S5E02: Part 9:
They followed the signs for Altura for a couple weeks, now being on foot slowing them down. When they found a community with high walls and several guards outside the main gate they knew they'd made it. They weren't the only ones there, other small groups of tired and disheveled looking survivors were at the gate too. There was one guard standing next to a woman who looked like she was giving a speech. Red and Bailey joined the group both with their weapons in hand – they'd each seen communities that weren't all that they seemed and were now always alert.
"Welcome to Altura, the longest zombie free outpost in all North America, give yourselves a hand, you made it." The woman said and she started clapping but no one joined in. She cleared her throat and looked to her clipboard before directing them in certain doors, some people who looked a bit closer to death were ushered into a gate labeled 'Talkers.'
"What's a Talker?" Bailey whispered to Red who shook her head not knowing.
"Talkers are the dead." One girl said overhearing them and making her way over. She had short black hair that was buzzed on the sides and she wore a long black trench coat over a white shirt and dark pants. "The name's George." She introduced herself, "Welcome."
"Thanks." Red replied, "What do you mean by Talkers are the dead?"
"Ever since the Black Rain." George explained, "It affected how people die. Now you turn Talker before you turn Z. You eat some brains and you can keep your soul and keep living your life normally. If you starve your body turns Z."
Red and Bailey exchanged a glance. "Black Rain?" Bailey asked.
"Didn't you see it?" George asked.
"The sky got pitch black one night." Red explained, "We took shelter in the basement of a house. –"
"That wouldn't have helped." George interrupted, "You still would have breathed it in. Everyone did. The dead don't just walk anymore, now they talk."
"And you let them in too?" Bailey asked watching the Talkers move into the quarantine line.
George smiled, "Newmerica is a place for all. Well, it will be. Once the vote happens but that's still a few months away."
"Next!" they turned and saw the doctor waiting at the opening to the tent, Red went in first for her checkup and George patted Bailey's shoulder and wished her well before she went on her way. From her place in line Bailey could see as the doctor took Red's temperature, checked for a pulse and wrote things down on a piece of paper before stamping it and sending Red on her way.
"Next." She called and Bailey stepped in. The doctor checked her temperature which was normal before she started looking for a pulse. She ran her fingers along both sides of Bailey's neck after checking her wrists no doubt looking for the strength of her pulse. But then she hesitated and Bailey almost froze, she tried to keep the tenseness out of her shoulders knowing it would look incriminating like she was trying to hide something but the doctor still pulled the collar of her shirt down revealing the scarred flesh of her shoulder. Bailey prayed it was marred enough that the doctor wouldn't be able to tell that there had once been zombie bites there. It still looked like a large birthmark except where the slightly tanner skin met her ivory flesh. Along where they met it was a bit bumpy along the jagged line where stitches from Zona had probably been. Clearly the doctor knew enough to see that it was a scar of some kind.
"What happened here?" she asked and Bailey tried to keep the expression on her face calm and neutral.
"I was attacked." She said a bit uneasy as the doctor turned her eyes from the scars to Bailey's face.
"By what?" she asked and Bailey knew she was worried about her being infected with something.
"A knife." Bailey lied, shyly looking down at her lap. She tried to scramble to come up with an excuse about her shoulder. The only other injury she had that looked even partially similar was her ankle when 10K had cauterized her cut to close it. Then a light bulb went off in her head. "We didn't have any medical supplies and my friend had to cauterize it."
The doctor looked at her quizzically for a minute looking to find any cracks in her story or in her eyes. But Bailey played her like she played Forman, and kept her lie looking like the truth. She looked up at the doctor from under her lashes, her head still turned to the ground looking sheepish like the bad memory was still traumatizing for her to talk about. After a moment the doctor bought it and let out a breath and let go of her collar moving to grab her clipboard as she started writing down more information on her.
"Your name?" she asked not taking her eyes from the paper.
"Bailey Hawthorne."
"Age."
"Uhhh. . . 27?" she said uncertain as she tried to quickly do the math.
"Address."
"Seriously?" she asked lifting an eyebrow. When the doctor looked up at her Bailey knew she wasn't kidding so she gave her address and the other information she needed. Then the doctor took her height, weight, blood pressure and checked her vision. Then she went back to her clipboard to log it all.
"Dental, good. Heart, steady. Lungs, strong. Abdomen, thin – signs of malnourishment. Skin, clear. Neck, stiff. Shoulders, one scarred through cauterization. Arms/Hands, good. Hips, full rotation. Knees, no joint damage. Feet/Ankles, one ankle - scar tissue noted."
Then she stamped the paper and passed it to her, "Here you go, you are certifiably alive. Through the blue gate."
She nodded in the direction Red had gone and Bailey followed. Red had waited for her and together they went to get their housing assignment and work permits. When she and Red had filled out the forms for their voter registration – which had made both girls exchange a look – they headed away from the tents by the fence and walked around Altura.
"It's kind of everything Doc said it would be." Red observed as they walked looking up at the tall buildings Bailey knew could house nearly a hundred people in total. She looked around and saw kids running around playing, parents at something that looked like a swap meet getting food and clothing and ammo. She liked that this place wasn't like that one camp in Provincetown where you had to turn over all your weapons or sexist like the Sisters of Mercy. This place didn't even discriminate against the dead, she thought as she looked around and saw some of these new 'Talkers' they'd mentioned at the gate.
"Except the half dead people." Bailey muttered reminding her of that little fact. She doubted Doc would have known about that.
