Many people in their world regarded death as a bad thing. They saw death as an end to something great; an end to something they cherished more than anything. But, in reality, was death truly such a horrible thing? The world was rotten, cold, broken, and it had been that way long before the outbreak had happened.

In Kiku's eyes, death was only a means to an end of a cruel and gruelling experience. You were lucky if you were given a chance to die so easily like Heracles had, with a bullet to the head, and no time to think, anticipate, or fear for what was about to happen.

When he had first watched Sadiq throw Heracles' lifeless body into a heap on the floor, he had been sad – he had been crying. He thought "I'll never get to see him again, and, I'll never get to know him properly", and that was when it all struck him. Heracles had escaped. Heracles had escaped the cruel world that had so oppressed them.

Kiku wasn't sad about Heracles' death, he realized, he was just sad about his own situation. Heracles had died, leaving him all alone with no one to talk to, and no one to look to for help. For his own selfish reasons, Kiku wanted Heracles to live – he wanted to die before Heracles died.

Kiku was jealous of Heracles' death, and at the same time angry at him for not staying alive.

He accepted that and – despite his selfish need to see Heracles' face at least one last time – moved on. Kiku resigned himself to his fate, knowing that he would soon be joining Heracles in peace and nothingness.

Kiku closed his eyes, ignoring the fact that only a few feet away from him, Arthur was thrashing around in Sadiq's grip like a feral cat.

With none of his limbs free, Arthur chose to use his head as his weapon of choice. He wriggled out of Sadiq's vice grip and launched himself upward with the use of his thighs, landing a heavy blow under Sadiq's jaw.

The man recoiled, holding his left hand to his mouth as if he had been scandalized by something. Blood dribbled out of the corner of his mouth, which he wiped up nonchalantly with the end of one of his filthy, green sleeves. "What a cheap shot," Sadiq said with a bored expression on his face, "not that I'd expect anything more from you though, Arthur."

"Fuck you," Arthur spit out, finally able to speak after having the gag taken out of his mouth.

Sadiq laughed, moving the hand cradling his jaw up to cover his eyes, then to tug on his own dirty hair in frustration. "Do you know why I took that gag out of your mouth, Arthur?"

Arthur didn't respond to the man, he only glared up at him from under his pale eyelashes.

"Well, I certainly didn't take it off because I wanted to hear that horrible, grating voice of yours," Sadiq said as he clapped his hands on either side of Arthur's body. "I took that gag off of you because I wanted to hear you squeal like a pig when I finally let those brain-dead fucking creatures out there eat the rotten flesh off of your bones while you're still alive."

Arthur didn't respond to this taunting with a curse like he normally would as he realized that it was what Sadiq wanted, instead he remained quiet.

This clearly made Sadiq annoyed as he grabbed Arthur by the collar of his shirt and brought him nose-to-nose with himself. He gripped so hard that the back of Arthur's neck was burning from the friction the material was making against his already raw and chapped skin. However, Arthur did not let out a sound despite the pain. He knew that he was going to die, so he at least wanted to die with some semblance of his dignity left. Even if it did appear to be insignificant and defiant, he wouldn't cry out no matter how much pain he was in. He wouldn't give Sadiq the satisfaction of hearing him scream and shout from all the torment – even if the infected were ripping him apart.

Sadiq, growing tired of Arthur, threw him against the ceramic tiles with a loud thud causing Kiku to finally open his eyes to the scene in front of him.

He realized as Sadiq wrestled Arthur to the floor that he could no longer stand idly by and selfishly wait for his own death. He needed to help Arthur; he needed to somehow find a way to help him before he perished. He may have wanted to die himself, but he didn't want to stand idly by as someone's life was taken from them unwillingly. Everyone had a choice, and Kiku had made his. However, with his arms still bound to the table leg, he could do nothing but watch as Sadiq beat Arthur within an inch of his life.

Kiku knew exactly what Arthur was trying to do, and silently resented him for both his power and his blatant stupidity in the face of danger. It was clear that Arthur was acting out of defiance, and that he was trying to do his best not to give Sadiq what he wanted just to save face.

Kiku knew that he couldn't help Arthur's current state, but if Sadiq truly brought them out and used that as bait to round up the infected, then Kiku could at least try to help the man get out of their situation alive. At this point, he was more than willing to offer himself up as live bait.

That was the least he could do, however, he could only watch on and cringe as Sadiq began torturing Arthur – slow and unrelenting.

Kiku wished he could tell Arthur that defiance wouldn't help his case; he wished he could tell him that it would be better to just give Sadiq what he wanted. Then they wouldn't have to deal with the problems facing them, or rather, they would be able to face their problems sooner rather than later.

However, no matter how much he wanted to help out, Kiku could only sit on and watch helplessly as one of his new friends fought for his own life.

