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S3E05: Part 1
10K POV
The water threw him around like he weighed nothing. He couldn't tell what direction was up until his head broke the water and he was able to gasp for air, those few moments though weren't enough as he was dragged under again and blacked out. Then he heard a voice whisper 'wake up'. He was in calmer water now and was able to swim upward and take a much needed breath. He found the satchel Merch had packed bobbing in the water not far from his head and he grabbed it as he swam to shore. He collapsed the moment he hit the sand and passed out again, this time he heard crows cawing along with the voice calling his name.
When he opened his eyes again he rolled over onto his back and immediately felt a throbbing in his lower abdomen. He sat up carefully as he panted catching his breath. He took off the top to his jumpsuit and let it hang around his waist as he lifted his grey shirt and checked on his bullet wound. He'd been right before, the stitches had opened up and it was bleeding again, it wasn't as bad as before but he'd still need to tend to it as soon as he could. He saw some moss by the water and he crawled over and took a handful of it groaning with the effort, moss was a natural iodine and helped keep bacteria from growing, but like a bandage he'd have to change it often, still it was better than nothing. He winced when he pressed the moss to his open wound and looked around. He saw a figure on the nearest bridge, Will Chaffin, and saw him pause and look over the rail before hurrying to the other side walking quicker than before. 10K couldn't be sure if he'd been seen but the odds that he'd been caught were good so he grabbed the satchel and forced himself to his feet and started running.
Murphy POV
He sat in the lab with Dr. Merch's body. What was left of her was bleeding and ripped in several places, she was even missing part of her arm from the elbow down. Some of the blends from his inner circle were there as well trying to give him comfort.
"She should have had more faith." Hope Chaffin said, "She didn't deserve you."
"Don't say that. Everyone deserves me." He said in a monotone voice lost in his thoughts. "Now, we keep moving forward. Dr. Merch, she chose her fate. She chose to be afraid. But you and I, we will make different choices."
"What do you want us to do?" Hope Chaffin asked.
"Keep building. Creating. Finish the moat. Get the power back on, plant food. Live. Without fear. Now go I need some me time."
Without questioning his orders they all left leaving him with the blood soaked body of Dr. Merch.
"You weren't actually afraid were you?" he said aloud to himself, "Not of the zombies anyway you're too smart for that. So what was it? Something go wrong with the vaccine? Some unexpected side effect? Ha, ha, that's a familiar road isn't it?" he asked humorlessly, "Why couldn't you just have finished the vaccine before you decided to check out? Why do I have to do everything myself? Damn it Merch, I'm a savior not a doctor! What am I supposed to do now huh?. . . If only I knew what was going on in that pretty little head of yours." He muttered now drawn to her open skull where her brain was poking out, "Those dense, gray, greasy brains. Those beautiful. . . spongy. . . delicious –" he couldn't help himself as he licked his lips contemplating it.
10K POV
He kept moving away from the river walking through fields of tall grass, then fields of nothing but weeds and dry dirt and then thick forests. He only changed direction when he'd heard an animalistic growling and howling as the sound of something being mauled reached his ears. He was still walking hunched over, in pain and short of breath. He brought his hand to his wound and when he pulled it away his palm was red with blood.
Then he heard a twig snap and ducked behind a tree, carefully looking around the trunk he saw Will Chaffin searching through the tall grass for any footprints or sign that 10K had been through there. Now fully alert he looked around trying to find a place to hide. The only thing was another piece of the river in front of him and he looked between it and Will knowing that with an open wound he would risk infection but he'd rather that then going back to Murphy. He got in the water as quietly as possible fully submerging as he watched Will survey the shore before finding something and heading in the wrong direction. Then, slowly, 10K lifted his head out of the water, his hair sticking flat to his forehead. When he was sure Will was gone he turned and saw a picnic table floating upside down on the river. He climbed on it and laid down just before he passed out again, his exhaustion catching up with him.
"5K!"
"5K? Where are you? 5K?" he muttered in his semi-conscious state.
"5K!"
'No, no, he's not dead.'
"I tried to get to him. There were too many."
'I don't believe you.'
