Chapter 2

10K POV

After they'd eaten Ellie had taken his empty bowl and cleaned it using as little water as she could. She'd pulled a book from her shelf afterward and had given it to him to help pass the time since he couldn't do much while he recovered. The book wasn't bad, the story was easy enough to follow but it wasn't glaringly obvious what was going to happen next so it kept his attention which helped time pass a bit quicker. Night had fallen outside and eventually a Z wandered by, he heard the snarling and his body tensed as he raised himself onto his elbows. He heard a shush and turned to Ellie who was sitting at the table and had a finger raised to her lips. He looked to the window and through the curtain saw the silhouette of the zombie as it lumbered by. Just like Ellie had said earlier, it was drawn by the sound of the crashing waves not far from the cabin and it wandered toward the sea not giving their small shelter a second thought. He turned back to his book but found it hard to get as absorbed as he'd been before so instead he watched Ellie from over the top of the pages. She was sitting at the table, a small candle was lit in front of her giving off just enough light for her to work by as she braided thin pieces of leather together into stronger ropes. He watched as her nimble fingers pulled the leather tight making it stronger each time she crossed the strands. When she'd completed three of them she tied them all together in a large knot and each rope hung from it like tentacles from the head of an octopus. Then she took three stones and weighed them in her hand, she must be checking to make sure they're the same weight, he thought as he watched, mesmerized by her work. She then started tying the stones to each loose rope as he looked back to his book. He was glad she wasn't the chatty type and seemed to be more on the shy quiet side like he was. She also didn't seem disturbed in the slightest at having a stranger in her home. It was rare finding nice people these days he thought before another thing occurred to him and he dropped his book into his lap and sat up on his elbows suddenly.

"What's wrong?" Ellie whispered her fingers freezing as she looked up at his sudden movement in concern.

He looked down at the blankets around his waist and the soft bed under him before he looked up at her, "I'm in your bed." He said and she raised her eyebrows silently questioning why there was a problem, "I'm in your only bed." He clarified and her face relaxed, "Where will you sleep?"

"I'll be fine." She said giving a shrug and looking back down at her work as she continued to tie the leather.

"I- I can't take your only bed." He said.

"I'll be fine." She repeated, "And you need it more than I do anyway."

He paused for a moment as his paranoia – thanks for that apocalypse – set in, "Why are you being so nice to me?" he asked and she looked up at him confused, "Why are you helping me at all? Why drag me here from the beach only for me to eat your food and use up your medical supplies?"

"Would you have preferred I didn't?" she asked skeptically.

"No. . . it's just. . .You don't know me. How do you know I'm not a terrible person? How do you know if I've done horrible things?"

Instead of looking worried like maybe she hadn't thought this through she looked oddly calm and asked, "Have you?"

He paused again thinking back to the start of the outbreak, then to everything he'd done as he crossed the country with the others, "Yes."

"Like what?" she asked her question only confusing him more.

He shrugged, "I've killed people." He said his voice a bit quieter.

"Bad people or good people?" she asked with that same composure.

"Does it matter?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

She took a deep breath before she answered, "I once saw a woman shoot a man because he had a half full bottle of water she wanted." She said getting up and leaving her project behind on the table as she made her way over to him and sat on the side of the bed. He shifted uncomfortably remembering that he still wasn't wearing anything underneath all the layers of blankets.

"Have you ever done anything like that?" she asked, "Killed someone innocent so you could survive another day?"

He swallowed nervously, this was the closest she'd gotten to him without displaying a hint of shyness. "No."

She gave a small smile then looked at the book that was still laying open in his lap, "Don't stay up all night reading Ten Thousand, you need your rest."

Then she got up from the bed, blew out the candle on the table and opened a drawer in the dresser pulling out a woven blanket and spare pillow before she settled herself on the floor.

.

.

"Stop moving." Ellie reprimanded gently as he groaned in pain again. She had insisted on changing his dressing after they had breakfast the next morning and he wasn't exactly being the best patient.

