S7E10:
Murphy POV
"So if you have Dr. Sun's brain why do you need me?" Kurian asked as Murphy pulled the partially nibbled brain out from the cooler.
"Her notes are nearly impossible to read. I'm not sure which page picks up where the last left off."
"And won't taking a few bites of her brain solve that problem?"
Murphy turned to Kurian with one hand on his hip, "Of course it will! But I knew Sun Mei, she was just as confused about what's running through my veins as I am. I'm not sure how she stumbled upon the correct gene sequence for this cure, and the only bit of it that was successful was used on her. Her brain doesn't only house the knowledge I need, it also houses the cure. So. . . unfortunately, I can't eat all of it."
"Ah, so you're worried that whatever part you end up saving will be the piece that holds the key to your success." Kurian chuckled enjoying his suffering, "Well given your previous luck that sounds highly likely."
Murphy frowned at the reminder of his past failures, turning the Zero cartel into blends, Spokane, saving Lucy from the Man, but now he was so close to having something go right. "And it's a big reason as to why you're here. In case my bad luck continues and I can't do this alone, I need your knowledge to put the pieces together."
"And why would you even trust me with that?"
He scoffed, "A severed head with no means of seeing daylight again if not for me, I think even you know that if you betray me and cook up something other then what I'm after the result for you won't be pretty."
Kurian's smirk fell, "Fine. Then what about the kid? If the cure is in your blood why do you need his?"
Murphy set Sun Mei's brain down on the table as he continued explaining. "My blood is too toxic. And it's changing constantly. The Black Rain juice, the Zona cure, Merch's original vaccine, the levels of all that keep changing, fluctuating. It's all masking my genes and making it difficult for the one we need to appear. But 10K. . . after I made him a blend he gained my immunity to zombies, all my blends do. But when he'd take those boosters the immunity was blocked, made dormant and the Z's knew it." He remembered Merch stabbing herself with a booster in his zombie moat and how he'd seen them instantly swarm her, "Somewhere in his blood that's still lying dormant and once I get a dose of it I can find out how to reactivate it. But a cure that only makes you immune is useless to others, like Talkers and freshly turned Z's like Sun Mei. They need something to restart their hearts, and that vaccine is also floating around in 10K thanks to Sun." he never forgot how the kid lurched and gasped for air after they'd killed him, the shock he'd felt seeing him actually survive, especially after he'd felt his pulse stop himself. Whatever Sun Mei had injected him with suppressed his immunity and restarted his heart all in one go, "Combine the two, tweak it a bit, and I should get a zombie cure for everyone. And the more people who can use it, the more customers I get and the more money I make."
"Money?" Kurian asked rolling his eyes.
"Money, bullets, bizkits, whatever currency Newmerica chooses to use. I will be swimming in it." He chuckled, "I'll be the first post apocalyptic billionaire."
10K POV
They'd just made it back to West Park when Rita jumped out of the back of the truck and started ordering her people to start packing.
"Leave behind anything that isn't critical, only essentials, we need to move as quick as we can and get to Bighorn!"
Eric helped her lead the charge and Addy and Warren worked to get as many vehicles ready to roll as possible. 10K helped Cooper and George carry fuel to them as they gassed up the vehicles as others grabbed their supply of guns, ammo, and tech but there was still one problem.
"We don't have room for all of it once the people load up." He overheard Eric telling Rita quickly as Dr. Hastings stood by, the pair looking to Rita for instruction. The blonde leader looked troubled, more so then 10K had ever seen her.
"Everything okay?" George asked walking up behind him and towards Rita as she saw the woman's clear distress. Rita took a deep breath and brought her hands to her hips before she looked at the ground and started to pace. In her silence Eric answered for her.
"We don't have enough room to take both our medical equipment and our machinery for making ammo." Then he looked to Rita, "So what's it going to be? Which do we take?"
"What are the odds there will be enough left here to come back and scavenge?" she asked Mariah who shook her head.
"Not good." She replied with Jane and Rick beside her, "A horde that size will likely knock down the walls and trample everything."
