S2E14: Part 1
They covered a lot of ground in the El Camino's but it still wasn't long until night fell and Warren flashed her headlights signaling them to all pull over for the night. They parked the El Camino's in a circle to make a sort of barrier as some of the group chose to sleep in the cars while others preferred the less cramped space in the center of the circle the cars made. Addy had left to check the fuel of each car with Warren so they'd know how much longer they had before they'd have to start putting more passengers in each car as they each would eventually run out of gas. Bailey left to check on 10K, part of her wanting to smack him in the head for the stunt he'd pulled earlier but she tried to repress that.
She walked over to his passenger side door and knocked on the window, she heard the small click as he unlocked the door and she opened it and hopped in. He was still in the drivers seat though he'd reclined it to make it more comfortable for sleeping and she found him already turned to her with a grin on his face.
"What?" she asked bringing her legs up on the dash.
"Just thinking." He replied softly.
"About what?"
"You remember after the nuke?" he asked and she turned away blushing knowing he was talking about when she'd kissed him out of nowhere. She heard him chuckle at her silent response before asking, "How long?"
"How long what?" she asked turning to him confused.
"How long did you feel that way about me?"
"Well. . . " she began, looking away again and thinking back, "When we were bunked in that house before the tornado I kept trying to ignore what you made me feel, so probably, sometime during that guessing game we played while we drove through Kentucky."
"That long ago?" he asked and she bit her lip and nodded turning back to him seeing how wide his eyes were and looked away again.
"I kept trying to ignore it, hoping it would go away. I figured the more people I cared about the more I had to loose. But then. . . " she turned and looked at him, "That. That right there." She said pointing a finger at him.
"What?" he asked confused and slightly worried like he'd done something wrong.
"When you look at me like that."
"Like what?"
"Like. . . I don't know." She said pulling her feet off the dash and bringing her knees to her chest as she sat in the seat. "You look so focused, like you're hanging on my every word, like whatever I'm telling you, no matter what it is, is important. It just. . ." she looked at her lap, "makes my pulse race and . . . and then I think back to Gideon, how he was right, you do have such a good heart, which is even more impressive given that we're four years into the damn apocalypse." She said still looking away and playing with a fraying patch on her pants. She heard 10K shift in his seat and felt his hand cradle her head as he reached over and made her look at him. His thumb stroked her cheek as he leaned in, their faces an inch apart.
"I wish we hadn't lost all that time, between the nuke and actually getting together."
"I was embarrassed." She said with a small shrug and he smirked. Then she bit her lip again, "But. . . we can make up for lost time now." She said reaching over and resting her hand on his thigh which made him lick his lip nervously though she saw his eyes light up. They climbed into the back as they took off their dark Zero clothing and used it to block out the windows.
Third Person POV
"Oh, you've got to be freaking kidding me." Murphy grumbled as he leaned against one of the El Camino's sharing some Z-weed with Doc. The old man looked through the cloud of smoke he'd just exhaled looking at the red El Camino seeing that the back window facing them was now covered by 10K's hoodie and he gave a small stoned chuckle.
"Leave 'em alone Murphy, they're in that honeymoon phase, best part of any relationship." He said as Murphy took a hit of the Z-weed, "And I'd know, speaking as a man who's been married several times, I'm kind of an expert."
Citizen Z POV
He'd been able to get just enough juice to get a small laptop working again. Right now he'd run into the issue that the screen kept flashing 'No Access' in red as it beeped.
"File locked? When did I do that?" he asked himself out loud as Pup whimpered at his feet, "I'm clearly losing my mind. Don't start. Let's see, uh. . . password denied? No, I didn't change the password." He said as he kept typing away. "Oh shit. . . I've been hacked." That meant everything he had, every secret government file, every security code, even the files on Delta X-ray Delta Bailey had helped him compile, everything he'd put into the computer was now at someone else's fingertips. He pulled a blue glow stick from his pocket and went to check more of his equipment.
