Loud House: Infection of the Dead

by MrPotassiumK

Zombie Apocalypse: A plague has run rampant around the globe, infecting people and turning them into "roamers." In the wake of the apocalypse, the Louds must go through great lengths to ensure their survival, even if it may mean losing their humanity in the process. Who will survive in the end? (Not a crossover, just largely inspired by The Walking Dead)

21. Lost

After almost a month, I return with a new chapter! Enjoy! Also, you don't have to listen the songs stated in the story, but it does enhance the experience. That's all I have to say. Don't forget to follow and favorite the story if you enjoy!

---

Raindrops running down the windows. Teardrops running down from her eyes. A low rumble of thunder from the distance. A low whimper trembling from her lips.

The light from the blue phone lit up. It was a bright light, lighting up nothing that could be seen on the screen. Just white light.

Then, it buzzed.

Lori turned towards the glove department. It buzzed. She sniffled and wiped her tears as she stared at it. It buzzed again. She placed her hands on the small handle and opened it, rummaging through the notes written with red ink. The photos also had bloody text. They all the same grim message.

WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE ME?

MY BLOOD IS IN YOUR HAND.

GOOD LUCK FINDING THE OTHERS.

GUESS WHO CAN'T CRY ANYMORE?

MOM AND DAD DON'T WANT YOU ANYMORE.

GOOD JOB SAVING YOUR SISTER.

I WISH YOU WOULD BURN.

WHO'S NEXT?

The phone buzzed again. Lori placed her fingers on it. Her vision folded into darkness before revealing the object in her hand. It buzzed again and again. Her fingers lifted itself away from the phone, leaving bloody fingerprints on the screen.

Lori closed her eyes, letting one tear come out from them before passing out. The phone stopped buzzing and the photos no longer had any messages in them. But the blood from her wounds still remained.

Chapter 21: Lost

I - Here We Remain

The rain continued to pour on the van. Luan kept her hands steady on the wheels and her feet lightly pressed against the gas pedal. Then, she slowly let go of the pedal as she turned the wheel to the left.

The Medway Motel neon sign remained dark. A couple roamers lurked around the abandoned vehicles as Luan parked between two parking spaces. She opened the door and grabbed her katana before closing it. The rain soaked her hair again, but luckily, her leather jacket kept her body dry.

She ran with the bloody blade in her hands, looking around for the monsters. A wet roamer oozing blood with a saturated dark-red color appeared before her. Its clothes were ripped where a giant stab wound remained in its chest, and its shoes were falling apart. Its golden eyes glowed through the downpour.

The girl quickly drove her sword forward and moved closer to the roamer. With a quick lift, she held the katana by the scar in her right temple and lunged it towards the roamer's skull, the blade sticking through its wet head. She pulled it out and looked around, finding other roamers.

The raindrops splashed around as the blade of the katana cut through them. They slicing moved around in spirals, uppercuts, and zigzags. As the girl continued dancing in the rain with her katana, blood splattered into the puddles in the ground, into the abandoned vehicles, into the raindrops themselves.

Luan finished her dance and panted as she looked around. The bodies were in the ground and no golden eyes could be seen moving through the downpour. She placed her hands on her face and moved her wet strands of hair away from it. She blinked rapidly and looked back at the van.

She saw Lincoln pull Lori out of the van, and ran to the van to help him. She placed the katana back into her sheath and grabbed one of Lori's arms, placing it around her shoulders. Lincoln kicked back the door to close it as he tried to face the raindrops pelting the survivors.

They moved towards the motel and looked at the rooms in the lower section. Luan and Lincoln moved to a room, finding it unlocked. They opened the door and went inside, finding themselves in a pitch-black space.

"Hold her tight!" exclaimed Luan.

She ran to a large drawer beside the bed, dimly lit by the window, and took out a large towel. Next, she placed the towel on the bed and ran back to Lori, this time, picking her up with her full strength. She rolled her to the bed and sighed as she was now safely lying on the bed.

She saw candles on top of the drawers, prompting her to check Lori's pockets in her cargo shorts. She pulled out her lighter and lit up the candles before closing the door to the room. The candles were now lighting up the room and also revealed something suspicious on the drawer.

Lincoln looked over at Lori, inspecting all her wounds. Luan picked up the object on the drawer and flipped it around, staring at it as her eyes grew wide.

"Magnum?" whispered Luan. "Large… size… oh!"

"None of the wounds look that bad," said Lincoln, his voice cracking. "It could've been a lot worse– woah."

Luan gulped and tossed the box onto the drawer. She moved away from the candles and focused on Lori.

"Whose room was this?" asked Lincoln.

"Dana… and Wavehead," replied Luan. "Looks like they were really… close friends."

Luan placed her fingers on Lori's neck.

"She's just unconscious," she said. "I think there's another towel in the drawers. We'll dry ourselves up and… rest. It's been… a very long day."

After drying herself with a purple towel, Luan placed herself on the large towel in the bed, next to Lori.

"There's enough space here, Lincoln," said Luan.

"It's okay. Just go to sleep. I need to relax for a little first."

Luan nodded and placed her head into the middle pillow. Lincoln walked out of the motel room, leaving the door slightly open.

Luan sniffled and thought about her second eldest sister– realizing, that Luna has now taken that spot. The pillow became more damp as she continued to cry into it. Before she knew it, she was asleep, her tears drying up on her face.

Lincoln opened the passenger door to Vanzilla and grabbed the photo album from the glove department. He covered it inside his shirt and ran back into the motel as he was attacked by the rain. Then, he went inside and closed the door before taking the photo album out. He grabbed the purple towel and dried himself, finding Luan asleep in the bed. He tossed the towel away and sat down in the floor by the drawers, opening the photo album to find pictures of the Loud family. Tears fell onto the album when he flipped into Leni's section. Her baby pictures, a picture of when she went to first grade, much to the parents' surprise, a picture of her in the parks feeding bread to a bunch of pigeons, and a selfie with her former coworker, Fiona.

Then, he found the picture that Carol took back in Royal Woods when they were preparing to leave to Houlton. Many of the faces were colored by a transparent gray marker. He could list all the faces from when their deaths occurred in order.

Rocky. Chaz. Lola. Francisco. Liam. Chunk. Missy. Lucy. Darcy. Zach. Richard. Tabby. Dana.

Lincoln closed the album and tried to hold his tears back. Leni was already colored gray by herself.

Luan shifted her body around, fidgeting about.

Leni's body fell. Blood splattered the ground where Luan stood. She looked around and noticed that she was holding a katana. It was already bloody.

"Go ahead," said Black. "Kill me. It won't bring back Leni. It never will. KILL ME!"

Luan yelled and sliced Black's arms off. Then, she gasped as a golden eye appeared before her. The General has turned into a roamer.

"Good job," said Black in a growling voice. "You brought me back."

"No! No! No!" yelled Luan.

She continued slicing off Black's arms. Blood poured everywhere. Even the rain turned red as the raindrops became drops of blood. Red everywhere. Luan fell to her knee and looked up. Black smiled and aimed his gun at Leni again. They were both drenched in blood. Then, a gunshot.

"NO!" yelled Luan.

Luan woke up, panting as the thunder rumbled quietly outside the motel. Lincoln stood up and ran to Luan's aid.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh… my… god," she said, catching her breath.

"It's okay, I'm here," said Lincoln. "Nightmare?"

"L–Leni? Where– oh no! I'm still stuck in this shit motel!"

"You were only asleep for like an hour," said Lincoln.

Luan looked out the windows. There were a swarm of roamers.

"They followed us," said Luan. "We have to lead 'em away from here. Away from Lori."

Lincoln nodded and grabbed his combat knife. He blew out the candles in the room before following Luan out the motel room. The door closed, leaving Lori unconscious in the pitch-black room.

Luan uppercutted a roamer with her katana and thrust it into the neck of a roamer before decapitating it. Lincoln grabbed a roamer by his throat and pressed the knife against its eye. He pulled it out without turning it, realizing that the roamers were too wet to make it difficult to pull out a knife from.

Lincoln moved to another roamer and leaped, thrusting the knife up its jaws. The knife slid out easily again, and the roamer dropped to the ground without dragging the boy with him.

"There's too many," said Luan. "Come here! Back up. Back up."

Luan and Lincoln stood next to each other with their melee weapons ready to slice the roamers. The swarms were limping towards the survivors as their backs were faced against the woods. Then, the duo turned around and ran into the road.

"What are we doing?" asked Lincoln. "We could take them on right now."

"Run to cabin. There could be more coming. Can't risk them going into our room."

Lincoln nodded. He and Luan paced themselves backwards into the cabin. The roamers splashed their muddy feet into the pavement of the road.

The siblings took out the front roamers before taking a step back. The rain continued to torment the duo.

Their feet dug into the mud as they stepped back to the cabin. The roamers were slower now, making it easier for the siblings to pick them off.

However, a roamer by Bill's car rose up and grabbed Lincoln's shoulder. It pulled him up the trunk of the car and dragged him closer to its teeth. Lincoln struggled to release himself from the roamer's grip as he elbowed it over and over.

"Luan! Help!"

