Chapter One
The Lioness and the Lamb
The front gates rolled open with a weak and miserable screech. The rusted hinges argued against the force Nicholas and Aaron put forth to open them, whimpering out the same wordless quarrel they gave each time someone wanted to leave the Alexandria. Walls of patchwork tin sheets, chain-link fence pieces, and metal support beams stood tall all around them. Overhead the sun shined too brightly in the clear, cloudless sky. Nicholas and Aaron muttered something to themselves as they fought with the stubborn lock on the gates. As often as people came and went one might venture to think working the gate would be a much faster task.
Tali reached up and made a subtle gesture to wipe the sweat off the back of her neck, then brushed her hand against the fabric of her black skirt. Every day that went by seemed to be hotter and more humid than the last and even wearing her long black hair in a pony-tail didn't seem to do much to help. As much as the rain helped to dull the oppressive heat she still ached for a cool, crisp fall. Seeing the leaves on the trees in their brilliant green glory instead of the bursts of reds, oranges, and yellows only made her yearn for it more. Not the late fall when winter is nipping at her ears and not early fall when it's still hot, but somewhere in the middle. Once upon a time she called it "light jacket weather" but now the name no longer seemed to fit as well as it once had.
When she was sure no one was looking Tali glanced up at Aria, who kept her arms folded under her irritatingly ample chest as she stared forward at the gate. The little hatchet with the black blade and pale wooden handle hung off her belt as it always did. Months ago, when they first stood on the other side of that gate in Alexandria waiting to be let in1 by Nicholas and Aaron themselves, she and Deanna came to an agreement involving her weapons. As long as she kept her metal baseball bat with the barbed wire wrapped around it at their house she could keep the hatchet on her person. A reasonable compromise. Not that it stopped Aria from muttering a few not-nice things about Deanna when she and Tali enjoyed their first meal in the house they shared. Standing there watching the gates open, her dark eyebrows furrowed in insecure curiosity, she looked so serious.
Both women jumped at an unexpected rattle on the other side of the gate. Of course neither had time to wonder where it came from. In the next breath the gate came open and revealed to them, and everyone else who stood around watching the arrival of yet another batch of people, a group of dirty and haggard men and women. One of which, Tali noticed without much effort, held a possum in one hand and an enormous crossbow in the other.
"We brought dinner."
Tali snorted and covered her mouth.
With a grin tip-toeing across her face, Aria leaned down a little to whisper in Tali's ear. Despite being almost an entire year older, Tali only reached Aria's shoulders. "You see the guy with the baby?"
Tali did. His face hid behind a bushel of facial hair and ringlets of somewhat curled dark hair, and he looked so thin it was hard for her to imagine he wasn't simply a skeleton walking around wearing ill-fitting skin. "Yeah?"
"How long do you think it'll take for me to get into his pants?"
A cough of laughter cut out of Tali's throat before she could think to stop it. With her desired response reached, Aria's lips twisted upwards into a puckish grin. Nobody heard them and as Deanna approached the group at the gate Tali worked hard to keep herself (and by extension Aria, since she certainly couldn't fall into a fit of laughter herself if Tali didn't encourage her). She bit down on the inside of her cheek and tried to swallow the bubbling giggles rolling up the back of her throat.
Of course if history planned to repeat itself as it often did, Aria wouldn't leave her friend be. Tali must be punished for being friends with Aria.
"I mean, think about it. That baby's gotta sleep sometime and when it does nothing's going to stop me from shimmying into his house, pulling back the covers, and finding a comfortable spot on his dick. I mean he'll be shocked at first but I'm sure he'll eventually be cool with it."
Damn her and knowing just what buttons to push. What started out as a cough of laughter quickly evolved into a howl loud enough to draw the attention of not only the worn-down souls in the group on the other side of the gate but Deanna herself. She threw a tight lipped glance over her shoulder. Her cold brown eyes settled on Aria and Tali.
"Can I ask what's so funny?"
Though Tali tried her hardest to keep her face straight, erasing any hint of emotion from her expression, she couldn't speak. Aria tucked her dark brown hair over her ear and stood in for her friend and not for the first time. Growing up, the same sorts of instances came up with teachers instead of settlement leaders. Aria would get Tali laughing—even if the joke had no factual basis, like the one she made about the man with the beard and baby. Firstly, neither of them could know if Deanna would even let them stay. Secondly, despite her jokes, Aria wouldn't just put out to random strangers like that. Still, the image of Aria doing what she described never lost so much as a fraction of its hilarity—and then step in to talk them both out of it while her friend tried to get control of herself again. Their dynamic carried them through middle school, high school, college, and the end of the world. Why should it end now?
"Nothing, Deanna. Tali just thought of something that happened yesterday."
Deanna didn't respond. She just returned her attention to the group and told them about Alexandria's policy for new arrivals: They needed to go to her house, get interviewed so Deanna can figure out what kind of person they area and what job would suit them should they be deemed worthy of staying, and then be given houses of their own all up and down the idyllic little street.
