CHAPTER 19-SAVAGE

-I'm hot...I cannot keep up with these kids...dying...of thirst...in pain...my muscles...my belly is jiggling...I want my flat stomach back...help...

Where was Chess? She needed to talk to Chess.

Julia kept that on loop through her head in the harsh August heat and humidity. She veered off course and sat beneath a tree, in the shade, and rested before she died of heat exhaustion and turned the course into a real live one person nest populated by one out of shape, overweight red head. Her obnoxious teenage boy jogged over to her and started yelling in her face. She was flushed and sweaty. No matter what shape she ever found herself in, she knew she would never tolerate anyone screaming in her face.

"You obnoxious, little piss ant back off me." She screamed, reaching for the kid's throat. She shoved the boy back, having left her nail impressions in his Adam's apple. She balled up her fists and prepared because these infantry kids did not take orders and they had no respect for the female persuasion. They were dicks. He'd come back at her as the boys had been told to treat the females as if they were males. The more brutal ones loved that and turned into these obnoxious and pushy fools. He stepped back toward her and she hit him square in the face, cutting her knuckle on his tooth. She dove out of this kid's way, but still caught him with a fist into his abdomen. This was only junior infantry. The entire two week affair still loomed in the near future. This was merely normal infantry training.

"Get up, Morgan!" Her partner, Justin Kidd, all of 14 or 15 years old, screamed at her, snatching her by her pony tail.

"I will break your fucking arm. You get one warning." Julia said calmly if he even considered dragging her by her hair. She was seething mad. "One." She counted. "Two." He released her.

"Please, Mrs. Morgan. I am sorry, but I was ordered to treat you like a guy."

"Do you pull a man's hair and attempt to lead him by it?"

"No, ma'am."

She slapped him hard. "You are an insult to the infantry." She yelled, shoving him. "Get away from me."

"I'm your partner, ma'am."

"You. You need your ass kicked is what you need."

He stood at her side and waited her out in the shade.

"Why are you still here?"

"I have to wait for you. And you're holding me up, ma'am."

"I told you to leave, Kidd." She sighed, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I am not a runner."

"Are you a fuckin' walker then? Let's go." He said impatiently. Julia watched as his lip bubbled up from the punch. "Why are you out here?"

"You, Kidd, who's third in the class? It's Mayers, Keller then who?"

"Devine."

"You. Kidd, take me to Devine. Who ever he is. If I cannot have one or two, then lead me to three. Cause you're an annoying and obnoxious little punk."

"That may involve you moving your ass."

"How fast are you? I'll give you a head start. Cause when I catch up I will give you the beating of your life. Five seconds." Julia said calmly. "One...Two..." She started counting off to five and the kid sprinted off from her. She kept her word and she gave chase. She chased Kidd till he stopped at a short and skinny little fellow with close cropped strawberry blond hair. His fair skin sizzled like hers in the sun. Julia was behind but when she got near Kidd she leaped and grabbed onto his head, knocking him to the ground. She sat across his chest and aimed her fist at his face. Strawberry blond caught her and dragged her off Kidd.

"You are insane." Kidd screamed at her, pointing his finger in her face.

"You point that finger all you want. You stay away from me."

"Hey, lady, shit, calm down." His small arms had her firm around her flabby waist. For someone so small, she didn't budge an inch, he restrained her.

"Let her go." The instructor demanded.

"No. She needs to control herself and act her damn age, Sir."

"Devine, are you refusing an order?"

"Yes, Sir. I am." He said firmly.

Julia settled. "Hey, you're Devine?"

"Yeah. What's it to you?" He said, still holding her in his clutches.

"It's cool. Lemme go." She said, relaxing. She spun around and he put his hands up, but didn't strike her. "Gosh, D. What are you doing?" Julia asked, stepping back a step. "I came looking for you."

"Why?" He asked, straightening up.

"You're number 3." She smiled. "I'm Morgan."

"I know who you are. What do you want with me?"

"I can't have number one or two, so I choose you."

"I don't want you."

Julia frowned. "Why? Cause I'm a girl? Another one. Damn."

"A bitch. You're angry. You're mean. You're immature. You're-"

"Oh, thank God." Julia smiled. "Thank you, God. Finally. I have been through about five little dick heads and finally I find the honest one. A scrappy little fellow you are, too. I like the way you defied orders there. Good choice. We'll learn a lot from each other. You got good energy, D."

"I won't put up with your shit, lady."

"Fantastic. That's the spirit. Good. You don't care who I am, right? I keep telling them not to, but-"

"I don't give a fuck or two fucks who you are. There's goals we have to reach. I expect you to reach them." Confident. Divinely confident. "You raise your fist to me and I will end you. Understand." 

"Understood. So what's the goal before we get too crispy out here?"

Bossy little man he was. He was all work. He was no nonsense. He was insane as well. OCD to the max. He had goals and he went for them with all his might. He may have been small, but damn he had heart. He was tough, fair. Didn't assault her or scream at her at every turn. He wasn't much of a talker. He was perfect for Julia.  She'd wondered all afternoon in the hot sun whether this young man failed at anything. He kept it moving and he motivated her with respect instead of insults. He was miserable, never smiled, but the kid kept it positive with her. Kept calling her lady. If they were only all like this kid, she'd thought. Till the end of the day when they both hit the wall. Both stood there looking up.

"Go on." He said. "Up and over. Ladies first." He smiled.

"Awe, hell no." Julia laughed. "How?" She laughed. "Oh, please. We're not Spiderman, D. How do you usually get up there?"

"I usually walk around, lady. Figure that's why I am 3."

"No one can-" She started to say till a couple kids sprinted through and went up and over the wall. "Well, I'll be damned." She said in awe. "Know what, D? I had this happen once. We were in a garage lot." She said, walking around the wall, looking over the slats, wondering if she could fit her fingers in there. "You know. One of those places that fixed cars back in the day. Musta been about 16. Anyway, we led a horde of zoms into this lot and when they were all jam packed in there, Tavin closed and locked the gate, which left me and Jayson inside. Now I had never scaled a fence like that. Tavin, he could. Up and over. He'd taught Jay, right. So there I was. Same size minus the baby fat here." She said, grabbing at her roll at her waist. "So these zoms are closing in on us. I thought, shit. I am a goner, you know. But Jay wouldn't leave me. He said he'd get me up there even if he had to pick me up and throw my ass over."

"How'd you get up?" Devine asked.

"Come here." Julia said. She bent in half, cupping her hands, linking her fingers together. "You weigh less than me. Put your foot in my hands."

"You gonna throw me?"

"Up, D. Yes. You catch the top and do your thing."

"You cant throw me up." He said.

"If there was a horde on your ass you'd be putting your foot in my hands."

He placed his dirty boot in Julia's sweaty palms. "So, on three, you jump and I will push. Yeah?"

"How you getting over?"

"One thing at a time."

"Julia, what are you two doing?" Jody asked , stopping and looking at the display in front of him.

"Team work, Mayers. You do you and I'll do me. Same result."

"How are you getting up there?"

"Watch and learn." Julia said, sounding more confident than she felt. She looked at Devine.

But she already had the answer. She needed his upper body strength at the top of the wall. "Trust me." She whispered. She counted to three and hoisted that kid's skinny ass as hard as she could and he missed. "Again. You were almost there."

"You were. She's right. Do it again." Jody ordered. "Stretch, Devine."

Julia counted to three and hoisted his skinny ass as hard as she could. She took a boot to the face, but Devine was up, dangling on the wall. "Pull up. And sit there." She ordered. Please, please be able to pull up. She thought as she unbuckled and removed her belt. He did it. That was the easy part. "Now here is where things get tricky. So in zombie world, at this pivotal point in my story, this is where my Jayson stood about over there and he ran and he jumped. I was sitting up there like a princess in her tower, right." She looked at Jody. "Take your belt off and throw it down." Devine unbuckled and unstrapped and tossed her his belt. Julia linked them together, then pulled on them at their connection point to test the strength. "Any who, all these monsters are closing in and that kid jumps up and over and hauls ass away from that fence, leaving the princess sitting on top of the fence. Or something along those lines. Catch, partner." Julia said, tossing him the belt. A little crowd had formed as they were waiting to hop that wall and run, but Jody held them up. "Yeah, so dangle that belt down over the wall and this is where the true test of your strength will be proven, D. Cause your pulling me up. This may hurt similar to the boot you planted on my cheek a couple minutes ago."

"Yes, Julia." He said, dropping the belt down for her. She still couldn't reach it. Jody stepped to help her.

"Back the fuck off me, Mayers." She snapped.

He stepped back, "You sound like Keller."

"Keller sounds like me." She corrected him as she ran and jumped and caught hold of the belt. The kid held on for dear life up there, then stabilized and pulled Julia up high enough to reach the wall when she left go of the belt and pulled herself to a perch just like her teammate. "Thanks, D. So I sat there on top of that fence just like I'm sitting up here now and I lost my fucking Nike to a zom clawing at my foot. I lost a Nike. My Nike. You cannot possibly comprehend how pissed off I was because I lost that shoe. I only had one pair. It was winter dammit."  She shifted her body and sat with both legs over the wall. "Which brings me and you, D, to the next problem."

"What's that?"

"Jumping down. It's why I lost my fuckin' Nike. I was scared to jump down." She paused, stalling. "Do you understand what Nike's are and you don't seem as upset by this loss as I was."

"Jump. Or is he catching you too?"

"Gonna let that slide, Mayers."

Devine scooted over on the wall closer to her. "Hey, put your hands here. Push off, hands and feet, Morgan. Watch." He jumped. "On 3."

"Yeah. 1,2,3." She counted quickly and leaped off after him. They moved aside, looping their belts through their pants and buckling up. "The moral of the story is..."

"Use your fucking brain."

"Ah, gosh. I was thinking love conquers all, but whatever." She smiled. "Oh, hey, it takes more than one man or woman, you know. It takes a handful of bad asses to do the unthinkable, create a plan and act on it. We wanted off that street and away from that place. It was awful there those first nights."

"So why did you lock them in?"

"We didn't just lock them in, they would have pushed that fence down. The goal, D, and I witnessed the goal. It was amazing. Alcohol in a bottle with a tee shirt stuffed in as a wick. Or we may have used kerosene. I doubt we used alcohol. I was a raging drunk back then. So it makes a fire bomb once lit."

"I see. Makes sense. So, let's go. The rest is simple."

As the afternoon closed to an end, she was about to drop. All she wanted was to bathe, curl up in her bed and drift off to sleep. She stuck by Devine's side till the instructors called it a day outside the school. Julia went to the hose with the rest of the juniors and washed off, drenching her body with the cold water. Once cool and fairly refreshed, she went straight for Chess and asked him to go outside with her. He went without asking why. She looked like hell, sopping wet and dripping on the floor in the main house and then soaking the jeep seat.

"Get in." Was all she said as she climbed inside and she drove the leader to the course she had tackled with Devine. She drove through most of it as it was completely doable for all ages and even her fitness level. She parked by the wall. The dreaded wall that restricted Devine from moving forward and being Mayers number two. "Get out." She demanded as she dragged her small and aching body from the jeep.

"What are we doing all the way out here?"

"It's just me and you, Chess. Look around."

He looked around.

"Go over that wall."

"Julia," He laughed nervously.

"Go over that fucking wall or I will make you. I am in no mood, Chester Nicholas Morgan."

"I can't, Julia. God. Look how fucking high it is."

"Remember the firebombs?" She asked. He took too long to answer. "Green Street, Chess. It's how we got off Green Street."

"I remember. Yes."

"How did I get out of the yard?"

"Jayson-"

"How would I have gotten out alone?"

"You wouldn't have."

"That wall is higher than the fence, Chess. How am I supposed to get up there, babe? You, how are you? We're midgets, Chess."

"Alright, my love. Alright."

"My partner, Devine. He's number three, Chess. Why is he number three?"

"You have a new partner?"

"Yes, not the point. Have you stood beside the kid?"

"No. I know of him-"

Julia rushed him and she stood against him. "This is how tall the boy is." She yelled pointing at herself. "He's shorter than you. How is that kid getting over the wall?" She screamed.

"Julia, what is wrong with you?"

"You people set the kid up for failure. How, alone, do you propose he get up there from down here? Me? You? This has nothing to do with male-female. It's short versus tall."

"A rope."

"Where is the rope? In the field we would have a rope. The kid would be two or one, not three."

"I can make that happen."

"This course is unrealistic from a field stand point."

"It's not about the field. You know this."

"Get in the jeep. I'm tired."

"I will add rope."

"Thank you." She said, starting the engine.

"Did you go over it? The wall."

"Of course. Together. I want the kid on north campus."

"He's three."

"He's mine. I wish to train with him. He deserves a chance and really what's one more?"

"Poor attitude and he has some issues with authority."

Julia glared at her husband. "Who's that sound like?"

"You can work with him?"

"He reminds me of someone."

Julia drove the jeep back to the main building. She parked and let the guardsman have the jeep back. Once in the house Chess directed her straight toward the shower and clean clothes. He handed over Antonia when she emerged refreshed from her room. He ran over a report with her about her behavior on the course. Again. He did mention the instructors agreed that she and Devine worked well together. They'd spent the day on the course and they'd had no issues with either Julia or Devine after having teamed up. They'd reported on their teamwork and their instant camaraderie.

Chess informed her to stick with him and work on the behavior problems. Whose behavior problems exactly he was unsure. She was only supposed to be training and he'd partnered her up purposefully to get acclimated to the routine. She didn't necessarily have to stick together with someone after the first day. They normally didn't do that. Julia had been difficult from the outset. She found the juniors to be disrespectful.

"They are boys." Chess said.

