"Come on Taylor! What are you waiting for!" Taylor smiled and raced after her sister. It was a bright and sunny day. Taylor and the rest of her family were hanging out in their pool, floating about and just having fun. Taylor leaned over her window and smiled at her family. Without hesitation, Taylor turned and began to run from her room and down her hallway.

As she ran, Taylor felt something pull at the back of her mind. Something that constricted her heart and made her lungs feel like she was breathing in smoke. Slowing for a moment, she placed her hand over her chest and stared down at the ground, waiting for the pain to pass. "Taylor! Let's go!" her father called. The pain vanished again. The smile back on her face, she looked up and turned to the right and ran down the stairs.

Jumped the last three steps Taylor landed and kept moving. Just before she crossed into the dining room, Taylor froze in the middle of her living room. Her body stiff, she slowly turned to her right towards the sofas. Sitting there was Alex, Chuck, Jon and Saras. All beaten, and bloody. Tired, and fighting for life. As she stared at them, she could feel her body grow colder.

"No," she whispered. Turning her back from them she sprinted towards the sliding glass door. She could hear the others from the group to come back. It wasn't safe. She even heard a few of them get up and run after her. Determined, Taylor pulled the door open and ran towards the pool. "No, please no," she repeated over and over again.

She could no longer hear her family. Feel the warmth of the sun. Pushing herself harder, Taylor's heart began to beat in her throat. Then the horror hit her. The pool was not its usual bright blue. It was red. Black, blood red. Falling to her knees, she stared in the water, tears freely falling down her face. "No," she whispered again and again. Her arms wrapped around her body, she rocked back and forth. The others never left the house, for fear of something.

Then she felt something on her shoulder. "They are gone." It was a deep, demonic voice. Powerful and frightening. Very slowly, Taylor turned her head to see the long black claw resting on her shoulder.

"Trust him Tay." Taylor's heart stopped then. Her head snapped back around and saw her sisters blood covered head in the water. Smiling, her bright blue green eyes shining at her. The tears kept flowing, and her heart kept breaking. Regan lifted herself more out of the water, and Taylor's eyes rested on the giant chunk missing from her neck. "He only wants to end your pain."

Taylor shook her head, and she felt the claws tighten on her shoulder. "No."

Her eyes shot open. Taylor stared at the black ceiling of the Wal-Mart. Tears streaming down her face into her hair. Reaching up, she felt that she had been crying for awhile. Her hands were shaking, and her heart was broken. Putting her palms over her eyes, Taylor choked on a sob and rolled over so her back was to the fire and the other. "I'm so sorry," she whispered to herself. Another sob building up inside of her chest.

After saras agreed to take the first watch, he curled up in his peacoat and Jon slowly drifted off to sleep. He dreamed. He found himself in an open field. He looked down at his hands.. Brown leather gloves. He blinked and ran his hands through his hair and stopped. It was blonde, not his usual dark brown. He looked over his body, he was wearing a green tunic with a sword, a sheild, a bow arrows, and an assortment of weapons and items. Jon was Link from his favorite video game, the legend of Zelda. He drew his sword, danger was coming, he felt a presence behind him and turned his head. It was Alex and Chuck, dressed in armor carrying an axe and a broadsword. To their right, Saras, and Taylor, Saras with her bow and Taylor on a horse with a long staff. He nodded confidently and turned forward. A wall of dark creatures was charging towards them. He smiled, he knew he had his party with him and with them he was invincible. He and his friends ran towards the enemies yelling their brave war cries, when suddently he woke, sitting up right. The yelling was real but it was alot more frightened. It was Alex screaming his head off, a nightmare. Saras tried to comfort him songs went for some water to cool him off, he was sweating quite a bit. Jon handed Alex a bottle of cool water.

"You scared the heck out of me,"

Alex looked up at Saras and took a moment to regain his breath and calm his frantic heart. His body hurt from the stress of the dream and he felt more exhausted then when he had fallen asleep in the first place.

"Everything's okay. There's nothing here."

He tried to smile, an action that looked half-hearted, and nodded.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Alex shook his head from side to side.

“Just knowing your alive is comfort enough… I’ll be alright.”

Jon was there, handing him a bottle of water, which he took graciously. Normally, Alex didn’t enjoy water, but he knew being picky in an apocalypse was not the smartest thing in the world. He would need to learn to like water.

