(Heeeeeeeeey… Fuck, I don't know how to start this.

So I'm guessing that you already know what this story is about… nah probably not. So if you guys don't know, which is probably mostly all of you, there's a story out there called Loud House: Infection of the Dead and it's a good ass story about the Loud House characters surviving in the zombie apocalypse. So if any of you like the Walking Dead, be sure to give this story a read. Mr. PotassiumK is a brilliant author and he allowed me to create a backstory to a future character.

Who is this future character you might ask? Well you remember my own Loud House story, The Loudest Journey? Well Potassium loved the story so much that he decided to include my character, 'Matt Dillon' into his story in the future. Of course, I was ecstatic, and wanted to jump on Matt right away. So I asked him if it was alright to create a backstory of Matt and how he handled the zombie apocalypse, or the Infection of the Dead, and he was all up for it. In fact, he's such a huge fan of Matt Dillon, that he absolutely cannot wait until this story is published. Never would I have guessed that Matt Dillon would have a small fanbase. Heh, I feel so accomplished.

Anywho, this story is my take on Potassium's own story. The reason why it's called The Other Side of Life is because of two reasons:

There's a Left 4 Dead 2 Custom Campaign called Silent Hill: The Otherside of Life and after watching iyse hazard on YouTube playing it, I thought that was a good title to use, so I used it.

Because this story is literally about another survivor and how their life was affected by the Infection of the Dead, hence Other Side of Life.

All in all, the title worked out pretty well and I am stoked to write this story. I already have numerous ideas on how to work this story and how to write the dark themes.

This story will handle about the loss of life, severe psychological trauma, insanity, the loss of humanity in one self, and the loss of identity. Essentially, it's about how a character, in this case Matt, goes insane from the zombie outbreak, and I am stoked to write about it. So go check out Mr. PotassiumK's own story and give it a good read. The chapters are intense, nerve racking, suspenseful, and long… just like my di-

Anyway, without further ado, Infection of the Dead: The Other Side of Life…

…

…

How many more of these do I have to do?)

A teenaged kid that looked to be the age of 17 laid helplessly on the ground, having a dead expression on his face as he stared aimlessly up in the sky. His mouth was slightly open as blood leaked out of his cut lip while blood poured out of his cuts and bruises that were all over his face. Blood came running out of his nose as a few blood tears stained his cheeks. His entire body was beaten and battered while his clothes were ripped in several places.

His hearing was muffled as he continued to stare aimlessly up in the sky, watching the birds fly over him. He blinked once, taking away a lot of strength from his battered, weakened body. He licked his dry lips as he blinked some more, still staring upwards into the cloudy skies a light drizzle began to fall onto the ground and onto his face.

At that moment, shadows appeared next to him as a hand was placed on his shoulder, but this did not stop the kid from staring dead into the sky. Muffled shouts could be heard from all around, but that still didn't get the kid's attention. It wasn't until a hand was placed his cheek, wiping away the blood stains from his tears that caused the kid to look to the right, seeing an older looking man above him.

"Can you hear me?" asked an unknown male voice.

"What's your name, son?" asked the older man.

The kid stared at him for a brief moment before he went back to staring at the sky with dead eyes. He remained silent as he continued to lie on the ground, all while several people continued to help treat his wounds. The kid suddenly began to hear echoed, muffled voices in his head, his past coming back to haunt his poor soul.

Matt!

We're getting surrounded!

Matt, get over here!

The walkers are all over the place!

The enemy has reached our base!

Matt!

Maaaaaaatt!

"Matt!" shouted a voice.

Matt turned his head to see another teenaged kid, several cuts and bruises all over his face, having a pleading expression on his face as he grabbed Matt's shoulders.

"They're all over the place!" the kid shouted. "We're surrounded! Our leader is dead! What do we do?!"

At that moment, a walker came out of nowhere and sunk it's teeth into the kid's shoulder, causing him to scream in horrible agony. Matt backed up, traumatized at the sight of his friend getting eaten alive in front of him; the teenaged kid continued to scream bloody murder as his body was devoured by a horde of walkers.

Several more muffled shouts and screams could be heard all around Matt, prompting him to examine his surroundings.

All around him was nothing but violence. A massacre happening all around him, as he continued to stand in the middle of a forest, fire everywhere as dead branches fell from the trees, the ground burnt to a crisp, as corpses littered the entire area, both of the dead and undead.

Several survivors could be seen fighting each other, most likely enemies. A survivor could be seen smashing open another survivor's head open with a baseball bat, before that said survivor was impaled from behind by a sword. A walker suddenly came walking up to the murderer and sunk it's teeth into his neck, causing the survivor to scream in horrid pain.

Two survivors could be seen fighting each other in hand to hand combat, both holding weapons in their hands. The first survivor was pushed to the ground while the second one raised his club in the air and swinging it down, smashing it against the head of the first survivor, killing him.

A third survivor came from behind and swung a huge rock against the second survivor's head, killing him as the corpse landed on the ground. At that moment, a fourth survivor came charging at the third survivor, impaling said him with a katana. Suddenly, the person's head was bashed with a spiked club from his enemy from behind, as several more screams and shouts could be heard.

That person suddenly turned around to see another survivor charging at him with a sword, impaling his hand as he fell to the ground, before the enemy lowered his sword into the survivor's throat, killing him. The enemy was suddenly pushed to the ground by another survivor, as the attacker lead an assault on the downed enemy. He began to punch the enemy's face, all while he could only block so many punches before he succumbed to shock and blood loss.

The survivor was suddenly grabbed from behind by a walker and immediately began to get devoured by a small group of the undead. His screams echoed into Matt's ear as he continued to look all around him, seeing nothing but bloody violence.

One person was sent flying by an explosion, losing his legs in the process, while another slammed their shovel against their enemy's cheek, sending him flying as well. The survivor was suddenly pushed into a watery pit of mud as another survivor got on top of him and forced his head in the muddy water, drowning him.

One survivor of the enemy could be seen sitting behind a rock as he watched his friends get murdered in front of his eyes. This just showed to prove that even the enemy was tired of fighting and wanted everything to stop, as he continued to stare at the bloodbath in front of him, much like Matt.

A person was on top of another person, raising their hatchet in the air. However, another survivor came running from behind and snatched the hatchet out of their hands, causing the survivor to accidentally punch his enemy in the face with his fist. Before the three could even react, a grenade was carelessly thrown by the three and exploded, killing all three of the survivors instantly. It rained guts, blood, and body parts as a leg fell near a couple of walkers feasting on the dead body of a young preteen.

It wasn't until he heard muffled screaming from his side that caused him to regain his composure. He turned to the left to see a survivor charging at him a shovel in his hand. Before he could react to anything at all, the enemy swung his shovel against Matt's face, knocking him down.

Matt's vision blurred as his hearing began to muffle and ring. He grabbed his head as he quickly regained his vision, seeing that his enemy was about to plunge his shovel into his Matt's neck. His enemy swung the shovel down but luckily, Matt caught it by the handle. At that moment, an explosion went off next to them, covering them in mud and blood.

The two struggled in the fight, Matt trying his hardest to not let the shovel be the end of him, while his enemy tried for the complete opposite. He turned to the side to see a walker, growling at the two while his body was stuck underneath a fallen tree branch. The walker reached out his hand as it growled some more, trying to reach it's prey.

An idea came into Matt's head at that moment. He suddenly turned his entire body to the right, knocking his enemy right in the biting distance of the walker. Said walker grabbed onto the shirt collar of the survivor and bit down onto his neck, causing him to scream in horrific pain. Matt crawled backwards as he watched his enemy get devoured in front of him.

He turned to the left to see a little kid that looked to be the age of 8 crying in the middle of the battlefield. Right at that moment, a grenade was thrown by his feet, going unnoticed by him. Shortly afterwards, the grenade exploded, killing the kid instantly as his body parts were scattered all over the place. The kid's left leg was thrown towards Matt, falling right next to him.

He turned to the right to see another kid about the age of 10 getting eaten alive by a pair of walkers. The kid screamed and cried out for his mother, before his legs couldn't support him as he crashed into the ground. The walkers then began to rip out the kid's organs and entrails, feasting on them as Matt simply watched in horror.

Matt stood up as he continued to examine his surroundings, everything going in slow motion as his hearing began to muffle. He saw several survivors fighting, throwing punches or stabbing each other in the gut. He saw one survivor trying to crawl away only for the enemy to stab him in the back with a dagger. That same enemy was suddenly turned around and got stabbed in the throat with a knife.

He turned to the side to see a person bashing another person with a huge rock they picked up. Suddenly, an explosion imploded near the person and as the smoke dissipated, the person was revealed to have lost his arm as his clothes were bloodied and rip. That same person only realized that his arm was gone before he fell on the ground, dying of blood loss as his corpse was covered in mud and blood.

He saw two people fist fighting each other, throwing punches and kicking each other. However, their fight was interrupted by two walkers came from behind and began to devour them, their muffled screams of agony and pain echoing in Matt's ears.

Matt continued to look at the horrific massacre in front of him. All he could do was watch as his friends were brutally murdered in front of him.

War isn't about who's right… it's about who's left.

As Matt continued to watch the bloodbath in front of him, as enemy survivor came running up from behind him in slow motion, raising a frying pan as he screamed a warcry; a loud explosion was suddenly heard as everything went black.

Heya Tom, it's Bob… from the office up the hall…

Good to see you buddy, how've you been?

Matt aimlessly walked through a naked part of the woods, covered in blood, mud, bruises, and cuts as walkers were also roaming that part of the woods. He had a dead expression on his face as he stumbled over a few branches as the walkers all around him continued to growl. One walker in particular came roaming in his direction, extending its hand to grab onto Matt.

However, Matt moved at the last second, causing said walker to fall to the ground. Matt continued to aimlessly walk through the woods as the trees continued to burn while the sky was fire orange and filled with smoke; the sunset adding to the orange hue.

Things have been okay for me except that I'm a zombie now

I really wish you'd let us in

At that moment, Matt heard cries for help, prompting him to turn to the side. There he saw a small group of five walkers banging on a shed, most likely where a lone survivor was trapped. Without thinking, Matt approached the small group of walkers, grabbing his machete that was in it's holster strapped to his back.

The walkers apparently heard footsteps behind them, as they turned around and growled at their approaching prey. Matt didn't back down however, already gone through hell and back and witnessed many atrocities and massacres ever since the outbreak began. There was nothing else to live for… he had nothing left to lose… he had no reason to live. He secretly hoped he would mess up his attack on the walkers so he could experience the sweet relief of death, as he continued to stumble his way towards the five.

I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand

Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand

Matt swung down his machete onto the head of a walker, killing it instantly. Immediately afterwards, he kicked another walker that was getting close to him to the ground. He used all his strength to pull out his machete and immediately decapitate the head of a third walker before stabbing the fourth one in the eye, destroying it's brain and killing it. The fifth walker that got kicked to the ground began to get up, growling at Matt as it started to approach him once again.

He suddenly swung his machete down, slicing open the chest of the walker, before swinging it once more. The second swing created an X wound on the chest of the walker, however it didn't feel a thing thanks to it being undead. Matt stabbed the walker in the chest before it retracted his machete and impaled the walker through the head, killing it.

But here's an FYI: you're all gonna die screaming

All we want to do is eat your brains

We're not unreasonable, I mean, no one's gonna eat your eyes

Matt turned around to see a horde of walkers aimlessly walking around, completely naive of Matt's presence. He sighed a tired sigh as he heard the door of the shack opening. He turned around to see a man with ginger hair and a short ginger beard. He peeked out of the shed to see Matt staring at the corpses of the dead walkers in front of him, with his bloody machete in his hand.

"Hey, thanks." the man thanked.

However, Matt didn't hear him as his voice was muffled, as were every other sound around him. He turned around to see numerous amount of walkers aimlessly walking around as fire burnt in the distance. Matt suddenly looked down to see his revolver that was in his holster, a dark idea forming in his head. He grabbed his revolver and emptied the barrel, catching only a few of the bullets that fell.

All we want to do is eat your brains

We're at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise

Matt loaded the revolver halfway; half of it empty, half of it loaded. He suddenly fell on his knees as he inhaled a huge breath of air. He spun the barrel and brought down the hammer before bringing the gun towards his head, everything going silent around him as everything went in slow motion.

Matt prepared to pull the trigger, waiting for the sweet relief of death or the horrible existence of living. However, before he could fully pull the trigger, his gun was knocked up, causing him to actually pull the trigger. A loud gunshot was heard in the area, as a few crows cawed as they flew away.

Matt looked up to see the man staring down at Matt with horror in his eyes, not believing that he almost witnessed Matt commit suicide. Matt sighed heavily as he looked down in defeat, not ready to live another day, wanting to just die and move on into the afterlife.

If you open up the door

We'll all come inside and eat your brains

Infection of the Dead: The Other Side of Life

Over 90% of the human population has perished from the global conflict known as "the infection of the dead".

Many have suffered brutal deaths while some were denied of an afterlife and were left as a walking, rotting corpse.

Countless journeys brought to an end by the work of a madman, all for an insidious dream to come true.

It changed everything and everyone.

Yet it brought the most out of the surviving population that were hidden under normal circumstances, both good and evil.

What follows is a detailed story of a single survivor and how their life was affected by this so called "infection", as they continue their journey and survival to live in the new world.

They are not expected to survive.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

16 MONTHS LATER…

An abandoned road littered with rusted and abandoned cars was shown, as several pieces of paper flew through the wind. Everything was eerily silent as the only sounds that could be heard was the wind whistling and the various crows cawing in the distance. During this last moment, a new sound could be heard in the abandoned street: growling. From a distance, one could see multiple people walking around aimlessly as the midday sun shined above them.

However, if one got closer, they would see that the people weren't actually people. Their skin was rotten to the core and decomposing as their eyes were golden yellow, while some of their teeth were also rotten and were missing. These people weren't alive… they were dead. They were dead men walking, or as they were popular known as roamers or walkers. Zombies to put it in popular terms.

A single walker growled as it swayed away from the horde of other walkers, approaching a corpse of a dead person. It suddenly bent over and grabbed the arm of the corpse before sinking it's teeth into the decomposing flesh, the flies still buzzing around it. As it devoured on the rotting corpse, a new pair of legs approached the walker that was feasting on the body.

A figure wearing a black hoodie with blood stains littering it, as well as the hood over their head, approached the walker, bumping into a different walker in the process. The walker that got bumped growled at the figure before it walked away; the feasting walker continued to devour the rotting skin as the figure behind it got closer and closer to it. At that very moment, the walker was pulled away from the corpse and suddenly, it's entire lower jaw was cut off by a single slice from a hunting knife.

The walker growled as it was forced up before being pushed into a huge horde of other walkers; the figure guiding the walker they were holding from behind. Various other walkers growled as they watched the figure casually march their way into the huge horde. The figure guided the walker that they were holding hostage through the huge horde, carefully trying not to bump into the other walkers.

Eventually, the figure made it to the end of the huge horde but continued to walk further away from the monstrous, walking dead cannibals as far away as possible. After a few more moments of walking, they were far away from the horde of walkers, before the figure pushed the walker they held hostage onto the ground. They suddenly bent down and stabbed the walker's skull with their autotronic, destroying the brain and killing it.

