Dead Weight/Issue 6

## Summary

As the group are suddenly surrounded by the undead, they must work together to get back to camp. However, their nightmares are far from over. Meanwhile, Sally gets to know Bri. Jessica and Sabrina are met with a dilemma.

## Story

Robbie squints his eyes at the dead pushing itself against the glass on the door.
“Is it alone?” Grace asks, staying low.

“I doubt it.” Drake says.

Melissa begins feeling around the walls, running her fingers along and trying to find something of interest. Darryn grabs at her upper arm.

“Stop. We’re not getting out of here.”

Melissa nods, Grace turns, standing and looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What do you suppose we do, genius?”

“Grace.” Flake warns lowly.

“No. I’m serious.” Grace says, louder than before.

“Can you lower your voice?!” Nancy asks.

“This is how I normally talk.” Grace spits, putting her hand on her hip, Darryn puts his hand on his gun, which sits in the holder of his belt. Grace notices this slight movement in the dark and scoffs.

“What’re you going to do, kill me?” She asks him. Melissa removes her arm from his grip and rubs her hand up his arm, snuggling into it.

“Put the gun down.” She whispers in his ear, the whole group watching in anticipation to see what the man does. Darryn sighs quietly and removes his hand from the gun, Grace grins.

“That’s what I thought.”

“We should stop bickering and look for a way out of here.” Tanya says after a few seconds. “Melissa was right to look around the walls.”

“Does anyone have a flashlight?” Drake asks, Carlos shakes his head.

“We didn’t have time to grab anything. Not that we had much.”

“You tore that garage apart, ate everything in two months?”

“Hey. That’s not a lot of food for five people.” Carlos tells Grace.

“Right.” Grace nods, pushing her hair up inpatiently, watching Melissa look around the room with Tanya.

“You found anything, blondie?” Drake asks, Melissa turns and looks at Drake angrily.

“My name is Melissa.”

“Right.”

“There’s a vent.” She suggests.

“We can’t go through the vents.” Darryn argues, loudly.

“Do you have anything better to do than rebuttal our suggestions?” Grace snaps back, “Or can we get out of here?”

“There’s no noise coming from outside the door right now, If we’re quick we might be able to get outside.” Darryn suggests.

“You’re suicidal, mate.” Drake says as both him and Robbie head over to the vent.

“It’s bolted shut.” Tanya says, crossing her arms as the boys approach.

“See.” Darryn says. Flake takes out his sword and stares at the vent, running his index finger over the screws.

“Step back.” He tells them, Melissa raises her eyebrows as the trio step back, Grace shakes her head from behind them, turning on her heel to look out the door. Flake uses the tip of his sword to attempt to stick it inside the screw to unscrew it from it’s position and release the vent.

“Can you do it?” Melissa asks. Flake shrugs.

Darryn heads over to where Grace is and puts his hand on the door knob, Grace’s eyes dart down to his hand.

“What are you doing?” She asks.

“I’m goin’ to find us a way out of here.” Darryn tells her, pulling gently against the door handle, the undead from outside toppling inside, falling to the ground. Darryn raises his foot and stomps viciously down on it’s head, brains splattering on the floor and bouncing on to Grace’s exposed ankles.

“Okay, then.” She peeks outside as Darryn carefully moves out, “I’m coming with you.”

“Hell no you aren’t.” Darryn tells her.

“Where are you guys going?!” Drake asks angrily, his voice hushed to almost a silent whisper.

“Don’t worry about us.” Grace says, stepping out of the room and into the sunlight that comes in from the large glass window on the roof. To their right they spot three of the undead aimlessly walking around the hallway.

--

“Damn it!” Flake growls, his sword slipping out of the screw.

“Just leave it, we have to go.” Tanya tells him.

“No, This is a safer way.” He tells the girls.

“Grace has started leaving us, if the dead are attracted to them, It’s game over for us. We have to stick together.” Robbie tells the others.

“He’s got a point, uh, whatever his name is.” Carlos says, leaning against the door and looking out at Darryn and Grace dealing with the undead.

“Now.” Grace whispers, pulling out her gun and hitting the first dead over the head, it stumbles forwards and she hits it again, causing it to buckle to the ground. She kicks it on the back of the neck and Darryn stomps it’s head. The other two shuffle quickly towards them and Darryn disposes of them with his gun, the gunshot ringing out down the hallway.

“Hey, look.” Grace says, heading down the hallway until she stops at a red box, containing an axe inside. She uses her gun to smash the glass, causing it to shatter. She grabs the axe and waves up in front of her. Darryn nods and walks back to the room with the rest of the group.

