Hello my beloved readers and reviewers! My deepest apologies for being egregiously late with this update. My schedule's been super busy and chaotic at work and at home so I've not had much time to write, but I promise I'm still working on this and I have not, nor will not, give up. Thanks for hanging there with me, you guys are amazing!

Brittney: Great chapter! Benji has guts, going as bait was very brave for him. I love that you had Fox, Daryl and Carl come and get him but he was getting through to those guys to so I was a bit iffy about that, he could've probably talked them out of it. I still love your writing though! My mind just ran through a different possibility of what could've happened...Can't wait for the next chapter :)

Aye Benji, does have a spine after all =) He probably could have talked his way out of it, but Fox wasn't willing to sit on the sidelines and since Daryl will follow her no matter where she goes, and Carl wasn't going to sit back and let anything happen to them on his watch, they all went in after him. It's just an illustration of the bond between all of them.

Emberka-2012: Benji made a bold move. He is not the strongest fighter, but he's part of the family. Fox and Daryl have to be more careful. They can not allow themselves to be in bad condition.

He's definitely not the best fighter in the group, and he might not have been with them in the very beginning of things, but he is still a member of the family, and he'd die for them if he had to. As for Fox and Daryl, Daryl held her together while Fox worked through the anger and the pain and the helplessness at losing Luna, at least enough so she can think clearly and get some rest. They both know that they have to keep it together or risk losing everything else too.

FanFicGirl10: I'm not very happy with Fox right now, i get that she's hurting but that does NOT condone or make it right that she would do that to Daryl even if he's allowed it to happen. Fox needs to understand she's not the only one who hurting, Daryl is in just as much pain as she is, she better apologize and make it up to him. Update Soon!

Daryl's not particularly thrilled with her either…but he understands. This is just who Fox is. Sometimes she needs that violence and bloodlust to calm her and so he offers himself up. Because in the end, if she needed to, Fox would give everything for her family as well. Daryl made it clear that this was a one-time thing not to be repeated and she understands. She worked through enough of her hurt to function and now she can focus on the real task at hand. And Daryl is in just as much pain, but he is probably more practical than Fox in that he can manage to get a hold of himself to do what need be done and only after break down. Fox won't apologize for what she's done, but Daryl doesn't hold it against her.

lunasky99: Wow good job Benjy!. He's never been that brave but he's trying xD. Why in the holly hell did they give them half of almost everything!?. Yikes that has to hurt. Damn Dahlia why you got to be so ruff?. I almost feel bad for Daryl but I don't because I know he likes it while it's happening. I loved your story Wildflower it was amazing, almost like I'm there with them but of course I'm not. I love books and really like the way you put so much thought into how you think the characters act and how they feel. Wildflower was very addicting and exciting to read, and now you have me addicted to it's sequel!. It's a really great story so far and I can't wait to read the next chapter!. Now this is probably just me and my crazy mind but could there maybe be some Benjy/Michonne bonding time in the future?. I hope Luna and Judith are okay!. So... Luna and Mal?. I can definitely see how that could happen. It's just like Luna's parents. There are so many similarity's but at the same time differences. Both of them are confident in themselves 'for a good reason', both can be very dangerous, the differences are that he is calm and usually thinks before he attacks unlike her where she attacks first thinks later, 'from what I can tell anyways'. I just hope he listens to that little warning that's going off in his head that points right at Luna screaming 'do NOT underestimate do NOT underestimate!' Haha!.