The figure stood back up and placed the hunting knife back into it's holster, before taking off the hood, revealing themselves to be Matt Dillon from before. Over the course of the months, Matt's hair was shorter as opposed to it's usual length that went to his upper back. His hair laid lazily over his shoulders as a light stubble could be seen on his face. His outfit consisted of the black hoodie he was wearing with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing the bottom half of his arms. He also wore a dark purple shirt underneath, along with some brown pants and black sneakers. On his right wrists were several bracelets that were over a small black star tattoo on his wrist, while a few of his fingers had bandages on them. His left wrist was bandaged entirely, with a single, purple hairband hugged his left wrist tightly. A few of his fingers on his left hand were bandaged as well. His entire outfit was coated with blood and guts, both front and back, along with his entire face as well.

At that moment, he heard leaves rustling from behind him and turned around; suddenly, a man with short ginger hair and a ginger beard came out of the bushes. The man wore a purple track jacket along with black jeans and boots as well. Suddenly, a second man came out of the bushes, or this case, fell out of the bushes, having a terrified expression on his face. The ginger man panted as bent over, supporting himself as he grabbed onto his knees.

"I can't believe that walker guts trick worked." said the ginger man to Matt.

"'Course it did, Hunter." Matt replied. "The guts mask your scent from them and they can't tell if your alive or one of them."

Hunter panted some more. "That's the last time I ever doubt you, kid."

"Oh. So the whole 'warehouse' incident didn't prove a thing?" bantered Matt as he smiled at his companion. "That was the third time I saved your life, you know. You need to keep up."

"Hey, I told you that walker looked like it was dead." Hunter replied. "It could've fooled anyone just lying on the ground like that."

"Please." the second man pleaded. "Never do that again."

"Are you gonna show us this 'heaven' you were talking about earlier?" asked Matt in an impatient manner.

The man gulped. "Yes, yeah." he replied in a hasty manner. "It's uh… right down this road."

The man got up and began walking down the street, with Hunter and Matt following close behind. "Do you think this 'heaven' exists?" Hunter whispered to Matt.

"I don't know, Spector." Matt replied. "I don't even think heaven existed in the first place. I'm a realist, Hunter. I'm sorry, but I just can't see a utopia where all your fears are gone and you can have anything you want. Seems impossible. Personally, I'm a believer of hell, but not Heaven."

"Everyone has their beliefs." Hunter retorted.

"Hey," the man spoke up in a meek manner. "if you're done talking about me behind my back, we're here."

The three of them stopped walking as they stared at what was in front of them. Both Hunter and Matt had different expressions, with Hunter being in awe while Matt gave off an annoyed look.

"You've got to be kidding me." Matt said in an angry tone.

In front of them was a Save 4 Less store with the parking lot completely emptied, save for a few abandoned cars that have been stripped of it's resources. The windows were boarded up as makeshift balcony could be seen on top of the roof, indicating that someone once used this store as a form of shelter.

"A grocery store?" asked Matt in the same angry tone.

"I told you it's heaven." the man said.

"How exactly is this heaven?" asked Matt. "Every looter in this city must've already pillaged this place clean. The store's damnin' empty!"

"I didn't say the store was heaven." the man replied. "Inside, I managed to hide some food in one of the tiles in the store. It's in the ice cream section. A black tile with a red dot on it to disguise itself as a blood drop. You'll find what you need inside. Food, water, ammo. Everything you guys need."

"Then why were you trying to raid our camp?" Matt asked in a hostile tone as he grabbed the man's collar and brought him close to his face.

"I didn't have enough to survive for the night!" the man exclaimed in a scared tone. "All I was searching for was for a flashlight! I swear!"

"Kid, if he's telling the truth, why not check it out?" asked Hunter. "What reason would he have to lie anyway?"

"Listen to your friend, man." the man begged. "I have nothing left in my life! My sister got killed by a group of psychopaths! I've got nothing left to lose but I don't want to die! Honest!"

Matt squinted his eyes as he glared at the begging man in front of him, tears swelling up in his eyes. He closed his eyes as he sighed, before he shoved the man away from him. The man landed on his butt before he quickly began to back away.

"Please! Don't kill me!" the man begged.

"I'm not gonna kill you! Jesus Christ!" Matt exclaimed in annoyance. "I'm not some kind of monster. Just leave and never come back. If I find you raiding our camp again I will not miss the next time, you understand me?" Matt asked as his hand hovered over his Beretta M9. He suddenly reached for his backpack and grabbed a few items inside, before handing them over to the unnamed survivor.

"Here." Matt said. "Take this." Matt handed the man a granola bar, an apple, crackers, and an unopened water bottle. "You're lucky I value human life and if you're telling the truth about this secret stash of yours, then consider this as a reward."

The man smiled a huge smile as he got up and quickly taking the items in Matt's hand.

"Bless the Gods. Bless your kind soul." the man cheered.

"Just shut up and leave before I change my mind about the whole dead or alive thing." Matt threatened.

The man quickly got up and ran away into the town, leaving the two survivors on their own. Matt watched as the man left the area before disappearing deeper into the town, while Hunter stared at Matt with a smile on his face. The teen turned around to see his friend smiling at him.

"Don't look at me like that." Matt said in an annoyed matter.

"Someone's got a he-art." Hunter said in a sing-song tone.

"Shut up, Hunter." Matt muttered. "Let's just find this stash of his and get the hell out of this town and back to our camp. This place is starting to creep me out."

"It's like a ghost town, kid." Hunter said as he and Matt began walking through the almost empty parking lot littered with paper. "If I wasn't so afraid of the walkers and if I still had my TV crew, I would be excited and try to hunt down some ghosts."

"Correction: it IS a ghost town." Matt replied. "Still can't believe you believe in ghosts. They're not even real."

"That's because you haven't seen one before, kid." Hunter retorted.

"It's not that I haven't seen one before, it's more of 'realistic' fact about the paranormal and hoaxes about said paranormal… also ghosts are stupid."

"I have a feeling Danny Phantom wasn't your favorite show as a kid."

"What the hell is a Danny Phantom?"

The two walked over the broken glass door, which was basically a gaping hole at this point, and entered the abandoned grocery store. "Hello? Knock. Knock. Anyone home?" asked Hunter, his voice echoing in the store.

Inside the store was nothing but destruction. Some of the shelves were knocked over as blood practically replaced the floor as it stained the marble ground. Several dead bodies, both from the dead and some survivor corpses could be seen lying on the ground. Food and food items littered the floor as the only source of light was from the sun outside that leaked through the boarded windows.

"Jesus, this reminds of home." Matt said aloud.

Hunter looked at his friend with a confused expression with a hint of horror. "I'm not gonna ask why this reminds of that." Hunter says.

The two finally took a step in the store and began walking, trying to find the secret stash that the survivor was talking about. "I never thought I would end up scared of entering a grocery store." Hunter said as the two walked through the store. "Such a common place to meet up, buy groceries, talk amongst friends… now it's just… haunting. My grandmother used to ask me if I was a praying man… I wish I still was."

"It only shows to prove that you should cherish what you have…" Matt replied. "because you never know when you're gonna lose 'em."

"Amen to that, kid." Hunter replies.

Matt suddenly stopped in front of a display with a huge picture of a man with spiky black hair wearing a black suit with a white buttoned shirt underneath. The man in the picture also wore a pair of moss green suit pants while he was holding a camera. The title "PHOTOJOURNALIST" was written above the man.

"This guy looks like he's covered wars… Ya know?" Matt commented, before walking away to catch up to his friend.

The two entered a random aisle and immediately winced at the sight in front of them. The whole aisle was covered with nothing but blood and dead bodies, some with half their faces chewed off while another survivor had his mouth and lower jaw completely destroyed with a shotgun by their hand. Blood splatter could be seen staining the shelves that appeared to be going upwards, indicating that the survivor shot himself and ended his life with a shotgun.

"Clean up on aisle 12." Matt commented. He suddenly looked up to see the aisle number being completely written off with what appeared to be blood. "Or aisle… 'no hope'."

"I think that says 'no hoe'." Hunter said.

"Must've been in a rush. Wouldn't blame the guy." Matt says. "Come on. We don't want the stash to expire." Matt then walked off.

"The guy said it's in the ice cream aisle." Hunter said.

"I swear if he placed ice cream in there, I'm gonna throw a fit because of his stupidity." Matt says.

The pair walked passed a wall with graffiti on it that read: "don't startle the wi…" before it got cut off. Matt took a glance at the writing, paying little attention to it before continued walking. The two passed by a closed door with a small window, nothing but darkness inside. As Matt passed it, he could hear muffled cries coming from behind the door, prompting him to turn towards it.

The teen looked inside the window, seeing nothing but darkness inside. He cupped his hands around his eyes, trying to get a better look at what was inside. All while he was doing this, he continued to hear the muffled crying from inside the room.

"Matt!" Hunter called out, grabbing his attention.

The teen walked away from the door, leaving it and whatever was crying inside alone. At that moment, inside the room, a light flickered for a brief moment. In that moment, the light revealed what appeared to be a pale looking woman with long white hair and monstrous, bloody claws, all while she was in nothing but ripped underwear.

Matt and Hunter then entered the ice cream section, only to grow wide eyes at the sight in front of them. "You've got to be kidding me." Matt says in an annoyed manner. In front of them was an empty aisle that was covered in nothing but blood. "The dude said it's under a black tile with a red dot on it. How are we supposed to find the tile let alone the red dot underneath this red blood?"

"We can wipe away the blood." Hunter suggested.

"No can do," Matt lifted his foot only for the blood to continue to stick underneath the sole of his boot. "this blood is dry. How long does blood take to dry again?"

"I don't know." Hunter responded. "With this amount of blood, I'd say a few days. Maybe about a week."

"So this secret stash of his has been underneath these tiles for a few days… in a small, cramped space with no air?" Matt asked. "The food is definitely expired now with all that heat underneath. Can't believe I gave him our lunch as well! Now we're gonna have to raid another convenient store!"

"Well we should still look." Hunter says. "We don't know if it's expired yet."

"Yeah, good luck trying to find a red dot underneath this whole hallway of blood." Matt extended his arms, pointing at the entire hallway. He suddenly squinted his eyes and tilted his head. "Hey wait… was that tile always unattached?"

Hunter turned his head and squinted his eyes, noticing that one of the tiles was out of place. "That's weird." he says.

Matt took a step forward and began making his way to the unhooked tile. He bent over and grabbed the title, noticing a faint red dot on it; the teen turned around and waved the tile in the air. "This is our tile." he announced. "Someone beat us to it."

Hunter grew a disappointed expression as he sighed through his nose. He looked a little above Matt and grew wide eyes, before raising his hands in the air. Raising an eyebrow, Matt wondered why his friend would do such a strange action, until he heard the sound of a gun cocking behind him. He as well grew wide eyes as he realized the situation he was in. He turned around to be met with a kid that looked about to be around 9 or 10, pointing a revolver at him, barrel right in front of his face.

Matt quickly dropped the tile and stood up before backing up a bit, raising his hands in the air as an act of surrender.

"Woah! Easy, kid." Matt says. "We don't want any trouble."

"Give me your food." the kid threatened in a shaky voice.

"What?"

"Give me your food!"

"We don't have any food!" Matt exclaimed. "We just finished the last of it! That's why we came here to resupply and stock up on some more food!"

"You're lying!" the kid shouted as he stepped closer to Matt.

"I'm not lying!" Matt assured.

"I will shoot you, you know!" the kid shouted.

He suddenly waved his gun around, accidently opening the chamber of the revolver he was holding. Matt took a quick glance at the chamber of the revolver, noticing a big key detail: it wasn't loaded. Quickly looking back at the kid, Matt continued to retain his scared expression, pulling off an amazing poker face.

"Just put the gun down, kid. We can talk this out." Matt continued to negotiate with the child.

"Just give me your food!" the kid shouted.

"Kid, if you shout any louder, the horde of the dead that we just walked through will storm in here any moment now." Matt explained. "Keep your voice down. Where are your parents?"

"Where are your parents?!" the kid retorted.

"They're… dead." Matt replied.

Though that he just admitted his parents were dead, he didn't show any sign of mental discomfort.

"Well so are mine!" the kid shouted.

"Kid, shut the fuck up!" Matt whispered loudly.

Hunter turned his head to look behind him, only to be met with a ghastly sight. At the front of the store was a huge horde of walkers, roaming inside the store and slowly making their way towards the three.

"Uh, guys." Hunter tried to speak up.

"You wanna get eaten? Because this is how you get eaten." Matt argued.

"Just give me your damn food!" the kid shouted even louder.

"Oooh, potty mouth much?" asked Matt. "What would mommy say about that? Oh right, I forgot, she's dead." Matt taunted him.

"Shut up!" the kid shouted.

"Guys!" Hunter shouted trying to grab their attention, but to no avail.

Instead, he grabbed his pocket knife from his holster, ready to kill any walkers if he had too.

"Kid, when I say put the gun down, that means you put the gun down." Matt told the child. "I don't know if you're stupid or your parents were siblings but when someone says 'they don't have food', it usually means that they don't have food!"

"Matt!" Hunter shouted, finally grabbing his friend's attention.

"WHAT?!" Matt shouted in anger. His eyes widened at the sight in front of him. "Oh." The walkers continued to growl as Hunter stabbed one of them in the eye with his dagger. "Well you could've warned me, dude. At least show that you care."

"Oh, screw you, lad!" Hunter shouted as he killed a second walker.

With his back turned to the kid, the child took this as an opportunity. Unbeknownst to Matt, the kid approached him from the back and swung his revolver, the barrel of the gun hitting the back of Matt's head.

"OW!" Matt shouted as he grabbed his head in pain before turning around. "What the hell are you doing, kid?! Now you pissed me off! If you're just gonna stand there and be useless, at least give me the gun so I can load it and shoot our way out of here."

"It is already loaded!" the child shouted.

Not even a second later, Matt swiped the gun away from the kid and pointed it to his own head, before pulling the trigger. A loud click! sound could be heard afterwards, indicating that the revolver wasn't loaded.

"This is why kids shouldn't be allowed to have guns." Matt said in a deadpan manner.

"They were never allowed to have guns!" Hunter exclaimed from behind.

"Please don't hurt me!" the kid begged as tears began to well up in his eyes. "I just wanted food!"

The kid began back up, unknowingly heading straight towards an incoming walker from behind; Matt widened his eyes in horror.

"Kid, behind you!" Matt shouted.

The child turned around only to be met with a walker, growling at him as it began to bend towards him. The child screamed a high pitched scream in terror and began to back up. However, he slipped on the puddle of blood that coated the hallway and fell down, losing his balance and becoming vulnerable to an attack.

Matt aimed the revolver in his hand and pulled the trigger, only to be met with the same click! sound again. He gasped at the realization that the revolver was still unloaded. He looked up just in time for the walker to bend over and sink it's teeth onto the kid's face, causing him to scream a high pitch scream.

At that moment, everything slowed down as Matt watched the kid get horrifically eaten alive right in front of him. His hearing began to echo as he turned around, seeing Hunter fending for himself as he was in the middle of stabbing a walker in the face.

He turned to the side and stared at the freezer window that used to store frozen foods inside, where he could see his reflection. At that moment, painful flashbacks flashed through his vision, as the screams of his friends and other fellow survivors echoed throughout his mind. He could see glimpses of a kid getting mauled to death, a survivor bashing another survivor's head in with a mace, as well as a single survivor getting his guts ripped out of his body. Matt stared horrifically at the hallucinations in front of him, all while the chaos continued to unfold around him.

