how her growing anger at her father and uncle and how she had spent years plotting their demise.

Now, she was plotting again. Those cultists, even her father and Uncle had taken the easy way out, a simple bullet to the head. She wanted these people to suffer and killing them now... it wouldn't feel very satisfactory.

She watched and waited and eventually made her decision.

She was going to hunt them all down, one by one. She saw who was leading them all. The Headmaster of their school, he appeared so regal and powerful during his speeches to the student populace. Now Terri saw that was a façade, as he watched the drunken headmaster, red faced and laughing like a feeble fool. A true coward in a truly serious situation, he had abused his power, he had taken the keys to the school. Locked all of the doors and barricaded himself and a group of friends and pieces of eye candy, inside. So they could indulge themselves and wait for this whole thing to blow over.

Not even bothering to go out there and help, not one of them.

"We have to look after our own!" was one of the drunken statements the headmaster bellowed towards his friends. He earned a resounding cheer at this, as Terri turned away from the classroom. When this was all over, they would proceed out of the school, sadly mourn all of the dead and pretend they were out in the chaos and were lucky survivors.

Then, they would all start dying horribly, one by one.

Terri grinned to herself, revenge in mind as she found the window she had shattered with her gun and proceeded to crawl back out of it, yet she couldn't help but muster one last thought on the situation.

"Your own people Headmaster" she thought to herself "Were the staff and students at the school, you failed them all. You failed my brother, you failed your duty. Now I'm going to avenge every ghost at this school"

and with that promise of revenge, she headed back outside.


"Well?" Scott inquired the second Terri had crawled back out of the window.

"Whoever was in there, has fled" was her direct lie. She didn't want anyone else knowing about this, it was her revenge to carry out and her's alone. Besides, she didn't want these people putting themselves in any more danger. She may have disliked Scott, but there was something that she had seen in the gym, when he refused to give up and now in this riot (where he was refusing to die, despite his injuries) that Terri was slowly starting to like about the former petty bully. It was like Wilbert, she didn't like him as a person, but there was a strength about him she had to like, admire even.

"Shit" was all Scott could snarl in reply.

Luis had sat down once again, blankly staring at the sky. While Miss King continued to shiver, hugging herself and hating how worthless she was during all of this. She couldn't even pick up a gun without throwing up... she was truly useless. Sighing she tried to wipe the growing tears in her eyes before she saw a form of a man approaching her. Before she could run, the man held up his hands.

"Hey, I'm not here too hurt you!" he exclaimed, placing a gun he had in his hands, onto the grassy floor.

"I just wondering!" he continued to shout "If you've happened to come across a boy called Luis! About 6,1 or 2, one eye... one arm... Mexican kid..."

"Oh... erm..." Miss King mumbled "Yes! His right here" she told the mysterious man, pointing at where Luis was slumped. Luis (hearing his name) was snapped out his stupor. As he looked up to find that man from the house approaching him, he seemed like the leader of Clem's group... what was his name again? Lucas... or Luke or something like that.

"Hey, Luis?" Luke asked, crouching next to the blood drenched boy "Your mother sent me out to find you, she saved my life and saved the life of one of my friends. I couldn't just sit around and do nothing. When she asked me to go and find you..."

"Great, I have a babysitter" Luis grunted. Yet despite his tone, he allowed Luke to help pull him to his feet.

"Alright, I can take you back to your mother, she's worried about you" Luke told him.

"Yeah, she always is" Luis muttered tonelessly.

"Whose this?" came a new voice to Luke's ears. He turned around to find a boy he didn't recognise approaching him and the blonde haired girl he had seen earlier at the house. He had forgotten her name, but knew her and Luis were part of the same group.

"You kids alright?" was the only thing Luke asked of them.

"Been better" Scott mumbled, rubbing his cast.

"Luke" Terri said clearly (she remembered names very easily) Luke's eyes were drawn to her as she continued to speak "So you're with Maria? What about the others? The girl that Ana hurt...?"

"She's fine, Maria's tending to her now" Luke informed her "But what about you guys? What the hell happened here?" he inquired glancing around at the torn up corpses around him "Have you seen any of the others...?"

