Even with the looming threat of an attack, even with the sound of glass breaking and shattering on the cold ground, the group stood still – mouths gaping – as they were unable to accept what was about to happen. They had just settled down in a comfortable, seemingly safe facility. They were surrounded by chain-link fence, they were boxed in with heavy plaster walls, and they had food and water to keep them alive. Considering the conditions of their new world, they were living in the lap of luxury.

Maybe that was what caused them to become so unprepared – mentally and physically – for what was about to happen to them. They had been sheltered and safe from the outside world for so long that they didn't know how to properly handle themselves when things finally got serious. The only ones who had a general knowledge of how to handle themselves in this kind of situation were Antonio and Lovino, and that didn't ensure any kind of safety for the group.

It was the plucky blonde with the rimless spectacles that would rise to the occasion, becoming fearless in the face of imminent danger. Though his courage was sometimes put in the wrong place, and his anger directed at the wrong people, he was truly all heart. At first he tried to say something, opening his mouth so he could yell at everyone to leave, but that was no good. Yelling would only put them all in danger with the infected roaming so close to them.

"Guys," Alfred started, shaking everyone in the room from their shocked stupor, "we need to get out of here. Now."

Antonio stood up quickly, legs of his chair screeching against the ground as he moved himself away from the table. He grabbed Lovino by the arm and dragged him toward the swinging double doors.

Their best bet was to take to the roof; they all knew this.

Following quickly behind Lovino and Antonio, the rest of the group began filing out of the room as quietly as possible, trying to remain calm and collected as they listened to the sound of the glass creaking and shattering all around the building. It was only when they opened the large double doors that their calm façade began to fade to dust. It started with Antonio and Lovino.

Lovino swung the doors open, prepared to run for the stairs until he realized what was waiting for all of them in the lobby of the hotel.

When they were busy yelling and arguing with each other they must not have heard the others approaching the hotel and breaking through the glass. They must not have heard the sound of the boards being ripped from the walls or the sound of infected as they approached with their mouths hanging open obscenely in preparation for a hearty meal of human flesh.

Lovino backed up into the group that was trying to force their way through the open doors, unable to open his mouth or cry out in fear like he so wanted to. Instead he stumbled over his feet – clumsy in fear – and tried to wrestle them back without a word. To those who couldn't see what was going on in front of Lovino, it didn't go over very well, they were scared and frantic. The group behind the doors were stronger and eventually knocked Lovino down, causing him to fall, sprawling forward toward the infected infiltrating their new base. It was only then that they realized how back their situation truly was.

They all started backing in, but considering there was nowhere for them to go, they were lost and became insanely confused during the whole ordeal. Some of them, much like Lovino, completely gave up and caved in on themselves. Thinking that this was the end of the line for them. Lovino himself had stayed on his knees – so very close to the infected – and began to pray frantically. His brother, Feliciano, was busy trying to wrench him from the ground, tears spilling down his face in fear.

A loud shot rang through the air, causing the entire room to go silent. Even the infected seemed almost shocked by the sound of the gunshot ringing through the air. And to all of their surprise, it wasn't either of the German brothers who had pulled the trigger of the gun that had caused one of the infected to go down on their knees. It was Matthew, Matthew who had pulled the trigger.

In their panic they had all forgotten about the guns that the other group had brought it. They had completely forgotten that the duffel bags filled with guns and ammo were stashed underneath the cupboards, right out in the open. This was yet another blow to their confidence. They couldn't even act properly under pressure, how were they all to protect themselves from the infected if they couldn't even keep a clear head in a dangerous situation? Shouldn't their first thought have been to grab a gun?

Instead they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Another shot rang through the air, and another one of the infected fell to the ground in a fleshy heap, followed by another, then another. Except it wasn't just Matthew shooting now, Gilbert was close behind. Matthew himself still couldn't aim properly, but he had gotten one, that was a start. They all needed to start somewhere.

"Go," Gilbert yelled, waving his arms frantically, "run!"

