In another part of the hotel, Shawn finally manages to make it, before scopes the area, making sure it is clear.
Shawn: Dammit....where are they?
After making their way through parts of the Kronos quarantine zone, Kyle, Sarah and Rachel get inside of a building when they hear a voice yelling.
Survivor: Run!
Kyle, Shawn and Sarah look through the window and see a couple of people running away from the Reaper military Humvee.
Kyle: Oh, fuck. Down. Down.
The three kneel down as they see the two people get gunned down.
Rachel: What do we do?
Kyle: Nothing.
Survivor: No...
The three hear a gunshot ring out and slightly look up to see that Reapers had killed the two people.
Reaper: Busy couple a days, huh?
Reaper: Whatever, bro. Fuck. No food, old pair of shoes. They ain't got shit. Let's go.
Reaper: Alright...
They get into the Humvee and drive away.
Rachel: Damn it....
Sarah: There wasn't anything we could do.
Rachel: I know...it's just...fuck...
Kyle: Let's just get to that bridge.
The three start to leave.
The three go through a door to their left then up the stairs.
Bandit: Well, at least the Reapers finally killed that couple. I was sure they were gonna make it out of the city. Now, they'll hand that fuckin truck group.
The three crouch down and look around the corner.
Bandit: There were only four people in that truck, right? How the fuck did they wipe out half the crew?
Bandit: Let's keep searching so we can find these pricks and the Reapers can fucking leave. I don't like them using our killing grounds to look for that guy.
Bandit: Well, turns out it goes back deeper than just a kill. This ones personal. Heard a rumor that these assholes killed the leader of the Reapers son.
Bandit: So? From what I hear, his son had it coming to him.
Kyle, Sarah and Rachel lean in close to the corner until they see a bandit come up. Luckily, he didn't see them and Kyle jumped up, grabbed him and starts to strangle him. The three make their way through this building until they come up to a hallway, that seemed to have been blown out as to their left lead outside. The three jump down from there and make their way outside, passing the tall abandoned towers and buildings.
Bandit: Hey...you hear they finally caught that dude, the woman and their boy?
Kyle, Shawn and Sarah hide behind an abandoned cop car.
Bandit: Who's left then. Just the two guys, the woman and the kid, right?
Bandit: Yeah, them...That's a goddamned mess.
The bandits patrol as Sarah pulls out another nail bomb and throws it in the street as it clanks on the concrete, which catches the bandits attention. They walk over to where they heard the noise until the bomb explodes, killing them. Kyle, Shawn and Sarah stand up and walk down a street to see some dead Zeus Corps Soldiers with a note spray painted on the wall above them.
No Freedom
Rachel: Damn. I guess this is how it ended for this zone.
Rachel looks at the scene before her.
Kyle: Well, every battle's got a losing side.
Rachel: Didn't they have families?
Sarah: Everyone has a family.
Sarah lets out a heavy sigh.
Kyle: Best not to think about it.
Rachel: How can you not?
The three came up to the fire escape and see that the ladder is too high.
Rachel: Kyle, can you get me up there?
Kyle stands under the ladder and cups his hands. Rachel places her foot in his hands and boosts her up, she reaches out and grabs the ladder and pulls it down.
Kyle: There ya go.
Kyle sets her down. Rachel climbs up the ladder and Kyle gestures Sarah to go next. The three climb up on it then walk around the platform and jump down on the other side of the wall.
Kyle: Let's cut through this alley.
Sarah: Still no sign of Shawn.
Rachel: Do you guys think he's okay?
Kyle: Shawn's smart. He knows how to survive and he can handle himself.
The three walk along the alley until they hear the military humvee and some more bandits ahead of them.
Rachel: Agh. It's that fucking truck again.
Kyle: Alright, keep your head down.
Kyle, Sarah and Rachel make their way through as best as they could, avoiding the humvee and taking out the bandits either by knife, machete, strangling or arrow. Eventually, the humvee spotted the three and starts firing, rapidly, at Kyle, Sarah and Rachel.
Rachel: What the fuck are they shooting at us with?!
The three run and hide in an old office building.
Kyle: It's a fucking A.O.W turret!
Sarah: Stay down!
