After almost a month, I return with a new chapter! Enjoy! Also, you don't have to listen the songs stated in the story, but it does enhance the experience. That's all I have to say. Don't forget to follow and favorite the story if you enjoy!

Arc 3 will contain Chapters 21-30.

Arc 3

Raindrops running down the windows. Teardrops running down from her eyes. A low rumble of thunder from the distance. A low whimper trembling from her lips.

The light from the blue phone lit up. It was a bright light, lighting up nothing that could be seen on the screen. Just white light.

Then, it buzzed.

Lori turned towards the glove department. It buzzed. She sniffled and wiped her tears as she stared at it. It buzzed again. She placed her hands on the small handle and opened it, rummaging through the notes written with red ink. The photos also had bloody text. They all the same grim message.

WHY COULDN'T YOU SAVE ME?

MY BLOOD IS IN YOUR HAND.

GOOD LUCK FINDING THE OTHERS.

GUESS WHO CAN'T CRY ANYMORE?

MOM AND DAD DON'T WANT YOU ANYMORE.

GOOD JOB SAVING YOUR SISTER.

I WISH YOU WOULD BURN.

WHO'S NEXT?

The phone buzzed again. Lori placed her fingers on it. Her vision folded into darkness before revealing the object in her hand. It buzzed again and again. Her fingers lifted itself away from the phone, leaving bloody fingerprints on the screen.

Lori closed her eyes, letting one tear come out from them before passing out. The phone stopped buzzing and the photos no longer had any messages in them. But the blood from her wounds still remained.

Chapter 21: Lost

I - Here We Remain

The rain continued to pour on the van. Luan kept her hands steady on the wheels and her feet lightly pressed against the gas pedal. Then, she slowly let go of the pedal as she turned the wheel to the left.

The Medway Motel neon sign remained dark. A couple roamers lurked around the abandoned vehicles as Luan parked between two parking spaces. She opened the door and grabbed her katana before closing it. The rain soaked her hair again, but luckily, her leather jacket kept her body dry.

She ran with the bloody blade in her hands, looking around for the monsters. A wet roamer oozing blood with a saturated dark-red color appeared before her. Its clothes were ripped where a giant stab wound remained in its chest, and its shoes were falling apart. Its golden eyes glowed through the downpour.

The girl quickly drove her sword forward and moved closer to the roamer. With a quick lift, she held the katana by the scar in her right temple and lunged it towards the roamer's skull, the blade sticking through its wet head. She pulled it out and looked around, finding other roamers.

The raindrops splashed around as the blade of the katana cut through them. They slicing moved around in spirals, uppercuts, and zigzags. As the girl continued dancing in the rain with her katana, blood splattered into the puddles in the ground, into the abandoned vehicles, into the raindrops themselves.

Luan finished her dance and panted as she looked around. The bodies were in the ground and no golden eyes could be seen moving through the downpour. She placed her hands on her face and moved her wet strands of hair away from it. She blinked rapidly and looked back at the van.

She saw Lincoln pull Lori out of the van, and ran to the van to help him. She placed the katana back into her sheath and grabbed one of Lori's arms, placing it around her shoulders. Lincoln kicked back the door to close it as he tried to face the raindrops pelting the survivors.

They moved towards the motel and looked at the rooms in the lower section. Luan and Lincoln moved to a room, finding it unlocked. They opened the door and went inside, finding themselves in a pitch-black space.

"Hold her tight!" exclaimed Luan.

She ran to a large drawer beside the bed, dimly lit by the window, and took out a large towel. Next, she placed the towel on the bed and ran back to Lori, this time, picking her up with her full strength. She rolled her to the bed and sighed as she was now safely lying on the bed.

She saw candles on top of the drawers, prompting her to check Lori's pockets in her cargo shorts. She pulled out her lighter and lit up the candles before closing the door to the room. The candles were now lighting up the room and also revealed something suspicious on the drawer.

Lincoln looked over at Lori, inspecting all her wounds. Luan picked up the object on the drawer and flipped it around, staring at it as her eyes grew wide.

"Magnum?" whispered Luan. "Large… size… oh!"

"None of the wounds look that bad," said Lincoln, his voice cracking. "It could've been a lot worse– woah."

Luan gulped and tossed the box onto the drawer. She moved away from the candles and focused on Lori.

"Whose room was this?" asked Lincoln.

