X - Unfamiliar

The dim sunlight shined through the glass doors outside the kitchen of a house. Suddenly, a silhouette of a small boy appeared in the light as the sound of a doorknob jiggling could be heard. After a few seconds, the sound of a door being unlocked was heard. The silhouette got larger before suddenly, Simon stepped out of the kitchen and into the dark living room, placing his multitool back into his pocket. He grabbed a flashlight from the side of his pants and turned it on, revealing a wide living room with marble tiles, a purple ornate rug, leather couches, and a flat-screen TV attached to the wall above the campfire. He walked past the living room before arriving at the stairs. He proceeded to place his foot on the stairs before coming to a realization. If Melissa and Oscar slept in the same bedroom, then it would make sense for their bedroom to be in a wheelchair-friendly area: downstairs.

Simon opened another door, shining his flashlight into the dark room. He closed the door and looked around, finding a picture of Oscar, Melissa, and a man. Next to it was another picture frame, showing Oscar and Melissa in their younger years, except that Melissa was not in a wheelchair, Oscar was not bald, and it wasn't a man standing next to them— it was a boy. He continued to shine his flashlight around the room, placing his hands under the drapes and unlocking the windows. He then came across a safe, sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. It was not locked by a combination lock. It was locked by a padlock.

He placed the flashlight into his mouth and grabbed his multitool, approaching the safe as he revealed a small lock picker from his multitool. He picked on the lock, taking a few seconds before picking it open. He quickly removed the padlock from the safe and opened it up, finding papers inside. He reached in and grabbed the stack of papers. He removed the flashlight from his mouth and held it with his left hand while holding the papers with his right hand. The paper on top of the stack was a list of names, some of them crossed out. He flipped to the next paper, seeing pictures of people with their names written on the back of the pictures, some of them appearing in the list. The next paper, the one in the bottom of the stack, had numbers written on them, in coordinate form. He then shined the flashlight on top of the drawers next to the safe, finding a map of Royal Woods with an area unknown to him circled.

Simon flinched as he heard the sound of the entrance door being opened. He then peered at the small opening below the door for the room he was in, seeing light coming from the living room. A rush of adrenaline flowed across his body as he quickly placed the stack of papers back, the footsteps from the living room not doing anything to calm down his heartbeats. The footsteps got louder and louder as he closed the safe and placed the padlock back into the latch. He then turned off his flashlight, tossed the map back onto the top of the drawers, and hopped onto the bed. As the door opened, he rolled over the bed and dropped himself softly onto the carpet, taking cover from the living room light. As the lights for the room turned on, he rolled himself under the bed, keeping himself hidden. His heart was pounding against his chest.

"You on your way back?" asked a male voice through the walkie-talkie.

"Jesus, Clancy, I just got here," said the man in the room, who Simon recognized to be Oscar.

"Goddamn, your house is far. How long 'til you get back?"

"Patience," said Oscar, approaching the safe. "Not everything's gotta go fast. Sometimes, you gotta…"

"...sometimes what?"

"Hold on, Clancy."

Simon planted his face onto the floor, getting a view of the safe. He then saw what Oscar noticed and shut his eyes and clenched his teeth in dismay. The padlock was not locked shut.

Oscar grabbed the padlock and removed it from the safe. He opened the safe and grabbed the stack of papers, noticing that everything was still in order. He placed the papers back into the safe and glanced around the room before looking back at the padlock. He locked it shut before trying to open it up again.

"Ah, damn it," muttered Oscar, sighing at his own inept mistake.

He placed the padlock on top of the safe and opened up a drawer. He grabbed a blue open combination lock with alphabetical letters and placed it through the latch on the safe before locking the door shut.

"Yo, Clancy. You remember the combination for the blue combination lock?"

"Umm… I think it was E-G-O… or something like that. Combination's not in your office no more?"

"It should still be there."

"Alright. Got the map?"

Oscar looked back at the drawer. He swiped the map and began to walk out of the room.

"Yup," he said, turning off the lights. "I'll be there in five."

Simon heard Oscar's footsteps fading away. As the lights for the living room turned off, his heartbeats slowed down and he was able to breathe out a sigh of relief. He rolled out of the bed and stood himself upright, patting off the dust in his hair. He approached the safe and turned on his flashlight as he inspected the combination lock. He was unable to find a hole he can pick through.

