The base was a mile away from the sewer lines, elevated upon a sheer faced cliff on one side and sloping hills on the other three sides. A perfect place for a fortress to hunker down in during the end of the world. I stalked across the open fields that had once been training grounds for those few brave men that were called soldiers, the memories made a vile knot in the bottom of my stomach. I had once been one of those soldiers that had started her service but had fallen short. But being a has been soldier in training did have its advantages, I had experience in worse possible scenarios -though I don't think that hunting rats and taking in comrade was part of that training.-

We walked in silence for the most part of the trip; the only sounds that broke the silence around us was the heavy tread of one and the almost silent steps of two sets of light feet against the cracked pavement.

"So how long have you been here?" Theo cleared his throat of the dust that was stirring up "I mean how did a girl like you even obtained this fort?"

I glanced back with a ghost of a smile, but that faded back into the perpetual frown at the last female part of the statement. "I was stationed here; I was in training for the marine core."

We walked for another five minutes; I let the statement sink in. Let them know that I could kill them in their sleep if I wanted to, or maybe slice their jugular vein and let them bleed out. Either way it was a warning, to stay out of my way. The bases outline crept over the horizon, gray and ominous against the azure sky. I glanced back once more before setting my pace into a steady jog, whistling as I made my way past up to the perimeters gates. Walking up to one of the side doors of the wall I opened the security box and typed in the code. The door wretched open with a heavy sigh, I glanced back at the two before slipping inside before the seven inch thick door closed. The two boys slipped inside with little complaint as I slid the dead bolt home.

The silence was uncomfortable. I watched as a seagull flew by overhead, and squinted my eyes against the early-morning sunlight. I was trying my hardest to ignore them. We strode down the center of the old airstrip, gear in hand, and Privet raced ahead. A cold breeze blew across the pavement; whirling sand and dry grass across the gray runway, the Tibetan mastiff pounced around it in circles, barking excitedly at the disturbance.

I opened the door to a gray and dull building, switching the lights on as I entered. "Welcome home boys."

"Wow." Silas scratched his chin and looked around the dim lighted room.

"This is the mess hall." I strode toward the freezers, unlatching the bleach jugs from my waist and stacked them with the others in the freezer. I hated my water warm.

"So why here and not the bunk houses?" Theo wandered to the windows.

"Because I was getting tired of moving from the housing units to the freezers, so I just converted it to headquarters." A strain of irritation flitted into my voice.

The great room was the size of a large cafeteria, but I had brought in several couches and chairs from the housing units to fill the space. A large flat screen TV took up a corner of the room with a DVD player and shelves filled floor to ceiling with DVD's. Most had been collected from the local stores and residences surrounding the base. Several large cafeteria tables took up the second portion of the room, covered in gear for the most part, though one was clear for eating meals. A large porcelain claw-foot tub sat in another corner, hooked up to a homemade water heater, and beside it, several dozen laundry bags filled with clean sets of military fatigues. I walked away from the wide counter held a view of the industrial kitchen with its four walk-in freezers, and over-sized pantry. A bunk bed sat in the corner farthest from the door close to the bath tub.

I made my way to the bags of fatigues and tossed two sets of clothes onto the table, keeping a wary eye on the men across the room; slowly choosing through the piles of clothes. Why did I even bring them here? I had tried to think of the reasoning but it seemed to allude me. The main reason was that I couldn't have them down in the tunnels; they could let in the rats. But then again I could have just ditched them near the base, there were many sand pits that I knew of that surrounded the base. One of them could have "accidentally" fall in. But I didn't do anything, and now I had two men in my base, my turf. Private whined and watched warily at the two intruders.

The door flew open with a slam; a shadow filled the light drenched door frame. The two jumped away in surprise. I laughed bitterly, making a scene just like always but that was Major for you.

"Oh Lucy I'm ho-" the boy stopped short and stared at the two guests, quickly grabbing the 20. Gage rifle by the door, taking aim. "Are you okay Lia who the hell are these people?"

"Calm down Azire" I sighed with begrudging irritation and set down the pile of clothes "They're our new comrades."

He stared at me as if I had just grown another head, me the one person in the world who hated human contact was letting two strangers; men no less- into our fortress. It was unspeakable, almost impossible but here we were sitting in the middle of the mess hall with a gun pointed at Theo. I wasn't sure how Major would react, he did have tendencies but I trusted him enough not to shoot and ask questions later. I moved into the kitchen and set the satchel onto the counter, prying off the lid to find the well dead fish still in good condition.

I took out the dogfish and explained in a calm voice the situation. He walked over the freezer and set down his own water jugs in the cold room, before coming back out and making his way over to me, his finger idly resting against the trigger.

