Dead Weight/Issue 9

## Summary

Nancy opens up on some history to Flake and Darryn and Melissa are upset over the camp.

## Story

Melissa holds Darryn’s hand as they stand at the edge of the camp, watching as the sun rises above the mountains and shines down on their faces.

“It’s rather beautiful, isn’t it?” Melissa says, squeezing Darryn’s hand.

“Yeah. It’s lovely.” He tells her, his eyes squinting as the rays hit against his face. Melissa leans forward slightly, looking down at the valley below them.

“Why do you think they decided to camp here, out of all places?”

“It’s secluded.” Darryn tells her, looking around. “Nothing is around, It’s the perfect place to be, I think.”

Melissa nods, thinking to herself for a moment. “Why do you want to leave, then?”

“Really?” Darryn asks, laughing slightly. “You know why.”

“Not really. I just know you don’t like that Flake guy.”

“He’s shady, Mel, I don’t like it one bit.”

“Well. You don’t seem to like anything, do you? Come on, let’s go get something to eat, I’m starved.” Melissa smiles, pulling at his hand. Darryn turns, grinning briefly at her as they walk down the pathway.

--

Grace and Sabrina stand at the food storage as Drake comes wandering along, stopping as he spots the two girls standing in similar stances, their arms crossing, biting their lip, leaning more on one foot than the other.

“Is there something wrong?” Drake asks out of curiosity.

“We’re running low, we’re trying to figure out a way to make sure everyone eats.” Grace tells him without looking away from the pile, her eyes moving across the different types of food lying.

“I think Flake said he’ll take some of us out for a mission tomorrow. We’ll probably have to walk.” Drake says as he begins walking away. Grace just mutters a “uh hu” in response. Her eyes linger before she looks towards Sabrina, squinting at her as she reaches over, using her thumb and index finger to pull a twig from her hair.

“Hey!” Sabrina calls out of surprise, feeling her hair.

“Did you goto bed dirty?” Grace questions, rubbing her fingers together until the dirt falls from her skin. “You look nasty.”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry.”

“Like you’ve been rolling in the mud.” Grace adds.

“Mark and I were playing a game, that’s all.” Sabrina tells her, walking over to the pile and picking up a can. “Want some?” She offers, changing the subject as just earlier she had snuck back into camp after a small adventure outside the walls.

Grace shrugs, “Sure.”

--

Flake rolls his neck, yawning as he sits at his desk, sitting back in the chair as he stretches back, the front legs of his chair coming off of the ground as he yawns again. A small knock comes from outside the door.

“Come in!” Flake calls from the desk, standing to his feet as the door slowly opens. Nancy pops her head around the door.

“Hey…” She says slowly, pushing herself inside, holding the door so it’s just ajar.

“Can I help you?” Flake asks.

“Yeah. I just wanted to say thank you for taking us in yesterday.” She begins, leaning against the door until it closed behind her. “It was real nice of you.”

Flake looks at her, her stance leaning right against the door as it clicked behind her, her eyes barely making eye contact.

“There’s no problem. Gotta stick together.”

“Yeah-- I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have time?” She asks, biting her lip.

“I always have time, what is it?”

Nancy puts her hands behind her back, her wrist held in her hand as she doddled towards Flake as he sat back in his seat.

“I know who you are.”

--

Molly and Sammy sit in their bedroom, holding two dolls in their hands as they quietly play. Jessica sighs as she watches them from the living room through the open bedroom door, Robbie standing beside her as Scrap sniffs around the kitchen.

“You don’t need to put all the pressure on yourself, you know that right?” Robbie tells her as Jessica sighs loudly.

“Pressure of what?”

“You know, taking care of them. It’s not just your sole responsibility.”

“Yeah-- I guess I know that.” Jessica tells him, rubbing her eyes. Robbie inches closer to her, wrapping one hand around the back of her neck and bringing her into a hug. Jessica huffs into his shoulder, wrapping one arm around his body as he wrapped his other arm around her. “Thanks.”

“No problem. You know I’m here for you and all these people out there are, too.” Robbie tells her as they break away from the hug.

“I just wish life wasn’t this unfair.” Jessica says.

“Sometimes It’s just like that.”

--

“You know who I am?” Flake questions, squinting at her. Nancy takes a deep breath, sitting in the seat opposite him.

