I got so distracted I uploaded this late. Sorry about that. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and here is the final chapter.

When Jeff opened his eyes, he was met with a blurry and unfamiliar ceiling. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, but even then he still couldn't recognize his surroundings. He began to notice something else off, he was lying on something that cushioned his body. Jeff finally realized he was lying in a bed. Had it been so long that he had forgotten what laying on a mattress felt like?

His mind began piecing the puzzle together as he shifted his head to the right and found a small sleeping baby next to him. This was the bed in the back of the RV, the one Shirley shared with her son. But if he was here, then where was Shirley? He attempted to sit up, only to have his head swirling in pain. A hand pressed on his shoulder, lowering him back down on the bed. Jeff's eyes looked down at the hand and followed it upward where he met Annie's eyes.

"Nice to see you awake," Annie squeezed his shoulder gently, "but you're not ready to get out of bed just yet."

Annie was currently perched on a tiny stool next to the bed and, when Jeff glanced down, a purple sleeping bag was at her feet.

"What am I doing here," Jeff asked, patted the bed.

"Once we had gotten far enough down the road, Troy and I carried you back here so I could stitch up that gash on your head."

Jeff's hand went to his head, his fingers brushing a wrap bandage on his head.

"How did you fall into the lake?"

He searched his mind trying to remember what happened, "I'm not entirely sure, I just remember losing my footing and falling backward. Besides my head, am I okay?"

"You had scrapes and bruises from landing on the rocks, but that's it."

"Shirley doesn't mind that I'm in her bed," Jeff looked back over to Ben.

"She knows you need to recover."

"How long was I out?"

"Two days."

Jeff slightly nodded, "Where are we?"

"Tahoe City, California," Annie looked out to the small window, "the others are out there testing a theory of Shirley's."

"Which is?"

"That the rotten ones are starting to become intelligent."

Jeff gave her a confused look, "What?"

"They didn't attack you after you fell," Annie explained, "they didn't start attacking until Shirley and I found you. It was like they set up a trap for us."

"And I was the bait," Jeff wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"Exactly," Annie clenched her hands in her lap, "if those things have gotten smarter, it could be the end of us. Not just our group, but the entire world."

"Annie," Jeff reached out and took one of her clenched hands, "we're going to make it out of this. All of us."

"How can you be so hopeful," Annie unclenched her hand and wove her fingers around his, "we've lost so much already."

"Because we made it this far. We're in California."

"Where it's still not safe. There isn't a place that's safe."

"If it's not safe here, we still continue with the plan."

"And we go north."

"Exactly."

The RV door opened opened, the other three members of the group trudging inside and heading to the back. Annie let go of Jeff's hand, causing him to frown briefly before the others entered.

"You're awake," Abed said when he saw Jeff, "how are you feeling?"

"Like I got hit by a train," Jeff answered before looking to Shirley, "sorry I'm taking the bed."

"You need it more than I do, sweetie," Shirley said with a small smile.

"None of you are bitten right," Annie asked, examining their arms.

"We're clean," Troy wrestled his arms out of Annie's hands.

"I think we can take their word for it, Annie. They are our friends," Jeff reminded her.

"It doesn't hurt to check," Annie said defensively, "anyway, what did you find out about the rotten ones?"

"We observed a few of them in a group," Abed began to explain, "at one point they were moaning and grunting to one another, like they were having a conversation."

"The grunts and moans were in different pitches too, almost like inflection," Shirley added.

"That wasn't the weirdest part," Abed said, looking to Troy.

Annie and Jeff looked between Troy, Abed, and Shirley.

"I wanted to get closer, to observe them better," Troy began, "while I was moving, they spotted me."

"I told you it was a bad idea," Shirley scolded.

"Let me finish. Anyway, they walked toward me. They didn't charge, they didn't attack, they were just curious," Troy continued, "and then a couple of them sniffed me, looked confused and continued on their way."

Annie wore a look of surprise. Jeff, however, took Annie's gun from the holster and aimed it at Troy.

"What are you doing," Annie said in a panic.

"Put the gun down," Abed tried to reason with Jeff.

"He's your friend, remember," Shirley said, desperate.

"I wasn't bitten don't shoot me," Troy held up his hands.

"Move," Jeff commanded.

Troy ducked away before Jeff shot off one single round. Jeff winced, the gun's recoil was powerful enough to make the pounding in his head become worse. As he tried to push through the pain, the others had discovered a rotten one lying on the ground with a bullet through it's head. Troy jumped over the dead rotten one, dragging it outside the RV and shutting the door tightly. Shirley took a wailing Ben(woken up and startled from the loud bang) into her arms, trying to quiet him down. Annie meanwhile took her gun back and tried to get Jeff to lie back down, but he refused to budge.

"Someone start this up and get driving," Jeff said, still pained from the recoil, "we need to get out. Now!"