Sparrow manages to slice the backs of both of its knees and rolls away before the Titan can swat him like a fly as it collapses on its face. Jocelynn starts hammering away at it with her pistol as Josh comes in with his rifle, trying to get a shot in on its face, but the Titan's massive arms cover its head, shrieking with anger. Danielle jumps in with her shotgun to blast away its arms as it heaves itself up much faster than I anticipated.

It swings out one of its arms, catching Danielle in the chest and sending her right into Jocelynn, and the two go crashing to the ground, groaning with pain. Sparrow tries to slice its arm, but his sword gets caught in the bone. The Titan grabs Sparrow and lifts him up to throw him, but Josh jumps in and shoots at the stuck blade, forcing the Titan to drop Sparrow, and he barely has time to roll away as the Titan slams its fist down where he was moments ago.

The Titan lumbers onto its hands, dragging its useless legs behind it as it starts in on Jocelynn and Danielle, who are still prone on the ground, and none of Josh's attacks seem to do any damage. I seize my chance and sprint forward, sliding onto my knees between the Titan and its targets as I knock an arrow and take aim, the time around me seeming to slow as I take a steadying breath.

I can't miss this shot. 

The Titan roars at me as it lumbers closer, Josh shouting at me to get Danielle and Jocelynn out of the way.

I don't have time to.

I pull back the string of my bow, knowing that everyone is as good as dead if I don't kill it with this shot.

It opens its mouth once more to roar, and I let my arrow fly. It finds its mark, straight through its mouth and into the roof, right into its brain. It stumbles at the impact, falling on its face once more, burying the arrow further into its head, and it slides the rest of the way over to me, stopping inches from my knees, dead.

Save for the fire engulfing a few of the cabins, the camp is quiet. The Widows are gone, having fled when the Titan came out to play, and the campers are staring at the dead Titan and me. Danielle coughs behind me, the sound jostling me from the rush of adrenalin from the fight. I turn to look at her, staring up at me with amazement.

"You... killed it," she breathes.

"She saved us..." Jocelynn gasps beside her, struggling to sit up.

The camp erupts in a victorious cheer, and Felix and Octavia burst from the main office, heading straight for me and wrapping me in a hug that takes me to the dirt with a grunt.

"That was so stupid, Cass!" Octavia exclaims when she finally decides to let me sit up. She punches me in the arm, worried tears in her eyes, and ignoring my protests to let me stand.

"Are you hurt? Did it get you anywhere?" Felix frets, moving my sister aside, helping me up, and checking me over. He freezes when he notices the blood on my arm; the bullet graze. "You're bleeding!"

"I'm fine, but we have to check on the others," I assure them, peeling myself away from my worried siblings to check on Danielle and Jocelynn.

I help Jocelynn sit up as Josh helps Danielle, checking her over for injuries as half of the campers start checking the Widow bodies for weapons and gear, the other half checking on the injured.

"I'm fine, Josh," Danielle groans, holding her ribs.

"Dude, you were just swatted ten feet by a big ass Feral; you're lucky you're still alive," Josh says, his voice teasing.

"Really? It felt further than that," Danielle grumbles as Josh helps her to her feet.

"That might be because you slammed into Jocelynn," Sparrow says, dragging a large bucket of water to a burning cabin nearby.

Jocelynn groans. "Yeah, that didn't feel great. No offense, Dani, but you're really fucking heavy."

Danielle coughs as she tries to laugh, then buckles over, clutching her ribs.

"Let's get you checked out," Josh says, helping Danielle to the main office where other campers are starting to gather their wounded.

"I'll help the others make sure there aren't any stragglers," I offer.

"We'll go, too," Felix says, and Octavia nods.

"Help us with the fires when you get done," Sparrow adds.

I nod, grabbing my bow and following a few other campers outside the gate. The sun is starting to lower behind the treetops, and none of the campers acknowledge my siblings and me as we search in silence. The Widow's tracks lead further away from us, and I split away with one of the campers and my siblings to cover more ground.

"Fancy shooting out there," a camper says easily.

I glance over at him, his light tone unsettling after everything that happened. "Thanks," I mutter, keeping an eye out.

"I'm Matt," he continues, ignoring my indifference. "And you must be Cassandra, Octavia, and Felix."

My siblings stiffen at their names, alert to the conversation.

