Charlize and Haley had been at the military compound for five days. They had slept a total of about 12 hours since then. It was busy, too busy. There were too many patients and too little doctors. They had the patients lined up in rows on cots - an improvised hospital. The ones that did not need immediate care where someone else, Charlize did not know where. Nick was with them, but Dr. Exner would not tell her where these people were. Their job was it to care for the ones that needed urgent care. Exner's words, not Charlize's.

"Charlize!"

The brunette was re-bandaging a leg as Dr. Exner caller her. She looked up and saw four soldiers bringing in another soldier on a stretcher. She carefully put away the bandage to get back to it later, and jogged over to Dr. Exner to help care for the new patient. Dr. Exner was listening to his heart, paused for a second, and then gave the stethoscope to Charlize.

"What do you hear?"

Charlize took the instrument and proceeded to put it in position. She listened carefully and concentrated hard while going through all the possibilities in her head.

"Decreased breath sounds on one side," she said and tried to narrow down the possible causes. She put down the stethoscope and took the man's wrist, feeling for the pulse.

"Elevated heart rate," she continued and thought for one more second before she concluded: "Collapsed lung."

Dr. Exner smiled. "Very good. How do we proceed?"

"We give him oxygen. If that does not help, we have to put in a chest tube." Charlize sounded more confident that she actually was.

"Exactly. Get me oxygen," Dr. Exner instructed and Charlize hurried to comply.

Dr. Exner had been training her and Haley ever since they had gotten to the compound. As much as she distrusted the woman when it came to what the military was up to, Charlize couldn't help but admit that she was a good mentor.


After they had given the soldier oxygen, Charlize went back to finishing up the bandaging. Afterwards, she walked over to Haley who was in the process of stitching up a laceration on another soldier. Just like Charlize, Haley was wearing a hospital coat and latex gloves.

"Can you cover me for 15 minutes?" she asked quietly when she was close enough.

"Gonna look for Nick again?"

Charlize nodded and Haley told her to go ahead. Ever since Dr. Exner had refused to tell her where the other people, the ones that were taken but weren't urgent, were kept, she had gone off on her own whenever she could find the time. She had always covered for her missing time with either saying she went to get food or she went to sleep. So far, she had been able to check all the floors above theirs without being caught.

This time, she went one floor down. The windowless corridor she was in was completely deserted and, thanks to the unstable electricity grid, the lights were flickering, which gave the whole scene a creepy atmosphere. She carefully walked down the hallway and checked the doors, using her key-card to access the restricted areas, but only found storage. When she opened the last door she was so sure she'd find more storage that she actually gasped in surprise when she saw cots.

She quietly took a step inside the room. It was smaller and emptier than the rooms upstairs. There were no windows either, and only three people were sleeping in cots in this room. The only audible sounds were breathing and the quiet beeping of monitors. The first patient was a a dark, young man with black hair. His forehead was shiny from all the sweat. The person in the next bed was an older man, probably in his 80's with white hair and a white beard. When Charlize looked to the third bed her eyes widened and she immediately went up to it. It was Griselda.

"Why don't you trust me?" a voice behind Charlize said. She turned around and saw Dr. Exner standing in the door. She decided to be honest.

"Because you're not telling me where Nick is."

Dr. Exner looked at her for a moment, evaluating.

"Because it does not concern you."

Charlize was about to argue but Dr. Exner raised a hand.

"Charlize, I know you care about him, but he's not a priority right now. He is with other people that are not urgent. And I am not telling you where they are because I need you up in that emergency room, not with him."

"If he's not urgent then why did you take him in the first place?"

"Because he was sick and we needed to make sure he is not infected."

"He's in withdrawal!"

Dr. Exner gave her a smile. "People say a lot of things to keep their loved ones safe. We can't take the risk."

Before Charlize could answer the two of them were interrupted by Grizelda muttering hectically. Both she and the doctor walked up to the bed. Griseldas eyes were still closed, but her forehead was glazed in sweat and she was rolling her head left and right as she was muttering something in Spanish.

"She's dying," Dr. Exner said.

"What happened?"

"We had to amputate the foot, but it was too late. She's in septic shock."

Charlize looked at Dr. Exner. "Is this what this is? The room for dying?"

Dr. Exner nooded.

"What do you do after they die?" Charlize asked, but Dr. Exner only shot her a questioning look.

