Hey! I'm not dead, yay! It's been a while, how are you all doing? Here is yet another chapter to LATD. Hope you enjoy it!

June 26, 5:37 AM

He examined his weapon, a 9Mm pistol. He sat with his legs mostly apart, around him were portraits of animals and a black obese man with a rifle looking proudly at the camera. He had always had an interest in firearms, he'd seen movies and documentaries with all these kinds of weapons involved. That's not to say he would want to use it, he would never use it on someone unless it was for self-defence, especially not on an innocent being. Not even his own father, which was tied to a pipe. The thing stared into his soul with hungry eyes. Every day he would frequently pick up his pistol and aim it at the beast's head, but stopped when that beast reminded him that it is still his father.

Whenever he failed to kill him he would cry to himself and say "I'm sorry, dad." And repeat the entire cycle. His Dad was all he had before the blast, being the owner of a hunting shop, they would always go hunting, fishing, playing sports, watch reruns of Friends, all of that. And now he was forced to watch him struggle with his restraints. I bet there were kids out there who were forced to kill their parents. That thought alone made him shiver but it was a possibility.

Not wanting to see anymore, he made his way to the roof. He would climb up whenever he wanted to take a break from watching his dad and watch as the world plunges into chaos. When it began, the roads were filled with terrified screams of children probably young as seven or 12.

He still remembers when it all happened. He was walking down a street he couldn't remember, Franklin is what he last saw chatting with a group of kids when it began. Soon adults around them suddenly went crazy, cars crashed on either a tree or a house and bloody scenes that he couldn't even begin to describe. He quickly hid inside a police car just as an adult came up to him and tried to attack him, thankfully there was a shotgun nearby and killed that green thing. He then made his way to his Dad's shop since that's where he knew he was, but as he got there, it was too late. He was one of them. He managed to fend him off and decided to lock up the shop to make it his shelter.

He looked over through the parapet and looked onto the streets below. It was mostly barren save for a few adults wandering nearby. Thankfully they haven't noticed him, yet. He sat on the ground and stared at the sky. It was almost daytime, he spotted birds flying from above. He could see dozens of stars twinkling above before fading away as the sky began to turn blue. As they faded, one tiny speck of light stayed behind leaving it completely alone. Alone in the world. Just like him.

A speck on the earth.

6:03 AM

"Luna, Luan, and Lynn get your butt off and come with me!" Came the voice of Joey Moore that echoed through the dark gymnasium.

This made several kids shift in their sleep as the louds lifted their heads from their pillow. Between them were the twins resting on either side of Luna as they huddled close. Luan was on the left and Lynn on the right. Lily rested on her crib beside the family.

Luna opened her eyes as a blurry small red flame drew nearer to where they were lying down. As her vision was beginning to get a bit more clear. The first thing she saw was a hard face with freckles and lengthy blonde hair.

"Wake up, Duke wants to talk to you." He spoke loud and casual making no effort to keep his mouth shut which pissed Luna off including everyone. Goddammit, do you have to be so loud? No one was going to confront him though as Joey was a strong motherfucker, Joey could probably beat up everyone if he had to. He once beat up kids twice his size by headbutting him after breaking his nose. After knocking the kid out cold. He twisted his nose back in the right place and it was business as usual.

He still had to go to the doctor.

Or one time where he got into a fight with his Dad after getting into some trouble trying to jump off a roof. They both beat the living shit out of each other with Joey landing on an uppercut on his Dad. Pretty soon, the police had to be involved and Joey had to stay at his Grandparent' house from then on.

Lynn was the first to get up. Ever since they arrived at this place, she has been waking up early every morning all week to get a head start on working out in the exercise room. Not to say she hasn't done any work out since the blast.

Presently, as she got up, so was Luan who rubbed her eyes and looked around the room. Do you know what I like about waking up early? None let me go back to sleep.

Luna put her head back on her pillow, placed a hand on her eyes, and inhaled. What could that asshole want this time of the day?

"Wake up," Joey demanded.

Luna ignored him. She wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and drift back into a deep sleep, surrounded by the warm, loving embrace of Lana and Lola.

Joey nudged her with his ax handle.

"Hey, wake up."

"Dude, watch it," She finally said, lifting her head back up and swatting the handle away from her and the twins.

Now all the Loud siblings were awake. Luna looked around and saw Lincoln fixing her with a tired but worried stare. Besides him were Lisa, Lucy, and Clyde who also sat up. Lisa scratched the side of her right temples with her index finger and began to murmur something along the lines of. "The air velocity of an unladen swallow is about 24 miles long." Lucy had Charles laying on her lap and tried to keep him from barking loudly.

"Where are you taking them?" Asked Lincoln with a tired and worried tone.

"They're coming with me to the auditorium where Duke has a little job for them, no biggie." Joey shrugged. Lincoln wasn't entirely convinced. Surely it was very important since you wouldn't come at this early in the day.

