It was beautiful.

Chucky Jones looked into the sky and what he saw left him completely speechless.

The stars were aligned so perfectly and so bright in the night sky that it didn't feel real. Hundreds of figures formed through the heavenly gold dots in the sky as Scar panned his eyes left and right. He could see his wife, his mother, his dog, everyone and everything from his past that he loved and cared about were suddenly appearing in the sky like some sort of divine intervention.

He smiled as a single tear ran down from his right cheek. "I guess this is it." He muttered to himself, coming to the conclusion that he was dying. It was the only logical explanation he could think of. He didn't try to fight it, but instead slowly closed his eyes, accepting his demise.

"Chucky! Chucky! Snap out of it!"

Scar shot his eyes open as he snapped back into reality. He had no idea what had just happened, but he was sure that he was going to die.

He quickly got up and brushed himself off, checking himself for wounds. Nothing. He looked over to the school which lay in destruction right in front of him. The entire school caught fire after the explosion, which was quickly spreading.

"Are you alright?", Scar's sister, Sasha, said as she walked close to her brother and gave her own examination for wounds. All she thought after the impact of the explosion sent her to the ground was that she was dead, that her luck finally caught up to her. But somehow both her and her brother made it.

Sasha quickly turned her head to see Clementine laying in the grass a few meters past Scar. The explosion shot her off his back as he fell, sending her flying forward. Aj was laying under her, hugging her by her torso she laid face first on the ground. She then looked over her shoulder to see Louis, who was sitting up as he finally regained consciousness.

"Yeah i'm fine, I think." Scar responded as he gave his body another quick inspection. "What about them?"

"Clem-, she's hurt." Sasha ran over to Clementine immediately and kneeled down to her. She quickly rolled her off of AJ and onto her back. She checked both Clementine and Aj's pulse. They were both alive, at least.

Aj opened his eyes to see Clementine still on the ground, which instantly brought him to his feet. "Clem! Is she ok?" Aj frantically asked, panicking. He hated seeing Clementine like she was, and he blamed himself for it, wishing he could've been strong enough to protect her.

"She's fine, I think… It was weird, when you were out it looked almost like you were hugging her."

"That's because…. I was trying to protect the baby…."

Sasha's eyes widened as she heard Aj's response. She had no idea that Clementine was pregnant, if she did the young mother's safety would have been her number one priority. It astounded her even more though that a boy as young as AJ was putting other people's safety over his own, he was truly a man trapped in a child's body.

"What you did….. Was really brave." Sasha responded as she picked up Clementine. She was gonna get her out of the mess of a battle that they all went through, and somewhere safe where she could live long enough for the baby to be born.

"It doesn't matter if she's not ok. Please miss, can't you help her?"

"I don't know kid…. I'm not a professional when it comes to medical stuff. We have to find Johnson, that's the only person who I would trust to help her." Sasha scanned the area, looking for any possible areas where the rest of the group could have gone. The surrounding area was completely forest, which made tracking them a lot harder. She only hoped that everyone stayed together when they escaped, the last thing they needed was everyone spread apart.

Scar walked over to Louis, who was just still coming back to reality. "You alright kid? Can you walk?" he asked.

Louis nodded and stood up. The first thing he noticed as he got up was that his head was killing him, it felt almost like he had a thousand concussions throughout his brain. "Yeah… I think." He turned to see Sasha with Clementine resting over her arms, and quickly ran over. "Clem! Is she alright?"

"She should be fine, I think. But we have to go find Johnson now, to be sure." Sasha looked down to the sleeping Clementine in her arms. All she could do now was pray that her and the baby would be ok.

"Alright, let's go then." Louis responded. He was panicking on the inside but tried to keep a calm demeanor as hard as possible. If he wanted to save Clementine, he couldn't be panicking, not now. Now was time for him to step up, not back down.

XXX

Johnson looked back in shock as the explosion sounded off from inside the school. The crazy suicide mission that Ramirez accomplished rung throughout the entire surrounding area, deafening anything else.

The Jones twins flew through his head as his eyes remained glued to the blast zone. Did they make it through? Johnson and the others already made it a reasonably far distance from the school before the bombs went off, so it was anyone's guess if they were alive.

Johnson turned over to the group, who were scattered around, all with restless or worried looks on their faces. First thing was first. He had to make sure everyone made it out alive.

He scanned everyone in the group. All of his fellow soldiers were still there, minus the Jones twins. As for the Ericson survivors, it seemed like someone was missing, aside from Clementine, Louis, and Aj. "Is everyone here? I feel like we're missing someone."

All of the young Ericson survivors were looking down and not speaking. They knew who wasn't there.

"Willy…." Violet whispered as she looked down and closed her eyes.

"Where is he? Did anyone see him?" Ruby asked.

Tears ran down Violet's eyes as she heard the question. She knew the answer, but it surely wasn't anything anyone was hoping to hear. "He's….dead."

"What?!" Aasim's eyes lit up in fear. Of all people to die, Willy was the last person who would deserve such a fate. He was still young, and had a whole life ahead of him.

