Author's Note: I held off on posting because I wanted to see where the show was going after I started seeing my ideas popping up on the screen. -_- I shouldn't be frustrated because obviously the storyline for the show was written way before I even knew Wayward pines existed. It's just a pain in the ass to have these concepts planned and then have the show present them before I have a chance to write them out. I've had to re-figure some stuff for future chapters because of it. I had this chapter formed way before the idea of abbies having "scouts" premiered on the show. I have no evidence to prove it, just frustration to stew in. Rant over and out. Enjoy!

At first she'd wondered how the abby knew the motion was used as both a greeting and a goodbye.

She sat waving back to him until her arm grew sore. When she paused to rest and didn't return the movement a squawk of dislike flew at her.

A depleted but amused sigh left her and a half-smile spread across her damp face. She indulged him again though a painful twinge ran through her shoulder. She realized he had no real concept of what the motion meant. He was simply enthralled with the novelty of learning something new.

As she humored him she watched the reappearance of his teeth in what she'd generously call a smile. It was hard to discern from the natural way the abby's mouth often displayed the ferocious rows. She had to squint to see the corners of his lips raised upward. It was a subtle physical difference unlike the varied sounds he made.

Lisa felt a gust of wind push her hair forward, sweeping down the roof's slope to travel across the distance. She was glad to see it distract him from their waving as his nostrils flared. His misshapen head slowly tilted from one side to another while his agape mouth kept consuming the scented air. She found her own head cocking as his actions painted a picture of confusion. The breeze changed direction and he began to pace. Every once in a while a gust would blow his way and make him fidget inquisitively.

She bent her head and tugged her uniform's collar upward to smell herself with a self-conscious frown. The skin of her thumb caught against a rough patch. The unusual sensation made her pull the material out further to inspect. Reddish brown splotches against crisp white cotton came into her downturned view.

"You're wondering why you smell blood on me, eh?" she half-heartedly chuckled at him. "I had a really really really bad day."

Silently she wondered what effect it was having on his perception of her. She doubted he'd been in close proximity to any human before.

"Which would most likely mean there's been no way for him to have smelt the blood of a human on another human before." she whispered to herself as she let her sullied polo go to unbutton and romove her crested blazer. "He's only smelt it on fellow abbies during feeding.. until now."

"I wonder if he can tell it's not mine…"

Lisa began looking for any sign of concern on his face while he paced. She snorted at herself for even entertaining the idea that an abby could be capable of such a feeling and reached up to loosen the tie around her neck. Her mouth fell open just as quickly, appauled at how much the thought inside her head sounded like Mrs. Fisher. She prickled at the similarity and threw her jacket through the open window. Turning back, she found him in the same befuddled state.

Assuming he were capable, that would mean he could discern different scents from a fair distance. She deduced that at the moment he was only perplexed and disturbed by the anomaly of her bloodspattered smell. A roar of confusion rumbled at her. On a whim she tried to copy it. Appempting to send the roar with the same inquisitive jump in pitch at its end that his had carried.

The abby's eyes widened in a shocked way. He slowly crept toward the end of his branch and squinted at her as his head buzzed with the unfamiliar sensation of hard thought. He lingered there, struggling to comprehend what she was. The abundant hair that sprouted from her head and flowed around her frame was what confused him most aside from the blood. The lone human he'd witnessed from afar had sported a hard shell on its head and smelt distinctly male. Like the blood peppering her scent.

A light, short, sound she'd equate to a chirp eventually came from his mouth. At the same time one of his clawed-limbs left the bark underneath it and raised slowly. It extended toward her claws-first, as though he were reaching out for her.

Despite her intense fear of heights she began crawling down to the roof's edge, stopping momentarily half way there when her skirt caught between the shingles and her knees. The vertigo of being so close to the gutter churned her stomach but she kept her eyes firmly on the grey hand in the distance. She began to raise her right one to mimic him. The feeling of losing her balance overcame her and it quickly smacked back down onto the roof. She sucked in a terrified gasp.

She tried again. Moving slower this time in the hope of warding off the sensation of plunging head first down into the barbeque grill below. When her open palm was stretched out as far as her arm would allow she released her sound.

It ended up coming out more distressed than his had. But never the less, he reacted to it. His hand dropped back to the limb and he began bouncing on it excitedly. His head bobbed in an affirmative motion at the same time. The entire display reminded her of happy chinpanzees on one of the National Geographic episodes she used to watch with her father. He completed the mental picture in her mind as his lips curled back and an unusual delighted sound vibrated from his seemingly grinning mouth.

