(Anne Marshall belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace!)
(Chris Rudy, Misty Rudy, and Chelsea Jernigan all belong to Chris Rudy!)
(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko or any kind of names or brands that appear in this story. I do own all OCs unless specifically named as they appear above this message.
(Thank you to AquaDestinysEmbrace for giving me a hand with this chapter!)
"Come on, don't stop now! Keep going!"
Verity and Odd were breathless as they struggled to carry Nick through the forest together. They heard distant voices, more than likely those of Carver's men. Bastards must have been tracking them since they escaped Howe's Hardware a few hours ago...
If they don't get away from them, then they were going to get recaptured and sent back to that terrible place!
They've been running since their escape. Their lungs burnt as badly as their muscles did. Both teens were desperately hungry and thirsty. All of their energy was devoted just to staying upright, carrying Nick, and running as fast as they possibly could.
"Shit!" Verity cringed as she lost her footing and fell into the dirt. Nick fell thanks to this, and the tortured man could only let out a pained groan.
"God!" Odd said as he watched his two friends fall to the ground. They couldn't stop now! They had to move!
The cone-haired boy tried to lift Nick back up as Verity struggled to regain her footing. It took a moment, but soon the three were back on the move. They were slow though, and Carver's men were slowly but surely catching up to the three. It was only a matter of time before they would...
Verity and Odd had to think of something quickly.
"There has to be somewhere around here to hide!" Odd said, looking around in desperation as he and Verity kept running.
"Like what?! We're in a forest, Odd!" Verity snapped. She had almost been caught in the beam of one of their pursuers' flashlights as she spoke back.
Odd was going to say something but the light from one of their pursuer's flashlights finally spotted the teens and Nick. Cries of "there they are!" and "get them!" caused the two teens to scurry as quickly as they could into the darkness with Nick in tow. But he was slowing them down...
Suddenly, the teens and Nick began to fall downwards. They didn't notice they had ran up to an embankment in the total darkness and now gravity had taken over entirely. Verity, Odd, and the semi-conscious Nick all tumbled down the embankment, each hitting trees and rocks and hard patches of earth all the way down.
The three quickly came to rest inside of a ditch next to a country road. The ditch was full of murky brown water, and the stench was almost vomit-inducing. The two teens soon discovered the source of this horrid stench - several rotting corpses just feet away from them. The one good thing about the corpses was that they were all actually dead, not walkers.
Verity did vomit as soon as she saw them. Odd looked around in the darkness but he couldn't see where Nick had ended up. He couldn't even hear the man's groans anymo-
"Down there! I think they went down there!" he suddenly heard a voice call out from high up. Carver's men were right behind them...
"Oh God!" Odd gasped upon hearing the voice. When the light of a flashlight suddenly settled on him and Verity, the two teens panicked at being caught. There was no time for them to try and find Nick. If they didn't run now, they'd be recaptured by that monster Carver...
"RUN!" Verity screamed at her friend as they scrambled up to their feet and ran like hell - unwillingly abandoning Nick.
Odd took one last moment to look around and try to find Nick, but it was impossible to see anything in the pitch blackness all around him. Verity actually had to grab Odd's arm and force him to run with her before Carver and his men could get them.
Nick... he was just gonna have to fend for himself, and all the teens could do was pray that he landed somewhere where he wouldn't be found. Or worse... eaten.
The two teens hated themselves for having to abandon Nick like that, but they didn't know what else to do! He was going to weigh them both down and then they'd all just get caught and taken back to Howe's Hardware again!
Hopefully Carver and his men won't find Nick, wherever he ended up... then maybe the two Lyoko Warriors could round back and find him and get him back ho-
"There! I see 'em over there!" they heard another gruff voice call from afar as the two teens ran across the abandoned country road. The voices sent fear straight into Odd and Verity's hearts and it only made them run faster and harder. They were desperate for some kind of shelter and salvation...
Verity and Odd kept running as fast as they could and prayed that those monsters wouldn't catch them...
... God help them.
"And I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more - just to be the girl who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door..."
Miranda was half-mumbling half-humming a song to herself as she walked on an abandoned highway in the direction of home. The girl seemed pretty cheerful desptie the literally hundreds of hungry walkers which were following only a short distance behind her. It was a good thing that they're so slow and dumb...
Carefully making her way past abandoned and burnt-out cars, Miranda was surprisingly calm and collected as she looked for an opportunity to ditch these idiots following her.
They were slow - she knew that she'd be fine as long as she didn't tire herself out. She was a track runner back at Kadic after all.
"When I'm working, yes I know I'm gonna be - I'm gonna be the girl who's working hard for you..." Miranda half-sang and half-mumbled as she walked down the highway in the middle of the summer heat. "And when the money, comes in for the work I do, I'll pass almost every penny on to you..."
Miranda then turned off of the highway and headed into a cornfield, making her way through the growing vegetables as the walkers also turned and went in after her.
However, luck was on Miranda's side this time. After walking all the way through to the other side of the field, Miranda headed into a dense forest and then onto a hiking trail. She walked for a bit and saw a big metal sign which said she was in a Georgia state park. It was a pretty place, but she wasn't here to admire the view.
Miranda walked until she stumbled onto a river. It wasn't the Mississippi mind you, but it was deep and wide enough to break the walker herd off of her. At least she assumed.
Whatever - it was perfect for what she planned, that's all that mattered.
"When I come home, oh, I know I'm gonna be - I'm gonna be the girl who comes back home to you..." Miranda continued to half-sing and half-mumble the song which had gotten stuck in her head somehow. "And if I grow old, well, I know I'm gonna be - I'm gonna be the girl who's growing old with you..."
The Lyoko Warrior walked for a long time down the length of the river until she finally found what she was looking for - a bridge.
Mind you, it was an old rope bridge which looked like it was already due to collapse twenty years ago. It was certainly not safe, but compared to the walkers... well, it was the better option right now. If Miranda gets herself across then she can make it home without some unwanted company.
So, the teen went to this bridge and she gripped the rope railings on either side of her. She continued half-singing and half-mumbling that goddamned song as she made her way down its length. Miranda was careful, but not too careful - she didn't have long until the walkers also reached the bridge.
