Melissa wanted to cover her ears again as the gun went off, the sound ricocheting of the walls of the gorge. She watched in shock as two of the zombies went down; apparently she'd gotten in an extremely lucky shot and taken down two with one bullet.

The sound, as she had known it would, attracted the zombies from just about everywhere around her. She aimed again, and shot, taking down another zombie. She wondered whether it would be best to get out of the spot between the two rocks or try to use them as a defensive wall.

Melissa didn't get to decide, as zombies from both end of the gorge immediately rushed her spot. She tried to control the growing panic; she'd always been a flight-instead-of-fight type of girl. She took aim and fired, and another zombie fell to her bullet.

There wasn't going to be enough bullets, she knew. She was going to run out long before she managed to make a dent in the horde. Her vision was going blurry, and she realized that she was crying. She didn't want to die. She had always had a false bravado about it, bragging that she wasn't afraid to die, but now that she was staring death in the face, she realized she was terrified.

She knew she couldn't stop shooting though, just in case. Maybe Punk will come back…

She knew he wouldn't though. The expression on his face had been a "So long, nice knowing you" sort of look.

The sobs racking her body now, she took aim again, trying to blink past the tears. The bullet tore through another two zombies, but Melissa knew it was only because so many of them had fallen in and crowded into the narrow space.

I'm lucky one hasn't fallen on my head, if nothing else…

Melissa wondered how many bullets she had left, and whether she should just end it now. She figured it would probably be more quick and painless compared to being eaten alive.

The dead zombies were luckily bottlenecking the opening to her rock hideout, giving her a brief respite. She stared at the gun again, once more trying to calculate her odds of escaping alive. They weren't looking good.

She had just made up her mind when a sound shattered her concentration. The sound of a gun going off sounded from above her. "PUNK?!" she screamed.

"Melissa!?" A voice shouted back.

Melissa gasped in surprise as she looked up and in the last bits of daylight she recognized Dean and Seth leaning over the edge, looking down at her.

A wave of utter relief rushed over her, making her feel almost nauseated.

"Jump!" Seth called, motioning that he and Dean would catch her. Melissa hastily holstered the gun, her hands shaking. She gazed upward, wondering if she could make the jump to where they would grab her and pull her up. Looking behind her, she realized she would have one try.

Melissa breathed deeply, and jumped upwards, her arms outstretched to where Dean and Seth waited.

They caught her by her wrists, and she wanted to scream in pain as it yanked on her bad wrist. They pulled her up just as the zombies made it past the block of the bodies. Melissa was sobbing again, this time in relief, and as soon as she was resting on solid ground, she crashed forward and hugged Seth, who was nearest.

"It's okay," he murmured. "You're not down there anymore."

"I thought you were dead!" Melissa sobbed.

"We will be if we don't get moving," Dean noted, reminding them they were still in danger from zombies on this side of the gorge.

Seth helped Melissa to her feet. "My backpack…" she muttered.

"Roman has it," Seth pointed to the Samoan who was standing nearby, wearing her backpack and holding a gun. Melissa felt guilty she hadn't noticed him yet, but she pushed the thought away, knowing now wasn't the time to worry about that.

"Let's go!" Dean said, leading them away from the gorge, back in the direction of David's camp.

Melissa found herself running from zombies in the dark for the second night in a row, this time following the Shield instead of Punk.

Luckily it wasn't too far from there to get back to the camp; Melissa realized that her fear last night had severely distorted the distance. She also realized that they were catching another lucky break when she realized that most of the zombies were headed in the direction of the gorge, still focused on the sound the guns had made. She was glad they were so single-minded and she was glad that Dean seemed to be choosing a path that kept them out sight of the zombies.

Before long, Dean had them stop in a small group of trees on a hill. Melissa realized she was looking down at the valley where David's camp had been only the night before. It was still smoking; the fire had burned it to the ground. Zombies could be seen in the silver moonlight shuffling through the ashes.

Melissa was gasping for air, much in the same way she had been last night. She decided that she was not meant for cross-country running. Luckily it didn't take her too long to catch her breath as the Shield surveyed the area.

"What are we going to do?" Melissa whispered after a little.

Dean looked at her. "Can you run farther?"

Melissa nodded, surprised he was asking.

"Then we have to two options: go for the car, or look for Punk, if he's alive," Dean said.

"We go to the car," Melissa said, her anger at Punk suddenly bubbling up.

Dean looked startled. "Why don't you want to look for Punk? There's a chance he's still alive." He obviously didn't realize that Melissa and Punk had fled the camp together.

"I hope not. I hope he's dead." Melissa said harshly, surprised by the vicious tone of her voice.

Now Dean frowned. "Did we find Melissa's evil twin?" he said half-jokingly to Roman and Seth.

Seth looked concerned and moved to sit in front of Melissa, who was sitting on the ground with her legs crossed.

"Melissa, what happened?" he asked her gently.

"Last night Punk and I escaped from David, and so we ran and found a place to stay for the night. We left this morning to head back to the car. Not long before you found me, we got ambushed by some zombies. He made it across the gap, but I didn't. I was about to have him help lift me out when he said there were zombies on his side too. He left me to die."

Seth looked shocked, as if he had expected better of Punk. "He just left you? He didn't even try to help?"

Melissa shook her head. "Not even close." She wondered if she could really fault him though. Would she have done the same thing?

"There were hardly any zombies on that side of the gap when we got there," Roman muttered. "We were able to get there without a lot of effort."

Melissa shrugged uncomfortably. "Randy tried to warn me."

"What?" Seth asked curiously.

"Randy tried to warn me. Before he left he told me to stay away from Punk, and that he would only save himself if it came down to it," Melissa whispered.

"Randy's smarter than I gave him credit for," Dean muttered. He looked out from behind the protection the bushes. "So we'll head for the car then. One less back-stabber to deal with."

Melissa felt a wave of guilt crash over her. Despite her anger at Punk, it still felt wrong to leave the man to die. She pushed the thought away, knowing that he had done it to her without a thought.

Dean sank down to the ground, crossing his legs as he sat. "We're going to have to wait a little. The zombies are leaving, but it's gonna be a while. So Melissa, where'd you get the gun? We probably wouldn't have found you if you hadn't used it."

Melissa felt even guiltier as she remembered the events that had occurred last night in David's camp.

"Melissa?" Seth asked cautiously. "Remember that you can tell us."

Melissa looked up to meet his gaze, remembering how he had told her it wasn't healthy to keep secrets. She took a deep breath before recounting the story of last night.