Dead Weight/Issue 7

## Summary

The group recover from their sudden detour. Mika asks Jessica to do something for her. Flake is angered by some sudden events.

## Story

Robbie pushes himself off the floor, his breathing heavy.

“Why did you follow me? I told you not too.”

“And leave you here to die? Uh, I don’t think so.”

“I was handling it fine on my own.” Robbie tells Grace, who rolls her eyes in response.

“It didn’t look like you were handling it to me.” Grace tells him, moving past him and heading towards their car. Robbie shakes his head, going on all fours to grab his gun from under the broken down car. “Are we going to get them or not?”

“Yeah. We are.” Robbie says, getting in the truck with Grace beside him, he starts up the engine and quickly begins driving down the street.

The group back up, continuing to shoot at the large horde coming at them.

“Fuck sakes, I’m out.” Drake groans, putting his gun away and beginning to back up further. A loud honking comes from behind them as the truck skids into view, turning and waiting for them to hop in. Grace hangs out of the window.

“Come on!!” She yells, the group put one last bullet into the horde before sprinting for the truck, jumping in the back. Grace bounces her leg anxiously, watching the horde getting closer and closer behind the group. “Robbie get ready to drive.” She says loudly.

“You got it, boss.” Robbie tells her, revving the car a few times.

Nancy jumps on the truck, grabbing Carlos’ hand and tugging him on.

“Now!” Grace yells, Robbie floors it, the truck speeding away from the horde as it disappears in a cloud of smoke from the truck. Grace leans back inside the window, sighing with her heart racing. “Good job.”

“Thanks. I guess.” Robbie says, the two begin laughing as they drive away home.

“mika. Is there anything i can get you?” Jessica asks, sitting on the end of the bed, mika lying in the bed. Molly and Sammy sitting besides Mika on a chair.

“no.” Mika tells her, turning to her daughters and smiling. “Why don't you go find Amy?” she suggests.

Molly nods, “Okay, mama! Come on, we can play hide and seek.” Molly tells Sammy as she holds her hand and slightly drags her out of the room.

“Good girls.”

“What do you want to do?” Jessica asks her.

“Take care of the girls, like I said.”

“Of course…” Jessica says, “They’ll be safe here, don’t worry.”

“If this place fails, you have to keep them close to you.”

“Mika, I will… Believe me.”

Mika half smiles, going into another coughing fit with blood smearing over her hand. Jessica bites her lip anxiously as Mika finishes up.

“You seem like the sweetest girl I’ve ever met. Nothing bad will happen to you if you stay that way.”

Jessica’s lip quivers, her eyes filling shallowly with tears. “Thank you.” She stands, smiling at the woman in the bed. “You should be alone.”

Mika nods, “Tell the girls it’s okay to come back now.”

“I will.”

Jessica heads towards the door, opening it up and stepping out the room.

“Oh, and Jessica,” Mika calls, Jessica turns to look at her, a single tear running down her cheek. “Don’t let this world change you.”

Jessica nods, closing the bedroom door behind her.

“I’m sorry I came to save you.” Grace says to Robbie, her legs up on the dashboard of the car as she enjoys the trip home.

“Good, I’m glad. I’m sorry I--”

“Actually, I’m not that sorry. I mean, you did need my help.”

“Maybe.”

“Continue your apology.” Grace tells him, smirking at him. Robbie laughs to himself.

“I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“It’s fine, we’re all under pressure.”

“Yeah, but still. You don’t deserve it.”

Grace smiles, taking her legs down from the front of the car and leaning forward, looking at Robbie as he stares down the road. “What?” He asks.

“How are you and your sister still so humble about everything?” She asks, “I’m genuinely curious.”

“I don’t know. Aren’t you?”

“Yeah. I guess, not as much as you though.”

“We just tried to do our best. I don’t see any harm in that.”

“I see.” Grace says, leaning back in her seat and taking a large inhale and exhale. “Who did it?”

“What?” Robbie asks, his eyebrows furrowing as he takes his gaze off of the road and to Grace for a second.

“I mean. Who kept your spirits high.”

“Each Other?” Robbie says, question in his reply.

“Jessica and yourself?”

“There were other people, at the shelter. I guess all of them?”

“Right, Just wondering.”

“Why?”

Grace shrugs. “I guess Sabrina never had one of those people growing up.”

“She had you.” Robbie replies.

“Not really.” Grace sighs silently, before sitting up. “Are we getting sentimental?” She asks, leaning over and pulling open the glove box and searching around, distracting herself.

“I guess so.”

Jessica sits on the porch to Mika’s home, it seems like a few hours have gone by, her eyes are red and cheeks stained with tears.

