Interlude 5

2011 AC

"Haven't we met before?"

Alicia's gaze went from the locked door across from her to the blond seating against the wall to her left, crossed legged and with a shotgun laying on her lap.

"I don't think so," Alicia replies before her gaze returned to the door. The dead had been banging on it a few times now, but they had either given up or were just waiting on the other side. They were stuck in that room, for now anyway.

"Not even before the outbreak? I feel like I've seen you before."

Alicia ignored her. Elyza had joined their group two weeks ago, and Alicia had noticed the sideways glances the blond gave her from time to time, and the smiles too. She'd found her weird, at first, but it was true she did felt familiar, though just like Elyza she had yet to understand why.

The blond continued to fix her as if the answer would suddenly pop into her mind. Alicia tried to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of being watched and glared at the door, when a particularly loud banging made the door bend and the anchors creak. She reached for her own weapon, a baseball bat, resting on the floor beside her, but the banging stopped only a long minute later.

"It wasn't high school, was it?"

Alicia placed her bat back on the ground and looked back at Elyza. Their gaze met for a second, before Alicia looked away. It was true that Elyza's deep blue eyes were extremely familiar, as if she'd stare at them a thousand times before. It made her heart jump in her chest, adrenaline passing through her veins. There was something truly scary about it, this feeling of deep familiarity she was feeling every time she looked at the other girl.

"I doubt it."

"Yeah, me too. I mean, you told me you lived south, right? And I was in Oregon. You've never been to Oregon?"

Alicia shook her head. Truly it was a mystery neither of them would solve soon. A shadow passed in front of the barricaded window, hiding a large part of the light, but neither of them paid any attention to it. Alicia let her gaze wander over the blond's face, and every single small detail she noticed made her heart flutter even more. Why was she so familiar, yet her mind couldn't pin why? It was infuriating. Elyza seemed to be doing the same, and she frowned.

"Alright, I give up. I don't think we'll ever figure it out. Maybe I knew you in another life or something."

"Another life..."

Alicia crossed her arms, unsure of herself. She didn't really believe in those reincarnation stories. Maybe she used to, but not anymore, not after losing so many people and watching the dead walk around had become the norm. There was another banging on the door, ignored by both of the girls. Elyza looked at the sun passing through the heavy wooden planks on the window. The light was turning golden.

"Well, seems like we're stuck in here for a while..."

Elyza took her leather jacket off, revealing a large tattoo on her left bicep. Alicia frowned. The blond had never taken her jacket off since they'd met, mostly because her shirt underneath was torn apart and dirty, and so Alicia had never seen her tattoo before. So how could it feel so familiar, and yet so out of place? She'd seen that symbol before, she knew.

"That tattoo around your arm, what does it mean?" she asked.

Elyza gave it a glance, as if to make sure what Alicia was referring to, before she shrugged.

"Don't know. I got the idea for it while I was high as a kite, so I drew it and in the morning I found it was so interesting that I decided I would get it tattooed."

Alicia continued to look at it, racking her brain to find where she'd seen it before. Those circular lines, falling into a complicated pattern, almost like an inverted butterfly, and the lines almost connecting every part of it. It really did look incredibly familiar, and not knowing why was driving her crazy.

Suddenly the radio in Alicia's bag began to crackle. The loud noise was followed by more banging on the door. Alicia reached for the radio, while Elyza placed a hand on her shotgun, just in case.

"Alicia, please, come in!"

With a relieved sigh Alicia recognized the voice of her mother on the other side.

"I'm here."

"Oh thank god! Where are you? Are you with Elyza? We lost you a while ago."

"I'm with Elyza, we found a barricaded house to hide in. It's on Washington Street."

"Are you safe there?"

"Yeah, it's pretty well guarded. Just a few undead knocking on the door but it's holding strong."

"Alright, we're coming as fast as we can. Don't move."

"We're not."

The radio stopped cracking, and Alicia placed it back into her bag. Elyza glanced once last time toward the door before her hand moved away from the firearm.

"Guess cavalry's coming."

