Carl's POV

"We're not far from Hillsboro. We'll be there in about fifteen minutes." Damian said through the window.

"If they aren't there then where are we gonna go next. Those bastards killed my wife and daughter, I plan on making them suffer." Brandon said as he stared at the floor.

"They killed my girlfriend." Akio said.

"My sister and her son." Cindy said.

"My brother." Ayumi mumbled.

"My boyfriend and his father." Landon said.

"My son and his wife. And their three month old daughter." Alex said.

"We all lost people. And we'll make this group pay for that, but for now we need to stay focused on finding them. I'm not saying forget about them, definitely don't do that, I'm saying put that to the side for now." I said quietly.

"You're right. We have to find them before we can do anything." Brandon said.

Everyone nodded and we stayed silent until the truck stopped.

"We're here." Damian said.

Everyone got out of the vehicle and got ready for what we were about to do.

"We should split up, cover more of the town. There's twelve of us, that's six groups of two. We can cover a lot more ground if we do that." I said as I looked at everyone.

"If they're here, then splitting up could be very bad. They'd be able to pick us off one by one. We should stick together." Damian said.

"I agree with Carl. We should split up." Brandon said.

"Maybe we should take a quick vote to decide." Landon said.

"All in favor of splitting up, say I." Carol said instantly before anyone else could speak.

Ethan, Tony, Carol, Brandon, Landon, Akio, Alex and I all said "I" as the rest looked around uncertainly.

"That's eight. Majority wins. We're splitting up." I said as I pulled Cain and Ethan to he side.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know what's up with Damian, but something is off about him, has been since I saw him after the attack. I'm going to go with him so I can keep an eye on him. You two stick together like glue. Keep each other safe." I answered as quietly as I could so that the others wouldn't hear.

Ethan glanced over at Damian and watched as he loaded his shotgun.

"What if you're right? Something is wrong, what's gonna happen to you?" He asked.

"I'll deal with it. I can handle myself, I promise nothing will happen to me." I responded.

I'm not so sure about that... but it's the best I can come up with.

"I really don't like this. But if you think it's the best choice I'm not gonna argue. Stay safe." Ethan said before giving me a kiss.

"Ugh. Get a room." Cain said lightheartedly as he smiled at us.

Ethan and I separated and he ruffled Cain's hair then grabbed his shoulder and walked away. I walked over to Damian.

"Let's go partner. Time to search the area." I said as I grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the rest of the group.

"Why'd it have to be you I got stuck with?" Damian asked himself.

"Because you have some really shitty luck. Look, I know we don't see eye to eye, literally ever, but we're on the same team and we have to work together to keep our people safe." I said.

"Yeah. Whatever." He said.

We started walking, slowly getting closer to the city. Damian was acting even weirder than he had been, he was glancing between me and the City in front of us.

"Damian, why are you acting so strange?" I asked.

"I'm just thinking." He said.

"About what. You've been acting weird since the attack on the farm." I said.

"A lot of things. Is this interrogation over, because I think I saw something move." Damian said as he pointed over to one of the buildings.

No. This interrogation is most certainly not over.

"Fine. We'll go check it out, then you're going to answer all of my questions with more than an 'I'm thinking.' Is that clear?" I asked.

"Fine... whatever." He said as he walked towards the building.

We entered the building and there was nothing, no walkers, no people, and no supplies.

"Where are these people, they said they would be here." Damian said.

What?!

"What the hell do you mean by 'they said they would be here' You talked to them?!" I shouted as I aimed my assault rifle at him.

He immediately turned towards me and I saw the surprise on his face. He aimed his shotgun at me as he looked between me and my gun.

"I-I-I overheard them talking as they left! I swear!" He said as he backed away from me slightly.

"You're lying Damian. What did you do?" I asked.

He was about to run away when I jumped at him. I grabbed the shotgun out of his hand and tackled him to the ground. He threw me off of him and tried to get up. I quickly stood and kicked him in the chest, he collapsed and rolled over gasping for air. I pulled my silenced pistol out of its holster and aimed it at his head as I put my knee on his chest and held him down.

"Tell me what you did Damian." I growled as I pressed my knee against his chest harder.

He coughed and I pulled back so he could speak.

"What I had to do. They have my son, Carl. They have my son and they offered me a deal. Bring some of my people to them in exchange for my son, and he lives. They gave me two days, if I didn't do what they told me to they would kill my son." He said as he started to tear up.

"Goddamnit Damian! You should have told us we could have done this a differen-" I started to yell before something hit the back of my head, my vision went blurry and I fell off the man. When I hit the ground I noticed my vision starting to go black, the only thing I saw was a man holding a metal baseball bat helping Damian up.