“I was a freelance reporter working in Manhattan in early 2010. It wasn’t the best job in the world but I got to travel around alot.” Nancy begins explaining, shuffling in her seat as Flake’s gaze never leaves her. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m trying to ruin your reputation or anything. It was a small case and I doubt these people know who you are.”

“Continue.” Flake tells her after a moment's silence, leaning back in her seat.

“Uh-- Well. I found out about your case, the murder case. It was really interesting, not to say that you-- Nevermind. I did a lot of research on you, Sebastian-- Sebastian Flake, 34 years old when he killed Francis Holden.”

“That case was thrown out. Nothing came from it.”

Nancy nods, “Yeah. I thought that you were framed when the reports I found started to come in. I don’t care if you did it or not. I don’t even know why I’m telling you that I know. I just want you to know that I know.”

“Okay. I understand.” Flake tells her, the colour seeming to drain from his face slightly.

“I just want to know that my friends and I are safe in your company.” She adds.

“You are. You know the whole story, you should be able to make that decision on your own.”

“Yeah. I do know the whole story and frankly, It doesn’t matter if you did it out of cold blood or you did it for some other reasons. I did enough research to know that what you did was not morally wrong.”

“I’d rather us to be done here.” Flake says.

“Of course. I didn’t come here to make your uncomfortable or frightened. I actually came here to warn you, not exactly a warning but more of a friendly gesture.”

“Which is?”

“People you meet out there may know who you are and that may put your life or your position as leader at risk. I would suggest telling people about this but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I presume nobody knows and if you’d prefer to keep it that way, I’ll keep my mouth shut as will you.”

“Thank you.” Flake mutters.

Nancy stands up, “Thank you for letting me talk to you. I hope our alliance stays strong between our two groups.” She smiles, holding her hand out. Flake shakes her hand quickly and she makes her way towards the door, pulling it open and making her way out.

Flake sighs, sinking more into his chair and squeezing his eyes shut, tapping his fingers against his chair.

--

Grace puts the metal tin down on the porch as her and Sabrina sat on the porch. Sabrina’s legs crossed on the top stair and Grace’s head resting in her hand.

“Hmmmm” Grace hums, swaying her legs.

“what’re you doin’?” Sabrina asks.

“I’m thinkin’... D’ya wanna do something today?” Grace asks, sitting up and turnin to look at her sister.

“Like what?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know. Maybe so--”

A loud scream suddenly rumbles through camp.

Darryn falls into his backside as one of the undead grab at his ankle, snapping their teeth as it pulls itsself along the ground, half it’s legs missing. He grumbles as he sends his foot flying towards the undead’s face, snapping it’s neck back as it losens his grip. Darryn manages to crawl away and stand up.

“What’s going on?!” Drake asks, running over with Robbie, Melissa and Grace close behind.

“This thing--” Darryn smashes his foot down on the dead’s head, causing it’s brains to splatter across the ground, he stamps down twice more to make sure it’s dead. “Attacked me, In the camp!”

“How is that possible?” Drake says, mostly to himself.

“You tell me, genius! You say this place is safe?”

“They can’t get inside. It’s impossible for them to climb inside the fence.”

“Well maybe your logic isn’t exactly correct.” Darryn snaps,wiping his foot roughly against the dirt, smearing blood across the ground.

“Where is Flake? I want to speak to him.” Darryn asks.

“Yeah-- Me too!” Melissa pipes up, pushing past Grace rather roughly.

Flake suddenly appears, walking up the pathway. “What’s going on?” He asks, rather casually.

“Oh. I’ll tell you what’s going on.” Darryn begins moving quickly towards Flake, his fists clenching. Robbie suddenly steps sideways a little and grabs Darryn, attempting to hold him back. Darryn swings his arm and shoves Robbie aside.

“Hey!” Grace snaps, practically catching Robbie in her arms.

“Your camp almost got me killed.” Darryn snaps as he reaches Flake, just inches away from his as he spits in his face. “We’re leaving. Your camp isn’t safe.”

“It’s safe. The walls are secure.” Flake tells him, trying to achieve a louder volume than him, although it didn’t seem to be working.

“I could have died and it would have been blood on your hands.”

“Then leave.” Flake bluntly says after taking a few seconds of silence. Darryn scoffs, kicking the dirt slightly.

