(Sweet Tooth #7 (fb), 8 (fb), 9 (fb)) - Jepperd and Louis’s hopes of finding respite in the safe zone vanished as the government and military collapsed. They spent some time in survivors camps, but they soon turned into plague camps. As the sickness spread and food became more scarce every encounter with strangers became a dangerous situation, and the couple decided they were better off on their own. Louise told Jepperd that she was pregnant. Louise was worried their child would be born an animal hybrid, but Jepperd didn’t believe the stories they’d heard about animal children and broke the tension by making shadow puppets of different animals, joking about what their child would look like. Jepperd and Louise were attacked on the road by men wearing animal masks who were trying to abduct Louise. They were saved by Captain Abbot and his militia, who sniped the masked men, and explained they were cultists who stole away women they believed carried hybrid children. Abbot assured them they were the good guys, and after the fall of the government they’d taken over a military base and fortified it, looking to rescue other survivors. Jepperd was skeptical about going with Abbot, but Louise convinced him that joining up with Abbot was their only choice if they wanted their baby to be safe. Once they arrived at the camp they were immediately suspicious because no one else was there aside from the militia, and one of Abbot’s men subdued Jepperd by bashing him in the head with his rifle butt, while other militiamen dragged away Louise.

(Sweet Tooth #11 (fb)) - Jepperd woke up in a dog kennel, where he was greeted by Abbot’s brother Johnny. Johnny said Abbot tried to keep him in the dark, but he knew Captain Abbot ran the Preserve, supposedly a safe place for hybrid children, but in reality Abbot’s doctors dissected them in hopes of understanding the cause of the sickness. To obtain new subjects Abbot had abducted a number of pregnant women. Johnny hated what his brother was doing, but told Jepperd he couldn’t help him. Abbot visited Jepperd and told him under normal circumstances he would have killed him already, but having seen his fighting skills in action against the hybrid cultists, he thought Jepperd might be useful to him in the future. Johnny continued to visit Jepperd and bring him meals, saying that he was keeping an eye on Louise to make sure she was okay, but insisting that he couldn’t free Jepperd because Abbot would kill him. Jepperd eventually convinced him he was as bad as his brother if he continued to let Abbot run the Preserve, and Johnny unlocked his cage. Jepperd told Johnny to find a place to hide, and then killed a number of Abbot’s men before confronting Abbot, who brutally beat him. When Jepperd regained consciousness Abbot informed him that both his wife and son died in labor. Jepperd threatened to kill him and Abbot scoffed, saying that if Jepperd brought him a new test subject he’d return Louise’s body to him so he could give her a proper burial.

(Sweet Tooth #6, 7) - Jepperd brought Abbot a deer hybrid child named Sweet Tooth in exchange for the remains of Louise. Sweet Tooth had come to trust Jepperd completely, and was devastated when Abbott dragged him off to the Preserve. Jepperd took Louise’s remains and buried them at their old home, fulfilling his promise that they’d come home together. Jepperd contemplated suicide, putting a gun in his mouth after he buried Louise, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it, and hit the road again.

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