"So were they any good? Ya didn't get pinched or probed in the name of science? No weird tests and shit or freaky experimental guns?" Francis asked Rochelle as Coach sat down with Louis and a copy of "Peacecorps Schematics; apply engineering to survival!" to figure out how they were going to tow the One 4 All back to Florida.

"Nope, they're legit. Mind you they did want us to donate our blood for making blood serum, and the boys got their sperm frozen. The latter is probably not gonna last."

"No kidding, did it do anything?" Francis asked eagerly. "I mean I donated some of mine too, I even helped them put their primitive cartwheel centrifuge contraption together. I didn't think anything would come of it."

Rochelle chuckled, biting back a comment about how Francis probably donated tons of sperm in his lifetime what was a vial more? "Well, it made a hunter start paying attention to us, and a bunch of commons... and this witch..." She shivered. "They give me the creeps more than the others do.. urg except the jockey."

"You don't find the chargers creepy at all? They bellow like a freakin elephant crossed with a bird, they got no nose, and that arm makes me think they spent too much time jerking off..."

"Never thought of it that way. To me the Chargers are just big grey cannonballs you gotta dodge, and they'll run you over like the car they share their name with. I do know why their foreheads are so big though. But the one that caused more heebie jeebies than any other while we were there was the Smoker."

~flashback~

"hey Rochelle..." Ellis waded through the crowd of people either headed for the mess hall, for the walls for watch, for convoys, chores or classes. "Martin needs a muscle guy. Virgil is bringing in a medical emergency, probable carrier with gangrene."

"I'll tell Coach at breakfast, thanks for the cookies."

"Thank George, one of the watchmen. I helped him catch a witch last night that got too near the wall. You shoulda heard Mason. He sang note on just like one!"

"That kid is kinda creepy. Are they sure he's not an infected...?"

"Pffft, if there could be male witches you think we'd have seen any by now." Ellis told her. "But that hunter from their trials, you should go see him Rochelle. He actually started mimicking me last night."

"Seriously? that serum stuff must have fucked him up in the head." Rochelle sighed. "Good luck out there."

"thanks Ro, learn anything interesting I wanna hear it." Ellis hurried after Martin. Carter was headed in that direction as well. They got busy loading up one of the wood paneled pickup trucks to leave and Rochelle headed for the mess to get breakfast.

The smell of coffee met her nose as soon as Rochelle entered the cafeteria, making her start to salivate at the tempting aroma. Breakfast was fresh buttered bread, canned corn beef hash, some sort of pink banana that there weren't many of, hot cider, and it looked like they were cutting up tomatoes and vegetables for soup later that day. Coffee and tea were brewing. It was slightly better than a hotel breakfast but it was hot, this was the apocalypse, and Rochelle had been eating out of a can heated on a hot plate and MREs for months now. That, and any chocolate or potato chips they managed to get. Ellis had figured out how to 'hotwire' a vending machine and there had been some kerosene left in the food trucks at whispering oaks. But one inquisitive Jockey following his nose almost set the place on fire, and all they'd gotten out of it was a bag each of kettle corn and cotton candy. Hell Nick hadn't even gotten any, a Smoker had tried to grab him and when he dodged the tongue from Hentai Hell had grabbed the bag instead. The smoker had just stared stupidly at the bag but when Nick finally got it back the stuff was covered in smoker black tar. Rochelle had given him some of hers to make up for the loss.

"boo." Nick chuckled, giving Rochelle a poke as he sat down with her. Mari and a man who looked like he was related to her quickly claimed seats near Rochelle and Nick. Rochelle smiled into her coffee cup. "What's up?"

"Coffee. You know how long its been?" Nick took a long slow pull on his mug. "Jezus this stuff may as well be gold!"

"Yeah I mean... I did try. A bare can of sterno doesn't make very good hotel coffee and the way those things are packaged it was just... ew." Rochelle wasn't used to camp stoves, she'd almost burned herself trying to use sterno fuel.

"Yes but there's hotel coffee and then there's this coffee. And by the way, there's a reason why methanol fuels are hazardous, because they burn so hot just putting a tin of that shit on a wood surface can set it on fire." Nick had scavenged a couple hotel rooms worth of samples but those hadn't lasted very long either. A handful here a pocket's worth there, Ellis had emptied out one of the mini bars as they descended the Vannah. They'd been used to clean wounds and dull pain as they bolted desperately from safe room to safe room to get out of Georgia. The sterno had been found piecemeal, a can in the mall food court, a pack under a counter at whispering oaks.

Rochelle bit into one of the pretty little bananas only for her teeth to hit something hard. "What the..." She broke open the banana where she'd bitten it to find. "Is that a seed?"

Mari chuckled. "Commercial bananas are seedless, the seeds never grow to full size. But they're all genetically identical and were slash are being wiped out. These bananas, the trees are small so they're easy to manage but the seeds grow to full size. You can actually selectively breed them and even raise seedlings to trade. Hell most of the carriers that pass through here now just come because they want to trade for something. Break a leg? Trade for the medical care. Scavenge a good haul of fuel? Trade for seeds to start a garden. Find an ammo dump? Trade the calibers you don't use for the ones you do. Find a rare or obscure medicine? swap for a heal kit. You know how many old inhalers we end up finding just from traders coming through? Albuterol is a major stimulant, but it could give you a heart attack, its more or less useless if you don't have asthma."

"So why keep it?" Rochelle took a good long pull of her coffee before breaking a piece off the banana to eat. It wasn't bad at all actually. She pocketed the seeds for later, the gardens here had mostly been put on top of the asphault, no tilling just dump dirt in a box, maybe she could try her hand at growing.

"Because there never will be any again, not in my lifetime at least. Medicines, antibiotics, pesticides, sure the knowledge of how to make them isn't gone. But the machines, the feedstocks, the living experience of how to make them, those are all gone. Sure we haven't had an asthmatic survive yet but what if our kids or their kids develop asthma? We'll have nothing to help them, and have to watch them suffer. Sure chemicals eventually decay, but if its all you got, you use it." Mari frowned at the thought. "I was a physical therapist... I watched people use modern science and medicine to pick up the pieces from really horrible injuries. I can't do that for them anymore. I have to watch them struggle."

