Chapter 49


Larrin woke up at the sound of an explosion. She lurched out of bed and fell to the floor in a heap as her body just refused to work for her. Her heart pounded and sickly sweat stuck to her skin as she felt feverish. She looked around the room as she heard more explosions, shouting and gunfire. She looked down at the clothes she was wearing and didn't recognize them, her arm was broken which made her wonder when it happened. It had to have been recently as it hurt like hell. In fact it felt like the cast was too small for her arm. She tried to flex her finger and nearly vomited as hot pain zapped through her arm and into her chest. She looked around trying to get her bearings but she didn't know the room. Nothing felt familiar to her which made her feel upset and confused. She looked down at her hand and arm cast seeing the bruises on her wrist. Was she a captive? it made sense but it gave her more questions. Who was attacking the place? How could she tell the enemy from her friends. Her head pounded in a sickly manner as it was too much. The door to the room swung open and Larrin saw a man she didn't recognize rush at her.

"Larrin, you ok?" he asked her in genuine concern.

"Stay back." She demanded, fear and panic spread through her as she didn't know what was happening and couldn't make sense of it as she felt sensory overload by her surroundings and now there was a bearded man armed with a rifle coming at her but he had stopped in his tracks at her demand. He seemed to know her name but she didn't know him but yet there was a sense of deja vu prickling along her skin and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as she didn't know how to trust herself when she couldn't get her bearings.

"Larrin, look at me." He gently touched her face but she flinched because the contact hurt her oversensitive skin not because she was scared. "We're not safe here, we need to go." he told her in a gentle manner.

"Who are you?" she asked him as she rose to her feet. She swayed slightly as she became lightheaded but Julian grabbed her elbow to stabilise her. She looked out the window and saw the mayhem but she didn't miss the sight of military uniforms. The military were attacking them, not the other way round which meant Julian a man she vaguely remembered couldn't be trusted.

"Julian, remember earlier when you woke up. I'm looking after you, I found you in the woods a couple of days ago?" he asked prompting her memory. Larrin frowned as what he said sounded right but it seemed so vague like almost a dream. But that didn't make him the good guy. Her memory was failing her as she couldn't figure out what was going on which was disorientating to say the least.

"Why are the military out there?" she asked him, she looked down at the tape on her cast. Only people she knew owned that kind of tape were Military, which meant she was running from the Military but she couldn't imagine running away from them. Her father was military.

"They aren't military, they are impostors." Julian said pulling her away from the window.

"No, they aren't. What's going on here?" Larrin demanded.


Wolf paced the ground in front of the opened back door of the ambulance. He couldn't sit still as he heard the gunfire and explosions in the distance. He could just run and be right in the thick of it but he knew he'd be a hindrance than help. It was incredibly hard to sit on the sidelines and wait, something he never truly appreciated until now as he was literally on the sidelines.

Doc seemed completely used to it like this was as she was laying on the gurney in the back looking fairly bored. The two sailors Chandler had assigned to them were standing guard for trouble. But then they were all way too far away to be in any real danger.

"Aren't you worried or scared?" Wolf asked her.

"Nope, surrounded by guys with guns and the danger is miles away. Not my sister in there. You need to calm down and stop pacing or you'll just exhaust yourself." Doc told him in a matter of fact tone.

"I shouldn't have come." Wolf said as he didn't have the temperament to sit on the sidelines. Not while his sister's life was on the lines.

"Don't make me sedate you." Doc told him.

"How does none of this touch you?" he asked her.

"Because we're trained to be calm in these situations. We need to stay clear headed and remember you're here because your sister has probably had a good chunk of her memory wiped. So she's going to need you to make sense of what's going on and to be calm. So stow your crap and be a soldier." Doc told him.

"Sailor." Wolf corrected with a wry smile as Doc was right but she was also adorable when she was trying to be authoritative.


Tom, Tex, Ben and Marcus progressed up the fire stairs to the top floor of the building. The battle waged inside and out of the house but they were winning even outnumbered their skills as sailors, soldiers and marines gave them the advantage over men who learned to fire a gun from a movie. The drone attack had helped cull down the initial numbers and sent people running, some surrendered only be shot by their colleagues for attempting to betray them. The infighting of the scavengers helped them but Julian was no where to be seen.

