"Ngh," as much as she tried to stifle the sound, Luciana couldn't help but groan when she felt the digits press into the healed tissue close to her shoulder. Said woman raised her head to watch the infirmary ceiling and kept back the burn in her sockets. Luciana her stomach reflexively clenched from the push against the sore, but healing trauma. But she welcome the pain given the argument she and Nick had this morning. She wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, even with her boyfriend's hesitation. She wasn't sure if it was because he was afraid to leave his family or because the guilt and obligation he felt towards his mother for going through hell, which got her husband, Travis, killed in the process. At least he promised that he wouldn't make her live here any longer than necessary and join her to Mexicali. He convinced her to at least stay and take advantage of the medical help, food and supplies to get back to full strength.
Luciana hissed out softly and reflexively jerked her shoulder back from the stinging cotton swab of antiseptic to clean it all. In spite of herself she glared at the curly-haired woman who told her to suck it up and Luciana tried to do just that. "I heard people talking about the old couple who died in the fire," she began in Spanish to drive her mind away from the pain and from Nick. "it reminded me of my own grandmother and grandfather. The first passed from old age and the other from loneliness... But I believe they're together... somewhere even with the dead amongst us in physical form."
"You sound like my grandmother," Cristine reminisced with a smile and placed a fresh bandage on the place. "The holiest and strictest woman that ever existed. Had a fit when my cousins and I weren't back home at five. She just had to wave her slipper at us and we'd behaved. She never once used it on us though."
"Ah yes, the fearsome slippers, for my brother and I those were our battle wounds when we got older." Luciana shook her head and joined Cristine in her laughter of the shared of a background not that different from her own. Grasping at the top of her buttoned up blouse back up her shoulders Luciana realized it was the first time she smile this sincerely since coming here. It was silly, but ever since the dead rose she didn't remember the last time she showed other emotions than sadness, hate, anger and usually negative emotions. At least not until her Colonia and Nick decided to search for a new home. All of them were either dead or missing and simply being reminded of that swallowed her smile.
Cristine witnessed how Luciana's bright expression eventually dimmed after she discarded the dirty bandages and disposable gloves into the bin of medical waste. "Sorry, I know it's hard being reminded about before. Knowing it's all-in the past and so normal and that it'll never come back."
The sharpness inside Luciana's eyes returned together with her vigilance, similar to the very first day. Wounded, but still filled with so much fight. She then remembered the gunshot wound her caretaker showed her on the leg and how she still stayed in this place with the very same man that did it to her. From what Nick told her, the relationship between her and that monstrous man was so very bizarre to be even called one. Parting her mouth, Luciana asked directly, "don't you want to kill him? For what he's done to you?" The question started Luciana even at first, the words almost accusatory and scathing to the infirmary that only housed the two of them. But when those dark eyes gawk at her calmly and a practiced indifference emerged Luciana didn't feel that bad for being blunt about it. "The day you said it was safe to uncuff me he did," the crease between her eyebrows deepened, "he began to rambled about this world just part of nature finally responding. That it was probably him who shot me when me and my people crossed the border. All the anger and hate returned and knowing it was his fault, I promised I would kill him. He smiled when I said that."
"..."
A cynical laugh escaped Luciana's mouth while buttoning up her blouse and making sure she wasn't straining her wound. "I am not judging you... your family is here, but I get the feeling they and everyone else knows what he is... what he does and what he can do. I am grateful for what you've done for me Cristine, but I can't stay in this place. It goes against who I am and it doesn't make me feel safe. And I believe that's also a reason why you had your own place for a while, away from here." Luciana tried her best to not judge the woman, but from what she knew, it was hard not to look at her with wariness. Especially when it involved that monster. She had allowed bad things to happen to her and she still could stand his presence? Even look past all he did. That was insane.
"You don't know me," Cristine scoffed and crossed her arms under her chest and raised her chin. She was caught off-guard by the straightforward questions and clinched her teeth hard. "If you think he holds that much power over me to bend over and surrender, you're underestimating me. It just sounds you're upset cause Nick doesn't really want to leave, which means you'd be alone."
"Better to be alone without having to compromise what I believe. Making allowances for monster-"
"We're all monsters," Cristine spat into her mother's native tongue, clearly annoyed by word that hit a nerve and once clung to in all her naivete and hardheadedness to leave the Ranch in spite of her family. "What use are values when you're dead? When you have to run from the dead and living. You've been out so you can't be that naïve to think that the monsters out there are worse than the ones in here?"