Sadiq wrestled Arthur to the floor, and eventually, after struggling with the wildly thrashing man, pinned him to the floor on his stomach. Arthur struggled for a few moments more before he finally stopped, realizing that struggling against Sadiq in his current position would gain nothing for him in the end – much like fighting against quicksand. He could still keep his complacent attitude toward the older man, but trying to fight with him while his arms and legs were bound was completely useless, and in turn would only cause Sadiq to lash out at him even more violently. His situation was so drab that - even on his stomach - he couldn't even turn his head.

Sadiq grew silent from behind him, and he silently resented himself for giving in to him. The silence indicated that Sadiq was satisfied with what he had done. He had made Arthur still his movements, and that was one victory too many for the cruel man. However, Arthur knew that he was far better off at least giving him that victory. He would end up in an even worse place if he didn't do at least this for Sadiq.

"At least I got you to stop fighting with me and acting like a damned wild animal," Sadiq said, leaning down to whisper the words into Arthur's ear. "Now, all I need from you is to hear your voice. Trust me, if you speak now this experience will be much easier for you when it comes your turn to die."

Arthur remained quiet, being defiant despite being scared almost to the point of sobbing and trembling like a small child. Arthur persevered though, and he did it only to save his own personal pride. If he were to look back on what he had done, he would have called himself an idiot for acting the way he did. If he hadn't tried to remain quiet, he probably wouldn't have been so tortured, so broken in such a cruel, horrendous, and brutal way.

His spirit and his own will to live probably wouldn't have been torn apart by his captor so thoroughly.

Without any prior warning, Sadiq grabbed the waist of Arthur's warn-down pants and began working them down around his thighs, dragging his undergarments along with them without even a second of hesitation. Arthur seized up when he realized what Sadiq was going to try to do to him, and after a few seconds of internal argument, Arthur began thrashing around even more wildly than he had been before. At this point, he had long forgotten trying to please Sadiq by calming down; it seemed that no matter what he did, the man was now completely bent out of shape and planning to bring as much pain to him as possible no matter what he did or didn't do.

Arthur realized that even using his voice at this point would be useless, and that Sadiq wouldn't stop no matter what happened. So, to save face in the face of something dangerous, he chose not to speak. He would thrash and lash out at the man, but he wouldn't speak. He couldn't speak even if he had wanted to.

"Fine, if you don't want to speak, I'll just force your voice right out of you," Sadiq said, disregarding Arthur's shallow breathing and laying – full body – on the man's back, causing him to lose his breath, and in turn also causing him to completely lose the power to fight the larger, and more powerful man.

Arthur looked over his shoulder, only to see Kiku looking at him dead in the eyes, as if he was begging him to just spit it out – begging him to finally speak so Sadiq wouldn't punish him with quite so much cruel brutality.

Arthur knew all of this, and yet he chose to remain silent.

Alfred woke up with a choked off groan and the feeling of his clothes – sticky and warm – clinging to the back of his body. He didn't know what it was that was that was causing it, and he didn't care, because the only thing he cared about was getting back up to the next floor to stop Sadiq from furthering the damage he had done to their group.

However, when Alfred tried to move away from the floor, an excruciating pain ripped through his body, keeping him virtually stuck to the floor. When Alfred tried to settle back down and bring his body back up again, the pain struck tenfold. At first he had thought that it was a broken bone, but when he moved his body for the third time, he realized it wasn't. There was something sticking into him, grinding into the broken, blistered flesh.

Despite this horrible pain, Alfred mustered up enough strength to finally roll himself over onto his stomach, allowing for him to see if he had landed on something. His clothes cracked as he rolled away from the mess on the ground, indicating that he had been out for quite some time. He internally cursed himself, but before he continued with his self-loathing, he finally realized what was wrong with him.

Underneath Alfred's body had been one of the infected, and he realized that he must have landed on it when Sadiq had dropped him from the top story.

"It's the only reason I'm alive," Alfred thought to himself as he looked down at the bloody mess on the floor. He had been dropped from a few stories, there was no way he would have lived if he hadn't have had one of the infected down below to break his fall. Alfred would have never thought he would be thanking his life to the infected – the creatures that were, after all, trying to destroy all of them – but here he was, silently thanking one.

After a few seconds of breathlessness, Alfred took in one deep gasp of air and realized that there truly was something piercing his skin. He yelped and ended up rolling back over onto his back despite trying so hard to stay up. Alfred was strong, but there was only so much pain one body could take.

For a few seconds, Alfred lay there on his back, recounting the events that had happened before he had taken his plunge. He knew that he should be moving and trying his hardest to find Arthur and the others, but another part of him just couldn't muster up the energy to do so. It was like his brain wasn't able to process anything that had happened at the speed it should have been. He believed that he must have jostled his head quite hard when he fell despite having one of the infected cushioning his fall, that was what it was.

As he lay there, he absently looked up at the skylight that was currently letting in an dusky red evening light that pooled around his fallen form. He watched the moon beginning to make its appearance from the dark reaches of the sky, and he silently waited for the stars to shine through the dark.

If only…

Alfred heard a shout loud enough to cause him to stir from his semi-unconsciousness, and his mind cleared immediately. It was Arthur, but the voice was too far away from where he was to hear properly.

