"I've been busy with you know my work, and Katelyn has been visiting me every summer so far. And we got out barely though, I was at a premiere for one of my new movies when the whole outbreak happened and my manager left me for dead but I managed to get to my apartment where Kate was the whole afternoon." Sophia said smiling softly and took a seat, she was glad to see her friend again Katelyn went down to sit down on the other chair and lightly adjusted her hair remembering the whole drive was crazy they didn't stop for anything when they heard that the military base was allowing refugees in they both decided it was a good idea to go.

Then they heard the tent open up Katelyn turned around to look at the man for a moment as he started to apologize for barging in. "It's alright." Sophia said with a smile. Katelyn watched him trip over one of the tents support strings and got up to get close to him. "Are you okay?" Katelyn asked.

Marshall sits comfortably listening to Sophia's tale of recent events. She mentions the premier. "Oh yeah, I saw the trailers for your new movie a couple weeks ago before - before all this." Marshall's eye twitches when Sophia tells him how her manager left her right in the midst of it. He thinks back to Charlie, and how Marshall wasn't quick enough to save him. He wonders if that counted as Marshall leaving him? Should he have made sure they were all right beside each other all the time? Was that his responsibility? Was it his fault that he is gone? All these thoughts rushed through his mind. Snapping back to reality, he focuses on what the manager did. "Damn... Asshole. It's good that you made it home to Katelyn though." Marshall says with relief. "Fuck that guy." Marshall was truly happy to see them both. After the loss of Charlie whom he knew before all this, he wasn't really sure if he would ever see anyone else again. Would he? With the whole word gone to shit would he ever see his Mom or Dad? His neighbours? Or are they all gone. Too many thoughts in his head.

Marshall is about to say something as a man zips open the tent, comes in, apologises then walks back and trips. Confused, Marshall gets up and looks at him. "Oh shit, hey man you all right?" Marshall puts out his hand offering to help the man up.

Wayne observed the 3 survivors making their way to the survivor base. Two of them looked like they were military pilots. One of the military pilot-types seemed to be wounded, and was being carried along. Wayne could have sworn there might have been another survivor in that mix somewhere, but no. Just 3 of them. Either one of them got killed out there or Wayne was losing it a bit. Either way, it didn't look like he was going to take anything from the nearby camp the survivors set up. Too risky. Now to get out of this house without being seen. Might have to wait around a bit.

While waiting for the survivors to pass, Wayne looked around the house a bit. All the food was gone, and most of the furniture had already been taken by the survivor group nearby to fortify their base. All he was able to find was a plastic bag and some shards of glass... wait. Wayne thought for a moment. Perhaps he could use the plastic bag and shards of glass for stealthy kills if he needed to. Cover some unlucky bastard's face with it and shake them around. But then Wayne thought a little more. Nah, wouldn't be a good weapon. The best they would do is cut up somebody's face a bit, and the shards of glass would probably rip through the bag and make it useless for suffocation. Besides, he already had his hatchet.

Wayne, forgetting to check to see if the survivors had passed, went out of the house. But just as he did, a bit of rustling came from some bushes nearby. And before Wayne could react to it, a cougar came sprinting out of it and it pounced on Wayne. The large cat scratched Wayne's right arm, leaving some nasty cuts, and Wayne yelled out in a mixture of pain and anger. Now that he was really pissed off, he tackled the cougar to the ground, putting it in a chokehold while he got his hatchet out. And he hacked away at the cougar's face, leaving it a bloody pulp by the time he was done.

Wayne got up, panting heavily and seemingly ignorant of the wound he had on his arm, which was bleeding a fair bit. Wayne needed some bandages, which he had at his camp in Tenaja Canyon, but at the same time his berserker-like yelling and rage with the cougar attack was bound to attract the attention of the survivors nearby, and maybe even some walkers too if he was having a really bad stroke of shit luck.

They make it just past the house before they hear the yelling. Zeke glances around, looking for the source of the sound. "I think it came from around the other side." Paul points with his free hand. "Go, I will stay here with this guy."