"So what you got a market or something?" Nick cast Mari a sympathetic glance, he didn't want to think about losses right now. Not when it became clear that 400 odd people were all that's left of the east coast and a population of a couple hundred million.

"Kinda..." Ricky made a "so/so" gesture with his hand. "The port where Virgil and the other traders tie up their craft to refuel. They sure as hell don't rest tied up in port. The infected could get them too easily. One Jockey in too good a mood, hunters won't chase something thats still, but the Jockeys always want to party."

"Thats one rude awakening." Nick shook his head. "Good strong saferoom door, not everyone's got one."

"pffft." Rochelle dismissed that comfort with a snort. "Those saferooms are hell to sleep in if the infected get riled. The doors ring."

"What are they made of anyway?" Nick wondered. "Diamonds or some shit?"

"Probably carbon fiber." A man in a mechanic's jumpsuit remarked as he passed them. "Ricky, your gear is fixed. And you were right, those riot suits are fixable. As long as they haven't been shot. As for the saferooms Carbon fiber is the same thing that makes stock cars able to take being rolled and the driver still walk away."

"Thats my cue." Ricky grabbed his plate, pulled a plastic ziploc bag out of his pocket, dropped his food in and chugged the last of his coffee. "Later sis." he hopped up from the table and headed out to his patrol.

"Is that why Ellis, no wait he totally fixated on that stock car because it belonged to Jimmy Gibbs I take it back." Rochelle sighed and shook her head with a smile. "I was gonna say maybe thats why Ellis suggested we take that car instead of one of the abandoned ones outside the mall but I take it back."

"He did what?" The Mechanic stopped and spun around on a heal, walking back towards them with a look of both horror and amusement. "did I hear that right? that your friend got you out of a mall full of zombies by um... borrowing... Jimmy Gibbs Jr's stock car?"

"yup." Rochelle giggled.

"Ballsy." The mechanic shook his head. "i'm surprised Jimmy gibbs didn't shoot ya."

"He couldn't, he turned into a zombie and the two yokels on our team turned into wusses and refused to fight back. Ellis was freakin punting the guy with the handle on his fireax. I had to do it, and I made a point of resenting it by tossing Coach the guy's head. I hate sports fans that go insane over their favorite atheletes. There's money to be had from catering to them sure but its NOT PRACTICAL IN A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE. And I think thats what pissed me off about that incident the most." (1.)

"And I'm sure if you ended up fighting Derek Jeter's zombie over an autographed baseball bat of his you'd have no problem killing him." Rochelle meant it to be sarcasm.

Nick broke a piece off of his banana spat the seed into his hand and chewed on it a moment before saying. "oh tots, because I root for the damn Mets. Jersey boy. Notice one of the places I wished I were stranded in was atlantic city? Hell smashing zombie Jeter in the face might be a great photo op."

"Why do I even bother? Boys with their toys, even techies and suave gamblers that really don't have anything to prove aren't immune." Rochelle grumbled.

"Really so does that mean you'd..."

"Not a chance Nick. If I fucked you I'd be thinking of Francis' bulging pecks and big hands the whole time." Rochelle flicked a banana seed at Nick's forehead.

"I have big hands." Nick piped up with a mock pout on his face, pretending the seed had hurt worse than it did.

"And a big ego. I'd rather repopulate with a muscly party animal than a fellow snark case. The end of the world has way too much crying in it for me to want someone who's personality has so many traits in common with mine. Besides you and Ellis are the closest thing I have to brothers. I honestly don't find myself all that attracted to you because of that."

"Aw c'mon."

"Nick if you like them tall dark and exotic." Mari leaned in batting her eyelashes playfully. "And you aren't drunk, try chasing something further from home..." Nick thought for a moment she was going to kiss him. But then she put a hand on top of his head and gently pushed his face down so he was looking at his plate. "... just no booze, one of my few deal breakers. That, and not being chased for long enough." Damn he was actually going to have to get to know this Bombay bombshell? But... maybe it might be worth it... those hands made being swung around by a smoker way more bearable and she was smart /and/ liked his charms.

Rochelle laughed at the dreamy expression on Nick's face. A thin man with tiny wire framed glasses and owlish features sauntered over with a clipboard, spotted Rochelle, and waved to her to follow. "Yep I think I'm chasing Francis and leaving you two alone. Lets get out of here Lovelace you were gonna teach me how to use that ham radio?" She asked a man in owlish looking small lensed glasses who stopped by her chair.

"Francis... francis... why does that name coupled with your description sound familiar? hmmm..." Lovelace muttered as they walked out of the mess hall door. Rochelle grabbed another banana on their way out, glad to have made a new friend that didn't have repopulating the earth on his mind.

"Does he hate a lot of stuff and have tons of tattoos?" Rochelle asked hopefully.

"yes! he does! I asked him to write down his experiences traveling and he handed me an audio recording instead. Read every Batman story the library had, and thats my childhood collection in there. He's in the guestbook we keep! oh but he's not due through for a couple months at least. He's on one of the trading vessels we sponsor, small rig, they all are, called the One 4 All."

"You serious!?" Rochelle's eyes brightened. "Oh my god! And now with the cell phones out. DAMNIT."

"He signed the guestbook too, so did his friends... I think I might be able to help you but it depends on how much he absorbed by osmosis watching me teach his friends to use the ham radio. He's down in florida, they're trying to start up a homestead in the keys." Rochelle followed Lovelace up a set of stairs and ladders.

The construction got more DIY in appearance as they ascended, handcut lumber with the cuts uneven, nails and not screws, no finish and just a basecoat of paint meant for indoors on the outside. Finally Lovelace opened a door to a room with a half circle of offices and a ladder leading up. The names on the offices read "Mercer", "Carter", "Greyson", "Gleason" and finally "Lovelace." Lovelace had a large shelf of notebooks, an encyclopedia, a couple dictionaries, some military handbooks and a lot of Maps in plastic tubes or tacked on corkboards. "here. the guestbook from when he first arrived and... ah yes. This is the radio handbook we work from when setting up radio and relay beacons. Our recruitment beacon can be heard as far as the ozarks I'm told. After that we need a relay station, shame that. Where did Mercer say you were from again?"

"Ohio..." Rochelle felt a lump in her throat.

"blocked by the Ozarks, god damnit. There has to be a way. Ro, I won't give up. We have to expand our signal as far as we can anyway. Maybe when the com satilite opens up again. An hour maybe a day is how much we have and most of that is taken up with data transmission to and from Cheyanne mountain in wyoming."

