Hi guys! So glad to be back! This Lenten season has been crazy! I gave up fanfiction as my sacrifice but wow it got so much harder after COVID exploded everywhere. This last week (or so) has been so difficult because with all the social distancing starting to get to me all I wanted to do was reconnect with you guys. But I hung in there and stuck it out and am so proud of myself! Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it, the religious or the commercialized version, I hope even among the madness that is life today you are still able to enjoy it.
If social distancing is getting to you feel free to leave a comment- it doesn't have to be related to this story at all - if you just need to talk I will try to respond as much as I can! Anyway, it's good to be back and I hope you all enjoy this update!!
S3E03: Part 1
Bailey POV
Bailey followed the truck's tracks north, it seemed that was the direction Murphy had been heading in originally but most likely was distracted like everyone else when the plane flew over. And also like everyone else he'd seen an opportunity and had went for it. Now that he had the supplies that belonged to Sun Mei he was back on his original course. Bailey followed the tracks until she saw a second set of tracks join in and they led her to an open dirt field where she found an ATV with a flat tire surrounded by dead bodies. She drew her gun in case she was about to run into trouble remembering one of the rules she'd written down in her notebook 'think less like a missionary and more like a mercenary' Vasquez had said way back when they'd first seen the wagon train, Murphy had also said that a valley was a good place for an ambush and that looked like that was exactly what had happened here.
As she got closer she saw more Enders, all with holes in their heads, a dead guard and the submarine captain who both had bites on their faces. The captain had a jaw lodged in his head that looked like it had been used as a boomerang. Bailey cocked her gun and looked around, these Enders might still have a few clever brain cells in their heads, enough to at least still pose a threat. She looked back at the guard and the captain and shook her head, this is what following Murphy's commands got you.
10K POV
They'd kept driving until they reached Seattle, 10K could see the space needle from his seat in the front of the vehicle next to Dr. Merch who'd gotten stuck between him and Murphy. Of course now in the apocalypse the needle had fallen over and the top of it was broken and leaning on the building in front of them, more of a reminder of the world they were living in. They were stuck behind another vehicle with people in it that wasn't moving and Murphy was clearly losing his temper about it as he kept blasting the horn of their armored truck.
"Come on! Move it!" he shouted, "One other car in North America and I'm stuck behind it." He complained before sticking his head out the window, "Get out of the road apocabillies!"
"You're gonna attract Z's." 10K said leaning forward resting his elbows on his knees.
"Relax, kid. You're with me." Murphy said as if zombies were the last thing on his mind.
"Maybe we should help them." Dr. Merch suggested with a neutral tone.
"I'll handle this." Murphy grumbled getting out and approaching the van as 10K followed with his rifle.
Murphy opened the van door and rudely yelled at the people inside. "What is it gonna take to get you people out of the road?" he asked with his hands on his hips. 10K could see from his place behind Murphy a mother was holding her daughter in her lap and he could tell she didn't look well.
"Our daughter's dying." The father said sadly answering Murphy's question.
"Oh." Murphy said dropping his hands from his waist showing a bit of emotion 10K didn't know he still had, "Maybe I can . . . help."
10K turned to Murphy with a wariness as he explained about how his bite helped people. 10K wanted to speak up, to tell them letting their daughter die was better as images of Cassandra flashed through his head and he hated the idea of standing by and letting that happen to a little girl. But instead of speaking up something held him back as the family, in their desperation, accepted and let Murphy bite their daughter. Then, like nothing happened Murphy got back in the armored truck, making sure 10K was with them, and drove off.
Bailey POV
She kept walking down the dirt road following the tracks until she came across a few dead zombies. She passed them by not giving them a second thought until she saw something very odd. She turned back and crouched by the bodies looking closer at their wounds. The two bodies were all tangled up in each other, one Z even had the arm of the other one in its mouth its teeth sinking into its rotting flesh. Zombies were eating zombies now? She wondered as she stood up and made to continue on her way but her foot rolled a bit under her and she stopped to see what she had stepped on. She picked up two shiny thin and long bullet shells, they looked just like the kind 10K used in his rifle. But 10K was gone, she thought as her mind tried to find the next logical explanation. Murphy must have given one of his guards 10K's rifle to use, she decided as her fingers clenched around the shells, her hand becoming a fist. That rifle was one of 10K's most prized possessions and now Murphy was letting some blend bastard use it. She tucked the shells into her pocket as she carried on as she remembered how often 10K had cleaned that gun, how he'd never let it out of his sight if he could help it.
