Danny slumped down to his knees, taking Kinslee with him who held him back tightly.

"Danny who the fuck is this?" Jen shouted at him. All Jen knew was she had said that Xir had saved her and that was enough for her to rush over and violently yank this strange girl off of Danny.

The girl yelped and shielded herself.

"Jen stop!" Danny shouted, scrambling to his feet.

"You need to tell me what the fuck is going on right now, Danny" Jen demanded.

Danny nodded and swallowed hard. The truth was not even he knew what was going on, but he would explain what he could.

"When I made my way here I let her. Her name is Kinslee... I thought she died... No... I know she died. I saw her--"

Danny turned to Kinslee.

"I saw you ripped apart by the Infected! You died!"

"Danny!" Jen grabbed him. "Keep your voice down"

Danny nodded, breathing heavy. He felt light headed.

"I told you, Danny" Kinslee said. "The great Xir saved me"

"What the fuck does that mean?: Danny demanded, sitting on the floor

"Anyone who was saved my that monster is no friend of ours" Jen said, seeming to me speaking to both Danny and Kinslee.

"I didn't ask to be saved" Kinslee replied, innocently. "That's just what happened..."

Jen let out a loud sigh and looked at Danny.

Danny looked at Kinslee awkwardly. It looked to Jen like he was trying to figure out if he was imagining her.

"I didn't ask for any of this" Kinslee continued. "It's just... what happened..."

"I am who I am" she shrugged. "Xir says I'm special..."

"Well, we can't just leave her here" Danny said. "She knows too much..."

Jen exhaled loudly.

"We could just kill her" she replied after a moment.

"Jen" Danny said, looking at her with wet eyes.

"Jesus" Jen said, sighing. "Fine. She's coming with us. Let's get the box and go..."

The box had tumbled to the ground during the struggle and upon its mention Kinslee's eyes immediately grew wide and she scrambled up, looking for it.

"Hey, what are you doing!" Jen shouted at her, raising a fist.

"The box!" Kinslee shouted back. "I need it!"

Jen grabbed it off the ground and held it in the air in front of her.

"You mean this box?"

Kinslee nodded frantically, reaching for it.

Jen pulled it back and Kinslee frowned.

"Please" she begged. "It's important".

"Then I guess you'll have to come with us because it's staying with me" Jen said.

Kinslee nodded.

"That's fine" she said. "I want to come with you anyway"

Jen eyed her suspiciously, caught off guard by the comment, but decided not to worry about it for now.

Then they heard the noise outside, approaching the cabin. Xir's slaves were back. Kinslee heard them from and looked at the cabin wall in the direction they were coming, biting her lip.

She ran over to Danny and lifted him off the ground.

"Come on, Danny, we have to go"

Jen looked at Kinslee

"They'll stay away so long as they don't know you're here, but if they hear or see you, not even I can keep them away from you"

Jen didn't understand, but she nodded.

"This way" Kinslee said and together they all made their way out of the back of the cabin and into the woods.

They arrived at an open patch in the forest. Kinslee sat on a log and smiled at Danny, tapping the spot next to her for him to sit, so he did.

Kinslee held his hand and smiled at him.

"I knew this day would come..."

Danny hugged her again.

Jen sighed in frustration.

"Okay, it's time to start talking... someone needs to tell me what the fuck is going on here..."

A noise in the distance. Xir's slaves. But they were still far off.

"We don't have much time, but I'll tell you the quick version..."

"When I was a teenager I started having visions and nightmares. They haunted me. At the same time I met another girl... her name was Becca... and... she was very special to me..."

Kinslee smiled for a moment, then frowned.

"The visions turned to voices and the voices told me to do things... and one thing it told me to do was play with a Ouiji board..."

Danny and Jen both perked up at this.

"So I did... well, we did, me and Becca and that was the first time Xir spoke through me..."

"Spoke through you?" Jen asked.

Kinslee nodded.

"He basically took control of me and when he did I couldn't remember what I did or what happened. The next time I saw Becca he did it again... and I almost hurt her..."

"Great" Jen said, eyeing Danny.

"That was a long time ago" Kinslee said, defensively, a single tear running down her cheek.

"She moved away and after that... things got really bad. They put me in the mental hospital for awhile. Then one night I had a vision. Great Xir appeared in front of me and told me he would make me normal again and stop the pain if I did one thing for him. I told him I'd so anything and he said I needed to move to Maine. I told him I was just a teenager, how was I suppose to do that? He said he would help..."