"I don't get it." He muttered to himself, "These servers have been powered down since the blast. How the hell could –"
Then a small mechanic whizzing sound reached his ears and he searched for the source. Not far from where he was one of the servers was on and operational, its small power button glowing green in the dark.
"Well, look at that. Well played." he said shutting it down and returning to his computer. "All right. Let's see who's been sleeping in my bed." He said tapping away at the keys.
Bailey POV
Their last El Camino broke down a few days later in the middle of what looked like a junkyard. Piles of smashed concrete and metal were scattered for miles all around them. They were definitely in California if the blinding sun wasn't proof enough. Bailey had put on her white framed Ray Bans sunglasses again along with the poncho Ayalla had given her, throwing it over her shirt for extra coverage. It was thin enough that she wouldn't be sweating in the heat but also helped make her feel a bit more covered after being forced into that ridiculous barely-a-top that the Zeros had given her to wear. The deep red woven designs in the poncho matched nicely with the red moto pants she now wore and she felt more like herself now that her midriff was less exposed. She wore the poncho like Ayalla had letting the wide collar hang off one shoulder.
"I think it's dead." 10K said when they'd opened the hood to check the motor and nothing but smoke billowed out of it.
"Well, we couldn't drive through that crap anyway." Doc said positively, gesturing to the rubble all around them. "Adios, El Camino."
"El Camino." 10K said as he had before and Bailey rested her arm on his shoulder, he'd ditched the skeleton bandana that had been around his neck and ripped the sleeve off his right arm and had another makeshift shoulder pad on. He had found a piece of black and yellow striped metal in the rubble a while back and had fashioned it to fit his shoulder, it reminded Bailey of when she'd first met him and he'd been wearing the soles of a pair of shoes as armor. He'd also for some reason decided to keep only one of his fingerless leather gloves and when Bailey had asked him why he'd simply given her the other glove to wear and kissed her cheek. Addy had also found herself a pair of pants along the way and she'd ripped off the bottom of her dress after putting them on. Warren's leather corset had been changed too for a black cold shoulder top and a beige corset vest that looked much more army than her last look.
"You know, I love that you're a glass half full kinda guy." Addy told Doc as he closed the hood of the car and sat on it.
"Especially when there's no damn glass." Murphy complained.
"All right, looks like we're on foot." Warren said picking up her backpack and pulling the straps over her shoulders, "Grab what you can and let's hit it. Come on princess, let's go." Warren clapped at The Murphy.
Bailey picked up her messenger bag and the additional rucksack backpack as 10K grabbed his own black backpack.
"And then there was one." He said sadly as he shook the bag and she smirked knowing what he was talking about.
"We'll save it for after we give Murphy to the CDC, use it when we're celebrating the end of the mission." She said nudging him with her shoulder and making him smile as he threw the backpack over his shoulder.
"How much further to this supposed rendezvous?" Murphy whined.
"A days walk, maybe two." Addy sighed.
"Everything looks the same." Murphy continued to grumble.
"Yeah, well, four years of zombie apocalypse and a nuke will do that." Doc said putting on his circular sunglasses.
"Nothing but rubble and dust." Vasquez said looking around and now wearing a light grey hoodie, his wounds all healing well. "Must have been a hell of a fight."
"Makes you wonder what's left that's worth saving." Murphy said.
"How did it come to this?" Warren asked no one in particular as they walked on.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" Murphy asked again as they started climbing a pile of rubble.
Addy scoffed, "Somewhere is sunny Southern California."
"Seriously, how much further?" Murphy asked his whining tone changing slightly becoming a bit more serious, "I don't feel so good."
"Well, we could take a break." Warren said sitting down on the nearest chunk of broken cement, "I'm curious myself."
"Okay." Addy said sitting down on a chunk of cement as well and pulling out a battery operated GPS. "It can't be."
"So where the hell are we?"
"Disneyland." The red head replied.
"What?" Warren asked.