“Fine. We will.” He tells him, emphasising the ‘We’ as he begins walking away. Melissa puts her hands on her head, pushing her hair up as she groans loudly. She starts storming after Darryn.

“This isn’t over.” She says as she passes the foursome, her shoulder hitting off of Flake’s as she makes her way after Darryn

Darryn opens the door to the cabin where he finds Nancy, Tanya and Carlos talking. They look up at him, eyebrows raised as he grabs his gun.

“We’re leaving.”

“Woah-- What’re you talking about?” Carlos asks, standing up.

“Flake doesn’t want us here. He even said.”

“What? Did he say that?” Nancy asks, her voice rather shaky.

“Yeah, why?” Darryn asks, leaning to his side as he looks at her. “Did he say somethin’ to you?”

“No! He didn’t I was just wondering…”

“Well. He did say that. He said for us to leave.”

“I don’t think he meant it like that.” Melissa says as she makes her way inside the cabin, closing the door behind her.

“What do you mean?” Tanya asks.

“Come on baby. You know we can’t leave. You can’t be so ridiculous.” Melissa pouts, moving over to Darryn and taking his hand. “Just a few more nights?” She asks, fluttering her eyelashes. Darryn bites the inside of his lip, clenching his fist.

“I don’t know, Mel.”

“Come on, Darryn. We can’t go out there anyways.”

Melissa winks at Darryn, unnoticable to anyone else but him. Darryn smirks at Mel. “We leave first thing in three days?” He requests, Melissa shrugs.

“Maybe.”

Robbie approaches the cabin door, raising his fist to knock against the wood.

“Be careful. Don’t want any of ‘em to bite your head off.” Grace comments as she wanders past, gesturing her head towards the cabin.

“Yeah. I’ll be careful.” Robbie says as he knocks against the door. Tanya opens it, her eyebrows raising.

“Oh, hi! I didn’t expect anyone to come by.” She says.

“Yeah, I was just checking on you to make sure you’re okay and not leaving.” Robbie tells her, “I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced, either, I’m Robbie. Mind if I come in?” He asks.

“Oh, sure! It’s a bit messy but…” She moves for him to enter, which he does. He spots Carlos sitting at the small table in the kitchen and Nancy lying on the couch. Tanya clears her throat to get the attention of the two sitting in sight. Carlos raises his head.

“Hello!” He exclaims, standing up. “Sorry, for Darryn and Melissa, for earlier.” He immediantly says.

“It’s fine.” Robbie says, shaking his head.

“We don’t have any intentions to leave.” Carlos tells him, Robbie nods, smiling.

“I’m glad. You could be useful here.” Robbie tells him.

“Good, we’re happy to be here.”

“Where are they, anyways? Darryn and Melissa?” Robbie asks.

“In the bedroom. It would probably be best not to disturb them.” Carlos says quietly. Robbie raises an eyebrow, shook.

Grace walks until she reaches Sabrina, who lingers at the front gate. She snekas behind her and quickly clamps her hands down on Sabrina’s shoulder. Sabrina practically lets out a loud scream, shaking slightly as she turns.

“Hey, don’t do that!”

“Me and you, tonight, let’s play jenga.” Grace tells her, poking her sister lightly in the chest.

“Where did you find Jenga?” Sabrina asks, shoving her hands into her pockets rather awkwardly.

“In Mika’s bedroom. I thought maybe we could play and maybe Jessica could join us with the kids?”

“Mmm, maybe. Sure.” Sabrina shrugs, Grace rolls her eyes.

“It’s just one game of Jenga, Sabby.”

“It’s a two player game?!” Sabrina yells jokingly, reaching her hand over while it’s still tucked into her jacket pocket, hitting Grace slightly with it.

“Okay, whatever! I’ll make a makeshift twister mat or something.” She shrugs, smiling.

## 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
* Harry Styles as Drake
* Josh Pudleiner as Carlos
* Melissa Kirk as Melissa
* Najee Temple as Darryn

### Supporting

* Q'orianka Kilcher as Tanya
* Katie Findlay as Nancy
* Andrea Boehkle as Bri
* Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Cooper
* Malina Weissman as Amy
* Brock Brenner as Harry
* Noah Schnepp as Mark
* Sanai Victoria as Sammy
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly
* Unknown Dog as Scrap

### Guest

* Billy Burke as Connor
* Janel Parrish as Haley Reed