Code: Survival, Season One

by I heart Lyoko

The Lyoko Warriors take a vacation to the United States when a mysterious disease suddenly brings the dead back to life. Can the group possibly hope to survive in what remains of our civilization? Or will they fail and join THE WALKING DEAD? (OC/OC J/A U/Y O/S) *Story is currently under rewrites to eliminate old writing errors*

38. Nebraska

(Anne Marshall belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace!)

(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.)

---

A couple of hours went by as the group kept waiting for Hershel to finish up his business at this bar so they could bring him home.

Hershel was still as despondent as ever. Each time he finished a drink, he poured a new fresh one in his glass. He repeated the process over and over again. The drinks did little to help him forget the memories of the barn massacre but that didn't stop him from trying to kill brain cells...

Everyone was in different areas of the bar as they waited for Hershel. Most were patient, some were not. Odd was still messing around with the dart board whereas Nick was busy getting himself hammered on some expensive imported Slovak liquor he found in the storage room in the back. Jeremie and Aelita were sitting and talking with Patrick and Verity at their table. Glenn was still vigilantly standing guard by the front door while Rick was still leaning on the bar near Hershel.

Odd threw a dart at the board, but he missed and hit the wall next to it. The same thing happened with the next three darts he threw. Odd scolded himself for a moment but he quickly remembered that no one was going to bill him for any sort of damages during the apocalypse, which was probably the one good thing about all of this. Curiously, the next dart that Odd threw hit the board dead-center, making him grin.

"And the crowd goes wild for professional dart-thrower Odd Della Robbia!" Odd cheered himself on, raising his fists in victory.

Jeremie blinked at his friend's victory lap. "Wait, you're a professional even though you missed your first four throws? How does that work?" Aelita giggled at Jeremie's quip.

"... don't rain on my parade, Einstein." Odd deadpanned at him.

Shrugging at what Odd said, Jeremie simply went back to drinking the third or fourth can of Dr. Pepper that he found at the bar not too long ago. Out of sheer boredom, Aelita had unholstered her snub-nosed revolver and she was busy swinging the cylinder in and out of the gun over and over again in a desperate effort to keep herself amused. The pinkette made sure to take the bullets out of the cylinder first, obviously. Verity and Patrick were playing rock paper scissors together, and whoever won the game got the bag of peanuts that Patrick scavenged from a cabinet by the bar fifteen minutes ago. Verity did in the end, so good for her.

Nick finished off his second bottle of expensive imported Slovak whatever-the-fuck-it-was. It was greenish-colored and it tasted like battery acid, but it was waaaaay better than anything that the groups had back at the farm. Like how he did with the first empty bottle, Nick tossed the second empty bottle into a wall just so he could watch it shatter into a million pieces. Shit like that was just way more fun than it should've been. Aelita deadpanned at the half-drunken idiot for making so much noise.

"Can you not?" Aelita deadpanned, knowing there could be walkers in the area who might hear the glass shattering.

"Can you not?" Nick retorted with a sarcastic tone, already reaching for the third bottle of imported Slovak whatever-the-fuck-it-was.

Aelita scoffed and shook her head as Nick started drinking the stuff in the bottle. She and all of the others were getting pretty annoyed by what he was doing. As annoyed as she was bored now, Aelita reloaded her revolver and she put it back in the holster she wore on her belt, keeping it safe but ready to be used in case any walkers showed up thanks to Nick. She just wanted to get Hershel and go home...

As Hershel kept taking swigs out of his glass of whiskey, Rick sighed and he walked over to Glenn just to check up on him. Glenn was antsy, and all he wanted was to get back home with Maggie's father safe and sound. Today's been rough on the girl he loved and he didn't want to have it get any worse for her...

When he noticed Rick approach him, Glenn gestured over to the farmer at the bar. "So what do we do? Should we wait for him to pass out?" Glenn quietly suggested so that Hershel wouldn't hear them speak.

"Just go..." Hershel immediately said after that. Clearly, Glenn wasn't quiet enough...

Glenn and Rick turned to look at Hershel, who didn't bother looking at them or any of the other people who came to fish him out of the bar. Everyone else had stopped what they were doing so they could listen to this. But Hershel just wanted to be left alone right now... why didn't these people understand that?

Hershel saw that no one had left the bar, making him feel much more annoyed. "Just go!" he demanded.

"We promised Maggie that we'd bring you home safe and sound." Jeremie stated as he stood up and walked back to the bar so he could talk to the farmer face-to-face.

The supergenius's words only made Hershel chuckle from a feeling of half-drunken amusement mixed with overwhelming despair. "Like how you and your friends promised that girl, Yumi? About her little brother?" Hershel bitterly retorted before he took another swig of his drink.

Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, Verity and Patrick all were upset that Hershel would say something like that to them. The Lyoko Warriors tried not to hold it against him given all that he's gone through today just like them, but his words became yet another knife to the heart which they've suffered today.

Rick then approached the elderly farmer again, frowning. "So, what's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?"

Hershel finally reached his breaking point. Setting down his glass with a loud 'clank', Hershel stood up from his bar stool and he approached the former sheriff's deputy.

"Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm!" Hershel demanded, angrily. "You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing and give you shelter, and you people DESTROYED IT ALL!"

"The world was already in bad shape when we met!" Rick challenged.

"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!" Hershel had gotten so angry that he was shouting now.

Rick gestured at himself, scowling deeply at the farmer. "Well, I'm here now aren't I?!"

Both men stared each other down as everyone else in the bar watched. After several silent moments, the others could see that Hershel started to nod.

"Yes... Yes..." Hershel conceded, trailing off. "Yes, you are..."

Reluctantly, Hershel backed away from Rick and he went to sit back down at the bar. He took another swig of whiskey, a much larger gulp than any he had before. It was clear to all that Hershel was struggling hard with how to deal with what happened at the barn. Not only did Hershel lose many of the people he loved, every belief he held about the virus and the walkers themselves had been challenged to the extreme and they did not come out on top.

His glass empty again, Hershel grabbed the whiskey bottle and he started taking some greedy gulps out of that to help calm himself down. Hershel was only a little buzzed, though. Even the hard liquor weren't helping him too good at this point...

As Hershel set down the bottle again for the moment, Odd approached him.

"C'mon, Hershel... Maggie needs you. Beth needs you." Odd urged the old man.

Odd put his hand on Hershel's arm, whether it was to grab it and pull Hershel up or to simply help make his point was anyone's guess. Hershel didn't appreciate the gesture either way, as he pushed away the teen's arm from his and glared up at him. "I didn't want to believe any of you..." Hershel said with a sigh. "Jeremie told me there was no cure. That these people were dead, not sick. I chose not to believe that!"

Hershel's anger towards Odd and the others quickly turned into anger toward himself over what he did with those walkers. Tears welled in his eyes.

"But when Shane shot that teacher of yours in the chest and she still just kept coming... that's when I knew what an ass I'd been," Hershel told the cone-haired boy. "th- that Annette had been dead long ago, and I was feeding her rotten corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope! And when your friends all came out of the barn... the looks on your faces... I knew you all knew it, too... Right...?"

The people from Kadic Academy... Even Odd had to concede that the Lyoko Warriors had never felt such hopelessness as they were forced to pacify their friends...

"There is no hope..." Hershel sighed, seeing his point resonated with the teens. If only a little bit. "And you all know it now... like I do... don't you...?" he felt like such a goddamned fool for ever thinking what he did about the walkers...

Everyone else went dead silent as Hershel said these things to them. Hopelessness. Sheer hopelessness. That was all that Hershel Greene could feel right now. And the worst part was that no one could blame him for wanting to just give up, even with Beth in mind...

Having said all he needed to say, Hershel turned his attention back to his liquor. He took the whiskey bottle in his hand and took another long gulp. It wasn't nearly enough. As the farmer kept trying and failing to drown his sorrows, it was clear that both Rick and Nick were getting tired of waiting for Hershel to come back to the farm with them. Hershel's clearly dealing with his sorrow but he's got two daughters back home who needs him. He needs to be there, not in some dusty old bar.

"There is no hope for any of us..." Hershel muttered to the others as he set the bottle down again.

Nick rolled his eyes at the words of the old man, and soon he went back to drinking the expensive foreign booze he found earlier. "If you wanna sit there and mope around all day, feel free. Beth'll be in better hands with Carlos anyway." Nick told Hershel with a rude tone. As he resumed drinking, Nick was met with a scowl from Hershel in response. The farmer poured some whiskey into his glass again, deciding that Nick wasn't worth yelling at.

With a sigh, Rick held up his hands in defeat and frustration. "Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, cleaning up after you." Rick frowned. "You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a walker... What's the difference?" he challenged everything that the old man must've been feeling and thinking now.

