S7E06:
The news about Estes' escape put the Waterkeepers on high alert but now that their tribe was united they had enough humans and Talkers to guard the perimeter of camp and search the land so they were certain that Estes was not in their territory.
"Our land is safe, why is that not enough for you?" Kuruk asked Ayalla as they got into another debate. Doc was nearby in the tent crushing herbs for salves Kuruk made for her people and was doing his best to stay out of their discussion.
"Because if Estes, or any other threat comes to Newmerica we should help everyone!" Ayalla argued. She believed that since they had the resources they should send people out in search parties like the other outposts were; help comb over more than just their territory. "The last time trouble happened in Newmerica we were almost run off our land by zombie bombers. If George and her people hadn't shown up the dam would have burst, our tribe would have stayed divided and we would have been run off our land again."
Kuruk gave a sigh and paced around the tent, Doc knew that she knew Ayalla had a good point. Ayalla strongly believed in George's words 'United We Stand. Divided We Turn.' It was hard to argue with those words, after all, they brought a whole new nation together.
"Look, I understand wanting to help others. But I just don't want to risk our people." Kuruk said calmly.
"Well I'll go." Doc volunteered making the two strong willed women turn to him. "I'm not one of your people, and you know I'm no threat. I can go and check for any signs of funky activity."
"Doc, you'd do that?" Ayalla asked looking touched.
He shrugged. "Sure. I mean, you've got a damn good point. We should at least check to make sure everything is good."
"I'll go with you." Kuruk chimed in.
Ayalla turned and smirked at her, "I thought you didn't want to risk our people?"
"I don't. Which is why I'm against sending people out there. But no one is sending me, I'm choosing to go."
"Alright, the more the merrier." Doc said with a smile. "But where exactly are we choosing to go?"
Ayalla pulled out a rolled up map of Newmerica and spread it across the table in the middle of the tent.
"Well northwest of us is Tundaria, and to the south is Heartland. West is Altura and East is the Brewers."
"What about Northeast?" Doc asked.
"There's only one outpost, the Rangers. But it's no man's land. George was going to use it as Newmerica grew and we needed more space."
"Sounds like a good hiding place to me. And if no one else is up there to scout, it could pay off to check it out. Kuruk and me can head out that way, bunk down there a few nights and make sure the surrounding area is good."
"No one has been there in at least three years when Newmerica was just getting started. You shouldn't find any trace of humans there, if you do radio back and tell us and I'll let Citizen Z know to send more people to scope it out." Ayalla said passing him a radio.
"Right on." Doc said smiling as he put on his round sunglasses ready to roll.
Addy POV
Addy was brought back to the room she'd started in about an hour later - if she had to guess the time - and again was dragged by the chair she was tied to. 10K was still there restrained and had his head down so his messy dark hair was covering his face meaning she couldn't see him that well. Two of their kidnappers brought her chair a bit further from him this time but at least they were facing each other now. Then the guards left and Addy tried to get 10K to look at her.
"10K, you alright?" she asked and saw him take a deep breath though she heard him wince a little, obviously in pain. It was hard for her to tell if he was bleeding thanks to the dark shirt he had on, but she didn't see any rips or tears so that was a good sign.
"Yeah, fine." He said looking up at her and her heart fell into her stomach. 10K had a serious bruise on his cheekbone by the side of his head, it was purple and looked like it hurt even without anything touching it. He also had some bad looking cuts across his face, one running from the bridge of his nose down the side of his face ending at his jaw. It didn't look too deep but it was bleeding badly. There were a few more cuts, one about an inch long under his eyebrow running diagonally and just missing the outer corner of his eye. Another small one ran from his lower lip diagonally to his jaw, one more wound – it looked like he'd been hit with the handle of Eric's knife – had left a small bleeding spot on his temple in a little red circle but the long one over his nose and across his cheek one was the worst of them.
"Oh my God, 10K."
"I'm fine." He said again, "After losing a hand this is nothing."
Then he started coughing and again sounded like he was in a great deal of pain.
"Are you sure?" Addy asked, "You don't sound alright."
"Yeah. . . yeah." He replied taking deep breaths when the coughing had subsided. "I can take a few punches to the gut."
Then he looked away from her obviously trying to hide his pain before he gave up and looked back at her and asked, "What about you? Are you alright?"
"Yeah." She admitted feeling a bit guilty. The only thing that hurt on her was her head and she'd done that to herself when she'd heat butted Rita. Meanwhile while she'd been getting asked questions 10K had been getting beaten and cut up. "Just a bunch of the same questions again and again but they just think we're liars."
