January 1st, 2020
Interstate 40 East, Tennessee

"I still can't believe we're leaving them behind like that," Will grumbled, while they drove further and further away from Foghills, toward some town called, South Fork way out in Virginia.

"They'll be fine. They're experts in their fields. They'll be able to handle it. Just trust me." Ash rolled his eyes, just as fed up as the rest of them with the pissy mood Will had been in for the last six hours since they'd left Kit's property.

"How're you on the ingredients for that camo spell you've been using?" Jack changed the subject entirely. They had a long way to drive, and he didn't want to get stranded in the middle of the flatlands when witches or other monsters attacked them.

"I'm getting low. We'll have to stop tomorrow sometime so I can stock up again." Marley's voice was slightly muffled as she looked through her favorite shoulder bag for everything she needed.

"I'll keep a lookout for any good stores. Hey, guys, how're we all doing on money?" Jack locked eyes with Ash through the rearview mirror and they shared a look.

"I'm poor as dirt," Marley blurted out with a grin, and Will nodded similarly.

"Me too." Ash glanced out the window at the darkened passing scenery, as they drove through Tennessee headed for Nashville.

Jack's mouth opened in shock. "I gave you all two grand. How did you spend it that fast? And didn't we each get paid a hundred for the Tolliver job?"

"Food." Ash shrugged.

Will mimicked his gesture. "Technology."

Marley shot Jack a sheepish smile through the rearview mirror. "Ingredients for my spells aren't cheap."

Jack shook his long dark curls out of his eyes, resisting the urge to slam his head against the steering wheel multiple times. "Well, I guess we're gonna be making stops along the way to sell weed. We're not gonna get by on a job by job basis."

"Selling weed?" Will groaned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"There's a storage compartment in the very back and it's filled with a shitload of weed that we got from Lee." Jack stoically ignored the dirty looks he got from Ash. "What? He's gonna find out at some point."

"What if we get pulled over?"

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. "If I hadn't told you would you have figured it out?" he asked, not receiving a response in return. They all knew what it would've been anyway.

"I've got a few buddies we can sell in bulk to," Ash spoke up sourly. "I'll give you directions when we get close. Just stay on course though."

Marley was in the middle of asking a question about the town they were headed to, when Jack's phone rang suddenly in his pocket. "Hello?" He unintentionally cut her off as he kept most of his focus fixed on the road ahead of him.

"Jack? Is that you?" a voice hissed frantically on the other end of the line.

"Sophia? Yeah, it's me. Is everything okay? Why are you whispering?"

"I need your help. Stix and I are trapped, and the people in this fucking town have gone insane. Please, Jack. You need to get your ass out to South Fork, Virginia as soon as you fucking can!" Their connection started breaking up as she spoke.

"We're on our way there, now. We'll be there soon, just hold on, okay? What's happening?"

"We're trapped in the basement of some kind of warehouse. I've only met a couple survivors, but everyone's getting picked off one by one. I saw a few other Exterminators, but we've all been separated. I think whatever's making these people this way... it's gotta be spreading somehow. There were only three or four cases when we arrived here a week ago. Now the whole town has descended into chaos. We have to contain this, Jack." Sophia's voice crackled in and out as their connection kept getting interrupted.

"We'll be there in less than a day. Please stay safe."

"I will. Just hurry. Oh, and Jack, bring weapons. These people are fucking crazy."

"No problem." He pushed down harder on the gas pedal, going way too fast, but nobody in the car uttered a word. "I'll see you soon."

"Okay." Sophia took a deep, steadying breath. "Thanks, Jack."

"No problem. We'll be there to help in no time," he swore, hanging up the phone and sliding it back into his pocket.

"What was that about?" Ash sat forward rigidly.

"Sophia Knight." Jack tried his best not to let on how freaked out her call had made him. "She and Stix need our help. They're trapped in South Fork."

"So... this means we're not stopping anywhere?" Marley asked slowly.

"Right." Jack sped up even faster, flying by all the other cars on the road, but sure to keep an eye out for a cop or state patrolman.

"Yo, Jacky. Pull over and let me drive for a while. You're looking a little anxious, and it's not making me feel great."

Instead of arguing about it, Jack silently did as he was told, trading seats with Ash, and staring at his phone every few seconds just in case she called again. "What if we don't get to them in time?" Fear raced through his veins and settled in his chest. All the "what if" questions started cycling rapidly through his thoughts. Horrible images flashed through his mind incessantly, making his stomach churn with nausea.

"Jack," Marley said softly, while Keala moved to lay her head in his lap. "Calm down. Smoke a joint. But just chill, we can all feel your anxiety like a blanket."

Jack's head snapped in her direction, his dark eyes furrowed. "What do you mean you can all feel it?"

"I think... I think you influence the moods of people around you," Marley whispered her theory, her eyes wide with realization. "When you're happy most of the people around you are happy too. And when you're sad or angry or scared, people feel it."

"Is that true?" Jack stared at the back of Ash's head, while Will shrugged in the passenger seat.

"I've always thought so. It's why having you on jobs comes in handy. When you're calm and collected anyway."

"You knew and didn't tell me?" His heart pounded against his ribs even faster than before, as emotions flooded his system.

"Yeah, because I figured you'd end up like this. So, calm the fuck down, 'cause you're making the rest of us feel terrible too!" Ash snapped rigidly, and Jack immediately fixed his gaze on the endless fields they passed, working to settle his nerves, so everyone else in the car could feel at ease too. He'd never realized his effect on people before and it made him wonder about things he'd forgotten or suppressed.

"H-h-how? Why?" Jack stuttered out, running his fingers through Keala's fur. It was nearing midnight, but he wasn't the least bit tired.

"It's another family thing." Ash shrugged. "Comes from Dad's side. I don't know how or why, but there are people in the family who have more influence over people than others. We're a charismatic bunch."

"Huh..." A calm silence settled over the car and long after Marley and Will had already passed out, Jack was still wide awake. "Hey, Ash?" he asked an hour or so later, as they drove closer and closer toward their destination.

"What's up, man?"

"What do you think is happening in that town? What are we about to face?" Jack lowered his voice he wouldn't wake their siblings.

"I have no idea." Ash yawned. "But whatever it is, we'll figure it out. Don't worry."

Jack didn't reply, pulling out his tin of joints instead and lighting one up to calm him even further. Maybe everything would be fine. But it didn't seem that way at the moment. Not when he could still hear Sophia's frightened voice ringing in his ears. There were so many people recently that he couldn't save, if the Knight girl was on that list too, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to live with himself.

"Do you want me to drive for a while?" he asked, seeing Ash's heavy eyelids having trouble staying open. There was no way Jack would be getting a wink of sleep, so he wouldn't have that same problem driving through the rest of the night.

"Sure." Ash pulled into a rest stop and switched places with him. "Thanks, man."

"No problem."

While the others slept, Jack's mind whirled with random thoughts popping in and out over the course of the six hours everyone else was unconscious for. Mostly, though, he wondered what Dick was using his newfound freedom for. The first day they'd met, Dick had insisted on possessing him because he had something to take care of, but he never really mentioned it much after that. Jack actually kinda missed him though. The thought of Dick dying was suddenly really sad to him, especially after all they'd been through.

"We're in Virginia already? Jeez, how fast were you going?" Ash sat up and leaned forward to look out the windshield.

Jack shrugged. "Not fast enough, 'cause we're still about an hour and a half away. Oh, your phone was ringing." He slowed down to take the first exit he saw. "You wanna drive now?"

"Okay." Ash pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and swiped at the screen to see who called. He had one missed call from Haru, one from Georgia, and several from Lee. "That can't be good..."

