-Five Days Later-
An arrow whooshed through the air and landed on its intended target. The squirrel dropped to the ground from the branch that it stood on. A roamer saw the animal drop from the air and was attracted to it. Vonda pulled another arrow in her bow and released it, killing the roamer. The roamer dropped to the floor, allowing Vonda to take her game.
"Nice shoot Vonda," said Jason.
"Thanks Jason," replied Vonda.
"The sun's setting. We should go back to the RV," said Lynn.
"Wait, Lynn, Jason," whispered Vonda. "Do you see that? Over there?"
Vonda pointed at something in the forest. It was more than fifty meters away. It moved in a quick and sneaky pattern, unlike a roamer.
"It looks like someone," said Lynn.
"It is someone. Let's follow that person."
"Look's like it's time to get your revenge Lynn," said Jason.
"What do you mean?"
"That person is John. Are you ready," said Jason.
"Yeah. I'm ready," hissed Lynn.
The RV hummed in the road as it was ready to move once again. The dark clouds hovered close to the group. Benny was showing Luan how to use the katana more effectively against the roamers. Becky and D were talking about their experiences on the boat while held hostage to Dana, Wavehead, and Carol. Luna and Sam lied in the pavement, looking at the empty night sky while holding hands. Richard and Lana fixed the engine to Sergei's car, though Richard had slight trouble holding a wrench. David and Sergei noticed how low they were on ammo for their weapons. Lori looked into the woods with her eyebrows raised and her pupils expanded.
"What's wrong, Lori?" asked George.
"I'm worried about Jason, Vonda, and Lynn. What if Sherry found them?"
"That would be a problem, but Sherry won't do anything. Vonda told me that she and Lynn were the only ones whom Sherry did not threaten or harm. And Jason can handle himself."
"I just want her gone," said Lori, as she looked at the figure in the woods. "I think Lynn, Jason, and Vonda are back."
"That's not Lynn or Vonda," said George. "Who is that? Wait… everyone! Duck!"
The man fired his machine gun at the vehicles. The windows shattered, wheels were popped, and bullet holes riddled the vehicles. The group were all laying low in the ground. The man moved into the forest.
"A Piranha!" yelled Richard.
"It was John! One of Sherry's lieutenants! We gotta get rid of him!" yelled George.
David and George carefully approached the trees in the forest. They entered the forest, taking cover behind some trees. John let out a burst of fire while taking cover behind some trees. Each time he fired his machine gun, he paced back a few steps to take cover behind another tree. David and George would sometimes come close to John, but by the time they lift their weapon, John has already locked his sights on the two men. David and George were forced to take cover behind a couple trees again, and found themselves being led deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Give yourself up, Cane! You don't want to end up like your wife and daughter, right?"
"Shut the hell up! Was it you who killed them?"
"Andrew personally got his hands bloody! But the blood is in my hand as well for breaking into the house with him!"
George came out of the tree with his gun pointed at John. However, he noticed that he held David at gunpoint. John was waiting for George to make a move so he could shoot David. This seemed all too familiar to George, but he didn't know how to put an end to it.
"Fine! I give myself up! But let him go!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Cane. David is Sherry's biggest threat besides you and she hates loose ends. I-"
As John prepared to conclude his words, an arrow flew through the air and pierced John behind his abdomen. A second and third arrow followed and pierced him through his left lung, forcing him to cough out blood before collapsing to the ground. George and David were surprised to see Lynn come out of a low evergreen tree with a bow in her hand. Vonda followed her with her bow diagonally around her body. And Jason with his compound bow.
"That's what he gets for what he did to Francisco," said Lynn as she pulled out the arrows from John's body.
Jason grabbed John's hair and pulled his head up and looked him dead in the eyes.
"I just want you to know. I'm a kill Andrew next," said Jason, letting go of John's hair.
"We have to move," warned Vonda. "There's a bunch of roamers coming. They were around where we were at, but there's no doubt that they heard those gunshots."
"Alright, let's move," said David.
Two roamers came out of from the deepest part of the forest, their eyes locked at the body in the ground. More roamers followed them and they all knelt down to the ground to take a bite of the barely alive human. Lynn looked back at John and felt satisfied with his bodies being ripped into shreds by the roamers. His plan to distract the group from Sherry ended up being a distraction for the roamers that would've threatened the entire group.
"Everyone get inside their vehicles!" yelled David. "I know that they are in bad shape, but there are a lot of roamers heading this way! We can't take them all!"
"The wheels in my car are popped!" exclaimed Sergei. "We'll just leave it here! We'll come back for it later! Everyone's wheels okay?"