He remembered when he saw Ayalla's father's casino reduced to rubble by a Zunami and looked around at West Park knowing that's what fate it was going to have too.
"Rita, we need to make a call now." Eric said knowing each second they stood there the horde got closer.
"Maybe not." Warren said walking over to them with Cooper further behind her. She was holding her radio in her hand, it looked like she'd been talking to Citizen Z again, probably filling him in on how they were doing with evacuation. "Tell 'em what you told me."
"Doc and Kuruk went north when the alert was put out for Estes. They went to check out the abandoned Rangers land, that outpost we never filled but George had an interest in." CZ explained and George nodded. "There's tons of old equipment that was moved from the Brewer's Outpost, with some modification it might be salvageable for ammo manufacturing."
Eric and Rita looked to each other before Eric took the radio, "How much machinery are we talking?"
"Half a dozen large metal storage units full."
Eric and Rita again exchanged a glance that looked both impressed and shocked.
"That could solve your problem." Warren pointed out as Rita turned to her then turned away and shouted to the others.
"I need every available body to move as much of our medical equipment from our infirmary in as short a time as possible!" then she turned to Hastings, "Doctor you know what we'll need most."
Hastings nodded probably very well experienced in what was scarce to come by in the apocalypse and would no doubt be loading trucks and cars up with everything that qualified as rare and desperately needed. Then Addy tapped him on the elbow and nodded to a nearby pickup truck as they piled in with their group and headed to Bighorn.
Bailey POV
She and Tommy were walking back from the community building where they'd been playing a movie that night for the kids. TJ had fallen asleep during the end credits while Bailey had been talking to Julie's mother Laura so now Tommy had him resting his head on his right shoulder as he carried their son back home. There weren't many streetlights in Altura but Bailey didn't mind, there were so many stars and the moon shone so bright that the dark wasn't bad enough that she couldn't see in front of her. There were also the lights from inside the other buildings that shone through the windows leaving stretched rectangles of light along the courtyard where they were walking.
When they got to their apartment Tommy took TJ to bed and tucked him in as Bailey watched from the doorway, smiling when she saw Tommy kiss their son's head before quietly leaving the room as she walked over and kissed TJ's cheek before she left too, closing the door softly behind her. She headed to their room assuming Tommy was behind her until he quietly called her.
"Bailey." She turned and saw him leaning against the wall by TJ's door a look of deep thought on his face that she didn't see often. Then he looked up at her and met her eyes, "Do you want to have another baby with me?"
The question made her eyebrows shoot up into her forehead. Of all the things he could have said that was the one thing she really hadn't been expecting. She had trouble coming up with a response before her mouth, voice and brain all seemed to get back on the same page.
"What brought that on?"
He looked at his shoes shyly as he licked his lip, "It's just. . . been on my mind lately. And seeing all the kids tonight got me thinking about it more." He began before he looked back up at her, "We used to talk about having more kids, giving TJ a sibling. I dunno, I just thought. . . maybe now could be a good time for us to start trying."
She was at a loss for words, now she wasn't only surprised but she was also deeply touched. Like something very deep in her heart warmed at hearing him talk this way. Maybe it was because having a child was so precious, more so now that they'd been through the apocalypse, that part of her couldn't believe life had gotten good enough that they could add to their little family. She noticed 10K looked nervous as he licked his lip again probably thinking she was going to turn him down and say no. She smiled and walked over to him, taking his hand in both of hers.
"So. . . did you want to start trying right now?" she asked and his eyes snapped up to her, now it was his turn to be shocked. He probably thought she'd need more persuasion and had been running through things to say in his head. She giggled as she started walking backwards tugging him along toward their room with a smirk on her face. "Or would starting tonight be too soon for you? I'd understand if you weren't ready this unexpectedly."