"Can we come with them?" The twins asked in unison. Joey peered down at them with an annoyed stare.

"Nope, this meeting only requires your older siblings." The teen responded. Both Luna and Luan stood up and just when Joey was going to lead them away. Both the twins wrapped their arms around Luna's legs, almost losing her balance.

"Please don't take our sisters!" They cried.

"Woah, Woah. It's okay guys." Assured Luna.

"No, it's not okay, what if that Duke guy sends you out there and gets killed and we don't want that!" Said Lana.

"Pfft, that ain't gonna happen," Spoke Lynn confidently mostly to herself. "As long as they go through me."

"We'll only be gone for a little while." Said Luna, putting a hand on the top of their head and patting them.

"You promise?" They both said. Tears were brimming across their tiny faces.

"I promise."

Joey who was watching the whole thing play out simply rolled his eyes and pursed his lips. He knew they were wrong. What Duke had planned for them is going to take more than a few hours at best. He didn't say anything but that sly grin forming on the corner of his lips genuinely said something.

Not wanting to cause a scene, Lincoln nonchalantly pulled the twins away with the help of Clyde away from their sisters. They then proceed to wrap their arms around their white-haired brother.

"Let's go back to bed," Lincoln told them. Soon Lucy and Lisa joined the embrace as soon as they sat down. They watched as Joey walked outside of the gymnasium. And by the time the door was closed, darkness crept once more, no longer had that orange glow of the candle shine on the walls. The room was silent, really silent as if they were in space. Then, a tired and bitter voice spoke out loud for the whole gym to hear.

"Bitch"

The older kids snickered, the younger ones were confused since they had no clue what that word was, the teens simply reprimanded that person's voice while kids like the loud family simply didn't care and went back to their slumber.

The halls around them were quite dim as they walked down to the auditorium. Luna saw a tall kid wearing a maroon-colored shirt and white pants holding a lighter walking out of the said room lighting up candles around them. She knew him as that dutch exchange student named Sander Vlammen. 15, five foot eleven, and very skinny. He was in charge of lighting candles around the school every morning. Once they reached the auditorium, the loud sisters could see a few kids in the seats already waking up while some remained asleep.

On the stage, Luna could see three new teens talking to Duke. Standing next to him were Stan, Jeremy, and Jake, the former two looked bored out of their mind while the latter looked a bit of mistrustfulness. Along with a thirteen-year-old kid that Lynn knew as Cooper Mayfield. He was her classmate during History class and was the head captain of the Middle School's Basketball team.

Luna recognized those three from her grade: Jay, Eric, and Franklin.

Duke turned his head towards the approaching teens and smiled. "Ah, you made it just in time."

"Goodie," Lynn responded sarcastically. "Now what the hell do you want?"

Luna sighed and stuck a hand out in front of Lynn.

"What she meant to say was: It's early in the morning, why did you bring us and why is it important?"

"Well as you have noticed, we have visitors," Duke said as he gestures to the teens next to him. "They've come from middle school searching for help or supplies."

"What does that have to do with any of us?" Lynn inquired.

"I'm gonna need you girls to help them deliver some things to the middle school."

"What are we, your delivery men?"

Luna stuck a hand at her again. "Sorry, but why do you need us to deliver some things to middle school?"

"Because I think it's time you three started to carry your weight."

The three winced slightly at that. They knew that if you were twelve and older, you needed to do whatever you could to help around the school. But some of their younger sisters were special and possessed some very useful skills.

Lisa spends her time going to the library with Darcy, going to the science lab, and examining the adult that was chained in that room. Lola spent more of her time in the home economics room, helping stitch up pillows and blankets, as well as helping cook meals for kids in the cafeteria. Lana, being an expert in plumbing and machinery, helped the school pummeling system keep the water flow smoothly and even helped repair the bus. Lucy spends most of her time in the vents writing poems from her journals and doesn't interact with anyone besides her family and none of her friends were present in the school. Lincoln and Clyde spend their time hanging with the other kids though mostly the latter cause Lincoln would help her other sisters with their tasks, Lily, being no older than 2 wasn't didn't have any use in the school so that's that.

Luna would play her guitar and sing to the younger kids as it helped keep their minds of this messed up place. Luan spent her time trying to make jokes and sometimes performing with help from Lincoln-magic tricks for the younger kids, she'd been making a lot of people laugh, most of them. Lynn spent most of her time in the school's workout room doing intense workouts that intimidate many of the kids who came across her. She even manages to get Lincoln in on her workout from time to time. Ever since the blast, Lynn had been training Lincoln almost nonstop for 3 weeks straight that he was begging for it to stop.

Luna supposed Duke had a point, it ain't fair to everyone else that Luna just got to sit around and play guitar all day.

"Whatever, but why did you have to wake us up so early?" Said Luna. "Couldn't you just wait a little longer?"