The rest of the group nodded as they entered their damaged vehicles. The engine in Chunk's van, Vanzilla, and the RV roared as they drove ahead into the road. Suddenly, David saw a van run across the intersection ahead of the group. The van was the same one that the hostages were taken inside of, and the same one that the Piranhas used in their escape from Albany.
"Here we go," whispered Lori. "The race of her life. The race of our lives."
"This ends tonight," said Jason.
The RV, Vanzilla, and Chunk's van took a right turn in the intersection and pursued the van, just as the roamers crossed the road, surrounding Sergei's car. Some of the roamers were diverted in another direction by the car, while some of the roamers continued to head towards the woods in the other side of the , Richard, and Lori saw the van ahead of them. They continued to chase the van, burning their gasoline as they proceeded to speed up the RV.
"I'll be damned!" shouted Sherry. "They still found us! John failed!"
"They're missing a car," said Andrew. "John's doing his job."
"It's time for me to complete the job then."
Sherry opened up the rear door of the van and took out her pistol. Andrew grabbed his UZI and aimed at the RV. They shot their weapons in rapid succession, hitting the RV. The RV withstood the bullets and continued to pursue the van. Sherry was unable to hit the wheels of the Doug accelerated the van, Sherry closed one of the rear doors to the van while leaving the other door open for her right-hand man. Sergei opened up one of the windows in Chunk's car and aimed at the wheel of the van. He shot his M4 rifle at the van, taking out its rear wheels.
"Shit! Who did that?" yelled Doug.
"It's some guy!" yelled Andrew. "Move the van away from the road! I ran out bullets!"
Doug proceeded to move the van steadily towards the woods.
"Brace yourselves!" warned Doug. "We're going through the woods and along Lake Champlain!"
Sergei fired his rifle again, hitting the passenger chair and the passenger's side of the windshield. The Piranhas yelled as the bullet flew past by them. Doug moved the steering wheel uncontrollably, causing a few trees and stones to scrape the sides of the van.
"Ahh! Hold on!" yelled Doug. "Hold on to something!"
The van drove head on into a tree and crashed into it, creating a loud boom. Sherry and Andrew were sent flying into the front seats of the car, with the chairs softening their impacts.
"Woah! What the hell was that?" asked Lori.
"They crashed into something in the woods!" replied David, sounding unusually surprised. "They made a path for us. Let's proceed slowly."
Andrew's left elbow twisted unnaturally, tearing his skin. Sherry's right shoulder dislocated itself as she struggled to move out of the van. Blood poured slowly out of Andrew's head, while Sherry's arm and face was lacerated from the crash. Both Piranhas escaped from the van through the rear door, with Andrew and Sherry assisting each other in running deeper into the woods. The headlights of the RV beamed into the van, showing the destruction inside it.
All the adults, and most of the group members left their vehicles to inspect the van. The tree was leaning slightly away from the group, while the front bumper of the car was completely wrecked. Lori shone her flashlight on the front seat of the van, and saw an inflated airbag. She opened the door and saw Doug, who was bleeding profusely from his chest as there was pieces of glass everywhere in the front seat. Doug's neck was bent backwards, and his face was unrecognizable. Lori vomited on the ground and looked away from the van.
David and George cringed at the grotesque sight of Doug's face. Richard and Jason remained concentrated and walked away from the van, pointing there flashlights towards the trees in the woods.
"A trail," said Lana. "Sherry went this way."
The group got their weapons ready as Lori and Richard pointed their flashlights in the direction of the trail. David, George, and Lana moved ahead of them. The footprints in the ground lead the group closer to the lake near the woods.
Night replaced dusk. The roamers crossed another road and went into the forest where a path was cleared by a van. They roamed in the forest, following the slightest of noise, whether it is the hooting of an owl or the crack of a twig. Some of the roamers walked towards the van, smelling flesh and blood. However, as soon as the roamers approached the corpse, they moved away and wandered away from the van, moving towards the vehicles, where they saw a couple humans. Leni, Lily, Lucy, Clyde, Lola, Lisa, Darcy, Ronnie Anne, Tabby, Liam, Zach, Rusty, and Bobby were inside their respective vehicles, unaware of the approaching roamers.
A few roamers caught sight of the group following a path. The roamers growled and limped quickly towards their prey. Richard and Lori pointed their flashlights behind them, taking away David, George, and Lana's light. The group were met with a new threat. The roamers.
"Hey! We need some help here!" cried out Lana.
"Oh, sorry!" exclaimed Lori.
"Hey! What about us?" exclaimed Becky and Carol.
"I got you guys!" said Richard.
The head of roamers were being stabbed and destroyed. However, panic grew within the group.