There seemed to be nothing left in the room of importance, until Simon opened up the drawers. He found a Playboy magazine, causing him to gasp softly. He grabbed the magazine, pointing the flashlight at the front cover, gazing at the woman's face while appearing curious as to the rest of her body. He looked at the publication date— May 2016. He continued to stare at the date as he tried to remember the moments that happened in the month before the dead started to roam the Earth. But nothing came to mind.

Then, he moved the flashlight away from the magazine and deeper into the drawer where he found a pistol. His eyes grew wide as he reached for the pistol. However, he decided against it and placed the magazine exactly where he found it and closed the drawer. He then heard the entrance door open again. This time, there were no footsteps. But there was still a rolling noise approaching the bedroom.

The door opened, allowing the light from the living room to enter. Melissa turned on the light for the bedroom, looking around the room for any signs of her husband.

"Oscar, you in here?" she called out.

Melissa continued to look around, though she eventually turned around and turned off the lights, leaving the door open. Dust rolled around from under the bed. The curtains by the window remained still. The fresh fingerprints on the window were now starting to fade away.

The dark blue twilight sky hovered above Lori as she climbed on top of the vehicle by the gates of Ketcham Park. She then climbed over the fence and leaped onto the ground, finding a ladder leaning against the fence nearby. She looked away, focusing on the burnt trees— which looked like tall spikes— and the logs in the ground instead so that she wouldn't trip. Before the rogues, there were trees, benches, playgrounds, and even port-a-potties everywhere. When the rogues came, there were tents, crates, and even helicopters. After the rogues, everything was burned down, but there still remained crates and tents. But now, everything was gone. Even the Apache helicopter where Richard found the map revealing the location of the main rogue base at Spednic Lake was gone. The only blind spots were provided by the hills and the tall grass.

Lori found herself walking along the bike path next to the slope that led down to the pond. She looked down at the pond, expecting to see blood and corpses, but there was nothing. The pond was eerily still with nothing near it except the wooden cabin— on the opposite side of the pond from where she stood. Then, she heard a tapping noise coming from the wooden cabin in the distance. It was very faint, so faint that it could be mistaken for the sound of a moth's wing flapping. She walked down the slope then around the pond, jogging towards the source of the noise. As she got closer and closer, and as she received a better angled view of the cabin, the source of the noise became clearer. It was Becky tapping her dagger against the door, attracting a lonely roamer from the park entrance gates.

"There you are," sighed Lori.

"There you are," repeated Becky.

Lori shot her a confused look, though Becky made no effort to clarify. She simply walked up to the roamer and stabbed its temple with her dagger. After pulling out the dagger, the roamer's body dropped, making it the only corpse in the ghost park.

"Let's head back," said Lori. "This place literally gives me the creeps."

"Do you believe in ghosts?" asked Becky.

"No, not really."

"Me neither. I used to… because of a stupid show. But now… we went from ghost town to ghost town, and yet— no hauntings. Took over dead people's homes and made it ours… and no poltergeists tossed knives across a living room. The only dead people that haunt us now are the roamers."

"Where are you going with this?"

"If I remember correctly, the first time you got blood in your hands was here— in this very park. This place must be a graveyard for the rogues and the 'innocent' people that fought here. Place must be filled with ghosts, ready to haunt killers like us. But that's… unrealistic. So… what's got you spooked?"

"It's too quiet here," explained Lori. "You know… it's just us two here. I don't even hear any bugs."

"It's not the fact that this place could be a… traumatizing place to be at? I mean, you did kill two rogues here. And you almost died here."

"It's just the quiet."

"Ah. Well? Aren't you gonna ask me what I'm doing out here?"

"It's hard to adjust in there," said Lori. "It's supposed to be familiar… but somehow it's literally the most unfamiliar place in the world. I get it. It's easier out here."

"You'd rather be out in the walls too, right? I mean… of course, not in here. This park is familiar yet unfamiliar to you. Place still seems familiar to me— just with fewer trees."

"As much as life in the outside comforts us, we have to stay in Royal Woods. Those are their rules."

"It's not their rules. It's Oscar's rules. I couldn't stand his bullshit back there— I mean, that man reeks of corruption and arrogance."

