I don't know how you'll feel about this chapter. I hope you enjoy it, parts of it are definitely going to make you angry. I apologize in advance. But you can't skip this chapter to avoid being angry, it's going to be drastically important to the remainder of the season. It has to do with a single character. Please don't hate me for humanizing him.

Damian's POV

~Pre-Apocalypse~

I was sitting on the bleachers watching my son's championship baseball game. The game was tied and there was only a few minutes left. The bases were loaded and my son, Jaylen, was up to bat. If he got this he'd win the game, and the championship, for his team.

"Come on Jaylen! You can do this!" His coach, Frank Martin, shouted.

"Come on son!" I shouted.

He smiled at me as he walked up to the square, readying himself to hit the ball. He got in position and the ball came at him.

"Strike!" The umpire shouted as Jaylen swung and missed.

Come on son. You can do this. Just do like you practiced.

The pitcher threw the ball once again.

"Strike!" The umpire shouted.

I believe in you buddy. Hit the ball. I know you can do it. Come on.

The pitcher threw again. This time Jaylen hit the ball. He ran to first base as his teammates all ran. All four of the boys ran around the bases, all four made it to home plate. They had won the game.

"Yes! There you go! That's what I'm talking about!" I shouted.

A couple of his teammates picked him up and ran around the diamond with him on their shoulders.

"You're son has a lot of potential as a ball player." Coach Martin said as we watched the boys parade around, Jaylen on their shoulders holding the championship trophy.

"Thanks to you. You thought him everything he knows, he'll, you fought me everything I know. Before Jaylen decided to play baseball I had no idea what anything meant." I said.

"Well, if he keeps playing he could have a really good career out of it, if he wanted." Martin said.

I was about to respond when Jaylen ran up to me, still holding the trophy in his hand. He was beaming happily.

"Dad! I did it!" He said as he showed me the trophy.

"I know! I'm proud of you! You did great!" I said as I picked him up and swung him around some. He was only eight so he weighed almost nothing.

"Can we go get ice cream with Erin, Isaac and Shaun? They're all going to get some to celebrate and they invited us." He said when I set him down.

"Of course we can!" I said.

I was almost always unable to say no to him, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

~Next Morning~

"Hey. I'll see you in a few days ok. Have fun with your mom." I said as I stopped the car in front of my ex-wife's house.

"Ok Dad! Bye!" He said as he jumped out of the car and ran to the door where his mom was waiting for him. I waved at them before closing the window and driving away.

~One Day Into Apocalypse~

"Sharon?! Are you ok?! Is Jaylen ok?!" I asked as my ex-wife finally answered the phone.

The news had been going crazy, some disease had been spreading rapidly, making people go insane and attack other people, spreading the disease more.

"Jaylen's fine. But I'm not. One of those infected people bit me. I haven't told Jaylen yet. I need you to come get him, I don't want to spread the disease to him. Hurry." She said, I could hear her voice cracking as she cried.

"I'm on my way!" I said before hanging up the phone.

I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a large kitchen knife, then went to my bedroom and took my shotgun and revolver from their spots on my dresser and ran to the car. I got in and started driving. When I arrived I saw several of the crazy people banging on the door and windows. I honked the horn of my car to draw their attention, they turned towards the sound and came at me, when I was able to I ran them over. I got out of the car and went to the door.

"Sharon! Jaylen! It's me!" I shouted.

The door opened a few seconds later and I saw Jaylen standing there. He was crying and I looked behind him and saw why. Sharon was laying in the ground and she wasn't breathing.

"M-Mom... just... f-fell and s-stopped breathing." He said through his tears as he looked at the body.

"Oh god... Jaylen." I said as I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a hug. He cried into my shirt, soaking it with his tears.

"We gotta go buddy... we'll come back later and bury her. But there's people out here that are gonna try and kill us if we don't leave. Come on." I said as I picked him up and ran back to the car.

I opened the passenger door and put him in the seat, he buckled the seatbelt and I closed the door. I ran around to the drivers door and got in the car.

I don't know where else should go... maybe Houston... the news said there'd be safe zones in the cities.

I was about to start driving when one of the infected appeared at my window and started banging against it.

"D-Dad! What's g-going o-on?!" Jaylen shouted as he looked fearfully at the thing outside the window.

"Something really bad." I said before slamming my foot on the gas and driving away, leaving the infected person behind us.

