A/N- Well here I am back again. With zombies. I know there's been several other supernatural AUs on here, so I guess I'm throwing my hat into that particular ring and hoping no one minds too much. Thanks as per usual to The Person Who Read This (yes they're back too lol). I'm not going to go on and on as to why, cause they already know (something to do with the constant support and enthusiasm or whatever). :) Also, I have not one single poetic bone in my body, so the poem at the beginning of the chapters was composed by the much more poetically inclined reverse-swing (who also writes great fic). Thanks dude, you're awesome. Anyway, here it is...

Chapter 1 - the difference a day makes

There's a you
And there's a me
And a whole host of something in between
But remember this my love
Black Roses never wilt
In the pale moonlight

5 miles outside New York City (Safe Zone 3)/June 10, 2030/Infection + 15 years

As the stinking desiccated face of the undead monster in front of her got closer and closer, teeth practically straining out of his mouth to get to her as every muscle in her body burned trying to keep it away, pushing with feet and hands with every ounce of strength she still possessed, all Piper Chapman could think was what a difference a day could make... such a mundane thought to be her last one, especially given just how much and how articulately she always wrote and talked...

That was, in fact, the problem...

Her mother had always told her that her mouth would get her in trouble. Her exact words had been "it'll be the death of you..." Carol Chapman had always wanted her daughter to be quiet to keep her opinions to herself. And for awhile it had worked. It was fifteen years since the Infection. they had lived in the comfort of the Safe Zone for as long as Piper could remember, and for years she hadn't questioned anything. Had never even thought to. Had gone to school. Had learned the same things everyone else had, about the Infection (that had wiped out 90% of the population and turned half of the dead into walking abominations whose only imperative was to devour those who were not like them), about the way that the survivors had come together, overcoming so much hardship, so many obstacles, to build the Safe Zones, towering marvels of engineering and man's ingenuity and resourcefulness under pressure. How everyone was sheltered there (how the only people left outside were misfits and troublemakers and criminals, not fit for life in a place that was all about community and working together). How they all survived here because the government protected them, because they all contributed. How any dissent, no matter how minor, could unravel anything (because even the tiniest thread, when unspooled, could destroy the entire tapestry).

Her family had tried to keep the truth of a lot of things from her, but she had always been inquisitive and she had never liked to accept the answers her parents gave her, especially when so many of them were clearly lies.

She started noticing things. Little things at first. And then bigger ones. The funny thing was, once she noticed one thing, she started to see others, until all of a sudden it appeared that there was something very wrong was going on. Her mother told her to ignore it, that it didn't matter, that the important thing was that they were all safe and alive and that whatever went on outside the walls of the Zone, it wasn't important enough to risk it all.

But there was always a part of Piper that couldn't let things go, that couldn't just forget. She'd tried, and tried, but then one day she just had to say something.

She'd started talking. Quietly. Arguing. Quietly. But the problem with a place like the Zone was that there was always something or someone that saw or heard. And maybe those people were willing to overlook things when she was just a kid, a teenager muttering under her breath in her high school class... or talking in college, someone no one would take seriously, but then she graduated from university... started working at a boring bureaucratic job and started writing things... and it wasn't like she was publishing them. She was just... writing them. her own thoughts. Jotted down.

And yet... somehow someone had found out.

They came for her one warm June night, not long after her birthday. grabbed her roughly from the warmth of her bed at 3am, cuffed her and shoved out of her house into the stifling of the summer night. In her 23 years, she had been relatively sheltered but not so much so that she didn't know what this meant. That she didn't know what the black van in the middle of the night was about. She knew what happened to "criminals", she just didn't know that thinking things, having an opinion, was a crime.

Only three hours had passed from the time she'd been rousted until the moment she was shoved out of the van just outside the 150 foot high fence that marked the outside border of the Safe Zone. She had been taken from her home to the Federal Justice Building, tried, convicted and sentenced to Exile within an hour. The sentence stripped her of all of her property and all of her rights. They changed her into an orange jumpsuit, gave her a small backpack full of what they claimed were provisions, and then put her in the truck, to be driven the five miles from the main gate to the outside fence… and now here she was...

