This War of Mine: Apocalypse:

Season 3

Next chapter of my crossover story, enjoy.

Reviews

Boris Yeltsin: Well actually they are, considering we're near the finale after all.
Wolfgirl2013: Thanks, well, not quite there yet, but almost.
Jadey97: Thanks, well, we can only wait and see.

Now onto the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Walking Dead, This War of Mine or their characters.

Episode 8 Part 1

Having finally escaped the herd, Arica, Mara and Britta were now walking along a path through the woods, glad their still had their warm clothes due to the snow. Even if said clothes were still stained with Walker guts. The weight of everything that had happened however and the crushing knowledge that she had no idea where Misha was, or if he was even alive hit her all at once and she bean crying.

Britta noticed at once. "Mara..."

"I—I can't...Misha, I don't even know if he...and if he did, I don't even know where-" She sobbed.

She was crying so hard that she couldn't finish her words. The weight of everything was crushing her and not knowing Misha's fate. She couldn't bear to lose him, not after everything.

Arica stepped up. "Mara...I...I can't promise anything, but please, I need you to stay strong for now, we need to find the others, then we can decide what to do."

Mara replied, still crying. "I can't lose him, I can't...I don't even know where WE are..."

"Luckily I do and I'm pretty sure I know where the others went, there's only one landmark around here and you can see it for miles." Arica explained.

Mara wiped her face and tried to suck up her remaining tears, Arica's words giving her one last sliver of hope. She followed her lead. The two of them still surprised.

As they walked, Britta and Mara still couldn't believe that Arica was so confident in their location.

Britta had to asked. "You know where we are?"

"Yeah, these woods are part of the national park in Gravia, my home-town." Arica explained.

Mara swallowed. "How far from the landmark are we?"

Arica: pointed. "Not far, that's it right up there."

Mara looked to where she was pointing and sure enough, she was right. She held her breath as they get closer, hoping to see a little boy with a hunting hat on. Unfortunately there was no sign of any of the kids, or Cveta, but she took note of all the others being present, her eyes especially fell on Katia, Grozdan and Christo, the others most affected by the kids disappearances. Arica grimaced as she noted Lydia wasn't present, upon seeing them the others rushed over. Mara immediately hugged Katia, sobbing again both out of relief to see her friend alive and sorrow at the children's absence.

"Katia...oh thank god. The kids...?" Mara said at once, squeezing her.

Katia let out a sob. "I know, it's..."

She turned and tightened her hug on Grozdan who was inconsolable, the two have clearly suffered more than their fair share, both being sexually abused in the Compound and now Kalina is missing. Niko hugged Arica desperately and the others all did their best to try and help the others with their almost overwhelming feelings of fear. Seeing Grozdan and Katia's issues especially, Mara's heart broke for them, knowing how much they suffered, but she was relieved to see they made it.

"Did you...did you see them...?" She asked warily.

Katia shuddered. "Only when they ran, they just panicked...I saw Cveta go after them but..."

Mara began to cry, knowing the children's survival chances were minimal. Nice though she was, Cveta wasn't exactly a hardened survivor.

"Oh god, oh Misha..."

They did the only thing they could however and waited, worried, hoping against hope that they'd be alright.

Some time later, with the sun beginning to set, Mara found herself crying into Roman's as they waited, her mind full of all the terrible possibilities that could have happened with Misha and the children. Roman did his best to comfort her, but then, suddenly, they heard it, the sound of footsteps. Mara lifted her head up from Roman's shoulder as she heard it, still crying but quieting down so she could hear better.

Marko was on lookout and gasped. "It's...oh my god..."

That got everyone's attention and they turned to look, eyes wide. Sure enough, Cveta emerged into the clearing, all six of the kids were with her, unharmed. Cveta led them in, they were all holding hands, all from Cveta's teacher training, even the distraught Ivano. Mara pulled away from Roman, blinking repeatedly as if she couldn't believe it.

"Misha..."

Misha reacted at once. "Mara!"

He rans straight to her, Iskra and Kalina doing the same with their respective families, and Lydia running to Arica and Niko. Mara met him halfway, running to him as well. She caught him and squeezed him tight, crying tears of joy.

"Misha, oh baby, oh thank god you're ok, I was so worried..." She choked out.

Misha sobbed too. "I'm sorry I ran away, I panicked."

"It's ok, I was just so worried..." She told him before she pulled away to cup his chin, looking at him with happy, tear filled eyes. "But you made it, you got out of there and found your way in so proud of you."

Misha smiled, all around them, the happy reunions continued as the group finally seemed able to relax and, despite their losses, they still managed to all come together and find each other.

Mara gave Misha one last hug and then took his hand to join the others. She took him over to sit by Roman as she knew he was worried about the boy too. Roman smiled warmly at Misha as they sat down, Niko stood before the group again, the others all sat out around him in a semi-circle.

"It's getting late, we've checked the nearby building, it's safe so...I think we should stay here for tonight...after that...we'll need to think about the future." Niko announced.

Taken by surprise, Mara asked. "What do you mean?"

"While I don't agree with his methods of running things...Pytor did have a good thing going with his Compound, until we led the herd right to his doorstep, it was safe from Walkers." Niko admitted.

"So what are you saying?" Pavle asked.

"I'm saying...provided we run things fairly, so there shouldn't be any problems with betrayals, and find a place, then we could make a community of our own..." Niko revealed. "I want to know what everyone thinks?"

Mara replied at once with a smile. "I think that's a great idea. We, the kids especially, need stability. If we had a safe place to settle down, we could try to have normal lives again."

The others all enthusiastically voiced their agreement and Niko smiled, they finally had a plan, a hope for the future.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.