Author's Note: Hey guys, you may have noticed that I posted two chapters in one day. I did this to make up for the embarrassingly long time it took for me to post this, so enjoy! This chapter is somewhat of a filler, setting things up for some big plot twists and other fun stuff. Next chapter is somewhat of a "season finale" for Volume 1 of Survivor(I consider chapters 1-10 to be volume 1, chapters 11-20 are volume 2, ect.), and a lot of big things are gonna happen. I'm going to try and make this next chapter longer than usual, so it may take a little while to complete, but it'll be worth the wait.


CURRENT DAY.

Alice walked into the brown cabin for breakfast, and found Dick, Kelly, Leo, Abby, Lily, Lana, Adam, Dinah, Morales, and a bandaged Riley waiting for her.

"Hey, Alice." Greeted Lily, waving to Alice as she entered the cabin. Lily was a slightly short, african-american woman with her hair styled into a loose ponytail, occasionally braided. Her chocolate brown eyes showed care and compassion, and she was often times outgoing. It had been six weeks since Lily and the others had first arrived at the cabins, and Alice had finally begun to trust them.

[I first met Lily and her group the day after we killed Mac. Dick was on his way to drop Lana off at the base of the mountain, and according to him, Lily's boyfriend Jay was hurt pretty bad. If I remember what Lily said correctly, he had been bit on the arm by a mutant about thirty minutes before Dick got there, and she had to amputate his arm. Dick brought him to the cabins, and did his best to save him. Dick didn't have time to drop Lana off, so Lana decided to stay with us, at least until the situation with Lily was resolved. Since Dick was the only one at the cabins with any sort of medical expertise, it was hard for him to help Riley and Jay at the same time, both of which would die without his help. In the end, Jay bled out. Lily was pressed messed up after that, but she managed to get through it. Frankly, I'm impressed with how strong she is. We've now got eleven people in the group, including me, and so far we're doing okay. To be honest, if Jay wasn't injured, I doubt we would've taken Lily and her group in. I'm glad we did.]

"Hey." Replied Alice, looking at Riley's bandages. He had healed quite a bit, but still had a hard time moving without pain. He tried his best(even to the border of hilarity) to remain independent, but it was no use.

Alice snuck a glance at Adam, turning away and sitting down as soon as he noticed.

[I admit I had somewhat of a crush on Adam. Then again, who wouldn't? Hell, half the girls before the outbreak would've paid just to touch his jacket. I liked Riley too, but he needed a friend, not a girlfriend. I did my best to get close to Adam, but he was always relatively distant. To this day I'm not sure he noticed back then.]

Adam's shoulders broadened as he stretched in his chair. He was about an inch shorter than Dick, with short messy blonde hair, and a bright smile which widened his thin long handsome face to match his blue eyes. He often wore his favorite light brown jacket, and blue jeans. He washed his clothes every two days or so, and often wore the same outfit for weeks at a time.

Alice took one spoonful of the food, and grimaced. Lana grinned.

[Recently we had started to rely on our garden for most of our food, which often ended up being soup or some other abomination made of vegetables.]

"So, I was thinking..." Said Morales, "Some of the houses down the road have gardening pits, if we could restore some of them to good condition, we could plant a lot more food, maybe even enough to permanently stop going on supply runs."

[Morales was always somewhat of a mystery to me. I could tell he was a good person, but he was timid to say the least. Occasionally I'd hear him crying by the side of trail while walking by, and the only person he seemed to be comfortable around was Dinah. His past was unknown to pretty much everyone, especially me. Hell, I didn't even find out his first name(Oscar) until about a week after I met him.]

"Sounds like a plan." Agreed Lana.

[After Lily and the others arrived, I expected Lana to leave like she said she would(not that I wanted her to), but she never did. And other than Kelly, no one seemed to have a problem with her anymore.]

"We can get started after breakfast, we should at least get one of the pits in planting condition." Suggested Morales, "There's one in the backyard of a house just outside the parking lot, we should start there."

The others nodded, and continued eating.


Only about an hour later, Alice, Morales, Adam, and Dinah were busy plucking weeds out of a rundown garden in the backyard of a large two-story brown house a short walk down the mountain road.

[When Morales and Adam asked if anyone wanted to help them with the garden, I jumped at the opportunity. I was bored, and the fact that Adam would be there certainly didn't hurt.]

Morales was a hispanic long black-haired man, with brown eyes and a thick face.

Alice was relatively near to Dinah, when she finally started conversation.

"So...this whole 'Safe Haven' thing-" She asked, "You think it's true?"

"Don't see why she'd be lying, I'd say the place exists, or at least it did. You're the one in her group, shouldn't you be the one telling me?"

