S7E05:
AN: I know to those from the area my description might be a bit off from the community now, but keep in mind this is eleven years into the apocalypse and to expand the community West Park had taken resources from surrounding buildings like the schools and other neighborhoods to add to their own. My idea was they began in West Park but were able to expand south to encompass the elementary school using the buildings in between for supplies for the walls as they tore them down.
I got all my information from Google and GoogleMaps so if anything is inaccurate, I apologize.
Inside the walls of West Park looked like an old mobile home community, there were rows of single floor long homes lined up neatly along the roads. Some had empty spaces where available lots had been. Some of the houses had people around them hanging up laundry or watching children play. The community must have been doing well for itself, 10K noticed, as some mobile homes had already been converted into permanent housing. One building was a few stories high and looked like it had started off as mobile homes smushed together and added to with additional materials. It looked like it could house apartments, similar to what they had built in Altura, only West Park seemed to be years ahead of them. Other homes looked like they were used for storage judging by the people walking out every so often with boxes of supplies or food. Some were even piling things on the porches and counting them out like Bailey did back home. Other houses looked like they were being torn apart by crews of people who were taking the wood and metal to build other buildings that better suited the community's needs. There were some factory looking buildings deeper in the community past the rows of mobile homes, that were made of brick or steel and were only one story high and surrounded by old parking lots. Around one building old cars were being worked on, while another building was collecting scrap metal that had been found probably by their supply teams.
A larger brick and steel building seemed to tower over the other houses and put everything in a cold shadow. That was the building where he and Addy were brought, it looked like it had once been a school and as they were brought closer to it many of the survivors there glared at them as they passed. They definitely weren't welcoming of new citizens like Newmerica was.
Inside the old school the building looked very industrial with long tube lights along the ceiling and shadows in every corner. He was pulled along by his elbow while his hand and antler where still tied together behind his back. He and Addy were brought to one office room on the first floor of the building where a woman sat alone at a desk. She had short blonde hair that had been slicked back along her head and ended at the nape of her neck, she wore a tight black top under a sleek leather jacket with tight pants and knee-high black boots. She looked up from rolls of maps and stared blankly at them when they were brought in.
"Well?" she asked and the woman holding Addy spoke.
"We found them a few miles north of here, heading south."
The blonde woman looked between him and Addy for a long moment, her sharp eyes taking in every detail of them.
"And?" she asked.
Then the man holding him answered, "Neither one has said anything."
The blonde rolled her eyes, "Typical." She said with a shake of her head, "Take them to the same place we kept the others."
He looked at Addy and they both were thinking the same thing. These people had taken more captives and given that their leader used the past tense told them that the prisoners didn't stay here long, which was not a good thing for them.
"Look, we don't want any trouble –" Addy began only to get backhanded by the woman holding her. The blonde only sat back down at her desk and looked at the maps waving her hand away as they were pulled out of the office and back down the halls. They were roughly shoved down a few flights of concrete steps until they walked into an old storage room. There were still some boxes and long pipes leaning in the corners of the small space and in the middle were a couple of chairs with dried blood stains on them. The girl sat Addy down and zip tied her hands to the back legs of the chair while the guy took 10K and did the same only he used a bit of rope to tie his right forearm down in case the antler came loose. They kept the chairs back to back so Addy and 10K couldn't see each other, then they left. Thankfully they left the only light on, a small light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
"How's your face?" 10K asked, referring to the slap.
Addy scoffed, "It's fine. I've had a lot worse."
"Who do you think the other people they kept down here were?" he asked looking around the room trying to get some sort of clue.
"Hopefully Estes." She replied, "At least then if they killed him we've got one less problem to worry about."
He took a deep breath, "We're not getting out of here are we?"
Now he heard Addy sigh, "Not easily." She said, "Not with them all armed to the teeth out there."
"That's what I don't get." He admitted, "Newmerica's going through an ammo shortage and we're the most well stocked, self-sustaining community in the apocalypse. How are they all carrying around automatic weapons?"
"Maybe it's the piles of scrap metal they were collecting." Addy theorized, "Maybe they make their own."
"Two, four, four, four, six, seven, six, one, three, three, four, seven, three, five, one." they both started to hear dully through the concrete walls.
"Ugh, that's going to drive me crazy." Addy groaned and 10K felt her head tap his shoulder as she leaned back.
"What do you think it is?"
"I heard it once after the nukes. At one point I thought 'what the hell, maybe it's a bingo game'."
He barely chuckled at that, most of his mind was still worrying on what was going to happen to them down here. Judging by the blood splatters it was nothing good.
"Think if we can figure it out we can get an upper hand?" he asked and felt Addy shrug behind him.
"It's worth a shot." She agreed, "Let's face it, otherwise our blood is just going to mess up these chairs even more."
