II - The Hive

The small car came to a stop near a narrow creek. A sign could be seen, though it was too dark to be seen.

The survivors stepped out of the car, with Bruna grabbing the Yellowjacket's arm. Albert turned on his flashlight, revealing tiny raindrops in the air. He shined his flashlight on the sign, now revealing what it said: 'Hawk Woods Nature Center'.

"We're at the right place," said Albert.

"Where do we go?" asked Lori.

"Just follow the creek up to those trees over there," said the Yellowjacket.

"And the herd?"

"There's boats by the pond up the creek. That's how we avoid them."

"Lead the way."

Bruna shoved the Yellowjacket lightly, allowing her to walk in front of the group. She walked slowly, groaning at the pain in her shoulder. Lori, Whitney, Albert, and Bruna were right behind her, with Albert pointing his flashlight around.

"For the record…" said Whitney, "...Roger didn't want to give Becky up. I convinced him to follow along."

"Hush. Focus on the mission," whispered Lori.

"I just don't want you to get mad at him either."

"Just be quiet, Whitney. I need to hear."

"Oh, okay, sorry."

The survivors approached a thicket of trees. Albert continued to look around the field before noticing that the Yellowjacket stopped.

"I need the flashlight pointed where I'm walking," said the Yellowjacket. "And don't worry, there aren't any roamers around here yet. It's just really dark here."

Albert pointed the flashlight into the thicket, showing the bark of many oak trees. There were bushes, weeds, shrubs, and branches scattered across the ground. The Yellowjacket took her time to walk through the thicket, trying not to stumble. She then made two quick descending whistles, catching the attention of Lori and her group.

"What the hell was that?" asked Albert, pointing the flashlight away from the ground and at the Yellowjacket.

"J-Just relax," said the Yellowjacket. "I'm calling a friend to let them know we're here and that you're friendly."

Albert suddenly heard branches and twigs snap and shifted his flashlight accordingly to the direction of the sounds. Another Yellowjacket— equipped with two sais, multiple shurikens on her belt, and a cape— made her presence clear. Something was different about her though. She wasn't wearing a yellow raincoat. Her clothing seemed to consist of padded, yet flexible dark clothing. She seemed very small, not reaching five feet in height. And more significantly, she was wearing a white mask resembling a smiling fox. It was a kitsune mask.

"Hey, Debi," said the wounded Yellowjacket.

"Who are these people, Lexa?"

Lori and her group members were surprised by how young the Yellowjacket sounded.

"They came to talk to Hana. And to get my injury treated," said Lexa.

"I see."

Debi walked up to Lexa before looking at Lori and her group.

"Hi. My name is Debi. What's your name?"

"Umm… I'm Lori. I came to talk to—"

"And what's your name?"

Lori stammered softly, not expecting to be interrupted by a child, who seemed to be no older than eleven. Whitney was taken aback by the child's sudden question.

"I'm… Whitney…"

"And you, old man?"

"Heheh, pardon me?" chuckled Albert.

"Your name. What is it?"

"Albert. You can call me Al, though."

"And you?"

"Bruna."

"I really like your nose piercing, Bruna. Where'd you get it?"

"Oh, thanks, Debi. I got it at some local shop back in my old neighborhood in the Bronx…"

Bruna's voice trailed off as she felt the cold touch of a metal blade against her neck. She turned to her left, seeing Lori, Whitney, and Albert unable to react in time before they too were surrounded by swords and knives.

"W-What's going on?" asked Whitney, her voice becoming frightened.

"We walked into a trap," said Albert. "Just drop your weapons."

Whitney quickly tossed her knife into the ground while Albert dropped his pistol and his flashlight, and Lori tossed her pistol away. Debi walked over to Bruna and took her pistol away from her.

"I… really like that pistol," said Bruna.

"Me too, Bruna," said Debi. "Blindfold them now!"

The Yellowjackets quickly wrapped blindfolds around the eyes of Lori, Whitney, Albert, and Bruna. They saw nothing but darkness. They all stayed relatively calm, maybe even disappointed, except for Whitney, who was on the verge of tears.

