KEEP RUNNING

*The scene opens to show Jace back in the forest. He is reliving that scene as Marcus talks to him.*

"What happened last night? Did you have another nightmare?" asks Marcus.

The view circles around Jace as we see trees full of walkers. The crows perched on their corpses as they stare Jace down.

"Yes."

The crows start to caw and fly away. Some start circling Jace.

"Was it bad?"

We get a close up at Ben hanging from the tree, snarling at Jace.

"Yes."

The walkers start to reach out and wriggle around the branches, growling and reaching out for Jace.

"Is there anything we can do to help?"

The crows suddenly take flight, and start to head towards Jace, attacking him.

"Not unless you can change the past."

*The scene cuts out.*

"I Will Still Be Dead" by Damien Jurado

*The scene changes to show Jace traveling down the road during the day by himself. The streets are littered with abandoned cars, garbage, blood, guts, and the occasional corpse. Jace holds his crossbow close as he ventures down the road. He rubs his face, his cut has just about all but healed up. Jace pulls an item out of his pocket again, looking at it. We can't make out what it is, but he grips it tightly, kisses his hand while holding it, then puts it back into his pocket as he walks on down the road.

We see Marcus and Julie gathering supplies, collecting food, gathering some weapons, axes, shovels, etc. They are rummaging through different abandoned houses, collecting what they can. We get a close up of Marcus' face, the cut that he suffered at the hands of Jace is almost entirely gone. Marcus pauses for a second and looks over at Julie as she rummages through some drawers. "Why don't you go see if you can find something fun upstairs," says Marcus. Julie smiles and pulls out her knife. Marcus smiles and nods to Julie.

Julie ventures upstairs and goes from room to room. She stumbles upon a room with pink walls, rainbow posters, and a rocking horse. Julie smiles and enters the room. She lays on the bed and hugs a stuffed bear. She then jumps off of the bed and gets on the rocking horse. Julie's smile fades away as she stares off into the corner. There, lays the corpse of a little girl in a blue sun dress, a single gunshot wound to her head. Blood is splattered all over the wall, staining the pink wallpaper. Julie gets off the rocking horse and walks out of the room, closing the door behind her, a single tear falling down her cheek.

We cut back to Jace. He suddenly stops as we get a shot from the side, as the view goes behind Jace, to show him standing in front of a Toys R Us. Jace quickly runs into the store. Jace makes his way past the double doors that are now broken, holding his crossbow out. The store seems to be abandoned, the floor still stained with blood from when he shot the Aces & Eights member in the head. Jace goes into the back room. He holds his crossbow out and secures the room. The chains still attached to the wall, the counter where Alexa was tied down is covered in blood. Jace kneels down and starts to cry. Jace notices his hat still on the counter, picks it up and puts it on. Jace gets up and notices a message on the wall, written in blood. "Drop the dagger and lather the blood on your hands, Romeo." Jace gets up and punches the wall, staring at the message as he becomes enraged.

We see Julie walk down the stairs, a pale look on her face. Marcus, who is filling his bag with canned food stops for a second and looks at Julie. A concerned look comes over his face as Julie runs over to Marcus and hugs him. Julie starts to cry into Marcus' side. Marcus holds her close, then looks up towards the stairs.

We get a shot of the truck moving on down the road, Art driving with Zero in the front passenger seat, Ash sleeping in the back seat with Katniss. Art looks back and smiles as he continues on down the road. He looks in between himself and Zero at a map. Art then rubs his face, his bruises and cuts are starting to heal up. He adjusts his t-shirt, covered in blood. Art reaches over and pets Zero. "Just a few more miles, buddy," Art says.

