The smell of chocolate filled the air.
"Is that chocolate chip cookies?" A four-year-old June asked.
"Yep." Her grandma said. "And they're for you, little bug."
June grabbed her stuffed rabbit as she sat down.
"Grandmama, when is mommy coming home?"
June's grandma just froze.
"Soon June, soon."
Everything was quiet the next morning. June stared solemnly out the window. Jack noticed her.
"June?" Jack asked.
"Do you hate me?"
"No. You're my friend. Why would I want to hate you?"
"I feel responsible for starting all this mess. Now, lots of people died because of me."
"But even if zombies started ruining people's lives, it also brought all of us together."
Jack showed Dirk, Quint, and Quinn all playing Monopoly together. Peter was showing Courtney how to handle a gun properly.
"The thing is, even if you feel responsible for causing the apocalypse, real or not, you still have us."
June just looked away. "Can you just leave me alone?"
Jack left June all by herself as the latter still stared out the window.
"Alright, take a deep breath, and squeeze the trigger," Peter instructed.
With a flash, an empty bean can Peter set up was shot. Then, Courtney fired another shot in frustration.
"Whoa!"
"Sorry..."
Courtney took a few moments to breathe.
"You know, I could've killed you when I had the chance."
"I could've killed you too." Peter countered.
"But look at us! We're forced to work together, and we have to babysit a bunch of kids!"
"We had no choice."
"You know, you kinda remind me of SNT."
"Wh-What?"
"When I first met her, she was all alone and scared. But as I look into her eyes, I felt a special aura inflicting me, almost as if... she's special..."
Courtney then pointed her gun at Peter.
"You may have a family of your own, but do you think me and SNT have our own families? My dad kicked me out when I was 13!"
"For what?"
"I was under the influence of drugs. I had multiple mental disorders. Depression, anxiety, bipolar episodes you name it! I overdosed over 4 times."
"So that explains the thing I saw you did yesterday..."
"Why aren't you fearing for your life?!" Courtney said.
"I experienced loss too like you."
Peter silently disarmed Courtney.
"I may have told this to everyone, but I didn't explain this to you. A few months ago, I had everything I ever wanted. Friends, family, everything."
"That's what you always have," Courtney said back.
"But one day, everything changed. My friends went off to do other stuff, my parents were apprehended, and I lost my house."
"You have?"
"And even after meeting new friends, it still isn't the same."
"SNT and I also used to be like you and whoever that unicorn guy is with you."
"Newton?"
"Yeah. But it was way worse than you. SNT had the opportunity to be a singer. And she chose that over me."
"How did that happen?"
"Just for fun, we usually post videos of ourselves singing pop songs online. An agent found out about it and offered SNT the job."
"But then what happened?"
"After SNT left, my world came spiraling down. I needed more drugs to calm me down. And then guess what? Got sent to rehab."
"So then what?"
"After leaving rehab, It was almost as if people forget what I did. But I still felt that they wouldn't have forgiven me for anything. So I got more drugs. But my dealer said that he had a special offer for me. Of course, I said yes. He then blindfolded me and told me that would lead to a magical land called Euphoria where all your dreams come true. And me being the naive dumbass, I fell for it. Next thing I knew, I was here."
"The writer."
"Who?"
"He's a friend of mine. He also sent me here. He must've sent you too."
"That fucker! When I deal with him, I'll... I'll..."
"We have bigger things to worry about," Peter assured.
Courtney silently nodded. Unbeknownst to the two, they had a little eavesdropper watching them.
Dirk sat by himself in the dining cart, reading the cookbooks he found in the kitchen. Quinn walked up to him.
"Hey, Dirk..."
"Oh, hey Quinn."
"I want to know something?"
"Yeah?"
"I heard Courtney and Peter talk to each other. They mentioned stuff like SNT, drugs, and lots of other things."
"What do you mean by those things?"
"I think the two might be hiding something from us."
"Quinn, what did mom say about spying?" Dirk stated.
"That I shouldn't spy," Quinn said back. "But what I heard is super interesting! It could actually save someone's life!"
Before Dirk said anything, a loud static appeared over the intercom.
"Guys, come quickly to the conductor's room!" Quint said over the intercom of the train.
Everyone arrived at the conductor's room.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"Wakefield is gone. Nuked!"
"But wasn't it supposed to be firebombed?" Peter asked.
"That's not all," Quint said, turning on the radio.
"All survivor camps and military camps have been closed off. Border crossings have been removed from passage too." A news reporter said. "Civilians fleeing are now being slaughtered by the infected. This will also be our last radio broadcast. Good luck out there, America."
There was a long silence. No one spoke a word.
"What do we do now?" Jack said.
"We still cross the border," Peter stated.
"What?"
"Oh come on! We beat the zombies before, what's stopping us this time?"
"It's not just the zombies we have to deal with. You rescued me and June from the gang that almost tried to kill us and now they may probably come after us."
"Wait, you pissed off a gang?" Courtney said to Peter.
"I'll tell you later," Peter said back.
"No, Dirk, Quinn, and I want to know everything." Quint interrupted. "What are you even hiding from us?"
Before Peter could say anything, a window smashed in the car behind the group.
"This is for Stephen!"
A shot fired through the window, forcing everyone to duck. Quickly, Peter grabbed his gun out and ran to the window. He noticed five military jeeps with heavy machine guns latched on.
"You're going down, motherfucker!"
"It's the gang!" Peter shouted.
Everyone got a good look at the gang outside. A good chunk of the group was male, have thick beards, and was chubby at 245 pounds. All of them were on Humvees mounted with machine guns. They started firing at the group at first sight.
"Get down!"
While crawling back to his gun, he gave out orders.
"Quint, can you drive this train any faster?"
"This is as fast as it can go!"
Peter waited for the gang to reload before popping out to shoot the tires. The Humvee crashed into a rock with more chasing after them.
"One down!" shouted Peter over the gunfire.
"Eat flames, motherfucker!"
A Molotov crashed into the window and incinerated the tables. Quinn quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and put out the flames, but it could only do so much.
"I can't hold them back for long!" Peter shouted.
Suddenly, one of the gang members tossed a black round object at the group. Peter quickly ducked as the gang members retreated.
"Ha Ha! Missed!" Jack taunted back.
*BEEP* BEEP*
Something stuck to Dirk's stomach. It took an instant for everyone to realize what that was.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Courtney shouted.
The group tried to pull the sticky grenade off of Dirk, but it was latched on too tight.
"Dirk, just stay calm we got this!" Jack frantically panicked.
But Dirk saw another way.
"Take care of Quinn for me."
Dirk shoved everyone out of the way as he ran to the other side of the car.
"DIRK! DIRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKK!"
Peter restrained Quinn from running after him. Seconds later, a flash of white blinded everyone. It felt as timed stopped. As the train tumbled over, all anyone could think about was Dirk.