"The boy was going to drag me by my hair this morning, Chess. What's that got to do with being a boy?"

"Which boy?" Chess demanded.

"I took care of it. But you do need a course on how to interact with females. If any of them have done with Tia what they have dared to do to me..."

 "Tia has not complained."

"I am. I am. Hello. Right here. Wife. Mother. Friend."

"We will hand their asses to them, then."

"They need strong females to do that."

"I do not want the grounds over run with girls. A select few."

Alex had Katara doing her own special training program. He refused to let her go into the infantry first day with Julia because she was so awkwardly shy. He had worked with her and Thursday and Friday she'd set out with them to test the waters. Alex still believed she was too young, too small, too shy, too everything. In addition to that, she seemed disinterested. Bored.

"Perhaps you were wrong on the girl, Chess. Did you ever think of that?"

"What have you been doing with her?"

"One on one."

"Aside from that."

"No, I have been doing it one on one with her. Assessments first, evaluating her strengths and her weaknesses, of which she has many."

"She is quite athletic, Alex. I have witnessed her fly through the air and climb. She has endurance, agility, balance. What is the problem?"

"Advanced thought. Chess, it is her age. Physically she is doing well, but the maturity level is-"

"Put her on the course first thing. Let her run with Julia and her new partner, Devine."

"Another new partner."

"This may be the match. This late in the week, I don't see how it matters, but she was impressed by him. She is young, perhaps if she felt like she were playing instead of working."

"Chess-"

"You said it yourself. Jesus Christ, Alex, how old is she after all?"

"14."

"Shit. Are you dealing with her properly, treating her-Has she spoken yet?"

"She wont shut up."

"I haven't heard her utter a word. She speaks in sentences? You think she's retarded?"

"No. She is not."

"On the spectrum maybe? Haven't seen autism in ages. They don't last long out there."

"I don't know. Maybe?" Alex shrugged. "Anyway, you haven't been listening. She speaks. She's chattering now in there. You don't hear her?"

Chess looked over his shoulder as she sat with Antonia on her lap. He heard nothing.

"She's not loud, Chess."

"She's not speaking, Alex." Chess stated, looking back at him annoyed.

"You seriously cannot hear her?" He pointed to Kat, quietly cooing at the baby, telling her how pretty she was and bouncing her on her lap.

"Speak, Katara." Chess demanded.

"Yes." She said not looking away from Antonia as the baby giggled.

"She is a strange child." Chess observed, struggling to hear the barely audible 'yes' that she'd uttered.

Cookie Fields was on time to get Jayson for the interview at the reformatory. She prided herself on punctuality. Jayson waited for her on the curb outside the main lobby to the hospital. He appeared nervous, fidgety. He didn't want to leave her, but she'd say this interview was important for the cause. He dressed, took his paperwork that Tavin dropped off and he got in the car with Cook. She drove like the countryside was a Nascar track. He had belted in and feared that wasn't enough restraint for him as she edged through red lights as they changed from yellow. She drove too fast. She never applied her seat belt. She was frightening. The navi system spoke through her car, guiding her to the Reformatory. She was waved through the gate and they drove to the main entrance, parking outside the front door. The place was ominous and huge. All stone. He'd only seen the fortress on line and in the pics Julia had taken with her phone.

"What kind of interview is this?"

"For a job, Cook. I gotta get this job."

"Why are you aiming so low?" She asked. "You're a smart kid. She wants you to work here?"

"Yes." Jay answered. "I'll be back."

He entered through the first floor main entrance out front. He was directed to the HR area through the first floor and was told to follow the signs. He wound his way back through a hall to a sitting area where he checked in with the secretary and he handed over all the paperwork. She created a clipboard for him and she told him to wait, which he did. He took the seat across from the elevator.

Alex and Chess's conversation ceased when he picked up and moved on to his war room. He had several days left till the departure and had to gather reports on the progress being made at North campus. Chess was a reluctant organizer. He had to keep all these affairs straight.

"Kat, something's weird." He said, peering behind her.

Kat looked around and saw nothing. She shrugged. "I don't see anything."

"Take the baby and send Julia. Wake her if you must."

Kat rose with Antonia and stepped into the elevator. Alex felt him close, but he hadn't called him. He hadn't been thinking of him either. His energy appeared without being summoned, which was strange because that never happened. He'd come of his own accord.

When the elevator door opened a few minutes later, Julia stepped into the foyer looking annoyed and beat. Sunburned, her skin felt crispy. She rubbed her eyes, having been awoken by Kat. She was unhappy about being called down by Alex, but she went as asked.

"S'up? What did I do now?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.

Alex waited for her to adjust, wake a bit. "Are you feeling what I'm feeling?" He asked.

Julia felt nothing, but she smelled him right away. She sniffed. He was near her, close enough to touch. She waved at Alex to come to her. She touched her nose as he approached. She turned, sniffing the air and closing in on the far wall by the elevator where the play pen had been set.

"I love that smell, Alex. He rocks that smell."

"Jay." Alex said.

Jay looked up from his papers the secretary had given him and started to get up when he noticed no one had called him. He set back down. The voice sounded familiar. "Yeah." He said softly, looking over his shoulder behind him. He felt shivers.  "Jay." He heard clear as day. The hair on his arms stood up. He got goose bumps. "Tavin?" He said low, trying not to attract the secretary's attention. The voice sounded like Tavin's voice, slightly off, but it was definitely..."Jay, it's Alex." Jay was confused, hearing voices. That voice did not sound like Alex's. It was too old, too mature.

"He heard me. Thinks it's Tav." Alex said to Julia. "What are you doing here, Jay?"

"Interview." He answered.

"Yes, shortly." The secretary smiled. "Anxious are you?"

"A bit, yes, ma'am. Bathroom, ma'am."

She handed him a key and pointed to the hall. "To the right next to the elevator."

"The bathroom is to the right next to the elevator." Jay repeated. He thought he was losing his mind. "Yes, thanks." Jay smiled at her as he took the key. He left his clip board on his chair and head to the elevator. The unisex bathroom was next to it. He opened the door with the key and then locked himself inside.

Julia followed the scent trail of the cologne from next to her to the elevator. "He's moving."

"Bathroom to the right of the elevator." Alex repeated. "He's here for an interview."

Julia looked excited. "He's gonna be the best little janitor ever."

"Thanks." he grumbled, sounding unhappy about that. "Where are you?" He asked, looking around the bathroom. "Jules, wake up."

"I will, babe. I love you."

"What are you doing?"

"Gonna go to bed. I'm tired. I just put the baby down."

"I wanna go with you..."

"Awe, me too, Jay."

"I wanna go with you."

"You smell so good. Go to your interview."

"Yeah, I'm gonna get a job."

"Go. Love ya."

Julia wandered back to the elevator a few feet and pushed the button. Alex watched her step inside and ride up. Alex thought a moment, thought about the Julia he had in the main house currently and her attitude about the relations they'd had. He figured he'd go for it.

"Jay, you know there's a way you can stay with her." Alex proposed. "Let me run something past you real quick."

"Don't fuck up my interview."

"Don't forget about Kat. Tell her to go to bed. She has an early morning. She'll do as you say."

"The women around here do that from what I hear."

"It's a good thing."

Jay stepped off the elevator, stretching out in his new skin. He didn't ask Alex how or why and didn't care. Alex was rather pushy about the whole affair, but he transitioned right into him as if he'd had experience with it. He found the room Alex had directed him to. He saw a kid sitting on the bed and she jumped a bit when she saw him.

"Hey, Kat?" He asked, eyeing this young girl on the bed.

She didn't reply, but she was understood by Alex somehow.

"Go to bed. Sleep." He said softly. He pulled the door shut and walked the hall to Julia. He saw her sprawled on the bed knocked out. The baby in her bed asleep as well. He stood in the door way a while and watched her sleep. He nearly went in when the door behind him opened. The sudden company startled him a bit. He spun and saw his sister in a lip lock with the junior infantry boyfriend.

"Jody." He said.

Jody pulled off Tia, kept his arm around her waist. "Yeah."

"Get out." He said sternly.

"Yeah. I'm going. Night, T." He said, kissing her cheek. "I Love you."

"Awe, Jody, I love you too."

Jayson had spent more than one night in his lifetime sitting next to a sleeping Julia, but a live and young Tatia, he'd never had the pleasure. He crossed the hall and welcomed himself in her room. He was quiet at first, looking around at her stuff, searching for a personality in there. Books, science fiction and horror. A couple drawings, laundry on the floor. Sheets in disarray on the bed.

"Tell me about the boyfriend, Tia."

"Get out, Alex." She sighed, straightening her bed up.

"You love him? Why?"

"Alex, as if you care."

"I am interested, yes."

"No child bride tonight, brother?" She questioned him.

"Uh, I never asked for commentary on my moral character." Sounded like the right thing to say. Child bride? The young Katara. Jay glanced at Alex's hands. "I wear no ring."

"I like Jody's moral character." Tia replied. "I found in him what I looked for."

"What's that, Tati?" He asked.

"A strong person that...why am I talking about this with you?"

"Because I ask."

"A strong man, commonly decent who has the stuff of my brothers." She answered.

"What stuff, Tati?"

"He treats me with respect. He talks to me like a human. He holds me like a female should be held. He shares with me, bares his soul to me."

"You've made a good choice."

"I have made no choice. He chose me."

"I see."

"I know my limits, he sees none. He sees me as an equal."

"He respects you."

"Yes, Alex. What is this about?"

"I haven't spoken to you in awhile."

"You never speak to me. You insult me, tell me I am incapable."

"When you said that you found in Jody the stuff of your brothers, you were not including Alex, me, in that equation."

"What qualities do you possess that equals that of Jayson or Tavin or even Chess?"

"You do not think much of me?" He asked, sitting on her chair at her desk. Tia lay on her bed and curled on her side facing him.

"You are arrogant. Elitist. Narcissistic."

"You would prefer a more humble man."

"You flaunt your accomplishments, Alexander."

"I am proud." He said.

"With pride comes humility. You have none."

"Oh, you do know who your brothers are, correct? The way you talk about them. You remember where we came from?"

"I do. I have been here half my life."

"What about the first half?"

She smiled. "I had a pleasant and safe childhood. I would not have wanted it any other way. Perhaps you should remember as well where you came from. New Jersey has changed you."

"I might not say it much, Tati, but I love you."

"I love you in that you are my blood, Alex. Beyond that..."

"That's enough, I guess."

"I saw Jayson tonight. That is why we were in the stables so long." Tia announced.

"Why there?"

"He's buried there, dumb ass. Why not? I sat with Jody and I told him about Jayson."

"You miss him."

"Yes, I do." She nodded. "I told him of our memories, everything he taught me. We spent so much time together."

"I did as well."

"You were chasing girls here, Alexander. When Julia did not have time for us, Jayson and I spent time together. I'm so grateful he taught me what he knew or I would not be able to do what I do with the juniors."

"I'm glad he did that, Tati."

"And what of you? I had hoped you would be able to take his place in that regard, teach me more. We shall be side by side soon and what then, Alexander?"

"You are my sister. I will protect you and-"

"I do not need protection."

"What do you need?"

"Nothing I cannot get from Julia. Get out, Alexander."

"Has she been to New Jersey?"

"No. But she's been in nests. A nest is a nest."

"I never talked about New Jersey with you have I?"

"You never talk about anything with me, Alex."

"I can talk about zombies and the death they do. I can talk about humans and the death they do. Human suffering, the extent that people go to in order to survive despite their suffering."

"Mature coming from you. Considering New Jersey is always a game to you, a game to be played."

"Death is not a game, human or otherwise, Tati."

"It's all very permanent, death."

"Quite the opposite. Life is limitless. Death is not death, but rebirth into-"

"Jayson, stop. It's time to go." Alex said. Jayson looked around Tia's room, having heard him. He felt the pulling of his organs and his body stretching away from Tatia and that time.

"You sit and talk with Tati. Make things right with your sister." He said as he transitioned.

Jay found himself in the HR office shaking hands with a man named Hector. He'd read as much on the name badge he wore on his shirt.

"I will show you around, Jayson."

"Rebirth into what, Alex?" Tia asked, laying before him on her bed. Jay had free will to visit Julia and he chose Tatia. He'd warned him he had little time, but Jay went where he chose.

"More death evidently." Alex replied. "I'll sit and talk with you. What do you wish to know, Tia?"

"What is this? You invite yourself into my room, tell me you love me despite my criticism of you..."

"I love you." He stated. My Lord, what had Jay been saying in here? As in blood loves blood. "Yes, I can say that."

"Why are you against me going to New Jersey? Why are you against me joining the infantry?"

"It is not something I want, Tia. Why would I wish the same for you?"

"Huh? You love the infantry, Alex. You love the-"

"I do not, Tia. I do not like being in the middle of a war zone. I do not like-" Alex stopped himself. "I did not want this life. I woke up one morning and they sent me in to Jersey. I was content in my home with Care beside me. That's all I ever wanted. It cycled into this."

"Huh?"

"If I did not have experience I would have died the first day. We met with human and dead and battled both to retreat with our lives. It was the ugliest and worst of human atrocities." He paused. "People are starving and we attacked them. We broke their strongholds, even though we were against that idea. It violates our beliefs. We unleashed the dead on them, which only created more dead."

"Alex, I-"

"We beat the savages back with weapons advanced for them. We slaughtered them and then set the dead on them. Is that what you'd like to hear, Tia?" He asked, watching for her reaction. "The plan for next gen was to turn the savages, every last one of them, then slaughter the dead, then move into New Jersey, only the savages are just that-savage. They came back and they came back strong, they turned the tables, doing with us what we had done to them. They led us in and they unleashed the dead on us. They gained weaponry, vehicles and most importantly our men who they tortured and retrieved information."

