Early chapter this week? What!??
S7E03:
"Broadcasting to all outposts. Broadcasting to all outposts. This is Citizen Z with an emergency announcement. A high profile criminal from Altura has escaped custody. All outposts are to be on the lookout for one Roman Estes. He's a white male of average height, dark hair, beady eyes. Last seen fleeing Altura and headed south. If seen all outposts are advised to engage and detain. Prisoner is highly skilled with technology and robotics, keep him contained at all costs. Prisoner has a history of attempted homicide, arson, Talker discrimination and genocide, and employing, aiding and abetting murderers.
Repeat this is Citizen Z with an emergency broadcast to all outposts. A high profile criminal –"
Citizen Z heard his recording in the background repeating over and over again as he listened to other frequencies as search parties radioed back and forth to one another about what they found, or more accurately, what they didn't find. So far it had been twenty four hours since Newmerica went on high alert and everyone locked down and sent any available volunteers out looking for Estes. CZ had been trying to monitor as many stations as he could seeing if there was anything he could do to help. Warren and Cooper had made it safe and sound to Altura, Addy had contacted him from her position where she was searching for Estes and he was keeping an extra watch on 10K's location as a favor to Bailey. Kaya would kick him where a man should never be kicked if he let anything happen to 10K while Bailey was expecting, the stress alone was already concerning his wife enough and she'd come to Altura, bringing JZ and Nana with her, in case Bailey needed any help from another young mother.
"Cave Dwellers, Tundaria, Mines, all clear –"
"Waterkeepers are good brother." Doc's voice came across the station, he must have been helping Kuruk and her people search and keep a lookout, maybe he'd even gone on another 'spirit walk' to pitch in and cover more ground.
"Heartland's got all our workers in the field, any chance we can get some extra bodies to help cover guarding the land?" Finn's voice added.
"Roger that, on our way –"
"Nine, eight, eight, three, four-"
What the hell? He thought to himself putting on his headphones and turning up the volume on the new channel.
"Five, five, three, seven, seven, nine, eight, eight, three, four, five, one, three, seven –"
It sounded like some sort of coded message. He remembered Addy saying something about coming across an odd numbers station once, right after the nukes, but after the situation with Murphytown in Spokane, and Lucy and the Man they had all kind of forgot about it. He listened closer trying to see if he could decode what the string of numbers meant. It could be a message about Estes, but then there was still the question of who was transmitting it?
Bailey POV
When Bailey dropped off TJ at preschool the next day and saw Murphy lurking around casually smoking some Z-weed she felt that pull in her gut again. Why was Murphy still here? He must have gotten what he needed from Red by now, and he never liked staying in Altura. He much rather preferred Limbo where people looked at him like he was the greatest thing in the world instead of the people of Altura who looked at him like he was a freak of nature. She didn't have much time to think about it before she kissed TJ goodbye and headed off to the infirmary. She had an appointment with Red for a check up for her and the baby, besides it'd be a good time to ask her what Murphy had been asking about yesterday. Maybe she'd know why he hadn't left yet.
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"Both of your heartbeats are good, strong. But I'm a little worried about your blood pressure. Has everything been okay?" Red asked as she folded her stethoscope and draped it around her neck. The stethoscope was a dark reddish maroon color and seemed to now substitute for the red scarf her friend used to wear. She also had traded in her more urban look for a long sleeved black shirt under a pair of grey scrubs. Red's brown hair had been braided again but now those braids twisted together in a bun at the nape of her neck, only a few loose flyaway pieces left framing her face.
"You mean aside from the usual apocalypse stuff and now having a fugitive on the loose?" Bailey asked as she laid back against the cushioned medical chair she was sitting in and tried to relax. She couldn't resist fiddling with the bottom of her peach tank top, the flowy material kept her cool and comfortable even with her larger then usual stomach. She was happy she'd at least been able to put on her favorite pair of brown yoga pants which would probably be the only thing she'd wear from the waist down until the baby came, jeans just wouldn't fit her anymore.
Red smirked knowing exactly what she meant, "10K being away taking a toll on you?"
Bailey sighed taking a deep breath, "It's just harder when I have to rely on other people to keep him safe. They don't love him like I do, they might not try as hard as I would to save him if something went wrong."
"I know how you feel." Red told her as she took out her chart and started putting in Bailey's vitals that she'd taken. "I felt that way about 5K. Back when we were living at Mercy Labs, other people would keep an eye on him, but there was just something inside me saying I'd do a better job. That I cared a little bit more than everyone else, like I couldn't relax if he wasn't in my sight."
