"Took a while to find some electrical tape, didn't it?" Kamille asked from her crouched position by the fallen radio antenna.
Luciana waved it in the air with her good arm as Dylan trailed behind quietly. The two of them joined Kamille by the antenna and were about to begin mending it when Luciana's radio went off.
"Luciana, do you copy?" It was Morgan.
Luciana glanced at Kamille before answering, "I'm here, Morgan."
"So, we're at the coordinates that Dylan gave, but there's no camp here. No sign that there ever was."
Kamille furrowed her brows as her hands stopped working and she listened in intently.
"We're gonna go into the woods," Morgan continued. "If John and June come into range, tell them to meet us there."
Suddenly, before Luciana could respond, Dylan snatched the radio from Luciana's grasp and said, "No, no, no, no, no."
Kamille looked to her right at a panicked Dylan. He'd been strangely quiet up until now.
"That you, Dylan?" Morgan asked with confusion.
"Go to the old utility road," Dylan said with certainty.
"Why, what's there?"
"Just go," Dylan insisted. "Near the gas station."
Morgan sighed. "We gotta find our friend so that what happened to your brother and sister won't happen again."
"They're not dead," Dylan blurted out.
Luciana looked over Dylan and to Kamille with a puzzled gaze. As horrible as it was, everyone had presumed his siblings to be gone. Despite the hope they had that they weren't, they all assumed the worst. So this was definitely shocking to hear.
"What?" Morgan finally responded, overcoming his surprise.
"We lied," Dylan admitted guiltily. "I lied. We faked the whole thing."
"Why would you do that?" Morgan asked, clearly containing his frustration.
"Because we were scared."
"Dylan..."
"Please," Dylan begged. "Max and Annie are in trouble. I'm sorry we lied, but they need help. Please."
Kamille pursed her lips as she awaited Morgan's response. She already knew the answer – none of them could leave the kids to fend for themselves.
"Okay, we'll see what we can do," Morgan agreed, and Dylan breathed out with relief before looking up at Luciana and Kamille.
"I'm sorry," he muttered.
Luciana and Kamille exchanged looks before looking down at him.
"You said that already," Luciana said calmly.
Dylan remained quiet as he avoided their eyes.
"We've still got to fix this thing," Kamille said, before nudging him gently. "You still okay to help?"
Dylan looked up and his nervousness began to disappear when he saw that Kamille wasn't angry, at least not too much. He nodded quickly, and the three of them got to work.
After spending another hour or so putting the antenna back up, the three of them looked up at it with pride. Kamille only hoped it would actually work and they could get in contact with Strand and the others. And Mía.
"Now we just have to test it," Luciana read everyone's minds.
"It'll work," Kamille was sure of herself, smiling at the other two.
"Dylan?" Luciana's radio came to life, interrupting their moment. It sounded like Annie. "Dylan, pick up."
Luciana handed the radio to Dylan who accepted it eagerly.
"Annie?" he rushed out worriedly. "You alright?"
"What did you tell them?" Annie asked with annoyance.
"They were telling the truth before, Annie," Dylan defended. "They just wanna help."
"Are you really that stupid, Dylan?"
"It's the truth," Dylan said. "I think they can help us, too."
It went quiet on their end and Dylan lowered the radio, looking between Luciana and Kamille.
"They're safe," Kamille said, nodding to Dylan. "Your siblings are safe. I'm sure Alicia and Morgan will bring them back."
Dylan nodded, guilt still residing in his eyes. "I know how we've acted, but we were scared."
"It's okay," Luciana reassured him, accepting the radio back off him. "It doesn't matter. Let's just go and test the CB. See if we can see how our other friends are doing."
Dylan nodded and led the way. As Luciana and Kamille followed after him, Kamille glanced at the girl next to her.
"How's your shoulder feeling?" she asked with mild concern.
"S'okay," Luciana answered truthfully. "Sore, but it's getting there." Kamille nodded and she continued. "Thanks for staying back and helping with the radio."
Kamille gave her a knowing look. "Didn't have much of a choice, mate, did I?"