Hershel turned to listen to Rick as he spoke. Hershel's face fell, and it was clear to the others that what Rick was saying was starting to get through to him...

"You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you?" Rick frowned as he continued speaking. "Now there are people back at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on even if we don't believe it ourselves..."

"Hershel, Rick is right. This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about all those people back at the farm..." Aelita agreed as she walked up to the other side of Hershel.

As Aelita and Rick stayed by his sides and waited for any sort of response, Hershel finally realized that they were right...

Death was death. Walkers, cancer, a bullet to the head - it didn't matter the cause. The walkers were something that people could survive against if they put their minds to it. There might not be a cure out there, but for the sake of his family he had to at least try to keep moving forward even if he didn't believe they would survive. He had to hope. But most importantly, Hershel had to get his ass back to the farm to attend to his girls who needed him...

Hershel picked up his glass and he downed its contents in a few short gulps. He didn't bother to savor the taste of the last drink he mentally swore he would ever have in his life. After finishing up the drink, Hershel stood up from the bar and he nodded at Rick and Aelita, ready to head out whenever they and the others were. Everyone else in the bar started preparing to head back home. But then out of nowhere, the group heard the doors of the bar open up. Glenn wasn't the one who did it.

When the group looked to see what opened the doors, they were met with the shocked gazes of two unknown men. The group and these two strangers simply stared at each other as if they all couldn't believe what they were seeing right now. These two people had found a whole group of survivors, and the group had unexpectantly encountered two new living souls.

Finally, one of the strangers grinned and started to chuckle. He spoke to his friend, not looking away from the group.

"Son of a bitch... they're alive..."

---

The small two inch screen of Tamiya's video camera comes to life with the press of a button, and Rebecca thanked God that the battery still had some juice left in it.

After some scrolling, Rebecca opened up the internal storage and she selected a video that was dated before the end of the world. It looked like it was shortly after the group first arrived in New York City. She took a deep breath before she pressed the play button, and she prayed that whatever footage she would see wouldn't be as bad as she had already assumed it was going to be.

(RECORDING #6 - PLAYING)

Milly smiled as she held onto her microphone and looked into the camera, having just finished doing her hair and making sure she looked presentable. Behind Milly stood the Statue of Liberty and the skyline of Lower Manhattan along with several students and teachers of Kadic Academy here and there in the background. Among them were some of the Lyoko Warriors like Verity and Dylan.

The young school journalist was still preparing for shooting a scene of the Kadic News when she suddenly heard Tamiya's voice.

"Milly! Action!" Tamiya called out from behind the camera.

Caught unprepared by her friend's callout, Milly fumbled a bit and she nearly dropped her microphone as she turned to give her attention to the camera. Milly then cleared her throat before she began to speak about day one of the school's trip to the United States.

"Hello, fellow students of Kadic Junior High!" Milly began their report with a cheerful smile on her face. "Your ace reporters Milly and Tamiya are reporting from Liberty Island in the Big Apple on the first day of the school trip to America! Today, the students and teachers who travelled to America will see some of the greatest sights of the greatest city in the world. And that's only part one of the trip which will take us all across the nation! Along the way, Kadic News will be there to report on the events of the trip, and we'll take in all the sights there is to see between New York and L.A.!"

Milly gestured at Lady Liberty behind her, not looking away from the camera. "Right now, all of your fellow students and teachers are in the presence of the Statue of Liberty, one of the most well-known symbols of the United States of America. France gifted this statue to the American people in 1885 to commemorate the friendship between both of our countries, and since then it has gone on to welcome millions of immigrants who came to this country for better lives. Over the next few days we'll be checking out places such as the new World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, Times Square, the Met, and Central Park! It's going to be super fun!"

The two Kadic reporters then walked to two teens who were sitting on a park bench a short distance away. Rebecca's eyes widened as she saw the familiar face of a dead friend, a fellow Lyoko Warrior. The video showed Milly and Tamiya approach her old friend Amy Smith, who was enjoying an ice cream cone with her brother.

"Amy, Robert, how are you two enjoying New York City so far?" Milly asked as she held up the microphone to the siblings.

Amy was about to answer Milly's question, but Robert suddenly moved his hand forward and he playfully pressed a little of his ice cream against her nose, coating the tip of it in chocolate. Amy retaliated by immediately slamming all of the ice cream on her cone into her brother's face, coating him in half-melted strawberry. Milly and Tamiya could only stand there and watch as Amy quickly stood up and ran away with her ice cream-covered brother hot on her tail, a boy who was craving revenge. Woe be to the dreaded ice cream vandal if Robert managed to catch her.

As Amy laughed and an annoyed Robert cussed her out as he chased her, Milly and Tamiya decided to try and interview someone else. The two girls walked for a while around Flagpole Plaza until they found some of the other teens chatting near a hot dog stand. Rebecca recognized herself among the group, but she remembered that they didn't ask her any questions while they were visiting Liberty Island. Milly and Tamiya held the mic up to Alexandr instead.

"Alex, how are you enjoying New York?" Milly wondered.

"Meh. Saint Petersburg is better. The Tsars used to live up there." was all Alex said, shrugging with a bored look on his face and his hands buried in his pockets.

"But don't you think the statue is cool?" Milly again asked in an attempt to get any good answer for her and Tamiya's report.

Alex shrugged a second time. "Meh. We've got a cooler one over in Volgograd. It's a little shorter, but ours has a sword instead of a torch. It's badass."

"Can't you find anything in this city to be excited about?" Patrick deadpanned from nearby.

"Considering that my first impressions of New York was seeing a rat stealing a whole pizza slice from a homeless man? No, not really." Alex replied, honestly.

"... can't you say anything good about this place for Milly and Tamiya's report? Anything at all?" Patrick asked, incredulously.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... meh."

Patrick rolled his eyes at his Russian friend's words before he turned his attention back to Verity, who he had been privately chatting with about something. Tamiya focused the camera back on Milly who was clearly a bit disappointed by the responses she got. Especially Alex's.

Here's hoping she and Tamiya can get better interviews later...

"... we'll be back with our visit to Times Square later." Milly sweatdropped before Tamiya called cut.

As the video ended, Rebecca frowned after listening to what Alexandr had said to Milly. Rebecca thought that what he said was very rude towards both Tamiya and Milly, and that it was completely unnecessary. But the English teen quickly calmed down when she saw in the next video that Milly and Tamiya did end up getting plenty of interviews from many of the other students and teachers of Kadic. At least Alex didn't ruin their day...

Rebecca watched several more videos which detailed the group's visits to Baltimore and Philadelphia. Soon, she found some videos of the group's trip to Washington D.C.

(RECORDING #26 - PLAYING)

"Milly! Stop it!"

Tamiya laughed as she and Milly struggled for control of the video camera during the school's visit to Washington D.C. They had some time to kill and Tamiya wanted to go and get some more footage of the Capitol Building, whereas Milly wanted to get some more footage of the nearby Washington Monument. Though the two young reporters had gotten some very amazing footage across the city so far, the two girls were convinced that there was so much more footage that they could get during their last day visiting America's capital.

... that is if they could ever agree on where to go first.

"Come on, Milly! Let go of the camera!" Tamiya laughed as they kept trying to take the video camera.

Milly saw a green light on it, causing her to laugh even more. "Tamiya, I think you turned it on!"

"Oh no!" Tamiya stated in-between giggles. She finally snatched the camera away from her best friend.

Soon, the camera was flung out of the hands of both girls and it landed on the grass below them. Milly managed to get to the camera first, and victoriously she lifted it up and she aimed it at Tamiya to film her in her time of defeat. Tamiya simply pouted and crossed her arms.

"Okay, okay, we'll go get some footage of the monument first!" Tamiya conceded defeat.

"Awesome!" Milly smiled.

Milly reached up to turn off the video camera but she saw something which stopped her. Tamiya followed her friend's gaze out towards the base of the Washington Monument where Robert, Amy, and a very confused Charles were standing and staring up at the giant stone structure together. The two Kadic journalists silently approached the teens from behind and began to film them in the hopes of getting good footage for their reports.

"... so the national monument to your first and greatest president is essentially just a giant celery stick?" Charles asked his two American friends.

"It's not a celery stick, Charles." Amy deadpanned. "It's a giant Egyptian-style obelisk that was built to honor our first president, the 'Father of our Country'."

Charles still looked very confused. "... that makes no sense at all, guys." he told them. "Whoever built this damned thing did a terrible job. Honestly, Egyptian? Where did that idea come from? Why not give him the Lincoln treatment?" Charles asked as he gestured out to the distant Lincoln Memorial. "Plus, this monument gives me the impression that George Washington had some serious overcompensating issues."

"Well, we fought a revolution so we wouldn't have to listen to the opinion of foreigners like you anymore." Robert joked at his Aussie friend's expense.

