Out of everything that happened when going topside, Christine hated wearing the confining and humid hazmat suit that she as forced to wear. She looked up to the ceiling of the bouncing truck as best she could before closing her eyes against the orange light of day that filtered through the reinforced windows that surrounded her. The Doctor had promised herself that she wouldn't venture up unless it was absolutely necessary. That's how much she hated the suit.
Suddenly, the truck came to a stop and the military personnel around her gripped their guns tighter before the back door was opened and they left, single file. Per usual, the woman as the last out of the truck, being helped down by their commander. "This is where our guys said the disturbance was. Said that they couldn't find any of the infected, but there's something I think you should see Doc." The man said, leading her to a cordoned off area.
"If it wasn't the Infected, then what was it?" Christine asked, shouldering her field kit. She turned to look in the direction that the commander had gestured towards and noticed that it wasn't exactly cordoned off so much as it was surrounded by military personnel. She stopped when she saw what they had surrounded, or rather who they had surrounded. "There's no way that…" Looking back at the Commander, Christine shook her head in disbelief, "Something must have happened, Commander Thomson, so you better tell me right now if your men have…"
"My men haven't touched him. He was like that when we came to investigate." Commander Thomson adjusted the weapon on his chest, "As much as we wanted to." He mumbled.
The Doctor shook her head, "You're a piece of work, Commander Thomson." Without waiting for a reply, the woman made her way towards the half circle of men stopping when she was standing beside one of the soldiers. "How long has he been on the defensive?" She asked placing her field kit onto the dusty ground, kneeling in front of it.
"For an hour or so, Doc. I've never seen one so..."
"Intimating?" Christine finished, opening the hard case and reaching for her tranquillizer gun. "Well, soldier, you've got him cornered, what more did you expect?" As she was placing a dart into the gun, she saw something flicker in and out of her peripheral. Christine's head snapped up, scanning the area for anything that the soldiers might have missed. She stood quickly and moved forward, breaking the line of military men.
"Doc, that's not a good idea." One of the soldiers warned, lifting his weapon and training it towards the figure in the centre of the half circle. When he snarled, the rest of the soldiers raised their guns and shouted for the Doctor to get behind them.
"Put your guns down!" She yelled, holding up a hand. "I'll be alright." When none of the military personnel listened, Christine turned towards the commander and nodded, "Trust me. He'll go after your men way before he'll go after me. Put. Your. Guns. Down." When she saw the nod from the commander and the loud sound of more than a dozen guns being uncooked and lowered, Christine continued her slow approach to the man.
She made eye contact with him and then crouched down low, leaning to the left to peak at the small child hidden behind his large frame. She smiled when the child leaned out, copying her movements.
"Jesus Christ." The Commander breathed. "Stand down, there's a child in the mix."
She could feel the agitation surrounding the large male in front of her. She could hear the deep, animalistic grumbles that resonated in his chest. But it didn't scare her. Not really. Though she had never been this close to a living mutated, she had learned all that she could from reports written shortly after they went underground. "It's okay, we're not here to hurt you." She said holding out her hand, still smiling.
The man's grip on the child tightened, but it wasn't enough to stop her from wiggling out of his grasp and out into the open; into the reach of the stranger. "No!" He yelled taking a protective step forward but stopping when the unified sound of raising guns filled the air around them.
"I said stand down!" The commander yelled, practically spitting into his hazmat helmet.
The child seemed to freeze for a moment, looking back at the large male before taking hold of the Doctor's hand. "That's a good girl." Christine couldn't help the large smile that graced her lips. It had been years since she had seen a child. "Aren't you beautiful," she ran her gloved hand over the girls dirty blond hair, "What's your name, Sweetie?"
"Hannah." The young girl said giggling at the compliment.
"What a lovely name. How old are you, Hannah?" The Doctor booped the child on the nose.
"I'm six."
"Is that your daddy over there?" Christine glanced towards the large man a few feet away. The resemblance between the two was uncanny.
Hannah shook her head, "No, silly. That's my uncle Steve." The young girl said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh, well he seems very protective of you." When the girl nodded in conformation Christine continued, "What happened, Hannah, where are the others?"
"The Damned saw us and I got separated from our pack. I was so scared I hid under that car," she pointed to a dilapidated blue Toyota, "and uncle Steve came to look for me and then they showed up."
"I'm so sorry, my guys didn't scare you, did they?" The Doctor took hold of the child's hands and gave them a squeeze when she nodded. "They're not so scary." She leaned in closer to the girl, "I'll tell you a secret, okay? They're more afraid of you than you should be of them."
Hannah gave the other woman a strange look before giggling, "That's silly!"
Christine laughed with the girl before nodding, "You're absolutely right." Standing, she let go of the child and held out her hand for Hannah to take, "Do you think you could introduce me to your uncle?"
Before the child could answer, her name was called from somewhere in the distance. "Momma!" She exclaimed rushing towards her uncle. "Uncle Steve, it's Momma!"
Steve bent down and took hold of the child, embracing her. Thank goodness she hadn't been hurt. If she had been... He looked at the strange woman in the white suit. He looked to the left, spotting two figures. He scented the air and heaved a sigh of relief, Buck had come with Abby so she wouldn't be alone with Hannah on the streets. "I need to you walk, very slowly towards your momma and Buck, okay? Don't look back, Sweetheart, you hear me?" Steve gave the girl a stern look and embraces her once more when she nodded, clearly confused.
"You're not coming, uncle Steve?" He shook his head no and stood, giving the small child a push towards her mother.
"I'm sending her to her mother." He said in an authoritative voice. "Do what you will with me, but leave her out of it." He looked past the woman standing in front of him to the large male in black behind her. He assumed that he was their leader and when he nodded, Steve raised his hands.
"Steve, was it?" His eyes flickered towards the woman and he grit his teeth, wanting nothing more than to rip her throat out for touching the child without his permission.
"You don't get to address me, beta." He looked towards the trio and watched as they hurried away from the group of strangers. Good. Steve thought as his jaw clenched and the muscles in his legs tightened, ready to spring on the woman. He didn't want Hannah to see what he was about to do.
She gave him an odd look before continuing, "You can put your hands down, we're not going to shoot you.." Before she could finish what she was saying, the large male lunged at her. Christine stumbled back and fell to the ground. Her breath caught in her throat as she closed her eyes. She waited for the feeling of his body crashing into hers, but when it didn't come, she opened her eyes shocked at the scene in front of her. Steve was on his knees, a hand cupped to his neck and his eyes glossy.
He looked at the woman and cocked his head to the side, "What in the…" He didn't finish. In fact, he pitched forward, completely unconscious.
The Doctor scrambled to her knees and hastily crawled her way over to his motionless body, removing the hand placed to his neck. She sighed in relief at the dart protruding from his neck. She was glad that it wasn't a bullet. He was the first live specimen they had encountered since the beginning of the end and if she had been the cause of his death, she'd never forgive herself. Christine checked his pulse before looking over her shoulder at the Commander; he was still holding her tranquillizer gun aimed at the male on the ground. "We need to get him back to the lab as quickly as we can. We do not want him to wake while we travel!" She said standing quickly as a number of soldiers struggled to carry Steve's limp body.
"Close call, Doc." Commander Thomson said as she walked towards him. "Though you said he'd go for my men over you."
Christine chortled, "Your men didn't touch the child. I did. I was the bigger threat." She looked at the man beside her and bent to gather her forgotten field kit, "Let's not tell the General what happened here. You know how he gets." She slapped the Commander on the shoulder before walking towards the military truck.
"You got it Doc," Thomson said, readjusting his weapon and gripping the dart gun tighter and following behind the woman.