A million pardons for the long wait.

Chapter 7 Abby

She spent as much time as she could preparing to leave Seattle without drawing attention, her dad still looked at her like she grew a second head which was hurtful. Halfway through February Manny woke her up.

"What's going on?" she asked him.

"Owen is missing." Manny said.

"Missing? What happened?"

"He let some scar go and Danny attacked him. Danny was the only one that came back, before he died he told them at the FOB what Owen did." Manny answered.

'This is happening too soon. Oh no Lev.' Abby thought and got out of bed starting to get dressed.

"I'm gonna go find him. Manny, we're gonna have to leave Seattle." Abby said while putting on her henley.

Manny was about to say something when the door of their suite opened. One of the fireflies that had arrived with Marlene came in.

"Abigail Anderson, Marlene and Isaac want to speak with you." The firefly said.

"Pendejo, have you ever heard of knocking?!" Manny grunted while walking to the guy.

It was clear Manny was about to throw hands, the firefly noticed it too when Abby intervened by holding Manny back. She told the firefly she'd be right outside and to wait for her there. From his demeanor it was clear that the firefly had only agreed out of fear from Manny. Unlike Abby, Manny had gotten quite the reputation as a warrior against the scars, even Marlene tended to avoid getting on his bad side.

"Thanks big boy but I can handle myself." Abby said.

"Abs this is getting out of hand fast, the past months have been crazy."

She pulled him into a hug, something that surprised him since she usually wasn't the kind of person to engage in physical contact.

"They will be watching me. I'm going to get Owen and leave this shithole. Pass a message to our friends and my dad to meet us at the aquarium if they want to come." She whispered into Manny's ear.

She let go of him and saw in his eyes he was with her. After putting on her boots she left her suite and was escorted by the firefly to Isaac's office in the stadium. It was a long uncomfortable walk, she could only imagine how bad the conversation would be. The firefly walked her into the office and stood by the door afterwards.

"I didn't tell you to sit down." Isaac berated Abby when she was about to sit down.

"Where is Owen?" Marlene hissed.

"I just got up, how am I supposed to know?" Abby asked in return.

"Abby, Owen is in trouble and we need to find him so that we can help him. Do you have any idea where he would go when he's in trouble?" Isaac asked sternly but less unhinged than Marlene.

"Well I don't know. if he's in trouble then he's probably on his way back here, maybe the FOB." Abby lied.

"Stop lying, you and Owen are close, you know where he would go." Marlene hissed.

"We haven't been close since he broke up with me." Abby said, which was true, their break up this time around had been almost the end of their friendship.

Isaac seemed to believe her, after all her falling out with Owen had been widely known even the rumor that she cheated on him had made the rounds for a while. Him and Marlene conversed on the side, things got heated and Marlene seemed to have the upper hand.

"I want you to go to the FOB in case he shows up there, go pack your stuff there will be a crew leaving soon." Isaac ordered her.

Abby knew it was a trap, she could see it from Isaac's body language. They would drive her to her execution and later go back to the stadium to tell everybody that a clicker or something got her. One could only wonder how Marlene got such an influence on him.

"Should I pack for a long stay or a short one?" she asked him.

"Pack for a long one, you never know." Isaac said, somewhat sadly.

She left for her suite, Manny was already gone by the time she got back. Hopefully he would be able to convince everyone, now she just had to find Lev and Yara. Back in the suite she put on her bomber jacket, stuffing her gloves and watch cap into it's pockets. Knowing she wouldn't be back, she packed her most treasured possessions and even took a picture of her and her dad just in case. Finally she retrieved the small snub nose revolver she had from its hiding spot and shoved it in her right boot to hide it. Her earlier suspicions that she was being led into a trap were confirmed when she was met at the armory by two of the fireflies that had come with Marlene. Before she could even get her guns from the armorer, the two led her to a truck and told her to get in.

"What the hell was that?" One of the fireflies asked to other when they were halfway to the FOB.

"I don't know, we better go investigate. Hey, you come with us just in case." the other said to Abby.

