Ethan woke up before the sun rose, and he looked down onto the road. The horde had cleared out nicely since yesterday, and he thought that Bree, and him could make a trek to the shell now.

Bree was lying against the ledge of the building, sleeping peacefully while cradling her axe that she loved so much. Ethan had noticed how attached she had become to the weapon, and saw how deadly Bree was with it.

He secretly hoped to leave the shell with Bree, and Charles because they often volunteered to go outside the fence with him all the time. Charles was usually so busy that he barely got any sleep, and had bags under his eyes all the time. He needed to take it easier on himself, and these tools would help them do just that.

They jumped onto the top of a dumpster that was sitting in the alley next to their temporary home. They had used it to climb up onto the building when they had spotted the horde earlier. Ethan pulled his duffel bag onto his shoulder once more before they walked out into the open road.

He fingered the gun sitting in its holster, and walked casually backwards for a moment to make sure they were alone. Bree faced foreword with the axe in her hand, it seemed forbidding with the blood splotches across its head. They continued past a few houses before hitting a small wooded area.

"If we find that one creek we could follow it until it comes to the pond. We would know where we are at then, and be able to get home faster without checking the map that you LOVE to rely on." Ethan wanted to get home before noon.

Bree simply nodded as they continued walking through the slowly growing underbrush. A few minute passed with the sound of their boots crunching on leaves before the faint noise of water dawned on their ears. They moved towards the source to find a few Rotters their as well.

Bree looked at Ethan, and out her finger to her mouth. A signal to take them silently as they had the capability to do so. Ethan pulled away from Bree as she stood on the ridge. He knew that he would get the attention on him so Bree could execute them one by one.

He skimmed around the ledge before sliding down a particularly rocky part. His worn boots kicked rocks up in all directions as he slid down, and towards the Rotters. He whistled loudly to make sure they got him in their sights. The first two struggled from the water as the only one on set land came closer.

Ethan stepped towards it and reached for his knife. He pushed back on the Rotter when it lunged, and forced it to the ground. He took a quick look at the other two to see that Bree had already taken one down, and was leading the second one away. Ethan kept his foot on the creatures chest as it clawed at his legs.

He wasn't afraid though as his jeans protected him quite well. He backed away from the Rotter as it went to stand back up. Ethan walked up, and booted it in the face with his shoe. He grinned slightly as its body slowly crumpled back down to the ground.

He looked up just in time to watch Bree imbed her axe into the last Rotters neck. It dropped to its knees from the force of the blow, but was still alive. Bree yanked the axe out of its head, and kicked it to the ground in one motion. It's neck was ripped to bits, and Bree must have missed the cord by centimeters. She brought the axe up again, and slammed it into the Rotters head.

Ethan was impressed by the way things had worked out. "Looks like your getting better with that axe. I didn't even think that was possible."

Bree wiped away some blood from her face with her sleeve. "Of course it is! I see your getting better with improvising." She pointed to his bloodied pant leg, and boot.

Ethan just smiled, and slipped his knife away. "The suns up. We probably waisted thirty minutes here."

Bree wiped the blade off, replying once it was clean of blood. "We've got time. There is 10 other people. To think that they couldn't manage without us . . ."

Both chuckled slightly at the small joke, and glanced around to see if any other Rotters had shown up.  They were clear, and after some debating on which direction was home they finally set off. Two hours later along with a handful of dead Rotters, and they stood next to the pond that they were walking to.

Bree glanced somewhere to the left of the pond. "Now we just head North. Only two miles to go!"

Ethan, who was already tired, replied sickly. "Yeahs that's about an hours trip for us considering stops and such."

Bree just kept her hopes up. "Not if we don't stop. It should only take us half an hour tops. Besides . . . Is that smoke?"

Ethan was caught of guard by this question and looked in the direction that Bree was pointing at."Yeah it is. Looks like it's close to Shell. What do you make of it?"

Bree closed her eyes for a moment. "If there's smoke there's a fire. That's awfully close to home."

Ethan didn't like the situation now. "I guess we're running two miles. Whoever gets their first gets the chocolate bar I found in that overturned vending machine."

Bree looked at him competitively, but worry still laced her voice. "Your on!"

With that said they both started to jog off towards the North, towards home, and towards a fire.

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The second chapter of this book. I hope you really do enjoy this sequel.

Vote and comment at choice, and find out more in the next chapter to come.