Summary: How are Lindsay and Elyza gonna survive this mess?
Author's Note: This is where this fanfiction really starts to go into details because it starts deviating from the original FTWD plotline, so the pace is most definitely going to slow down a lot.
Getting surrounded twice a day by walkers was not on Elyza's bucket list. Life really wasn't going her way. She hears the screaming, the helicopter and trucks starting and their engines whining as they drive away. She doesn't blame them.
Out of the doom, or horde of rotting corpses, whichever you wish to call it, a glint of reflection off metal catches Elyza's eye like a ray of sunshine and hope in the darkness. The metal of a motorcycle. The keys glint in the ignition, as if calling out to Elyza like the north pole for a compass. A beautiful specimen of a Harley Davidson.
A grin splits Elyza's face. Perhaps today was her lucky day after all. "This way!"she calls out to Lindsay as she whacks three walkers out of the way and then blows one's head straight off, starting slowly in the direction of the bike.
Lindsay isn't far behind. She whistles, feigning being impressed before taking the metal rod in her hand and stabbing it through one, two, three walkers, spins around and blows the brains out of a forth, before bringing the metal from above her head straight into the top of the skull of a fifth. "Not bad, but now it's four to five, Lex. You might be getting rusty."
"No way in hell, Moon!" Elyza snipes back, smashing the butt of her shotgun through the eye socket of a walker. They work competitively, shouting a victorious count every time one of them takes down a walker, trying to beat each other in number. It is an odd sort of motivation, in that they are more focused on killing as much as possible as if it is a game and not a desolate life and death situation.
Finally when Elyza shoots the head straight off of a walker and shouts, "82!" The glorious motorcycle gleams in front of them, the leather seat calling out in its pristine state. Elyza swings her leg over, and feels Lindsay get on behind her with a little bit of struggle.
"Feet up and get the map that Jake gave us out!" Elyza yells to her passenger as the engine roars to life, the giant round headlight turning on like a spotlight shining through their dark, grim situation. Then they are roaring away, literally rolling over the first walker.
Lo and behold, the horde starts closing in on them again, who would've guessed? "Uhh… Elyza…?" Lindsay asks from behind, dubious of the abilities of the motorcycle to get them out of this dilemna. A motorcycle was not conducive for running down walkers.
Elyza only smirks, leaning forward on the handles a little more and gunning the engine to an ear splitting thunder and hurtles them way too fast towards a plank propped up diagonally against the metal fence. She hears Lindsay ironically screaming that her idea is insane. I mean, who's the one who usually saves the world by blowing things up?
As they race onto the plank of wood, it bends and creaks underneath the sudden load of weight. It's obvious it's about to collapse. Lindsay is screaming that they should abort now. Walkers are converging behind them.
All at once they are in the air, off the plank, flying towards the road on the other side of the fence.
"IF WE DIE I'M DRAGGING YOU TO HELL, LEX!"
The ground races towards them too fast for any sane person. It's a good thing Elyza Lex can't quite be counted as sane. As the bike hits the ground, she brings it to a halt, tail end whipping around from the momentum, and slamming her boots into the ground so they don't tip over. Elyza's body buzzes with adrenaline as she grins. "You alright back there?"
Stumbling off the bike, Lindsay rushes over to a nearby bush to hurl whatever residue of food that was still left in her system.
-0-
The summer light is filtering in through the windows hot, yet nobody makes a move to go outside. Nick himself is watching over Luciana, but his eyes wander over to the other girls in the room. He fought off the urge to sigh. Alicia is sitting in a bottom bunk, leaning on a post of the bed and staring out the doorway with her signature broody teenager look. She and Madison have had yet another row, this time about the whereabouts about a certain blond, badass, Australian. Her worry for the blond might as well come off of her in visible waves.
He understood the risks of going out to look for a person who had been in a deadly situation the last time they saw them, but he also couldn't blame her because Nick would be lying if he said he wouldn't do the same for Luciana. Perhaps if Elyza were here, she would know how to diffuse the situation. Even if she acted cocky, she was a funny and dependable person. Heck, even if Nick didn't find Elyza agreeable to begin with, at least she always knew how to make Alicia smile even in the worst of situations.
Now the new, tall, curly-haired girl, Magna was a different story. Her expression was a storm as she leaned against the window, looking towards the gate like Alicia was doing through the doorway. She looked conflicted, but in a way where she would bite off the head of anyone who asked her about it.
Nick gets up and pours a cup of water from the pitcher on the table and sits down across from Alicia. She looks up to watch him move and situate himself. Handing her the water, he says, "Drink some water" and leans against the bedpost like her.
She takes a sip of the water, frown and squint still not slipping off her face. Alicia returns her gaze back to the doorway as if she will miss something majorly important if she looks away for just a few more seconds. "If you're here to convince me that Mom is right and that she's dead, you can save your breath", Alicia finally says quietly. There is no menace to her voice, she isn't angry at Nick.
Nick knows better than anyone that life is a hellscape that becomes exhausting. "I'm not. I just thought maybe you'd want to go for a walk." He pauses for a second, glancing up at the curly haired string bean in the corner of the room. "You too. I really need to stretch my legs, and what's better than having two dependable people watching my back?"
Magna scrutinizes Nick with an unimpressed look. It's really her default expression by now. They all know it's not him who needs to stretch his legs. He's been running around between Luciana and Madison all day since they've arrived. The way he's unconditionally giving almost irks her. It's the type of person she had wished existed back when she needed it, and it gives her an odd feeling in her chest. Relief that Alicia didn't quite suffer like her in this life as well blooms.