It had been not long after Lucy was born, their car had broken down and they were once again forced to travel on foot. 10K had gone to scope out the terrain hoping to add a few kills to his count and he'd come back with a boy probably around ten years old. The kid had crashed into him in a field and 10K dragged him back to the group holding him by his jacket.
"Guys, look what I found." 10K said before Warren held up a hand telling him to be quiet.
"Shhh. Puppies and Kittens." She said as 10K put his hand over the kid's mouth to keep him quiet. They all grabbed their weapons and readied for the pack of Z's that was charging their way. 10K let the kid go and he ran for cover crouching by the nearest tree. Bailey had to give the kid credit, he was smart enough to not go running off and drawing the attention of the zombies.
Bailey drew her hatchet and made her way to the closest Z's strutting across the field with Addy as she readied her Z Whacker. Murphy stood off to the side with Lucy while he let Cassandra fight his battles for him and Warren slashed her way through zombie skulls with her machete. Doc spun a couple of hammers in his hands before bashing some skulls of his own. As always their well-oiled machine team took care of the pack pretty easily and in no time at all they were cleaning the blood off their weapons and getting back to business.
"Where'd this come from?" Murphy asked looking at the kid and Cassandra stalked toward him in case he was a threat.
"Hey get away from him. I found him." 10K said stepping forward and making Cassandra pause.
"Was anybody with him?" Addy asked.
"He said something about a doctor." 10K replied.
"Man gonna kill him." the boy said.
"What?" Addy asked before looking to Bailey both of them sharing a confused look.
"He's gonna kill them!" the kid shouted tugging at 10K's sleeveless vest before turning to the rest of them, "You kill Man."
"Oh, no, no, no. We no kill Man. We on mission." Murphy replied putting Lucy in her makeshift carrier that was actually a cooler. "Scram kid."
The boy opened his mouth and let out a caw.
"He just caw at me?" Murphy asked seeming in a mix of disbelief and offense.
"Murphy, get Lucy some water." Warren said before turning to Doc, "Can you get this one some too? You thirsty sweetheart?" she asked as Doc handed him a metal cup of water and the boy began to push his face into it like a bird would.
"Poor kid doesn't even know how to drink out of a cup." Doc said sadly.
"Must've been four or five when all this started. Apocalypse is all he knows." Warren said, "Where's your mama and your papa?"
"Just sister."
"Okay. Is she with the others? The ones that are in trouble?"
"Yes. The Man will kill them if the doctor won't talk to them." the boy answered.
"Doctor? Who's this doctor?" Addy asked.
"Did I mention that we are on a mission?" Murphy asked bringing the attention back to him.
"Yeah, we got Lucy to think about too." Doc said.
"Yeah, but we can't just let some man kill a whole bunch of people." Addy spoke up.
"Sure we can. We do it all the time." Murphy complained.
"I vote we help the kid." 10K said.
"As much as it pains me to say it, Blue Face is right. We're on a mission." Warren said. "Okay? We don't know what we'd be walking into and we can't take a chance like that."
"Yeah? So what are we gonna do? Just leave them?" Addy asked.
"Can we talk about this?" 10K asked.
"I'm with him." Bailey agreed with her hands on her hips, "Warren, we've been dragging this asshole across the country so his blood can help save people. That's the mission: to help people."
Before they could debate it further the kid grabbed 10K's rifle and took off over the hill and 10K took off after him. Bailey went after 10K with the group following her but she wasn't as fast as he was, though she was still able to keep him in her sight as she saw another figure dressed in all red show up and hit 10K in the back with some kind of odd shaped weapon knocking him down.
"You so much as twitch and brains will be the last thing you think about." She threatened with her weapon to his neck.
"Hey we're good. I swear. I just want my gun back. That little thief over there stole my gun. Ask him. That's mine."