The others ran, tripping over their feet toward the stairs in a flurry of arms and legs, and to make matters worse, Peter began crying – loud, shrill sobs that rang through the air like shattered glass.

Ludwig had now joined Gilbert and Matthew, and along with a gun in his hand he had three duffel bags slung over his shoulders.

"Matthew," Gilbert started, grabbing his shoulder and bringing his mouth close enough to Matthew's ear so he could hear over the sound of the hotel falling apart at the seams. "Go with them, my brother and I have this."

"Are you sure?" Matthew asked, lowering the gun cautiously. "There's a lot of them, and only two of you," Matthew's eyes scanned Gilbert frantically, hoping that the man wasn't lying to him just to get him to go away.

"I promise," Gilbert said, sensing Matthew's worries, "We'll just clear out as many as possible, then we'll block off the stairs and join you up in the attic." Gilbert looked down at the blonde's worried gaze, "I promise, I promise, I promise."

Matthew huffed impatiently and reluctantly handed the gun to Gilbert, "you better keep your promise, Gilbert."

They all sat, huddled in the hidden room that led to the roof. They had the hatch bolted closed, and they all listened closely, waiting for the sound of either the infected approaching, or the sound of the German's boots clapping against the cold ground. Not a sound in the room could be heard sole for their heavy, distressed, breaths.

The only thing they could do was wait, wait and hope that they would hear the German brothers coming for them. If not, that was pretty much it for them, they were lost; just another casualty. They would be one of the infected that they had feared so much.

A whole hour filled with gunshots ringing through the air had passed.

Elizaveta stood up, fists clenched by her sides, "I'm going down to find them."

Roderich reached up immediately, hand wrapped tight around her wrist to stop her from going., "Liza, no, there's nothing you can do."

"I can try!" Elizaveta cried, wrenching her hand out of Roderich's grasp. "That's the only thing we can do now."

"You're unarmed," Roderich reminded her, twining his hands together in his lap. "They have all the weapons, the only thing we have is a few knives and a couple of pens and some paper, we couldn't even make a dent. I mean, God, we didn't even expect the air-headed nurse and the foul-mouthed priest to make it out of there alive. We didn't even want to help them in the first place, we just did it so we could use his medical knowledge. Now look where we are? We can't risk losing another person any more."

"You bastard," Lovino said, glaring in Roderich's direction, finally responding to their situation with the help of Roderich's insults. Before Roderich had opened his mouth, Lovino was sitting down with his head cradled in his hands, different thoughts about how they would all die running through his head. Each one increasingly more gruesome than the next.

He was handling the situation well before, but Roderich's comment had made him angry and upset, which in turn only made his heart-rate increase to a blinding speed.

"That kind of response just solidified why, exactly, you are completely useless," Roderich sneered. "What use is a priest who curses his own God and bends over for a nurse?"

"Don't start that," Antonio said, shaking his head. He had been ignoring Roderich's comments, but he found he couldn't any more. He wouldn't stand by and let him slander Lovino for no reason. "Look where we are," Antonio said, raising his arms to indicate the cramped space that sealed their fates, "is this really the type of place we should be starting this? Is this really the time?"

"You're just as useless," Roderich spat, staring Antonio down. "We only wanted you here to help the injured, if you hadn't been a nurse we probably wouldn't have even helped the both of you. We actually contemplated leaving you there because of Lovino. And what's the use of you now, anyway? You're supposed to be helping everyone, and yet you're always just hiding away with Lovino in his room all the time. He's one of the only ones that wasn't harmed in the accident, yet you act like he's in critical condition. What kind of opinions am I supposed to formulate about you two from that? You left the little pipsqueak over there, Matthew or whatever his name is, to take care of Gilbert all on his own. The man has a severe concussion, he can't even see out of one eye any more and you barely took care of him!" Roderich slammed a hand onto the ground in front of himself, causing the hatch to shake. "I don't even like the man and I was bothered by how much you were neglecting him."

Feliciano began crying, hopeless in the face of an argument.