"They are stronger than you, us."

"Yes, at times. Your plan, the peace, was introduced and they said, 'fuck you'."

"It is a good plan, Alex."

"I agree and we have given them more than a fair share."

"So what's the problem?"

"It's not ours to give. It belongs to them in the first place. There is nothing to share, Tia."

"Why are we there? What's the purpose?"

"It's a game, Tia. That's all."

"Fuel."

"What fuel? They have no more than we do. They have nothing, except land."

"Supplies."

"Tia, we have more than they do. We are civilized, grow our own, make our own. We burn their shit to the ground. Their food, their livelihood, we have destroyed it. They are still hanging on."

"Should we pull out?" She asked.

"Then what? What happens when we pull out and they come over the bridges?"

"We blow up the bridge."

"At this point, Tia, we're keeping them over there. The growing season is done, Tia. They won't last the winter most of them. Then what? Hungry people will look for food. They will cross the bridges into Pennsylvania. They will cross into New York. There's intelligence that suggests they are already here, Tia. That they have blended into our society and they lie in wait for word to start their rebellion. Then, sister, we have all out war. War with humans, live, thinking and thirsty, hungry humans in the dead of winter. So would I like to send my sister to New Jersey? Absolutely not. You will see New Jersey, Tia. It will come to you, you will not need to go to it."

"Is Julia aware of this?"

"I do not know what Julia is aware of."

"Is Chess aware of this?"

"Yes." He nodded. "It's speculation. He believes we can hold them off. He believes that once the die out starts, there will not be many to cross. We have mobilized infantry along the coast from New York to Pa to Maryland. They will not get through, or so he believes."

"What do you believe?"

"I believe what I am told to believe. As will you. There is no room for free thought. Are you an activist and humanitarian or an infantry man-woman-whatever?"

"Oh, I never really knew what was really happening, no one has ever told me until now. My plan would have been different, Alexander."

"That was the only part of your plan that was right. That's why he liked it so much. Your plan keeps them over there. Keeps them from coming here. There was a window of opportunity with your plan, Tia and that window has closed. It was hinged on the growing season."

"And now?"

"Now, those nests that you think you're going to destroy...all it is, Tia, is figuring out where they are, protecting the seer in there. It's strategic. Unleashing the death again. Once we know where the pockets are, we unleash them. Let them out, burn them out, force them into the sunlight toward the strongholds and toward those that seek to cross the bridges, luring them to the coasts on the west. We may not know where the living hide, but the dead do. It is a well devised plan and our only chance to prevent war in our very own back yard."

"Chess thought this up."

"And others, yes. He's protecting his interests, Tia. His land, his people, his family."

"How do you know this?"

"I've been briefed, Tia. You'll be briefed as well, next week, but not here. And you will be sworn in. Welcome to the family business. This is it. Once you're sworn in you are obligated to hold all this information in your head and not repeat it. You are obligated to do all the stuff of the infantry, Tia."

"But you are telling me now. Aren't you sworn in and not allowed to speak of it?"

He blatantly ignored that question. "You can change your mind yet. You haven't left for north campus yet. You haven't held up your hand or anything-yet."

"You cannot quit?"

"No. You're sworn and you're in for life. You are owned from that moment on. You cannot leave. It could be considered treason. You are lucky, though."

"How's that?"

"You are on the team that bleeds together. You have your out. You are the only one who has that option of getting out, leaving, living a normal life."

"Huh?"

"You can have a baby, stupid." Alex smiled. "Why do you think there's no females in infantry? You get knocked up, you get knocked out and you know too damn much."

"I'm in for life, Alex?" She asked. "Unless I have a baby?"

"Pretty much. Make sure you want this."

"What about Julia? She has a child."

"She knows she'll return and the baby is going to be taken care of by people she trusts. She's O.I. She has some say in regards to her place."

"O.I.?"

"Original infantry."

"Alex, you are original infantry."

"I am. As well as next-gen. Aren't I lucky?" He paused, looking at her hands. "Tia, do you have the gift? You're nearly 17." He asked.

"What gift?" She yawned. "Do you mean my monthly?"

"Damn, no." He laughed. "You'll know it when you receive it. Come to me not Julia, please."

"Yes, ok. As soon as I receive the gift, I'll be sure to make you aware first."

Jay returned to the car and Cookie more than excited. He was thrilled in fact to have received a job offer and to have communicated with the grown Tia. He hoped that Alex was making things right with his sister as he had asked. Finding out there was discord between the two was off putting. He didn't want that. He didn't raise them with that animosity and dislike of each other. That was uncalled for, Jay thought.

"I am a janitor, Cook. Take me back now, please." He said, grinning from ear to ear.

"Congrats." She said, trying to match his enthusiasm. "Nice place in there."

"Very. Yeah. It's got a homey feel to it. It is perfect. Julia was right."

Jay pulled his phone from his pocket and he turned it on. He texted Chess that he got the job.

"You seem very excited by this opportunity." Cookie chuckled.

"I am. I am indeed." He answered, strapping himself into the seat and he held onto the handle above his head.

When Jayson returned to the room, he found she'd been transferred. Not only had she been moved from the room, she'd been transferred from Maverick General altogether. He gathered his things that he'd left in the room and he left the hospital without knowing where she'd gone. It was ordered by her attending physician. A team from another hospital had arrived and transported her away from Mav General. To where, they wouldn't say. 

Jay called Chess and Chess stated he was unaware of any transfer.

"Where the hell is she, Chess?" Jay screamed at him.

"I don't know, Jay. I'll find out. Let me call you back."

The phone disconnected and he sat outside the hospital on a bench and he waited. He had a sinking feeling Cookie Fields was involved. He was angry. He swore under his breath that the next time he saw her, he'd pull her gun on her and shoot her. He hadn't felt like killing someone in a long time.

Tia had information she needed to share with Julia and couldn't get Devine away from her long enough to do so. She couldn't get her away from Devine either as they sat and talked waiting for their morning to begin.

"Anything you need to say, Tia, can be said with my number two here." Julia said.

"You're my 2." Devine corrected her quietly.

"It's about New Jersey, Julia." Tia said.

"He's going to north campus and he's going to New Jersey, so let it out, girl." Julia informed her.

"Were you ever sworn into infantry?" She asked.

Odd question, Julia giggled a little. "No. We did not swear in back then. We just did it, Tia."

"What do you know of treason?" Tia asked as Jody stepped in beside her.

"Treasonous acts? Um, I haven't really thought about that. What does one need to do to get thrown out of Pennsylvania?"

"Treason is betrayal and you pay with your life when caught. You give the enemy our information. You speak of our orders and directives freely with civilians or persons not sworn into infantry." Devine answered for Julia. "Number two." He informed her cockily.

"Who? We can go kill him ourselves." Julia laughed.

"Alexander." Tia answered, looking at Devine.

"Your brother is giving our plans to the enemy, Tatia Rose? I hardly think that-"

"No, he has not, Julia. He's given our information to me and I am not in the infantry."

"We shall kill him then?" Julia asked, looking to Devine.

"If we are ordered, yes." He answered.

"He briefed me on New Jersey." Tia stated, looking at Devine. "Look, I am tired of playing with words. Can we talk or not?" Tia said impatiently.

"You wish to brief me?"

"Fuck you, Julia." She said. "How's that for a briefing? Fuck you and your little number two."

"One." Devine stated, laying back on the grass.

"Keller, could you please-"

"Not now, Jody." She snapped. "Get the fuck up or I will make you get up." Tia smiled.

"Ladies, not the time or the place for your cat fight." Devine interjected, laying comfortably on the patch of grass.

"Get up, number two." Tia demanded of her, raising her voice.

"Morgan. My name's Morgan." Julia said, not wishing to fight with Tia or do anything else with Tia.

"By marriage only."

"You, child, were one secret away from being a Fry. You, child, are a Keller by default. So I would tread very carefully."

Jody intervened, stepping between Julia and Tia. "Back down. This is family shit, Tia. Keep it in the Main house."

"Jo-"

"Back down." He said, cutting her off. Tia backed off and backed away, sitting across the grass by herself in the sun.

"Why is she trying to get a rise out of me?" Julia asked, looking at Jody.

"She is not. She asked one simple thing of you." He answered, taking a seat next to Devine. "This is not the time or place for it though. Devine's right."

"Watch your back, number two. You've pissed her off and I do not intervene when females fight." Devine stated, pulling his hat down over his eyes.

"Neither do I." Jody agreed.

"Why not?"

"I like to watch girls fight." Devine answered.

"We do not get involved in personal disputes." Jody explained.

"I have no personal dispute." Julia said, looking across the grass to Tia.

"You've created one. You haven't been in infantry in a long time. When a fellow junior asks to speak with you, you do it."

"I forgot you boys take this seriously."

"That's your problem, number two. You do not take this seriously." Devine said.

"So now I have to fight her?"

The boys laughed.

"That's not what we did back then."

"This is not back then."

Julia stood up. "In my day, boys, we just came out with it instead of beating around the bush."

The boys watched her walk off to Tia.

Jody had the information that Tia had entrusted him with that morning. She fetched him before the others woke. She sounded less than excited about heading forward with the plan for New Jersey as well as the infantry. He argued with her, of course, that Alex could have been mistaken or misleading her, but she hadn't sensed any dishonesty during their conversation. She made her reservations clear and said she'd inform Julia because Julia would know what to do. When Julia snubbed her, she felt slighted and dismissed. Jody only stopped her to prevent the boot from kicking her face. She'd done it before. Tia could be the bully when she needed to be.

Julia took a seat beside Tia in the sun and she listened to Tia talk and talk and talk some more. Julia's facial expression changed from her typical early morning miserable façade to that of surprise then awe. She said nothing to Tia, got up and reclaimed her spot next to Devine. She was pensive, running through the information she'd been given. She needed to think. She didn't appreciate being 'a pawn' as Tia had called her. Why had Alex been briefed on New Jersey and not Julia herself? She wasn't sure she was even willing to go anymore. Julia considered herself a humanitarian first and if Alex was correct, that went against the humanitarian inside her. Killing the dead and rebuilding societies town by town and shoulder to shoulder with survivors was what she prided herself on. She had earned respect for that. Minus some scuffles in Virginia, she was revered for rebuilding a fallen society.

A game...Julia thought...a game...do I wish to play?

I do not participate in killing my fellow human beings. It goes against everything Jay and I stand for.

"Jayson." Julia said to herself. "Tia, what would Jayson do?" She yelled across the grass.

"He would not stand for this for one minute." She answered. "So what do we do?"

"Think. I will think and I will figure this out." She said. "I'll write it all down later. And I will need to speak with our brother." Julia looked to Devine. "Plans may be changing, Devine. You're still going to north campus as I said. So don't worry."

"I don't worry about shit, Julia. Easy come, easy go." Devine said.

They'd been called in from the course and invited to the war room. Chess stood on the landing and awaited them.  He welcomed them inside. He had Kyra and Layla playing on the floor. "Sit, please." They sat in the chairs and remained quiet. Same stoic, stone faces. Chess wondered if they were bored as this was a matter of formality only. Chess flipped through Devine's folder.

"Issues with behavior and insubordination, Devine. Excellent skills and field assessments. Over all poor attitude."

"If that's what it says, Sir."

"Julia has latched on to you. Why?"

"If I may speak freely," He smiled.

"Please, we do honesty here."

"I do not take her shit, Sir."

"Her shit, Devine?" Chess asked, a crooked smile on his face.

"Yes, sir. She's mean. She's angry. She's violent. She's a bitch, Sir."

"Would she appreciate you speaking of her in this fashion, young man?"

"She would because it's the truth. And she's immature, Sir."

"Anything else? Any other observations?"

"She's strong. She's a fast thinker. A problem solver. She's got balls. She's pretty."

"Sounds like her." Chess sighed, scanning the paperwork in front of him. His file was thick and his corrections too many to count. Little slips of paper, known as corrections, were handed down occasionally to the ones with behaviors or poor attitudes. Punishments were scribbled on the bottom of the corrections slips. Commendations, little slips of paper that noted his skills and achievements, were as thick as the corrections.

"I like her, Sir. She's bad ass."

"Yes, Devine." Chess smiled.

"She said I had good energy. We do not raise our fists to each other and she doesn't scream at me like she does the others. Honestly, no one wants to deal with her." He paused. "She's one of us and it's an honor being by her side all day."

"She speaks highly of you as well." Chess looked over the folder some more. "Oliver Devine." Chess said, tapping his pencil on his desk. His attitude alone went against the grain. His instructors were very critical of him in that regard.

Julia giggled and whispered 'Oliver', poking his arm. "Ollie." She giggled. The boy smiled.

"Julia seems to think you have what it takes to be one or two."

"I do, Sir." Devine interjected.

"Did you ever think that it is your attitude that holds you back?"

"I say what I say because I believe it, Sir."

If not for Julia, he would not have had the pleasure of meeting this kid. He had some spunk in him. Cocky for his size. "Devine, welcome to the team. I have spoken to your parents. Your mother has some reservations, but your father has indicated you may advance."

"Julia stated I am going to Jersey. Am I to trust her?"

"She did. Lord, this woman has a lot to say this week. Only been out there 4 days." Chess closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "Yes, Devine, trust her. She's going out on a limb for you."

"She goes out on no limbs. I find her very cut and dry. Either she likes you or she does not."

"Devine, enjoy her company. She is at your side and you are at hers 24/7 at north campus. You are responsible for each other and each other's actions."  He looked to Julia. "I want zero problems at north campus."