She followed one of them, the other had clearly positioned himself so that she was in between them at all times. 'This is it.' Abby thought as she backwards kicked the guy behind her when they went through a door and grabbed the guy in front of her, wrapping her left arm around his throat and turning around while squeezing the life out of him. The other guy had started to recover from the kick, so she lifts up her leg, grabbed the small revolver and shot him in the head. Not wanting to waste ammo she broke the neck of the one she was holding. She hid the bodies, grabbed one of their AK's, a glock, spare ammo and gear. She drove the truck as far as she could. Where she had come across Lev and Yara in the old timeline was now firmly WLF territory, the addition of Marlene's fireflies had bolstered the WLF's strength so much that they had almost pushed the seraphites out of the city. Her anxiety was running high, so much had changed already and she feared she'd be unable to save the kids. There was nothing at the spot where she had met them, Abby ran towards the last seraphite stronghold in the city, desperate to find those kids.

She ran all over the place throughout the night, evading several patrols, observing the Seraphite stronghold. At dawn several infected had forced her to leave her hiding spot, while running to another spot she was tackled to the ground, in the process someone hit her head hard causing her to lose consciousness.

"We need to take her to the FOB." She heard a voice say when she started coming to.

"Fuck no, that bitch killed John and Peter. I'm going to kill her slowly, finish their job." Another voice said.

"We don't know if she did, they didn't arrive at the FOB that's all and Isaac said he wanted her brought in if she was found." The first voice said.

"Fuck that Isaac dude, Marlene wants this bitch dead." The second voice said.

"Just kill her already, we gotta take these scars to the FOB for interrogation." The first voice said.

As she fully regained consciousness she realized she was tied to a wooden chair. These morons had made the same mistake the rattlers once made. 'No Abby, don't think of that.' carefully she looked around until she saw a couple of seraphites laying tied up in the corner. She couldn't see their faces but could see that it was a boy and a girl, both on the smaller side. 'It can't be them.' Abby thought.

"Oh looky here who's awake." the first voice said, "I'm gonna take my time with you bitch."

"I can't be part of this shit, Derek." the other man said.

"Go take a walk around the block with your weak stomach, Mark." the first man said as he stood in front of Abby.

She observed the man named Mark leaving the building while the other one sharpened his knife in front of her, no doubt an attempt to intimidate her. The chair was stronger than she had hoped, she couldn't snap off either arm rest.

"You know I also studied human anatomy, not as extensive as that dad of yours or his followers, but enough to know just where to stab you and avoid causing you to bleed out." he said.

In a short succession he had made many mistakes, he had chased off his only back up and then decided to stab the side of her stomach forcing him to be very close to Abby. despite the chair limiting her mobility she lunged to his throat and bit down hard, crushing his windpipe and opening up one of his arteries making him bleed out and choke on his own blood. She let herself fall on the chair causing it to break enough that she could untie herself. She quickly grabbed the man's sidearm and went to the door, the two seraphites in the corner were making as much noise as they could given they were gagged. Likely wanting her to untie them.

The man named Mark, having heard the commotion came through the door in a hurry. Abby grabbed him, overpowered him and snapped his neck. Ignoring her wound she went over to the Seraphites and untied their hands, leaving them to take care of their feet and mouths. She was patching herself up with the first aid kit from the man that wanted to torture her when she heard a familiar voice.

"You're a wolf, but you killed other wolves?" Lev asked.

Abby turned around and walked up to him, slowing down when she saw the fear in his eyes. Yara was still on the floor and seemed worse for wear. She did her best to keep her emotions under control, it was Lev but he didnt know her yet.

"I'm not a wolf anymore, is your friend ok?" She asked in turn.

"They beat my sister pretty badly. I'm Lev." he said.

"I'm Abby." she said as she looked over Yara, who strangely got hurt in the arm again though less severe this time. "Do you need help getting her back to your people?"

"No, we left them." Yara spoke weakly.

"I'm going to be leaving the city with some friends, I think you two should come with me." Abby said. "I promise I'll keep you safe."

Lev wasn't too thrilled at first, so Abby gave him and Yara some space while she went to put her jacket and backpack back on. Afterwards she went back to the kids.

"We really need to get her out of here." Abby said to Lev as she handed him the bow and arrows she found.

The fact that she gave him a weapon and then a pistol to Yara seemed to put him at ease. Yara was pretty weak so Abby lifted her up into her arms and led them to the aquarium. They avoided most patrols, but did run into a seraphite patrol. Having told Lev to stay with his sister and cover her, Abby went to deal with them. Using her Ak and moving from cover to cover she overwhelmed the seraphite patrol, just when she was about to corner the last one, a woman, Lev appeared and pushed her AK away.