"Dana… and Wavehead," replied Luan. "Looks like they were really… close friends."

Luan placed her fingers on Lori's neck.

"She's just unconscious," she said. "I think there's another towel in the drawers. We'll dry ourselves up and… rest. It's been… a very long day."

After drying herself with a purple towel, Luan placed herself on the large towel in the bed, next to Lori.

"There's enough space here, Lincoln," said Luan.

"It's okay. Just go to sleep. I need to relax for a little first."

Luan nodded and placed her head into the middle pillow. Lincoln walked out of the motel room, leaving the door slightly open.

Luan sniffled and thought about her second eldest sister– realizing, that Luna has now taken that spot. The pillow became more damp as she continued to cry into it. Before she knew it, she was asleep, her tears drying up on her face.

Lincoln opened the passenger door to Vanzilla and grabbed the photo album from the glove department. He covered it inside his shirt and ran back into the motel as he was attacked by the rain. Then, he went inside and closed the door before taking the photo album out. He grabbed the purple towel and dried himself, finding Luan asleep in the bed. He tossed the towel away and sat down in the floor by the drawers, opening the photo album to find pictures of the Loud family. Tears fell onto the album when he flipped into Leni's section. Her baby pictures, a picture of when she went to first grade, much to the parents' surprise, a picture of her in the parks feeding bread to a bunch of pigeons, and a selfie with her former coworker, Fiona.

Then, he found the picture that Carol took back in Royal Woods when they were preparing to leave to Houlton. Many of the faces were colored by a transparent gray marker. He could list all the faces from when their deaths occurred in order.

Rocky. Chaz. Lola. Francisco. Liam. Chunk. Missy. Lucy. Darcy. Zach. Richard. Tabby. Dana.

Lincoln closed the album and tried to hold his tears back. Leni was already colored gray by herself.

Luan shifted her body around, fidgeting about.

Leni's body fell. Blood splattered the ground where Luan stood. She looked around and noticed that she was holding a katana. It was already bloody.

"Go ahead," said Black. "Kill me. It won't bring back Leni. It never will. KILL ME!"

Luan yelled and sliced Black's arms off. Then, she gasped as a golden eye appeared before her. The General has turned into a roamer.

"Good job," said Black in a growling voice. "You brought me back."

"No! No! No!" yelled Luan.

She continued slicing off Black's arms. Blood poured everywhere. Even the rain turned red as the raindrops became drops of blood. Red everywhere. Luan fell to her knee and looked up. Black smiled and aimed his gun at Leni again. They were both drenched in blood. Then, a gunshot.

"NO!" yelled Luan.

Luan woke up, panting as the thunder rumbled quietly outside the motel. Lincoln stood up and ran to Luan's aid.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh… my… god," she said, catching her breath.

"It's okay, I'm here," said Lincoln. "Nightmare?"

"L–Leni? Where– oh no! I'm still stuck in this shit motel!"

"You were only asleep for like an hour," said Lincoln.

Luan looked out the windows. There were a swarm of roamers.

"They followed us," said Luan. "We have to lead 'em away from here. Away from Lori."

Lincoln nodded and grabbed his combat knife. He blew out the candles in the room before following Luan out the motel room. The door closed, leaving Lori unconscious in the pitch-black room.

Luan uppercutted a roamer with her katana and thrust it into the neck of a roamer before decapitating it. Lincoln grabbed a roamer by his throat and pressed the knife against its eye. He pulled it out without turning it, realizing that the roamers were too wet to make it difficult to pull out a knife from.

Lincoln moved to another roamer and leaped, thrusting the knife up its jaws. The knife slid out easily again, and the roamer dropped to the ground without dragging the boy with him.

"There's too many," said Luan. "Come here! Back up. Back up."

Luan and Lincoln stood next to each other with their melee weapons ready to slice the roamers. The swarms were limping towards the survivors as their backs were faced against the woods. Then, the duo turned around and ran into the road.

"What are we doing?" asked Lincoln. "We could take them on right now."

"Run to cabin. There could be more coming. Can't risk them going into our room."

Lincoln nodded. He and Luan paced themselves backwards into the cabin. The roamers splashed their muddy feet into the pavement of the road.

The siblings took out the front roamers before taking a step back. The rain continued to torment the duo.

Their feet dug into the mud as they stepped back to the cabin. The roamers were slower now, making it easier for the siblings to pick them off.