"Ana's gone to the wall after Oscar" Terri told him "and... and my brother didn't make it" to actually announce it to another person felt unreal. She was still grieving terribly, but she knew she had to accept it. It wasn't healthy to linger in a state of denial.

"Oh" Luke gasped, before his eyes softened in sympathy, he barely knew Terri but he did feel terrible for the girl in those moments.

"I'm sorry for your loss" Luke told her, although Terri hardly knew him, he genuinely sounded sorry for her. Which was more than she could say for the several "I'm so sorry for your loss" speeches, she knew would follow Luke's. She appreciated his words with a small smile.

They prepared to move, Luke had been running around the town looking for Luis. When Scott asked how the hell he didn't get ripped to pieces, Luke replied that the riot seemed to be dying down. The Wolf had apparently been killed and the cultists were dwindling in number, most of the fighting now was occurring near to the centre of the town. Luke (in return) asked about the bloody cadavers that lay on the ground next to the school. Scott explained all to him and how Luis was the one who finished off the cultists.

"Man" Luke whistled, he couldn't help but be impressed "You took them all down? and saved lives? Your mother ain't got nothing to worry about then" Luke told all of this to a barely listening Luis, who slowly detached the chainsaw from his stump of an arm.

"By the way" Luke suddenly piped up, in a more cautious tone "You erm... none of you have read that Domesday report? Have you?"

"Why?" Scott inquired.

"Well erm... me and my group took down a large base of the cult's" Luke explained "They put a little joke in the report about me and Clem..."

"This wouldn't happen to be that joke about having a second chance?" Terri asked bluntly, (having read the report earlier, she had memorised every detail) Luke nodded at her question "Yeah" he advertised with a false smile "Made up a load of crap about me and Clem having a second chance and having a pre-life and all that... it's all rubbish, but I just want everyone to know that and not get suspicious or anything..."

"It's fine" Terri replied stiffly "We have bigger fish to fry at the moment"

Terri's words of common sense seemed to sit well with Luke, his body language seemed to instantly relax, whatever sort of strained smile he had plastered onto his face beforehand, became a much more welcoming and warm one. "Glad to hear that" he mused.

Despite this, something seemed off to Luis, he was certain he heard Clementine mention something about a second chance beforehand, could it have been linked? Even in his numb state Luis knew something was slightly amiss.

"So we should be getting back to Maria now..." Luke announced, before he was cut off by a small voice.

"We... erm..." Scott mumbled up to Luke, quite nervous all of a sudden "We... well, I, don't have anywhere else to go. I could follow you guys, I have a gun. I can help protect you guys..."

"You're more than welcome to travel with us" Luke told him warmly.

"I'll come too!" Miss King exclaimed almost instantly "I'm sorry, I just can't be alone surrounded by all these bodies..." she babbled, casting her eyes back towards the corpses.

"It's fine" Luke told her, using his oldest and most repetitive catchphrase "It's better if we all stick together"

and with that, they were gone, Miss King, Scott, Terri, Luis and Luke headed back towards where Maria was and they would soon be headed towards the central hub.

But little did Luke know, he wasn't going to like what he saw there.


"OSCAR!"

Ana yelled this at the top of her lungs, climbing up the walls three steps at a time as she looked for her best friend.

It grew colder and more windy the further she climbed, the town of Wellington below her becoming more and more distant. Yet when she looked down, she felt a feeling of elation and freedom. Rather than the usual feeling of dizzying vertigo she would get looking down from great heights. She was truly leaving the burning human furnace of Wellington. She had always felt strange and out of place in that town, she had never belonged there. Neither had Oscar.

Both of them, they never should have joined the group in the first place. Ana remembered how she had first met the group.

An accident.

She had tripped up and fallen right into that cultists camp. She had to slaughter them in self defence and then she had to save the group. She couldn't leave them trapped like that, but looking back on it. Maybe she should have helped the group and then left, but then Terri saved her life from that child who was about to kill her. and since that day Ana had felt obliged to stay with the group and protect them.

It was a mistake. All of it.

Caring for others, joining groups, joining Wellington. Ana and Oscar were not the people designed to live like the majority. Ever since Ana had arrived in Wellington she had felt out of place, the rings on her fingers had taught her the greatest lesson of all. That all the people she loved, she was eventually going to lose and Oscar was cursed with his immunity, he too had to watch, as everyone he knew and loved died around him while he could live.

