It was quiet in the camp the next morning. Everyone was moving around in a daze, seemingly oblivious to everything going on around them, focused only on moving the bodies of the dead. Those of the zombies had been chucked on to the fire pit, the smell of burning rotten flesh filling the air. Those of the lost survivors had been stabbed in the head with a pickaxe by Daryl and piled into the back of his truck to be moved up to Jim's dig site, to be buried. They didn't want to risk any of them waking up and restarting the attack.

Harry had been sent into the RV by Sirius, with strict instructions to stay put, something that the other parents in the group had followed suit. Carl, Sophia, Eliza and Luis were all sat together around the table, having been given some playing cards by Lori in a vain attempt to keep them distracted from what was going on outside. Amy had locked herself into the 'bedroom' of the RV, refusing to speak to anyone after Andrea had been taken away.

Harry had sat himself into the driver's seat. The angle of the vehicle meant that he had a clear view of the main camp, but couldn't see the fire, or the bodies of their own dead, Daryl having moved his truck away so that the kids wouldn't have to see them. As much of a prick as he seemed to be, he was considerate enough to do that. He'd clearly been pissed off the whole morning, raming the axe into each head a lot harder than necessary. Harry had noticed that Merle hadn't returned with the search party, who had arrived midway through the attack. He wondered if that meant that Merle was dead. He didn't know how he felt about that. Merle was an arsehole, but Harry could imagine the fate he must have suffered and he wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well, maybe Voldemort. Or Snape. He shook his head, trying his hardest to think of something else.

The sight of Andrea and so many others lying there lifeless, eyes staring off into the night without seeing anything, when they had been alive and healthy only hours before, had shook him. All he could think about was how Cedric's eyes had looked exactly the same. He'd felt the exact same terror in that moment of the attack that he had when he had seen Voldemort appear in that graveyard, not knowing what was going to happen or if he was going to get away. Only this time it was worse. This time, he wasn't alone. before , it had only been himself, Voldemort and Wormtail, and later a few free Death Eaters. He only had himself to worry about. And even in the Department of Mysteries, yes, he hadn't been alone, but the people he was with were more powerful and more experienced than him, fighting against vastly outnumbered enemies, some of them having been a bit rusty in their reflexes after so long in Azkaban.

This time, he was surrounded by a dozen defenceless muggles, only a few of them had known how to fight, and before the search party had shown up, only two had guns. He was very aware of the fact that he and Sirius were the only ones powerful enough to take out any of the zombies without endangering themselves, and even then they had been limited on what they could do, being unable to take out large groups at a time without either hurting the muggles or revealing their magic to them. It had been a risk of discovery with the few spells that they had used in the fight. Harry didn't think anyone had seen him, too caught up in their panic, but he had caught Jim giving Sirius scared and suspicious looks since the night before. He wondered if Jim had seen them. And if he had, would he say anything to the others. Harry had noticed Jim acted oddly in the past, often saying things that didn't always make sense, and everyone in the group had largely ignored him. But then he had dug those holes - no, dug those graves - the very same night that the attack had happened. The exact same amount of graves as there were bodies. Harry didn't think that was a coincidence, and judging by the questions that several of the muggles had asked, he wasn't the only one. Jim had just muttered something about a dream he had and disappeared off to continue with the clean up. Sirius had been sending Jim equally concerned looks, having obviously come to suspect something as well.

Other than Jim, no one else seemed to have noticed anything, the lack of light created by the spell and the short bang being easily mistaken for a gunshot. So, it was a relief to have some peace and quiet for once. Honestly, other than the fact that there were undead cannibals having taken over, this world was quite relaxing. At least there was no homicidal megalomaniacs haunting his dreams and trying to kill him. He hadn't had a single nightmare or vision since arriving.

The sudden sound of shouting from outside broke him from his thoughts. He looked out of the window to see several members of the group crowded together, engaged is some kind of argument. Or, rather, Shane was aggressively yelling something at Rick, who seemed to be yelling in defense and Lori was trying to get between the too. Dale stood slightly to the side, pacifically holding up his hands in a clear and failing attempt to get everyone to calm down. Glenn, Jacqui, Jim and Sirius watched everything from the sidelines, Sirius, Glenn and Jacqui looking like they were debating jumping in. Jim just looked amused. Getting up, Harry mover to open the door, noting that the other kids had stopped in their game and were listening in as well. Opening the door, he was finally able to make out the words that they were shouting.