He opened his eyes as water started hitting his face. He looked up and saw dark clouds as the rain started to come down harder. He paddled the picnic table to the shore and got off taking shelter under a tree, though he wasn't sure if he would call it shelter. The rain was still able to soak him to the bone even with the top half of his jumpsuit pulled back over his body. He hugged the satchel of booster shots to his chest feeling utterly miserable and starving as he shivered and heard thunder overhead. After an eternity, it finally stopped and the sun of late afternoon came out again. With no other option he turned to the nearest tree and started digging between its roots until he'd unearthed a hard-shelled grub. Cringing, he brought it to his mouth, popped it in and chewed, nearly spitting it out he was so disgusted.
He then went to the shore to get some fresh moss for his wound, he also decided to strip and try and ring out as much of the rainwater from his clothes as he could before putting them back on. After he'd rezipped his pants he put some fresh moss on his worst injury though he could feel several more that he'd gotten when he'd been tumbling through the rapids. His left shoulder was covered in scratches, so were the ribs on the right half of his back and his right elbow, while he'd been in the water he'd hit some rocks along the floor of the river hard, hard enough to tear holes in his clothes and make him bleed. He reached for his grey shirt on a low hanging branch and winced as he stretched the long angry red lines that ran across his back ribs making a mental note not to turn his body like that again.
His head snapped up when he heard a branch break and he saw a figure start coming through the trees. It was too short to be Will Chaffin and when they saw him they drew their gun in defense.
"Bailey?" he asked in shock with a small smile and he saw her eyes widen as she came through the trees slowly as she lowered her gun.
"Te- Ten K?" she stuttered her eyes looking him up and down and he realized he still hadn't put his shirt on though he didn't really care as a smile spread across his face and he stepped closer to her. She brought her hands to his chest keeping him an arms length away but he was still able to rest his hands on her arms. She ran her hands down to his stomach, up across his chest, over his arms but her eyes stayed wide with shock and he felt her start to tremble and he wasn't sure why.
"I must have lost my mind." She whispered quietly and his eyebrows pulled together in confusion as she looked up to him, "You're dead."
"No, I'm not." He said softly with the same small smile and shake of his head.
"Yes, you are." She insisted, "We saw the submarine blow up."
"I made it out on the boat."
She shook her head, "You weren't on the boat, Doc said you weren't, he wouldn't lie about that."
"Murphy saved me." He said grabbing her arms tighter as she shook her head faster.
"No, he wouldn't do that." She said her eyes still wide in disbelief, "He hated you, he wouldn't save you, he left you to die."
"Bailey I'm alive. I'm really here." He said bringing his hands to her waist holding her tighter and pulling her closer as her hands rested on his chest again but he could see in her eyes she didn't believe him. He leaned in and kissed her pouring everything he had into it as he moved one hand to cradle her head, weaving his fingers through her hair and deepening the kiss. She responded with an equal amount of heat, both of them making small sounds of pleasure. When he pulled away he was disappointed to see that same dazed look in her eye as she looked him up and down again like she was amazed he hadn't vanished by now.
"I never knew a hallucination could be so real." She said softly and he brought both hands to cup her face and make her look at him.
"Bailey, I'm really –" he gave a sigh, he'd have to give her some proof, something she didn't know before, something so undeniable that she'd realize he was still living and breathing right in front of her. She brought her hands to his jaw cupping his face the same way he was hers and he hated the dazed look that wouldn't leave her stare. He took another deep breath, knowing exactly what would prove it to her but also hating that he had to show her.
"Bailey." He said taking her hand from his face and bringing it around to the back of his neck. He saw confusion fill her eyes, then dread as her fingers traced the rough scabbed over crescents Murphy's teeth had left. Her eyes snapped to his and as much as he hated the fear in them he did think it was better than the far off look she'd had before.
"Murphy bit me." He muttered, "That's why he saved me, so he could control me."
She turned her head slightly and kept looking him straight in the eye, "You're alive?"
He nodded slowly and a grin broke out on her face before she lunged at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He returned the hug holding her around her waist as a smile broke out on his face too regardless of the pain he was in.
"You're alive." She repeated and he kissed the side of her neck burying his face in her hair.
"I'm alive." When they both let go he saw the biggest smile he'd ever seen light up her face but it quickly vanished as she looked back down at his stomach like she'd just remembered something.
"Tommy, you're hurt." She said as her eyes looked him over again noticing every scratch and bleeding wound. "You're really hurt."
