"I heard something this way!"

"By the cabin?"

"Yeah!"

The group stood like deer in headlights. They had three options; face the group that was heading towards them, run away amd hope they wouldn't get spotted or chased; or hide out in the cabin right in front of them.

Everyone in the group felt a surge of emotions rush through them. All of these emotions suddenly came to a halt when they felt Ed's now stiff arms enveloping them as he carried everyone into the cabin. Ed then carefully shut the door and found a wooden board to block it with.

He held his index finger to his lips and gave everyone a serious look. Everyone remained absolutely silent, following Ed's orders either because of the sudden shock of how fast he acted, the sudden serious nature of the nornally charismatic young man, oor due to the fact that they didn't have any other ideas.

"Nobody's here!" A voice from outside asked. It was definitely a man, his voice was gruff and deep, but had no discernible accent. But the group heard what sounded like an army of them approach the area.

"You sure you weren't just seeing things?" Another man asked, his voice wasn't as deep but still that of a grown man.

"Are you questioning me?!" The first man responded brutally, none of the group could see what was happening, not that they wanted to, but they knew the first man was threatening the second man. It didn't help that they could hear a shotgun being cocked.

Ed clutched at his heart with his left hand, feeling his heart beating out of his chest. He felt as though he needed to hold it in place so the men wouldn't hear it. May, who sat with him alongside Double D and Eddy, held Ed's other hand and gave him a look that seemed to say 'Everything will be alright'.

"N-no sir!" The second man replied. The sound of a horse's neigh revealed that there wasn't nearly as many men as initially believed, but their number was still unknown.

"Good, now I know for damn sure I saw people around here, they must still be close by." The first said. Suddenly, a third man spoke up, he sounded a bit like a stereotypical redneck.

"But boss, should we get more ammo from the cabin?" He asked. Everyone's heart raced, some prepped their weapons while others shut their eyes in fear.

"Nah, we have all we need. Let's move!"

The group of men left, the group only felt safe enough to speak when the sound of the horses galloping faded away.

"Are t-they gone?" Jimmy asked, squeezing Sarah's hand in terror.

"I think so, I guess we all ought to thank Ed for saving our skins." Kevin replied.

"Quick thinking, you big lug!" Eddy said, his voice sounding more like it did whenever Ed did something good for Eddy's scams back when he still did them years ago.

"Ed, as thankful as I am for what you did, what made you make that decision so impulsively? Not to offend, but usually you don't make such important decisions so quickly." Double D asked one of his best friends in concern.

"You can never trust anyone outaide of your group Double D! In all of the zombie comics and movies I read, everyone that isn't with you is against you!" Ed answered, the answer seemed to make sense to everyone except Double D, who was about to speak up but Ed continued speaking.

"And if you're ever in a situation like the one we we're just in, the best thing to do is find a good place to hide."

"Personally, I would've ran."

"And I would've stood my ground and fought back." Eddy and Kevin said respectively, the forner being a bit embarrassed with his answer, a few of the others nodding in agreement to the two.

"That is only useful when dealing with zombies." Ed replied matter-of-factly. "Even then if there are too many you won't be able to run forever or fight forever."

Ed's statement was just as valid as the others and everyone knew it. But it was too late now to debate it,especially with the risk of those men coming back. Nazz felt around for a light switch and found a lamp that she turned on. The light was enough for everyone to see the entire cabin, which was filled to the brim with weapons that outclassed those that the group had.

"Oh my lord!" Double D said at the sight of the weapons.

"Score!" Kevin said, everyone rushed to take the weapons before Double D raised his voice.

"Wait! We can't take those!"

Everyone who really knew Double D understood why he was against what they were doing, Jonny held Plank close to him as he stepped closer to Double D.

"Um, Double D, I can't really speak for everyone but we all know that stealing is wrong, you don't have to tell us that. But with everything going on, we have to do what we can to survive."

Jonny was always a quirky boy in Double D's eyes, but he knew Jonny's heart was always in the right place.

"Rolf, Jimmy and I are still Urban Rangers, so we know that stealing fron those that dont5 deserve it is disgraceful."

"Ranger Jonny is right, 'Moral code that is as strong as his brain' Ed-boy." Rolf added, joining Jonny's side.

"Dude, you heard what those guys outaide said." Nazz jumped in. "They didn't sound like they were going to help us."

Double D sighed, finally relenting to the circumstances set in front of him.

The others resumed taking whatever they could. Lenore Kanker finally had ammo for her shotgun, Kevin handed Nazz, Matt, Tony, and Terry AK47's. Kevin himself seemed rather content to use a chainsaw that was with other tools. Matt sighed and put his iron clackers away, instead taking a pair of hatchets that were near the chaibsaw Kevin took.

'Grandpa, I can't thank you enough for keeping these.' Matt silently prayed, wishing his grandfather could watch over him. 'But I'm going to have to start using these now.'

Marie noticed a hunting rifle nobody had taken and brought it over to Double D.

"Here, muffin, I know you don't like what we have to do but you know we have to do this..." Marie said softly.

