---

Thomas was the first to break the silence.

"So, I know we all don't know each other very well, but we're going to have to work as a team if we're going to make it to the safe haven. If there's anything we should know about you, now is the time to speak up."

Thomas looked around, and seeing that no one responded said: "Alright, I'll start. My name is Thomas, I've lived in DC all my life, and when this whole mess started, I thought I'd just tough it out for as long as I could. I am, however, now having second thoughts..." He had a look of sadness in his eyes, but it quickly passed. "Alright, that's all your getting from me!" he said suddenly, "Now, would anyone else like to share their story?"

---

"I'll start", Lance spoke up. I am Quebec born and raised. I got here when running from I pack of zombies that wanted my sweet sweet flesh" He said with a creepy smile

He reached for his magnum revolver, "Here is my pride and joy, I call him grimmer, like me, he was sad and lonely before I met him out of a zombified police corpse. Now don't try to betray me, cause I will demonstrate why I call it the grimmer.He said with a sing-song voice" And now for the Grime's older brother Lancer. He pulled out his katana and placed it near where he placed his gun"Sharpless steel can cut through any human corpse. He said strangely calm

"Anyone else?" he asked

---

Ted rested with his back facing the side of the old house, it's shadow cast over top the lot of them while they spoke to one another. He rested his head on his clenched hands, with an incredulous look souring his face as he listened to Lance finish his introduction.

"Sharpless steel can cut through any human corpse."

His lip slightly curled in disgust as he contemplated if Lance in fact enjoyed the violence and gore that seemed to dominate the world after the outbreak, having even gone so far as to affectionately name his weapons. Before he could put the words together to express this worry his train of thought was interrupted.

"Anyone else?"

The eyes of the group turned toward him and he tensed slightly and sat up, releasing his hands and bringing them down to his side, before putting the words together, "I'm Ted." Raised eyebrows and stares pushed him to continue, albeit begrudgingly, "I lived on the east coast, before all this happened, I mean. My family and I came up north after listening to the radio and hearing the military calling for evacuation, telling us to come to their camps for safety." He paused for a short moment and shifted uncomfortably before speaking up again, swallowing sharply to rid his voice of some of it's usual raspiness, "When things got real bad, right after the shutdown when the panic broke out, I got separated from them somehow. And now I guess I'm here of all places, sitting outside some some rundown shack in DC. It's been a while since I've really traveled with anyone but you all seemed like honest folk enough in the grocery last night, and I'd rather not be out here alone any longer."

He nervously glanced between each group member, but had no intention of speaking further about himself until he got more comfortable. They seemed satisfied and he resigned himself back to his slumped posture, resting his head once again on the flat of his hands.

---

Thomas looked at the two people sitting in front of him. They were both odd, that was for sure, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Well, now that we're all three acquainted, we should start working on our plan," he said, scooting closer to the fire. "First things first, we need supplies. There is a market that's been set up at a general store about about a mile or two from here that I think we should check out, as they're bound to have stuff like food and water. And, if we're lucky, maybe they'll even have some ammunition." he said with a smile.

---

Ted sat for a moment longer before wiping the grime on his hands off onto the leg of his pants.
"Sounds fine to me, Thomas. Tell me though, uh, how did you hear about this general store, and who's running it? I'd imagine you'd need quite a lot of security to pull off protecting all those supplies in the middle of the city."

Before standing Ted took another side eyed look at Lance, who seemed rather unfazed by the entire conversation, he still felt a tad unnerved with him, but would much rather have him come along for protection, or at least conversation. His usual nervousness when confronted by others had been mixed with a bit of giddiness to finally have companions again, and he was more than ready to leave for the general store.

---

"Well you see, I know the owner." Thomas responded "Him and I were good friends. He was always one to profit off of anything he could, so when this whole mess started all he saw was an opportunity. He let's anyone who wants set up in there, as long as he gets some of the spoils."

Thomas too gave Lance a side glance, wondering what might be wrong with him.

"Anyway, we should get going, the sun will be rising soon..." he said, standing up.

---

Lance unfazed, was thinking of something the question right on his tongue. What was I thinking about, Lance wondered."Oh, right have you ever Killed a child before"? he asked calmly while standing up, he then got his gun and said"If not then it's really difficult, not killing them but getting close to them, cause they always have an adult with them but luckily for me the woman that was with the child was weak and slow so my katana could her in one swift and brutal strike." He then started to smile as he continued his disturbing monologue,But the kid got away" He mused," I usually kill for sport, but they had some supplies on them so that's a plus" He added

He put his gun in his holster, and then put his katana in his backpack. He put his backpack on his back, and finally, he put his mask back on. He then said"I'm ready so let's get out of here"

---

Thomas eyed Lance, now thoroughly scared. He couldn't just kill him, but could he really trust him in this group...? He decided there was nothing to be done at the moment, so he motioned towards the others to follow him and walked out the door.

