Tara stood outside the security office with her ear pressed up against the door. It'd been more than half an hour since Sean and Aaron had disappeared inside with their prisoner, and she'd been standing there almost as long, trying to hear what was happening. So far all she'd been able to make out was the sound of muffled voices and something that sounded an awful lot like a fist striking a ripe melon. Apparently Richard was getting his ass handed to him. It was a beautiful thing to hear.

"They making any progress in there?" Matthew asked, quietly joining her vigil.

"Shit! Do you enjoy scaring the crap outta people?" she cried, whirling to face him.

"Sorry. Any news?" he prodded.

"I can't hear much of anything in there," she answered.

"So let's start with what you can hear," he suggested.

"It sounds like they're beating the crap out of him," she said with a grin. "Not that it's doing much good, otherwise they woulda been out here by now, don't ya think? But I bet they're having a good time." Matthew just nodded, ignoring her chatter and remaining silent as he reached for the door knob.

"Wait, you're just gonna goand walk right in there?" she demanded.

"That's the plan," he answered, just before he softly closed the door in her face once more.

"Why the hell can't I get away with shit like that," she muttered, pressing her ear back up against the door instead.

Inside the room, Matthew took in the sight before him. Richard was seated, bound to a chair with his back facing the door, his interrogators stood in front of him. Flecks of blood peppered their shirts, and large drops were pooled on the floor along with what appeared to be a tooth.

"I thought you were helping Emily keep the others contained," Aaron said harshly when he caught sight of Matthew standing by the door. He didn't like the thought of her being left on her own, but, he admitted to himself he was a little biased on the subject. It still bothered him though.

"She's fine. The situation's totally under control. Besides, Barry's there to watch her back, Natalie's tied up, much the same as our little friend here. I don't think that Allen's much of a threat, he's just here to drive the bus, he don't care too much who the passengers are, just so long as they're not trying to eat him. And Justin's bawling his eyes out begging those kids for forgiveness so I figure I'm of more use here."

"We don't need his wounds dressed, so I seriously doubt that," Sean cut in.

Matthew ignored him, striding towards the three men and getting his first frontal view of Richard. Tara's assertion that they were beating the crap out of their prisoner was a serious understatement. He'd looked up momentarily when he heard the medic's voice, but then his head sagged limply, his chin practically resting on his chest. His face was beginning to swell almost beyond recognition, his eyes nothing more than slits, his nose definitely broken. Matthew could only imagine what other damage they'd inflicted, although he was more than a little certain Richard was playing up the wounded man routine, trying to lull them into a false sense of confidence. "So has he told you anything?"

"Yea, he told us to get fucked," smirked Aaron. "But he'll talk...eventually."

"Time's running out," Richard mumbled. "You'll kill us all unless you untie me now."

Sean gave him a vicious backhand. "Save it. We'll untie you when you tell us what we want to know," he ground out.

"Look, you've been working on him for over half an hour now, your method obviously isn't working," Matthew said angrily. "Why don't you admit that maybe it's time to let me try something else."

"What the fuck do you know about interrogating a prisoner?"

Matthew looked down at the ground for a moment, then met Sean's eyes. "Look, just because I'm into helping people now, that doesn't mean I've always thought that way. Give me 30 minutes alone with him, I'll get the answers you want."

Sean stared at him for a few moments, considering. "You've got 15," he said at last. "He don't give you the answers we need, I do it my way."

"Agreed."

Sean gave him one last measuring look than walked out the door, calling, "Clock's ticking."

Aaron followed him, pausing in the doorway, his mouth open as if he were about to speak. He looked thoughtful for about half a minute and then shook his head, walking through the door and closing it behind him. Out in the hall, he caught sight of Tara retreating hastily down the hall back towards the dating office. "How'd you manage that? I half expected her to come charging in there as soon as Mattie did."

"Played her ego. Told her that we really needed her to watch Emily's back, you know, help her guard the others and shit. Since Matthew pussed out and decided he wanted to play interrogator and all it wasn't too hard a sell."

Inside the office, Matthew just barely heard their voices as he moved to stand before the bound man, hunkering down so he could look him in the eyes. "Well Sunshine, looks like you and me have got some talking to do," he said quietly. He smiled slowly and the sight of it sent a shiver of fear through Richard, something the beating Sean had administered had failed to do. He'd never seen the medic this way before, it was almost like he had become someone else entirely.

Sean and Aaron found themselves on the roof, peering down at the bus in silence. Aaron was the first to speak, unable to contain his curiosity. "Think he'll be able to pull it off?"

"I should be the one asking that question, you've known him longer than I have."

"Couple weeks man, that don't make much of a difference. And from what I can tell, he's got a little Jekyll and Hyde thing going on."

"Your point is?"

"Since we've been here, he's had this whole good, wholesome, total boy next door routine going on. Concerned, the great caretaker."

"Our dear Dr. Jekyll," murmured Sean.

"But just now, downstairs..."

"Mr. Hyde I presume."

"That first day, when the whole outbreak started, when it came down to just a handful of us left out of our search and rescue team, the cold sonuvabitch downstairs...that's the guy I saw then." Aaron shook his head, looking down at the bus again, a grin on his face. "And I remember that whole goddamn time we was running, all I could think was that for a fucking medic he sure as hell was a pretty damn good shot."

Sean chuckled. "Just because he likes to play doctor doesn't mean he can't be a good shot too."

"All I'm saying is, when push comes to shove, well, there's a reason that only the two of us survived out of that whole team. He changes, right before your eyes. You gotta see that, I mean, why else would you think he'd be any better at interrogating Richard than you are?"

