Jodie woke up in the same place where she was knocked down. Slowly, groaning, she stood up. Ashley lay beside her, still unconscious. Vince and his brother had disappeared.

Her backpack was gone. And so was Ashley's. Fuck. They had really taken everything. The food, water, guns, clothes and whatever little medicine they had left.

While Jodie was still struggling with the headache, she crawled on all fours to Ashley and shook her gently.

"Ashley...Ashley!," she whispered.

Ashley moaned and finally opened her eyes. It took a moment for her to recognize Jodie and sit up.

"Shit, that guy totally knocked me out! Where are those two now," Ashley asked as she slowly sat up.

Jodie shrugged her shoulders. She looked out the window, the sun was a little lower now, but it couldn't have been that long ago that they were gone. There was still a chance they could catch up with her if they followed their tracks.

Jodie stood up while Ashley looked around the room.

"Hey, what's that?" she then asked, pointing to a corner of the room.

Jodie went closer to inspect it. She had been wrong, Vince and Toby had not taken everything. In a pile lay a small part of their things. Two of their jackets, Jodie's crossbow, a knife and a half-full bottle of water. And Jodie's pen.

They had only taken what they could use. Nevertheless, with half a bottle of water and without food, they would not get along for long. They needed their things. Jodie put the crossbow around her neck, threw Ashley her knife and jacket, and took the bottle and pen.

"Half a bottle of water, did they leave us? Thanks a lot, I'm sure we'll get by fine with it! Those jerks! We want to help them and they steal our stuff," Ashley cursed as she gathered up her stuff.

Jodie wrote on her arm: "If we find their trail, we could catch up with them and then we'll get our stuff back."

"You can do that? Track people down?" Ashley asked in surprise.

"Daryl can do better, but maybe I can see where they went," Jodie replied to her arm.

Ashley nodded as she took her knife.

As they left the house, Jodie immediately started looking for clues. And indeed, only a few minutes later, had discovered the boot prints. It had drizzled a bit yesterday and the ground was still damp, so the prints were still fairly easy to see. They led out of the village and back to the tracks.

It was clear where they were going. To Terminus.

"What are we going to do with them when we find them?" Jodie asked Ashley on her arm as they walked quickly.

"We'll get our stuff back, what else?" Ashley said curtly, glancing at the path in front of them.

"What are we going to do WITH THEM?" Jodie repeated her question.

"We'll do whatever it takes," Ashley answered grimly.

"They haven't killed us either."

"I'm not saying we kill them. I'm just threatening them, like they did to us. But if it should come to the worst, I will not shed a tear for that."

She looked at Jodie and she didn't say anything.

"Is that a problem for you?" she asked, almost heatedly.

Jodie shook her head. No, that was no problem. It might sound heartless, but actually, she was right. She wasn't planning to kill, but she'd also been left behind and robbed. She just wanted her stuff back and if possible, no bloodshed.

****************************************************************

It was already dawning when Jodie found the footprints of the two of them again. They were fresher, which told her that they were closer to them and they were slowing down. They probably didn't expect Jodie and Ashley to be chasing them.

The tracks now ran through the forest and there was no civilization in sight. 'Daryl would have loved it here,' Jodie thought with a smile. I wonder if he was heading for Terminus, too?

When the sun finally set, they found Toby and Vince. They had set up camp in the woods a little way off the tracks. A small fire was burning, so they sat around.

Jodie and Ashley watched from their hiding place, which consisted of a pile of loose branches, as they piled on top of each other.

"They have our guns and might shoot at us if they see us, we have to surprise them somehow," Ashley murmured.

Jodie pondered for a moment. Any sound might give them away. At least they didn't really seem to know their way around the wilderness, so they could interpret any sound as a walker or a stranger. So the moment of surprise would be over quickly.

She hesitated, but then she got an idea how to use it to her advantage. Briefly, she made a sketch on her arm, Ashley told her plan and both of them got into position.

Ashley moved away from her hiding place, ran back to the tracks and a long way forward before she disappeared into the forest again. Jodie, meanwhile, sneaked away from the stack as quietly as she could, in the opposite direction and then near the camp. She hid between a few trees and then waited patiently.

She could hear the two brothers talking quietly together.

"Toby, stop pulling such a face. The two are still alive and still have a knife, crossbow and water. That is actually quite good. They can get by with that for a while," Vince just said.

He sounded quite satisfied with himself. As if it would be nice of him to let Jodie and Ashley have some of their stolen stuff.

"But the stuff doesn't belong to us, we don't deserve it," his brother replied.