[When her and her group first arrived at the cabins, Lily said she'd heard of some sort of community of survivors in Colorado called "Safe Haven". She said she'd heard about it at the start of the outbreak, some sort of military-run refuge for survivors. A lot of people, including me, decided it was too big a risk to go on a wild goose chase searching for Safe Haven, so we all decided to stay at the cabins instead of risking a journey to Colorado. After all, we didn't have the slightest clue as to how to find this place, if it still existed. Still, the idea of a safe community with other survivors was tempting to say the least.]

"Guess so, but do you think it's a good idea to stay at the cabins?"

"Instead of what, exactly?"

"You know, leaving. Finding somewere safe."

"I haven't seen any mutants around lately," Replied Alice, putting extra effort into one particularly stubborn weed, "That's safe enough for me."

"Fair enough." Shrugged Dinah, brushing a strand of her curled dark brown hair out of her face.

[Dinah always seemed to be closer to Morales than the others, I always figured they had probably known each other the longest.]

Finally pulling out a large weed which took all her strength, Alice fell backwards, knocking into Adam, who she hadn't realized was so close behind.

"Oh," Apologized an abnormally embarrassed Alice, "Sorry about that."

"It's fine," Replied Adam, having barely noticed.


After a long day of work, Alice took a walk by the creek, hopping from rock to rock, eventually taking a rest on one large rock in particular. After over a year of being at the cabins, there wasn't much left to see or do. She was bored, an odd feeling for someone who often in the past was constantly fighting for her life.

Looking to the base of a nearby tree, she admired a squirrel, who was twitching it's fluffy tail and chattering as it searched the ground for food. Even after seeing so many squirrels in the past, she still found them adorable, one of the few things still left untouched by the apocalypse.

The squirrel was rather chubby, occasionally looking cautiously at Alice. It darted up the tree, having stuffed something it found on the ground into it's cheek. Taking one final pause, the squirrel vanished into the needles and branches of the pine tree.

"ALICE? ALICE?" Alice heard Lily call from across the trail near her cabin.

"Coming!" Yelled Alice, quickly jumping down from the rock and making her way to Lily.

Alice ran up to Lily, greeting her with a casual, "Yeah, what's up?".

"Could you help me get the bonfire going?" Asked Lily, "I'm having a hard time finding dry wood, plus, I wanted to talk to you."

[Riley and Dick started somewhat of a tradition of lighting a bonfire at the end of each day in the parking lot, where me and the others would talk for a while before going to sleep. It had rained the day before, so it made since that Lily would need help lighting the fire, but it was obvious that she had other reasons for asking me in specific.]

"Yeah sure, let me get my backpack. I have some stuff in there that might help."

Grabbing her backpack, Alice followed Lily to the parking lot, to a firepit which they'd taken from a campground nearby. She surveyed the wood, seeing almost no tinder, and slightly damp logs.

"Well, for one, we're gonna need something small to get the fire started," Said Alice, "Some shavings of wood ought to work."

After quite a bit of stick-cutting, she and Lily had placed the logs in a large bed of fluffy wood shavings. Taking a bottle of rubbing alchohol out of her backpack, she sprinkled alchohol over the wood.

"What're you doing?" Asked a confused Lily.

"Putting alchohol on the wood," Explained Alice, "It makes great fuel, and it's easy to find."

"Smart."

"Watch this."

Alice equipped a lighter, along with a bottle of hairspray in the other hand.

"I don't think now's the time to spray your hair." Commented Lily.

"Keep watching."

Igniting the lighter, Alice sprayed the hairspray into the flame. The spray ignited, turning the hairspray into somewhat of a homemade flamethrower. Using the homemade flamethrower, she quickly ignited the wood in a small explosion of flames, making Lily jump backwards to avoid the flying sparks.

"Whoa," Said Lily, staring at the large newly-ignited fire in front of her.

"Used to use that hairspray trick to roast bugs," Said Alice with a smile, "Guess it has other uses."

"Guess so," Lily moved closer to the fire, sitting down next to Alice. The sun was going down, casting a misty ambience of orange light over the mountainside. Although Alice had seen quite a few mountain sunsets during her time at the cabins, their beauty never ceased to captivate her.

"There was something else you wanted to tell me," Noted Alice, "Right?"

"Yeah, um, I guess. It's nothing." Lily hesitated.

"You sure?" Alice could tell something was wrong. "C'mon, you can tell me."

Lily sighed. "Look, you can't tell anyone what I say next. Promise me you won't tell anyone, no matter what."

"Promise."

"I have to leave the cabins." Blurted Lily after a subtle hesitation.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't stay here, not with what's happening."

"Lily, you can't be vague. I need to know what's going on."

Yet again, Lily hesitated.

"Before Jay died...It's-...I'm pregnant." Caved Lily, her voice starting to quiver.

"What?"