"You're wrong, I don't think that, not for a minute. And I seriously doubt he'll get him to talk, I just figured it'd give the rat bastard and me both a bit of a break before I get really serious."

"So you don't think he can do it then," Aaron said, answering his own question from before.

"No. And his time's just about up, so playtime is officially over. Let's get to work, we've wasted enough time already and I want to know about their whole operation inside that city before we leave here. We'll need to know what the story is behind the boat that's supposed to be meeting him down at the docks too. I also wouldn't mind knowing who the fuck that bastard really is."

"Matthew?"

"Fuck no, Richard. Matthew's on our side, that much I'm sure of. Besides, I know all about him. As a matter of fact, I bet he's down there right now trying to reason with that sonuvabitch. Looking at the clock, knowing his times almost up. Hell, he's probably talking Richard to death right now. You know as well as I do that that's not the way to get him to talk."

"Yeah. Well, normally I'd say that you're probably right. But you've never seen what Mattie's capable of."

"So let's go see what the good Doc's been able to accomplish then," Sean smirked. To his way of thinking, there wasn't a chance in hell Matthew had gotten anything out of their prisoner. Which made the sight that greeted them when they opened the door anything but what he'd expected. Richard was no longer bound to the chair, instead he lay in a ball on the floor, groaning in pain. The coppery smell of fresh blood met their nostrils, mingling with the fetid stench of vomit. Two fingers lay in a puddle of blood on the floor, not far from a bloody pair of bolt cutters. The front of Richard's pants were undone as well, and droplets of blood were liberally spread across his groin and lap. This shirt was also in tatters, bloody slashes most likely from a knife liberally covered his torso. Ironically the hand missing two fingers had been carefully bandaged.

"What the fuck!"

"Gentlemen,allow me introduce you to Colonel Richard Nichols," Matthew said, stepping out of the locker room and drying his hands. Blood splattered his uniform in places. "He would've been your CO at the Fort, Sean, if things hadn't gone all to hell. It's how he knew everything about you, why he told Natalie to stick close. And it seems his Army pay just wasn't enough for him, so he's been dealing with this Kaufman guy that controls the city for quite some time. Supplying him with weapons, ammunition, the works. He's the one who gave the early warning so they could get those barricades up around that part of the city."

"How...?"

"How'd I get him to talk? Or how'd he get them the stuff?" Matthew said, that same cold smile that had chilled Richard lighting his face.

"Either. Both," stammered Aaron, shocked by the sudden change that had come over Matthew. The 'Mr. Hyde' persona was definitely in command now, and it was worse than anything he'd ever displayed down on the streets.

"He just needed a little friendly persuasion."

"You cut his fucking fingers off!"

"Just to let him know I was serious about what else I told him I'd remove."

Looking at their prisoner, Sean finally spoke. "You were gonna cut his fuckin' cock off weren't you? Jesus man, that's fuckin' brilliant. Hell, I shoulda thought of that."

"Not my usual MO, but effective nonetheless."

"Just answer me one question," Aaron said, looking from the severed fingers to Matthew. "How in the hell did you even think of doing that to a man?"

Matthew sighed. "Just a little trick I picked up."

"Yeah? Spend a lot of time in dungeons torturing people?"

"Something like that, another lifetime ago."

"Oh cut the bullshit. You're telling me you were some kind of freak who tortured people in a past life? That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. What, you picked it up during the Crusades or something," he scoffed.

"Is this really all that important right now?" Sean asked impatiently, trying to regain the attention of the other two.

Ignoring him, Matthew addressed Aaron. "Any lifetime begins just by living it. One day, you can be some idyllic young kid, out to conquer the world. Then in a flash, you make the wrong choices and it's all gone. And your next life begins, doing things that that kid never could have imagined. Things that haunt you in your sleep... But then an opportunity comes along to leave that second life behind, a chance to start over. And you can almost convince yourself that it's possible to leave all that mental baggage behind. The start of another new lifetime. But trust me, you never really let go."

Sean started to clap his hands, applauding. It finally got the attention of the others focused on him. "Great story, really, totally heart wrenching, but can we get back to the important issues at hand? What did you find out about that city?"

Matthew nodded. "That Kaufman has himself set up in the biggest, fanciest building left in the city. Him and all his rich friends. Everyone else gets the scraps. He's putting together his own private army to patrol the entrances to the city. It's more or less protected on three sides by the river, and as of the time the bus arrived here, they were still scrambling to finish running high voltage wire across the land access to protect that part of the city. Besides the army for defense, there's also the group of raiders that Kaufman put together."

"The supply men."

"Precisely. They keep their vehicles on the far side of the river, take the underground subway back and forth to the city. They've got defenses set up along that portion of the river to keep the dead away too. At least, as good as they can and still leave it wide open to get the supply trucks in and out."

"How many men they got guarding that motor pool?"

"Probably 20 to 30 guards at any given time. The raiders are only there long enough to pick up and drop off their vehicles."

"How many people in the raiding parties?"

"Unknown. They send out a couple of big trucks to haul the supplies in, plus some smaller more maneuverable vehicles to supply arms support. And a bunch of crazies on motorcycles to supply the muscle. He also mumbled something about an armored truck, but I couldn't make any sense out of it."

"And the boat?"

"They must have lucked out there. Once they'd contained the outbreak within the city and got most of the defenses up they took stock of things. They rolled put every last car left in the city, used them to plug up the bridges and keep the corpses out, but they also found a boat or two still moored on their side of the river. Kaufman claimed them for his army and every now and then they'll be used to pick someone up from this side of the river."

"And you learned all that in 15 minutes."

"Seven actually. It took the other eight to break him."

"Nicely done. Now, let's get him tied back up, I'd say we've got some work to do."