I could hear the ticking from Shane's watch. 

Our room was silent aside from that along with the slight rasp in his breathing, and one of those things was driving me absolutely bonkers. I had to resist the urge to wrap my hand around the clock's face to stifle the sound.

I didn't want to risk waking him up though, so I dealt with my insanity quietly and by myself. I was sitting cross-legged on my side of the bed, letting my knee rest lightly on Shane's leg.

Over the years, we've both found we sleep better with some sort of contact from the other, whether it's being wrapped up together or just barely touching. It doesn't matter, just as long as we somehow know the other is there and safe.

We'd actually taken to just having back to back shifts at night since, inevitably, we begin to wake up as soon as the other leaves. Barring anything like sickness, injury or anything else that causes that absolute, deadly exhaustion we've all become so familiar with, of course.

A book on the Freemasons rested in the cradle formed by my crossed legs. I had been trying to read in the pale morning light for half an hour now. That was easier than laying in bed simply waiting for Kyle, Cassidy, Danielle and Aaron to get back.

My eyes had scanned over the same passage three times without anything sinking in. My grandfather had been a Freemason... that's why I'd picked it. But honestly, I'm not sure anything could have held my attention in that moment.

Not with the way my heart was thrumming uncomfortably in my throat, or the way my hands had turned cold where they rested on the wide pages. I flipped the page to be confronted by a glossy, full-page picture of a Templar knight.

It was a striking painting: the knight was kneeling before his sword, which he had planted into the sandy earth. His helmet was tucked under his arm, his face streaked with dirt and blood and somehow sad. His white tabard, bearing the red Templar cross on his chest was torn and stained with black soot. 

The chainmail covering his arm—the one that could be seen—had been rended in three different places. His gauntlets shone with some clever trick of the paint.

I stared down at it, not really sure why it had so thoroughly captured my attention. After a moment, I decided it probably didn't matter.

Later I decided it was two things. One, the knight had been alone when he shouldn't have been. Two, he looked completely and utterly exhausted, like he was just taking a moment to try and rally himself again.

Like he was preparing for the next battle... or perhaps slaughter.

I realized that I was intimately familiar with the expression the knight wore. I'd been exactly where he had, sans the sword and shield.

Warm fingers grazed my arm, making me tear my eyes away from the picture. Shane was watching me, and I suddenly wondered how long he'd been awake. If he'd seen the way I'd been staring at the picture.

Something grim in his eyes told me he had, but that he didn't know what to do about it.

The ticking of the watch grabbed my attention again. My hand turned into a fist where it rested on the smooth pages of the book. I swallowed and opened my mouth to confess what I'd done, but he already knew.

"You let them go see what it was," he said, "didn't you?"

Silently, I nodded, my eyes burning again. "I—" I coughed, clearing my throat "—I shouldn't have. I should have..."

"Stopped them? Made them wait?" Shane asked with a sigh, rubbing at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "How, Raleigh?"

I shrugged. "Or gone with them."

He made a small growling sound before sitting up. He looked a bit better after a night of mostly decent sleep, but there were still shadows under his eyes and his skin was still pale. He reached forward and cupped my face with one hand, brushing a thumb over my cheek, starting at the corner of my mouth.

I relaxed into the warmth, surprised by the tear that slipped free. Shane leaned forward and kissed it away.

"Whoever it was is dead," I said miserably. "I didn't want them to go but I didn't have the strength to stop them."

Shane gathered me to his chest. Comforting, not condemning. He shared my same weariness, and knew exactly where I was coming from.

"How long have they been gone?" His voice was still soft, but I could detect the thready undercurrent of fresh worry.

The sound made me squeeze my eyes shut, burying my face in his chest. Shane stroked a hand down my back, waiting for me to pull myself together.

I didn't know how to explain it. Didn't know how to tell him why I was so upset.

I think he knew though.

It was because I'd picked him over them, in essence putting what I needed above them. Above these people I loved and had sworn repeatedly to protect, to care for. I know they think I'm insane. I know they don't see it that way at all, but it doesn't matter because I do.

It hurt to realize that after all this time I was still capable of such selfishness. And not selfishness from the world, which doesn't bother me, but rather selfishness with them.

Maybe Shane's tendencies where family is concerned had started to rub off on me. Maybe it was just me trying to reconcile with the fact that I'd always been this way and it wasn't ever going to change.

Not even for the end of the world and everyone I loved more than life.

