AN: Here we go again. One or two people in the reviews have mentioned that Keith seems a bit out of character. Well, I'd have to say he may be a bit glum for good reasons. The world is ending and he's separated from his best friends. He's not always as cheery as Ellis. Hope that helps a little. Thanks for the reviews, everyone.

PS. By the way, that song playing on the radio in the first chapter was Caney Mountain by Ha Ha Tonka.

You should never go alone at a time like this. Always keeps someone with you no matter what. Stay together to survive. In the back of their heads, a lot of people think that they are above those warnings; that it's full of crap and they would be perfectly fine on their own. But it's all a façade, really; a delusion. There isn't anyone in their right mind that could or would want to go through this on their own. You may be completely surrounded, but by nothing but walking corpses. You are truly, utterly alone.

-

I pushed myself off of the couch as I was thrown into a violent coughing fit. "Krista!" I wheezed out, looking around the safe room. Where was she? A piece of paper on the table caught my eye and I picked it up, reading the message written there. "Dammit, Krista. You couldn't wait one damn night?" The note was Krista's way of saying she couldn't wait till morning but she didn't want to wake me up either. After all, I was exhausted and she needed to find Martin as soon as possible. The note stated that she would wait three days for me in a safe house near Mercy Hospital once she had found Martin just in case I decided to follow.

But I couldn't. My plan had been to leave with her in the morning and take her to the next safe house heading north. I had hoped that we would come across more survivors by that time and that maybe she could travel with them instead of me since I couldn't stay with her. I needed to find my people and so did she. It seems that's why it all ended up like this.

"Shit." Coughing, I tossed the note aside and grabbed the shotgun off of the couch. I prayed for Krista's safety, but right now I needed to worry about myself. The room was quickly filling up with smoke and I was finding it hard to focus, which meant I was running out of oxygen and I needed to get out of here. My first instinct was to run to the door leading to the parking lot, but as I pushed the barricade aside, I realized there was no way I was getting out that way. The Tank had piled slabs of cement on and in front of the door during its fit. I had no way of forcing my way through.

I swore, looking to the opposite door leading into the apartments. A little fire never stopped me before, but fire and zombies were a bit of a different story. Kicking the door open, I ran through the flames that rushed in and threatened to swallow me. I held my breath and rushed past the burning bodies, some of them still moving, but didn't stop once to investigate. The smell was terrible and it was hard not to choke and the few small breaths I allowed myself as I ran down the halls. I came to a halt as I reached a cave in that blocked me from going any farther on the first floor; which meant the only way to go was up.

A cynical laugh was forced from my throat as I reloaded the gun. The door to the stairwell had been ripped from its hinges and through the passage a multitude of zombies could be seen clogging the way up, taking advantage of the small break in the flames. I cocked the gun back, grinning widely. "Come on you sons of bitches." Getting their attention, I ran into the stair well, pushing over undead and shooting them in the head as other rushed forward to meet my challenge. Screeching and growling echoed though the walls, attracting more and more infected as I plowed my way upwards. I forced myself through the horde, using the various fires to my advantage, shoving groups in at a time. Hits to my back caused me to turn around and fill the behind group with shotgun rounds, leaving only one still living. The final infected stared at me and gave a grunt as if confused what to do, so I chose for it, swinging the gun like a bat at the thing's face, causing it to cave in.

Satisfied with my work, I looked back down the hallway. I needed an open window. If there were any more infected in this part of the building, they were behind closed doors and I didn't want to try and open them unless I had to. I ran down the hallway, looking for any previously opened doors, finding one at the end that opened up to a corner apartment. Peeking in, I stepped about cautiously, hearing only the mad laughter of a Jockey from another room. I smirked, closing the door and taking a look around. Walking over to the living part of the room, I dropped the shotgun on the couch and grabbed the floor lamp standing next to it, turning it on and off.

"Still got power. Good and good." I hummed to myself, taking the shade off of the lamp and looking around the room. "Where are you, ya little face fucker?" I called out in a rather sing song voice. The laughter erupted again from another room and it came lumbering out of one of the two doorways. "Alright," I laughed as I picked up the floor lamp, readying myself for its leap. It leapt and I stepped forward, bringing the end of the lamp down and crushing the bulb into its face, sending volts of electricity through its already misshapen body. I dropped the lamp as the special infected dropped to the floor, convulsing and smoking. The thing didn't stop moving for maybe seven minutes and I stood watching it until it did.

I waited a moment longer before walking over to the nearest window, opening it and taking a deep breath of the freshest air I'd breathed in a while. Walking through the apartment, I looked for any other hiding infected while opening the other windows, trying to get the place as ventilated as possible. I walked to the master bedroom last and stopped in the doorway as I spotted a body leaning against the end of the bed. It didn't appear to be moving but I went over and kicked it in the foot just in case.

Nothing. Smiling slightly, I plopped myself down on the bed and closed my eyes for a moment. I was exhausted, but I knew I shouldn't stay in one place for too long, no matter how safe it felt. Opening my eyes, I felt myself stare off as my mind began to wander. It isn't until you stop and think that you realize how completely alone you are. I found myself thinking of the day before this all began. Of a painfully normal day that I had decided needed some action. I remember the three of us sitting on that hill we liked after getting a few burgers at the local diner, talking about doing some crazy stunt involving rockets and one of Kenny's chickens. They both called me crazy as usual so I pushed them over and used them both as cushions, lying on top of them.

Thinking back, I wish that day would have lasted forever. We all must have fallen asleep at one point because I remember waking up to darkness and the sound of crickets chirping, curled up against Ellis' evenly breathing body. Everything had seemed so right at the time; none of us could have thought things would go so terribly wrong the next day.

I'm not sure how long my thoughts went on like this, but that's all I seemed to be able to think about. Not health, not ammo, just how much I missed Ellis and Dave, and how much I needed to find them. A loud bang woke me from my thoughts and I sat up, looking around the darkening room. Had I dozed off? I must have, seeing as the sun seemed to be setting and the air had a thickening smokiness to it despite the open windows. Giving out a slightly frustrated cough, I got up off of the bed and looked around for the source of the bang. I pushed a hand through my messy red hair as I took a step towards the room's door but whirled around as I heard gun shots and shouting from the street below. Running to the window, I blinked and felt my eyes widen as I looked on the group making their way through the horde.

"Come on, come on, come on, people!" shouted a fairly large black man, leading the way. "We gotta make it to the mall!"

"Just one sec," replied a smaller black female as she drove a fire axe into the head of a near by zombie.

"Hurry it up, Ellis. You don't have to kill every single zombie you see," chided a man in a while suit, giving a deep frown.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, Mr. Smarty-pants!"

Ellis. I couldn't believe me eyes. There he was, running down the street with three people I'd never seen before in my life. But he was here; so close and so soon. I felt it was some kind of miracle that things had come so easy, but that was just it. Too easy. I barely had time to get excited about it before I knew something was wrong. "Ell-"

"Hey, you guys hear somethin?"

"Yeah, Ellis. Zombies."

I choked as I was pulled back by something that had wrapped around my neck. My first confirmation that the front door had been broken down was the flames that could be seen flickering in the living room. I was struggling to get away and pull the thing from my neck when I saw my second confirmation. There were now two others in the room with me; a Smoker and a Hunter that seemed somehow amused by my situation. The Smoker pulled its tongue back suddenly and I fell to the ground with a hard thud.

The sounds of gunshots and shouting were growing farther and farther away and I looked to the window desperately. He had been right there and now he was so far away. I had lost him again.

Afterthought: Things will probably get a bit more violent and angsty from here... And...yeah. I may have to change the rating to M. Hahaha..