A/N: Warning: This chapter is really going to bounce around from various locations in the building, with various characters and no warning. Flashbacks may also occur. Be prepared.

"Vicki, the twins, are they yours?" Emily asked, already knowing the answer, but trying to keep the woman's mind off what was happening to her, what was going to happen to her.

"No, they're my... niece and nephew... my sister Anna's kids," she said, her breathing becoming labored. In the few hours since the bus had arrived, her condition had deteriorated rapidly. The so-called spider webs that Sean had described now spread through most of her body, giving her the look of one of the undead already. Her skin had taken on an almost grayish, deathly pallor, and her eyes no longer seemed capable of focusing. "Please...can't I just...see them...see my son...just one more time?"

"Matthew doesn't think it's safe, that's why he insisted you say good-bye earlier, so you'd have...one last chance," the younger woman finished hoarsely, trying hard to keep the tears forming in her eyes from spilling.

"I know that it's...for the best...I just wish..."

"Shh...you really should save your strength Vicki."

"For what?...Gonna die...no matter what."

"Emily, I think it's time you went back to the others," Thomas said quietly. He was seated in a chair beside the door, his pistol sitting in his lap as he waited. Emily nodded, gratefully rising to her feet, ready to flee the room that already smelled of death and decay, although it may have been her imagination. As she reached for the door handle, Vicki made one last plea.

"Emily...Promise me...promise me you'll look after...the children for me."

"I already promised you that, remember?" she replied, rushing through the door, unable to look at the dying woman.

Thomas remained impassive and silent throughout the exchange, reflexively gripping the handle of his gun. He'd declared himself to be Vicki's executioner, setting and waiting for her to die so that he could kill her a second time. It was the only way he could convince the others to let her live out the short time remaining in her life, to give her the chance to say her good-byes to what remained of her family. That had been the important thing to him, with so many dead roaming the streets who'd never had that opportunity themselves.

He listened to the slow, steady rasp of her breathing. It signaled to him that she was at least still partially alive anyway. As he listened, he thought of the last few hours that had lead up to this moment.

"Vicki, listen, we're going to move you into one of the offices over in the dating service. They've got some nice executive ones over there with sofas so you'll be able to lay down and rest more comfortably," Emily said, elected by the others to provide a reasonable excuse for the move that would segregate the woman from the rest of the group.

"Yea Mom. We'll get a nice cushy office to relax in. Maybe it'll have some video games or somethin' that we can play there," Justin said, trying to keep the concern out of his voice. A mere hour since they'd arrived, and his mother was already beginning to exhibit the spider web pattern on her arm, radiating out from the small scratch.

"I think we should get your Mom settled in first, let me get a good look at her arm, change the bandages, see if there was anything I might have overlooked before you and the twins join her Justin," Matthew quickly interjected. Although the teen looked skeptical, he'd let it pass. The medic was the unfortunate one elected to break the news to her, although Emily accompanied him to help provide moral support. She wasn't really sure if the support was for Vicki or Matthew though. Thomas had walked silently along behind them, listening. For now he was just an observer.

"So do you want me to take the bandages off?" Vicki asked, curious, and not just a little nervous over the way the two people stood silently in the room.

"There really isn't any need for that," Matthew replied, grateful for the momentary reprieve. How did you go about telling someone they were going to die, and then come back to life and try to eat people. It wasn't exactly something they'd covered during his EMT training.

"So...what are we doing here then? Why couldn't my kids come with us?"

"Vicki, how much do you know about those...things that are outside right now?" Emily asked.

"About the same as the rest of us I suppose. They were people once, but then they got bit by others like them. Now they're dead, and if they catch you, they'll eat you. That's kind of the re-cap of the news reports Justin gave me anyway."

"You didn't hear them yourself?" Emily asked curiously.

"I don't really watch television much at home, and by the time he finally got me to look, I just watched long enough to find out where the nearest rescue station was and then we were out the door. I just thought he was just watching one of those zombie movie things and teasing me that it was real, so most of the day I kept working on my spring cleaning. I've always been so terrified of those horror movies, and he's been trying to trick me into watching them ever since his Dad let him watch his first one when he was little. It all seems so silly now, I guess I should have taken him more seriously."

"There's a little bit more to it than that," Matthew said slowly. "It's not just the bites that can turn you into one of them."

"What are you..." A look of comprehension crossed her face as she realized what he was implying. "I'm going to become one of them. That's why you're doing this, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid so."

"How..How long do I have,"

"We don't really know for sure, but with the way the way the infection seems to be spreading," he gestured towards the dark veins that spread up past the bandages he'd applied earlier, "I think it's going to be fairly quick."

"So you two, you're here to, uh, 'take care of me.' Right? Make sure I don't have the chance to kill any of you. I feel so stupid," she moaned, shaking her head. "That's the reason you moved me down here isn't it? So you could kill me without my kids seeing it. Ease you're conscious a little."

"It's not like that," insisted Emily. "We are going to have to shoot you, eventually. But we've all agreed that we'll wait until we're certain you're actually going to come back. Thomas has volunteered to wait it out with you, and we'll give you the opportunity to say good-bye to the kids..."

"How generous," Vicki sneered bitterly. "You'll allow me to say good-bye to my own son, my niece and nephew."

"I'm sorry, I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am," Matthew told her. "But it's the best that we can offer. If we don't prepare for the worst, we could all die. Do you really want that to happen to your kids?"

Tears began to fall silently down her face. "Promise me you'll take care of them. That you won't let this happen to them."

"I promise, we'll do everything in our power to keep them safe," Thomas said, stepping at last into the room.

