---Eric's POV---

My fingers drummed on the table as I held the headphones against my ear, desperate for any sign of life. Three months had passed since Ash's last visit; the little girl he had was now adopted and completely integrated in the community, happy and healthy.

Although it wasn't unheard of to have radio silence with Ash, seeing how he lived on his own and had to provide himself on a daily basis, there was just this gut feeling that called me out. So I had taken the initiative and called him on the frequency he had written down with his last visit.

He didn't answer.

The first time it happened, I didn't pay it any mind. Perhaps he was out hunting or foraging for materials. Hell, he could even be taking a bath of doing god knows what in his bunker.

But after having called him for the entire week without a single response, I knew something happened. Exhausted or not, Ash would have called back as soon as he heard my attempt to contact him.

"Any luck?"

I shook my head as I placed down the headset before pushing away from the radio table. Gale sighed as he scratched at his beard with a troubled look. "Look Eric, I err, don't know if it corelates but... I've checked the communications log and asked the radio crew if they perchance encountered anything odd."

Gale handed me some papers, which I instantly started to read before frowning. "A rogue squad's transmission suddenly got cut off? What does that have anything to do with-" My eyes landed on the last known location of the transmission, which was exactly where Ash said his bunker was located at.

"When was this?" I demanded when I couldn't spot a date on the paper he gave me. Gale flicked through the bundle in his hands before tapping his finger to the page. "Two months ago."

Shit!

My stomach lurched with nerves as acid burned up my throat. "I need a small team to go with me to check on Ash's location. We don't know what happened and it's safe to say that something must've happened to those rogues as well, seeing how they haven't contacted their allies in any shape or form."

Gale sighed softly, "Eric, we were already lucky to intercept their messages to one another. For all we know they changed channel, or hell, they killed Ash and are now using his base as their own."

I glared at the man but it was a valid point. Nonetheless, "If Ash hadn't helped us in the past, we would've been facing life-threatening issues. He was the one who fixed the boilers that threatened to kill us in our sleep due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Ash was the one who laid the very foundations of our survival, and now we turn our backs on him?"

Gale stilled, knowing that I too was right. Ash had been a massive help to our society and aided wherever he could, even if he wanted to be left alone. Now that he quite possibly needed us, I couldn't leave my best friend to his fate.

"Fine." Gale grunted before grabbing for his shoulder; as head of security, he and his team were equipped with long-range walkie talkies and he quickly summoned his men for an emergency meeting.

"You're taking three units with you, no questions asked. They'll provide you and hopefully Ash with any cover you need while you get his stubborn ass over here. If there's no sign of life, they'll scope out the surroundings to find out where those rogues have gone."

My lips pressed together in annoyance but I couldn't disagree. A rogue squad wasn't something to take lightly, even if I found three fully trained units, each holding four armored men to be quite an overkill.

The meeting didn't take long, even if there were a few protests among the men. They too understood what was at stake and knew they had to take the risk. So a good two hours after my last attempt to call Ash, I was stuffed in one of four Humvees and on the way to his location.

It took several hours to get close to Ash's base, all the while making sure we weren't being tailed. The men behind were busy checking their guns and making sure they were prepared for battle. I sighed softly, silently praying that I found Ash alive and well.

Silence overtook the car as we slowly made our way into the forest, one of the men hopping in the gunner seat while equipping a suppressed gun. If we bumped into any Infected drawn to the sound of our cars, we didn't need to draw anymore attention by shooting them with unsuppressed guns.

"Team one here... you're not gonna like this Eric."

My heart stopped before it started to race when the cars slowly grinded to a halt beside one another, allowing me a view of the landscape.

I hadn't been here before but I assumed Ash's bunker would've been a sight to see... now it had been blown wide open, cars and weapons abandoned right outside his doorsteps as the forest floor was littered with decaying corpses.

A few dull thuds sounded as one of the men made short work of a few Infected dogs that had been scavenging. Meanwhile, I had to turn around and hold myself up against the car, desperately fighting the urge to vomit.

"Spread out and try to identify the corpses. Gather whatever equipment you can and report any sign of movement." Bryce, the leader of the expedition ordered and his men quickly did as told, checking the faces of the corpses with disgusted expressions.

"All of them show claw and bite marks. They were overrun by infected." One of the men reported which made me frown. Infected would certainly be able to kill but they would've fed on the corpses and left nothing behind.

Bryce pulled his shirt over his nose against the stench as he joined in on the search while I followed his example. My eye landed on a crumpled notebook sprayed with blood in the middle of the clearing.

I swiftly equipped a pair of gloves before gingerly handing the notebook, flicking it open at random before sighing deeply. "Ash.. you stubborn bastard..." The little shit had kept on observing the infected around, even made meticulous notations on his findings and proof he found during his supply runs.

Flicking through the book, I shook my head at the priceless information before deciding to look around for more of them. The rest of the crew was gathering what they could, and they too stumbled on a vast collection of handwritten books, all in the same delicate penmanship that was Ash's.

"Wasn't he against researching for a cure?" Bryce questioned after his men had given the all clear with no living being in sight... and no sign of Ash to be found among the dead.

I nodded before grapping another one of the books. "I guess he still held some hope out..." Looking through the book, I found myself enthralled by Ash's findings and meticulous studies of the different species of Infected he had encountered and how to dispatch them safely.

Among the papers was even a written transcription of a scientist he found, the original designer of the virus that threatened humanity with extinction. "Ash...No wonder you didn't believe in our efforts..." I sighed, reading over the complicated documents and the multitude of mutations that had developed in the strands before the scientists stopped recording.

Making a decision, I nodded to myself and conveyed my thoughts to Bryce. "If he's not among the dead, there is a chance that the rogue team simply stumbled on his base and blew it open, attracting the infected."

Bryce frowned but nodded, understanding where I was going, "Which means that Ash is still alive, hiding out in the woods somewhere in search for a base. Or he has been wounded and made himself a temporary shelter."

I nodded before looking at Ash's ruined base, sighing to myself. "We need to go back before nightfall but, I feel we need to send out patrols in an attempt to find him... or his remains. Ash doesn't deserve ending up as food for the Infected."

Bryce scowled but chose not to respond while we headed back to the cars. I would hand over Ash's research to our scientists in the hopes that they might achieve a breakthrough. And I would pray for Ash and hope that I'd see my dear friend again.

A.n. No idea if you guys would want an insight in the research Ash did or not... Lemme know :D