A/N:

Hi guys! This is my first story ever, I've been thinking about putting one up here for ages and finally got the guts to do it! Please Please Please review- I want to see what I should improve or if it was any good! Also, any questions will probably be answered at the bottom with another A/N! Thank you so much for reading!

"Even if we never met them, I'm sure they would've been proud."

Amelia woke up with a loud, beating heart and the unfamiliar sense of disorientation. Her vision swam as she slowly raised herself onto her elbows, stomach on the floor. Or rather, on the bed of pine needles. They were too rough and scratchy, though, as if she wasn't wearing-

Ah. She was naked.

The rest of her senses slowly returned. The blonde smelled of earth and decaying plant matter, she heard birds singing and squirrels scrambling in the trees. Her mouth was dry, cotton-like, and she resisted the urge to go find water in favor of trying to find her glasses. Amelia's hands wandered around where she was now sitting, before she stood up to rid herself of the annoying prickle of pine needles near her thighs and- unmentionables.

She saw the unmistakable glint of metal and glass a meter or two away. Reaching down to pick it up, she noticed one lens was cracked in the corner. Oh, great.

At least she wasn't half-blind anymore. There were other bodies some feet away, which Amelia recognized as her comrades, all lined up next to each other. None seemed to be harmed. No blood, no scabbed-over wounds, no weapons.

No clothes, either.

Amelia immediately started to pat herself down, trying to convince herself this was all a dream. Every pinch, poke, and pull only heightened the dread slowly forming in the pit of her stomach. You can't taste in dreams, right? Amelia bit down on her thumb hard, before yanking it out and waving it uselessly in the air.

She tasted blood. The teen leaned against a tree, watching the bite marks slowly clot and scar. Having no clothes to wipe the blood off on, she stuck her thumb back in her mouth.

Ok, Amelia, think. Why would you be naked, in the woods, with the rest of the Union, also naked and also in the woods?

Kidnapping? No, the perpetrators would still be around.

And there seemed to be no civilization in sight. The naked girl stopped thinking about it and instead hurried over to her fallen friends, knowing it would be best at the moment to get everyone's opinion before rushing into conclusions.

Any other normal girl would've felt at least a tiny bit embarrassed to find their friends naked and snoring, especially when one of the girls rolled over to cuddle in another's arms.

It's not like Amelia hasn't seen this before, though.

"SOLDIERS! WAKE!"

"Cecilia?"

"Here."

"Louise?"

"Present!"

"Sasha?"

"Present."

"Florence?"

"Oui."

"Alessa?"

"ZzZzZzZz..."

"I'm taking that as a yes."

The girls were all currently standing or leaning against a tree trunk, trying to piece everything together. Florence spoke first.

"Does anyone at least remember what happened to us before we got here?" She muttered, twisting a lock of her blonde hair into knots around her finger nervously. Granted, she was still a bit miffed that everyone assumed she took all of the clothes in the first place, but a long, drawn-out speech on why she would've left them in lingerie shot their accusations to the ground.

"We went over this." Alessa yawned out, stretching herself over a tree stump she found placed conveniently next to her previous sleeping spot on the ground. Most of the group wondered if she realized it was full of splinters.

"Flash of light, random memory gibberish no one can remember, dreams-slash-nightmares no one can remember, yadda yadda, and... we wake up...naked."

She barely managed to say the last word before she was cut off by another loud yawn, and placed her head back onto the stump.

"Besides, we should be searching for clothes and people right now." Her voice was higher with her nose smushed against the wood.

"Hey, guys?" Sasha called out. Amelia looked over to her with an eyebrow raised.

"Commie, don't you see we're kinda-"

"We could just go there, yes?" She interrupted, pointing toward what looks like the backyard of a suburban house. Everyone stopped for a second before exhaling a long, drawn-out breath.

"How long have you known it's there?!" Amelia said loudly, rushing over to the chain fence. Florence ran after her and grabbed her hand, pulling back so hard they both collapsed into the pine-needle filled floor.

"And? What next? We let a stranger see us in our naked glory? We're not even sure-"

"But dudette! Do you really want to stay here? Without clothes?!"

"I wouldn't mind it, per say..."

Amelia looked up at Sasha instead.

"Amelia, what're you-" Sasha paled.

