I'm yanked backward by someone grabbing onto my shirt, I hit the gravel and get dragged across the ground, I look up, the sun makes it hard to see but, I can tell this is Mia. I struggle as hard as I can but she won't let go. Serafina gets into my seat to start the car but the keys are in my pocket. Ria aims her gun at Mia's right shoulder but, before she can shoot, a man walks up behind her and strikes her head with his rifle, hard. So hard she falls and blacks out. Mia knocks me on my back with her foot and holds her knife to my head. "You want me to knock this one out?" She asks the skinny man.

"Yes."

***

I wake up in the woods next to a fire, around the fire are thermostats and bags of food. It's already dark out but my watch is gone. I'm tied to a tree by my arms, the same way a cop would put handcuffs on someone in movies. I look up, sitting on a log is Mike, Mia, the fat man, and black guy.

"You're up too," Mia says to me, looking scarily excited.

I look beside me, Ria, Sophie, Eli, and Serafina are also tied up.

Mia looks back at Mike in disappointment, "Aw, the girl with the red jacket was up too, not anymore. Mike, you hit her hard, Ben said we don't kill them on the spot."

"She's not dead," Mike says. He sounds like he has a German accent, my mom was half German I believe.

"Nice watch. Six, O' two pm." Mia says.

Serafina jerks up and starts trying to bite the rope off. She turns and looks at me, "Where the fuck are we?"

Mia says, "Well not Clearway college, that's for sure, or Clearway at all. We're in a town called Yellowberry."

"What are you doing?" Serafina asks.

"Waiting for the other kids to wake up."

"Why?"

"I love this story." Mia giggles. "Alright so, when I ran down to New York when this started, I met Ben. That's Ben." She points at the fat man. "I had just seen my friend die and I was alone, he let me stay at his apartment until we had to leave, when we did we stayed with his friend Mike, then we found Jeremiah. Ben told us that a teenage girl in Clearway killed his father over a deer. You guys should know her, maybe one of you is her."

"What?" Serafina asks.

Eli wakes up.

"This is good Mia," Ben says.

"Why are we tied up like this?" I ask.

"Obviously so we can kill you," Mia replies.

"How do you know you haven't killed the girl already?" Eli asks.

"We don't, but I've gotten used to this, it's kinda fun."

Eli starts kicking Ria, trying to get her to wake up. "What did you do to her?"

"She's alive," Jeremiah says.

Jeremiah walks up to Ria then crouches down. He takes a stick and pulls up her sleeve then starts scratching her with it, harder and harder.

"Alright, stop," Eli says. His nose is bleeding and he looks weak. I feel bad for getting taken out like that so fast.

Ben starts towards Eli and tries to hit him, Eli bites Ben's hand. Ben uses his free hand and strikes Eli hard.

"What is this, it feels like a ritual," Serafina says.

Ben laughs, "We're Crows. No rituals here."

"Crows?" I ask.

"A group of people in the apocalypse started a sort of religion, there aren't many crows in other states but up here you'll come across a few. We stick together until we die, if you're a Crow and disobey another, you die." He says.

"That's funny, you the leader? You were probably a freak before this, that explains the kids tied to trees with rope." Eli says.

Ben leans back, "Smartass." Then he continues, "Mike keep watch, you two..." He looks at Mia and Jeremiah then walks away, they follow.

Ria leans forward as she wakes up then immediately starts trying to get free, just like the rest of us.

"Funny, how you woke up as soon as Ben left," Mike says.

"What are you going to do to us?" Ria asks.

"I've seen them do different things to different people every time." He replies.

"Yea, he's stupid." I hear in the distance.

"They talking about you?" Eli says while smiling at Mike.

Ria tilts her head back, "You seem like a nice guy, let us go?"

Mike avoids eye contact with any of us, "Can't, I'm not a nice guy, kid. I'm just not fucked up like these people."

Ben walks back over and sits down, when he does he makes that casual old fat dude noise, ah.

"Oh, hi darling, glad you're up." He knows exactly what he's going to do to us, this isn't because his father is dead, this is because he likes hurting children, it's just something he's gotten used to.

"Go fuck yourself." Ria spits.

"Mia. The girl." Ben says.

Mia stands up and walks over to Sophie, she taps her rifle on Sophie's head, Sophie starts moving. Mia bends down and yells in Sophie's ear, "Wake up!" And she does, in a panic, Sophie tries backing away but can't.

"Good. Now it's fun time." Ben laughs.

"What?" Sophie whispers.

"Five of you, four of us," Jeremiah says. "Let's play a game, get to know each other a bit, all of us, but there's one rule, if you lie or don't speak, you get hurt."

We share scared, confused glances while Jeremiah stands up and loads his gun. "I'll start, each of you, tell me your name, in a circle." He then points at me, me being the farthest to the right.

I want to just make up a name but, I can't, I have to answer fast.

"Nitro."

"Serafina."

"Eli."

"Ria."

"Sophie."

They're all playing along.

"I'm Ben, Mia, Jeremiah, and Mike," Ben says, pointing at each of the Crows.

"Parents," Ben says.

"Dead," I say.

We continue answering in the order of me, Serafina, Eli, Ria, and Sophie.

"Jail and dead. My foster parents are back in a different state.

Eli doesn't answer, he stares directly at Ben as if he knows where his parents are but doesn't want them to get hurt. Ben walks over to Eli and takes out his knife.