"That his gun?" she asked turning to him and the boy cawed again then she turned back to 10K, "Sorry he was raised by crows. I mean really, he was raised by –"
But before she could finish her explanation 10K snatched her weapon and kicked her so hard she fell onto her back. He swiftly got up and turned the weapon to her now.
"Now you freeze." 10K said with a smirk, "Tell him to drop my gun –" but the girl was clever and threw sand in 10K's face making him recoil. She got up and wrestled her weapon from his hands as the boy ran over and jumped on 10K's back. The girl tried to hit 10K and he grabbed her around the middle but that didn't stop her from using her free arm to swing at 10K hitting him in the chest and stomach. It didn't help that he had the kid still on him shouting.
"Get off her! Get off!"
"10K in the middle of all that?" Doc asked and Bailey turned still catching her breath to see the rest of the group catch up. She turned back to 10K as the pair knocked him down and kept hitting and kicking at him.
"Hey, hey that's enough!" Warren said, "Fight's over. Hey, hey." She said grabbing the girl and getting her off 10K while Doc and Addy grabbed the boy who was still flailing his arms like he was trying to fly off. Bailey helped 10K up and noticed he had a fresh black eye from the brawl. Around his left eye was turning purple and blue but it wasn't swelling which was good, he needed that eye to shoot.
"Fight's over. Fight's over. Girl, you better. . . " Warren said trying to calm the girl in red down.
"Leave him alone! He's just a kid." The girl said as Doc still struggled to restrain the boy.
"He's more like a wild child." Doc said. "Time out Mowgli."
"Hey stop struggling okay?" Warren said approaching the boy, "Okay, nobody's going to hurt you. We're good. Okay. You're safe, okay?" and the boy stopped struggling and hugged her which seemed to throw her off for a second, "Okay, that's it all right? Everybody just chill out." She said to the girl and the others diffusing the tension. "Nobody's going to get hurt. We're just gonna talk okay? You wanna tell me what this child is so afraid of?"
"There's a man, going around with a list of names looking for people." The girl in red told them, "One of the names is a scientist hiding among the survivors we're with. Dr. Teller."
"What does the Man want with the people on the list?" Warren asked.
"Nobody knows. They disappear."
"So where's the Man now?" Warren continued questioning her.
"I don't know. He said he was coming back in the morning. If this Teller guy wasn't waiting for him, he would kill my brother, then all the rest of us, one by one till he finds the doctor." Then she turned to her brother, "How'd you get away?"
He cawed again and slapped his hands together then cawed some more still hitting his hands in a pattern.
"Did you catch any of that?" Doc asked.
"No. He lost me at caw." Addy said and Bailey was impressed, a code language like that could come in handy.
"So what does this Man fella got against doctors?" Doc asked clearly worrying about himself.
"Don't worry Doc." Bailey said, "You're not a board certified physician." she said jokingly and he gave a grateful smile and a shrug.
"People say some kind of avenging angel. Making people pay for the apocalypse." The girl in red answered.
"Well somebody should pay for all this." Murphy grumbled.
"Where are the survivors?" Warren asked.
The girl pointed up over the hill and Warren tossed Addy her scope since she had her hands full with the boy. "Yeah, they got vehicles. We could use some transpo."
"And we're down to puddle water and orange peels." Doc added.
"Is this the part where I drop my pants and show you the tattoo on my ass? Ya know, the one that says 'Never get off the boat'." Murphy said and Bailey physically shuddered at the idea of Murphy dropping his pants, a reaction that didn't go unnoticed by 10K who smirked before draping his arm over her shoulders.
"Keep your pants on okay?" Warren said, "We're just gonna check it out. She said the Man's not coming back till tomorrow which gives us plenty of time to get out of dodge if we don't like what we find."
The boy then rushed into his sister's arms as the group started heading over the hill to where the girl had pointed. Cassandra growled at the pair as she and Murphy passed by and the girl turned to Bailey and 10K.
"What's wrong with them?"
"You better just stay away from those two." 10K said dropping his arm from Bailey to fix the strap of his rifle over his shoulder.
