The sun shone on the roamer-infested city of Portland. Some of the streets were crowded with roamers. The lack of bombed buildings and fencing indicated that this city was not turned into a rogue-controlled Safe-Zone. For the group, this city was another Cleveland. However, there were military equipment lying around.

The three vehicles were parked outside of a tall apartment building, near the outskirts of the city. After reading the map and inspecting the supplies, the group had no options left and knew they had to scavenge the city for more food and water. But first, they needed shelter.

Inside the buildings, dozens of roamers lurked in the hallways. A roamer turned around upon hearing the creaking of the wooden floor, only to be bludgeoned by Lynn's baseball bat. She, along with Vonda, Jason, Becky, D, Dana, and Wavehead dashed through the hallways of the first floor. They each opened a door slowly and held their weapons up before entering the room. Becky and Wavehead had a roamer inside their room. Becky chopped through the roamer's head with her machete while Wavehead stabbed the other roamer's head through its left eye.

In the second floor, Lori and George led their small group through the hallway by the windows, taking out all the roamers in their way. Lincoln, Lucy, Chunk, Sam, Lana, Lola, Meli, and Ronnie Anne sprinted to the doors, closing them before any of the roamers inside escaped.

Luan and Benny led Bobby, Carol, Zach, Liam, Rusty, and Tabby in the third floor, clearing out the rooms one by one. With swift cuts, stabs, and slashes, the small group went in and out of the rooms.

David and Richard covered each other's side while they stabbed one roamer after another. Their bodies dropped to the ground, creating a pool of dried blood in the carpet flooring. After clearing the hallways, they saw Lynn and her group move upstairs to clear out the fifth floor. David and Richard went inside a room to clear it out.

Sergei whistled as he watched over Luna, Clyde, Meli, Lana, Darcy, Lisa, Lola, Leni, Lucy, Lily, Preston, and Jeffrey inside the RV. Suddenly, there were three knocks in the door, and Lori entered, with roamer blood in her hands.

"It's clear now."

Lana and Lisa walked through the hallways of the first floor, watching the group place the bodies inside a room. A window was shattered open, with a baseball bat lying next to it.

Sam and Lori were carrying Luna upstairs to the first floor where she would reside in a room with Sam, Chunk, Luan, and Benny. Bobby and Sergei carried Clyde upstairs to the room that Lincoln claimed. Upon arriving, he noticed his friend was lying flat in the bed, exhausted from killing the roamers.

Leni, Lily, Darcy, Lori, Bobby, and Ronnie Anne slept in the same room in the middle of the afternoon. David, George, Richard, Sergei, Chunk, and Carol slept in their own rooms. Jeffrey and Preston stuck together in a room. Becky, Dana, Jason, Wavehead, and D stayed in one room, although Wavehead and D were going to go sleep in their own rooms.

"Hey, Linc, mind if we stay in your room?" asked Lynn. "Most of the rooms are already crowded, plus me and Lucy feels more comfortable sleeping with you."

"Same goes for us," said Lana. "Sleeping alone with the roamers out there sends chills down our spines."

"It's not my room, but yeah, I'm sure Clyde will be more than happy to let you guys sleep here," said Lincoln.

"You don't even have to ask!" said Clyde. "Of course you guys can stay here!"

"Thank you, Clyde," whispered Lynn as she lightly punched him in his shoulder.

After a few hours, with daylight still remaining strong in the sky, some of the group members were outside of a department store. Richard knocked and looked through the transparent doors, noticing a lack of roamers.

"This is a good sign," said Richard. "However, we don't know how many there are in the upper floors. Like in the apartment, I want us to follow the same plan. However, we're going to split into two groups. I'll take Becky, Dana, Wavehead, D, and Lynn since we worked well together last time. George, you'll take the rest."

Sam, Preston, Luan, Benny, Jason, and Vonda stood close to George. Both groups walked inside the store and saw blood stains in the wall with bodies in the floor, near the entrance. The bodies were of roamers, some with bullet holes in their heads, others with stab wounds. There were two bodies in the floor with a camouflage uniform. Upon closer inspection, Richard realized that these weren't Army uniforms.

"I think this was some kinda militia. It looks like National Guard, but not quite."