"Well for one. These fellas came here so urgently and asked for medical supplies, I'm sure Lisa's potions or whatever would suffice. And two, one of their group is said to be really sick so you have to go quickly." Said Duke. "So go on and get ready, say goodbye to your sisters cause you have a long way to go." He craned his head to the four familiar kids right next to him. "Stan, Jeremy, Jake, and Cooper will join you."

Luna was very confused by his statement. For one, why can he just let those four teens go and to the mission instead of waking her and her sisters up and do the task? The louds collectively sighed and walked out of the room with Stan and his group and The middle school kids following along.

Once they are gone, Duke puts his hands behind his back, chuckling softly as a small grin form on the back of his face. "All taken care of."

"So uh, why are you making them do this?" Asked Joey.

"I'm doing this because they are useless in this place, I knew it was a bad idea for Stan to bring them here and I'm not gonna lay around and let them stay here, I had to get rid of them, so what better way than make them go out in that zombie-infested town and probably die." Said Duke confidently.

"And if they do get killed?" Asked Joey. "And what about Stan and the others."

"Eh, if they end up surviving bravo for them."

"Damn your evil," Joey smirked.

"Yep,"

"And awesome."

"I know I am."

Then Joey's face warped into a seductive feature. "And sexy."

"Soon, dear." Duke cooed, not knowing that one kid who was sleeping in one of the chairs, listen in on their conversation and snickered once he heard one of them saying "sexy"

"What?!" Screamed Lola, not believing what she had heard and began to cry, the same can be said for her older twin even Lily despite only turning two knew what was going on and was beginning to tear up in Lucy's arms. "You can't go!"

"We'll only be gone for a little while." Said Luna but that did very little to ease the little girl's sobs. Lisa, who was annoyed at being woken up again, found her heart beating in and out of her ribcage at the thought of her sisters leaving into the dangerous world. Images of every possible scenario flashed in her head; ripped apart by teens, attacked and possibly raped by a group of unruly teens, or getting crushed by falling debris.

The room wasn't as dark as before, every candle around the room had been lit up possibly from Sander but they could see several kids glaring at them. One even tried to throw a pillow at them but wound up landing at someone else.

Meanwhile, Stan and the other group were all waiting by the doorway to finish their goodbyes. He, Jeremy, and Jake had already been on scavenging trips in the last few weeks, so his sister Sally wasn't all that worried about him going out on a dangerous expedition.

"Why is Duke making you do this!?" Lincoln demanded, trying his best to keep his cool. "Why couldn't he stick up and do it himself?"

Jake couldn't agree more, out of all the teens in this school, he was very suspicious of why Duke would let the loud sisters go to town when he knew it was extremely dangerous. Stan and Jeremy didn't mind, though Stan did feel it was really weird.

After Luna explained to him, Lincoln felt even more angered. Seriously?! That is the dumbest this I've heard!

"It's too dangerous out there." Said Lucy in worry.

"Don't worry, Luce," Luna told them, "Stan and his colleagues have been out there before, they've even faced off against several grown-ups before. They're not too hard to deal with, and those kids from the middle school said they got here without any trouble at all."

The younger louds just continued to stare with their worried expressions. Their minds were still fresh from the attack from a week ago when that one huge adult lobbed a brick at Mr. Grouse's car, even though some of the adults were smarter than the others, they knew how to use blunt force objects as weapons; those were the ones they had to watch out for.

"Look, we'd have to go out there sooner or later" Lynn began. "So why not get out early?"

The loud siblings looked at her and then to Luan, who hadn't said anything yet.

"Luan are you okay with this?" Lincoln asked.

"No, I'm not," she told them. "But Duke said I'm going to have to carry my weight, luckily I don't weigh that much," a smile grew on her worried face.

"This isn't funny, Luan," Lola angrily said while still crying.

"No, that ain't funny, but you know what is funny?"

The louds all stared at her

"The smell in this gym," she laughed. "It smells so bad, you have to light a candle. It only makes scents."

Sander, who was about to light another candle, turns to look at her. The younger Louds still weren't laughing.

Sounds of kids shifting on the mats next to the Loud family. Some of them groaned at Luan's joke while others talked quietly but sharply amongst themselves. There was no doubt that every person in the gym was tired of being woken up this morning. The fact that the sun was beginning to rise meant they'd all have to get up soon. However, none of them wanted to break up the family's farewell.

"It'll just be a quick trip to the middle school, there are sick kids there who need help, and Lisa's made some medicine that can probably help them," said Luna. "Right Lis?"

Lisa who was quiet the whole time nodded at her older sibling. "It would take approximately five minutes to ten minutes for it to finalize."

The younger Louds realized that begging was utterly pointless and forced to resolve to the fact that their sisters had no choice but to accept it.

"Alright," Said Lincoln, who still didn't look convinced but decided not to make a fuss. "But please be safe."

"No worries bro." Said Luna. "We'll be fine."

