Theres blood everywhere.

Thick and red, coating the fronts of the two houses leading into the village from Jeb's; there is one thick line, perfectly straight, that runs at the border of the village and I find myself scared. I fumble with my hand behind my back, reaching for Lizard and he grabs onto my hand roughly. He squeezes until it hurts but I don't jerk away or scold him, I let him do it, let him anchor me to this world so I do not think I am dreaming. I growled low in my throat and whipped around to face the house, seeing everyone minus Big Brain standing on the porch, Clyde had his face buried in Big Mama's dress like she told him and I noticed the murderous glint in her and Missy's eyes. I know it was in mine, they got too close to our children.

"We just walked through here, Dizzy. We just fucking walked through here." Missy cursed, running a hand through her hair so she could tie it up high on her head.

"they fucking saw us, watched us. Oh god are they still here?" Amber asked, looking around cautiously.

I growled and started off towards the edge of town, my eyes darting around violently. I knew everyone minus those told to stay were behind us. Pluto would stay, Big Mama was dangerous, but she needed help protecting the babies. I saw Cyst limping extra hard as he came from around the first house to my left and started to jog towards him, my heart already pounding. His shotgun was gone and he was looking around in a frenzy.

"Th-They jump me. They fuckin jump me on ma way back from da tunnels. Got ma gun, only one they got said." Cyst stuttered out.

I nodded and looked back to Missy. "Got a knife on you?"

She had a gun strapped to her back and two pistols on her hip, just like Amber, but she nodded and reached down to her boot and tossed me the one that was there. I caught it perfectly, marveling at that for a minute before I started towards the desert, the others at my heels, Lizard at my side. I looked over at him, seeing his nostrils flared and eyes glazed over in this haze. I swallowed and started to look around, telling the others that if they saw something they needed to let Lizard and I know. I felt so badass right in that moment, even though I am a new mom and this is a very serious situation. If they got to my baby I would tear them apart with my very own hands, very slowly so they suffered and I would laugh at them as it happened. I was meant to be a mutant, I am figuring that out now. I like to kill, I like it and I am an excellent fighter, something I only figured out since I got trapped here.

I want to know where these people came from, if they are people at all. Are they mutants? I don't think so, I think Lizard would have said something you know? He has not hidden much from me, and what he has I already figured out pretty quickly. He's horrible at hiding secrets, I just play dumb with everyone including myself to save his pride. Lizard and I can do this, we can take care of this problem, and with the others at our side…we were unstoppable.

Lizard took a hold of my arm, dragging me down to the ground and I cursed, soon having my mouth covered with his other hand. I heard the others hit the dirt as well and a little puff of static came through the walkie talkies speaker. Lizard snatched walkie talkie up and held it against his face, eyes staring intently ahead of us.

"You see somethin?" he muttered into the speaker.

"Yea," came Goggles voice, a whisper through the speaker. "Six men…two women. Women look like dey easy to deal wit, men not too far off from dat."

I squint my eyes against the wavy, burning surface of the desert floor. I could see the figures, passing across the burning sunset of the afternoon and I felt that grin snap into place. It was that crazy one, the one I had when I killed and I have to say…I was glad to feel it again. I was glad to feel that bloodlust bubbling up in my chest and I wanted to go charging in like a mad woman but I knew better. I knew I had to be patience, stalk them and wait for that prime moment.

"Make sure they don' follow us or anythan," Lizard breathed into the walkie talkie, eyes still on the figures shuffling against the landscape. He snapped the walkie talkie back to his belt and looked over at me then over his shoulder to the girls. "Follow me."

We started shuffling along the ground, Lizard farther from us than I would like, but he was close so I was ok. We made it to this jumble of rocks almost out of place against the landscape and Lizard revealed the opening into the tunnel hidden very well between the rocks. He dropped in first, then Missy, amber and then me. I kept the knife held in my hand, sideways against my face with my other hand up in a defensive position. It was dark in the tunnel, cold and damp, but I could see Lizard very faintly in front of me, silhouetted by a source of light at the end of this tunnel so I knew the girls could keep up. When we reached the light Lizard looked to the left then the right, raising his chin up and glaring to his sides before he looked back at me and the girls.

Lizard was different…he was more controlled than before. Had Papa's death really got to him this much, changed him so drastically in such a short time? He moved with more controlled steps, like the predator he was but not so bold, rash. He was thinking this time, and not just for himself. For all of us. I swallowed hard and followed him to the left, sticking to his side with the girls having their guns pointed ahead of us. I saw no weapon on Lizard, just his hands…I know he has a weapon somewhere on him, I just cannot see it. It's not like I don't believe Lizard could destroy those guys with his bare hands, it's just better to have a weapon in case all else fails.