The three make their way to the back area of the building and jump into the back alley. The three run down it as the humvee starts following them and kept firing at them until they got inside another building and run up the stairs. Finally, we came upon a window that had an fire escape. The three vault over the window and run up stairs as they hear the humvee roaring down the street. The three get up to the stairs where it's blocked off but there was some wooded planks acting as a pathway to the other building.
Sarah: I think we lost them.
The three come up to a window and jump through that's when they run into the building until they find another fire escape. Unfortunately, the stairs on this one was broken so they lean against the ledge and shimmy their way along the ledge.
Rachel: Oh shit.
The three see the humvee drive up on the street.
Kyle: We're good. They can't see us.
The three get up to a window. Kyle jumps through the window first and is suddenly grabbed a Caucasian-American man with brown hair.
Rachel: Oh shit
Rachel vaults over the window.
Sarah: What?
Kyle and the man struggle with the man having Kyle in a chokehold as Sarah makes her way to the window to see Rachel attacking the man with her knife, but he knocks her down.
Sarah: Rachel!
The man looks at Rachel.
Charlie: What the fuck? Hey, you're—
Kyle grabs the back of Charlie's head, slams him against the wall and throws him over his shoulder.
Kyle: Motherfuck!
Sarah is about to help, when something stops her.
Sarah: Kyle!
Kyle has Charlie on the ground and he starts to repeatedly punch him in the gut and back of the neck.
Rachel: Kyle! Kyle!
Sarah runs over to Kyle, who has his fist was raised and Sarah grabs his wrist just in time.
Sarah: Kyle! Stop!
Kyle looks over at Sarah, who gestures towards a African-American man standing at the doorway with his gun raised at him.
Elijah: Get off him. Right now.
Kyle, Sarah and Rachel raise their hands to show that they're not a threat. Kyle stands up and backs away from Charlie.
Elijah: Now, just step back. And we won't have a problem.
Suddenly, Shawn appears and presses his gun to the back of Elijah's head.
Shawn: I can say the same for you. Lower the gun off my friends. Now.
Charlie: Hey! No! Easy! Everyone, chill! Elijah, they're not the bad guys. Lower the gun.
Elijah lowers the gun.
Kyle: Shawn....
Shawn lowers his gun, before joining his friends.
Sarah: How'd you find us?
Shawn: Heard all the gunshots and followed them. Figured that was you. That fucking truck, man.
Charlie starts to sit up.
Charlie: Dude, you almost broke my neck. You hit hard.
Kyle: Yeah, well, I was trying to kill you, dude....so....sorry.
Charlie: Yeah, me too.....I thought you were with them, too.....but I can tell you're good people.
Sarah: How?
Charlie: Well, if you hadn't noticed, these guys aren't the type to keep around liabilities...like old people....
Charlie looks at Rachel.
Charlie: Or kids. Survival of the fittest and all that bullshit.
Elijah: You're bleeding.
Elijah points at Charlie's arm as blood rushes down it.
Charlie: Ah, this ain't shit.
Charlie turns to Elijah, who stands in front of him and Charlie digs into his backpack to pull out some bandages.
Charlie: I'm Charlie.
Charlie gestures towards Elijah.
Charlie: This is Elijah. You two guys are Kyle and Shawn, right?
Rachel: Rachel.
Sarah: Sarah.
Kyle: You guys got a group?
Elijah: They're all dead.
Charlie tends to his wounds then looks at Kyle, Shawn, Sarah and Rachel.
Charlie: There were a bunch of us. Someone had the idea of looking for supplies and food. Then those fucking animals, along that biker gang, they ambushed us. Scattered us. Now we gotta get out of this death trap of a city.
Charlie gets done wrapping his arm up.
Rachel: We can help each other.
Kyle: Rachel.
Sarah: We don't know these people.
Rachel: Yeah, but we'd have a better chance at getting if we had help.
Charlie: Kid's right. We can help each other. We got a hideout not too far from here. Safe for us to have a little talk.
Kyle, Shawn and Sarah look at each other for a moment before Sarah shrugs and they look back at Charlie.
Kyle: Alright, take us there.
Charlie: Follow me.
Charlie walks out of the room. Kyle, Shawn and Sarah follow Charlie.
Elijah: Hey, kid. Sorry I aimed a gun at you.
