Sean moved quickly down the darkened stairwell in search of Aaron. It was nearly pitch black, and he was forced to feel his way along the wall, but it barely slowed him down. He couldn't shake the feeling, one that raised the hairs on the back of his neck, that he was not alone. Just as he was reaching for the doors that would lead him to the third floor and the entry to the department store, a hand snaked out of the darkness and clutched wildly at his arm. The hand was small and feminine, which pretty much narrowed down the owner's identity for him.

"Natalie," he said softly, a quickly in-drawn breath revealed he was correct.

"How..How did you know it was me?"

"Process of elimination. Tara wouldn't be hanging around in a dark stairwell with a bum ankle. Granted, she does seem to be moving around pretty good on it now though, so she could be faking it."

"But Emily.."

"Is with Aaron," he finished bluntly. "Good try, but you should realize by now that wherever one of them goes, the other almost always follows. So that brings us to the question, what are you doing lurking around in the dark?" He heard her small sigh just before she let go of his arm.

"Hoping I could find one of you alone. But I'm glad that it was you I found," she said, barely audibly.

"For what?" he asked, his voice devoid of any emotion, so she couldn't tell what he was thinking. He hoped that her last comment wasn't meant to be flattery to win him over, if it was, she should definitely rethink her job as Richard's little informant.

"I'm...scared," she whispered anxiously. "I...I need your help."

"Scared of what? The dark? I find that hard to believe," he scoffed, hoping to get her to talk faster. He began reaching for the door once more in attempt to prod her into action,and as soon as it began to squeak open, she grasped his arm again. He smiled in the dark, thinking that she may prove to be a little predictable.

"No, not the dark. Well, not entirely anyway," she told him hesitantly.

"So it's Richard then," he said impatiently. She seemed to talk more when he was abrupt, like she thought she'd lose her captive audience.

"How did you know that?" she stammered.

"Do you really need me to answer that? Or do you want to stop wasting my time and get to the point?"

"He's promised to take me with him to the safe part of the city, that he'd keep me alive as long as I do what he tells me, and I know I should just shut my mouth and do it, but..."

"But?" prodded Sean.

"I can't help but think, no matter what he promises me, I'm just going to end up like the others?"

"You mean the walking corpses or Emily and Tara?" he said on a hunch.

"Emily and Tara. I think he wants toput them to work on the streets and the club in the safe city."

"Exactly how much do you know about Richard?" Silently he processed the information she'd just presented him with. In a sick way, it made sense. Even when all that they knew was falling to pieces around them, somehow there was alwasy some sick bastard still around to take advantage of it all.

"I know he likes it doggy style..."

Sean interrupted her quickly, "Not the kind of information I'm interested in. I want to know what the hell he's told you about his plans. When he's going, who's helping him. Everything."

"I know he works for someone really important, someone who pretty much owns the safe zone." Enter the sick bastard, Sean thought.

"Mr. K I presume,"he threw out at her, testing the waters a little.

"How did you know that?" she asked in surprise.

"I overheard him talking on a cell phone up on the roof, he kept saying that name," Sean admitted. Inwardly, he questioned his own wisdom in sharing the information with her. It could all be part of Richard's plan to get them to trust her. But maybe, just maybe, she was on the level. He decided to play along a little longer, see if he could figure out what her game was.

"I thought I saw someone up there, but I wasn't sure..." she trailed off until silence filled the stairwell once again. "You must have been hiding too," she said at last, her voice somewhat accusatory.

"Of course I was hiding. My question is, why were you? I figured you were pretty well partnered up with him in all this mess."

"No. Oh God, no. Richard...well, he kinda saved my life at the Fort. And after that, I guess I just believed him when he said to do what he told me and I'd stay alive. You were there, you know what it was like," she told him.

"I know I was there, and you were, but we didn't find Richard and Allen until we reached the bus station," Sean replied.

"He said he could keep me alive, take me to a place where I wouldn't have to worry about those things anymore. I'd be safe. All I had to do was listen to what he told me," she finished sadly.

Sean started getting suspicious. She wasn't saying anything about the discrepancy in her story, when they'd met Richard, and how she came to be with their group that had escaped the Fort. "How did Richard save your life when you didn't even meet him until over a week later?"

"I met him right after I arrived at the Fort. I was there even before it was officially declared a rescue station. I was just setting there, out in front of the tent they'd put up to process the new arrivals...I don't know, I guess you could say I was sorta shell shocked, watching the wounded get hauled in...remembering what I'd seen happen to my roommate," she said slowly.

"And?" he prodded.

"He was just there. Started talking to me, telling me that the Fort wasn't going to stay safe for long but that there was someplace out there that was being made safe, even while we talked. He said if I did exactly what he told me he'd make sure I got out of there safely. And he was very straightforward about the consequences if I didn't listen to him. Richard doesn't like to beat around the bush about things you know."

"And just what exactly were those consequences?"

If he could have seen her face in the dark he would have laughed. As it was she peered towards the sound of his voice as though she could see him and he'd suddenly sprouted a couple of extra heads. "I'd die. Be torn apart by those things. And whatever was left of me when they were done, it'd come back and try to do it to someone else."

"So essentially, you're telling me you pretty much made a deal with the devil, because either way you wereafraid you were going to lose your life," he commented.

"Something like that. I was scared to death, I didn't want to become part of that hell on Earth out there. So...I do what he tells me, or I get hurt. But at least I'm not one of those things. That's what I keep telling myself anyway," she said hoarsely. She'd watch her roommate get her arm torn off by those things, and minutes later, after she'd bled out, she had become one of them. She shuddered at the memory, after witnessing that, she would have traded her soul to survive.