Luciana cracked a smile. "No, not really. But I appreciate it anyway."
Kamille rolled her eyes playfully and headed inside. Luciana took a seat by the radio as Kamille and Dylan stood to the side, watching on hopefully.
Luciana cleared her throat, looking between them both nervously, and turned the microphone on.
"Strand?" she tried it out. "Are you there? Do you copy?"
After a moment, Strand's voice came through. "Hey. We're here Luciana. Are you okay?"
Kamille relaxed her shoulders as a relieved smile fell upon her lips, mirroring Luciana's expression.
"Yes! How is everyone?" Luciana asked happily.
"Everyone is good," Strand reassured.
Kamille moved forward and Luciana got the hint, moving over a little.
Clicking the mic, Kamille asked, "Strand? It's Kamille. How is Mía doing? She okay?"
"She's okay, Kamille, don't worry," he answered, making the Brit release the breath she wasn't aware she was holding. "She's with Charlie and the others inside."
Kamille nodded. "That's... good. That's good. Thank you." Stepping back, Kamille let Luciana take over.
"How is it going with the plane?" Luciana asked what everybody was thinking.
Strand sighed and it didn't sound good. "We managed to help someone with it. But in so doing, the engines were damaged beyond repair."
Kamille's hope faded as she saw Luciana swallow hard.
"It won't fly?" she asked disappointedly.
"I wish I had better news," Strand said regretfully, "but we'll find a way to bring you home."
Kamille massaged her head as she tried not to worry, tried not to think about how it was getting harder and harder to get Mía back.
"The pilot," Dylan suddenly said, moving forward and setting his book – The Little Prince – down next to Luciana. "In the book, he crashes his plane in the desert. How did he get out?"
Luciana looked up at him. "He fixed his plane, put it back together and flew away."
"So, why don't you do that?" Dylan asked both of them. "If he can do it, so can you."
Kamille pursed her lips, catching onto what he was suggesting. Luciana looked over her shoulder at Kamille and the two realised that it wasn't such a bad idea. It would take time and effort, but it was doable – fixing the plane they had crashed. Huh.
"Strand, I think we're gonna try to fix our plane," Luciana said to him, half-certain. "I'll let you know what happens."
"Okay," he agreed, before snickering. "That's gonna be one hell of a project."
Luciana smiled with amusement. "Yes, it will."
"I'll radio the others and check in, tell them what we're thinking," Kamille said, moving forward and grabbing the walkie talkie. "You really think we can do this?"
Luciana glanced at Dylan, who seemed as optimistic as she looked, before nodding to Kamille.
"I do," she said simply. "We just have to find Al and we can all get the plane back. Fix it up and be on our way."
Kamille wanted to believe her words, wanted a way to get back to Mía. So, despite how impossible it sounded, she couldn't help but be infected by her and Dylan's optimism.
With a small smile, she nodded. "Alright then."
As Dylan and Luciana began to talk amongst themselves excitedly, Kamille headed to the other side of the store and took a seat.
"Alicia? Morgan? Anyone copy?"
There was no immediate response and Kamille tried not to let that bother her, but she'd be lying if she said she wasn't worrying slightly. Anything could have happened in the five minutes since Dylan's siblings last spoke.
Finally though, her worries were put to rest when Alicia's voice replied.
"Kam? I'm here. You all good?"
Already feeling better, Kamille nodded. "Yeah... yeah, I am. We got the CB working. Managed to contact Strand. He said he got a plane–"
"That's great!"
"–but it was damaged when he saved someone with it," Kamille finished with a wince.
"That's not so great..."
"Yeah... but Luci, Dylan and I think we might be able to fix the other plane. The one we crashed. We just need to find Al, get everyone back here and work on it. Together."
Alicia seemed cheerful as she said, "Funny you should say that actually... I was about to radio you guys and tell you the good news."
Kamille was intrigued. "Good news?"
"Well, we managed to convince Annie and Max to come back with us," she explained. "They have a bunch of other kids with them, too. They're all coming back with us."
