Chapter 3

In the days that had passed Murphy's kingdom had been growing. Well, maybe it was more of a mini-dom. But there was now a chain link fence out front with a guarded gate to keep the squatters out. Around a dozen people who had heard of him had flocked to the area, every couple of days one or two more would show up. They were camped out front waiting for the cure he'd promised them.

"Well the zombie moat seems to be working nicely." he complemented Will as the pair walked outside.

"Thank you. I followed your specs exactly."

"It's a little thin on the Z side. Get some more zombies in here."

"I'm on it."

He ducked to pass through the guardhouse where the main gate was.

"Who built this thing hunchbacks? Fix that."

"I will."

"Murphy!" one of the campers shouted in desperation rushing up to him. The guard at the gate lifted his gun but Murphy raised his hand stopping him from shooting.

"No, no, no, let him come."

"Mr. Murphy come please." the man begged leading him to a tent. He pulled back the flap to reveal a very sickly looking woman. She looked on death's doorsteps and could barely lift her hand to reach out to him.

"We need your help." the man continued, "I think she's dying. Please. Save her. Bite her like you did the others.

"I - I'm sorry I can't. I'm too weak, they've been taking my blood to make the vaccine." he stood up and noticed the crowd that was gathering.

"I'm sorry I can't bite all of you. I'm sorry, but a cure is coming. With the apocalypse as my witness we are developing a cure. Trust me." then he walked back to his compound where he was safe. But his people weren't. He needed Merch.

She was in her lab, her bite obvious and bright red.

"Merch!" he shouted.

"I'm working on it." she replied sounding annoyed, even under his control.

"Well work faster." he demanded plopping at a stool by one of her tables.

"I can't. This takes time." she said walking around and mixing things together, "Now that I have your blood, I can mix your Z virus antibodies with the original vaccine. When we inject the vaccine with your antibodies into humans it creates a zombie human blend."

"That I control?"

"Correct. These boosters with the original vaccine arrest the effects of your deterioration. without them you'll end up like patient zero back in Colorado."

He swallowed nervously suddenly looking at the tubes in her hand like they were made of gold. Footsteps broke him of his spinning thoughts and he turned to the door.

"Some of the refugees won't take no for an answer." Will told Murphy as he walked into Merch's lab, "I just saw two of them inside the fence."

"The natives are getting restless." Murphy said getting up, "We need that vaccine now."

"It should be ready within forty eight hours." Merch replied.

"And you're making sufficient quantities?" he asked.

"As you instructed, ten thousand doses. But I need to do more testing before we use it on humans. I don't know if it's safe –"

"Blah, blah, blah the apocalypse is one giant human trial!" Murphy snapped, "The future is here. My people need the vaccine now." He said storming out of the room.

10K POV

True to her word a week later Ellie showed him the way to the farm she'd talked about. She was right when she'd said it took most of the day to get there as they made their way further inland and away from the ocean. The sky was orange around them as the sun set and they'd finally made it to the farm. He could see the overgrown crops, their vines taking over the wooden fence around them long ago as they flooded into the open space of the green field they were in. To their right was a brown-grey barn that looked like it had seen better days as several boards were missing or cracked and broken, some hanging at slanted angles barely hanging onto the structure. To their left further away was a farmhouse that looked like it was in much better condition and he paused between the two as Ellie stopped.

"Where do you usually stay for the night?" he asked as she looked back and forth debating something.

"The hayloft in the barn, but it'll be too small for two people." She said and he became confused.

"Why not stay in the farmhouse?" he asked, it probably even had a bed, and it looked much better than the barn.

"It's full of Z's." Ellie replied.

"How many?" he asked turning to her.

"I. . . don't know. More than I could take on alone." She admitted shyly. He lifted his scope and looked through the windows of the one level house.

"There's at least two." He said as he scoped the place out, "Maybe three." He said before he lined up his shot and pulled the trigger. There was the sound of glass breaking in the distance as the bullet went through the window and hit the Z.

"Wow." Ellie said looking at the farmhouse and he smiled, a feeling of pride filling his chest at the thought that he'd impressed her.