She heard 10K sigh again and heard another small wince. How bad of a beating had he taken that just breathing was painful? "Honestly, Addy, if we were lying I would have caved in by now."
She chuckled humorlessly, "We probably seem like a couple of tough as steel badasses to them huh?"
"I don't feel like a badass." He grumbled before he gave another cough. Then 10K looked around the room again. Addy knew him well enough to know that 10K avoided eye contact when he wanted to be alone but couldn't. So she gave him the next best thing: silence. He seemed to appreciate it and looked like he was deep in thought. She wondered if he was thinking of Bailey. . . and TJ. . . and the baby. She had promised him she'd get him out of here and back to his family, but she was starting to doubt if she could keep that promise. Then the quiet was broken by more of the transmission echoing and reaching their ears.
"Seven, three, four, six, three, six, seven, two, three, six, three, six, eight, seven. . . "
She rolled her eyes annoyed but then she noticed 10K's eyebrows crinkle together in thought before something caught his eye and his brows rose and his eyes widened like an idea had struck him.
"Addy." He said not looking at her, "What if it's not numbers?"
She followed his gaze to a stack of boxes in the corner. There was some metal piping leaning against the wall along with a broom and on one of the boxes was an old phone. She could barely see the keys but she still knew what was on each one.
"It's letters." She whispered in awe.
Murphy POV
The music was pumping so loud that he could hear the base even though the walls. He was back in his office in Limbo and was going over Dr. Sun's notes for the millionth time.
"I can feel it." He muttered to himself agitated as he left the notes and crossed the room to one table made in black wood with red glasses sitting on it and some bottles. He popped the top off one and filled a glass with amber liquid before turning and leaning on the table as he stared at the papers across the room like they were mocking him.
"I'm on the very cusp, I can feel it. Like it's just on the tip of my tongue or just out of reach. It's there. And I can't reach it!" he downed the glass in one gulp before throwing the empty cup across the room where it shattered. Then he took a deep breath.
"Keep it together Alvin." He said calmer now, "Keep it together. Life is good, life is fantastic, you don't even need the cure. It's the others who do. You've waited this long for success and riches you can wait a little while longer. After all, it's only a matter of time. Eventually, you'll crack the code. You did it last time and you'll do it again."
He paced the room as he repeated this over and over again, changing the words a bit each time as he fiddled with his red jacket buttoning and unbuttoning it over and over again as he walked around the room.
"Let's see. . ." he returned to the papers, "Gene 47. That's new, you didn't even know about Gene 47 until recently. New is good, new is progress. And you know now that you need 10K's blood. That 'genetic agent' Sun talks about in her notes that will make Gene 47 fight against the Z virus and not just resist it. That's what he has that I need." He said getting a fresh glass and pouring another drink before returning to the notes, sipping his liquor slower this time.
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.
"Something that can restart the human heart alone is a miracle vaccine in itself and Sun was able to create that. I know, I felt 10K's pulse stop. And then he came back." Murphy sipped his drink remembering how 10K had gasped and lurched up off the floor, "He came back from the dead and didn't turn and whatever was in that injection fought my bite and freed him from my control. That's what I need, that's the key. Combine that with my Gene 47 and we've got ourselves a possible cure. But. . . "
The antibodies in Murphy's blood are evolving daily. That's what Sun Mei had told Warren. Roberta hadn't told him of course, he'd found that out by the bit of her brain he'd munched on before he restricted himself until he had the proper tools and could actually use that knowledge.
"Even I have no idea if Gene 47 will pop up in my bloodstream again. But I do have a sample to duplicate from the Memorial Wall. But to duplicate it I need –"
There was a knock on his door and he turned and shouted, "Come in!" over the blaring music. Wesson opened the door carrying a package and had a wide smile on his face. Like it was contagious Murphy grinned too from over his shoulder before he turned from his desk and walked over to Wesson who put the package down on another table. Murphy looked at his right hand man and Wesson smiled and nodded his head as he tapped the box. Murphy walked over to it and unlatched the lock holding the top on. Then he opened it and looked inside. Slowly, his grin grew into a complete smile like a child meeting freaking Santa Claus. "Hello doctor."