...staring her own death in the face... as the stinking mouth with its rotted teeth got closer and closer, as her muscles screamed with the effort of keeping it away, she wondered if it had been worth it. If she wouldn't have been better off just forgotten it all and kept quiet... principles were fine when you were behind 150 foot double reinforced concrete walls... not quite so shiny when you were about to have your throat ripped out... fuck... what did it matter anyway... she supposed at least this way she wouldn't have to be a constant disappointment to her father anymore...

She felt her elbows buckling and closed her eyes, turning her face away, exposing her throat and hoping that at least it would be quick...

"WHAT THE FUCK?" a voice... a human voice, loud enough to be heard over the all consuming growling, slavering sound coming out of the Infected's lifeless throat... female, husky, muffled... before Piper could register much more, she felt the pressure suddenly disappear. her eyes flew open in surprise...

...just in time to see a tall, broad figure (she assumed female from the voice she'd heard before, but it was difficult to tell when the person was moving so fast and clad in black fatigues and what looked like thick body armor, including a helmet that covered her face) brace her right hand underneath the Infected's still snapping jaw and her left hand on top of its rotting shoulder and literally tear its head off, causing disgusting looking black fluid to spurt out, splattering the (thankfully) black fatigues the stranger was wearing.

She tossed the still twitching body to the side of the room then dropped the head and stomped on it hard, creating a loud crunching-squishing sound that made Piper immediately want to throw up. The figure's helmet turned toward her and she heard another muffled curse, "Fucking goddamn hell... what the fuck are you doing here, princess!?"

Piper frowned, her hackles raising weakly despite the situation, the old annoyance at the familiar nickname cutting through her terror, "I'm not a..." she started, her voice wavering a lot more than she wanted it to, but before she could finish, her eyes noted movement behind the stranger. "JESUS!" she screamed instead.

The stranger moved with that same uncanny speed, far faster than anyone Piper had ever seen, side stepping the Infected, producing a nasty looking knife from a holster somewhere on her person, and neatly piercing it straight into the monster's ear. Then she looked out the door towards the landing. Piper couldn't see from her angle, but evidently there was nothing good on the way. "Fuck! You couldn't have picked a worse place to take a nap, princess," said the stranger, looking back at Piper... "Fuckin' moaning asshole central down there..."

Piper was about to object to the nickname again when the woman took off her helmet and spun around to brain one of the monsters with it before looking back at her. And the minute she saw her face, the words died in her throat and all she could do was gape...

Alex frowns at the terrified looking girl. She's wearing the flimsy orange fatigues and shitty survival pack they gave to all the new Exiles. The "civilized society's" way of saying they were being merciful to the people they threw out into the cold.

Growling a curse she turns back and puts her knife through the head of another infected. She keys on her radio as she kicks the door to the bedroom shut and starts moving the dresser in front of it. The girl is still staring at her from the bed, wide eyed and unmoving.

"This is Vause. I've got a fucking stray here, Nicky! I thought you said this shit was clear!"

The other girls voice in her ear, "Pre-check was last night, dude. I guess she musta crept in after we left."

"Either that or the goddamn check was wrong!"

"Well, it was Brenda... and her people..."

"GODDAMMIT I thought we weren't sending that moron on checks anymore! She's always too fuckin' eager to cut corners to get back to fuckin' camp and feed those idiot stray cats of hers half her rations..."

"Normally yeah, but we were shorthanded last night with Washington and her crew off..."

"Ugh, fuck it, it doesn't matter..." Alex snapped, "Fuck... I'm supposed to be picking up supplies, not fucking people. I'm not..." there was a loud, wet thump outside as she finally managed to get the dresser on place, "...equipped for fucking escort duty..."

"How bad?"

Alex swept back to the window, grimacing. "Probably two dozen. They heard her fucking screaming when one of them was trying to tear her god damn face off."

"What?"

"Yeah sleeping beauty was in an unsecure development with all the fucking doors unlocked."

"Well shit. I'll call Mendoza's unit. She's about half a klick off."

"Shit."

"What?"

"Mendoza's fine but those fucking girls of hers give me a fucking migraine."

"They're wolves what do you expect?"

Alex rolled her eyes, "You're a fucking wolf"

"Yeah but I'm not annoying..."

Alex sighed, not even close to being in the mood to have that particular conversation right now. She couldn't pick and choose rescuers and fuck, at least Mendoza was actually competent... unlike fuckin' Brenda... she was going to tear that bitch a new asshole when she got back... if she fucking got back. "Tell 'em to hurry. I'm not sure how long I can hold out here..."