Zeke nods to him and helps set Carlson down lightly. He slides his pack off and turns around, back the way they came. He starts running up the road towards the house, boots crunching on the gravel. He runs up the driveway to the house, taking his M9 in his hand. He reaches the front just as he hears a hollow thunk, and some sort of growling animal. He slows down a bit, advancing with the pistol up, ready for any surprises. He turns the corner, and sees a large bloody form laying on the ground, and a man pushing himself up from over it. He was bleeding from a couple scratches, but was otherwise unhurt.

Zeke glances down to the animal again, noticing that it's head is nearly caved in, and lowers his pistol. "Jesus Christ man, are you okay?" He takes a few steps closer as he holsters his gun. "Your arm. It's bleeding. I have some bandages in my backpack. Come on, it's just out by the road." He extends his arm to the man, offering his support.

"I'm fine!" replied Wayne. "Not so sure about the cougar though," said Wayne, glancing down at the dead animal before him.

Then the reality of the situation came to him. Wayne wanted to get back to his camp. But at the same time he wanted to get the cuts on his arm fixed up. His camp was about 4 miles back, while the survivor's had their camp just right up the road from where he was. Join the survivors or try and make it back to his camp? Wayne hated people, but at the same time now that they were aware of him - assuming they weren't already aware of him snooping around here - they could easily track him back to his camp. This was most certainly about picking the lesser of two unfavorable decisions on Wayne's part. Wayne thought that maybe he could just let the survivors bandage him up and then go back to his camp, but he reminded himself about them probably being able to track him now. His final decision: join up with the survivors, and maybe they wouldn't be too pissed with him spying on them, assuming they already knew he was doing that.

"Argh! Son of a motherfuck... fine. I'll tag along."

Wayne then started walking alongside the survivors.

"Sounds like you muchachos had a nice landing back there," commented Wayne on the fact that two of them looked like they just freshly escaped the nearby plane crash. "Were you guys going to Camp Pendleton, or did things go south there too?"

Luke looked up to the man gratefully and smiled as he took the offered hand. “Yeah, thanks.” He said, taking it and hauling himself to his feet. “I’m sorry about that, he said, addressing everyone in the tent. “I’m kind of new around here and I was just looking for some food for my friend. I’m not really...” He finally took a moment to look at the people he had intruded on properly and he realised he was in the presence of a celebrity. Her name escaped him at the moment, but she looked very familiar and he was sure he’d seen her in a few hit movies.

“Used to being... around people... um...” All thoughts seemed to just escape him and he stood there for a few seconds looking half shocked half embarrassed. “I um... I’m Luke.” He eventually managed to spit out, offering his hand to the man that had helped him up. With his eyes off the two girls words seemed to come a bit more easily to him. “I um... I’m sorry again, for intruding. I’m trying to get used to this place. It’s so strange after being alone for so long... even if it was just a couple of weeks.”

As more and more sense returned to him he suddenly became aware of the time. “Crap! I um... I have to go. I’m sorry. But um... I’ll hopefully see you guys around later?” He gave them a small, shy and embarrassed smile before stumbling backwards out of the tent, making sure not to trip over the rope again as he made his way to the front gate, curing himself for saying that. Why did his mind always seem to fail him when he was in the presence of pretty girls? However that didn’t matter right now. His window of opportunity to help Ash was small, and it was closing quickly. Still, he thought to himself. Coming back here might not be so bad. Maybe I could get used to it, for a little while at least.

Zeke nods to the man and starts back the way he came. "Uh, yeah... We are lucky to be alive, honestly... Major Carlson over there is the pilot. He somehow was able to get us out of a stall and safely on the ground. We were indeed heading towards Pendleton. We were carrying supplies in from Oklahoma." He glances over to try and take stock of who he might be dealing with. He doesn't seem all that rational. He's scruffy and dirty... A survivor. Maybe someone like him will really have a shot at this. Zeke shakes his head as they approach Paul and Carlson out on the road. He sees the major sitting upright on his own, wincing with pain.

"Glad to see you finally awake, sir. How's the arm?"

Carlson glares at him. "It fucking hurts, what do you think?" He glances over at Wayne. "Who's this guy then?"

Zeke goes over to his backpack and pulls out a few bandages from the medical kit. "Some crazy guy wrestling with... What was it, a cougar? A tough son of a bitch." He gives Paul a nod and turns back to Wayne. He quickly wraps the bandages around his scratched arm, and secures them in place. "You never did say your name. I'm Zeke." He extends his hand out for a shake. "And you are?"