Alicia just rolls her eyes and huffs, "Fine. Might as well get it done while there's daylight since you'll probably keep bugging me until I agree anyway." The agreement comes too easily for Alicia to actually mind. If she didn't want something, she would fight in her bullheaded way until it became reality.
She stands up and struts out of the little room, Nick following in his own lazy fashion behind her. Magna visibly relaxes as the room is vacated of conscious people, and then jumps when Alicia pokes her head back in. "You coming, Magna?"
"Yeah...I should probably check on 'Miko anyway", Magna murmurs, using Yumiko as an excuse. God forbid grumpy old Magna wants to bond with people. She makes sure to grudgingly scowl as she falls in step with Nick and Alicia, who fall into an easy sort of conversation. Their shoes scuff on the sandy, dry, dirt and rocks, caking the soles in a way that would probably never fully wash off. Magna kicks a few pebbles out of the way as they walk.
"So what was that cool language you guys were using? Cause Alicia, I didn't know you learned anything other than English and Spanish", Nick asks with a playful smile, leaning over and wrapping his arm over Alicia's shoulders as they walk.
Magna stiffens, and Alicia fights her hardest to remain unaffected, but she sneaks a glance at Magna, and Magna looks back with a panicked, "What do we do?"
So Alicia does the smartest thing possible; she tells the truth. "That was Trigedasleng." You could almost see sweat trickling down Magna and Alicia's foreheads, and it certainly wasn't because the sun was beating down.
"Wow. My sister is even smarter than I thought. Me? I didn't even know that was a language", Nick chuckles. Alicia lets out the breath she was holding and rolls her eyes at him. If only he knew where the language actually came from, he might not be so proud after all. Heck, he'd probably think she'd gone crazy from the constant fighting.
"It's not my fault you never paid attention in school, Nick", Alicia scoffs, and Magna has to chuckle. Even back in Polis as Lexa and Luna, she had always been the one to pay attention to the teachings with rapt attention.
"Hey, it's okay. Nick can't have paid less attention than me in school", Magna offers.
Nick shakes his head with a laugh, hair moving with the movement, "We might have to disagree on that. I really wasn't good at school."
Before Magna can answer, shouts across the ranch catch their attention. Alicia, Magna and Nick go racing across the ranch towards the escalating commotion, previous banter all but forgotten.
-0-
Elyza and Lindsay are cruising along, Lindsay guiding the driver by hollering over the engine. The road seems to be never ending and the desert is hot and vast. Everything around them seems to go on to the ends of the world. Elyza was having the time of her life! Lindsay, not so much. Elyza's short hair was flowing back and getting in her face, her leg was starting to hurt from the position she had to stay in on the bike.
She's beside herself with joy when Elyza finally pulls over to the side of the road for what she thinks is going to be a break. Lindsay maneuvers herself off the bike slowly, only to find Elyza couched on the side of the road murmuring herself. As she walks closer, Lindsay discovers that instead of murmuring to herself, she is murmuring to a bush of flowers. Absolutely wonderful, her friend isn't just talking to herself, she's talking to flowers too now. "Elyza… those flowers are beautiful, but I'm pretty sure you have a much better girlfriend to flirt with at the ranch."
Elyza graces her with a quirk of her lips. "The flowers are nothing compared to her, but I wanted to pick some for her. I promised that if I was going to do this, I would romance her properly like she deserves."
"Oh how the turned tables, Elyza cares about being romantic",Lindsay sighs, turning around and surveying the area just in case a walker has popped up near them somehow.
"Oh shut up",Elyza grumbles, but the smile doesn't go away. In fact, it only gets wider as she picks the flowers painstakingly. Each beautiful purple flower that fades into white, is thoroughly examined to make sure they are in optimal condition to be presented to her lover. It is on the sixth flower that Elyza notices the flowers starting to quiver. A frown graces her face as she looks closer, and realizes the pebbles are as well. Then a sound slowly registers in her ears. It grows and grows as it comes closer, a rumbling engine far off in the distance. The shape of the automobile hazily comes into view as a giant old pick up truck.
Lindsay pointedly looks between Elyza and the motorcycle. If they get on now, they can skirt around the truck and never even encounter these people. Instead of doing that however, Elyza puts one hand on her shotgun, the other hand still clutching the purple flowers. She still doesn't have enough for a bouquet to give Alicia and she'll be damned if she abandons her mission now.
The truck comes to a halt in front of them and burly men tan skin and long hair spill out, pointing their guns at the two women. A particularly tall and harsh looking man stands before them and demands, "Drop everything and put your hands up." He seems to have a permanent frown and crease in his brow, perhaps from squinting in the sun too much.
"But-" Lindsay starts to snark, and gets kicked to the ground before she can even finish her thought.
Elyza pulls out her shotgun and surges forward with a savage cry. There is no way she's given up the only flowers she's seen since she crossed the border from Mexico. Plus, her pride won't let her. She would never submit to a person, never mind somebody who would treat her friends like that.
Two accomplices immediately converge on Elyza, one grabbing her and restraining her, and the other wrenching the shotgun out of her hand. She continues to struggle, slamming her head back against the man's chin, stomping her foot on his toes. A sharp blow to the back of her head gives her head splitting pain, and the last thing she sees is the purple flowers falling to the ground, sad, dying, and then finally trampled by a black boot.