Dead Weight/Issue 20

**Issue 20** is the twentieth issue of Dead Weight. It is entitled '*Count On It’*. It is the second issue in Arc 2 of Dead Weight.

## Previously on Dead Weight

Flake’s camp was overrun with the dead, forcing the inhabitants to evacuate. Tanya remembered her girlfriend, Melissa and Carlos talked about Darryn, Abreham and Flake began to grow closer, Sabrina found a gun. Robbie, Jessica and Molly tried to deal with the loss of the camp and their friends while Grace tried to hide the fact she was mourning over the possible loss of her sister. Meanwhile, Alison’s mistakes caught up to her and Bri volenteered to become a scavenger for The Santos Safezone.

## Story

“We should have enough to get us through the week.” Flake says as he looks at the cans and other food supplies lain out on the table. Melissa looks worriedly down at the table as she leans her hands against a chair, Tanya sitting on it in front of her.

“Are you sure?” Melissa questions, tilting her head which causes her long blonde hair to fall off of her shoulder and hang to the side.

“Atleast six days.” Flake corrects himself humerously. “But we’ll be able to find more as we go.”

“Yeah.” Abreham adds.

“Where are we going?” Sabrina asks, playing with the strings hanging from her fleece hoodie.

“I’m not sure. We have to find the others who survived the horde, I wouldn’t know where to start looking.” Flake says.

“Maybe they would go back… Home?” Mark suggests, getting a look from Sabrina as he speaks.

“I doubt it, really. It would be too risky.” Flake tells him, taking a seat at the table opposite from Tanya. Mark shrugs in response.

“Then where?” Sabrina crosses her arms as she speaks, standing in an annoyed stance as Carlos looks over to her from across the room, catching her eye for a breif second as she avoids eyecontact with him, still slightly angry at him for their conversation the night before.

“I don’t think we’re going to find them again.” Tanya admits, sulking down into her chair. The window begins rattling, an undead managing to climb up on to the porch and spotting the movement inside.

“Really?” Flake questions sarcastically, looking at the undead as it’s hand slowly hits against the window.

“I’ve got it.” Abreham says, stretching out as he takes a knife from the kitchen counter and opening the window, the undead slouching forward and reaching into the opened crack, growling loudly and hungrily. He pulls the window up higher, allowing the head to be clear of glass, Abreham stabs the undead viciously in the head, the growling stops as it immediantly falls forward and clunks against the side of the house.

Abreham pulls the knife out and looks down the pathway, noticing several other undeads making their way inside the property.

“We have to go.” Abreham says, pointing out the window.

“There’s a car in the garage.” Melissa quickly says.

“Did they follow us from the camp?” Sabrina questions, walking over to look out the window. “Fuck!”

“C’mon, Let’s just be quick about this. There’s nothing left here for us anyways.” Flake says as the group begin packing up the mere supplies they have to continue moving through the day.

“You really didn’t have to do that.” Vicky repeats for the fifth time that day.

“It’s fine.” Bri reassures her as she begins looking out things to take with her.

Someone knocks on the nurse room door, Vicky takes a drink of her water before answering it, sitting the bottle on the counter by the door. Opening the door, a man stands there. Bri squints, curious as she’d never seen the man before other than today.

“Hey, Vick. Could I come in?” He asks, tugging awkwardly at the strap of the bagpack that hung over his back.

“Sure Michael, come in.” Vicky says, stepping to the side towards the door as Michael made his way inside, Vicky closed the door over as he came inside. “What can I do for you?” Vicky asks, but his attention was focused on Bri as she sat watching the two from the far end of the room.

“Hi, I’m Michael.” He says, stepping forward and holding out his hand. Bri taking his hand and shaking it quickly before letting go again. “I heard you were going out on a scavenge later.”

“Yeah, It’s just a quick run for medicine.” Bri tells him, “I was just getting ready to go.”

“I was wondering if I could come with you.” Michael tells her, crossing his arms across his chest as Bri thinks for a moment.

“I think I’d rather want to-- Yeah, fine, you can come along… If you’d like.” Bri hesitates, shrugging as she replies.

“Only if you’re okay with it.” Michael tells her, trying to not make Bri feel awkwardly forced as Vicky listens in from the corner, passivly filling a pack with different coloured pills.

“No, It’s fine. If you’re up for it, I could use a few extra hands.”

“Cool! I’ll come back later when you’re ready to go, right?” Michael tells her, grinning.

“Yeah, sure. Give me an hour.” Bri tells him as he opens the door, already leaving as Vicky yells to him down the hallway.

“Don’t forget to tell Connor.” She reminds him.

“There it is.” Grace points, a gas station sitting in the distance. She begins walking faster, pacing towards the building as Robbie, Molly and Jessica follow behind her.

“Grace, stop! We can’t be sure anyone is in there.” Robbie says, following quickly behind Grace.

“I’m just exhausted.” Grace tells him. She mumbles something under her breath as she reaches the door, pulling it, the door doesn’t budge and instead creaks loudly in place. “Fuck!” She yells, kicking the jammed door with her foot.