"MATT!" shouted Hunter's muffled voice, snapping him back into reality. He turned to his friend to see him fighting off a huge horde of walkers. "We need to go! This place is getting overrunned!... BEHIND YOU!"

Matt turned around to see a walker growling at him, extending its arm to grab onto its prey. Thinking quickly, Matt punched the walker in the face, knocking it down to the ground. Afterwards, he stomped on the head of the walker with his sneakers, completely destroying the decomposing skull as well as it's brain.

He brought out his autotronic and kicked a walker in the knee, sending it to fall on it's legs, before he stabbed the head of the walker, killing it. He began backing up towards his friend, whom finished killing another walker, pushing it into the crowd.

"What about the kid?" asked Hunter.

"He's dead! Leave him! Let's go!" Matt ordered as he ran out of the aisle.

Hunter followed suit and the two began to run towards the back exit of the store. Along the way, they encountered more walkers, whom failed to grab the two of them in the dark grocery store. Eventually, they saw the emergency exit, safety on the other side. Unfortunately for Hunter, however, his ankle was grabbed by a crawling walker on the ground, causing him to trip and fall over.

"AAAAH!" Hunter screamed.

The walker growled as it began to crawl towards Hunter, whom began kicking it in the face to try and get it away from him. Matt suddenly stopped his running and turned around, determined to help his friend; he grabbed his autotronic and quickly stabbed the walker in the temple, killing it.

"Come on!" Matt shouted. "You're on a streak of cheating death! You really wanna lose it?"

"No way, lad!" Hunter exclaimed as he got back up on his feet thanks to Matt. "Just 5 more points and I can finally get that giant teddy bear I always wanted!"

Matt violently pushed the exit door and ran into the alleyway, followed by Hunter shortly behind. He however, suddenly stopped, as did Hunter, as the two stared at the sight in front of them. In front of them was the huge horde of walkers they walked through earlier, now pouring into the alleyway they were trapped in.

"Scheiße! (Shit!)" Matt shouted in German.

"This way! This way!" Hunter shouted.

He turned around and began running through the other end of the alley, with Matt following afterwards. However, he turned around too quickly and bumped into the exit door that they just ran out of, falling to the ground while hitting the dumpster in the process. Matt grabbed his head in pain as he lied on his back, hissing through his teeth. He opened his eyes to see a box full of stuff wobbling on top of the dumpster, daring to fall over.

Sure enough, the box fell, all of it's contents spilling out and falling towards Matt's face.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Matt's scream, as well as his vision, was cut out as the contents fell on his face, knocking him out cold.

Everything was dark. Everything was silent.

Darkness and silence. That's all Matt could see and hear respectively.

That is, until he started hearing the sounds of fire crackling in a distance, before eventually he opened his eyes. At first, he didn't know where he was, though he presumed he was dead after the unfortunate accident that occured in the alleyway. Was this Hell? He didn't know.

Taking any course of action, Matt sat up, revealing himself to be inside of a tent in the midst of night. He examined his surroundings and saw the entrance to the tent, which lead to the outside world… presumably.

He grabbed the flaps of the tent and opened them, stepping outside. There he saw that he was in the middle of the woods, with a firepit in the middle of the campsite. Sitting at the firepit was Hunter, who began to pick at the cooked animal that was above the flames. The young adult turned head, seeing his fellow friend alive and awake.

"Hey, you." Hunter said. "You're finally awake. You were knocked out by that dumpster in the alleyway earlier today."

"How'd I get here?" Matt asked, rubbing his head.

"I dragged you here." Hunter replied. "What do you think? After you got knocked out, I had to do something. Those walkers were getting near your body by the second."

Groaning in slight discomfort, Matt sat down on the log opposite of his friend. "You should've let me die." Matt says in a breath.

"And be all alone?" Hunter asked. "No thanks. I'll take my chances with some brooding teenager than being all alone in this world."

Matt chuckled, obviously knowing that he was bantering. "At least this brooding teenager doesn't still believe in ghosts." he retorted.

Hunter chuckled some more as he picked at the dead fox over the firepit. "Now it's two to three." he said. "We're almost even on the amount of times we've saved each other's lives."

"Let's see, there was that time when you first met me. That's one." Matt began counting, recalling their previous adventures. "Then there was that time when we raided that military base and you thought it was a good idea to rescue that soldier chick. Little did you know that she was bitten and died that night. Had to get that son of a bitch off of you while you screamed in the middle of the night."

"Don't remind me." Hunter said. "I'm still ashamed I let such a beautiful woman get the best of me."

"Then there was the infamous 'warehouse raid'." Matt recalled once more. "Ended up blowing half of the building just to save your ass. Then finally, there was today at the grocery store."

"Same could be said about you, kid." Hunter said. "I saved you as well."

"That you did." Matt smiled. He suddenly grunted in pain as he rubbed his forehead. "I feel like I have a hangover. What fell on me by the way?"

"Ah, some useless junk." Hunter replied. "A clock. A broken laptop. The box was filled with old world items."

"Yeah well… Thanks for saving me." Matt said above a whisper, looking away from his friend.

Hunter smiled as he tilted his head. "Anytime." he says.

The two suddenly fell in complete silence, the only noise that could be heard was the fire crackling in front of them. It wasn't until Matt spoke up that broke the silence.

"It happened again." he whispered.

Hunter looked up, not having any reaction whatsoever. "The kid?" he asked.

"Yeah." Matt replied. "You would think I would get used to it. That I would get used to all of this… bloodshed and- and chaos happening in front of me… but I haven't. One of these days, these PTSD attacks are gonna get me killed."

"I don't think anyone would ever get used to any of this." Hunter says. "I'll be honest with you, kid, I didn't think we would make it this far. I thought I would've went on my first day."

"My first day was inside a military complex… or whatever day that was." Matt replies. "No one really knows when all of this started. There's no exact starting point… and I don't see an ending point either."

"It's been more than a year." Hunter says. "I don't think any of this is ending anytime soon."

"Yeah." was all Matt said.

The two fell in silence once again, only this time for a brief moment before Hunter spoke up. "Hey, you never told me about what your life was like before all this." he says. "You were obviously still young. Probably, 15… 16 at most."

"I don't even know." Matt says. "I don't want to talk about it. Not now at least. Trust me, Hunter, you've been with me for a long time now. I trust you fully. It's just that… it just brings up painful memories. That's all… I promise you, I'll tell you everything soon, but right now I just… I just want to eat and go to sleep."

"You and me both, kid…" Hunter whispered as he looked at the cooked fox over the fire pit. "You and me both." The two remained silent for another moment. "I'm gonna get more wood."

"Stay safe." Matt says above a whisper.

"Will do."

With that, Hunter walked deeper into the woods to retrieve some more firewood and fuel for the fire pit, which was slowly dying. Matt stared at the dying flames, noticing them getting smaller and smaller by the second. He sighed in defeat and exhaustion as he lowered his head.

This day was not going well for him.

The next day, Matt and Hunter walked out of the woods, passing a road sign that said ENTERING HIGH POINT. Matt wielded what appeared to be a shock prod custom painted with red and purple paint, while Hunter wielded a P22 in his hand.

"Telekinesis ooooor… Electrokinesis?" asked Hunter. Matt responded by turning on his shock prod, electricity sparking. This caused Hunter to chuckle. "Should've expected you to take the most destructive power. Fits you perfectly."

"Telekinesis could be destructive if you think about it." Matt responded. "You can lift up boulders with your mind and throw them into buildings, cars, the middle of the city. You can cause real mayhem."

"Alright. Alright." Hunter chuckled. "Um, let's see… Pyrokinesis or… Earth Manipulation?"

"Can I cause earthquakes with Earth Manipulation?" asked Matt.

"I don't see why not." Hunter responded.

Matt took a moment to think about it before shrugging. "Eh, I'll take fire." he says.

"Tsh. Of course." Hunter shakes his head.

The two continued walking down the empty, abandoned road littered with junk and rusty abandoned cars that have been stripped. No walkers appeared to be in sight as they passed many abandoned stores, many of their windows either boarded or shattered.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something for quite a while now." Hunter says. "It's something personal that I haven't gotten my mind off of. You're free to decline if you want but I just… I don't know. We've been traveling together for a good while now and I feel like we trust each other. Right?"

"What is it?" asked Matt, looking up at Hunter.

Hunter remained silent for a brief moment before he spoke up. "How come you don't want us to join any groups?" he asked.

Matt immediately stopped walking, indicated by his shoes scratching the ground. Hunter stopped as well, curious as to why his friend stopped walking. He noticed Matt had a somber expression as he looked down, avoiding eye contact as much as possible.

"It's just…" he says. "It's just safer that way. No big groups means no drama. No enemies. No walker invasions. We just keep moving and keep surviving. That's how we always done it."

"Yeah, but, but kid, we can't keep doing that." Hunter says. "One of these days we're gonna get ourselves screwed out there if we don't have a big group to protect us."

"Last time I was in a big group, I lost everything." Matt says, looking up to finally make eye contact with Hunter. "I don't want to go through it again."

Hunter sighs. "I understand." he says above a whisper. "But… one of these days… We're gonna have to find a group."

"I know." Matt says. "I guess I'm just… just prolonging the inevitable. I just have bad experiences with big groups, you know."

"Seriously, what happened with you before I met you?" Hunter asked.

"Don't worry about it." Matt says. "I'll tell you one day." The two continued walking down the empty street, coming across a 7/11. "Alright, same as before. We go in. Get what we need. And leave."

"What do we need?" Hunter asked.

"Food. Water… Medicine if we're lucky." Matt replies.

"I doubt the alarm will go off, so I guess it won't be that much of a problem."

"Then let's hop to it."

Matt then began walking towards the convenience store, with Hunter following close behind. The two approached the broken glass doors of the 7/11, carefully stepping over the glass as they stepped inside the small, dark convenience store. Most of the shelves were swiped clean, leaving only the bare minimum on said shelves.

"There ain't a lot to take." Hunter says. "Maybe we can come back here later. If we take only half of this shelf, and one-third of that shelf over there, we should have enough-"

"Dude, fuck Math. Just take everything." Matt says as he unloads the entire shelf into his backpack.

Hunter stared at Matt with an emotionless expression, blinking once, before shrugging. "Okay." he simply says. "We're like the Bare Minimum Bandits. We only take the bare minimum."

"Yeah. That's why I used to live in a condo." Matt unemotionally says afterwards, dropping a candy bar into his bag.

At that moment, growling could be heard coming from behind a door, startling poor Hunter.

"Did you hear that?" Hunter asked.

"Yep. That's my stomach. I'm starving." Matt says as he takes a bite from a chocolate bar he just grabbed.

"No. No. That sounds like a walker." Hunter says. "I'm gonna take a look."

"Don't get yourself killed, Hunter." Matt absentmindedly says as he loads a water bottle in his bag.

Hunter walked over to the back office of the 7/11, where the sounds of a walker growling could be heard inside. He cautiously stepped inside, readying his knife for any surprise attack. He turned the corner only to be met with a horrific sight that caused him to nearly drop his knife as his eyes went wide with horror.

In front of him was a walker slumped up against the wall, with it's arms and legs cut off along with it's jaw, while it's torso was cut open, it's guts spilling onto the floor. Hunter grabbed his mouth and gagged, trying his best to keep his stomach in.

"Oh God." he said in a muffled tone of disgust.

"Hunter, what the fuck are you doing?" Matt asked as he walked in the room, candy bar still in his hands.

He turned his head to the face the walker and immediately turned around, bending over while he formed a fist at his mouth. "What in the name of all things Holy?" he asked. "What happened to him? Who did this?"

"I don't know." Hunter coughed. "But the smell is getting to me."

"This guy was alive." Matt says.

Hunter gave him a bewildered look. "What?" he asked in extreme confusion. "What makes you think that?"

"Look at his skin." Matt says. "It's pale, and the blood is fresh, and the hair is still there. The walkers we've seen barely have any hair at all, all rotted away. But this one… this one still has his hair."

"So what are you saying?" Hunter asked.

"I'm saying, someone else killed him." Matt says. "It looks personal as well."

"Dude, the fact that you know so much about this kind of stuff scares me." Hunter says.

Matt suddenly took a bite at his candy bar as he continued to stare directly at the walker in front of them. He then began to walk towards the walker, grabbing his shockprod from his back and powering it up. He suddenly used all of his strength and force to stab the shock prod into the head of the walker, before powering it up, electrocuting the brain of the walker, killing it.

He took the shock prod out of the walker's head and turned around, heading towards the exit of the back office.

"Well…" he swallowed the chunk. "let's not find out who did this. I'm starting to lose my stomach either way just by staring at the poor guy. I already got my share."

"Did you get as much as possible?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah, I looted half the store, considering that this place is almost empty." Matt replies. "Get the rest of the food. I'll stand guard outside and watch out there."

With that, Matt and Hunter exited the back office of the convenience store, with Hunter taking a final glance at the dead walker slumped up against the wall. He couldn't help but wonder who would do such a thing like this; in that final glance, he saw what appeared to be a scar of some sort on the chest of the walker. The letters TW carved into the walker's chest, now scarred.

A few minutes later, Matt was standing outside the convenience store, taking a bite out of his candy bar before dropping the wrapper to the ground.

"Kid." Hunter's voice came from behind as he exited the store, backpack slung over his shoulder. "That's littering."

"Really?" Matt asked in an annoyed manner. "You're complaining at me littering when we just raided a convenience store."

"Just trying to look out for Mother Earth." Hunter says.

Matt gave him a bewildered expression, before dramatically waving his arm behind him, showcasing the street which was littered with paper and other junk, along with abandoned, rusty cars that have been stripped.

"I don't think I'm the problem here." Matt says in one breath.

"I'm just saying." Hunter says. "Littering is bad."

Matt stayed quiet for a brief moment before shaking his head. "Jesus Christ." he whispers in annoyance. "How I managed to get stuck with you is beyond my knowledge."

The two of them began walking down the street again.

"Come oooon." Hunter smiles at him. "You know you love me."

"I don't love you. I tolerate you." Matt replies.

"Still counts."

"No it doesn't!"

"If you really think about it, love is just tolerable liking." Hunter says.

With that comment, Matt stops and give Hunter a bewildered expression. Another moment of silence passed them.

"I hate the fact that you're right about that." Matt says as he starts walking away.

Hunter laughed as he walked next to his friend. "Where are we gonna camp tonight?" he asked.

"I don't know." Matt says. "Probably find a house and hold up there for the night. I don't want to camp in the woods again. Too risky and too out in the open. With houses, we'll be safe. Walkers can't open doors and we'll be sleeping, making no noise."

"That's what they said about the raptors in Jurassic Park, and they opened the cafeteria kitchen door." Hunter says.

"Yeah, but those Velociraptors are smart. Walkers are just a bunch of dumbasses." Matt says.

"It would be nice to spend the night in an actual house now that I think about it." Hunter responds. "Let's find a big, BIG mansion and call it own, yeah?"

"Heh, if we find one." Matt says. "But the day is still young. We still got more looting to do."

"There's only so much looting we can do before our backpacks get full." Hunter reminds. "Plus we don't even have a destination. We're not traveling to some safe haven or anything. We're just traveling. We can't keep continue looting. Which brings up my earlier point, we NEED to find a group."

