"I make you weak at the worst of times but in the end I keep you safe. You will sweat in my presence, even as you grow cold. I dwell with the weak and easily the brave, but without me who could tell the difference.? Who am I?"
"Fear."
It's been three hours since the group had a run in with the special walker. Kaylie was unusually quiet. Darcie was the only one to take notice. She sat down beside the small child.
"What's on your mind?" Darcie asked.
"Just thinking about Hunter."
The older girl paled.
"Kaylie-"
"I think that blue-eyed walker may have been him."
Darcie sighed.
"Kiddo, we both know Hunter is dead. I know where I shot him."
"What if you were shaky? Or if he moved at the last minute? Wasn't that thing wearing the exact outfit as Hunter when you 'killed' him?"
Darcie went silent. She hated to admit it, but the kid had some points.
"Kaylie, we shouldn't dwell on what possibly happened. We need to accept we're a few member-"
Darcie was cut off when a large truck pulled up in the driveway. Everyone went outside. The boys aimed their guns to shoot the driver. The driver door opened and a platinum blonde haired male stepped out.
"Hunter?" Darcie asked.
He looked around at the group and they lowered their guns.
"Hi," he greeted.
"What the ever living fuck?" Travis yelled. "Hunter, what the fuck did you do? And more importantly, how the fuck are you alive?!"
"Nice to see you guys as well."
Darcie stepped up to the truck and looked it over.
"I think it's pretty clear we can't stay here anymore," Leo sighed. "Shit just keeps happening."
"Where are we going to go? We exhausted all of our options by choosing this place. It was difficult enough getting here. Trying to get anywhere else is suicide," Dawson reasoned.
"That's why I'm here. Pack up everything you can carry into the trunk and we're going up North as far as we can go," Hunter declared.
The group sighed but nodded. Hunter looked at Darcie.
"Darcie! Don't forget the stuff you and Kaylie got from the military base!" Travis said.
They were loaded up and ready to go. Hunter sat in the driver's with Travis and Leo beside him. Darcie, Dawson, and Anthony were in the back. Kaylie sat on Darcie's lap.
"Wait a minute. Where's Levi?" Hunter asked.
The group went silent. Travis and Leo exchanged a look before they turned to Hunter.
"Levi didn't make it. He turned," Travis explained, purposely leaving out the fact that they killed his walker.
Hunter nodded and kept driving.
"So where exactly are we going?" Darcie asked. "I hope you have a plan of action."
"We're going up North to the mountains," he explained.
He stared straight forward for a minute before he mumbled to himself.
"Going to the mountains is going home."
The group wasn't fully aware of how long they had been driving in silence for. Darcie looked ahead and something caught her eye.
"Guys. Look up ahead!' she instructed.
Everyone looked at the road sign.
"It's a road sign. Your point?" Anthony asked.
"No. It's a Regina sign. We must be in Saskatchewan," she pointed out.
The boys all understood but Kaylie looked up at Darcie confused.
"What town?" she asked.
"Saskatoon," Darcie replied very sarcastically.
Kaylie raised an eyebrow at the older girl.
"What's a Saskatchatoon?" Kaylie asked.
"Darcie, you don't understand directions," Hunter told the taller girl.
"And you don't understand sarcasm, Hunter." Darcie snapped.
Hunter growled at her. It wasn't a 'I'll kill you' growl, it was more of a 'Don't make me come back there' growl.
"Who wants to see something cool?" Hunter asked.
"Me!" Kaylie screamed.
Hunter sped up and drove straight toward a horde. He hit it and walker chunks flew everywhere.
"Whoa!" Kaylie said.
"That's another thirty walkers gone forever," Hunter laughed.
"You're going to get us killed!" Travis yelled.
"No I won't," Hunter said, slowing down to the 'speed limit'.
Hunter rolled down the window and put his left hand out of it and on top of the roof.
"The wind's cold. Best time to drive," he said.
"Roll up the damn window Hunter," Darcie said, kicking the back of the seat.
Hunter put his arm back into the truck, then he rolled up the window half way.
