Thankfully, due to its size, the gate to the Chenot estate wasn't damaged as Julien expected it to be. The only issue was repairing it. Lacking the proper tools and condition, it was an automatic deal-breaker. It angered him because this was clearly going to be something he'd have to expect to happen again. He had all these extra hands and never, not once, thought about acquiring someone with carpentry or maintenance skills. He thought he could be the one responsible for that—wrong. The gate was so badly bent in certain areas that the most Julien could do was force them shut by chaining them together. Before all else, he prioritized keeping everywhere sealed (including the broken window from earlier), because he needed every single one of his 'helpers' around. Just as McKayla did, any one of them could have attempted to escape seeing that he didn't possess the strength to chase after them. He couldn't risk that, even if it meant sacrificing rehabilitation time. He was still recovering from his wounds and needed a crutch to get around. He could barely stand too long without his crutch and could walk even less. Regarding other casualties? There were just a few reanimated that managed to stumble on his property. As big as it was, he could chain up first and save them for last.

Burying the bodies that were still in his home was something he had to prioritize because they were beginning to funk up his rooms. Julien did what he could but for the most part, Nora, Quinn, Olimpia, and Emberly helped dig cemetery plots in his front garden away from the house. It was hard enough having to dig a six feet deep cemetery plot, so Julien settled for four. Meanwhile, Billie and Leticia kept a lookout for any reanimated in the region. By the time they were all finished, Julien had already shot four. From the looks and sounds of it, none were left.

"Ugh, do we have to bury those too?" Emberly asked, rubbing her dirt-stained hands on her apron.

"Are you tired?" he examined the hardworking kid. Emberly nodded, clearly consumed just as much as the rest of the girls, "Then don't worry about it. We'll worry about the rest of the Ill tomorrow. Right now we can just focus on those assholes who broke in."

Everyone's, especially Quinn's, eyebrows furrowed. They were surprised that he so willingly showed Emberly some mercy. It was almost as if the young child had him under sort of spell.

"Let's go get the bodies then," Quinn took initiative.

She was the first to climb out of the pit and enter the house. While others took their sweet time to follow, Emberly walked closely behind Quinn through the grand hall and into the main corridor. The doors, however, was locked from the outside and needed a passcode in order to grant access to whoever was outside. Quinn stepped away for a split second and returned with a box of those very items. They were dealing with dead bodies, so a fresh pair of rubber gloves and surgical masks were supplied to safely dispose of the bodies. Something as small as a face mask had the capability of conjuring flashbacks of her aunt and family. She froze for a moment before snapping back to reality, needing a quick moment to herself,

"I'm going to get the rest of the girls…" Emberly proposed before stepping away.

Before Quinn could respond, Emberly had already marched back to the main entrance. Too preoccupied with whatever else, the rest of the women didn't even notice Emberly just standing there. Everyone except Billie walked to the corridor where Quinn was already in the dining room, picking up Tate's body. Emberly stood by the doorway, inquisitively staring as the women walked into the room, informally chattering as if this was part of their everyday lives. Quinn held one arm, Leticia held the other, Olimpia held one leg, and Nora held the opposite. They counted to three and hoisted up the young man's greying corpse. Emberly barely had to do anything. After they successfully carried him out on their own and they dumped his body in the four-foot gap as if he were a bag of trash. Even though they were whipped from exhaustion, Quinn waited in the music room for them to dump the second body in the exact same manner. Realizing that it would take up too much time to make three graves individually, Julien made the disrespectful decision to discard all three bodies together,

"Emberly," Julien called just seconds before she could enter the house with her friends. She turned to look at him and he beckoned her over. As she carefully approached him, he repositioned his crutch underneath his arm, "I have a pretty simple job for you," Emberly followed his glance at Billie, "I want you to keep a lookout for a while. Billie has to use the bathroom..." Emberly's eyes grew fearful as they widened. She looked over at Billie with uncertainty as she was parked by the front steps, ready to run a marathon to the bathroom, "Hey, look at me," Julien attempted to relax her, "This is nothing compared to what you've been through. Billie and the dogs herded the reanimated over to me and I'm sure I killed all of them. You don't need to go far, I just need you to keep a lookout just so one doesn't surprise us."

"...Fine," Emberly gave in, trusting his word for some odd reason.

He waved Billie a signal and she ran into the house as quickly as she could. Emberly took a couple of steps to the side, placing her hands on her hips and looking both to the left and right of the massive home. It was just so massive she was bound to miss something, she thought.

Strangely, the thing that made Emberly feel safe was the vicious beasts Julien called his pets. From what Emberly had seen up close, Sheva was definitely the most reckless and was actually one of the reasons their days to relax became less frequent. Maybe the poor mammal was losing her mind but something was always destroyed at the paws of Sheva. She'd tear up paperwork and rip holes into pillows cushions and sheets. Despite her prowess in being so reckless, her shiny white coat was the most alluring apart from all the bleak warm colors around them. However, the very canine began to bark nonstop. She growled and ran in circles and kept her attention in one area. Julien whistled at her, trying to grab her attention a couple of times but it barely diverted her attention away from what had her hooked. Flash and Cerebus were obviously taking a break, seeing that Sheva had everything under control.

"The hell is she going off about?" Julien questioned just before he turned his attention to the housemaids carrying out their third body.

While he was instructing them on what to do, Emberly wandered off to follow Sheva. With her constant barking and walking patterns, it was almost as if she was leading someone to follow her. On the sidelines, even Cerebus and Flash seemed to be distracted by something that Emberly couldn't get a full view of. The young New Yorker made sure that no one was supervising her before she snuck off and followed Sheva. Nearly making it to the other side of the house, Emberly saw a red-haired walker slithering across the courtyard grounds with two bloodied hands. It was McKayla.

