Chapter Seven: Drama At Bahama Mamas


Gen stood at the shop's window, watching the sky change from the dark, star-speckled velvet of night to the soft, purple-grey silk of dawn. The chilly November breeze exhaled through the broken window, tugging at her dark auburn hair. The world was quiet and still.

She had always enjoyed dawn, standing on her apartment balcony with a cup of spice tea, waiting for the sun and listening to the sounds of a city stirring to life. Those had always been peaceful moments. But she felt no peace now, even in the silence. There was only dread and uncertainty. And anger. Anger at the loss of their God-given right, the liberty to live life and enjoy living it; anger at the loss of normalcy; anger at the untold destruction and death around them. Sharp, cold anger.

"I thought I told you an hour and no longer?"

Gen turned from the window. Niko stood up from his chosen mattress, stretching out the kinks and stiffness that came with sleeping on an uncomfortable bed. She wished he had slept longer. She was still irritated from their conversation last night and wasn't looking forward to dealing with him.

Gen looked back outside. The sky was brightening a little more; there was a hint of gold now among the grey. "You're rested, aren't you? Stop complaining."

He frowned, but chose the higher road to avoid a spat. "Has the kid come around yet?"

She sighed. "No. She should've woken up by now, or at least twitched or something in her sleep, but she hasn't done anything."

"We have to move on, Gen. We can't stay here another night."

"I know that." She faced him again, this time with a stern expression. "We aren't leaving her here."

Niko looked downright offended. "I wasn't suggesting that we should."

"With you, one can never be sure."

"You think I'm that cold?"

Gen spread her hands with a helpless shrug. "Hey, you're the one who told me to think the worst of you."

Niko made a face. Sleep had made him forget about that. "Whatever. I have no intention of leaving her."

She snorted. "I'm surprised you're even sharing your intentions with me at all. It must be so painful for you."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure it out."

"Already?" a groggy voice joined them. It was Bernie. The man sat up a bit on his mattress, an elbow supporting him as he yanwed into a hand. "It is way too early in the morning for this."

"He started it," Gen accused.

Niko was confused and it showed plainly on his face. "What the hell...? All I did was wake up."

"Typical man," Gen said, rolling her eyes. "So stupid he doesn't know what he did."

Niko shot her the darkest, most unpleasant look he could muster. It was horribly impressive.

"Enough, Gen," Bernie warned with a grim tone. "That's the look he gives people before he kills them."

"It's not my fault he's such a..." She trailed off, realizing what Bernie had said. People, she thought. He said people, not freaks. He always calls the lunatics freaks. Her face became confused. "What people? What do mean, 'before he kills them'?"

Niko gave Bernie a look that screamed, Don't you say another fucking word. He did not need this, not now; the woman already made his life hell. This was certain to make it even worse.

Unfortunately, before he could even open his mouth to fix what Bernie had started, Bernie blanched and fumbled to fix it himself. And succeeded in making things considerably worse.

"I just meant...I...That was before!" He waved his hands around, excitedly. "He doesn't kill people anymore!"

Gen gaped. "Anymore!?"

"Ooh, for fuck's sake, Bernie!" Niko cried at him. He could not believe this. The cat hadn't been let out of the bag; that poor thing was ripped out.

"I'm-I'm sorry!" fretted Bernie. "It just came out!"

Gen looked between them for a moment, then she burst into laughter. The men stared at her as if she'd gone off the deep end. "Okay, you guys actually had me going there for a second," she said. "Good one."

Bernie laughed, too. It was shrill. "Just pulling your leg!"

Gen, being a cop, knew how to read most people, but she didn't have to put in much effort with Bernie; he was as transparent as they come. The smile on her face was gone, as if slapped off, and it was replaced by an appalled expression as she realized, "Oh, my God...you're not kidding."

Silence descended as both men found the floor of sudden interest.

Gen had to sit down. Then she had to stand up and pace. Then she laughed again because the whole damn thing was unbelievable. Unbelievable, but there was not a peep of denial from Niko. "God...I don't even know what to think! I mean, what are you, a fucking serial killer? Is that what you both can't say?"

"He was a hired gun," Bernie said, trying to be helpful.

Niko shot him a blistering look. Friend or not, he looked ready to tear his head off.

Bernie shrugged, helplessly. "What? She already knows."

"Thanks to your big fucking mouth!"