"All the way damn it," Darcie barked.
Hunter rolled the window up, but pressed another button and made the window beside Darcie roll down.
"I'll kill you," Darcie said.
"No touching the driver unless you all want to die!" Hunter said, reaching under the seat and sliding the seat all the way to the wheel in fear of what Darcie would do.
"Let's just all go back to being silent while we drive," Travis said.
Hunter rolled up the windows.
It was silent for a long time, save for Kaylie talking about the special walker. The sun was almost completely down.
"I have to go!" Kaylie yelled.
"Go? Go where?" Travis asked.
"We are almost at a place we can stop," Hunter said.
"I have to go!" Kaylie yelled again.
She got off of Darcie's lap and grabbed the back of Hunter's seat, shaking it as much as she could.
"It's right there!" Hunter yelled, hoping the child would stop annoying him.
He pulled the truck up by a roadside gas station. He parked it and got out. He then went and checked the place for any walkers.
"It's clear," Hunter said.
Kaylie went running to the washrooms.
"Kids and their squirrel bladders," Hunter said. "Do what you want until nine forty five."
They all up got out to stretch. Darcie grabbed Hunter's arm and pulled him away from the group.
"Yay. We're going a walk!" Hunter said like a child.
Darcie shoved Hunter hard so he landed in a snow bank.
"Listen here you little shit. We need to talk."
Hunter knew Darcie and he had felt her angry wrath before. He stayed silent.
"What the fuck are you doing alive?"
Hunter stood up.
"It's simple really. You were nervous so you were shaking. Your aim wasn't perfect therefore you missed my head. All the blood I was covered in made you think you got my head."
"I wasn't shaky," Darcie said.
"But you were nervous. When I stood up straight, you didn't fix your aim. You could have killed me right then and there, but because you have feelings, you couldn't kill me."
The ride was even more quiet on the final stretch. Hunter looked beside him and then into the rear view mirror to see he and Anthony were the only two awake.
"Looks like we're the only two awake ones," Hunter reported.
"Yeah. Hey Hunter?"
"Hm?"
"What do you think you'll be when you die?" Anthony asked.
"I'll be dead."
"No, I mean like if you were to die and come back again, what would you be?"
"I'd be the nightmare of the living and the dead."
Anthony looked at the rear-view mirror to see Hunter's face. The near albino was staring forward.
"It's dark. You should go to sleep. We'll be there soon," Hunter said.
Anthony leaned against the window and began to close his eyes. He didn't know if it was just sleep over taking him, or if it was actually happening, but Anthony could have sworn that Hunters eyes were faintly glowing a cold blue.
Travis woke up first. He glanced at Hunter and saw the younger male was still awake.
Good, Travis thought.
He then glanced over to Leo and saw him drooling on the window.
Gross.
Travis looked in the rearview mirror and looked at Anthony. He was twitching as if he were about to fall down.
Dawson was just waking up. Travis looked at his sister. Darcie had an arm over her eyes. Kaylie was curled up into a ball in her lap. Dawson nudged his girlfriend. She smacked his arm and looked away.
"You want to annoy her, don't you?" Travis asked the blonde.
"Maybe," Dawson said.
"Leave me the fuck alone," Darcie muttered as she rubbed her eyes.
She pushed Kaylie onto Dawson.
"I don't want this anymore."
Dawson put the child onto Anthony. This caused Anthony to lean a little to the left, and jump up and out of sleep. Kaylie jumped back and hit Leo's seat, waking up the black haired male.
"Now that you are all at least half awake, we're here," Hunter said, pulling into a driveway.
At the end of the driveway, there was a cabin.
"It's been awhile since I've been here," Hunter said.
"You've been here before?" Travis asked.
"Raised here," Hunter parked the truck and turned it off, taking out the key too.
They reached the cabin and Hunter approached the door.
"Does anyone else know about this place?" Darcie asked, nervous to go inside.
"Only my family and they're all dead. We can unload later. You guys should come inside and get some winter gear on."
Hunter opened the cabin door and the group went inside.
