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What Fate has in Store

October 25th, 12:28 pm 

Current Location: Tuscaloosa, AL 

Current Outdoor Temperature: 16 degrees Fahrenheit 

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Phillip gripped my hurt shoulder with a ton of force and practically dragged me towards the mess hall. I could only show but so much resistance because I knew that it could get me even more hurt than I already was. My ribcage where he kicked me was screaming in immense pain, along with my head from when he threw me against the ground. 

This was the end of the line for me. I was going to die from being hung on a rope, like the 1800s lynching stories in the United States. It wasn't how I pictured my death, but I couldn't help it that much. 

I kept my head down to avoid looking at the many Raiders that were yelling to hurry Phillip up. They wanted to see me get beat up before ending my suffering. However, I did happen to see Charles on top of a table screwing a big hook into the ceiling. A thin rope was draped over his shoulder. My heart dropped at the sight of it. 

I was really about to die here. But, why wasn't I scared? In a drastic situation like this, I figured that my heart would be pumping out of my chest, begging me to get out of there as quickly as I could. 

It hit me, at that moment. I wasn't scared because I accepted the fact that my time was up. My suffering was about to end, and this was the price I had to pay. I've broken enough bones, had my serve of enough bruises, and been through the shredder of scratches. I couldn't see it, but I knew and felt that it was true. 

Then Phillip brought me to a stop. "Attention gentlemen!" 

This was it. This was truly over for me. I took a shaky breath. The wild crowd of Raiders calmed down to listen to their leader. 

"We are gathered today for a very special reason," he started. "What we are about to witness will go down in the history books as the greatest event in the fallout era!" 

The crowd erupted in cheers of immense joy. I never moved, and Phillip's harsh grip remained on my shoulder. It was still yelling at me to get it off, to stop the pain, but I never moved. I couldn't move even if I wanted to. 

"This is the moment that we've all worked hard for. We've been through hordes of zombies to track this asshole down that killed my beloved brother," Phillip continued. "I loved him, truly, with all of my heart." 

The crowd went silent as a dark look formed on his face. "Until somebody had to take that away from me." 

A hand suddenly grabbed my throat and lifted me up into the air. It was just like the nightmare I had shortly before Braxton's death, but one thing stuck out to me. Where did this immense strength come from? Unless you were abnormally strong, he shouldn't have been able to lift me up with such ease. 

I started to choke from the lack of air. Phillip's smile grew wider and wider. "And you all should know this by now. When some fucker like him messes with me or my family, they have to pay the price and die with the consequences!" 

Once more, the crowd exploded. Finally, Phillip dropped me to the floor and I began heaving for air, coughing my lungs out in the process. After letting me get my breath back, Phillip picked me back up and led me towards the rope, tied almost perfectly in a makeshift noose. As I got closer, everything began to get quieter. I almost willingly let myself be thrown onto the table. Before I knew it, I was stepping up on the ladder. 

When the rope touched my hands, I felt a chill run through my body. Everything was very quiet now, to where I literally couldn't hear anything at all. It was so weird to me; I honestly thought that it would be deafeningly loud, but it wasn't. It was quiet. 

I made it to the top step of the ladder and placed the rope over my neck. I was surprised that Phillip or Charles hasn't hurried me up, but to me, I was ready to die at this point. Something told me that they knew that, deep down. 

But, right before I kicked the ladder out from under me, shiny a shadow caught my eye. Something shiny caught my eye, and it didn't hit me that it was coming straight for me until it swiftly sliced the rope above my head. It landed with a thump behind my body. I stood there, confused until a clatter hit the ground. It was a knife belonging to a Raider. I looked back in the direction it came from, and somebody caught my attention. 

It was the female Raider that helped me back in the cage. In the span of only a few seconds, she unsheathed a pistol and aimed it straight at me and opened fire. 

I waited and waited some more, but it never came. 

Thud 

I looked behind me. Charles was dead on the spot. 

