Dead Weight/Issue 8

## Summary

A funeral, an argument and a possible new safe haven for two of our survivors.

## Story

“Is there anything you would like to say?” Grace asks, turning towards Molly as the two stand over a grave alongside Jessica, Sammy and Robbie. Molly shakes her head sadly, a tear falling from her eye into the dusty dirt. Grace nods, looking over to Robbie as he picks up the shovel and begins shovelling dirt back into the grave.

Sammy burst into a loud sob as Robbie threw the dirt on Mika’s corpse, slowly burying her under the heavy weight.

Drake made his way towards the group, stopping behind Grace and tapping gently on her shoulder. Grace turned, surprised to see Drake.

“Have you come for the funeral?” Grace asks, crossing her arms.

“No-- Uh, I actually have to speak to you about something.” Drake tells her.

“What is it?” Grace asks.

“In private.” Drake adds.

Grace sighs, rubbing her hand on Sammy’s shoulder as she excuses herself from the gathering. She follows Drake as he heads down the path a little until he rests against the nearby cabin.

“This better be important.” Grace says, Drake shrugs.

“I talked to Flake,” Drake tells her, “He said he wanted to keep everyone inside the camp for a while.”

Grace looks at him weirdly, raising an eyebrow. She begins feeling rather angry.

“Why would he do that?”

“Too make sure nothing else bad happens.”

“That’s stupid!” She exclaims.

“Hey, if you think it’s dumb, you should talk to Flake about it.”

“Why haven’t you spoken to him about it?” Grace questions.

“He likes you more than me.” Drake shrugs, “You know how it is.”

Grace rolls her eyes, saying goodbye to Drake as she heads toward Flake’s cabin.

“Woah--!” Bri exclaimed as Sally tumbled down into the mud.

“Sorry.” She groans, picking herself back up as she wrapped her arm around Bri once again.

“We’re almost there.” Bri said, pointing in the distance towards the countryside, just in sight pathed by a dirt track. Just as they were beginning to walk again, two of the dead come into view, snapping their jaws.

“Let me go.” Sally said, tugging her arm away from Bri and sliding down against a car, holding her side in pain as she tugged out her gun.

Bri used her knife to dispose of the dead before they could get to Sally. She returned to her side and held out her hand, which Sally took and she pulled her back around her shoulder.

“So, what were you saying?” Bri asks.

“What? Oh, nothing.” She mutters, adjusting herself so she can carefully walk alongside Bri.

“I asked you what your job was.”

“Oh, right. I was training to be a nurse before all this happened. I didn’t get too far.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, It’s not very exciting. What about you?” Sally asks as they finally reach the dirt path, Bri pushes open the gate and it swings open, making a loud creaking noise.

“I was a--”

“Hold it right there.” A voice commands from behind them.

“Flake!” Grace yells, knocking angrily at the front door until Flake wandered over and opened it up, Grace pushed herself inside. “What the hell?!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you seriously considering trapping us inside the camp?”

“Yeah, actually, I was considering it. Rather heavily.”

“You can’t!” Grace points her finger, which Flake promptly grabs and playfully, although rather aggressively, tosses it aside.

“I can If I want. It’s for our own protection.”

“We’ll starve.”

“We’ll be fine.” Flake says, sounding rather angry now.

“We went out for food and we came back with nothing! We’re so low on gas due to the horde and you didn’t even consider that!”

“We can hunt.”

“Who?! You?! You never lift a--”

“I’ll hear no more of it.” Flake suddenly snaps, leaning in towards Grace until they’re almost nose-to-nose. “Get out.”

Grace wants to say something but bites her tongue. Groaning loudly, she turns on her heels and heads towards the door, opening it and wandering outside, her sister’s temper overtaking her suddenly. She didn’t know where it even came from.

“Turn around, missy and put the gun down.” The man demands as Bri and Sally slowly turn around to face the man, Sally’s grip tight around Bri’s neck as they raise their free hands, Sally’s gun tumbling from her hand and onto the soft grass. “Good girls.”

The man appears in his late 40’s, he wears a tan jacket, glasses and holds a pistol towards the girls. He seems to be waiting for one of them to talk, but none of them do.

“Where are you both going?” The man asks, continuing to point his gun at the ladies as he steps closer, eyeing Sally’s condition.

“We were leaving town.” Bri tells him, rather meekly, quivering her lip.

“You’re going the wrong way if you’re looking for safety.” The man tells her, lowering the gun slightly and holding out his hand, waiting for her to shake. Bri inches forward slightly, her hand still wrapped around Sally’s waist as she locked hands with him, shaking gently. She felt how calmy her hands felt compared to the ice cold feeling his did.

“I’m Connor.” He says, nodding his head as he pulls away from the handshake. “You are?”

Bri inhales slightly, adjusting her grip on Sally.

“Bri.”

“You went off at him, huh?” Sabrina questions as Grace sits at the edge of the bed, exhausted and stressed. “Maybe you should sleep.”

“I can’t sleep.” Grace tells her, leaning back until her head leaned against the wall.

“Well… You could try.”

“I’m so sick of him, sometimes.”

“Why did Drake even tell you?”

Grace shrugs.

“You know he hates you, right? So…”

“There’s no ‘so’ about it.”

“I’m just saying.”

“Are you okay?” Melissa asks softly, shuffling towards Darryn on the bed as he sighed loudly. The moon’s shimmer reflecting inside the window.

“I’m fine, babe.”