"Gotcha."

The real business taken care of, Alex turned back towards the girl who was looking at her with a mixture of shock and (not particularly subtle) curiosity.

Alex realized she must look like shit. She'd had to wade through a dozen walkers to get up here and they weren't the cleanest kills, not to mention the three she'd killed once she'd gotten up here. Her black fatigues and equipment were all splattered with guts.

Her helmet (now also nicely coated with black undead blood) was still in her hand. She slammed it down on the dresser hard, not worrying about whatever the fuck supposedly delicate wiring and equipment was in it. She fucking hated the damn thing and being forced to wear it was one of the many reasons she usually only volunteered for night patrols. But Nicky had been right. They were short handed... Washington was off meeting with the smugglers up to the North and Mendoza was just now returning from a week long survey patrol.

The woman was in her early twenties at best, with the soft, well-fed look and smooth unblemished skin of someone who had spent their whole lives in a Safe Zone. She was tall enough that the one size fits all Exile fatigues were riding up her ankles. She didn't appear to be injured or bitten. And Alex would've just written her off as another spoiled Exie, who would last about ten minutes out here before it all got too much for them, except that, even in the limited amount she'd seen, Alex (always good at reading people even before the Change) could tell she was different. When Alex had first swept in, the girl had been putting up a hell of a fight, a lot more than she'd figured a soft in the middle fresh out of the box Exile to have in her. It had been the blonde's screams that had attracted her attention, but also the string of angry curse words. This one wasn't going down without a fight.

And then there was the way the girl was looking at her. She was used to Exiles looking at her with shock and confusion, and this girl definitely had her share of that, but there was something else, something she wasn't used to seeing. Fascination. She was curious. Even after what she'd just seen, she had enough of her wits about her to be curious. And even her ugly fatigues, covered in dirt and Infected mess, and disheveled appearance (hair askew, face smudged with dirt), she was beautiful. No. This girl was not someone she had any interest in writing off. At least not just yet...

The woman cursed again as she took her hand off of the transmit button her radio. She ran her right hand through her long black hair and looked first out the window and then back at Piper, who hadn't moved from where she was sitting up on the bed. The woman was examining her closely, the first time she'd had time to take a moment to do that since Piper had been awake. Piper could practically feel the woman's gray green gaze sweeping over her.

The woman was tall, taller than Piper which caught her attention because not many people were. Her hair was secured in a messy ponytail and had been messed up and flattened out by the helmet she'd put on top of the dresser. She was dressed head to toe in black fatigues that were hung with all sorts of various pouches and combat gear. The bulk of the outfit prevented Piper from getting a good impression of the woman's form, but she imagined it wasn't bad, given what she'd seen of her fighting. The woman wore no make up, and was extremely pale, as if she hadn't seen the sun in years. She wore glasses with black frames.

"You have a name, kid?" she asked gruffly, not doing a whole lot to keep her annoyance out of her voice.

"Uhm... uh..."

She sighed, "Okay, look, I know this has all been very stressful for you, and I would love to let you have a nice long afternoon to absorb it all, but eventually all those zombies down there are going to smell us up here and when they put their pea brains to it, they'll find a way in and..."

"Infected..."

"What?"

"Zombies... that's not the proper term," Piper said, "It's infected..."

"I don't fucking care what they call them as long as they're not eating my face," she pointed, "Look, kid, we've got help coming, but I need you to be prepared for if they break down the door, so we don't have a whole lot of time to linger on the fine details. Are you going to argue semantics with me or fucking let me explain to you how we're going to survive this?"

The woman's tone was commanding without being rude, although she was clearly unhappy with the situation. Piper just nodded, knowing she was entirely out of her depth here.

"You ever had to fight?"

Piper shook her head a little. She'd punched a few people in her time, but never been in a fight, not in the sense this woman was talking about. "Uh, no..."

"Didn't think so," the woman said, her tone not contemptuous or judgmental in spite of the circumstances. She pulled a knife from her belt, much smaller than the one she'd used on the Infected she'd killed. She offered it to Piper hilt first, "Take this. If they do break through, which hopefully they won't because there weren't that many, just swing the pointy end at them."

