Once Arizona, Addison and Jim were in the middle of the road on their knees, their hands up in the air despite not being asked to do that. The five soldiers approached them, two remained with their guns pointing at them and the other three inspecting the wall and seeing what the two who were hiding had been doing.
"What's going on here?" One of the soldiers asked as he inspected the wall of cars, most of which on his side had their bonnets open.
"We were collecting batteries from the cars" Arizona answered, electing herself as the speaker of the group. She cursed herself for doing it instantly as her authority issues began to surface but it was too late now.
"What do you need batteries for?" The same soldier asked.
"The power will go off soon, we were hoping to have a solar farm set up before that happens to keep a few fridges and freezers running" Arizona offered honestly, there was no point in lying. They had guns in their faces and could easily shoot her if she lied.
"How many of you are in there?" The first soldier asked, the one with the loud voice. Arizona recognised the insignia on his lapels and realised he was likely the man in charge.
"There is just two children and a dog inside at the moment sir" Arizona said shakily.
"At the moment?" A female soldier asked. "Where are the rest of your group and how many of you are there in total?"
"There is us three, the two children, and four others who are our scouting for food" Arizona answered honestly hoping that these soldiers weren't about to rape and murder them.
"Any of you bitten?" the woman asked again, lowering her gun towards the ground slightly.
"None, not bitten or scratched, we're all clean" Arizona replied again.
"Altman, on alert" the first soldier ordered, and the female soldier raised her gun slightly but didn't point it in their faces, more at their knees.
"Sir, I think they are friendlies" Altman announced after a few moments of studying the two women and man.
"At ease, keep your weapons in your hands though in case there are any surprises" the first soldier announced as he stepped in front of the three terrified looking people. "You can get up from the ground now but I would like for you to kick the baseball bat towards my man over there" the first soldier nodded with his head towards another soldier.
Addison rose to her feet and kicked the baseball bat lightly and watched as their only weapon rolled away from her reach.
"Major Hunt, U.S. Army... sorry about the whole guns in your face thing, but you wouldn't believe some of the bands of survivors we have come across. Martial Law is announced and the whole population either becomes infected or loses their shit and thinks they are vigilantes" The first soldier states as he holds his hand out for Arizona to help her up from the ground. "This is my second in command Altman, next to her is Grey and over there we have Diaz and O'Malley"
"I'm Arizona Robbins, this is Addison, and this is Jim" Arizona introduced with a dimpled smile. "Would you umm... would you like to come in for a cup of coffee and a biscuit?"
She felt like an idiot for suggesting it but when she saw the excited looks on everyone's faces she was glad she had made the suggestion.
"This group of yours, have they got any fire power on them?" Hunt asked as he followed the three survivors over the wall of cars.
"No... well maybe, we got some guns yesterday and they have gone back to the same mall today so may come back with more weapons, but they won't be coming in all guns blazing... if you know what I mean" Arizona offered as she glanced back at the man she could now see had ginger stubble covering the lower section of his face.
"Wait you have gun's but they have gone out there without them?" Altman asked from her position in the formation.
"We don't exactly know how to use them yet" Arizona offered almost embarrassedly.
"Ok then, Diaz I want you on guard, O'Malley will swap out with you in thirty and Grey in another thirty and you will take that rotation until the others arrive. I want eyes on these people before they see us" Hunt ordered his group who all nodded their understanding before entering the modest house single file leaving Diaz at the door.
"Ben... Millie... can you put Axel out the back. We have some guests" Arizona called through the house and smiled as she heard Ben run to do as he was told instantly before two faces appeared from the top of the corridor, their eyes widening at the sight of soldiers.
"Are you here to save us?" Millie asked innocently.
Hunt glanced to Arizona questioningly.
"No Millie, they are just visiting, go and read your comics with Ben please" Arizona ruffled her hair affectionately as the little girl walked backwards, not taking her eyes off the big guns the soldiers were carrying.
"Safety's on" Hunt announced, and a collective click was heard before the guns were swung behind the soldier's backs.
Arizona instantly felt herself relax knowing that the guns had been put away. As she put the two kettles on to boil, she grabbed eight pint glasses from the cupboard and filled them with water from the fridge dispenser before asking Addison to take one of them to Diaz who was stationed at the door. Addison glanced at Hunt, who nodded his acceptance of the order and Addison made her way outside.
The soldiers gulped greedily at their chilled water and Arizona smiled at the four satisfied faces in front of her.
"Been a while since you've had chilled water, right?" Arizona asked knowingly.
"A couple of days..." Hunt offered but didn't elaborate.
-oOo-
"What took you so long?" Derek asked Mark as he and Callie approached through the roller door in the warehouse.
"Stopped for a quickie" Mark instantly said, laughing when Callie punched him playfully in the shoulder.
"just took a few moments to secure the front door. We found out that it has a roller shutter above it so we took the padlock off the gun store and put it on the East entrance, we just need to do the same with the West entrance and this place should stay pretty secure unless someone comes in from the carpark out back" Callie informed the two men who had stepped out of the forklift to greet them. "Having fun?"
"I have to admit, I have always wanted to drive one of these" Derek grinned almost childishly. "So we've taken a quick inventory of what's back here, we think it would be best to take as many canned and packet goods as possible also we found a whole crate of your coffee Callie, also it wouldn't hurt to take a couple of pallets of bottled water just in case"
"We really should think of setting up some water catchers, the amount it rains in Seattle it will be really easy to catch and clean for drinking water" Alex said thoughtfully and the other three occupants of the warehouse nodded their agreement.
"Right without further ado, lets get these vans filled so we can get home to a hero's welcome" Mark grinned.
They spent the best part of two hours shifting pallets into the seven-point-five tonne vans, once that was complete, they began lifting boxes of chips and chocolate to fill the gaps. They kept space in Callie's cab and filled it with crates of beer, bottles of wine and a few bottles of scotch before filling the remaining space with crates of soda and smaller bottles of water.
Once finished they took a look at their handy work, three vans were full to the brim and the curtains were pulled down and secured. Callie's cab was heaving with alcohol and soft drinks, and they had even filled the passenger seats with food boxes to maximise every inch possible. They released the door to secure the warehouse, jumped into their respective vehicles and convoy style made their way back towards the estate, only stopping to secure the door to the west side of the mall.