"He got shot when we were running out…..I wanted to save him…...but it was too late." Violet clenched her fist and tried to fight the surge of tears that were racing down her face. She always thought Willy was annoying, but without him, the group would never be the same. He was such a unique person, and to all of the Ericson survivors he was irreplaceable.

"FUCK!" Violet let out at the top of her lungs. Johnson could feel the pain in her voice as she screamed. He couldn't help but think this was all his fault, that he could've saved everyone if he planned out his attack enough. Everything happened so fast, and one of the people he was trying to save paid for it as a result.

Violet wiped her tears and started to calm herself down by taking a few deep breaths. There was no time to grieve, not until Clementine and the others were found. "We have to move, we have to find everyone else. They made it out, they had to."

"Yeah you're right, we have to find them. I'm sorry about your friend, but if we don't find them we're gonna lose a lot more." Johnson looked towards the flames coming from the fire was quickly spreading, it wouldn't be long until the whole surrounding forest was up in flames. It truly was a fitting end to someone as evil as Ramirez.

"Johnson… we gotta problem here.." Lyon nervously said as he looked in the opposite direction from the school. In the distance, a figure slowly crept closer to the group. What Lyon thought was a walker was getting closer, but that wasn't what had him shocked. It was who it was that had him shocked.

The man who was nearing the group was Sanchez. He was covered in blood, and limping gingerly towards the group. Lyon raised his weapon, ready to put down his former superior, and end his misery.

Sanchez was not turned just yet though, as he moved closer it became apparent that he was still alive, but his entire body was covered in bites.

"Lyon… " Sanchez weakly said. That one word exerted his entire remaining energy, sending his face first into the grass. Lyon quickly ran to him, and rolled him over. Johnson quickly ran over as well.

"He's….. Torn up." Johnson was astounded by the amount of bites that covered Sanchez's large frame. "Has to be, dozens of bites. What happened Sanchez?"

Sanchez was still alive, but in complete agony. Somehow, through all the pain, he let out a light chuckle. "Who would've thought….letting a bunch of kids live would be my downfall…... Well it doesn't matter now I guess. We're all dead now…."

"What? What are you talking about Sanchez?" Johnson asked.

"The herd… from out west. They caught up to us. We're all fucked."

Johnson's eyes widened as he froze from what he heard. It couldn't be true. "A-are you sure? How could you be sure? There's no way they caught up to us already."

"It was the herd…. I'm positive. I've never seen anything like it….. There's gotta be thousands of those fuckers coming right this way."

"No….no…" Johnson stumbled backward, recounting all of the lost memories that he tried so hard to tuck deep into his mind. The memories of the terrible hoard, whose numbers were so high that it forced a small army to run for their life, came soaring back to him. And if they made it this far, odds were that their numbers hadr increased since the last time.

"Herd? What are you talking about?" Violet asked, stepping forward.

Sanchez let out a few dangerously loud and raspy coughs, and spit up blood as he tried to get back to his feet, but to no avail. He gave up on trying to hold on, and rolled into his back, accepting defeat. "Johnson…. You were a good soldier. I doubted you, because I felt you were just too soft for this world….But maybe I was wrong. Maybe the compassion and the care is what makes us human, what separates us from the walkers. Don't lose that humanity Sam….. Don't end up like him…." Sanchez pointed towards the former school as he closed his eyes and his body went limp.

Johnson kneeled down to Sanchez's lifeless body. "Sanchez….. I can't say you were a good man, but you always had your soldier's backs. You were a true warrior." He removed a rosary from his neck and placed it into the right hand of Sanchez. "May god show forgiveness for your sins, so you can rest in peace."

Javier decided he had enough of standing around listening to everyone speak. "If what he's saying is true, we have to find the others. We can't leave them out here to figure things out on their own. Now if you're done, we should get moving. Once we find them, we can go back to the new frontier. You're all welcome there."

Johnson took a deep breath and went back to his feet, aiming his rifle at Sanchez's head. "You're right." Without a moment's hesitation, he pulled the trigger, sending a bullet straight through the dead man's skull. Once again he thought he would feel something. Grief? Regret? Fear? Nothing. All that ran through his mind was finishing the job, and getting everyone away from the hoard safely.

"Let's get moving." Johnson didn't have to finish his sentence for everyone to shoot to their feet, ready to find their friends and get away from the hoard, which was nearing closer and closer to them every second.

XXX

Clementine slowly opened her eyes to be greeted by a smiling Louis right above her.

"Look who's finally awake! You had us worried you know." Louis said as he carried Clementine in his arms.

This situation was getting way too familiar to her, waking up from a nap that she didn't plan for. But unconscious was better than alive, and she was alive for now, so she considered herself lucky.

"Aj.. is he.."

"CLEM!" Aj ran over to Clementine and smiled ear to ear. He was overjoyed to see that she was okay. All of the close calls Clementine was having was getting a little too stressful for the young boy. "Are you okay?" He worryingly asked.

