It was something out of a weird nature documentary. Max walked out of the hospital and, immediately, all of the zombies started to follow her around. Like a flock following their alpha, they left everything else they were doing to abide to her actions. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. I had no idea what Max was doing when she came down to the fight, but boy was I happy she arrived.

With every infect bearing down on us, I felt stressed. We were outnumbered and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. Everything turned out alright when Max arrived.

Until I heard Amelia cry out in pain from behind me.

A zombie had her by her sides from behind, trying to bite her neck. Amelia pushed his head away with the butt of her rifle, causing him to stumble back. Her shirt tore as he went back, ripping her flesh.

I rose my gun and shot the head of the zombie, black blood spraying.

The zombie fell back to the ground and Amelia wobbled as she took a step, holding her side. Pulling her hand away, she noticed her blood as well as black blood. Her knees wobbled softly as she took a step before she fell to the ground.

"Amelia!" I yelled and ran towards her.

Max joined me before picking Amelia up and running back to the hospital. People quickly got out of our way as she weaved through the doors and around people. Instead of going to the elevator, she went to the stairs and took them two at a time up.

I tried to keep up, but she was just too quick.

Max easily kicked open the doors and I ran in after her as the door started to close.

"My mom! Where?" Max shouted at a worker.

With a shocked expression, the worker pointed to the hallway where Max's room was.

We continued down the hallway to her room and barged in. Max hurried in and sat Amelia down on the bed.

Standing by Grimes' chair was Ron Lars, very much awake and very much infected. His eyes followed Max as she walked in. His head tilted softly after she didn't notice him.

Grimes was looking a little startled at the moment. Grace stood next to Ron, nervously eyeing him. Ashley stood by the window, holding herself up as blood dripped from a wound on her forehead.

Something just went down, but I'll be dammed if I knew what the hell just happened.

Max had the same idea as she turned around to notice everyone, "What the fuck just happened?"

She turned to Ron and looked him up and down, "Dad?"

"Hey, Maxie." Ron smiled.

Grace went forward to examine Amelia. Her hands went to her side, looking at the wound, "Infected laceration. Max, could you tie down the left side of her body."

Max shook herself from her daze before going to Amelia and strapping the leather to her.

I went over to Ashley, grabbing a tissue on my way. I put the tissue to her head to soak up some of the blood.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

Ashley merely nodded, her eyes staying on Ron.

Turning, I saw him still just staring at Max. He was looking at her like all of the other zombies looked at her. Like he was waiting for her call to do something.

"Okay, okay, okay..." Grace whispered to herself after tying Amelia down, her eyes scanning the woman's body.

"What can we do, Grace?" I asked, approaching the bed.

Amelia was laying here, sweat beading on her forehead. Underneath her skin, black veins slowly started to spread from the scratch on her side. It was moving at a faster rate than Max's did. Maybe because she's so close to Max.

"I think I figured out the way to cure the disease." Grace said softly, glancing at Ron, "But I don't think it will fix her completely."

"Will she die?" I asked.

Grace shook her head, "No. She'll still be infected, but like Max and Ron. That's at least if my theory is right. It is not a hundred percent, however. It could be completely different with her than with them."

"Her mom needs to know." I said softly, "I feel like she should decide this."

Grace nodded, "Yes. I agree. In the mean time, I will need blood from both Ron and Max. Go find her."

"I'll go with." Ashley nodded, coming to follow me.

The two of us walked out into the hallway. Ashley stopped by a cart and grabbed some alcohol pads and a gauze.

"Grimes." She shook her head as we started walking again. She patted at her forehead to wipe the blood away and put the gauze on her forehead. "He tried to kill me. I know he did."

I stopped myself from pressing the button, "What? And you didn't tell them? We need to lock Grimes up!"

As I tried to go down the hallway, Ashley wrapped a hand around my wrist to stop me.

"No, Steve. Wait." She pleaded, "He's the only chance we have to finding a true cure. If we tell Max, then she'll kill him. I know she will."

There was terror and worry in her voice. I felt it too. I wanted to believe that Max wouldn't kill him out of rage. But she would. She almost killed me in the lab. She killed a scientist in cold blood. If Max knew that Grimes tried to kill Ashley, the woman she loved, she would easily rip his throat out.

And  we can't have that asshole dead. Not yet, anyways.

"Alright." I nodded, pressing the button to the elevator. "We won't tell her yet."

"Ron pulled Grimes away and almost killed him." Ashley shook her head, rubbing her hands with the alcohol pad to get the blood off. "I had to stop him by mentioning Max. He recognized me, but he's still out of it. He's still one of them."

"I can't have Amelia like that." I shook my head.

Not after we promised to go on a date with each other after all of this was over. I intend to keep that promise.

The elevator dinged and we stepped in. The doors closed before I started speaking again.

"How did Max do that?" I asked, "Control the infects."

"Grimes said she was like the queen bee. The 'central hub'." Ashley shook her head with a roll of her eyes, "I thought it was a load of shit, but he was right. She led them away from everyone and stopped the fighting. That was after Grimes tried to strangle me."

Anger filled my chest. This guy was really getting on my nerves. He knew how to piss off everyone and not get on anyone's good side.

"Why you?" I asked. "Why go after you?"

"He wants Max to himself." She responded. At the look of my raised eyebrow and disgusted look, she shook her head. "Not in that way. If I'm alive, then Max will stay. If I'm out of the way, he can fully control her and use her as the general in his army."

Of course that jackass would go as low as to kill Ashley for that. He did cause the entire state to turn into the ground zero of a zombie outbreak. I guess I shouldn't think of anything else.

But he won't get what he wants. I'll make sure of it.