"It's not that bad." He said trying to calm her.
"Is that moss?" she asked brushing her finger along the edge of the open bullet wound.
He nodded, "It acts as a natural iodine." He explained.
"Tommy, you really are Nature Boy aren't you?" she said making him give a short laugh before there was a loud growl. He blushed and brought a hand to his stomach as it loudly demanded he give it food.
"When was the last time you ate anything?" Bailey asked concerned.
"Not long ago." He said but she looked at him and he knew he couldn't lie to her, "Really, it wasn't long ago, I just. . . didn't have much to eat." He said leaving out the part about eating a grub. She turned and took off her rucksack, she dropped it at her feet and began leafing through it as he put his grey shirt back on. She stood up and had a granola bar in her hand which she held out to him. He couldn't stop himself from snatching it from her grasp, ripping open the wrapper and taking a huge bite. She handed him a half full water bottle which he also accepted and took a swig before handing it back to her.
"Come on." She said packing up her stuff again and throwing it on her back, "I know a place we can go for shelter. It's not far. Maybe a day's walk."
Murphy POV
"To Z or not to Z." he muttered to himself still in the lab with Merch's body. "Alas poor doctor, I thought I knew you. I thought you knew me. My intention. My vision: A world without fear. Not just for you and me but for everyone. We were so close. And then you stopped. Why? You saw these people find safety for the first time in years, maybe ever. You created that original vaccine for a reason. I was chosen to receive it for a reason. So why would you stop it? Why would you stop me from helping them? Why?" he asked grabbing her jacket but of course she didn't answer. "No. That's okay. You don't have to say anything. I will find the answer. The truth is out there." He grabbed her chin and turned her head to him, "Or is it in there?"
Bailey POV
She and 10K were making it through the woods on foot as quick as they could, or as quick as he could. She had no idea what had happened to him but it wasn't just the bullet wound he had anymore, he had several scratches along his shoulder, back and his arm. He had a cut on his chin and she thought she even saw some dried blood at his temple. He moved slowly and it was obvious he was in pain. She offered to slow down or take a break but night was falling and he refused to waste the vanishing daylight. Eventually though he pushed himself too far and knelt on the ground then quickly kneeling became laying as he gave a grunt clearly at his limit.
"Here." she said getting on the ground beside him, "You sleep, I'll take watch."
"It's too exposed out here, you should go on to that shelter you talked about." He said leaning up on one elbow, his eyes darting from her to the satchel he had. She still hadn't asked what was in it, but she'd seen him so far be very protective of it – he wouldn't even let her carry it for him. Before she could argue that she wasn't going to leave him after just getting him back they heard an engine revving and turned to look through the bush beside them. The engine stopped and they saw a man on a motorcycle take off his helmet and take out a canteen bringing it to his lips and taking a sip. Meanwhile behind the bush Bailey and 10K shared a look silently seeing that they were thinking the same thing.
«»
Taking the bike from the man hadn't been hard and she would have felt bad about it if 10K wasn't as injured as he was. The man on the other hand looked fine, he'd find a way out of the rope they'd tied him up in and she was sure he'd be on his way in no time. 10K took the man's goggles from the handlebars and slid them over his face as he drove the motorcycle and Bailey sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his middle. She directed 10K to the small house in the woods she'd found the previous day. It was a square single floor building with peeling white paint and a few holes in the roof but it would do, he parked the motorcycle and leaned it against the house hiding it under a tarp. Inside it was all one open room really, a few walls placed strategically divided it up into a tiny kitchen, a bathroom that was the size of a closet and a larger room that was part living room part bedroom. The furniture of course had been moved, some of it turned over by past looters and other survivors but there was enough to barricade the front door and still have something soft to sleep on. 10K threw the strap of his satchel over the post by the headboard before immediately falling into the full sized bed and resting back against the pillows while Bailey removed her two bags and her weapons and rested it all on the couch. The floor was covered in trash and old broken memorabilia from the former owners but four years in the apocalypse and she'd seen worse. She made her way over to 10K and sat on the bed beside him, she tugged open the black jumpsuit he was in, pulling the top part off completely and pulled up his grey shirt looking at his wound. He'd need a real antibacterial cream or alcohol instead of just moss and she may have to even stitch him back up a bit just for good measure. She felt his eyes on her as her finger gently traced around his injury.