Tom had given the order for the teams to use extreme measures to attain their goals. He wasn't going to lose any more good people to Julian if he could help it. He already had three sailors laid up in hospital not including Lt Green thanks to these criminals being on the loose. Now was the time to see them not as people who could be rehabilitated but as the enemy that they needed to subdue. He knew history would not look kindly on him but right now he didn't care. He wanted Julian dead but the man was more valuable alive. So he'd capture the asshole alive as much as it burned him to do so. He just hoped Larrin was still alive as he needed that win. He needed her to be ok as it would somehow get Rachel to forgive him.

Tom normally would have liked to capture a few more scavengers to gain more insight and information on the Scavengers and their internal workings but he'd make do with the prisoners they had and Julian. He just hoped that Julian hadn't slipped the net, but he couldn't have as Larrin was still on the compound. After everything he couldn't see Julian abandoning Larrin. Tom and Tex reached the door that opened to the top floor. Tom signalled that he was taking lead to Tex, the man moved to the side and placed his hand on the door handle. Tom counted down with his fingers, when he reached one, he rose his rifle as Tex opened the door.

Tom progressed into the hallway with his rifle raised waiting for an attack. Tex and the other two men came up behind him. There were 5 rooms on the floor; all the doors were shut and the central staircase. Tom moved to the first and tried the handle, it wouldn't budge telling him it was locked. There was no quiet way of opening it and he knew if Julian was up here with Larrin, he'd hear them if they got the wrong door. Tom was tempted to put his ear to the door but wasn't game, he took a deep breath and decided it was time to just go for it.

He stepped back and covered the hallway while Marcus kicked the door in. A few seconds later, the man called out clear. They moved to the next room and were about to kick in the door when one of the doors at the other end opened. Out rolled two people in a fight and a gun dropped onto the carpet. It took only a moment to realise it was Larrin and Julian. Larrin kicked at him and managed to roll away from Julian and picked up the gun in her left hand.

"Larrin." Tom called out, but instead of her looking relieved; she pointed the weapon at him. Her eyes were bleary and dazed, she was deathly pale, sweat and blood stained her chambray shirt and the jogger pants she wore that were a size too big for her. She had a slice across her forehead like she'd met the sharp edge of a table, her hand shook as she struggled to hold the weapon as she didn't seem to have the strength and because her knuckles were scraped to hell from fighting. He looked to her hand that was in a cast and saw her fingers were swollen and red. The infection was spreading quickly from having the tracker in her, if it hadn't been a concern her current injuries had him concerned.

"Stay away all of you." She told them, as she swung the gun back to Julian who was getting up off the floor. Tom would have shot the man but Larrin was in the way and there was a chance she could get hurt but also see it as an attack on her.

"Larrin, I saved you. These men here are going to kill us both if you don't shoot them and we escape." Julian told Larrin.

"I don't know who any of you are or what your fight is but all I want is to get out of here." Larrin told them, negotiate her way out of it as she edged closer to the stairwell. Tom could see Julian was going to pounce on Larrin he was just waiting for her to focus on them.

"Captain, I suggest we let her go." Tex said in a low voice. Tom saw the panic as Larrin truly didn't know any of them and she was panicking which for a person holding a gun was never a good thing. Tom gave a nod and lowered his weapon to show he wasn't a threat to Larrin but his finger stayed on the trigger as he was prepared to shoot Julian the moment he stepped out of line. But Tex was right, they had the compound surrounded. They could catch her later but right now she stood between him and Julian.

"You can go," Tom told her, Larrin looked at him suspiciously. The gun still raised at his chest. Tom had to trust she wouldn't shoot him but he could see she was aiming for his chest, so he'd survive thanks to kevlar. "You're right our beef isn't with you. We're here to take that man into custody" he told her, Larrin gave a nod and barely took a step away from Julian when he pulled a knife and launched at her in an attempt to grab and use her as a human shield.

But Larrin caught his movement in her peripheral just as the other's did and she turned the gun on him. Tom rose his gun and shot Julian in the chest at the same time Larrin shot him but her aim was lousy as the bullet hit the wall behind Julian. She unlike Tom was shocked by her actions as she dropped the gun on the ground. Tom kicked the knife out of Julian's hand while Tex tried to grab for Larrin but she ran down the stairs like bat out of hell.