“Thanks, mate.”

He took a large swig of from the bottle and regained his composure. At that moment, he heard whimpers from Taylor’s sleeping bag. He saw her shift and roll over so her back was against the light. He nodded to the others and shifted his body out of the truck, holding onto Sarase’s arm for balance.

“Thanks.”

He smiled at her and the three walked over to where Taylor lay. Alex was first to speak, and he kept his voice strong but measured. He had been a method actor for a very long time and was exceptionally skilled at controlling his emotions.

“Taylor, you alright?”

Taylor took in a long shaky breath and opened her mouth to speak, but her emotions had constricted her vocal cords and she only nodded her head. Closing her eyes, she wiped the tears from her eyes. In an attempt to ground her mind, Taylor pushed herself off of the ground so that she could sit up. Keeping her back to the light and her head down Taylor rubbed her raw red eyes again.

Forcing her vocal cords to relax she looked up at Alex and gave him a weak and obviously sad smile, "I'll be ok. Just a dream from hell." Reaching on for her glasses that were on the ground next to her, she put them on and kept her head down so she could fight back another sob building in her chest. In an attempt to force her mind away from her dream, she turned her attention to him.

"What about you? You smell like you just ran there the Kalahari desert during mid day," she said and gestured to his soaked hair. Joking aside she looked over his face. He looked a little calm and relaxed, but his eyes were wide, and alert. Scared. "What about you? You ok?"

Chuck stared up at the ceiling. He hadn't been sleeping very deeply and now he was awake, albeit only slightly. He heard the others talking, every one was still fine. He didn't get up or move he just watched the ceiling before closing his eyes again. It was amazing how quickly people could come together in situations, more than just be in the same place but start making bonds with each other. It was a unifying factor of humanity, when the chips were down people worked together, when things were bad enough every one stood shoulder to shoulder and fought it out. It was the way America had been formed, it was the way most great nations had been formed. It was the way people survived, a built in instinct to put aside the differences and simply do.

He smiled, eyes still closed. It gave him a certain peace to know that even in this, possibly the worst situation that could befall mankind, there were still people who would band together and just do, do good, do right. There were those who had put aside all they had learned of right and wrong just to live, but here was a group of people who still held up to a standard, and would fight together to survive.

He let his thoughts fade as the others spoke. It was easier for some reason, some how knowing that the people around him were going to be ok, it made it easier to sleep.

Saras nodded her head when Alex said shook his to say he was fine knowing they were alive. She understood why he didn't want to talk about his dream and left it at that. When Jon awoke and passed Alex a bottle of water, Saras got off the edge of the truck, plucked up her bag and slid it closer to the fire. She returned and let Alex use her arm as support to get down from the truck.

He made his way over to Taylor who seemed to be having a bad dream. It was then that her body screamed for her to lie down for awhile. Turning to Jon, she smiled and asked, "Would you take over my shift now?" She wasn't feeling sleepy, lord knew she had done enough of trapped in her own home. What she needed was to lay her aching body down so that it could recuperate at least alittle.

"What about you? You ok?"

His confidence faltered on his face but was soon hardened once more and he smiled faintly.

“I will be. I need to pray.”

Saras turned to Jon while Taylor and Alex talked.

"Would you take over my shift now?"

Alex knelt down and gave Taylor a reassuring pat on the shoulder before he stood up again. There were two things that needed to be accomplished so they could move on from this hellhole of a Wal-Mart.

“Good idea. Jon, keep watch until I get back… I’ll only be ten minuets or so. Twenty at max. If I’m not back in that amount of time, leave. I’ll be dead anyway.”

He shrugged and grabbed a flashlight from the truck and placed it into a shopping cart. Then he started off into the darkness of the Wal-Mart. He needed to be alone in order to pray, mainly because he didn’t want to bother the others. While he was gone, he figured he’d grab as many canned food items as he could so they could get on their way. Alex stopped before he was completely consumed by shadow and turned around to the group.

“Let Chuck sleep a bit more… He’s the most skilled shooter out of us all, and we need him as rested as possible.”

"Would you take over my shift now?"

Jon nodded and smiled, "You got it" he responded. Jon propped himself up on the truck and held his gun in his lap. He looked about and took a deep breath.