I knew for sure I wanted Benjy to have a chance to show some spine in Wolfsong and so I'm glad people are responding well to it =) Why half? They had to make the trade off worth it, or else they were probably risking a whole lot more, not that this wasn't a blow already. Heh, Daryl does like it while it's happening, to a certain extent, this is the hardest and roughest Fox has ever been with him, and it's not really an experience he wants to repeat, he's got enough scars as it is, but he'll handle it. I really try to make the world I create as detailed as possible, particularly with the characters and their feelings, because in the end those are their motivations for all that they do, and I think if people understand how they're feeling, it gives them something to relate to, which just makes the world seem that much more real. Hmm, Benjy/Michonne bonding…. possibly…I could see her teasing him a little because he's so skittish, but for the moment Michonne is still very wary of them all, as well she should be, she doesn't really know them or trust them yet. Luna and Mal….their's is a very interesting dynamic. Mal has her number, so he thinks, and he's not afraid to stand up to her and call her on her shit so to speak, which both aggravates and intrigues Luna. Mal's got good reasons to be confident in himself, as I shall reveal later on in the story, and for certain Mal definitely looks before he leaps, unlike Luna. But Mal is not without his weaknesses. He's not as careful with his assumptions as he ought to be, and Luna will know to take advantage of that when the time comes. For the moment they are enemies, but there is a lot of similarity to them that will prove to give an interest conflict to their dynamic as the story goes on…

rosemarycr: I just love Benjamin so much! Great chapter, made me quite curious about Michonne's role in the story, but I hope she's here for good

I love Benjy too, in some ways he reminds me of Glenn from Season 1, skittish and unsure of himself and desperate to be useful even in the face of very dangerous situations, the difference being Glenn grew up so to speak and lost most of his skittishness but Benjy never did, although he's doing his best to be useful to the group. As for Michonne, she's gonna be around for a while, but this is the Walking Dead after all…nobody's safe ;)

RedneckBunny: THAT WAS AWESOME!

Yay! I'm glad you think so! I was trying to throw some action in there, so I'm glad it looks like it paid off =D

Luna woke in her cell feeling like she'd been run over by a speeding truck. Her body ached and her head felt like it had been stuffed with wool. She blinked slowly and immediately regretted it when a wave of nausea rolled through her. There was a bright light somewhere ahead of her that was making her feel sick, as well as block her vision. She shut her eyes and tried to curl back in on herself but every twitch made her feel sicker. She inhaled and tried to calm the queasiness but that was when she noticed there was another smell in the room. It was faint, but it was the smell of soap, well scrubbed skin, leather, tobacco, and something else. Something that reminded her of juniper or crushed pine needles. It was almost like home, but a cold trickle of dread worked its way down the nape of her neck. It meant she wasn't alone in here.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she managed to get her eyes back open but because of the light she still couldn't see anything. It hurt but she shifted her gaze down and the stinging pressure of the light eased and now she could see someone sitting in the corner of her cell. Through the thick hazy fuzz clogging her brain she remembered him. Mal. The man who had led her and Judith down here.

She saw his lips move but she couldn't hear him, nor did she have enough focus to comprehend what he said. She blinked again and tried to sit up but it made her head swim something awful. Feeling shaky and weak like she had a fever she stilled. Mal said something else but again she wasn't fast enough on the uptake to understand. She tried to sign this to him but he didn't understand. She bared her teeth at him and closed her eyes again and this time forced herself to roll over so she didn't have to face him. She laid as still as possible, allowing the nausea and shakiness to pass and tumbled back down into unconsciousness again.

When she woke again she didn't feel quite as ill and definitely hungry which was a good sign. When she blinked her eyes open the light was dimmed and Mal was still sitting in the corner by the door holding a book in his hands. The minute she twitched on the bed he looked up from the book and met her eyes.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." This time as he spoke she understood although it took her a minute to process the movements.

"How long have I been asleep?" She signed the first half of it before she remembered he wouldn't understand and dropped her hands as she forced the words out from her throat. She had to repeat herself twice before he understood.

"Twelve hours," he answered. He set the book aside on the floor next to his foot and leaned forward so his forearms were on his knees. "I'll bet that's the first real sleep you've had since this all started."

"You're not wrong," she growled. She forced herself into a sitting position. She was sore from having been still for so long but it was nothing that wouldn't sort itself out. "Judith? Where is she?" she asked as she rolled her shoulders.

"Next door." His eyes never left hers as he spoke, although the planes of his face suggested he was relaxed. "She's ok. Slept for about ten hours, I had food brought to her and if you're up to it, I'll send some for you." When she didn't respond Mal's lips twitched into a thin smirk. "You're not going to get out of this by being a martyr. Just cooperate."

