It's been nearly an entire year but I wrote another chapter! With the coronavirus situation ongoing and myself being cooped up with little to do, I'm hoping I'll be able to get myself back into this story seriously and not update 1 chapter a year. But hey, it's something! I'd like to thank everyone who's reviewed, favorited or followed the story and I hope interest in the story hasn't died off like many of the characters have!

WARNING: This story may contain scenes of swearing, violence, sexual activities and character death.

The sun was falling behind the overcast clouds above while Alejandro, Duncan, Brick, Jo and Courtney continued to run. After being jumped by those mysterious, cloaked figures and losing Trent on their scouting mission, they'd decided to high tail it out of the town and get back to the hotel as quickly as possible.

"Please let us get back." Brick was murmuring some sort of a prayer, "I really, really hate the dark."

"How the hell did you make it through boot camp if you're scared of the fucking dark?" Duncan asked with blunt anger. He was still wearing his rage on his sleeve; his jealousy too.

"The dark is a more reasonable phobia than music store standees." Courtney defended Brick in an attempt at light heartedness, but Duncan's mood just soured further.

"Would the lot of you shut your mouths?" Jo hissed at them as she led the way, "Those fuck faces who shot Trent could be anywhere. You really want them to shoot the rest of us?"

"Jo has an excellent point." Alejandro added, lowering the tone of his voice, "And fortunately, we are mere minutes away from the base after all this running. Good thing we're among the most athletic in the group."

They remained quiet for the next five minutes, all the while the moon becoming more and more prominent in the sky. Finally, at long last, the rundown hotel they'd taken refuge in became visible in their line of sight: they were nearly there.

"Good work guys," Courtney panted, a bit out of breath, "let's get inside and work on-"

Courtney let out a surprised yelp as a body plowed into her, slamming her against the ground. The pair rolled onto the ground and, with a horrified start, the group realized it was one of the undead. Courtney was desperately keeping it at arm's length, but it was getting dangerously close to successfully biting her arm.

Just as her arms were beginning to give out in favor of the strength of the infected, the creature was forcefully shoved off of her. She looked up to see Duncan drawing his knife from his belt to deliver the finishing blow, only to be beaten to the punch by Brick. The cadet's knife impaled the monster's brain seconds before Duncan would have done the deed himself.

"Th-thank you. Both of you." Courtney said, a bit shakily, as she rose to her feet again.

"The fact that these shit bags are nearby is a bad sign." Jo sent a worried look in the direction of the hotel, "Come on, if you aren't hurt then let's make a beeline for the place."

It wasn't long before the five were outside Revenge Hotel. From the outside it didn't seem that much had happened, but they were extremely worried about the heightened zombie presence so close to where they were based.

Jo had her gun at the ready as she used the coded signal to alert their friends inside that it was her. She frowned when the door wasn't readily opened. She gave the signal once more and was about to suggest they barge their way through when at last the door was opened by Dakota.

"Jesus Beauty Pageant, what took you so long?" Jo was less than pleased.

"There's been a situation." Dakota admitted darkly, trying her best not to choke on her words.

Wordlessly, Jo and the others pushed past Dakota and into the hotel. Dakota could be heard sniffling behind them as she closed the door and those who'd been on a scouting mission at long last witnessed the horrors that had befallen the others.

In just the next room, easily visible through the glass windows of the hotel lobby, was the pile of dead bodies of former companions. Friends. Allies.

"What the hell happened here?" Jo asked angrily, her grip on the gun tightening to a ghostly white.

"Where's Heather?" Alejandro asked worriedly, scanning the pile of bodies for his beloved.

"She's alive." Alejandro loathed the voice who said it and he turned to face Scott, who was leaning ever so casually against the wall, "Can't say the same about plenty of others."

"Dakota!" Jo roared to get her attention and the girl winced, "I asked what the fuck happened here!"

"W-we were attacked!" Dakota wailed, failing to keep her tears at bay. A few of the others had begun trickling in at the raucous, including Mike and Zoey who still looked inseparable.

"Doesn't look like a forced entry." Duncan mused as he glanced back at the door they'd entered from, "Is there even another way in?"