His expression changed and instead of looking shocked he now looked like he was staring at a challenge he intended to win. Probably due to what she'd just hinted at. Then he shocked her by lunging forward and picking her up. Her legs automatically wrapped around his waist as she giggled again trying to keep it down so they wouldn't wake TJ. Tommy carried her to their room using his foot to shut the door behind them before he plopped her down on the bed, falling on top of her and using his right forearm to support his weight as his hand rested on her hip letting his thumb run along the skin just above her jeans.
"Frack no." he said smiling as she laughed again and he kissed her instantly fogging her brain and making her instincts overpower her thoughts. When she needed air she reluctantly pulled away only for Tommy to start kissing down her neck as she reached for his belt.
Bailey rubbed her stomach over where the baby had just kicked as she finished cleaning up the bathroom after TJ had his bath. A small smile appeared on her face at the memory but it was also accompanied by a great sadness that settled in her chest and made it feel like her heart had just dropped into the pit of her stomach. She wasn't too sure what was going on with her, if it was her hormones, the stress, or emotions going haywire, but what she did know was whatever it was she was nearing her breaking point. She could feel herself tipping over the edge like she barely had a grip on her sanity and at any moment her fingers would slip and she'd fall. She tried staying strong for TJ and her fear started to eat away at her about what might happen if she had a complete breakdown and he was around to see it. She didn't want to traumatize him but she could feel her composure lessening with each day that went by without Tommy, without knowing what was happening to him. Plus, she worried about what Murphy had been doing in Altura a few weeks ago. She didn't dwell on that too much but that didn't stop it from lingering in the back of her mind and a little voice reminded her of it every now and then.
Something in her gut told her he'd been up to something, and her gut was never wrong. It was just figuring out what he'd been doing that had been eating away at her, along with the fear that Tommy wouldn't be coming home. CZ had told her they'd made contact with another group and had confirmation that 10K was alive and well in a community in Wyoming. But something in the way Simon had been avoiding eye contact, looking more at his computer then at her, put her on edge. It led her to believe that not everything with Tommy was alright as he wanted her to believe it was. She knew people were worried about her worrying since stress was bad for your pregnancy but that didn't mean lying to her would make everything better.
She took a deep breath and leaned forward on her elbows on the sink as she tried to convince herself that her husband would come home, he was a cockroach, he'd survive anything. But she couldn't shake the feeling that wherever he was something was going wrong.
Murphy POV
"10K's blood has everything I need and none of the crap floating around in mine. Once I get his we can examine it and combine the vaccine in him with my Gene 47 that's on that tiny glass slide Sun Mei hid to reactivate the dormant immunity then use that cocktail in comparison to the cure lingering in the tissues of Sun Mei's brain. Once we have a match we can start synthesizing it, replicating it and making batch after batch for the black market." Now that he had the doctor 10K's blood was the only thing left that he needed, and once he had it he didn't want to waste any time. The kid would run to Warren and Warren would come pounding on his door asking questions. He knew he'd never convince 10K to keep quiet, he'd need something to buy his silence. That part of his plan was still a work in progress. Maybe he could get the kid's blood while he was asleep?
"Why start at the black market?" Kurian asked from the table he was propped up at as Murphy scurried about the room getting supplies together.
He scoffed, "Warren, George and every other Newmerican will want the damn thing for free. Sun Mei might have been that giving but I'm not, if they want a cure, they'll have to pay just like everyone else. So first I'll rake it in from the black market sales, buy more guards for Limbo, ex mercenaries, that way Warren can't just storm in and take it."
"Same Murphy, thinking of yourself above all the rest, some savior of the human race."
Murphy paused what he was doing and snapped his gaze to Kurian. "I didn't ask for this. And if I'm stuck holding the weight of the world on my shoulders why not make it worth my while?"
He got back to getting his supplies together and gathered the notes from Dr. Sun that Kurian could help him understand. "You can understand that doctor. Why else would you have worked so diligently to make a drug that put the Zeroes under my control? You seize opportunities as much as I do."
"You might want to pause and take a look at where seizing those opportunities put me." Kurian remarked and Murphy paused glancing at the head for a short moment before shaking that train of thought away.
