Chapter 12
She was falling. Through some boards and then further into the darkness until she hit the hard ground. She heard a crack, followed by a stinging pain in her upper body that let her groan.
The guy with the knife!
Realizing that she was still in danger, she got up, standing on shaky legs. Every inhale hurt. It took her eyes some moments to get used to the darkness and to see that her opponent hadn't been that lucky. He had fallen onto a pile of debris, where some reinforcement iron had impaled his body.
"Fuck you!" she groaned, spitting on the corpse.
Ellie!
She needed to get back up there and help Ellie. But where were the stairs?
Light! She needed some light!
But then she heard steps and voices from above and realized that a flashlight would give away her position. So, she pressed close to the wall, away from the hole, waiting until the hunters would be gone. Hopefully without Ellie!
She waited and stayed silent, even after the last sounds of the hunters had faded in the distance. Soon, she was sure enough that they had moved on and dared to activate her flashlight. It luckily had survived the fall, right on the contrary to her small crossbow.
"Fuckdammit!" she cursed quietly as she saw that one of the arms had broken. She actually loved this weapon. It used to be quiet and effective, but now it was worthless. Still, she packed it back into her backpack, hoping that she would someday find some spare parts.
She then let the light cone wander through the obscure room she was trapped in. Rubble and dirt were everywhere, as well as some old tools, but no stairs or a ladder. So, she slowly walked into the next room, holding the left side of her rib cage with her hand as it was throbbing with every breath.
It was quiet. Too quiet. Instinctively, Sarah stopped and listened and indeed she realized a faint sound. A clicking sound.
"Fuck, Clickers!" she hissed and drew her knife. If necessary, she had to kill them without making any noise or else there would be the danger to alert even more.
Cautiously, she snuck through the darkness, avoiding everything that could induce unnecessary noise. Luckily, all the rooms didn't have any doors anymore, ruling out the problem of opening them, which was mostly a common source for loud sounds because of rusty hinges.
The clicking was getting louder with every step, originating from another room ahead. Unaware, if there also were any runners, who would still be able to see the flashlight, Sarah covered it with her hand, turning it into a dampened red. It was barely enough to see anything, but it would suffice for the moment.
Quietly, she looked around the corner and saw numerous humanoid creatures standing in that very room, in which one corner was full of fungi, originating from two infected bodies. Luckily, it was very old and didn't release any spores at the moment. On the opposite side was another entrance, from which daylight shed some additional light.
A possible exit within arms reach!
Still, the true number of enemies remained vague and attacking them could be a fatal poke into a hornets' nest. Yet, instead of searching for a different exit, Sarah decided to make a quiet approach through the infested room. Which wasn't very easy since the infected sometimes had the habit to walk around aimlessly. Especially, when they had been triggered by a sound beforehand, like the commotion from the struggle with the hunters.
She inched forwards with cautious steps, always alarmed to not induce any noise that could give her away, which was hard with the fully packed backpack and all the debris on the ground, but so far, she was doing fine. Her brain, however, let it seem like she was the loudest person in the world, though the mad moans and clickings of the infected were filling the room. In her mind, the heart beat was louder than a drum. Her shaky breath sounded like a tornado. The rustling fabric of her garments like sandpaper over wood, and each of her steps like thunder.
A runner crossed the path in front of her, luckily far away enough. Another one walked parallel, changing direction a few seconds later. Then there was a clicker, screaming its deafening echolocating sound into the room. Step by step she came closer to the much wanted bright exit. It was so close that she would've loved to throw every bit of caution out of the window and sprint the last yards. Yet, she calmed herself and kept her slow pace.
Sarah had almost reached the ray of light that was falling through the doorway, enlightening a part of the ground, as another clicking sound chimed from close-by. Right in shadow behind the through the darkness cutting light, beside the door, stood another clicker.
Normally, light was a revealing factor. Something that was showing the truth. But this time it had been hiding as the blinding brightness had covered the obscurity behind it.
Sarah was merely a yard away from the exit as the Clicker screamed right into her face. It was so loud that she had to fight the need to cover her ears but instead used the knife in her sweaty hand to ram it into the creature's open mouth, silencing it for good. However, it was already too late since the other infected had already been triggered.