~Three Months later~

"Run Jaylen! Run as fast as you can! Get somewhere safe! I'll find you, I promise!" I shouted as I started getting swarmed by infected, barely keeping them from biting or scratching me. Jaylen was up on top of the car watching in horror at what was happening.

"Run!" I shouted again.

This time he jumped off the car and did as I told him, he started running. I soon lost sight of him as I continued fighting infected.

~The Day The Farm Was Attacked~

Gunshots suddenly snapped me out of my thoughts. Lots of gunshots.

"What the hell?!" I shouted even though I was the only one in the building.

I grabbed my butchering knives and ran to the door. I opened it some and saw people stepping out of the woods firing heavy, military grade guns at us. One of them looked over and aimed at the open door but I slammed it shut and immediately went over to my small bed. I always kept my shotgun under it just in case. I grabbed my shotgun and pumped it, then aimed at the door. It flew open and I fired once, but the person who had opened it must have moved to the side as a precaution. I pumped again, but this time the man entered and aimed at me.

Holy shit.

"Frank? Frank Martin?" I asked in surprise.

"Well I'll be damned. Damian McCollum. I thought you were dead." He said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He smirked evilly at me.

"Your son. He said you got swarmed by the infected. You told him to run away and that you'd find him. Clearly that never happened because he's been with me for a very long time now." He said, still aiming the gun at me.

"Jaylen's alive?!" I asked as I dropped my shotgun.

"For now. But won't be for long unless you do exactly as I saw." He said.

I glared at him and saw how serious he looked.

He had my son... and he'd kill him.

"W-what do you want? I'll do anything... just please don't hurt Jaylen." I said as I kicked my shotgun over to him.

"Oh wow. That's good. Kneel before me." He said with an evil sneer.

I fell down onto my knees.

I'd never been brought so low by anyone before, but the thought of him or his people being able to kill my son broke me.

"Good. Now, I'll make you a deal. I'm giving you two days. Bring me some of your people in exchange for your son's life. If I don't have what I want by then, I'm feeding him to my pets. Getting eaten by the infected is a horrible way to die. The clock is ticking Damian. Your time starts now. I'm gonna make my people retreat. We have a camp set up in Hillsboro. Actually it's not a camp at all, we have full control over Hillsboro. There's a lot of us there from all over, we have lots of guns. Quite a few people. Two days. Bring me as many of your people as you can, and you can have your son back, perfectly fine and healthy." He said as he started to back away from me and out the door.

He shut the door and I stayed sitting there on my knees. I heard the gunshots stop, people running away. Shouting and screaming quieted down to nothing. Complete silence filling the void.

My son was alive... but to keep him that way I'd have to betray my people.

"Oh well. Family comes first. Sorry Talia... Carl... everyone. I may not like you guys, but I hate that I'm having to betray you." I said before walking out and towards where I saw everyone else going.

~Picking Up From The End Of last Chapter~

They brought a kid. I can't believe they brought a kid. I'm going to have to give Frank all of them, and I have no idea what he's planning to do to them... or what he'll do to Cain.

"You... feeling ok Damian?" Carol asked suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking of places we should look. We're close to Hillsboro, maybe they're holed up there." I said.

"Yeah. It's possible. Sounds like as good a place to start as any." She said before looking away from me and out the window.

I made a deal. And I can't break it, otherwise my son will die. A deal is a deal. Unfortunately I have to betray these people to get my son back.

Hey guys, so, wow. That was actually hard to write. I hope you enjoyed it. Yes, I planned this pretty much from when I made Damian's character, as a way to humanize him some after all the shit I knew he was gonna do. It's not normal for someone to just do shit like that without a reason, now you have his backstory, or part of it at least, so you should sort of understand why he's done some of the stuff he's done, and why he's going to do some of the stuff I have planned for him.

Here is yet another face claim.

Sean Bean: Frank Martin

"I'm going to give you the best thing I can. A quick and painless death. You should thank me."

That's all the face claims for now, I'm not giving Jaylen one yet, when (and if) he becomes a bigger character he'll get one.

Question Time!

1. Did you expect Damian to have a son?

2. Now that you've read this, do you feel different about Damian?

3. Is Jaylen actually still alive? Is he really with his old baseball coach?

4. How do you feel about Frank Martin, grade-A asshole of the chapter?

Ok, that's it for now.

THANKS FOR READING!