Mark grabbed Becky off the ground, telling Sean seriously. "Stay here with Chica. I'm gonna check it out." Sean rose from his seat, retorting anxiously. "Mark, I don't think we should. It sounds big." Mark gestured with his hand for Sean to calm down and slipped from the room. Creeping down the hall, he felt another tremor and staggered on his feet a bit. Quickly making his way to the window, he peeked out behind the curtain. Something didn't feel right. For a time, he didn't see anything along the road. Until he finally saw the tongue dog from last night. It was running as fast as it could down the street, looking like its tail was on fire. It kept glancing behind it like it was terrified. Mark watched it closely, his heart racing. What was scary enough to terrify these zombies? Another tremor reverberated across the ground and Mark grabbed the wall for support. The Licker dog stumbled across the pavement, its legs still rapidly kicking out in a desperate act to keep itself moving. The dog rolled over and jumped to its feet, just as a large rotting hand the size of a freightliner slammed down on the dog.

Whatever it was hit the ground so hard that it sent another tremor across the ground. Mark struggled to stay on his feet, while watching this mass of sickly leathery flesh rise off the ground on five thick trunk like limbs. Mark had never seen anything like it. As it rose up like a spider, Mark saw a huge mouth beneath it with massive teeth. From the huge mouth, a thick pink tongue that appeared to be made from multiple tongues, lowered to lick up pieces of the dog off the pavement to bring into its mouth. Mark swallowed trying to keep his breakfast down. As gross as it looked, it appeared to be feeding on other zombies. So, that was a small bit of relief to him. The creature stopped eating suddenly, its body starting to shiver for a minute. Mark couldn't take his eyes off it. What was it doing? The creature stopped shaking and along four of its thick limbs, large leathery scales flipped up to show dark holes all down its legs. The long limb that didn't open up, rose into the air and scanned the area with a single massive eye that blinked.

If this thing had been human... it sure didn't look much like one now. The eye looked in the direction of his house, causing Mark to wince in pain as his ears started ringing with a high pitch frequency. Mark dropped to a knee, groaning in pain and pressing his free hand to his ear. He was getting a massive headache. Just as suddenly as it had happened, the noise stopped. Mark rose enough to peek outside, noticing briefly the blood on his palm. His ears were bleeding. Outside the window, his eyes locked on movement coming from the holes on the creature's legs. Something was crawling out of them. His eyes strained to get a good look, despite his slightly blurred vision. When he heard a soft squeak behind him. Mark's body stiffened. Gripping Becky tighter, he very slowly looked over his shoulder. Standing very close to him was a large emaciated hairless rat! The thing was about the size of Chica. Its massive black bulging eyes looked almost alien as it stared him down with its buck teeth bared.

Mark's heart began to race. He hadn't even heard this thing come in. The rat's large floppy hairless ears flicked in curiosity. Mark's eyes drifted down to the rat's hands, causing him to clench his jaw. This rat had long human like arms with even longer fingers that extended into sharp long bloodstained talon nails. The rat's long leathery tail twitched, before it lifted it hands up and let out a menacing hiss. Mark saw it was about to strike and swung Becky. Whacking the large rat to its side, Mark quickly impaled the sharp end of Becky into its head. He couldn't tell if the thing was undead or not, but he wasn't going to risk it. After yanking Becky from the rat, he took a deep breath. He had killed it before it had made too much noise. That was a relief. Climbing to his feet, his heart sank. Four more rats were creeping around the furniture in the living room. It hadn't been alone. Mark raised Becky debating whether to fight them or run. However, as more crept in through the broken backdoor and crawled effortlessly under the string... Mark dashed for the hallway. He had to tunnel them off.

The Rats ran after him, leaping over each other to try and be the first to taste him! The hallway tunneled them off enough that they could only come at him three at a time. The only downside was that for every three rats he slashed at, another set would leap over the first to take their place. As more filed in, they crawled up the walls to get around the dead ones. Behind him the door opened, but Mark couldn't look. He was too focused on keeping the rats away from him. Sean gasped, asking Mark horrified. "Mark? What do we do?" Mark hacked down a few more, upon answering slightly tired. "Get back in the room!" Mark started to back up to make his way back, when a rat burst out of the wall next to him! The rat slammed him into the other wall, trying to go for his throat. Mark yelped, shoving the rat off to the floor. Slashing at the others, the wall rat got up to bite him, only to get an axe through its head. Sean removed his ax, telling Mark sternly. "We have to go! They're chewing through the walls!"

Mark cursed, nodding reluctantly. He was getting tired and they just kept coming. Sean pulled Chica out by her leash, taking Mark's bag with him. Mark slowly backed up, ordering him bluntly. "The bedroom window! GO!" Sean nodded, pulling Chica toward the nearest bedroom. Mark kept backing up, trying to keep the majority of the rats back long enough. In the doorway of the bedroom, he heard Sean grunt and Chica yelp and whine as he hefted her out a bit roughly. Once Sean was through the window, Mark turned and ran for it. Leaping out the window, he rolled to his feet and told Sean to run. A few rats leapt out the window to chase them, but the others appeared to linger in the house. Mark steered Sean far from the street, hoping to avoid the large creature that might still be in there. Running down the hillside, they tried to stay slightly hidden among the houses. The rats that were still following them, kept up easily. Their long legs helping them to cover just as much ground. Sean glanced back, then told Mark breathlessly. "We won't outrun them!"