They gave each other one last hug which made some of the kids around them awed at the scene before them.

As they walk out to the hallway, Lisa leads them to the science lab where all the chemicals she's been working on including the said medicine are at. The younger louds look on somberly.

"Good-bye." They all said.

Luna craned her neck to face them and smiled.

"Don't say goodbye, say see you later." She winked before leaving the room entirely.

About five minutes passed. Lisa, her older sisters, Stan, and the others were standing at the science lab. She had created several bottles of medicine and stored them in a backpack. She suggested Lynn carry the bag of medicine but she refused.

"I'm not carrying something heavy while there are adults out there," Lynn said.

"I'll do it." Said Eric grabbing the bag.

"So, what exactly does this stuff can treat?"

"The most common disease in the world like…" She began to list conditions that affect the human body.

"Impressive," Stan said.

"I know right?" Said Luna.

"But you still couldn't find a way to cure this virus?" He asked sadly and Lisa simply sighed. They hadn't come up with a name for this virus so they just simply called it The Virus. Like they call the green mist 'The Blast' because according to Lisa, whatever caused the giant dust storm came from an explosion as she could find traces of.

"As I said before, this virus is beyond everything I've ever encountered." She answered. Ever since the blast happened, Lisa tried but failed in understanding what this virus is all about and how to cure it, despite having vast amounts of knowledge that would easily top the world's smartest individuals in history. She decided it was a waste of time in finding out how to cure it and instead of working on rebuilding this worn-torn world. However, it wasn't just adults Lisa has been studying. She had also studied with the kids, herself, and younger teens. She found that the virus can latch inside them simply by breathing into the virus. She even asks her kids to give them their blood to see if they have the same effect as she and her siblings had; it was almost eerie that it was indeed the case.

Behind them lies the adult or "Bob" as Brian called him that lied on the table trying desperately to break free from its chains. Lisa was still against the idea of letting her sisters go out there but there was nothing else she could do. If one of her concoctions can save a kid, then maybe it would ease her conscience.

"Please be careful out there, I don't want any more deaths in my hands," Lisa said.

"We will," Luna assured her with a smile as she and the other siblings embraced each other, something she needed in this cruel new world.

Before they left, however, Lisa called out to them. "Once you go out there, if you ever find someone who is 16 years old, bring that person to me."

"Uh, why?" Luna asked, confused.

"It is the only way to prove that we won't be infected by the virus once we reach that age or not, you won't be 16 until August and neither of the other teens won't reach it early so I want you to find one," Lisa said and Luna nodded as she was afraid that if she did reach 16 she would become like them.

They said their goodbyes and Lisa returned to the gym.

The group grabbed their melee weapons from the classroom that had been turned into a storeroom for weapons and decided to leave through the back entrance of the school. A kid named Doug guarded the door. He had short brown hair and a big nose. The other kids would often tease him because of it.

"Good luck out there." Said Doug then unlocked the padlock that was latched onto the chains on the doors and opened it.

"We will." Said Stan then turned to the loud sisters. "This is it, are you girls nervous?"

Luna and Luan both admitted they were, but Lynn stuck to her lie of not being afraid of anything.

"Wish I had your spunk, Lynn." Said Stan.

The group headed off into the dawn of the new world. Luna felt bad for not letting her younger siblings see them off at the door, but she just wanted to get away from them as soon as possible. If she stayed with them any longer she'd probably end up breaking down and ruining her brave act. She needed to continue to look strong in front of her siblings, seeing as she was the oldest.

Luna made a sigh. "Let's do this."

The sun continued to rise above the hill, filling the sky with a soft orangey blue glow. Stan scanned around the area expecting an adult to appear itself. It did not. For now at least. They could probably still be asleep. He knew the adults could sleep and it was mostly at night, which is when teens would go out and get supplies. At least that's what they do a week after the blast, they'd been seeing more adults roaming at night so they had to change their time when they went outside. The flashlight was a very important piece of equipment when they entered a dark building but because batteries are becoming rarer to find, they resort to using candles but even that would run out soon.

Luna, who was scanning everywhere from left to right. Decided to strike up a conversation with Jay. 15, standing at 5'7 with a roundish head and lanky appearance, wearing a black shirt and black shorts, light brown hair, and brown eyes, Jay Abraham used to be a track team before the world ended.

"So uh, what's it like in middle school?" The young rocker asked.

"Oh, it's good, Brock does a great job at managing things." Said Jay with a smile.

"Brock?" Asked Luna, intrigued. "Brock Howard?"

"Yeah, he's a great leader, I stood by his side when all of this happened. He rallied up a group of 10 kids, including Eric and Franklin." He nodded his head towards his two friends.

Eric Fisher stood at 5'10 had dark and greasy hair, blue eyes, and a tiny soul patch on his chin, wearing a white tank top and brown pants. Eric used to be part of a wrestling team and would often participate in a backyard match. One major problem a lot of kids have with him was that of his nasty body odor, it was rumored he hadn't showered in a week and it has been a slight advantage for him. It became so bad that the teachers forced him to take a shower.