"I'm pregnant. Jay didn't know. No one did."

Alice paused. "Why are you telling me?"

"Because the others can't know. Not yet. I figured you could keep a secret."

"But- What does this have to do with staying at the cabins?"

"I'm not going to have my baby here. I just can't. I need to be somewhere safe, somewhere with people."

"Lily, we are safe here. We can't just run off hoping to find some utopia in Colorado!"

"Safe Haven is our best chance at survival. If you and the others don't want to find it, I will. Alone."

"We don't even have a clue where this place is. It's not worth the risk, both you and the others know I'm right."

"Maybe," Admitted Lily, standing up, "But either way, I'm not staying here. It's too isolated. I'm not going to live the rest of my life hiding in the mountains."

Lily walked away, and went to get the others to the bonfire.


That night, Alice was relatively silent during the group bonfire, thinking over the things Lily had said. Abby was chatting away about her experiences as a cop before the outbreak while playing with her goofy orange hair, Riley occasionally making a joke here and there. Riley was still much more solemn and reserved than before Zella died, but he had certainly improved, the newcomer's arrival causing him to interact more often.

Morales was silent as usual, Dinah doing the same. Those two seemed to have a bond, one she didn't quite understand.

Leo spend his time toying with his machete, slightly ignoring the others. He was solitary in many ways, but spoke up when necessary. He was always honest about his opnion, straight to the point, and sometimes a little narcissistic, to the annoyance of many people in the group. However, everyone seemed to respect him. Leo had a light tough build, probably as old(if not older) than Dick, with brown hair and olive green eyes which were darkened by the night.

Kelly didn't bother attending the bonfire, and was most likely sleeping in her cabin, which she shared with Leo. Because of all the newcomers, everyone shared cabins with at least one person. Dick, Riley, and Alice all stayed in the same cabin.

Adam occasionally joined in the conversation, but mostly listened. He was a friendly person, which made it hard for Alice to interact with him(and most of the others in his group). She wasn't used to people like him, people who were outgoing. It made her uncomfortable.

[Considering our circumstances, my group was pretty happy. Me, Leo, Morales, and Kelly were somwhat of the outsiders, and I was fine with that. I didn't depend on people much, and small talk didn't serve much of a purpose to me.]


The group went to sleep rather late that night, the conversation lingering for quite a while before ending. The group had a habit of staying up late into the night, and Alice enjoyed that. She had always been a "night owl" before the outbreak, and she enjoyed the serenity of the mountains at night.

Dick opened the door for her and Riley, leading them into their cabin.

"'Night." Said Alice, snuggling into her sleeping bag on the floor next to Dick. Riley took his place on the bed in the room. When Alice had first arrived at the cabins, she decided to let Dick sleep on the bed, while she slept on the floor in her sleeping bag, even though he offered otherwise. She was liked sleeping on the floor anyways.

"Um, yeah," Said Dick, "There's something I need to tell you guys."

"What?" Asked Riley, yawning.

"I checked the shed today," Explained Dick, "Some of our food and extra ammo is missing."

"Are you sure?" Asked Alice.

"I think so," Replied Dick, "There's enough missing to be suspicious. In fact, more."

"Why would someone take it?" Asked Riley after a minute of thinking.

"They could be planning to leave with it," Reasoned Dick, "Maybe leave on their own with the supplies, like Toby did."

"We shouldn't jump to conclusions," Said Alice, "For all we know it's nothing."

"Either way, keep your eyes open," Replied Dick, "Someone's stealing food, and I'm gonna find out who it is."

"You just noticed today?" Asked Riley.

"Yeah," Confirmed Dick, "But it's been at least a week since I last took inventory. My guess is, it's one of the newcomers, maybe all of them for all we know."

"We'll worry about that tomorrow," Said Alice, "For now, let's get some sleep."


Author's Note: Hey guys, I know some of you have been waiting for your OC's to be introduced, and today they finally were. I apologize that most of them didn't get much attention this chapter, I'm setting things up for some huge events in the future, and the storyline's going to be very dynamic in the next few chapters, which will give me opportunities for more character development. If you'd like to create your own OC, follow the steps given in the author's note of Chapter 6, although it will be at least a few chapters till I have the opportunity to introduce them.

Chapter 10, "Nightmare" Preview/Synopsis: As the group is attacked by threats from within and outside, they question whether stayng at the cabins in the safest option. A traitor in the group is revealed.

Reader-made OC credits:

Adam - Created by Cowardlygurp

Abby - Created by The Internet Sass Queen

Leo - Created by Grimrephr

p.s. In case you're wondering, the "Morales" in this chapter is the same Morales in the TV series, which is my way of cementing the two series in the same universe. Since Morales' fate(or that of his family's) was never explained in the TV series, that leaves him open for creativity.