I'm sitting in the passenger's seat, with my head resting on the dashboard, Eli's driving, Ria and Sophie are in the back with Serafina, we decided it would be easier for them to escape if needed, and Serafina has more room to lay down.

I look up and see a sign ahead that says 'Welcome to Clearway' I turn around, it looks like Sophie saw it too. She's shaking either from cold or fear but she looks happier or at least more relieved.

"Still hurt?" Eli asks.

"Like hell, you look worse though," I say.

He rubs his eyes, "I was provoking them. We all knew they'd hurt the people we cared about most last. That's why you said, Serafina."

"You said, everyone," I say.

"Yeah, I did."

"If you had to pick?"

"Honestly, I'd just get myself killed first on purpose. I was going to shoot myself."

I thought he would say Ria, but part of me was hoping he'd say me. I'd actually like to have someone, well someone other than Serafina say me.

"Didn't you ask if they would kill the rest after two died? And I remember you saying you wouldn't risk your life for anyone."

"You'd still have a better chance of escaping with three people. I thought she was dead, but when I saw her move I told you, 'You can save her.' I doubt you understood that though."

"Why would you die for Serafina?"

"I didn't do that for her, at least not individually, I could've helped the four of you by dying."

"I'm glad you didn't."

"I didn't save her life."

"I know, but the school would've needed you more than me and Serafina, after seeing Serafina 'die' I wouldn't want to see the same happen to you."

"Wouldn't be that bad."

My eyes start getting blurry and heavy, the last thing I remember is closing them.

***

I feel a tap on my shoulder, Sophie's standing in front of my door with her arms crossed. I jump out, still hurting and we start towards the school.

Ria's still carrying Serafina. Logan opens the door, "What happened?"

Ria steps inside, "She was shot."

"We have medical supplies but I don't think anyone here could remove a bullet," Logan says.

Eli calls out, "Alexa?"

A few seconds later Alexa comes down the hallway, then she runs towards us, "What happened?"

"You have to help her, there are medical supplies in the bathroom," Ria says.

"Alright, just go put her on a mattress or something," Alexa says, she then runs up the stairs.

Ria takes Serafina to our classroom and I step toward to follow.

"Don't," Eli says. "You shouldn't be in there with her, Sophie, go bandage yourselves up in the gym."

"What about you?" I ask.

"I'm fine." He walks away.

"Come on," Sophie says, she opens the gym doors and stops to motion for Ria, who just left the classroom. Ria jogs over and comes into the gym.

Sophie takes a blue box from the inside of a desk in the corner and sets it down on the floor next to the wall. I sit down beside Ria and Sophie.

"What's that desk doing in here?" I ask.

"I would say 'dumb question', but it was in here before the apocalypse. The kids who got in trouble would have to sit out of gym games and write sentences." Ria says.

"Trouble in the gym?" I ask.

"Oh yeah," Sophie says. "For all kinds of things, chewing gum, eating, hitting kids, talking during instructions, not doing stretches, not having gym shoes or clothes."

“That was really weird,” Ria says. “I know shit worse than this happens every day, but those Crows, they’re scary people.”

“You guys got real lucky,” I say, referring to the people who actually fought back and shot.

“If Ben wasn’t so shocked that Eli actually shot Mia we’d all be dead,” Ria says.

I lean back, “You did good back there though.”

“Thanks, I’m still sorta upset that we weren't prepared. We knew they were after us, and if they had gone here first” Ria pauses, “shit wouldn’t be good.”

“Do you think Serafina will be 0kay?” Sophie asks.

“What happened to Serafina?” Six says, standing a few feet away. I didn't even hear her come in.

“Shit! You scared me.” Ria exclaims, dropping a bandage.

Six picks up the bandage and hands it to Ria, “I'm sorry.”

“Come here,” Ria says, patting the floor next to her.

Six sits down and Ria hugs her, “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m not sick, I’m cold. What happened to Serafina?”

“She was hurt, Alexa’s taking care of her,” I say.

“Why is everyone hurt?”

“Some bad people captured us, but we’ll be fine,” I say.

Eli walks in with Logan, “Lots of people are bad, Nitro.” He says.

“Is she okay?” I ask.

“You should worry about yourself first, she’s fine but, bandage up that wound before you get an infection.”

I pick up some gauze and tape and leave the gym, before walking up the stairs I see Alexa leaving the classroom.

“Alexa.”

“Serafina’s fine, I got out the bullet and stitched her wound, she's sleeping."