Once they were outside Thomas turned around and said in a low voice "Okay, we're going to need to lie low, those things are crawling all over the shadows around here. We can use the darkness to our advantage, so that we don't get noticed by them." After he was finished talking he turned around, lay down on his stomach, and started crawling along the fence line that was next to the side walk.

---

Lance saw the stare Thomas gave him and smiled in his own creepy, dark way."Don't worry I won't do anything, that would ruin the fun to just kill you outright, you gotta make them scared and paranoid" He assured

He then started to load his magnum, with 6 bullets laced with poison, that promise a slow and painful death. He then put it back in its holster and laced his katana with the same poison that he laced the bullets. He talked about his weapons like a parent to a baby. Saying Things like"Come on grimmer, you need your medicine, Lancer you need your make up so you look pretty"He then proceeded to do what Thomas was doing

Lilah sighs softly to herself before rising. She had spent the majority of the night trying to sleep some, yet sleep would never find her. She decided she might as well get moving while she could take advantage of the few hours of darkness.

She wipes the blurriness from her eyes as she nearly silently exits the house she had been staying in. She slings her backpack over her shoulders and opens the front door, wincing at the rather quiet noise it made. She takes a shaky breath and steps outside, her hand straying to where her handgun was tucked beneath her waistband. She keeps it there as she slowly begins to make her way down the road, her eyes scanning for movement.

---

As Thomas was crawling along the the sidewalk he heard a sound and stopped suddenly. He strained his eyes to see what had made the sound, and after a while, he saw the shadow of what seemed to be a human. Thomas slowly pulled out his revolver and stood up. He walked up to the figure, pointed his gun at it and said "Friend, or foe?"

---

Lilah freezes, a rush of adrenaline racing through her, as well as a cold feeling of dread. She slowly raises her hands up to her shoulders. "F-friend... I guess." Lilah stammers, hating how weak she souned. To most, the stutter in her voice would symbolize weakness. That was something she didn't want strangers to think about her. She clears her throat almost hesitantly. "Yourself?" She asks quickly.

---

"Friend." he said, putting his gun down, but not away. "What're you going creeping around here at night?" he asked, "Makes you look suspicious..."

---

Lilah can't help but smile to herself. She slowly turns around, her hands still raised. "Are we not all suspicous these days?" Lilah replies, pleased with how her voice sounded now. "I might as well ask you the same question." She hadn't yet noticed the other two, standing behind the man she was addressing.

---

Standing offset, an awkward distance away from his new companions, Ted stewed in his own crippling anxiety. Things were moving quickly and he was missing his isolation from the unpredictability of the other survivors. This group was beginning to become a bit uncomfortable for his liking; he wondered how he had gotten mixed up with an apparent murderer, but then thought upon how Lilah had managed to sneak up on their group with a gun and had earned a semblance of trust in little more than a few words anyway. To be fair, she seemed fine though, not necessarily threatening with her shaky voice and demeanor, and probably just as scared as the rest of them.

He gave her an uneven smile, and spoke up, "I'm Ted, nice to meet you." He was definitely not going to be repeating his introduction again, they had barely gotten anywhere before meeting a newcomer, and if they were to meet even more people at the general store he figured he'd be introducing himself fifteen more times before the day ended. It turned out that a zombie outbreak hadn't much changed his desire to avoid meeting new people at all costs, who knew? But before his mind wandered too far, he once again considered Lance and his creepy damn smile.

He turned to Lance and worked up the courage to form the words together, "I have to address this but, Lance, when we met you at the grocery we didn't think you'd be telling us about how you almost killed a kid, that's really fucked up. From everything you've told us I don't know if you're a friend or not, now we don't have any intention to hurt you, we have enough problems with just getting by out here, but we don't need another thing to worry about either." He rubbed his fingers across his palms nervously and took a shallow breath, "How do we know you aren't going to stab us in the back and steal our things like you did to that sheriff?