"W-What are you gonna do to us?" whimpered Whitney.

"Don't be scared," said Albert.

"Are you gonna kill us?"

"Just relax, Whitney," said Lori. "Breathe… just breathe…"

Whitney shook her head as she tried to back away blind.

"N-No!" cried out Whitney. "Please don't kill us! We didn't come to hurt your group!"

"Shush, Whitney, they're gonna knock you out if you keep resisting. And trust me, it's gonna hurt a lot when you wake up."

Whitney trembled as the Yellowjackets grabbed her shoulders and began moving her ahead. The rest of the group followed into the darkness of the woods.

The campfire crackled as embers floated near Luna and Aiden. The rest of the group were eating canned food and hydrating themselves with water, using the campfire to warm themselves as the night grew colder with time.

"...that's why we're out here. My whole town… taken over just like that," said Luna. "We want to stop the Laborers and the Vultures… but we need more people. A lot more people."

Aiden continued staring ahead into the brick wall of the apartment building. The group were in a parking lot surrounded by apartment buildings, yet, it appeared as if Aiden was looking at something in the distance.

"Hey, you alright there, dude?" asked Luna.

"Yeah... It's a beautiful town. But the one with the stone brick walls and the castle towers is my favorite."

Jane looked up.

"Are you talking about the Queendom?" she asked.

"Mmm."

Luna fiddled with the shoelaces of her boots.

"Why didn't you ever stay?" asked Luna. "I'm sure their leader would've accepted you."

"I don't do well in groups. Just not my thing. No… not really my thing."

"I don't get how you're still alive. There's strength in numbers."

"Just not my thing…"

"I get it, though. It's hard to trust people in this world, right? I mean, you can sit around on a campfire with them, but you certainly won't sleep under the same roof with a bunch of strangers, right?"

"Mhmm."

"You said before that you were part of a group. Did the Laborers kill them?"

Aiden quickly turned away from the campfire and looked at Luna. Luna felt her heart skip as she instinctively reached for her holster. However, she noticed Aiden's eyes expressing an emotion she hadn't seen before in him.

"No," said Aiden, before he turned back to stare at the campfire.

"Oh."

Luna rolled a small pebble with the sole of her boot.

"So is this what you plan on doing? Surviving on your own, day to day? For the rest of your life?"

Aiden continued to stare forward, his thousand-yard stare reflecting the light from the campfire.

"The Laborers… have dogs in an outpost nearby. I need to release them… and then kill all the Laborers in the outpost."

"Dogs?" asked Lana.

"Yeah. These Laborers are located in a circular-kinda-street nearby, and they force these dogs to fight each other for entertainment."

"Wow. That's messed up," said Luna.

"I can't believe people would do that!" said Lana. "We have to help these dogs out!"

"I agree, that's fucked up," said JuJu.

"These Laborers are armed, right?" asked Ronnie Anne.

"So what?" protested Lana. "We can fight them!"

"Yeah, I know. And we should. We take them out… we might not even have to go to Detroit. They can have enough guns and ammo for us to arm Royal Woods without even touching the police station."

"Oh yeah, that's right, I didn't even think about that."

"Good thinking, Ron," said Clyde. "They could even have cars, so we can drive to Detroit and get additional manpower. Oh man, this night is turning out to be–"

A dog barked in the distance. Aiden quickly stood up as Luna looked towards the driveway. More barking followed, this time not by one dog, but by multiple dogs.

"Dogs?" asked Luan.

Aiden quickly began to take out the campfire before grabbing his backpack. The rest of the group began to pack up as well. Then, they saw Aiden hopping over a fence, leaving the parking lot. The group followed him.

Tiny raindrops began to fall on the ground as a drizzle started. The barking became louder as the dogs passed by the driveway that led into the parking lot of the apartment building.

"Hey, I don't understand where we're going," said Benny. "Guy has barely said anything about what we're doing."