"No, someone let them in!" Dakota whined again, furiously wiping away her tears, "We've been trying to figure out who did it but...oh why did it have to be Sam?"

"You're telling me someone let the zombies in? On purpose?" Courtney looked ready to rant, "Who would do something like that?"

"I'll give you one guess." Alejandro immediately glared at Scott, who withheld a smile.

"Silly Alejandro, we already figured out it was your darling Heather." Scott's smile was filled with poison, "She's up hiding with Noah because she can't face the music."

"That piece of shit." Jo murmured, "Bring her down here, I'll kill her!"

"Stop it!" A new voice entered, this one the most broken of all. Those who'd returned turned and saw Bridgette, flanked by Noah and Heather. Bridgette's eyes were red and poufy from crying, and finally some of the others realized who one of the dead was.

"No..." Duncan stumbled over to the pile and pushed Staci to the side to unveil the unmistakable party animal, "They got Geoff too..."

"Heather's innocent." Bridgette declared, surprising many in her defense of the queen bee, "I don't know who did this, what son of a bitch did this, but it wasn't her. And we are going to find out who did."

Alejandro had rushed over to Heather as soon as she emerged and he scooped her into his arms, overcome with relief that she hadn't been taken in the chaos.

"We left on such bad terms," He whispered into her ear, "As soon as I realized people had died..."

"Not now." Heather whispered back, "We'll talk about this later, but right now I have a dirt farmer to obliterate."

Alejandro smiled in spite of the situation, "Ah mi amor, you never cease to impress."

Noah, who purposely moved away from the pair, was eyeing the returners and he asked, "Uh, where's Trent?"

"We were fired at." Brick admitted, prompting even more explosive conversation.

"What?" Zoey's shriek incited a few to cover their ears, "It wasn't...it wasn't them was it?"

"Who are you talking about?" Noah frowned.

"Alright enough!" Jo shouted, demanding center stage and miraculously quieting everyone down, "There's clearly a lot of bullshit we gotta figure out and we can't be having eight conversations at once. Dakota, is there anyone we're sure had absolutely nothing to do with what happened?"

"Bridgette." Dakota answered simply, "She could never have done something so awful and she lost her boyfriend."

"Very well, Bridgette," Jo paused, saying her name with surprising tenderness, "Would you be willing to stand guard while the rest of us talk this out?"

"I want to be part of the conversation." Bridgette responded sullenly, not looking at Jo.

"She has every right to talk." Heather backed her up, "Let's just talk here. Nothing's going to attack us."

"Unless you let in more zombies we don't know about." Scott sneered at her.

"If you say one more thing accusing Heather of anything I swear to God I will kill you." Alejandro had his machete drawn and pointed menacingly in Scott's direction.

"If we're going to have a productive conversation, we need to all be without weapon." Courtney explained, "Otherwise things could get ugly fast."

"She's right," Brick agreed immediately, "Everyone hand over your firearms and other assorted weapons and we'll put them in the pool room."

There was definitely some complaining about that one, but after Jo impatiently fired off a warning shot everyone hustled to comply with the order. A few minutes later, everyone was back in the lobby, no one carrying a weapon.

"Right, now that that's over with," Jo said, "Someone tell me exactly what went down here."

Because Dakota was still expressing emotional distress at the situation, Dawn took the reins and explained everything from her perspective. How she'd been tending to the sick when a zombified Cameron stumbled in, infecting both Sam and Staci. She recited how she'd tried to save Staci, how Staci had uttered another creepy, yet oddly truthful premonition, before succumbing to the zombies. She told them how she had fled to Noah's room where the two took sanctuary until Lightning and Heather came by to save them.

"That's all awful." Courtney lamented, "But there must be more to the story."

"There is," Heather commented, "I think it's my turn."

"You have the floor." Jo told her, though it was noticeable how much her face showed her dislike of Heather.

