Kroc finds a nice open area and looks at me. “No weapons. No holding back. First person to surrender loses.” I ready myself and nod. He smirks slightly, “I won’t even have to power up to fight you boss. Shame. I haven’t gone hard in years.” He rushes me with impressive speed for such a big creature. I barely move out of the way as he tries to punch me in the side. He continues his onslaught as I start to notice a pattern with him. Every third punch he slows down just a little bit. He goes for the third punch and I sidestep him throwing a punch in his side. He tumbles slightly and begins to laugh. “Lucky Bastard!” He spins around backhanding me that sends me flying into the tree. I hit the tree causing large cracks to run up and down it. For some strange reason, I don’t feel the pain of the impact. I stand up dusting myself off as Kroc looks at me angry. I look at him smirking slightly.

“And here I thought you were the best fighter in all of the world Kroc? Or was that second best.” He frowns as begins to grow in size. He gets to the size I first saw in the hole. His skin slowly starts to go black as his eyes go red.

“Cocky child!” He disappears one second and reappears in front of me grabbing me by the face. He lifts me up threatening to crush my skull. I begin to panic and try escape his grasp. He lets me go and I land in the ground with a thud. He goes back down to his normal size. He smiles at me as he breathes in deeply. “I say you will be on par with Nightmare with a few weeks of training with me. You act just like him when it comes to fighting.” I frown standing up stretching my neck slightly.

“I don’t..”

“Shut up. We are going to start training now. Get ready.” I pause confused as he starts to fight me again. We spend the next hour sparing with each other. Everytime I would see a pattern he would switch it up which would throw me off. At the end of the hour, I am too exhausted to continue. I fall to one knee and Kroc hits me off the head with a stick. “Get up.” I look up at him.

“I can barely move.” He raises the stick again and Liz shouts at him.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?!” Kroc looks at her smirking.

“Training. Finally woke up I see.” She runs over to me looking pissed at him.

“Fuck off Kroc.” He rolls his eyes dropping his stick.

“Fine. I will be waiting to travel. Don’t take long.” She flips him off as he walks away. She looks at me angry.

“Why are you training?” I shrug slowly standing up. She glares tapping her foot.

“So I can get stronger and protect us better.” She rolls her eyes going back to the bunker.

“Idiot.” I pause confused as she walks inside. A second later, Flint walks out of the bunker and I glare at him. He walks to me looking apologetic.

“I’m sorry Zack. I didn’t expect as many versions of myself to come for you. I was able to get all of them to stop for now.”

“I want answers. No more running away or disappearing.” Flint sighs slightly.

“Fine. Go tell them you are going on a walk.” I walk inside the bunker and tell them I will meet them at the road. Liz looks confused but I tell her I need some time to clear my head. I leave the bunker with Kroc staring at me. I see Flint waiting for me near the road toward the road. I walk over to him.

“Who are your friends? The little kid version of you told me that there are five? Two will seek me out, one sick, and two hidden?” He frowns as we start to walk down the road.

“I use to run in a gang back in the day. It was sort of we were a bunch of misfits trying to find a place in the world. There were six of us. Kroc, Queen, Wart, Eyes, Wolf, and me. We had to part ways a long time ago though.” I glare at him slightly.

“So you won’t tell me anything else about them?” He shakes his head no. “Why?”

“I have my reasons.” I shake my head annoyed.

“Perfect. I am dealing with so many problems and the only person who said that they can help me won’t. I don’t sleep. I act weird sometimes. The whispers. What’s with the whispers? I just need help..” I look to see Flint gone. “No. You get the fuck back here Flint! Don’t you leave me when I need you!” I look around to see no sign of him. I take a breath trying to calm down. I keep walking down the path trying to relax. I get to the main road and wait for Liz and Kroc. I see them driving down the path. Kroc is the back of the SUV with the trunk pop open. I get in the passenger seat as Liz looks at me.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing. Just mad about nothing.” She rolls her eyes as she starts to drive down the road. We spend the next week heading up to the base. Every chance we stop or rest, Kroc takes the chance to train with me. It’s more like Kroc beating on me every chance he gets. However, I notice that I am getting faster and I am able to deflect some of his blows. When the training is done, me and Liz go search for supplies. I’ve been noticing that we’ve been getting closer also. She doesn’t make as many rude remarks towards me and I notice her look worried when I train with Kroc. She pulls over the SUV around midday as Kroc gets out of the car.