Kamille couldn't help but smile when she heard how happy Alicia was. All she'd wanted was for the kids to be safe and now she had that.
"But we also found Al," Alicia continued, making Kamille raise her eyebrows with disbelief. "She radioed us and we're on our way to her now. We're gonna bring her back, Kam."
Kamille couldn't contain her relief. "Alicia, that's amazing! I can't believe you did it!"
"Hey, don't sound too surprised," Alicia joked, making Kamille chuckle. "I'll let you know when we're on our way back to you."
"Okay, I'll let Luciana know," Kamille responded. "I'll see you soon, love."
"See you soon, Kam."
Kamille couldn't stop smiling when she put down the radio. Not only were Mía and the others okay, but so were Alicia and the kids, and hopefully Al.
Things were actually starting to look up after all.
–
"You see this...? If I can get this right, we might just not crash this time 'round. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Kamille chuckled sarcastically. "Hilarious, Al, really."
Al smiled with amusement, glancing Kamille's way, before focusing her attention back on the plane.
Since about a week ago, when Alicia and Morgan brought Annie and Max back with them, along with the group of kids they were surviving with, the lot of them had been working on bringing their crashed plane back to life again.
Al was thankfully unharmed when she returned, much to Kamille's relief, so she was a big part of fixing the plane up. Plus, now that they'd fixed the radio, they were able to talk with Sarah back home and use her expertise to help out.
Everything seemed to be going okay so far, and though Kamille tried not to jinx it, she couldn't help but feel relieved because of it.
"So you really got left behind when they looked for me?" Al asked with a raised brow. "Twice?"
Kamille refrained from rolling her eyes. "You'd be surprised how sneaky Alicia can be."
Al chuckled. "She cares about you. I think she's just trying to keep you safe."
"Because clearly I'm incapable of doing that myself," Kamille answered sarcastically.
Shaking her head, Al rolled her eyes playfully. "Alicia can take care of herself, right? But you'd still do anything you could to protect her. It goes both ways."
Kamille pressed her lips together and hummed in acknowledgment, but said nothing. She ignored Al's laughs as she scanned the truck stop that was practically filled to the brim with spare parts and tools. The kids were doing all they could to help, but Kamille's eyes eventually fell on Alicia in the distance, who seemed to be talking to one of the kids about something.
"How are you guys doing anyway?" Al asked with interest. "You seem worried."
"I'm fine," Kamille assured her, reluctantly tearing her gaze from the brunette and focusing on Al. "We're fine."
Al didn't seem too convinced, but to Kamille's relief, she changed the subject. "How is Mía doing? You talk to her today?"
Kamille couldn't help but smile at the mention of Mía. "Yeah, this morning actually. She's doing good. She's super excited for this plane to be fixed so we can finally be together again. And so am I."
Al paused from what she was doing and looked to Kamille with disbelief. "Geez, no pressure or anything."
Kamille laughed. "Sorry. I know you'll get this working though, Al. We all believe in you. Plus, you've got your glamorous assistant here to help. AKA me."
"Glamorous, but terrible at the one job she has," Al said, feigning annoyance, before grabbing a tool from beside Kamille. "Make yourself useful and grab me some water from inside."
"I suppose I can manage that," Kamille settled with a stifled smile.
Jumping down from her spot by the plane, Kamille headed inside, but not before spotting Dylan and Luciana by the door.
"Hey, guys," she greeted them with a warm smile. "How're you both doing?"
Luciana looked down to Dylan expectantly, and Dylan smiled up at her before looking to Kamille.
"Better now that the plane is coming together," Dylan answered. "How about you?"
Kamille almost chuckled, glancing over her shoulder at the rust bucket they'd soon be flying in. "Same here. I guess you were right after all. Fixing the plane wasn't such a bad idea. Pretty genius actually."
Dylan smiled with embarrassment, looking down at his shoes. Luciana found it endearing as she rested a hand on his shoulder. The two had grown closer in the past week and Kamille thought it was adorable.