However, a roamer by Bill's car rose up and grabbed Lincoln's shoulder. It pulled him up the trunk of the car and dragged him closer to its teeth. Lincoln struggled to release himself from the roamer's grip as he elbowed it over and over.

"Luan! Help!"

Luan turned around and quickly ran around the trunk of the car, turning her blade sideways. She pushed it to her left and impaled the roamer through its skull, narrowly missing Lincoln.

"Dang. What if you missed?"

"That would've sucked," said Luan. "There's more incoming. Get inside the cabin!"

Luan and Lincoln ran past the jerry can and a siphon hose. The roamers scratched their infected nails against the wooden cabin and growled. Some other roamers slammed their jaws and hands on the walls and the doors.

Luan and Lincoln sighed until they spotted another roamer inside the cabin. Lincoln yelped and stabbed it in the chest. Luan drove her katana through its mouth before it was able to scratch Lincoln.

"Oh, thank goodness. That's two dollars I owe ya," said Lincoln. "Oh, look at what this guy had."

Lincoln grabbed the gun that was around the roamer held by a strap. It was an MP5. He grabbed a sack that the man had around his back and checked inside. Ammo.

The door busted open and Lincoln fired his SMG at the knocking roamers. The bullets tore through the dozen of roamers and allowed both siblings to escape the cabin.

"Reloading," said Lincoln. "That felt kinda cool to say."

Luan stabbed a roamer behind Lincoln as he reloaded his new gun. He then cocked it and fired in short bursts at the remaining roamers.

"Was that it?" asked Lincoln.

Luan nodded. Lincoln sighed and felt his stomach grumble.

"Hungry?" asked Luan. "Me too. I haven't eaten since yesterday. All the rogues did was feed me peanuts and cheese."

"We didn't bring any food or water," said Lincoln. "What are we going to do?"

"Loot," said Luan. "This cabin and the town."

"Bill said he cleared it out already."

"Oh come on. He couldn't have cleared out everything now, could he? There's gotta be something he missed."

Luan and Lincoln walked away from the cabin with empty stomachs, wet socks, and muddy shoes. The corpses were left in the ground.

The town was empty. Many of the cars were already siphoned, the streets were clean from the usual litter that was spotted in all cities, and not a single roamer in sight. However, the water in the side of the streets were flooding into the sidewalk.

Lincoln and Luan spotted a small amber house with a mailbox next to its screen door. They approached the door and opened it, before jiggling the knob to the wooden door.

"Bill left it unlocked," said Lincoln. "It's gotta be looted."

"He had to have missed something."

Luan walked inside with her katana up. She looked around in search of foodstuffs, water, medicine, anything her siblings could use. Sure enough, the entire house was looted.

"Let's move on to another house. Somewhere far from here, 'cause of course it's gonna be looted near the cabin!"

Luan and Lincoln moved further into the town. The downpour softened slightly, giving Luan and Lincoln a chance to clear their sinuses. They held their weapons and moved from one house to another, looking to see if the door for the abandoned homes were locked. So far, all the doors they have encountered were unlocked. That was, until a few minutes later.

"This door is locked!" exclaimed Lincoln.

Luan hopped down from the stairs on the house across Lincoln. She ran to the door and jiggled the knob, and sure enough, it was locked.

"That's great!" she gasped. "Looks like Bill wasn't done looting after all!"

"So… how do we get inside?"

Luan scanned the front yard of the light-green house. She shook her head and then looked at Lincoln's gun. She asked for the gun, to which Lincoln responded by handing it to her, and then she turned it around so the stock was pointed towards the porch window. With one swift slam, the window cracked, prompting Luan to give it another slam. Eventually, the window shattered completely, and Luan moved all the glass out of the way so she could go inside.

Now inside, she walked to the door and unlocked it, though Lincoln went inside through the window. Luan looked at him and sighed.

"Something wrong?" asked Lincoln.

"If Leni was here, we wouldn't have to do that. I took a long time to get us inside, when she would've picked the lock in seconds. I took too long, and if there were roamers around… we would've been goners. I took too long… and that's why Leni isn't here. And now that she's not here… that's why I take so long. It's a vicious cycle…."

Luan turned on her flashlight. She lit up the room and looked around the living room. There was a TV and a couch and a lamp and a table. A half-empty bottle of water stood in the table next to a plate of rotten fruit. More specifically, lemons.