Her breathing picked up as the beating of her heart did and when she opened her mouth to call someone, a shrill scream came out instead. The housemaids were the first to make it over before Julien caught up with them. The women ran to her aid, obviously upset by the reanimated that was making it into their field of vision. The first to coddle Emberly was Olimpia, who attempted to cover her eyes but Emberly resisted.

"Oh my god," Billie covered her entire mouth, catching up with them last.

"What the hell is it?" Julien said, quickly hobbling over to the rest of the women.

All of them jumped just by the sound of him and when they all turned, none of them could answer. In his mind, he was prepared to see something that he would be disappointed in but as he got closer, they cleared him a path, similar to Moses parting a sea. They allowed him to observe the state of McKayla for himself: Her face was slightly disfigured with fresh bite marks as well as her limbs—the severity of her leg was so serious that she could only operate one leg and half of the other. Her hands had blood surrounding her fingertips seeing that her fingernails had fallen off due to her constant creeping through the hard pavement. Her skin was essentially hardened and her eyes were pale and looking in opposite directions. It was unclear what was processing through Julien's mind. It almost looked as if he felt remorseful because he knew he was the cause of this upsetting scene. He removed his gun from his holster and prepared to shoot her after walking a good two feet. As all starving reanimated did, they grew eager whenever their meals got within close enough—so as Julien inched closer, she kicked around and her growls and snarls enhanced. Julien timed himself for the perfect shot and as he pulled the trigger, his gun made a lifeless click.

McKayla grabbed hold of his crutch and attempted to sink her teeth into his leather boots. Julien stumbled backward and lost his footing as the crutch was thrown out of his hold. He screamed, falling directly on his injured side and attempted to kick away McKayla. The thing that lived on in McKayla was the vengeance in her eyes. Julien searched around for something nearby to use. The crutch was too far out of reach and his handgun was useless. He looked up at his housekeepers, seeing nothing but a look of optimism on all each of their faces,

"HELP!" He screamed.

Quinn took a step and felt Nora grab her wrist. She mouthed the words don't, but she yanked herself away and grabbed a baseball bat that wasn't too far off from either of them. In the midst, Julien whistled for one of his dogs to tug McKayla from behind, delaying the time it took for her to reach up and bite him on his leg. Once he finally got his hand on the bat he shooed his pet away and senselessly flattened McKayla's profile into the pavement. Even though she was officially dead after the first two hits, Julien sat up and gave a few more bashes. Sicked to her stomach, Emberly ran off to the side and stumbled into the grass, throwing up behind the bushes. Without much assistance, Julien stood up on his own. Quinn wanted to lend a helping hand, but after noticing the suspect silence that each of the ladies gave him when he needed them most frustrated him. He grumbled and cursed at Quinn. He glared at the group of women as he staggered past them,

"You're lucky I don't go into my goddamn armory and mow every one of you down after that shit you just pulled."

Right now, he was at his weakest and the tiniest screw up could mean his life. So for the time being, it was defeating to admit that all six of them were his lifeline. He just never said it out loud.

After burying the last of the bodies, Julien retired to his bedroom for the rest of the day. As much as he didn't want to show it, there was no way to hide that he was at the weakest he had ever been; mentally and physically. He hated feeling helpless.

Emberly was rounded up with the rest of her guardians in the kitchen, washing their hands of any dirt they managed to get through their gloves. Emberly not only had to clean the dirt off her hands but the barf off her glasses after they managed to fall in it. She spent a good time washing her hands thoroughly and was told to meet in the housemaid's room once she was finished. Doing what she was told, she closed the door behind her, seeing the women sit in yet another circle and playing Crazy Eights. She knew what that meant by now and was actually hoping that it wouldn't be a waste of time. Their days of planning had become endless: They'd plan after breakfast, during their mid-day breaks, while cleaning the floors, and even when they'd wait in line for showers,

"Emberly," Leticia patted the cushion beside her.

Doing as expected, she sat beside Leticia and felt herself being snugged around her shoulders. By the look on all of their faces and the rare drawing of the curtains, things felt lighter and unusual to her. She stared back at all of them and a nervous smile appeared on her face. They looked back into the center and began tossing in cards after Olimpia handed Emberly a deck. Leticia slightly leaned in, "We're leaving today," Leticia maintained looking into the center.

"Tonight," Olimpia specified.

"We finally came up with a plan," Billie snickered like a schoolchild, entirely confident in whatever it was.

At this point, everyone was so elated that they were putting down whatever card they had in hand. Emberly didn't mean to be pessimistic about it but any plan could outrank choosing to voluntarily work for a piece of shit like Julien. She was willing to bet that this plan would barely get them to the front door,

"And Quinn...?" Nora asked, seemingly being the only one who was unhappy.

"We'll tell her when we're leaving, Nora. She'll have to least expect it so she can have no choice but to leave with us."

"I don't know. I've been thinking," Nora sighed, "Maybe I can convince her?"

"No," Leticia shook her head, "Baby, we already spoke about this."

"I've been thinking about what you guys have been saying and I finally understand that there's something...deeply, deeply wrong with her," Nora began to get choked up but she held her composure a lot better than she usually did when she worried about Quinn, "I'm scared she might not leave with us. What if she warns him or screams his name."

"Are you willing to leave her?" Olimpia looked over at her.

That was a question so controversial, everyone felt it.

"I-I can't just leave my sister here with that man!" She finally gave in to the tears.