"Let me see her," Luna growled. She coughed and cleared her throat, still getting used to speech.

Mal shook his head. "Not yet. Not until the doctor's had a chance to look at you both. And apparently Martinez wants the two of you to remain separated. "

The name rang an unpleasant bell inside her skull. She remembered the man who had knocked her unconscious and peppered her with mace rubber bullets as they'd tried to flee the base in Colorado.

"Martinez can't handle two teenage girls put together?" She snickered with amusement and clicked her teeth.

"Martinez is a cautious soldier. If Milton had listened to him in the first place none of this would have happened and you two wouldn't have almost been eaten in the city." Mal tipped his head to the side. "And he's alright by the way. Leland. Although I gotta say, I think you scared every ounce of manhood out of him." He set his gaze on her with a new look, a questioning, prying look, like a bear determined to break into a fallen beehive for the honey inside. "Would you really have killed him?"

Luna bared her teeth. "Maybe," she growled. "I could kill you."

Mal snickered. "I doubt that, sweetheart."

Her skin burned and now she forced herself on her feet, clenching her fists near her hips. "Don't call me that," she warned.

He stood up and although he was a good four inches taller than her she didn't let that frighten her. Her tendons flexed beneath the skin of her clenched hands in contrast to Mal's looseness which just served to aggravate her all the more.

"Why not?" Mal asked casually. "You got a problem with pet names?"

She inhaled before she answered, forcing her throat to work. "I have a problem with people who try to dig under my skin because they think it's funny. You keep doing it and I'll make you regret it."

Mal snickered, his eyes flashing like molten steel. "Try it, honey."

She lunged at him and struck him right in the mouth with her fist. She was lining up for a gut shot as his head came back from the whip like snap of her blow but before she could deliver his wrist flicked and he grabbed a hold of hers and twisted her arm and shoved against her shoulder. She tumbled to her knees but reached behind her and fisted her hand into his thick hair and yanked hard. He grunted with the burning pain and she let go, but raked her fingernails down the side of his cheek. When she reached his mouth he tried to bite her but the ensuing struggle forced their close grip to come apart and she rolled away and got back up on her feet.

"Told you so," she spat. She sat back down on the bed and gripped the edges with both hands as he gingerly rubbed the side of his face that she had scratched.

He looked over at her and despite the red lines across his face he still smirked. "You can beat me up all day long Luna but it's not going to get you out of here. And it's not going to let you see Judith any faster." He got up from his chair and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He stalked quickly down the narrow dark hall to three doors down before punching in the key code that would let him into Judith's cell. He found her on her bed staring up at the ceiling, one foot flat against the bed, the other dangling off the side.

"Did she blind you?" she asked casually, not bothering to grace Mal with eye contact.

"Not quite," he muttered, rubbing the side of his face. "But she's fast."

"Told you so." Judith's voice was sneered with contempt. "I told you not to aggravate her on purpose. She's not like most people, ok? She has no filter and almost no impulse control."
"Yeah, I can see that." Mal flexed his jaw until it popped and although it did not quite dissipate the sting from Luna's nails he stopped fussing over it. "But her little stunt cost you another day of separation."

That made Judith sit up and look at him. His eyes were not entirely cold but they were stiff and unyielding. "Don't do that," she pleaded. "Please, she doesn't understand, ok?"

Mal shrugged. "She's going to have to learn she can't get her way by beating people up. We won't tolerate it here and until she cools her jets you two are going to stay put, and away from each other."

"Let me explain it to her," Judith begged. "Please. If you go in there and play God like that it'll only make it worse."

Mal shrugged. "I've had a lot worse, believe me." He left the cell and let Judith stew with fury and helplessness and aggravation. He felt bad about it in a small corner of his brain, but on the other hand, this situation with her and Luna wasn't about to change any time soon, and the only thing to be done was make it livable for everybody. Judith would bend without much fuss, he could already tell, but Luna was another story entirely.

He was coming up the stairs when he met Milton at the top. "How are they?" Milton asked, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, still holding onto his little leather book.