"Oh really?" Charles deadpanned, not appreciating the joke. "You know that you Yanks wouldn't even have a country if it wasn't for the French and the Spanish, right?"

"And the French would be speaking German twiceover right now if it wasn't for us Yanks, so I think we're even." Robert shrugged after he made his point.

Milly and Tamiya shared a glance at Robert's quote about the French, not appreciating it any more than Charles appreciated the earlier joke. Americans...

Before the three teens could keep arguing about that particular nationalistic topic, they saw Rebecca approaching them with a curious look on her face. She must've seen her friends arguing about something.

"Everything okay over here?" Rebecca inquired.

"We're fine!" Amy assured her. "We're all just chatting about the monument, that's all..."

"I was just pointing out how the monument seems a bit simple compared to who its supposed to honor." Charles added, shrugging.

"I see where you're coming from, Charlie." Rebecca nodded, taking a glance at the flagpoles which surrounded the monument.

Amy and Robert both deadpanned in disappointment. Foreigners couldn't appreciate a well-made stone tower, it seemed...

... though to be fair, the Lyoko Warriors' experience with tall white towers have generally been pretty terrible thanks to XANA.

Not noticing the look on the faces of her two American friends, Rebecca went to touch the stone of the monument and look up towards the structure's apex. The Washington Monument was far taller than she assumed it would be. Even if it did look simple to her it was still a lovely monument... well, for the most part. She would've probably added a column or two somewhere to spice things up if she was the one who built it.

"Hey, how long did it take to build this thing? I didn't get to hear it from the tour guide while I was inside." Rebecca asked out of curiosity.

Amy sweatdropped, awkwardly looking away. "... forty years." she muttered.

"What?!" Charles' eyes widened.

Rebecca's jaw dropped. "FORTY YEARS?! BUT ITS JUST A GIANT BLOODY STICK!!!"

"The builders ran out of money and then we had a civil war start! We had more important things to worry about than building some giant stone stick in the middle of Washing-" Robert's eyes widened when he realized what he had called the monument. "Oh goddammit, now you've guys got me calling it a stick too!"

The video ended shortly after the three teens fell into another heated argument about the monument again, with Rebecca quickly joining in.

Having seen herself in this old video, Rebecca could only chuckle to herself as she remembered how bewildered she and Charles were at seeing the Washington Monument for the first time. The American Lyoko Warriors all loved to see it for themselves but most of the foreign-born Lyoko Warriors were very underwhelmed with what they saw. It really was just a giant stone stick for God's sake...

With a sigh, Rebecca selected a later video which she recognized was taken during the school's visit to Richmond, Virginia.

(RECORDING #34 - PLAYING)

Rebecca played another video, which was taken when she and the other Kadic students visited an American Civil War museum in Richmond, Virginia. She remembered that she was incredibly bored for most of the time that they were there, but Dylan seemed to enjoy the experience very much and she simply put up with it for her boyfriend's sake. God, the school's trip down the East Coast states already felt like it was a lifetime ago...

In the video, Rebecca could see that Milly was reporting on the museum and on some of the historical artifacts that were on display there.

"Milly and Tamiya here again to bring you a special report from Richmond, Virginia!" Milly reported from in front of a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis standing outside of the museum. "Right now, the school is visiting the American Civil War Museum here in the city. The American Civil War of 1861 to 1865 was fought between America's Northern states and its Southern states over the issues of slavery and the ideals of state's rights. In the end, the North won." she informed her future viewers. She couldn't wait to broadcast all of the Kadic News reports when everyone got back home!

The camera followed Milly as she went into the main building of the museum. "Today, the school is visiting the museum so that we as foreigners can learn about the war and see some of its artifacts firsthand!"

"Okay, good so far..." Tamiya could be heard muttering a praise as she followed Milly inside.

Many of the kids and teachers of Kadic Academy could be seen here and there in the museum as they admired its artifacts. As Tamiya kept filming, Milly stopped at a glass case and examined the artifact which was held inside. After quickly reading the information sign, she looked up at the camera again and smiled.

"In this case is a battle flag of the Confederate Army's 28th North Carolina Infantry." Milly gestured at the flag in the case. "This flag was captured by Northern soldiers during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, the battle widely seen as the turning point in the American Civil-"

"Please, Dyl! C'mon! You're being super unreasonable right now!"

Milly blinked as she was interrupted by two brothers, one whining and one growing more and more annoyed. She and Tamiya turned their attention over to Chase and Dylan who were both outside the museum's gift shop close by. The camera immediately zoomed in on the two brothers. Rebecca figured that Tamiya probably thought it could be newsworthy for Kadic Academy.

"Dyl, c'mon!" Chase begged in the video. "Just let me have the credit card and I promise that I won't go crazy with it again! I swear that I won't spend more than a hundred this time, maybe!" God, he sounded like a whiney little kid asking his mommy for a new toy at the store...

Rebecca could see that Dylan was holding a credit card in one hand and he was using the other to keep his begging brother at bay. Rebecca sweatdropped when she suddenly remembered all the events that were happening in the video, as she saw had watched it herself from inside the gift shop.

"Dude, no! Uncle David gave us this card for the trip and he's getting really annoyed that you're spending so much money so fast!" Dylan deadpanned as he stuffed the credit card back into his pocket for safe keeping. "Besides, you've already gotten more than enough souvenirs so far! You can go a state or two without getting a bunch!"

Chase whined even more at his brother's reply. "It's not that bad! You're overreacting!"

"Seriously, our hotel room looks like a hoarder's paradise right now thanks to you!" Dylan's eye noticeably twitched from how annoyed he had gotten. "You're gonna have a hell of a lot of trouble finding room in your bedroom for all your new stuff when we get back home, y'know! And that's assuming we can even fit all of it on the plane!"

"But they're selling a full-sized replica of General Lee's sword and its soooo cool, Dyl! Please can I have the card? Please?"

Dylan was silent, but Chase simply kept begging for the card. "Please? Please? Please? Please? Please? Pretty please?" Chase tried so hard to convince him. "I'll do all of your homework for a month if you let me have it! I'll let you have my PlayStation for two months! I'll clean your room for three months! I'll even-"

"You know as well as I do that the TSA won't allow that through airport security, Chase! It's a bladed object!" Dylan interrupted with a frown on his face.

"Why wouldn't they allow that on the plane?!"

"September 11th, that's why!"

"Who'd they think would want to hijack a plane with a Civil War replica?!"

"Probably some crazy teenager named 'Chase' who doesn't know what the value of a Dollar is or what the word 'no' means, that's who!"

Chase rolled his eyes. "Okay, then I'll probably just FedEx it back to Paris after we get to L.A. or something!" he dismissed Dylan's words as utter nonsense.

Seriously, how could his brother not understand how much he needed that beautiful historical replica? It'd look perfect on the wall of his bedroom in the Hermitage! He'd put it right next to his framed copy of the Gettysburg Address even though he knew it'd be ironic as hell! It'd be amazing!

Dylan rolled his eyes, clearly not understanding his brother's desire to have the sword. "What the fuck are you even gonna do with a replica of General Lee's sword?! Y'know, aside from hanging it up on your bedroom wall or something?!"

"... I dunno ... maybe I'll fight off some dirty northern Yankees with it?"

"YOU'RE FROM CHICAGO, CHASE!!! YOU LITERALLY ARE ONE!!!"

The video suddenly ended before the situation was resolved, but Rebecca remembered that Chase managed to convince (or annoy) Dylan enough to give him the credit card in the end. Rebecca remembered that Dylan simply looked dead inside by the time he gave up the card. Chase got his sword, but he accidentally left it on a bench outside of the museum before they boarded their bus heading south. Chase didn't realize that the sword was gone until they made it all the way down to Raleigh, much to Dylan's near-stroke-inducing anger.

Rebecca chuckled from what she just watched on the little screen. Chase and Dylan's silly little arguments could be so funny sometimes...

The British teen scrolled through the list of videos in the camera, watching several that detailed the group's visit to the Deep South and much of the stuff they did together after arriving in Atlanta. Rebecca then picked another video, and she saw what it was about her smile immediately disappeared.

She quickly recognized it as what happened to the school during the fall of Atlanta to the infected...

(RECORDING #54 - PLAYING)

"CLOSE THAT FUCKING THING OR WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!"

"WE'RE TRYING!!!"

"TRY HARDER FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! THEY'RE NEARLY AT THE WINDOWS!!!"

Alex, Nicholas, Chase, and several other Kadic students all pulled down the security shutters just as those infected people broke apart the glass windows at the front of the store the students and teachers ran into for shelter. Had they taken a second longer, then everyone would've been swarmed. The infected banged against the shutters over and over again in a desperate effort to break inside, but luckily the shutters were strong. They'll hold for now.

