So before everything else I'd like to use this first section to thank all the people who like and follow this story and especially the reviewers who take the time to write me a comment. This one is for you, deathlyhollow0, jomichael03, Skye9598, alvause, VonZeppy, WB79, and the Guest (maybe you'll let me know who you are one day).
All or Nothing
Chapter 4: safety in numbers
Midday
Alex
"I'm Nicky Nichols, this is my… uhh... friend, Lorna Morello," Nichols, the crazy haired one says with a nod.
"I'm Alex," I respond curtly still doubtful of these people's intentions, especially with this unforeseen predicament we'd found ourselves in, "this is Piper."
Our plan of get a car or walk to the QZ while defending ourselves against any bites had basically gone to hell, we never imagined we'd be firing at other people with these circumstances.
"Thanks for asking her to not, you know, blow our heads off," I hear Nichols say to Piper with a hand gesture mimicking an explosion. But our introductions came to a short end when we heard some voices coming from afar, "This is probably a bad place to chat," I announce as we all duck our heads down as not to be seen.
"Ah shit, more of those hunters," Nichols says searching the body of one of the men she called hunters. With some ammo she found she reloads the shotgun of man they shot in the gunfight. I have my shotgun at a ready if they try anything.
"We could help each other," Piper suggests.
"Piper," I say harshly in a low tone, thinking how dangerous the suggestion had been.
"Come on Al, safety in numbers and all that."
"She right," the other girl Morello cuts in, her tone in distinct new york accent, before I could retort, "we could help each other, we have a hideout near here."
Piper looks me in the eye and I look back, we break eye contact when Nichols chimes in, "They're coming, what's it gonna be stretch?"
I grunt in disapproval but seeing as he had better chances of survival from those hunters together, I agreed nonetheless, "Fine. Take us there."
"Great. Rather have a friendly face."
"Nicky come on before they find these dead bodies," Lorna gestures for a building.
"Alright, in that building and up those stairs."
"Piper come on, I'll cover the back," I step behind Piper as we enter the building and silently climb the stairs. On the second floor were what seemed to be offices with a number of tables and chairs, the first room connected to a hallway.
I bump into Piper's back when we come to a sudden stop before we exit the room to the hall.
"Whoa, hold on," Nichols stretches her arm out to block us going forward, "look there, a runner."
"Fuck, those things again," I mutter.
"This hall is the only way there without going through an open field," Morello informs us, "it was clear when we crossed here yesterday."
"Anyone got any ideas how we can flank that guy quietly?"
Using the guns would be the last resort. We didn't know how many more of those things there were and there were hunters just outside the building who were bound to hear a gunshot from this distance. Throwing the bottle I had with me would be too risky and the fucker was facing our side of the hallway so there was no sneaking pass it.
"How about this?" Piper holds out the bow and arrow we found earlier.
/
Piper
"That might just work blondie," Nicky says to me with approval and I smile at her but immediately Alex cuts in, "No fucking way."
"Alex I can do this," I say firmly.
"No," she says dismissively.
"You let me shank the one in Jersey."
"Well, we didn't have much of choice."
"We don't have a choice right now either."
"Piper…"
"It'll be fine, I promise."
"If you miss that thing is gonna come running right at us, you know that right?"
"I know, you might get to use that improv pipe you made," I chuckle a little, "you looked a little crazy with that you know."
"Shut up," she says in mock annoyance, muttering something about blondes with college degrees being the death of her.
"I got this."
I got this. I repeat in my head to rid of the doubt that I could only make things worse because when I said Cal would take me with him I meant he did around 7 years ago.
For Christ sake Piper, don't miss. I prep talk myself as I peak on the edge of the room to look at the infected, its head was bowed and its body twitching. I test draw my bow before attaching the arrow. It was heavy but comfortable enough to aim.
I try my best to remember everything we did on those classes Cal dragged me to about archery. I steady my hands and arms as best I can and with an exhale I let go of my draw, the arrow flying across the hall. I even close my eyes for a second after I shot. I open them up again to look back when I hear Nicky say, "Shit, that girl of yours is a damn good shot," with a large grin.
"Whew, I'm impressed Pipes. Dead center," Alex complements, her breath right at my ear.