Danny listened intently, but Jen could hear Xir's slaves off in the distance, heading this way.

"We have time" Kinslee said, looking at Jen.

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"How did he help?" Danny asked.

"My dad started getting pamphlets in the mail for a special school in Maine... it was for 'troubled' kids like me" she sighed. "Then, my mom got pregnant with who would become my baby brother and they got more serious about moving to a bigger house. Then Xir made their decision easier..."

"How?" Danny asked.

"One night he took control of me and made me sit the house on fire. Everyone got out, but the house couldn't be lived in anyone the way it was... That was the last straw and we moved to Maine..."

Jen shook her head, looking at this strange girl with this crazy story. Jen didn't trust her at all and she wondered how Danny could.

Kinslee took a deep breath and continued.

"Before I left, though, I carved 'Maine' into a tree in a special place so Becca could find me someday like I had promised I would and then we left...."

"And?"

"...and..." Kinslee began with a half smile. "Great Xir kept his promise. It all stopped immediately".

"Can you stop calling him Great Xir?" Jen demanded. "It sounds like you worship him..."

"In a way I do, Jen" Kinslee said, sighing deeply. "It's not by choice. I have to, you see..."

"No, I don't..." Jen said.

Kinslee paused before continuing but when she did she avoided the topic all together, continuing with her story.

"Something strange did happen in Maine, though" Kinslee said. "I know it sounds crazy and no one else really noticed but me, but I stopped aging. I just got stuck at age 18. Maybe I've aged a little, but not like a normal person should have..."

"I mean people who are in their early 20's look like teenagers sometimes" Danny said. "It's not unusual..."

"Danny I'm almost 30..."

"Oh" Danny said. "Well, still, you could just look young..."

"No" Kinslee said a-matter-of-factly. "It's not that. When I moved to Maine time just... stopped for me".

Jen didn't believe this horseshit, but then again, was it really so far fetched after all she had seen?

"Before the virus my mom died of ovarian cancer" Kinslee said. "We were going to have her funeral because her family is from there and that's when Xir spoke to me the first time in years. He came to me in a dream and warned me not to go. I told him it was just for the funeral, that I would be back. He told me the Time of the Great Xir was upon us and he needed me there. I didn't know what that meant but begged him to let me go. Finally, he agreed..."

"Just like that?" Jen asked suspiciously.

"No" Kinslee said. "Because he found out why I really wanted to go so bad... that I wanted to go try and visit Becca. I'd found her online and knew where she lived. She had a family now... But... I thought maybe just maybe..."

Kinslee frowned and trailed off.

"He became very angry when he found out. He told me she was too powerful and would ruin everything. He told me that we had tried to turn her to our side before and it failed... I didn't understand any of it... Not then at least... But I knew I wanted him to leave her alone... I decided not to go..."

"But Great Xir didn't believe me. I was already in North Carolina and he told me to return immediately. By then, the virus was already upon us but people didn't know how bad it would get... The journey back to Maine was... hard. It was me, my brother and my dad. We fell into a group trying to get to Maine for safety. Every time I wanted to give up Great Xir called to me and pushed me on, but my dad and brother just thought we should stop and wait it out. They believed a vaccine would come and save us all..."

Danny remembered what Kinslee had told him during their time in the woods.

"The military killed your brother and dad... and gave you that nasty wound" Danny said. "I remember".

Kinslee nodded but then looked at Danny with cold, wet eyes.

"But was it really the military, Danny? I mean, yes, it was them but... my dad and brother were holding be back from Maine... Great Xir... he...."

Kinslee trailed off, a tear running down her cheek.

"I don't know what happened in the woods when we were together" Kinslee continued. "I remember being hit by Bambi. I remember slumping over and seeing you one last time and thinking it was over and being so glad, Danny. I was so glad it was all over. The only thing I worried about was you being okay..."

The tears ran down Kinslee's face hard now.

"Everyone I've ever loved or cared about has always went away. It was time for me to go away, not you... But when I woke up, Great Xir was standing over me and he brought me back and made me his servant again. He granted me the perfection of unending time and brought me back to Maine and here I am..."

Kinslee trailed off. Xir's slaves were close now. Too close.

"Come" Kinslee said. "It's time to go. If they're still coming they know I'm not alone".

"What's in the box, Kinslee?" Danny asked but Kinslee ignored him, starting to move through the trees. Danny caught up to her and grabbed her, spinning her around.

"Kinslee, what's in the box?"

She smiled at him.

"Everything" she said. "Now come on, we have to go. Now."