[AN] For the record, I am trying to make as many places in my story actual places in the real world. The town of Murphy is an actual small town in Iowa, and it does actually have a runway. Boise is the capital of Idaho, and the Mountain Home Air Force base does exist. The farm Marcus's dad lived on was meant to be somewhere nearby interstate 84, southeast of Boise. Unless stated otherwise (in my author's notes), all places I mention do exist.

Also, I feel obligated to warn you that this chapter has adult content. If you are worried about passionate sex scenes, don't worry (in fact, I can promise you that you won't ever see that in my stories). But this chapter is definitely not intended for young children. I can't get into details without spoiling it. Just trust me on this.

Now, to the story:

[Day 27, 1:00 PM]

Marcus was in the jeep with Tony driving on highway 78. They were headed towards Grand view, a smallish suburban town a half hour away from Murphy.

"So, lets go over this one last time." Tony said to Marcus, who was sitting in the drivers seat.

Marcus continued focusing on driving the car.

"We park the Jeep just outside the town. We go house to house, to see if we can find anything, or anyone. If we find any survivors, we signal each other with the walkie talkies, then try to establish if they are friendly. If they are friendly, we ask if they have seen anyone else nearby. Then we tell them to meet us outside the town. If they are hostile on first sight, we engage. If they want us to leave, we leave. If there are infected, we leave."

"That basically sums it up."

Marcus started making some small talk," So, how is Anna holding up with the pregnancy?"

"Very well. We're lucky that we found a lot of food back in Murphy. She's already eating much more then normally. How are Kathryn and Cory holding up?"

"Kathryn is fine, and Cory is being adorable, as always." Marcus smiled.

Tony got bored and put on the radio. Country music started playing. Marcus thought he would change the channel, but Tony said, "You know what? Ever since I've been forced to spend so much time with you, your love of country music has infected me. This isn't that bad." He turned up the volume.

Marcus chuckled.

They arrived at the town a couple of minutes later.

I really hope I don't have to use this. Marcus thought to himself, positioning his M16 intRead ready position as he left the car

Tony got out of the car with his pump action Remington 870 shotgun. They split up, and started to explore the town.

[around 15 minutes later]

Marcus was exiting the seventh house down the street when he heard someone behind him.

"Please, help!" He heard a man saying.

Marcus turned around. Oh shit he thought to himself. The man behind him was leaning next to a porch railing. He had blood all over his shirt, and looked badly wounded. He reached for his walkie talkie and talked to Tony, "I've got a wounded survivor on Kathleen Drive, get your ass over here!" He reached for his assault rifle, and ran over to the guy.

"My name's Marcus. Whats your name? Where are you hurt?"

"My name's Luke. Fucking everywhere hurts man. Please, help me get inside my house over there." He pointed to a house across the street. "It's safe there."

"Sure thing." Marcus put one of Luke's arms over his shoulders and helped him walk to the house across the street. Once they got there, he said. "I think I can support my own weight against the wall. Move over so I can unlock the door."

Without thinking twice, Marcus moved over to let the guy unlock the door. He was standing right in front of an opened window in the house's living room. He had his back to it, and was thinking, "Whatever asshole hurt this man is going to have a bad day." He was aiming his assault rifle towards the street, making sure nobody could sneak up behind the man he had just saved. "Where should I be looking?" Marcus asked Luke.

He felt a gun barrel touch the back of his head. "Not back here if you want to live."

The motherfucker lured me into a trap, dammit! He thought to himself angrily.

He felt a gun jabbed into his ribcage. "Drop the gun, now." Said Luke, the man who he had blindly trusted only seconds before. Keeping his eyes straight towards the road, he took the gun off of his shoulder and lightly tossed it forward. "The revolver too." Marcus took his father's 44. Magnum, which he had kept on him ever since his death, out of its holster and dropped it on the porch floor.

"Get inside if you want to live."said Luke. They didn't notice my combat knife! Marcus realized with such excitement that he almost said it aloud. He started to say it, but quickly made it sound like a cough. "Shut up." Said Luke. As he was walking inside he also realized And they don't know I'm wearing my kevlar vest under my shirt —

As he walked in, he saw the man next to the window point a shotgun right at his head ...which is irrelevant, because of that shotgun next to my face. he thought to himself grimly.

Marcus felt his head explode in pain as Luke pistol whipped the back of his skull. He fell to his knees and shouted, "AGHHH,.. FUCK!" He felt Luke's foot on his back push him to the floor face first. He had the same response, only this time, it was muffled by the floor. Assholes! What the fuck do they want with me? He thought to himself. He felt someone pull him back up by the collar of his shirt.

"What the fuck do you want?" He asked his captors.

"For you to shut the fuck up!" Said the man in front of him.

Just then, he heard Tony's voice, sounding much more authoritative and threatening then he had ever heard before, saying, "Drop the shotgun and turn to me if you want to live." Marcus saw the barrel of Tony's 870 sticking through the opened window. The man with the shotgun turned towards Tony without dropping his shotgun.

Marcus saw the flash from Tony's 870, and saw the mans's head get shredded by buckshot.