It was Arthur that finally piped in, grabbing Roderich by the arm in a tight grip, nails digging into flesh, "you're going to shut up, you git, and you're going to do it right now. You know that we wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for his help!"

Things were getting increasingly louder up in the attic space, and tensions were beginning to grow.

"Let go of me," Roderich said, all the while trying to pry Arthur's fingers away from his arm. When he finally got Arthur to let go of him, he threw him back, causing Alfred to land heavily on his right arm.

Alfred shot up at this, he himself taking Arthur's place by grabbing onto Roderich's arm. Except this time, instead of trying to shake some sense into him, he grabbed and twisted, a loud creaking snap could be heard. Roderich cried out, and at this Alfred finally let go. "You're not going to hurt any of us," Alfred said, pressing the heel of his boot onto Roderich's thigh, "we're all that's left in the world, and you're trying to hurt us? Are you a fucking monster? I'm not going to let you ruin our one fucking chance for salvation." Alfred pressed harder, then lifted his leg, preparing to stomp down one more time.

"Wait," Lovino cried, grabbing Alfred's pant leg before he could bring it down on the other man. "Please stop, it's alright," Lovino said, tugging again at Alfred's pant leg for emphasis.

"He's right," Elizaveta said, so quiet that everyone had forgotten she was still there. It was a surprise that she hadn't piped in when Alfred attacked Roderich. "We're all just stressed out, and we need to relax. And Roderich, please, you need to stop attacking everyone. You know all that stuff that you said about saving them wasn't true, don't tell such horrible lies to people." Elizaveta glared, but her gaze began softening, "you're always so quick to judge people, and I know it's hard in this kind of situation, but you can't be like that any more. We need to stick together, not push each other away."

Roderich didn't answer; of course, he was too busy glaring at Alfred. The man had broken his arm, after all, and that was the last thing Roderich needed. A broken arm in their situation could render someone almost completely useless and helpless.

Alfred knew that Roderich knew this, and Roderich also knew that Alfred was trying to make a point by breaking his arm. Roderich had been so caught up in calling everyone else useless, and making them feel useless, that Alfred took advantage of the situation and made Roderich feel how he was making others feel. Except, Roderich really was defenceless now, and he knew that after what he said no one would bother helping him if worse came to worse and they were left alone to fend for themselves. If the German brothers happened to not make it back to them, Roderich would be forced to rely on the others for protection.

Roderich cringed as he looked down at his broken arm. It wasn't anything horrible; it was a clean break made by brute force, so he knew healing wouldn't be an issue. However, the issue was just how long it would take to heal itself. They didn't have time to take a break to heal in their world any more. Roderich patted at the break and hissed, completely ignoring Elizaveta as she continued on criticizing him. He knew he deserved it and he knew exactly what she was saying to him.

"Let me see that," a cool and calm voice spoke from in front of him; it was the nurse. "It'll swell, and it will heal the wrong way if we don't take care of it right now."

Roderich stared at the tan skinned man incredulously. He had just come from criticizing him and belittling him and here he was, willing to take care of him. Roderich turned his head the other way and held up his broken arm with a bashful look on his face. He had just come from ripping the man down, and now he was willing to help him out. He was about to open his mouth to say sorry to the man, but was stopped when a loud bang sounded on the hatch to the attic.

Saved by the bell.

Every thought that had been previously going through his head was gone.

They all tensed; none of them had heard the sound of the German brother's boots clapping against the ground. However, they tried to remain hopeful; they had been fighting too loudly before to have heard them coming anyway. Another sound rang through the air, then another; it took a while for them to notice that the sound of fists clapping on the door was not an erratic banging that the infected would have made, but the sound of someone knocking with rhythm.

It was the German brothers.

"Could you guys open the damn door?" Gilbert's familiar, nasally voice finally began filtering through the cracks in the hidden door. "And stop fucking fighting, we could hear you from the stairs!"

Elizaveta sighed, "thank God." She dropped to her knees and opened the hatch for the two brothers, then took a seat next to Antonio to watch him take care of Roderich's wounded arm.