Doc POV
He and Kuruk were able to walk to the Rangers outpost by nightfall. The outpost was simple enough, a few dozen log cabins, a ranger's post, a lookout tower in army green metal, all of it surrounded by a tall chain link fence with barbed wire along the top. It was a descent size and would help alleviate the overpopulation issue that George knew Altura would one day face. There was also a lot of forest around it giving the outpost a lot of room to expand if they ever needed to.
"Looks uninhabited." Doc said as Kuruk shut the fence and rechained it shut behind them. "Maybe that hit CZ got south in the U.S. really was Estes. It makes sense, more places to run to in the south."
"But it would be easy for Estes to hide here, or anyone else for that matter." She replied looking around suspiciously.
"You picking up something?" Doc asked knowing he and Kuruk had more than a few visions and spirit walks together in their time.
"Maybe. . . maybe not." She shrugged, "Or it could just be that this place looks like the setting of a horror movie. You know, one of those where the teenagers all go to summer camp and all end up murdered?"
"Well that's just cuz they make dumb decisions." He said pulling out some Z-weed and lighting the end as he breathed in then exhaled the smoke, "Going into the basement, picking up the strange hitchhiker, going back into the scary house, pausing while you're running away from a murderer. And they always get drunk or stoned at the worst time." He said taking another puff. He paused when he saw Kuruk looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" he asked her, exhaling another cloud of smoke, "This isn't a horror movie."
"No, it's the apocalypse but is there much of a difference?"
He shrugged, "Right on." Then squatted to tap the end into the dirt to put it out, when it cooled he stuffed it back in his pocket for later.
As he and Kuruk checked the log cabins they didn't find much. Everything was covered in a layer of dust making it easy to tell if anyone had been there.
"There's nothing here to even scavenge." He noticed as they picked a cabin to stay in for the night and he brushed the dust off one of the cots.
"Looters got most of it way before Newmerica was even an idea." Kuruk said throwing on another jacket as the cold of night began to settle in, "But it's good space if anyone wanted to put in the effort of building it up. There are even some big metal storage units further in the woods behind the cabins, still inside the perimeter of the fence though."
"I'm surprised Estes didn't have Talkers digging through that too back when he was looking for lithium." Doc muttered as he took his shoes off and got into the cot.
"It's mostly old machinery and parts from the Brewer's. When they expanded to accommodate their population they had to get rid of it but didn't want it sitting outside rusting. So it came up here. It's probably useless for maintaining our energy grid so Estes left it."
"Don't let Murphy know it's up here or he might open a second Limbo. Don't get me wrong, one is great but if they start popping up on every corner he's gonna just get a big head. Lord knows his ego doesn't need more stroking."
Kuruk laughed at that and joined him in the cot, curling up into his side as they went to sleep.
10K POV
"Two, two, six, eight, one, seven, three, eight, eight, seven, six –"
"This is giving me a headache." 10K groaned as Addy started whispering numbers and letters under her breath.
"Okay so 7 is PQRS and 8 is TUV, so –"
"Even if we could write this all down it still would take forever." He complained again as Addy kept whispering possible combinations to herself, but putting together just one word was too much for his brain, much less stringing together enough to figure out what message their captors were transmitting. "How do you even remember all the letters?"
"Years of text messaging before phones had keyboards." She said, "Now shush, I need to concentrate."
She kept working on decoding the message until the door opened again and a girl walked in. She looked in her early twenties and had strawberry blonde hair she'd pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head. She was smiling at them as she walked in and closed the door behind her. She was also carrying a small bowl of what looked like water and had a rag hanging over the side of it.
"Hi, I'm Emily." She said sweetly as she approached them, "They sent me to clean you up."
"Why would they do that?" Addy asked and Emily shrugged.
"I don't ask questions." She walked over to 10K and took his chin between her fingers and gently tilted his head back, "Eric did a number on you didn't he?"
She put the bowl down and dipped the rag in it before bringing it to his face and started to rub the dried blood away.
"Thanks." He said still skeptical but figured it couldn't hurt to be polite.
"You're welcome." Emily said smiling at him. As she worked she kept glancing at him then looking shyly away. 10K tried to avoid eye contact but it was hard with her being so close to him. He could see Addy looking at her with suspicion though her lips were still moving as she whispered under her breath to herself trying to work out that coded message.
It had been hours since he'd gotten the cuts and the blood was dry and crusty. Part of him worried that she was only sent to clean him up so it would be easier for Eric when he inevitably came back for another interrogation. The idea made his gut ache again like a fresh punch.
"There all done." Emily said when she was finished, "Now you can see your handsome face."