The camera then turned around to show a frightened Tamiya. Milly was sitting next to her, hugging her legs to her chest with a traumatized expression on her face. Rebecca wasn't sure why Tamiya would turn on the camera and start filming during a situation like that in the first place. Maybe it was to help keep herself calm?

"T- Tamiya here..." Tamiya said with a shaky, fearful voice. "I- It's been... I dunno, three? Four hours since the National Guard took us out of the community center...? W- We've been running around trying to find a way out of Atlanta ever since then..."

Tamiya then turned the camera to focus on a group of six Georgia National Guard soldiers who were busy talking privately with Principal Delmas, Ms. Hertz, and Jim on the far side of the room. The group of soldiers along with Jim, Hertz and Delmas all were getting heated towards each other about whatever it was that they were talking about... They were clearly arguing about something, but what?

Shakily, Tamiya turned the camera back onto herself. The poor girl looked just as bad as Milly did right now, though somehow she was keeping herself composed. Barely.

Everything that was happening out there was unlike anything the girls had ever experienced...

"W- We saw horrible things after we left the community center..." Tamiya wiped away some tears as she began to tell of what happened. "W- We saw so many of those weird infected people... They were angry, really angry. They kept trying to hurt us all for some reason... I know a couple of people got scratched by them. Johnny even got bit."

Milly broke down into sobs at that, the terribly fresh traumatic memories of what happened still hitting her hard. Tamiya's saddened face fell even more, and she wrapped an arm around Milly to pull her close and to try to help calm her down. It wasn't working very well.

"... we saw someone get ripped apart by the infected ..." Tamiya sniffled, tightly shutting her eyes. "... he never stood a chance ..."

"H- His screams..." Milly shuddered, the screams of that poor victim still ringing in her ears. "I- I... I didn't know a person could scream so loud... T- Those things ate him right in front of us... W- We couldn't help him! We had to leave him! I- I..." Milly was struggling to speak now. "... H- He screamed so loud and I can't stop hearing him!!!"

Tamiya hugged Milly tighter as she started to break down again. Her red-haired friend was struggling so hard to comprehend what had happened...

"-so you're just going to leave us all here to die?! Are you fucking kidding me?!" the two suddenly heard Jennifer exclaim with rage.

Both Milly and Tamiya looked to see that the Georgia National Guard soldiers had grabbed their rifles and gear, heading towards the back door of the store. The teachers and some of the Lyoko Warriors were following them. Jim looked infuriated. Delmas looked worried. Ms. Hertz looked terrified.

"Hey, don't walk away from us!" Jim demanded the soldiers. "Where do you think you're going?! Didn't you guys swear an oath to protect people during times of crisis?!"

"We told you guys what you need to do... I'm sorry, but you're all on your own." the lead soldier said. Though he and his soldiers were leaving to save their own skins, he did look truly remorseful about leaving these people behind. "We can't get out of the city with so many people. Everyone's best bet is to split off into groups and try to meet up somewhere outside of the city, you'll move far quicker that way."

"You're going to just let us die?!" Ms. Hertz exclaimed in total disbelief.

"I need to look out for my men! I'm sorry!" the lead soldier said, cringing with self-loathing. "We don't want to do this, but we all have to separate into smaller groups and get out of the city before the air force gets here! If we don't, then we're all screwed..."

"You pieces of shit! You're all a fucking stain on those uniforms!" Chase growled from nearby, his fists trembling. His adoptive father and grandfather had both served in the armed forces, so he knew very well what military honor was. These men failed to show it in his eyes.

"If we all leave together then we'll all die together. We'll be too slow, and none of us will escape before the jets show up." the lead soldier explained again, though he knew it was futile. "Like I said: your best bet is to split off into small groups, try to escape south on Highway 85, and meet at somewhere outside of Atlanta. You've got less than an hour before the bombs fall... I'm sorry..."

As the soldiers resumed walking away, Chase threw up his arms in frustration. Jennifer became so angry at this explanation that she picked up a souvenir snowglobe and threw it at the wall, shattering it into a million pieces.

Several of the other teens as well as Jim, Delmas, and Hertz continued following the soldiers in one last desperate effort to convince them to stay and protect the school from the infected people outside. The other teachers stayed with the rest of the kids to try and keep them as calm as possible.

"Sergeant Morrison, please don't go! There's children here! Children!" Delmas pleaded on the video.

The lead soldier, Morrison, remained silent as one of his men unlocked the back door of the store. Despite the pleas of the teachers, the soldiers left the store one by one and began their attempt to get out of Atlanta before it was too late. They didn't even say a word to any of the Kadic people as they left. Their shame wouldn't let them.

Her face visibly red from fury, Miranda leaned her head out the back door despite the risks. "Fine! Leave a bunch of helpless people to die!" Miranda called out to them. "Just go get eaten you bastards, BECAUSE IT'S ALL THAT YOU'RE FUCKING GOOD FOR!!!" she roared at the soldiers, who did not look back despite how loud she was.

Miranda then slammed the door shut as everyone processed what was happening now. The soldiers were leaving them behind in a city full of cannibals. The air force was very soon going to bomb them. And if they didn't leave the city immediately, they were going to wish that the infected had gotten to them first.

Reluctantly, Jim, Delmas, Ms. Hertz, and the Lyoko Warriors who followed the soldiers all went back into the main room of the store together. There, they were greeted with the expressions of so many scared and confused students and teachers. A disheveled, worried Delmas forced himself to look as presentable and as calm as he possibly could. He only had a modicum of success at that considering what just happened...

"... they ... they told us that the air force is going to drop fire bombs on the city soon." Delmas reluctantly told everyone the truth.

Panic immediately gripped everyone in the store when they heard the news. Rebecca could hear Milly start to hyperventilate off-screen. Amy could be seen freaking out, but Robert was doing his best to try and comfort his sister. Alex started uttering the Lord's Prayer in Russian. Rebecca could even see herself and Dylan locked in a loving hug, and she remembered being convinced that it might be their final goodbye. She never wanted to let him go again...

"Everyone, please!" Delmas urged everyone to quiet down so he can speak again. "We'll get out of this, everyone! Don't give up now!" he pleaded over the screaming.

"We will all survive what's happening! We'll get out of the city together!" Jim added, calming himself for the sake of the kids.

"Daddy!" Sissi sobbed as she ran up to hug her father.

Delmas and Sissi hugged each other tightly, as Jim and Hertz and the other teachers struggled to calm the students down. Their efforts were in vain, though. The threat of being roasted alive by the U.S. Air Force was something that very few people could comprehend let alone be calm about.

Suddenly, a loud whistle from the center of the room made everyone immediately shut up. The school could see Taelia standing there with her hands on her hips, a deep frown on her face. Clearly, she has had more than enough of this nonsense. "EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP FOR FIVE MINUTES AND LET DELMAS SPEAK!!!" Aelita's doppelganger shouted to the school.

Everyone immediately went silent, much to Taelia's satisfaction. Taelia looked over at Delmas and gestured towards him to tell him to continue, and then she went to sit back down with her fellow students. Delmas blinked at what just happened. Everyone else looked just as stunned as he did. For the moment, even the loud banging of the infected against the glass at the front of the store went unnoticed.

"Er, thanks, Ms. Stas..." Delmas awkwardly thanked the young girl before he spoke to everyone else again. "Everyone, I know that you're all terrified right now, but we can't afford to lose our heads. We all have to stay calm and find a way out of the city together before its too late." he reasoned. "So long as we all keep ourselves calm and resist the urge to panic, I swear that we will all get out of this alive."

"He's right, everyone..." Ms. Hertz agreed with her boss.

Though everyone was still understandably nervous, it seemed as if Delmas's words got through to them all. Even Milly stopped hyperventilating, though she was clearly still very much unsettled by everything going on. Panicking was going to kill them sooner than the bombs will at this rate.

Sensing how concerned all the kids still were, Jim stepped forward to speak with them all.

"I'll keep you kids safe!" Jim promised all of the kids of Kadic, a promise he damn well intended to keep. "Trust me, we'll be fine! It'll be just like how I kept my friends safe after we all got lost in the Outback for sixteen days back in '83!"

"You got lost in the Outback for sixteen days in 1983?" Amy blinked with surprise.

Jim grinned at the young teen. "... I'd rather not talk about it."

Unfortunately, the video finally ended right after Jim's catchphrase, though Rebecca remembered that everyone sprang into action right after that. She remembered how they kept trying to find their way out of the city but they kept getting turned around since the streets were filled with the walkers or other obstructions, like old police and military roadblocks that were abandoned in the chaos.

The school was still inside Atlanta when the air force arrived... Rebecca reluctantly played the next video, already suspecting what it was all about.