"What's that place?" Rochelle asked curiously.

"Last outpost with non carrier military staff. They're very deep underground. There's a whole mountain of granite and multiple hermetic doors protecting it from the infected. It was built as a military command post in the event of nuclear war. I lay good odds it could take a direct strike from a tsar bomba headon and barely feel it."

"Now you're going into history I'm not familiar with." Rochelle arched a brow at Lovelace. "you are seriously going to need to bring me up to speed." She pulled out her old reporter's notepad and started writing. "So I get the impression Cheyenne mountain is important and old."

"yep, its like this, there are certain bases that would have been very important in responding to the green flu and a number of ceda military crossover projects that our groups were collaborating on..."

"Wait you're military?" Rochelle laughed. "You sure don't look it."

"Desert storm radio operator and computer analyst. I studied military tech stuff that broke to find out why and if it poses a threat to the troops. There's a famous error with a computer clock that almost destroyed a whole base. In Yugoslavia if I remember right. I might have got it wrong though. All i know is i get a call 'hey we have a screwed up computer lobbing surface to air missiles at our own people can you please proofread this?' One number was off. JUST ONE. I had to find one digit off in miles and miles of code with all regular english text blacked out for the sake of national security."

Rochelle chuckled. "Sounds like fun."

Mercer poked her head into the office and said quietly. "Do you have that report from Norad from yesterday?"

"uh yeah it wasn't good though. Satilite found a couple of Jockies bouncing around the sierra range. It jumped the Missisip just a week ago and its already there when it took months to GET to the big muddy in the first place. And now its starting to look like a couple of boomers made it into the caribbean. Sure they can't swim but their corpses are still infectious and they can float short distances and survive still. And if Europe decides to bomb us... just to kill the infected..."

"Not happening." Mercer said with a dark look in her eyes.

"no don't tell me."

"Came off the steppes of central asia. A case northwest of beijing in the middle of nowhere nobody caught until the village was gone. The chinese hid the case from us... pieces of shit. They didn't learn a damn thing from SARS NOT A DAMN thing." Mercer made a fist, taking slow deep breaths.

Rochelle just started to cry. She put her head down on the table and started crying. "We're fucked. The human race is fucked in the ass with an iron rod and we STILL can't get along with each other... shit... Lovelace I need to get drunk."

"I shouldn't but..." Lovelace opened a locked cabinet next to his book case. He pulled out a bottle of cheap vodka, two small canning jars that looked like they could hold two shots each, and a lime that looked like it was hard as a rock and starting to dehydrate. He opened a woodchip lined crate and pulled out a coconut. "you know what these are crying out for."

Rochelle burst out laughing. "doctaaaah is there nothing I can take..." she sang, rolling her eyes and laughing.

"We put the lime in the coconut and drink 'em both together." Lovelace half sang, half laughed.

Ellis slid off the pickup truck when they arrived back at Colony around midday, pissed as hell. Three mechanics ran over with a bucket of water each to cool the smoking engine. A blackened hunter's foot was sticking out of the hatch and a hunter sized dent was in the front hood of the truck. "Son of a!" He kicked the truck's tires. "FUCK THIS SHIT!"

"Ellis calm down." One of the mechanics sighed. "We've had this issue before. Hunters and Jockeys can't seem to resist trying to attack people through windshields, you wouldn't believe how many accidents we've had. You're lucky the truck drove away or we'd be looking at a rescue mission to haul your gangrene case out of there."

The doctors were wheeling the poor boy away on a stretcher. He didn't look much older than seventeen. He was delirious and his right foot was almost solid black. "How bad as he?" A second mechanic asked.

"Bad, they got the swabs they needed for a antibiotic resistance test on the way." Ellis kept his voice down. /Its not about you Ellis,/ He told himself. /or the truck or the infected, its about saving that kid's life. Be objective!/ "If he's been to india or china in the past six months they say it could be worse."

"Its pollution, antibiotics being found in rivers and lakes in southeast asia." The first mechanic shivered. "Germs are scary shit man. Hard to believe two or three pounds of them keep each of us alive."

"Listen... Ellis if you want to help with something useful, like research type useful." The second said quietly. "Take a break in the library with some of Lilly's lovely orange spice tea on the rocks and... look up Bacteriophages, then ask Lilly about her project with them way back when. She might have some mechanic fixing type stuff to do but even if she doesn't, she wouldn't say no to some samples or someone who knows his way around mechanical stuff. We're just too busy keeping patrols on the road and trying to get the material for biodiesel. More hands makes for light work and some of the projects they need... well we're not too familiar with that kind of machine. We're car guys, and kinda set in our ways."

"Like what?"

"um... stuff to try and cultivate samples, high powered microscopes tied to computers, stuff that might be refreshing changes of pace if we didn't have so much military hardware and wrecked up museum pieces in need of repair. From spinning wheels to cotton gins to horsedrawn plows and carts and hand crank appliances. We have to figure out a primitive way to make gun powder and restore really really old guns that you can hand make the ammo for."

"APCs, there's this one military tank we WANT so bad but its in the middle of a CEDA processing site. God damn we want that thing down here. Not that it would do much good but at least we can stash the kids in it while the infected are banging around outside the walls. Big guns small guns mollies jeeps choppers, diesel is always in short supply and brewing that is hell on our lungs."

Ellis sighed, leaving the men to vent about all the broken things that had to be fixed. The third mechanic shooed Ellis out of the garage. "Take a powder man you just rode shotgun on an ambulence run, I hear Lovelace has a fabulous liquer collection and a copy of every map mercer's ever made of the infection, you could get drunk and spend hours speculating about how badly we all got screwed at the same time!"

"or just grab one and party by myself." Ellis wasn't a drinker, sure a cold one now and again but not hard liquer. He shuffled his way higher and higher through the tower where fort colony's administration staff had their offices. But when he got to lovelace's office Ellis found Rochelle passed out at the table with a bottle of vodka in one hand and an open coconut in the other. "Lime in the coconut" was playing on an old CD player. Someone had pulled a blanket over Rochelle's shoulders and then he saw what had probably caused her to drink. "Jockies got that far west? why am i not surprised." Then he saw the report. "jeezus why do they all have to come outta china. Bird flu sars and now this?" He took the vodka and lime filled coconut out of Rochelle's hand and pulled out his music player. He punched a few buttons and put it by Rochelle's hand, then left a note. 'I totally suck at words, ellis.'" The words 'rise against' started scrolling across the music player's screen followed by 'life less frightening.' He took two gulps of the coconut concoction Rochelle had been drinking and then dropped it in the garbage can.