"And Murphy here isn't helping me either." Bailey admitted. "I can't shake the feeling that he's up to something. Usually, I don't have to worry about it, Warren always kept him in line. But she was here for half an hour before she was done talking to George and both her and Cooper took off south after Estes."
"Yeah, Murphy seemed a little off to me too." Red told her putting down the clipboard and sitting on the stool beside her chair. "I mean, more than usual. He was asking questions about Sun Mei's research, if there were any notebooks I'd found that might help. I gave him what I had but it wasn't much. I thought Sun Mei would have left more, but she probably stopped writing things down once she got suspicious of Estes. Maybe she even threw a lot of it out. But even when I gave Murphy what he asked for he seemed so. . . disinterested. Like he didn't care about the answers I was giving him, like his mind was someplace else."
Bailey took another deep breath and looked at her lap trying to piece together the new information, she brushed her hair back over her shoulder. Since she'd cut it she could no longer play with it like she used to and she tried to keep herself from playing with the crochet part of her tank top; the detailing was only on the shoulder of the inch thick straps right where her hand had automatically gone. Then Red shoved her shoulder, clearly seeing her distress. The small gentle push forced Bailey to look up at her.
"But don't worry about Murphy. Focus on TJ and your baby. You need to get your blood pressure down, doctor's orders."
Murphy POV
He was standing in the hall of the community building on the floor that had all the classrooms. He was watching through one long wide window that looked in on the preschoolers. Inside, 10K's little brat was standing at an easel with a little girl as they finger painted. The girl had blonde hair that was pulled back into two pigtails, Murphy couldn't look at her too long before his eyes fell to his shoes. That little girl made him remember Lucy. He never got to see her so young, she'd been a baby when he left her with Ma and Pa Kettle, then the next time he'd seen her she was a teenager. He wondered if she would have liked to finger paint, or if she would have made friends like the Squirt. Then he shook his head and stepped away from the window heading back down the hall to the glass staircase. Maybe he'd stop at the Tavern on the first floor and get himself a drink, he didn't want to wait to get back to Limbo before he could get a buzz. Now with his mind on Lulu his plans were changing, he couldn't hurt the Squirt, he couldn't even hurt Hawthorne, or Beck-Hawthorne or Hawthorne-Beck, whatever she went by now. Instead he was back at square one waiting around this shit hole for the one-handed wonder to come back.
He stuck his hand in his pocket and took out the small notebook that Red had given him the other day – the only thing of Sun Mei's the girl had left. He leaned on the rail at the top of the stairs and started flipping through it. He found the section that reviewed – again – how his blood evolved from day to day, and the changes the doctor had seen in it. Then one note in particular caught his eye. Gene 47 displays anti-zombie properties and does not mutate in contact with live zombie virus. Live zombie virus? Kinda redundant, he scoffed to himself. More testing needed to run trials on a genetic agent that will cause Gene 47 to fight against zombie virus in addition to withstanding it. Using former trial vaccines that proved to work to fight infection and restart the human heart mixed with Gene 47 should show positive results. Need more blood from subject Alvin Murphy to run further trials. Only drop still in possession hidden in Wall –
Hidden in wall? He thought. Sun had a portion of his blood stashed here? He scoffed to himself again, everybody wanted a piece of The Murphy. But what wall? In her lab? Red would have mentioned something like that, which meant she didn't know. Great, now what was he supposed to do? Go smashing through every wall in Altura, like that wouldn't attract attention. He looked back down at the page again and reread it, then reread it again feeling like there was something just out of reach, something he should be noticing. Then it hit him, hidden in Wall, why was wall capitalized? Only names were capitalized.
As he wracked his brain he started to head down the stairs and back outside. Wall, wall, wall, he thought until he saw it across the lawn– the Memorial Wall. The one they had built for all the blood samples of the people who had died the day of that first attack. Smart move Dr. Sun, smart move. As Murphy walked nonchalantly closer to it and ran his hand along the surface he began to feel a pull, like when he had his connection to Lucy, like the connection he had with his Blends. He stopped when he felt his palm cover the correct compartment and he smirked. He could take back his blood sample and study the same genes Sun Mei had, the genes his blood had shown that very day. Now all he needed was a sample of Ten Thousand's blood, the: former trial vaccine that worked to fight infection and restart the human heart, that Sun had talked about in her notes. The one that had healed 10K of his gun wound infection and had brought him back from death just before they faced off with the Man. Put the two together and in no time he'd have a cure. But first he had to get his hands on this last sample Sun had hidden away, his blood was liquid gold and he wasn't about to let anyone else get their hands on his soon to be fortune.