"Is there something you need, Matt?" I ask, annoyed.

He casually holds his hands up in defense, shrugging. "Just bein' friendly," he stuffs his hands in his pockets, glancing around. "I heard Leon talking about you guys earlier. Sounded like he knew you."

I huff. "He knows my family. Not us."

He hums in thought as we continue looking around.

"You don't seem that shaken about the attack," I note suspiciously.

He shrugs again. "I knew they'd find us eventually. I'm not that surprised they attacked."

"What'd you do to piss them off?" Octavia asks him.

His grin unsettles me. "That's a story for another time."

Octavia groans. "I know you're just trying to act all mysterious and cool, but you're honestly kinda just pissing me off."

The way he shrugs so casually is off-putting. It sounds like Camp Cottonwood has a history with the Widow's and one I'm not likely going to enjoy hearing about. Hopefully, we don't stick around long enough to hear about it.

This isn't our problem anyway.

Once we're sure that there aren't any Widow's hiding out in the woods, we head back and help Sparrow, and the other campers put the remaining fires out. With a line of people set up by the buildings handing off buckets of water to one another, it doesn't take much more than a couple hours to get the cabin fires put out.

"Hey," Josh calls to me as I dump the last of the water on the smoldering embers. "Leon is moving some people around for sleeping arrangements. Most of the displaced campers are pitching tents, but I talked with Leon about where you guys could stay and convinced him to put you guys with Dani and me," he informs.

I have mixed feelings about bunking with the two of them, but I suppose that rooming with people I sort of know is a lot better than living with complete strangers, especially given our welcome earlier. I nod, handing my bucket off to another camper. "How's she holding up, by the way?" I ask, gesturing to the primary office where the wounded were taken.

Josh glances over with a sigh. "Well, she's not too happy with being on the receiving end of a doctor's care, but she seems fine for now. Come on, Leon wanted to talk with you before you turn in for the night," Josh gestures for me to follow, moving on to the offices.

There are many people inside on cots being treated for bullet wounds, lacerations, but luckily no bites. Danielle is sitting up in a bed on the far side of the main building, trying her best to wave off an older man, who looks about ready to knock her out to treat her.

"I told you, Doc, I'm fine!" Danielle protests, trying to stand but stumbles, and the man - Doc, I assume? - leads her back to sit on the makeshift bed.

"Cracked ribs and internal bleeding are nothing to laugh at, Dani," Doc sighs. "You're lucky you don't have a collapsed lung, or hell, lucky you aren't dead. A hit with that much force could have stopped your heart."

I pause at that, momentarily concerned.

"There isn't any swelling," Danielle protests, lifting her shirt to show him her side to emphasize her point, "and no discoloration save for mild surface bruising. So no internal bleeding."

"You know better than most that the signs aren't immediate," Doc returns, giving her the side-eye as Danielle lowers the hem of her shirt. "Let me know right away if you start to see any symptoms. I know you're too stubborn to stay here overnight, so get outta here." With a dismissive wave anyone would mistake as annoyance, Doc moves on to the next injured, shaking his head.

Josh approaches her, with me trailing behind more slowly.

"How are you feeling?" Josh greets with a grin.

"Like I got hit by a truck," Danielle grumbles, standing slowly and holding her side. She looks over at me, her expression impassive. "You killed that thing."

It's more of a statement than a question of inquiry, and I nod slowly. "Yeah, first one I've killed, actually."

She raises an eyebrow. "Really? Because it looked to me like you knew exactly what to do. And you called that thing a Titan." Again, she looks suspicious, as though I was the one who brought that overgrown infected freak instead of the Widows.

"Yeah, because it's fucking huge, and you saw first hand that it hits like a semi," I retort. She glares at me, wincing at the pain in her side. I sigh, shaking my head. "I came across one other similar to that on our trip here. We avoided it because obviously, I'm not going to take it on by myself, but I've taken notes on it in passing." I dig out my small field journal and show her.

She flips through the worn-out pages of the infected I've seen, the drawings of them, and everything I've observed from them. She flips further, and I'm suddenly feeling anxious about her going through my things. She pauses on a page, her eyebrows scrunched in concern.

"You've come across other groups, too," She says, showing me my entry on our encounter with a nasty group of cannibals. I snatch the book from her and carefully put it back in my bag, nodding.