The teen ignored the wood boards which fell into the river after she stepped on them. Or how she just as easily could end up in the river if this bridge finally went down.
"When I'm lonely, well, I know I'm gonna be- I'm gonna be the girl who's lonely without you..." Miranda was careful to not accidentally lose her footing more than she already had. "And when I'm dreaming, well, I know I'm gonna dream- I'm gonna dream about the time when I'm with you..."
Miranda stopped for a moment to check on the company behind her. Some had already stumbled onto the bridge. The girl grinned at this and she kept walking.
They were almost exactly where she wanted them...
"When I go out, well, I know I'm gonna be - I'm gonna be the girl who goes along with you..." Miranda felt in the groove as she stepped off of the bridge and onto the other side of the river. "And when I come home, yes, I know I'm gonna be - I'm gonna be the girl who comes back home with you - I'm gonna be the girl who's coming home with you."
The teen allowed herself to get caught up in the moment, letting the music take control. She started swinging her hips and raising her arms in tune to the music blaring loudly in her mind.
"But I would walk five hundred miles, and I would walk five hundred more," Miranda let herself begin to dance to the mental music, becoming more and more oblivious to her current surroundings. "Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your-"
A low growl caused Miranda to snap out of her moment. She finally looked to her left and saw that the first walkers of the herd had made it well over halfway across the old rope bridge. A few more seconds of delay on Miranda's part and the first one would make it over to her side of the river and reach her...
Miranda blinked at the dangerous sight and she remembered why she was even standing there in the first place.
"Oh, right. Walkers." the teen muttered to herself as she readied her knife.
It took only a few seconds for Miranda to storm over to the bridge, spartan-kick the first walker so it'd fall onto its back, and then use her knife to cut the ropes which held the bridge's wooden support beams.
Within seconds, dozens of walkers were felled into the river which now separated the whole herd from Miranda. Many more stumbled over and fell into the water with them.
The victorious teen stood there for a moment to admire the sight of the hundreds of angry walkers reaching out towards her from the other side of the river, and also to see the walkers in the water be carried away to who knew where. All of these undead wouldn't be a problem for her any longer...
Miranda could only grin with satisfaction as she turned and resumed her trek toward home, now safe and without any of the dead on her trail anymore.
"Doo-doo-dooo-doo-doo-doo-doodoodoo..."
After the sun set, the rescue team and the newcomers all made camp on the football field of an abandoned high school in Franklin, Tennessee. The cars were getting low on gas, and as much as the rescue team wanted to drive through the night they knew there wasn't much they could do except rest and find some more fuel.
Daryl and Lee both left with some gas cans to try and siphon what they could from gas pumps or abandoned cars in the town. Meanwhile, the others built a big campfire out of tree branches and stuff they scavenged from the high school - mostly math books, old homework, wooden chairs which they tore apart, and cheesy motivational posters showing cats hanging in trees. Everyone tried to stay warm during the cold night as best as they could. They had been here for at least a few hours while they waited for Lee and Daryl to come back. Hopefully the two of them will return soon.
Tossing a few fresh pieces of chair legs into the flames, Patrick wrapped a blanket tighter around himself before he sat back down in a camping chair. He was growing more and more frustrated by the minute since he was anxious to get to Carver's place. Each second they delayed was another second that Verity, Nick, and Odd were suffering.
A little over 110 miles - almost two or three more hours worth of driving - was all that remained on their journey to rescue their friends and the girl he loved. They'd still be on the move if they didn't keep getting detoured by herds on all the highways and surface streets around here.
Verity... Patrick could only hope that she was handling her captivity well...
... oh who was he kidding? That bastard Carver was making her life hell right now, undoubtedly.
As Patrick dwelled in his thoughts, the others started to talk and tell each other some stories as a way to help pass the time. What else were they going to do while they waited for Lee and Daryl to return?
Jeremie was in the middle of telling the group about something that happened at Kadic back in the old days. Chris, Chelsea, and Misty all listened - it was something about some guy named "Jim" and some teacher named "Hertz." Those two meant a lot to Jeremie, Patrick, and Alex, given how the three talked about them.
"-and then," Jeremie chuckled to himself as he reached the end of his tale, "and then our teacher told Sissi: 'If you think that's small, wait until you see the rubber dinghies!'"
Patrick and Alex both chuckled alongside Jeremie at the memory of that trip to the lake. XANA attack aside, it was a good field trip. The look on Sissi's face was priceless, that was for sure.
... god, they missed Ms. Hertz. She was their favorite teacher at Kadic by far... If only she was still here... Fate was cruel to the poor woman as well as to practically every other damn person they cared about...
... like how it will be for Odd, Verity, and Nick if they don't reach them in time...
"Sounds like you guys had quite the teachers..." Chelsea spoke up after listening to them talk about their days at their school.
"Yeah, we did..." Alex nodded before tossing another couple of chair legs into the fire. His heart felt heavy as he thought about all his lost friends...
"They were all good people..." Jeremie added with a sad look in his eye.
Upon seeing their expressions of sadness, the three newcomers decided not to press on the matter. They, or even everyone these days, could understand them not wanting to reopen fresh wounds like that...
They decided to just change the subject.
"So, tell us about yourselves." Misty decided to ask them. "We've been together all day and we don't really know anything about you."
"Misty..." Chris hesitantly trailed off. There was a pretty noticeable tone of reluctance in his voice, as if he didn't really want to share too much about himself, his sister, or his girlfriend to Rick and his people. They had all only known each other for less than a day after all.
Jeremie, Patrick, and Alexandr exchanged glances. Rick looked at the others at the fire - in the end, only the three teens decided to tell Misty a little about themselves.
"Well, we came to America for vacation before the start of all this..." Patrick spoke up. "All three of us studied at a school in Paris. Kadic Academy?"
Chelsea shrugged. "Never heard of it, sorry." she told them after finishing up a bottle of water.
"Patrick's actually from the U.S. - I was born in Moscow, Jeremie's French." Alexandr added on a bit more to what Patrick had said.
Jeremie nodded. "We came here for Spring Break and we were near Atlanta when the walkers started killing everything..." he further explained, then grimaced. "Patrick and Alex were actually in the city with some of our other friends. They didn't make it out before the firebombings started... It wasn't easy, but they managed to escape alive."
