CHAPTER FIFTEEN-WEDNESDAYS

"Commitments, Chess. We made a commitment and here we are." She pointed out the window.

Chess Morgan looked over the expanse of green between the main building and the fence. There were people at the gate again. He stood behind her and took the binoculars from her gloved hands. He looked directly at the group of...what were they? 50 more...they were running out of space.

"Refugees." She answered.

"Oh, la, la, la." He droned sarcastically as that Fugee's tune crept into his mind.  He focused the binoculars on the people who made themselves useful on the roadside. The strong among them circled the weak. As the zoms approached from all sides a 360 degree barricade protected women and children and the weakest of men. He took in the view brought close up by the lenses over his eyes. The death that people do to survive. Forming the circle was smart. The strongest around the weakest made sense.

"Someone should roll out there before they're all dead." She said as she moved away from him. She took off as quick as she could on her two feet away from the war room. Chess tucked his gun against his back, the knife on his belt. He descended the steps and head out as Jay and Jody were heading out the same direction. He hopped in the jeep with them and rode out to the fence. Jody and Jayson hoisted open the tall and heavy gates while Chess cut through to the road and started shooting. Taking out zoms with accurate head shots...he could do it in his sleep. He'd given them some amount of cover, letting the circle break and allowing them to rush the opening between the road and the driveway.

6 months in. The last two months they'd been arriving in steady groups. Whenever he inquired how they had found the school or knew how to arrive at his front door, they answered the same: the exterminators. They were at max capacity and if anymore people arrived, they'd need another building that they didn't have. People on top of people was never a smart idea. His people were in the main building. Chess segregated them from their newcomers. He did it on purpose, but they had plenty of interaction and plenty of go between with Julia and Jayson as their welcome wagon. Tavin would see every last one as the day wore on.

Once inside the fence, gates closed, everyone settled in the tent. No one went past the Q tent the first day. Chess didn't care if they were the Pope and President in a special motorcade, your body stayed in the tent. Most groups of people were cool with that. They were glad to be inside a fence. Tired, usually from running and fighting. Worn out from the road and trying to stay alive and keep others alive on their journey. Most groups wished to stay together at first and Chess understood that sentiment. If the shoe was on the other foot, he wouldn't leave his group either. There was that initial phase of doubt or that they were being duped into something that was too good to be true. Most or all of the leaders, their strong and usually male figures, stayed on their guard. Brutish and lack of trust. That's where Julia and Jayson did what they did best...run their understanding and ever sympathetic mouths.

"We been where you are." Julia assured them.

Chess had to hold back a laugh every time one of them said it. Had they really been where those on the street stood? Even when it was bad, they still had it pretty good. Thanks to Julia and their team of...survivors. Everyone survives in their own way and their own time. Chess and Jody kept their weapons up and aimed till the crowd managed to settle down. This annoyed Julia and Jayson more than anything else. These people had just been welcomed onto the Mastro campus, then they had guns aimed at them.

"Where's Joe at?" Chess asked Jody.

There was supposed to be an order to things once people were inside the gate. In fact there was supposed to be someone on the gate. Dego Joe and Martin Savage...they'd volunteered for gate duty. If and when people arrived there was a protocol. Assist as needed with the zoms and let them inside. It took time to get from the main building into a jeep and then get to the gates, open them and assist. Time was critical. Those few precious minutes could mean the difference between a group losing someone steps away from freedom. There was always supposed to be someone on the fucking gate, no excuses. There was only one rule. Do not open the gate after dark. They had tabled that decision and it was deemed safer to keep it shut after dark and avoid a nest infiltrating the campus.

"Savage?"

"With him."

"I'm gonna fuck them up." Chess said as he looked over his morning headache.

"Breakfast." Julia answered, stepping in between Chess and his gun. "Are you all together?" Julia asked. "Who's in charge?"

There were handfuls of yesses and no's. It became evident pretty quick that these people were from several separate groups and had converged at one time to the gates. A couple had walked in together out of Oaks. One out of Maverick. The largest was out of Riverdale, up North. Riverdale's rep, Noah had volunteered that word of mouth had spread over an hour away in a car that there was a shelter for anyone who needed it on the Mastro campus.

"Who?"

"Word of mouth, man. You Morgan?" Noah asked approaching him through the thick mass of Riverdale refugees.

"I am."

"We were told to earn our way and we can stay."

"Who told you that?"

"There's teams out there. They're taking out zoms. It's their job." A woman spoke up from the group.

This had been the missing piece of the zombie world puzzle. He had a gut feeling who was responsible for this madness. They all did, but no one spoke her name in months, since they'd last seen or heard from her. It was easier that way on all involved. They had a superstition that if her name was spoken, then she would appear. Now, though, her reappearance would be a blessing, then he could tell her in no mixed words to stop. Not so much stop the invaluable work she and the others were doing on a daily basis, but stop sending the Fugee's his direction. There had to be other strongholds against the zoms, other fortified camps similar to his.

As the morning progressed, it was determined there were 6 separate groups. One from the church. One from the community center. One from Maverick. Two from Oaks. One from Riverdale that comprised of two separate groups who had been brought together by those 'at work' who called themselves exterminators. The exterminators took some of the strongest from each group they met. They sought volunteers. They sought the strongest, the black sheep, the trouble makers and those who wished to make a difference who could back it up.

Chess admired the idea and the lifestyle, that nomadic avenue that she would never have taken in the past. In a way he envied her for doing it, taking the chances and taking out the nests. The evidence of her and her teams' work lay in a state of decay all over the surrounding counties. He could not for the life of him figure out her home base. Julia was well hidden. If she were to be found, it would be on her time. If and only if she chose to be found.

He'd learned from this group that migrated out of Riverdale that there were teams spreading as far west as Pittsburgh and as far east as Philly. As the exterminators moved, they had a handful of specialized individuals who were in charge of recruitment. Once they had enough new recruits, they trained them quick and then they split off into more groups mixed old with new in all directions. Last he'd heard, they were heading north as well toward New York. They focused their work on nests alone. Tag and kill or enter and kill depending on the daylight. They only carried packs and weapons. Mostly knives or machetes or swords. The exterminators had no fear.

Chess found Jayson with his newcomers. Tavin and Casper attempted to work through a long line of people with multiple complaints. Two medics got through the people faster than one. Tavin liked the kid, but he had little experience in the field. Some was better than none, however. Casper was watching and learning as he went a long.

"Jayson." Chess hollered over the hum of conversations around them. Jay joined him, seeing he wasn't pleased.

"Chess, man, this is out of control."

"We're gonna need to sit and come up with a plan. Jay, we can't handle this many people. We are officially maxed."

"I don't know what to do."

"We need to set them up somewhere else. We'll need to work on that."

"Sure, sure, yes. We'll get em settled and-"

"Where, Jay? Settle them where? We already have beds lined up in the gym. All the floors in the dorms are filled up. They cannot come in the main building."

"There's the caf." He suggested.

"Where we eating, Jay?" Chess ran anxious hands through his hair.

"A tent." He replied. "Set it up like this in the field till we find a more safe place. Listen, the nests are about cleared. If they go on and set up, go dark. They got a chance."

"Get a sign into those community areas not to come here. There's no room at the inn. Get out there to the others and redirect the overflow into other groups."

"The shelters are full."

"So is ours. We are stretched thin here."

"I'll talk to Jeffrey and I'll let him know. He can find her for sure."

A female from the Maverick group warily approached them having overheard their conversation. Once Jay stepped away and head back to his brother and Casper, she approached Chess. She looked a little strange, hair crazy and greasy, generally unkempt. She introduced herself as Krissy, somewhat obese for this side of the apocalypse, slurred speech so she was a bit difficult to understand if you didn't pay attention. "You lookin for dat girl." She said. She talked with a nervous tic to her face, like a twitch.

Oh, sweet mother of God...Chess moaned inwardly. He had no choice over who was sent to him by Julia's exterminators. "Yeah, what do you know about the girl?" Chess asked.

She cleared her throat, "Red haired."

"Yes, where is she?"

"The coffee shop." She answered, fingers twitching along with her face.

"What coffee shop? Where?"

"We stayed there on our way here." Krissy's left eye drifted off center and Chess stifled a laugh. He reminded himself that neither Julia would appreciate him laughing at someone who was...what exactly was wrong with this girl? Mental or physical or physiological or both?

"Kris, which street?"

"Green Street." She answered, rubbing her nose with the back of her hand. "She a real little bitch too." Krissy gave a one sentence description of wifey.

"You lived on Green street?"

"With a group in a house, but Julio threw us out. Said there were shelters and get walking."

Chess shook his head to get the sight and thought of Krissy out of his mind once she limped back into her spot in line. Krissy nearly had to fight for her spot with her handicap left arm and left leg. But the woman she stepped in front of backed off. Krissy had cussed her out and got loud, twitching and all.

Chess waved at Jody as he left the Fugee tent. "Mayers, get in the jeep and get to the coffee shop on Green Street. Don't leave that fucking shop till you see red hair and talk to her. Understood?"

"Yeah." Mayers asked as he and Chess hopped in the jeep and drove back to the main building.

"Get hold of her and make it clear that no one else is to be sent here."

Mayers drove off campus later that afternoon and he parked the jeep hopefully out of sight and out of mind. He walked around the street, empty of both living and dead. These parts, the further he drove away from the Mastro campus, were increasingly clear. Whoever the exterminators were, and if Julia was involved, they did a hell of a job clearing and scavenging. The debris was gone from the streets. Someone had cleaned up as they were clearing. It resembled a ghost town. It only lacked tumble weeds.

He wondered why Chess had sent him all the way to Maverick to this closed up coffee shop. Bars over dark windows. Someone went dark inside that store since he'd last been through. He and Jay had come through here months ago, because Jay was looking for her too. He'd been everywhere he thought she would be. The coffee shop hadn't been on his list. Jay had mentioned that his first job was at this corner store. He would stop there in the morning, every single morning of his life it seemed, and he'd pick up a cup of coffee for her. "Back when I could make her happy." Jay had commented. "Back when a cup of black coffee could make her happy." Jody wasn't sure that afternoon whether Jayson had been talking to himself or directly to him. He needed time though. He had things he had to get out and he had finally started to move past that.

He approached the former entrance to the coffee shop and tried the door first. It didn't budge. He tried peeking in the windows through the dark coverings, but that was on the inside and not the outside so he couldn't really pry too much. He stepped back to the side walk and he walked around this building onto the cross street. He dipped into the alleyway and he tried the rear entrance. That wasn't locked at all, and once inside, he flicked on his flashlight and he scanned the empty store. It had been picked clean. Not one item was left. Inside the rear entrance, there was a small office, which was also void of anything and everything. Jody had a feeling that every house on the block was the exact same way. He stepped outside and pulled the door shut just as he'd found it. That corner store was clean, but too clean. She could have kept people in there until they were transferred out, somewhere safe, somewhere like a church or community center. Jody walked back to the corner and then turned left and head down Green Street to the houses where Jay had spent some of his child hood and youth. The house a couple doors down, Julia had spent her entire formative years. He felt strange taking a stroll down memory lane, considering this wasn't his lane to stroll and they weren't his memories. He'd only known this place because of Jayson and it was wrecked the last time he had stepped foot here. As he passed the houses in question, he found them all open and empty, cleaned of living and dead, but still furnished. Uninhabited houses with blood stains memorializing people who'd lost their lives on carpets and in rooms of what was supposed to be their comfort zone. At the dead end of this street, the wooded area had been chopped down. Not one tree or bush was left, and in the center of this area were multiple burn circles. Bodies had burned and been left to return to ash. Nothing smoldered, this had long been cleared.

Clear street, free street. One of many. Julia and her exterminators had been hard at work. He was not surprised. She dedicated her life to this and to people. All people, excluding those that loved her and missed her and thought about her. Jody understood. If she had stayed, what would have come of the Green Streets of the world. He turned and walked back down the street, looking over the houses and the area. He had been given a loose order not to return until he spoke with the red head. Was he going on some sort of hunch? Had one of the newcomers given him information? As his eyes glanced over the suburban street, deciding which home or dwelling to spend the night, he noticed above that corner store was an apartment. A small one, but it was there. It wasn't dark either. Curtains, orange ones, hung on the windows. As far as he could see, there was no way to enter this apartment. He looked quizzically at the building itself. Where was the entrance? He hadn't seen one. He hadn't seen a fire escape or a ladder or any indication that one could get up there. A simple corner store on a corner lot next door to another simple one level store. Jody bent and picked up a rock. He threw it at the window above the front street. Hunches were all they had nowadays and a gut feeling was all he needed or wanted.

"Morgan, for fuck sake, how do you get up there?" He yelled as the rock bounced off the window pane. He knew Morgan was special, but leaping buildings in tall bounds was not one of her strong suits. Maybe girlfriend didn't want to be found? He thought to himself as he surveyed around the stucco building for some evidence there had once been a fire escape or stairs attached to the structure. He couldn't very well pick up a phone and ask Jayson. "If I cannot get in from the outside..." He thought aloud, knowing also that Morgan was small, but a climber she was not. He returned to the rear entrance and let himself in. He walked the store and behind the counter covered in what appeared to be a metal shelf was a door. "Ah, ha." He whispered. Upon his attempt to pull the shelf away from the wall, he observed it was bolted to the door and as the shelf moved, there was just enough space for him to wedge his body inside to find a dark set of old and creaky wooden stairs. "I'll be damned." He said as he shined the flashlight on the dusty dark brown steps. No booby traps...he mused as he climbed, making himself known as he stepped closer and closer to the door that would allow him inside that tiny apartment. And she had quite the setup going in there. She wasn't home, and it appeared she hadn't been home in some time. Dusty, but neat and clean. Some personal touches, but nothing too personal in case her place had been discovered. No notebooks either, which he found strange. An iPad plugged into a solar charger by the window.  He took it upon himself to make himself comfy in her space. He left the door ajar a bit and hung a dish rag on the handle, so if she arrived to the apartment she would know her space had been invaded. This invasion was likely to get him shot if she had no warning. Even though she had warning, he may would most likely be staring down the barrel of a gun or have a knife to his throat.

The following 36 hours played out like the story The Three Bears. He slept in her bed. He ate her food. He played downloaded games on an old iPad she had laying around. He looked out windows and he was bored. He had waited long enough and he wanted to go home to check in, make sure the place was still standing. He could update Chess on what he'd found although he hadn't found her.

As he departed, leaving the place the way he found it, he came across a Humvee with 2 armed men inside. They slowed to a stop as Jody walked the sidewalk.

"Ya alright out here, man?" The passenger asked.

"Last I checked." Jody answered. "Nothing out here from the looks of it."

"We keep it that way." The passenger answered. He had a sense of pride in his voice.

"Thanks for that, I guess. Look, I'm looking for a redhead, heard she might be around this way."

"Haven't seen her in a few weeks, man." The passenger replied. "How you know E?"

"E?" He answered confused. "E's an old friend. Any idea when E will be back?"

"Nope. She doesn't keep tabs, you know. She comes and goes."

"Who's in charge when she's away?" Jody asked curiously.

"We're in charge here." He extended a hand to him and they shook. "I'm Julio, this is Kyle. You need a ride outta here."

"Mayers." He answered. "I see, and no. I got a ride."

"The jeep?" Julio asked with a laugh. "You are gonna need a ride." Jody had a sinking feeling that the jeep was long gone. "Hop in. We'll ride you to your jeep."

As they rode to the jeep, out 15 minutes to the local storage area, Julio explained the way things worked in the streets now. If it was left, it was confiscated. E had said people may come looking for her and she gave a handful of names who could retrieve their confiscated belongings without question. Mayers name was on the list. Any usable or consumable supply now belonged to the state of Pennsylvania. No one holed up alone and small compounds were either absorbed into larger ones or left on their own with directions to shelter. Once they decided safe-shelter was a viable option, especially if children were involved, their supplies both consumable and usable were taken and added to a stock, which was guarded and locked up. Food was nil, but supplies were not. Any fuel was stored and secured. E had plans for the fuel as well as the plows she had hoarded behind that locked storage fence. Jody understood what it all meant and why it was all there, but if they'd cleared most local streets, where would the fuel and plows and machinery be used? When he saw her he'd be sure to ask.

"Zombie winter." Julio said, pointing to the fleet of vehicles. Jody nodded an understanding, because "Zombies freeze." He grinned ear to ear. Julia was preparing for the bigger picture. Jody wondered why his group wasn't. Julio and Kyle asked him as much.

"Waiting for us to do it? Clean up your own back yard. You got people." Julio told him as they waited for Kyle to fetch the jeep from the yard. "E is good people. Said you guys up on Mastro campus are good people."

"She is, we are. Taking in all the refugees."

"And doin what all day?"

Good question. Jody then asked himself, what were they doing all day?

"Way I see it is you wasted zombie winter number one." Julio criticized.

"Got some keen observations there, Julio."

"Not my observations, Mayers."

She was right. They hadn't set foot outside the fence in a while. They'd done supply runs, cleaned out like these two and others had cleaned out this area, but nest hunting and zom killing, they left it on the outside of the fence. It had irked Jody since day one. More than half were still in the mindset of the fence was their shield and leave whatever is on the outside to whatever business they had. They had a strong and small army of men and women inside and they had a strong perimeter with no breeches in the time they'd been there. They were well protected should a threat come through, but mostly there were no threats. Those who would do the threatening, looting, killing, lead in the way of evil were on the road, exterminating. Julia had picked up the scraps of humanity and handed them a life worth living.

"Mayers, she told me to ask...her offer still stands..." Julio advised him. "There's a lot of work to be done yet."

"I'll talk with her when I see her." Jody felt the pull though toward that offer. He'd felt it when psycho had offered him a way out. She and Julia had a way of getting things done. How she managed to get people to listen to her and join her, he had no clue. He supposed she led by example and let her actions speak louder than her words. This point in time she was not as cold hearted as psycho, but Jody had a feeling she was working her way up to that. 'Where does your loyalty lie?' He could hear her guilt-shame tone of voice ring in his head. "Does that offer stand with anyone else?"

"Two others from Mastro, Medic named Keller and Marine named Morgan. You know em'?"

"I do." Jody replied as his jeep pulled to the gate. When Kyle leaped out, he pulled the gate shut and secured it behind him. Jody set in the driver's seat and pulled away, leaving them and their Humvee without another word.

Julia tucked herself into the truck bed and clutched her bag to her chest. Out of breath from running and her heart pounding, she jerked back against the metal frame as the wheels turned and shrieked below her. The road beneath the truck, slick with dead bodies and congealed blood. No traction. Julia raised the gun and fired at the zoms until the truck's wheels caught the ground and rolled them away from the meet point. Dirty, hot, covered in sweat and blood and body fluids, some of those substances her own, she was never as glad to burn rubber out of Philly as she was that afternoon. Her exterminators got her a ride out, all she had to do was make it there. Make it there, she did, by the skin of her teeth.

She lowered her weapon, but she kept it in her hand. She didn't trust these people, she trusted no one anymore. Her mission inside the Z-zone was accomplished. Now to go home and wait. She name dropped people she didn't know in zombie world, but people were people regardless of which world she had planted her feet.

The look on his face was priceless. Blood spewing from the cut jugular. She had been covered in his blood and when she took off on foot, she fully expected to be followed. She fully expected to have to answer for his death. They would come and she would visit New York once word got back he was dead and gone. The days of fuck bitches, get money were over and done with. It was a new world and a new way. He was living in the past, unproductive. He stood in his own way. Julia made a new way and pointed his second in command in that direction. T always had more sense, being the most stable in the crew. She'd handed him a way out of the Z-zone, offering him and his people shelter when the time came they wanted it. Plus she'd given him a woman of his very own. Snow bunnies were still all the rage. A trophy white chick named...

"Hayley, I want you to come with me."

Hayley had been found alive and as captive as she had been the last apocalypse. Some people don't change, didn't matter the world or circumstance. Like behavior and response were ingrained in DNA as opposed to being learned. The benign and simple Julia Fry even had her ways about her when pushed and prodded. The attractive and vain Hayley followed suit. She had her exterminators out looking as they scavenged and cleared. They moved along faster than she, gathering more men than she. Julia found that men trusted men before they trusted women. Men followed strong men. Men who were left in the ruins of modern society did not look upon the fairer sex as equal. They didn't much before the end of the world. Once Julia understood that and let her first men do the dirty work for her, the new recruits were clueless they were being led by a female, ordered to do the dirtiest and most demanding job of extermination. Once she got past the first 100 or so, none truly cared about her gender. They trusted her, those originals as she hadn't led them wrong yet. Do the right thing, her mantra. That initial group of fuckers she had tagging along with her was ruthless and they were long gone, off somewhere bringing the pain on the dead. When they were not doing their job, they were causing trouble, so she kept them busy and focused from day one and she kept others aside them who could keep them focused on the goal.

Julia, she had no permanent home. She had no permanent place in the world, except that small efficiency over the coffee shop. She'd lighted there because it was across the street from the garage lot where she stashed her shit. Originally she was clueless that there had been an apartment above her head. Out of sight, out of mind. She had discovered it by accident one afternoon as she went home on her bike from taking out the last of the nests on her list. She'd made that back office of Mr G's her very own one woman nest of sorts. She'd camped out in there, cleaned the aisles and the store and made it dark. She and Julio put the bars on the windows one day for added protection for when she kept people in there, because she would take in people until she could redirect them off to another shelter. She had people pulled off small and defunct, inoperable farms and relocated them to farms that were fortified and operational. She had one goal in mind for them, feed the people. Plant enough to feed and keep them fed through the winter. One directive for those she had placed on Elke's land and the farms that were near and around her own farmhouse, but not directly at her farmhouse. That farm was part of the Mastro campus. She owned that and she was serious. Those seeking temporary shelter, she could completely understand and relocate them. But those who set up on her farm and wanted to make a new life, Julia was firmly against that.

She didn't form her own stronghold or her own compound to keep people safe. Others did that. She preferred a more mobile lifestyle. She would stop home from time to time to regroup and think and make plans. No note books, no papers, no specific time consuming lay out or playbook. Paper maps though were an entirely different story. She carried paper maps on her at all times along with her survival specific tools, weapons and several personal items.

The truck linked up along the road to another truck, which took her the rest of the way into the former Lancaster County. Farm lined roads and Amish living. Few animals were alive and most fields were barren. A scattered and lucky few were in operation. Cleared streets and no nests made that a possibility. There were zoms lurking, but nests were exterminated. Easy to find and easy to kill and burned buildings, barns and warehouses littered the landscape.

Empty farms through Lancaster, though. She couldn't get used to it. As long as she could remember those farms were in some stage of growth and only empty when seasonally appropriate. Mid June, this saddened her. One of the things on her to-do list was check on the growth of her own fields. There were people who needed to eat. There were children who needed to eat. There would be no one starving anymore if she had anything to say about it. Food storages, Julia thought as her stomach growled.

"I could go for a cheesesteak right now." She announced from the passenger seat. Her eyes scanned the barren countryside of her former county.

"Eh, with fried onions and green peppers."

"Yes. Wanna stop somewhere? Get me a soda too." She said, but it wasn't funny. These people, more than a year into their apocalypse had lost their sense of humor for the most part. When Chess picked up Julia Fry out of a basement hiding space, it had already been 4 months in for her. "I'm sorry, Hank. I'm hungry."

"I know. It's cool. How was Philly?" He asked, his round belly protruding over jeans that were a size too small. His facial hair in a constant state of overgrowth over a double chin.

"Rude, arrogant, sarcastic, rough, unwelcoming. Shall I go on?"

"Sounds like Philly on a good day."

"Hate to see it on a bad one." Julia smiled. "Made some headway and caused a bit of trouble. It will work out."

Hank pulled into Maverick and dropped her off at the bus station as if she were going to get on public transportation and ride out of there. "Thanks, man. You're the best. I'll be out to Ronks in a few days."

He drove off with no words and she waited till he was out of sight before continuing her journey. She stopped at the local community center and on the door hung a sign that said no more to Mastro campus. Julia tore it down and tore it up. "Son of a bitch." She cussed. "Not back five minutes and he's pissing me off." She steamed over torn up pieces of poster board in her hands. She held onto the pieces as she moved forward to the church where she found a similar sign. She removed that one too. She removed and tore up all the signs. "We don't turn people away." She whispered to herself as she tucked the poster board in a metal trash can. The metal boxes were strategically placed all along the streets of Maverick. Her storage facility stood locked up and secure. All these places were within walking distance of each other. A five minute walk from building to building. She knew the streets well. Hadn't been home yet, but felt like she wanted to head there and not to the storage lot. Temple should have been inside that yard somewhere. It would take a few minutes to notice her at the gate, covered in dried blood and dirt. She smelled as offensive as she looked. Racer met her first and alerted Temple, yipping at the lot fence.

"There a zom at the gate or is that Elena?" Temple yelled as his face appeared through slats in the fence.

"My bike please, Temple. I am in no mood."

"When are you ever in a mood other than a bad one, E?" He asked as he slipped the key inside the padlock. He pulled the chain apart and then let her inside. He locked up again. "How ya been? I was startin to worry."

"Never worry about me." She answered as she took a quick look around the yard. "Any breeches, concerns, problems?"

"Yes-problems. Always problems, but Julio and Kyle take care of it."

Temple liked being locked inside the yard. Sometimes he had company and sometimes he didn't have any at all, except for Racer. The dog happily jumped at their legs, letting out little yips and barks. Not exactly a guard dog, but a tenacious little dog she was. Racer had been at Temple's side through the apocalypse. She followed the lanky and shirtless tanned kid to the office where he handed her the key to her very own bike.

"No." Julia shook her head. The quick ride would be nice, but a quiet ride would be nicer. Although Julio had taught her how to ride and it was a fun form of transport, she declined the offer. "My huffy, Temple."

"Awe, come on. That pink thing is for a ten year old." He sounded disappointed, but led her through the yard to the nearest garage where he opened a door with a key and lifted the door for her half way. "There she is." He laughed as she pulled her bike out of the box shaped shelter. Julia didn't want it in the elements. All she had said about the bike when she left was keep it nice and clean. "I'll put some more air in the tires for you, E."

"Thanks." She answered. "I'm hungry. Got any pizza or anything?" She laughed.

"Some protein bars." He shrugged.

"Seriously though. Anything in the traps, Temple?"

"Yeah, you want rat now?"

"Nah, rat's a delicacy in Philly. How about my chickens? They alright?" She asked as she heard clucking in the distance. "Break me a neck and toss one in a bag. I'm gonna clean up real quick."

"Sure, E, sure." He nodded.

She moved on to Temple's modest shower and plumbing set up and she scrubbed the first couple layers of grime and filth from her body with old towels and chilly water, no soap. She felt a little lighter and cleaner and changed into the cleaner clothes from her pack. The clean clothes were nearly as wretched as the dirty ones. She wrapped a bandana around her hair, nothing she could do about the matted and crusty hair till she got home. She didn't feel as though she smelled any better, but she looked less ominous and frightening. By the time she'd finished her bird bath, he'd fetched a chicken for her and brought her some small beans.

"Already?" She asked, eyeing the string beans in his hand. "My how your garden grows."

"Fresh. Have em'." He smiled.

She popped one in her mouth and started chewing. Tasted delicious. "Thanks, babe." She said as she tied her chicken bag to her pack. She and Temple shared the beans and talked a bit. He told her someone had been by looking for her.

