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
Whimpering... There was a sound... It sounded like whimpering... Noah sat up on the couch he slept on and looked around. Which room was it coming from? It was definitely a female's voice, after becoming fully awake he managed to figure that one out. Rooms switched often so it could be Joyce or Jemima... Should he walk in? Noah wasn't the best with sympathy, it's hard to relate to crying people when you can't feel. Walking in on Joyce could just pull him into some situation he didn't want to be apart of and walking into Jemima's room could get his head stabbed like Beth. But he couldn't sleep through all of that crying! It didn't seem like anyone else sleeping was bothered by it but he couldn't take it! He walked out into the hallway and stepped over to the door to the left of his where the noise was coming from. The door had small holes in it from the intruders gunfire almost a week ago. He peered in through one of the hole's and saw that it was Jemima, and she had cut her wrists... The sight of it frightened Noah, he was used to blood but not from self-inflicted wounds. This is something you only expect those goth kids in your school that listen to Slayer and Gwar to do. Noah knew more than anyone else that Jemima wasn't what she seemed but he never knew she was capable of this. She sat on her bed clinging a dismembered hand that Noah assumed belonged to one of her "pets". She was muttering something, it was barely legible under all that sobbing but Noah eventually made out that she was saying "Only half. 6 left. Half dead. All will die." He knew what she was talking about and didn't like it. Jemima had lost all hope of ever getting out of this situation alive with half the group that started out on this journey now dead. Noah knew the mind of a killer, if Jemima fell into a state of depression over this then she might do illogical things. Take a gun and go on a shooting spree, release her "pets" all over the house, or maybe even kill herself. Noah wouldn't have thought of that as an option before but after seeing Jemima abuse herself Noah thought that she might only be a step away from it. There was nothing he could do about it but follow her closely and make sure she wasn't planning anything. He would follow her to the pit every day and watch as she fed her pets. He would follow her on her water runs and go with her on hunting trips whenever she did that. He kept doing that for almost 4 days and every night he heard crying again. He didn't know whether or not she was still cutting or anything else that she did in there cause he didn't want to know anymore. As long as she was in her room and not sneaking around the house.
Noah dozed to far asleep one night and didn't notice Jemima slip out of her room. Jemima knew he was following her, she wasn't stupid but Noah was so it's hard for him to hide anything from her. She stepped over the tripwire Noah set outside her door that would turn on his lamp and jolt him awake. He was smart enough to take it down every morning but he was very conspicuous when he set it up every night right outside her door. Only 6 people are left. 12 left that plane and half of them had died in a month. Jemima knew that it was only a matter of time before they all left and all she wanted to do was help people along but Noah was hurting the process. She needed to do this, it's the only way. She walked through the woods until she reached her "children". She liked calling them her children because she never had any of her own. The only boyfriend she ever had jumped off the roof of the hotel she worked at before this all happened, at least that was the officer's conclusion. These things are so mindless and grabby that they just seemed like little babies to Jemima. Of course she knew that these were babies that would kill there mother if they got the chance but that happens a lot in the wild. She saw a program on television once about shark babies that eat there mothers. She pulled open the hatch that Noah put in the pit for her (Only smart thing he's ever done) and led her children to the house so that they could eat. They were going to get someone tonight. Jemima just knew it.
Anthony sat up in the attic gazing at the front yard on his shift as night watchman. It used to be that 2 people would sit up there to keep each other awake but the number of people has gotten too small to use 2 people per shift and not use everyone multiple times a night. So Anthony had to try and keep himself awake using any method possible. Nothing had worked so far so Anthony was experimenting with it. Tonight he was seeing if sticking peanut butter to the roof of his mouth would keep him awake. It was thoroughly annoying and distracting so he thought that it might just work this time, then he ran out of peanut butter. He knew that there was only one jar left in the house but he needed to keep himself awake for the safety of others so he went down to the kitchen to get the last jar. Someone else was down in the kitchen too. All he could make out was a silhouette but it's been established in the past that there are not supposed to be any midnight meal runs so Anthony was ready to come down hard on whoever was eating food when they're not supposed to. The closer he got the less he could make out who it was. The body and hair shape didn't look like anyone that lived in the house. But how could anyone have gotten in here without him seeing. Anthony decided that he would play it safe and pull out his gun. He told the person on the ground to turn around and they did, but this person was not alive. Anthony pulled out his backup knife, ran downstairs, and stabbed the walker in the head. He couldn't believe a walker got into the house on his watch! Carlos was going to be on his ass about this. Anthony realized that Carlos might be a little angrier about the fact that he didn't just let one walker in the house. There was an entire flock of walkers coming down the hallway leading from the ajar backdoor. Anthony noticed that it was open but didn't have anytime to think about it. He ran upstairs and woke up everyone telling them what was happening and to get there weapons. Anthony forgot to grab ammo though! The group kept most of their ammo in a desk downstairs or a box in the basement. The group sat at the top of the stairs and had to decide on a plan to escape while simultaneously keeping walkers from coming up to their floor.