"Three, six, one, nine, six, eight, one, two, six, seven, nine, one."
Then they heard the knob of the door turn before it opened and the blonde woman stepped in with a new person they hadn't seen before. He was tall with longer dirty blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail. 10K eyed the knife strapped to his side and the gun in the holster on his other hip. He was wearing a simple button up light grey shirt under a tan jacket and beat up jeans. The blonde walked forward but the man stayed in the doorframe. She took a folding chair from where it was leaning against the wall, unfolded it, spun it around and sat on it backwards, resting her arms over the back.
"So." She began, "Who wants to go first?"
There was a long pause before Addy spoke up turning to her right to look at the woman, "How about you? It'd be nice to know why we're being held prisoner. Or do you give everyone this special treatment?"
The blonde chuckled like she was amused, "You have more attitude then any of the others. But you don't seem like someone who takes bullshit. How'd you end up in this crowd?"
"I think you might be confused –" 10K tried to tell her but she cut him off.
"Oh, I'm not confused about anything." She said getting a sharper look in her eye when she glanced at him. "You don't survive as long as I have by being stupid."
"Well then you might want to hear us out." Addy replied and the woman smirked again, "Whoever you captured before we're not part of them. We came from Newmerica –"
"Newmerica?" the woman asked, "Or Zona?"
That threw both Addy and 10K for a loop. The only people who knew about Zona where the people who lived there and the high up government officials who were supposed to be transferred there, like the thumbless Madame President and her two secret servicemen.
"You know Zona?" Addy asked, her voice dropping quieter in her shock.
"Oh I've heard of them." The blonde woman replied her face now much more serious. "A bunch of stuck up pricks who think they're better than everyone else – typical politicians – who made a paradise for themselves in case of the zompocalypse. Abandoning the rest of humanity instead of trying to help it, turning their backs on the very people who elected them into their offices in the first place. The people they took oaths to serve." She ranted clearly having been triggered, "I've heard all about them, and their plans. Their attempted 'Reset' trying to kill off humanity to save the planet? Save a tree but kill a human. Just like Pre-Z, and so many people fell for it then. I won't fall for it now, for my sake and the sake of my people."
She paused and looked them over. 10K swallowed nervously but hoped Addy was holding it together better then he was. "Is that why they sent you? The attacks these past six months? Zona, trying to wipe out the rest of humanity so they can make their perfect world?"
"We're not with Zona." 10K replied getting worried the more upset and angry this woman seemed to become, though if what she was saying was true and her community had been under attack for so long then who could blame her?
"That's what they all say." The woman said getting up from her chair and turning to the man, "Eric you know the drill."
"Yes Rita." Eric replied as she left and he waved in two more people. They were just as armed as the other people they'd seen in West Park and they both approached Addy and pulled her by her chair out of the room. She shouted and cursed them out as they dragged her away, fighting as much as she could while restrained.
"Addy!" 10K shouted as they pulled her into the hall and Eric closed the door.
"I wouldn't worry about her if I were you." He said locking the door and taking a seat where the woman – Rita – had been. He turned the chair so it was facing 10K and sat resting his elbows on his knees, "You have your own problems to worry about."
Addy POV
She was brought into another room that looked like a replica of the last one and looked like it was used for storage too.
"Is this the part where you try and get me to break then tell me my friend ratted me out so I'll tell you everything?" she asked when the woman – Rita closed the door so it was just the two of them.
She leaned against the door, crossed her arms and tilted her head before Addy went on, "I've seen my fair share of Law and Order, Pre-Z." she smirked.
Rita chuckled and looked to the floor as she shook her head and smirked herself. Then she looked back up to Addy with that same amusement on her face as before.
"No. But if you tell me what I want to know it might keep me from having you killed." She said still with a small smile.
"I doubt I know what you want to know." Addy replied calmly, she didn't want to show desperation this early in what she was certain would be a long interrogation. Rita pushed off from the door and approached Addy stopping and standing in front of her in a stance that showed she held all the power.
"Where did you come from?"
"Newmerica."
"Tell me the truth."
"That is the truth." Addy snapped.
Rita glared, "Newmerica is one of two things, either it's a lie, another fairytale of a zombie free world being rebuilt. Or, it's a cover up for some Zona operation. Neither one I trust."
Addy paused knowing no matter how many times she said it Rita would never believe her, she'd never believe Newmerica had worked, that George's dream had come true, that a self sustaining community with few zombies could exist. So she tried something else.
"How do you know about Zona?" she asked.
"How do you know them?" Rita returned the question and Addy thought it through, she supposed there was no real harm in telling Rita what they knew about Zona, maybe at the very least she'd see that Zona wasn't their ally and that could buy her and 10K some time.