"Toby, we've already had this discussion. I know it's not right, but the world has changed and we have to deal with that. I hope you finally understand that too. We have no other choice. If we want to survive, we have to do whatever it takes, you know?" Vince told Toby.

"We should have explained it to them," Toby said.

"We did."

"And after that you knocked them out."

"They weren't supposed to follow us, they threatened me with guns as soon as they saw me. Probably they would have shot us immediately or something if they had followed us."

"Still, we wouldn't have..." A loud crackling interrupted their conversation and in the distance Jodie heard footsteps.

"What was that?" Toby asked.

"I'll go and see. You stay here and be on guard. If I'm not back in ten minutes, put out the fire and come find me," said his brother.

Then Jodie saw him hurrying out of the camp with Ashley's hunting rifle. Toby had got up and looked after his brother. So far, everything had worked out fine. Jodie took her crossbow, silently inserted an arrow and crept up to the camp between the trees, careful not to make a sound.

Since Toby turned his back on her all the time, he didn't notice her until it was too late. She stepped on a branch, it cracked, he turned around and she held the crossbow on him. He had a knife in his hand, but that wouldn't help him much.

He dropped the knife and raised his hands in surrender.

Jodie pointed the crossbow to the sleeping bag and he sat down on it hesitantly. She sat down behind him and held the crossbow with the drawn arrow to the back of his head. Toby sat very still and did not move.

"Sorry we took your things, we didn't mean it," the boy replied.

Jodie replied nothing. What was she supposed to say to that? An apology didn't make up for what they had done.

"I know we shouldn't have done this and that you deserve these things more than we do. But we didn't know what to do... We just wanted to survive," the boy said.

Still Jodie didn't react. She didn't care about the reasons. Even though she knew everyone was just trying to survive, she would never have stolen from anyone.

Vince came back. His rifle in his hand.

" There was no... " he paused when he saw Jodie behind his brother.

And then Ashley appeared behind him, wrapped her arm around his neck and held the knife to his throat.

"Drop the gun," she hissed in his ear.

He hesitated for a moment, then he obeyed. Ashley pointed her chin at the boy.

"Get up, gather up our stuff and put it in a pile," she instructed him.

The boy looked behind him at Jodie, who waved the crossbow at him and he stood up with a sigh and complied with Ashley's request.

"How the hell did you find us," Vince growled angrily while Jodie held his brother at gunpoint so he couldn't do anything stupid.

"Did you really think we'd just let you steal our stuff? Did you really think we were going to put up with that and that there would be no consequences for you," Ashley hissed angrily and pushed the knife a little closer to his throat.

"You don't know anything. We're just trying to survive here and we have to do things that aren't nice. You would do the same if you were in the same situation. If you had nothing," he roared.

"No, both of us were already in this situation and yet we didn't steal from anyone and leave them to die. There is always a way," Ashley said calmly.

"You have no idea," Vince just said.

In the meantime, Toby had stuffed all the things back into Ashley's and Jodie's backpacks and put them both in front of Jodie.

"Now take the pistol off him and give it to me," Ashley ordered and him and Toby took the pistol off Vince, which was hanging from his belt, and gave it to Ashley who took it with her free hand.

Ashley let Vince go and pointed the gun at him.

"Now, tie him up and then..." that was as far as she got. Vince rushed forward and Jodie only saw something shiny metallic in the glow of the fire before Ashley yelled out.

Vince must have had a knife in his sleeve that was now in Ashley's thigh. Jodie fired. The arrow came loose and drilled into the side of Vince's leg, which now also screamed and sank to his knees. While Toby ran to his brother, Jodie ran to Ashley and supported her before she hit the ground.

"Fuck, stupid bitch," Vince screamed in pain as he pulled the arrow out of his leg.

"No, you're the idiot here. Nobody would have had to get hurt if you had just listened to us. We would have left," Ashley hissed back.

"We need this stuff!" growled Vince.

"But it is certainly not yours. Get your own stuff," growled Ashley, the gun had fallen out of her hand and she put pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding. Jodie helped her sit on a stone and looked at the wound. She knew not to pull out the knife, but at the moment they had no medical supplies except some bandages and pills.

So she tied her leg with her belt and stuffed a rag between Ashley's teeth so she wouldn't bite her tongue and attract walkers when she was about to scream. She grasped the knife firmly with both hands and looked at Ashley. She nodded and Jodie pulled. Ashley screamed, but it only came out muffled by the rag. After Jodie pulled the knife out of her leg, she took off her jacket and pressed it on the wound. Ashley moaned and whimpered softly before spitting out the rag.

"Fuck, that hurts," Ashley moaned.