He knew that was a come-on but he only gave a small smile in reply before he looked away from her again. Then she brought her hand up from his chin and ran the back of her fingers down his jaw and along his neck making his head snap back and look at her uneasily.
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" she asked stepping forward and sitting in his lap, one leg on either side of him. He tried to lean back but there wasn't much room on the chair for him to get away. He glanced quickly at Addy but saw her eye was looking toward the phone in the corner of the room and she hadn't picked up on Emily's suggestive tone yet.
"Uhhh." He muttered, that shy boy coming to the surface again, the one who had no idea how to talk to people, especially girls. He'd managed to get better at it the more he got to know someone and when he was with Bailey it was different entirely, the shy awkwardness just melted away. But with a stranger, he'd never been a guy who could just walk up to a girl he didn't know and talk to her without looking like a goof.
"Anything at all?" she asked, her voice sounding innocent but she took her hair out of her messy bun and let it fall around her face and down her shoulders. Something about the action gave 10K the impression she'd done this before.
"Can you. . .get off?" he asked swallowing nervously really not liking that he was tied to a chair right now. Emily smiled coyly and he understood how she might take his words to have a different meaning, "Of me? Can you get off of me?"
"Mmmm, why?" she asked bringing both her hands to the nape of his neck as she started playing with his hair. Then she leaned in and he pulled back and turned his head away. Then she glanced at Addy who still was too busy obsessing over cracking that code to notice them. "Do you not like having people watch?"
"That - that's not the problem. Well, it is but - look. . ." he said not wanting to offend her, after all she had been the only person who had been nice to him here so far. Maybe if she liked him enough she could help them get out of here, but that didn't mean he was willing to be unfaithful to Bailey for that chance. "I've got a wife, a kid. . . a new baby on the way."
But that information didn't seem to deter Emily as she ran one hand down his chest. Part of his brain knew if Bailey had done that he'd be so turned on, but when Emily did it he felt nauseous.
"So? She's not here now." She leaned in again and he pulled back again, "Oh come on. What she doesn't know won't hurt her."
"Hey slut?" Addy asked finally having seen and heard what was going on, "He's saying no. Consent goes both ways honey." She said flatly as Emily turned to look at her then looked back at 10K who still wasn't making eye contact with her.
"I didn't hear him say stop." She pointed out like she was being clever. Then 10K turned to her, at the end of his patience. He'd rather take a knife to the heart, become a blend-slave to Murphy again and lose his last remaining hand then ever betray Bailey like that. The look on his face seemed to be what shocked Emily, like she'd never had a guy underneath her look at her with so little interest and so much anger. Then she huffed and stood up stepping away from him. "It's no use, he's not talking."
Then the door opened again and Rita walked in, "Thanks for trying Emily."
Emily tied her hair back up as Rita stood there examining both of them closely. Eric was behind her and stayed in the doorway for a minute before he walked up to Rita and whispered in her ear.
"What if they aren't part of these men like they say? What if they are from Newmerica? Sooner or later their people will come looking for them. A tough guy like that they won't just let vanish on a run."
Emily scoffed as she crossed her arms and leaned back against the doorframe. "Eric, Newmerica is a myth, it's one of those pie-in-the-sky places that sounds great but is just hiding something ugly. The doctor said it was founded by someone from Zona. Can't be trusted."
"Rita?" Eric asked turning away from Emily, "You're awfully quiet."
Rita paused for another moment looking at both 10K and Addy, "If anyone comes for them they'll never get in. And we'd be stupid to not consider the possibility someone other than those bounty men might come for them. But one way or another they're still leverage against whoever they are with."
Then the room shook and there was a shout from down the hall. Dust and some concrete ash fell from the ceiling from the movement while the pipes in the corner fell over in a clatter. Addy and 10K both tensed as more shouting started and Rita stepped out of the room and a pair of guards met her. She was still in 10K and Addy's line of vision as she spoke quickly to the guards.
"Get both of them and follow me, we need to move them somewhere more secure." She instructed as another loud BOOM sounded and the building shook again at what they assumed was an explosion. If Rita thought they were with the group who was attacking them right now she might have them killed just to make a statement. And if she tried to trade them to the group and they proved to her that Addy and 10K had been telling the truth and weren't with her enemies, well, they'd be no use to her and she'd probably have them killed anyway. Either way they were dead.
AN: So not a lot of interesting stuff in this chapter but it is setting up a lot of pieces for things to come. Any predictions?