I look at Germaine, Germaine looks at me. Both of us stumbling to find the words. Finally we both blurt them out at the same time.

"It's over!"

Germaine takes the lead, and continues talking.

"Do you know what this means? We don't need to live in fear anymore. There are no more zombies! It'll take society a while to get back on it's feet. But our lives can finally go back to normal."

The realization hit me hard. This here is as close as my life will ever be to getting back to normal. Everyone I ever knew is dead. Still this was a joyous moment and I did not want to ruin it for Germaine. So I put on a smile and said.

"Right, normal, I couldn't be happier."

Germaine caught on to my thinking quickly.

"I'm sorry, I know the loss you faced. At the least things won't get any worse. We'll stay here for a while longer. We don't know how "normal" things will get. I really don't want to go back to my old apartment anyways. I can't make any promises about the future. But for now we can stay."

"Thank you, but there's nothing for me here anymore. If you want to go back out into the outside world I don't want to keep you here. I won't like living out there. But there's no reason I can't live there while maintaining my values."

Germaine's face lights up with glee once more. I continue.

"Sorry for ruining this moment. I really am happy. I even have a surprise for you."

"Not at all. Nothing could ruin this moment for me. I don't think you realize it yet. But this means Court is back! We have to go get her! I have so much to fill her in on."

I completely forgot that Germaine doesn't know about Courtney. I had dismissed that as madness from being alone in the dark for so long. I assumed it would have cleared up on it's own. I need to tell Germaine the truth, though it won't be easy. I want to give her some good news first.

"Wait, I really need to show you the surprise in the basement first. It's really important."

"Fine, but make it quick. I don't want to make Court wait a minute longer than she has too."

At the top the stairs that lead down to the basement. I scooped Germaine up out of her chair and carried her down the stairs is my arms. We enter the main room where I had been strapped to a table. Though that felt like a lifetime ago. The Smell from Yoder's head still permeates from the walls.

"It's just through here."

I say as I carry her over to the door leading to the only room off this one.

Germaine grabs the knob and turns it. The door creaks open and we are immediately hit with a stench much worse than the one left by Yoder.

Germaine and I, eye the mess in shock. If I didn't already know it was two girls. I would not be able to tell if it was one or four. Very few discernible human parts scattered about the room. Mostly we see chunks of human flesh and mounds of what could be human organs.

Large bold letters on the wall, Written in brown dried human blood remove any doubt from my mind what happened here.

"Bet you thought I didn't know they were in here.

-Your pal, Amos"

I look at Germaine's face, as she takes it all in. Losing all colour she turned a pale white. I stammer, struggling to explain.

"I...I thought they were still alive. I thought they were both still zombies. tied down to the bed. I'm so sorry you had to see this. I'm sorry you've been sleeping over it for weeks."

Germaine closes the door and there's a long silence as I walk us up the stairs. Finally Germaine speaks.

"Why didn't you tell me."

"I didn't know."

"No, why didn't you tell me there were zombies in the basement."

"I didn't want you to be scared. They would have been harmless tied to the tables."

Showing no emotion Germaine instead changes the subject.

"Let's just take the baby and go get Court."

This should be one of the happiest days of my life. Instead, it's about to go from bad to worse.

We grab the car seat, the baby now asleep inside, and put it in the car. Agreeing we're probably safe to take it's blindfold off. But wanting to see how other former zombies are behaving before actually going through with it.

I lower the bridge and we drive across. Less nervously this time, as I reinforced it well. Knowing the car would be going back and forth. At the end of a bridge it's a right turn to get to the apartment. I take a left instead. Germaine speaks up immediately.

"What are you doing? You're going the wrong way."

"There's something you need to see."

"Well I certainly didn't need to see the last thing you said that about. Stop playing around. We need to go get Court."

"We are going to Courtney."

"What are you talking about. The apartment's the other way."

"You'll see."

Germaine didn't like my answer but she accepted it. Thankfully it is a fairly short drive. I had keep my eyes peeled for any former zombies that may be around. But do not see any. I suppose they are all still congregated around the power station on the other side of town. And haven't yet had a chance to spread out to their respective homes yet.

We pull up to the old hardware store, I park outside instead of driving directly in through the whole in the wall. Getting Germaine's chair, I put her in. And begin pushing her towards the store.

"I'm sorry for this. I really am."

Expecting the worst, Germaine remains silent. I push her chair over the rubble and orient her facing Courtney's body.

"She never became a zombie."

I said. Though I'm sure Germaine already figured that part out.

"So she never came back to the apartment. I was just losing my mind."

Tears are streaming down Germaine's face. She continues.

"How did you know she was here?"

"There were some men. The ones that drove me away and left me in a field. They captured her too. I came back to save her but it was too late. They told me she died of a drug overdose the first night."

"Where are they."

"They're all dead. I killed them."

I say, not exactly proud of what I had done. But happy to report the news none the less.

"Not all of us."

A voice booms out from the other side of the store. Muffled by a gas mask, I recognize it as Spark Plug's.