"I know, but I think he knows what he's doing," said Luna.

Aiden walked into the backyard of a house with a wooden shed and unlocked it, grabbing a shotgun from inside. He then grabbed some canned food and opened them before tossing it deeper into the shed. He then walked outside of the shed, leaving the door open before hiding behind the door, away from sight of anyone in the driveway. The group all leaped into the backyard of another house, hiding behind a chain-link fence.

The dogs barked aggressively as they made their way through the driveway and into the backyard of the house with the wooden shed. They ran into the backyard as the Laborers raised their weapons.

Luna looked at Aiden, who looked at her back. He motioned his head towards the Laborers while keeping his eyes on Luna.

Luna nodded.

Suddenly, Luna's group fired their guns at the Laborers from behind the fence, killing them as Aiden closed the shed, locking the doors. The dogs all barked from inside, trying to escape though it was futile.

More dogs began to bark in the distance.

Luna's group picked up the weapons from the dead Laborers. However, Aiden left their bodies behind and began leaping fences again.

"What's this guy's deal?" asked Ronnie Anne.

"Let's just keep following him," said Luna.

Voices could be heard around Lori. She was sweating intensely while trying to keep her breaths collected. However, something rough was wrapped around her neck, and while it did not make it harder for her to breathe, it made her feel tense. Her hands were tied with a rope behind her back while her knees touched something wooden.

"Take them off," said a Yellowjacket.

Suddenly, Lori went from looking into darkness to looking down at the ground five meters below her. She flinched slightly, though she quickly calmed herself down by closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. She saw masked Yellowjackets holding up their lanterns while they looked up at her. Lori then heard her friend.

"No, no!" shouted Whitney. "Stop!"

Lori looked to her left to see Whitney pleading for her life. She was knelt down in the same position as Lori was, though she had a few Yellowjackets holding her shoulders. Lori noticed a noose wrapped around Whitney's neck before realizing what was wrapped around her own neck. Looking at her surroundings, she saw treehouses and bridges that connected them together— all lit up by small lamps. However, she and her group were not in a treehouse. They were watching the Yellowjackets around them from a wooden platform under a wooden water storage tank standing above them with four wooden support beams. They looked straight ahead, seeing the Yellowjackets looking back at them from inside their own treehouses. Lori then saw that the nooses were each tied to a corner beam of the water storage tank. She looked back at the ground, feeling a bit disoriented now.

"The ropes aren't that long," said a Yellowjacket, placing a lantern on the floor between Lori and Whitney. "You ready, dogs?"

"Get us out of here!" shouted Whitney.

The Yellowjacket, who also wore a kitsune mask— though it was frowning rather than smiling— reached into the scabbard by her left hip and pulled out a wakizashi sword— which was shaped like a katana but was only two feet in length. She then placed the blade against Whitney's neck, making her gasp frightfully.

"You're too loud," said the Yellowjacket. "Do I have to shut you up?"

Whitney shook her head while whimpering softly.

"What's going on?" asked Albert, only being able to see Bruna next to him.

"I do the talking, old man. You say nothing unless you're spoken to."

Albert felt his pride being torn apart. However, he couldn't risk getting the group in trouble, so he kept his mouth shut. Lori, on the other hand, found it easy to follow the Yellowjacket's demands.

"I'm gonna ask you some questions," said the Yellowjacket. "You got two options…"

"Lori," said Lexa.

"Lori. You either tell the truth or you lie. But if you lie, I'll shove you off this platform and let the rope catch you. Same goes for everyone else. If you can make it through all my questions without lying, then I'll let you guys leave— but not without blinding one of your eyes. That goes for all of you."

Whitney let out a small cry while Lori moved her hands. It was no use trying to escape. The ropes were on too tight.

"I'll start now. Who shot Lexa?"

"My sister," said Lori, hesitant. "Brown ponytail. Red sweater. Freckles."

The Yellowjacket looked at Lexa, who nodded. She then looked down at Lori again.