“Are you coming or not?” Darryn asks. Drake nods, gesturing to the group to follow him. Flake grumbles and pulls his sword away from the vent, slipping it back in it’s holder.

“We’ll have plenty of time to escape if we stick together.” Melissa tells him. Flake nods. The two follow behind the group, out the room. “Who’s the leader of your parade?” Melissa asks.

“Me, you wouldn’t guess so.”

“Oh, I would. You seem like the leader type.” Melissa tells him.

“How can you tell?” He asks as the group make it to a balcony, Grace and Robbie hanging their heads over to look at the floor below them, spotting the large amount of undead that have now flooded the ground floor.

“I can just tell.” Melissa smiles. Grace turns, handing the axe to Nancy.

“Uh, thanks.” Nancy smiles, gripping the axe with both hands.

“You seem like you have a good swing.” Grace tells her, eyeing her up and down. “You from the military?”

Nancy raises her eyebrow, as does Darryn. “No, actually.” She smiled, blushing slightly.

Grace shrugs. “Always worth it to ask.”

“Can we stop having small talk and get out of here?” Darryn pipes up, gesturing his head towards the balcony. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of dead down there who want us for lunch.”

“We’ll have to go up to the roof.” Drake says, “Now.” He orders.

“Who said you were in charge of this mission?!” Flake asks.

“Does it look like we have time to discuss group roles?!”

“Let’s just go, alright!” Robbie yells over the growling from below, turning his head over his shoulder to see some of the dead beginning to make their way upstairs. “We don’t have much time…”

Sally guzzles down the last of a bottle of water, tossing it to the side and it hits off the metal ground.

“Are you feeling better?” Bri asks, pulling a bag pack against herself, standing over Sally.

“Yeah. I just need a day.” Sally says. Bri nods.

“That’s fine. We can wait.” Bri sits down on the floor next to her, holding her knife close to her chest. “Tell me about yourself.” She asks.

Sally looks at Bri, shrugging her shoulders. “Like what?” She asks.

“What was that place? Why did you blow it up? Ya know.”

“Oh, it was just some stupid warehouse, they used to hold festivities and events there a lot, so it was a well known place. Uh, me and a few others camped out there when this all started. It got invaded by those things and uh… I wanted to blow it up, to end it.”

“End it?”

“Yeah. Kill them all.” Sally says. Bri raises her eyebrow, inhaling loudly.

“The people? Or the--”

“The dead.” Sally cuts her off, “I just want to find my friends, now.”

“I get it.” Bri says, twiddling her thumbs. “I had this friend, his name was Jamie,” Bri starts, biting her bottom lip as her voice decreases into a small whisper again.

“What happened to him?” Sally asks.

“He died.” Bri says, rather bluntly. Sally looks down, thinking for a moment.

“How?” She finally asks, Bri smiles sadly.

“You can figure it out, can’t you?”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t” Bri shrugs, wiping one eye and tugging one knee against her chest. “I’m glad I saved you, you know.”

Sally exhales sharply from her nose, not believing Bri.

“Why?”

Bri shrugs, “I could have saved a murderer, I saved you.”

“There’s nothing special about me.”

Sally closes her eyes, resting her head against the wall. Bri smiles at her.

“Maybe he has a little crush on you.” Jessica says, holding an empty mug in her hands. Sabrina scoffs at her, rolling her eyes.
“Don’t get me started on that.” Sabrina says, rather angrily.

“It could be a possibility.”

“The only reason he follows me around is to get out of the gates, he’s stupid and is going to get himself killed.”

“Maybe so.” Jessica shrugs, putting the mug on the table and turning it until a cat’s face on the mug faces the two girls.

“Whatever. I just want to be left alone.” Sabrina says, standing.

“You don’t want to talk anymore?” Jessica asks her.

“It’s good therapy, but I’m just going to go for a walk, or something.” She tells her, heading towards the door. She gets to the door, putting her hand on the doorknob and turning to look back at Jessica.

“I’ll talk to you later, then.” Jessica tells her, Sabrina nods.

“Sure.”

The group of Drake, Flake, Grace, Robbie, Carlos, Darryn, Melissa, Tanya and Nancy make their way upstairs quickly. Flake leads, swinging his sword at an undead as it appears at the top of the stairs.
“We should stay ahead of them.” Flake says.

“What happens when we get to the top?” Darryn asks.

“We find a way down from there. Fire escape or anything’.” Carlo says.

“And if there isn’t?”

“Babe, don’t be so negative.” Melissa tells Darryn.

The group continue making their way through the building, passing by rather expensive pieces of art. They soon find a door which reads ROOF EXIT.

“This is our way out.” Flake says.

