"So what, you two were camping? Just the two of you?" Maya asked.

They were hiking back to the ranger station. The shadows were becoming long now, the sun heading toward its grave, just beyond a fiery horizon. Marcus' disappointment in finding only a single survivor showed in how little he talked, how slow his pace had gotten. Ed was silent beside him. Maya was leading the way.

"Yeah. Why? You were up here hunting with your two friends? Just the three of you?" Marcus replied. The question came out angrier than he meant it to, but he wasn't sure where he stood with Maya. He got the feeling that she might look down on him simply for not being in some kind of armed forces. He was a civilian. Both him and Ed.

"Yeah," Maya replied after a moment's hesitation. All of the scorn and teasing had gone out of her voice, making Marcus stop looking around and instead focus directly on her. Maybe she was feeling guilty for just that reason. "I wanted to get away from all the bullshit," she said. "There seems to be more and more of it around nowadays...what did you do for a living?"

"Office drones, both of us," Marcus replied.

"Why were you down here? Where are you from?"

"We both live up in Worthington. Ed's originally from here. We come down once a year for a fishing and camping trip to unwind, get away from the world," Marcus replied.

"Fair enough," Maya said.

They fell into another uncomfortable silence as they pressed on. Marcus checked his phone again, finding it to be past eight o'clock now. How had the time gone so quickly? He was certain that they'd be able to canvas the cabins and campsites within half an hour. Time, he supposed, really was subjective, and there was no good way to keep track of it if you didn't have some kind of instrument. He put his phone back, looking around, scanning the area of any more of the creepies. There were maybe a dozen zombies in view, wandering around, but they were all far away, not having taken notice of the three living people.

Looking up at the ranger station itself, Marcus frowned. Something seemed wrong. It was too still up there, he couldn't see anyone moving around behind the glass. What did that mean? Could they have left without them? He supposed it was possible. Trying to make himself calm down, telling himself not to panic, Marcus focused on the notion that he could get back to the nearby town if he really had to. Even if he had to walk, he knew the way there.

But then what? Find other people, he hoped, more supplies, a place to stay for the night. The night...he really didn't want to be out here in the dark.

The trio of survivors hit the blacktop and began to move across it. Glancing up again, Marcus caught sight of movement in the windows. He felt relief pour through him like a cool blue wave, but it soon turned to fear as he realized something was wrong with the way they were moving. It was too slow, too awkward, almost like...

"Shit," he heard Maya say.

"What?" Ed asked fearfully.

"I think something might have gone wrong with your friends." She hefted her wrench, and Marcus reluctantly did the same with his crowbar.

Maya took the lead, Marcus right behind her, Ed bringing up the rear as they ascended the stairwell. She reached out and cautiously pulled the door open. A low moan drifted out of the ranger station, the sound causing gooseflesh to break out all across Marcus' body. He tightened his grip on the crowbar.

"Watch our backs, Ed," he said as he followed Maya into the station.

"Got it," Ed replied.

There were three undead milling around, and several bodies on the floor. Among them, Marcus spied Wendell and the woman who had been tending to the wounded. The zombies became aware of Marcus and Maya, turned and began coming towards them. Maya brought her wrench down hard on the first zombie, a man in a vest and hiking boots with short, dark hair. His skull caved in and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Marcus realized it was his turn up to bat. He brought the crowbar around in a tight arc, sending a spray of blood and brain matter flying from the fractured cranium of the next zombie to step up to the plate, a woman in a waitress's outfit. Maya finished off the third zombie with another shark crack, and all was still in the cabin.

"I thought you said you had survivors up here," she whispered harshly.

"We did, there were..." Marcus murmured.

"It's all clear out here, what...oh," Ed said, trailing off as he stepped in and surveyed the horrible aftermath that befell them. "Jesus," he whispered.

"We can't stay here, that much is obvious," Maya said. She knelt and began checking the bodies. "See what you can find, some of them might have guns or bullets."

"Ed...see if you can find Thomas, he had a gun," Marcus said quietly, kneeling by the woman, Shelia had been her name, and checking her pockets.

"Yeah...okay."

Ed crossed the room, hunting through the bodies. For a long moment, nobody said anything. The cabin was filled with the sounds of rustling, of the living searching the dead that they might continue living. Finally, Ed made a small noise.

"Found Thomas," he said.

Marcus glanced over. Ed was kneeling over another body at the far side of the room. Marcus stood and began moving to join him, carefully stepping over the corpses. He was tempted to hold his breath, or at least open a window, the smell was getting bad.

"Yeah..." Ed said after a moment with his finger against the man's neck. "He's definitely dead all right...hey, he's got something in his hand, looks like a-"

Ed let out a shriek of pure fright as Thomas abruptly leaped up, wrapped both arms around Ed's torso, pulled him down and bit him in the area between his shoulder and neck. Marcus cried out in sympathetic pain as he saw Thomas come away with a mouthful of bloody skin. Ed screamed in agony, falling back onto his ass, scooting away.

Marcus ran up and cracked the late Thomas across the head, knocking him over. The thing started to get up again and he hit it twice more, hard, in rapid succession. There was a sharp snap and then Thomas was still.