"We can't see!" yelled Luna.
Luna, Sam, Chunk, and Sergei separated from the group as they struggled to escape from the roamers surrounding them. The shrubs and twigs in the ground shuffled louder as Chunk, Luna, and Sam followed Sergei who was running away from the group. Lynn shot her arrows at three roamers that approached Lori. Vonda covered Lynn with five arrows, in which four each pierced through a roamer's skull. Luan stood behind Benny as he protected her from the roamers. He sliced four roamers who were lunging towards the teenagers.
A shot went off. Richard aimed his revolver at another roamer and shot it in the head. D joined in and shot his pistol at a roamer walking towards Becky and Carol.
"That wasn't us!" yelled Richard and D.
"I know!" shouted David back. "It came from somewhere else! It sounded like it came from ahead of us!"
Another gunshot went off, causing a piece of bark to fly off a tree above Luna. She held Missy's AR-15 and looked towards the flashlight. Sergei fired his gun at the shadowy figures behind the flashlight. The flashlight was turned off and the shadowy figures moved away. Luna aimed her gun at one of the shadowy figures and pulled the trigger. After a couple shots, the figure slowed down and disappeared into the woods.
"More shots coming from ahead of us!" shrieked Lori. "Is that you, Luna?"
"Yeah. Some of them came from two people though! I think I tagged one of them!"
Lori, George, and the rest of the group ran towards Luna's voice. Suddenly, Lori was smacked by a pistol. She dropped her flashlight and stumbled to the ground. George pointed the light towards the attacker and was immediately hit in the back. He dropped his flashlight and was dragged backwards. Likewise, Lori was dragged into the forest as she struggled to grip her hands and legs into the ground.
Sherry took hold of the back of Lori's tank top and wrapped her arms around Lori's neck. Lori's breath was taken away as Sherry choked her, with every passing second potentially being Lori's last ones.
Lori started to remember the hand-to-hand combat training that Jason taught her. She elbowed Sherry and through her over her shoulder. She got on top of her and punched her face multiple times and started choking her. Sherry headbutted Lori causing her to stumble back, Sherry got up and tried choking her again.
The group found themselves lost as they inspected the ground for the dropped flashlights. The growl of the roamers grew louder. The scattered survivors did not know where to go.
George quickly picked himself up and swung his fist at whoever dragged him deeper into the woods. Andrew fell to the ground, gasping as his right thigh and abdomen were bleeding. He heard a growl approaching the two men and attempted to crawl away. Jason ran towards them and kick Andrew in the face knocking out some teeth and stepped on his back, he then grabbed the back of his head and slammed it to the ground multipole times, breaking his nose in the process and held Andrew's head to the ground. George stepped on his right leg and stood still as the roamer slowly walked towards the two men and teen.
"You did some of the worst kinds of things just to help achieve a delusional woman's dream?" huffed George. "My family is dead because of you… your family is dead because of us. You're going to see your brother in hell soon."
"Tell your brother, I said Hi when you see him," said Jason.
The roamer lunged towards George, but he quickly dodged the roamer and moved behind it. George and Jason grabbed its arms and the back of its neck and threw the roamer down at Andrew. The roamer growled at the Piranha and sunk its teeth into his face. Andrew yelled in agony as George and Jason quickly ran back to where Lori was.
The group decided to run in a straight line to avoid the roamers. They followed each other and passed many trees that were obstacles for the roamers. Soon enough, they escaped the woods and ran into a field that led to a lake.
"I shoulda killed your entire group back in the bridge. I was too easy on you guys," hissed Sherry. "Remember that day? Jesus, what a pussy you were, Lori."
"I acted the way anyone would have. Vonda gave you a chance to change and you wasted it," hissed Lori.
Lori sunk her teeth on Sherry's arms and bit with all her might. Sherry shrieked in pain and released Lori, squeezing her bleeding arms. Lori attempted to pick herself up but was kicked in the back by Sherry. She tackled Lori to a tree and punched her in the stomach. Lori coughed out blood, and was punched in the face, again, again, and again. Blood and saliva flew across Lori's face as she tried to push Sherry away. She grabbed Sherry hand and send a punch to her face causing her nose to bleed. Lori then punched her throat, Sherry lost breath and held her neck. Suddenly, George and Jason grabbed Sherry from behind her and threw her to the ground.
Sherry groaned while holding her bleeding arms. George grabbed her shirt and pulled her upright. He punched her in the eye and in the chest, while she tried to kick him. Jason delivered a punch to her chest causing her to spit out blood. George pushed her against a tree and smashed the back of her head on it. Sherry dropped to the ground, lightheaded and weak.