"It hurts." He said as if it was a good excuse as he sat up on his elbows.

"If you hold still it will hurt less." She said softly as she laid down a fresh patch of moss and covered it with a fresh piece of folded shirt fabric. He grit his teeth and laid back down as she finished. "There. All done."

"Thank you." He said as she stood from the bed, smiled at him and nodded. He grabbed her wrist keeping her from walking away, "I mean it. Thank you, for not leaving me out there to die."

Her smile grew and she shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "You're welcome."

"And I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"For what?" she asked confused.

"I was a little harsh last night when I was. . . interrogating you. You didn't deserve that."

"It's okay." She shrugged, "You had good reason to. With the world being the way it is now." He let go of her wrist and gave her a small smile as she moved to put the mason jar of moss away.

"So, how did you get so good at this?" he asked and she turned back to look at him, "The doctor in my group couldn't even patch me up." He said remembering how Doc had told him his wound was out of his league which at the time he'd taken as a death sentence.

She gave a small smile and shrugged as she made her way back over to the table, now with a pad of paper in her hand she'd taken from the bookshelf. "I always wanted to be a veterinarian." She said as she sat down, "Ever since I was little I've loved animals. And luckily I'm not squeamish. But there were still the ripped stitches in your wound so I had that for a guide, which helped a lot." She said as she walked across the room and sat at the table before turning her pad to a clean page and grabbing a colored pencil from the tin can as she started to draw.

"I don't want to bother you," he began as she looked up from the paper, "but can I get dressed now?"

She blushed as she got up and moved to the small dresser and began to dig through the clothes for something that would fit him. After a minute or two she stood up holding a pair of grey sweatpants before she lifted her hand and touched his clothes checking if his hoodie was dry.

"They're still damp." She said turning to him, "And I don't want to risk you pulling your stitches open getting a shirt on, so this will have to do for now." She said handing him the sweats and returning to her chair at the table, she sat on it backwards so she was facing away from him and propped her pad against the back, "I won't look just. . . don't strain yourself, that wound is still pretty fresh."

Slowly and carefully he sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, he realized this would be the first time he'd moved on his own since waking up in the submarine. He followed her instructions and took his time, not pushing his limits; though he hated all the breaks he had to take whenever that pain in his abdomen returned. When he got the pants on he flopped back onto the bed but stayed sitting up bringing a hand to his side. It didn't feel like anything had ripped and he hoped it healed quickly, he hated feeling so useless.

"Okay." He said letting her know he was all set and he couldn't help but glimpse at the drawing she'd started, "What are you drawing?"

"Oh, nothing." She said shyly flipping the pad of paper shut and turning back around to face him, "I'm not that good anyway. It's just something I started doing. I have a lot of free time now." She said crossing her arms on the table.

A moment passed in silence as she looked down at her folded arms and he looked down at his lap. "So." she finally said looking back up at him, "What do you like to do?"

The corner of his mouth pulled up before he licked his lip nervously and looked back at her, "I like to shoot."

"That's a little cliché you know." She said trying to fight off a smile.

"Well to be fair, I enjoyed shooting and hunting before the apocalypse."

"That explains the 5,387 zombies you've killed." She said and they both chuckled and he looked down at his stitches again, a small part of him actually hoping they took a little longer to heal than he'd originally hoped for.

Murphy POV

They drove a few hours longer, now heading east, until Murphy stopped and they all got out again.

"Why are we stopping here?" Merch asked when she saw they were in nothing but a field of small purple flowers.

"To take in the view." Murphy answered approaching the hillside and looking at the city spread out before them, "There it is. Home of the 1974 World's Fair. You ever hear of the Lilac City doctor? Take it in. You got nature right here, it's perfect. Our new home. Spokane!"

.

.