"I think it's the Maine State Guard," said Preston. "A couple of them were in Portsmouth when the epidemic became widespread."

"Wonder what happened here," said George. "Must have been some kinda roamer attack, 'cause these bodies are decayed."

"George. You and your group are going to loot the upper floors. Food, water, medicine, batteries, all the good stuff, take it. My group and I are going to stay down in the lower floors." Let's go!"

The upper floors were filled with toys, books, and other objects that the group didn't need, while the lower floors consisted of clothing in every rack and shelf. However, the group were able to find supplies in some of the rooms.

Sam placed a couple batteries into her backpack while some of the others filled their backpacks with bags of MREs. Richard saw a body in the floor with a decapitated arm. He wondered what gruesome fate occurred to him to lead him to cut off his arm.

"Hey, these are good, right?" asked D, holding a few bags of MREs in the air.

"Those are perfect," said Richard. "They last very long. Take 'em."

"There's a lotta ammo lying around," said Dana. "Do we take them?"

"Yes," replied Richard. "We're running low. Try not to take the guns. We already have a lot. They'll add unnecessary weight. Take the suppressors, though. We need those."

Benny unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt, while moving through the room. He stumbled on a few boxes, causing the toys inside them to fall into the floor. George and the rest of the group looked at him, as he reached his legs over the toys. Benny put on a sheepish smile.

"Sorry."

A low rumbling was heard below the group. Benny looked at the floor, unable to pinpoint where the noise was coming from. Vonda raised her bow as she looked around. George turned on his walkie-talkie.

"Richard. Do you hear that?"

"I do. It's coming from upstairs."

"I thought it was coming from downstairs."

Richard looked around. George's group were walking around the room, trying to figure out what the noise was. Luan then stopped dead on her tracks.

"Crap! Over there!" shrieked Luan.

A dozen roamers were crawling up a second stairwell, wide enough to allow ten roamers to crawl up at one time. They growled as they picked themselves up, now going after the group upstairs.

"There's a hidden stairwell!" yelled George into the walkie-talkie. "They're coming by the dozens!"

Richard and Lynn ran to the bottom right corner of the room. They found a giant stairwell with roamers crawling up the steps.

"Shit!" yelped Lynn.

Richard took out his knife. Lynn shot two roamers with her arrows, leaving the roamers flat on their stomachs. Jason, Dana, Becky, D, and Wavehead approached the stairwell.

"You, go upstairs and help the others fight off the roamers!" ordered Richard. "The rest of you go with him! I'll keep these roamers distracted!"

Dana and Wavehead headed for the stairwell in the middle. Lynn, Jason, Becky, and D stood besides Richard.

"We're staying," said Becky.

"You're gonna get help from us, whether you want it or not!" exclaimed D.

"So don't even bother trying to stop us," said Jason.

"I'm also staying behind to help you out!" said Lynn.

"No, Lynn! Jason, Becky, and D are enough! You help the others! Help them escape!"

"But-"

"Go!"

Lynn dashed away, running away from the hidden stairwell. Richard lunged towards a roamer that stood up. He stabbed it, much like D, Jason, and Becky.

"Here's the plan. Take out the roamers climbing up those steps. That'll–"

Richard stabbed another roamer's brain by sticking his knife inside its eyeball.

"That'll block those roamers from crawling upstairs! We'll then head downstairs and get the fuck outta Dodge!"

"Got it!" exclaimed Becky.

Luan and Benny were slicing the roamers near the box of toys. Luan turned back and saw Lynn shoot an arrow at one of the roamers near her. Benny tugged her arms and they both ran back to the group.

"We gotta run up the roof!" yelled George. "There's gotta be a fire escape!"

Vonda and Lynn stood near the middle of the room, shooting their arrows at the roamers. They moved forward slowly, keeping up their relentless firing. Sam, Dana, Wavehead, Luan, Benny, and Preston moved to the stairwell in the middle of the room.

"Girls! Let's go!" yelled George.

Vonda and Lynn picked up their arrows, placing them back into their quivers as fast as they could. The roamers approached closer, causing the girls to ditch the remaining arrows in the floor. Both girls ran into the middle stairwell with the others.