Lori grabbed Sherry's leg as George lifted her head and back. They carried her into the open field where they were met with the group near the lake. The group members were surprised to see Lori all beat up in the face. Lincoln was especially surprised to see the cuts, bruises, and blood in her face. Lori ignored it and asked for Richard's Python.
"I was going to kill her, but here you go," said Richard, handing Lori his trusty revolver. "Blow her brains out."
Lori walked close to Sherry and cocked the revolver, aiming it at her head.
"Wait, no!" shouted George. "Lori, wait."
Lori held the revolver in the air. She continued to glare at Sherry while the group looked at Lori. Vonda, Jason, and George approached Lori.
"Why am I stopping? She nearly killed my little sister! She killed the people that we cared about! Tell me why I'm stopping!"
"I know you feel angry, but think how this is going to affect you. This is not going to make you feel any better. Whatever is consuming you is only going to get worse if you kill Sherry!"
"So what?" yelled Lori. "You're going to kill her anyways!"
"I've done some things that I'm not proud of. But I've done them already. Everything you did, as of right now, has been out of the interest of protecting the group. But if you kill her right now, in the state you are, you're killing her out of revenge. You're young, Lori, and I don't want to see you lose your humanity so fast."
Lori shivered. Everything George was saying reminded her of Missy. She looked down at the ground and handed the revolver back to Richard. Sherry grinned and sighed as she looked at Vonda. Jason walked over and kicked her face glaring down at her. Lori broke down in tears as she walked towards the group.
"You're right, George. Thank you for saving me."
"Well, I'll kill her then," said Richard, lifting his revolver.
"Wait…" groaned Sherry. "Vonda. I know that you don't have the heart to let these people execute me. I know you're a very good person, and I'm sorry about all the evil things I have done. I admit that the things I've done are selfish and were for my own needs. I could've done a better job with caring for you. But I do love you. And I don't want to see you turn out like me."
"She will never be anything like you!" yelled Jason. "You could've been a part of her life again, but you wasted your only chance at that!"
"Jason right! Even if I let them kill you, I'm never going to end up like you!" yelled Vonda.
"Are you sure about that? The apocalypse didn't change me… but it most certainly will change you."
"It will change her, but no matter what she will never be like you," said Jason. putting his hand on Vonda's shoulder.
"You caused too much pain to all of us. I can't just allow you to roam around. I already did that and you made me regret it. Not another chance for you."
"Vonda, I'm your mother!"
"You're not my mother. I don't know who you are."
"I told you Sherry if you didn't change that you will die, you should've taken my offer," said Jason. "You never stood a chance, not against this group and not against me."
Vonda looked at George and softly nodded. Vonda walked away from Sherry as George lifted his gun. Sherry's tears flew down her beaten face as she realized that in trying to protect the one person she loved, she caused that person to resent her. Sherry closed her eyes and accepted her fate. Richard lifted his Python, but it was too late. George pulled the trigger, and a loud gunshot echoed out the field and throughout the woods.
"No! I was supposed to kill her!" yelled Richard.
"It didn't matter who killed her," said George. "As long as it wasn't Lori or any of the young ones here."
"He's right. Just be grateful that she dead. Besides George the one that deserve to do it she caused him more pain that anyone of us," said Jason.
Vonda heard the gunshot over and over. She watched as the group dragged Sherry's body towards the lake. Her body was thrown into the lake, creating a splash that echoed throughout Vonda's head, just like the gunshot did. The body flowed away as the threat that the group faced disappeared. She stared out into the lake. Lori placed her hands on her shoulder, comforting her. Although, Vonda has always felt like an orphan since the beginning of the apocalypse, she now truly knew she was one, alone in the world.
She looked back at the group and noticed how bleak their expressions were. She felt at home with the group and no longer felt alone. She then walked back with the group and looked forward to continuing their road to Houlton. After all, the journey ahead did not finish yet.
The woman made it across the debris. Some of the debris sunk into the water since the woman's weight forced it further into the flowing water. The woman encounted a set of clothes: a choker, a small shirt that would expose a waist, blue jeans, black boots, and a hoop earring.
"Well, I'll be damned. This looks very familiar."
The low humming noise grew increasingly louder. The woman looked behind her and saw nothing of importance. She took a deep breath and continued to walk to where she was headed. She coughed softly and sniffled.
"Shit. All of this was for nothing. Even if I'm away from the others, I still get sick. Ah, fuck, I really gotta take some medicine."
The woman looked around, knowing that there was no one around, but still making sure for a sense of normality.
"I really miss my parents."
Lori walked away from the river with debris as she placed the map back into her vest.