"They turn, don't they?"

Dr. Exner nodded again.

"Even if they're not bitten?"

"Even if they're not bitten," the doctor confirmed.

"What do you do?"

Dr. Exner did not answer but instead walked around the cot to a table with medical instruments. She picked up something that looked a little like an over-sized glue gun. She continued to raise it and started pointing it at Griselda's head as the heart monitor's beeping became quicker and quicker.

"What are you doing?"

"Her brain is swelling," the doctor said. "The time varies from person to person, but we know that muscle impulse resumes after death."

She went on to push a little button and gas hissed on the appliance she was holding. "This is a captive bolt pistol. It's used for live stock," she said and turned her attention towards Griselda, whose monitor was flatlining now. "Traumatic brain injury is the only thing that stops them from turning."

Charlize swallowed as Dr. Exner released the trigger, the gun firing. Charlize turned away and closed her eyes, willing herself to emotionally detach herself from the situation. Everybody turns. Everybody comes back.

Not wanting to show too much weakness in front of Dr. Exner, Charlize swallowed and turned back around to the bed. Griselda was bleeding from a hole in her forehead, but Dr. Exner had moved on to the next bed. She was standing next to the young man, holding up the captive bolt.

"What are you doing?" Charlize asked in surprise as she followed her.

"As you said, this is the room for dying." Dr. Exner replied matter-of-factly.

"But this man isn't in septic shock!" Charlize argued as she looked at the man, who looked physically intact except for the fact that he was sweating immensely.

"No, he isn't."

"And he wasn't bitten?"

"No."

"Tell me if I'm wrong but it seems like he's just having a heavy fever. Why are you killing him?"

"Because we have been treating him for days and he doesn't get better, so we have to assume he is infected."

"You have to assume?"

"Charlize," Dr. Exner turned toward her for a moment. "We do not have the luxury of time to do the research. If it looks like a bite, it is a bite. If it looks like the infection, it is the infection."

Charlize swallowed, turned around and left the room. As she heard the bolt go off, all she could think of was that with his withdrawal, Nick looked like he was infected.


Nick threw up for the third time that day.

"I was wishing we had something to cover the smell of urine," he heard someone say, but he could not concentrate on it. All he could think of was the misery he was in.

He didn't know how long he had been here, but the military had put him - and all the other people they had collected - into small cages. They were in a large hall. The military had build up multiple cages in which they kept their patients, or whatever they were. Captives might be a better word. He was in a cage with three other people, but he assumed there must be a total of about 50, 60 people in the cages.

When his stomach was empty he turned around and sat down against the fence. He wiped his mouth with his arm, closed his eyes and breathed heavily. He felt like he was dying. His whole body was sweaty.

He only had a little bit of water left for the day, but he drank it anyway. Everything to get the vomit taste out of his mouth. The water made him nauseous. Everything made him nauseous these days, even water. He cursed himself for ever starting to use heroin. At the same time, he needed a fix like he had never needed one before.

Nick? Charlize's voice echoed in his head, accompanied with her face. She had been so angry, so disappointed in him. It haunted Nick. And in the moments he didn't replay that scene, he replayed the scene that happened after. When he got home, he had raided all the cabinets in the house, looking for more pills. He had lied to his mum about using less, he just couldn't stand her worried face. Then she had walked in on him as he was looking for pills. It was bad. What Charlize had done with her words, Madison had done with her hands. She had hit him. And then she had hit him again. And again, and again, until he was crouching in the corner of the room, protectively shielding his head with his arms, eyes wide in fear.

Nick?

He couldn't get Charlize's voice out of his head. His body was torturing him, and now his mind was torturing him as well. He started rubbing his temples exasperatedly.

Nick, are you here?

Nick opened his eyes. Why would she say that inside his head? He looked around and realized that people in the other cages had gotten up, directing their attention to the path outside the cages. Some of them started shouting.

"You can't keep us in here!"

"Help us!"

He followed their gazes to the path, but couldn't see anything.

"Nick?" he heard her again, and a moment later, he saw her. Charlize was walking down in between the cages, looking at each of them thoroughly. He hurriedly crawled to the door of the cage.