"What happened?" she asked looking up at him, "After the explosion?"
"I don't know." He said quietly, "I was unconscious. I woke up and there were all these flashing emergency lights and an alarm. I tried to make it out but, blood loss. . ." he shrugged, "I passed out, by the time I woke up the boat was already on shore."
"And Murphy?"
"Still a jerk." 10K replied sourly, "I wanted to go back to you guys. I tried. But, I just. . . couldn't. No matter what I did, no matter where I ran, I ended up back with Murphy." He said before pausing to look around the room lost in thought.
"Where is the group?" he asked looking up at her, "Why aren't you with them? I didn't see you at the factory with them."
She took a deep breath worried about what he might think about her new mission, "I haven't been with the group for a while." She admitted.
"Why not?" he asked sitting up propped on one elbow as his eyebrows crinkled together in concern.
"10K you need to lie down." She said shifting to bring a hand to his shoulder trying to push him back against the pillows, "You'll strain the wound."
"Bailey what happened?" he asked refusing to move, "Tell me what happened."
She took a deep breath knowing she wouldn't get around this, "I found a new mission, though, I'm not sure if I'm sticking to it now." She said not looking him in the eye and instead taking his free hand from his lap and playing with his fingers. "I abandoned the group and went off to kill Murphy." She said and in her peripheral vision saw him raise his eyebrows in surprise as his eyes widened, the dark circles only making his eyes more prominent. "I was a wreck after I thought you had. . . Warren told me I had to focus on one thing to get me through it so I focused on how much I hated Murphy." She looked back up at him, "I thought he'd left you to die on the sub, and the only thing I could think about was putting a bullet through his head."
He gave a small chuckle and shook his head before looking back at her, "I know that feeling. I've fantasized about killing Murphy more times than anyone." Then his smile dropped, "But you know we can't right? He's still the cure –"
"Screw the cure." She said sourly looking back down at their intertwined hands again, "I wanted him dead, part of me still does. He may have saved you but he still. . ." she trailed off looking up at him again and he took his hand from hers and brought it to the back of his neck tracing the bite that marred his skin. His eyes met hers and she again found herself wondering how any shade of green could be so deep.
"You were going to give the world the finger, take away the last guy who might be able to save everyone, all to avenge my death?" he asked sounding both shocked and touched. She looked away from him again and nodded. Then she felt his fingers under her chin and he raised her head and leaned in to kiss her. She immediately brought one hand to his neck and the other to his hair making sure he couldn't pull away. His hands moved to her waist and pulled her closer but then he went to adjust how he was sitting and twisted his torso the wrong way and pulled back hissing in pain before looking down at his bullet wound. Bailey looked down too and saw a bit of bright fresh blood and got up off the bed.
"Lie down." She told him in the same no bullshit voice Warren often used.
"What are you doing?" he asked as he did as she told him. She went over to several drawers and cabinets searching for something, "We need a sewing kit." She said as she rummaged finally finding a little red squishy ball pierced with several needles and some thread. Then she went to her bag and from one of the smaller pockets pulled out a small lighter. She lit the end and held a needle over it, when she was satisfied it had been sterilized she returned to sit next to 10K and pulled up his shirt again.
"This is going to hurt isn't it?" he asked bracing himself.
"Think of it as payback for that time by the Mississippi River." She said briefly looking down to her right ankle where they both knew a patch of marred and burnt flesh was.
"I was saving your life." He said defensively.
"And I'm doing what exactly?" she asked with a smirk and a slightly teasing tone leaning over and making the first stitch. 10K clenched his teeth and balled the bed sheet in his fists as Bailey tried to work quickly.
«»
Stitching 10K hadn't lasted long, when it was over he let out a long breath he'd been holding while she patched over the stitches with what was left of her medical supplies from the Red Hand.
"How'd you find me this far north anyway?" he asked as she finished up, putting away her supplies. She moved next to him on the bed reaching into her pocket and pulling out the bullet shells she'd found. She held them in her open palm as 10K smiled and gave a small chuckle.
"Clever girl." He said then he turned and wrapped his arm around her from behind, pulling her back against his chest and they fell asleep wrapped up together.
