The survivalist Sniper and the handy Redhead
The group is fighting off a horde of Zombies in the town they are passing through while passing the blanket wrapped baby around like a football to keep her safe, since she is the cause of the Zombies attacking them, because whenever Lucy cries Zombies come running and start to attack them.
After finishing of the Zombies they walk through the woods till they get to what used to be a wooden shed or house and they rest there, while 10K went off to a nearby river to catch some fish.
"How's little Lucy?" Doc asks Murphy who is holding his daughter with Cassandra standing guard next to him.
"Finished all her sugar water like a good little girl, aren't you, yeah." Murphy replies and then plays with Lucy.
Murphy goes over to a spot where he can relax sitting down with Cassandra squatting in front of him protectively like an attack dog.
Doc walks over to the rest of the group asking them "Hey is anyone else worried for that baby?"
"I don't know whether to be worried about or be afraid of that baby. You see the way she attracts Zs." Roberta replies.
"That baby and I use that word loosely is gonna get us all killed." Vasquez tells them.
"Come on she is a baby, relax." Addy replies.
"Yeah a baby sprung from Murphy's loins." Doc cuts in.
"She is not just a baby, she's something else and she could grow up to be the savior of the human race or the queen of destruction and we need to find out which and do what we gotta do." Roberta says and they walk over to the former wooden building. Vasquez however uses this chance to get away from the group and walks back to the town they were just in.
10K, after catching 4 fish makes his way to where the others told him they were gonna rest and on the way he sees Vasquez walk through the woods headed for the town he stops briefly looking for anything suspicious and then continues to the former shed.
"Caught some trouts." 10K tells them, his fish in hand.
"Kid you are a fishing guru, what's your secret?" Doc says excited.
"Be one with the fish." 10K jokes.
"Far out." Doc replies while Addy laughs and Roberta grins to herself.
10K walks over to Addy who tells him "Nice job, maybe I should ask you to teach me.", passing Roberta and fist bumping her. He squats down next to his girlfriend and checks what Murphy's doing, since he doesn't trust the guy.
"Sure I can do that." 10K tells her smiling.
"Well I got some foil in here somewhere and we're gonna fry them bad boys up." Doc tells them.
"Hey we need to get a look at that baby." Roberta tells them.
"Yeah well good luck, super dad over there won't let anybody touch her. Guess he's afraid we're gonna leave her behind. Which is not something we are actually considering doing right?" Addy replies looking at Roberta while trying to fix the radio they found.
"Something tells me she's gonna outlive us all." Roberta replies and then looks around, seeing Vasquez missing.
"Where is Vasquez?" she asks.
"disappeared again." Doc answers.
"I passed him in the woods heading south to the town." 10K informs her.
"I'm gonna find out where he keeps disappearing to and you 3 get that baby away from Murphy. Safe us a fish." She tells them.
Murphy looks over at the group of now three suspiciously, with them looking over themselves.
Roberta follows Vasquez to the town, where he meets up with Zeros, he starts a fight and she has to rescue him but they both get shot. They then flee to a nearby hospital, taking out the few Zs they encounter in there and find supplies so that they can sow each other up. After Vasquez finishes treating Roberta's wound she starts to sow him up as well but after she finishes he tells her that she is too late and he falls unconsious and soon after his heart stops. Roberta tries to revive him, seconds before she mercies him he wakes up.
After resting a bit, so they don't open their wounds instantaneously they make their way back to the camp.
At the camp Doc walks over to Murphy saying "Hey Murphy. How're you doing?"
"What do you want?" Murphy asks suspiciously.
"I just wanted to give you a break and hold little Lulu for a while." Doc tells him.
"She's fine, we're fine." Murphy replies.
"Yeah sure. Hey, what's she chewing on?" Doc asks him.
"I don't know something she picked up." Murphy answers.
"Is that a finger?" Doc asks surprised.
"Maybe." Murphy replies and takes the finger away from his daughter, at which she starts to cry.
"Great, you happy now?" Murphy asks sarcastically throwing the finger at Doc, Addy and 10K who just walked over themselves.
"No one is saying you're a bad father, we just want to give the baby a little check up that's all." Doc tells him.
"There is nothing wrong with little Lulu and since when are you a pediatrician huh?" Murphy replies pissed off.
"Murphy, she only had sugar water to eat, let Doc take a look at her." Addy says in a caring tone.
"She looks fine to me." Murphy replies stoically.
"takes a village." Doc says.
"I don't know what you're up to but I don't like it." Murphy says and goes away. The three of them follow him a few steps.