"I know!" Matt shouts. He sighs afterwards. "I know. Just give me time, alright."

"Time is something we both don't have, and have all the time in the world at the same time." Hunter says.

"You said 'time' three times." Matt says in annoyance.

"I can say it a fourth time." Hunter could barely contain his laughter as he began to chuckle to himself.

Matt glared at him before chuckling himself, shaking his head in annoyance. "I hate you so much." he giggled.

"I still like you, kid." Hunter replies as he brings his friend closer to him.

The two continued to walk down the street, with the noon sun high above them, shining upon them. The two were more than ready to face the day ahead of them, together as friends.

"Freezing breath powers or the ability to fly?" Hunter asked.

"Ability to fly." Matt says.

A single walker roamed an empty street, as the moon illuminated the night, while crickets made their music in the distance. The growling walker suddenly turned around and growled louder, seeing something of interest; at that moment, a knife was plunged into the skull of the walker, killing it instantly.

The owner of the knife was revealed to be Hunter, whom pushed the dead walker to the ground before placing his knife back in its holster. Matt was standing beside him, keeping a lookout for any walkers that would sneak up on them.

"We need to find a place to stay for the night." Matt says. "It's too dangerous out here at night."

"I was thinking the same thing." Hunter reveals. "Most of these houses aren't even secure well enough. They're all just mostly abandoned with shattered windows. We need to find a secure…" He suddenly stopped talking as he looked ahead of him. "There." he says.

Matt turns to his side. "What?" he asked.

Hunter pointes to what was in front of him, followed by Matt looking at the direction he was pointing at. There, at the end of the street was a common two story house with all the windows boarded up. It seemed pretty intact from a distance, though they had no idea how it looked like in the inside.

"You sure that place is secure?" Matt asked.

"It's got to be." Hunter says. "It's the only house on the block big enough with actual boarded windows. Come on."

With that, the adult of the two began making his way towards the house, while Matt hesitantly stayed behind.

"What if someone's living there?" Matt asked.

Hunter turned around but didn't stop walking. "Then we ask politely." was all he said as he continued to walk.

Matt let out an exasperated sigh as he shook his head before he too began making his way towards the house. "You're gonna get us killed." Matt whispers to himself.

The two approached the heavily boarded house, cautious of any walkers that could sneak up on them. After a few moments of walking down the street under the nighttime sky with no walkers in sight, the two finally arrived at the barricaded house. The two stood in front of the closed entrance, unsure on how to proceed; that is until Hunter began casually knocking on the door.

"What are you doing?" Matt whispered in an annoyed tone.

"Trying to see if anyone's home." Hunter responded nonchalantly. They waited for a few moments waiting to see if there was anyone in the house. "I don't think they're home."

"Yeah, no shit, Einstein." Matt said in a harsh tone. "This whole neighborhood is abandoned! I doubt anyone is even here. We're probably the only live people here… Well…" Matt turned around to see the empty, dead street behind him. "Live people that count."

"Still." Hunter spoke up. "That means this house could be our ticket to stay."

"Okay." Matt replied. "So… How do we get in?"

"Maybe there's a window?"

"Good luck with that. This whole place is boarded up."

"Hmmm." The two were stuck in silence as they tried to think of several possibilities to get in the house. "Hey, kid. You know how to pick a lock, right?"

Matt gave him a bewildered expression. "What the fuck? Why would you ask that?" he asked in an offended tone.

"Well. You're… you know… a delinquent?" Hunter sheepishly replied, giving a nervous smile.

"Oh, you are NOT saying what I think you're saying." Matt said in a disgusted tone.

"Jesus, man, I'm from the West Coast!" Hunter rapidly replied. "Crazy shit comes out of my mouth all the time."

Matt heavily sighed in pure annoyance as he hung his head low, before looking at the lock in front of them. "Let me see if I can try something with this." He bent down and examined the doorknob, trying to figure out how to lock pick the thing.

"Do you have a bobby pin?" Matt asked.

"No." Hunter responded.

"Well, do you have any light… metal object that can fit in a keyhole?"

"I have a screwdriver."

Matt turned to Hunter in disbelief. "Why in the hell do you have a screwdriver?" he asked in disbelief.

"Hey, you asked if I had anything and I answered." Hunter defended on his part.

Matt groaned in annoyance as his eyes rolled to the back of his head. "Okay, well… how big is the screwdriver?"

Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a big screwdriver, obviously too big to fit in the lock. Matt groaned in defeat as he waved him off.

"Ahh, too big. It won't fit." Matt says. A sudden look of realization hit him. "That sounded nasty." He grunted as he stood up again. "I don't think I can pick this lock. Not without the proper tools and all. Besides, even if I did pick it, the lock would be messed up, meaning the door wouldn't properly closed, MEANING we'll be sitting ducks in here, asleep with an unlocked door in the middle of the night."

Hunter sighed in defeat as he hung his head low. "So that's it?" he asked. "Just give up?"

"Well I don't see another way to get in." Matt says as he places his hands to his hips. "And I really don't want to spend another night out in the woods."

"Maybe we should check around back?" Hunter suggested.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Come on, let's check out back."

With that said, the two climbed over the porch railings, heading towards the backyard of the house. The two approached a gate with Matt leading up front; the teen opened the gate and immediately spotted two walkers lingering around in the backyard.

"Shit!" Matt whispered loudly as he backed up, closing the gate in the process.

"What? What is it?" Hunter asked.

"Walkers. Two of them." Matt answered. "You have your knife?"

Hunter pulled out his knife and flashed a smile. "Never leave home without it." he says.

Matt chuckled. "You take the one on the left, I take the one on the right."

"Roger that, General." Hunter whispered.

Matt shot him a look. "Never say that again." he says in a serious tone.

With the plan in their heads, Matt opened the backyard gate and began to sneak up to the two unsuspecting walkers. Matt suddenly stood up and with all his strength, kicked the walker in front of him in the back of the left leg, sending it falling down to the ground. With one swift motion, Matt slammed the tip of his knife onto the temple of the walker, successfully killing it.

Hunter could be seen throwing his own walker down onto the ground after killing it as well. The two then faced the house, looking for a way to get in. Unfortunately for them, it didn't look like there was a way to get in.

"I don't see a way to get in back here." Matt says.

Hunter points towards the backyard door. "Try the door." he says.

Matt approached said door and grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, not even going an inch. "It's locked." Matt says.

"Great." Hunter says in an exasperated tone. He suddenly looked up and noticed that one of the windows wasn't boarded up. "Up there. For some reason, that window isn't boarded up. Maybe we can get in through that way."

"Okay?" Matt says skeptically. "Well, I don't see a ladder anywhere, so how do you propose we get up there?"

Hunter simply looked over at Matt and gave an emotionless expression, confusing the poor, unsuspecting teen.

"What?" Matt asked, utterly confused.

Hunter wobbled in place as Matt stood on his shoulder, as the teen desperately tried his best to reach the ledge of the window. "I hate you so much right now." Matt says.

"Just get the window open." Hunter says.

"I'm trying! Just stand still, you fucking cunt!"

"Have you ever had anyone stand on your shoulders? It's easier said than done!"

"For God's sake, Hunter. Shut up and don't let go!"

"Next time eat a salad!"

"Thanks! I'll be sure to eat a nutricious salad in the middle of the fucking forest where mostly anything is poisonous!" Matt shouted sarcastically.

"Just grab the window ledge!"

"I'm trying but your constant wobbling ain't making things easier! God, you whine more than my ex-boyfriend!"

"You try holding someone the size of yourself on your shoulders and maintaining your balance!"

"Hunter, I swear to God, I will purposely kick you in the fucking face if you don't shut up! Now stand still, I've almost reached the damn thing."

Matt waved his arm by the window ledge before finally grabbing a firm grip on it.

"I've got it!" Matt exclaimed.

He placed his other hand on the window sill before he began to try and open the window. However, the window wouldn't budge, no matter how much force Matt put on the thing.

"It's locked!" Matt whispered loudly.

"Great." Hunter muttered to himself as he looked down before he looked back up at his friend. "What do we do now?"

"Don't worry. I've got this."

Without saying another word, Matt pulled out his shock prod that was hanging on his belt. He pushed a button which immediately extended the rest of the shock prod before turning it around, now holding the butt of the prod. He suddenly then smashed the window with the prod, completely shattering the glass in the silent night.

Hunter jumped in surprise, startled by the sudden loud noise in the silent night.

"Bloody hell, kid!" Hunter scolded in a loud whisper. "Did you really have to do that?! A loud noise on a silent night could be heard for miles! Lurkers could be all over us any minute now! You could've compromised our whole position!"

Matt turned around, seeing a forest behind the backyard that they were in. "I don't see any dead dumbasses." Matt says. "So I think we're good."

"Of course you don't see them!" Hunter shouts in a loud whisper. "It's the middle of the bloody night!"

"Quit your crying you shit cunt and boost me up already!"

With that, Hunter threw up slightly, enough for Matt to grab onto the window sill and look inside the room. "Do you see anything?" Hunter asked.

Matt squinted his eyes to try and get a better look at the dark room he was hanging off of. "Ah, for what it's worth, it looks empty." Matt replies. "I don't think anyone is here since they would've came to check out the sound of a window smashing."

"So that's good right?" Hunter asked. "We're the only one's here."

"It looks like it." Matt says.

The teen used all of his strength to pull himself up, eventually getting his upper body over the broken window before his entire body fell through and inside the dark room. Matt lifted himself up as he grabbed the edge of the window for support, groaning in pain in the process. His attention was suddenly turned to the side to see a dead body with a bullet hole right smack on the forehead, scaring the poor teen.

He yelped in surprise as he physically jumped backwards, not expecting a dead body to be in the room. He grabbed his heart from the sudden scare of a dead body, before hardening himself. He walked over to the window and looked down.

"We've got a body." He says.

"Is that the only one?" Hunter asked.

"Not sure. There may be more in the house but this one looks like it was shot in the head."

"Suicide?"

"No. Forehead. Like someone executed him. And I don't see a gun around and the body looks like it's been dead for a good 2-3 weeks just based on the level of decomposition."

"How do you so much about human decomposition?" Hunter asked in a scared tone.

"It's the zombie apocalypse." Matt reasons. "Is that really a surprising fact about anyone nowadays? I'm gonna throw the body over the window. Watch yourself."

"Will do." Hunter says as he turns around, pulling out his knife in the process.

Matt grabbed the dead body and dragged it over the window before using his whole strength to lift it over the edge of said window before dropping it down below. "Heads up!" Matt called out. The body then landed with a muffled THUD upon impact; the teen peeked his head over the window.

"Come out to the front." Matt called out. "I'm gonna get the door open."

"Okay." Hunter says. "I'll meet you out front."

With the orders said aloud, the two headed their own ways from both outside and inside the house. Matt exited the dark room he was in and walked into the hallway, which was littered with bullets and blood. He then proceeded to walk down the stairs, passing some family portraits along the way. Finally, after a few moments, he was at the front door, with a little table right next to it.

Matt turned to the table and saw a photo frame of two twins, with the names "Finn & Quinn" written on the photo. Thinking nothing of it, Matt turned his attention to the door once more, before unlocking it and opening it. From the other side was revealed to be Hunter smiling at Matt.

"Took you long enough." Hunter says in a cheeky manner.

"It's been 15 seconds." Matt replies in a deadpan voice as Hunter marches his way into the house.

Suddenly, as Matt closed the door and locked it, Hunter immediately grew a disgusted expression as he covered his nose. "AUGH!" he yelled in disgust. "What is that smell?!"

"What smell?" Matt asked, genuinely confused.

"You're telling me you don't smell that?! It smells disgusting!"

"What are you talking about?"

Hunter turned his head to the living room, seeing a few dead bodies in there. "Augh! No wonder! There are corpses everywhere!"

"Huh?" Matt questioned, turning his head to the living room. "Oh, you're right. There are. How'd I miss that?"

"How are you so calm about this?!" Hunter asked in bewilderment.

"About what?"

"That there are corpses all over the place! How do you not smell the decomposing bodies?!"

"I dunno." Matt said as he placed his hands behind his head. "I guess I'm just used to it."

"How are you so used to the smell of dead bodies?!"

Matt shot him a deadpan look. "Hunter," Matt says. "I've been surrounded by dead bodies for a long time, and I ain't talkin' about the walkers. I'm talkin' about actual dead bodies. Bodies that don't come back to life. I've smelled my share of corpses to the point where I don't even notice the smell anymore."

"You poor, poor soul." Hunter says, clenching his nose.

"Ah shut up and help me move these bodies to the backyard." Matt says as he walks over to one of the corpses.

Matt walked back inside the house, having come from outside from the backyard after finishing piling all the corpses in one spot. He then proceeded to lock the backyard door so no intruders, though highly unlikely, would, well… intrude into their area. Afterwards, he walked over to the living room, which still smelled like decomposing bodies that have been lying there for weeks. Though Matt didn't notice this, nor did he care.

He then turned his attention to the stairway, realizing his friend was already upstairs and most likely in bed. He turned back to the front door to make sure it was locked. Sure enough, both locks were locked, and to make extra precautions, Matt hooked the chain on top of the door, so that way if anyone would lockpick the door, they would still have trouble getting in.

Afterwards, he proceeded to walk up the stairs and into the bedroom that both he and Hunter agreed they would sleep in that night. He opened the door to see Hunter laying on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed; upon entering, Hunter turned his head and smiled at his friend.

"Hey there." Hunter says.

"I wanted the bottom bunk." Matt says as he closes the door.

"Too late. I called dibs."

"You can't call dibs as soon as you take something. That ruins the whole point of dibs."

"I called it earlier."

Matt grabbed the ladder of the bunk bed, ready to head up, before he looked at his friend with a smile. "When?" he laughed.

"When we were hauling those bodies out in the backyard." Hunter reveals.

"You mean when I was hauling them out while YOU stayed behind to proceed and gag at the sight of a dead body." Matt playfully corrected.

"Still don't know how you kept your stomach intact." Hunter says.

Matt climbed the ladder and got on top of the bed above Hunter, before lying down. "You get used to it." he says.

"You keep saying that. 'You'll get used to it.' What does that even mean?" Hunter asks.

"It's pretty self explanatory, really." Matt retorts.

"No, you airhead, I meant what do you mean by all this dark talk you've been saying these passed few days?" Hunter asked. "Like, how do you know so much about human decomposition and why are you so calm when there's a bunch of dead bodies everywhere and why are you so used to the smell of dead bodies… I should rephrase everything I just said: What is it with you and dead bodies?... You're not a necrophiliac, are you?"

"Jesus, Hunter! No!" Matt shouted in disgust. "It's just… You really don't wanna know."

"What?" Hunter asked. "What your life was like before the outbreak and before I met you?"

"Yeah." Matt says above a whisper.

"Seriously, you've gotta tell me what ha-"

"I'll tell you when I'm ready!" Matt harshly interjected, startling poor Hunter.

The two laid down in silence in the dark room in the middle of the night. Matt stared at the ceiling above him and began daydreaming, or in this case, nightdreaming, on whatever was on his mind.

"Where were you when it all happened?" Hunter suddenly asked.

Matt was silent for a moment. "Home." he says. "I was in the basement when I heard screaming coming from upstairs. The door was locked so I had to kick it down, and when I did, I saw my parents getting mauled to death by a dozen walkers. My mom was pregnant at the time, so…" Down below, Hunter sighed through his nose in sympathy.