Franklin Maurey stood the tallest at 6'0 white shirt with blue sleeves and looked like a typical geeky kid with wire-frame glasses and buck teeth. But don't let that confuse you, he was as athletic as he was intelligent. He would look like a beast when it comes to physical fitness which bothers some of the athletic sports team. He carries a slingshot all the time even before the green mist as he only uses it when he goes out hitting cans.

"He's very brave." Jay explained then continued "He'd take on several adults without a care in the world. Thank goodness those things aren't good at defending themselves. He led us to the middle school in hopes of finding a better home. It wasn't easy for us to accept when we thought that the virus only affects people 16 and older but Brock helped everyone through it telling us that we shouldn't dwell on it. When we fortified the whole school, there were about a hundred of us."

"Damn, that's about the same number as we have in elementary school." Said Luna.

"We need more people like him." He said. "Brave people, someone who would give their lives to protect the weak, like you when you saved your sister from those hordes."

"Thanks." She said. She still remembered the horror Luan went through during the event. She never talks about it but Luna could see the pain in her little sister's eyes.

As they continued down the road, they could hear the birds chirping from the distance. Franklin looked at them with awe.

"Would you look at that?" Franklin said. "Floating freely in the sky."

Jake didn't mind at first but looked on in utter sadness as he was reminded of something. "I had a pet bird once, who died of old age."

"Are you still going on about that?" Jeremy said with ire in his voice. "That was a year ago."

"Hey, at least you never owned a pet." Jake retorted.

While they were arguing. Stan looked at them with envy. "At least they don't have to fight to stay alive, they could just go on with their day and not care that the world had just ended not too long ago. Though the virus or whatever it's called was a great thing for animals and the earth and the sad thing is that the sky has never been cleaner ever since the adults went crazy."

"You got that right." Said Franklin. "At least now they won't have a problem going extinct from our bullshit."

"Yeah," Stan said. This was a fresh start. He admittedly thought. If kids can survive this then we could make this world a better place, better than that greedy world we had before. No one would profit off cutting down trees, building factories that plums smoke, cars that produce intoxicated fumes, hell even Lisa with her skills in making machinery can make better alternatives. Though if they lost for survival and died then the world belonged to the animals once again.

Eric walked beside Luan. "Your Luan Loud, eh?"

Luan, hitherto, was scanning around the area when Eric called out to her. He smelled awful like feet wrapped in bandages that were covered in rotten milk. It was disgusting but she tried her best to ignore it.

"Yeah, you know me?" She asked.

"I've seen your videos on YouTube, you are one funny gal and I found your prank video to be very enjoyable."

"Aw, gee prank you for noticing." She said and they both laugh, revealing his yellow teeth. She shuddered for a slight moment but kept the smile on her face.

"You know, people like you should be in middle school a lot more, I get Brock is a good leader and a sense of humor, but he always takes everything seriously. Guess that's the downside of growing up in a military." Eric explained then went on. "No one really has time to joke around. In fact, he was the one who sent us out early to your school in hopes of some other survivors to come to join us. But it turns out Duke seems to have a hold on things. So instead, we asked if he had any medicine that they can have and he replied about your sister, the smart one."

"Lisa?"

"Yeah, I hear her on the news sometimes, most of them involve blowing stuff off. I heard she made a giant cheese and exploded."

"Oh yeah, there was de brie everywhere," Luan said as they threw their head back and laughed.

Lynn walked along broodily, carrying her lucky baseball bat at all times. She was dying to use it against an adult. Perhaps this can make up for my lies of being courageous. She needed a chance to prove to herself that she wasn't at all scared.

I'm not scared.

I'm not scared.

Being so lost in thought that he didn't notice Cooper walking right behind her.

"Yo." He said causing Lynn to snap out of her stupor.

"What?" She said with annoyance in her voice. "I'm busy."

"Busy with what?"

"Not talking to anyone, like you." She said.

"Sorry about that," He said. "I just thought you needed someone to talk to."

"Well you thought wrong," She said. "Now shush."

Cooper liked her bashfulness, he hasn't told this to Lynn's sister or anyone but the only reason he volunteered to join them on their trek to the middle school was he knew Lynn would be going. He always had a crush on Lynn. From her competitive spirit to her vast knowledge of the sport, it was all so endearing for him. Probably at risk of annoying her further, he quickly but surely commented on her baseball bat.

"I see you have a Louisville slugger, ain't that the bat you used to play baseball with?"

Lynn sighed in annoyance, she was gonna say yeah and I'm gonna use it on you if you don't shut up but decided not to at the risk of getting yelled at by her sisters. So she decided to just talk to him.

"Yeah, It's my lucky baseball bat. The first I've ever won a home run."