It hardly mattered. All that mattered was I'd made a stupid decision, said stupid things and now the fallout was tearing me to pieces inside.

"Raleigh," he said, the worry becoming stronger when I took way too long to answer him.

I sucked in a shaky breath and shrugged as much as I could with him still holding me. "Around thirty minutes. The scream came from across town. They haven't been gone too long."

Shane's hand continued to stroke down my back and I closed my eyes. Seconds later, the front door was banging open and someone was breathing hard, yelling for me and Shane. I baled out of his lap and we both rushed out of the room, rattling pictures down from the walls in our haste.

Aaron stood in the kitchen, hands braced on his knees as he caught his breath. Victoria and Sacha hovered in the door from the living room. Sweat rolled in beads down the side of his face, and I realized he must have run all the way back from across town.

"What?" Shane asked, dread hard and terrible in his voice.

Ice flooded through my veins, the blood draining from my face.

Aaron stood up, face grim, but not destroyed. Not the face of someone who had just seen his people die around him. There was no blood on him and he still had his weapons.

"There are... people," he said. "People here."

"What kind of people?" Vic asked, her voice raw and scared.

Aaron shrugged helplessly, looking at the both of us. He glanced at me first, something strange in his face, then looked to Shane. "Kyle and the others stayed there. Told me to come back and get you. They," Aaron shook his head, "they just want to talk."

"Or they just want us all in one place so it makes us easier to kill," Shane nearly snarled. "So that they don't have to worry about anyone who comes hunting."

Aaron straightened up, meeting Shane's gaze dead-on. "I don't think so. They gave me this."

We watched as Aaron dug into his pocket and tossed something at Shane. I snatched the bottle out of his hands before he could really look at it. "Cough suppressant?" I asked in disbelief. This was practically impossible to find anymore, which was why Shane had just dealt with being miserable. "How did... how did they know?" I finished faintly.

Aaron's throat bobbed, and he shrugged. "They just asked if any of us were sick. I think, I don't know if they maybe heard you," his eyes flicked to Shane, "last night. It was loud."

"Not loud enough to draw any zombies," I countered. Shane had blanched as soon as Aaron said anything, but I didn't think that was all that likely. The walls of this house weren't that thin.

"Then I don't know." Aaron threw his hands up in the air. We both looked at him in surprise and he scrubbed both hands through his hair. "I don't like it," he said. "I don't. They just came out of nowhere. They had guns, but they didn't threaten us. Not once. They gave us that. Kyle sent me back to get you. I didn't know what else to do, Shane."

That seemed to snap something back into place for Shane. That was his job—to know what to do when no one else did... or to at least pretend like he did.

"How many?" he asked, voice now calm.

"Seven," Aaron said promptly. "They all came out. No one hung back in that group. They said they have a few more back at the place they're staying."

"Where's that?" I asked.

His eyebrows furrowed and he snorted. "Did you know there's a fort here? It was one of those living museum things."

"Walls," I said, a mix of dismay and interest in my voice.

"It's like a calvary fort thing." Aaron shrugged. "That's what they said."

"They just... told you all this?" Sacha asked, stamping into his boots. Viktoria met my gaze, her face pale, and she shook her head minutely at me.

I understood her feelings precisely. But there was nothing else to be done. Kyle, Cassidy and Danielle were sitting around with a bunch of strangers, waiting on us. I lifted a single shoulder in apology and watched as her jaw clenched, the muscles in her neck showing up in stark lines.

"They frickin' strolled up to us like it was a damn picnic," Aaron muttered.

I snickered, regardless of how inappropriate that was. "What?" I asked, fighting against my smile.

Aaron just shrugged helplessly. He didn't have anything better, bewildered as he was by all of this. "I don't know. I... they're just... normal?"

Shane and I exchanged wry glances. 

"Define normal," Shane said, checking the few weapons in his belt. A sidearm and two knives, and the gun I knew was light.

"I mean, they're wary. But they're not hostile," Aaron said. "I think they just want to talk."

"About?" I asked, skeptical now. Nobody wanted to just talk anymore.

"They wouldn't say," Aaron answered. "Like I said, they seemed to know there were more of us, and they wanted to wait to talk to us all."

Again, Aaron gave me a strange look I couldn't decipher. Of course, now I know what he was so weirded out by, but we're getting there.

"So, we're really just going?" Vik asked in disbelief.