Major leaned close and glared at the two. "You sure they're not rats, they could be infiltrating."

I knew where he was going with this but it should have been clear that I had made the decision to let them into the base, something that was never done before. It showed that I was wary but I could trust them enough. Besides they hadn't shown any signs of hostility, they were polite; which was something that I had not seen since the early times- so this should have put his restless thoughts at ease, at least for now.

"Yes, I do but that doesn't mean I'm not keeping an eye on them." I handed Azire the meat cleaver and he tenderized the fish.

I set a frying pan on the stove for him and made my way to Theo and Silas, grabbing the sets of clothes that I had laid out before I was interrupted and shoving them into the arms of the two boys. "Here I think these are the right sizes for you guys, go change."

I stalked away and went over to cutting up the fish that Azire had hadn't began to cook. My hands moved efficiently as I felid the meat. Private sat beside me and gave a bark of expectancy.

I glanced down "Don't even try it, you know that you don't get fish just wait your turn." The Tibetan mastiff laid with its head on its paws in defeat.

I cleaned one fish after another in executed fashion, removing the parts that weren't edible and throwing them back into the bucket. I would use that for bait later. Something glittered across the corner of my eye. I jerked up to see Silas pulling on his new shirt, but that's not what had caught my attention. No my attention was held by the two long extremities that were behind him. Two long black tails.

"Shit!" I looked down at the burned ochre liquid that had begun to pool and slipped down my wrist. I grabbed the rifle that I had left on the counter and aimed at him. The wound on my hand would soon close up; it was a minor concern compared to what we had just stumbled across.

"You're a Demon!" I spat, finger on the trigger "You didn't tell me that!"

Theo moved in front of demon known as Silas with his hands up. I growled, Azire grabbed the cleaver that I had just cut my palm against. Demons, a scarce kind of people left in the world. A mutation caused from a strange virus that had been released during the war. There were three types of mutations not including myself that I had encountered during my first year of hell. Myself, though I had never met another one like me with the symptoms of this particular condition. Then there were the rats, who contained a similar strand of the virus like my own but they didn't have my advantages. And then you had the demons, some of the most dangerous and unpredictable of the freaks. It seemed some of the people that were left after the floods adapted to the virus, morphing into a stronger being's with powers I couldn't even comprehend. One of the signs that they were a Demon was the tails. Those bastards were barely around, but if you did encounter one; well they were one hell of an opponent to deal with.

How could I not have seen those before? Silas held up his hands in defeat, like I was going to believe in that old routine. "Yea, but you're also a rare freak of nature." He looked at the tails blankly and then back to us, a slow grin spreading across his face. "I can already smell by your blood that you are not a human, your healing to quickly a rare find between us freaks."

Azire picked up the shotgun from the table, eyes all but slits. I quickly assessed the situation, a demon on my compound. This was a serious threat, but on the other hand if the rats did want to attack we could use him. I lowered the gun little by little, was it worth the risk? Demons would have to double their calorie intake, which meant we would have to hunt and make rounds more often then we already did. Theo watched us, confusion showing on his face. He was right, I was just like him. I healed quickly, yet I aged slowly. I was a freak but then again I wasn't as dangerous as the boy in front of me. Who knew what power that kid had, he could strike me down right now without even lifting a finger. But he didn't, why?

Azire glanced at me, eyes roiling with rage and some other emotion that I couldn't place. Private growled from his corner, low to the ground and slinking toward the two. This situation was about to get bad.

"Private stand down." I shouted at the dog, who ceased his advancement but kept his stance. Wary and ready to pounce. Azire lowered his rifle a fraction but kept his finger on the trigger.

"Alright, you can stay." I glared and set down my rifle and made my way over to the stove, the fish was just starting to burn. "Make the wrong move and I will shoot you."

"Azire, take Silas and show him the ropes around here, make sure he pull his weight and he knows the drills." Azire was about to protest until I gave him an icy glare. I was not going to deal with anymore than I needed to today. The door slammed a few seconds later.

I turned off the heat and made my way over to Privates bowl. I stared down at the large gash in my hand as the bright red blood welled up and turned black with the exposure to the air. It dripped down my elbow into the bowl below. Private padded his way over to the bowl, and sat beside it patiently, waiting for me to give him the go-ahead.

I was so absorbed in watching the blood pool in the bottom of the bowl that I didn't even notice Theo move up behind me. He was silent as he walked, and I felt his breath on the back of my neck before I even realized he'd moved. Startled, I jumped to the right, holding my hand at chest level above the bowl to help the bleeding stop. However, Bowman's stillness caught my attention, and I turned my gaze to him warily. He was staring intently at my hand.

Well shit.