10K POV
He kept heading south, keeping his eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. He was so far south he was somewhere between the Inlanders and Old Frontera. He'd been picking up their radio frequencies and it felt like a rock settled deeper into his stomach whenever another scout said they hadn't seen any sign of Estes. He'd told Bailey he wouldn't be gone long, and honestly he hadn't been expecting the hunt for Estes to last longer than a week. But now with more and more reports coming in of no sign of him, or a trail, 10K was starting to get nervous. He really hoped Estes hadn't left Newmerica, if he'd gone across the border it'd be easier for him to vanish and so far that's what it looked like he'd done.
Then he was pulled from his thoughts by a rustling sound and he looked off the side of the quiet country road he was on and slowly made his way toward the thick trees that lined the street. He was careful not to step on any twigs and give away his position as the rustling continued. He lifted his antler prosthetic and grabbed a rubber band and a gear from his pocket. He tugged the rubber band over the antler and readied the gear. He made his way behind a wide tree and waited for the sound to come to him, when it got close he turned and prepared to launch the gear only to falter and have a red spike aimed at his eye.
He leaned back just enough that it barely grazed the bridge of his nose as he let out a deep breath, "Addy?"
"10K." she replied, "Damn, don't do that to me."
She lowered her bat and he lowered his right arm putting the gear back in his pocket.
"What are you doing out here?" he asked as they walked back toward the road.
"Looking for Estes, same as everyone else." She said swinging her bat by her side.
"Well yeah I figured that. But why aren't you prowling around Heartland?"
"Why aren't you prowling around Altura?" she asked throwing his words back at him. He was quiet and licked his lip, "Mmm-hmm. Yeah, me too."
He'd forgotten how much he missed Addy, how well she got him. How it felt like he had a sister whenever she was around, whether they were talking about something serious or whether she was grilling him about cat videos on the internet.
"How did you know I wasn't near Altura?" he asked.
She shrugged now with her Z-Whacker over one shoulder, "CZ."
He nodded knowing Bailey would have asked Citizen Z to keep tabs on him for her peace of mind, maybe he'd sent Addy as a favor to her. They walked a bit more down the road before Addy broke the silence.
"So. . . how have you been?" she asked and he smiled at her, "What? We've got a long walk ahead of us, might as well do something to pass the time until we find a sign of Estes' trail."
He smiled again, "I've been. . . better." He admitted, "I'd rather be home with Bailey, and TJ, going to bed with my hand over our baby feeling Little K kick."
"Awww." Addy said in her teasingly big sister kind of way. "Bailey was okay with you coming out here alone?"
He shrugged, "Duty calls." He said simply, "You know how it is."
"Yeah I know exactly how it is." She muttered and 10K got the feeling that she wasn't too happy she'd been pulled away from her happy life with Finn because of Estes either, "There's always something."
Another silence fell over them as 10K removed the rubber band from his antler and put it back in his pocket. A small part of his mind wandered to how fun it would be when he could teach TJ when he was old enough. Then he remembered Estes on the loose and he promised himself he'd do whatever he had to do to make their part of the world safe for his family again, so his son and new baby could grow up without constantly fearing for their lives. And he never broke a promise.
Bailey POV
Bailey sat at the island in the combined kitchen and living room in their apartment. TJ was next to her and she was helping him with his homework. He had a beginner's book from his collection, and at the end of the week the students in his class were going to take turns going in front of the class talking about their favorite part of their favorite books. The class was only three and four year old's so they wouldn't be reading for another year or two but the book TJ had was simple enough and Bailey knew he'd already shown he had an aptitude for learning. He was always so proud and beaming with joy when he could come home and show off to his Momma and Papa.
"Would you, could you, in the rain?" she read through the book as TJ looked for the page he wanted. "I would not, could not, in the rain. Not in the dark. Not on a train. Not in a car. Not in a tree. I do not like them, Sam, you see. Not in a house. Not in a box. Not with a mouse. Not with a fox. I will not eat them here or there. I do not like them anywhere! - You do not like green eggs and ham? - I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."
"That page Momma." TJ said pointing to the new picture when she flipped the page.
