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Abe perched himself in the high branches, waiting for the ship.

(Ok, sorry.)

A few minutes later, the zombies appeard. Abe watched them and froze. He then started walking down the tree silently, brushing past Jack with a dark, serious look on his face.

Jack didn't think much of it, and pulled a pistol to shoot zombies from the other side of the tree.

Engines. The ship was coming! Jack relayed the information to Abe before he could get to the base of the tree, and kept firing.

These guys are coming on pretty thick... I should be careful about how many of the suckers get onto the tree. Could get things messy... Looks like about ten minutes before our ship shows up.

Abe didn't hear Jack. He barely even heard the gunshots. He was zeroing in on one zombie. He started to run down the tree, cutting down and knocking zombies aside as he ran to his main target. It was one of the leader-like zombies, and this one stole something of his and he wanted to dish out his revenge. He got 20 feet from the leader when he was practically stopped by the mass of zombies between them. Abe cursed under his breath as he fought through the zombies, slowly gaining ground.

Blazes! Abe's in trouble... Jack thought, as he saw what was going on. Suddenly, a zombie got onto the tree behind Abe, effectively cutting him off from Jack. Jack took a shot at the zombie.

The shot flew past, missing the zombie completely. Jack checked his ammo.

Out of ammo. Great. Just what I needed. Jack drew a fairly long dagger from a sheath on his armor.

Abe got to 10 feet away from his target when the mass of zombies seperated, giving both him and the leader a battle ground. "I've been looking for you, you little bugger." Abe said, swinging his sword slowly. "Ever since you stole my sandwich." He then charged at the leader.

"Wait wait wait." Jack cut in over the radio. "You seriously put both our lives in danger... over a sandwich? Must've been a heck of a sandwich.

"The sandwich had bacon, man!" Abe yelled. "I had my dog go retrieve it so we could split it. But then he showed up and took the sandwich after giving my dog a nasty scratch." He got to the leader and put his weapons away. "Fair fight, ok? Prove who's tougher." he said, starting to fist-fight the leader.

Jack changed channels to comm with Obsidian.

"Please note that Abe is showing symptoms of insanity. If he puts us in much more danger, I'll have to leave him behind. I have Hope, so evac without him is an option..."

He changed back to the open channel.

"STOP! He'll infect you if you take him hand-to-hand!"

"No he won't." Abe said. "I challenged him to a fair fight, and if he uses trickery, his followers will leave him. Trust me, I've been here long enough to study them." He dodged a punch and landed one of his own, missing the next. The zombies around them watched silently, ignoring Jack.

"Wait, are you saying... that these things are intelligent?"

"Sort of." Abe grunted. "Think more of an animal pack, and that's what they are." He then landed a devastating blow to the leader, knocking it down. "You still want to continue, or will you accept defeat?" he asked the leader.

"But... Studies at Militech confirmed that they're just reanimated bodies... wait. Abe, I might need your help for a bit after we get Hope back home safely."

"Sure." Abe said, walking away from the leader who just accepted defeat. He started to climb the tree as the zombies dispersed.

"But that means... They must be able to communicate! Have you ever been spoken to by a zombie? This could change the way the world sees the disease."

"Remember when I said to think of them like an animal pack? Yeah, it's because that's what they are." Abe said. "They comunicate like animals would, and act like them too. Not much to change minds." He sat down on the tree at the fork.

"Interesting." Jack kneeled on the trunk. The ship dropped from the sky and lowered a retrieval basket, easily big enough for the three of them. Jack jumped in, Hope strapped to his back.

"C'mon. Let's go back home."

"Ok." Abe said, jumping into the basket.

As the ship flew through the air, Jack sat, helmet off, and thought deeply. Hope was in her medic bay. Jack opened long-wave radio from the ship's console.

"HQ, this is Grayhawke. I have completed the mandate, requesting further orders. I would smile upon an order to RTB, as all of us are low on health and food, over."

"This is HQ to Grayhawk. Grayhawk, who else is with you? Over."

"This is Grayhawk. I'm accompanied by Manta and a survivor. He won't tell me his organization, but he saved my neck, and seems to know something about the zombies we don't. Orders? Over."

"This is HQ. Grayhawk, RTB with Manta and the survivor, all the way to the way back. I have some important questions for him."

((All this is audible to Abe))

"Is HQ able to hear me right now?" Abe asked. "Anyways, where are we going? And how long will I be gone?"