Toby and Vince had also set about pulling the arrow out of the wound. Vince cursed loudly as Toby removed the arrow. Jodie didn't pay any attention to him, she picked out one of the bandages and began to wrap it tightly around Ashley's leg. She let it pass over her moaning and didn't resist. After Jodie tied the bandage, she saw Vince, who was also being cared for by his brother. Jodie looked at Ashley worried. She hadn't expected this. When Ashley saw Jodie's worried expression, she stroked her hair soothingly.

"I'm fine. I'm okay. I just need a few minutes and then I'll be standing upright again," Ashley promised with a tired smile as she slowly calmed her breathing.

"You stupid bitch," Vince suddenly growled again.

Both women looked at him. He had lifted himself onto his legs and glared at them angrily. His brother supported him slightly and at the same time seemed to want to hold him back, to do something stupid.

"You should have just found new stuff and left us alone! We would never have run into you again and nobody would have been hurt," he hissed.

"Haven't you got it yet? This stuff belongs to us and we're not going to let it be taken away from us. And if I remember correctly, I wasn't the one who started the stabbing," Ashley barked back, even though it sounded exhausted.

"Your friend shot an arrow into my leg," he growled back.

"Yeah, so you can't do any more shit! We just wanted to get our stuff back and then we would have left again," Ashley hissed.

"No," Vince just said and he picked himself up and staggered threateningly towards Jodie and Ashley despite the pain. He picked up the knife that Jodie had dropped as he walked by. Jodie reached for her crossbow, even though she knew it would probably be too slow. Such a short distance and then inserting and cocking the arrow, that would be close.

Toby, on the other hand, tried to hold on to his brother.

"Vince, no, let them go," he tried, but his brother shook him off.

"Vince, leave them alone," his brother clasped his arm again. Vince gave him a strong push to shake him off and that gave Jodie enough time. She aimed the cocked crossbow at his chest ready to pull the trigger. Vince grinned cheekily.

"Do you think I'm afraid of you and your toys?" he just growled.

Suddenly Ashley gasped in shock as her gaze passed Vince. She looked at Vince in horror and then whispered just two words.

"Your brother."

Vince looked at her confused and Jodie was confused, too. So what happened with Vince's brother? Then her eyes went past Vince to the floor as well. And then she saw it. Toby's little body was lying on the floor, motionless. But even in the glow of the fire, Jodie could see that the earth around Toby's head was getting darker.

"Toby?", Vince had now turned around as well, so Jodie could now see what had caused the wound. A tree stump was clearly visible near the back of Toby's head. Hard enough to break a child's neck when Vince pushed him like he had done.

Toby's upper body twitched slightly and he was probably still trying to breathe somehow and understand what was happening, but it was already too late. Vince knelt down next to his brother. Horrified by what he had just done.

"Toby? Buddy?," he whispered.

"Vince...", Toby barely managed to come out, then his eyes went blank.

Horrified and also pitiful, Ashley and Jodie stared at the dead body. This shouldn't have happened. Vince held his dead brother in his arms and sobbed. Reluctantly, Jodie approached him and took her knife. She didn't mean Vince any harm, she just wanted to free his brother. Vince looked up and saw her approaching.

"Stay away!" he hissed at her in tears.

"Vince, she just wants..." Ashley started, but Vince let his brother's body sink to the ground and looked at her in rage.

"This is all your fault if you don't..." that was all he could say.

No one had expected it, or at least not right away. Toby's transformation had begun incredibly fast, because he stood up again with a gasping sound and milky eyes and did the first thing he could think of as a walker. He bit his brother in the arm.

Vince roared up, drove around to his brother and tried to fumble the knife from his belt, but too late. His brother bit him in the neck and he sank to the ground screaming and gurgling while Ashley and Jodie flinched.

The creature that had once been Toby immediately attacked its helpless prey on the ground and it took Jodie a moment to come to her senses and then shot an arrow into the back of Toby's head with her crossbow. Immediately, it fell motionless onto his big brother's body. Jodie approached the two of them with her crossbow cocked and rolled Toby's body down from Vince. When she saw Vince's body, she almost choked. Even in the glow of the fire it was a terrible sight. A large piece of his neck was missing and deep bloody scratches were visible on his cheek. He was still ranting to himself. His gaze went to Jodie, who was standing over him with her crossbow.

He looked at her and tried to say something, but it came out as a disgusting gurgle. But Jodie could already guess what he wanted to say.

Please.

She silently aimed at his forehead and pulled the trigger. Immediately the man before her fell silent and then silence surrounded him.

So, this is now the part before last. I hope you enjoyed it so far. Please leave me a comment and/or a vote. The last part will be either this Thursday or again next Tuesday. Until then I wish you a nice first December.

Love liz ;)