Gilbert was the first to walk up the stairs, shocking everyone silent when he walked into the light. His pale white skin, his hair, and his clothes were drenched in blood. However, it wasn't the blood that made their eyes widen in shock; they had all seen gallons of spilled blood since the starting of the outbreak. It was the stark difference between the blood and his pale white skin that had caused their eyes to widen, it looked so unnatural, almost alien. Gilbert, however, didn't even notice their stares. He turned around to make sure his brother was behind them, then dropped to his knees with a concerned look on his face beside Elizaveta.

"What happened to his arm, did he fall?" Gilbert asked, watching as Antonio dressed the wound.

No one said anything.

"Did he?" Gilbert asked again, looking around at everyone's guilty faces.

"Is this why you were all yelling up here?" Ludwig asked, voice booming through the attic, "you were breaking Roderich's arm?" Ludwig turned to where Feliciano still had his head bowed in his lap, crying silently as Lovino tried to soothe him. "And you made Feliciano cry? What exactly were you doing up here during all that yelling?"

"It didn't happen like that," Alfred said, "he was starting to fight with everyone, cutting them all down, and he threw Arthur when he tried to stop him. He was telling Antonio and Lovino that no one really wanted to save them…"

Feliciano cried harder.

Ludwig scowled and looked at Roderich, the same expression on his face as was on Gilbert's. Even though Gilbert and Ludwig didn't have any similar features – so to speak – their expressions were all the same. It seemed that they were both not fond of Roderich, and that they both knew immediately, without a doubt, that Roderich had started everything.

"We can't leave you alone for two minutes," Gilbert said, "you could have put everyone in da-"

Gilbert groaned, and held a hand to his wounded eye immediately, with all the blood on him they weren't capable of seeing that his wound had begun bleeding again, they all hoped that it was nothing worse. However, when Gilbert folded in on himself and fresh blood poured from underneath his head-wrap, this drew a panicked gasp out of Antonio, and a open-mouthed shout from Feliciano.

Antonio shuffled over to Gilbert's side, leaving Roderich's arm half-dressed and hanging limp beside his side – clearly Gilbert was in need of more help than what Roderich was. He could see that now.

Gilbert was trying to hide it from them.

"Brother," Ludwig started, moving in to stand by his brothers side. However, Antonio wasn't having any of that; he held out his arm to stop Ludwig from getting too close.

"Stop," Antonio said, still not moving his eyes away from Gilbert's hunched form. Everyone's eyes were on Gilbert, watching as he hissed and groaned. "What are you feeling, Gilbert?" Antonio asked, still not risking putting his hands on the man.

"Was he bit?" Matthew asked.

"No, it's his head," Antonio said, eyebrows creased as he watched Gilbert closely. He wanted to know what was causing all the pain; Antonio had never seen a head injury like Gilbert's before.

"I wasn't bit," Gilbert said, clenching his teeth as he spoke. Just that exertion alone caused more blood to slip down Gilbert's face, pooling in the creases of his mouth and dropping onto the floor in a steady, staccato rhythm. "It keeps getting worse," Gilbert said, sucking in a breath of air in an attempt to hold the pain at bay.

"What keeps getting worse?" Antonio asked, finally putting a hand down on Gilbert's shoulder. There was nothing he could do for his pain as their supply of pain killers were running frighteningly low. The only thing Antonio could do at this point was offer comfort and tell Gilbert to rest.

And rest, in their situation, wasn't really an option. The only thing Antonio could do was hope that things would start getting better, however it didn't look like that was going to happen for him any time soon.

Gilbert didn't answer again; he didn't need to. They all knew what he was talking about just by the blood marring the entire left side of his face.

Antonio felt helpless. All eyes were on him, expectantly waiting for him to do something about Gilbert's condition. But he couldn't do anything, there wasn't anything he could do without a doctor and a proper hospital setting.

