The restrooms were very far from their seats as Maria and Lina were heading that way. They realize that the bathroom didn't have a long line and Maria was relieved to not wait long in a line.
"Ay, gracias a díos," she says. "We didn't walk this far for nothing."
They walk into the bathroom and they realize it was empty. Each stall had the signature Detroit Lions baby blue color and the walls were silver.
"Go inside, I'll be waiting outside the stall," Maria says.
After a couple of minutes go by, The two exit the bathroom to head back to their seats. On the way there, they see groups of soldiers walk into the stadium and spread around the inside of the building.
"Check everyone and take them to the dropoff point." yells out a soldier. "Get as many on each bus as you can."
Maria overhears the whole thing and is confused.
"Mama, what's going on?" asks Lina.
"I don't know, Mija."
The two walk up to one of the soldiers and Maria begins to question him.
"Excuse me, sir, what's going on?"
"You need to evacuate the building now." replies the soldier as he turns around. "Follow me."
"Wait, I need to get my husband and son."
"There's no time, we need to leave the stadium or they'll get you."
"What will get us?"
As Maria says that, they see something limping towards the three, showing its glowing eyes and growling as well. The soldier pulls the trigger from his suppressed M4A1 and it drops to the floor.
"That's what I mean," the soldier says.
They walk past the body and Maria sees it with a chunk of its neck bitten off with the clothes ripped. She covers her daughter's eyes so she wouldn't see such a disturbing image. They continue following the soldier and go down the escalators, which are not moving, and they walk past the exit.
"Wait," Maria says. "The exit is behind us."
"That exits blocked off," replies the soldier. "There's too many of them on this side of the stadium."
They cut through one of the restaurants inside the stadium until they see two infected in the restaurant, blocking the exit. The three hide behind the bar and they start to panic.
"We need to distract them," says the soldier. "Quick, pass me that cup."
Maria reaches over the counter and looks for the cup with her hand. She grabs the cup until she feels pain in her hand. She puts it down and sees that her hand has a big bite mark.
"Oh no," she says.
Then, an infected comes around the corner of the bar and sees the three survivors. It was instantly shot in the head and falls right in front of them. The two other infected heard it and they head towards the noise. The soldier, not noticing Maria's hand, tells them to stay behind him.
"Go around the inside of the bar and there's our exit outside."
They slowly go around and exit the restaurant. They exit through the janitor's office and are outside being met by other soldiers.
"Hey, I got two." says the soldier.
"Are they bit?" says another.
Maria looks at her hand dripping with blood and sees the bite turning purple. She then looks up at one of the soldiers walking toward her and her daughter.
"Wait, this is a misunderstandi-" she says as a gunshot is fired.
"MOMMY!" Lina screams as she sees her mother drop to the floor.
She looks up crying harder than ever looking straight into the barrel of a .45 caliber pistol until everything goes black.
Chapter 3: Adjusting to the New World
Part I - Survival
-Day 17-
Walking along the roads outside of Detroit, JuJu heads out of a motel that he stayed at for the night. Luckily, some of the doors were unlocked. He got a map from the front desk of the motel so he tracks where he's gonna go next.
"Fuck man," JuJu sighs. "I bet they took my dad in one of those helicopters the day the Safe-Zone got taken down. I hope he's good, Lynn and her family too. Where did that fucker say they were taking the adults? Oh yeah, Houlton, that's in Maine. Shit."
JuJu looks at a street sign to see where the closest city or town could be.
"Hmm, Toledo is 58 miles away. I'll head there. Hopefully, there's something there for me that can help."
He goes on to walk along the road while looking at his map. He hears a car engine getting louder as it gets closer to him and JuJu runs as fast as he can behind an abandoned car. The vehicle he sees is another K.H.A.N. humvee but this one has a gunner on top.
"Crap," says JuJu. "These guys are everywhere."
He waits until the humvee gets a good distance away from him
Some time goes by when he reaches the town of Monroe, about halfway to Toledo. He heads to a gas station to see if there's anything he can stock up on like more food, drinks, or supplies left over.
"Hey! I saw someone go into the gas station!" a voice yells out.
"Aw, for fuck sake," JuJu grunts as he hides behind the counter with his .357 revolver in his hand.
"Come out! We know you in there! Don't make this hard for yourself!"
JuJu realizes he's outnumbered and sees that he has no chance of survival. He then hears a truck pull up near the gas station and shortly after, he hears shots being fired. He crawls out the back door and looks around the corner of the building to see the rogue soldiers dead and other survivors with weapons coming out of the truck. He tries to think of an escape plan but is caught in his tracks by the other survivors.
"Hey, you!" Calls out one of the survivors. "You alone?"
JuJu doesn't answer. He has his hand by his revolver just in case things go wrong.
"How can I trust y'all?" JuJu grunts.
"Look, kid, we're not gonna hurt you. We just saved you from those dudes. I'm gonna ask you again. Are you alone?"
JuJu sighs. "Yeah, I'm alone."
"Wanna come with us? We're heading to New York. Heard there's some communities starting up over there."
"Wow really?" yells out another survivor. "Looks like we're getting another negro in this group. 2 of y'all is enough."