A hand darts out from a dark spot in the wall and I find it is hollow, see pointed teeth smiling at me, glowing eyes blood shot with an emerald iris. "You come here?" the voice is gravelly.

Lizard growls and snaps at the hand, drawing blood with his teeth. "Th fuck ya think?"

The mouth opens, laughs and I see bits of green fall into darkness. What the fuck was going on here? It was like something from a supernatural movie, those bog monsters or cave guardians that had cave fungus or crystals growing from them. Was that what this was, was he a guardian? Did he have something growing on him or was it just my imagination? I rubbed my wrists where he had grabbed and flakes of gray came off, floating down to the cave floor, soaking in the dampness. He gives a menacing laugh, one that sounds like it belongs to a deranged clown. His teeth gave a painful sounding snap when he closed his jaw, still grinning like a Cheshire cat in the dark.

"Where is Jupe? Figured he would be the one to come for us, not you Lizard." His English was impeccable, which bothered me.

Lizard looked down and I reached out, touched his shoulder. He looked up at me, looking broken down but I saw the fire in his eyes, the thirst for revenge and grit my teeth, nodding. He looked back into the hollow spot. "Papa dead, human kilt 'im. Sure ya seen em."

The figures grin stretched further. "Oh yes, I have seen them, killed two of them this morning. Well, Clair and I. You know…I have not seen Ruby in awhile. Where is she?"

"She waitin wit Goggle. We testin er tonight." Lizard informed the figure.

The figure seemed to nod and another spindly arm came from the crevice, followed by another that helped grip onto the edge of the opening and pushed the figure out. We all backed up, me seemingly indifferent when I was really panicking. The girls did nothing to hide their shock, gasping Amber trembling into my side. The figure hunched against the top of the cave, standing straight I believe he would stand three head taller than Lizard. His head was short and wide, abnormally so, with sharp pointy teeth overlapping cracked, bleeding lips. His arms hung limply towards his thin legs, his torso strangely muscular, the surface almost like the one we shot in the Hades clan, the one assaulting Amber, under the fabric of a tattered wife beater. His bright eyes stared down at us, that grin ever present on his lips and he jerked his chin back the way we came, pushing past us. His footsteps sounded impossibly heavy, like he was much larger than he appeared.

We followed behind him, the girls ahead of us by choice strangely, me attached to Lizard like a wayward child as I watched the stranger sway in front of us. "Lizard who the hell is this guy?" I whispered against his throat.

"Alt, he move 'is whole family 'ere a couple years ago. Don' know where they from."

I nodded and gave ourselves some space, seeing us coming to the end of the tunnel. When we came through I gasped, but not in shock or anything like that, but in wonder. The ceiling, or whatever, was so high above us that I figured this had to be a part of the hills. There were five or six ledges where mutants looked up from, staring at us in curiosity like jungle cats and slinking down as such to stand in front of us.

Alt turned to us, raising one hand to gesture at the tallest below him. He was an almost exact copy of his father, except his eyes were not bloodshot and they were black. All over black. "This is Colt, he is the one that will lead the rest of the family into battle with you while I hide underground and take any or all with me." he moved to a small girl, petite with pale clammy skin and a molted face. I could barely see her eyes through the rock like surface of her skin. "Margot, she is a warrior so do not worry about her." He moved to the next, a girl just an inch taller than the last but with an exposed spine and a sever hunch. "This is Clair, my mate. She will help Colt in dismembering the bodies." He moved to the next two, pointing at both as they were twins with smooth bald heads and molted arms. The one on the left had red and blue tints to her right arm. "Ann and Marie, cute are they not?"

I did not even know what they did and I didn't have time to ask anyway because he had moved to the last and probably most disturbing of them all. He was hunched, only slightly so, with bright green eyes, too bright to be any natural color, and had his father's teeth. He watched me with a slack, twisted jaw and a cleft lip that drove half way up the left side of his face. He slurped at a drop of drool threatening to fall and I noticed the exposed bones in his hands when he reached up to wipe his chin. Alt placed a hand on the top of his head and pats the shaggy gray mess.

"This…this is Novac. Don't worry about what he does, just makes sure you don't get in the way." Alt looked over at me, eyes flickering dangerously. "Lizard who are these young fillies?"

I swallowed, stepping forward. "I am Dizzy, Lizard's mate." I looked back to the girls that looked too scared to introduce themselves. "That's amber and that's Missy." I looked back to alt and puffed up my chest. "Were warriors for the family, we came here to fight so we need to know the plan and get prepared. My baby is at home and if anything happens to her you all will have hell to pay."

Alt stared down at me for a second before he chuckled. "Alright, then let us do this. We will attack at night…"


To give you an idea of what alt looks like go see Quagmire in the family Guy episode where Brian is tripping on mushrooms. I think it's Seashell Seashore PArty or something like that.