[A/N: Next chapter, as promised. Reviewers, as always, so much appreciation. Makes my day to read your feedback!

SorryJunky, glad you found that the suspense/action writing in the last chapter worked. It's always a bit of a challenge to give enough detail to create the scene, but not so much that it drags down the action, and I wasn't totally sure I'd got the pacing right in the last chapter — so thanks!]

Asha slumped against the wall of the narrow stairwell. It was dim, a first floor window the only source of light, and there was limited amounts of that due to the storm beating outside. She was soaked to the skin, a growing pool of water spreading around her feet. She wiped the streaming water from her face with the back of her arm, keeping her gun and a wary eye on her lanky companion as she did so.

He leant against the opposite wall, breathing heavily, long recurve bow still in hand. As she watched, he pushed his dripping hood back from his face, revealing a pair of wide brown eyes in an attractive face. He had an olive complexion and his wet black hair was plastered to his forehead. Despite the dusting of dark stubble across his chin, Asha would have guessed him to be fairly young, late teens, maybe only just twenty. He wiped his own hands across his face, and flicked the excess water away.

'I knew it,' he said, a slightly poleaxed smile spreading across his face. 'I knew you'd come.'

Asha's eyes narrowed. 'What?'

He took half a step forward.

'Stop right there,' Asha said, lifting her gun threateningly.

He stopped, a sudden look of confusion across his handsome features. He held up his free hand. 'I wouldn't hurt you. Why would you think I would hurt you?'

'Are you alone?'

He nodded vigorously. 'Yes, it's just me.'

There was a sudden loud thump against the door and Asha jerked as the boy pounded back on the door with his free hand. 'Shut up,' he screamed.

Asha pressed herself further back against the wall.

'Can't stay here,' he said, spinning around bright eyed and grinning. 'Come on.'

He darted past her up the stairs—ignoring or failing to notice the way Asha's knuckles whitened on the arrow she still gripped in one hand, or the way her trigger finger twitched on the other.

He paused a few steps up. 'Come on,' he said beckoning.

Asha grit her teeth and followed him cautiously up the stairs.

She might not share her host's enthusiasm, but he did have a point. She couldn't hideout at the bottom of the stairs and just hope the dead went away.

The stairs went up a single flight before ending at a door, the only exit other than the door to the alley below. The boy glanced at her, wide smile on his face, before pushing the door open. Asha tensed as he did so.

'See, no one else here.' He moved into the space and held the door open for Asha.

Like I'm taking your word for it.

She edged closer to door, pausing as she reached it, and sticking a booted foot out to hold it open. She gestured to her host to move away.

'Smart,' he said nodding, and moved into the room.

Asha scanned the space. It was a small room, probably used to be some sort of office for the shop below. A single high window let in light, but was too high for her to see anything other than the murky grey sky. There was the door she was standing in, and another across the other side of the room. Her quick glance took in the bedroll on the floor and cluttered belongings—and no less than three crucifixes and an image of the bleeding heart of Jesus nailed haphazardly to the wall. The small space and single bed roll comforted her. It looked like it was just him and he'd been there for a while.

The boy had leant his bow carefully in the corner of the room and was leaning against the far wall pulling off his soaking boots as he watched her.

'It's just me,' he said, still smiling widely. He waited whilst she came cautiously into the room, the door closing carefully behind her.

She nodded at the far door. 'Where does that go?'

'Corridor. There's a front room, looks out over the main street, at the back there's a storage room, a bathroom that's not much use for anything anymore, access to the shop downstairs, but I boarded that up months ago.'

'Is there a back entry out of that shop?'

'We just came in it.'

He'd finished with his boots and reached behind his shoulders to pull his hoodie up over his head.

Asha swore. 'There's gotta be another way outta here.'

The boy shook his head, teeth gleaming in his smile.

Asha's eyes narrowed. 'What about the roof. I saw you up there.'

'Oh yeah, you can get up there. But getting down's another thing, and there's no where to go but back down to the chompers— for now anyway, they'll clear out after the storm.'

Asha's brow furrowed. 'You've seen this before, the way they are with the storm?'

He nodded. 'Yeah. Makes 'em crazy. But once it's over they more or less crawl back into their holes. It's almost like they exhaust themselves.'

'How long's it take?'

He shrugged. 'Not long. They usually start drifting away once the thunder and wind die down. We'll be able to get on our way first thing in the morning.'

Asha jerked. 'What?' She backed up against the door snarling, gun raised and trained squarely on the boy. 'What the hell are you talking about?

His eyes shone and Asha felt like she could see all of the teeth in his mouth as his smile grew to astronomical proportions.

'I knew you'd come.' He said softly. He took half a step forward and Asha hissed at him, shaking her gun. He paused, hands up as he spoke. 'I knew it. And you're going to take me somewhere.'

'Why would I do that?'

'You're following the sign. I've been waiting for you, and now that you're here, you're going to take me with you.'