“Better hope so.” Darryn says, turning around to check behind them. “Any minute we could be surrounded.”

“They don’t move that fast.” Drake says, rolling his eyes.

“Have you not seen some of them? Faster than any man I’ve ever seen.” Tanya mentions, Robbie bites his lip, rather worried at Tanya’s comment as Flake pushes open the heavy door, his sword pointing out. As soon as he opens the door, he feels a cool breeze from the roof.

The group quickly get out onto the roof, Drake holds the door open as they begin looking around.

“Where from here?!” Nancy asks.

Grace and Flake begin making their way over to the edge of the roof, joined by Melissa. The duo look over the edge, realizing they’re rather high up.

“Well, shit. Do you see anything?” Grace asks.

“Flake, look out!!” Nancy cries out, a loud growling filling the air as something grabs at his ankle, he suddenly tumbles down to the ground as a dead hangs from the building, gripping at his ankle. Grace lets out a small scream, jumping back as Nancy comes over, swinging her axe down and slicing against the dead’s arm, Flake pulls his ankle off of the dead, causing it to grip against the roof instead.

“Nancy, again!” Flake calls out, grabbing his sword, which he had dropped. Nancy grunts as she swings the axe down again, slicing right through the arm and causing the dead to tumble off the building. “I’m sorry.” She quickly says, her hands shaking as she wields the axe.

“Why are you sorry?” Flake asks, standing up and sliding his sword into the holder. Nancy visibly shakes, shrugging her shoulders.

“I told you, you have a good swing.” Grace comments, smirking.

“Sabrina!” Calls out a small voice, Sabrina’s eyebrows raise as she turns, being greeted by the small Sammy, rushing towards her.
“What’s wrong?” Sabrina asks, going down on one knee to be equal height with Sammy.

“It’s mama! You have to be quick!” She says, Sabrina’s eyebrows furrow as the little girl suddenly grabs her hand and before she knows it, she’s being dragged towards a cabin.

Sabrina and Sammy get inside the cabin, she lets go of Sabrina’s hand and points towards an ajar door. Sabrina makes her way inside slowly, pushing open the door she spots Mika sitting up on the bed and by her side is Molly.

“What is going on here?” Sabrina asks, her eyes travelling from Mika down to a pile of tissues strewn around a bin, the tissues crumpled and bloodied.

“Hey, here!” Carlos calls out, approaching a fire exit that leads down to the front of the building again.
“Oh yeah, let’s get caught up, again.” Darryn mocks.

“Would you rather stay up here and die?” Carlos asks.

“I could take my chances.”

“You’d be dead in a day.” Drake pipes in, Darryn turns to face him.

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Someone who’s trying to stay alive just like you, is that a problem?” Drake spits, gripping his gun angrily.

“I am in charge,” Darryn tells him, “I’m the only one with a level head in this damn group.”

“Excuse me?” Grace asks, annoyed.

“Shut up.”

Darryn is about to continue speaking but he hears the sound of a gun cocking, followed by a metal barrel being pushed against the back of his head. He scoffs, blinking as he slowly raises his hands. “You really gonna shoot me, son?”

The person behind the gun, Robbie, nods. “Maybe. Drop your gun.”

“You’re all whacked in the head.” Darryn tells them as he drops the gun. Flake stares at Robbie, angered, although he’s unsure who he’s angry at.

“We can move past this.” Flake tells the group as Melissa stares at him. “We can’t be hostile to each other.”

“Hell no we can’t.” Melissa says, sounding angry as she leans down to grab Darryn’s gun. “You think you can point a gun at my boyfriend and expect us to work together?”

“Melissa, they can help us. We’ve got nothing now.” Carlos tells her.

“I don’t care!”

“Can we move, please?!” Drake yells, “I’m sick of everything that’s happened today and I want to get home.”

“Yeah, I have a sister to get back to, unlike the rest of you.” Grace says, turning to Robbie “Except you.”

Robbie lowers his gun, nodding as the group pull themselves together, one by one heading down the fire escape.

“If you think we’re going back with them, you’re wrong.” Darryn says to Carlos.

“You want us to die?” Carlos asks him.

“No, but I’m sure we have a better chance of survival if we stay out here than go back with them.”

“We can hear you, you know!” Grace snaps to the duo behind her. Darryn stops talking.

“No-- I asked you to get--” Mika begins, she begins coughing slightly, pushing herself up further in the bed.
“Mom?” Molly asks worriedly.

“I’m okay.”

“What’s wrong with you?” Sabrina asks, “Were you ever going to tell us you were sick?!”

“Yes… I was…” Mika says quietly, her bottom lip quivering. The room falls silent.

