Dead Weight/Issue 18

**Issue 18** is the eighteenth issue of Dead Weight. It is entitled **Regrets Of The Hurting**. It is the final issue in arc 1 of Dead Weight. This issue contains *one* flashback.

## Previously on Dead Weight

Bri goes snoopin'. Sabrina kills Drake. Alison threatens Sally, Bri stops her just in time before she can hurt her. The dead finally break into the camp, Sabrina right in death's grasp.

## Story

Sabrina runs down the pathway as fast as her legs will carry her, holding a gun in one hand and one can of food in the other. At the same time, a figure runs towards her. Sabrina slightly stumbles, not wanting to run into danger but also not wanting to stop, she continues running, her brain not working properly as she suddenly slams into a body, crumpling against them, she feels their hands grip her to stop her from falling.

“Hey, hey!” Carlos calls, pulling Sabrina up as she desperatly tries to keep herself together, pulling herself out of his grip while also grabbing at his jacket, dropping the can from her hand as it rolls away from them.

“They’re coming-- They’re coming we have to leave, Carlos we have to leave they’re--”

“I know, I know come on.” Carlos insists, pushing her in the direction of the cabin, discreetly trying to comfort her by squeezing her shoulder as he does so. Carlos and Sabrina run, the loud sounds of the dead just behind them as they see the cabin door swinging open, Jessica, Nancy and Tanya stepping out.

“Holy shit.” Tanya curses, pulling out a flashlight and shining it down the pathway. Nancy immediately knocks her wrist down, Tanya almost dropping the flashlight. “The hell?!”

“Don’t give away our position.” Nancy says.

“It’s a bit too late for that!” Tanya argues, pulling the flashlight back up again.

Nancy peeks her head inside the cabin, instructing the kids to start moving as Jessica moves towards Sabrina as she and Carlos reach the rest of the group.

“They’re too fast, we have to go, now.” Sabrina says, recomposing herself.

“I thought we’d have time but…” Tanya trails off.

“There’s no time, come on.” Jessica tells her. Amy, Mark, Harry, Sammy, Molly, Melissa and Scrap come out of the cabin. The undead reach the house, Carlos opens fire on them as the group begin backing away, Nancy making sure the kids get in front of them as they make their way to the end of the camp. Sabrina, furiously, shoots at the horde, aimlessly shooting as she barely hits heads.

Flake slices the head of a stray undead, Robbie stumbles as he reaches unstable ground, rocks tumbling as he feels his footing slip. Grace manages to grab him, grabbing at a tree branch as she helps pull Robbie to his feet again.

Abreham watches their front, kicking down another dead and killing it. Flake starts attacking the horde as it follows them, his arms getting tired as he attempts to thin out the small packs that come behind them.

“Are you okay?” Grace whispers to Robbie as he checks his gun for ammo.

“Yeah, fine, you?”

“I’m okay.”

Robbie and Grace begin firing at the remaining dead as Flake is suddenly pushed against the grass, tumbling onto his back as his sword slips out of his hand, getting stuck in between a rock and a tree. Grace shoots the dead on top of him, pushing away another before shooting it dead. Flake scrambles to his feet, snatching his sword up as Abreham calls them to hurry up.

“Go, Grace.”

“Yeah, I’m not leaving you to deal with any of the rest.”

“Don’t be such a problem.” Flake tells her, Grace snorts as she checks her gun, cursing under her breath as she sees she’s out of ammunition. “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m getting deja vu, sweetie.” Grace says as she peers to Robbie before continuing after Abreham as Flake spots another one of the dead coming down towards them. He steadies himself, holding his sword upwards in front of him, ready to attack.

Bri climbs back into the bed, sitting upwards under the covers for a moment, taking in what had just happened. She fixes her hair, pushing a stray strand behind her ear before lying down on the bed again. She takes a look at Sally, lying away from her, before turning to face the door, as if she’s waiting for another problem to come through it.

Sally rolls over, looking at the back of Bri’s head for a moment before tapping her innocently on the shoulder. Bri’s eyebrows furrow in confusion as she peeks over her shoulder.

“Thanks.” Sally whispers, Bri smiles hesitantly, not knowing she was awake. Bri slightly blushes.

