A large droplet of rain plopped onto Aaron's forehead, followed by many more. The backpack had shifted over and exposed his face, thus waking him up. "Son of a bitch" he said aloud. It was at that moment that he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, remembering where he was. It was still dark out and still raining. That meant that no significant amount of time had passed. What felt like a few hours of sleep, was in reality only a few minutes. The rest that Aaron had gotten at the van earlier had definitely helped him, as did his quick "power nap". Aaron slowly peaked his head out over the brush to view the cabins. The vehicles were empty. No one was in sight. He had not been awoken by gunshots or screaming, so Aaron figured they had gone in and fallen asleep.

Now Aaron did not usually resort to thievery, in fact, he was (at one time) training to be a lawman. Circumstances had changed however, and now he was forced to scavenge and rob to stay alive. Aaron did not have to look into his pack to take inventory, he was well aware of what he had and what he did not have. Food was the main supply that was running dry. Over the course of his journey through the forest, and his time in Oakville, he had depleted much of his resources. With the owners of the vehicles stowed away inside the cabins, Aaron felt that now would be the perfect time to have a look through their transport and see if they had left behind their bags.

Using the darkness and foliage as cover for his figure, and the rainfall for any noise, Aaron rose from his position on the outskirts of the grounds and made his way towards the vehicles. Every step was precise and slow. Any excess noise was avoided, for the most part. About every six steps, he would hit a small branch which would slowly crackle beneath his foot. And as the noise would sound, Aaron would stop and raise his rifle; just waiting. As he approached, Aaron brought the stock of his rifle to his shoulder. The barrel would be the first to appear out of the treeline, followed by the dark figure wielding it. He was in a crouch, but still agile. Once he was clear of the treeline completely, Aaron moved faster. There were less branches and other rubble on the ground to make noise.

With the glove still shielding his hand, Aaron slowly reached towards the handle of the truck. It was unlocked. Making sure to pull slowly, Aaron opened the door and crept into the cabin of the truck. There were some belongings in the truck still. Aaron would take about a minute to search each of them, and then take what he needed. The problem was, he did not know how much time he had. Aaron experienced a lapse in judgement as he extended his body across the driver's seat and over to the passengers. He felt his footing on the edge of the truck slip and shot his arm out to grab something. The only thing to prop himself up against was the steering wheel, more specifically, the horn. A chill shot down Aaron's spine as he heard the horn. In an instant, he was out of the truck (leaving the door open). The treeline was not close enough to get to. Surely the owner would see him before he was out of sight. The only other option was to hide behind the truck and pray that no one searched too hard. Mud kicked up as he made his way around the front of the truck.

The truck was angled so that one side faced the cabins and the other side faced the distant treeline. Aaron gripped his weapon and peered over the hood of the truck. Seconds felt like minutes. A sweat had broken out on his forehead. He could hear sounds, he knew someone was going to come out. Aaron's rifle was loaded and ready for action, but it's purpose was not slaying the living. But he knew that the situation could be life or death, and he hoped he would have it in him to make the right decision. Another error in Aaron's judgement, one that he was not aware of, was his position. His body may have been hidden by the truck, but the moon was behind him. If any moonlight breached the storm clouds, or an unfortunate flash of lightning was to break the darkness, Aaron would be surely spotted. A keen eye and a flashlight would also spot him without too much trouble.

Chris had jumped off the back when given the chance. He hated leaving Claire with Jack. What if this whole situation was a set up? Jack had played them from the start? He shook his head. No Jack was a good man, he wasn't going to betray them...Well he hoped anyway...He had just reached a reasonably good position when the truck arrived at the camp. There seemed to be three people...all armed. This could go badly...all he had was his pistol...at this range while he had the upper ground...still wouldn't be the most accurate...He was a good shot at least, but they would just have to see how it played out. Chris crouched and leaned against the tree next to him and aimed his pistol and waited.

Claire on the other hand had been nervous the whole ride, especially after Chris got out. She trusted Jack, but he didn't have any chemistry with her, so how could they possibly work well together? And just driving up to the...while her idea...seemed pretty stupid now. Especially now that she saw that there was three people...and oh joy! they all had weapons too! She just sorta shrank in the seat pulling out the gun, but keeping it from view. She was definitely going to have to let Jack do all the talking...As he stopped and got out she unbuckled her seat belt and slid out on her side, making sure tat the truck hid most of her body, and more importantly the gun. Every second seemed like an hour, the unknown worried her. She didn't understand why she was so nervous. Whenever she was with Chris she was never nervous. Why was this so different? Could she really trust Jack? She looked at him from behind for a moment while he talked. All she could do now was pray...

By the time the group had made it to camp Thunderbird, The weather had made a turn for the worst and had pretty much turned into a torrential downpour which was just great in Katrina's eyes if one was to be sarcastic. She simply didn't have any weather gear at all and her jacket would only do so much so the original plan was to avoid staying out for to long in the open and get wet. It was clear from what Clover and Carter were noticing was the fact some one else was already here and it might of been a good give away with the fact of the ranger truck that sped past them earlier was here. straight away there was worry deep within her mind, how many was there? were they hostile? and most of all were they waiting for them in some sort of trap? Her thoughts were dropped when Carter spoke to the group in his truck. She felt she could handle clearing a cabin on her own, hell she survived this long by her self but when she got the chance she would have to ask Cater a favour which might have to wait till the following morning.