“Good idea. Jon, keep watch until I get back… I’ll only be ten minuets or so. Twenty at max. If I’m not back in that amount of time, leave. I’ll be dead anyway.”

Jon blinked and watch Alex wander into the darkness. He was never into religion, he always thought it was pointless and stupid, but now... he could understand why they needed it now. It still wasn't for him.

Chuck stretched as he sat up. He been awake up but took a minute to really gather himself before moving. He hadn't been woken up for a shift, which in all truth he didn't mind. Taking his gun from next to him he slid it in it's holster and stretched again.

There was no light outside which threw his timing off severely, he hated not being able to gauge the time. Getting up he made sure not to wake any one who wasn't awake already, at least till he found out what time it was. He made his way to the jewelery counter and found a watch, checked around, found a clock, and finally decided it was about six am. It didn't really matter what time it was of course. He made his way back toward the others, Alex was sitting awake, he must have taken the last watch.

"Rise and shine I guess. We should get moving." He spoke in a hushed tone, not wanting to wake any one just yet, everyone would be thankful for any amount of sleep they could get. "Load the truck up, get everybody used to shooting, and make for the depot."

He gently began waking the others, "Up and at em guys, time to hit the road."

"I'm up," Taylor mumbled as Chuck made his way to her back after some of the others. Rolling over she looked put at him, squinting trying to get him into focus. "My damn glasses are really going to mess me up," she groaned. Turning her head, she looked to where her glasses sat folded. "Fuckers," she sighed. Sitting up, Taylor slid her glasses into place and climbed out of her sleeping bag.

As if she were on one of her old camping trips, she began to instantly roll up her bag. It was almost in muscle memory. Picking up her bag, Taylor tossed it into the back of her truck and turned to face the others. I never really took her long to wake up and get moving. It was pretty easy, especially with the current circumstances. "So, how the hell to I properly work a gun without worrying about shooting myself or someone I don't want to shot?"

Saras opened her eyes and sat up straight. She sat there for a few seconds, as she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. Her body felt better, proving that alittle rest did go a long way. She glanced at Chuck who was waking everyone else up gently. Standing up, Saras swiftly packed her sleeping bag into it's bag and tossed it alongside Taylor's. Her own bag and bow and arrow were next to go into the truck before turning to face the others.

At Taylor's question on how to work a gun, Saras looked to Chuck who appeared to be the best at handling one. She too needed to learn.

Chuck tossed his belongings in the truck, making sure anything he might need was on him.

"So, how the hell do I properly work a gun without worrying about shooting myself or someone I don't want to shoot?" Taylor asked. Saras also took interest in the answer.

He pulled out his gun and dropped the clip, slid the slide back to clear it, double checked to be sure there was nothing in it and racked the slide forward.

"Rule number one, act like it's loaded." He said, "Even if you know that it's unloaded check it, because eventually you'd be wrong and thats how people get hurt." He held out his left hand palm up , a nasty scar was on the inside of his pointer finger and there was a slight knot of scar tissue at the base. "I learned the hard way."

"Rule number two, never put your finger on the trigger unless you are about to pull it. And rule number three, under no circumstance point it at any one inside this group."

He showed them how to hold it, one hand around the grip and one under that to steady it, showed them how to rack the slide to load it and pointed out what everything did. Showed them how to look down the sights, what they were looking for.

"The mechanics are simple, the hard part about guns is being comfortable with them and being able to shoot strait. The shakes are harsh on anybody the first time, it takes some people a long time to get over it, and some never really do get over it." He thought about how funny it was watching people at the range, some guys trying to look tough with their friends. You could always tell the ones who weren't gun people.

He put the clip in and handed the gun to Taylor. It was small, with out the clip there would be nothing for his pinkie to grip, besides, not time like the present to get a crash coarse on handling something with bullets in it. "Try it out, everything but pulling the trigger. You do not want to do that inside, your ear's will ring for a week, or more."

He showed her how to stand with it. "Keep your weight on the balls of your feet. Bend your knees and lean forward, it's a little unnatural at first, instincts want you to pull back." He placed a hand at her back and gently pushed her center of gravity forward, just past that place where it felt natural to stand. "And don't lock your arms." He stood next to her and mimicked what she should look like. To be completely honest it was a bit goofy looking and it took some getting used to, but it quickly became a comfortable position, you just had to convince your instincts of that fact.