S3E12: Part 1
Doc POV
"This is Citizen Z. Do you copy?" he heard CZ over the radio as Doc locked himself in the small broadcast room. Why did he attract the crazies these days? First Nurse Retched, then Ma and Pa Kettle and now three cannibal women. He had to get out of there and meet back up with Addy, but not before he made contact with Citizen Z. He fiddled with the wires of the radio working as quickly as he could, "This is Citizen Z at Camp Northern Light. Does anybody copy? This is Citizen Z at Camp Northern Light. Does anybody copy? This is Citizen Z at Camp Northern Light. Does anybody copy?"
"Citizen Z this is Delta X-ray Delta, do you copy?" Doc said when he thought he'd gotten it back online.
"Doc? Hey man! Weak signal but I copy. Dude you're alive!"
"Yes I am. At least for now." He said looking nervously to the locked wooden door of the small radio tower.
"I've been looking for you guys for months where are you?"
"I can't talk long. I have an emergency message you need to relay to Warren. Lucy has been kidnapped by the Man. I repeat. Lucy has been kidnapped by the Man."
"Lucy. The Man. Kidnapped. Copy. Uh, where are you? And where's Lucy?"
"Addy and I are in pursuit. I'll contact you as soon as I know more."
"Open the door!" one of the women screamed as they banged on it from the outside.
"Where's Warren?"
"She's headed to Spokane to stop Murphy. But this changes everything."
"Come on Doc. We're all friends here." Another one of the cannibals said.
"Contact Warren. Tell her about Lucy, she's the only one who can stop the Man."
"Copy you. Doc are you okay?"
"I'm getting angry." The first woman said as the door began to crack.
"Doc? Doc, you're scaring me. Over."
The cannibal women kept pounding at the door and he had nowhere to go as he frantically looked around. Then it hit him and he looked up where the radio tower stuck out of the roof.
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their species." He said as he began his climb. He went all the way to the top and looked below him, he had a good half dozen zombies at the bottom of the tower and the ladies had given up on breaking down the door and had sat themselves down for an afternoon tea. Then he noticed that if he went high enough – and if he was crazy enough – he'd be able to knock the tower over their fence and be out in the field where he could run free. He began to kick at one of the cables holding the tower upright. When it broke he was able to swing his weight back and forth until the tower creaked and fell over.
"Peace out bitches!" he called as his insane plan worked and he was able to escape. Now to find Addy.
Warren POV
She led her Red Hand through Spokane to one of her old lookout sights with a clear view of Murphy's compound.
"Look at those poor people." She said looking through her scope. "Mind controlled by a half zombie sociopath. No better than zombies themselves."
"Being safe or being afraid is an easy choice for most." Sun Mei said.
"A person without fear ceases to be a human being." Hopper said, "Fight or flight man. It's what propelled us out of the primordial ooze."
"Murphy." Warren said when she'd found him standing in one of the tall windows of the compound, "Extracting his blue ass isn't gonna be easy. Guard tower. Zombie moat. Electric fencing. And security at the corners. . .they've got the numbers."
"What about the blends?" Sun Mei asked, "How do you plan to limit collateral damage?"
Hopper chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder, "It's the apocalypse, honey. Whole world is collateral damage." He said as she looked at the hand that was touching her and he lifted both in defense.
"We can't just kill them." Sun Mei said turning back to Warren.
"Those blends, they made their choice. They chose safety over freedom. But their safety can cost humanity its one chance to survive. And I can't let that happen. I've come too far and I've killed too many zombies and humans to give up now."
10K POV
He'd woven his way through the back alleys of Spokane, there had been a lot more activity lately and it didn't take a genius to figure out it was the reinforcements Warren must have found. He ducked behind a dumpster and looked to a group of people armed with some impressive guns. They were standing in a circle pushing a Z around as it snarled at them. He lined his rifle up and looked through the scope making little soft gunshot sounds imagining how many he'd be able to drop without them even seeing what hit them. He had to admit, he missed shooting. He had missed having a rifle in his hands, he missed getting the drop on an enemy and it brought a smirk to his face. Then he saw Warren cut through the circle with another man who shot the Z and ordered the men into their truck. Warren stood on a crate above them all and looked around at her men, then she looked straight forward and 10K realized she was looking at him.