If Ana could go back in time and change one thing, it would be walking away from Terri's group. Obviously she would have saved them from the cult, but after that she and Oscar should have continued on their own way. They were fine out in the open with the walkers, she was designed to kill walkers. A perfectionist at it and Oscar was also built to survive due to his immunity.

If only they were out there now, as free as birds and surviving each passing day.

Yes, there would be obstacles, a lot of them. But there was more so in this community, or any community or group they would join, Ana had hurt that Molly woman, eventually people would discover what Ana wasn't group material at all and didn't know how to handle social situations very well. Whereas Oscar would eventually be discovered to be immune and that would set him apart from everybody else...

Well now, Ana was going to obtain that freedom. For both of them.

She reached the top of the wall, sprinting over the weathered wooden walkways the African american woman searched desperately for the lone silhouette she knew would be Oscar. No one else had the courage to venture up here.

"OSCAR!" Ana shouted again, casting her eyes ahead of her. The winter winds repeatedly slapped at her face, making her cheeks and ears sting, the rumbles of the dying riot below her did nothing to divert her eyes back towards the burning town. She was going to find Oscar and...

"There!" she hissed to herself, spotting a lone lanky figure, about 20 feet in front of her.

Running forward, Ana once again called out "OSCAR!" and this time the bespectacled man turned to face her.

He was gazing down at the destruction, his mere existence had caused. His eyes were ruby red and tears still leaked from them, wiping his nose, Oscar's eyes seemed to widen at seeing Ana present, here on top of the wall.

"It's not safe!" he mouthed, before gesturing wildly to the air in front of him.

"I know" Ana muttered "But I don't care, Oscar we are getting out of here"

Oscar shook his head vigorously.

"I won't take no for an answer" Ana told him in a grim tone, "Oscar, we don't have anywhere else to go"

"No" Oscar mouthed, pointing towards himself "I don't have anywhere else to go" he mouthed clearly, before pointing back at her and then pointing back down at Wellington. Ana knew what Oscar was saying.

"No!" she growled "No Oscar! I'm not going back there, I'm going with you!"

Oscar slid an index finger across his neck, while looking directly at Ana "You'll die" he mouthed, if he could actually speak. Ana knew he would have a persistent pleading tone.

"I can wear a face mask Oscar" she muttered "It has a five metre radius, I should be fine, as long as..."

Oscar sadly shook his head at her once again.

"Listen!" she hissed, losing her very short temper once again "I'm not leaving you Oscar! Don't you dare argue back to me!"

Oscar let the tears fall from his eyes once again.

"Please" Ana could almost hear the mute man wanted to plead to her. But Ana wasn't going to let him suffer this alone, by the looks of things he didn't even have a plan to survive all this. Maybe camp on top of the wall for the rest of his life, but Ana wouldn't doom anyone (even her worst enemies) to suffer in this apocalypse alone. She knew what it was like, the crushing depression, the endless longing for any form of company, the frightening thoughts that circulated in your mind, always being on edge and having no one to watch your back and every day, the endless fight to retain whatever scarp of sanity you had left.

Ana didn't want a society she just wanted the company of friends, Oscar, Trent... she could cope with them around.

"Come on Oscar" she murmured, extending her hand towards his form "It's time to go"

Oscar looked up at Ana's kindly smiling face, the sun briefly peered out from behind the heavy winter clouds which bathed her in the sunlight for a few seconds, she looked angelic as the strong gales of wind, swept her black hairs in the wind. Oscar blinked and found himself wiping away the tears that still lingered on his cheeks. This mere picture of Ana in front of him, was... was a symbol! A picture of his friend as an angel who had come to save him from his curse. For one of the only times in a long time, Oscar felt a glimmer of hope rise in his chest, he felt himself begin to smile...

and then, a dark shadow crept up behind Ana.

Ana felt someone loom over her, she felt the air behind her cool considerably, without thinking she whipped out her curved sword (still covered in Molly's dried blood) and swung it blindly at the figure behind her.

There was a clank, as weapon collided with weapon.

The Wellington Wolf had blocked Ana's attack, his arms in a perfect cross, two switch-blades protruding from underneath his sleeves.

"So" Ana panted, the effort she was exerting to crush this man was overwhelming for her "The Wolf, I presume?"

