[AN] I'd like to thank reddit user yourgandmasallbran for allowing me to use an image he made as a cover for this story. Also, sorry for posting this a bit later then normal.

[Day 22, 7:00 AM, Mountain Time Zone]

The cars were loaded up. Anna, Tony and Marlene were in the Jeep, while Kathryn was with Cory in the minivan.

Marcus knelt next to his father's grave.

"Well dad, I guess this is it." He whispered. "Help me raise Cory the way you raised me. I'll never forget you."

He stopped for a moment, then whispered ," God, am I doing the right thing here? If anything happened to Cory because of me, I could never live with myself."

Marcus thought he heard someone next to him. He didn't look up. He heard a voice say, "A good shepherd watches over his sheep. If that means fighting off the wolves, so be it."

Marcus turned around suddenly. Nobody was there. Marcus wasn't sure what to make of this. He had heard those exact words from his father a few years ago.

Marcus got up, slightly shaken. "I hope that's a 'yes' God." He thought to himself. He made himself focus at the task at hand, and walked to the minivan.

"You ready Tony?" He said through a walkie talkie.

"Ready, let's go."

Marcus started up the Minivan, and started to drive towards the small town of Murphy, Idaho.

[Same Day, 10:00 AM]

"I see the town up ahead Tony." Marcus said, driving towards it on state highway 78

"Finally. My legs are killing me. Lets pull over and check it out."

They drove to the northwest edge of Murphy and pulled over. As planned, Kathryn got out of the minivan and walked up the hill next to the road. She looked through her rifle scope, trying to spot anything that could give them cause for alarm.

"Well, it looks like everyone in the town has cleared out. I can only see one guy, next to that airplane over there." Marcus looked at the runway and saw a small airplane on it. He couldn't make out anyone with his bare eyes though. He told Tony the news through the walkie talkie.

"Lets try to drive up to him in the Jeep." Tony said.

"Ok. I'm coming down there now. Send Anna and Marlene up to the minivan." Marcus said, then he looked at his wife. "If he tries anything, can you take him out from up here?" He asked her.

She thought for a moment. "I think I can hit him. Don't rely on me though, it is quite a long shot from here."

"Okay. Just don't shoot unless you hear gunshots."

"Got it."

He walked down to the Jeep, Tony was in the driver's seat, waiting for him. Marcus had the M16 from the Air Force base on him, and Tony still had the shotgun.

"If he shoots at us, don't take any chances." Marcus said.

"Wasn't planning on it."

.

Tony started to drive slowly towards the runway. Marcus could make out the man now, who seemed to be messing with the plane's engine. He also noticed that he was wearing an Air Force Mechanic uniform.

When Tony was halfway to the mechanic, the mechanic stopped what he was doing and turned around. Marcus saw him pull out a pistol, and was about to shoot him when he noticed he was moving it above his head.

"You think he's friendly?" Marcus asked Tony.

"He's not aiming the gun at us, so it looks like it."

They drove up 10 feet way from the mechanic. Marcus got out of the car first, holding the M16 in his hands away from the mechanic, but still easily reachable. He walked towards the man, who seemed a lot calmer then he should be.

"We're friendly." Marcus said, moving his shoulder back at the Jeep.

"I think I remember you." The mechanic said. "Your name's Marcus, right? You asked me to check on you're scanners the evening everything went to shit back at the base."

Marcus realized who the mechanic was now. "You're... Austin Lindauer, right?"

"Yep." Austin thought for a second, then decided to put his gun back in a holster he had attached to his side. Marcus returned the gesture by putting his rifle over his back. They walked towards each other, and shook hands.

"I'm glad neither of us got shot." Austin said, smiling.

"Same here." Marcus looked over to the Jeep, and saw Tony come out without his shotgun.

Tony walked up to Austin and shook his hand. " Just so you know, the minivan coming over here is with us.

"Not a problem." Austin said.

The minivan arrived, and everyone got out. After Austin was introduced to the rest of the group, he asked, "The sun is rising, and in case you don't know by now, it get really hot down here in July." Marcus nodded, along with some other's in their group. "The power has been cut off, but I have a generator hooked up to one of the houses. It has air conditioning. Follow me." Upon hearing air conditioning, everyone followed Austin.

Once they were safely inside one of the large houses, Austin showed them to a group of seats. Everyone sat down. "Anything I can get you? I have a stockpile here larger then you can imagine."

Marcus spoke first, "I ate breakfast before we came here. We aren't that hungry," His throat felt a bit parched though "but I wouldn't mind some water."

Once everyone had been served, Tony asked, "So, how did you manage to get out of the base? It was pretty bad when me and Marcus got out."

"You saw the airplane yourself." Austin said. "Only reason I can think of it being at the base was because it was being used to train beginner piglets the basics." Marcus nodded. He remembered flying in those things, and how he first thought that it was the most incredible experience in his life. Then he was introduced to an actual fighter jet.