"Won't come from us." Julia replied. She thought a moment then changed the subject. "Would you care to remind us of our role as you see it in the conflict in sector three. So my number two here is clear."

"One, lady. Number one."

"Yes, of, course, number one. Please, Chess, elaborate."

"You'll be briefed upon arrival as to the details. Julia, you've been in nests before."

Julia sat a moment, an idea sparked into her brain suddenly. "I have another suggestion. These juniors are not yet completed their three years training. I don't believe they should be sworn in to infantry. Maybe they should be sworn in upon returning-"

"What is this about?"

"I was speaking with Tia today who spoke with her brother last night and Alexander indicated that once sworn in, she would be sworn in for life. Team A now has some reservations about this. They'd be lifers."

"You know this and they know this and it is clearly stated upon arrival to-"

"Tia was not informed until last night and she arrived into 2nd year, not first with the rest."

"I will speak with Tia personally."

"She brought this to me in confidence. I would like you to consider what I asked of you."

"Julia, I will not change traditions for her. When a unit is called, they are sworn and that is it."

"They are juniors." She reminded him.

"There are also 25 other teams. To back out of infantry now is insane, especially for Mayers. He feels similar to Tia?"

"I have authority where she's concerned. I can restrict her from New Jersey and I will send my number two here in her place. I cannot speak for Jody."

"This is insane." Chess said sternly.

"Then I shall not go." Julia said. "I would prefer to be with Antonia. She is my daughter. She is my out from all this nonsense. I believe Antonio would prefer I am home with her. Fight your war, Chess." Julia said, rising from her seat. She stepped out of the war room and her boots could be heard thumping down the two flights of stairs.

Chess leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. Eyes closed. "Devine, are you still here?"

"Yeah, I haven't been dismissed."

"Yes, do me a favor, Devine. When you get out to the course, take the female from Alexander, and tell him to report to me. Do the full course with the female, Katara is her name."

"Yes, Sir."

"I think you'll find that the wall is easier to scale."

"Yes, Sir."

Alex did not like interruptions. When Julia's partner, Devine, informed him that the boss wanted him and then further informed him that he was to hand Kat over to him for the course, he was irked. Chess was not pleased when he arrived to the war room. He handed his ass to him, then demanded to know what he'd been filling his sisters' heads with to cause the both of them to retreat from sector three prior to their arrival in sector three.

"She has every right to be informed of the decision she's making." Alex said.

"What possessed you, Alex?"

"Jayson was here last night."

"You called him?"

"No, he appeared. I call him when she asks me to call him and she has not asked me to call him."

"She hasn't?"

"No. She hasn't. Your marriage-"

"Is not your business." Chess snapped at him. "Did he visit with her?"

"No, he did not. He visited with Tia. He told me to sit and talk with her and she guided our conversation to sector three. She asked questions and I answered those questions honestly. We do honesty here."

"Whatever you have told her, she has told Julia and now Julia is not interested in this endeavor. Neither is team A."

"Mayers? I find that hard to believe." Alex said. "There are 25 other teams."

"Julia's abilities-"

"This plan of yours goes against their beliefs. Tia wishes peace. Julia wishes peace. This is not peace. Is it any wonder why they are conflicted? It is not that they cannot do this. They are physically and mentally capable."

"You told her the whole truth, Alex?"

"Yes. She is my sister. Tia believes what she speaks. Julia can play either side of the coin." Alex thought a moment. "They do not like this because we are not going to peace with New Jersey."

"Despite the fact there is an imminent threat to our livelihood and well being from the savages, they do not agree?"

"They feel they are an oppressed people, by you, us, all the free states that are involved.  Honestly, most of us do feel that way. It is why there is not much enthusiasm for this war. The purpose is-" He waved his hands in the air.

"Tia's plan was an excellent plan. They refused intervention despite all we offered. What would they have us do, Alex? Strategically speaking."

"It is not a mystery." He replied sarcastically. "If you still need her on board for this, ask your wife."

"I ask you. You sit in front of me."

"Go to peace with New Jersey. Leave them alone. Pull up any and all stakes and walk away. End it. We should have never started it." Alex stood. He paused, placing his hands on the back of the chair. "Do not blame Tia for this sudden change of heart. It was my doing."

"She's in Maryland, Jay. She's fine. She was transferred on orders due to her condition."

"Whose orders, Chess? Yours? She's not their property."

"I-I-"

"Chess, I'm pissed."

"When I agreed to allow them to take her blood and tissues samples I may have consented to this without my knowledge."

"You don't think this is shady?"

"It is. I agree 100%." Chess said trying to sound reassuring. "Look, I'll have Cook bring you down here."

"Does Cookie have something to do with this? You don't think it's ironic that as soon as she's alone in the room, this happens? Did you have anything to do with this?"

"No, Jay. I had no idea."

"I am fucking pissed off, Chess." Jay yelled. "She's getting better. She's coming around. She's not looking like death anymore. They should have transferred her a few days ago."

"She wouldn't have survived a transfer then. You know that." Chess told him. "She's got antibodies in her blood. They want to run tests on her."

"What would she want? Would she be alright with tests, Chess?"

"If it could make a cure or a vaccine, I think so, yeah, Jay." Chess raised his voice. "Cookie's on her way to get you and bring you here. They want blood from you."

"I don't wanna be a lab rat."

"You won't. You were in close proximity to her and they feel as though you might have some of the same antibodies. Why didn't you get sick? She hurled blood all over you. The clothes you were wearing were tested and came back positive."

"I have never been sick."

"Why? They feel as though you should have been."

"I don't fucking know. I am fine."

"I know that. You know that. I have given them my blood. I have antibodies built up to the old virus, not the new one. The one you two came in contact with in Mount Oliver is new virus, nesting virus."

"There's two different viruses?"

"No, there's two different strains of the same virus." He corrected him.

"Fucking fantastic." Jay mumbled. "Fine. Whatever. Ok. Where's this fucking blond at?"

"Checking out of the hotel. Stay there. She's coming."

"Yeah. Of course. Whatever."

"You know they would have taken you too. It just happened you were at an interview. When do you start?"

"Monday morning. I can't miss that or all this is over. It's a great place. You guys were right. There's-"

"Not now, Jayson."

"Ok. Ok. There's a lot I need to tell you, though."

"There's a lot I need to tell you too."

"Like-"

"Later, Jay."

"Like-"

"They're going to need a list of all her sex partners."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Jay, there's stuff she tells you that she may not have told me or your brother."

"Um, I am not sure that she would-um...I don't know what to say."

"Lord, there's more than I thought?"

"Um, depends on what you know, cause she's confided some-shit, Chess."

"Thus another reason why you need to talk with these people and give them a clear picture on her. You know her best."

"I can't help them with Philly. I asked her not to tell me anything cause I don't wanna know."

"I haven't mentioned Philly, Jay. That was so random aside from the shit that went down with Kev."

"Chess, I don't wanna know."

"We were so fucked up, man. The drugs-You have no idea."

"Are we talking men and women here or just guys?" Jay asked as Cookie pulled to the curb in front of him. He stood up and gathered his belongings from the bench.

"Everyone." Chess said.

"Well, that's information only she will give. I will not betray her trust."

Jody was not pleased as he and Tia were replaced by Devine and Furlong as Team A. He was fuming mad. He let her know it in no simple words. "What the hell did you do?" He screamed at her. The approach was menacing. Completely caught off guard, still working that day's drills, she had no idea what he was talking about? She looked around her to make sure he was directing his words and his anger toward her specifically.

"Nothing. I haven't left the course, Mayers. What's wrong?" She asked.

"You make decisions for you. You do not make them for me. What were you thinking, Tia?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said softly. She truly didn't.

Jody was angry obviously as he got in her face. "You are very lucky you are female. If you were male I would knock you out right now." He balled his hands into fists and used every bit of control he had within him to keep his hands from her. I am not my brothers...I am not my brothers...he repeated as he walked away from her.

Tia stepped to go after him, but Devine held her up. "Keller, that was a warning."

She glanced down at the kid who had only placed a hand on her forearm. "It's a fight I would not win anyway." She nodded and then stepped back. His eyes said no, so she heeded the warning and went back to the work at hand, leaving him fume and walk off. "I haven't done anything." She said, feeling resentful for actions she didn't take. What decisions had she made? She hadn't made any decisions for herself or him. She wasn't left with good vibes, she felt off balance.

Devine pulled her aside and spoke to her. "Keller," He said, looking around to the others. He moved with her out of ear shot of his fellow juniors. He felt comfortable informing her of what had transpired in the war room with Chess. "He then sent me for Alexander."

Tia was awestruck. "There are 25 other teams." She sighed, letting that sink in to her conscious as she became emotional.

"You and he," Tia motioned to Furlong. "You're 3 and 4."

"Mind if I ask what you told Julia this morning?"

Tia felt fine alerting him to the truth as she felt he should know as well what the directive was heading to Sector 3. "New Jersey plan is not what it seems. It's a holocaust, Devine."

"A holocaust?" He asked, folding his sunburned and freckled arms across his chest. "You come out here and accuse your brother of treason and now you speak of a holocaust? They're some serious accusations, Keller."

"I realize that, D." She nodded, tears in her eyes. "You should know as I know. Understand why I have reservations? If you know Julia at all, you'd understand why she has the same reservations. But Mayers has nothing to do with this. She included him in this? He has no reservations, the infantry is his life, all he's ever wanted."

"If what you say is true, that means-"

"That means, in no confused words, that we will exterminate those people who live and survive in sector three. We will turn them into monsters then we will doubly exterminate them and take everything from the Delaware River to the Atlantic Ocean."

"Wow." He said, shaking his head. "Tia, this is-"

"It's fucking wrong. We do not treat other human beings like this. And we call them savages, D. That is exactly why I took this to my sister. This is not the foundation on which this compound was formed, D. Have you learned your history?"

"Yes. I have. There's right and wrong. Why do the others-"

"They are sworn to follow all orders and directives."

 "What of you now, D? You know the truth?" Tia left him with that question and went back to her business, alone and pensive, alone and with anger building inside her. What had Julia done to Jody's future? Her own future? She and Mayers had not thoroughly discussed their thoughts yet, no decisions had been made between them.

The instructor approached her a half hour later with Mayers at his side. He escorted them both from the course altogether.

"Why? Where are you taking us?" She asked as the instructor placed them in a jeep and drove on to the dorms. He drove silently till he deposited them in front of the main school building.

"Keller, Mayers, you are no longer members of junior infantry." He stated. "On a personal note, Tia. It's a shame. You're an excellent junior. It's been a pleasure to have you in the group this year."

"But why? What have I done? I don't understand." She said, tears welling in her eyes.

"I am not the man you should ask. Good day, Tia. Mayers," The instructor said, extending his hand. "I hope you find your way in this world."

"Yes, sir." Mayers answered, shaking his hand. He climbed back inside his jeep and drove off, leaving her in front of the building's entrance.

 He looked to Tia. Both stood shocked and she couldn't speak through her tears. Jody, on the other hand, was not crying.

"Tia Keller." He said, no inflection to his voice. "How on earth did you manage this? What happened, Tia? T, what the hell am I gonna do? Go home to my brothers, T? You know that-what this means for me?" He placed his hand on her shoulder more to hold himself up as opposed to comforting her. "Is this a damn dream, Tia?"

"I can fix this." She cried.

"Tia, you cannot fix this." He said. "It's done."

"My sister-" She cried.

"Is not my sister." Jody sighed.

"I trusted-"

"Tia, it's done." He said as he observed the house master exit the school building. He approached them both.

"Mayers, you need to come with me. What happened today?" He asked as he guided Jody from Tia back to the dorms.

She turned and looked at the school, then rounded the building to the courtyard. The children played in the yard. Macy sat with the babies on a blanket. She saw how upset Tia was, but Tia ignored her when she went past her. "Where's Julia?" She asked, crying and confused. She had confided in her the truth and had she betrayed her? She was angry, but held it back till she faced her. She glanced to the second floor and her stomach was in knots. A vibe, not a good one. It felt like she'd been kicked in the gut. She had worked too hard and too long and trained to be as strong and to catch up with the rest of the juniors. She had not wasted her time and effort.

"Inside." Macy answered. "Tia, honey, are you alright?"

"Not now, Macy." She said firmly. The first level was empty. She rode the elevator to the second level and stepped into a fight between Julia and Alex. A heated one, which quieted when she made an entrance.

"What have you done?" Tia asked.

"I told Chess the truth, Tatia."

"I told you what Alex said in confidence. I came to you because you would know what to do. I didn't come to you to get us thrown out of infantry. What the hell is wrong with you? Is this your big plan? Is this how you work now?" She asked, flushing with anger.

"What? I did not know he'd-"

"You told him. Some sense of honor or obligation or something?" Tia asked, moving toward her.

"I didn't know he'd-"

"Why did you tell him at all?" Tia screamed. "Everything I, everything Jody has worked for is gone-poof-up in the fucking air. Do you have any idea how hard I worked? I trained and took insults and lowered myself and strengthened myself and gained their trust and earned their respect. Do you have any fucking idea how hard it was to break through that stereotype and feel equal?"

"Yes! I do! I think-"

"No, you did not think."

"Tatia-"

"I trusted you would do the right thing, Julia. This is what you think is the right thing?"

Tia walked past her and Alex to the hall to her room. Julia followed. "Tia, I will talk to him. Let me-"

Tia turned and hit her square in her mouth. "Back off me or I will fucking kill you where you stand."

Julia smarted from the punch, but said nothing and didn't back off. She stood still, a little woozy and trying to believe that had actually happened. Julia felt Tia's hand gripping her around her throat. "The throat. That's what you always go for. Right?" She screamed, cutting off Julia's airway. She couldn't breathe. She held back though. Unsure whether to go there with Tia, whether to strike back. Tia jammed her body against the wall. "I said I will kill you." She screamed.

