Dead Weight/Issue 26

This is the twenty-sixth issue of Dead Weight. It is entitled *Smoke Below The Horizon*. It is the eighth issue in Arc 2 of Dead Weight. Issue 26 was released September 9th, 2018.

## Story

“It’s not that I don’t trust him,” Jacob spoke, “It’s just-- we’ve got no time.”

“We’ll find time, somehow.”

“It’s not that easy, you know that.”

“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be too hard to convince him otherwise.”

“Are you hearing yourself?”

Jamie opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the loud sound of tires screetching against the road and a car crashing outside. Jacob stood insinctivly, grabbing at his hunting knife that he stored on his side. Jamie looked up at him.

“Stay here.” He said, Jamie nodded. He walked up to the door of the large church and put his hand on the cracked wood, pushing the door ajar to look outside. Jamie stood, following him towards the door despite previous orders and pursed her lips, looking over him. They couldn’t see anything, but heard voices. Worried voices, yelling.

Abreham opened his eyes to a blinding light streaming through the broken pieces of glass in front of his face. It took a moment for him to realise where he was before he jolted in panic, feeling to his left onto to recieve a handful of broken glass. He hissed in pain, his head rolled to the side. He was upside down. Sitting in the passenger seat, Mark shakily adjusted in his position. The two locked eyes, Mark’s were wide, his lips pressed together tightly. He knew.

Mark scuttled about. Panic.

“Hey--” Abreham said, but Mark crawled out the passenger side window and stumbled backwards until he fell to the ground. He looked behind him, Melissa and Carlos making their way hastily down the side of the hill.

“Mark, are you alright?” Carlos asked, almost tripping over himself. Mark just turned back towards the car, Abreham letting out a wail of pain. He shook his head, jumping up from where he had fallen. Carlos tried to pass Melissa’s disgarded jacket to him, but he hit it away and backed away from the man. “Mark?”

Melissa leaned down by the car, looking inside the broken back window to see Molly and Tanya inside.

“Are they okay?!” Sabrina exclaims from the road, looking down at the car. She looks at Mark, who stares back at him. Her mouth opens to speak but Mark turns and starts running. Carlos calls after him, but the boy keeps going. Sabrina darts down the hill, stumbling over as she reaches the bottom. She pushes herself up quickly. She calls him name, Carlos tries to stop her but she runs off into the trees after him.

“We’re from a place. A few miles from here, we’ll take you--”

“What place?” Grace asks Jamie as she continues to point the gun in the stranger’s direction. Jacob looks impatiently towards Jamie.

“It’s called Drewryville. We’ll take you there.” She says with urgency. Grace looked at Sally, but she was just staring off into the distance. Jacob looked over at Sally, her wavering composure and shaking hand made him worry. He didn’t know if these people were the good guys.

“How far?” Grace asked.

“About three hours, two if we’re lucky.”

“Do you have a doctor?”

“Of course we do, everywhere has a doctor.” Jamie says with a slight tinge of sympathy. Grace swallowed hard. “We--,” She turned to Jacob momentarily, “We need your help.”

“You’ll help our friends, then we’ll come with you.” Grace told her. Jamie nodded, eyeing Grace’s gun.

“Put the gun down?” Jamie questioned softly. Grace looked at her own gun, then to Sally before dropping it. Jamie touched Jacob’s hand reassuringly. Grace turned, leading Jacob and Jamie towards the car.

“MARK?!” Sabrina yelled, pushing through the trees until she came to a lake. She stopped, looking around the area for any signs of the boy. “MARK?!” She screamed, louder. In the corner of her eye, she saw movement. Turning quickly, she was too late to stop the figure hitting her over the head with a tree branch. She fell backwards, landing on her rear with a thump. Pressing her palm to her head, she felt the warm blood trickling from her head. Opening her eye, Mark stood over her. His breathing ragged, he dropped the branch.

“Mark-- Listen to me,” Sabrina said woozily. She watched him pull out a dirted and rusted knife from behind his back. “Mark.” She choked, shuffling backwards and pushing herself up. Her left hand covered in blood. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“You saw me.” He says, taking a step forwards. “I saw you see me.”

“We can go back, It’s okay. Nobody will blame you.” Sabrina tries to persuade. She had seen him. She hated that she did. She put her hand out, her eyes darting around for some sort of escape through the trees. She pushed her free hand against her wound again, which began trailing blood down to her eye. Mark’s grip on the knife tightened and as though she sensed her impending doom, Sabrina did a 180 turn and sprinted through the trees. Mark quickly followed her, making no hesitation.