Out in the parking lot of the main colony building, Ellis could hear happy voices raised in song. "The moment to fight the moment to fight to fight to fight to FIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!" Looking down from the walkway he saw the sullen teenager with the samurai sword playing tag with the younger children and singing. One of only two girls in the game jumped in. "To the ends of the earth! Its a brave new world from the last to the first!"

"worth fighting for..." Ellis muttered as he wandered downstairs looking for the library. As he disappeared into the library he spotted Martin at one of the tables. He pointed to the desk, then at himself. Go there, then come here. Ellis waved and nodded, then put a finger on his lips to acknowledge that he knew to be quiet.

"So... please use this clipboard to sign in." The bored looking private at the desk muttered grumpily into his tea.

"uh... wow..." Nobody had cleaned the sign out sheet in ages. Ellis eyed the library, but he also hadn't used the dewey decimal system in years. There was a section of what looked like field journals and... "I can clean this out for ya, make some more sheets, where's the printer?"

"Wrecked last week when some dipass trader got drunk and in a fight with Ricky over it. Man i saw that fight coming a mile away they couldn't have taken it outside before the punches started flying. Not to mention Ricky's an elitist and crazy bad at picking people to pick fights with."

"Who Mari's brother?"

"Yeah, man if you have a record or a habit of doing stupid shit don't talk about it in front of Ricky. He may look skinny but he's got one helluva roundhouse and he's fast."

Ellis started flipping through the sign out sheet. "Well maybe I can do something about that printer, or maybe draw some up by hand or somethin." A single letter Z on the sheet caught his eye. He flipped back.

The entry read "Zoey- signed out - Eat 'em to Beat 'em, edible invaders of the florida keys" "Louis - signed out - Peacecorps Book of Schematics" "Francis - Batman, the killing joke" followed by "PS I hate spiderman, and spiders! Bats rule!" Huge eyed shock turned into a shit eating grin and Ellis dropped the clipboard and ran out yelling. "COAAAAAAAAAAAAAH COAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! SHE WAS HERE AND SHE'S GONE WE MISSED HER BY LIKE A DAY! A DAY COACH!" at a fork in the hallway one of the soldiers who had heard who he was yelling for simply pointed and Ellis ran that way without even slowing down. He ended up at the medical bay and found Coach in one of the rooms in the middle of giving blood. Lilly was smirking and saying something flirtatious and Coach's ears were pink. "COACH SHE WAS HERE SHE WAS HERE WE MISSED HER BY THREE FREAKIN DAYS ZOEY WAS FREAKIN HERE MAN AND I WAS LOCKED UP IN A CAGE!"

Coach facepalmed with his free hand. "Boy you been goin on and on about that girl. You take life way too fast! good relationships take a lot of time and a lot of luck."

"And giving blood requires a lot of fluids, hence why we save what little gatorade we have for people generous enough to give it." Lilly walked to a mini fridge and pulled out a 20 ounce bottle, shaking her head at Ellis. Lilly happily placed the bottle next to Coach, as though proudly bestowing a trophy or something.

"Hey get two cups I don't mind sharin." Coach eyed Ellis in a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "C'mon, we're teammates I'm not gonna hog 20 ounces of pure sweet hydration all to myself!"

"Hey... the guy virgil saved, any chance he..."

"dunno, his leg looked bad, all covered in black. And he doesn't speak english either."

"Well I know enough spanish to read the address on his ID." Lilly ventured, going to the clipboard on the nearby OR door. "He's from San Juan puerto rico. And I saw smoker bruises on his arm. So thats another place we know the infection got to."

"Isn't that a state?" Ellis asked curiously.

"They wish, they've been fighting about whether or not they want to be a state for decades." Coach chimed in. "But if he don't speak english he's gonna have a hard time here."

"Some of the soldiers that are local speak french. One of the traders knows how to order lunch and ask directions in Japanese. Virgil knows a couple sentances of cherokee for some reason. Language is going to be a huge problem if enough carriers from different places manage to survive." Lilly sighed. "And there's a rumor come down from Norad in Wyoming that the Chinese nuked their own cities when the infection took hold there. I heard Japan saw a spike in suicides too. People getting the infection and killing themselves rather than attack others and spread it to them."

"seppuku?" Coach asked sadly.

"Yeah sounds like." Lilly ground her teeth.

"What's that?" Ellis blinked.

"Ritual suicide boy... god bless 'em, in their place I think I'd be too chicken to do the deed." Coach shook. "Humans can get brave when they think they're dying, real brave, and stupid. But I can't fault them for doing it."

"and as curious as I am i'm not going to risk contaminating an OR to satisfy my curiosity." Lilly started disconnecting Coach from the needle. "I'm going to have this analyzed, then its either getting saved for someone who's injured or being centrifuged for serum. I know Mercer wants to put some in trank darts for a field test."

"if she does that let me know, I want in." Coach grinned.

"Me too!" Ellis added.

Lilly walked over to Coach with a small slip of paper. "Give this to the commisary, each donor gets two baskets and up to three rationed items. So don't... don't... DON'T waste it. There's some good gear in there, including repaired SWAT armor. Keep your fine ass from getting ripped up." Lilly thumped Coach on the shoulder. Coach poured two glasses of gatorade with a sheepish grin on his face and suddenly...

*BANG!* a huge puff of smoke came out of the OR. Lilly dove on Coach and Ellis, shoving them to the ground. One of the surgeons stumbled out. The other yelled. "CAUTERY LILLY GRAB THE LIGHTER!"

Lilly's pumps scrabbled on the tile as she ran into the operating room with a lighter and an open, unlit molotov. "WHAT HAPPENED!?"

"IT WASN'T JUST GANGRENE CAUTER THE STUMP!" The surgeon that stumbled out came running back in with a pair of gas masks and shoved one onto each of his colleagues faces. There was the woosh of fire. Ellis smelled burning flesh.

