Chapter 2: Control

Bailey stood in the driveway, carefully holding her trusty shotgun in her hands. After coming back yesterday with blood all over herself, her family had thrown a fit. Once Alejandro and Samuel realized she was alright, they backed off a little, though it was clear they were a bit worried. She wouldn't let them reconsider their decision to bring her along today, but her papa fought tooth and nail. The shouting had gotten bad enough that she needed to retreat to the porch in the dark to get away from it. She only returned when everything had died down. The look on his face this morning showed that he was not happy, but he wasn't saying anything. So she kept her head down and got herself situated before she and her brothers were ready to go.

She first hugged Bruno and let him know she would be back soon before moving to her mama. They exchanged a tight hug and words of luck before she stood in front of her papa. His face was stoic, but she tried to push past her anger from last night and wrapped her arms around him.

"I'll be careful, papa. I promise," she assured, sighing softly.

As she pulled away, her gaze lingered on his watery eyes and for a moment, she felt a pang of guilt. Was it really hurting him this bad to do this?

"Stay close to your hermanos," he said, leaning forward one last time to kiss her on the forehead.

She nodded. "Always, papa."

With one final wave, she headed to the car and got in the driver's side. Bruno barked a few times as she started up the car. Her brothers didn't hesitate to get in and once they were situated, they started to go. She watched her parents in the rearview mirror until they were out of sight.

"Okay, where to?" she asked, glancing over at Sam in the passenger's seat.

"Follow out to the main road like yesterday, but we're going to make a different turn to a smaller town. Hopefully since it's smaller there will be more cars and more gas," he explained, leaning back.

Alejandro put his feet up on the center console and she groaned, elbowing his ankle. "Gross much?"

He merely chuckled and removed his feet. "Baby much?"

"Says the one who whines more than any twenty-six year old should."

Sam snorted and she just smirked, her eldest brother proving his point as he whined about her calling him a whiner. How he was even able to become an adult, she would never know. So she left him to rant, continuing to drive and ignoring him until he realized no one was paying attention and stopped talking.

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet, with only some small talk and exchange of directions interrupting the silence. They were pretty content to sit in each others presence with the hum of quiet music coming from the speakers.

The sun had just really started to shine above them when they got to the abandoned town. Out of everything that they first saw when they entered, they found a gas station. She pulled into the parking lot, getting a closer look at the sign hanging on the top of the gas pump that read: NO MAS GAS.

"Well that sucks," she murmured, sighing a little.

"There's still a few cars in the parking lot. We'll check them and the pumps just to be sure. The sign might only be there to deter others from taking it," Sam pointed out, opening up the car door.

Bailey followed suit, retrieving her shotgun and holding onto it as she took a few wary steps out into the open. It felt weird to be helping her brothers now, but she wasn't going to let those feelings get in the way of her alertness. So she headed up to the gas pump, going around to each and checking to see if they had gas. None of them did and she sighed, glancing over to Sam across the lot.

"Bailey, come here!" he called, waving her over.

Taking a quick glance around, she jogged over as he placed a siphon tube into the gas tank of the white van and secured a rag from his back pocket around the tube to keep it in place. She placed her gun down.

"What do you need?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips as he blew air into the tube.

"I'm going to teach you how to siphon gas. I can feel the bubbles in the tube when I blow, so I can tell there's a bit of gas inside. You're going to suck on the tube until you see the gas flow and then you can put the tube in the can so it can drain out. Got it?"

"Yeah I think so. You sure this is safe?"

He shrugged. "Not really, but we don't have a real pump siphon so we have to do it the old fashioned way."

"Makes me feel so much better," she snorted, taking the tube from him.

"Well I'd rather die from gas poisoning than a muerto."

"Good point," she agreed with a small laugh before wrapping her lips around the tube.

She tried sucking on the tube for a few moments, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Sam motioned for her to try again and she did, sucking a bit harder until the flow of gas came rushing up the tube. She didn't pull away in time because a small bit of gas sneaked through her lips and she jerked backwards, spitting out the offending liquid and coughing.

Sam took the tube from her and fed it into the gas container and she continued to spit the little bit of gas out and forcing herself not to vomit at the vile taste. He tossed her a water bottle and she twisted the cap off, pouring some of the water in her mouth to try and swish away the traces of gasoline that coated her mouth. Swishing just like with toothpaste, she spit and repeated a few times until her mouth was gasoline free.

"Ugh. How do you do that more than once?" she groaned, taking a moment to actually drink some of the water.

"If you practice enough, you learn to pull away before the gasoline gets to your mouth," he chuckled, leaning against the van as its gas drained into their container.

"It's horrible..."

"Yeah it doesn't taste nice."

