Isaak's first night with the group went perfectly fine. He had to stay awake for an hour to guard the place in case something was approaching them. Everyone did the same in different turns, the rest stood awake for a bit longer than him, though. Throughout the whole night, only a few rottens were seen and they showed up in Duncan's and Victoria's turns. So it wasn't something to worry about.

"Okay, guys, we need that gasoline and anything we can pick up. Ammunition, weapons, clothes, tools...Everything you think that is useful, take it" Victoria said first thing in the morning. "Where are we headed to?" Joshua asked. The blonde woman asked for a map to show us more accurately. Maddison handed it over to their leader, who thanked her with a warm smile. Queens pointed out a small village on the other side of the river. It was time to leave the city, there were many rottens in the zone and the supplies were most certainly running out.

Victoria thought that as Francisville, the nearest village was smaller it would have fewer rottens and fewer people that needed the provisions. Everyone agreed with her idea. There were two ways to get to the spot, logically Joshua said they should take the one that passed right over the river. It was shorter and easier to drive through than the one that went over the mountains avoiding the river.

"The bunker where I stayed was past the river. I tried to come to the town passing the bridge, but it was full of rottens and dead bodies" Isaac pointed out, he had a vivid memory of it. "The mountains are probably a better option. There will be few zombies" Duncan announced, he also knew his way around the hills, an advantage that they could take.

Victoria sighed but she knew that it was better to take longer than to take a risk. And soon enough they were all in the van; Joshua drove, the two women sat with him in the cabin while the young boys were in the back part. Duncan always sat there, he would shoot at the rottens or throw them a small rock with his slingshot, which worked just as fine. Isaak watched the empty road, there was blood in certain spots, maybe some bad looking rotten...But nothing else. He remembered driving that road towards the mountains a thousand times, it always had people with bikes or walking around. Yet now the only thing that walked over there were zombies that fell dead once Duncan got a good sight of them.

"Do you enjoy taking them down?" the blonde boy asked the one that stood next to him, curiosity noticeable. "Wouldn't say enjoy, but I like to practice and I think that I'm doing everyone a favor giving them peace" Duncan explained, shrugging at his words. He was already pointing towards another zombie.

Isaak observed him silently, trying to understand how someone was able to kill something with a catapult. The black-haired boy turned around, though. He told Isaak to come to the side of the trunk to which the blonde hesitated. He didn't want to move and fall out of the car, but he stood up anyway. Once he was there, the shorter boy gave him his slingshot. Isaak looked at him confused as he held the item.

"You can't go around depending on others to save you" Duncan said crouching by his side "I'm gonna teach you some shit so you don't die"

Isaac looked at him like he had just said some stupidity. He was generally bad at everything that didn't involve punches. The blonde couldn't even win a single video game with guns involved. But no matter how he complained, Duncan didn't accept a no as a response.

"The first thing you have to do is see what you want to hit. Then you just focus on that point, stretch the string and let it go."

"You make it sound like it's easy, man" Isaak complained as he turned slightly to face him, Duncan just shrugged and gave him a small rock. The blonde took it and put it in its place. He saw a rotten walking slowly and decided to throw the rock at it. Isaak took a breath, tensed the string, and let it go. Let me tell you, he failed the shot, not even getting close to the zombie. He frowned and looked at Duncan annoyed. This one raised an eyebrow and told him to not expect to be perfect in just one try. He also told him to relax; Isaac was visibly tensed up, but it was something that he couldn't help with. "Okay, try again. There's another one following us" Duncan pointed out, signaling the rotten.

Isaak tried to concentrate on the zombie's head. This time the other boy was giving him the instructions, guiding him all the time, nudging at his elbows as he peaked over Isaak's shoulder. And when he finally let go of the string, it had hit the rotten's neck. It was pretty good to be the second attempt. Duncan congratulated him even if he told him that if that was a life or death situation he would be fucked up. "You'll get it with some practice" the black-haired reassured him with a pat on his back.

He sat with his back against the vehicle as Isaac tried to hit a signal that read "Mountains, 2km". To his own surprise, the blonde hit the center of it, leaving a dent. He turned around to see Duncan who nodded in approval. Isaac sat again, ready to give the catapult to its owner. But this one told him to keep it in case there was any inconvenience. Isaak raised his eyebrows and shook his head. "I think I'll just run"

"I mean, that worked until you tripped over a legless zombie" Duncan said reminding the blonde what happened the day before. Isaak mumbled a "touché" and leaned against the cabin as well. Maddison yelled at them to not stand up from that moment because they were starting to go up the mountain. Duncan gave the car some slaps for the rest to know they heard it. The road was less well conserved over the mountains than the city, so the van started moving a bit more erratically.

Meanwhile, in the cabin, Victoria kept her eyes on the map to make sure they followed the right path. Maddison played with her dagger between her fingers, Joshua told her off about it but she didn't listen as per usual. The redhaired was a rebel, that was obvious from the first time she was seen. She always carried with her a dagger and a small gun, disliking the thought of not being able to protect herself and depending on others.

"Okay, you have to turn to the right in the next-" Victoria's words were interrupted. A body fell right on the front part of the car, making Joshua brake. Isaak hit his head with the vehicle, and so did Duncan. Both boys stood up trying to see what happened. Isaak could see a bloody hand on top of the hood. He looked at the other guy alarmed. Duncan jumped off the truck and walked quickly to the front.

"What the fuck happened?" he exclaimed.