Ellis spotted a figure on the ground behind Lilly, he ran in to grab it. He knew that acrid scent. Smoker ichor. He grabbed the nurse and hauled him out of harm's way before Lilly came skittering out and hammered an air vent switch near the door. The smoke started getting sucked out. Ellis found himself staring at a blood pool, one he'd scrabbled through to try and help the nurse on the ground. The surgeon that ran out had a huge bruise rising on his cheek and neck. Ellis knew that pattern but... the boy he helped out of virgil's boat didn't look like he was turning or had a history, what was going on?

The nurse Ellis saved managed to regain his breath. "It shot out of the kid's leg! There was a freakin smoker tongue growing out of his LEG!"

"Get this to Woad immediately!" Lilly dropped the severed leg and section of tongue still attached to it into a biohazard bag and motioned to Ellis. "Ellis get something on your chest in case it breaks out!"

Ellis grabbed a nearby xray protection blanket, the ones with radiation shielding inside, lead maybe Ellis never cut one open to find out. Shaking like a leaf he wrapped the biohazard bag up in it and ran down the hall like he was carrying a ticking bomb. "DOC! DOC THERE'S BEEN AN INCIDENT!"

Woad took one look at Ellis' face, and the smoke covering his clothing. "My boy there's a chemical shower two doors down that way. Clean yourself up." He took the package without looking at what was inside.

Ellis heard his cry of surprise, irritation and excitement when he saw the severed leg but didn't bother to look up from the stream of water. "maybe Nick's got something with his issues with hand sanitizer and germs and shit."

When he walked out about fifteen minutes later Woad was on internal phone. "We can't put off raiding a hospital much longer Randy I know you didn't want to because of the infected volume... because if it spread to that boy it can spread to anyone who is attacked by a smoker with a cut on the attack site. We can't have tentacles growing out of people we need some way to stop the tumor if it turns out to spread... well it happened in dogs I don't see it being impossible with humans... yes it did, its like getting struck by lightning but it did... Randy fine, put it to a vote... but I'm telling you we cannot put off scavenging that hospital much longer! And it was a teaching hospital we could find useful long term items inside!" He hung up the phone a moment later. "Ellis I have hot tea... you should collect your wits."

"Doc?" Ellis asked. "What's that about?" He took the offered cup, breathing deeply of the perfumed steam coming off it.

"Old debate, Randy has to coordinate patrols I'm afraid and the hospital I'm after he doesn't want to visit... its where he found Mercer when the infection came. He booked it south from Philidelphia, but that place had a lot of cancer patients... I'm worried about this leg... i want chemo drugs in our pharmacy because that independantly moving giant tumor cell frightened the part of me thats a doctor."

"Lemme help doc... can that...?"

"yes, and I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you, coach lilly and my colleagues in there to keep a diary of your health. And I need as many smoker samples as we can get. Any show up on watch tell the men to kill them on sight, tell Phil about this and that I said to wear heavy canvas around your torso to absorb any smoker ichor. I want anyone with cuts and smoker wounds checked out. Run this up to the docs."

"you're saying... you think the kid caught his smoker tumor?" Ellis' jaw hung open.

"Regular cancer, once in awhile, can transmit. Its extremely rare. I remember a case where this cancer surgeon caught his patient's tumor. He had a cut on his hand and broke his glove during a procedure. They compared the DNA and knew immediately where the tumor came from. If I'm right, and the green flu increased the unpredictability of tumors in the smoker, it means anyone with a genetic predispotition to developing cancer could potentially catch this macro micro monster regardless of whether they're immune."

"not me... been four generations i think since... but then again nobody in my family talked about anything." Woad thumped Ellis on the back. "its alright my boy, let me unravel this..."

Coach looked like he was going to fall over as he and Lilly leaned on each other walking into the morgue. "That kid..."

"He didn't die did he?" Ellis demanded, whirling on the other two.

"No, he's gonna make it. He's in shock. Lovelace is trying to translate the papers he had on him, appearantly they're a medical chart for his mother's cancer. She was diagnosed as being terminal the same week the greenflu took hold in Philidelphia." Lilly shook. "There was a referral, they flew her in, but her flight was canceled at the air port. The tickets were still in the folder."

"And I'm going to need to examine you both for cuts, Ellis run this up to Mercer tell her I said for Randy to tighten his belt or get out of the way." ellis looked down at the note. 'Tell Randy to get his head out of his ass, or just kiss the fellow and say you forgive him.' The note said. 'We need those cancer drugs now. We can't wait on field trials anymore. This one actually scared me. If i'm right, the forecast could include oncological lightning.'

Ellis shoved the note in his belt and ran up the hallway towards the makeshift staircase to the offices. He got up the stairs but then heard Mercer's voice and looked back. She was in the yard working on some kind of hand crank device covered in sterile chemistry jars. It looked like it was made out of a wagon wheel. He gauged the distance to the ground and the tree that came precariously close to the admin tower then called out. "DOOOOC DOC MERCER!" and slid down it, running over.

"Ellis? are you alright, you look like you've seen a ghost." One of the assistants, a wiry man in jeans and a t-shirt with a faded CEDA ID attached to his belt immediately took over for Mercer.

Ellis shoved the note into her hands. "Woad looks really upset. That kid virgil brought in! A smoker tongue was growing out of his leg but he wasn't turnin!"

Mercer sighed as she read the note. "Really... I'm not going to make a romantic move on Randy just so Woad can..." She facepalmed a minute, rubbing her forehead. "What does Woad say about this?"

"He thinks it could spread without the green flu..."

"Of course he does... Woad specializes in history of epidemics and one of the bits he takes pride in is understanding non standard outcomes. Being an ME just puts food on the table for him, the odder a situation the more he likes to study it."

"What what?" Ellis tried to understand. "i got the history bit."

"Non standard outcome, like a rabies flu hybrid showing up and making zombie mutants in addition to killing us all."

"The specials Ellis." Nick wobbled over from one of the pickup trucks used for ferrying people and supplies with a huge box of sterilized lab glassware on his shoulder. He hauled it to a table with several more boxes of similar equipment. "Stuff that isn't likely but causes a lot of damage is a non standard outcome. Its like this stupid statistics story I tell around halloween about red and blue doors, cthulu and odds on how soon the world is gonna end and we're all gonna die." (2)

"It was crazy shit man! A smoker tongue came out of this boy's leg... wait why do you do math you were a..."