"Yeah, they weren't very friendly with us, either," I note, glancing around to see if I can spot Leon somewhere around. 

"Why keep a journal like that?" Josh asks.

"Well," I sigh, glancing around at the room, "someone has to keep a record of what happens in the outbreak, right? Pass it down to other survivors..."

Danielle stares at me, an unreadable expression on her face as Josh nods along. "Knowledge is power," Josh recites. "Making sure the apocalypse's future generations knows what's up, it's a good idea."

"If there will be future generations..." Danielle mutters, slowly rising to her feet.

I glare at her, done with her 'glass-half-full attitude. "We've survived this long," I return.

"Four years isn't exactly what I'd call a milestone. We'll be lucky to survive next week." Dani limps out of the building, Josh following after her, giving me an apologetic look as he disappears through the door, replaced with more people coming in to be treated.

I sigh, rubbing my thumbs into my temples. Today has been nothing but a whirlwind of activity, and I'm more than ready to sleep, but I spot Leon standing at the foot of the stairs, glancing around with an irritated look on his face, then he locks eyes with me and starts to walk over.

Suppressing a groan, I meet him halfway. "Josh said you wanted to talk to me?" I greet.

Leon nods. "We can talk in my office." He leads me up the steps back into his office and gestures for me to take a seat, sitting across from me in his own chair heavily, obviously exhausted. "I wanted to thank you for helping us with the Widows. The other campers may not trust you now, but I'm sure they'll change their minds when they find out you helped us."

"Well, we're not sticking around very long," I note, shrugging, "so their opinions don't really matter to me. Helping you was the least we could do, but I'm afraid we'll have to move on in the morning."

Leon nods in understanding, looking genuinely sad at the news. "I'm sorry to see you go so soon, Cassandra. Having you and your brother and sister around would really do the camp some good." He leans back in his chair, glancing down at something on his desk. "You're looking for your mother, I understand? Do you have a plan to find her?"

I bristle at the question but keep my expression neutral as I answer, "She's at the CDC; that's all we know."

Leon sighs, rubbing his face. "Cassandra, you and I both know that Atlanta, being a large city, will be dangerous to bring your family into. There are Feral's, bandits, survivors who will do anything for supplies or an edge against the threats the city poses. How do you even know she's still alive? Or even still there?"

"It's where she told us to meet her," I answer briskly. "If she's not there, she'll leave us a sign or a note to where she was going next."

"And if she's dead?"

The question hangs in the air with the weight of its implications, and walking out right here and now is looking like an excellent option.

"We'll cross that bridge if we get there," I growl. Leon watches me for an intense moment before he takes a breath and lets it out slowly.

"Very well. I can't stop you from leaving, but maybe I can help prepare you for the journey," Leon says. "We don't have much to offer you, but we can give you some food and supplies before you go on your way tomorrow to repay you for helping us today."

I consider his offer carefully. My family and I don't have a lot of food left, considering that half the camp ate what I caught this morning for lunch anyway, and a map would be nice to have again.

"Throw in a vehicle, and we'll consider the debt paid," I say.

He raises an eyebrow at me as though I just told him to give me his camp. "I'm afraid we can't do that. The vehicles we have in our possession are for an emergency in case the camp fails."

"Why not just move the camp further away from the Widow's?" I ask. "I heard that there's hardly any of them up north."

"We don't have nearly enough resources to move this many people," Leon explains. "And with the attack today leaving so many injured, we don't have the people to gather supplies for such an endeavor."

I almost feel sorry for them, having to hide away in the middle of nowhere to stay safe from a threat like the Widow's, but considering that they aren't my problem and that they're capable of protecting themselves, I don't feel nearly as bad.

"Fine. We'll take whatever supplies you can spare, and we'll head out in the morning," I tell him.

Leon nods. "Very well. I'll have Josh and Danielle help you get ready tomorrow morning, and have them escort you as far as the main road." Leon stands, and I do the same, ready to leave. "I'll take you to Josh and Danielle's cabin and let them know what's going on."

"You're going to have Josh and Danielle escort us?" I ask him as he leads the way back downstairs.

"They're the most capable in camp," Leon assures me. "They'll get you to the road safe and sound."

"That's good, and all, but Danielle shouldn't be doing any walking in the state she's in, especially if it'll take her out of the camp," I return. "My siblings and I will be fine without an escort."