[b]Shannon - Woods - Emma/James[/b]

The new year had started, Shannon figured, and that meant her birthday had passed her by. Oh well, there wasn't much reason to get excited these days anyway. It had been almost a month since she left, but Shannon still thought of Haywood. She thought of the people that had lived there, the people that had been lost there. She'd been one of the few to survive Haywood's bloody ordeals and it still weighed on her heavily. She had known she couldn't stay there any longer, not just because of the sad memories, but because Haywood simply couldn't sustain her and her friends any longer. She'd wanted Amelia to join her, but the woman had refused, stating that she wanted to protect what remained of Haywood in Anthony's absence. It was hard leaving without her, especially after the deaths of both Daniel and Poly, but Shannon knew that some friends just had to go their separate ways.

She'd left with Emma at least, and she couldn't leave James or Valentina behind either. The boy still clung to her as if she was family, and the girl... Well, Shannon had no idea what else to do with her. Perhaps it wasn't right to bring Valentina out into the wild again, but the little girl had never functioned correctly in a large group. She rarely talked, and only ever to James or Emma. Even then, Emma was far too distant these days for anyone to talk to.

For Shannon, it had been a very lonely month. Though she travelled with three others, she felt at times travelling by herself.

They'd tried to make a living in the city, travelling from building to building in order to keep out of the way of walkers. They eventually discussed trying to make a living in the woods, though starting up a discussion on the matter had felt a bit like pulling teeth. Shannon was unsure of her survival skills and didn't think they could maintain a life outside the city with her group of what were essentially children. All she could do was make a go for it and try to stick close to the city.

Only a few days into their camping venture, they'd managed to set up a small camp with cans on a fishing line for security. It was a humble set-up, and Shannon was thankful they had enough food and water from the city to last them at least a week. James began to express distress at being out in the open, even after Shannon explained the warning system they had set up to him. In order to get the boy to calm down, she and Emma had to maintain a near-constant watch. It was exhausting, and yet another detriment to living out in the woods.

It was evening when Shannon ended her watch to curl up into the tent next to James and Valentina. Emma took over the watch in her stead and Shannon managed to grab about an hour of amazing dreamless sleep.

But then something made the cans move and [i]plink![/i] against each other. Shannon was rocked awake and she sat up immediately. To her horror, the spot next to James was empty-- Valentina was gone. Shannon launched herself out the open tent flap and looked around wildly for the young girl. Her eyes eventually spotted Emma sitting next to the cold fire pit, her body wrapped into a fetal position. Shannon knelt next to the girl and found her staring silently into the ashes.

"Where's Valentina?" Shannon asked. "She's not in the tent!" When Emma didn't respond, Shannon reached out and shook her. "Emma, listen to me!" Despite her shouting, Emma wouldn't move.

Shannon cursed and made a break for the edge of the camp. She stopped at the fishing line and searched through the trees for some sign of Valentina, though it was too dark to see much of anything properly. Despite her better judgement, Shannon hopped over the fishing line and called out, "Valentina!" When nothing responded, she continued further into the forest. "Valentina! Come on!"

When she was far enough so that the camp was out of sight, Shannon heard rustling to her side. She let out a shaky breath and took a step toward the noise. "'Tina? Is that you?"

It was not Valentina. Out of the inky blackness came a short rotting man, his arms reaching out to take hold of Shannon. She yelped in surprise, unable to get away as the walker fell on top of her. She swore out loud and exerted all the force she had in keeping the man's snapping mouth away from her skin. This went on for only a few precious moments, but they felt like forever to Shannon. She began to feel her body give out from exhaustion, and she grunted out in frustration.

There was a small cry and the walker on top of her stopped moving. Shannon blinked in surprise and threw the disgusting corpse off of her. She found James standing over her, a bloody knife gripped in his hands. He looked at her fearfully, and Shannon was relieved. James had never had the courage to do something like that before, but now he had saved her life. She let out a happy sigh and pulled the boy into a hug.

"Thank you, James," she said. "Thank you. That was so dumb of me."

The boy was quiet "... Where's Valentina?"

Shannon ended the hug and held James at arms length. Her eyes looked over his shoulder and toward the dark forest beyond. "... I don't know. She must have run away." Her gaze was brought back to James when she saw tears in his eyes.

"It happened again. It's going to happen again and again forever."

Shannon wanted to tell him everything would be all right, or that Valentina would be okay. All she could say was, "I'm sorry."