Mal shrugged. "They're alright." Milton's eyes narrowed at him and Mal could see the wheels spinning and internally he tried to maintain a lid on his aggravation.

"Cut yourself shaving then?" he asked, nodding to a small drop of blood that had pooled at the edge of his jaw where Luna's nails had nicked in deep. He quickly dabbed it away and leaned up against the wall.

"I'm fine," he muttered. "When's Jenner coming down?"

"He's on his way, I'd like you to stay with him when he comes, alright?"

"Why, aren't you his bitch?" Mal asked with a snide tone.

"Show a little respect for the one who gave you the gun, Mal."

Mal stiffened when he heard Jenner's voice and saw the man appear over his shoulder from around the bend of the hallway. The doctor was in a perpetual state of sleep deprivation and the twitchy fuel of any kind of stimulant that he could get his hands on. Very few things ever made Mal nervous, but Jenner was one of them, mostly because of his unpredictability. Mal much preferred situations where he could see the progression to the outcome he suspected would occur. Jenner was like a twisted wrench thrown into a well-oiled machine. With him in the mix, any number of things could cause the engine to implode and go down in a plume of acrid smoke and scorching flames. He met the doctor's eyes briefly to show his acknowledgement and then diverted his attention, unwilling to maintain the connection long.

"Of course," Mal answered calmly. He could have said more but chose not to. It would have served no purpose except to dig himself deeper into a hole with spikes at the bottom.

"Milton, go check on test group A, I just altered one of the conditions of the experiment, document if there has been any change, and if so, what." Jenner's voice was clipped, biting off every syllable that wasn't entirely necessary.

Milton nodded once and skittered away like a cockroach exposed to light. Mal inwardly chuckled at his mental description but then Jenner's eyes narrowed in on him and a chill settled in his gut.

"How are our two newest subjects?" Jenner asked as they walked together down the hall towards Judith's cell.

"The eldest, Judith, is much like the others we have brought in. Reluctant, but I think she senses purpose in what we do and will not be overly difficult. The deaf one, Luna, is much different."

"In what way?" Jenner questioned as he flipped through the many sheets of paper on his notepad that he had in his hand. His lab coat was frayed at the cuffs of the sleeves and collar, stains and dirt streaking it, showing it certainly hadn't been washed in a long time. It was just another sign of his questionable mental state.

"I haven't decided if she's operating under the delusion that she can simply fight her way out of here by force or if she is being difficult to be spiteful. Either way…" he would have said more but the doctor cut him off.

"Either way she's rabid and must be treated as such. No matter. She will break. They all have before."

Mal remained silent. He had his own opinions on the matter, such that it might not be worth it to waste the necessary time and energy to break Luna, but he kept it to himself. The gun strapped to his thigh was a cold weight as he carefully followed the doctor, staying behind his shoulder as he punched the key code in and let himself into Judith's room. This time she did not lounge about, instead she quickly got up to her feet and stared at them hard, cold anger but also a calculated light in her eyes.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Edwin Jenner. Head of the medical department of what remains of the Center for Disease Control."

Judith's face hardened like water freezing on a tree branch but for the moment she remained silent and Mal had to wonder what was spinning in her mind. He remained where he was at the doctor's heels, not really feeling it necessary to get in the way at the moment.

"What is it you want with us?" she asked.

"Us?" Jenner quipped back. "I see only one of you."

"You know what I mean," Judith snapped, her words brittle. "Me and my sister."

Jenner shrugged absentmindedly. "You and your sister will serve as part of my experimental groups in order to continue working to find a cure for the plague."

Judith's teeth snapped like a metal trap closing over a rabbit's foot. "Have fun with that," she spat coldly.

The doctor's eyes narrowed. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be. It can be a very hard, painful process, and I don't wish it to be. It affects my research. I don't wish your time here to be uncomfortable or miserable. Just…" Mal could see the muscles in his face twitching as he began to unravel. He reached down to loosen the strap on his gun but then the doctor settled back into his skin. "Cooperate."

Judith sensed the instability and nervous energy in the room. She unclenched her fists and instead crossed her arms over her chest. "Does that mean once you're done with us you'll let us go?"