A smile of her own crept out and her hand returned to the sturdy surface beneath her. She didn't know what she'd just done but it seemed to be a good thing in his perspective. Rather than have to turn around and take her eyes off him she began cautiously backtracking. Scooting centimeter by terrifying centimeter up the slope. She watched him turn halfway toward the forest and release a long-winded defening roar. One that made her glad her adult roommates weren't home from their respective jobs yet.

With her butt firmly planted in her confort zone a feeling of relief settled over her. It lingered briefly before she realized something unusual was going on. He had his back turned to her for the first time. His face was eagerly pointed toward the woods and his dirt-splattered backside was gracing her with its presence. It seemed unusual to her because she knew a predator rarely turned its back on what it viewed as prey or a threat. Her pondering of what he thought of her was interrupted by a distant answer to his call.

Her freaful inhale made him turn back to her. The same ecstatic look was streached across his face and he made a complete circle. As though he were expectantly waiting on something. They didn't have to wait long before cracking branches and leaf-rustling bodies were moving close enough for her inadequate ears to hear. Suspenseful seconds made her heart race with anxiety. The thought of going inside and hiding quickly crossed her mind. Before she could act on the comforting impulse a hulking black shape burst from the high foliage and renderd her frozen.

A larger abby approached the one she was familiar with as two more shapes emerged onto twin tree limbs close by. They were smaller than the grey one in both height and width. To the point that she labled them young adults in her mind. The pair certainly acted like juveniles. Wrestling and play-growling with one another until the darkest abby turned to reprimand them with a short roar. They joined him and paid attention as the grey one began making sounds that were too quiet for her to hear. As though he were talking to the other larger male.

Her abby pointed down toward the fence before corssing and forcibly uncrossing his muscled arms. Lisa's jaw fell without a sound. Three heads cocked at him in unison. She thought she imagined him letting out a frustrated huff at them. He pointed to the fence again and made a failed attempt at re-creating the buzzing sound she'd used to demonstrate electrocution. It came out a grugle instead while he simultaneously fell limp against the tree's trunk.

A repeated slapping sound made his eyes shoot open. The other three jumped at the startling noise and turned to attack the source. The grey abbey rushed to stop them, abandoning the educated gestures to violently ram his shoulder first into the chest of the larger black one, and then the smaller. By the time he reached the ghostly white abby at the end he was too late. It impulsively flung itself off the branch, eager to sink its teeth into the juicy meat despite the fence's death sentence.

The grey abby dived after it, wrapping a hand around its pale ankle so hard his claws dug in and drew blood. In turn, his ankle was captured by the black adolescent abby. The sight of him falling toward his death made Lisa scream. The shrill sound made the obsidian giant glance up at her for a milicecond before he lunged to grab the last link in the daisy-chain of abbies. Its shoulder swiftly dipped down. Biceps thicker than her head easily held onto their combined weight. Its already heavy brow-ridge lowered in a flat un-amused face of aggravation as the chain of bodies swung away from the fence. He didn't appear at all reluctant to let them crash into the tree's trunk. A grunt of satisfaction left him and his clenched fist released the lot of them. Each abby caught a wayward branch between their claws. The lightest of the bunch sustained a knock to its skull as it failed to dig its anchors in far enough.

It briskly shook off a hit that would have knocked a human unconscious and made Lisa let out an unintentional snort of amusement. Her hand slapped over her mouth as eyes at various levels in the tree turned toward her. Three thunderous roars erupted at her while the stormy-colored abbey continued climbing. She pressed herself closer to the vibrating glass and both of her hands rushed to cover her ears. Through winces and squinted eyes she spied her familiar abby pushing at the darker one's arm when he reached him. The loudest abnormal voice cut off and the double high pitched screeches followed shortly after.

Her brows rose in surprise as the grey abby began animatedly growling and gesturing while the one that appeared to be the leader listened and occasionally growled back. Some of the movements he used were distinctly ones he'd witnessed her carry out. The younger two reached them quickly and became engrossed in what their elder was communicating just as fast. Each time he pointed to her all three heads turned to her before snapping back to him when his growling story continued.

"Yeah, that was my bad, sorry!" She called out when it appeared he was scolding the youngest for jumping without looking. "I startled him. I shouldn't have clapped, I wasn't thinking. I was just proud of you I didn't…"

They all stopped to look at her when she'd started babbling. By the time she was half through with her explanation she trailed off awkwardly. The way they were looking at her made her feel like she'd been spying on a private conversation. And they did not appreciate it. She self-consciously threaded some hair behind her ear and looked down at the plaid material covering her theighs.