"Tia, stop it." Alex ordered calmly. "Leave her go."

Tia pulled her fist back and punched the wall beside Julia's head, then left her go. Alex observed Julia, sucking in air and gaining her composure. Alex shook his head. Not many got away with that with Julia. Not many got to turn their back and walk across a hall and slam a door. A few moments later, Tia stepped into the hall again. They still stood in the same places.

"Where is he?" Tia asked calmly.

"War room." Alex answered as Tia walked down the hall. "What are you gonna do?"

"More of the same." Tia answered, pointing to Julia.

"Not recommended, Tia." Alex said, watching her walk away. He leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. Tia flipped him the middle finger and kept walking. "Shit, Julia. What have you done?"

"Trying to help, Alex."

"Help? Learn your fucking place." He said, taking off at a slow pace behind Tia. He watched as she went through the double doors to the stairway. "You think she's really gonna do it?" He asked, hoping the vibe coming off her was incorrect. He hadn't read human vibes or paid much attention to them like Julia had.

"Are you going or am I?" Julia asked. "I don't feel like fighting him. It's a fight I had once. I lost."

Tia did not knock, rather she walked in and she leaned over the desk. He sat in his chair, going over paperwork for Furlong. "You replaced Jody." She said calmly.

"I did." He answered, not raising his head to look at her.

"You pulled us off infantry." She said calmly.

"I did."

"Why?"

"There is no room for reservations in the infantry. You have reservations or doubts, you are out."

"Why Jody? He never doubted."

"It's done."

"We-"

"It's done. Leave my office."

"Asshole." Tia muttered.

"Tatia Rose."

"I am not infantry. I will call you what I please." She said angrily. "And you are a little asshole. And that wife of yours is a cunt."

He stood and he went to slap her. She caught his hand. "Do not raise your hand to me. I am not your child nor am I your wife."

"Did you come to fight with me, Tia?"

She left his hand go. "No." She laughed. "I came to tell you this is not over."

"Are you trying to intimidate me, Tia?"

"Yes. Cause this girl is going to New Jersey and I shall gather a people behind me. When I return, Chess, I am bringing savages on your land and I will bring them through the fences and I will bring them into the main house and into your war room. Get fucking ready."

Tia turned her back and walked away. She took the steps slowly and with confidence. She found her brother on the landing at the bottom of the steps. "You, brother, you coming with me or not?"

"Yeah, what the hell." He smiled, following her through the door.

"You know people. You know who I mean. The ones who have no enthusiasm for this war." She said.

"I do." He nodded. "Certainly, sister."

"Brother, let's go earn us some respect and a sector. Whatcha think?"

"I think that sounds like a lovely idea on this August afternoon."

"I'm gonna gather up my boyfriend, then we'll recruit a couple thugs. You getting your child bride?"

"Yep. On it." He said.

"Cause it's wrong and we're right."

"Fuck yes." He nodded. "You feel it yet, Tia?"

"I'm feeling something, Alexander. Energy."

"Welcome to the family curse."

Jody was packing when she got to the dorms. He thought she was coming to say good bye, maybe apologize, explain how the day spun completely out of control. His control. When he woke that morning he pretty much had his future planned out, then Tia walked in and with one conversation about sector 3, that was all gone.

He pretty much had his future planned out till this pretty girl showed up in juniors one morning half awake and toting a cup of coffee. He would never forget that morning. Finally something good to look at and of all people, the princess from the tower. He'd seen her before she'd seen him. He observed her from the castle watching the juniors. He'd observed her activities with Leo in the dark, overheard a few conversations and then watched as she ran away that night from the gym obviously disturbed. He knew the story Leo gave wasn't true, but he let the guy have his moment never having thought she'd be a junior or attempt to infiltrate the club with a cup of Joe and smelling of flowers. A guest, the instructor had informed them. Hands off, eyes off and mouths shut. A fine guest she was. After a day on the course with the guest, he knew she would stick around because, for one, she wanted to and two, she was capable, strong even if uncoordinated and scared.

As a few weeks passed with this stubborn girl in their midst, she had no clue the meaning of teamwork. She was the kinda junior that thought she could do everything on her own. She was skilled, but clumsy, didn't take instruction well and they'd eventually had enough and they broke her. The meaning of stay down, she stayed down, on her knees or lower all afternoon till eventually she'd crawled away and they thought they were rid of her, had defeated her, broke her. The girl was already crying as they sent her back to the main house filthy and spent. It had been him that told her if she were male, they'd strip her down and spray her off with the hose. She crawled on to the main house and he had no idea what went on inside the door once it closed, but the girl came back out. He noticed Julia was with her and he thought they were about to get their asses handed to them, but they didn't. In fact, he'd sensed Tia had, for crawling inside to begin with, for giving up. She either talked Tia into crawling back or had made her crawl back, which one he wasn't sure. He knew that the Julia inside the main house would have never allowed herself to be overwhelmed or overruled by a junior.

Once Tia had been released from her crawl for the afternoon, she stayed on the ground. Was she stuck? Was she doing it purposefully? He had felt bad for instigating the stay low afternoon, so all he did was offer the girl a hand up. He sprayed the girl with the hose as he would any other junior and he called it a day with her. From that moment on with the infantry, Keller started to fit in. She improved in leaps and bounds, asked for help when she needed it and she listened to those who knew more than she knew. She came to life and she excelled. The difference one punishment made, he thought, to one junior female. She latched onto him and a select few others that had treated her, as Tia liked to say, commonly decent. She'd sought the ones that put her learning and her strengths ahead of her tits and her ass and above all her name. She became aware, watched and learned, followed them around relentlessly from field activity to activity and in class. She never was pushy and never forced her way into the circle of juniors, but remained on the outskirts till the time was right. She had an inside scoop on the history, could detail the stories of the first nights and the years before the state had been cleared and declared free. All the lure and rumor had been cleared up by Keller as she remembered it. Tia, the girl, was funny and weird, but she still fit in and she grew herself a little backbone.

How he'd let her transition them from the field to her bed was not as much a mystery as a moment of weakness. He was a guy though. After all was said and done, when the princess invites you inside because you 'owe her', then you go. He did hesitate once inside, but he went there and that opened up a whole situation. They kept a lid on it awhile, but eventually it was no mystery where he spent his spare time or with whom. Their activities, he never spoke of. He'd seen her rage with Leo and he respected that rage. Not that he couldn't take care of her if she came after him, but he never wanted her to come after him like that either. He was falling hard for the princess. She was more than the girl in the main house. Awkward and weird at times, no social skills, a poor conversationalist, had few hobbies. She was just actually quite dull till she let her guard down and became vulnerable. She only wanted a friend after all was said and done. The sex was a bonus.

"So what now, princess?" He asked as he zipped up his pack.

"Oh, you'll see." She answered him quietly. "I will meet you outside, Jody."

He turned his head to look her way and he swore he saw a knife on her left hip. Distracted by her ass, he turned back to his bag.

As Tia went down the stairs toward the game room, she met up with a handful of soaked juniors making their way back to the dorms, but she also met with a handful who had stopped her and cornered her in the stairwell. Devine was with them. "You leaving? You gonna do something about this, Tia?" Devine asked.

"I saw your brother outside with Katara. Where you going?" Leo asked.

"I wanna make this right." She answered, pressing her back up against the wall. They were closing in on her.

"Room for a few more?" Devine asked.

"Want some help?" Furlong asked.

"Is Mayers going with you?" Another named D'Angelo asked, rounding his way up the stairwell to the landing.

"Yeah, I wanna go if all you guys are going." Kidd said, following D'Angelo.

"Pack up then." She said, suddenly feeling responsible to all of them. She suddenly felt the weight of her words that she'd spoken to Chess. She'd rallied some sense of loyalty in Alex.

What have I done...

Alex stood with Kat as Tia emerged from the dorms, holding his pack and Kat's on his back. She appeared to have a look about her that suggested she'd seen a ghost. "Changed your mind? You haven't left the yard yet." He smiled. He was, after all, calling her bluff. As if he'd dare take his sister and her boyfriend to New Jersey. He knew she was angry and intent on leaving. He knew she'd cool off and he knew she'd spend a few nights in the common world and then return to the fortress and apologize to Chess and possibly Julia. That was his plan. He did plan on letting her leave, have her moment of defiance that they all had taken with the family. This would be a good time to do as Jay said, make things right with his sister. He had confidence in her and knew she'd fair alright with Mayers, but it was a different world than the one she remembered from her childhood. The one night she'd spent outside would not suffice in world experience. He'd told Julia as much when he left with her.

"Tia." Jody called from the door. "What the hell is going on?" He had his pack on his back and had a small group of juniors on his heels with their packs as well.

"It seems I have found us a squad, Alex." Tia said quietly as they filed out the main entrance. "Um, Jody, there has been a change in plans." Tia said nervously as the others formed a line by Alex.

"Tia, you have stolen the top four and a few others."

"It appears that they believe in the cause, Alex. So I suppose-"

"Boys, you do know what this means, that once you leave the grounds with your packs that you are no longer part of the junior infantry."

"Did you get us all kicked out? Tia, what's going on?" Jody asked.

Devine stood tall, looking to Alex for some guidance. "Is what you told your sister the truth?" He demanded.

"Yes," He replied. "Who are you?"

"Devine." He answered.

Alex looked at the rest, thinking he'd have to fix this incident with Chess before they were all expelled from the juniors. He was about to leave grounds with five additional juniors with packs.

"D'Angelo, Kidd, Furlong, and I am Carpenter." Leo said, pointing at the others as he named them. Leo had been the surprise tag-a-long as he'd only just returned from his leave a couple weeks prior. He'd healed, obviously, the knee was doing well on the course. The injury could have put him out altogether, but he wanted to return. He wanted to make things right with the juniors and Tia, which he had done upon arrival.

Alex led them to the armory adjacent to the range and he tapped in the key code to open the door. He handed out pistols to each junior. He observed Tia placing hers on her right, then she stepped away and waited for the others to arm up. Alex took one for Kat, but he kept it on his side as he'd witnessed the girl shoot and she wasn't safe yet for her own weapon. Extra rounds to each person. He watched her looking at the stable. Small and white wisps of light flickered in the small pasture. The energy appearing similar to fireflies.

Guardsmen approached in their jeep and questioned the kids immediately as to what their purpose was at the armory. Devine directed them to Alex through the armory door. "Is there a problem?" Alex asked.

"Saw the kids, Alexander. Thought something was up."

"Going out on a night course is all. Going to north campus next week. Getting them ready for night course."

"Of course, of course. Have at it then." The guard said with a hand shake. "Good seeing you, Alex."

Night course? Tia asked under her breath.

"Skills weekend. One night and one day, Keller." Jody whispered. "We do train at night. Mind telling me what we're doing, Tia?"

"I-I" She stuttered. She pointed to the light. "You see that?" She asked.

"The barn, T. Yes."

Alex locked up the armory and walked to her side. He saw it too as she pointed.

"Energy, Alex." She said to him. "How many horses are inside?"

"Enough to ride out of here. I was thinking a jeep, Tia, or two."

"It's a sign." She whispered unsure of that statement as it escaped her lips. "Yes?"

"Yes." He rolled his eyes. "Can everyone ride?"

They all gathered in the stables and they all chose their ride and mounted up. "I cannot stress enough the seriousness of what we are about to do." Alex warned them. "Are you boys sure about this?"

"Alex-"

"Tatia Rose, we are crossing some major lines here. If anyone wants to back out, it would be a grand idea. We're going from common to criminal."

"I wanna know how we're getting out of here with the horses is all." She replied.

"You're not allowed to head out of your own grounds on horses with your juniors?" Jody asked Alex.

"Never tried, Mayers." He replied.

"Someone make a decision." Devine insisted, still standing on the ground beside his horse.

"Having trouble, shorty?" Kidd asked.

"Not a fan of horses." He admitted, climbing on top of the mare he'd chosen. He settled onto her.

"Fuck it. Front gate. No one will question me." He said, leading them out and around to the main exit. As he had said, no one questioned him. They left all of them through the security points as getting out was a breeze as opposed to getting in. That time of the early evening, half the staff was already out of there and headed home. As the dusk fell on them, they trotted away from the fortress and Jody led the way to the next town where he'd find his brothers at the bar.

The Watering Hole bar was a hole in the wall, small town bar. Here, they were not bouncers rather they did whatever was required. Cooking, cleaning, maintaining, bouncing, filling drinks or just shooting the shit. Depended on the day and the crowd. On a Thursday in this small village bar there were few patrons. They rode up to the building and Tia hopped down then Jody hopped down after her. His hand flew to the small of her back again and stayed there.

"Ok, what is that about, Jody?" She finally asked as they entered through the doors to the bar. "The hand on my back thing."

"It's me, my nerves." He replied, flicking her with his thumb and index fingers.

"Princess and her prince." Greg teased, leaning over the bar. She gave him a strong hug. "Princess," He said, kissing her cheek. "Hey, Jo. What are you two doing here?"

"Fuckin problems." Jody muttered, taking a seat on the bar stool.

"Shots, Princess. One on the house." Greg said, pouring out tequila in shot glasses.

Tia slammed hers. Jody looked at the shot. She set the glass back down and then she picked up his and slammed that one. "Love me some tequila." She shivered as the burn swept through her mouth to her gut. "Not here for this." Tia said, placing the second glass on the bar. He motioned to pour more and she waved her hand over the glasses. "No. Thank you." She shook her head.

"So Whatcha here for?" Greg asked.

"You and Allen."