Shit, he thought as he ducked behind the dumpster. He heard the truck start up and head off, as some Z's walked into the alley and moved right past him. When the sound of the engine had gone so far he couldn't hear it anymore he popped out of his hiding place to follow it. Warren was his mission. He had to do what Murphy had told him to. And Murphy would make everything better. There was still something, a dim sound echoing in the back of his head, it only spoke up every now and then, it no longer screamed at him every second of the day. It died when Bailey did.
He hurried down the alley making his footsteps as light as possible, he slowed to turn the corner and when he did he got the smallest glimpse of Warren with a pipe before he was hit hard in the head and he hit the ground as he blacked out.
Warren POV
They'd found a place under a large concrete bridge, it was supported by several curved archways and had a balcony under it that overlooked a waterfall. This had become their current base of operations. She didn't want to find a building, outside she could see an enemy coming. The Red Hand were surrounding them all armed and ready to protect their new leader. Warren was on the balcony with Hooper and Sun Mei as they made their plan. They'd propped up 10K against the metal fence of the balcony waiting for him to wake up, he had a good size cut on his temple where she'd whacked him so it might be a while. There was another member of the Red Hand watching over him with a gun.
"All right, I wanna upset their world order," she said laying out a plan using rocks as a map, "have them second guessing Murphy."
"I'll send them a message." Hopper said sitting cross legged next to her. "They'll be sleeping with one eye open for the rest of their short little lives."
"I need you and your men to kill the power from the dam."
"Sweetheart if you need something broken we're gonna break it. We are professionals."
"So this is the canal." She said pointing to the rocks, "This is the perimeter. This is the zombie moat. This is the front gate. I want all of the attention, right here."
"A grisly distraction perhaps?" Hopper asked and she turned her head to see 10K had just come around. His eyes were wide as he looked around and she stood up and made her way over to him. All right, let's see what damage Murphy's done in his head.
"What am I gonna do with you?" she asked as she crouched in front of him. He didn't answer, he only looked at her with those sad puppy dog eyes as he pouted his lip a bit. "What are you? Cause you're not the boy I once knew." She put her hand on the rail beside his head as he looked at her, "I can smell the difference in your blood. I can see the Murphy in your eyes." Eyes that kept looking at her with something but she couldn't tell what. It could have been fear, fear that she was going to hurt him. It could have been begging, maybe he wanted her to mercy him so he'd be free of Murphy. It could have been regret, regret for running, or regret for something he was going to do. There was definitely sadness but on what level she couldn't tell. He looked miserable, but miserable because he was a blend or miserable because he'd been caught? Damn, it'd be good to have Bailey here with her talent for reading people, it'd be useful now more than ever.
"What'd you do? Run home and tell your savior I was coming?" she asked.
"He already knew." 10K replied dully, still looking at her like a hurt puppy.
"Oh. Did he send you to kill me?" she asked lightheartedly then 10K's expression changed. His eyes grew wide and he looked away from her and she snapped, the 10K they knew wasn't the boy in front of her and if he was meant to be her assassin she'd have to treat him like one. She grabbed him by the jacket and lifted him from the ground shoving him against the rail.
"Did he send you to kill me!" she demanded shouting at him and he looked afraid again.
"Warren!" Sun Mei shouted standing and making her way over.
"What?" Warren snapped at her before turning back to 10K, "Just trying to knock a little humanity into him."
"Ask him where the lab is. He may know about Dr. Merch's work. The boosters. The vaccines." Sun Mei listed.
Warren held up her hand stopping her questions, then she looked to 10K, "You want to talk to the doctor?" he looked back and forth between them but didn't say anything. His expression now becoming something familiar to her; stony, a mask, the look of someone who wasn't going to give up any information.
