Zoey slowly awoke and breathed in the fresh air as she kept her eyes closed. She shifted slightly to get a little more comfortable. Suddenly she realized what she had been laying on and her eyes sprung open. She looked at Nick, who seemed to have fallen back asleep. She quickly looked at the other survivors, seeing if any of them had noticed. Seeing the coast was clear, she sat up quickly and rubbed her eyes.

Still lying on the floor, Nick opened his eyes and watched Zoey as she sat up and rubbed her face.

She sighed as she looked at the small ray of sunlight peeking through the slit in the safe room door. A slight chill caused her to shiver quickly, but briefly. As she held onto her arms to keep warm, she recalled how cold it had been the night before, and tried to recall how she managed to keep warm. She suddenly looked over her right shoulder at Nick, who still lay on the floor with his eyes closed, as if he hadn't been disturbed by her movement.

She looked upon how peaceful he seemed and smiled. He began to open his eyes and she quickly turned away, looking toward the safe room door.

As sunlight began to fill the room, the other survivors began to wake up and prepare for their journey.

Louis sat up and yawned as he stretched. Next to him, Rochelle slowly opened her eyes.

"This is it, guys." Louis said. "Everyone wake up, today's the day!"

"I almost forgot." Zoey said. "We've been moving for so long, it seemed like we were never getting anywhere."

"Well worry no more, we are very close to finally reaching that rendezvous point that the military said for us to meet them!"

"About friggin' time…" Francis groaned as he slowly got up.

Louis stood up and stretched his arms upward and outward, then tilted his head side to side to relax his neck muscles. He walked up to the gun and ammo table and picked up his Sub-Machine Gun and a pipe bomb. He loaded the SMG with ammo and grabbed two pistols for the ride. He stopped to see that he had been the only one that was awake and preparing.

"Well come on, let's go guys! We don't have all day!"

"How the hell can you be so peppy this early in the morning, Mr. Sunshine?" Francis grumbled. "Even my ass is still asleep."

Louis smirked. "You've never been a morning person."

Bill stood up from the corner he had slept in and walked over toward the gun table.

"Louis is right, we'd better get a move on." He said.

He grabbed the M-16 Assault Rifle and loaded it with ammunition and grabbed a bottle of pills along with two pistols.

"This is going to be a hell of a bumpy ride if we don't move fast." He said.

Louis nodded. "The sooner we leave the more daylight we'll have, and hopefully find them by early evening. This is it, guys! We're finally going to make it!"

"Huh, what?" Ellis said as he was startled awake. He stretched his arms up and scratched his side.

"Anyone else have a dream about arm wrestling a Tank…?"

"This is going to be a very long trip…" Nick said.

Zoey turned around to see Nick sitting up against the wall, fully awake.

"If we leave now, we'll make it in time to have the military fill us in on a lot of unanswered questions." Louis said.

"And maybe some snacks…" Coach yawned.

"Well everyone grab some supplies and get ready, we got a long journey ahead of us." Bill said.

Bill, Coach, and Louis left the safe room and began to make their way outside as Ellis, Rochelle, and Francis followed.

Zoey stood debating between a pipe bomb and a Molotov while Nick began to load his AK-47.

"Just when I thought getting rescued was never going to happen." Zoey said. "Now it looks like we'll finally be out of this, this…"

"Deepest circle of hell…?" Nick said.

Zoey nodded in agreement. "I'll take that." She said sarcastically.

"The sooner the better, then I can actually enjoy myself again." He said.

"So when we do get rescued, you'll be back at the bar and hitting on girls?" She asked.

"I don't even care what I'm gonna do, just as long as I'm out of this zombie hell." He said.

"Yeah, it gets old fast."

"No more of this close quarter shit. We can get a chance to actually be alone."

Zoey shrugged. "Well I didn't mind being this close to you, or anyone. It's good to know you can trust people sometimes."

"Does that mean that if I offered to buy you a drink when this is all over that you'd actually join me?" He paused, watching her for a sudden change in expression. "Or are you just going to tell me no like every other time?"