Piper took the weapon, looked down at it, then back up at the taller woman, frowning. Suddenly irrationally annoyed, "That was it?"

The woman tilted her head, evidently bemused by the tone. "What do you mean?"

"'swing the pointy end at them'? That's your advice? You tell me to be all attentive and that's the big tip I get?"

A sort of half snort half chuckle came out of the woman's mouth, "Yeah, kid... what exactly were you expecting? A full tutorial? I don't exactly have a lot of time here to take you from zero to 60..."

"Yeah... well," Piper frowned, "You didn't have to be so snappish earlier."

The woman half smiled, "Yeah, I guess maybe..." she was examining Piper a little more closely now. Before she'd seemed to be just looking her over for signs of injury or signs that she was an immediate threat. Now she really seemed to be taking her in. And Piper could feel her gaze. It was odd, almost uncanny... something about the woman's gray green eyes was just slightly off. Not bad, necessarily... just captivating.

Before Piper could think to analyze it any more, they heard a gunshot outside the house. The woman broke off her scrutiny and went back to the window, she nodded once, curtly, then went back to the dresser, picking up the helmet and slipping it back on, covering her face and those eyes. "Looks like our ride's here, kid. You ready?"

Piper nodded, strangely unhappy at no longer being able to see the woman's face anymore...

They were back in camp sitting in the debrief room waiting for Red, Claudette and Mendoza to come and assess the girl. The girl looked exhausted and kept glancing at Alex sidelong. It had been a long morning. It had taken a good hour to clear and secure the entire housing development they'd found the girl in and then another half hour to get back to camp.

After they'd gotten back, the girl had had to go through medical and quarantine, the arduous process of a full body exam and a blood draw to make sure she didn't have any sign of Infection (though it was doubtful, given how fresh out of one of the Zones she was). Alex had had to stay by her side the entire time because, as the person who'd found her, she was essentially her designated keeper until she'd been passed through all the checks.

The girl had been passed medically after an hour and a half of examinations and three hours of sitting around waiting for test results and been given the standard issue plain black fatigues, which were at least sturdier than the cheap ass orange shit she'd been wearing. They'd fed her a meal (nothing her fancy ass was probably used to of course, just the basic MREs that the Council air dropped for them once a month), and now they were just sitting here... and had been for the past fifteen minutes, twiddling their fucking thumbs.

Alex was tired and irritated and hungry enough that she'd started to glance at the girls neck (her perfectly formed neck with the network of veins practically lit up under her ultra sensitive gaze, pulsing with... fuck...). She huffed, annoyed, and pulled a pack out of her inside pocket, popping it and drinking it dry, sighing in relief as she immediately felt the jolt of energy and (perhaps more importantly) relief of her hunger.

When she was done, she tossed the pack into the garbage and looked back at the girl who was now openly gaping at her.

Alex adjusted her glasses and said, "Yeah I am."

"What?" the girl said, shocked to have been addressed.

Alex hadn't said more than three words to her since they'd gotten back to camp. Mendoza and her girls had left them at the Quarantine Entrance, where all the newcomers were processed, and the girl had immediately been swept into the whirlwind of tests. Others had been giving all the instructions. Alex had basically just hovered in the back of the room steadily getting more and more peckish and annoyed (thinking about all the shit she could be doing). She had noted, through all this, that the girl was handling everything very well, taking things in stride (or at least seeming to... Alex could sense some anxiety underneath all that stoic acceptance). It was unusual enough that she found herself intrigued in spite of herself.

"A vampire. You were going to ask."

"Vampires aren't real."

Alex laughed, "News to me. I'm going to have to really re-examine my dietary choices if that's the case..."

"Aren't vampires supposed to be..."

She raised her eyebrow, "What?"

"I dunno... courtly and polite?"

Alex barked an unladylike laugh. "Sure. The ones that were born courtly and polite. I was born in the twenties in a shitty tenement in Queens so courtly and polite didn't come up a lot."

"The NINTEEEN twenties?"

That brought on a throaty chuckle. "Yeah, kid. The 1920s."

"So you're..." her face screwed up as she did the math in her head.

"Not nice to ask a lady her age..." interrupted, cocking an eyebrow.

The girl frowned, "Oh... sorry..."

