Mortala

1.

It's been almost seven full years since Adrian and her family left after Adrian's sister, Alyssa died; and almost five full years since she found Inejra and nearly killed her. In those seven years, everything has changed. Adrian has been the leader of her community, Lexington, for four years; since then, she's finally stopped feeling alone. Her group knows about her past, to some extent, of course. And their reaction was simply, "Everyone's done something they're not proud of." Even the men in the group Adrian feels comfortable around. Alyssa's death ruined Adrian, every part of Adrian but this group seems to have brought just a little of that back. 

Magna and Adrian are married now and Magna took Adrian's last name, as did their adopted daughter Beatrice. Beatrice is almost thirteen years old now, meaning she's the same age Alyssa was when the apocalypse first started- something Adrian hates to think about. 

Lexington, the community she's a part of is in an old warehouse, much like the Sanctuary. There are twenty feet tall, built from smooth grey rock walls surrounding the community to protect them from the regular Walkers, the climbing variant ones, and people. There's a large, man-made saltwater pond next to the full metal gate where several fish inhabit, providing Lexington with seemingly endless food. The metal garage filled with trucks, SUVs, and smaller cars is placed on the right side of the gate with an industrial lock keeping intruders out. The main building, directly in the middle of the land, is a four-story tall concrete warehouse with a big shed connected to it housing bombs big enough to destroy a whole community. The outside training grounds, garden, and hand-made jungle Jim are behind the main building, bringing everything together. 

Annoyingly so, Lexington has been at war with three groups, three familiar groups that is. The Commonwealth, Alexandria, and Hilltop. However, they have no idea they're fighting with Adrian and they certainly have no idea who they're fucking with. The Adrian now her old group would not call Adrian. The Adrian now would send her old group into septic shock. Lexington has been annihilating them for weeks, all because they wanted to trade with Lexington but didn't ask. Instead, they came into Lexington's walls after hours and tried to steal food. They didn't steal too much, but after a familiar throwing knife was dropped and left, Adrian immediately knew who it was. Since then, because Lexington's main problem is a much larger group, they've only been trying to settle the war. If they weren't, those three groups would already be gone.

While sitting in her office-like room, Adrian is trying to map out an ambush on Alexandria's grounds. A knock sounds at the door, "Mhm?" Adrian calls out, looking up from the map. 

When the door creaks open, Inejra steps inside, dressed in Lexington's all-black fighting gear. "Hey, we have an issue." Immediately, Adrian goes into fight or flight mode and her brain goes to the worst-case scenario. After dropping her pencil, she stands up and places her hands on her redwood desk. 

"Are they back inside the walls?" 

Inejra shakes her head quickly, "No, not yet. It's not about them." With a small gust of wind, Adrian releases a breath she didn't know she was holding. She doesn't give a fuck about killing the people she once knew, but the thought of killing the people Beatrice once knew before her is where she starts to get hesitant. "The herd we've been tracking is headed straight for here." 

"How long until they get here?" 

"We've got a little bit but it seems like every day it's growing and growing." 

Adrian's fingers tangle through her black hair in irritation, "Fuck, um...well, damn it, we don't have enough shit to be able to take care of Forgefront, our old group, and a fuckin' horde." 

"Have you been able to make the war slow down a bit?" Inejra asks, closing the door and leaning on it. 

Adrian shakes her head, "No, not really."