Five attempted to quiet her pounding heart as she listened to Sam's words. She had to stay calm—stay sane—if she wanted to live through this. Somehow, she needed to keep her wits about her.

"You're not even my second Runner Five, you know that?" He paused, and then continued flatly. "You're my fourth."

Well. That was certainly heartwarming. Five frowned. "I guess there's no better reason you'd make it back than any of the others… but we've put the red beacon on top of the tower. So if you can see it, my best advice is… run."

Wait… a beacon?

Five looked around wildly, but it was in vain. She could see no red light through the trees. Knowing perfectly well she was in more danger the higher she climbed, Five scrambled up the tree trunk.

As soon as she had reached another steady branch, Five gazed around herself in a circle. She was just at the tips of the trees, and she couldn't see anything except… except…

Except a red light in the distance.

Five let out a low breath of air as she spotted a tiny dot of red light to the south. It was the beacon.

Without hesitating, Five clambered down the tree as fast as she could, nearly falling in the process. Landing back on the earth, Five peered quietly around the underbrush before setting off in the direction of Abel, a small fire of hope burning in her chest.

Sam's voice piped in her ear once more, to her surprise. "So… I'm just gonna keep talking for a while." Five smiled in spite of herself, utterly grateful for the company she could not reciprocate. "I mean, for all I know, I could be talking into the ear of a zombie. But, hey, undead fiend who used to be my friend Runner Five, at least I can irritate you with the sound of food you can't get at." Sam chuckled, and Five grinned, his laughter fueling her newfound energy. "Over here. Look at this tasty human meat!" His laughter died after another chortle.

"We've all gone a bit crazy these last few months, haven't we, Runner Five?" he said, and the smile slipped from her face. "I mean, you know, that's the thing you don't really think about during an apocalypse. How it's going to affect your ability to, like, be normal… ever again. Do you think we've just… forgotten how to be normal? Do you even remember what normal felt like?"

Five blinked, thinking. To be perfectly honest, she hadn't even allowed her mind to wander that far in the past for a long time. Going out on missions forced her into focusing on the moment, and she couldn't afford to bring back painful memories if she expected herself to survive this.

"I called you my friend just before, didn't I? Is that cool with you?" Sam mused. Despite being utterly alone in the darkness, Five nodded as she continued heading toward Abel. Yes. Yes, it is, Sam. "I mean, I'm definitely not your friend if you've gone gray, but… I feel like we have a kind of… simpatico. Something?"

"Yeah," she whispered back into the one-sided conversation.

"So… yeah, well, le—let's just talk like normal people. Like… buddies, or something."

Despite all this—despite facing the possibility that Five was dead or turned—Sam was here. Sam was talking to her, holding her hope in each syllable he uttered, calling her a friend. Five swallowed hard, picking up the pace a little.

Sam continued speaking. "Before all this, I—I bet you had a pretty good life. Someone like you, yeah, I can see it." Five's stomach clenched tightly, and she forced herself not to dwell on that sentence and continue listening. "People you cared about, job you didn't hate. I know… lots of people don't like to talk about that stuff. 'Think forward,' the Major says. 'Rebuilding is key.' But, you know, I feel like…" He stopped for a moment, thinking. "We have to remember what it was like so we know what we're building, don't we? No, I don't mean escalators and shopping malls and frozen yogurts… al—although, I could really go for an ice cream roll right now."

Five stopped running. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd had an ice cream roll. She stretched for a moment, allowing her fatigued limbs to recover temporarily.

"Do you remember those things?" Sam asked her. She nodded again. "Cake outside and ice cream in the middle? Was it—or was it the other way around?"

"No, Sam, it was cake in the midd—"

"I don't even remember anymore," he continued. Then, Five heard a small noise—the sound of a rolling chair moving. "Now, wait, wait, hang on, I'll go and check. And, um, uh, yeah, if you're still Runner Five, keep running."

"No!" Five breathed. "No, Sam, come back!"

The line was silent, and Five gasped. She couldn't do this alone. Not without him. Hearing a sudden rustling in the bushes, Five squeaked and took off at a sprint, ignoring the pain in her calves. What if he got distracted? What if he thought she thought was a lost cause? What if he decided not to come back?

Don't leave me, Sam, she pleaded silently. Please… don't give up on me.