Chapter 9: The Pearl Harbor

Harper finally stopped about ten minutes into the tour and Elyza tuned back in to what she was talking about. "—so we're finally at the barracks. I'll leave you guys in here to get settled in. I'll be back in about an hour or two to bring you to the mess hall. You guys can have some lunch and then we'll leave you to rest. There are showers through the far door on the left if you need to use the restroom." She gestured halfheartedly further down the hall the way they had come.

The blonde girl sidled her way around Bellamy and between Elyza and Finn before making her exit. Her hand caught Elyza's and suddenly the blonde was holding a small sheet of paper in her fist. She closed her hand around it and shoved them both back into her pockets, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.

After Harper disappeared around a corner, Octavia pushed the door open and tossed the shoulder bag she had on her onto the nearest bunk. The area looked very similar to the one Elyza had been in before she'd showered over on the Freedom. She assumed she couldn't expect much difference because it was set up so efficiently.

Bellamy stepped around Octavia and everyone filed in afterwards. They each found a bunk near each other. Elyza would have felt more comfortable near the back where she could keep an eye on everything. But she guessed that she could deal with if they were close to the exit.

Octavia and Bellamy bunked together, the brother and sister bickering over who got the bottom bunk until Octavia threatened to hurt Bellamy. Aurora bunked alone on the lower one next to her daughter and son. Elyza ended up with Finn, who called top bunk excitedly and hoisted himself up and settled down, giggling like a little boy.

"I've never had a bunk bed before," he leaned over the side, looking down at Elyza like the Cheshire cat. A huge grin was plastered on his face and his hair hung over, making him look a little crazy.

Elyza laughed, a little bit of the tension leaving her body. She pushed his face away, "Stop being weird." She pulled her bag off and opened her bag, placing her book on the bedside table provided. Above her, Finn had a small table that folded down from against the wall.

Continuing to pull everything out of her bag, she settled herself onto the bed. It felt the same as the one that was in her little cell back on the Freedom, uncomfortable and thin. She lined up the two knives she'd collected and slid the smaller one underneath her pillow and the other into the folds of a set of fatigues that she shoved into the lower drawer of the bedside table.

She only had a few items of clothing: two tank tops, two pairs of pants, her leather jacket, the pajamas she'd had since the airport, two bras, and three pairs of underwear. She couldn't fit everything into the shallow single drawer she was provided with, so whatever didn't fit was shoved back into the backpack and under the bed.

With a deep breath, she glanced around at the rest of her friends, ensuring that they were busying themselves with something or other and not focused on her. Elyza pulled out the sheet of paper that Harper had given her, wondering when she had found the time to write whatever it was that was on it. She toyed with the edges for a second before unfolding it and reading the rushed script.

Find me after dinner. I will be leaving for the Freedom tonight. You can meet my friends who will be helping us.

Elyza really didn't understand why Harper had decided to include her further because she was just a simple citizen. She'd assumed Harper would do the soldierly thing and figure out what had happened, Elyza didn't really think that she'd have to tell her to. But, it was evident that Harper was young and inexperienced and most likely scared completely shitless.

So it was obviously up to Elyza to help keep her from going completely crazy. She didn't know what it was, but she had a tendency to go out of her way to protect people, some she didn't even know. Her father used to say it was because she had too big of a heart and felt like she needed to help everyone who was in trouble. It wasn't always a bad thing, she knew, but it wasn't always a good thing either. Sometimes it got her into some serious trouble.

Right now, it seemed like it was going to get her into a world of trouble.

Elyza felt oddly at peace, though, even if things were still completely insane. She shifted and settled herself down against the single pillow that she was provided. Thoughts of her mother were still festering in the back of her mind, and the Jahas were there too, but right now she had people that she cared about. People that she needed to take care of.

She tried to convince herself that the only three people she considered family were safe somewhere. That the infection hadn't hit Australia and her mom was safe and blissfully unaware of what was going on. But she knew that was impossible, her mom had expected her home a long time ago. She was probably worried sick. Or dead.

With a shudder, Elyza stood up, trying to force herself to not think about her mom. Focus on what you can do with what you've been provided. Stop wondering about the" what if"s.

She rubbed her forehead and walked over to Bellamy, needing to do something other than loiter. "We need to come up with a plan."

The boy was laying on his back, an arm thrown over his eyes. He was the epitome of relaxed and sighed when he heard Elyza's voice, "A plan for what?" he asked tiredly.

Octavia peaked up at Elyza, "Yeah, for what?"

"For an escape, for getting out of here." She still had that horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. Whether it was Marks or what was going on aboard the Freedom she wasn't quite sure. All she knew for certain was that they needed to be away before the shit really did hit the fan.

Bellamy removed his arm from face and gave Elyza a pointed look. His brown eyes were hard and unwavering, "We're not going anywhere. This is a good place to stay. We're safe here."

A small part of Elyza did still agreed, but a much larger part had to keep moving. It needed to, or else she would think too hard and end up depressed over her mother, Wells and Thelonious. She had no family left it seemed, not if she was going to be staying on that ship and become and unofficial soldier of the US Navy. I only have these guys.

She knew she could survive out there, on the mainland. She'd been doing it—albeit not in the best way—but she was doing it. She could have made it to Santa Monica, she could have found her family but she'd decided to wallow in her own self-pity. It was all her own fault that she was there and not with them. They could be dead no thanks to her.

Maybe it was because she was blaming herself that her stomach felt so twisted and nauseous. She felt so incredibly guilty for everything that had happened so far, it was hard for her to keep her head on straight.