Retrieving her pocket torch from her backpack, Katrina left the pack in carter's truck before she would step out closing the door behind her and quickly running over to where Mark was at cabin number two so she could limit the amount of soaking she could get out in the open. Quickly catching up to him she spoke back to him. "Don't ever call me Missy and my name is Katrina" She swore he was there when she mentioned her name? She couldn't remember as she pulled out her Bolo Machete from it's sheath and turned on her pocket torch to quickly shine it through the cabin window, Not that it make much difference.

Moments after Katrina decided to take lead and went inside the cabin sliding past Mark in the doorway, She wasn't afraid of the dark or what may or may not be in there. But being careful and alert was not a bad thing and she went throughout the cabin slowly checking the entire surroundings as much as possible with her torch and weapon at the ready, The cabin did not look like the most cosy place but it would do to rest up for the night and at least they could probably cover the windows and lock the door from what she could see from her careful wondering around the cabin it looked pretty clear from her side and wonder if what Mark checked was the same so she could move on and check other cabins that needed looking into. "This looks like it is clear, I am going to check another cabin"

It was around this time as she was leaving the cabin that a car horn had startled her, It seemed most were checking out other cabins or was talking and so when she shined her pocket torch over at the from where she heard the horn to which from her surprise initially there was no one at it and surely no one would be stupid enough to do a prank like that as the noise like that could attract unwanted attention from walkers. As much as she didn't really want to walk around in the rain something was amiss, Katrina cautiously walked over towards the truck, It was not belonging to Carter or that Niko guy or whatever his name was again.

Once Katrina made it over to the truck passing the bunch that was talking, The door was wide open and a quick shining of the torch along the side and through the windows didn't seem to show anything amiss at first. She was not standing right at the open door looking inside using her torch to check around the front seats before shining it over towards the back seats but there was still seeing to be nothing aside from the seat and steering wheel being a little bit wet which indicated some one must of been in the vehicles as she remembered the door was close when they arrived.

By this point herself she half climbed in a bit more to get a better look inside. Once again shining the torch over towards the back to get a better or clearer view. " Some one else is here" She said to herself in her Latin tone. Considering the group was doing clear out of the cabins and chatting not far away from the truck and were not stupid enough to press on the horn. She needed to alert the others that some one much of been here or was near by within the camp as some one running for the clearing in the woods would get noticed. She slowly began climbing out the truck Katrina had firm grip of her Machete, She began to slowly shine the torch around the rest of the truck as she cautiously began walking round the back of the truck.

Carter eased himself into the sofa, letting out some air as he finally found some time to relax. It'd been a while since he'd given himself the luxury to enjoy any kind of comfortable cushioned seat. Despite how sub-par the couch was to other's he'd seen in his life, he found it to be a God send. For that brief moment, it was in fact the most comfortable couch in the world. He could feel the tension in his muscles being to fade, his breathing evened out and even the pain in his leg seemed to disappear almost entirely. However, there was this chill that ran through his body straight to his bones. It seemed the storm they had to wade through to get to the cabin had taken it's toll on him. His clothes were soaking wet from his jacket down to the socks on his feet and since he'd come down from his adrenaline high, he could feel each shiver as it coursed through him. It was at times like this that he realized how old he was. Sure, a man in his late forties didn't have much to worry about when it came to their health but then again, those men didn't have to fight for survival every day just to reach fifty. He felt like he'd finally gotten over the hill, slipped and hit every rock on his way down.

Still, he was in the presence of company now, friends and faces he hadn't seen and he needed this just as much as the rest of them. He straightened himself out and began to collect his thoughts as he recalled that night nearly nine months ago.

"Trust me, I'm surprised we made it out ourselves."

---

...Nine months ago...

"Did you hear that or am I imagining things!?"

The sounds of heavy rainfall and thunderous clouds were drowning out Nero's voice and even as they picked it up, they were too preoccupied with what they were seeing to respond. Before them and surrounding their small camp was a herd... and not just any herd. Hazlehurst had fallen to the dead that were now at their doorstep and no matter how far they tried to run, it seemed they kept catching up. As lightening flashed across the sky, the clearing lit up and the faces of thousands of walkers became clear as day. They stepped out from the surrounding forest, their mouths hanging open and their eyes set on their prey.

"Help us!"

This time the voice was clear, the feral scream piercing through the night and cutting through the moans of the dead. Immediately they both recognized who it was.

"Skylar!" Clover screamed, taking off in the direction of her tent and pushing past some of the faster walkers that had already made it up to them. Their feeble attempt at grab her nimble body ended in their falling over one another. She kept moving, her head low and her legs in constant motion as she cleared the distance to Skylar. She was standing there outside her tent holding off two of the dead with her rifle across her chest, three surviving kids from the airfield behind her. Without hesitation, Clover bolted to the closest one, jumping on it's back and stabbing her knife straight into it's skull. The walker immediately went limp and fell to the floor relieving much of the weight pressing Skylar and giving her the opening she needed. She took a step back, letting the second walker work against itself as she twisted sideways and watched it fall forward and onto the ground. It landed in the grass in front of the kids, it's arms flailed out and it's head spinning. Before it could do anything else, Skylar brought the butt of her rifle down hard on it's skull, crushing it completely. The kids screamed, turning their heads as blood and brains were splattered everywhere.