Bernie cringed and looked guiltily at his feet. "I'm sorry," he squeaked.

Gen had to sit down again. She leaned on her knees, covering her face with her hands. "I can't believe this. All this time." She dropped her hands, scowling at Niko. "All this damn time! You were...this...and you could've...and I thought you were..." Gen laughed again, despite feeling like an idiot for ever believing what she had of him last night. "So, how many?"

The question threw him. "What?"

"How many people have you killed?"

"I am not answering that, Gen."

"Why the hell not? No need being shy about it now."

"Because I didn't exactly keep track."

Gen scoffed. "Of course not."

"It ain't what you think," Niko said in defense. While it was true he had taken quite a few lives, he hadn't been the kind of indiscriminate, sadistic killer he knew Gen was thinking he was. It was stupid to want her to understand that, but he couldn't help it; she was condemning him before she knew the whole story. But maybe she couldn't help it, either. She may have been annoying, but she was a morally upstanding person; the world was black and white to her and he lived in the grey area, between right and wrong, good and evil. It was the worst place for any human being to be.

Gen gave him an icy look. "Oh, it's not? So, you weren't getting paid to off people?"

The man's face hardened like stone. "I was, but it was a complicated situation; I didn't have a choice and I enjoyed none of it."

"I'm sure. When you kill someone, you're making a choice to do it. Saying it isn't a choice is just denying responsibility for it."

"Then you're no different than me. How many people have you killed since all this shit started, Gen?"

"Fuck you, you bag of shit! I took lives in self-defense!"

Niko loomed over the woman, dark and angry as a storm. "And I did what I did because I was forced; it was either kill or be killed or watch the people I care about die! I was forced into a position I never wanted to be in, a position where the only way to survive was to become involved with people a hell of a lot worse than me, and I've had my fucking conscience ripped apart because of it. Not all of us has had an easy life, like you; not all of us were given choices in life, like you."

"Don't presume to know anything about me."

"And don't presume anything about me! If I truly was what you think I am, do you honestly think for a second that you would still be alive after you doped me up? I am not what you think, Gen."

"So you say."

"So I say," Niko seethed. "And you're still breathing."

"All right, I've had quite enough!" Bernie erupted.

Niko and Gen stared at him in surprise. Bernie rarely rose his voice in anger; Bernie rarely got angry.

The slight man faced Gen, his expression hard. "Now you listen to me, missy. I have known Niko for a long time. He has walked through hell and he has been made to do terrible things by the worst pieces of scum on the planet and by unfortunate circumstances. He has made mistakes, but mistakes only make him human. He has always been a good man and a good friend-"

"But-"

Bernie shot up a hand. "I'm not done talking!" he cut her off. "Despite all of it, he has had the courage and strength to turn his life around. He is not the person he once was."

"How do I know that?" Gen asked.

"Because I'm telling you, hon, that's why. Because I know him. Besides, he saved your life at the hospital, and when you were nothing more than strangers. Would a bad person do that?"

Gen shook her head. She was so utterly confused. What Bernie said made sense, but... "I don't know! I don't know what to think."

"Give him the benefit of the doubt. People can change, Gen."

Before Gen could reply, there was a soft sound nearby - her name, spoken on the whispering lips of a child.

The trio looked toward the sound and found the girl shifting about on the mattress, whimpering. "Gen...?"

The woman went to her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Gen reached out and brushed away the hair on Eve's forehead. "I'm here, baby girl. How are you feeling?"

Eve rubbed at her eyes. "I had a bad dream. The strange woman we saw was in it. She had eggs. I think they were bad, because they were black and gross. And she made people eat them. They got sick, started throwing up and stuff. Then they started changing, started looking like her. It was weird."

"It was just a dream. It's over now," Gen assured her.

Eve stared at her, her blonde brows wrinkled. "The woman in my dream said it's just beginning."


The streets remained deserted; it seemed the lunatics were still hanging out in Star Junction.

The group hadn't spoken a word to each other since leaving the shop. After Bernie's graceless and unintentional disclosure of Niko's past, Gen had gone out of her way to avoid the man and kept Eve as far away from him as possible, still uncertain of what to believe. While it was true Niko had saved her life not once but twice, he had threatened to kill her before, too. She wondered if people like him really could change; she wondered if it was safe to trust him.

The strip club they had risked their lives to reach sat on a street corner. It was a two-story building with a faded billboard and a dead neon sign along its side that read Bahama Mamas. There was a handful of people on the roof, men and women, and all armed with rifles.