The second Noah stepped out of his room and saw what had happened he assumed Jemima had done it. He began to ask where Jemima was because she wasn't with them on the top floor. No one knew where she was and that settled in Noah's mind that Jemima had done this. Then she ran down the hallway out of the bathroom and joined the group to fight. That made Noah incredibly confused but he decided to put it aside because he had to kill walkers now to survive. Allan checked all the windows, all of them could be jumped out of without sustaining any injuries but there were at least 6 walkers under every single one. They had surrounded every part of the house but the front and they had no access to a window leading out there except in the attic (Which had much to high of a drop to the ground to keep them from sustaining an injury). They kept fighting but the noise from these walkers had been attracting more walkers into their herd and it just kept growing. The group kept getting pushed farther and farther back until Jemima started climbing out of a window. Allan said that she was crazy and if she jumped out of that then she'd just land in a group of walkers below. But Jemima began scaling the side of the building around the side. Allan was suprised and when he looked out the window again he noticed a miniscule ledge that was just big enough to balance your feet on without too much risk of slipping out of it one by one. Jemima was hoping that they wouldn't notice her slipping out that window so that they would all remain in the house to feed her children but there were more ways to do that since they had followed her. The group jumped off the ledge once they reached the front of the house and had a few moments before the walkers picked up on their noise and started coming again. Joyce said that they should just run, head back up to the road they had started on and keep walking. Jemima said that they should head into the basement from the trap door on the side. Carlos had the key to it and they could grab their ammo and food boxes and head out the emergency escape hatch. Joyce warned that walkers might be in the basement and if more walkers came around the house and covered the entrance to the basement then they could be screwing themselves. But Carlos and Allan both agreed with Jemima. The escape hatch was a much safer place to be and they'd have food and ammo for wherever they were going next. It's a lot smaller of a risk then taking off on the road to risk running into the intruders again or another big hoarde. They ran around the side of the house and killed the walkers blocking the basement doors. The walkers fro inside the house had already noticed where the group was the they began working their way out windows to catch up to them. Carlos thought it seemed like they were raining from the sky when they fell out of the windows in big groups like that and it terrified him more. But he finally got the doors unlocked and the group piled into the basement. To their suprise there were no walkers in the basement so they had a little bit of time to gather food and ammo up before the walkers weight being piled on the doors was too much and the doors broke. But Jemima was the last one in the basement and left one of the doors open so the walkers began pouring in again almost immediately. They also heard them from upstairs and the walkers still inside the house began pouring into the basement. The group knew that they had to move IMMEDIATELY so they began running through the hatch. But without Noah... While the group was distracted gathering supplies and running into the tunnel Jemima quietly stuck her knife through Noah's throat in the back of the basement. She knew that the other members of her group were adamant and wouldn't go down easily so she decided that killing Noah was an easy way to get rid of the only person that knew she was crazy and feed her children. When the group got to the end of the tunnel and noticed that Noah was gone Jemima would begin crying again and tell them all that Noah tripped over a box and landed on his katana. It was risky, because she was also the only one that saw Beth die. She had to do it though. Everything she did was for a reason. Goodbye Noah. My children might like your company a lot more than I did....
The morning after Lynette had died at the group's house Carlos was packing his bags. Allan came down from his room and asked what Carlos was doing, Carlos explained to Allan that it was stupid to stay after all that's happened. Carlos said that the intruders have now scoped out the area and if they have more people at wherever they stay (If they have a place to stay) then all they have to do is regroup and attack them again when they're not expecting it, Carlos thought that they'd only lose more people by staying. Allan was evidently against the idea. Allan said that all they had to do was move their lookout spots around a bit so that the intruders wouldn't immediately know where we are if they tried to sneak onto the premises. Allan also didn't think that the intruders would want to come back after having over half their men killed without killing a single one of their group (Lynette was killed by a walker so it didn't count). Allan thought that moving would only disturb their quickly shrinking group and leave them more vulnerable for more death to occur, as many bad memories were in this house they just couldn't leave.
Beth sat in her room staring at her crossbow on the floor. She knew what she had to do, if Noah didn't die then their group would just keep getting picked off. She just didn't know how to do it. She couldn't think of a way to adequately tell the group that he was a murderer and make them believe her (And also keep Noah from finding out that she was telling people. There's no telling what he'd do if that happened). She had to stage it. She had to make it look like Noah had been killed by a walker (She liked the idea cause she's pretty sure that that's what he did to Lynette). But she needed to find the right time to do it, and she needed to find the courage to kill a man.