“You’re welcome.”

The camp group suddenly feel overwhelmed as the horde advance faster than they’d expected it too, the seemingly slow dead turning out to not be that slow as suddenly Jessica is tackled to the ground, practically splitting her off from the rest of the group as Melissa bounds over a stray rock and pulls out her knife, stabbing the dead in the head before Jessica’s throat is ripped out.

Jessica goes to say thank you, but realises she doesn’t have time as she feels herself being claustrophobic and the exit slowly going out of sight. Melissa passes Jessica a second knife, alongside their guns as Melissa begins attacking the dead, Jessica slightly backing up to protect herself from a distance with the gun.

Melissa leads her, feeling herself almost backing against the wall as she aggressivly stabs another dead in the head.

“Stay behind me.” Tanya tells Mark as she feels one of the dead brushing against her arm, she turns and lodges her knife deep into it’s skull, killing it as she rips it out again. Nancy stops running, turning back and calling for her as she pulls out her gun and begins firing as Tanya is suddenly surrounded by a few of the dead, ducking down to try and avoid their bites as she knocks some of them over, stabbing another from under their jaw.

Nancy manages to kill the dead, Tanya practically rolling out from the herd’s grip as Mark watches, making his way to the exit as he scans the area for his siblings.

*Jessica sits on a sink, holding something in her hand as she swings her legs impatiently as her whole body appears to shake. In front of her, a girl stands, roughly the same age as Jessica.*

*“Well?” She asks.*

*“I haven’t looked at it yet.” Jessica admits, leaning her head against the mirror behind her.*

*“The hell? What’re you waiting for?”*

*“I’m too scared.”*

*“Jessy, honey. If you don’t want to look, let me.”*

*“What? No! I need to look first.” Jessica tells her, taking out what she’s holding, a pregnancy test and taps it against her thigh a few times, anxiously, with the results facing away from her.*

*“You do know you peed on that like… a minute ago, right?” the girl tells her. Jessica smiles for a breif second before her face becomes rather dull again. The girl rolls her eyes, becoming impatient as she suddenly whips the pregnancy test from Jessica’s fingers, holding it up.*

*“Kristine!” Jessica hisses, jumping off of the sink as Kristine checks the results. Jessica snatches the stick back.*

*“Oh come on, Jessy. If I didn’t do that we would have been sitting here for hours,” Kristine tells her as Jessica checks the test. “You’re goin’ to be a mommy!”*

*Jessica looks down at the test, realising Kristine was right. Her heart beating even more rapidly than before.*

*“It’s not that bad, to be honest.”*

*“Maybe not.”*

*“So… Who’s the daddy?” Kristine smirks. Jessica sighs, loudly, out of irritation.*

*“It doesn’t matter right now.”*

*“Yes it does!! You’re about to make his life even better!! Who wouldn’t want to go on a long life journey with Jessica Starn and her little fetus!”*

*“You’re an idiot.” Jessica manages to get out before she suddenly bursts into tears, Kristine bites her lips awkwardly.*

*“Was it something I said?” She asks, pulling Jessica into a hug as she drops the test on the floor. Kristine awkwardly rocks her, going on her tiptoes and kissing her on the top of the head. Jessica just meekly shakes her head, squeezing Kristine into a tight hug before letting go, wiping her eyes.*

*“It’s Derrik’s” Jessica admits.*

*“Really?!” Kristine asks in disbelief as she pulls away from the hug, too.*

*“Don’t look so surprised.”*

*“Sorry, I’m not a very good actress. I mean… I’m so happy for him!” She sarcastically says, smiling at Jessica as she manages to get her to laugh.*

*“I’m gonna be a mom.” Jessica says, mostly to herself.*

*“Yes!!”*

*“Wow…**Shit**.”*

“Amy!!” A small voice, Harry, cries as he looks around, having been seperated from whomever was caring for him. He looks around, squinting his eyes as he suddenly spots Amy in the distance, seperated from everyone else, standing in one place with Scrap by her side.

“Amy!” He calls again, toddling over towards her, unnoticed in the darkness.

Jessica grabs Molly, throwing her into her arms as she finally reaches them. Melissa disappears away from them, disappearing into the night.