Chris's eyes widened. They survived the firebombings? "You guys were in Atlanta? Are you serious?"
Patrick shuddered at the memory and what they experienced when it happened. "Oh, he is." he said. "Jeremie wasn't with us though, he and some of our other friends hadn't arrived in the state yet."
"Atlanta is not a memory we like to remember..." Alex sighed as he looked at the flames of their little campfire. It reminded him of the bombs...
Misty's face fell. "I'm so sorry, guys..."
The three teens remained silent. They appreciated what Misty just said, but... well, Atlanta and the loss of their friends in that chaos was just a really uncomfortable subject for the teens to talk about. They silently wished that someone would change the subject like last time.
Luckily, Jeremie decided to. "What about you guys?" Jeremie turned his attention over to the three newcomers who were with them. "You've been with us the whole day and we still don't know much about you guys..."
"That's true." Rick nodded at that. Chris, Misty, and Chelsea were still practically total strangers to him and the others.
"Well... Chris and I come from a military family." Misty hesitantly revealed to the others at the fire. "Our grandfather fought from Omaha Beach to Bastogne in 1944."
"Really?" Alex asked with a bit of a surprised tone. "Well, I guess we've got something in common then - my grandpa fought from Moscow in '40 to Berlin in '45."
"Bet he saw a lot of awful things over there..."
Alex nodded before turning his attention over to Chris, who was sitting at the opposite side of the campfire. "Anything you want to share about yourself, Chris?"
Chris looked a bit uncomfortable with this conversation. "I'd rather not if that's alright with you guys..." he reluctantly told the others.
"You sure?"
"Yeah." Chris nodded, then shrugged. "No offense to you or Misty or Chelsea, but I'd really just rather not..."
Jeremie was silent for a moment. After all, he and his fellow Lyoko Warriors were no secret to such a concept. They've kept their secrets for a few years already, and they very rarely ever trusted anyone with them. "It's alright. We won't pry, then."
"Thanks..." Chris said, taking a glance over his shoulder to check their surroundings. He didn't see any walkers... he also didn't see Lee or that smelly redneck.
The hell was taking them so long? Did they get lost? Or caught by something...?
... hopefully they're both alright, and that they didn't go too far from the school. And if they didn't, then hopefully they found at least something...
Patrick decided to stand and walk away from the fire for a moment. He had left to retrieve a rifle from the truck and he came back to start cleaning it by the light of the fire.
The boy was trying very hard to not think about Verity, Odd, or Nick. Especially about Verity though...
If their friends were already dead... if Verity was already dead- No. He couldn't think about that.
"You okay?" Rick asked the teen after noticing how he was at the moment. It was clear that Patrick was troubled and very stressed out about everything going on. Christ, he wouldn't be much better in Patrick's shoes if it was Lori who was taken...
Patrick hesitantly set the rifle down on his lap, and he shut his eyes. "... what if Daryl and Lee don't find some gas? Or don't come back at all?"
"They will..." Rick assured him, not even entertaining the idea of them not being able to. Three lives were on the line after all.
Who knew what they would face when they get to Carver's settlement... For all they knew they'd all be killed...
Patrick sighed with frustration. "First Shane's nonsense with Dale and then the barn, now that psycho Carver... what else will we have to deal with?"
"Please don't jinx it." Jeremie pleaded to his friend. They didn't need anything else happening to them on top of everything which already has...
"Wait, what happened between Shane and Dale?" Rick wondered. This was the first he's heard of that.
Patrick mentally grimaced. That's right... they kept him in the dark about that...
"Well, uh..." Patrick trailed off for a moment, then he finally let out a sigh. "... Rick, Shane's completely losing it. First it was the Otis thing, then the thing with the barn, and now this thing with Dale, and-"
"Wait, back up - the 'Otis thing'? What happened with him and Otis?"
"What I mean is that I think Shane murdered Otis to save himself when they went to get the ventilators."
The whole group fell silent at the sudden information. Rick stared at the teen with disbelief for a long moment, then finally managed to utter out, "... what?"
"What I mean is that I think Shane murdered Otis to save himself." Patrick
"You're wrong..." Rick completely dismissed the idea of his best friend doing something like that. "Shane might have his faults but he ain't a murderer..."
"Rick, I know he's your buddy, but you know as well as I do that he's starting to lose it..."
"Patrick-"
"Think about it, Rick!" Patrick frowned as he interrupted the sheriff. "You've seen how Shane's been since all of this started!"
Then, one by one, Patrick started listing off examples of Shane's erratic behavior since he met him. "Beating Ed half to death back at the Quarry, fighting you back in the CDC, how he just completely fucking lost it at the barn, and now that stuff with Dale and the guns..."
Rick blinked when he heard the last example again. "Patrick," he said. "what happened between Shane and Dale with the guns-"
A whistle drew the attention of Rick and all the others around the fire. They turned to see that Daryl and Lee had finally returned... both carrying full gas cans with them.
Rick was still confused about what had happened, but that topic can wait. Right now they had to get ready to move again.
"Yo, we're back!" Daryl called out to the group at the fire as they got close. "Got enough gas here to drive all the way to France and back!"
"If only..." Jeremie muttered to himself, ignoring how weirdly specific that statement was.
Daryl foolishly tossed his gas can out to the group rather than set it down, but luckily Chris stood up and caught it in time before it could land in the fire. Daryl earned a couple of annoyed looks because of that but he didn't really give a shit. Lee made sure to set the other can over by the truck rather than repeat what Daryl did.
"You sure you guys got enough?" Patrick couldn't help but wonder.
"We siphoned plenty." Lee grinned as he went over to the fire. "We'll have enough to get to where we're going now, don't worry about it." It was only a matter of time to get to Carver's place now.
110 miles - two hours of driving - that was all that stood in their way now. Verity, Nick, and Odd all just had to hold out for a bit longer...
The group hurried back to their vehicles and got in them. In the driver's seat of the pickup truck, Rick turned the key in the ignition and turned to look at Lee in the passenger seat, then the others who were in the bed of the truck.