"I needed to know how to calculate odds." Nick cut in evasively. He plucked a bandana from his belt and started wiping sweat off his face. He nudged Ellis "accidentally" with his elbow while doing so. "shhhh..." He hissed. "well as far as non standard outcomes go that would definitely be one." he peered at Ellis' expression. "you aren't joking are you?"

"no nick! It was nuts! the ER was filled with smoke and... the damn kid's leg was severed and the tongue was still wiggling!" Mercer had her hand on her chin while Ellis just shook his head. "Its like the habit of smoking itself has a mind of its own and... shit I'm all freaked out."

Nick looped an arm around Ellis' shoulders reassuringly. "Easy buddy easy..."

"I know right... i fought zombies and i'm scared of a freakin zombie tumor... why?"

"We call it Colony Crazies." Mercer's assistant piped up. "you have civilization again so you start processing the things you saw and the mask created by the need for survival fades away, replaced by grief, fear and zest la vive."

"Alright, I'm going to have the town council meet and put the screws to Randy."

"Don't." Woad strode towards them in some kind of cloak and with an enormous walking stick.

"oh cool Doc thats badass!" Ellis exclaimed, jealously eyeing Woad's traveling outfit. Woad was wearing a cloak made from heavy oily looking robinhood green wool. He'd made a ceda hazmat helmet into a camel back style slingpack with a straw that meant it could probably double as a water carrier and a backpack. Underneath the cloak was a poncho of patched together hazmat suit pieces. He had a bandolier of bile jars looped around his shoulder and stomach, the caps of the jars seemed to be a slightly different color of steel or glint somehow in the way that normal bile jars didn't. Then Ellis spotted a quartet of 9 volt batteries and a coil of copper wire near the top of the bandolier. Of course! He made the lids of the bile jars out of something attracted by magnetism so that the bile jars could just clip into place! Woad covered his face with a broad brimmed hat dyed the same green. He carried an enormous, dense looking walking stick, in fact it looked dense enough to lay out a charger if the angle were just right.

"Ethan you are not going and thats final!" Mercer scolded. "Just let me at..."

"I didn't mean that I was leaving." Woad gave her a wry smile. "Its unfair of me to have you do my screw turning for me. Just wait out of sight and be ready to do some... what do the kids call it now, some 'emoting?' And Ellis thank you for your vote of confidence, this thing has taken more spitter acid and boomer bile than any four of my normal working suits combined. The infected seem to have a bit of trouble understanding that this pads their attempts to beat me to death. Its saved my life more than once by putting the 'play dead' option on the table."

Mercer chuckled.

"Hey I'm going." Ellis piped up. "Might be something interesting in there."

"Me too i wanna see if i can scavenge some hand sanitizer, maybe something to brighten up my suit too." Nick grumbled. "I'm just glad its so hot down here in the south or it would never have dried but the color's still... ick..."

"Nick stop obsessing over how you look, you call my friendship with Keith a mancrush when you talk like that?" Ellis glared at the conman with a slightly disapproving shake of his head.

"you don't get it, when you meet someone for the first time you got at most 30 seconds to make a good first impression before their subconscious mind locks that image of you in forever."

"does not you're just imagining things."

"no really, its been scientifically proven."

"whatever. I can't believe you only want to help Woad go scavenging because you want more hand sanitizer."

"Alright alright I admit to curiosity. Also seriously, contagious smoker cancer that makes a tongue come out of random parts of your body... seriously... that is nightmare fuel and having a better pharmacy seems like a good way to stack the odds in our favor."

"We need a refrigerated transport case too, which means ice from the kitchen and a cooler." Mercer mused, already making plans for the trip.

"You aren't going to try and get the experimental antibodies." Woad sputtered. "When they did a trial of that formula they nearly lost four people."

"I don't plan on using them. Not at the level of development they're at, goodness no that would kill any healthy enough sod that took them. It could kill, but its a line of research well... I think its worth preserving. My way of paying homage to my profession, much like us paying homage to early american farmers by using their equipment to replace our normal blood centrifuges."

They wound through the hallways of the main clinic building after Woad until they reached the mess hall. Randy was hanging his hat and coat in the mudroom just outside. He saw who was coming, and he saw what Woad was wearing.

"no no no Ethan I said no!" Carter groaned. Ellis blinked curiously, looking from Randy to Mercer to Ethan and then at Nick for some kind of direction. Nick's eyes flicked to the look of annoyance on Mercer's face. "Nora you can't possibly be going with this those smokers damn near strung you up! And the volume of spitters in that hospital... there is no way Ethan could survive he's too old and too slow and we NEED him."

"Are you sure this is about me? Or is this about your guilt?" Doctor Woad asked coldly. "I need to advance my research Randy. I told you last week I've hit a wall in my research on the smoker and now we have extremely rare oncological phenomena showing up on our door step on the backs of them! I'm going with or without your help, so if you don't want your only medical examiner to die either give me a hand, or let me find a fourth man or woman for our team so we can do the job properly!"

"Fine, on one condition." Carter snapped. "You take the next 48 hours to prepare. And Nora and I aren't going."

"You're going to decide FOR me Randy?" Mercer demanded. "Seriously? I'm a grown woman. I wasn't planning to go so its not going to be a problem, but the brass ones you must think you have if you think that ordering me around like this is going to keep me safe!"

Ellis' head went back and forth back and forth from one speaker to the other. "Is it just me or is there something about this hospital they don't want to deal with?"

"Ellis its the romance movie you missed but that everybody who's been to one knows the ending of all of them." Nick rolled his eyes. "A great big steamy makeout scene then a year later the gal wakes up alone with a kid and everyone treating her like shit for having a kid out of wedlock. you know, THOSE kinds of romance movies. So doc who are you taking?"

"If you guys don't mind I was going to ask Rochelle to find some parts for me." Lovelace said quietly behind them. Ellis jumped. Lovelace and Rochelle stood behind him, the latter looking at the floor rolling his music player around in her fingers. "I'm not the only one complaining, Lilly wants some parts to build a video uplink to Norad so she can send them microscope slides. Saint James, where Woad wants to go was one of the specialist research hospitals the military fortified at the start of the infection, all the radio parts the two of us need for our projects should be there."