All around them people began peeking out their front doors, marveling over the new faces like babies being shown shiny keys. Despite how often Aaron and his partner Eric brought people to be judged (and mostly rejected for one reason or another) everyone still acted as if the circus just rolled into town. Tali remembered getting those same looks when she and Aria arrived, and judging by the look the guy with the possum in his hand wore as he walked along behind his group toward Deanna's house, he noticed too and hated it. Tali's shoulders slumped in pity for him. Poor guy looked like a scared puppy dog. Despite the possum speared with an arrow in his hand, the angry scowl on his lips, and his bulging muscles.
As the group disappeared into the neighborhood, Aaron broke away from Nicholas and came towards the two women with a big smile on his face. "I officially don't want to go back out there for a while."
"Rough time?" Aria asked. "You should've let me go with you instead of Eric. He and Tali could've stayed here and kept each other company while we went out."
"You know, I would've thought the hunting trips with Nicholas and Aiden would be enough for you. Now you want to recruit people too? I'm sorry, sweetie. You know how it is. Deanna tells us what to do, and she just doesn't think you'd be a good recruiter." The words might've sounded mean, but they really weren't. On the contrary, Aaron expressed on more than one occasion in the past a sort of pity for Aria not being allowed to go out recruiting like she wanted. He always followed up each display of pity with an attempt to make her happy again about going on hunting trips with Nicholas and Aiden, but he knew as well as Aria did why she hated it.
"She's not the fucking boss of me." Aria huffed and put her hands on her hips. "I bet I could kick her ass."
"Believe it or not, she used to say the same things about just about every girl she came across while we were growing up. Our teachers hated putting Aria in group projects because she almost always got into a power struggle with any other half dominant girl vying for a leadership role." Tali smiled and it got both Aria and Aaron laughing. That's her role in the Why Can't Aria Be a Recruiter or At Least Smash Aiden's Face into a Wall? Waltz. Tell a funny story from their childhood to get everyone laughing and lighten the mood.
"Too bad I didn't know you two when I was in school. I think I might've been willing to pay Aria for protection from the bullies!" Came Aaron's expected response, like always.
Cue Aria's bubbling laugh. "You wouldn't need to pay me! Remember, Tali? Remember how much I used to get into fights? I probably would've ended up adopting you just like I did her!"
The little pond which separated one side of town from the other glistened in the sunlight. Cicadas hummed into the stifling air. Tali threw a glance over her shoulder and, after being momentarily blinded by the sun glinting off the solar panels, noticed the complete lack of rubberneckers now that the objects of interest could no longer be seen by the convenience of their front doors. Months of being one of them came and went, yet Tali and Aria still didn't fit in as well as they should've. It bothered Tali much more than it did her friend, who made not fitting in into a personal quest every year of their school lives. When you spend your time fighting and cursing and getting into trouble "fitting in" doesn't exactly rank high on one's list of priorities. For someone like Tali, who liked to vanish into the background as often as possible, standing out worked as something of a counter effect. That might've been why they bonded so well with Aaron and Eric. Eric brought them into Alexandria. Explained how he and Aaron still got whispers and stares for being gay even after the world went to shit (as Tali often liked to describe the dead rising up to destroy everything), and did their novel best to help Aria and Tali find their footing in a place where people gossiped about why they were so weird. Aaron and Eric didn't know why. They never asked.
"Well, I'm going to go check on Eric in the infirmary. You two want to come?"
Aria shrugged and her smile vanished. "I've got to go get my bat and meet those fuckers Nicholas and Aiden at the gate. We're supposed to go out scavenging at this home repair place we found last time."
"And I need to go work on experimenting with some new traps I read about. Which reminds me. Aria, while you're out can you bring me back as many boxes of nails that you can find? I have a few but I need, like, a whole shit ton."
Her friend rolled her eyes and settled her attention on Aaron without so much as justifying Tali's request with a direct response. "Can you do me a favor and check in on her every once in a while? The last thing I want is to come home and find her bleeding to death because she got clumsy with a goddamn nail bomb!" she swept her gaze over to Tali as she mentioned the nail bomb. Tali grinned as wide as she could.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure she doesn't kill herself!" Aaron's laugh filled the hot air.
With the promise secure between them, the three Alexandrians went their separate ways. Aria only followed Tali as far as the living room of their shared house. Her trusty barbed-wire bat (which she named "Barb" after Tali made a joke about it when the thing first got constructed) sat leaning against the mantle waiting to be taken out for a little Walker head bashing.
"Be careful out there," Tali said as she walked into the living room and leaned on the plush cream colored sofa. Their shoes clacked whenever they walked across the dark wood floor. White, square stretches of sunlight reached across the blue and white floral area rug beneath the coffee table.
Grinning, Aria crossed the room and took Barb in her hand. Each time she felt the black grip tape on the handle against her skin a surge of energy poured through her. When she and Barb were together she almost thought going out into the great, vast world of the dead with fucker Nicholas and pussy-face Aiden wouldn't be so bad. Worst came to worst she could bash their faces in and rip their skin to shreds. It's always nice to have a back-up plan for if things got too unbearable. The back-up plan for the back-up plan was to stomp their balls so hard the dirt beneath them would run red and white with blood and semen leaking from their shattered testicles.