"Oh shit!" Luke said in a shrill voice while watching his friend's head explode. Marcus reached for his combat knife and stabbed Luke in the arm. Luke Fired the pistol into Marcus's back, then dropped the pistol as pain from the knife shot up his arm. "Fuck" Marcus yelled as he felt the impact of the bullet through the Kevlar. Damn that hurt he thought to himself. Marcus turned around and picked up the pistol that Luke dropped, got up, and pointed it at Luke, who was now sitting on the floor, looking up at Marcus in horror while trying to back away.

"Please don't shoot! I thought you were going to hurt me and -"

"Stop with the fucking bullshit!" Marcus said to Luke while pointing the pistol at him. He heard the door open, and Tony walked inside, carrying Marcus's revolver and M16. Marcus took them off Tony, and handed him the pistol.

"Tony, you search the house, I'll watch this asshole." Marcus said while pointing his father's revolver right at Luke's face.

Tony searched through the one story house, and called out, "All clear!"

Marcus took a step closer to Luke, who had backed himself all the way into the corner and was now whimpering and cowering in fear from Marcus.

Tony started questioning him first. "What the fuck were you doing?"

"We didn't mean to hurt you guys! We thought you were coming here to harm us!"

"I might have believed that if you simply opened fire on us when you saw us. But instead, you faked being injured to lure me into your house, then bashed my face into the floor . Stop with the bullshit." Marcus said.

He noticed Luke's eyes constantly looking back to one spot. Marcus turned around and saw that he was looking at a door that lead to what appeared to be the basement.

"Tony, did you check the basement?" Marcus asked.

"Basement? What base- Oh." Tony turned around and saw the door. "I'll check it now."

Tony opened the door and walked down the steps. Marcus heard him stop walking.

"Um... There's some pretty gnarly stuff in here." Tony said. Marcus could hear a tremble in his voice. Tony came back upstairs, with a shocked look on his face. Marcus said, "Watch him." And walked down to the basement.

What he saw horrified him.

The first thing he saw was four rotting corpses stacked against the wall. They had clearly been killed with gunshot wounds. The stench was unbearable. And that wasn't the worst of it.

He saw a man strapped into a chair unconscious. The man had clearly had the shit beaten out of him. Marcus looked to where the trapped man was facing.

There was a woman, who couldn't be any older then 21, handcuffed to a mattress with hardly any clothing on she had clearly been beaten violently, and quite recently.

Those sick bastards were- his thoughts where cut off by a moan behind him.

"Let her go you motherfuckers." The man said in a weak voice. He must have just regained consciousness.

"I'm not with them." Marcus looked at the man, who was unhealthy thin. "My God. Did they even feed you?"

"No. I've been down here for three days, I think." The man said.

Marcus saw a bottle of water nearby and held it up to the man's lips. The man finished off the entire bottle.

"Please, get her out of here. If they come back they're gona-"

"We're getting both of you out of here. I'll be right back." Marcus walked up the steps, and pulled his father's Magnum out of it's holster.

He walked up to Luke.

"Look man, whatever you saw down there, I had nothing to do with it!"

Marcus, for a split second, thought of this man laying his hands on Kathryn.

"Just let me go ma-"

Marcus aimed his father's Magnum straight at Luke's forehead. He fired, and Luke's body went limp.

"Help me get those people out of here." Marcus said to Tony

They walked down stairs. Marcus used his combat knife, now covered in Luke's blood, to cut the rope binding the man to the chair. He tried standing up, but fell to the floor.

Tony caught him before he hit the ground. "Take it easy man. Lean on me." The man put his arm around Tony's shoulders.

"Do you know where they kept the key to the handcuffs?" Marcus asked the man he had cut free, pointing too the cuffed connected to the woman on the bed.

"They made a point of saying that they threw away the keys. They said that when they made me watch..." The man said, tears forming up in his eyesa he was choking up.

Marcus looked at the revolver in his right hand, which had some of Luke's blood on it. Then he looked at the handcuffs. He aimed at the chain that connected her wrist to the bed frame, and fired. The chain came right off.

Marcus picked up the woman and carried her up the stairs. Tony was up there, waiting for him with the man. Tony already had the other man's shotgun and Luke's pistol on him, and was next to the door.

They walked back to the jeep. Tony asked the man, "Before we go, I need to ask you if there were any more of them."

"No. You killed both of them."

"Do you know if there are any other survivors in this area?"

"Not to my knowledge." The reached the car and Tony helped the man get into the back seat.

"My name is Peter Mrozik. My sister's name is Elizabeth."

Marcus placed Alice in the backseat next to Peter. Peter moved her unconscious body next to him.

"Thank you so much. You saved both of our lives, and to think of watching Elizabeth go through another second of the hell those men put her through-" Peter was visibly in tears at this point.

Tony, now in the passenger side front seat of the jeep, turned around and said, "Your safe now. We'll take good care of you both."

Marcus started up the jeep. As he was about to drive off, he saw a firefly glowing on the hood of his car. Marcus smiled to himself as he drove back to their camp in Murphy.

[AN] Well, now you know why this is rated M. Don't say I didn't warn you.