As the quartet approached, they noticed the front doors had been barricaded with two vans that had either been driven or pushed into place. All the windows on the bottom floor had been boarded up as well.

"Hey, down there!" The call came from the roof.

They group looked up to see a man with a rifle kneeling on the raised ledge, staring down at them.

"Hey, up there!" Gen called back, raising a hand. "We come in peace!"

"You guys just passing through?" the man asked.

"Actually, we thought we might stay for a bit. You got room for four more?"

"There's a fire escape around back in an alley. Climb on up!"

The man was waiting for them when they made it up to the roof, smiling. The other men and women offered the newcomers brief, curious or distrustful looks before returning to their guard duty.

"Hey," the smiling man greeted. Gen thought he was a good-looking guy with his well-defined features, brown hair, blue eyes, and dimply smile. "You guys been on the streets long?"

"A couple of days," Gen answered. "Trying to get here."

"Well, you're the first we've had in a while, so you've got to be some tough people."

"There haven't been others coming in off the streets?" she asked.

The man's smile faded. "No, not really. Most of the people staying with us now are ones our original group came across during supply runs, or ones we rescued from the Reds."

"Reds?"

The man shrugged. "That's what we're calling the crazies out there, for the color of their eyes."

"We like to refer to them as lunatics, or loonies." Gen said.

"Or freaks," Bernie added.

The man chuckled. "All good names for them. Anyway, our group here started out with only five. We grew to thirty, but we've lost people, to suicide and Red attacks during our supply runs. We're around twenty now."

"That ain't much of an army," Niko observed.

The man gave him a confused look. "Pardon?"

"We assumed you were building one to purge the lunatics," Gen said. "I came across a guy who'd spoken to someone who'd been here. He seemed to think you were raising an army, said you had a lot of people and an arsenal at your disposal."

"The latter's true," he admitted. "But we're not building an army. We're building a defense. It would be stupid to take on the Reds when there's more of them than us, especially when they're damn near invincible. Hell, the actual army couldn't fend them off. We wouldn't last two seconds."

"You guys are just planning to stay here?" Gen asked.

The man shrugged. "What else are we supposed to do? This building is built like a fortress; strong, stone walls. We've barricaded every door and window at street level, inside and out. The only access inside is to climb up to the roof by the fire escape. We've had it out with several small wandering groups of Reds here, and we've destroyed them every time. It helps to have a building between you and them, and the barricades give us extra time to pop heads; that's the only way they die."

Gen nodded. "We've noticed."

"You've destroyed them every time because you have been lucky the groups were small," Niko said. "You won't be able to hold them off if they come with a larger force."

"Well, from what we've seen so far, they only attack when they see us," the man said. "They don't plan attacks on us."

"That doesn't mean they don't gather in larger numbers. There's a mob around Middle Park that's at least fifty strong. We saw two hordes of at least a hundred yesterday, moving to Star Junction where there were thousands. Tens of thousands; a fucking army of them."

The man wasn't surprised by this. His face was grim as he nodded. "Yeah, they've gathered like this before, the day after the military retreated. The Reds were acting stranger than usual, traveling with intent rather than moving around aimlessly, so a few of us went to investigate. That's when we saw some weird woman in Star Junction. We think she's the one gathering them together, calling to them somehow. And both times this gathering has happened, we've all felt strange and heard a voice in our heads that we think was her. She's like...an advanced version of them or something."

"We felt it and heard it, too," said Gen. "We were there at the gathering yesterday, hiding up on a roof. Whatever it was that happened there, it gave our girl here a seizure and gave the rest of us nose bleeds."

"The same thing happened to us, and our kids had seizures, too. One of the survivors here thinks the Reds and their woman are all communicating at these gatherings, with each other or maybe with the ones on the other islands. Could be both. For some reason, they don't or can't talk, so maybe this is the only way they can speak to each other."

Gen rose a brow. "Telepathically, you mean?"

The man shrugged. "Yeah. Hey, it may sound crazy, but it happened. We all heard the same voice in our heads, so we all can't be nuts. And that voice...it spoke some kind of weird langauge. That survivor who thinks they're communicating? He's a professor of linguistics and he says there's no language like that anywhere on civilized Earth, unless it's from some primitive tribe unknown to the rest of society, which is highly unlikely. Then we got one lady who thinks they're all aliens and a priest who says they're possessed by demons. So, you know, we got a variety of speculation going."

