A/N: Chapter twelve my readers, please enjoy and don't forget to review. Next up is some more Val + group information. If you have an suggestions or criticisms, please leave them in the comments below, and we'll see how quickly I can get the next chapter out.359Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡScN8dlxlct
“Do you ever wonder how we did it?” Sydney Peters lifted the crate of supplies into the back of the Jeep. They had discussed what was on the agenda next and most of them agreed that moving out as soon as possible is the best idea. And after a ten minute argument about how they needed at least one more vehicle, Dr. Peters pointed out that she had a fully fueled Jeep in the garage that they might as well use. Maverick had helped the other girls pack up all of Sydney’s things and Val was helping her load up the Jeep.
“Do what?” Val set a cardboard box of notebooks next to the crate.
“I guess saying ‘we’ is probably the wrong way to phrase it.” Sydney muttered. “How do you do it? Arm every boy and girl?”
Val shrugged. “It’s something that has to be done. Either you arm them and teach them how to defend themselves or they die. Simple as that.” Sydney set her gaze on the ground, watching her shadow with shammed interest. Val just patted her on the back softly and said, “But if you figure this thing out we won’t have to arm the next generation.” And left to go see what the others were doing.
The doctor stood in silence as the garage door leading to the house opened and shut quietly, Val disappearing with the sound of the door’s hinges. Val had promised her that he was going to get her to the CDC headquarters or to Harvard or to some place where they had the tools and resources she needed. He promised her that he was going to help her undo what had been done. She believed him.
Val was probably the least concerning of the four strangers she had met only hours before, but that was only because he had made a point to talk to her about everything, ask her if she was okay with driving with them and how much time did she need before they left and if she was hungry because he sort of knew how to hunt. The young boy wasn’t a problem in her book either. He seemed to do whatever Val told him to do. She made a mental note to ask them later if they were somehow related (father and son maybe?). Although the kid seemed a little jumpy. Like he was always hopped up on two liters of caffeine. But he did seem smart, smart enough that he would probably be a big help once they got to a decent lab and she could start up her work again.
It was the girls she was worried about. Well, really it was just the older one she was worried about. When she had first seen Beck and heard her speak she had been a bit – appalled. Sure, if there were any type of people to survive something like the apocalypse where the dead come back to life and have a one course meal of you all the time, it would be people with nothing to lose, with the skills to kill and run and hide. And that’s the type of person Beck acted and looked like. Scars littered her head where the hair was short enough for everyone to see where slivers of skin had been clawed out and tattoos of all shapes, sizes, and meanings covered her neck, collar bone, and just about everything else below. If she could get past Beck’s hard outer shell though, Sydney wondered if Beck would not only be a friend, but a skilled combatant.
Jaye didn’t seem like she really knew what was going on. She always stared off into space or into a book that she made magically appear somehow, never really contributing to the conversation. If something bad went down she’d probably be the first one to be sacrificed – Beck (if Sydney’s hunch was correct) was too valuable, Maverick would be too hard to sacrifice because of Val, and well, Val could overpower just about anyone in their little group. She sighed. “Don’t let it come to that.”
“Doctor?” She flipped around. Maverick stood there in a new set of clothes. She tilted her head. Basketball shorts and running shoes didn’t really go with a windbreaker. “Heh, you like?” He smiled, seemingly proud of his fashion choices. “I found it in the house next door. Pretty comfy.” She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, then giggling, and then crying. “Whoa, whoa, sorry, I didn’t realize…” He struggled to find the reason why she was crying.
“No, no, it’s not you, actually, it is you, just not in a bad way.” She wiped her eyes and shook her head. “I haven’t been around kids in a long time – I forgot how dorky they are.”
Maverick laughed. “Hey! I’m not dorky! I’m like, the coolest. Out in the farthest way.”
She shook head and walked over to him, patting his shoulder. He was a lot taller than she had originally perceived. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Greg Brady.”
“Who’s that?”
“You know, the oldest son…in the…Brady family…you’re not getting any of this are you?”
“Nope, not at all.”
She sighed. “Only if television was still a thing I’d teach you a thing or two.” He smiled solemnly. “Um, Maverick, why’d you come out here and get me.”
And like a thousand candles had been lit at once in his head, he jumped and snapped at the same time. “Right!” He yelled, then, realizing that he yelled, put his hands over his mouth and motioned to the door. “We’re ready to leave, they just need you to check around to make sure we got everything you need.”
Sydney headed inside, with Maverick following behind, and found the other three in the kitchen. “I’ll check around and then we can leave.” She said, pointing to the upstairs. Val nodded and dismissed her, calling Maverick over. Sydney ran upstairs right when the others started talking.
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Val grabbed Maverick’s new windbreaker, chuckling. “What the hell is this, the nineties?”
“Okay, you old people need to stop with all the obscure references. I don’t see what my jacket has to do with this being the nineties.”
Val raised a brow. “Old people, really?” Maverick avoided eye contact. Val shook his head. “We were talking about some important things, things we need to consider. Like, what do we do when we get Ms. Peters to where she needs to go?”
Beck groaned. “I’m still voting that we leave her ass here. Bitch deserves it for doing this.”
“Beck, for Christ’s sake, just shut the fuck up.”
“You wanted my opinion, you got it. Fuck her and her dog okay. Let’s take the Jeep, head for the south-west and hole up there.” She crossed her arms, willing to stand her ground. “I’ll reiterate what I’ve been saying since we heard this crazy lady on the radio five hours ago – we don’t know her and we don’t owe her.”