Autumn was spacing out looking up at the sky still as he heard a loud crashing sound. He looked over sharply to his left and saw a man stumbling over one of the tent ropes. His first thought about it was that the man was infected. None of them seemed to have very good coordination. He clenched down tightly on his spear, using his feet to quickly shove himself at a distance. Lifting up his spear he prepared to throw it as soon as he got a good shot.

Then there was a voice. It came out from inside of the tent that the man had tripped over and asked if he was alright. Autumn was surprised when he actually replied. Relaxing he sighed and dropped his spear to the ground. At the same time he was shaking thinking that he nearly killed an innocent man in cold blood, all for tripping of the wire of a tent. Trembling he muttered, "Shit shit shit."

The man got up and ran off towards one of the walls of Pendleton. Autumn's only hope was that it wasn't because of him. Glancing back towards the tent, he noticed that it was the two girls he had seen later. The celebrity and her friend. He thought about introducing himself to them, but then stopped himself. They could have just seen him nearly kabob a man, they probably weren't interested in making new friends anyhow. He sighed and leaned back against his tent, thinking about how he would have reacted under different circumstances.

"Wayne."

Wayne shook Zeke's hand, giving it a tight grip. It felt weird to Wayne meeting people and shaking hands instead of having them veer away from him the moment they see him. Or smell him, for that matter. Speaking of smell, Wayne wondered what made the cougar attack him like that. He looked back at the big cat's body, and it looked like it was starved. Maybe the walkers were giving the animals a tough time too, scaring prey off. Wayne really wished he didn't have to go all berserk on it, but he had no choice. Best he could do now is take the cougar's body and put all the parts to some use. Besides meat for food, the fat could be used to make tallow, and the tallow to make soap and candles. The sinews could be used to make thread, the bones for simple tools and for broth, and the pelt for clothing and leather.

"Hey, we should bring the cougar's body to the safehouse. Not good to waste a whole animal like that."

Marshall helps the man up as he reached out to grab Marshall's hand. "Don't apologise man, it's all good. I'm Marshall, Marshall Scott. Nice to meet you." Marshall liked the guy already - polite, and graceful. Something the soldiers hadn't shown, and some of the other refugees. "We're all new bro. I've got some bars I could give to you for your -" Marshall stopped his sentence as he saw the way Luke had looked at Sophia. Marshall realised that Luke had just then realised how famous she was. Marshall sees that Luke puts out his hand at Marshall, and he does the same. A firm, gripped hand shake.

Marshall can see how the man's acting. Nervous, perhaps. Marshall listens to his speech. "Oh you were alone? I was with some... I was alone when I arrived. The camp is quite, I dunno. Scary? At first. I guess, it was to me anyway. It's the reality maybe, that it's all to good to be true? I dunno. Sorry, I babble on." Marshall chuckles. A new, friendly face.

Luke says how he has to go and talks on the subject. "Hell yeah we'll see you around. You know where the tent's at! See you around man." Marshall says as Luke left the tent. Marshall turns around to the girls. "Cool dude." Marshall stated, informing them of his opinion. "Seemed a little nervous though. I guess we all were at first, right?" Marshall enquires. He takes a second to think about the guy. His hair reminded him of Charlie's hair. He thinks about how quick Charlie's life was taken. It was really damn fast. But is this different? Will it be the same again? Maybe the Military do have this shit under control. Perhaps it's only a matter of time, right? Until things go back to the way they used to be. Marshall snaps out of deep thought. "Chocolate, guys?" Marshall says, holding out a candy bar - offering it to the girls.

Pity.

Pity would be what Maria most when the aged veteran made a half-assed attempt at countering the much deserved disciplining he had just received. Not anger at his insolence, she wasn't empathetic enough toward him to feel sorrow, she wasn't particularly enlightened by him or what he had to say either. Still, tradition was tradition, she heard the man out.

"I am not a soldier sweet heart, in fact its been fifteen year since I was one." Maria had figured, guy looked too old. "You think your overprivileged life and your money gives you the power of insight... however when it comes down to it your just as stupid and blind as the rest of us." And yet-- it had been the soldier's failure, perhaps even inability to adapt, possibly simply due to stupidity, that had gotten camps overrun, week in week out. How curious.