The rumbles continued after a few seconds and she looked up to see them huddled closer together. They congregated long enough to make her shift with impatiens. A grey arm eventually shot up from the bunch and waved. She waved back. All the shiny gleaming heads turned her way and curious grunts came from the smaller two. They attempted the gesture and the lighter of the duo accidentally elbowed his dark copy in his lax mouth. Her laughter stopped their resulting squabble prematurely. They returned her sounds in high pitched hyena-like titters that sent intrigued shivers down her spine. It was an unnerving sound but it made her mind wonder to the other possible noises they were capable of when not aggressively growling.

The raven leader did not seem as accepting of her. He appeared standoffish and reserved in a way that mirrored the manner in which she carried herself around her counselor. Her laughter quickly died and she cleared her throat. Lisa fidgeted nervously as their eyes locked but she didn't look away. She felt like the beast was judging her as his scrutinizing gaze eventually relented and traveled over the rest of her. It was a relief when the grey abby continued speaking in varying growls and his calculating eyes left her.

The one she'd begun thinking of as hers without realizing it pointed toward her for the final time and made the sharp chirp she recognized. The rest of his fingers followed his pointer and uncurled toward her, reaching the same way he had some twenty minutes earlier. His fellow abbies looked at him in what must have been confusion and disbelief on their different faces. He dropped his arm and turned back to them, bobbing his head in a plea for them to believe him.

Their snouts lifted and they breathed in deeply. The smaller two twitched in rapid confusion. The largest's mouth opened to sample more. His pearly fangs contrasted with his ebony skin tone in a way that showcased the weapons. Lisa estimated they were three times as long as her own teeth. He huffed at the air for many long minutes as his three comrades waited for his analysis. Each breeze that swept past her toward them puffed his chiseled chest out further until he let his lungs deflate. His head cocked slowly at her and two of his thick fingers rose to rub back and fourth along his chin while he appeared to think in his crouched position.

She felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. The grey one's thoughtful looks were noting compared to the darkest one's pensive movements. He appeared to her as the oldest and wisest of the wayward herd. None of them moved or made a sound as he considered her. They showed him respect and submission in doing so. And when he did choose to move they all looked to him expectantly.

He turned to the grey abby and uttered one grunt with a nod of his head. He made a small gesture outward toward the end of the branch. The familiar abby eagerly complied and climbed out as far as he could. Lisa watched him repeat the gesture she'd mimicked and waited with his claws outstretched for her to reciprocate. She stayed frozen for a few seconds until he repeated his intensified chirp and demandingly jerked his open palm at her.

Lisa's body began unfolding to make her careful descent to the gutter without looking up. They all watched her and the smallest ones found themselves beginning journeys on their own branches. Eyes wide with curiosity as she reached the end of hers and began lifting her arm toward their elder.

She extended her fingers as far as she could and let out a sound she hoped was similar enough to what he made. She felt absolutely ridiculous for a split second when the others didn't react and her abby bounced wildly with happiness. He looked back to the dark shape behind him and his branch rose as the giant's weight transferred to a bigger one. The black abby came forward to watch closer and his head cocked when she repeated the noise for them. Her grey answered with his chirp and then looked over to the eldest with a hopeful expression on his ghoulish face. The smallest ones were beginning to raise their arms but still looked for his final permission.

He took one last upturned inhale of her scent and growled affirmatively. His inky claws shot out confidently and the sound he produced was more akin to a bark, much deeper than the grey abby's. The smaller duo sent out shrill pitched sounds with their hands. She knelt there staring at their four outstretched limbs, unsure of what she was supposed to do. She did not want to get sucked into a never ending chirping loop much like the waving one. They were looking at her expectantly. And when she'd done it for the grey one it seemed to make him overjoyed. She mentally shrugged to herself and decided to appease them.

She let out an uncertain breath and angled herself toward the biggest one. Logic told her it was good manners to start with him in light of how the others treated him with high regard. She splayed her fingers wide and attempted to match his tone and type of call. His exuberant reaction must have been out of character for him because the other abbies had forgotten the usage of their jaws. The hearty branch under him creaked in protest at his chipper bouncing. A lighthearted guffawing came from the beaming smile his serious mouth had morphed into.

The grey's reaction was similar. When the smaller two received their gestures from her they went ballistic. Their celebration carried up into the branches above their brothers and rained leaves down on them. The rambunctious behavior sobered the elder two and sent warning growls shooting up at them before their gaze returned to her.

"Great. Glad I could be of service." she chuckled at them with a small awkward wave.