“Come on!” Jessica calls, taking Sammy’s hand as they make a break towards the way out. The three run, in a clear path towards the back of camp. White hot pain shoots through Sammy’s ankle as she collapses to the ground, one of the dead’s cold hand around her ankle, mouth attached firmly to the flesh on her leg as it rips into her, causing her to bleat out in agony as Jessica’s hand slips from Sammy’s. From Sammy’s mouth, she screams for her mother as Jessica is forced to cover Molly’s eyes, gripping the little girl tighter as she’s too late to help Sammy as several of the dead all at once topple on top of the helpless girl.

Jessica backs away, the little girl in her arm calling out as Sammy suddenly disappears in a crowd of monsterous creatures, her screams dissipating into soundless sound. Jessica’s legs turn to jelly, unknowing what to do before she feels her whole body shake as a hand reaches and grabs her shoulder.

Abreham stumbles into the camp, seeing the carnage and immediently backing out again. Making his way to the other side of the wall to escape into the forest. Grace rolls her eyes as both Robbie and herself make it into camp, holding out their weapons, despite them being futile against such a large crowd.

Robbie runs over, spotting Jessica as he grabs at her shoulder, she shakes violently with Molly in her hand as she suddenly breaks into tears at the sight of him. Robbie wraps an arm around Jessica before pushing her towards the back of the camp.

“We gotta go.” He whispers. Jessica nods frantically, her legs moving as quickly as possible to make her way out of the camp, Robbie kicks back a dead as it runs towards him, almost stumbling himself as Flake appears from behind him, followed by Grace.

“Where’s Sabrina?!” Grace calls out, looking around frantically for her sister. Flake slices at one of the dead.

“I don’t know, the way this horde is so seperated we’ve barely got cover. I’m sorry, Grace, we have to go.” Robbie says before immediently tanking it out of the camp, following Jessica as they suddenly disappear out of the camp. Grace lets out a loud grunt, her heart racing as she tries to stay safe while searching for her sister.

Flake looks around, his eyes locked on his own cabin as he desperetly wants to fight through the horde to get to the cabin.

Harry tugs at Amy, wrapping his whole arm around hers to try and get her to move, but she doesn’t. She stares into the horde as some of the dead start to take notice of her, making their way between the cabin buildings to get to them. Scrap, who stands beside her, begins barking at the dead coming towards them.

“Please, Amy!!” Harry cries, his strength running out as he falls backwards, letting out a painfilled squeak as Amy comes out of her daze, stumbling backwards as a dead grabs at her, she manages to push it off of her, but at a terrible cost as it falls to the ground, landing beside Harry.

“No!” She breathlessly calls out, her voice merely a whisper as Harry tries to stumble onto his feet again but the dead grabs at his pants, pulling him towards it and digging it’s teeth into his back and ripping flesh away. Harry cries, almost instantly losing conciousness as Amy falls back against the fence, moving away from the scene as she shakes and shivers, barely seeing due to the dark night and the tears blinding her vision. She feels like she’s hallucinating, as a dead, resembling her own father, stumbles towards her. She stops in her place, about to call out to him when he jumps on top of her, knocking her to the ground and ripping into her face, blood spilling onto the grass. Scrap runs.

Tanya throws her knife into the skull of a dead, stumbling backwards, past the camp’s walls as she scrambles backwards. Tanya pulls herself up, turning to grab Nancy as she suddenly spots her pushed against the wall of the camp, pushing against the dead in an attempt to save herself from becoming food. “Nancy!” Tanya calls out as she almsot tumbles down the valley below.

Tanya feels a dead grabbing at her ankle, she manages to tug her foot upwards and stomp on top of it’s head before turning to see Nancy, letting out a scream as her hands slip away from the dead, her whole face showing pain as something manages to sneak through and start tearing into her stomach without it’s mouth, but rather it’s hands.

Tanya screams out, but she can barely hear herself when she feels someone tugging at her, puling her into the safety of the forest as Nancy crumbles against the walls, her whole body feeling like it’s being flattened as her organs are torn from her stomach, her neck being ripped into by another dead as she blacks out, dying quickly and painfully.

Tanya, following behind Melissa, with tears in her eyes as she shakily runs, collapses on the forest floor. Melissa groans, turning to help her up.