«»
Bailey had gone north until she ended up somewhere in Oregon, it was getting dark so she found the nearest neighborhood and found a house to bunk in for the night. She was lucky that it didn't have any Z's, just some mercied bodies she moved into one room before rearranging the furniture to block the front and back doors before she felt secure enough to search the rest of the house. She looked down at her clothes, she was still wearing what the Zeros had given her along with Ayalla's poncho. She took off the poncho and folded it neatly before putting it in her bag for safe keeping. She was able to find some clothes in the rooms upstairs that fit her well and would keep her warmer the further north she went. She found a thick shirt that looked a blueish grey color like denim, it had a V neckline with laces that criss-crossed over the V up to her collarbone and it had a small pocket over her heart. She rolled the sleeves up to her elbows so they wouldn't get in the way and she'd found a pair of black skinny jeans that fit well and also kept her warm. She took out the red bandana 10K had given her and folded it over like he had before she wrapped it around her wrist a few times and tied the ends in a knot. On her other hand she still wore the fingerless leather glove he'd given her, the one that matched the one he had. When she was done she went back downstairs to lie down on the couch – which was now blocking the front door – and went to sleep.
She was woken up the next morning by a continuous banging at the front door, there was a light snarling accompanying it and Bailey took a deep breath, the apocalypse was really getting on her nerves. She drew her knife and headed for the door, she got her fingers on the handle ready to pull the door open just enough and pike the Z but then she heard more snarling, Crap, more than one.
That meant if she opened the door they might overpower her and push right through. It only took one to get a good hold on you then you were done for. As much as she really didn't care about dying anymore she knew she didn't want to die before she made sure Murphy did. She turned away from the door and headed out the back throwing her new rucksack backpack she'd taken from the house over her shoulders and her messenger bag across her torso in case she didn't come back. She ran across the backyard of the house and the one next door before doubling back and coming up behind the zombies.
"Hey!" she shouted from the road and they turned and snarled at her, she counted three so this shouldn't be too hard but she needed them to space out a bit, "Fresh brains! Over here!"
They lumbered her way dragging their feet through the dirt, these must have turned a while ago, she thought, seeing how decomposed they were. Faster zombies were usually recently turned people. She walked backwards slowly down the road occasionally looking over her shoulder to make sure nothing and no one was coming up behind her. As the zombies followed her down the road they'd shuffled away from each other leaving about a foot of space between each one. Bailey didn't want to waste her bullets, she'd need a long range weapon when she found Murphy. She stopped walking backwards and ran at the Z furthest to the left and piked it with her knife then she backpedaled quickly as the remaining two zombies reached out, their fingers twitching in her direction. She repeated this for the next zombie until she only had one to worry about and she put it down quick.
"I give you mercy." She said adjusting her bag and continuing down the road, she heard a cawing in the air and looked up to see a crow flying over her head.
After they'd arrived at the survivors outpost called Mercy Labs the girl introduced them to Dr. Teller. They immediately were welcome after he found out they'd helped the boy from a zombie pack. The boy tugged on Bailey's arm and brought her to where the crows still visited him. One was sitting on a stack of crates like it had been waiting for him to come home. He walked up to the crow and started cooing at it as she crouched next to him and watched. The girl and 10K had followed them and sat not far away. 10K had taken out a rag and started cleaning his rifle as the girl kept an eye on her brother.
"Was he really raised by a murder of crows?" Bailey heard 10K ask the girl as he watched them.
"For almost two years." She answered, "He brought them water and they brought him food. Crazy, huh?"
"Yeah, poor kid."
"Alive isn't he? Besides, I'm not really his sister. I found him almost a year ago picking through trash with the rest of the crows. I didn't know he could talk for the first month."
"What happened to your real family?" 10K asked.
"Besides zombies?"
"Right. Kind of a dumb question."
"Hey." Bailey said getting the boy's attention as he turned to her, "You know, I had birds growing up." He smiled at her in reply, "Parakeets. I was probably your age when I got my first one." She said before lifting her hand in front of the crow and pursing her lips. She could never whistle as a child, she still couldn't, but she made little kissing noises that sounded bird-like and the crow looked at her and tilted its head. Then after a moment it hopped onto her arm and cawed. The boy's smile turned into an ear to ear grin which Bailey couldn't help but reciprocate as both of them kept making bird noises.
"Got a name?" she heard the girl ask after the long silence between her and 10K.