"That's cool, I've never been that good at baseball, I'm more of a basketball man myself. But I've seen you play all kinds of sports. You're good at them."

Lynn smiled at hearing that. "Tell me something I don't know." She sneered and twirled her bat.

He searched for something to keep her attention before blurting out.

"Bet I can beat you at basketball." He said confidently.

Lynn studied his appearance. About the same height as her, wearing a white shirt with red sleeves, red basketball shorts, and white sneakers.

"Pfft, yeah right."

"I'm serious."

"Alright, basketball man, once we get back to the elementary school I'll take you mano a mano."

"Alright, then it's a date."

"What?"

"Um, it's a figure of speech!" He said quickly then laughed nervously. Lynn looked at him with an accusing look and a raised eyebrows but he didn't notice a small smile crept at the edge of her lip. Not wanting to make this awkward. "Those training you've been doing for the past few days, those are pretty impressive, to be honest,

Lynn wasn't buying it. Before she could say anything after. Franklin spoke out.

"Twelve o'clock," Franklin said quietly so that only the group could hear him.

Up ahead they could see an adult kneeled before the corpse of an animal, digging into it feverishly.

Franklin aimed and pulled his slingback. He released the sling which sent a good-sized steel ball flying towards the grown-up. The adult's head jerked to the side and then on the floor as its blood spazzed out

"Nice shot," Jay complemented.

"Thanks."

The elementary school group was taken by surprise that a slingshot could put down an adult that quickly. It was obvious this slingshot wasn't a toy.

They all walked up to the adult and then looked at the body of the animal. It was a dog.

"Do you think any animals were affected by the disease?" Stan asked but before they could answer him. Franklin yelled out. "Huge wave!"

They turned to look at about ten adults heading straight towards them.

Franklin crouched down and aimed his slingshot. All the other kids stood behind him and readying their weapons.

Franklin let his sling fly and a steel ball knocked the leading adult straight down.

The others quickly hurried past the fallen adult.

"Reloading," he shouted.

"Allow us," said Stan, removing a twelve-inch dagger from a sheath fastened around his hip. He turned to face the Loud siblings. "Are you girls ready to show your stuff?"

Lynn gripped her baseball bat tightly. Meanwhile, Luna wielded a hatchet, she chose it because it reminded her of an ax, too bad Joey possessed the only ax in the school. Luan held a wooden tire thumper, she chose it just because she thought it looked funny.

"Charge!" Stan yelled.

They screamed in unison as they ran straight for the vicious horde. The grown-ups weren't even the least bit deterred and continued advancing towards them.

The grotesque features of the adults grew more and more noticeable. Their skin was a rotting green color, their eyes were blood-shot, the angry expression on their faces paints a clear picture of a tiger about to attack its prey.

"Me first!" Lynn yelled casually like she was talking about going up first to bat instead of going first to put down a crazy adult. She swung her bat as hard as she can towards an infected middle-aged woman but it barely touched its length which made Lynn groaned in determination. She swung her bat again this time hitting her right leg, forcing the adult to fall which allowed Lynn to raise her bat and smash the adult's skull. She could hear it crack causing her entire arm to vibrate. She studied the adult for less than a second. My first kill, I will not forget this moment.

Luna was next. A teenage girl moved towards her, she looked to be a few years older than Lori, wore a light-blue shirt with two dark blue stripes and an olive green frilly dress; all of which are stained with blood. Luna wished she'd been brave enough to put her older sisters down, but now was not the time to dread that. Now was time for action. She'd killed infected people before, so she was sure she could do it again

She raised her hatched and split the girl's skull open. The teenager dropped to the ground and blood and brain matter began to spill from the wound on her head.

"Sick dude," Luna commented. By sick as in gross.

"You turn, Luan," Stan said as the other sisters stepped aside.

Luan blinked rapidly as a knot formed on her stomach, she studied her weapon as if it was a book, she didn't want to.

"Come on Luan, you can do it," Lynn encouraged her.

Her body started to shake and a rush of adrenaline kicked in. Luan shook her head violently. How could they be so casual in killing these people? Sure they were already dead and needed to be put down but don't they know that these things used to be people? People who had lives, hopes, dreams, and families like all the kids that stood by her.

"I-I can't," She stuttered, her eyes becoming glassy and the grip on her weapon beginning to tighten.

"Luan please," Luna begged.

"Just pretend there are aliens from that game Lincoln and his friend's always play." Said Lynn.

Luan's body continued to shake as pools of sweat rushed in her forehead. Come to one Luan just one adult and you'll be done. Easy for you to say.]

"Hurry up already!" Lynn raised her voice louder this time.

She snapped out of her inner conflict to find a fully-grown adult lumbering towards her. Luan screamed fearfully and stepped back, nearly knocking her over the ground, she closed her eyes shut and covered her face.