"Ugh, gross," said Luan as she turned around. "You alright, Lincoln?"

"No. I'm tired. I should be getting sleep but… I can't. I keep thinking about how I could've saved Leni."

"Lincoln… I was the one who couldn't run fast enough…"

"No, Luan, I WAS. I followed Leni, but the bullets… the gunfire… I was scared. I was afraid for my own life and you know what it cost? Leni's life. I'm the reason she…"

Luan wrapped her arms around Lincoln as he started to tear up. Their hearts were throbbing with pain.

"I know. You aren't the only one, Lincoln. You aren't the only one."

"Y-You were… having nightmares… was it about…"

Luan nodded.

"I know why I killed Black. He destroyed our homes, killed Mom and Dad in front of me, starved me for months, tortured me again and again… he even killed Dana before our eyes. But even then… I hesitated. It was only when he killed– that's when I knew it."

Luan turned towards Lincoln.

"It's murder, Lincoln. I can't stop thinking about it. I don't think I can kill again. I'm not like Lori. I have to be broken to kill again. But I don't wanna be afraid anymore. I… don't…"

Luan sobbed into Lincoln's shoulders. The rain continued to splash against the roof of the house. The roof kept the wooden floors dry for two years until tears plopped themselves on its surface.

"I wonder what Mom and Dad think of us now," whimpered Luan. "If they could see us… if their spirits were somehow here in this room… how disappointed would they be?"

"How mad at us is Leni?" cried Lincoln.

After a few minutes, Lincoln and Luan decided to release each other. Their watery eyes made it harder to see in the dark, though the flashlight did help.

When Lincoln walked to the kitchen, he saw a box of Zombie Bran- which had most definitely gone stale by now. He grabbed it and placed it inside his mouth, unable to stop his tears from running down his face. Luan grabbed a can of baked beans, now thinking about Lori's uncertain fate. She continued to find food, but not too much of it. It didn't matter to both Louds, as no amount of food would lift up their spirits.

Luan grabbed a handful of Zombie Bran and placed it in her mouth, replenishing her low energy. She continued to eat it as she watched the rain through the broken porch window.

"It's time to go now, isn't it?" asked Lincoln. "We gotta check up on Lori."

Luan nodded and tossed the empty box of cereal away. She tossed her sheath out the porch window and mantled through it. She grabbed her sheath and held her flashlight, beaming the light out into the street, revealing raindrops falling through the beam. By the unlooted neighboring houses, a few roamers looked at the flashlight and found the two survivors behind it. They growled softly and limped towards it.

"Who do you think they were?" muttered Lincoln as he walked through the flooding road.

"Who?"

"The guys in the cabin."

"Probably just random survivors like us. They became the undead's victims. That reminds me. We're gonna need the hose and can that they left by the garage."

"Do you know how to siphon gas?" asked Lincoln.

"No, I thought you would know. But I guess Lori does."

"Luan… what's gonna happen when Lori wakes up? I mean, we all have to admit… she was the closest to… her out of all of us. So, I'm kinda afraid- AH!"

"Lincoln!" shouted Luan.

A scream followed by a large splash then a squishing noise hooked Luan's attention. She shone the flashlight at the pavement of the road until she found a rectangular hole. She moved the beam of light down the hole, revealing Lincoln on shallow water with blood in his arms.

"Oh my god, Lincoln!"

"I'm okay! I just scraped my arm and something broke my fall! Uhh, it feels very squishy, and- oh, the smell!"

Luan moved the light away from Lincoln's face and down to his shoes. She herself wasn't able to see through the shallow water, but Lincoln could. He yelled as he realized he was stepping on torn parts from corpses.

"What is it?" asked Luan.

"Roamers! AH! Ah! Wait! I think… I think they're dead! Huh. It's their corpses."

"Don't touch it!" yelled Luan. "Do you have any holes in your shoes?"

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure I didn't step on their teeth or anything like that."

"You could still get infected! I'll get you out of there! Just stay still!"

"Sure! I mean there's nowhere to go."

Luan searched her surroundings. She moved her hair out of her face, struggling to find a solution to save Lincoln.

Then, she thought about one.

She ran to the closest car and found the trunk. She attempted to lift it, but it was locked. The rain poured on the door handle as Luan tried to open it. She pointed her flashlight behind her, finding something useful.

