NORTH

Unbeknownst to Randall and Tobias, Craig managed to get away with the others. Randall and Tobias went into Randall's house. One of the soldiers counted how many they are in the house then left afterwards. They sat there tired and they rested. Later on Tobias will be asked to go to Woodville to proclaim he is the leader of the town.

Julius and his henchman finished counting the heads and taking the names of each inhabitants per house. Julius' men started to watch over everyone's movement. 2 men per house, they also watch over the daily and normal activity of the town. Even with the smallest suspicion they would suddenly arrest them and double down on their labor. Longer working hours and more.

Everyone being under the soaring eyes of the FGHE makes it harder to move. Their movements have been restricted. Julius would conduct meetings with the different members of the council, the only one missing is Dylan. Instead of searching for him he assigned the wounded Jean. He got in the meeting on a wheelchair with a blood bag injected into him. Julius started to talk about the rules that will be implemented.

While on Woodville Tobias also conducted a meeting with new council members. Majority of the new members are of Julius' men, in order to make sure that nothing will go wrong on the main pillars of their power. As much as Tobias wants to kill all these men it is still difficult to make their move. Any sudden moves that would be seen as a threat will be dealt by getting killed immediately.

Dylan and his small team has a 12 hour long ride from Washington to Mackinaw City, Michigan. Their time making on their way to the city will take a long time due to the upcoming winter season. Snow has already started to fall on the northern part of the country since October, thick layers of snow would have already built up. No human activities will cause some of the snows to melt. The big cities on their way to Mackinaw is also a factor as to how long their ride will take.

Snow will built up on the 75th interstate as no one will drive on the road. It will take time for them to meet up with a part of SPECTRE. Natalia and the other kids have already hit the hay due to the cold temperature. Dylan cannot turn the heater of the car on in order to save gasoline.

"So, did Alpha or his group tell you about these team?"

"No, they have the same vision to help Natalia and the kids"

"Has Alpha sent them a message that they ha-"

"No, they have no Idea, Alpha and the others cannot move because of the fear of the FGHE"

"Well, I think he had to do it before winter came"

"Too late"

"Yeah, all we can do is regret"

The only good thing that the people in the car knows is that they are not after them anymore. They have the New Community to worry about. The threat of the original inhabitants of both towns are still there, they need that fight to stay there until their return. And the people who are important to the town are still alive. After their 2 hour long ride they arrived at their first town of Paw paw.

The town like any other is obviously empty, it seems that the biters in these area is yet to adapt like their brethren down on the south. With the new knowledge that they have managed to accumulate over months of watching and studying the biters, they managed to check on the houses. They also have a power black light with them in order to slow down the biters. They looked over the window into the building and the biters are slowly pacing and moving around in the building.

They placed one of the two powerful black lights on the window, then Craig walked to the other side of the building and as he goes behind a portion of the biters are there. He automatically got down and hid behind it, one of the biters looked over to the snow where the sound came from. The biter starts to move towards it but it moves slow because of the low temperature.

Craig put out his knife, he made 5 tapping sounds to distract the biter to him and it worked. He slowly stood up and then killed the biter as it turned to the corner where he is. Killing one of the biters will not help him as part of the group is still outside. Craig tried to open the window but it was frozen shut, after a pulls the window started to crack. He noticed it and not dare to move the window again, he ran back around to Dylan and told him of what just happened.

"Fuck"

"Yeah, should we still check in there?"

"Do you think we can take em? Natalia can help"

"No, too risky... we just need to distract them"

"Can you use the glass?"

"Do you have, the bow and arrow?"

"Yeah, check the trunk"

Craig jogged towards the car that has a bit of distance to the town. Natalia and the kids are awake, the car starts to freeze because of them sitting their. They have to keep the car warm as well because the oil might coagulate and give the cars problems. He grabbed the make shift bow and arrow and as he turned around Dylan is there.

"Oh God, what?"

"Too risky, there are runners in there"

The biters might have adapted only on the way of 'hunting' instead of adapting to the temperature of the place that they are in. They got in the car and they drove back to the cemetery, they got into a nearby house and parked the car in the garage. Lucky for them the house is empty, only strokes of blood, clear proof that there was someone in there. They closed the doors and left one of the window open in case that they to abandon the car and run away.

They looked for pieces of scrap paper and a metallic pot. It took them a while to light the scrap papers due to its cold temperature. The scrap paper starts to burn but it died out immediately, after a few hours of attempt they finally lit the fire. Craig and Dylan is relieved, they moved the pot near Natalia and the kids in order for them to be warmed up. The two men took shifts to watch the car and their surroundings. Craig gave a heads up to Dylan about the car.

Morning came and they got in the car and started to move. They stopped by a automobile shop and Dylan starts to put the oil in the car and cans of oil behind the car. Natalia and the kids got out of the car, Natalia helped Dylan with changing the wheels in order to be fit for the winter season. Craig run to the dollar store.

"Empty? EMPTY!"

Craig started to run into the store and grabbed winter clothing. Fleece jacket, gloves, and several layers of long-sleeved clothes. After checking the whole store also for food Craig got out of the store and ran to the shop. He ran with the item-filled shopping cart and ran through the slippery road, he arrived at the shop. He handed out the different clothing and they put one over the other until finally the jacket. They got into the car after packing the things that Craig got and moved out of the town.

The horde seems to move around in the cold, slowly. They wore sunglasses to prevent snow blindness. For the next following hours on their way to Mackinaw will look the same, a frost winter nightmare.