(RECORDING #55 - PLAYING)

"RUN!!! DON'T STOP OR YOU'RE GONNA BURN ALIVE!!!"

"OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD!!!"

"JESUS CHRIST, THIS IS FUCKED!!!"

"GOD, HELP US!!!"

"I WANT TO GO HOME!!! I WANT TO GO HOME!!!"

The school was running for their lives as the air force began their firebombing mission on the streets of Atlanta. There was no distinction between the living and the dead. If you were out in the streets and exposed, you were in grave danger. Atlanta had become hell on earth and their opportunity to escape it was becoming less and less likely to succeed with each passing moment.

The roar of the fighter jets overhead. The sounds of distant explosions gradually becoming louder as the planes kept getting closer. It was terrifying, and their terror increased a hundred fold since it took only a few moments for the planes to be right on top of the Kadic people.

A bomb exploding down the street forced everyone to stop dead in their tracks so they wouldn't get burned. Everyone could see living people on fire and rushing out of the site of the bomb explosion, and they could also see the undead stumbling out close behind the living. As the living people fell down onto the street and burned, the undead began to feast upon them. It was one of the worst ways a human being could possibly go...

... Rebecca could clearly hear the screams of the victims in the video. It was just as clear as when she heard them herself back then. Just as traumatizing too ...

The sights and sounds proved too much for Rebecca to experience again. Feeling her stomach churn, Rebecca paused the video and she proceeded to vomit on the ground in front of her, tears streaming down her face again. It was so hard to watch this, but she had to press on. Someone had to find out how the people from Kadic Academy met their end and she refused to press the burden upon anyone else...

Wordlessly, Rebecca wiped her mouth once she was done emptying her stomach. She hesitantly pressed the play button again.

In the video, the horrified group turned around and ran back up the street they just ran down. They had to get away from the fire and the infected people, but it was starting to become impossible. The streets were filled with these creatures and there was nowhere safe to go to.

Then another bomb hit...

A short distance away, another air force jet dropped a fire bomb, spreading fire down most of the length of the street. This one was so close that everyone felt the heat of the blast. Some people even felt their hair get singed by the heat. Ms. Hertz was not so lucky, as she was caught in some of the napalm herself. The flaming sticky substance quickly stuck itself to her arms, legs, and stomach. It burnt poor Ms. Hertz endlessly, causing her to wail as she fell to the ground and rolled around in a futile attempt to stop herself from burning.

"SUZANNE!!!" Jim screamed as he hurried over to Ms. Hertz, desperately trying to put out her flaming body with his jacket. He managed to put out the fires but not before it burnt her skin very badly.

That firebomb which burnt Ms. Hertz separating much of the school from each other since the flames practically cut the street into two. Amazingly, all of the Lyoko Warriors who were there managed to stay together, but the bomb which lit the road on fire prevented them from regrouping with the rest of their school. Rebecca remembered that Mr. Fumet yelled at them over the roar of the flames and told them to run as fast as they could since there was nothing else they could do.

The Lyoko Warriors did as he ordered, intending to try and find everyone else from the school again once they got out of the city... they never succeeded. Amy even got bit by a walker as they escaped, and she had to be pacified later on. After getting out of the city, the group met some of the future people of the quarry group on one of the evacuation highways which led people out of the city. They took refuge at the quarry with those people, and the rest is history...

But now Rebecca got to see a little more of what happened to everyone after she last saw them alive. Tamiya recorded the group running for their lives away from the street like Mr. Fumet said, but she then saw Sissi and Herb who were trapped in an alleyway down the street thanks to all the flames and walkers. Sissi was screaming something to her dad, but she was so far away and the roar of the fire was so loud that Tamiya's camera couldn't hear her. She watched as Herb forced Sissi down into a sewer entrance which they presumably used to escape Atlanta together... Delmas could be seen being held back by Mr. Riley and Mr. Chardin so as to prevent him from running into the flames to get to his little girl.

Jim picked up the injured Ms. Hertz bridal style and he led everyone into a nearby building, including the struggling Delmas. The building was also on fire just like how the street outside was, but there was nowhere else to go. Everyone stayed close behind Jim as they ran through heavy smoke and scorching heat. It was difficult, and several students nearly passed out from the horrible oxygen-depriving conditions.

Luckily, however, Jim found the emergency exit in the back of the store. He kicked open the door and he ran out the back with everyone behind him.

There had to be a way out of this horrible city...

There had to be...

As the video ended, Rebecca had to come to terms with all that she had seen happen to so many people she cared for. She then noticed that there was only one last video listed in the video camera's memory card...

A part of her didn't want to continue, but Rebecca selected and played the final video anyway. God damn her for her curiosity and need to see things through...

(VIDEO #56 - PLAYING)

In a forest outside of Atlanta, the people from Kadic Academy were making a final stand together against a huge herd of walkers.

Jim loudly roared as he slammed the metal pipe into a walker's skull. He kicked another walker away from the kids, a third walker came out from the trees and it latched onto him from behind. Before Jim could stop it, the walker had already sunk its teeth into his neck and ripped out a huge chunk of flesh. The Kadic students watched with horror as Jim was overwhelmed by several more of the undead, and they listened to his final screams as he was ripped open and eaten alive. Their savior was no more...

With the strongest Kadic teacher out of the way, and with all of the other teachers already injured or killed, many walkers began to stumble towards the frightened students. The kids all desperately searched for a way out, or at least for weapons they could use against the creatures...

... but their fates were already sealed. There was no way out of this.

One by one, Rebecca watched as walkers swarmed the teens and teachers of Kadic Academy in the video. Tears fell down Rebecca's face as she watched so many friends get eaten alive, their screams painfully burning into her mind forever. Emily begged for her mother as she was eaten... Ms. Hertz called for God. Heidi was suffering a full-blown panic attack. Johnny wouldn't stop crying. Taelia died full of rage. Delmas screamed his daughter's name one final time before his throat was ripped open...

Eventually only Milly, Tamiya, and Hiroki were left...

Three of the walkers swarmed Hiroki first. The poor child tried to fend them off with a stick he found like how Jim had tried to do with his pipe. He tried so hard to keep Milly safe, but it was for nothing. Hiroki broke the stick on the back of a walker, and instantly the other two fell upon him and they began to eat him alive. He screamed so loud in agony and fear. Milly and Tamiya could do nothing for Hiroki... His fate was sealed.

Hiroki screamed so loud as he was eaten alive, and he... he called out Yumi's name before he died, as if he thought his big sister could appear out of nowhere to save him from the monsters... Yumi's name was the last thing Hiroki ever said before he perished...

Rebecca choked up at this horrifying revelation, swearing to herself that she would never show this video or say anything about it to Yumi herself. Or anyone, for that matter. It would crush Yumi and the other Lyoko Warriors, so it would have to be a secret that Rebecca would have to take with her to the grave.

As Hiroki screamed Yumi's name one final time, Milly and Tamiya were forced to abandon him and run for their lives from the walkers. As far as they knew, they were the only two left alive out of everyone who came to vacation in America. Milly couldn't stop crying as she and Tamiya ran as fast as they could for their own lives.

They left him behind... Milly left behind the boy she liked...

The two young girls ran for a long time, but the walkers were everywhere. They couldn't find anywhere that was safe. Milly and Tamiya were disheveled, starving, thirsty, and so very exhausted after all of the horrors they've been through today...

As the two girls ran for their lives, Milly's foot got caught under a tree root and she slammed face-first into the dirt. That didn't hurt nearly as bad as her now-sprained ankle.

Milly sat up and groaned in pain as she held her ankle. She tried to stand up, but each time she put weight on her injured ankle she fell to the ground again. Tamiya hurried over to her best friend and she wrapped Milly's arm around her neck in an effort to help her keep moving, but she could see that it was already too late for them both. Many walkers came out of the trees in front of them, behind them, and all around them.

There was nowhere they could go...

"No!!! NO!!!" Milly screamed as she saw they were surrounded.

"Please, help us!!! Someone PLEASE help us!!!" Tamiya begged as loud as she could, though no one alive was around to hear them.

Milly and Tamiya were terrified. There was no way out. The walkers approached as the girls cowered in fear and screamed, knowing that they were about to die. But just as the first walker got to them and leaned forward to try and sink its dead teeth into Milly's shoulder, the video suddenly went to black. Rebecca stared at her reflection in the screen before a message popped up.

(FILE CORRUPTED! - UNABLE TO RESUME PLAYING!)

A traumatized Rebecca lowered the camera upon finishing the final video, and she broke into tears again. She wished she never found this stupid camera...

Rebecca heard footsteps approaching. Her eyes widened, and she hurriedly wiped away her tears and cleaned herself up as best she could. She stood up and hid the camera behind her back as she saw Anne walking up to her.