"Uh-huh. Hard to tell for sure but I think 'It's a Small World' would have been right over there." Addy said pointing across the field of debris.
"Sorry kids." Vasquez said looking at Bailey and 10K over his shoulder sounding genuine.
Bailey nudged 10K's shoulder, "Maybe the one in Florida is still there." She said hopefully and he gave a small smile.
"Thanks for trying." He replied with his rifle in his hands.
"Damn." Warren muttered before getting up, "Break time's over."
"It's a world of laughter, a world of tears." Doc said and Bailey nodded as she passed him. They all kept walking through the rubble seeing if anything useful caught their eye. Bailey saw Addy standing too still for her liking and made her way over to her.
"Addy?" she asked tapping her shoulder but got no response, "Addy?"
Addy's POV - Flashback
"Yeah! Come on!" she screamed from the stands at the hockey game, "Come on! Get it! Get it! Whoo!"
People were cheering all around her as the players on the ice slammed into each other after the puck.
"Kill him!" she said as two hit the glass right in front of her, "That was icing! Don't let him push you around! Come on!"
Then another body hit the glass but from the fans side. The person started scratching at the glass before it turned and jumped on a fan. Screaming started and Addy briefly saw blood coming from the person's mouth as they chewed down over and over on the fan they'd tackled – a zombie? People started clearing out and she was shoved by the stampede to get to the doors. Being a student at the school she knew where the other exits were for the players so as everyone rushed up the steps to get to the lobby she went down to the path that wrapped around the rink. Bodies still fell in her way as people were shoved from the flights above and they fell over the rail. Some were already dead but had zombies still munching on them as she ran past. She made it through a set of double doors and into the maintenance space where they stored extra equipment. The only thing in the concrete room was a zombie wrestling with one of the players from the game.
"Hey!" they shouted when they saw her.
"Hold on!" she said grabbing his fallen hockey stick and rushing to help him. She slammed it into the zombie with enough force that it broke but it also sent the dead player to the ground letting go of the living guy. The zombie turned to her and she used the remaining stick to shove him away while the player she'd saved grabbed the other broken end and stuck it into the zombie's skull killing it. Then he turned to her aggressively.
"Hey, stop, stop, stop, stop!" she shouted.
"You're not bit?"
"No! No, and I'm not gonna be." She said looking down at the zombie, "Oh my God that's Jordan Beale, he was our best forward."
"Wasn't that good, obviously." The guy said. "What's it like out there?" he asked as they heard the screaming from the door she'd came through.
"It's insane. People are going crazy. There's blood everywhere. We got to go. No, not that way." she said when he headed for the door she'd used.
"All right, come on." He said and they ran through the storage room until it opened up to under the stands and they took cover behind a pillar.
"How do we get out of here?" he asked and she looked around the pillar.
"Well that says exit." She said looking at the door across the hall.
"Sure it's safe?"
"Well it's that or wait for this to die down."
"You mean wait to die." he corrected.
"Right."
"Okay come on." And they ran for the doors, several zombies came charging around the corner and after pushing them away and making it through the door and into the fire exit they both stopped to catch their breath.
"Hey, I think, I think we should, we should stick together right?" the guy asked.
"Yeah. Hey, I got to go home. I got to go home. My mom and my brother, they're home. They're alone."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll go with you."
"Okay."
They both ran down the hall then up a few flights of stairs until they came to the doors that led outside.
"I'm Mack." He introduced.
"Addy." He nodded and she nodded then they both charged outside.
Bailey POV
"Addy?" Bailey asked again and she finally flinched and turned to her. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. . . just. . . thinking about day one." She muttered before moving on to catch up with the group. Bailey followed after her but now couldn't help but let her own thoughts wander to the start of the outbreak too.
She'd been sitting at her desk in her bedroom with her feet kicked up onto the top as she leaned back in her chair playing a video game. Her iPhone was in her lap and her headphones were in her ears blasting music. She didn't hear the shouting or the screaming until her dad came bursting through her door and she pulled one of the headphones from her ear.