"Anyway," Matt's voice spoke up again. "I got cornered at the end of the hallway and I began fighting them off. At the time, I didn't know the head was the part of the body that you had to destroy. It just made sense naturally. Aim for the head to kill anything. The brain is the engine to the body and if you take that out, then the whole body becomes useless, or in this case, dead. I killed, maybe seven of the walkers before the whole house eventually got overrunned. Ended up jumping out the window behind me and escaping onto the street. That's when I saw everything go to hell. Everywhere I saw. Just death all around me. I saw people escaping in their cars, some getting run over by escaping cars. I even saw this one old lady getting eaten in her car. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could so I ended up jumping the fence and began running through the forest…

Eventually, I managed to come across a military helicopter, picking up survivors and I was one of the lucky ones to get on board. So, I'm in this helicopter for God knows how long and eventually we make it to this military base… 'F course, nothing lasts forever. I distinctly remember which day all hell broke loose. Day 49. This guy killed another man over a fight for food. We didn't know what to do with the body so we just left it there overnight, wanting to take care of it the next day. Unfortunately, there was no next day. Damn guy turned in the middle of the night and began eating the man that killed him. He let out this girlish scream and woke everyone up in the complex. It was like a forest fire. One match eventually turns into an inferno and causes destruction all around. It only took one guy. One guy to up and ruin this safe haven… I watched as everyone all around me get torn to death by the living dead… I was the sole survivor of that complex, kind of how I was the sole survivor of my family. Shortly afterwards, I got into this group of survivors but… Anyway, that's a story for another day."

Hunter sighd through his nose as he turned his attention to the wall, seeing a kid's drawing taped to it.

"What about you?" asked Matt.

"I was with my television crew when it all happened." Hunter says. "We were filming down in New Orleans and one of our guys got bit by what we thought was a mental patient. We rushed him over to the hospital only to find out that he wasn't the only victim to a biting accident. Dozens of people being treated for what they thought was malaria. Whole hospital got overrunned that night. I barely escaped with my crew and we hid out in an old pharmacy in the town until that got overrunned as well. Lost one person that night. Eventually, the military began bombing the city and so we evacuated across a bridge and escaped via a military helicopter. Brought us across the state of Louisiana until the bloody helicopter crashed. Turns out we had a bite victim in our group that died sometime in the ride and attacked the pilot, caused the whole helicopter to crash in a swamp. Me and a few other people survived the wreck and started wandering the swamp until we game across this old, rundown plantation house.

We hid out there for a few months until we ran short of supplies and eventually, the dead overruned the place. We eventually got saved by this guy driving a boat in the river. He had like a Cajun accent or something. Anyway, it turns out, one of the guys we were with was, get this, BITTEN. Crashed the boat onto the shore. Lost the final member of my television crew to that bite victim. Had to put her down. I was on my own for the better part of two days before I wandered into a forest and got trapped inside a shack. Then, that's when you found me and saved me. Thanks again."

"Ah, no problem." Matt says as he turns his head back to the ceiling.

"I still can't believe you were gonna shoot yourself." Hunter says. "Why would you do that?"

Matt was silent for a moment, unsure on how to properly respond. "Sometimes I envy the dead." Matt whispers loud enough for his friend to hear.

"Well I'm glad I saved you." Hunter replies. "Wouldn't have met an awesome partner like you."

Matt scoffed silently. "Yeah, me too." he says, hiding some deep, mental pain. "Get some sleep, alright? We deserve it."

"Night, kid." Hunter says as he closes his eyes.

Matt stayed silent for another moment, before speaking up. "G'night, man." he finishes.

As Hunter immediately falls asleep, Matt stays up, unable to fall asleep and instead, continued to look at the ceiling above him, as his head rested on the pillow, his hands underneath it.

He didn't fall asleep until hours later.

Matt's eyes suddenly shot wide open as he gasped for air. He immediately began to examine his surroundings, only to find out… there were no surroundings to examine. Instead, he was standing in the middle of a pitch black area, except he could see his whole body perfectly clear. He turned all around him only to be met with more blackness, unable to find any source of life anywhere.

His short, silent breaths echoed in the darkness as his eyes sped everywhere, desperately trying to find something, anything for that matter.

At that moment, a scream suddenly erupted in the area, startling Matt as he turned around. To his horror, he saw a girl getting eaten by a walker, as she extended her hand towards Matt, desperate for help. However, the teen froze up and could only watch in horror as the girl got eaten alive in front of her.

And then, just like that, the girl and the walker suddenly disappeared, turning into fog and silently dissipating in the wind. Shortly afterwards, voices began to echo around Matt.

Your fault. Your fault. Your fault…

They're dead. They're dead. They're dead…

Madness breaking. Madness breaking. Madness breaking…

"Who's there?!" Matt shouted as he grabbed his revolver from his holster.

At that moment, a shadow appeared above Matt, prompting the teen to shoot aimlessly at said shadow. The bullets only disappeared into the darkness as Matt was left breathing heavily, panting even, as his pupils shrunk and started to shake vigorously.

Identity. Identity. Identity…

Reality. Reality. Reality…

Insanity. Insanity. Insanity…

Matt continued to pant in place as he held his revolver by his head, ready to shoot anything that would dare harm him. All he could see was black, unable to tell if it was pure, pitch darkness, or just simple a black background.

He didn't have time to find out when suddenly a walker version of himself emerged right in front of him and growled viciously right in front of his face.

Matt violently gasped for air as he sat up, clutching his heart as he continued to breathe heavily. He looked all around him to see that he was still in the same children's bedroom that he and Hunter were sleeping in that night. He looked under the top bunk that he was sleeping on to make sure that Hunter didn't wake up from his violent gasps for air.

Fortunately for him, Hunter was still asleep, evident by his light snoring. Matt let out a breath of relief and turned back to the top bunk, going back to lying down. He suddenly began to rub his eyes as he began to lightly sob quietly in the night.

"Shit." he whimpers as he sobs some more.

A sign is shown, that said GREENSBORO, as a walker roamed an empty street, passing by an abandoned, rusty car that was stripped of it's parts. A little off in the distance was Matt and Hunter, walking underneath the clouded skies in the midmorning. Matt wielded his shock prod while Hunter had the backpack filled with their necessities slung over his shoulder.

"You ever wonder if this whole plague was made by someone or it was natural?" Hunter suddenly asked.

"I don't know, Hunter." Matt says. "I honestly don't care at this point. I just want all of this end."

"You and me both, kid." Hunter says.

Eventually, they turned the corner and stopped dead in their tracks. "Oh come oooooooon." Matt whined.

In front of them was a crashed helicopter, completely blocking the street. In the pilot seat was a walker in a pilot uniform, obviously the pilot. It growled as it turned it's head towards the two, extending it's arms to try and reach them. But because it was buckled up in it's seatbelt, it got nowhere.

"We can head back." Hunter suggests.

"And go back through that deserted neighborhood?" Matt asks. "Trust me, Hunter. There's nothing for us back there. We're just gonna have to find a way around this wreck."

"We could go through the building and jump out from the other side." Hunter suggests.

"Yeah, but the buildings may be infested with walkers." Matt says.

"Then we could climb over the helicopter." Hunter suggests once more.

"I guess that's our only option." Matt says in a saddened tone. The two began to walk over to the end of the destroyed helicopter. "Be on your guard. Walkers could show up anywhere."

Hunter was the first to climb up, with Matt keeping guard behind. After a moment, Hunter got on top of the helicopter before turning around, extending his hand. "Grab on." he says.

Matt turns around and reached out his own hand, before their hands collided and conjoined with one another. Hunter used all his strength to pull Matt up. Eventually, the two were now on top of the helicopter. Just one more jump and they were officially over it. However, the two took their time to look at they couldn't see before, finding it completely empty, littered with papers and rusty cars.

"Street looks deserted." Matt says. "That's a good sign."

"Well. No waste on staying up here." Hunter says as he jumps down.

Matt lets out a breath of air as he watches Hunter land on his feet, before turning around, smiling at him. He looks back up at the street and grows a defeated expression. "Times like these really makes me wonder why I'm even trying." he says.

"What are you talking about?" Hunter asks.

"I mean… Look at this!" Matt exclaims, extending his arms outward. "Sooner or later we're going to die! You're either gonna get disemboweled or worse, and I'll probably end up shooting myself in the head! Why even continue on like this?"

"Oh come on, kid." Hunter tried to cheer his friend up. "It ain't so bad. With the apocalypse, there are no rules, no politics. None of those shenanigans."

"Yeah, instead, we got different shenanigans. Walking corpses amongst trying to eat us. Neverending battles with other communities! Cannibals that you had no idea they were cannibals until after you spent a month with them as well as eating their 'special' meat."

Hunter stared confusingly at his friend. "Huh?" he asked, utterly confused.

Matt rolled his eyes to the back of his head in annoyance before sighing in equal annoyance. "Forget it." he says. "I'm coming down."

With that, Matt jumped down from the helicopter, landing on solid ground. "Nice landing. 9 out of 10." Hunter says.

"Shut up, Hunter." Matt says in annoyance.

"Just saying. You could've done like a roll or something."

"It's a three feet drop. It's not high enough to do a roll."

"You never know that." Hunter reasons.

Matt gave him a deadpan expression. "It's common knowledge, dude." Matt replies. He suddenly began sniffing the air, catching a whiff of a familiar fragrant. "You smell that?" he asked. "Gasoline."

Hunter sniffed the air and coughed, obviously not liking the smell.

"I love the smell of gasoline." Matt says. "Hell, I LOVE gasoline. It's great fuel. For cars, vehicles… fires. Gasoline starts the best fires, and- MHM! I love fire."

Hunter stared at him with a shocked expression. "What the FUCK is wrong with you, kid?" Hunter asked.

"My father used to punish me severely." Matt replies.

Hunter continued to stare at his friend, until his eyes turned slightly to the side, before they grew as wide as dinner plates. "Behind you!" he shouted.

Matt immediately turned around to see a walker growling at his face. "Verdamnt! (Damn!)" Matt shouted in German as he immediately grabs his shock prod. The walker began to jog it's way toward the teen, all while slashing it's claws around. Matt pushed the button which extended his shock prod and held it up against the neck of the walker, blocking it and stopping any attempts of grabbing him.

Matt used all his strength to push the walker off of him, before he shoved it to the side, causing it to land on the ground. The walker immediately got up and growled at him, before Matt stuck the shock prod in the walker's eye socket. He suddenly pushed the power button on the shock prod, electrocuting the brain of the walker, both destroying it and killing the walker at the same time. He pulled out his shock prod as the walker fell on the hood of a car by him, which accidentally set the alarm off.

"Bloody hell!" Hunter shouted as he turned around.

"Jesus. Are you fucking kidding me!" Matt shouted as well.

At that moment, several walkers emerged from the various stores all around them, while some appeared from behind cars. The two lone survivors looked all around them to see that they were getting surrounded by multiple walkers.

"Down the street!" Matt shouted. "It's our only way!"

With that, the two survivors ran down the empty street, passing various walkers emerging from their hiding spots.

"What in Christ's name was that?!" Hunter shouted.

"I'm sorry, okay!" Matt shouted back. "I didn't know that walker was there! I had no idea that car was alarmed as well, alright?!"

"No! Not that! I mean why was that walker super aggressive?! It was running and shit! And did you see the way how it was slashing around?!"

"Yeah. I noticed that too." Matt agrees. "Maybe because that walker was a football athlete before it turned."

"Kid, we were at a military base once. The walkers over there were once military soldiers, and they didn't run and slash around!"

"So what's your point?!" Matt asked in annoyance.

"My point is- WHY ARE ALL THESE WALKERS RUNNING TOWARDS US?!"

"Huh?" Matt asked in confusion. He turned around to see the walkers jogging behind them. "What the hell?! Since when did they start running?!"

"I don't know but I want to get the hell out of here!" Hunter shouts.

The two suddenly ran into an open area, passing a sign that read "GREENSBORO CITY SQUARE". The two ran across the square, passing many walkers that were getting up from their sitting positions. They looked behind them to see even more walkers jogging towards them, some even running behind. Eventually, they ran across the square and exited from the other side and continued to run.

The two turned the corner of a street, preparing to run like hell towards the end of it. However, they stopped in their tracks once they saw that the entire street was flooded with walkers, whom were idling roaming around. The commotion that the two caused made the walkers turn to their directions, growling at them as they began to walk towards them.

"Oh. Now they walk!" Matt exclaims in annoyance.

"Back the other way!" Hunter shouted as he and Matt turned around.

They ran down the opposite side of the street, barely passing the running walkers' reach. They continued to run down the street until they turned the corner, once again, stopping in their traps.

"Oh for fuck sakes!" Matt shouted in anger.

In front of them was a fallen radio tower that was leaned against a freeway bridge. They turned around to see the walkers jogging towards them, quickly catching up towards them.

"Run! Just run!" Hunter shouted as he and Matt ran towards the tower.

"What do we do when we get to the tower?!" Matt shouted.

"Climb it!"

"WHAT?!" Hunter grabbed onto the tower and quickly began to climb it, while Matt stayed behind on the ground. "I am not climbing that tower!"

"Do you want to become food?!" Hunter shouted.

Matt turned around to see the walkers quickly jogging towards them. "Verdammt noch mal! (Damn it all!)" Matt swore. He quickly grabbed onto the tower and immediately began to climb. "If I fall and die, I'm gonna haunt you as a ghost since you love them so much!"

"JUST BLOODY CLIMB!" Hunter shouted back.

Matt continued to climb until he felt something tug his leg. He looked down to see a walker grabbing onto his ankle, it's mouth chopping it's way towards it. Matt screamed as he kicked the walker in the face, though it didn't let go. He kicked it in the face once more, and yet again, it didn't let go. He kicked it for the third time and it still didn't let go.

He suddenly grabbed his shock prod and pushed the button, extending it, before he stabbed the walker in the eyes. He then turned on the power of his shock prod, which electrocuted the brain of the walker, killing it. With it's grip loosened, Matt kicked the walker away, letting go of his ankle, before he continued climbing up the tower.

Matt continued to climb the tower, while Hunter was a little ways ahead of him, almost nearing the top. As he stepped on a metal bar, it began to crack, indicating it was about to give any moment. Thinking quickly, Matt jumped up to another bar, just in time for the bar he was stepping on to completely fall off. Matt looked down to see the metal bar falling on a random walker, completely crushing it's skull, killing it.

He looked back up and continued to climb the radio tower, seeing Hunter jump to another bar above him. "Don't look down. Don't look down." Matt told himself as he lifted himself up on a bar. "Just keep climbing. Just keep climbing. Climbing. Climbing. Climbing." He stepped on a bar and lifted himself up, now standing on it as he supported himself by grabbing onto another metal bar. However, the metal bar he was standing on began to give way, making it just like before that it was about to fall.

Acting quickly yet again, Matt jumped up to another bar, just in time for the bar he was standing on to fall. It dangled for a few moments before it eventually rusted off the radio tower. The metal bar fell towards the street, landing on a car, crushing it completely. Upon impact, the car alarm began to blare, causing some of the walker to march their way towards the car.

The teen continued to climb the tower at a cautious rate, carefully placing one foot on the metal bars after another. "S' no problem." Matt says to himself in a quiet tone. "It's like climbing the jungle gym… Granted I never climbed the jungle gym."