"yeah then why isn't your scrawny little ass coming with us instead of putting our buddy in harm's way?"

"James isn't all that dangerous at night, the smokers and spitters have trouble seeing you if you sneak around the back. Randy just has issues with that spot that make him unhappy." Carter glared resentfully at the neraby wall. "But besides that its part of the homework I gave her, get the materials for her own ham radio setup and get it working.

"Besides, I can't let you boys have all the fun. I wanted to be a newscaster, but a ham radio relay is in kinda the same vein just more primitive."

"And I can sponsor my share of the cost of the trip. I have a box of scrap copper, enough to make a miniature distilling pot you could hang on a camp fire. Thats useful for purifying water."

"I can work copper." Ellis chimed in. "Sounds like a deal to me. You'll show me the design? I could make a bunch of them if they're simple enough depending on whatchu got."

The two shook on the deal.

"Fine, fine! Just..." he looked over at the tenseness in the mess hall. "... this way people are reassured." Lunch was half over. Nick had forgotten most of the time he was in the field that he had a watch. And suddenly he turned his wrist to check.

It was broken though, like everything in this world that men wanted. "um... do any of you guys know someone who can fix this? and what their preferred barter thing is?"

Ellis chuckled. While Woad said quietly. "That would be George, his family owned a pawn shop. He's got very deft fingers if anyone can fix a watch its him. And what he likes is cinnamon, so he can make his mother's snickerdoodle recipe."

Nick spotted Mari and a man in a labcoat he didn't recognize heading for the kitchen. She spotted him and waved. "aaand time to make a move." Nick wandered over with a cocky smile on his face, smoothing his hair out.

Rochelle and Ellis looked at each other and snickered as they heard Mari say. "Hey Nick this is Thompson, he's the company shrink. We were just trying to figure out an appointment for your anxiety attacks."

Nick's face turned a furious red and Ellis almost choked with laughter. "Good luck Nick." Rochelle teased.

Coach wandered up then, drawn by the smell of lunch. "So... what'd I miss?"

"Where were you?"

"Giving blood, and this afternoon I'll be helping Lilly with her botany class..." Coach grinned, and Rochelle thought she saw a smitten gleam in his eye. "She's got young willow trees she wants to use to break up smoker and spitter fire near the edge of the wall. Then tomorrow, we're doin some buildin."

Ellis shook his head. "My grandpa worked willow when I was little, it was real light and soft. I could carry a log twice as big as I was and six inches across like it was a plastic toy. A charger could knock that over real quick. Hell once I broke one over Kieth's head and he was on his feet a minute later!"

"Its not for Chargers, smokers and spitters who can't get a clear shot won't make it. The chargers we're installing oak spikes on the wall for." (3)

"now oak is the exact opposite. So they do know what they're doin then." Ellis nodded sagely.

"hey Ellis you haven't told a one of your Kieth stories till now." Rochelle eyed him curiously. "you feeling alright?"

"I dunno... I'm just so curious about everything going on I haven't thought about Kieth much. My parents maybe a bit but... thats private. Hell just trying to figure out what's going on with H. Doe and Mason bends my brain backwards into shapes I don't quite like. Then this business with the smoker tongue shooting out of that kid's leg."

"You're actually learnin somethin boy." Lunch was lentil soup again, some sort of apple pear sauce for a sweet, and a chunk of some kind of fish with lemon and... fresh pepper? Yeah that was the strongest pepper smell Coach had smelled in a long time. Was that fresh from the tree? Coach tried to get a look in the kitchens to get a preview of dinner. A real man couldn't live on nothing but lentils!

"Tonight... at 7." Nick groaned, plunking himself down with the rest of his group. "What I miss?"

"Ellis talking about how he was so curious at all the things going on at the fort he hasn't felt the urge to tell a Kieth story."

"Shutup Rochelle." Ellis grumbled.

"And I donated blood today." Coach was really hurrying his meal. "And now I'm even hungrier than usual and stuck running on lentil soup. Comforting, but a man needs some meat in his diet."

"The former, is the best news I've heard all day." Nick groaned. "I hate shrinks. I don't like people poking around in my head. Did your mama do this, was your daddy in your life. Fuck me..."

"niiiiiiiiiiiick." Ellis whined. "C'mon guys, there was a freakin smoker tongue coming out of a kid's leg. You aren't bothered by that?"

"I wish i could say I wasn't." Rochelle said darkly. "Ellis and I did find the same piece of information seperately though. Remember our friends from the bridge?"

"Greasy monkey, office jockey and bratty track suit yeah I remember."

"They're running a scavenge and trade outfit going to all the islands in the carribean that the infection hit to scavenge and putting up a homestead."

"Seriously? Monkey sure doesn't look like he can grow his own bananas." Rochelle elbowed Nick hard in the ribs.

"I even found out what area they're working out of, the Florida keys. Zoey signed out a book on invasive species of florida." Ellis kept his voice down, but his grin was enormous. "We can finally meet on the same level, without having to shout up a bridge oooh this is gonna be fun."

"Lovelace says they left the week we were in detention in Randy's brother's base." Rochelle added. "We missed them literally by a few days."

"So are you suggesting we go the same route? Join up with them to make a bigger outpost or something?" Nick asked curiously.

"No, not really, but it means we have options if we need to leave somewhere." Rochelle explained. "Colony operates a trade network. They're trying to expand. I saw the map in Lovelace's office, they have two outposts, one in the north near Lake Ponchetrain, the other on the shoreline on the south side of the city for boats."

The four of them looked at each other. "Even if we do decide to start up our own trading group, we'd still need a market to sell those supplies to and a starter fund. I say we put this idea to one side for now." Coach cautioned them. "If we are gonna do that though we can take steps to prepare now though."

"How about trading for some privacy?" Nick suggested hopefully.

"Surely Mari has some." Ellis said with his mouth full of fish.

"CLOSE. YOUR. MOUTH." Growled Nick. "And thats not what I mean... running with you guys is the least amount of privacy I'd ever had in my life. Honestly I'm surprised I haven't gone batshit insane between Ellis and the zombies... urg the worst was that fucking themepark. The only bright parts of it were scrounging up some decent food from the tents and getting to play with the pyrotechnics at the abandoned Midnight Riders concert."

"I was just sad to see it like it was." Coach sighed. "But at least you got something out of it huh?"

