Johnny couldn't help but to tap the dash of the bmw as they followed the police car into the Parson's land. He did it without realization, as he watched all of the people making camps in the field. About half were leaving as they arrived, and after everything Johnny had just witnessed he couldn't blame them. When the driver asked him if it was safe here, he didn't want to bullshit the kid.

"It's not safe," he said bluntly. "There's enough guns here to protect us for the night at least." He noticed many of the local hunters were here, all of them knew these lands very well. "Come on, I might be able to get us in the house. Everyone knows me here." The thought of even sleeping on the house floor was comforting at this point.

As he walked out through the field toward the house, he could see and hear that they were boarding it all up. Making it only halfway, his attention drifted as Ethan and some of the hunters formed a barricade with vehicles around the property. Everyone was helping out in one way or another, with a few of the undead coming out from the tall grass in the distance.

They would spend the entire night out on watch, many in lawn chairs and holding beer and rifles. Every time one of the undead came out from the shrubs and trees, someone would call it out and a marksman would take the shot. Babies were crying in tents and a radio was broadcasting from atop a truck.

"Report unusual behavior. Barricade your homes. Avoid all contact with infected individuals. Wait for official instruction." The message went on longer but repeated, as it seemed live streaming was not possible anymore. The power grid in the city went out and FEMA broadcasted a loop. 

Ethan tried to reach his wife again with no luck. All he got now was static and it worried him, though he still had a lot to deal with here. A fight nearly broke out as a man with a bite was revealed by another holding a shotgun to his face.
The sheriff managed to cool down the confrontation, but the bitten man was forced to leave the property immediately, so was anyone else that had been infected. Already these people were becoming aggressive, though the wounded left without much resistance.


"We're all tired and aggrevated, I know," Ethan spoke to everyone that was gathered around him. "Get some sleep, we've set up shifts for everyone. In the morning, we can discuss our options. I think we should all gather together and head to Fort Benning, it's the nearest military outpost. I've lost contact with them, but last I heard they were evacuating citizens by helicopter. As far as I know that's still the case. Rest up, we head out early in the morning."

There was a firepit made in the field, a circle of people surrounding it. Food was being served out, though many weren't hungry. Johnny saw Sarah from within the windows of the house, but instead of going to speak with her, he just stayed by the fire. They were safe for now, so he rested his head on the soft grass and drifted to sleep from his weariness.

Ethan released Dallen's handcuffs from him, though still kept him locked in the backseat of the cop car. There were too many things going on for him to have to babysit the man. Joining the Parsons in their home, Ethan explained to them the situation and how these people wouldn't be here for long. Though even as he spoke to them, he felt unsure of what he was saying. 


_____ 



Aeres felt as if he should’ve expected his passenger’s response. Perhaps asking whether or not they were safe was only a stab into an already open wound—he knew nothing was right in the least and it felt stupid to believe they would be safe anywhere, in a barricade or in a house or in a car. He didn’t respond to Johnny, though the lack of words wasn’t personal—he was internalizing his concern for the time being, believing it would help him push through until everything went back to normal. For now, he was choosing to think that things would go back to normal rather than the all-too-possible theory lingering in the back of his mind that it wouldn’t.

Choosing to trust Johnny, Aeres locked up and left his BMW, stuffing the keys into his pocket, keeping his hand there as he followed him out onto the grass and up to the house. He barely made it a few minutes before he was instructed again to move his car to help the barricade, to which he agreed and did, moving it along the edge next to others to help create a barrier. Although there was a call to round up all arms, he chose not to say anything about the gun in his car—he wanted it to himself just in case something went wrong. He knew no one around him, he’d never seen a single one of their faces before, save for Johnny, who looked familiar because of his career, and he wasn’t about to give away his belongings to strangers from a tiny, poor-looking small town. His parents had taught him that people like them often hated his kind and tried to take advantage of them at any opportunity. 

Fueled by adrenaline, he found himself wide awake though dazed during the conflicts that broke out over a bitten man discovered among them but chose to distance himself. Through listening and watching, he began to piece together what was going on—some disease, he gathered, was infecting and spreading rapidly, causing its victims to become bloodthirsty and insane. It explained Soren, who popped into his head every few minutes regardless of how much effort he put into thinking of anything else. A bite must’ve been what he thought the hospital could address after the party; it seemed he had been wrong.

By the time he found Johnny again, the man had not found a way into the house as he’d said he would—he was passed out in the grass, a pathetic and disgusting site by the young man’s standards. Grimacing and groaning, he stepped back from the sight, thinking of how many bugs would crawl on Johnny as he slept where he was, and retreated back to the comfort of his BMW. He crawled into the front seat, reclined it, and from pure exhaustion, eventually fell asleep there.