"Didn't you hear us shouting for you?" he asked in a loud voice but it didn't startle her, he'd complained about how loud she played music and how she was damaging her ears a thousand times before.
"No, what's up?" she asked casually taking her feet off the desk and turning in her chair. She looked at her dad questioningly as she saw him pull her messenger bag out of her closet and toss it at her.
"Pack some clothes, not much and meet us downstairs, now." He said urgently before rushing out of the room. Severely confused Bailey did as she was told, not bothering to shut off her game, she'd get back to it soon enough. She didn't move quickly but actually pretty slow trying to figure out why her dad had been acting that way. Only completely absurd reasons popped into her head, maybe he hadn't been paying taxes and now they were going to go cross the Canadian border before he got arrested. Maybe he was a spy and his cover had been blown. The possible reasons just grew more and more unlikely as she made her way downstairs to find her family rushing around. Her two older brothers were in the attached garage packing up their camping gear into their minivan while her mom was in the kitchen gathering every nonperishable food item and packing it in a large cardboard box.
"Mom what's going on?" Bailey asked as her mom rushed past her with the box and ran out into the garage. Bailey went into the kitchen and looked out the window over the sink and saw her dad out at his shed, he was grabbing the gas cans he used for the lawnmower and headed for the garage as he crossed the yard. He looked worried and his eyes were wild and he kept muttering to himself. It looked like he was listing supplies. Then the door out to the porch was flung open and Bailey turned just as a body crashed into her and tackled her to the floor. She tried pushing whoever it was off of her but they were thrashing and snarling too much for her to do anything. Then the tip of a knife sliced through the persons eyeball and Bailey screamed. The body was pulled off her and she saw her brother standing over her. He offered her his hand and pulled her to her feet, she was still catching her breath and getting over the shock as he began to ask her questions.
"Are you alright? Did it bite you?"
"You – you killed him." She said shaking as he checked her over for injuries calming down when he found none. "You just killed someone."
"I killed it." He replied as he made his way over to the wooden block that held the kitchen knives and he started stuffing them into his backpack. "It was a zombie."
She looked over at him, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion. "Are you high?" she asked though she knew he'd never touched a joint in his life.
He gave a heartless chuckle and turned back to her, "I wish." He tugged her arm and pulled her out to the garage, as he did Bailey looked back at the body on the kitchen floor. Its remaining milky eye was still open and it had black blood dripping from its mouth. Its skin was an odd color and its teeth were brown. It looked inhuman, it looked like a zombie.
"Holy shit." Bailey muttered as her brother led her away.
They packed up the minivan and pulled out of the driveway, just as her dad was about to slam on the gas Bailey shouted, "Stop!"
The car jerked and the tires squeaked as Bailey pulled open the sliding door. She saw Addy on her front porch on her knees crying into her hands. Not far from her was a guy Bailey hadn't seen before who wore a hockey jersey and had a kitchen knife in his hand and was looking around wildly expecting more zombies to appear.
"Addy!" Bailey shouted out the door making her friend look up, when she saw Bailey poking out of the van door she wiped her face, turned and called for the guy and they both ran for the vehicle. One of Bailey's brothers hopped in the back as both boys opened the back hatch door for the guy Addy was with. Bailey scooched over and Addy hopped into her seat slamming the door closed behind her. Once the guy was in the back Bailey's dad took off, though she had no idea where he was going and had a hunch he didn't know either, instinct was just telling him they had to get away from where they were.
Bailey faintly heard the guy in the back introduce himself to her brothers as Mack Thompson as Bailey's mom turned in the passenger seat to face Addy.
"What about your family sweetheart? Your mother? Your brother?" Addy's lip trembled and she shook her head before looking down at her lap as Bailey reached over and put her arm across her best friend's shoulders. "Oh, honey." Her mom said reaching back and rubbing Addy's knee trying to comfort her. Bailey looked out the window as she rubbed Addy's back watching as people ate each other and others ran screaming. She'd never seen so much chaos and she swallowed the lump in her throat that formed when she thought about how most of them would be dead in the morning.