Luciana nodded, she wasn't blind to the walls, safety, food and water this place provided her. But she struggled with understanding such a complicated answer to a simple yes and no question. "Choosing the lesser of two evils is still evil. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings and questioning your decisions. You have been the only one who has been welcoming and under different circumstances I believe we could have been friends. I think that's one of the reasons you have been so kind and caring, so that you won't have to feel alone or different." Cristine blinked at her, her facial expression slack but her eyes so tense it reminded Luciana of the person she once was when she was still together with her brother Pablo during the apocalypse. Sharing their woes, pains and little moments of happiness together because they could. Even when they were the odd ones out at the Colonia at first, they had each other to share those feelings too. The woman's family couldn't quite give her all of that and Luciana puzzled together that in a way she perhaps was that missing piece for Cristine to connect with the feeling of not fully belonging.
-
"Hey stranger," Cristine was that focused on making a her some new portable emergency-kits on her porch that she jumped in surprise when the tall figure of Jake reappeared in her peripheral. "You were brooding," Jake's soft smile ebbed away her unamused scowl by half and she stuck out her tongue.
"I was not." Cristine jutted out her chin and made room when Jake nudged her on the shoulder.
"Now you're pouting." Jake was cheering considering that he was placating and comforting the Ranch members. The deaths of Martha and Russell Brown was a hard blow, given that Russel was one of the Founding Fathers of what Broke Jaw had become. Jake was continuously doing checkups and mingling with the community members. She couldn't imagine how he tired he must be having to be strong.
"I'm your last check-up for the day?" Cristine zipped the medium sized medical packet close and buried it inside the duffle bag next to her. It was a long day of doing chores and the sun was slowly starting set into the horizon. As per Blake's advice, Cristine delegated patrol to the other recruits. She had her walkie-talky near so could be up-to-date with all established lines.
"I didn't know you needed one." Jake said with curiosity in his equally warm eyes.
"I don't. But talking is always good." Resting her elbows on her kneecaps, Cristine raised her arms and pressed the side of her face into them with a tilt of the head. "How've you been these past days?" Jake was an expert at avoiding his feelings for others when it came to talking about them. The eldest Otto son rather carry everyone else's pain on his shoulders than focus on his own. Cristine wasn't going to let it slide when she asked him about Charlie the first time and he deflected the question. Her eyes lingered on the older man, the shifts on his face from forced indifference slightly crumbled.
"Considering everything? I haven't really had the chance to really think about it. There's still so much work to do and so many grief and hurt in our community who have it harder than-"
"Jake," Cristine interrupted her friend and reached for his hand and just held it inside hers. Despite hers being smaller and more slender than Jake's, the strength it contained was so impressive he reflexively squeezed back. "It's alright if you're not alright." Jake was able to pull himself together, he was soft but to Cristine so strong in many ways too. Feeling the quivering strength inside his palms, a damp layer glistened inside his eyes when the answer could not come and Cristine nudged him closer for an embrace. She rubbed the back of his nape with her thumb as Jake silently sniffled. The tremor of his shoulders and chest unconsciously weighed on her own limbs as much as her mind.
Why did it feel as if everyday it was just new pain and grief?
"Little Bird, this is Joseph calling in from the west flank," the static of the Walky-talky was an unwelcome interruption. Jake pulled away from the embrace and expertly shielded his face from Cristine who pulled up her nose softly. She pretended not to notice his flushed cheeks and reached for the walkie and thumbed at the button.
"Joseph, this is little Bird. Report," Cristine said rubbing the ends of her eye and looked into the distance with a deep frown. The fact that one of the guards called in was a bit worrying, but she kept her face steady as she listened to the message from the other side.
"Part of our forcefield is compromised," the voice on the other side began and it immediately elicited a tense response from Cristine. "It doesn't look like an accident, but deliberate... also, whoever did this left some kind of message behind?"
"What kind of message?" Cristine clenched her jaw before jumping to her feet, Jake close at her side while listening, his face clenched tightly as he too listened to the report.
"I think it's better if you see for yourself boss."