This constant war over Quinn had everyone exhausted, even Emberly to some extent.

"I'm sorry Nora, but it's either that or we forcefully drag her out of that house," Leticia commented, taking a deal breath, "And I love that girl to death, so I'd prefer the latter."

The expressions on Nora's face froze when they began to explain that the best way to free the hostage in Quinn was to make her one. These words confused Nora and that's when they all began to explain that they held conferences behind Nora's back on dealing with Quinn. Ultimately, it would result in tying her hands and gagging her with duct tape. Emberly knew about these conferences but to steer clear of the impending fit Nora was about to give, she stayed out of it. Olimpia grew tired of the bickering and snapped back. She stated a disclaimer, acknowledging that it wasn't the best idea but rather the only one—and that if Nora had something better than getting all of them killed because of her sister, she had to speak up. Their dialogue became so palpable everyone stopped speaking and continued to absentmindedly play,

"So how are we doing it?" Emberly broke the silence.

It was usually Quinn's job to feed the dogs but Billie convinced her to hand over the responsibility since they hadn't swapped duties in a while. She was going to technically famish the dogs and lure them into a separate room in the house and lock them in. Olimpia volunteered herself for the next plan, which was to distract Julien by using his attraction to her as an advantage—anything to keep him out of the surveillance room. Lastly, they would have to break out one of the windows—one furthest from his range of hearing—by using a tool they had yet to discover. His weakened state should give Olimpia enough time to sneak out of his bedroom and sneak outside with the rest of them.

After the plan was verbally laid out, they suddenly felt a surge of unconfidence. It was risky but each of them learned one day or another that people had to be willing to die if they wanted things to change. McKayla may have been stubborn, but she taught them that and it'd be an insult to her death if they remained complicit to Julien's abuse.

After they concluded their gathering, Emberly thought that this plan just could have worked. Why it took someone having to die in order for them to act on it was beyond her. But there was no time for pointless questions. If this could have very well meant their last time together, whether it meant making it out alive or having to die alongside them, she wanted to make it memorable. She walked into the grand hall, appreciating its vastness and vintage appeal. Quinn was on a ladder cleaning the chandelier with an old feather duster,

"Quinn?" Emberly's voice echoed slightly over the music coming from one of the rooms.

Quinn looked down,

"Oh, hi, Emberly. What is it?"

"I wanted to ask you something," Quinn briefly looked at her, waiting for the request. Emberly nervously played with her fingers, "It was my birthday recently and...I was just wondering if you could make us some cupcakes for all of us tonight."

"Sure thing," Quinn smiled as she looked down and chuckled, "As long as you're willing to help me."

Emberly happily agreed and waited for Quinn to make her way down the ladder. The chandelier was something so constantly touched by Quinn, everyone was surprised that it hadn't fallen on her yet. As she walked past Emberly to get the kitchenware ready, Emberly's eye caught the bloodied baseball bat in the corner of the grand hall, directly beside the doorway. She envisioned McKayla getting hit over and over again and each time she closed her eyes to shake away the queasy feeling, it only got worse. She looked up at the nearby stairs, listening to the soft vinyl music that seeped from Julien's bedroom. She cautiously approached the baseball bat and stared at the blood that dried into its wooden fibers. However, the longer she stared at it the less it bothered her. She thought about Julen's love for baseball back when he was a child and how it could be correlated to his issues and to the person he had become. Eventually, she took a couple of steps back and left.

She looked all over the house until she found Leticia and Billie in the dining room and noticed them scrubbing thick and coupled bloodstains from the carpet. The young girl walked into a laugh-filled atmosphere; jokes that only these two found humorous no doubt,

"Hi Emberly," Billie smiled.

"Hello,"

"What is it, my dear?" Leticia sat erect while on her knees, "Want to help?"

"No," Emberly chuckled, "I was just wondering if you found anything on that boy that was in this room?" Emberly recalled him as Tate, believing he deserved remembrance.

"Nothing really. Olimpia and I just found an old rusty knife and some candy wrappers in his pockets...trash mostly"

"Oh okay," the young girl understood, "Did anyone throw out the trash yet?"

"It's in the waste room..." Leticia grew quite curious as to why Emberly seemed so interested in trash, "Emberly, what's going on?"

"It's just that I lost Nora's hair scrunchy and I think it could be in one of those bags."

"Well, Nora has more, sweetie," Billie enlightened.

"I know, but it was the yellow one and I really liked it. Also, if we're going through with you-know-what...I want to have it to remember her by."

Leticia and Billie exchanged a sympathetic look,

"Okay, baby, just be careful," Leticia dismissed her.

They continued scrubbing as Emberly stepped away from the door. She ventured past all of the rooms in the corridor and walked into the commercial kitchen way at the end of it. All the way to the back was a separate long white hall that led to a pair of double doors that led to the garbage room. As soon as she walked in, her eyes watered once she took in a whiff of the harsh scents. Bringing up her forearm to her face, she covered her snout with her sleeve. She noticed three grey industrial garbage bins with wheels and each of them was nearly stacked to the ceiling. Her eyes darted at nearly every single one of them in one swift glaze of her eyes,

"Dammit!" she swore through her sleeve.

It was nearing midnight in a couple of hours and Emberly wanted to at least make sure that these cupcakes were done just in time or else no one would get to enjoy themselves before all hell broke loose. Emberly walked into the pantry and grabbed all of the needed ingredients, calmly stepping over Cerberus' tail. She threw in flour, sugar, vanilla extract, and found some untouched strawberry frosting. She stared around a bit longer at every shelf, organized by type. She looked over at the condiment shelf and noticed all types except for one particular one she was a fan of. She patted Cerberus on the head and walked out of the pantry, leaving the door wide open behind her so the canine could exit whenever they pleased. Quinn grabbed the ingredients, thanking her while prepping the oven,

"How are we still able to cook?"

