It's been almost a month since that new family arrived.

"David was taken last night," Sam says.

"Did anyone see anything?" I ask.

"Everyone was sleeping when it happened. Melissa wants you to look through his house."

"Okay, take me there."

She brings me to the cabin.

"I have to warn you, the place is covered in blood," she says.

"I've seen worse than blood."

She opens the door. Blood is splattered everywhere. Chairs are knocked over. I step inside. An untouched plate of food is on the table. As I step towards the table, I feel something under my shoe. It's a knife. I pick it up. In the wooden handle the name "Lauren" is engraved. I knew something was wrong with that new family. I show it to Sam.

"This doesn't mean anything. It could just be someone else's knife," she says.

"I understand, but I saw her carry this knife when we first met," I say. "They must be a part of another group. This camp isn't safe anymore. Be careful. I'll bring this to Melissa's attention."

"Why...why don't you call her mom?" Sam asks.

I pause, trying to think of an actual answer.

"Because she abandoned me when I was young. She left me on the doorstep of a neighbor's house. She never wanted to be my mother. Do you know how many years I waited for someone to adopt me? Ten and no one did. I suffered for ten years in the foster care system. You don't understand what that's like," I say.

"She wants to be your mother now. Why can't you just at least try for once?" she says.

"I can't try to do something I obviously don't want to." I leave. I stop by Melissa's cabin. I put the knife on her desk.

"What is this?" she asks.

"I found it at David's house. It's Lauren's."

"What?" she says.

"We need to start considering the possibility that Lauren and her family are from another group."

"I'll talk to them. This is probably just a coincidence," she says.

"Will you please, for once, think about the group? We might have a family who is taking our people without us knowing! When they are gone, let me search their cabin. I'm sure I'll find something incriminating."

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"No, let me handle this, Jade," she says.

I start to form a plan. I can have Jake sneak in their house. If he doesn't find anything, maybe they're innocent. I go back to my cabin. Jake is eating at the table.

"Hey, you want to help me with something?" I ask.

"What?" he asks.

"Mind sneaking into the new family's house?" I ask.

"Are you crazy?" he asks.

"Please, it could possibly save someone's life. After all I've done for you and Alex, I think you owe me a few," I say.

"Fine."

Now all I need is someone to distract the family while Jake and I look through their things. I'm sure Elizabeth wouldn't mind helping. I saved her life and her families. I walk over to her.

"Hey, could you do me a favor?' I ask.

"This can't be good. What?" she says.

"Can you distract that new family just for like fifteen minutes?" I ask.

"What are you scheming?"

"Look, I think they're doing something shady. I just need your help this once."

She agrees to help. We're right outside the new family's cabin.

"Let's go over the plan one last time. Elizabeth is going to distract the family. Jake and I are going to climb in the back window. Elizabeth, you need to stall the family as long as you can. We're going to need as much time as you can give us," I say.

"Let's do this," Elizabeth says.

She knocks on the front door. Jake follows as I sneak to the back. I look through the window. I see the front door close. I slide the window open. Jake climbs inside, then I climb in.

"I'll look upstairs. You check down here," I say.

I ascend the stairs. Two bedrooms, one bathroom is all that's up here. I check both bedrooms and come up with nothing. I check the bathroom and it's clear. I go back downstairs.

"Anything?" I ask.

"Nothing! These people are either innocent or really good at hiding evidence," Jake says.

I think it's the latter. The front door starts to open. Jake runs down to the basement. I run up the stairs. I hide in the bathroom. Please, don't find either one of us.

The floor creaks. I hear someone climb the stairs. The bathroom door knob begins to turn. I back away slowly. The door knob stops turning. I hear the person outside walk away. I need to get Jake and get the hell out.

Screams erupt downstairs. They must've found Jake. This is going to be a hard one to explain. I quietly open the door. The basement door is open. I don't see anyone inside. I go down the stairs. The yelling is coming from outside. Chris is holding Jake down.

"What are you doing?" Elizabeth yells. I run at Chris. I tackle him. Jake gets up.

"He's just a kid!" I yell.

"He was in our basement going through our things," Chris says.

"That doesn't give you the right to attack him. You are hiding something in the basement, aren't you?" I ask.

A crowd has now gathered to watch us. Chris hits me. I fall back. Elizabeth gets in between Chris and I.

"Both of you need to stop," she says.

He growls at her. I pull out my gun. I know what he and his whole family is now.

"Elizabeth, you need to move." I say.

"Put that away! I can handle this," she says.

"He's not...alive. You can't reason with a zombie," I say.

She backs away. Chris starts to shake. He growls again. His pupils enlarge. I put my arm around Jake.

"You and your entire family are zombies," I say.

"It took you longer to figure it out then I had thought you would. We took your people and you didn't even figure out it was us. Your one of us. Your infected. Come with us," he says.

"I'm nothing like you and I never will be."

I shoot him in the head. He doesn't even flinch.

I push Jake out of the way as Chris lunges towards me. Chris tackles me. Sam cuts his head off with a machete. Lauren and Emily run to Chris. They growl at me. I shoot them both. We lived with them for weeks without knowing what they were. They hid their eyes so well. We can't trust anyone anymore.

The next day

"This place isn't safe anymore," I say.

"Jade, we are safe. It was just that one family," Elizabeth says.

"I'm just saying that we'd be better off on the road. "Melissa will let in anyone who walks up inside," I say.

"We have food, water, and shelter here. We won't find that on the road. I'm sick of traveling and hoping we don't starve to death. You can go if you want, but my family and I are staying," Elizabeth says.

I go to Melissa's cabin.

"I'm ready to travel to that group up north," I say.

"Would you mind bringing Sam?" she asks.

"She can go with me," I say.

"Good, I didn't want you to go alone." She puts a bag on the desk.

"I packed enough food and water for you two. I wish I could let you take a car, but we're low on gas so it'd be pointless," she says.

I take the bag. I walk to my cabin. I grab my map, knife, gun, and backpack.

"Where are you going?" Alex asks. I forgot to tell Jake and Alex about this trip.

"I'm going to trade with another group," I reply.

"How long will you be gone?" she asks.

"I don't know. Maybe a month."

"What if you don't come back?" she asks. I never thought about that. What if I die out there? No one here will know.

"I will come back," I say.