I walk into the bathroom and take off my shirt and jacket, I have bruises and cuts, the one I'm most worried about is the one Mia cut, it's deep but, I've gotten used to the pain. I take the gauze and wrap it around my stomach six times, then wrap the tape around it once. I hear a knock on the door, then it opens, Sophie's standing there holding a knife.

"Serafina is awake." She says.

I put my clothes back on and walk past Sophie into the classroom. Serafina's laying down with her hair covering her face, I move it out of the way then she moves it back.

"It's cold." She says.

"Go under the blankets then," I say.

"It'll hurt, it hurt really bad when Alexa lifted my shirt, now I have to freeze in 40° degrees weather, I'll probably get frostbite before I die from a bullet wound."

"Did you just wake up back here?"

"I was in and out of it after she shot me, I woke up when Alexa pulled open the bullet wound."

The door opens and Ally enters, she's holding something in a white, paper bag.

She bends down and sets the bag on the floor next to the mattress. "It's cooked rabbit. Nitro, there's more in the gym if you want some. You should eat."

"I'll stay here."

"No, go eat, you haven't eaten since we got to Sophie's house," Serafina says, picking up the bag.

***

"Oh, Nitro, you're here, come sit down, we're playing a game," Ria says.

I sit down next to Ally and pick up some of the rabbit on a paper plate.

Ria continues, "So basically it's called the Worst Game Ever, I made it up in like kindergarten, you sit in a circle and talk about the worst thing in certain categories."

"Can I pick the category?" Alexa asks.

"Mm" -Ria swallows her food- "Yea."

"Worst kill, you've committed or witnessed. I need to feel like a good person."

Ria speaks again, "Oh that's easy. Um, last summer I found a dying little boy who looked like he could've been ten, he was just sitting there near the pond, breathing loudly. He said, 'Kill me, one bit me and I've been trying to die all night.' I didn't want to and he kept screaming at me with his voice cracking, 'Do it! Kill me' I had to shoot him."

Eli laughs, "I watched a guy get his guts pulled out while he was kind of alive."

"I killed my sister, she was attacked by a scavenger and was in so much pain, we clearly couldn't go to a hospital," Alexa mutters.

I say, "A few weeks ago Serafina and I were staying with this older lady, she had a twenty-something-year-old daughter. The lady turned right in front of her daughter, she turned so quickly and immediately went after the closest person, my initial response was to kill her but I had no weapons, so I grabbed her by the hair and slammed her face into the ground, then I stomped on her until she couldn't move. The daughter was sitting there, covered in her own mother's wrinkly flesh, blood and brains, and I was standing, looking down at her, she was probably thinking 'this child that I just met stomped my mom's brains in... what a fucking psycho.' We left so fast."

"My sister," Zander says.

Logan stands up, "You bitches have nothing on me. Once I was outside and a zombie started chasing me… and I shot it. Very emotional, I know."

"Wow, I'm tearing up," Ria says.

Eli pulls Logan, forcing him to sit down, "You think that's bad, I shot two zombies before, they weren't even chasing me."

"I killed a bird before." Ally says.

"Just wait until you find out what you're eating," Sophie says with her eyes wide.

Ally says, "Better not be tofu, that shit tastes like dry cheese."

"Worst color," Ria says.

"Purple, it's not even a real color," Logan says.

"What?" I ask.

Sophie turns to me, "He's right, it's just your eyes messing up. I say Orange, though."

"Yellow," I say.

Alexa speaks, "Turquoise."

"Isn't your hair turquoise?" Eli asks.

"No, it was dark blue but it sorta faded."

"Worst food?" Zander says.

Ally raises her hand, "Tofu."

"You'd rather eat a liver or live fish than tofu?" Ria asks.

"No, maybe, depends."

"People," Eli says.

"No one eats people." Six says

"Other than zombies, there have to be people out there that do," Eli says.

"Six, come here," Alexa says. "Don't fill the poor baby's head with all that nonsense." She says, in a joking tone.

"I'm not a baby." Six says, she sits down in Alexa's lap.

"That beanie's good for winter but it has to be really dirty by now," Alexa says.

"It's for my hair." Six replies.

"What about it?" Alexa asks.

"It gets in my face, my bangs touch my eyes and it hurts."

"I can probably trim them. Do you have scissors here?"

"There's definitely some around, look in the classrooms and lockers," Zander says.