"He was dead, he was dead!" Ed moaned, hand over his wound, which was gushing blood between his fingers. "That guy was fucking dead, man!"

"Okay, we get it!" Maya snapped, cautiously approaching him.

"Oh, Ed..." Marcus whispered, staring at the blood. "Christ, man, we gotta get you some first aid." He looked around frantically.

"I didn't see any," Maya said, still holding back, hovering uncertainly.

"Shit...here! Hold on!" Marcus was suddenly struck by inspiration. He shrugged out of his pack, brought it around and opened it up. Rifling through it, he pulled out a bottle of water and the t-shirt he had wrapped around the bottle of pills.

"Hold out your hand, your not bloody one," Marcus said. Ed did as Marcus rattled out four of the pills, then unscrewed the cap and passed it to Ed. "Swallow, hurry."

Ed was looking very pale and his eyes were slightly unfocused, but he did as he was told, swallowing the pills down. Replacing the pill bottle into his pack, Marcus then carefully pulled Ed's hand away from his shoulder and dumped the rest of the bottled water across it, causing Ed to cry out in pain.

"Sorry, buddy," he said quickly, then tossed the bottle aside, pressed the t-shirt against the wound and replaced Ed's hand over it. "Hold it there, we have to stop the blood."

"To what end?" Maya asked.

Marcus glanced back up at her. "What?"

"To what end? What if it's the bite that turns you?"

"Well...what if it isn't? You wanna just give up?" he snapped.

"God, even if it isn't, do you know how hard it is to survive a bite from a human mouth without proper care? It'll get infected..."

"You're going to fucking help us, do you hear me?!" Marcus screamed suddenly, fury and rage at the situation, the unfairness of being thrown into a zombie apocalypse, of losing what little help he had waiting for him, tearing through him.

Maya seemed taken aback by the sudden outburst, literally taking a step back, then she seemed to come to a decision. Nodding tightly, she said, "get him up, we're going for the truck, we're getting out of here and back down to that little town I saw coming in."

"Spencer's Mill...and thanks," Marcus said quietly after a second.

He helped Ed up and as he did, saw something dark, rectangular and important lying on the ground. Kneeling, he snatched it up and studied it for a moment. A radio, that's what Thomas had been holding before he'd tried to eat Ed, a damn radio. Marcus pocketed it for the moment. He'd try it out later, pray that someone was on the other end.

With Maya leading the way, her pistol now in hand, Marcus helped Ed down the stairs, across the blacktop and towards the waiting truck, their only way out. The sun was setting faster now, the first of the stars popping into existence, the moon rising on the far horizon. It was cooling off, the heat of the day bleeding away.

Ed was muttering quietly to himself, and Marcus thought that he was in shock, bordering on delirium. He hoped the painkillers were taking effect and that his friend wouldn't have to suffer through the worst of it. Hell, at this point, he'd settle for knowing that Ed would make it out of this alive. All around him, he saw more zombies, and now, as darkness fell, their creepy glowing eyes were that much more obvious.

They finally hit the gravel parking lot, not having to fight to get there, at least. Maya climbed into the driver's seat and Marcus shoved Ed into the middle seat, buckled him him, then closed the door and buckled himself in. As Maya keyed the ignition, abruptly, the radio in his pocket jolted to life in a squeal of static and a muffled voice.

Maya stared over at him and he stared back. He pulled out the radio and looked down at it for a second, as though it was some artifact he'd never seen before.

A young woman's voice came out. "Dad? Dad are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Oh shit," Maya groaned.

Marcus swallowed and licked his dry lips, then brought the radio up. "Uh...hello?"

A pause. "Who's this?"

"My name is Marcus. My friends and I are up on Mount Tanner, we're getting ready to leave, but my friend has been attacked...can you help us?"

Another pause. "Can you make it down to Spencer's Mill?"

"Yeah, we can."

"My name's Lily. Some of us are holed up at the Church of the Ascension, you know where that is?" she asked.

"Yeah," Marcus replied, remembering the way there.

"Good. Get down here as quick as you can, if your friend doesn't look too dicey, then maybe we can work out some kind of deal."

"Work out a deal? We're in trouble, there are fucking zombies everywhere, what do you mean a deal?!" Marcus replied, his voice rising.

"I...it's not that simple, not anymore. Look, just get to the church and we'll talk, okay?"

Marcus sighed. "Yeah, okay."

He replaced the radio in his pocket.

"Fantastic," Maya said as she started up the engine. Marcus didn't say anything, instead opting to sit back and wait for the ride to be over. They pulled out of the gravel parking lot and onto the road, making their way away from the mountain, away from the slaughterhouse that had once been known as a ranger station.

Spencer's Mill. It was the smallest of the three towns in Trumbull Valley. There would be a lot to do when they got down there, he imagined. A million thoughts raced through his head, wondering about how far it had spread, who might of survived, how he was going to survive this chaos. However, all thoughts abruptly ceased.

Maya slammed on the brakes.

The bridge that ran over the river, that connected Mount Tanner to the rest of civilization, had been destroyed.

They weren't driving out of here.