AN - Second part to the last chapter, normally I don't post chapters so close together but I really wanted these read at the same time. Next chapter, we pick up with season 2 episodes :)

Chapter 10: Set Fire To The Rain

The sun fully set and the flashlights came out. The Berserkers kept closer together, not wanting to get out of each other's line of sight. Casey shivered in her wet clothes, but didn't slow down. For whatever reason, the cold was having a soothing affect on her headache so it didn't pulse as much. Her wrist throbbed every time she took too heavy a step, but it was bearable. Casey was checking Anne's bandage was still secure when her feet suddenly crunched against gravel.

The sound took her by surprise since the past three hours had been spent squelching and sloshing through wet mud and grass. Pope was in step with Casey, and stopped when she did. He shone his flashlight to their left and right, revealing they had stumbled upon a gravel road. It was horizontal to them, and seemed just wide enough to fit a car through, but it definitely wasn't something the city had paved down.

"Should we follow it?" Pope asked as Lee and Tector arrived at the road. Boon and Lyle were just behind them.

"I say we keep going forwards," Lee shone her flashlight up ahead. "It's been working for us so far.

Casey's eyes followed Lee's flashlight beam across the road and into the woods ahead. The light landed on a very pale face that Casey recalled seeing in the woods the day before. When her eyes caught the light, the pale face flicked around and a flash of red hair disappeared into the trees. "Abigail!" Casey shouted and pushed off into a run. She cleared the gravel road in one and a half strides and then she was back in the sludge.

Behind her, Casey heard the pounding of the Berserker's following but she didn't dare look back and lose sight of Abigail. The girl's willowy figure darted between the trees, but she didn't have a lot of speed. "Abigail!" Casey shouted again. To her surprise, the girl stopped.

Abigail slowly turned around. With the moonlight illuminating her slight frame, Casey saw that Abigail had the satchel bag over her shoulder and a wriggling, whinging Etta bundled in her arms wrapped in her purple winter coat.

"I'm sorry," Abigail said tearfully. She looked so upset to see Casey. "I didn't want to hurt you, I really didn't."

"It's okay," Casey took a small step forwards. Etta was alright, even with just the moonlight Casey could see that. "Give her back, and you can go."

"She's okay, though, see?" Abigail lifted Etta to show her scrunched up little face to Casey. The baby grizzled, annoyed to have been awoken, and broke into a wail.

"I see that," Casey took another couple of steps towards her. In the periphery of her vision she saw Lee's mane of wiry hair bound behind a tree trunk, and Boon's flash of blonde hair up ahead. She knew Pope was behind her, and Tector and Lyle were on her left. They were encircling Abigail. "So, just give her back and we'll forget everything."

"Get that kid back now," Pope muttered from behind Casey as Etta's scream hit a higher pitch. "Skitters are gonna hear her howling."

"You don't know," Abigail said quietly, closing her arms tightly around Etta. "There is no one like me. No one."

"Abigail," Casey warned. Behind her she could hear the metal clicking of Pope's gun being raised, and she knew he wouldn't hesitate. "You give her back, right now."

"I'm not going to give her to them, I promise. I took her for me. I fed her every time she cried, and I wrapped her in my jacket to keep her dry," Abigail said with a shaky smile. "I didn't..." Abigail's face broke into tears. "I didn't want to be alone."

"Please." Casey said through clenched teeth. Her whole body was a rigid block of tension.

"Everyone sees my harness and thinks I'm with them," Abigail said. "But Etta doesn't look at me like all of you do. I made her laugh," she shook her head slowly, smiling fading and eyes pleading. "I didn't want to be alone."

Her young face was so heartbreaking, even to Casey. Her eyes screamed loneliness and desperation, a silent plea begging someone to accept her. "I know," Casey said. "I'm not screwing with you, I know. All you want is someone to take you as you are. No judgement. No questions..." Casey trailed off as an image of her smiling mother came to her mind. "I really haven't had that since my Mum died. But taking Etta is not-"

The Mech blast caught Casey's eye a second before it smashed into the treetops above her. Out of nowhere came the heavy, metal footsteps of approaching Mechs along with their trademark hum that vibrated through the night. Casey felt herself being pulled backwards and then thrust up against a tree trunk. Pope was pressing against her, telling her to shut up.

"Etta-"

"Ssh!" Pope hissed, cutting her off. He was pressed against Casey so close his beard grazed her cheek.