Rachel: It's okay. I probably would've done the same thing. Where are you two from?
Elijah: All the way from Florida.
The group walk out of the room and down the hall.
Rachel: Damn. I heard some bad shit going on down there.
Elijah: Yeah, ravagers came by and tore up the place. It's why we left.
The group come up to the end of the hallway.
Charlie: We gotta be careful. We're right next to one of their lookout areas. Is it just you two, your friend and daughter?
The group head down the stairs.
Rachel: Oh, none of us are related. We're more like, um....associates.
Kyle: Shawn and I are bringing her back to her father.
Sarah: Also, Kyle and I aren't together.
Charlie: Ah...I see. Well, I think it's good what you're doing.
The group come upon an old toy store. As the enter the store, they hear the humvee driving up.
Charlie: Wait, wait....Everyone stop. Get down and away from the windows.
Everyone ducks down and hides as they watch the humve drive past them.
Sarah: They're gone.
The humvee disappears from sight then everyone stands up.
Charlie: Goddammit...that fucking truck. It's been searching this damn city ever since we got here.
Elijah: Non-stop. That biker gang is making things a helluva lot more worse.
Shawn: Yeah....that biker gang has probably struck a deal with these bandits...
Charlie: What kind of deal?
Elijah: and how would you know that?
Kyle: Uh....long story short. That Biker gang is after us.
Charlie: That sucks. Well, don't worry. We won't sell you out.
Kyle, Shawn, Sarah and Rachel follow Charlie and Elijah towards the back of the store.
Kyle: How far is this goddamned place?
Charlie: We're close. Very close.
The group heads out to the employees only door, which leads outside to the bandit lookout point Charlie was talking about. The seven of them hide behind some boxes as they hear at least three bandits talking. Kyle, Shawn, Sarah, Charlie and Elijah easily take them out as they're able to shoot all three of the bandits in the head.
Charlie: We did it. Not bad, guys. You know your shit.
Sarah rolls her eyes as the group walk out from behind their hiding place.
Charlie: Come on. On the truck.
The group come up from behind their hiding place. The group then climb up the truck and up some rooftops then across the fire escape and enter an apartment building.
Kyle: Are you sure it's safe being this close to these assholes?
The group gets inside.
Charlie: I'm the only one with the key, dude.
Charlie opens a large set of double doors.
Sarah: Where'd you get that?
Charlie: The previous owner of this key's throat is slit. He won't miss it now.
Charlie enters the room and steps aside.
Charlie: Everyone through.
Everyone enters.
Charlie: It's back here.
Charlie shuts the door behind everyone.
Elijah: So...how old are you, kid?
Rachel: Fourteen.
Elijah: Gotta say; it's been a while since I've seen a kid your age. You know how to handle yourself well.
Rachel: Thanks.
Charlie: Here it is.
Charlie goes up to the door and unlocks it.
Charlie: Step into my office.
The group enters the large office.
Rachel: How long you guys been holed up in here?
Elijah: A few days. We found a bit of food, though. Here.
The two start to walk away.
Charlie: Pistachios. Found a whole stash of 'em. You want some?
Kyle: No.
Shawn: We're good.
Sarah shakes her head.
Charlie: You guys can relax. We're safe.
Kyle goes over to a window and realized, in horror, that they were over the bandit's main base.
Kyle: You call this safe?
Charlie: Told you; the prior resident won't miss this place.
Kyle sits down in an old fancy chair while the others take a couch behind him and Charlie takes another chair and sets it in front of Kyle.
Sarah: So what's your plan?
Charlie: Elijah and I were from a large group of refugees, but we were separated. We're actually supposed to meet up at a barricaded abandoned church a few miles out of the city. Some of the former scouts had find the church previously.
Shawn: And how do you expect to get out of this city? What with all of those bandits and the Reapers out there?
Charlie smiles slightly and walks back over to the window.
Charlie: These fuckers. Everyday they're down there, guarding the fucking subway tunnel. Those subway tunnels are the only way out of the city that isn't guarded by those assholes. Nighttime, it's a small crew. After the sun goes down, that's our exit. We can sneak right past them.
Shawn: That could work.
Kyle nods.
Kyle: Guess we better get some rest, then.