Mark hefted Becky a bit more like a sword, telling him just as breathless. "I'm not trying to outrun them. I'm trying to get us away from the BIG thing, before it helps these things!" Sean cursed picking up his pace a bit more, until both him and Chica yelped. Together both Sean and Chica slid down a steep incline to a highway road just outside the neighborhood. Mark skidded to a halt before falling down himself and faced down the rats. The first one leapt at him and he easily slashed it away, causing it to tumble down the hillside. The second dashed for his legs, and he managed to kick it in the face to stun it. Bringing Becky down into its brain. The last one leapt for him just after he impaled the second. With no time to attack it, he ducked away. The rat squeaked in fright, then tumbled down the hillside roughly. Where at the bottom, Sean met it with his axe. Mark slid his way down the hillside to join Sean with a heavy sigh. Sean handed him his backpack, telling him softly. "What do we now? Wait until they clear out?"

Mark slipped on his backpack, shaking his head as he answered softly. "No. They were chewing through the damn house... We need to find somewhere safe before the sunsets." Sean's hand touched his cheek, making him flinch away. Sean jerked his hand back, asking him really worried. "Your ear is bleeding. Are you alright?" Mark nodded, then curiously reached out to touch Sean's face. Turning Sean's head a little, he saw blood leaking from Sean's ears too. Looking his ears over, he told him gently. "Yours are too. Did you hear that weird high pitched sound too?" Sean nodded, looking back up the hill as he asked. "What was it?" Mark grabbed Sean's shoulder, turning him to start walking as he explained what he had seen. By the time he finished, Sean told him perplexed. "That's weird... What do you think it was?" Mark huffed, grumbling out. "A mutant rat nest? I don't know." Sean scanned the empty road, mumbling to himself. "Well, hopefully we can avoid it in the future..." They walked over to the guard rail at the slight curve in the road, overlooking the town below. Everywhere cars were left abandoned and some of the town was in terrible condition.

Sean leaned on the guard rail, letting out a sigh at the look of it all. It was such a strange sight. It was like everyone just up and vanished. Sean shook his head at the sight, stating out in a low voice. "Can you believe it? It all just feels so... empty." Mark placed a hand on Sean's shoulder, informing him nicely. "Ya... but we should avoid the cities. I know a place we might be able to go..." Mark squeezed his shoulder and started to move away, until he realized that Sean wasn't moving. Stopping short, he listened to Sean mumble out. "What's the point? We both know how this ends, Mark. Nowhere is safe. We're not living anymore. We're just... not dying." Mark walked back to touch his shoulder, asking him very tenderly. "Sean... I want to go home. There is nothing left for me here. I need to know if my family is ok." Sean finally looked at him, his eyes so distant as he said. "Mark... You may not like the answer."

Mark took a deep shaky breath, telling him. "I know... but if you had the chance... wouldn't you try? It's a long ways from here, but we might find a nice place along the way. I just feel like we need to leave California. This is ground zero and there are too many hoards here. If we venture farther out maybe..." He didn't have the heart to say that they'd find someplace 'safe.' Sean let out another sigh, reluctantly admitting in a slightly joking manner. "Are you thinking about showing me the west? Start a farm in this hell?" Mark chuckled, then let the idea sink in. Grinning brightly, he told Sean confidently. "Actually... Why not? You up for a road trip?" Sean raised an eyebrow, telling him nervously. "Mark, I was kidding. I don't know the first thing about farming." Mark gestured for him to follow. Sean followed looking concerned as Mark pointed to a sign that advertised a farmer's market ahead. Sean only shrugged, but Mark had a plan. Sean was right. They needed to think about the future. They couldn't hide forever. So, why try? They just needed a stable place and a farm wasn't a bad idea.

Most of the farms around California were powered by windmills. That meant electricity. Possibly enough to get a signal out of their own. Otherwise, it was a plan to make food. A chance to survive. The farmers market was always held outside the town, which made it pretty safe to investigate. The stalls were all knocked down and rotten food was scattered everywhere. Sean pulled his shirt up over his nose, trying to keep Chica from eating anything. Mark quickly dug around in some stalls, taking packets of seeds for just about everything edible. Sean kept a look out, muttering out softly. "I don't understand what your plan is..." Mark smirked when he found some chili pepper seeds. Stashing the seeds in his backpack, he told Sean simply. "We need to get out of the cities. There are too many people there that have turned. And like you said, we'll be hiding our whole lives here. So, let's go somewhere more open. Let's start over. We'll make food and we'll see if we can use the windmill's power to contact that colony we heard about on the radio. With any luck, we might be able to contact other shelters with it. Possibly even..."