"Hey, 'Becca? Mind helping me with something real quick?" Anne requested, not realizing what Rebecca had just seen and heard.

"U- Uh, yeah... sure, Anne..."

Anne nodded, flashing a smile Rebecca's way before she turned and headed back towards camp. After she was certain Anne was out of earshot, Rebecca glanced back down at Tamiya's old camera and realized she had to do something for the sake of the group. She had to get rid of the evidence. All those terrible videos had to be erased. She could never see those videos again and she couldn't let any of the others share what she just experienced.

A deeply disturbed Rebecca went into the camera's settings and then delved into its memory card. Without hesitation, Rebecca selected videos fifty-four through fifty-six and she pressed delete. One by one, the three videos disappeared from the card.

May they never be seen by anyone's eye ever again...

(DELETING RECORDINGS #54 THROUGH #56...

...

...

...

... SUCCESS! SELECTED RECORDINGS HAVE BEEN DELETED!)

---

Even after the sun went down and darkness overtook everything, Yumi still had not left her little brother's grave.

For many hours Yumi simply sat there next to Hiroki's grave and stared down at the old family photo she found in his pocket. Yumi didn't say a single word during the entire time that she was there, she just... didn't want to be away from Hiroki yet. It was getting cold now that the sun was gone. Yumi didn't care even though she was shivering a little. She couldn't go back to the camp yet. Not yet. No... not yet...

Mom... dad... Hiroki...

All of them really were gone forever...

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fucking fair... Yumi thought about her lost family over and over again as if she believed that she'd forget about them if she didn't. To her own utter frustration, Yumi couldn't even remember the last things that she said to her parents before she left for America. She couldn't remember something as simple as that and she hated herself so much for it.

She never should've come to this country with her friends. Neither should have Hiroki... Yumi wanted to sight-see from New York to California, and the price that she paid for it was the lives of her entire family. It was such a stupid thing for her to do... Everyone should've just stayed in France...

... Yumi would've rather they all died together. That they all left this world as a family. It would have saved her so much heartache ...

Yumi looked up at Hiroki's cross and she affectionately traced her fingers over his name. She got a splinter from the old wood as she traced her fingers but she didn't react to it at all. The pain from it didn't bother her as much as it should have, and she didn't know whether to just accept something like that or to be worried for her own well-being in the future. She knew deep down that losing Hiroki had really messed her up... but she couldn't care anymore.

She felt broken. She felt like she would become a burden to all still alive that cared about her... Ulrich deserved so much better than her.

Wordlessly, Yumi reached down into her pocket and she pulled out the pocket knife which she used to carve Hiroki's name during his burial hours ago. Yumi opened the blade of the pocket knife and she stared down at it, deep in thought. Moonlight reflected from the blade and into her sullen face. The blade was a bit dull, but it could still definitely cut more stuff without too much of a problem. The blade could do a lot of things, really...

... Maybe if she just ...

"Yumes...?"

Yumi suddenly heard footsteps approaching, and she stuffed the pocket knife back into her pocket to keep it out of sight. Moments later, she felt someone's hands wrapping a warm blanket around her body, followed by a beanie being placed on her head to keep her ears warm.

"Here, Yumes... you looked cold..." she heard Ulrich say as he gently wrapped the blanket around her. Yumi remained silent, though she did give a slight thankful nod towards her boyfriend. Yumi wrapped the blanket tighter around her body as Ulrich knelt next to her. He was clearly concerned for her.

The German teen simply had no idea what to do for the girl he loved... Ulrich had never seen Yumi in such a state before. It was as strange as it was frightening.

"Yumi... you don't need to stay out here in the dark..." Ulrich said with a gentle tone. He reached out and he gently took Yumi's hand into his, and thankfully she accepted his touch this time. "How about you come back to camp with me, huh? We've got a really nice campfire going, and most of us can stomach what Daryl's cooked up for everyone."

"...... I can't leave him yet." Yumi finally said something to him, albeit in a tone that was barely above a whisper.

"He wouldn't want you to freeze, Yumi..."

The poor grieving girl fell silent once again, Yumi's own thoughts tormenting her as much as her memories of Hiroki and her parents were. "...... I can't leave him yet, Ulrich." Yumi whispered again, pulling her hand away from his so she could reach out and wipe some dirt off of Hiroki's cross. "... I just want to be alone for now, okay ...? Please..."

"Yumi..."

"Please, Ulrich... I promise that I'll go back to camp later, but just not right now... okay...?"

Ulrich sighed in defeat as he finally relented to Yumi's requests. Ulrich then silently hugged Yumi before he stood back up and walked away, reluctantly leaving his girlfriend to be alone like how she wished. Deep down he knew it was wrong to leave her alone like this. As much as Yumi seemed to want to be alone, she needed the support of him and all of their friends. He hoped she would be okay...

"... I love you, Yumes." Ulrich told her as he started walking away. Yumi heard him, though she didn't say anything back.

As Ulrich left, Yumi looked in his direction and watched him walking away from her. Once Ulrich returned to camp, Yumi looked back to her brother's grave and closed her eyes for just a moment or two, leaning her forehead against Hiroki's name.

Silently, Yumi held the blanket close as she laid down on the grass next to Hiroki's grave and looked up at the stars through the leaves of the tree above her. She saw so many in the skies during the night now on account of the lack of light pollution. She had never seen so many before. The stars looked so beautiful...

As Yumi stared up at the sky, her hand reached down into her pocket to grip her pocket knife just to remind herself that it was still in there.

She might need it soon. Yumi didn't know yet...

---

The two strangers made themselves at home at the bar, though naturally much of the group were still a little nervous to be in the same room with these newcomers. They had no idea who these people were or where they came from. Luckily, however, the two new people didn't seem to be hostile... at least not right now. Good thing that the group had the numbers in case anything happened.

Rick, being a kind host, poured a couple of glasses of whiskey for the two men. They were both very thankful as they took the glasses, clinking them together in a toast before they downed their contents. Nick didn't give them a drop of his imported Slovak whatever-the-fuck-it-was, as the taste was starting to grow on him a bit.

The two men set their glasses down in satisfaction. "I'm Dave." one of the men said, the skinner one. Dave pointed over at the other man nearby, who... well, he had some weight to him. "That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." Dave introduced his friend who was sitting at the bar, near Hershel.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Eat me, Dave."

"Hey, maybe someday I will." Dave joked, getting some chuckles from a few of the others out of it. The group noted their accents... Philadelphian? Somewhere up in that area?

Dave helped himself to another glass of whiskey as he relaxed. "We met on I-95 coming out of Philly... Damn shit-show that was..." he sighed, shaking his head as he thought back to how bad Philadelphia got during the early days of the pandemic. He was happy that such horrors were far behind him now.

"It's nice to finally meet someone who isn't trying to eat me." Aelita joked, offering her hand in a friendly introduction. Dave smiled and he shook it. "I'm Aelita." Aelita introduced herself after she pulled her hand back.

"Interesting name you got there, kid... But its nice to meet you and your friends here." Dave said before he took another gulp out of his glass.

"I'm Jeremie." Jeremie raised his hand, introducing himself.

"Rick Grimes." Rick followed Jeremie's lead, though he wasn't smiling. He looked suspicious about these two new guys who seemingly showed up out of nowhere...

"Odd Della Robbia." Odd introduced, immediately getting some bewildered looks from the two men. Rather than answer their unasked question about his unusual name, Odd simply moved on and he gestured over to Patrick and Verity at their table. "The lovebirds are Patrick and Verity." Odd introduced his friends.

"Hey." Verity greeted casually.

"What's up?" Patrick likewise greeted.

Dave and Tony raised their glasses towards the two teens to say hi right back. Dave then noticed that the old guy sitting near Tony hadn't been drinking anything. "How about you, pal? Have one?" Dave asked the old guy, holding out his glass.

"I just quit." Hershel declined the offer.

"You got a unique sense of timing, my friend..." Dave joked.

"His name's Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them." Rick explained as he sat on a stool next to Hershel.

Jeremie nodded, his expression turning mournful. "The same for me and my friends..." he felt Aelita's hand go to his shoulder, making his expression rebound fast.

Both of the newcomers knew what it was like to lose people that you care about. Dave and Tony shared the pain of the old man and all these poor kids. This whole goddamn pandemic has taken too much from all survivors...

"I'm truly sorry to hear that." Dave said, sympathetically.

The Lyoko Warriors in the room as well as Hershel all nodded at Dave, appreciating his kind words. Dave poured some more whiskey into his glass and then he raised it up high, smiling at the others in the room. "To better days and new friends." Dave toasted.

Dave glanced at Hershel, then to some of the teens. "And to our dead. May they be in a better place." he added.