Alejandro popped back into view after exiting the small store attached to the gas station. He had a few small items in hand, but not much.

"Aw man did I miss it?" he whined.

"Sure did," Sam snickered, pulling the tube out of the van once it was finished.

"You can do the next one," she suggested, grimacing at the thought of the metallic gasoline taste.

"Oh no. You wanted to come and help. You get to pull your weight," Sam said, grinning at her.

"Fiiiinee," she groaned, taking the tube and half-full gas can from him.

There were two more cars left in the parking lot to check. One of them was a bright red and the other was a light tan. She headed to the red one first, but about halfway there, a loud screeching crash stopped her right in her tracks. Her head snapped up and her eyes widened when she spotted a red truck on the road into town had flipped through the air.

"Shit! Did you guys see that?!" she exclaimed, the can of gas falling from her hand and landing on the ground next to her. "We have to see if anyone is okay!"

Immediately, she ran to retrieve her shotgun that she left beside the white van.

"Wait, Bailey!" Sam shouted.

Ignoring him, she sprinted down the road, her heart pounding loudly in her chest as she saw movement from the wreckage. Someone was alive! She only made it a few feet away before she spotted another group of living, all of them boys. One of them had a gun aimed at the one on the ground and she quickly raised her own, moving closer and gaining the attention of the one with the gun.

"Whoa, are you trying to shoot him?" she questioned, eyebrows knitted together as she eyed the two boys.

"His leg. Not gonna survive. Might as well put him out of his misery," the one with the gun answered, gesturing to the terrified-looking boy in the dirt.

Her eyes flickered down for the briefest of seconds to see that his femur was poking through the skin of his leg. She winced, looking up as she heard the pounding footsteps of her brothers coming after her.

The gun boy raised the gun to her two oncoming brothers and she lifted her own. "Don't you dare. I will shoot you."

"Oh look at that, Derek, she's feisty. I doubt you even know how to use that thing. Why don't you just put it away before you hurt yourself, huh?"

"Bailey," she heard Sam murmur, the nervousness in his voice evident.

"They were going to kill their friend, we can't leave him. He's hurt, he needs help," she replied, finally taking a moment to look down at the boy.

He had tanned skin, with shoulder-length black hair and puppy-like brown eyes. Obviously, he was in pain from the injury he sustained.

"How about we take him off your hands? And you guys can go and we don't have to shoot anyone," Sam suggested, putting his hands out as a peaceful gesture.

"You got a place?" the gun boy asked, seeming more interested now.

"None of your business," Alejandro snapped, causing the boy to take a step forward defensively.

Bailey cocked the shotgun, aiming it at his face. She could feel the anxiety shooting through her body, making her legs weak. "Move. I dare you."

"Brandon," Derek warned, obviously seeing that she knew how to use a gun and that her finger was hovering over the trigger.

"I got this, Derek!" he snapped, raising his hands in surrender. "Look, this is our man Chris. We're responsible for him. We're putting him out of his misery."

"You can't just kill someone like that!" she exclaimed. "You don't know how precious life is these days when all you have are muertos."

Brandon threw his head back and laughed. "Damn, kid, you really don't know how this world works anymore, do you?"

"I do. But I chose not to let it take me. So you better back off or I will shoot you. We're helping your friend, even if you won't. Sam, Ale."

She gestured with her head toward the boy on the ground, Chris, and kept her gun trained on Brandon. He rolled his eyes, but finally lowered his gun.

"You're making a big mistake. When he turns and eats your family, you're going to regret it," he huffed.

Bailey didn't respond, only making sure he didn't move as her brothers reluctantly went to help Chris to his feet.

"You know, if you just let this all go, I can show you a good time," Brandon purred.

Her eyes narrowed and she could practically feel the tension seeping off Alejandro beside her. It was a low, disgusting prod, but she wasn't going to fall for it. She was the one in control and she couldn't let that control slip even for a second. These testosterone fueled males would take it in a second.

"Stay put. If you come after us, I'll shoot you," she warned, taking a few steps back as her brothers eased the injured boy down the road.

"Oh come on. If you shoot me, you're not going to have anyone to fool around with. How old are you, fifteen? I bet you've never even had sex in your life," Brandon taunted.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alejandro lunge forward, only to be yanked back by Sam, who was still trying to hold onto Chris too.

"Vete a la mierda!" Ale spat, his eyes full of fury and rage.

Both of the boys laughed and Brandon shrugged. "I don't speak Spanish, beanbag. Speak English."

"I said fuck off," Alejandro growled, fighting against the hold of his brother. "And if you're in our territory, you learn to speak our language, gringo."

"Ale...Ale we need to go," she murmured, her skin crawling as Brandon's disgusting words seeped into her skin.

