A/N Just a fair warning that things are about to get a little bloody and violent.
Winter has finally broken and the sun has come out. Tom says that they are about a mile east of Columbus, Ohio, which means that they've almost reached their destination. Charlie has apparently forgiven Jason for not liking Hello Kitty, because the two of them are practically inseparable. The adults spend most of their time trying to keep the eight and six year olds out of trouble. As the two kids run and splash in the mud puddles that the spring rain has created, they discuss the looming threats around them and their options.
"I think that we should go around it like Tom said," Jeremy tells Miles.
"We've already wasted too much time because of the snow storm, we can't afford another detour."
Bass watches the two argue thoughtfully, his own decision to follow Miles wherever he goes already made.
Tom sighs exasperatedly. "Miles, you heard that poor guy yourself. There's a gang running this part of town and if we try to go through it, we could end up with missing eyes, too."
The poor man in question had stumbled across their camp the day before. He'd had a dirty t-shirt bandaged around his head to cover up his empty eye socket. According to him, he'd run into a group of men that demanded payment for his trespassing on their territory. When he didn't have anything valuable to give, they took his eye instead.
"It wasn't a gang," Miles growls. "The guy said that there were only three of them. If it were only one of us planning to go through the city, I would agree that we should go around. But there are more of us than there are of them, so we don't need to worry. It's basic instincts, you don't attack something that's bigger than you."
Bass rubs his temples wearily. They've been arguing about this for hours and neither Miles or Tom seem prepared to give in. "Miles, maybe Tom's right. If it was just the two of us I would be right there with you, but what about Charlie? We can't drag her into a war zone."
Miles shakes his head in annoyance. "We can handle it! Me and you against three weasley guys, they wouldn't stand a chance. And we have Tom and Jeremy, too. Taking a three week long detour around the city is a useless waste of time."
Looking over at the other two, Bass shakes his head. "He has a point you guys."
"No he doesn't," Jeremy says angrily. "I'm not a fighter. I can barely protect myself, not to mention anyone else."
But Miles just rolls his eyes at him. "You've been doing fine with the stuff me and Bass taught you."
"That's different! Having someone coach you through a slow motion sparring match is not the same thing as fighting for your life."
Miles opens his mouth to retort but Julia finally steps in and cuts across him. "That's enough!" She lowers her voice and looks over her shoulder to check and make sure that the children are occupied before continuing. "Miles, I know how badly you want to find your brother, but this is just too risky. I am not taking my son through a city where people are being dismembered because they stepped on the wrong sidewalk. Now you can either go around with us, or risk walking through by yourself and getting Charlie hurt in the process."
He glares at her before turning angrily to Bass. "And you? Are you gonna side with them?"
"It's not that simple, Miles. We have to think about Charlie."
"I am thinking about Charlie!" He shouts. "That's all I've done since the power went out! I'm just trying to get her home, where she belongs. Don't you see that?" The adults around him go quiet as Miles slumps down onto the ground with his face in his hands. "She needs to go home," he mumbles into his hands.
"Uncle Miles?" Charlie approaches her sitting uncle cautiously, her face full of worry. "What's wrong?"
He swipes at his face quickly with his shirt sleeve and turns to her with a big, fake smile. "It's nothing, honey. I'm fine."
Charlie stares at him with her big blue eyes, her face unchanging. "I thought you said that lying was bad."
His head drops back between his knees. "I'm sorry, Bug. There's just a lot of stuff going on right now."
She sits down next to him and puts a hand gently on his arm. If it weren't for the fact that she was so small, you might think that she was already an adult. "It's OK. You can tell me, I promise I won't cry."
Miles stares down at her and everyone else watches as the uncle and niece appear to have an entire conversation without saying a single word. Finally, Miles nods down at her. "I think it's going to take a little longer for us to get to your parents house. We have to go all the way around the city because it isn't safe to go through it."
Charlie stays quiet for a moment, but then nods understandingly. "OK. I can wait."
They all watch the fight drain out of Miles at her words. "OK. We can wait."
The walk around Columbus is long and boring. They pass a few other people, though they all seem to be families that are moving in the opposite direction that they are. They make camp in a townhouse and set a watch schedule, though the night passes without incident. The next day passes just as smoothly, same as the next one. It isn't until their fourth day of the Columbus detour that everything goes wrong.