"Oh, really. Who would that be?" Doubting the trouble she caused had tracked her down yet. She wasn't in the frame of mind to handle New York. She wanted to rest, regroup and align herself with the universe again. Sit on her roof in the June heat and eat chicken cooked on a small grill and read under an umbrella.

"Mayers." Temple's brown eyes looked at her hungrily. She'd seen that look before. That look of abject isolation and loneliness. Temple was both of those. As if she were better off. He had Racer to keep him company and talk to. She carried a dead fucking bird and a bad attitude.

"He's a friend, Temple. An old friend." She felt the need to explain for some reason. She had no boyfriend or boyfriends. "He's out of Mastro Campus."

"Yeah, he said that to Julio." He nodded, kicking at the ground where he threw the stems from his string beans. "So, um, you come across any more girls with a favor?" He asked.

"I told you to ask Julio. He's got plenty of girls with favors." Julia sighed.

"I know, I know, but I like the ones that you find."

Julia moaned inside...the girls she finds...she didn't want that for herself or any girl. "I will find one that I think is right. Ok?" She suggested, adding that to her list of things to do. She had to prioritize and getting Temple laid seemed to be tops on his list for her. She felt bad for the kid, locked up inside that fence to keep the place secure. If he'd stop killing the girls that she brought, he may have one at his side. He was a badass with a gun and a machete after all. As mild mannered and as soft spoken as he appeared, Temple was the opposite when pushed. He was capable of clearing streets and killing hordes of zoms in his spare time. Julia liked him, appreciated him and nearly took the lack of female companionship into her own hands. She felt the need spike in her abdomen and decided to duck out of there quick. By evening Temple would have a girl in front of him. She needed to speak to Julio first. Julia didn't carry young girls around in her back pocket, although there were days she wished she could. She would hand them out like candy to all those who had a need, because that is what men wanted not necessarily needed.

Julia hopped on her huffy and pedaled away from the storage facility. She had a few ideas where she could find Julio. She tried home first. He had never run from his house or property when the z's came through. He refused. He wouldn't leave his home town either, preferring to stay and keep the streets as he saw fit than move on through a state he never wanted to see on its best day. Kyle, his cousin, he kept with him. He'd looked after him since he was a kid, helped raise him. Fifteen years older than him, the kid was protected, but equally as tough.

Julia found him in his house, which was not too far from that house she had shared with Tavin. She propped her bike against the wall outside the back porch and banged three times hard on the door. "Yo, Julio!" She screamed loud enough for him to know she was heading inside. "Kyle!" She yelled as she pushed the back door open. These two never locked a door. They never expected company. She found the place dark, only lit by the daylight that came through the windows. Naked girls lay across the living room furniture.

She heard footsteps on the stairs. "E!" Kyle yelled, nearly tackling her with a bear hug. "You're back. Glad to see ya." He held her as tight and kissed her cheek before letting her go.

"Hey, where's Julio?" She asked as she looked over the nudity in front of her. "New girls, I see." She noticed, pointing a thumb at them.

"Uh, they his. You know that." Kyle smiled. "Gabs is asleep upstairs."

Like Temple had come into the apocalypse with a dog, Kyle had come with Gabs. Julia didn't know much about Gabs other than she was a quiet female who he had made overt efforts to rescue. He kept her with him and Julio since their first nights and days and she never left his dwelling, especially without him or Julio. This two man army in a suburban house who'd stock piled guns and ammo and led sketchy lives before the fall of modern civilization. What was once so sketchy and had neighbors worried, didn't appear so sketchy now, did it? Julio had always been on the doomsday prepper mode, long before the first arrival of the first zom to the neighborhood.

Julia moved past Kyle and they climbed upstairs together. Kyle split off into his own room, closing the door behind him and Julia moved down the hallway to the master bedroom where she walked through a half open door to Julio and the flavor of the week. A fine white girl with a big ass bent in front of him.

"Hey." Julia said as he leaned and kissed her. She had tried to start something with this fine ass tattooed Latino, but he had a habit of fucking other people. The evidence sprawled, as usual, in front of them. The pretty girl looked back at the two of them over her shoulder as Julio kept doing what Julio did best, fuck women. "Blanca here has a sweet ass, mi Amor." She said, shimmying onto the mattress beside him.

"Hmm, I can put her out."

"Oh, thanks. You are so fucking romantic." Julia smirked as he leaned and kissed her again. "Listen," Julia smiled. "I stopped by to see Temple."

"So," He said as he held the waist of the pretty fine girl attached by body parts. 

"Find him a girl please. A nice one. You know what he likes. We discussed this."

"Yeah, sure." He agreed, taking a hand and placing it on Julia's head. He drew her close to him and kissed her again. Julia let him kiss her a bit, explore her mouth with a skilled tongue. She thought back to the work that tongue could do...between her legs...and she enjoyed it. She slipped a minute and let him fool around, his hand moving from her head over her hair to her waist and she stopped short of the jeans coming undone. "No, You're a whore." She shook her head and wiggled her waist away from his hand, which he promptly moved to her ass. His lips moved off hers and to her cheek then to her ear. "I want that pussy, E." He said. When she heard herself moan and thoughtfully considered giving him her tight pussy, she backed off.

"No. Thanks." She smiled.

"Stick around, we need to talk, mamichula."

"Later. I'm gonna get settled." She shook her head. "Temple, hook him up. You know what he likes."

"Yes, E. I know. All he gotta do is ask."

"Just hook the kid up, mi fucking Amor." She called as she pulled the door shut. She leaned against its hard wood and she took a deep breath. She felt the ache again. No...she shouted in her head...you are not that kind of girl anymore...you are not...you are not. She repeated it, fought it and she tucked the need away for later, when she was alone. Alone, she was her own best lover lately. She had a streak of really nice guys and broke that streak with Julio. He was another one that could have owned the pussy, or chocha as he called it. He was an excellent lover and he had a way of using that tongue on her that drove her nuts. Her mind drifted to Jay's tongue and she put the thought of Jayson out of her mind as well. He would come later. He always came later, when she was alone, thinking and...

Back on the bike she pedaled that huffy to Green Street. Riding through clear streets was a gift from above. They had moved out any and all people to safe zone shelters. She shouldn't come across anyone living or dead. Regular patrols made sure of that. Anything that wandered through was from Mastro way. She thought about dropping in and giving Mr Morgan a kick in his skinny ass. She pushed in the rear door of the coffee shop and she pulled a gun off her waist. All clear, she wheeled the bike inside and dropped the kick stand, leaving it inside the store. If she were making a getaway, it wouldn't include a bicycle. Once at her shelf door, she head into the dark stairwell and the steps creaked to the top where she left herself inside her efficiency. Musty and hot, it smelled stale and closed up. The aroma of coffee stained the efficiency's four walls. She lifted the windows and let some air inside, then she pulled the drop steps cord and climbed to the roof, opening the door to the outside world. She delighted in this area, completely obscure from those on the street or around her. She could be completely invisible and still be outside. She flipped over her small blue pool. She would need to wait for rain to take a dip and she didn't wish to use her water stores for a swimming pool.

Before she cleaned herself up, she went to work on her chicken and readied it to cook on her grill. Once she finished, she stripped out of dirty, blood stained clothes and dropped them on the roof by the door. She stood among all the green of her rooftop container garden. She dropped inside the efficiency again and she got her bath bag from the shelf and she spent forever scrubbing her body and her hair. The water in her barrel was luke warm like swimming pool water. Enough to wash and rinse and she allowed herself to air dry while she sat wrapped in a towel on a chair next to her empty pool. Her iPad was fully charged and she had a dozen games of solitaire to play to unwind before she started moving. She turned on the gadget, noticed full battery. The background picture had changed. No longer a flowery scene, but her friend's face and upper body. She opened the photo album and in the picture when she opened it minus the icons, the note he held up read: I stop by every Wednesday. Jody had found her. She smiled as she touched the picture on the screen. He had shaved. Jody...she looked around her and wondered aloud. "What day is it?" She laughed with tears in her eyes. How long would she have to wait? To catch up, talk, laugh, chat.

She popped cherry tomatoes in her mouth out of a bowl while she cooked her chicken. She thought as she cooked, trying to decipher what day it was, getting excited she may have company. If she only knew what day it was.

He found her on the roof in a chair under a small umbrella that attached to her chair. She was hiding from the world and the sun with a book in her hands. Not a notebook, but a novel. He had seen the roof top on one of his visits to her place. Each time he went he had explored a little more, feeling more and more comfortable in her space.

She jumped excitedly into his arms. He couldn't get her off him as she was clingy and crying. Unusual for the Julia that he remembered, but he let her cry and cling. He hadn't seen anyone this happy to see him possibly ever. He had climbed the stairs and entered and she had seen his picture message on her iPad, because she didn't aim and fire or get startled or scared.

"You may see me whenever you want, just stop by." He said to her in his matter of fact voice.

"I know. I know." She cried.

"You ok, Julia?" He asked her in his matter of fact voice, holding up this 95 pound girl in his arms like they were closer than they actually were.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jo. I didn't expect to react like this. I'm just really fucking happy."

"I see that." He said, holding her a little tighter.

She cried on his shoulder, got his shirt all wet. She felt like she got snot and tears all over his chest before he set her down. He peeled the shirt over his head and set it on the wall, which she moved to the chair. Invisibility.

"Oh, fuck it's finally Wednesday." She laughed through tears. Two days she had waited for Jody only to have found out it wasn't Wednesday after all. "I never know what day it is."

"No, it's Sunday, Julia. Your boy, Julio, rode out to Mastro to eat and let us know you were home."

"Us, huh?"

"Me and Chess." He answered stoically, fluffing her hair. "Hey, should I call you E?" He asked sarcastically.

"You know exactly what to call me." She answered.

"What on earth have you done to your hair?" He asked, running his hand over her small head. She had a pixie cut that was short and close to her head. "I mean, I like it."

"Kept getting caught on shit, you know, like zombies. It was like a sign that said, hey grab this red head by her hair and chew on her. It had to go."

"It is really cute. It suits you." As if she could look any younger or more innocent. The hair made her so much more appealing to the eye. It fit her more than the long hair ever could. The lack of all that hair brought out her face. Those blue-green eyes stood out as her prettiest feature. He reached to her face. "Hey, hey, stop that." He smiled as he wiped away fresh tears as they spilled over her eyes onto her rosy cheeks. "Seriously, are you alright? Where have you been? Why haven't you come home?" He fired questions at her that Julio wouldn't answer. She had handled business with Julio the day after she came home and then she left him to carry on.

"I'm ok. I have been...busy. I don't wanna-it's not home."

Busy, he actually believed that statement. If anyone were busy, it would be Julia or E, or whatever she called herself. Everyone knew her name, just some were more comfortable calling her E or Elena.

"You sent Julio."

"No." She shook her head. "I did not. I wouldn't."

"He makes himself at home when he shows up. He's got a way with women. He got a way with you too?"

She shook her head. "No." She answered.

"He acts like he knows you pretty good."

"No. It's not like that."

"Julia, you know you hurt Jay, right?"

"I know." She nodded. "Believe me, I know that and I deal with that every day of my life."

"Not one word. Never reached out to him once."

"I know."

"Do you have any idea-"

"Yes. I do." She nodded. The tears started again. She didn't want a lecture about Jayson's pain.

"Ok, as long as you know then." He shrugged. "The kids, though." He shook his head and ran hands through his head. "Julia, your actions-"

"Please, I know Alex understands."

"Yeah, doesn't mean he doesn't miss you. And Tia, she's taken right to the other one."

"I know." She nodded, more tears dropped from her eyes. "Jo, it wasn't working anymore. For once, I did the right thing for me. I had to. I couldn't do it anymore. He put a gun to my head, Jody. You were there. Someone had to be the bigger person and end it. I chose to end it." She explained it the best way she could, the way she explained it to herself.

"Ok." He said. "I miss you too."

"I know. But you're different. You coulda come along for the ride."

"Not with her."

"You're here now." She said hopefully, folding her arms around her body. "Why are you here? On Wednesdays."

"To tell you to stop sending us people, cause we're maxed out. But that was a month and a half ago."

"I saw the signs."

"I saw you took them down."

"You need to take what's given and deal with it. If you're not going to help me out on the street in the slightest way, shape or form, then the least you can do for the cause is take fucking people in." She paused. "What the fuck, Jo? The plan."

"He burned the plan."

She turned an angry shade of red.

"It was symbolic."

She boiled beneath her skin.

"It had to happen."

"Well, you're in like it or not." She sighed, wiping her face of moisture. She dropped back into her seat and looked guiltily up at him. "Get ready cause I stirred the pot."

"No."

"Yes." She nodded. She was dragging them into the future like it or not.

"When?"

"It's done. You understand what I mean?"

"We are way ahead of schedule. Way, way ahead of schedule. Our people are not ready for human fighting or-"

"I hope to avoid it, but if I can't, get them ready."

Jody looked tense. "Philly."

"Yes."

"You are way ahead in this plan. You jumped too far ahead. You cannot-it's not even cold."

"I'm not talking about that. I changed the plan."

"And involved us."

"My army, my infantry is clearing the path for this. My ideas. My plan. My army is doing your fucking job clearing these streets. What the hell have you people been doing?"

"We lost our fuckin leader, Morgan. It takes time to adjust to that and then all those people we are struggling to feed and then we had to fucking plant that field. We didn't have solar up for two fuckin months. We got problems. We had no one to pull it all together for us either. Every time we just got above water, you sent us more. We had to scavenge and got caught in-"

"Excuses." She waved that entire spiel away with annoyed hands. "Jo, until I got the fuck home the other day, I was up for 49 hours straight running the fuck outta Philly." She was angry with him. "And you can't clear a street for my people to get in there? And how dare you complain? Miller has taken the idea and run with it. Others have. What is the problem? You got able bodied men and women. Train em and get them outside that god damn fence. How do you expect to solve this problem hiding in there?"

"Ask him."

"I ask you as his representative." She paused. "I cannot fix this for you people."

"You putting us at war though."

"No." She yelled. "I hope not. I will deal with New York when it's time and Philly...well, Philly is on you."

"Fuck." He groaned. "Alright then. It's cool. I'll deal with it. I'll let him know."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news."

Jody shot her a look that was unsavory. "I wanna know the plan. You got no notebooks. Where you hiding them?"

"In here." She pointed at her head. "There's thousands in Philly." She whispered. "Upon thousands." She whispered. "I need to show you the map."

"Pretty savage." He mumbled after a few minutes of silence, thinking of all the possibilities of Philly gangs and Philly death.

"It is beyond savage, Jody. It's apocalyptic. The virus there...we cannot exterminate this even with all my guys. Remember when we were going to Jersey and Chess said this is a suicide mission?"

"Of course."

"I know why he said that. I know why. Before New Jersey, there is Philly. There is no way to clear a state without clearing Philly. We are clearly outnumbered."

"How?"

"The way I plan on clearing Philly will plunge New Jersey into hell on earth. I am going to Jersey in the fall and I plan on giving them enough warning of what's coming. Those thousands of zoms cannot and will not head this direction. They will only head one direction and that is east over the bridges into Jersey."

"No." He shook his head.

"Short of a nuclear weapon, Jo. There is no choice. Where do your loyalties lie, Mayers? In Jersey or  PA?"

"I have seen what Jersey looks like from the inside and you're leading us there without a doubt."

"I have a plan for that too. I already have people-"

"Just stop it." He raised his voice. "Before it starts."

"Look, it's gonna happen. You in or out?"

"Looks like we don't have much of a choice." Jody turned and walked into the doorway and down into her efficiency.

"You're leaving?" She asked over the edge of the roof once his feet were on the street. She could see Jody was angry and with good reason, but he didn't have all the facts and he didn't have all the information. "Jody,"

"I'm telling your husband." He screamed as he looked up at the pretty pixie leaning over the roof.

"There's more you need to hear. You don't know-"

Jody had started the jeep and drove away. She leaned back over the edge of her roof and watched as he drove off toward home. She watched the jeep as far as she could see until he disappeared from view.

"My husband. Why don't you tell my dad too?" She smirked as she picked up Jody's tee off her chair. He forgot his shirt.

Julia rarely closed up her apartment when she was home. If the weather was agreeable, then she left the windows open and the door to the roof. What horror of nature would actually fly in that would scare her? Was there anything worse than mother nature's creation of the zom?

As she sat on her roof in her chair and stared up at the black sky with its bright stars as her form of entertainment, she felt the anxiety welling within her. This is why she didn't interact with the people in the fortress. She had no issues with Mayers, but he brought them along with him for the ride as baggage that didn't belong to him. She waited, wasn't in the mood for a fight. Not at home. She looked at her feet, the fire she had built in the old stove had burned out. Rather than placing more kindling inside, she rose from her seat and looked out over empty Maverick streets. No screams, no moans, no terror. Complete and utter emptiness. No one could tell her as she took in the view that what she had done and the direction she had taken was wrong. People could live a little. Zoms still existed and they were everywhere but there were pockets of Pennsylvania that were better as a result of her and her exterminators hard and diligent work.

As she leaned on the roof the headlights were bright in the distance and they crept closer and closer. Probably Julio and Kyle or one of the other 2 teams that kept these streets the way they should be. They worked in rotating shifts and she would not be joining them like she had in the beginning. Julia, the only chick who could take a vacation during the end of the world. She backed off the ledge and she stood in the dark, out of the streaks of light on the vehicle. This was no patrol, however, as the jeep parked curbside and she heard voices below.

"I am trying to make a point, Chess." Jody had said as he got out of the jeep and stood on the street in front of the coffee shop. The exact same point Julia had made many times over. "What do you see?"

Jody raised his voice and Chess didn't answer. "I should ask, what don't you see?"

As Jody had thought on his first visit to Green street a little more than a month prior, Chess was observant. It was possible to live free of a zombie threat. One still had to be smart and on guard, but to walk the street at night without a zom coming toward him or being flanked on all sides by a nest was unheard of even in zombie world.

"She did this?" He asked.

"Yes. With help. Help she asked for and we didn't give her."

"Fuck." He said, looking around him in all directions. This was not the Green Street he recalled from zombie world.

"Julia, can we come up?" Jody yelled, glancing toward the second floor dwelling.

"I came down." She replied as she walked to the corner barefoot in shorts and a cami.

"Shit." Chess gasped. "Where's your hair?" Drastically shorter than the last time he'd seen her. He took a look at her as she stood in the glow of headlights, unarmed, no gun or knife.

"It's all gone now." She answered, fidgeting with her hair as it clung to her head.

They hadn't stood face to face in months. Hadn't spoken to each other in that amount of time. She was nervous, but not the mess he had expected to see. She was alright. He could see her with his own eyes and know for sure.  He wasn't angry.

"I know." She said, her voice a whisper. She was holding herself together. At least they hadn't brought Jayson. Thank God, they hadn't brought Jayson.

He approached her. He touched her hair. "Jules." He looked as if he was seeing a ghost before he brought her close to him. "Jules." He hugged her tight.

"Chess, I am ok."

"Good. You have some explaining to do, I hear. And you have a map to show us."

"Yeah." She answered, trying to break the hug he had around her. "Yeah, Chess. Let go. Come up." She said, moving her hands over his arms to his hands. She separated and backed up, still holding his hands. She backed up, pulling him along with her.

"Mayers, come on." He called as he let Julia lead him away. He thought he'd be in for a long conversation about Philly, New Jersey. He was led to the apartment that he had no idea existed before Jody had told him.

Inside her apartment, she spread her paper maps out on a table and she got to explaining how she had tweaked her original Phase one and Phase two plans. Since she was loose on the street and had no ties to anyone or any specific group, she felt comfortable running varying parts of the phase I and II plans concurrently. She had a few strongholds mapped out and considered them allies. If she could oust all the individuals from their small shelters and transfer them out safely to established shelters, then she and her motley group of opportunistic soldiers could better clear the way and not have to deal with the living under foot. Having the living holed up and in shelters kept them out of the streets and kept more live humans from turning into dead humans. Julia saw this as a win-win.

She thought about it after Jody had left her on her roof, that she was grateful for the shelters that were up and running. She hadn't wanted that for her group per se, but they were small and she only wanted for them what she wanted for the rest of those in the street, to be safe from harm from both the living and the dead. She had realized that she was being over critical and for that she apologized. She realized supplies and food were running thin or out altogether and she told them both straight up that she was being unfair. She couldn't walk in their shoes and wouldn't want to and they wouldn't want to walk in her shoes either. In the dead of winter, they had the basics and were kept warm and fed enough to make it through to spring. Julia had been the one in the elements. She'd been the one who made things happen and then as word spread, she and the exterminators made all the difference.

She sought refuge when she needed a night's rest and when she was close to a shelter, but never lived in one. She never asked for a hand out and worked hours on hours with no sleep and under the most extreme circumstances. There were nights she swore she wouldn't live to see another sun rise. At each and every sunrise, she thought about Jayson. Was he waking up and looking into the same sunrise? Was he thinking of her as she thought of him? In her most private moments and thoughts, she found Jayson living there. He's probably running, she would say to herself. She spent as many mornings running for her life as he ran to keep sane.

"They will cross here and here. These bridges out of Philly and into Jersey. Then this bridge here out of Wilmington into Jersey." Julia pointed at the specific bridges that crossed from the Pa-De mainland into lower New Jersey on her map. She frowned as she described the city of Philadelphia and its surrounding area. The dead spilled out of the city into surrounding suburbs in droves and it was near impossible to stabilize the area with all the thousands that hived and huddled there. She'd missed winter in Philly. She'd passed winter and spring in her own area and left for Philly in May. "The city population before the shit hit the fan was 1.5 million people in Philadelphia. Only city that has more people on the coast is New York with 8.5 million. Count up the amount of dead and it outnumbers the living by a landslide." She ran her hands through her hair nervously. "There were so many that made it out of the city, then the ones who were killed and then the ones that...there's not a million but there's thousands. You know." She looked at Chess and Jody, from left to right as they stared at the map on the table like it would come to life in front of their eyes and show them a story. "Like I told Jody, short of a nuclear bomb, there's no saving the city and God only knows what the streets of New York look like. We own the second most populated metropolitan area next to New York and it's not gonna get any better without a major mobile shift of dead to another less populated area. This has to happen if we want to live here peacefully."

"Pittsburgh though, Julia. There are other large cities-" Chess interrupted her.

"Pittsburgh comes second to Philly with 300,000 or so. It's nothing compared to Philly. New York is also a problem. If they migrate south, we are screwed. If they drive them south, we are screwed."

"We do not own Philly."

"We will." Julia shook her head insistently. "I will. Someone will. One of us will. I got plans for that too. I guarantee my gang is stronger and wants it more."

"How far out do your people go?" Chess asked curiously.

"My infantry, you mean." She asked as she nudged Jody lightly.

Chess held his breath and counted to ten. Like he would with Julia at home, he had learned to control his immediate reaction when she baited him. The other one had a habit of doing the exact same thing when she was right. Didn't matter if it was something insignificant or major, both of the Julia's liked to make it known that they should have been listened to.

"How far out does the infantry go?" He asked again, applying a dry and droning tone to his voice. Julia picked up on the change, her sister had trained him not to react with anger. A less argumentative version of Morgan stood at her side. Julia placed her pencil on the map and made a wide circle on her Pennsylvania map, focused more or less in the middle of the state and a large swath of the state it was from border to border, north to south. "Fuck..." He said under his breath.

"A lot of help." She stressed the words a lot.

"Do you all meet up and make plans or have meetings?  How does this work?"

"The plan is very simple and very easy. Clearing for dummies." Julia giggled. "Clear and recruit and spread out. As we move along, we clear, we recruit more people to clear and we fan out.. Like the zoms do. As we come across more strongholds with numbers, we recruit from them and drop off those who need shelter. I try very hard to concentrate those in shelters close together."

"Who's in charge?"

"No one. It's a movement. No one reports to anyone. It's like all independent contractors."

"No one gives orders." Chess stated.

"There are no orders to give, Chess. The order and the goal does not change. Kill, recruit, shelter, expand. Kill, recruit, shelter, and expand, then repeat. The goal is they are all dead and until that happens, then the orders do not change."

"How do they eat? Sleep? Live?"

"They eat at strongholds and shelters. Sleep at em too. Live...the infantry is a way of life."

"No chain of command?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "It works." She said as she pointed to the window. "Chess, it's not that complicated. To sit and explain that binder to a bunch of hungry, homeless, tired men who don't wanna hear a girl nag would be insane."

"Julia, you switch to simple and leave us with complicated."

"Oh, no. I left you with organized. Every single aspect of human life was in that binder that you burned." She argued. Chess raised an eyebrow at Jody, having divulged that to her... "You could have burned a phone book inside the binder or something. Not the entire-it's cool though. It doesn't matter." Julia shrugged. She folded up her paper map and she tucked it back in her bag. "So, um, that is my plan. That's the basics. New Jersey and New York, still in the works. I'm still thinking."

"What's this got to do with us?" Chess asked as he slid his butt onto her table.

"Well, it's never too early, you know. I was gonna explain this to Jody, but he left real quick."

"I was mad." He smiled at her and he fluffed her hair again.

"I know that." She smiled at him. "You can stay if you want. I don't want you mad at me. I want you to stay with me." She announced suddenly. It was an out of the blue invitation. Her plan always involved Jody. He had wanted that. "It's up to you, you know. Think about it, please." She turned a bit toward him and looked up at him.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but-"

Chess noticed wifey's relaxed little body too close to Mayers. He wasn't sure if he cared or not and she didn't seem to be overtly eager, but she was in her own special way putting herself out there by asking. "I'm not going anywhere for a bit. I got things to do, you know, but there's time anyway."

"Hey, so, what's all this got to do with us, Jules?"

"Oh, Philly. Later on, New York. They're gonna come for us."

"Us?"

"Oh, sure. Yeah, just saying. If you shelter Philly, then, you know... Be ready."

"This got to do with Kev?"

"Yes and no. More yes than no. I want New York in on this. I need them. Getting rid of Kev was just a bonus."

"You killed him, then. He's gone."

Julia moved her index finger over her throat. "Yep. It needed to happen. He was useless and he was in the way. T is much better suited for the job and I left there and he knows that. Problem is, gotta get him outta Philly too."

"What were you doing in Philly with them?"

"Making friends. They're gonna seek shelter. Friends I will need to make this state a better place to live."

"Alone?"

"No, I didn't go alone, Chess." She answered.

She realized they were on their best behavior instead of their worst behavior. Didn't take a psychic to see Jody had a purpose standing with them. He kept them both reserved and avoiding the personal, knowing neither would delve into personal in front of him. Chess could have just as easily come alone, and she wondered if the course of their conversation would have taken a more personal course. Like Chess said, neither had spoken in several months. Each avoided the past like a pro, though the longer they stood in front of each other, that would be more difficult to do.

"What do you want from us?"

"I would like for you to use that land of yours to train the next group of people, your people. Those that will go further east and into Jersey. It's safe, it's large. It's got room. Put em in those old tents on the land somewhere. Also, your strongest and most able. I want them too. Their people will be safe and you will keep that shelter running. It'll be the first and official infantry. Your infantry. This involves Philly's people. They know the layout of the streets and the-."

"I know the streets and the layout of Philadelphia, Julia."

"I realize that. One thing at a time." She shook her head. "They won't be staying. They will train. Clear your neighborhoods and streets and nests around the fortress. I want that done too. There's a goal. Are you listening?" She looked at Jody. "Are you listening? He doesn't trust me."

"I do trust you and I do listen to you."