"I want to say my good-byes now."

With a start, Thomas pulled himself back from his thoughts, slowly comprehending that the steady rasp of Vicki's breathing had stopped. Turning his attention swiftly towards the sofa, his heart skipped a beat...she was gone. Then, he heard the eerie snarl coming from his left. "Sonuva..." he grappled to get a firm grip on his pistol, but it was too late. In the space of a heart beat, she lunged, tackling him to the ground and tearing out his throat. Blood from his torn jugular shot across the room.

Up on the rooftop, Sean and Aaron were in deep discussion about what they were going to do now that they had a possible means of escape They'd chosen the roof for a private meeting, looking to avoid the prying ears of the others, so of course Emily sent Barry up there to eavesdrop. Ostensibly he was there to keep the twins and Justin occupied until their mother had been taken care of, but nobody was really fooled by the plan. Inside, Matthew, Emily and Tara remained in the security office with the rest of the new arrivals.

"So why didn't we just shoot her as soon as we found out about the damn scratch? Or at least once she said good-bye to those kids? You people are all gonna get me killed!" wailed Tara. She was in full drama-queen mode now.

"Do you think you could be a little more self-centered or cold-blooded?" replied Emily.

"I don't want to die!"

"Right, and I'm sure Vicki woke up this morning and said, 'Hmmm. You know, I think today just might be a good day to die.' And maybe while she was at it she thought about how much fun it would be, dying a long, slow death while surrounded by complete strangers," Emily told her angrily.

"Sure, and why not go for the trifecta while she's at it. Come back from the dead and eat what remains of your loved ones too," Matthew added, not even skipping a beat.

"Look, why is everyone ganging up on me, I'm the injured girl, remember? And I'm just saying what we're all thinking."

"Lord deliver me if that's what you think is going through my mind," Allen interjected, quietly. The bus driver hadn't had much to say up to this point.

"Score another one for the good guys," smirked Emily. She was still smarting over that whole final exchange with Vicki, scared to death about how they would ever uphold the promise Thomas had made her. Until she got over it, nobody was going to be safe from her verbal attacks.

"Well if we're taking a vote on this, I'm with the cripple chick. If the old broad was as good as dead, why not put her out of her misery before she tries to hurt us? It's not rocket science people," Natalie chimed in. She was seated behind the Thomas' desk, her feet resting on the desk top, the chair tilted back on two legs.

"Who are you calling a cripple!" Tara cried indignantly.

"If we shoot her as soon as she comes back we won't be in any more danger than we have been at any other time," Matthew replied, ignoring Tara's indignant outburst. He was beginning to wish he'd followed Barry up to the roof to baby-sit the kids.

Emily rolled her eyes, rising to her feet and pacing across the cramped room until she reached the desk. "The decision has already been made so there's no point in arguing about it any more. At least some of us can put others needs ahead of our own."

"Yea, you don't have to tell us some of ya'll are a bunch of bleeding heart suckers," Natalie said, leaning back in the chair with a smirk on her face. In response, Emily 'nudged' Natalie's feet, which were still propped up on the desk, causing the other woman to lose her balance and fall crashing to the floor.

"Bitch! What the hell was that for?"

"Oops."

"Emily, why don't you go see how Barry's doing with the kids," Matthew interceded. With a final glare at Natalie, she nodded and walked out of the office. For his part, Matthew inwardly cringed. Three alpha females trapped in one little office, it was going to be like dealing with a non-stop case of PMS. Thank god only one of them was armed.

As Emily stormed out of the security office, she completely missed the door of the dating service closing. "I don't know if this is such a good idea," Jamie said to her brother hesitantly. He'd convinced her to sneak away from the roof and find their Aunt Vicki.

"Whatsa matter? You scared?" Jesse goaded.

"It's creepy here. And Aunt Vicki said she was going to be going away and we wouldn't be able to see her no more," his twin whispered.

"She's not going anywhere, she's dying!"

Tears welled up in Jamie's eyes at his outburst. "I wish Mom was here."

"Well she's not, and Aunt Vicki's dying so that means I'm in charge since I'm the oldest."

"You're only five minutes older than me, and we're not in charge of anything."

"Am so."

"Are not."

"Am So!"

"Are Not!"

They probably would have continued with their fight for a long time if it hadn't been for the sound of twin snarls coming from down the long hallway.

"Th..that sounded like one of those things," Jamie yelped in terror.

"It can't be," her brother answered, hoping against hope that just by saying the words out loud it would make them be true. The sound of running feet wiped that hope from his mind. As what was left of Vicki and Thomas came running into view, the twins were frozen in terror, unable to anything more than scream.

The scream echoed through the office, loud enough to reach the security office and the door to the stairwell that Emily was just about to go through. Instead, she turned and sprinted towards the sound, literally crashing into Matthew and he burst out of the security office. By the time they got to their feet they'd heard two single shots fired, and the screams were over.

"What the fuck!" Matthew yelled, scrambling to his feet, Emily hot on his heels.

The sound of children screaming brought Jonathan out of his office, ever-present gun in hand. Running towards the sound, he caught sight of the two dead people when they were just mere feet from the children. He quickly raised his rifle taking careful aim. "You bastards! You may have gotten Phil, but you can't have his children too!"

He fired two shots in quick succession, each one catching the two corpses squarely through the backs of their heads, blood, brains, and bone exploding from their heads and raining down onto the terrified kids. The now totally lifeless bodies dropped with a loud thud to the floor, the kids, no longer screaming, but clinging to each other. They watched with huge eyes as Jonathan walked towards them, gun still firmly in hand.