"That's your favorite?" she asked looking at the picture where the car Sam-I-Am was in had landed on top of a train.
"Yeah." He said smiling before reaching for a cut carrot stick from the plate in front of them and he bit off the end. "I like how the car is sitting on the train and the people in the train don't even notice. And then Sam-I-Am opened that little door on the hood of the car and a goat comes out."
Bailey chuckled at her son, "Alright, well Papa's read this to you before. Can you remember how to sound out the words?" she asked encouraging him.
He nodded his head and started to sound them out the way his Papa had taught him though Bailey knew TJ also knew most of his books by heart, "Co - could you, would you, wit a goat?"
"Here." Bailey said pointing to the word 'with' again, "Don't forget the H, TJ."
"Wi- th. With a goat." He corrected and smiled when he saw his Momma smiling at him then he looked back at the page, "I would not, could not, wi-th a goat." He giggled, "Julie doesn't like this book."
"She doesn't?" Bailey asked.
"No she thinks green eggs and ham would be yucky." He said finishing off his carrot stick and grabbing another one, "Can we make green eggs and ham Momma?"
"Maybe TJ. But we can't have ham so maybe I'll make tofu bacon and you can use green food dye."
"Yeah! Yeah! We can make it for Papa, he loves tofu bacon." TJ said excitedly making Bailey smile. Then his attitude changed like he'd been reminded of something sad and he asked in a smaller voice as he played with his carrot stick breaking it apart, "Momma, when will Papa be home?"
It always broke her heart when TJ would ask that. Normally, Tommy was just away on supply runs and she had a more concrete date of when he'd be back. This time though, who knew how long he'd be. He'd said a week or two but she knew he wouldn't come home until Estes was found.
"I don't know sweetheart." She said softly as she started rubbing his back knowing it helped comfort him when he was feeling sad.
"I don't like it when Papa goes." TJ mumbled still breaking his carrot into pieces.
"Me too honey." She said, "But he leaves so we can have a better life, remember?"
"Yeah, Papa keeps us safe and keeps the supply truck safe when it goes out to pick up our food." He nodded perking up a little bit. Then Bailey turned his attention back to the book to take his mind off it, though her mind didn't budge from wondering and worrying if Tommy was okay out there.
Kaya POV
"Ghostking2.0, Ghostking2.0, this is Kaya in the Skya, over. We've received your transmission, go ahead over." She repeated into her headset rolling her eyes as she always did when Ghostking contacted her.
"Yo Kaya Skya, whaddup?" Ghostking's annoying voice replied back to her.
"What up is we have a criminal on the loose, so get to the reason for this transmission or get off the frequency over." She replied already annoyed.
"A'ight, girl chill. Hackerville doesn't waste time. We put our drones in the air once the red alert was called."
"And?"
"And, they picked up some suspicious activity near the southern border. We've got a man in a hoodie who matches Estes' height abandoning a broken down vehicle near Great Falls, Montana and continuing south. We had to pull our drone back and by the time we got a new fully charged one out there we spotted a similarly dressed man getting into a pickup truck on route 90 before the vehicle headed southeast into Wyoming."
Kaya typed as quickly as her fingers could and brought up several blinking dots on her computer. Each one was a radio frequency from the scouts across Newmerica. The one that blinked furthest south she knew was Addy and 10K. They were closest to the old America-Canada border and would be the team quickest to respond to the sighting.
"Alright, great job Hackerville. We'll be in touch."
10K POV
"Addy. Addison Carver. Come in. This is Kaya in the Skya. Over."
"Kaya, you've got Addy and 10K, go ahead." Addy said into the radio after she'd taken it off her belt.
"We've got a possible Estes sighting. Turns out he did make it back to the United States. Probably hot wired a car but it broke down and he hitch hiked. Someone picked him up and headed into Wyoming. Warren and Cooper are following your trail but we need eyes in the area ASAP."
"You got it Kaya. We're on it." Addy said before signing off. Just as she was returning the radio to her belt another transmission came in.
"Five, seven, seven, seven, nine, eight, eight, three, four, five, one –"
"That's. . . not Kaya." 10K said hesitantly as he saw Addy look at the radio in her hand, "I've never heard any code like that."
Addy's look turned to one of suspicion, "I have."
Addy and 10K moments! Yes!
Also, I know the Murphy and the cure thing is complicated (it gave me a headache to write it- science was never my strong suit) but if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the review section and I'll do my best to answer without any spoilers!