"Speculation ain't answers," Niko said. And he wanted some goddam answers for this madness.

The man frowned at him. "No, but I guess you could always go up to that weird woman and ask her yourself if you want. I'm sure she'll provide you with the truth."

Niko gave the man a peevish look; he was not in the mood for this. "Don't get fucking smart with me."

Gen sighed. "Do you just have a bad habit of making an enemy of everyone you meet?"

"I didn't ask for him to be a smartass."

"And no one asked for you to be an asshole."

"Go to hell."

"You first."

The stranger stared between them, brows raised.

Bernie gave him an apologetic smile. "Don't mind them. They're always like this."

The stranger shrugged. "Well, I guess I should take you guys to see Cole."

"Cole?" Gen asked.

"Coleman Ignacio, the man who runs the show here."

The woman's face became a mask of shock. "Coleman Ignacio..." It had been years since she'd heard that name, and she had never wanted to hear it again. "God. Is this guy a former cop, by any chance?"

"Yeah." The man's brows rose in surprise. "You know him?"

She smiled thinly. "I'll say. He was my partner a few years back."

"Really? He'll probably be glad to see you, then."

Gen snorted. "With our history? Highly doubtful."

"Why am I not surprised you have bad histoy with someone?" Niko remarked.

Gen scowled at him. "Shut your damn face, Niko!"

Niko made no counter, but he looked damn well pleased with himself for ruffling her feathers.

"Cole is a good man," the stranger said. "We would've died out there if he hadn't taken us in."

"He's not as good a man as you think," cautioned Gen.

He shrugged. "Whatever his past was, it doesn't matter here. So, whatever your problem is with him, it would be best for you to set it aside while you're with us. We like to keep things peaceful; it's chaotic enough out there."

"I can try, I guess." But she wasn't making any promises.

The man led them all through the roof door and down a flight of stairs. They came to a hallway, dimly lit by a few of the oil lamps hung on the walls. Midway, their guide stopped before a door where soft moaning and heavy breathing could be heard.

The man knocked. "Cole-"

"Oh, for Christ's Sake!" came an irritated voice. That was Cole all right; Gen knew that vexed voice anywhere. "I'm in the middle of something! Deeply in the middle of something!"

"Sorry, man, but we just got some new ones in a minute ago; they're here with me now. I think you might be interested...you know one of them," the stranger said.

A long pause, then, "All right, give me a minute."

There were some rustling noises, a feminine giggle, a lot of muffled cursing, and then the door opened. A woman with mussed, dark hair stepped out, straightening her shirt. She avoided eye contact as she made her way down the hall.

"Send them in," Cole called.

The stranger stepped away from the door, gesturing Gen and the others into the room.

Coleman Ignacio was a tall, handsome man with a head full of curly black hair. He was dark-eyed, clean-shaven, lean, and fit. The black shirt he wore was unbuttoned half-way down his chest, sloppy and untucked from his blue jeans. He leaned back against a desk with his arms crossed.

The moment he saw Gen, his face showed an expression of unpleasant surprise, then a dark smile twisted his mouth.

"Geneviève," he said, giving her name an unnecessary, dramatic flourish. "The French Bitch."

She offered him a thin, cold smile "I've missed you, too."

"If you're here, God must really hate me."

"Everybody hates you, so it's no surprise God would, too."

"The woman who just left would disagree; I'm sure you could hear how much she wasn't hating me a moment ago."

Bernie gasped, putting his hands over Eve's ears. Too little, too late.

Gen rolled her eyes. "I'm sure she was probably drugged, or insane."

"Which were you, Genny, drugged or insane? I remember how much you used to 'hate' me. You used to 'hate' me a lot in the back of our cruiser, and on every solid surface of our apartments."

She bristled. "Ancient fucking history."

"You know, I'm surprised you're alive. Before the city went to shit, I'd heard you'd been shot in the head by a child molester."

"I don't die easy, apparently."

A light frown creased Cole's face and there was a strange glimmer in his dark eyes. Was that disappointment Gen saw? "No, I suppose not. So, I guess you'll be wanting to stay here?"

"I did until I found out you were here. But I got them to think about, too." She waved a hand at the others. "So, yeah, we'll be staying. For now."