The door to the roof busted open. Dana, Wavehead, Sam, Benny, Luan, Vonda, and Lynn bursted out of the narrow stairwell and into the roof. George kicked one of the roamers down the stairwell and ran back up to the roof. He closed the door and ran around the roof.

"Look for the fire escape!" yelled George.

"Found it!" exclaimed Dana. "It's over here!"

Dana and Wavehead proceeded to climb down first. George raised his pistol and aimed it at the door as Sam and Preston climbed down. Luan and Benny sheathed their swords and walked down the narrow fire escape to the alley. Lynn and Vonda followed them, then followed by George, who went down last.

The survivors hopped off the fire escape into the alley, capturing the attention of four roamers. Dana, Wavehead, Sam, and Preston each stabbed one roamer as the others ran ahead to roamers in the streets chased the survivors as they ran to the front of the department store, where Vanzilla was parked. George shot some of the roamers near the van while the others cleared out the roamers in the street. Preston quickly stabbed the roamers in the sidewalk, allowing the survivors to enter the van.

George entered the van in the driver's seat while the others went into the back seats. Vonda climbed inside and motioned Lynn to come in.

"Hurry, Lynn!" yelled Vonda.

Lynn ran to the van, remained outside, and closed the door. She bumped on the window, smiled at the passengers, and dashed away from the vehicles.

"Lynn! No!" exclaimed Luan.

The roamers smashed against the windows and George pressed on the gas pedals. The roamers almost surrounded the vehicle before the van drove ahead in the street.

"No, stop! What about Lynn!" cried out Luan. "We gotta go ba–"

"We can't go back," said George. "She made a choice. We gotta trust her for now."

Richard, Jason, D, and Becky took out their guns. D and Becky shot their Glock 17s at the approaching roamers from the stairwells. The four survivors ran to the middle of the room, only to encounter more roamers in the stairwell. The roamers poured into the room, surrounding the racks of clothing.

D slipped on a few bullet casings, dropping to the floor. Richard grabbed his arms and picked him up. He then unleashed a couple bullets into the groups of roamers in the middle of the room. D rapidly fired his pistol at the roamers near the bottom corners of the room.

"Becky! Watch out!" exclaimed D.

Becky turned around and saw a roamer lunge towards her. D tackled the roamer away from her and bashed its skull with the grip of his pistol. Becky shot a roamer closing in on her, until she realized there were too many roamers to face alone. She backed away from the group of roamers, moving towards the window of the room.

"Derrick! Over here!" yelled Becky.

A roamer grabbed onto D's right arm and clawed his nails down his arms. D yelled as he swung the gun at its head, knocking it out of the way. D ran back with Richard, Jason, and Becky.

"Shit!" D said, looking at the bleeding scratches in his arm.

Becky stood behind him, speechless. She shook her head and trembled.

"No, don't worry," said D. "It's just a scratch. Lisa can treat it. Just– let's focus on finding a way outta here."

Jason shot some roamers as he handed D a rag.

"Here wrap this around your arm tight," said Jason. "We have to make sure it doesn't spread."

"Alright." said Becky.

Richard held his Python in his left hand, aiming at the roamers but refusing to shoot.

"We're trapped!" shouted Becky. "Wait…"

Becky aimed her gun at one of the large window panes in the side of the department store and fired it. Thousands of cracks filled the glass, which Becky smashed with her gun.

"Good idea!" exclaimed D. "Richard, we gotta jump now!"

"That looks kinda high," said Becky. "Oh well. Here goes nothing!"

Becky jumped out of the window and into the alley, bracing her legs for impact. Her left foot slipped upon landing in the pavement, causing her to fall on her wrist. She yelled as her left hand bent backwards. Her left ankle twisted and caused an immense sharp pain on her foot. Her pupils dilated as she felt the intense sting of multiple shards of glass digging into her skin.

"Becky!" yelled D. "Are you alright?"

Richard looked down at the alley. Becky lied still, closing her eyes as she struggled to ignore the pain running through her nerves. Richard saw a few roamers approaching her from the street behind the department store. He aimed carefully at the roamers.

D shot the roamers one by one as they approached the window-side of the room. After hearing the clicks in his gun, he tossed the gun to the ground and took out his knife. He lunged towards the roamers in the left side of the room then the right.

Jason shot the roamers as he ran towards the window and shoot the roamers approaching Becky.