Luan turned around and quickly ran around the trunk of the car, turning her blade sideways. She pushed it to her left and impaled the roamer through its skull, narrowly missing Lincoln.

"Dang. What if you missed?"

"That would've sucked," said Luan. "There's more incoming. Get inside the cabin!"

Luan and Lincoln ran past the jerry can and a siphon hose. The roamers scratched their infected nails against the wooden cabin and growled. Some other roamers slammed their jaws and hands on the walls and the doors.

Luan and Lincoln sighed until they spotted another roamer inside the cabin. Lincoln yelped and stabbed it in the chest. Luan drove her katana through its mouth before it was able to scratch Lincoln.

"Oh, thank goodness. That's two dollars I owe ya," said Lincoln. "Oh, look at what this guy had."

Lincoln grabbed the gun that was around the roamer held by a strap. It was an MP5. He grabbed a sack that the man had around his back and checked inside. Ammo.

The door busted open and Lincoln fired his SMG at the knocking roamers. The bullets tore through the dozen of roamers and allowed both siblings to escape the cabin.

"Reloading," said Lincoln. "That felt kinda cool to say."

Luan stabbed a roamer behind Lincoln as he reloaded his new gun. He then cocked it and fired in short bursts at the remaining roamers.

"Was that it?" asked Lincoln.

Luan nodded. Lincoln sighed and felt his stomach grumble.

"Hungry?" asked Luan. "Me too. I haven't eaten since yesterday. All the rogues did was feed me peanuts and cheese."

"We didn't bring any food or water," said Lincoln. "What are we going to do?"

"Loot," said Luan. "This cabin and the town."

"Bill said he cleared it out already."

"Oh come on. He couldn't have cleared out everything now, could he? There's gotta be something he missed."

Luan and Lincoln walked away from the cabin with empty stomachs, wet socks, and muddy shoes. The corpses were left in the ground.

The town was empty. Many of the cars were already siphoned, the streets were clean from the usual litter that was spotted in all cities, and not a single roamer in sight. However, the water in the side of the streets were flooding into the sidewalk.

Lincoln and Luan spotted a small amber house with a mailbox next to its screen door. They approached the door and opened it, before jiggling the knob to the wooden door.

"Bill left it unlocked," said Lincoln. "It's gotta be looted."

"He had to have missed something."

Luan walked inside with her katana up. She looked around in search of foodstuffs, water, medicine, anything her siblings could use. Sure enough, the entire house was looted.

"Let's move on to another house. Somewhere far from here, 'cause of course it's gonna be looted near the cabin!"

Luan and Lincoln moved further into the town. The downpour softened slightly, giving Luan and Lincoln a chance to clear their sinuses. They held their weapons and moved from one house to another, looking to see if the door for the abandoned homes were locked. So far, all the doors they have encountered were unlocked. That was, until a few minutes later.

"This door is locked!" exclaimed Lincoln.

Luan hopped down from the stairs on the house across Lincoln. She ran to the door and jiggled the knob, and sure enough, it was locked.

"That's great!" she gasped. "Looks like Bill wasn't done looting after all!"

"So… how do we get inside?"

Luan scanned the front yard of the light-green house. She shook her head and then looked at Lincoln's gun. She asked for the gun, to which Lincoln responded by handing it to her, and then she turned it around so the stock was pointed towards the porch window. With one swift slam, the window cracked, prompting Luan to give it another slam. Eventually, the window shattered completely, and Luan moved all the glass out of the way so she could go inside.

Now inside, she walked to the door and unlocked it, though Lincoln went inside through the window. Luan looked at him and sighed.

"Something wrong?" asked Lincoln.

"If Leni was here, we wouldn't have to do that. I took a long time to get us inside, when she would've picked the lock in seconds. I took too long, and if there were roamers around… we would've been goners. I took too long… and that's why Leni isn't here. And now that she's not here… that's why I take so long. It's a vicious cycle…."

Luan turned on her flashlight. She lit up the room and looked around the living room. There was a TV and a couch and a lamp and a table. A half-empty bottle of water stood in the table next to a plate of rotten fruit. More specifically, lemons.

"Ugh, gross," said Luan as she turned around. "You alright, Lincoln?"

"No. I'm tired. I should be getting sleep but… I can't. I keep thinking about how I could've saved Leni."

"Lincoln… I was the one who couldn't run fast enough…"

"No, Luan, I WAS. I followed Leni, but the bullets… the gunfire… I was scared. I was afraid for my own life and you know what it cost? Leni's life. I'm the reason she…"

Luan wrapped her arms around Lincoln as he started to tear up. Their hearts were throbbing with pain.

"I know. You aren't the only one, Lincoln. You aren't the only one."

"Y-You were… having nightmares… was it about…"

Luan nodded.

"I know why I killed Black. He destroyed our homes, killed Mom and Dad in front of me, starved me for months, tortured me again and again… he even killed Dana before our eyes. But even then… I hesitated. It was only when he killed– that's when I knew it."

Luan turned towards Lincoln.

"It's murder, Lincoln. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't think I can kill again. I'm not like Lori. I have to be broken to kill again. But I don't wanna be afraid anymore. I… don't…"

Luan sobbed into Lincoln's shoulders. The rain continued to splash against the roof of the house. The roof kept the wooden floors dry for two years until tears plopped themselves on its surface.

"I wonder what Mom and Dad think of us now," whimpered Luan. "If they could see us… if their spirits were somehow here in this room… how disappointed would they be?"

"How mad at us is Leni?" cried Lincoln.

After a few minutes, Lincoln and Luan decided to release each other. Their watery eyes made it harder to see in the dark, though the flashlight did help.

When Lincoln walked to the kitchen, he saw a box of Zombie Bran- which had most definitely gone stale by now. He grabbed it and placed it inside his mouth, unable to stop his tears from running down his face. Luan grabbed a can of baked beans, now thinking about Lori's uncertain fate. She continued to find food, but not too much of it. It didn't matter to both Louds, as no amount of food would lift up their spirits.

Luan grabbed a handful of Zombie Bran and placed it in her mouth, replenishing her low energy. She continued to eat it as she watched the rain through the broken porch window.

"It's time to go now, isn't it?" asked Lincoln. "We gotta check up on Lori."

Luan nodded and tossed the empty box of cereal away. She tossed her sheath out the porch window and mantled through it. She grabbed her sheath and held her flashlight, beaming the light out into the street, revealing raindrops falling through the beam. By the unlooted neighboring houses, a few roamers looked at the flashlight and found the two survivors behind it. They growled softly and limped towards it.

"Who do you think they were?" muttered Lincoln as he walked through the flooding road.

"Who?"

"The guys in the cabin."

"Probably just random survivors like us. They became the undead's victims. That reminds me. We're gonna need the hose and can that they left by the garage."

"Do you know how to siphon gas?" asked Lincoln.

"No, I thought you would know. But I guess Lori does."

"Luan… what's gonna happen when Lori wakes up? I mean, we all have to admit… she was the closest to… her out of all of us. So, I'm kinda afraid- AH!"

"Lincoln!" shouted Luan.

A scream followed by a large splash then a squishing noise hooked Luan's attention. She shone the flashlight at the pavement of the road until she found a rectangular hole. She moved the beam of light down the hole, revealing Lincoln on shallow water with blood in his arms.

"Oh my god, Lincoln!"

"I'm okay! I just scraped my arm and something broke my fall! Uhh, it feels very squishy, and- oh, the smell!"

Luan moved the light away from Lincoln's face and down to his shoes. She herself wasn't able to see through the shallow water, but Lincoln could. He yelled as he realized he was stepping on torn parts from corpses.

"What is it?" asked Luan.

"Roamers! AH! Ah! Wait! I think… I think they're dead! Huh. It's their corpses."

"Don't touch it!" yelled Luan. "Do you have any holes in your shoes?"

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I didn't step on their teeth or anything like that."

"You could still get infected! I'll get you out of there! Just stay still!"

"Sure! I mean there's nowhere to go."

Luan searched her surroundings. She moved her hair out of her face, struggling to find a solution to save Lincoln.

Then, she thought about one.

She ran to the closest car and found the trunk. She attempted to lift it, but it was locked. The rain poured on the door handle as Luan tried to open it. She pointed her flashlight behind her, finding something useful.

After a few seconds, a mailbox was flung to the car window, shattering it completely. Luan pulled it out and looked inside the car, searching for a pair of keys. Suddenly, a splash of water and a faint growl forced Luan to turn around.

She shrieked as a roamer shoved her against the car. It leaned its mouth to her arm and bit down causing her to scream.

Lincoln looked up. He grabbed his MP5 and began breathing heavily.

"Oh no. Luan? Luan! LUAN!"

A roamer passed by the storm drain and looked down, finding a moving organism. It growled and dropped down just after Lincoln moved out of the way. He covered his face as the water splashed against his shirt.

Lincoln aimed his MP5 at the roamer as it lifted its head up. He shot it and splattered its blood against the shallow water. The rapid bullets caused the water to jump into the other wall of the drain, revealing dark-red and gray fluids. Lincoln trembled and gagged.