"Let's get back on the road and save our people." Rick said to Lee.
"Right." Lee nodded in agreement, rolling down the passenger side window so he could get a bit of fresh cool air during the drive.
Soon the two vehicles carrying the rescue team and the newcomers had left the football field and got on the road again. It wasn't long until they found I-75 - the highway which will take them across state lines and into Tennessee.
But as he got on the highway and drove past the ruined burnt-out husks of cars and people, Rick couldn't stop thinking about what Patrick had said about Shane.
Shane was Rick's best friend. He practically was a brother to him - even more so after taking care of Lori and Carl before he woke up from his coma.
Rick trusted Shane with his life... but could Patrick have really been telling the truth? Could Shane really have changed since the start of the outbreak...?
... he was gonna have to keep a closer eye on Shane from here on out.
Verity and Odd had ran for hours and hours through the night, and now dawn was breaking.
The two exhausted teens hadn't stopped for a moment ever since losing Nick out there. They had no idea where they lost him, they had no idea where they were now, and they had no idea how far they've gotten from Howe's Hardware. The only thing which mattered to Odd and Verity was to run and don't stop until they made it home.
These two Lyoko Warriors ran through the trees and came across a shallow river, the water going up to knee depth. The two jumped into the water and wadded their way across it as quickly as they could. Hopefully they'll make Carver and his guys lose track of them...
Odd and Verity made it to the other side and continued their sprint through the trees together. They have been breathless for many hours now. Their legs and lungs burnt. Home was still so far away from wherever they were right now...
The two couldn't run any further. They reluctantly stopped against a tall tree after double-checking to make sure Carver and his men weren't in sight. They just needed a moment to catch their breath after such a long distance...
"Jesus Christ..." Verity managed to say in-between her gasps for air. "D- Do you think we're in the clear, Odd?"
"No idea..." Odd said breathlessly. He had never ran so far and so fast in his entire life, not even during P.E. back at Kadic.
The two Lyoko Warriors decided to take the risk of stopping for a bit to rest, maybe also find something to eat and drink too. Lord knew they needed some nourishment...
Odd and Verity walked for some time longer before they found somewhere safe and secluded to kick their feet up. It wasn't much, it was just an old abandoned SUV on the dirt road of someone's private property. But if the battery was dead and no car alarms were triggered then it'll do for now.
The teens hurried to the SUV and they opened a door on each side. Thankfully no alarm sounded. The interior was mostly clean aside from a half-empty box of chicken on the dash and a few crushed beer cans here and there. Whoever owned this vehicle was a pig.
Even more important than the cans and old food was that there wasn't any dead bodies inside - walker or otherwise. They'll be fine here.
"Oh man..." Odd said with a heavy breath as he and Verity shut the doors. They finally had the chance to rest and relax after who knew how many hours.
Every muscle in the teens bodies burnt just as badly as their lungs did. The exhaustion-induced migraines they were feeling weren't helping matters as well. God, what they wouldn't give for some water right now...
Moments turned to minutes as Odd and Verity rested in the SUV, both silent but with a lot on their minds. The last few days have been hell for them both...
... and then there was what happened to Nick.
As the thought of the abandoned man came back to the forefront of his mind, Odd felt his stomach churn from self-disgust at what had happened. Nick could've been eaten by a walker because of him and Verity leaving him behind, or even recaptured by Carver... who knew which fate was worse at this point.
"... we left him back there, Verity ..."
Verity immediately knew what her friend was talking about. What happened to Nick broke her heart just as much as it did for Odd.
"We didn't have a choice, Odd..." Verity reasoned to her friend, though admittedly she was trying to reason to herself as well. "Carver and his guys were all over the place and we just didn't have a chance to get Nick..."
"But we could've tried to help him! We could've-"
"We couldn't have done anything for him. At least not without getting ourselves captured or killed, Odd..."
Turning his head to look out the window, Odd went silent for a few moments while contemplating what had happened to Nick earlier. If only they had more time to get him out of there before Carver and his guys showed up...
Damn it all...
" ... how far do you think we are from Carver's place?" Odd asked in an effort to change the subject and to get his mind off their lost friend.
"Not far enough, Odd..." Verity sighed as she went along with the change of subject. "I honestly don't even know what direction we've been running all this time... For all I know we could be heading toward Arkansas instead of Georgia."
Odd simply leaned his head back against the driver's seat, overwhelmed from stress and anxiety. Verity rested her head on one of the rear seats, feeling exactly as overwhelmed as her cone-haired friend in the...
... wait.
Out of the corner of her eye, Verity noticed a shadow briefly pass by through the dawn sunlight. Then another... and then another, and another - then the sunlight ceased entirely. The raven-haired teen raised her head and she was greeted by a horrific sight...
Dozens of walkers - a whole fucking herd- was making their way past them right now. Verity felt her heart stop in her chest.
"Odd, get down! Get the fuck down!" Verity desperately whispered to her friend before ducking out of eyesight of the walkers... hopefully.
Odd gasped upon seeing the herd out the window and then he did as Verity said. The SUV was completely surrounded by the undead and they were completely defenseless. All they could rely on was the strength of the windows and of the doors...
Verity glanced over to an equally-scared Odd as the two of them listened to the walkers go by them... Each groan... each gasp... each growl... the sound of their rotting bodies bumping into the SUV... it all only added to the terror they both felt.
"Shhhh..." Odd pressed his finger to his lips and prayed to God that the walkers wouldn't find them in here.
Minutes rolled by as the sun rose further and further in the sky. The heat inside the vehicle was terrible, the humidity in the air was practically near-fatal. The terrified teens both felt like they were boiling as they hid for their lives.
As they laid down in silence, Verity's thoughts wandered... To her family, to her friends at the farm, to her friends who are now in the ground...
... Patrick ...
A walker suddenly stopped and turned to look into one of the windows of the SUV, its dead milky-white eyes staring directly at Verity. One sound from the creature would draw the entire herd upon the two trapped teens...
Thinking that the end had finally come, Verity tightly shut her eyes and she whispered to herself. "... Patrick, wherever you are ... I'm so sorry."
The walker outside snarled and raised its hand to bang at the window, something which would have doomed Odd and Verity. But suddenly, something else drew the attention of both the walker and the entire herd...
