We arrive at the school, everyone is sitting behind the front doors. A map is sprawled out in the middle of the kids, including Julia. I'm not sure what everyone thinks of her now, personally, I think she's an okay person who could be useful to the group. It comes across that Zander's been trying to keep his distance from her.

"You guys ready?"

Ally stands up, "We drew a path for you to follow down to New York and highlighted areas that we can stop by, like Red Easton."

"I'm gonna be driving the whole time?"

"We're gonna take shifts."

"Sounds decent. Get your lazy asses up and come on."

Things get set up on the bus as if it's a hotel – a really shitty one at that.

Mattresses jammed between the seats being used as bed frames, four mattresses, which shouldn't be a problem with the shifts, and if you have to sleep next to someone so you don't pass out in a few hours then you sleep next to them, not a big deal.

Blankets arranged across the seats like coats on a coat rack. Weapons and supplies in the trash can Eli earlier emptied. Clothes folded and set down on the seats in the far back.

It's my second turn driving, I drove, then Serafina, Ria, and Eli. No matter how much I sleep or rest I'm exhausted, this is something that won't go away but will only get worse over time, I know it.

Zander says, "You know something I think about way too much. Once in the third grade, I moved buses from one where all my friends were to one where I knew no one. I sat in the back and looked out the window to see my old bus, my friends waved at me and I wanted to, I don't know, make them laugh? I started acting dumb and jumping from seat to seat, using the seats on either side to hold myself up. The lady who drove my old bus saw and got out then talked to my new bus driver about it. I got a detention."

"A kid on my bus in junior high brought a knife and threatened the bus driver," Sophie admits.

Serafina walks behind me and rests her arms on my seat, "What time is it?"

"Nine O' two."

"Any idea where we are?"

". . . Bennington?"

She goes back and looks at the map then at Alexa's note, "That doesn't look too far!"

"What?" Julia asks.

"She said Red Easton is hidden in a long-abandoned diner in Grantham Vermont."

Logan asks, "We aren't actually going there, are we?"

"We have things to protect ourselves if something goes wrong," Eli says.

"How are we even supposed to find this place? Her note wasn't that specific." Logan groans.

"We can just look around when we get there, calm down," Ria says.

"So even you're on board with this?"

"Logan don't start," Eli interjects.

"Sera wanna take over?" I ask.

"Mhm."

Serafina takes my place behind the wheel. I sit down in a seat across from Julia.

"Should we do road trip games?" Julia asks.

"What's that?"

"Well, we can't really do ones that have to do with spotting things."

"Julia?"

"It's just games that you can play without moving or anything I guess." — "What about twenty-one questions?"

"Julia not now…" Zander mutters.

"What else are we supposed to do, sleep?"

"Yes, exactly." He says laying down with his hands behind his head.

"Truth or dare then?"

"No," Zander says.

"Nitro what happened to your parents?" Julia asks.

Eli stares at Julia, "What the fuck are you getting at?"

"It's a normal question."

"My dad died before the outbreak, somewhere in the United Kingdom. My mom didn't care so she sat around and drank until she'd pass out. Serafina and I left the so-called families we had left, took a train to New Hampshire."

"My family was better off without me." She laughs. "Dad started his own company when I was eight, making, selling computers. He was proud of himself and expected my brother and me to be far more successful than him. When I failed school, didn't clean up, acted rude, he'd just ignore me, like I didn't exist. You could call it parenting, I call it stupid. He left me here prolly because he was more scared than me."

"What about your mom?"

"I was adopted, my dad didn't tell me anything about her. Seems like we kinda have something in common there."

"I guess so."

"Speaking of family." Julia starts, as she does everyone turns towards her, knowing what she'll say. "Zander I'm really sorry about your sister."

"Please don't bring it up," Zander responds.

"Anyone here have pets?"

"Julia you pick the worst things to talk about," Sophie murmurs.

"Felix, he was a cat," Logan says softly.

"I had a German shepherd," Ria says.

"Boring." Julia comments. "I had cows, chickens, horses, and a parrot."