Without hesitating another split-second, Sarah dashed out of the entrance, right followed by the furious infected. She ran up the stairs and right out of a still open door. Normally, infected didn't like the sunlight, but when in a rush, they ignored all hazards and followed their victim, as they were doing now.
Sarah had barely been out of the building's front door, her injured rib cage hurting like hell, as she ran into the arms of two hunters, who had been guarding the entrance.
At first, both parties were just stunned until the blond woman swiftly grabbed the female hunter by her jacket and tossed her towards the doorway and right into the arms of her perpetrators who immediately tackled her to the ground and began to shred the shrieking woman into pieces. Her partner, still petrified as he was overwhelmed by the situation, met his fate a few seconds later. Sarah simply used the distraction to get away since all infected were entirely attracted by the two screaming hunters.
Ellie! She needed to find Ellie! If not caught, she was probably somewhere close by. But where?
She needed to find a still breathing hunter and ask him about her. And if they did something to her, she would kill them all without mercy.
She made a short pause in an alley, leaning against the wall while catching her breath. Her ribs had gotten worse, hurting with every inhale. A few of them were definitely cracked, hopefully just partially, but that was a problem that wouldn't solve itself at the moment. She needed to go on! The sun was already settling and soon more Cordyceps would roam the streets. But the worst part was, that she was in an unknown city and had no idea where Ellie was.
One last time she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply to gather her strength.
In this short serene moment, she heard some voices, closing in on her position.
Fight or run? That was the question. Maybe they would just walk past and don't even notice her? That would be ideal, but also nothing more than plain luck. Luck could run out easily, so she also drew her pistol and pressed even closer to the wall.
The chitter-chatter closed in. One voice was female and unknown to her. But then a second voice chimed and it sounded way too familiar.
Ellie!
Sarah saw Ellie and an unknown woman walking past the alley, talking like being on a stroll along the beach.
Not trusting the stranger beside the red-head, the blond woman kept the pistol in her hand while leaving her hideout.
"You're talking so loud that it's a wonder no Clicker has already bitten you in the ass!" she said dryly, causing both to turn around with a gasp. But while the unknown woman remained in her position, Ellie immediately ran towards her and embraced her guardian tightly, sending another wave of pain through her body, which she swallowed down.
They were finally reunited and enjoyed this moment of closeness. Until Sarah broke the hug and made Ellie look into her eyes. She saw that something was off right away. But they were out in the open and an easy prey for everyone who was hunting them.
"We need to find shelter for the night," Sarah mentioned and immediately got an answer from the stranger.
"I know a perfect place. Follow me!"
The house they had arrived after an hour of walking was like the other houses nowadays: rundown by the tooth of time and partially overgrown by the local flora. Still, it seemed to be intact and a viable place to hide.
The cloudless evening sky was painted in a nice orange-red tone as the sun had almost entirely vanished behind the horizon. The first bright stars were already appearing in the east, signaling that the infected would soon be drawn out of their hiding places by the cooler temperatures, the lack of sun and the rising air humidity.
It was quiet. A quietness that was only broken by some singing evening birds that were welcoming the night. A beautiful moment that Sarah couldn't enjoy, because she knew what would come after.
She drew her knife, ready to check the house while Ellie prepared her pistol. During their travels, both had become a functioning team when it came to clearing houses. But not this time!
While Sarah was about to check if the closed entrance was unlocked, the - to her - unknown woman just walked nonchalantly past them, pulled a key out of her pocket and opened the door effortlessly.
"Open sesame!" she said and invited the other two in with a pompous gesture. And while Ellie accepted the invitation with a wide smirk, Sarah just frowned and waited with crossed arms until the younger woman had rolled with her eyes and went on, ignoring the older woman entirely.
This was the moment Sarah had waited for. She had barely closed the door as she charged at the other woman with a loud groan and pressed her against the next wall, holding the knife at her throat.
"Sarah, what the fuck?!" exclaimed Ellie, but got ignored by her guardian as she had to watch this scene.
"Okay, this is how it's gonna be," the blonde hissed into the trapped woman's face, increasing the pressure. "I ask, you answer. Got it?"
"The fuck's your problem?!" she, however, returned, which brought her a punch in the guts, causing her to groan and squirm while she got held upright.
