Dead Weight/Issue 10

## Summary

Tensions grow high after Grace can't seem to find her sister. Sabrina gets herself into trouble as a group are forced to go looking for her, which could lead to consequences.

## Story

Sabrina pulls on her boots, as for the second time this week she is getting ready to sneak out of the camp. She sneaks out of the cabin but instead of heading towards the gate, as she had woken up later than expected, she headed to near the back of the camp, throwing her bag over the wall and climbing up the wall. Despite falling a few times, she managed to get her leg over the wall, disappearing into the forest with her bagpack.

“Hey, morning.” Robbie says, leaning over Jessica as she muttered, half asleep with hair in her face.

“Can’t I sleep?” She grumbles, turning over in her bed. Robbie shrugs.

“Well. I thought we were going out on a mission today, so you have to get up early!”

“Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to coddle me.”

“Sometimes it’s neccesary as the big brother!”

“Only by two minutes.”

“Well, still, the older brother!”

Jessica rolls her eyes. “Do you know if we’re actually going out?”

“I’ll go ask Flake now, but I’m sure we are.”

He goes towards the door, opening it up and stepping out, feeling the warm sun beat on his face. He rubs his eyes slightly as he steps out onto the dirt, heading over to check if Flake is awake.

Grace wakes up, yawning loudly as she rolls over, practically rolling herself out of bed as she hangs off the edge of the side of the bed. She looks over, checking down at Sabrina’s bed, spotting it empty.

“Sabby?” She grumbles, sighing loudly as she sits up, her hair sticking up in all directions as she rubs her eyes. “Sabby?!” She asks again, only louder.

There’s no reply, her eyebrows furrowing as she swings her legs off of the bed, jumping out. She makes her way to the door and opens it up, checking out of the bedroom.

“Sabrina?!” She calls, wandering over to the kitchen and leaning against the counter, biting her lip as she wonders to herself where her sister could be.

Sabrina slips under a branch hanging lowly from a tree, tugging her bag on her shoulder slightly as she holds her knife in her hand. She keeps walking until she spots smoke in the distance. Her eyebrows shooting up and her eyes opening wide, she ducks down slightly as she continues moving towards the smoke.

As she moves, she makes sure to not make any noise. Her eyes darting around to try and see if anyone is around her as she walks.

She soon spots where the smoke is coming from, a small fire sitting beside a tent. She looks around, gripping her knife and looking curiously. She holds the knife out as she approaches the tent.

Robbie walks towards Flake’s cabin, scratching the back of his head when suddenly Grace comes popping out of her cabin.

“Hey, Robbie!” She calls as she skips quickly down the stairs and towards the boy, “Have you seen Sabrina?” She asks.

“No, I haven’t, sorry.” Robbie tells her as he slows down to walk besides her.

“I don’t know where she is. She must be in camp, right?”

“I’d guess so. Where else would she be?”

“I don’t know-- It’s just she’s always so eager to go out that Flake’s… thing, might have messed her a little. You know?”

“You think she snuck out?”

“Well. What else could it be?!” She says, louder, sounding more paniced than before.

“Hey, don’t get worked up about it. I’m sure she’s fine.”

“How can you be so sure though…?”

“Have you seen her, Grace? When she cornered me in the truck when we first met I thought you was going to blow my brains out.” Robbie tells her as they reach Flake’s cabin, knocking against the door.

“Yeah. She’s tough but not on her own.” Grace comments.

The door opens, Flake holds a pen and piece of paper in one hand as his other leans against the door. Robbie opens his mouth to say something, but Grace cuts him off.

“I can’t find Sabrina, I think she’s snuck out.” She tells Flake rather quickly, Robbie turns to Grace with a raised eyebrow, she bites her top lip. “Sorry, I’m just worried.”

“She snuck out?” Flake asks, his head tilting as he looks rather confused.

“I can’t find her and I think she might be doing something stupid, like she does.” Grace tells him, nodding to her own comment.

“I came here to ask about the mission.” Robbie adds.

“We don’t have time for the mission!” Grace bursts out, immediantly covering her mouth with her hand. “Sorry.” She muffles.

“You can go out and find Sabrina and then we can go for food.” Flake suggests, rubbing his eye slightly.

“That sounds good. Jessica and I could come with you if you wanted?” Robbie asks, turning to Grace as he says this. “Sound good?”

“Yeah!! Thank you!”

“What’s going on?” Carlos asks, pulling his jacket off as he walks past the cabin.

“We’re going out soon.” Grace tells him, turning on her heel and leaning against the railing, smiling at him.

“Wanna go?” Flake asks, leaning out the door slightly.

“Do you need me? I haven’t really been out much.”

“You’d be a great addition.” Grace smiles, her head tilting.

“Mmm, sure. I can come.” Carlos nods, “Just let me get freshened up a little.”

Sabrina pulls back the tent door, being met with a foul stench as she notices a woman’s body lying inside, seemingly been fully dead for a long time. Sabrina scrunches up her face, stepping inside and pulling open the sleeping bag which lay in the tent.

She rummaged around a little before pulling out a flashlight, although the glass smashed inside the bag. She grumbles to herself but takes off her bagpack and shoves the flashlight inside.

“Hey.” A woman’s voice echos. “Are you awake?”

Sally blinks her eyes hard as a light flashes in front of her, moving from one eye to the other repeatidly.

“Yeah-- Uhh-- Wha--”

“You practically collapsed when you got inside.” The woman tells her as Sally’s vision becomes unblurred. “Are you alright? Your friend is just outside. We thought bringing you to the nurse office would be the best idea.”

“I--” Sally clears her throat, pushing herself up with one hand while covering her mouth with the other.

“Oh, right.” The woman moves over towards a sink, grabbing a small paper cup and turning on the sink, letting the water flow and fill up the cup. She then returns to Sally, handing her the water. “I’m Vicky.” The woman introduces herself, smiling gently at Sally as she drinks the water, her hand rather shaky.

“Sally,” She replies, her voice kind of husky. “Where am I?”

“You’re safe. You’re in the Santos Safe Zone. Connor brought you here.” Vicky explains just as the door opens, Haley appearing outside along side Bri.

“You’re awake!” Haley smiles rather cheerily, Bri steps inside and approaches Sally.

“Are you okay?” Bri asks.

“Yeah, I’m uh-- I’m fine.” Sally nods as Bri rubs her back slightly. Sally rolsl her neck, hanging her head slightly and noticing a yellow wristband around Sally’s wrist.

“This is good! Connor wanted to speak with you.” Haley tells Sally.

“Connor?” She questions. “Why?”

“Says it was important.” Haley says as Sally notices her yellow wristband too, Sally rubs her wrists and realises they’re bare. She becomes rather curious to what they are. “Are you fit enough to go now?” Haley asks.

“I guess so.” She shrugs, rubbing her head. She pushes herself off of the doctor’s bed, pulling herself to her feet.

“I’ll wait here for you.” Bri says, hopping up on the bed after Sally leaves it, swinging her legs slightly.

“Okay.” Sally smiles.

Grace hangs at the gate, biting at her pinky nail as she becomes rather agitated. Robbie looks over at her, noticing her rather jumpy nature.

“Sabrina’s fine.” Robbie tells her, leaning against the truck.

“We don’t know that.”

“I really don’t know why you’re worried. She’s a pro.”

“She’s a child!” Grace bursts out, covering her face with her hands and groaning. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I don’t know who I’m kidding, I’d be just like you if it was Jessica.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She’s the only family I have left.”

“Well. I guess that’s something we have common.”

Robbie nods, “Among other things.”

Carlos and Drake make their way towards the group, holding guns in their hands.

“I think three is enough, don’t you think?” Grace says quietly to Robbie, causing him to let out a small chuckle.

“Are you ready to go?” Drake asks.

“Sure, are you sure you want to come?” Grace asks Drake before immediantly turning to Carlos. “I don’t think we’ve properly met.” Grace smiles, Drake ignores her and heads towards the gate in order to open it.

“I’m Carlos.” He tells her.

“Grace.” She grins.

“Are we going now?” Robbie asks, Drake waiting just ouside the gate.

“Yeah!” Grace grins.

Robbie, Drake, Grace and Carlos head out.

“Over here!! Here boy!!” Amy calls out, holding out a stick as Scrap comes toddling over happily, his tail wagging rather aggressivly as he opens his mouth, trying to grab the stick. Amy pulls it upwards, just out of his reach as she giggles.

“Throw it!! Throw it!!” Sammy calls out, Amy throws back her arm and chucks the stick through the air, Scrap bolts off after it, passing by Jessica and Molly, Molly sitting beside Jessica as she braids her hair.

“Do you have a-- H-hair tie?” Molly asks, pushing her lips together as she sits in total concentration, not taking her eyes off of Jessica’s hair as she clumsily twists it into a braid.

“Hmm. No, I don’t think so, I’m sure Grace does, though.” Jessica tells Molly.

Scrap runs past Jessica, making his way towards Amy. She giggles as the dog runs right into her, pushing his head between her legs as she lets out a yell, stumbling backwards and almost falling to the ground.

“Drop the stick, boy!” Amy calls, reaching up suddenly to grab the stick, wrapping her hand around it as Sammy comes over.

“Give me the stick!!” Sammy grins, waddling over to the girl fighting with Scrap. Scrap lets out a small growl as he drops the stick, sitting immediently on his behind and scratching his ear.

“Here, you throw it.” Amy smiles at the girl.

“Okay!!” Sammy grins widely, taking the stick and turning to a clear patch, throwing the stick. Scrap gets up and runs for it, it only goes so far before falling to the ground with the weak throw it had just recieved. “He got it!” Sammy smiles.

Scrap grabs the stick, running back to Amy and Sammy.

“Hi, Molly.” Says a rather high pitched voice. Molly and Jessica turn to see the small Harry Yaz, standing with a little smile on his face, his cheeks chubby and dimpled.

“Hi, Harry!” Molly says, finishing Jessica’s braid.

“I brought a flower for you and Jessica.” Harry says, bringing his hand out and holding out a dandelion. “I brought one, though.” He frowns.

“It’s beautiful, Harry.” Jessica smiles, Molly takes the flower and looks at it.

“You can, you can blow this flower and it’ll turn into fairies!!” Molly exclaims, poking the dandelion with her finger.

“Fairies?!” Harry asks, his mouth forming a “o” shape.

“Uh hu!! Do you want to see the fairies?! They fly away to make new fairies…”

“Like babies?!” Harry asks, his eyebrows furrowing as he toddles over and pushes his way to sit inbetween the girls. “Is that how babies are made?” Harry asks, stumbling over his words. He loosk up at Jessica for an answer.

“Oh, no, silly! Uhh. They’re not made that way.” Jessica tells him.

“Really?!”

“Yeah, fairy babies are made that way, but not people babies!” Jessica smiles. A small gust of wind blows, causing some of the seeds in the dandelion to come free, flying into the air.

“Look!! Look!!” Molly grins as she points towards the seeds flying into the air. Harry looks up and scratches his head, following the seeds until they go too high to see.

“Where are they going?!” Harry asks.

“I dunno. Anywhere they want!!!!!!” Molly says, jumping up and taking Harry’s hand with her free hand. “Let’s go blow them all away!!”

“Can we keep one of the babies?” Harry asks as he stands up.

“Mmmm, maybe!! We can be mommy and daddy!” Molly suggests.

Sabrina leaves the tent, looking down at the burnt out fire, kicking the wood over. A small flicker of fire flies into the air before disappearing as quickly as it appeared. She sighs, looking around the area before continuing in another direction, planning to circle back to camp.

“Tell me about yourself.” Grace says as she pushes past a low hanging branch, turning her head towards Carlos as they walk.

“Oh, well. There’s not much to tell. I actually worked at that garage, you know, the one you found us in. Worked there since I was just a boy.”

“So you must know the downtown area pretty well?” Drake butts in, stepping over a large log. Grace glares at him, but let’s the conversation sidetrack.

“Yeah, I lived in that block since I was born. Never moved, never seen the world.”

“Interesting.” Drake comments.

“Did you have any pets? I had this goldfish named Bubbles. Robbie has a dog.” Grace asks.

“I did have a dog, a Chihuahua. His name was Chookie. Luckily he passed before this all went down, must have sensed it.”

“Dogs can do somethin’ like that, can’t they? I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Hey, It’s fine. He was old. Almost turned nineteen.”

“Wow, that’s very old.”

“Yeah, It was unexpected. He spent all nineteen years in my care, got him when I was eight. It was pretty unreal.”

A twig snaps and one of the undead rise from behind a tree, pushing itsself up as it hears the foursome coming towards it. They stop in their tracks, Grace pulling out her gun and Drake his knife. He approaches the dead as it starts stumbling towards them.

He grabs it’s hair, evading it’s jaws as he pushes it against the tree, sliding the knife into it’s eyesocket. He lets it fall to the floor.

“God damn.”

“What is it?” Robbie asks, raising his eyebrow as Drake shakes his head, looking dwon at the dead.

“It’s Ethan.”

“You’re joking!” Grace exclaims, marching over to look down at the dead, cocking her head. “You sure?”

“Save it, Grace, you can tell who it is.”

“MMmm. I guess you’re right. Poor kid.”

“Who was Ethan?” Carlos asks.

“Some kid who came to our camp a few weeks ago, one day he freaked out and made away with most of our supplies.” Grace explains as Drake crouches down to the body, searching it. “Way to respect the dead, Drakey.”

“Where are our supplies?” Drake asks.

“Maybe he ate them.”

“You sure about that?” Drake asks, using his index finger to point towards the body’s face, the skin rotted and falling off. “Seems like he’s been dead since he stepped out of camp.”

“Oh well. Maybe someone took them?! We don’t have much time to discuss this.”

