Civilians, Auntie Anya, Cannibalism and Mr. Pickles the Fucking Fish (my favorite).
"You want to run that one by me again Travis?" Anya set her hands on her hips and stood between him and the door to her home. Okay, the door to her shack, but it was her shack.
"We just need to hang out for a few days." Travis tried to explain again, "People are getting sick and hurting each other, and we needed to get out of the city."
"Where do I put this?" Alicia held up a pair of sleeping bags.
"Throw those in my room." Anya waved her through. When Travis tried to get by she put her hand on his chest, "No. I get grabbing any paddle you can get your hands on in a shitcreek. I'm talking about the part where you have the gall to assume you get to step foot in my house without so much as a courtesy 'hey sis I'm invading the only peaceful place left in the world and I'm dragging my problems along with me'.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna make a bunch of kids die in the desert with your sorry ass, but that doesn't mean I have to lift a finger for you."
"Anya," Travis sighed, "I know we've had our differences, but would you please consider letting us stay? I'll stay in the truck if that's what you want, just…" He rubbed his neck, trying to think of a way to fix all the bad blood between them or to make amends somehow.
Anya pursed her lips, deciding he was too pathetic to leave on the porch all night, it would be worse than putting the fucking fish out of its misery. "My house, my rules. Got it?"
"Yeah, Yeah of course. Where do you want us to put all the food we brought?" Travis asked, trying to find a way to avoid Anya's glare.
"I have a root cellar around the back of the house. Leave it there until I have time to sort through it all." She waved him off and marched to the car to help the kids unpack the sleeping gear they'd brought. "There are no drugs here Nick, so if I find you rummaging through my drawers you will regret it."
"I already do auntie!" He joked, ducking into the house before she could throw something at him.
"I am not your Fucking Auntie!" Anya yelled, rolling her eyes.
"But I thought you said you didn't mind when I called you that!" Alicia poked her head out of the kitchen window, pouting at her 'aunt'.
"The boys are assholes about it, and I actually like you. Sometimes" Anya smirked at Alicia who gave her a small grin.
"You hear that?" Alicia ducked back into the house, "Anya likes me more than all of you!"
"Yeah yeah, keep talking!" Nick shouted.
Chris glowered at the ground as he shouldered past his parents, "She's not even related to them."
"I don't think she likes anyone she's actually related to" Travis muttered as he hauled food from the truck to the cellar.
Madison bumped his shoulder, carrying her own load of dried food, "It doesn't matter if she likes us, just as long as she lets us stay until we can go home again."
"And when might that be?" Anya asked
"Just a week or two," Madison promised, sounding like she was begging fate as much as she was begging Anya to believe her.
"A week or two out here with me? Over some sort of flu? What's going?"
"We don't know." Travis interrupted, "People are just getting sick, and acting strangely. We wanted to get away before it could spread." Anya knew that tone, that pleading for a little more time. The last time she'd heard him like that he was promising their parents that the dog was fine. Their rabid dog.
"What do you mean acting strangely?"
"They're eating people." Nick said quietly, "I saw it. My uh, my friend she-she had a knife-" He gestured to his left side, "-in her… And she, she was eating someone."
"I don't want to hear about your fucked up high, Nick. That's not actually a problem the rest of us have to deal with" Anya rolled her eyes.
"You leave him alone." Madison got in Anya's face, "Nick has his problems but he's not a liar."
"No, she's right Madi." Travis stopped her, "That church was a mess, and something really bad happened, but there weren't any canni-cannibals there, you know that." He stumbled over the word that caused him so much discomfort.
"And what about Calvin? He was shot AND run over by a damn truck and he was still moving around. Half of his face was ripped off and he was still moving!" Madison insisted "You can't tell me that was normal!"
"Mom," Nick tugged at his hair, curling in on himself a bit, "It's fine, it's-" He shook his head, "I'm used to it. She'll see soon enough. You all will." He went back inside the house, chewing on one of his nails.
"Wow," Anya raised her eyebrows, "He got weirder. I didn't think that was possible." She looked to Madison, "You've got yourself one seriously fucked up kid there."
"He is fine," Madison growled, "You don't understand what's going on."
"Then show me."
"Hey now," Travis got between them, "I don't think that's a good idea, it's dangerous out there."
"Hey, Anya! Where am I sleeping? And where'd you put Mr. Pickles? I haven't seen him in forever!" Alicia asked, breaking the tension between the adults. It was obvious they were getting nowhere.
"You can crash on the floor in my room. Just put your sleeping bag at the foot of the bed. And that fucking fish is on the windowsill in the bathroom. I keep hoping it falls into the toilet and dies. The boys can crash in the living room and you two can sleep on the office floor." Anya directed. "But don't think we are done with this conversation. I will be getting more information from you and people who know what dangerous is."