Luan headbutted the roamer, causing her to flinch in unexpected pain. She grabbed the roamer and smashed it against the mailbox, over and over. Then, she dropped it to the flooding ground.

She looked at the blood in her arms and gulped, as she began to tear up. However, Lincoln's shouts forced her to focus on him, so she placed her head inside the car. The keys were there.

The trunk opened upon the insertion of the keys. Luan rummaged through the trunk, finding clothes and tools. Then, she found a pair of cable jumpers. She clipped them together and ran to the storm drain.

"Luan, what happened?" asked Lincoln.

"Had an encounter with a dead one! Just grab the cable!"

Luan tossed down one end of the cable down the storm drain. Lincoln struggled to jump to it. He looked around and found the corpse that he just created. He stepped on it, moving his legs out of the shallow water. With one leap, he caught the cables and held on to it.

But the cables snapped. Lincoln yelled as he fell down again, though the fresh corpse broke his fall again.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Luan.

Another roamer approached the girl. As she took out her katana, the flashlight lit up her arm, giving Lincoln a chance to catch the sight that passed in a second.

"Luan… your arm…"

Luan kicked the roamer away from the drain and sliced its skull off. Then she stabbed another roamer and another. She ran back to the trunk of the car and grabbed the clothes. Then, she ran back to the storm drain, soaking the clothes in the flooding water by the drain.

"What are you doing?" asked Lincoln.

"Something I haven't done in two years," replied Luan.

Luan twisted the clothes as tight as a stick of Twizzlers. Then, she tied the tight ends of the clothings with each other until they created a larger version of a never-ending chain of handkerchiefs. She moved it down the storm drain until Lincoln was able to grab it.

"Wait, don't pull it yet!" exclaimed Luan.

She stood up and grabbed her katana. She looked around her surroundings with the aid of her flashlight but was unable to find the source of the faint growls she heard. She quickly started panting as she saw nothing but empty streets and overgrown yards. Then, she looked down.

A crawler. Luan stepped in front of it and thrust her katana down, killing off the poor infected soul. She moved her hair out of her face again and returned to her tied clothes.

Lincoln grabbed the clothes and held on to it as Luan pulled on it. He placed his foot against the wall of the storm drain and walked upwards as if he were scaling a mountain. Each second he was closer and closer to the surface… until he finally made it out. He stumbled onto Luan and hugged her as he sighed in relief.

Luan smiled and dropped the tied clothes. She pulled him away from the area and led the way into the cabin.

"Luan, check your arm. Your right arm."

Luan shivered as she shook her head. She looked down and noticed that the blood was fainter.

"What the?" she gasped. "Grab the can and the siphoning hose."

Lincoln ran to driveway to retrieve the jerry can and hose that was left behind Bill's car. Luan went inside the dry cabin and pulled out her leather jacket. She tossed it on the ground and pointed the light at her right arm. She smiled.

Lincoln went inside the cabin and with the items in his hands. He dropped them as he smiled softly.

"Leni…" gasped Luan, "...saved me."

The rain relaxed once more as it turned into light rain. Lincoln and Luan returned to their motel room. Luan removed her jacket and placed it in the coat hanger by the door. She locked the door and placed her sheath down on the floor. Then, she pointed the flashlight at Lori.

"Look, Lincoln…" whispered Luan.

Lincoln turned towards Lori and looked closely at her face. There were droplets of tears close to her eyes, just lying there. Yet, her face remained unmoved ever since she fell unconscious in the van.

II - Aftermath

The storm raged on earlier in the day. Luna and Sam limped to the prison bus in the road. Kotaro treated the wounds on their feet as Ted drove the bus away.

Luna asked Kotaro where her siblings were. He said he didn't know. Ted added that they should all be in Washington in a matter of weeks.

Not all of them, thought Luna.

Sam reached into her backpack and pulled out a cassette player. Even after she took a hit from a mortar strike, the cassette player and the tapes survived the blast. The tapes were her own tapes, since Tim's tapes were back in the RV inside Vonda's bag.

Sam placed a tape inside the cassette tape, which would play one of her favorite songs. She placed one of her earbuds in her right ear while placing the other in Luna's left ear. She pressed a button, now playing the classic song from The Who, "Behind Blue Eyes."

Luna looked out the windows, sighing. She always pretended she was a part of a somber music video when it rained, but now she was in no music video.

Lily looked out the booth windows of the RV and saw the passing trees and the rain splashing against the road. She sighed and looked back inside. She looked around, unable to find any of her siblings other than Lana.

Vonda looked at her father's tapes while sitting next to George in the passenger seats. In the sofa sat a boy, about Lana's age, and his father. The boy, Simon Weber, seemed unmoved by what just occurred and was just scribbling on a crossword puzzle.

David continued driving the gang away from the town, aiming for their new destination.

In a different prison bus, surrounded by other buses, Dr. Feinstein was driving his passengers down Route 95. Some of these passengers included Jace, Preston, and Jeffrey. In another bus, a driver carried Dr. White, Carol, Zoey, Lisa, and Clyde.

Carol looked down at her fussing baby. She rocked her softly, as she looked out the windows. The thunder continued to rumble.

Jeffrey trembled as lightning crackled across the sky. Preston knelt down by his side and attempted to calm him down, but the raindrops were only making his flashbacks worse.

The modern RV drove through the rain. Inside the vehicle were three young adults and a teen. The driver, Hana, had Reiji tied to the passenger seat. Bobby, Benny, and Becky all sat in the couches in the back of the RV. Kimi leaped to Benny's lap and lied there, deciding that it would be the right time to take a peaceful nap.

After an hour, the group made a stop by the truck wreckage in the side of the road. The group came out of the RV, with Kimi following Benny instead of Hana since she was scared of her new companion, Reiji. The putrid fluids oozing out of its flesh was enough to make any living being with a nose stay away from Hana.

The roamer quickly became tame when Hana cut off its mouth after it devoured Oliver Jett. With no nails and no teeth, it was impossible for the roamer to infect someone, unless someone deliberately consumed its fluids. Even the roamer knew that no sane person would do that, or at least the virus/parasite controlling its brain. So with no way to attack anyone, the roamer had abandoned its aggressive nature for a docile one.

Benny wiped the rain from his mustache and growing stubble. He shook his head and looked at Bobby who allowed the rain to pour down his face. Becky ignored the rain, except when it caused her hair to drop down to her eyes.

After a few minutes, the group arrived at the main base in Spednic Lake. The mud in their shoes proved that they made a difficult walk through the woods to get to the entrance gates.

"Look," said Becky. "Something happened here."

"Yeah, this base got blown to hell," said Benny. "I wonder who did this?"

"Couldn't be Black. He brought all his firepower to the town for invasion. This was someone else. Smells like napalm."

"Doesn't smell like victory, though," said Benny. "What are we doing here anyways?"

"Loot," said Hana. "Weapon. Ammo. Medicine."

"What she said," stated Becky. "Anything that's left over, take it. Anyone that's left… kill them."

Becky opened the entrance gate, leading Hana, Bobby, and Benny inside the base. With her green eyes, she looked around the base, then back at her group members. Hana closed her eyes as her pet roamer stood next to her. Bobby's head was lowered as he wasn't paying attention to anything. The petroleum smell and smoke didn't faze him at all. Benny had his thousand-yard stare, looking past the wrecked helicopters, melted armory, smoked vehicles, and craters in the ground.

Becky closed her eyes and allowed her tears to join the raindrops on her face. This time not for Chaz, not for Tad, not for D, not for Dana. This time for Leni.

The thunder rumbled softer and less frequently as time passed by. The rain, however, would continued to pour into the destroyed town of Houlton.

Haley sniffled and cried softly as she sat on the narrow walkway in the sewers, a dying flashlight by her legs. The sewage flowed around in a single direction as the rainwater continued to pour down the storm drains.

She placed her fingers over Lynn's shoulders and peered at the wound. It was too dark to figure out how bad the wound was, but she knew where it was.

Then, a beam of light lit up the sewer tunnels. Haley covered her eyes with her arms and flinched away from the light. A few clicks and snaps were heard as the beam of light grew stronger.

Haley slowly turned towards the light and raised her eyes as she found new survivors. At least new survivors to her.

"Well, this is unexpected," said the man holding the flashlight.

"Wha– who are you?" asked Haley.

"Care to explain who you are first?" asked the man.

"I'm… Haley Jennings. I–I'm a nurse… the best damn nurse in Halifax, I've been told."

"Nice to meet you, Haley Jennings," said the man, revealing himself as the other men moved their lanterns close to him. "My name is Waylon Prasad. This is my wife, Kavya. Looks like you got yourself a problem with your friend down there."

"Yeah, do you guys have any antibiotics for Lynn? I–I don't know if any of you have benzylpenicillin…"

"Do you know who we are? She treated one of yours from pneumonia!"

"I… actually don't have any idea who you people are. Can you please just tell me if you have medicine?"

"More than just medicine," said Kavya. "Benzylpenicillin you said? Najjad, give me your lantern."

Najjad passed down his lantern to Kavya who placed it down the walkway as she knelt down to Lynn. Her shoulders continued bleeding, though she grabbed a rag from her medical bag and pressed it against the wound. Then, she placed her fingers on her collarbone and moved around it, eventually making it to the wound where she felt a fracture.