“Hey, look at me Tanya.” Melissa whispers, looking around to check nothing is coming for them before staring Tanya in the eyes. “You’ve got this. We can stop if you want.”

Tanya shakes, silently crying as she shakes her head. Melissa sighs quietly, helping Tanya up as they continue on, a twig snapping as Sabrina suddenly runs out, almost knocking into the girls.

“Hey! Oh my god!” Sabrina calls, happy to see something she recognizes. “Is my sister--” She stops, noticing Grace not with them and sighs, “Fuck!”

“It’s okay, she’ll be out here somewhere.” Melissa reassures.

Sabrina nods, running a hand through her hair as she keeps looking around as she moves. The three girls continue moving through the forest together.

Carlos runs as fast as he can through the trees, his whole body hurting as he feels himself running out of breath, he stops, stumbling until he crashes down to the forest floor, rolling onto his back as he begins coughing, attempting to catch his breath. He covers his eyes with his forearm, groaning quietly to himself as he hears the moaning of the undead coming towards him. He pushes himself up, getting ready to fight off something with his last strengths when suddenly a light blinds him.

A silohouette of the undead appears in front of him, giving him a fright as a knife goes through the dead’s head, killing it. Three figures appear behind him, the light glowing onto them. Sabrina, Tanya and, the killer of the dead, Melissa.

“Where’s Scrap?” Robbie asks curiously as he slows down a little, Jessica putting Molly down to rest her arms.

“Uh-- I don’t know.” Jessica tells him, holding Molly’s hand as she cries, not exactly knowing what’s going on as they walk. “Drake?”

Robbie shrugs, “I don’t know.” He ruffles his own hair, worried for his friends. “What about… uh, Grace?”

Jessica shrugs.

“Me?!” Grace suddenly calls out, stepping over a branch as she sighs loudly with relief, Robbie grinning. Grace holds out her arm as she stumbles towards them, hugging the first person she comes too, Robbie. “Did you guys uh… See Sabby?”

Robbie and Jessica are silent for a moment, “Uh… No, sorry.”

Grace breaks away from her hug, nodding as tears begin filling her eyes, fighting back the want to cry as she turns away from them as she rubs her eye quickly “We better keep going.” Grace suggests, trying to distract from the previous question. Jessica agrees, passivly running her hand through Molly’s hair.

The foursome walk through the forest, Grace leading as she shakily inhales and exhales again, Robbie wanting to say something but deciding against it, instead letting them wander in silence, thinking about the events of what had just happened.

“GRACE!” Flake yells out as he runs into a clearing, looking around frantically as Abreham follows behind him, almost falling to the floor as he stops in his tracks besides Flake.

“Well shit, I should have just stayed in the helicopter.” Abreham comments to himself. Flake glares at Abreham with a slightly disgusted look before turning to look around, sliding his sword into it’s holder. “Sorry.”

“No, It’s fine… I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

“I didn’t even get properly introduced. God damn it.”

“You will once we find them-- MELISSA!” Flake calls out angrily, cutting himself off mid sentence. “NANCY!!”

“FLAKE?!” A rather strained voice calls. Flake’s eyebrows furrow, confused as to who just called him when several footsteps suddenly come towards him. Coming out of the forest is Sabrina, staggering across looking around the area with an annoyed and upset look on her face. “Hey.” Sabrina vaguely says, following her is a large group of Melissa, Carlos, Tanya and Mark.

“Are you guys okay?!” Flake asks. The group don’t really say anything, Sabrina shrugs before looking over to Abreham.

“Who’s this?”

“Oh-- This is Abreham, he was the only survivor from the helicopter.”

“The helicopter.” Sabrina says to herself, a look of bitterness spreading across her face.

“We should probably get--”

“No, I want to rest.” Melissa speaks up, her arm around Tanya’s waist while Tanya’s arm lies over her neck. “We, we want to rest.”

“Not seen Grace?” Sabrina asks, seemingly ignoring Tanya and Melissa as she sits on the grass, taking a moment to breath.

“No, sorry, She went to find you.”

“Mhm.”

“She’ll be fine, everyone will be.” Carlos pipes up. “They’ll be out there somewhere.”

