Eli: How long will you guys be held up for? Audrey: Who knows, really. It's ten-twelve p.m. I'll say they should be gone by midnight, but if they're not gone by midnight, then two o'clock in the morning. We'll let you know. The damn geeks are starting to notice us. Eli: Stay safe. Protect one another. Audrey: See you guys later, over and out.

All of us glanced at each other with worry. Justin immediately grabbed the radio and attempted to contact the others at the school. But there was no response.

Marv: Justin, can't you just pull up the cams on the school. So we can try to figure out the problem? Justin: Sadly, the only cams I can see are the front parking lot camera and the bus lane camera. The other cams are offline. They probably need a system reset or something. Tim: What do you see on the cams? Justin: Three stragglers on the bus lane. I can still see the massive swarm. Surrounding the perimeter of the school.

Eli: It doesn't sound like they got through the gate. Is there a chance they got in through the field and got past the opened fence? Justin: Very unlikely they got inside of school grounds. Well, through the field, at least. Tim: So, that means they're safe? Justin: Let's just say they have good odds. The main threat is at bay. There's another problem. Well, it's not a problem. It's just a possibility that could be problematic, so take it with a grain of salt. What happens if a survivor group saw the school, went through the field, and got inside the school.

Tim: Oh, shit! That can be the reason why they haven't responded yet! That survivor group could be holding them hostage and make us give up all of our supplies and kick us out to the horde! Marv: That could happen, but I highly doubt it. Don't you think they would've contacted us, so they can know how far away we are? Tim: But why haven't they tried to reach us? Marv: I bet a bunch of them went outside to see the horde surrounding the school, or they're doing something else.

Eli: The most likely scenario is that they're doing something that requires all of their attention. Maybe a discussion about the roles and stuff. Or they could've gotten into an argument and killed each other. I wouldn't put it past the girls to do that. Marv: I will agree with the first scenario. Tim: What is with you, saying the second scenario?! Eli: It's a possibility. Well, it is one of the worst possibilities.

Well, if they did kill each other, then that's fewer mouths to feed. And it would get rid of the useless people we got in the group, well, except for Imani and Niko. I know they're my friends, but it's the hard truth to swallow. If we lost the people at the school, it wouldn't hurt us, not even in the slightest. But if we lost the trapped supply run team, that would hurt us because we would be losing a more valuable asset. Look, I'm not saying that they can't be helpful, we can find them a suitable role for them. They have something that an experienced survivor can't bring to the group. It's loyalty and trust. You can't trust new people. It is just as simple as that.

Marv: Can you tell the lights are still on from the school? Justin: Well, only from the bus lane cam. I can't really get a good look on camera. Eli: Are we leaving the others here, or are we staying and trying to help them? Marv: They sound like they're in a tight spot. Who knows, really? We could really make the situation a lot worse than it really is. They seem like they're going to wait out all of the infected. If they think that's the best choice, then we shouldn't mess up their plan. Tim: The more we wait here and try to figure out what to do in our situation, we're going to miss out on supplies. We might as well leave them and wish for the best.

Eli: Should we really leave it up to chance? We're talking about our friends? Justin: Tim does have a point. The more we wait here discussing our next move, the more we lose out. Marv: What happens if Michael and others are fine. They could be waiting for the zombies to pass by. And others back at the school could use our help. Eli: I have a crazy idea!

It's an idea that we can divide and conquer. Everyone gets what they want. It's a win-win situation. Marv: What is it? Eli: Marv and Tim go on with the original plan. JT and I will go back inside and try to rescue the others. Tim: What the hell is wrong with you?! Do you have a death wish or something?! Are you out of your damn mind!? Elijah, you're black; our people don't do this kinda stuff!? Think of this situation like a horror movie, you know every nigga is not walking toward the killer, we run away from the killer, and we don't look back. We don't go to creepy-looking houses; we turn around and get back on the road!

Marv: First of all, it's so fudging risky! Secondly, do you even have enough ammo to take on the infected? It seems like they're everywhere. And you can't stealth it out either. They're just too many of them. Third, we can't split up because we need both of you to execute the next part of the mission. Justin: I wouldn't mind tagging along with you, but we simply can't waste ammo like that. The risk is already too high being out here. At this point, we're just gambling our lives away. Let's say we accomplished this plan of yours. And we meet up with Marv and Tim, but then we get into a sudden shoot-out over supplies. But wait, we already wasted a lot of ammo at the rental car place, so we're low on ammo. Even if we win the shoot-out. We would be out of ammo for the entire supply run. The weapons we would have are only melee weapons. Eli: Alright then, let's leave and continue on the mission.