“Are you alright?” Asks Sabrina, who appears in front of her, holding a small pistol. Jessica sniffs, wiping her eyes as she looks at up Sabrina.

“Yeah.” She tells her, “What are you doing with that gun?”

“Just incase.” Sabrina explains. Jessica looks at Sabrina for a few seconds with a blank expression before she realises what she means.

“Oh-- Oh god, no you can’t.” Jessica says.

“Why not? She’s dying. I’m not goin’ to do it when she’s alive, though.” Sabrina says.

“Okay…”

“Don’t be so sad. It’s life.”

“Life isn’t exactly fair.” Jessica adds.

“That it isn’t. Sorry.”

Sammy and Molly walk out of the cabin, closing the door behind them as they come across Sabrina and Jessica.

“What’s going on, you two?” Sabrina asks, cocking her gun.

“Mama said we should go out.” Molly tells them.

“Why?” Jessica asks.

“She was pushing something up against the door when we left. I don’t know.”

Sabrina and Jessica exchange glances, Sabrina looks rather confused.

“What?” Sabrina asks as she pushes past the two girls.

“She said she had to be alone!!” Sammy calls out.

“THEY’RE BACK!!” Cooper suddenly calls from the gates.

Jessica looks over to the gates as Sabrina begins knocking on the bedroom door.

“Mika!! Mika let us in!!” She calls out, angrily kicking her foot gently against the door too as Jessica runs down the stairs and begins making her way to the gates.

The truck drives into the gates, Jessica smiles as she spots Robbie driving. He parks the truck just by the gate and gets out, running over and wrapping his arms around Jessica. She sighs into his shoulder.

“There’s a problem.”

“Grace!!” Sabrina yells, racing over and all her worries seemingly disappearing as Grace steps out of the car.

“Sabby!” Grace calls out, wandering slowly away from the car with her arms open. Sabrina stops running, walking the rest of the few feet towards Grace and Grace wraps her arms tight around her sister.

Cooper closes the front gate, inspecting the new comers as he does so.

“What’s wrong?” Robbie asks Jessica, feeling her wet cheek.

“It’s Mika.” Sabrina says as she breaks away from her hug. “She’s dying.”

Everyone in the area look confused.

“What?” Flake asks.

“Follow me.” Sabrina says, gesturing to the group to follow her.

“You guys stay here.” Drake says to the newcomers.

“Rough day.” Carlos comments, leaning against the truck.

Sabrina leads Grace, Flake, Robbie and Jessica into the cabin, Sammy and Molly sitting on the floor with two dolls.

“Are you going to get mama out?” Molly asks.

“We’ll try our best.” Jessica comments.

“What the hell is happening here?!” Flake growls. Sabrina knocks on the bedroom door and presses her ear against the door.

“She’s ill. She was coughing blood.”

“How the hell could she not tell us?!”

“She made a mistake.” Grace snaps, stunned by the news.

“Did you know about this?!” Flake asks, angrily.

“Of course I didn’t!” Grace says, “You know I’d report this to you.”

Sabrina knocks on the bedroom door again, twisting the handle and trying to push her way inside but getting nowhere, the door jamming. “She won’t answer.”

“Move.” Flake demands, Sabrina steps back and he stops in front of the door, thinking for a moment, he takes out his sword and starts trying to break the door.

“That’s not going--”

“Shut up, Grace.”

Grace folds her arms, staring angrily as Flake slices his sword through the door in the door. Jessica turns towards the two little girls, who are sitting and wondering what is going on.

“Hey, you girls.” She says softly, walking over and sitting next to them.

“What is Flake doing?”

“He’s trying to get your mom out of the room.”

“Can’t she get herself out?”

Jessica bites her lip, shuffling in her seat to move closer to the younger girl, Sammy and wrapping her arm around her.

“You see, your mom--”

“Got it!” Flake exclaims, putting his sword down and kicking roughly with his foot against the door, causing the door to appear to come loose from it’s hinges. Robbie holds up his gun, reading to cover Flake as he removes the door from the space, revealing a woman standing straight up.

“We can’t let the kids see.” Grace whispers, looking over her shoulder to Jessica. Jessica nods and stands up.

“Come with me.” She whispers, holding out her hands, “We’ll go pick some flowers.”

Sammy and Molly take one of Jessica’s hands each, standing up as they walk towards the door. As they walk out, Sammy looks over her shoulder and spots Flake going into the bedroom, Mika turning to face him, she gasps as the front door swings shut behind her.

“Alright.” He whispers, pulling his sword out in front of him.