"You might want to start getting used to this fact because your words, your money, your so called power don't mean jack shit anymore." And what does retain meaning? Gun power? How very Statist, it's good to know Miss Rand would've agreed with the default government change in the US following a major disaster. "Have a nice day--" Quaint.

"An also if it wasn't for men like me, people like you would be dead by now, so why don't you find a little humility and show some respect. You might think of me as a piece of trash under your shoe... but when the dominoes fall and tumble and are about to crush you, just remind yourself who would be saving your ass." He was a diplomat? A just political, social or cultural leader? A scientific revolutionary striving for progress-- or perhaps an activist for peace? She doubted it.

She left the exchange with a scoff, despite the fact that the 'gentlemen' seemed to ignore many of the valid points she had raised, he obviously had no intention of changing the whole "Shoot 'em as the come!" strategy, she doubted he was going to ask the man-- Luke-- where he needed to go. He wasn't her best bet out of here.

For a while, she aimlessly walked around the camp, thinking of her options-- the three presented to her by the brain-damaged veteran. Permission, fighting, or accompaniment. Each more pessimistic than the last-- several minutes more though, and her seemed to be granting her the beginnings of an idea. What if she were infected? Not really infected, but what if she appeared to be? She could request to be let out, perhaps? They could shoot her on the spot, but would they? The risk was certainly worth taking, staying here was certain death after all.

A bite on her, on someone else-- a soldier-- a sex starved, unsuspecting soldier-- maybe... If she was lucky?

She returned to her tent, Maria was no prisoner, she intended on getting out of this hellhole tonight.

Roger was outside of his tent, sitting on a folding chair with one leg over the other and smoking a cigarette. A pair of sunglasses was shielding his eyes of the sun while a white baseball cap was doing the same thing with his head. Roger was always feeling so relaxed when he was smoking. That is one reason why he never really gave up on this habit. He takes two more smokes from his cigarette, throws it away and gets up on his feet as he grabs the chair, folds it and gets back inside his tent. Once inside, he again unfolds the chair and puts it in front of a table, goes towards his backpack, grabs a pack of biscuits, opens it and takes four biscuits from inside, puts the pack back inside the backpack and sits at the table as he took off his sunglasses and cap and started chewing on the biscuits. As he was doing that, Roger grabbed a journal, a pen and after browsing a couple of pages he starts writing down on a blank page.

Entry nr. 5
14 days after the outbreak

I've been here in Camp Pendleton for 8 days now. So far all I can say is that this place is super boring. I've tried to make some new friends both amongst soldiers and survivors but everybody is so edgy and uptight around here that I just gave up on it. I can understand the soldiers. They are doing their best to protect this place and keep the undead from breaching but no matter how many of them they kill they just keep coming and that probably stresses them out alot. But the survivors? What's their excuse? Anyway...this place is gonna fall soon. It's just a matter of time. Either way I am ready to get the hell out of here whenever that will happen."

Just as he stopped writing Roger heard gunshots coming from outside, which could mean one thing. That the Marines where dishing out death to another group of walkers. He closed the journal and placed it in the backpack together with the pen as he went outside and started looking around.

Tyrone was fresh off the plane at LA international, It was a nice day to wear shorts he thought. With a large grin he got into his courtesy limo and told the driver to take him to up to Camp Pendleton. His childhood friend, Charlie, was there and after the draft he wanted to surprise him. It was going good, the limo just pulled out of L.A. and only 60 miles were left. Tyrone hated car rides and put in his ear buds and just let the music consume him. That's when the car skidded to a stop,

"What the fuck man! I almost died." That's when Tyrone saw the driver draped across wheel. He leaned through the little window and shook him. All Tyrone could think say was,

"Fuck, this isn't happening." He pulled out his phone and dialed 911. After a moment of waiting the dispatcher just said the line was busy.