Bass is in the lead with Charlie, followed by Jeremy and Jason, then Miles, then Tom and Julia. Charlie's talking his ear off about a snail she found earlier when they stopped for lunch and he's just smiling and nodding because she's so adorable that he can't help it. Then Julia starts screaming. Everyone turns around at the same time. Jeremy's grabbing for Jason and Bass yanks Charlie towards him instinctively, though it doesn't do them any good. The men that have grabbed Julia are not alone. Bass keeps Charlie close as he looks around them. They've been surrounded by no less than twenty people. They all look dirty and hungry looking. Not just for food, but blood. These people are the savages that the blackout has created.
Tom runs at the men holding his wife without a second thought. "Get your hands off her!"
"Tom, wait!" Miles, who is the only one not currently protecting a child, grabs him bodily from behind and yanks him back from the bloodthirsty men. Tom flails against him.
"Let me go. JULIA!"
They watch her struggle with the men holding her by her arms as an older man steps forward. His hair it matted with dirt and grime, and his teeth look like he didn't brush them even before the power went out.
"Hello, friends," he says.
Tom breaks free of Miles' grip and tries to run after his wife again, only to be pulled back by Jeremy. He's got one arm wrapped around Jason and the other hand latched onto Tom's belt to prevent him from escaping. Bass moves himself and Charlie towards them slowly and squashes the two children between them. Miles' eyes rake over the scene before him, checking that the kids are safe, looking for exits, sizing up the enemy. He turns back to the old man with a scowl.
"I don't think we're going to be friends."
The man laughs humorlessly. "Yeah, you're probably right."
"What do you want from us? We don't have anything worth taking."
The man picks at his fingernails looking extremely bored by their presence, but then turns to Julia with smile. "Oh, but I think you do." He runs his fingers over her cheek and she flinches away in disgust.
"Don't touch me, you filthy animal."
But he merely chuckles and pulls her hair. "A fighter. I like that."Tom has finally stopped struggling against Jeremy, though now he looks ready to kill. Miles steps in front of Tom as a silent way of telling him to let him do the talking.
"Keep your hands off of her, and I'll let you live," Miles tells the old man. Bass feels the weight of the truth in his brothers words. This is it. The time for mercy has finally ended.
"You, kill me?" The man laughs. "No one can kill me. I am the king, and the king gets what he wants. Now I want this woman."
"Well you can't have her. She's coming with us." Bass looks around them and notices that as Miles has been arguing, the circle around them has gotten smaller and smaller. He feels Charlie shaking against him and grabs her hand to squeeze it reassuringly.
The 'king' looks around at his men surrounding them. "Nah, I think that my men will kill all of you and that I'll keep this woman as my prize. What do you boys think?" He asks the group surrounding them.
Their response is to attack.
Bass' only option is to push Charlie to the ground and crouch over her as the men close in. He can sense rather than feel Jason nearby and shoves the boy beneath him as well while he pulls out his gun. Miles is four feet away, fighting off three guys at once with his KA-BAR. Jeremy is trying valiantly to fight against two men with nothing but his fists, but isn't faring well. Tom is a blur of fury. He's already knocked out three guys and is working on number four when an ear splitting scream breaks through the air. It takes him a second to realize that it came from Charlie.
One of the attackers has grabbed her by the ankle and is attempting to pull her out from under him. Bass doesn't think. He just pulls the trigger. Blood erupts from the center of the dirt bags chest and he falls to his knees. Charlie scrambles away from the dead man, tears and blood streaming down her terrified face. Bass pulls her back to him roughly and shouts over the noises that the people around them are making. "Jason, hold onto her, and don't let go!"
Jason, small and terrified, nods and clings to her like his life depends on it. Charlie wraps her arms and legs around him and burries her face in his neck. Satisfied that she's about as safe as she'll get right now, Bass sits up and looks around him. Miles has been pulled away from the main group to a fight with four others. He has a nasty gash on his cheek, but he's still moving. Tom has fought his way towards Julia and is in the process of knocking out the remaining guy that's still trying to hold her hostage. Jeremy though, is in trouble. There are three guys crowded around him and he's stuck on the ground, crouched in the fetal position. Bass aims and fires, killing two of them and wounding the third.