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, cracking the eggs. She gave Emberly the precise measurements for the powdered ingredients, "Just get started on those."

"Like, how does the oven still work and stuff? I thought everywhere was supposed to be blacked out."

She enlightened her on this huge generator rumored to be downstairs. None of them had actually seen it but it was the only explanation as to how things still managed to work in the home. Their reason for never laying eyes on it was most likely for Julien's privacy. The more they spoke of it, she pointed out it was why lights automatically went out at a certain time—Julien was the one controlling it. Their short but cherished conversations paid off in the end, seeing that they managed to get all of their ingredients together. Lastly, Quinn evenly poured the batter into the muffin tray,

"All of us can't eat twelve muffins."

"We can save some for tomorrow," The young girl stated, "Would it be okay if I got two?"

"I don't see why not, birthday girl."

Permission or not, she still would've taken it, but she had to keep this act up like everyone or else Quinn would suspect they were up to something. Just as she was helping her clean, she knocked over the glass bowl with her elbow. Both she and Quinn jumped as it hit the ground. The glass scattered everywhere and Emberly frowned as they made eye contact. She apologized multiple times and even overreacted to the possibility of Julien finding out. All Quinn could do was reassure her that everything was going to be fine—she didn't make any promises that she wouldn't tell Julien, but she left to go grab a broom and dustpan.

Emberly carefully kept an eye on her as she walked out of sight and approached the oven with her hands buried in her apron pockets. Shocked to hear footsteps returning so soon, she stepped aside and noticed Nora stick her head into the kitchen. A dull smile appeared on her face as her eyes searched the room. Of course, she was looking for her older sister.

Wanting nothing more than for her to leave, Emberly informed her on her sister's whereabouts without her even having to ask, specifically telling her which route Quinn took in hopes of further delaying them both. However, the opposite happened. She watched Nora tip-toe into the kitchen. Emberly hands began sweating the longer they remained in her pockets,

"What happened here?"

"The bowl. It fell...by accident."

"Oh, okay. How long are those cupcakes gonna take?"

"Hopefully a couple of minutes," Emberly muttered.

"Okay...well," Nora took a trembled breath and rested her palms on Emberly's shoulders, "Just remember that after we're finished celebrating...we're gonna go through with it. Tonight."

Emberly nodded,

"I know."

"Remember. He's injured, so it's now or never..."

This was something that Emberly already knew and she felt as if Nora was telling her this because she wanted some sort of reassurance that she wasn't the only one freaking out—it was in her eyes. But Emberly couldn't give any justification to fear, including her own at this very moment.

Feeling as if her mission was insufficient, Nora walked away,

"Everything's going to be okay…" Emberly commented before she could vanish.

Nora took a second to purely smile before walking off to search for Quinn. Quickly, Emberly removed a balled-up hand from her pocket and opened the oven with the other. Reaching into the oven, she quickly sprinkled an ingredient into each of the cupcakes. Getting to at least nine of them, she quickly removed her hand as she heard footsteps coming back in her direction. She swiftly closed the oven and slid to the floor, acting as if she were picking up shards of glass from the floor. Before she could get in contact with one, Quinn returned just in time to stop her. Wanting to prevent a bloody accident, she swept up every little piece of glass she could find and disposed of it in the nearest trash.

Around seventeen to eighteen minutes later, the cupcakes were officially finished and decorated. Everyone was instantly summoned into the kitchen, but before diving in, they each made a toast as if it were a final farewell, "cheers" they all said one after another. Olimpia, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to eat it. She had no desire to eat ever since she woke up that very morning. The most she did was drink wine that Julien didn't like.

The last person to finish their cupcake was Quinn and she was still licking her fingers. Although she didn't have a clue, they each respected her enough to let her finish before throwing the house down on her. The women huddled up together and looked to the side, seeing all three of Julien's dogs drool over their delicacies.

"This is it, Billie," huffed.

"This is it…" Leticia affirmed.

In case things looked too suspicious on the camera feed, they went in separate directions but remained in close quarters. Quinn cleaned up and organized some more in the kitchen while Emberly held on to a plate with a cupcake sitting in the center.

Before they got too hungry and decided to make any one of the maids their meals for the day, Billie called all three animals over to follow her. She gathered their snacks and meals and if there was anything the dogs loved more than dry food, it was canned dog food mixed in together with it. They were perceptive little mongrels and spoke in excitement whenever they saw the canned foods. Opening up a can so their snouts could follow the scent, which was oddly pleasant to everyone else, Billie stacked their bowls and led them upstairs and into a vacant room. She filled up their bowls unevenly and threw the treats across the room and left the bag of dry food wide open. As similar as they were to hellhounds, Billie still had a soft spot for the animals she had worked alongside with for so long. She was essentially locking them up and even if the food would eventually run out, she figured leaving something for them would be easier on her conscience. She shut the door behind her, returned downstairs, and walked past the dining room, giving Olimpia the A-OK to pick up where she left off. However, Olimpia wasn't as confident as she was the day she staunchly agreed to do it. Leticia followed Billie into the room and tried to look at Olimpia in the face—the girl who was possibly the most confident had broken just by the mere thought of confronting a monster,

"Come on, girl. You can't get cold feet on us now," Leticia practically begged.