He was completely, and utterly, useless. He couldn't move from where he was, hand still clasped on Gilbert's shoulder. The only thing he could do was look at the man, watching as he writhed in pain, cringing as the previously white gauze around his head began to dye itself dark red. He just sat there, mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

What Antonio didn't expect was for Matthew to shove him over, taking his place on the floor and immediately unwrapping the gauze around Gilbert's head. Everyone watched carefully, wondering what Matthew could do that the nurse couldn't. Antonio just sat back up from where he had landed, sprawling, beside Lovino and Feliciano.

When Matthew got the gauze off of Gilbert's face – even though it had caused great protest – Matthew threw the soiled fabric to his right and began frantically ripping through the bag of medical supplies.

Everyone gasped at the condition of Gilbert's wound and eye. Even though it wasn't infected, and though they knew just from looking that it was caused by the fabric rubbing against the wound, it was still a very gruesome sight. The white of his eye was red and milky looking, and blood dripped from it like a leaky faucet. If anyone else but them had seen him coming, they would have immediately assumed that he was one of the infected. His pale – almost post-death looking – skin would have been warning enough.

Matthew pulled painkillers out of the kit and shoved them into Gilbert's mouth without a second of hesitation, not even giving him any warning before he forced the pills down his throat and tilted his head back by his chin so he wouldn't be able to spit it out. At first everyone protested at Matthew doing this, saying that they needed to get out of the hotel fast and that Gilbert would be a heavy burden to carry. Matthew didn't listen, however, as he was too keen on making sure Gilbert wouldn't feel any more of the pain. After getting the pain-killers out of the way Matthew began pouring saline – and even hydrogen peroxide – on the wound, causing Gilbert to let out another shout of protest, fingers wringing in the fabric of Matthew's pants. However, despite the cries of protest, it got the job done and slowed down some of the bleeding; the eye remained bleeding though, as Matthew couldn't properly clean it out without proper time. He then wiped as much blood away as possible with the small band of cloth that remained, then re-wrapped his head in gauze. At this point, Gilbert was already getting woozy from the painkillers going through his system.

"Thank you," Ludwig said sincerely, all the while picking Gilbert up off of the floor and lugging him over his free shoulder as if he weighed nothing. Considering Gilbert didn't protest like he normally would, it said that the pain killers – a very high dosage of them – were ripping through Gilbert's system successfully. Ludwig looked back at the group with a stern look on his face, "all of you need a gun, so take one and follow close behind me. We need to move fast, and we need to stick very close to each other. Do you understand me?"

Everyone nodded their heads; their mission was a dangerous one, they couldn't afford to ignore Ludwig's advice.

There was such an amazing pile of the infected lying on the floors when they got down the stairs that everyone stopped long enough to gawk at them. Two men wiped out a good quarter of the town's population – it seemed – and had done it without a scratch. They truly were a force to reckon with, even stronger than the soldiers in the hospital. However, this pile of the infected was what worried them so greatly.

How much of them had been killed by Gilbert alone? Would they be able to protect themselves with just Ludwig's help alone?

And the most important question of them all.

Why had the infected suddenly attacked them?

They couldn't ponder the questions too long though, as they barely had any time to take a breather. They needed to run, and they needed to run fast. Night was quickly approaching, hot on their heels, and they needed to find a safe place to seek refuge before they thought of anything else. Their main priority at the moment was staying alive, and even that was becoming an increasingly more difficult challenge as the minutes ticked by.

"Out through the broken glass," Ludwig called from farther away, "there are no more of the infected as far as I can see, they came in from another broken link in the fence. If we move fast, we can avoid a lot of conflict."

Nobody nodded at this point, they only followed, blindly. It would have looked idiotic to another person, but it was their only hope. Even though some of them – namely Roderich – cringed at the idea of having to follow blindly, it was their only hope. On the floor of the hotel they saw the might of German brothers put together, and they knew that they were safe in their hands. Their heroic act of putting themselves behind everyone else showed them just how dedicated – and powerful – the two brothers truly were. They had to lay their trust in them.

The entire group filed out in one messy line, walking a few steps behind Ludwig, waiting for him to tell them that it was alright to finally advance.