As the ring of the gunshots fades, silence fills the air. Miles has finished off the last of his opponents and Tom is supporting a shaken looking Julia. Charlie and Jason slowly sit up, their arms still wrapped around each other. Everyone takes turns looking at each other, checking each person for injuries in the silence. Then Julia spots Jason with Charlie, both of them now covered in the blood from her attacker.
"Oh my God." She runs over and hugs them both, knocking their heads together as she does it. "Are you guys OK?" She's running her hands over their faces and chests, checking them for injuries. For a second, Bass wonders why Miles isn't there with her, but then he notices what his brother is doing.
Miles is crouched over the old man's body. The self proclaimed 'king' is wheezing heavily as blood forms around his lips. "Please," he begs quietly. And Bass can see it in Miles' face. The hatred and disgust for what just happened is too strong to let it go, so Miles thrusts his knife up through the man's ribs and into his heart.
It only takes a second after that for Miles to turn and run for his niece. He skids to a halt in front of her on his knees and crushes her against his chest. Neither of the Matheson's say anything, but everyone can see how grateful they are that everyone's alright. Charlie lifts her head from Miles' shoulder and looks directly at him, pulling him towards her with her eyes. When Bass gets close enough, she reaches for his hand and squeezes it reassuringly. The seven of them all crowd around Miles and Charlie in what can only be described as a group hug. Little Jason pats his father on the arm and says, "I guess Miles was right. We should have just gone through Columbus. Huh, Dad?"
Tom stares down at his son in disbelief, making everyone else chuckle. "Yes, son. Next time, we'll go with Miles' plan."
"I'll remember that," Miles says as he gets to his feet.
Julia laughs at that too, before she gets a good look at Miles' face. "Oh, no. You're definitely going to need stitches."
He touches his cheek gingerly, wincing when his fingers come back bloody. "It's just a scratch. We can bandage it up and it'll be fine."
"I don't know, Miles. It looks pretty bad." Bass tells him.
He shrugs. "It doesn't matter. We don't have the stuff to stitch it up anyway. Don't worry about it."
Jeremy turns to their fallen attackers. "What about them? They have to have some stuff around here somewhere."
Tom nods and moves to one of the men that was only knocked unconscious. He stands over the man and slaps his cheeks to wake him up. The guy jerks awake and cringes beneath Tom's angry stare. "Where is your camp?"
"I - I don't know what you're talking about."
Tom kicks him hard in the ribs and listens to him squeal. "Answer the question."
"Please, I - I don't know."
Miles stomps forwards and pushes Tom aside, bending down to get right in the guys face. "Tell me where your camp is."
The stupid guy's face turns a nasty shade of green, but he points over his head in the direction of the city. "That way. Not far."
Miles cracks his elbow over the guy's face and stands upright again. "Come on, they might have gathered some good stuff from all of the people that pass through here."
They opt to bring Julia and the kids with them rather than leaving them somewhere else, especially after what just happened. Ten minutes later, they come across a street that's full of cages and animal pens. Chickens and pigs line the road in front of them. Halfway down the line, they find an open store front with an empty cage sitting in the display window. They move inside and find a living room of sorts with fires still burning, presumably for the group of men that had planned on returning home with Julia as their prize.
"I don't like it here," Charlie whispers.
Bass takes her hand and nods. "Yeah, me either."
Miles looks back at them and then at a set of stairs that lead to the second floor. "Bass, why don't you and Charlie stay down here and we'll check out the upstairs." He shoots him a look that says 'because she's already seen enough today' and Bass nods in agreement. Everyone else heads upstairs while he and Charlie move towards what looks like a makeshift kitchen so they can sit down. He lifts her to sit on a table and looks over her dirty, blood stained face.
"Here, let's get you cleaned up." He wets one of his old bandannas with water from his thermos and proceeds to wipe the dirt and blood from her face. "There. Feel any better?"
She nods slowly. "That was scary."
"I know, honey. Fighting is always like that."
"I don't like fighting."
Bass kisses her forehead gently and whispers, "me either."
Out of nowhere, a faint thumping can be heard around the room. Bass reaches for his gun and looks around, not seeing any source for the noise. It stops for a moment.
