"Can you believe him?" Lizzie scowled, pacing up and down the length of the laboratory is if she were attempting to burrow them out.

JJ shrugged, "At this point, nothing that man does is surprising."

"You say it as if you admire him," Lizzie scoffed, glancing quizzically at her boyfriend.

"Of course I do. How could I not?"

"Are you joking?" Lizzie scolded, shooting daggers into the back of JJ's head.

"He's the bravest man I've ever met," JJ argued.

Lizzie exhaled, "But at what point does it become sheer stupidity? At what point does he have to think about someone else?"

JJ placed his hands on each of Lizzie's shoulders, keeping her rooted to the spot, "Lizzie, all he does is think about everyone else. If anything, your dad needs to learn to be more selfish."

"Why doesn't he think about me?" Lizzie sobbed. "Why does he find it so hard to put me first?"

JJ met her tearful gaze and spoke with a strong tone of authority that he rarely used, "Because he would rather you have a life without him than no life at all. Because he knows that you survived without him for 16 years. Because saving you has finally given him purpose. Can't you see that, Lizzie? All of this... everything he does, it's for you."

Lizzie sank her face into JJ's shoulder, knowing his words to be true, "I just wish that everything could go back to normal."

"This world is too fucked up for wishes."

The two of them stood there for a minute, soaking up the warmth and love from one another in a rare moment of pure human normalcy. As she poured out her inner demons to the boy she loved, one painful reality struck Lizzie like a dagger. With her mother dead and no family to speak of, she was petrified of losing Max, her one last link to who she was and where she came from. Of course, JJ had already lost that in his twin brother. Not only was he without family, but half of his heart had been torn from his body without warning.

"You know, he does the same to you," Lizzie smiled, retreating from the comfort of JJ's shoulder.

"What do you mean?" JJ asked.

"He treats you like a son."

JJ coughed, "Son-in-law, I hope."

"Shut up," Lizzie laughed, smacking him across the arm. "I mean it. He would just as soon lay his life down for you than me."

JJ smiled, this time with sincerity, before pulling Lizzie back into his arms, "Let's just hope he doesn't have to."

As the pair held each other for a moment longer, they were interrupted by a sudden and loud thump emanating from the corner of the room. Lizzie and JJ instantly snapped to attention, reaching for their guns as they walked slowly towards the source of the noise. A thin blue curtain separated them from the far corner of the room. However, as far as they knew, the space merely housed two empty containment cells for old experiments from days gone by.

"Dawson!" Lizzie exclaimed as the penny finally dropped, restoring her pistol to its home within her waistband and rushing towards the curtain.

As she tore it away, she immediately regretted her decision. The figure staring back at her was as far from the woman she once knew as seemed humanly possible. Dawson's eyes were bright red and bulging, with her skin already turning a pale shade of yellow. While she had put up one hell of a fight against the virus, she had finally succumbed beyond all recognition. JJ and Lizzie could only watch on as their friend slammed at her cage like a crazed zoo animal.

JJ finally placed his hand on the glass, "We're going to get you back... I promise."

***

"How are we looking, Herb?" Max grunted between waves of sickness.

The transfusion had been fast and aggressive, as Max had insisted on giving Doctor Saunders as much blood as he needed without taking any breaks. Time was not a luxury that anyone could afford at the moment.

"His vitals are looking good, but we're not out of the woods yet. He lost a hell of a lot of blood up on that rooftop," Herbert explained, monitoring the screen beside him.

"How much - "

The words escaped Max as he battled with his latest bout of uncontrollable dizziness. His body wasn't coping well with the extreme blood loss.

"Another hour or so, give or take. Perhaps you should take a rest..." Herbert suggested.

Unable to formulate the words within his mouth, Max merely waved a lazy hand towards the old man to refute his idea.

Undeterred, Herbert pressed, "I think a ten-minute break would do your strength the world of good."

"You hear that?" Max asked, finally able to jumble some syllables together.

"Hear what?"

"You can't hear that?"

Herbert craned his ear, "I can't hear a thing..."

"No explosions?"

"No?"

Max looked up at his makeshift physician with steely determination, "Then we definitely don't have time for a break."

***

Rodney had sent GiGi and his team back down the hospital staircases in pursuit of the clicker horde. If the undead were heading down towards the basement, the living would have to do everything in their power to keep Doctor Saunders safe. All Rodney could do now was continue to fight the good fight from atop his perch. Unfortunately, he was out of grenades and only one tank of petrol remained.

As he peered over the top of the hospital at the surging pile of rotten flesh below, Rodney was filled with a sense of dread. It seemed no matter how many of them he knocked down, two more took their place, like red ants swarming out of a nest. The fuel had certainly added an extra punch to each grenade but they would need nothing short of an atomic bomb to clear the mass of clickers scratching at the front doors.

At the very least, Rodney and his team had created a barricade of corpses to slow the more mobile clickers down, but it was only a matter of time before they broke in. As he poured the last of the fuel over the side and lobbed his final burning canister, Rodney signed with a mixture of relief and dread.

"What now?"

Rodney turned to see one of the snipers looking to him for direction. He still struggled to understand how or why he had transitioned into a position of leadership amidst this crisis. Simple knowing the likes of Max seemed to grant a level of authority around Novus.

"Now..." Rodney said, still unsure of where the sentence was heading. "We give them whatever we have left. What do we have... one, two, three snipers, five boxes of ammo left... that should be enough for three kills every ten seconds until we run dry."

"Boss?"

"Position yourselves across the front wall and pick off the clickers closest to the doors for as long as you can."

"Rodney... they're already in."

Snapping his head to face the source of the statement, another of the snipers on the far corner of the building, Rodney rushed back over to the edge of the rooftop. Sure enough, a thin stream of clickers was now disappearing through a small hole in one of the doors. While they were only gaining access to the hospital one at a time, for now, that gap would surely grow until the doors lay off their hinges.

"Remember what I said!" Rodney cried, heading for the fire exit. "Take it in turns, hit your shots, aim for the ones breaking through that gap. Slow them down as much as you can!"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm no use up here anymore, someone has to warn Max and the others," Rodney yelled as he disappeared through the door.

As he rounded the corner in search of the main hospital staircase, Rodney was stopped in his tracks by a small figure in the centre of the corridor.

"George, what are you doing out here?"

"I came looking for you, Wodney," George sniffed, guilt and fear plastered across his face as plain as day.

Rodney scooped up the young child and held him in a tight embrace, "You know you're meant to stay with the other kids, Georgie. We talked about this. We have to keep you safe."

"But... but who is keeping you safe?"

"Well," Rodney explained. "Luckily for me, I'm so big and strong that I don't need any help. That's why I need to go and make sure that Max and Lizzie and JJ are okay. Can you be brave and look after the other kids while I'm away?"

George nodded but his grip around Rodney's back didn't loosen an inch.

"You promise you come back?"

"Of course," Rodney assured. "Of course I will."

One way or another, he would be with George at the end. He hoped only that he would be strong enough to do what needed to be done, should the time arrive.

The sheer thought shattered his very soul.