He led them to an old museum, it was a huge building with a clock tower and behind a lake with lily pads, willow trees and other beautiful foliage, it was the perfect place to start his new world order, his Age of Blends.

"The Museum of Progress Expo 74." Murphy said heading inside and exploring. "Promising." He said looking around and heading upstairs, "Dead body here and there but otherwise not bad. Place has good bones. Plenty of room to expand. And this, this shall be my throne room." Murphy said sitting in a folding chair on a platform looking around picturing the future. "We're home."

10K POV

About a week after he met Ellie he was back on his feet again, he was back to wearing his all black clothes which had dried and he had his rifle thrown over his shoulder. He didn't have his black shirt though, she'd cut that off him when she'd stitched him back up so for now he had only his hoodie which he'd zipped up over his healing wound. He no longer needed the folded shirt to cover the stitches, Ellie had said it looked healed enough that she just laid one of those extra-large band aids over the stitches instead. She'd even allowed him to go with her to the beach while she went to test out her newly made bola weapon – the three stones on the leather cords he'd been watching her make. She said he could use the fresh air and probably wanted a change of scenery anyway.

"You know how to use that?" he asked as they walked through the sand and he held his rifle in both his hands ready to shoot on demand.

"Mm-hmm." She nodded, "I had another one but after so many years of killing zombies it broke." She explained while she held the bola by the large knot at the top that held the three braided cords together and she spun it lightly by her hip getting a feel for the weight of it as she gripped her harpoon in her opposite hand.

His eyebrows pulled together in confusion, "How do you use that to kill zombies?" he asked and when she opened her mouth to explain she paused and looked up. He followed her gaze and saw a Z stumbling out of the tree line.

"Like this." She said walking forward and getting the zombie's attention. 10K raised his rifle and looked through the scope watching her just in case she needed the help. She didn't get too close though, she stopped a fair distance back and spun the bola again letting it get some momentum, when she decided it had enough she tossed it. He'd been expecting her to aim for the Z's head but instead she threw it at the zombie's feet. The three stones made it spin so the leather cords wrapped around its ankles and it toppled over. Then she walked over to where it was snarling and reaching out for her, and avoiding its rotting fingers she lifted her harpoon and piked the Z through the back of the skull. 10K lowered his rifle, impressed with her technique, as she unwound the bola from the Z's ankles and made her way back over to him.

"Well?" she asked with a smile when she reached him and he couldn't help but smile back.

"Cool." He said, "Can I try?"

"Sure." She said as he threw the strap of his rifle over his shoulder and took the knotted leather from her hand. "But you'll need a target."

Ellie looked around, then rushed to the woods and collected some small fallen branches from the trees. She returned to the beach where 10K had waited for her, spinning the bola in his hand, getting a feel for it. She stabbed the sticks into the sand at various distances and they took turns throwing the weapon seeing who could hit the most targets. She got more of them than he did but he made the argument that he'd do better than her if they were shooting, a comment that made her smile as she agreed with him.

He couldn't remember a time when he'd enjoyed himself so much, even Pre-Z. The entire afternoon they stayed on the beach having their little contest, he'd throw his head back whenever he'd miss by just half an inch and she'd giggle which seemed to always make him smile. He'd been smiling so much that by the time night started to fall and they had to head back to the cabin his face was actually hurting.

When they did make it back Ellie started on dinner and 10K grabbed his book from the shelf, he sat on the bed and quickly found the page he'd dog-eared to mark where he left off. He didn't get far before he heard a crunching sound and looked up to see Ellie ripping apart some lettuce leaves. He watched as she ripped them into easier to eat pieces and threw them into a large bowl. Then she went back to the small cooler and pulled out a cucumber and a carrot before she took her knife and started cutting them on the cutting board she kept nearby. He stood up abandoning his book and walked up behind her watching her cut from over her shoulder, he could tell she knew he was there and was grateful she didn't seem to mind.

"Where did you get fresh vegetables?" he asked amazed.