Alfred gritted his teeth and forced his body into a sitting position despite the extreme physical pain it caused him to do so. And, when he was finally fully seated, he took a moment to try to pinpoint where exactly the wound was without moving his body too much.

Alfred wriggled his back, and with that he realized that there was something wedged into the very small of back. It was in one of the worst places possible, but at least it hadn't prevented him from walking.

Alfred reaching behind himself, and with a few failed attempts, finally found the thing that was causing him all the pain. It was something soft – almost silky – sticking out of his back.

Like ivory.

Alfred felt his stomach give an uncomfortable heave, not because he was hungry or thirst, but because the idea made him sick to his stomach. The thing sticking out of his back was a bone, but it was not one of his own, it was one that had come out of the infected.

Alfred, frantic, grabbed the bone sticking into his back and pulled it out without any kind of preparation - mental or physical. He held in a loud shout with his dirty sleeved arm and felt tears tracking down his dirt stained cheeks, not from the pain but from the idea of what he had just pulled free from his back.

It wasn't so much the pain disturbing him anymore, but the idea that a bone from one of the infected had been lodged so deep into his back.

There was also the fact that, without knowing how the infection was capable of spreading, there would be no way to no if Alfred would turn. They had all yet to see someone directly infected by one of them through blood, and they had only ever seen the infection spread through a bite. However, there was still no way to be absolutely certain about how it could spread.

There was no way to know if Alfred was already infected or not.

Alfred, however, mussed up the courage and tried to push the idea at the very back of his mind. His number one priority was to help the group, and he knew that moping about it wouldn't help their case. Even if he was infected, he could at least save the others from being infected themselves.

Alfred threw the bone to his left without a question and took to his feet, ignoring the dull, hollow throb from the weeping wound on his lower back. He needed to hurry. Judging by the amount of blood he felt leaking from the wound on his back and painting the back of his clothes dark red, he would pass out from blood loss in no time.

As Alfred took to the flight of stairs as quietly as possible, carefully looking around for the infected, he became more and more worried as he couldn't hear anything. No screams, no cries for help, not even the sound of shuffling feat as the infected made their way toward them. The whole place was completely silent, just as it had been when they had first entered the building. Alfred found himself unconsciously picking up his pace until the dull ache in his back became a roaring scream. However, even as the pain became worse and worse, he remained completely silent and bit down on his bottom lip to stifle the groans of pain that wanted to escape him. He wouldn't jeopardize the groups' safety for something so trivial.

When Alfred reached the third floor, he prayed that he would somehow be able to hear the sound of someone screaming – someone making any kind of sound. He wanted to find his friends and help them, that was all, he could have easily selfishly left the building and taken off with one of the cars if he had really wanted to. He didn't though, he didn't because he would willingly put himself in danger for the sake of his friends. He would have died long ago from the infected had it not been for their help.

That could have been all for the better though, considering the fact that there was a high chance that everyone was already trapped or dead somewhere in the building. From what the man had been saying to Arthur and he before he had thrown him off of the drop, he and far more people were out to get his entire group. They had been the people that had led them to the mall in the first place, after all, they were obviously far more capable than most of the group.

However, as things were becoming harder and harder to understand, and his vision becoming more and more blurred, he heard a voice off in the distance – Arthur's voice.

Arthur was never one to react accordingly to situations; he was known to either go completely overboard, or he would underestimate the seriousness of the situation he was facing. However, in this case his reaction was excusable due to the fact that he had just witnessed four brutal deaths in one day.

However, the thing that made the murders and deaths even more intense was the fact that two of them had been done by a human, and not by one of the infected. This fact alone was enough to drive anyone mad.

However, there was something more that had happened that had destroyed Arthur even more than the murders had; something that had not only scarred him physically, but also mentally.

When Sadiq had manhandled him onto his stomach, he figured that Sadiq was going to beat him – and he had - but Arthur hadn't expected what came after Sadiq had finished beating him black and blue. And it had all happened in front of Kiku, to add insult to injury.

For a few moments, Sadiq had hovered over Arthur's back, breathing raggedly due to the fact that he had beaten Arthur so violently that he was completely out of breath.

The whole room grew silent, sole for the sound of Sadiq and Arthur's harsh and erratic breathing. Seconds, minutes, maybe even hours passed before Sadiq began doing something that Arthur hadn't quite seen coming. He began laughing, and while it was a completely breathless and humourless laugh, it scared Arthur all the same. It scared Arthur because he knew Sadiq had thought of something else to do to him, and whatever it was couldn't have been good for his case.

Arthur had initially assumed that maybe Sadiq was going to use him as bait, or maybe feed him to one of the infected in front of Arthur, but that wasn't what he did.

Arthur felt the weight shift from thighs and onto his calves, and before he could even fathom what Sadiq was up to, he felt cold fingers press against the skin of his lower back. He knew that Sadiq had pulled down his pants and underwear for this reason, but part of him had wanted to believe that it wasn't for this.