He laughed. "This should be interesting. And just so you know, I will be putting you and your friends here to good use."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means everybody who stays here does something to help out; it's what people do in a community. And it's a small price to pay for safety."

"Is that the only price they're all paying?" Gen asked, suspiciously. The man was not known for being selfless. Considering the extent he was going to help these people, he had to be getting something phenomenal out of it.

Cole rose a brow. "What exactly are you getting at?"

"Come on, we both know you're not doing all this for nothing. So, what's the grand prize?"

Cole feigned a wounded look. "I'm hurt, Genny. People can change, you know."

"They can," she agreed. "But you and your like are the exception. People like you never change."

Cole shrugged. "You'll see how wrong you are soon enough." He smiled. "You may even come to like the new me."

"No, I won't. I haven't forgotten what you did, Cole. I have never forgotten and I have no intention of forgiving, either. You should've been convicted for what you did; you should be rotting in a fucking prison cell!"

He smiled. "Innocent until proven guilty, Genny; there was no evidence."

"Only because you paid someone to 'misplace' all of it."

Cole laughed. "Regardless, it doesn't matter what you think. The people here like me, they chose me to lead them. So, you might want to start acting civil towards me or you and your friends may find yourselves up against more than just the Reds outside."

"That better not be a threat," Niko responded with a tone of harsh warning.

Cole looked at him, unmoved. "Threat? No. Consider it helpful advice. Well, I suppose it would be wrong of me to send all of you away just because of some bad history with Genny, so meet Connor here..." He gestured to the stranger they'd met on the roof, who was standing in the open doorway. "He's the second in command, so he's going to show you where to sleep and explain the rules. He'll also assign you to whatever task he thinks you're fit for. Oh, and Genny?" He grinned, but there was something awful in it. "It's good to see you alive and well."


Connor showed them to a room down the hall that had been converted into sleeping quarters for the people. It was set up with so many cots there was hardly any space to manuever between them. There was a single window towards the back that let some light in, and several oil lamps and battery-operated lanterns had been hung on the walls to provide light at night.

"Would you guys prefer to bunk together?" the man asked.

"Whatever's convenient," Gen replied.

Eve clung to Gen's arm, staring up at the man, shyly. "I want to stay with Gen."

"Easily done, kid," Connor replied, then pointed to a corner of the room. "We got four cots free over there. They're all yours. But before you all get settled in, let's get the rules out of the way."

"Lay it on us," Gen said, smiling.

"There's only three we want followed," Connor went on. "The first is no stealing. We don't tolerate it. The things we have are the things that have kept us alive, and people have risked life and limb to get them. The second rule is to keep civil. If you have a problem with someone, take it up with Cole and he'll settle it. We can't afford in-fighting."

Gen's smile turned thin. "What if the person we have a problem with is Cole?"

Connor shrugged. "You'll just have to get over it. He's our leader and that's not going to change. The last rule, do your job. Whatever I assign you to do, do it and don't complain about it. We need people to chip in so things get done when we need them done. We like things to run like clockwork. So, that's it; anything else is just common sense and hopefully you guys have plenty of that."

"Sounds simple and fair to me," Bernie spoke.

"I agree," Gen added.

Eyes fell on Niko. He shrugged. "I guess I can force myself."

"Great," Connor said. "You guys got any questions or anything?"

Gen looked around at the others. Receiving only blank faces, she glanced back at Connor and shrugged. "Nope. We're good."

"All right. We'll get to the assignments tomorrow when you're all rested up. You need anything, you let me know."

With that, the man took his leave, closing the door behind him.

Gen chose the cot closest to the wall, dropping her backpack on the floor beside it. Pulling the strap of her M-16 from her shoulder, she sat the weapon aside and stretched back on her cot while the others situated themselves on their own.

"So, Gen," Bernie spoke up. "What is the story with you and Cole? He made it sound like you two were an item at one point."

Gen waved a dismissive hand in the air. "It was a long time ago and it's not worth talking about."

"What happened, Gen?" Niko asked. Gen glanced at him. The man was smiling and it wasn't the smile she liked; it was smug and Gen knew something smart-alecky was about to leave his stupid mouth. "You annoy him until he couldn't stand you anymore, too?"

She narrowed her eyes. One of these days, Niko, I'm going rearrange your face and you're never going to see it coming. She smiled, sweetly. "No, I've reserved my powers of annoyance just for someone like you. Actually, I think I'm going to make annoying you my mission in life."