Austin continued, "I had been in flight school for long enough to know how to fly one of those. Never was able to get the hang of any decent aircraft. I knew I had to get out of the base if I wanted to live, so I got in, and flew out of there. I knew that flying into or over the Boise quarantine zone would cause some alarm, I came here."

"How did you know about this place? I have never heard about it before today." Tony asked.

"Had a friend who had a friend who lived here. I remembered something about an airstrip, so I flew here."

"Nicely done. Now, how did you get all this food? It wasn't just lying here, right?" Anna asked.

"As a matter of fact, it was." Austin said with a chuckle. "By the time I came here, everyone had already left for the quarantine zone. Luckily for me, the person who lived here was one of the preper types. This note " he pulled a note out of his pocket, showing it to the group, "that says everyone in town has left for the Boise QZ, and that they couldn't fit all of their food into their van. He said whoever stumbled across this place was welcome to the rest of the food and supplies. The guy was even kind enough to leave the door unlocked and left a house key inside."

"Well, you certainly got lucky." Kathryn said. "You've been here for eleven days now, right?"

"Yep. I have enough food here to last me a year, even with all of you guys here." He sat down. "So, how have you been holding up? What brings you all here? And furthermore, why aren't you in the quarantine zone?"

Everyone in the group eyed Marcus. Austin noticed this and said in a serious voice, "I can tell something went wrong. What happened?"

Marcus spoke. "I might as well give you a brief summary of what happened. Since the base went to shit. Me and Tony, " He nodded his head over at Tony, "went to my father's farm. It's a couple of hours away from the city. Of course, Tony brought his wife, Anna, with him, and my wife, Kathryn, was already at the farm with my son, Cory. We decided to wait for a couple of days for the QZ in Boise to be completely set up. While we were waiting, we rescued Marlene from two infected chancing after her."

Marcus paused and looked up at Austin. "Did you hear about the raider attack on the QZ?"

"Yeah, I heard about it. Hard to imagine something like that would happen so soon, but that's human nature I guess."

"There was no bandit attack. When we tried to enter the quarantine zone, all the cars in front of us got mowed down. We managed to escape, but my father was killed."

Austin looked around, and saw the somber looks on everyones faces.

"Shit. That's so many different kinds of fucked up." Austin was stunned. "I- I don't even know what to say. I'm so sorry."

Everyone was silent for a minute. Marcus continued, "As of right now, the only logical reason for them to have mowed down all those people was that the quarantine zone reached maximum capacity. To prevent anyone from coming back with weapons, they decided to deal with us before any issues came up."

Austin was speechless, and just stared down at the floor. Marcus continued, "We have decided to start a... rebellion against Andrew Blendon, the man who runs the Boise quarantine zone." Marcus could feel the hesitation in his own voice.

Austin looked up. Without hesitating, he said "I'm in. Those motherfuckers are going to pay for what they did."

Marcus was a bit surprised at his enthusiasm, but he wasn't complaining. "Good. But at the moment, we have other priorities. We were going to make plans for food, but we have that issue under control."

"No kidding." Austin said.

Marlene chimed in, "Was there anything else left here that we can use?"

"Nothing left in this house that I can use. I haven't gotten around to checking the rest of them yet."

"Well then, after we eat, lets try to see what else these people left for us." Tony said.

"Sounds like a plan, I was expecting to take weeks searching through everything." Austin replied. "Now it shouldn't take more than a couple of days."

"One other thing." Marcus added," we need to have a lookout, just in case someone else comes by. It's not likely, since nobody has heard of this place, but it can't hurt to be careful."

Austin smiled. "Which one of you is the best shot? " he asked. Kathryn raised her hand.

"Well then Kathryn, I have a present for you. Be right back." He walked up the stairs. As he walked back downstairs, he was chuckling. "I only just realized the irony of this. Mrs. Barrett, meet the Barrett M95 bolt action sniper rifle."

He walked up to her and handed her the gun. "Lord, you can take me now." Everyone laughed.

"Wait a second, didn't you say there was nothing else in here that you could use?" Marcus Barrett asked.

"I did. I tried using that thing, and it nearly ripped my shoulder off. I don't have the skill to use that rifle."

Everyone had if finished eating by this point. Austin spoke, "We'll then, lets get to work. Kathryn should go to the top floor and be our lookout. There are some ear plugs upstairs, you will need them. I learned that the hard way." He continued. " The rest of us should search the town in groups. I'll go with Marcus, and the rest of you can be a group yourself."

They were about to leave when Austin called out, "Almost forgot, wait a second." He went and grabbed 6 walkie talkies, and handed everyone in the group one, "I haven't come across any infected, but in case anything happens, call it in."

"Sounds like a plan. Lets meet back here at...," Anna looked at her watch," 2:00?"

"Sounds good. Well, lets go." Austin said, and they walked out the door.