Adam woke me up around dawn, and I nearly punched him in the face, which made Ben laugh. After apologizing, I got up and gathered my clothes from the bathroom and put them in my bag. I also grabbed the book that Abby still held in her sleeping arms and placed it in her bag, before joining Ben outside, the bow he had given me in my hands.

He looked up as I came out, and tossed an apple towards me. I caught it easily and after looking at it for any hidden worms, took a big bite. He watched me while I did this, and I shrugged in an innocent fashion. I honestly wouldn't put it past him to try and prank me with a worm infested apple.

He grinned as if reading my mind, and agreeing to my accusations. As the sun came up, Ben said he was going to get some firewood for the day and see if he couldn't catch something to eat. Which left me to sit on the log that we had played I-spy on last night, and listen for anything that shouldn't have been in the woods.

Watch duty was fairly simple, and I didn't hear anything until the sun had fully risen beyond the horizon. At first I thought the twigs snapping were due to Ben, but they were coming from the direction of the compound that we had left the previous day. I stood up, on high alert, and after shoving away the flood of hope that it was someone I knew, I aimed the bow roughly in the direction in which the sound was coming from.

As the sound got louder, I picked up on it. There was more than one, but apart from that, I wasn't able to tell how many. Light on my feet, I hid behind a tree so that if they were just zombies, I wouldn't be spotted first thing. The wait seemed to take forever, and I was starting to gather a light sweat on my hairline.

As the first body broke into my line of sight, I nearly let the arrow notched in my bow fly due to pure shock. Luckily for Trish, I came to my senses and released the tension on the string without letting the actual arrow impale her. The shock however, was broke when I saw who was behind her. Sam's ever cheerful eyes cut around the area surrounding the safe house, pausing on the log, and then on my back pack that I had left near the front door.

I put the bow on my back and ran over, his eyes found mine and he dropped the hatchet that he had been holding. I didn't care about the blood or dirt all over his clothes as I hugged him, and when his arms wrapped around me it all felt real. He was was safe.

"Hey Sunshine," he whispered, rocking me side to side.

"I'm so happy you're okay," I mumbled, not pulling away until was sure that I wasn't going to break down in tears.

Trish cleared her throat, looking at me. She was silent for a few moments, before she gave a tired smile, "I'm glad you made it Kodi," she said, sounding honest.

In that moment there was a small truce between us, whatever initial dislike there had been was gone, and we were left with a mutual goal of survival. I smiled back tentatively. Both her and Sam looked as if they had been through hell and back, Sam had a swollen lip, and his shirt was torn, while Trish's dark hair was matted and had a cut on her eye, making it dark with a bruise.

"Who all is here?" Sam asked, tilting his head while trying to look behind me for the others.

I swallowed, "Well, Beck and Adam are inside sleeping, so is Abby. I'm on watch duty with Benjamin, and now you two are here," I said finishing up lamely.

The information that I withheld rolled around my stomach like a spiked ball of dread and guilt.

Sam's smile fell a little bit, "Who is definitely not going to make it here, that you know of?"

I looked away from him them, the tears pricked at my eyes, making me wonder how long I would feel this way, "I don't know about .. about Cody but. Chester.." I felt my throat close up a little bit, "Chester's not going to make it to the safe house," I finally said, silent tears fell down my cheeks.

Through the pain, I forced myself to give a pathetic excuse of a smile and look at him. Sam's happy carefree eyes were filled with storm clouds ready to give away the rain locked inside, "How?"

This time I didn't need to take a minute to get the words out, they fell out like a confession of a crime that I was waiting to be punished for, "Mabel turned into a zombie, and he sacrificed himself, so that I could get her," I explained, my voice sounding detached.

Sam nodded and hugged me with one arm after picking up his hatchet, "Sunshine, I know he wouldn't have forgiven himself if he could have given you a little bit of needed time, and he chickened out. He died a hero, and that's what you need to remember. It's not your fault," he explained, smiling, "you know he hated your sister, and would have done anything to save you from any more harm that came from her hands- even her dead hands"

I gave him a grateful smile, the guilt having lessened, but I didn't reply. The guilt of his death, I knew, wouldn't lessen any more with anything but time.

"There's some water in the bathroom, and rags you guys can use to clean up with," I said pulling away from Sam and making my way back to the log, "breakfast is whenever the others wake up, though I'm not sure what it will be," I looked around, not sure what else to say on the matter.

Sam instantly went towards the door, mumbling about getting zombie gore off of himself, and I was going to let him go, but a thought had suddenly accrued to me.