"We are gonna have to fix that," she said. "Fracture in the collarbone."

Kavya took out a syringe and a bottle of antibiotics before lifting up Lynn's coat. There was a vest inside, one that stopped the .308 Winchester bullet that Luna fired.

"This is good," said Kavya. "Did she get stabbed with something?"

"Yeah, a katana to the shoulder."

Kavya took off Lynn's vest and slowly lied her down the walkway.

"You said you are nurse? Take this. Inject it in her."

Haley nodded. Waylon looked at the water pouring down the manhole cover and storm drains. Then he looked up.

"We're the people that your leader, Lori Loud, spent time with," said Waylon. "Well, I suppose no one in this town ever seen us except David, Becky, Luan, and Hana."

"Oh, you're the leader of the subway people," said Haley. "I'm sorry, was the name– oh god."

"It's alright. Since we're called that, might as well embrace that name! Subway People. I like that. It has a ring to it, even though we're not necessarily in a subway now."

Haley injected the syringe into Lynn's arms. Kavya dug her forceps into Lynn's shoulders, repairing the ruptures veins in her shoulders.

"How is it up there?" asked Waylon.

"Blown to shit," said Haley. "Bodies everywhere. Most of them with holes in 'em. Hey, can you check the prisons for me? I think… there might be someone in there."

"That's a strange way to thank us for saving your friend," said Waylon.

"I'm sorry, it's just… everyone in this town went through hell."

"No problem, I'll check it out. Najjad, Joshua, Jax! With me. The rest of you, make sure this place stays secure."

Waylon climbed up the stairs and lifted the manhole cover out of the way. As he got out, he found bodies rising in the once thriving community. He quickly got up and took cover behind the ATC tower with Najjad, Joshua, and Jax. He took out two katars, while Najjad and Joshua used their gunong daggers. Jax held a large axe, suiting his larger size.

They spotted their target, a roamer that began approaching them. It was a turned-Rusty who had wounds all over its body. Waylon quickly stabbed his knife into its head before pulling it out quickly, leaving the body standing for a second before gravity dragged it down to the floor. They found more roamers nearby, but they kept their focus on the prisons.

"...people croaked as soon as they were bit by the uglies… I took out all the roamers that tried to kill me. People got shot while I dodged every single bullet. And then this happens. I, Ronalda Anne Santiago, will die to rain."

She chuckled to herself as the water began rising to her chin.

"Oh… it's like I got tough for nothing, right? If the water doesn't kill me… the lack of air will. Oh, Liam and Zach. I know you guys are gonna laugh at me… lived out two whole years in this apocalypse, and then die to water? 'How do people drown, just drink the water,' as Rusty's dumbass would say. At least Rusty gets to live. I saved a life, just like Tabby. Except Jenny died a couple days after. Rusty, you better not die! Oh, I'll be pissed."

The water then began to reach her lips.

"Oh shit! Someone! Please… help…. HELP! Ugh… no one's… coming."

Ronnie Anne struggled to lift the debris out of her head. It barely budged. Then she strained her voice and lifted herself up with her back against the debris. The debris moved.

Suddenly, the debris was lifted up completely, just as Ronnie Anne spit out a mouthful of water.

"What the-?" gasped Ronnie Anne.

"If Joshua decided to tie his shoes once more… you would've been gone," said Waylon. "Let's get you outta there."

Waylon stood on the crumbled roof of Unit C, and he knelt down to lift Ronnie Anne out of the flooding cell.

"Who the hell are you guys?" groaned Ronnie Anne as she stretched out her back.

"Jesus, is everyone in this town lack gratitude?" chuckled Waylon. "Who are you?"

"I asked you first," said Ronnie Anne.

Waylon chuckled.

"I'm Waylon Prasad. This is Najjad, Joshua, and Jax. Now, I just saved your life, so I expect you to be polite to a certain degree, understand?"

"Okay. I'm Ronnie Anne."

"There you go! C'mon. Let's go, Ronnie Anne. Haley is waiting for you down in the sewers."

"Excuse me? Sewers? Look I don't even know what the fuck just happened in this town so explain to me why you guys are here instead of my friends and family."

"We're trying to figure that out too," said Waylon. "You're lucky to survive. And Lynn will be too."

The RV kept on driving ahead in the rain with no other survivors in sight except the ones that were inside the vehicle.

Lily looked at the driver. She clutched her older sister's arm and tried to hide herself behind her.

"What's wrong, Lily?" whispered Lana.

"That man. I dunno that man."

"You mean David? Sure you do. You just don't remember him 'cause you were still a baby."

"Do Lori know… David?"

"Yeah. They're like… close friends, I think? Or just someone she looks up to? Like a father figure. Nah, I doubt Lori got over what happened to Dad."

Lily continued to act timidly.

"Lily, don't worry! Your big sister Lana is still here for you! See this?"

Lana grabbed her AK74-US.

"I can protect you with this. But only I get to touch it. Don't touch it when I'm not around, got it?"

Lily nodded. Lana smiled and placed the gun on top of the table, the barrel facing away from everyone else.

"Hey, George," called out Lana. "Did Sergei take a bus or something? I need to ask him what ammo goes in this thing. Unless you know."

"Lana… you don't know?" replied George.

"Duh, of course not. No one told me that guns used different kinds of bullets."

"That's not what he was talking about," said Vonda faintly.

"Then, what are you talking about, George?"

George cleared his throat. He looked at the gun in the table before lowering his head, thinking about easy ways to give the news.

"Sergei died in battle."

Lana gasped softly as she glanced back at her gun. She then looked outside in the rain.

"I didn't get to see most of the battle thanks to my big brother. Who else died?"

"I don't know how to tell you this… but your sister Lynn…" said George, his voice breaking.

"What about her?" exclaimed Lana her heart racing. "Don't tell me she died! I asked you who died! Don't tell me she did!"

"Black sliced her shoulder with a katana. Then…"

George couldn't even reveal who sealed her fate. She didn't want Lana to know. She didn't want her to know that Luna put the final nail in Lynn's coffin.

"She must have bled out," said George.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Lana. "I didn't see her anywhere! There was no body!"

"It's possible that someone could've saved her," said David. "Keep your hopes high, Lana. Lynn's a tough girl. The sword didn't cut her shoulder all the way through. She can survive that."

"What about Lincoln? Or Lori? Or any of my other sisters?"

"I don't know," said David. "I truly don't know."

In one of the prison buses, the mood grew more sorrowful as the rain continued to pour down. The skies darkened and the air cooled.

Clyde looked at his healthy leg then compared it to his bionic leg. He grew a lot in two years, but he almost didn't notice. His right leg was much longer than the metal leg he had. In the past few months, no one commented on his stumbles, since they thought it was something he was used to.

"Hey, Lisa?" asked Clyde. "You think you can make my robotic prosthetic longer? It's starting to feel uncomfortable."

"I know I can increase its length. There must be a spare container of scrap metal in the back of the bus somewhere."

"I got it," said Dr. White. "I was just trying something out… here you go."

The doctor handed Lisa the box of scrap metal. She knelt down and lifted Clyde's pant sleeves before taking out a ruler, protractor, and calibrator of her own. Then, she took out a small tool that sparked blue flames.

"Hey, what is that?" asked Clyde nervously.

"Welding tool," said Lisa as she began welding the metal with the leg. "Don't be in a state of concern. I constructed it myself with attention to precautionary measures. You shouldn't feel the warmth unless the flame is in contact with your skin tissues."

"Uhhh, fire is scary," said Clyde. "I'm going to stay worried."

"Then stay worried," said Lisa. "I completed extending the length."

"What? That fast? Gee, Lisa, you're amazing!"

"Or so I've been commented upon before," said Lisa. "Can you still peanuts-?"

Carol's baby began bawling as loud as she could. Carol sighed and rocked her softly to no avail. It's cries felt as if it could shatter the windows in the bus.

"What's with the blubbering?" asked Lisa.

"She's hungry," said Carol. "...I'm hungry too. My chest is hurting."

Zoey's cries continued to pierce through the survivors' ears. The mood grew more desperate as Lisa tried to look around for something to calm down the baby.

"Thank goodness we're not in the wilderness," said Lisa. "Unfortunate soul would have no idea that her deafening cries would result in our untimely deaths."

"What do we do?" asked Clyde.

"We have to look for food," said Dr. White. "Driver! Can you change your course for a little? Find the nearest town! There's gotta be formula somewhere, or at least some food so Carol can replenish her energy and her fluids."

Lisa sighed. She looked at Zoey before quickly taking an aspirin tablet when no eyes set upon her.

A few drops of rain dripped from the leveled ceiling. The sunlight passed through the window. A gust of wind blew into the cracks in the wall.

Lynn gasped and screamed as she peeled her eyes open and leaped out of her bed.

"Woah, woah! Chill!" exclaimed Haley, holding Lynn down in the bed.

"Where is he? WHERE!" hissed Lynn.

"Easy there. No one's here, 'cept the subway people."