"No" he said, which confused Abby until she recognized the woman as his mother, which only made her trigger finger itch even more. "She's our mother."

Abby knew it wasn't going to end well, but still wanted to give them some space. She kept her AK ready and carefully kept an eye on them. It broke her heart to see how once again that woman could just not accept Lev as he is. Even when Abby had brought Yara to them, so Yara could intervene the woman just kept on arguing and name calling. The moment their mother drew a knife and tried stabbing Lev, Abby double tapped her in the head. Lev tried to attack Abby in anger but she disarmed him and firmly held him.

"I'm sorry kiddo but I couldn't let her hurt you." she said to him as he protested and tried to get away.

She let him hit her until Yara managed to get to them and took over consoling him. Lev's anger wasn't at the death of his mother but due to the fact that she couldn't accept him. Abby used her tomahawk to dispatch a couple of clickers.

"We should quickly bury her." she said to Yara and Lev.

Out of the two Yara was the most in agreement, so Abby quickly dug a shallow grave, placed their mother in the grave and covered her body while Yara and Lev prayed for the cruel woman. Time was starting to come of the essence, Yara, while not injured critically, having an severely injured arm was not in good shape and urgently needed medical attention. So Abby picked her up again.

"I really need to get you two to safety and get you both medical attention. My friends can help." Abby told them, hoping her lack of confidence at this point wouldn't be obvious.

They ran for hours towards the aquarium, Abby was starting to fear that her friends wouldn't have gone there or they would have already left. It would be especially bad since Yara really needed medical attention that had already went beyond Abby's abilities. They went into the back entrance of the aquarium and soon ran into Owen and Alice. Upon seeing the kids Alice immediately started barking.

"Alice! No!" Abby ordered the dog.

"Why did you bring two scars here?" Owen asked reaching for his holstered pistol.

"Lev put down the bow." Abby said to Lev. "Did anyone else make it here? She needs medical attention."

Abby had barely finished her sentence when Mel and Jordan came through a door. Causing tensions to rise again. 'At least Mel is here, even if she's a bitch.' Then Leah and Nora joined them next, eventually Manny and her dad, who looked relieved to see her, joined them too.

"You said you'd take us to a safe place but this is a wolf base." Lev hissed as he wildly aimed his bow.

"Lev, This isn't a wolf base I promise. That man over there is my dad and he's a doctor that can help your sister. Please lower your bow. I won't allow either of you to be hurt." She told him firmly but with all the love she had for him.

Jerry understood that the whole group wasn't helping the situation and told them to give them some space, he led them to the old veterinary area of the aquarium where Abby placed Yara gently on the metal table. He immediately started examining Yara, put a splint on her arm, which fortunately wasn't as bad as last time, stitched some minor wounds and wrapped up her broken ribs before finally giving her a dose of meds.

"She's going to need rest but should be fine." He said to Lev once finished, which seemed to put him somewhat at ease.

"Abs we thought you were dead." Jerry said as he hugged his muscular daughter.

"I'm fine dad. But I could use your help" she said after he let her go and revealed her wound.

Fortunately the creep that had inflicted it hadn't been lying when he said he knew how to cause someone pain without it being lethal. He had her hop onto the other table, Abby's exhaustion took over while he stitched her up and she fell asleep for a few hours.

When she woke up hungry, he was no longer in the room. She got off the table, putting her shirt back on and went to check up on Yara.

"How is she?" She asked Lev.

"Better, the doctor came to check on her and you. Are we really safe here? Nobody will hurt us?" He asked.

"For now we are safe, but we'll need to leave the city soon. I won't let anyone hurt you guys, I promise." Abby said.

"I don't understand, why are you doing this? We're your enemy." Lev asked.

"Are you? If you're my enemy then why haven't you killed me yet?" Abby asked him.

Lev didn't seem to have an answer, so Abby left the old veterinary area and went to look for her friends, she still had to talk to them after all. She found most of them in the main lobby of the aquarium, her dad pulled her to the side.

"Abs, those kids.." He started seemingly lost for words.

"I told you dad, but you looked at me like I grew a second head." Abby said, showing her displeasure that he hadn't believed her.

"It's just, this is crazy. You really traveled back from the future." He said, apologetically, seeming to realize he too had been truly given a second chance.