"Sam? Where's... where's Leo and Chip? I thought maybe they'd be with you..." I trailed off lamely.

He frowned, and shook his head before going inside. He didn't know, and that thought obviously worried him. Trish lingered outside, instead of following after Sam. She set down her bag, and strapped her gun onto it, looking more out of place than I had ever seen her.

"There's a bed you can use in there," I said, the sound of my voice making her jump slightly though she acted like it hadn't.

Her eyes met mine, "What"

I smiled softly, "The last room down the hall, the one with little soccer balls," I went on, "it's not that bad."

There was a silence and then she picked up her bag again, halfway to the door she turned around, her dark eyes seeming darker with the black eyes, "Thanks," she muttered, cheeks pink.

I nodded and turned away from her, letting her go on without having someone watch her. Not long after she shut the door, Ben came back whistling and with a big load of fire wood. He dumped it next to the fire pit and then started making a teepee of twigs to light in the pit.

"Anything interesting happen while I was out?" he asked and then continued on without letting me answer, "of course not, because I'm the most interesting thing for miles," he said, more to himself than to me.

I laughed, despite myself, and he smiled softly, "I'll take that as a confirmation nothing happened?"

I knelt down to help him build the fire, "Actually, Trish and Sam showed up. They're inside now," I picked up a stick that he had knocked over upon hearing that some people had showed up.

We talked for a little bit after that, but it was clear he was distracted, so I wasn't offended when the conversation faded off. We got the fire going, and then Ben decided he would go out to the woods again, to see about trying to catch anything since he hadn't earlier. I let him go, and looked through the food available, before settling on the packets of oatmeal. I cleaned out the pot we had used for dinner the night before, and filled it up with some water to boil.

Abby came outside, looking around hopefully. She didn't say anything but I knew who she'd been looking for when her face fell and she sniffed back the emotion that had risen with the lack of her brother. She was quiet as she sat down on the log and watched me make her a bowl of warm cereal.

She took it with a soft spoken thanks, and ate it without complaint. I looked out at the woods while she ate, and started silently yelling at Michael to hurry up and come back to his sister. I wouldn't be able to look at her if we left, without him for a second time. She was smart, she'd know that with every move we made, it would be that much more impossible for her brother to catch up.

Beck and Adam came outside around the same time that a sultry Ben came out of the woods empty handed. Adam teased him about it, which seemed to lift Ben out of whatever funk he had fallen into, and then he was back to normal. The boys helped themselves to the oatmeal and I picked up my bow, headed towards the woods.

Beck caught up to me, and without a word he put his hand in mine. Together we walked into the trees, ignoring Adam's voice as he sang the kissing song.

There were no words spoken as we searched the woods for something, anything that could be used for dinner. Beck stayed a little bit behind me, and after an hour, when I was ready to give up, his hand came down on my shoulder. His voice filled my ear.

"Look straight ahead," he instructed almost soundlessly, and when I did I saw a cluster of deer.

Beck prodded my arm that held my bow until it was raised, and then I took it from there. I aimed, and forcing myself to watch what I was doing, I shot the arrow. There was a single breath of time in which the arrow was in the air, having not made it to its destination. In this time the deer that I had singled out looked around, but it was too late. By the time it had sensed the danger it was already down, my arrow having hit it in the neck.

I watched the other deer scatter, and lowered my bow. Beck wrapped his arm around my middle and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"Very good," he said, eyes on me.

I took a deep breath, and looked at him appreciatively. Chester's last words floated through my mind again, and I knew that this was a part of his last words of advice. Or maybe the two simple, yet powerful words had been an order, because while I knew Chester was capable of advice, I wouldn't put it past him to let his last words to me be of the bossy sort.

Beck looked down at me with an expression that said it all, the love and care he felt were clear as day when he smiled at me, "So," he said, eyes twinkling, "You'll carry it back to the house right?"

I scoffed, shaking my head, "No way! That's your job," I nudged him towards the fallen deer.

He smirked and walked over there, "I'll get this one, but next time it's your job," he said, with an air of empty threats.

I rolled my eyes, and followed behind him, staying alert in case anything tried to sneak up on us. He pulled the arrow out, and handed it to me. I made a face at its dirty state, but accepted it anyways. Beck made sure that the deer was fully dead so that it wouldn't be suffering with the pain, and then hefted the animal up onto his shoulders. He nodded for me to go ahead, and I turned around, following the slight path that we had made.

When we got back to the safe house, Ben pretended to sulk on the log at the sight of the deer, and Adam complimented me a little too much, clearly trying to get to Ben. The pair of them had Abby smiling a little bit, so I figured I'd let them have their fun.