"5,388. Come on." He said leading her to the farmhouse, "We'll clear it and have a place to stay for tonight."

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He'd been right saying there were three Z's in the house. They each killed one on their way in then moved them to where he'd dropped the other zombie with his shot through the window. They searched the place for anything useful and Ellie was happy to find a few more mason jars that were in good shape along with some candles and a box of matches. He found a black button up shirt that he threw on after cutting off the sleeves and finally ditching the skeleton Zero hoodie but didn't find much else that was useful. He walked through the house one more time checking for any hiding Z's and when he felt confident there weren't any he went back to the kitchen where he found Ellie looking through an old recipe box. A lot of them she'd discarded – probably because she'd never be able to get her hands on most of the ingredients in the apocalypse – but there were a couple he saw her shove into her pocket for later. Then he looked out the window and saw it getting darker out.

"We should go to bed." He said drawing her attention to the window too as she saw the quickly disappearing daylight. "The earlier we go to bed the earlier we can be up and the more daylight we'll have to make the trip back."

She nodded and got up grabbing a gas lantern from the kitchen counter.

"So you have a thing for cutting the sleeves off your shirts huh?" she asked with a small chuckle and he turned to her with a smile. Then her eyes ran down his chest and she poked one of the buttons, "You missed one."

He looked down at himself and noticed she was right, he undid the other buttons and relined them up with the holes before starting again. He noticed her eyes watching his fingers, "What?"

Then she seemed to snap out of it as she looked back up at his face and blushed, "Nothing. Just tired."

She moved past him and he wondered if she'd been looking at more then his hands doing the buttons as he followed after her to the bedroom.

There were two small beds in the room they'd chosen for the night so they'd each have one which was a relief. After spending two weeks with Ellie he'd gotten tired of arguing with her over where he'd sleep. She was insistent that he could have the bed while he healed but he always felt bad and offered several times each night to take the floor so she could have her bed back. He was happy they wouldn't have that disagreement tonight. He closed the door behind them then moved his bed to block it just in case of Z's, the wooden frame scratched across the floor as he moved the bed and when he'd barricaded the door with it he finally hopped onto the mattress, sitting with his back against the door. Ellie was on her bed digging through her bag for the food she'd packed. When she'd found it she joined him on his bed and they ate in silence before going to sleep.

It wasn't the peaceful rest either of them were hoping for. In the middle of the night a storm had blown in and both of them were woken up by the roaring thunder. 10K sat up in his bed resting his back against the door again. He'd always loved the rain, hearing it hit the glass in the window and counting between the bright flashes of lightning and hearing the boom of the thunder. His Pa had taught him when he was young that counting the thunder and lightning was the best way to track a storm. If you counted less each time the storm was nearing, if you only counted to two it was on top of you and if you could count longer and longer each time then the storm was passing.

When the next flash of lightning happened it illuminated the room long enough for him to see Ellie twitch in her sleep. She flinched again when the loud BOOM shook the farmhouse and he knew they were in the thick of the storm.

"Ellie?" he called over to her not sure if she was awake or not since her back was to him. He got no reply but he did hear her whimper the next time the lightning flashed. He stood up and made his way over to her bed sitting on the edge and gently resting his hand on her shoulder tilting his head enough to see that she was awake and seemed scared.

"I'm guessing you don't like storms?" he said as she pulled the blanket tighter around her.

"Stupid right?" she asked and he heard her voice waiver, "But a zombie you can at least fight. If lightning decides it wants to hit you, you can't really fight that off."

"It's not stupid." He said moving his hand to rub her back, "Everyone's afraid of something." He said and she rolled over to look at him over her shoulder. He thought he saw something in her eyes like she was trying to analyze him but it vanished the next moment when another loud BOOM went off.

"It's getting further away." he said counting out the seconds between the lightning and the thunder.

"It doesn't feel like it." She said uncurling her body and relaxing a bit.

He kept rubbing her back hesitant to ask the next question that came to mind, "Do you want me to stay with you until it passes?"