For the first time, the firm older woman began to show some hint of emotion. She understood how hard it was but this was the closest they were ever gonna get to leave. Nora heard the clamor from afar, as well as her sister. Nora got herself involved, thinking whether or not she had the courage to do what Olimpia couldn't. Quinn stood at a safe distance, oblivious yet interested in whatever the hell was occurring. Around this time some of the rooms were dimly lit by candlelight.

Emberly stood near the kitchen and listened to most of what transpired down by the dining room. It may have been a horrific moment but this was her golden ticket. She walked back into the kitchen and opened the oven, removing the saucer with a vanilla cupcake she specifically picked out. She walked out the back path in the house kitchen and walked towards the back staircases that led upstairs. She walked through the infamous corridor of family pictures, nearly feeling like she was walking through a photo exhibition. As she inched closer to his bedroom, she took a deep breath and stood very still hoping to miraculously calm her anxiety. Her legs shook as well as her hands and with a couple of deep breaths, she calmed herself. Before barging into his bedroom, she wisely knocked first,

"Who is it?" He groaned.

"Emberly," she failed at sounding cheerful.

Through a long moment of silence, she began to grow impatient hoping she wouldn't get caught, by the others, in the act of doing something that was unplanned. She tapped her foot around repeatedly before placing her ear to the door and just as her face nearly touched the door, it swung open. She retained her position, hoping to not give him any signs that she was planning to eavesdrop. He stared right into her hands, seeing cupcake with a vast amount of thick frosting,

"What's that?" he questioned.

"A vanilla cupcake with strawberry frosting…" she said through her soft yet raspy voice.

"Did everyone else get one?" He waited for Emberly to confirm and took the plate. He eyed it down, inspecting every detail of it, "You take the first bite."

Quite taken aback, Emberly didn't hesitate to pick a piece off from the sides and toss it into her mouth—no questions asked. Julien figured he might have just been paranoid. Ever since the predicament earlier today in the garden, he felt like he had allowed himself to be taken to the same place he was when he allowed his dogs to tear McKayla apart. He may have felt a little screwed up putting an eleven-year-old to such a test, but if she truly planned on poisoning him, it would serve her right. He couldn't let her age blind him like it was already beginning to. He forcibly chuckled, hoping to end the initial hostility that only he felt. Lifting the cupcake to his lips he dug his teeth into them and loudly chewed away at it. He moaned in pleasure recognizing Quinn's baking from anywhere. By the third bite, he was finished,

"Wow," he cleared his throat, "Is there any more of that…?"

"Yes," she fixed her eyes on him, having her breathing pick up. She took the plate from him, "There's eight more in the oven."

By the request of it, Emberly went to fetch him another by taking the other route. In the amount of time it took for Emberly to do that, the women were still failing at achieving some sort of pep talk with Olimpia. When she walked into the kitchen she nearly froze after seeing Quinn, eating another cupcake for herself. Also froze and laughed from embarrassment after seeing the young girl staring at her,

"I was in the mood for another one," she placed her fingertips to her lips.

"That's okay," Emberly answered before walking towards the oven.

"Is that going to be your third?" Quinn looked on impressed.

Emberly gulped and hoped it was better off telling Quinn the truth,

"It's for Julien."

"Oh," she answered unenthusiastically, "Okay."

Emberly felt a hint of jealousy from her. Hoping to change that, she added one final statement before grabbing the cupcake,

"He really likes your baking."

Emberly took the initial path back upstairs and approached Julien's door. He was to the far right of the room, sitting on his massive bed. With his back facing the door, Emberly made obvious signs that she was entering to avoid any sort of scare that could wound up getting herself in trouble. Meanwhile, she approached his bed and noticed a major difference in his physical state—He was fidgety and the hairs on the edge of his hairline clung to his moistened forehead. Although it was impossible to ignore, she eagerly handed him the plate, clearly fearing the outcome,

"...Is everything okay?" Emberly's bottom lip began to tremble.

He coughed and gave a feeble affirmation that he was wholesome—clearly in total denial of his carelessness. Strongly believing that there was no way he could've been gravely affected by something, he took one glance at Emberly. Seeing that she was still standing upright after taking a bite out of the same cupcake led him to be mulish. Maybe it had something to do with his wounds? Maybe they're infected, he wondered. He took a bite from his second cupcake and instantly spat it back into his plate after having difficulty swallowing it. This time, it felt like he was swallowing a thorned object and he had the uttermost difficulty breathing. He began wheezing incredibly hard and dropped the saucer. Emberly took a step back and watched him struggle to reach for his crutch that leaned against the wall. He hadn't felt this way in decades, which explained why he was so lost as to what was abruptly happening to him.

"Epipen! Epipen!" he struggled to repeat between each breath. He struck and clawed at his throat, hoping to loosen or release whatever was constricting his windpipe, "Ba-Bathroom!" he sounded horrifically hoarse,

"Emberly!" A voice cried out behind her. Emberly screamed in fright and turned to Olimpia, who ran close behind her and was stunned to discover Julien squirm across the floor to get his crutch, "What the hell…!"

"Let's go! Let's go!" Emberly rushed, pushing Olimpia out of the door.

Emberly dashed through the hallways with Olimpia closely following her.

All of the women waited in the living room with their outerwear ready,

"What's all the screaming about, is everything okay?" Leticia noticed them rushing down the stairs.

Olimpia was the first to reach the bottom,

"Now's our chance, we have to leave!"

"What the hell is going on!?" Nora began panicking.

Olimpia tried catching her breath.

