The smell of grilled food drifted through the Black Shield camp.
For the first time in what felt like forever...
People were smiling.
Mason stood over a small campfire flipping canned spam in a frying pan.
"I'm telling you..."
"This is five-star cooking."
Tyler looked into the pan.
"It still looks like spam."
"It's gourmet spam."
"There is no such thing."
The two started laughing.
---
Breddy and Raven walked toward the campfire together.
The moment everyone noticed...
Tyler grinned.
"Well..."
"Look who finally showed up."
Mason looked at Breddy.
"So..."
"How was the date?"
Breddy nearly choked on his coffee.
"It wasn't a date."
Raven looked at him with a smirk.
"Oh?"
"It wasn't?"
Breddy scratched the back of his neck.
"...Okay."
"It was kind of a date."
The whole camp laughed.
Shijiki pointed toward Raven.
"So..."
"When's the wedding?"
Breddy almost spit out his coffee.
"The WHAT?"
Even Colonel Graves looked away to hide a small smile.
Raven couldn't stop laughing.
"You broke him."
Tyler nodded proudly.
"Mission accomplished."
---
Dinner continued with jokes and stories.
Mason held up a burned piece of spam.
"I call this..."
"...medium well."
The manager looked at it.
"I call that charcoal."
More laughter echoed through camp.
For one night...
Nobody talked about zombies.
Nobody talked about Black Eden.
Nobody talked about war.
They were simply people sharing a meal.
---
Later...
Breddy quietly stood.
"I'm going for a walk."
Raven smiled.
"I'll come with you."
Tyler watched them leave.
He nudged Mason.
"I think they're officially a couple."
Mason nodded.
"About time."
---
The two climbed a grassy hill overlooking the valley.
The stars stretched across the night sky.
Breddy lay back on the grass.
"I forgot how many stars there were."
Raven laid beside him.
"They're beautiful."
Neither of them spoke for several minutes.
The silence wasn't awkward.
It was peaceful.
---
Finally...
Breddy broke it.
"You know..."
"I almost didn't make it."
Raven turned toward him.
"In the laboratory."
"There were moments..."
"...I thought that was it."
She quietly reached over.
Their fingers found each other.
"What kept you going?"
Breddy smiled.
"You."
Raven blinked.
"...Me?"
"I promised you I'd come back."
"I wasn't breaking that promise."
Her eyes became watery.
"You really are impossible."
"I've been told that."
She laughed softly.
---
After a moment, Raven reached beneath her shirt.
A silver chain rested around her neck.
She slowly removed it.
Military dog tags.
She placed them into Breddy's hand.
"I've carried these on every mission."
"They remind me where I came from."
Breddy looked at them carefully.
"I can't take these."
"I'm not giving them away."
"I just want you to hold them."
"For tonight."
He nodded.
"I'll protect them."
She smiled.
"I know you will."
---
The wind gently rustled the grass.
Breddy looked toward the stars.
"When this is all over..."
"I want to rebuild."
"My house."
"My town."
"...Maybe even Walmart."
Raven laughed.
"You really aren't letting Walmart go."
He smiled.
"It gave me purpose."
"It gave me friends."
"And somehow..."
"It led me to you."
Raven looked into his eyes.
"I think..."
"It led me to you too."
She leaned closer.
Their foreheads touched.
Neither of them said another word.
The quiet said everything.
---
Suddenly...
A loud voice echoed from the camp below.
"Colonel!"
The peaceful moment shattered.
Breddy and Raven quickly stood.
A Black Shield scout sprinted toward headquarters carrying a portable military radio.
"We intercepted a transmission!"
Everyone gathered around.
Static filled the air.
SSSHHHHH...
Then...
A weak voice.
Broken.
Barely understandable.
«"...If anyone..."»
Static.
«"...can hear..."»
More static.
Breddy's heart stopped.
He knew that voice.
«"...this is..."»
The radio crackled loudly.
«"...Ethan..."»
Silence filled the camp.
Raven slowly looked at Breddy.
His eyes were locked on the radio.
The transmission returned for one final sentence.
«"...I'm still alive..."»
The signal vanished.
Everyone stood frozen.
Breddy smiled for the first time since leaving the laboratory.
"...He's alive."
Far away...
Deep beneath another forgotten Black Eden facility...