Arthur wanted to scream, but he held it in.

His teeth were chattering from the cold, and his body trembled when Sadiq ran his blood warm hands down over his ass.

"Stop," Arthur heard, the voice almost too low to hear over the sound of his own heart beating viciously in his ears.

"What was that?" Sadiq asked.

Arthur felt the weight shift on his legs as Sadiq moved to look at Kiku, Kiku who was still bound to the leg of the table, and whose pants were covered in the blood that had leaked from Heracles body.

It was a truly morbid sight to behold.

"Why should I stop?" Sadiq asked, and Arthur could almost feel the smirk on his face despite not even being able to look at him from his position on the floor.

Kiku didn't answer him, and this seemed to anger Sadiq as he grabbed a handful of Arthur's hair, slamming his head into the ground in process, "I said why shouldn't I, rice boy?"

"What good will it do you?"

Sadiq laughed, and in doing so ground Arthur's already battered face against the rough floor, scraping the tender flesh of his cheeks and leaving dull red smears of blood on the ground. "It'll do me plenty of good."

Arthur swallowed hard when he felt Sadiq's hardness pressing up against his rear, and he swallowed around a building scream in his throat.

It wasn't so much that he was scared of the pain of this, he had already felt so much, but it was more his already destroyed pride and remaining peace of mind that he was scared for. He had lost so much dignity already – so much pride – the last thing he needed was to be humiliated in front of one of his group like an animal. He felt that if Sadiq truly went through with this act, then he would become as depraved as one of the infected.

He didn't want this anymore.

Arthur thrashed his legs out in a final weak attempt at getting away from Sadiq even though he knew that his efforts were futile. Sadiq's weight was so solid and heavy on the back of his thighs that he could do nothing but hit Sadiq's back weakly with his bound feet.

Sadiq seemed to have lost interest in Kiku as soon as he had done this, and swooped down until his weight was pressed fully into his back and his mouth was against the shell of his ear.

"Still trying to get away?"

Arthur shuddered at this, however he took advantage of the close proximity and turned his head, biting Sadiq's bottom lip so hard that his teeth marks were clearly visible, causing blood to dribble down Sadiq's chin in a seamless red stream.

Sadiq sat back up at this, and without any hesitation drew back his fists and pummeled the back of Arthur's head without any mercy. He hit him so hard at one point that his head was knocked forward into the ground – and at that, Arthur was sure that he felt his nose break on contact.

However, just as soon as Arthur thought he would have some relief and pass out from the loss of blood, Sadiq stopped his savage beating and grew frighteningly silent once again.

Arthur could barely see at this point, however he did notice when the weight shifted on his back. Sadiq was leaning over the top of him, and dipping his hand down into Heracles' spilled blood.

It took a moment for it to register in his concussion dazed mind, but when it did, he finally let out a scream.

"No, no, I'll talk, I'm sorry, please just don't do that," Arthur shouted desperately, voice raw from all the screams and shouts he had tried so hard to hold in out of defiance. He regretted that all now, and he regretted it even more when he felt Sadiq's blood slicked manhood pressing at his rear.

Arthur screamed.

There it was again, and this time he could tell where the scream was coming from, just a little longer and he would be there.

Alfred took to his feet, gulping when he looked back and realized that the sun was quickly descending. The mall was almost completely dark at this point, and the area he needed to head to was completely shrouded in darkness, the only thing to guide him with a small light at the very end of the hallway.

He would have to run and hope that nothing would grab onto him as he did so.

He was making a death run, essentially.

But that scream that he had heard, he knew that it was from Arthur, but he had never heard something like that coming from his mouth before. Arthur was his best friend, and even though they argued constantly, they had remained in contact since they were very young children. And out of all that time he had known him – his best friend – he had never heard such a pained, frightened, and absolutely terrified voice coming from his mouth.

Alfred picked up the pace, trying to ignore the black vignette that ate away at the corners of his vision. He wouldn't pass out, not now, not when he was so close to stopping whatever was happening to the group.

Whatever was happening to Arthur.

Another scream rang through the mall, this one guttural and broken.

Alfred felt sweat dripping down from his hairline to his lower back – he hadn't realized he had been sweating so intensely until now. That wasn't good, his body was getting cold and unresponsive, he needed to hurry or he wouldn't be able to move or open his eyes no matter how much he wanted to – no matter how much he needed to.

Alfred bit back his fear as he ran blindly into the dark, using the light filtering out from underneath the door he was shooting for as his only guide. He didn't know if he was being loud enough to hear, as he couldn't even hear himself over his own blood pumping in his ears, but it seemed that whatever was going on inside that door was enough to distract the people inside from noticing his heavy footsteps and even heavier breathing as he approached.

Alfred finally reached the door, and without another thought or any hesitation, he slammed the door open and threw himself inside. He didn't have any weapons, he didn't have any protective gear, he didn't even have a plan, and most of his strength had depleted from just the run up the stairs. The only thing Alfred had going for him at this point was his adrenaline, and when he took in the scene before him, the level of adrenaline in him sky-rocketed.