"A parrot?" Serafina asks, looking back.

"Her name was Apple. She knew how to scream like a human which would wake me up thinking someone broke in every single night."

"Since y'all think I'm so boring let's get to the good shit."

"Julia. . ." Eli says.

"Who here likes someone?"

"Julia no one likes you suck it up," Logan says.

"I guess I like someone. Not you though Julia." Zander says.

Everyone looks at him shocked like he just admitted to killing their family.

"What, who?!" Julia walks over to him, only less than a foot away.

"That wasn't your original question."

"Zander for real?" Ria says. "You aren't just fucking with her?"

"Nah, I'm serious."

"You're so stupid," Julia utters.

Suddenly the whole bus jerks to the left as Serafina screams, she calms down and yells, "Get the wheel!"

Ria and I both run to help her, "I can drive, you should go help her." Ria takes the wheel.

I sit Serafina down, "What the hell happened?!"

"My-" She whimpers. "My wound tore."

I look down to notice blood leaking through her shirt.

"Fuck did we bring bandages?"

"It'd be dumb not to." She coughs.

Sophie quickly appears behind me and hands me bandages and antibiotics.

Even after minutes and minutes of waiting, more and more disposed antibiotics, Serafina's still in terrible pain and this bus won't do her any good.

"We should stop somewhere," I call out.

Serafina touches my arm gently, "No need, I'm okay. They can help me at the town."

"If we get there…" Logan mumbles. "You know what, we should stop, it's getting cold and it'll get way colder. We have to stop."

"Stop where?" Ria says.

"Map." Serafina tries reaching for the fallen map before Eli says, "There's a hotel over there."

"Over where?" Ria asks.

Eli goes to Ria, pointing at a run-down-looking, but big building.

Serafina's still in a lot of pain, it looks like she's trying not to pass out. We come to a quick, hard stop in front of the hotel but not in the parking lot.

"Um, actually on second thought," Ria says. "... maybe we should just look for help when we get there."

"It hurts really bad, what's the problem?" Serafina groans.

"See for yourself," Ria replies.

We both look out the window, the place is flooded with zombies.

Eli starts, "We do have ammo, c'mon." He presses the button to open the doors.

"Eli are you fucking crazy?!" Logan stresses.

"By now? probably. We should at least try though."

"Whatever you idiots do I'm staying inside," Sophie whispers.

"Suit yourself, Soph. Stray, you coming?"

"Sure, fuck it." I reach into the trashcan and pull out my gun and Serafina's knife on my way out. Zander, Ria, and Julia follow.

We all take cover behind a van.

"Let's distract them," Julia says.

"And if the door is locked?" Ria asks.

"That's what windows are for." Jested Zander.

"How do we distract them; All of them?" I inquire.

Eli turns towards me, "Look around, there has to be something."

"What about this van, they like noise don't they?"

"It wouldn't be loud enough and most cars can't be hotwired anymore."

I peek around the van and look for something, anything.

"Let's just sneak past 'em we're wasting time." Zander declares.

"I agree," Julia says. "We can hide behind cars and take out the ones that get in our way.

"How do we get Serafina in there once we find a way in?"

She looks at me then back at the bus, "We'll figure that out later but sitting on our asses isn't helping her much."

Julia leads us from car to car for what feels like days. Once we reach a red car I get spotted by a zombie so I go for it and try stabbing it but its head is too high up for me to grab without getting bitten. The zombie latches onto my neck, I kick it in the torso, when it falls I bring my knife to its forehead — Someone else's ends up inside the monster's brains though.

"Should've knocked him down sooner." Eli glares.

"I had it under control. Why, are you mad?"

"Guys shut the fuck up!" Ria quietly interjects.

We make the rest of the way peacefully, until getting trapped behind a truck.

"We could go around back," Julia suggests.

Eli shushes her, "There's too many. We make a run for it, kill the ones we can and break any window or opening in sight."

