 
### Kinemortophobia

### (The Fear Of The Undead)

By

Jeremy Bene

SMASHWORDS EDITION

* * * * *

PUBLISHED BY:

Jeremy Bene on Smashwords

Kinemortophobia

(The Fear Of The Undead)

Copyright © 2013 Jeremy Bene

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Any similarities with names in this book are strictly coincidental. The names in this book do not reflect the true personalities of any person(s) with the same name as a character in the book.

Chapter 1 - Jeremy

### It's been three months since the outbreak. We've all adapted by now, because if we hadn't we'd be dead. There's no avoiding it, we're all going to turn, but we stay alive in hopes of finding a cure, a glimmer of hope in devotion to the human race and restoring it to what it once was. I always thought I would welcome the downfall of humanity, for it had turned into mindless politics and arguing. People didn't have that 'natural' sense of kindness; they were greedy, self-centered, and power-hungry. The key word in that sentence is were. Three months ago, there was a lab combustion in Montpelier, Vermont, where top league scientists were working on a serum to try to kill all malicious cells in the body, thus ridding the world of disease. Ironically, they accomplished the complete opposite. Apparently, one of the scientists used too much of one chemical and the solution destabilized. The resulting lab explosion set loose an airborne virus, a virus of what the remnants of humanity have appropriately dubbed the "zombie virus". This virus takes effect once a person has died; it re-animates the brain and makes the former person into a carnivore hungry for anything it can get its hands on. The 'person' is no longer the person it once was, but now relies on instincts alone to get to its food sources. It will happen to everyone, we will all turn into a zombie, unless of course we find a cure to the virus. For the past three months, my crew and I have driven all across America with an RV in hopes of finding scientists who at least have a lead on a cure. My name is Jeremy Bene; I am the leader of our little group of survivors. Everyone looks up to me for everything, I guess in a way I am their saving grace. Even when I make my fair share of screw-ups, they still commend me. I've got dirty blonde hair which strands down to my shoulders and a quarter of the way down my back. For about a year everyone has been telling me to cut it, but I haven't listened. I'm 18 years old and am well-built, and also I have a lot of muscle on me, so basically I'm built as a lineman in football would be. I couldn't ask for a better crew. I try to make my decisions as well thought out and un-biased as possible, but obviously, sometimes they don't work out in my favor. All in all, I would consider myself a fairly good leader, and my group seems to agree. Next in command is Haley Taylor, 18. She's not biologically related to me, but I've always considered her my little sister. She's a lot taller than me though, which makes it hard to believe she's my little sister. She's got long blonde hair and she's very skinny. She's the closest thing to family I have right now, even before the outbreak we were really close. She's also very skilled in leadership; however, she is more quick and agile than I am. She's good for making food runs into abandoned gas stations or supermarkets. Then we have her husband, Ryan Taylor, 20. Ex-military, Ryan went rogue when the Navy sent out several black ops missions that Ryan was a part of. Ryan didn't approve of the black ops missions and went AWOL; however, he seems to still have access to the naval databases. He's a very experienced gunman and tactician who very rarely goes out into the field. We usually use him as a backup fielder, due to the width and depth of his arms; he's the buffest guy in the group. He's taller than Haley, about six foot-eight and is pretty muscular. However, he usually stays in the RV with me and another guy to improve our tactics and keep radio with the fielders. That other guy is Andrew Weir,16, probably the smartest guy left in humanity. A little shorter than me, the kid has short brown hair and thick, steampunk-like glasses. His stature is a little heftier than me as well, and he is ridiculously intelligent. Both a tactician, and a combat plan developer, he's one of the most valuable assets we have; without his intelligence I daresay we wouldn't have lasted half as long as what we have. We have another Andrew in the group, Andrew Wilson, 17. He's from England, but he was on a vacation to visit me and Weir when the outbreak broke out. He's a bit taller than me, and a bit heftier than Haley, but not by much. The three of us met through the internet and have been best buds ever since. Andrew specializes in gun handling and melee weaponry. He can fix almost any melee weapon with the slightest of ease. He is also a sure shot when it comes to pistols, sub-machine guns, and assault rifles. Another person I met through the internet is Caitlin Barber, 15, who lived in Canada before the outbreak. She's got short blonde hair and is the shortest one of all of us. We set up a meet with her, I, and the Andrews, and about 2 days after we picked her up the outbreak blew out. She is one of the best scavengers I've ever seen. She's helped us salvage many things that have kept us alive over the course of our survival run. Finally, there's Zach Current,18, my oldest friend. We've known each other literally since birth, we grew up together, and half the time we shared the same playpen and crib. As young kids, we were inseparable, until he moved to Ohio from Missouri about three years back. When the outbreak happened, the group and I drove up to Ohio to get Zach; luckily he was still at his place. He was built almost exactly like me, but a bit more aggressive. His hair was longer than mine, but straighter as well. He was a great fielder, he killed zombies like there was no tomorrow, as well as being able to carry a huge load in the backpack he took from his home. Between us, we were a great group. We had each other's backs no matter what, and we have depended on each other for survival. As we sped down the highway, I noticed a road sign. 'Now Entering Iowa' is what it read. My initial thought was that it didn't feel like it had taken that long to get here from our last destination. I looked at the calendar and I realized about a week had passed since we were in West Virginia; I then realized that I had been behind in days. I went and checked on the inventory and saw that we were running low.

"Hey Zach!" I yelled to the cockpit. We all took shifts driving the RV, and it was Zach's shift right now.

"How are we doing on fuel?" I continued.

"We got about an eighth of a tank, we'll need to find a station soon!" he replied. Usually I don't miss inventory days, but I've been preoccupied with other things lately. I've been thinking about my family a lot, how they died in the first few days of the outbreak and my skills kept me alive. How I watched my father get overrun by zombies as I sped away in my beat-up Sedan, how I let my little nephew get ripped out of my arms by those creatures. How I let my entire family fade away, and yet I didn't blame myself. No one could've prepared for this, for it's basically the end of the world. I couldn't stop thinking about them; I guess that's normal though. Losing your family is a truly horrific experience that no one should have to go through; unfortunately, it is now the norm in this post-apocalyptic world.
Chapter 2 – Jeremy

### We were speeding down the highway at about 88 miles an hour. There were oddly no cars on the highway; usually, the highways are riddled with abandoned cars left from when the outbreak first started. We've already seen some half-vacant highways, but nothing like this; it may have been odd, or it may have been me just being paranoid.

"Hey Jeremy, there's a station up there, you want me to pull up?" Zach asked me from the cockpit. I told him to pull into the station and I would assign positions.

"Haley, you and Caitlin go into the station to try to find some food and water; Wilson, you and Zach pump the gas and I'll keep watch." Everyone agreed to the plan and executed it. I climbed to the top of the RV with my Sniper Rifle and stood watch. The road split both ways, plus there was a huge field on the opposite side of the road. This was good, because I could see any zombie coming from any direction within 3 miles. I sat there and watched the road and field as the boys pumped gas. A few seconds later, I saw a figure emerge from behind a warehouse about half a mile down the road from where we came. I pulled the scope up to my face and zoomed in on the zombie. Something felt familiar about the figure; I couldn't put my finger on it, though. I pulled the trigger and put a bullet straight in between the zombie's eyes. As soon as the zombie went down, I felt a pain in my gut; but why was this happening?

"Alright Jeremy, we're good to go!" Zach called from the ground.

"No we're not." I replied. I climbed down from the RV and walked over to the zombie. I had a gut feeling that I just killed someone I knew before the outbreak. I started searching the zombie, looking for some form of identification or at least social security number. I looked on the zombie's wrist and saw a Harley-Davidson watch. The watch looked very familiar, but I didn't want to be sure until I had proper identification. I searched through the zombie and found his wallet. I contemplated opening it, figuring out if I really wanted to know the identity of the person I just killed. But then I remembered these aren't people anymore; they are things that will stop at nothing to feast on the living. I opened the wallet, and immediately regretted it. I dropped the wallet and its contents on the ground, not sure what to make of everything. My heart sank in my chest, my mind in a whirl, and my body completely numb. I couldn't believe what I had just done. I had just shot my father, Ron Bene; I had killed him for the second time. Nothing made sense anymore, I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't do anything. I kept trying to remember that this wasn't my father, that it was a flesh-devouring demon being that's sole purpose was to kill my new family; whose sole purpose was to kill all things in sight. It didn't work, I just kept thinking about my dad and how he raised me. How he taught me all the qualities that I know and value. How he shaped and molded me into the person I am today; and I just shot him in the face with a sniper rifle. I bowed my head and prayed for my father to now rest in peace, for him to finally be able to leave his body behind and for his soul to be at peace. I stood and returned to the RV, and at this point everyone was standing outside waiting for me. They all knew me so well; they could tell that something was wrong just from the expression on my face.

"What's wrong Jeremy?" Haley asked. I didn't say a word; all I did was shuffled through the RV, grabbed the shovel, and returned to the zombie. I dug a hole next to him and dumped the body into the hole, covered the hole, and made a makeshift tombstone. 'Here Lies Ronald Dale Bene, An honorable man, A great role model, and A hell of a dad (Inscribed by his son Jeremy Ronald Bene)'. This was the most honorable thing I could think of doing for the man. I stepped away from the grave and returned to the RV to put back the shovel. As I stepped back out, I noticed everyone was crowded around the grave, undoubtedly reading the tombstone and realizing that I had just shot my father. Almost at once, the entire group turned back to me. I've always tried to stay strong, especially in front of the group, but I know better than anyone that no man can hold everything in. No man can bare the everlasting pain of losing one of the closest people in your life. The group started to run to me, but before they got to me I fell to my knees. I felt as if my heart was ripped out of my chest. I knew my father was gone, but this was different; I had just shot him in the head to ensure his final death. However, I had to look on the bright side; I put my father at peace. I enabled him to reach his final resting place, because his body wasn't being used for anything else. Who knows, we don't know if the person's conscience stays in the body or not. Maybe they just lose control of themselves and the virus takes over, maybe my father could see everything I was doing to him. I hoped that if he did, he would see that I was doing it out of love. Before I knew it I was in the arms of my people, the comfort of all those arms wrapped around me was unparalleled. At that moment I knew that I shouldn't dwell on what I left behind in the world that doesn't exist, I must focus on this new world, and my new family. We all eventually piled back into the RV and trudged onward on our journey for survival. It was my turn to drive, but Weir volunteered to take my shift if I took his shift in 2 days. I agreed and he started to drive. I sat down near the window in our booth set up for our meals and I stared at the scenery that we were passing by. It was autumn, the trees were filled with brilliant colors, mixed with the motion blur from traveling inside the RV the whole scenery looked brilliant. This is probably one of the only beautiful sights left in this world, and I won't soon forget it. "Hey" I heard a voice next to me. It was Caitlin. I was so busy watching the beautiful scenery I had not even noticed she had slid into the booth.

"I'm sorry about your dad, Jeremy. We all knew he was gone but we didn't know......"

"It's fine" I cut her off because I didn't want her to mention his zombification.

"I did what he would've wanted to do." She nodded her head like she understood, but I knew she didn't really fully understand. Nobody did. But I know they are trying their best to understand, and for that I give my eternal thanks. Before I could say anything else Caitlin wrapped me in a hug. It caught me off guard, but I embraced her back. We pulled away and stared into each other's eyes. I've always believe that you could see someone's emotions just from the look in someone's eyes, and it appeared that Caitlin was both sympathetic and paranoid. I wasn't sure where the paranoia was coming from, but I could swear I saw it in her eyes. Before I could address it, Haley and Ryan slid into the booth on the opposite side of the table.

"How're you doin bro?" asked Ryan. He sounded more sympathetic than I've ever heard him, even more so than when he found out his mother died.

"I'm fine......just coping" I responded.

"If there's anything I can do....."

"Thanks for the offer man, but this is just one of those things you just have to shrug off" I cut him off. He nodded and was silent. Haley hadn't spoken the entire time since the burial. Not only to me, but to everyone; she just refused to talk. She had a deep look of concern on her face, like she had just seen a ghost. She was staring down at the table when I caught her off her guard.

"Haley, can I talk to you for a second?" Her head jerked up in shock. She gave a concerned look at me, and then looked over to Ryan. He nodded his head as if giving her his approval. Caitlin and Ryan slid out of the booth, letting me and Haley out. I put my arm around hers and walked her into the master bedroom.

"Haley, what's going on? You haven't talked since the incident. If it's because of me I'm fine.....really. I just need a minute to cope, to fully understand the situation you know?" She nodded, but still remained silent.

"What's going on sis?" She finally raised her head and opened her mouth.

"You buried your dad even though he was a zombie.......when my dad died I laughed. I couldn't help myself. After all the crap he's put me through in my life......I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that he couldn't do it to me anymore." She put her head back down and started to cry. I crouched and put my arm around her shoulder.

"Haley, Sometimes your emotions take control of who you are. It's normal not to feel the typical emotion when something happens. Like crying when you see roses, it may remind you of a lost love. I know where you're coming from. Sometimes I feel guilty about what I did to some people too, but I never regret it. Because in my eyes, it's payback for what they have done to me. Don't ever second guess yourself Haley, that's always been your problem. You're a born leader, that's your one flaw, every leader has one flaw." Haley looked up at me again with tears in her eyes.

"What's yours?" The question caught me by surprise, but in retrospect I really should've expected it.

"Overconfidence. I think I'm invincible and sometimes that can get me into trouble." She stared at me as if trying to comprehend that I actually had a flaw.

"You do get a bit cocky....." she mumbled in between her tears.

"Thanks Jeremy."

"Anytime Haley, you know I'm always here for you, anytime you need me." She smiled and hugged me. We pulled away and she went back into the living quarters, I however stayed in the master bedroom for a bit. I sat down on the bed and stared at the wall. I thought about my mom and how I had brought her up to Haley. People may think that what I did to her was unorthodox, but if those people only knew what she had done to me. My entire childhood was hell due to the fact that she was messed up on some kind of drug for 99% of it. She had threatened to kill me on many occasions and had me scared for most of my childhood. Eventually a grew a pair and made her sure I wasn't scared of her anymore. She shunned me from the family from that day on, and on the day she died I consider it my vengeance day. I also thought about that fatal flaw that I addressed to Haley. Overconfidence. It was true, it was indeed my fatal flaw, and fatal flaws always get people killed. I have been lucky up until now, it was good that Haley made me think on it and address it. I had to start being more careful, because if I got too overconfident, it could cost me my life. I had so many thoughts bubbling in my mind; what to do about the outbreak, how much longer we could hold out together, how we would overcome these tremendous odds. I then realized that I couldn't think on this, I had to focus on the present. I walked into the living quarters and saw Haley curled into a ball in Ryan's lap. I glanced over and saw Wilson and Zach playing chess at the table. Caitlin was watching, and by her reactions I figured she was favoring Wilson. I glanced out the window and saw open fields start to turn into urban suburbs. The streets were slowly getting smaller, and the mass of broken down cars and road hazards increased along the way. We eventually came to a point where we had to stop. I walked up to the cockpit and saw the obstacles in our way. A few sedans were piled up on top of each other in the middle of the road, and along the sides of them were pickup trucks toppled over on their sides.

"What do you think we should do Jeremy?" Weir asked me. I thought that I would have the same answer as he did; plowing through the sedans in the middle was the obvious choice. Sedans were no match for the RV that we had reinforced; however, some of the sedans were toppled in such a way that their gas tanks and hardware were flipped toward the RV. If we hit the sedans too hard, the entire mass could explode and send the RV straight to hell. We would need a big impact in and of itself to get through that mass, so in retrospect that didn't really seem like a good idea. Then I thought of the pickups, could the RV plow through one of those without being run off the road and marooned?

"Back up" I told Weir. He looked rather confused, as if he were thinking we were retreating. He started to back up and it looked like he was going to turn around when I told him to stop. I grabbed my sniper and climbed to the top of the RV. I laid down to get a more stable shot, but I decided to look around a bit before I shot. This urban suburb would eventually lead into a small city, from our position it looked a lot like the entrance to Denver. More than likely, there would be supplies there. I then refocused my scope on the mass of sedans and put my crosshairs directly on the gas tank. I shot and a split second later, the tank exploded sending sedans flying off the road. The resulting explosion left a huge hole in the road where the mass of sedans once stood as an obstacle to our journey, now defeated. As if he were reading my mind, Weir changed the RV's gears and I slid back in.

"Nice job, I probably never would have thought of that." Weir told me as he started to drive again.

"You're a smart guy Andrew, you would've thought of it eventually." I replied. Usually these guys compliment me when I have an idea, but in reality any of these guys would have probably gotten the same ideas in the next minute after I originally have them. I'm really not that brilliant, but I guess it was the desperate need for a leader that led the group to look to me. Before the outbreak, I would always try to help with other people's problems, and apparently it took an effect. I didn't know what was so special about me in their eyes; I seemed like a miracle worker to them, when in reality I'm far from it. I make mistakes just like everyone else; I just hope one day that mistake won't cost me everything. We kept rolling onward toward Denver, and with none of us being familiar with that area, we didn't know what to expect. As we sped down the narrow strip of road, we caught eye of something in the distance, it was a burning building. If the building were burning, that means there were people around, my first thought was that it could be something to distract the zombies in order for a getaway plan. But the fire was too large, it couldn't have been done on short notice; my next thought was maybe the burning was planned, as if it were a warning or a call for help. Weir took the RV closer in for a better look. Other than the occasional zombie caught in the flames, there was no form of human life anywhere, and then I saw it.

"WATCH IT!" I yelled and jerked the wheel to the right. The RV careened off the road and into a ditch. We kept sliding sideways so long and so fast I could swear we were going to topple over. Finally, we came to a stop and everyone sighed a breath of relief.

"Everyone ok?" I called. Everyone responded that they were ok, just occasional cuts and bruises here and there.

"What the hell was that for Jeremy?" Weir asked almost angrily, but I could tell he was expecting a logical answer. I turned and stepped out of the RV and looked back to where we started to skid. The small cylindrical object that I had spotted in the middle of the road was still there. I half-hoped I recognized it correctly, because if I hadn't and it wasn't harmful to us, I would've just wrecked the RV for nothing. I picked up a rock and threw it at the object. Just as the rock made contact, the object exploded into a million pieces; just as I expected, a land mine. I turned to the others who were now outside the RV; everyone was wide eyed and their jaws were down to their feet.

"So we've got land mines out here too?" asked Wilson in disbelief. I nodded my head, and dreaded this new danger. Apparently the natives of Denver had access to advanced technology, which could mean a lot of trouble if we didn't play our cards right.

"Well, the RV's shot for now, if I can get the right parts I could probably fix it". Ryan called from under the hood of the RV; I hadn't even noticed he was over there.

"What's the damage?" Zach asked, making his way over to the hood. As Zach and Ryan conversed about the condition on the RV, I looked back over at the burning building. The fire was enlarging, but why was it there in the first place? I had a feeling we would probably find out who before we left Denver, Colorado.
Chapter 3 – Jeremy

### Zach and Ryan informed me that the RV couldn't drive in its condition, and we would need a new axle, a new frame, and a new fuel tank in order for the RV to get back up and running properly. To me, this was some good news, because I wanted to investigate what was going on in this town, like who ignited the fire, why they did it and where they are. I decided to investigate the flaming building first. I grabbed a pistol and a police baton and headed out. I decided to take Haley, Wilson and Caitlin with me to leave Weir, Zach, and Ryan to attempt to fix up the RV. Haley carried a long butcher knife and a revolver, Wilson carried a long shank and a baseball bat, and Caitlin carried a saw and a hammer. We circled around the burning building the long way, taking an adjacent street into the alley behind it. As we approached the back of the building, we heard voices talking to one another. None of us could make out what they were saying, so we forged onward more sneakily. Backs against the wall and crouched, we inched further towards the voices. I looked around the wall into the intersection where the backs of 4 buildings, including the one we were crouching behind and the burning building, connected and made a small area in between the buildings. In this small area was where the voices were coming from. I could see one man was short, gruff, and plump. The other was considerably taller with a much cleaner look to him. I decided to get a better look, so I told my three companions to wait as I inched forward and behind a dumpster. Behind the dumpster, I could make out the voices more clearly.

"They didn't trigger the mine, but their transportation has been disabled" the cleaner one of the two stated, obviously referring to my group and the RV.

"How long until we can grab 'em and go?" asked the gruffer one.

"All in due time sir, we must focus on making them wait it out and weaken, we cannot let them find the parts to their recreational vehicle." It was obvious these men had set the trap, and it also looked like I had found the reason. To strand innocent survivors and take them prisoner. But one thing is still unclear; why do they want to hold survivors prisoner? It's not adding up yet, but I was sure it would, in the meantime, I had to stop these guys from harming my friends.

"Freeze!" I yelled as I revealed myself from behind the dumpster. Both men looked at me not in fright, but in delight, as if they had been expecting me. Haley then came out with her revolver drawn, but I saw neither Caitlin nor Wilson.