Her voice seemed to snap him out of it and she blew out a breath, nodding at him as he slowly turned to continue moving on. Just before they got too far, she aimed a shot at their feet and fired. This startled them enough to send them flying in the dirt and she picked up her pace to catch up with her brothers, only sparing one glance to the boys trembling in the dirt before they disappeared back into the town. With quick feet, they moved back to the car.

Alejandro quickly went to get the gas she dropped and put it in the trunk while she helped Sam usher Chris into the backseat of the car. Once he was there, Sam pulled her and her brother aside.

"Bailey, this was never a good idea. Papa will not be happy and we cannot afford another mouth to feed, especially an injured one. We're already having enough trouble with abuelo," he said, his brows knitting in worry.

"We couldn't just leave him, Sam! It's not right. They were going to kill him. We can't turn into savages just because the world is in limbo. What's going to happen when everything gets better?" she pushed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"What if it doesn't? And what if he dies? Mama is only a nurse, how is she supposed to do surgery on him with no experience and no anesthesia?"

"We can't just not try! We'll be no better than they are if we leave him to die! We need to try. And if he turns...," she trailed, looking over to the car.

They both looked at her, sighing gently.

"If he turns, I'll take care of it," she assured, clenching her jaw. "And I'll deal with papa."

"I'm not sure I like this," Sam admitted, scratching his head.

"What if he's like those pigs, Bailey? You heard what they were saying. We can't have someone like that in our house with you and mama," Alejandro pointed out, his demeanor still tense.

She shivered and little and shook her head. "We'll fight that battle if we get to it. He might not be that way. Stop assuming."

"We have to assume these things, Bailey! You're being naive!" Alejandro hissed.

"I know, okay! I know that it might be dangerous! But we have to try. I don't want to be someone who doesn't give someone a chance."

Sam's breath hitched and he looked down at the ground, sighing gently. "Alright. Alright. Dammit, Bailey, you have too big of a damn heart. But if anything happens, he's gone. Broken leg or not."

"Okay," she agreed. "That's fair."

"Good. You sit in the back with him. I'll drive."

With a nod, she headed to the backseat and slid in. "Hey. Are you feeling okay?"

"Well, my bone is protruding out of my leg," he murmured, letting his head fall back against the seat. "You shouldn't have saved me."

Bailey was taken aback. What? Did he..did he want to die? She stared at him for a moment as the car started up.

"Why?" she inquired, taking a minute to reach over and buckle his seatbelt for him and then buckle her own.

"I'm no good. And I'm probably going to die." He smiled sadly and then closed his eyes.

"You won't. My mama is a nurse. She'll figure out how to fix you."

"My...mom was a nurse, too," he murmured, his expression suddenly becoming somber.

"Oh..." She had a feeling that it was past tense. Gone. It made her wonder where the rest of his family even was. Why was he with those boys? But she knew that it wasn't really a good idea to ask a stranger about a touchy subject like that.

"But hey," she tried again, biting her lip and looking over at him. "Whatever happened before...this is a fresh start for you. You don't know me. I don't know you. It's a clean slate, you know?"

"I guess we'll see," was his reply.

She didn't understand how someone who seemed so terrified to die acted like that's what he wanted. Maybe she would learn something about him, but for now, she would accept it. Something had happened to him.

"I'm Bailey, by the way. Sam is the one driving and Alejandro is the other. They're my herm...uh, brothers."

She was in the habit of calling her family by Spanish names and she wasn't sure if he even knew Spanish.

"I know a bit of Spanish. Hermanos. Brothers. I'm Hispanic too," Chris said.

"Oh..well cool then." She smiled a little and let her hands rest in her lap.

"And just for the record, what Brandon said to you... It was wrong and disgusting and I'm sorry."

Well...that was a step in the right direction. "Thank you."

The rest of the ride was deathly quiet. She wasn't sure of what else to say to Chris when he seemed so depressed and out of it, and her brothers didn't say a word. Where this would go, she had no idea. But she knew that now she was stuck with the decision she made and there was no turning back.

A/N: Well we finally have Chris here! Wooo I'm fixing the death he didn't deserve to haveeeee. Ugh I really did like Chris and they just screwed it up bleh. But here were are, bringing him back into the story. I hope this chapter was enjoyable! I'm really excited to move forward from here with my own material until we join the show again. Also did anyone see the first two episodes of season 3? I'M STILL UPSET OVER THAT DEATH. This show likes to kill off all the best characters. But anyway, thank you so much for following and favoriting! Let me know what you think of it so far! You guys are awesome!

Translations:

NO MAS GAS - NO MORE GAS

Vete a la mierda - fuck off