"I'm about to grab some water for Al," Kamille said, earning their attention. "You guys want any?"
Luciana shook her head. "We're good. Thanks though."
Kamille nodded, but before she could say anything, Alicia approached the three of them and looked to Dylan.
"Hey, Dylan," she said with a small smile. "I think Annie is looking for you over there."
She motioned over her shoulder and Dylan sighed before nodding and heading that way. Luciana looked between Kamille and Alicia with a final smile before following after him.
"Hey," Alicia said, eyes flickering to Kamille's.
Kamille returned her small smile. "Hey."
Alicia cleared her throat before saying, "How are you?"
"I'm good," Kamille answered. "Just helping Al out with the engine."
Alicia nodded. "That's good. How about with your sleep and stuff? You still having nightmares?"
Kamille breathed out, a little embarrassed as she smiled to herself nervously and looked down at her shoes. "Not anymore, no. I think now that we've fixed the radio and are fixing the plane, I feel a lot more confident that we'll get back to the others. Back to Mía. At least I'm hoping that's the case."
"We will," Alicia reassured, reaching out and squeezing her forearm. "This'll work."
Kamille rested her hand on top of hers, appreciating the gesture. The bandages on Alicia's hand only reminded her to ask about how her palms were. She grabbed both of Alicia's hands and held them gently in hers, noticing the fresh bandages.
"How are you feeling?" Kamille asked, thumb rubbing gently on her bandages. "Your hands?"
"I'm okay," she said, giving Kamille a somewhat convincing smile.
"You should take it easy," Kamille said, still worried, as she let go of Alicia's hands. "You don't wanna make it worse."
"I promise I will," Alicia said, eyes glistening with honesty.
Kamille nodded, smiling a little. "Good... I'm about to head in and grab Al some water. You want any?"
"I'm good," Alicia said, "thank you."
Sending one last smile her way, Kamille left to grab a bottle inside. She was glad Alicia was doing better and just hoped it would stay that way, considering everything.
After grabbing some water for Al and herself, Kamille headed back outside and accompanied the journalist for a little while longer until the latter was convinced she could test the engine.
"This is it," Al mumbled to herself as she sat in the pilot's seat. "Fingers crossed this works."
"It'll work," Kamille reassured her from beside her, smiling her way. "I'm pretty sure I did an excellent job at unscrewing that one screw for the thingamajig and passing you the tools."
Al rolled her eyes playfully, making Kamille grin, before starting up the engine. Everyone fell silent as all eyes were on the plane. It sounded like it was working and everybody grew hopeful, including Al and Kamille, but then the propellor on the side of the plane started spinning out of control before flying off and hitting the ground.
"Shit," Al cursed before jumping out the plane and looking around. "Is everyone okay?!"
Kamille followed after her and saw that, thankfully, everybody was unharmed. Al yanked her hat off her head with frustration as she approached the broken propellor that Alicia was now picking up.
"Where are we gonna get a new propellor?" Al asked with an exasperated sigh.
Kamille rested a hand on her shoulder and was about to reassure her, but the sound of snarling caught her, and everyone else's, attention. Alicia picked up the propellor and straightened up as she watched a lone infected man round the building and approach her. Just before she was about to take a swing, Morgan appeared out of nowhere with a stick and stabbed it in the head.
"Oh, I see you fixed the mop," Alicia said sarcastically, making Morgan crack a smile.
"What happened?" he asked, looking around at everyone.
Alicia sighed, resting a hand on her hip. "The engines worked, but the propellor didn't."
Al sighed, running a hand through her hair with annoyance. Morgan seemed to notice her frustration and tried to reassure her and everyone else.
"We'll be okay," he promised. "We'll start searching for replacements."
Al rolled her eyes before storming away. Kamille frowned and looked to Alicia and Morgan reassuringly.
"I'll go check on her," she said, before following after a pissed off Al who was heading behind the truck stop where it was empty of people.
"Al, c'mon, slow down," Kamille said, barely catching up to her until she finally stopped walking.
"I'm not in the mood, Kamille," she said through gritted teeth, trying to contain her annoyance at the situation.