"Damnit," he said as he slapped the chair and that's when he heard a groan, " Thank the Lord. Are you ok?" Another groan followed then the driver turned to to Tyrone. Happy that the driver was alive Tyrone told him that the line was busy, but he was going to call back. All the driver did was make gutteral sounds. Something seemed very wrong Tyrone thought. His suspicions were confirmed when he began thrash in his seat. Tyrone began to reach foreward to help, but the driver began to to try to bite his hand. He withdrew it quickly, that was the moment when Tyrone looked out the window and saw the walkers who were slowly approaching the limo. Tyrone's mind reverted to the streets and he jumped door checked the nearest zombie and hopped out of the car. He knew the camp was somewhere in north, all he had to do was follow the road, that's not what Tyrone did. He ran and juked out a zombie and headed down the hill trying to escape the few walking towards him. He ran through the sparse trees and was glad he was an athlete.

Tyrone knew the road was going to be tough, but nothing prepares you for an outbreak and a 60 mile run. He had to go from place to place, the first time he broke into a house and found a family. They almost killed him, but somehow Tyrone convinced the family to stay for the night. The family never told him about their son who had a raging fever. He still hears their screams in his dreams. Tyrone went looking for food near a convenience store near an apartment building when a group of walkers trapped him in an ally. He was lucky there was a fire escape, however it's ladder was up. Again Tyrone was glad to be a premier athlete as he jumped up and pulled himself up. After spending the night in an apartment he decided to look for supplies after he found an empty backpack. Most of the apartment was cleared out except for a can of peaches and a rack of knives. He carefully wrapped the knives in rags and put them in his bag. The entire 60 mile trip took four days and he arrived at the open gate covered in sweat and fell down in front of the soldiers.

Sophia could tell by the nervous look on Luke's face that he knew who she was but she pretty much lost her career now since the whole apocalypse started she heard him he needed some food after Marshal introduced himself to Luke. Then he quickly left the tent to look for some somewhere else, Katelyn being the person she is went and grabbed her backpack and quickly left the room to give Luke some of her own food. "Hey wait up." Katelyn said loudly as she caught up with Luke and dug through her bag pulling out a few bags of chips and some cans of beans and canned chicken as well they managed to take from their apartment. "You can have some of my food, wheres your friend?" Katelyn asked softly.

Sophia smiled as her little sister ran out of the tent to hand out some food towards Luke, she turned around to look at Marshal as he offered her some chocolate she hadn't had any in weeks since the whole thing happened and also to watch her diet since her last movie. "Yeah i'd love some, I have some soda in my pack as well if you want some." Sophia offered and went to her bag pulling out a can of coke and tossed it towards her friend.

Luke stopped and turned as he heard a girl call out to him, and he couldn’t help but smile shyly as she caught up. However when she started taking out food for him he quickly shook his head. “Thank you, but I can’t. Not right now, I um...” He’d been thinking it over quite a bit on his way over here, even more since he’d gotten here. He was just one guy, and if anything ever happened to him, then Ash would be on her own. If he had ever died or been injured when he had gone for supply runs she never would have been able to take care of herself.

He had quickly come to the conclusion that he needed a group to ensure both of their safety. And right here, in this camp, while it held, that would be where he would form the connections to ensure survival. So he was going to have to be able to trust these people and he was going to have to be honest with them. “Look, you’re probably going to think I’m crazy when I tell you this, but I didn’t come here by choice. I was dragged here by some military guys ‘for my own safety’, which is all well and good but my friend is still out there.”

He took a small breath and shook his head. “She’s waiting for me to come back. She won’t leave her spot until I do, someone takes her or if her life is threatened. So I need to get back to her before either of the other two happen. Which means I’m going back out there, some old marine guy said he’d take me. I can’t tell you all the details right now, because he said he’d be leaving soon and if I’m not there he’ll leave without me. But save this food okay? No point sending it out there where it can get lost. When I come back, we can sort everything out.”

He smiled slightly and gave her a small nod. “But... thank you, again. Not many people would do what you just did in a time like this.” It gave him a nice feeling of hope, knowing there were still good people in the world. And with that he turned and quickly headed off towards the fence. She seemed like a really nice girl, but no way he was letting anyone else come with him. No one else had to risk their lives to help him.

Zeke nods to Wayne as they shake hands. He looks back over his shoulder at the house. "Go ahead and grab it if you want, I guess. The two of us need to help the major here back to this Paul's place." He picks up his backpack, and bends down to help support Carlson. They begin walking down the street again, towards the safe house.

