"Taken by the dead?" Ahren repeated. "What does that even mean?" He asked.

"It means it's gone," Jasper answered. "the dead outnumber the living."

An entire city as big as Calgary just gone? It was unbelievable.

I shook my head, "That city is all we've got at the moment. We've gotta go in." I felt a peck of water on my nose, I glanced up to see it had started snowing again. "We can't be out here much longer before we all get frostbite." I told them.

"Then we'd better keep moving."Jasper said as he started walking again. I moved with him, my arm still around his waist as he limped forward.

The group trudged forward through the snow on the highway. We strolled into the city nearly an hour later.

"It's empty..." Catarina started saying as she looked around the streets between buildings.

"We've just scratched the surface here." Jasper said as we walked a bit farther into the city.

"Keep your eyes up, we can't be sure what's around here." Ahren added.

We turned a corner but immediately stopped dead in our tracks. "Go back! Go back!" Ahren hissed, hoping none of the dead would hear, but it was too late.

The herd filled the space in the alley from wall to wall and by the time we'd turned to run away, so had they.

I struggled to move with Jasper as he hobbled beside me.

We doubled back around to another alley. "It's a dead end!" Allie exclaimed, wrapping her around Jasper as well to help move him.

"I think I saw a subway station back there." I suggested as we turned again, leaving the alley.

We hurried into the street, our eyes scanning for the station before running across the street and hurrying down the stairs into the station. Ahren slammed the shutters closed to keep the dead ones out before following us down.

We climbed through the security checkpoint and headed towards the platform.

"He needs to sit." I told Ahren as I adjusted my grip on his waist.

"There should be some benches around here." Ahren muttered as we walked through the station.

I'm sure he's just stressed with being stuck under the city surrounded by dead ones.

I sighed before looking to Allie, "You got him for a bit?" I asked. She nodded and tightened her grip as I let go and caught up with Ahren.

I glared at him. "You don't have to be an asshole."

"No, I don't." He retorted back at me. He was about as stubborn as they came, but so was I.

"Looks like there are some seats up here." He said as he motioned towards them. I nodded, "We'll rest here for a bit."

It was a small area with a few benches to rest on. The train sat abandoned in the station with the doors closed.

I helped Allie get Jasper settled onto one of the benches. "We need to elevate his leg, it's going to get too swelled if we don't adjust the blood flow. I might have a sweatshirt or something in my bag..."

I opened the backpack and pulled out one of my sweatshirts to put beneath his leg.

"I'm fine, really guys." Jasper insisted.

Allie laughed, "You were shot, you're far from being fine."

I chuckled at her remark as Jasper rolled his eyes and attempted to swat my hands away from his leg while I lifted it and placed the folded sweatshirt underneath it. That should help prevent things from getting any worse...

"Do we have any water?" Jasper asked as I stood up.

"I'll see what I can find." I told him before walking over to Ahren. "What do we have for supplies?"

He sighed before answering. "Whatever's in your bag and anything we can find in this station."

"We should do a sweep of this place, make sure there aren't any dead ones to sneak up on us and find any supplies that we can." I suggested. Looking around the small station I wondered what lurked beyond the train that sat stalled in front of us.

Ahren nodded, "Good idea, I'll go with."

Ahri was sitting next to Catarina on one of the few benches. Jasper also appeared to be resting his eyes while Allie watched him from the floor by the bench he'd fallen asleep on.

"Hey guys, we're gonna take a look around and make sure that there aren't any dead ones hiding and see what we can come up with for supplies." I announced to the others.

Catarina got up from the bench, exchanging quiet words with Ahri that I assumed was her telling Ahri to stay put before she approached Ahren and I. "Don't get yourselves killed."

Ahren nodded. "You worry too much."

"That's my job." Catarina responded before going back to sit with Ahri.

"Holler if you need anything and I'll come running." Allie assured us.

"I'll keep that in mind." I said before she turned back to Jasper while Ahren and I began walking away. We made our way down the subway tunnel with our weapons at bay.

I was eager to see if we could find anything that would be helpful to us.

"How bad is his leg?" Ahren asked, trying to make conversation as we walked.

I sighed. "It's swollen, but the healing process is moving along well."

"I'm glad all those college courses on Human Anatomy and Advanced Medical Training are paying off.." Ahren commented as we stalked down the hall.

I laughed, "Me too."

We turned a corner in the station and I the mood immediately lightened up.

A smile spread across my face as we looked down the long walkway ahead of us. The walls were lined with vending machines full of snacks and drinks. This was exactly the kind of break we needed to get back on our feet. I approached the first machine with Ahren. He dug through his pockets looking for cash. I rolled my eyes and laughed at his antics.

I raised my bat and swung it into the glass over the front of the machine. It shattered into a million pieces causing Ahren to jump back. He laughed as our eyes met and he realized I'd broke the glass.

"Grab that cart over there." I ordered, motioning to the abandoned cart sitting in the middle of the walkway. He brought it over to me and we began shoveling the contents from the vending machine into the cart.

"It's about time something goes right for us." Ahren told me as he grabbed the last of the snacks from the machine.

I glanced down the hallway to see a dead one stumbling towards us, "Heads up." I whispered as I nodded towards the rotting flesh monster.

He nodded back at me and pulled his knife from its leather sheath on his belt. "I've got it." He made his way towards the dead one until they were right by each other. It snarled its teeth and attacked Ahren. He stumbled over his own foot and fell backward. I rushed over to him as the dead one fell on top of him.

I ran to the other side and pulled the rotting thing off of Ahren. I swung my bat and bashed its skull in. Its body went limp on the ground. I huffed a bit before going to help Ahren who was still sprawled out on the floor.

I grabbed his hand and helped pull him off the ground.

"Thanks." He said before going back to the cart. I followed him as he started pushing it back to the others.

"Think they'll be excited?" I asked, laughing at my own question.

He nodded, "They'd better be."

I smiled as we took the cart full of food and drink towards the others.

"You know, if we find more of these carts, we could use them to make barriers." I started explaining. "We could line them up from one wall to the other to keep any dead ones out, this place could actually work for a decent setup."

He nodded back, "You're right. I think we got a pretty good find today."