"Emberly; She was upstairs with him and when I walked into his room, he was on the floor," Olimpia grabbed her maroon-colored sweatshirt from the coat hanger by the entrance and quickly threw it in on inside-out, "It looked like he couldn't breathe."

Billie looked over at Emberly, who couldn't look at any of them too long,

"Sweetie. Sweetie, what did you do?"

"I…" Emberly started off, looking at each of their inquisitive faces, "I put nuts in the cupcakes…" Emberly struggled to answer.

"Holy shit…" Billie gasped, covering her mouth in astonishment.

Just by Billie's reaction, it was telling to everyone else that Emberly had accomplished something approximate to a breakthrough. Billie was the only one who knew that he was allergic to peanuts—until now. Quinn, apart from everyone else, decided to fly through the group and slap Emberly in the face. She screeched and clawed at the young child and pulled at her hair before the others could separate them from one another. Olimpia and Leticia fended her off and stood between them while Nora and Billie held the deranged sister back. She felt used but it was something that had to be done. Suddenly the shattering of a vase or lamp could be heard coming from upstairs and it instantly reminded them that they all had to leave. Emberly was the only person missing something to keep themselves warm so they ran back to their room and grabbed a gray hoodie that used to belong to McKayla. It was somewhat large but it would do the job at keeping her warm. The plan was to escape through a broken window but after some thinking, it would be easier and safer to escape through the side door that Emberly came through when she first entered the home. It was unintended but it was poetic justice to all of them. Unfortunately, there was something they were so accustomed to that it slipped all of their minds: The locks. Like a majority of the entrances and exits, the door needed a key to get past and without one, they were as good as dead.

"SHIT!" Nora squealed, "What are we gonna do now?"

"Look for something to hit it with, I don't know!" Leticia said, looking around the room.

"Quinn," Emberly called out. Being a mousy child had its perks because it people forgot that she was around or that she would never speak. It may have been partially true at first, but it was something she definitely utilized for the first time ever. She recalled the moment Quinn used the keys to step inside the dining and music room. Quinn, accompanied by her sister, gave Emberly glares that scared her into looking the other way—if looks could kill. But it didn't stop her from confessing, "I saw her put in the numbers when we were getting the bodies."

Quinn began roaring and prepped up for another assault on the young child, however, Leticia stepped in, having dealt enough with Quinn's behavior,

"You lay a hand on that child again and I'll whoop your ass so bad you'll be feeling it morning," but it was completely coming from a maternal and disciplinary place, "Now get us outta here!"

Quinn didn't answer. Instead, she stood in the same place, infuriated and unable to take her eyes off of Emberly. Nora felt a nudge of encouragement from one of the women and stepped into her sister's gaze. She held her face and looked into her eyes,

"Quinn, look at me! Look at me!" she began sobbing, "Quinn, please! Do you know the numbers? We have to get out of here. If we don't leave now, he'll kill us. If you cared about us, any of us, you would put in those numbers so we can leave!" she watched as tears rolled down Quinn's flushed cheeks, "I know you know there's something not right about him, Quinn. You care about us more than you care about him, don't you?" Quinn's face began to cringe with the overwhelming amount of emotion. Feeling as if she was getting through to her, Nora kept lecturing, "I thought you loved me."

Quinn began nodding and rested her forehead against her sisters,

"I do!"

"Then help us, Quinn," Leticia choked up from the sidelines, "Please, baby girl..."

Without much effort after that, it was a success. Quinn put in the numbers but at a rate that felt like she were moments away from stalling. Fortunately, the first door was opened and once the second and final door, that led to the outside, was unlocked, they all began sprinting to the back of the home. Nora made sure to never let go of her sister's hand and they never looked back. They all beamed around the side of the house, running past the limousine and another car they wished they considered stealing for themselves. Billie, knowing the hedge maze like the back of her hand, easily led the women through. The gate that waited for them on the other side was nowhere in comparison to the chained up entrance; they could easily climb over this one. The older women, with some assistance from the others, were the first to be hauled over, whereas the younger ones went after. Just as Nora was making it over, a gunshot zipped right past her, allowing her to lose her grip and fall over onto the other side. She grunted, falling on her side. At this point, the rest of them were either hidden behind trees or shielded behind the massive stone wall that encompassed most of Julien's property.

Miraculously, Julien was shooting into the darkness from one of his upstairs windows. He fired countless bullets, hitting the stone walls and trees, all in an attempt to kill anyone of those wenches. It didn't matter who.

After seeing her sister fall to the ground, Quinn stood with her hands high in the air, hoping to deescalate the situation between them all. She had worked her way up to be Julien's most prized, so he would show her some mercy because she meant much to him—so she thought. She danced around, begging for Julien to cease. In the blink of an eye, a bullet hit her square in the shoulder.

"Quinn!" all of their voices scattered, Nora's being the loudest.

Quinn went back into hiding behind the hedges. She removed her hand from her shoulder and felt incredibly defeated to admit that it took getting shot to finally see what everyone was afraid of. And if it wasn't because of the shoulder wound, it was the bullets he countlessly fired afterward.

"IM GONNA KILL YOU ALL!" Julien hoarsely roared his loudest, from his window, like a madman.