"You aren't serious." Ria retorts but halfway through her sentence Eli has already started counting ‐ "three, two, one!" He stands up and dashes past and through the zombies, just not alone. We follow his lead and surprisingly make it around the building. A zombie grabs a hold of Julia, she quickly strikes it in the eye with the end of her gun.

"There's a window." I point.

"We'll hold them off, get it open." Eli answers.

I try punching, even kicking the window but all I get are scraped knuckles.

"Shoot it," Zander says.

"But the-" Zombies I meant to say.

"Get it open!" He barks, smashing a zombie's brains in with his foot.

I hold my gun up to the window and shoot it.

"Come on," I say, leaping through the window.

We find ourselves in a room that's dirty and empty for the most part… except for the huge pool that takes up most of the room.

Ria pants, "We need to barricade that window."

"I don't see anything in here!"

The door creaks open. We all raise our weapons and stand our ground as a man comes in, a thirty or so year old with a beard and greasy, light brown hair. His dark eyes glare at us - almost as aggressively as his shotgun; looks like he thinks waving it at us is a good idea while the dead attempt to crawl through the shattered window.

"Drop the weapons." He growls.

We do as he says, but I notice fewer weapons were dropped than grabbed before we got here. It's not as if I can talk anyway, with a shiv in my boot.

"Come into the hall, close the door behind you, facing me." The man says.

Julia closes the door then brings her hands back up beside her head.

"That bus yours?"

I stare at him, "I swear to fucking God if you touched any of our people…"

"Can't with that monster cluster out there. You kiddos breaking in didn't help much."

"Someone in our group is injured, we needed somewhere to stay for a bit," Eli says.

"You with them?"

"With who?"

"Crows."

"Crows don't like kids, we learned that the hard way."

The man glances at the window, "Fine, follow me."

We follow him up the stairs and into a hotel room, '426'.

A lady is sitting down next to a much older woman, she looks somewhat sick and is gripping a peeled orange tightly, so tight juice starts to leak out and fill the room with the citrus smell, it reminds me of alcohol and I hate it. The smell of fruits or anything like it only causes me to think of bad memories.

“Who are these people? Randall you fucking promised me you’d kill anyone that’d try to get in, after what happened that day we can’t risk anything! especially your poor mother’s life.”

The old lady raises her hand to the younger woman’s face until she looks at her, “They’re children. I miss having children around, I bet they are harmless.”

Randall raises his gun at us again, “You five managed to kill those demons and break-in, putting us at risk. Seems harmful to me.”

“All we need is help… a thirteen-year-old girl’s life is endangered and we are so far from somewhere safe.” Julia lowers her hands.

Randall jerks his gun at her, Julia re-raises her hands and scoffs.

“Kill them. Get the head.” The woman says quietly.

“Fine, let us go if you want us gone!” Ria shouts.

A creak in the floorboards can be heard outside the door.

“If that’s one of those demons you kids are in lethal trouble.” The woman huffs.

Randall slowly opens the door, “You brought back up?!”

We quickly turn around in unison. It’s Ally and Logan.

“Now drop the weapons slowly.” Randall shakes.

“Randall you can’t get shit done!” The woman grabs Zander and brings a dirk to his throat. “Drop the fucking weap-” she’s cut off as blood pours out her mouth, in her last moments she tries slitting Zander’s neck but is too weak as Zander rips away from her grasp noticing Randall has Ally pinned to the ground. I try stepping in to help but Eli pulls me back and says, “Leave him, he’s got it handled.”

Once Randall’s cold body lies on the floor, motionless, Ally runs over to the old lady and shoots her in between the eyes. Not just once but again… then again and again and again, she stabs her five times before Zander has to pull her off; Ally struggles, and once she’s away from the woman she just murdered brutally she starts breaking down and shaking. However, we don’t have time for questioning her as zombies swarm upstairs. We run out of the room, but not before Eli picks up Randall’s gun from underneath his heavy body.

“Where do we go?” Logan asks.

“Looks like there’s only one place to go,” I say, looking at the railing, below it is the first-floor hallway.

“That’s like twenty feet, we won’t make it,” Julia exclaims.

Eli looks over the edge, “It’s not that far down.”