It was difficult to hear, but the two teens noted the sounds of gunfire in the distance. It sounded like it was far away, and it was only three or four shots, but it was still more than enough to get the attention of the entire herd.
The walker at the window turned and started walking in the direction of the shots - same as all of the other walkers out there with him. Gradually, just bit by bit, the herd shuffled past the SUV and its occupants towards what they hoped was a fresh meal.
Odd and Verity took the chance to get the hell out of there. As soon as it was clear, the pair kicked open the passenger side doors, hopped out, and ran like hell into the forest again. Those gunshots could've come from Carver and his guys or it could have come from someone totally unrelated - the teens didn't dare bother to stay here and find out for themselves.
"Run! Run!" Verity urged as she and Odd ran.
The two Lyoko Warriors hurried away from the walkers and the distant gunfire as quickly as their legs could go...
At the farm, the sun had begun to set and most people had retired to the camp to warm themselves by the campfires. It was a chilly night, so people were doing what they had to do to stay warm against the cold air.
At one of the campfires, Ulrich and Yumi were sitting with some of their fellow Lyoko Warriors minus the ones who left to rescue Verity and Odd. Some of the others went to another campfire since there wasn't enough room for seventeen teens to sit around one.
Even Aelita had joined them out there despite her injuries. The pinkette was slowly recovering from what happened at the bar in Senoia, but she still had a bandaged nose and a bruised face thanks to the kick she received from Carver's man. It was much more sore than that black eye she got from Ed back at the Quarry.
Aelita couldn't relax much despite the warmth of the fire and the comfort of her friends around her. As far as she knew, Odd, Verity, and Nick were all still captives of Carver, and Jeremie and so many of her other friends were still not back home yet. She couldn't help but worry for all of them...
Would any of them be able to make it home alive? Losing more friends was one thing... but if she lost Jeremie, she didn't know what she'd do...
She couldn't imagine a world without him...
Heck, if you want to get technical, she was only in this world again because of him...
If not for him, she would still be trapped within the supercomputer, believing herself to be an artificial intelligence - if she was ever reawakened to begin with. Her existence, her memories, and her own identity are all hers again only because of Jeremie and all he had done for her over the course of years.
If Jeremie died out there... if... he died...
... he had to make it through this mission... he had to... if only for her own sake...
Aelita's internal worry was visible enough to draw a few eyes from her friends around the fire. "Aelita? You okay?" Anne wondered from the other side of the campfire after she noticed Aelita looked a bit down.
"I... yeah, I'm alright." Aelita sighed, trying to play herself off as calm and collected. That wasn't even close to true.
"You sure don't look like it..." Anne pointed out.
Aelita felt eyes focusing on her from all around the campfire, and she sighed again. "... I'm worried about everyone out there..." she softly told her friends. "For all we know they could all be trapped somewhere, or... or even dead..."
What if a walker had snuck up on him while they were gone? What if one of Carver's men, or somebody else, captured him? Given what she's already experienced with Carver, Aelita couldn't tell which fate was worse for the boy she loved. And then god only knows what Carver's already done to Verity, Odd, and Nick...
"You got to think positive, Princess." Chase told his sister, shrugging as he roasted one of the few remaining marshmallows in the camp. "There's not much that we can do for them from here. We can only hope that they'll be back sooner instead of later."
"Exactly." Anne agreed with him. "They'll be back before you know it. It'll be like they were never gone at all..."
Their words helped Aelita, but it was clear that she just couldn't stop worrying for Jeremie and the others. The others understood why, and they decided not to pry any further out of fear that they would only add to Aelita's worries. Or even their own...
Though Aelita continued dwelling on Jeremie and her kidnapped friends, there was still another issue which the group had to talk about.
If... when they rescue Odd and Verity... what will the Lyoko Warriors do after that?
"What are we gonna do once they're back?" Aelita suddenly asked this to everyone sitting around the campfire with her.
Her question drew their attention. "What do you mean?" Ulrich asked as he took a marshmallow away from their fire and began to chow down on it.
Aelita averted her gaze. "Everyone from Kadic is either dead or missing..." she somberly reminded him. "Besides me and Anne getting shot, us looking for our friends and our teachers was the main reason that we stayed here..."
A moment of silence followed this, a moment of realization. Since no one answered, Aelita spoke once again" "Now that we know what happened to them..." she trailed off as she was made to remember the horrors which happened at the barn. "... now that we know... do we still try to stay here...?"
The pinkette's questions were valid. Not only that, but the lives of the Lyoko Warriors depended on the answer to them.
Was there somewhere safe out there that they can place down roots?
"We could try our luck on the road..." Rebecca suggested to the others. "Or maybe we should try for Fort Benning again?"
Kyra cringed. "If what Aelita and Jeremie said about Fort Benning is true, then that idea is totally suicide..."
"Hold on, hold on, we've also got the Josh problem to deal with too..." Robert suddenly interjected into this conversation.
"What's there to even talk about with Josh?" Jennifer wondered after setting down her canteen of water, having taken a gulp. "He's a psychopath who we'll just dump on the side of the road somewhere very far from here very soon. Same with Randall - ain't nothin' to discuss about either of them for the moment."
The "hostage" (for lack of a better word) problem was something that can wait a bit longer, the group knew that.
The Lyoko Warriors all quickly went back to their original discussion topic - their future. "Maybe we could try and head north to Washington?" Ulrich suggested to everyone around the fire. "Out of everywhere in the country the capital's gotta be safe, right?"
"D.C.? No, that place is long gone now..." Jennifer shook her head with a resigned sigh. "We got the reports on the radio about Washington falling to the undead not long after we all made it out of Atlanta. I don't even know if President Resnick or the rest of the government made it out of there before everything collapsed..." Those radio reports terrified her back then. Now... so much worse things have terrified her.
"Well... one of the men we met in that bar said something about a place called 'Sacramento'..." Aelita mentioned, reluctantly thinking back to the conversation she had with that man Dave who they all met in the bar. She didn't dare think of the other man, Tony... the one who she killed.
