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Kathy knew a gunshot would scare the kids still walking around the edge of the lake who were thinking they were on an adventure with their little sleeping rolls so she used a knife, driving it into Danni's skull with repulsion. To everyone's horror she snarled as she died a second time, Kathy timing the 'mercy' just in time. Danni had started her turn.

She then staggered from the room and went into the kitchen where she started to boil some water to make a cuppa. A cup of tea. Yes…calm the nerves. Tea. It was going to be a long night and Derrick had stopped moaning about the pain a little while ago. Dean had given him morphine despite its short supply. That didn't bode well in her mind. Kathy let the men talking softly as they tried to comfort the poor man. Kathy left them to it, walking out to stare across the lake at the far light in the distance that she knew was the tily lamp in the house. They had made it and she knew the kids were safe.

All that mattered.

She was too scared to look in on Derrick, too scared to see if it had worked or not and the silence was starting to grate now. Too quiet. Too … a hand on her back made her jump and she swung to find Douglas there, tired and almost broken.

"Well?" she asked immediately.

"He's sleeping. I think … I think it has worked. He seems stable, Dean and Geoff are with him. I … god sweetie. It all happened so fucking quick" he sighed, accepting the cuppa with a groan of gratitude.

They settled at the table and he started to explain.

"We found the homestead and then Geoff notices some smoke in the distance that looks like a possible camp fire and we… we didn't' even consider the… we were stupid. God Kat… so stupid. Danni took off and we followed, she ran across the field to the hedgerow and then somehow managed to shimmy though it. By the time we got there she was screaming and we couldn't get through like she did. In the end Ghost climbed, his hands must be torn up. He wouldn't let us check … oh baby it was bad. We ran around, found her dead and Ghost fighting the … there were six Biters. The fire had been a camp fire, the dead body beside hers clearly the poor sod that had attracted the herd of Biters with the smoke same as he did us." Douglas stopped, rubbing his face.

"Derrick ran in and got bit too" she prompted him, he needed to get it out before he got too upset.

"Yeah. His wrist. He reared back and … Dwight did it with that fucking machete of his. Just swung and chopped the hand off clean above the wrist. It was so fast. Then Ghost grabbed the hot pot over the fore, tipped the stuff out and slammed the bottom on the bleeding stump. God the smell."

"But did it work?" she said more to herself than him "Does that really work or is it just a Hollywood thing."

"Babe, until this all happened… zombies were just a Hollywood thing too. We have no idea but … he seems stable. No sign of sickness, we think … we are going hopeful anyway. We will watch over him, fully armed and the first sign of becoming a Biter, the first twitch we put him down. He knows that, we discussed it. He knows."

Kathy rose and looked out over the lake "So … Dean, You, Me and Geoff are here. That leaves Mark, Mary and Robbie and Dwight with the kids" she sighed after thinking it though.

"And Ghost" he added for her.

"No, he's walking back. I can see his silhouette in the moonlight. Probably worried about us" she moved away from Douglas, then turned back to kiss him gently "It's not your fault. You did what you could. OK? Don't beat yourself up about this love. We knew we would have losses along the way… just… not so dumb."

Douglas stole another kiss and let his head rest against hers for a moment then headed back into the other room to watch over the poor man and Kathy stepped out onto the front porch to greet Ghost. He was walking slowly, tired no doubt and worried for his friend. Also … he felt each loss as keenly as Douglas did. A good man.

She started to walk towards him "You OK?"

"Pissed off Boss" he replied as she met him in the front yard, "What a clusterfuck."

"Douglas told me what happened. You could not predict that she would forget the golden rule of allowing for your backup. This was a fuckup alright, but not yours. OK?" she raced out and grab his forearms in her hands, pulling on them gently as he stumbled forward into her arms. She held him and rubbed his back "You are exhausted. I know you are worried but you have to sleep. Go check, sleep now and in the morning you can spell the others then, yeah?"

He drew back and smiled "Yeah. OK boss."

Then came the sound of shooting from in the house and she swung with horror as the sound of things breaking followed, then Dean and Douglas sprinted out the door with their guns drawn, firing behind themselves.

Kathy felt the air turn as cold as fucking Siberia.

The Biter erupted from the house after them, the stump looking ridiculous with the previously white bandages now black in the moonlight from the blood covering the thing that was once a man.

Clearly it hadn't worked at all.