Justin started up the engine and took off with a vengeance. Soon as we left the parking garage, the undead from the outside parking lot started to pursue after us.

Tim: Justin, drive faster, my nigga!!! These runners are on our tail! Justin: Shut the fuck up! I'm not trying to tilt the car over! Shoot the damn zombies, so we can lure them away from the rental car place. Eli: Relax, Timothy. Justin is probably one of the best drivers out of the entire group. Tim: You telling me to relax when we're getting chased by these damn freaks?! Row down the window, and start shooting! Tim let the backseat window down on the driver's side. Tim turned his body towards the window and popped his head outside the window with his AR-15. And he starts firing his gun like a mad man. I don't know if he got any kills because he couldn't handle the gun's recoil.

Eli: Tim-Tim, save your ammo. Tim changed magazines and was ready to fire again. I hurried and grabbed my bat and poked him with it. Tim: What!? Eli: Save your ammo. Tim let the window up, hit the switch on his to safety, and put the gun on the floor. And he brought up his head closer to the center console. Tim: What did you say!? Tim has this feeble-minded look of confusion like nothing was wrong. He kinda forced my hand to flick this dumbass on the forehead and smack him on the neck. Tim immediately flinched back and started guarding his face while raising his right leg up. Tim: What did I do?! Eli: I bet you didn't even kill one single zombie when you were firing your gun like a complete moron!

Tim: It's hard to shoot when you're on the move. And it's not like Justin is keeping the car stable! Justin: Are you seriously blaming me for your incompetence?! Tim: No! I'm just saying if you kept the car stable, I would have a better chance to kill some Z's. Marv: Are you sure it wasn't your terrible fudging aim?! Tim: You know what, I will take some of the blame. It was lousy shooting by me, that's all! Eli: Just save your ammo next time. If ammunition can be spared, don't waste it on a shot you can't hit. No one expects you to be a day one badass like our boy Justin here. Don't be someone you're not. Just do whatever you can, and we can get through this hell together. Tim: Justin, just step on it. Justin: Way ahead of you! We sped through the red lights and made a hard turn. Some of the street lights were not on, so Justin had to slow down because of the low visibility of the night. A couple of stragglers in our way, but Justin misses them on purpose, so the Mercedes doesn't have any unnecessary issues. As we went further, we passed by my neighborhood entrance sign, Chris Saw Park.

I've been in Chris Saw Park since it was built back in 2006. It's kinda crazy that I saw this community build from the ground up. My family was the first one there. This neighborhood was growing with new houses, more and more families came in. Until the last available house was built. I saw so many faces, made so many memories. Now it's going to be like a ghost town. 2020 has taken everything from me. I can't believe I slept like a damn baby during all of the chaos. Today started out normal, no zombies around here. It was your typical mundane Thursday. I woke up ready for school because of my friends and then went to baseball practice.

Maybe this is all one big nightmare. Perhaps I'm still sleeping in Gresham's classroom during K.O.'s class. Just waiting for weight training next period. That means my teammate, one of my great friends, De'Niro, is still alive and well. Not a fucking corpse! I lost all of my teammates, and I lost one of my coaches/math teacher. Coach Rob, thank you for being my coach; it was an honor and a privileged playing for you. Even though I only met you during my senior year. It was an honor nevertheless. I miss all of my dead teammates. I wanted us to at least have a proper season like I had in junior year. But I suppose 2020 had something else planned for us.

Today, I lost so much. I even killed another human being that I didn't even know. I didn't have a single ounce of hatred for old man Luke. I always thought I would kill someone that made me lose my temper that I've been holding for five years. Why did I survive outbreak day?! And why am I immune to the zombie virus?! What makes me so fortunate!? De'Niro should've been immune, not me! I should be the one dead, not him! He's a fantastic person that was going to do amazing things with his brilliant mind. I mean, earnestly, why, of all people, was I immune to the virus!?

Seriously a person like me!? I'm a joke of a person! Like, come on! I want to end my life every fuckin day! De'Niro was happy and was ready to take on the next stage of life! The only reason I'm still breathing is because of her! I wanted to tell her my feelings but no! I had to screw things up by not saying anything, just hinting at it. Before 2019, I haven't seen her in two years. I've been in love with her since the summer of 2016. I feel foolish for not recognizing my feelings towards her. I should have recognized them the last time I have seen her around that time! But no! I had to be away from her to finally get it! I'm literally a complete moron! How could I be so blind to the apparent truth!?