10K POV
10K had used the drive to Bighorn to explain to Addy why Britney had been acting so familiar around him. She nodded along but he still saw a glint in her eye, the kind that told him she was going to act like his sister in every way, including busting his chops about Britney every chance she got. He let out a long sigh of relief when they arrived and he was able to get out of the truck. The sniper girl in question immediately came over to him but he was glad to see that given the circumstances she was all business.
"We've got extra ammo for the rifles. It wouldn't hurt to make sure you've got more than enough – just in case."
"Thanks." He said accepting the ammo as Addy walked over to them keeping her eyes focused on the new girl.
"No problem. These days things tend to go from bad to worse, it's always good to carry more ammo then you think you'll need."
"I haven't had a full rifle in at least six months." He told her honestly remembering Newmerica's ammo shortage as he filled his weapon.
"I hope Rita chooses to follow your friend." Britney said looking over her shoulder at where the vehicle with George and Warren had just pulled in. "It'd be nice not to be so secluded anymore."
"Well Newmerica is anything but secluded." Addy piped up making them turn to her. "We've got everything, an oceanside community, a community of hackers, farmland, even a bar."
"I wouldn't go to the bar if I were you." 10K muttered drawing attention.
"Why not the bar?" Britney asked.
He sighed, "The guy who runs it is a bit of an as-."
"Oh come on." Addy said kicking his lower leg gently, "Murphy isn't that bad."
"Murphy?" Britney asked her eyes going wider, "The Murphy? The one who's supposed to have the zombie cure in his veins?" they nodded, "Thought he was a myth. Just another rumor like zombie Bigfoot."
"Zombie Bigfoot?" 10K asked now his attention piqued.
"Oh no." he heard Addy mutter beside him and knew she – and Bailey and Red – all knew about how he believed in all that stuff, after everything his uncle had told him.
"A Bigfoot Z wouldn't surprise me." A girl with brown curly hair said walking by, "Not after everything I've seen."
Britney laughed, "Sarah's got a point. On the way to Sheridan her group and mine both saw this huge zombie cheese wheel when we passed through Wisconsin."
"We were nowhere near Wisconsin."
"We were nowhere near Wisconsin." He and Addy both said at the same time making Britney look at them funny. Thankfully another voice cut in before she could ask questions.
"After the Zunami hits West Park that horde will overtake Bighorn an hour later, maybe two." They overheard Warren say before their conversation could go on. She was talking to Rita who had already had one team scouring the place for any spare rations they had stored there as well as their radio equipment and weapons. Another team was going from machine to machine taking down as many notes as they could about the configuration of their gear for their ammo making process. Everything from the number of nuts and bolts to the dimensions of the machines, everything, not one detail was overlooked as they wrote down all they'd need to recreate their machinery out of what Doc and Kuruk had found at the Rangers Outpost.
"You'll need to go farther north." Warren continued as she spoke to Rita.
"And what would you suggest?" Eric asked her. "Go to Newmerica with you? Trust strangers? And it's not like this Rangers place is on the edge of your southern border; we'd be miles north surrounded by your people, your allies."
"Eric." Rita said trying to calm him down though she didn't look too happy about going into unfamiliar territory surrounded by people and communities she was unfamiliar with.
"My people and my allies will be yours as well. And you'll be so far north you'll never have to worry about this happening again. The horde shouldn't follow us up there, it's too cold, even now even at our southmost outposts. When the temperature drops with nightfall the Z's will turn back. Most of them will disperse maybe a mile or two across the former Canadian border. They won't go further." George added.
They could see the hard look in Rita's eyes and knew she was looking for a lie in George's words, looking for some kind of trap the woman could be plotting. Maybe she thought George would seek revenge for Rita's kidnapping of him and Addy. But 10K could see that what George said did interest her, it was probably the best deal she'd ever get.
"Rita you don't have many other options." Addy said moving over to join the conversation. "I know you poured your heart and soul into West Park but its more than houses and walls. It's the people, everyone you helped, everyone you gave shelter to and you need to protect them, they're your community, nothing else."