In the living room Allan and Carlos' arguing had gathered a crowd. It was no secret that Allan and Carlos were both leader-like figures in the group and thus their ideas clashed sometimes (Anthony said it was like the John Locke/Jack situation from Lost with more zombies). When Joyce walked in she took Carlos' side saying that she started to have nightmares about the people that had died in and around this house. She said there was just too much death here and that they needed to leave or risk insanity; Jemima also took Carlos' side for similar reasons. Anthony and Noah took Allan's side. Anthony said that if anyone would go insane in this house that it'd be him after Alexandria and that he was fine. He said that he felt safe here and that he never felt safe while they were walking by the road and that he barely got any sleep. Noah said that the thick brush and uphill slope behind the house was good protection from intruders. He said it'd be nearly impossible for the intruders to sneak behind their house at night without any previous experience in their woods in the daylight. Anthony suggested that they let the final vote go down to Beth and whatever she said the rest of the group would do. Everyone agreed that Beth had been the most reliable and honest person in their group since this epidemic started (While remaining eerily quiet for a lot of it at the same time) and that they trusted her decision almost more then they trusted Carlos and Allan's opinion (Which they both took a small amount of offense to but they let it go).
Beth had almost convinced herself of what to do when the whole group burst into her room and asked her about leaving or staying. Allan and Carlos gave what they thought were the best points to doing one of the two and told her that since it was a tie and she was the only one that hadn't voted that she should decide. Beth didn't have time to think about this. She glanced at Noah momentarily knowing that he was the one she needed to worry about. She almost took the leaving side just to oppose him but decided that there was no point in that. She had to plan how she was going to kill Noah and putting thought into leaving or staying the house was just more stress that she didn't want to worry about. She told them all that it was a big decision and that she would need time to think about it so Carlos gave her until the end of the day, he said that was because he didn't trust spending one more night in this place so if they were to leave then they needed to do it before it got dark.
Beth said that she would take a walk to clear her mind and wandered into the woods. This was apart of her plan to kill Noah, she was going to sneak around the woods until Noah came outside by himself and then she would kill him, take a walker out of Jemima's pit and make it look like Noah got suprised by it. Everyone knew that Noah had an introverted personality and liked to be alone a lot so it shouldn't be too long before he was outside doing something. It actually was a long time before beth saw anyone. She saw Jemima get water from the lake and Anthony chase a cat (He really didn't like cats and stray ones kept sneaking in the house to try and eat their food. He ended up tripping on the back porch and fell down the stairs... Again...) Beth began to get really worried that Noah was onto her, or that he was busy with a project inside and wouldn't come out before Beth had to make a decision on leaving or staying, he did say something about tightening his katana handle last night.... But finally he came outside with his katana. He set up a couple logs and began tapping them in differnt formations for practice. Beth lined up the shot, her hands would not stop shaking. Her arrow was already loaded and the safety was off, but the shot was difficult with her hands shaking this much. She had finally convinced herself that she needed to do this and wouldn't put another thought into any other plan, and she wanted to scream at her hands to get them to stop shaking! She was ready to kill...
Noah wrapped up his katana practice and went inside to get a towel to dry off his sweat (It was like 90 degrees outside but they had no thermometer so there was no way of knowing). Carlos came downstairs and asked Noah if he knew where Beth was, Carlos really wanted to get going soon and he thought Beth had been given enough time to decide so he thought he'd make her answer a little earlier than he thought. Noah had no idea where Beth was and he let Carlos know that (But he called him Carl teasingly cause it really pushes his buttons) so Carlos began to walk out into the front yard to continue his search. He immediately ran to the backyard when he heard Jemima crying. Carlos and Noah were the first 2 outside to see 4 walkers scattered around on the ground. and Beth's mangeled body in the middle of them. After they managed to calm Jemima down and the rest of the group had joined them Jemima explained what happened. She said that she was making another water run when she saw 4 walkers hunched down in the backyard, Jemima thought that they had just gotten to one of the cats or something until she saw Beth's crossbow. She ran over and killed all the walkers and saw Beth's body on the ground, but she was still barely alive. Her stomach had been torn apart and a chunk of her face was missing but she was still holding on somehow. Jemima said she knew that she had to put her down but before she did Beth managed to utter her last words. Jemima told them that Beth said she wanted to stay. Joyce and Anthony led Jemima inside to comfort her while Allan, Carlos, and Noah went to bury Beth's body. They got finished after dark and went inside, Carlos said that he was willing to stay to respect Beth's last wishes and then went to bed.