The man's face was hidden by his face mask and hoodie, however he nodded at Ana's question.

Ana chuckled, sweat trickled down her forehead, she was strong but so was the wolf. With a grunt from the pair of them, they broke apart and store each other down. Ana could just about make out the icy teal eyes of this man trained directly on her form, he didn't look angry, merely determined.

Oscar stood frozen in place, unable to move a single muscle, his eyes locked on the battle about to explode in front of him.

"It will be a pleasure to kill you" Ana growled to the Wellington Wolf, before she charged forward.


"She's stable" Maria told Luke, his eyes were fixated on where Molly lay on the ground to the warehouse the group had sheltered in, Miss King, Scott, Terri and Luis sat on the ground. Scott and Terri making small talk, Luis and Miss King were staring at into nothingness, Luis still rubbing the spots where his mother had hugged him too tightly upon reunion.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief, however his eyes didn't flicker from Molly. She kept mumbling "Hilda..." in her dreams.

"I just can't believe she's not gonna be able to see again" Luke muttered sadly to Maria.

"Blindness, is an horrific thing to suffer..." Maria echoed in agreement, as she rubbed her eyes and let her aching arms rest. Luke however couldn't have been more alert, he got up and started pacing around the warehouse, uncertain of what to do. No one this had sunk in yet, none of it. One of the group he was leading was blinded and some of them could have even been...

Luke didn't want to think about it, his nerves were frayed enough as it was.

"They'll be fine Luke" he kept on telling himself, he put his life on the line to protect his group and countless times, it was always him who came out unscratched. While people around him lost limbs, lost eyesight and lost their lives... why couldn't he be the one to go out in an heroic blaze of glory? Ever since he was little he always had that morbid fascination on how he wanted to die, an american hero.

He had watched so many shows when he was kid and heard so many stories, of his friend's fathers who had served in the armed forces. Some of which had died and had continued to be honoured years after their deaths. All Luke wanted to be was a good person, he wanted his death to have some sort of meaning and cement his legacy as a good person. Yet he wondered (with an apocalypse and now a riot ongoing) with so many chances to die, why? Why was it always him that turned out fine?"

He learnt a long time ago, that being the flawless hero he had always dreamed of was much, much more difficult and complex than he first imagined. Even at the beginning of this apocalypse and those days he started rebelling against Carver, he still had that silly little dream in his head. He still believed he could save everyone.

"I'm going back out there" Luke announced to the group, they all looked up at all (excluding Molly) "I've got to go find the others, bring them back here and make sure they're okay. I can't sit around here and wait, it's driving me mad" Luke informed them all and then, before anyone could stop him, or follow him. He proceeded to leave the warehouse and towards the central hub. The riot was ending and that's where everyone would be, he would ask anyone there, if they had seen members of his group.

Luke was being Luke again, stretching himself to breaking point.

Even Maria (who barely knew the young man) sighed to herself and muttered down to Molly's unconscious figure;

"That man pushes himself to hard"

Maria swore she heard Molly mumbled Luke's name in her sleep, almost as if the now blind blonde, was responding to her. However Molly remained silent from that point on, as the riot around them also remained silent. There was no doubt about it.

This riot, had finally burnt itself out.


There was a resounding cheer, as the last body of the cultist was shot down. Nick was aware of himself being lost in the crowds of cheering, bloodied civilians who had finally earned themselves a victory. A final, certain freedom from the cultists that had killed so many of their friends and relatives, revenge was sweet indeed.

In the mindless celebrations, Luke caught the majority of stoic rioters, glaring directly at him and a few other rioters who had taken things to the extreme. Nick knew what was going to happen now the cultists were dead and the riot was over. They'd imprison him or execute him, for his inhumane actions on this day. Not that Nick really cared, without Sarah and Lilly what was the point? His family was broken, he had to end things with Stef, he didn't want her being dragged down with him. and a part of him resented her for sticking by his side, when she could have saved Sarah and Lilly by simply listening to him. Then again, then Nick might have lost all three of them and if that happened, he wouldn't even be thinking about this all now. He'd be a killing machine, an empty shell of a person.

No future with Stef and his incoming death awaiting him, Nick celebrated in that moment, because he knew it would be the last time he would be able too.

and the riot wasn't over just yet, there was one last figure to kill.