Rita's eyes turned a bit softer at Addy's words though they still looked pretty stern. Then she looked back to George. "I want a contract."
George looked a bit thrown off but after a glance to Warren she put her hands on her hips and looked back at Rita, "What terms were you thinking?"
"Well I assume we'd become part of Newmerica, since we'd be living in one of your outposts."
"Yes."
"And you'll probably want us to add our ammo to your trade routes." George nodded again and Rita glanced at some of her guards not far away, the ones George had tended to after they'd turned Talker, "I want bizkits in exchange for ammo."
"Bizkits, our fish trade, wheat, lumber, dairy. You add in your ammo and we'll give you everything the trade route supplies. In fair portions." George told her and they could all see that Rita hadn't expected George to be so generous with Newmerica's supplies. But they had more than enough to go around, they'd been planning on always adding more people and they were well equipped to feed them all.
Eric shuffled closer to Rita and whispered in her ear but 10K still heard him, "Their bizkits buy us more guards. Any of our people die we won't have to mercy them anymore. Feed 'em some of those and they're all set."
Rita looked put at ease that they could remain secure and not lose more of their people or their guards. Then she whispered back, "Only as long as their bizkit supply holds out."
Then she looked to George and raised her voice, "How do you make those bizkits?"
George opened her mouth to explain but then Britney shouted from her place on top of one of the eighteen wheeler trucks.
"We've got incoming!"
They all rushed to the trucks that made up the fencing of the perimeter as Warren pulled out her radio and got CZ on the transmission.
"Citizen Z, we've got multiple incoming, can you give us any help?"
"I'm seeing a group of Z's – probably the fast ones – making their way toward you. The rest of the horde is still in West Park. Making their way through trampling the community will take time. Once you take care of the fast group you'll have a small window to get everyone mobile and headed north."
"You heard the man." Rita said before Eric took over.
"Everyone grab a weapon and all the ammo you can carry! Snipers on the trucks, everyone else wait for my mark and find your targets!"
Addy drew her gun as he ran for the long truck on the right side of the main gate. Britney was on the truck on the other side already on her stomach and lining up her shot. He climbed the ladder and leaned the barrel of his rifle on his antler and aimed resting his finger on the trigger. Down below the gate opened and George, Warren, Cooper, Rita and Eric all waited for the signal to begin the charge. Once the fast Z's made it through the tree line Eric shouted and they ran forward at the same time he and Britney started firing. Zombies dropped one by one but for every Z they mercied it looked like two more took its place. However, with the large ammo supply they had no one backed down. People dropped guns as they emptied magazines and grabbed fully loaded guns off their backs and from their belts to replace them.
The sound of gunfire was loud and would only drive the slower Z's in West Park in their direction sooner. Getting this done without casualties and as quickly as they could was a challenge, time was not on their side. As his rifle clicked empty he moved onto one knee to reload it as Britney covered the trees. He looked around quickly and found Warren who had ditched her empty gun for her old reliable machete and was cutting skulls in half as fast as they swarmed her. Being a Talker Warren was the least of their concerns and he glanced at George who seemed to be having fun being able to hold a gun in her hands again while Cooper had a handgun in each hand looking like a cowboy from one of those movies Doc had told him about.
He shoved the last bullet into his rifle and resumed his position taking out Z's faster than most people with two hands.
"9,287. 9,288. 9,289. 9,290. 9,291." he counted on and on shooting so fast it was hard for his mouth to keep up with his aim.
Blood splattered against everything, the bark on the trees, the dirt ground, even the fence surrounding the perimeter. The carnage only grew as more people ran out of ammo and had no time to reload their guns. Knives were pulled from their holsters as people started working together to restrain zombies so they could get close enough to plunge their blades into their skulls. He saw that girl from before, Sarah, kick a zombie's kneecap out forcing it to her level so she could slam her knife into the top of its rotting head as her curly brown hair whipped around her head and fell in front of half her face.