Richard took a deep breath and shot the revolver. It struck one of the roamers in the head, killing it. Becky slowly crawled away, inch by inch. With two bullets left in the chamber, Richard aimed carefully at another roamer. He shot his revolver again and killed the roamer.

D continued fighting off the roamers until there was no escape. The two survivors were seconds away from being chomped by the roamers.

"I'm going down next to help Becky," said Jason. "Don't stop shooting,"

Jason climbed out the window and jumped into the alley and he landed on both his feet, he stumbled onto the ground hitting his head, blood came down his head covering his right eye as he slowly tried to get up, a roamer moved towards Jason has it lunged at him causing it to fall on top of him.

Richard fired off his last shot at the roamer, before taking a closer look at the alley. He underestimated the number of roamers heading towards Becky.

"We gotta jump now!" exclaimed D. "How do I–"

Richard grabbed D's shoulder and shoved him into the missing window. He yelled as he fell down to the pavement of the alley. Multiple pops were heard from D's body as blood poured out of his back. He lied still in the alley, softly groaning.

As Jason was shrugging with the roamer, he heard D's groans of pain and tried to push the roamer off so he could help him, another roamer came over to Jason and fall on top of the other roamer, he used his left arm to push the roamers back as he stresses his other arm out to grab his gun on the ground. Jason final grabbed his pistol and put it in the first roamer's mouth and lined up his shot, moving the roamer's head carefully he pulled the trigger and the bullet escape the chamber going through the first roamer's skull and into the second, both roamers fell on top of him dead as he starts to push them off.

Richard crouched to the ground and jumped into the alley. He landed safely on both of his feet, almost stumbling into the ground. Becky slowly turned her head over to where D landed.

"Did– did I hear Derrick?" moaned Becky, before seeing D lying in the ground. "Derrick!"

Richard quickly grabbed Becky and lifted her a foot above the ground, moving her away from the pieces of glass in the floor. Soon after, bodies dropped to the ground like raindrops, some crushing the roamers that were about to devour D. The roamers fell one by one to the ground, until the roamers lost their attention on the survivors in the alley.

Some of the roamers picked themselves up and groaned looking around in the air. They dropped to the floor again and sunk their mouth onto D's body. Blood squirted out of his chest as the roamers ripped pieces of his flesh for consumption. D's hands twitched, moving softly in the air.

Becky gasped quickly while keeping her mouth open. Richard grabbed her gun that lied a few feet away from her. He raised the gun and aimed at D's head. He pulled the trigger, launching a bullet into D's head. Richard quickly picked up D's backpack that lied a few inches away from Becky. He then turned around and faced Becky, noticing how helpless and useless she was. He turned to Jason who was slowly getting up as was a little dizzy from the fall.

"Should I?" Richard whispered to himself.

An arrow flew across the alley, striking a roamer that walked towards Becky. Lynn came out of the street in front of the department store.

"Come on! I'll cover you!" yelled Lynn.

Richard placed his arms below Becky's back and stood up. Tears fell into Richard's arms as he ran into the street. Lynn shot a roamer behind Jason giving him the the chance to run. Vanzilla did not sit where Richard remembered it last sitting at. Lynn shot her arrows at many roamers in the street, clearing a path for Richard.

Richard hopped over a burned wheel in the road. He walked behind empty vehicles. Lynn continued slaughtering the roamers ahead of her Jason slaughter the roamers with her as more blood fell down his face and Richard continued to follow her. Time seemed to slow down with every roamer that Lynn and Jason slaughtered. Richard let out a small tear from his eye as he continued to run to the apartment building.

The doors opened in the apartment building. Dana stood up and opened up her hands as she ran to the doors. Lynn walked inside the building and closed the doors.

"It's clear outside," panted Lynn.

Richard set Becky down to a couch near the counter. Carol and Lisa ran down the stairs with their medical kits. Carol looked at Becky, who had her eyes closed. Richard watched her lips move. He turned to Lisa who took out a few tools from the kit. Carol pulled out the red shards from Becky's skin as Lisa removed Becky's shoes. She inspected the foot as Becky groaned.