And she's right, the arrow hit exactly right at the forehead. The body fell backwards with blood spilling all over the floor when we come closer, I can feel bile rising to my throat as I try and remove the arrow from the infecteds head. Some fungal growth was visible on its body and face.
"Creepy," I mutter to myself.
"So much for that," Nicky shrugs, "let's go."
Nicky and Lorna walk ahead, Alex and I walk behind them not really knowing the way. Alex takes my hand and walks in rhythm with me, "Hey kid, how you holding up?"
"I'm fine."
"You were looking a little green, pulling out that arrow."
"Just a little but I'm okay."
"You're doing a good job," I look at her a little surprised at where this was all coming from but Alex kept her eyes trained ahead, "I thought you should know."
"I try not to let you down, especially where our lives depend on it."
She smiles then sighs, "I know, I'm try to say thanks. Especially when mom died because I think the world would have ended earlier if you'd left, well my world at least," I grip her hand a little harder when she finishes.
"Well you did mash a few heads for my sake," she chuckles when I say that, "it's probably not the most romantic thing you've done but it's up there."
We're both laughing a little now and Alex turn to look at me and kiss my cheek.
We snap out of our little world when we hear Nicky's voice, "We're here by the way," she's raising an eyebrow and smirking at us, "I see y'all bat for the softball team."
"Before you start with your kinsley scale lecture," Alex quickly says before I can say a word, "where the hell are we?"
Being too preoccupied, I hadn't noticed that we were in a large room with multiple large windows, a bad place to be hiding out. Hard to defend and easy to spot, "This can't be it?"
"Relax you two, see that big window," Nicky points at where Lorna is standing looking out, "well there's a little platform where we placed a plank to the other building."
"It's all clear Nicky," Lorna says while climbing over the window.
I follow suit with Nicky in front of me and Alex behind. The distance wasn't close, I'm sure I wouldn't reach it by jumping but the plank looked sturdy enough to cross.
"Be careful crossing, it's going to be a little shaky," Lorna warns as she crosses to the other side.
"We've had some practice," I say in response.
/
Alex
The hideout had some good defences, the building window was the only way in or out, with the stairs to the building completely barricaded with desks, cabinets, and chairs. We also moved the plank to this side of the building in case anyone spotted it.
"Look I get that it's hard to trust a couple of strangers but relax Alex," I turn around to find Nichols, with her arms crossed.
"Vause," I say in an attempt to be less hostile, if we're gonna be stuck with them for awhile then it might be best to build some trust, "my name's Alex Vause."
Approaching from the right Piper joins in, "And I'm Piper Chapman," in all innocence and trust extends her hand to shake Nichols'.
"Blondie's starting to grow in me actually," Nichols teases with a smirk and Piper shoves her shoulder a little as they both laugh.
"Oh we have some food and water, you want some?"
Almost simultaneously Piper says yes as I, contrarily, say no. "I'm not that hungry," I say to ease the look of confusion on Piper's face. Nichols guides Piper to where Morello is opening a bag of berries before she comes back beside me.
"Relax, we're safe."
"So why haven't you left?"
"We were headed for those quarantine zones in the news but…" she pauses and sighs, "well let's say that didn't work out."
"You're just gonna wait here?"
"We'd leave," she starts walking towards a small window on the wall and wave for me to follow, "but see that's the exit we want to use. Those bastards congregate down there everyday guarding that gate for any stragglers to steal their stuff."
"Why this exit?"
"The main gate leads to the highway, it's blocked, by the military, they're no better than these guys," there's a vague look of hate on Nichols face as she says this.
"You're waiting it out?"
"Kind of. We're waiting for an opening."
"And?"
"I'm thinking you guys might be our opening."
I furrow my eyebrows at her, my mouth in a delicate straight line, "How?"
"See at night those fuckers are down to the skeleton crew, sneak right past 'em if we take out a few guards with yo girls shooting."
I think over that plan for a while before sighing out loud, knowing we didn't really have much of a choice. But having Piper's hands dirty with blood was something I wanted to avoid entirely. When I worked with the cartel, I tried not to get her too involved, just enough to reassure Kubra she wouldn't turn us into the feds.
"We'll see."