Noah went to bed that night wondering if he would've come inside from katana practice if Jemima hadn't killed Beth. Noah saw right through Jemima's sob story, she was a sociopath. It's nearly impossible to tell if a sociopath's lying, unless you're one too. Jemima had approached Noah the night Jaylen died and told him that they would watch out for each other because of what they are, she said that without each other the others would quickly find out what they were and dispose of them. So they had, Noah dug a trench for Jemima to keep her "Pets" in, he even built a little hatch that fell into a ramp that allowed Jemima to easily let the walkers out of the hole, he covered it in sticks and leaves though. In return Jemima was the brains of the operation. Whenever Noah felt like doing anything sporadic he always came to Jemima so that she could figure out a way to do it without being caught, all Noah had to do was be the bronze of the operations. He killed Lynette when Jemima asked him to after Lynette accused her of stealing food (She had done it to feed her "pets". Noah knew that it was unneccesary but he didn't want to upset her) and he would do it again. Jemima was even smart enough to see that Beth wanted to kill Noah and used that in her plan to get the group to stay at the house (She took the side of the people that wanted to leave so that when Beth died and Jemima told her supposed last words that people wouldn't think she was just saying it to get what she wanted). Jemima hadn't told Noah about that last part but Noah was pretty sure of it, Jemima would never want to leave the house with her pets in the woods. Jemima was smart...
It was almost noon at the group's house, 2 days had passed since Alexandria's passing. Almost everyone was inside preparing for lunch but Beth was outside hunting. Ever since she got her crossbow from the attic she's been busy learning how to use it. She was getting deep in the woods behind the house when she came across a small clearing with a strange landmark in it... She walked up to get a closer look at it when she noticed that it was a large, deep, rectangular hole in the ground. It almost looked like a mass grave of sorts, but Beth noticed that even was even more similar to a mass grave from all the walkers that had built up in it. It was just deep enough that any walker that happened to fall in the hole was not going to get out. Beth began to investigate a large pile of leaves and sticks at the end of the hole right before the drop when she had to run back into the woods quickly and quietly due to the sound of footsteps coming from the woods. Beth watched from a thick bush and saw Jemima come out of the woods and look at the hole. There was no look of suprise or shock on her face. She looked like she was counting the walkers inside. After sitting there for minute and observing the walkers Jemima walked back into the woods towards the house. This made Beth very curious as to what exactly Jemima was doing with a pit of walkers in the yard (If that was really hers, but Beth couldn't see Jemima digging a pit that big out here without being noticed by the rest of the group). Beth decided that the safest and smartest way to approach this was to ask Jemima about the hole in front of the rest of the group. So Beth went back to the house and joined everybody else as they were eating lunch. When she walked in Jemima and Lynette were arguing, Lynette was claiming that food was missing from the pantry and she saw Jemima taking it. Jemima was denying everything Lynette was saying and seemed to get more offended with each word. Beth took it as the perfect opportunity to ask the question so she stood up and got everyone's attention. She immediately lost it again as the sound of a car pulling up the gravel driveway and Allan flew up the stairs to look through the peephole and see what was going on. Looking out the window Allan saw a pickup truck and a volkswagon both filled up with people pulling in. He let everyone else look at the window and Carlos told everyone to begin executing the intruder plan. The intruder plan was that everyone with guns would stay upstairs (Carlos, Allan, Anthony, and Beth even though she had a crossbow) with the rest of the group going downstairs and waiting. Carlos would yell to the intruders and tell them that the people occupying this house had lots of weapons and the intruders could either leave or die. If the intruders didn't immediately leave they would open fire. If the intruders did not back down or any member of the group in the house were killed then the remaining group would flee through the emergency escape hatch in the basement that had roughly been finished the day before. Everyone went to their places but Carlos barely managed to get through the first sentence of the warning he'd prepared before the group outside had begun shooting at him. It was on.
In the basement Noah was getting impatient. He didn't like sitting downstairs while other people were fighting his battle upstairs. The other members of the group advised against it but it didn't work, not too long after the gunfire had started Noah had grabbed his katana and headed upstairs. He peeked out one of the cracks in a boarded window and noticed a man and a woman flanking around the back of the house. Noah snuck out the back door and waited at the corner for them to come around. He saw the woman's arms gripping a pistol round the corner and he immediately cut them off and ran her through the abdomen. The man began to panic and fired frantically, Noah backed around the corner again and within moments the man had fired all his bullets into nothing and Noah came back around the corner and cut his head off. Knowing that more people would be coming because of the noise from the shots and the man's screaming Noah strategically placed himself below the steps so that he wouldn't be seen until he needed to strike again.
In the attic Allan was firing his AK and Beth was firing her crossbow and on the groundfloor was Anthony and Carlos with their pistols. They had killed several of their men and avoided being hit because of the heavy layerings of plywood that Lynette, Allan, and Carlos had put up. The only unprotected places were where they had to aim their guns out of. The lack of protection from the intruders meant that they had to fire without much aiming so they were getting slaughtered. Carlos thought it would only be a matter of time before they either retreated or had all been killed. Suddenly screaming came from the attic, Beth looked over and saw that Allan had been shot. It looked like he was hit in the heart. His chest was bleeding profusely but he picked up his gun and started to fire again. This was around the time Joyce had come up into the attic to see what had happened with her medkit. Seeing where Allan had been shot she pulled him away from the window so she could begin working on him before he would be shot again. Allan struggled and screamed saying that he was fine and needed to keep fighting but Joyce knew that it was only adrenaline keeping him going at this point, if he didn't stop struggling then the bleeding would only increase and Allan could kill himself trying to fight. Anthony took his AK downstairs so that he didn't have to keep using his pistol and so that Allan may be a little more compliant to be treated on but Allan kept struggling, he kept saying that he didn't want to see anymore of his group die. Joyce began to tie him to a chair so that she didn't have to see him die, but from what she could see whenever she could get him still it didn't look like the bullet was in a good spot...
Lynette and Jemima were the only 2 still in the basement and Lynette was wondering whether or not she should go see if Joyce needed help. She started to walk upstairs when her and Jemima heard Noah scream from the backyard. They both ran outside with their weapons but didn't see Noah anywhere, Beth then came outside with them and said that they might need assist fire if any of the intruders were out back. Jemima said she was going to go into the woods to look for Noah and Beth noticed that she started to walk towards where the pit was. Beth then volunteered to go with her and Jemima allowed it with no hesistation, but Beth couldn't help but wonder if she noticed a twitch in Jemima's lips when she agreed. Lynette stayed behind in case Noah or any intruders ran back into the yard. What was Jemima planning?
In the living room Carlos and Anthony were laying down as much fire as possible, but ammo was running low and the remaining shooters had found good cover. Their aim started to get better and Carlos decided that it may be time to head out the escape hatch when he saw a bullet fly right past anthony's hear into the lamp behind him. It could've take his head off.
Carlos came flying up in the attic to tell Beth and Allan that they needed to go through the escape hatch and was frustrated to see that Beth was gone and Allan was injured. Joyce then told him that Noah had also left the basement and Carlos knew that there was no way to get everyone through the escape hatch at this point so he stayed up in the attic to provide fire from the roof again. It was win or die now. Joyce was trying to work on Allan in spite of the struggle but it wasn't working. She still couldn't fully see where the bullet was through all the shaking and if it was in the right part of his heart than he could already be a dead-man-walking due to blood loss. Allan's eyes closed and his shaking began to slow, he may dead in a few moments.
In the woods Beth and Jemima continued moving closer to the pit. Beth's mind raced with what Jemima may be up to right now, they were alone, could Jemima be planning to kill her? Had she already killed Noah? Beth positioned her arms in the right place so that in the blink of an eye she could turn and have an arrow pointed right at Jemima's throat. She was sure she would have to do it. She was so jumpy at this point that any sudden movements from Jemima may set her off. Beth was ready to fight for her life. Then there was screaming from the back yard again. Jemima and Beth both booked it back to the house (Beth making sure that Jemima was slightly ahead of her. They broke through the woods to see Noah standing over Lynette's body. Noah had run through Lynette's head. Immediately after seeing this Beth raised her crossbow to shoot Noah dead but Jemima yelled at Beth to lower it. Upon further inspection Beth saw that Noah was standing on a walker's head. It was the woman he ran through, he never made sure that she wouldn't turn. Beth saw a bite on Lynette's leg and realized that Noah was making sure that Lynette wouldn't turn, correcting his past mistakes. Through the shock of what Beth was seeing she could've sworn that the gunfire had stopped, and then Jemima commented that the gunfire really HAD stopped. They went in the house into the living room and noticed the front door was open, Carlos and Anthony were outside making sure that none of the bodies would turn. Carlos said that they had almost taken out half of them when they started to retreat, the exit fire Carlos and Anthony laid down made sure that less than half of them made it out. Beth went upstairs to check on Allan and Joyce said that after Allan's adrenaline had worn off and he had passed out that she got to look at the bullet wound more closely and discovered that it had passed centimeters above his heart and went straight through so she wouldn't have to pull the bullet out. Joyce said it was the best case scenario for a bullet wound and that if Allan had given his struggling a rest for a couple minutes that Joyce might've let him get up and start firing again. When the group all got together Jemima informed them all how Lynette died. But Beth knew that Lynette hadn't died, she was murdered. But not by Jemima whom she thought was the murderer. Beth knew now that Noah was the murderer, and she intended to do something about it...