"I know... I just didn't want to admit it..." Double D sighed as he took the rifle, Marie placed a hand on her crush's cheek. It was the first time he didn't shake in embarrassment when she did that, maybe it was because Marie was giving him a genuine smile out of kindness rather than a seductive smile. Either way, Double D's heart was racing as fast as his mind. He tried putting all of these thoughts past him as he tried getting used to the feel of the rifle and how he could use it to it's fullest potential.

"Alright, is everybody ready to move?" Rachel asked, keeping the semi-automatic 9mm she took at her side. Everyone else was ready to move, they turned off the lamp as they left the cabin, which was now almost conpletely void of weapons, ammunition, and resources such as food, water, and medicinal supplies.

For the next few hours, everyone continued trekking through the American wilderness, perhaps nobody noticed it before or it may have been do to the fact that the path they were on slowly inclined but the temperature began to lower to a surprising extend. Nobody expected it would get this cold in the summertime. It wasn't cold enough to harm anyone, just mildly inconvenience them.

"Please tell me we're mearly there..." Sarah whined.

"It should be just a little longer." Kathy responded.

Surprisingly, ever since they had left the cabin, none of them saw any zombies or heard the group of men again, which was a good thing since they wouldnt5 have to waate any energy fighting. What unsettled everyone though was the group of men, who were they exactly? How many were there? What did they want? What were their intentions? Were there more of them hidden somewhere?

All of these questions raced through the minds of at least half the group until...

"There it is!" Jonny yelled with excitement.

The group approached a large wall made of wooden logs, with a door made out of the same material crafted in the center. Just as Ed was about to knock on the door however, a voice shouted at them.

"Freeze!"

Everyone lookes up and saw several people aiming their rifles at the group.

"You with the Marauders?" One of the men asked. This man was rather plain looking; brown jacket, blue jeans, blue cap. He was around the same age as Eddy's dad.

"Who?" Kevin asked bluntly.

"I asked if you're with the Marauders!" The man repeated.

"Sir, please, we contacted your compound via radio system. We heard you could help us..." Double D pleaded, the man then lowered his weapon.

"You're the Canadians? ...Open the gate!"

The wooden doors began to open, the man climbed down to meet with the group.

"Sorry about that, those Marauders fuck things up for everyone in these parts."

""The Marauders?" Eddy asked.

"You're better off asking the boss. He can explain everything. Come with me, I'll bring you to him." The man said.

Some of the group listened to the man as he talked about the area and the compound itself. Kevin was only partially listening, picking up bits about how the owner of the compound was living off the grid before the outbreak and that they were the first people that they we're able to contact.

Kevin was mostly looking around at the compound itself, it seemed to he mostly cabins and warehouses. A few people were staying in the cabins though nost of them stayed in a warehouse. The other warehouses seemed to be full of supplies, Kevin watched as two men were bringing frozen meat out of one and logs out of another.

That was when Kevin saw something that shocked and infuriated him. There, stepping into one of the cabins was Armando. He wasn't sure if Armando saw him or not but he had to make sure he warned the others.

'Great, even more shit to worry about...' Kevin thought to himself.

"Hey, Kevin!" Nazz called out to him. Erin was also waving at him to get his attention.

"Huh?" Kevin responded, snapping back to reality.

"Don't fall behind!"

Kevin ran to catch up to the others, still thinking of how Armando got there or why he was there at all.

The group was led to a cabin that was larger than the others and made of stone rather than wood. Double D noticed that there were windows leading to rooms in the basement, similar to the window in Ed's room in the cul-de-sac. When the Eds saw it, they couldn't help but feel a little homesick for a moment, the memories of them entering Ed's room from his window rushing through their minds, they laughed a bit on the inside at getting such a feeling from something so miniscule.

The man stopped them in front of the door to the cabin and turned to face the group.

"Ok, the boss is in there, just tell him why you're here and in sure he'd be willing to let y'all stay. Just don't get nervous when you see him, he's a bit of an intense looking guy." He explained before knocking in the door.

"It's open, come on in." A woman said from the inside. The man opened the door and guided the group inside. They saw a woman cooking in the kitchen on their right, she had light skin and was chopping vegetables. A teenage boy with light brown skin approached her with a chicken in his hands. Ed smiled when he saw the chicken but Double D stopped him from causing a ruckus.

"Um... Hello?" Kathy greeted.

"Huh? Oh hey, we got new people!" The boy said cheerfully. "My pa's right there in the living room."

The group looked and saw a man reading a book in the living room, he was sitting in a vhair turned away from everyone.

The Eds and Urban Rangers were the first to enter the living room. The floorboards creaked underneath their feet.

"So you must be the people we talked to from Canada." The father said, his voice was deep and rough sounding. He turned around in his chair and faced everyone, allowing them to get a good look at him. He was dark skinned and rather large. He had a beer belly but also had a fair amount of muscle. He had black hair and dark brown eyes along with a handlebar moustache.

"The name's Earl. Earl Oakton. Welcome to my compound."