The slap, loud in its own right, silenced the room. Jaye lowered her hand, which was now red over the knuckles. “Watch what you say.” She said simply, rubbing her hand. “Just because we don’t owe someone something doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them. If we don’t we’re no better than those who screwed us over.” She took a breath and pulled her hair back. “We help Dr. Peters as much as she needs, and when she’s done with us then we go where we need to. But that bridge is far from where we are, let’s not even think about crossing it until we get there.”
Beck spit onto the ground, holding her cheek, and pushed past them all to head outside to the front yard. “You hit her a little hard.” Val said, touching his own face in sympathy. “But, thank you, well said.” Jaye nodded and headed out after Beck – assumingly to apologize. Turning to Maverick, Val explained that he would be riding with the two girls and that Val would go ahead and ride with ‘Ms. Peters’.
Maverick pouted. “What? I wanted to ride in the Jeep. Plus Paul’s gonna be there and I haven’t pet a dog in like forever.”
“Paul…oh, Paul.” Val gritted his teeth. “I guess if I rode with Beck I could keep her in check.” His eyes wandered around the perimeter of Maverick’s figure until Val nodded. “Okay, fine, you can ride with Ms. Peters, make sure she stays behind us and doesn’t do anything funny.”
“Okay, no stand-up, got it.” Val shook his head and gave Maverick an affirmative.
Sydney came down a couple of minutes later, a couple of bags of what looked like sheets and clothes in her hands and her little beagle at her feet. “So how are we doing this?”
“Maverick’s going to ride with you and the rest of us are going to take Jaye’s car.”
“Ah, great, then Maverick, can you grab Paul for me? I don’t want him running off or anything.” Nodding, the boy stood and grabbed the little dog, hugging him close to his chest. Val left out the front door, letting Sydney know that she could just follow behind them, and the other two went back into the garage. “So, where are we headed?” Maverick shrugged. “So we’re just driving aimlessly?” Maverick shrugged. “Do you know anything about what we’re doing?” Maverick shrugged. Sydney set the bags in the back of the Jeep with a scowl on her face. “Now you’re just messing with me aren’t you?” Maverick shrugged. She lightly punched him the arm as they got in the vehicle.
He laughed. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. But in all honesty, I have no clue where Val’s taking us.”
She hit the garage button and watched at the old rickety aluminum door lifted over their heads and stopped. She started the car and pulled forward, watching as a silver Honda pulled up, honked it’s horn, and drove off. She followed after it.
Three hours into the drive and Maverick was asleep with Paul on his lap, periodically licking the air, and the two cars were the only source of light for miles. Apparently while no one was looking Maverick had put Sydney’s radio in the Jeep and had tuned both radios to the same channel, so the two cars could communicate. Sydney was more than thankful, especially since as the road got darker and darker it was harder to stay awake. Her and Val had kept up a pretty long and decent conversation until he said he couldn’t keep his eyes open at all anymore and they had to pull over.
She had learned that they had left the so-called ‘Safe Zone’ because their fearless leader had tried to kill them while they had been doing something called bait duty (which she instantly categorized as cruel and unusual punishment). Val told her that his real name was Valentine (which she had laughed about and told him ‘of course it was’) and about how he got grazed in the arm by one of the madman’s bullets, but by the time they reached her ‘house’ it had already scabbed over. They talked for a long time about medicine and biology after that. She was amazed by how much he knew, for only having a degree in dentistry.
Parking the Jeep right behind the Honda, she turned off the lights and shut the engine off. Val followed in suit. He got out of the car and walked over to her, leaning over the brim of the door. Bags had already developed under his eyes and he blinked rapidly to try and keep himself awake. “I see your passengers fell asleep too.” He smiled over at the boy and the dog. “We can camp out here at the edge of the forest, have a couple stay awake to keep watch.”
“Clearly not us old folk though.”
Val shook his head, his smile still holding. “What is it with everyone thinking I’m so old?”
“It’s got to be the father hen act.” She said, pushing him out of the way so she could jump out of the car. He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll go wake up Beck and Jaye, they can take first night’s watch.”
Sydney agreed and set up two tents in the meantime. The younger girls stumbled out of the Honda, one holding a hammer and the other a gun. They sat between the two cars, a small lantern for light between them. Sydney had the tents sent up in no time and shook Maverick awake. He rolled out of the Jeep, Paul still in his hands, and rolled into one of the tents were he fell back asleep as soon as his head hit the ground. Dr. Peters crawled into the other tent and bid Val a good night as he crawled into the one were Maverick was sleeping.
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Beck kicked the dirt by her feet onto the road. The lantern wasn’t very bright but it did illuminate the first half of the road decently. Jaye was nodding off next to her and she kept poking the younger girl in the side to keep her awake. At some point before the sun rose a biter roamed by on the other side of the road, but didn’t seem to notice them. Beck had been wide awake after that, every little sound attracting her attention. Soon enough Jaye fell asleep to the point where she couldn’t be woken back up until the sun came up, and Beck sat in the dark alone.
Everything was so shitty. She pulled her knees in close, breathing into her legs to warm them up. Val had told her in the car that he figured heading for the north would be the best. It was colder up there so maybe there wouldn’t be so many people (or biters) and there were some pretty prestigious colleges up there with some pretty prestigious science labs. But she didn’t care about curing the virus. Hell, this virus had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.
With thousands of walking dead people came a license to kill just about anyone or anything you wanted. After the first story on the news came out she knew she had to act fast before he died. Beck had tortured the man who had ruined her life. No one had ever questioned it either. He was one of them, she’d say, he was turning and I was just seeing if I could stop it by do this, and they’d believe her. Everyone believed her. The world had become so shit-tastic that you could rip someone’s nut-sack off and just play it off as if you were doing a scientific experiment.
Not that she was complaining.
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