"Sarah, STOP!" Ellie tried to intervene, which earned her an angry glare.
"Stay back and shush, Ellie! Grown-up talk!"
Ellie trusted Sarah, because it had been proven multiple times that the blonde cared about her. Still, she became pretty mad as she got chided with such words. So, she reluctantly did as she was told to and silently took a seat in an old recliner while watching this event with a stinky glare. In the meanwhile, Sarah had returned her focus back to the Asian woman.
"Let's try this again, shall we? I ask, you talk. No jibber-jabber, no jokes, no insults, no bullshit or I'll cut your fuckin' throat. You got that?"
This time, the other woman simply nodded, the first resistance being replaced by acceptance.
"Good! So, who the fuck are you?"
Still feeling the cold, sharp blade at her throat, the young woman gulped hard, causing her skin to scratch along the edge.
"M-my name's Sabine. I…I helped Ellie to escape."
For some time, Sarah just stared Sabine right in the eyes as she tried to find a lie. And though she relaxed a bit, she didn't release her.
"You're one of them, aren't ya?"
"Was…" Sabine returned. "I was one of 'em. But I bailed with Ellie… Can't go back there or they'll kill me."
"Boo-fuckin'-hoo. You really think I give a shit? How many people have you robbed and murdered? How many raped and eaten, huh? Why should I shed one single tear for a piece of shit like you 'n' your kind?"
"Is that true?" chimed Ellie in, her voice and demeanor being full of disappointment. She was now on her feet again and approached the two women. "Did you really do all this stuff?"
Both, Sarah and Sabine, gazed at the girl, whereas the latter one said "No, I was always on the receiving end. Never did this shit. Never wanted to. I got captured five years ago. Had to watch how they sliced my parents into pieces and forced me to eat 'em." She then focused directly on Ellie. "You saw what Terry did to me. You really think I enjoyed it? You think I would've done this to you?"
"Bullshit! If it was so terrible for you, why didn't you run away earlier?" asked Sarah, pressing her even harder against the wall to gain her full attention.
"Alone?" Sabine returned with a scoff. "Yeah, sure… Any more of such great advice? I was 17 and always lived in a community until we got raided by Terry and his crew. They took everything and only left the kids and women alive. I only survived by sucking dicks and sellin' my pussy for some food. That's my life, and you two are my only chance to change that."
For a long moment, there was silence, and while Ellie was shocked again by these revelations, Sarah stayed cold. But, eventually, she took the knife from Sabine's throat, yet didn't release her. Instead, she dragged her to the next radiator, sat her down before it and took some cuffs from a side pocket of her backpack.
"Here, cuff your hand on that pipe!" she ordered, receiving another angry glare from Sabine.
"Are you fuckin' serious?!" she blurted, swatting the hand with the cuffs away.
Sarah, however, stayed calm and crouched down in front of her, explaining calmy "To be honest, I don't trust you and neither should Ellie. What you just told me doesn't undo the fact that you're a hunter. You could as easily tell me a lie as tell the truth, which leaves me the choice to either kill you or to have some faith in you. A few months ago, I would've killed you. But in these last months I've learned a lot. I learned to trust people some more. But I'm also not stupid. Trust needs to be earned, and as long as it's not earned, I will take any sorta measures to ensure Ellie's safety. So… Do you wanna earn my trust by playin' along, or are ya staying stubborn and force me to get rid of your ass?"
Sabine's gaze constantly wandered between the blonde's stern glare and the presented handcuffs, until she eventually exhaled deeply and chose to cuff her hand onto the pipe. Right after that, her backpack got taken away and her clothes searched for any weapons and gadgets that might've helped her to escape.
"Alright," Sarah eventually said after she had finished bringing Sabine's belongings away. "Me and Ellie will go upstairs and get some rest. I'll come by later again and take the first watch. C'mon, Ellie!"
"Did you really have to be so fuckin' mean to her?" Ellie asked as she and Sarah had reached the upper floor and were starting to check all rooms for infected and other threats. Strangely, however, the house seemed to be entirely clean and tidy, like someone had constantly maintained it.
"She's a hunter, Ellie," Sarah replied and entered a room that obviously used to be a children's bedroom. "You heard what they're capable of."