She felt 10K wrap his arm around her, his rifle now on his back, he gave her a worried look before she nodded at him and they kept moving.
«»
They found a piece of Disney that was still standing, Bailey couldn't tell what it had been but right now it was four steel walls and a roof and that was enough. There were some chunks of debris and some barrels they were able to use as seats as they gathered around and divided up their food supply and ate in silence.
"This sucks." Murphy complained, "Even for us, this sucks."
Bailey noticed 10K didn't eat much before he tucked his ration away and went over to a large hole in the metal wall. There was a railing that ran along the steel and he brought his right leg up to rest on the lower pole as he rested one arm on his knee as the other held the strap of his rifle as he looked out into the night sky. Bailey left him by himself for a while not wanting to intrude on his thoughts but when the rest of the group had finished eating and was getting ready for bed she decided to finally make her way over to him. She gently brought her arms around him from behind and rested her cheek against his shoulder blade and she felt him twitch a bit as his mind was brought back to the present.
10K POV
The sky was empty of stars but he was still able to make out a flock of birds as they passed heading back to wherever they nested for the night. There was something oddly similar to the way the flock moved and he couldn't help but think about how he used to watch the birds fly by as he'd fish.
The lake was always so clear and still as it reflected the sunlight. He loved this time of year, the tourists were gone, parents were getting their kids ready to head back to school and that left just him, his Pa, and a few lone hunters left on the reserve.
That day had been the same as any other, quiet, peaceful – beautiful. The sunlight streamed through the trees as he carried his fish back to the cabin with his fishing rod over his shoulder. It had been the snarling that had first caught his attention but he'd shrugged it off and kept walking down the trail, he didn't stop until he saw what looked like a ranger, they were wearing the same uniform jacket his Pa had, but he couldn't tell who it was from behind.
"Hello?" he called, "Are you okay? Can I help you?"
Then they'd turned and he saw the arrows that were imbedded in their chest.
"Oh my God." He said putting down his fish and his rod. The person was still walking awkwardly so they must be hurt, thankfully they weren't dead.
"Are you okay?" he asked again, "Who did this to you?"
It wasn't until they got closer and he saw their white eyes that he knew something was off, "Hey." He said backing up as they tried to grab him, "What are you doing?"
Then he turned as more snarling came up behind him and two more people walked out of the trees, a hunter and a fisherman.
"Hey help! Somebody shot this ranger full of arrows. She's in really bad shape." He said hoping they'd help but when they got close he saw they had the same white eyes too. He'd never heard of anything that did that to a person, bloodshot eyes, yellow eyes, that was common but not milky white.
"She needs. . . hey what's wrong with you?" he asked as they tried to grab him too, "What are you doing?"
And then he fled.
He ran through the woods trying to get away from the. . . the. . . things. But he only ended up picking up more until they moved like a pack, it was three, then five. He was able to slide between two trees that were close together and kept running as the things hit the trees and fell over. But the noise of their snarling was only drawing more and soon he had at least a good fifteen chasing him. His mistake was looking over his shoulder so many times, otherwise he would have seen the tree before he hit it. He stumbled and rolled down a hill, thankfully the things kept running not realizing they were passing him. Then it went dark.
When he woke up again he wasn't sure if the things he'd seen had been a weird dream or real. He sat up slowly, his head hurting and when he brought his fingers to his eyebrow he felt blood.
"Dad!" he called, "Dad!" then someone stumbled out of the trees and he saw a hunter with white eyes. He tried to turn around but the pack of fifteen were there. Then a gunshot went off and the lone hunter fell down dead. When he turned to see where the shot had come from his Pa was there.
"Tommy!" he shouted.
"Dad! They tried to kill me!"