"No, Amelia, don't do the puppy eyes- oh you bitch. "

"Hurry the fuck up!" their conversation was interrupted by Cecilia and Louise climbing the chain-link fence, Alessa holding onto Cecilia's shoulders as she jumped over to the other side.

"You guys are taking too long, just climb the thing!" Louise exclaimed happily. "I'm hungry, Alessa's sleepy, Cecilia's grumpy-"

"No I'm not, you ass!"

"And there's this one perfect house right in front of us that we can raid for supplies!" She finished.

Florence, Sasha and Amelia stared at each other for a couple seconds before Sasha slowly nodded.

"The best course of action at the moment is to, unfortunately, break into a civilian's home."

Florence groaned at the same time Amelia fist-pumped the air.

"If you all end up in jail, I'm not rescuing all of your fat asses. Except for maybe Louise." Florence said, grabbing the fence and slowly starting to scale it.

Amelia spent the climbing time bickering with Florence about how she would "totally save my ass too! Because the hero would never get left behind!"

The house was pretty average, a two-story home with a white picket fence out front, a couple bathrooms, and enough rooms for a growing family. Pictures of grandparents and family members littered the top of a fireplace, and a few stockings were pushed to the side. A calendar with cat pictures was hung to December, and x's were covering each day and stopped at the 12th.

"Huh, so it's about two weeks 'til Christmas." Amelia said out loud to herself. Sasha and Florence were searching for clothes upstairs, Louise and Cecilia were making pasta in the kitchen (yes, naked. Apparently, they had practice cooking food without clothes on before), and Alessa was in charge of finding cash.

Whoever lived here was probably gone for their Monday workday, considering they didn't find anyone inside and taxes and paperwork were in a messy pile on the coffeetable. Alessa walked in with a laptop, not noticing Amelia standing in front of the fireplace, and plopped herself down onto the leather couch.

"Oh, hi Amelia." she said, smiling.

"You're not sleepy anymore?" Amelia asked, also sitting down. She fidgeted a bit. Leather on skin wasn't very pleasant for her.

"No. But I do have some pretty annoying splinters on my chest now." She murmured, opening the laptop and waiting for the thing to warm up.

"Your own fault." Amelia shrugged.

"By the way, Sasha already left. The only clothes that could fit were men's, and they only fit her, so she jumped out the window and went to go buy us some. She said she'll be back soon, though."

Amelia nodded, before swinging her legs over the arm of the sofa and pressing her back to Alessa's side. Ah, now this is more comfortable.

"What're you doing with that laptop, anyways? I thought you were just looking for money?"

"And I have it. Right now, we currently have about a thousand dollars from their vault."

"Vault?"

"You thought they left their money lying around?" Alessa said in a amused tone. "Right now I'm looking for an apartment. I've already made fake documents for all of us. You were in the military for two years, by the way. And your last name is simply Jones."

"Hey! You could've just put my actual name in there!"

"Amanda Elizabetha Kirkland-Jones is kind of a mouthful."

"So is Alessa Karpusi-Honda!"

"My name sounds prettier." She deadpanned.

"Mine's the best!" Louise called out from the kitchen. The sound of Cecilia smacking her upside the head was heard, along with a "She's lying! I'm the best!"

"Actually, all of you are horrible." Florence grinned, walking down the stairs. "We have, like, another half-hour left before the owner comes back, by the way."

As if summoned, Sasha walked through the door, along with a few bags filled to the brim with clothes. She also carried a couple empty black backpacks with her.

"Okay, I saw a couple cars in traffic, which means the workday is probably over by now. Cecilia! Louise! Drop the pasta, we're in a hurry! " she called out, throwing the backpacks toward the girls.

"Get whatever clothes you like. Alessa, did you find a place?"

Alessa shook her head.

"I sent an e-mail only a second ago. No confirmation yet. We're going to have to sleep in a motel for tonight. Maybe tomorrow too."

Within a couple minutes, the girls packed (and put on) the clothes. Cecilia and Louise both were upset from throwing away the half-finished pasta, but the promise of grocery shopping lightened their mood.

They were gone in less than ten minutes. Five minutes after they left, a very confused young man wondered why his house smelled like pasta. And why were there body imprints on his couch?