"You fool, do you really think that you have the upper hand in our territory?" the gruffer one asked as he pulled out a semi-automatic rifle. At the same time, the cleaner one pulled out what looked to be an army grade M4 automatic rifle. What were these men doing with such powerful and expensive weaponry? There was no time to question that, I had to act fast. It was then that I noticed that the small area we were standing in had a downward slope, I had the height advantage. I needed a way to act on my advantage, and then I thought of the dumpster. I jumped back behind the dumpster and yelled for Haley to do the same. She did as she was told, as bullets whizzed past the sides of the dumpster. I told her to kick the dumpster on the count of three, and she understood why. It looks like she was observant as I was, if not more so. The three-count came and with all of our mights combined we kicked the dumpster toward the saboteurs. If the dumpster did anything, it would faze them, which is all the opening I needed. Haley and I rushed to the dumpster where fortunately, the saboteurs were lying flat on their backs. We had no choice but to shoot them, they were an obvious threat, but something in my gut told me not to. Haley was taking aim at the head of the cleaner one, but I put my hand on the gun and made her lower it. She gave me a confused look, as if I had done something that no one ever expected from me. I then kicked the gruff one in the face with all of my might. Haley did the same for the clean one. We kept this up for about 5 minutes before we finally put their unconscious bodies in the dumpster, rolled it on its side, and pinned it shut onto one of the walls of the buildings. This couldn't have been a 2-man operation; there have to be more than these guys here in Denver. It had just occurred to me that Wilson and Caitlin still hadn't reappeared.

"They were supposed to circle around to get them surrounded; I don't know what happened to them." Haley said as if reading my mind. Next to us, the burning building was starting to crumble, if we didn't get out of this alleyway soon, we would be either crushed or burned to death. I grabbed Haley by the arm and ran back the way we came. Just as we got out of the alley and into open air, smoke billowed out of the alley and filled the air. I looked up over the building we were in front of; the burning building wasn't there anymore. It had fallen, and I was hoping Wilson and Caitlin hadn't been caught up in that. Haley and I figured Wilson and Caitlin would return to the RV once they saw the building down, so we returned to find that Weir, Zach, and Ryan were having no success.

"We can't get started working on anything until we have the thing we need to get this thing running again." Complained Ryan, frustrated that he couldn't do anything to help. Fortunately, a few minutes after Haley and I arrived, so did Caitlin and Wilson.

"We heard yelling and saw the building starting to fall, we couldn't risk it. I'm sorry Jeremy." Caitlin explained. If anyone else was put in the situation Caitlin was put in, they would've come into the alley anyway. This isn't the first greedy move Caitlin has done either. She's snuck food out of the weekly rations, and stolen ammo without it being issued. I was about a fingertip away from telling her to screw off and fend for herself, when she said that she and Wilson found an apartment complex down the road.

"It could be another trap." Haley interrupted, "Plus, an apartment complex is super close corners, I don't like it." Haley was right to be cautious, after that nasty surprise on the road and the two guys in the alley; I don't trust this city already. However, we were starting to run low on supplies, and that apartment complex was starting to look like our only hope. I was going to give Caitlin one last chance, if this apartment raid goes wrong, she is going to be to blame because she didn't check it out herself and make sure it was ok. I was set to take Haley, Ryan, and Zach; Haley with her revolver and butcher knife, Ryan with his Desert Eagle and Automatic silenced pistol, and Zach with his wrench and baseball bat with nails in it that he calls 'The Equalizer'. We were about to leave, when Wilson asked me for a word. I agreed and we went into the RV to talk privately.

"Listen dude, I wanted to run into that alleyway and get you and Haley out, but Caitlin wouldn't let me. She said if I stepped one foot in that alley that she would bash my head in with that hammer of hers. I don't know what her deal is." He explained.

"It's ok bud, I know it's not your fault, I know you'll always have my back. As for Caitlin I think she needs to go, she is definitely causing more harm than good.

"I replied, and it looked like Wilson agreed.

"If anything goes wrong on this heist, I'm leaving her when we get the RV running." I told him. He nodded once more in agreement and held out his hand. I grabbed it with mine and chest-bumped him, our little silent way of saying 'I love you man'. I stepped out of the RV and continued to the apartment complex with my three companions. As we progressed toward the complex, the scenery became more eerie. The trees we passed started turning a sickly brownish-green color, their leaves were all dead, if they had any, and theirbranches were so weak, they would break at the slightest breeze. I felt as if I were in a horror movie, or approaching a haunted house on Halloween night. It all felt so surreal, I couldn't believe any of this was real life anymore. I had been living in a zombie outbreak for 3 months now, and this was the only time in which I have felt this way. We stepped on the steps of the complex and eyed it up and down. The cement blocks that held the structure together were all full of mold and blood. I guessed they would break away any minute. Almost all of the windows were still boarded up, which could be a good or bad sign. Finally, I decided to enter and my colleagues followed closely behind. The lobby was torn to hell. Papers were strewn every which way, dried drink spills and rotten food filled the floor, while cobwebs filled the ceiling, even though the fan in the center of the room was still spinning.

"Pan out and search for valuables. Zach and Ryan stay down here in the lobby, and Haley, you and I will search one level up." Everyone agreed to this plan, and so Ryan and Zach got started rummaging through the drawers of the former manager and the various footlockers. Haley and I proceeded up the stairs to the first floor and saw 4 rooms. We decided that I would search the two on the left and she would search the two on the right. I watched Haley enter the room, and only after I was sure there was no danger in her room was when I entered mine. As I opened the door, the stench of animal waste and body decay filled the air. I scanned the room to try to find the source; it wasn't long until I found it. The remains of a German Shepard were strewn along the floor of the kitchen. It looked like it was trying to get into the fridge or the cupboard, but due to its lack of opposable thumbs, it was impossible. It was a disgusting and unsanitary task, but I stepped through the dog remains to get to the fridge. I opened the door and found nothing; the fridge must have been looted long ago. Out of the corner of my eye, I then saw a bookshelf in the living room. I walked over to it and searched it for books. I picked a few off the shelves and set them aside on the coffee table. I walked across the living room and into the kitchen to search the cupboard, but heard a deep scream filled with an echo. I knew it wasn't Haley, due to the tone of the voice; it was much deeper than Haley's. It seemed to come from a hatch that was right under the air-conditioning vent. I walked over to it and examined it; it looked a little bit like the air conditioner itself, but was much smaller and didn't seem to transport air. I opened the hatch, and all of a sudden, my feet were swept from underneath me and I was now tumbling into an abyss. I knew I was falling, I could feel it; so I tried to torque my body to where my back would hit the ground first. The only problem was, I had no idea which way was up and which way was down. I braced myself for impact everywhere in my body, because I had no idea how I was going to land. I then felt a sharp pain in my right side and felt my head smack against something hard, I then felt myself flying once again and then landed on my left side. I rolled on my back and laid there. The only source of light in this room was from the hatch that I opened in the apartment. It looked like it was 25 feet up, considering the length of my drop. I tried to yell for Haley, but had neither the energy nor the will. I then started crawling, hoping to hit a wall. To my luck, I did, and propped myself up to where I was sitting up with my back against it. I then remembered I had a flashlight in my jacket pocket. I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled it out, which made my arm burn with pain. I felt myself beginning to black out, so I flipped the switch and dropped it. There is now a source of light that overpowers the only other source of light, which should make my position obvious if my friends can find me. Fortunately, Haley knew which room I was in; hopefully they would find the hatch. I then let myself fade away into sleep, in hopes that my friends would find me.
Chapter 4 – Haley

### As second in command, I had to take charge. I regrouped with the group in the RV and we layed out a plan. Zach and Ryan would search the alleyways around the complex, while Wilson, Weir and I would take the inside of the complex. We would search until we found a body, that was the plan. Zach and I had walkie-talkies to keep contact in case we found something. Wilson, Weir and I then took to the complex. My brain kept telling me that we had to find him, we had to find Jeremy safe and sound, but something in my gut told me we wouldn't. It told me that we were either going to find a lifeless corpse, or nothing at all. I didn't like that at all.

"We'll find him Haley, don't worry." Andrew tried to reassure me, but it wasn't much help.

"He's Jeremy, he's alive." Weir added.

"He may be Jeremy guys, but he's only one man. He can only fight for so long and take so much before his body destroys itself. There's no denying he's going to die eventually, I just hope today is not that day." I responded. No one was immortal, not even Jeremy as much as I hated to admit it. We approached a room on the first floor, the room Jeremy was supposed to be in when he vanished. We opened the door and entered the room. Books were scattered around the floor, but some were in a neat stack on the coffee table. The one on top read 'sure-shot, the legendary assassin'. That was something I knew Jeremy would like, so I knew he'd been here. I looked at the bookshelf and only one book remained on the shelf. I looked over to what appeared to be an air conditioning vent, but below it, there was an open hatch that appeared to stretch only into darkness. I gazed into the abyss and figured that this was the only lead we had. I radioed Zach and told him we had a lead and to go back to the RV to get some rope. He obeyed and told us he would be here as soon as he could. But the clock was ticking, and I had to do something fast. Without a second thought, I jumped down into the abyss. I felt myself plummeting to the ground, and braced myself for harsh impact. I hit the ground with a loud thud, and steadied myself. The fall hurt my legs a bit, as to be expected, but at least the injuries weren't unbearable. I looked up to assess the room. It was so dark I could barely see. The only light I could make out was a faint glow from the other side of the room. I made my way over and saw something shimmering in the light. I quickened my pace and got to the far end of the room. A big puddle of seat and blood greeted me. In the middle of this sickly pile was a battered body. The blood appeared to be coming from it's mouth, the sweat came from all over. It wasn't long before I realized the body laying beneath my feet were what used to be my friend, Jeremy. I quickly checked him for vital signs, and found them weak but present. I talked to Zach with my walkie-talkie and scolded

"I need that rope right now Zach! Jeremy's passed out and bleeding badly! He's probably got some internal injuries as well as the injuries I can see." I tried not to sound too hopeless, but it was hard considering I saw my brother beneath me dripping blood from the mouth and passed out down here for god knows how long.

"We're almost to the room Haley, just hang on". He replied with panic present in his voice. I knelt down to Jeremy to try to wake him up, but to no avail. He was dangerously close to stopping his breathing, I needed Zach to get here right now. Jeremy needed desperate medical attention and in a zombie apocalypse, that is very hard to come by. Finally, after about a minute that felt as if it were an eternity, I heard a small thud on the ground behind me, followed by Zach calling

"There's the rope Haley, get out of there!" I then lugged Jeremy over my shoulder to the rope. I then tied the rope around his waist and tugged to signal Zach to pull him up. The guys pulled him up and lowered the rope again. I then went up and returned to the surface. When I climbed out of the hatch, I saw Zach and Ryan taking Jeremy out of the room, Wilson and Weir were planning out supplies to get for Jeremy's recovery, but I didn't see Caitlin anywhere. One thing is certain, due to Jeremy's incapacitation; I was the group's new leader, even if temporary. I went over the list of supplies to get for Jeremy with Weir and Wilson, and I assigned them roles of what to get. Weir would get bandages and anti-bacterial wraps if there were any left, and Wilson would get cotton swabs, painkillers, plastic bags, plastic tubes, and water. I would get rags and fresh clothes and report back to the RV to prepare Jeremy. I scoured the rest of the apartment complex for some kind of medical equipment, but only found few, none of which were what I was looking for. I then found the manager's office, which looked pretty much ransacked from what I could see from the outside. I slammed my entire body into the wooden door blocking me from the inside, and left a huge crack down the middle. I few more hits from my body going full force and it was down. Unfortunately, the impact of the blow left me sprawled across the floor with an injured left shoulder, and I heard a zombie-like hiss from somewhere in the room. I glanced up to find the source, but couldn't make out where it had come from. I did, however, see a first aid kit on the other side of the room. I half-crawled, half-limped to the kit and opened it. Bandages, Rags, A Blood Bag, Anti-Bacterial stuff, and other miscellaneous items were in there, which was the first convenient thing that has happened in a while. I closed the kit and tucked it under my right arm snugly. I turned around and was slammed into the wall by the zombie that made the noise earlier. I kicked it's legs, luckily, one broke away and the zombie went down. I curb-stomped his head like a 3-month old Halloween pumpkin, and I no longer had a threat. I checked myself for bites, but luckily, had none. I started to take off, but something told me to check the closet. I opened the closet door in the back of the room and found casual clothes, a plain white-T, blue jeans, red sneakers, and black socks. The manager for this building must have been a 'casual joe' to have kept these in the manager's closet. I also found a Colt .45 on the floor next to the sneakers. I picked it up and examined it, it appeared to be brand new, but only had one bullet inside. I instantly knew what these items were for, these must've been the manager's favorite clothes and these were here in case he wanted to commit suicide. However, the zombies must have got him before he got the chance. I took the clothes, the gun, and the first aid kit and walked out and headed toward the RV. When I got there, I had discovered Weir had gathered his supplies, increasing our medical supply count greatly, and Wilson was still in the building trying to find more supplies. I checked on Jeremy, who was in the master bedroom of the RV, still passed out. Ryan had doctored him up pretty good, that's why I loved him. He was part doctor, part teddy bear, and part badass. He told me that Jeremy's pulse had increased and, given he got the medical supplies he needed, he would make it through this ordeal. This was the best news I had received in a long time. Jeremy wasn't only my friend, he wasn't only my leader, he was my big bubby, and I loved him.
Chapter 5 – Jeremy

### Everything was a haze. I couldn't comprehend anything that was going on around me. I was moving, but I was still at the same time. Two figures were on either side of me, dragging me into what seemed like oblivion. My vision flared in and out of light and darkness, as all the while everything was a blur and always moving and turning. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, I seemed to be gently layed down on a platform. The two figures now stood above me staring. Then, I blacked out. I woke up to sunlight filling my eyes as my vision returned. My hand-eye coordination was off, so I couldn't move much, but at least I could now comprehend my surroundings. I figured out I was in the RV in the master bedroom. I looked to my left and saw a blood pouch attached to me. I saw that I also had vital sign plugs into me and I was stripped down to my underwear. Just then, I heard static over a radio.

"Zach what's your status?" asked a voice over the radio.

"Almost done with the RV, just give me a few more minutes." Zach returned. I had no idea where they were, but I assumed Zach was by the RV, so he was within yelling distance. I tried to yell for him, but neither my voice nor my mouth would let me. Nothing would respond to my thoughts except my neck.

"Ryan what's your status?" Haley rang through the radio again.

"Almost done fixing the power tools, should only be a few more minutes." Ryan replied. The radio that the voices were coming through was on the bedside table next to me, within arms' reach. If I could only move........

"Wilson what's your status?" Haley called again.

"Got all the gas I could carry, returning to the RV now." He responded. I fought with my own muscles to reach the radio.

"Weir what's your status?" Haley asked once more

"Finished all the RV armor upgrades". He replied back. My had was halfway to the radio at this point

"Caitlin what's your status?"

"Zombies still not here, returning to the RV" she replied. For a split second I thought about what I had said before the mission ensued. That if anything went wrong that Caitlin would be booted, why hadn't Wilson brought this up with Haley? Outside of my head, my hands were so close to the radio it was unreal.

"Let's try this again.............Jeremy............What's your status?" She said with hopelessness in her voice. At that, I smacked the 'call' button on the walkie-talkie and it sent out a ringtone to all the others connected to the network. The channel then flooded with people yelling 'oh my god he's awake' and 'get to the RV'. In a few short moments, everyone in my group was now crouched in the small bedroom as if expecting some big hero speech. Right now I couldn't even talk, much less give an uplifting speech. After about 5 minutes of silence, Zach was the first to speak

"I guess I'll go start up the RV and we can get away from this place. We have all the supplies we need from here." At that he turned and started walking down the hallway to the cockpit. On the contrary, I didn't want to leave just yet. I wanted to investigate that prison-like structure further. My hand was still clamped on the walkie-talkie, so with all of my strength I threw it across the room and hit the wall directly to the left of Zach. Zach turned around and our eyes met. I slowly shook my head, and he understood what I meant. Zach and I have been friends for so long, that he can almost read my thoughts without me giving a very obvious signal.

"Ok, I guess Jeremy wants us to stay a bit longer guys." He finally answered everyone's continuous stares at us. Everyone was confused, nobody understood what I had wanted to do.

"When you have the strength to talk Jeremy, will you tell us what you're thinking?" Haley asked. I nodded at her and at that she dismissed everyone to bed. One by one everyone filed out, but she could be classified as a hypocrite by not following her own orders.

"Jeremy, I thought I lost you, everyone did." She said in such a sad voice that it didn't sound like the Haley I knew. She sat down on the bed next to me and almost started to cry. With every bit of my strength I lifted my hand and put in on the back of hers. I looked into her eyes and with all my might I muttered

"You'll never lose me sis, you know that." She smiled and wrapped me in a hug. This was the warmest brother-sister moment we had ever had. I wished it would last forever, there is nothing I love more than spending time with my sissy, and making her happy at that. After we broke away, Haley started telling me about how she had taken over as temporary leader due to my incapacitation. I congratulated her for keeping the group in order during my absence.

"It takes a true leader to step up in the face of certain doom; It also takes a true leader to do all of what you have done." I told her regaining my strength bit by bit. She smiled and we kept talking, not only of just leading the group or my near death experience, but of the way things used to be. The time we made a mini-movie together, how we had gone from hating each other to brother and sister, how we could count on each other for anything and everything. Before we knew it, we were both asleep, and all I could remember was having a heart to heart with my sissy. It was a good night.
Chapter 6 – Haley

### I woke up that morning very optimistic, more so than usual. I wasn't sure why Jeremy hadn't wanted to leave, but he was awake and alert, that's what was important. I remembered that I needed to talk to Caitlin about our combat tactics, as well as inform her that she was on very thin ice due to the fact that our leader was now incapacitated because of her. I looked for her near her bunk, but she was nowhere to be found in the RV. I stepped outside and I found her sitting on a stump, staring into the sunrise. I approached her, not really knowing what to say.

"Hey" was all I could mutter. She didn't respond. I wanted to tell her she had to straighten up her act, I wanted to tell her off and tell her that our leader was incapacitated because of her, and because of her my brother was nearly killed. What if there was a zombie in that dungeon he was trapped in? He would have been lunch for an undead, at her hand. I wanted to tell her off so badly, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. She seemed so angry and sad at herself already, I wanted to know what she was thinking. I sat down beside the stump, and tried to inquire, but she beat me to the punch.

"I know it's my fault Haley, there's no need to rub it in." I was sort of stunned when I heard her say this; I suddenly wanted to hear what she had to say.

"I never wanted to hurt anybody Haley, you have to believe me. I only wanted what was best." She spoke vaguely, as if trying to conceal something.

"I wanted all of us to be safe; I wanted the best for us. And he wasn't what was best." She continued. I interrupted her when she started to bash Jeremy.

"Where do you get off criticizing Jeremy for his leading? Last time I checked you were a smuggler and a coward. When the last time you truly took charge like Jeremy was does on a daily basis? I'd like to see you go through what he has and is going through and see if you can last a day. Being a leader isn't all lollipops and gumdrops Caitlin, he's doing a damn fine job and you have to accept-------". She turned and decked me in the face. She then stood and returned to the RV but before she managed to get back inside I got up and slammed her into the side. She tried to struggle free, but I managed to grab the door and slam her against it. I kept my hand on the door and kept smashing it against her face, I had so much pent up aggression that I hadn't realized. The girl I saw sulking on the tree stump was gone, it had turned out to be a mask to lure someone in; that someone had been me, unlucky for Caitlin. I kept slamming until I felt hands pulling against me and Caitlin, and even then I tried to pull away and keep slamming. Finally; Weir, Wilson, and Ryan all managed to get me off of her. After I let Caitlin go she fell to the ground, nearly unconscious, bleeding from the nose and mouth. I thought she deserved that much, but my colleagues seemed to disagree with me. They thought she deserved a lot worse. Wilson picked her up like a baby and started walking across the road; I wondered where he was going until I saw the lake across the field on the other side of the road. Wilson was going to dump Caitlin into the lake. I think everyone felt she deserved to die, for what she has done to this group. Ryan got about halfway across the field, when I saw a few zombies closing in on him. They were what we called runners, they were faster than the average zombie and could jump a few more feet than them as well. I grabbed the walkie-talkie from my waist and talked to him.

"Wilson you better get out of there, there's about 5 runners converging on you and I can now see about 3 regs (regular zombies) behind them." I saw him look around to identify the zombies. He then set Caitlin down and ran back. As if he had planned it, the zombies went after Caitlin and not him, thank god. He managed to get back in one piece and thanked me for the heads up. We all proceeded back into the RV, where we were met with Jeremy leaning up against a wall near the back.

"So what are we doing today oh gracious leader?" He said in a playful tone. Everyone stopped in place and looked straight at Jeremy. I was stunned as well; I thought for sure he was here to request his position back from me.

"I'm still a little bit too weak to lead this group Haley; can you do it for me a bit longer?" he asked. I couldn't believe my ears. Being the leader meant everything to Jeremy; he always said it gave him a certain sense of importance. This was one of the qualities that made Jeremy such an amazing leader to begin with, he put the feelings of other people before those of himself.

"Sure Jeremy, just concentrate on getting your strength back" I told him.

"Will do boss." He replied with a huge smile on his face, but I saw the smile fade when he said he had unfinished business to attend to. We all knew what he meant by that, he wanted to go back into that dungeon.

"I want to see what's up with that place, what it's made for, that's why I didn't want to leave yesterday." There's no denying that there has been both a sense of curiosity and awe concerning the dungeon amongst the group ever since we left, but I really didn't want to go back. I watched my brother almost die because of that place, that dungeon was the last place I wanted to revisit. But, leader or not, Jeremy is often too stubborn to argue with, especially when it comes to settling a score. We agreed that we would have 3 more people enter the dungeon, and 3 holding the rope and standing guard. I, Jeremy, and Ryan would go in, while Wilson and Zach would hold the rope with Weir taking guard. I couldn't believe we were actually going to go back into that hell-hole. Honestly, it scared me quite a bit, but if there was one thing I picked up from Jeremy's leadership, it was to cover your fear with determination, courage, and concentration to your goal. I led the group out of the RV and entered the apartment complex with our signature weapons. We went straight to our destination, the room with the secret hatch. As planned, Jeremy, Ryan, and I all went down into the dungeon. The light from the open hatch helped a lot with the absence of the flashlight down below, the light must have gone out because I don't remember picking it up. After all three of us were down, we all started searching the place. After a few moments of searching, I stumbled upon Jeremy's old blood puddle. This was the reason I hadn't wanted to come back here, too many bad memories for me. I had seen my brother who was my main protector, on the verge of death at this very spot at my feet. Other than that blood puddle, the room seemed completely empty. The walls, roof, and floor were all made of stone, and the only things other than the stone in the room were a small window masked with a net and Jeremy's blood puddle. Until, Ryan stepped on a peculiar stone.

"Hey guys, I think I found something!" He called. Jeremy and I ran over him as he was taking his foot off the stone and the all in front of him opened. The door led to a small wooden 'panic' room. Two walkers inhabited the room, but were quickly dealt with by Ryan. We searched the room thoroughly and found 25 bucks, some twinkees and a poster that read 'if you have made it to this room, you have dabbled in the field of evolution'.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jeremy asked.

"Remember when you fell down here and nearly died Jeremy?" I asked

"No Haley, I don't remember this place at all. Considering I fell almost to my death here and I was bleeding out and this is the only place I've seen of it's kind." He said sarcastically.

"Well smart-ass, look at us now, exploring this place with ease after your little near death mishap. We learned how to handle this environment and master it. We've evolved a tiny bit, which is a key to survival." I explained.

"Nicely done Haley." He responded, as if what he said were some sort of test toward me. It is highly likely that he would test me that way, given his intelligence in that sort of philosophical and vague riddle fields, but why test me? Is there something that he knows that I don't? Other than quantum physics, advanced molecular theory, binary code, computer viral structure, and all other things science and technology? I was wondering what he was thinking.

"Come on, let's get back to the RV" Ryan suggested. I thought he was right, but the expression on Jeremy's face contradicted us. I knew what he was thinking about the subject.

"Jeremy just leave it be." I scolded him, but he wanted to tear this place down in order to prevent anyone from getting hurt or captured by this eerie place ever again. Jeremy had that malice look in his eyes that I knew all too well, but almost miraculously, it vanished. Something in his eyes changed, and ive never seen that before in him. He then followed my orders and left it be. This left me in surprise, ive never seen Jeremy act this way before. To actually listen to reason, to actually swallow his pride and follow an order. What has happened to him? Whatever it was, it had to stop. This is not Jeremy, not the way I knew him. We started to climb up the rope toward the hatch, when he heard Weir scream. Jeremy, farther up the rope than me or Ryan, started climbing faster and with more aggression. I swear I have never seen Jeremy's arms move so fast in my life. When we got to the top, Wilson and Zach were slashing through zombies with knives, and Weir was gone. Jeremy jumped on one of the zombies and sliced him with his knife. I have never seen Jeremy in such a frenzy before. It's almost as if the pride to deny my order turned into pure rage inside him. By the time the battle was over, Jeremy had wiped out the entire attacking force in half the time it took for Wilson and Zach to back them off. However, Weir was still missing. Jeremy quickly examined the room and went over to the window on the other side of the room and jumped out. What was he thinking! That was at least a 25 foot drop to the ground! We all ran toward the window, but before we got there, we saw a hand plant itself on the windowsill. Then came Jeremy and Weir pulling each other up from the broken fire escape. When they both were safely inside the complex, Weir finally said

"They had me cornered in here, I had to jump, I killed two down there and the ones from the kitchen followed. The weight of them all collapsed the fire escape, but I grabbed a part of the bar. It held me until Jeremy came." The important thing was that we all were safe, and I was thankful. That ambush could've ended up very badly, and hopefully Jeremy was counting his blessings as I was.
Chapter 7 – Jeremy

### Well, here we were again, my fatal flaw coming into play and nearly killing us all. My overconfidence and pride almost cost us more than one member. If I wasn't so concerned about conquering the dungeon, we wouldn't have been in any danger; in fact we would be at least a whole state away from this place by now. Maybe it was for the best that Haley took over as leader, it would give me time to work on my fatal flaw. We took off headed toward the RV, and I could sense that the mood was different. I guess it was tenser, because they were all probably mad at me. I couldn't really blame them; they needed someone to blame for us nearly being killed, and to be fair it was my fault. We got back to the RV, at which point Ryan decided to tell us that the RV was almost finished and that it should only take him a couple more hours to fix. I went into the RV and headed back to the master bedroom. I sat on the bed and looked in the mirror, and I was trying to decide who I was. It seemed as if I was drifting away from myself. I thought back to when I heard Weir scream when I was climbing out of the dungeon. I hadn't felt such fury and power coarse through my body since.............I dismissed the thought and laid back onto the bed. It felt like I had shut my eyes for only a few seconds when I heard the engine of the RV rev. I woke up and sat upright, facing the mirror once more. Only this time, I saw another figure in the mirror. Haley was sitting right behind me.

"Good morning" she said to me, in a slightly more serious tone than she usually speaks in. I turned to her and we stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity.

"Haley, what's going on with everyone? Are you mad at me? Because if you are I completely understand, just say so." She shook her head.

"We're not mad Jeremy, it wasn't your fault, what we're upset about is the fact that your changing so much." I instantly knew what she meant. Lately, I have been more secluded, more rage has filled me, and I just haven't been myself lately.

"Haley, I know I haven't been myself lately, but you guys just have to trust me on this. Give me time, I just need time to cope with the situation. I guess the fact that I'm not the person everyone looks up to anymore doesn't help, that kind of gave me some self-confidence, something to help me hold in all of these emotions. A bucket so to speak I guess, but now I'm trying to hold everything on my own. My father, Caitlin, The incident, I feel like I'm falling apart." I hung my head, feeling so weak and so worthless. Here I was expressing I was feeling to my little sister, who thought the world of me. I was expecting her to get up and walk away, but instead she wrapped me in a hug and told me

"you never have to do anything alone, you should know that by now. What did we do when you were trapped in that dungeon, we got you out. Your never alone Jeremy, as long as you have all of us." I thought on these words for a little bit, and knew they were true. I always thought I had to do everything on my own, when in reality I didn't have to. I had my group for a reason, and my pride was telling me to be a lone wolf.

"Now where's the badass big brother that kills zombies for a living and is a hell of a second in command?" she asked me. We pulled away and pointed at myself. It was kind of a juvenile thing to do, but I felt it was time to be a little silly. We got up and walked back into the living quarters, the RV was already on the move. Wilson, who was on driving duty, told me we were about 2 miles away from the complex.

"What about the land mines we found when we drove into town?" I asked him

"We took care of those when you were out cold after the incident." He responded. I nodded and walked back into the living quarters.

"So guys, how do you think Haley's doing as my replacement?" I asked them all. They were all taken by surprise at the question, but they all stated that she was doing a good job, and that if anything happened to me that they knew who to turn to.

"That won't be necessary" I continued "because she's holding the position for a while, if she wouldn't mind." She looked at me as if I were crazy. That discussion I had just had with her must have made her think that I was going to request my position back, but I knew it meant as much to her as it did to me.

"You deserve this Haley, your leadership can only be paralleled by me, and you've only been in the position for a few days. I have a feeling you will do better than I ever did." I told her. The shock on her face started to dissipate and she finally choked out

"I'll be happy to take over for a while Jeremy, but you gotta promise you'll come back into the role someday." She told me. I nodded and told her I would, but not for a while. Everyone was excited for Haley that she was being given this chance to prove herself, and from what I could tell, no one was going to doubt her abilities. About a half-hour later, we stopped at a convenience store where me and Wilson switched driving shifts. He immediately crashed on the closest couch and took a nap. A well-deserved nap as well, he has been under so much stress lately. As I was backing out of the parking lot of the store, I noticed something peculiar. There was a red line darting around the RV, kind of like a laser-pointer. It took me a few moments to realize what was going on, but eventually I realized it was a sniper. Not a moment after my mind comprehended the thought, I gunned the reverse. The RV flew backwards as the first shot fired. The bullet missed the RV, but it appeared that the RV wasn't the assailant's intentional target. There were propane tanks next to the RV that were shot instead. The resulting explosion caused the RV to tip back onto the two back wheels, still flying backward. I then felt a huge slam as the RV crashed into the building across the street from the store with the roof colliding straight into the front wall. The recoil put the RV back upright, but it wouldn't start. In the back I could hear Haley yelling for everyone to get down to the ground. It seems she had noticed the sniper as well. I kept trying to turn the RV back on, but each turn of the key proved futile. More red sniper beams emerged by the second, and I knew we were running out of time. With each turn of the key, I got more and more anxious. After a few more turns, I heard Haley yell for me to get down. In order to honor the new leader, I obeyed and went back into the living quarters. I then developed a plan in my head, but it was easier thought of than done. I kicked the door of the RV down and ran outside. As I did so, I could hear everyone yelling my name, but I never looked back. I took cover behind a building beside the Rv. I saw red beams bouncing around from the store. I then sprinted out of my cover and back to the RV with my hands in the air, palms open and upward. This was now known to be the universal sign of peace and no harm is meant. A few seconds after I reached the RV, I heard a faint voice yell

"hold your fire!". I was thinking that my plan had worked, but I couldn't be fully sure just yet. Then came a louder voice magnified by a megaphone

"we request a meeting, send one of yours into the store, and we will send ours." The voice wasn't quite gruff, but wasn't welcoming either. Kind of like a father having a serious talk with their kid. Haley and I looked at each other, and she told everyone to stay put, but with guns ready.

"Jeremy, come with me" she told me. I obeyed and followed her to the convenience store entrance, both doing the universal sign of peace. We opened the front doors and found 2 people among the empty rows of shelves. One looked like an elderly man, early 50's, out of shape with pitch black hair and glasses. Beside him was a teenager dressed in camo, probably 15 or 16, with long blonde hair with black highlights, very much in shape.

"Are you bandits?" The elder one asked.

"No" Haley responded back "We just stopped here to change our drivers." She explained. I found that the girl had her eyes locked on me, not in an intimidating way, more like an attractive way.

"I apologize on behalf of our scout, he sounded the bandit alarm, and we have had a few bandit mishaps already, we didn't want to take any chances." The elder explained. "My name is Harold Lunsford, and this is my daughter, Ashley." He said, introducing the girl. She took a polite curtsey, but kept her eyes locked on me. Haley introduced her and me. "Would you and your group like to join us for dinner? We have plenty of food." Haley contemplated on this for a moment, and then accepted the gesture. Mr. Lunsford told us to be back at the store at 6:00 PM for dinner. We then returned to the RV to fill the group in. It was 4:30; dinner would start in an hour and a half.

"We need to be prepared if worse comes to worse." Haley told us. "We need to conceal as many weapons as possible, just in case this is a trap." She then handed each of us a handgun fully loaded with an additional clip to put in our pocket, and a retractable dagger. We also put in our small ear pieces so we can contact each other if need be. By the time 5:45 rolled around, we were ready for anything that could possibly happen at this dinner. We went to the store doors and were let in by what appeared to be Mr. Lunsford's son. He was short and stout, much like Mr. Lunsford, but much younger. He led us into an office room that probably served as the main office of the store in the days before the outbreak. There was a whole buffet on the table. Turkey, ham, and cheese sandwiches, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, assorted cheeses, and assorted drinks were all on the table. Mr. Lunsford sat at the far end of the table with Ashley right next to him. His son took the empty seat on the other side of him, while other members of their group started to file in. Everyone took their seats, and we followed their example. Mr. Lunsford started introducing his group to us. His son was named Justin; they had a tech expert, Noah Barkely; an engineer, Gabe Skiles; a storekeeper, Robert Maxwell; and a gun expert, Lee Chung. Haley then introduced our group to them, and also informed them that we lost one person. Personally, I thought this was a bit too much information to be released on the first meeting, but it's Haley's call. After the introductions, we started eating. The food tasted odd, I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but nothing tasted as it should have. I thought it may have been a matter of not having these foods in so long, until Weir collapsed. Then went Wilson and Ryan. Haley and I shot each other a quick look before we collapsed as well. I couldn't put my finger on how much time had passed, but I awoke in a cold, windowless, white room in a haze.

"Ah Mr. Bene is awake" a voice coming from the speakers on the ceiling announced. "Good morning sir, I trust you had a nice nap." I stood up in confusion, I had no idea where I was, where anyone else was, or how to get out of this place. "I hope you liked the dinner we spiked especially for you." It was now obvious that Mr. Lunsford was the voice that was coming from the speakers. I didn't know anything that was going on.

"The hell is goin' on?" I yelled.

"What we fed you was the last of our food" Lunsford responded "What you have in your group can last us for 6 months at least."

"Why the hell did you feed my group the last of your food?" I asked

"It was a simple trade really" Lunsford shot back "That food would've only lasted us for about 3 more weeks, we now have a food supply that will last us 6 months. Get it?" I was stunned. These men were cannibals; these men were out of their minds. Were they even human? How could one man eat another under any circumstance? Where were my friends?
Chapter 8 – Haley

### Everything was fuzzy and swirling. Nothing seemed familiar or real. The only thing I could think about was where I was.

"Oh, so they are all awake now" a voice boomed over the intercom that was in the top corner of the room. "Good morning Mrs. Taylor, how are you faring from your nap?" the voice continued. The voice sounded familiar, thought I couldn't put my finger on it. The only thing I could think about was where I could be and how to get out. I looked around, but the only things to be found were 4 white walls, a white floor & ceiling, fluorescent lights above, and the intercom in the corner.

"What's happening?" I managed to croak out.

"What's happening is your little group has provided us with food for months, we would be fools to pass it up." I then realized the voice talking to me over the intercom was the voice of Harold Lunsford. I should've known better, every group that is overly genuine are either stupid, or bandits. One thing was for sure now, I had to get out of here and help my friends......assuming they were still alive. I used what Jeremy had taught me about seemingly closed rooms; there is always a door. I put my hands to the wall and held my face about 2 millimeters from it. I started to slide along the smooth, cold wall trying to find anything resembling a door. I noticed a very thin line that looked out of place, if it weren't for me being so close I wouldn't have caught it. It was so thin that I couldn't even feel it. I checked my pockets to see if anything was left. Sure enough, the only thing they didn't take was the one thing I needed. An eraser cap that was actually a camouflaged grenade. Ryan was in the military during the outbreak and used his status to get us some fancy toys to defend ourselves. This thing would explode 5 seconds after a pencil is put into it with the force of an actual military grade grenade. I stuck my pinkie finger in and heard a microscopic "click". Hurriedly, I stuck it into the thin crevice and dove to the back of the room. A huge boom shook the room as the door was blown off the wall and into the next room. I brushed off the dust and plaster on me and rushed out the door. Before I even got 2 feet into the next room I was met with a fist. I fell backward and landed on the half-destroyed door. Mr. Lunsford was now standing above me.

"Oh it's going to be delightful eating the meat from you, Haley" he taunted "So much fire, spice, adrenaline; just how I.........." he was interrupted by his daughter walking in.

"THAT'S what we're doing to these people?" she screamed "EATING them? You told me we were examining them for diseases, and I thought holding them like this was wrong THEN!" She had so much fire in her eyes, so much passion to do what was right. She reminded me of Jeremy in a way.

"Dear daughter" Lunsford chimed "we need food to survive, what happens when the food we have runs out?"

"Then we find more, we don't act as if we are one of the infected!" She yelled back.

"Naïve child, not everything in this world is picture perfect as you would want it to be, things change and we must adapt. We must fend for ourselves and not live in some juvenile fantasy!" Lunsford was starting to raise his voice.

"But father, this is not right!" she screamed, clutching her father's arm. He then shoved her aside and she fell to the ground. He didn't hesitate that he just knocked his daughter to the ground; he immediately turned back to me. I hopped back up to my feet and stood in a combat stance. He tried to rush me, but I rolled out of the way, sending him sprawling into the prison chamber. I looked over at the control console for the room and saw a button labeled "Emergency Lockdown". I didn't know what it would do, but I hoped it was useful. I pressed it and watched solid iron bars drop down from the top of the room's doorway. Lunsford lunged to beat the bars before they reached the ground, but just as he reached the doorway he was kicked in the face and forced back into the room. He sprawled backwards and landed on his back just as the bars reached the floor. I was stunned to see Ashley standing next to the bars, my only explanation was that she was probably finished with taking her father's punishment.

"I'm sorry he did this to you and your friends" she muttered as she walked closer to me. "Here, this will help you rescue your friends, just insert it into the card slot of every cell and they will open." She told me, handing me her security keycard. We turned toward the prison cell and shook her head. When she turned to walk away I blurted

"Come with me." She turned back to me in shock as if I had just yelled at her.

"You want me to come with you?" she asked, obviously confused.

"It's the least I can do for what you have done for my group, and I promise we eat real food, not people." She smiled and gave me a hug.

"Thank you" she whispered "I would like a real family." It had only just occurred to me that maybe the violence from her father happened more frequently than was let on. I felt bad for her, and so I felt no regret inviting her into the group. We then turned and walked down the corridor to find my friends. She knew this place inside and out. The place was huge, but she never got lost. We went to each cell and got each of my friends out. They were all obviously shocked to see me, but they were even more shocked to see Ashley helping us. Part of the group was a little against the new addition, however, one of the strongest supporters of Ashley's addition was Jeremy.

"She was obviously brainwashed by her father, she really means well." He argued. "How do you know she's not just staging it Jeremy?" Weir argued back.

"Because I know her type, I used to be just like her." Jeremy responded. Everyone looked puzzled. As Ashley led us out of the facility, Jeremy explained his ordeal that was similar to hers. "When I was a kid, I got involved in a really bad crowd, like a gang crowd. Basically the only reason I did so was because my mom was on drugs and basically was an utter bitch that wanted me dead and made my life hell. I had a longing for an actual family, much like Ashley. Trust me guys, I can see it in her eyes. All she wants is a family." Jeremy's speech touched everyone; they all ended up dropping their resentments and apologized. Ashley forgave them, and thanked Jeremy for defending her.

"I've never had anyone stand up for me like that before, thank you." She sounded so sincere, as if she's never had anyone talk even remotely nice to her in her life. We certainly had a lot to learn about his girl. Ashley led us out of the underground fortress and back into the gas station. I almost forgot that there were more goons than just Ashley's father. Her brother and 3 other guys still remained browsing the gas station.

"I wonder when Harold's going to call us down for dinner, I'm starved." One of them complained.

"Just shut up and stock idiot", replied another. They were stocking the shelves with goods they got from the RV. Ashley walked out from behind the counter we were hiding behind.

"Hey guys, my dad said dinner's ready! Ribs, steak and roast!" She exclaimed. All of the goons dropped what they were doing and rushed to the door to the underground fortress. The entire group worked together to push the band of goons down the stairs as they rushed passed us. Ashley ran up and locked the door from the outside. "They won't be bothering us anymore." She bragged, clapping the dust off her hands. The group then started gathering the goods from the gas station and returned them to the RV. We all piled into the RV, Jeremy taking the wheel once again, and drove away vowing never to return to this godforsaken place again.
Chapter 9 – Jeremy

### I couldn't have asked for a better leader of the group. Haley was doing a magnificent job. How she handled the gas station incident was probably better than what I could have done. She was now cuddling with Ryan in their usual spot, Weir was now in the cockpit after his switch with me, Zach was on the couch napping, Wilson was checking our weapons, and me and Ashley were sitting with our backs to the wall opposite Wilson.

"So I'm confused." She told me "Does this group have any kind of leader?"

"In this group, there really is no definite leader in regards to giving commands, our leader is determined by determination, heart, and courage. I used to be the leader, but I got.........incapacitated, so Haley took over. I haven't asked for my status back yet." I replied. "She's proven herself time and time again, so I decided to let her keep the rank, at least for a while." Ashley stared at me almost wide-eyed, and I smiled timidly back at her.

"So everyone listened to you and respected you, followed your orders. And you gave it all up to make someone else feel happy and important?" she asked. I nodded, and her expression deepened. It seemed as though she was stunned by the fact that I would give away my leadership to my best friend.

"Honestly, I've never met someone who wasn't power hungry. My father , my brother, my cousins; the other guys you saw in the store, and to find out that I know someone who is the complete opposite........" she explained, seeming shocked. I didn't question the shock, it was understandable. I grasped her arm, looked into her eyes and told her

"There isn't one quality in common with all people. Greed and envy is popular in your family, but on the contrary, in mine there is selflessness, courage, and dignity." She looked back at me with gleaming eyes.

"I know that now" she told me as she embraced me in a hug. "Thank you for getting me out of that terrible place."

"No problem" I replied softly "I'm glad me and Haley did, you didn't deserve any of what you got there." She started crying in my arms at that point.

"You really think so?" she asked between sobs.

"No.......I know so. You're a sweet girl Ash, full of kindness, compassion and love. You didn't belong there. You belong here, with friends." I reassured her. She looked up at me with her glimmering bright blue eyes and tears streaming down her rosy red cheeks. I wiped them away and grabbed a paper towel from under the cupboard next to us for her to blow her nose.

"Not friends, family" she said after she had calmed herself. I didn't know what she meant at first, but then I remembered what I had told her. I smiled and she laughed. I guess I was blushing, because my face felt like an iron had just been placed on it. She then nestled her head in my chest and fell asleep. Staring down at the girl, I felt as if she needed a shield. Sure, she had such a tough exterior and could handle herself quite well, but her inside emotions were probably so torn and damaged that she couldn't take much more punishment. I know what it feels like to be on the breaking point first hand. I felt it was my responsibility to protect this girl, no matter what happens. I was probably this girl's new safe haven at this point, considering where she was and how she was behaving. This girl was special, she needed someone to protect her, and regardless of how good Haley was at being a leader, I felt I could protect Ashley more than anyone else. I kept my eyes on Ash, sleeping peacefully on my chest. I decided to put my head on hers, drifting off to sleep. The last thing I thought about that night was my final decision to protect Ashley at all costs. I woke up at the crack of dawn with Ashley on top of me. I was flat on my back, while she was lying on my body, with her head on my collarbone and neck. I tried to roll her off, but woke her up in the process.

"What's going------oh my gosh Jeremy I'm sorry!" she said scrambling to the floor. We just sat there and stared at each other for the longest time. I felt myself blush, while at the same time she was blushing as well. I then got up and helped her up..

"It's ok Ash, nothin' to worry about." Her upset frown turned into a timid smile as a "thanks" escaped her lips.

"Hey Haley, Jeremy!" Ryan cried from the cockpit "you guys might want to see this!" We both rushed to the cockpit to see a manmade roadblock sitting in front of the RV. We didn't see anyone around, so we got out of the RV. Zach went up and looked at the giant cinderblocks going across the road. Ryan walked around looking for anyone around. I found a twinkee wrapper at my feet, the icing was still fresh, it wasn't molded or crusted, it was actually still in It's icing structure form. Someone had help up here not too long ago, but who? And where did they go? I heard a scream and immediately turned around. A man in what looked like tattered blue camo had a hold of Haley with his huge forearm wrapped around her neck. I pulled my pistol from my back pocket and took aim at the captor.

"Not so fast youngin'" A voice from behind me boomed. I turned back around and found another military man dressed in regular camo holding Ashley and Weir by the back of their shirts. "What're y'all doin' in these parts youngin'?" Asked the main in the regular camo. Behind him, I could see Ryan looking over a cinderblock with his gun drawn. It didn't look like the men in camo had noticed him yet, and where were Wilson and Zach? Nevertheless, I could probably use Ryan's stealth to my advantage.

"Listen, we can talk about this" I told the men trying to calm them down. "Just put my friends down, and we'll leave you be." I already knew these guys weren't going to let us go easy, they're not that type. I was trying to stall for time to pick my target and to allow Ryan to pick his.

"Sorry youngin', we can't allow y'all to leave here, or we run the risk of more people showin' up here, more mouths to feed y'know?" The man in the blue camo raised his gun, and as he did so I quickly brought up mine.

"Ryan!" I yelled. I fell to the ground and shot the blue camo man's kneecap out. I heard another shot, and I hoped it was Ryan. As the blue camo man fell, Haley rolled out of his grasp and stabbed him in the head with her knife. I turned to see the man in the regular camo falling with Ashley and Weir rolling out of his path downward. Both of their radios buzzed,

"Repeated gunshots, seemed to come from C quadrant. All units converge." I thought we were completely screwed, until another voice buzzed over the radio.

"Targets neutralized, bodies being disposed of as we speak. Converging is no longer necessary." The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint it's familiarity.

"Passcode, C quadrant." The original voice spoke.

"Carpediem" responded the second.

"Roger" buzzed the original voice "return to your posts men." I checked to see if Weir, Haley, and Ashley were ok. Ashley was hunched over on the ground. As I helped her up, she wrapped her arms around me and started to cry. I took her head in my arms and let her cry. A few moments later; Ryan, Wilson, and Zach hopped over one of the cinderblocks.

"Where were you guys?" I asked Zach and Weir.

"When you guys got trapped by those army guys we tried to flank them, but got caught ourselves by another guy. Former Navy by the look of him. We knocked him out and took his radio. When we heard the alert we used the radio. The passcode was on the back of the radio, apparently the soldier was very forgetful." Somehow it had all worked out, without even talking we all executed a flawless take-down plan. This proved how much we knew each other and how well we worked together. This group was going to survive this damned plague.
Chapter 10 – Haley

### It was nice to have a little girl time. Ashley decided to bunk with me tonight and we couldn't have had more fun. Basically we had the normal girl's slumber party in the master bedroom; Pillow fights, makeovers, girl talk, our strategies on surviving the apocalypse, etcetera. I felt bad for the girl; she's had such a rough childhood, even before the outbreak. I can relate to her, my life wasn't exactly glamorous either. Divorced parents, hatred towards my father and brother, kind of what Ashley went through.

"Haley" she asked me "what does love feel like?" She must have seen myself and Ryan around and pieced together that we were together. It hadn't occurred to me that she had never felt love before. She didn't know how to love a man, because of what her family did to her.

"Well, Ashley" I started to respond, "you just feel it. Trust me, you'll know when it happens." A smile appeared on Ashley's face. I assumed she knew something that i didn't know, but I decided not to press the matter. A knock then came at the door. Zach walked in,

"Hey girls, can you give me a hand? Everyone else is asleep." He asked. We nodded and followed him out of the room. Out of the RV windows we could see storage units, we were probably at a storage facility center. "If we can get into one of these units, we could probably find something useful" Zach explained. We walked out of the RV and strolled down the rows of storage units. We finally found one that's door was cracked down the middle. Probably form someone who had wanted to get their things out after the outbreak. Or maybe it was just from someone who had wanted to escape the herd. "I'll grab the shovel from the RV." Zach said. "you girls just keep watch OK?" Ashley and I nodded as Zach returned to the RV. I stepped up to the door of the storage unit and tried to look into the crack. It wasn't that big, so I didn't really expect to see much. All I saw was darkness and slight shimmers of glowing concrete and various materials in the glow of the light seeping into the crack. I could've swore I saw something move, but it was too dark to really see much and I had gotten more paranoid since Jeremy's incident. Zach promptly returned with a shovel, and tried to pry open the crack further. I heard the sound of metal creaking, but I could hear something else as well.

"stop" I hissed at Zach, who was slowly but surely getting the door open. The crack was about double its size now, to which I could probably peep inside. I walked up and looked inside again. It seemed as if something were waiting for me, because as soon as my right eye touched the door, something came up and hit it. I recoiled back and started to fall, but Ashley caught me. At this point, I couldn't see out of my right eye, but my left caught the site of Zach smashing the object that blinded me with the shovel. As Zach smashed, more blood spewed from the thing and it eventually retreated back into the unit. The object that attacked me didn't exactly look like a zombie hand, it looked more like a tentacle more than anything else.

"What the hell was that thing?" Ashley yelled.

"I have no idea, should we check it out Haley?" Zach asked. I hadn't realized I was still in Ashley's arms, so I regained my composure and thought about it. We had no idea what we were up against, and my sight was still pretty bad. We had no idea of Ashley's combat skills, come to think of it we hadn't really actually found a place for her yet. We had no idea what her expertise was, I wasn't even sure she knew. I made the decision that we would pry open the door some more and see if that was the only creature lurking inside the unit. Zach then stepped up to the door and started to pry some more. The crack was now as wide as Zach's spade was long, whatever was in there could now easily jump out and take us by surprise. I held the gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other as I stepped closer to the hole in the door. I got about a foot away from the door when the tentacle jumped. I sidestepped it just in time and it barely grazed my hair. Out of instinct, Zach slashed it with the shovel and I fired a shot. It looked like a clean shot and slash, there was a giant hole in the middle of the tentacle and a little bit was chopped off from the shovel. As quick as it happened, it started to unhappen. As soon as the little piece of tentacle that was chopped off hit the ground, the rest of it disappeared back into the unit. I shone the flashlight into the unit and immediately wished I hadn't, what was inside was both terrifying and disgusting. It looked as if 10-15 zombies and husks had conjoined somehow and started to sprout tentacles. Not only that, but they had 16 eyes so far out of their heads that they were almost falling out, their noses were only half of what they should have been, their ears were missing, their mouths had only one lip and their teeth were super-sized, all the while it looked as if there were spiders crawling underneath the skin. It was so disgusting, I nearly vomited. It looked as if Zach and Ashley were going to as well.

"It's a sprouter." Zach said, dubbing the zombie abomination with a clever name. At this, I wondered whether there were more of them, or if this was just a one-time freak of nature. Either way, it had to die. Ashley and I raised our guns toward the monster and started to shoot. As each shot hit, the monster let out a bloodcurdling scream, each one louder and more terrifying than the last. After about half a clip each from me and Ashley, the 'sprouter' as Zach had called it, finally went down.

"We had to pick the one unit out of like 150 that had a mutated freak of nature inside. We must be pretty damn unlucky." Said Zach. Ashley and I stepped closer to the door and shone our flashlights inside. There didn't appear to be anything else inside, so I signaled for Zach to come over and help me check it out while Ashley stood watch. Zach and I entered the unit and searched around, trying as much as possible to avoid the dead sprouter in the middle of the unit and trying to overcome the ungodly stench. At first the unit seemed useless, nothing but a bunch of beakers, glassware, and science books, as well as just a waste of ammo, however, as soon as the thought entered my mind, I heard Zach gasp. I turned around and saw him hunched over an open drawer.

"Find something?" I asked.

"Not just anything, this is probably the reason someone was trying to break into this place." He replied. I walked over to him, curious at what this item could possibly be. As I got behind him, he turned to show me. I shone my flashlight on the item in his hands, or in this case, items. There were tiny gems in his hands, unlike anything I've ever seen.

"What is that?" I asked.

"My mom used to be a jeweler. She taught me what certain jewels looked like. These specific gems look as if they are each a mix of Oxblood Coral, Citrine, Hessanite Garnet, and Crysoberyl." He responded in amazement.

"What's so special about these gems Zach? Why would someone store them here?" I questioned.

"Separate, these gems have no real use other than decoration. But with all of their chemical properties mixed.........it may be a long shot but I think we have found an antidote!" Zach said with glee. An antidote? This easily? It seemed a little far-fetched to me, but it was at least worth a look considering it was the only lead we had.

"Look around for any sort of identification on who this unit belonged to, maybe we can see if this is credible." I told Zach. Zach nodded and started searching around. I feared we would have to search that disgusting sprouter, if so, it would definitely be a last resort. I searched every shelf, drawer, and cubby in the unit, but no names, information or anything relating to the unit's previous owner, which seemed a little odd to me. The only thing I found that remotely gave us any clue were beakers and science-related things. After about 15 minutes of searching, we decided that we had to search the sprouter. We approached it and saw that it's skin was still crawling with whatever it had under its skin. I swear this thing looked like a sweaty fat guy painted dark blue with huge beetles crawling under his skin. I stuck my hand into Its left pocket, and Zach stuck his hand into the right. The pocket felt as hot as an oven and as squishy and lumpy as tapioca pudding. As I fished around in the pocket, it felt as if the pocket were eating my hand and lower arm. I finally got a grip on something, so I tried to pull out, but my arm wouldn't budge. The suction from the tapioca-like body substance seemed to keep me in.

"Zach I need help!" I exclaimed. He came over to me and saw my hand stuck in the sprouter. He wrapped his arms around my waist, as I tried to keep my grip on the object in its pocket.

"On three" Zach told me "one...........two............three!" At that, Zach started to pull and I did my best to pull my entire body weight backwards. I felt my arm starting to slip away. It felt disgusting, it smelled disgusting, and now it sounded disgusting. The sound of it was somewhere of a mix between a whoopee cushion, silly putty, flarp, and water sloshing in a boot. Zach and I kept bulling until my arm was completely free. We fell backwards and Zach nearly hit his head on the door. I looked at the object in my hand that I had managed to retrieve from the dead sprouter, and it looked like a wallet. The wallet looked torn and ragged, almost worn out. As I opened it, I could swear I saw some webs in the seams. I looked at the Driver's License and it read 'Richard Morgan'. It also read that he lived in Colorado Springs, which was not too far from here. With his address, we could track this guy down, provided he wasn't involved in the sprouter. I compared the ID picture to the many faces on the sprouter, none of which looked like the Richard Morgan in the picture, but then again, none of the faces in the sprouter really looked human. Zach and I stepped out of the unit to find Jeremy and Ashley talking; both of them were smiling and giggling.

"Hey Haley" he said to me "I heard shots; just making sure everyone was alright." Jeremy was always the protective one, especially when it came to me.

"We're fine Jeremy, but I think there is something you'd find interesting in this storage unit." I responded. Jeremy looked puzzled, and so I grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the storage unit. I pulled him within eyesight of the abomination and Jeremy's face immediately turned green. "Zach calls it a sprouter." I said happily and with a sarcastic smile. "Can we keep him please Jeremy?" He stared at me almost wide-eyed.

"you must be out of your frikkin' mind." He told me. I smiled, becoming amused by Jeremy's shock. "Oh yeah, and Zach found something that might be able to help us." I continued. "What is it Zach?" Jeremy asked. Zach then held out his hands and showed Jeremy the gems that he and I had found in the unit. Jeremy stared at the gems intently "They're a brilliant shade of orange, but other than that, what am I looking at?" he asked. I should've known he was going to make a remark about the color, orange was his favorite color and his guilty obsession.

"This gem is a mix of 4 different gems that, if put together, are chemically unstable and unpredictable, however, most likely not dangerous. The way the gem behaves is similar to the behavior of penicillin was described of having back in the day. It's a long shot, but there is a chance that this gem may contribute to finding a cure. What's more is we found this in a scientist's storage unit. There's enough evidence to support it." Zach explained. Jeremy had a mixed expression, it was an expression I have never seen on him before. It seemed to be a mix of hope, skepticism, intrigue, and confusion.

"How do you know this Zach?" he finally asked.

"My mom told me about 3 gem combinations that have never been done before due to their unpredictability when she was teaching me about the chemical properties of gems. This one is Oxblood coral, Citrine, Hessonite Garnet, and Chrysoberyl. The other two combinations are Onyx, Amethyst, Spinel, and Snowflake Obsidian, as well as the mix of Tourmaline, Aquamarine, Goshenite, and Adulara." Zach explained.

"This scientist must've known what he was doing in order to create such a specific gem combination." Jeremy stared at the gems again, almost unsure of what to think. "What do you think Haley?" He asked as he turned to me.

"I think it's the closest shot we have to finding a cure, I say we should go for it." I responded. What I said was true, but I feared it would be a giant waste of time, effort, and resources.

"Then well done Zach, never thought you're skills as a jeweler would come in handy someday." Jeremy said winking at Zach. Zach proceeded to punch Jeremy in the arm, and put the gems in his pocket. We decided to go back to the RV and try to get some sleep; it had been a long night. Zach and I walked next to each other behind Jeremy and Ashley. We walked far enough behind them that we were out of earshot.

"I think Jeremy has a little crush." Zach remarked. I smiled, not being able to get the thought out of my head. I had never considered it, but Jeremy seems to act a little bit differently around Ashley.

"Now that you mention it Zach, I think you're right." I remembered how much love I was in with Ryan the first day we spent together, I wondered if Jeremy and Ashley were having that same feeling for one another. That was when I really started to think about it. Was Jeremy the one she was referencing when she asked me about love? It was too random to just be a curious question. We finally got back to the RV, and Zach immediately crashed on the couch. Jeremy told Ashley and I goodnight and crashed in the passenger seat of the cockpit. Ashley and I returned to the master bedroom and started talking.

"Hey Ashley, can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Sure"

"Do you like Jeremy?" As soon as the words escaped my mouth, Ashley started to blush.

"Is it that obvious?' she asked.

"To the outside, yes, but don't worry, Jeremy can be pretty dumb and oblivious sometimes." I told her as I smiled. This could be good for Jeremy, Ashley is a nice girl. Jeremy's had some pretty crappy girlfriends in the past, the worst of which cheated on him twice and left him multiple times, but he was still hypnotized by her and thought she was the one. However, with my help he was slapped out of her trance and left her, for good.

"I hope that if we do get together, we are as happy as you and Ryan are." She said.

"I know you will be, you two seem great for each other." I replied in excitement. At that I saw her let out a huge yawn. "Why don't we get to be? It's been a long night and we're both exhausted." I suggested. Ashley nodded her head and laid her head on the pillow on the right side of the bed.

"Goodnight Haley." She whispered.

"Goodnight Ash." I replied.
Chapter 11 – Jeremy

### I woke up that morning feeling something I haven't felt in a long time........hope. All this time we have been surviving we have had courage, resiliency, and determination.......but it only felt as if we were delaying the inevitable. Now we actually had a reason to keep fighting, to keep trudging on. We may very well have the saving grace of the human race in our possession. We can't get our hopes too high, however. This combination of gems has the same likelihood to release huge amounts of carbon monoxide and kill us in our sleep. However, it is the biggest shot we've got, so we basically have no choice. I looked to my left to see Wilson still passed out, when he woke up it would be his turn to drive. I stood up and went back into the living quarters. Zach was still passed out on the couch and Weir was in the booth reading a book. I walked over to the booth and sat down opposite him.

"What's up man?" I asked. He promptly put down the book.

"Hey Jeremy, wassup?" he responded.

"Kinda crazy isn't it? Going from friends over the internet to each other's life preservers. I want to thank you Andy for being here, helping us." I told him. Weir and I really haven't sat down to talk man-to-man since the outbreak started, it's kinda nice to have this time with him.

"It's no problem dude, you guys are my friends, I'll have your backs no matter what and I know you guys have mine. Hell, you've already saved my ass a million times." He reminded me. Weir and I always had something similar about one another, but we could never figure out what. Now I'm starting to realize that it is more so our selflessness, courage, and determination.

"you've saved my ass quite a few times too bud, remember Texas?" I asked.

"Of course I remember Texas! The only time I got to shoot a horde with a minigun." He said, chuckling. Back in the first weeks of the outbreak, we were driving through Texas to try to find Weir's stash of weapons that he hid in case of emergency. The trip ended up with me in the middle of a horde about to be killed, when Weir shot the horde with a minigun we found at a broken down army base. On the other hand, there was the apartment complex where I saved Weir from falling to his death or serious injury. "Hey Jeremy" I had forgotten Weir was sitting in front of me, I was so immersed in the flashbacks I was having. "I want you to have this." He slid a pocket knife across the table. Engraved in the handle were the letters 'AW', Weir's initials. As well, on the blade there was a blood stain, Weir told me that he marked his favorite knife with a stain of his blood to prove his connection to the blade.

"You want me to have Atom Splitter?" Atom Splitter was what he named the knife, Weir was very fond of science before the outbreak.

"Yeah man, you're one of my closest friends." He responded. We shook each other's hands and clasped our other hands over the connected hands, a mutual sign of respect.

"Awww, Weir and Jeremy are holding hands." Came a voice from the other side of the room. Zach was still laying on the couch, but his eyes were open.

"Shut up Zach" Weir and I both said in unison. Almost immediately, the three of us started laughing. At that, Ashley walked in from the master bedroom and looked confused. Then, me and Weir held each others hand and announced

"Ooops! We're holding hands again Zach!" In a playful tone. The three of us laughed even harder at our little inside joke, while Ashley looked all the more confused. It was good that we were unwinding, for the past 3 months everything had been serious and all tense. Now, we were getting a chance to be ourselves. After a little bit, I noticed the confused look on Ashley's face turned into a smile. For some reason, seeing Ashley smile was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. She stepped over between Weir and I & Zach and cupped her hand over mine and Weir's connected hands. She then pulled Weir's away, but kept mine in hers. She slowly sat down next to me, and we stared into each other's eyes. Everything in my sight went dark, except for her glowing face. The only thing I wanted to think about was her. The only thing I wanted to see was her. Suddenly, I saw her face getting closer and closer to me. My brain had so many thoughts processing at the same time, that I had no idea how to react. I just sat there like an idiot and closed my eyes. I felt her lips press against mine and her arms wrap around me as she embraced me in her warmth. I wrapped my arms around her and pressed my lips on hers. We pulled away and I opened my eyes. Just as I opened mine, she opened hers. We stared into each other's eyes and blushed. I looked around and saw Zach and Weir were both staring at us. I looked back at Ashley and she was smiling. I took her hand in mine and kept it there. I turned to Weir and asked

"So, how's the junk collection coming?" I was referring to Weir's collection of items that he claims would be useful in building a secret weapon.

"Going good" he responded hesitantly "I got about half of the stuff I need."

"Cool, can you still not tell me what it is?" I asked. He shook his head.

"No can do bud, you know it's nothing personal, I just don't want us to rely too heavily on it." He continued. I looked over to Zach and found that he was still staring at me and Ashley.

"Look Zach, I know I'm pretty sexy, but you're gonna have to quit staring. Plus, I'm taken now." I said, smugly. Ashley had the biggest smile on her face that I have ever seen. Zach chuckled and smiled as well. At that, Wilson came in from the cockpit and looked at us.

"So, where are we headed now?" He asked

"Well, that doctor lives in Colorado Springs, so I guess we should head there and see if those gems Zach found are credible, then I guess we can wing it from there." I responded.

"I agree" came a voice from the back of the RV. It was Haley, who had just woken up and come into the living quarters. "We need to find this Richard Morgan if we can and question him about these gems." We all nodded in agreement, and Wilson went back into the cockpit. The RV started up and we pulled out of the storage unit area's lot. Haley sat down beside Weir and opposite Ashley, while Zach pulled up a folding chair and stuck it on the side of the table no one was at, opposite the window. I looked out the window and saw the Colorado mountainside in the distance. It's funny, but ever since this living hell began, I found myself finding more and more beautiful. It might be that I've found to appreciate the smaller things in life, or it may be because these things represent the world before the outbreak, and the memories of what once was. I looked back at the group and they were all looking out the window as well. I cant speak for them, but they may have been thinking the exact same thing as I was. I realized Ryan had joined us as well. He had pulled up a chair next to Zach and was watching the passing mountainside too. For the first time since the outbreak, everything was looking up. A few hours passed, and suddenly me and Ashley were the only ones left in the booth. I felt as if I could stay this way forever, looking out into the beautiful Colorado mountainside with Ashley's head on my shoulder.

"Hey Haley." Ryan called from the back.

"How much longer 'till we get to Colorado Springs?" It was Haley's turn to drive, so naturally she was in the cockpit driving.

"A---bout another half ho-----ur babe" she called back. There were sudden pauses in her speech that weren't there before that you wouldn't notice if you weren't listening very closely. Something seemed sort of different with Haley lately, but I wasn't sure what it was. Ever since the storage unit incident, she's seemed just.......off. I decided to ignore it for now in order to focus my attention on the more important matter at hand, finding Morgan. I shuffled through our stockpile of city maps, but didn't find a Colorado Springs map. The best thing we had towards info on Colorado Springs was a Colorado State map. We had no idea what we were doing, we were going in basically blind. We had to be prepared for anything and everything. I went to the armory and organized the weapons I thought would best suit the occasion. I gathered up mid to long range weapons with some detonation charges and smoke grenades. This is when I realized our ammo and equipment were running low. Each of our guns only had about a clip and a half left, we had 3 smoke grenades, 4 frags, and only 2 detonation charges left. This was bad. I grabbed the guns and handed one to each person except myself.

"Alright everyone, this is a balls to the wall situation. This is all the ammo we have. If we can find a gun shop in this city, then great. They probably won't have ammo for the AK's, so when you run out of ammo if you have an AK, use it as a melee weapon. For those of you with MP5's, you don't have a lot of ammo, but if we can find a gun shop they will definitely have ammo for you. Those of you with frags and smokes, use them wisely. Those of you with C4, use them even wiser. Ashley, how are you at shooting?" I spoke. She shrugged her shoulders and told me she had never fired a gun before. This could be a problem, considering Colorado Springs was a relatively big city.

"Ash you can do it, Just look at this thing on the top and shoot using it." I explained. She nodded as if she understood, but I knew she didn't. Things were looking bleak for us, we had entered Colorado Springs and realized that there were more zombies than we had anticipated.

"Stop the RV Haley, there are too many." I said to her as I walked into the cockpit. The horde ahead of us was so thick that if we tried to plow through them with the RV, it would probably break down. The 3 months of brutal wear and tear of the RV due to the zombies, hits, and explosions it had taken, I wasn't sure it could take much more. Haley still hadn't stopped, we were speeding toward the thick horde of at least a thousand.

"Haley, stop the RV!" she didn't budge. I grabbed her and she looked at me with a blank expression. Her pupils were pure white and her face was chalky. She wasn't turning into one of them was she? I grabbed her by the leg and the arm and tried to pull her out of the driver's seat, but she decked me in the face. I went sprawling back into the passenger seat. I looked up over the dash and saw the horde coming ever closer by the second. Whatever was happening to Haley, it was something bad and something none of us had ever seen before. I got on all fours and crawled over to the pedals. I slammed the brake down with my hand and hit Haley's foot off the gas. I could feel the RV slamming to a halt, while Haley was fighting with me. Between her kicks, I managed to get out from under her and stand up. I grabbed her again and lifted her out of the seat. I heard her mumbling some random gibberish, which made me even more concerned.

"Ryan! I need you to search Haley for any bites, I have no idea what is going on with her!" I called Ryan for help. I gave Haley to Ryan and let him take her into the master bedroom. I looked back out of the windshield. The huge horde of a thousand must've heard the breaks slam. They were heading straight toward us.
Chapter 12 – Haley

### \---DO NOT LET THEM GET HERE HALEY, DO NOT LET THEM COME. DO NOT LET THEM GET HERE HALEY DO NOT LET THEM COME.----

"Haley can you hear me?" ---DO NOT LET THEM COME HERE HALEY, DO NOT LET THEM COME. DO NOT LET THEM COME HERE HALEY, DO NOT LET THEM COME. DO NOT LET THEMC OME HERE HALEY, DO NOT LET THEM COME.------

"Haley, come back to me now baby." -----KILL THEM ALL HALEY, PROTECT ME! \----

"Baby it's Ryan, come back to me baby please!" ----- KILL THEM ALL HALEY PROTECT M!----

"Haley please come back to me!"
Chapter 13 – Ryan

### I didn't know what was going on. Everything was a blur. Jeremy was freaking out in the cockpit, everyone was running back and forth through the RV, and my girl was laying down on this bed in front of me, eyes blank, skin pale, foam from the mouth, and shaking violently. Out of all the chaos, it seemed that time now seemed to stand still. I suddenly felt as if all hope was lost, as if all the hope in my body had been sucked out of me. Everything seemed so hopeless to me now. The love of my life seemed as if she were dying, my group was in total panic and turmoil, and as I looked out the cockpit window that I could see from the back, I saw all the zombies that were about to envelope the RV. I decided to do exactly what Jeremy told us to do. Go all out balls to the wall. I kissed Haley on her forehead and yelled for Weir.

"What do you need Ryan?" he asked, his voice in panic.

"I need you to do all you can for Haley. Keep her away from danger and keeper her stable." I responded. He told me he would do his best, and that would have to be enough. I looked under the bed and grabbed the mini-gun I had kept hidden from the group since about 2 weeks after the outbreak. For 3 months I have rounded up ammo for this puppy, and now I can't think of a better time to use it. I hauled the 150 pound killing machine out of the master bedroom and into the living quarters. Everyone started staring at me, but not speaking any words. I didn't stop for a second. I kicked the door open to get outside. The sky had turned from crystal blue to a darker, death grey. I hauled the gun outside as I went around to the front of the RV. I revved up the gun and pointed it at the sea of the undead in front of me. I looked around, taking in the city. It was a much bleaker scene than that of the beautiful mountainside that I had taken in with my comrades not 3 hours ago. The buildings were rugged and torn, the streets were broken, and the clouds were black, all under that deathly grey sky. I could feel the cold mist blow against my face as the wind started to pick up. I looked back forward and saw the zombies were now about 25 feet away. I braced myself and started to fire my death machine. The sound of bullets leaving their chambers from within the tumbler filled the air. The only things I could see in front of me were flashes of light with red liquid raining down everywhere. Chunks of lifeless meat accompanied the blood in flight. It was the most terrifying time in my life. It felt as if it were an eternity before my ammo ran out, and the tumbler was just spinning. I revved down the tumbler and lowered the gun. So much blood.........so much raw meat that looked like hamburger before it's cooked..........so much mayhem. I had successfully saved the group from death, there were no more zombies in the street in front of me. I probably shouldn't even call it a street, it was so filled with blood, meat, and lead you couldn't even see the street. I took a long sigh as the rain started to come down. I looked up and let it wash over me. The way the water ran down my body was so soothing, I felt as if it were healing me both physically and emotionally. Despite how much I had wanted to stay in this position, I knew I had an obligation to my friends. I dropped the gun and went back into the RV. Everyone except for Weir and Haley, who were still in the back, were in the cockpit, looking out the front window. Everyone turned back to me, stunned. As if they hadn't ever expected that from me. I turned around and made my way to the back, where I saw Haley face-down on the bed and Weir looking as if he were going to perform surgery with a knife and tweezers.

"What the hell are you doing!?" I yelled. I ran toward Weir looking to tackle him and get him away from Haley. Right before I made contact with Weir, Jeremy grabbed me and held me back.

"Ryan calm down!" he shouted as I struggled against him. "He's going to save her!" The very idea of saving Haley from whatever was happening to her was enough to get me to calm down a little bit. I stopped struggling against Jeremy, but quickly and sternly asked

"What are you going to do to her?" Weir walked over to Haley and pointed the tweezers at her neck. I hadn't noticed it before now, but there was a dark green sphere that had burrowed deep into the back of Haley's neck. Around the sphere, there was a thick ring of black that looked as if it were crawling.

"It looks like the way the sprouter's skin crawled in the storage unit." Zach explained. "We think it may have infected her somehow, and if that's true, me and Ashley are also at risk." I looked at Haley, her body still twitching a little, and then to Weir. I nodded to Weir and allowed him to perform the surgery. Weir nodded back to me and clasped his hand on my shoulder.

"I'll treat her with the utmost care Ryan, I'll do my best." He told me. I knew he would, he was arguably the smartest and most knowledgeable of all of us. If anyone could fix Haley, it would be Weir. Weir told everyone they had to leave the room except for me. I sat down next to Haley and clasped her hand as Weir went to work on her neck.
Chapter 14 – Jeremy

### What Ryan just did was incredible. I've never seen someone take out that many zombies before. However, there were still stragglers out there, and we had to get moving. I told Zach and Wilson to place their bodies out the windows with some guns, so they could take out any potential threats. The way the RV was sounding, it was on it's last legs. I got in the driver's seat and started to drive. After a few miles, the RV started to shake violently, and remembering that Weir was performing surgery, I stopped. "Zach, Wilson, any threats?" I called to my comrades. They responded with a "No" in unison. I started to get out of the driver's seat, when I heard

"HALEY NOOOOOO!" It was Ryan who had screamed. I sprinted back through the living quarters and into the master bedroom. Weir was backed against a wall with Haley pushing against him. Ryan was keeping her from biting or scratching Weir, as she was trying to do. It wasn't until I saw her face that I had realized that she had turned. So many emotions started racing through me all at the same time. Then, all of a sudden, Haley lunged at me. Because of his misposition, Ryan lost his grip on her and she flew toward me. However, her body went limp when it collided into me. For a second I was afraid, band it wasn't until Haley started snoring in my arms that I calmed down. I looked up and saw the sphere inside the tweezers that Weir was holding, along with the black gunk that now seemed to retreat inside the sphere. The sphere now seemed to have sprouted legs and arms, and it flailed them wildly. As Weir applied more pressure to the tweezers with his fingers, I saw fountains of blue and black liquid. Begin to spew out of the orb. It may have just been my imagination, but I could swear I heard a microscopic scream as well. Finally, Weir squished it, and it was out of our hair, hopefully for good. I then realized that Haley was still in my arms, knocked out. I looked around her head to the back of her neck and saw that there was a huge hole where the sphere used to be and it was bleeding heavily. There was already blood starting to cover the back of her shirt.

"I need paper towels or toilet paper, or tissues! Anything but quick!" I yelled. Everyone rushed off in different directions to find the materials I asked for. I clamped my hand over the bleeding hole, in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. In no time at all, the blood started oozing through my fingers. By the time one of the others got back with paper towels, I was worried it was already too late. In a few moment's time I had at least seven layers of paper towels, six layers of toilet paper, and eight layers of tissues on the back of Haley's neck. I hoped and prayed that the bleeding would stop, I wished with all of my being that it would stop. I couldn't lose Haley, and I knew Ryan couldn't either. I could see Haley's face turn pale, but then I remembered something. Ryan and Haley knew everything about each other, every single detail. There was a chance that Ryan knew Haley's blood type.

"Ryan!" I yelled, not meaning to. "Do you know what Haley's blood type is?" He pondered for a second, and then responded,

"Yeah, she donated blood a few years ago, It's AB Negative." AB Negative was the rarest blood type in the world, only 0.7% of people in the world had it, and that was before the outbreak. I asked everybody in the room if they had it, hoping they would. No one did. There was one more option, however. I yelled for Wilson to grab my wallet out of my pocket, and he did so. I remembered that I gave blood a few years back as well and they gave me a little card with my blood type, I never memorized it though. I asked Wilson to tell me my blood type, and sure enough it was AB Negative.

"Weir, get me the syringe out of your medical bag." I called. He obeyed and returned just as the blood coming out of Haley's neck reached the last layer of tissue. I then promptly stuck the needle in my vein and begun the transfer. There was already a tube in Haley's wrist from Weir's attempted makeshift surgery, so I put the tube in there. After about 15 minutes, the blood stopped flowing from her neck, but I knew I had a lot of ground to make up. I kept transferring my blood to her for the next half-hour. At that point, I could barely see anything. Everything was a blur and I couldn't see colors. "Ryaaaaan" I began to slur "Isss Huurrrrleyyy Shhhtiiiilllll Paaayyyyllle?" I could barely make out his words, but I could understand that she wasn't and she was regaining color, as he did so I could also make out that he was pulling the needle out of both of our arms. He then bandaged me up and laid me down on the bed. I began to fade, I didn't know if I was dying, or simply going to sleep at that point. As my eyes closed, I envisioned a bright and colorful field. I could now feel myself standing on the grass. The sky was a brilliant blue and the grass was as green as I've ever seen. The trees that were atop the horizon were magnificent against the backdrop of the blue sky. I began to walk forward, the crisp, cool blades of grass rubbing against my feet. The air felt so full, as if there wasn't anything in it but oxygen, and the temperature was perfect. I looked into the sky, and thought I saw a few glares, as if it were made of glass. I proceeded forward through the trees on the horizon. I kept walking and eventually found the end of the forest. As I emerged from the trees, I saw a huge city. It looked bigger than New York City, and more breathtaking than the northern lights. It looked as if it were made of neon and diamonds. I walked toward the city and ran into some cute, friendly woodland creatures. This felt so different than the life I had been living for the past 3 ½ months. I squatted down and patted the little creatures on the head. The bunnies, the squirrels, the chipmunks, all of them just sat there, smiling and chirping all the while. I stood back up and continued onward toward the city. It looked so beautiful and vibrant, more so than any city I have ever seen. I continued onward into the city, and the streets seemed as if they were something from a video game. The cars zoomed by on what looked like zip lines. There were not stop lights, stop signs, medians, or any street sign whatsoever, but the cars still seemed to flow flawlessly. It seemed as if they were being controlled by a pre-programmed AI. I continued walking next to the road on the sidewalk until I got to City Hall. I entered into the beautiful lobby, it was unlike any room I had ever seen before. The lobby was made out of what seemed like pure gold, and the windows were a magnificent tint of blue. I walked through the museum sized room and spoke to the information woman at the front desk.

"Excuse me, what exactly is this place?" I asked. Her face appeared to shine even brighter than ever as she began to speak.

"This place is named Civitatem Magnificentia. The City of Magnificence!" As she said it, the walls seemed to emit a sound of glass being shattered, but into a billion tiny pieces so it sounds magnificent, along with the sound of wind chimes being blown in a gentle wind. This place truly was a city of magnificence, it was so full of beauty and wonder that I wanted to learn more, but where were my friends? I had to find them; I had to show them this magnificent place. "You are not going to find your friends Jeremy. They are gone, far away from here. You don't need them, and they don't need you." The woman at the desk spoke ominously, as if reading my very thoughts.

"I want to find my friends, where are they?" I asked, demandingly. She took a deep sigh and waved her hand in the air. A small portal opened in her palm.

"In order to stop you from returning to your friends, I must show you what will happen, if you make that decision." She retorted. She threw the portal from her palm onto my chest. At that very moment, everything started to flash. I could feel all of my insides being turned inside out, not in a painful way, but in a freaky way. I could feel my flesh, bone, and muscle bend to the mercy of the portal. A few moments later, as my entire being fell into the portal, I felt as if I were flying without wings. I felt as if my mind were allowing me to soar through the air and let the wind blow all through my body. I felt transparent, as well as solid. I saw that I was in some sort of tunnel, but the walls of the tunnel were flying past me, and they were all colored in a way that seemed sort of like something you would see in a collidascope. I felt as if I were on some sort of bad acid trip, until I saw a huge, blinding light. Within seconds, it had swallowed me. A few seconds passed before the light started to dim. As the light dimmed, I could make out a black and red sky, dead plants and animals, and grey grass. The light had completely dimmed as I was making out the scene, it was as if I had entered hell. It looked like the entire world had been killed, as if there were no hope for humanity. I looked to my right onto a deserted road, where I saw a few zombies roaming. That was the cause, zombies had ruled the world. I couldn't believe my eyes, i was stunned, I didn't want to believe it. I started to walk around, hearing the crunch of dead grass beneath my feet. I walked over to the zombies, but they didn't pay any mind to me. I reached out to touch one of them, but just before my hand made contact, the zombie turned toward me. The shock and fear that I had felt just a few moments before had magnified at least 5 times when the saw the face of the zombie. The zombie was the face of my sister, Haley Taylor. Behind her, were three more zombies that were starting to turn. I saw the faces of Weir, Zach, and Ashley. I was frozen in fear and shock, sadness and sorrow. I could not believe what I was seeing, would this really happen if I returned to my friends? Would the very world as we know it cease to exist? Would I make some terrible mistake that would destroy everything? In the middle of my thinking, I started falling backward, it felt as if I were stumbling, but I was completely still. Before I knew it, I was in another portal, my body being flung around like a rag doll, yet I felt no pain. The portal spit me out with a thud on my back. I watched the portal disappear, and a beautiful blue sky replace it. I stood up, and I saw that I was standing on cool, moist, green grass. I looked around and saw a small town in the distance. I started walking toward it, and as I did so I felt a cool breeze flow through my hair. I felt as if the woman at the desk were playing with me, putting me inside of a hell-hole, and now she put me in this peaceful paradise. I made my way toward the small town and noticed a sign that read 'House Springs: Population 500'. I couldn't believe it, House Springs was my hometown, but it looked nothing like the town that I used to know. I walked around and saw the house I lived in as a kid and entered using the hidden key that only I knew about. I stepped in, and I recognized the inside, but only just. The walls were painted orange instead of grey, the floor was wood instead of carpet, and there were electronic gizmos all over the place.

"Hello sir, I am going to have to ask, how in the blazes did you get into my home?" a man to my right said in a very polite tone. I turned and saw a man who looked almost Identical to me.

"I used the key." He looked rather amused.

"Impossible! Only I know where the key is hidden." He said, mixing amusement with politeness in his voice.

"Look, my name is Jeremy Bene, and this is.........." The man interrupted me and said

"What? But I'm Jeremy Bene! How can this be?" I was completely confused, this man looked a lot older than I was, probably about 25 years older, but he still had a lot of facial features that I had. If this guy was truly Jeremy Bene.......then that meant.........

"What year is this?" I asked him.

"Well silly, it is the year 2037 of course!" 2037? But the outbreak happened in 2013, how did this happen?

"Do you remember anything about a zombie outbreak?" I asked him. His face turned into a sly smile.

"Yes of course! January 2013 if memory serves, that was the home to the greatest achievement in my life. Come, sit, I'll make us some tea." He swiftly went into the kitchen and started the tea. I sat down on the couch, from the feel of it; it was leather, but the most comfy leather sofa I have ever sat on. I pondered on what Jeremy had said 'It was the home to the greatest achievement of my life.' What did he mean? As he was making the tea, he started singing, which was really odd, because I don't sing. Soon enough, he returned with the tea and we started drinking.

"After Morgan ran off, the world seemed to end because of what he did. Everything was falling apart. But the crystals held magical abilities. Abilities that were transferred to me. I used the Earth Technique to level the quaking ground, the Water Technique to extinguish the fires, the Air Technique to stabilize the unstable waters, and the Fire Technique to heat the cooling air. I was the master of all four of the elements. The crystals gave me unspeakable power. As I held the four elements stable, the crystals gave me a new ability. The Soul Technique. I unleashed my new ability upon the world, and at that point everything seemed right." He spoke. I had absolutely no idea what in the bloody blue hell he was talking about. "Oh wait; you are from a different time aren't you? Is that how everything is working here? If you are truly Jeremy Bene, then you must be here from another time, from a different world. Here in this time period, we have mastered the theory of the 5D universe. For every dimension, there is another dimension existing, but in the same timeline and in a different point in time. Of course! Why didn't I think of this before? You must be dreaming you are here! We have discovered that dreams cross the boundaries of the 5D universe; they cross into the fifth dimension and stray through time. In turn, your dreams are actually reality in another dimension. I am actually you from the year 2037, Jeremy." I was stunned. Was this really how dreams worked? The only thing I could say was

"So I'm gonna live through the outbreak? I'm gonna rebuild the world?" The other Jeremy shook his head.

"It's not that simple. It's a possibility, yes. However, just because I exist in this timeline, doesn't mean you are going to exist at this point in yours. This is the same timeline, the world will change at the same rate, and the life on earth will grow at the same rate. However, the people's choices are their own. Every time someone makes a decision, another dimension is created to branch off from where that other dimension left off, but it would stray down the path of the other decision. For example, if I were to decide whether to keep sitting here on this couch or stand up, there would be two dimensions created. Since I haven't stood up yet, there has been a dimension created that has me standing, but giving you this same speech in the same situation. Do you understand?" I nodded, I knew about the multi-universe theory, which had similar aspects to what he.....i mean I..... Was saying. "I have told you too much, you must return to your own time before you do some serious damage." He scolded me.

"I would love to, but I can't. There was some weird lady in my dream; she was a secretary or something. She blasted me with some sort of portal and took me to two different dimensions I guess, one where the zombies one and here." I responded. Jeremy thought about this for a second.

"This might hurt for a second, but it will wake you up." He warned. I had no idea what he had in mind, but all that mattered was that I could get back to my own time. Before I could react, he decked me in the face, and everything went white. My body felt weightless, I felt as if nothing were interacting with me at all. My body started to turn as if I were laying down, and eventually I could feel something solid holding me up. I opened my eyes and saw the roof of the RV. I appeared to be laying in the master bed. I still felt like crap, but at least now I was awake and aware. I started to sit up, but I then noticed two bodies on either side of me. To my left there was Haley, apparently sleeping. I held my breath for a second and turned her onto her side. The hole was bandaged up and there was no blood on the bandage. As well, I could hear her snoring. She was alive! The happiness I felt at that moment was unparalleled by any other moment in my life. I slowly exhaled into a sigh of relief and turned to my other side. It was Ashley, who was laying there sleeping. For a second, I thought she was victimized as Haley was, but at that moment, she stirred awake. Her beautiful blue eyes looked up at me in disbelief. After she got over the initial shock of seeing me, she shot up with a squeal and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Oh my god Jeremy your awake!" she yelled. She pulled away so that she could see my face again, but her arms were still wrapped around my neck tightly. She then gave me the biggest, most passionate kiss I had ever gotten, and that I probably will ever get. It felt as if an eternity had passed before it was over, and I was completely fine with that. She finally pulled away and I saw that she was crying. I wiped away her tears and put my hand on her cheek. I couldn't stop smiling and neither could she. I then realized that we were not alone. Weir, Wilson, Zach, and Ryan were standing in the doorway.

"Hey guys, what'd I miss?" I asked. They were all smiling at me. "How's Haley?" I then asked. Ryan's smile then faded.

"It was one hell of a close call bud, but thanks to you, she made it. Weir did some calculations and if you had waited just a little while longer to transfer your blood, she would've lost too much and we would've lost her." Ryan explained. Ryan then walked over to me and wrapped me in a hug. "Thanks for saving her Jeremy, you have no idea what that means to me." He whispered in my ear.

"You guys would do the same for me, don't worry about it." I whispered back. "Weir deserves some credit too Ryan." I continued.

"Oh yeah bro, I didn't forget about him, I told him I owed him about a million favors already while you were out!" He responded. We all chuckled a bit, and it was well deserved. We were all under a lot of stress as of late, so it was kind of a weight-lifter to laugh a bit.

"So how long was I out? My body feels stiff as a board." I moaned, trying to stretch out my limbs. There was a long silence after my question, and I knew I wouldn't like the answer.

"Jeremy...........bro you've been out for about a week." Wilson finally spoke up. A week? It couldn't have been that long. I sprang out of the bed, but when I did so my legs gave out. AS I fell to the ground, I could hear almost every bone in my body crack. It felt good, to let all of that tension out of my body, but it also felt excruciating. Wilson and Ryan helped me back up to my feet and told me to take it easy.

"How the hell was I out for a whole week?" I finally asked in disbelief.

"I did the math when you passed out, you were supposed to wake up 2 days ago, but I guess you had lost more blood than I had guessed. At any rate, you had us going for a second, we checked on you like every hour or so to make sure you were still alive. You and Haley lost so much blood, a lot of us thought neither of you were going to make it, as much as I hate to say it." Weir further explained. In all honesty, when I was transferring the blood, I didn't care what happened to myself. I only wanted to save my sister. "I also analyzed the dead flesh of that sphere." Weir continued. "It's obviously a parasite, but I couldn't relate it to any other known parasite on the planet, not even in the slightest. My best guess is that it is a type of mind-control device. That would explain Haley's peculiar behavior in the city." I contemplated this for a few moments. It seemed highly probably, but how was it made? Was it like the sprouter, where it had gotten mutated by the virus? Then, I dawned on something. The parasite presumably came from the sprouter, which was indirectly linked to Richard Morgan.

"Weir, have you checked if the parasite had any man-made genetics?" I asked. Weir thought on this for a second and then shook his head. "Then check it, I have an idea." I responded. Weir promptly darted out of the room with Wilson and Zach following closely behind.

"So Jeremy" Ryan started "What's it like being unconscious for a week?" It was an interesting question that I really hadn't thought about myself.

"It felt as if everything were surreal. My mind could play tricks on itself without even realizing it. Anything could happen, and I had total control, but no control at the same time. I had 3 'dreams' if you would call them, but they felt as if they were real." I responded. I started to think about the 'dreams' I had while I was out, while I was in Civitatem Magnificentia. The utopia, the future, the death. They were three different realities that humanity could find in our timeline. If we weren't careful, the future could very well depend on us. Just as that thought exited my mind, I thought I heard a small groan. I looked over toward the bed and saw Haley stirring. After a few moments, her eyes opened, and she had her pupils again.

"Uhhhh.......what's going on?" she asked.

"Haley!" Ryan cried. He ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her chest. "Baby I thought I lost you! I'm so glad your back!" He cried. Haley looked at me, looking confused. I gestured to just hug him back, so she did. After they pulled away, the confused looked returned to Haley's face.

"So what is the last thing you remember Haley?" I asked. She thought about it for a few moments, then she answered.

### "the last thing I remember is sitting down in the driver's seat and turning the key to start the RV." Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was scared that she may have had amnesia or lost her memory beyond the outbreak. "There was a strange voice in my dream though, he kept saying, 'do not let them come here Haley, do not let them come' over and over again." she continued. "I felt like i was in a nightmare, it was so scary." Ryan wrapped her in a hug.

### "the important thing is your ok now baby, that's all that matters." Ryan said. I started walking, trying to once again get my legs used to the weight of my body. With every step i took i heard a series of cracks in my knees and thighs. Within a few minutes, my legs started regaining strength, and i could walk more easily. I staggered my way over to the door and looked back to the bed. Ryan and Haley were already immersed in a conversation, and Ashley was already walking toward me. She walked with me out of the bedroom and into the living quarters.

### "So what's all happened since we've been out?" I asked. Her face grew a little bit darker as she started to explain the situation.

### "We had to reinforce the RV and hold up here. Ryan and Weir determined that the RV wouldn't be able to run anymore, it's been beatun up way too much. It's been like a makeshift fort the past couple days." she explained. It kind of pained me to see the RV dead, after all we had been through. I staggered my way over to the booth and Ashely and i sat down. I looked out the window and saw a much more different scene than when I last saw Colorado. The last time I saw it, it was dark, bleak, and rainy. Now it was quite the contrary, bright and shiny.

### "Have there been any more incidents?" I asked. Ashley shook her head and said everything had been fine. Their main concerns right now were the basic essentials; food, warmth, water, etc. We needed to develop a plan to get those essentials, becasue I think I could speak for Haley as well when i said i was starving. After a little while, Wilson and Zach came over to the booth.

### "Jeremy you're not gonna believe this!" Zach exclaimed. "Weir not only found man-made genetics, he found a tracking device in that bug. He said he might be able to tap into it's reception frequency." This was great news. If that bug was developed by Richard Morgan, we may have a big lead on him.

### "That's great guys, but right now we need to focus our attention on more pressing matters. Ashley tells me we need food, so we need to get it. There's got to be some kind of shop here soemwhere." I responded. Wilson infromed me that he saw a mall formt he top of the RV yesterday, and we ended up setting that as our destination. We would need everyone at one hundred percent for this job, that means me and Haley had some physical therapy to do.
Chapter 15 - Haley

### A few days had passed since Jeremy and I woke up. We spent our days working out and trying to get our bodies back in working condition most of the time, while the others developed a foolproof plan for heisting the mall. You really don't realize how many muscles you use just by walking, because of the underuse, they were all hurting. Jeremy weighed more than me and was stronger than i was, which made his recovery time become considerably shorter than my own. Due to this, he was almost at one hundred percent, whereas I still had a lot of work to do. I was taking my 5 minutes break outside when Zach came outside. Him and Ryan were like my rehabilitation coaches, considering I've never had to be in a physical therapy session, didn't know how to properly rehabilitate myself.

### "How ya feelin'?" He asked

### "Pretty sore, but i guess that's the process of getting better huh?" I responded. He nodded his head and smiled.

### "Can I talk to you for a sec?" he asked. I nodded, curious as to what he wanted to talk about.

### "I talked with the others, when you and Jeremy were out, and I asked them about your leadership skills compared to his." I was shocked. I knew what he was going to say, he was going to tell me they wanted Jeremy back, he was going to tell me I didn't live up to expectations. "We all agree that........." before he finished, i interrupted.

### "Look, I know I haven't lived up to expectations, but you have to understand that being leader is very hard an stressful. To know that you are in charge of you're whole group's survival, it's unreal!" It turned from a statement to a yell very quickly.

### "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Zach exclaimed in reply. "Haley calm down, let me finish. We determined that you were the better leader. you handled the gas station and storage unit situations better than Jeremy ever could. We want you to stay as leader, for good." I was stunned. I didn't know what to say.

"Uh....Are you sure?" I asked in astonishment. I had always looked up to Jeremy for his leadership skills, and to know that I had done a better job than he did.......it made me feel great.

"Yeah, I'm sure of it. We all are. Just, please don't tell Jeremy, I've known the guy my whole life, im sure it would break his heart." I wasn't sure if Zach was right about my leadership skills, but I knew he was right about Jeremy. He had always taken such pride in being a good leader, it was one of the only things he thought he was good at.

"I'll keep it to myself, thanks Zach." I replied. He clapped me on the back and returned to the RV. I continued my physical therapy, thinking about what was better about my leadership skills than Jeremy's. I was less headstrong than him, but most times that was a good thing. I was also a bit more conservative and I don't really get caught in rage as much as he does. If the group thought it was best, I figured I would do as they saw fit. Ryan and Zach had told me that tomorrow would probably be my last day of rehabilitation. Our raid of the mall was scheduled for the day after tomorrow, and I would be the one to lead the raid, but I had no idea what the others were planning. After another hour of physical therapy, I went back into the RV, exhausted. I collapsed onto the couch, ready to just relax. Jeremy, Weir, Ashley, and Wilson were all in the booth opposite me having an in-depth conversation, and Zach and Ryan were in the cockpit planning my final physical therapy session. I stared at the ceiling for the longest time, taking it all in. We were a few days away from invading a mall which contains an unknown number of undead and 'surprises' with only 7 people. I hope the group put together a damn good plan because that seems like somewhat of an impossible feat. That is one quality Jeremy ad in his leadership that I didn't, self-confidence. Jeremy firmly believed that there was nothing that we couldn't do, whereas I look at things to a more realistic level. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, Ryan was above me stroking my hair. When he saw my eyes open, he lowered his head and kissed me gently. He was so handsome and warm. So kind and compassionate. He was the perfect man, and he was mine. I wanted the kiss to last forever, but sadly we had to pull away. It was now dark outside, and it appeared the only ones awake now were myself, Ryan, Weir, and Ashley. Ashley and Weir were playing cards in the booth, while Ryan was still above me. I sat up, and Ryan sat next to me.

"So Weir, what's the plan that you guys have been developing?" I asked him. Weir put down his cards and reached into his pocket. He then pulled out a layout of the building from what we had seen of it. He started explaining what we were to do; what we were to do if something failed, backup plans, and emergency plans. It seemed like a good plan overall, but it was missing something.

"Did you take into account our lack of ammo?" I asked. Weir's eyes lit up.

"Oh! We forgot to tell you guys? When you and Jeremy were out we found a gun store down the block and robbed it. We even found stuff for the AK's and the minigun." He replied. I was ecstatic. We were more prepared than I had originally anticipated. Still, I couldn't help but feel a sinking feeling in my chest, as if something were going to go horribly wrong on this heist. However, I didn't express this with the group; I didn't want them to worry.

"I think we all should get to bed." Ashley expressed with a yawn as Weir finished explaining the plan to me. "It's kinda getting late." I hadn't realized how late it was, considering the nap I had just had. It was 2 in the morning and everyone was tired. Including myself, physical therapy was definitely taking its toll on my body. I laid back down on the couch with Ryan right next to me. Zach crashed in the booth and Ashley went in the bedroom, where Jeremy was sleeping. I then closed my eyes and went back to sleep. Considering the amount of sleep I got yesterday, I expected to be the first one awake, but that wasn't the case. I woke up and started walking around the RV, when I noticed there was something on the roof. I saw the back of I through the sunroof and questioned what it could be. I got out of the RV and climbed the back ladder to the top. It was Jeremy. He was staring into the beautiful sunrise, knowing him he was probably thinking about something.

"Hey, good morning" I chimed. He didn't respond, he didn't even look at me or acknowledge my existence. After a few moments of silence, he finally responded with a dull

"Hey". I walked over to him and sat down next to him. The sunrise was beautiful, but I was starting to wonder if things like this were a bad omen. The last time I had seen something as magnificent as this was the drive to Colorado Springs, which had led to my week-long incapacitation and near-death experience.

"I heard you and Zach talking yesterday." He broke the silence. At first, I didn't know what he was talking about, but a few moments later I caught on. "I'm proud of you Haley, don't get me wrong. It's just that I feel like a failure. I feel like I was putting the group in danger for not providing them with the best leadership possible." Zach was right, Jeremy was hurting badly.

"It's not your fault Jeremy, if anything you taught me how to become a good leader, I just put my own touch to things." I tried to comfort him, but it didn't seem to work. After a while, I stood up and returned down the ladder. As I entered the RV, I saw Zach emerge from the booth and told me what he and Ryan had planned for my final physical therapy session. About an hour la Zach had awoke fully; we began the session without Ryan. I started with push-ups for about 15 minutes, then sit-ups for half an hour. Finally, Ryan woke up and congratulated me on my progress. I kept up the therapy, and by 3 I was finished. Ryan and Zach had told me to take it easy the rest of the day and tomorrow I should be good to go. I looked around and saw fields and lakes as far s the eye could see, except behind us, which was the city of Colorado Springs. The others must've drove out of the city while Jeremy and I were out. Jeremy..........I felt so bad for the guy. However, he should've seen it coming. It was only a matter of time before reality set in. Before the outbreak, no one thought very highly of him, but when he stepped up to try to save us all, it gave us the impression that he was superhuman, when in reality he was just ballsy. The group still needed someone who is a good thinker, a good planner, and apparently it was me. I looked at the city, the mall in particular. It seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, as was the lake a half mile away from me. This was undoubtedly the calm before the storm, as we were going to take on the biggest challenge of our lives tomorrow. I looked back up at the roof of the RV, and Jeremy was still there, in the same position. I wanted to go comfort him, but I knew he wanted to be alone. I returned to the RV to find Weir putting the final touches on the 'master plan'.

"Hey Haley" Zach called "Do you know what's up with Jeremy?" He asked. I told him Jeremy had overhead us talking and immediately Zach was kicking himself.

"I'll go talk to him" he said and left the RV. I walked over to Ryan, who was helping Weir finalize the plan. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him closer to me.

### "I haven't said this to you in a while, but I love you Ryan." He looked back at me with a huge smile on his face and replied

### "I love you too babe." He put his hands on mine and went back to helping Weir.

### "It doesn't matter ok! you don't have to lie to me anymore. I'm fine!" Someone was yelling from the top of the RV. It was Jeremy yelling at Zach.

### "Jeremy, we didn't want to hurt you, thats why I told Haley to keep it quiet." Zach responded.

### "That's not the point! the point is you guys didn't tell me straight off that i was a bad leader!"

### "You're not a bad leader!" They kept bickering back and forth for about half an hour before they made up, as per usual with those two. It was a good thing too, because if this heist were to go smoothly, we would all have to be unified.
Chapter 16 - Ryan

### Haley and I were the first ones up that morning. We had climbed up to the top of the RV, holding each other as the sun rose.

### "Ryan" she said "If anything happens, I want you to know that I love you more than anything in the world."

### "Don't think like that sweetheart" I responded "everything is going to be alright." Her face and body sunk as the words escaped my mouth.

### "I've got kind of a sinking feeling babe, like something bad is going to happen." she said in a rather depressed tone. I put two fingers under her chin and lifted her face to where our eyes met.

### "I am not going to let anything happen to anyone ok?" I told her softly. I leaned in and kissed her. As we pulled away, the frown turned into a smile on her face. Everyone was up before 8, and we had gotten packed for the heist the night before. It was in question whether Jeremy and Haley were in the right physical and emotional states, but we couldn't procrastinate any longer, we needed food, and we needed it now.

### "Alright guys, you all now the plan. We go in, gap two shopping carts each, and grab necessities. If we run into the undead, take them out as quietly as possible. If anyone hears a shot, find the nearest exit. Cool?" Haley spoke. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. At that, we all took our weapons and headed out. It was a good ways to the mall, probably a few miles, so it was going to be quite a walk. I began to feel a bit bad about Jeremy, my vote was the reason the group decided to have Haley on as permanent leader. I began to reminisce on the first day with both of them gone. When Haley had been saved by Jeremy, Jeremy went comatose. Everyone was in a panic. With the two figureheads incapacitated, we needed to unify. Ashley and I had rallied everyone and calmed them down. Weir assured us that Haley and Jeremy had pulses periodically, but for the time being someone needed to take charge. Ashley and I ended up being the ones to stand up, but it was hard. Both of us were torn apart. Our loved ones were out cold, with no signs of coming to anytime soon. The pain I felt in that week was worse than any pain I had ever felt in my entire life, and I think I could say the same for Ash. My thoughts stayed centered on the events that happened days ago, while my body continued toward the mall. The time in which Jeremy and Haley were comatose were undoubtedly the darkest time for the group. No one knew what to do, no one had any idea what we were going to do. To Ashley, watching Jeremy wake up must have been the greatest feeling in the world. I felt it when I held Haley in my arms as she awoke. People needed small miracles like that to keep going, to keep hope in their hearts. As I came back to reality, I noticed we were considerably closer to the mall, only about half an hour now until the heist began. Honestly, I wasn't sure if the group was ready. Not only were Haley and Jeremy not at 100% emotionally at this point. However, we would have to make do, there wasn't any more time we could spare. At this point I was still worried about Jeremy, how he was taking the honesty from us. Being the one to lead us filled him with such pride, and then come to find out that he really isn't as good of a leader as he thought he was,, that probably hurt his pride a good bit. The guy was a big ego-tistic, he was actually the one who coined the term 'leader' in the group. Originally, it was supposed to be a dominant democracy, some of the group still believes it is. However, in a dominant democracy, there is no set 'leader'; it is controlled solely by the people. I will admit, having one set leader has gotten us out of some bad situations, but I believe it has done more harm than good to us. The reason most of us like Haley better as 'leader' was actually because she didn't see it as a leading role. She saw it as a spokesperson, or figurehead role; someone to represent the group, and I'm not sure that's how Jeremy saw it. Jeremy was indeed a good leader, he was great at giving speeches and pep talks, a great figurehead, and he's a great guy in general; but his style of leadership is not what this group needs. He needs to get it through his thick, stubborn skull that he is not a bad leader, just not the style we need. Through all of my thoughts I hadn't realized that we were much closer to the mall now. The heist was about to begin. As we approached the front entrance, everyone started loading up their guns. Wilson and Zach took position by the doors as Jeremy and Weir set up in front of the doors. Wilson and Zach busted down the doors and stepped away, and Jeremy &Weir were ready to fire inside. Luckily, Jeremy and Weir didn't have to fire a shot, which gave us a better chance because we hadn't alerted anything yet. Everyone began to file in, Zach and Wilson taking the lead with me and Jeremy at the rear. We started to notice that most of the walls of the inside were cracked and molded, which scared me a bit. We kept walking, and the room began to expand into a giant room with about 80 shops in it. This mall had to be at least 3 storied, so that's a total of 240 shops approximately that we could raid. Each level except for the bottom level had a floor that circled around into itself with a chunk missing in the middle, so the people on the upper floors could look down at the bottom. We decided that Jeremy and Weir should go up to the top floor, Zach and I would take the 2nd floor, and Ashley, Haley, and Wilson would take the ground floor. When we found the stairwell, we split up. It was hard for me to part with Haley, but I knew in my heart she would be fine. As Zach and I trudged up the nearly demolished staircase, I reflected upon what Haley had said earlier. The bad feeling she had about this heist. It seemed too real to me, as if I had shared the feeling. I shook the thought out of my mind as Zach and I got to the door to the 2nd floor. He opened the door to the room full of deserted shops, cracked walls and floors, and the smell of the undead. Zach and I continued onto the floor and tried to sot shops to raid.

"Look over there Ryan." He said "Candy Shop." I couldn't believe it. I hadn't had candy in about a year, and I was seriously craving some sugar. Zach and I began to sprint to the shop, but about halfway to the shop, we felt an abrupt shake and an ear-piercing rumbling sound, along with the scraping of metal. I happened to look down and saw that there was a giant crack starting to make it's way across the floor a few yards in front of us. I looked behind us and saw another crack, the floor was breaking.

"Keep running!" I yelled. Zach had started to slow down, but when he realized what was happening he bolted. We were almost to the crack in front of us, when the floor started to drop. Zach and I jumped right as the floor chunk detached from the rest of the level. I made it back onto the level and slid forward, but Zach didn't make it. He was hanging onto the rest of the level, as his feet dangled in the air below. I crawled over and grabbed his hand. Desperately, I tried to pull him up. Luckily, I was strong enough to lift him up and over and back onto the level. We both collapsed onto the floor after my successful rescue, breathing heavily.

"Thanks man, I owe you one" he managed to say

"You owe me two. Come on, let's get some candy." I responded. As we started to get up, we both looked at the gaping hole in the ground. This place was seriously unstable, so we needed to get in and out quickly.

"Everyone OK?" my walkie-talkie spoke in Haley's voice. I picked it up from my belt and gave a confirmation that Zach and I were ok, followed by Jeremy's confirmation. Now that a piece of our floor was missing, we would have to circle around to the other side of the mall to exit. What was worse, it looked as if the chunk of the floor falling alerted almost all the zombies in the mall with it's noise. We would have to double-time it out of here. Zach and I agreed to go to the candy shop, being sure to walk this time. We got to the shop, and saw a few shelves empty, but there was still a lot of candy here. I grabbed a bag from behind the counter and started stuffing the candy that was still good into it. By the time we were done loading the bag, it was about five pounds. We decided to leave the shop and try to make it to the exit, but just as we exited to the shop, we heard the sound of a floor dropping again. However, this time it was not our floor that was dropping, it was the floor above us. The floor that held Jeremy and Weir. Zach and I looked up, watching for which section of floor was going to come off. After a few moments, we realized that it wasn't only a piece that was coming down, it was the whole level. The end of the floor that wasn't attached to the wall began to bend down into the center of the bottom floor. Suddenly, the middle section of the third level snapped and the end connected to the wall slammed into the wall. That end of the floor went vertical, and everything from shoes to video games to shards of glass rained down on us. It seemed that the shops collapsed into themselves when the floor began to crumble. Suddenly, through the dust and rubble, Weir fell from the third floor. Luckily, he appeared to be on the side that went vertical into the wall, so I could catch him. I held my arms out to try to catch him, and sure enough he fell into my arms, and then thanked me for the save.

"Quick! Watch for Jeremy! He was on the other side of the floor!" He yelled, panicking. Zach, Weir and I all looked over at the side of the floor collapsing into the middle of the bottom level. Sure enough, we spotted Jeremy. However, he was in a free fall. His limbs were flailing as rubble and chunks of floor flew down with him. I ran over to the edge of our level in an attempt to watch Jeremy. I saw him hit the floor on the bottom level, back first. I had a little hope, until a huge chunk of the ceiling started to fall, right were Jeremy was laying.

"Jeremy! Get out of there! Move!" I yelled, but to no avail. In a few moments, the ceiling piece hit the floor, crushing Jeremy beneath it.

"Noooo!" I heard a faint cry. It was Haley. She started running toward the fallen piece of ceiling, but before she could get too far out of range, Wilson grabbed her and held her back. He was probably telling her we had to go, and he was right.

"Zach, Weir, let's get the hell out of here!" I yelled. They didn't object. We started sprinting across the floor and looking to cross over to the other side. As we began to run, we could feel the level begin to shudder and sway. We were running at full speed and had almost reached the exit. There was a small amount of time where the only thing that was running through my mind was 'We're not going to make it, the whole building is going to collapse on top of us'. However, I knew I couldn't afford to think like that. We let out a final burst of speed and pushed the exit door open. We jumped over the balcony that was looming over the entrance to the bottom floor and fell onto the awning. We slid off of the awning and fell to the ground, where we met up with Wilson, Haley, and Ashley. Haley and Ashley were huddled on the ground crying, while Wilson was just staring at the crumbling building.

"We have to go!" I yelled as I grabbed haley's hand. Haley got up, despite being in tears and ran with me. The thunderous sound of the whole building coming down deafened me, and it felt like a giant earthquake. We ran all the way until we reached the city limits.

"What the hell happened Weir?" I shouted.

"There were at least 500 of them!" Weir responded. "There was one survivor, but he was covered in blood. Somehow, the zombies weren't attacking him. When he saw us, he started shooting one of the support beams on the 2nd floor. That's why our floor began to crumble. Jeremy saw how it was bending and shoved me into the wall. He saved me." He continued. The only thing I could think of was the possible reasoning that someone would do something like that. Why would someone give their own life to take ours? Haley and Ashley were still on the ground sobbing, and with good reason. Jeremy, our friend, was gone.
Chapter 17 – Zach

### My best friend.......Jeremy was my best friend. We've known each other since we were babies, when we were kids we were inseparable, most of the time we shared the same crib for god's sake. I couldn't believe that he was really gone. I bent down and held Ashley as she cried her eyes out. She had finally found someone to love, someone that wouldn't treat her like garbage, someone who would finally treat her with respect, and in an instant he was taken away from her. I knew how she felt, before Jeremy had come along and grabbed me to come on the road with him, I had a girlfriend myself. Her and I were the definition of love, but when the outbreak began, she was taken. We were running down a street, she tripped and she yelled for me to go on without her. I had to fight against every fiber of my being not to help her, but I knew she would not want me to go as well. Before I turned my back for the final time, I blew her a kiss, and she blew one right back. I ran as I heard her bloodcurdling screams and the bites and the tears. I knew exactly what Ashley was feeling, So I knew how to comfort her.

"Ash, it's not your fault. It was fate, Jeremy's time came, we can't change that. But what we can do is remember him. We can remember Jeremy for who he was, and what he did for us. You need to remember, Ash, that he loved you very much. He would want you to move on and be happy. He would want all of us to move on, but still remember him." I said, through the cracks in my voice. Ashley looked up at me, and through the tears in her eyes, she smiled.

### "Thanks Zach, your right." She said "What we need to do, in honor of Jeremy, is find Morgan and get the information we need." Everyone agreed to this, and at that we all began to return to the RV. As we began to walk back, I remembered me and Jeremy as kids, playing video games, tag, basketball, four wheeling, bicycling, and trampolining. We were the best of friends, and it's always been that way. He went out like a hero, as I expected. Giving his life to save Weir's was probably the most courageous thing Jeremy has ever done. After about 45 minutes passed, we had made it to the RV.

### "Pack your things everyone, we're leaving. Haley claimed. I figured that would probably be the best course of action, because the RV was pretty beaten and battered. It wasn't a very good shelter, as well as the fact that it didn't run anymore. Everyone else must have felt the same, because everyone began to gather their things. I had no idea where we were going to go, considering the RV was out only shelter for 3 months. The feeling inside the RV was tense; for many of us, Jeremy was our best friend, for the others, Jeremy was a good friend who was always there when we needed him. For the entirety of our packing, no one said a word. we spent about an hour and a half packing everything, and we decided to go pay our friend Dr. Richard Morgan a visit. We bid the RV farewell and began our voyage for 7926 Sunset Falls, Colorado Springs. As we walked,

### we found ourselves reminiscing on the good times that we shared with Jeremy. My childhood with him, Weir and Wilson's gaming binges, Haley's hanging out. We started laughing at the funny things he would say and do. For the last part of his life he even wore bright orange shoes, because orange was his favorite color.

### "So what are we going to do once we find Morgan?" Wilson asked

### "We ask him what he's up to with these gems and see what they are for. At this point, he is our best shot at finding out what these gems are capable of." Ryan answered. "We find out everything he knows so we know what kind of power we are dealing with. I don't know about you guys, but I've been feeling something strange when I'm by the gems. It's as if they're trying to talk to us, and it seems like they're getting stronger the closer we get to Morgan." Now that he mentioned it, I felt the same way. There was definitely something weird about these gems, something that my mother, the expert jeweler that she was, probably couldn't even imagine. Whenever I would get close to these gems, I feel like there is some sort of..........magic to them. Whatever Morgan did to them, he definitely made them special. As our trek continued, I kept thinking about what seemed like a lost cause. Jeremy and I had such a bond between us that we could almost tell when the other was in danger. If Jeremy had died, I would have felt it. Because of this, I found myself hanging on to the seemingly hopeless thought that Jeremy may still be alive. However, I watched a huge chunk of concrete that must have weighed at least a ton fall 3 stories down directly onto Jeremy. There was no way anyone could survive that..........could there?

### "According to the address, Morgan's house should only be about a block away." Weir told us, breaking me from my thoughts. I started paying more attention to reality, and I noticed an orange glow coming from Ryan's pocket that had been getting stronger as we got closer to Morgan's.

### "Ryan, what's that glowing in your pocket?" I asked. Everyone stopped, and Ryan looked down at his pocket.

### "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the gems. He opened his palm and watched them as they glowed. A few moments passed and then, suddenly, the gems began to float from Ryan's hand and began to slowly spin. Their brightness increased and they shone almost as bright as the sun. They then began to float away from us, down the road. They appeared to be floating closer to Morgan's place, so could that be the cause of the gem's mysterious behavior? I guess the only solution would be o follow them. We did so as they spun a bit faster and glowed a bit brighter until they ran straight into the front door of a house.

### "This is the place, 7926 Sunset Falls." Weir announced. Ryan put out his hand to grab the gems, but as he did so, the gems seemed to disintegrate into the front door. Ryan froze in shock. I looked over into the window and saw the dark walls begin to glow a bright orange.

### "They went straight through the door!" I yelled. At that, Ashley stepped up and kicked the door down. I didn't know what was more shocking, the gems that had just passed through a solid front door, or the fact that Ashley had just kicked that same door off of it's hinges. We followed the gems through the living room and kitchen.

### "Aaaaahhh.........there you are my pretties! Come to daddy.........you truly are my most beautiful pieces!" A demented, psychotic voice echoed from the bottom of the stairs. Ryan held out his arms against the walls and signaled for us to stop. The gems continued down the stairs and enveloped us in the shadows. Before long, we were unseeable, and had the element of surprise.

### "Yesssssss.......come to papa my pretties!" The strange man held out his hands openly, and sure enough, the gems went right into his hands. The glow from the gems began to dim, and before long, the room went back to darkness. The man began to walk away, his footsteps fading into the dark rom. After we were sure he was gone, Ryan brought out his flashlight. He silently began to walk down the stairs, motioning us to follow. We proceeded into the darkness and noticed some weird surroundings. Around us, I noticed some outlines of statues of Greek gods, as well as stone tablets. We advanced into the mysterious room, and heard strange chanting. The psycho was chanting some sort of worship to the gems. We spotted a door that had blue, green, white, and orange lights seeping through it's cracks, and decided to head towards it. As we proceeded, the chanting became more understandable.

### "By the elements of the world! By the mystical power of the mayans! Allow these stones to absorb thine power!" he chanted. I kept wondering what the hell he was talking about. As we got closer to the door, the temperature rose. It seemed as if all the energy in the state was being directed into this one place. We were all now pressed against the door, listening intently to his chants. "The ancient rings shall call their masters, thus saving the world for sure disaster. Fire, Water, Earth, Air; their combined powers none shall compare. Ancient powers rise by my hand, and restore order to this wasteland. From the power of magic and the power of science, please restore the power giants!" It was clear that Ryan had heard enough of his nonsense. He proceeded to kick the door down, but when he did, we all saw something we never expected.
Chapter 18 - Ryan

### As soon as I kicked the door down, I noticed something was completely wrong. I looked up from the flattened door and I saw the most bizarre thing I had ever seen. It was a giant altar with a blinding white light shooting out of the top. Surrounding the light there were four clumps of gems, one of which were ours. The gems were all orbiting symmetrically around the light, each gem reflecting itself off of the light, creating a multi-color effect. Beside the huge altar, was the psychotic voice we kept hearing' the man we had been hunting, Richard Morgan.

### "You fools! You have interrupted the ceremony! The power of the elements will be most displeased! Do you have any idea what you have done?" The guy was a nut-job. The apocalypse mast have driven him crazy, because this guy really didn't seem like a doctor to me.

### "What do you know about the gems Morgan? What can they do?" Haley asked with extreme anger in her voice.

### "I shall show you my young mind slave!" Morgan exclaimed.

### "Mind slave? You son of a bitch! You were that voice in my head?" Haley shouted in rage.

### "Hahahaha!" Morgan laughed maniacally. "Do not let them come here Haley! Do not let them come! Oh wait, they are already here. You aren't a very good mind slave are you dear? Perhaps I should have taken control of a more worthy soul. Maybe Jeremy? Oh I'm sorry, he's dead!" Haley snapped when Morgan mentioned Jeremy. She ran toward him, when suddenly, she was lifted off the ground.

### "Hahahah! there is no way you can survive the beam!" cackled Morgan. Haley then began to float towards the huge beam of light that was shooting out of the top of the altar.

### "Ryan, cup your hands!" Wilson yelled. I immediately knew what he had in mind. I cupped my hands and allowed Wilson to jump off and into the gravity of the beam. Because of Wilson's light weight, he could float faster toward Haley to get her out. Sure enough, Wilson was speeding toward Haley in mid-air. A few moments passed before Wilson reached Haley, at which point they were dangerously close to the beam. Wilson pushed Haley as hard as he could to get her out of the beam, unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Due to the intense gravity, Wilson and Haley were both sent hurdling into the beam of light.

### "Hahaha! there go two more members of your little group! You children failed to survive the apocalypse, not that you ever had a chance!" He cackled. As he did so, the room started to shake violently. Everyone was shaken off of their feet, including Morgan.

### "What is happening?" Morgan yelled in disbelief. I looked back at the beam and the gems to see the gems start to orbit closer to the beam

### "No! They are not ready!" Morgan screamed. Morgan tried to get up, but failed. The gems sank ever closer to the beam until they sunk inside. "No! We're all doomed!" Morgan yelled. A few moments after, there was a deafening shatter. The beam had exploded right in front of our eyes. I could only watch for a few seconds before I blacked out. When I awoke, the building was rubble. There wasn't any structure of the building that was intact, other than a strange floating circle of rings about 30 feet away. I approached them, walking among the rubble. When I got there, everyone else had suddenly appeared, except for Haley and Wilson. I hoped they were ok, and I wanted to look for them, but something was tying me to these floating circling rings. These rings were circling the piece of rock like the gems were circling the altar before the explosion. It seemed as if the gems had turned into these rings, but how? and why? I began to look around, looking for haley and Wilson, when suddenly, two of the six rings that were circling the stone broke free of their orbit, but kept floating. They then began to slowly sink the the ground, and when they hit the ground, they began to transform. The rings turned completely white and sparkly, as if made of fairy dust. They then began to shape-shift, as if trying to find a new form. Eventually, the rings shifted into human-like forms, still sparkling. Sure enough, when the sparkling subsided, it was Haley and Wilson's bodies that they shifted into. The only modifications to their bodies was that they had the very rings that transformed into them on the right ring fingers. Wilson's was black with a symbol on the top that looked like a black heart, but the middle was white and the edges were rugged. Haley's was white and had a not he top that looked like an upside-down 'T' with dashes extending diagonally inward from the corner where the two lines meet. Kind of like a 'T' with war-paint. We all looked back up to the remaining rings in the orbit of the rock, and once again, a ring broke off. Only this time, it launched itself away from the rock and kept going. We couldn't see it anymore, and we had no idea what was going on. I walked over to Haley and crouched down next to her. I stroked my hand through her hair and stared at her beautiful face. She opened her eyes and looked at me. She sat up and held her head, and Wilson stood up.

### "What happened to you two?" I asked.

### "That beam held the answer to all of our questions." Haley answered. "It told us what the gems were, what they were used for, and what they could do to people." She continued. Haley and Wilson began to tell us all about the gems and their purpose.

### "Morgan was a scientist who studies the chemical reactions of stones against one another. He found the four chemical reactions that had never been tried before due to their unpredictability, and decided to try them to see what they would do. He was in the same building as the zombie virus was when it was first developed, but got away. He didn't complete the test on the gems, due to the infection, and wasn't able to fuse the green gems. He searched the country trying to find an appropriate lab, but for a long time didn't avail. he then remembered that he lived near an advanced science lab in Colorado Springs a few years back. He came back here and stored the gems in a storage unit while he fused the green gems, because he had no idea what the four would do if they were together and fused. At this point, he knew something was strange about them and didn't want to take the chance of them becoming too unstable. When he fused the green gems, he came back and collected the other gems. He then planted a 'controller' of sorts in the sprouter that was in the storage unit. Turns out that the sprouter was just a few zombies that were trapped in the same unit and got hungry. They bit each other so hard that they started to fuse with one another, and with the chemical energies of the gems, their chemical properties began to fuse as well. After he planted the controller in the sprouter, he left. He began studying Mayan mythology, and found out that the gem combinations, had indeed been done before, in Mayan times. These gem combinations were used in an ancient ritual, in order to crown masters of a certain element. He scouted the area in a search for an appropriate house for a ceremony, and found it. However, he noticed that he forgot the Orange gems in the storage unit. He tapped into the sprouter and discovered that it was dead, and he also saw that we were taking the gems. At that point, he transferred the controller to a bug on the floor, which crawled up the back of Haley's neck and attached itself. That is how Morgan ended up having mind control over Haley. He then proceeded to try to kill us in order to regain his gems. As we got closer to Morgan, the gems sensed their creator and wanted to go to him, because they were destined to. Inside the gems hold the power of the four elements; Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. Once they were all brought summoned together, and once Morgan performed the sacred chants of the Mayan elders, the energies in the gems would re-focus. They then transformed into rings, rings that give the wearer the power of the element that the certain gem represents. The ring must choose it's master. However, if someone proves themselves worthier enough, they can steal a ring. If someone holds all the rings at once, they are known as the Elementum Magister, the Element Master. He would have power over all four elements." Haley's speech seem to run forever.

### "So if the rings represent the four elements, why are there six of them?" I asked

### "Because" Wilson chimed in "When Haley and I were sucked into the beam, we were going to die. However, the elements in our hearts had never been seen by the beam before. There is always darkness in my heart, so the beam manipulated into a ring. I now control the element of darkness. The same goes for Haley, she controls light." This all sounds so ludicrous, but then again, a year ago a zombie apocalypse sounded ludicrous. We all looked back up at the remaining rings. There were three left circling around the stone' the Air, Earth, and Water rings.