"Amen to that..." Verity agreed, raising her canteen.

Verity and Dave both drank their drinks, and Tony, Rick, Glenn, and Nick each drank from theirs too. The rest of the teens each found some cans of soda inside the bar's old fridges or they used their own canteens to drink to Dave's toast.

It felt good for everyone to do something like that. It was simple, but after everything that's happened today the sentiment was very much needed.

Dave then noticed that Rick had seen the gun he had been keeping in the back of his waistband. Smirking, Dave pulled out the gun and he showed it off to Rick and the others. "Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop." he told them all.

"I'm a cop." Rick deadpanned. If this guy did what Rick thought he did...

"This one was already dead." Dave assured. Guess not...

Odd nodded. "You two are a long way from Philadelphia. What made you two come all the way down here?" he wondered. It was a valid question to ask, and it was something that the teens and Rick and the others were all mulling over for several minutes now.

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't for the weather." Dave joked. "I must've dropped 30 pounds in sweat alone down here..." the teens all understood exactly what he meant by this. Georgia's weather during the summertime was unlike any of the summers that they experienced back in Paris. Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd were each amazed that they haven't suffered a heat stroke yet.

"Heh, I wish." Tony chuckled at his friend's words.

Dave and a few of the others had to hold back snickering at what Tony said, finding it ironic and funny. Dave's smile soon fell as he kept talking.

"No, first it was D.C." Dave continued to explain. "I heard there might be some refugee camp. But the roads were so jammed we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass... Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing."

"One guy told us there was a Coast Guard center in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony added. He had heard this, but who knew if it was true. Still, the idea of riding out the apocalypse down in the Bahamas didn't sound too bad at all. He'd kill for a margarita again...

"Then we heard another guy say that Sacramento was safe. Free of the lamebrains, even." Dave further said to the group. "That guy said that that's where the president and the rest of the government ran off to after everything in D.C. started falling apart. Could be true, could be fake, could be somewhere in between. I've got no clue..."

Aelita and Jeremie shared a look upon hearing that. Sacramento... wasn't that all the way over in California somewhere? All they knew about the city was that it was too far away to get to. If it really was a safe place then getting there was out of the question simply because of the distance. Shame, if those rumors really were true...

Dave took another gulp out of his drink, wiping his mouth. "The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country. Kansas, Nebraska..."

"Nebraska?" Glenn asked with a surprised tone.

"Low population, lots of guns." Tony explained.

"That does make a lot of sense..." Verity said before she took another drink of her water.

"You ever been to Nebraska, kid? The reason they call 'em 'flyover states'" Dave jokingly replied, getting a few more chuckles out of the group.

So many rumors... but who knew which ones were true?

After he finished up his third drink, Dave pushed both the glass and the bottle of whiskey away from himself, deciding that he's already had more than enough for today. It also didn't help much that he drank a little before even coming all the way down here. Tapping his fingers on the table out of boredom, Dave looked at Odd and studied his weird hair, then he did the same with Aelita's. The pink hair freaked him out much more than the cone-shaped hair did... Tony soon ended up staring as well.

Aelita quickly noticed Dave and Tony's weird facial expressions. "... its my hair, isn't it?" Aelita deadpanned as she guessed why she was being stared at.

"Yep." Dave and Tony both said at the same time.

With a sigh, Aelita gestured up towards the top of her head and started on her normal 'answering questions about her hair' routine. "It's genetic, not hair dye. My mom's hair is pink and I got it from her. I don't know how her hair as well as mine ended up being pink but that's just what happened. Yes, I get asked this very often. No, the attention doesn't usually bother me very much. No, I haven't really thought of dyeing it another color... I hope that answers all of your questions."

Dave and Tony shared a look as Aelita took another long swig of her water. These kids acted as weird as they looked... Where the hell were they from? Canada?

Deciding not to press on with a question like that, Dave decided to change the subject. "How about you guys? You plannin' on settling down somewhere?" he wondered.

"Fort Benning, eventually..." Rick responded, believing that Hershel was definitely going to kick everyone out soon thanks to the barn massacre.

Dave cringed at the answer. "I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer. But we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains."

Nick had been drinking his imported Slovak whatever-the-fuck-it-was, and when he heard that answer he became so shocked that he spat out an entire mouthful of the stuff onto his table. Being half-drunk as he was, Nick also accidentally leaned himself backwards and his chair fell over, sending him straight to the floor with a loud groan of pain. Everyone else shared his reaction.

"Wait, Fort Benning's gone?! Are you fucking serious?!" Patrick gasped.

"Sadly, I am." Dave sighed, nodding sympathetically.

Fort Benning, once thought to be the group's best bet at survival, had actually fallen to the undead... Now there really was nowhere that the groups could try and go to if and when they all leave Hershel's farm... A bad situation has just turned into a very, very life-threatening one.

Leaving the farm truly was a death sentence now...

"God..." Jeremie muttered, eyes wide from worry and shock.

"Ugly truth is there is no way out of this mess..." Dave sighed, already having resigned himself to a walker-ruled world ages ago. "Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep."

"If you sleep..." Tony muttered in agreement.

Dave nodded in agreement, with the group falling into a stunned silence for a few moments as they contemplated the Fort Benning situation.

However, he and Tony had noticed some things before and after they came into the barn... they had questions.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here..." Dave pointed out how the bar wasn't exactly lived-in. "You holed up somewhere else?"

"... not really." Rick lied, keeping a decent poker face. Unfortunately, Dave saw right through it...

Dave and Tony seemed like they were good people. The group sympathized with whatever struggles they've had to go through since the start of the pandemic... but even so, they couldn't give the location of the farm to some strangers who they only just met fifteen minutes ago. Rick and the others realized that it was far too risky. Dave and Tony might be friendly, but who knew if they would stay that way. These two couldn't come home with them.

"Those your cars out front?" Dave wondered as he gestured to the front doors.

Odd nodded. "Yeah... why?"

"We're living in ours." Dave responded. "Yours look kinda empty... clean. Where's all your gear?" he asked.

"We're with a larger group... Out scouting, thought we could use a drink." Hershel lied, having the exact same concerns that Rick did.

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit!" Dave grinned as he caught the old man in a lie.

Hershel didn't respond to that, simply falling silent. Damn, he used to be such a good liar when he was younger...

The group and the two men stared at each other in silence, everyone growing highly suspicious. As the nervous teens all watched, Nick had set down his bottle of imported Slovak whatever-the-fuck-it-was and he went to lean on a pillar close to the front doors, wanting a good shooting spot in case anything went down. Even though he was drunk, even he could tell that something could happen in the next few moments.

The Lyoko Warriors all glanced at one another. Was something going to happen? They've shot walkers before, but... living people? No way. No fucking way could they do that. They couldn't kill their fellow survivors...

... they hoped that they'd never have to find out if they could, at least.

"Well, we were thinking of setting up around here. Is it safe?" Dave asked the group on behalf of himself and his own people.

"It could be." Patrick shrugged. "Although we have killed some walkers around here..."

"'Walkers'? That what you call them?" Dave blinked, then grinned with amusement. "That's good... I like that. I like that better than 'lamebrains'."

Tony nodded in agreement with his friend. "More succinct."

Upon hearing another word that he simply didn't understand, Dave rolled his eyes.

"Okay, Tony went to college." Dave explained to the group, totally unimpressed by any of his friend's pre-pandemic accomplishments.

"Two years." Tony beamed with pride in himself. That Associate Degree in phlebotomy he got was worth all the effort.

The silence from the group was so expansive that everyone could literally hear the crickets chirp outside. Dave and Tony were worried that these people wouldn't lead them to wherever their shelter was. Wherever they lived had to be good given how well put together everyone seemed to be. They wanted a piece of that for themselves and the rest of their people. Desperately. They didn't want to use force unless they had to... that kind of fun could wait until later.

"So what... so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development? Trailer park or something?" Dave wondered, then a lightbulb went off in his head as he started to chuckle. "... A farm?" he guessed correctly, much to the growing worries of the group.

The group's continued silence told Dave all he needed to know... These people were raising chickens and growing corn, huh?

"Old MacDonald had a farm..." Dave suddenly sang a lyric as Tony made his way to the far side of the room, positioning himself behind the entire group.

Even though he was in full view of everyone in the bar, Tony didn't hesitate to unzip his fly and start urinating on the wall. Verity, who was closest to him, grimaced with utter disgust and she went to stand further away. Aelita, Jeremie, and Odd all looked disgusted as well. What was up with that guy?

The adults were all stonefaced as they noticed how Tony moved himself behind them. They also noticed how he took his shotgun with him, letting it hang loosely from his shoulder...

"You on a farm?" Dave asked again, this time more insistently. Like he was almost demanding an answer.