Waking up the next day was the best either of them had felt in what felt like an eternity. The soft bed under them was enough of a luxury but the part Bailey liked most was having 10K's arms around her and his head nestled into the crook of her neck. She felt him shift as he started to wake up and when she was sure he wasn't still sleeping she turned on the bed to face him.
"How'd you sleep?" she asked smiling.
"Great." he said rubbing one eye and sitting up. "Better than I have in a while."
She pulled up his shirt and checked his stitches, they looked like they'd held together through the night which was a relief. With the way he was sitting she could barely see the bite on the back of his neck and she sat up and ran her fingers across it.
"Does it hurt?" she asked quietly not sure whether or not he'd want to be reminded of it.
He hesitated to answer, "No."
"Do you think we should have mercied her a long time ago? Instead of leaving her like that?"
"Is that what you'd want? If it were you? A mercy killing instead of us trying to save you?"
"Yes." He replied without hesitation.
"Let's just hope it never comes to that."
"I remember Cassandra." She said still not sure if this subject would make him shut down, "How we had talked about whether mercy would be kinder."
"I remember."
"Do you still think now what you did then?" she asked hesitantly, hoping his answer was no.
He gave a deep sigh, his chest moving slowly as he exhaled. "Yes."
She felt her heart drop into her stomach at his reply but before she could truly panic over it he went on.
"But that's plan B." he said and she was able to relax a bit, then she became confused as silence fell over them and 10K didn't go on to what his plan A was. He was keeping something from her. But instead of interrogating him she asked him something else.
"Bailey, whatever you want to do, I'm on board." He said weakly and she was shocked that he was putting his life in her hands, even if she chose to keep him by her side – which would be a death sentence for him – he'd be okay with that?
"What you said, before they brought you to the submarine. . . about being on board with whatever choice I made. Why would you do that? I could have decided to be selfish and keep you with me until you died. Why would you have let me do that?"
He licked his lip nervously looking away from her, "I'd lost a lot of blood. And there was a good chance that by the time I got to the sub, by the time they took the bullet out, I'd still die. Then I thought about all the other times I'd almost died. And I just. . . I figured if you did make the selfish choice. . . dying in your arms would be a good way to go."
She leaned her head on his shoulder again and wrapped her arms around his torso tightly, or as tight as she dared considering he still was covered in scratches and bruises. He tightened his arm around her too bringing his free hand to her hip to hold her as close as possible. After another long moment of just letting their minds wrap around the fact that they were both alive and that they were together Bailey asked another heavy question.
"After Cassandra was bit. . . she obeyed everything Murphy said. How do you. . . not?"
He gave another deep sigh before letting go of her and sitting up carefully, resting his arm on his bent knee before he turned and grabbed his satchel from the bed post. He put it in his lap and pulled out a yellow tube, it reminded Bailey of the epee pen her cousin had and her eyebrows scrunched together wondering why 10K had one and what was inside it.
"Dr. Merch gave these to me." He explained, "She called them booster shots. They contain a microdose of the original vaccine she used on Murphy. They make us more human, less Murphy. It gives me back my free will." He said looking down at the injector in his hand like it was his lifeline, in a way it was, without it he was Murphy's slave.
"How often do you need to take them?" she asked softly.
"I'm not sure. She said I'd know when, but. . . it feels like I'm going to need one soon." He said looking up at her. "It's like I can hear him in my head, that wasn't happening before. But now it's like I. . . know what I'm supposed to do, right now I can tell that's Murphy's will and not mine but. . . when this wears off everything he wants me to do, whether he says it out loud or not I just do it on instinct. It's not until after it's done that I realize I didn't want to do it."
She took his free hand and squeezed his fingers tightly. "What happens when you run out of shots?"
He took another deep breath, "I'm not sure. That's why I'm trying to put as much distance between me and Murphy as I can. I'm hoping if I go far enough east then by the time I run out of boosters I'll be out of his range. . .hoping that he has one."
"What if he doesn't have one?"
He sighed, "I don't want to think about that." he said as he sat up carefully and untied his boot. He pulled out one of the photos Addy had taken of them, the one Bailey had said she looked gross in and had asked him to get rid of. She was happy that he didn't, that he'd kept it.
"I can't believe you still have that." She said smiling.
"Do you still have the other two?" he asked and she nodded getting her messenger bag and pulling out her notebook. She opened it up to where she'd tucked the pictures inside and he placed his on top of the other two.
