Today was a day without rain, and they hoped that the storm was gone for good.

The group was all out on the rooftop, and it was night time. It was the perfect place to relax. They could even see the stars roaming the dark sky up ahead.

They had set up chairs and even a dinner table, along with all sorts of food and drinks they'd gotten from the cafeteria.

Sort of a mini-celebration, even though there were zombies watching them from below and growling at them every few seconds.

Xena was resting her head on the ledge of the roof, beside Shannon, and the dog would bark every once in awhile in return to the snarling zombies.

"Just one beer man... come on... come on!" Dunn had been pleading with Curtis and Tex to let him have a beer, even though he was still 17. Curtis sighed and relented, "Fine, fine, drink if you want. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Yes! I knew this end of the world thing was good for something." said Dunn. The teen quickly ran over to where a cooler was set up and grabbed a bottle from inside.

Curtis chuckled and then looked over to the other side of the roof, "Geez, speaking of behaviour I don't condone."

Tex followed the preacher's gaze and saw Craig, who was doing shots tequila shots off Marissa.

"Hey, they're kids, let them do what they want," said Tex.

Curtis chuckled again and nodded before taking a seat at the table.

"Wow, look at the love-birds," said Marissa, taking enough time to drink her own tequilla shot as Tyler and Tricia walked over towards her and Craig.

Craig grinned and hooked his arm with Marissa's, imitating what Tricia and Tyler were doing. "Yeah, it's almost sweet, in a corny kind of way."

"You guys are just healous just jealous," said Tricia with a grin.

Suddenly, a loud boom overhead kick-started the end of the celebration. Another loud boom that turned into a crackle. Then, the rain came down. It came down fast and without warning, the largest amount of rain they'd seen since they'd got there.

The group was soaked in a matter of a seconds, and they grabbed what they could of food and supplies before running back into the building.

Tricia and Tyler stayed behind, and the rain didn't seem to bother the two teenagers as they stood there on the roof, so long as they were kissing the way they were right now.

It had just been sudden. Tricia was about to head inside when Tyler stopped her and brought his lips to hers.

Time itself seemed to stop for Tricia, and the storm, and the rain, none of it mattered to her.

Craig and Marissa stopped at the fire exit when they saw that the two teens were still out on the rooftop.

Craig sighed, "Two teenagers in love, just like Eric and Ka..."

Marissa interrupted him, "Don't......That's over with. I feel bad for Eric, but that whole mess is over with."

Craig looked down, "They were exactly like those two Marissa. Full of life ya know."

Marissa felt her eyes going red, but she kept cool. "Eric's girlfriend is dead... she Turned, he killed her. The end. Kara's never coming back and Eric needs to move on."
-----------

Eric was in his room, trying to get some sleep. He tried to close his eyes and fall off into temporary unconsciousness but it wasn't working.

Finally, he got up out of bed and over to his window. He opened it, and let some of the cool, night air come into his room.

The breeze knocked down a photograph that had been on his dressed. He quickly walked over to it and picked it up.

The photo was of him and a girl, both dressed in their army gear, and both wrapped in each other's arms. In that photograph, eric was actually happy. Something he hadn't been in awhile.

Have to move on.

He slid the photograph underneath his pillow, vowing to keep it there, at least for a little while.

It was time to stop brooding.

Eric walked over to his window and looked outside.

He didn't have much a view from his room, but at least he could still see a lot of sky overhead.

His stomach rumbled and for the first time he regretted not having gone up to the roof with the others, at least just to get some dinner.

His gaze focused on a shadow moving through the air. As he continued to look, he could clearly make out a shape moving in the clouds.

No way...

Without even finishing his thoughts, or even putting on some proper clothes, Eric ran outside of his room and into the hallway.

--------

When Eric found the others, he was already one second to late.

He burst into the control room, and everyone was already standing there.

"There's a ..."

"Chopper, we know." said Tricia, interrupting Eric. "But for all they know, they think its an abandoned military base."

"The radios still aren't working properly," said Shannon.

"We need to send some kind of message," said Tex, "What can we use?"

Craig thought for a second, then put in his two cents, "There's some flares we can use, but we've gotta hurry. The chopper's probably going to do a circle around but we still don't have enough time. Their in the tented area."

"Well what are we waiting for," said Tricia. She walked over to a table and picked up a beretta lying there. Then she turned to look at Eric, and stopped. "Um... Eric?"

"What?"

"Why are you in your boxers?"

-----

It was pouring out, but they would ignore it. Eric rounded the corner around the outside wall of the mini-base. He checked once to make sure the coast was clear and then gave the signal to Tyler. Tyler nodded, and he and the others came out from around the corner of a compound till they caught up with Eric. There were two teams leading the mission. Tricia had volunteered to keep watch, while Marissa, Eric and Tyler headed towards the tented area. Everyone else had been allowed to stay at the base since they didn't need a lot of people to do this.

It was almost pitch black but for the flourescent blue lights coming from seemingly nowhere, powered by the emergency generator system that coursed electricity throughout the Fort.

They moved from Tent to tent, and Tyler started to smell rotten flesh from nearby

He used his gun to brush aside the flaps of the tent that kept on getting in his face, soaked down by the rain.

Ahead of him, was only more tents and darkness. Again, it seemed like nothing more than a fancy maze.

Up ahead, he could barely make out Eric. The soldier had stopped, and was signalling for them to wait up.

Then Eric went forward again, this time disappearing completely from view into another tent.

"Shit.." Tyler whispered, and folllowed after him. Marissa was close behind.

When they got to the tent, they saw Eric just standing there. He was looking straight forward.

In front of him, was another soldier, and Tyler was taken aback at first.

This new soldier, had a completely shaved bald head, and must've at least been close to 7 feet tall. He was dressed in army fatigues also, and his hair was caked in blood.

The giant was sitting completely still, with his head bowed, and they couldn't see his face.

They couldn't tell if the 7-footer was dead or alive.

The fact that they weren't able to see his face as they walked closer didn't help ease tension either.

"Who is he?" whispered Tyler, keeping his gun ready just in case.

"Drake... he was our sergeant....." whispered Marissa, sadness in her eyes, "Poor guy."

"Yo, sarge," called out Eric. The sergeant didn't move, only sat there, head bowed, looking at the floor.

Tyler was starting to get creeped out, "Hey, leave him man," said the biker, "he's dead. We've gotta get those flares."

Marissa nodded in earnest. She slowly started to back-step out of the tent and Tyler followed.

Eric didn't though.

Instead, he walked closer to the still sergeant. Walked right up until the two were right in front of each other.

Eric shook his head, almost in pity, "Sorry sarge." With that, Eric grabbed the army tag from around the dead sergeant's neck and ripped it off. Slipping the tag into his pocket, Eric turned to walk away.

Lightning crackled nearby, illuminating the tent.

As Eric turned to leave, yellow light washed over the 7 foot zombie starting to twitch.

Eric Reyes never heard a thing as the once-still sergeant stood up off the table.....