"Look, you did good, don't you see that?" Kamille asked, searching her eyes. "You fixed the engines! And yeah, the propellor has gone to shit now, but we'll find a replacement and it'll be okay."
Al pursed her lips and pinched the bridge of her nose. Kamille saw the guilt in her expression and hated that she was blaming herself.
"This isn't your fault, if that's what you're thinking," Kamille said gently.
"I built the damn plane in the first place," Al said sharply, finally lifting her gaze to meet Kamille's.
"Yeah, and that was pretty darn amazing if I do say so myself," Kamille said with a knowing voice. "D'you know how bloody awesome it is that you built a plane from scratch? You should be proud! Especially now that you're doing it again!"
Al swallowed hard and shook her head, looking the other way. Kamille sighed quietly.
"You don't have to go back out there, but everybody believes in you and your abilities," Kamille spoke truthfully. "We all know you're capable and we're all here to help."
Al glanced her way and Kamille was beginning to think she was listening.
"I'll give you some space since I don't want to get in your way," Kamille continued. "We both know I wasn't really much help."
As pissed as Al was, she cracked a small smile, making Kamille mirror her expression.
"There we go, that's all I wanted to see," Kamille said kindly. "Now go on. You've got this."
Al crossed her arms and looked to Kamille. "I mean, I could still use your help out there."
Kamille smiled widely. "I'll stop by in a bit, okay? I knew you couldn't resist your glamorous assistant."
Al rolled her eyes, but there was a hint of amusement in her expression as she tried to pretend she was still angry. Clearly she was still blaming herself, but if Kamille could make her think otherwise, even for a little moment, she'd do so.
Giving Al some space for a few minutes, Kamille decided to head back to the plane, only to see Morgan and his truck out front with Alicia stood beside him. A generator was loaded into the back of it and Morgan was getting into the driver's seat whilst mid-discussion with Alicia.
Curious, Kamille jogged over to them and asked, "Hey, what's going on over here?"
Morgan seemed pressed for time as he looked to her apologetically. "I have to go, Kamille, but Alicia will fill you in."
Kamille pursed her lips as she watched him start the engine and drive away. She tilted her head towards Alicia, who ran a hand through her hair and met her eyes.
"Do you remember that woman who told us about the irradiated infected?" she asked. "Back when–"
"When you made me stay back whilst you looked for Al? Yeah, I remember," Kamille finished for her with a knowing look.
She narrowed her eyes, unamused. "Yes, then. Well, the woman, Grace, she needs our generator to stop the power plant from causing another meltdown."
Kamille raised her eyebrows with surprise. "Wow. So not anything small then."
Alicia sighed. "Exactly. We'll be without power for a while, but it'll be okay."
Kamille glanced out at the plane and everyone who was working on it. "I hope so... I just hope we get this finished soon."
"Hey, we will," Alicia reassured, resting a hand on Kamille's arm. "Don't even think about the plant. Just focus on the plane, yeah?"
Kamille breathed out slowly, a tired smile tugging at her lips. "Right. I should go help Al. I'll catch you later?"
Alicia returned her smile, giving her a nod. "Yeah."
–
"I mean, it looks right, but the extent of my knowledge relies on replacing the wiper fluid in a car."
Al raised an eyebrow at Kamille. "Seriously? That explains why you had car trouble both times we first met."
Kamille rolled her eyes playfully and looked back to the dashboard. Al was about to continue working again, but the two of them heard a commotion from behind them and looked out the window to see Alicia and Luciana staring up at something in the sky.
"C'mon," Al said, nudging her in the arm before jumping out the plane.
Kamille joined her, noticing June approaching them as well. Stopping by Alicia and Luciana, she was about to ask what was up, but then she saw it.
"What the..."
Her jaw dropped when she saw a giant inflatable hot air balloon, shaped like a beer bottle, flying over the hills in the distance.
"It's Strand!" Luciana said, looking to Kamille hopefully. "He's with Charlie and Mía. They've got the propellors."