"Before everything kicked off, DJ and Katie had asked me to play some game with them." Heather began sadly, refusing to glance over at DJ's body in the pile, "I turned them down and instead went to talk to Dakota. The two of us were sharing various tips for hair and stuff when eventually we heard shouts from below. By the time we saw what was happening, we thought we had to warn the others. So we raced over to Zoey and Mike's room and that's where we remained till Lightning came to get us. Later I found DJ as a zombie and...he ate Katie."

"But how much time passed between DJ and Katie talking to you and you talking with Dakota?" Mike asked innocently, which caught Heather a bit off guard, "Just trying to cover all bases, you know?"

"Literally a couple of minutes." Heather said irritably, "Besides, I've never seen that Cameron kid in my life and Dawn said he had been turned. Anyone care to explain who the hell he was and where he came from?"

There was silence for a few moments before Jo answered, "The kid was a brainiac who's been with me since the start. I rescued him on the first day everything went to shit. He never seemed to like crowds so he distanced himself from most everyone. Normally just kept to himself."

"We've been here for a while now, how is it that none of us ever saw him?" Noah asked suspiciously.

"He was working on something wasn't he Jo?" Scott asked mischievously, "Never did know what it was though."

"Well perhaps Eva 2.0 would care to share?" Noah turned his attention to Jo, who sighed.

"Cameron was working on trying to develop a vaccine." Jo admitted, "He hadn't made any real progress so I thought he'd do significantly better with... a live specimen. Well, an undead specimen. Whatever."

"Wait hold on," Duncan looked furious, "You're telling me you've been keeping zombies in the hotel? The whole time? Without saying a word!"

"It was for science!" Jo defended, "Cameron needed them to try and develop the vaccine otherwise what was the point?"

"But that shouldn't have been a secret." Courtney frowned, "What else was he doing Jo?"

Jo realized the stares of almost twenty people were on her. She took a deep breath and said, "He was trying to additionally determine if the virus could be weaponized. He was attempting to determine if he could create a zombie of his own."

"What the hell, why?" Duncan asked.

"To try and get back at the group who betrayed us!" Jo exclaimed angrily and glanced at Zoey, "You wanted to know who fired at us and killed Trent? Yeah, it was them. Our old enemies are still in town."

"Oh no..." Zoey looked at Mike, "Mike's already having memory trouble since they attacked us last time. I don't think we can bear another attack like that."

"How could you keep that from us?" Courtney asked Jo, looking hurt, "Don't you think you should have just told us instead of keeping zombies inside our supposedly safe base?"

"I-" Jo faltered for a moment before sighing, "Yeah I should've just told you. But we didn't know you, weren't sure we could trust you. I was going to tell you eventually."

"Not a great way to build trust is it?" Heather asked, crossing her arms.

"You guys aren't realizing the significant truth staring us in the face." Noah garnered everyone's attention, "No one let these zombies in. They must've been set free from wherever Cameron was keeping them."

That realization sank in for a moment. Then Lightning asked, "Is it sha-possible Cameron let them out accidentally?"

"No, he was much too cautious for that." Jo said, "Book worm is right, someone had to have let them out."

"Well who had access to this room besides Cameron?" Courtney asked Jo.

"Only myself." She answered, "But before you people start throwing accusations my way, I was already on the scouting expedition when this happened."

"It had to be one of your group though." Bridgette still sounded far away, "None of ours knew about this secret room until just now."

"We can't possibly know that." Scott said, "Heather's very slippery, she could've figured it out. Or Noah, the guy's always off on his own after all."

"You certainly sound guilty, trying to pawn off everything on me and Heather." Noah's brow furrowed, "How do we know it wasn't you?"

"I was protecting Bridgette." Scott answered immediately, "I was with her when Geoff..."

He trailed off, glancing down at Bridgette who had started crying again. Scott placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged him off and moved over to Heather, who she surprisingly allowed to comfort her. Scott didn't like that one bit.

"I think we need to all calm down." Mike said, his arm around Zoey, "We're not going to get anything productive done if we're all just shouting accusations at each other."

"I think Private Mike is right." Brick agreed, "Maybe we should all break off and reconvene later when tensions aren't as high."

"This isn't over though." Noah argued, "Nothing's been proven yet."

"Noah," Courtney said his name meaningfully, "I think Brick is right. Let's retire to our rooms for now and let things settle down. Then we need to talk again."

