A Shave and a Haircut, along with two bits were softly knocked on her apartment door. Formerly in the depths of dark-sided thoughts, Sheila picked her head up and stared at her bedroom door until she heard the tune of knocks once again. Sitting on her uncomfortable and tattered mattress, she reached underneath her pillow and pulled out a pistol. She unlocked her bedroom and exited, walking cautiously to her apartment entrance. She uneasily looked through the peephole and saw a face she wasn't exactly excited to see at the moment, but she could deal with it versus someone else. If anything, she was obligated to talk to the person on the other side of her door.

Sheila swung the door open, having a slight gust of wind breeze through the strands of brown hair that sat on her broad shoulders. She looked directly at Zee, a childhood schoolmate, holding her two-year-old daughter,

"Hi!" Zee cheerfully greeted, flashing a bright beautiful smile with her big teeth.

Immediately, Zee was yanked into Sheila's apartment.

"You seem...uneasy," Zee pointed out,"Everything okay?"

"So, you're gonna act like nothing just happened?" Sheila replied.

Zee shrugged,

"I'm just trying not to look suspicious…"

"Look suspicious? I told already told you before that we have to get out of here," Sheila said across the room, proceeding to look out of her bedroom window. She returned to her fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She offered Zee, but Zee decided not to. Putting it back in her fridge, Sheila returned to the window once again, "It isn't safe here for us anymore."

Zee played with her daughter's bouncy curls as she carried on, playing with some old and cracked coasters on Sheila's coffee table,

"You mean it isn't safe for you anymore."

"Doesn't any of this bother you? Just a little? Caleb is missing and they killed five Fireflies yesterday," she said, placing up her palm and extending five fingers, "Do you think they cared that any one of them had anything to do with that ambush? It's only a matter of time before they find us out."

"I had nothing to do with what happened last week."

"Look at me," Sheila demanded. Zee, did her a favor by listening, but ultimately looked up uninterested. Noted, Sheila continued "They're going to kill us," Sheila said, being ignored. Zee continued to play with her daughter's curls, in a fat braid amongst the rest. Sheila looked at little Nia and back up at Zee, "Do you want them to make her an orphan?"

"Don't start that," Zee said defensively.

"She already doesn't have a father, Zee, she can't lose her mother too."

"Shut up, Sheila."

"Think about what Reese would want for her."

"I said Shut. The. Hell. Up."

Zee picked up her daughter and carried her to the exit,

"Zee..." Sheila chased after her,

"You're asking me to take a chance and risk her life out there. Out of the question! But if you want to leave so badly, then you can take your own sorry ass out of here but don't drag my daughter into it! I can't jeopardize my daughter's life out there. If they want to kill me? Fine! But I'm not signing my daughter's death warrant. I can barely take care of her in here, so what makes you think it's going to be better out there in that mad world?" Sheila didn't have the answer to that, so Zee answered it for her, "Maybe this would've been a good idea if she weren't around, but she is now."

Sheila exhaled in exhaustion as Zee ranted. She was the type to easily pick on, but when her mouth got jump started, there was no stopping her. Thankfully, her bark could be a lot worse than her bite.

"Say 'bye-bye aunty Sheila'," Zee said.

"Bye bye audy Sheeva!" Nia repeated.

Sheila held out her arms, asking for a chance to hold her. Clearly annoyed, but careful to not let her feelings get in the way, Zee handed Sheila the baby, and Sheila gave her a big kiss on the forehead and a nice hug before handing her back to Zee. Before Sheila could attempt to speak any more sense into Zee, she exited with a slam, nearly toppling over the entire building

Zee quickly walked down the stairs, clearly bothered by her exchange with Sheila. As she exited the building, she walked across the street and into a skinny pathway that cut directly into one of the sectors she resided in. It was a path where thugs and thieves usually camped, but she didn't mind considering that she use to hang out with some of them in her younger years. As she walked with Nia on her hip, she began to pass multiple vendors, who were licensed to sell fruit. However, fruit wasn't the only thing they would sell.

"Psst, Zee!" Zee heard a voice call out to her.

Zee turned around and saw a young man she knew, Flynt. Flynt was probably a couple years older than Zee, and she had a crush on him all throughout military school, but she eventually lost interest in him until Reese came along and swooped her off her feet and obviously impregnated her. Zee slowly approached him,

"Hey Flynt," Zee smiled softly, "Sorry, didn't see you there."

"You alright?" Flynt asked, seeing something a little off about her.

"Just a lot of my mind. This ambush has everyone losing their minds…"

"Yeah...I heard they're investigated people about it. Fireflies, even people who talk about it too much…"

"What do you mean?" Zee asked, readjusting Nia on her other hip.

"Remember Rodrick?" As Zee shook her head, Flynt felt the need to remind her, "Rodrick? The guy that would give out the counterfeit ration card?"

"Oh, yeah…" Zee twisted her body looking at Rodrick's booth, where he would usually sell his 'goods', "What happened to him?"

"We haven't seen him in two days. He was talking about the ambush so much, saying how he wants to get out of here and stirring up a whole bunch of controversy and conspiracy theories. Then just a couple of days ago, someone from his sector said they saw him getting dragged out of his apartment by the military."

