Sam was right. Alan was a jackass.

He was long gone, Sam was crouching in a street of a zombie-ridden city and Marcus was frantically looking for a car. He'd seen several, so far, but none of them looked functional. It was as he stumbled back into the parking lot of the abandoned diner that a memory that had been bugging him ever since the need for a car had arisen finally snapped into focus. The parking lot of the vet's clinic had a car that had at least looked functional. He tried to look at the vet's parking lot from where he was, but the wrecked RV blocked his view.

Sighing, frustrated, Marcus began jogging across the diner's lot. There were a few zombies to his left, on the road, but they didn't seem to have noticed him. Good, he had enough shit to put up with right now. This wasn't fair to ask of him. He'd just gotten thrown into the mix yesterday, how was all of this happening so fast? Marcus reached the street and crossed it. He prayed that there were keys still in the ignition or something because he'd never learned how to a hot-wire a car. It wasn't a skill he thought he'd need in his life.

The car came into view. It was a little blue four-door. It looked to be in good condition. Hurrying, he pounded onto the parking lot and raced around to the driver's side door. It wasn't locked. He hopped into the car and reached for the ignition. No keys. He let out a frustrated sigh and began searching, praying they were somewhere. Nothing in the passenger's seat, on the dash, the visors. Marcus sat there a moment longer, preparing to give up this car and continue his search, when an idea came to him. He hopped out of the car and began feeling up under the front left wheel well. His heart leaped as he found something: a spare key.

It was in a little magnetized box. He tossed the box away and hopped back into the car. Sticking the key in the ignition, he turned it and cried out in joy as the engine kicked to life. A quick look at the gas gauge told him he had more than enough, almost a full tank. He popped it into drive and pulled out onto the road. A moment later, he was at Sam's location. Perfect timing, he realized. Three zombies were honing in.

"Come on!" he said.

"Coming!" Sam replied.

She gathered up the remains of her rucksack and all but dove into the back seat. "Go!" she called, slamming the door shut.

Marcus hit the gas.

Their drive back to the church was uneventful. Even in his terrified state, Marcus remembered the way back. He'd always been naturally good with directions. He was sure that if there weren't zombies everywhere and they weren't drawn to noise, Sam would be screaming and ranting about Alan. Marcus didn't blame her. He felt like doing something similar. They pulled into the parking lot next to the station wagon Maya had used to rescue him and Ed last night. Was that just last night? It seemed like ages ago.

"I hope that bastard got eaten on the way home because if not I'm going to tear is fucking heart out and eat it myself," Sam snarled.

"I'll grab the knife and fork," Marcus replied.

Sam looked at him as they climbed out of the car, then she laughed. "You know, you might not be so bad after all."

"Gee, thanks," Marcus replied, then laughed.

"Come on. Let's go tear Alan a new one."

Marcus filled his pockets with the runoffs from Sam's ragged rucksack and pocketed the key, as well. He opened the gate for her and stepped out of the way. She scanned the courtyard, hunting for Alan. He wasn't anywhere around. Marcus wondered if something really had happened to him on the way home. Then they heard his voice wafting out of the church and Sam kicked it into overdrive, stalking across the dirt and marching up the front stoop. Marcus hurried after her, eager to see the reckoning that was to come.

Sam threw the door open and Marcus went in right behind her.

"What the fuck was that, Alan!?" Sam screamed.

Alan was standing by Lily's radio table, probably complaining. Both of them whipped around at the sound of Sam's voice.

"Keep your goddamned voice down!" Alan snapped.

"No, fuck that! You left me and Marcus there in the middle of the fucking street! We could have died, Alan, and then what would you do? There's barely enough of us here as it is!" Sam snarled. Alan opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off again. "No, you know what, Alan, there's nothing you can fucking say to justify this shit." She turned to face Lily, reached into her pocket. "Here, Lily. I found some of that cyclophosphamide, but I couldn't find anything of that metho-stuff. I'm sorry, but we kind of ran out of time."

"It's okay. Thank you, Sam. Really," Lily replied, accepting the medicine.

