Walking. That's all they ever did anymore was walk. After 3 days of walking Anthony began to wonder what was even the point of living like this? It's spring time in Florida so if it's not constantly 90-100 degrees outside then it's raining cats and dogs. They were constantly wet or burning up and it had been 30 miles since the last time they reached a town so the only water they had anymore was from rainwater, and they didn't have any kind of rain catcher so they could only get it by leaving their bottles open which wasn't very effective. The envioronment was torture, that and the fact that there was always a little fear that youre going to be eaten alive made Anthony question why he kept living. Jemima could sense that. She knew a suicidal person when she saw one. Her father killed himself when she was 4. Her mother killed herself a year later by driving into a building with Jemima in the car, Jemima barely survived. And out of it came a person that could see suicide in another's eyes, Jemima knew that Anthony was considering it. She wanted to help him along but knew that after what happened to Noah that she could never kill again. There wasn't much skepticism over her story about what happened to him, but there would be if Anthony died and she was the only one to see him. All Jemima could do was watch the slow process of mental death take over Anthony leading into demise by his own hands. It might be the only entertaining thing that Jemima would get to watch out in this wasteland.
They didn't even see many walkers anymore, they were in the part of Florida that isn't extremely populated. After coming out of the emergency tunnel Carlos found a map in a car and decided that it was the smartest direction to go. He thought that maybe a small enough town would have heard about what was going on and closed up it's walls so that no one could get in. Maybe there's a small community that would take them in. Just seeing anyone that didn't want to rob them would be a relief, they had had no friends but each other since the epidemic started. And they kept shrinking. Finally on their 4th day on the road they came across a small towned that they assumed was made a ghost town by the epidemic. They couldn't barely even find a walker wandering the streets but this wasn't out of the ordinary and it just made it easier for them to go from gas station to house and get food and water without much interruption. None of them really said much to each other anymore, Carlos thought that they all had kind of a PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for those who don't know. Commonly found in soldiers who experience violent combat.) that put them in a trance. It's almost like they were zombies themselves. Wandering from town to town raiding whatever they could find just to keep them alive until they reach the next town just hoping that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. At the first gas station they walked into the light got a lot dimmer. Shots rang out immediately, the groups reaction was slow because of how unexpected and loud it was but they finally started ducking after it was too late to avoid being hit. Allan ducked behind the brick wall outside and all he heard was the screaming of rednecks yelling "Git 'em!" inside as they repeatdly fired their guns at the group. Allan wasn't sure how but somehow the rednecks knew that their group was coming and waited in the gas station for them to walk in. They got us.
Carlos was at crawled over to where Allan was because he was directly beneath a window and then stood up and began shooting. Allan decided that he would too because losing Carlos in this situation would be the worst possible outcome. Allan froze before shooting a few seconds after looking through the window because he saw a bloody body sitting right inside the door. It was Anthony. Anthony had been Allan's best friend since they had met and the sight of him dead enraged Allan. He moved out of the window to avoid being hit by the rednecks and when Carlos got down to reload Allan moved back into the doorway and began shooting again. The rednecks weren't expecting anyone to come back in the doorway and thus were taken by suprise when Allan began firing at them. Immediately Allan killed one and fatally wounded the other. The 3rd one had a clear shot at Allan but never got the chance to take the shot after Joyce left a hole in his chest from her shotgun that eerily reminded her of Connor...
Allan immediately ran over to Anthony's body crying. But Joyce told Allan that Anthony wasn't dead. Allan reexamined Anthony's body and noticed his back lightly moving up and down. He was still breathing. Allan flipped Anthony over and saw that he was unconcious but still alive. Allan told Joyce to get inside with her medkit quickly to aid Anthony but Joyce told him that wouldn't be possible and that' when Allan heard a gasp from Jemima.
Carlos carried Joyce inside and laid her down on the counter perpedicular to Anthony's counter. While Joyce was running out of the doorway from the rednecks she recieved a couple of bullets in her right leg. The adrenaline initially kept her from noticing it but after shooting the redneck she realized that her standing was causing her excrutiating pain and that she had to lie down. On the table she told Carlos that he would have to be the one that does the operating as he was the only one with any medical experience (You have to learn a small amount of medical knowledge to be a cop). But she told Carlos that he needed to operate on Anthony first if he was to live. Anthony had recieved multiple bullets in his chest, arms, and legs but no bullets to the neck, head, or any vital organs which was the only reason he was still alive. But the bleeding would kill him if his bullets weren't removed and his wounds were patched soon. Very few of the bullets that hit him made it through clean so several bullets needed to be removed by Carlos. Allan applied pressure to the wounds that Carlos wasn't operating on while Carlos worked to remove the bullets. Throughout this process Anthony managed to stay unconcious which worried Joyce because he may be slipping into a coma. Jemima watched this whole processed and hoped that Anthony would never wake up. She knew that it was a little too soon in the suicidal process to want to die but he would want it eventually so getting it over with now was the best solution. But to Jemima's dismay Carlos managed to succesfully remove every bullet and patch up the wounds without Anthony losing a lot of blood. He then worked on Joyce and succesfully patched up her wounds too (The 2 bullets she was hit with ended up going through without breaking any bones so all Carlos had to do was patch her up. The rest of the day Allan spent sitting by Anthony getting him anything he needed while he waited for him to wake up. Carlos worked on getting supplies to Jemima so that she could make a crude pair of crutches for Joyce to use while her leg was recovering. Joyce didn't expect to be off her leg more than a couple days but just in case anything happened Carlos wanted her to have a way to move. The next morning was met with horror from the group. Carlos awakened to Allan's screaming and crying and when Carlos got up he saw Allan standing over next to the window that had been shattered the previous day by the rednecks' bullets. There was blood all over it and when you looked out of it there was a walker lying there that Allan had stabbed in the head. The window was bordering the counter that Anthony was laying on and that morning while they were sleeping the walker must've just leaned in and began eating Anthony. Anthony only had a couple bites on his abdomen so Allan was whimpering in the knowledge of what had to be done next. But Carlos noticed somethin strange and horrific... Anthony was already dead. Most likely before the walker even started biting him Anthony had already died somehow. Carlos couldn't bear to think that he had missed a bullet or poorly patched up a wound that killed Anthony over the night... But had he? When Carlos told Allan what he had noticed Allan awoke Joyce and told her to inspect Anthony and give them an autopsy on what really happened. Joyce examined his torso for a few minutes and said she found nothing. Then she examined his head and was terrified...
Anthony had been smothered to death... Over the night someone had taken what Joyce assumed to be an article of clothing of some sort and held it over his mouth and nose until he died. The tragedy was that after everything Carlos had gone through Anthony died anyways. And even worse was the news that one of the remaining 4 survivors was a murderer...
"It was all for the best" Jemima thought to herself "I know that Anthony wanted it"...
DEAD - Anthony
Walkers killed - 82
Remaining Survivors - Jemima, Joyce, Allan, Carlos