"They were hunting my friend." Addy said in a neutral voice as she remembered Lucy. She'd taken that little girl from Illinois all the way to Washington fighting the Man tooth and nail to keep him from taking her. She'd climbed a mountain and jumped off a cliff for that girl. She'd technically died to protect her and in the end none of it mattered. "She's dead now."
Rita's expression changed for the briefest of moments, "I'm sorry."
"Are you?" Addy asked knowing people said that and sometimes never meant it.
"We've all lost people. People who never should have been lost. So yes, I am sorry you lost your friend to Zona."
Addy chuckled at her memory, "We didn't lose her to Zona. We beat them." She sighed, "She died saving her father."
It became quiet after that as Rita looked at her in a new light. Addy was still trying to figure Rita out and tried to shake the sad memory of Lucy out of her thoughts so she could focus on surviving this.
"I know you don't believe me but we have a community too, people we need to protect. I understand your need to defend this place. But we're not with the ones attacking you."
Rita scoffed, "Newmerica right?"
"Isn't Newmerica at least a step better than being with the people attacking you? If you let us contact our people we can help you eliminate the threat. Our leader, she believes in rebuilding a new world, a better world. We have kids, kids who are going to school and going to bed knowing a Z won't come for them at night. Our leader is only looking for more people who can be a part of that. Isn't that what you want? Why you're fighting so hard to keep this place safe? So your people can have that?"
Rita slowly shook her head, "I can't let you and the other one go."
"That's a mistake." Addy replied not threatening but still warning her and Rita quirked an eyebrow, "Our people will come looking for us, and if we're hurt they'll rain down hell on you."
Rita chuckled again, "We've been thriving for eleven years of this shit hole, we've survived nuclear blasts, radiation, Enders, Mad Z's, and hordes of zombies. We have enough ammo for every man woman and child to fire five automatic rifles and we'd still have bullets to spare. I'm not afraid of your people."
Addy paused for a second as they stared each other down, "If you knew what we'd been through you would be."
Rita walked closer and leaned her hands on her knees bringing her face close to Addy's, "If they do come for you my guards will shoot them the second they break the tree line. Don't worry though, we aim for the head, your friends will get their mercy."
Then Rita recoiled as Addy threw her head forward and smashed their skulls together. Her forehead hit Rita in the nose and she stepped back before she brought her hand to her face and looked at the blood on her fingers. Then she did something unexpected, she laughed. It was just a small chuckle as she wiped the blood off her face and looked back up to Addy.
"I knew I liked you." She said like she was looking at a challenge she hadn't faced in a long time and was looking forward to it. Addy wondered if Rita might be a little unhinged but then again everyone who lived this long in the apocalypse could be a little crazy, she just hoped Rita wasn't the kind of crazy that would cost her and 10K their lives.
10K POV
"I gotta hand it to you – no pun intended – you don't scare easy do you?" Eric asked as he circled 10K, moving slowly around the chair he was stuck to, "No surprise you lasted this long." He glanced at 10K's wrist where the antler prosthetic was, "And losing a hand, you must be a good asset to them."
Then Eric swung his fist again and 10K made a sound somewhere between a shout and a grunt as he was punched in the stomach again. At this point he was surprised he didn't have bad internal bleeding or some broken ribs. The side of his face was sore from the last punch Eric had aimed at his eye and he felt like he could feel it bruising as Eric kept asking him the same questions trying to weed out a truth that wasn't there. And 10K had no idea how he'd convince him to believe otherwise.
"You people always make this hard for yourselves." Eric said as he stood up straight and looked down at 10K who was as hunched over as he could get with his arms still tied to the back of the chair. "I've seen your men, they're nothing but old bounty hunters who got bored. There's no loyalty, why go through all this for them?"
"I told you I don't know who you're talking about." 10K groaned again looking up at the man. Eric shook his head before he punched 10K again, this time in the face making his head snap to the side and he began to taste blood. He spit it out onto the floor before Eric grabbed him by the hair and held his head back painfully, his free hand resting on the handle of the knife in his belt.
"And I think you know exactly who I'm talking about." Eric growled, "Look, Rita won't let you live. She's stopped taking risks like that for the safety of our home. It's why she has our tech-heads blocking radio transmissions and why she has our scavenge teams armed to kill anyone they see. She's beyond trusting outsiders now, so unless you talk you don't have a prayer."
"I don't know anything about the people who have been attacking you." 10K grit out, his neck starting to hurt from the uncomfortable angle it was bent at, his teeth slightly pink from the blood in his mouth, "We're not with them. We're from Newmerica!"
Then Eric let go and punched him in the face again before bending 10K's head back again by his hair making his scalp feel like it was on fire as Eric brought the tip of his knife to scrape along the metal seat of the chair. The sound making 10K cringe.
"I really didn't feel like getting blood everywhere today."