Alfred was splayed out on the ground on his stomach, and above him hovered Sadiq, thrusting into him at a ferocious pace. For a moment, Alfred could only stand there, but clearly it hadn't been as long as it had felt because Sadiq hadn't even had time to turn around before Alfred was slamming the elbow of his arm into the top of his head.

"What the fu-," Sadiq didn't even have time to react to Alfred as he hit him again, knocking him off of Arthur altogether and onto the blood drench floor beside Kiku. He landed on his back with a harsh thud, knocking the wind out of his lungs in one heavy burst. He tried to get himself back up to reach for his gun, but his hand slipped in the blood underneath him. The blood that he had spilled had been the very second Alfred needed to get the upper-hand over him.

Alfred reached down and grabbed Sadiq by the front of his shirt, stopping his hand as it reached for the gun and pulled it out of the makeshift holster that Sadiq had made.

However, instead of shooting Sadiq like most normal people would have settled for, Alfred slammed Sadiq back onto the table that Heracles' body was still lying motionless on, and slammed the back of his head into the scratched and dirtied surface repeatedly. Slamming it over and over again until the back of Sadiq's head was marred with blood.

"Alfred, stop," Kiku said.

Alfred didn't listen however, and instead opted to make a point of breaking one of Sadiq's legs with the use of one of his heavy boots. He knocked his knee in until there was a heavy crunch, and Sadiq let out a wild, and pained screamed. It was much like the sound a cornered animal made when it knew that it wasn't going to survive.

"Alfred," Arthur yelled.

Alfred finally stilled his movements at the sound of Arthur's voice, hands still buried in Sadiq's thick mop of hair.

"Just, stop."

Alfred finally released his death grip on Sadiq's hair, and Sadiq crumpled to the ground in a boneless heap as soon as he did so. It was hard to tell if he was even awake at this point, or if he had passed out due to the trauma that had been inflicted on his head.

He wasn't done though, and despite finally responding to Arthur, he grabbed the gun that he had taken from Sadiq and shot him, point blank, just as he had clearly done to Heracles.

The entire room grew silent, and without even commenting on what had happened, Alfred knelt down beside Kiku and undid the ropes that bound both of his hands together behind his back. Kiku stood up and immediately moved over to Arthur, pulling his pants up without a word and trying to – futilely – help him to his feet.

Alfred saw this, and picked Arthur up, carrying him on his back so as not to cause any more pain to him if he had any broken ribs or limbs.

Alfred and Kiku both didn't comment on the quiet sobbing they heard from Arthur as they made their way our of the room.

However, just as soon as they were about to head out toward the parking lot, the sound of the infected approaching from the direction Alfred had come in brought them to their senses. The shock finally having worn off and reality finally settling back in.

Alfred should have expected this considering the amount of sound they had made during that fight. Arthur's screaming alone was enough to direct the entire lot of the infected toward them.

They may have gotten rid of one big problem – or at least one of the problems they were facing – but the main problem was still present. The infected were still out roaming the mall, and they needed to get back to the cars before it was too late. They would never be able to meet up with the group if things continued on as they were.

Alfred ran out of the door with Kiku behind him and took a sharp left, the opposite way to the parking lot. Their only choice was to take the long way around, hoping that they wouldn't run into another horde of the infected on the way.

"Hang onto my arm," Alfred said as they began running. It was already dark, the sun having finally descended in the sky, and it would be easy to lose each other in the pitch black hallway if they weren't careful. Not even the moonlight touched where they were running.

Kiku obliged silently and clutched Alfred's elbow, following closely behind him.

Everything seemed like it would be fine, however, everything stopped for Alfred when he heard the voices getting incredibly closer, and the feeling of the weight increasing on his elbow.

One of the infected had grabbed Kiku.

There was no way they were going to make it back in time.

"Matthew!" Gilbert yelled as they ran down the hall, "hurry, hurry, we're not going to make it!"

"I know," Matthew yelled breathlessly, trying his best not to pay attention to how close the horde behind them were.

"God damn it," Gilbert cursed, "which way did we come from?"

"I don't know," Matthew said in panic, his head was still too busy trying to process everything that was happening to them. He couldn't focus on so many things at once, and already the infected were closing in on them at an incredible speed. It was light out, and for whatever reason, they were running into it despite it hurting them.

They were getting smarter, they were getting smarter but Matthew was doing everything in his power not to acknowledge this. The last thing they needed was for their only weakness to become obsolete, and for their day time cover to be brought to a swift halt.

He just hoped that it was only this horde of the infected that was like this.

They were running straight, and Gilbert finally let out a hiss that indicated he remembered the way that they were going. "It's this way, Mattie, it's this way. We're almost there."

They were rounding a sharp corner, and everything seemed like it was working out in their favour, but when they rounded the bend they realized that another horde was headed in their direction.

Both of them continued running blindly despite this, both of them unable to process the fact that they were completely surrounded by he infected.