"Just in case something happens." He said, "Keep that one safe for me?"
"Nothing's going to happen –"
"Just promise me. Please." He begged.
"I promise." She said closing the notebook putting it back and they both laid back in bed cuddled up together.
Murphy POV
"Fractured love line, well that sucks." He said reading Merch's palm then chuckled, "Long life line. Well, I guess for the apocalypse, you made it pretty far. But you could have gone further. You could have had a long full life. But you chose not to. Why?" He asked shoving her shoulder and something fell out of her pocket and rolled on the floor. He looked down and saw one of the injectors but it was empty. He picked it up and examined it.
"A booster shot. The original vaccine. This is what you took before you walked into the Z's. . .So they could smell you? So you wouldn't be protected? So you would die? No, that doesn't make sense. Maybe you got the vials mixed up. The vials mixed up. Or maybe you were testing the blend vaccine on yourself. Getting all Jonas Salk and shit. You thought you were making yourself more zombie proof. Okay. So, it was an accident. Yeah, that's it, it was an accident." He stammered looking at the vial in his hands, "Or was it?"
He moved back over to her and checked her arm, "Needle marks? Not an accident. You took it on purpose. More than once. The original vaccine, that nasty cocktail. The one that would make me more human if it didn't kill me first. And you – it made you more human too, and 10K. It made both of you more human, and less me. So what you're saying is its worse being me than being dead. Is that it? You would rather not exist than be part of my world?" he asked aloud his voice getting louder, "As if there's something wrong with me! Is there something wrong with me? Because if there is, it's because of you. You did this to me! All of this! So you answer my question. Is there something wrong with me Dr. Merch? Answer me, you bitch!"
Bailey POV
Bailey had just walked back into the small house after mercying a couple of Z's outside and found 10K sitting on the side of the bed with a jump rope he must have found and was tying knots in it. They weren't normal knots though, they looked complex and complicated and she had her head tilted curiously as she made her way over to him. When he saw her expression he chuckled.
"My Pa taught me." He explained gesturing to the rope.
"Can you teach me some?" she asked and he turned to her with his eyebrows scrunched together.
"You don't think this is stupid?"
"It could come in handy." She shrugged sitting beside him on the bed their legs hanging off the edge and their feet resting on the floor. She pulled what rope she had left from her bag on the corner of the bed and followed what he told her to do.
"So for a Clove Hitch you take this end over then loop it back around." He said doing it to his rope so she could see it and copy on hers, "Then you lift the loop you made and pass the end through that loop. Then you pull the end and it bunches up the rope, then you just tighten it. Done."
She looked from her knot to his, his was perfect hers was, well. . . a knot but it wasn't the knot he'd done, not exactly. She heard him chuckle and she looked at the other end of the rope in his hand at another knot he'd made.
"What's that one?"
"Double half hitch." He said, "But it's trickier."
"Will you show me anyway?" she asked and he did, undoing the knot so she could watch him redo it.
"Alright, first you wrap the rope around, then pass the end through the first loop you made. Then you wrap it around here again and back through, then pull to tighten it."
They did this again and again, 10K moving on to other knots he knew while Bailey practiced the two he'd shown her.
"When I was younger people in school always thought I was weird for enjoying stuff like this." He said and she paused in her knot watching him execute it perfectly not taking his eyes off his hands and nimble fingers. "That's why Mom and Pa pulled me out and Mom started homeschooling me."
A silence fell over them after he said that and Bailey felt a bit bad that over time he'd confided so much in her and she hadn't reciprocated that.
"I never told you anything about my life Pre-Z." she mumbled now turning her eyes to her own rope and the messy knot that was nowhere near as good as 10K's.
"You never wanted to talk about it." He said turning to her and after a minute of feeling his gaze on her she turned to him, "I get it though, it's okay. If you don't want to talk about it you don't have to."
She considered that for a moment, just because he didn't push her to talk about her past did that mean she still shouldn't tell him? It was more her own trauma in her past she was afraid of, not 10K's opinion of her. She considered it from his point of view, if he hadn't ever shared a shred of information about himself Pre-Z she would have been dying to know something, anything. She took a deep breath caring about 10K too much to keep him in the dark any longer.
"I had two older brothers." She began and he chuckled drawing her gaze.