"It's Ten Thousand. But everybody calls me 10K."
"Ten Thousand? That's not a name, that's a number."
"I made it up myself. It's how many zombies I'm going to kill." he told her.
"And how's that going?"
"I'm already on 3,225 . . . and a half."
"What's the half for? Zombie dwarf?"
"No, just the torso. No legs."
"Mmm. I usually leave them be if they don't have legs. Waste of ammo."
"Well this one was crawling after me."
"I once had to mercy a head rolling after me, still chomping away."
"I hate when that happens." he said and Bailey turned to see him go back to cleaning his rifle, "So what's your name?"
"Red."
"Well that's not a name that's a color." He replied throwing her own words back at her with a playful tone and a small smirk. Red didn't seem the kind to play, at least with people she just met and her response was a bit harsher than it needed be in Bailey's opinion.
"You asked me my name. That's my name."
"Well Doc says that red is an unlucky color. He says if you see some dude in a red shirt that he's a dead man."
"Well your friend's wrong. Still alive aren't I? Besides, I don't wear red for the zombies. I wear red to scare off men. Nothing says 'I'll kill you in a heartbeat' like the color red."
"How's that working?" he asked but Red dodged the question and turned to her brother.
"Hey kid. Say goodbye to the Old One. Time to go." Bailey couldn't be sure if Red meant her, 10K or the bird when she said Old One especially since she turned and invited them along the second after.
"We're gonna get some food. You both can come with us." she said looking from 10K to Bailey, then she looked back at 10K again, "Just don't try anything. Or you'll be wearing red too."
Bailey wasn't sure what it was but she liked that girl.
She kept thinking about the pain in her chest as she continued north, she let that drive her to push on. She thought about how good it would feel when she finally got to let that pain go – but not yet. She was saving it, storing away all the pain so it could fuel her swing or her stab. It would fuel the strike that would kill Murphy, either the swing of her hatchet to his skull or the stab of her knife to his heart. Her gun, she'd been thinking, just wasn't personal enough. She wondered how good it would feel to have Murphy's blood on her hands, soaking her skin with its warmth and staining her fingernails. It wouldn't be the first time she'd be covered in blood after all. Her fingers were still crusty with 10K's blood, some of it was still dried on the side of her face as well from when he'd caressed her cheek and told her he'd say those three words when she saw him again. But she wouldn't see him again, not in this world, not in this lifetime.
Stop, she scolded herself, bringing her thoughts back to Murphy and all the painful ways she'd contemplated killing him, anything to keep her thoughts off 10K. Thinking about 10K wasn't an option anymore, it just wasn't. She couldn't allow herself to think about how every kiss they shared somehow seemed better than the last. She couldn't think about how her heart leapt just a bit whenever he'd add to his count. She didn't want to remember his shy glances and perfect smiles. She didn't want to remember just how green his eyes were or how deep they looked. She didn't want to remember how touches between them started so foreign and cautious before they grew into comfortable and became their new normal; then evolved beyond that until one touch became holding hands, then cuddling through nights of zombie watch shifts, then turned into that moment where they were so connected and so in love that even if she had a million notebooks she still wouldn't be able to describe it's intensity, it's passion, it's perfection.
No, she couldn't let herself think about any of that, like Warren said: focus on one thing. So she returned her thoughts to Murphy until there wasn't room to think about anything else. How Murphy had been the one who caused all the trouble in the first place, how Murphy had gotten away with Dr. Merch and the others but left someone so kind, so compassionate, so loyal, so moral, so pure, so good as 10K to die so violently. Would Murphy regret what he did? The choices he made? She couldn't help but wonder. When she came to kill him would he beg for his life? Would he cry? Or did he no longer have any emotions to show?