Had it been Matthew, he would have definitely died.

It was then that Matthew realized just how reliable both Ludwig and Gilbert truly were.

Gilbert grabbed Matthew by the shoulder and picked him up with ease, throwing him up and over onto the unmoving escalators. Matthew fell to the ground, and as soon as he gained his bearings he reached down and grabbed Gilbert in just enough time to get him over the top. Even though his mind was working at a snails pace, he caught on quick enough to help Gilbert get over and onto the broken escalator.

Gilbert fell over the edge and on top of Matthew, but at this he didn't move.

They were both silent, the only sound was the blood pumping in their ears and the beating of their hearts against one another.

They listened for the sound of the infected, praying that they would forget about them; they stayed like that for what seemed like hours until Gilbert slowly lifted his head from Matthew's heaving chest, listening hard for the sounds of movement below them.

Gilbert held a finger up to his lips, indicating to Matthew that he needed to stay quiet, and nodded his head in the direction of the next floor up the escalator.

It was the floor that Roderich and Elizaveta had been asked to look at.

Matthew nodded his head silently at Gilbert, and turned over onto his stomach, pulling himself up each step quietly, checking behind himself every few seconds, checking to see if Gilbert was still there, as if he could just disappear like that.

When they finally reached the top of the escalator steps, they continued to crawl for a long time, dragging themselves until they were sure they were out of sight and earshot. Gilbert stood up first, eyes trained on something intensely.

Matthew stood up as soon as he did, following his eyes until they landed on a small depot, a small depot with shattered glass windows and covered wall to wall with blood.

Matthew felt a shudder work its way up his spine, and he hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be one of their own in the shop. He had a feeling that it was though, and that was all the more reason not to go anywhere near the place.

"Let's go and see," Gilbert said, "just to make sure that someone's not hurt."

"We won't make it back if…"

"Just to see," Gilbert repeated, gritting his teeth.

It was clear that he was thinking on the same lines as Matthew, and that made him even more nervous. If it was one of their group, and god forbid if it were someone like Elizaveta, Matthew was scared to see how Gilbert would react upon seeing something like that in there.

However, Matthew nodded his head despite himself.

They slowly approached the small shop, being careful to not make much noise so as not to alert anything that may be inside. It was dark, after all, and they couldn't see anything.

They cringed every few minutes when one of them stepped on a piece of shattered glass, causing it to crunch under their warn heels.

"Do you have any matches?" Gilbert asked from ahead of Matthew, eyes still trained on the shop despite being unable to see inside without any light source.

"There's some in the bag that we took with us," Matthew whispered from behind Gilbert, already rummaging through the heavy bag with his hands to pull out the matches and lighter than he had seen when he had been digging around for a gun.

"Francis," Matthew thought solemnly as he handed the lighter and matches off to Gilbert. He had been trying so hard not to think about it, but it was bound to happen. Just this small moment of silence was enough to bring back the terrible memories that he had been trying so hard to keep buried away. Matthew was so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed Gilbert flicking the lighter and walking away from him.

It was only when he heard his distressed voice, and the sound of the duffle bag slung over his shoulder hitting the ground, that he snapped out of his stupor. It was like he was being forced from one nightmare into the next, because when he walked up behind Gilbert and looked over his shoulder, he was greeted with a horrific scene.

Gilbert was backing up so fast at this point that his back met Matthew's knees, causing Matthew himself to crumple to the ground in front of the mess before them. His knees were drenched in blood just from touching the floor, but he couldn't find it in himself to scream. He was covered in so much blood and dirt from everything they had already been through that his skin would probably be stained with blood forever. Besides that, the blood was the last thing that Matthew and Gilbert needed to be concerned about.

Before them lay Roderich, or at least half of Roderich – his body was gone from the waist down. And, on the floor in front of him, there lay one of the infected, stomach full to the point of creating lesions on the tender skin and rendering it incapable of moving.

The infected creature that was still clearly digesting Roderich's legs was Elizaveta.

"Oh, god," Gilbert whispered though the fingers splayed over his open mouth, "I…"

"Gilbert," Matthew whispered harshly, praying that Gilbert would listen to him despite knowing that he had already lost him.

"Elizaveta," Gilbert whispered, taking to his knees and crawling toward her – it.

Matthew grabbed Gilbert by the shoulder so hard that he sent him sprawling backwards. Matthew knew that Elizaveta couldn't move in her current state, but Matthew knew that letting Gilbert anywhere near her would only cause more damage. Gilbert was already in a difficult mental state, the last thing he needed to see was this.

They should have just kept going.

"Gilbert, we need to go now," Matthew tried, gentler this time but still demanding.

When Gilbert didn't respond to him, revealed eye on the ceiling above, Matthew shook his shoulder, "Gilbert?"

He wasn't responding.

"Not now," Matthew thought as he dropped down next to him, "anything but now."