Clover pulled her knife out, looking around to see if there were anymore nearby. Luckily some of the other survivors had left their lamps on which helped to illuminate the area between flashes of lightening. Twenty yards away she could see David dumping rounds into the dead, dropping them like flies. Every time his gun would go off, the burst illuminated his face highlighting the anger in his eyes, the fear and the hatred that he left in each walker he put down. However the more he killed, the more that came after him. The men surrounding him had been those that decided to tag along during their escape from the airfield. They each tried to hold off the herd but their bullets were quickly drying up as was their hope. It wouldn't be long before the group was overrun.

...We need to get out of here...

"Nero! We need to leave! Now!" Carter yelled out amid the gunshots and the rain. But before either of them could move, one of the dead lunged at each of them from the darkness. Unlike the other half of the camp, Nero and Carter had already turned in for the night, turning off their lamps and bathing their side in the pitch black. They hadn't seen either of them coming.

Nero fell back, the walker landing on top of him and biting at his face. It's teeth clamped down hard a mere inch from his nose, it's stink filling his lungs as he breathed and rotted liquid dripping all over his head. He'd managed to keep the thing off him with his arm and quickly used the same arm to push it to the side. Carter had been backed up into a tree, a female walker gracing him with her presence but pushing a little harder than he'd like. Unfortunately for him, his armed had been pinned awkwardly behind him preventing him from going for his machete and leaving him to keep the thing at bay with his one free hand. His fingers were wrapped around it's neck, the skin slowly peeling away as she twisted and turned before him. In a few short seconds, she'd wiggle free of his grasp and sink her teeth into his shoulder. Carter cursed himself for getting into this situation. He knew that the dead never sleep and it was only a matter of time before the herd eventually caught up. Now his overconfidence was going to be the death of him and everyone else depending on him. He'd let the guild set in but he figured he wouldn't be alive long enough to do anything about it... until a flash of lightening illuminated a familiar face. With the sickening sound of bone being split in two, Nero drove his sword through the woman's head and straight into the tree next to Carter's ear. She immediately went limp, her head held up by the sword.

"Thanks." Carter grabbed his hand accepting the help as he was pulled away from the tree. Suddenly a third and fourth walker appeared but this time they were ready. Carter pulled the machete from his hip, swinging it horizontally across the nearest walker's neck. The blade sung as it sliced through the air and cut clean through. He watched the skin and bones and muscles separate from the the body below and the head roll off to the side. Nero tugged on his sword, his intent to pull it from the tree and use the same motion to cut the last walker's head in half. However the sword remained where it was.

"Shit!" Nero tried a second time to pull his sword out but his efforts were in vain. He'd stabbed it too far into the tree and the bark held it in place. The realization that he'd have to abandon his weapon set in but he didn't have the time for remorse. With the walker quickly clearing the distance between the two, he left the sword and went straight for it's chin and the top of it's head with his hands. A quick and powerful twist motion broke it's neck before it had time to grab him.

---

Clover was finding it difficult to follow along with Carter. It's wasn't because she already knew how the story unfolded or because she was becoming bored. In fact, it had nothing to do with Carter but more so because Shawn had been stealing glances at her ever since they'd first introduced themselves. Every now and again she could make out the whites in his eyes in her peripherals as he looked in her direction. The first couple times she figured was pure curiosity but when he continued to do so, she realized he was no longer just curious. The kid was looking at her... and not just staring but actually looking. He could see her and it made her uncomfortable.

For the first time in a year she suddenly found herself feeling self conscious. His gaze was heavy, as if he was actually touching her and she couldn't help but feel naked in a way, like he was trying to read her thoughts. Or maybe she was thinking about it too much? Maybe he was just looking at something on her face that she'd hadn't realized was there. Her eyes immediately began to search the room for anything reflective, something that she could stare into and check for herself. As she looked around, questions that never mattered to her began to invade her space, things she hadn't thought about since her school days.

...Do I look stupid?...Maybe I smell or something?.... Jesus, when was the last time I washed my clothes... Wow, when was the last time I showered?...What the fuck is he looking at?!...

The only thing that pulled her from her thoughts was the sudden realization that it had gotten quiet in the room... and that everyone was looking at her. Shawn's face had begun to redden.

...Fucking idiot!... You said that out loud!...

"Sorry... I didn't mean t-"

The sound of a horn going off outside made everyone jump. All four of them immediately got to their feet, Carter and Clover with their pistols in their hands and their eyes on the door.

---

"Katrina." Carter held the flashlight up to her, basking her in a strong white light. She held her hand up as she tried to keep it out of her eyes. "What's going on out here?"

The tone was a little more accusational than intended but given that the group was still fresh and the term trust was still up in the air, he had to assume every scenario. He walked over to her slowly, moving the light from her figure to the open door of the truck and back to her... and then back to the truck again. When he'd gotten close enough, he panned the light toward the ground observing the footprints in the mud. As the rain was still falling hard, Nero's and Shawn's prints from earlier that night had already been washed away leaving just two sets. One of which obviously belonged to Katrina.

Clover followed swiftly behind Carter, her mind already forgetting the awkward situation she'd put herself in only moments ago. Instead it returned to contemplating the woman that was now a part of their group, Katrina as her name was.