Nichols nods in acceptance to my response. I cross my arms in thought awhile more before I turn back to sit with Piper, continuing to keep silent, not really knowing how I could possibly explain that she needs to shoot people, actual people not infected ones.
"Everything okay Al?" Piper began.
"Yeah of course, why wouldn't it be?"
"Just… nevermind," she pauses, she can probably tell something was up and I wasn't telling her, she continues, "So what's the plan?"
Nichols sits down beside Morello and I sigh, here we go. Nichols starts explaining.
"We were thinking of sneaking past them at night, they have a few people on patrol but nearly half of them will be gone but th-" I cut her off.
"But the thing is we need to look for a path first, tonight."
I see Nichols glare at me but I refuse to back down. Piper looks at us, eyebrows raised and maybe a little suspicious, "Sounds like a good idea," she finally says somewhat unsure and hesitant.
February 1, 2003
Location unknown
Piper
There's a certain buzz in my head that I can't shake, like a hangover where you refuse to wake up but the light sips in only making it worse, so I slowly open my eyes and take in my surrounding. What happened? Where am I? In front of me is a brick wall with two small windows, completely unfamiliar. As I whack my brain trying to remember, flashes of yesterday night roll in like a movie in my head, when I hear a sound from behind me.
I turn around on my knees to inspect where the noise came from but I found myself in a caged room, a fence keeping me inside. The sound goes off again and my eyes widen in fear and shock once I see where it came from.
Arms and legs, human ones…
"Shit."
The man butchering the dead body stops and turns to me, I drop to the ground backwards. Shit shit shit I'm going to die, he's gonna kill me too. But unexpectedly he stabs the butcher knife onto the wooden table and walks out the door.
To say that everything went pretty damn badly last night would be an understatement.
/
We had gone to look for a vantage point to plan for the escape operation and to see what the usual activities of the hunters were at night. Our team had gone around to use a taller building, a perfect spot for observation. Unbeknownst to us the building was swarming with infected, we made a break for it out the emergency exit and jumped on a warehouse roof. To make things worse the warehouse was one of the hunter's hideouts. The noise from running on the roof alerted the hunters, half of them came after us, the other defending against the infected horde that we had unintentionally drawn to them.
As the hunters started shooting at us, we turned towards a side alley beside the warehouse, bad idea. A trailer crashed on high wall, a dead end, two buildings beside us and no way forward. Nicky started to return fire, killing the first one to catch up.
"Shit, we're sitting ducks here."
"Over here!" we turn to Alex, she raised her shotguns butt and slammed it on the glass window, "Inside now!"
We entered another office building, almost completely black without any moonlight to illuminate the room.
Alex grabbed my hand and bolted for a nearby cubicle, "Down down."
I mirrored Alex crouching down, I let out my bow just in case. Alex placed her shotgun on her bag's makeshift holster, held on instead to her revolver. Not too long after, we heard footsteps on the broken glass of the window. Alex quietly broke from cover to aim, using the shadow and unadjusted eyes of the hunters to our advantage. She took the shot downing one guy but alerted the other of her location. I saw the other guy move for his shotgun aimed for her direction and I tackled Alex to the ground hoping to avoid any bullets.
Another two gunshots ring, I looked up to see Nicky having shot the other guy down.
"Ugh, shit."
Nicky goes to check if there are anymore and I turned my attention to a groaning Alex, my flashlight on.
"Fuck!" she got hit, blood sipping out of her left shoulder, "Alex you're bleeding."
"It's nothing fatal, just… shit," her face contorted in pain. I remember the first aid kit we had packed in my bag before we left her mom's apartment and scramble around my bag looking for it.
I took the bandage, "Al just bare with me, we need to stop the bleeding, I'm gonna move you sideways okay?" I moved her to lay on her right side as she shut her eyes close from the pain, I lift her arm up and started wrapping the cloth tightly around the wound.
"We're clear for now, how's Vause blondie?" Nicky asks behind me.
"Okay, there. That should hold," I say after securing the bandage, "Al can you stand?"
"Yeah."
"Alright c'mon, there's probably more of those guys coming."
I help Alex up and over the window, I saw a half ladder on the side of the trailer and called for everyone's attention, "Look over there, we should be able to reach that with a boost."
