One year three months ago, Sydney
"I think you're over reacting, Mara."
Mara looked up from the newspaper to glare at Eric. "It's all here in the news."
"It's exaggerated. They just want to sell the rag." Eric grabbed her hand, rubbing his thumb around her palm soothing her.
Mara looked unconvinced.
Eric sighed at the sceptical expression on his girlfriends face. "If it was that bad in that many places, would we be sitting here drinking coffee at a university cafe?"
Mara realised he had a good point. They were safe here in this pokey little cafe that only students visited.
But she couldn't ignore the unease in her stomach. There was less and less international news on the TV and the local news was tracking the Australian military. Things were out of stock in supermarkets. Petrol prices were going through the roof. Something bad was happening to the world. The signs were there, you just had to put them together.
Out of the corner of her eye Mara saw the something flash across the muted TV. The script at the bottom of the screen said breaking news. The Prime Minister was talking. A nervous thrum filled her body.
"Hey, can you please turn the volume up?" Mara called to the waitress.
As the sound of the TV filled the room, every person was silent and all their attention was fixated on what was being said.
Mara, who had feared the worst, hadn't been paranoid enough. America had fallen, England had fallen, in fact most of Europe and North America had succumbed to the outbreak. How had this been covered up from the public? This wasn't just a state of emergency; this was a complete systems failure of civilisation. Australia was in a state of emergency and military law was now in effect. Quarantine had been implemented and no one was getting in and out of the country any more.
Eric was still holding her hand but Mara didn't find much comfort in it now. Eric had the tendency to stick his head in the sand and ignore a crisis until it had passed him by. It was one of his worst qualities.
The Government was also calling for country wide enlistment for the army.
In the following months the rest of Europe fell, Africa and the South America's didn't hold out much longer.
When they discovered the first spook on a ship, Mara signed on to the army. They were looking for volunteers for Operation Orpheus.
She was just nineteen.
Present Day, Georgia
The Australians followed Rick in to the bowels of the prison. It stunk worse inside the tight corridors than it had outside, though Mara had more or less gotten used to the constant stench of death. Nathan didn't have to say anything; his eyes gave them their orders. Stay tight, stay focused.
Her first spook had caused a little bit of retching that thankfully only Christine had seen.
No picture could prepare her for the real thing, gurgling its rank breath in her face before she had taken the top of its head off. It was the first time she had killed anything bigger than a mosquito. She felt surreally detached from the moment. Mara just couldn't see any person left inside the snapping creature.
The group seemed comfortable here though. The one up the front, Daryl she remembered him muttering when they were introduced, had lowered his crossbow and was striding fast. Mara hadn't been impressed with his social skills yet but to be fair the other two didn't have many social graces left either. Mara couldn't blame them, now that she saw the conditions they were living in. They walked into an area that was lighter than the rest of the prison. They were greeted by an older one legged man.
"Who are these people?" he asked Daryl.
"Heck, I barely know. Ask them." He jerked his thumb behind him as if there was any question about who 'them' was. Yussuf grimaced and Elias arched an eyebrow. Not so much for the 'all hail the rescuing force' then.
Nathan stepped forward and introduced himself and the rest of them.
Hershel nodded and turned slightly. "You all may as well come out now, seems safe."
Another gate opened and a pretty young girl walked.
It was what was in the girls arms that grabbed their attention.
"You have a baby?" Christine exclaimed incredulously at the same time Yussuf cooed, "You have a baby!"
Elias shot Yussuf a disbelieving look. "I knew you were a woman."
Mara studied the petite blonde. She looked barely eighteen. "Yours?"
"No, I just mind her is all." The girl was flustered.
"She's mine," Rick spoke up. He had a haunted look in his eye. If blondy wasn't the mother then where was she? Mara glanced around the group, noting the tense uncomfortable silence. The only one who met her eyes was Daryl and his stare was very clearly saying 'mind ya own fucking business.'
Rick cleared his throat and tried to change the subject. "We didn't see Maggie and Glenn out there."
Hershel looked concerned. "They're supposed to be in the guard tower."
There was a pause and then a communal groan that Mara didn't understand.
"Ain't much guarding going on then," Daryl grunted, "I feel real safe now."
"Are you implying there is a Maggie and a Glenn banging in the guard tower?" Yussuf asked.