"Fine, we're not leaving. Yet. But we're marking corners so we can find our way around." She would not alter her decision. They needed to know the fastest way to get out of the damn ship. She would not be letting her guard down at all. They weren't safe.

Rolling his eyes, Bellamy ran a hand through his hair and covered his face again, "Fine, whatever. I don't really care. I just want to sleep."

"Fine," Elyza growled in frustration, annoyed at his lack of initiative. "You can tell me about what's been going on with you guys once you wake up, I guess."

He grunted in response and rolled so his back was facing her. Fucking twat, she thought bitterly and turned her back on him.

Aurora stood, looking at Elyza, "I'm going to freshen up in the showers." She nodded at her daughter before exiting the barracks.

Octavia climbed out of bed, "I can tell you what we went through after you left if you want."

Elyza gave her a once over. She seemed different, maybe being out there had affected her more than someone would think. Octavia's head was held higher and a stubborn tick flexed in her jaw whenever someone treated her like she was a child. Her temper seemed to have shorted in the amount of time it took the apocalypse to set in.

"Alright. So what happened?" Elyza leaned against the bed post and allowed her full attention to rest on Octavia.

The younger girl proceeded to describe what had happened. The group had woken up to a knock on their front door. Military people were moving in and establishing safe zones all over the city. Their neighborhood was one of them, so they were all inspected and tested for the disease. But Bellamy still wanted to leave, he didn't want the soldiers to learn who he was because there was a likely chance he would be detained and sent to prison for desertion. Even though it was likely that he wouldn't, given the situation, Octavia clarified.

Bellamy made a grunting noise when he was mentioned but didn't throw in his own two cents on the subject.

Octavia continued, saying how they had snuck out that night during a shift change. Fences had started being erected but not completely enclosing the several mile radius so they managed to get away in the black of night. They'd made it to the beach house and after a small run for supplies that ended in Finn almost getting bitten and Octavia acquiring her first infected kill, they settled in.

It was all pretty calm after that, until a couple of days later their house was raided. They tried to resist at first because they didn't realize their attackers were military. That was how Octavia had contracted her black eye and Bellamy his split lip. They were the two that had resisted while Finn stayed back with Aurora. After things settled down they were told that they were being rescued, with guns pointed at their heads and bloodied faces.

At first, Bellamy was skeptical but they didn't really have a choice when they were loaded onto a small speed boat and all of the useful food and supplies they had gathered were taken. They made it to the ship not all that long before Elyza had been brought on board and here they all were.

"But," Octavia concluded, "I didn't know how they'd found us until you showed up. Why did you tell them where we were?"

"I thought they could keep you guys protected," Elyza said.

That riled Bellamy up, who hadn't been sleeping at all, but silently listening to his sister speak. He laughed humorlessly, "You thought they could protect us? When you're trying to get us to leave? You don't trust them, Lex. But, I do think they can keep us safer than being on shore."

Elyza's jaw clenched. Okay, fine, maybe she'd wanted them there for her. Not because she thought that the soldiers would keep the Blakes safe, but because she wanted them there. She wanted people she thought she could trust. She also felt like she had abandoned them, because she had been so desperate to find the Jahas. But that didn't mean she was going to let Bellamy know that was how she felt. It was selfish and it put them at the same risk she was in.

"Yeah, well, it's better to be on a ship as far away from the dead as possible, than to possibly get attacked and overrun," she shot him a look that he couldn't see because his eyes were still closed.

He didn't give her the pleasure of a response and continued to act like he was asleep.

Octavia scoffed and then laid back against her pillow. "I'm going to sleep too. It's been crazy these last couple of days."

Elyza nodded and turned away, "Alright. I'll let you sleep." She walked back over to Finn, who was already curled up under his blanket on the top bunk and snoring.

She rolled her eyes, maybe she had brought them onto the ship for her own selfish reasons, but she wasn't expecting such a negative response. She'd expected them to be a little more desperate than they actually were and maybe a little more grateful than they were acting. But she couldn't really put it past them, they didn't know her and she had left them after they had selflessly risked their lives for her. Could they really trust her after what she'd done?

Laying back down on her bed, Elyza opened her Harry Potter book to the page she'd been on only six days ago at the airport. If she was completely honest, it felt like a life time ago. Everything had flipped upside down so quickly and here she was, trying to feel as normal as possible by reading a book.

She tried to lose herself in the story line, but knew it was no use. Her mind was running at a mile a minute, and she didn't think magic and wizards was going to stop it. She briefly thought about trying to find Harper, but remembered she probably would just get lost and end up looking like an idiot. Quickly tossing the idea, she struggled to return her attention to the book. But, after a couple of minutes of rereading the same paragraph because she couldn't remember what she was reading, she slammed the book shut with a huff.

How am I going to keep moving forward? She thought, trying to push the thoughts of her mother as far away from the forefront of her mind as possible. She couldn't continue to dwell over the what ifs or the maybes. She had to deal with what she had in front of her. She had to protect those she was beginning to care about and survive the end of the world.

A/N: So this is sort of a filler chapter. We'll go over what happens with Harper and Elyza and we'll find out her Harper's friends are in the next chapter. Then there will be a short time jump. All of this is parallel to what happens in season 1 of FearTWD. So right now, just imagine Alicia and the family in stuck in their safe zone. I'm saying they were in the safe zone for about…I'd say about two weeks or so? Not exactly sure. But so far it's only been about a week—I'd say. So give it another week in text and we'll see in about…I'd say three or four chapters some Alicia. Hope you guys can wait that long.

As always, leave me a comment. I'd love to hear from you guys!

PS: I UPLOADED ON TIME GUYS! I'm so freaking proud of myself! You've no IDEA.