"But her story…"
"Could be nothin' more than bullshit."
Eventually, the young girl sighed in defeat as she realized that she couldn't win the fight and sat down on the bed. In the meantime, her guardian had already closed the door and was now kneeling down in front of her. Once again, she checked her from head to toe, her scanning glare stopping at the ripped off button of her trousers and the new, colorful belt before it came to a halt as it met her gaze.
"What happened in there?" Sarah asked sternly, her right softly touching her left cheek.
The blonde saw the hurt in the teenage girl's green eyes. How they welled up and she had to swallow hard. And it said more than a thousand words.
"Fuck!" Sarah hissed loudly, closing her eyes as she had to process this information. "How far did they go?"
Suddenly, Ellie's demeanor changed from sadness to pure hate, her sight becoming piercing daggers.
"I killed this motherfucker before he could do to me what he had done to Sabine. I kicked him in the balls and slit his fuckin' throat, and then I killed another one… And…and I enjoyed watching those fuckin' animals die!"
This coldness in her voice. This merciless gaze. Ellie had killed again to protect herself and another person again. That wasn't anything she could be blamed for. But this time, there was no remorse or guilt in her tearful eyes, but burning hate, which reminded the blonde woman of her first killed not-infected human. It also had been out of self-defense, yet it also had triggered this coldness. Another point they could relate, yet in Sarah's case it had happened way later in her life.
The city of St. Louis, Missouri. One of the main routes that were connecting the East Coast with the West Coast.
The 25 years old Sarah and her scout-party had been entrusted with the mission to check the path for an approaching Firefly-convoy. At first only being a scout for the city of Salt Lake City and its vicinity around the Firefly's base of operation inside a hospital, she had been promoted and assigned to a scout-troop that would accompany convoys throughout the entire former United States. This, however, was her farthest mission, leading her to a cell in Washington DC.
So far, they hadn't discovered any obstacles along the way during this mission. The highway was clear, no infected or hunters in sight. Night was eventually setting in and the team decided to take shelter in an abandoned building along the route.
She had been entrusted with the second watch, relieving one of her comrades, who had taken position in one of the building's windows on the upper floor that was giving a perfect overview.
"Hey Jenkins, I'm taking over!" she said quietly towards the man who was still watching the area outside.
Marlon Jenkins was a man in his forties, good looking and a veteran. Everybody in the team liked him, though he had the tendency to be a loner.
"You're early," he replied, his sight still fixed on the outside. "You were supposed to replace me in an hour."
"Ugh, fuck it," Sarah responded, joining him at the already broken window. Sounds and screams of infected were chiming through the dark night, giving it an even eerier touch. "Couldn't sleep anymore, so I thought…"
"There are rules, Miller!" countered Jenkins chidingly, giving her a stern glare. "Everyone knows that you're the Cap's favorite girl, but this is your first long trip. You need every fuckin' minute of sleep or you'll break at one point. And if even one of us fucks up, we're dead, and I don't intend to die. Now go back and catch a few winks!"
But Sarah stayed and crossed her arms defyingly. "Fuck you, Marlon! Since I joined the team you've been so far up my crack that it's just annoying as fuck. And, by the way, I'm not the Cap's favorite girl! He gives me the shittiest jobs and treats me like an outsider… Like an unwanted wart on his ass."
"Yeah, he's fuckin' right. What're you doin' here, anyway? Why the fuckin' scouts? Rumor is, that you used to be one of those eggheads in Colorado. You here for some adventure, 'cause it got too boring at the university? Why give that life up for this shit?"
Digging up those memories again, Sarah became quiet. She always tried to avoid this topic, because talking about it hurt and she never really could explain why she had actually chosen this very dangerous path in life. So, instead of answering, she just turned towards the window again and neglected to give Jenkins an answer.
It was right at this moment that she saw some movement in the darkness. A shadow that was hushing from cover to cover. It could've been an illusion that her eye had made up as her eyes needed to still get used to the obscurity. However, as she witnessed another bunch of shadows sneaking through the night, she knew that something was off.
"Movement!" Sarah whispered to her teammate and took cover. "You watch 'em while I get the oth-..."