She turned to resume her safety spot and an agitated roar sounded behind her. Ignoring it she focused on not falling off the roof while she moved. A familiar industrial rumbling began in the distance and made her scramble to reach the windowsill as it grew closer. The slamming of two truck doors on the other side of the house made her pause and drop onto her side to face the abbies. Her front teeth ached from how hard she blew air between them to shush the creatures across the yard. She sent a thankful smile to the grey abby as he shoved his palm over the pale one's opening mouth. His attempt at hushing them came out in a hiss as her surrogate dad's work-boots thumped against the home's wraparound porch and her makeshift mom's heels clicked in unison. Lisa breathed a small sigh of relief when the front door to the house slammed shut.

"Yeah, ssshhhhhh" she agreed as she sat up, bringing a finger to her mouth to demonstrate what they needed to do.

The white abbey's cackle began to bubble from behind the ashy hand restraining it.

"It's not funny. If they see you you're dead." she snapped at him, making the grey hand move with his head as it cocked at her in wonder.

The sternness of her tone got across to the ghostly teenager and he fell silent. She kept tapping the side of her finger against her lips as the five sets of ears, human and aberration alike, listened intently to the sounds of people moving around the house. Hostile voices began rising right on queue and her head nodded at the same moment.

"Okay, they won't hear you for a good hour..hour and a half I'd say. Growl away. Or roar. Or whatever it is you guys do…" she announced with a permissive wave of her hand.

She'd half expected chaos to ensue once she stopped speaking. They stared at her contently from their branches for some time. As dusk started to approach the darkest male grunted and turned his head toward the grey abby. He jumped to join him on his perch. They looked to her and then the fence. Grunting to each other in agreement as the black one pointed to big tree limbs and then the lanced toppers of the fence.

"They're discussing a plan to get over here." She whispered to herself in awe as her mind grappled with the magnitude of what their ability to organize meant.

Her own brain raced to figure out a way to analyze the behaviors she'd seen them exhibit. It was all so much at once she could hardly think. One solid idea came to mind and she bolted through the window she quickly opened and shut. Four cries of dislike followed her down the attic's stairway and made her run faster through the second story hallway. She knew the sooner she got back the sooner she could quiet them down. The closer she grew to the main floor the louder the adult squabbling grew. Her backpack was within her reach when the woman boiling water on the kitchen stove paused from ranting about how odd it was that her husband was the sole garbage man of Wayward Pines. Her brown eyes landed on the teenage girl trying to quietly slink from the room.

"I'm not climbin' all them stairs young lady! Dinner'll be done in fifteen minutes. Be down then or you can eat it cold! Ya hear?!"

The disgruntled woman yelled after her. She didn't wait for the girl's "Yes ma'am" reply. Instead she ripped open a cardboard box and began questioning her husband as to where all the garbage in town went.

Lisa's leg muscles burned with the effort she put into propelling herself up two flights of steps as fast as possible. Their noises had progressed from dislike to downright distress.

"I'm right here, calm down!" She yelled when she reached the window, waving her hand through it to show them.

Happy grunts filled the air and made her lips twitch as she bent over to drop her backpack on the floor and grabbed a notebook from inside it. She settled into her customary seat and the group settled into watching her intently. Twenty minutes passed with her hunched over, writing observations of the abbies and her theories on their behaviors. Her back was stiff and her hand was cramping from how tight she'd been gripping her pencil in concentration.

The onyx abby grumbled from its perch as the hairy thing wiggled a stick the color of the sun across a cloud-colored page. He watched her long mane brush her arms each time her head bowed to look at the scribblings. When the wispy strands flowed in the breeze they entranced him into a familiar frustrating state he did not enjoy. His head quirked as he wondered if the thing's fur was soft like the long-eared hopping snacks.

A feminine voice screaming her name from the hastily slammed kitchen window below made her jump. Her head snapped up and she found the intimidating abby watching her more fixatedly than the others. The twin terrors had begun a slashing game of tag on the branches farther into the woods when she'd failed to do anything interesting to keep their attention.

"Okay, thank you!" she yelled back quickly, thankful to hear the window sliding shut before her thanks were finished.

Sounds of protest came from the older abbies when they saw her turning to climb inside. The unhappy growls turned pleading when she closed the glass behind her. Lisa paused where she was knelt and let out a worried breath. Their noises became less frantic when she re-opened the window.

"Shhhhhh. I'll be back."

She tried to reassure the small group but as soon as she turned away from the opening whining growls from the younger two called after her. The motion of her right hand slashing through the window's opening combined with angry hushing silenced the lot.