"No, you don't. You never did trust anything I ever said, Chester." She snapped at him. She motioned her head toward the window, her orange curtain was blowing in with the help of a breeze. "I don't know what I am talking about." Chess started counting to himself again, which was annoying her this time around. "Am I asking the wrong person?" Julia smiled. "Should I be standing here with her?"

"Her who?"

"Julia Fry. That's who. Is she running things?" Julia asked Jody. "She doesn't know much, but I know all about her and Jay and their work."

"Don't criticize her."

Julia held up her hands as if surrendering. "Fine. Should I ask her permission, then, Chester?"

"No, I'll take care of it. And quit calling me that. You sound like mommy."

"Whatever. Listen, this is the only time I will ask. I won't do it again. And if you-" She poked Chess's chest. "If you want in on this sector leader, then this is it. Make a decision. I will ask Miller if you-"

"I said we'll do it, Jules."

"Good." She smiled, holding out her hand to him.

He laughed. "You seriously shaking on this?"

"Yeah, cause I don't trust your ass either." She held her hand extended in the air. A handshake was the only contract they had in existence anymore. He took it and shook it, expecting her to shock him like Julia or send the vibes his way. When he felt nothing, he was surprised. "So it is official when we shake. You back out, you pay. Got it?" She asked seriously. Chess shook his head, surprised by this whole conversation. "Being polite and professional, Mr Morgan." She tactfully reminded him.

"Yeah, that's the way it is now, Julia." But have a plan to kill everyone you meet...

"That is exactly the way it is now." She withdrew her hand. "If I may make a suggestion."

"Oh, please. More suggestions." Chess moaned.

"Get your shit together. Think you're staying behind while my people take all the risk, that will not happen. So pull out the old knife and the pistol and get your feet wet again."

"My feet been wet, Julia. Don't start. They were wet before yours ever were."

"By like 24 hours maybe. Chess...I don't wanna fight with you."

"I don't wanna fight with you either. You trying hard though."

"How?"

"By doing this. You're insulting and rude, babe."

"Don't babe me. I am not your babe."

"Sorry." He said quickly. Almost too quickly. "I'm being fucking nice, Julia. It's-fuck...Jody, we should leave. Let's leave."

"How we getting back in the school? You running?" He asked. "We are not clear. We starting tonight?"

"We could. I'll live. I lived through worse." He replied, looking directly at Julia.

"Up to you. You're welcome to crash here. Or anywhere around here." Julia offered. "It is a free area. Well patrolled. You're safe."

"We do not need your patrol to keep us safe." Chess informed her. "Why are you so angry?"

"I am angry because you are content to live behind a fence in fear."

"I am not living in fear, Julia."

"Then you are content to be safe while people suffer and then you have the audacity to turn people away." She mumbled as she stepped away from them.

"We have turned no one away."

"I saw the signs." She argued.

Jody had made himself comfy on her love seat and she sat next to him. The silence was awkward and deafening. No one knew exactly what to say to one another.

"So what do you do here?" Jody asked.

"I-uh-don't do much. I'm not here a lot." She answered. "I keep busy."

"Ever have company?"

"No, Jo." She shook her head. "No one knows...well, Julio knows I am up here."

"I never met anyone more obnoxious than him."

Julia nodded in agreeance. "But he's a good guy. So is Kyle. They were the first people that I met out here. I stayed with them a couple times when I had to. Before I moved up here. Then he helped me move up here. Him and Kyle did."

"Where do they stay?"

"Their house over on Houser. It's near Tav's." Julia answered, looking at Chess as he moved off the table.

"Well, you could have come home. You didn't have to stay over here alone."

"I know. Sometimes I stay at the farmhouse. If I'm working out that way, I will."

"Really? We been there a few times and your stuff is still there."

"It's my house. Where else would I put it?" Julia replied. "How's Ray?" She asked suddenly, thinking of the room in her house. Ray's empty bed was there in its spot, hadn't moved.

"He's nuts, Jules. No more meds, but he's manageable, according to Tav." Chess replied. "He still doesn't like Jay. He thinks Jay got rid of you." Julia kept quiet, because Jay did get rid of her in a way. His actions and decisions forced her hand. "We keep him busy, though, and he's not too bad."

"Why'd you guys come out here at night?"

"Jody is making a point." Chess replied as he went to the window. He looked around the street below. No lights. No movement.

"Nothing's out there." Julia assured him, laying her head back against the love seat. She was starting to feel uncomfortable with the company. She had not been in Chess's presence in a long time. Catching up seemed pointless. She didn't want to bring up people she had left behind and have to explain herself or her choices.

Chess couldn't believe there was not one out there. Not one moan or shuffle on the sidewalk. No noise except for the bugs that sang their night music. It was as quiet as summer camp or a snow day. No hum of electricity. No sign of human life. He looked down Green Street. The houses he could see were the ones on the opposite side of the street from grandmom's and Julia's old house. The house they burned stood unburned and intact. The house they originally holed up inside years ago. Caddy corner to the coffee shop, the garage lot, fence closed and no burned zoms inside.

"Was so different. Remember?"

"Yes." She answered, because it was very different on Green Street. To stand on it without panic.

"I have a headache." Chess said, rubbing his temples.

"It'll pass." Julia told him. "The more you look and the more you think about it, that will happen."

"He shot us." Chess said quietly, rubbing his temples.

"That he did." Julia agreed as sullen as he sounded. "It hurts doesn't it?"

"Yeah." Chess answered.

"I feel numb every once in awhile. That nerve pain. That spasm. Only when I'm here, you know. It's good to remember though sometimes. It reminds me to be grateful I can walk and run and feel. It's a reminder about second chances and forgiveness and all that stuff we forgot about when we jumped home."

"Before you lost your mind, you mean."

"You could say before we lost our minds. Neither one of us exactly bounced back to life, running away and all."

"We did what we did. Didn't exactly come back and make it better, did we?"

"No. Not for a long time. I still struggle with making it better. I think this is how I make it better. By doing what I do, Chess, I have been working."

"That you have." He paused. "How long will this last?" He asked as he rubbed his head.

"A while. As long as you keep thinking about it." She stood from the love seat and went to the window with him. She leaned and looked down Green Street. She swished the orange sheer curtain aside further to look outside with him. She pointed down the block. "Know what I remember when I look that direction? I remember being dragged down the street and into that house." She looked at the house in question, feeling the hair stand on her arms. "I remember being raped. I remember being hurt and I remember...all of it." She looked away and across the street to the lot. "But if you think about what you cannot see down there, then it feels better."

"What can't you see?"

"Duh, Chess. My house. Jay's house. There are a million great fucking things that happened to me down the street, too. It's a balance. Balance it in your head. Look down there at what you cannot see and then it will change. You will feel better." She thought of him, Jayson. "Is he ok?" She asked. Chess looked sideways at her. "Yes or no. It's as simple as yes or no."

"Yes." Chess answered after a moment of thought, because it was the truth. As busy as Julia had been in the streets, Jayson and Julia had been side by side and working their end of the game that Elena was playing. Those two took to providing aid to the people like they were born to do it. They set up their own safe shelters and made it their goal to get into the community, what was left of it, and make sure that those who were alone or in need had food, water, shelter, warmth. When they took people in they made them welcome. They got to know their new faces and put names and histories with them. Jayson Keller and Julia Fry made the fortress the largest functional shelter of all the shelters in the area. The fact they had exceeded the capacity for bodies was insignificant, they took in those who arrived at the gates. Those who ignored the sign were never turned away. It had been the biggest argument the table had and still had.

Jayson and Julia also hit the street and visited all the other local shelters and safe houses and had got to know their leaders, members and had even had to stay at one or two of the places if they got caught up working. Sometimes zombies did get in the way. Twice...Chess thought about that. They were gone twice. He wondered and he never asked if anything ever happened between them. They had never sent up any red flags. As much time as they spent together, Chess never doubted Julia Fry's fidelity out loud. In his mind, he always questioned it and it was Julia Morgan's fault. From the outside, it appeared as though she was the faithful one of the two 'sisters'.

"What could you do if my answer was no? Nothing, but yes, he's alright."

Jay was still her biggest fan, despite the anger and the sadness and the utter depression he fell into after her departure. He blamed himself as usual. Never spoke ill of the girl. Never placed any blame on his girlfriend. The girl whom he considered to be his girlfriend. He hadn't moved on in that respect. If he had, Jay never said a word and neither did anyone else. Jay had all the company he could ever want or need, but the intimacy was lacking.

"He stopped crying about three months ago." Chess added. That had also been when he stopped talking about her, stopped looking for her and finally hope dwindled she'd come back. He had hope though that he'd run into her in the street somewhere, considering they both dealt with the people who were under a constant threat from harm. There were rumors, and Jay had heard them all, that she had been around. There were rumors she had set up Elke's farm as a safe house and that farm was up and running and the fields had been planted. He and Julia had confirmed that when they appeared and met the people there. Anywhere Elena went, she had given a list of friends and that they were help and to be helped. Jayson and Julia Fry linked all the shelters together. What one did not have, another did and vice versa.

"He wouldn't leave." Julia said in a matter of fact tone. Then or currently, he had chosen to stay at the school. He had chosen his work and she had chosen hers. Their career choices had similarities, but never aligned.

"Uh, no." Chess confirmed for her. "He chose his family."

Julia didn't take it as insult or a hit, rather a fact. "I chose people. He chose family. That's the difference." The vision of people also included her family. She pulled her body out of her window and went back to sitting beside Jody who had dozed off while she and Chess spoke. "You can look as long as you like. The scenery isn't gonna change."

"They gonna steal my jeep again?" Chess asked, turning from Green Street and sitting back on the table as he was before.

"No, you're not strangers. They'll leave it."

"Anything to drink?" He asked.

"Water." She replied, rising from the seat. She fetched him a glass of water. "Boiled this morning." She laughed.

"Ugh, thanks." He said, taking the glass from her. Room temp water turned his stomach. He had hoped she had a stash of something other than water. Not necessarily alcohol, because he didn't want any alcohol. He had a still if he wanted alcohol. "Hey, I started up the still again if you want Mayers to bring you a bottle."

"No. I do not drink anymore." She shook her head. Not that she didn't have any alcohol. She had some in the kitchen under the sink. She had cases of alcohol. She was nervous about drinking in zombie world. "Well, maybe, yes. I'll take some for a special occasion." She smiled, changing her mind, wondering what special occasion that would be. "If you wanna smoke, you can go up."

"Sure. Yeah. Not right now." He answered. "This is weird. I didn't think about it when we got in the jeep, but it's strange."

She nodded, "It is."

"Being six feet away from you. I thought I would be more mad."

"So did I. I was nervous about it. Brought Jody, like a referee."

"I brought Jo cause he's my two." Chess corrected her. "You want my two. You have plenty to choose from, but you wanna take mine."

"Sorry, I didn't realize the chain of command, Sir." She sighed. "I don't wanna take him, I only wanna borrow him."

"You got plans for him?"

"I've seen him work. He wants to work. I been looking for his brothers. Cannot find them." She explained. "If she would like to know where Jay is, he's in the Gettysburg compound. She can stop wondering if he's alive or dead."

"You found them."

"I found him, not them. I didn't speak with him. I saw him, confirmed it was him and got him the hell out of here." She paused and looked at him. "I think it was the right move to make."

"Um, I'm not sure. I will let her know though."

"How you gonna handle that?"

"Not sure. I think she should know the truth. That's he's ok, because she does worry about him."

"I do, too. Don't act like it, but I do."

"Nice way of showing it, Julia."

"Well, it is what it is. Like I told Jody, it had to happen. One of us had to be the bigger person. Everyone can just hate me and rally around him. It is what he needed."

"No one hates you. No one is surprised, but no one hates you. I don't. And I won't ask for excuses or try to make any sense of it. It was a long time coming. Should have happened years ago, but like you said, it is what it is."

"I didn't waste my time. I am right where I am supposed to be. I feel confident that this is what I am supposed to be doing."

"You look good. Happy."

"Only we can be happy in the middle of all this. And so do you, Morgan."

"The hair though."

"Don't like people messing with my hair anyways. The hair damn near got me killed a couple times. It's easier this way."

"You got the head for it. It's not one of those odd shaped heads, you know."

"Well, thanks." She laughed.

Chess slid off the table and head to the steps. Julia followed, carrying the lamp away from the efficiency. Chess remarked that he had no idea this place existed above the coffee shop and Julia launched into the 'neither did I' speech, repeating the entire story all over again as she had told Jody. He offered her a hit off his joint and she declined.

"I'm clean, thanks." She smiled as she plucked a cherry tomato off her plant. He remarked she had a nice set up on the roof. "If I had a tent I could live right here. Think when the streets were full I hid in the office downstairs. Scared to death, shit stacked in front of the door."

"And now you walk without a weapon."

"Rare, Chess, believe me."

"So what's on the agenda for tomorrow? Got plans?"

"I always have plans. I'm gonna ride out to check on the farms. I'm gonna see Care and have lunch with her, check my fields. They're planted also. Machines make all the difference in the world. People who know what they're doing make all the difference in the world. I sent some to you."

"Yes, I saw that. Shit's growing."

"Thanks. Need anything? If you do, ask. I can find shit. Let them know you're coming."

"No. We are good."

"Nothing?" She asked surprised.

"I don't need much."

"How are things? You still with her?"

"Yeah." He smiled a true smile for the first time that night. "Why? Does that surprise you?"

"Nah, it doesn't."

"We're good though. She does her thing. I do mine." He laughed. "So basically she tells me what to do and I just do it."

"That's sweet." She smiled at him.

"Whenever she says I need...it's gonna be a long ass fucking day. And if she has Jayson with her it's a longer day."

"Ever have fun?"

"Yeah. How about you, wifey?"

"It's all fun."

"You alone? You got anyone? Julio seems to like you a lot."

"My version of sober doesn't include Julio, Chess."

"Oh, cool. Ok."

"Julio was short lived and he's a hoe."

"Ok."

"Not much time for it what with all the running for my life and hiding and all."

"Ok, you don't have to explain it."

"Been down this road before. You know what I'm like when I want to figure things out."

"What's there to figure out?"

"Everything is different with a clear mind. I need a connection to someone before I do that sort of thing anyway."

"Since when?"

"Since forever."

Chess smiled, "Well, if you ever want a connection, I know somebody." He nudged her. "Nice guy, too. Tall, likes to run, wants the world to be a better place. He's loyal, faithful, a real ride or die kinda guy."

"Trying to make me feel bad?"

"No. Just saying I know a guy." Chess moved off the wall from her and stretched out on her chair on the roof. "Get away from me before I start talking. You don't want me talking, do you?" He unlaced his boots and slid them off his feet. He set them next to the chaise lounge and reclined the top of the chair.

"You don't have to stay outside, Chess. There's-"

"I do. I do. I do. Get away from me, woman." As she slipped past him, he caught her hand. "Julia, you know why."

"I do. I do. I do." She mimicked him. She squeezed his hand. "I'm going."

When she made the descent back to her efficiency, leaving Chess on the roof, she arrived to Jody awaking.

"Just dozing." He said. "Just dozing." His brown eyes opened and he looked at her. The look on her face read like she was guilty of something. She looked caught.

"You dozed for like two hours, Jo." She answered him as she crossed to her bed. A full size unmade bed against the wall diagonal to the love seat.

"You didn't-"

"No. I didn't do anything." She rolled her eyes. His suspicions were just that. "Neither did he. We're behaving tonight." Suspicions. She knew them all too well. "Just shootin' the shit with an old...friend."

"Alright, then. You sleepy?" He asked her.

She started crying. Soft and quiet, but still crying. She knew that seeing them would bring the tears on. She nodded yes and then shook her head no. Sleepy wasn't quite the word. Emotional, sad, happy, overwhelmed, grateful to have some human contact with people she knew. Her fears of having a battle with Chess had been put to rest. No arguments, no shaming, no guilting.  He cared, was relieved to see her and make sure she was alright, but to rehash the past...she was getting off too easy. Chess knew she was already putting herself through hell in her head for her choices and actions. He didn't feel like adding to it. Looking at these two only made her think about Jay pretty hard and there were times she missed him so much it hurt her inside.

"You cryin'." He stated.

"You people forget I am a girl." They did. They all did. She spent so much time with men, acting like one, killing like one, fighting and scheming like one. There were times she forgot she was female as well. She tried so hard to blur the line between male and female, but it was impossible.  "I'm ok. It'll pass."

"He made you cry?"

"No. I'm thinking about things and people I haven't thought about in a long time. I think this might be normal." She explained as best she could. "I spend so much time alone, Jody."

"Not right now, right."

"Yeah." She cried. "I know people. Like hundreds of em. But I have no ties to anyone. The closest thing to a friend I got to talk to is Julio. But then I complain and realize that I placed myself right here."

"Doesn't help that no one wanted to go with you."

"I asked the wrong guys." She frowned, looking at the steps. She pointed to the ceiling. "He doesn't trust me, but he would have had my back at least."

"I'm sorry, Julia. I didn't wanna go with her. Why didn't you come back for me? You. Not her. I would have gone with you. What the hell was she here for anyways?"

"I went home." She replied, scooting back on the bed. She leaned against her wall and cried as she spoke. "I needed the one person in the whole entire universe that was alive that belonged to me."

"Who's that?"

"Antonia."

"You went home? How's Tia?" He asked, his attention span suddenly perking up.

"Alive, looks like her mom,  but is nothing like her mom."

"She still with my brother?" He asked.

"Yes." She replied, thinking back to Greg Mayers exploring hands. "I didn't go back for a reunion. I just wanted to see my daughter. One I didn't have to see at a grave. Jo, you don't understand."

"No, but you saw her."

"I had a week with her, which turned into another damn year of future living. A week in our time is different you know."

"I am painfully aware. How old is she now?"

"11 when I got there."

"Hard to leave?"

"Yes, but I wouldn't change it for the world." She smiled through her tears. "Oh, it was not all great times, but you know what makes this all worth it?" She asked excited and smiling now while she thought about her future.

"Hmm, tell me."

"That what we do now impacts on the future, Jody. What we do now makes that possible. That is why I do this. For her."

"Never thought about it like that."

"Best year of my life, hands down, Jody. I met so many great people. I learned a lot."

"Like what, Julia?"

"All this medical stuff from the Vet clinic I worked in. I worked in therapy mainly, rehabbing the vets with traumatic injuries, those who were paralyzed and who were getting their peg legs. I was kinda bored when we got home from Florida, so Tav made me work. I was getting on his nerves all day."

"You lived with him."

She nodded. "In Philly, yeah. She lived there when we jumped remember?"

"Yeah."

"So that's that. I had a great time. I learned a lot. All that counseling, talking. I worked through it right along with them. We were all so damn miserable, but it worked out. We went from sitting around crying and angry and feeling sorry for ourselves to people who wanted to live."

"Were you vaxxed?"

"Yep." She answered, turning an arm to him. A raised welt was clearly visible on her left upper arm. "Stays red and raised, especially after you been infected. The whole body reacts to the infection when it's active in the bloodstream." She replied. "Oh, it's why we're so hot all the time. We're constantly in a state of immune response. That's what McGill says anyways. I made him explain it to me before I blew a hole in his head. Tav told me where he lived, so I went when we were on our way to Florida. He was in the one place I was not allowed to go. Hard to get to Florida without going through Virginia." Jody stared at her oddly. "I was under armed escort through the entire state."

"How'd you kill him then?"

"I jumped. Used the last of the magic for that jump too. She was so mad when she got home and then had to jump me back. It takes a lot of energy, the jumping. Once you're vaxxed, there's no more jumping. The vax fucked up my brain that way. I can't jump or see or connect anymore."

"So how did she jump?"

"She was never vaxxed. That's a secret, but who are you gonna tell?" Julia whispered as she lay back on her bed. " 'Save the magic to jump home', she said. I didn't listen." She quieted down, no longer wanting to discuss the future. She didn't want to discuss the past either. "So, Jo, what are you thinking about?"

"How pretty you are without hair." He answered.

"My hair, Jo?" She giggled as he caught her off guard.

"I said how pretty you are." He corrected her. "Without all the hair." He paused, leaning forward on the love seat. "You know you're completely different from a few months ago. In a really good way."

Shit, I left the roof to avoid this... That wasn't the direction she expected him to take. He never took that road with her before.

"I like it is all. Should have done that a long time ago. It brings out your face, your eyes especially."

"Thanks, Jody." She replied, leaving that as a compliment even though she knew he was leading her. She had been around the block once or twice. He was trying not to make it too obvious. She thought back to when she swore that she would not have anything to do with Jody unless he was the last man on earth. She kind of still felt that way. She turned her head and took another look at the kid. He was looking at the pictures on the wall. They were lovely landscapes and had come with the apartment. Jody was handsome, but she had always agreed with Tia on that and she had always thought that of him. His energy is not right...she remembered thinking. Why wasn't it? Her energy had been so mixed up under someone else and all her problems. Problems that seemed minor at the moment, considering she grew out of her problems. Her stressors had changed completely. He idea of problems focused on work. Work. She needed to go back to work. She took her mind of Mayers and thought about morning. The farms, her lunch date with Caroline at the farmhouse. Her long list of places she needed to visit.

"Hey, can you gimme a ride in the morning over to storage?" She asked him. "Um, I wanna pick up my bike."

"It's downstairs."

"My motorbike." She said. "I wanna hang with Temple a little too. Julio hooked him up and I wanna make sure he liked her. Temple's kinda fussy when it comes to girls."

"You run girls?"

"I, uh, do not run females for sex, Jody." She denied that. "I have, but I don't make a habit of it."

"What's to fuss about?"

"Um, he has a particular taste." She shrugged. "Would be nice if he found one he wanted to keep or one willing to stay."

"He got that mean little dog. It bit me."

"Me too. Little nip, nothing bad. It's a freaking Chihuahua mutt." She laughed.

"Part pit bull." He mumbled.

"Oh, so how's life then? Got a girlfriend?" She asked excitedly.

"Kay." He shrugged. "Nothing serious though."

"Still waiting for the princess."

"Not necessarily. I do love the little princess though. She's so sweet and we have fun." He laughed a little. "How bout Toni? She got a little romance yet, mom?"

"She's got many crushes. She is sweet on Tarin, but damn who isn't? He looks just like his damn dad and he acts like him too. She has a long wait, but with any luck he may settle down by then."

"Her cousin."

"They're not related, Jody. She's a Freeman, Jody."  She sighed, thinking of Antonio. "She's stunning to look at, like I cannot believe she came out of me. So tall and thin and her skin is so...she's so mixed, like that light cocoa brown." Julia sat up and she crawled out of bed. "Here, look." She smiled crossing to her bag. She brought out her notebook and she sat next to him. "Look at her." She smiled.

Jody's eyes scanned the sketch of Toni. Kell had done it for her a few months after she arrived. Kelly's sketch was so strikingly accurate. "She's pretty, Julia. Looks like him."

"Yeah." She smiled, running her fingers over the paper. "She got his eyes for sure. The rest of her, the height, the whole body type. She's long and lanky like her dad. She is 12 now." Julia slid the sketch into the notebook carefully between pages. "She's smart and funny and just everything I ever thought she'd be. A smart ass, but I am her mother."

"You miss her."

"Sure, I do. But it's cool. I'm glad I got the time with her. To connect with her. Learn about her. Watch her grow. I got to tell her all about her dad. She misses him and never met him. She doesn't remember him at all of course. She blames me for his death."

"That was..."

"It was me. It was Chess. It was New Jersey savages, Jody. Geeze, I loved him. I miss that, you know, getting to know somebody and falling in love with somebody. I think he was like one of the few I can say I truly love with all my heart. I screwed that up big time."

"Don't blame yourself."

"Who else is there to blame? I loved my husband more."

"Who's on the list of the few?" He asked as she sat back on the love seat with him.

"Oh, um, you could probably guess."

"I can. Don't know why I asked."

"You're one of the few, too." She nudged him. That was why he asked, to see if he was on the list. "My circle, Jody. It's a small circle. Lasts for years and years and the same people are all on the list all the time. Some I lost and some are still there, hanging in." She looked up at the ceiling. "She doesn't even speak to him. Hasn't spoken to him in years, but he still takes care of her. He takes care of Toni like she's his or something. He's loyal, I'll give him that."

"He's good there?"

"I guess. I wasn't allowed anywhere near the school. She warned me. It was the only rule I followed. I just left him, so I wasn't about to run on back to him. I was pissed off because he burned up my ring. Didn't leave under the best of circumstances."

"You broke the other rules?"

"All of them."

"Like?"

"No killing, and I killed McGill and his son. No working, but I did anyway with the vets. I think she meant no nests and no traveling. That sort of thing." She explained. "Oh, and no boyfriends, but I had a couple here and there. I didn't form any long term relationships. She didn't want me falling in love with another stranger. Oh, and no girlfriends either. After a couple months I realized she was on a different time clock and I let some rules slide."

He laughed. He understood Julia and rules. She had left her with a reminder of the 10 commandments and Julia couldn't live up to that. She couldn't pass up the chance at revenge for Care and Jay. She couldn't avoid working because she was bored. She had no idea what Julia, herself did all day with her time, but no one came looking for her and no one expected a thing from her except Toni. After a while, that relationship improved. Aside from Tavin and Toni, Julia, herself had no personal relationships. Where Julia, herself felt like she was drowning on a daily basis. Julia took to the future like a fish took to water, swimming around and immersing herself in a school of people that had needs. If Julia was good at anything, it was meeting the needs of people.

"I was on a streak of decent guys, Jo. Pablo was just this huge sweetheart in Florida. No strings. She'll never see him again. A vet named LaGrange. I crossed fucking an amputee in a wheel chair off my bucket list." She explained. "I didn't hang around long enough when she got back to hear what she thinks of me and Tavin reconnecting. Maybe he didn't tell her. Who knows?"

She and Jody sat shoulder to shoulder talking and catching up. She heard all about life on the Mastro campus. His daily routine, the table and their usual activity. She listened about the hard winter and the solar power that took two months to hook up and get running smoothly without any kinks in the system. Jay took forever, but he did it like he said he would. Jody listened to her tales without the usual judgment she would receive from Chess. Jody was never critical and never judged her. If he did, it was rare. It was nice to sit and talk with someone for a change, someone who knew her and understood where she was coming from. For the most part, they unloaded their problems. Problems neither could fix for the other without actually being there.

"You are so hot." He finally said, nudging her shoulder away from him. If she laughed or got excited, her temp flared against him and he was already hot enough.

"Side effects." She shrugged, moving to her left a little more. "Sorry. I know it's a pain in the ass. I don't like it either." In the winter, she froze and suffered constant chills under multiple layers of clothes. In the summer and warmer months, she was hot as hell, but had no uncomfortable chills or shivering. Warm and dry air was always best for her internal thermometer.

"I know. She says the same thing."

"The night sweats are a son of a bitch. I just get enough layers of clothes and blankets to not feel cold and then I'll wake up soaking fucking wet and sweating. It's awful."

Jody took her hand and held it. "At least 100." He said as he interlocked his hand with hers.

"Never checked. No thermometer." She answered him as she looked at her hand in his. If that wasn't a blatant pass at her, she didn't know what was. When he didn't let go, she quieted and wasn't sure if she was uncomfortable or liked the hand in hers.

She took a second look at Jody, his handsome face with his five o'clock shadow instead of the full beard. His doe like brown eyes. He had a nice smile too. He'd always been easy on the eyes. And since the zombie apocalypse, he'd thinned out a bit, but also bulked up a lot from the work he did at the campus.

