"Okay, so everyone wash up. Meet at the main room in 30 minutes." Samson orders.

Everyone goes to their rooms and gets changed into more decent clothes for the day.

Kate looks at her watch, 8:36 am.
She's never left the base without it. She touches the leather strap and thinks back to the day her brother gave it to her. The calm before the storm.

...

Unlike most of her roommates, her family was prepared for the outbreak. After the news, she lived in a fortified house with weapons at every angle. Her four older brothers and mother lived in the house with her. One day as her oldest brother, James, was channeling through radio stations on the survival radio, he finds out that there's a safety shelter nearby their house. He informed his family and they took off.

They ran on foot due to the lack of gas in their car. Samuel tripped over a dead body. The body wasn't dead though. Before Samuel could get up, the crawler grabbed his leg and pulled him down. Kate screamed for him and bashed the zombie's head in with her bat. She drags him out of the mess while her mom and three other brothers ran. They believed in 'every man for himself'. Kate stayed behind.

He looked at her with pleading eyes and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a maroon bite mark on his calf. He took a watch with a red leather strap and placed it in her hand.

"Keep this. When I go, remember me.", He begged her to stab him. After cries of pain shot out through him, Kate finally said her last words to him and held his hand promising to avenge him. She took a knife out of her bag and stabbed his head the moment he turned.

She put on the wristwatch then placed the knife back in its sheath and in her backpack. She wiped a tear and continued running towards the shelter. She kept running by herself until she saw a horrid sight. Her mother and three brothers feeding on a woman. She realized there was no time for sympathy. She ran in the opposite direction not wanting to end up like her family. She wandered into the city, shaken from what she just saw. There she found Carlito and Samson.

...

"Okay, everyone's here?" Samson asks the group.

Everyone nods but Alex furrows her eyebrows. "Uhm, Kate's not here."

"I'm here! Sorry I'm late." Kate runs the room and plops down onto an empty chair.

"You're okay, Kate. So, now that we have double the amount of people in our group, we need tasks for everyone here. Alex, you're pretty much the leader of the three of you, right?" She nods, " Okay. You three are the fittest for fighting and baiting."

Danny spewed his water out "Baiting?!"

"Don't worry, waterworks. Y'all are the fastest runners out of the six of us. You guys are in charge of misdirecting the infected when Carlito and I scavenge for food and supplies or when our defenses malfunction. We mapped out all safe ends so as long as you run fast, you're good."

"That's not how you use waterworks." Danny mumbles under his breath as he wipes his chin.

"So that brings us on to you." Samson says as he points to Carlito.

"Carlito and I will be in charge of rescuing all refugees and getting supplies for the base."

Carlito nods as Kate raises her brows.

"And for Kate, you will be in charge of taking care of any new refugees and watching the monitors." Samson says.

Everyone is happy with their posts and gets to work. The Trio go outside to get some training in before nightfall. Kate sets her post up in the computer room near the main living room. Samson and Carlito start drawing on their maps to mark off any places that are dangerous or safe.

"Uh, guys? You might wanna take a look at this." Kate calls out after about two hours.

The five go into the computer room curious as to what the fuck she's talking about.

"What's up Kate? Danny asks."

"Take a look at the top left monitor." She gestures to the screen and everyone follows her gaze.

"How'd you get into the street cams?" Bent wonders aloud.

"The signal is strong here and the cams were also using it so when I discovered the channel, I immediately hacked in and discovered the jackpot." Kate said with pride, "Anyway, I was browsing through the cams and found a this."

On the monitor showed an abandoned restaurant with crawlers trying to get in.

"What's so special in there that they flood the place?" Carlito asks no one in particular.

"Survivors" Everyone answers in unison.

"We need a plan, then." Alex says.

Kate types something into the keyboard and finds the location of the restaurant.

"Gerty's diner, 1385 Magsaysay." Bent reads.

"We gotta help them then." Alex says.

"We don't even know if anyone's alive in there!" Samson exclaims.

"Even if they're dead, there's bound to be some supplies in there." Danny says.

"Fine. Samson and Kate, you two stay here while the four of us go into town." Carlito says

Kate looks at Samson and vice versa. She groans and leans back in her chair. She never really liked company.

"Why can't I just stay here? Alone?" Kate whines.

"Because you need defenses just in case the fence isnt strong enough." Carlito replies.

Kate repeatedly hits her dead on the desk.

"Stop that you'll get hurt." Samson says, "It'll only be 1 or 2 hours."

The four go out to devise a plan. Samson goes to the kitchen to get water and Kate types something into the keyboard to see if she can hack into the restaurant's security cameras... if they work.

***The Main Room***

"So, how do we get in the restaurant?" Alex asks the three boys..

"We run in but we need a distraction." Carlito plans.

"Bent and Alex will go into the shop. Carlito, you and I will go running to the East safe stop and avert the infected from the two star-crossed lovers."

Bent elbows Danny in the gut as Alex blushes.

"urghh." Danny groans clutching his side.

Carlito raised his brow and chuckled. "You guys are really weird."

J