Rose and Leo had agreed to keep an eye on Lucas while everyone else prepared to evacuate Hargrove. The remaining two trucks were loaded with whatever supplies we could scrounge up. It was decided that kids and the injured would ride inside the cabs while the rest would get to ride in the beds. It was going to be majorly squished.

Colin made a fuss when I told him he would be riding inside the cab as well. I grabbed his arm and steered him off to the side out of earshot.

"Before Oscar turned me over, he told me you were sick," I said quietly.

Colin's nostrils flared as he crossed his arms. "I don't know what you're talking about."

I sighed. I had a feeling it would go this way. Colin was too stubborn. "Look, I haven't told anyone else-that's up to you to do. All I'm saying is that it's not good for you to ride in the back of a truck all night. Your immune system already has enough to deal with," Colin opened his mouth but I held up a finger, "plus you're fifteen and technically still count as a kid and therefore, you ride in the cab. Suck it up."

I walked away from him before he could argue further. I would bind his arms and legs and toss him inside the truck if I had to.

The uninjured adults were armed and shooting at the infected still sneaking in while they loaded up the kids and wounded. The fire had crossed the street to the other condos, ensuring that we all had no choice but to leave. Crystal had to be practically torn from the medic center. She grabbed everything that hadn't been bolted down just before the fire took it over. My own condo had been long since burnt, taking everything of mine with it. All I had were the clothes on my back and my Beretta. Even my trusty axe was lost to the flames. I shouldn't complain, I was still alive after all. That was more than most people had. Most of Hargrove's population had been decimated. Even kids hadn't been spared. The mercenaries were a plague and whoever they didn't get, the infected tried to.

I triple-checked to make sure Chloe and Amanda-and Colin-were inside one of the truck cabs with Ethan. I had once told Roy that my babysitting days were over. Looks like he proved me wrong-I now had Amanda to look after. I rubbed at my eyes. We were all exhausted from the hellish night and it still wasn't over. We had no idea where we were going. Obviously we couldn't all just head to the mercenary compound right now.

We would need to find some place we could temporarily secure and unload everyone. Once we re-grouped, then the able and willing would come with us to the compound to find Zoe and as I suspected, exact revenge. Lucas wasn't the only one with a grudge.

John was currently talking with Henry over a spread out map on the hood of our escape vehicle. They were trying to find a muster point within driving distance that we could fortify for the night. We had extra canisters of gas, but if we had to keep driving around to find a place, they would soon be gone.

As I approached them, I aimed and shot my Beretta, taking out an infected that had made it through the others protecting the trucks. John turned to see the thing drop and turned back to give me a curt nod.

"We need to get out of here before we're overrun. Or use up all our ammo. Or we're burned alive. Take your pick," I said grumpily. This evacuation process was nowhere near as fast as it should have been.

As if to emphasize my words, one of the condos down the street exploded. We ducked as pieces of flaming boards and glass flew into the street. There were screams from the people around us even though it was a relatively small explosion and we were out of range.

"Must've hit the fertilizer and feed shed," Henry said.

John stabbed a finger at a spot on the map. "We're thinkin' we need to move away from the middle of the city for tonight. This is an industrial area so there should be less infected to worry about. The further we head east, the less city we'll touch."

Should be. Nothing was ever certain.

"All right, let's go," I said.

Henry took the wheel of one truck, while John took the other. I hopped into the back of the one John was driving. Ethan was in the front seat with him, while Amanda, Colin, Chloe, and one other young boy were squished into the back seat. Rose and Leo joined me, forcing Lucas in with them. He didn't even look at me as he sat down on the cold truck bed, he just stared back into the inferno making its way through the entire cul-de-sac.

"Anyone see George?" I asked, looking around to spot him.

Rose shook her head. "They got 'im."

I paused for a moment before asking Leo, "What about your friend, what was her name ... Brittany?"

"There's no sign of her. The other two we escaped with were shot but she wasn't there," Leo mumbled as he stared at his feet. Rose put a hand on his shoulder.

I had a sinking feeling the mercenaries might have taken her like they did Zoe, but now wasn't the time to say anything. She hadn't looked any older than sixteen...

A couple other survivors joined us in the back of the truck and then I pounded on the top telling John to go. The truck lurched forward, rocking us in the back, then went out the spot where the front gate used to be. We all looked back at Hargrove as we left it for the last time. The flames were twice as tall as the brick fencing, reaching toward the night sky. It looked like a volcanic explosion.