Richard turned towards Wavehead. He looked around the room, looking for D. He looked at Becky for answers, to which she could only respond with tears. Wavehead removed his glasses and covered his eyes with his left arm. Dana and Lynn patted him in the shoulders as he sat down on the floor next to the couch.

Richard walked towards the stairwell. Jeffrey stopped him in his tracks with David following him.

"What happened out there?" asked Jeffrey.

"Just another day in hell," replied Richard. "Where was our miracle when we needed one?"

David looked at Richard. He looked down and looked at his hands.

"The boy, Derrick, suffered an accident. I shot him to put him outta his misery."

Richard walked upstairs. Preston was left speechless. David walked back with the group near the counter.

Lisa walked over to Jason and checked his head.

"How is he Lisa?" asked Dana.

"Jason is okay nothing life threading he might have a small concussion, but he'll be okay," said Lisa.

Dana cleaned the blood off of Jason head as Lisa banged it.

"Thank you, Lisa," said Jason.

"No thanks is necessary just get some rest," replied Lisa.

Jason got up walked to his room with Dana following him they entered the room and saw Meli sleeping on the bed as they both sat down on the bed.

"You are sure you're feeling, okay?" asked Dana.

"Yeah, I'm fine just need some sleep is all," said Jason.

"Okay get some rest I'll be back to check up on you later."

Before she could leave Jason grabbed her hand stopping her.

"You don't have to leave you can stay with me tonight if you want."

"No, it's okay you need rest right now and I don't want to wake her up."

Dana pointed to Meli sleep peacefully.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow goodnight, Dana."

"See you tomorrow too Jason Goodnight."

They gave each other a hug as she left the room.

The flashlight shone through the dark hallway as Carol walked to Richard's room. She knocked softly before coming in. She saw Richard standing by the window near his bed.

"Hey," whispered Carol. "I thought you might be a little hungry, so I brought you a bag of cookies."

Richard turned around and looked at Carol. He walked close to her.

"Is Becky alright?" whispered Richard.

"Yeah, she's going to be fine. She just had a dislocated wrist and a sprained ankle. She'll recover in a matter of days. Though, I'm not sure if she's going to be emotionally alright."

Richard turned back to the window. Carol looked at his eyes and tried to figure out what he was looking at. His eyes met the department building, though Carol wasn't too sure if Richard was able to see that.

"What's wrong? Have you been staring out the window the last few hours?"

"Yeah. I can't stop looking back at the store. I feel… lost."

"Remember when you said I can talk to you about anything? You're not the only one who's going to be there for someone. I'm here."

Richard looked away from the window.

"I don't feel like myself these days. I… killed Derrick. And for what?"

"Becky told me you did it to put him out of his misery."

"Before that! I– in the head of the moment, shoved him outta the store before the roamers got us. He fell to the pavement and I heard them. His bones cracking…. I should've let him jumped on his own. But he was too afraid. And I–"

"Did what you had to do," said Carol. "Had he stayed, he would've died. You had to do something. You tried to save his life."

Carol lifted Richard's hands and held them close to her chest.

"At least you put him out of his misery. You're not losing yourself. You're only trying to look out for the others. Like David. Like Lori. Like Jason. I know…"

Carol leaned placed her hands in Richard's chest and leaned close to him.

"...because you were always there for me."

Richard looked at Carol's intense stare at him. They both closed their eyes as they pressed their lips against each other's. Richard held Carol's back as they walked close to the door. Richard turned around with his lips still locked onto Carol's. He kicked back the door and locked it with his left hand. Then, Richard lifted Carol and placed her into his bed as he lied on top of her. The bag of cookies sat on the flickering battery-powered lamp on the nightstand next to the bed.

Lincoln awoke to Lynn staring out the window.

"What happened, Lynn? Something wrong?"

"I think so."

Lynn looked at Clyde, Lucy, Lola, and Lana sleeping peacefully in their mattresses. She motioned Lincoln to come closer.

"What is it?" whispered Lincoln.

"I'm not sure how to say this, but… I think there's something going on with Richard. In a bad way. As in, he's a dangerous man."

"Why? What do you mean?"

"I'll explain the details later, but long story short, I think he killed D on purpose. He didn't put him out of his misery, Lincoln."

Lynn held Lincoln's shoulder and looked at him in his eyes as she trembled softly.

"He murdered him."