"... Stop," I say quietly, Ben wouldn't listen to me.

He takes the knife and cuts Eli's collarbone then gives Ria one of the most terrifying looks an old man could give a young girl.

"Dead." She says.

"My mother's dead, I don't know my father."

"Sad, and you kids think what I'm doing is unreasonable, even though you've been through grief as well."

"This isn't grief, it's being borderline mental," I say.

He comes up to me and quickly kicks me in the arm, hard, very fucking hard.

"Are you guys the only ones in your group?" He asks. "Close your eyes, hold up one finger for yes, two for no."

I do so and lie, I hold up one finger hoping that the others aren't playing along that much.

"So who's lying? Ria, Nitro, Serafina held up one finger. Eli, Sophie, you held up two. Why is that?" Ben asks.

"Define group," Eli says.

Been sighs, "You can't be that dumb, look at the five of you, are there any more?"

"Oh, I think I misunderstood. We all travel alone, others lived with us but we decided to leave them tonight." Eli responds.

Mia stands up beside Ben, "Out of everyone in this group, who do you care about the least?" She asks.

If I tell her I dislike anyone but Serafina, she's an automatic target.

"Serafina," I say.

"Sophie," Serafina says.

"All of them," Eli says.

Mia squats down and raises an eyebrow at Eli.

"I'm serious, I don't give a single shit about anyone here."

"We'll see," Mia says, then stands up.

"Eli." Ria continues.

"Ria," Sophie says.

Ben looks at Mike then nods his head. Mike walks over with a butcher knife, he takes it and slices the rope holding me to the tree off, then does the same for the rest of us.

Been and Jeremiah are aiming their guns at us, Mia is holding her rifle in one hand and knife in the other.

"You move, you die," Ben says.

We could run, we could escape.

Ben walks away and picks up a rolled-up metal fence, he wraps it around a few trees, creating a circle and trapping us, kind of like a kickboxing cage. He takes his gun and aims it again. Mia walks up to me and takes out the knife, she lifts my shirt and cuts my stomach. Then she walks over to Serafina and picks her up by the neck, and drops her before she passes out. She kicks Eli in the stomach, burns the back of Ria's hand, and punches Sophie in the face.

"You're going to attract zombies." Serafina coughs.

Mia strikes her in the shoulder with her gun.

"Just fucking kill us, what is this, your weird fantasy?" I ask.

Mia kicks me in the side causing me to fall down then slams her first down on my back.

"This is fucking sad," Sophie says.

Mia shoots Sophie's cheek, just grazing it.

Ben starts kicking me over and over then punches Ria and scratches her arm with his nails.

"Annoying fuckers." Ben says.

At this point, it feels like they just want to take turns hurting us.

Eli stands up and reaches for Ben's pistol in his back pocket. Ben pushes Eli into the fence and kicks him in the shin.

"Russian Roulette," Jeremiah says. "I'm changing the rules, two of you kill yourselves and the rest go free."

Jeremiah looks at Mike, Mike slides his gun over to us.

"What if two of us kill ourselves and you just kill the other three?" Eli asks.

No one responds.

Serafina picks up the gun and aims it at Mia. Mia shoots Serafina in the stomach. Serafina falls down so quickly and suddenly, she's whimpering and holding her hands on her stomach. Then she stops. A million things are running through my head, I just saw my best friend die. I can't breathe, I can't move.

"You're going to fucking die!" I scream at her. "You disgusting, old, piece of shit!" I hold my stomach with my bloody hands, I can't even look at her.

"Give me the gun," Eli says.

Mia takes the gun out of Serafina's hands and throws Eli the gun.

"Eli," Ria says.

"Someone's already dead, if I kill myself, they can go?" He asks.

"Yes," Ben responds, smiling.

I don't want to see Eli die, especially not after Serafina. I want to protect him, just watching all this go down, the others at the school and Ria and Sophie need Eli, not me.

"Stop," I say. He doesn't even flinch and points the gun at his head.

"Eli!" I yell.

With everything that's going on, I feel like throwing up, I feel like dying.

He says something silently but I can't read his lips. His finger tightens on the trigger. Then he lifts the gun quickly and shoots Mia, then Ben who was standing behind her. Ria runs and takes Ben's pistol, she shoots Mike and Jeremiah. Everything happened so fast, they got so lucky that these people were stupid enough to untie us.

I'm happy they did it, they get to escape now, but Serafina.

I'm laying on the wet ground in the fetal position, my back facing Serafina. Sophie walks up to me, "Let's go."

"She's still alive, she has a heartbeat and I'm pretty sure she's breathing," Eli says. His hand is on her chest.

Ria picks up Serafina like a baby.

I try sitting up but I can't, it hurts.

"Can you get up?" Eli asks.

"Not really, I'm surprised you could," I say, trying to force myself up.

Eli slides his arm under my shoulder and helps me up, my legs are shaking but I can walk. Sophie lifts the fence for us, Ria exits first with Serafina.

All of us are standing in the middle of the road looking for landmarks, but it's too dark.

"They took the truck," Eli says. "They didn't have a vehicle, I remember opening my eyes in the flatbed and getting dizzy.

"You think that's it?" Sophie asks, pointing at something.

"That's a tree," Ria says.

I step in the middle of the road and try adjusting my eyesight. "There it is," I say, pointing at the dark-green pickup.