### "They're analyzing the world for a worthier master." Haley spoke. Just then, they froze. Two of them launched away from the stone, leaving streaks of light behind them. The third stayed there, hovering in the air, unaffected by the laws of gravity or physics. Eventually, the ring joined it's brethren in takeoff, however, it didn't launch itself away from the stone, rather, toward me. It hit my ring finger with the force of a big rig, the force of the hit sent my body spiraling the in the air. After a few seconds airborne, I hit the ground, back first. Strangely enough, none of this had hurt me. In fact, all I felt was raw energy flowing through me. I looked at my hand and saw the ring shone as it's brethren did with Wilson and Haley. I felt myself becoming one with my element, I could feel my energy becoming bridged. The ring's shine faded until it looked like a regular ring, but I knew better than to think of it as anything but extraordinary. On the top of the ring was a symbol, it resembled an english 'H', but there were diagonal slashes int he spaces of the two parallel lines. The ring was blue, thus signifying that this ring controlled the element of Water. I stood up and stared at the ring. It had chosen me as it's master. Out of all the remaining people in the world, I was worthy.
Chapter 19 - Weir

### This was all so bizarre. Magic rings that would let the wearer control the elements? Highly unlikely. And if that were the case, why couldnt I wield one? Why hadn't a ring chosen me as it's master? I clearly have a more vast intellect than anyone in the group, so I think I deserve one. It must have all been a trick, an illusion of some kind. However, it was beyond me how Morgan could make a whole building turn to rubble in mere seconds. I stared at Ryan as he stared at the ring. I wasnt going to believe it was 'magical' until I saw what it could do. Finally, Ryan looked up at me.

### "Skeptical?" He asked. I had forgotten that we all knew each other so well, spending so much time together made the group learn about one another. I nodded at Ryan's question. "Yeah, me too, I'm not sure if any of this is real to be honest." He continued.

### "There's only one way to find out." I said. He replied with a nod, then turned around. He looked out at the Rocky Mountains and saw all the snow on them. I figured he was thinking exactly what I was. Snow was frozen water essentially, so his ring should work on it.

### "What do I do to make it work?" He asked Haley.

### "From what I understand, you can't 'make' it work. It has to come naturally to you. It has to agree with you, so to speak." She responded. Great, more mysterious mumbo-jumbo.

### "Wait a minute guys, where's Morgan?" Wilson asked.

### "Last I saw him, he was trying to hold his own against the blast." Ryan responded. We started to look for him, and eventually found him. He was in the driver's seat of a car that whizzed by us. It appeared that out beef with Morgan was not yet over. We decided that the best course of action was to try to figure out where Morgan was headed and follow him. As we treaded away from the destroyed building, many of us began to express our sorrows. Everything that was going on had just hit us like a ton of bricks. Jeremy's death, the deaths of our families, what the world had come to in just 3 months, how much longer we would have to endure this hell, how our hopes were relying on these rings that may or may not have 'magical' powers. The ones that weren't hit very hard tried to comfort the ones that were hit the hardest. Wilson and myself tried to comfort Zach and Ashley, while Ryan worked to comfort Haley. None of us knew exactly how to help each other, even though we had spent the past 3 months getting to know each other. Nothing like this had ever happened in history, and no human being was meant to endure this much emotional and physical pain. We had no cure, and nowhere we could think of to go. Morgan was the only person that we could think of that may have the slightest idea of how to stop this plague, but we had no idea where he was headed. Most of us agreed to adapt back to our old ways, pure survival. Wilson and Zach disagreed.

### "We need to find Morgan and get more information out of him, see if he knows if any of the scientists in Vermont had an antidote to this thing as a precaution." Wilson suggested. This fueled us back to the idea of trying to find Morgan, who we had already lost track of. We made our way down to the highway, walking away from Colorado Springs forever. We walked for at least an hour before we got to a rest stop. The rest stop was completely raided, but we thought the soda machines might still have had some soda in them. As well, we needed to search the car wash for cars, because walking definitely wasn't cutting it. Zach and Wilson went inside to check the soda machines, while Haley, Ryan, Ashley, and I went into the car washes. If there was a car here, it was definitely invisible, because I wasn't seeing one. I could, however, see about a million gasoline containers. Suddenly, an idea struck in my head. I sprinted out of the car wash and into the rest stop. I made my way behind the counter and found a bunch of tools. Among them, I found a few sturdy ropes and some heavy looking metal slabs. All I needed to know was which of these tools could break a pipe. And, even if I found something hard enough, I would need to raise it up 20 feet to the top pipe to break it. As I was contemplating, I heard two different pitched 'honks' outside. I looked up at the rest stop's security camera feeds and saw two cars that Ashley and Ryan found. One was beat up, almost beyond repair, and the other was almost new-looking. I knew from the get-go which car we were going to take, but maybe we could make use of the other one as well. Now we would need 2 ropes and 2 anvils, or at least something very heavy. I saw Zach and Wilson walk by with 5 milk gallons full of soda, when I caught their attention. "Abloogywoogywoo!" I yelled from behind the counter. They jumped so much they fell and 2 of their gallons exploded onto the ground. It reminded me of the 'gallon smashing' youtube videos that went viral just before the outbreak. That was the most fun I have had since the outbreak began. They shot dirty looks at me and told me that I had just wasted 2 gallons of soda.

### "I have a plan that can get us about 15 gallons of water." I responded. I explained my plan to them and told them the only flaw in the plan was getting up to the top pipe of the car wash. At that, Wilson had an idea that would test the truth of the rings as well. My plan was that we tie something heavy to a sturdy rope, hang it from the top pipe, hit the object hanging from the pipe with the beat-up car whilst driving, and the force should either knock the heavy object in the air, and the force of it's pull as it comes back down would pull the pipe off, or the car will 'grab' the object in the grill and the pull between the car and the rope would pull the pipe off. Wilson said that he could use his ring of darkness to blend into the shadows of the car wash and climb up to the pipe. And that he did. To my surprise, when Wilson stepped next to the shadows on the inside car wash wall, his ring began to glow. Wilson began to merge with the shadows. His whole body turned black as the shadow, and it looked as if he had become attached to the wall. Wilson then began to crawl up the wall and onto the ceiling, rope in hand. As he tied the rope to the pipe, it looked as if he was standing upside-down on the ceiling. After tying the ripe, he climbed back down, detached from the wall, and transformed back into the normal Wilson. I guess seeing truly is believing, because he surely made a believer out of me. What I had just witnessed was nothing short of miraculous. I was so much in awe that I had almost forgotten the next phase of the plan. The others and I had developed a pulley system in the car. One of the heavy metal slabs I found in the rest stop was placed in the beat-up car, suspended a few inches from the gas pedal by another rope. This rope led through the door and in our hands. The door was acting as our axle. We let go of the rope and the heavy metal fell directly on the gas pedal. the crummy car sped off toward the car wash. The car hit at least forty miles per hour before the impact into another metal slab that we had tied to the dangling rope. As I expected, the metal slab latched onto the car's grill and the rope holding it to the pipe tightened sharply. Suddenly, the pipe snapped and water started to fly and spew everywhere. As it did, the car kept going until it crashed and exploded into the wall and the other side of the car wash. I happened to look over at Ryan and saw his ring start to glow. He suddenly raised his hand, and when he did, all the water that was just flung into the air by the impact froze in mid-air. None of it flowed, none of it dropped, none of it froze over into ice, it just hovered where it was. ryan's ring was supposedly the ring of the water, and that is why. Ryan must have the ability to control the water.

### "Weir, go set those gas containers up, I'll direct the water into them." He told me. I did as he told, not questioning the power of the rings anymore. As I set up each gas container, some of the water above me drained out of the mainstream of hovering, frozen water and flowed into the individual gas containers. I honestly couldn't believe my eyes, these rings truly possessed magical powers. As Ryan poured the water into the gas canisters, I noticed that quite a few zombies were coming from down the road. With all the stuff concerning the rings, we had all nearly forgotten that we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

### "Hey Ryan, you might want to hurry that up, we've got company." I warned.

### "I'm going as fast as I can." Ryan hissed back. "Just stall them until I get this done." Zach, Ashley, and I sprinted across the parking lot, looking for an idea. there were at least twelve dozen of them, there was no way we could fight them all. the lot was nearly empty, so there was nothing we could do to distract them or use against them. It almost looked as if it were the end of the line. We were surrounded, there was nothing we could do. "Hit the deck guys!" Yelled a familiar voice. As we were instructed, Ashley, Zach, and I dropped to the ground. As we did so, a huge wall of wind hit the zombies head-on, lifting them into the air. I watched on as all the zombies rose off of the ground and start to swirl around, as if they were in a tornado. The wind around us was almost too much to handle, we were about to lift off the ground ourselves, when, just in the nick of time, the tornado of zombies was launched sky high and into the distance. I heard a huge slosh in the distance, probably the remainder of the water ryan was handling hitting the ground. I looked up and saw a girl floating on a cloud about 15 feet from the ground. the back of her head looked quite familiar, though I couldn't put my finger on where from. As her cloud descended to the ground, I found myself finding her even more familiar. She stepped off the could and onto the ground, then turned towards us. I couldn't believe it. It shouldn't have been possible, but there she was, standing before us. It was Caitlin who had saved us all.
Chapter 20 - Haley

### How had Caitlin survived? We had watched her get eaten alive by zombies back in Iowa.

### "I know you guys must have a lot of questions." She started. "And I'll start by saying that the person who was in your group, the person who used to sneak your supplies and snatch your food, the person you successfully killed, that wasn't me. She was a look-alike, sent by the Elemental Legion to try to slow you guys down." I know that element controlling rings were weird.........but this? One thing was for sure, our lives had just gotten a lot more complicated than it already was.

### "The Elemental Legion?" Inquisited Weir fascinatingly.

### "Yeah, they are a secret order that spied on a man named Richard Morgan and his science team. The Legion was obsessed with finding a way to control the elements, and Morgan and his team were researching the subject. The Legion had already mastered two elements from years upon years of training; time and electricity. They used their mastery of time to see the future and travel through holes in time. Apparently, you guys are in possession of tings that control the elements. They knew this a few months ago, they knew you would be masters of the rings. That's why they kidnapped me and replaced me with a look-alike, to try to disintegrate your group before you got to the rings." She responded. This changed everything, this meant that Caitlin was on our side after all.

### "So when did they nab you?" Wilson asked.

### "Before you guys picked me up in Canada for the road trip, they predicted the whole zombie apocalypse and knew it was going to come during our vacation. So they grabbed me at the most convenient opportunity. You guys have been with the fake me the entire time. Before I escaped, I learned of your location, then destroyed all the Intel they ha don you guys. From what I can tell, they have no idea where you guys are now." She responded.

### "Well if you don't really know us, I guess we need to introduce ourselves." Ryan suggested.

### "Not necessary." Responded Caitlin. "They tracked you guys for so long that I know almost everything about you guys. And unfortunately, that means the Elemental Legion knows even more." If all of this were true, we were in some serious danger. Not only was someone spying on us, but they know our greatest weaknesses as well.

### "How have they been doing this?" Asked Wilson.

### "They can control the zombies somehow. You guys remember Colorado Springs? When Haley was first knocked out? That huge zombie horde that Ryan took out? That whole horde was controlled by the Elemental Legion to try to kill you. All of the bad things that have happened to you guys aside from the sprouter were caused by the Elemental Legion. The land mines by the apartment complex, the burning building, those men behind the burning building, the actual complex, Jeremy shooting his dad, the huge horde, the gas station, the mall's collapse, everything. The men behind the burning building were actually members of the Elemental Legion." Caitlin responded. Her voice changed pitch when she mentioned the mall's collapse. If she knew about that, she must have known about Jeremy. "It won't be long until they re-establish their spies and interfere again." She continued. "We have to stop them." If we took control of their technology, we could control the zombies. We would be able to cleanse the world. We had to do it, not only for ourselves, but for mankind. I explained my theory to the group and they all shared the same idea.

### "Caitlin, do you remember where they kept you captive?" I asked. Caitlin nodded and told us we were in for a long trip. It was a good thing we had a lot of water with us. We gathered the water jugs and trudged toward the Elemental Legion HQ. We went to take the new-looking car, but we discovered that it didnt have a motor in it, only a battery. One thing was for sure, we needed another method of transportation. According to the directions Caitlin had given us, it was a long way away, and we needed to get there ASAP. We walked for about half an hour before we crossed to the interstate, where there were scattered cars everywhere. the only issue was getting one that still worked. We looked in at least 50 cars before I heard the sound of a motor running. I went over to investigate, and sure enough it was a running Ford F-150 with nobody in it. The fuel tank was only at 1/2, so it couldnt've been abandoned too long ago. I looked down into the middle of the seat and saw miscellaneous papers scattered around. I also noticed a torn watch laying there. I picked up the watch and examined it. It looked almost identical to the watch Jeremy always wore. Could this mean..........

### "Haley!" I heard Ryan call. I stepped out of the truck and into plain view so he could see me.

### "I found a truck!" I called in return. Everyone walked over to me and examined the truck.

### "This was Jeremy's." Weir informed us. "I recognize it from when I went down to his house for Spring Break 2 years ago. There's a crack in the same spot on the windshield and the same dent in the bumper. And look, it's even got the same ketchup stains in the back seat as the one he had." How had Jeremy's truck gotten all the way out here from Missouri? And how did it have only a half tank of gas?

### "Well, we better get going." Ryan suggested, and we all agreed. Ryan climbed in the driver's seat, I climbed in the passenger seat, and Zach, Ashley, Weir, Wilson, and Caitlin all climbed in the bed of the truck. Ryan started the weave in between the spew of cars on the highway.

### "Hey! That's my truck!" Someone yelled from behind us. It couldn't be.......could it?

### "Ryan stop the truck!" Weir yelled. As instructed, Ryan slammed on the brakes.

### "Holy crap! Zach! Andrew!" The person behind us yelled, still trying to catch us. It looked like a kid, probably 10 or 11 years old.

### "JJ!" Weir yelled as he hopped out of the bed. Weir and the kid wrapped in a hug as I stepped out of the truck.

### "You're Jeremy's nephew right? I remember you from his 15th birthday party." He nodded.

### "Sure am, my uncle taught me everything he knew about zombies! Too bad I couldn't save my parents though.......and I have no idea where my sister and little brother are......." He trailed off. It was obvious this kid was saddened by the loss of his family.

### "You can just hang with us JJ, don' worry." Weir said consoling JJ. At that, the frown that was on JJ's face turned into a little bit more of a smile. JJ climbed into the back seat and we kept driving.

### "So JJ, you drove here?" I asked.

### "No, not all the way, my dad drove us from Missouri to the western end of Kansas, but then we got attacked and I couldn't save them. My sister and little brother got lost, and I drove for about 40 miles, then this guy in black showed up on the road and offered to drive me a little ways. I told him I needed to pee, and when I came back to the truck, you guys were driving." JJ responded. "I wonder what happened to the guy in black, he dropped this." JJ said as he held up the watch. I swear, that watch looked identical to the one Jeremy always wore, but then again, they used to make millions of those same exact watches. I then dropped my suspicions of the watch for the moment. As Ryan drove down the highway, JJ and I exchanged questions and stories. I asked him about the man in black, he asked me about Jeremy. I shared my survival story with him and he shared his. All the while, Caitlin was directing Ryan to the Elemental Legion HQ.

### "Hey Ryan, stop for a second." called Caitlin from the back. Ryan obeyed and Caitlin hopped out of the bed. She walked over to a walker that was straggling the outside of the road. She cut his head off with her knife and examined the back of his neck. "Hell." She said in the distance. She came back to the truck and announced that the Elemental Legion had their spies already regrouped and working. "We'll have to be extra cautious now, they'll do anything to keep us away from them." She continued. Knowing that someone knew every move I made was kind of intimidating, but the reason for this mission was to eliminate them, so I half-expected to be heavily monitored. I looked at my ring and pondered it's ability. Could I do what Wilson did and merge with light? Could I re-direct lgiht to become a distraction? Could I heat something using the light? I wasn't sure, but I was intent on finding out. We started driving again, and I stared at the window. the sun was beginning to set, and we would need to crash soon. A few hours passed and night had fallen. It was starting to become that time of year when the nights would start to drop in temperature. All of us couldn't sleep in the truck, so we decided to make a fire to keep all of us warm. Ryan and Zach went out to look for firewood. I stepped out of the truck and into the grassy area next to the road with Ashley. JJ, Caitlin, Weir, and Wilson stayed in the bed and talked.

### "Whoah Haley, you're glowing!" Ashley gasped. I was too immersed in thought to realize what was going on. I looked at my hands and my body, and amidst the darkness, I was indeed glowing. I looked at my ring and it appeared to be glowing as brighter than I was.

### "This is awesome!" I gasped. I thought about something, and decided to try it. I stepped forward and threw my hands out to my sides. I then swept my hands through the air in front of me. Sure enough, everything began to illuminate. The trees, grass, road, even people. it looked as if it were now daytime, but with a nighttime sky.

### "What are you doing!" Yelled Caitlin. She jumped from the bed and ran toward me. "Haley, turn everything back! quick!" She said hurriedly. I swept my hands over everything again and the darkness of the night returned. "It's my fault, I didn't tell you!" She yelled.

### "What's wrong Caitlin?" I asked hurriedly.

### "Whenever you use the ring's power, it angers the Elemental Legion, they're more likely to attack!" She explained.

### "What will they attack with?" I asked.

### "It could be anything out here." She replied. I thought about what they could use against us. There were no walkers nearby, no electrical currents. Then it hit me.

### "We have to find Zach and Ryan!" I yelled. Just then, we heard two screams come from the forest. Weir, JJ, and Wilson all hopped out of the bed and ran toward us. "Come on!" I yelled as I ran toward the woods in an attempt to find my colleagues. "Ryan! Zach! Where are you!?" I yelled the loudest I could as I continued to trudge through the trees and brush. I looked into the night sky as I ran. The beautiful stars, the magnificent shade of blue. It was so peaceful in my time of panic. Something in my gut was starting to tell me to watch the sky for some kind of sign. I wasn't sure what it was, but I listened to it. I ran into tree after tree, but I kept my eyes on the sky. Finally, just as I was going to look back to my front, a huge fountain of fire sprung from the treetops. That's where Ryan and Zach are my gut kept telling me, go there! My gut was right about the sign, but was it right about following it? I decided to find out the hard way. I began to run toward the huge fountain of flames. As I got closer, I heard maniacal laughter, and a familiar voice. I could swear that voice belonged to Jeremy. I pushed through the final trees before the fountain and found myself in a small field. This field was about the circumference of a sumo-wrestling ring with trees encircling it. I stuck to the treeline, and before me I saw Zach and Ryan in the middle of the field tied to a wooden pole, unconscious. Behind them, I saw a silhouette of a man holding his hand in the air and emitting the fountain of flame. Next to him, I saw an elderly man, he must have been at least 100 years old at least, directing and encouraging the silhouette.

### "Yes, yes that's it! You will master the ring in no time!" The elderly man shouted. That silhouette must have the ring of flame!

### "Hold hit!" I yelled without thinking. At the sound of my voice, the elderly man looked away from the silhouette and made eye contact with me. The silhouette continued whatever he was trying to do.

### "Aaaah Haley, just the woman we've been expecting!" The elderly man shouted in a twisted, maniacal voice.

### "How do you know my name?" I questioned.

### "Oh my dear." He replied. "Caitlin told you about the Elemental Legion yes? You should know that we know everything!" He exclaimed. The Elemental Legion? They could get here this fast? This was unbelievable!

### "Let my friends go old man!" I tried to be as menacing as I could, but I don't think it intimidated them much. The silhouette's head now seemed to be pointing in my direction. While still continuing his fountain of flames, he leaned over and said something to the old man.

### "Yes, she may seem familiar to you because she was once your ally before your accident. But remember my apprentice, your former 'allies' planned your accident to get rid of you!" He responded. I had no idea what he was talking about. "They betrayed you, but the Elemental Legion is too smart to double-cross a tremendous asset such as yourself!" He continued. The silhouette once again leaned over to the old man, but this time his face entered into the light. I was stunned. I knew the silhouette, he should be dead.

### "Yes, that would probably be for the best" The old man responded. But it couldn't be, he couldn't have survived through his ordeal. I was lost in thought, but the one smidgen of reality I saw was a fireball coming from the silhouette and hitting a branch of one of the trees I was in front of. This branch was right above me, and it quickly detached from the tree. It fell and hit me in the head, then trapping my body under it. All I could see were fire and trees, and before I lost consciousness, the image of Jeremy's face coming into the light from the darkness of the silhouette ran through my mind.

## To Be Continued

## Thank you so much for taking the time to read my book. If you liked it, please recommend it to your friends and watch out for the second installment in Jeremy Bene's 'The Fear Of' Trilogy.