The group had been at the house a week, it was peaceful. The shelves and basement were stocked with enough food to keep the 9 fed for at least the next 3 weeks. There were water bottles in the basement too but that was in shorter supply. But Beth remembers Connor talking about how they could probably boil the water from the lake and it would be fine. But even if that weren't the case, Allan and Lynette took the car out yesterday and found an abandoned corner store that hadn't been too badly raided. Alexandria is thinking even more optimisticly about it. She thinks the goverment will work on exterminating the disease causing this epidemic within the next couple of months and it's only a matter of time before there are swat trucks pulling up at the house to take them to a safe haven. Jemima thought to herself that Alexandria's crazy and if she keeps thinking fantasies in a situation like this that she's going to get herself killed, but she kept that comment to herself. Later that day Alexandria was going through the boxes in the attic to see if there was anything useful when she happened to glance outside the peephole and immediately began running downstairs. What she saw was Anthony, and a walker. Anthony was looking dead into the walkers eyes no more than 15 feet away from it but he didn't do anything about it, he just sat there. Everyone knew that Anthony had ADHD and occasionally zoned out of situations that should take one's complete attention but Alexandria didn't think it was possible that he could zone out with his own death staring him right in the face, apparently he can. She bolted out the door almost ready to break it down, the walker was nearly close enough to rip him to shreds. She lept off the porch right past anthony and bashed the walker's head in with her baseball bat. Satisfied that she had saved Anthony's life she turned around to see if he had finally come to attention, and he was... But he didn't look scared.... Or suprised.... Or grateful.... Anthony looked furious. He began to cry and in his crying broke out into rage at Alexandria. He said that he was handling the situation and she didn't need to interfere. It was difficult to make out a lot of his screaming due to all the crying. Alexandria thought it was like when a 3 year old breaks down crying and tries to explain why to you but none of it makes any sense, there was just too much whimpering. She didn't understand why this was happening. Why Anthony would care so much about a walker, she wondered if he had gone completely insane through this whole situation, and right as things were starting to get peaceful around here. He said one last thing before storming off into the woods behind the house that sent shivers up Alexandria's spine. She couldn't make out the whole sentence, but the last words were "YOU KILLED MY SISTER!". Alexandria then noticed that the shirt the walker is wearing is the same shirt as Anthony's. She remembered Anthony explaining that he was on the plane that first day with his family going to Atlantic Beach, and that they wore matching shirts as a joke... Somehow in the 2 and a half weeks since this epidemic started Anthony's sister had gone the same path they had. There was no way of knowing at what point she died but Alexandria guessed that she had somehow at least made it out of the airport (Either that or the fences were knocked over by Zach's crew of undead)... Alexandria couldn't really decide how to feel... Either awful for re-killing Anthony's sister before he gained full closure... Or good for knowing that she still potentially saved him from joining her...
In the woods Anthony sat on a stump twirling his revolver in his hands and crying. How could Alexandria do that? To his own sister! Parts of his mind tried to fight off his anger telling him that she never could've known it was his sister and that she thought she was saving you from certain death. But that couldn't be... That was Anthony's sister. And Alexandria killed her. He knew what she was and what she would've done to him if he had let her too close and looking back at the situation he may have let her step a little too close at the time Alexandria stepped in but he had it under control. Alexandria ruined it! He wanted her to leave. But it was more than that; he didn't just want to see her walk away from that house and never come back. He wanted her dead. He wanted to dump her body in the lake so no one would ever know that he had done it. Just then he heard a branch snap behind him. Anthony whipped around and pointed his revolver ready to kill whatever was behind him, whether it be walkers or Alexandria. But it was neither, it was only Noah. Anthony was angry but he wasn't going to kill an innocent person, Noah was a friend. Noah asked him what was wrong. He told Anthony that he saw him almost get chomped by a walker until Alexandria saved him. Anthony assured Noah that Alex hadn't saved him and told him all about his sister being the walker. Noah asked if Anthony wanted to be left alone and Anthony said he didn't think so, because if he was then his mind might convince him to do something he would later regret. Noah asked what that was and Anthony told him about his brief moment of being sure that he wanted to kill Alexandria over what happened. Noah asked him how he felt about it now. Anthony said that talking to someone else has grounded him back and made him realize that he could never do that but he was worried that if he was left alone again that the anger might start making him feel like he needs to do it again. So Noah told him he should...
