Ze

Ze watched as Aaron was being shoved into a van. He and Lizzie were crouched behind some rubbish bins, having somehow got away.

"We have to help him" Lizzie kept muttering, but she didn't attempt to get up.

"We'll help him eventually" Ze said, looking down at the crumpled post-it-note in her hand. "We've just gotta put this into google maps-"

"Ze." Lizzie pointed at their car, which was now a crumpled mess.

"Mother of-" Ze froze. "Look". A van with the words Northern Ireland Surveillance Unit drew up nearby, and the plump man Aaron had punched in the nose earlier hopped out and waddled over to the wreckage of the car. He was holding a pack of frozen peas to his face and wasn't looking at all happy. "Well, at least he's alone" Ze sighed, beginning to get up.

"He's not" Lizzie gulped, feeling the barrel of a gun pressed against her back. Ze turned around slowly to face a huge muscly man, his gun trained on Lizzie.

"Move and the girl dies" he muttered gruffly. Ze looked at Lizzie, who didn't look at all impressed.

"Look, buddy, pal, er...haha, sir...look, sir. We haven't done anything wrong, so if you just let us go on our way we won't cause you anymore trouble".

"You punched a senior officer in the face, then proceeded to carry illegal equipment past the border. We also have every reason to suspect you of blowing up that car, to get rid of the evidence. You've done at least three things wrong. Now hands in the air and no one will get hurt." Ze looked over in desperation at Lizzie who rolled her eyes, slowly passing him the post-it-note.

"I'm always saving people's sorry butts. Now go!" She kicked the man in the shin, giving Ze time to run into the forest behind them.

He tore past the trees, running in no particular direction. He felt like he was part of a badly written Scooby Doo episode, always running away from danger. He'd lost Lizzie, Aaron, Adam and Chilled in the last week, and now he was completely alone in a place he'd never been to before, with the only lead being a few numbers. He was screwed.

~

Ze had been walking for what felt like hours when he stumbled across an abandoned house amidst the never-ending trees. It looked like someone had been there recently, because everything was cluttered around the floor. They'd left in a hurry. He grabbed a bottle of probably radioactive water from a cupboard, a torch, and continued on his way.

Why was Ireland being so weird? No gaming equipment, extra security, deserted towns... Ze shook his head as he hurried along, when he ran into a wall.

"Ow". He rubbed his head and looked up, surprised to see the wall rocketing skywards. "Jesus...and I thought Chilled was tall". He kept one hand on the wall and continued to walk around it, determined that there must be an entrance somewhere. He was interrupted by a soft thud from around the corner of the wall.

Ze knew better than to call out hello, it could be one of those stupid security guards, or cloaked people. Instead, he snapped a branch off a nearby tree and held it defensively in front of himself.

"I...I'm armed" he whispered, slowly approaching the corner. "I'll kill if provok-Jack?" The Jack they'd been looking for was lying in a small crater in the ground, peaceful as if he could've been sleeping. Ze knew better than that. His breathing was shallow and rugged, and blood poured from a puncture wound in his shoulder.

"Jack? Oh god...don't die". Ze dropped the branch and ran over to him, almost tripping over the edge of the crater. He tried to stop the blood flow with his hand, but he could see that wasn't going to do much good.

"I'm fine" Jack coughed, sitting up. Ze widened his eyes.

"You were...you nearly..."

"I'm fine...but my shoulder's not. I suppose my pride is slightly bruised too". He winced, clutching the hole in his shoulder.

"What happened to you?" Ze asked as he helped Jack out of the crater and against a tree.

"I fell" Jack answered, blinking upwards towards the top of the wall.

"From there? You'd be dead".

"Exactly".

~

"So you're telling me...that you've got superpowers?" Ze glanced over at Jack who was using his jumper as a duvet and to clean the blood from his arm.

"Not quite...but something along those lines. More like the last of us. I'm Ellie, everyone else is a walker".

"Hot" Ze laughed. Night was nearly upon them, so they'd set up camp along the edge of the wall. By camp, they meant a light from Ze's torch was suspended from a tree and Septic Eye Sam was on lookout. Ze shivered in the cold, so Jack offered him a blood soaked jumper. "I'll pass, thanks. You got a plan for what we do tomorrow?"

"If I'm still like this, then we can't really do much. But if I'm okay, we're going to get our friends back." Jack caught the unsure look on Ze's face. "You don't have to come" he added.

"Chilled and Adam are in there. Of course I'm coming with you".