"Why so sad about it Coach?"

"Well i tell you what, you tell me about watching the infected run through and wreck a place you enjoyed as a kid and see how sad that makes you? I could point to a dozen places where my friends and I had an absolute blast. I had to leave all my old pictures behind. But my memories of the place were clear as day, and everywhere, like ghosts."

"Sorry Coach." Rochelle said quietly.

"So... that radio operator, he manage to get as far as Ohio?" Ellis asked Rochelle worriedly.

"Not even close, their signal hasn't penetrated the Ozarks yet. They need a beacon to be set up on an elevated hill."

"I hope your folks are okay." Ellis said quietly. "What made you get drunk?"

"Wait what? Rochelle got drunk? Rochelle miss look out while we all down a nip in the saferoom so we don't lose our heads and do something dangerous? Got drunk?" Nick laughed.

"Satilite photos from Norad." Rochelle said darkly. "Two Jockies on a mountain out in California. One of them still had his ski goggles on."

"But... it took weeks to cross the east coast!" Coach sputtered.

"Nice flat plains, a hunter and a couple of Jockies could cover that distance. Pretty quickly." Nick shook his head. "Never underestimate the speed of a creature that runs. I learned that the hard way at more than once racetrack."

"Yeah well it gets worse, China hid cases from the rest of the world. And appearantly Mercer wasn't surprised by this at all." Rochelle had this dark expression on her face, she'd been hoping somehow that the green flu would stay in the Americas, that somewhere out there the great cultural centers of Europe and the creatures of Africa and the outback of Australia with all its kangaroos would somehow still continue on in spite of it all.

"again, not a surprise." Nick grumbled. "The chinese are very secretive and they hate americans prying into their business. Not something I like to hear though, sounds like the whole world might be having their eyes on this place."

"Also, during the sars outbreak... China hid how many cases it had. Odds are, they wouldn't ever admit how bad they got until the infected completely steamroll them." Rochelle put in.

"You're missing the worst case scenario still." Nick swallowed a big bite of his fish. "Look what's the worst thing you've ever heard of one country doing to another? Not people, not terrorist groups... one country."

Ellis shook his head. "I dunno, I can think of some stuff..."

"NUKES!" Hissed Nick. "Think about it!"

The other three turned white. "then why..."

"I dunno... I did notice a bunch of iosat tablets and prussion blue when Mari took me to get a change of clothes. Marked as medical but they looked like an afterthought." Nick shivered. "Who knows, maybe a dark daydream of the folks here."

"What what now? What's a dye got to do with nukes?" Ellis demanded. "That stuffs paint ain't it?"

"Its used to treat exposure to some radioactive isotopes." Rochelle spoke up. "Before going out to Savannah I was learning the basics of something called 'Cog' continuity of government. Its the government's response plan to survive a global disaster. Mostly radioactivity but they had other scenarios... research was yielding more and more things that could kill off the human race and the government didn't like that. Ronald Reagan had the most controversial, because he called for completely abolishing civil liberties. No bill of rights. But it didn't die with the cold war. Every president had to come up with his own."

"daaaamn." Ellis shook his head.

Nick sighed, pushed his plate back, and walked away. "I'm gonna take a nap, got a shift up on the walls in an hour. This took a morbid turn..."

"Coach." Lilly bumped the back of Coach's chair with her hip. "The kid's awake from his surgery. Lets go bring him some food. Not solid mind you but the smoothie I put together should perk him right up."

Coach grinned toothily up at the nurse. "Sure thing. I've never met a bad mood the right cookin couldn't turn around."

"Rochelle you missed it!" Lovelace beamed, striding towards her. "The general in charge of Norad actually apologized to Mercer!"

"for what?" Rochelle asked curiously. Ellis perked his head up from his plate, the lentils nearly gone.

"For accusing her of lying to get her way with how to handle the infected. She told him about the specials awhile back and he damn near shit a brick." Replied Lovelace with a chuckle. "He's sent some surveyors out he discovered had the carrier gene and they're mapping damage and trying to find other carriers. They're heading south for us. I saw their route. In four months they're going through the Ozarks..."

"What we wanted... are they still in contact?"

"No they're on the road. If you talk to the general, he's using the satilite network."

"Alright, I'm not sure if they're alive but I need to get a signal home if I can." Rochelle ate the last few bites of her fish and got up from the table, running off after Lovelace to see if Norad could help her find her parents.

Ellis sat there alone, then he got up slowly, looking around. He realized he could hear at least four different American accents. Even a boston yawl somewhere in the kitchen. "A penny for your thoughts my boy?" He hadn't noticed Woad walk up to him.

"People are here from all over... it never hit me... just how few of us were left. A whole empty world with nothing but the infected, and all we got is this one little spot."

"Well my boy, you wouldn't be the first person in history to feel small." Woad smiled, leaning on his walking stick. "But I... have a device I need you to work on repairing for me, might distract you from your troubles. Been sitting there since we took this place. Hauled in from a laboratory across town by some of Allen and Randy's fallen brethren. Heavy monster but it won't work."

"Sure doc lemme have a look."

"And if you show a knack I'll have you fix more lab machines for me. The greasers down in the motor pool, they're so posessive of their cars. I don't blame them, and I wouldn't disturb them. I'm just sad I don't have the model T I restored."

"You restored a car doc?"

"Seemed a shame to leave it to rust. I admit I didn't have any idea of what i was doing. But alas, a tank decided it was a good missile. Only survived because Allen put a bullet through the tank's eyes. It couldn't see me and calmed down."

"Gonna have to try that trick sometime." Ellis could feel himself brightening up already. Maybe this afternoon wasn't going to be so bad after all. "hey I don't mind doin more work for ya doc, whaddyou got?"

1. see dead center sfm by beejie bean, since she was using recorded lines and trying to piece them together in a story that made sense I figured it would be helpful to just go with her version. also us nick fangirls gotta stick together :E

2. The carter catastrophe, or doomsday catastrophe, see youtube video "doomsday catastrophe" by Isaac Arthur. It talks about the question of whether the extinction of the human species might happen soon or in the far distant future

3. actually thats how they're supposed to be played... but I once met a guy who was impatient and faster than his whole team that insisted on getting right up in my face as the spitter. He did not do more than spawn a death pool. XD one katana strike and he was gone. cool guy though, just impatient!