...Katrina...

It hadn't been Skylar.

Carter followed the second set of footprints with his light to the rear of the truck, his eyes catching Katrina's as they both came to the same conclusion.

Nero

Nero looked at Clover questioningly after the outburst, who exactly was she referring to when she who someone was looking at, Nero turned his head towards Shawn. Nero realized that Shawn's face was a bright shade of red, moving his head back and forth between Clover and Shawn Nero let it roll over in his mind for a second before he realized what was going on here, or at least he thought he did. It seemed that Shawn was giving Clover the look over that only a shy male could understand, and Clover well she is not used to being looked at or does she like being looked at. So put two and two together and it seemed like Shawn was a bit struck by Clover, Nero's face cracked as he laughed again at the both of them.

"Well well it seems that spring time must be h..."

The sentence was cut short when Nero heard the horn with the rest of them, turning his head towards the side of the cabin where it originated from he already knew that it had come from the truck he had been driving. The range of the sound and how close it had been was a clear indication of that. As everyone armed themselves Nero pulled out the Magnum and clicked the slot open, taking six shots from his pocket he loaded them into the gun and clicked the chamber closed with his palm as he looked at Shawn and gave him a knowing nod.

"Stay here Shawn, sit on the couch in the corner and keep your eye's peeled and your gun at ready."

Shawn nodded to Nero as he walked outside with Clover and Carter his finger was on the trigger already, he was ready for trouble if it came. Watching Carter he identified the woman as someone named Katrina, as Carter took a look Nero stepped forward as he put his hand on Carters shoulder.

"Iet me burrow your light I will take a look, see what I see."

Nero took the flashlight as he bent down beside Carter and put his hand on the ground and took a look at the foot prints. There were two sets as Carter would have seen, but they were obviously different from each other. Bending down on his feet Nero shined the flash light on the second set of foot prints and then at the first, shining the flashlight towards Katrina's feet he looked at her shoes and then back at the mud marks. The marks in front of the door were criss crossed but the second ones were a tad more manly for a young woman, leaning up Nero looked in the cab of the vehicle, besides a slight dampness on the steering wheel he noticed some mud on the edge of the door, shining the light down he saw half tracks, whoever had been in the truck had their feet propped on the edge, from what Nero could tell they must have slipped due to the mud and in turn hit the horn. Nero shined the flashlight back on the ground, whoever it was must have run fearing someone would hear, looking at the ground he followed the foot prints back to a point where Katrina's and the second set separated from each other. The intruder whoever it was had come from outside the camp site apparently the tracks lead away from the tree line near by to the truck, yet there was not a set leading back out. Nero slowly walked around the other side of the truck as he looked for retreating steps, but their did not appear to be any.

Standing back up Nero looked from the tree line to the truck, it would have been a long run, and if whoever was in the truck thought they would not be able to make it and was smart would not have tried to get to the woods. Which meant whoever did it was still here within the vicinity of the truck, which equally meant they were close by. Nero stood up an turned his back walking to Carter and handing him the flashlight back. Leaning his head in close he spoke just in case someone was listening right into Carter's ear.

"I am pretty sure that the young girl was simply coming over here to check out the horn like we were, its seems that who ever was here left tracks leading to the truck but none leading out which he means who ever it is, is still somewhere close. My guess is they are hiding somewhere around the truck but I can't be sure at the moment. Seeming she came from that direction to the left towards the other Cabins this person must have went forward away from the truck in the front, the tree line would be a long shot for someone who was already scared because they possibly alerted everyone by falling on the horn. I am going to walk around the back of the cabin and come up from behind to the front of the truck, I want you all to stay here, if this person is here then I will flush them out and you capture them."

"Anyways its looks like whoever was here is gone now, I am going to go grab Shawn and be back in a minute then we can go find the others. Meet you here in the a bit."

Nero spoke out loud for anyone to hear as he disappeared around the side of the Cabin walking past the door he went a bit slower as he reared around the corner and made his way to the back of the Cabin. Slowly he silenced his foot steps as he brought the Magnum up and went around the back corner of the Cabin, looking he waited for signs of movement but he found none. Continuing forward he would reach the front of the truck in a couple minutes and find if anyone was truly still here.

Shawn

Shawn hit himself in the head a couple times as he called himself stupid in his mind, how could he be so stupid as to let her see that he was sneaking looks at her he should have been more discreet. An now Nero was on to it as well he was sure of it, from what he knew of the man he was hella smart and did not miss a trick all the much at least not that he could see. Shawn hit himself in the head again as he put his hand over his face and shook his head. The first girl he meets in a whole year, and he just practically scared her away and he had not even said ten words to her. Shawn had always had the same trouble even when this world was still the way it was before, in school he was called a weirdo and a stalker because he tended to stare at girls that were cute but never had the courage to talk to them. He had gotten his ass beat a couple times as well by some angry boy friends to for it. He was just way to shy to say anything, but once something goes around school about you, your like a marked man for the rest of your days there. But it seemed like that hardly made any difference anymore, those boys and those girls were probably dead now, and in some ways they deserved it because of how badly they had treated Shawn. If he meant them again in this life now he was almost sure it would be different this time around, Nero was right about everything he had said, Shawn had been sheltered this whole time.