A fist hit her right in the face so forcefully that she instantly went down and hit the ground, face first. Her sight had become blurry while her brain needed some time to get rid of the confusion about what had happened. Sadly, her opponent used that time to place a hard kick right on her head, which almost rendered her unconscious. But she still was aware of her surroundings, especially of Jenkins' voice that was hissing into her ear.
"Why didn't you lil' cunt just stay with the others, huh?! It would've made things so much easier. But now… Now things are fucked and I have to make the best out of it."
She felt some tugging on her clothes, like she was about to get dragged away. Her mind fought the always approaching dark clouds, and at one point she managed to bring forth one last cry.
"HEEEL-..."
Her hair got grabbed violently and then her head smashed onto the floor, which silenced her right away. Again, she had to fight the incoming darkness, but this time it overwhelmed her. Sarah didn't even know how much time had gone by until she regained consciousness.
She heard gunshots and screams and yelled words. She felt how a warm liquid was running over her forehead. And then there was pain and some sort of pushing. It was uncomfortable and felt just wrong, so it was perfect for using it as an anchor to reality.
But as the young woman realized what was going on, she wished that she had just stayed unconscious. She was being raped, probably by Jenkins. She heard his coarse groans above her. Felt how every push caused agony. She would've loved to squirm and scream, yet remained petrified and endured the infamy. But she stayed aware, her sight and senses improving over time.
Within arm's reach she spotted a heavy, bulky stone, consisting of many spiky crystals that once used to be in a close-by cabinet as decoration. From her knowledge it was possibly an amethyst or any other mineral… But that didn't matter at the moment.
Slowly, she moved her hand towards the object, hoping that her tormentor was too busy with fucking her than paying attention to her extremities. And indeed, she reached it and held it tighter and tighter with every thrust, waiting like a spider in its net. Ready to strike at the right moment.
The noise from downstairs soon faded, underlined by Jenkins' loud groan that was signaling that he had just finished to defile her. This was the right moment!
Sarah had been with several men and women in these last years, so she knew their weaknesses. And during and right after their orgasms, men were very vulnerable.
Groaning loudly, she spun around on the ground and smashed the spiky rock right into Jenkins' face. Bones and teeth cracked and blood sprinkled right into Sarah's face as the heavy object impacted hard, the pointy crystals spiking deeply into the flesh.
With a loud cry, he tilted to the side and went down, holding his injured face. But Sarah wasn't done. The lower half of her body still exposed, she sat down onto his belly and smashed the rock continuously into her tormentor's face with a barrage of screamed curses until only his limbs were twitching as the last bit of life was leaving his body.
Marlon Jenkins was dead. His head reduced to nothing more than a pile of red goo.
Sarah was still sitting on him, crying out her formerly suppressed agony.
Steps were closing in, coming up the stairs until three of her teammates were standing in the door, stunned by the presented scenery. Only seeing that Sarah had killed their comrade, two of them raised their guns, but got stopped by the third one, who was the captain of the team.
"Get out, take care of the wounded and prepare to leave!" he said, giving them a piercing glare as they hesitated. "That was an order, now move it!"
As soon as they were gone, he put away his gun and kneeled down beside Sarah, who hadn't paid him and the others any attention since she was still weeping.
Captain Hayman was a man in his late fifties, ex-military with white hair and a goatee. He still wore his combat uniform from before the outbreak, though it had suffered a lot during those years.
For a moment, he evaluated the situation and could only confirm his first conclusion about what had happened in this room. Though, he wanted to hear it.
"What happened here, Sarah?" he asked, taking off his field jacked and laying it onto the young woman's bare legs.
But Sarah stayed silent, caught in her own world for another minute before she eventually snapped out of it and found back to reality. Stunned, she stared at the mutilated corpse in front of her, then at the blooddrenched rock and hand, and finally at her leader.
Her eyes said more than a thousand words, making it hard for the seasoned soldier to hold his composure.
"Dammit!" he hissed loudly, his clenched fist hitting the floor. "I knew he was acting weird, lately. Why haven't I seen this?!"
"Cap," said one of his other men, who had just returned. "Infected are closing in. Park and Finley are gonna take care of the first Runners, but we can't hold off the Clickers without making too much noise."