"Fine." Jo agreed, though she saw that Courtney was giving her a look as well: there was more to discuss privately, "Alright maggots, return to your normal duties. Until anything has been proven, only myself and the guard at the time will be allowed a gun. Zoey I want you on first watch. Got it?"

Zoey nodded, along with most of the others. Jo seemed satisfied with that, "Good."

Courtney still hadn't quite let it sink in that Geoff, DJ and Katie were gone. She knew later, once everyone had figured out exactly what happened, she would allow her emotions to take over her body and let them all out. Trent too. She bit her lip; they really had no choice but to leave him, but she couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

At the moment, however, she had other problems to solve. Immediately after being dismissed by Jo, Courtney had assembled the remaining survivors from Total Drama in her room for a private discussion. They'd all agreed and hurriedly moved to join the CIT.

As Courtney stared around at each one, she saw just how haunted they all had become. Each was a skeleton of their former self, all the joy and mirth in their lives having been sucked away by this apocalypse. There was only six of them now. It hadn't even been more than a few weeks.

Heather was sitting on Courtney's bed, consoling Bridgette who was struggling to keep it together. Alejandro was on Heather's other side, looking ready to say something but holding his tongue. Noah, for once, wasn't reading and instead had his ear pressed up to the door, listening. Duncan stood alongside her, giving her those frustratingly cute eyes that were full of questions. Questions she didn't have answers to.

"I don't think any of the others are listening." Noah reported from the door before moving away from it, "We should be able to talk freely. Door is locked too before you bother asking."

Courtney had in fact been prepared to ask but she let it go, "Alright good. So obviously we have a lot to talk about. Most importantly is this: should we even stick around?"

There was silence for a moment before Courtney continued, "I know we have a safe haven here and we've been forming bonds with some of their group, but after what we learned today...I'm just not so sure it's in our best interest."

"I'm all for leaving." Heather admitted, "Between Jo lying about this Cameron kid and his experiments and Scott the rat trying to pin everything on me, I'd rather leave than stick around."

"I agree." Duncan was next to state his opinion, "I didn't trust them before, and I sure as hell don't trust them now. Only problem is they've got all the weapons and we can't really get to them."

"We're never going to get our hands on those guns." Noah said, lost in thought, "We might be better off figuring out who actually let those zombies in and clearing our name that way. Then we'll be given access to the weapons again and we'll be in a significantly better position, regardless of if we stay or leave."

"Noah, my friend, I agree with you." Alejandro said, choosing not to comment on Noah rolling his eyes, "And the good news is, it shouldn't be tough to prove our innocence. It seems rather obvious to me who the culprit is."

"It's that no good, piece of shit Scott." Heather hissed through her teeth, "Did you not all see how desperate he was to blame me?"

"He was always very kind to me..." Bridgette finally spoke, "I didn't see what you guys were saying until now. He did seem rather desperate. But he was also insistent on trying to protect me when Geoff-"

"Hey," Courtney said kindly, "I know you want to see the good in everyone Bridgette, but I have to say Scott seems incredibly suspicious with this whole thing."

"Yeah and to be honest, I think Scott is lusting after you." Noah admitted, "If you ask me, he wanted Geoff out of the-"

"Noah!" Courtney warned with eyes that read not now, "Regardless of Scott's intentions, I think most of us agree he's involved somehow. Now it's about proving it."

"Even if we prove it's Scott and they give us weapons again," Duncan began, "Why should we stay? We just learned about a feud this group has with those creeps in the black cloaks that shot Trent. Do we really want to get involved in a conflict that shouldn't really involve us in the first place?"

"Those people killed Trent." Courtney reminded him, "Whether they realize it or not, that does involve us."

"And maybe we can get revenge, but not from this group." Duncan tried again, "We really don't have to stay here once we get guns again."

"One problem at a time Duncan." Alejandro said smoothly, "Before anything else, we must prove our innocence."

"Agreed." Courtney declared, "Then I want everyone to do their best to dig up whatever information and evidence they can. We're going to survive this guys, we just have to."