She opens her eyes and finds her sisters and the other kids taking down almost all of the adults. Jay and Eric hit two with their spiked clubs, Jeremy and Cooper slashed away with machetes while Stan and Jake with their baseball bats. They eliminated the adults in a single minute.

As soon as it was over, Luna and Lynn went over to their comedian sister, Luna giving off soft compassion on her voice while Lynn gave off an annoyed but apathetic one.

"I'm sorry." Said Luan, shamefully.

"It's no worry, just give it some time." Said Luna.

"Hold on for a minute," Stan called out with a hint of ire in his voice.

Wandering towards them was an alone teen who looked not as strong as the other infected adults but could still be violent. Hopefully, this would give her a chance. Stan thought. "Jake, Cooper. Grab that teen and send it right at Luan."

"Uh, what?" Asked Jake, confused. "Stan what are you-"

"Just do it."

The two boys did as they were told twice and scuffled their way behind the infected, grabbed her by the arms, and slowly led themselves across the group like two drunk guys carrying their other drunk friend after the latter passed out.

"Woah, what the hell are you doing?!" Lynn yelled. "Put her down already!"

"No." Said Stan. "Your sisters need to learn how to take down an adult or else she's gonna get jumped on."

Luan froze. They're not seriously going to force her to kill an adult, were they?

"She doesn't have to fight if she doesn't want to," Luna said.

"Yes, she does," said Stan. "You never know when the time will come where she'll need to defend you, your siblings, or anyone else. We can't have her being too scared to fight."

The three teens from the middle school stood and watched, not saying a thing as Jeremy and Cooper led the teen until she was only a few feet away from Luan.

"Can't we deal with this later?" Lynn asked.

"No, we have to deal with this now," Stan demanded.

Tears began to fill in Luan's eyes as she stared into the eyes of the sick teen that stood before her; she had long dark hair and seemed to be about sixteen, just like Leni.

"Take that tire thumper and swing it as hard as you can," Stan told Luan.

Luan shook her head. "Please don't make me do this," she begged.

"You don't have a choice, it's now or never."

Luan stared down at the tire thumper again and imagined it was covered with blood, thoughts of bringing down on a poor and defenseless teen's head swelled like an inflated balloon.

"Do it!" Yelled Stan. "We've already done it, so you should do it too!"

"Take it easy," Luna rebuked. "She's already traumatized as it is."

"I'm just trying to encourage her," Told Stan then back to Luan. "Just bash her brains in."

"Yeah, you can do it." Jeremy encouraged her.

Cooper and Jake looked at each other then back to Luan. This is totally not starting to sound like a good idea.

Suddenly the infected teen began to agitate from all the shouting and started squirming uncontrollably.

"Fuck, this adult is stronger than she looks," Said Cooper worryingly. "Hurry Luan!"

Luan's eyes started to swell up, she took a step back as the teenager stared intently at her like an animal stalking her prey.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?!" Stan yelled and tried to make his way towards the fleeing teen, only to be blocked by Lynn and Luna.

"Move it!" Stan exclaimed.

"No!" Screamed Luna. "I'm not gonna stand by and watch my sister forced to do something that she-" Before she could finish that sentence, however, the infected teen broke free from Jake and Cooper's grasp.

"Oh, shit!" Screamed Jake. "RUN!"

Luan screamed with absolute and utter fear as the infected teen charged furiously towards her. Her arms were outstretched and Luan could see blood leaking out from her mouth. Suddenly a huge rush flowed through Luan's veins and suddenly everything around her was slow, she noticed this when she saw the adult moving a bit slower than usual, it was probably her adrenaline but somehow it wasn't. She was shocked at that thought and out of instinct swung her weapon as hard as she could at the adult, crushing her skull completely.

The adult fell to the ground leaving Luan to stare in horror at what she had done.

Lynn and Luna rushed towards her.

"Are you okay?!" Luna said desperately. Luan continued to stare at the body before snapping out.

"Y-yeah." That was all she could say before the embrace in a hug.

"See, that's why you need to learn how to fight," Stan said as Lynn and Luna shot Stan a hate-filled stare. "What, I'm right isn't it"?"

Lynn began to angrily make her way towards Stan. "She would have died if it wasn't because of your stupid little test!"

Cooper stepped between them, arms outstretched.

"Look, it's over," He said, "we'll worry about this later. Right now, there are kids at the middle school who are in desperate need of medicine. Now, let's hurry before more adults show up."

"Fine," said Stan who then returned his gaze to Luan. "Don't look back on it, just be glad you were able to defend yourself."

He began to walk away with Jeremy and the others while Cooper and Lynn stood next to each other.

Luna who was still standing next to Luan had an arm wrapped around her shoulder. The young comedian sniffled softly and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry." She apologized again.

Luna slightly tightened her grip on her sister's shoulder and kissed her on the side of her forehead. "It's okay, we're almost close to middle school. The first part of our journey will be over soon."