---

[b]Tyler - Gas Station - Katie[/b]

Baton Rouge. Not nearly as large as New Orleans, but certainly a place with its own set of dangers. Tyler had wanted to avoid cities in order to avoid running into other people. Walkers were dangerous beasts, but they were largely predictable. Tyler could protect his daughter from walkers, but he couldn't be sure she'd be safe from the living. They were the unpredictable sort, prone to anger and hate and the craziest of things.

As they moved North, Tyler was unsure if they ever should stop. What reason was there to stay in one place? Stability? He knew Katie needed stability, but could he really say anywhere offered stability any longer? Perhaps it would be best to move North, where there would be less people. Perhaps eventually, the cold weather kept the walkers slow and at bay. There was more hope going North than staying where they were, at the very least.

He'd stopped at a gas station that looked like it had seen better days. The windows had been boarded up once, but now the glass was left broken, a few hanging boards left limply hanging on. This wouldn't be a good place for Katie to stay the night, but Tyler figured he had to at least check it out. He left Katie at the door that had a big red 'X' spray-painted over it and stepped inside.

The store racks were completely bare, some looking like they had been kicked around by someone letting off a little steam. There was nothing behind the counter either but dirty blankets and rags. The little gas station had been stripped completely clean, unsurprisingly, but that wasn't what got Tyler's attention. At the back of the store, a large rectangular bulletin board had been put up to lean against the wall. On it were rows upon rows of pinned photographs, written notes, and cries for help. Tyler reached out and grabbed a photo at random to examine the picture of an elderly woman smiling at the camera. She laid on the beach, her grey hair mostly obscured by her sun hat. Whoever was taking the photo managed to get a part of their finger in the shot, blocking off the bottom right of the photo. Tyler stared at this picture for a long time before pinning it back to the board.

He left the gas station and took Katie by the hand outside the door. He walked her toward the street, where he found a sign, stating: [i]'FIND YOUR LOVED ONES INSIDE!!'[/i]. Tyler sighed at this. 

"Do you remember your grandmother, Katie?"

---

[b]Danny - Outpost Cabin - Myriah[/b]

He found her in her room with no candles lit. She had been sitting at her desk, looking down with her eyes closed, as if she was dead. Danny walked over to her desk and lit a match so that he could light the candle. Myriah sprang awake as the light illuminated her. She took off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes.

"Hey," he said. " You seemed down today."

She didn't respond immediately, content with rubbing at her eyes. "Yeah, I guess I was." She pulled away her hand to look into the candle's flame. "At the council meeting, we voted to approve Isaac's medical classes. He was really excited. [i]I[/i] should be excited. But I just..." She raised her hand and began to count off her fingers. "Samantha. Reggie. Cain. Drew. Bill. Hansel. Steven. Greg. These are the people who had to be sacrificed in order for me to get what I wanted. In order for [i]Matt[/i] to get what he wanted. How can I possibly be excited about any of this when it cost us so much?"

There was a stretch of silence while Danny mulled over her words. "Matt has enough say to end the classes. At least you get something [i]you[/i] goddamn wanted out of this."

"I believe that's to coddle me. Or to keep me from talking. Either way... I've been made guilty in all this as well. It's disgusting, Rudy."

"God, don't say shit like that. Just..." He sighed and made his way toward Myriah's bed. He sat down on it and looked up toward the ceiling. "You tried your best. We've all made dumb fuckin' mistakes. The scouts are hard enough to deal with as it is without you getting you getting all down on yourself and shit." That was probably an understatement. Ever since the Thomas incident, the scouts had been constantly at odds with each other. Sylar had been made the new leader, but some of the scouts still preferred Enrique. "We barely stopped that horde from taking us out and everyone is constantly arguing. I'm trying to fucking stay out of it, but it bugs me that I still have to look at that dumb shit Enrique's face every day."

Myriah turned to him, her face disapproving. "Rudy--"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't fucking even. That man was working with Thomas and Matt, I know he was. I don't give a shit how much he hates Thomas now, he had a hand in killing our people. I fucking heard him say he wanted to kill Reggie a month ago!"

Myriah raised her hands in a calming motion. "Listen, it's okay. I understand. Outpost isn't the kind of place we imagined it to be. We just have to... keep working toward making things better."

Danny groaned and laid back on the bed. He heard Myriah place her glasses on the desk. "Actually," she said. "It doesn't have to be [i]we[/i]. You can always go and find your friend-"

"Myriah!"

"I'd be fine without you. Elliot would be fine. All you could do was talk about her when you thought she was dead, but now she's alive and you-"

He sat up and glared at her. "Stop. I don't want to talk about her." He got off the bed and went for the door. "This is my home now and this is where I'm staying. Nothing will change that."