"Come on Bridgette," Heather helped the surfer girl up, "Let's get you to your room so you can lay down."

"No, I want to help." Bridgette told her, "Because when I find out who did this to DJ and Katie and...Geoff, that person will pay."

"Alright, we'll work together then." Heather assured her and together the pair left Courtney's room.

"Ah, well I suppose that means you're with me." Alejandro said to Noah who sighed.

"Fabulous." Noah murmured as the duo left as well. Only Duncan and Courtney remained.

Duncan closed the door behind Noah and turned to face Courtney, who had her arms folded across her chest, "Why are you so desperate to leave Duncan? You don't even sound like you want to try to make things work with these people."

"I'm not exactly the most trusting person Courtney, I would've thought you'd know that by now." Duncan said, coming off as more heated than he intended.

"I know that, but you've been acting this way ever since we got here. What's the problem?" Courtney asked, also sounding more irritated than she meant.

"What's the problem? The problem is we can't rely on these people. I thought Jo was alright but now it turns out she's just a liar like the rest of them. And don't even get me started on Brick-"

"What's wrong with Brick?" Courtney challenged, "He's been nothing but nice to us. Even back on the highway in that first encounter, he was the one talking Jo down from violence. And since he's been an absolute delight."

"I didn't know you liked him so damn much." Duncan retorted, feeling his cheeks redden, "Since he's just so delightful apparently."

"Okay you know what? I can't have this conversation right now." Courtney said, clearly flustered.

"No, no I'm serious. If you like Brick so much why don't you go hang out with him."

"Four of our friends died today Duncan!" Courtney shouted at him before letting that sink in, "We lost Trent, Katie, Geoff and DJ and you have the nerve to act jealous of Brick right now?"

"You think I don't care about them? I'm fucking furious they're dead!" Duncan didn't back down, "And guess what, they wouldn't be if we never trusted these lunatics and joined up with them. We could've found our own way, or just stayed on the yacht."

"DJ would never have survived his injuries-" Courtney tried.

"Well he didn't survive this place either did he?" Duncan spat and she took a step back, "Face it Courtney, coming here was a mistake. And even if you have the hots for Unibrow-Brick, we-"

"Can you stop being so salty about him?" Courtney interrupted him this time, "I can't believe I actually picked up a dress while we were scavenging to impress you if you were just going to act like this."

"You...you what?" Duncan was taken aback.

"Doesn't matter now does it?" Courtney turned away from him, "Please just leave me alone Duncan, I really cannot handle this right now."

This time, Duncan didn't try to keep the conversation going. He didn't know what else he might say, what else he might regret. He just stiffened and turned to the door. Though he couldn't resist slamming it once he was out in the hallway.

Once alone in her room, Courtney finally allowed herself to cry.

"Remind me again why we're about to waste our time talking to him of all people?" Noah asked Alejandro as they stood outside the door to one of the Revenge Hotel residents' rooms, "We already suspect Scott, why waste time on this guy?"

"Because my dear friend, Heather is already focused on Scott." Alejandro replied, "So we must look at the picture from other angles. And this is one no one else has considered."

Alejandro knocked on the door while Noah muttered, "No one considered it because his brain was fried by-"

"Sha-Lightning!" Noah grimaced as Lightning opened the door and greeted Alejandro, "What can I do for ya?"

"Greetings amigo," Alejandro said warmly while Noah tried not to puke, "Might we come in and talk with you?"

"Sure thing." Lightning shrugged and allowed them to enter. When they did, Noah was surprised that Lightning had somehow amassed plenty of football jerseys and pictures that were hung up all over the room.

"What is this, a shrine?" Noah asked as he glanced around.

"I've been sha-collecting since the whole zombie stuff started." Lightning said proudly, "It's my passion and something to pass the time."

"It's quite impressive." Alejandro lied, "Lightning, do you mind my asking about the situation that happened while I was out on the scouting expedition?"

"No problem." Lightning told him, "I'd be happy to sha-help a pal like you."

Noah realized then just how helpful Alejandro's friendship making skills had been in the past week as he seemed to butter some of the others right up with his false kindness. He didn't want to admit it, but he was a little bit impressed.