Jace is seen walking out of the Toys R Us. Jace stops for a second in the street in front of the Toys R Us, as we start to see smoke. Suddenly the store catches fire. Jace has an angry look on his face as he starts to walk away from the burning building. The view starts to change as we get a shot of Jace gripping a black vest in his hand. The scene fades to black.*

*We see Art back in the truck, driving on the back roads. Ash starts to slowly wake up and realizes what is going on. Zero looks back at Ash then nuzzles her. Ash smiles and pets Zero, as Art realizes that she has finally woken up.*

"Rise and shine, sleepy head. Did you have a good sleep?"

"I had as good as sleep as I could have, all things considered. What happened to the horde?"

"The horde died out a good four hours ago. No pun intended."

Ash smiles and laughs and says, "Of course," nudging Art. "How long have you been driving for?"

"About an hour or so."

"Did you sleep at all?"

"No. I was up all night."

"Why?" Ash asks with a concerned look on her face.

"Because I promised you I would. I wanted to make sure that the horde went away and that we would be fine. I wanted to wait until daylight hit for us to start moving again. The back roads seem to be clear. And we should be in the middle of Antioch by the end of the day if we keep going at this pace. We can't really go any faster, the other tire might blow out."

"Can you please stop the car?"

"Why?" Art asks, looking back at Ash.

"Because you need to sleep. And I don't want you driving us as tired as you are. I can drive us from here."

"Ash, I got this."

"No. You need to stop and let me drive so you can get some sleep, no challenge." Ash smiles at Art. Art smiles back and steps on his breaks slowly. The truck comes to a screeching halt. The two laugh as the breaks make a horrible noise. Art puts the truck in park and gets out of the truck.

"Fine. Here you go. Just let me know when you are too tired and I will start driving again."

"Don't worry. I will get us to Antioch and we'll figure out what to do from there." Ash smiles and takes the keys from Art. "You're in the back," Ash says, lowering the driver's side seat for Art. "You too, Zero." Zero perks up and makes a sound, looking at Art.

"You heard her, in the back, buddy." Art starts to get into the back seats when Zero leaps into them, wagging his tail. Art nudges Zero to move to the other side as Katniss starts to meow and jumps onto the passenger seat. "Wake me up if you need to. I don't really need the sleep."

"Just shut up and get back there and get some rest will you?" Ash smiles at Art again. Art smiles back and lays down.

"Ok."

"Throw me a box of Poptarts, will ya?" Art tosses Ash a box of Poptarts, and Ash starts the truck back up, and they start to drive off.

*The scene changes to show Jace meeting up with Marcus and Julie. Marcus looks up at the cloud of smoke going into the sky.*

"What's with the smoke?" asks Marcus.

"There's a building on fire. We need to keep moving," says Jace.

"What's with the hat?" asks Marcus.

"It's a hat," says Jace.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" asks Julie.

"Not really," Jace says, tucking the vest into his back pocket.

The group starts moving. Marcus stays close to Jace and starts to talk to him.

"You had another nightmare last night, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Haven't we already talked about this?"

"What are you going off to do? I understand you want your privacy, but we hardly know you. We want to help, but you keep shutting us out. What is going on?" asks Marcus.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it. I'm happy that you want to help, but it's not your problem."

"You're one of us now. If it's your problem it's our problem," says Julie, "right, Marcus?"

Marcus smiles, "Right." He looks at Jace. "We know we don't know you, we don't know your past, but you've helped us, and we've helped you. You are part of this group now. Given this group isn't a lot, but it's all we have...and we want to help."

"It's just not your battle, Marcus."

"You keep going out, going alone. You are putting us in danger. You are putting HER in danger!"

"SHE'S not MY responsibility!" yells Jace.

"You need to tell us what's going on."

"Or what?" says Jace, looking at Marcus. "Let me leave then. Let me get this burden off of your shoulders. You don't need this."

"Like it matters. You keep waking up in a cold sweat at night. And then you stay up, wandering the streets so that you don't have to sleep. And you keep looking at something in your pocket." Jace puts his hand in his pocket and turns his body away from Marcus. "What's going on man? Let us help."

"Just leave me alone. I never asked for either of your help."

