Lucas led our silent group across the lawns of the massive houses. No doubt they were once manicured; now they were full of uneven grass and rotting foliage. Lucas held up his hand as we approached the side of the house on the corner. The next street is where the mercenaries would be. The blood in my veins started to pump faster and faster. I couldn't tell if I was anxious or excited. My nervous system was fried at this point.

Lucas peeked around the corner. I heard him suck in a breath. He turned back to us, his brows furrowed, then took another look.

"...the hell?" he muttered.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't see anyone," Lucas said.

He turned back to us again and crouched down, motioning for us to do the same.

"I'm goin' to go scout it out by myself. If it's clear, I'll wave you over," he said.

"No way!" Rose hissed. "How do we know you won't just go runnin' back to 'em?"

Lucas scowled. "I want 'em dead as much as you do."

"You could be leadin' us into a trap. We ain't lettin' you go up there yourself," Rose said.

She had a point.

John held up his hands. "We'll split up. Lucas, Bailey, and I will go check it out. The rest of you stay here. If somethin' is up, I'll pop off a round and you'll know to come runnin'."

"We need to stay out of sight, that's why less is better," Lucas said, his arm jerking down with his harsh exclamation.

"Son, I ain't stupid. You're not goin' in there alone," John said.

John and Lucas stared each other down and I swallowed at the tension. They better not start fighting. Sheri hitched in a breath and extended her arm, grabbing our attention. She was pointing at an infected shambling toward us. It bumped into the curb, barely catching itself. No one moved. We let the thing get closer to us to the point where it was on the same lawn as us, and then Rose and I shot out. I tripped the thing, swiping out with my foot. It collapsed to the ground and I stuck my boot-clad foot on its chest. Rose then brought her knife down on the infected's head while it struggled to free itself from under my hold.

We returned to the group huddle leaving the dead infected where it had fallen. Lucas frowned.

"There's no way they would have let a dead one get that close to the compound. Usually they had one or two guys patrollin' the grounds at all times," Lucas said, then added, "plus it's too damn quiet."

"What do you mean?" John asked.

"There was always loud music goin' or shots goin' off. Somethin' ain't right." Lucas tugged at his collar.

"You think they abandoned it?" I mused out loud.

"Only one way to find out," John said.

He motioned for Lucas to lead the way. Lucas no longer looked mad, instead he looked concerned. That made my pulse raise—this time I knew it was my nerves. Something had spooked Lucas.

"If you hear anythin', you come runnin', all right?" John said to the others.

They nodded. Ethan looked a little angry that he hadn't been selected, but he didn't dare argue with John.

Crouched low, we crossed the front of the lawn into the next one. I kept my head low, the ground becoming a blur of green. Lucas stilled so we stopped behind him, then he pointed to the largest house yet. It made the other mansions look tiny. No wonder they choose this one. It looked like it could house fifty people. There was a tall privacy fence surrounding the property and a wide-open iron gate at the front.

Inside, there were fallen bodies and a couple roaming infected. One still had an automatic weapon attached that was dragging behind it via a strap. Every time the weapon hit a stone or something to make a sound, the infected would stop and whirl around to look for the source of the noise.

"Those bodies belong to your friends?" John asked.

Lucas swallowed, but didn't answer. He entered the gate and we were forced to follow. The infected came straight for us. I raised my bat and John took out his hunting knife. There would be no gunfire until absolutely necessary. I met the infected that was dragging the automatic weapon halfway. My metal bat whistled in the air as I swung—hard. It connected with the infected's skull and it crumpled to the ground. I brought the bat down again and it stopped moving.

John reached down and yanked off the rifle it was dragging. The outside looked scratched up, but John was able to eject the magazine. He flashed me the top. There were still bullets inside. John pocketed the magazine and gently placed the rifle back on the ground.

We killed off the rest of the infected as we made our way up the sprawling driveway. There was even a damn fountain in the middle. It wasn't spraying any water, but it still looked impressive—except for the dead body floating face first in the murky water.

Lucas stopped to turn over the body. As he did, some pinkish water splashed onto the cement driveway.

"Knew 'im?" John asked.

"He wasn't a mercenary," Lucas said.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"The mercenaries aren't the only group out there," Lucas said, which answered nothing.

"Meaning?" I prompted.

"They were kind of in a gang war."

John and I looked at each other. "What the hell does that mean?" John asked.

"I'm willin' to bet the other crew got to 'em, that's why it's so quiet it here. They're all dead like the ones out here," Lucas said.

"How big is the other gang?" John asked.

"Not near as big ..." Lucas trailed off, then spoke to himself, "how'd they do it?"

John didn't look pleased with the news. As if the mercenaries weren't enough of a menacing presence; now we had to worry about another gang? Why the hell did people care about being the fucking head honcho? There were so many more important things to worry about! At least the other gang had done our work for us.

My shoulders slumped. If they were all dead, how were we going to find the other compounds? I started to panic as a more frightening thought streaked across my mind.

"Do you think Zoe is in there?" I asked, my voice thick.

"I highly doubt it," Lucas said. "Like I said, this wasn't the location for that side of their operation."