“Can’t we just kill them?”

“We jump?” Zander asks.

Zander stands on the railing and before anyone can stop him he jumps, it’s silent for a bit then he yells, “Hurry!”

We jump down one after another then run outside through the front doors, all the zombies outside made their way to the back window, making it a lot easier for us to escape.

Once we get on the bus Ally sits down in the far back.

"Thank God you assholes are okay, I tried stopping Logan and Ally, you five going out there was enough already," Serafina says. "So did you find anything?"

"We met a man and his wife, I think. There was also an old, sick lady, his mother." I respond.

"Then Ally killed her for no reason," Julia mutters.

"What?" Sophie looks at Ally who has tears forming in her eyes.

"Ally, what happened back there? It's okay." Zander sits down next to her.

"She was going to become one of them." -Ally sighs- "My grandmother's biggest fear was dying, all old people die. Whenever I look at them I see my grandmother, a person who knows they'll be gone soon and has to deal with it."

"You stabbed her like six times." Julia retorts.

"That was the first person I've ever killed and I put all my rage and sadness, everything into that woman because I could hurt someone without it being a bad thing, it didn't feel good, I'm terrible for stabbing her more than I needed to and I hate that."

"It's not a big deal, she was dead either way." Ria says as she sits in the driver's seat."

"I can drive," I say.

"So can I, and I got here first, finders keepers."

"We killed three people and it got us nowhere, it feels so wrong." Zander says, "We took three lives who were just trying to live more, like us."

Julia says, "They would've killed us, it's messed up, it really is. But we had to have done the right thing."

"I hope we did because I'm already starting to feel guilty as shit."

I remember the first time I killed someone, not a monster but a real, alive person. A few weeks after the outbreak we started hiding in an old building that was used as a mental facility back when I wasn't even born and my mom still lived in the United Kingdom. It was fine, we had food but both knew that we were going to run out eventually. We had comfortable places to sleep, shelter. This one day, a day I never wanted to come, a man came inside not knowing we were there, we hid while he went upstairs and started taking the little food we had left. Once he came back down he spotted Serafina who was hiding under a desk and brought a knife to her head, 'You're too young to be alone, whoever else is with you either comes out now or watches you die.' I shot him. Blood spurted onto Serafina's shoulders and she fell from his grasp. I cried so much after that day, I felt so terrible.

Maybe I saved my best friend's life, maybe I took a man's away, a man who had a family that might've gone looking for him wondering when he'd come back. If I truly saved Serafina's life then I'd do it again, no hesitation this time but no matter what I'll always feel guilty after taking a human life – it's a good thing I feel that way, it makes me a sane person. I would feel worse if I didn't mind killing.

Serafina really messed up her wound and is still doing so well, better than I would be. She’s always been strong but, getting shot and in the stomach too? She insisted on sitting up and moving around when she should’ve been resting. I wouldn’t know how I’d react if something like that happened to me. I don’t feel strong or like I can do anything, I’m so powerless even when I try so hard to be Serafina’s protector, a person who can stand up to people like the Crows, a survivor. Before this, in this same stupid world, everyone had their hardships, everyone dealt with different bad and good shit. Now everyone that’s still alive is dealing with the same mess and the only thing people are trying to achieve is life, a long, happy, healthy life, but that looks almost impossible. Some people probably still have it worse than others but at least it doesn’t matter much who you were before when it comes down to being able to live.

“Hey looks like we’re here,” Serafina says to me. I fell asleep with my head against the window and now it feels bruised.

“Looks like?”

“This is where we’re supposed to be, now we just have to find the diner, then the Town. Where’s that note?”

I reach over to the seat behind me where the note lays and hand it to her.

“No, you take it, I need to be able to move on my own without worrying about that thing.”

I nod my head and help her up. I can see a sign that says ‘Grantham St.’ through the windshield.

“She never mentioned what the diner was called?” Sophie asks.

“Nah. See any zombies?”

“Nope, let’s go.” She picks up her bag and exits the bus.