"You would have died, Jace," says Julie.

"You should have just let me, then," replies Jace.

Julie looks at Marcus and motions for them to go. "Jace, we can't leave you here," says Marcus.

"Yes you can. I know where I am now."

"We don't. We don't even really know where we are going. We've been following you for days now. We need to find a place to stay and regroup. Just let us know what you're searching for and we can help."

"You can't help! I can't even help myself! How are you going to help me?!" Jace pushes Marcus away from him. "Just go. GO!" Marcus looks at Julie and frowns. Jace pulls his crossbow off of his back and aims it at Marcus. "Just go."

Marcus nods, looks at Julie and says, "Let's go. He doesn't need our help anymore."

"Jace," says Julie. "I hope you find what you are looking for."

Jace looks at Julie, and lowers his crossbow. "I'm sorry. But I can't drag you guys into this. Just go." Marcus puts his arm around Julie and pulls her towards him as the two venture off down the road together.

"We'll be in the neighborhood, in case you change your mind," says Marcus.

"Stay off the main roads," says Jace. Jace puts his crossbow on his back and pulls the item out of his pocket. He looks at it again, grips it tight, then puts it back into his pocket as he walks on down the road.

*The scene changes to show Ash sitting in the truck, crying. The truck is still running, but it's stopped. Art starts to move a bit, waking up as he notices Ash crying.*

"What's going on?" asks Art as he starts to make his way to the front passenger seat.

"I can't," says Ash. "I can't do this. What if there's nothing there? What if they aren't even alive? What if we get there and they are walkers, just like the rest of my family?"

Art moves all the way to the front passenger seat, moving Katniss to the back next to Zero. "Ash, you can't think like that. We've come so far. We can't give up now. We have to find out." Art looks out the windshield and realizes that they are in town. The streets look war-torn. There is blood, and bodies, buildings that look as if they have survived explosions, and walkers moving around aimlessly. "We can't stay here."

"I can't do this. It's just too much."

"Let me drive. You get some rest."

"What if there is nothing there, Art? What if we went through all of this for nothing? Even if they are there, it's not going to be the same. The fence won't be up, the doors won't be as blue as I remember them. Everything will be different. It'll be beaten up, bloodied, it won't be home anymore."

"Ash-"

"I can't do this. I promised him I'd come. It took so long. I should have just stayed with him. This wouldn't be happening right now. I'm not strong enough for this, Art. I can't do this. Look what happened last night. I had to fall asleep, in your arms. I couldn't have done that by myself. I needed you to get me through it. Now I need to find my father. I just- I can't keep needing people like this."

"It's not a bad thing to need people. We all need people-"

"But to what extent? To stay alive? To hang on to hope? If it weren't for you I'd be dead. I'd be one of them walking around outside killing others like you. You're strong, and I'm not. I was gonna take that gun and end it myself, but even then I couldn't pull the trigger."

"That's because you weren't meant to. Ash, you can't keep looking at this as weakness. You're strong. You have fought with everything that you have so far. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't be here right now. You can't think like that. We're so close, Ash."

"So close to what though? We don't even know what's out there."

"Do we ever?"

"I just can't do this. I don't want to get there and have it be gone. I can't deal with it if we came all the way out here for nothing."

Art moves over to Ash and holds her hands. "It wasn't for nothing. Ash, we survived a horde of walkers. We worked together to survive. I wouldn't have given us a chance to be able to spend five minutes alone in the same room together, and somehow we've made it this far. Don't give up now. We're so close. And even if we don't find anything, as corny as it sounds, we have each other. And if it's different then so be it. Home doesn't have to be a building with white picket fences and blue doors. Home is where your heart is...as corny as that sounds."

Ash looks up and wipes a tear from her eye. She starts to smile. "You're right. You're always right."

"No I'm not. I'm just right in this instance." Ash leans over and hugs Art, kissing him on the cheek.

"What was that for?"