I stood under the truck, hands held together just as Alex did when we climbed the balcony.
"Nicky you first, you can keep an eye out," Nicky nods and sets her foot on my hands, the other on my shoulder as she reached for the ladder. Next was Lorna who had some trouble reaching the high trailer until Nicky grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
Then not too far we heard voices, "Where are those guys?!"
"Shit come on Al, hurry."
Alex stepped on my hands and I push her up, her hands reaching for leverage, she grips tightly on but the ladder breaks off just in time for Nicky to catch Alex's hand and with the help of Lorna, they pulled her up to safety.
"We need something to help her climb up," Alex says above, all three of them looking around for anything that could help but came up short.
"Hey! There they are!" one of the hunter's shout.
Alex and Nicky start shooting, the hunter taking cover to defend themselves.
"Just go! I'll find a way around," I tell them as I moved towards the building we used hoping it might lead me to the other side.
"Piper!"
"You need to get that shoulder fixed, Nicky you take care of her, find a good hiding spot," I mustered all the resolve I have to hide the fear in my expression, "I'll be fine. See you soon."
I jumped over the window and quickly try and navigate for a strategic hiding spot as Alex did, for when they came looking for me. I noticed the body of one of the hunters had a wrist watch, I hastily take it as I waited for the firing outside to stop.
After about three minutes the gunfight ceases, ten minutes and I'll move on. Not long after I heard a few men talking, I'm not entirely sure how many but I could tell there's at least three.
"You go and tell the boss, you with me, there's one more here."
I could hear them entering the building, I hope they look past here and moved on.
"Search the area."
Fuck.
Near the window I could see the profile of a bottle, very carefully I moved towards it. From what I could see there were two hunters, one was walking towards a hallway I could use to get around the other side and the other looking around. I grabbed the bottle and threw it out the window. The glass breaking creating a loud sound.
"What was that?!"
"It was outside, bitch is escaping through the window. After her!"
They ran off thinking I had snuck by them and high tailed for the highway. I took this opportunity, silently headed for the hallway outside the room. I turn on my flashlight as I searched for an exit that hopefully would get me to the other side.
I noticed from the different rooms that this wasn't just an office building, it was a research lab. I entered one of the room both searching for anything I could use and navigating for an exit. I found some files and a lighter that I pocketed in with my knife.
The files were of people, subjects to some experiment. There was also a recorder next to the files I had found with a label, Dr. Vaughn. A deep male voice came from it when I pressed play.
"November 20, 2001… nearly a dozen dead, still no vaccine… we have a promising subject, looks like the cordyceps have mutated, x-rays show a non invasive growth in the brain… we have to find a way to replicate this in the lab…"
Well that explains why they set up the lab in a town as small as this one. I wondered if this was the place where it all started.
I walked around the table looking at all the items left behind. Lost in the recent information I had found and what it meant, I didn't notice a box and tripped on it. Trying to catch myself, my hand slammed on something made of glass on the table.
"Agh! Shit." I look at my bleeding hand, a mixture of glass, blood, and some yellow liquid. I remove the pieces of glass and take a bottle of water from my pack to pour a little on my wounded hand, then my handkerchief to wrap it around. Once I secured the cloth on I went to look at what I had tripped on.
A box of…, I think to myself as I open the top, more files, my eyes widened in realization from the thick layers of paper, a lot more files. Nearly a hundred in here, how many people died in these experiments?
Clang!
"She might still be in here. Keep your eyes peeled."
Shit. I've over stayed here. Gotta get out quick, before those assholes find me. I turn off my flashlight to keep hidden. I could see two lights, one headed for the room I was in and the other in the room opposite this one.
Okay, calm down. I used one hand to search around the top table as I crouch down, a test tube and beaker. I took both items and wait for the hunters to circle halfway around the large table then threw both items back down the hall.
"You hear that?"
"Yeah."
"Let's check it out."
Once I see them walk far enough sneak to the far corner door on the other side of the room and slip away. At the end of the hallway is a door. Thank god.
I exit the building quietly and push a dumpster by the side of the building to block the door.
"Now where the fuck do I go?"
A/N: Take a guess what Piper actually smashed while in that lab ;)