Alicia only shrugged. While she was glad they wouldn't have to spend the night in an abandoned house, Elyza's tattoo, and the familiarity she felt toward the other girl, was still killing her. In that short moment of calm, she thought it would probably be the only time she would have to figure that mystery out before they had to go back into the fray, always on their guard and thinking about death creeping ever so closely toward them.

She began to stare once again at Elyza's tattoo, longly, to the point that the blond easily noticed it.

"If you want the same, just tell me. I know I haven't drawn in a while, but I could try."

Alicia grimaced. She already had a tattoo, which she'd done painfully, by herself, when her world had been tilting more and more quickly, until it'd been pushed upside-down. She didn't want another one, didn't need another one. But she frowned. How could she so clearly see this tattoo on her, wrapping around her right arm, like it was always meant to be there? It was frightening.

"What's the point anyway? It's not like it was essential to survive." Alicia declared, a pitiful excuse to hide behind.

Elyza shrugged.

"Maybe after all the things we've been through, it should be about more than survival. Don't you think we deserve it?"

A long shiver ran down Alicia's back.

"Maybe we do..."

Those words seemed to jog her memory, only to make it run backward. It felt like déjà vu, and so much more. It felt like the earth was collapsing under her, yet she hadn't moved at all. A single glance toward Elyza told her that the blond had felt the same. Her gaze was lost, focused on something far from either of them, too far for them to reach. The blond pursed her lips, then her deep blue eyes found Alicia, who found she couldn't look away. She drowned in those eyes and would let herself drown for all of eternity if she had the choice to.

"Do you trust me?" Elyza asked.

An hour ago Alicia would have said no. She would have said Elyza was the last person she wanted to be stuck in a room with, because she scared her. The familiarity she felt toward her was dizzying, like the blond already knew her through and through.

"Yes."

Elyza stood up, placing her shotgun on the ground beside her jacket. She shuffled, crawling on her knees until she was sitting right beside Alicia. And she leaned forward, so slowly Alicia thought the kiss would never happen. But it did. Her eyes slit shut as her lips found the blond's. She felt her hand on her cheek, but also found she couldn't move.

It suddenly made sense, in a strange way. She didn't remember why Elyza had felt so familiar, why kissing her felt so familiar. But she knew it felt right, from the beating of her heart, from the sound of blood passing through her ears. Was it her soul pulsing at the back of her head, or only her brain trying to understand what was happening? She didn't know, and she didn't care anymore.

Elyza pulled away too soon for Alicia's liking and stared longly into her forest green eyes. That look was enough to tell them that the other had felt it, too. Still, Elyza shuffled away, to sit back where she'd been before.

"Not what I was expecting," she admitted.

Alicia glared at her, and she rose her hands as a sign of surrender.

"I'm not saying it wasn't good! I just thought... it's really stupid. In the moment it made sense, but I guess..."

"What?"

Elyza sighed.

"Well, I thought if I kissed you I would remember something."

Alicia cocked an eyebrow.

"Something?"

"It's hard to explain, alright? But I just thought I had remembered where I had seen my tattoo before!"

Alicia crossed her arms and sighed in turn.

"Guess we'll never get the answer."

Elyza hesitated, before she shuffled once again closer to the brunette.

"Do we really need one?"

"Well, for once I would have appreciated knowing what was going on, but I guess this one will stay unanswered as well."

Elyza smiled, seating beside Alicia, her back against the wall.

"Alright, now that we've settled this problem I want to sleep."

She let her head fall on Alicia's shoulder, and the brunette didn't try to shoo her away. Instead, she looked once again at Elyza's tattoo. She let her fingers dance over it, then her hand slipped lower, until she found Elyza's. She took it in hers, entwining their fingers. Elyza smiled and closed her eyes. She could swear that she saw images dancing in the back of her head, but ignored them.

A/N: Hi guys! Yes, now that I've begun to watch Fear the Walking Dead, I couldn't resist writing an AU of it. But please, no spoiler on this one, I'm only at the beginning of the second season! Anyway, I wanted to thank xunconsciousx for leaving a review and all. Thank you for your compliments and thank you for taking the time to log in ;)

Anyway, I'll see you all tomorrow for the ending (that's the last chapter plus epilogue)! And for those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, happy Thanksgiving!