"Tommy, thank God you're alive. Grab that weapon and come on!" Pa said looking through the scope of his rifle and he kept shooting the things. Tommy did as he was told and grabbed the rifle from the hunter's back.
"Hurry up son. Shit's going down." He shouted as his son joined him on the hill and the two took off.
He was pulled from his thoughts when he felt a pair of arms snake their way around him from behind. He felt Bailey nuzzle her head into his shoulder blade as she leaned against him.
"You look like you're deep in thought." She muttered softly not wanting to wake the others.
"Just thinking about the start." He murmured back turning to wrap his arm around her.
"What were you like?" she asked, "Before Tommy became 10K?"
He chuckled lightly, "Different, very different."
"Hmmm." She hummed encouraging him to go on.
"Well. . . Tommy would never have been able to get a girl like you."
"Oh come on, I'm sure you were as much a badass then as you are now."
He scoffed with a smile, "No not at all actually. When I saw my first Z I ran face first into a tree and knocked myself out." He said bringing a hand to his eyebrow, "That's how I got this." He said tapping the scar that ran through it.
"Well 10K must have been buried somewhere in you."
"Yeah. . . deep, deep in there." He said getting quiet as he remembered exactly what made the sniper in him finally emerge. Bailey noticed his change in demeanor too as she grew concerned and took his hand. "If I had been more focused on my shooting, getting better at it, practicing when I could. . . I could have. . . Pa wouldn't have." He cleared his throat, "We were fighting off a group of Z's, I was still getting used to the sniper rifle, though honestly after all that time and all the hunting trips we used to go on I should have had the hang of it, but I'd never used a gun like that before and I was a slow learner. A Z was getting closer, close enough that shooting wouldn't have helped, not on a long range weapon like that. It was coming right at me, I lowered my gun and hesitated, it was going to grab me, it should have grabbed me. . . " he bit his lip licking it nervously, "Pa got in the way." He felt Bailey squeeze his hand, "It didn't bite him, he mercied it before it could, but it got it's fingers into his shoulder really good and just. . . took a chunk of him. He didn't last long after that, before. . . "
"You don't have to keep talking if you don't want to." Bailey said holding his arm as he stared out the hole in the wall. But he barely heard her as he drowned in his memory.
"If I had been as good a shot as I am now, it wouldn't have. . . but it did. It took my Pa dying before I really pushed myself to survive. I remember sitting next to his body after I gave him mercy, trying to think of what I'd do next now that he was gone, now that I was alone. I knew I never wanted to see someone die again, not if I could stop it. So I took my gun, counted Pa as my first kill and after that day just kept shooting, I got better with each shot and figured. . . I could still do some good in the world if I took out enough of them, if I made enough of a dent, so I picked the biggest, reasonable number I could think of."
"That's why you saved Doc that day." Bailey said and he nodded, "I always wondered why you'd save a guy you didn't know, a person from a group who could be full of terrible people."
"The goal was always to just keep shooting. . . I learned everything I know about shooting from my Pa, it just. . . felt like the best way to honor him." he finished finally looking back at her as Vasquez made his way over to them.
"My turn for watch." He said when he reached them, "You two get some sleep."
They found a spot far enough away from the others that it felt private and spread out a couple sleeping bags and some blankets. They laid down facing each other as 10K rested his rifle against a chunk of cement rubble near their heads. They didn't have the luxury of pillows so Bailey used her messenger bag while 10K used his arm, he looked at her in the dark thinking about all he'd been through from the start of the outbreak. After losing his Pa he never thought he'd feel good about anything again, that's why he'd given himself the goal of reaching ten thousand zombie kills, he thought maybe if he killed enough of them it would fill part of the hole his Pa left behind. That it would somehow make up for not being able to protect his Pa from getting hurt in the first place. The hole was still there but it didn't hurt as much anymore, instead there was this odd numb feeling to it, but as he looked at Bailey that numbness went away, almost like it was never there, almost. He thought back to their time at the casino, back to their first time, back to his first time. He remembered the slight disappointment that he'd felt when Sketchy and Skeezy had told him they'd get him laid for sure back at the Mississippi River. Sure he didn't want to die a virgin but that didn't mean he wanted his first time to mean nothing. A small smile crept onto his face in the dark as he thought about how happy he was that it had meant something, it had meant everything.