"Who?" asked Lynn.

"The people Lori stayed with for a month."

"Also the people who saved you," said Waylon, coming inside the demolished infirmary building with his wife. "Nice to meet you, Lynn Loud. I'm Waylon Prasad. And this is Kavya, my wife, and the woman who saved your life."

Lynn looked around. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the sunny light inside of what remained of the infirmary room.

"What happened here?" she asked.

"It'll take a while to explain," said Haley. "For now, I gotta replace your bandage. Good morning, Lynn. You survived."

"Ohh, my head hurts," said Lynn, falling back down on her pillows.

The morning sun and the rainbow in the sky mocked the inner torment that Ronnie Anne faced. The wheels in her skateboard passed by the powder and pebbles that lied on the runway.

"Hey, where ya going?" shouted Joshua.

Ronnie Anne ignored him. She continued to skate towards the prison, feeling more disgusted the more bodies she found lying on the ground. Then, she found Rusty and his father, both in the ground. One has turned before being killed off, while the other had no golden eyes.

Ronnie Anne quickly leaped from her skateboard and covered her mouth as tears bubbled in her eyes. She then clenched her first.

"Fuckin' ginger. Shoulda' taken the gun… now what am I supposed to tell Lincoln?"

She knelt down.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, Rusty."

She placed her front foot on the skateboard and pushed it with her back foot, skating away from the ATC tower and towards the infirmary building.

Haley wrapped an arm sling around Lynn's shoulder after checking her eyes and muscles.

"You have a very special kind of body," said Haley. "It's only been a day, and you're not showing any signs of infection, internal bleeding, and fatigue."

"Unlike some of the other kids, I actually exercised," said Lynn. "Been doin' it since I was born."

"Played a lotta sports too, right?" asked Haley. "What made you stop?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Your bone calluses. You had quite a number of them. And that's just on your collarbone."

"Well, I did. In fact, I loved sports… which is an understatement by the way. But then… I had a friend. His name was Francisco. He was such an awesome guy and probably one of the only dudes to able to compete with me in sports. He was a little hot-headed… kinda like me. I thought he and I were gonna beat this world… but it beat him. The roamers didn't get him… until he was shot in the head. And I watched 'em eat him 'till he was no more."

Lynn looked over at the quiver at the side of the room.

"Can you get that for me?"

Haley nodded and handed over the quiver after retrieving it. Lynn lifted the quiver up and looked at the bottom pocket shaped like a sack. She zipped it open and hesitated before placing her hand inside. She pulled out the baseball, the same baseball that was given to her by Lincoln to remember Francisco.

"No one played sports like he did. I loved him… just as I loved sports."

Haley lowered her head. She stood up and teared up as she was reminded of her father who loved watching his favorite NHL team driving a puck around. She then walked out the room, finding Waylon sitting in the damp sofa with his wife.

"Can you take us to Augusta?" asked Haley. "Take us to the subway station. Please."

"No can do," said Waylon. "Safe as it sounds, there's been a large presence that we've been fearing. We lost a man after he warned us about soldiers marching into the city. We left after that."

"If it's not safe there then where can we go?" asked Haley.

"Go where everyone else went," said Kavya.

"I don't know where everyone else went! Washington is too far… and I don't even know where the hell Royal Woods is! Lori said Michigan, but I don't know where that is!"

"You… don't know where Michigan is?" stammered Waylon.

"I'm Canadian, okay? Just… I'm going to Washington. I'll find Steven there. Maybe Carol and Lisa as well."

"Scientists they are, right? Lori told me about them. Go save the world, Haley. But you can't fix it. I'll be outta your hair now."

Waylon stood up and left with his wife. Haley walked back inside the room and helped Lynn to her feet.

As Haley and Lynn exited the infirmary building, they saw Ronnie Anne skating closer to them. She wore a backpack and was ready to leave the destroyed community.

"Where we going?" asked Lynn.

"Somewhere far away from here," said Haley. "Ronnie Anne! Come 'ere!"

Ronnie Anne stopped in her tracks and held her skateboard in her hands as she looked down at the helpless roamer. It was unable to stand up as it no arms to help it get up.

Its golden eye were staring at Ronnie Anne and its mouth were growling at her. She found an M9 in the ground by a severed limb. She picked it up and aimed it at the roamer's head before lowering it down.

Then, she picked up a Bowie knife from the ground and stood above the roamer. She remember how evil it was in its past life. He was the reason she had no family besides Bobby now. Nothing changed. It was still evil in her eyes.

She knelt down and pointed the blade at the roamer's golden eye. She placed her hand around its neck and thrusted the knife into its eye, finally finishing off the monster that destroyed the lives of hundreds of thousands of families– maybe even more.

Ronnie Anne passed by the Desert Eagle in the ground and walked towards Haley and Lynn, both standing by a Humvee. She opened up her empty knife holster and placed the Bowie knife inside.

"Who did you just-?" asked Lynn.

"The General," said Ronnie Anne. "Let's leave."

Haley carefully placed Lynn in the backseat of the Humvee. She put on her seatbelt and moved ahead into the driver's seat as Ronnie Anne made her way into the passenger's seat. They all looked back at the ravaged community, now inhabited by the subway people. It was the last time anyone from the group set their eyes on the community before they abandoned it. It was time to look for another home again.

III - The Call

Blood poured everywhere. The thunder crackled across the sky. Gunshots erupted in every direction.

A yellow canary chirped by the window. The light set itself on the girl's eyelids. Then, her eyelids slowly opened.

Her eyes blinked once. Then, once more and again before she realized she was awake.

Lori looked around the room and rubbed her eyes as she found the yellow canary by the window. She cleared her throat and looked at the bottle of water on top of the desk. She grabbed it and chugged it down her mouth before coughing slightly.

"Leni?" she called out. "Leni, are you here? Wait… Walter?"

The yellow canary continued chirping. Lori quickly leaped from her bed and ran to the window, scaring the bird away.

Her pupil contracted, causing her blue iris to expand, as Lori looked out the window. She inspected the parking lot and found Vanzilla. But there was no one around.

Lori grabbed her hatchet and walked towards the van. A ringing in her ear began to intrude her mind. She heard another gunshot as she slammed against the van door. Panting, she looked around for the gun. But it was all in her head.

She opened the door and found a photo of her sister Leni. She gulped and heard a desperate cry. Then another gunshot.

Lori rubbed her temple before covering her eyes. Tears flowed out like a waterfall as Lori became more aware of her time loss.

"No, Leni… I'm sorry. I'm sorry! I couldn't save you. I didn't fight hard enough."

Lori took a seat on the passenger's seat and sobbed into the dashboard.

"Lynn… how is Leni doing? I… it hurts so much…."

Then, a buzz.

Lori lifted her face from the dashboard while sniffling. She heard another buzz. Confused, she looked at the dashboard and waited for the buzzing.

It buzzed again.

She quickly opened the glove department and grabbed her phone. And sure enough, it was buzzing again. She peered at it, and saw that it was an unknown caller. Feeling surprised, she hesitated to answer it before reluctantly pressing the answer button.

"Hello?" whispered Lori.

"Yo," said the male caller. "You missed my last call. You coming to the party or what?"

Lori blinked rapidly. She was left speechless.

"Hello?" muttered the caller. "Still there? Is this a no because…?"

"I–I'm still here," murmured Lori. "It's just– how?"

"What do you mean how? You don't know where the party is? You got lost or something?"

"No– no, it's not that," sniffled Lori. "H-How are you calling this number? Who are you?"

"Lori, it's me. Don't you have my contact saved?"

"You… sound familiar… where are you?"

"At the party, bro! I mean… ma'am!"

Lori scanned her surroundings. The sky was clear and the puddles of water remained still in the pavement.

"You have… service. I have service… you're somewhere safe."

"'Course I am. Sorry… you must be lost in the… other world."

"Other world?" asked Lori as she shivered. "You're… away from this place. There's still electricity where you are. You guys are celebrating parties… tell me where you are."

"What was that?" asked the caller. "I'm sorry, we got new guests! I gotta go."

"Wait, no, no! Don't go! Please! Please, don't go!"

Lori broke down into tears.

"Please…" sniffled Lori. "We're… we're dying…"

A couple beeps repeated in the call. The other caller hung up. Lori lowered her phone down and was left distraught of what just happened.

"It's not real…" whispered Lori. "There is no party… there is no… party. Who was that?"

Lori placed her phone in her pocket and lifted her hatchet as the ringing returned inside her head to torment her broken life. She gasped and struggled to get out of her seat from Vanzilla. She screamed, falling to the ground as the ringing grew louder. She opened her weary eyes and found bloody messages in the concrete pavement of the parking lot.

GOOD LUCK GOING TO THE PARTY.

YOU WILL JUST GET EVERYONE KILLED THERE.

JUST HOW YOU GOT ME KILLED.

REMEMBER THAT?

IT'S NO WONDER YOU CAN'T GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF.

IT'S NO WONDER LINCOLN AND LUAN LEFT YOU.

IT'S NO WONDER YOU'RE ALONE AND LOST.

Lori picked up her hatchet and stormed to the woods. Her eyes were almost bloodshot from anger and madness.