Sam glared at Alan, then turned and marched over to the general supply cabinet. She began putting stuff away. Alan stared after her, his mouth tight, eyes narrow, looking like he wanted to say something. Instead, he turned and left the room in a huff. Marcus crossed to stand by Lily at her radio station, where she had settled back into her chair.

"Are you sick?" he asked.

"Yeah...well, sort of," Lily replied. "I've got a condition. Lupus. It's chronic, no cure. Without medication, I die in a few months."

"Oh...god, I'm sorry," Marcus murmured, horrified by the idea of being trapped in a world where everything had broken down and you couldn't get what you needed to simply stay alive. Lily just shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, me too. I've got a little stockpile of the stuff I need and the condition isn't as bad as it used to be. I've gone into remission just lately, so, who knows, maybe I'll get lucky. As it is, with what Sam found and what I have leftover, I should have enough to keep me going for another month. And I'm sure we can find more somewhere in this damned city."

Sam slammed the door to the medical supply cabinet and turned to face them. "I'm going to go lay down for a little bit, so I don't stroke out or snap Alan's neck."

"Okay, we'll call you if we need you," Lily replied.

Sam began to march out of the room, then hesitated. "Thanks, Marcus. You saved my ass out there. I'll return the favor some time."

She left the room. "Wow, I'm impressed," Lily said. "She warmed up to you within twenty four hours. It took her a bit longer to be nice to me, and she's still arguing with Pastor Will...and Alan, obviously, but that's no surprise. I'm sure we'll all be fighting with that jackass until the end of days. So, it sounds like you did well out there."

"Yeah, I guess so. I can't help but feel like I got lucky." Marcus found his attention drawn to a map of Spencer's Mill pinned to the wall above Lily's desk. It was covered in markings from a black marker, as well as thumbtacks with yarn going away from them, leading to pieces of paper with writing on them. He found the church, and saw that several of the houses around the church were marked out with big, black Xs.

"What's all this?" he asked.

"That...is the lay of the land. It's a very up-to-date map of the town. Released about a month ago by our resident welcoming party. Mrs. Tomlinson. One of those Tupperware party, keeping up appearances soccer moms who had to be in everyones' business..." she trailed off, then laughed a little. "Listen to me, I sound like a bitch. She was nice, just...nosy, and a bit pompous. She would make these 'welcome to the town' baskets, with like cheeses and hams and gift cards and these maps. She made sure to update them like three or four times a year. She got really good at them. Who knew they'd be so damned useful?" Lily replied.

"So these Xs..." Marcus asked.

"Houses we've checked and cleaned out. There's nothing left in them," Lily replied.

"Huh. Smart. And these?" he asked, trailing the yarn with the tip of his finger.

"Special notes, extra information. Two of those are for enclaves I've discovered. The others are basically notes indicating that we should really, really check out this building or that building. One of them is a gun shop, another is a gas station, a convenience store. There's probably not much left by now, but..." she shrugged, "you never know. I've been in the process of putting together a to-do list, but it just seems so...overwhelming, I guess." She shook her head. "I feel like there's so much more we could be doing, but it's a struggle just to stay alive, you know? God, I'm glad we found you and Maya...and Ed."

"Thanks," Marcus replied.

"Yeah. Look, I'm going to need your help, there's a lot to do," Lily said.

"I'm your man. I've got energy, I've had breakfast, what do you need done?"

"Something not happy, but Maya's already agreed to help you. If you haven't noticed, space is kind of at a premium around here. We need more room because, ultimately, it's my plan to have more people here. Not only can't we keep going like this before something tragic happens, like someone falls asleep on night watch or there's not enough of us here when a horde shows up, but there are people out there, terrified, alone, starving. It'd be mutually beneficial," Lily said.

"Hey, you're preaching to the choir here. I'm all for finding more people to help out around here and to keep safe," Marcus replied.