Anthony asked Noah why he would tell him to do such a thing. After all the death they'd experienced WHY would he kill another live person? Noah told him about how this zombie infested world is a new world. A world where order is established by the people around you and not any government. Anything that you feel like you need to do is something you should do as long as you can keep yourself from getting caught in the act of doing it. If Anthony thinks he could get away with murdering Alexandria then Noah told him that he should do it, because not doing it would be bottling up the anger that might then be released on someone innocent. And we wouldn't want an innocent person to die, would we? The more Noah talked the more Anthony old feelings began to come back. The more he began to feel like killing Alexandria was the right thing to do. Noah was just making so much sense! And he was right...
Alexandria was inside washing dishes and trying to think about what she's going to say to Anthony when he comes inside when the door opened. It was Anthony, and his hand was on his gun... Alexandria asked him what he was doing and Anthony told her it was something that needed to be done. Alexandria could see that Anthony was tearing up again, his lip quivering, his entire body was shaking. She told him not to do it because it was something that he would regret for the rest of his time on earth. She told him that murder has a lasting effect on any person that goes through with it whether they believe it was justified or not. He would be more dead inside then her if he did this. Anthony hesitated... His mind raced like a drag car... He couldn't decide... He was right there... His finger was on the trigger... There was a 4th of a pound of resistance between him and what he felt like he needed...................
And he couldn't do it...
He bolted back out the door into the same spot in the woods he was before where he thought Noah was waiting but didn't find anyone. He was infuriated with himself. He began to tear off his clothes and violently beat the trees around him like a mad man. Then he saw a walker coming towards him in the woods. He picked up his revolver and went towards the walker and then shot it point blank in the head. He began to violently kick the walkers lifeless body on the ground and then he saw another walker. 2 more walkers, actually. He walked up to them and fired point blank on both of them and killed them. Then there was another fairly large group of walkers that came from over a hill that Anthony didn't even bother to count, he just wanted to kill. One by one he walked up to them, put the gun at their heads point blank and fired. Of course he only got to do it 3 more times before his 6-shooter revolver ran out of bullets. Anthony looked up at the group of walkers and realized what a mistake he'd made. This wasn't just a group, this was like a mini-hoarde. Walking up to the walkers and shooting them point blank had gotten him dangerously close to the group and he didn't see a way to escape that wouldn't end in him getting bitten. He began to scream loudly and beat walkers in the head with the butt of his pistol to try and get rid of some. It took multiple hits to take out one and by that time another had taken it's place in the group. Anthony thought to himself that this was a great day to leave his backup knife in his bedroom. He kept screaming and hoping that someone would hear him when he saw Alexandria round the corner with her baseball bat and immediately jumped in and began beating walkers. She almost got threw herself in the middle of the hoarde to help Anthony, he wanted to be touched by the situation but he knew that he didn't really have time for any feelings until they were both safe. Alexandria had managed to make a small dent in the group that Anthony ran through to get to her but sadly another group had come up behind them and left them both trapped in between a large hoarde. Alexandria told Anthony to reload his gun while she held the walkers off as long as possible. She also told them that in case this kills them both that she forgave him for almost killing her, and that she aplogizes for killing his sister. Anthony was so nervous trying to reload his gun that he ended up dropping a few bullets on the ground. His hands were so shaky that even after picking them up it was a struggle to get them back in his gun. Alexandria had created a hole big enough for one person that she could get through to safety. She was so convinced to do it that she even took one big step towards it but realized that she couldn't just leave behind Anthony, she wouldn't. Maybe he almost killed her but the keyword there is ALMOST. He didn't kill her, she thinks he's a good person. Anthony finally got his gun loaded and began taking carefully aimed shots to make sure that every one killed a walker coming at them. The walkers were getting too close now, they didn't have long. Noah rounded the corner as Anthony fired off the last bullet he had and tossed a spare knife over the crowd of walkers. Noah then began cutting walkers heads off with his katana. He had spent a lot of his time sharpening it's blade so it went through their necks quickly. With Noah quickly taking out walkers and Anthony having a weapon that didn't run out of ammo they disposed of the entire herd pretty quickly. Anthony couldn't believe that he had made it out of that alive. That they had ALL made it out of that alive. He felt a tap on his shoulder, turned around, and immediately began to cry again. Alexandria had tapped his shoulder, her shoulder was bleeding badly, it was pretty clear by the marks that she had been bitten. Anthony couldn't believe it, she had done everything to save the man who'd tried to kill her. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. If anyone should die then it should be him. He told her that he was sorry for the way he had acted today, he thanked her for saving his life twice today. Her smile was the last thing he saw on her face before Noah blew it off with a bullet from his 6-shooter. For a moment Anthony wanted to be filled with rage and lash out at Noah. But the situation seemed familiar to what Alexandria had done earlier that day, so he decided he wouldn't. In memory of Alexandria he wouldn't, he didn't want to go through this again. The rest of the groupn was either out learning how to hunt or digging an emergency escape tunnel in the basement just in case they got overrun. Noah comferted Anthony as they walked to rejoin the group. It had to happen.... It was for the best....
