Before I start, I want to apologize. It's been ages since I've mustered up the courage to write. I won't ask for your forgiveness, but I really want to get some things straight. This story was absolutely demolished and demoralized by a trusted friend, a writer. So for all this time I've been avoiding the walking dead fandom. Thanks to my beta, and all of you who're still willing to stick by.

"You know how to use a gun, Riddle?" Shane asked as he slung his own weapon over his shoulders. "Never held one before," Harry said. "Then you're at a big disadvantage," Shane said, "I'm not gonna save your hide if you get into trouble." Harry almost wanted to snap back a rebuttal, but he suppressed and forced himself to calm down. No use in challenging authority, here. "Keep one for now," Shane said, handing a gun towards Harry, "Return it immediately afterwards."

Harry gingerly pocketed it.

"Y'all ready to move out?" Otis said, coming in with his trusty rifle and empty backpack over his shoulder. He threw another one to Harry. "We'll use these to carry the meds," he said, "We need more so we don't need to make a second run."

"Okay, so we'll drive down, then walk the remaining distance," Shane said, going over the plan, "When we arrive the both of you will grab as much stuff as you can while I cover you guys. That good with you?"

"Let's get moving, then, or we'll lose the light." Otis said, approaching one of the cars. Rick was there to see them off. "Good luck," he said simply. "I hope we won't need it," Otis joked, "We'll make it back before tomorrow, hopefully."

"The sun's going down soon," Shane said, sliding into the car, "If we don't wanna drive in the dark, we'd better get a move on."

Harry got in the car as well, fidgeting slightly. He was highly aware of Shane's eyes burning holes in the rear mirror, and he knew if he slipped up, the man would never let him get away with it.

The silence was unnerving and Harry couldn't be any more relieved than when Otis stopped the car in front of a muggle school, a looming silhouette in the dark.

The three of them snuck around the many cars parked there, careful not to accidentally trigger the alarm. "The supplies should be in the trailer there," Otis gestured cautiously, "But now the problem is how to get over there."

Yes, the trailer wasn't far. But between them and the truck was an empty space, which had been half of the car park. But now, walkers had replaced the inhabitants of the school, populating that stretch of land. "Any way to distract them?" Harry asked.

Wordlessly, Shane pointed to a nearby car. It seemed to be of the police, as indicated by the red and blue headlights. "It won't start," Otis stated, "Besides, someone would have to be inside the car to distract them."

Shane wedged open the trunk of the car with a pipe, rummaging for something. "I was a cop once," Shane explained, "I know exactly what is supposed to be in these things."

Soon, he emerged triumphant with a few sticks of white flares. "These are road flares," Shane said, "They should do the trick."

Shane handed a two flares to Harry and Otis each. "We aim for that dark blue car over there, alright? We stand up, throw, then we duck back down." Both of them nodded in agreement.

Soon the light drew the attention of the walkers, and Harry watched on with undisguised relief as the walkers shuffled as unison towards the flares. The three of them snuck over to the trailer, Shane wrenching the door open and the three immediately shuffled in. There was no light inside, but Otis had brought with him a flashlight, which provided a faint illumination for the three.

In the trailer were shelves upon shelves, various bottles and boxes littered upon them.

"What do we need?" Shane asked. "Let's grab as much as we can," Otis replied, "Hershel will have a use for it somehow."

And so they did, basically ransacking the trailer. Soon their bags were full and bulging while the trailer was almost empty. Shane moved to push over the door of the trailer, but Harry stopped him. "What about the walkers outside?" He hissed, "They may have lost interest in those... flares."

Otis' brows furrowed. "You have another option, kid?"

Wordlessly, Harry handed over the last of his flares to the older man. "One light might not do much." he said.

Otis' face split into a grin. "Quick thinking, Draco!"

Harry opened the trailer door and Shane quickly threw the flare out, then pulled the door back close again. "Riddle, look out of the crack." he instructed.

Harry obediently looked out and almost cursed. The flare was too close. "Well? Are they far enough yet?" Shane asked impatiently.

"Wait for a while," Harry replied, meanwhile discreetly pulling his wand out of his pocket. He stole a glance to the two men and saw that the both of them were staring boredly at the ceiling, their attention hardly on him.

Quickly he aimed at the flare through the two doors, and cast a quick levitation charm. The first time he missed, the spell tugging at the foot of a walker who did not react to it, except stumble. Harry quickly cancelled the spell and drew in a quick breath, casting the charm again.