Above him, Hunter stepped on a metal bar before placing his hand on another, accidentally putting too much pressure on the bar he just stepped on. The bar suddenly loosened and immediately fell, falling towards Matt below him. "Ah, bugger it!" Hunter shouted in anger.

Matt gasped as he saw the metal bar falling towards him. Without hesitation or thinking, he jumped over to the side, grabbing onto a metal bar, just in time for the bar that was falling to fall right passed him. "Ach du lieber Himmel! (Good heavens!)" Matt shouted.

He looked below him to see the metal bar crushing a few walkers below him. He looked back up to see Hunter at the very top of the tower, seeing him jump towards the bridge, finally off the falling deathtrap that was once a radio tower. The teen, whom was still hanging on a metal bar, felt something shake; he looked up to see the bar he was hanging onto was slowly decaying, loosening in the process. Knowing it was about to give any second, he swung over to another metal bar, just in time for that bar to give and fall.

Matt landed feet first on a bar, but lost his balance, causing him to fall backwards. He reached out his hand and quickly caught the bar he landed on, saving his life. "So ein Misthaufen! (What a pile of crap!)" Matt shouted. He looked down to see the various walkers, extending their arms to try and reach him, obviously to no avail. "Ich werde hier oben sterben. (I am going to die up here.)" He says as he continues to climb up.

He continued climbing the broken radio tower; at that moment, the whole tower shook, causing Matt to lose his grip once more. Because he lost his grip, he began falling backwards towards the ground once more and just like last time, at the last second, Matt grabbed onto a metal bar, stopping him from falling. He used all his strength to lift himself up onto the bar before reaching upwards, grabbing another bar. He looked up to see that the tower was falling a little bit, indicating that it was losing it's balance from leaning on the bridge.

Matt's eyes widened at the sight in front of him, as adrenaline began pumping through his veins. Using all his strength and speed, Matt began climbing the tower at a rapid rate. Instead of climbing carefully, he was now jumping from one bar to another. He continued to step on the metal bars and jump as high as he could, grabbing onto the bars above him, while the bars he previously stepped on were loosened, which then fell off the radio tower, crashing to the ground below.

He continued to climb as fast as he could before he began to near the top. There, he saw Hunter look down below from the bridge, extending his hand for Matt to continued to climb and jump, all while the tower began to slowly collapse; upon reaching the top, the tower began to completely collapse, falling off from the side of the bridge. Matt climbed for his life as the tower continued to fall; after reaching the last bar, Matt used all his strength to jump at the last minute, catching Hunter's hand as he dangled above the street, all while the tower crumbled to the ground, killing some walkers underneath. Matt panted as Hunter dangled him above the street, giving him a smile while chuckling at the same time.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, I got ya." Hunter says, smiling brightly at his friend.

"Just pull me up, Hunt." Matt replies.

With that, Hunter pulled Matt up to safety, setting him down on the ground on the bridge. The teen fell on his knees, going into a doggystyle position as he grabbed his chest, panting profusely. "What the hell was that back there?" he asked.

"Whaaaat?" Hunter whined. "It was the only idea I could think of at the time. If we didn't climb up the tower, we would've been killed."

"Not your dumbass idea, Hunter!" Matt shouted. "I meant why were those walkers all running and shit?!"

"Oh… I don't know." Hunter says. "Maybe they're evolving."

"Zombies evolving?" Matt asked as he gave his friend an annoyed expression. "It's official. You've lost your mind."

"Well how else can you explain that those walkers turned into runners?" Hunter asked.

"I don't know, but I do know one thing: This city is completely overrunned by those… those… SUPER WALKERS!" Matt shouted. "We need to get out of here as fast as possible!"

"Where would we go?" Hunter asked. "This highway leads to downtown, and that's back where we came from. We can't go the other way because the bridge is out. The only way to even pass through this entire area is to go through Greensboro on the ground, and we can't because of those walkers. We'll get killed. We need an entire army for a fighting chance."

Matt sighed in defeat. "Then we head back into the woods." he says. "I know I said we need to get out of there but with these super walkers infesting this entire city, there's nothing we can do."

Hunter sighed in defeat as well. "Let's head back then." he says. The two then began walking down the abandoned highway, going back the way they came from. "I was really looking forward to getting out of the woods."

"You and me both, dude… You and me both." Matt says as they walked along the abandoned highway.

A walker roamed in the middle of the forest, emerging from behind a tree as it growled instinctively. That is, until it turned it's head to the side and noticed something, causing it to approach whatever it is it saw, growling in the process. The growls became more aggressive as it extended it's hands, trying to reach whatever what it was that was in front of it.

At that moment, a shock prod stabbed its way into the forehead of the walker, before electricity shot out of it's head, frying it's brain, successfully killing it. The walker dropped dead as the person holding the shock prod was none other than Matt. He groaned in annoyance as he lifted his head in the air, obviously tired of some sort.

"You 'bout done over there?" Matt asked in annoyance.

"Give me a bloody second, will ya?" Hunter responded in equal annoyance from behind a tree.

"Well, hurry up. I'm a sitting duck out here." Matt says.

The sound of a zipper being zipped up could be heard as the sound of a belt buckling could be heard afterwards. Hunter suddenly emerged from behind a tree, wiping whatever was on his crotch area on his jeans.

"Took you long enough." Matt says as Hunter walks passed him.

"Shut up, twat." Hunter mumbles as Matt chuckles in response. "Where are we going anyways?"

"Wherever the world takes us." Matt says.

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Not a single clue." Matt replies without skipping a beat.

"Oi." Hunter grumbles as he grabs his face. "This is great… This is great. Here we are in the most dangerous place in the world and we have no idea where the hell we're going."

"We are heading to a safe haven." Matt announces.

"That's what you said when we tried to cross Greensboro, now look at us! We're stuck in the middle of the forest, back where we came from!"

"Do you want the dead to rise among us, cunt?!" Matt shouted, scaring Hunter a little bit. Immediately, the teen regretted it. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I shouldn't have pressured you." Hunter replies.

Matt sighed heavily. "I really don't want to camp out in the woods again." Matt says.

"Maybe we can head back to Georgia?" Hunter suggested. "That mansion in Thomasville was a pretty good place to set up a safehouse. Big, fortified, lots of food."

"You saw how Thomasville went down." Matt replied. "The whole damn city was overrunned. Plus we'd have to cross those mountains again. Trust me, Hunter, there ain't nothing back there for us."

"Well we don't have a destination set in mind, do we?" he asked.

"Nope."

"Maybe we can head to New York?"

Matt suddenly stopped walking as he turned to his friend. "Hunter, that city is gigantic. We'll get eaten alive in no time."

"So what's our plan?"

"Probably find a smaller city and set up camp there. I don't know." Matt replies.

Hunter only hummed in response as the two continued walking down the forest path, passing many walkers in the distance. As the two continued to walk in the forest, they came across a derailed trained, crashed in the middle of their path.

"Great. Just what we need. Another blockade." Hunter says.

"And look." Matt sarcastically says. "This one is a ground vehicle. If we're lucky, we'll get trapped by a boat next time." Matt began profusely smiling as he shook his head in a sarcastic manner, before growing a deadpan expression. "Come on, let's open this bitch up." he says as he walked over to the train, leaving Hunter behind.

"Never say that sentence again." Hunter commented as he walked over to his friend. The two approached the train car door and simply stared at it, almost as if they were hesitating to open it. "Well…" Hunter says in the quietness. "Open it."

Matt immediately snapped to his friend, giving him a betrayed expression. "E-Excuse me?" he stammered.

"Open it!" Hunter repeated.

"M-Me! No! You! You open it!"

"I told you first to open it!"

"I'm not opening it! What if there's some giant ass zombie in there with arms the size of tree trunks?! I am not opening that door!"

"Hey, kid. You hear that?... I think there's a puppy in there. You should let it out."

"Hey, Hunter, I bet there are some ghosts in there that want to be freed. You better open the door or else the spirits will haunt you."

"I am not opening that train car door!"

"Well neither am I!"

"Yes you- You are going to open that door."

"I am NOT going to open that door, Hunter!"

"Guywhoopensthetraindoorsayswhat." Hunter rapidly said.

"What?" Matt's eyes immediately grew, suddenly realizing what his friend said. "God damnit!" he shouted as he threw his shock prod on the ground in anger. He let out an exasperated sigh as he cupped his face, before turning to his friend. "Alright. Rock. Paper. Scissors."

Hunter gave Matt a dumbfounded expression. "What? No. That's fucking stupid." he argued.

"What's stupid is opening this train car door." Matt retorted.

"You wanna go around?!" Hunter exclaimed as he extended his hand behind him.

Matt looked a little over Hunter, seeing that the train continued on for a few more yards, with a bunch of walkers roaming around the derailed train. He let out a defeated sigh as he brought up his hands, still wanting to play the hand game.

"Jus- Come on, man. One round. Rock. Paper. Scissors." Matt begged.

Hunter looked down as he sighed in annoyance. "Alright, fine." he agreed. "Just one round and loser opens the door."

"Good. That's all I asked for."

The two brought out their hands and shaped one of them into fists, ready to play the hand game. "Ready?" Matt asked.

Hunter nodded.

"Rock. Paper. Sci-"

Hunter immediately slapped Matt in the crotch, causing the teen to yelp out in pain while falling on his knees, grabbing his ballsack. "D'omph! Aaaaaaaaggh!"

"Open the damn door!" Hunter shouted, pointing to the door.

"Alright! Fine! You didn't have to balltap me you fucking dick!" Matt shouted back. "Urgh!" he grunted as he got back up on his feet.

He limped over to the train car door and pressed his ear against it, while behind him, Hunter turned around, making sure no walkers would sneak up behind them.

"Do I really have to open this door?" Matt asked. "Please say no."

"Just open it, will ya?" Hunter responded, not facing Matt.

Matt groaned in annoyance as he grabbed the handle. "Hey," he whispered at the train car door, as if he was talking to something inside. "remember who let you out of here. When I open the door, go for the other guy, not me. You understand?"

"Stop dicking around with the door, kid." Hunter says. "Just open it."

"I'm gonna shove my hand so far up your ass that I'll start playing you like a muppet." Matt threatened.

Unbeknownst to Matt, Hunter grew a disgusted look. "Ew." he whispered.

Matt pulled the door handle, opening the train car door; he immediately let go of it and backed up, grabbing his shock prod that he threw on the ground as the two prepared for any walkers that were inside. They looked at the open train car door and saw nothing, just darkness inside. Figuring that there was nothing even inside, the two lowered their weapons and placed them in their respective holsters.

The duo approached the open train car door and climbed inside, immediately catching a whiff of something revolting.

"Ogh!" Hunter grunted in disgusted. "What is that smell?"

Matt looked down to see what appeared to be bloody organs on the train car floor. "Are those… intestines?" Matt asked.

The two looked at the bloody, shredded organs on the floor, wondering what happened in the train car. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of ominous, glowing yellow eyes opened up in the darkness beside them. At that moment, the yellow eyes began growling, capturing the attention of the two; they screamed as a walker emerged from the darkness, extending it's arms as it tried to grab it's victims.

"Woah!" Matt shouted.

He backed up a bit but unfortunately slipped on the bloody floor, causing him to fall backwards and hit his head on the train, blinding his vision as he fell out of the entire train car. Hunter went to grab his knife but was suddenly grabbed from behind; screaming, he turned around to see a second walker that emerged from the darkness.

The former ghost hunter dropped his knife as he grabbed the wrists of the walker, struggling for his life as the walker began chomping towards his face.

Meanwhile, Matt groaned in pain as he grabbed the back of his head, slowly regaining his vision. He looked up to see the first walker fall on top of him. Acting quickly, Matt raised his foot in the air and stopped the walker from falling on top of him. He struggled for his life as the walker continued to chomp its mouth, trying to get a bite out of his flesh. Matt struggled as he continued to hold up the walker with his foot, trying his damndest to stay alive, all while the walker continued to chomp and growl at him.

He suddenly used all of his strength and lifted his other foot and pushed the walker off of him, sending it flying back into the train car. He immediately got up and grabbed his telescopic shock prod, pressing the button to extend it; he turned to his right to see Hunter struggling with the second walker. Not wasting any time, Matt swung his shock prod against the walker's face, sending it falling down while freeing Hunter.

The adult grabbed his knife and bent down, going for the kill, while the first walker proceeded to get up to attack Matt once more. Without thinking, Matt punched the walker in the knee, causing it to bend backwards while also sending the walker falling towards him. However, this time, he was prepared, as Matt stuck his shock prod onto the falling walker's forehead and pressed the button, electrocuting and frying the brain, successfully killing the walker.

Matt panted as he withdrew his shock prod, causing the corpse of the dead walker to plummet onto the ground. At that moment, Hunter got up and withdrew his knife from the second walker's skull, swinging it to get rid of the excess blood. The teen looked at his friend and glared at him, before he pointed at him with his shock prod.

"You're opening the door next time." he panted.

Hunter rolled his as he shook his head, earning an even bigger glare from Matt; the teen put his shock prod away as he climbed into the train car, cautiously stepping onto the bloody floor so he wouldn't slip and fall again. He grabbed the train door handle on the opposite side of the train and opened it, revealing the rest of the forest behind the derailed train; the teen turned to his friend and extended his hand over to the path.

"FGF. Fucker Goes First." Matt says.

"Tch." Hunter said as he shook his head, before jumping out of the train car.

Matt stayed behind for a brief moment as he turned to the walker that Hunter killed. At that moment, he noticed something off about the walker. First of all, it was shirtless. Second of all, it had the letters TW scarred on it's back, just like the walker they encountered at the 7/11 yesterday.

"TW?" Matt whispered. At that moment, several growls could be heard in front of him; looking up, he saw a horde setting in, approaching the derailed train and himself inside. "Oh shit." he said nonchalantly.

He stood up and closed the train car door, before jumping out on the opposite side to catch up to his friend.

After some time of walking in the middle of the forest, our two survivors finally came across a clearing that lead straight to a river. "Thank Christ we're out of that forest!" Matt exclaimed. "I hate forests!"

"Then why did you decide to go through one?" Hunter asked smugly.

"Because if there's one thing I hate more than anything, it's myself." Matt replies.

"Don't get all emo on me, kid." Hunter suddenly yawned, fatigue setting in. "It's getting dark. We should find some place to rest."

"That boathouse over there seems like a good place to spend the night." Matt pointed over to a direction.

Hunter turned around to see that there was indeed a boathouse by the river. "Alright." he exclaimed enthusiastically. "Must be our lucky day."

"As opposed to the regular bad luck we've had since we've been traveling together."

The two then began walking over to the boathouse, ready to set up camp and rest for the night. For once that day, Matt smiled out of genuine happiness, satisfied that there was a place to stay for the night instead of camping in the forest or a corpse filled house.

He suddenly looked up and just like that, his smile disappeared, as he suddenly stopped while growing a slightly scared expression.

"Hunter." he calls out, not taking his eyes away from above him.

"Hm?" Hunter asked, stopping while turning around to face his friend.

"Don't. Move." Matt says.

Hunter raises an eyebrow as he turns around to look at what Matt was looking at, before he grew his own terrified expression. Up on the balcony was a woman with blonde hair, holding a rifle with what appeared to be a knife taped to the front to make a makeshift bayonet; said woman was pointing her rifle right at the two, prompting them to raise their hands in the air.