"Ain't happening." Dylan told his step-sister. "Even if it really is safe out there, it's all the way out in California - AKA all the way on the other side of the country. We'd all be walker food before we can even reach the Mississippi River let alone the Californian Redwoods..."
Aelita rose an eyebrow when she heard where that city was. "California..." she mused quietly to herself.
The pinkette remembered that dream she had the other day, the one which she had after that... terrible mess... that happened at the bar in Senoia...
She distinctly remembered being inside of a beautiful rotunda in the dream. In it was hanging an American flag and another flag which had an animal of some kind on it...
... a bear flag, maybe? Yes, that the flag of California, wasn't it?
"Hershel's likely to kick all of us out - us and all of Rick's people too. There's too many people here for us all to live on the road together..." Kyra reasoned all while her pink-haired friend dwelled on the meaning of her dream. Kyra continued speaking. "Which means if that happens, our group won't have a choice but to go our own way or starve since we'll never get enough food and supplies for everyone..."
Anne cringed from built-up stress over the situation. "... we've definitely overstayed our welcome, given what's happened ..." she stated to everyone.
The barn being opened up by Shane was the worst and most horrific thing that all of the Lyoko Warriors have seen in their young lives so far. But it was so easy for them to forget sometimes that it was just as horrible for Hershel as well, if not even more so.
That poor man not only saw his undead wife get her brains blown out of her skull, but also saw his nephew and his step-son be gunned down too. And this all happened pretty much immediately after his hope that they could recover from the virus was shattered forever. No wonder Hershel broke his sobriety right after that...
Staying on the farm was sounding like a hopeless prospect day by day... and soon, Hershel won't tolerate their presence any longer.
They were going to have to go. But how long could they even last once they had to leave?
A month? A week? A day?
"Aside from Sacramento, there has to be some safe place for us out there..." Charles said. He was certain of it. Even if a safe place was all the way on the other side of the nation they had to do everything they could to reach it. They couldn't just give up.
Dylan turned his gaze down to the burning fire in front of him. "There might be, Charlie. But the question is whether or not we all die before we can ever find it..."
"Pretty morbid thought, but... Dyl's got a point." Chase noted, motioning his head towards his brother. Dyl was always the smarter one, he knew what he was talking about.
The Lyoko Warriors had all fought off so many of XANA's tricks over the last few years, and all of them have faced the threat of death by XANA's hands so many times that some of them have literally lost count. They've overcome everything so far...
But this time, they didn't have a Return to the Past to save them. They also didn't have any more technological or digital miracles from Jeremie, and frankly they didn't have much luck anymore either - this time, they were entirely on their own.
There was millions upon millions of walkers roaming around out there. With the dual losses of William and Amy, the Lyoko Warriors numbered at sixteen teens now. Well, it'd be more fair to say seventeen now, thanks to Anne being here...
Seventeen teens outnumbered by countless millions of undead monsters...
Could they survive for very long when they'd be forced to leave Hershel's Farm...? After the firebombing of Atlanta and the deaths of Amy and William and all of the other ungodly horrors they've seen so far, the question was pretty legitimate to ask. Privately, many doubted that they'd be alive for very long if they left...
"... we won't die out there if we do leave, guys." Jennifer suddenly said to the group in an attempt to raise their spirits. "I know it looks bad, but the Lyoko Warriors haven't given up before and we won't do it now! I know we'll all be okay as long as we have hope, and as long as we all stick together."
Having been silent all this time, Yumi finally spoke up. And it was clear she didn't agree with her friend. "Oh yeah, Jen? Tell that to everyone from Kadic." She said, bitterly, before continuing with the same bitterness. "They all thought the same exact thing and look at what happened to them..."
"Yumi...?" Ulrich asked with a growing worry.
Yumi didn't answer her concerned boyfriend. She simply picked up a stick and started poking at the campfire, swirling the burning tip of wood around the ash and flame. She clearly had a lot on her mind... none of it good.
"All of them came back as those monsters and now they're in the fucking ground with bullet holes in them..." Yumi frowned as she stared down at the fire. "So just face it, guys. No matter what happens, no matter how hard we try, we'll all just end up just like them one way or another..."
Yumi then tossed her stick into the fire, watching it burn. The fire glowed in her emotionless eyes. "... and there's nothing that we can do about it ..."
The silence at the camp was deafening now. What Yumi said had shaken the others to the core...
Having said all that needed to be said, Yumi stood up from her chair and started walking from the fire. "... I've got to go use the bathroom, I'll be back." was all that she said, though she spoke so softly that it was a wonder that any of them heard her.
As she left, she didn't even look at anyone. Not even Ulrich. She simply left everyone behind and let them all think whatever they wanted to think about her - worry, fear, any emotion they wanted. Yumi couldn't care anymore...
No one at the campfire noticed the rope Yumi was holding under her jacket as she left...
"Hello, this is Akiko Ishiyama. Please leave a message."
Yumi listened over and over again to her family's answering messages again as she walked alone through the dark woods. Her phone battery was very low now... she wanted to hear her family again for what little time she could.
"Hello, this is Takeho and Akiko Ishiyama's home phone. I apologize but no one is available to come to the phone right now. Please leave your name and contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
Mom... Dad... Hiroki...
Her whole family was gone... she was all that was left. She'd never see any of them again...
"Hello, this is Akiko Ishiyama. Please leave a message."
It was hard to put into words the kind of misery and abject depression that Yumi was feeling right now. It was as if everything she loved, aside from Ulrich, had been ripped straight out of her soul and only an empty shell was left behind. A useless, depressed, empty shell of a woman.
She was broken beyond repair. And she knew that she would only burden Ulrich and all of their surviving friends if she tried to keep going...
... there was only one solution left for her. She'd save everyone so much trouble if she just... went away ...
Yumi continued walking further and further into the dark woods with little care or concern towards herself. She only stopped to kill a walker which she had stumbled upon in the thick darkness. Yumi took out the walker instead of ignoring it because even now, even at the lowest point of her life, she still didn't want any of her friends to get hurt...
There was another walker which Yumi encountered as well. Or, rather, she nearly fell onto. Yumi had came to the edge of a ravine without realizing it and she very nearly fell in.