"There is no reason the light should be o-"
Travis was cut off when they heard a gun click behind them. The group turned around to see a younger, longer haired version of Hunter aiming to shoot them.
"Explain yourselves. Why the hell are you raiding my base?" he asked.
Hunter gave a chuckle.
"You know, your voice hasn't changed that much, Armin," Hunter turned around.
Armin lowered the gun and charged Hunter. The two hugged.
"Aw! Hunter actually has emotions!" Darcie joked.
"You shouldn't joke about emotions Darcie. Kaylie told me that you almost cried after you shot me."
Armin and Hunter let go of each other.
"Guys, this is my younger brother, Armin. Armin, this is my group," Hunter pointed to each of the members and said their names. "Travis, he's the leader. Dawson is the medical expert, Anthony is a 'hunter'. Darcie is another hunter. Kaylie is our little cousin, she's probably going to be a hunter when her leg heals. And that's Leo, he is-"
"Leo?" a voice from behind the group asked.
Everyone turned around. For a minute, they thought they were looking at Leo, however, his hair was cut differently and parted on the opposite side and he was missing most of his left arm.
"Raymond?" Leo asked, his voice slightly cracking.
Raymond pushed his hair off his face. Just like his brother, he needed a haircut.
"Raymond?" Leo asked again. "Is that really you?"
Raymond gave a small nod. Leo charged the male and pulled him into a hug. Raymond didn't hesitate to return it with his one good arm.
"I thought you were dead," Leo admitted.
"I thought you were dead. Do you have Cole with you? Is he okay?" Raymond asked, looking over the group of people.
Leo looked to Dawson for help. Dawson was there when the helicopter went down.
"Just explain," Dawson encouraged.
"Raymond, Cole's dead. I thought you knew. He died the day the helicopter went down. Levi's old group accidentally shot him," Leo explained, his voice cracking a few times.
"Who's Levi?" Raymond asked.
Leo looked his twin over. He could see he was falling apart over knowing they lost their older brother and was trying to change the subject. Leo also realized that Raymond didn't know anyone in his group.
"I'll introduce you to everyone later," Leo offered.
"You better. Mainly because I think I just found the only two people crazy enough to find love in a zombie apocalypse," Raymond laughed, pointing at Leo's group.
Leo followed his twin's finger to see he was pointing at Dawson and Darcie.
"Yeah. I'll explain everything later."
"You better. And I think I need an explanation on how the bloody hell she fell for him and not you," Raymond joked.
Leo bit down on the inside of his cheek. He hadn't seen his twin in ten years, they had just been reconnected a few minutes ago, and Raymond already wanted to know everything.
"Trust me when I say I'm surprised she even let him melt her heart of ice," Leo whispered to Raymond, hoping Darcie wouldn't hear.
"You need to learn how to whisper," Darcie scoffed.
"Tori always said the same thing."
"Say her name again!" Darcie screamed suddenly. "I dare you, Bitch!"
She was about to charge Leo when Travis, Dawson, and Hunter grabbed onto her.
"Death in the group. She never really got over it," Hunter quickly explained.
Raymond pulled Leo in front of him. He already was starting to fear the female.
"Keep crazy away from me," Raymond requested.
"Haha. Not going to happen. If Darcie gets her hands on you, you're on your own. Believe me and the amount of times I've gotten black eyes from trying to to pull Darcie off of people that she attacks, give her time to do what she needs to do and then time to calm down," Leo explained.
"She's only caught you in the eye like-" Travis cut himself off. "Never mind. Carry on."
"Yeah. I know," Leo scoffed.
"Where can we take her to calm down?" Hunter asked his brother.
"Preferably outside where she can't break anything."
Dawson and Travis picked her up and carried her outside. Anthony followed them. Hunter stayed inside.
"I think maybe we need to catch up," Hunter suggested.
Armin nodded and the two of them walked deeper into the house. Kaylie shrugged before following the two blondes.
"Okay. Fill me in on everything," Raymond requested.
"Okay. What do you want to know first?"
"Names of these people you've been working with."