Drake stands, “Yeah, well.” Drake seems to want to finish his sentence, but doesn’t, instead continuing his way into the forest. Grace shrugs, turning back to Robbie and Carlos and gesturing for them to follow her. Robbie looks down at the body as he follows Grace.

Haley points towards a door, gesturing over to it. Sally makes her way down towards the door and puts her hand to the door knob, she stops herself from opening the door and instead taking her hand off of the knob and rattling her fist against the door, giving a rather tuneful knock.

She waits for a few seconds before the door opens, Connor stands inside.

“Sally! Right? Come in.” He smiles, opening the door wide as he goes inside himself.

“Haley said you wanted to talk to me? She said it was important.”

“Yeah. Well, not really but, It’s good for you to know.” Connor tells her as Sally closes over the door, standing awkwardly at the door. “Have you been in any other community before, Sally?”

“Yes.” Sally tells him, suddenly feeling rather timid and small, although she wasn’t sure why.

“Then you know how good form and trust is, don’t you?” Connor asks, Sally nods. “And hardwork.” Connor approaches her, taking her arm gently and rolling up her sleeve, inspecting her bruises. “You were in quite an accident, I see?”

Sally nods, again. “Yeah. There was a fire, an explosion. It was alot. Bri saved my life.” She explains.

“You must be in alot of pain then.” Connor says as he rubs his thumb across a rather large bruise on her forearm. “Here, in our community, we value the working.”

“I can still do things, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want you to overwork yourself,” Connor tells her, moving away from her slightly and looking down at her, considering he was almost a foot taller than her. “I have another idea, if you’re interested.”

Sabrina continued trekking, looking up at the sun to see if she was running late. She guessed she was, and grumbled to herself. It didn’t dawn on her at all that people might be looking for her, It never seemed to occur.

She stepped over a dead body, about to turn towards camp when she suddenly hears a click. She turns around, gun ready. She spots a man, holding his pistol up towards her.

“Put the gun down.” The man tells her from afar, his teeth clenched, his whole body drenched in dirt, blood and water. Sabrina realised she didn’t have time to shoot the man and dropped the gun from her hand, it landed with a small thud in the leaves. The man grins, a rather sinister grin, as he approaches Sabrina.

Sabrina slightly stumbles backwards, her eyes squinting in suspicious as the man approaches her.

“Who are you?” She asks, her eyebrows furrowed and her whole face scrunched in confusion. The man didn’t say anything before he made it over to her.

“Nobody, dear. Just passing through.” He told her, holding the gun close to his chest as the end of the gun pointed towards Sabrina’s chest. As Sabrina opened her mouth to say something, the man suddenly grabbed her wrist, squeezing it tight.

“Hey!” She growled, tugging at her wirst,t rying to get out of his grasp but being unsuccessful. He pulled her, causing her to stumble fowards into his chest. She kicked out her foot, hitting his shin as he roughly shoved her against a tree, her face hitting off of the bark. “Let me go, prick!” She spat.

“I saw you at my camp. I thought you hd the most beau-u-u-utiful bagpack.” He says lowly before practically ripping the bagpack off of her back and throwing it into the dirt, far from the tree. Sabrina struggled against the man’s grip, screaming out once before he covered her mouth.

“What did you steal, huh?”

Sabrina yells a muffle dreply into his hand, a string of inaudible cursewords flowing from her mouth.

“We’ll just have to make sure you never steal again.” He tells her, throwing her suddenly onto the dirt, now towering over her as he checked his gun for bullets, stomping his foot down hard beside her face, catching her hair under his boot. She let out another loud scream as she felt her body not wanting to move as her scalp began hurting.

He pulled out the gun, aiming it towards her face. “We’ll have fun, don’t worry.” He tells her, placing his finger against the trigger. Before he could pull it, firing a bullet into Sabrina’s skull, another gunshot rang out across the forest and suddenly, the man’s head jerking as a bullet entered his brain, blood splattering against the tree as he tumbled to the floor, Sabrina letting out a small yelp as her hair came free.

She looked up, her lip quivering as she notices who is standing at the other end of the gun. Grace. Her arms outstretched as she held the gun with both hands, her hands shaking like crazy as Carlos, Robbie and Drake stand behind her. Grace shakes her head, tears filling her eyes as she suddenly runs over to Sabrina, dropping the gun on the ground as Sabrina sat there not sure waht to think as Grace engulfed her sister in the tightest hug of her life.

## 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
* 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
* Harry Styles as Drake
* Unknown Dog as Scrap

### Guest

* Billy Burke as Connor
* Janel Parrish as Haley Reed
* Antonia Thomas as Vicky (Debut)
* Josh Salatin as Unknown Man (Debut)