"Stop following me." Murphy snaps.
"We're not following you." Doc defends them.
"You're afraid of her, afraid of what she might become, what we might become. Don't forget I've seen how you treat babies." Murphy says.
"And we've seen how you treat humans." 10K replies.
"I'm not gonna let you hurt her. The baby and I are going for a walk, stay here and make sure nobody leaves." Murphy tells Cassandra.
"Nobody leaves." Cassandra repeats in a dark voice.
"Hey where do you think you're going?" Addy asks.
"Somewhere were we are safe from people like you." Murphy tells them walking off while Cassandra blocks their patch growling at them.
Murphy is walking through the woods, changing Lucy's diapers along the way and running away from the Zombies following them. After walking a while he reaches a house and meets the man and woman living there. He offers them to take the baby since it isn't safe with his group but they refuse after seeing Lucy. So Murphy bites them, like he did Cassandra and orders them to keep his daughter safe and happy.
Addy, 10K and Doc go back over to their camp spot and discuss their next step
"I think we gotta go after him. He shouldn't be out there alone, especially with the baby." Addy tells them.
"What about little miss sunshine over there? He told her to stop us." Doc asks nodding towards Cassandra.
"She can't stop all of us at once." 10K suggests.
"I don't know I think we should wait for Warren and Vasquez, they'll be here soon." Doc says.
"We don't even know where they are and what if something happens to the baby or Murphy? He didn't take any food for the baby, why would he not take food for the baby?" Addy argues.
"Oh he wouldn't do that would he?" Doc says.
"We don't know what he's capable of. He's more Zombie than human." Addy tells him.
"There is three of us and one of her. She tries to stop us, we'll do what we have to do." 10K tells them.
"What does that mean?" Addy asks shocked.
"She's not Cassandra, not anymore." 10K says.
"I don't know man, she is getting weirder and you've seen how strong she is." Doc tells Addy.
"She would not hurt us, not really." Addy defends her.
"I wouldn't be so sure." Doc says.
"We all run into different directions, she'll grab one of us the other 2 can go look for Murphy." 10K explains his plan.
They all stand up getting ready to run.
"Alright we're doing this." Addy says.
"I hope she doesn't overreact and do something crazy." Doc says worriedly.
Addy looks over to Cassandra one more time, then whispers "Now!" and everyone takes off.
Cassandra chases 10K at first but since he's too fast for her, because he's used to the terrain she goes after Doc. She soon catches up to him and throws herself on him, twisting his arm behind his back, making him scream.
Addy and 10K hearing the scream come back, telling Cassandra to stop. She stops growling at them "Nobody leaves." and they all go back to the camp.
"I told you she was going to overreact." Doc says.
"We can't just stay here, who knows what Murphy's up to." 10K tells them.
"I'll try talking to her." Addy says, getting up, leaving her Z whacker leaning against a wall.
"You sure about this? You saw how she handled Doc." 10K asks concerned.
"I have to try, get ready to run." Addy says, walking by them, over to Cassandra.
"I don't like this one bit." 10K tells Doc, who is tieing his shoes.
"Trust her kiddo. You have one badass girlfriend." Doc tells him.
"I know but still, I don't think Addy will be able to mercy Cassandra even if she is getting killed herself. She is too kind for that. But I guess we'll have to trust her and hope for the best." 10K tells Doc.
Addy kneels down in front of Cassandra saying "Cassandra. Cassandra we need to talk. You hurt Doc, why would you do that. Listen, we need to look for Murphy. We wanna help him but need to find him first."
"Nobody leaves." Cassandra replies in her dark voice.
Addy looks back at 10K and Doc and nods, signaling them to take off.
Seeing the signal they run off through the woods.
Cassandra jumps up ready to go after them but Addy manages to stop her from following them by tackling her away.
Cassandra then starts fighting Addy. Annoyed that the other 2 got away she screams out angrily.
Doc and 10K stop hearing the yell and 10K tells him "Sorry Doc I gotta go back for her, you go on ahead." running towards where they came from.
"Keep your lady safe." Doc tells him, going on running through the woods, looking for either Murphy or Roberta.
Addy is trying to fight off Cassandra but is loosing bad, since she abandoned her weapon and Cassandra is multiple times stronger than her because of the bite.
She lands on a rock hard, after being pushed away , she gets up but is a little dizzy. Addy decides to try and get away without having to fight Cassandra, but she goes after her and jumps on her back, hitting Addy's head against the ground a few times, before Addy manages to wrestle her way on top of Cassandra, but she quickly reversed the positions again and this time is trying to rip of her head, by pulling at Addy's jaw.