This time the flare followed the limited path of his wand and moved further away from the trailer, sailing across the carpark. As the walkers stumbled over, Harry finally let out a sigh of relief.

"It's not working?" Otis queried wearily. "N- no, everything's fine." Harry replied perhaps a tad bit too quickly, taking a step away from the door. "It should be okay now."

Shane immediately leapt to his feet and peeked out of the crack himself, then pushed the door open carefully, then swiftly darted out. Harry shouldered his own bag urgently and followed Otis out.

However, the three of them had hardly crossed the carpark to their car when one of the walkers turned around and lumbered into his direction. Shane cursed under his breath as the other walkers started to turn as well, snarling and growling. "We can make it," Otis insisted, "If we run now."

The three them took off in a sprint, and Harry's muscles trembled with the effort. Even if he had had spent the last of the year escaping and fleeing, he hadn't had to carry a big bag on his shoulders before, there were feather-light charms for that reason.

Shane and Otis were a few steps behind him, but it was clear that Otis was slightly lagging behind, judging by the harsh breaths Harry heard.

Shane turned and fired off a shot, hitting a walker that was directly behind himself. But behind that monster ran seemingly all the walkers lurking in the region.

Otis too drew his own gun and fired, but his aim was less true than the ex-cop. Zombie brains and goo splattered everywhere.

However the bullets didn't put a single dent in the mass of walkers chasing after them. Harry's own weapon burned against his thigh, a constant reminder weighing down his mind.

Harry risked a glance backwards, and saw that Otis was struggling at the back, while Shane kept casting the man strange glances. A walker grabbed onto Otis' arms, eliciting a shocked yell from the man. Harry almost fell face first into the ground.

Shane immediately killed that walker, but Otis had already been slowed down and one, no two, countless walkers had their hands on him.

Without thinking, Harry whipped his wand out. "Protego!" He cried, and a blue haze exploded into view above Otis, pushing the walkers back. Otis' mouth fell open.

"What the-"

"Run!" Shane snarled, but his eyes were fixated at Harry's outstretched arm and wand, which was feeding a steady stream of blue and white to the shield.

Otis quickly scrambled up to his feet and Harry cancelled the spell, the three of them running again.

The knocked back walkers crawled up again and joined the fray again, clearly more agitated than before.

Harry flung back another reducto, but his energy was sapping out fast and it didn't do as much of an effect as it usually would have. A few walkers fell but some only earned cuts against their chests. And for everyone he brought down, another took out its place.

Otis was starting to fall behind again.

Desperately Harry cast another protego but there were just too many walkers pushing against it, and the other walkers spilled out from both sides of the blue shield.

"Whatever witchcraft you're doing, Riddle." Shane yelled, "Don't stop!"

The man suddenly dashed back to Otis, grabbing his bag off the other man's shoulders. Harry's charm held fast as more walkers clawed at the barrier.

The two men started running again, but two bags seemed to be too much for Shane and Otis didn't seem to have regained any speed.

"We need a distraction!" Shane yelled between pants. Harry mentally ran through the list of spells he knew, but he couldn't think of anything that would draw away the loud crowd of walkers away from the three, big, living human beings.

The birds fluttered harmlessly over the heads of the walkers who didn't even look up, and Harry quickly stopped the avis charm. Well, he tried.

Belatedly he realized that his energy was almost gone. All that use of magic channeled by such terrifying adrenaline was horribly tiring, and he was lagging behind as well. A quick protego pushed the nearby walkers away, but he couldn't hold the spell for long.

The walkers were almost at Otis.

A shield didn't do much by this stage, merely causing the zombies to stagger back by a bit.

Shane readied his gun.

Harry saw the man muttering something under his breath, but before he could decipher what it was, Shane had fired.

Otis fell.

The walkers were on him in an instant, all of them drawn by the smell of fresh blood and rapidly pumping heart. "Shane!" Otis roared through garbled lips.

His howls of pain rang through the air, rooting Harry to his feet.

"Riddle! Go!" Shane yelled. His legs reacted and sprinted towards the car but his mind hadn't caught up, not yet,

Otis' screams were cut off.

Shane dumped the three bags at the back and shoved Harry into the car, quickly backing out of the lot and driving away. His bulletless gun lay innocently on top of the bags.

Harry could have swore that gun had been aimed at Otis' leg.