"Is he dead?" Tom asked Marcus as Tex was already chasing after Larrin. Marcus was down by Julian's side assessing the man's injuries and already applying first aid to the wounds in the hopes of preserving the man's life.

"Not yet." Marcus informed him, Tom nodded as he pulled his radio out and alerted the others on the ground about Larrin.


"-Larrin is on the run, unarmed, light blur shirt, grey pants. Heading south exit, Tex in pursuit. Keep your eyes open and ready to lay down cover." The Captain ordered over the radio.

"How the hell are we going to see her in this mess?" Cruz shouted over the noise as they were pinned behind a car. There were a lot more of the bad guys than there were of the good guys. But it was starting to even out or so Miller liked to believe.

"There." Miller said as he saw Larrin come out of the building, she was running blindly into danger as they were in a standoff with the other side. He knew she was going to get cut down by the other side any second. He couldn't let that happen, confidence he rarely felt pumped through his system with adrenaline as he found the courage to do the insane. "I'm going for her, cover me." Miller said to Cruz, he didn't wait for an answer as he ran out from behind cover directly at Larrin. He ignored the impulse to run for safety and focused on getting to Larrin. He fired his rifle taking out two more badies before he shouldered the rifle and shouted at her.

"Larrin!" he called for the second time and that was when she saw him. She froze in the middle of open space between the two sides, she didn't looked scared; she looked relieved. He would have smiled but he noticed a man pop out of nowhere armed with a crossbow. "Get down!" he told her, he pulled his side arm free of it's holster. Larrin dropped to the ground and he fired taking the man out. He raced to Larrin and was about to pull her to her feet and get her to cover when he heard someone shout out 'grenade'. Instead, he covered her body with his own, he felt the heat of the explosion before it sounded.

Everything grew quiet, gunfire ceased, the only noises were the cracking of burning wood and the groaning of injured.

"Head count. Who's up?" Slattery called out.

"Cruz up." Cruz called as he ran over to Miller and Larrin.

Miller lifted himself up off of Larrin as people continued to call out they were ok but Miller focused on Larrin. She was laying on her belly face down in the dirt, but she wasn't moving. In fact she was barely breathing. "Larrin." Miller said as he turned her onto her back, he gently shook her but her response was just a pained groan. She tried to open her eyes but it seemed her body was too weak.

"Miller up, but we need a medic! Larrin is down!" Cruz shouted.


"Larrin is stable, they are transporting her back to St Louis now." Mike said to Tom as they stood over Julian's dead body. Tom knew he should be angry at himself for killing the man. But just couldn't muster it. He for some reason had a better understanding of Rachel and her actions towards Neils. He'd been so angry at her and part of him realised his anger in that moment hadn't been her 'playing judge and jury'. It had been selfishness and jealousy, he'd wanted to kill Neils himself but he'd told himself that it wasn't his right. That they had rules and laws to govern themselves which was true but now Tom had become a hypocrite.

He could have shot Julian in the shoulder, clipped an arm but he shot the man in the chest. He knew that Julian wouldn't survive and made that choice to kill him. He could think of a million reasons why they were all better off without Julian in the world. Just as Rachel did with Neils.

"How many did we lose?" Tom asked asking the question even though he didn't want to know the answer.

"Four, and seven with minor injuries. They're being transported back to St Louis as we speak. The fires have been put out and we're doing an inventory of the armoury. I think we got lucky this time." Mike said to him.

"Lucky." Tom said in disbelief, as he didn't feel it. The whole day had been a mess. They'd lost five people including Dr Clarke, Larrin hadn't recognised them which made him wonder how far she was gone mentally. Rachel was alive but she wasn't unscathed and Tom felt out of control for all of it. He almost wished for the days back in the Arctic and doing weapons testing. Living in ignorance to the pandemic and counting the days down until he could be at home with his children and Darien. But it was all gone and what laid in it's place was this mangled world of devastation and misery.

"We'll need a better plan going forward as we don't have the resources or man power to keep fighting like this and even if we do... We're creating a power vacuum that we can't fill or have the right to." Mike reminded him as there was no government in place to take control and all they needed was for one asshole with enough guns and influence to take over.