"Why did she shoot Lexa?"

"It was all just a misunderstanding," explained Lori. "She attacked our group because she thought we were Laborers, I think. My sister shot her to protect my group because we thought that she really was going to kill us."

The Yellowjacket looked at Lexa again.

"They really did look like Laborers to me," said Lexa.

The Yellowjacket looked down at Lori.

"Why were you in Ann Arbor?"

"We were going to spy on the Laborers," answered Lori. "If possible… we were gonna take them out."

"Why come here?"

"We wanted to ask you for your help. The community that I'm from— Royal Woods— was taken over."

"Even if it was a misunderstanding… you shot one of ours. You didn't do us a favor. So why should we even think about helping you?"

"Because the Vultures took over. Becky… took over the community."

The Yellowjackets looked at each other, some murmuring. The Yellowjacket with the frowning kitsune mask— the one questioning Lori— looked around before reaching for the wakizashi sword by her right hip. She was now holding two short swords in her hands for Lori to see.

"We know," said the Yellowjacket. "Why not ask another community for help?"

"We plan to… but we wanted to make sure Lexa got back here so that you guys could treat her."

"You were a fool to come here. This will teach you to not step into our territory."

The Yellowjacket grabbed Lori's hair from the back and tugged it down so that Lori was looking up at her. The Yellowjacket then pointed her sword at Lori's right eye.

"I also want to apologize to Hana!" groaned Lori. "I want to tell her how sorry I am about what happened to Kimi. I never should have let what happened to her slide. What Becky did was a bad thing… but she did it because she knew I wouldn't do anything to her. I enabled her terrible behavior. And I'm so sorry for that."

"This is exactly why I'm doing this."

"Just leave her alone!" cried out Whitney. "She didn't do anything wrong!"

"Whitney…" said Lori, "...please be quiet. Please."

Whitney let a tear fall from her eyes as the Yellowjacket moved the tip closer to Lori's eye. She couldn't bear to look, so she turned away.

"Will you tell Hana what I said?" asked Lori.

"If she even wants to hear it," said the Yellowjacket.

"Rena!" shouted a voice from the middle of the platform. "Don't."

The Yellowjacket— whose name turned out to be Rena— turned around and looked at the Yellowjacket in the middle, who was not wearing a mask at all. She was wearing a black poncho with a scabbard for a katana on her back. Lori recognized the voice and the accent of this specific Yellowjacket. It was Hana.

"But… what she did to Kimi…" said Rena.

"She had done nothing," said Hana. "That is the problem. That is what Lori trying to say."

"Shouldn't she still get punished for that?"

"Take the rope off their neck."

Rena gulped as she moved the sword away from Lori's face and released her hand from Lori's hair. She placed her swords back into her scabbards before removing the noose off of Lori's neck. The other Yellowjackets removed the nooses from the other group members' necks as well, though Hana seemed a bit reluctant to let the Yellowjackets cut Albert's ropes around his wrists.

"He wanted me dead," said Lexa. "He was gonna kill me himself, even after I explained everything!"

"I just didn't trust you, that's all," said Albert. "No hard feelings."

"You will not step into Suzumebachi territory ever again," said Hana. "Lori… take your ojiisan and go back home. He not welcome here."

"I'll take him back… but I just wanted to let you know that if I could go back in time and save Kimi… I would," said Lori.

"Your words mean nothing. Actions mean everything. Your actions— you save Lexa. That is why your eye is safe. But you must enable Becky no more."

Hana helped Lori up to her feet and turned her around so that they were face to face. Lori looked at Hana for the first time in five months. A large scar ran across Hana's right eye, cutting through her eyebrow and reaching her cheek. Whitney watched in confusion while Albert looked around at the disapproving Yellowjackets.

"Tell me what Becky tell you about us," said Hana.

"She said that you and your group were allied with the Laborers," said Lori. "She made no mentions of the Vultures."

"Lexa tell me this already. What she tell you about me?"

"She said that you kidnapped her. That you took her to the woods where you tortured her for months on ends. That you enjoyed every second of it."