"Look dad, we still need to face reality. There's no way I can stay here, Marlene obviously wants me dead and I need to get Lev and Yara out of here. Please come with me and help me convince the rest to come." Abby said.

It was obvious Jerry was going to follow her and the kids. It didn't take much effort to convince Manny and Nora.

"Abby, how do you know about this Jackson place?" Leah asked.

"Heard about it from a straggler." Abby lied, "There's also the fact that the team of fireflies Marlene sent never came back. So they can obviously defend themselves if needed."

"You don't know that those Jackson people took care of them, infected might have gotten them. Who knows what else is out there. They may have run into an abomination like the one in the hospital." Jordan said."

"El rey rata." Manny cut in.

"Yeah, yeah, fine, the rat king." Jordan replied to Manny's satisfaction.

"Why should we follow you anyway? You're a horrible person Abigail Anderson, Don't even think you fool me for a second pretending to care about those kids. Owen and I will go somewhere else and we should take them with us before you get your claws even further into them and screw them over too." Mel started spewing.

Abby had already learned that in this go around Mel hated her even more, likely due to her having supposedly cheated on Owen. Mel's hurtful words, cut deeper than she ever could with a scalpel. It pissed off Abby and not wanting to hurt a pregnant woman she chose to walk away kicking a couple of chairs on her way out of the lobby. Even when the door was closed she could still hear her dad and Manny arguing with Mel. she went to where she knew Owen kept food supplies and made something to eat for the kids and herself.

"I'm sorry for Mel." Owen said as she was plating the food, "She was cheated on too and can't let it go."

"I never cheated on you, Owen. How many more times do I have to tell you?" Abby asked coldly, "You know what it doesn't matter, either you and that bitch come with us or you don't but you can't stay here in Seattle."

She walked away with the plates back to the veterinary area, setting them aside and helping Yara who was awake by now off the metal table onto a chair.

"You don't have to pretend you like it, I know I can't cook." She said as she observed the kids eating.

For the first time in an eternity she saw Lev laugh. Yara too of course but previously she had only had a short time to kind of get to know her, hopefully this would change now. Her dad joined them a little later together with Manny and Nora, they all had a sad look on their face.

"Been unable to convince the others?" she asked.

"For now, we'll give them another shot later, Abs. I can't say how disappointed I am in Mel." Jerry said.

"They are going to shoot the others?" Yara asked.

"No, it's a saying, it means they will give it another try. To convince them to come with us." Abby explained.

"Are we really going to take scars with us?" Manny asked.

"Seraphites." Abby said before Yara or Lev could correct him, seeing them smile a little in the corner of her eyes, "Manolo, we can leave all of this behind us now, Jackson is a place where we can live, really live instead of having to fight to survive every day. And yes we are taking them with us, they are just kids that deserve to have a better life."

Manny seemed to accept the answer, it was clear he was also tired of the constant fighting. Due to her own actions or rather inaction he had become the WLF's top killer. Of all people she could understand how it could wear you down to the bone. Nora was a little more apprehensive and stayed off to the side while Manny got to know Lev and Yara better. They spent most of the day resting and healing up due to the others wanting to convince the others. Abby had her group keep their stuff near the back exit, since she was eager to move out. They were eating dinner as a group separately after Mel had ruined another attempt to convince them to come with Abby's group to Jackson, when an explosion rocked the building. Abby was the first to grab her gear and go check it out followed by Manny and Lev.

Seraphites had breached the Lobby and were clearly looking for Lev. 'This timeline keeps getting weirder.' Abby thought. She started shooting at them with her AK, Manny on her flank as she moved from cover to cover.

"There it's Lily, Erica was right that the apostates are hiding here with wolves." A voice yelled.

"You're gonna regret what you did Lily!" another voice yelled.

Abby threw a pipe bomb at a couple of them, critically injuring them in the process. Using the explosion as a distraction she moved to another part of the lobby that could function as cover while shooting bursts at the remaining seraphites injuring one of them. She signaled Manny to cover her since she was in the best position to get into a flanking position. Firing bursts while she moved she got to some cover and leaned around it to shoot three of the remaining Seraphites. Once her AK was reloaded she continued her flanking assault killing two seraphites, when her sights lined up with the last she pulled the trigger but the gun didn't fire. Instinctively she dropped the AK while going for her handgun. The last remaining Seraphite turned to her, it all happened so fast, before she could line up the sights of her glock an arrow went through the Seraphites head. She turned to see Lev standing a lot closer, he had clearly also been moving.