They all listened close, only the sounds of glass crunching under their feet, as Ludwig looked around the corner. He looked around carefully, looking slightly disturbed by something, but despite this nodded his head for them to follow him.

Ludwig stopped them when they approached the corner of the building, holding his index finger up to his mouth, indicating that they needed to be as quiet as possible so they wouldn't attract any kind of unwanted attention with loud voices and roaring noises. "There are a few of them wandering around," Ludwig said in a harsh whisper, only just loud enough for them to hear over the sound of the whistling wind. "They aren't close to the fence, but they're close enough that they will see us when we start moving, I need you guys to be quiet and quick more than ever. I'm going to go ahead of you, but I'm not going to shoot unless it's totally necessary. I want to draw as little attention as possible, alright?"

Everyone nodded, quick, jerky, sharp nods of the head. This indicated to Ludwig that they were nervous, but he couldn't be disappointed in them, he himself was nervous beyond anything he had ever felt before. Even though he considered himself a person that worked consistently under stress, he was still having a hard time controlling the nervous twitch in his hands. Even his brows would shoot up, almost straight to his hairline, when a shiver worked its way up his spine.

Everything was too surreal; it was like living in a nightmare. Except it was worse than any kind of nightmare Ludwig was capable of thinking of, or dreaming up.

Ludwig jogged ahead of the group and forced himself through the small break in the chain link fence, and sure enough, the infected that had been wandering around saw him immediately, or rather, smelled him immediately. Ludwig put Gilbert down on the ground and his head lolled forward onto his chest, he was still completely out of it. So, without thinking about it, Ludwig reached into Gilbert's pocket and drew out the knife he had been keeping on him since the attack on the hotel had started. After he pulled the knife out of Gilbert's pocket, he stood there hovering, looking down at his older brother.

Ludwig was aware of the group watching him, so he buckled down, gathered his courage, and approached the infected that had been wandering close to the hotel. He knew that they were stronger, and he knew that he would have an almost impossible time taking down three, but he needed to do it. The group wasn't strong enough yet, gunshots would attract more of the infected (if their smell hadn't already), and Gilbert would probably be completely lost to the world for the rest of the day. The group was depending on him.

Ludwig brought the knife to chest level and approached the hobbling infected with as much confidence as he could muster. His height, his brawn, and his intelligence alone gave him a great advantage over the infected. He lunged at the first without an inch of hesitation, plunging the knife into the infected's eye socket and pulling it out with a loud gurgling noise. He did the same with the second, however, when he tried to pull the knife free of its head, the knife got stuck in between bone and cartilage.

"Fuck," Ludwig cursed, falling to the ground beside the infected with his hand still wrapped around the hilt of his brother's blade. He yanked and pulled, using all his force, but human bone proved to be stronger than he was.

"Ludwig, look out," Feliciano cried from behind the chain-link fence.

Ludwig, focusing so intently on getting his brother's knife back, hadn't even noticed the other infected closing in on him from behind. It had been so far away when he'd attacked the second one that he had thought it wasn't any kind of threat to him. It was so fast, in fact, that it was on Ludwig before he could even stand up.

The infected person – wearing a red shirt and a pair of black suit pants, Ludwig had noted – landed on top of him and caused him to fall onto the ground on his back. However, with the force of it knocking him over, the knife pulled out of the other infected creatures' eye with a loud pop. Unlucky for Ludwig though, his hand slipped on the hilt and the knife fell away from him, completely out of his reach, before he could grasp it again. The only thing Ludwig could do was hold the infected away and hope that he could gain enough leeway to reach for the knife that he had lost.

However, something Ludwig completely didn't expect was for someone else – someone who would never harm a soul – to do the job for him.

As Ludwig was wrestling with the infected, who was snapping at his face like a hungry animal, he heard the familiar wet sound of flesh being rended and bones being pulverized. Ludwig, however, could only place where the sound was coming from when a large gob of blood landed on his face.

The infected that had been attacking him was dead; it had completely stopped moving.

Ludwig sat there, silent, with the whole world following suite.