"Delicate," Christine said. Nathan was looking at his corporal like he wanted to smack him upside the head.
"A Maggie is my daughter," Hershel said, with a steely glint in his eyes. Daryl sniggered.
The young boy spoke up for the first time, "y'all speak funny. Where are you from?"
"Australia," Mara answered.
"And you?" he asked Christine.
"Australia," Christine answered with a dead pan expression.
"Yay, the south," Yussuf muttered.
"How about you all rest up and eat something then we can hear the full story. We have food to share," Rick offered.
"Thank you for your hospitality but we have our own rations," Nathan said with a mild smile.
Mara watched the group go into the adjoining row of cells. She wasn't surprised that Hershel locked it behind them.
The soldiers moved in closer automatically so they could talk in moderate tones that the group of survivors couldn't hear.
"Trusting lot," Yussuf murmured.
Nathan put a hand of Yussuf's shoulder. "I'm gonna need some gravity from you for the next couple of hours. No smart ass remarks. That's an order. You don't know what these people have been through."
Mara caught the boy look at them once more before vanishing further into the prison. There was something spookily adult in Carl's eyes. It sent a shiver up her spine. Whatever they had seen, it had been bad. Yussuf must have seen it too because he nodded with a solemn look on his face.
"Let's take the opportunity to eat something and rest up," Nathan ordered his corporals. They shared the food out but Mara noticed none of them truly relaxed. No one took off their outer layer of protective fatigues.
Elias and Yussuf set about cleaning the arrows they salvaged from the bodies. Christine and Mara sat next to each other on the floor cleaning the muck of their swords. Neither of them spoke, just kept a stoic silence as they set about the gruesome task.
Maybe two hours passed before the group reappeared at the bars. Rick was the first one through and it was obvious he was the leader.
"I appreciate you rescuing us but now we need some answers." He had his hands on his hips and a grim no nonsense expression. He also looked exhausted and Mara wondered when he'd last gotten any sleep.
"I'll answer any questions you have," Nathan said as the rest of the group fanned out.
"We should get Maggie and Glenn for this. They'll want to hear it," Hershel said.
"I'll get 'em," Carl piped up.
Rick smiled at his boy but shook his head. "I'm not letting you at of my sight for at least a few more hours. Michonne, would you mind?"
"You can't leave the perimeter unwatched," Nathan pointed out. "Christine and Elias can keep watch while we talk."
Rick nodded slowly. He only hesitated a second. He was putting a lot of trust in these strangers. "Michonne, go with them still. Don't want Glenn or Maggie shooting our guests."
A ghost of a smile crossed Michonne's face and Mara was struck by how vicious it was. Of all the survivors that one seemed to have gone the most native.
But Michonne certainly wasn't the only defensive one. Daryl clearly liked her least out of the new group. He stood a little ways off but he had obviously kept a clear line between them and Mara could see his trigger finger twitching even though the crossbow was slung across his body, harmless for now.
It didn't take long for Michonne to return with two people in tow. A young Asian man with suspicious eyes and a pretty woman with a matching mistrust.
"What's going on?" Glenn asked.
"We're about to find out," Hershel answered. "Take a seat, son."
Maggie clasped her father's hand as she walked by but said nothing yet.
Nathan took a seat and spread his hands in a gesture that was both non-threatening and inviting questions. "What do you want to know?"
"How?" The question was out of Rick's lips immediately. His meaning was clear. How had Australia not fallen like every other country?
"Geography mostly," Nathan said.
"Geography?" Daryl scoffed. He took a threatening step forward almost unconsciously.
Rick held out a pacifying hand. "Australia is an island."
A flash of sheepishness passed over Daryl's face before he was all bravado again. "Shit, I knew that."
"We saw the signs early and shut down all the ports and airports," Nathan continued, ignoring Daryl's outburst and not making any comment on the fact he mostly likely hadn't known Australia was an island.
"Australia has the second largest desert in the world. We evacuated most of the cities' populations inland. It's pretty inhospitable and was never going to be a long term solution but we got them out there just in case."
Rick opened his mouth then stopped. He was over whelmed by what he was hearing. "Are there any others?" he choked out.
"Far as we know only Iceland," Yussuf spoke up.
"Iceland?" Beth asked. "I always wanted to visit Iceland." She said the last part softly, almost to herself. From his expression it was clear Hershel had no idea his youngest daughter was harbouring a desire to visit Iceland.