"Jo, what's this?" She asked, holding up their interlocked hands. She chose to call him out, but didn't let him go. He blushed a little and unlocked his grip on her right hand. "You wanna go there with me? I haven't considered that like ever."

"Ever?" He questioned her, letting his hand wrap hers again since she didn't leave him go.

"Not really. I was used to people assuming we did things, but I didn't actively think about doing...things. Did you?"

"I was never in a position to, Julia. You were always with one of them or all of them or some of them or someone or pregnant and that would not have been appropriate in any way."

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You called me undeveloped, Jody."

"I called her undeveloped. Your personality is overdeveloped. You, inside, that's what I always liked."

She squeezed his strong hand as he tried to take it away from her. "Leave it." She scolded him. "If you wanna, then-" He kissed her, silencing the mouth and not leaving go of her hand. His lips met hers soft and sweet and she let him till he pulled away.

"What?" He asked her. "You said if I wanna..."

"Hold my fucking hand, Jody. You didn't let me finish."

"Oh, sorry about that, then."

"It's ok. It is, I mean, it's alright and I am not mad at you or anything. I didn't know you wanted to."

"I have."

"Oh, Jody, that's sweet. But I can't. I mean, I am not here a lot and I have stuff to do and I don't-"

"I don't want a girlfriend, Julia."

"You wanna fuck." She stated surprised. "Me. You wanna fuck me."

"No." He shook his head. "No. I don't wanna fuck." He shook his head.

"I think that us laying down over there would complicate this friendship we got going here. You're my friend."

"You're mine."

"I wanna stay that way. Sex makes things go horribly wrong. When I have sex, it gets bad. I don't want a relationship with you."

"We have a relationship, but it's not a sex type thing. We've known each other a long time."

"It's your turn." She frowned. "I'm easy." She whispered. "Tag, you're it."

"No. No, Julia."  He shook his hand out of hers. "I don't need a turn. Not what I meant."

"Jules is a whore, so-"  Julia started crying again. "Jo, we don't do this. We don't act like this. You don't get to take a turn. It's what it feels like." She got off the love seat and moved away from him.

"Calm down, Julia."

"You." She pointed at him. "You're the only friend I got left, Mayers. It'll ruin everything."

"No, no. I don't want you to think that I am one of those people that expects you to do that and I don't want you to think that that's what I want and-"  He quieted, thinking. He watched her cry and felt bad for ever touching her. "Julia, I only kissed you. You are moving way too far ahead in your brain."

"Kissed me." She repeated.

"Yes, I felt like it. You're freaking out over there over nothing." He smiled. "I like your hair like that. Your eyes."

"You felt like kissing me."

"Julia, yes. Do you freak out like this every time someone kisses you?"

"Nah, no. I don't. Just caught me by surprise is all." She answered, wiping her tears away. She sat on her bed. She always felt in a safe friend zone with Jody. She was also used to running around with people who had no clue who she was or what her past entailed. She was anonymous with strangers and no one brought up a past she tried to forget. Her friends, those that knew her, like Jody, she always felt like she was being judged by them. In the future, none of it mattered. So much time had passed, her behavior and activity was buried in a memory vault that no one ever dug up. The present, all of her past came rushing back to her. Jody wasn't making her feel like a whore, because Jody wouldn't think of her like that. She thought it all up on her own, placing labels on herself that he wasn't.

Julia lay down and stayed in her thoughts. She left Jody where he sat and left their conversation and their kiss in their thoughts.

He stayed put till morning when Chess woke them both and said it was time to get up and moving. He'd waited till dawn at least and he made his exit from the apartment to the street where he waited for them.

Julia moved when Jody rose from the love seat. She head to the roof for the morning routine and Jody followed looking to piss, get a drink of fresh water. She left him use her tooth brush and splash some water on his face. He took a drink from one of several water bottles she had on the roof in the direct sunlight. She had a system on that roof for sure. Fresh water, dirty water, a collection system. He plucked a tomato off the vine and then a few more. Her cherry tomatoes grew like weeds.

"Morgan," Jody said, picking his tee shirt off the arm of the chair where Chess had slept. He tucked it in his back pocket, leaving the blue cloth hang.

"Yup, what?" She asked as she snagged a couple water bottles off her line for her bag. Sun filtered water, yummy...she thought as she climbed back into the efficiency.

"Last night." He called down the steps.

She pulled off her shorts and pulled on jeans and then sneakers on her feet. "Julia, I hope you can bug out faster than this." Chess yelled from the street below as he waited by the jeep. She ignored his impatience and finished dressing, then gathered her things as Jody came down. He closed up the roof for her.

"Hey, last night, Julia." She looked up at him as she put her things in her bag. Crouched on the floor, sober, awake, happy. Blue green eyes lit up her face. "Won't happen again." He said as she stood up.

She slung her bag over her shoulder. "Ok, Jo."

They dropped her off at the storage lot and she watched them drive away as Racer alerted Temple he had company at the gates.

"Are we tabling all this Philadelphia-New York shit or should it be a surprise?" Chess wondered aloud, applying his seatbelt around his small waist. He knew what was coming. Philly never depended on New York to take care of their problems.  He caught Jody checking out wifey in the rear view mirror. Chess glimpsed in his side view mirror at her cute ass, thinking his Julia Fry could stand a devastatingly drastic haircut.

"But you don't know anyone in Philly. You have nothing to do with anything she did."

"I got everything to do with what she did." He answered him. He never left her out there hanging alone before and he wasn't about to start now. Julia's problems or alliances with Philly were his alliances and problems. "Quit checking out my wife, Jo."

"No, and she's single as fuck, Chess." He answered with a grin as her body slipped into the storage yard with Temple. When he couldn't see her anymore, his attention turned to Chess. "What did she do exactly other than kill a child molester?"

Chess let that comment slide. He'd never seen Kev have any inclination toward children, so until it came to pass, which it wouldn't now, he couldn't believe it. "Offered shelter, Jo." He shook his head in disbelief. "I know what she's doing. It wasn't written in any binder."

Julia Morgan had been trying to figure out a way to get Philly on the same page without Kev's involvement since she learned Chess and Jody planned on killing him. He had no idea that she'd actually go there, kill the guy and then offer a street gang a way out of zombie oppression.

"We're gonna have company. Gun carrying, prostituting, dog fighting, drug dealing company of the dark skin variety. These people ain't nothing to fuck with. They will slit your throat in your sleep and go to your funeral the next week and pay respects to your mom."

"Savages." Jody remarked.

"Not all of em, no. Once they bring you in, they put you out there and try to hang you to see if they can trust you."

"We're letting them in?" Jody asked.

"Fuck, yeah." Chess answered. "You don't understand."

"Make me understand this then, Chess."

"She can't do this alone. She thinks she can't so she is now asking for help. She reached out because she was ready." Chess explained it to Jody the best way he could. "I got her back. I will always have her back, Mayers, especially when she's scared."

"She look scared to you?"

I know my wife...she didn't change.

He called a morning meeting and included a couple new faces to the table. Joe and Savage were added to the fold when they had proven themselves as both allies and friends. It appeared that since their January arrival, they were a permanent fixture on campus. They got along with everyone, knew the family dynamic, never caused any trouble. The two only stood to help them as much as possible, especially as they got to know everyone and worked alongside everyone. Julia waited by the door for them, looking angry, but remaining quiet. They had no idea about Julia's return, that Jody and he knew where she lived or that they'd left the campus last night before dark.

What he planned on telling these people...information he didn't want to divulge about a past he'd long put behind him. He'd managed to do so better than Julia ever had, but he wasn't feeling any guilt for putting society's trash out to the curb. The scraps of society knew how to live with little to nothing. They were the ones who were repeat offenders, lived in the poorest and harshest conditions before the world fell apart and now, they were still alive, still carrying on and still living only in slightly harsher conditions. They were used to society trying to rob them, oppress them, scheme them and kill them. The world came at them from all sides and none of those sides was pleasant. It was the ultimate game of kill or be killed. 

"Chess, it's fucking 7am." Tavin complained first.

"Kind of important." Chess said, closing the door behind him. He glanced at Jay and thought about how this would affect him. He'd just started getting over her. He chose to withhold anything related to Julia altogether. "Some information has come my way that I think you all should know about, we need to think about and talk about."

"Like?" Tavin asked.

"Philly." He answered.

He launched into an hour's long informational about Philadelphia as told to him by Julia. Conditions in the city, the number of dead versus the number of living. "Urban decay, literally speaking."

"So, we're no where near Philly."

"We're closer than you think," Chess cleared his throat. "Know how we get those seeking shelter from all across the county. Some as far away as Riverdale and farther north?"

Tavin groaned. "Jesus, is she seriously sending us Philadelphia now?"

"It's a possibility." Chess answered. "I believe we should get ready for that. There is a chance that the drug dealing, dog fighting, gang affiliated, prostituting, gun carrying urban youth will make a visit."

"Going multicultural now, are we?" Jayson asked.

"It could get a little tense, depending on what comes our way."

"When?"

"Not sure."

"Bring on the blacks. Should get real interesting then." He stood up and left the room.

"Chess, I'm with Jay on this. Bring em in." He stood up along side Alex. "Let me know what you want me to do. I'll do it."

When everyone cleared out of the war room with the new information, Julia was the only one who stayed. "Jody was supposed to meet and communicate with the contact." She stated. "The contact, is she back?"

He was lost in thought, his mind going off in a handful of directions. "None of your business who gave us this information." Chess told her.

"So, I'll take that as a yes. You spent the night with the contact."

"We, me and Jody, spent the night with a contact. Not necessarily the contact." Chess argued, hoping to dissuade Julia that her sister was back in town and would once again reach into their lives or Jayson's life.

"Would you be honest if you had?"

"Yeah." He answered quickly. "It was dark and the gates don't open for anyone after dark. It wouldn't be smart." Chess reminded her. That was the truth. If you were outside the fence after dark, your ass stayed there till light. "Jules, why? Why with the questions? Can't you take a simple no and be happy?"

"Where did you sleep?"

He sighed. "Why the jealousy? I slept with absolutely no one."

"Really." She huffed.

"Jayson Keller." Chess stated, trying to change the subject. "He's in a Gettysburg shelter. He's alive."

"Good. I'm glad to hear it. What happened to my brother and sister?"

"That, I do not know."

"What did you talk about? Philly?"

"Yes." More or less. They'd skimmed over the past, the life they once lived. He could still feel her hand in his. He regretted letting it go. Even as he stood across from her lookalike whom he could say he loved, he regretted letting her go. He saw her looking sad and scared and doubting. "Julia, I told you if that were to happen, we'd talk about it first."

"Fine then." She shrugged.

"I didn't sleep with, kiss, touch or do anything else with anyone." He paused and stepped toward the table. "Last time I'm saying it."

Chess said nothing else. He was serious about keeping her location and anything related to Julia Morgan between him and Jody. They'd kept it between them since they found out. He trusted Mayers implicitly. He didn't want Jay going off and trying to find the girl he considered his girlfriend. He couldn't have her put Jay through hell again. Jay was seeing some light at the end of the Julia tunnel. He was almost out and if Julia knew anything, she'd drop kick him back inside. Wifey was focused, clear minded, and as close to normal as she was going to get. Putting Jayson in front of her with his hurt feelings wouldn't help this situation.

"Where did your information come from?"

"Word of mouth and then we confirmed it with her people." Chess replied. He'd have to start writing down the lies if he kept telling them.

Chess and Jody took a proactive approach to clearing their area. Cleaning up their back yard was long over due and Jody was thrilled. They lined up every single able bodied individual on campus. They assessed them and their histories and they formed lists of people who would go outside the fence and start the clearing. Chess took a page out of wifey's playbook. Keep it simple. Kill, clear, burn and expand until the area was clear. Initially there would be separate teams who would hunt, tag and clear nests in large structures till they were eradicated from the local landscape. There were several strong and large in their area that Julia and her teams refused to clear for them. Chess surmised that she did it purposefully, leaving them strategically placed for them to practice the art of the hunt. Chess and Jody didn't need practice. They were experienced, but the teams they'd put together on paper needed to gather skills and confidence. Most of which hadn't left the grounds since their arrival during the winter and spring.

There were those who had necessary jobs on the land. Field work came first. Those who were knowledgeable in any areas that his table was unfamiliar were not assigned to teams. They were mandatory ground crew. Any person who could build or hunt or plant or harvest or maintain the grounds, the buildings or the plumbing was not stepping outside the confines of the campus. Savage suggested that the older boys and girls, the teenagers start apprenticing those who were working. The longer they apprenticed, the more knowledgeable they became and that would free up the able bodied men.

"Great idea, find the kids and assign them." Chess agreed wholeheartedly with that direction. There was no school system anymore. There was no tech school or higher education anymore.

"Why not?" Julia asked. "These little kids need to know how to read and write."

"Great, work on that. Find us a teacher and let me know what you need and we'll send a team out for the supplies."

Since the newcomers had slowed, that task would occupy the OCD nature of Julia Fry.

Chess was pouring extra time into all these plans. He kept the paper to a minimum, but the more they all sat around thinking, the more ideas they came up with. As the three occupied the family area of this second floor housing project, they continued their think tank.

"You really need me for this, Chess?" Jody asked as he glanced out the window. "The teams are formed and I think we're finished today, right?"

"Jo, you got other plans?" Chess asked as he caught Jody staring outside at a setting sun. He glanced next at Tavin who stretched out on an old sectional with a sleeping Tarin on his chest.

Jody's clock was ticking. He needed to be outside the fence and in a certain area by a certain time in order to-"No, Chess." He replied. "It's Wednesday is all."

"Oh, there's Wednesday business that needs to be taken care of?" Chess knew this was going to be a problem. "I thought we took care of Wednesday's business a few days back."

"There's always business."

"Jo, you sure you want to continue with Wednesday's business? You don't have to, considering we now know what we know."

"I don't have to, no. I don't mind keeping up appointments."

"I assigned it to you, but do we need to keep up anything now?"

"I would like to keep Wednesday open. We made an important contact and we shouldn't disappoint the contact."

"Jesus Christ, Jo. Go get laid." Tavin said annoyed with all the back and forth between him and Chess. "See he's trying to get out of here before the sun sets."

"Fine. Fine, go. Do not piss off our contact."

Jody slipped out of the second floor quietly. Tavin watched him leave. "Who's the contact, Chess?" He asked with a hint of sarcasm to his voice. Chess didn't answer, only closed the book in front of him and set it aside on the small table he sat in front of.

"Guess it's me and you, Tav."

"Who's the contact?"

"Can't say."

"I know the contact?" Tavin asked curiously as he saw Julia and Jess coming down the hall toward them. They turned off into Chess and Julia's room, that old office they'd cleared out. He and Chess heard the girls chatting and laughing from the lounge area they'd created. "Some things don't change, huh, Chess?" He asked as he looked down the darkened hallway.

"Nah, they don't." he answered. "They're friends, Tav."

"Looks like it. Attached at the hip again."  He moved Tarin aside and repositioned on the sectional.

"Want me to take him so you can get up?"

"No, leave us alone. I'm fine right here." He answered. 

"Where's your brother?"

"Jay's with Tia. They were swimming in the pond. Now he's probably playing with dollies. He's such a good fucking mom."

"He is that." Chess agreed, reaching for his notebook full of names. "How about nest teams and zom teams."

"Yeah, whatever. Just let me know. I'll do whatever the fuck you want. Just get me outta here all day."

He and Tavin were finally on the same page in that concern. Chess was tiring of looking at the walls around him. A lot of people inside the gate were grateful to be there and would never leave if they had the option. They were no longer scared or fearful. They could sleep at night and rest easy. They worked, they all had something to do with their day, but it was not killing. It was as close to living a normal life as possible in an abnormal world. Scavenge teams didn't compare to what was coming for these people.

"Know what this place needs? Your contact."

"Oh, that's not a good idea."

"Well, the contact would shake shit up around here."

"The contact would definitely do that." Chess agreed. "So priority teams. You want Alex on this nest team?"

"Yeah, whatever. I think he'd want that."

"Where is he?"

"The dorms with prego. Know what I would give to be his age again?"

"We ain't old, Tavin."

"Fucking feels like it. This is literally hell, Chess."

"Not my version of hell."

Chess and Tavin sat together having a mini meeting, looking over lists of people on the compound and divided everyone into teams who would go out and clear the neighborhood. Within two hours they had multiple groups of able bodied men and a few women who had street experience with zoms. Pretty much everyone who entered the gate had killed at least one. Anyone who wanted to join and learn could do so and would be paired up with people who had experience. The plan was pretty simple and direct. Street by street and house by house till every last zom was dead and put down. They'd move out further and further each day until they met with another clear area. He followed his contact's clearing for dummies idea and since the teams would all head home at dusk, he and Tavin made a few more rules. Anyone bitten would be put down immediately. No questions. Anyone who got out there and changed their mind had to stay in a safe place and wait till the end of the day. Anyone who got caught outside the fence after dusk stayed there. Gates would not be opened for stragglers.

They were going sun up to sun down and they'd finish with a burn. It was going to be hard and strenuous work in summer heat and it would be most unpleasant. Knives out. No guns although most everyone would carry them.

He created specific priority teams. His priority teams were those who had experience with nests. They were also those who needed to learn how to find, tag and then dispose of the nests. Chess felt that he and Jody had the most nest experience. Each would be priority team leaders and they'd specialize with nest virus zoms. There were two other priority teams and they worked a different area altogether. Their focus was strictly nests.

"Would you like old virus or nest virus, Keller?"

"Old is cool." He replied.

"Nest is easier."

"Not from the looks of the nests I saw. So, I'll clear old, thank you."

"Ok. Sounds like a plan then?"

"Yeah. Sounds good to me." Tavin answered as he watched down the dark hallway. All the girls were in Chess and Julia's room with Jayson talking with them in the doorway. Tia and Cass ran the hall between rooms, wound up and ready for bed. "Hey, think he's really gonna be dead in a couple years?" Tavin asked as he watched his brother chat with a room full of giggling females.

"Hope not." Chess answered as he set the book aside for the night. He rolled his office chair away from the table and peered down the hallway. "I really hope not."

"Which team is he on?"

"He's not." Chess replied. "He's got his own little team. His job doesn't change, Tav."

"Not gonna split em up?"

"No. They keep doing their thing. They stay here when they got no place to go. They can run the place just fine while we're out."

"Did you ask them? Talk about it with them?"

"It's an executive decision."

"We having sleep overs now, Mayers?" She yelled over her roof at the ground.

Jody looked nervous at the greeting. Unsure whether her reaction bothered her or whether she was kidding around. Julia's moods used to change on a whim, he recalled. He held up a small box. "Did you order pizza?"

"Oh, my fucking God. Is that Jay's bomb ass pizza?" She squealed, clapping hands together over the edge of the building. She hadn't tasted his homemade pizza in months. She had not had the pleasure of pizza at all.

"Yeah." He nodded. He and Kay made pizza on Wednesdays. Not every Wednesday, but he remembered how Julia loved Jay's 'bomb ass pizza'. In fact that was the given name for the pizza he made. She had given it the name.

"Oh, gimme. Please." She smiled excitedly. She met Jo at the door and snatched the box out of his hands. She kissed his cheek. "Hi, I haven't had pizza in forever." She said, leading him up to the roof. They sat at her table by the grill and she dove into three slices of pizza like she hadn't eaten in weeks. She chased it with water and leaned back in her chair, patting her belly. "Thanks, that was a nice surprise."

"Sure." He said, finishing the last slice. He'd already eaten bomb ass pizza that day, but the last slice was calling his name.

"Wanna know what I found?" She smiled. "Since we're eating well." She rose from her chair and she dropped into the efficiency. She returned with her hands behind her back. "Close your eyes." She smiled at him as she stood in front of him. He closed his brown eyes and waited, feeling her slide her hand in his. Then she placed a cool, not cold, plastic bottle in his hand. She giggled as she sat back down and when Jody looked down at his hand he held a 20 ounce bottle of Coke. "There's more. Drink." She said.

"Wow, thanks." He opened the bottle, hearing the fizz as removed the lid. He didn't ask where she found it, but he was glad to have it. Only thing that would have been better was an ice cold beer. "Want some?"

"Don't like soda, Jo. Never did." She replied as she sat indian style in her seat. "So what's up? I didn't expect you today. Everything ok?"

He blushed a little and Julia had to get used to the blushing Jo. He usually held himself in check. "Yeah, good. Thought you seemed a little down last time I saw you and since it's Wednesday and all, thought I would hang out with you."

"Yeah, sure. You're welcome anytime." She said. "Wasn't doing much, just pruning that mess over there." She looked toward her container garden. "Got here just in time I almost made dinner."

"Glad to be home again?"

"Yes." She answered eagerly, thinking about Philly. She'd spent a lot of time thinking about Philly, but she didn't want to elaborate for him. Thoughts a plenty, but none of it was pretty.

"What ya been up to?"

"Um, shelter stuff. I went to all of them and they're running smooth. Went to see Care. My field looks good. Been out to the house lately?"

"No reason, Julia."

"Oh, I guess not. You're right." She nodded. "Um, the fields are planted though, like I said, so did you all plant enough?"

"I think so. That's what the guy said and Jay and Chess know what they're talking about I think."

"They do, do they?" She smiled, thinking back to the first plant they did and Mr Strand informing them they were no where near finished. "I don't ever wanna do that again. Ever." She shook her head, thinking back. "It's hard work."

"I know. I was out there." He agreed. "Many days in the sun. I got a tan. My body ached."

"I remember. I got sunburn and it felt like my fingers were breaking off my hands. Anything you want?"

"Some fruit." He replied. "We went to a bunch of abandoned farms and we dug up trees and shrubs and replanted them. Half of them died. But the other half are really taking off."

"Apples." She said. "An orchard's worth of apples and pears. Sounds good."

"Blueberries. Grapes. Lots of grapes and blueberries. Strawberries, too."

"No citrus fruits. Not the right zone." Julia said as she thought about Florida oranges. She hadn't had one since she was in Florida with Toni. She gorged herself. "I tried it once. Didn't work."

"When? Here?"

"No, when we came home from Florida, me and Toni. I thought I would at least try. Brought sacks of oranges and clumps of bananas home. Kiwi and mangos too. Tavin was sick he ate so many bananas. Tarin had never eaten one. Fresh squeezed OJ, though. We were in heaven."

"Alligators in Florida, Julia."

"I didn't see one. I asked though. I asked how to kill one. Like would I have to go full crocodile hunter on them or just yell for help or what? Like I didn't outlive the zombie apocalypse twice to die in a gator's mouth. And then the irony of surviving zoms to be eaten in my sleep by a gator. I was terrified, Jo."

"And it takes a lot to terrify you."

"Not a fan of animals. But I ate one. Pablo took me to a restaurant down there and it was fantastic." She looked at Jody. "We'll go one day. Gotta wait though. Zombies and all."

"I would like that."

"The water is beautiful, Jo. It's so clear and clean. It's warm. The weather is so warm and I am never cold. Like this." She told him. She shifted her seat next to his and she dipped her feet into the baby pool. She pointed at the pool. "Hasn't rained yet, so I been dumping all my dirty water in there."

"This is your beach." He said.

"Yeah, I have an active imagination, Jo."

"I know. I would go crazy alone."

"Nah, you get used to it. Alone and lonely are two different things. I have plenty to keep me occupied. I went down to the lake yesterday afternoon and floated around on a boat with Kyle."

"For fun?"

"For dinner, Jo. He fed me. I'm not much for fish, but it was pretty good."

"Ate a lot of fish growing up. Learned early on how to clean a fish and cook one."

"No thanks." She said.

"So you live off your little garden here?"

"Temple has traps. He catches animals for me over at storage. He also has my chickens. A couple times this summer I made him come out of that damn lot and leave that rat dog behind. We went out to Kay's farm and I let him have some fun and live a little. He was going stir crazy inside there."

"He's a little strange."

"Yeah, he is. But we're all a little strange."

Julia and Jody sat on her roof having pleasant conversation till the mosquitos got too her. Jody didn't seem bothered, but she complained. They went inside and lit a couple candles on the coffee table. She placed a mosquito net over the doorway to allow for a flow of fresh air through the apartment. All those empty houses around her and she chose to stay elevated off the street in her apartment. She spoke of having someone break through the wall and place a wood stove before winter, but she didn't trust a lot of people knowing where she lived.

She said she liked the efficiency. She said it had just enough space for her and her things. Eventually she would move back to the farmhouse when the time was right. She wouldn't be around for fall and winter at the efficiency was undetermined. She contemplated moving in order to stay warm. Her chosen location was the hub of the rebellion's origin. It started on Green Street, so she stayed on Green Street. Honestly it was not the apartment itself that she liked as much as the roof. The roof was her place, her feel good spot. She had a 360 view of everything up there. She made it comfortable. She made it her special space.

"You know, the first time you guys came by I was here. Remember when you and Jay stopped by. He was looking for me. After the meet up."

"You were up here."

"Yes. I watched from the window. I can't believe you didn't notice then."

"And if we had."

"I would have dealt with it." She shrugged. "But it didn't work out like that."

"What are you so scared of?" He asked as she sat on the floor across the coffee table from him.

She started dealing cards.

"Not scared of anything, Jody." She answered. "War?"

"I'm better at war than poker." He admitted.

Five hands of poker and five losses later, Jody and Julia put away the cards. Julia was kind of bored. Unsure what to do with her company. They'd played cards and had enough conversation for a year. "So, Jo." She drummed her short nails on the coffee table.

"I thought you were an expert at entertaining yourself in a confined space."

"Usually a list of solitary acts nowadays. I am not used to entertaining others in my confined space." She answered. "If you weren't here, I'd be sleeping by now."

"Yeah, me too. Got an early morning and a long day ahead tomorrow." Jody said as she crawled to her bed. He told her about the clear teams and that the would head outside the fence in the morning. He should be back when Chess started going over the maps. Teams would split up and head out early, then work all day. She asked specifically about teams and how they were split up. He could see her mind churning from where he sat.

He lifted off the floor and slid back on the love seat.

"Sleep in the bed, Mayers. You're too big for that small couch. Geeze."

"Ok." He agreed, moving across the space between them.

As they lay in the dark she started asking questions, offering tips and putting her two cents into the fray of clearing.

"You could swing by and help us out." He suggested. "Come with me."

"Oh, that should go over well." She laughed.

"My team has a spot for you." He offered. "No one would even know-"

"I think they'd notice her twin, Jo."

"Like I care." He shrugged.

"Please be careful. When's the last time you were in a nest?"

"When you dropped one on us at the bus station." He answered emphatically. "I'll be ok."

Julia turned on her side and put her arm across her chest. "You better be. You have sleep overs on Wednesdays with the contact." She reminded him as she snuggled up at his side.

"Wouldn't wanna disappoint the contact."

"Not recommended, Mayers. Not recommended."

Jody was up early as usual. He lay beside Morgan, wrapped up around him like a blanket and she was hot as hell. He was sweating the girl was so warm and he figured out quick that she had night sweats like she complained about. He was complaining about them too. During the cold months, her heat might come in handy, but the middle of June she was oppressive. He moved her arm from his waist and she left a sweat print on him. She woke up fast with a start, perhaps having forgot he had been laying next to her all night. It had been the best night's sleep he had in ages despite the rising temp of her body.

"Shh, you're fine." He reminded her.