It was only when the infected creature fell to the left of him did he finally realize who had done it. He had expected Gilbert – having maybe suddenly woken up – or maybe Antonio or Alfred, who had both had some experience in fighting off the infected.

What he didn't expect was Feliciano, standing above him shaking, with Gilbert's knife grasped tight in his hands. His eyes were wide, his breathing was erratic, and his eyes were pink and swollen with fresh tears.

Ludwig was about to stand up so he could comfort Feliciano, or tell him something to keep his mind off of what he had done, but Lovino had that covered before he could even properly formulate all of his thoughts.

Lovino ran through the break in the fence, cutting his arms in the process, and ran to his brothers' side without another thought. It was strange; the man was so scared after everything he had been though; not even willing to look through the glass in the hotel in fear of seeing another infected. And here Lovino was, completely disregarding all of his fears to make sure that his brother was alright.

Ludwig knew what it was like to be irrevocably attached to his brother, and he also knew what it was like to be willing to give your life up and face all of your fears for them. So instead of cutting them off, he left them talk to each other. If anything, Feliciano needed Lovino's help and calm words much more than he needed Ludwig's advice.

Ludwig was happy that Feliciano had killed the infected, even though it had scared him so much. Eventually Feliciano would need to protect himself, and Ludwig wanted to be sure that he could do it.

Ludwig stood up and brushed off his clothes as he regarded the group. They all look scared, hopeless, and small from behind the chain-link fence. They were not ready for this kind of world; they couldn't even handle themselves yet. Even Ludwig himself wasn't ready for the new, harsh world that they had been thrown forcefully into. They would all need training, but not just run-of-the mill physical training; they also needed serious mental training. All of them did.

Ludwig approached the car lot that the group had discussed for a while and called the group over. Most of the infected were migrating toward the hotel because of the ruckus that had happened inside.

Alfred hopped into each car - it took him a while as he was not familiar with every kind of car, and he had to make it a point to avoid the more high-tech looking ones to avoid setting the alarm off – and hot-wired them.

It took only three cars to fit all of the survivors.

They had driven through masses of the infected, rolled over mountains of bodies and limbs, but nothing was as bad as they had seen inside the hospital. Lovino and Antonio both sat, completely complacent, as most of the others groups panicked at the aspect of rolling over other bodies and limbs. Lovino, however, didn't even have the time to notice any of it, too busy checking on Feliciano who had fallen asleep after over-exerting himself. Antonio himself was too busy fussing over Gilbert, making sure that a fever didn't eat away at his system until it was irreparable.

The rest of the groups – resting in the other two cars – were in the same sort of state. Though they were gasping and reacting more strongly to the infected, and the smell of the infected - unlike Lovino and Antonio who had gotten used to it - they were too busy fussing over their own. Worrying cuts and scrapes, making sure there were no bites, and napping – just for a while – before they finally reached the mall.

They had no home any more, no safe haven.

Now they were stuck living like the infected: living meal per meal, scrounging for food, holding water up like it was the holy grail, and running and hiding for their lives constantly. There was no more time to sit still and relax, there was no more time to live in the lap of luxury as if the apocalypse wasn't really happening. They were now homeless, and they would now have to live on their own. They would need to fight for themselves for the first time in their sheltered lives. It was a long time coming.

Ludwig stopped suddenly, causing all the other cars to come to a quick halt. They had finally reached it.

The mall.

A/N: Sorry for the (sort of) late chapter, my friends, I've just been really busy. Let's just say getting ready for university is a real pain in the ass. I've been running around for reference letters, looking for some new scholarships, and trying to find a way to get funding to study abroad in Israel. Phew, I'm pooped. And along with all that I'm stuck in a rut with a load of school work (mainly Canadian Geo shit). But, despite all this, I still managed a story for you guys because of the long weekend.

I'm really busy next weekend, guys, so I'm not too sure if I'll be able to work out another chapter. I want the next chapter to really be something else, so I want some time to brainstorm some new things. My creative faucet is running really low with all this stress.

As always, thank you guys for reading. : )