"When my research is done and a cure has been found, certainly," Jenner murmured although again he seemed lost in thought, drifting through some dark headspace only he was privy to.

"And how long have you been working on this?" Judith asked, easing the brittle temper in her tone, something for which Mal was grateful.

Jenner sighed and let his head fall so it hung low on his neck between his shoulders. He ground his palms into his eye sockets as his shoulders began to tremble. Mal reached down and thumbed the clasp on the holster of his gun, adrenaline beginning to circulate in his veins.

"Longer than you have been alive," Jenner growled, looking up and staring at Judith coldly, almost as if she were a Walker he was about to kill. "Do not question me. Ever." Every syllable was shredded between his teeth.

Judith seemed to understand his warning without benefit of Mal's halfway pleading look for cooperation. He did not, under any circumstances, want to draw on Jenner. The ramifications and consequences to such an action were such that it was one of those things that he would only consider in a very do or die moment. Which, with Jenner's instability, could be any damn second if he was pushed just the right way.

"What do you want with me right now?" Judith asked as Jenner set his notepad aside and began to lay out various medical tools on the little counter attached to the wall.

"Just a regular physical exam. I like to have some knowledge of where my test subjects are before I sort them into groups, and since you did not allow Milton do to this for me, I've been made to do it myself." Another threat burned through the words and Judith struggled to push her fear away. She didn't want this deranged man getting anywhere near her. She had of course heard the late night stories when Daryl would stay late at her father's house, trading sips of whiskey after a long, fruitless hunt. As a child she would sometimes creep to the very edge of her room and crack the door open and listen, and she had heard the story from almost twenty years ago, when several members of their group had been killed and Fox taken prisoner and it was all the master minded scheme of a deranged doctor named Edwin Jenner, put into action by his ruthless henchman, Philip. She only knew bits and pieces of the story, and the most frustrating thing was that she felt like she was missing the beginning, the spark, the catalyst that had caused Jenner to hunt them down in the first place. As a child she had not thought to ask, and when she was older she had tried but her father had turned her away, as had Carl. No one it seemed wanted to talk about what had happened. She had even tried to coax Luna into asking her parents but Luna had been met with failure as well.

"Just grin and bear it," Mal added quietly as Judith stared at the two of them coldly.

"Next time I hope one of us blinds you," Judith growled. But she did as he advised and let the doctor examine her. He was professional (she had something to compare to; Benjamin would also occasionally give everyone in camp a work over) but that didn't mean she felt any less violated. When he let her pull her clothes back on and he was looking down at his notepad, scrawling something on the paper, she was resisting the very strong urge to twist his head around until his neck broke. Her palms began to itch furiously…maybe she should…but no, Mal had the gun, and she had no way of knowing whether he would use it on her. If Luna were here to back her she might be more tempted but as it stood she settled for shooting both of them death rays out of her eyes.

"Certainly one of the healthiest of the test subjects we've ever had, at least from what I can tell on the surface. I'll have to run labs on the both of them to know more." He uncapped a needle and began to situate lengths of plastic tubing and vials for her blood. She looked away as he pricked her arm with the needle, searching for a vein. It was not that blood made her nauseas, it was simply she didn't want to look at him any more closely than was necessary.

"My family takes care of us," she growled as Jenner filled vial after vial with her blood.

The doctor's shoulders twitched substantially even as he released the flow of blood and removed the needle from her arm. She clapped a bandage on it herself which she took from the counter but the doctor seemed to stiffen marginally.

"How many in your family?" he asked softly.

"Including me? Eight. There were more. But you had them killed." Her voice was soft but laced with poison and hatred as she stared at the man. He looked right back at her and what unnerved her was the emptiness in his eyes. It was like a blank slate, like she hadn't even said a word. And when he answered his words were heavy, but not from remorse.

"War is war. People on all sides die. I was not without my losses. You cost me my best man and his lieutenant. Do not play a game of who hurts worse, it is pointless."