“Time to train Zack.” I sigh annoyed. Liz shakes her head no.

“No. We are about a day away from the base. We are just stopping to make sure we won’t run out of gas. If my map is correct, there should be a gas station a few miles ahead.” I pause confused.

“Why don’t drive up there?” Kroc spits on the ground as he sniffs the air.

“It’s heavily Infected up the road.” He looks at Liz curious. “How did you know?” Liz rolls her eyes at him looking at the map.

“I saw signs of Infection in the area. Nature itself shows if it is close.” I pause surprised.

“Really how?” She pauses slightly.

“Flowers won’t bloom and trees will lose leaves to act like their dead.” I pause smiling slightly.

“That’s really cool.” I see her slightly blush and turn her back towards us.

“Can you both go take care of the Infected while I take account of the supplies?” She makes it sound like an order. Kroc smiles happy.

“Sure we can. Bring your sword kid. It’s finally time to show off some training.” I roll my eyes and grab the sword from the car. Liz watches me for a second.

“Be safe.. Please.” she sounds worried for me. I smile feeling warm inside.

“Don’t worry. We will be back before you know it.” I follow Kroc down the road as he looks at me.

“Don’t use the sword right away. I want to see your hand to hand combat skills first.” I frown slightly annoyed.

“What if I get Infected?” He pauses and starts to laugh.

“That can’t happen. We can’t get Infected.” I pause confused.

“Why?” He looks down the road and we see our first Infected stumble out onto it. Kroc picks up a nearby rock and throws it destroying the Infected.

“For you I have no idea. Nightmare was cut up, bit, torn into a thousand times. He never got Infected. For me, they can’t hurt me. No one can..” I notice him stare at the blade for a second.

“Hmm.. How about the rest of the gang?” He pauses and refuses to comment. “Kroc?”

“Don’t know.” He sounds like he is thinking of something. We slowly come onto the gas station and he looks at me. “From what I can smell, there are about twenty. Should be easy enough for you.” He sits down and waits for me to go to it. I sigh and look at me.

“Not going to help?”

“This is for you. Don’t fuck it up.” I sigh annoyed and head to it. The first few Infected look up at me and come charging at me. I easily dodge out of the way for the first attacks. I start to pick them off one by one delivering blows to weak places that I pick out. I slowly realise that I am enjoying myself. After killing the nineteenth one, I look around for the last one. I look back to Kroc who seems to be studying me.

“Where is the last one?” Kroc motions inside the gas station. I smirk slightlying heading inside it. Once I open the door, I see a woman with the start of the Infection on her face. She begins to cry as she gets up and runs to hug me.

“Oh thank you lord. They have been trying to get in all night. Thank you for saving me.” I get a sick feeling in my stomach as I look down at the woman. She looks at me, “Can you take me to safety?” I stare at her when a rush of emotions hit me. Some telling me to save her, others telling me to kill her. I pause staring at her longer. I nod.

“.. Yes I can. Go grab your things and we can go.” She turns around smiling happy. I slowly draw my sword and go to kill her. I stop putting the sword away. I can’t do it. “I will be waiting outside for you.” I quickly leave and see Kroc waiting for me. He has a look of disappointment on his face. He walks past me into the store. The first thing that hits my ears are the screams. Something tells me that this isn't the first time something like this had to happen. The screams cause a feeling of pure terror in me. Not because of the screams itself, from the sick rush I feel hearing them. Next comes the sound of something be crunched. It happens for a few minutes with the crunching slowly turning to a wet sound. I refuse to look back as I hear Kroc walk through the door. He walks past me his fists stained with blood. He shoots me a look anger filling his face.

“You are a disgrace to the name of Nightmare.”