Alejandro gave a wide grin and said, "So I know you've been in the group a while, but were you one of the first ones to join?"

"Sha-yeah I was!" Lightning replied enthusiastically, "I was with Anne Maria when it all sha-started but we soon found Jo and that little bubble boy Cameron."

"I see," Alejandro nodded, "And was there ever any additions to the group that you...didn't approve of?"

"Well," Lightning paused for a second while he gathered his thoughts, "We used to have way more people before some of them betrayed us."

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Noah found himself interested for the first time.

"There was once like thirty people here." Lightning recalled, "Lightning didn't like some of them. There was one girl with red hair that looked like fire I just didn't trust. She seemed small and smart, but she scared the hell out of me."

"First I'm hearing of this..." Noah began pondering, lost in thought.

"What was this girl's name?" Alejandro pressed.

"Scarlett." Lightning almost shivered when he said it, "Something about her just wasn't quite right."

"What happened to her?" Alejandro asked curiously.

"Lightning doesn't know the exact details..." He trailed off, but Alejandro sensed that wasn't entirely true.

"Tell us what happened." Alejandro asked, a bit more demanding.

Lightning sighed, "One night there was an attack. You've probably heard Zoey mention it a few times. At first we thought it was outsiders, but we realized it was started by some of the people we'd taken in. A mutiny of sorts."

"I'm surprised you know what a mutiny is." Noah nodded at him.

Lightning ignored him, "Anyway, Scarlett disappeared that night. I never saw her go, but she was never seen again. If you ask me, she started the whole thing. But I don't really know for sure."

"Interesting," Alejandro stroked his chin thoughtfully, "Well this calls for a little more investigations, but was she the only one you believed to have mal intent?"

Lightning glanced around for a moment before leaning to whisper, "To be honest, I never trusted that Scott much either. He's sha-shady!"

"Do you believe he might have been the one to let the zombies out of Cameron's lab?" Alejandro asked.

Lightning nodded, "I don't know for certain but he'd be my number one pick in the draft of most likely to have caused this."

Noah blinked at him for a moment and he said, "The draft, like the NFL draft? God you're sha-hopeless!"

"Right," Noah rolled his eyes, "Well thank you for that Lightning, we appreciate it."

Alejandro and Noah bade him farewell and once in the privacy of Noah's room, the bookworm said, "That was surprisingly more productive than I expected."

"Indeed," Alejandro mused, "It seems we're slowly learning more about this 'other group' Jo referred to. I'm willing to bet this Scarlett woman is part of them."

"Probably," Noah agreed, "Though it's clear we don't have anywhere near the full story."

"True, though that will change." Alejandro assured him, "For now, all we have is another person who believes Scott is guilty. I think it won't be long before we have surefire proof."

"I hope so," Noah said, "With all this going on, I haven't been able to read too much."

Alejandro allowed himself a small smile, "It's nice to know that some things never change my friend."

"Are you sure about this Heather?" Bridgette asked as the girls reached the door to the room Heather was most intrigued to investigate.

"Yes I am." She replied as she opened the door to Katie and DJ's old room, "From what I can tell, DJ was the first one to be attacked. Dawn was attacked in the medical area after the zombies came up the stairs and look."

Heather pointed at the body still laying in DJ's room, "That zombie isn't one of our own. It had to be one of Cameron's creeps."

"So why were DJ and Katie the targets?" Bridgette asked, trying to distract herself from thinking about Geoff.

"I'm not so sure they were." Heather answered as they stepped inside and she closed the door behind them, "I think this zombie was sent up here deliberately to come after someone else."

"Who?" Bridgette asked.

"Me." Heather said, "DJ and Katie invited me up here to hang out before all this happened. Maybe the person who did this, cough Scott, thought I'd be in here and wanted me out of the picture."

"Do you really think he'd do that?" Bridgette asked.

"Look, Bridgette, if there's one thing I've learned it's to spot someone who means you harm." Heather told her, "I had to think that way after the first season of our show and we all returned home. A lot of people sent me death threats after the show aired. I had to learn how to navigate all the hate and threats."