"I know. You told Sketchy that after you punched him." 10K said turning to her smiling at the memory and she gave a short laugh too but it died quickly.
"It was probably the only self-defense I knew Pre-Z, aside from kicking." She said softer now, "Neither one really effective when taking down a zombie. My brothers did most of that, they made it a priority to protect me when the outbreak happened, even long after that."
"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to –"
"I want you to know though." She said gently interrupting him, "I feel like who I used to be is a stranger to you, and I don't want there to be any part of me I haven't shared with you."
He looked touched before he nodded for her to continue, she looked back down at the rope in her hands as she went on, "Addy was our neighbor, so when the outbreak began we picked up her and Mack after she had to mercy her mom and her brother. We never really found a community, but like I told you we used to go camping, so we had enough gear that we'd make our own small shelters in the woods. We wouldn't stay anywhere long, my dad wanted us to be secure, so after a week or so we'd pack up and keep traveling, either driving or walking until we found another descent spot. We made it like that for a while, I felt safe, never bothered to learn how to use a real weapon, I was always with someone who had a gun or a knife so I never found it necessary. . . I was an idiot back then." She mumbled and felt his hand take hers, "I don't remember how it happened but one night a Z got in our camp, then more followed it, soon it was just chaos. A Z cornered me in one of our tents and my brother came in to fight it off. . . he got bit and his screaming made my other brother rush in to help. He told me to run, shouted at me as he fought off the Z and the zombie that had been our brother. I did what he told me to do, I headed away from camp and ran into Mack and Addy in the woods where they had been looking for more firewood. We rushed back and from the hill we were on I could see down into our camp where my mom was shooting at the Z's then. . ." she took a deep breath, "Then she saw my brothers. Now both of them had turned, I saw her freeze as she stared at them. Then she lowered her gun and just, let them get her." She felt 10K move closer and he squeezed her hand in his, "Mack pulled Addy away and they shouted at me to follow, I remember Mack saying my dad went to check a net he'd set up in the river to catch fish and we should go meet him and run before the Z's could follow us. I don't know why I didn't follow them I just kept staring at the camp as everything was torn apart by Z's. Then I saw my dad. He came from the opposite end of the camp and I heard him shout as my brothers ate my mom. I tried calling to him from the hill but he couldn't hear me over the Z's. He must have thought I was dead too, if he thought I was alive I know he wouldn't have. . . he took out his gun and started firing at the pack of zombies, when he was down to his last bullet, he turned the gun on himself. Put it right to his forehead." She looked down at her hands, 10K was still holding one of them and she started playing with his fingers, "Mack and Addy came back and said my dad wasn't at the river and they saw me looking at the camp and they knew. From then on it was just us until we found Doc, Garnett and Warren when we got to Camp Blue Sky."
They sat quietly for a while 10K giving her time to come out of her memory as he sat beside her, eventually so much time passed that he finally spoke up.
"I remember how much it hurt when I lost my Pa." he began slowly, "I can't imagine what that would be like four times over in one night."
"If I didn't have Mack and Addy I wouldn't have survived it. After that when it was just the three of us I promised myself I'd never be so weak ever again."
"Back after that whole thing with the cannibals in Philadelphia. . ." 10K began. "After I'd saved you and you told me I couldn't tell the others that I saw you struggling in that fight. I thought you were worried about your reputation, that being young you had had to fight to prove yourself and you didn't want to lose that. That wasn't all of it was it?" she shook her head, "You didn't want them to think you were weak because then they'd try to protect you, and you didn't want to risk that happening again."
She looked back down at her lap, "There's nothing worse than watching someone you love die while trying to protect you. If I ever died and turned it still wouldn't be as bad as that."
"Please don't talk about you dying." 10K muttered.
"Hey." She said turning and bringing her hand to his chin, avoiding the small cut across it, and making him look at her, "Live together die together remember? That way neither of us ever has to go on without the other." She said and he smiled, "Now. . . " she held up the rope in her hand, "I know I'm doing something wrong."
He chuckled and helped her undo the awful knot she'd made, "Okay, so this part goes over then under. . . "
And we finally get to know what happened to Bailey's family. This episode is going to be stretched out for a few chapters, let me know what you thought of the extra Bailey and 10K moments and what changes you think will happen now that he's running from blends with her help?
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See you next week!