Paul leans over to Zeke as they walk. "What are you doing, man? That guy is crazy! We don't know who he is, what kind of man he is! Hell, it's not even your place to invite him to!"

Zeke quietly mutters back at him. "Listen. That guy doesn't seem all that incredibly stable. But who here is in a position to judge?. Yes, he's dirty and whatever, but what that indicates to me is that he can handle himself. I think it is best to try and keep him if not a friend, then at least a person. He's not the enemy."

Paul glares at him as they near the front of the house. "Fine. I don't like it, but I'll trust you. Maybe you're right."

Carlson suddenly jerks, and lifts his arm up, pointing ahead of him. Zeke looks up and sees a walker coming around the back corner of the wall. He gestures to Paul and lets go of Carlson. Paul whistles to him and tosses him am old, but sharp, hunting knife. "Quietly now. Don't want too much sound." Zeke nods as he catches it, and starts running up to the walker. He gives a grunt as he stabs it in the forehead, and his momentum knocks them both over. He groans as his face and torso is covered in old, rotting blood. He stands back up and forces the knife out of the walker's head.

He starts walking back to the others when he hears a crash and a scream come from inside the house. He quickly turns around again, and jumps over the corpse to round the corner. He sees a terrifying sight... Twenty, maybe thirty walkers, all moaning and shambling towards him. He curses under his breath and draws his M9. He takes aim at the nearest one, a close shot, maybe ten feet. He shoots twice, one in the body, one in the head. He turns back around and starts sprinting back to the others. He glances around and notices Carlson alone. Paul is gone. He turns to Wayne. "Where the hell did he go?"

Wayne stood mouth agape at the sight of all the walkers. He couldn't think of an answer to where Paul went. He had no clue. It was truly frightening how a bunch of slow, dumb, and decomposing corpses could just suddenly appear in the dozens out of nowhere, even to someone like Wayne. Seconds mattered here, and Wayne had to decide. His arm was bandaged now, but what does he do now? Get Zeke and the others over to his small camp, or leave them to their fate? Wayne was grateful for being bandaged up, but at the same time Wayne knew the experience of someone helping him out only to turn on him as soon as he fell out of line. It was a hard decision. Would he leave Zeke to get munched by the walkers, or bring him over to his camp? Could he handle extra mouths to feed? Would the extra survivors open up his camp's position to other survivors and the walkers?

Wayne made the decision to bring Zeke over to his camp. Maybe he could trust people for once, but a gut feeling lingered about around the possibility of betrayal.

"Follow me!" shouted Wayne as he ran back into the shrubbery of the surrounding chapparal, back to his camp in Tenaja Canyon.

"Good you made it Kid. A little late on the watch but no need to split hairs. Follow me and don't say anything, there will be no problems leaving with me but some of these soldiers... their on the edge so better to let me do the talking come on."

Leonardo walked forward coming to the gate, there were two guards at the front, two outside, and three more lounging about, if it went smoothly they would let him pass like they were suppose to. Then again some didn't know who he was yet and he didn't have time for a scene right now. Walking right up to the nearest guard Leonardo went to open the gate to get out when the guard opposite of him stepped in the way raising his rifle.

"No one leaves here Sir please return to your tent for your own safety. You as well back there."

Leonardo sighed and shook his head, he knew he should of just let John introduce him to the guards around here to save time and to avoid things like this. But Leonardo didn't want anyone to know him, it only spared the heart break later on when they eventually died.

"My name is Leonardo I am part of base security soldier, I am allowed to leave or enter any time I choose so if you could move I would appreciate it."

The guard did not persist in moving after Leonardo spoke, he merely cocked his weapon and pointed it directly at Leonardo's head.

"Nice try but I have never seen you before, which means your not part of base security and therefore your trying to leave here illegally so I ask again return your tent and remain there Sir."

"Listen to me soldier I don't want to cause a scene these people are scared enough as it is, just go ask the Major so we can get this over with all ri..."

Leonardo was interrupted when the soldier moved on him, another new guy who was overstepping his boundaries, the butt of the gun was aimed at Leonardo's stomach but it never hit its mark. Catching the gun with his hand Leonardo ripped it from the soldiers fingers and then flipped it around slamming the butt of the gun into his stomach knocking him to the ground. When the guard crippled to the ground Leonardo heard the coking of rifles, the other guards quickly caught on and intended to intervene it was only when a familiar voice spoke that they froze.