An he had been sheltered because his father and Uncle thought he was too weak to survive with them, so they treated him like he had two broken legs and two broken arms and could not do anything to help. Honestly Shawn had grown tired of it, he wanted to help but every time he tried they said he would just get in the way and shrugged him off to stay alone while they went out. Meeting Nero though even though it was only mere hours ago, he had gotten a real taste of the world and also a reality check on what he would have to do to survive in it. Shawn could easily hate Nero for the way he treated him, but even as he was Shawn could realize that Nero only did it to try an help him and in turn he had learned more in the last hours then he had this entire year. It was obvious that he had to step up and leave that shy weak crying boy behind and become hardened like Nero, and now Carter and Clover. If he would have any chance of her even liking him he had to step up now and not be a pussy anymore. Nero was not his father or his uncle he never could be, but it was obvious he cared enough to show Shawn he had to be tough if he wanted to live, and with that Shawn slowly got up from the couch it was time to be brave. Walking outside into the rain he came to Carter and Clover and a woman he had not seen before, looking at Carter he spoke:

"Whats going on where is Nero?"

Ryan raised an eyebrow as he had heard a horn. That'll attract all of the walkers around, let other people know we're here, and distract some of us... He quickly rushed out there, closing the door on the way out so nothing could get in while he was out of the building. He looked where the light was pointing and frowned as he saw the girl who had shown up around the same time as their ride had. Is she trying to get all of us killed? He walked over, looking to where the light was coming from, "You should probably put away the flashlight... That'll be the flare to go along with the call to kill us..." He glanced at Katrina, Maybe she's a bandit, and was signalling where we are to her friends...?

Once the horn had gone off, a group of people emerged from the cabins. It was worse than Aaron had thought, not one or two people, but more. "Shit" he said under his breath, watching as they curiously closed in on his location. If they came any closer to the truck, they would surely have noticed him. It was an all around bad situation at this point. A quick sprint to the forest was out of question, and waiting was out of the question. That left two options, try and find a better spot to hide or fight. The latter being the least appealing of the two. Luckily there was a large divot in the ground that looked like it would shelter Aaron's figure from the prying eyes of the truck's owners. He waited for the opportune moment, and then sprung into action. Well, rolled. Aaron rolled and crawled his way into the small crease in the ground, and then waited. Once they circled the truck, they would easily be able to follow his tracks. So he hoped they would not do that.

At this point in the night Aaron was sweaty, cold, and muddy all at the same time. Stress was weighing on his brain as he watched the people examine the truck and the area around it. There were some words said, Aaron could hear the voices but the words themselves were muffled. One of the figures disappeared back towards the cabin. Thank God Aaron thought, thinking that they were done trying to find the cause of the horn. Aaron's knuckles were white at this point. He was gripped onto his rifle to the point where his fingers were beginning to ache. The pistol was in the holster but unstrapped, if it came down to that. Every breath he took was heavy but also forced to be silent. Aaron was trying to control himself as to not give his hiding place away.

Out of the corner of his eye, Aaron caught a glimpse of something moving towards him. The way it moved, gave away that it was not a walker, but a person. They were coming in at an angle that would allow them to see Aaron in a few more steps. There was no where to run, he would be forced to engage them. Aaron raised his rifle, placing the stock against his shoulder, and took aim. He waited, and waited. The person finally came into better view, no doubt they would have been able to see him at this point. "One more step and I'll take your head off" he said, in a cold tone.

Nero

Nero had heard the voice, and even in the darkness he could just barely make out the movements of a figure cloaked in black. From what he could tell the man was now pointing a rather large gun in his direction with the intent to kill. His voice was cold as well when he spoke which meant he was not fresh meat for the taking. Nero raised his own gun up in the air but did not pull the trigger, he did not have any fear this man would shoot him yet for the main fact that he was in the middle of a camp full of people with guns. Only and idiot would take that shot and believe they could get away before getting caught. Then again Nero could just take a shot at him and end this right now, however that was unnecessary really, noise and the fact that it would waste a bullet that is reserved for someone truly dangerous. Nero shook his head these young men now and days all trying to make themselves hard as rocks, he knew the mentality well he had done it for many years even before this started. Nero did not want to shoot the man not yet anyways, and he would not approach any further just yet because he was sure he would keep his word on shooting if it got to intense. So Nero decided to do what he did best and that was too talk.

"You can't scare me with that rifle kid, or threatening to shoot me in the head, because quite honestly out of all the ways to die a head shot seems like the best way to go. Most times its quick if you hit the right spot and you won't become one of those infected beasts out there. However we still do seem to have a slight problem at hand, the small fact that you were trying to scavenge my truck for things to take. Now far be it that I was stupid enough to leave my belongings in that truck, so anything you could have took didn't belong to me anyways, but obviously we have come to a pass with each other because of that fact. Let me make something clear to you while you sit over there contemplating splattering my brains out of the back of my head. Your in the middle of a camp ground full of people with weapons, most of which have survived solo for a good long time all on their own, none of them fear death and I am pretty sure all of them don't adhere to someone killing within their camp site. Ultimately the choice is up to you if you want to pull that trigger or not, however if you do the last thing you will see before you die is the forest you wished you could have reached in time."

Nero pulled back the hammer on his magnum as it made a resounding click that the man would most definitively hear and put him a bit more on edge.