Nick was part of the group that broke into the central hub.

and was part of the group that found the president first. Nick never knew that the president was a wheelchair user, or that the cult had beaten him and tortured him, because the crippled man lay on the wooden ground, unable to move. A puddle of blood around him, as he moaned pitifully and held his stomach in agony, bruises littered the president's face. His wide brown eyes found the stunned group above him, as a few pitiful tears squeezed themselves from his watery globes.

"Please... please help me..." he begged.


Tom was glad to found his brother first.

He knew Tim would flee to the woods in Wellington, where people used to hunt for food when Wellington was still developing jobs and a stable sort of economy, he and his brother had also been surviving in the woods for years. When this whole thing started that was the first place they had fled too.

It made sense that would be the last place they would flee too.

Tom found Tim sitting on a log, rocking back and forth and sobbing like a little boy. Tom always remembered when they were children and Tim would always trip over something and cut himself. It was always down to Tom to comfort his brother and tell him to be strong.

"But I can't... it hurts so much..." Tim would moan.

Tom could almost imagine, this is what Tim would say now, if he wasn't sobbing that is.

"Hey" Tom said softly, sitting next to his twin brother.

Tim looked at Tom as if his twin brother was something out of a horror film. The terrified former ex-salesman edged himself a few inches away from his brother, before he mumbled into his palms "You've heard then? Haven't you?"

"Yes" Tom replied honestly.

Tim sobbed harder, not saying a word, before he suddenly slammed his fists against the bark of the log below him.

"I'M FUCKING USELESS!" He exploded, a torrent of tears blasting from his eyes as he screamed to the sky "JUST KILL ME FUCKING NOW! JUST FUCKING KILL ME!" his throat stinging and his eyes burning. Tim hated every fibre of his existence in those moments, he just wanted to end himself.

"You're not useless Tim" Tom muttered approaching his brother "You just screwed up, we all do"

"I... I only wanted to help" Tim sobbed "But you..." he turned to his twin at this point "You were... you were always the better twin. Mum and Dad always favoured you. Big, strong son who played in every high school team going, doing your country proud by serving in the army" he sentence was broken with a large gulp before he continued speaking "Whereas... I... I just a fucking wimp. I wasn't a man, I was a mouse! A fucking mouse Tom! All I did was sell shit with a cheesy smile, my only weapon was my charisma..." he informed his brother.

"You were always the better speaker than me" Tom chuckled dryly.

"Yeah" Tim agreed "I was, so when I finally had the group under my leadership. I... I knew it was wrong to leave you out in the dark, but... but a part of me enjoyed it! For once I was the superior twin! For once I could be proud of myself... but I was wrong all along. Your way was always better, and for that Tom, I apologise for everything, everything I put you and the group through. My stupidity lead to all this... I just wanted to help us all..." he explained.

"I know you did" Tom told him "You... you always kept on smiling and leading the group. All I did was linger at the back of the group and even when I lead the group, I was a pessimistic asshole, It took a strength I never had to do that Tim" Tom was smiling at his brother now, but from the corner of his eye. Tom saw a gun shine in the weak sunlight and the rage infested yellow eyes, of the little girl, Clementine. Merely a foot behind the pair of them. Tom sighed, he knew Wellington would catch up with his brother eventually. In some shape or form. He was forgiving, they were not.

"I forgive you Tim"

Tim burst into happy tears, despite everything he had fucked up (yet again) his brother had found it in him to forgive him once again.

He loved his brother more than anyone else in the world in those moments.

Tom's smile slowly faded from his face, Tom knew what he had to do, he always had to be there to protect his brother.

Tim was still in a happy bliss, he didn't even feel Tom's hand's clamp around his neck, or the sudden jolt that followed.

Tim fell to the floor, dead the second he hit the ground. Neck twisted and snapped.

Tom let his large, murderous hands fall to his sides and stared down numbly at his twin who he had murdered. He couldn't breathe in those moments yet he found himself announcing (to the nearby trees) "Is this what the girl would have wanted you to do?"

He heard the girl drop the gun she must have attained from the war-torn streets of Wellington.