Judith chose not to respond. There were so many things that she was dying to scream at the top of her lungs but seeking a confrontation now did not seem wise. Not when she was outmatched by the two men who both had height and weight advantages, not to mention Mal's gun. She was not possessed of the same brawny strength that Luna was; the differences in their fighting style had been obvious as they were growing up, and in teaching both girls how to handle themselves with various weapons, they had tailored Judith's coaching to fit her needs. She was an ambush predator; she would have to wait for the right moment to strike if she was going to have any chance of winning a fight with the likes of the two men before her.

They retreated out of the room and Mal wished for a moment to breathe before having to go back in and deal with Luna and he carefully touched Jenner on the shoulder. "Sir, let me go in first," he advised quietly.

Jenner tilted his head. "Why? I am quite certain I could handle a half starved teenager."

Mal twitched his lips. He could have explained himself, but it only seemed fair for the doctor to get a taste of the medicine he had forced down all their throats. "As you wish," he said, tipping his head down. There was a perverse satisfaction that rolled through him after Jenner keyed in the code and the door to Luna's cell opened.

She was waiting for them, just as Mal expected she would be. She'd been crouched on the counter that was connected to the wall, just as it was in Judith's cell, and with the height advantage she hit Jenner square in the chest and knocked him back, having launched herself in a full on assault. She snarled and screeched like a banshee as she tackled Jenner and sent him reeling straight into the floor. She clawed at his face viciously while he writhed and kicked underneath her, trying to throw her off. He had not managed to do so when Luna was able to wrap her arms around his throat and head in a choke hold and her legs pinned down his shoulders. It must have taken all her strength to be able to hold him back, but she managed, even as he twitched and fought.

"Let us out of here!" she snarled.

"Mal! Get her off of me or you will take her place!" Jenner snarled, kicking and thrashing like a fish on a hook as he struggled to buck Luna off.

He withdrew his firearm, the gun sleek and black, the muzzle so dark that even the hallway lights did not reflect off the metal. He leveled it straight at Luna's head and curled his finger on the trigger.

"Let him go, Luna."

She stared at him with so much hate that it was hard to comprehend it. "What do I care if I kill him?" she growled coldly. "If he's dead, you have no reason to hold us hostage any longer."

"He's the only one with access codes to release the locks on the doors. You kill him and we'll starve to death inside here." Mal's voice was cool and calm, refusing to let her see that she had unnerved him.

She released her grip on the man and Jenner quickly skittered up to his feet, as did Luna. Before either of them were completely recovered Jenner twisted around and backhanded Luna so hard that she was flung back and blood began to trickle free of her lip. She whipped back around and tried to tackle him again but this time Mal slipped between them and kept the gun aimed carefully at Luna.

"Ah, now, don't do that," Mal warned. "You've made things so much worse than necessary. Be a good girl, please?"

"Fuck you!" she snarled, spittle flying from her lips. "I'm not a dog!"

Jenner flung his arm and hit her hard right in the back of the head, dropping her to the ground. Luna grunted with pain and tried to twist to get on her feet but Jenner drove his foot straight into her gut and sent her reeling into the side of the cabinets where she lay coughing and spitting blood from her mouth. He reached down and fisted his hand into her thick hair and hauled her up to her feet painfully, keeping her head and neck wrenched over to stop her from struggling.

"You are a dog, and like a dog, you are mine to do with what I will! So if I want to use you for target practice, I certainly will! You are not the master here, I am!"

Luna howled miserably from the pain in her head as she reached to try and claw Jenner's hand. Her words became unintelligible as Jenner wrangled her around the room, eventually pinning her down onto the counter, the strength in his limbs far more than what Mal had expected him to have, although he was sweating and his chest was panting for breath by the time he had her subdued. She had managed to scratch his face and bruise one of his eyes by the time she was pinned.

"Mal. Fetch her sister," Jenner demanded. When Mal hesitated he twisted his insane expression and seared it into Mal's retinas. "Now!"

Mal retreated from the room and jogged down the hall and into Judith's cell. He did not say a word, he just grabbed Judith by the upper arm and dragged her with him.

"What the hell is going on now?" Judith demanded.