She hadn't slept next to someone in months. She told him as much. She'd slept great, not having to worry as much. His presence took a load off her mind. "Don't go yet." She hummed, putting her sweaty little arm back in place. Jody moved onto his side and left her hold onto him.

"Sure about that, Morgan?"

She felt morning wood against her pelvis and she released him. "Ugh, you're-uh-hot." She pushed him away a bit and he kissed her forehead.

"That's all you."

She lay in darkness, listening as he moved around her apartment with a familiarity she was unaware he had. He'd spent time there, she remembered, while she was in Philly. She had noticed he had helped himself to some food and drink and then realized he'd probably slept there. She found that strange, but everything was strange in the new world in which she lived. She felt the tingling of her legs, the occasional nerve spasm as it traveled through her and she shook them out a bit, loosening herself up. It was worst when she first awoke. A daily reminder she had been shot twice and lived to talk about it.

"What are you doing?" He asked, coming back from the roof.

"Stretching. My legs are numb."

Jody guessed it had been some side effect of the vaccination, but he didn't ask. She had the fever and the night sweats, so why not some numbness and tingling to go along with it.

"Every morning." She said, sounding bothered. Would it ever end? His shadow moved around her place, his silhouette as the darkness had started to fade and he mumbled about heading out.  "Nests. There are around six or seven up that way." She yawned. She mentioned that they shouldn't take long to exterminate and pinpointed where they should be.

"If you know where they are why didn't you people-"

"Uh-uh." She stopped him. "I don't go out that way." He knew why. Too close for comfort, too close to the campus. "Thin your herd, Jo. Have a lovely day."

"Gonna try not to get thinned, Jules."

"Nervous much?"

"Always till I'm in it." He replied honestly.

"That apply to everything or just nests?" She asked curiously, wondering who lays in bed with a girl all night and doesn't try to touch her.

"What's that supposed to mean, Morgan?"

"Nothing." She replied quickly, lifting her butt off the bed and pulling her shorts down from riding up. My lame attempt to flirt with you, Jody... "See you Wednesday, Jo." She hadn't flirted in awhile. Did he want it or was he honestly there to keep her company and catch up. "Jo, come here." She yelled as he went into the stairwell.

She heard him turn half way down and come back through the door. "You change your mind?"

"Yeah, come here."

Jody padded across the floor to her and she reached her arms out to him. He held her hands. Like, what the heck? She thought, yanking him down to her. She kissed his lips and it took a moment, but he returned the kiss.

"Yeah, I changed my mind."

"Now?" He stammered. "Right now?" He asked, leaving her hand go. He ran his hand through her hair.

"No, Jody. I felt like kissing you is all. You're going way too far ahead in your brain." She mocked him as he had a week before when he kissed her and she got bothered.

"Funny, Julia." He kissed her again, leaving his lips linger a little linger on hers. He darted his tongue into her mouth for flavor and she pushed him back.

"Bye, Jo." She giggled. Jody started to leave her, heading back to the stairwell. "Love you, Jodeeee." She called happily.

"I love you, too." He smirked by the door.

Jody didn't say a word about having spent the night with the contact. Jody didn't put anything he did with any female he took seriously on display. It was an old habit. But his mind drifted to Morgan while he waited for the teams to gather in the caf. He stood with Chess and he looked over the nest teams he'd created and he started picking off names with check marks. He shrunk the nest teams down to one and added names to the other teams who were clearing the day walkers.

"There's more old virus than nest virus. The contact told me where they are." He told Chess as they agreed on the teams. He crossed Tavin's name off the old virus team and put him with Chess and himself.

"He doesn't wanna do nest virus, Jo." Chess told him.

"Julia said this will thin the herd and we are not thinning Keller."

"So you and wifey chatted. That's all you did with her?" Chess asked curiously.

"Ex-wifey." Jody informed him and left it at that. He didn't elaborate because there was not more to tell. He had pegged the activity and it had been a ton of conversation. If Jo hadn't known Julia as well as he did, all that conversation would have annoyed him. 

As the teams formed in the caf for a briefing that morning, Chess let him take the lead and explain the changes he'd made to the teams that were heading out. Those who were hunting old virus were happy to have more hands.

Chess spread out his paper map of the local area in front of those who were leading teams. Each team leader would gather in the morning, look over the map and then head out. Each team leader would return at night to the same map and they'd demarcate the area that they'd cleared. Priority teams followed suit.

Within a week, the nests were exterminated. Thanks to Julia having knowledge of their whereabouts, the priority team head in and out of each one and the nests were burned following their discovery and disposal. None of the buildings in which the nests hived held anything of importance. No one on the priority team was lost. Old virus teams, like Julia called, thinned considerably. The weak were eliminated and the strong survived. What they were left with was the strongest of the lot and they realigned teams and they moved out as small and strong units through their area, which Julia had demarcated as their sector.

Wednesday, their 7th and final day, the last two nests were destroyed. One was a significantly large nest and they chose to burn it out rather than head inside. They watched the building go up in flames and then waited as it burned out. Half the nest, burning and smoking erupted through the exit as the building burned. They used a lot of their ammo store taking them down as they emerged. Setting them on fire didn't seem the smartest idea at that moment as hot as it was outside. They were forced to use their ammo because they couldn't get too close to them because, fire.

The destruction of the nests was criticized by Julia as soon as Jody arrived late Wednesday to her apartment. She had already been briefed on their activity and that they were slowly moving along, setting their structures on fire. She'd been updated as to their losses and gains. They were off to a slow start cleaning up their own back yard. She was grateful and she was pleased, but the destruction of structures was not necessary.

Jody raised his voice, having heard enough of her critique. "You got people watching us? Thanks for the help."

"Thanks for the help? Jo, you guys need to do it yourselves. You all are months late to the game."

She quieted a moment, preferring not to argue with him. They had at the very least started, but how they chose to do it was sketchy, sloppy.

"Sloppy. It's how it's done if I remember correctly." Jody sounded annoyed overall. She gave him a disappointed look, but she kept her comments to herself. "Do you know the week I have had, Julia?" He and Chess and a couple others had come face to face with nests. He and a few others had an idea of what could happen. They chose to play it safe.

"You cannot burn every building you come across. If we did that, we'd be on fire all the time. Just saying."

"Do you know the week I have had, Julia?" He asked her again. "When is the last time you saw a nest?"

"Philly." She replied.

"Sorry. That was unfair, Julia."

"I can't give you a play by play on how to do it." She argued. "That was the best you could come up with?"

"Why are you so mad at me? You forced us out there. We went."

"This requires more skillful planning. Ideas. Burn bodies not buildings."

"There was nothing useful there, though." He pointed out.

"There may be in the future though, Jody. Every action you take, you must consider the future, not the here and now."

"You expect us to take out nests and not burn a single structure."

"I expect you make the best decisions you can and not take the easiest way out."

"You don't agree with the way we do it, but you are not there."

"Gonna burn the city out? Is that the plan? Think, bigger picture."

"Bigger picture." He repeated.

"Did you and Chess burn New Jersey to the ground?"

"No." He answered, thinking back to the New Jersey nests. "No, we didn't. Some not all." he glanced at Julia. "You know what we did."

"Um, no I don't."

"So you don't remember any of it?" He asked as he started stripping off his clothes on her roof. She shook her head. She couldn't remember if she wasn't there. He pulled the curtain around his body as he was getting to the good parts of his male body. She was curious about that one part...then she forced that thought out of her mind. He had arrived to her covered in blood and ooze from moving charred bodies and finishing a burn that they'd started in the building.

"I wasn't in Jersey, Jody. I dropped in a couple times."

She watched the silhouette of his body behind her curtain. Julia was not used to having dirty thoughts about Mayers, but she entertained them nonetheless. Blood tinged soap formed on her roof. She thought she'd need to disinfect her roof in the morning. Although the nests out that way were clear and a handful of old virus zoms had been destroyed as well, Jody could actually leave her place anytime he chose to do so. He could use the hatch to get in the school. He wouldn't need to stay unless she wanted him to or if he wanted to. What am I doing, thinking about Mayers? Julia asked herself. Her thoughts occasionally drifted to Mayers and Wednesday had become her favorite day of the week. She hadn't had a favorite day of the week before. She forced thoughts out of her mind.

She had received varied reports of the school's activities and she had received complaints about their activities. The smoke, the hunt, their daily course had removed the zoms, but they had effectively started driving them out of their area. Driving them out was unacceptable. Migration affected other people. Draw them in, don't force them out. Julia felt like screaming it. He knew better. Chess knew better. It was, after all, their first week out in a long time. She contemplated whether to chew him out as their representative or ask to speak with Chess and chew him out or whether to wait it out and let them figure it out on their own. It had only been a week. But having Chess and Jody with them should have given them a cushion of experience and know how.

"What's done is done." Jody told her. The nests were eliminated and the herd had thinned. Jody had rearranged the lists of people heading out and he had purposefully thinned that herd. Nests were easier after all was said and done.

"You purposefully killed off people?" She asked surprised and shocked by that statement.

"Not in so many words." He replied, pulling back the curtain wrapped in a towel. He sat alongside her.

"You don't think that those that were thinned could have been great killers if they were paired up with experienced people and trained?" She asked, sounding as disgusted as she felt.

"So." His response disturbed her. "They were separated out like that, Julia."

"You went home, made a list, handed them weapons and sent them out to their deaths."

"They made it to us in the first place. How do you think they made it there? They have all killed before, seen the way the streets are."

"They came in on streets my people had already been on, Jody."

"They still faced trouble on those streets. Don't act like you paved them in gold or something."

"I never said they were paved in gold and-Jody-" She calmed herself down. "Yes, it's only been a week." She reminded herself aloud. "So where is my pizza?"

"I didn't go back to the school for pizza. I rolled out of the burn."

"You could have gone home." She replied. "First, before coming here, I mean." She stood up and head to her grill. "Hungry, Jody?"

He looked puzzled, but nodded. "Yes, Julia. Please." He could understand now how she could frustrate people. Normally he wasn't on the receiving end. "Anything is good." He answered, picking a tomato out of her bowl. Juicy red and large, he sliced it on a plate and shook some salt over it. She set a plate of meat in front of him, cooked well and spiced with spices from her roof garden. "Should I ask?" He smiled, pointing at the plate.

"Probably not." She shook her head as held it in front of him. Meat, dark on small bones. "Frog, Jody, it's a fuckin frog, hon."

"Oh, ok. Not my first." He shrugged, taking a bite.

"Ribbit." She giggled.

"Been back out with Kyle."

"Yeah." She answered. "Got lucky." She smiled, taking a bite of tomato off his plate.

"I thought you didn't fuck with them."

"We got lucky with the frogs, Jo." She pointed at his dinner. "I don't fuck with them." She told him. "For the last time."

"Ok. I'm sorry. It sounded like that's what you meant."

Julia cleaned up from dinner when he finished. He pulled on a pair of shorts and they turned in early.

"Tired, Jo?" Julia asked as he collapsed onto her bed. He lay face down, taking a pillow from her side and curling his arms around it as he lay his head down.

"Mmm, yes. I am beat. Sun up to sun down the last week. We aren't used this yet."

She crawled in next to him and stayed on her knees. She put her hands on his back and started rubbing his shoulders. She knew she was doing the right thing when he groaned. His skin was hot and his muscles tight in her small hands. She crawled onto him and straddled his butt. She kept her hands working on his shoulders and then massaged her way down his back and spine.

"Thanks, Jules." He mumbled as she worked.

"Mm, sure. It feels good right?"

"You have no idea."

"Not a service provided at the Mastro campus?" She asked, thinking of his occasional love interest named Kay. "Kay doesn't do this?"

"Not a service anyone ever provided." He answered. "Does Kay bother you or something?"

"No, Jo." She replied softly, leaning over him. She kissed him between his shoulder blades, then stayed against him. Her ear pressed against his back, she listened to his heart beat. She nearly had fallen asleep when he spoke.

"Julia, I love what you're doing and all, but you're about 150 degrees."

"Oh, sorry. You feel good under me. I was comfy." She said, rousing and moving to his side.

"It's ok. When it's ten degrees out, that'll feel fantastic."

Julia touched his face, rubbing the facial hair between her fingertips.

"It's hard." He said, placing his hand over hers. "Not soft." He thought back to Julia in his lap at the farmhouse,  doing the exact same thing with the exact same small hand.

"Good to know, Jo." She giggled.

"The beard, Julia. Not that."

She laughed, "I know what you're talking about." She rubbed his face and laughed. "Oh, Jody, what are we doing? We are so awkward together."

"I'm not doing anything. I'm just laying here next to my friend."

She stopped laughing, holding it in for him. "Jody, you can't tell me this is in my head."

"What's in your head, Julia?"

"The fact you're flirting with me. You're so hard to read though, Jody. Do you wanna do stuff or not?"

"What kinda stuff?"

"See, I always thought our energy wasn't right." She sighed and she kissed his cheek softly. "I love you though, Jo. I do. Maybe that's all you need to hear."

He sighed, putting an arm over her belly. "I think I need to hear it from someone."

"We should all hear it once in awhile."

"From someone who means it, you know."

"Well, I don't need to fuck you to say it. Or kiss you or hold you or anything else, if that's what you're getting at."

"That back rub though. You can do that any time you want."

Julia got comfortably situated beneath Jody's arm. She moved her hand to his, wrapping her fingers around his strong hand. As she started falling asleep she heard him. "I love you too." Her eyes opened, same dark room, same body against hers.

"Ok, Jody." She replied, closing her eyes in the dark.

Jody was awake before the sun came up. He had moved off her sweaty and hot body, but he watched her sleeping. He got up, dressed, gathered up his dirty clothes from the day before. He kissed her cheek while she slept and he left her on her bed without saying goodbye.

As the week passed, the zoms numbers decreased. The fortress exterminators got a lot of experience in the active field and had a safe place to return at night. The herd was thinning inside the fortress. The strong survived. As those on the teams died off, Chess went to every able bodied individual in the campus and it was no longer a voluntary effort. He adopted an earn your keep ideal for the males that took up space inside his fence. If they were not elderly, handicapped, on farm and field detail or had another job, then they were outside the fence all day.

As they left the area they cleared, Chess gave the keys to the jeep to Jody.

"Where ya going, Mayers?" Tavin asked when he saw the keys exchange hands.

"To see a friend is all."

"You can bring her by, Mayers. You don't have to keep her outside the fence, alright?"

"No, she's-uh-not an inside the fence type of person."

"She's not scared to be outside, huh?" He laughed.

"She's not."

"Jo, think about what you're doing, man."

"Uh, ok, Tavin."

"I mean, it's early yet and she can be...she's...special."

"Special alright." Chess monotoned.

"I'm not doing anything with her I haven't done before." Jody replied. They eyed him suspiciously. "I don't wanna talk about it-her. Our energy isn't right." 

"Then why go?" Chess asked.

"Where she live? I'll go." Tavin sounded a little too excited. "I got good energy. Got a whole fucking universe of good vibes." 

"Why'd you tell him, Chess?"

"Didn't have to. There's only one contact, Mayers. He's not stupid."

"How far did you get?" Tavin asked curiously. Jody was mute. "C'mon. I'm trying to help you out."

"No where." Jody answered.

"No where." He repeated. "Get out of the mind set that you're going to be disrespectful. You're always worried about being disrespectful."

"She never makes the first move either." Chess added. "Not the first time anyway."

"I agree with that." Tavin said to Chess.

"She's in the nun phase again." Chess commented. "Once she's in there, it takes a minute to break through. God, took me forever."

"I hate that shit. She completely left me when she went through it."

"She's done this before."

"Yes." Chess replied. "When she gets tired of dealing with men. She hates men, I think. She's not cutting anyone in particular off, only herself. Like she doesn't-" Chess thought a moment. He spoke like he was thinking, didn't expect to say that out loud to anyone. "Hard work. You may wanna move on."

"Why, though?"

"Because." Chess answered. "She's gotta see the end game, Mayers. If there's no end game, then why bother starting the game?"

"What was my end game, Chess?" Tavin asked.

"I don't know." He answered. "I know mine." He looked at Jody as he jingled the keys for the jeep. "So, with my end game in mind, watch what you do." He said, nudging Tavin away from the jeep.

"Watch what I do?" Mayers asked. 

"Do what you want. But keep in mind, whatever you do to her, you also do to me. Don't hurt her."

"Jo's not gonna hurt her, man." Tavin said as they walked away.

"I already killed for her a couple times, remember that." Chess called.

"So have I, Chess."

"Yeah, ok, we all have." Tavin yelled.

"Who you killed recently, Tav?" Chess asked as they climbed into the truck.

"Gonna kill you if you don't leave the guy alone."

"Why now, though? She's playing him. I bet this nun thing is a ruse to take him from us."

"To what end? Take him where and do what exactly? She is a girl first. She's simple really and you make her out to be complicated."

"Simple. She's simple."

"Like the rest of them. That's what I said. I could have her within an hour. Where is she?"

"So could I and no, I am not telling you. I got enough to deal with out of one. She's pretty easy right now, but she's catching up to her quick. The more time she spends out here with 'her people'."

"It's annoying. Jay's the same way. The people..."

"I don't even like people." Chess muttered. "They can keep their people far the fuck away from me."

"They ain't that bad. Most of them are cool."

"No, they are not. I say we unload these people back into the community. Right back where they came from. How did I get mixed up in all this?" he asked, raising his voice. "Pussy, that's how. Went right along with her. I should have known better."

"Tell me how you really feel." Tavin laughed.

"Remember, I just wanted to grow weed. Originally, that was my big plan." He added, thinking about his crop. "Remind me to check on my plants when I get home."

"And fuck your wife."

"Whichever one. I do not care. Hell, I will take yours if she doesn't ask me for anything. I am so tired of people asking me for stuff...to do stuff, kill stuff. Like I can solve all the world's problems." He complained. "I never cared about the world or its people or its problems, Tavin." He put his feet up on the dashboard and lowered his cap over his eyes. 

Jody sat outside her place for a few minutes before he nearly drove away. She knew he was there. She had heard the jeep before it arrived to the block and had seen him over the side of the building. He had no pizza, he thought as he glanced over his filthy stained clothes. His entire body ached.

"Whatcha doing, Jo?" She called over the edge of the roof to him.

"Thinking."

"About?" He glanced up at her. She looked happy. "I have rabbit tonight." She said. "We eating? I waited for you."

Jody stepped out of the jeep and he looked up toward her. "How long is your nun phase going to last?" He called to her.

She laughed. "You've been talking to Chess. You looking for advice or something?"

"No, Julia. They were talking is all."

"They who?"

"Keller and Chess."

"Which Keller?"

"Tavin."

"How's Jayson?"

"Busy with the people." He answered, leaning against the jeep.

"I could bring the rabbit down there." Julia said, her smile disappearing. "I can wrap it up and you can take it home."

"I don't wanna go home. I'm-"

"Thinking. Yes, I see." Julia smiled. He stayed leaning against the jeep and she thought a moment. "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name...Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet."

"Huh?" He asked her.

"It means come eat dinner before you piss me off. Want me to start throwing shit at you?"

"Well, I am hungry." He admitted as he stepped away from the jeep.

Julia was warm and inviting once he moved to the roof. He didn't have anything thrown at him, which was a good sign. She wouldn't dare to, so she warned him ahead of time.

"Jules, where's the shower curtain thing you had going here?" He asked as she cooked the rabbit on her grill.

"Wind, you know." She smiled, waving her hands around in the air.

"Wind." He repeated as he looked from the shower head to her at the grill.

"No one will see you. Go ahead."

"You. You are there."

"Shy, Jody? Geeze, I can go down, if you want."

"Gonna go down, are you?" He smiled at her as he pulled his shirt off. "I should wash first." He laughed as he continued to strip his clothes off. Shy he wasn't and he showered while she avoided looking. "Wind, huh?"

"Uh, yeah, wind." She agreed half heartedly from her spot by the grill.

She hadn't moved from her spot and he kept an eye on her the entire time to see if she'd peek, which she didn't. He knew wind didn't take down the shower curtain. He knew her well enough to know she wouldn't shower on the roof without any cover. He rinsed and wrapped a towel around his waist. He walked to her and stood behind her. "So how long does this nun phase last?" He asked again, placing his hands on her waist. She flipped the meat on her grill. Unusually quiet for her. His chin rested on top of her head. "Is it like a period or something?"

"Not exactly." She shook her head.

"You nervous?" He asked.

"No." She answered quickly.

"Why do we start over every Wednesday then?"

"We don't. We're kinda stuck."

"I am not stuck."

"Well, I am."

"Why though? You know me."

"And we don't do this." She whispered, laying her head back on his chest so his chin was on her forehead.

He kissed her forehead and he folded his arms around her shoulders. "Smells good." He noted as the meat sizzled on the grate.

"Tastes good too." She said as she felt his lips on her neck.

"It does." His lips hummed against her skin. "Is it almost ready?"

"It's ready now, Jody." She answered, moving her head aside as his lips explored her neck.

"You know you're cute when you're shy." He told her, unwrapping his arms and reaching for the plates. He held them around her and she placed food on each one. She placed a potato on each plate.

He took the plates to the table. He was famished, eating pretty fast while she picked at her food. "What's up?" He asked. "How was your week? You know all about mine."

"Hold on a minute." She held up her finger at him and got out of her seat. She disappeared into the apartment and she returned with her bag. Jody had pulled on shorts and had started clearing the table for her. She set her bag down and she pulled out a map. Her lamp came out next. She opened it and placed her finger on the school grounds, then drew a circle in an area around the school. "Go far out and work your way in." She answered. "Start out here." She said, pointing to the outer edge of the circle. "This is all being cleared or has been brought under control. It's manageable. If you start here." She pointed at the inner circle closer to the school. "Then these dead will push out further into here." She dragged her fingers across the map from the school in all directions. "You are not starting from scratch. Kill, expand, shelter and repeat won't work for this. You should kill, shrink, shelter and repeat. Do the opposite. Work within this circle."

"We don't have the people for that."

"Stop going home at night. You're going sun up to sundown. Go longer. This is a 24/7 kinda thing, Jody." She explained. "This prepares you for Philly."

"You need to slow down."

"You need to step up. Summer rolls into fall and fall rolls into winter."

"Are we a shelter or are we clearing? We can't be both full time, Julia. Your other shelters do this? Do all the shelters have their people-We have other work to do, Julia. I can't take all my people out because we are self sustained, self maintained. You want me to pull every able bodied male, fine. Who's taking care of the rest of the work?"

"Who's doing it now?"

"The girls." He answered. "Julia, we have the teenagers apprenticing and we-"

"No. These streets will be theirs one day."

Julia sat beside him and she started talking. She gave him all the information he would need to take back to the Mastro campus. She basically tanked their plan and formulated an entire new one sitting next to him. She gave him what worked, what was least destructive and refocused their time and energy. She wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know, tactfully reminding him that the infantry "is a way of life" not a job or a temporary calling. There was no time clock.

"Walk out and don't return till the job is done."

"Pretty much."

"Well, if you don't mind me asking, what the hell are you doing?"

"I can't help you with this."

"You're not scared of anything except the possibility you may see him."

"It is not my place."

"He won't go for any of this." Jody pointed at her map. "You know what is clear, what's not clear, how far we should go out and you have known the whole time. Julia, we are doing the best we can."

"Where do you meet?" She asked as she folded her map and put it in her bag.

"The caf."

"No, outside the fence. Where does he go? Where do you go and Tav and Jay and-you know. With your teams."

"We're on the same team. Jay doesn't go out."

"Why not?"

"We can't take the table out of the-"

"Leave her in there. She'll link it all together. Who is in charge? Please don't say you're still tabling everything."

"We do. It's how it's done."

"She is there though, Jody. Let her do her job. You all need to roll out of there full time. Break apart the table. One person is in charge and you all answer to one person who will link with her and-"

"You would know if you treated our place like you treat every other place. But you don't come there. Ever. You go from shelter to shelter and you make sure everyone else is-"

"I have reached out and I have sent people. Good people who know what they're doing."

"It's work though. You're letting personal affect your job. Should you be doing it, if you can't deal?"

"You know what? You're right." She nodded. "I won't deal with any of you people anymore. Do what you want."

"You're mad at me. Don't act like this with me, Julia."

"Stop trying to get me to come home."

"It's where you belong, Julia. It's your table, sit at the damn table."

"It's where you belong. Go there."

Jody stood up, pulled a shirt on. "You interfere and rearrange other shelters like you wanna do with mine?"

"Yeah, Jody. I do. If there's no change, then we take over. Stay inside your fence."

He picked up his bag. "You're serious. That a threat?"

"Take it any way you want."

Julia listened as the jeep started and drove away. She sat crying in the chair on the roof by herself.

Jody lifted the trap door and slipped into the kitchen through the pantry. There were people surprised to see him in the caf when he appeared out of nowhere. He ignored a couple questions, asking where he had come from. Second floor was similar as Tavin asked how his night went. He passed him without answering.

"You alright, Jo?" he asked, poking his head into the hallway.

"Fuckin' problems, Keller." He complained as he dropped his bag on the floor next to his bed.

"The queen of problems, Mayers. Think about it."

"Yo, where's Chess?" Jody asked as he emerged from his room.

Tavin shrugged. "I don't know."

Jody walked the hall and passed Chess's room. Julia and Jess sat on the bed talking. "Chess?" Jody asked.

"He had a tantrum and went to his field."

Jody walked the building and exited through the courtyard, passing people who talked and discussed the teams that worked everyday. Most said hello to him as he passed, but he was in no mood for pleasantries. Under the light of the moon he crossed the grass to the patch of field Chess had cordoned off for the pot and tobacco.

"Whatcha doing here, Jo?" Chess asked. He lay sprawled out on the grass, staring at the sky.

"I pissed off the contact. If it's any consolation, the contact pissed me off first. She handed my ass to me. Us. She handed our ass to us and then threw me out." He answered as he took a seat on the dew laden grass a couple feet from him. Jody detailed the plan she had for the Mastro exterminators, discussed the map and moving from outside the circle inward. He moved on, detailing their conversation about the dissolution of the table and the work that needed to be done and how to do it.

"What's done is done with the nests. Can't change that." He said as he stared at the stars. He appeared quite reserved and calm. "I don't know why I didn't think of it. I don't think she did till her people complained. They should have complained to us."

"You mad at her?"

"No." He answered. "Jody, you don't know her as well as you think you do." Chess suggested. "Go back to her in the morning. Tell her we'll adjust the kill theory."

"Are we changing the table?"

"We already have. Just have to transition from one way of life to another. I'll take care of it."

"I'll apologize in the morning."

"Yes, for every dumb ass thing you said. You insulted everything she's done, which outweighs anything we have done so far."

"What are you doing out here?"

"I'm thinking." He replied. "When we lived at the farmhouse, whenever I wanted out, I always sat in my field or at the still. You just gave me a lot more to think about."

"Tomorrow, are we going to sit and -"

"No one will sit with me." He cut Jody short. "I will do it and I will let you know what's up."

"24/7 in the street?"

"I don't know yet. I am not sure I want to do that personally, but she has a point. You also have a point. I cannot leave Julia alone here running this. I appreciate wifey's confidence in Julia, but she'll need oversight."

"Shouldn't have burned up the binder."

"Hindsight is 20/20, but I wouldn't leave Julia here with a book and tell her good luck either." Chess answered. "Listen, this is a dress rehearsal for the real show. All these streets that are cleared, all these teams she has put together, they're all gonna converge in Philadelphia. She's going to lead the dead over the bridges and she's going to send the squads in that city and clear it. Like it or not, that's what she's doing. She wants all those people out of New Jersey and she wants to cordon off the lower state as a dead zone."