"It's dark, Nitro come help me look, Six, stay here," Alexa says.

She would have asked Serafina but I'm the closest she'll get for now. I stand up and follow Alexa with my flashlight in hand, she walks up the stairs and enters the first classroom on the right, across from the bathroom.

"Point it in front of me while I search," Alexa says.

"How'd you really get Six?" I ask out of curiosity.

"What?"

"That day she was crying because you said you 'stole' her?"

"It's not like that. She asked and was already upset so I tried to be honest, but I didn't 'steal' her. I left my college in April after the CDC gave up and lifted lockdowns. I'm from the midwest, we moved a lot. A boy I went to college with and knew in middle school got bit and asked me to visit his close friend before he turned. So I did, his friend was a twenty-something-year-old, greasy, gamer, loser. Her sister and her mother were living with them, her sister's mother had Six. They neglected her and rarely even talked to her, that's why I don't know her name, so I took her after a few weeks of staying with them, she wasn't the brightest so she doesn't remember much about back then."

"Why'd you stay with them, her family?"

"Because of her. I played with her, fed her, took care of her in a way her mother and sister couldn't. She always had the biggest smile and such a lively personality for what it was, when I took her away she wasn't sad, or necessarily happy, but she made me feel like I was worth something, she made me feel important, and I would do anything for her."

"Do you think she remembers anything from before she met you?"

"Definitely, she remembers how her mom and sister looked, their names, favorite colors, the way her house smelled. She talks about that house so much, but she doesn't care about those things."

"Same. I remember so much but cease to care about anything before now."

"Life switched up fast."

"How was everyone's life so fucked up before now?" I ask.

"Not everyone. There are people who have had amazing lives before now. But they probably have a shelter or just aren't in this area."

"Check that desk," I say pointing at a big desk in the front of the classroom.

"Teachers desk…" Alexa whispers.

"Found you!" She says, raising up a pair of light blue scissors.

We head back to the gym.

"You know how to cut hair?" I ask.

"No clue, but it's bangs, can't be that hard, besides I dyed my hair almost every month, I have some type of experience," Alexa responds, opening the gym door.

Six runs up to Alexa and follows her out of the gym and upstairs.

I go sit down next to the others.

"You tired?" Logan asks.

"Sorta," I reply.

Logan continues, "I'll keep watch, you guys almost fucking died, and, Zander, you aren't doing too well either. Tell Alexa to sleep when you get the chance."

He stands up and walks away.

I follow him out of the gym and go to my room. Serafina is laying in bed with her eyes closed, she's sweating badly.

"You awake?" I ask, crouching down beside the bed.

She grunts and tries opening her bloodshot eyes.

"Alright," I respond. "I'm going to sleep on the floor next to the mattress so you don't have to move."

"No." She says. "Just sleep in Eli's bed, he can sleep somewhere else."

"I'll just stay on the floor, it's not that bad anyway."

I crawl up and lay down next to Serafina's mattress, quickly I fall asleep.

***

When I wake up I'm in a bed, Eli's. But Eli isn't around. I turn to my right and just as expected, Serafina is laying down starting at the ceiling.

"Serafina…" I say.

"What?" She pauses. "Oh, I. Eli said it was okay, and I kind of begged him, but he slept in a different classroom."

"Like I said last night Sera, I could've just slept on the floor. Other people are injured."

"I'm sorry, sorry. I felt bad, and I'm scared. Not because I got shot, because I'm a liability, and I can't even move much now and probably won't be able to for a while, if a Crow attacks, you should at least be healthy, sleeping on the floor might get you sick or give you an infection."

"The crows are dead," I say.

"What?"

"How else would we have escaped? They're dead."

"That makes sense. Didn't they say there were more though?" Serafina asks.

"Maybe, or they're just a bunch of old, lying freaks," I say.

"Oh, sorry for not waking you up, but earlier Ally came in saying she wanted to see you then left when she realized you were asleep."

"I'll go see her, do you know where she went?"

"Outside, behind the school, I think."

I stand up and leave the classroom, the halls are empty but I can hear footsteps coming from somewhere.

A voice behind me, that voice being Six's says, "Look at my hair."

She takes off her beanie and runs her fingers down through her fluffy bangs.

"Looks like Alexa actually did good. Do you like it?"

"It's better! But I still like my hat." She says.

"I understand. Go with Alexa, I'll be outside."

"Alexa isn't here." Six says.

"What?"

"She went to see John."

"Her brother-in-law that lives in a shed?"