After a few seconds, a mailbox was flung to the car window, shattering it completely. Luan pulled it out and looked inside the car, searching for a pair of keys. Suddenly, a splash of water and a faint growl forced Luan to turn around.

She shrieked as a roamer shoved her against the car. It leaned its mouth to her arm and bit down causing her to scream.

Lincoln looked up. He grabbed his MP5 and began breathing heavily.

"Oh no. Luan? Luan! LUAN!"

A roamer passed by the storm drain and looked down, finding a moving organism. It growled and dropped down just after Lincoln moved out of the way. He covered his face as the water splashed against his shirt.

Lincoln aimed his MP5 at the roamer as it lifted its head up. He shot it and splattered its blood against the shallow water. The rapid bullets caused the water to jump into the other wall of the drain, revealing dark-red and gray fluids. Lincoln trembled and gagged.

Luan headbutted the roamer, causing her to flinch in unexpected pain. She grabbed the roamer and smashed it against the mailbox, over and over. Then, she dropped it to the flooding ground.

She looked at the blood in her arms and gulped, as she began to tear up. However, Lincoln's shouts forced her to focus on him, so she placed her head inside the car. The keys were there.

The trunk opened upon the insertion of the keys. Luan rummaged through the trunk, finding clothes and tools. Then, she found a pair of cable jumpers. She clipped them together and ran to the storm drain.

"Luan, what happened?" asked Lincoln.

"Had an encounter with a dead one! Just grab the cable!"

Luan tossed down one end of the cable down the storm drain. Lincoln struggled to jump to it. He looked around and found the corpse that he just created. He stepped on it, moving his legs out of the shallow water. With one leap, he caught the cables and held on to it.

But the cables snapped. Lincoln yelled as he fell down again, though the fresh corpse broke his fall again.

"Damn it!" exclaimed Luan.

Another roamer approached the girl. As she took out her katana, the flashlight lit up her arm, giving Lincoln a chance to catch the sight that passed in a second.

"Luan… your arm…"

Luan kicked the roamer away from the drain and sliced its skull off. Then she stabbed another roamer and another. She ran back to the trunk of the car and grabbed the clothes. Then, she ran back to the storm drain, soaking the clothes in the flooding water by the drain.

"What are you doing?" asked Lincoln.

"Something I haven't done in two years," replied Luan.

Luan twisted the clothes as tight as a stick of Twizzlers. Then, she tied the tight ends of the clothings with each other until they created a larger version of a never-ending chain of handkerchiefs. She moved it down the storm drain until Lincoln was able to grab it.

"Wait, don't pull it yet!" exclaimed Luan.

She stood up and grabbed her katana. She looked around her surroundings with the aid of her flashlight but was unable to find the source of the faint growls she heard. She quickly started panting as she saw nothing but empty streets and overgrown yards. Then, she looked down.

A crawler. Luan stepped in front of it and thrust her katana down, killing off the poor infected soul. She moved her hair out of her face again and returned to her tied clothes.

Lincoln grabbed the clothes and held on to it as Luan pulled on it. He placed his foot against the wall of the storm drain and walked upwards as if he were scaling a mountain. Each second he was closer and closer to the surface… until he finally made it out. He stumbled onto Luan and hugged her as he sighed in relief.

Luan smiled and dropped the tied clothes. She pulled him away from the area and led the way into the cabin.

"Luan, check your arm. Your right arm."

Luan shivered as she shook her head. She looked down and noticed that the blood was fainter.

"What the?" she gasped. "Grab the can and the siphoning hose."

Lincoln ran to driveway to retrieve the jerry can and hose that was left behind Bill's car. Luan went inside the dry cabin and pulled out her leather jacket. She tossed it on the ground and pointed the light at her right arm. She smiled.

Lincoln went inside the cabin and with the items in his hands. He dropped them as he smiled softly.

"Leni…" gasped Luan, "...saved me."

The rain relaxed once more as it turned into light rain. Lincoln and Luan returned to their motel room. Luan removed her jacket and placed it in the coat hanger by the door. She locked the door and placed her sheath down on the floor. Then, she pointed the flashlight at Lori.

"Look, Lincoln…" whispered Luan.

Lincoln turned towards Lori and looked closely at her face. There were droplets of tears close to her eyes, just lying there. Yet, her face remained unmoved ever since she fell unconscious in the van.