"Then."

"Then zombie winter?" Chess replied. "Maybe she didn't think that far ahead yet."

"How do you know?"

"Cause that's what I would do. The problem, Jo, is what happens when all these teams converge in the great city and all want what she promised them?"

"What did she promise them?"

"She'll say she promised them nothing. That the whole point to the rebellion was to pave a greater path for the future and we can live as a free people. No zoms, no fear. Our children can live without a threat, free streets, free state. Gonna be a free for all who's in charge and who takes the prize. What will need to take place is a consolidation of all these small teams into large and strong ones. That is why she went to Philly and that is why she is sending them here. Jo, she has told us these stories. Don't you know what she's doing?"

"I always thought she did it from here."

"Doesn't matter where she does it from. She's hooking us up though."

"Us or you?"

"Us. All of us. You as much as me and Tavin. I can't believe after all this time you don't think you're part of this. You are an equal not a subordinate. I keep fucking telling you that." He replied coolly. "It is her way of making up for what she's done, making it right."

Jody lay back on the grass and stared at the stars. Such a clear night in the Pennsylvania countryside. He had a feeling she sat on the roof and stared at the same stars. All the talk about the future, he wondered where he fit into it. His original goal had been to run the infantry school, but as the days and weeks passed, he wondered if he had chosen the proper course. The state of New Jersey itched at him like a rash. He had reservations about her plans turn Jersey into a dead zone and then in a decade to plunge them all into hell on earth. He had been the one among them who spent the most time in the state, had the most vivid memories of the state. He watched his friends die there, Chess and Julia's family died there. His world fell apart in that state. He resented the fact she was leading them down the same heart breaking road.

Jayson woke early on Thursday morning as usual. He passed Chess and Julia's room and saw Julia and Jess asleep on the bed. He decided Jess sleeping with Julia was a better alternative than Jess sleeping with him, so he moved on. He got some water from the caf and said good morning to the few who were up and moving that early. On his way out to the field he found Jody and Chess sleeping on the grass by the pot field. He approached them and he kicked Chess lightly with his foot.

"Heading out? You might wanna get up." Jay told him.

"Not today, Jay." He got to his feet and walked with Jay toward the open field where he ran. He took a piss on a tree while Jay stretched on the grass. "Got shit to do. Gonna make changes."

"Ok, if you want help, come get me."

"Sure, Jayson." He said, picking up the water bottle from the grass. He took a long drink to quench the dry mouth.

"Something bothering you, Chess? You alright?"

"A headache is all. Damn my head hurts. Came outta no where." He rubbed his temples, then his eyes.

"Awe, damn, so you ain't running with me?" He joked.

"No." He stated. "Jay, a lot of people aren't gonna like me by the end of the day."

"How's that different from any other day?"

"They're gonna be mad."

"So what else is new?" Jay asked as he stretched. "Chess, since when do you care anyway?"

"One of those people is going to be you."

"Napoleon is making a comeback." Jay sighed. "Whatever. As long as I am doing what best serves the people, whether it's in here or out there, then I am fine with it."

"Jay, why do you care about people?"

"Someone has to. Gotta think about the bigger picture, Chess. The one that makes the world a better place for Tia, not a worse one."

"I see."

"So keep in mind I won't leave her." He leaned and picked up his water bottle from the grass. "If I was gonna leave her, I woulda gone with Jody's girlfriend."

"Jay,"

"It's alright, Chess. It's a small world. T's all I got left in it and I am fine with it."

"Jay, you got more than Tatia, if you'd look around and-"

Jay waved him off and took off at a jog, heading out for his run. Chess turned and head off to Mayers who they had left asleep on the grass. He kicked Jody awake similar to how Jay had woken Chess. "Take a run with Jayson." He ordered as Jody woke up.

"Where we going?"

"Running. Go run with Forrest." He walked away leaving Jody sitting on the grass.

He scanned the field where Jay ran, having no idea why Chess wanted him out there. He gave himself time to wake up. He stretched a bit as he waited for Jay to swing back around close to him.

"What are you doing, Jo?" He asked as they ran.

"Chess said run with you. Why?"

Jay slowed to a stop. "Where is my girlfriend?" He asked him point blank. "Or is she your girlfriend?"

"Jay, I haven't done anything inappropriate with her."

"Where is Julia?"

Jody groaned. This had also been a sticking point with him in regards to Morgan. Chess had been a secondary issue. Jayson's feelings on the matter mattered. "Above the coffee shop."

"What? In the old apartment?"

"Yes." Jody replied nervously as he watched Jay walk away from him. "Listen, Jay, can you tell her that Chess is taking care of what we talked about. Please, it's important."

"Yeah, fine." He yelled. "I'll put that on my list of things to talk about."

"Jay, are you hurt her? Please, don't hurt her."

Jay turned, face flushed. "I assure you I will not hurt her."

Jody took the keys from his pocket and tossed them to Jay. "The jeep is at the fence. No one's on the gate yet."

Jay walked around the coffee shop building and he couldn't fathom how she got to the apartment. The old metal steps had been removed from the side of the building. He wondered how she got up there as he looked for some sort of rope or ladder. He head inside through the rear door, which he found unlocked and opted to use the door behind the counter. He found that had been fairly obscured by a shelf that someone had bolted to the door. If you didn't know the door was there, then you wouldn't see it the way she had it shielded. Lucky he was skinny as he squeezed through the small opening and climbed the stairs to the door that led him inside the old apartment. When he got inside, no one was there, but the door to the roof was open and the steps were down.

"Jody." She said with her back to him. She was picking veggies from her garden. "I was thinking I was too hard on you last night."

Jay was finally within feet of this girl he'd been thinking about since she left and he had no idea what to say to her. If he hadn't heard her voice, he would have questioned whether it was Julia at all. She had no hair, cut short and it was spikey and disheveled, bed head.

"I didn't mean half the stuff I said and I think if we talk about it, then we can-" She turned to him and froze.

"What the hell did you do to your hair?" He pointed at her head. "I have seen you ten times this year." He said, thinking back to the different shelters he and Julia had visited. He'd seen her from afar and never even thought it was her.

"I know." She responded, feet stuck in place. She held onto her veggies for dear life. She could barely breathe, her heart raced. "What are you doing here, Jayson?" She asked as they stared at each other.

He thought he knew. He had rehearsed this moment a hundred times in his head, but seeing her in person changed all that. He didn't feel the rage, the anger, the sadness.

"I'm not sure." He responded, his voice sounded more optimistic than he felt. "I never would have thought you'd be up here." He looked around her roof, eyes scanning the veggies in containers and the water system. She knew what she was doing for sure, surviving on her roof, up high even though her streets were remarkably clear. "I like what you've done with the place."

"Th-thanks." She said, taking a few steps and setting her bowls on the table. She approached him cautiously at first. "Hi," She half smiled, half winced unsure of his reaction. He seemed alright, calm and collected. Was he dying inside? She reached up and put her arms around his neck and his arms held her around her waist.

"Hi." He said, squeezing her. The longer they stood hugging the more awkward they felt. "I don't feel anything. Do you feel anything?"

Julia separated. "Actually, no, Jay. I don't."

"Sorry I held a gun to your head."

"Sorry I walked out and didn't say bye." She paused. "It takes time, Jay. There's good days and bad days."

"More bad than good, but I am busy. Takes my mind off...you know."

"Yeah, me too."

"Jody said to tell you that Chess is doing what you wanted."

"I thought he would. It's business, well not business...work. That's the right word."

"Work. We all want the same thing. Some of us go about it different is all." He said. "Well, this is weird, I think, so I'm gonna go, ok?."

"Alright." She smiled softly at him. A small and healthy and happy woman with grossly short hair and  a plan in her head for humanity. "Go, Jayson. I should have told you that before I left. Go. Move on. It's ok."

He nodded understanding. "You should really lock your door, you know. I walked right in." He reminded her.

"It's a shelter, Jay. I won't do that."

He left abruptly. He knew that he didn't feel right standing there in front of her and he had no right to ask anything of her, even though he had. She'd been caught by surprise that he'd arrived and she had clearly expected Jody. He felt strange as if he were invading her space. His eyes studied her a moment, the short and spikey hair, the frightened eyes and her skin as she paled at the sight of him. His intention hadn't been to scare her or make her feel threatened. He never wanted to make those feelings come to surface for her. He needed to see her in the flesh. His version of her, not the optimistic and headstrong version Chess bedded down every night. Although similar, they were very different, had very distinct personalities. One more damaged than the other, one harder than the other. Julia, however, owed him neither excuses and nor apologies.

He had let fear guide him. Wouldn't leaving defeat the purpose to taking the school grounds early? He wasn't ready at the time to face the threats that lurked outside the school's heavy fence. The intent for the Mastro campus had been to stay there, not to walk in, secure it, then leave immediately thereafter. The fact that nests owned the night alongside their walker cousins left him uneasy inside. He would leave, he had told her, if they faced no other choice. He didn't want to hear her plans for zombie world domination. He didn't want to hear a how-to whether she had written the book or not. She forgot he helped her write that book. This wasn't his first trip to zombie world and he had a feeling he would never live to see the end result. An emptiness engulfed the thought of his future. She had planted the idea in his mind long ago that his days left on earth were numbered. His life ticked back in minutes till he reached zero and then his soul would be released in a puff of smoke. Not the most admirable end, but release nonetheless.

"Jayson, please come with me." Her voice had an urgency to it unlike before. "We can do this together, Jayson. Please." She had been drunk. Having finally laid her hands on vodka and having drank enough for both of them, which didn't set well with him. But like she had said, "What's gonna happen to me here?" He hated her when she was drunk. The drunker she got the bossier, bitchier and cockier she got. Her mouth...how did she expect to get anything done with a mouth like that?

"I'm sorry, baby. Please don't be mad with me. I'm already here. What more do you want from me?"

"Everything. How about some effort? How about we go out there and do what we came here to do, Jayson? Why do you have to be such a pussy?"  She certainly knew how to ruin a night. She'd been in a mood since they'd left the house to go to the school. Her nerves, he figured. Perhaps she knew what was coming? Perhaps she never intended on staying, if not for the alcohol, perhaps she would have left after the nest kill. Julia was not scared outside the fence. Nest or no nest, the girl always had a plan B up her sleeve, an alternative course she planned on taking. When Julia was depressed, she had an impulsive streak in her. He exacerbated that decision making skill of hers by aiming a gun to her head. Maybe it was Julia's goading him into pulling the trigger or maybe it was Chess begging him to make the right choice. Killing her on the roof at the coffee shop wouldn't have been right either. It didn't feel right because as soon as he stood within shooting distance, he didn't feel the rage anymore. He didn't feel the pain anymore. She was just a redheaded girl who had given him permission to move on.

Within the hour, Jay was back at the school. He passed Tavin as he wound back through the campus to the field.

"You back already? You see her?"

"I did." He replied as Tavin fell in beside him.

"You ok?"

"I will be, yes." He answered.

"You were not gone long, Jay. What happened?"

"Nothing happened, Tav." He answered, feeling disconnected from his brother. Getting involved with her would only bring him to another dead end. He decided to do what was best for him, what everyone had been telling him to do for months...move on. Each of those who'd been affected by her or knew her had done so in some way shape or form. He explained as much to Tavin and hoped he wouldn't get an argument or need further explanation.

"Are you serious? I been watching you cry and moan and whine for 8 months and all of a sudden, boom...you're moving on?"

"Yes, I am." He answered.

"Good. Good for you, Jay. I'm glad to hear it."

Julia peeked through the window on the war room door at Chess. He sat alone at the table with his feet up, peering out the window toward the road. She wondered what he was plotting locked up in there. He'd been there all morning and each time she had sneaked up there, he was sitting in the same spot in the same fashion. Not only was she curious, but she had a handful of people approach her equally as curious and more eager to hear about a new direction the teams would take. Rumors had been circulating all morning. Some more harsh than others. Some insinuated that Jody and he had been fighting and that they'd disagreed or that there was discord between them. The entire table was mum on the change in plans for the day and a few teams had declined the day off and head outside the fence anyway to do their job.

Chess had been impressed that there were those who chose to go out. His brother had been one of them. As he sat by the window he wondered what on earth his brother was doing? Ray had been increasingly difficult as of late and his delusions were worse than usual, but the trips he took outside the fence into the streets set him at ease whereas others were nervous and speculative about what they faced. Ray's delusions bothered him more so than their reality. How bad were his delusions if zoms made him comfortable? Aliens...Chess guessed. Zoms were not the probing sort. When Ray accompanied a team into zombie world, he blended into the background or foreground and he knew he would not be observed or singled out. Zombie world meant one thing, no tracking devices or electronic devices of any sort. The men in black had not trailed him to the Mastro campus, of that Chess was sure, but Ray swore the longer he lingered, the sooner he'd be found. Damn aliens...E.T.'s...Cone heads for all Chess knew. Most days it was all he could do to get his twin back in the truck to return to the campus. He feared that one day Ray may get outside the gate and never come back. He felt a little more comfortable with the idea since the nests had been exterminated, but there were still the regular threats. A zom was a zom was a zom. Equally as deadly and outnumbering the nests by a landslide, his brother saw the risk and felt comfortable tossing the idea of staying a loner. To which Chess offered a resounding no. He had been especially horrible that one afternoon, protesting the return to Mastro. He demanded to be left with the burning dead and he'd still be alive there in the morning. Delusional, Chess thought. Unacceptable, Chess believed. His alternative would have been to stay with him out there and he didn't want that. He wanted to fuck his girl and sleep in his bed. He could not return to that campus and tell his mother his brother chose not to come back. Sandy would never accept that.

"You don't know what you're talking about, Ray."  He'd had enough, covered in bloody remnants of dead bodies. He was hungry, dirty and he smelled. They all were and Ray was holding up the return to the campus with his drivel about blending into the world of living dead. "Knock his ass out for me." Chess mumbled to Tavin as he passed. Tavin lent a literal hand with a sharp fist to the face that Ray hadn't seen coming. Alex caught him as he slumped back. "Thanks, we can leave now."

Ray trusted no female other than his mom. He looked upon everyone with a special doubt, like he was trying to figure everyone out, decipher clues in the way people spoke to him or each other. His mental state had its drawbacks. He couldn't handle a gun well and had barely caught on to firing it safely or hitting anything if he did fire it. Knives were an awful alternative since he'd sliced a nice gash into his abdomen during the winter, trying to retrieve a chip that had been implanted over night. Ray had a detailed story of alien abduction that cold February morning as Tavin had stitched his belly shut. All said and done, Ray stuck to his alien story and Chess begged him to stop the nonsense. He couldn't stop believing any more than Chess could start to believe. He never gave a moment's consideration to the alien abduction, dismissed it, but Tavin had entertained him.

"Glad they didn't put that thing in your head, man." Tavin said solemnly as he got to practice his suturing.

"Your mother is not going to like this." Their dad stated from the doorway to Tavin's cold little office.

"I'm sorry. I had to get it out of me."

"Where is it, Raymond?" Dad asked just as baffled as Chess by his son's madness.

"I think it went deeper when I was digging around in there." Ray suggested as a reason he found no device implanted inside him.

"Deeper. Did you just say deeper?" Chess raised his voice which made Ray uncomfortable. 

When he and Chess went for a walk that afternoon, Chess apologized for disbelieving him and his abduction theory, but he also confessed any normal person would have issue comprehending the authenticity of that story. Who would believe it? Chess had asked. Ray countered with 'no one believed in zombies either'. On their walk, Ray started collecting sticks. Some heavier than others and he said he would make himself wooden spears. From that moment forward Ray carried a stick or two depending on his mood.

"Zombie killer or vampire hunter, Ray?" Jayson asked when he spied him with Chess at the fire. Ray was widdling the end of his stick into a sharp point. The lengthy and thick stick looked sharp enough to start hunting the dead only those with thinking brains and a set of fangs. A smaller pair of sharpened stakes sat to his left. Jay reached for the smaller set to look them over and see if they were worth his time to carry around. Ray's long spear met his throat at the jugular. The wooden tip of the spear met his skin and Jay pulled away. "Damn it, Ray. That hurt. It's sharp." Jay complained.

"Did you find Julia yet?" He asked sarcastically.

Jay retreated from him and Chess and Ray was smug that Julia had escaped the grip of Jayson Keller. He had never trusted Jayson Keller with Julia.

"Ray, was that necessary?"

"Yes, and she's out there. Away from him. She's safer out there than she is here." Ray went back to widdling with Chess's adult supervision.

Chess was distracted from his thoughts by his redhead at the door. She had sneaked up there a few times already, snooping by the door. She hadn't been the only visitor. Jody had stopped in and informed him Jay had left and come back within an hour or so's worth of time.

"What went down over there, Jo?"

"Tavin says nothing and Jay's moving on."

Chess chuckled on that statement. "Moving on. Now? After all these months of listening to-Ok, then." Chess laughed a little more, unsure of what moving on meant to Jayson, but he figured he would find out soon enough. He observed a distracted and nervous Mayers in front of him. Jittery almost. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing." He shook his head and leaned back in the chair, his leg bouncing.

"Did you apologize yet?" Chess asked. Jody needed to get out of the office and he needed to go do something other than stare at him. "Jay came back, man, so I would say that's a good sign." He tried to be optimistic.

"Yeah, but she said she would see me Wednesday. It's not Wednesday."

He had a hard time grasping how Jody ever got laid. He wasn't used to seeing Jody distracted over a girl. He understood the Julia effect, had been swept up in it himself a few times. Mayers usually didn't let girl problems affect his personality. "I don't give a fuck if it's Wednesday or not. Did you apologize to my wife yet?"

"No, Chess."

"Did I tell you to do that?"

"Yeah, but Jay went instead."

"Did Jay apologize to Julia for you?"

"No, I asked that he tell her you're adjusting the kill theory."

"Jody, go spend the day with her and make her happy."

"She said Wednesday." He argued.

"Is Julia your boss yet?" He smirked, thinking that's where the shenanigans between Julia and Jody were heading. "No, I am. And I asked, no...I told you to apologize this morning."

"Yes, Chess."

Jody ran off at that point and he had a feeling that was what he wanted to do in the first place, run off to this girl and spend time with her. He needed to get her out of his system, so he may as well do that on his day off. He had a busy summer and fall ahead of him. Chess planned on working the hell out of him. If the wife didn't steal him away first, he had a top spot for Jody in the plans he made. The wife had persuasive ways that Chess would never have with Mayers. 

Thus she distracted him from his thoughts. He didn't much like the idea of writing everything down and he decided he needed an assistant to keep him organized and on track. This person also had to be someone who he could trust. He knew someone who was quiet and followed him around regularly. He'd already taken to fetching things and people for him. It was his time to shine and time for Chess to hire him on full time. He also had a special assignment for him.

"Come in, Julia." He called. If he hadn't invited her in, she would only keep returning to the door. "Hector, is he around?"

"He's standing down there by the door to the stairwell."

Hector never stood too far from him. "Great, when you leave, send him in here."

"Sure, Chess." She answered, coming around the desk to him. "What are you thinking about?" She asked softly, touching his arm. She zapped him again. Occasionally he thought the girl was trying to read him, but she was unsuccessful at each turn. He'd periodically call to her in the emptiness of his brain, that part that had her claw marks scarred along the gray matter. "What are you thinking?" She asked again.

His arm relaxed to the warm touch. Once the jolt of electricity passed, her touch was soothing. Summertime...he hated that heat laying up next to her in bed. He sweat to death if he lay against her and if she snuggled against him while he slept, he would wake in a pool of sweat worse than his own puddle of sweat. One thing he missed from non zombie world was air conditioning. He wished there was a genius out there somewhere who could reinvent that for him.

"I am thinking you could get on your knees and suck my dick." He tugged her arm and pulled her closer to him.

"I'm serious, Chess." She whined.

"So the fuck am I." He whined right back. The odds of Miss Fry doing that were slim on this hot summer day. She honestly preferred receiving as opposed to giving lately. He feared she was phasing out of the school girl crush she originally had going and was slipping into the I love you phase of their relationship. They were never bored in bed, he knew that much, but the extra stuff had disappeared. That mystery was gone and had been replaced with the balking at oral unlike a few months ago when she salivated over his dick.

"So I will find out at meeting?" She asked point blank, skirting around that blow job he'd requested.

"No more meetings." He replied, grabbing her ass and pulling her back to him. He pulled at the waist of her shorts. If she wouldn't blow him, then he could fuck her instead.

"I'm on my period, Chess."

"Ok." He sighed, leaving go of her. He wasn't into that mess. Not in the war room anyway. "Later, then." Maybe...if he was in the mood for the mess. He waved her away. "Hector, little one. Send him in here."

He had Hector in his war room for over an hour detailing the plan he came up with. He also detailed the specifics of what he expected of him while he was absent from the campus. He figured Hector to be the most loyal guy around. He seemed ecstatic to know Chess for some reason and was impressed by all the group had accomplished in the few short months at the Mastro school. He was a yes man. Eager to please. He was grateful to have a roof over his head. Older, Chess never pushed him to work too hard and he was easy going, a nice man. That accent got a little annoying after a while, but over all Hector was the least demanding and least expecting of him.

"I understand. I watch the girl."

"Don't make it sound so creepy, Hector, damn." He laughed.

"You no trust Miss Julia?"

"Oh, si, Hector. I do. I no trust the people around here." He was starting to sound like Hector. His tone of voice, manner of speaking and mannerisms rubbed off on him during the office tete-a-tete.

He handed Hector 4 pieces of paper with names of his team members. Half his teams were already out of the building and wouldn't return till later. Jody was off campus. God only knew where Jayson was hiding. Tav was probably in his office fondling someone. "Hang those in the caf, please. Somewhere where everyone will see them. Answer any questions they have. You remember what I told you?"

"Yes, Chess." Hector answered. "Thank you for putting my son on these team." He was always thankful or grateful. Hector was the type of man who got up early, worked all day and then relaxed at night. His life revolved around family and work and he had been trying to instill this in his son from day one. Hector had always insisted that Julio was his good boy. He had gone to that school for free because Hector had worked there. It was not affiliated with any court system, Chess found out. The Mastro school was a place for the privileged at risk youth. Rich kids basically who got into trouble. Prior to the reformatory, the school was a minimum security juvenile facility run by the county. The county moved out to a newer building and had left Mastro empty when a private company bought the land and the facility. In fact, the private company had planned on pulling up the fence in the fall because it looked too much like a prison as opposed to a school. Fortunately for Chess and his group of people, they never had the chance to do that.

Chess walked out with Hector who held his first assignment as assistant in his brown hands. He split off from him and went to find Julia for some of that couple time she was talking about. He found her and Jess in the sitting area together playing a board game.

"Come hang out with me. I'm done." Chess said to her. She was getting to attached to his ex girlfriend. Or vice versa.

"What are we gonna do?" She asked him as if it even mattered. She seemed put off that he was asking her to do something with him. He waited without commenting and she relented, getting up and leaving Jess to put the game away.

"Quality time. You are always complaining we don't have any."

"Cause we don't."

"Why must you complain now that I am giving it to you?" He asked, leading her to their room. He shut the door and tossed her a towel from their dirty pile on the floor.

"I'm not." She answered. "I wouldn't complain, Chess." She looked toward the door as she set the towel on the bed. She double folded it and smoothed it out on the mattress.

"What's wrong? You got somewhere to be?" He asked her as he looked to the door.

"No, what if someone comes in?"

"Who's coming? They'll knock. The door is shut."

"Oh, well I thought you'd tell me about the changes you made and-"

"I plan on it, Julia. We have the rest of the day, you know."

"The whole day?"

"Do you wanna hang with Jess?" He asked her. She held back an answer. That was it. "Bring her in. Do we need to have a talk, little one?" Chess suggested to her. "Go get her."

"Huh? No, Chess."

"Go hang with her." He finally said, opening the door for her. "I have other things I can do." He wasn't sure exactly what those other things were at the time, but he was fairly sure that someone would bring him something. It never failed.

"Quality time doesn't always mean sex, Chess." She hissed under her breath.

"What did you want to do then?" He asked.

"Ride." She answered honestly.

"Ride what? Horses?" He wasn't a fan of horses. Creatures were pretty and that was about all. "Fine. You drive then." He offered her that much. She had been riding with Jody in her spare time. He had instructed her and she had a favorite horse. This seemed to excite her and her body reacted as such. Horses were not his favorite recreational activity.

"Oh, let's go." She grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room.

"It's not Wednesday, Jo."

He started apologizing as soon as his feet hit the roof's old tar. The redhead sat in her chair covered in a towel. Her hair had long dried as well as her body. She wasn't expecting any more visitors that day. It was not Wednesday, true, but Thursday's apology couldn't wait. Did the day of the week truly matter? Like she had such involved plans that would otherwise distract her from a five minute apology.

She made sure she was covered by that slip of a towel. All the important body parts she shielded unlike the shower she made him take the day before. She had hung up the shower curtain. That he did notice right off the bat. She had no parts he hadn't seen before on any other female. In fact, he had seen her wearing less than the towel on a handful of occasions. He remembered her breast feeding Toni the day he met her and then on countless occasions following their initial meeting, she bared both breasts for her child. She didn't care who was around at the time. There had been only one specific area that he'd never seen up close and personal. She seemed to shy now, though.

"So, I am sorry." He finished his apology with that. For underestimating her and for insinuating that she wasn't active, only sitting on a roof in a towel with a novel. That had been an unfair assumption. He reminded himself that maintaining a rooftop garden and reading were not her only activities. She'd been all over the surrounding counties in her time home. There were 6 other days during the week, and Julia penciled in Wednesdays specifically for Jody, her friend.

"I should apologize too. It's not like you have done absolutely nothing in this time."

That surprised him. Julia usually was not an apologetic sort, even if she was wrong. In this instance, she had been correct. She had softened in the time she spent with the people, not hardened as Chess had surmised.

"You don't have to though. I was unfair."

"Ok. so what's up? You drove all the way over here for me to hear the second apology of my day? For me to give my second apology today?"

"Well, yeah. I kinda did."

The curiosity was killing him. What had gone on with Jayson? He gave her a good once over, then again and she wasn't harmed. Part of him expected to show up and find her with a bullet in her head. "Time heals all wounds, Jody. It's true." She shrugged. He guessed that was true. The more time passes the less a person hurts, cries and wallows. He had gone through similar getting over Tia. The love was still there, but the pain and the sadness had resolved. Going home again had given her an extra edge to healing, spending a year away and then another countless months following that without Jay.

She went over what happened with Jayson more to set Jody at ease as opposed to herself. "I have seen Jay a bunch of times, Jo and he's seen me too. He just didn't realize it was me. Never thought I would go and cut the hair. It's lighter too, not as dark red."

"Think ya know a person, right? How long did he have with you to not even recognize you?"

"Maybe he didn't want to or maybe he wasn't ready. It doesn't matter now."

"So, gonna sit there all day or do you have plans or-"

"No plans, Jo. No." She smiled. "You?"

"Waiting on Chess to see what he has planned for us."

"You already know. Think back." She giggled a little, having a hard time believing that Jody left his memory in New Jersey. Did he not remember his history? He was no longer a student to history, rather a participant. Was he in denial? The future unfolded before him. They were right where they were supposed to be and early at that. She bought them more time, jumping them there. She had bought them another year, Jay another year of life. Whether she would keep him alive or not was still an unanswered question. He would have to keep himself alive. Make different choices. Could he make them, considering he knew how his death unfolded? All roads appeared  to lead to New Jersey, that was all Jody was focused on. But for Jayson, all roads led to Virginia.