I shoved a bag full of supplies to the side so I could lean on the edge of the truck bed. It was very uncomfortable back here with all the people, supplies and constant moving about as the truck continued. Infected instantly started toward the vehicles. It was dark so we had to keep the headlights on to see so we would be getting plagued with infected for the whole trip.

"Only take out the one's closest to us. This is all the ammo we have," I ordered.

The armory was the first thing we cleaned out when we started to evacuate. We had about two full duffle bags of ammo, but if everyone kept popping of rounds, they would be gone sooner rather than later.

To my surprise, people listened. They focused on the immediate threats that were banging and scraping along the sides and reaching into the back. John wasn't going very fast because he was busy maneuvering to avoid hitting the infected gathering in the beams of the headlights. He veered to the left, almost tossing Rose out the vehicle.

"Watch your drivin'!" she yelled while shaking her fist at the cab of the truck.

I started to laugh and she shot me a venomous look. Stifling my laughter, I returned to taking out the infected but not before I caught the small grin on Leo's face. I squinted into the headlights behind us. The second truck was following us with their lowest lights on, but they were still bright on the eyes.

The further we got away from Hargrove, the infected gradually lessened. After an hour, we could no longer see the flames over the rooftops.

"How long do you think it'll burn for?" Leo asked.

"Depends if it spreads past the brick fence or not," Rose answered.

"You think it'll continue and burn down the rest of the city?" Leo kept going with his questions.

"Depends if it rains or not," Rose said.

"What direction are we heading?"

"Mostly east."

"Do you-"

"For Christ's sake, shut up!" Lucas said.

"Just trying to make conversation," Leo muttered.

"Don't worry 'bout the Nazi Mercenary," Rose said while patting Leo's knee, "he don't know how to be 'round normal folks. Bein' raised to appreciate Hitler will do that to a person."

Lucas narrowed his eyes at her and if she was intimidated, Rose didn't show it. Instead she gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Better watch what you say, leaf-blower," Lucas growled.

"That the best you got?" Rose countered. "I woulda thought they taught you some more creative ways to be racist at Hitler school."

Lucas's gun had been forcefully taken from him right after the mercenary incident. He was now weaponless, and kept eying Rose's rifle. She was practically wagging it in front of him like she was daring him to try. Lucas shifted in his spot making her clutch her rifle tighter. He smirked at her and she glowered at him.

"Enough," I said with a weary sigh.

I was too tired for this shit. And I'd had enough of Luca's racist comments. He was lucky I wasn't willing to waste the energy to pop him one.

They both looked at me and I challenged them to argue with a stern stare. Rose huffed and returned to looking out for infected, while Lucas regarded me for a second longer than necessary before returned to staring blankly out the side of the truck bed.

After another twenty minutes of driving, with the occasional infected to shoot, the truck slowed down. The breaks for the second truck squealed as they were forced to slow down behind John. Slowly, John took the truck over a set of railway tracks causing those of us who were in the bed to tossed up.

The buildings were starting to get further and further apart-and bigger-unlike in the city were everything was crammed together. There were still infected to deal with but John had been right, it looked like there were less in this area. John slowed the vehicle and pulled to the side of the street.

"What's he doin'?" Rose asked no one in particular.

John got out of the truck and turned to us in the back. "I think this place is as good as any."

We looked to the side to see a tacky castle themed motel situated at the beginning of the industrial area. Kind of an odd place for a motel. It had fake decorations to look like stone walls and towers. There was even a ditch filled with stagnate water that ran around the front by the "draw-bridge" gate to look like a moat. It looked like the kind of place where you slept on top of sheets and pushed a chair up against the inside of the door.

The sound of Rose's gun going off brought me out of my critiquing. This place would have to do. I turned to John.

"How do we get in?"

The front gate was shut, and after a light investigation by John and I, it was also locked. There was a small black pad on a stand beside the driveway that looked like you needed a fob or a card key to get the gate to open. Too bad there was no electricity to make it useful.

"Care to give me a boost?" John said pointing to the top of the iron gate.

"Looks like you'll get tetanus from those tips," I muttered.

"Just don't drop me," John said.

"How about you pop me over?" I suggested. "I'm smaller."

I really had lost lots of weight in the last months. I don't think I had ever been this skinny in my adult life; too many Big Macs to eat back then. John looked from me to the gate with his lips twisted.

"Fine, but just focus on gettin' the gate open, then we'll search the place together."

I nodded and he kneeled down to give me a boast. Carefully, I pulled myself up and lifted a leg in between the pointed tops of the gate. I managed to get up to straddle the gate and then I looked down on the other side. It was a long way down without help. I took a series of short breaths to prepare me for the jump. I lifted my leg over so now they were both on the same side and slid down.