"How would you know, man? You've been asleep for the past two months. How in the hell would you know anything?"

"A man I met back in King County told me…!"

"Was this guy a medic or a soldier or something?"

"No. Or at least, I don't think so…"

"You don't think so?"

"We had other stuff going on, I didn't get a chance to find out what he did!"

Shane rubbed a hand over his head, looking stressed. "So for all we know he could have been talking complete shit!"

"Oh come on. With everything going on, what government is left would protect the CDC at all costs," Rick looked like he was about to start begging, "And it's close by. We wouldn't have to go far."

"We'd also have to go deeper into the city. Do you want to risk that?"

"It's no more dangerous than travelling a hundred miles to an army base that may not even exist. Do you want to risk that? Enough people have died already, do you really want us to lose more?"

"We wouldn't have lost so many people if you hadn't disappeared off on a wild goose chase after a drug dealer, dragging our best fighter with you!"

"Ok, for starters, I didn't drag Daryl anywhere," Rick argued back, ignoring Glenn's indignant 'Hey' at the comment, "And secondly, you guys had, what, two guns? Yours and Dale's. We managed to get more while we were out there. If we hadn't, our loses could have been a lot worse."

"You keep telling yourself that, man."

Sirius interjected then, "You can both throw blame around all day if you must, can we just get back to the matter at hand. I personally think both of your suggestions are shit."

"Oh yeah, and why is that?" Shane really didn't look like he cared what Sirius thought. Rick at least looked willing to listen.

"Well, for starters, I see no reason why Fort Benning would be any safer than Atlanta. With the rate that everything has happened, chances of there not being over run are most likely pretty slim, even with the fire power they have. And as for the CDC, well, this has been going on for - what? Two months? That's not enough time to create a cure. And if there are military personnel, the scientists inside are going to be their primary concern, not a small group of civilians."

"Well then where do you suggest?" asked Dale, trying to keep the peace. Shane looked like he was going to start yelling again.

"The coast," he said simply.

Rick looked confused, "The coast?"

"Yeah," Sirius shrugged, "The ocean would block off one side, meaning we wouldn't have to defend it. I'm no expert on the dead, but judging by the difficulty they have walking I'm going to assume that they aren't very good swimmers either. People visit the beaches all the time before, so there will be shops with supplies inside. Fish from the ocean, and I'm sure there must be a way to make seawater drinkable. Plus we could go out on the boats, try for elsewhere, see if there's anywhere safe out there."

"That's twice as long in the opposite direction. And we would have to pass through several large cities to get there. Do you really think we should risk it? I don't think I'd feel comfortable dragging the kids all that way," Lori asked.

"There's enough of us to protect them. There's thirteen of us and five of them. And I want to teach Harry how to shoot some point soon, so he can help defend them on the road, giving us an extra fighter. If we travel light, leave some of the cars behind to save fuel and travel through the night, maybe take turns driving, it wouldn't take long. I think that it would be worth it in the end."

"You think it's a good idea to give a kid a gun? They're not toys!" Lori looked horrified at the thought.

"I know they're not. That's why I want to give him one," Sirius gave her an annoyed look. "He's fifteen. Not a little kid. And he's seen more shit in those fifteen years than many adults do in their whole lives. I trust him not to accidentally kill himself or any one else, and, if he does shoot someone on purpose, I'll trust him to have a good reason to do it."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean the dead aren't the only threat out there," Sirius turned to Rick and Shane. "You guys are police officers, you have to have thought about it. All the scumbags that you dealt with before, what could they do now that there is no stable government to restrict them? This world is now a paradise for them. All the psychopaths and rapists who are now free to act on their urges. I'd rather my kid have a gun and maybe have to kill someone in self defense than be a victim to anyone like that." He looked around at the group, every one of them digesting what he had just said. "I'm taking him to the coast. That's where I feel it would be safest. Come with or don't, that's up to you. I'd prefer it if you did, as there's safety in numbers, but Harry's got to be my primary concern."

A/N. Hey, Guys. Sorry for such a long wait and the shortness of the chapter compared to others, things have been a bit hectic recently. Been a busy year, plus I'm trying to focus some more on some of my own original writing. I will try to update again soon. We are going to start to deviate from the shows canon now.