"Oh, shit." Jody said as he listened to her talk. "Did you leave for that reason?"

"One of them." So when Jay suggested he felt nothing, she had to agree. She had a part to play and she had to sound convincing. No matter how much it hurt or broke her heart, it needed to happen. She could feel free of blame and sadness if he chose Virginia road. He would not go there with her. No death, no craziness that ensued following his death and they'd need to clear their own state. She had a blue print for it and if it took longer than necessary one day in the future, then so be it. "No more small statue." She sighed.

"So we can put one in Philly, Julia?"

"I only have one job and I work with the people." Her work would never end or cease. The fight to live over the dying would never end in her lifetime. Sometimes her thoughts dragged her twenty years ahead in time to the thought that a vaccination was available and not to everyone. "All these fine men will duke it out over Philly."

"Chess was right."

"Whether he likes the idea or not, he is on the same page with me. It's his choice how he goes about it." Chess knew the history. He had been listening after all. The whole point was not to change the future or alter it, rather to secure their place in it. Everything would all fall into place, Julia was sure of it. "Like I said, I spent enough time in Philadelphia. I am not sure about the part I will play in Philly yet. I haven't thought it through." She thought a moment, to change the subject, make the mood lighter and hopefully avoid another disagreement. Jody was allowed to disagree with her. Anyone was, but her reaction to the disagreement she would have to learn to control. That needed some work. "Well, what do you wanna do?"

The million dollar question. She felt reasonably assured that Jody could answer simply and easily. His hopeful, big brown eyes. Would he push the envelope or would he drag this out even longer?

"Huh?"

"Are you going home or do you wanna do anything? You have a free day, right?" She smiled at him, loosening her grip on her towel. She wasn't holding on for dear life anymore. She relaxed some.

"What would you like to do?"

Why was he being so stubborn? Was he so insistent on carrying on the friendship mirage longer? She had been indulging herself in thoughts of Jody since the kiss. Maybe their energy still wasn't right? He had said that would never happen again and each time they got together, they did start over from scratch. She was never a fan of trying to read between the lines and she couldn't figure Jody out to save her life.

"What do you want, Jody?" She asked. "Geeze, yesterday you said we start over every time you get here and then when something does start, you back off or I do. Should we talk about it?" She had never explored the talk option to starting a relationship or a friendship. Things just sort of always fell into place. "You wanna stay in the friend zone or you want me to? I'm confused." Mixed signals and conflicting energy.

"Honestly?"

"By all means." She laughed, nudging him as he took a seat next to her chaise lounge on the roof.

"I don't wanna just fuck you. I like you more than that."

"Like. I thought you loved me, handsome." She smiled, touching the five o'clock shadow that had grown on his face.

"Respect may be a more appropriate word. But I do, and that's the problem."

"Oh." She said...problem..."Since when is loving someone a problem, Jo?"

"I don't wanna fuck someone I love. It's weird."

"That's a good way to describe it." She agreed. "Don't wanna get hurt maybe. Get your feelings involved and it'll hurt."

"No, that's not it either. Too soon for that. I don't exactly have feelings. I am not there yet."

"But you could and then that leads to a mess if it doesn't work out. See, you get it."

"Something like that."

"Don't wanna be the next Jayson or the next Chess."

"Something like that."

"Want something more long term, Jo?" Trying to drag the feelings or explanations out of him was difficult.

"Not exactly."

"Ok, when you figure it out...let me know." She sighed.

"Well, Jay's out of the way." He said after a few minutes of silence. "I mean, that was the problem too. I thought he'd be angry at me. I didn't wanna cause problems between me and him. He is a close friend."

"Ok, then. That's a start."

"You are like Tia." He finally said.

"No I am not."

"I would treat you like I treated Tia. Better?"

"That's, um-"

"I think about you differently than I think about girls like Kay."

I am worse than the girl named Kay...she thought, cringing. He obviously didn't think so. "Uh, Jo, my past-"

"Is the past, Jules. I don't care about it and I wasn't there for the majority of it."

"What do you mean then?"

"I love you, that's what I mean and I don't wanna lose that if things don't work out. Like I would expect you to act a certain way."

She laughed hard. "Like, please explain."

"I can't cause you're Morgan."

"My past doesn't matter, but it plays into the future for you. Is that what you mean?" She laughed hard again. "Speak freely, then, Mayers."

"You, uh, wouldn't be able to flirt or fuck around and you could never take one for the team." He paused, thinking he may hurt her feelings. "I know you have been known to do that. Just act like, you know, like you do now. Keep doing that." She smiled softly. She didn't feel like she was being attacked by Mayers, rather she felt like he had this conversation with any girl he fancied. "Can you not act so damn common?"

Common...she thought back to his brothers and the trailer. "Oh, geeze. I am sorry I ever did that in front of you." She cringed, thinking about it. "The night with your brothers. Jo, that is how me and Chess act together. That was us, is us, when we're together. We're very common, beyond common." She explained their relationship in a nutshell. "It's actually fun, if you're into all that."

"I am not, Julia, into all that with my girlfriend."

"There's rules that come along with a girlfriend. I understand. Comes with trust, Jody."

"I already trust you in so many different ways."

"Except for one. It comes with the territory." She leaned her head back and stared at the light blue sky and it's puffy white clouds. "Trust is earned, not given."

Jody lifted off the roof and walked behind her chair. He brought her a light pink robe that she had hanging by the shower. She leaned and pulled the robe over her, poking her arms through the sleeves. She tied the sash at her waist and pulled the towel from beneath the robe.

"Wouldn't it be cool though to be with someone you can say you love? That's what I want."

"Yeah, it would." He said without thinking about it. He watched as she got off her chair and straightened out her robe. Her short milky white legs poked beneath the robe to her bare feet. "You're really tiny." He observed like he had never seen her before.

"Undeveloped, you mean." She giggled.

"I regret ever saying that to you." He eye rolled her as he approached her. "And you're very short." He added, placing his hands on her shoulders. He peered down at her, out standing her by almost a foot. His hands slid over her arms to her hands and he tugged her toward the door to the steps.

"What are we doing?" She smiled as he held her hand down her steps to her efficiency. He only smiled as he moved ahead of her, holding her hand tight in his as they descended. "What-" He turned to her and he kissed her as she got to the bottom step. The step, he imagined, would add some much needed height. He usually preferred girls taller, closer to his own height. Leaving go of her hands, he moved to her waist and then to her ass, hearing her gasp with surprise as he held her butt cheeks firm in his hands. He pulled her sharply against him, lifting her off the step and into the air against his body as her arms wrapped tight around his shoulders. He carried her light body to her bed. He'd carried gear heavier than Julia. He'd lifted weights in the gym heavier than her.

He lay her down and he lay directly on her, lifting on his forearms so he wouldn't crush her. She looked more fragile than she actually was. He felt her legs open beneath him and he settled against her, feeling a familiar heat against his shorts. Julia ran her hands over his torso and pulled at the tee shirt he wore. As he lifted off her, she pulled it over his head and she tossed it aside. Her delicate hands ran over his torso to his waist and he felt her beneath him, moving her hips and rubbing herself on him. Her short nails scraped along his side and brought him closer to her as he untied the sash around her waist.

"Julia," He kissed along her neck.

"Hmm, what?" She asked as she held him tight against her.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, why?"

"If you don't wanna-" He lifted his face to hers. She blushed a bit, her face pinking up.

"Are you fuckin kidding me, Jo?" She asked, looking disappointed. She released her grip on him, but didn't quite leave him go. "What on earth gave you the impression that I don't wanna?"

"Let me go." He smiled as he lifted on his arms, pushing himself above her. She left her arms slack from his waist and his hand moved to her pink robe. His fingers ran along the edge of the fabric, sliding one side open. "Are you nervous, Morgan?"

"A little." She admitted as she moved her hand, covering his with hers. She then moved her hand over her belly. She jiggled her belly and she felt self conscious. He laughed as she moved her hand. He put his own hand on his own stomach, jiggling it in the same fashion. "Please, Jody." She laughed as his muscled torso flexed above her. His abs tightened inside a thick waist.

"I do 200 crunches a day."

"Oh, um, wow, Jo." Her hand passed over his chest and abdomen. Julia observed the fine body above her on extended arms. He hovered talking about a routine he had going for quite some time that involved weights, calisthenics and cardio. She wondered how long he stay in that position without his arms tiring. She would have collapsed by that point. She had not been paying attention as he had lost her with the word crunches. Instead she focused on the dips of flesh between the musculature. He really had definition, not exactly rippling, but fit. She passed her hands over his arms, memorizing the curve of the biceps and triceps and lower to his forearms. A veiny map branched beneath the flesh. He had a nice tan, smooth brown flesh that would eventually give way to a fall and winter pallor. His brown hair hung loose off his head and fell over his big brown eyes. She admired his brown eyes, they smiled for him. He wasn't much of a smiler and he lacked a sense of humor for the most part, but the eyes were the window to his soul. And his soul said he was stalling.

"Jody," She hummed as she studied his throat. On the right she could see the pulse against his skin.

"Hmm, yeah."

"Want me to do it?" She asked pleasantly. She had all she could take of looking at him and she hadn't been with a man in months. Self inflicted celibacy, true, but she had thought it had lasted long enough, especially with Jody hovering on his strong arms. He laughed. "I can." She smiled, adjusting more comfortably beneath the weight of his pelvis pressing against hers. She moved her fingertips along his chest again, trailing a light scrape along his tanned skin to his shorts, which she unfastened and pushed down. He helped them along, over his legs and kicked them off. He rested back against her, lowering for another kiss and let his hands roam over her. "Jo, I feel you." She moaned.

"I know. It's really hot." He moved his hand between her legs first, feeling the wet heat on his hand.

A blessing and a curse...she thought as she relaxed and exhaled deeply at the touch of his hand. And he found the bump...she audibly gasped and opened her legs for him. Whichever part of him he wished to use was fine with her, finally having someone else give her pleasure other than herself. He inserted a finger then another and explored on his own for a bit before removing them and rubbing the bump again. She felt herself getting close to orgasm, gradually the feeling dulled as opposed to grow stronger, then she felt nothing at all. Her legs went numb next and then her legs...she couldn't move them at all...

"Jody, I can't move." She said, taking his hand away from her. "I can't feel you."

"That happen a lot?" He asked.

"Not usually, Jody." She answered, lifting onto her elbows. Her heart pounded in her chest and not from passion. She pushed up onto her arms, then the palms of her hands. She lifted as best she could on a soft mattress with give and she dragged herself back to the top of the bed and sat upright. "This is a problem."

"What's going on? What's wrong? It's me."

"No, not you. Me." She frowned, tears welling in her eyes. "Go home, Jody. It'll pass."

"Pass? What will pass? What are you talking about?"

"Get me out of here. Take me up. When it gets like this it takes me forever to get up there."

Jody watched her pull the robe across her nude body, covering herself. He suddenly felt more exposed than necessary and she looked away while he pulled on his shorts and scooped her into his strong arms. They sat on her roof in fresh air and Julia explained, or tried as best she could, what was happening to her. The more time she spent in Maverick, on Green Street, and as time closed in on the August 15th zom day, the original first night, the worse her paralysis. It lasted longer periods of time. The feeling more profound. Chess had felt it when he had visited, the sharp pain in his head, the memory as it returned to him from the close proximity to the house where they all had their memories years ago.

He watched her take the pizza off the grill, having regained her strength and feeling as gradually as it had left her in her bed, it returned on her roof. She sat with him at the table and unwrapped the foil from the pizza, releasing the odor of cheese and tomato and garlic into the air around them. She slid him a slice and tore into her own.

"What's up over there?" She asked, taking a swallow of water from the bottle. His eyes pierced hers and he looked like he had something on his mind. "You're pretty speechless, Jo." She went to him, leaned over him and kissed his forehead. "We going to try again?" Finally a smile. She had figured out how to make the guy smile. She took it as a yes as she got on her knees.

"No." He pushed her back a little.

"No? You heard how bad I am or something?" She laughed.

"Ah, Morgan. I'm not used to you doing this to me." He answered. 

"So." She shrugged, leaning and putting her elbows on his knees. She rested her head on her hands and gazed at him.  He raised eye brows at her. She unfolded her arms and unfolded his towel. He stood at attention for her and she covered him with her mouth, relaxing her throat and taking him all the way into her. She heard the gasp and continued. She finished off just as her jaw had started to ache. Jody chimed in as he spilled down her throat that normally he couldn't cum from a blow job.

"Well, till today." She rose from her sore knees. Concrete was not her friend. She leaned into him. "Kiss me." She did this to everyone, testing the reaction. There were willing men, Tavin had done it a couple times but never made a habit of it and Chess always would. He'd eat her out after he came more often than not. Chess had always been the odd man out. The face was priceless and Jody looked repulsed.

"Ugh. Do I have to?" He asked seriously, reeling his head back from her.

"No, Jo." She giggled. 

"Eww, I don't like that."

"Ok," She giggled, stepping back from him. She took her water bottle and she swished around her mouth then swallowed the water. She tossed her bottle in the empty bin and she backed away slowly. She untied the sash on her robe and felt comfortable leaving the robe hang open for him.

"I was wrong, Julia." He grinned from ear to ear. "You are not undeveloped."

She watched as his eyes absorbed her curves that peeked beneath the robe. She felt good, needed, wanted.

"Whatcha thinking, Morgan?"

She thought a moment. The way he said her name reminded her of Freeman. "Stop calling me Morgan."

"Fine, Julia."

"When we're here, together, it's not necessary."

"Fine, boss." He chuckled. "Seriously, what are you thinking?"

She smiled softly at him and twisted her hair in her fingers. "Jody, come in with me." She reached her hand out and he got up. He tucked the towel around his waist tightly, the length of him hung to the right. He dipped to kiss her again. He placed his hand on her head and ran his fingers through her short hair. He guided her back to the steps, then down to the efficiency where they sat on her bed in front of each other and talked and touched and kissed and then finally he took her, sliding inside her when he was ready. He made love to her till it got dark outside.

"Julia, that's weird." He said as the room gradually fell dim as the sun set. He sat with his back to the wall and watched over her shoulder near the dropped steps. Around them and out the window over the street it was dark and through the ceiling by the steps light shined in.

"I know it is. Don't worry about it." She felt the numbness creeping down her legs. She moved over on the bed closer to the wall. "I told you that strange things happen here." She got up from the bed and she went to the door across the room. "Ready to be freaked out?" She asked through the dark room.

"Not sure. Depends on what you're gonna do."

She reached her hand to the wall and he watched the silhouette of her body, her hand on the light switch. "Ta-da." She said as she turned on the ceiling light.

Jody jumped a foot. "Morgan, what the fuck." She walked a couple feet across the room and she turned on a pedestal fan. The mechanical whirring started up and the fan blew on him from where it stood. Julia turned the light out again and got back in bed.

"Jody, please don't ask."

"Don't ask? Am I dreaming?"

"Maybe." She answered. "I certainly hope not." She reached over the side of the bed and she pulled a remote control from between the mattress and the box spring. "Here." She mumbled, handing it to him. He peered at the remote in his hands and looked at the fan again. "Go ahead, Jo." He pressed the red button on the remote and aimed it at the television. The TV came to life, flickering in the small room.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked her as the newscaster described an illness that was sweeping through the emergency rooms in several large cities.

"Now, look out the window." She whispered as he gathered the sheet around his waist. She yanked it off him. "It's only us in here. Stop that."

The newscaster continued to describe the illness, its symptoms and that anyone with symptoms should seek medical attention immediately. Jody separated the curtain and peered outside. People. Street lights. Children played under those street lights. He heard noise beneath them. The coffee shop was open. "Julia." He stated like he was watching a car wreck unfold in front of his eyes. He watched the garage across the street. He watched as the mechanic closed the heavy fence and secured his business for the night. "Julia." He repeated loudly.

"Wanna go out?" She asked, sitting on her bed.

"Oh, shit. We could get ice cream."

"We could. Got any money?" She pulled the towel from the corner of the bed where Jody had left it and she hooked it around her foot under the arch. She pulled her foot back a couple times. She moved the towel beneath her knee and secured it below her thigh, then pulled up, flexing her leg at the knee. She repeated the same steps on her opposite leg. The numbness was overwhelming. She felt the burning sensation and she winced. The exercises used to help. If she kept moving, flexing, extending, flexing and extending. A nice shot of morphine would be fine right now or a couple shots of vodka...she mused as she kept her legs in motion.

"What are you doing?" He asked curiously as he observed her movements in the flickering light of the TV.

"Moving my legs, Jody." She answered. "Turn on the light and come look at me." Jody flicked on the switch and he walked to the bed. His nude body was a momentary distraction, but she looked past it. She took his hand in hers and she placed it on her head, right side by her temple. "Feel." He palpated her head, feeling the dent with his fingertips then he sat beside her and looked at her. In her hair line, unless you weren't actually looking for it, one wouldn't be able to see that. "Ok. Now look." She leaned forward in the bed and he peered around her unsure what he would see. His hand reached around her, tracing the healed surgical scar and the dip in her back where the bullet had entered. "Jesus." He gasped.

"Do not leave me."  She stated softly. For the first time in a long time he saw fear in her. True fear.

"If things get bad and I am still like this. I don't expect you to deal with this." She paused as her senses were completely overwhelmed. "I am not your responsibility." Her heart beat wildly in her chest. She felt and was paralyzed. "Jody, do you understand?"

He looked around the room, heard cars passing, children yelling. "Julia, what's wrong with-"

"I have told you about this. I don't expect you to take care of me. You don't have anything to do with this, us. It would be unfair to ask or expect..." She paused, tears filling her eyes. "There's things I will need and Tavin knows. Jo, he just knows. Ok?"

"Oh, I can deal with this. But where is he if..."

She looked at him warily. "Um, Pittsburgh, maybe. Sandy's maybe. They're all gone, Jody. Why are you here?" She asked confused. "I hate when this happens." She cried quietly. "Caught in a web between two very different timelines." She felt helpless and trapped. "Up here, I am safe. Up here, they can't get me." She whispered.

"Who?"

She pointed at the TV. She glanced at her left arm. She felt chilly as the fan cooled her. No fever. She had no fever. "My arm. Look." She rubbed where the vax had been injected. "I can't go through a zombie apocalypse like this. I - I-"

"We'll be alright, Julia. I got you."

"You don't understand. This shouldn't be happening to me or us."

"What is going on?" How Jody managed to stay so calm mystified her.

"I'm paralyzed. Jay shot me. They're gone. They're all gone. Not Tavin. He's alive."

"Julia, no." He said calmly as he held her hands. "Think, Julia. Tell me what is going on now. Not back then."

She felt like she was suffocating under years worth of fear and exhaustion. She had seen little glimpses. She had told Chess. "Chess knows. He knows what's happening."

"Tell me. Cause I am here and he is not and you just said they're all gone."

"The timelines. They're all blending. Too much jumping, Jody." She cried. "Get me out of here. Get me outside. I can't breathe."

"You get yourself together cause we're nude and there's people outside."

She cried, taking deep breaths. "It's like a living flashback. All that energy. All those feelings. They're right fucking here." She explained, placing her hand in front of her face. "I'm sorry. Jody, I'm sorry."

He held her hand as she seemed to go through this a little rougher than he did. He had no clue about half the things that went on even though he'd heard stories. He hadn't heard the full story. "Well, you're stuck with me, Julia." He moved around the bed and he put his arms around her. "We'll be alright. Everything is going to be alright."

"Thanks, Jody."

"Why do you stay here if this happens?"

"It happens everywhere I fucking go. Depends on where I am. If I am in Philly, it's different memories. If I am at Julio's, I get different memories because it's close to Tav's house."

It finally dawned on him, the one question he should have asked a half hour ago when all this started. "Julia, how do we make it stop?"

"Turn everything off. Turn it all off. Make it all stop."

beep...beep...beep...

While they lay in the dark, her body intertwined with his, Chess felt the air move around him. At first he didn't give it a second thought. The windows were open wide and the air was moving over him. He figured a storm may have been heading their way earlier as the sky had darkened a little too early. They'd even ridden back to the stables and head inside, thinking as much. The moist heat had shifted to a dry cool and a breeze the way it normally would if a storm approached, giving much relief to the unending July heat. Even if for a short period of time, that would be heavenly.

He tried falling asleep without much luck. He lay listening to the quieting calm of the Mastro campus. He heard few voices and he heard little activity. When he couldn't sleep, he lay with her and held onto her and thought about the next day or the day that had passed. His brain constantly in motion till sleep eventually swept over him for a few short hours. This evening he lay wide awake and sleep wouldn't come to him.

He moved closer to her, wrapping her up in his arms and thanks to that cool breeze, he even covered them both with a sheet. What was odd was the way her body felt. Cool and dry. What was missing? Her heat. As he blanketed her small body, he realized Julia Fry had no fever. At first this startled him, but he settled as she moved and repositioned and her breathing was normal and even. Alive and well, her hair still damp from the shower they took together not too long before heading to the room. He got comfortable, her body nude, except for the soft material of her panties against his belly. He rested his chin on her shoulder as always and tried placing his chin in the scarred dip on her shoulder blade. Odd...are we on the wrong side of the bed? He wondered as her skin was smooth. It's her left shoulder, he was sure of it. He knew this little one's dips and curves without question. His hand softly traced the flesh on her back over the left shoulder blade and when the scar tissue wasn't there, he thought himself crazy until his hand brushed over the right side of her and her back was as smooth as ever. There was no scar. No dimpled skin with its crooked edging.

"Morgan?" He said aloud, a question as opposed to a statement. Had these two switched up again? He had no control over if and when they switched any more than they did and Julia Fry couldn't manipulate a switch. Wifey could. He traced the curve of her body with his palm from her shoulder to her waist and then rested his hand on her hip. He had no true way to tell one from the other short of talking to her if clothed. But nude, the scar seemed to be a dead giveaway. His hand moved her hip forward and back, waking her. "Morgan." He called to arouse her. "Babe."

"Hmm, what Chess?" She asked as she woke a little. "Everything alright?"

"What are you doing here?" He asked her, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I live here, Chess. What's wrong with you?" She did rouse from slumber enough to throw the sheet off her. She got up.

"Where you going, babe?"

"Bathroom." Her feet on the floor she walked the room in the dark and how she managed, he was unsure. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face much less be able to cross the floor without tripping over something. The mattress felt soft beneath him, her warm spot on the bed still there as he waited for her to come back to him. He heard the flush of a toilet...Odd again. He thought he had to be dreaming because this didn't feel right.

"Julia?" He asked her name and listened as the water ran in the sink. "Babe, what-"

And then there was light. Shining to the right and from the back of the room. He sat upright immediately and looked toward the light. "Julia." He looked around the room as his eyes adjusted to the contrasting light.

"Ugh, I started my fucking period." She complained.

He heard her moving around, the opening and closing of the cabinet door under the sink. "I know." He replied. The crinkling of a wrapper and then the water running. She emerged from the light with damp panties in her hand and she tossed them in her laundry basket. Her body turned around and she opened the top drawer of her dresser and pulled out another pair of panties. She pulled them on and then a cami followed from the same drawer. She pulled it over her head and then adjusted her hair, pulling it up in a scrunchie into a long curly red tail that hung off the top of her scalp.

"You knew I started then why was I bleeding all over my underwear? Don't let me sleep through that. It'll get on the bed, ass."

"Yeah, sorry, babe." He stammered as she yanked a pair of shorts over her panties. PINK in box letters was written over her small and shapely ass.

"Where's my fucking rings?" She asked him as she turned to face him.

"Your-"

"My rings, Chester, fuck...where's?" She pulled the sheet back and she moved her pillow. Her face contorted between confusion and sadness. "I never take my rings off, babe. Where are they?"

Habit...he ran his hand over his shorts and reached into his right pocket. No...fuck...Jesus Christ, no. He withdrew the silvery metal ring with its pretty blue stone, the white gold wedding band as well, and held them out to her. "Here." She held her hand out. The hair stood on his neck, a chill flooded him and every fiber of his being screamed don't do it, but he did. He took her hand in his and he slid the rings over her finger. "I love you, baby."

"You had my fucking rings. Why?" She asked as he had said those three cursed words to her. He couldn't answer because he didn't know the answer. She half smiled. "How much did we drink if you have the rings?" She moved in her room, opening her bag and she withdrew a pack of cigarettes. "I'm going out to smoke." She stated as she complained her way to the door.

Chess dropped back on the bed and stared at the drop ceiling. He laughed aloud. "Universe." He said aloud. "What on earth are you doing to us now?" The phone. He heard buzzing on the floor. He peeked over the edge and the screen was lit, shining crookedly through an empty bottle of Smirnoff vodka. He reached over and retrieved it, sliding his finger across the screen. "Hey." He droned.

"Hey. I miss you."

"Miss me so much, beautiful, come see me." Her voice was genuine and soft and sang to him. He loved the sound of her voice. "Mace, I fucking miss you. Come over Julia's."

"On my way."

The digital numbers on the cell screen read 1910. Chess dragged his body from her bed. He stood, stretched, noticed a quarter sized spot of blood on her pink sheet. What fucking day is it? He asked as he pressed the calendar icon on the phone screen. June 7th. He went outside with wifey who was on her second smoke and he took one from her pack. "Mace is on her way."

"K, cool." She smiled coolly from her seat on the pavement by her cellar entrance. "Maybe when we have our party, I was thinking, we could have a little spot decorated for her. You know, her school colors and all."

"About that party." Chess laughed aloud. "Maybe we shouldn't have one. Do we really need one?"

"We're all graduating, asshole. Yes, we fucking do. Your mom's been planning this."

"We need to talk, pretty girl."

"About?" She looked up at him with those pretty blue-green eyes of hers.

"The truth, Julia." He replied. "I know we had a fuck ton of problems, right. Me cheating on you and the shit we did in Philly." She looked away, over her lawn to the back of the yard. "We need to talk about Philly now." He said, thinking back, that was something they should have handled in their sober moments. The few that they had shared together.

"You know." She stated.

"I do. But, first let me say, before you get freaked out and go all bipolar on me, that I don't pretend to understand and I never will, but I forgive you."

"Oh-"

"And no matter what, the ring that you have on your finger right fucking now means more to me than you will ever begin to know. That no matter what happens, I will always have your back and be there and don't ever doubt that."

"Oh-"

"I spend a lot of time thinking about you. You're my girl, my wife. I love no one more than you in this world. I know you love Jay. I know you got this fucked up connection to Tavin that I will never understand. I know that this, us, we last. No matter what the universe throws at us, it's me and you. For me, it all comes down to me and you."

"Uh-"

"So if we could just get this out of the way without all the drama and without all the bullshit and just say that we are the best and closest of friends no matter what fucked up shit we will ever do with and for and to each other, I would really fucking appreciate it."

"Uh-"

"Look, it's important that you know this."

"Ok."

"It's important, I swear, babe."

"Ok, my Chess."

"Whatever road we take, cause we're gonna take different ones soon. You need to know that I am always a phone call, a drive, and thought away."

"Ok, babe. Are you high?"

"Give me your hands, Julia." He said, moving to face her. "Take them and you will understand."

"What?" She asked as she stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray.

"We're cutting through years of bull shit." He took her hands in his and he waited.

"It's burning." She said as their hands touched.