10K arrives and sees Cassandra about to kill Addy, he runs at her, trying to knock her off but Cassandra releases her grip on Addy and grabs the incoming 10K, swinging him around and sending him flying into a tree. She then gets back to killing Addy, this time strangling her.
10K quickly rebounds, gets up and sees Addy about to suffocate so he reaches behind himself, grabs his makeshift Kukuri and swings at Cassandras head, killing her. He quickly pushes Cassandra off Addy and checks to see if Addy is still alive. Addy coughs a few times, catching her breath and 10K helps her sit up to be able to breathe better. Looking to her right she sees Cassandra with a hole in her head.
"I didn't have any other choice, you would have died Addy." 10K tells her.
"I know, I know I'm just disappointed that Murphy warped her mind so far that she'd even kill us." Addy replies sadly.
"that wasn't Cassandra anymore, ever since Murphy bit her she was a mindless slave." 10K tries to comfort her, hugging her to his chest where Addy cries for awhile.
"10K I think we should bury her. We owe her that much." Addy tells him, having calmed down a bit.
"OK, you sit and rest, I'll take care of it." 10K tells her and gets up, lifting Cassandra off the ground and putting her somewhere, were she can rest in peace. He then grabs a shovel that was lying around probably from the former shed and buries Cassandra.
Addy watches this sadly but notices 10K bleeding on his back.
So after he finishes she calls him over. "10K, can you come here for a second. Take off your shirt."
10K does as he is told and comes over, putting his shirt against a tree.
"What is it?" 10k asks her.
"Turn around." Addy tells him.
"Why?" 10K asks confused but does it anyway.
Addy then sees a small branch sticking out of his back and gasps a little.
"Oh that doesn't look good." Addy says.
"What doesn't look good?" 10K asks looking at Addy.
"When Cassandra threw you against the tree you got pierced by a small branch." Addy tells him.
"So, take it out?" 10K says confused, he got hurt before doesn't seem like that big of a deal to him.
"We should wait for Doc, he has some supplies to clean the wound with. The last thing we need is another person dieing because of an infected wound. Come on sit down and rest." Addy tells him.
"If you say so." 10K says and sits down next to her.
Soon Doc, Vasquez and Roberta arrive and see 10K hurt.
"What happened?" Roberta asks going over to 10K with Doc to check him over.
"Cassandra was about to kill Addy, so I had to mercy her." 10K tells them.
"Where is she?" Roberta asks.
"I buried her over there." 10K says pointing at the small bump of the path where he buried Cassandra.
"saw that one coming." Vasquez tells them.
"She was our friend." Addy says pissed off since he didn't know her.
"Kid, what happened with your back?" Doc asks him when he checks him over.
"Cassandra threw him against a tree and a branch pierced him, I wanted to leave it in so it doesn't get even more infected and he doesn't bleed out." Addy tells them.
"Alright kid you're in luck these 2 have some medical supplies, lay down. This is gonna hurt." Doc tells him.
10K lies down and unties his belt, putting it in his mouth, so he doesn't hurt his teeth and doesn't scream loud.
Doc rips out the branch, pouring some disinfectant in the wound while 10K winces. Doc then takes the needle and wire Vasquez had with him and sows him up while Addy holds his hand supportingly.
Murphy comes out of the woods, seeing the scene and asks "What happened here? And where is Cassandra?"
"In front of your feet. 10K had to mercy her to stop her from killing the both of us." Addy hisses pissed at him.
"I gave her life and you little punk had no right to take that away." Murphy says looking angrily at 10K.
10K gets up since Doc finished treating him and puts on his Jacket. "She wasn't human. That wasn't human, not since you bit her." 10K replies.
"3255" Murphy says and charges at him. Roberta stands in his way and stops him, while Addy has taken out her gun and is now standing next to 10K aiming at Murphy's head.
"Not right now. Where is the baby, where is Lucy?" Roberta tells him.
"You don't have to worry about the baby anymore." Murphy tells them and walks off, making the others think that he killed his daughter.
They then get their stuff together and catch up to Murphy continuing on their mission.
A few days later when everything has calmed down a bit 10K is about to leave camp to go fishing and offers Addy to come along.
"So why did you want me to come along?" Addy asks him, following him to the river they passed not to long ago.
"If I remember correctly you asked me to teach you how to fish, so I'm using this opportunity to show you how." 10K tells her grinning a bit.
Addy takes his hand smiling as well and they make their way to the river.