"You better hope you can talk some sense into your sister before she gets killed!" Mal spat. He returned to Luna's cell and tossed Judith inside and followed, shutting the door behind him.

"Mal, the gun," Jenner ordered, zeroing in on the weapon still in Mal's hand. When Mal hesitated again, Jenner lunged and snatched it from him. Mal let it go before they could potentially risk an accidental shot in the struggle and then did his best to duck out of the way. Jenner traced the barrel of the gun on Luna's temple and she zeroed in on the doctor.

"Stop. Put a stop to all of this struggle, right now." Jenner's voice was soft but Luna could read his lips easily with their intimate proximity.

"Go on, blow my brains out, it's better than what I'm sure you have in store!" It was a bluff in some sense; Luna could see something wrong with the doctor- a twitch in him that was decidedly unstable. She thought better of her retort but it had left her mouth already and she could not take it back. All she could do now was save face, and so she bared her teeth at Jenner and refused to look afraid.

"Luna! Stop!" Judith's voice was pitched and almost frail. "Don't do this!" She signed rapidly knowing Luna could see out of the corner of her eye.

"Comply. Cease struggling. Or it will not be you who suffers." Jenner's voice had dropped to a desperate, yet removed tone of shaken fragility. He swiveled the gun and trained it straight on Judith. "Do we understand each other?"

Luna froze. Her mind reeled as she struggled to take in exactly how the world was crumbling around her. Everything in her wanted to rebel, everything was kicking itself to bits but cutting through the anger and humiliation was the mental picture of her father staring back at her, his eyes firm and uncompromising.

Do what's right. You can't let Judith suffer.

She stilled underneath Jenner. She refused to dignify her surrender with words. Jenner released her and she stood up on her own two feet and pulled her clothes back into place from where they'd been wrangled in her tussle with Jenner. Judith tried to go to her but Jenner nodded to Mal and he took her by the arm and pulled her away. Luna watched her go without a word or sign and very quickly she stood alone in the cell with a madman holding a gun.

"You put up quite a fight. Just like your mother."

Luna's eyes snapped forward. "So you do know who I am," she growled.

"Not until Milton so kindly informed me of what your sister told him." He tilted his head and lowered the gun but did not let go of it. "I was the first person who knew you existed, did you know that? I was the one who told your mother."

Luna shrugged. "Your words mean nothing to me." She forced the sounds through her teeth and glared at him but did not struggle to attack anymore.

He put her through the same routine he had Judith, although hers was modified and far more extensive when it came to her hearing and vision tests. He had her tested with exactly what she could and couldn't hear and found that she was not entirely deaf as Milton had presumed, although certainly enough that any semblance of hearing she did have was of little use to her. He made his notes on his clipboard, keeping a steady watch over her, eventually having her moved into his lab so he had better equipment to work with. After hours of being poked and prodded at he finally gave her a rest and took her back down to her cell.

"See was that so horrible?" Jenner asked as he nudged her back into her cage and she turned to face him in the doorway.

"The only reason you are patronizing me is because you've got a gun," Luna spat. "And you're too chicken shit to fight hand to hand, so you threaten my sister. Take a long look in the mirror, Jenner. Even if you save our species from extinction, no one will hail you as a hero."

"For someone who's never heard words you talk an awful lot," Jenner growled angrily.

Luna smirked. "Like I told Milton. I can see through your bullshit because my brain's not clouded by pretty words." She reached forward and slammed the door to her cell shut, disgusted with the man and unwilling to stare him in the face anymore.

Jenner turned from the door and began to wander up the hall. On his way back to his lab he encountered Milton and Mal, both of whom were heading back the way he had come towards the cells.

"Are you alright? I heard Luna gave you trouble," Milton said as he came within earshot of the doctor, although the slightly vacant look in his eye made him wary.

"Well enough, I have what I want from the two of them for the time being. Keep them away from the other test subjects, the last thing we need is for them to start a riot." Jenner could still feel the sting from a cut near his hairline where Luna had managed to get her nails in.

Milton nodded and then darted his eyes down the hall and Mal continued down the steps towards the cells. Milton turned to Jenner and walked with him towards his lab.

