Helena had run past him already, giving him wide berth but quickly making her way into the house. She found Alice, screaming at a man who was trying to pummel her with a tire-iron. He looked up into the barrel of Helena’s shot gun, his grin still leering, even as the bullet cut neatly through it. His body fell backwards, but Helena was already out of the room, checking each one with superhuman speed.

“Yep, yep, I’ll leave that to you next time…” Alice said weakly, struggling to climb off of a floor covered in what looked to be human bones and a strange assortment of chicken feathers and children’s toys.  Dolls were tied to chairs made of human bones, something she had registered dimly when she first entered the room.

“Don’t say such things, how could you have known this is what you would have found?” Helena lifted her easily and they made their way out of the house, Alice’s eyes behind them, Helena’s to the front.

Out front, Bette was asking Lara if she was hurt, checking her scalp over carefully. “Dammit Alice,” She shouted when the other two came out. “Why didn’t you let us help?” Alice swiped a wet rag from Bette’s hand and took over with Lara. The wound was shallow but bleeding a strangely large amount, and would need antiseptic at least.

“Well we expected the infected, not a bunch of red-neck lunatic bastards!” Alice screamed, still wiping off the blood all over Lara’s shocked face. “how the fuck could they have survived the infection? HUH? Answer me that?” She continued to scream at Bette who slowly registered what she was really saying.

“There can’t just be two of them…” Bette muttered. “Two couldn’t have survived…”

“We’ve seen what…seven of those trucks with skulls and shit all over them?” Kit made a mental count and added two more to the list. “let’s get water, supplies, and get the fuck out of here.”

Dusk was following them quickly as they walked away from the farmhouse. Bette had moved the dead man from the front porch, determined not to set up a red flag from afar.