"So what's happening? Why y'here?" Daryl demanded.
Nathan fixed him with a stare. It said, you get a free pass for rudeness and ignorance because of your trouble but only to a certain extent. Mara hoped her smirk added, that's right, red neck!
Daryl just squared his shoulders. It would take more than dirty looks to unsettle him.
"We're here for reconnaissance. You're looking at Recon team four of Operation Orpheus. It took us a while to organise our people but we held nationwide enlistments, asking for volunteers. Now we're here we're looking for survivors. Seeing if we can salvage the situation and if not, we organise an evacuation."
"Orpheus?" Glenn asked.
"Greek mythology," Mara explained. "Orpheus went into Hades to rescues his dead wife."
"How many reconnaissance teams are there?" Hershel asked.
Nathan exchanged an imperceptible glance with Mara. Yussuf's grimace was harder to conceal.
"There are fifty teams," Nathan said slowly.
"In Georgia?" Glenn pressed.
Mara looked straight at Rick when she answered. "In the United States."
"What!" exclaimed Daryl. The others expressed similar outrage and shock. "The five of you for a whole state? That's bullshit! Do you know how big this state is?"
"59, 425 square miles," Yussuf answered automatically. "Has a population of approximately ten million. Had." Yussuf's voice trailed off into the silence. He shifted uncomfortably.
"The nation of Australia has a lot of allies. We had leaders for a dozen different nations evacuated to our country all with requests to help their home. We're stretched pretty thin," Nathan explained.
"We're doing the best we can," Mara said quietly. Daryl shot her another hostile look but Mara could see something else under the anger. Panic.
"What took you so long to get here?" Beth asked quietly. She didn't look at the Australians when she spoke and there was no real hint of reproach in her voice.
"It took us a year to train our soldiers up to excellence. We couldn't risk sending cannon fodder. That would of done nobody any good," Nathan answered her gently.
"You're the first people we've seen since we got here," Yussuf said.
"So what happens now?" Rick asked. He seemed to be processing this faster than the others.
Nathan shrugged. "We talk some more, learn more about the situation. See how you feel about the situation. We're not an invading force and we're not going to make you do anything you don't want to."
Rick nodded. "I need to take some time to think. We need to get patrols back out into the forest."
"Why not just stick to the perimeter?" Mara was confused. "Surely that's safer."
This time Rick swapped glances with his group. "Walkers aren't the only thing to be wary of in these times."
"You'll have to brief me when you're ready," Nathan said slowly. "My corporals will help out and take patrols."
"I'd rather pair you're people with mine. No offense but I don't entirely trust you yet and I wanna make sure you're not sneaking off to communicate with god knows who. We can't risk anyone coming down on this prison." Rick spoke more confidently. There was the leader who had kept his people safe for this long.
Mara arched an eyebrow at Yussuf. He'd had a point about them not being very trusting.
"I think that would be agreeable to my team." Nathan didn't actually think his team would be thrilled at the idea of partnering up with this group of survivors but he didn't care. He was in charge. Mara and Yussuf both knew better than to open their mouths.
"Are all your people proficient with bows?" Rick asked. "I'd like to limit gun use if we can. Don't need to draw any more attention than necessary and we're hoping to make the ammo last."
Mara winced and Yussuf's face cracked into a wide grin. She was awful with a bow.
"Mara focused on the sword during training," Nathan said tactfully.
"Daryl, you mind partnering with Mara?" Rick asked. It was a question in the same way that Nathan asked his corporals questions. It was just an order phrased politely.
Daryl had a hundred protests on his lips but he stifled them and gave a stiff nod. Mara sighed and tried to wrangle up a civilised expression but it probably more resembled a scowl. Daryl turned on his heels and disappeared into the prisons muttering as he went.
It looked like this meeting was over for today.
AN: Another chapter. Yes I'm going to post three at once so you get an idea of the tone of the story. Yussuf and Christine have characteristics that I've stolen from people I know. My friend has a Vietnamese heritage and it was funny watching people's faces overseas when she'd say she was Australian, with our raging ocker accent. Also my combinations of soliders aren't reflective or an accurate portrayal of the Australian military, I do go into why they are all corporals with the exception of Nathan. Please review and let me know what you think. Reviews equal motivation.