Heya new follower, welcome to my story! I hope you enjoy it, and will continue to enjoy it in the future. I hope you all do. I don't mind whether two persons or 100 persons are reading this, as long as the ones who are are enjoying themselves. I love sharing my work with y'all.

Yeah, I know, Olivia... Don't hate me right now. What's an apocalypse without people dying, right? I hate killing people off, but it's kinda part of the deal...

Victor's POV:

I kept running. My leg started to hurt, but I couldn't care less. I had to find her and bring her back, even though deep down inside I knew it was already too late. The girl would unmistakably die.

I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath, taking large breaths that almost made me choke on air. How could a little girl who was injured move so fast? After a while I had to admit to myself I wasn't going to find her. I had to go back, back to the awful reality.

Tears sprung into my eyes when I thought about what had happened. Olivia and I had found Ben, sitting against a tree, a bottle of liquor in his hands. I could only gaze at him, while Olivia had started shouting at him.

"Are you for real, Ben? Jeopardizing your life, for this?" He could only stare back at us, surprised we had come after him. He obviously hadn't expected that.

"Please don't tell Demi," he begged us, but I had shaken my head. I was livid.

"How dare you?!"

After that everything had happened so fast. I had punched my best friend in the face, and I was so angry and so focused on him, I had not seen the walker creeping up to Liv, grabbing her and taking a large chunk out of her shoulder. Her scream had brought me back to reality, just too late.

There was no way she'd survive that, she had lost too much blood.

And now she was going to die, and turn into one of them. That had to be prevented. I knew how, it just made my stomach turn. I couldn't stab a dead girl in the head, could I?

I guess I didn't have much of a choice.

And then that scene at the camp. Somehow the undead must have followed us from the highway, or they must have heard our music. Noticing our camp fire. After spending so long in the shielded woods, we had created a false sense of safety. We hadn't been careful enough.

We had been stupid. Incredibly, incredibly stupid.

If only I hadn't gone after him, and if only I had told Olivia to stay put… Maybe then all of us would still be alive right now. Two of us were dead, and I blamed myself.

In tears I entered the trailer, finding Demi crying over Olivia's lifeless body. As soon as she spotted me she threw herself in my arms, and I wrapped my arms around her. I ignored Ben.

"I am so sorry Demi," I spoke with tears rolling from my cheeks. "This is all my fault." She resolutely shook her head.

"It's not your fault, Vic. She followed you. Besides, you weren't the one going into the woods all by himself in the first place." I heard the stab she made at Ben, but was unable to respond to it. Not now. I drew my knife as I let her go.

"I'm terribly sorry Demi, but I have to do this." She stared at me through her tears. "Do what?"

I swallowed. "Preventing reanimation. I have to shut down her brain, otherwise she'll come back. We can't have that. It happened to Nick." I saw her tear up again, and she stood up and left the trailer. I knew it was no use going after her. This had to be done first.

I cupped Olivia's cheek one more time before I drew my knife into her temple. I would miss her quirky comments and jokes, and even her emotional outbursts. I couldn't not believe this had really happened.

Slowly I averted my gaze from the dead girl's body, to Ben and Hannah. The latter had been in the trailer this whole time, which had saved her life. Daniel had taken out those walkers all by himself, a noteworthy achievement. His sister had wrapped her arms around his shoulders, but he just seemed motionless. I didn't have the heart to acknowledge Ben.

"We are leaving tomorrow, before dawn. Pack your belongings."

We had been travelling for a time now, crossing a few mountain tops, trying to survive high up in the mountains. But it was difficult. The nights were rather cold, too cold to stay outside. Of course we had taken a few sleeping bags from the camp, but it wasn't nearly enough without a tent or something to keep us safe.

I guess we were all occupied with our own thoughts. I couldn't get the vision of Olivia getting bit out of my mind. Every time I closed my eyes I saw it happening, over and over again. It reminded me of Peter, those months before. And I knew this wouldn't be the last time I would witness someone die. We would all perish against these things, eventually.

Everyone I cared about would die.

Demi and I had sort of formed a front. She and I made the decisions now, of where to go and what to do. Hannah and Daniel were too young to make these decisions, and Ben just seemed dazed. His eyes were glassy and his gaze seemed to be endless.

Probably because he was detoxing for real this time, I scornfully thought to myself.

Ben and Demi had not spoken a word. He had tried, but she refused to talk to him. I could not blame her, he had lied to her. He had lied to all of us.

Yet somehow, Daniel still seemed to regard Ben as his hero. The child was pretty much the only one who still engaged in conversations with him. He either didn't fully seem to grasp the reality of what had happened here, or he had simply just forgiven him already.

