STALEMATE

Tobias and Schmidt's reunion are in many ways what they have expected, both of them alive or dying, with guns from their backs aiming at the other. Tobias has successfully gathered more men from Akimiski and headed towards Hearts, it took them almost 4 days from Toronto to Akimiski and then to Hearst, half of the men that is with Tobias steadily passed by some of the areas where GWN men are patrolling and the other half went back to Norfolk. Tobias arrives at Hearst and both of them are just staring each other down, and no sound nor movement came from both sides.

"So goal?"

"Yes"

Half of the men that was with Tobias safely goes back to Norfolk, Oscar arrived there as soon as he heard that they have returned. The soldiers starts to talk about the men that they encountered on the Pharmaceutical HQ.

"So they are making a 'vaccine' of sorts?"

"Yes sir, and their guns are much more powerful than ours, they definitely have some suppliers of sorts"

"Shit, we need to go warn Pierre and Maple"

"Yes sir, we need to give them a heads up"

Oscar tries to think something on top of his head as he heads back to Mackinaw. Natalia and Kayla meets up with Oscar as he gets in, saying they need to talk to him.

"What is it?"

"What's happening?"

"I don't know, Tobias and his group got separated, he headed up north to Akimiski and probably heading to Hearst"

"Oh no, can you stop them!?"

"No, judging from your tone, do we have a problem?"

"Yeah, there's a-"

The gates opened wildly and the metallic creaking was heard, Kyle looks around and is looking for Tobias. One of the soldiers approached him and told him who's in charge, Kyle sees Oscar and ran towards him. He pants heavily and he is also in distress, Oscar holds him up because he looks like he will faint.

"What is it?"

"Op.. Ophir got raided, by someone"

"Hey hey get up, are you okay?"

"We n-"

Their gates are destroyed and a herd of mutated Biters came crashing in and start to attack on people, they are just flooding the whole city. They turned on the black lights and it seems to not doing anything at all, they start to fight back as the heard increases in size and strength. The people started to run behind the soldiers as they start to form lines trying to contain the horde. Everyone starts to panic even the soldiers because of the sudden attack, Oscar starts to feel a bit of nostalgia during the whole moment.

On Marathon, Zachary also starts to fight the incoming horde of mutated biters, he notices the soldiers and asked them to fight in exchange of freedom. They just laughed at him and turned around in their backs as they lay asleep, Zachary just breaks the locks.

"You can go, we don't really care about societies, we're all gonna die anyway"

"Sure kid, see ya"

Zachary gets out of the holding cells and fights against the horde with help from Pierre and Maple Grove, they start to hold on the massive horde that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. They are using guns instead of melee weapons because anyone who got close to the horde at jumped and easily ravaged by the runners, they can hear 'Bawlers' screeching loudly and more of them just pour into both cities.

"You destroyed this Oscar, we were safe without you people"

"We appreciate you trying to, 'save' us"

Matilda aims a gun directly up to Oscar's forehead. He just starts to laugh at them but continued to shoot at the horde.

"Shoot"

"....."

"Come on, we're all gonna die anyway... what ever it is in your blood Natalia, we found out it was useless"

Even whilst everything around them has start to come down to chaos, the 1 thing that stuck to Oscar during an older conversation with Jean, a vaccine is difficult to create, let alone a cure which will be impossible to create. The virus' subtle but quick mutation was a huge factor in creating the vaccine, and results from different tests has proven that the virus 'eats' other cells and antibodies. Tobias and Schmidt survival was a fluke as they were injected with 'boosters' from Natalia, which now will be useless with the new mutated variants of the virus.

"The world seems bleaker, and finding a home is hard"

"....."

"Trying to find the good in people is risky, but that idiot can hate but still trust you"

"What do you say my fellow dead man walking?"

"I tried to kill you, you trust me?"

"Yeah, probably more than the guys that you have found, we met Riley on the way here in his car"

"Where is he now?"

"Committed suicide"

"What did you do to him?"

"Gave him a real talking, and then 2 choices, to live or to die, and you know what he chose"

"Did you at the least, bury him?"

"Of course"

Tobias and Schmidt once more stared down and both sides are trying their best to not crack or show even the slightest weak link, they waved their guns around slowly looking at even the tiniest movement, but none moves even for a heartbeat. Schmidt looks at his men behind him, he seems to be signaling them. They all slowly put their guns down and they confusion is clear, Schmidt looks at Tobias with the look as if he is expecting him to do the same thing.

"Are you sure about that?"

"You trust me right?"

"Sort off, you're mind might change quickly"

Tobias asked his men to lower their guns and so they did, they start to do it one by one. They stood straight up and approached them directly and stopped. 'You first' Tobias commanded Schmidt, and so he followed, he walks into the gates with his men and al of them just stare each other down with distrust.

"I think you did the right choice"

"I have none"

"And you might be doubling on us"

"Right"

He looks nervous as they walked to the Hearst City hall, everyone and anyone in their houses stepped out in order to see the parade of armed men. As soon as Elizabeth and Samantha see Tobias Niall stopped them, he turns around and sees the 3 of them and he just waves at them with the fakest smile, he is not glad to see them at all.