She waited a moment before she answered. It looked like she was going to turn down his offer but when she saw the next flash of lightning she quickly answered, "Yes." Like she was eager for his comfort before the next burst of thunder. He almost chuckled as he laid next to her staying above the blanket as he rubbed her back. She kept her back to his chest and every time lightning lit up the sky he began to count quietly under his breath. Each time he counted longer and longer and eventually his counting seemed to lull Ellie back to sleep. When the booming became nothing more than a dull thud in the distance he got up and moved back to his bed.

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When they woke up the next morning Ellie was insistent to check his stitches before they got to work collecting things from the garden. He kept telling her he felt fine but she won the argument saying it wouldn't hurt to check. He sat on the bed and unbuttoned the black shirt he had on while she took a seat next to him and began peeling up the bandage from his skin as he leaned back on his elbows.

"It's looking better." She said as she ripped open a new bandage and he looked down at the thin cut the stitches were holding together. It looked like the skin was almost done mending itself back together.

"So when it heals will you take the stitches out?" he asked.

She took a deep breath, "It'll hurt but I'll probably have to. I just want to be extra sure you're healed before I try." She said sticking the new band-aid over his lower abdomen. "You look like you're putting on weight too which is a good sign."

"Are you calling me fat?" he asked jokingly and she looked up at him smiling.

"In the apocalypse fat would be a blessing." She replied.

"It's probably all the good food." He said sitting up and re-buttoning his shirt, "So I can blame the fat on you." He said chuckling, "I can't remember the last time I had so many meals in a row that were so filling."

"Well it's good to be near a water source where the fish are plentiful." She said repacking the medical supplies, "You should probably thank my friend for teaching me how to fish or we wouldn't be eating nearly as well."

"The friend you lost?"

"Mmm-hmm." She nodded still zipping up the med pack. "They taught me a lot, how to fish, how you can use moss medically, what roots and berries you can eat."

"Sounds like someone I would get along with."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Wasn't much of a hunter." She said remembering how he'd said he liked to shoot even Pre-Z.

"Best friends are hard to come by. I'm sorry you lost yours."

"It's not your fault." She shrugged then she got up and looked out the window, "We should start collecting food from the garden now if we want to make it back to the cabin by dark."

Murphy POV

"No matter where you run, they will always find you." Murphy was saying as he looked out the window. "Looks like we have some more Murphy seeking squatters out in the cheap seats. Word is spreading."

"Just finished repairing that section of fence." The father of the little girl – Will Chaffin – said on the window to Murphy's right. "Would you like to show me where to put the compost pile?"

"Yes." Murphy replied smiling and Will followed him out of the room, "I'll check out the zombie moat while I'm at it." As they made their way down the steps and headed for the door another one of his blends, one of the soldiers he'd turned from the submarine, joined them. Murphy liked that he could just think of the person he needed and they sought him out, it saved him the trouble of going to look for people or wasting his voice shouting for them.

"You wanted to see me Mr. Murphy?' he asked.

"Yes. Did your team find anything before we left the beach in California?" he asked knowing they'd booked out of there pretty quickly but not before he'd had some of his newly acquired soldiers do a quick once over of the area.

"Nothing sir. Some blood here and there but it was impossible to tell who's it was. It is the apocalypse after all."

Murphy understood what he was saying, everything seemed stained with blood these days but he had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly who's blood had been in the sand.

"I want you to get another team together and go check again." He ordered, "Actually, take Will with you too."

"Sir?" he asked knowing if he was sending his right hand man then this must be big.

"Look for a body, a Z or footprints."

"Mr. Murphy, I doubt he's alive. After the blood loss, the explosion, he wouldn't even survive the swim to shore." The solider said while Will looked on confused. Murphy sent him a mental picture of the kid and with a few more blend to blend thoughts Will was briefed and ready for his mission.

"He's still alive. Like a cockroach." Murphy sneered thinking how well the name suited the kid, he was as annoying as an insect you couldn't squash, "I want him found, and kill whoever gets in your way."