The first days we had tried to find Sophia back, but it was no use. She was bit, and she had probably died already. We didn't encounter her undead form either, and I could only hope someone had put her out of her misery. That poor, poor girl. To be saved, only to die…

That evening we settled down high in the mountains again. The landscape looked idyllic with the fog hanging over, but all it did was making me shiver. I quickly made a camp fire and we all gathered around it, warming ourselves to the fire.

"Excuse me, Victor, but what exactly is the plan, right now?" The red-haired girl barely looked at me, hugging her knees. Her brother poked in the fire with a branch.

I sighed and bit my lip. "I'm not sure yet." That much was true. I didn't know where we were heading, all I knew is that I couldn't stay at that camp for one day longer. Anywhere was better than there. And since my leg had fully healed, we could literally go anywhere again.

Demi answered. "Maybe we should opt for the nearest town. Find shelter in a house somewhere, or anything. We can't stay in the mountains forever. I can't keep this up without a decent meal. Berries are not sufficient." I started observing her. She looked tired, with dark bags under her eyes, and she had certainly lost weight. We all had, we were all starving. I heard my stomach rumble by the thought of eating.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. And there must be supply stores around that are not raided or destroyed yet."

"But Ben and I could go fish again," Daniel suggested, his eyes lighting up. "I know how to catch lots of fish, right, Ben?" The blond man showed a weak smile.

"I think Victor and Demi are right, little guy. We need to go down again." The boy looked disappointed, and for a second I felt bad for them, but I knew it was for the best.

"Alright guys, I will keep watch tonight. Go get some rest, we'll need it tomorrow." I nodded to my group. Demi smiled at me, rose to her feet and set course to the little place we had set up, followed by Hannah, who torched Daniel with her. Ben stayed behind.

"Vic? Do you need me to stay watch with you, switch shifts tonight?" He asked, his eyes hopeful.

"No, I'll be fine. Just go." I spoke bluntly, avoiding his gaze, and I could tell it hurt him. He moved a little closer to me.

"Please, Vic, talk to me. This is all one big misunderstanding," he tried, but I brushed him off.

"Yes, because bottles of liquor spontaneously appear on the ground, and you just happened to stumble over one of them." My best friend eyed me desperately.

"It was just to make the transition easier, I swear. I was gonna stop." His voice sounded uneven.

I shook my head. "You have issues, Ben. You lied to me. I thought I was your best friend." The man looked defeated. I tried to ignore the knot in my stomach.

"Look, I know things have been tough for you," I continued. "But this has got to stop, man. You jeopardized your life for your stupid addictions. Our lives, too. I just don't know if I can ever trust you again." The bitterness in my voice made even me shiver. "And you've betrayed Demi. After everything she's been through... How could you? She finally trusted you."

He rose to his feet. "I know. I fucked up. And I am so sorry. I know I can never make this right. To you, or to Demi, to anyone. I'm just a waste." With those words he took off, leaving me a little puzzled. On the one hand I felt really bad for him, he clearly had unresolved issues and instead of talking to us about it, he had turned to drinking. But on the other hand it stung that he had lied to me, again. I knew it was wrong, but I blamed him for what had happened.

I guessed it was true what they said. You can't trust an addict.

The next morning I woke up Demi and the others, only to find Ben and his sleeping bag missing.

"Hey guys, does any of you know where Ben went?" I asked, receiving a weird glance from Hannah.

"Wasn't he with you?" I raised my eyebrow. "With me?" The red-head quickly nodded.

"Yesterday evening, after we had left the camp fire to go to sleep, he came to get his stuff. Said he was going to accompany you to keep watch or something. I thought it was great you guys were on speaking terms again. The guy honestly seemed depressed." I stared at her with an open mouth.

"I was alone tonight. He wasn't there." Now everyone was gawking at me.

"Then… Where did he go?" Demi's voice sounded a little off.

I closed my eyes, trying to vividly remember last night's conversation. Then it dawned on me.

"He left," I said, puzzled. "He left us."

Hannah's face paled and Daniel's eyes went big, while Demi just stared at me in disbelief.

"Where the fuck would he go?" I just shrugged and ran a hand through my hair. "I have no idea."

The blonde snorted. "Well, we're better off without him anyway. Liars only get people killed. Let's move, we haven't got all day. We have to reach a town before darkness sets in, otherwise we'll be no match against the undead." She placed her hands on her hips. "You coming, or what?'

Hannah and Daniel stared at her with an open mouth, but started packing their stuff anyway. I decided on doing the same. Demi seemed so indifferent about Ben's departure, but I knew that deep down inside, her heart was shattered into a million pieces.

So... Another loss to carry. How will things develop now Ben's out of the picture?