Asha's eyes widened, and her breath dragged heavily through her nose has she ground her teeth together. 'You were watching me?'

He nodded. 'Come see,' he said, and before Asha could say anything, he darted barefoot through the door leading to the corridor.

Asha swore violently to herself, then—keeping her gun raised—followed him into the corridor and towards the front of the building.

The front room overlooked the main street. The large glass windows facing the street were broken, a scattering of glass on the threadbare carpet—soggy from the rain. Her host was leaning against the wall near the broken window, staying just out the driving rain which still gusted in through the shattered glass.

'Look, look,' he said, holding out a hand and pointing out the window.

She picked her way carefully across the wet carpet, sticking to the opposite side of the room to her host—but getting close enough to the window to take in the clear view the upper storey floor offered of the main street.

'You see,' he said excitedly. 'It's why I set up here.' He gestured expansively. 'Gives me a good view of the main street, and pretty much everyone who comes through town passes down the main street at some point. From here, I get to see them...and decide whether I want them to see me.'

'You were watching me when I came into town,' Asha said quietly across the gun she still pointed at the boy.

He nodded. 'Yeah, I saw you come in, careful like, dodge a couple of walkers. I could tell the way they acted in the storm was new to you.' His eyes found hers and held them, gleaming in the half light. 'I saw you jog down to the end of the street, and look up at the sign on the cross street, the one showing the distance to Thomaston. The look on your face...I knew it was you. I knew it.'

Asha's heart was pounding.

'And then you went looking for the rest of the sign.' He smiled, wide and relieved. 'No-one else has ever gone looking for the rest of the sign.' He nodded firmly to himself. 'You're the one I've been waiting for.'

'What do you know about that sign?' Asha asked, leaning forwards and fighting to control the breathlessness in her voice. 'Are there any more like it in town?'

'No, and I've been all over this town looking. There's just the one.'

Asha's shoulders slumped. She needed the bottom half of that sign.

The boy's eyes bored into her. 'There's no other sign, but I know what was written on the bottom of the Thomaston sign.'

Asha's breath jerked and throat seized.

'Tell me.'

'No.'

She narrowed her eyes and growled at him. 'What? Why not?'

'I'll tell you… but you have to take me with you.'

'With me where?'

'Back to your camp.'

She backed away. 'What?'

'You take me back to your camp and I'll tell you everything I know about that sign. What it said, when it was written...who wrote it.'

Nash.

Asha bit her lip, fighting the desperation with which she wanted to know every skerrick this stranger could tell her about her brother. He might be lying, she reminded herself. He might know nothing.

She closed her eyes and fought for breath.

'What makes you think I've got a camp?'

He looked her up and down, taking in the one small pack on her back, and frowning at her gun again. He tilted his head to the side, smiling, but Asha's shoulders tensed at the sharpness in his eyes.

'You're nowhere near dirty or desperate enough to be surviving on your own, or carrying near enough gear to be planning to be out for more than a night or so alone.'

'You don't know that,' Asha bit back. 'For all you know, I just got separated from my group, or run off by a herd and lost half my gear. Or I've just got it stashed nearby.'

He shook his head. 'No no no. I watched you come down the street remember. People who have just lost people are jumpy, desperate. You weren't near twitchy enough to have just lost everything.'

He ran a hand through his hair, which was pulling into curls as it dried. 'Look, I know there's no rescue coming. This is the way the world is now. There's no going back.' He looked at Asha with pleading eyes. 'You've got a camp, and I can't do this on my own anymore. You have to take me with you. You're following the sign, I know you're going to take me somewhere.'

Asha frowned at him, stomach churning.

'Please,' he said, looking at her gun again. 'You don't need that. I won't hurt you.'

Asha narrowed her eyes. He was obviously not telling her everything, but she didn't feel any immediate threat from him—and he sure as hell seemed genuine in his belief that she was going to take him somewhere. She couldn't do that if he killed her. She breathed deeply for a second, then flicked the safety back on the gun and wedged it back in her waistband. She still held his arrow in her other hand. She held her empty hand up quickly as a smile spread across the boy's face and he stepped forwards.

'Just...you stay on that side of the room.' She rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand. 'If—and I mean if—I take you back, how do I know that you even know what was on the bottom of that sign?'

'Guess you don't. But, I can describe the guy who drew it.' He smiled, but his eyes were like needles. 'Gesture of good faith right? If it's who you think it was, you'll have more reason to believe that I know what was on the rest of the sign.'

His eyes were on her like steel traps, watching every little reaction.

Asha, heart threatening to beat its way out of her chest, nodded carefully.

'Big guy. Tall, solidly built, blondish hair.' The boy's eyes suddenly flickered to the tip of the spear gun protruding beyond her shoulder. 'Carried a spear gun.'

Asha fought to keep her face impassive. Then the boy touched his left forearm with the fingers of his right hand. 'Had a black tattoo, like a band, around his arm here.'

Asha's knees gave out and she dropped to the soggy carpet.

He'd seen him.

He'd actually seen Nash.