“Shut up.” Melissa hisses as Tanya sniffles on the ground, lying down on the dirt. Carlos nods, promptly shutting up. Melissa sits next to Tanya, gently stroking at her hair.

“Okay we’ll… Stay here for the night, I guess.” Flake shrugs, turning to Abreham. “That’s Melissa, Carlos, Tanya, Sabrina and Mark.” He quickly tells him, pointing to each individual person before heading off.

“Where are you going?!” Melissa calls out.

“I’ll be back in a bit.” Flake tells her, disappearing behind the trees.

Sabrina sits down, Mark joining beside her. She awkwardly folds her legs. “What?” She asks him.

“I saw my sister.” Mark tells her.

“What??” Sabrina repeats, not looking at him and instead trying her best to enter a daydream, staring into the darkness in front of her.

“She was attacked.”

“Oh,” Sabrina turns to look at Mark, “I’m sorry.”

“She got her face ripped off,” Mark tells Sabrina, “I could see the b--”

“Okay, that’s enough, thanks.” Sabrina harshly interrupts as Melissa wanders past them. “I don’t need to know the details.”

Mark nods, looking down at his dirty and slightly bloodied hands.

Melissa wanders into the forest, following Flake’s direction until she spots him slightly peeking out from behind a tree.

“What are you doing?” She asks, approaching him. Flake looks up, his eyebrows furrowed and his full of what seemed like panic, tugging at his pants hastily as she stops. “Oh.”

“What does it look like?”

“Sorry, though you’d snuck off to get yourself killed or something like that.”

“Why’d I do that?”

“Dunno.” Melissa shrugs, making her way over to him until she reaches the tree, leaning against it.

“Are you still mad at me?” Flake asks, turning to face her after fixing himself and leaning against the tree, crossing his arms.

“I’m over it, kinda. Better not dig it up again.”

“Ah, because what your boyfriend did, I was scared you were coming to finish what he started.”

“What? Kill you?”

“Well, yeah. I wouldn’t put it past him to have that as his dying wish.”

“You killed my boyfriend, I should totally kill you,” Melissa says, slightly joking but a somewhat serious look on her face, Flake raises his eyebrow suspiciously at her until she exhales a little giggle, “Kidding.”

“Thanks for that. Let’s go back, need your sleep.”

“You sound like my dad.” Melissa jokes as Flake heads past her, she follows closely behind him until they reach the clearing again.

“Can we make a fire or something? I’m frozen.” Tanya asks quietly, Melissa heading over to her and sitting next to her.

“Yeah, I’ll get on that.” Flake tells her.

“I’ll come with you.” Carlos tells him, the two men wandering into the forest. The rest of the group sit, rather seperated, on the ground, thinking through the night that had just happened. All they’ve lost. While, somewhere in the distance, Robbie, Jessica, Grace and Molly do the exact same.

The stories of our survivors continue in **Arc 2 - Quest for Shelter!**

## Cast

### Main

* Drew Van Acker as Robbie Starn
* Melissa Benoist as Jessica Starn
* Allie Lewis as Grace Berry
* Brooke Hyland as Sabrina Berry
* Imogen Poots as Sally Middleton
* Liam Hemsworth as Flake
* Josh Pudleiner as Carlos
* Melissa Kirk as Melissa

### Supporting

* Q'orianka Kilcher as Tanya
* Katie Findlay as Nancy
* Andrea Boehkle as Bri
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Cooper
* Malina Weissman as Amy
* Sanai Victoria as Sammy
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly
* Harry Styles as Drake

### Also Starring

* Billy Burke as Connor
* Janel Parrish as Haley Reed
* Antonia Thomas as Vicky
* Brock Brenner as Harry
* Noah Schnepp as Mark

### Guest

* Jackson Rathbone as Abreham
* Troye Sivan as Sam
* Unknown Dog as Scrap
* Hayley Orrantia as Kristine

## Deaths

* Amy
* Harry
* Sammy
* Nancy

## Trivia

* lmao SO UNDERWHELMING idk i hate children apparently
* this issue can also be referred to “the issue where purry tries to stop using the world ‘suddenly’ so much” :))))
	+ were the deaths more dramatic and sudden!?!?! WHO KNOS