Luan nodded and they both walked up to Lynn and continued down the road. She wants nothing more than to get this over with.

The group was all but relieved to see the middle school come into view. By some miracle, they hadn't encountered at least one other adult. The school was heavily fortified as they could see large pieces of lumber in the broken windows. The elementary group was a bit nervous to enter this place but at the same time, they were glad as it had been rather awkward since Stan snapped at Luan. Lynn and Luna tried their best to cheer her up. Although they were still appalled at how hard Stan had gotten especially when he seemed so nice when they first met him.

Once they reached the door. Jay knocked in a pattern which was a secret code made by the school.

It opened and they were led inside. Once there, they noticed that the hall had very similar features to the ones in the elementary school; candles were used to light the room and teens wandered around the house. Some kids stopped to study the newcomers before walking off.

"Where's Brock?" Jay asked the kid who let them in.

Tall, 15, long dark hair who resembles that of a skateboarder. Wearing a red t-shirt over a white sweatshirt and tan cargo shorts. Luna recognized her as Owen Millis.

"He's at the gym. Were you able to find anything?" Owen asked before nodding towards the unfamiliar group. "Besides them?"

"Oh, boy do we?" Jay said enthusiastically then turned his head towards the elementary school group. "Come on, Let's go talk to Brock. I'm sure he'll be so excited to see you all here and not be the only group of kids in Royal Woods."

Bang

Came loud gunfire that echoed across a mile long.

Bang

Came another.

Chris, hitherto, was sitting across somebody's porch, biting down a detached head when he heard that noise that almost made him bounce from his seat in surprise.

"The fuck could that be?" He mumbled irritably. He turned to Crony who was munching down on a severed arm.

Can you see what's up? He inquired by thought

Sure thing. Crony replied then he and a few grown-ups went in to see where that loud gunshot was coming from.

Hours since he had formed his army, he had ordered them to roam around across the street and find any kids they can find, dead or alive, it didn't matter as long as it wasn't rotting like the bodies lying around everywhere. Despite that, Chris couldn't eat his meal without all that gun firing happening.

I swear if I ever find out whoever that idiot that keeps making that commotion, so help me. Where the hell is he taking so long?

As if on cue, Crony soon came back with that same creepy expression he keeps on making. Chris still felt unnerved by his expression.

"Well?" The leader asked.

Just some kid with a gun, shooting our men like an idiot.

Kid with a gun? That's cool.

It didn't last long as he was out of bullets, but he's fighting off with a baseball bat. Said Crony much to Chris's enjoyment. He put the severed head to the side then stood up.

"Where is this kid?" He asked.

Crony pointed to where the person was and Chris headed in that direction. Once he made his way into that said direction and saw a bald kid who looked to be around 14-15 years old; roughly the same height as Chris, probably more, a very skinny complexus, wearing a black leather jacket and navy blue jeans. Chris noticed numerous scars all over the boy's face possibly from a previous zombie attack because he noticed some bite marks on his chin.

He watched as the kid fought fiercely at all the infected adults around him, taking out as much as his body can handle. Chris just smirked. Impressive he thought. Crony caught up with Chris and watched along with him.

Should we send in our strongest men to kill him?

No need. Chris then cracked his knuckles. Haven't fought in hand-to-hand combat for quite a while. Chris thought. He walked up to the kid who was heavily focused on the horde closing around him.

Neil couldn't believe his time would be over soon, all he wanted was to get some food around town, only to be attacked by these crazy adults. He cursed his stupid mind for thinking it was safe to go out. He started to cry and begged that someone would help him. As if his prayers were answered. The adults ceased movement. He stood in confusion and wondered why they stopped. Before he knew it, a normal-looking adult came up to him.

Chris walked slowly to the teen with his fist clenched tightly and his lips curled into an evil grin. He knew fighting a minor is considered a crime and could get him arrested, but in this new world, there are no longer any rules saying you can't. Neil smiled widely and almost felt like gonna cry but from the joy that someone did indeed save him. Not knowing something about this man wasn't right But before he had time to say anything, Chris sucker-punched him right in the face almost knocking him to the ground, blood dripping from his nose. Chris smirked.

"Come on, get up!" He demanded. Neil out of anger and instinct charged at Chris and delivered a punch of his own and Chris dodged all of them. Eventually, Neil was able to get a straight jab on Chris's chin. Now distracted, Neil screamed and kicked Chris's torso.

Heh, impressive for someone your age. Chris thought, but that's still not enough. He yanked both of Neil's arms and proceeded to tackle him to the ground. Chris delivered serious blows on his face knocking one tooth. Neil delivered punches of his own but he was outmatched. With a decisive headbutt by Chris, Neil was left incapacitated. Chris quickly got up to catch his breath.

"Not bad, kid," Chris said then took Neil's leather jacket and wore it. "I'm taking this though."

He walked away and ordered the adults to tear the kid in half and save some for him.

As the saying goes.

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