"How was your book?" I ask Fletch as we approach a bridge.

He smiles. "It was good, I must have fallen asleep reading it last night cause I never made it to bed."

I chuckle.

"How did you sleep?" He asks me.

I shrug. "Not well."

"Is it cause he's not here?" Fletch questions then he chuckles a bit. "I shouldn't have asked that, I'm sorry."

I shake my head. "It's a lot of things."

He nods. "Well, if you ever want someone to sleep with..." He elbows me in the side gently and laughs.

I laugh back. "I don't think my boyfriend would approve."

He swallows hard. "So you guys are official?"

I nod. "We were... I just hope he got out alive."

Fletch nods back. "Me too..." He says awkwardly.

Ahri was walking on my other side. She looked so much older now... The way she carried herself, even with being exhausted.

"How are you holding up?" I ask.

"Good. It's tiring but we have to keep moving." She tells me.

I nod.

"How are you holding up?"

I sigh. "I'm still here."

"We've got about six more days of walking after this, right?" She asks.

I nod again.

"Then hopefully we can start again, someplace new. Maybe things are even better in Idaho." Ahri suggests.

"I sure hope they are."

"And hopefully Graham and Jasper get there too."

I hope so.

We cross the bridge but with a turn of bad luck, someone's waiting on the other side for us.

Three men and a woman stand a few hundred feet from the edge of the bridge.

We all stop at the end of the bridge, Ahren curses under his breath.

"Ahri, go stand behind Luna." I order.

Ahri looks upset. "But Sasha, I can help."

I knew she was capable of helping us but that was what I was worried about. I didn't want her to have to do anything. To have to kill anyone.

"No, don't argue with me. Go stand behind Luna." I order again, sounding harsher than I'd intended.

She huffs angrily and stomps over to Luna. I approach Ahren and Frankie.

"What's the plan?" I ask.

Ahren sighs. "You're uh usually our best shot but I guess we've had some complications with that recently..." He starts quietly. I shudder and rub the bandage over my mutilated hand.

Ahren continues, "Go talk to them, take Fletch with you. Frankie and I will cover you if anything happens."

I nod and wave Fletch over. Ahren and Frankie step closer to Luna and Ahri.

"We're gonna go talk to them. If things go south, Frankie and Ahren are covering us." I explain to him.

He nods. "What do you say we do a little good cop, bad cop?" He suggests with a chuckle as we slowly approach the people.

"I'll be the bad cop." I agree.

Why not? Maybe having a bit of strategy for our conversation with them could help us...

Fletch and I approach the group slowly. I try to put on my best 'bad cop' face.

"Hold it right there." The woman says as they all raise their guns.

We stop walking.

"Woah, we don't want any trouble now." Fletch tells them in a calm voice.

"But we'll fight if we have to." I say as I rest my good hand, my right one, on my holster.

Fletch shakes his head. "There's no need for any fighting. We're just crossing through, no reason for trouble."

The woman tuts. "Well it's too bad we outnumber you guys... Cause I'm always up for a good fight."

Fletch and I both exchanged a worried glance before looking around us.

No no no no no...

Everybody else was gone. Just taken... silently... How could we not have noticed them being taken? How could they go without fighting?

They had Ahri...

As I turn back to face the woman, she goes to smash the butt of her gun in my face but I quickly grab the end and swing it back at her.

She falls to the ground with blood dripping down her face.

I quickly point her gun at the others but they've grabbed Fletch. He's being held with a knife to his throat.

"Put it down, lady!" One of the men shouts.

My nostrils flare angrily as I keep the gun pointed at them.

I'd lost everything right now. Fletch was all I had at the moment. But I couldn't just give up... They had taken my little girl.

"Put. It. Down." Another man growls.

I move my eyes to Fletch, focusing on him and him only. He was worried, his face was screaming for mercy.

"Sasha..." He croaks out quietly. The man holding him tightens his grip, pressing the knife closer to his throat. He pierces the skin and draws blood.

I swallow hard, dropping the gun.

"Good, now get on your knees."

I do as I'm told and drop onto my knees. They throw Fletch down next to me. A feeling of helplessness overwhelms me.

"On your knees kid."

Fletch sloppily scrambles to his knees beside me.

"Don't worry, you won't feel a thing." One of the men tells us.

Only seconds later, a cloth is clamped over my mouth from behind and within seconds, I fall into unconsciousness.

"Morning sleepyhead,"

Laying face to face in our cots pushed up against each other, I smile as Jasper brushes some stray strands of hair out of my face. "Good morning."

"How did you sleep last night?" He asks with a smile.

"Mmmm, better than ever. You?"

"I had this dream, it was before the whole dead-rising thing happened. We were baking cookies, like any regular couple would have done. But you, you dropped a bag of flour on the floor, made a huge mess." He laughs and I chuckle with him.

He shakes his head a little. "I don't know... It was just nice. Nice thinking about life without well, being attacked by the dead."

"I wish we could be normal too." I say as I place a hand on his cheek.

He leans closer to me and I can almost feel his lips against mine.

But my body betrays me and I'm suddenly jolted into consciousness.

My whole body is disoriented. My feet and hands are bound together, I can't see anything, my ears are ringing, and my whole body is being bounced around.

I feel myself starting to panic as I bounce around. Where am I?

I try to focus on listening, my ears are ringing but I try to hear anything else. As I focus on the noise, the ringing seems to quiet. It was loud, like an engine and... dirt, like tires on dirt.

I was being driven somewhere. That explained the bouncing.

There was some sort of bag over my head so I couldn't see anything. I tried to feel around with my fingertips but there was just the cool metal surface I was laying on. My hands had been tied together with zip ties and my ankles probably duct tape.

Suddenly everything stops.

I roll around one last time as the vehicle quits moving and I slam into a hard metal surface. My head starts to throb from the forceful contact.

I start breathing faster as I wait for something to happen. The sound of feet shuffling through dirt clouds my head.

The footsteps stop and I hear keys dangling outside. A door opens and then suddenly my arms are grabbed and I'm pulled from the vehicle. I hit the ground hard and pain shoots through my body. I grunt in pain as I lay there.

Then there's a loud thump next to me.

Authors Note: WOW, things have been crazy lately. I've been extremely busy with school and theatre! I managed to get a few chapters written over my winter break so I'll have about 3 weeks of prewritten chapters and hopefully I can get some more written soon...

But boy, oh boy! I've got some stuff coming up for this book and I am so excited for you guys to read it. Things are changing for the group and they're about to experience some new stuff.

And I recently hit 200 followers! So thanks to everyone who's following me and if you're not, feel free to follow me so you can stay updated with all the details!

I'm glad to be back and I hope you guys are as excited as I am for what's coming!

~Xx THΔT RΣDΠΣCҜ