"For being there for me. For not giving up."

"Let me drive. You need some rest. I'll be good to get us there. I'll wake you up when we get there, alright?"

Ash nods, unlocks the car and gets out. The two walk around the front part of the truck. Ash reaches out and grabs Art's arm, pulling him into another hug. "Thanks for coming back for me."

"No thanks are required," says Art, moving the hair out of Ash's face, tucking it behind her ear, staring into her eyes. Ash smiles and nudges Art.

"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer," says Ash, smiling at Art before she gets into the passenger side of the truck.

Art sighs, smiles, and gets into the truck, putting it in drive as Ash covers herself with a blanket. "Alright, little troublemaker."

*The truck drives off as the scene changes to Jace walking alone down the street at night. He seems paranoid as he keeps looking over his shoulder. He continues on as the wind blows leaves around him. Crows start to fill the night sky, as caws are heard all around. Jace starts to pick up the pace, until he trips and falls, his hat falling off. Jace looks up and sees two silhouettes and smiles, but his smile quickly turns into a look of fear as he realizes who it is.*

"Well now. Look what we have here." Jace is picked up off of the floor, as we see two members of the Aces & Eights. "Romeo, oh Romeo. Where for art thou, Romeo?" the taller of the two says, laughing.

"You picked a bad day to be out past crewfew, princess. It's way past midnight. Did your chariot turn into a pumpkin?" asks the shorter of the two.

"I thought we got rid of you. Didn't we take you like 18 miles out?" asks the taller of the two. Jace starts to realize these are the two that drove him out. "You know, you cost us our group. By the time we came back from dropping your sorry ass off the gang was gone."

"Where is Alexa?" asks Jace.

The shorter of the two moves close to Jace, grabbing his crossbow off of Jace's back. "Your girl? The boss probably took her. She was his favorite piece of meat. She screamed the loudest too. I know he liked that." Jace holds his head up high as the taller of the two holds him by the back of his collar. The taller one pulls out a knife and holds it to his throat. "I'm sure he took her with him. I don't think he'd throw her away just yet. Besides, I think he might have known you'd be a little cockroach, coming back to try to save her, not dying and all."

The taller one holds the knife closer to Jace's throat. "What do we have to do to kill a cockroach?"

"I heard you cut off it's head. Then it's body will run around for a bit, in search of an answer, then eventually it will stop moving, and it will die."

"Are you really sure that works?" asks the taller one, inching the knife closer and closer to Jace's throat.

"There's only one way to find out. Let's test out the theory, shall we?"

"I think that's a great idea," we hear in the background. Suddenly the taller of the two is hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat, and the shorter of the two is hit in the back of the head with a frying pan. We see Marcus and Julie standing over them.

Jace's eyes open wide. "You came back for me?"

"You're one of us, remember?" says Julie, smiling, picking up Jace's hat and handing it to him.

"We'll have time for the thank you's later. Right now we gotta go," says Marcus.

Marcus and Julie start running off as Jace picks up his crossbow. He takes aim at the taller one as Marcus grabs him and pulls him away. The arrow misses the target and bounces off of the pavement.

"What was that?!?" asks Jace.

"We don't kill the living!" says Marcus.

"You don't know those guys, do you?"

"Nope, and we don't care to," says Marcus as the group stops for a second. They look around and Marcus says, "We gotta find a place to hide. They're gonna come looking for us."

"Well, now you're involved in MY issue."

"It's OUR issue now, Jace," says Marcus. "We gotta do something."

Jace looks around and see's tire marks on the ground, and slowly realizes where they are, and smiles. "How about that place?" Jace points to a house, and the view pans up to show Art's house. Jace walks up to the house and lifts a rock in the front yard, finding a spare key. "This place will have to do."

*The three get into the house and lock the door behind them as the scene fades out.*

*Jace and Marcus are in Art's living room, as Julie sleeps on the couch.*

"You mind telling me what that was all about?" asks Marcus.