She smiled as she continued to chop them up and add them to the bowl, "Back when I first found this place I came across an old farm. All the crops had overgrown and most of them are still good. The farm was too broken down to make it a safe place to stay but it's not too far from here. I go every now and then to gather more but I can't keep much since without a fridge it would spoil quicker than I could eat it. It's about a day's journey from here, I usually bunker down overnight then collect what I need the next day and head back here. When I can't make the trip I mostly live off the fish I catch."

"Well how much do you have left from your last trip?" he asked and she threw the last bits of carrot and cucumber into the bowl before she went to her supplies again. When she turned around she had one potato in her hand. "We should take a trip to that farm."

She shook her head and put the potato back, "Not yet. I want to give you at least another week to heal before a trip like that." She said moving over to him and pulling up his hoodie and peeling back the corner of the band aid to look over his stitches again. She seemed satisfied that they hadn't pulled open during their fun on the beach and she pushed the bandage back onto his skin to make it stick before she lowered his shirt and went back to dinner. She got to work on cooking a fish as he swiped a piece of carrot and popped it into his mouth.

"A week." He said after he'd chewed, "I'm going to hold you to that." He said with a teasing smile and she gave a short giggle as he moved back to the bed and returned to his book. When the fish had finished cooking she chopped the meat up and added it to the bowl with everything else. She mixed everything together before dividing it into two smaller bowls and throwing a fork in each. She brought him over one of the portions and he thanked her as he accepted it. Then she went over to one of the shelves and took a mason jar before she returned and sat beside him on the bed. She shook the jar well before she opened it and when the smell hit him it made his mouth water.

"No way." He said with a smirk and she turned to him with a smile, "How did you –"

"I made it." She said gesturing to the jar of salad dressing.

"You made it?"

"Mm-hmm. Vinegar's acidic so it's self-preserving and it doesn't need refrigeration and no one ever loots a house's spice cabinet so those were easy to find." She said as she poured a bit of the dressing from the jar into her bowl before she offered it to him. He nodded and she poured, he lifted his hand when she'd poured enough and she put the lid back on and rested the jar by her foot as they both ate. The first bite that hit his tongue exploded with flavor in his mouth. He leaned his head back a bit and hummed in satisfaction.

"Oh my God." He mumbled around the bite he'd taken. She giggled at his reaction as he dug in, shoveling the food into his mouth like it was the last meal he'd ever have.

"Slow down Ten Thousand." She giggled.

He hummed again, "I haven't eaten this good the entire apocalypse." He said before they both fell into a comfortable silence as they ate, the only sound in the cabin was their forks scraping along their bowls.

Murphy POV

"There's somebody here to see you." Merch said entering his throne room.

"Who is it?" he asked as he lounged in a chair on the platform as his blends worked to tidy the place up around him.

"The family with the sick little girl."

"The road hogs? Send them away." Murphy said waving his hand. Then the family walked up the steps and into the room anyway.

"We just wanted to thank you." The father said.

"Thank me?" Murphy asked, he'd never been thanked before.

"For giving us back our little girl." The mom said.

"The bite is getting better." The father said.

"Well. . . good." Murphy said still uncomfortable in the conversation, though he was happy for the little girl. She reminded him a lot of Lucy, and he wondered if his daughter would be anything like her when she was older, "I'm happy to hear that."

"It's not just that she's cured. It's more than that." The mom said, "She's not afraid anymore. It's a miracle."

Then the little girl ran forward to sit on Murphy's lap and she gave him a hug. He wasn't used to such a gesture but he returned it all the same.

"We just have one more favor we'd like to ask." The man said taking his wife's hand, "Would you bite my wife?"

Murphy looked at him then a smile grew on his face. He was expecting people to be like Warren – reluctant of his idea of a new world, of a blend species. But these people, all the people who'd survived the apocalypse thus far, he was their beacon of hope, he was their savior, and he'd have their respect in a way he'd never had with the others.