Fracking Apocalypse - a ZNation 10K/Tommy Fanfiction

S8E02

I decided to keep this chapter in one piece so you guys get an extra long one! Enjoy!

S8E02

George was in her office looking over pictures Citizen Z had gotten for her of the crime scene last week. She hated that after seven days she was still no closer to finding out who had attacked 10K or why. She huffed and sat back down in her chair pulling the stack of photographs into her lap as she flipped through them. There were several of the dead man himself, all from different angles. No one had been able to identify him, even with CZ sending the photos of his face to every outpost across Newmerica no one had claimed him as a citizen. An outsider bypassing Altura's security and avoiding citizenship registration and quarantine was someone who definitely wasn't working alone, in her opinion anyway. He had to have had help to get in, and that brought up the second problem: why attack 10K? Why had this man passed by every other Alturan citizen to seek out 10K and try to kill him? 10K was a good guy, a nice guy, he didn't have enemies.

George sighed again and sat back in her chair. A moment later the door to her office opened and Warren came in.

"Hey, how's it going?" she asked looking hopeful.

"Absolutely nowhere." George replied sourly and depressed.

Warren had gotten back just a couple days ago after staking out Limbo. She'd been waiting for Murphy to interrogate him on his dealings with the Black Market and plotting with Dr. Kurian. When she couldn't stay any longer and was itching to get back to tell George what she'd found she was surprised to hear that Murphy had been in Altura all that time making arraignments with George.

"When Murphy was here did he seem suspicious?"

George sat up straighter, "Not at all. And he didn't even mention 10K, and you know Murphy's never been too good at being sly. I would have picked something up when he came to talk to me."

Knock, knock, knock; knock - knock. . . knock, knock. The rhythmic tapping at her door interrupted her from the webchat she was having with Hackerville about the latest upgrades to the Newmerican tech they were working on remotely. Thanks to their collaboration with Kaya and Citizen Z most outposts had running security systems and each one had a generator hooked up to whatever building they used as an infirmary so medical help could be provided any time of day or night. Security was always a key aspect in maintaining safety and the Hackers believed that in another year or two they'd even be able to start installing electrical auto-locked gate doors meaning people like 10K and the other guards could spend less time standing at the wall waiting for a Z to meander by and more time going out with the convoys to protect the supply trade routes. In turn that meant they could trade more supplies more frequently since they'd have more workers to contribute to that project. It was a bright future for them which only made George a bit more irritated at the interruption to her meeting. Especially when it was Murphy who walked through the door.

She rolled her eyes and hung up her video call before turning to him as he sauntered in and shut the door behind him. With the briefcase in his hand and the smile on his face he looked like an old fashioned door to door salesman, only instead of a suit he was still opting for that ridiculous spiked leather.

"George, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"You are. But when has that ever stopped you?" she replied though Murphy didn't seem offended. Instead he laughed it off and walked closer to her desk. "What are you doing here Murphy?"

He shrugged, "Can't a guy stop by to see old friends?"

"No, not you anyway. You never leave Limbo unless it's something important or there's something you need." She said clearly hinting at the fact that the last time he'd been there was to steal a pint of 10K's blood. And George wouldn't stand for him sneaking in to assault one of her citizens again. Especially since she was already in the midst of one investigation.