Walker? or Zombies? (Walking Dead Game x Strong OC)

Chapter 38: Cold Fury

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The day after the confrontation at the fishing cabin, the group moved through the frozen woods in a poisonous, suffocating silence. The stolen medical bag was a heavy, unspoken accusation among them. They had what they needed, but they had paid for it with a piece of their soul.

The group was fractured, the cracks in their fragile family now deep, ugly chasms. Lee walked at the head of the column, his face a mask of grim disappointment. He wouldn't even look at Zack, his every movement radiating a cold, paternal anger that was more painful than any shout. The Cabin Group huddled together, their eyes constantly darting towards Zack with a raw, undisguised terror. They saw him not as a boy, but as a rabid dog that could snap at any moment.

Kenny was the only one who seemed to understand. He walked near Zack, a silent, grim guardian. He didn't approve of what Zack had done, but he understood the brutal calculus of desperation. He understood what it meant to be willing to do anything, to become anything, to protect your family. Their shared, unspoken understanding created a tense, isolated alliance, a small, dark island in the sea of the group's disapproval.

Clem was trapped in the middle, her small face a mess of confusion and heartbreak. She would look at Lee, her hero, and see the disappointment in his eyes. Then she would look at Zack, her brother, her entire world, and see the terrifying, feverish stranger he was becoming. She was torn between the man who had taught her right from wrong and the boy who was willing to do anything wrong to keep her safe.

Zack, for his part, was lost in his own private hell. The fever from the bite was no longer a gentle fire; it was a raging, all-consuming inferno. The world was a hazy, distorted landscape, and the pain in his arm was a constant, blinding agony. He was having trouble focusing; his thoughts had become a jumbled, chaotic mess. At one point, he stumbled, and Carley rushed to help him. He looked at her, but for a terrifying, delirious second, he didn't see her. He saw the face of his adopted mother, Diana, her expression full of a sad, gentle concern.

"Zacky, are you okay, sweetie?"

He flinched back, his eyes wide with a confusion that looked like madness. "Get away from me," he snarled, his voice a low, ragged thing.

A hurt and terrified Carley scrambled back to Lee's side. The incident did not go unnoticed. The wedge between Zack and the rest of his family was driven even deeper.

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Late in the afternoon, they reached the obstacle they had been dreading: a wide, frozen river, its surface a vast, glittering expanse of treacherous ice. It was a hundred yards across, a flat, open killing field with no cover.

"We have to cross," Lee said, his voice heavy with a grim finality. "It's the only way north."

They moved out onto the ice, their footsteps echoing with a fragile, crunching sound in the dead-still air. The cold was a physical thing, biting at their exposed skin. They were halfway across, a small, vulnerable procession of survivors, when they heard the shout.

"There they are! The thieves! The murderers!"

They all froze. On the far bank, emerging from the treeline, was Arvo. And he was not alone. He was flanked by a group of at least six other people, all of them larger, harder-looking, and more heavily armed than his previous, pathetic group. They had found allies. Or, more likely, they had found new masters.

"We don't want any more trouble!" Lee shouted across the ice, his voice carrying in the cold, clear air. "We just want to pass!"

"Trouble is what you get when you put a gun to a man's head and steal his medicine!" Arvo screamed back, his voice no longer thin and reedy, but full of a righteous, vengeful fury. "Kill them! Kill them all!"