In a muddy area of the woods, a roamer struggled to lift its feet as it growled and lifted its arms towards a nest of birds at a branch high above. Before the roamer could turn away from the nest and lower its arms, a swing from a hatchet knocked its damp skull out of its neck.

Another roamer nearby turned towards the young woman. He hissed and limped towards her as she stormed closer to him. With a yell and a mighty swing packed with fury, Lori split the roamer's head in half. She kicked the roamer away and swung her hatchet back, killing another roamer. Then, she lifted her hatchet and swung diagonally, cutting yet another roamer's head in half.

Her eyes had no direction. Her arms could only move like a machine. Her brain had no motive to do anything but take revenge. But there was nothing to get revenge on. She lost it.

Then she turned towards a rabbit in the ground. The rabbit was nibbling on the grass, calmly enjoying the sunlight. Then, a hatchet flew across the air and struck the rabbit in its fluffy tail. Its tail was bleeding, as she hopped away from the hatchet in the ground.

Lori ran towards the rabbit, picking up the hatchet. Everything she saw was red. She chased after the rabbit with the hatchet in her hands, shuffling through the brushes and running past the berries in the ground.

She lifted the hatchet with both of her hands in the air and tossed it at the rabbit again. But the rabbit jumped into its burrow and was gone from sight. That is, until Lori grabbed the hatchet and swung it down at the burrow, cracking the dry dirt that surrounded it. She placed her hands on the burrow and dug in, destroying the rabbit's home. Many of the bunnies hopped away, though Lori caught the one that mattered to her. She placed her hands around the rabbit with the bleeding tail.

The rabbit struggled to free itself as Lori tightened her grip around its body. She then placed her hands around the rabbit and panted. Everything was turning more red. She slammed the rabbit against the ground and screamed as she twisted her hand. She screamed until, finally, she heard a snap.

She closed her eyes before opening them, being showed a calmer world. The red was gone. She looked at the burrow, all wrecked, before looking at the rabbit. Placing her hands around her mouth, she lied down on the dirt and broke down, unable to stop herself from sobbing alone in the woods.

"Found anything yet?" asked Luan.

"No," muttered Lincoln as he opened a cabinet from inside a locked house. "Wait, scratch that. Wow, no way."

"What, you found food?" asked Luan.

"Oh yeah. A whole bag of trail mix. Look, that's an almond. And that's a walnut. Is that candy?"

"Yeah," smiled Luan. "Take that. We're going home. I'm kinda getting worried for Lori."

"Yeah… can't really say she went through worse, right?" sighed Lincoln. "You still got those water bottles?"

"Mhmm. Right here. Let's go!"

Luan and Lincoln climbed out of the broken window and left the abandoned house.

Lori returned to the parking lot with the hatchet in her hands. She tossed the hatchet into the passenger's seat and closed the van before walking back inside the motel. Her eyes were weary and her legs moved at an unsteady motion. She opened the door to the motel and lied down on the bed, sniffling as the hunger put her into a light sleep.

"I mean… it just made me angry… but do you think he saw me as his daughter?" asked Luan.

"If he did… that is sick. How could he torture someone he sees his daughter in?" said Lincoln. "He's just an evil man. Sick."

"So there was no shed of humanity in him?" asked Luan. "He was detached from everything, maybe even his daughter. I mean he called him weak… but was he just putting on a show?"

"No, Luan. He was just an evil man. Why would he be good in any way?"

"I don't know. Just tryin' to convince myself that I won't regret killing him."

"You definitely won't," said Lincoln. "Woah, look over there."

Lincoln pulled Luan behind a rusty car. They both looked at three parked cars across the street. The headlights were on for one of them. And all three appeared fresh.

Lori blinked her eyes. She stretched and wondered what woke her up. Luckily, her ears were working.

She quickly turned towards the motel window and saw two silhouettes from behind the curtains. The loud footsteps approached the door. She gulped and quickly dropped down to the floor behind the bed and away from the door.

The door opened, revealing two survivors. One of them was a man wearing a denim jacket and baggy jeans. The other was a woman wearing a leather vest and jeans with folded ends. They both had disheveled hair, though the woman had her longer hair tied up in a ponytail. Both survivors carried a small pistol with them, though the man had a shiv made with the end of a switchblade and a wooden handle.

As they took their first steps inside the room, Lori lowered herself until her stomach was flat on the ground, hidden from the light that lurked into the room. She held her breath as the footsteps marched closer to the drawer. Finding the space below the bed empty, she slowly crawled sideways to hide under the bed, being literal inches away from the survivors in the room.

Lori faced away from the headboard that extended down to the carpeting in the ground. She looked both to her left and her right, realizing that there was no escaping the feet of her survivors that surrounded her.

"Ain't nothin' here," said the woman. "Just a bunch of dirty-ass clothes that would rip the moment I put 'em on."

"That won't be a problem with me," said the man. "Lookie here."

Lori watched as the woman's legs strutted around the bed to the drawers. Her eyes blinked rapidly with each step that she took. Then she stopped next to the man.

"Oh thank the Lord!" exclaimed the woman. "It's been a whole minute since we found one last time!"

"Ain't that right? You know… I've been fightin' the urge too."

The curtains closed, the shoes of both survivors faced each other, followed by the sound of a gun being placed down against wood. Then, smooching and soft moans followed. Next, the mattress pressed against the bed, pushing Lori closer to the ground as the moans became more hurried.

The shiv fell to the floor. Lori panted heavily as the breathing became more active from the survivors and the moaning became louder. Her sweat began to drip down faster down her face as she stared at the shiv. Then, she noticed a small detail.

It was tainted with dry blood.

Lori gulped and tried to muster the strength to lift her hands and reach for the shiv. After a few more rapid blinks and racing thoughts, she decided to move her hands close to the shiv.

Her fingers crawled along the carpet, her arms slithering closer and closer to the shiv. Her nails were exposed to the dim light coming from the open door. Closer and closer it reached the bladed weapon.

Then, her phone buzzed. Loudly.

Lori's heart skipped a beat as she quickly moved her hands under the bed. She drew a couple heavy breaths as she reached for her pocket. She took her phone, but was unable to decline the call coming from a different unknown caller. She tried pressing the decline button, but it was nowhere to be found in the screen. All she did was clench the phone against her chest and muffled the buzzing.

After the buzzing stopped, the survivors continued to satisfy their urges, paying no attention to anything going on outside the bed. Lori looked around the bed and tried to calm herself down as the heat began to take a toll on her breathing. Nothing, she couldn't find anything, except a small thing by her hips. She pulled it away from her and placed it in front of her face.

A used condom wrapped by one of Dana's violet hair ties. Lori shivered and tossed it away, now facing the shiv in the carpet. She placed her hands outside the bed and pulled her own body closer to the shiv. Her face was now inches away from the small knife and was met with a glaring light peering through the open door.

A few footsteps approached the motel room. Lori gulped and quickly pushed herself back under the bed.

A bald man with a stubble and a tall and lean figure, stormed into the room. He held two UZIs in the side of his backpack and a small M1911 pistol in his hand. His sweater with torn sleeves revealed his toned arms with a skull tattoo.

"Shawn! Lydia!" yelled the man.

"Darius!" gasped Lydia.

"The hell is goin' on here? I told y'all to loot the motel, not fuck each other like animals in the woods! Do that in your own damn time!"

"Ain't a lotta time, Darius…" stuttered Shawn.

"I ain't wanna hear it. This ain't the first time I caught you two pounding each other like dogs! You know the rules!"

There was silence. Lori held her breath.

"If you let me explain..." said Shawn.

"What are the rules?" asked Darius, walking closer to Shawn with his pistol.

"Don't pile all this shit on him!" exclaimed Lydia. "I am to blame too!"

"What are the rules?" asked Darius.

"No lovin' if we're lootin'," muttered Shawn. "Or else it's a beatdown by the group."

"We got rules for a reason," said Darius.

Suddenly, a few gunshots went off in the distance. Darius turned around and looked outside the motel. Then he motioned Shawn and Lydia to follow him.

"Lucky bastards. You're off with a warnin'. Now get ya shit and follow me, go!"

The survivors grabbed their pistols from the drawer and dropped down a few unlit candles. Then, they left the motel room, heading into the woods, gone from sight.

Lori pulled herself out from under the bed, away from the door, and closer to the dirty clothing in the ground. She grabbed her backpack and stuffed the clothes inside, before finding a photo album in the ground. She opened it and found the same photo album that Leni organized and had stored in the glove department. She stuffed inside the backpack and zipped it closed before grabbing its top strap and running out of the motel with it.

The carpet remained empty except the stain that was left behind by the tainted shiv. And only a stain as a sign of the disappeared shiv.

Lori slowly made her way out of the motel room, her eyes shifting around as in a frantic search for a person, dead or alive. She looked at Vanzilla, noticing that the passenger door was still open. After one last scan of her environment, she quickly snuck to the van, tossing the backpacks into the passenger seat.

The ringing returned inside her head. She pressed her palms against her head and clenched her jaws as her head pounded against itself. She shook it off and blinked rapidly, but the world around her was still a blur.

