They stared in shock at Justin's lifeless body. Duncan was the most shocked, but he somehow managed to keep his wits. "Come on, we gotta move." he said, urging the others up. D.J. looked at him, a saddened look upon his face. "D.J., I know it hurts, but we gotta go." said Duncan. He grabbed D.J. by the arm and pulled him to his feet. D.J. kept his grasp on Justin, and they ran from the house. More guards followed them, but Chef and Thomas kept them at bay long enough for them all to escape.
They arrived back at the hospital to find the others awake. "Where the hell were you guys?" asked Chris. "Abigail told us something about going after Justin, but I-" he stopped, seeing the look on Duncan's face.
"Justin's dead." said Duncan, looking at Chris. "He went to Dorian's place, to get revenge for Katie. We tried to save him, but we-" he stopped. After a few seconds, Duncan dropped to his knees, his head buried in his hands. He was crying, shaking with rage and sadness. Courtney moved to him, and took hold of her husband.
"Duncan, listen to me. It's not your fault." said Courtney. "Justin made a choice, we all have, and there was nothing-", Duncan glared at her, making her stop.
"Don't you dare tell me there was nothing I could have done." he snarled. "I could have saved him, I could have saved all of them. But I didn't. Gwen, Noah, Katie, Harold, Izzy, Justin, they all died because I failed. If I had just figured out that first message, I could have prevented all of this."
"And chances are, you'd be the one who was dead." said Gwen. "You have no way of knowing if you would have succeeded. And Noah and I are back. We died, but we came back. And if we did it so can the others."
"You can't blame yourself for Harold and Izzy either." said Owen. "There was no way you could have prevented what happened on those operating tables."
"What would you have done?" asked Trent. "How would you have outlasted Dorian?"
Duncan didn't answer. For a moment, he sat in silence. Finally he stood, looked around the room and spoke. "If what you all say is true, than we've already lost. Months ago, Tyler asked why I was so determined to figure the message out. Tonight, you all asked the same question. Why do I keep fighting, why do we do what we do? I'll tell you why. We do it because we are a family. We do it because no one else will. We do it because if we don't, we are all dead." He paused for a moment, before continuing. "These are the reasons we fight. So that Justin, and Katie did not die in vain. So Gwen and Noah did not die and come back for nothing. So Izzy and Harold did not die in vain. And so the rest of us did not suffer in vain. These are the reasons we fight, the reasons I fight. I do it so we can all live normal, safe lives again and so Dorian burns in hell!"
The others looked at him, in awe of his impressive leadership skills. Courtney beamed at him, and even through the darkness of despair a light of triumph seemed to shine.
"Well said, Duncan." said Noah. "But you do realize this is far from over."
"Yes." said Duncan, looking at Noah with great intensity.
"Just checking." said Noah.
With renewed vigor, the campers set about planning the final assault on Dorian. The sorrow of the last few days seemed to drive them, but Duncan knew it wouldn't be enough. They needed more than grief alone to fuel their revenge and it would take something big to spark it. Unknown to all of them, that spark would come in the form of a traitor hiding in their midst.