The ground was hard and I hissed as my ankles burned from the impact. I leaned against the surprisingly solid gate until the stinging stopped.

"You okay?" John asked.

"I'm fine." I peered back through the other side of the gate at the two trucks. Everyone was watching me. Great, nothing like pressure to get a person moving.

Tearing my eyes from the front, I looked around the inside. No vehicles were parked in front of any of the rooms. There was no infected wandering around the asphalt courtyard either. They must have looked this place up tight after the infection took over. That boded well for us.

There was a small office to left with frosted and barred windows. As I approached the office door, I noticed a small sticker saying the cashier had no more than fifty bucks on them. Definitely a homey vibe around here. With my Beretta pointed straight ahead, I pulled on the handle with my free hand. It didn't open. I scanned the ground around me, my eyes landing on a small patch of green. There were tiny flower beds surrounding the office. All the plants had long since died from neglect but the decorative rocks would prove useful.

I grabbed one that was painted to look like a lady bug and used it to smash the glass by the door handle. The glass shattered and I cleared away the jagged edges with the rock.

"Bailey!" John whispered just loud enough for me to hear him from the front gate.

"I'm fine, just had to break the glass," I whispered harshly back.

Unfortunately, there were still metal bars to get past. I felt around the inside of the door as much as the metal screen would allow. My fingers ghosted past what felt like a dead bolt. I strained as I pushed my fingers to grasp at the latch. After a few failed tries, I finally managed to flip it and the dead bolt retracted. I smiled briefly at my triumph and opened the door.

The broken glass crunched under my feet as I entered. It was dark and dingy inside without the long fluorescent lights to make the tiny room look even more like a place you didn't want to be after dark. There was a pamphlet display in the corner and that was it. No chairs or pictures on the walls. The scratched up counter was a hideous coral color with boot scuffs along the entire bottom. Behind the counter was a closed door and all the room keys hanging on tiny hooks. They still used physical keys here.

I approached the side of the counter where you could access the back and let myself in via lifting up the counter. It banged close behind me. I held my breath waiting for something to come rushing to the front. After a few beats, nothing moved or stirred. Tuck away on the employee side of the counter were shelves filled with papers and binder. I quickly tried to sort through them to see if anything popped out about the gate. The only thing that caught my eye was the large black flashlight that looked like the ones police used. The heavy ones that could beat a person in a pinch, if need be. I grabbed it and flicked on the switch. The yellowed beam illuminated the dirty floor.

Turning away from the mess, I aimed the flashlight at the back door. Did I dare open it? It was probably some sort of employee area. There could be something back there that I could use. I swallowed and tried the knob. It was unlocked. The hinges creaked as I pushed the door open. With the flashlight and my gun in the lead, I started inside. The air was stale from being closed up for so long.

It was a tiny room with a worn couch and kitchenette off to the side. A skinny door labelled 'bathroom' was immediately off to my right. I slowly opened the door, but nothing was inside. It was about the size of an airplane washroom. I moved onto the kitchenette portion. There was an apartment sized fridge, sink and a hotplate that looked like it came from the seventies. I opened the fridge only to slam it shut again with a gag. Everything inside had gotten way past it's expiry date. I breathed through my mouth until the smell cleared.

The tiny worn couch was facing a wall with an old tube television and a cork board. I walked up to the cork board that was plastered with papers. One poster outlined the importance of guest privacy. Another one was a procedure for cleaning a room when housekeeping would find a weapon or drugs. Lovely place.

My eyes landed on one that was the emergency protocol for the gate not working. Bingo. I ripped the sheet down and walked back out of the small room and the office. John was pressed up against the gate. His shoulders sagged when he saw me.

"What took you so long?"

I lifted up the sheet. "Had to find instructions."

According to the paper, there was a latch release that unlocked the gate. I examined the gate until I found the large lever and yanked on it. There was a rusty sound of gears moving. The gate seemed to loosen from the one wall. We grabbed onto the bars and pulled. The gate retracted from the one side and disappeared along the tracks on the other side of the wall as it opened.

John jumped back in the truck and led them inside. Once they were parked, we reclosed the gate using the rest of the instruction and locked it back up. I handed the sheet to John. He folded the paper and stuck it in his coat pocket.

"We better keep this safe," he said, patting the outside of the pocket. "Now did you find any keys?"

"Inside. I figured we should probably scout out the rooms before we start handing out keys," I said.