The group decided that it would be in their best interest to start moving again because whatever killed Jaylen probably isn't very far away. They started moving deeper into the forest until Beth stumbled upon something familiar, it was Allan's AK. Realizing that they were moving on one of the paths that Jaylen moved on they decided to go in the other direction. They kept walking until they found a road; it would be too dangerous to walk on the road so they moved in the forest about 10 yards away from it. They kept doing this for 2 days, avoiding hoardes of walkers and groups of people and killing any stray walker that happened upon their path (Jemima killed most of them because her weapon caused the least amount of noise). Connor also managed to find a machete stuck in a walker's torso and started carrying that with him. He said it was just like Jemima's weapon, but better. On their third day following the road they came across a gravel path branching out eastward from the road they were on. They decided to follow the road and after about a half mile of doing so they came accross a fairly large log house sitting in front of a small lake. The sight of it almost made Lynette cry as it was only thing they'd seen since this whole epidemic started that looked like everything did before it started. The lake was serene, the house had no boards or broken windows, and there was even a car parked out front that didn't look like it had driven over any walkers or been in any wrecks. It looked normal. This just made Carlos that much more cautious of walking into it. The part of Florida they had walked into isn't a very populated area but that doesn't mean that some houses are going to be able to stay completely normal looking without someone living inside of it. Someone that's very good at guarding themself. He had people walk the entire perimiter of the house (In a very police like fashion that he had taught them while they were on the road) and had them look in any window that was on eye level to see if it looked like anyone was still living in there. Beth and Allan were the tallest and thus looked in most of the windows and both agreed that the inside of the house looks like it hasn't been touched by a soul in the recent past. Everything was where you'd expect it to be in a house like this but there was a thick layer of dust over everything. As far as they could tell whoever owned this house when this whole thing started left and never came back. So they decided to walk inside (Carlos wanted to kick down the door but Anthony turned the doorknob and found it unlocked) they wandered the house and decided that this was a place that they should stay for as long as they can because it seemed perfect. It was big and no one seems to notice the gravel road leading to it off the main road so the amount of walkers and people they see should be minute. Connor proposed that they board up all the windows and doors first because as it was they were completely exposed to anyone else that might stumble upon the place (Plus Anthony had tripped and fell down a flight of stairs into the basement and found a bunch of plywood so since they have the supplies to do it they might as well. Anthony's ok, by the way...) They spent the rest of the day boarding up all of the doors and windows they could find and after doing so they rounded the house again to make sure they got everything Connor ended up finding a hatch that led into an attic so he went up there to see if there was a window they could turn into a peep hole. Jemima and Noah were downstairs eating dinner when they heard the boom, it was so loud that Noah could've sworn it made the walls shake. Then they heard a shrill scream that sounded like Lynette and they ran upstairs to see her standing below the attic hatch. There was blood dripping down from it and she refused to walk up there so Noah went first. The first thing he saw was Connor with a big hole in his chest and a hand holding a shotgun on the other end of the room so he immediately jumped behind group of boxes in protection. After sitting there for almost 15 seconds and not hearing a noise he peeked his eyes slightly above one of the boxes he was behind to discover that the hand holding the shotgun wasn't moving. He slowly crept his way over there to and found an old lady passed out holding the shotgun. Just then he heard people calling his name from below the attic door asking him if he and Connor were ok. He told them to come in and see for themselves. Everyone was horrified to see Connor with a shotgun wound in his chest. Noah got Carlos to help him carry Connor's body outside and finish it before he turned. Joyce further inspected the old lady and determined that she was dead. From what she could tell, she had been up in the attic the entire time with that shotgun, maybe even since the whole epidemic started. Her stomach was emaciated from lack of food and she seemed dehydrated. Joyce assumed that when Connor walked in the attic she had shot him and the shock of what she had done gave her a heart attack and she had died moments after killing Connor... Later that night everyone was trying to sleep and forget about what had just happened to their friend but Carlos and Allan were on watch. Carlos seemed stressed out while they were talking and Allan asked him why. Carlos said he was worried about Noah and this further confused Allan. Allan began to think about the conversation he'd had with Connor about who'd taken the drugs after Carlos told him that Noah was the one that made sure Connor wouldn't turn, and he could've sworn he heard him laugh while he did it....