Lori kicked the door, closing it as she ran around the front bumper of the van. She flicked her hair to the side and stopped on the tiny pebble that she stepped on.

The ringing disappeared. The woods, the van, the stranger on the ground was as clear as day now.

Lori remained frozen in place. The man who was on his knees with a siphoning tube in his hand looked at Lori in her eyes while moving away from the open fuel tank. He dropped his tube and slowly reached for his pocket.

"Hey, hey! Don't. We can talk about this," said Lori, her voice becoming low. "Please."

The man quickly used both of his hands to take out the switchblade from his pocket as he stood up. Lori ran up to the man and kicked his face as he revealed the blade from its handle.

The man groaned and staggered back as Lori ran up to him again. He swung the blade, though Lori leaned back and dodged it. She grabbed his arm and tried to grab the blade, but the man dropped it and kicked it under the van. The man grinned as he raised his eyebrow.

"Unarmed now," he snickered.

Lori elbowed his face and shoved it against the window of the van. There, Lori kept his grip on his neck, refusing to let him go. However, he proved to be stronger than her and was pulling his own face away from the blood-tainted crack in the window.

Suddenly, he groaned and was shoved back into the window as Lori pushed the shiv deeper and deeper into his lower back. Lori covered his mouth and lowered him to the ground before dropping him.

She held the bloody shiv in her hands and snuck to the back of the van, scanning her surroundings once more. She found someone.

Lincoln and Luan snuck in the edge of the road, hoping to avoid whatever survivors they encounter after spotting the fresh cars. Then, they found Lori by the van, motioning them to hurry inside. They looked at the body in the ground then at each other. Both siblings dashed to the van, opening the backseat doors before tossing their weapons inside. Then, they went inside themselves, sitting away from the weapons.

"Lori, are you sure you wanna drive?" asked Luan.

Lori entered the driver's seat and ignored her. She closed the blood-stained door and placed the car on reverse, driving back close to the motel. She switched it back to drive, and then made her way out of the parking lot before driving away into the road. She saw the switchblade in the parking line and the body that lied beside it.

Lori opened the car window and tossed the shiv out, before tearing up as she looked at her own hands. She looked at Lincoln and Luan and sighed in relief, knowing that they were still there with her.

The three siblings finally left Medway.

IV - I Lost Myself

The next morning, Lori, Luan, and Lincoln arrived at the capital of Maine– Augusta. Lori parked at the side of a jammed road and exited the vehicle with her siblings. They all headed to the subway station a few short blocks ahead of the road.

Lori knocked on the chained door with the combination lock on the handle. Lincoln took a sip of his water before placing it back on the bag. Luan made sure she had no weapons inside her leather jacket. Then, both siblings finally built up the courage to talk to their eldest sister.

"So, Lori…" said Luan.

"...how are you feeling?" asked Lincoln.

Lori held her revolver and checked the chamber. Empty.

Lincoln accepted her silent answer. He knew that Lori was scaling a mountain of grief. He placed his hands inside his white and orange sweater and lowered his head.

Lori knocked on the door again. And again. And again.

She had enough. She grabbed the combination lock in the handle with the intent to open it herself, but the lock split open. It fell to the ground, leaving the handle unlocked.

Lori grabbed the handle and twisted it, opening the door and dragging the chains with it. The sunlight lit up the wide room that hid a large subway complex beneath it. The three siblings walked down the wide stairs and were met with the iron turnstile. Not being able to go through it, they peeked through it and found that Jax was not there.

"This place is abandoned," said Lincoln.

Lori turned around and walked upstairs, her vision getting blurry again. The ringing returned and overcame Lincoln's voice. Then, another buzzing. Lori turned back and saw Lincoln and Luan.

"Don't follow me!" yelled Lori as she ran out of the subway station.

"Lori!" exclaimed Lincoln. "Luan, what was that?"

"I… I don't know. I'm getting a little scared."

Lori reached into her pockets and pulled out her phone. Another unknown caller. She answered it.

"Please tell me who you are," said Lori.

"Lori, you already have my number saved in your phone," replied a female caller. "You're coming to the party or not?"

"Stop asking me that. I literally don't care about the party. I just wanna know who you people are, where you are, and how you know my name."

"The entire high school is here," said the caller. "Lori, did you lose your mind?"

"No! It's your mind that is lost! Your mind! Can't you see that my family and I are dying out here? Please, just tell me where you are."

"Oh, I forgot, you're lost in the other world. Nobody gave you directions to where we are, right?"

"You mean… the new world?" asked Lori. "No, no one told me."

"Sorry, Lori. I, myself, don't know how I got here either. I wish I can help you, but it looks like I can't."

"Why?" asked Lori. "I… I'm in Augusta. Please tell me I'm close."

"You are," said the caller before hanging up.

"Hello? Hello! No!"

Lori fell on her knees as the ringing returned to haunt her ears. She looked at the metro map ahead of her and saw more bloody messages painted on it.

LOOK AT THAT.

YOU MADE EVERYONE LEAVE.

SHE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO TALK TO YOU ANYMORE.

OH, AND THE PARTY?

YOU'RE NOT INVITED!

YOU LOST EVERYTHING!

YOU LOST YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, YOURSELF!

JUST SUFFER NOW!

A woman yelled in the distance. Lori turned around and gasped, moving out of the way before the woman could stab her in the back. As she dodged the swinging knife, she took out her hatchet and kicked the woman away from her.

The young woman panted and ran away from Lori, before being chased by her. Lincoln and Luan came out of the subway station after hearing the scream and found Lori chasing the young woman across the road.

"What's Lori doing?" asked Lincoln.

"I don't know. Let's go after them!" exclaimed Luan.

The young woman ran inside an abandoned house with open windows without glass, doors without wood, and walls without paint. It appeared completely empty inside with the exception of the needles in the sandy floor. Lori tossed her hatchet at the open rectangular hole where the door is supposed to be at. However, she missed and struck the cardboard that sat next to the hole.

Lori ran towards the house and grabbed her hatchet, finding the young woman in the dark corner of the empty room. She raised her revolver and aimed it at the young woman.

"Wait! Please don't shoot!" quivered the young woman. "I'm sorry! I only wanted your phone!"

"You were going to kill me over a phone?" asked Lori.

"I needed to take one last selfie!"

The young woman was the same age as Lori and had her golden hair. However, unlike her, it was long and disheveled, much like the dirt spread around her face and hands. Her clothes were ragged and covered in dark stains.

"Your knife! Drop it!"

The young woman complied with Lori's order.

"Who are you?" asked Lori.

"My name's Carly. I'm 19, I think. This is not my house. My house is a couple blocks away from here. Please don't kill me. I just need to borrow your phone, please. Please, I'll do anything for a selfie."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" asked Lori.

"I need to be together with my boyfriend," said Carly as she took out a picture of him. "See? I only have pictures of him. I just need a picture of him and I next to each other. I was gonna take a selfie while holding the picture."

Lori lowered her revolver and sighed.

"I just need a picture of him and I together," said Carly. "There's one in my old high school, but it's overrun by the monsters that killed my boyfriend!"

"That's not relevant– what are you doing hanging around here? Weren't you aware of the group of people livin' in the subway station?"

"Uh huh. I always avoided them. But then they left."

"Do you know where they went?" asked Lori.

"No… I don't mind what they do. So what are you going to do with me now… umm… I'm sorry. I don't know who you are."

"My name is… Lori. You need to leave. You're gonna get yourself killed out here if you're gonna live like this."

"Lori… can I ask you a favor? Can you please go to my high school and find my locker? A picture of my boyfriend and I should be inside. Can you grab it and bring it back to me?"

Lori crouched and glared at Carly.

"What makes you think I'll do that for you?" muttered Lori.

"'Cause, I know you'll do it for me. I see it in your eyes… you're broken. Something tragic just happened… and you know how painful losing someone you love is. I just need a picture of him and I. And I know you know… I need that. And you understand."

Lori didn't understand why she understood Carly. But nevertheless, she was going to do her favor.

"Okay. Where's your locker?" asked Lori.

"It's in the first floor, by the bathrooms. Locker 1212."

Lori nodded.

"I have three questions for you," she said. "How many roamers have you killed? How many people have you killed? And… why?"

Carly remained silent. Lori sighed deeply.

"I need you to stay here. If I see you go anywhere near my brother and sister… I won't hesitate to pull the trigger."

"I won't go anywhere," whispered Carly. "The high school is up the road near-"

"I know where the high school is. When I come back, you better have three answers."

Lori turned around and walked away, placing the revolver back into her holster. Carly sniffled and then stared at the photo of her dead boyfriend.

Luan and Lincoln walked around the streets together, looking for Lori and her attacker. Then, they heard a rumbling noise. They hid behind an abandoned car and saw a truck move in the distance. Behind the truck were people marching with weapons in their hands.

Lincoln found Lori coming out of a crack house, and ran towards her. Luan followed him, though her jog was more calculated as she evaded the marching survivors' sights.

"Lori! What happened? Did you get her?" asked Lincoln. "Lori? Where are you going?"

"Go back to the van," said Lori. "I… I gotta do something."

