He was alive?! But how? Many thoughts were racing back and forth in my mind. I remember shoving him into a group of biters during the school attack, I didn't tell Rose this either. She has no clue that I tried to kill him because he killed Mira.

Emmy looked over at Rose and I. She was curious. "Who is Hayden?" I looked at her. "An old friend of ours… or was…" I looked back at Rose. "You have a lot of explaining to do, the both of you." Stalker went over and rested a hand on my shoulder. "It looks like you have enemies of your own now, welcome to the club." He grumbled and went over to Alice. "Hey, are you good?" He kneeled down.

Alice turned around and nodded. "Yeah, is dad okay?" She hugged him tightly. "Yeah, Andrew is fine." He smiled, Andrew went over. "Hey little one." Alice looked at Andrew. "Dad! Are they gone?!" She was startled, obviously shaken up as was everyone else. They have never faced that much biters in awhile.

Emmy looked at Ted. "We have to go Ted." She spoke. He looked up at her mom and then at everyone else. "Ted wants to stay with them though!" He ran over to Stalker and hugged his leg. "Can we stay?!" Ted looked up at him.

Stalker looked at Ted, then at Emmy "Don't look at me like that…" Emmy sighed, she went over. "Fine, we will stay for a bit. Just escort us to one of the outposts." She looked at Evelyn.

Ash went over to Evelyn. "It isn't your fault. You were scared…" he rested a hand on her shoulder, Evelyn slapped Ash's hand away. "It is my fault! I freaked out… I could have done something about it but I didn't! I almost got the kids killed!"

Ash hugged her tightly. "It was your first time coming face to face with one in a long time, don't worry. They're okay and that's what matters." He smiled and let go of Evelyn, who wiped her tears away. "Y-Yeah… that's what matters…"

She was more worried about the stares she will get now from Emmy, I on the other hand… I was worried about Hayden finding us. I looked at Rose. "I'm glad I found you Cody." Rose smiled, she then looked around. "Wait." She paused and looked at me again. "Where's Aya?"

The question I always never wanted to ask, of course it had to happen now. "She didn't make it…" I looked away, all I heard was Rose's gasps, even though her and Aya didn't have the best relationship, I was glad she still cared, even after 5 years later under these circumstances.

"I'm so sorry Cody, how are you holding up?" She asked. "Not the greatest." I sighed, I had to be honest, I didn't want to get an ass whooping. Dani looked over at them. "So you're honest to her but not me! Not fair!" She complained.

"Rose and I go far back." I looked at Dani. She went over to me. "You should know that everyone in the camp is concerned for your well being. You're allowed to come to any of us anytime." She smiled a bit. I gave her a little smile and looked back at Rose. "I'm trying to find her killer."

"How did she die?" Rose stared at me. "A fire." I muttered. "We couldn't find her body, I'm assuming she burnt to nothing. Not even ashes." I awkwardly chuckled.

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Stalker went over. "We need to talk about this Hayden guy." He sat down on the ground so that us three were on the same level. "So, what's your guys' background with him?"

I looked at Rose and she looked at me and nodded, I opened my mouth.

••

Aya and I were heading to school, the sun shining brightly. "Did you get all of your homework done for Mr. Patterson's classroom?" Aya asked, looking at me. "I'm almost done, all I have to do is half a page left.'' I answered, looking at her.

"Did you play on the XBOX again?" She asked. "Maybe an hour or two." I chuckled, giving her a smile. Aya laughed. "We're here." She sighed. "To hell we go." I mumbled as a teacher opened the gates for us.

We entered the school and made it to our classroom just as the bell rang, Mr. Patterson looked at us. "Just in time!" He gave a smile. "Sup!" Mira ran over. "Hey Mira." I smiled.

Rose went over to us. "Hi!" She spoke excitedly. We sat at our table. "Did you hear that Hayden's father died under unknown circumstances?" Mira looked at us. "Poor him." Aya sighed. "How did he die?" I asked, pulling out my binder and flipping over to my homework.

Mira rested his elbows on the table. "It was on the news, he got mauled to death by another person." Mira spoke in a chill way. "Who would eat another person?" I sighed.

Mr. Peterson started writing on the chalkboard. "Remember class, we will NOT talk about Hayden's father in the class. Or to him. It's a hard time for him and Kronx."

Kronx is Hayden's little brother, grade 4. They both have the same white hair and red eyes. When Hayden entered the room, most people gave Hayden a stare. Mr. Peterson watched. "Class it's rude to stare, please focus on your homework if you couldn't do it on the weekend." He spoke.

Hayden went over to us and sat down, looking at Rose. "So uh, Hayden." He looked at Mira. "Are you doing okay?" I looked at Mira. "Man… be quiet…" I sighed.

Hayden didn't reply, he just opened his binder and began working on his homework. I did the same to avoid the awkwardness of the situation, of course I felt bad about his father; no one deserves to go out that way.

Mira luckily finished his homework, same went with Aya. Mira raised his hand. "I'm going to go to the washroom." Mr. Peterson looked at Mira. "Okay, be here within 15 minutes."

Hayden raised his hands as well. "I'll go as well." He looked at Hayden. "Okay, both of you come back at 8:45 AM!" He smiled and they left the room to go to the washroom.

••

I looked at Stalker. "You never know when someone is snapping until it's too late."

••

A loud explosion was heard, causing students to get off of their seats and crowd the window. "What's going on?" A student spoke.

All of a sudden the PA system went off. "Students and teachers, we are under lockdown. We have intruders! I repeat we have intruders!" A cock of a gun was heard as the banging of windows echoed throughout the PA system. "GET AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS OR I WILL SHOOT!" He yelled, the windows broke and loud crashes, like sounds of papers falling, including loud thumbs.

Numerous pops were heard, assuming it was from the gun. "NO! NO!" his screams blurred in our ears, Mr. Peterson's eyes widened, he ran towards the door and shut it as soon as one of those intruders banged on the door.

The students turned around and began freaking out. I stood up and looked at Rose and then at Aya. "Mira."

He was my first concern right now, the PA system was still on. Till the hands of the principal fell off. Muffled sounds of growling and the sounds of flesh getting torn up suddenly disappeared.

The bathroom door was wide open, Hayden walked out of the hallways, covered in blood, a little pocket knife in his left hand, blood dribbled down. He was singing a song. "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky, twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are." He giggled.