Kamille's eyes widened. "You're kidding."
As she pulled her radio out, she saw Alicia radioing Morgan and asking him to look up.
"Alicia – the kids," Luciana told her. "They should see this."
Alicia nodded quickly with realisation before rushing inside to get the others.
"Mía, are you there?" Kamille said into the radio, half expecting no reply.
After a moment, her voice came through. "Yes, but please don't kill me."
Kamille couldn't help but laugh as she ran a hand through her hair. "I'm not going to kill you, love, I'm just glad you're okay. You know, you could've told me you guys were planning something like this when I spoke to you this morning."
Mía snickered. "We didn't know ourselves. But listen, Kamille. We've got the propellors and we're coming. Strand's a genius."
"He can be when he wants to," Kamille joked. "Be careful, okay?"
"We will," Mía promised, before Kamille heard Strand cursing in the background, making her blood run cold.
"What is it? What's wrong?" she asked nervously.
"We're running low on fuel," Strand said suddenly. "Looks like we're coming down sooner than we thought."
Kamille squinted her eyes, knowing they weren't close enough to land.
"You guys will have to come get us," Charlie's voice came through.
"You got enough to clear the trees to get to the other side?" Morgan asked through the radio, obviously having listened in.
"I don't know," Charlie said nervously. "We're trying."
"We have to bring it down," Strand said stressfully, clearly preoccupied.
"No, not yet, not here," Morgan replied before Kamille could. "It's contaminated."
"Morgan, we're coming–" Strand began, but was cut off, either from a dead radio or no signal.
"Strand! Charlie! Mía!" Morgan called for them, but they weren't responding, and when Kamille looked ahead, she saw that their hot air balloon had crash-landed somewhere.
"Mía? Answer me! Mía!" Kamille shouted into the radio.
"Kamille," Morgan called for her. "It'll be okay. I'll go after them."
Kamille felt her heart tighten in her chest at the thought of Mía being hurt. "I'm coming with you."
"Kamille–"
"Don't try to stop me, just tell me where to meet you," Kamille was adamant, gripping her radio harshly.
"Okay," Morgan agreed, before telling her about some house to meet him at. Apparently they needed hazmat suits before they could go find the others since the infected's blood was contaminated.
"The kids are gone," Alicia's voice came through the radio, before she ran out towards everyone with a worried expression.
"What?" Luciana asked with shock. "They just left?"
Alicia nodded guiltily, as if there was more to the story, but they didn't have time to go through it.
"We need to bring them back, Alicia," Morgan said through the radio. "Grace, she– what she's doing is gonna buy us time, but not a whole lot."
Alicia nodded, answering him. "I know. I'm gonna go get them now. I'll bring them back here and meet you all." Her eyes flickered between everyone, before settling on Kamille's. "You and Kamille will get the others and we'll meet back here."
"Okay, good luck," Morgan said, before adding, "I'll see you soon, Kamille."
The radio went quiet as Kamille watched Alicia with concern.
"Okay, I need all hands on deck for the plane," Al announced, before leading the way. Luciana and June followed after her, nodding to Alicia and Kamille for good luck.
When they were left alone, Kamille stepped forward, wanting to go with Alicia and help her. She couldn't stand letting her go by herself again, but she had to go after Mía. She couldn't leave her alone – she was her responsibility.
"I–"
"It's okay," Alicia cut her off, already knowing what she was going to say. She offered a small, tight smile, before pulling her in for a quick but meaningful hug. "Just be careful, Kam, okay?"
Kamille squeezed her back, eyes closing momentarily as she tried not to think about the what if's. "You too." When they pulled apart, she added, "You better be here with the kids when I come back. Don't do anything stupid, darling."
Alicia tried not to laugh as her eyes hid her worry. "I won't. Now let's go. We have to do this is as quickly as possible."
Kamille swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded, almost forgetting that she couldn't simply stay standing there, peering into her favourite set of green eyes with no other concerns.
//
I'm so behind on updating this story but i'm not stopping any time soon so thanks to those who are still bearing with me!