"Interesting." Greg grinned.

She smiled, leaning over the bar toward him. "You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Jody gave her a good yank by the seat of her pants and sat her ass back on the bar stool.

"What do you want, Tia?" He asked, looking sideways at his youngest brother.

Tia skimmed over the details of the last 24 hours. Greg laughed, "Jo, you can stay." He said. "Princess, you need to go home before they come looking for you."

"I told you, T." Jody said, rubbing her back.

"But why?" She asked. "Why not? You said to Chess that you'd go if you were needed. Were you lying?"

"I think Allen said that."

"Well, I think I'm talking to the wrong brother."

Greg poured her another shot. She drank it down.

"I see you're little life is falling apart, princess." Greg said. "But what do you think is gonna happen out there?"

"Not sure yet." Tia answered.

"You're a kid who got herself in over her head." Greg looked at and then pointed to Jody. "Dragged him by his dick right along with you." He filled the shot glass one last time and tucked the bottle away. "You want us to leave our life for something you aren't sure about? 

"Yes." She said honestly, taking a good look around her. "I would."  She nodded.

"Jo, explain this to your princess." He moved on to the next patron.

"There's nothing to explain, Jo." Tia said sarcastically. She slammed the last shot and clunked the glass on the bar. 

Jody set her down on the bar stool and told her the truth. She sounded crazy and angry and she'd come to regret what she was doing in the morning. He thought his brother was right. She needed to go home to the castle and get over it. What could five juniors and two ex juniors possibly do to make a difference in the sector three with or without Alex? Greg listened to Jody explain this to her. The tequila was having some effect on her at this point. Tequila only fueled the rage toward the brother who sat in front of her.

She counter argued with him that Alex knew others that felt the same. There was a squad of next gen-ers that felt the exact same way in Philadelphia. One group of juniors, one disgruntled next gen squad and all their experience heading to sector three could only mean one thing, they had a chance to do something, anything, that would change the face of what was to come.

"There are others in Philly? Your brother, Alex, is among you?" Greg asked.

Tia nodded, "He's out there." She pointed to the door.

"Jody, are you in on this?" Greg laughed.

"I guess I am. I got nowhere else to go." He answered, sliding off the bar stool. "Tia, come with me." He guided her to her feet.

"Take her home, Jody." Greg called as they head to the door. "She's in it up to her ass already from the sounds of it."

Jody had to practically force the princess to the door. She didn't have a way with words, couldn't get her point across and came off sounding like a spoiled kid who ran away from home. Jody told her as much. There was that awkward side of her rearing its ugly head. She couldn't make a point if she tried. She couldn't speak clearly for herself or the people she wished to save. She had done so when she was angry with Chess, she said.

"What did you tell Chess, Tia?" Jody asked, trying to calm her down and distract her at the same time. "Tell me, T."

"I threatened him." She admitted, separating herself from Jody's strong arms. "I told him to get ready. I told him I would go to New Jersey and I would gather a people behind me. I would bring savages on his land and through his fences. I will bring them in the main house and to his war room."

"Bold of you, Tia."

"It was the truth. I felt it, Jody."

"Come on, we'll get you back to the fortress, you can apologize and I might be able to see you again sometime in the next decade when I get out of jail for stealing the horses and the guns."

"You stole horses and guns? You followed her?"

"My decision, brother." Jody replied.

"Jody-"

"I'll deal with it!" He shouted.

"We're asking you for your help. Your experience." Tia yelled, turning to Greg. She met with Jody in front of her, his wall of a chest and arms beneath her arms.

"Babe, we don't need them, either one of them." Jody said as he backed her toward the bar door where they bumped into Allen and Alex who were entering.

"Go on, Tia. I'll speak with them."

Within an hour Alex returned to the lot and they mounted their horses. He instructed Jody to head up front and lead them to the boys' home. Alex rode beside him slow and steady as it seemed that Jody was reluctant to head there. Alex sensed the unease and reminded him they'd all come from similar. His family was his and his alone, good or bad. He had to accept their issues as Alex had to accept all his own family's strange behaviors and beliefs.

"It's quite common." Tia piped up from behind them.

"You been drinking, Keller?" Devine asked.

"I have had 3 shots of tequila." She answered, holding up 3 fingers to him.

"We almost there?" Kidd asked.

"It's down the road a ways." Tia replied.

"You drink a lot, Keller?" Devine asked.

"I drank twice." She answered. "Come on, Jody. I can walk faster than this."

Jody picked up the pace and they arrived to the near hidden path to the trailer in the woods. They tethered the horses and they set up camp in the brothers' front yard. Their packs were complete with their gear for north campus and included tarps and a tent. Nothing fancy, but a requirement for night training. Jody pulled their gear down as Tia wandered off around the back of the trailer.

"Where you going, T?" He asked, following her.

"I'm fine. I gotta pee."

He stuck with her though and he dropped their gear behind the trailer. He started setting up the tent in the rear rather than out front.

"Why back here, Jody?"

"I can see better, Tia." He answered, pointing to the moon above them. "You know how to set this up?"

"No." She shook her head.

"Next time." He said, setting her aside and out of his way.

"You mad at me?" She asked softly.

"No." He replied, but she could feel the tension coming off him. "I just-I can't believe this day, Tia."

"It is not what I had hoped for when I woke this morning."

"What did you hope for?" He asked, looking up at her from his crouch on the ground.

"I thought by telling her I would have a resolution to the problem. She solves problems, Jody. She usually does not create them."

He continued to work in silence, had a tent sent up in a few minutes, the tarp he spread out over top and used as a flap over the entrance. He doubted they'd fit in there together, but at some point through the night they'd certainly make an effort.

"You're angry."

"Not with you or your intentions, T." He replied, trying his best to be understanding of her feelings. "How about something to eat?"

"Sure. You light the fire and I'll take care of a chicken or two. Deal?"

"You know how to do that?"

"There's things I can do, you have no idea."

CHAPTER TWELVE-MOUNT OLIVER

Photocopies but not the originals. Kelly was adamant about keeping the original sketch drawings. She 'owned' them. Julia had originally given up on her, but Jayson and Tavin took over and talked her into handing them over. Julia had a feeling that there were more than eight sketches that Kelly had presented at Thanksgiving. All of the sketches filled 1 book and she was half way through another book. Jayson drove them to the library where they photocopied all of them during a painstakingly long process that cost Julia money. Julia could not understand Kelly's unwillingness to separate from her books, but Kelly explained they belonged to her and she didn't want the pages ripped out or any damage to come to them. When they came home from the library, Julia spread the photos out around the kitchen table after dinner. Each photocopy didn't give the sketch any justice to the intricate details, each artistic nuance, each stroke of the pencil. It was all she had to work with and she made due.

Julia held the first picture in her hands and studied it, the background, the scene in which the main character had been drawn. Who the hell is this? She felt nothing off each sketch. She felt no vibe, no energy, no connection. She needed the originals. As she glanced across the room to Kelly's bag near the door, she suggested that Tavin maybe slip over there and hand over the first book.

"Nope."

Julia went fishing around in her backpack and sat beside Tavin on the sofa. She felt the book, the energy buzzing off it. "Feel." She whispered, looking toward the steps. Tavin touched the sketch. Nothing. "Give me your hand." She said softly. Tavin placed his hand in hers while he watched TV and then once Julia made her connection, he felt the vibe. "Cool. It kinda tickles, Julia."

"I've been told." She said as she disconnected and went in the kitchen. She sat back with Tavin and the photocopies she'd made. The first photocopy, she flipped over and made notes on the back as she ran her fingers over the original. She did so lightly as to avoid any smudges or smears or fingerprints. She had to handle them with kid gloves or Kelly would be angry. She'd be angry knowing they were invading the privacy of her bag in the first place. "This is gonna take forever. Hours." Julia complained.

"Who is he?" Tavin asked as he held onto her hand despite the fact he could have left go.

Julia shrugged because she didn't have the answer to that question. "I go on emotion. I sense positive or negative, fear, joy, pleasure, pain. I'm different."

"What are you feeling with this guy?"

"Passionate. Like for a cause. Intense feelings. Strength. Honor. Brotherhood. Experience. Like see here. The tat on his arm means something. She blurred it though. On purpose, like it signifies something."

As the pages turned over the course of an hour, she and Tavin sat hand holding and connected, feeling the pictures externally and internally.

"This kid is shady as all hell. Feel it?"

"This is fun." He smiled, having given up on the TV altogether. He laid his head on her shoulder, relaxed, leaning back. "He's hiding something?"

Julia pressed her finger over the long jacket her wore. "Negative energy. Ugh, it's-"

"What's under that coat?" He asked. "He shouldn't have it on. Look at the flowers in the background, blooms. It's not matching the season."

Julia jotted down the observances on the photocopy.

The next sketch they felt was all sex. Julia withdrew the hand as it hovered over the bodies, faceless and entwined together. "Kelly, Kelly. Damn." He grinned, taking in the nudity in front of their eyes.

"Don't need to be psychic to get the vibe there." He commented.

Julia turned the photocopy over to make notes. Tavin studied the sketch, two bodies completely nude. The room bare except for some boxes and a few filing cabinets. Clothes lay in clumps on the floor around the chair on which he sat with her atop him. His face in her chest and her facing him. No clear facial identification, but Julia felt their identities. She traced the female's spine.

"That's Karen." Julia advised him as she touched the long hair that fell in waves over her back. "And that is..." She added, fingers tracing his arms as they curved around her upper back. Hands on her shoulder.

"Next." He said, looking away. "Come on, turn the page."

She turned the page, then flipped the next photocopy over. "She musta been high on the pregnancy hormones here. God, look at all of us." Julia chuckled. Nudes galore. Julia, Karen, Macy, Kelly, Jesslyn, Hayley, and a couple others that Julia didn't know. "This represents something. We can't all be knocked up, right?" The female nude bodies in a line, hands interlocked. The detail on the bodies was perfect as Julia had seen and enjoyed a handful of them. Each detail to the creases in the skin was exact. All women with prominent baby bumps.

"How does she know what you all look like naked?"

"Beats me. I mean I have been naked with her. Like getting dressed and undressed. She's seen me. And probably Jess. She's got Macy's scars down to line though. Look at this. She's exactly like this."

"So are you."

"Ugh, I am so utterly flat chested. She could have embellished for the pic here a little bit."

"Look at fat Hayley." He snickered.

"That's right on the mark there. That's exactly what she looked like pregnant."

Julia left that page blank because she felt nothing off it.

"Next." He said, anticipating more nudity. The next sketch was the exact as the last only the abdomens were gaping open and empty. Blood oozing and dripping to the floor where the zombies crouched feeding on infants. Body parts, dismembered infant corpses. They both looked away. "Next." He urged as Julia studied the corpses scattered at the mothers' feet.

"Losing our children." Julia said, placing her hand over the page.

"Next. She told me, so lets move on."

Julia flipped the page, flipped the photocopy. Scenery, scenery, more scenery. Hand holding. Two hands, male and female. "Me and Jay." She said, placing her hand against the photo. "No." She said, dragging his hand to the page. "Look." She said, placing their interlocked hands over the sketch. "Fuck, Tav."

"Two people who can't let go."

Being linked to him via hands, she knew what was coming and ducked out of the way before the kiss happened. She didn't release him, but she didn't lock lips with him either.

"Sorry, Julia." He apologized.

''Tavin, I-" She started when he came at her again.

"Let go." She said, unlocking her fingers, trying break the connection.

"I can't, remember." He kept her in her spot, but backed off her a bit. "Why fucking not? Fuck." He cursed.

"She's fucking pregnant with your kid, Tavin. And I don't want to be that girl anymore."

"What girl? We love each other."

"Jules-"

"How can I make you understand?"

"You said it yourself, Jules. 2 people that can't let go. I don't want to let go."

"I can't hurt you, Tav."

"Don't then, Julia."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't."

you don't think...Chess had told her...think, a memory...

Still having the connection, Julia whisked him back to the weekend. She held the knife at his chest and she cut him. Fast forward...cut him...fast forward...she cut him...and he felt the pain. She kept jumping back and forth from cut to cut to cut until his pain was so fresh it was like he was being cut for real. He left go.

"That hurts as much as it did then." He complained, backing off her. "You really took me there." She was quiet. He touched her again and she flashed the cut again across his chest. "Stop that." He yelled.

"That doesn't tickle. I'm sorry."

"It hurts."

"I know." She agreed. "I asked you to choose. You chose. Think about it."

"She ain't leaving."

"I get that, but it hurts her like when I cut you. Every time you fuck around, it cuts her like this." She explained, touching him and zapping him with another cut.

"Don't touch me. Stop." He yelled.

"Exactly. Don't touch me, stop."

"You want me to just turn it off."

"Did you answer me honestly when I asked you who you wanted?"

"Yes."

"Then you have your answer." She told him. She closed Kelly's book and gathered up her photocopies. "Tavin, I like sitting next to you. I like connecting like we just did. It feels good. It feels right. I like when you touch me, talk to me, flirt with me. It's fun. But I can't anymore. I-"

"I got faults, Julia."

"I know. We got the same faults. I'm trying. It's ok to slip up sometimes."

"Like the drugs. Slip up and then fix it."

"I know I am completely irresistible." She laughed. "But seriously, the sexual energy between us is on fire. Why is that?"

"Cause it's wrong."

"I was hoping for something a little more deep." Julia said, rising from the seat. She tucked Kelly's book back in her bag and went into the kitchen with her papers. She set them on the counter.

"What do you wanna hear?"

"What you think, Tav. Obviously. Wrong just scratches the surface."

"What are we then?"

"Fun." She answered

"A distraction." He countered

"Escape."