“Calm down, someone could be inside.” Robbie tells her, pulling out his gun as they become quiet, Grace moves around to the windows to find them boarded up from the inside. She nods in response to Robbie’s statement.

“Hello?!” Someone called from inside the building.

“This was a mistake.” Grace says through gritted teeth almost instantly after the stranger had called out.

“Who’s there?!” Robbie calls out, holding his gun up as he hears a slight bang from inside as someone moves around.

“I’m just livin’ here, It was empty when I got here.” The man says, speaking with a thick Scottish accent as he suddenly rips a board off of the window, causing Jessica to jump slightly as his face is revealed, smiling deviously but at the same time somewhat charmingly. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Robbie holds the gun to him as he continues ripping the boards off, making way to leave through the window. Jessica lightly pushes Molly behind her. The man climbs out of the window, accidentally catching the bottom of his pants on a nail as he stumbles out.

“Don’t try anything!” Grace yells out as he almost tumbles to the floor.

“Don’t worry, I don’t have anything really.” The man tells Grace.

“Check the inside,” Robbie whispers to Jessica, “Take Molly inside if it’s safe.”

“Are you gonna rob me?... Really?!”

“No, man. We’re not like that.” Robbie tells him as Jessica steps inside the darkened building.

“Well, shit what is she doin’ then.”

“Has anyone else come through here?” Grace asks, changing the subject as Molly steps inside the building, following Jessica.

“Nobody, just me. The last person I seen was about three miles that way,” He jerks his head in one direction, “We were following a helicopter.”

“Yeah-- We got that.” Grace tells him, biting her lip, “It was a waste of time.” She tells him as Robbie looks over at her with concern. Grace clears her throat, “So, who are you?”

Flake hacks at a undead’s skull, it exploding into blood as it drops to the floor dead.

“Can I hold your gun?” Mark asks Sabrina as she absent-mindedly swings the gun she found back at the house in her hand. Sabrina thinks for a moment, slowly coming out of her deep thoughts.

“No.” She tells him, “You’ll hurt yourself.”

Mark goes silent for a moment, shoving his hands into his pockets as he sulks for a second.

“Dad never let me use a gun.” Mark tells Sabrina, “Please, I wont even fire it.”

“I’ll let you have it later.” Sabrina tells him through gritted teeth,

“Okay…” Mark trails off, continuing along the trail in silence.

“God, this sucks don’t it?” Melissa whispers to Carol as they trail behind the group once again, dragging their heels.

“What?” Carlos asks, lifting his head from his stare at the ground and trying to make it seem like he’d been listening the entire time but in reality he had no idea if she’d been talking for several minutes or not.

“That we don’t even know if i’m pregnant or not.” Melissa says.

“You’re not.” Carlos tells her, rubbing it off as a joke but Melissa insists.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I can’t! But it’s nice to know that you think I am,” Carlos says, “Besides, It wont be the end of the world.”

“It is the end of the world!” Melissa exclaims. “Literally!”

“Okay… I worded that wrong. What I’m saying is,” Carlos wraps his arm around Melissa’s neck, leaning against her as they walk, Melissa stumbling to the side slightly as his sudden weight knocks her off, “I’m here for you! We’re all here for you.”

“I know that.” Melissa rolls her eyes, pushing Carlos off of her and fixing herself, playfully shoving his arm. “Thanks.”

“Are you feeling any better?” Abreham asks Tanya as she walks with her hands tucked into her sleeves, her whole self seemingly closed off and uneasy. Tanya shrugs slightly to his question, sniffing roughly.

“Yeah.” She lied.

“I’m good if you’re good,” Abreham tells her, “We’ve been walking for hours, I’d love a pitstop!” He says, raising his voice so Flake, who was leading at the front, would hear him.

“Almost there.” Flake calls back, pointing vaguely, “Just a few more.”

“Please be careful.” Sally tells her, shoving one last thing inside Bri’s bag. “Come back alive.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Bri tells her.

“Yeah well… I’m gonna.” Sally tells her.

“Okay. I’m goin’ to go find Michael, he’s probably looking for me.”

“Okay… Come back with good stuff!” Sally tells her, Bri grins at her.

“I’ll try.” She then leaves, leaving Sally awkwardly standing in the bedroom.

“My name is Sean,” The Scottish man introduces himself to Grace and Robbie. “What about you?”

“I’m Robbie, this is--”

“I think we’re all good in here.” Jessica says, poking her head out for a second.

“Yeah.” Sean quietly says. Grace and Robbie move inside the gas station building, looking around as there was very minimal light coming in. “You guys can… Stay, if you want.” Sean tells them.

“Thanks.”

“Are you sure nobody has come through here?” Grace asks again, suspicious filling her.

Sean shakes his head, “As I said, nobody.”

“Okay.” Grace says rather bluntly, moving over to the counter to leave the conversation. Molly shuffles herself over to Jessica, pulling on her jacket slightly to gain her attention.

“What’s wrong, Molly?” She asks, bending down until she was the same height as Molly and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

“When can we go back home.” Molly asks, “I’m cold and hungry.”