"What the hell is going on here, I come out here for some fresh air and one of you is attacking Leonardo. Why is it that wherever you go Leo that shit just starts and you end up laying out someone on the ground?"

"Theres no problem John I was showing this young man how to disarm and take down an assailant at close range, no need to worry. Isnt that right son?"

Leonardo turned to the soldier he had hit, he slowly got to his feet and looked at Leonardo then the Major and weakly nodded his head. Leonardo handed the rifle back to the young man and turned back to John.

"See nothing wrong here. I am going out on my recon now John I should be back by night fall make sure the soldiers don't shoot me and my volunteer here will you."

"Riiight just a demonstration... ok then Leo good luck on your recon."

With that Leonardo nodded to Luke and opened the gate walking out. When they got a good enough distance away from the gate and any ears Leonardo turned to Luke and spoke to him.

"Listen up Kid, now that were past the gate your free to do as you wish. Im pretty sure you had no intention of remaining with me anyways, and if thats the plan then I wont stop you from leaving. I am not into holding people against their will under the pretense of keeping them safe. If you want to remain with me then I will help you find your friend, but you have to tell me where this person is and who they are, thats all I ask. The choice is yours, but time is wasting so make your decision quickly."

(Sort of a quick post i got so busy today, just wanted to get things moving along)

Luke looked to the man as he seemed to come to a block of the guards and he simply stood back and let the situation unfold. If this guy couldn't get him out, no point trying to be a hero, if he could then he could also handle himself. The later was quickly proved right as he easily took down the soldier and was defended by some higher ranked military guy. Nodding slightly to the guards as he passed, no one daring to stop him after what had just happened between his escort and the young soldier. Once he was outside he looked around worriedly. The difference was almost startling.

It was so quiet out here, no movement, and everything seemed to look pale and dull. When the offer was given to him Luke took a few moments to think it through before shaking his head. "I still think you're my best best at getting my friend safely. I don't think this camp thing is a good idea, seems like a cattle farm to me. But I have also begun to realise that I'm just one guy. If anything happened to me, like today or if I got injured or died, then there will be no one to look after her. My best chance of finding a group is, logically, with the biggest group of people. So I do plan on going back once she's safe, I just have to hope I get things sorted out before things go to hell."

The next question was one he thought was reasonable, after all who wouldn't want to know more about where they were going or who they were trying to help. "Her name is Ashley, she's just a little kid, ten she told me anyway. God I can't imagine being ten... In a world like thins? Christ! She's not even related to me for pity's same! Never met her before in my life, I don't know how to look after a kid. I just found her at the bloody airport! Poor kid was sitting next to her mum, crying. The woman had her split open, blood everywhere. It was horrible." He took a few moments to breathe, realising he'd just vented a little, all the frustrations he'd built up over the days.

"But... She grew on me, I suppose. Kept me sane, let me stay in her house with her. As for where that is... Look you're gonna laugh but I don't know. Not an address or anything anyway, I just know how to get there. I only really know the area by sight, no street names or suburbs or anything. Sorry if I'm a bit useless in that respect. It's about a half hour walk from here, maybe twenty if we don't run into, you know, dead guys." He stopped talking but kept up a swift pace, at least for a while. "Thank you," he said softly to the man. "You didn't have to help me, but you did."

Carlson grunts as he is helped up, and waves Zeke off. "I'm coming around, I think I can walk." He takes a couple steps away from Zeke, managing to move at a decent pace on his own.

Zeke lets go of him as he moves off, and turns back towards the house in time to hear a loud shotgun blast before Paul crashes through a front window. He lands hard on his back and lets out a huff of air. Zeke sprints over and grabs hold of the collar on his shirt and drags him along, as fast as he can, after Wayne.

It turns or not to be fast enough, however, as a walker manages to latch a hand to Paul's foot. Before Zeke can react, its teeth are deep into his leg, and he screams out in pain. "Oh god, I'm so sorry." Zeke says, and lets go unwillingly using Paul as a distraction. He catches up to Carlson, and helps him move faster, following Wayne.