Lily laughed. "I'm sorry, Alan is just such a hard sell. He doesn't trust anyone, thinks there's nothing but looters and murderers beyond our hallowed walls...it's a bunch of BS. Yeah, I'm not an idiot, I know there's jerks out there, like those Wilkerson boys..." she sighed. "I'll tell you about them later. But anyway, this place has a basement. Cleaning it out would help us two-fold. Pastor Will said there's a big canvas tent down there that we could set up. It would serve as a makeshift room for something else, out in the courtyard, and if we had a cleaned out, safe basement we could use that as a room for something as well."

"So I have to go down into the horrible basement and catalog and clean?" Marcus asked.

Lily smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, sorry."

Marcus sighed. "Okay, that's fair enough, I guess. Any luck with that doctor?"

"No, nothing yet. I'm still looking. Sorry."

"That's fine, I think they found something Neosporin and Amoxicillin. I'm going to go give them to Ed and then I'll get to work."

"Thanks."

Marcus headed over to the medicine cabinet. He put what was in his pockets in the cabinet, then fished out the Neosporin tube and bottle of Amoxicillin. Making his way back through the church, he stepped outside, back into the sunshine. There was no one with Ed, which initially made him angry, then he told himself to calm down. There weren't many people here. Ed was still asleep. He'd kicked his blanket off and he was shivering and sweaty.

"Damn," Marcus whispered.

He ran back inside and grabbed a bottle of water, then came back out and woke up Ed.

"What's...what's going on?" he asked.

"Everything's fine. I managed to find some meds," Marcus replied. "I need to check your dressing, give you some pills. Here, sit up."

"Ugh, god..." Ed moaned, slowly sitting up. "Head's killing me, burning up," he groaned.

"I know, bud. Here, take some," Marcus said, rattling out a few pills into his hand and passing them and the bottle of water to him. "Drink that whole thing, if you can, you need to stay hydrated," he said.

While Ed did this, Marcus checked for more gauze and tape. He managed to find some in the desk where Pastor Will had sat up all night, then sat down next to Ed and carefully peeled away his bandage. The wound looked ugly, but he couldn't tell how bad it was. All he knew was that Ed had an infection, because of the fever.

"Careful," Ed said.

"I know, sorry, just...hold still," Marcus replied.

He ended up using most of the tube of Neosporin, then folded a new pad of gauze, placed it over the wound and taped it into place. Ed hissed and flinched, but otherwise kept quiet. Marcus just wished he had something more powerful. After replacing the bandage, he made Ed finish the bottle of water, then laid him back down.

"Here," he said, placing the blanket back on him.

"This sucks," Ed muttered, shivering. "My head is melting and my arms are freaking freezing. Ugh, where's that doctor?" he groaned.

"We're looking for him. Where's your gun?"

"Under the pillow. Don't worry."

"Okay...I'm going into the basement and do some spring cleaning. I'll come up to check on you from time to time. Shout if you see any undead jerks climbing over the wall."

"I'll do more than shout," Ed replied.

Marcus laughed. "Come on, Ed, you can't shoot for shit."

"Hey, that's total BS. I can shoot."

"Maybe if you weren't sick as hell."

Ed laughed, then groaned. "Go on, I need a nap."

"Okay. I'll bring you some food too, soon."

"No, no food. My stomach feels like crap."

"No arguing. You need to eat. Go back to sleep."

Ed mumbled something and turned over, away from him. He made his way over to the church and began circling it until he found the tornado-shelter style doors built into the ground at the back of the building, same side as the back door. They weren't locked. He sighed, staring at them. This wasn't going to be fun.

He heard footsteps behind him.

Turning, he spied Maya. She was carrying work gloves and a pair of lanterns. "Hey, here to help?" he asked.

"Yeah. While you were out playing in the city, I checked over their defenses. There's gaps in the barbed wire and their watchtower is crap. I hope to find some spare parts down there. Come on, let's get to work," she said, pulling on her gloves.

She walked over to the cellar doors, grabbed them and pulled them open. Maya flipped on the lantern and made her way down into the darkness. Reluctantly, Marcus pulled on his gloves, activated his lantern and followed.