Lincoln ran up to Lori again as she continued walking up ahead in the road. He reached out to her and tried pulling her back.

"Lori, don't! It's dangerous, there's people here!"

Lori shoved Lincoln away from her and groaned in frustration.

"I said go back!"

Lincoln gulped as Luan held him and restored his balance. Lori wiped the sweat from her face and turned around, walking to the school. Lincoln and Luan turned away, now afraid of messing with Lori. It was clear that she wasn't herself. Not anymore.

The door opened, letting whatever sunlight enter the hall that hasn't gone through the glass windows. There was paper in the floor, from homework assignments to classwork to flyers about the upcoming prom that never happened. And there were corpses as well, mostly decomposed to a sack of bones with decaying flesh on them.

Lori held the hatchet in her hands as she walked past the bodies. She swatted the flies away from her and stepped on the maggots in the ground. She only looked for the bathrooms of the first floor but at the end of the hallways, she was met with a single wooden door. Opening the door, she found herself looking at the stairs that led to the second floor. But what really caught her attention was the grotesque amount of blood plastered into the walls and the rotten flesh that littered the stairs.

She left and closed the door, turning to her left instead. And then her right. She found the bathrooms, but of course, there were roamers blocking the hallway.

Lori stormed towards the right hall, lifting her hatchet. She yelled as she swung her hatchet at a thin roamer. Then she chopped the next roamer's head off. Then she sliced through another skull. She grabbed a roamer and shoved it to the lockers, banging it with her hatchet against the lockers. And for the last roamer, she noticed that its stomach was devoured completely. The roamer was unable to get up, so Lori put it out of its misery by stomping it down in the head with her boots.

Blood stuck to Lori's face with the sweat that created an adhesive combination of muck and yuck. She panted and shook her hatchet, tossing the pieces of flesh stuck to it down to the floor.

As she looked up at the hallway, she saw shadows passing by the windows. She quickly fell down on her knees, lying on the pool of roamer blood she created. She looked up at the window and saw survivors wearing a special kind of military uniform. Nothing she ever seen from the nation that formerly stood from California to New York.

In their left arm was a small white and blue flag. Barely visible from where Lori stood, it had a blue Saint Andrew's cross with a normal dark blue cross in the middle. In the area where the heart would be, four black letters were imprinted into the uniform that caught Lori's attention.

It was the K.H.A.N.

Using the small crack in the upper left corner of the window that Lori hid underneath in, she tried hearing their conversation. But as she lied her head down close to the puddle of blood in the floor, her ears caught another voice.

"Status report?" asked the female voice.

"No signs of present survivors, ma'am," replied one of the KHAN soldiers.

"Colonel, I have a suggestion to make," said the other soldier.

"Go ahead."

"Bomb the subway station. That way the survivors won't be able to return."

"We need that subway station for a future phase. Plus, the survivors have to return at some point. So, never… EVER suggest bombing the subways, got it, sergeant?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Her walkie-talkie crackled.

"Colonel Ash. Downtown section seems clear. Permission to move to east of the river?"

"Granted. Let's move, guys."

The KHAN soldiers marched away. Except the colonel. Lori swore she heard about her. She was one of the high-ranking rogue officers that wasn't stationed at Houlton. She came to a realization. There were many rogues out there, but none of them were after her. They were after the subway people.

Lori stood up and sighed as the ringing returned. She looked at the locker numbers as her head pounded. In her first try, she found Carly's locker with the number marked, 1212. As she approached the locker, her phone buzzed. She stopped where was and lowered her head. Then she looked at her phone and noticed it was an unknown caller, again. She answered it.

"Please stop calling me!" hissed Lori. "Stop. I don't know how you got my number, but just please… stop. I don't know where you are. You won't tell me. I don't know what the party is about. You won't tell me. I don't even know who you are. You won't tell me."

"Lori, it's me," said the female caller.

Lori's jaw slowly dropped as she slowly slid down the locker. She covered her mouth with her left arm as tears fell down her face.

"I don't… I don't believe it… how– how are you talking to me?"

Lori didn't receive an answer. She continued to sniffle.

"Leni?"

"I'm here, Lori. I know it's a lot to take in, but it's me."

Lori broke down.

"How– how did you…. I'm lost. You're not alive anymore… so how are you talking to me?"

"You'd be totes surprised what you can do here," giggled Leni as she tried to hold her tears back. "It's not just in your head, Lori. It's beyond this world. It's a happy place here."

"Who… who were the other callers?"

"Chaz and Dana. My friends… your friends. Yeah, I told them to ask you to the party, but to be honest… you don't have to come. It would spare you suffering, but people need you down there."

"I miss you, Leni…"

"I miss you too, Lori… we all do. We'll see each other again… when your time comes. And don't be afraid to fight for our family."

"Leni, I don't deserve to be here…"

"I'm here for a reason. The old world is not made for people like me. Remember how I died? I tried helping someone out… well, at least I'm happy now. Don't be afraid to lose your humanity. 'Cause if you're careful enough… you won't. And you won't lose our family. And you won't lose yourself."

"It's too late. I already lost everything. Even my sanity."

"You haven't lost everything," said Leni. "I love you, Lori."

"I love you, Leni."

Lori removed the phone from her ear and stared at it. She hung up and placed it back into her pocket. Then, she stood up and lifted her hatchet. She turned around and swung it as hard as she could at the lock, snapping it out of the locker. The noise was heard by the KHAN soldiers, no doubt.

Lori opened the locker and found the picture of Carly and her boyfriend, taped inside at the top. She pulled it out as she heard footsteps running into the school. She ran away from the locker and further into the right hall. There, she found another staircase that led to the second floor, but there was also another door. She opened the door and found herself out of the school into the courtyard.

She ran towards the mesh fence and tossed her hatchet to the other side before she climbed on it, leaping down to the other side once she made it above the fence. She grabbed her hatchet and ran away into the street, covered by a mess of overgrown weeds and shrubs. The soldiers came out from the school and looked around, noticing that their target has left bloody footsteps behind.

Luan and Lincoln looked at the subway station from across the street behind shrubs. They found KHAN soldiers guarding the area as they came in with Humvees and armored vehicles. There was talk going around that the soldiers found a survivor. They gulped and looked away.

"What do we do?" whispered Luan. "They're going to find Vanzilla."

"We need to leave," said Lincoln. "Stay in the van– get ready to drive it out of the city… I'll go look for Lori! If we don't make it back… leave."

"I can't do that! I'm coming with you."

"Luan, please."

"Lincoln, this is not up to debate. I'm coming. Either we all make it or we all don't. Plus, I know my way around this city."

"Fine. Lead the way."

Lori ran inside the crack house and rubbed her boots against the sand in the floor. Then, she ran to the dark corner before stopping in the middle of the room.

The young woman was hanging from a rope tied around her neck and attached to a large nail in the ceiling. Lori approached her body and found a chair tipped over on the floor. She lowered her head and found a note below her, along with a box of .357 Magnum bullets.

She knelt down, trying to look away from Carly's blue fingers. She picked up the note and the box. The note read:

I knew you could do it. Thank you for bringing the picture. Just place it in the ground. As you can probably see by now, I am reunited with my boyfriend once again. Sorry for attacking you earlier. You saw how lost I was, but not anymore. Anyway, here is the answers to your three questions.

No zombies, if that's what you meant by roamers. My boyfriend killed them all.

Just one person. Why?

Because she lost everything.

Thank you, Lori. I hope you don't end up like me. Lost.

Lori lowered her head and sighed. She dropped the picture and the note. She turned around and walked out of the house, taking the small box of ammo with her.

She looked back and found the KHAN soldiers marching to the house with their guns in their hands. She looked ahead and left the street, hearing a burst of gunfire go off inside the warehouse.

On the way back to Vanzilla, Lori found Luan and Lincoln in the middle of the road. They stopped where they were as Lori continued walking. They didn't know what to say to her.

"Follow me," said Lori. "We're leaving. We're going to meet up with the rest of the group."

Luan and Lincoln looked at Lori and nodded.

Lori placed a CD into the radio of Vanzilla. Since Sam had the original version, Lori had to play the Limp Bizkit cover of "Behind Blue Eyes." But it felt more fitting now.

Lori sighed and started the engine for the van. Luan and Lincoln took quick glances at each other as they remained aware of the KHAN soldiers a few blocks away. But more importantly, they remained aware of Lori's mental state. And even though she has never been more broken before in her life, she hasn't lost herself completely.

Still, they all knew, even Lori herself, that she was no longer the same. What happened to Leni has no doubt changed Lori. But they didn't know how. They weren't going to know… yet.

Lori turned the vehicle around and headed towards the highway. They left Augusta, as a helicopter approached the city. Lori felt an urge to follow them, but felt it was better to just leave it behind.

Lori checked her phone. She tried turning it on. But it wouldn't turn on. The battery was dead. And it has been dead for the past two years. She looked ahead into the road with eyes that opened a new type of window. They were grieving eyes, but with the hope of recovering. All she could think about was the last word she saw on the note and questioned if she would end up like that.

Lost.

No. She was, but not anymore. She is no longer lost.