Alex smirked, "Don't worry about it, kid. Been alive as long as I have, it takes a lot to fluster you. I'm 107."

The girl examined her for a long moment, a look of such open and honest curiosity in her bright blue eyes that Alex was slightly taken aback. Most humans tended to react one of two ways when they found out what she was: horror (thinking her a monster) or a sort of disturbing greediness (thinking that being an immortal sounded romantic). What this girl was giving off was different. The real desire for knowledge.

Somewhat abruptly, the girl said, "Piper."

Alex had been expecting a flood of questions so it took a moment before she caught up enough to say, "What?" Her tone bemused. It took a lot to surprise her.

"My name is Piper. Piper Chapman. Not kid. And I'm 23."

"Everyone's a kid to me, kid, except the other vampires," Alex arched an eyebrow, "Bit of an age gap between me and most of the others, y'know?"

There was a brief silence. The girl... Piper, was studying her again. She continued to surprise Alex. Who reflected again about how she wasn't like some of the other Exies they picked up, over half of whom barely lasted a month out in the Wild. Those others would be repulsed by the conditions or so shell shocked by their entire view of the world being proven so horribly wrong that they just went a little funny. Piper was tougher than she looked (having kept stride with the squad on the way back here, seemingly determined to prove that she wouldn't be a drag on them), and seemed to be curious about everything. She'd asked the docs who were checking her out endless questions about what they were doing and why. Not in a haughty 'why are you daring to touch me' sort of way, but because she seemed to genuinely want to know. So Alex supposed she shouldn't have been so shocked by her being intrigued by the whole vampire "thing".

"So you drink blood?" Piper said, jumping right in, not bothering to ask whether Alex was okay with her asking.

"Yeah."

"And the sun...?"

Alex smirked, making a 'poof' noise, "I'd go up in flames pretty fast. It isn't pretty."

"Immortal and all that?"

"Well, I guess you could call it that. Technically speaking I'm as dead as those Infected clawing at the fences," she tapped her chest, "My heart doesn't beat. The reason I have to drink blood is because that's the only way to keep it flowing through my veins. Otherwise I go insane then... just kind of dry up..."

Piper looked like she was about to ask another question when the door opened and Red, the eldest vampire in camp, Claudette, the highest ranking human, and Mendoza, the top ranking werewolf, walked in. Alex sat up a little straighter, her manner immediately becoming all business, and Piper followed suit, seeming to understand that this was a big deal.

Claudette took the lead, speaking with her light French Caribbean lilt, "Welcome to ARAC Camp 13, Miss Chapman. My name is Commander Claudette Pelage. My colleagues are Commander Reznikov," she gestured to Red, who simply raised an eyebrow, "and Commander Mendoza," she nodded to Mendoza who gave a curt nod, "Vause here has informed us that you have requested sanctuary?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Claudette shuffled some papers in front of her, "It appears that you've passed all the medical tests. There's just a few questions we have to ask. You came from NYC?"

"Yes."

"Why were you exiled?"

"I'm... I'm not entirely sure. I... wrote some things."

"Published?"

"No I just wrote them."

Claudette glanced up, "Well... they're getting rather touchy aren't they...?"

"No one even said anything to me... they just... showed up..."

Red nodded, "This is how these things usually work."

Mendoza frowned, "You ain't a spy, right kid?"

"No!"

"And you're not going to run off in the middle of a mission and try to get back to the Zone, yeah?"

"No... they... there's not much there for me to miss, really."

"Except comfort," said Red, "This is not an easy life, Blondie."

"I... I know. Commander Mendoza's troops were pleased to share with me just how difficult on the way back."

Red cut her eyes to Mendoza, "Your girls... big mouths..."

"I told them to knock it the fuck off..." she glanced at Piper, "And I apologized to Blanca here..."

"My name is Piper..." Piper muttered, irritated, but under her breath, so quietly that without her enhanced hearing Alex might not have caught it. Alex figured that Mendoza and Red heard it too, but they didn't give any indication. They'd been around long enough that petulant Exies didn't bother them.

Claudette spoke, "If you're accepted into the camp, you will be expected to pull your weight. Work, train, patrol, all of it. Everyone here does their share, earns their keep. You understand?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"There's a degree of freedom here in camp, but you are still expected to follow schedules and rotations. And if you are out on patrol, you will follow commands as soon as they are given, no hesitation. Yes?"