No... I can't black out... I have to warn the others... c-come on Carl... fight... it...

Brandon's POV

"Come on, we've gotta look for those bastards Brandon." Alex said as he quietly stepped onto a street in Hillsboro.

"I'm coming. We need to be careful, if they're here we don't want them attacking us before we know it." I responded as I followed the man into the street.

"Yeah, well I don't thi-" He began to respond before rapid gunfire filled the air.

I jumped back into the small alley we had just come out of and watched as Alex got shot in the leg twice before he got behind a broken down car.

"Fuck!" Alex shouted as he set his hunting rifle on the ground and held his hands over the two bullet wounds in his right leg.

"Alex, just keep pressure on them! I'm gonna come to yo-" I started before he moved his hand and pointed behind me.

"Watch ou-" He shouted, but I didn't hear all of what he said because something hit me very hard in the head. I toppled over and caught a glance at Alex as someone knocked him out with a wrench.

Akio's POV

"Run! They're here and they just got Brandon and Alex! We need to move!" Cindy shouted as she ran by me, grabbing my arm and dragging me behind her before I could react to what she said.

I finally got my feet under me and the two of us headed straight back the direction we had come before.

"What do you mean they got Brandon and Alex?! What happened?" I asked as we ran.

"I saw it through the window, they got shot at from one of the buildings and then they got dragged away by a couple of people! Keep running!" She shouted as we turned down another street, only to be greeted by ten people all holding automatic guns that were aimed at us.

"Make this easy on yourselves. drop the weapons and put your hands in the air. Now." The man in the middle said as he stepped closer to us, closely followed by the rest of the people.

Cindy and I glanced at each other and then back at the people slowly advancing on us.

"Fuck that!" Cindy shouted as she opened fire with her assault rifle, quickly cutting down three of the people before crouching behind a car. I had jumped behind the car as soon as she started shooting.

"Shit! You assholes will pay for those deaths!" The man who had tried to get us to surrender shouted from a little ways down the street behind another car.

After that a ton of bullets hit the side and top of the car Cindy and I were behind.

"We're pinned down!" I shouted as I brought my shotgun up above the car and shot in the direction that the voice had come from.

"I know! I know! I'm thinking, give me a sec!" Cindy shouted back.

That's when people came at us from the direction we had come from. Before I could switch my aim to them one brought a long pipe to his mouth and blew through it, the projectile that flew out hit me in the chest and I started to feel very tired.

A tranquilizer dart.

As I slipped into unconsciousness the man that had hit me aimed at Cindy and blew through the pipe again, hitting the woman in the neck.

Tony's POV

"That's a lot of gunfire, we need to get out of here now!" I shouted as Landon and I ran out the door of the house we had been in and started to head for the truck.

The gunfire had started about five minutes ago, and continued as we ran, but it suddenly stopped. When that happened we stopped running and looked at each other.

"Why'd it just stop out of nowhere like that?" Landon asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like it. Let's keep going." I answered as I started to run again.

Landon followed me and we ran until I felt someone wrap their arm around my neck and squeeze. I tried to fight them off but they were much stronger than me, I saw someone doing the same to Landon. My vision was going black at the edges and I knew I was about to black out.

Carol's POV

"Ayumi, we need to find the others and get out. That's a lot of gunfire, so we need to be careful. Let's go." I said as I crouched and walked out of the small building we had entered to check.

"We should just leave. They'll get back to the truck, we'll just meet them there." Ayumi said as she grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"I'm not leaving them in here if they're in trouble. If you want to run away and go to the truck, that's fine by me, but I'm staying." I said as I jerked my arm out of her grip and started walking away again, I was headed to another door, not the way we had come. She didn't stop me this time, but I heard her curse and walk in the opposite direction, towards the way we had come from.

I had almost reached the door when I heard a commotion behind me. I turned around to see several men attacking Ayumi, she was agile so she was dodging their attacks, but she wouldn't be able to fight them off. I aimed my hunting rifle at one of the men's head, when I was confidant I'd hit him and not the small Asian woman in front of him I pulled the trigger, his head snapped back and he collapsed. I aimed at the other but someone hit me in the head with something and threw my aim off as I pulled the trigger, the bullet hit the wall above Ayumi. I felt another hit, this time on my lower back and I fell down and rolled over, pulling my pistol out as I did, I aimed at the person above me and shot several times. The body fell back and I stood up grabbing my lower back as it throbbed in pain when I moved. I looked in the direction Ayumi had been and saw the man dragging her away. I shot at him several times but missed and he ducked into a room.

I think something is seriously damaged in my back, but I have to get to Ayumi, have to save her.