"No? This is for your own good." She said before punching him in the face making him recoil from the hit, she grabbed his jacket again and made him face her, "Hey. Look at me. Hey! Look at me!" she said before throwing him to the ground. She crouched over him as he sat up on his elbows the hurt puppy look returning.
"Nobody here to help you." She said with her knee on his chest keeping him pinned, "Except me. Bailey ain't here, she went runnin after you, what happened to her? She go join Murphy too so she wouldn't lose you?" she asked and he shook his head, "She back at the compound?"
"She's dead." He said his voice cracking, "She died trying to get out, to get free. If you want to hate me Warren for being a blend, hate me, go ahead. But you can't hate me more than I hate myself."
Then she saw something sticking out of his pocket, something yellow. She pulled out a folded piece of paper. "What's this?" she asked but again got no reply. His lips trembled as she read it and even she knew her gaze was harsh as she looked back up at him. She handed Sun Mei the paper.
"I wanna hear it." She shouted and Sun Mei read aloud.
"Find Warren. Bring her to me. If she won't come, kill her."
"Well okay then." She said looking down at 10K, "Come on." She said bringing her hands to gently slap both sides of his face, "Why'd you let me beat your ass when all you had to do was give me the note?" she asked tapping his cheek again. He still looked so sad, and she wanted to help him, but he was barely talking to her so how could she help him if he wasn't going to help himself?
"I don't want to hurt you but see, you're not leaving me any choice here." she said as he looked up at her, come on, she thought, give me a bit more to read, give me something I can work with. There had to be a way to pull baby boy out of whatever dark recess of his mind he was trapped in.
"Give him the booster shot of the original vaccine." Warren said turning to Sun Mei.
"That's a bad idea. He's been pumped full of so many different vaccines that his immune system could crash or go into overdrive!"
"I need to see what side he's on!" Warren shouted at her.
"Let me examine his blood. I need a baseline. He's been bitten, injected by Dr. Merch. –"
"I'll do it myself." She said grabbing the bag and taking out the injector and slamming it into 10K's thigh. His eyes rolled back and his head hit the concrete and he started twitching, his head lolling from side to side. Then something fell with a squelch and she looked over to see a hand with red spray paint on the back of it.
"Thomas, your ride's here." came Murphy's voice and she looked up to see him perched above the balcony where they were. The Red Hand were all on their knees with blends aiming guns to their heads. "Hello Roberta."
She stood up leaving 10K alone as he spasmed, his leg or his hand twitching every now and then.
"What the hell happened to you?" she asked Murphy seeing he now had pure white hair and his face was covered in patches of blue and white skin.
"It's the new-new me. Like it?"
"Are you dying?" she asked.
"I am. . . becoming."
"Becoming what? Moses? Billy idol?" she said sarcastically.
"My destiny."
"Your destiny? Lording over a bunch of half zombie cult members?"
"You say it like it's a bad thing." He chuckled, "What are you gonna do with that huh?" he asked nodding to the empty injector in her hand, "Make me immune to the zombie virus huh? That's what Dr. Merch thought too and look where it got her. Bag of zombie chow. And where do you get off judging me?" he asked making his way down and over to them. "At least 10K had the decency to count the number of zombies he's killed. Do you have any idea how many humans you've murdered?" he asked coming to stand face to face with her, "I didn't think so." Then he turned and looked around at the Red Hand, "And look at the company you are keeping. Wow. Yeah and you have your friends like old Red Hand here to thank for the atrocities all up and down the coast."
"Hey we're just doing our part to bring order to the chaos." Hopper said smiling.
"Really? Well if you ever get tired of being a nihilistic, murdering. . . pungent human, come take the cure."
"You know what? I think I'll stick to my murdering nihilistic ways. But man, wow, I do appreciate the invite." He said smiling and Murphy looked from him to Sun Mei to Warren.
"You know my friends can kill you right now, I just have to think it, but that's not why I'm here. Your old life as you know it, it's over right. . . now. Your new life has just begun, you can be reborn at this very moment, you just have to want it."
"You. Are. Insane." She said.