"I will come back. Just shushhhh. Shut your pieholes for ten minutes. Go eat something."

Their curious heads quirked at her words. Lisa brought her empty hands to her face and made sounds like she was devouring something in them.

"Do you guys get it? Food? Go find food? Go eat? Understand?"

A grunt left the raven abby that she liberally took as a yes. This time when she rose from her crouched place in front of the window and turned away, no barbaric sounds followed her along the attic's floorboards. She looked back suspiciously when she reached the top of the stairs. Expecting some kind of ruckus as she started disappearing from their sight step by downward step. She did it in steady increments until the top of her head disappeared from the window frame's view. A two minute grace period was given to make sure they wouldn't roar.

"Lisa!"

The scream of her name made her jump with unexpected, startled, fright. An indignant curse left her as she clutched her chest and headed for the first floor.

"Bout time."

A grumbling voice greeted her and she silently raised and dropped her brows in answer.

"This whole place just don't make no sense.." The woman continued as the girl sat and looked unhappily down at the repetitive meal set before her. "…ain't never heard of Pilchacaroni and Cheese in my life. What kinda company makes mac an cheese taste this bad?"

Lisa wordlessly lifted the first forkful of carrot-based pasta to her mouth. Her mother's catchphrase was delivered next as expected.

"Sumthin' ain't right."

Many of the fights that took place in their household were the result of Wayward Pines puzzle pieces that didn't fit into place.

"How come we got stuck in tha stix? Why'd we settle for this place? Huh? Cuz you're the garbage man?"

Lisa'a father shrugged and shoveled another forkful in his mouth so he didn't have to answer.

"You seen them new houses on Cherry Street? Ones with the fancy garages in the back? Why didn't we pick somethin' like that?"

A heavy sigh left the bearded man and his eyes flickered to the woman.

"Don't know Maggie, ain't like the realtor lady gave us much a choice. Ain't much a choice bout anything for anyone round 'ere. People jus got a way a goin' along. Why cantcha go along?"

"Go along my ass-"

Lisa took the opportunity to cut Maggie off and prevent the escalation of a fight.

"Leroy, how about you let me do the grilling this Sunday. I know your sciatica has been troubling you."

She made the offer for a different purpose. One that swung into view behind her parents heads. Her eyes shifted quickly back to his, away from the sliver of occupied trees that were visible between the kitchen window and the top of the fence. The man in front of her gave her a dubious look and his beard wiggled while his lips shifted back and fourth.

"Ain't got a lotta steaks.. to be messin' up…"

He drawled uncertainly with a wary look down at the one of the few things his wife was capable of making.

"I know how to do it properly. My dad-"

Lisa abruptly stopped herself from breaking the rules.

"I know how to cook a steak." She concluded sharply, watching as he nodded to her.

"Yer dad what?"

Maggie demanded, watching her face darken into the unsettling bubbly mask the girl used outside their home.

"Do not discuss the past."

She recited the rule cheerfully. In the same falsely pleasant way all the children and adults spoke in town. Maggie gave her an un-amused look and shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"Why?"

"Because it is forbidden."

"Why?"

The repeated question made her knuckles crack underneath the table as they clenched in a frustrated fist. Many times she'd come close to telling them the truth. It seemed ridiculous and counterproductive to her. Keeping the majority of the adult population in the dark often put her in a position of authority above the two seated across from her. She regularly felt like the parent when she was forced to remind them of the rules and corral them toward compliance.

"Because it is." She growled through clenched smiling teeth.

A weak rumbling made the adults look around the room. Her eyes bulged and darted toward the glass behind them. She held her stomach and let out a fake groan to keep them from turning toward the window.

"I believe I drank some bad celery soda at school today."

Another glass-filtered roar made her double over with a pained expression on her face.

"I'm going to eat upstairs.. On the toilet."

She added the last detail to discourage questions. It seemed to work perfectly because they both nodded to her with repulsed expressions. More rumblings forced her to talk over them as she retreated with her bowl.

"I'll put in a word for you about Cherry Street. You prefer the brown ones, right Maggie?"

Lisa did not stick around to hear her answer. Or the questions that followed from each parent.

"Put in a word to who?"

"Why'd she have blood on 'er shirt?"

In a dim room filled with the soft whir of computer systems, tired eyes strained to be certain they were seeing what they saw. Fingers tapped rapidly at keys to make the thermal surveillance system zoom in.

"Rhodric come look at this."

A middle-aged man approached the tech's chair, leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen. He too squinted at the straight line of four red dots.

"Call Doctor Pilcher immediately. He needs to see this."