"Yeah, i'm fine, I think. I feel fine at least." Clementine was more worried about her child's well being. Sadly, there was no way to see if the baby was okay from inside of her.

Sasha slowed down and turned to Louis and Clementine. "Good to see you awake. I don't think I could have listened to the kid ask me if you were gonna be okay for much longer. He's really persistent, you know."

Clementine smiled. "Oh I know."

"I'm starting to think you're immortal Clem" Louis chimed in. "There's no way any regular person could have as many close calls as you and be okay. Then again, I should know better by now, you aren't just any regular person."

"You got that right" Clementine responded.

"Regular person or not, you still have a baby inside of you. Not that any of this has been your fault, but you have to stop being so reckless, for the baby's sake. You shouldn't even have come here in the first place" Sasha explained. It baffled her that a pregnant amputee was deemed fit enough for combat by everyone else.

She shifted her eyes to louis. "Why didn't you stop her from coming here?"

"Well… she's not really easy to convince." Louis said. "She wanted to come, there's nothing I could've done to stop her."

"I'm a big girl, I can make my own decisions." Clementine remarked. "Just because i'm pregnant doesn't mean i'm going to back down when it's time to fight."

"Jeez, I see where that kid gets his stubbornness from" Scar said as he casually jumped into the conversation. "But my sister's right, sometimes you have to back down for things that are more important. It doesn't make you weak. You have a life on your hands, what happens to that kid is up to you."

Scar and Sasha knew Clementine's situation all too well, and they hated seeing someone going through the same thing as they once were. "If I was smart and backed down when I should have, I wouldn't have been incarcerated, and I would have been able to protect my family, from all of this…" Scar quietly explained under his breath.

"Why were you in jail anyways?" Louis asked. "You guys seem astoundingly normal compared to the people you used to hang around."

Scar sighed, as he was forced to go back into the past he was hoping he could forget forever. "It's a long story, but basically when me and my sister were deployed overseas, our squad was ambushed by the enemy while we were out on a scouting mission. We lost half a dozen of our friends, people we spent every day with for years. People we trusted our lives with. Once we made it back to our base, our boss told us not to retaliate. That new orders came in from back home. We were going home…. I thought I would be happy to hear that. All I could think about though was killing every last person that ambushed us, and my sister and I both agreed that we would never leave the country until we finished the job. And that night we did just that…"

Sasha saw the memories flow through her mind as she listened, clenching her fists. "No action comes without a consequence though… our superior found out about our vendetta mission and instead of medals and honor, we were locked in a cage for desertion."

"You see Clementine, if I just backed down and listened, I could have been able to be with my family during the outbreak. But instead, I was stuck with a bunch of homicidal maniacs, and to this day I don't know what happened to anyone in my family." Scar looked down to his feet in shame as he thought about the foolish decision his past self made. "I regret that choice every day, every time I wake up and every time I go to sleep. It haunts me…. I'm not going to tell you what to do. You said it best, you're a big girl. Just remember what my sister said, no action comes without a consequence."

"What do you suggest I do then?" Clementine asked. "I've seen enough to know that there's no true peace in this world anymore. I thought I found it in that school, but now it's gone in a pit of flames. Backing down isn't really an option anymore."

"Well, if I were you, once we find your group and get everyone somewhere safe… you three should go. Out on your own. Somewhere far away from any other living people. That's the only way to find true peace in this world now. The only way you can truly guarantee a good life for that kid." Scar responded.

Louis shook his head. He didn't agree with the suggestion, not one bit. "And leave all of our other friends behind? No way, we can't do that."

"Look kid, one day you gotta decide what's more important to you. Your friends, or your family. And if you're a real man, you don't have to think about that answer." Scar explained.

"Every one of those people, they're our family too. We're not just going to leave them behind." Clementine said. She once agreed with the idea that groups were a terrible thing, but being with the Ericson survivors for so long made her attached to everyone there.

Scar raised his hands into the air. "Relax kid, you asked for my suggestion and I gave it to you. You don't have to listen to me, I'm just another guy in a world filled with em after all. Just keep an open mind, okay?"

Sasha raised her pointer finger to her brother's lips. "I see someone…" She squinted and quickly realized it wasn't just someone. "It's Johnson! And it looks like he's with everyone else.. They all made it.. They all made it!" She exclaimed as she ran full sprint towards the group in the distance.

Once she made it to them, the look of horror on Johnson's face told her something was up. "Johnson…? What's wrong? What happened?"

Johnson's relief of seeing that she was ok was completely blocked by the fear of the hoard stalking him and the others. "Sasha…. We have to go, now!"

"What's going on Johnson?" Scar asked as he caught up to his sister along with Louis, Aj, and Clementine.

"The hoard… it's back. We have to go, come on!"

The fear in Johnson's voice wasn't enough to convince Scar. "No way they caught up to us already.. That's not possible."

"See for yourself then" Johnson responded as he turned around and pointed forward.

To Scar's surprise, there it was. As soon as he saw it he knew that it was the same hoard as before. Thousands of shadowy figures, coming right towards them. There was no time for a plan, they had to get away, and fast.