"Am I Roberta?" he laughed, "The CDC, the lab in Colorado. The Zeros. Operation Bitemark. And let's not forget the loveable head in a box Doctor Kurian. They were wrong - all of them. But look around you, look what I have built. What we have built. It's over for the human race. It's over and you know it. And I know you, I know how you think, Roberta. Don't do this. I want you on my side. I need you on my side."
"You seem to keep forgetting I have a species to think of. You need to stop making blends, you need to give Sun Mei the use of your blood so she can make an anti- HZ1 vaccine."
"No. I don't trust humans. Not anymore. I think I'll let nature take its course." He moved to 10K and held out his hand, "Get up Thomas." 10K accepted it and got up, Murphy grabbed his chin and looked at his face, the cut above his eyebrow, the bruise on his jaw, "Beating up on the kid Warren? Really? You're new friends really are rubbing off on you."
"What I did to him is nothing compared to what you did to Bailey." She said, 10K would heal but Bailey. . . Bailey was gone and nothing could bring her back from that.
"She chose her fate. She could have been something, something greater then a blend. But she let her fear ruin her. Besides, Thomas is better off without her dragging him down." He said putting his arm around 10K and walking away.
"Where you taking him?" she asked.
"Back where he belongs. To the future. A future without fear."
"You'll never get rid of all the zombies." She called.
"No. But I might get rid of all the humans, come on kid." He said taking 10K with him. And she saw 10K look over his shoulder at her as Murphy led him away.
"Damn." She said under her breath bringing her hands to her hips. Well alright then, Murphy wanted a war then she'd give him one.
Murphy POV
"What's going on?" he asked when they returned to the compound and found several blends all watching a mass of zombies in the moat as they devoured a human.
"Moat zombies caught a Red Hand." Wesson said.
"What was he trying to do?" he asked and they all turned and pointed at the clock tower on top of the museum. There was now a banner reading BE AFRAID with the body of a blend hanging upside down above it.
"Looks like he already did it."
"Cut it down." Murphy sneered, "Move everyone inside the fence, even the refugees. Get them inoculated and armed. The rest of you know what to do. I told you all this day would come, and now it's here. We will not be afraid."
Kaya POV
"Dit dit dit, dah dah. Dit, dah, dah." She said as she sent Morse code signals using a traffic light she'd been able to hack. "Now if only someone would notice this genius maneuver." She felt Nana's eyes on her and turned to her, "It's not bragging if it's true." Then she turned back to the screen.
"Where did you go Lieutenant Warren?"
Third Person POV
"All clear here at the turbines." A blend was radioing in as she surveyed the area. "I want to be sure the bridge is secure." She said looking over into the dam making sure everything was flowing properly. Then two Red Hand came up behind her and subdued her as another group used cattle prods to lead zombies into the upper reservoir so they'd jam up the turbines and stop the power Murphy had flowing to his compound and more importantly his electric fence.
Warren POV
"Hey, check out this traffic light." She said as she and Sun Mei watched the lights flash, "Is that Morse code?"
"B-I-T-E-M-A-R-K. Bitemark." Sun read. "Operation Bitemark."
"Citizen Z, he's sending us a message."
"F-R-E-N-C-H-Y? Frenchy? What's Frenchy?" Sun Mei asked.
Warren looked around until she saw a fast food place, "Frenchy." She said as they rushed over.
"Warren?" Came a girl's voice from the speaker, "Warren! Warren! Can you hear me, Warren?"
"Citizen Z is that you? Hello?"
"Warren! Yes! Warren at last! I have a message from Citizen Z."
"Are you Citizen Z's friend?"
"Yes, I'm Kaya. Maybe you've heard me on the air, Kaya in the Sky-a. Anyway. I have a message for you that's critical to Operation Bitemark. Doc contacted us with urgent news."
Then they lost the signal as all the power in Spokane went dead.
"What do you think the message was? She said it was from Doc." Sun Mei said.
"Maybe they found Lucy."
"So what do we do now?"
"Finish what we came here to do." Warren said and they took off for the compound again.