"You're getting a good start at it," Niko retorted.

Gen chortled. "I know."

"Is this going to be a problem for us, this hostility between you and him?" he asked.

She shrugged a shoulder. "I'm not going to antagonize him, if that's what you mean. He made it clear what's going to happen if I cross him."

"I still want to know what happened," Bernie prompted.

"Not important, Bern."

"It is," he said. "Or you wouldn't still be mad at him after so many years. Come on, you can tell us. We are all friends."

The woman sighed. "He was just a bad cop, a bad person."

"What made him bad?"

"The things he did."

"What did he do?"

Gen groaned. "You're not going to give up, are you?"

Bernie offered his buffoonish grin. "Nope."

She sat up, facing him. "Fine, I'll tell you, then I don't want to hear about it anymore. Got it?"

Eager, Bernie nodded.

"The short version is he was a dirty cop, involved with some drug pushers, heroin dealers. He would warn them when the cops were sniffing around, and helped them distribute the skag, all for a cut of the profits. I knew a few people in the vice unit and he knew that, too. And he knew how I felt...about him. So, he took advantage of it. And I unknowingly fed him information that eventually got my friends in vice killed. That's when I knew."

"And you ratted him out," Niko said.

She shot him a glare. "Yeah, I ratted him out, and I'd do it again."

The man frowned. "I didn't mean that the way it sounded, Gen. Even I can admit you did the right thing."

She scoffed, angrily. "I know I did the right thing and I particularly don't need some murdering bastard's opinion of what's right and wrong." And as soon as those words left her mouth, she knew it was unfair; she was lashing out at him when it should've been Bernie for bringing this up. Unhealed wounds were painful enough; poking around in them only made them hurt worse.

Gen shook her head, guiltily. "I-"

"Murdering bastard I may be," Niko cut her off with a chilly look. "But at least I've never killed my friends."

She stared at him, stricken, but she said not a word. Gen rose sharply from her spot, and Niko expected to get hit; he'd crossed the line, he saw that clearly. But he got nothing but her pained look and her silence, and then she was gone from the room, slamming the door behind her. He kind of wished she'd struck him; somehow, she'd made silence and a look seem a lot worse in comparison.

Eve jumped off her cot, glaring hellfire at the man. "Why are you so horrible!?" she shouted, but she didn't wait for an answer. Maybe she knew she wasn't going to get one.

The girl tore off for the door and it slammed for the second time.

The two males were left alone, and there was an awkward silence.

Bernie broke it at last with, "You sure have a way with the females, Niko."

Niko shot him a withering look. "Shut the hell up."

"You should not have said that to her, no matter what she said to you."

"I know. What can I say? I'm an asshole."


Gen and Eve returned later, after dark, and the woman's mood was gloomier than it had been when she'd left earlier.

Some of the oil lamps in the room had been lit to ward off the black of night, and a few of the children and older survivors were getting ready for bed. Over in the corner, Bernie was lying back on his cot, head propped up on a pillow and one of his romance novels open in front his face. Niko was stretched out on his own cot with his hands folded behind his head, dozing by the look of him.

Gen ushered Eve over and put the kid to bed, draping one of the blankets they had been provided with over her, as well as a throw blanket the woman had taken from the furniture shop. After saying their goodnights, Gen got up from the cot and went to stand over Niko, nothing pleasant on her face.

She shoved his leg with her knee. "You awake?"

The man opened his eyes, drowsily. "I am now."

"I'm going to speak with Cole. Thought you might want to be there for it."

"So I can listen to you two argue? No, thanks. I get more than enough of that from you and me."

"Actually, I set up this meeting with him for you, to see if he knows a way to get you into Broker. Just thought you might have your own questions for him."

That surprised and confused him. Who was this woman to still go out of her way to help him after he had spoken so cruel to her earlier? Surprised and confused he was, but now he also felt like a jerk, more than he already did. "...Oh."

"Are you coming or what?" Her tone was full of impatience.

"Yes."

The man stood from his cot, and they headed out.

"Try not to kill each other!" Bernie called to them, grinning over the top of his book.

Gen waved a dismissive hand over her head.

She and the man traversed the hallway, lit with the orange glow of the lamps hanging on the walls. There was an awkward, tense silence along for the short journey, a silence that was somehow louder than noise.

Niko was gracious enough to break it, and to try to make amends while he was at it. "Uh...Gen, about earlier-"

"Don't."