“I need a minute.” Sabrina says, throwing her hands in the air as she makes her way out of the room, Jessica follows behind her.

“What are we going to do about her?” Jessica asks.

“We can’t do anything.” Sabrina tells her, “I just want to be left alone.”

Sabrina makes her way out of the cabin, Jessica sighs and rubs her forehead, worried about what to do. She makes her way back into the bedroom.

--

Sabrina rubs her face, groaning loudly in frustration.

“What else could go wrong today?” She asks herself, looking around and her eyes stopping on a figure at the end of the camp, she squints to try and see who it is and notices it’s Mark at the edge of the cliff, again. She begins walking.

“Hey.” She calls out, Mark doesn’t hear her, or pretends not too, either way he begins to try and climb down the cliff. Sabrina begins running faster, “Hey!! Stop!!” She yells, her legs moving faster and faster and she notices his legs disappear down the cliff.

Mark looks up at her, his hands gripping at the dirt. “Hey, Sab--” He begins but Sabrina grabs him, coming to a steady halt as her hands grip around his collar and also his hair. He yells as she tugs him off the cliff, landing on her back and Mark rolling and coming to a stop just a few feet away from him.

“You’re a dumbass! What the fuck is your problem!”

“Calm down.” Mark says, pushing himself up and brushing off his clothes of dirt.

“Stop fucking doing that, next time you do it I won't be there to pull you up and you’ll plummet to your death.”

“I wasn’t falling!” Mark yells, standing up and shoving Sabrina down. “I was safe!!” Sabrina swats her hand at him, slapping him hard on the arm. She scrambles backwards and gets up.

“I’m done wasting my breath on you.” Sabrina says, turning and quickly making her way back to the front of the camp.

“If you tell my dad, you’re dead!” Mark yells at her, Sabrina holds both her middle fingers up at him, growing tired of being inside. She continues heading towards the front, eventually reaching the gates where she can see Cooper keeping guard.

The group finally make their way down the fire escape, Flake slices at the undead that lurk below and they manage to exit the small alleyway and get back out to the main building.
“Watch out.” Grace says between gritted teeth, holding her gun up as over fifteen of the dead still lurk outside on the street. The group began firing shots, taking down the dead one by one. They begin backing up as the dead start coming closer, some spilling out of the building.

“Robbie, can you get the truck for us and bring it around for a quick get away?” Flake asks, clinging onto his sword as he gets ready to slice some heads.

“Uhm, sure!” Robbie nods,

“I’ll come with you.” Grace says.

“No, It’s fine. You stay here and help.”

Grace raises her eyebrow, Robbie nods, reassuring her everything will be fine before running and taking off around the corner and down the street.

“You just sent that kid to slaughter.” Darryn comments as Flake passes by him.
“Just keep firing.” Flake says blandly as he whips the sword upwards, slicing into heads as the dead drop like flies.

Robbie continues running down the street as fast as he can, firing his gun at several undead that he passes as he turns a corner.
“Shit.” He exhales, out of breath as he notices three of the dead surrounding the car. He cocks his gun and begins slowly making his way towards them. They notice him as he approaches, one of them snarling as it limps towards him, the other two begin running, rather quickly towards him. “Holy shit.” He exclaims as he fires a bullet into one of the runner’s skulls, the other suddenly tackles him to the ground, Robbie’s gun flies across the street and slides under a car. He grips at the runner’s arms as hard as he can, pushing back as he feels the blood from it’s mouth dripping onto his face, it’s mouth coming dangerously close to his neck as he can see the other one making it’s way towards his legs.

He adjusts his arm so his lower arm is rested under the undead’s chin, pushing back against it’s weight. He feels it’s breath against his face, he starts yelling, his other arm outstretched to grab onto something, anything to help him fight off the creature.

He grabs a stray stone lying on the road and jams it roughly into the dead’s head, it get lodged inside but the dead continues to growl into his face ferociously, he can feel the dead’s hands travel down to his stomach and beginning to scratch it. He uses all his strength to push the dead off of him, managing to shove the dead just far enough up to stop it clawing at his stomach.

Suddenly, the dead’s head explodes into blood, a gunshot ringing out from behind him. Another one going off as he pushes the body off of him, shaking as he scrambles backwards, heavily breathing as he looks at the two dead bodies lying on the ground, the slower one dangerously close to his foot.

He pulls his shirt up, checking his stomach before slowly turning his head around, his eyes traveling upwards until he locks eyes with Grace.

“I told you I should have come with you.” She smiles, the sun shining from behind her, lighting her up like an angel. Robbie smirks, shaking his head as he holds one hand out in front of him, watching as it trembles.

## 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