"We're not armed… Well… We are, but we're not armed to harm you." Matt nervously said.

"Where are you from?" the woman asked.

Matt turned to Hunter before he pointed at him. "I don't know where this cunt's from but I'm from Georgia. Born in Germany for 8 years before I moved here." Matt explained.

"Prove it!" the woman shouted. "Speak some German."

"Das ist die dümmste frage die mir je gestellt wurde. (That's the dumbest question I've ever been asked.)" Matt said in German.

"Wait, what did you say?" asked the woman, confused.

"What's the point in asking if I could speak German if you couldn't even understand me in the first place?!" Matt asked in mere annoyance.

"I think he said something cheese and crackers." Hunter says suddenly.

Matt shot him a glare. "Fuck off, cunt!" he shouted in frustration.

"What's going on out there?" asked a voice from inside. At that moment, a middle-aged black man with a beard appeared on the balcony, standing next to the woman with the rifle. "Cheryl, who are these people?" the man asked.

"The young one was born in Germany but he's from Georgia." Cheryl replied. "I don't know about the other man though."

"I'm from the West Coast!" Hunter exclaimed. "Though I sound British, I really am American! I just grew up in a British family, that's all."

"Hold on! Hold on!" the man exclaimed, taking a good look at Hunter. "Is that… Hunter Spector?"

Hunter shot him a confused look, before turning to Matt For a brief moment. "Uh… Y-Yeah." he answered nervously. "Do I know you?"

"No." the man replied. "But I know YOU! You used to be the host of that TV show! What was it? ARGGH?"

Hunter grew a huge smile. "You watched my show?!" Hunter asked enthusiastically.

"Well, not really, but my kids used to be huge fans of you." the man replied. "Used to always make me watch your show with them. It was their favorite show."

"Ha ha!" Hunter laughed. He suddenly turned to Matt. "Hey, kid! I got a fan up there!"

"Fan-tucking-fastic." Matt sarcastically replied. "Now tell your 'fan' up there that we're not here to cause trouble."

Hunter turned back to the man. "Uh, can you tell that girl to lower her weapon?" Hunter politely asked. "We're not here to harm you guys."

"Sorry, Hunter." the man replied. "You may be a celebrity, but you're still a stranger. Forgive me for saying this, but we don't really trust strangers nowadays."

Hunter turned back to his friend once more, growing an even bigger smile. "He called me a celebrity!" Hunter enthusiastically shouted, unable to stand still from excitement.

Matt shot the man a glare. "Why are you fueling the fuckboy's ego?" Matt asked.

"What exactly are you guys doing here?" Cheryl asked.

"We just came out of a goddamn forest, lady!" Matt shouted. "We just need a place to spend the night!"

Cheryl squinted at Matt before turning to the man. "I don't know about them, Bernard." Cheryl whispered. "They could be one of them."

"There's only one way to find out." the man now known as Bernard replied. "We'll let you two inside." he said. Matt and Hunter blew sighs of relief. "But you'll have to listen to us once you're inside, got it?"

"Do we have much of a choice?" Matt asked.

"Not really." Bernard says.

Matt groaned in annoyance. "Alright, fine! We're coming in." he says.

The two lowered their hands as they approached the door, all while Cheryl continued to point her gun at them. As they approached the door, a man suddenly opened it, holding a rifle of his own, as he let the two survivors inside. Matt and Hunter entered the boathouse and saw three more survivors. Two males, with one of them appeared to be a teenager, and another female that also looked like to be a teenager.. At that moment, Cheryl and Bernard came walking down the stairs to greet the new guests.

"Take off your shirts." Bernard ordered without missing a beat all of a sudden.

"Aw, crap!" Matt shouted. "They're kinky survivors!"

"What? No!" Bernard shouted. "We're not kinky! We just need you to take off your shirts so we could see your chests and backs."

"Oh, okay." Matt says. "I didn't want to deal with any sex driven survivors again."

Hunter turned to Matt with an extremely confused expression. "What do you mean 'again'?" Hunter asked, slightly scared of receiving an answer.

"It's pretty self explanatory, Hunter." Matt replied.

With that said, the two of them took off their jackets and shirts, revealing their bare skin. Hunter had some hair on his chest but was overall in good shape. Matt had a six pack going but at the same time, numerous scars could be seen on his chest. Some old bullet wounds and what appeared to be a knife wound by his stomach and a bite mark on his shoulder.

Bernard shook his head. "Turn around." he said.

The two survivors turned around, revealing their backs; Matt however revealed what appeared to be a slash wound on his lower back that healed up into a scar.

"Are you sure you're not with the Timberwolves." Bernard asked.

Matt turned his head around. "Who the hell are the Timberwolves?" he asked.

Bernard slapped his thigh in response. "That answers my question." he says.

"Can we put our shirts back on now?" Hunter asked.

"Yes. Go ahead." Cheryl replied.

The teenaged female of the group began whispering something into the other teenaged male's ear.

"I don't know. I'm not into guys." the guy whispered back.

Matt and Hunter, with their shirts back on, turned to face the boathouse survivors. "Allow me to introduce ourselves." Bernard said. "I'm Bernard Davidson. That there is Cheryl Harrison."

"Hey." Cheryl greeted.

"The man beside you is named Joe Steele." Bernard continued. "That other man over there is named Joey Krikowski. A little heads up, he's deaf, so he can't hear you. Joe's his translator. Finally, those two over there are Jaren and Melony Simpson. Siblings separated by a 2 year age gap. Jaren's the oldest."

"You seem to know an awful lot about these guys, Bernard." Matt says. "What gives?"

"We've been together since the first few days of the outbreak." Bernard replied. "We were with a bigger group, the Timberwolves, before we left and came to this boathouse. That's how we met Joe and Joey."

"You mentioned the Timberwolves twice now." Hunter spoke up. "Who are they?"

"First things first. We introduced ourselves but you need to introduce yourselves. Except you Hunter, we already know you."

"More fans, huh?" Hunter grew a shit eating grin.

"Shut up." Matt mumbled.

"So youngin', who are you?" asked Bernard.

"The name's Matilda Dillon." Matt replied. "But, everyone calls me Matt. And by everyone, I mean this cunt right here."

"Twat." Hunter mumbled.

"Alright, first off, are you two enemies or something?" Cheryl asked. "Because that's the second time you've called him the c-word this night."

"Him?" Matt pointed to Hunter. "This dude's my best friend. We've been through hell and back together for a little over a year now."

"Then why do you keep calling him the c-word?"

"Why do you keep saying it as 'the c-word'?" Matt retorted. "Just say the damn word instead of acting like a little kid about it. Anyway, don't think too much of the name calling. It's just how we talk."

"No, that's how you talk, kid." Hunter corrected. "I honestly don't mind. I've gotten used to it by now."

"Okay, secondly… Matilda?... But you're a… You're a… I mean- I- I think you're a-"

"Yes, I'm a guy." Matt interjected.

"Then why is your name Matilda then?" Jaren asked from the back.

"Because mommy and daddy didn't really love me that much." Matt sarcastically replied. "I had a bad childhood that I really don't want to get into right now."

"Understandable." Bernard says.

"Alright, now spill." Matt says in a blunt tone. "Who are the Timberwolves?"

Bernard turned to Cheryl for a brief moment before he turned to the two. "You really don't know who they are?" he asked.

"If we did, would we be asking?" Matt reasoned.

Bernard sighed heavily as he looked down, before looking Matt in the eyes again. "The Timberwolves are a group of dangerous survivors." Bernard started. "They're notorious of using deadly weapons and tactics to get what they want. They care for no one but themselves. They steal, hurt, and kill whoever gets in their way and they don't take too kindly to traitors and abandoners. They mark themselves by carving the letters TW onto their chests or backs."

Matt's eyes suddenly widened as he turned to his companion, hitting his arm. "Hunter." he says. His friend turned to him. "That walker in the convenience store."

Hunter's eyes also widened as the sudden memory flashed in his mind. "That's right. It had the letters TW on it's chest." Hunter says.

"And that walker on the train." Matt reminded. "It had the same letters on it's back."

"Ah. Those must've been either the traitors or people who abandoned them." Cheryl says. "Now you know what the Timberwolves will do to you if you don't obey by their rules."

"I've been in worse groups." Matt mumbled.

"You're scaring me each day, kid." Hunter replied.

"So these Timberwolves… what's up with them?"

"Just a bunch of psychotic freaks wandering the woods and forests who care nothing or no one but themselves." Bernard answered. "You best be on the other side of the fence when you encounter them."

"Anyway, enough about them." Cheryl says. "Where you two heading?"

"Wherever." Matt answered. "We've been on the road and on our own for, like I said, a little over a year by now. We have no destination in mind. We've been camping out in the woods, abandoned houses, wherever we are when we stop. We've been raiding abandoned stores for food and medicine. That's how we've been living."

Joey then began making hand signals with his hands, because of his deafness. "He says that's a pretty dumb way of surviving." Joe translated.

"Still surviving nonetheless." Matt counters. "Plus we're still alive, aren't we?"

Joe turned to Joey and began making hand signals to communicate with him.

(I think it's best we don't anger that one.) Joe gestured. (He seems to be easily irritable and tends to get angry when pushed around too much.)

(Could be paranoia.) Joey gestured. (You know how people are nowadays.)

"Hey, kid, remember what I was telling you yesterday?" Hunter suddenly asked Matt.

"You told me a lot of things yesterday, Hunter." Matt replied. "How am I supposed to know what you're talking about?"

"About the group thing." Hunter reminded.

Matt rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Oh- You're still on that?" he asked.

"On what?" Cheryl asked.

Matt sighed heavily as he turned to the boathouse survivors. "Hunter thinks that he and I should be in a group so we could be more safe." Matt says. "I think that we're fine on our own just traveling without a group with no destination set in mind. Cuz I've been in my fair share of groups and they don't last that long. It's the same thing over and over and over and over again. You join one group, you feel safe for about a month or so, then it dies. I've seen it happen before."

"That's just because you were in bad groups." Hunter counters. "These guys look well fed and alright."

"There is absolutely no way we are joining this group!" Matt exclaims sternly.

"We have running water." Joe says.

"So when can we join?" Matt suddenly asks, without missing a beat.

Hunter shot him an extremely confused expression.

The boathouse survivors, sans Matt, sat at the dining room table, all eating bowls of pork and beans. Right at that moment, Matt came walking into the room, with freshly wet hair laying on top his shoulders. He took a sat next to Hunter and immediately began eating his pork and beans.

"So how long have you two been on the road together?" Bernard suddenly asked.

Matt swallowed his food before answering. "Like I said, a little over a year by now." Matt says.

"Mind if we ask how you two met?" Joe asked. "If that's alright with you."

"Nah, it's totally alright." Hunter politely responded. "We were both on our own before we met each other. I think it was maybe a few months in the outbreak before we actually met. I was with a bigger group and traveled all over the country from safehouse to safehouse before eventually the group I was with just turned into me. Then I met him."

"Yeah." Matt confirmed. "For me, I was with a bunch of different groups and communities before I eventually met Hunter." Matt suddenly grew a saddened expression. "The groups I was with weren't good."

"Well, yeah, I'd expect." Cheryl says. "Most groups at the start of the apocalypse don't know what's going on and make a ton of mistakes. The Timberwolves are no exception. They made some pretty bad mistakes back then but after getting used to the zombies and everything, they kind of adapted to how life is now." She suddenly grew a distasteful look. "That still doesn't excuse their actions and their barbaric way of life."

"No, I said they weren't good." Matt repeated. "As in… they were bad… really bad."

The rest of the survivors, including Hunter, gave Matt a confused expression. "What do you mean?" Jaren asked.

"I mean…" Matt sighed heavily as he looked down before looking back up at the survivors, giving them the most serious look he has ever gave off in his life. "They did… some… pretty fucked up things… and I'm no exception. When I was with them, I had to do some pretty awful things just to survive. Not by the walkers but from them. If I didn't obliged by their rules, they would've killed me. I had no choice but to follow their rules."

"What… did they do, son?" Bernard asked.

"If it's alright with you, I'd rather not say." Matt replies. "I still haven't told Hunter about my story yet and we've been traveling together for a long time."

"I only know where he was when it all started." Hunter added. "He hasn't told me the rest yet."

"What about you guys?" Matt asked. "Where were you when it all started?"

"Right here in the heart of North Carolina." Bernard says. "I knew Cheryl before it started. She used to be my kid's babysitter. We met Jaren and Melony when we joined the Timberwolves."

"Back then, they weren't called the Timberwolves though." Jaren says.

"They weren't?" Hunter asked. "What were they called?"

"A lot of different names." Jaren replied. "Bernard and Cheryl joined the community maybe about three months in, whereas me and Melony were there on Day 1 when it the group was formed, which was just a small group of five people back then. Back then, the group was called the Martyrdoms, who was lead by this anti religions guy named Sean. After he died, this other guy, named Brad took over and made a few changes to the community. He changed locations to a more isolated area and changed the name to the Islanders. Then Brad died and this other guy took over."

"What happened then?" Matt asked.

"Let's just say the new leader wasn't really a good one." Bernard replies. "Possibly the worst leader in all of history."

"So why'd you guys leave?" Hunter asked.

"Like we said before, the Timberwolves now are a horrible group of violent psychopaths and anyone who didn't agree with their philosophies or rules were either executed or fed to a ditch full of walkers." Cheryl says.

"Woah. Woah. Woah. Wait. A ditch full of walkers?" Matt asked. "How fucked up is this community?"

"Really fucked up." Cheryl replies. "The leader is the most malicious, terrifying, horrific… demon leader of the Timberwolves. No one fucks with him. He's the most terrifying leader we ever met. But you want to know what's even more terrifying than his psychopathic, sadistic way of life… is that he's actually a good leader. He makes the best decisions and does what needs to be done in the group."

"He's an effective leader and has hundreds of loyal followers." Jaren went on and added. "That fact that he's a scary dude and he's all sadistic and shit, along with him being a helluva good leader, probably makes him the most hardcore, terrifying survivor out there in the entire country. If not, the whole world."

Matt and Hunter were in shock from this, unable to think of anything to say and just sat there in their seats with their mouths slightly gaped open.

"Yeah, that was pretty much our reactions when we first heard about them." Joe said, referring to him and Joey.

"Fuckin' A." Matt says. "He's that menacing."

Bernard could only nod. "If not more." he whispered. Matt and Hunter looked at each other in the uncomfortable silence. "Well, it's getting late." Bernard says. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough rooms for you two, so you'll have to take the couch."

"Trust us." Hunter says. "A couch will actually be a bed for us since we've mostly been sleeping in tents. Except last night when we slept in bunk beds."

"I've slept on couches before." Matt says.

Hunter merely shot him a confused look; Bernard suddenly stood up and grabbed his empty bowl. "We should probably get to bed soon." he says. "Joe, you think you and Joey can shut off the generator outside?"

"We can do that, Bernard." Hunter pipes up.

"Oh, you don't have to." Bernard says. "You two just arrived. It's unfair for you to immediately dive into some sort of work."

"It's unfair that we DON'T get work." Hunter retorts. "Besides, we're just shutting off a generator. It's not like we're running to get gas to fill up a boat or something."

"Well if you insist." Bernard replies.

Joey began making hand gestures to his translator.

(What are they saying?)

Joey began to move his hands to reply back. (The newcomers are going to be turning the generator off tonight instead of us.)