"Oh my gosh Heather that's awful, I never knew." Bridgette told her honestly, "No one deserves to go through something like that."

"Doesn't matter now does it?" Heather shrugged and glanced down at the floor, where some of Katie's shredded up clothes still were, "I can't believe DJ ate her. That's all that's left."

"If he ate her though, why wouldn't her clothes be gone?" Bridgette frowned, "It's not like the zombies care if they get shirts in their teeth."

"Maybe they were about to get it on?" Heather suggested, "It was obvious they liked each other. Great, that makes me feel even worse about it."

"Even if that were so Heather, how could DJ possibly have had time to eat her entire body?" Bridgette asked, trying not to vomit at the thought, "The whole attack lasted like thirty minutes. I know DJ was big and Katie was petite but still..."

She shivered a bit and frowned, "Is that a breeze?"

Heather noticed it too and moved over to the curtains, which were closed. She parted them and was a little surprised to see the window had been opened. Even more intriguing, she glanced down and saw a trail of blood go from the window to the ground. She even thought she spotted more of a trail on the ground leading away from the hotel.

"Bridgette," Heather called her over, "I think we need to follow the blood trail."

In no time at all the two were thundering down the stairs towards the entrance, where Zoey was stationed. They moved for the door, though Zoey got in their way.

"Woah, you guys aren't supposed to leave right now without permission." Zoey tried.

"Listen Pigtails, this is very important. Just get out of the way, we won't be gone long." Heather said impatiently but Zoey didn't budge.

"I'm sorry but I can't let anybody leave till we figure out-"

"Just come with us then, we're only going around the building." Bridgette implored, far more friendly than Heather had been.

Zoey seemed to consider this for a moment before caving in, "Oh alright, I'll come with you. Oh I'll have to apologize to Jo if she finds out I left my post..."

Bridgette grabbed Zoey's hand as Heather opened the door and raced outside, snaking around the building to the side where Katie and DJ's room had been. Sure enough, after only a few moments of searching, she found drops of drying blood on the concrete heading away from the hotel.

"What is that?" Zoey asked curiously, but Heather didn't answer and instead sprinted off in the direction the blood trail went. With little choice, Zoey and Bridgette gave pursuit.

The chase didn't last very long. After following the blood for a few minutes, they found themselves outside a tool shed in a neighboring house's yard. There was a red handprint on the door to the shed, which was closed at the moment.

Without waiting for Bridgette or Zoey to question her, Heather threw open the door to the shed. When the other two caught up to her, gasping for breath, they saw what was inside.

Katie was laying naked and quivering under the bodies of two dead zombies, one with a screwdriver planted in its head and the other with her knife. She looked trapped under their weight, with blood caking her hands and face. Her eyes were barely open and her chest hardly fluttering with breath.

"Heather?" She called the name, though she was barely remaining consciousness.

"Katie?" Zoey looked on with bewildered happiness, "She's alive!"

And there we have it! I always planned for Katie to still be alive and when returning to my notes on this story I'd written I decided to go ahead with the old plan and just alter it slightly. I'm curious to see what people think of that particular move, as well as all the drama heating up within the group. It IS a Total Drama story after all. What's an apocalypse without a little drama?

As far as the other group goes, don't worry about not seeing them in this chapter. We will get plenty more focus with them shortly, I just needed to return the focus to the situation unfolding with the main group.

Please feel free to drop a review or private message about your feelings on the story, I love to read them!

DEAD: Sadie, Owen, Justin, Eva, Ezekiel, Lindsay, Tyler, Beth, Chris, Sierra, Blaineley, B, DJ, Cameron, Sam, Staci, Geoff, Anne Maria, Chef Hatchet

Group 1: Heather, Duncan, Bridgette, Courtney, Katie (she's back!), Noah, Alejandro, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike/Mal, Dakota, Brick, Dawn

Group 2: Gwen, LeShawna (presumably), Izzy (presumably), Trent (prisoner), Harold (presumably), Cody, Sky, Max, Scarlett, Rodney, Leonard, Ellody, Tammy, others not introduced yet