"Dawson is the golden blonde, but you probably knew that because he was with us early in the apocalypse. Darcie is the older girl, one of the two you called the craziest people. Travis is the male with brown hair and green eyes. Anthony is the African guy. You can tell who Hunter and Kaylie are," Leo explained.
"And Tori and Levi?"
"Tori was a girl the same age as Darcie. They were as close as humanly possible. However, they got trapped in the wrong building with an infestation. Tori never left the building. Not in human form, not as a walker. Levi, on the other hand, had a chance to be alive. Our base got infested and we had to abandon it until we could get it cleared up. In a panicked head count, he was missed and I was counted twice. By the time we realized he wasn't with us, it was too late and we had to kill his walker. He was actually Kaylie's honorary brother," Leo explained, trying not to show his tears from talking about the two lost members.
Raymond put a hand on his brother's back. Leo had looked like he had seen hell and wasn't ready to face the world even though the events took place a long time ago.
"Why does that seem to affect you? You didn't seem like you were all that close to either of them," Raymond pointed out.
"Well, when you're in an apocalypse, you make friends that become family and you're all close. But Tori was my secret friend. She and I were a lot closer than people think. Everyone thought it was Darcie and Tori and they were alone. They were as close as possible. However, whenever Darcie was either with her brother or Dawson, Tori and I were hanging out. She was the only one who knew my darkest secret. That is, until she died. That's when I came out to Travis and the rest of the group," Leo admitted.
"What do you mean you came out?"
Leo looked at his brother. Raymond didn't understand. He had to be blunt for his twin to understand.
"I'm gay."
Raymond stared blankly at his mirror reflection.
"What does that mean?"
Leo bit his lip, realizing gay wasn't a common term. If you weren't gay, didn't know someone who was gay, or of an age to know what the term meant, gay wasn't in your vocabulary. They were old enough to know but Raymond had always been more stubborn against learning and oblivious to more things.
"Raymond, it means I'm not interested in being in a relationship with a girl. I would prefer for my relationship to be with a boy."
"That explains why Demon Darcie wasn't interested in you," he realized.
Raymond started laughing to himself and nodding a little bit. Then his smile faded and he turned back to his brother.
"You want to take it up the ass?"
Leo's face turned dark red.
"Raymond Xander Zaryn!"
"What? I'm trying to process this!"
"What the hell did we just hear?" a female asked from the door.
The twins turned and saw Darcie, Dawson, Travis, and Anthony standing in the doorway.
"Nothing, DD," Raymond told Darcie.
"Deedee?" Darcie asked, unimpressed. "Leo, did you not tell him my name? It's Darcie, not Deedee."
"I know but I'm going to call you DD."
"I'm assuming he means the letter D twice, not the actual name," Leo clarified.
"So why are you calling me DD?"
"Demon Darcie."
The shade of red the brunette's face was turning was giving the Raymond the message to run. He took it and just in time. Darcie chased Leo's twin deep into the house.
"Should we be doing something? Your sister is chasing your brother," Dawson pointed out.
Both males shrugged.
Multiple crashes sounded in the other rooms.
"It's just not safe," Travis reasoned.
Armin and Hunter came back into the room with Kaylie on their heels.
"What broke?" Armin groaned.
"Something glass, potentially a window," Leo said.
"How?"
"Raymond's head may have went through a window but we aren't sure."
"What!?"
"He pissed off Darcie."
"That's ridiculous," Armin groaned.
"Yeah. Why is she so calm?" Hunter asked.
"Can I go deal with it?" Armin asked with an angry voice.
"Sure. Show them who's boss," Hunter said, pushing his younger brother toward the sounds.
Armin disappeared through the doorway.
"Bipolar. Runs in the family," Hunter said.
"Great. Now we have to deal with two Hunters," Kaylie said.
"No! One Hunter and one Armin," Hunter said.
"That's even worse!" Kaylie said.
"Kaylie! Don't be ru-"
"Oh don't even deny it!" Leo cut Travis off.
The cabin was quiet. Everyone apart from Hunter and Armin were asleep.
"Armin?"
"Yeah?" Armin asked.
