Seth leaned over, a look of surprise on his face. "Dean, pull the car over!"
"What?" Dean slowed, but did not stop.
"Stop the car!" Seth repeated.
Dean hesitantly pulled the car over, stopping beside a flipped Civic. "This isn't a good idea," Dean warned.
"They're alive," Seth argued. "And one of them looks injured."
"Then it's even better if we keep moving," Dean muttered as he got out of the car.
Melissa got out of the car, hopping to the ground. She was quickly followed by Seth. Punk and Roman joined the other three on their side of the car.
"I don't like this at all," Punk said, a glare on his face. "Something doesn't feel right. We should leave."
By then the group of four that they had spotted were coming into focus. One man was being half-carried; his arm was draped across his two of his companions' shoulders. The fourth man followed slightly behind them, seeming to keep watch.
As the four unknown men came closer, one of the men carrying the other called out, "Can you help us? He needs medical care!" The injured man started sagging towards the ground, dragging the two other men down with him.
"Is he bit?" Dean asked loudly as Seth darted forward to help. Melissa followed him, wondering what was wrong with the man.
Melissa and Seth knelt by the injured man. "What's wrong with him?" Melissa asked curiously, her eyes not finding any surface injuries. She leaned in closer to the man lying on the ground.
The man's eyes flickered open before he sat up, seeming perfectly fine. "…What…?" Melissa started to say before he grabbed her, standing up and dragging her up with him. His arm wrapped around her neck as she started screaming for Seth to help her.
One of the other men had grabbed Seth, who kicked him in the groin, causing him to let go. He darted forward to get to Melissa, but was stopped by the other man, who shoved him backwards as the man holding Melissa pulled something out of his pocket.
Melissa couldn't see what it was, but as soon as the cold metal was pressed up against her skull, she realized that it was a gun. She couldn't contain the whimper of fright that slipped out.
"Make another move and I blow her head off!" the man restraining her shouted at Seth.
Seth, who had been about to throw a punch at the man in front of him, slowly lowered his arm.
"That's what I thought," the man said smugly. "Now tell your friends," he nodded in the direction of Roman, Punk, and Dean, "to stand down. Or my men will take them out."
Several men stepped out from behind some of the overturned cars, guns pointed at the trio still by the Suburban.
"I told you this was a bad idea!" Punk yelled as one man came over and bound his wrists with rope.
"I did too," Dean pointed out.
The man still holding Melissa laughed outright. "You should have listened to your friends."
"We thought you needed help!" Seth said angrily as one of the men tied up his wrists.
The man tying Seth up laughed loudly. "Look at that, David!" He spoke to the man holding Melissa. "They actually thought we needed help!"
David smiled arrogantly. "I told you those acting lessons would pay off in the long run."
"I suppose they did," the other man said as he finished tying the ropes on Seth's wrists. The other men had dragged Roman, Punk, and Dean over, forcing them to their knees next to Seth.
David leaned forward to whisper in Melissa's ear. "I'm going to let you go now. You're going to go sit by the others. If you try to run, I'll shoot one of your friends. Got it?"
Melissa nodded slightly, her heart pounding. "Good," David said. He moved his arm from around Melissa's neck and roughly pushed her forward, causing her to stumble and land on her knees in front of the four wrestlers.
She didn't try to run, not wanting to put their lives in jeopardy. She also knew that she probably couldn't run if she tried; she felt petrified with fear. One of David's men came forward and tied her wrists behind her back. "Get them up!" David ordered.
Melissa squeaked in protest as the man yanked her to her feet by her bound wrists. "Shut up bitch," the man muttered, whacking her in the back of the head.
David spoke. "Let's get them back to camp. I'm sure we can find a use for them."
"We could use them as bait!" one of the nameless men suggested.
David eyed over the group, his expression thoughtful. "I'll think about it. Get them moving!" He signaled for his men to start walking towards wherever they were staying. Melissa and the others followed, having no choice as David's men pushed them forward.
"If I die because of this, I'm coming back and eating you," Dean muttered under his breath at Melissa.
Melissa looked incredulously at Dean. "Really? I don't think you'd have much preference as a zombie," she hissed.
"I'd find a way," Dean said confidently.
"Instead of trying to figure out whether you can manage to make sure you eat Melissa if you turn, can you try and figure a way out of this?" Punk whispered fiercely.
"No talking!" the man behind Punk said, hitting Punk in the back of the head with the butt of his pistol.
"Shit!" Punk cursed as his head shot forward. "What the hell was that for?!" he yelled as he turned around to look at the man.
Instead he found himself face to face with the barrel of the man's pistol. "Shut up or I'll do it for you!" the man threatened.
Punk fell quiet. Melissa felt tears starting to run down her face. If only she hadn't looked out the window at that moment, then they wouldn't be in this situation.
She felt a burning hatred towards David and his men. How could they live with threatening other human beings when there was something so much worse out there? Melissa couldn't comprehend it. Her inner thoughts continued to rage as David led them over a ridge, showing a view of a camp nestled among a grove of trees.
Melissa thought it might look picturesque in different circumstances, but at the moment it repulsed her; she wanted to get away as quickly as she could; she felt like nothing good could come out of that camp.
Before long they were among the tents. Several starved-looking women eyed them hostilely as they passed by. Melissa thought something looked odd, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"There are no children!" Seth exclaimed quietly.
Melissa looked around, realizing that was what seemed off.
David, having heard Seth, turned around. "There is no room for weakness anymore," he said curtly.
"What do you mean by that?" Melissa asked hoarsely.
David pointed to something on a nearby hill about 20 feet away that Melissa hadn't noticed before. As Melissa turned to look, the sun passed behind a cloud, shadowing the area. She was still able to see that there were several rows of tall, crudely fashioned stakes sticking out of the hillside like grotesque fingers. But it was not just a wall of stakes.
Melissa felt all of the blood drain from her face as she realized what was impaled on the stakes. "You monster," she whispered.
The bodies of many young children were spiked on the stakes, along with the bodies of the elderly. The breeze suddenly changed direction, bringing with it the stench of decay emanating from the hill.
Melissa saw one body, probably that of a child no more than five, shift on the stake, apparently having become a zombie. She darted a few feet away from her captors, kneeling down to be sick in a nearby bush. She sat there for a moment, her whole body shaking. One of David's men hauled her back to her feet. "How could you?!" she screamed at David as she started sobbing. "Why would you do this?!"
"Someone shut her up before she draws in the zombies!" David ordered loudly. One man clapped his hand over Melissa's mouth. David strode over to stand in front of Melissa, who was staring down at the ground. He yanked her head up, forcing her to look at the row of stakes. "Look. Look!" he yelled as Melissa tried to glance away. "You see them?!" he said angrily. "They were a weakness! A scourge on my group! If we had kept them we'd all be dead by now!" He gestured around camp. "I am doing these men and women a favor! Hell, I did those things a favor!" He pointed furiously at the staked bodies. "They would have been doomed to suffer! They would have lived their lives in fear! I saved them from being eaten alive! I saved them from that!" His eyes were crazed. "Don't you dare question my motives! I know what's in humanity's best interests!"
He shoved Melissa towards a nearby tent that his men had opened up. "Get inside," he ordered, his voice returning to normal volume. Melissa was pushed inside the tent, where she collapsed, still crying. She saw Seth for a moment through the entrance of the tent before one of David's men zipped the tent shut, sealing her off from her companions.