"What?" Bailey asked in a whisper and he realized how long he'd been staring at her with that small smile.
"You remember the casino?" he asked and even in the dark he saw her blush.
"10K we can't, they'll hear us." She whispered.
"No, I'm not trying to start something." He defended, "I just. . . I dunno. . ." he gave a small one shouldered shrug, "Wanted to say thank you."
Her eyebrows pulled together in confusion, "For sex?"
"That." He scooted closer reaching out and rubbing his thumb along her jaw, "And thank you for everything else."
He pulled her closer and shifted his body until his lips met hers, he felt her hand go to his head cradling it and keeping him from pulling away. But there was something different about their kiss, he could feel she wasn't melting into it like she usually did and he pulled back about to ask what was wrong but she spoke first.
"Leave with me."
Now it was his turn to look confused and he stuttered a bit trying to piece a sentence together, "I – already –am?" he replied still very confused on what she was asking him. They'd already planned to go north together so what was she asking?
"No not later, not after the mission, now." She clarified, "Leave with me tonight. We can sneak past Vasquez and be long gone by morning." She said still running her fingers through his hair.
"But, the group." He stuttered a bit shocked by her request, "The mission. Bailey we're so close, why leave now –"
"We don't have to finish the mission." She interrupted, "It's not our mission anyway, it was Hammond's. The only reason we did this was because Camp Blue Sky went to hell and we were following Warren and Garnett, both who were military and felt it was their duty." She said, "And it's not like you signed up for all this Ten. All you did was accept a ride from Doc and got dragged into everything else. What if we get there and it turns out like Colorado, only this time you're the one that gets hurt?" she asked clearly thinking to when Doc got shot.
He wanted to tell her that wasn't going to happen, that he'd be okay but he knew he couldn't promise that so instead he tried a different approach, "What about the group? Doc? Addy? You'd just leave them that easily?"
She looked away from him this time and slid her hand from his hair to cup his jaw before she looked him in the eye, "It wouldn't be easy, leaving Addy is. . . something I've never wanted to do. But if it's between staying with her and leaving with you to keep us safe, I choose you." She said looking deep in his eyes, "Above all of them I'd choose you."
He was speechless for a long time, what she was saying was both touching and surprising. She moved closer and he wrapped his arm around her holding on tight.
"I just have a really bad feeling Tommy." She whispered into his shoulder as he rubbed her back as he thought, he looked over her shoulder to where the others were sleeping, Vasquez still looking out the same gaping hole in the wall 10K had been looking through.
"Give me time to think about it." He finally replied, "Give me twenty four hours to think about it." He whispered and felt her nod slowly into his chest. Not long after he felt her breathing even out and knew she'd fallen asleep, however rest didn't come as easily to him. He stayed up most of the night holding her close, she'd given him a lot to think about. After all, she wasn't wrong, Doc had asked him if he needed a ride and he'd hopped in the truck. No one had told him they were on an impossible mission to save the world, no one had asked if he wanted to join, he didn't pledge anything, didn't sign an oath. When they did tell him about Murphy and the chance at a vaccine he stayed because really, he had no good reason to leave Operation Bitemark and nothing better to do anyway. He looked down at Bailey asleep in his arms, now he did have better reasons, he could go off with Bailey, find someplace safe, settle down and zombie proof it, maybe even start a family one day. But he had the group now too, and he didn't want to abandon them either something about it just seemed so cowardly. He exhaled a deep breath and rested his cheek on Bailey's head unsure of what he was going to do.
AN: I'm so excited for you guys to find out what happens in season 3! Any predictions?