It was only after Yumi regained her balance that she saw that at the bottom was a trapped walker missing all of its limbs aside from its left arm. It was snarling up at her as it reached up with its remaining arm, though it couldn't realize there was no hope of reaching her.
She came out here to find a peaceful end, not a painful or a bloody one. That's why she wasn't using a gun for this. And why she wouldn't jump down to join that walker.
Yumi simply left the undead creature where it was and kept walking to find a nice quiet spot.
As soon as an answering message from one parent ended, Yumi called up the other parent's number and listened to the next one. She did this over and over again.
"Hello, this is Takeho and Akiko Ishiyama's home phone. I apologize but no one is available to come to the phone right now. Please leave your name and contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
Less than one percent battery power left. Yumi quickly scrolled through her contact list and tapped on another number before she would lose the chance to hear its answering message. Tears welled in her eyes as she heard it ring, then a familiar voice answer.
"Hey! This is Hiroki Ishiyama's phone! If you're calling me and you didn't get an answer, call me back later! Bye!"
Yumi stopped walking when she reached the edge of a creek bank. The Japanese teen took a look around and saw there wasn't any walkers - just the noises of nighttime bugs and the light of the pale moonlight reflecting off of the water's surface. To her, the scene here around was almost beautiful in its own way. It was as good of a place as any...
Having found a place for what she wanted to do, Yumi decided to just listen to the voices of her mother, father, and brother for as long as she could before the phone's battery would die. The teen sat down at the edge of the creek and held the phone in front of her face, scrolling and calling and listening in repeat for what seemed like hours to her. She knew that she would never get another chance to do so.
Mom... dad... Hiroki...
If Yumi could do it all over again, she and Hiroki would have never left France for this stupid vacation. She'd rather have died with her family. She wished that she could have.
... at least now she can make things right.
"Hello, this is Takeho and Akiko Ishiyama's home phone. I apologize but no one is available to come to the phone right now. Please leave your name and contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
...
"Hello, this is Akiko Ishiyama. Please leave a message."
...
"Hey! This is Hiroki Ishiyama's phone! If you're calling me and you didn't get an answer, call me back later! Bye!"
...
"Hello, this is Akiko Ishiyama. Please leave a message."
...
"Hello, this is Takeho and Akiko Ishiyama's home phone. I apologize but no one is available to come to the phone right now. Please leave your name and contact details and we will get back to you as soon as possible."
...
"Hey! This is Hiroki Ishiyama's phone! If you're calling me and you didn't get an answer, call me ba-!"
Suddenly, Yumi's phone went dead silent, and the screen turned black to reveal the reflection of her worn face from the moonlight. Yumi simply stared back at the reflection on her phone screen without any hint of emotion on her face...
The battery had used up its last bit of power. Now not only were her parents and her brother gone forever, their voices were lost to Yumi as well...
With this final loss, Yumi lowered the phone from her ear and she let it the now-useless device fall out of her hand. She didn't say a word, and her mind was blank of thoughts except for the memories of good times she had of those she loved - her parents, her brother, her friends and fellow Lyoko Warriors, and of course Ulrich...
... it was time now.
After the dead phone cluttered down on the dirt below her, Yumi stood up and took a final look around at her surroundings. She took a deep breath of the fresh night air before she went towards a tall oak tree nearby. As she walked, she tightened her grip on the rope she had taken with her...
It was going to be okay...
She'll be with her family again in just a moment or two...
In Tennessee, Verity and Odd continued making their way through the trees in a desperate effort to get to their freedom.
It had been a few hours since the two Lyoko Warriors had left the SUV and continued on their trek. They weren't really sure where they were exactly, but anywhere was better than Howe's Hardware at this point.
Verity and Odd were obviously worried about getting caught. They couldn't even begin to guess what would happen to them if they were recaptured...
The two had walked for so long and so far that their feet had blistered. They didn't stop though - they couldn't. Not when that monster could pop up at any moment...
Odd's stomach growled from hunger. Verity's did too. And both felt so goddamned thirty as they walked through the Georgia heat and humidity.
"Unngh..." Odd quietly groaned to himself as his hands went to his belly. He was so hungry that he was literally beginning to hurt...
"You okay? What's wrong?" Verity worriedly stopped and asked him these questions.
After a moment, a cringing Odd shooed with his hand. "It's nothing, Ver... just really hungry..."
"Me too..." Verity said with a grimace after her own stomach rumbled. She tried really hard to not think of food too much...
On and on the two teens walked through the forest and tried to find anything which could help them get further away faster. A working car, a couple of bicycles, a truck - anything which could get them back to the farm faster.
They had to make it back to Hershel's farm. They'll only be safe again once they're back there and-
*SNAP!*
*CRUNCH!*
Before he even realized what was going on, Odd was suddenly flung face-first onto the ground. The boy felt a little dazed as he pushed his upper body up and spat out some dirt which got in his mouth. What the heck happened? Did he trip on something?
Odd tried to stand up and keep running. He instantly fell again. He cursed to himself and then flipped himself over onto his back to see what was wrong... The sight which greeted the boy was as unexpected as it was shocking.
Odd's eyes widened after he glanced down and saw his foot was now caught in an old bear trap. Its metal teeth had dug deep into the flesh of his ankle, and fresh blood was dripping from his wounds down onto the rusty metal and then onto the dirt below...
... oh god.
For a brief moment, Odd didn't even feel anything - his feeling of shock and the adrenaline from running for his life had blunted all of the pain he could have felt. Even Odd himself was a bit baffled by the lack of pain.
But then Odd's adrenaline began to wear off moments later, and he started to feel everything.
As searing-hot pain viciously began to creep its way into his foot, Odd couldn't even try to hold back his screams of agony. It just hurt too much. It felt like a white-hot torch was being pressed deeply into his ankle - it was the worst pain he has ever felt in his life, bar none.
Verity was horrified by what just happened to her friend but she had to focus since they still were in a dangerous situation. She hurried over to Odd and she firmly yet reluctantly pressed her hand as hard as she could against her friend's mouth, not knowing if Carver or his men were within hearing range or not.
Verity looked around at her surroundings as Odd's muffled wails continued against her palm. She didn't see or hear anything suspicious around them and there was no signs of Carver or walkers. But she couldn't keep her paranoia and worry in check... Odd had to quiet himself!