Mark drifted off not wanting to give Sean false hope. Sean's eyes were glistening though, when he said aloud hopefully. "Even overseas?" Mark nodded, before quickly interjecting. "We can try. I can't promise anything, but right now-" Mark was cut off by Sean slamming into him to hug him. Mark rubbed his back comfortingly, whispering to him gently. "Please don't get your hopes up... It's just a theory." Sean hugged him tighter, whispering back. "I don't care. It's a good plan." Mark smiled, his eyes drifting to Sean's neck. Instantly his mind flashed to a distant memory of hugging Sean at Pax and the way Sean had kissed his throat. He should have known back then how Sean had felt... but he hadn't taken anything really serious back then. He had just been having fun. He felt Sean's warm breath on his neck, his skin breaking out in goosebumps. Swallowing nervously, Mark pulled away from Sean carefully. Moving to another market stall, Mark got to work checking for more seeds to distract himself. After raiding the market of all the seeds that he could find, he took Chica's leash from Sean and began walking down the road again.

Sean anxiously moved closer to him as the sun started to go down, asking him with concern. "Mark, we should find some shelter soon." Mark nodded, taking a sudden turn down a dirt road as he asked Sean curiously. "Hey Jack... Can you ride?" He looked back to see Sean blink with a blank look, before asking under his breath. "Ride what?" Mark smirked, tapping a wooden sign as he kept walking down the road. The wooden sign was carved perfectly to read; 'Los Angeles Horseback Riding.' Sean let out a weak chuckle, stating out firmly. "Ha. Ha. Mark. Very funny." Mark slowed down to face him and honestly told him. "I'm serious. It will be faster than walking and it will be better than a car." Sean crossed his arms, growling out. "No, they are not." Mark rolled his eyes, retorting seriously. "They don't run off gas. They don't make as much noise as a car. We can take them off road. They can help us plow on the farm. They are faster than we are." Sean gestured to Chica, saying shortly. "Ya? And what about her? Are you just going to drag her along behind?"

Mark gave Sean a sour look, answering. "Of course not. She'll ride with me. Come on." Mark had been here before to learn how to ride. So, he was semi-familiar with the layout and how to get the horses going. Mark remained cautious as he approached the ranch. The main building had open doors, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Sean followed him around to the large barn, whispering to him. "Mark... I did tell you about the bad experience I had riding a horse, right?" Mark ignored him, handing the leash back to him. Sean accepted it, allowing him to slip into one of the barns with his hands on Becky. Inside, he observed the rows of stalls. Some of the horses were missing. While others lifted their heads as he approached with hungry looks. Mark raised an eyebrow. It had been months since the outbreak... but these horses looked like they were fine. Healthy. Mark approached a horse he recognized and peeked into Barney's stall. Barney had a fresh bucket of water and an empty food bucket. Someone was still here taking care of them.

Mark rushed back out to gesture Sean inside, hastily informing him. "You see that closet there? Go in there and get two saddles and a set of bridles. We need to do this quick." Sean's eyes went wide, but Mark told him more sternly. "Now Sean. I'll get the horses." Mark watched him go, then raced up to Barney's stall. Unlocking it, Mark slowly approached to grab his loose facial harness. Taking it, he walked Barney out to hook him outside his stall. Then he moved to a black mare that was beside Barney's stall. Pulling her out the same way, he hooked her out too. After that, he rushed to Sean to take the first saddle. Removing the blanket, he quickly flipped that on Barney before hefting the western saddle on him. He had seen his instructor saddle him and was pretty confident that he could do it. Grabbing the cinch strap, he pulled it under Barney's body and began pulling it tight to buckle it in place. Barney snorted, side-stepping in discomfort. Mark patted him to calm him, trying to fix anything that didn't look right. Then taking the next saddle from Sean, he moved to the other horse.

Getting her tacked up, Mark moved to slip on Barney's bridle before pulling the loose harness of his face. Once the horses were finally ready to go, Mark froze at the soft sounds of approaching hooves. Sean shot a fearful look at him. Raising a calming hand, Mark took the reins of both horses and slowly coaxed them to the other side of the barn. Sean got the idea and rushed forward to open the other barn door. Opening it just enough to get the horses out, Sean closed it quickly. Mark gestured Sean forward, telling him in a rushed whisper. "Get on." Sean shook his head, looking afraid. Mark gently kicked him in the thigh to coax him into doing it. Sean stomped his foot, but reluctantly climbed up. Mark tossed him the reins, bending to lift Chica up. She struggled as he draped her over the horse, causing Barney to paw the ground with an unsettled hoof. The far barn door opened and the loud sounds of people riding in made Mark hurry up. Climbing up into the saddle, he held Chica by her backpack harness and turned Barney to face the road.

Coaxing Barney forward by squeezing his calves to Barney's ribs, he leaned forward a bit to whisper to him. "Walk on." Without issue, Barney began walking forward. He was happy that Sean's horse followed his without a second thought. He had chosen Sean's horse perfectly. Barney was a lead horse and a beginner's horse. Which meant the horse that Sean was riding was a beginner's horse too, and was conditioned to follow Barney with new riders. Quickly and quietly, Mark guided Barney back out toward the road with Sean right behind him. To Be Continued...