"That body, it fell from a tree or something" Maddison told him, looking through the window to get a better idea. Joshua looked at the body carefully, he didn't know if it was fully dead, for now it didn't move.

Isaak approached the driver's side of the truck to see what was going on. And right when he reached it, Joshua's question was answered. The body was still alive and didn't wait to jump on the nearest thing. Which was the Russian boy. Both of them fell to the side of the road, which had a small fall. Everyone rushed to get over there, weapons in hand, no matter how surprised they were. They heard a groan somewhere and they looked for their new boy. They found him trying to get the rotten from on top of him. Maddison was about to shoot when Victoria put her gun down and told her to look better at the situation. Isaak had killed the zombie already, leaving the young girl confused. She didn't think the boy was able to do that and, to be honest, no one did either.

"I had a bit of luck" the blonde said raising the slingshot, breathing rapidly. "I told you that you'd get it with practice" Duncan smiled helping him up. Isaak shook his head showing him that he had used it to stab the zombie's head more than to shoot at him. He cleaned the catapult on his jeans, leaving a red black-ish stain on them. The other boy looked at him with open eyes, he had more strength than he had thought.

Victoria walked closer to the body, to try and figure what had happened for it to fall from a tree. She crouched next to it and inspected for any wounds. She saw marks similar to scratches and bites, but those weren't human-like, so it wasn't from a rotten. Queens stood up quickly and looked towards the rest of her group. They looked at her confused as she made her way back to the vehicle. She seemed agitated, which couldn't be any good.

"Get in the fucking car, the cabin, everyone" She said in a whisper yell. Duncan was about to say that they didn't fit but the blonde woman looked at him harshly. All five people got in the car, all bottled up inside. They were concerned about the look in their leader's eyes.

"I think we all forgot about another concern apart from the rottens...Mountain lions" Victoria said loading her gun. The bottled up people in the car exchanged looks. If it wasn't because of the imminent threat to their lives, their situation would be quite funny. Duncan was sitting on Victoria and Maddison, Isaak was somehow sat on the floor with his legs occupying some of the space next to Mads and then Josh was pressed against the door. It would be difficult to drive that way, but they couldn't stay there for much longer. Everyone was trying to think of a good plan to get out of there.

"Okay, what if we try to drive like this?" Isaak suggested from his uncomfortable position. The exchange of looks started again. It was a stupid idea. But sadly, no one had any better. Josh sighed and started the car again. He pushed one of Duncan's legs that were hitting him all the time, the young boy apologized and tried to give the man more space; only to roll and fall onto the floor hitting Isaak in his face. The blonde glared at him but tried to help him to fit in the small space between the girls' feet.

Their trip started again, most of them were more comfortable now. But the young boys kept hitting themselves with the car in every bump, they really weren't lucky guys. Maddison laughed at them when she wasn't busy looking out for any pumas. She hoped that the virus didn't affect animals, because mountain lions were already too much to handle. They didn't need zombie pumas..?

Victoria gave Joshua the needed indications to arrive at the village. Everything seemed to be calm, no zombies, no pumas, no humans...It was all silent. Duncan listened carefully, he was used to hearing deers, birds and other small animals but now it was like everything had died. He could only hear the engine of the van, but it sounded a bit weird. "Why is the engine doing that sound?" the black-haired boy said frowning.

Victoria looked down at him, trying to hear better the sound. Sometimes the noise of the car seemed a bit weird, not really sounding like it should. Isaak looked at them both, he heard it as well. He tried to sit better, like if that would make any difference but the sound didn't faint.

"We can't have such bad luck for the car to break, right?" Isaak asked with concern all over his face. Joshua told them that the car was working just as fine as it should. But it was obvious that the sound didn't mean anything good; if it wasn't the engine what the hell would it be. Maddison hadn't said a word, but suddenly she rolled down her window to look better through the mirror. She saw something, or so she thought, in the back part of the truck. The redhaired rolled the window right up and turned around to open the other window that parted the cabin with the back of the truck. Once she opened it, two green eyes appeared in front of her, accompanied by the dangerous fangs of a puma. Mads closed it right away, with her eyes wide open.

"I think we found the problem!" she yelled. Josh didn't stop driving, though, he didn't believe it was any good for them to fight the puma. Duncan reached to grab Vic's gun, loading it. The blonde woman looked at him raising her eyebrows, questioning his actions. The black-haired rolled his eyes and told Joshua to stop driving. The ex-fireman shook his head, telling him it wasn't safe to stop. But he did once the leader of the team agreed with whatever that was going on in the young boy's head.

Duncan stood up as he could, moving over to the window next to Maddison. He rolled it down slightly, only enough to put part of the gun outside. Everyone stayed in silent to the point that they could finally hear something coming from the bushes on the side of the road. And then without warning, the boy shot to the bushes. It scared a deer that was hiding there, making it run to the road. Once the animal was in the sight of the puma, this one hopped off the truck and started chasing the horned mammal around. Duncan rolled up the window again.

"You're welcome" he said, giving Victoria her gun, going back to the floor. "You didn't have to hurt the deer, dude" Isaak told him, yes, he felt bad for the animal no matter if his life had been threatened.

"I didn't, I only scared it, what happened afterward was nature" Duncan nudged the blonde's shoulder.

(Having a group is surviving. Everyone in a group is supposed to take care of everyone, to protect them all. It is learning from everyone, their ways to react and deal with problems. There's not an individual thought, whatever that it's done it's not for the good of only one. I think I'm lucky that I found this group because I can see that they are like a family, not just a bunch of people with a common goal)