"Yes."

Red said, "And you will have to work with vampires... werewolves... We have an accord. You can be as uncomfortable as you want with the," she made air quotes, "'unnatural' creatures you may believe we are, but you will live with it. No slurs, no fights, no nothing, yes?"

"Yes."

Mendoza spoke, "You don't follow the rules, or you prove to be some kinda fuckin' spy, you're out on your ass."

"Okay."

The three women glanced at one another. each gave a curt nod, then Claudette turned back to Piper, "Very well. Welcome to the Resistance."

"Resistance? What are you resisting?"

"The constant fucking threat of imminent death," Alex put in wryly.

Red snorted at the description, "Straight to the point as usual."

"You'll have a four month probationary period," Claudette continued, as Mendoza pulled Piper's file over and started making notations, "You'll have a probationary supervisor who will essentially be with you at all times during that time period. They'll make sure you're aware of and follow your schedule, they'll brief you on procedures, make sure you know the rules."

Piper nodded, "All right... who will that be?"

Red jerked her head towards Alex, "Vause here will be yours. She's the one who found you. The one who finds an Exie is always their probationary supervisor."

Alex grimaced... she'd expected it, but had dearly hoped Red would let her out of it. She was a Squad Leader, an elite one too. Too good for probie duty... She gave Red a look, but Red wasn't having it. Clearly they were going to have to talk about it later. She sighed deeply.

By the time all the formalities were taken care of (Piper getting issued her equipment and bedding, then being escorted to her assigned tent in the human section of camp and making up her bunk) it was nearly dinner time. Alex was annoyed at the assignment and was subsequently not being forthcoming with Piper anymore, responding to her questions with one word answers or huffy noises.

They had dinner together. Alex explaining in short, sharp declarations how the meal time rotations worked and when Piper should expect to have kitchen duty. As with any new addition, Piper attracted a lot of glances and whispers, as did the fact that someone of Alex's stature was babysitting her. Piper didn't seem to find the attention all that pleasant, but was still being strong, apparently having already been aware of the whole concept that there was never a second chance for a first impression.

Alex could see Nicky eyeing her from their usual table, big brown eyes filled with amusement. She was sure that her friend would have more than a little shit to dole out when they were alone next. yet another thing to look forward to... After dinner, Alex took Piper on a tour of the camp, curtly pointing out where everything was, telling the girl that the packet she'd gotten with her bedding and uniforms had more information in it.

By the time the tour was over, it was nearly 10pm, which was officially lights out (most people just sat in their tents and shot the shit, but everyone but those on patrol or official duty was supposed to be locked in by then, though it was never the most strictly observed rule). Alex dropped Piper outside her tent with a final nod, then turned on her heel and stormed towards the command tent.

Alex scowled at Red, "I'm the god damned XO of this entire unit. Why is it I'm being saddled with babysitting duty?"

Red raised an eyebrow, "You found her. You chose to rescue her."

"'Chose'? Why are we acting like I chose anything? Do we usually make it our business to leave exiles out there to be food for the infected?"

"No, but you know how it works…"

Alex rolled her eyes.

Red looked back down at the papers spread on her desk, "It's actually amazing you haven't had to do this yet. You've been out here since the beginning. Twenty years and not one probie…"

"Yeah, because I've usually been with the entire fucking unit when we find someone and I can tell someone else to do it…" Alex muttered darkly.

"Look, Vause, you did the right thing out there. Looking after an Exile isn't so bad, depending upon the Exile. And it'll get you out of patrols for awhile."

"I like patrols," she huffed, glaring.

Red shrugged, "It is what it is…"

"Red..."

"This conversation. It is over now, Vause..." Red looked up at her again, holding her eyes for a long moment. Red had been around for a long time, nearly three hundred years. She'd seen a lot of shit, survived a lot of shit, and she wasn't to be fucked with. When she said it was done, it was done.

Alex huffed a resigned sigh and turned back towards the entrance of Red's office. Great... this was great... Being stuck babysitting an Exile was no one's idea of a good idea... even if the Exile she was stuck with was as interesting as Piper Chapman might prove to be.

A/N- Well there it is... let me know what you think, good bad or indifferent... :) hopefully I'll get more out soon...