"I'll stay in the living room with the boys if you don't mind," Lyza mumbled.
Anya jerked and moved back into the house "Fucking forgot she was here."
Alicia snickered and helped Lyza with the small duffels they'd packed with clothes. "Come on."
"Fucking phone lines.." Anya muttered, slamming her house phone onto the receiver. She dug through a footlocker for her sat-phone and started dialing up her contacts. No one picked up. Over a dozen high ranking military officials and not one of those pricks could bother to pick up the damn phone.
Anya kicked the locker and tossed the phone back inside. Time to dig out the monstrous radio setup in the cellar. It wouldn't get anyone in charge, but at least she could talk to others around the country and find why out her home was being invaded by Travis and his growing harem of angry wives.
It took a few minutes to find all of the random parts and get them put together. This was not her preferred method of communication. Too many amateurs playing around. But until someone answered their damn sat-phone it was the only way to get information. Turning the dial, sorting through static and garbled communications Anya listened, trying to get something understandable out of it.
Finally, she found a military channel.
"This is Sergeant Forrester of the SASR, I'd like to know what the fuck is going on." She barked after a few minutes of confused listening, the chatter wasn't giving her what she needed. Everyone was going on about code Cobalts, and walkers, and deados and none of it made a lick of sense.
The line went quiet for just a moment before a familiar voice broke through the static, "This is Colonel Pines at the Pendleton naval base in San Diego, state your location, Sergeant Forrester."
"Indra thank fuck. I got a bunch of shave tails on my ass telling all kinds of bull about cannibals and drug lords that need multiple instances of mental recalibration to take down, please advise."
"Then you have the short of it. I'm running an offensive on the infected here in Diego, I could use your help on this-" The static got stronger, and other voices were starting to push through the supposedly secure line, "Meet us in the-"
"Indra? Colonel Pines!" Anya tried to adjust the radio, fine-tuning the exact frequency.
"Isn't long before HQ calls in the-" More static, "napalming the major hubs-" The com line was overwhelmed with interfering voices all calling for backup or trying to talk to their families. It was a mess of civilian and military traffic all blending together into one panicked cry for help. Setting the radio back onto the table Anya stood and began pacing.
This was insane and if it weren't for the fact that Indra would probably keel over dead if she ever made a joke, let alone on an official channel, Anya still wouldn't believe. It still wasn't really clear. Something about the infected. People obviously. And walkers. Which sounded a hell of a lot like something out of a Halloween movie, not real life. But whatever it was, there was nothing confusing about napalming major hubs. That was very clear and rather desperate.
"Told you," Nick said from the top of the stairs, arms crossed over his chest. "Maybe I'm a little screwy sometimes, but I know the difference… I know what dreams feel like. What's out there? It's no dream."
"When did you become the voice of reason?" Anya snarked, taking her confusion and frustration out on the easy target.
"Dunno." He shrugged, "Maybe when your world started to look more like mine."
Anya shot him a glare, "Sure kid, cus you've lived in such an awful cannibal filled world all your life." She put the radio back where it belonged and shooed him out the of the cellar, "Move it, we've got to unpack all your shit right?"
They rejoined the others just in time for Anya to begin regretting her relation to Travis all over again. Her cozy shack was packed to the rafters with so many extra bodies, there were asses on every flat surface in the living room and one in the kitchen that she was quick to rectify. She grabbed Chris' leg and jerked him off the counter with a scowl, "Keep your ass out of my food. Got it squirt?"
He straightened up, trying to get in her face with his gangly little body, "There's nothing even on the counter!"
"Not anymore. Keep it that way." She turned around to all the forlorn faces and bouncing knees. If ever a group of civvies could look like a powder keg ready to blow, this was it. Anya clapped a hand on Chris' shoulder, "Grab Nick and Alicia, we're going on a quick trip around the property."
He stumbled and hated being treated like a little kid, but Anya never disappointed on her field trips. It was the only reason he tolerated her treatment of him. Madison looked into the kitchen when she saw Chris looking oddly excited, "What's up?"
Rule number one of Aunt Anya's trips, never tell the adults. "She's making us check the fence around the property." Chris grouched, trying to look appropriately annoyed.
Anya nodded her confirmation. "Kids need to run, and the fence needs checking. I'll keep them safe, just like always."
Madison didn't necessarily approve, but she had seen how down Nick and Alicia were. It would do them good to get out and move in a familiar place, to feel like kids again. "Keep us updated. If anything happens we can come get you in the truck."
Anya stopped herself from rolling her eyes and nodded, "Course Madison, I wouldn't think of doing anything else."
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