After extinguishing most of the flames from the truck, Jill, Carlos, Chris, Claire, and Leon all stood contemplating the situation. "What's going on here? How did this happen?" murmured Chris. Claire stood off to a wall, leaning against it, her face unreadable. Carlos was leaning over what was left of the man from the couple. Shaking his head, he looked away from the frozen look of anguish painted on the man's face. Leon stood near the opening of the building, looking out for zombies until they thought up a plan. "What do we do now?" said Jill. "We can't just simply escape this time. We need to find out who did this and fast. That bastard's gonna pay for this!" she raged, slamming her fist into the palm of her hand. "First, we need weapons." Said Chris. "Without some serious fire power, we're done for."

"Where are we going to get that?" said Carlos. "The nearest gun shop is a 10 minute walk from here and that street is swarming with the walking undead!"

Claire pushed herself from the wall and stepped forward. "I'll go. I'm small and fast. I'll be hard for the zombies to get." "Out of the question," said Chris. "I'm not going to let my only sister go out there unarmed and defenseless and be slaughtered by those monsters."

"I'm going Chris. Try and stop me," said Claire staring him down. Chris knew he had lost. "Ok, Leon, you go with her. And take this," said Chris tossing his gun to Leon. "Take care of my little sister, ok?" Leon nodded as he followed Claire out of the safety of the building.

                                    ****

Rebecca was seized with a cold fear. "Oh...my...God..." she said in a voice barely above a whisper. She watched in horror as the thing moved closer and closer. "NO!" she screamed as she turned and fled. "NONONONONONONNONONONO!!" She could hear the thing gaining on her, its greedy breaths echoing over the sounds of her own desperate gasps of air and frantic footsteps. "PLEASE...SOMEBODY HELP ME! ANYBODY!" she yelled in desperation as she sprinted down the halls knocking over various objects to slow the thing down. She spotted the main exit in the distance and her heart fluttered in anticipation. "Yes!!" she thought as she hurried toward the door...

The licker dropped directly in front of her and hissed, licking it's long, slimy tongue. Startled, Rebecca came to a halt and fell over backwards, scooting back and away from the thing choking back her tears of frustration she let out a strangled cry as the licker drew closer...

Billy could have sworn it was her voice. No...it couldn't be Rebecca. Why would she be here in this God Forsaken place? Yet still...he had to see. If it was her, it sounded like she was in serious trouble. Billy loaded a magazine in the gun he found in the reception desk and hurried off, following the sounds of running feet and crashing noises.

Rebecca rolled away from the licker gasping for air. She had been dodging it for too long and it had finally tired her out. Before she could make another move, the thing jumped on her, throwing her on her back. Helpless, Rebecca squeezed her eyes shut and waited for it to be over.

Suddenly gunshots filled the air and the licker was thrown off her. It lay motionless in a pool of its own blood, twitching ever so slightly. Stunned, Rebecca rolled over and slowly pushed herself up, her back to the man. She stood, dusting herself off, too embarrassed to look her savior in the eye. "Thank you..." she managed to say.

"...Rebecca?" came the deep voice reply. She froze, her back still to her rescuer. No...it couldn't be. Billy was long gone. And yet...as she slowly turned around she felt her heartbeat as it raced. Could it really be him...?

Billy watched as the girl stiffened at the sound of his voice. So it was her. He could hardly believe it as he watched her turn to him, her face in complete disbelief. After these couple years she still looked the same. He glanced at her outrageous outfit. What was that all about? The last time he checked, she was a quiet, modest girl who would never be caught dead in something like that. Before he could think on it further, he noticed her eyes were filled with tears. "Billy...it is you," she said softly. "It's been awhile, huh?" he said casually, hiding his joy at seeing her too.

Rebecca let out a long sigh and leaned against a nearby wall, her face pale and horror stricken. "I thought I was done for...why? Why is this happening again?" she said, her voice rising hysterically. "I quit STARS so this would never happen again!! I..."

Billy cut her off. "Look, you can't dwell on it like this. We gotta get out of here and away from this town. The only way we can do that is if you calm down and think logically like before when we were together." He said. Resisting the urge to pull her into his arms, he checked her for any injuries. How long had he wished to see her again...to touch her? It was just unfortunate that they had to meet under these circumstances again.

 Although he had feelings for her, he didn't know whether or not she had found someone herself. He knew she had to have forgotten about him over the years. Not looking her in the eye, he looked over at the licker, half expecting it to jump back up for another round.

Rebecca didn't find his distant actions surprising. She figured he had another girl waiting at home for him. Shaking her head slightly, she quickly shifted into survival mode. Things looked grim, but she wasn't about to just lie down and die. She'd go down fighting if she had to. "Right," she said turning to the main entrance. "My car's right outside, so we should be able to escape from town with it." She said pointing to the door. "Ok, let's go." Said Billy following her lead.

Running to the double doors, Rebecca turned the handle...but before she could get the door fully open, razor sharp teeth snapped and chopped through the air as a pack of zombie dogs attacked the door. Startled, Rebecca quickly slammed the door shut and backed away as clawing sounds and muffled snarls filled the air.

"Great, just great." Said Billy. Rebecca contemplated the matter. There was another way out of the building, but they'd have to hurry before the concentration of monsters could get any worse. Turning to Billy, she gestured down the hall. "We can get out of here through the emergency exit door. The only problem is, it's on the other side of the building. We'll have to go through at least three hallways to get there, and I don't know how many of those things are in this building...or anything else for that matter." Said Rebecca. "That's a chance we'll just have to take. But first, we need to find some better weapons..." said Billy looking around. Rebecca shook her head "Well, you won't find any here. We can find some once we get out of the building, I'm sure. How many bullets do you have left?" "Thirty-four, not including the ones left in the gun," said Billy. "We'll just have to make do with what we've got. Come on, let's go."