"I think they're completely dead people." Red corrected as they passed the group of blue tents where people were trading goods.
"Any idea how the zombie virus mutated that way?" Bailey asked.
"Well the Black Rain was composed of two neuro-agents created by the greatest minds collected by Zona." A voice came from behind them and Bailey instantly smiled seeing someone familiar.
"Sun Mei!" Red said happily as she gave the woman a hug. When they separated Bailey hugged her too, though she hadn't known the doctor very long, a familiar face in the apocalypse was still a plus no matter who it was. Well, except when it was Murphy.
"I can't believe you two made it here." She said still smiling.
"How did you get here?" Bailey asked.
"Yeah, last time I saw you was at that marine base." Red added.
"After we were attacked and all the survivors were scattered I was rescued by another marine named Dante. He was part of another convoy that had heard our mayday and was coming to help. After I had told him and his team what happened they deemed our camp a lost cause and instead scoured the forest for any other survivors. Dante was one of the first people I saw turn Talker."
"So what about the Black Rain did that?" Bailey asked, "Keep them. . . talking?"
"Something about the Black Rain reactivated the part of the brain that stays conscious, keeps you you. But they still need to be fed or they go rabid."
"Fed brains?" Red asked.
"No, these." Sun said pulling a grey cookie with a red Z on it out of her pocket, "They're called bizkits, they contain something that keeps the Talkers talking and normal but no one knows what's in them. They're shipped here from another outpost."
That caught Bailey's attention, "So this Newmerica thing really is coming together? Like more than one group making it? Trading? It's all been working?"
"So far." Sun said tucking the bizkit back into her pocket. "Now the only resource we seem to need is people. Roman Estes, the guy in charge, has been sending out small groups of guards to help people find Altura so we can get them registered as citizens."
"Would, I be able to take a look at that, by any chance?" Bailey asked pausing a bit through her question. She felt Red's eyes turn to her knowing she would be looking for Tommy's registration, if he was here it would be the easiest way to find him.
"I can take you to Roman and we can find out." Sun said, "His office is in the same building as my lab."
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The community building that Sun Mei led them to was one of the most impressive things Bailey had seen in the whole apocalypse. It looked like it had once been a student center for the campus and now had the Pale Horseman Tavern on the main floor and meeting rooms on the second for all the boards Estes had been setting up as they rebuilt civilization. Sun Mei's lab was another few floors up along with the infirmary, and Estes' office was on one of the top. There was an elevator but it had restricted usage to the elderly and the disabled only to save on electricity. When Bailey asked about that Sun told them that Roman had been with Zona early on but defected when he stopped agreeing with their views. That put up a red flag for Bailey but she decided to wait until she met the guy before she made any rash decisions. Sun told them that he was a wiz with electronics and robotic technology. She said Newmerica would still be years away of being attainable if they didn't have him.
Sun Mei knocked on his office door before they entered and Bailey saw a really regular looking guy sitting behind a desk typing away on a computer.
"Roman these are a few friends of mine, Bailey and Red, they were wondering if they could look in the citizenship files for a few friends."
Roman looked up from his computer and by his expression it looked like he wanted to help but Bailey could already tell the answer was going to be no, "There are a lot of people here hoping to find loved ones, if I let you two do that then I'd have to let everybody –"
"I can vouch for them." Came another voice that Bailey would know anywhere. She turned and saw an unfamiliar face but that was mostly the new beard.
"CZ!" she said happily.
"Bailey." He replied before he opened his arms and went in for a hug. When they pulled back Roman was looking at them curiously.
"You two know each other?" he asked.
"Oh Bailey and I go way back." Citizen Z said, "She was part of Delta X-Ray Delta. Back when there was a Delta X-Ray Delta."
"Well that changes things." Roman said with a warm smile, "Any friend of the great Citizen Z is a friend to me, and I can pull a few strings for my friends." He said standing up and pulling out his chair. "Please, make yourselves at home. I have a board meeting to get to anyway."
"Oh fun." Sun said sarcastically making Roman chuckle.
"Not really but it's necessary, and a sacrifice I can make if it helps Altura." He said gathering a few papers and heading out the door, "It was nice to meet the both of you."
Once he left CZ made himself comfortable in front of the computer monitor. He started typing away as Bailey walked over and looked over his shoulder as Red and Sun Mei stayed by the door catching up.
"So what exactly am I looking up here?" he asked her. "10K? Thousand comma Ten?"
Bailey hesitated knowing Tommy didn't just give his name out to people, "Tommy, Tommy Beck."
CZ typed away and when nothing came up he did try Ten Thousand but still nothing. Bailey felt her heart drop and Citizen Z patted her shoulder trying to be comforting. "We still get dozens of people showing up at our outposts daily, there's still a good chance he'll turn up here."
"Hey Red told me you guys didn't get your job assignments yet." Sun said coming over clearly seeing her disappointment from across the room, "I'm looking for a few assistants if you're interested."
She considered it for a minute, Red would make a good doctor but Bailey had never been too good at that stuff.
"Or, I know they're looking for a few more people at the supply building. With the number of people we've been getting they've been understaffed." CZ mentioned and she perked up.
"What's the supply building do?" she asked interested.
Sorry it's another short one but the good news is it's the last of the flashbacks! 10K will return in the next chapter!! Last week I asked if you guys had wanted me to do an extra update during the week but no one asked for it. But if you guys are eager to get back to present Bailey/10K storyline let me know and I'll try to do an extra chapter this week but it is also a holiday so I'll do my best.