"Well, I guess it's about time you found out. You know they're gonna be coming after you too, right?"

"We're okay with that. We knew what was up when we saw you being held up like that. Just tell me what we're in for. Start from the beginning."

"It's kind of a long story."

"I've got all the time in the world, Jace." Jace smiles and starts to tell Marcus the story about the Aces & Eights.

"Break" by Rebecca Roubion (Feat. Jake Etheridge)

*We see Jace and Marcus talking by the fireplace. Julie is still fast asleep. We see Jace using hand motions, but we cannot hear a word he is saying. Marcus looks focused, hanging onto Jace's every word.

We get a shot of Art driving through the night. Ash is asleep in the front passenger seat. Her makeup is running from her crying earlier. Art looks over to her and sighs, and thinks to himself:

"I still have no idea what the fuck I'm doing. I'm glad she thinks I'm strong, but I know I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. I'm scared. I'm scared that we'll get there and there isn't anything there. I'm afraid that we came all the way out here for nothing. I'm afraid that we left Jace, all alone," we see a shot of Jace still talking to Marcus as Art's inner-monologue continues. "I want everything to work out so badly that I'm afraid of one little thing going wrong. The truth is, I'm not as strong as she thinks I am," we get a shot of Ash sleeping next to Art, as the view changes to see Art's eyes as he drives. "I'm not strong at all, but I won't give up. We've made it too far to give up now. I won't dare look back, but I have no idea what to do if this doesn't work out. And even if it does, where do I belong? Where do I go? I can't stay here. This is her family. I'm going to get her there, no matter what. And if there is something there, then I guess it's what she was looking for. I'm terrified that this isn't for me, and that this isn't where I belong. To be honest, I'm terrified of taking her home, because I know it's not my home...and once she's there, she won't need me anymore. How fucked is that? I'm afraid of what we might not find, and what we might find. I almost want to be lost with her out here forever...but I can't do that to her. I made her a promise, and I intend to keep it...even if it costs me everything."

We see Jace still talking to Marcus, as the scene changes to show Jace back in the forest. He is still staring up at the opening of trees, walkers, and crows. He looks around, crying as he notices Ben in the trees. Then Jace drops to his knees, and covers his mouth. He yells, "NOOOO!!!" as the view slowly pans up Ben's legs, slowly up to his torso, as the view goes to the left, to show smaller legs, a dress, and slowly the view creeps up, as we realize that it's a little girl, until the view pans up to her face, and we see that it's Hannah, a rope around her neck, as she hangs from the tree, with two playing cards stapled to her chest, an ace and an eight. Jace cries and lays face down on the ground as the crows start to flock around. Jace looks up, still crying, and pulls the item from his pocket. It's Alexa's locket; the one he gave her. He holds the locket close, engraved with a tree on it, as he looks up at the bodies that are scattered throughout the branches. Jace grips the locket tight and yells, "I'm sorry!" as the crows start to caw loudly, flocking about, filling the night sky.

Art keeps looking at the map, until he puts it down. He sighs, makes a right turn and starts to drive slowly looking for something. He suddenly smiles, and looks at Ash. Ash, still asleep, makes a little bit of a noise as she gets comfortable. Art laughs and pulls over to the side of the road. He looks at the map once more, then out the windshield. He looks over to Ash and nudges her.

"Hmm, what? What is it?" Ash asks as she starts to wake up.

"Wake up," Art says. Ash gets up and rubs her eyes. Her eyes widen as a huge smile comes across her face, as the view pans out of the truck to show a white picket fence, and a big blue door, and a house that looks straight out of a magazine. Ash begins to cry, then looks at Art. Art looks over to her and simply says, "You're home."

"For once, you're not right."

"No?" asks Art.

"No. WE'RE home," says Ash, smiling at him as she leans over to hug him.

The scene fades out as the sun begins to rise behind the house with the white picket fence.*

Music From This Episode: