Jonah and Kat were down at the DZI's new base in the remnants of Longridge. Ever since the White Scythe incident two days ago, the soldiers of Matheson converted the ghost town into a small military camp. A collection of military vehicles barricaded the roads off from any Deadmen possibly wandering into town. The ones that would bypass the barriers would be killed and hung from the traffic lights like criminals swaying on the gallows.

The town hall became their mess hall, where they kept the radio and where their food was served, and a rundown motel was quickly cleaned up and converted into their barracks. Ironically, part of the "clean-up" involved painting the doorway with Deadman blood to repel them, which didn't always work. The abandoned high school where the White Scythe massacre took place was off-limits both in respect to the fallen soldiers and because they didn't know what else could've been in there ready to attack.

In those two days, the DZI also gathered up a few mannequins to use as training dummies, even though they also brought a few dummies from Matheson. Kat was, as usual, able to prove how great her aim was, nailing every head shot. Jonah discovered his hidden talent in knife-throwing. Each blade he lobbed made contact with either the head of the dummy or the heart. Their fellow DZI soldiers Cassandra and Duncan, the same soldiers who discovered the headless corpse of ex-soldier Rupert Cromwell, were watching the whole time. "You've got some spot-on aim, lad," Duncan told Jonah. "Comes in handy if you've run out of bullets."

"Thanks," Jonah replied, not bothering to look back at his squad mate. He threw another knife and the blade landed right in the dummy's mouth.

"Damn, Jonah," Kat said. "The point is to kill the target, not leave him suffering with an open wound."

"It's not suffering," Cassandra chimed in. "Deadmen don't feel pain, remember?"

"That kinda makes it worse then. I mean how would you feel if you didn't know there was a knife lodged in your face?"

Cassandra shrugged. "Nothing. I wouldn't know it was lodged there. You said so yourself."

Jonah climbed over the small barricade that separated them from the training dummies to retrieve his knives. He yanked them out of their plastic flesh, jokingly apologizing to the dummy if it took longer than usual to pull one out. Once he had all his knives, he walked back to the others and left the building, which apparently used to be a martial arts studio before the Outbreak.

"Hey wait up!" Kat called out. She strapped her gun to her back and followed Jonah out.

"We going or what?" Duncan asked Cassandra. Both of them shrugged their shoulders as they pursued Kat to their new mess hall.

Jonah opened the door to the town hall and walked in. Multiple tables were positioned throughout the auditorium. There was a radio at the far end of the room, where the DZI would relay communications back to Matheson. Shaw and several higher-ranking officers surrounded the radio, studying the maps and guidebooks to occupy their time. Jonah parked at a nearby table where his backpack and cargo jacket laid, the same jacket with the words Endangered Species etched on the back.

"You going on break?" Kat asked.

Jonah didn't look back. He placed his knives down by his backpack along with his handgun. "Yeah," he replied. "Killing mannequins isn't as fun as the real thing. But in the meantime, you guys wanna see my collection?"

"You collect shit?" Duncan asked.

"Yeah, just a bunch of rubbish I found around Longridge," Jonah replied, still scrambling his hands around in his backpack. "Look here, bruv."

The first thing he pulled out was the head of a garden gnome. Just the head. "I decapitated a fucking lawn gnome!" he chuckled.

"You make it sound like there's nothing wrong with that," Cassandra replied.

"Yeah, it happened yesterday. Remember that one Deadman Shaw killed that he told us to keep vandalizing?"

"You mean Faceless Fred?" Duncan asked.

"Yeah! Well I'm partially responsible for that nickname. But I got bored of mashing his face into stew, so I took it out on this little bastard right here." Jonah twirled the gnome head around one more time before stuffing it back into his backpack.

His hand emerged from his bag grasping a dirty graphic novel with half of the cover missing. "Found an issue of The Walking Dead outside the high school. I thought it would still be interesting, but nope. Fictional zombies aren't as cool as the real ones."

"Imagine how the guys who made the TV show feel," Kat added.

Jonah placed the book back in his big and traded it in for a small white piece of fabric dangling from a string. "Then I found this weird-looking tea bag outside the girl's locker room back at our new shooting range."

"Franklin," Duncan explained hesitantly. "That's a tampon."

"Oh, that's...wait, this is a...?"

"I can't tell if he's either innocent or an idiot," Cassandra whispered to Kat.

"I mean I've heard of them. I just...never seen one before."

"Franklin!" Shaw shouted from the other side of the room. "I thought you were a male! A Deadman didn't bite off anything valuable, did it?"

"This isn't mine!" Jonah shouted. "Seriously, whose is this?!" He didn't notice Kat awkwardly taking a few steps back.

Shaw returned his view to the radio in front of him without another word. "Dude, get rid of that," Duncan told Jonah. "You're making it hard to stand next to you."

"I'm gonna burn everything in this bag," Jonah replied sheepishly as he dropped the tampon back into the bag. For the final exhibit in his assortment of strangeness, he pulled out a tin can with multiple blades and nails lodged in its metal surface. "Everything, except this."

"What is that?" Kat asked, glancing up and down the object.

"A nail bomb," Jonah replied with a smirk. "Mr. Hecox taught us how to make them back in London."

"He taught you guys how to make explosives?"

"Well...not specifically the lethal kind. He did a lot of science experiments that involved exploding canisters with baking soda or dry ice. Plus, he had a few bangers left over from Bonfire Night. Just mix in a little gunpowder and kapooey-kashaw! Shrapnel raining down everywhere!"

"Are you sure that kind of weapon is safe in your hands?" Duncan asked.

"Of course. I've used it three times before on Deadmen only. If you're in a good hiding spot, you only get hit by about three or four nails. I dunno. I blacked out when it happened."

"Attention!" Shaw declared. "Gather around, troops!"

Jonah quickly shoved the bomb back into his backpack (apparently forgetting that was a bomb he was tampering with) and followed Kat, Duncan, and Cassandra to the edge of the room where Shaw and the other DZI were gathered. Several other soldiers started encircling Commander Shaw.

"Orders, Colonel?" Shaw asked into the microphone.

"It's O'Connor," Schaefer replied from the radio. "I need him."

"I thought you had executed him."

Jonah's and Kat's jaws gaped wide open. "WHAT!" they shouted in unison.

"Who the hell was that?" Schaefer asked. "Was that Franklin and Mathis? Did they not know?"

"No, we didn't fucking know!" Kat shouted. "Why do you want to execute Aaron?"

Schaefer burst into laughter. "You really didn't know? What kind of friends are you? The poor fucker is infected! Apparently, he didn't want to go the easy way out, so he ran off."

"So what?" Shaw chimed in. "Are we supposed to find him or something?"

"No point. He's already becoming one of those savages, so there's really nothing we can do. The real thing I wanted to discuss was the discovery your squad made earlier."

"You mean the little town we found deep in the forest? Not much to see there, sir. Just a couple of shops and an abandoned hospital."

Jonah shoved Shaw out of the way and moved closer to the microphone. "What are you gonna do to our friend?!" he shouted.

"Really, Franklin?" Schaefer replied. "I already told you. He will be responsible for his own demise. However, if we do happen to come across him in our next mission, let's just say I don't plan on being merciful."

"What has he done wrong? Infected or not, he didn't choose this!"

"What has he done wrong?" Shaw repeated for Schaefer. "What are you, blind? He's responsible for the deaths of former DZI officer Rupert Cromwell and Matheson forensics scientist Dan Marston, not to mention the fourteen soldiers whose deaths at the hands of the White Scythe could've been avoided if it weren't for his plan! He is a criminal, Franklin!"

"Despite Commander Shaw's aggression," Schaefer continued, "I've decided to let Aaron decide his own fate. If he chooses to spend his last days out there in the Dead Zone, so be it. If he comes across us once more while we're ready to open fire, that will be his mistake."

Kat clenched her fist. She remembered Jonah asking her how she would feel if he or Aaron or anyone else who meant the world to her was infected. If she would put them out of their misery or let them wander peacefully as a monster. She feared that dreaded day was approaching.

"Fuck you," Jonah muttered before Shaw pushed him away.

"So what's the plan, Colonel?" Shaw asked.

"Get your troops ready," Schaefer commanded. "Your squad and mine back here at Matheson will meet you at the abandoned town you discovered earlier. Once we get there, we exterminate all signs of the undead, including O'Connor if he's stupid enough to show his face again. If all goes well, we could have full control of the Forest of Bowland by the end of the month."

"How are we supposed to eradicate such a large concentration of Deadmen?"

"Easily. I'm bringing the Pyro Boys. And lots of explosives. Think of it as another clean sweep. Y'know, a sanitation bombing. In fact, it will be another clean sweep."

"It will?" Shaw said, surprisingly nervous.

"Yes, sir. We will bring those structures crumbling down if we have to, especially if another Abnormal crosses our path."

"If you say so, sir."

"And if O'Connor happens to be there, well...his death will just be another part of the cleansing process. And if he's lucky, he won't go out in flames like the rest of the forest."