He had a buttoned-up long sleeve shirt with jeans and cowboy boots.
"John, what did I say about the racist shit? I swear to god I'll put a bullet in ya damn head if you keep talkin' like that! Get the fuck back in the truck. Don't worry about him, he's crazy. Plus, I doubt he won't be here for long. A lot of us are sick of his shit. So, you in?"
JuJu nods and follows him into the truck.
"Name's Marcus," he says while putting his hand out. "What's yours?"
"I'm JuJu."
"What's that short for?"
"Julian. Why does that matter?"
"Just tryin' to build trust that's all. You a little tense man, relax."
Marcus was a tall man with dark skin, light brown deadlocks tied to a ponytail, and a goatee. He looked to be around in his twenties and appeared to be skinny. He had on a dark blue Nike hoodie with black jeans and black high-top sneakers.
"Where you from, JuJu?" he asks.
"I'm from San Diego. Came to Michigan for an unofficial visit to UM, and also for the Lions and Chargers game."
"Oh, an unofficial visit huh? So you a baller, baller. What did you play?"
"My main focus was football, but I played basketball, soccer, and ran track too."
"Okay, I see you. I played a little bit of ball myself. Before all this shit happened, I was playing at an Ohio community college."
"Were you good?"
"I guess you could say that. I tore my ACL in my second year and couldn't play again."
"Damn, I've been there before."
"What about your parents? Where they at?"
"Moms and my little sister died at the stadium by them rogues. My pops went missing when we were at the Detroit Safe-Zone before it got air struck."
"Oh, my bad 'Lil bro."
"Don't worry about it."
"A'ight, these are my guys, the one driving is Desean, these two youngbloods right here are Byron and CiCi, and lastly, is this dumbass, John."
Byron was a big kid, somewhere around JuJu's age. He had long and wavy blonde hair with a blue backward baseball cap, a blue bomber jacket with yellow sleeves, a pink undershirt, black jeans, and white sneakers. CiCi seemed to be around the same age too. She had straight black hair that goes to her shoulders, a baggy green turtleneck sweater with a yellow star in the middle, a plaid gray skirt, and brown boots. JuJu greets himself to the others and begins to feel more comfortable.
"Yo, do y'all got a camp or some? I've been walkin' for hours."
"Yup," says Desean, the driver. "It's up ahead."
The truck makes a right turn just outside the town into the woods where their camp is. It had a campfire, tents, tubs of supplies, and most importantly, food and water.
"We're moving out in just a couple of days," says Marcus. "Get some rest while you can, food and drinks are over there. My guys will set up a tent for you."
"A'ight man," JuJu replies. "Look, sorry for the way I acted, I find it hard to trust people right now. I appreciate y'all letting me join in."
"No worries bro, I know where you're comin' from. It ain't easy. If you need anything just hit me up. I got you."
The next day, JuJu sits around the fire with some other survivors until someone taps him on the shoulder. JuJu looks and sees that it's CiCi.
"Hey, JuJu right?" she says.
"Yeah?" replies JuJu.
"Marcus wants you."
He stands up and follows CiCi to where he sees both Byron and Marcus talking to each other by a couple of trees.
"Yo, you wanted to see me?" JuJu asks.
"JuJu!" Says Marcus. "Yeah, you know how to hunt?"
"Nah, but I figure you're gonna show me?"
"This is important for the future. I got you three here together so y'all can handle yourselves if things go bad and y'all gotta survive alone."
JuJu looks at the other two while they look back at each other.
"Everyone's different," says Marcus. "Everyone got a different style. But they all learn the same way."
"Hold up," says Byron. "How do you know all of this?"
"My uncle taught me when I was younger. Before I moved to Ohio, I lived in Georgia. Lived by the forest and he taught me everything I know."
Everyone stays silent.
"A'ight, the key to it is being light on your feet, staying calm, staying focused, having good awareness, and making as little noise as possible."
Marcus pulls out a bow and arrow and goes on to show the three how it's done. He then shoots a deer with the arrow and it runs off in another direction. They all walk toward where the deer was shot and they see a little puddle of blood.
"Look," says Marcus, pointing at a line of blood. "To find this deer, we need to follow its blood trail. JuJu, I'm gonna let you do the rest. Show me what you got."
They all follow JuJu's lead looking for the deer to bring back to the campsite.
"Hey," JuJu says. "Blood trail is gone, but the body ain't here. What the fuck?"
"Relax, this kinda stuff happens man," replies Marcus. "Animals always leave other clues like footprints or other things. Just gotta be patient remember?"
JuJu sighs and begins to look around until he sees a bush that appears to be tinted with blood and the back end of a broken arrow sitting on the grass.
"Yo! I found the trail again! It's this way."
The four continue following the trail until they see the deer's body laying on the floor with its stomach ripped open, guts coming out of it.
"Shit," says CiCi. "C'mon, those undead bastards got to it first."
"Yeah," replies JuJu. "We did all this for nothing."
"Not for nothing," says Marcus. "You learned how to track and find what we were looking for. Good job. Next is stealth, but that's for another time."