She stared at him, slightly annoyed, but suddenly she gave him a look of content and smiled.

"A drink would be nice." She said finally. "I'll tell you what, after this apocalypse is over, you owe me one."

"Wow, no sarcastic phrase? I'm impressed. Why the sudden change of heart?"

"Well I don't always have to have a sarcastic answer," She smiled. "I can be nice when I want to be."

"Well that's good; we might actually learn to get along with each other."

She stared at him. "…Yeah." She looked at him. "I could do that."

They smiled at each other.

"Then I don't have to listen to you bitch at me all the time." He chuckled as he loaded his assault rifle and left the room.

Zoey stood watching Nick as he left the room with a look of uneasiness, as if she had taken what was said to heart. She shook her head for a second, and then her eyes looked up with realization.

"…Oh God…" She said sadly as she shook her head.

Outside the survivors continued to make their way through Louisiana heading northwest following the road before them. As they continued on, more and more infected were swarming, more than usual.

"Is it just me," Rochelle said. "Or are these groups getting larger?"

"I think somethin' bad happened on this road, man, I mean think about it, we been seein' a lot of zombies all of a sudden, and if you ask me, they're all here hidin' out or somethin' I don't know…" Ellis said.

"Ellis, we ain't got time for this shit." Coach said.

"Okay…but I'm just wonderin'."

Suddenly echoes of gurgling, screeching, groaning, and growling surrounded them.

"Oh, this is gonna get bad." Ellis said.

Suddenly a Smoker's scream was head and Ellis was snared by its tongue and dragged backwards.

"Ellis!" Rochelle shouted.

Suddenly a Spitter launched her acid all on the ground around the survivors, causing them to scatter.

As they went in different directions, a Hunter jumped from behind a ruined building and pounced Francis. Instantly after a Jockey ran up and grabbed a hold of Rochelle.

"Get this thing off of my face!" Rochelle shouted.

"GET IT OFF!" Francis shouted.

As the remaining survivors struggled to free their friends, more and more havoc began to spread them apart even further.

Just as the Jockey grabbed a hold of Rochelle, a Charger ran toward the group and grabbed onto Coach who had opened fire on the Smoker, attempting to free Ellis.

"Shit!" He yelled.

"They're pickin' us off!" Nick shouted.

Bill stepped toward the Smoker and finally freed Ellis.

"You all right, son?" He asked as he approached Ellis.

"Yeah, I just go the wind knocked outta me o' somethin' fierce." He said.

"Francis!" Zoey called as she shoved and shot the Hunter off of Francis.

Nick hunted down the Jockey while Louis ran after the Charger.

Coach was incapacitated when Louis finally got to him. He shot the Charger until it collapsed onto the ground. He reached down to help up Coach.

"I'll be all right." He said to Louis.

Rochelle was being steered forward past Coach when Nick finally caught up to her and shot the Jockey off of her.

"Hey, you all right?" He asked as he approached her.

"I'm a little dizzy…" She said. "But I'll be okay in a little while." She shook her head. "I wonder why it led me this way…"

Suddenly the light gurgles of a female Boomer were heard all but too late. Louis, Coach, Nick, and Rochelle were covered in vomit instantly as the Boomer called her friends to join in on the hunt and beat on them herself.

"Back off, bitch!" Zoey shouted as she ran up and began to shoot the nearby zombies and shoved the Boomer back before shooting her.

Bill, Francis, and Ellis also came in to defend their friends.

When the bile dissipated, the survivors had a moment to rest.

"We can't sit still for too long." Bill said. "They're really coming out of the woodwork around here."

"They seem to be more concentrated in this area." Rochelle said.

"Well if there's anyone that could have survived, it would be the military." Louis said.

"Let's keep goin'," Coach said. "It's gettin' near dark soon and ain't gonna travel at night."

"We can't afford to wait either." Bill said.

"Then we'd better haul ass." Francis said.