A few Z's stumbled toward her and she mercied them easily with her hatchet and her knife. She'd ditched her shotgun a while back when she'd run out of ammo for it. She still had her handgun, Cassandra had given it to her back at Homer's cabin, she'd pulled it from the pile of weapons and handed it to Bailey before she even knew how to use it. 10K had been the one to teach her and now 10K and Cassandra were both gone. She'd contemplated getting rid of it, she didn't need another reminder of what she'd lost, but since she still had ammo it would only be a waste to get rid of something that could help save her life, so she'd hold onto it for now. Maybe this was how it was meant to be, she couldn't help but wonder. Maybe 10K was never meant to be hers, maybe he'd been meant to be Cassandra's and Murphy had destroyed that too. Maybe now 10K and Cassandra were together in heaven as they were meant to be, she hoped so. As much as it hurt thinking about 10K being dead she found comfort in the idea that he was with Cassandra, Garnett, Mack, his mom and his Pa, telling them about how he'd found Delta X-ray Delta and joined Operation Bitemark. How he'd changed his name to Ten Thousand because that was how many zombies he'd planned to kill. They'd be so proud of him, Bailey thought though now a sadness crept into her heart realizing that 10K had only gotten a bit over halfway to his goal, he'd never complete it now, never get that ten thousandth kill. Murphy, she thought, it was all Murphy's fault, and now he was going to die for it, even if it took her dying breath she swore she'd kill that blue bastard.
10K POV
They drove a few hours longer, now heading east, until Murphy stopped and they all got out again.
"Why are we stopping here?" 10K asked when he saw them in nothing but a field of small purple flowers.
"To take in the view." Murphy answered approaching the hillside and looking at the city spread out before them, "There it is. Home of the 1974 World's Fair. You ever hear of the Lilac City kid?" he asked but 10K gave no response, "Course you haven't. You grew up in a cave. Take it in. You got nature right here, it's perfect. Our new home. Spokane!"
10K looked over to Merch and stared at the bite that marred her face. He couldn't help but bring his hand to feel his face again wondering why he was still with Murphy, wondering why he hadn't tried running off again. He turned back to Murphy who was looking at him from over his shoulder and a smirk appeared on his face that 10K didn't like one bit.
«»
They made their way through the town and were crossing a bridge, Murphy had a destination in mind but hadn't shared it with the rest of them yet. He stopped again to take in the view, this time admiring the waterfall and rapids under the bridge they stood on.
"Magnificent." He said taking a deep breath of fresh air, "Unapologetically powerful. Just like I remember." He said talking loud enough so that they could hear him over the rushing water.
"What are we doing here?" 10K asked raising his voice too.
Murphy laughed, "Oh ye of little imagination. This is where it all begins. Where the new world order, my world order, stakes its claim." He said proudly and 10K turned to him with a look like he was talking to a child who'd just said the sun was going to turn green.
"You're insane." 10K said and Murphy turned to him.
"The definition of insanity, is doing the same exact thing over and over, and expecting a different result." Murphy said getting in his face so 10K nodded along unconvincingly before he turned back to the water which Murphy clearly didn't like.
"Look! At! Me!" he all but growled demandingly and 10K did with a glare, not liking Murphy giving him orders, "We've been doing the same thing for two years. It ain't working. Time for something completely different." He said turning back to the water, "You will see the wisdom of my actions. And thank me." He said with a calmer tone again as Z's began to stumble across bridge. 10K tensed, his instincts getting ready to fight and kill but they walked right by.
"Relax." Murphy told him. "They won't hurt you. You're with me now."
"I'm not with you." He said his voice getting deeper, "I'll never be with you."
"And yet, here you are." Murphy said smiling before looking back at water leaning on the side of the bridge as 10K's prior worries about why he hadn't ditched Murphy yet came back, "We need to start setting up a lab and working on a blend vaccine right away. But first we need a base of operations. My castle! My lair! My fortress of solitude! Come along, we're wasting precious time." he said before walking away with Merch. 10K stayed behind looking back at the water, maybe Murphy was right, maybe Bailey was dead. Then he shook his head, no, Murphy was never right, where did that thought even come from? "I'd keep fighting." That's what she'd said, he remembered, trying to stay positive but even remembering Bailey's words there was this new negative voice in his head pushing away any happy thought he tried to hold on to. He stared at the rapids below him and leaned forward with his hands on the rail staring into the water before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Hypnotic isn't it." Murphy said in his ear, "Come on kid." He tapped his shoulder twice and 10K wanted to recoil but he couldn't, "It'll be okay." Then Murphy moved on down the bridge again, 10K looked from Murphy to the water and back to Murphy then he reluctantly followed.