Further off toward the side of the horde 10K saw Warren climb up onto a cement truck to try and get a better vantage point as she stabbed and sliced the zombies to pieces. Some were able to climb up onto the truck and over the hood forcing her to side step down the side of the large mixing chamber. When she got there more zombies had already hauled their corpses onto the truck and Warren started kicking and punching to throw them off. Then one got a good grab on her and she started to struggle.
"Roberta!" he heard Cooper shout as he ran toward her to help. As Warren wrestled the zombie - and Cooper shot any that got in his way to her - she had managed to get her arms around its waist but it had backed her up to the opening of the mixer. It looked like she was about to fall back but she caught herself and pulled resulting in the zombie getting thrown over her shoulder and into the blender. Warren gave an exasperated laugh like she was even amazed that it had worked and as she turned to the other zombies she started dodging their lunges and letting them toss themselves in.
By this point Cooper had made it to her and she shouted, "Remember what we did with your tractor that one time?"
Cooper chuckled as he continued to shoot Z's out of his way and he started to head for the driver's door to the truck. Once he hopped in the zombies slammed against the window to the door wiping their blood covered hands against the glass but none of the gore shook the smile from Cooper's face as he started the truck and the mixer began to spin. Warren hopped off and headed for the driver's door, in one swipe she cut the heads of the zombies in half as they fell down and she and Cooper hugged briefly before they got back into the fight.
"9,302. 9,303." 10K continued to count until his rifle was out of bullets again. His pockets were too so he left the rifle on top of the eighteen wheeler and climbed off taking his elastic from his pocket and turning his antler into a sling again. He still had a few gears and he readied one as he stood in the open gate taking out zombies that made it past the mob of fighting.
George had her knife out now as she popped Z's in eye sockets and the soft tissue beneath the ear. But their people were slowing down too, their energy was depleting while the zombies kept coming. They didn't care if an arm got shot off, or if their lower halves were so riddled with bullets they couldn't walk. The drive to reach them and get their brains was always stronger and without pain to stop them made it that much harder. The thing that kept the living side going were the Talkers, the ones George had helped, they felt no pain either and kept fighting through all the dead. It helped the humans around them to push on and keep going even when they felt they'd already given their all and then some. Speaking of Talkers, Warren was now cutting through necks instead of heads to save time making the decapitated bodies fall into the dirt while their severed heads rolled along everyone else's feet, getting kicked around as they continued to fight. There were maybe a little over a dozen left and the end was in sight.
10K lined up his gear again and aimed but before he could let go another Z lunged at him from the side and got a good grip on him as his back hit the fence and he struggled to keep its black teeth away from his skin. When it tackled him his antler had gotten caught in the decayed flesh of it's shoulder and with his only hand pushing it back by the neck he tried to come up with something that could save him. He could kick the Z back but from over its shoulder he could see the zombie he'd been aiming at stumble its way closer and knew even if he got this zombie down and mercied the second one would be on him and he couldn't risk turning his back to that one either. The snarling filled his ears and he couldn't even hear the rest of the fight anymore. Then the zombie, starving and desperate, lunged its head forward and 10K turned to the left to try and avoid the bite he knew was coming.
BANG!
His face felt wet and when he turned the zombie's head was now hollow, its face blown apart leaving a gaping hole where he saw Britney smirk and nod at him just like the last time she'd saved his life. He let go of the corpse and pulled his antler out turning to see the other zombie had been put down by her too. He leaned back against the fence again and caught his breath. Glancing around he saw the last of the horde was being put down and Addy was making her way over to him with a smile. She tossed him a rag and he started to wipe the blood off the right side of his face.
"So?" Addy asked quirking an eyebrow.
"So?" he asked confused.
"All that carnage, what are you up to now?"
He smirked and started walking taking deep breaths as they headed back inside the perimeter and headed for the pickup truck they were using. Addy opened the door and he opened the passenger side seeing Addy on the other side ready to take the driver's seat, "9,312."
She smiled at him and nodded but before they could continue they heard Rita shout. "Alright, no time to celebrate. Let's get what we need and move out. There's an even bigger fight headed our way."