"But it is lucky for you that I am not a monster like most of the people in this world have chose to become so I offer you two choices. There won't be a third one so choose wisely because like it or not your up shit creek with no paddle to gain control of your boat and your heading towards a waterfall. Your first choice is we can start shooting at each other and in the end one or both of us will either end up injured or dead, an even if you survive the rest of the group will hear the shots plus my friends who are just over that corner waiting for me. Your second option is to slowly get up from your hiding spot, put your rifle above your head with both hands an walk towards me where in I will disarm you and give you a chance. Make your choice carefully son because once its made, one choice there is no way to go back from and you will die whether you like it or not. I will give you a couple minutes to think it over, I don't want to shoot you but if you leave me no other alternative then I will."

Nero kept his gun raised and listened for the clicking of a rifle and was prepared to dive if he had too, he had done his talking and ultimately it was up to this young man what he was going to do. Hopefully he would make a good decision but there was a large chance that it was not going to happen that way, so Nero pulled the trigger half way back on the magnum ready to fire within a fraction of a second.

Carter turned to look at Ryan, the first man he and Clover had run into earlier that day. When compared to the rest of their patch work group, he was just behind Nero and Shawn in terms of trust. He'd proven that he wasn't a threat and although some of his advice might have been out of place, Carter was still happy to have a third man in the area. From where they were, they couldn't see the stand off between Nero and the would be thief and to make things worse, the rain was drowning out their chatter. However a gunshot would cut right through the noise and the five of them would respond within seconds. It would make things easier to have another person he could depend on not to mention a women who seemed to be able to handle herself. Katrina had in fact come to investigate the noise herself despite how dangerous doing so alone was. Luckily she hadn't been alone for long.

"You should probably put away the flashlight... That'll be the flare to go along with the call to kill us..."

Carter shook his head slowly, panning his light at the ground again to highlight the two sets of footprints in the mud. "Only one guy and there's too much noise from the rain to attract a lot of attention... at least I hope." He looked on toward the treeline, trying to see through the dark that surrounded their campsite. If anything had been attracted by the noise, their movements would be covered well by the rainfall and the pitch black around them. It'd be a repeat of that night from nine months ago and that was one thing he didn't need to live through again.

---

Clover had been trying to ignore Shawn since he'd stepped outside, her head still reeling from the fact that she'd embarrassed the both of them and the fact that he brought something else entirely into her life. Most of the men she'd come across had either been simply friends or a threat. It was easy for her to deal with them. They were all older and had goals in life that she could understand, even the ones that were trying to kill her. However Shawn was different. The way he had been staring at her and the fact that he was nearly the same age as herself were all the signs she needed. It was obvious: he'd found her at least somewhat attractive.

She stole a glance back at him and then quickly turned away. He was slightly taller than her, pale white skin and blonde hair that was only slightly dirty. The clothes he wore, although not as worn down as those she and Carter had on still looked as though it had a few weeks of mileage on them. All in all he looked as though he'd been sheltered during most of the world's fall as was evident earlier by how skittish he'd been. Not an entirely impressive kid and it took a lot to catch Clover's attention. In fact, in school she'd never had a boyfriend of her own, not because she couldn't snag one but because the bar she set had been too high. She never found those crawling to her all the interesting and the ones that did turn her head gave up when she played hard to get. She was a tough sell and she knew it. Now with a year of the apocalypse under her belt, the bar she set in grade school had been moved up quite a few notches. This was a whole new world and cute smile and good grades weren't enough to cut it. She needed someone she could depend on and Shawn didn't fit the bill... at least not yet.

Meanwhile, at a completely different camp: Nisqually Winds Mountain House:

As the rain picked-up, and the light faded, Robert retreated inside one of the cabins. Originally they were gas-heated for everyone's convienence, but he knew that at best the storage-cylinders would only suffice for a single winter. In this particular cabin he managed to rig a wood-burning stove inside the utility-room next to the furnace. It didn't put-out as much heat, but it was enough to heat the room. He often barricaded the room in such a way nobody could see light from the windows at night, and only ran the stove at night to keep the smoke from drawing attention.

One of the cabins had rows upon rows of DVDs, even though there wasn't power to watch them with unless he happened across a minivan with a TV in it, the back-covers had pretty bizarre plots, and even stranger ratings that were strangely over-specific on what sort of acts are depicted in the films to get such ratings...

Outside this cabin was also one of the camp's maintnance-trucks. In the back he'd mounted a 57mm potato-gun for shooting beer-cans filled with plaster; wrapping 'driving bands' of electrical-tape around the cans seemed to improve performance, as did replacing the plaster with lead. Back in the maintnance-room he had his 'wall of guns' right next to his 'corner of ammunition' and a small workspace for modifying ammunition. After a year, nearly the entire supply of buckshot and shotgun-slugs had dried-up; at some point he came up with the idea of extracting the birdshot from shells and melting it down into slugs cast in a modified choke-tube. A more expedient method was to simply fuse the wad's petals together and cap it in glue. If the lead were wanted for some other purpose, the second method would still be used.

The other uses for lead, of course, usually hapened across his 'reusable projectiles' One of which was an inert rifle-grenade he'd replaced the void with lead ballast, shooting one of those from a NATO-spec rifle-brake with an otherwise useless blank-cartridge was always entertaining, but of limited usefulness; more often it was used as a club.

