We finally had a meeting with Bill. We were able to sit down and talk about everything that has happened since we were separated.
When he asked how long we looked we felt bad. It wasn’t that we didn’t want to continue looking, but it just wasn’t safe for us at the time. Then we met Keith and everything shut down around us. Eventually we had to move on and try to find new hideaways.
Bill filled us in on things as well. Tony had taken him with when he left. However, it was a plan to leave together and not by force. Tony had found a group of radicals who were living well and had an unhealthy joy in the kill. He went on to say that he too had the same pleasure in killing. It helped bring something out in him that he didn’t know was there. He had first noticed it on one of our runs when he had to kill. He had watched Tony for so long he wondered what it felt like. When he finally did it himself the explosion of pleasure inside of him was unmatched by anything else he had ever felt.
Tony thought he was taking some bait with him if things got bad. However, Bill was planning the same thing. When they left the building and started to head out Tony told him where the hideaway was. They went a few more blocks until they came across a horde of reanimates. They started fighting them off slowly. Their hand weapons were good for a little while but the horde was too strong. Eventually they found themselves having to retreat. Bill was ahead of Tony when the idea came to him. With the apocalypse it is survival of the fittest. As a reanimate closed in on them Bill sliced open the stomach. It poured it’s contents out onto the ground. Rotting, undigested flesh and entrails pooled at Bills feet. The creature wasn’t dead. It remained agitated and ready to attack. Bill stood quietly and kept the creature at a safe distance. Tony slowly made his way towards Bill and as he was getting ready to help Bill turned the creature towards Tony. As Tony went to back up he slipped on the stomach contents laying on the ground and fell backwards. As the reanimate ambled towards him Tony could not recover in time before being overwhelmed by the creatures. Bill took the live distraction as his chance to escape. Bill ran as fast as he could to the location Tony had given him and the rest is history. He got involved with the inner circle of leaders and slowly killed them off until he was the only true leader remaining.
I told Bill about us finding the reanimates eating someone human. I told him we all just assumed it was Bill being eaten which was the start of our demise for looking for him. We parted ways amicably and we returned to our home to try and keep a low profile until we could figure out our place in this new society.