"Thanks kiddo." she said.

The three of them quickly confirmed they had dealt with everybody, Manny looked at her confused since he never, at least not in this timeline had seen her fighting like that. Lev nervously looked at both of them.

"Did you hear what they called me?" He asked hesitantly.

"Yes." Abby said, followed by Manny confirming as well.

"Do you want to ask me about it?" He asked them both, clearly even more nervous.

"Not if you don't want us to ask you about it." Abby answered while glaring at Manny to signal he should stay quiet.

It seemed to comfort Lev, Abby hated this part of it, pretending not to know. They were soon joined by the rest of their group and heard Alice bark further into the Aquarium. When they went to investigate they saw the sailboat Owen had worked on for years sailing away, with the other four having left Alice behind. Nora and Manny especially were screaming after them.

"How the hell are we supposed to get out of here now?" Nora asked.

"You know it's a shame my dad didn't teach you any geography." Abby said. "Jackson is an overland trip, there's a truck stashed outside the city along with supplies."

"Long trek from here to get out of the city." Manny observed.

"There's a quicker way, the sky bridges." Yara said.

Abby went pale at the idea alone, she really didn't want to go up those things again, like last time went that good. She got even paler as Yara described to the others what the sky bridges were.

"Ok you guys take the sky bridges, Abby and I will meet you outside the city in a couple of days." Jerry said, clearly trying to protect her.

"I'll be fine dad, just don't look down, right." Abby said, though they noticed she wasn't very confident. "It's the fastest way, we need to get ready and move quickly. All this commotion is bound to have drawn attention."

They gathered their back packs and gear, topping off what they could, there wasn't much left, the four that left them hanging had clearly been using the time to load supplies on that boat. 'Fucking assholes.' They went to one of Abby's nearby caches and distributed the supplies. Given how many of them there were it wasn't much but still better than nothing.

"Alright, Lev and I are taking point. Manny you bring up the rear. No talking unless necessary." Abby ordered, showing she was serious about this after she put on her body armor.

Lev led them to the nearest highrise after she told him what gate they needed to get to. Given his and Yara's age they were remarkably well informed of the layout of the city and the sky bridges. Getting up to the bridge they needed was no easy task, despite lacking strongholds these bridges were still well guarded and functioned as de facto hidden strongholds. 'If Isaac or Marlene knew about this, they would shit a brick.' Lev took a bullet in his arm as they reached the upper floor and Manny got stabbed in the leg during hand to hand combat. And once more they had been calling Lev, Lilly. The latter hurt him more than the wound he had sustained.

"I promise you that you'll never be called that again when we get out of this city." Abby told him when she was bandaging his arm.

"I still don't understand why you're doing all of this but thank you." Lev said.

They were taking different sky bridges this time, sturdier ones that were far less dangerous. Nevertheless Abby was having kittens and it was obvious to anyone who looked at her.

"Abs you sure you don't want to go back?" Jerry asked as they were about to get on the first bridge.

"Are you afraid of heights?" Lev asked.

"Let's just go the sooner it's over the better." Abby mumbled.

"I had a cousin who was afraid of heights. Just… think about the good parts to fear." Lev said.

"The good parts?" Jerry asked.

"Yeah, like… you run faster. You're more focused. You don't feel pain as much. Every bad feeling… Your palms sweating, your heart racing… They're all signs you're actually stronger." Lev said.

"Not helping Lev." Abby mumbled and motioned him to lead the way.

Fortunately the bridges they had to take this time were a lot sturdier. Even the suspension bridge the seraphites had built was better than that converted fallen crane from last time. Nora and Jerry made sure Alice didn't fall off anywhere. When they got to the last building they had to fight their way down. Abby lured the first seraphites to their deaths with a glass bottle followed by a pipe bomb. It was only the upper floors that were inhabited by seraphites, so after dealing with them they could start the long trek down to the ground floor. Abby was the most grateful for her feet to be touching solid ground again. It still took them a few hours to get to the gate they needed. Manny and her jury rigged the gate to get it open. It was already dark when they got to the house that contained Abby's cache and the truck. She would have preferred to move on right away but they were all tired, in need of some medical attention and hungry. Once she had made sure Yara and Lev were comfortable she went to look for a spot for herself and started planning a route that should get them to Jackson.

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