Melissa pouted, cuddling up on Darryn. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m just thinking about this place.” Darryn tells her as Carlos, Nancy and Tanya come through the door.

“I told you, this place is nice.” Tanya says as she closes over the door.

“Yeah, It’s alright.” Carlos says, turning to Melissa and Darryn. “Hey guys.”

“What were you guys doing?” Melissa asks.

“Just looking around.” Nancy tells her.

“See anything interesting?”

“Not really. They have kids here, did you know that?” Tanya tells them, Melissa nods.

“Yeah, I saw some of them when coming in.”

“That’s so cool… I love kids.” Tanya tells them.

“We know.” Darryn comments.

“You guys heading anywhere in particular?” Connor asks Bri as he approaches the girls, his gun still held up as he picks up Sally’s gun and puts it in his belt.

“No.” Bri says.

“Well. You shouldn’t go up there. It’s dangerous.” Connor tells them, gesturing with his gun up the hill.

“Oh.” Bri murmured, thinking. “More dangerous than down here?”

“Yeah, actually, a lot more dangerous.” Connor tells her, pausing for a moment before continuing. “We have a camp, me and a lot of other guys, just a few miles away from here. We can take you there.”

“Why?” Sally pipes up.

“You seem like smart girls.” Connor tells them.

Bri cocks an eyebrow, staring at Connor as he waits for them to speak.

Sally nods slightly, looking up at Bri. “We should.” Sally tells her. Bri looks at Sally at the corner of her eye, sighing slightly.

“Yeah… Maybe.” Bri thinks, biting the inside of her lip. “You don’t know us.” She states.

“I haven’t shot you, you seem like good people and she seems injured.” He tells them, pointing to Sally. Sally looks a little annoyed, although Connor couldn’t tell and just took it as a pain filled face. “It doesn’t have to be forever.”

Bri made the decision to follow him despite small gestures from Sally which suggested otherwise. Connor tells them he can take them there right now, as it’s not that far.

As the sun was setting, Jessica kneeled at a bed as Sammy and Molly sat on, the covers lying across their laps.

“Are you ready to sleep?” Jessica asks, sniffing slightly as she adjusted the cover slightly.

“Mama reads us a bedtime story.” Sammy tells her.

“Oh. What did she read you?” Jessica asks.

Sammy shrugs, “She made up stories for us.”

“huh. I could do that.” Jessica tells them, thinking for a moment.

Grace cuddles her knees up against her chest as she sat on her bed, Sabrina softly smacking her lips in her sleep, her soft breathing filling the room. A small knock sounds by the front door, Grace pulls herself off of the bed, her long, yellow t shirt hanging past her waist as she walks to the door, unlocking it and pulling it open.

Flake stands, hands in his pockets.

“Have you come to apologize?” Grace sighs, turning as the door creaks open, she makes her way over to the sofa in the room and throwing herself down on it.

“No, actually. Well, kind of. I wanted to check up on you.”

“You didn't need to do that, I'm going to bed.”

“You didn’t seem yourself earlier. I just want to make sure you're alright.”
“
You just annoyed me. That’s all.”

“I’m just doing what’s best for everyone.”

“Are you?!” Grace questions.

“Goodnight, Grace.” Flake

“Yeah, goodnight.” She says as she stands, walking behind Flake towards the door and taking the handle as he leaves the cabin. He waves at her slightly as she closes over the door.

--

“So are you saying you don't want to stay here?” Carlos asks Darryn as Nancy, Melissa and Tanya sleep in the room.

“I’m sayin’ we should get the hell outta here after that dude stops being crazy.”

“I just don’t think that would benefit us. They practically saved our
Iives back there.”

“Um, I don’t think that’s exactly what happened.”

“You're being irrational, that’s all.” Carlos tells him, “We should sleep on it, gather everyone’s thoughts in the morning.”

“You're being too lax about a camp that just happened to let us in and then trap us inside.” Darryn rolls his eyes, lying back in the bed with Melissa at his side. “Besides, If we’re lucky they’ll chop us up in our sleeps.”

“Goodnight.” Carlos tells him, shaking his head as he sits back against the wall, holding his knife low as he guards over the group in the safe camp.
--

“We’re here.” Connor says, pointing over to a building as the sun rises behind it.

Bri taps Sally, taking her out of her half asleep half awake deal. Sally sighs, stretching slightly as they make their way over to the building, Connor leading the way. “We call ourselves The Specifics.” Connor pipes up as he opens a gate, leading into a fenced off area with a gate at the other side.

“Why?” Sally questions.

“Well, It’s more of a ‘we are the specific people who survive’ more than anything else, really.”

Connor pushes open the gate, a woman standing at the other side.

“Welcome to The Santos Safe Zone. I’m Haley Reed.” She smiles at the two girls.

--

As the sun slowly rises above the mountains, Sabrina pulls on her boots and quietly makes her way out of the cabin, carefully not to disturb her sister. She goes behind it and follows the wall, her fingers bumping over each log of wood in the wall until she reaches the front gates, she climbs the guard post, spotting nobody being awake yet. She looks over to Flake’s cabin, spottign Cooper in the bush nearby. She quickly throws the bag over the wall, throwing herself over the wall and sliding down, disappearing into the forest with her bag on her back.

## Cast

* 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
* Andrea Boehkle as Bri
* 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
* Billy Burke as Connor (Debut)
* Janel Parrish as Haley Reed (Debut)