It occurred to Aria right then that she might've been developing something of a problem. Oh well, it's only a problem if she sought help for it. Otherwise it's a quirk.
Aria held the bat out in front of her and took a few slow practice swings into the empty air. "Hey, you know me. I'm always careful."
Some span of time passed before Tali shrugged her shoulders and nodded. "Okay, fair enough. It might be a better idea to warn the Walkers to be careful instead."
"Damn skippy it would." She rested Barb's length over her shoulder and made for the front door. "You be careful too. Try not to kill yourself with those fancy traps of yours. It would be way too fucking ironic."
"How do you mean?"
"Killed by the things you were put in charge of to help everyone survive. Instead you turned yourself into a Walker and ripped everyone else to shreds."
Tali grinned. "You mean you wouldn't put me down?"
"Well, eventually. But not right away, no. I'd want you to rip a few peoples' throats out first. Then I'd do it."
"Oh you're so kind."
"Bitch you know it. I've got the gentle demeanor of a mother."
As she stood on her tip-toes to reach a book on the top shelf of the tall wooden bookshelf behind the sofa, Aria heard Tali mutter under her breath. "Yeah, an abusive mother."
"Only to you, chickadee." Aria tapped the top of Tali's head in a pseudo-affectionate gesture on her way to the front door. "I need to get going. If I take too much longer those two fuckers are bound to have an aneurysm. I'm only going to say it one more time: don't kill yourself with those traps of yours."
"Don't tell me how to live my life." Tali tumbled clumsily over the back of the sofa and landed face first into the cushions before twisting around to lay on her back, book on her lap. "Seriously though, I won't. I'll be careful. Go give those Walkers hell! And try not to kill Aiden and Nicholas. Deanna might be more than a little pissed off if you do."
Aria placed her free hand over her heart and pretended to be appalled by the idea. In truth she had something of a terrible urge to piss off Deanna. If not just to see cracks appear in her Stepford smile. "Oh no! We can't have that!"
She and Tali shared a good laugh before Aria finally left the house, bobbing her bat up and down on her shoulder with every step toward the gate. As she drew closer she wondered what happened with the group who showed up only a few minutes ago and what would become of them after Deanna and her camera had their way with their poor, tired psyches. She remembered sitting in that room herself, feet tapping against the hardwood and eyes darting to every corner in search of some raider or Walker or feral animal dripping with rabies in need of a hatchet in the head. Ever since the shit hit the fan . . . God, she didn't even know how long ago. It felt like an entire lifetime came and went since she and Tali heard the National Emergency Broadcast announcement over her car radio as they rolled into Jackson Mississippi. Since then they moved from Mississippi, through Alabama, and just entered Georgia when Aria had to abandon the car she had since high school. From then on they hiked up through both North and South Carolina and across Virginia without any real destination in mind. Then Eric found them and gave them a place to call home in Alexandria. Well, semi-home anyway. A place with beds to sleep in and food to eat and a wall between them and the crazies outside. Months later and Aria could still hear Tali's miserable whimpering when she thought Aria couldn't hear her, still feel the crunch of loose dirt beneath the boots she pilfered off a corpse on some random highway between Georgia and Alexandria, still remembered the dull ache of nursing a hunger never to be satiated. Those were miserable days and even if she hated Deanna and hated the job she got stuck with she couldn't argue with the good points of living where they did.
Besides, who doesn't hate their job and their boss? That's just life. Before and after the apocalypse, as it turns out.
Aria's scavenging partners already stood waiting around Aiden's van when she approached them at the gate. Nicholas just finished loading up the back with supplies they might've needed. Medical, mostly, Aria guessed as she lifted Barb in a half-assed greeting. Nicholas scratched his wavy black hair in response. Though they probably packed some food in case something happened and they needed to stay away for longer than the afternoon.
With only a few words of acknowledgement between the three of them, Aria climbed into the back of Aiden's van with the three other guys in the scavenging party while Nicholas took the passenger seat. She liked sitting in the back. It didn't put her in a position to talk to either of those assholes. She didn't approve of Aiden blasting his radio as he pulled them through the gate some random Alexandrian opened for them but if any Walkers decided to come a-lookin' for a bite, she and Barb would smash their brains straight to hell.
To drown out the sound of her fellow scavengers talking amongst themselves and singing along to the radio, Aria made the decision to get to know the guy with the beard and the baby when she went back. Every time she left the settlement she made some stupid promise to herself of something she'd do when they got back, since it helped stave off the fear of not coming back at all. She'd come back to Alexandria alive and she'd ask Aaron to introduce her to the bearded man and—well to be honest that's as far as her plan went. She joked to Tali about breaking into his house to jump his bones and even though she'd never actually do it she knew she did find him attractive. What she could see around his thick bushel of a beard anyway. Probably nothing would happen but, sitting in the back of the van with Barb resting across her lap and everyone around her talking to themselves, she figured there would be no harm in pretending. If the image of flirting with the cute new dad on the block got her home alive, what did it matter?
Aria put her head on the back of the van and closed her eyes, waiting for the moment when they reached their destination.