"All of the above."

"You know when Jay said take me to the happy place, know where I wanted to go?"

"Where?"

"McDonalds."  She replied. He laughed. "Seriously." She said, raising her voice as she pulled the casserole from the oven.

"Ok, I give. Why McDonald's?"

"Remember when we all went to visit your mother in jail with the kids? We went to lunch at McDonald's and when Jay took Alex to the bathroom, you reached across the table and you locked your little pinky around mine."

"I did?" He asked.

Julia set the casserole on the table and entered the living room. As she stood in front of him, she stuck out her pinky finger. He hesitated. "Gimme your finger." She urged, wiggling the pinky at him. He complied and she sat them at the table in the McDonald's by the prison. Like it was yesterday. "I go on emotion, Tavin."

"That strong?" He asked, feeling the weight of it, the pull divided evenly between the two brothers. One who had killed for her and one who hadn't.

"You don't remember this?"

"Not much, no." He answered as she flipped them through time to when he knocked on her door. He knew he shouldn't go in there. She forwarded them into bed.

-Julia, please don't cut me out of your life.

-I won't again, Tavin. I swear it ...

-I fucking miss you, talking to you. I been going crazy too, Julia. I never felt like this before with anyone. And I know how things are. But please don't reject me...Leave with me, Julia. Now. Pack a bag, take my hand and walk away with me. I need you.

-I can't leave them. I love them.

-But I love you. Please don't cry, Red...That's not why I came here. I wanted to see you happy and smiling. I need you, Red. I can't explain it. I don't wanna explain it. I'll do whatever you ask me to do, ok? However you want this, I'll take it. If you want it all the time, or every once in awhile. I won't push you or force you. But I need to see you and hold you...I need you to talk to me and be in my life.

Julia fast forwarded to a time he would not remember. A campfire and friends sitting around that campfire, having conversation about life. Tavin had spent time with a Mexican abuelo and she wished she could have witnessed the conversation, but having been restricted from the Mexican encampment, Tavin had gone in alone. He came out at peace.

Live a simple life...he'd said in parting from the abuelo. If she didn't gift us the life she did... This is what it was all about, Jayson. Every minute that passed and every awful lesson we learned brought us to this. It made us strong. We're all intertwined, all our lives, how we all move together and work together, this is our destiny. No matter how fucked up it is, the life we were given prepared us for this, to weather this. I'm grateful for it. After every year I spent living in the real world and this new one, I can finally say I'm grateful for it.

Julia loved listening to him. He made life sound so simple at the campfire, all stoned. There was no deep universe prophecies, because Tavin didn't bare himself like that. But when he knew himself, felt something strongly, he said it. He happened to be at peace at that time. 

There were always bad people at our fence before. The fence was our personal space and we decided who we let in and who we didn't. This world is no different from our last. It's always been dangerous. It's always been a gamble with the people in the world. Now it's more cut and dry. We take people at face value. There's no more fake and there's no more bull shit. This world is better than that shitty place we came from. Here, we realize what matters most. It's shoved in our faces, there's no hiding it...But that's the point. What we have in our closets, the places we keep under lock and key in our heads. That's it. That's what keeps us alive. It's our pain, our struggle, our choices that mold us into the people we are. Once we figure it all out, the choice is where do we go from there?

Just keep living.

Tavin listened as he spoke as if he'd never heard his own voice before. He saw the point and despite not having had the exact experience, hearing himself in a good frame of mind, in a peaceful state surrounded by the family he still surrounded himself with, he felt he understood himself better. Whatever he'd experienced that day with some Mexican grandpa had obviously brought him comfort. A comfort he usually didn't feel.

"That's what you are." He said, letting her finger go from his. "Julia, you're the Mexican grandpa."

"We are emotion, that's how we communicate. Anger, jealousy, love, stress. We sense it and we act on it."

"We have to figure out how to talk with each other."

She pointed at him. "Deeper."

"If we hold back the emotion and we don't fuck with each other, then..."

"Yes.."

"Then we talk."

"We get..."

"Naked."

"Yes. Tav. Finally..." She sighed. "Dinner." She said, turning off the whole entire conversation.

"And we just keep living." He said under his breath.

It took days and many hours of Julia's spare time going over each sketch in the book and then writing notes on the back of each sketch. Kelly's art work took on a life of its own as Julia spent every spare minute going through the books. She'd warned them that would happen. When she delved into something, she obsessed over it. When she obsessed over something, it took over her whole life. Kelly was pissed she'd taken her book, but Julia swore it would be returned in one piece. Once she showed Kelly why she needed the true sketch, she understood.  "I'm trusting you with my life's work." She stressed to Julia.  

She sat on the floor next to Jay in his chair as he played Xbox, pouring over pictures and photocopies. When she spied something interesting she mentioned it to Jayson. He was becoming quite annoyed by her new obsession, but she swore it was almost over. "Put the books away, Julia. For one night."

"Jay, I already took care of you twice. You wanna go again?"

"No. Well, yeah, maybe- just put that away." Julia closed her books and set everything under the TV stand. "It's enough for one night. It's your birthday. Chill."

"Eh, I don't care. You know that."

"Eh, I do." He said, mocking her.

"So what now?"

"Cake and ice cream?"

"I see. Is Jess here?" She joked.

"Julia, real cake and ice cream." He corrected her, not seeing the humor there.

"Oh, well, we're not doing the whole song and all are we?"

He turned off the system and he told her to stay put.

"Jay, no song and all. Come on."

"Let Tatia have her moment please, Julia." He snapped at her. "She's excited."

"Fine. Only for her though. No balloons, Jayson." She warned him.

Julia sat on the floor and waited, listening to the shuffling foot steps above her head and Tatia's giggling and whispering. More footsteps, chairs sliding around on the floor. She had to fake some excitement and surprise for the 6 year old.  This was taking way too long.

"Put them in the living room." She heard from above. "Cause, Tatia, she don't like balloons."

While they were preparing the festivity, Chess texted her balloons.

-happy birthday and a smiley emoji.

-thanks -she replied.

-what did you get

-laid

-and

-cake and ice cream in a minute. they're calling.  love you

Julia made a surprised fuss for Tatia, sat in a specific chair in front of a flaming birthday cake. Tavin set a cardboard hat on her head, stretching the rubber band under her chin. The happy birthday song ensued and clapping followed. Tatia helped blow out the candles.

Jay sliced up the vanilla sheet cake and handed out pieces. Ice cream on the side. She really didn't want any, and was feeling really self conscious at the moment. She wished she had a birthday pizza, not cake. The whole reference made her feel down, but considered it may be the last birthday cake she ate she tried to enjoy it. She slapped a smile on her face and looked at Tavin. "What?" He mouthed to her. She held up the cake and that said it all. She picked at it, then set it down.

She pointed to the fridge and motioned to drink, pretending she had a bottle in her hand. He looked inside and held up a beer and she reached for it. Cake...every time she heard the word or saw a piece, the derogatory reference rang through her mind.

-birthday beer...she texted to Chess.

-we're going on a call

-Now?! 

-keep your mouth shut and don't get drunk, please. you got time, we're gearing up.

-when

-hours, we gotta ride out

-where

-outside of Pittsburgh. I don't have exact coordinates yet. Mount Oliver

"Mount Oliver, Tavin." Julia said out of the blue. She took a drink, a big one.

"What about it?" He asked.

"Outside the city or inside?"

"Outside. Suburbs. Like this."

"Ok, thanks."

-I love you. be careful

"Why?"

Julia didn't answer as she picked up the pack of cigarettes off the counter and went outback with her beer. While she was smoking, Jay stepped out back and stood next to her.

"It's funny, Julia. There's a big red dot over Mount Oliver on Alex's iPad site."

"It is." She agreed nervously. "You ready?" She shivered.

"You gonna be able to piggyback him and keep calm?"

"He knows what he's doing. I prefer not knowing when he's going or what he's doing. That's why I have Alex tell me afterward."

"Ok, I can understand that."

"I feel it. Even though I disconnected, I feel it. I can't shake that feeling." She said, losing her breath. "It's a suffocating feeling. Like I can't catch my breath."

"We're not going then?"

"It's from him. The residual fear. The fucking panic, Jay. I haven't felt like this since-" She paused, controlling her breathing. "Since the library."

Jay tugged her toward him and held onto her as she cried. "Shh, Julia. Calm down."

"My heart's racing." She gasped, her hands gripping at weapons that weren't there. 

Julia finished the cigarette, then lit another, thinking all the while how people were infected and dying not too far from them. The military burned the victims, the biohazard that they are, but those families did receive ashes back in urns. Their deaths were as documented as their births had once been.  Perhaps those that get sick and survive do hold a cure or the key to developing a vaccine circulating inside their blood. Julia felt sure she had developed some form of immunity, built up antibodies to the virus or bacteria that caused the disease. If Chess was correct, however and the z-virus was bio-warfare, then the creator probably held the cure as well. When Julia head back inside, much calmer and more focused she took the iPad from Alex and started her own chat. She detailed her theory at length, sought others who'd also been in the zombie world, and asked for comments or for anyone to expand on her theory.

"Julia, you told him not to post anything, but you go and get theoretical in a chat room?"

"It's neither here nor there now, Jayson." She replied as they head to bed. Julia and Jay got comfy and settled into their bed for an activity other than sex. As they lay waiting, Alex jogged downstairs, again like he owned the place, giving no warning he was even going to drop in. 

"One day you're going to run into something you shouldn't see." Julia warned him.

"I've seen it." He said, curling up comfortable next to Julia on top of the covers. 

"What are you doing, Alex?" Jay asked, looking across Julia's chest to him. 

"I wanna go too." He answered, getting as comfy as Jay and Julia. He lifted himself so Julia could put an arm around him. 

-he'll be asleep before they get there, Jay.

"You shouldn't be here." Jay told him as Julia's chest became his pillow. 

Again, they waited for something significant to happen when Julia, too came downstairs. No knocking, no asking. Descent into a basement that was becoming crowded.

"Guys, are y'all sleeping?" She asked shyly.

"No, Julia. What's up?" Jay said.

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Um, we're gonna watch a movie. Go to bed, Julia." Alex replied.

"You coming up? You know, after the movie?" She asked, scanning the basement and wondering why the TV was off. The scene looked strange with the three of them laying in bed together. The kid was curious and suspicious of them.

"Sure, Jules." He answered.

"Are you two dressed?" She asked shyly, her voice cracking.

"Of course we are, Julia." Jay answered her.

"Oh, ok. I'll just go now." She said. "Um, maybe I could watch-"

"No." The three replied in unison.

Julia, too said goodnight and head upstairs, but she thought the situation was strange enough to tell Tavin about. He descended next and interrupted the 'movie'.

"Are we on a mission?" He asked, edging closer to the bed.

The three of them comfortable there did look strange. Jay was sitting up and Alex was curled up next to Julia. She had her arm around him and he looked comfy laying there. All appearances he was sound asleep.

"Yes." Jay replied.

"Are we there yet?" Tavin asked, nudging Alex a bit. When Alex stirred, Tavin sent him off to bed. He whined a bit, but Tavin wasn't having that. "Off you go, boy." He said and he invited himself to sit in sidesaddle.

"Now, this is strange." She said, taking hold of Tavin's hand.

He sat like Jay on the opposite side of her. "This is a comfortable bed. I never been in it before."

"Oh, there's a bed you haven't been in?" Jay mumbled.

Four trucks carried the unit to Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. The vehicles approached at a steady speed, the men spread out on the seats inside the open and covered truck beds, seat belted in to their seats. The vehicles wound off the highway to the city, then wound through suburbia. The three listened as they received report.  The local authorities had 10 blocks cordoned off and residents were restricted from coming or going. All residents were told to stay inside with their doors locked because a prisoner or prisoners from a nearby state penitentiary had escaped and were now at large in their community. A manufactured news report had alerted local residents to that fact. A house by house search would be conducted as the prisoner or prisoners were confined to that specific area. Under no circumstances would a live human be permitted to walk in that 10 block radius. Road blocks had already turned people away and local authorities had secured the area for the teams.

One by one the team members emerged from the rear of the truck and carried out their orders. House by house, yard by yard. When their area had been cleared they fanned out and waited for the next all clear.

Knock on the door...short explanation provided...resident welcomed team inside...room by room...top to bottom of the house and then the surrounding yard. Nothing. Not one community member denied them access or questioned their validity. For all intents and purposes they looked and behaved as a SWAT team. They moved in the darkness, their eyes and ears trained to filter out the background noise and observe the environment for their specific target.

-Go back. You missed something.

No response. She could hear his breathing, feel the heartbeat pick up.

-I said go back, Chess. The woman who answered the door. Go back.

As the all clear for the house nearly came down, Chess hoped to God Julia was correct on her assumption. He called it off and set back through the front door to the house, another member followed him and then another. If the house was not cleared, they all went back through the house and started the process from scratch.

-The house is clear. It's the woman. 

-she looks fine, dammit.

-she's glowing fire red, Chess. She's got a raging fever.

Julia stopped her banter and let him carry on. He approached the middle aged woman cautiously and questioned her. Some routine information before the house would be cleared. Name, who else lives in the house? Julia sensed the transformation as it was gnawing its way through her gut. She could hear the stomach hyper-growling as the intestines self digested. 

-she's gonna hurl. back up. Eww, back off her.

-she looks fine, she's talking normal.

"He never fucking trusts me." Julia complained aloud to Jay and Tavin. "He always doubts me."

"I see it too. Move." Tavin ordered, listening to this woman as she disintegrated in her abdomen.

Chess backed off and lifted his weapon at the woman. The rest of his team followed suit, confused as to why he would draw on a civilian. Chess backed further away from her.