(Oh.)

"Just head out the back and the generator is next to the shed." Bernard replied, pointing to the back door. "Just push the button to power it off and y'all can head back inside."

Matt made a nose fart sound. "Y'all." he quoted while stifling a laugh.

Hunter pushed aside his friend as he stepped forward. "We can do that." he says. "Are you sure you don't us staying here?"

"We don't mind at all." Bernard replies.

"The more people we have, the more safe we are." Cheryl replies. "And since you two aren't with the Timberwolves, we have no reason to distrust you."

"I can tell instantly about people." Bernard added. "I can tell you two are friendly people."

"Gee thanks." Matt said kindly.

"Except for you." Bernard quickly added. "You seem to get angry easily and tend to insult people when you are angry."

Matt gave him an irritated look. "Gee thanks." he said once again, except this time in a sarcastic tone.

"We'll shut of the generator." Hunter says. "You guys just head to bed."

"Be careful out there you two." Melony suddenly spoke up. "Walkers tend to sneak up on people."

"Don't worry about us." Matt replies. "We can handle ourselves. Oh, I'm sorry. I can handle myself. This guy is a lost cause." Matt referred to Hunter as he gave a cheeky smile.

Hunter merely turned to his comrade and gave him a confused expression. "I saved you from an alley from a bunch of walkers while you were unconscious when a TV fell on you the other day-"

"Shut up, cunt." Matt interrupted.

"Okay." Hunter replied in a passive tone.

"Well, either way, be careful." Joe said. "Even though Joey's deaf, one still managed to sneak up on him the other night. I'm glad I was there with him, otherwise he wouldn't be here by now."

Joey began making hand gestures in response. (Thank you once again.)

"Well, we better turn off the generator." Hunter says.

"Doesn't the generator need gas though?" Matt asked.

"Now, I know what you're gonna say, youngin." Bernard replies. "And yes, it does. We've been using the gas from abandoned cars to fuel the generator. Plus there's a bunch of gas cans out in the shack. This is a boathouse ya know. A boat house needs a boat, and a boat needs gas, so it makes sense that there would be gas cans in there."

"You seem to know your shit." Matt replies. "We'll be sure to handle our own while we're here. We can handle tough work, ya know."

"That's good to know." Bernard says. "Well, g'night everybody. I'm off to hit the sack."

Bernard began to walk towards the stairs, followed by the rest of the boathouse survivors. "Goodnight you two." Cheryl says.

Bernard was the first to walk up the stairs, followed by Joe, then Cheryl, then Joey, then Jaren, and then finally, Melony. The teen girl suddenly stopped in her tracks as she turned to look at Matt and gave him an enchanting smile.

"Goodnight, Matt." she said in a sweet, soft voice.

Matt merely waved at her as she giggled, before she ran up the stairs to catch up to the rest of the survivors. He turned to his friend, whom merely gave him a playful, all knowing grin, confusing the teen.

"What?" Matt asked, genuinely baffled as to why his friend was smiling at him like that.

Unbeknownst to them, however, the two of them were being watched by an unknown figure through a pair of binoculars. The figure lowered their binoculars as they squinted at the two, as they continued to spy at the two survivors through the window. At that moment, a walker approached the figure from behind, as it growled towards him; suddenly, the walker was decapitated by an unknown force wielding a machete.

Joey and Joe sat at the edge of the pier in lawn chairs as they held onto fishing rods. While Joey had a smile on his face, Joe had a completely bored expression on his own. Out at the back of the boathouse was Melony, whom was drawing whatever she was drawing in the notebook she had in her hands, while Bernard was chopping wood at the chopping block. At that moment, Matt and Hunter came walking out from the back door of the boathouse.

"Hey, Bernard." Hunter greeted.

Bernard, after finishing chopping a log, turned to the new two survivors. "Ah, morning, Hunter." Bernard greeted back. "Sleep well?"

"Best I've slept in years." Hunter replied. "We were wondering if there was anything we could do to help out around here."

"Well, that's awfully kind of you." Bernard replied. "You can help me chop some firewood so we could use for tonight."

"What about me?" Matt asked.

"Well, youngin, what do you want to do?" Bernard asked.

"Well…" Matt hesitated for a moment. "I could… hunt some deer for dinner…"

"Deer, huh?" Bernard replied. "You know how to hunt?"

"Been hunting ever since I was 10." Matt replied.

"Well, alright." Bernard replied. "Just be careful out in those woods, won't ya? Don't want any walkers creeping up on ya."

"Yeah. Yeah." Matt replied as he turned around.

"Hey, take Cheryl with ya!" Bernard shouted. "She always wanted to hunt."

Matt simply gave a thumbs up in response as he entered the house; Bernard turned to Hunter and smiled before shrugging. "I like that kid." he said.

Hunter simply smiled and nodded in response.

Inside the house, Cheryl was reading a book when Matt entered the living room. "Come on, Cheryl." he said. "We're going hunting."

Cheryl's eyes immediately brightened at the sentence. "Sweet!" she exclaimed in excitement as she tossed the book onto the couch before grabbing her gun.

Outside, Hunter was helping Bernard chopping some wood, using an axe to cut small logs in half.

"So you and the kid have been by yourselves for all this time?" Bernard replied.

"That's right." Hunter replied. "The kid saved my life. I would've been walker chow if he hadn't showed up at the right time."

"That's good to hear." Bernard said as he chopped a log.

"Hey, Bernard." Hunter said. "I've been meaning to ask, but… you mentioned you having kids…" Bernard suddenly stopped chopping wood as he grew a saddened look. "Did they…?" Hunter dared not to finish his question.

"Yeah." Bernard said above a whisper. "At the start."

Hunter sighed through his nostrils in sympathy. "I'm so sorry." he quietly said.

"It's fine." Bernard replied. "They're with their mother now. At least they don't have to grow up in a world like this. Even though I do miss them… they're still alive in my heart."

"Amen to that." Hunter said

Bernard suddenly smiled at Hunter. "So what about you?" he asked. "Had any Mrs. Spector in your life?"

Hunter merely chuckled in response. "No." he said. "I never had time for a relationship since I traveled the country for my show and all. Would've gotten in the way of our relationship, you know?"

"Yeah, I hear that." Bernard replied as he chopped a log. "Hey, can I ask you something? It's about that kid, Matt."

"What about him?" Hunter asked.

"Is he… alright?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he mentioned something about how his mom and dad weren't nice to him, and between you and me, he kind of gives me some 'crazy' vibes."

Hunter scrunched up his mouth as he sighed through his nose. "The kid's been a lot, that's for sure." he said. "Even before the outbreak. But… I can't tell you what he went through during the outbreak, since he hasn't told me either. But I do agree with you… He is kind of… well… not mentally healthy."

"Is he insane?" Bernard asked.

"No." Hunter replied. "He just has PTSD. That's all. He sometimes has PTSD attacks and he just freezes up in the spot and stares off into space, like he saw a demon of some sort. Having this horrible traumatized expression on his face. No doubt whatever he went through during the outbreak sure messed up that head of his."

Bernard only gave a sympathetic expression as he looked down at the ground. "I feel bad for the kid now." he whispered.

"You and me both." Hunter whispered back.

"Uuuh, Bernard." a voice suddenly piped up. The two of them looked up to see Jaren leaning out of the second story window. "There's someone at the door." he said in a scared tone.

Bernard and Hunter looked at each other as they dropped their axes and ran to the backdoor. They entered the house and approached the front door, where Bernard opened it. He gasped as he saw a bunch of survivors on the front porch, all wearing leather jackets. The man in front of him wore a black trench coat while he gave Bernard a sinister grin.

"Hello, Bernard." the man said in a devilish voice.

A lone deer feasted on a spot of grass in the middle of the forest in the middle of the day, minding it's own business. However, unbeknownst to it, two figures were hidden in the shadows as they spied on the lone deer. The two figures were soon revealed to be Cheryl and Matt, with Cheryl holding her rifle while Matt held out a hand in front of her, as if he was stopping her.

"The key to hunting is to maintain perfect silence and to make sure you are always hidden from your prey." Matt whispered.

"Got it." Cheryl whispered back.

"If your prey sees you, there's a good chance it'll run away." Matt continued to whisper. "Now, deers have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, so you have to be very, VERY careful of where you step. Don't go right up to it, it'll get scared. You have to stay hidden at all times. When the window of opportunity opens up, take the shot into the head. Or, if you want to be a true professional, aim for the heart."

"Wouldn't the noise alert the walkers, though?" Cheryl asked.

"Yes," Matt answered. "that's why we have to kill it fast. Not only will the shot alert the dead dumbasses, but the walkers will also alert the deer and cause it to get scared and run away. So you don't want to spend too much time idling around while your prey is just right there before it eventually gets scared and run off."

"You seem to know an awful lot about hunting." Cheryl said. "Did you used to hunt before all this?"

"Occasionally." Matt replied. "I used to head into the forest and hunt deer as a hobby."

"As a hobby?" Cheryl asked.

"Don't let your mind get side tracked." Matt slightly scolded her. "We're not here to talk about my life. We're here to hunt deer. Now, aim your rifle at the head of the deer." Cheryl did as she was told and aimed down her rifle. "Steady breathing. Align it with the head."

Cheryl looked down the iron sights of her rifle, which was pointing directly at the head of the deer, which was munching on the patch of grass below it. "Shoot." Matt whispered.

BANG!

With a pull of the trigger, Cheryl fired her rifle and shot the deer dead in the head. The deer collapsed onto the ground as Matt stood up. "Not bad for a beginner." he says in a normal volume. "Still need to work on your breathing and aiming but, you managed to get the job done."

With that said, Matt approached the corpse of the deer and pulled out his hunting knife. He plunged his dagger into the corpse of the deer and began harvesting it's meat.

"How many weapons do you have?" Cheryl asked as she approached Matt.

The teen, still crouched, turned around and looked at her. "I have this hunting knife that I've had since the start of the apocalypse." he answered. "I have a Beretta M9 hidden away on me, and I can't forget my favorite weapon of all." He suddenly grabbed his shock prod and pushed a button, extending it in front of Cheryl, barely touching the tip of her nose. "My telescopic shock prod. Had it since before the outbreak. I used this whenever I was attacked by some sort of predator."

"You used to get attacked by predators?" Cheryl asked.

"Oh yeah." Matt confirmed nonchalantly. "Cougars. Bears. My dad."

"Your dad?" Cheryl asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Fuckin' cunt." Matt muttered the last part. "Come on. Let's get this meat before…"

Matt suddenly stopped mid sentence as his eyes widened suddenly. At that moment, everything froze around him as his hearing went, like time suddenly stopped. He took in a sharp breath as his pupils suddenly shrunk, sensing something off in the area.

"Get down!" Matt shouted.

He suddenly leapt towards Cheryl and pinned her to the ground as he laid on top of her. Right at that moment, an arrow suddenly flew passed Matt's hair, causing it to fly in the wind. The area pierced a branch as it got latched onto a nearby tree. Cheryl's eyes widened at Matt's sudden, bizarre gesture, but also at the fact that he sensed danger before it even presented itself.

"Missed! I never miss!" shouted a nazily voice.

Both Cheryl and Matt turned to the side to see five figures walking out of the forest; they all wore leather jackets in some form. Cheryl's eyes widened in fear as she stared at the figures walking out of the forest and towards them.

"No." she whispered in fear. "How did they-?"

"Well. Well. Well. Who do we have here?" the tall figure wearing a black trench coat with am messy dark brown mohawk asked as he approached the two. "Cheryl Harrison. I thought that was you! It's been a long time, has it, Cheryl?"

"Jericho." Cheryl spat out his name like venom.

"Been what? 3 months now?" Jericho rhetorically asked as he smiled maliciously at Cheryl.

"Cheryl…" Matt spoke up as he looked at the man in front of him. "What's going on?"

"What's going on is that WE FOUND OUR FAMILY!" Jericho shouted. The other four members cheered as he raised their custom made weapons in the air, except one female member whom seemed uncomfortable in the situation. "You know the boss was having a shitty day, but seeing your faces will lighten up his mood."

"How did you find us?!" Cheryl asked.

Jericho simply snapped his fingers; at that moment, a sixth figure hidden in the forest came walking out holding a man with rugged and ripped clothes. He shoved the man to the ground, revealing that his hands were tied up behind his back. Matt took one look at their prisoner and immediately recognized who he was.

"You're…" Was all he said.

"This kind soul told us where he hid our stash when he raided from our community before he left." Jericho explained as he maliciously grinned at the two survivors down below them. "Mentioned something about coming across a kid with long hair and a star tattoo on his wrist. And what do you know?" Jericho bent down and grabbed Matt's wrist, revealing his star tattoo. "YOU have long hair AND a star tattoo! He mentioned you having several bandages on your fingers and hand! It seems to me that we found our guy who stole our stuff."

"Your stuff?!" Matt shouted in disbelief. "He said it was his!"

"Well then he lied." Jericho replied. "The truth is, he stole a bunch of food and medicine before he and his sister left the community. We ended up killing his sister but he got away. A few days later, we found him wandering the forest. So we grabbed him and we were about to feed him to the walkers right then and there before he told us he came across two survivors and told them where he hid our food and that they possibly still have it."

"What's the point?!" Matt exclaimed. "Even if we had your food, we probably already would've ate it by now."

"You think we care about food?" Jericho asked. "We have plenty of it at the base. What matters is that justice needs to be served. No one defies our rules, our guidelines, our community. Do you understand?"

"I don't even know who the hell you guys are!" Matt shouted. "Besides, we don't have your food! When we went into that supermarket, the food was already gone! I reckon that kid that held us hostage for a brief moment ate it all."

Jericho squinted his eyes at Matt, skeptical of his explanation. "Is the kid dead?" he asked.

Matt hesitated at first, the awful memory of seeing the kid get eaten in front of him flashed in his mind for a brief second. "Yeah." he confirmed in a low whisper. "He's dead."

Jericho continued to stare down at Matt before turning around to face one of his allies. He nodded his head at his ally behind the tied up man; at that moment, the survivor wearing the leather jacket, whom was wielding some sort of kayak paddle with chainsaw blades duct taped to the ends, swung his weapon down onto the tied up man. With one swing of his custom made weapon, the tied up man's head was sliced off, killing him instantly.

Cheryl looked away as Matt widened his eyes in terror, watching as the head fell off as the body limply collapsed to the ground. "Well now." Jericho said. "Seeing that justice has already been served by the death of that kid, we had no need for him. You guys on the other hand are coming with us." He suddenly bent down low enough to face Cheryl dead in the eyes, mere centimeters away from her face, "Along with your friends."

"Our friends?" Cheryl asked.

Jericho turned around as he looked at Cheryl. "Are these guys not your friends?" he asked.

At that moment, a group of other leather jacket wearing survivors came walking out of the forest, holding the rest of the boathouse survivors, as well as Hunter, hostage. Matt's eyes widened as he saw his friends get shoved to the ground in front of him, while Hunter looked at Matt with scared eyes.

"Tie these two up." Jericho ordered his men. "We're heading back to base."

He began to leave as both Matt and Cheryl were grabbed by their arms. "Wait! Who are you guys?!" Matt shouted.

Jericho suddenly stopped in his tracks and turned his head back to Matt, giving him a sinister grin, before he gave his answer.

"We're the Timberwolves."

"She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time."

(Ooh wee. This was fun to write... Okay bye.)