"Yes."

"How far away does John live?" I ask.

"Close. Alexa says I can't go to that town."

He could live in Easton, Alexa could be a crow, maybe I'm reaching.

"Sit down with Serafina, watch over her," I tell Six. She runs off to our classroom.

I go outside and walk around the building. "You made it." Ally smiles, she then looks down at my wrist, "Where's your watch?"

"Those Crows, they took it and we didn't get it back."

"Wow, that sucks. A watch would be hella useful."

"Yeah, I know. What did you need me for?"

"I wanted to ask something in private. Um, how do you get used to killing?" She asks.

"Killing what, animals?"

"Anything, zombies, animals, humans."

"You don't… I guess. You can start with big bugs and small animals, then zombies. Zombies aren't human, they don't feel pain or emotion. Humans are different. Imagine you're looking for food with Zander, a scav attacks him, you have one gun, you'd kill the scav in that situation to avoid your friend getting hurt."

I pause.

"But you never get used to killing humans, unless you're insane, it always haunts you, no matter how bad they are."

"I can't even shoot birds, not because I'm a shitty shooter. I just can't." Ally says. She turns around quickly and stares into the woods.

"You hear that, Nitro?"

"I think…" It sounded like a light, faint footstep.

We keep looking, until I see a hand, a zombie's hand, then three zombies appear, Mia, Mike, Jeremiah, they weren't shot in the head. These assholes are bothering us even in death.

"You have a gun?" I ask Ally.

"No, inside!" We run around to the front door and quickly close it.

"Where?" I ask. I jog to my classroom and bend down next to Serafina, "Three of those Crows are alive, no, they're zombies. Do you have a gun?"

Serafina hands me her gun that was laying on the right side of her mattress. "I thought you killed them?"

"They're dead, just not dead dead, but they must have come a long-ass way, what could've attracted them?" I ask.

Serafina speaks, "Gunshots. I think Zander and Ria went training near the pond."

"Why the hell would they do that?" I whisper. I grip the gun and turn off the safety on my way out, before I open the door I tap Ally's shoulder, "I want you to shoot one." I say. Without speaking Ally follows me.

I aim, pull the trigger, and shoot Mike, then Jeremiah. Then I give the gun to Ally, she aims but keeps stepping back as Mia gets closer. "Shoot!" She pulls the trigger and Mia, or whatever was left of her falls to the ground.

"Good," I say.

"Your watch." Ally walks over to Mia's corpse and searches her pockets then holds up my watch. "That smells bad."

"The watch or zombie?" I ask, taking back my watch and adjusting it to fit my wrist again.

"Both." She replies.

I follow Ally, once she goes inside I remember what Serafina said. Ria and Zander, training at the pond. I run down the road and finally reach the pond, but no one's there.

"Who's there?" Ria says from the gas station parking lot.

"Me," I say, before entering the woods and standing before Ria and Zander, each armed.

"Who's me?" Ria says.

"You guys attracted zombies all the way from Easton," I say.

"The Crows?" Ria asks.

"Yes, three of them."

Zander lowers his gun, "Damn, sorry. We were just kinda blowing off some steam, there's a whole stash of beer here, tastes like shit."

"You drink beer?" I ask sarcastically.

"Not really, wanna try?" He asks.

"Sure, where is it?"

"Behind that dumpster."

I walk behind the dumpster and grab a bottle of beer, before returning to Ria and Zander I take a second glance. There's a purple bra on the ground that looks like it has something inside it. I pick it up and turn back around.

"What you got there?" Zander asks.

"A bra, I think there's something inside."

"I have a knife, set it down," Ria says. She sits down on the ground, I squat down so I can have a better look and not seem awkward just standing there and so does Zander.

Ria cuts it open and pulls it apart, then she takes out a rolled-up stack of cash.

"The fuck?" She mutters.

Zander takes the money out of Ria's hands, "Who the hell would need money? Real money."

"Is that even a form of payment anymore?" I ask.

"Maybe in some places, that's really weird though. The Crows could've been doing some prostitute shit but that's still sketchy, I didn't see anything when we found your truck… You count so slow!" Ria takes the money back and starts counting it.

Ria says with a southern accent, "Sixty good ole US dollars."

"Put it back in there, show Eli or something," I say.

"Eli's not the leader, he's just an emotionless dick. I'll do a" -Ria bends her fingers into air quotes- "meeting, later."

We all stand up and make our way back to the school.