Matthew had initially thought that Gilbert's unresponsiveness was shock, however when he looked at his dilated pupils and the trembling of his lips, he realized that it was something else completely - something much worse than just shock. He knew it from when he was a child, as he had witnessed the same thing happening to one of his childhood friends in the middle of class.

It was what happened before someone had a seizure.

"No one came," Antonio said, as if the others in the group hadn't figured that out by themselves.

"No," Feliciano said without missing a beat, "they just couldn't make it back in time, we just ne-"

"Feli," Lovino said, his face serious, "they aren't coming back."

"Don't say that," Feliciano said, no waver in his voice, "they couldn't have all…"

"They're dead." Lovino said, more harsh than necessary.

"Lovi," Antonio said, putting a hand on his shoulder delicately.

"What, it's true, Nazi bastard over there even said so himself," Lovino said, mocking Ludwig, "'we have to prepare ourselves for the worst'. I did, and the worst happened. I'm fine now."

Antonio, Lovino and Feliciano argued for some time on the matter, however their voices never escalated beyond that of harsh whispers. Even Lovino, who was often brash and loud was learning to control the level of his voice in these situations. However, Ludwig never joined in on the discussion, he just kept looking at the mall, as if he were expecting someone to emerge at any moment.

"We're already way past the time we were supposed to leave, and all the cars are still here. It looks like the worst possible thing happened, now let's go before the same thing happens to us too."

Lovino didn't miss the way Ludwig clenched his fists at these words.

He knew it. He knew that the German bastard was going to freak out at the fact that his idiotic brother hadn't made it out with them.

"Something happened in there," Ludwig said, "there were so many gunshots, and we all agreed that we wouldn't use guns unless absolutely necessary because of the sound."

"And?" Lovino asked, motioning for Ludwig to continue despite the man having his back facing toward him.

"And we didn't have exceptionally high powered guns, but I heard multiple rounds going off in seconds at one point. We didn't have any guns like that."

Lovino snorted, "you think someone else was in there with us?"

"I don't know," Ludwig said, "but I think that we need to wai-"

"No," Lovino said, finally raising his voice, "we already agreed on this time, and we already agreed that we would leave even if no one was back. That's just how it works, and if we plan on finding adequate shelter before night time, we need to damn well leave right now. We're not waiting for your stupid brother to come back."

"Lovi," Feliciano said, voice dull, "stop it."

"You know it too. Feliciano, Antonio, you both know this, right?"

Feliciano and Antonio didn't answer him, indicating that they were beginning to think along the same lines as what Lovino was. They were finally being realistic about the situation they were in. They needed to leave.

"It's not like we're leaving them with nothing if they get out of there," Lovino said, "there's still working cars with supplies loaded into them, and they have their guns. We can also always leave a note for them."

Lovino scowled when he saw Ludwig shaking his head.

"You and that stupid idiot argued so much about how you would be good leaders, but you're turning out to be the most unreliable people I've ever met. Not only do you both have serious brother complexes, but the only real thing you're good at is brute work like breaking windows and lifting heavy things," Lovino spit out at Ludwig.

Antonio and Feliciano looked like they wanted to intervene, but they were too tired to even consider it at this point. They also wouldn't admit that they knew Ludwig needed to hear this, however their way of telling him that they needed to go would have been much gentler than the way Lovino was saying it to him. But, it was arguable that he needed to hear it in the most harsh way possible, and Lovino was the only one who could deliver.

"So move that stubborn ass of yours. And if your brother if half as stubborn as you are, he'll come out of there eventually."

"Exactly," Ludwig said, still not turning away from the front of the building, "he'll come out of there eventually."

Lovino sighed and slapped a palm to the middle of his face, hard enough to hear it ringing through the empty, silent parking lot.

"Not only that, but if you really did hear other people with bigger weaponry, don't you think it's a good idea that we leave now while we still have time?"

"Let's wait a litt-"

"Lov-!" Feliciano didn't even get a chance to issue the warning before Lovino stalked up behind Ludwig and punched his jaw with as much force as he could muster from his still weak and healing body.

Ludwig fell to the ground, holding his jaw where Lovino had hit him.

"We're leaving," Lovino said, "so you get the fuck up off the ground, and you get in the god damn car before I drag you in by your god damn balls."

"Lovino," Feliciano said, grabbing hold of his brother's arms to prevent him from hitting Ludwig again. It was pointless of him to do so, however, because Lovino wasn't going to hit Ludwig again. That was the only warning he was going to give him.

Ludwig finally looked away from the building and up at Antonio, Feliciano and Lovino who were currently crowding around him, his eyes saying everything.

It made sense, really, because if it had been Feliciano still in that building, he probably would have tried to go looking for his brother, and he probably would have held the group back by telling them to wait. He couldn't really judge how he would have reacted – he may have even stayed behind to look for him inside the mall all alone.

The only difference between Ludwig and Lovino at this point was the fact that Lovino had a weak brother, who probably couldn't fend for himself, but Ludwig had a strong brother, who was more than capable of taking care of himself - and others - in such a harsh and unforgiving environment.