He vanishing into the darkness of his house. Nora hid on the other side of the stone wall and continuously called her sister's name in hopes of snapping her out of the shock. Seeing that Julien was gone, the other four were well and ready to leave Quinn behind if it meant her foolishness was going to get in the way of their liberation. But Nora and her sister had an unbreakable bond that Nora was willing to risk her life over. Nora stretched her arms through the gate and, just as she hoped, it grabbed Quinn's attention. With only one unharmed shoulder, Quinn had a lot of trouble climbing to the other side. Thankfully, everyone else ran back to help, finding it nearly impossible to leave as they threatened. In the midst of their escape, the barks and snarls of three dogs were heard coming closer to them. Again, not only did Julien prove to Quinn that he wasn't afraid of sicking his dogs on her, but the dogs she thought that would be so familiar of her leaped up and grabbed one of her feet. Quinn shrieked and cried while the women overpower Flash and successfully pulled her to the other side. She now only had one shoe but was shaken back to reality. What mattered now more than anything was to safely escape with her sister.

What started off as an endless run became an exhausting and neverending trek. It had been countless hours. All six of them were hiking through the woodlands that expanded beyond Julien's home,

"Keep your eyes open, ladies." Leticia took the lead, keeping her flashlight forward, "We can't afford to be caught by any of those damned things out here."

"You ever kill one of 'em?" Billie asked, handling her own flashlight on the right and rear sides.

"I tried. It was before I knew that you had to hit them in the sweet spot," he patted her head.

"I need to take a break…" Quinn groaned, desperately leaning onto her sister for support, "I'm losing too much blood."

Suddenly, they heard some barks in the distance,

"Shit! That sounded like Flash!" Billie began panicking, "What the hell are we going to do?! If he finds us he'll kill us!"

"Just...just calm down!" Olimpia tried keeping on a brave face, "If he catches us we can take him."

"He's a six-foot man with guns and three big ass dogs," Leticia said realistically. She searched around frantically with her flashlight, "You're with two old ladies, a girl with a bullet in her arm, and an eleven-year-old."

"Twelve-year-old," Emberly corrected.

She clung onto Olimpia's arm the entire way there and even though she didn't have her own flashlight, her paranoia definitely served as her personal guide. Just as Billie had pointed out, the barks were definitely getting closer and Billie found something that was better than nothing. She shined her flashlight over in its direction and unveiled an old red station wagon jammed into a tree trunk. Quickly, everyone made their way over to it. By the grace of God, the passenger's door was still unlocked and Leticia was able to prompt all of the other doors to unlock by the push of a button. There was room for all of them, however, someone had to claim back trunk. Billie climbed into the driver's seat and Olimpia and Emberly climbed into the back,

"Quick open the trunk!" Nora rushed, carefully helping Quinn climb in with the rest.

She slammed the door shut and instantly faced the darkness behind her. Without a flashlight of her own, Nora couldn't see anything but instantly felt a brute jump on her. She fell over and grunted as the dog attempted to bite her. Opportunely, her hand felt around and grabbed a nearby rock, and struck the Flash in a spot sensitive enough to cause it to yelp and retreat, but only for the time being. It vanished into the tall weeds that were on the verge of dying due to the change in weather.

"The trunk, Billie!" Quinn shrieked, thinking about her sister's wellbeing, "GET THE TRUNK!"

After Billie found the proper button, the trunk took its time to open. Unfortunately, it was too late—at least in the eyes of Nora. When she managed to get as much as a foot in, Flash came sprinting back with some company: Cerberus. She knew there was no way someone her size could fight off two massive dogs and whenever she tried to kick them away before crawling inside and closing herself inside, they still managed to get their fangs around her foot again. They were relentless. She was able to touch her friends over the backseat and held on to her sisters' hands for dear life before expressing her love to her one last time. She kissed her sister's hand and allowed the dogs to painfully yank her out of the trunk. Quinn screamed and nearly climbed over the backseat, hoping to get to her sister before the dogs could. Nora's was dragged out into the dirt and seeing that it came easier to do from the outside, she slammed the trunk shut to prevent either of the dogs going in after them once they were finished with her.

She was smacking the rear of the car, emitted ear-splitting screams mix with sheer cruelty. Quinn would've done everything she could to jump out of the car, but it meant endangering everyone else's life, including her own. Her scream-filled cries eerily matched up with her sister's as Nora could be heard being torn alive. Emberly covered her ears and kept her eyes shut, wanting to hear nothing of it.

A few minutes later, everything went silent and Quinn was the only who was drained from her robust weeps.

"Keep your flashlights off…" Billie said through sniffles. They knew the sight of the aftermath would be something truly upsetting. And for the sake of Quinn, everyone else, and Nora, they sat in the darkness until the canines would grow forgetful of their whereabouts and disappear.

Quinn cried all the way into the next morning and found it nearly impossible to fall asleep as everyone else struggled to do. Everyone was clearly traumatized but managed to squeeze in around two or three hours of rest—Emberly managed to get in a little more seeing that sleep came the hardest to her. Billie opened up her eyes and shuffled them around, eventually taking a double-take into the rearview mirror. Quinn clearly hadn't blinked an eye and looked completely petrified—like she had seen a ghost,

"Quinn...?"

The older sister was startled but lacked much of a reaction. It was so difficult for her to speak and as soon as she opened her mouth, the tiniest movement forced her to shut it back. Olimpia yawned and cracked open her eyelids. As soon as she lifted her head from leaning back, she instantly felt a sense of gloom after noticing her surroundings,

"Where...where is she?" Olimpia searched all around.

The movement of her body caused Emberly to wake up next and lift her head from her shoulder. Since nearly everyone was awake, Billie figured she might as well reach over and wake Leticia because they were technically still in hiding,

"She's...she's behind the car," Quinn trembled.