I started to walk slowly, pain pulsing through my spine with every step. After about twenty steps I collapsed and couldn't get back up. A man appeared above me and slammed his fist, which clenched a brass knuckle, into the side of my head.

Ethan's POV

Bullets flew by the wall I was behind, Cain was on the opposite side of the hallway that the bullets were flying down, he was crouched behind a wall as well, holding both of his pistols.

"Cain, I'm gonna cover you and you're gonna run over here to me!" I shouted.

He nodded and got ready to run across the hall.

I stepped around the corner and aimed my assault rifle down at the people shooting at us. I opened fire and the people either jumped behind something or got shot down by my rapid fire weapon. Cain ran across the hall and stood beside me, I stepped back behind the wall and reloaded the assault rifle.

"Ok, there's gotta be a way out down there, go!" I shouted as I pointed down the new hallway we were on.

Cain ran ahead of me and I followed, we could see a door at the end.

Hopefully that leads out.

A woman jumped out in front of Cain and smacked his pistols out of his hands as he tried to quickly raise them and shoot. I aimed and fired a single shot, her head snapped back as the bullet tore through her forehead. Her body fell back and Cain picked up his guns, holstering one and keeping the other up in front of him. We started running again and I suddenly felt something wrap around my leg, I tripped and fell, looking down at my feet I saw a weapon that had three metal balls connected to a thick chain was completely tangled around my legs.

"Ethan!" Cain shouted as he turned back and saw me, he then aimed his pistol and fired several shots down the hall. I heard a scream of pain followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground.

The boy ran back to me and crouched down, starting to untangle my feet. He kept glancing down the hall as he slowly released my feet from the chain.

"I almost got it, hang on." He said as he kept untangling my feet.

After another few moments I was free and we were running down the hall again, Cain was carrying the chain weapon. We reached the door and found that it was locked.

"Shit... there's gotta be another way out. We just need to fi-" I started to say before I heard a smashing sound. I turned back towards the door and saw that the window above it had been smashed, Cain had thrown the chain weapon through it.

"If you boost me through that I can unlock the door." He said as he pointed at the shattered window.

That's... actually a really good idea.

"That's a really good idea Cain. Let's do it." I said as I set the assault rifle on the ground and leaned against the door, holding my hands out in front of me for him to step on.

He stepped into my cupped hands and I pushed up. He climbed through and I heard him hit the ground on the other side. I picked up my assault rifle and looked down the hall. There were a few people rounding the corner when I heard a click and the door swung open behind me.

"Come on!" Cain shouted as he stepped to the side.

I ran into the room.

It was a dead end.

Cain slammed the door shut and locked it again. I looked around and saw a small window at the back of the room, letting in the little light that filled the room.

"Come on, let's break that window and get out. That lock isn't going to hold them back very long." I said.

Cain nodded and picked the chain weapon up and ran to the window. I followed, he threw the weapon and it smashed the window and sailed through onto the road. We jumped out the broken window and ran down the street, towards the truck.

~Time Skip~

"Ethan... it's been a while. Nobody else showed up, we should move the truck before it gets seen. Then we can go in and find the others." Cain said as he jumped into the passenger seat. I got in the driver seat and started the truck.

"You're right, let's get this thing out of sight." I said as I drove off.

Come on Carl. You have to be alive... you have to be...

We parked the vehicle about a quarter of a mile away in the abandoned barn of a small farm we had found, this one much smaller then the one we called home.

"Ok, we know that the group is there. We don't know where the others are or what happened to them. We need to make a plan before we go back, because it seems like they were ready for us when we got there." I said as I sat down on a barrel.

"How would they have known to be prepared for us?" Cain asked.

"I don't know. Maybe some of their people saw us get in the truck and head towards Hillsboro. Whatever it was they were definitely ready for us." I said as I put my head in my hands.

"Yeah. That makes sense. What are we gonna do?" He asked.

We need to get in there and find everyone. Maybe we can come in from another side, have less people to deal with since they are probably all on this side of the city, all our groups entered on this side, just in different spots.

"We should go around the city, get to the other side. Sneak in from there and look for everyone else." I said.

"Ok. Let's go." He said as he got back in the truck.

~Time Skip~

Carl's POV

I groaned and sat up, grabbing my head because it was throbbing from the hit I had taken. I was in a room that had one small window very close to the ceiling. I looked around and saw a that a young African American boy, probably around Cain and Abel's age, was taking plates of very unappetizing looking food off of a small cart and setting them down in front of the other inhabitants of the cell, which was everyone except for Damian, Ethan and Cain.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you!" The boy whisper shouted when he saw me sitting up.

"No, no it's fine. Where am I? And who are you?" I asked.