"What's that?" Feliciano questioned from behind them, causing Lovino to finally break his intense eye contact with Ludwig.

Lovino turned around and looked, but didn't see anything, however after a few seconds, he felt something.

The ground was shaking.

"An earthquake?" Antonio pondered, however by the looks of the way his shoulders were tensed, he was expecting something much more destructive than just an earthquake.

Natural disasters would have been a relief for them.

"Is it them?" Feliciano asked, unable to use the name they had dubbed the creatures with.

"It can't be," Lovino said, keeping his eyes trained on the horizon, "they wouldn't be making so much noise, no matter how many of them there were. Not to mention the fact that they try to avoid sunlight at all costs."

They stood in terrified silence, unable to move from their respective spots as they waited to see what the increasingly loud banging was coming from.

They didn't expect the monstrosity they saw crossing over the horizon.

What was coming toward them surprised them to the point of causing all of them to run to the car at a blinding speed, even Ludwig himself snapped out of his daze and threw himself into the driver's side of the car out of pure fear.

"What the fuck is that thing?" Lovino said breathlessly despite only having run a few feet to the car. His heart was beating so fast that it felt like he would throw up due to it causing his throat to clench up painfully. Neither of them turned around to look – too scared to face the creature they had just seen again. They wanted to pretend that they hadn't seen it.

Ludwig furiously turned the key in the ignition, but the engine only sputtered in response to the key being turned.

"Are you fucking serious?" Lovino asked from behind, leaning over Ludwig's seat as if his cursing would help their situation. "Right now? This piece of junk is going to do this to us right now?"

"Let's get in the next car," Ludwig said without missing a beat, and whether his voice was shaking from the ground trembling so hard or because he was scared was to question.

None of them argued, and despite the fear of the encroaching danger, they filed out of the car quickly and ran to the next car, throwing themselves in, and this time Antonio was in the driver's seat.

Maybe it was because Ludwig was being too vicious with the keys beforehand, but the keys turned in the ignition and the engine roared for Antonio without any problems. However, before Lovino could even get his door closed, one of the infected made it into the car.

Antonio started driving despite this, knowing that the others would catch up if they didn't, and tried to remain calm as Feliciano screamed as he tried to get the creature off of his brother. Ludwig was in the front, but because of the seat, he didn't have much room to help.

He could only watch.

Antonio felt the car become lighter, and before he even had time to process it, the back of the car was being lifted by the creature they were so frightened of. In fact, they were still so frightened that they didn't dare looking at it even as it began lifting the car off of the ground. Antonio just revved the engine, hoping that they would get out of its grip.

What he didn't expect was for the massive creature to drop the car just as soon as it had picked it up, sending the car speeding forward and throwing the two brothers in the back seat over onto the floor.

There was a sharp scream, and Antonio watched as the infected finally rolled out of the back from the impact. However, judging by the sounds coming from the back seat, there was still something wrong.

Antonio turned around to see what had happened, and he was met with an eyeful of Lovino with his side covered in blood and a clear bite mark marring the pale flesh on his neck.

Feliciano screamed until his throat grew hoarse and no sound was coming out.

Antonio was lost for what to do, he wanted to scream just like Feliciano was, but they needed to keep the car moving. His only problem was that they needed to get back to Lovino to stop the bleeding. He was already weak, and possibly anaemic, he would go into shock much sooner than an average person would.

"Feliciano," Antonio said seriously, "if you don't want Lovino to bleed out, take your shirt off and put pressure on the wound. It's shallow, so he should be OK when the bleeding stops."

Antonio could barely hear the sound of the infected running behind them due to the sound of his heart pounding furiously in his ears. He tried not to think about the fact that Lovino had just been bitten, and decided to focus on the current problem: the bleeding.

He would think of something to save him – anything.

"He'll be OK," Antonio assured – more himself than anyone else in the car.

After working so hard to save Lovino in the hospital, he wasn't going to let him die from something so cruel.

A/N: Wow, you guys must hate me.

Let me quote myself from the 23rd chapter here: "Things should be back to normal starting today, and I'm not just blowing that out to tide you guys over, I promise!" Haha, oh, looking at that makes me cringe so hard my teeth are cracking. It's been about 5 months, so yeah. Things obviously didn't get back to normal. There's also the fact that I got distracted by another multi-chapter fic that I started, but that's all done now!

So, I wrote this extra-long chapter for you guys, and I'm not going to promise any quick updates! HOWEVER! I do have most of the story finished because I wanted to ensure that I would have material in case I didn't have any time to write.

*SIGH* this is a really long authors note but there's a lot that needs to be said. The main character of this story was supposed to be Lovino all along, but I reread all of my work over the weekend and I realized that I haven't been doing a good job of making that clear. So, the story is now going to focus MAINLY on Lovino (Ludwig's group plays a key part as well). There will be less "screen time" I guess you could call it for the others, however their arcs will still be explored. This fic ran WAY longer than it should have, but it's just so fun writing for the other guys!

As always, thank you guys for reading!