"I'm just trying to-"

"No."

"Would you just-"

"No!"

Niko sighed. That went real well.

He grabbed her arm to stop her. Gen jerked away. She knew what he was trying to do, and she didn't want him to do it.

"Calm down, and just hear me out," Niko said.

"What part of 'no' don't you understand?"

"I'm trying to apologize, you stupid woman!" he yelled at her, frustrated.

"I know!" she yelled back. "I don't want you to fucking apologize!"

Well, now he was just confused. "I dont understand."

Gen stared at her feet. She sighed; it was long and drawn out and miserable. And this was the first time he'd seen her so vulnerable. "It hurt, what you said. But it wasn't the words themselves. It was the truth behind them. It hurt to face it and I was just mad because you showed it to me. I've always put the blame on Cole, because it's easier to blame someone else than face the truth. I told him things I shouldn't have, and that's what killed my friends."

"No, that is stupid. It ain't your-"

"I killed them." Her voice broke.

The guilt is too deep, Niko realized. There was nothing he could say that would convince her she wasn't to blame. "I'm sorry, Gen."

Gen turned away and started up the hall again. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

Niko joined her at the door to Cole's office. Gen banged a fist on it. "Oh, Cole! You have visitors!" she called.

A moment later and the door opened. Cole stood there, looking between the two in the hall and he didn't appear happy to see them. He stood to the side to let them in. "Let's get this over with."

Gen stepped past him. "You got a pressing engagement? Another woman you have to drug and rape?"

Cole laughed as he closed the door behind Niko. "Ooh, is that jealousy? I would've thought you'd moved on by now, Genny. You must've had it bad for me."

"What I had was a bad case of what-the-hell-was-I-thinking."

Cole grinned. "I thought that was the disease you had when you were engaged to that guy in the Noose unit...what was his name?" He waved a dismissive hand. "Well, fortunately for you, that mistake didn't last long, did it? The dumbshit got himself killed. How'd it happen again, Genny?"

She didn't answer. Her breathing turned heavy and her hands clenched into fists.

"No, wait, I remember," Cole went on, mercilessly. "It was during that bank heist in The Exchange back in '08, wasn't it? Your boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to charge after those three perps. He thought he would be a hero, but he ended up shot dead in some shitty Chinatown alleyway. Some fucking hero, eh?" He laughed.

In a fit of fury, Gen lunged at him. "You son of a bitch! I'll tear your fucking face off!"

Niko grabbed and restrained her as a cold, sick feeling coiled in the pit of his stomach.

The bank heist. It was the one he'd taken part in, he knew; the same year, the same place, three perps, and an escape through Chinatown's alleyways. There had been a lot of Noose officers charging after them that day. He had killed some, so had the others.

It could be me, Niko realized with horror. God help me, I might have killed the man she was to marry.

How could an enormous city be so cruelly small? Why must he be connected to this woman, of all people and in such a horrible way? The universe hated him, and he was really starting to hate the universe.

Gen could never know. He was going to have to talk to Bernie; he had told him about the heist once, and Bernie was prone to blabbing things he wasn't supposed to.

The woman growled, wiggling in his grip like an eel, and she directed her next enraged shouts at him. "Let go of me! I'm going to tear him apart!"

"No, you're not," he replied, his voice tight. "You need to calm down."

"Oh, I'll calm down after I rip his fucking spine out!"

He wheeled the woman around to him as Cole looked on in amusement. Niko tried to shake some sense into the hostile woman, and he found he couldn't look her in the eyes; he could hardly look at her at all. "Stop this. You're just giving him what he wants. Remember what we're here for and get it together."

Gen knew he was right. She hated it when he made sense. "Fine," she growled through her teeth. "Now get your fucking hands off me."

He released her and Gen turned back to Cole. Niko saw her hands clench into fists and was almost certain she was going to have another go at the man. Surprisingly enough, she kept herself in line.

"As much as it kills me inside to admit this," she said. "We need your help."

Another smirk paid a visit to Cole's mouth. "Why the hell should I help you?"

"You're not technically helping me. You're helping him." She gave a sharp nod at Niko. "He needs to get into Broker."

Cole laughed as he headed to the chair behind his desk, taking a seat. "For what reason?"

"His family is there."

Cole looked at Niko. "If they're even still alive, what are you going to do if you find them?"