Billie took a look through her side mirror and could see both tips of dog ears peeking out just from behind the left back tire. Everyone in the vehicle hushed and listened closely to the one thing anyone had to anticipate that followed one's death. They could hear the intense gnawing of teeth, the tearing of bodily organs, and soft squelchy sounds that matched playing in thick mud. Ignoring everyone's warns and oppositions, Leticia was the first to sneak out of the car and creep towards the back of the car. Everyone's eyes followed her in suspense until she fully made it to the rear and nearly fainted. She gasped and dramatically threw herself onto the closest tree. A look of frightfulness was slapped on her face and she quickly ran back into the passenger's side, crying hysterically once she shut the door. She covered her face and rested her head on the dashboard. At this point, everyone knew what the possibilities were. The best Billie could do was try to calm her closest comrade.

Suddenly Nora threw herself against the windows. As expected, but entirely against, she was reanimated and had blood coated around her lips. She had also eaten a good amount of Flash's corpse, so her stomach was filled beyond its limits. Emberly shut her eyes and began screaming, unintentionally giving the rest of the car a reason to join the breakdown.

Eventually, everyone calmed through their irregular show of pain. Nora's sights were dead set on Leticia since she was the last living thing she saw. At this point, Leticia could do nothing but stare back,

"Can you stop looking at her like that…?" Quinn begged, having a puffy red nose.

Distracted, Leticia turned away briefly,

"I'm sorry, It's just..." she paused, "...you can tell it isn't them. Like, you look at her and...it's not Nora."

"Of course it isn't!" Quinn clarified.

"I don't want to be locked in here anymore," Olimpia added, "Julien's going to track us down."

"We can't leave with her out there like that," Billie advised.

"One of us will have to keep her distracted and then we can make a run for it. Right now her sights are set on me—"

"No, it won't work," Emberly commented, "Trust me."

"Then what do you suggest we do, little girl?" Leticia inquired in a state of vexation.

Quinn sat quietly in the backseat as the rest of them brainstormed on figuring out how to safely flee, but it meant leaving Nora as one of them. Suddenly, she voiced that there was no way they could be willing to leave her sister like that and she wasn't going to allow. However, everyone had a common weakness—they couldn't kill a reanimated if it meant annihilating someone they had personally grown to love. To imagine that it made things easier for Quinn was just as absurd. It was her sister for christ sakes.

Unanimously, it was preferred that Quinn be the one to put her own sister down. Admittedly she felt like they were being selfish or that they were playing the 'sibling responsibility' card. However, the longer she thought on it, she realized it wasn't fair of her to even imply that one of them take on such a burden. Although she was indifferent about it, it took a lot in her to agree to do it, but under one condition: If they helped hold Nora down. Since Nora was family to them all just as she was to Quinn, they accepted.

They searched around the car anything they could use, but there was nothing useful.

"What about that…?" Billie pointed out the window, suggesting a large rock they could use as a blunt force object.

"It's something...but it's gonna be messy," Leticia looked into the backseat and narrowed her eyes at Quinn, "What do you say?"

Quinn looked over and zoned in on the very rock that Billie pointed out. It was rigid and something that had to be held in both hands. A knife or a gun would've been the ideal way to go, but if it meant not having to see her sister's current face in her dreams and have guilt eat her alive, what choice did she have? She looked back at Leticia and nodded while tears streamed out her wearied eyes.

A car in the forest meant that there was a road nearby and, without much searching, they all managed to stumble upon the cold and dry pavement. It was a bittersweet feeling, having found a sense of freedom. Now all that was left was to follow the road and hope that it led them to some sort of civilization since they were in the middle of butt-fudge nowhere. Most importantly, they wanted to find their families—one by one. They reached a T-crossroad that finally provided them with more answers than they started off with. There were signs on the highway, having one stick out most to Emberly: It read "West. Montreal". Emberly paused in her tracks and looked down the lane opposite the path the women ended up choosing. Questioning why, she explained herself to them, mentioning that Montreal was one of the first cities she stepped into and that she knew a place where her friends just might be. They all looked at her, completely worried about this hunch she was going by. They've underestimated her before, but was it wrong for them to do it again?

"You can't do that alone…" Billie said.

"I know but…maybe…my family?"

Leticia took a few steps in her direction,

"Baby, you have us now. J-just come with us instead. We can always go back to Montreal."

"I can't," Emberly's voice cracked and shook, "I can't. I'll always remember the things you did for me, but I need to do this."

The ordeals she faced changed Emberly into the young formidable child she was and just by the look on her face, they could tell there was no changing her mind. She ran into each of their arms one last time, saving Quinn for last,

"I'm sorry I hit you," Quinn mustered up through whimpers.

She reached forward and embraced her one last time—for Nora. Fixing her pink glasses on her face, she began to walk away and although their time together was over, she was still under their supervision as they watched her rush away. Suddenly, she heard someone call out to her one last time. She turned and saw Olimpia giving a tearful goodbye to the rest of the ladies before running off. She had no family left, so going to search for them would be endless. If anything, she had already found one and she felt most connected to Emberly. They were similar in some ways and Olimpia saw herself in Emberly from when she was around her age.

Ever since she stepped foot in that house, she wanted nothing more than to protect her. All she could hope for was the Emberly felt the same way. The further they walked, they all turned one final time and waved farewells to their sisters with hopes to see them once again in this hell called Earth.

A/N: Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the season 2 finale. I really want to thank a lot of you who have been following my story. The comments, favorites, and follows are really the only thing pushing me to continue this fic. I'd like to hear a lot of your thoughts though on what you did/didn't expect. Also, just to confirm, I certainly have season 3 planned out and it'll be published sometime in mid/late 2019. We'll really be exposed to the apocalypse at its prime, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I won't be uploading any new chapters but I'll be updating Season 1 and 2 to thread bump every now and then.