All Casey could hear was the thudding of the Mechs approaching. The ground shuddered underfoot and out of the corner of her eye Casey saw the bouncing blue lasers searching through the woods for something to fire upon.

Had they heard Casey yelling? Did they sense Abigail even with her broken harness? Was Etta still crying?

"How many?" Casey mouthed to Pope, who held up two fingers in reply.

The Mech footsteps ceased, but Casey could still hear the mechanical clanging of their movements. They were definitely searching. Casey desperately wanted to look behind her to see if Abigail was hiding, or to look ahead and see where exactly the Mechs were aiming their guns. But she didn't move. Then, everything seemed to happen at once.

Etta screamed, the Mech's began to shoot, and the Berserkers fired right back.

Pope pushed off Casey to join his crew in the fight, and unarmed Casey rounded the tree trunk looking for Abigail. Almost immediately, she spotted her red braid bobbing through the trees, running away with Etta again. Casey took off after her, trying to listen for Etta's cries. But she couln't hear anything above the peppering of bullets.

A huge explosion from behind knocked Casey forwards onto her knees. She fell on her wrist to break her fall, and though the bandage held its place, violent waves of pain shot through her body. A quick look over her shoulder confirmed that one of the Mechs had been disposed of, and the Berserker's were now relentlessly firing upon its mate.

Casey grunted as she got back to her feet and continued after Abigail. The ground suddenly vibrated and Casey stumbled on her feet again. Up ahead, a third Mech effortlessly carved through the trees right in front of Abigail's path. The girl froze. Casey could still see her braid. The Mech beams narrowed in on Abigails chest and it fired. The girl was dead before she slumped to the ground.

Casey couldn't scream, she couldn't react. She just stood there, staring at the lump on the ground that used to be Abigail. When a second explosion thundered through the forest behind her, Casey faltered on the spot but didn't fall. A wet heat burned her eyes, and despite her broken wrist, she clenched both her fists at her sides. If the third Mech saw her, she didn't notice.

A barrage of bullets rang passed Casey's ear and smacked right into the third Mech. Lee and Tector were coming up behind her. The sound of their guns along with the Mech firing sent her hearing into a numbed silence, and then a sharp ringing drilled a path around the insides of her skull.

Pope, Boon and Lyle arrived and added their weapons to the fight. The unrelenting torrent of bullets impacted the third Mech until it, too, went the way of its comrades. The blast scattered Mech debris in all directions and the ground shook underfoot. Casey lost her footing again, but kept herself upright as it rained Mech metal all around her. Her ears were still ringing, and she could feel hot cuts all over her body when the Mech metal sliced through her wet clothes and into her skin.

There were no whooping shouts of glee from the Berserkers over three triple Mech kill. In fact, Casey heard nothing at all except the rain splattering on the ground. And the ringing in her ear. Then she realized; that the ringing in her ears wasn't ringing at all. It was crying.

Casey turned towards the noise. Behind her on her right, lying in the grass in Abigail's too-small purple jacket with the satchel right beside her, was Etta.

"Etta?" Casey fumbled over to the baby, sure she was a mirage. When all the firing had begun, Casey had been so focused on Abigail's braid, she didn't notice the girl hadn't been carrying Etta. Abigail had left the baby safely in the grass, shielded by a fallen tree trunk, and then taken off before the Mech ended her run for freedom.

Casey didn't blink as she fell to her knees, crawled over to Etta and carefully lifted her up as if she were so fragile she might disintegrate. She was still so light and tiny, screaming just the same way as she always did. Casey felt inside Abigail's purple jacket and felt dry warmth. Etta wasn't soaked to the bone. Abigail really had been taking good care of her.

Then, sitting there in the dark, Casey wanted to scream. Her whole body shook as she fought to keep her lips tightly closed and stop the sobs from escaping her throat. She felt completely breathless, like she was twenty feet underwater and still sinking. Etta curled in against her body and Casey wrapped her up tighter so her lips were resting against the baby's forehead. She began muttering to Etta, telling her how sorry she was for losing her, when someone knelt down in front of her.

"She okay?" It was Crazy Lee who crouched down.

"Yeah," Casey's voice squeaked and she inhaled sharply to keep the sobs at bay. Then coughed to clear her throat. "Yeah, she's okay."

Lee peered inside the jacket at Etta, then gently reached out and ran her finger along the baby's cheek. "Course she's okay. Kid's a born Berserker."

xxx