"Charlie!" he exclaimed and grabbed the fence. Her eyes found his, and she hurried over and knelt down in front of him. Her fingers found his through the fence. She was wearing a yellow overcoat, one you usually saw in hospitals. Half the hair of her dark brown bob was in a ponytail, and she looked tired. There were enormous bags under her eyes, and her skin was pale.

"Are you okay?" she asked urgently, but she tried to keep her voice down so people would not overhear them.

"Well, as good as it gets," he said and tried to sound casual. His face naturally put on a poker face, something he was so used to doing that it did not even take conscious effort anymore.

"Listen, I don't have much time. I'm not supposed to be here," she started saying. She must have come to work with the doctors, he thought.

"Whatever you do, do not let them take you!" she said, hushed. "Here," she said and started to pull a bottle of water from under her gown and carefully pushed it through the small space of the door. It opened up just wide enough to fit it through before the chain stopped it. The other people who saw started shouting angrily.

"Thank you," he told her.

"If they think you're infected, they will take you. Try to avoid being seen," she urged him again. "I have to go, I'll come back as soon as I can. I'll try to get you out of here!"

Charlize gave his fingers a gentle squeeze through the fence and she made to get up.

"Charlie, wait!" he exclaimed and she knelt down again. She looked at him with kind eyes, nothing left of the anger that was in her face the last time he saw her.

"About last time," he started, but she interrupted him.

"You don't have to,-"

"Yes, I do," he said quietly, and swallowed. As much as he hated to drop his poker face, he did. If she were ever to forgive him, she needed to see Nick, not poker-faced Nick. "I am so sorry. Not just last week," he shook his head. "All these years, I was so selfish, and you were still there. I've never said it, but I was always grateful. And I will never be able to repay you for that."

"This sounds like a goodbye."

"It's not supposed to."

"This isn't a goodbye," she emphasized.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay," she said.

"I'll come back for you," Charlize added as she left.


Nick had been dozing off when the soldiers came. He didn't know how long it had been since Charlize had come to see him, but he vividly remembered her words. Do not let them take you. He curled up in the corner behind the bench, the only piece of furniture in their cage, and hoped they would overlook him.

The soldiers were passing from cage to cage, taking peoples' temperatures with an clinical thermometer through the fence. Occasionally, they would open the fence to get one person out.

When the soldiers reached Nick's cage, the other three people inside automatically got up and went up to the fence, letting the soldiers take their temperature.

"98.6", the one with the thermometer announced as they had finished with the last of the three of them; a very tall, strongly build black man who was wearing a three piece suit. They soldiers were just about to move on to the next cage when one of them spotted Nick.

"Step to the fence," he announced.

Nick got up slowly. He tried to act casual and wiped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve, knowing it wouldn't reduce his temperature but trying nonetheless. When he reached the fence, the soldier with the thermometer held it up against his forehead. No one said anything for a second. Then, the appliance beeped.

"101.1" he announced.

"Pull him," the soldier in charge instructed. Nick desperately tried to think of a way to get out of this.

"The boy's not sick," the man in the suit said to the soldiers.

"Orders," the man in charge said simply. "Everybody with a fever goes downstairs."

He opened the cage door and two of the other soldiers came in, approaching Nick. He retreated as far as he could. "No, no, no - I'm not sick!"

"Come on, let's go."

Nick started panicking as they grabbed his upper arm and started pulling him out of the cage. "No, no, no!" He pushed against their pull.

While Nick struggled against the soldiers, the man in the suit had started bargaining with the soldier in charge.

"You found our last transaction to our liking," he stated.

"Yeah and I ain't giving it back," the soldier said cockily.

"I am suggesting another transaction. Something to round out the ensemble."

In the background, the soldiers had pulled Nick up to the door. "No, no, I'm not sick! I swear!"

"Hold!" The soldier in charge instructed his colleagues while never breaking eye contact with the man in the suit. He was considering the man's offer.

"Let me have the boy. I'll keep an eye on him."

Nick looked at the man in surprise. Was a complete stranger making deals to keep him here?

"Take this as collateral," the man in the suit said and produced what looked like a diamond cufflink from his pocket.

"Where is the other one?"

"Las Vegas, I think," the man said. He was relaxed, cool almost. Like he was used to bargaining and knowing how to play people.

"Yeah, I want them both," the soldier in charge said, and with a head nod he motioned the soldiers to keep going with Nick. They pulled him outside. Forcefully, Nick tried to get his arm out of the soldiers grip. "Get off of me, man!"