A lone figure lowered a damaged radio.
Ethan looked into the darkness ahead.
"I hope you heard me..."
The lights around him flickered.
Something moved in the shadows.
He slowly drew his weapon.
"...Because I'm going to need your help."
– The Hunt Begins
The entire camp stood frozen.
Only one sentence echoed in everyone's mind.
"...I'm still alive..."
Breddy looked at Colonel Graves.
"We're going."
Graves folded his arms.
"No."
"You're still recovering."
Breddy's jaw tightened.
"Ethan saved my life."
"I'm bringing him home."
The Colonel remained silent.
Then Raven stepped beside Breddy.
"If he goes..."
"...I go."
Graves looked at her.
"This mission won't be like the last one."
Raven didn't flinch.
"Good."
"I was hoping it wouldn't."
After a long pause...
The Colonel sighed.
"Fine."
"But you follow my orders."
Breddy smiled.
"Deal."
Gearing Up
The armory buzzed with activity.
Black Shield soldiers laid weapons across long steel tables.
Rifles.
Shotguns.
Pistols.
Grenades.
Medical kits.
Extra ammunition.
Breddy walked toward his locker.
He slowly removed his torn Walmart AP tactical vest.
The claw marks from the First Failure ran across the armor.
A Black Shield armorer held up a replacement.
"No."
Breddy shook his head.
"I'll repair my own."
He carefully stitched the torn vest together.
The Walmart Spark logo remained proudly visible.
Then he added reinforced ceramic armor plates inside the vest.
Extra rifle magazines.
A flashlight.
A radio.
A trauma kit.
A sheath for Raven's combat knife.
Finally...
He tightened the straps.
"Ready."
Across the room...
Raven was preparing too.
She exchanged her damaged tactical vest for a reinforced black combat vest.
Fresh magazine pouches lined the front.
A suppressed pistol rested on one hip.
A combat rifle hung across her back.
She tied her hair back tightly.
No loose strands.
No distractions.
When she turned around...
Breddy smiled.
"You clean up pretty well."
Raven smirked.
"So do you."
Tyler whistled.
"You two look like an action movie."
Mason laughed.
"I'd pay to watch that."
Colonel Graves spread a satellite map across the briefing table.
He pointed toward another mountain range.
"Ethan's transmission came from here."
"Black Eden Facility Two."
"No one's been inside."
"No one's come back."
Breddy picked up his rifle.
"Guess we'll be the first."
Into the Dead Zone
A convoy of armored trucks rolled through the abandoned highway.
The roads were littered with wrecked cars.
The world had been dead for years.
Yet...
Something felt different.
Raven looked through her binoculars.
"Breddy..."
He followed her gaze.
Hundreds of zombies stood completely still on both sides of the highway.
They weren't wandering.
They weren't feeding.
They were...
Watching.
The convoy slowed.
One zombie slowly turned its head toward them.
Then another.
Then hundreds more.
Colonel Graves grabbed the radio.
"All units..."
"Prepare for contact."
The first zombie screamed.
The entire horde charged.
Thousands of infected flooded onto the highway.
"GO! GO! GO!" Graves shouted.
The convoy stopped.
There was no driving through.
Breddy kicked open the truck door.
"Raven!"
She was already beside him.
The two charged into the horde together.
Breddy swung the butt of his rifle into one zombie's face before dropping another with a shotgun blast.
Raven moved like lightning beside him.
Every shot from her pistol found its mark.
Zombies poured over abandoned cars.
Mason fired from the truck bed with his heavy machine gun.
Tyler covered the convoy with accurate rifle fire.
Shijiki tossed smoke grenades to slow the horde.
The battlefield became absolute chaos.
A zombie leaped toward Raven from the roof of a bus.
Breddy stepped in front of her.
BANG!
The shotgun blast launched it backward.
Raven smiled.
"I had that."
"I know."
"I just wanted to look cool."
She laughed.
"You succeeded."
The two fought back-to-back, cutting a path through the sea of infected.
By the time the last zombie fell...
The highway was covered with bodies.
Breddy looked toward the distant mountains.
"Ethan..."
"We're coming."
Far away...
Hidden beneath those mountains...
A damaged radio crackled.
Ethan slowly opened one eye.
"...You made it..."