"I don't trust him either, and I don't think I ever will. But I cannot mess this up for the group. We can't mess this up. We have to follow the rules."

"I don't like what I'm seeing. Because of Oscar… the people of Royal Woods are weak. My mother and my brother are weak. Oscar and his men, including my father— they're hiding something."

Becky grabbed her Glock and walked inside the cabin. She grabbed a can and showed it to Lori before placing the pistol inside. She then placed the can next to the door inside the cabin before she walked out, closing the door.

"Seems like you have no regrets and qualms about doing what needs to be done. Because if I'm right and what Oscar is hiding turns out to be a danger to our family…" said Becky as she grabbed Lori's palm, handing over her dagger, "...then I know you'll do what needs to be done."

Becky released Lori's hand. She turned around and watched as her father's car passed by the park entrance, the driver and passenger inside not realizing that she was in the park. The car having left the area, Becky now walked towards the entrance, leaving Lori alone next to the cabin.

Lori watched as Becky walked away before turning towards Royal Woods. She gripped the handle of the dagger tightly as she saw Oscar's men waiting by the gate, ready to strip Becky of her weapons. She placed the dagger into her pocket and followed Becky, both girls ready to head back to Royal Woods.

Lori took one last look around Ketcham Park. There was barely any light shining anywhere. Just soft chirping from birds. Noises created by insects. Buzzing from mosquitoes. She expected to hear the noise of crackling fire and the soft groans of the living dead. But there was none of that. It was completely calm.

The moon was now barely glowing high in the night sky as Lincoln walked through the woods. The buzzing of the mosquitoes and the soft flapping of the moths surrounded him. Held by his belt was his M1911. Held in his hand was his Bowie knife. Held in his other hand was his flashlight. He continued to walk through the woods, feeling his spine crawl more frequently with every passing minute. Then, he stumbled upon farmland.

Lincoln couldn't help but smile upon seeing Liam's house in the distance. Nearby was his red barn, the barn that housed all his animals, from pigs, to chickens, to cows, and even horses. It was a large barn suitable for keeping animals, which only increased his curiosity as to why Oscar wouldn't want to use the farm for crops and meat and eggs.

Lincoln walked out of the woods and began to walk towards the barn. He shined his flashlight onto one of the sides of the barn, showing a ladder that led up to a window on the upper loft floor, which held some of Liam's comfiest hay stacks.

"Wow," whispered Lincoln.

The memories were swirling around Lincoln's mind. He laughed softly to himself as he continued to think back on those memories. Then, all of a sudden, he heard a muffled scream coming from inside the barn. More muffled noises soon followed, prompting Lincoln to run towards the barn. The muffled cries and groans were louder, though still faint. He placed the flashlight into his pocket and climbed up the wooden ladder before making it on top of the scaffold next to the top window. He climbed through the window and grabbed his flashlight as he stepped foot on the wooden loft, now hearing the muffled noises more clearly. As he lifted his flashlight, he became horrified upon what he saw.

There were people— living people— gagged and tied up in chains inside the stables. Some of them were tied up to the support beams in the middle of the barn, outside of the stables. Upon seeing the flashlight, they began to plead for help through a series of muffled screams. The tears rolling down their terrified eyes were visible.

Lincoln climbed down another wooden ladder— this time onto the ground floor— where the people were held captive. He ran up to the closest captive and pulled down the rag tied around his mouth.

"P-Please help us," begged the captive, pulling on the chains around his wrists behind his back.

"I'm here now," said Lincoln, trying to reassure the man. "These chains are all locked. Have you seen a key around here?"

"All of us. Please…"

"The keys, sir!"

"T-They have it."

"Who?"

"T-The man-eaters. T-They're coming any m-minute now. T-They're… they're gonna slaughter us all."

Lincoln gulped as he began to tremble in fear as a realization crept up on him, telling him the very name he was about to hear the man blurt out.

"C-Calvin is gonna slaughter u-us all."

Lincoln's eyes trembled with immense fear. His legs felt glued to the ground as his muscles were paralyzed by intense fear. Intense, petrifying fear.

The mosquitoes began to buzz around the side of the barn wall where a large white X was spray-painted.