"No" she muttered blankly, looking at shock at the scene in front of her and Tim's corpse, a realisation spreading over her face as she gazed at Tom once again.

"Did you...?" she began to ask "Did you do that to protect me?"

Tom was silent for a short while, eventually he turned around and looked Clementine in the eyes before giving his answer.

"I did it to protect him" he stated "What you had in mind girl, that was nothing compared to what other people in that town had in mind. I... I had to protect him from that..."

Clementine watched him pick up her gun and shoot his brother in the head, to prevent reanimation. Before Tom blindly stumbled away from the scene, Clementine heard him sob from the distance before the large man was out of eye shot and earshot completely. It was them Clementine felt the weight of the days events collapse on her shoulders, as her own weak knees gave way and she found herself gazing at the sky, through the thick plant life above her.

After this, she was never going to be the same.


Ana swung her sword at the wolf, he may have been large but he had the agility of someone much smaller. He easily avoided at the attack aimed directly at his neck and rolled over, his switch-blades constantly clanging off Ana's sword, as she swiped blindly back at him, trying desperately to protect her face and neck.

"Fuck..." she swore, how the hell was this man, so strong and so fast?

She had trained for years in the wilderness, she had set records in killing walkers. She was meant to be the best of the best, how the hell was this man better? Where had he trained? Who was he?

Ana turned to face Oscar one last time, her arms were exhausted, she was at her breaking point. But she would keep on fighting till the bitter end. She guessed she was good at fighting walkers. But she was never good at fighting people, or protecting people. The five rings on her fingers proved that.

She lowered her guard for a second.

There was a slight stinging pain on her neck.

She had barely fought this man for a minute.

"Sorry" she told Oscar.

and then she felt (for a few seconds) complete agony as her head rolled off her shoulders, her vision went black before her head hit the floor. Her headless torso stood motionless for a few seconds, before (with a forceful kick from the wolf) it tumbled over the edge and towards the abandoned construction works below. Her decapitated head still lay facing Oscar, her brown eyes wide open, her mouth opened forever-more, with a thin trail of blood leaking from it. A puddle of blood from the stump of her neck continued to expand from around her form.

The Wolf kicked her head as if it were a football, it fell of the edge of the wall and shattered like an eggshell, a few feet away from her mangled, headless body.

Ana was dead, her brains leaked from her shattered head, so there was no way she'd be coming back.

Oscar couldn't move, he couldn't breathe. Pure, terror consumed him as the Wolf approached him. There was no mercy in his constant steps, yet there was no slow, tortured steps that would prolong Oscar's horror at being kept alive. Yet Oscar couldn't help but flinch as the wolf grabbed his long hair and pulled his neck back.

"Say something" Oscar thought in terror, he didn't want to die in this unbearable silence.

The Wolf didn't utter a word. Oscar got the impression that he didn't have anything to say to him. After all of the taunting he had suffered from the rioters earlier, this silence was unnerving but the Wolf seemed like he was simply doing what had to be done and not gaining any satisfaction in this act. Even if the wolf had to kill Ana to get to him.

Oscar felt the switch-blade of the knife on the skin to his neck, it would be over soon.

This man had the strength to cut through all of Ana's neck tendons and completely decapitate her, while she was fighting. He knew he'd suffer the same fate.

Oscar trembled, her was terrified of death. Of the pain it would bring, a part of him wanted to live, a part of him wanted this curse to be lifted from his shoulders. For a final time, his eyes rested on the green lands beyond Wellington's walls, the freedom of it all. If only he was out there and not here...

"We were doomed the minute we set foot here" Oscar thought sadly.

The Wolf was preparing to strike.

Oscar held his breath, he wanted (in his final moments) to let the Wolf know something. If he could speak, he would tell the Wolf "Please... please use the cure to save those who deserve it" the thought of those animals of people in the riot earlier being cured, while he rotted somewhere was unbearable for him. He knew the Wolf came here for his cure and he only hoped this man of strength and silence wasn't the villain he had been painted out to be. Oscar knew what it was like to be a villain, when he hadn't done anything to warrant the title.

"Good luck" was his last thought, his message being to that of every inhabitant of Wellington. Depending on who you were, these last words were ever genuine or words or angry sarcasm.

and then there was an a short burst of agony, before everything went dark.

"Freedom" Oscar thought at last, he was free of his curse.