"Hurt how?"

"Whatever's convenient. Usually his fists, someplace where it won't show the bruises. It would never do to let the rest of you know what happens when you're not around and he's...unhappy. Other times a well-placed kick does the trick. Or else an elbow here, a choke hold there, whatever makes me beg. Sex."

"Did he rape you?" Sean asked, curious as to how she'd answer.

"No. Well, at least, not really. I...I didn't want to fuck him at first. But then, it just seemed easier to give in...it hurts a lot less that way. Physically anyway. I don't get knocked around first, it's sort of a plus. But it doesn't really stop the beatings, just delays them some."

There was something in the timbre of her voice that ate at him, deep down inside. He wanted to believe she wasn't lying to him, that she wasn't on another of Richard's little errands, but he couldn't be certain. And that thought ate at him even more. He thought hard, growing silent for several minutes.

Her voice broke through the silence, breaking him from his thoughts, "Sean?"

"I can help you," he said after another long pause.

"Really?" There was hope in her voice. Again he wished he could see her face so he could try to read her expressions, try to determine if she was stringing him along again. He was going to have to go with his gut instinct here. Of course, his gut instincts had been wrong before, the scar on his face would be a lasting reminder of that.

"Yes, but I'll need your help to do it," he told her.

"My help? What do you want me to do?"

"For starters, I need you to start at the beginning, from the minute you met Richard."

"I...I'll try," she said hesitantly. Her hesitation made Sean's next decision much easier for him.

"So start talking," he said, trying to keep the irritation from his voice.

"Like I said, I met Richard almost as soon as I got to Fort Pastor. But he disappeared right after you arrived in front of the tent."

"Me?" he couldn't keep the shock out of his voice.

"Yes, you. He pointed you out, said, 'When things start heading into the shitter, follow him. He'll get you out alive.' Then he told me to do whatever I had to do to get you to take me to that bus garage. I got the impression that he knew more about what was going on then what he was telling me, but that could be wishful thinking on my part."

"He said that I could get you out alive?" Sean asked, still surprised. How in the hell would a total stranger have any idea what he was capable of? It completely boggled his mind. Unless of course, there was something to what she'd said about Richard knowing more about this whole catastrophe than he let on. He was willing to lay odds that the information he knew had absolutely nothing to do with the actual disease that caused all those dead people to come back to life and kill though.

"Yes," she replied,bringing him out of his musings.

"So where was he at? All that time. It took us better than a week to reach that damn bus station."

"All he'd tell me was 'a safe place.' But he'd never come right out and say where."

"Greenlawn Heights?"

"Right. He's never come right out and said so, not to me at least, but I heard him talking on that phone. It came up a time or two. Actually, he always calls it 'The Green.' I guess I just assumed that's what it was."

"So why that elaborate story about me killing off all those people who died after we fled the Fort?"

"He told me to do it. He doesn't trust you or that other soldier that much, thought you might give him a hard time about what he's got planned. And...he said it just wouldn't do to have the others find out that he was the one who opened that door...when Marcus died..."

"When he was torn to shreds you mean?" he demanded coldly. "Why the fuck would he let them in there? We were safe, we could have lasted there for weeks, long enough for help to arrive."

"He said he had a schedule to keep," she whispered. Her voice sounded like she was fighting back tears, but that could just mean that she was one hell of a little actress he thought bitterly.

"And just what exactly is that?"

"I don't know for certain.."

"Of course not, Richard wouldn't want you to ruin his plans."

"You didn't let me finish," she said angrily. Sean smiled in the darkness. Anger was good, powerful. Some people tended to let it take control of them, allowed it to loosen their tongues a little. "I said that I don't know for certain what he has planned, what kind of time table he's working on, but I know it's got something to do with that drama queen lounging up in the security office and that bitch off fuckin' your pal right now."

"I would be careful that 'that bitch' doesn't hear you talk about her that way, at least if I was in your shoes. Something tells me she could kick your ass without even trying much."

"Hardly."

"But then, you've already admitted what your little friend has planned for our girls," he said, condescendingly. "And I highly doubt that either of them are just going to roll over and do what he wants."

She chose to ignore his sarcasm. "From what I gather, this Mr. K guy is setting up shop in Greenlawn, a bar, casino type gambling andall that kind of shit thing. And he'll do whatever it takes to get girls to work the place, anything."

"Hey, you lost most of your loved ones to the walking dead so come on down and gamble, is that gonna be his big draw?"

"A little bit. But you left out another big moneymaking segment."

"Whores. He wants to turn you all into whores."

"Not me," she said quickly, almost too quickly. "But the others, yes, absolutely."

"I see. So it's a 'feeling down, why not go fuck one of my sex slaves and while you're at it blow all your money gambling' kind of marketing plan. Brilliant. Especially when money isn't really worth the paper it's printed on anymore."

"Maybe not here, but in the city it is."

"So are you really telling me everything? Or is this all just a big scam, courtesy of Richard," he mused.

"I swear I'm telling you the truth," she hastily responded.

"Okay. Let's say I believe you. Are you willing to do a little bit of work for me?"

"Whatever you need. I'm behind you, like 150 percent."

"Yea, I thought you might say that. So, that being said, here's what I want you to do."

As she scurried away, back up the stairs in search of Richard, Sean finally located Aaron and Emily. Allen was long gone, and they huddled in a quiet corner of the sporting department, a couple of large battery powered lamps lighting up a good portion of the store around them.

"I think I've got a plan to get us outta here," he said.