That's when all hell broke loose. 

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Current Location: Fosters, AL (15 minutes from Tuscaloosa) 

Current Outdoor Temperature: 15 degrees Fahrenheit

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Something inside of Bryan's head told him that they really needed to hurry. William was doing the best he could, but the roads were starting to take its toll on the car. It was still littered with potholes and cars that were stranded on the side of the road. Bryan's nerves were beginning to act up, and he was trying to do something that would calm himself down. 

Yeah, nothing was working. 

"Bryan, are you okay?" Amelia softly asked him. "You're sweating, now." 

He frowned and wiped his forehead, and it was drenched with sweat. "I'm..I'm okay. Just getting worked up is all." 

"We all are," she replied. "I'm getting that uncomfortable cold sweat." 

Bryan glanced over at William, and his eyes were locked on the road ahead of him, not looking at anything else. It actually made him a little nervous, but he didn't say anything about it. He felt like Will could blast his head off if he did. 

It was an awkward few minutes until they got into Tuscaloosa's city limits. It surprised Bryan that it wasn't leveled from the bombing, but there were definitely a lot of buildings torn apart and black from fires that must've broken out a while back. He felt bad for the families that didn't have their houses to come back to when they evacuated. 

The government really did a horrible job at containing the zombies, now that Bryan thought about it. If the president took action when it was still only a Class One or even Two. This whole thing right now could have easily been prevented. Yet, it still hasn't been explained how this whole apocalypse even started in the first place. Bryan knew that the disease started sometime shortly after the actual outbreak, but after that, he was clueless. 

He shook himself out of the thoughts. How the outbreak started doesn't even matter anymore. What matters now is that Jeremy needs their help, and it's up to them to break in there and get him out before anything else happens. 

Tuscaloosa looked pretty much abandoned. There was no sign of zombies or any other Raiders to be seen. It looked like you could hear a pen drop from the opposite side of the city. 

"If I remember right, Bama's campus is on the other side of the river," William mumbled, mostly to himself. He took a left turn that would take him into the city. He sped up as much as he could without crashing into any cars on the side of the road. 

A couple of more minutes passed before they happened to come to a stopping point near the center of the downtown area. As the group exited the car, William made a mental note of where the car was and hobbled in front of the group. 

"Come on," he commanded. "We've got some ground to cover if we're going to make it to the-" 

BANG BANG BANG BANG

Bryan jumped and looked ahead at William, who turned to the rest of the group. "I have a feeling that Jeremy is being held up somewhere near those gunshots." 

Bryan pursed his lips. "Me too. What's the plan?" 

William took a deep breath. "As of right now, simply do what we can to get Jeremy to safety. If anything goes wrong, I want to be the one that takes the bullet." 

Olivia gasped. "What? No! What're you saying, Daddy?" 

He turned to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She had tears forming near the corners of her eyes. "This is why I said I was willing to leave you all behind. I don't want anybody else to suffer. I have to take responsibility for letting Jeremy get taken by those ruthless Raiders. For all I know, he might not even be..." 

He trailed off. Olivia started to sob, and Will wrapped her up into a hug. "Olivia...you've been so brave for me. You have done such a great job helping us throughout all of this crap. But I promise, once we get Jeremy out of here, I'll give you a special prize." 

She sniffed. "What's that?" 

William hesitated, which caused Bryan to softly smile. He was trying to think of what to give her. "We'll find someplace safe, just for us. We'll stay there for a long time and wait this crap out, okay? Do you want that?" 

Olivia nodded. "Yeah. I want that." 

He smiled. "Good. Now, let's go find your big brother, okay?" 

With that, they began to run towards the battlegrounds, having no idea what fate had in store for them. Bryan knew one thing, and that was the fact that things were going to get messy. 

But he was determined. He knew that Jeremy would do the exact same thing for him if he was in his shoes. That's what drove him to keep running. 

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