A fire crackled in the side of a road surrounded by thick trees and emitted a glowing light that was reflected off the red paint of a fire truck. An old man with white hair was tying strings along the trees, which held empty cans with small marbles inside them. The sound of flesh being cut apart was heard over the fire. An old woman with white dreads, who appeared to be in her late 60s, was telling a story around the campfire. Her granddaughter, Angel, who was around thirty years old as indicated by her youthful black curly hair reaching down her shoulders, watched her with her hazel eyes— decorated by pink eyeshadow— and listened carefully while chewing on her food— biting carefully as to not get her red lipstick on the deer meat.

"...listen carefully," said the grandmother. "This— this is why I say to hell with the draft. So, she tells me that as her and her team got closer to that damn compound— y'know, rollin' up in that buggy of theirs or whatever the hell they call them cars— they got closer and closer… no one around… and that's when it happened. The whole buggy went boom. Just blew up right there and then."

Angel turned towards the twins that sat on the other side of the campfire, a brother and a sister. Both had tan skin, freckles, hazel eyes, and had just become legal adults, though their age had no legal significance anymore— not in a world without government. The sister, Quinn, who was only ten minutes older than her brother, wore blue jeans, a loose white shirt, big pink boots, and a pink hoodie tied around her waist. She had blonde hair in a ponytail, which was unlike the short red uppercut hair that her brother, Finn, had on him. Finn wore the same outfit that Quinn did, though his boots and hoodie were blue instead. Quinn smiled mischievously at Finn as he stared at the old woman, entrapped in the horrors of her story.

"One of them soldiers— everything below his torso was just ripped apart into chunks. The other guy— April said she couldn't even recognize his face."

"Grandma, you're scaring Finn," said Angel.

"Oh, boy…"

"What?" whimpered Finn. "I'm not scared. I'm just… really, really interested in the story."

"Oh, really?" asked Quinn.

"Yes, really."

Quinn raised her hands and mimicked the sound of an explosion before making squirting noises and the sounds of flesh being ripped apart. Finn turned away and gagged, getting a laugh out of Quinn.

"D-Damn it, Quinn. You suck. You seriously do."

"Goddamnit, boy," said the old woman. "A little heads up woulda' been nice. Thought you could handle these things."

"I can, it's just…"

"Too scary?" grinned Quinn.

"Too disgusting," said Finn. "It's not scary at all, I just have a powerful imagination, you know that."

"Ah, suck it up, boy," said the old woman. "Can't be more disgusting than the walkers."

"Well…"

"You know what? Let's toughen you up, boy. I bet Albert's got some more horrifying war stories."

"Nah, they're pretty mundane," said the old man with white hair. "Nothing interesting to tell."

"Can you please share them?" begged Quinn. "Please, please?"

"You don't have to share the story if you don't want to," said Angel.

"Eh… what says you, Hana?" asked Albert.

"Don't care," said Hana bluntly, focusing on cutting apart the deer meat.

"Well… it's getting late. I'd be boring people to death."

"Really?" sighed Quinn.

"Yeah. Like I said— nothing interesting about my stories."

"I'd be interested to hear them," said a female voice coming from the woods.

Hana quickly stood up with her katana while Albert reached for his pistol.

"Eh, eh, nope," said the woman as she came out of the woods, holding a rifle in her hands. "Don't think about it."

Albert slowly raised his hands while Hana thrusted her katana onto the ground, making it stand up. The woman walked closer, the light from the campfire revealing a burn scar on her left arm and across her neck.

"Everyone needs to raise their hands, not just this old fart here," said the scarred woman.

Finn, Quinn, and Angel and her grandmother raised their hands. The woman nodded slowly as she looked around, observing each person carefully. She then looked back and motioned her group to come closer. More of the armed enemy survivors came out of the woods, holding out ropes. They began to tie up the survivors.

"Hope you don't mind me askin', but where does one get scars like that?" asked the grandmother.

"Grandma!" whispered Angel. "What are you doing?"

"Hey, just shut it for a second."

"Anywhere where there's a nuclear explosion," said the scarred woman.

"No kiddin'? Nuclear— you talkin' 'bout Hiroshima, Nagasaki— that kinda nuclear? Now, I'd like to hear more about that."

"What's your name?"