"Okay, okay," the man in the suit said, pulled the second cufflink out of his pocket and handed it over.

"No refunds," the soldier said, smugly. "The kid turns, it's your ass."

And with that, the soldiers let go of Nick and pushed him back into the cage. They locked the door with the chain and started retreating with the people they had collected. Nick turned around and looked at the man who had just saved his life.

"Why'd you do that?" he asked, curiously. "You saved my life."

"No, I obligated you," the man said. His voice was deep and confident. He sounded like on of those people who knew every answer to every question. "There is a difference."

Nick sat back down on the floor, leaning against the fence. He did not take his eyes off the man, and eventually, he sat down next to Nick.

"The game has changed. We return to the old rules. And the people who won the last round with their grande latte's and frequent flyer miles are about to become the buffet. I look at you and I see someone who knows the meaning of necessity," the man concluded and looked at Nick. Nick chuckled.

"Well, I'm an addict."

"No, you're a heroin addict."

"That's the gold standard."

"Don't sell yourself short," the man paused for a second. "The soldiers are leaving. I'm gonna require a man with your talents when I make my move." He smiled, mischievously.

"What move?"


The next day, Nick found out what the man named Victor Strand meant when he talked about his move.

Nick was bashing against the fence. Six days inside this small cage combined with his withdrawal were too much, he was getting claustrophobic.

"Don't draw any extra attention," Strand told him.

"I am losing my mind. I thought the house was bad," Nick groaned, thinking of his Mum's watchful eyes, his sisters face full of contempt as he threw up on the carpet and she had to clean it up.

"Think you're somewhere else with a needle in your arm," Strand suggested. He was about to say more, but they were interrupted by gunshots in the distance. People were shouting and firing rifles outside. Nick turned back around and stared in the direction of the noise.

"What's going on?"

As the power went out and the emergency lights turned on, Strand got up and casually walked up to Nick.

"It's time to go," he said simply and started to check his pockets. His face turned into a slightly stressed grimace as he apparently could not find what he was looking for. Nick smiled confidently and produced the key Strand was looking for from his own pocket. He had taken it a few hours after their first conversation, when Strand had nodded off.

The corners of Victor Stands' mouth turned upward in an approving smile as he took the key from Nick and opened the cage door.


"20 patients left. 12 critical, 8 stable. All infection free. One Chinook could lift the entire ward and personnel plus two dozen more soldiers, over", Dr. Exner said into the radio.

"Transport inbound, over, " a static voice answered.

As far as Charlize and Haley had been able to find out, they were being evacuated. All the soldiers were retreating from the Los Angeles area. Charlize turned to Haley and started to whisper in her ear.

"That doesn't sound like they'll be taking the people from the cages." Charlize had told Haley about the cages, and about the room for dying, as soon as she had come back.

"Nick," Haley said, knowing what Charlize was getting at. "We'll get him. Maybe we'll somehow manage to sneak him onto that evac heli as a patient."

Charlize nodded, trying to think of how they were gonna do that.

"How are we gonna get the keys?" she asked.

"I'll think of something, don't worry," Haley said confidently.

Before either one could say more, their thought process was disrupted by the power going out and the emergency lights kicking in.

"What the hell?" Haley asked.

They heard shots in the distance.

"Roof," Charlize said and the two girls started jogging to the stairs, taking them to the top level which had roof access. Charlize used her key-card to open the door and they stepped into the fresh night air. The shots were louder now. There was screaming, growling, and the sounds of uninterrupted open fire. They carefully walked toward the edge of the roof so they could look over. Both of them gasped at the same time. Charlize's hand shot up to her mouth in shock.

There were walkers, hundreds of them, pushing against the fence that was enclosing the compound. The soldiers were firing at them, but there were too many. Charlize watched in horror as the first section of the fence broke down. Only a small share of the walkers managed to get in through the hole, but it was enough to spark chaos.

"They're not gonna evacuate if the compound is compromised," Haley was the first one to think of the consequences.

Haley was right. Soon all these dead people would be making their way into the compound, and they had to get out before that happened.

"We have to get Nick now," Charlize said.

"-and then get the hell out of here," Haley finished.

They ran back to the stairwell, hurrying downstairs.

"We're not gonna be able to get the keys," Haley said as they were running.