-you better be right...

The blood droplets formed first in the crease of her lips, a small trickle as it oozed from the corner of her mouth over her crooked chin and onto her night gown.

As she vomited the goopy remnants of her intestines, globs of lumpy and stringy small bowel, the large intestine evacuated rectally and the homeowner stood before him hemorrhaging. The heart beat ceased and only an instant passed between death and death reborn. The woman transitioned rapidly from a living, talking and seemingly well female civilian into a massive bloody contagion. The woman, a monster, now stood in the room with Chess and his team members. The moan escaped her throat and Julia gasped from the sound of it. She hadn't heard it in ages, but the fear pulsed in her chest. They didn't hear the gunshot, rather they witnessed it. The weapon Chess fired had a silencer, so no noise ricocheted off the walls. The woman crumpled to the floor in her bloody feces. Chess put her down.

"Clear." Someone called and the team moved on, shutting the door on their way out. One of them pulled a can of spray paint and placed a red X on the door. That house and everything inside it would burn. Most of these houses were clear. They found a couple that were empty, abandoned and they made their way inside and cleared them as well.

-this doesn't feel right...Julia thought

None said a word as the team advanced down the hill through the suburban street. Street lamps lighted their way. They patrolled the neighborhood and waited, nothing in particular was strange about Mount Oliver. Typical small town suburbia at night on a Wednesday in February.

-on a Wednesday night...Julia thought...that place looks dead

"Definitely." Tavin said.

-where the fuck are we?

-Brownsville Road

Chess looked down the block, past the McDonald's and the Sunoco gas station. The slight dip in the road as it bent a bit directly toward...

"What's down there?"

"I sense we're expanding the radius, babe." Jay mentioned as Chess brought the building into focus.

-Julia, how do you do this?

-no clue. come on, let's go. it's starting to glow. the color...

"I see it too, it's like an orb only it's red, coming off that building down there."

"I don't see shit." Jay added, straining to see what Julia and Tavin meant by the red glow. Jay searched the darkness with his vision and saw nothing that indicated any glow, any danger, any thing that would lead him down that road. Julia's connection tickled up their arms. It was similar to that sensation when you've been sitting too long and needed to stretch. Julia sat up and leaned back between Jay and Tavin. She had the strongest urge to go, step forward.

-I don't see shit either. it's quiet.

-fuck it, I'm going...jump, jump, jump, dammmmmit....she cursed

"Whoa, Jules. Slow down." Jay gasped surprised as she dragged them into the street. She and Jay stood beside Chess only it felt like they were in a bubble. She looked to her left and Tavin wasn't there. She and Jay made the jump to Brownsville Road. "Can he see us?" Jay asked, moving his hand in front of Chess's face.

"Nah, we're here. Not there. This is what Kelly does." She answered, keeping a firm grip on Jay's hand as she pushed forward down the road toward the glow. "Do you see this?" She asked as they hurried down the sidewalk.

-church, it's a fucking church. services 7:30 Wednesday. Julia took in the large brick structure and stepped toward the entrance.

"Oh, no. We can't go in."

"Why not, Jay?" She argued with him. "The door is right there."

"Weapons-"

"We're invisible like. They won't even know we're here. I've done this with Kelly."

-shut the fuck up, Julia.

"No." He shook his head.

Julia wondered if she had jumped with the wrong brother.

While Jay and Julia stood arguing on the sidewalk outside the church, Julia watched Chess from a distance. Did they need permission to walk down the street? Did he have to clear it with superiors to expand the search? Julia was overwhelmed by the heat radiating off the building. It was a hot zone. She knew it, was sure of it as she was sure that it was Wednesday in the Pittsburgh burbs.

"Jayson, we stay together." She raged at him, yanking his arm, pulling him forward. They climbed the couple steps and opened the door. They advanced no further, standing in their bubble. She knew what they'd see. She knew with every fiber of her being that the energy coming off that building was not Christian. It was a blood bath.

"Close the motherfucking door, Julia." He demanded.

The door being thrown open down the street had alerted the team and Chess's superior officer that his hunch had been accurate.

The odor emanating out of the building brought on the nausea. The heat gushed through the open door and carried the smell of fresh coagulated blood and bowel. A ghastly stench that brought back a million memories. Heads turned inside the church. Bloodied faces staring dead eyed at them.

-30! Julia shouted, scanning the room. Men and women, mostly men still feeding. Julia sensed the hunger, the thirst. The moans, the sound of chunks of flesh being removed from corpses, the swallowing, the sound of swallowing into broken bowels. No wonder they were never sated, always hungry. They could never feel full. Constant hunger and empty abdomens that could never fill.

Chess wasn't lying when he told them they were fast. Despite the fact she and Jay were in no danger, she reacted as if they were and she shoved Jayson out of the way of the lurching and agile monsters. She leaped off the steps onto the sidewalk and hauled ass in the direction away from the church. So much for staying together.

She ceased running for her life when she realized they weren't following her. She hadn't been seen at all, rather the church door having been opened had caught their attention.

"Jayson!" She called. Where the hell did he go? "As fast as he is, he's probably half way home."

Julia watched as the team advanced on the church, picking off the monsters as they spilled through the door into the street. They moved forward inside the church and as each infected was put down, the red glow gradually faded to black. "Jayson!" She called again as she moved back to the open doors, past marines and dead in the street. "Come back!" She yelled. She saw his outline in the distance by the gas station. He'd run the direction in which she'd shoved him.

Julia went to church, Jay joined her momentarily and they stood back and observed as the team took the monsters down headshot by headshot with dead on accuracy. They stood firm and calm in front of oncoming threats. It was efficient and clean and fast. Not one of them ran or hesitated. They jumped into what Julia and Jay had run from. They'd been completely unprepared for the sight of their agile opponents and had the been there in reality instead of in their safe bubble, the odds they would have lived were slim to none. There was no way she could have outrun them.

"Julia, we separated."

"I got you out of the way."

"We run together. We stay together. It's a rule."

"We haven't done this in a while. I'm a little rusty alright."

-where are you?

"By the door."

-how?

"We jumped."

-go home

"I'm not sure how just yet."

She and Jay had moved out of the church and across the street and watched the building burn. Another fire a few blocks away as the residential house burned, smoke curling into the cold night sky.

She and Jay were silent, Jay waiting patiently for her to take them from Mount Oliver to their bed. He was pissed off, she didn't need senses for that. She could tell by looking at him he was not pleased.

"I panicked, Jay." She said.

"I noticed." He said, shivering from the cold. "Aren't you the one who said they couldn't see us and you go freaking out?"

"Well, yeah, but when it was coming at me, that changed obviously."

"I asked you not to open that door. I told you to close that door." He grumbled. "And I am freezing fucking cold."

"We didn't dress for Pittsburgh in February."

"Take me home now."

"I don't know how."

"Figure it out." He ordered, taking her back across the street to the burning building. It had to burn down. No trace could be left behind, thankfully for him as he warmed up beside the blaze. "Are we done here or what?" He raised his voice, startling her from her train of thought.

"Yeah, Jay."

"Well? I can't believe you brought us here and you don't know how to get us home."

"I haven't perfected this shit yet? I don't know. I just don't know." She replied, feeling emotional. She was overwhelmed by a flood of sadness, despair.

"Do not start crying, Julia." He asked, putting his arm around her.

"I'm new to this, Jay. I have to crawl before I walk."

"Crawl us somewhere else."

Hours passed. The buildings were decimated and the marines were packing up their gear, readying to head out, back to Maryland. As dawn approached, the sun creeping into the sky on a Thursday morning they hopped into the rear of the truck with the marines to head out. Julia was at a loss and Jay wanted to warm up. Hours passed where he said nothing to her. The mood inside the vehicle was juvenile and they were riding on this high that Julia was absorbing. Their energy was abundant.

"Energy, Jay." She whispered. "Do you feel it? Their energy."

"I feel a lot of things right now, Julia. Energy is not one of those things."

"Adrenaline. The rush." She said, looking at the men who surrounded her on all sides. Handsome, excited men with tactical gear. They hadn't all got inside yet. Some still milling around Brownsville Road, waiting with their teams.

Julia peered through the open door at the rear of the vehicle. She pointed, drawing Jay's attention outside. "Get your ass up." She commanded, dragging him along for the ride in the bubble. "See that bitch, Jayson." Julia asked, pointing to the blond. They hurried toward her. "That's the bitch. Blondie." Short, squat in a pants suit on a Thursday at dawn. Her hair pulled up and pinned up. She looked neat and she looked official.

-Chess, the blond right in front of the burned out church.

-you 2 still here?

-I don't know how to get home just yet. the blond, Chess...from the school.

Chess popped his head out of the first truck and strained to see the blond.

-she fine...

-go chat her up

-don't have to tell me twice

-name badge...Julia said, getting close enough to read her name. Cookie Fields, Public affairs liaison, she approached the man in charge who dismissed her, looked through her as if she wasn't standing there.

"Sir, again, with all due respect," She smiled her straight, glossy white teeth at him. "Sir, this incident has taken on a life of its own. A church, sir. You burned a church to the ground."

"Cookie, with all due respect, escaped prisoners burned a church to the ground with the congregation inside."

Julia didn't appreciate the tone of voice he used addressing her as Cookie. Although Cookie was possibly his biggest pain in the ass, a pint sized nudge with the voice of a nagging housewife.

"Sir, I urge you to make the public aware of the threat in order to be prepared. If the public was armed and ready to defend itself when the time comes, the outcome may be-"

"That decision would come from the top. Organize the press conference and make your public happy." He stated. He turned and he walked away from her.

"Cookie Fields." Chess said, stepping in beside her.

"Fuck off." She snapped, pulling out her cell phone.

"How's the arm, Cookie? Which one did she break? Remind me. Was that before or after she strangled you and took your weapon?"

"Who are you, marine?" She asked, scrolling through her phone.

"Chester Morgan. I hear my wife beat your ass, Blondie."

She glanced sideways at Chess, a smirk grew on her face. "You're wife's a dumb cunt."

-Chess, if you agree with this bitch...

-go home

"Jump back in him, Julia." Jay suggested. "You slid out of him, slide back in."

"Oh, whatever." Julia was annoyed. She latched onto Jayson, compressing their matter into energy and settling into the part of his brain that made all this possible. She adjusted a moment or two before crossing them back home. "I am exhausted." She said, feeling her mattress beneath her, Jay at her side. She threw back her blanket and got up.

"I'm going to sleep."

"It's time to get up." She head up the steps to get everyone started on their day. Coffee and lunch first for Tavin. She heard him up already. She climbed up the steps and woke up the kids, rousing them. Julia wanted Tav to drop Tatia off at school for her. She could eat breakfast there. The only place Julia wished to go was bed.

Tavin came down ready for work and in a mood. "What happened last night?" He asked. "You left me behind."

"Next time." Julia yawned as she began to detail her all nighter in Mount Oliver. "I couldn't get back. I didn't know how."

"How did you?"

"I was trying like hell to jump back home like when we were at the farm house. We went through Chess like a portal. I guess only the two of us fit, cause when we jumped outta Chess, it was just me and him standing there. I had hold of you."

"Took you all night to figure it out."

"Kinda, but I am glad we stayed. We got to see Blondie. Cookie Fields, Public Relations liaison in her Hillary Clinton pants suit and heels." Julia answered, feeling drained. Her body felt tight, her muscles were sore. "Your wife's a dumb cunt. That's what she said to Chess. But I think that's why I stayed around all night. For Cookie. Listen, she said something to the commander or the general, whatever he was. She said she thought that the public should know the truth, that citizens need the information to arm themselves and to be ready to defend themselves if necessary. He shut her down, talked down to her too."

"So."

"I didn't like the way he mocked her, like said her name all condescending. 'Cookie'. " Julia said her name in the same mocking tone. She set his breakfast on the table in front of him. Then his lunch and his coffee. 

"Red, stop doing this."

"Doing what, Tav? The zombie thing. You think I sh-"

"No," He laughed. "The breakfast and the coffee and the lunch."

"You doing that yourself now? Kelly dragging her ass outta your nice warm bed?" She asked, looking around the room for the new person volunteering their time to make his day start off nice. 

"You just don't have to feel like you have to. Kelly can."

"Funny, I don't see her anywhere." Julia smiled.

She set out the cereal bowls for the kids as they filed down one by one, except Tatia who she put in a coat with her school bag to send out the door with Tavin.

"Take her to school please."

"Sure." He said, taking Tatia's hand. He intended on driving her the three blocks, but Karen hurried in and offered to take her instead. 

"Hey, would that be alright with you? If mommy walks you to school."

"Julia wants me to go with Tavin." Tatia replied, hand attached to Tavin's.

"How about I ride along then? Tavin can drop me off somewhere too." Karen smiled.

"Ok, mommy Karen." Tatia said softly.

"Mom, 5 minutes."

"Sure. Lemme throw some shoes on."

Julia left Tatia with a kiss and head to bed, collapsing onto her mattress beside him. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Julia was woken by Jay to get Tatia at school. Three hours of sleep wasn't enough as she rolled over, feeling drained and told him to go. She slept like she hadn't slept in years and awoke near 4pm with Jay prodding her to move. Every muscle and bone in her body felt like breaking glass and she felt an intense heat inside her. He remarked how red she was, like she'd been sunburned and as he felt her skin, palpated her forehead, her neck, she was on fire. Not warm or hot, but on fire. 

"Tylenol."

"Three Tylenol." She groaned, curled up beneath her blanket. 

He brought her three white pills and a thermometer. She downed the pills with water and laid back down. "104.4." He remarked. "What's wrong with you?"

"My body feels like it's breaking apart."