"Mh-hmm," Captain Hayman confirmed with a nod. "We move out!" he ordered and then focused back on Sarah. "Sarah, I need you to hold it together for the moment. Get dressed, grab your shit and join the others. Once the convoy arrives, you'll hop on and drive the rest of the way. Got it?"
Slowly, her rational thinking returned and she nodded and stammered "Y-yeah, I… I think I'm okay… I…"
"You're not, Miller," the Captain replied as he got up. "I need a functioning team. In your current state, you're of no use. Believe me, I've seen such sick shit more than enough for two lifetimes. Right now, you need to mull this shit over in your head and accept what just happened. Now c'mon, we got infected on our asses!"
His words were harsh and not helping. Yet, Sarah knew that he was right. There was nothing that could be done right now. Because, at this moment, all she needed to do was to function. She needed to do as she had been told until the convoy would arrive, and as soon as she'd be in Washington, she would have enough time to think these events through.
The room Sabine was tied up in was dark since the sun had set entirely and night had taken over. Only scarcely the last bit of remaining evening light shone through the halfly barricaded windows.
Since she didn't have anything else to do, she tried to sleep, yet couldn't manage to do so since the floor was so uncomfortable and her stomach was rumbling all the time. She hadn't eaten since morning and was afraid that she wouldn't get anything in the near future.
She heard some sounds from upstairs. A door that was quietly closed, then some steps that were approaching. From the sound, it was certainly Sarah, who then came down the stairs, a flashlight in her hand that illuminated the space ahead of her.
Though Sabine was blinded by brightness, she followed the older woman with her sight as best as possible, frowning as she closed in on her.
"What now? Another fuckin' speech?"
Without a comment, Sarah stopped in front of her and threw an MRE onto her lap. She was already about to leave again as her breath suddenly skipped a beat, her body twitched and her hand held the side of her chest.
"Are you hurt?" Sabine asked, causing the older woman to stop.
"None of your business," Sarah, however, returned with grinding teeth as she tried to move on, yet had to hold on to the nearby kitchen counter.
"Listen, I can help. My mom was a nurse and showed me some of that medical stuff."
At first, Sabine expected to get flipped off again, but to her surprise, Sarah released her without another question before she moved back to the kitchen, put the flashlight onto the counter and sat down on a stool with a hiss and a heavy sigh.
Still a bit befuddled, the younger woman needed some time to get up and walk over to her, and as soon as she stood in front of her, she was greeted with a stinging glare.
"One false move…" Sarah began to warn, but got a pair of rolling eyes in return.
"I know… You'll kill me and stick my ripped off head into my gorgeous ass. Can I now treat you?"
Scoffing about the cynicism, Sarah eventually began to cautiously take off her upper garments until she was sitting there with a bare chest. Sabine couldn't avoid giving the other woman's now highlighted breasts a long glimpse, admiring their practical size and the pink areolas that were covering a certain amount of them.
Of course, Sarah realized the glare on her mounts, but only commented on it with a frown, which let Sabine shift her focus onto the big blue mark on the side of the blonde's chest.
"So," she then said while touching the injury. "Why're you trusting me, all of sudden? Thought you hated my guts."
"This was your home, wasn't it?" Sarah replied kind of off topic, grimacing as Sabine pinched a sensitive spot. "The key, how the house is maintained… It's a refuge for you. I found a picture of the family that used to live here. The lil' girl looked much like you and her mom wore the uniform of a nurse."
"So, you started to trust me because of a random picture in a random house that you think is my home away from hell, huh?"
Swifty, Sarah grabbed her wrist, stopping her doings. "Don't make me cuff you onto the pipes again! Trust is hard earned but easily lost again."
"Okay-okay, geeze! Yes, it used to be my parents house. After shit got worse, we and other survivors gathered everything we could and holed up in that hotel, until those locusts came along. Told ya, I'm not one of them. Whenever I got tired of that shitty life, I grabbed some supplies and snuck back here for a couple of days. But I couldn't risk staying forever or else they would've found me, eventually."
After Sabine got control over her hand back, she continued to examine the injury.
"Okay, I'm feeling three cracked ribs and one broken. We have to wrap it up somehow and you have to tune down the action for some time."