Charlize thought of a solution. She had seen the cages, seen the chain that locked them. They had to be able to get in there without a key.

"I think I saw bolt cutters in one of the storage rooms downstairs."

Haley nodded and Charlize led her to the corridor where she had found the room for dying and all the storage.

"You check the rooms on the right, I take the one's on the left," Charlize instructed and they got to work.

Charlize checked room by room, but came up empty. She started to slightly panic as she thought about what they would do if they couldn't find a way to get Nick out. And even if they did, how were they gonna get out of the compound if the dead were pouring in?

"Got 'em!" Haley shouted victoriously from another room.

"Yes!" Charlize exclaimed in a relieved laugh.

"Okay let's get Nick and get the hell out of here!" Haley said. She was grinning too.

"Wait-" Charlize said, thinking of something. "We gotta get to our bunk first. I have the gun in my backpack."

"Good thinking," Haley said and they started running toward the personnel room where they slept, which was one floor above them. When they came upstairs they had to pass the emergency room to get to their bunks. Charlize caught a glimpse of the patients, lying in their cots, either sleeping or comatose. She felt a pang of guilt for leaving them behind. She had sweated blood, sweat and tears to care for them, to nurse them, to make sure they survived - only to leave them to die now.

She pushed the thought away.

When they reached the personnel bunks Charlize quickly grabbed her backpack, reached inside and retrieved the gun, tucked it behind the waistband of her jeans on her back, and quickly stuffed the rest of her clothes from her bed into the backpack. She then put it on and turned to Haley, who was ready to go with her own backpack.

They nodded at each other and started running again. Charlize ran up front, leading Haley to the ground floor where she had found the cages the previous day. When she used her key-card to open the door to the big hall, Haley stopped in her tracks as she saw the cages.

"Oh my God," she exclaimed and put a hand over her mouth. "This is where they kept people?!"

"I know," Charlize said and started jogging toward Nick's cage. When she reached it, her heart dropped.

The door was open. Nick was gone.


Nick was following Strand through a long corridor. Something was definitely wrong, they hadn't come across any people since they had escaped their cage. Still, they were careful. The corridor ended in a bigger room that seemed to have been the entrance to the building. Nick stopped in the door frame. There were two dead soldiers on the floor a bit further into the room, and another person was leaning over one of them, eating his leg.

"That's why the power is out," Nick mumbled more to himself than to Strand. The compound must have been overrun.

Strand had walked further into the room. Apparently he wanted to take the entrance doors as an escape route, but the way was blocked. There were dead one's outside, trying to push in through the glass doors.

Before Nick could ask Strand what he planned on doing now and telling him that he still had someone here he needed to get, another door across the room broke and forcefully opened, and a whole swarm of walkers poured in.

"Shit," Nick said, looking to Strand. The man quickly grabbed a gun from one of the dead soldiers and ran back to Nick. Then, both of them sprinted back down the corridor. Nick reached the door to the stairwell first, but instead of running through it like he planned, he collided with it full force. The handle didn't turn, he couldn't open it.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he exclaimed as he continuously tried to push down the handle. He looked to the side. On the wall next to the door was a small key slot and his heard dropped. He needed a key card to open the door.

He turned around and looked down the corridor and saw that the walkers were coming for them. Strand used the gun to fire at them, but not one of them dropped. Nick panicked. He turned back to the door and jumped against it with his full weight multiple times. The door didn't budge.

Just as he was about to give up hope, Nick spotted people running down the opposite corridor through the little window of the door.

"Hey! Hey!" he screamed as he hammered against the glass.

They were coming closer and to his surprise, Nick saw his mother.

"Mum!" he yelled, hoping to get their attention. He did.

Madison spotted her son and hurried to the door that was separating them. Behind her were Travis, Daniel and Ofelia. They must've come to get him and Charlize.

"Nick!" she screamed back through the door. Nick could see them trying to open the door from the other side, but they didn't seem to be able to either. His heart was pounding. He turned around and saw that the walkers had almost reached them. Strand had ran out of bullets. He looked back to his mother, and a terrifying realization came over him. He wouldn't get out of here.

He looked through the window at his mother.

"Go," he mouthed. He could see her shaking her head violently. "No, no!"

Nick put up his fingers against the glass, and his mother reciprocated the movement from the other side. The closest they could come to touching.

"Go," he mouthed again.