"You're in a room with all your people. My name's Jaylen, I'm pretty much these people's personal slave. Most of them say it makes sense that I'm the slave... I don't really understand why though. Uh... I brought you and your people some food... I know it looks gross, but it's not that bad after you get used to it... I have." He said as he set a plate in front of me.

There was a small piece of stale, moldy bread and a mushy apple. As well as a pile of soggy greens of some kind. There was a plastic fork and knife on the side of the plate.

"How long have you been here?" I asked as I poked the green stuff with the fork.

I don't know how anyone could get used to this stuff...

"I don't know. A long time. I got separated from my dad early on... was on my own for a little bit. These people found me, I was in a broken down car hiding from the biters, practically starving, they found me, saved my life. Little did I know the real reason they wanted me." He answered sadly.

This poor kid.

"How old are you?" I asked.

"Twelve. According to these people it's been four years since this started, they've been keeping track of the days, at least that's what they say. I was eight when this started." He answered as he put the last plate of food in front of Brandon.

"Ok. Well... thanks for the food... I guess." I said as I stabbed the bread with the knife, instead of the knife going into the bread it snapped when it hit it.

Wow... that's some really stale bread.

"Sure thing. It's easiest to get through it if you put the greens on the bread... it helps a little with the taste, not much though." He said as he gave me a sad smile then walked out of the room, pulling the cart behind him. After he left someone slammed the door shut and locked it.

I looked down at the food and decided I'd only eat it if I got to the point where I had to eat or I'd die. People started to wake up, Carol moaned in pain as she moved and sat up.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked.

"I don't think ok is the right word. I'm alive. My back feels like when I got hit it fractured something. But I'll live." She said as she noticed the food in front of her.

"Now. That is the grossest plate of food I've seen since this started, and that's saying something since I ate some really crazy, nasty shit when this all started and I ran out of normal food." Akio said as he glared down at the plate.

"I don't plan on eating this any time soon. When I'm dying of starvation, then maybe, but definitely not now." Brandon said as he pushed the plate away.

Landon stood up and walked over to the door and tried to open it, obviously failing. He then tried to kick it down, only succeeding in tiring himself out and giving us all headaches from the constant pounding sound.

"We're stuck here. Until something else comes up there's no escape, no need to tire ourselves out. If we get the chance we need to be ready to fight our way out." Brandon said.

"Hang on. Where's Damian? Ethan? Cain?" Tong asked as he seemed to finally notice they weren't here.

I scoffed at the mention of Damian.

"Damian is the reason we all got captured. He said they blackmailed him into bringing us here. Apparently they have his son and are holding him against Damian. Ethan and Cain must not have gotten captured. They must have made it out." I said, the last part mostly my hope that my boyfriend and adopted son hadn't been killed instead of captured.

"Or they're dead." Alex said quietly.

Everyone in the room glared at him.

"Hey! I'm just saying we can't ignore the possibility. I want them to be alive just as much as any of you, but with how things went down, we don't know if they're still alive or not." He defended as he raised his hands in front of him.

"We just need to hope that they're alive. Maybe they'll help us escape." Landon said as he looked over at me and gave me a sympathetic smile.

Everyone else looked over at me and realized the fact that I could have just lost two of the most important people in my life.

They're still alive. I know it... they have to be.

"Um... I met someone before you all woke up. He's the one that brought us the food. He's twelve years old, his name's Jaylen. These people have made him their slave. When we get out, I think we need to try and get him out." I said.

"They have a twelve year old kid as a slave? That is fucked up. Yeah, let's get him out." Landon said.

Everyone else agreed that we'd be getting Jaylen out when we get out.

"Ok, we'll, we should be ready to fight back if we eat the chance. Let's see if there's anything in here we can use to make weapons." I said after a few moments of silence.

Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, it was a lot longer than usual so that's cool.

I just want I make sure I clarify something really quick, just in case this occurred to you and got you a bit worried. Yes, Landon is gay. No, there will be no love triangle drama in this book, Carl and Ethan are together, Landon will not be getting with either of them, nor will he want to.

Ok, now that that's dealt with...

We have another new character! Here is his face claim.

Rohan Chand: Jaylen McCollum

"I'm broken to. We have something in common. We can be broken together."

Question Time!

1. Any new thoughts about the six new characters? Which of them do you think will die?

2. Damian couldn't keep himself together and he told Carl about the deal. What is Carl gonna do when (and if) they escape?

3. Did you like getting a lot of different POVs throughout the chapter?

4. What do you think Ethan and Cain are gonna do? Will they successfully get the rest out of that room?

5. How do you feel about Jaylen now that you've gotten a little more of him?

Ok, that's it.

THANKS FOR READING!