---

Lance took off his mask and looked at Ted with a look that said" What the fuck did you just say to say to me? " His arms that were once crossed over his shoulder now rested freely on his back, he got his left hand near his revolver, and then pulled it out, then saying some very chilling words"You know this revolver, I got when I and a sheriff were surrounded by a gang of zombies, poor fool so trustworthy, so optimistic but when worst came to worst can to even worse he was zombie food and I got a new weapon, it'd be a real shame if the same thing happended to you, but I'm a smart man to know when to kill someone and when not to, now it's not the time to kill someone ".

He put his gun back and before putting his mask back on, he eyed Ted with one final glare that said" You do that again and you're dead".

---

Lilah jumps slightly, finally noticing the two men behind the first. She smiles softly, though her body language expressed distrust. She begins to speak when the man who introduced himself as Tim speaks again. A frown creases her face, feeling a chill spread down her spine at his words. However, when Lance spoke, she took a step back, her face wrinlked in disgust at both his attitude and his threat. It reminded her of the undead, but... Worse in a way. Because, for him, it's a choice to feel this way. For the infected, they can't decide.

Lilah clears her throat rather awkardly after Lance finishes speaking. "I-... Uhm..." She waits a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. "Just call me 'L'." Lilah finally responds. Her eyes dart between the three men and it's clear she is uncomfortable.

---

Thomas gave L a warm smile. "Don't worry, you're safe with us." he said. After he had done so however he heard the other two arguing and lent in to whisper in her ear, "Well, I'm not sure about Lance, he seems a bit suspicious to me, I'd keep my eye on him if I were you"

After he had said this he backed away and said "Well, anyway, were heading to a market not to far from here, would you like to join us?"

---

Lilah smiles hesitantly, her gaze flicking over each person once more before settling on Thomas, though she realized she didn't yet know his name. Feeling akward asking it, she just decides to let it go.

She tenses up, her eyes watching him cautiously as he moves closer, but she resists the urge to pull away. The undead had made it tense for her when people were remotely close. Her eyes flash to Lance as he says this and they narrow slightly in suspicion, but as quick as it was there, it was gone. She smiles.

"I don't have a much better plan." Lilah replies simply. "So why not. Though... If I feel threatened, I reserve the right to leave." Lilah adds the last part quickly. She was at least trying to make sure she had an outing. She felt justified in saying it.

---

He woke up in the middle of the night like usual, lots of shuffling going on outside. He couldn't afford a fire tonight because he had been busy the day before covering lots of ground. He had just crossed the border from Virginia the night before and already made it most of the way to D.C. He figured there would be some sort of governmental camps or facilities that he could join up with. His mind was busy thinking of all they things they might have... like chocolate... he would literally kill for some chocolate right about now, if it were a zombie of course.

He checked his bandages around his abdomen and poked around the wounds with his fingers a bit. They were healing well... still hurt like a bitch though. He pulled out the last of his gauze and wrapped them around the couple spots that still had some blood and threw his shirt back on followed by his high schools lacrosse teams sweatshirt. He packed everything back up into his duffle bag and zipped it up, crossing the room as he threw it over his shoulders. No sense in sitting still if he couldn't build a fire and cook something.

Before stepping outside he slid on his helmet and gloves and grabbed his stick, ball still in the net. He twirled it around a few times remembering back to when he carried it around for sport rather than life or death. Only for a half decayed face to pop into the window and remind him of the reality of the world he lives in. He takes another look at the face in the window and decides the back door will work just fine today. He takes a cautious few steps then takes off and settles into his usual ground covering jog, bag bouncing and stick twirling. Its just bright enough out to start seeing shadows.

After quite the run he sees smoke in the distance and decides to pick up the pace, it doesn't take long to get to where the fire was, he peaks his head around the campsite seeing if anyone left anything. Sadly nothing was worth while. He figured that the people or person that had the fire must still be close so he decided to keep running, slower and more quietly. It didn't take long to find them, they hadn't gotten very far before meeting another lone survivor, it looked as if they were all getting along with the usual amount of uneasiness but he was too far away to tell, he decided to trail them for a while until he could see their destination, which also came into the picture rather quick. A fortified store just off into the distance.

"Now is when I've gotta do something." He thought to himself.

He let out a loud whistle that turned them all on their heels instantly.

"Friendly! Friendly! Don't fire, Are you guys accepting members into the posse? I can be useful, Promise. My names John. He said in a very hurried tone, after all the noise he made just now he surely attracted a few of the dead but he hoped they wouldn't get curious. He stared at the group with one hand up and the other holding his makeshift spear. Waiting for what felt like eternity for one of them to respond.