“This is awful.” Grace says quietly, running her hand through Sabrina’s hair and pulling her closer, she looks over to Robbie, “We’ve never had a death here before.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Robbie says. Flake pushes his sword inside Mika’s head, blood pouring out from the wound as she stops all motion, slowly pushing into the sword as her body goes numb, he pulls the sword quickly out of her head, causing her to fall to the floor with a slump, blood coating the carpet.

“Get her out of here.” Flake says, sliding his sword back into it’s holder on his back and making his way out of the cabin angrily.

“Help me?” Grace asks Robbie as Sabrina follows behind Flake, putting the gun on the nightstand as she leaves the cabin. Robbie nods.

“Of course.”

“What happened to mama?” Sammy asks quietly as she picks a large pink flower from the grass.

“Mama has to go away for a while.” Jessica tells Sammy.

“For how long? I saw her in there…”

“For just a while.”

“Okay…” Both of the girls say in unison. “What do we do now?” Asks Molly, holding a flower.

“I’ll take care of you.” Jessica tells them, kneeling down on the grass and holding out two blue flowers. “Your mom wants me too.”

The girls nod.

Flake makes his way down to the gates.

“What happened?” Drake asks.

“Mika died. It’s nothing to worry about, I have a request for you.”

“Name it.”

“You need to shut the gates. For good.” Flake tells Drake.

“For good?”

“Yes. Nobody leaves.”

“Wait, what?!” Melissa pipes up, staring at Flake like he’s crazy. “You’re gonna trap us in here.”

“Flake, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“It’s the best we can do. Mika died from something, an infection or disease. We could all be infected.” Flake tells them, “We can’t risk anything.”

“This is irrational.”

“You want to leave, because it’s not too late? You’re miles away from town, are you going to risk it?!” Flake spits, storming away towards his cabin.

“I’m sorry you had too see that.” Drake says, rather bitterly.

“It’s okay.” Carlos tells him

“You’re welcome here.”

“Thank you.”

Drake points towards a cabin, telling them they can stay there for the night. The five of them begin heading towards the cabin.

Robbie digs a shovel into the ground as the moon begins to rise and the sun sets. Grace sighs loudly as she watches him dig at the edge of the camp.

“What are you thinking?” Robbie asks as he digs, throwing the dirt behind him. Grace squints at him, thinking.

“I don’t know. I feel like I know you.”

“What?” Robbie asks, stopping his digging to look at her. “You do know me.”

“I mean, like, before.” Grace says, shaking her head instantly after saying it, “Never mind. We didn’t. It’s not important.”

“Interesting.” Robbie commented, wiping his forehead as he stood inside a very large hole. “Is this enough?”

“It’s not that long.” Grace comments.

“You dig, then!” He offers, holding the shovel up towards her. Grace reaches down and grabs it, pushing hair out of her face as she jumps inside the hole. Robbie pushes himself and hangs his legs over the side, taking a drink of water from a bottle sitting under the shade.

Drake chaps on the cabin door, pushing his way inside right after. Flake raises an eyebrow as Drake walks inside.

“What are you going to do?” Drake asks.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Flake asks as he wipes a cloth up the blade of his sword, peeling off the blood that sticks to it.

“About Mika. I know you’re thinking of something.”

Flake chuckles a little, taking a deep breath in and out again. “We’re going to… Quarintine the camp.”

“What does that mean?” Drake asks, sitting himself down in front of the desk.

“Nobody is leaving, nobody is getting out.”

“Flake--”

“I don’t want any exceptions. Not you, not Grace, not the newcomers.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’m one hundred percent serious.” Flake says lowly, putting down the cloth on the desk and stading, turning to put the sword on the holder behind him. Drake stands, too, sighing.

“Okay. Grace isn’t going to like this.” Drake says, pushing the chair in towards the desk, “Nobody will.”

“It’ll only be for a while.” Flake says, not turning back to face Drake and instead just staring at the now glimmering clean sword. “I promise you.”

Drake bites his lip, nodding and leaving the cabin. He looks around the camp, spotting Robbie and Grace putting Mika’s body into the grace as Molly, Sammy and Jessica watch. He begins walking over to the group.

## Cast

* Drew Van Acker as Robbie Starn
* Melissa Benoist as Jessica Starn
* Allie Lewis as Grace Berry
* Brooke Hyland as Sabrina Berry
* Harry Styles as Drake
* Sanai Victoria as Sammy
* Nicole Beharie as Mika
* Liam Hemsworth as Flake
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Cooper
* Malina Weissman as Amy
* Brock Brenner as Harry
* Noah Schnepp as Mark
* Josh Pudleiner as Carlos
* Melissa Kirk as Melissa
* Najee Temple as Darryn
* Q'orianka Kilcher as Tanya
* Katie Findlay as Nancy
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly
* Unknown Dog as Scrap