But now it was dark, and it was time to make as little noise as possible and hope nobody stumbled upon his place... while at the same time wishing someone would... The rain didn't seem to let-up, so at least h could continue working by stove-light.

Ryan frowned, looking around at the treeline. "I guess..." He walked closer to the truck, "Shouldn't we check it out more though? If we go by what the law said before all of this, you're innocent until proven guilty, right? Maybe something happened and she came to check it out? I'd think others would have made it out here before she made it to the truck, but you never know..." He looked towards the tree-line again, readying his crowbar as he looked around. The rain can only stop so much noise... "Or it might be better to just make sure we have nothing useful in the trucks and head back in until day... It'd be difficult to fight when we can't see very well, and the ground's too muddy to fight off something trying to bite you..."

"Ya you're right." Clover said, pulling the handgun from her hip and walking toward the rear of the truck. Her pace was a little quicker than usual as she tried to put distance between herself and Shawn and before anyone could say otherwise, she'd already disappeared behind the tail. As soon as she was out of sight, she immediately spotted a man lying in the dirt with a rifle aimed at Nero. Nero too had his revolver out pointing it at the unknown man to complete the standoff. In the silence that hung between the two men It seemed words had already been exchanged and she'd walked in when decisions were being made... or had already been made. Although Cover couldn't tell with Nero cloaked almost entirely in darkness, he'd already begun to pull back on the trigger to give him the edge in case bullets were exchanged.

"Really?...another one?" She wasn't as surprised as she thought she would have been. If anything she felt more annoyed that yet another new face had happened upon them. "The hell do all you people keep coming from?" Not waiting on the man to answer her, she trained her pistol on his forehead. "Actually you know what, don't even say anything. I'm tired of being social today. I'll give you to the count of three to drop your rifle." Without breaking rhythm and with no change in her expression, she began to count down. "One....."

...Please... please don't drop it...

“That I am. I was careless for a moment whilst scavenging and they seized the opportunity to rob me.” James slowly lifted his t-shirt revealing the already gruesome looking bruising the baseball bat had given him. “They left me alive, which is something I guess, but by taking everything I had on me they may as well have just killed me anyway... The elder man took the magazine from my rifle but for some reason the dumb bastard didn't have me clear the chamber. I was lucky, and I'm reasonably skilled with my weapons, but I can't take down three armed people with one bullet. I need your help. Please, help me and I'll give you a couple of cans of food and a bottle of water from the supplies they stole from me. All I wish is the remainder of my stuff, whatever else they have is yours. For your trouble I make the fight even, three on three. If we're quiet they shouldn't pose too big a challenge, though the gunshots may bring walkers or more aggressors so we'll have to be quick about it. Are you in, or should I resume my ill fate?”

Part III A (flashbacks/backstory omitted).

As the night dragged-on, Rob's headache returned; it was a persistant bother he had to deal with ever since the outbreak. He was already prepared, and rubbed a warm -but empty- coffee-mug on the back of his neck, and over his eyes, in hopes of improving blood-circulation. Sometimes it helped, other times... He poured another mug of coffee mixed with vodka, and produced a pair of 325 mg tablets of asprin, he quickly gulped the remedy down and sighed. It wasn't an infection, that much he was certain, but a nagging feeling told him this illness could still-yet mean the death of him.

Being alone in the woods, in the dark, suffering from a severe headache... with those... things walking around loose outside... Sometimes the pain wasn't so bad and he could work through the it, it even seemed to help a little; other times he felt like curling into a ball and dying; already his vision had been tinged blood-red from lack of sleep, his eyes clearly sunk-in and rimmed red with bloodshot even now. Gone was the face of a care-free target-shooter with a set-for-life scholarship.

Back in the cabin, in the corner of his little maintnance-room he had a gas-stove set-up, not for cooking, but just for lighting bits of tinder to light the wood-stove, or to heat another pot of coffee or [if times get any worse] pine-needle tea during the daylight-hours. Outside in the mess-hall the walls were drenched in blood-splatter, he never liked it out there... too many reminders of what they'd lost... of what he'd lost. Slumped in the farthest corner, wearing an ACU, was a dead boy, on his breast pocket it read his name: Cunningham.

The man presented him with two options, both of which sounded terrible. He was preparing to speak when a woman came out of no where. Aaron did not see her approach, nor did he hear her, so when she spoke it surprised him. Unlike the man, her statement was quick and to the point. She gave him three seconds to make a decision. "You people are delusional if you think I'm going to just disarm myself in the middle of this group. But I'll compromise. I'm reasonable.", he said as he got to his feet. While Aaron stood up, his rifle was still trained, but once he was to his feet, he lowered it. "I think we may have got off on the wrong foot", Aaron spoke mainly to the man but he also acknowledged the woman. The man seemed more level-headed than the woman. She seemed stressed out and judging by her tone, Aaron figured that she would be the type to make a rash decision. But he was in a situation where he would need to deal with her to a degree, but for now he was addressing the man.

Aaron brushed some mud from his shoulder as he slung the rifle over it. "I have a sidearm on my hip" he said, "Don't want to surprise you guys", he laughed for a second, trying to ease the tension. "If you're wondering what I took, nothing. Didn't uhh... have enough time. You know, the horn" Aaron spoke casually with them, trying to bring down the level of tension. "I usually don't resort to stealing but life hasn't been too good to me lately... or anyone else really." Aaron shrugged and then slowly started backing towards the truck so that he could keep an eye on the two. "Name's Aaron by the way."