Sabrina pushed through the weeds and overgrown grass. She couldn’t die in the woods, not like this. She couldn’t be murdered. She kept running, hearing him running behind her.

“Come back!!” He yelled, his voice wavering as he began running out of breath. Sabrina wasn’t so fit herself, but she managed to push herself. Until she caught her foot on a pothole and tumbled on her front, hitting against the hard ground. She cried out, taking a moment to catch her bearings before rolling onto her back. Mark lept out of the trees and uneasily stopped in front of her. She rolled away from him and hit his ankle with her own foot, knocking him off balance.

He thrusted the knife downwards, barely missing the girl as she pushed herself up, using a tree as balance. She began running again, tearing her hair out of his grip as he angrily threw his hand out. In front of her, a river cut her off from continuing any further. Mark ran at her and she scurried to the side, grabbing the boy. He cut her side as she gripped him tightly and stumbled forwards slightly.

“Stop it!!! Stop it!!!” He yelled, thrusting his arms around violently trying to get away. Sabrina twisted his arm, causing him to yell out. She took the knife from him and threw him forwards. He fell at the side of the river, hitting his head against a small rock.

“We don’t have to do this.” Sabrina said, lowering the knife and staring at him as he pushed himself up, his eyes damp with tears as he touched his head. There was no blood, but he felt dizzy.

He shook his head stubbornly and stared her down. Seconds passed before he turned and sprinted. He ran towards the river and jumped. His small body easily made it over the river, he fell forwards and clutched at the ground. Pulling himself up, he ran off.

“MARK!!” Sabrina called again, but this time he was gone. As the river’s current grew heavier and her head wound giving her another dizzy spell, she was forced to merely watch as the young boy disappeared into the trees for the last time.

Jamie looked inside the car, lying on her stomach and reachig inside, she unbuckled Molly’s seatbelt slowly and, leaning on her knees, held the girl tightly as she looked around the car to make sure nothing had her stuck, or she wasn’t stabbed by any detached piece of the car.

Molly woke up and immediently started crying. Jamie tries to calm her as she lifted her out the car. “Hey-- Hey, It’s okay. You alright?” She tried to soothe, Molly continued to cry. Her hands coated in a small layer of blood.

Carlos managed to help Melissa, Grace and Bri -- who had joined them -- get Tanya out. Melissa leaned over the unconcious girl and listened for her pulse. “She’s okay-- She just, she just needs a doctor.” Melissa says shakily.

“We can do that, can’t we?” Grace turns to Jacob and Jamie. She just nods.

“We’re going back with these people?!” Melissa exclaims.

“Mel…”

“No, I want to go to the coast. I want to get out of here.”

“Mel,” Carlos repeats himself, “Stop…”

“You can come back, see how you like it… If you don’t like it, you can take supplies and go.” Jamie persuades.

“It’s worth a shot, and we need a doctor for everyone.” Grace says, grabbing Abreham’s hand as she helps him out the car. Melissa folds her arms and huffs quietly to herself. Abreham stumbles, falling to the ground and exclaiming in pain. Blood trickled from his leg, a piece of glass stuck in his ankle. Grace pushes her hand to the wound. “We have to get you up to the RV, I’m sure there’s gotta be something in there.” Bri approaches Grace and Abreham and helps him up.

“I’ll be fine, just a little scratch.” He laughs to himself, attempting to lighten the mood.

Sabrina emerges from the forest, fresh and dry blood coating her forehead and hand. Grace gasped at the sight, clinging to Abreham as the injured girl approached. “Are you alright?! What happened?”

“Mark is gone.” She only said, sitting down on the grass and wiping away the blood. Jamie approached her and handed her a spare hankerchief from her back pocket. Sabrina took the tissue without saying a word and pressed it to her forehead.

“Shall we visit Drewryville, then?” Jamie questions.

## Cast

### Main

* Drew Van Acker as Robbie 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
* Andrea Boehkle as Bri
* Jackson Rathbone as Abreham

### Supporting

* Q'orianka Kilcher as Tanya
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly
* Noah Schnapp as Mark
* Song Min-ho as Jacob
* Solána Imani Rowe as Jamie

### Guest

* Unknown as Scrap
* Unknown as Pig
* Miley Cyrus as Hanna