Ben spent the next week recuperating in his tent, regaining his strength and letting his leg heal. The people who took him in came in periodically to bring him food and change the bandages. Once he able to, he got up and emerged from his tent one day, squinting as the bright light of the morning sun flooded his vision.

He surveyed his surroundings - there were a couple other tents and some lawn chairs around what was left of the previous night. An older man, who must've been in his fifties, sat by the dwindling campfire, writing in a notebook, paying no mind to what was going on around him. Amelia was standing on the other side of the campfire talking to her mother and another man he hadn't met yet.

Amelia turned then, her face immediately lighting up upon seeing Ben, green eyes twinkling as she ran to him. "Dude, you're up! How ya feelin'?" Her eyes widened when she looked up at him. "Oh man, you're way taller than I thought you were."

"A lot better, thanks." Ben gave her a small smile.

"C'mon!" Amelia said, beckoning him as she made her way back over to the rest of the group. "Come meet the rest of us."

Ben followed her, and as he approached, Marie and the other man Amelia had been talking to looked up and gave him warm smiles.

"This is my dad," Amelia said, gesturing to the man.

"Nice to finally meet you, Ben," the man said, extending a hand towards Ben, which he took in a rather awkward handshake. "Name's Todd."

"Dad was a pharmacist before all this started," Amelia chimed in. "So we have a shit load of medicine. That's how we were able to treat your leg."

Todd chuckled. "Yeah. We were almost sure we'd have to cut the thing off."

Ben blinked at the man, wide-eyed, and Todd guffawed. "Don't worry about it, you're fine now. How old are you, anyway? If I may ask."

"Uh..." Ben thought for a moment. "Eighteen. Nineteen? God, it's so hard to keep track of the days now, I don't even know if my birthday passed or not."

"It's November 30th."

Everyone looked to the old man sitting by the heap of firewood, his eyes were still glued to whatever he was working on.

"That's Leland," Amelia whispered to Ben. "He's making his own calendar. He's even got a sun dial and everything."

Leland finally looked up, staring Amelia straight in the face. "It's important to document everything in times like this. If and when all this is over, y'all best believe this shit's gonna be in the history books."

"In other words, he's writing a diary." Amelia put extra emphasis on that last word, as if mocking the old man. "He wants to be the next Anne Frank."

"Ah, shuddup, kid."

Amelia turned back to Ben. "Anyway, it's nice having someone my own age around forward, after being surrounded by all these old shits for so long. No offense, guys."

"Amelia!" Marie scolded her daughter.

"So how in the hell did you end up all the way out here, Ben?" Todd asked.

"I got separated from my group in Savannah," Ben finally spoke up. "I barely got out of there alive. I managed to escape through the sewer system, and I just...walked."

"You're lucky we found you, then," Todd said. "How bad is Savannah?"

"It's completely overrun. There had to have been thousands of them."

Todd shook his head. "Figures. That's why we've been avoiding cities."

"You poor thing," Marie said. "I can't imagine what you've been through. How did you get separated from your group?"

Ben crossed his arms and stared at the ground, not meeting their eyes. "One of our people got kidnapped, and we went out to try and find her, but everything ended up going wrong. I don't even know what happened to them."

Todd gave Ben a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, son."

An uncomfortable silence was strung among them all for a few moments - Marie and Todd pitied the boy, Marie especially. She swore it was her motherly instincts taking over. The boy lost his whole group and was now completely alone. Marie was grateful she still had her family. She wouldn't know what to do with herself if she lost them. Leland, however, still wasn't paying much attention to the situation, simply writing away in the beat-up notebook he had.

Amelia sidled up beside Ben and placed a hand on his shoulder, getting his attention, and asked, "Wanna go hunting with me? If you're feeling up to it?" She offered him a hunting rifle.

"M-me?" Ben stammered, hesitantly taking the gun from her. "I mean, sure, if you think it's a good idea. I'm not that great with these, though."

Amelia cocked her head to the side. "You don't know how to shoot a gun?"

"No - I mean, yes. Kind of."

Amelia placed her hands on her hips, giving him a stern look. "'Kind of' isn't going to keep you alive."

"I never really had time to learn."

Her expression softened then. "Well, now's as good a time as any."