"Whatever." Clover dropped her gun, placing it in it's holster and began moving back toward the others. "That's Nero's truck, so I hope for your sake you're being honest." She said over her shoulder as she walked around the tail end of it. She stopped in the center of the rest of the group outside looking at each of them before speaking up.

"Sooo.. we have another member to our little family." Family slipping through her lips with a little less sarcasm than she intended. She rolled her eyes as she began to think about all the people she'd run into that day and wondered if their luck would run out. She hoped it did. There were too many new faces for her to ever be comfortable again. "His names Aaron." She said, tilting her head in his direction as he appeared from the side of the house walking toward the truck they were all standing around. "Feel free to greet the man, I'm sure he means no harm. Unless of course he stole something in which case... you should shoot him. As for me... I think I'm going to go back inside and sleep. I've mingled enough for one day."

Clover slipped past Katrina and Ryan muttering a "goodnight" that was barely audible in the heavy rain, while Carter stood where he was looking after her. She gave Shawn one last stare before disappearing into cabin number three. Carter decided to get things settled outside before finally retiring for the night, although he too needed sleep. It'd been a long day which was dragged out even further by the appearance of so many survivors. The good thing was that they'd all been friendly but now he'd have to look out for every one of them... and he couldn't help but feel as though he was no longer the man for the job. The last two times he'd traveled in a large group that he headed, everyone died. His eyes wandered to Ryan and then Katrina, the two standing closest to him. He was sure they were fine individuals, each of them having their own stories to tell, a life before the fall and he didn't want that life to end with him.

"Thank you two for checking on the noise... but you should both get some sleep. You find yourselves an empty cabin already?"

---

Clover collapsed in the corner of the room, her body, muscles and mind racked in exhaustion. As soon as her head hit her pack, the lids over her eyes slid shut and she fell into a deep sleep.

Matt nodded at the man, lowering his rifle a bit more.
"We could use the help I suppose. I'm Matt, this is Shan."
He said, gesturing to himself and his small, redhaired companion.
"Shan will hit them from up here to distract them while you and I move in from either side and catch them in a crossfire. Ideally, we can get close enough to drop each of the thugs in the opening volley, if not, Shan will pick them off from here while we pin them down and keep them from escaping. If they surrender, I want them alive for interrogation."
He glanced down the slope at the camp again, and started to move,
"You hit them from the right, I'll hit them from the left. We won't start firing until Shan gives the signal. A couple gunshots."

Ryan raised an eyebrow as he looked to Clover who said something about a new group-member, obviously quite annoyed with the fact. He looked to the truck as she passed, hearing her voice pierce the rain, but not completely sure what she had said. He was about to ask what she had said when Carter asked if he had found an empty cabin. "Yeah, I've got an empty cabin, cleared it just before all of this happened, so I'll be able to go rest just as soon as I get back..." He glanced towards the truck, wondering who the new member was before nodding to Carter and Katrina as a quick farewell. "Guess I'll do that then, see you guys in the morning." I still don't like the fact that the horn went off, there has to be one or two that saw the lights we were making and heard that horn... I guess I'll just count us lucky if no one shows up to kill us... He turned, walking back to the cabin he had cleared. As he reached the door, he glanced back for a moment, hoping to see the new face. Failing to see the new face, he proceeded to enter the cabin, doing a second, quicker, check to ensure he was safe before finding a good place to rest for the night.

Katrina had watched everything unfold before her, there were so many people here together now it was almost intimidating as hell, To Katrina they were all practically strangers and she only knew the names of a few them and heck most spent the day pointing guns or other various weapons at each other. So it came to the point in her mind just how many would make it through the night? How well could they coexist? And how much longer would she have to stand in the dam rain? It was still pretty much tipping it down and Katrina had been using her denim jacket to help keep as much of her self as dry as possible but the was becoming a more impossible venture as it would to find a cure to this nightmare.

So it turned out a new guy had joined the group after a failed attempt of stealing from them and in amazement considering how people were earlier, This new guy didn't have his head simply blown off and his supplies taken, Either way it didn't matter and Katrina for one certainly would not trust this new guy at all, Hell trust was something that was hard enough to earn on a good day but it seemed that the green light was given and the group looked set to retire for the night and sleep if that was even possible. Clover had spoke to herself and Ryan and thanked them for checking out the noise despite the fact Katrina did get the feeling that at first they fought it was her as she waited for Ryan to finish answering Clover before she to spoke back to him.

" I got myself a free cabin, I'll try to get some sleep." Katrina had simply stopped speaking there before bidding goodnight to clover. She quickly darted over to his truck and got her backpack out of it before darting over to cabin two, The young Puerto Rican taxed the bedroom in the cabin and only hoped she could get a good night's sleep after making sure the windows and doors where secure, After all she didn't want a random stranger or walkers coming into the room. The later would simply get killed but the fore mentioned if they tried anything would be in for a surprise, Taking her jacket of and looking for anything around that could help her dry herself Katrina would simply lay back onto the bed listening to the rain hitting the roof thinking of the days events.