"Diana Harris. I'd be pleased to meet you… under different circumstances."

"I like you, Diana. You seem to be okay with what we're doing here. You understand."

"No, I'm not really okay with this. And I most certainly don't understand what the hell y'all are doin' here. I just want to lighten up the mood a bit. Plus, I'm really curious to know how'd you get those scars."

"All due respect, I asked to hear this old man's war stories first. If he tells me a good one, then I'll tell you more about the explosion."

"I'm not tellin' you a single thing," said Albert as an enemy tied up his hands behind his back.

"We've been watching you for two hours. You told us more than enough about yourselves. Royal Woods is not too far, by the way."

The slow whistle of a northern cardinal echoed across the woods. The woman turned her attention to the sound before turning back to the group.

"Oh, okay, I see," said Diana. "You're cannibals."

"Hmm. How'd you figure that out? You a therapist or something?"

"Nah. Haley Jennings and Jace Taylor told us."

Some of the cannibals began to murmur among each other while others just stood in confusion. The woman continued to hear the bird call across the woods.

"Ah, I see some of you are familiar with Jace. But for those who aren't—"

A quiet shot followed by a hole appearing in a cannibal's head before he dropped down caused the cannibals to all flinch. Then, another sniper shot struck a different cannibal. Then, another, in quick succession.

"—meet Haley and Jace."

The cannibals all looked around the woods, not being able to see a single thing. Even the cannibals that were lurking by the trees, completely submerged in darkness were spotted and shot.

Hana walked back to her standing sword and slid her rope across the blade. She then snapped the rope open and grabbed her katana. Albert snapped open his rope as he held out a knife in one hand. He reached for his pistol in his other hand and shot the cannibals that had their backs turned on him.

The scarred woman immediately pointed her rifle at Albert, though he quickly shot her in the chest, causing her to drop down. She groaned in pain as Hana continued to free the other tied captives. Then, she looked around and saw bodies lying around the camp, with her being the only surviving member of her group.

"I certainly distracted you, right?" asked Diana as she approached the woman. "I'm gonna be honest, I'd still like to hear your story about your scars. We ain't savages like… your kind. So if you tell us what we need to know, I promise we'll tie you up inside this house."

"You won't," groaned the woman.

"Alright. Hana, cut this lady's head—"

"Okay, okay. What… do you want to know?"

"Where is the rest of your group?" asked Albert.

"Some stayed back in D.C… and the others are in Royal Woods."

Haley came out of the woods, her brunette hair cut short this time. She held a sniper rifle in her hands and approached the group. Behind her was Jace, who had many deep cuts around the right part of his face and burn scars on his right arm.

"That's all of them," said Haley.

"How the tables have turned, Albert," quipped Jace. "It's you guys who got captured this time."

"Yeah, yeah," said Albert. "Took you three hours to find diesel?"

"Yeah. We were gonna come back with none, but then we found a truck belonging to these assholes."

"I'm glad I could finally explain," groaned the scarred woman. "We're not assholes. First, someone—"

Albert aimed his pistol at the scarred woman and pressed the trigger, executing the woman. Finn and Quinn both flinched while Angel gasped softly. Diana picked up their weapons and began to stuff them into her backpack.

"We gotta haul ass now," said Albert.

"Yeah, no kidding," said Jace.

The group all grabbed their backpacks and left the area. As Jace kicked dirt into the campfire, he looked around the camp, seeing the mess that he was gonna leave behind. He then took one final look at the scarred woman and smirked before he put out the campfire completely. He then ran away as a couple roamers came out of the woods.

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End Credit Song

Go Solo - Tom Rosenthal

If you made it this far, then thank you very much for reading my story! I love you guys. :)

And to those who gave me an OC to use in this story— thank you for creating such complex and interesting characters for me.

Thank you, MTHellhound, for Cyrus.

Thank you, Spose, for Julian "JuJu" Rose.

Thank you, brizillaking1, for Will.

Thank you, Mademoiselle-Star2018, for Finn, Quinn, Angel, and Diana Harris. and Jace and Hana while we're at it : ) (seriously, Mademoiselle, you're awesome.)

And thank you, Moon7055 for helping me write this story.

Have a wonderful night, everyone. See ya in the next chapter.