"E-I-E-I-O..." Tony sang with a chuckle as he kept urinating.

Dave ignored his friend and continued staring down Rick. "Is it safe? It's gotta be. You got food, water?" Dave asked question after question.

"You got cooze?" Tony suddenly inquired about a more carnal need of his. "Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks..." God, what he wouldn't give right now for some tall dumb blonde wearing Daisy Dukes and nothing else...

Verity and Aelita both deadpanned and shared a glance, the two women not appreciating Tony's very crass remarks about needing that. Nor did Aelita appreciate how Tony seemed to be glancing at her out of the corner of his eye after he said that stuff... nor did she appreciate how he lustfully licked his lips while doing so...

... suddenly the pinkette wanted to be as far away from these guys as possible, especially Tony. Jeremie, having heard what Tony said and now noticing that he was checking out Aelita despite her age, glared at the fat man and he moved himself so that he would stand between him and Aelita even though they were already far apart. No one was going to hurt his princess ever again. No one.

Seeing the reactions his friend had gotten, Dave sighed and shook his head as his friend finished and zipped up his fly. "Listen, pardon my friend. City kids... they got no tact..." he commented.

"Me and Verity are city kids and we got tact..." Patrick frowned and crossed his arms. He honestly looked a little offended.

"No disrespect..." Dave made sure to say, grinning at the boy. Then he turned his attention over to Glenn. "So, listen, Glenn-"

"We've said enough." a frowning Rick interrupted him in mid-sentence.

"Well, hang on a second..." Dave insisted they keep talking. "This farm, it sounds pretty sweet... Don't it sound sweet, Tony?"

"Yeah, real sweet..." Tony said this as he grabbed onto the strap of his shotgun.

The Lyoko Warriors realized what the adults in the room did - these two men meant to get what they wanted, one way or another.

"How about a little southern hospitality?" Dave asked, half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"Most of us aren't even from this country let alone the South." Odd pointed out with a cold frown on his face.

Dave ignored what the weird cone-haired boy said. "Rick, we got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time... I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We could pool our resources, our manpower." he suggested ways to get them and their people a new home.

"Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option..." Rick dismissed, not budging an inch.

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem..." Dave commented, not dropping this matter at all.

Aelita frowned at the two men. "Look, I'm sorry, but we can't. We can't take in anymore people... You'll have to find someplace else."

Somewhere else... Somewhere fucking else... Dave was clearly trying to hold back some anger now. These people came from a safe, secure place and they probably had more than enough to share... and they had to go somewhere else...

"You guys are really something else..." Dave was smiling as he talked, though his voice had disappointment and venom to it. "I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too." he reasoned with the group.

"We don't know a thing about you two." Nick glared at Dave.

"No, that's true... You don't know anything about us..."

Those words sounded almost like a threat...

"You don't know what we've had to go through out there... the things that we've had to do..." Dave trailed off with a sigh. "I bet you've all had to do some of the same things yourselves, am I right? 'Cause, ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same..."

Even the group had to give Dave that point. They've had to do terrible things to survive so far, and they knew there was more to come. There wasn't any clean hands in this world anymore, that was absolutely certain for them all. Especially after what happened today...

Dave now smiled warmly at the group. "So come on, let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other." he suggested.

"That's not gonna happen." Rick explained, hoping that Dave and Tony would learn to take 'no' for an answer for their own sakes.

Now that it was more than clear that they weren't going to the farm, Tony lost his temper. "This is bullshit!" he said with a tone of great anger. What? These bastards think they can hog that place all to themselves?! It wasn't right! He and Tony had to get to that place of theirs at all costs... whether they wanted to let them in or not.

Odd frowned at the angry man. "Tony, you need to calm down and-"

"Don't tell me to calm down, kid! Don't ever tell me to calm down!" Tony snapped back at the teen, growing even more pissed off because of what Odd just said. "I'll shoot all of you assholes in the head and take your damn farm!" he directly threatened Odd's life as well as everyone else's.

With that threat, Nick set his uncle's rifle on his lap and he put his finger right on the trigger in case he needed to use it quickly. Patrick likewise moved his hand to his pistol, hoping not to use it but determined to protect his friends no matter what happens. Tony's threat just proved to them that these two couldn't be trusted and that they both had to get the hell out of this bar while they still could. The other teens could only watch everything unfold in a stunned worry.

Rick stood up from his stool and went to Tony, facing him down. Dave hurried over to the two men to keep them apart from one another.

"Woah, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa... Relax..." Dave said, quickly and calmly. "Take it easy... nobody's killing anybody..."

After it was clear that Rick and Tony (probably) won't kill each other right at this second, Dave decided to hop over the bar so that he could access the counters behind it.

"Nobody's shooting anybody. Right, guys?" Dave asked the whole group. Rick turned to face him, and he heard Tony's hand press against the shotgun he had on his shoulder.

... tell that to your buddy, Dave.

Dave, wanting to put everyone at ease, reached behind his back and he pulled out his pistol, setting it down on the bar counter. "See...? We're all just friends having a drink, that's all..." he grinned at Rick and the others before he suddenly leaned down to grab something behind the bar. "Now where's the good stuff, huh?"

Rick immediately reached down and gripped his revolver after he heard Dave's hand brush against something behind the bar, something metallic. Dave froze for a moment when he saw Rick ready to use his gun. Glenn kept a tight hold on his shotgun but he couldn't bring the will to actually use it himself. Hershel simply watched on, worried to the core about what he was certain would happen momentarily.

Aelita's eyes widened and her heartrate increased as she started to realize exactly what was brewing here. This wouldn't be anything like on TV. This wouldn't be like fighting XANA's monsters on Lyoko... A horrible thing could happen any second now. Shakily, her hand went down to her own gun...

Suddenly, Dave popped back up from behind the counter. Instead of holding a gun, he was holding a bottle of vintage Scottish whiskey. The good shit. Rick cautiously moved his hand away from his gun.

"Hey, look at that. That'll work..." Dave cheerfully said to Rick and the others. Dave pulled a few glasses on the counter closer to him, and he started to pour the liquor into each glass one by one. His cheerfulness quickly evaporated. "You gotta understand we can't stay out there... You all know what it's like..."

Rick nodded, still keeping his hand close to his sidearm. "Yeah... I do..." he told him. "But the farm is too crowded as is, I'm sorry... You'll have to keep looking..."

"Keep looking...?" Dave questioned. "Where do you suggest we do that?"

"I don't know..." Rick truthfully responded, shrugging. His frown only grew deeper. "... I hear Nebraska's nice ..."

Dave's lips curved into a grin, though it was clear he was not happy at this little joke. "Ha! Nebraska... this guy..."

"No..." Aelita said, horror filling her very being. She was completely unprepared for what was going to happen. "No, no, no, no, no, please! Please don't do this! Plea-"

She never got to finish her sentence.

Suddenly, Dave tried to use the handgun which he had found behind the counter. He didn't even get the chance to aim it before Rick pulled out his revolver and fired a single bullet into Dave's head, splattering his brains and his blood against the decorative mirror at the back of the bar. Most of the others in the bar dived for cover as the gunshots began to ring out. All except Jeremie, who was frozen by shock and confusion...

As Dave's corpse fell to the floor, Aelita noticed Tony raise his shotgun. But he didn't aim the weapon at Rick... he aimed at Jeremie.

"NO!!!" Aelita screamed as she pulled out her own revolver without hesitation...

...

...

...

... the next few moments were a complete blur for Aelita. She only knew that one minute she was raising her revolver to protect the love of her life, and that in the next she was holding a revolver that held six fired cartridges inside of it... She could smell freshly burnt gunpowder in the air. Her ears rang endlessly after six loud gunshots...

After looking towards Jeremie and making sure that he was okay, Aelita, immediately recognizing that she had fired off all of the rounds in her freshly-used gun, hesitantly looked to where Tony had been standing. What she saw horrified her beyond all belief.

On the other side of the room was Tony, who's corpse was now leaning against the far wall. His shotgun was resting on the floor in front of him... Aelita felt her stomach coil as she could clearly see six fresh gunshot wounds spanning his stomach, his chest, and in his left eye...

... she had just killed a human being.

Her gun falling out of her hands and landing with a loud 'clunk' on the hardwood floor, a pale Aelita shakily stumbled backwards until she fell against the bar, unable to fully comprehend what she had just done.

This wasn't a walker...

This wasn't any of XANA's monsters...

This was real flesh and blood. A real person ...

White noise overtook all other noises around herself as Aelita glanced down to look at her own hands, the hands of a newly-christened murderer. Disbelief, horror, confusion, disgust, despair - every emotion in the book ravaged her soul as she silently tried to come to terms with what just happened moments ago.

Over and over again, a single thought repeated in the poor pinkette's mind.

"...... what have I done ......?"