"Were...were mother and father here? When you got back?"
"They were, I didn't know what to do so I managed to catch them and tie them in the shed. Do you think there'll ever be a cure? If there is, I think we would be able to help mother, but father- Father had his throat torn out. Mother got a few bites from what I could see on her. Nothing too serious."
Hunter put his head on the table.
"I wish Annie were here."
"Me too."
Armin put his head on the table.
"I'm going to take the truck back there and get them. Properly bury them. All three of them are just lying somewhere rotting," Hunter said raising his head.
"Three?"
"Annie, Tori and Levi."
"Levi died? I didn't think anything could kill him."
"A mistake. A miscalculation killed him. Apparently Leo was counted twice. How did Travis even do that? Leo's taller than Levi by what? Seven inches taller than Levi? Yeah that's close enough. How? Even their faces are different! Leo's got hair covering his face, Levi didn't. I'm going to kill Travis," Hunter growled. "Tear him apart and feed him to the walkers."
"Hunter, Mrs. Sapphire told you that homicide isn't the answer," Armin said.
"He's dead. Travis will die," Hunter started to snarl.
"Calm your fucking shit Hunter!"
"Don't tell me what the fuck to do!"
"Fine, let's just both calm down and talk like civilized people. He was probably going by hair colour and quick eyes caused him to see two heads or black hair. We have to admit they have pretty much the same hair colour," Armin said.
Hunter calmed down a little. He stood up.
"When the others get up, tell them that I went to go get something from the old base."
Hunter left to the truck, he started it and drove away.
"Where's Hunter going?" Kaylie asked.
"He's going to go get something from the old base."
"He's going back to get Levi and Tori, isn't he?"
"Yeah. You can't tell anyone about what he's doing okay? He's going to be gone for a while. We'll just tell them that he is going to go find something to fortify the base. Because we do have to fix that window, duct tape and a blanket won't keep the walkers out, or keep heat in."
The room went silent, save for the wind blowing outside.
"What happened after you two got separated?" Kaylie asked.
"Hunter thought I was dead, but he couldn't bring himself to shoot me. He left most of the supplies in the building we were in. I came to in the morning and saw he was gone. I packed up all of the supplies he had left and I back tracked all the way here. Along the way I found a plane crash site and a kid there. He was missing half of his left arm and he looked starved. I helped him and asked him if he wanted to join me. Raymond and I traveled here and we've been here ever since. He can't do much with his arm, but he is a great teammate."
"You've been here for a few years?"
"Yeah. The winter gets so cold that the walkers have trouble moving and they can't do anything. That's when we go out and kill all of the walkers we can. That way in the summer when things get warmer, there are less of them."
Kaylie went and looked out the window.
"You were born during the first few years of this, weren't you?" Armin asked.
"Two years in. I was born on a leap year, so you could say I'm only two years old," Kaylie joked.
"You were born on the twenty ninth of February? Heh. I was born on New Year's Day. Hunter's a December child. Three more days and he would have been born on Christmas."
"What's Christmas?" Kaylie asked.
"Well if you're part of Christianity, you believe that Christmas is the birth of Jesus, their religious guide. But if you aren't part of that religion, it's basically the day were Saint Nicholas comes down the chimney and leaves presents under a Christmas tree. I'll have to explain it more to you tomorrow. For now, it's time you go to bed," Armin came over to Kaylie and picked her up.
"Nooo," Kaylie mumbled.
"Bed time. You don't want to be tired in the morning. We have to go hunting tomorrow," Armin said.
He took Kaylie to the bunk room and put her on the bed under Darcie's bunk.
"Go to sleep Kaylie. Maybe I'll let you shoot the deer," Armin whispered.
Kaylie turned over and fell asleep. Armin left the room and went outside. He got two pieces of meat from the cellar. He went to the shed and unlocked it.
"Here mother and father," he said and quickly gave the meat pieces to the two walkers. "Hunter's come back. He thinks that there might be somebody out there making a cure. We'll cure you two. I wish you two were alive."
Armin left the shed and locked it again, then he went inside and to his room.