After walking around in circles in search of some old diner I sit down on the curb and mess with my shoelaces. Eli sits beside me, “Find anything?”

“That’s a stupid question.”

“Seriously though, what are we even doing here?”

“Looking for a diner.”

He glares at me.

I sigh, “This place could help us, Serafina’s hurt and they could give her medical attention. We could use somewhere to stay and get ready to roam around the country.”

“You always do what’s best for her huh?”

“Anything could happen, and I need her to be safe.”

“Must be nice.”

“What?” I ask.

“You two would do anything for each other, she really cares about you. I can tell.”

“You think she likes me?”

“Now you’re sounding conceited.” He laughs.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Would there be a problem if she did?”

“I just really want us to stay with each other, like the way we are.”

“Well if she likes you and you like her back then you can date and stay the same?”

“That’s the problem, I’ve tried liking her and I just can’t. I can’t imagine us being together in that way, kissing her, whatever. Whenever she touches me a certain way I get uncomfortable thinking that she feels that way about me. We’ve been friends for so long, that’s all we can be.”

“She probably likes you, everyone does, even Julia.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“You’ll figure that out. This whole not liking her thing, have you ever thought that it might be something else?”

“What do you mean?”

“You think she’s pretty don’t you?”

I nod my head.

“You’re close with her and all… people would kill to be in your position and you think that it’s just because you’ve been friends too long?”

“What else could it be?”

“Hey, I found something!” Serafina shouts from a distance.

“C’mon.” He stands up and brings his hand down to my face.

***

I walk up to Serafina and the others, “What did you-”

‘Myra’s Diner’ Reads a sign on a brick building with the front doors missing.

“There’s no way this isn’t it,” Serafina says.

“Good job.” I say, “Now where’s the storage area?”

“Should be around the back,” Logan replies.

And sure enough around the back of the diner, there’s a door leading to a neighborhood surrounded by a fence made of different types of wood, the door is painted brown to match.

“What was the password again?” Zander asks.

“. . . Argomarva?”

Zander knocks on the door, “Um Alexa Wesley sent us?”

No response.

He talks louder, “The password is Argomarva.”

The door opens, on the other side is an old man with a white eye that makes him look half like a zombie.

“You don’t have to be so loud!” He groans. “I wait a bit before letting people in, you never know when raiders are around.” He pauses then scans us, “Alexa sent you, really? She was a nice girl… until she killed another woman for not giving her something.”

“Sorry, we didn’t know that,” Ria says.

“Don’t apologize sweetie. Those were her actions, not yours.”

“Well come on in.”

There are small buildings, shops, restaurants, even a house with the word ‘Apartment’ written on it. They did all this in some months.

The old man walks up to a lady with short brown hair and big eyes that look at him like he’s the president, behind a pair of clear glasses. “Can you show them around?” He walks away.

The lady smiles, “I’m Charlotte Easton, that’s my father Herbert Easton, Myra was his wife before she tragically passed away. We made this town in honor of her, her favorite color was red.”

“We use money as a form of payment, so to us that cash people left behind when this started is useful. There are many jobs, people can work as if this was the normal, old-world for money. There are apartments, a medical center, food places.”

“The medical center, where is it?” I ask.

“Behind the red building over there.” She points.

“Thanks,” I say.

We walk to a small, brown, shed-looking place. A lady standing in front of it asks, “Do you need anything?”

“She tore a bullet wound that was pretty deep recently.”

The lady looks at Serafina, “Hi, what’s your name?”

“Serafina.”

“I like that name, I’m Ms. Moore. You guys can go get something to eat or talk with others, I’m afraid we don’t have many kids though.”

We walk away and stop in front of what looks like a garden.

“If we’re gonna stay here then we should get an apartment.” Ally says.

Logan says, “Doesn’t look like anyone who owns the place is here.”

“It’s fucking freezing, they’re probably inside,” Eli responds.