Niko had no idea where he was going with these questions, but for the sake of the people he cared about, he humored the man. "Get them as far away from this shithole as possible."

"I thought so." Cole stretched a hand out across his desk, indicating the chairs in front of it. "Sit down. There's something you both should see."

Once they were seated, Cole lifted the screen on the laptop sitting before him on the desk. He looked at them as he waited for the computer to turn on. "The battery life on this thing is almost gone, so you're probably the last people who will see this. I've shown the others here, as well as anyone just passing through."

"What is it?" Gen asked, suspicious.

"The god-awful truth."

The laptop chimed to life and Cole clicked a few things, then turned the laptop so its screen faced them. There was a video player with a video waiting to be played.

"When the army arrived in the city, I knew shit was serious, so I turned to the internet to see just how serious it was. I was able to download these videos from a website just before the power went out," Cole told them as he reached around the laptop and fingered a key.

The video was grainy, likely recorded on a cheap cellphone, and it was shot from the inside of a building. It showed the Red Square in Moscow, where dozens and dozens of Russian soldiers were getting mobbed by a great horde of lunatics. The soldiers fired on the lunatics' front line, but with each lunatic that fell, another took its place. They moved like a tidal wave upon the armed men, rushing through them, mowing them down, ripping them apart. Their screams drowned out the sound of gunfire. A tank rolled through the scene, and the horde swarmed it, climbed it. They pulled a soldier from the hatch, and fought over him until he was pulled in half. A handful of lunatics broke from the main crowd, running toward the recorder. There was screen movement as the person backed away, shouting in Russian. The killers burst through the glass windows of the building, growling and bellowing in mindless rage. The recorder screamed. The video tumbled, then went still and black. The man's screams went on and on, at last ending in a watery, strangled moan. The sounds of shouting and shrieking and gunfire could still be heard.

Cole stopped the video, then played the others, one by one. And Gen and Niko watched in silent horror as army after army was torn to pieces and cities around the world fell to the lunatics.

When it was all done and over with, Cole shut off the laptop and sat back in his chair, watching them.

For several long moments, it was dead silent.

"The rumors were true," Gen said at last, her voice hardly above a whisper. "God help us."

Beside her, Niko fought a lump in his throat. The evidence that this madness was everywhere made him think of his mother, his sweet, caring, saint of a mother. He tried to convince himself that she was okay, she must be. She lived in a rural area, and it seemed the lunatics were mostly in highly populated cities. She would be safe, she had to be safe. There were neighbors and friends who would look out for her. Only neighbors and friends because her useless, idiot of a son was here; here, when he should have been there; here, because of the stupid mistakes and decisions he had made. He had never felt so utterly helpless in all his life.

"In light of what you've just seen, I think you should probably rethink your plan," Cole said. "There's no where to go. The entire world is a shithole."

Niko heard humor in the man's voice. Humor. And when he looked up at him, he saw it on his face. Cole was staring at him, smiling. Smiling when the world had descended into chaos; smiling when there was no hope; smiling when their lives would never be the same again; smiling like he didn't give a damn about any of it.

In a sudden, rage-induced burst of movement, Niko lunged across the desk and grabbed the man by the throat, squeezing the life from him. Cole's eyes popped wide. He wasn't fucking smiling now.

Gen was on him in a heartbeat, yanking at his arm. "Are you insane!? Stop!"

Blind in rage, Niko released a hand from the man's neck and swung it back at her. It connected. He didn't know where and he didn't care. Her grip left his arm and he reinforced his stranglehold on Cole's neck. The man struggled, gagging for air and clawing at his wrists. Tighter and tighter, Niko squeezed that neck until the muscles in his arms strained.

Then something slammed into the back of his head. He felt a moment of pain, and then the world went black.


A/N: To the guest reviewer asking about the McRearys: If anyone makes a cameo, it'll probably be *ugh* Gerald(not a Gerald fan). This story is set four years after IV, which is very close to V's timeline and I've tried to keep in line with that. Which is why there was mention of Packie being in San Andreas. SPOILER: Derrick is dead, according to Packie in V(I'm guessing suicide or drugs), so he's going to be dead here, too, along with Francis, who got what was coming to him. Lastly, thank you for the amazing compliment on the writing! :)

And I haven't forgotten you Alexisg200 and Cabralfan27(hopefully Gen is still growing on you, and hopefully not so much of the flesh-eating bacteria kind of growing ;) Thanks, guys!