The Wolf wasted no time in cutting into Oscar's skull and pulling out his slimy, grey brain, placing the wet organ into a bag he had pre-prepared. Now all he had to do was get this brain back to the central hub and if everything had gone perfectly to plan, the President would be there to help develop a cure.

"Mission accomplished" The wolf muttered, kicking Oscar's mangled body from off the top of the wall.


Luke reached the crowds congregated outside of the central hub just in time, Stephanie was also planted into the crowd. Watching as the President (battered and bruised) gave a moving speech from his wheelchair. For the past couple of years the cult used him, the weak man in a wheelchair as nothing more than a puppet for their power. The president was forced to obey their rules in risk of them slaughtering him and everyone else in Wellington. He stated how he knew he was a useless coward and if the mobs wanted him dead then they could do so.

But despite everything, no one had the heart for any more murder. The villainous image of the president, there never was one. He was simply a disabled man, bullied and beaten into submission by the cult, like so many of them were. President Schulz was forgiven, with a heart-warming applause from the worn down rioters in front of him. His battered face lifted into one of a heartfelt smile.

"Thank you" he sobbed "Thank you! From this day forward, I will lead Wellington, with the help of many of you! We will rebuild! We will help each other overcome this horror of a riot! The cult have oppressed and tortured us all for too long! From this day forward, we will lead the population into a new and brighter age!"

Applause poured from every member of the listening audience.

"They're convinced" the president thought to himself darkly, however using his façade of a warm, vulnerable leader he basked in his new found popularity and gave his first order.

"Gather all survivors and kill any stray walkers that brains are intact!"

He gave more orders, Luke watched as it was revealed the barbarism of public executions would be scrapped and instead offenders would be imprisoned until a reasonable sentencing was given. and speaking of offenders, the president stated (sadly) that those guilty of crimes during the riots had to confess to their crimes and come forward. Some offenders tried to escape, but many residents of Wellington had simply had enough of murders and psychopaths for one day and the biggest offenders were simply dragged in front of the central hub. Many people there had committed crimes, but were framing bigger fish to get themselves off the hook.

Nick didn't even resist when he felt himself get dragged forward. He knew how hypocritical it all was, they'd look up to him when he was killing things. But the second he had done the dirty work, he'd be thrown to the lions and treated as if he were the scum responsible. Really, it wasn't much different to the cult when he thought about it. Then again he didn't trust himself to be in public after today and to be quite frank he didn't care.

"NICK!" Luke bellowed upon seeing his oldest friend lined up, along with the other thrashing, swearing madmen around him. Luke couldn't believe what he was seeing, he didn't like this one bit. What... what the hell had Nick done to land himself here? He had a short temper, but he was not a cold blooded killer. How had this come to be?

Luke tried charging forward to get to his friend but the crowd blocked his way, as the offenders were lead off, restrained and being dragged along to the still available and intact prison cells at the police station. As Nick was being led off, he saw one woman who had managed to break through the crowds, the woman approached him, he knew who it was, without even looking at her.

"It's over" Stephanie and Nick muttered at the same time.

Surprised, they both looked up at each other.

"You deserve better" Nick told her.

"No, believe me, you do Nick" she replied.

"My life's over Stef" Nick mumbled sadly, indicating the fact he had been restrained and was being led off to prison.

"and it's my fault, I left Sarah and Lilly" she told him "I might not be a prisoner, but I'm as guilty as all of you are"

Nick nodded, too tired to disagree with her anymore. "It was both of our fault's" he concluded, before turning to Stephanie once again "Did... did we actually believe at one point" he said "That... that we weren't monsters and that, we could live a normal life together?"

Stephanie emitted a humourless laugh.

"Apparently" was her response.

Nick also had to laugh, him and Stephanie actually living normally, they managed it for two years... but, it was never meant to last.

Nick was dragged away, and Stephanie walked back into the cheering crowds, she eventually found Luke and before she could stop herself, sobbed her heart out onto his shoulder as Luke simply comforted her. One of his team blind and the other imprisoned and he had a feeling worse news was too come.

As he was dragged along, Nick also felt the first tears fall from his eyes, whatever life he had enjoyed yesterday, it had been destroyed today.

The riot was over.

But so were many lives.