-
Dark eyes surveyed the lifeless corpses of the dead that were tied together to form a berth around the outer perimeter of the Ranch. The blows were all stabs through the head and from the way the blood dried on the sand, it only looked like a few hours had passed. Leveling from her hunches, Cristine moved her gaze from the dead to the, Holden, who'd call this in. He was her age, had a round face and a reddish brown beard and hair. Lowering her eyes to the skull inside his hands. Aside from the tiny round hole near the center of the head, there wasn't anything worthwhile about it. Cristine arched a brow at him in silent inquiry.
"Found a few more of these littered near the area. The placements seem to be random but they all have bullet holes in the cranium." The frown on her face deepened. Other than a clear-cut ominous warning aimed at them, Cristine didn't understand the meaning behind these skulls. Some crazies taking their sweet time to clean up human skulls and leave them here for them to find. "The tracks were too vague to lead anywhere, but there was activity here."
From the corner of her eyes Cristine saw see Jake with an equally puzzled, but calmer expression on his features. Perhaps he had an inkling of what this could mean. "What do you think?"
"I think they wanted us to know how close they were and left these behind. It's a message. A clear and direct death message. A threat, really."
"A very specific and tedious one too," Cristine mused taking in the bullet holes. "All of them have bullet holes. They clearly took their time to literally clean them up and leave these behind. Could it be those cartels? They'd have free reign to cross the border now. Or someone you guys are connected to from before?"
"I'm not sure." Jake shook his head as equally clueless, but Cristine had the feeling he must be pondering several possibilities. "We need to clean this up. I'll tell my dad. In the meantime, we need to tighten watch."
"Got it," Cristine nodded and began to delegate the orders. "We'll fix that forcefield tomorrow, just make sure you're not alone. We patrol in groups of two from now. Call in anything suspicious, even if it's crooked grass." Scanning the area, her gut clenched just thinking of their small party being out and her suspicions being correct, "someone's been watching us."
-
"What kind of chicken shit bull is this?" Jeremiah watched the grey colored skull as if he witnessed a very bad joke being told at him. His eyes switched back and forth between Jake and Cristine before focusing on his firstborn. The elderly man was in his chair behind his desk with the lamp burning inside his meeting room. Night had fallen and just when he was about to go to bed for the night, his son brought him this relic and retold him what their guards found.
"We don't know, but there were a few more of these. Tracks were erased, but someone was here and clearly left wanted us to see their message." Jake his back was pressed into the wall, just close to his father's desk as he explained. Cristine sat on the stool without any support and listened to the two.
"What message?" Jeremiah scoffed rather unimpressed, "this is some childish attempt to scare us. It's clearly someone who sees what we have and wants it. If this person had the balls to do that, they would. Which means they can't."
"Still. We should be cautious," Jake was a lot calmer than his father and a less prickly by this threat. "First McCarthy and now this-"
"We don't know what happened to Phil until we hear something. Any word from Troy?"
Cristine opened her mouth to answer, "last contact moment was in the afternoon. They were almost at the crash site... we haven't heard anything since then sir." The old man's expression was indifferent to her report, but a slight nod that he welcomed her input. "We've increased the amount of people to patrol and call in more frequently between the lines." Chewing her lips, Cristine asked the same question she did Jake, "Mr. Otto, Jake told me that this area always has been a violent place. Aside from the usual stragglers, cartels or smugglers from across the borders, is there anyone else that might have it out for this land? This threat is pretty specific. A bullet through the head means an execution."
"I understand you think this might be something deeper young lady," Jeremiah's voice lowered an octave and it felt like Cristine struck a nerve with that simple question, "but it isn't. I've always had to defend my land from assholes who don't want to work ever since my boys were kids. This isn't any different from back then and defending it with my life won't be any different either."
"I understand Mr. Otto, I just think we should-"
"I don't care what you think. This is my business to handle and your opinion has been heard. Now I'd like to discuss this further with my son in private. I reckon you have better things to do."
"Asshole." Cristine bit her tongue, shook her head at this prideful old coot and was slightly swayed by Jake's wan, but supporting smile. "I'll be on my way then." The frost returned to Cristine's eyes when she exited the big house and walked down the hill. She and her family weren't going to be defenseless cause some prideful man couldn't suppress his clear bias towards her. Whatever, at least she got some power in the militia to actually put her words into action. Unclipping the walky-talky from her waistband, Cristine thumbed into it to call Joseph, "Joe make sure you're ready at the gates in five. We're going out."
As you guys noticed, I will make changes into the story canon wise compared to what you might now. Hope you guys like what I'll have in store for the plot and characters.