Scoffing again upon the conclusion, Sarah mentioned "We're hunted by your friends in a city full of infected. We can't stay here. Just wrap some duct tape around it and be done."
"Duct tape…" the Asian woman scoffed as well and moved to one of the cupboards. "Duct tape won't hold shit once you begin to sweat. No, I'll give ya a proper, tight bandage. Breathing will be harder and it will hurt as fuck at the start, but over time you'll feel better, and in three weeks, your ribs should be as good as new."
She brought forth an entire, big medical kit, filled to the brim with bandages, gauze, disinfectant and other medical accessories.
"So, Ellie's your daughter?" Sabine mentioned as she began a different conversation in order to distract Sarah from the pain as she started to wrap the bandage tightly around her chest.
"No…" Sarah replied with grinded teeth, clawing onto the counter.
"Already guessed that. She so doesn't look like you and…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" the blonde barked back, the increasing agony fuelling her anger. But Sabine stayed cool, smirked and took another roll of gauze.
"It's just a matter of fact. Didn't mean to say that you're ugly or something. Before, I saw how close you two are and just now I realized the stretch marks on your belly and your tits and thought at first that you're her mom."
From one second to another, Sarah stopped the treatment and stared into empty space, her lips trembling slightly.
"Lemme guess, your kid died…"
This was the moment everything went south. A tear rolled down Sarah's cheek as she immediately grabbed Sabine by the collar and hissed "Listen closely, you lil' nosy shit, it doesn't matter what you saw or what you think, but I don't have a kid! Got it? And if you come too close to Ellie or try to touch her, I'll fuckin' end you!"
After pushing Sabine so hard away that she stumbled and landed on her behind, Sarah took her garments and the flashlight from the counter, shoved a chair in front of a window and sat down, doing her watch.
Knowing that any further conversation was over, Sabine took the offered MRE, slumped down on the couch and began to eat, before she closed her eyes and slept in.
Fort Belvoir was a huge military complex south of Washington DC, which had been put immediately under lockdown as soon as the pandemia became uncontrollable. It was the birthplace of FEDRA. The, so called, last bastion against the Cordyceps fungus.
The civilian quarantine zone was a tightly secured part of it, accessible only by boat or through the entire security zone of the base. Always a risky maneuver for the Fireflies to smuggle people or goods in and out. Yet, so far, they managed.
The activities of the Fireflies in Washington DC were merely restricted to reconnaissance as well as stealing and smuggling of military goods from FEDRA to other resistance cells.
Operating inside such a highly secured area was very difficult. Most Fireflies had mixed in with the normal civilians, always carrying fake IDs. The rest stayed underground, moving and hiding in the sewers or old maintenance shafts.
Captain Hayman's had been ordered to do reconnaissance missions inside and outside Fort Belvoir. He and his man had taken shelter in an old, abandoned air raid shelter with access to the sewers. At the moment, he was planning his next mission as it knocked on the still open, rusty bunker door.
He looked up from the map on the table and glimpsed sternly at Sarah, who was standing in the door.
"Miller, come in!"
"Cap," the blonde said as she stepped in.
"What is it, Miller?" he replied, his sight back on the map.
"I need a transfer to the west."
Hayman visibly froze, but didn't look up. "No can do, Miller. We need you here. I was hoping that you'd be ready for active duty after a month."
"I-I did too, Cap, but… I'm not. Not for months at least. Or…longer…"
Now he was finally giving the blonde his full attention, his demeanor dead-serious before it softened and he focused on the map again. He already knew what had happened and felt responsible for it.
"Tomorrow, a convoy with material will leave for Seattle. I'll squeeze you on the list as a security detail. The last boat to the other side of the bay leaves in an hour. So, pack your shit and move it!"
"Thanks, Cap!" was everything Sarah replied before she turned on the spot and went for the exit.
"And Sarah," Hayman called after her, causing her to turn to him one last time. "This convoy isn't a taxi. I don't know where you try to run to and, frankly, I don't fuckin' care. But if you hop off l half the way, you'll be treated as a deserter. I just hope that you'll find peace, wherever you go and I'll never have to meet you again!"
Sarah simply noted those harsh yet true words with a simple nod. She didn't know what the future would uphold for her, but whatever it was, it hopefully wouldn't get worse.