"Alright fishing guru, what am I supposed to do?" She asks.
"For now observe. I'll show you the 3 basic techniques to fish. First there is the usual, fishing with a cord and a hook I'll show you that in a moment, the other is catching fish with a net, pretty self explanatory but requires a net or piece of clothing you don't need at the time." 10K tells her taking out his fishing gear.
"So basically you only have to look for a good spot in the water, where fish are likely to pass and put bait on the hook if possible, it works without it as well but will take longer."
10K shows her how to recognize a good spot and he lets her try it out, 10 minutes later she catches a fish.
"nice." She says looking at her catch.
"So what's the other technique." Addy asks him.
10K starts to take off his clothes other than his boxershorts, takes a knife and walks into the middle of the river.
"This one is, while in theory obviously simple, it takes a lot of focus to actually catch a fish like this." 10K tells her, looking into the water for any fish swimming along.
Addy blushing a little at 10Ks near naked form, decides to tease him a little and joins him, taking her clothes safe for her undergarments as well off and goes over to him.
10K hears her step in the water and looks up, blushing madly seeing her like this and remembering what happened a few times when he was watching over her at the womens camp.
"Don't stare so much, and don't get any dirty ideas, we're not there yet. Though I have to say I like what I see." Addy tells him, looking him up and down
"Sorry, it's just you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." 10K tells her embarrassed.
"Aww how sweet." Addy teases, kissing his cheek and standing next to him.
"So, anything I gotta watch while doing this?" Addy asks him.
"Huh? What? Ohh, no not really it just takes practice and focus to get the timing right, and to predict the fishes movements." 10K explains refocusing.
"Practice and focus huh? I guess you better get used to seeing me like this for the time being then or we won't have anything to eat in the near future." Addy teases.
"I guess so." 10K laughs quietly, trying not to get to distracted by the girl he is in love with being
so under dressed near him.
They stay in the water for about 25 minutes and 10K caught about seven fish while Abby managed to graze one.
"Don't be disappointed, you did a lot better then I did the first time I tried it." 10K tells her.
"Ohh, do tell." Addy says.
"Well my dad wanted to teach me and I ran out of the water every time a fish passed me." 10K tells her embarrassedly.
Addy starts laughing, amused by his story.
"In my defense I was only 7 years old." 10K tells her.
"Still a hilarious story." Addy says and they start to get dressed.
"So you still wanna come along the next few times?" 10K asks her.
"Sure, this was the most fun I've had since day one. But be honest, am I the first girl you've seen naked or well semi naked in this case?" Addy tells him and they make their way back to camp.
"Except for female Zombies yeah, but the first time wasn't today to be honest." 10K tells her.
"What did you spy on me?" Addy asks shocked.
"Well, during your time at the women camp I had nothing better to do then watch you almost the whole day, since that was my reason to stay behind anyway, to make sure you were safe. Well and a few times I unintentionally have seen you change in your room, but I honestly did not intend on peeping on you. I stopped looking almost immediately." 10K confesses.
"Hmm, I guess I can accept that, but you better not turn into some perv, watching women with your scope." Addy jokes.
"Don't worry, I only have eyes for you." 10K replies cheesily.
"Still don't make it a habit, even when watching me." Addy tells him.
"Yeah, got it." 10K tells her and takes her hand, walking back to the camp.
"I just realized, I've never really thanked you for watching over me back then have I?" Addy asks.
"No need." 10K replies.
"Well, thanks anyway. And thank you for being honest about the peeping thing. I think it's better you told me now than I find out some time later." Addy tells him.
"So we're good?" 10K asks hopefully.
"Yeah, but I may tease you a bit because of it, consider that as payback then." Addy laughs.
They soon arrive back at the camp and eat the fish after Doc cooked it. After one or two more hours of talking and fixing the radio in Addy's case while 10K is cleaning and taking inventory of his various weapons it's time for them to sleep.
10K and Addy snuggle together, with Addy's cape draped over them again, like they've done a few times before, since it's rather comfortable and Addy quickly shuts her eyes., but 10K watching over her takes a longer time to drift off, despite usually being able to fall asleep instantaneously, like in the morgue during the Zunami.
"Goodnight Addy, I love you." 10K whispers, kissing her head, thinking she fell asleep but unknown to him she actually didn't sleep just yet and is now overthinking him telling her I love you, even though he thought she was sleeping.
"Considering how happy I'm now compared to usually, I guess I do love him too I don't know how else to explain it." Addy thinks smiling and lets sleep take her over.