“We can’t go home, Molly.” Jessica tells her softly, sighing afterwards.

“Why not?” Molly asks, scratching at her face, looking at Jessica with confusion.

“It’s just what happens now.” Jessica tells her, affectionatly rubbing at her arm as Molly shakes her head, crossing her arms as a protest.

“Please!” Molly exclaims. Jessica looks at her for a moment, biting her lip before shaking her head.

Sally knocks on the door, a large cross on the front painted red.

“Come in!” Vicky’s voice calls from inside, Sally pushes her way in and smiles as Vicky stands from her seat.

“Sally! Are you here for a checkup?” Vicky asks, moving over and adjusting the paper lying on the nurse’s bed, patting it down slightly. “I’ll just get--”

“No, actually. Sorry, I’m not.” Sally tells her.

“Oh!” Vicky exclaims, turning and facing her, “What can I help you with?”

“I was wondering if you needed any assistance… Here? I mean, I know you have Bri but she’ll be gone for a few days and… I just, want to help.”

“Really? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Vicky asks, slight bitterness in her voice as she sits back down.

“Yeah… I know it might not be temporary, but I was training as a nurse before everything happened, so… I just thought…”

“Sure, you can help out. Bri might not be back for a few days and y’know, sometimes it gets alot.” Vicky tells her, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you.” Sally smiles a little at her, Vicky smiling back before grabbing a book and opening it, “How are you feeling, anyways?”

“Much better, thanks.” Sally tells her, “My bruises are all pretty much gone, I can walk without much pain. It’s good.”

“I’m sure Connor will be happy.”

“Yeah… I’m sure.”

Sam kneels in front of a grave, Alison’s name engraved on the makeshift grave sticking out of the ground. In front of him, a bunch of flowers lie on the dirt. A woman walks over to him, kneeling down besides him and putting a hand on his back comfortingly.

“I’m so sorry, Sam.” The woman says, “I know how much you liked her.”

“Thanks, Trace.” Sam whispers, clearing his throat and whimpering slightly as he stares at the ground. “Why would she do that to herself?”

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t your fault.” Tracey tells Sam, taking her hand off of his back to sit on the ground, cuddling her legs under her bottom slighly. “She just… It’s nobodys fault but hers.”

“She wasn’t well, Tracey! Anyone could see that. And he just…”

“Don’t get worked up over it, what’s done is done. We can’t go back in time and fix it.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Bri walked down the pathway, passing by the gate to the graveyard and spotting Tracey and Sam in the distance, their speech inaudible as she stops to look over for a breif moment, Sam’s head lifts to look at the grave stone before catching the sight of Bri in his peripheral vision. Bri looks away, continuing to walk as she heads down towards the exit.

“Who was that?” Tracey asks, adjusting herself in her position.

“A nobody.” Sam tells her.

Michael takes the large rifle from the table as Connor and Haley watch from the other side of the room, Haley makes small notes on her clipboard as Conor wipes his upper lip, getting ready to say something as he puts a can of beer on the desk beside him.

“We’ll be back soon,” Michael tells him, taking the strap and putting the gun around his body so it hangs from his back. “We shouldn’t be too long, just a quick run and back. Promise, we’ll be back.”

“Don’t come back.” Connor suddenly says, causing Michael to whip his head up in confusion as he stops adjusting his belt, looking at Connor as Haley bites her lip in the corner, anticipating what Connor was about to say. “That is, if you both come back.”

“What’re you saying?” Michael asks as Haley continues writing, breifly looking over at the door, her eyes flicking up and down to her paper.

“Bri is making me… Rather nervous. You know how I get. So, take care of her. Get rid of her,” He tells Michael as he looks on, his face slowly turning from shock to a rather serious, neutrual face. “Or, don’t bother come back.” Connor says, walking around the desk and sitting in his seat.

“Oh--”

“If you can, atleast. It’s to avoid anything going wrong around here. You know how we like to keep things… Organizied, around my schedule.”

Michael stands for a prolonged time before slowly nodding his head, the realisation coming to him as he firmly nods his head in agreeance.

“Yes sir. I’ll do that, sir.” He tells him as a knock is heard from the other side of the door, the door opening as Bri steps inside.

“Ready to go?” She asks.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Bri and Michael leave, the door swinging shut and only when it fully closed over did Connor turn to Haley, who looked rather surprised in a sheepish way.

“So, now that that’s out of the way,” He leans back, stretching out, “I’ve got some business to attend to.”

## 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
* Andrea Boehkle as Bri
* Jackson Rathbone as Abreham

### Supporting

* Q'orianka Kilcher as Tanya
* Ariana Greenblatt as Molly
* Noah Schnapp as Mark
* Billy Burke as Connor

### Also Starring

* Janel Parrish as Haley Reed
* Antonia Thomas as Vicky
* Troye Sivan as Sam
* Jennifer Lawrence as Alison
* Tobey Maguire as Michael
* Alexandra Breckenridge as Tracey
* David Tennant as Sean

### Guest

* Alyssa Diaz as Officer Scarlette
* Unknown as Scrap
* Unknown as Pig