As they continued to walk through the town,

"Look, up there! I think I see smoke!" Rochelle said.

At the end of the town there was a pile of cars that blocked the road as a Semi had ended up blocking the entire road at the top of a hill. Cars were piled all around it, blocking the view of the road on the other side of the hill.

"Let's get on top of that truck." Zoey said. "Get a good view of the road."

"Maybe we can spot the military from there." Bill said.

The group approached the pile of abandoned cars and carefully walked onto them and approached the truck.

As they climbed atop the semi and looked downward at the bottom of the hill, they came upon a horrible sight.

At the base of the hill, in one large area, were flaming wreckages of military vehicles, and bodies of soldiers that were horribly maimed and mangled littered the ground everywhere. From large blood pools to many dislocated and mangled limbs to torsos and whole halves of the soldiers were missing or scattered across the scene. Smoke rose up from what was left of a vehicle's engine still slowly burning away.

"They're… all dead…" Louis said.

Zoey looked at Louis as he watched his only hope shatter before him in a bloody massacre.

Louis rubbed his forehead and shook his head in disbelief.

"Did anyone survive?" He said.

"It doesn't look likely." Nick said.

"They didn't make it…" Coach said as he stared at the bloody pile of bodies that littered the ground beneath them.

"Now that's a damn shame…" Ellis said.

"Poor bastards…" Bill said.

Louis just sighed and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Louis." Zoey said. "Maybe there's another…"

"Another what?" Louis said sadly. "Another group of the military, another helpful soul that ends up turning into either an infected or dead…It's hard to go on not knowing if there's a destination at the end of your journey."

"Well maybe there's a chance that someone got away." Zoey said.

"From this?" Louis sighed. "Look around, you guys, this was our last hope…now we don't have anything to go on." He shook his head, becoming more agitated. "After all this, we went all this way to find out that they're all dead, instead of trying to make it to the coast where we know there's safety." He paused. "We blew it! We missed our chance, and now we have nothing left to go on!"

"Hey, take it easy Louis." Francis said. "There's gotta be somethin' left of this shit. You're not like yourself when you're not Mr. Positive, it makes me worry about ya."

Louis took a deep breath and nodded. "You're right, Francis. I shouldn't have lost my cool."

"In moments like these, I am thankful to know that there IS something at the end of that long road, and it is definitely worth the journey." Coach said.

"Amen to that!" Ellis said.

"The journey…" Louis said, deep in thought. "That's it!" He exclaimed. "If we can find out where they were going, then there's still hope left after all. Quick, search for any evidence or mention of a specific location that we can get to."

"Good thinking." Francis said. "It's good to have the ol' Louie back."

As the survivors began to examine the horrible sight before them, they came upon uniforms and faces of people they recognized from the base.

Bill walked into the middle of the wreckage and found what he believed to be the remains of the General in charge of the group. All that was visibly intact was the man's hat and uniform. The mass that lay underneath the clothing was horribly mangled and torn apart that it was impossible to identify who, or even what, it may have once been.

"This is disgusting…" Nick said.

"This is war." Bill said as he walked away from the General's body. "There were over one hundred soldiers assigned to this unit, and we were supposed to be right along with them."

"Maybe it's fate that we didn't follow them." Zoey said.

"It did keep us alive…" Louis said.

One soldier's body lay outstretched toward a piece of broken metal. The body's position was rather odd for being attacked by zombies. It was almost as if he was reaching for something when he died.

"What is that?" Louis said as he approached.

He ran toward the peculiar position of the body and saw that something had been written on the metal piece in front of him. It read:

"Survivors,

We were attacked heading toward Alexandria for pickup at docks 30 mi NW."

"We gotta make it to Alexandria and make that pickup!" Coach said.

"That's right; we've got to move, and fast." Louis said.

"See? I told ya there'd be somethin'." Francis said.

"Finally, something to go on." Nick said.

"Just when you thought the whole world had gone away…" Zoey said.

"There's always a reason to be comin' back." Ellis replied.