We walk inside and at a desk covered in all sorts of things, on a metal chair sits a little girl, very little. She has her feet up on the desk, wearing a white, stained hoodie with the strings all chewed up, grey sweatpants under a pair of big khaki shorts, and those velcro sneakers that light up when you stomp. Under her hoodie she has dark, shaved hair and a gloomy look on her face, I can’t tell what color her eyes are. They look green and brown at the same time. She has a telephone cord wrapped around her fingers, her nails painted with red, chipped, nail polish.

“How many rooms do you need?”

I hesitate, “There’s nine of us?”

“Two beds in each room, nothing fancy though. So four or five?”

“We’ll take five.” Ally says.

“Alright, can I get a first and last name?”

“Are you reading a script?” Eli asks.

“So what?”

“Do you even wanna work here?”

“No, my mom helps in the garden and she makes me work here because she can’t handle two jobs anymore.”

“Sophie Romero. Put that down.” Sophie interrupts.

“Thanks.” The girl stares at us before writing anything down. “I haven’t seen people my age in a long time.”

“Your age?” Ally asks quietly.

“I’m ten, my name is April.”

“What happened to the other kids?” Julia asks.

“Died, ran away, left with their parents. I don’t like it here but if we left my mom would die.”

“Why don’t you like it here?”

“They’re weird. They talk about old things from the news that aren't important and leave people behind. We have scav groups that steal food for the community, even if it means killing innocent people.”

“You think we should stay here?” I ask.

“Not for long, people in your group are gonna die, more and more the longer you stay.”

“How?”

“They don’t like certain people. The adults always make fun of teenagers and different people. They think that because they’re older kids are useless.”

“Different people?”

“Lazy people, young people, people with things like autism, people that don’t agree with them. I heard what Herbert said, about you knowing Alexa. She had a little kid and a lady that works at a food place tried ‘Setting the child free’ to get rid of it because it couldn’t do anything.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” Logan whispers.

“Shut it,” Ria says.

April speaks, “No, he’s right. Get what you need and leave here.”

“Are you okay staying here?” I ask.

“I don’t want to, but I need my mom to live. These people killed my best friend for no reason, they left her outside the gates and found her dead body by a river with half her clothes ripped off. I would rather die out there than in here but my mom is too important.”

“When we leave you and your mom can come with us,” Zander says.

“Not unless you have a place to stay.”

“We’re going to New York, then further down the map to find a safe place. We have a bus.”

“Where?! You left it just out there?”

“What?”

“They probably already took it to scrap for metal.”

As we walk up the stairs Sophie turns to me, “Can we talk?” The others notice and ignore us. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’ve just been thinking…” she leans up against the wall. “A lot. About my family especially, with that wound Darcy won’t make it long, that is if she’s still alive. We- I told Jack not to cut it off, I knew it wouldn’t work, but like Calvin said, ‘It’s worth a shot.’ I still don't agree.”

“Why did they cut her hand off?”

“Long story short Calvin’s a cheating bastard.” She sighs. “He slept with a man, who he thought was dead’s wife. Eventually, she told him that he survived after cutting off his foot, it got rid of the infected area fast enough so the fluids from the monster’s mouth wouldn’t go too far into his bloodstream. Calvin started ranting about it after we found Darcy. Even if it would’ve worked I don’t think we cut it off fast enough.”

“What I wanted to tell you was that I need to leave, to go back to them, I can’t function without knowing if my mother’s alive or if my brother’s hiding in a ditch somewhere. I wanted to tell you because I brought you… and her into this mess, if I didn’t convince you to help me leave I maybe would have kept my family alive and sane, maybe if you left Alexa and Six they’d be alive too. These people, my friends, I care about them so much and I love being with them. They've taken a liking to you too, but I think it’s time I just go.”

“Seriously Sophie?”

“If they ask about me, I want you to tell them that I left but I’ll be fine.”

“Do whatever you think is best, I won’t stop you.”

“Thank you so much, and look after Ally, I have a feeling she’s not… good right now.”

Ria comes up to me, “Where’s she going?”

“Away, she’ll be fine.”

“We can’t let her go.”

“It’s what she wants.”

“...Stupid Sophie.”

“Hey, shouldn’t you check up on Serafina?”