We all kind of hesitated, but there genuinely wasn't anything else to do, once again. This world has a marvelous capacity for the number of times it can back you into a corner.

Shane rubbed at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger before pinching the bridge of his nose. I placed a hand on his arm, making him glance down at me. I looked around at the others and said, "Kyle stayed. They let Aaron come back. They have medicine."

I held up the cough suppressant like it was Exhibit A.

"No!" Viktoria burst out, startling all the rest of us. She stormed into the middle of us and looked right at Shane. "No more people, Shane. I don't want them. We can't risk anymore!"

Tears sparkled in her eyes and I could feel how Shane locked up beside me. Even after two years and plenty of practice with me, he still didn't face up to them well.

Aaron kind of swooped in for the save on that one. Gently, he put a hand on Vik's shoulder, making her spin around to glare up at him.

"Kyle's waiting for us," he reminded her softly.

I should have known that would be the card to play. Vik had always had a soft spot for Kyle—after Lauren, Vik had been the only one he'd let near him and she'd spent plenty of nights curled up in his side when the rest of us had been unable to even approach him, strangled as we were by the weight of his grief.

Her face was pale, brown eyes dark, but finally she nodded. She wasn't happy about it, none of us were. But, once again, we didn't really have a choice.

It wasn't like we could whip out a cellphone anymore and let Kyle know we weren't cool with this little neighborhood meet and greet, so he should just come on home now. We had to go and get him.

One thing to be said about the end of the world, I guess, is that it really saved our ability to have face-to-face interactions.

But that's neither here nor there.

We did a final check on all our weapons, then left the house. The rest of our stuff we stowed in the truck, which was in the garage. Shane's fingers lingered on the door handle, and it was like I could read his mind.

If things went sideways, we might be forced to abandon the truck, abandon everything. And that was the optimistic view of how this might end.

Aaron led us through the streets, in the direction that scream had come from. I was all but glued to Shane's side as we walked, making sure he never faltered, never wobbled. My heart felt too slow, like it hadn't realized this was supposed to be a tense moment.

Or maybe it had just stopped caring.

Viktoria stuck close to Aaron, her fingers gripping the edge of his sleeve. Even a few paces behind them I could see how white her knuckles were.

After maybe another twenty minutes of fast-paced walking, Aaron called over his shoulder, "Just around that corner."

Everyone's hand slid down to a weapon. My fingers tapped against the head of the hatchet I had in my belt. Shane and I shared one last glance before we filtered around the corner, automatically spreading into a staggered line.

It isn't a good idea to stay all clumped up. It just makes for a bigger target.

In the middle of the street, standing in a loose circle, I made out three familiar silhouettes. Again, Shane and I looked at one another, then looked at the group. While each faction stood a little seperate from each other, it didn't look like things were about to come un-glued.

Kyle looked over, his face tight, but not angry, and something inside me relaxed slightly. He walked away from the group, astonishing me with the fact that he put his back to them.

Shane made a sound that echoed my own surprise low in his throat, but lengthened his stride to meet his brother.

However, Kyle was looking just at me. That same odd thing I'd seen on Aaron's face was on his, and my heart finally picked up a little. Shane grabbed his brother's arm, but all Kyle had to do was glance at his brother.

"Five minutes," Kyle said, and Shane nodded. Kyle extended a hand to me. "Raleigh... I think there's someone you need to meet."

My eyebrows jerked together, but Shane kind of nudged me forward. I took Kyle's hand and let him bring me over to the people. Danielle and Cassidy both gave me reassuring nods, and I breathed a little easier.

They were okay.

Then I caught a glimpse of the woman standing in the middle of the new people. Well, woman might be a bit of a stretch.

Don't look at me like that. You're barely a legal adult now.

My fingers went sort of numb in Kyle's as I gaped at what appeared to be a younger, better fed version of myself. 

We've got the same eyes. I suppose they're our father's eyes. Same hair, same nose and mouth. Enough to make me really wonder if your mother looks as much like mine as I suspect.

But seeing as how neither of us have a picture, I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I stumbled back a step to run right into Shane, who gripped my elbows as I stared, my knees feeling like rubber. He sucked in a startled breath, pressing me closer into his chest. Then I heard a small squeak of surprise from Viktoria.

Could you have been a completely random person who just happened to look freakishly like me? Sure.

But that possibility flew right out the damn window when my father stepped up beside you, staring at me like he'd seen a ghost.

Which... I suppose he kind of had.