"What was that?" Charlie whispers, but before he can shush her, it starts again. Bass follows the sound around the room, finding himself standing in front of a door that reads 'OFFICE.' He yanks the door open and points his gun into the dark space. At first he can't see anything, though he can hear the thumping better now as well as someone's harsh breathing. He grabs a candle from a nearby table and moves slowly into the room, nearly dropping the candle when he finds the source of the noise.
A woman, wearing nothing but an overlarge, dirty shirt, is tied up and gagged in a cage. She flinches at the sight of him and scrambles back away from the door of her small cage. Bass can't believe what he's seeing. A woman, a human being, in a cage. He hurries to set the candle on the desk in the room and crouches in front of it. "It's OK. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just want to help."
Her large, brown eyes stare at him for a long time before she slowly nods. There's a lock on the door, but all he has to do is knock the small thing off with the butt of his gun. He pulls the door open and slowly moves to take the gag out of her mouth. She looks at him carefully.
"Are you... one of them?" She croaks.
"No. I'm not gonna hurt you. I promise." Bass gently works the knot tied around her ankles and then moves to her hands before moving away from the cage to give her some room to get out. It takes him a minute to realize that Charlie is standing next to him, watching the woman with interest. She climbs uneasily to her feet and clutches the desk for support.
"Are you OK?" Charlie asks her quietly.
The woman looks at her startled, apparently only just noticing that the little girl was there. She nods slowly. "I think so."
She tries to walk forward on shaky legs but collapses into herself after just one step. Bass rushes to catch her but she shrieks in fear and anguish the moment he touches her. "Get off of me!"
"Easy, easy." He backs up fast, a little afraid by the sudden change. Charlie steps forward before he can stop her, though it doesn't seem to matter because the woman let's her get close enough to touch her shoulder.
"It's alright," Charlie tells her gently. "Bass is a good guy. He won't hurt you."
The woman stares at Charlie as if in a trance. "Who are you?"
Smiling, Charlie sits down on the floor next to her new friend. "Well, my name is Charlie. And that's Bass." She points over at him happily. "And my Uncle Miles is upstairs with Jeremy and Mr. Tom, and Ms. Julia, and Jason. But he's a boy, so you don't wanna talk to him. Jeremy says that boys have cooties."
Bass can't help but groan, momentarily distracted by the continued agrument. "Charlie, how many times do we have to tell you, cooties aren't even real."
She crosses her arms over her little chest and huffs at him. "Jeremy says that that's exactly what boys want you to think."
The woman looks from Charlie to Bass and gives a shaky laugh, then stops abruptly and covers her mouth as if she can't believe that she made the sound. "It's OK to laugh at Bass, Uncle Miles does it all the time." Charlie tells her. Then she tilts her head and looks up at the woman's face. "What's your name?"
Slowly removing her hand from her mouth, the woman looks down at Charlie. "Shelly. My name is Shelly."
Charlie just smiles up at her and Bass would be willing to swear on it at that moment that she could literally kill people with her cuteness. "Shelly, do you like Hello Kitty?"
Shelly frowns looking confused, but then simply shrugs. "Who doesn't like Hello Kitty?"
Charlie throws her hands up in the air excitedly. "Exactly!"
"Charlie, who are you talking to?" Miles' voice calls out from the main room and Charlie gets excitedly to her feet. "Uncle Miles, look, look, look! Me and Bass found a lady..." And she runs out of the room, blabbering to her uncle about her new friend.
Bass looks over at Shelly who's smiling after Charlie in an amused sort of way. "She's like that all the time. You get used to it," he tells her.
Shelly looks up at him, her face still a little wary though she doesn't seem nearly as afraid as she did. He offers her a hand to help her up and watches her eyes flick to it uncertainly. "It's OK. I won't let anything bad happen to you, I promise."
A/N So this one totally got away from me lengthwise. Oh, well. Shelly has arrived and yes, Charlie likes her. I feel like having a six year old hate someone for being a love interest to a man that she won't marry for another fifteen years is a little ridiculous, so the girls will be friends. Plus, remember that Bass will be losing Shelly, so it would be silly to have them fight over him. (As well as five hundred other reasons a six year old and a grown woman shouldn't fight over a guy. :-))