"Odd, shhh..." Verity urged her friend desperately. "Odd, I know it hurts, but you've gotta keep quiet! Please!"
Odd continued to scream, the sound muffled by Verity's hand. Tears streamed down the sides of the poor boy's face as his fingers dug into the grass and dirt beneath them, desperate for any sort of relief or distraction from the terrible sensation in his foot. Nothing worked. Even the slightest movement felt like pure fire on his ankle...
He was trying so hard to quiet himself but he couldn't - the pain was just too much.
Verity kept trying to free her friend, but something quickly drew her attention.
"Oh fuck!" Verity gasped when she saw a distant flashlight shine its light through the trees. Carver and his men - they're close, and they're coming right for them.
The teens have to get the fuck out of here. QUICKLY.
Verity was forced to take her hand away from Odd's mouth so she could try and pry the bear trap off of his ankle. The metal jaw was shut very tightly into Odd's flesh and Verity had to use every ounce of her strength to even pry them slightly open - let alone all the way.
Odd had no other choice but to bite down on his own hand in a desperate ploy to silence himself. His screams were muffled a bit, but he bit down so hard that blood soon began dripping down the sides of his hand and onto his chest.
That pain hurt. But it didn't compare in the slightest to what he was feeling in his ankle now.
OAs he screamed into his hand, Odd's whole body trembled in agony as Verity put all of her strength into pushing against the release bars on either side of the old bear trap. The levers on the trap barely moved no matter how hard Verity pushed against them.
"Come on..." Verity said through gritted teeth as she pushed down. "C'mon, just release you stupid piece of shit tra-"
"We interruptin' somethin' here, darlin'?"
Verity and Odd's heads shot upward in horror to see that Carver - his arm now hanging in a sling thanks to Verity shooting him back at the settlement -, Troy with his AK, and several other armed men had approached the pair unseen and unheard, and they were now just steps away from them.
Those monsters had finally caught up to the teens after all this time and effort trying to get away...
... no.
The terrified raven-haired girl tried to stand up to her feet. "No, plea-!"
Verity was hit in the face with the butt end of Troy's rifle before she could finish her sentence. The raven-haired girl crumpled down in unconsciousness to the ground while Odd watched in a helpless horror.
In a panic, the boy tried to stand up and run for his life and freedom - only for the metal teeth of the bear trap to rip and dig deeper into his flesh.
Odd screamed in bloody agony as he fell face-first to the ground for the second time. His ankle was gushing out more blood very badly now because of this.
It took a lot from Carver to hold in his laughter at such a scene.
"Oh no," Carver chuckled as he walked over to the boy in the trap, a dark grin on his face. "You ain't goin' anywhere this time, kid..."
Trembling from fear, pain, and sheer exhaustion, a helpless Odd could only glance up to see that Troy was already standing in front of him, his rifle held firmly in his hands as he raised his left leg up high.
A boot straight to Odd's face turned his whole world black.
A while after Yumi left for the bathroom and didn't come back to the fire, Ulrich couldn't help but feel a little worried.
The teen left the campfire and went to their tent to try and find Yumi. She wasn't there. He then checked the RV and she also wasn't there. He went to the farmhouse. The barn. Hiroki's grave - Yumi wasn't at any of these places either.
Ulrich figured that maybe Yumi was still using the bathroom out there in the forest somewhere. He headed into the dark trees with a flashlight to find her and watch her back in case there was a stray walker or two out there somewhere. He made sure to keep his knife unsheathed and ready for this reason, as it was better to be safe than sorry.
"Yumes...? Where are you...?" Ulrich quietly called out for Yumi as he walked. He wanted to be louder but couldn't. Damn walkers could be anywhere out here...
He never should've let Yumi go out here by herself... it was a dumb mistake on his part.
Ulrich carefully made his way over a thick tree root which had sprung out and back down into the ground, a real ankle-breaker if he didn't notice it in time. God, if he actually hurt himself while trying to find his girlfriend then he was going to be so pissed at himself...
It wasn't long before Ulrich did in fact encounter a stray walker. The startled teen raised his knife and nearly swung out of instinct, but when he aimed his flashlight he noticed that the walker was trapped at the bottom of a ravine. Not only that, but it was also actually missing an arm and both of its legs. Hopefully that poor person lost those limbs after becoming a walker and not before...
A chill ran up Ulrich's spine as he watched the trapped walker for a few more moments, seeing it was snarling and trying to reach up towards him despite how impossible it was for the creature to get Ulrich. The teen made himself look away and continue onwards for Yumi.
Yumi had to be out here somewhere... but where?
Ulrich kept a watchful eye out with his flashlight. He never was the type of guy who was scared of the dark. After all, he wasn't a little kid anymore. But the idea that there could be walkers anywhere out here or that they could even creep up on him without him noticing was something which terrified Ulrich straight to the core.
He couldn't stop repeating in his head over and over again of when they returned to the Quarry with Glenn and the bag of guns only to find that walkers had come out of the darkness and attacked. The group lost so many people to the dead. It seemed like a lifetime ago now, but the memory of those horrors were as clear as day in his mind.
Ulrich learned without any doubt then that the darkness was not something to ever trust...
"Yumi, please answer me..." Ulrich muttered mostly to himself before he quietly called out her name again. Again, there was no answer.
Soon the teen reached a creek bed, and he thought to himself that it would be a good landmark for when he and Yumi would make their way back to the farm together. He was surprised by how far she seemed to...
to...
...
... what the hell?
Ulrich saw something dangling from the low-hanging limb of a tree nearby. A soft breeze in the air was blowing whatever the thing was back and forth only ever so slightly. He couldn't tell what it was exactly due to how dark everything was, so he aimed his flashlight at it to check it out for himself.
When the light illuminated the thing hanging down from the tree, Ulrich felt his heart stop completely.
... Yumi.
Ulrich's eyes widened in utter horror as he saw his girlfriend hanging limp by her neck, her body slowly dangling back and forth from the tree branch.
The flashlight fell out of his trembling hand after he noticed that Yumi wasn't breathing...
"YUMI!!!"