"We'll check inside just to be sure," John said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Lucas pushed open the ornate front door. No creaking or anything. Right off the bat, we spotted dead bodies strewn around the entrance. The air was heavy with the scent of rot and copper. Blood coated the white titles, leaking in between the grout forming a series of red lines. Bullet holes and arterial spray marred the paint job. Broken decorative pieces lay mixed among the bodies. I almost slipped on a broken vase as we walked among the bodies.

We canvassed the carnage-filled first floor. No one was left alive. I noticed that there wasn't one woman among the mix. I highly doubted any females stuck with the mercenaries willingly. Lucas pointed to a couple of the bodies saying they weren't part of the mercenary crew. It looked like they had invaded the place. Guns were still next to their fallen owners leading me to believe that they didn't attack for resources. They just wanted to eliminate. We moved onto the upper floor when we finished our loop. The only sounds we could hear were our own breathing and footsteps. This place was a tomb.

The upstairs was filled with dead as well. Lucas pushed open one of the doors to reveal a large office. A huge wooden desk sat in the middle with papers and maps scattered on and around it. There was a large map nailed to the wall in a crude manner. We walked up to it to see a bunch of red circles and pins.

"Are these all the compounds?" I asked, scanning the map.

"Compounds and drop-off zones," Lucas said.

"Drop-off zones?" John asked.

"They're certain areas they secured for tradin'," Lucas hesitantly answered.

"You mean where they traded people like goods?" I didn't disguise the anger in my voice.

Lucas didn't answer.

"Where do they keep the girls they take?" John asked. His eyes were narrowed and lasered in on Lucas.

Lucas took a deep breath. "They didn't tell us grunts much, but the guy in charge here once got so drunk he told us that compound was in Baton Rouge, but I don't know where in Baton Rouge."

The map we were looking at was a large area chart. Prairieville was circled and so was Baton Rouge. But there was nothing specific enough to tell us where the place was located.

"Let's look through the rest of these papers," John said.

We out down our weapons and started going through the papers and maps. I found a small notebook that looked like it was a ledger. There were tables of weighted items for trading values. I stopped at the page labelled 'Immune'. One immune was worth a crate of food and six cartons of ammo. Or a few drums of gasoline. Or a rifle and a handgun.

My heart stopped as I read that the drop-off zone was listed as the East Louisiana State Hospital. They fucking delivered straight to the front door. I started to giggle. Thirty minutes or less, or it's free! Lucas and John stopped their rummaging to peer at me. I ignored them as I counted the tally on the next page, feeling every indent of the pen marks. Twenty-seven people had been caught and transferred. Which mark was mine? There was nothing personal about the ledger. We were simply something to be bartered and traded, like a crate of oranges.

It made me remember when Tim had traded me for a sack to the mercenaries at the apartment. Whatever was in the bag, Tim had deemed me worth. Is this what they did for the girls they captured? Were they weighted and valued like the immune people? I suddenly felt nauseous. Was Zoe already in one of these ledgers? I threw the book down in disgust.

I turned from the mess and looked out the big bay window. The dead bodies were still there. Good. The mercenaries deserved everything they had brought on themselves. Hell, I'd shake the hands of the gang who did this except chances are they were just as bad.

"Found somethin'," Lucas said and I tore myself away from the window.

We crowded around him to see what he was talking about. It was a hand-drawn map by someone who had the shakes or was drawing it while moving. The top said South Baton Rouge and the X-marked destination was a hotel. The bottom of the paper said Girls, Girls, Girls! My vision clouded over as I clenched my teeth. When I found these men, whether John tried to stop me or not, I was going to kill them all.

"Think this is it?" John asked.

"Your idea of what's goin' on is as good as mine at this point." Lucas shrugged.

"It's all we have, so we're going," I said. "We have to at least try. Even if it isn't the place we need, don't they mark up the area with their symbols? We can track them that way. How far into the actual city do you think they will be?"

"This says South Baton Rouge, so I'm guessin' we won't have to go downtown, but whoever drew this clearly drank too much." Lucas frowned at the paper as he turned it sideways. "The mercenaries don't like to hunker down in populated areas. There's a good chance we won't have to go too far in."

John took off his cowboy hat and ran a hand over his hair. "All right. Let's go back and round up the others."

We descended back down the stairs and out the front door of the mansion. The frosted crystal glass surrounding the door twinkled like Christmas lights as the sun broke through. This place would have been beautiful in its hay day. When we reached the others, I spotted two more fallen infected. At least they were capable of taking care of them.

"Anyone in there?" Rose asked.

John shook his head. "All dead."

None of us mentioned the other gang and the war that was erupting. There was no point in scaring them anymore. We loaded back into the truck and circled back around the way we had come. The I10 would also take us to Baton Rouge if we kept heading north.

Once back on the interstate, Lucas and I took turns memorizing the "map". The shaky drawing wasn't anything concrete, but with everyone being dead at the last compound, we were starting from scratch again. The mercenaries were everywhere it seemed, so all we had to do was keep looking and we'd find someone. Hold on Zoe, we're coming.