Yooooo.

Welcome back errybody. Last we left off, Rylo was reveling in the glory of solitude.

Anyone else getting highly anxious this guy’s never gonna pass the torch onto another generation?

Yet again a nomadic hermit bachelor wild man, Rylo bores us all with his uninteresting eat sleep kill crap eat sleep routine. Sooo time jump anyone?

I think yes. We’re going to jump ahead eight boring years. I’ll fill you in on all the lovely things that go on for the Yu extended family during this time. Starting with this.

It’s a picture of Dorah wallowing in her own birth fluids. Nice, right?

This is Ben Yu, the newest nooboo. Pretty sure he’s Good and a Natural Cook, basically another awesome Yu kid.

He grows up to look like dis.

And eventually dis.

He looks so much like Oscar. Funny story, Oscar was actually named Benjamin for the first few days of his life before I changed my mind. The coincidence is 3spooky5me.

Carys (who is the oldest) looks like this.

Dorah later gave birth to Mariella, who I know very little about.

Apparently her and Sam do it like rabbits, cause like a day later she popped Jeyna out in the bathroom.

As for Joey and Marina’s family, Reuben grew up to look like an average human child.

Surprise surprise, Siri somehow grew up to be ginger.

Marina: R u my kid?

Siri: I dunno but plz put your boobies back in your shirt.

As Siri grew up, she continued to be ginger.

Joey and Marina also had this child, Graham, who really likes stroller rides I guess.

If you don’t care at all about the extras, you have my sympathy. That’s like, ten seconds of your life you’ll never get back. Moving on.

Four, five, six winters pass uneventfully. Rylo loses count.

Probably the coolest thing that’s happened has been Rylo’s KO on this deer that thinks it’s a mountain goat. You do you, deer.

Eventually Rylo falls in with another group. It’s no different than the last one, and Rylo’s fine with that.

Some of the people in the group have some sort of drug they do sometimes, but Rylo’s past the point of caring. He doesn’t want it, and they don’t offer anyways. Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone watch your back while you’re sleeping.

Boundaries are non-existent in this group, and they take each other in the open like animals. Rylo’s past the point of caring about that too.

For a while he takes part in it, with a woman named Michelle. There’s no talking, just the occasional sweating and grunting in the long grass.

For a while that works alright, until she starts trying to nestle in with him at night. When that happens Rylo pushes away and arches his back against her.

In desperation she starts trying to get his attention during waking hours. After a few times of pulling away and ignoring her it all stops. A few days later and she’s grunting and moaning under a deerskin with someone else.

It’s all the same to Rylo, and soon enough he’s found some other woman who doesn’t feel the need to get him to talk.

The group keeps constantly on the move, with the only rule being keep up. It suits Rylo fine.

At the height of summer they sometimes go few days without seeing water. Today, they stop for a few sips at a murky, putrid puddle.

It’s gross, but anyone who’s survived this long probably has an immune system that can handle it.

The group’s just getting ready to move on when they hear a shriek. Pale arms reach out from under the ruins, and Michelle drops heavily to the ground.

The group members watch in shock as Michelle is rapidly dragged under, thrashing and clawing at the dirt.

Rylo lunges forward, steadying his bow. He takes aim, releases, and the struggle ends.

Laboriously Michelle crawls out from under the ruins, and lets out a deep, tormented wail that seems to never end. Strips of denim and flesh hang loosely from her mangled legs, and Michelle’s cries grow dry and gravelly.

One by one the group members look away, and then start walking.

As she realizes what is happening, Michelle struggles up onto her feet. Her destroyed legs drag awkwardly, unresponsively. Exposed muscle quivers, and she pitches forward into the dust.

There she stays, and the group walks on.

In the late afternoon, they find a small house. Some fall asleep immediately, while some stand around talking.

And some, like Rylo, disappear into themselves. Even when he’s in a room full of people, Rylo is always in the fortress of solitude. It’s a skill, really.

Suddenly the silence is interrupted by a scratching, and the group reflexively jumps up with weapons raised.

Just one zombie outside a window isn’t a huge threat, and one guy volunteers to take care of it. Everyone begins to settle back down again as the guy draws his knife, but as he moves towards to window he flinches at the sound of another thump.

Two more snarling zombies hungrily paw at the front window. Unsurprisingly, noone volunteers to get these ones.

Another thump, and everyone turns to look at the back window where two zombies claw out for flesh. The guy who had volunteered to take care of them begins slowly backing away into the center of the room.

Another rattling moan, and the dead come lurching through the front door.

All hell breaks loose, and everyone tears off in different directions. In the chaos, a shrieking woman is seized. The zombie’s black teeth tear at the skin and cords of her neck, and her shrieks become silent but carry on all the same.

One guy makes a dash up the stairs. Another tries to follow him, but a pair of clawed hands reach through the window and snatch at his arm, dragging him roughly back.

Somehow Rylo fights his way through the chaos and up the stairs. He glances back in horror at the woman with her throat bitten out, and at the man struggling away from the zombie clawing his arm to ribbons.

Rylo streaks up the stairs and bursts through a door into an empty room. A man named Barrett stands resolutely in front of the only window. Taking no notice of Rylo’s presence, he clambers through the window sill, hangs by his arms, and then drops.

His heart beating wildly, Rylo rushes to the window and hangs his head out.

He watches in slow motion as Barrett totters atop a rusty barrel, and then steadies himself. A low moan sounds from behind him, and in his surprise Barrett steps back into air.

Arms reach up to receive Barrett’s flailing form, and then a new set of screams joins the ones coming from inside the house.

Amid the sickening slurp and tearing sound that Rylo wishes he could forget comes a dragging, rattling, moaning on the stairs behind him. The zombies below are frenzying around what must seem to them like a gift from the heavens, and take no notice as Rylo quickly drops from the window, landing squarely on the barrel.

Rylo hardly takes time to shudder before leaping forward and breaking into a run away from the scene.

After only a few meters Rylo realizes he has a follower that seems to have lost interest in Barrett.

He’s sure he can outrun it, but then changes his mind as two more zombies emerge from around the corner.

In one fluid, practiced motion Rylo swings his crossbow around his back and sends a bolt into the trailing zombie’s softened skull. He then spins around the deal with what’s ahead.

The two in front of him are closer than he thought, too close to use his crossbow. He steps back a few paces, swinging the crossbow onto his back.

Rylo pulls out his pocket knife, stepping deftly forward and then quickly to the side in a sort of dance. The slower zombies lunge out for him, but he’s already leaped just a pace out of their reach. By keeping his movements unpredictable Rylo slinks around the zombies, plunging his knife skillfully into their brains.

After that it’s just a cool sprint through the night air, away from the screams and the carnage and the death.

Rylo could run for hours if he wanted to, but eventually stops when he realizes his running has landed him somewhere familiar.

Up on the hillside, barrels of fire light up the night, and a sweetly pungent aroma wafts through the breeze.