"What?" Jack and Ash switched places again as the sun rose higher in the sky with every passing minute.

"The Lockwood family is calling about something. That's never a good sign. Especially when Georgia picks up a phone. Shit."

"Well what are you waiting for? Call them back."

But instead of dialing anyone's number to see what was going on, Ash shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Not right now. Why don't you call Georgia, though? See if it's anything she needs immediately. Tell her we're on a job or make something up. I don't care."

"Why don't you want to do it yourself?" Jack narrowed his eyes at his brother, but pulled his own phone out anyway and hit the speed dial number for Georgia Lockwood, pressing the device to his ear. In the driver's seat, Ash remained silent.

"Jack, dear, where the hell is your brother?" Georgia greeted after only the second ring, as if she'd been expecting his call.

"He's driving. We're on a job. How'd you know it was me, ma'am?"

"My secret." He could practically hear her smirking through the phone. "Anyway, tell that brother of yours he needs to call his girlfriend. She's having a meltdown in her bedroom and won't tell anyone why. She wouldn't even let Haru in. She's scaring the guests and she needs to quit. So, have him call her." There was an edge to her voice that he'd never heard before. It scared him a little.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll let him know." His voice cracked slightly, making Ash smirk, like he'd planned it all along.

"Thank you, dear. And let that brother of yours know, I'm considering chopping his balls off the next time I see him." She hung up on him before he had a chance to respond.

"Wow... You must've done something. Lee's pissed. So is Georgia. What happened?"

Ash shrugged, his eyes wide and the smirk slipping off his face at the seriousness of Jack's voice. "I didn't do anything. Sometimes Lee just goes insane."

"I don't think that's what this is..."

"It'll be fine." Ash turned on the radio, which promptly woke Marley and Will and ended their conversation.

"What will?" Marley questioned groggily.

"Everything," Ash said confidently. "You'll see. Everything will work out fine."

The closer they got to the town of South Fork, the less idle chatter there was between them. They went from arguing over who talked the most in their sleep, to strategizing which way they'd enter the town. Will brought up a view of the town online, so they could all familiarize themselves with it, and memorize major landmarks.

"Sophia said she and Stix were hiding out inside a warehouse. I say we check the industrial part of the town first and find them, before we do anything else. This is going to be dangerous." Jack yawned as he assisted with the planning.

"Jack, if you're going to be any help to us at all," Marley whispered, so only he could hear her, "you have to get some freaking sleep."

"Fine." As Ash and Will continued their plans, Jack finally let his heavy eyelids slide closed and allowed himself to fall into the land of anxious dreams and terrifying nightmares. He didn't wake up again until he was jolted by a sharp voice.

"Wake up, Jack! It's time to go!" The voice spoke quietly into his ear, but when he opened his eyes it was like no one had said anything. Marley was staring out the window on the other side of the car and Will and Ash were engaged in a deep discussion, which sounded like it involved what was going to happen now that their "one-month" trip had officially turned longer than that.

"Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what, Jacky?"

"That voice...?" Jack answered slowly, glancing around the truck. He turned his gaze outside and when he looked back, Dick Grayson was sitting on the seat next to him. "Goddamn." He jumped at the ghost's sudden appearance. "Never mind, guys. It was just Dick."

"Dick Grayson is back?" Marley squealed excitedly. "Awesome." She grinned widely, locking eyes with Jack.

"It certainly appears so. What happened?"

"I spent the last week inside a powerful witch. It was fun when I wasn't fighting with him. I'm stronger, though, so I had him in control the entire time."

"What happened then?" Jack leaned his head back against his seat, while Ash turned off the highway and onto a road leading through a forest. They were getting close.

"I tried to use him to infiltrate the witches. Not the coven he was from obviously, since I didn't kill that woman. But I found some good information on this witch doing this spell. It's not just one. Jeremy has an entire coven out performing those spells to make the monsters come back all over the world," Dick explained, never really giving Jack the answer he wanted.

"How did you get back here? What happened to Marron?" Jack was acutely aware of his siblings listening in on his side of the conversation.

Dick scratched the back of his head, shrugging sheepishly. "I... um... Jeremy found out I wasn't Marron so he killed Marron."

Jack choked a little to keep from laughing. "He killed Marron, because he found out you weren't him. That seems a little unproductive, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Basically. I tried to tell him what would happen, but he blasted me back here anyway. I missed you guys, though. How's it been since I've been gone?" Jack shook his head, working his hardest to keep from smiling. It wasn't really the time for stuff like that.

"We missed you too, Dick. It's been... weird without you," Jack admitted solemnly. "We're on our way to a job."

Dick looked around at Jack and his siblings. "I gathered that. We wouldn't happen to be going to a town called, South Fork, would we?"

"Yes, why?" Jack responded evenly. Nothing the ghost could say would get him to turn around or stay away. He'd made Sophia a promise, and he was bound and determined to keep it, no matter what they were about to head into.

"We can't go there. At least not with Marley. Exterminators have been flocking to this town, and not one of them has been heard from again. Even if they are somehow alive there, what if they see Marley? Don't you think enough of them have heard the tales of the half-breeds too? What if they try to kill her? Or what if it's a trap to lure you there, so the witches can capture you? They haven't completed the task yet, and I heard they tried a few times." Dick's gaze landed on Marley, who stared through him at Jack.

"What's he saying, Jack?" she asked, concern etched into the contours of her face.

"I think he's warning us not to take you into the town." Jack tasted the words out on his tongue, they were bitter and hard to spit out. He didn't like the idea of leaving Marley out. Not after all they'd been through together.

"Why? We're not leaving her by herself somewhere. That's out of the question."

"There are Exterminators crawling all over that town, Ash. And besides, we don't even know what's going on in there. What if it's something new? We need Marley to stay alive. We need her to stay safe." Jack took Dick's words very seriously. What if something happened to them? What if they weren't able to save Sophia after all, and they all ended up dead? He couldn't risk letting her go with them. He wouldn't.

"Jack? Really?" Marley complained. "We're still protected with the spell I did."

"It won't work for long if she uses her magic. She's powerful. More so than she knows. And Jeremy's using that to track her, and anyone else like her."

"Anyone else like her?" Jack clarified, a frown flitting across his face. His thoughts immediately snapped to Arizona Paxton, the half-reaper drug-dealer he'd met when he and Ash picked up Lee's last shipment for her.

Dick Grayson shot him a bland look. "You know what I mean. Other half-breeds. She's never been the only one. There aren't a lot out there, and the people who are, either aren't aware of their gifts, or are deep in hiding. All I'm saying is that I think it's safer for her to sit this one out."

"Fine. Dick says it's too dangerous, Mars. I don't like it either. But we can find a spot overlooking South Fork."

"Jack, you wouldn't suggest it if you didn't really believe him, would you?" Will turned around in his seat so he could lock eyes with Jack.

"Why would I? I think Marley is the fucking coolest," he answered truthfully, sounding sad.

"Alright, Mars, I'm sorry. But you're gonna have to stay back," Ash grumbled. None of them were happy about the new turn of events.

"This is so stupid!" Annoyance dripped from Marley's voice as she crossed her arms and glared at the back of Ash's head. "I could probably help! People are disappearing and we have no idea why."

"It'll be alright, Mars. We wouldn't leave you out normally, you know that." Jack hated seeing the look of resentment plastered across her pixie-like features. "The witch who's started all of this put a hit out on you. Monsters, witches, Exterminators, and who knows what else are going to be look for you. You have to promise me you'll sit this one out and won't use any spells, okay?"

"Okay." Marley glared stonily out her window as they passed a sign saying South Fork was only a few more miles further.

"There's an overlook just up that road where you can see the entire town." Dick gave Jack just enough time to relay the directions before Ash missed the turn altogether.

"It looks to me, like we're going to be entering at the eastern side of town. We have a straight shot right into the industrial area. Is there any way you can call Sophia and ask her for more specifics on where to find her?" Will stared at the map on his tablet and drew their intended path with his finger in red pixel-y ink.

"I can try." Jack pulled his phone out and dialed Sophia's number. He'd talked to her plenty in the weeks since he'd last seen her, but mostly they just texted about random things. Usually related to whatever case they were on or headed to.

Her phone rang a few times, before he heard her sweet voice from the other end of the line. "Hello... Jack, is that you?" Her voiced sounded crackly through their bad connection.

"It's me. We're just outside town. Are you okay? Where are you?" He fired questions at her one by one, hoping to hear that everything was fine. Maybe they even made it out, and didn't need them after all.

"We're trapped, Jack. We ran out of water. We need help," she whispered, and Jack had to piece her words together to figure out what she was saying. Sometimes her voice was really clear and sometimes it was like white noise through the phone.

"I'm on my way. Do you know which building you're in? Or anything that might help us find you?"

"You're breaking up, Jack. I can't hear you. We're in a building at the edge of town. But be careful these people are-" The call dropped before Sophia had a chance to finish her sentence and Jack considered smashing his phone against his window as Ash parked the car and they all wordlessly jumped out.

"Damn. She said she's in a building on the edge of town, but there are tons of buildings. We can't search them all fast enough. Something is going on down there."

Ash walked around to the back of the truck and started pulling out his cache of weapons. "Okay, what do you think we're looking at, ghost boy? Vampires? Werewolves? Leeches?"

Jack shook his head. "None of the above," he answered, while Marley stepped out to the edge of the large hill they were standing on overlooking almost the entire town. "Sophia said the townspeople were getting infected with something. And whatever it is, it's contagious. But she's been there a week, so it must not be airborne."

"Alright." Ash threw the necessary weapons into bags for all of them. "Guns it is. We'll start with rubber bullets. It won't kill 'em, but it'll probably slow them down." Will came around with his tablet in his hands, setting it on the carpet of the Blazer so they could all look at it.

"So we're over here, and there are three buildings we can check for Sophia and Stix before we even get to the first houses in town. While Jack was talking to her, I figured out a way to trace where her cellphone signal is coming from, so it will make it easier to find wherever she's hiding." He took the duffle bag that Ash handed him, easily slinging it over one shoulder and shoving his handgun into the holster on his belt.

"Well... what are you waiting for, where is the signal coming from?" Jack asked, earning an annoyed glare from his older brother.

"The program that I have, it only works if I'm in a certain range of her phone," Will admitted, while Jack shouldered his pack and Ash slammed the car door shut.

"That kinda sucks."

"Mars, will you keep an eye on Keala for me? Make sure she doesn't get into any trouble or anything?" Jack scratched his dog in her favorite spot behind her ear before, commanding her to stay and protect Marley. Instead of ignoring him like she would have anyone else, Keala obediently went and sat down at Marley's feet, glancing over at Jack as if in approval. "Good girl. Stay with her." Keala barked once, remaining seated, while he and his brothers headed down the rocky hillside filled with long, wild grass and weeds and trees, toward the closest building on Will's map.

"I don't think it's this one." When they got close, Will glanced at the tablet in his hands that he'd modified to his specifications.

"Onto the next one then." Ash and Jack followed Will's lead as they hiked through the light snow-covered forest floor with ease.

"Um... guys, how do we know when a person is infected with whatever this is?" Will asked skeptically, interrupting the mild, whispered, conversation Jack and Ash had slipped into about what direction they'd head if they couldn't find Sophia and Stix before they got further into town.

"Sophia said it was like all the townspeople had gone insane." Jack checked his gun to make sure it was loaded for the fourth or fifth time since they'd started their trek into the unfamiliar wilderness.

"Like... that?" Will pointed his gun at a man rushing through the trees straight toward them, just as the final building they had to check came into view. The man's eyes were wild and glossy-looking, and blood splattered his entire body like paint on a canvas.

"Just like that." Jack watched with his heart racing as Will fired two shots, hitting the man square in the chest and sending him sprawling back down the hill. "Wow... I didn't think that'd actually work." Jack nodded his head in approval. Before they could move much more than a few steps, though, the man started to get up, a little wobbly on his feet, until his eyes locked on them and he started running once more.

"Okay, so rubber bullets don't work," Ash grumbled a little frantically. Pulling a handgun out of the back of his jeans, he shot the heavyset man in a ranger's uniform in both feet, and the guy started screaming in pain, but that time he stayed down.

"Let's go. We're gonna have to go around the other side, just in case there are more people like that. Sophia said she was trapped."

Will's device let off a shrill beeping noise that startled them all, but only made him glance down in mild surprise. "I think they're here. Or at least, her cellphone is close by." The three of them tried to walk as quietly as possible through the woods and around the long stone building that looked like an old ranger's station outpost. It could've been a storage shed of some kind?

"We just need to find an entrance." Jack slipped through the trees ahead of his brother and stopped short when he caught sight of the double-doored main entrance to the building. Whatever those infected people were, there were a few milling around on the outside. "She said she was in the basement."

Will's face went ghostly white. "Shit. That means we have to go inside there, doesn't it?"

Ash nodded his head solemnly. "That's usually what happens when the people you need to rescue are trapped downstairs." They tiptoed slowly through the trees, doing a sweep of the entire perimeter of the building. "It looks like that's the only way in. Damn."

"Maybe not..." Jack said slowly. "Look, there's a ladder to the roof. Maybe there's a door there."

"Good eye." Ash clapped him on the shoulder and nearly sent him flying into a tree. "Oops, sorry. I forget how scrawny you are sometimes."

Jack resisted the urge to spout out something sarcastic, just barely managing to hold his tongue. "Let's just go, who knows how many are actually inside the place." He walked quickly toward the edge of the trees where they were hidden from view of the rabid people wandering around.

"You guys go. I'll watch your back from here. Make sure none of those things try to go after you."

"Fine. But next time, Will, you get to go into the creepy basement."

"I always go," Jack pointed out, not that he minded that time. They wouldn't have been able to stop him from trying to save Sophia.

"We've gotta be stealth about this. Make sure we don't accidentally get someone else killed." Ash led the way as quietly as they could down the hill and toward the ladder attached to the building hanging up just out of reach.

"Uh... Ash. Hurry," Jack hissed when he glanced over and made eye contact with one of the Psychos.

"Here." Ash grabbed Jack by the waist and gave him a boost up the ladder before jumping up himself. He just barely made it too when the Rabid grabbed his foot and started making horrible growling and shrieking noises, alerting the others. But before they had a chance to make a move toward their friend, a shot rang out of the trees and hit the Rabid in the shoulder, sending him flying backward and giving Jack and Ash a chance to escape onto the roof, looking for a door that would lead them down.

"There." Jack pointed to a metal doorway in the middle of the roof. "Think it's unlocked?"

Ash shrugged, rushing to the door and dropping his gear. "If it isn't, it will be soon." He tried the handle first, and pulled out his lock-pick set when it didn't open. While Jack looked around nervously, waiting for more of those things to start flooding the rooftop any second, Ash worked swiftly to unlock the door.

"It comes in handy to have a criminal as a brother every once in a while," Jack teased, grabbing Ash's gear and shoving it back into his hands, before grasping the rungs of the ladder and beginning his steady climb down.

"Be careful, there might be some Rabid people down there, and it doesn't look like there's a light on."

"It's okay." Jack tried to sound confident, but felt a lot less so as he descended into the darkness, hearing shrieks and wails echoing through the building, not at all sure which direction they were coming from. He was almost to the ground when something grabbed him. "Ash! Something has my leg." He kicked at whatever it was as he fumbled with his flashlight, trying to get it to turn on.

"I'm coming," Ash called down behind him as Jack finally flipped the light, and shined it right in the face, of whatever was digging into his flesh with their fingers. The Rabid screeched and dropped him, turning and running straight into another Rabid. Not only did they stumble into the warehouse where Sophia and Stix were trapped, but where dozens of those out of control people had been locked inside as well.

"I really wish this place had a cellar." Jack tiptoed along the catwalk he'd landed on and tried not to catch the attention of the Rabids milling about below, attacking each other every so often.

"They've definitely been infected with something." Ash took out the one who'd grabbed Jack's leg when he recovered from the blinding light in his eyes and tried to attack them again. He shot it with his favorite tranquilizer gun, dropping the guy instantly.

"Nice. At least now we won't have to keep trying to shoot them in nonfatal places." Stopping on the last step, Jack pulled his pack off his shoulder and quickly switched out the gun on his holster with a tranq gun similar to his brother's.

"Sleepers will keep 'em down for half a day or so." Ash grinned as he looked around for another door that would lead them down to the basement.

Jack silently nudged his elbow and pointed to where the Rabids were crowding the most. There had to be forty or fifty of them in the warehouse, but Jack couldn't see well enough to get a good headcount. Hiding behind dusty metal shelves and boxes, they made their way as close to the center of the crowd as they possibly could. The Rabids were taking turns banging on a heavy steel door that looked nearly impossible to break through without a key of some kind.

"Jacky, you distract them, I'll get the door open. 'Kay?" An uneasy look crossed Ash's face as he stared at the crowding, violent, Rabids.

"Ugh, fine." Jack pushed himself to his feet and headed back the way he'd come, using the butt of his gun to rattle the metal shelves and make as much noise as possible to draw everyone away from the doorway so Ash could break in.

Unlike the zombies they faced back in Briarwood, the Rabids were runners, which meant Jack was constantly trying to out-maneuver them and use his skills on the Ashgrove soccer team to keep them guessing as to which way he would turn next. Anytime one got close to him, he'd take it out with a sleeper, but he didn't have an unlimited supply, so he wanted to make sure whichever ones he did use weren't wasted.

"Jacky! I got it!" Ash finally called, and Jack raced toward his brother dodging Rabids as he went. A couple times a few of them got close enough to actually grab him, but he was quick with the sleepers, putting them down easily and scaring off any others in the vicinity. "You head down, I'll keep watch, make sure none of these things get down there or lock you in."

"Thanks, man." Jack took the stairs two at a time, with his flashlight in his mouth and his weapon drawn. "Sophia!" He stopped to listen for any signs of life. They had to be there. Will's device showed that her cellphone was within range.

"Jack? Is that you?" he heard a voice call out as he rounded a corner, finding Sophia and Stix leaning against the back wall surrounded by blankets, empty containers of water, and lots of guns.

"It's me." Jack shined the light on their little camp, and grinned when he caught sight of the girl he'd been worrying about ever since she first called him a little less than twenty-two hours earlier.

Sophia jumped to her feet and rushed toward Jack wrapping her arms around him and burying her face into his chest. "Thank you so fucking much for coming!" Relief was clear in her voice as she jumped away and regained her composure.

Jack smiled down at her easily. "I told you I was coming." He slung his pack off his shoulder and dug out the water he'd brought. "Here, you mentioned you guys ran out." He tossed them the bottles as they gathered up their belongings, shoving everything they had precariously into their packs.

"Thanks, buddy." Stix heartily wrapped him in a hug much like Sophia had. "How'd you get through those crazies?" After he spoke, he downed almost half the water in one go.

"Hurry up, Jack!" Ash called down before he could respond. "I've got Rabids coming at me left and right. I'm not gonna be able to hold them off much longer."

"We're coming up!" Jack slung his pack back onto his shoulders and reloaded his weapon.

"You're shooting them with sleepers?" Sophia snorted, a sour look on her face. "Has that actually worked? I once emptied an entire clip into one guy before he stopped coming at me. It was like he couldn't even feel it."

"That's weird. We've been shooting them in the feet and shoulders and they've backed off. We're under orders not to shoot to kill."

"Some are more aggressive than others." Stix took the extra ammo Jack held out to him and Sophia, so they could reload their weapons too.

"Yeah. Don't let them bite you. I'm pretty sure that's what causes the turn. They're like fucked up zombies," Sophia warned as they started up the stairs quickly, slipping through the door that Ash was guarding, picking off the Rabids one by one.

"I wouldn't let them bite me, even if they weren't contagious." A slight smile tugged at the corner of Jack's lips, while the siblings shot him an unamused look.

"I know you've got orders not to kill." Sophia aimed her weapon at a female Rabid wearing a nurse's uniform and fired off a round straight into her brain, dropping her instantly. "But I don't."

"They're just infected though, aren't they?" Jack frowned, staring at the Rabid's dead body, before Ash grabbed the sleeve of his coat and dragged him toward the stairs up to the catwalk.

"I think so. We haven't figured it out yet. When we were snooping around the hospital in town, we overheard one of the doctors saying that they called in for help from the government, but it would be a few days out. That was last week." Sophia followed them up onto the roof and toward the ladder they'd climbed up. Beneath it, bodies were stacked up, while somewhere in the trees Will shot every Rabid that tried to go near that side of the building.

"I didn't even know there was an access point on the roof," Stix muttered, looking out over the last of the forest and towards the town.

"That's really the only way we managed to get inside. There were way too many Rabids at the front doors." Jack spoke quietly, trying not to tip the creatures off that they were sneaking by.

"I'm sure there are still other survivors in town," Sophia whispered after they'd all reached the ground and made a beeline toward where Will was stationed up high in the trees picking off the Rabids easily. "We have to help them, and figure out a way to save these people."

"I have an idea." Jack pulled out his phone and dialed Marley's number, while Ash congratulated Will for his master marksman skills.

"What's up, Jack?" Marley answered on the second ring, still sounding grumpy about being told to watch over the car and everything inside.

"Can you look up curses that cause people to go psycho with rage or something like it?" he whispered into the phone, while the others stayed mostly silent around him as they hiked into South Fork, which was practically deserted. At least that's what it felt like with cars parked haphazardly and abandoned bikes, shopping carts, and storefronts for as far as the eye could see.

"Sure. I'll see what I can find. But, Jack, that sounds like a black magic curse, and the only way to undo those kinds of things are also with black magic... It won't be pretty."

"I know. Just do your best. Thanks, Mars." She chirped back her response, and Jack hung up the phone, slipping it back into his pocket, and hoping his signal didn't die as they moved further and further into town, heading down Main Street.

"This is so creepy." Sophia looked around in awe. "We got into town last week and it was bustling."

"Yeah... this is so eerie. It reminds me of a movie. Oooh, or being in school after everyone's already left for the day. Right, Soph?" Stix nudged her with a smile, but there was something about his eyes that looked focused.

"Sure." But it didn't really seem like she was actually listening to him.

"Guys, we don't know yet if we can turn these people back, so we keep putting 'em down with sleepers. Alright?"

Sophia opened her mouth to argue with Ash, but Stix cut her off. "Alright by us. We have a shitload, but we never had the chance to check if they would work or not. We were heading out to help a guy we'd heard been trapped out here, but by the time we got to him, he was one of those Psychos and he tried to kill us."

"That's how you got locked down there," Will said, more as a statement than a question. "Have you seen many other Exterminators or survivors?"

"When people first started turning we saw two or three, but as more people got infected they started flocking here. At one point, we actually had a handle on this whole situation. But then everyone started getting scared, and it all went to shit." Sophia stopped short and aimed her gun, shooting a sleeper right into a Rabid's heart, dropping her instantly.

"I don't know where the survivors are now, but I do know that there are some out there," Stix added. "We heard some kind of explosion last night, it sounded like fireworks going off."

"Maybe we should split up," Will suggested warily, as they came to the end of the block and glanced around the deserted intersection. All the lights were stuck blinking yellow and there were abandoned cars left precariously in the middle of the road.

"I hate that idea." But Jack knew they'd have to do it no matter what. There was no way they were going to be able to search the entire town if they were all together. "What if we get attacked by a pack of those Rabids like back at that warehouse? I don't want to risk splitting up like the rest of those Exterminators if we don't have to."

Sophia rolled her eyes at his weariness. "It'll be fine." Turning to the others, she said, "Jack and I will start searching the buildings around here for survivors and we'll bring whoever we find to the pharmacy we passed at the end of Main Street. I went in there last week, before it got really bad, and there are only two ways in except for the roof access. We can hold up there with survivors. Any Exterminators we find can help protect the townies while Jack and I keep on searching for folks."

Ash nodded thoughtfully. "Alright. Will, Stix, and I'll focus on the other end of town, knocking on doors and finding anybody who hasn't been turned into one of those things yet. We'll also get them to the pharmacy. It'll be a good meet up spot. Plus, from there, it's a pretty straight hike out to where we parked the Blazer."

"Fine." Jack hung his head almost unperceptively. He didn't mind Sophia's company, really, but the thought of being separated from his brothers made his heart jump a little. What if one of them got infected? What if they couldn't figure out how to cure whatever curse had been cast over South Fork?

"Keep in touch, Jacky." Ash looked just as reluctant as he felt.

"I will."

"Let's check the grocery store first." Sophia grabbed Jack's sleeve and dragged him through the chilly afternoon, toward the building that loomed ahead of them. The eeriest part was crossing the large parking lot, separating the store from where they stood at the edge of the intersection.

"You think more of those Rabids will be there?" He suddenly missed Keala fiercely. He hated making her stay back just as much as he hated leaving Marley behind.

Sophia shrugged. "I really have no idea. I just want something to eat. I've lived off Stix's trail mix for the last few days, and I'd like something fresh. I don't care what."

Jack laughed, grinning down at the girl at his side. "We're risking our lives for an apple?"

Sophia shot him a brief scowl. "And whatever else is still in stock." She picked her pace up as they crossed through the windy parking lot, dodging litters of fallen carts and cars left with doors open and some with hazard lights still blinking.

"Wait." Jack froze. "Did you hear that?" A distinct rustling sound came from somewhere nearby.

Sophia shook her head. "I didn't hear any-" Before she could finish her sentence, three Rabids popped up from behind a parked car, wiping fresh blood off their faces and screeching at each other, making a beeline straight for them.

Jack lifted his gun and fired off two shots, hitting both his targets in one go. His aim had gotten immensely better since Ash dragged him out on their little adventure. Sophia dropped her Rabid in seconds and punched him in the shoulder. "Nice shootin', Tex." She smirked, as he rubbed at the sore spot where she'd hit him.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Where'd you learn?" As they talked quietly, they both kept their eyes peeled for any more Rabids. The sun had already started to go down, and pretty soon it would be too dark to see much, but that wouldn't stop them from finding survivors.

"Hunting with my dad and brothers, mostly." Checking his gun for ammo, he shoved the front doors to the grocery store open. He kept his weapon and light pointed ahead of him while Sophia watched their backs, making sure nobody snuck up on them.

"You're not bad. I don't like relying on people who can't hold their own, ya know?" She lowered her voice even more as they entered the grocery store, with its lights flickering on and off. The place looked like it had been ransacked. There were shelves toppled over, papers and carts and random items scattered across the floor, and somewhere in the large building was an incessant clanging noise.

"Yeah, makes sense." Jack led the way to the produce section of the store, keeping his eyes peeled for fresh food or any other useful supplies, as well as diligently watching out for Rabids. "Look, there's a whole case of water. I'm gonna grab that." He split off from Sophia, heading down a dark aisle, filled with shards of glass and sticky substances that had been knocked off the shelf at some point within the last few days.

"Be careful," Sophia warned, opening her backpack and shoving anything useful inside. Outside, screams of terror echoed through the streets, and it was hard to tell if they were coming from a survivor or a Rabid.

Jack filled his pack up to the brim with extra supplies as he and Sophia scoured the store for anything of any value. It was a pretty small grocery store compared to the one they had back in Ashgrove, but there were also a lot more people than in dinky little, South Fork. They were about to head out of the store, when a scream sounded from the back near the restrooms.

"We should check that out." Sophia headed in the direction the scream had come from, and Jack followed, even though he felt like his legs had turned to lead for the briefest of moments.

"Hello!" Jack called as they moved closer to the darker part of the store that they'd avoided up until that point. "Is anyone over there?"

Sophia jumped at the suddenness of his loud shouting, and slugged him in the arm where she'd already left a bruise earlier. "What the hell are you doing?"

Jack shrugged, rubbing the spot she'd just hit him, but not saying a word about it. "I'm warning people who aren't infected that we're here, and telling anyone who is to come out of hiding." As he spoke, his focus remaining on their surroundings. The tiniest distraction could've meant life or death for either of them, which wasn't a price he was willing to pay.

The hardened expression on Sophia's face barely lifted as she nodded her head minutely. "Alright, fine. But I swear, if we get overrun with Rabids, it's completely your fault."

"Deal. Hello! Anyone back there?" He smirked a little when he caught Sophia off guard a second time. She only scowled in return, brushing long strands of golden brown hair behind her ears as her dark eyes narrowed dangerously.

"It was nothing, Jack. Let's-"

"Hello?" a meek voice cut her off. "Hello? Is someone there? I need your help!" Banging started on some kind of metal, and he heard several pairs of shuffling feet just around the corner.

"My name is Jack. I'm going to get you out of here, okay?" He did his best to calm his racing heart and hopefully influence the people around him, if his siblings were right.

"I-I-I've been here for days. Nobody heard me! Except those things!" the person cried, hiccupping as they spoke.

Sophia inched around the corner just ahead of Jack, pulling back a little and giving him a sharp look. "Three blocking the door and one moving around elsewhere."

"I'll head in first, you cover me," he said briskly, not waiting for her response as he moved slowly around the corner and into what looked like a storage room of some kind. Just like Sophia had reported, there were three Rabids crowding around a door labeled, Employee Restroom, while inside the sound of frightened sobbing arose.

"My hero," Sophia mocked behind him, and he bit his lip to keep the smile off his face, as he shot the first two Rabids in the neck. They tried to run a few steps toward him, but only managed to walk less than a foot before they collapsed in a heap of tangled limbs. The third one, however, charged at a speed he wasn't prepared for, and leapt at him before he could get a single shot off.

Jack dropped to the ground when the Rabid was only a few inches from him, just in time to dodge a tranquilizer that sailed passed his ear, far too close for comfort and embedded itself into the flesh of the man's flabby neck. He fell to the ground unconscious, and Jack quickly stepped over his body, while Sophia checked the room to find the other Rabid they'd seen moving around and putting him to sleep too.

"Hey! It's me, Jack! Are you still okay in there?" He rapped his knuckles against the heavy door.

"A-a-re they all gone?" the person stuttered slowly, after a few long seconds of silence.

"They're out for now." Jack's eyes flickered to the bodies of the Rabids that had been forced into a monster-grade coma courtesy of Lee's sleepers. "You're safe." There was a moment of hesitation, before the locks on the door clicked, and it opened inch by inch until a woman in her mid-thirties stuck her head out, her eyes searching for her supposed rescuers.

"Y-y-you're younger than I thought you'd be." She clutched her purse tightly at her side and tried to smooth out her wrinkled dress.

Jack nodded his head firmly as Sophia did one last cursory glance around to make sure they'd taken care of all the Rabids. "Here to help, ma'am. Are you hurt at all?"

The woman shook her head, her limp black curls hanging down in front of her face in greasy strands. "No. B-b-but I have to find my family. My kids and my husband. I last saw them four days ago. I told them I was just going to the store to get milk. And then... I got trapped in that bathroom. Greg, the owner of this place, he a-a-attacked me. Why would he do that?" she demanded, shaking as they stepped out into the cold, winter night.

"They're infected with something. We've been shooting them with tranquilizers, and hopefully that will keep them down long enough for us to find any other survivors and get them out before we figure out how to deal with whatever this breakout is."

The woman frowned, confusion crossing her face. "The mayor said he was sending help from the government. I thought they just left me behind. Didn't the doctors show up to help everyone?"

Sophia shook her head, a melancholy look crossing her features. "No, ma'am. Your mayor, his name is John Addey?" she whispered, as they tried to make their way stealthily through the empty roads. Their first survivor nodded her head slowly. "He hired my team to come out here and "fix the problem" as quietly as possible. It seems he put out the call to every Exterminator he could find."

"Exterminator...?" The woman walked close to them and wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm in the thin clothing she wore.

"We kill pests. Apparently, he thought the infected people here were rabid and didn't want the rest of the world to find out too. Tourist season, I guess." Sophia shrugged absently, her focus split between the woman at their side and keeping an eye out for the quick Rabids.

The woman blanched. "He wanted to kill all of them. B-b-but what if there's a cure? My husband was bit by one of them. He was in the hospital when I left the kids at home, getting treated for his wounds."

Sophia's expression hardened, and her dark eyes grew icy. "I'm sorry, ma'am, I don't think he survived. I was up at the hospital three days ago and it had been ripped apart. Whatever this infection is, it works fast..." They knew the truth, though. It wasn't a real infection. It was a curse. And it wouldn't stop until it succeeded in killing everyone in town.

"Can we please find my kids then? They're only five and ten-years-old. And the house is just up the street a few blocks. We can check for any other survivors too." Tears filled her pleading eyes.

Sophia opened her mouth, probably to deny the request and take her directly to the pharmacy, but Jack cut her off. "Yeah, we can do that. Just keep a look out for any Rabids and do exactly what we say, alright?"

Relief swept across the lady's face and it was almost tangible. "Thank you so much!" The tears in her eyes started falling down her rosy cheeks. "I'm Rebecca."

Jack smiled softly at her, doing his best to ease her fears. "I'm Jack, this is Sophia. Stick with us and we'll have you out of this mess in no time." Sophia snorted and shook her head, but the woman's tears began drying up and she grinned at him gratefully.

The rest of their walk was spent mostly in silence as they focused on keeping their footfalls quiet and their guards up at all times, except for Rebecca's occasional directions. They couldn't afford to make any stupid mistakes, especially not while it was dark and icy.

"There." Rebecca pointed to a small house at the very end of the block, slightly separated from all the others, which all had looked abandoned or torn apart. "It's that one."

"Alright, let's go, but be careful, Rebecca. We don't know what's happened since you've seen them last." Sophia's warning was met with a stoic nod, but something in Rebecca's eyes had Jack thinking she wasn't prepared at all for what they could possibly find.

Jack went first, moving cautiously up the rickety porch steps and pounding his fist heavily against the flimsy front door. "Hello? Is anyone there?" He stepped aside to let Rebecca unlock the door with her key and push it open.

"Dylan! Katie! I'm back! Are you here?" she shouted frantically, while Jack swallowed his own anxiety and tried to make himself fully calm and collected.

They carefully stepped through the woman's living room, around furniture that had been upturned and bookshelves toppled, trying not to make any sudden movements. A shriek behind them, made all three turn around sharply, faced with a man showing all the signs of being Rabid.

"Henry?" Rebecca stared wide-eyed at the Rabid who grunted in return and charged them. "No, Henry, wait!" But Sophia whipped her gun out and pulled the trigger before the words were even finished coming out of the woman's mouth. "You shot him!" She screamed, staring in shock at Sophia, who only shrugged.

"It's a high-grade tranquilizer, Rebecca. He's alive, just not trying to kill us right now."

"M-m-mommy?" a small voice hiccupped, coming from what seemed like a hole in the wall.

"Dylan? Oh, baby! Where are you? Where's your sister?" Rebecca sagged against Jack as relief overwhelmed her at the sound of her son's voice.

"We're hiding from the mean people!" another voice said definitively, and Rebecca smiled, standing up straight and moving toward the wall where the TV once sat on a built-in entertainment center.

"You can come out now. It's safe." Turning back to Jack and Sophia, she said, "They must've barricaded themselves in the crawl space behind the entertainment center where everything gets hooked up. I can't... I'm so..." She trailed off when she spotted the two children. An older boy and a younger girl.

"Why were you gone so long?" Dylan's lips quivered as he tried not to cry. "I thought you left us or died!"

Rebecca drew both her kids into a tight hug. "I know. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I got trapped."

"I said you'd come back." The little girl wiped at her red-rimmed eyes and sniffed. Pointing at Jack she asked, "Who are you?"

"They've come to help us." Rebecca swung her daughter onto her hip and nodded at Jack and Sophia that she was ready to leave.

"Alright, guys, we're gonna head to the pharmacy now, okay?" Jack kept his voice low and motioned for the kids to do the same. "It will be safe for you to stay there while we look for other survivors."

"I heard Tommy Haskell's uncle say a bunch of people were going to the gym. He came by looking for us, but me and Katie were already hiding from Daddy," Dylan told them innocently.

"It's okay. You did the right thing." While Rebecca spoke softly to console her children and keep them calm, Jack and Sophia discreetly took out every Rabid they saw, near or far. They didn't want one to slip away only for it to bite them in the ass later. Literally.

The Exterminators each picked up another survivor as they made their way back toward the pharmacy to establish their safe-zone, a man in his late sixties, and a girl no older than fourteen. The girl was scared out of her wits, but the man held a shotgun close to his chest and his expression showed no mercy. He'd killed six Rabids that day alone. He'd been really proud of that fact too.

"Are you all good on your own for a little while?" Jack asked, once they'd triple checked the pharmacy for Rabids (there'd been two laying in wait when they'd arrived), and made sure they safeguarded the hideout against Rabids and potentially unfriendly survivors.

"You said there will be more survivors coming soon right? More Exterminators?" Rebecca wrapped her arms around both of her children and held them tightly against her side. Jack nodded. "Then we'll be fine. Go help other people like you did us." She grinned, shooing them back out onto the dangerous streets full of unknown obstacles.

They'd barely said two words to each other, walking quietly side by side, for nearly fifteen minutes before Jack's phone rang, shattering the silence and making them nearly jump out of their skins. They both looked around quickly, scanning their surroundings to see if the noise had triggered a stampede of Rabids ready to make a meal out of them. Apparently, it hadn't, but the thought didn't make Jack breathe any easier.

"Hello?" He answered it as quickly as he could to stop the incessant noise from causing something they couldn't control.

"Jack?" Marley whispered, sounding defeated.

"What's wrong? What is it?" He tucked the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he trekked carefully down the middle of the street, keeping an eye out for any sign of life or movement anywhere. They didn't want to search inside every house without cause, especially if it was chockful of Rabids ready to get the drop on them.

"I only found one spell to get rid of the curse. I know you said no magic, but there's no other way. Not if my research is right."

Jack stopped short. "Find another way."

"I tried," she insisted hoarsely, her voice thick with emotion. "I've worked on this all night. There's no other way, Jack. But that's not all. It's black magic, so there's gotta be another downside somewhere."

"Shit. What are we gonna do?"

"I have no idea... How bad is it down there? I've been hearing screams all night."

Sophia motioned for them to keep moving, so Jack did as he was told, trying to find the right words to describe what they'd seen. "Really not good," he settled on. "Listen, Mars, if someone comes running at you, looking super pissed, or if anyone comes up that hill by themselves, you shoot them. Do not let them bite you. A tranquilizer will put them down for a while, but if you have to, shoot to kill."

"Okay. Keala and I are locked in the van right now. I won't even go outside 'til morning."

"Good." They were both silent for nearly a minute before Jack let out a deep breath. "Mars, get the spell ready, just in case."

"Are you sure? Jack, what if it-"

"Just in case," he insisted, a flash of movement catching his eye to the right. He turned and fired sending a Rabid crashing to the ground just a few feet away from them.

"Alright. Be careful."

"I will. You too. Call me if anything else comes up," he responded before they said their goodbyes.

"Everything alright?" Sophia shot a Rabid and inspected a nearby car for any survivors. There were none.

"I'm not sure. Marley said she couldn't find a cure for this. She says it's a strong curse that won't die until everyone in this town does."

"Well, fuck..." Sophia's eyes drifted to the Rabid she'd put down with a sleeper. "There's no way to reverse this kind of curse?"

"The only way to do anything is by using black magic, and who knows what that would turn into?" Jack shot a Rabid that jumped out at him from behind an abandoned car. Up ahead an entire crowd was banging on the door of a small brick building, all pushing and trying to break in.

"Survivors?" Sophia's dark brown eyes flitted to Jack for the briefest of seconds. He smiled down at her softly.

"I bet you anything there are at least a few in there. Let's get rid of these rage machines." Checking the amount of ammo he still had, his eyebrows furrowed. If they kept using it the way they'd been doing, he'd be out before the sun came up.

Silently, Jack and Sophia each took one side of the building, shooting every person-turned monster that they could, while simultaneously attempting to maintain a safe distance from the infected. It took them less than a half an hour to clear out the small knitting store tucked in between a bunch of houses, before they were able to pry the locked door open in search of whatever made those creatures flock the way they had.

"Holy hell! I've been stuck in there for days!" A man stumbled out as soon as they pried the door open. He shivered against the bitter chill of winter, his narrowed eyes landing on them. Sticking one meaty hand out, he said, "The name's Chet Teagues. I was called in to Exterminate the zombies, but I ran out of ammo early this week, and I've been holed up in there a while. We lost food real soon, and water didn't last that long either."

"We'll take you to the pharmacy where we're hiding people for now. You can help keep them safe. There's food, medical supplies, and water when you get to it," Sophia responded professionally, never taking her gaze fully off their surroundings. "Are there more of you?"

A somber expression crossed Chet's face. "No. I'm the last one. My buddy and I were attacked the third day in this stupid town and he was bit. It was before we knew..." His eyes turned steely as he stared between Jack and Sophia. "I had to shoot him or he was gonna kill me."

Jack opened his mouth to say something about how everything would be alright and it wasn't his fault, but Sophia cut him off before he had the chance. "Right now is not the time to dwell on that. I'm not giving you ammo and a gun if you're not going to use it properly." She aimed her weapon and fired at a Rabid with such ease it made Jack a little envious.

Chet shot her a dirty look. "I know how to use a gun, little girl. I'm not going to mope around while these fucking things are out there living."

"We haven't been killing them." Jack spoke up for the first time since they met the man. "We've been using Lockwood Sleepers."

Chet's eyebrows shot way up and he stared at the pair with a newfound respect glowing through his eyes. "You buy from the Lockwood compound? I went there once. They make the top-quality shit."

Sophia tossed Chet a clip for the gun in his hand, which was the same model as one she carried in her backpack. "Where we buy from isn't important right now. We need to focus on getting back to the others and getting a few messages to Ash and Stix if we can."

The dark look on Chet's hairy face never left as he looked Sophia up and down. "I've heard about you..." Recognition sparked in his keen gaze. "You've gotta be Sophia Knight. You worked with my buddy a few years back on a haunted carnival job. I've heard stories about you..."

The girl shrugged uncaringly. "Is that so? Sounds like you're talking about Brando."

A flash of sorrow slid across Chet's face at the name. "May he rest in peace." He crossed himself and whispered a prayer into the dark sky.

"You shot Brando?" Jack's eyes widened as he stared at the man, almost missing a Rabid that broke off from the group they were gunning down left and right while they talked as quietly as they could.

Chet sent them both a pained look and nodded slowly. "He was going to kill me."

Jack caught Sophia's eyes and they both let out short laughs, covering them up with coughs. "Oh, man, Ash is going to be so broken up about that." His voice was thick with the laughter he did his best to hold inside. He'd done a job with Brando before though, and he knew how much his brother loathed him.

The color drained from Chet's face immediately and beads of sweat formed on his brow as his gaze bored into Jack. "You mean... Ash Slayer?" He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and swiping at his forehead with the back of his hand.

"Yeah? You've heard of my brother?"

Chet's face remained sheet white. "Yeah... I've done a few jobs with him. He's... good..." It didn't take a genius to figure out there was more to that story than he was letting on, but neither Jack nor Sophia pried into it.

Instead they stayed silent, only talking when absolutely necessary, especially the closer they got to the pharmacy. Just in case any Rabids were lurking around that they couldn't see, they didn't want to give away their safe-house location. Crisscrossing through streets, and heading up through the alley, they finally made it back, only to find that their other team had also rescued some folks. Their survivor group had doubled since they'd last been back.

"Jack! Sophia!" Rebecca had turned the place into a homey space to rest and lay low until it was all over. Without warning, she swept them both into hugs, before sheepishly pulling away. "Thank you so much for your help. I tried my best to make everyone feel welcome, but we've been keeping a low profile, so we don't draw any unnecessary attention."

"Good. You're doing a great job keeping everyone calm." Sophia spoke in that way she had of doling out compliments as though she were merely pointing out an obvious fact. "We brought you another one. Thanks for your help, Rebecca." The air inside the pharmacy wasn't much warmer than it was outside since they weren't allowed to use any electricity for fear of drawing the wrong kind of crowd. Gesturing to the windows and doors she said, "While we're gone, you guys should find a way to block those so we can start a fire in one of those metal fire pits I saw in someone's backyard. I'll grab it." She turned on her heels and left before Rebecca even had the chance to answer.

Staring after her, the woman blinked, confusion marring her features. "Wow. She's an intense little thing, isn't she?"

Jack grinned. "She sure is. I should go after her."

