C A M E R O N

“She was five years old, Cameron. –Five.” Devyn spat while pointing towards the petite blonde’s corpse, unable to turn her gaze towards the child in fear of bile making it’s way up her esophagus. Tears pricked her eyes as frustration and guilt washed over her like a freight train – reflecting the anger she felt towards herself onto him. “I’m sorry,” she finally whispered brokenly, racking her fingers through her hair in an attempt to gather her emotions. It wasn’t the time. Not when so many others needed to be saved. “Okay. You’re right — I’m sorry. I’ll stay close, I promise.” Her eyes met his for a brief moment as she nodded before returning to Diesel, dainty fingers moving beneath his collar in order to keep the animal close to her. 

Lucas didn’t apologize. Especially when in survival mode. Devyn’s words had hit home, and filled him with a sense of nightmarish nostalgia. The small caramel hand he had once held until it was lifeless. He couldn’t bring himself to look down from where he had just withdrawn his blade. Instead he paused, though slightly winded, and watched over her as she gathered herself. His eyes flicked down to her dog whom was standing steadfast by Dev’s side. He hoped the teams own were doing alright. As soon as they cleared this block he would be sure to radio in and check on his brothers. “Okay,” Lucas repeated her agreement. “You two ready? Armed? There are unarmed - unprotected civilians all over this sector. ”

Once again, Natalie had been sitting too far out. She’d seen the walkers that had gotten into Ravenswood, but since there were none around now, just assumed they’d all been taken care of. Naive Nat was a nickname often used for the girl. A low moan pulled her attention away from the flower in her hands, looking up to see those things not too far ahead. She scrambled up off of the floor, patting herself down for her knife as she started to move away. Looking back to where she was sitting, she saw the walkers were now only a few meters or so away from her previous spot, where her knife sat lay next to the tiny purple flower. “Shit.” she muttered, tripping over her own feet as she clambered back to grab her knife, just missing an attempted grab from one of the creatures as she turned again and started to run back towards safety in the hope that someone would find her.

Strapping his radio to his side, Lucas jogged through the vacant streets of Sector Two as he approached the border of Three. O’Connor had responded to his call and requested back up in the third sector of Ravenswood. He should’ve known it wouldn’t be so simple. Nothing about the day was running smoothly. At least by this SEAL’s definition of the word. So, when he heard the familiar groaning of walkers it truthfully didn’t come as too much of a surprise. He slowed down momentarily to turn around and assess the situation but, a soft coherent voice made him move faster once again. Rounding the side of a building he saw the young blonde moving away from two grossly decaying bodies. Lucas came up behind the girl, hooking his arm around her shoulders he protectively moved her out of the path of the walker before he swung his machete, slicing into the walker’s skull. “What the fuck are you doing out here? Dancing with them?” Lucas called over his shoulder as he moved towards the other reanimated body.

It was just a glimpse. So quick that another possibly wouldn’t second guess themselves. But Lucas knew he had caught sight of somebody exiting the walls. He knew there was a group of walkers just beyond the border and they were walking right into it. If he moved fast he would be able to order them to retreat. Then they could move back into town. Follow orders. Ensure civilians safety first. He was right behind the brunette by the time she spun around to face him.  The SEAL was faster than her and met her raised arm with firm grip. “Shut. Up,” Lucas growled through clenched teeth. His voice hardly audible. “What the hell you think you’re doing out here? Orders are to ensure the safety of civilians. Civilians aren’t allowed beyond the wall. And neither are you.”

Lucas eyes burned through the small blonde. What he was hearing was unbelievable. It seemed that everybody was testing what little patience he had, today. Aggravated his hand gripped harder onto her arm as he turned to a member of patrol. “Holster that gun. Try to avoid using it if you can. Too loud. Keep clearing this area and make sure civilians are getting indoors. I’ll escort this one,” He spoke in a lowered voice. Letting go of Christine’s arm as he practically shoved her in front of himself. “Get moving. Now.”

Devyn pulled herself away from the corpse with a look of utter despair. She had been distracted momentarily and hadn’t noticed the walker drifting towards the frightened child. “Fuck!” she screamed in frustration. She could have saved her. No matter the guilt that now cursed through her veins, she pushed it aside whilst turning towards the SEAL. Listening to him, she swallowed the instinctive urge to tell him that she needed no protection, “ I ran out when I heard the first gun shot – I’ve seen people dying and I doubt we should be staying still any longer if we want to save the civilians who aren’t able to defend themselves.” Her head snapped towards the large canine who circled around with a guarded posture. With a click of her tongue, the brunette beckoned her dog before stepping forward. 

When the woman yelled out Lucas’ head nearly exploded. Patrol seemed to be all over the place when they needed to be focused. Once orders were given, Lucas had zero tolerance for miscommunication or disobedience. It seemed most people had their own agenda’s. The SEAL was tempted to suggest locking up patrol along with everybody else and clearing out the city with his team. Just like they had two months ago. The entire situation was pissing him off but he refocused as she warned about continuing into Sector Two. “First of all, lower your damn voice,” Lucas practically hissed at the brunette. “Brenner, get it together. Keep D at your side. Nobody needs you two becoming a liability. Like I said follow me and stay close.”

Ethan all but ignored his brother’s order. He stared at the fallen citizen and shook his head. “Fuck. He was told to go back home. I fucking told him,” he grimaced, knowing that there wasn’t anything he could’ve done if the man wasn’t going to listen to the warning. Ethan wasn’t really speaking to his brother but more so to himself, regretting not following the unarmed man but Ethan had been confronted with another walker before he could. The younger Cameron looked over at his brother before standing and walking away from the body. “I was out in Three trying to figure out where the source was but then I heard a scream and booked it back here. I’ve seen a few walkers but I think they lost their interest in Three, besides the last bits of the ones still coming in,” he reported, turning on his police officer tendencies to try to override his disgust that it was his brother he was speaking to. “Best course of action from here is to stop them from coming in or we’re gonna have a whole lot more dead to worry about. Protecting the citizens is one thing but if we’re gonna keep letting them in one by one…”

Of course Lucas would run into his brother at a time like this. He listened through his younger brother and to their surroundings. There was movement to their left. Further into Sector Two. When he began to give his report, Lucas looked back at his brother as he pulled the machete from the skull of the corpse. “Orders are to get civilians to safety,” he stated staring back Ethan. “Now’s not the time to play hero, Ethan. Patrol has to work as a team. Anybody disregarding orders is putting citizens at immediate threat. Do you understand?” The noise to the Cameron brothers left became slightly louder. “We need to keep moving.”

He’d been heading to Sector 3 when he found the bloodied body. Caleb was aware of the horde invading the town as all patrol members were, and he had to be sure if there weren’t any civilians left in the farmlands. He looked over at the other man as he spoke and stabbed the corpse in the head – Caleb vaguely recognized him as one of the SEALs, but didn’t think they’d been introduced before. “Just a few minutes,” Caleb replied as he followed the other. “I was going to check if there was anyone in Sector 3 when I found ‘em like that.”

The moans of the undead from Sector 3 were still playing in Lucas’ head. This was going to be a long day. He was in combat mode and on full alert. Unfortunately for him, not everybody else was as on their game as he had been. They all had survived the same outbreak but, times like these had Luke wondering how. “No,” Lucas gave his head a curt shake. Pointing his machete in the opposite direction of the infested sector. “Orders are to clear civilians off the street. Get them to safety. Nobody needs to be playing hero right now. Stick to the orders. We’re going to scout Two’s perimeter before making our way inward. Got it?”