"Did you find anything of note in your initial inspection?" he asked.

"Not in the eldest one. But in Luna; her visual acuity is like nothing I've ever seen before. Both under normal conditions and in dim light."

"Judith said she has been deaf from a young age, we have long since known that the human brain is very plastic when it is young and is capable of compensating for such shortcomings." Milton could tell that the doctor was not entirely listening, or at least he wouldn't give him eye contact. He couldn't decide whether this was a good or bad thing.

"I wonder if a younger brain's plastic qualities would have any baring on the parasite which causes the plague," Jenner mused to himself.

"It is doubtful," Milton murmured. "The parasite destroys the entire brain, if we have found anything out conclusively, its that."

"Have we though?" Jenner asked, rounding on his assistant which caused Milton to freeze in his tracks. "We must not close ourselves off to any possibilities. Limiting ourselves is exactly how we keep spinning our wheels and getting nowhere."

Milton exhaled a slightly shaky breath, trying to get a grip on himself. He nodded, unable to find words he felt safe enough to say and Jenner fixed him with a look. The doctor clapped a weathered hand on Milton's shoulder and squeezed, his eyes sparking with excited madness.

"I have a feeling she will prove most useful in finding answers. After all, this all started with her," he whispered excitedly.

Milton tilted his head. "Sir?" he asked with confusion.

Jenner's eyes became unholy and bright. "The very first breakthrough I had was in discovering that because her mother was pregnant, the levels of her infection were lower. I'm on my way to the lab to confirm it, but I am certain Luna's level of infection will be lower still."

"But not low enough to prevent reanimation," Milton added lowly.

Jenner shook his head. "Not in generation zero. But I will be most curious to see if in generation one there is any change."

Jenner wandered away down the hall and Milton broke into a cold sweat. He had known the doctor was mad but he had never suspected that he would intentionally kill any of his test subjects in his quest for a cure. Perhaps that is not what he really meant…but the cold oil slick feeling crawling down his spine said otherwise.

In her cell Luna paced restlessly. Her body was sore and her limbs were shaking but far worse was the sense of isolation. Her inability to hear and not having Judith with her to warn her if something was coming made her feel terribly vulnerable. However that was not the most pressing problem. The most pressing problem was the fact that she had surrendered to Jenner. With one little threat he'd broken her resistance against him and that made her skin crawl in sickening ways.

But it was J's life she thought to herself. No fruitless escape attempt is worth that.

But is it fruitless? Did you even think to consider Mal was lying when he said Jenner's the only one with the codes?

Mal hadn't seemed like he was lying though. He had seemed truthful, and concerned, when he had dragged Judith inside. She had watched him out of the corner of her eye the entire exchange, and it had stood out to her that until Jenner had given the order, he had not tried to stop her from hurting him. That particular fact was a glaring flare inside her mind and she twisted and chewed over it relentlessly.

He might just be a coward who didn't want to get involved. He certainly doesn't seem to mind taking orders like a little bitch.

Her disdain for Mal only grew with passing minutes, but the real quandary was her situation with Jenner. She had said she wouldn't fight anymore…and she would have to hold true to her word, if only to protect Judith. The odds of any sort of escape out of this place were growing smaller by the second and it only made her fraught with anger and restlessness.

At some point later Leland brought her food although he didn't stay long. He left the tray on the counter and at first she ignored it but the smell began to make her mouth water and her stomach ache painfully. Still she ignored it but as the minutes wore on and she closed her eyes, trying not to give in, she saw her father's stern expression inside her mind's eye.

Don't turn your nose up at food. You never really know where the next meal is going to come from. It was something he had said to her when he'd taken her on winter hunts for weeks at a time and sometimes the only thing they found to eat between snares were the aging carcasses of other animals that had succumbed to the cold. It had been a lesson in survival. She gritted her teeth and got up from her cot. This was no different. She wolfed down the food, glad to have something to satisfy the gnawing pain of her hunger but angered that she'd been reduced to taking food from the hands of others.

I swear, I'm getting out of this place. Me and Judith both. One way or another.