"Oh, of course. We'll start covering the windows!" Rebecca responded as he turned to leave.

Jack and Sophia worked diligently throughout the night, scouring their side of town for any and all potential survivors. Which, after a while became less and less frequent, until the only living creatures they were encountering were Rabids. Even more discouraging, of the dozens of Exterminators that flocked to South Fork, they'd only stumbled across two: Chet Teagues and a woman in her late forties who called herself, Devora.

Ash, Will, and Stix had even less luck on the Exterminator front. It seemed that most of the people who'd arrived with the intention of saving the town and collecting the award money, died off quicker than the others. Mostly, they'd stumbled across confused townspeople who had the ability to fight, or were smart enough to hide and not get caught.

Altogether, they rounded up twenty-four survivors in a town that boasted of a population of nearly fifteen thousand. Of course, they hadn't searched the entire town inside and out, especially the dangerous spots, because all they were finding were Rabids, and it was only a matter of time, before they figured out that a group of the living were all hiding in the same spot.

Jack sat against a wall, his eyes drifting closed off and on as they waited for the first rays of sunlight to bathe the town in a golden hue. When it was full on daytime, they were going to implement the evacuation plan that the Exterminators had worked on with the group of survivors throughout the night. They couldn't take everyone all at once, but they could certainly do their best to shuttle people to the next town over where it was safest until the Exterminators could figure out how to save the Rabids.

A loud banging erupted against both doors almost simultaneously, startling Jack awake, while most others continued to slumber in the various spots they'd found around the room. Jumping to his feet, he pulled one of the pieces of ripped cardboard off a window and stumbled back in shock at what he saw.

"Shit. Ash!" He nudged his brother none-too-gently with his foot and gestured wide-eyed out the window. "We have a huge fucking problem."

"What?" Ash dragged himself to his feet lazily, glancing out the window, which overlooked Main Street. "Oh... Shit... Alright, everybody! Time to get up!" Going around the room, he startled everyone awake with his intense urgency.

"What's going on?" Will yawned and hugged his coat tighter around his thin frame.

"The Rabids found us." Ash covered the window back up and led the group in packing their supplies. "They swarmed the building while we were sleeping."

"What are we going to do?" Rebecca's voice was shrill and anxious.

"Take the kids upstairs and anyone who can't stand and shoot." He took charge of the situation the way he usually took charge of a job. "Whoever's going to the roof, take the food and water, blankets, anything you need to keep warm, and all the extra ammo. If they push us in, we're going to have to fall back, so we want all our extra gear to be where we can access it at any time."

The large group gestured or voiced their understanding, before three quarters of them headed upstairs, leaving only eight survivors along with Stix, Sophia, Jack, Will, and Ash. The eight others included, Chet Teagues, Harvey – the old man with the shotgun that Jack had brought in the night before, Devora, Carl and Sonny – two brothers Ash had found picking off Rabids with two sawed-offs from their rooftop, Rick and Sarah – the town's local butcher and his wife, and David – a rookie cop.

Jack and Ash handed out weapons and ammo, while Will gave tutorials to those who hadn't shot weapons before. He took gun safety extremely serious, so even though the Rabids were going to break the building down to get in, he was neurotic about every single person getting it right.

"I don't want any friendly fire." Will eyed them all critically as Ash started to round everyone up so he could give them more instructions.

"Alright, listen up, guys. Stix and Sophia are gonna lead a team on that side, and Will and I'll take this side. Jack will float between. Break windows and shoot from there. Do not open the doors for any reason or the Rabids will flood this place. If that somehow does happen, get up to the roof as soon as you can." Ash gestured behind him to the supply closet where the roof access was located.

"And don't get bit," Sophia added brashly.

Everyone nodded in grim understanding and took their positions, smashing holes in the windows and walls to shoot through, while Jack headed to the roof to start taking them out from the top. The first couple shots he took at the Rabids, put three or four of them down, but when he shot the guy he recognized as Rebecca's husband, nothing happened, it just seemed to piss him off more.

"Ash!" Jack climbed back down and found his brother as quickly as he could. "The sleepers aren't working on the ones we already dosed with them. It's like they're immune now!" He took out a Rabid through one of the holes Ash had been using.

"Fuck. I knew I shot that fucker. Alright, what do we do then?" His eyes widened when the front door started to rattle and shake with the weight of so many Rabids pushing to get through it. A window to their right shattered and a Rabid started climbing into the store, despite the glass fileting his skin, while people behind him shoved him forward.

Another pane of glass was smashed elsewhere in the store and Sophia shouted, "Fall back, everyone! Fall back! There are too many of them!" But her words were drowned out by the chaos that ensued. Before they could make a beeline for the storage closet, Rabids converged on the pharmacy, breaking through the glass and running at them full speed, murder in their eyes.

Jack pulled his gun out of his holster and started firing at the Rabids as quickly as he could. At that point, he cared a whole hell of a lot more about escaping South Fork alive, than he did about the infected person he was aiming at. He didn't take any kill shots, not like he watched Sophia and Will do, but he did his best to slow them down, as his group tried to move back toward the closet.

"Sonny! Behind you!" Jack shouted, when he caught sight of a Rabid lunging at the man, standing less than an arm's length away from his brother.

"What-" He turned around as the Rabid jumped on him, sinking its teeth into the flesh on his throat and ripping out his trachea. Blood filled the Rabid's mouth and spilled down his face, and instead of firing at the thing, his brother, Carl stared at them with horror in his wide blue eyes.

"Carl!" Jack shot the thing tearing into Sonny, while the guy continued to stare at his brother's corpse in shock. "Snap out if it!" But his words did nothing. He turned away to shoot a Rabid that was getting dangerously close to an otherwise preoccupied Sophia, and when he looked back, three Rabids had descended on Carl like he was a new batch of fried chicken at County Buffet.

"Sarah! No!" Someone shrieked behind him, and he whirled around just in time to see Ash grab Rick in a bear hug to keep him from going after the three Rabids that had dragged his wife off into the crowd.

"Get to the closet!" Ash shoved the man in the right direction before he could do something stupid. "Fall back!" he repeated Sophia's command, as they did their best to pick as many of the Rabids off as they could before they made it to the storage room.

Jack almost made it to the roof access, when he looked back over his shoulder and saw Sophia trying to help Stix out of a cluster of Rabids that had somehow surrounded them. Jumping out of the closet, he pulled out his gun and shot two of the infected psychos before they could make a move to grab either sibling.

"Sophia, Stix! Run!" He found an empty spot and fired at as many of the Rabids as he could while Will ascended the ladder onto the roof. "I'll cover you!" He and Ash did their best to make sure the rest of the group got safely to the rooftop as well, but despite constant warnings to fall back, Chet refused to listen. While the brothers tried to help him out of the predicament he'd put himself into, a Rabid jumped through a broken window and viciously attacked his leg, causing an all out frenzy.

"Jack, right!" Sophia called, shooting Rabids as they broke into the small store. Jack turned and fired, putting down a Rabid as Sophia and Stix raced behind him and toward the rooftop. Ash backed up slowly, still shooting as many as he could.

"Ash, there are too many of them," Jack called over his shoulder, despair leaking into his voice, though he never once stopped defending their hold out. He'd die first before he allowed a single Rabid to make it up to the roof. "It's like a fucking death zone out there! We can't hold them off forever." As the words finished coming out of his mouth, he felt something grab his arm.

"Jack! No!" he heard Ash scream, raising his gunto shoot whatever had a hold of him. A shot rang out, and Jack felt a severestinging rip into his arm, and black spots danced in his vision as his kneesbuckled beneath him.