"Sono uso-tsuki…. A lie is what she tell you."

"You didn't kidnap Becky?"

"Yes, I kidnap her. I take her to the woods too. Not a moment of honor for me. But torture her for months? I cut her. I beat her. I broke her. But all that in two days. Then I feel… guilty. I let her go, but she did not want to go. She say she had nowhere to go. She did not want to go back to Royal Woods."

"She stayed with you voluntarily?"

"She apologize to me. She explain… by lying. She said you order her to kill Kimi. Now I know… it is a lie. She kill Kimi… because she wanted to. She enjoy killing. I notice before back in Washington when she kill cannibals. Notice it more when we survive out here in wilderness."

Lori looked at Hana's soft eyes. She looked as if she were still grieving.

"She and I were the first Suzumebachi," continued Hana. "We make it a goal to save women from being alone or from their group, family, friends, or… lovers. Every woman here are survivors. They also loyal because every woman not here anymore either died… or became Vulture. In secret, she form her group… Vultures. One day, she try to assassinate me. But I survive. She and her Vultures escape and we never see them again… until two weeks ago in Ann Arbor. Lexa spy on them… gave us information… and we track them to a lake where we try to kill Becky. But she escape to other community— the Queendom. Then to Royal Woods."

"I don't understand… after all that time you spent together, why would she try to kill you?" asked Lori.

"Me torturing her… she never let that go…"

Lori looked at Whitney, who looked nervous at the thought of Becky holding a grudge against her.

"So she's looking for a way to get some payback," said Whitney. "That's not good, Lori. You still have some family members inside there, right?"

"Lincoln, Lily, Bobby, and Maria," said Lori. "It's a good thing you're out here too, Bruna."

"Me?" gasped Bruna. "What grudge could she have against me?"

"Your former boss killed someone she loved. You were there, Bruna. The Albany attack?"

"Well… I do remember that… but that's not me anymore! Jesus, would she really kill me over that? I didn't even pull the trigger!"

"I hope Becky can see that."

"She will not," said Hana. "She is unreasonable. She is not okay in the mind. Something is… wrong with her. You have to kill her. Or you bring her to us and we kill her for you."

"Wait, wait, hold on, there's gotta be a way we can help Becky out!"

"Help her out?" scoffed Rena. "Don't make us laugh! She's evil! There's no helping her out! You listen to Hana and you kill that devil!"

"She killed my sister," said Debi, the young Yellowjacket, her mask now off. "She doesn't deserve to live."

"She killed my girlfriend," said Lexa. "She's a terrible person. I don't know why you want to save her."

"I agree with them, Lori," said Albert. "She's not your friend anymore. We have to kill her. But at the same time… we do need the help to get in there in the first place."

"We are not helping," said Hana, her voice growing more irritated. "And we not giving you a choice. You kill her or you give her to us. She die anyway."

"And if we don't listen to you?" asked Lori.

"We send herd to your land. You do not want me as enemy, Lori. Do not antagonize me."

Hana turned around as she walked over to a ladder. She climbed down as Rena grabbed Lori's arm.

"Where are you taking us?" asked Lori.

"You're leaving," said Rena. "Be lucky she let you go unharmed because if it were up to me… let's just say you and General Black would have had one thing in common."

Lori's eyes grew wide over this comment. She wanted to ask more but Rena let Lori's arm go as she walked away, allowing her and her group to walk down the ladder where some other Yellowjackets were waiting. She climbed down the ladder, wondering whether Hana or Becky told the Yellowjackets about General Black— or if Rena herself met General Black before. The puzzling comment was going to bother her, but it was clear to everyone that she had overstayed her welcome. All the Yellowjackets were in a rush to get Lori's group out of their hive.

The Yellowjackets grabbed Lori's arm and walked her away from the water storage tank while her group followed behind. Hana watched them go as she stood in the drizzle, using the hood from her black poncho to hide her face. Her emotions were unknown at the moment.