"Was he a Firefly?" Zee asked. She knew the answer, but did it just to be safe..

"Rodrick? Nah, dude only has one leg...what makes you think he's Firefly material?"

Zee shrugged, following a hard gulp once she heard the sound of walkie talkie transmissions coming from just outside the alleyway. With Nia resting on her shoulder, she looked over to see two armed soldiers walking down the alleyway, armed and geared to the nitty gritty. Zee nervously looked away as Rodrick did the same immediately putting together a bag of items.

"Here are your fruits miss, enjoy your day," Rodrick performed, giving her a bag of unrequested reached in her pocket and pulled out some ration cards, but Rodricks quickly held her fist shut, "It's on the house; for the baby," Rodrick winked.

Zee nodded in appreciation and gave an uneasy smile. Carefully, she backed out through the same way she came in, just to avoid being followed by the military soldiers. Another way home would seem ideal.

Zee looked over her shoulder her entire walk home. She was so tense that even baby Nia could tell. A mother and her daughter had that type of connection, however, it was unfortunate for Nia since it meant an uncomfortable walk home. For the first time in years, Zee felt uncomfortable without a gun and regretted leaving her mini revolver in her jewelry box.

Placing Nia down to stretch her little legs, Zee was proud to tell her little girl that they were almost home. Turning the corner that led them there, Zee was shocked to see two cuffed people being escorted out of her building. They weren't people she knew personally, but they were people she recognized as neighbors. There was a look of curiosity that she shared with other pedestrians nearby. She didn't feel like an outcast until she overheard someone saying, "Those damn Fireflies. They all deserved to be killed,"but Zee knew for a fact that her neighbors being dragged out weren't Fireflies, so the joke was on them. Everyone was a target here.

"Shit…" Zee said quietly to herself.

"Shit!" Nia innocently repeated, figuring it must've been a swear. When mommy randomly exclaimed words for not a lot of reasons, usually shock or pain, Nia knew it was a swear.

"The only times you want to mock me, huh?" Zee said, keeping her eyes on her apartment entrance.

Zee camped on the outside porch of a nearby building, giving the notion that she lived there instead of the attraction she truly lived in. She waiting until the hotspot cleared up. Checking her wristwatch, she realized that ten minutes had passed since she last saw a military soldier. A couple of residents of the building she sat at looked at her mysteriously when they either entered or exited the building, wondering who the hell she was. To avoid digging a deeper shit-hole for herself, Zee quickly stood up and walked across towards her apartment with Nia. Holding her bag of fruits in one hand and her daughter's hand in the other, Zee was frightened by a military soldier overseeing the check-in counter.

Nervously, her bag dropped. An oranges, two pears and an apple rolled apart into different areas of the room. Like a game, Nia instantly chased after the pear, which rolled up and hit the soldier's foot. Zee, already gathered up the other fruits on her own and watched Nia carefully and anxiously, but she kept cool nonetheless. Carrying the largest sniper rifle she had ever seen, the soldier patted Nia's head and gave a light chuckle. His entire body, even his face was covered by gear, leaving on his eyes visible.

"Come here baby," Zee called.

Nia backed away from the towering man and turned around,

"Here, mama," Nia said, putting the pear in the opened plastic bag.

Zee thanked her daughter and lifted her,

"I love kids," the commented.

"Do you?" Zee said, pretending to be interested. At this point, she would do whatever she could to not seem like a suspect, "Have any of your own."

After a small pause the soldier spoke,

"Had one. A daughter. Five years old when it happened."

"I'm sorry to hear that..."

"Yeah. We all have lost someone one way or another. Is it just you and her?" Zee nodded. After an awkward moment of silence occurred, the soldier remembered what his responsibilities were and turned to the desk behind him, "Do you live here?" The soldier suddenly asked, sounding muffled behind his mouth cover.

"I-I do…"

"Name please?"

"Zeezanna-Isabel Noble."

The soldier looked down at the checkout book on the lobby desk. The book had every resident's, from the building, name listed in it. The soldier located her name with ease, undoubtedly seeing that Zee had last checked out of her apartment an hour ago and that she often got frequent visits from Sheila and rarely anyone else. It wasn't out of the ordinary. In times like this, it was actually common to keep your circle of friends very close and limited, however, it just meant that Sheila was probably going to be next in this investigation if they happened to find anything suspicious.

"Zeezanna-Isabel?" The soldier repeated questionably. Zee nodded, expecting that reaction from almost anyone she told, "Does it mean anything?"

Zee shook her head and all the soldier could do was nod as if he wanted something more than that,

"People just call me Zee…"

The soldier nodded,

"I like that…"

"Okay, Ms. Zee. You and that little princess can go upstairs now. Just be prepared to be questioned and have your apartment searched in the next hour or so, okay?" Seeing Zee nod, he felt the need to add something "There's nothing to be nervous about...we aren't all bad."

Zee forced a smile and walked past him, heading to the stairs.

"Bye bye!" Nia said as she vanished up the stairs in her mother's arms.