"It's anger. Cause I am fucking angry. All the time. It'll feel better in a minute. The deeper you go."

A few times she tried to disconnect, break the hold he had on her hands. She eventually relaxed and absorbed his energy. She saw what he saw, felt what he felt, ached as he ached, needed as he needed. She followed him through memories and years she hadn't lived yet. When she had all she needed, their bond broke and he tested her. Ya there, babe? He sent the thought to her.

"Yeah. Why are you here with me now, Chess?"

"I think I am here for Macy."

"Ok, cool, then. Can you not go to the marines?"

"Not up to me. You convince him, not me. I already went. You saw it."

"Are we tripping, Chess?"

"No. Not right now. We are sober as fuck."

Chess relaxed, moved next to Julia and put an arm around her while they waited on Macy. Talking with his wife, about the things they should have talked about back then. She seemed awed, embarrassed, emotional, especially when talking about Shane Dixon. Everything he had wanted to say to her, he said calmly and without all the emotion and anger. It wasn't a fresh cut for him, but he had a feeling that he was opening up a lot of fresh cuts for her. "Do not beat yourself up over any of it. And when I leave and he comes back, have the same conversation with him when he's ready or when you are. Don't drag this shit out. It only hurts us down the road. You already know everything and so does he, just talk about it."

"Ok."

"Remember I love you, ok. No matter what."

"Me too, my Chess."

Macy arrived through the house as opposed to the gate. She sat on the ground next to Chess and he put his arm around her too. Julia played with her rings on her finger while Chess talked with Macy and told her a bunch of things that he had needed to get off his chest with her as well. Julia elbowed him as he talked with their third wheel, wifey number two. She leaned around Chess toward Macy. "Hey, beautiful." She smiled, lifting and sitting on Chess's lap. She leaned to Mace and kissed her. "Gimme your hand." Macy held out her hand, but Julia didn't hold it, rather, she handed Chess the white gold band. "I don't need this one do I?" She asked him as she put her small arms around his neck and hugged him.

"Nope, never did, pretty girl."

Chess slipped the band over Macy's finger and held her hand.

"Awe, really? I know we talked about it, but really?" Macy giggled a little. They had, back then, only tossed around the idea of making Macy their girl. Chess had fallen for her as hard as Julia and he had warned her then, to cease and desist or risk including Macy's feelings and body and soul between them.

"I will share my husband with you." Julia told her as she kissed on Chess's neck. "You may not stray from my Chess. You will be married to my Chess and love him as I love him."

"Julia," Chess whispered against her.

"He is ours." Julia smiled, leaning to Macy. "You are ours to share." Macy looked confused. "Say yes, Macy Monroe."

"Yes, it is what I want." She looked at Chess, holding his hand tight in hers. "It is what I want."

"Then wonderful. You are now pronounced Mrs. Morgan."

Chess laughed a little, "Julia, it's not quite the way it works."

"It is if I say it is." She hummed, kissing his neck and sucking a little by his ear. "Our house, my Chess. Our rules."

As the hours passed he wondered exactly how long he'd be staying. These two were quite the handful while he was sober. During his heavier drug and drinking days, he could keep right up with them, but as a guy who didn't drink and drug anymore, they were a little too much for him. Looking at this display with a set of fresh eyes and from a more mature perspective, these two were train wrecks in the making. He supposed that he had been one as well and as the hours wound on and these two got so completely wasted, but that's what their days amounted to then. Drugs, alcohol and sex. Even though Julia had been cursed with her period, that didn't seem to matter to these two.

"What's the matter, Chess, we do this all the time. I'm plugged." She slurred.

Oh. My. God. The things that used to turn him on. Although he did watch, he had to get out for a bit. "I'm going to get something to drink." He said, thinking there had to be a fridge full of ice cold beverages above his head and probably some decent left overs. As he arrived to the kitchen from the basement, he had no doubt that the events that took place had actually occurred at some point. He didn't remember. He passed from Sodom to Gomorrah as his feet hit the linoleum of the kitchen floor. Rummaging through the fridge, he drank two cokes down without thinking about it. He took some slim jims off the counter and then turned his focus to the living room. "For the love of God, where are our parents?" He asked as he watched Andy jerk off to porn on the laptop in front of him.

Andy, ever shy and timid, gasped at the thought of being caught mid hand job and he covered himself. "What? They're out. It's date night."

"Oh, and where is Rey?" Andy shook his head a moment and seemed a little more withdrawn than usual. "You two together or no?" Chess asked as this particular memory resurfaced. Back then, the drugs and alcohol had possibly blacked this out for him. "Guess not." He approached the living room and caught a glimpse of the lap top screen. "Well, damn. I thought I was large." His eyes widened and he thought...never...no way in the world he'd take that in any orifice. "Are you into that size, dude?"

Andy was speechless.

"Well?"

"Uh, I only have been with Rey."

Chess tossed the idea around in his head, considering the alternative in the basement eating each other's pussies. Andy was alone and he was sober. "Didn't exactly answer my question, Andy."

"Rey isn't that big." He glanced at the screen. "He's like average I guess."

"Would you try one that big?"

"Mmm-maybe." He closed the lap top. He set it aside and he pulled his hand out of his boxers.

"You, do you usually bottom or have you-"

"He let me once."

"Once, like one time."

He nodded. "Chess, what's with all the questions? Why are you so suddenly interested in this?"

"I'm bi." He answered. Still didn't sound right announcing that out loud.

"Since when?"

"Since forever." He answered quickly. "Would you like to-?"

"With you?" Andy asked shocked, brows raised and furrowed. "Is this a joke?"

"No." Chess answered, setting the slim jims on the coffee table. He unzipped and Andy gasped again, looking around the living room. "Fuck, you're jumpy."

"Chess, what's up? What are you doing, babe?" Julia asked as she arrived from Sodom into Gomorrah. "Thought you were getting drinks."

"I did and I drank." He replied as she came in the living room.

"You gonna fool around with Andy?" She asked, scooping him around his waist. Her delicate hand dipped into his shorts and stroked him. He grew in her hand. She looked at Andy. "Hey, I know you're totally into guys, but come with us. Have fun, please. Fuck Rey."

"You're my sister, Julia."

"Uh, we are not related, weirdo." She argued. "Come. We'll show you what a vagina looks like up close while he...well...whatever he plans on doing."

That's the wife he knew and loved.  "Take it out for him." Chess told her.

"Oh, Andy, come with us." Julia giggled as she removed Chess fully erect from his shorts.

"Wow." Andy's eyes grew wide.

"I swear I know what I'm doing."

"I don't know." Andy whispered. "That's kinda big and-"

"Yeah, it hurts sometimes." Julia rolled her eyes.

"Babe, we're not trying to scare him off."

"Well, you should have left it in your pants."

Andy seemed reluctant, but he moved off the sofa and followed along with them from Gomorrah into Sodom. Chess took him outside, got him high on fairly decent weed. He tried to get the kid to relax some, touching him while he smoked, kissing him a little. He got the kid hard with his mouth for Christ sake, which was when he finally believed him, that this was not some weird joke or prank. He gave him a blow job, on his knees outside and swallowed him. They finished the joint, made out and went inside to the girls who watched TV while they fooled around on the bed. "Macy, baby." Chess called her and this one was also as timid as they came what with Andy being there. As he entered Macy from behind, Andy entered him and the three made love while Julia watched news reports of a virus that was making people sick enough to start filling up urban ER's.

"Julia, baby. I wanna finish in you." Chess called, distracting her from the TV.

"What? Me? I'm bleeding."

"Take it out and come to bed."

"Damn it, Chess." She answered, slipping into the bathroom and returning with a towel. She lay it double folded over the mattress and lay on her side in front of him. He came while he watched Julia kiss Macy while Andy fucked him from behind.

When he awoke he fully expected to be in Julia's bed with two girls and a guy. His ass was still a bit sore, he hadn't done that in a minute. It had definitely been real and not a dream. There were two bodies with him not three when the sun broke through the open windows in the bedroom. He wrapped himself up in the pretty girl named Macy and inhaled her scent. How am I gonna fucking explain this? He asked himself as Julia started to come to life on the opposite side of him.

"Baby, we should probably have that talk now." He announced as she lifted and looked over his body at their bed mate.

"Hmm, I had the strangest fucking dream, Chess." She announced in her know it all voice. "I assume this is Macy."

"This is Macy." He agreed as she slept soundly against his body.

"Thanks for inviting me to the wedding."

Shit...shit...shit...she was tagging along. All those things he said to wifey...the ring...the feelings...the truth that his heart held immense love for another girl...he'd also confessed to her.

"And to the celebration afterward." She added for spite. "Thanks so fucking much."

"You hate me."

"I am not happy, Chess. But thanks for finishing in me."

"I-I meant everything I said to her, to both of them."

"Chess Morgan." She mumbled. That admission didn't make her feel any better.  "I don't even know what to say."

"I don't either. It was private."

"You don't take this seriously at all, do you?" She asked.

"Honestly, Julia, yes I do. Here and now, absolutely. I can say that 100%. You have to take into consideration the time and the place and I was speaking with Julia, not you. It was important that I said that to her and that she knew that."

"But I am not important enough to say those things to."

"We haven't shared those things, Julia. You and I are so new and so different. What have we done together that we can share so deep like that?"

"You're right." She frowned, pulling back from him. She scooted down the mattress to the floor where she started dressing.

"Julia, in time, we will have things like that to share. Right now, it's so new, we are still getting to know each other. We, you and I, we are different."

"Fuck you, Chess."

"Julia, I would do as much for you as them. If you need anything, I get it and if there's something wrong, I fix it. Julia, it is similar, yet different. Can you trust me on this?"

"Fuck you, Chess."

"Don't act like her, it doesn't suit you."

She flipped him off.

"You don't understand, Julia."

She simmered beneath the surface. "I understand that I watched you admit things you will never feel for me. I feel like I have wasted months of my life with you. I cannot believe I gave you my virginity. For what?"

"I never once betrayed you or lied to you about anything." She couldn't argue that. "Have I? You sat there and you listened. We were sober and there was no clouding of our judgment. Was there? You saw everything she saw when she connected to me. Have I once ever lied or led you on or gave you one reason to believe that you made the wrong choice being my girlfriend? A liar, I am not, Julia Fry." He adjusted the sheet over Macy and he got up. "I do honesty with her and you, Julia, have I lied or misled you or been dishonest? From what you witnessed."

"Wanna know what I witnessed? I witnessed you pledge devotion to another woman. I witnessed some weird marriage that although fake meant something to all three of you. I witnessed you, then, as soon as you are away from me, fuck three other people. That is what I witnessed."

"Julia needed to hear all those things I said to her. You don't understand me and my wife. You understand me and you." He said, sitting on the end of the bed. "Macy is my girlfriend. I have told you this."

"Andy..."

"Well, that was fun."

"We were supposed to talk about it first. Would you have done any of that if you knew I was there?"

"Yes." He answered. "Honestly, yes. I finished in you."

"Fuck you."

"Say that to me again and I will beat your ass."

She opened her mouth to speak, but thought better of it.

"Respect me, Julia."

"Yes, Chess." She sighed. "But you could do the same. Respect me."

"This is a different world we live in now. You gave that to me and I possess that. Your virginity. Your body. You. I give and I can take away. Do you understand me?"

"Chesssss." She hissed and whined and frowned.

When the tears started, he pointed at the floor in front of him. She moved and stood in front of him. Her head hanging and tears dripping onto his legs. "Do you understand me?"

"You made love to other-"

"I can't explain that. It's what we do when we jump. Kinda doesn't count."

"It does, Chess."

"When you jumped to Philly and had your dreams, did that count?"

"No."

"Why? It's the same thing."

"No, it's not."

"When your face was buried between Zoe Flannigan's legs-"

"Chess-"

"Did you enjoy that?"

"Yes, but-it's not the same as the real thing."

"Exactly the point." He agreed. He extended his hands to her. "Take my hands and do the exact same thing Julia and I did."

"What?"

"You heard me. Look and see for yourself. Look at us, me and you, and feel it for yourself."

"I cannot do that." She denied she could as Chess held onto her hands. They both felt the shock, that jolt of electricity between them as their palms flattened against each other.

"This is a connection." He felt her burning into him, her energy as it seared into his hands and into his wrists. "This, Julia, is a lie detector." The heat stopped there.

"I cannot do it." She protested. Her fever, her heat had returned.

"I can." He said loudly. "Hold on." The heat he allowed to ascend through his nerves into his forearms, a struggle at first, then easier once she relaxed and allowed it to happen. "This keeps me honest." The heat reached his head and he felt it reaching into his brain, a different area, more superficial than with wifey. Julia Fry didn't have to dig as deep. She hadn't infiltrated the core of him like wifey did, they hadn't known each other, hurt or loved each other as long or as strongly. Yet...he thought as she sensed his words and the accompanying emotion. He adjusted his attitude for her, accommodating her emotional state, her fragility.

"Why's it burn, Chess? It hurts."

"You are angry. Burning is associated with anger. Normally this should tickle or feel like a numbness, like when your arm falls asleep."

As Julia read him for her first time and allowed the energy to flow back and forth between them, she calmed. He had meant everything he ever said. His actions with her, toward her had a purpose. "I understand. It's magic."

"Something like that." Julia had finished combing his brain and loosened her grip, signaling to release her hands. "Nope." He kept his fingers intertwined with his own. "Anything you want to know is in there. Any questions, any confusion you may have, clear it up now. This is how you know."

She gazed at him and she searched no further. She didn't want to know anything more. 

"I never did anything inappropriate with Jayson Keller." She stated, sensing that from him in a form of...fear perhaps. "He hasn't tried anything inappropriate with me either. He knows the difference between us and he respects that."

"He respects you."

"Quit worrying about it."

"Uh, that's a little more difficult to do and it's not your fault."

"It's hers."

"I have kissed Jesslyn."

"Could have said something."

"It kinda just happened."

"You sleep in bed together, so I am not surprised and Jess is missing her."

"I fill a void." She admitted knowingly. "Not for you though. I'm glad to know that."

"At first maybe. I will admit it. But you two are so very different. It's so-"

"I make you smile on the inside, Mister."

"Yes, you do. Before I even considered taking you to bed. You are the first girl I put thought into in that regard. Like a decision I made, Julia. I took your feelings into consideration and I also took mine into consideration. I do not take this lightly. I do take this seriously. What happened at home, with them..."

"Actually happened."

"In a black out. I was sober this time."

Chess reached over and picked up his shirt from the floor. "Let's go eat, walk. We'll talk."

She was still mad, but she was at least thinking and digesting what she had seen and heard in his mind. "I want to talk through this. Remember when I told Julia to talk to him. Keeping our shit bottled up does not help the matter." 

"Us, though." She looked around him to Macy sleeping soundly. "All of us." She whispered.

"We will talk. I will not move forward with her till we talk."

The caf had a team lingering inside it. They had eaten. They were ready to roll out and waited for one person, Jody.

"He's not back yet?" Chess asked. Jody was always on time. The first out and the last in. He went about the business of zombie seriously.

"We haven't seen him, Chess."

"Odd." He said. "Go out without him. I'll send him out when he returns."

"Yeah, sure, we'll roll out then." Savage said, hoisting a pack onto his back.

"Yeah, you're running the show till he gets out there. You and Savage."

"We got this. Put him on another team if you want."

As they cleared out, Chess looked at Julia blankly.

"Where's he at, Chess?"

"With the contact." He replied with a grin. Julia...He called quietly.

"What?" She asked, moving away from him toward the kitchen.

Jules...he called...answer me. We connected.

"What?" She raised her voice. "I hear you loud and clear." She replied, turning her head toward him.

He called and the wrong one answered. Why couldn't she hear him? Chess felt fairly certain that Jody was still with Julia. If there was a problem, he wouldn't have left her. If he enjoyed her, then he would run late, but he would eventually leave her. A thought occurred that she may have asked him to stay, recalling that Jody had been asked where he placed his loyalty. Had she asked again? Had she convinced him to stay and join her team as opposed to his? Would she do that, knowing how much the group depended on him?

He looked at Julia as she fetched her breakfast and his. He set Jody in the back of his mind and he felt confident that Martin Savage and Joe would be able to handle the team and start in the field despite Jody's delay. He chose to focus on Julia before he got to work.

Kelly approached him as he and Julia took their seats. She carried Tarin in her arms and looked upset. "Chess, can we talk a minute?" She switched the child from one hip to another instead of setting him down. If she had, he would have taken off and run from her. Having recently transitioned from walking while holding on to objects to steady himself to a walking and running 1 year old, she wasn't in the mood for a chase.

"What's up, Kell?" He asked, rising from his seat. He took the fussy Tarin and held him for her. They walked to the door where she opened up on him.

"Did Tav go out with the team this morning?"

"No. He shouldn't have. I didn't see him in here with them."

"He's gone." She whispered.

"Gone? In the office maybe?"

"No. Gone. He left in the middle of the night."

"What do you mean he left?"

"One minute he was there and the next minute he was gone. That is what I mean, Chess. I left to pee and came back and he was gone." She replied looking worried. "Another thing happened too, late last night. It woke me up."

"What?" He asked, thinking he had his own strange occurrences to think about and talk about and deal with.

"I heard Julia calling me." Chess glanced across the caf to Julia at the table with their breakfast. She noticed him looking at her and she shook her head.  "Not her. She wouldn't call to me. She wouldn't know to do that." Kelly appeared nervous.

"What did she say exactly?"

"Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Are you there, Kelly?"

"You answer?"

"Yes." She nodded disturbed and teary eyed. "I answered her, but she kept calling me. Kelly. Kelly. Kelly. Are you there Kelly? Then Tavin disappeared on me. Something is wrong."

"What did she want?"

"I couldn't get an answer. Happened twice and she faded. I couldn't hear her anymore."

"Can you feel her? Where is she?"

"When I try, she is right there. Does she have the gift? Did she turn it on?"

"This morning."

"That's the problem, then. I can't focus on one for the other. She's closer. I feel her. All her. I feel Macy near us."

"Mace is upstairs."

"I'd like to see her. Can I go?"

"Yes."

"Is Tavin with her?"

"No. He is not. We were with her the whole time." He handed Tarin back to Kelly and watched them leave.

Jody shook Julia awake. "Morgan. Wake up, Morgan." He had no idea where he was. The bed he lay in and the room in which they both slept were unfamiliar to him.

Jody's voice called to her, rousing her from slumber. She had called to Kelly from the apartment and hadn't received an answer. It had been a dream. She laid on her side and he was firmly snuggled behind her. "Hmm, I am awake."

"Where are we?" He asked as he spied a wheel chair parked next to the bed. A large room, sparse of decoration and frills. A bag on the desk across the room. Note books on the desk in a pile. The room smelled pretty and so did Morgan. Her long hair fanning over her shoulder and back, tickling his chest when she moved. She opened her bright blue-green eyes and she smiled. The sun shined through the curtains on her face and brought out the highlights in her hair. He brushed the hair aside and he kissed her cheek. "Where are we?" She was more relaxed here. None of the tears flowed, none of the fear on her face like the night before.

"Um, my house." She replied as her eyes scanned the room. His gaze settled on the wheel chair. She lifted onto an elbow and she began to move. Her legs immobile, but she had a way of moving that she was familiar with and had obviously practiced. He watched as she got herself across the bed and into her chair. Never once asking for help, which he could have given.

"Julia." Her head turned toward the doorway then back to Jody. She looked as confused as Jody at the sound of his voice.

"Julia, is he gonna be pissed? Are you with him?" Jody asked, sitting up on her bed.

"No and no." She replied softly, wheeling to the door. "What, Tavin? I'm up."

Before she could get to the door to open it for him, he was already through it. He looked down at her, then crouched in front of her. "Hey," He reached for the wheelchair leg, putting down the foot rests one by one and then placing her feet on each one. "You alright?"

"Yeah. I don't need that." She pointed to the foot paddles on the wheelchair legs.

"Yes, you do. Where you heading?"

"Bathroom. Gonna cath me too?" She asked, rubbing her belly.

"If I have to. What are we doing back here, Red?"

"No clue, but we're hungry."

"Fuck, yeah, so am I." He agreed eagerly, rubbing his stomach as he stood up. He looked over her and saw Jody in her bed. "Jo, this is fucked up. What are you doing here?"

"I was with the contact, Keller."

Tavin laughed as he stepped aside to let Julia wheel out. "Now, we both are." He looked down the hall and watched her slip the chair through the bathroom door.

"Ow, damn it." She muttered as her hand got caught between the door frame and the wheel on her chair.

"You ok, Red?"

"Didn't make a wide enough turn. Caught my hand."

"Be careful."

"Haven't done this in a long time, Tavin." She called in response. "It'll take a minute to get used to it again."

"Want me to roll, Red?"

"Please." She yelled, but couldn't shut the bathroom door. "Damn it." She muttered again.

"What's wrong now?"

"Can't get the door shut, stay out there."

He and Jody went in the kitchen and Tavin rolled Julia a joint. He set out her pills on the counter top. Jody watched as he worked. He saw Jody looking at the pills. "Antidepressant." he pointed at the white round pill. "These three are for the nerve pain." He motioned to the rusty colored capsules. "Pain." He said, pointing to the oblong white pill. He set another pill on the countertop. "Bladder, it helps retain urine so she doesn't..." He hesitated, wondering how much he should say to Jody. Jody was not as informed about her condition as he was. Would she mind if..."pee her pants." He continued in a hushed tone. "How much has she told you?"

"Not much. It was a bad night. I never saw her so shaken."

"She seems ok now, though." Tavin shrugged. "This one is...nevermind." He set the stool softeners on the counter and then fetched her some juice to down all those pills. They waited for her to come out of the bathroom then the bedroom and Jody wondered what was taking her so long. "Nothing is fast anymore. She's taking her time too. Forgot half her shit when she went in the bathroom. It would be easier if I helped her, but she is stubborn."

"You took-take care of her like this."

"When we're together. Yeah, sure. I have since she was shot. Like she said, it's been awhile."

"How long will we be here?"

"Don't know." He answered, pointing at the pills. He started explaining the regimen of her medications. "You know how to roll?"

"I do, but..."

"Good. Her ex deals her weed, so when she runs low, I usually give him a call. Dylan is his name. Number's in her phone."

"Ok."

"I'm not here all the time." He said, hearing the cell ringing from the living room. He went and got it and looked at the screen. "Kell." He smiled as he answered the phone. "Yeah, baby. Sure. I know. I'm sorry. We're going to eat. Wanna come with us?" He paused, listening to her talk in his ear. "I don't give a fuck. We're fucking married, Kell. And..." He paused. "Get dressed. I love you, too."

He tossed the cell back on the sofa and went to find Julia. "You need help, Red? I'm hungry. Let's eat. I wanna grab Kell."

"I'm coming." Julia moaned. "I'm sorry, Tav. It's all so new again. You got my weed, Tav?"

"I have everything ready." He hovered over her with his arms folded over his broad, bare chest. "Are we gonna figure out what the hell is going on soon?"

"I don't intend to. How about we just go with the flow?"

"Go with the flow? What is the flow here, Julia?" Jody asked from the hall entrance, watching Tavin with her in the doorway.

"It's different." She replied. "Hey, that motherfucker is not in the basement. He better not be in the basement. I am in no mood-"

"Oh, we don't have to go through all that again do we? I don't really feel like-"

"Nah, the flow. Normal stuff." She shrugged as he crouched in front of her again and placed her small flip flop covered feet on the wheel chair leg rests.

"Remember when you twisted your foot up in that front wheel, Red?" He reminded her. "You have to be careful."

"Yes."

"Flip flops?"

"I ain't walking anywhere. My nails are pretty and-"

"They're gonna fall off your feet when you transfer." He reminded her of that also. At this point her nerves were wracked from the tiring work of getting herself together for the morning. Her tears..."I'm sorry, but it's true. I'll get your Nike's."

"I'll do it." She cried, backing up slowly.

Jody watched the interaction and when Tavin returned to the kitchen counter, he commented. "You have to be tough with her. Not mean, but firm. Or she'll walk over you. Don't let the tears get to you either." He moved along, getting his shirt and putting on shoes. Julia wheeled into the kitchen and looked over the pills. She picked up the joint.

"Uh-uh." Tavin yelled. "No."

"But-"

"Do not start. I'm not in the mood. Julia, damn it, we have been through this a million fuckin times."

"It'll be lunch time before we get out of here, so take the pills." Jody told her. She stared them both down. Jody took the joint. "No pills, no pot."

Julia took her pills. "You're both intimidating me." She smiled.

"Please." Tav huffed. "Go smoke, Red."

With a half hour they were back on Green Street, passing the coffee shop. Kelly hopped in the suburban and snatched Tavin's hand as he pulled away from the curb. "You're letting me come along." She was excited. "Oh, who's he?" She asked, turning to Julia and Jody.

"Jody." He answered.

"New guy friend, Julia? Oh, he's cute."

"He is, Kell. How you been?"

"Since yesterday? No different."

Kelly looked like a little kid. He knew that she and Tavin had got together when she was young, but the difference three years made was amazing. Kelly had transformed into someone completely different, the girl he knew was not as bright eyed and bubbly as the girl who he knew from Mastro.

"Oh, true." Julia replied, thinking back, she talked with Kelly regularly. It was Jesslyn that she had grown apart from.

The diner was busy, but they got a seat within 10 minutes. Through the meal, several people approached Julia, strangers she said, who gave her well wishes, asked how she was doing, asked if she and Cal needed anything. She finally looked at Kelly and asked, "How long has it been since Jayson shot me?"

"Eight months, I think." She replied, placing the end of a bacon strip in her mouth.

"So I just moved into the house."

"A couple weeks ago, yes."

The three of them tore apart a breakfast fit for a king. Kelly was shocked at the amount of food the three of them ate, gorging on breakfast food like they hadn't eaten in weeks. When she excused herself to go to the ladies room, Tavin spoke up.

"Ok, so we're just gonna chill here till what happens, Julia?"

"Till it works itself out?" She guessed. "We spent the night above the coffee shop and here we are this morning."

"Well I spent the night with her at the school and woke up here on your sofa." He replied, watching the two of them hold hands, sitting closer than they normally would. "So, uh, Kelly. Think she knows what's going on?"

"Nah, she doesn't. Have fun with that, Tav. The 4th time is the charm?" Julia grinned as Kelly approached the table.

"Maybe. It's kinda getting old. Three times was kinda cool actually, but 4. I think I am pushing my luck."

"So, what's for dinner?" Jody asked as the waitress placed the check on the table.

Julia finished her coffee, "What would you like?"

"Tacos or wings."

"Tacos. Sounds great. I am not cooking." Julia answered. "Oh there's this place in the square me and Jay used to eat at all the fuckin' time. Oh, tacos..."

Tavin pulled out money from his wallet. "I'm paying, Julia?"

"I guess. I haven't whored around Philly yet, so I am broke. You coming home with us?"

Kelly gasped at her whoring comment. "Julia, no." She said nervously.

"Yes." Tavin nodded, taking Kelly's hand and nudging her to the edge of the booth.

Having Julia in her chair was unusual for Jody. He wasn't used to seeing her sitting in one all the time. It started to get real for him as the morning unfolded into the afternoon. She would not get up and walk. She didn't have the ability. Reality bites, Julia had told him. Jody wasn't one to sit idle and stagnate. He liked to be moving and utilize his time. He was never a fan of being a couch potato. But she reminded him to relax and let it happen.

"I feel like I totally ruined this, Jody." She admitted as they sat on her sofa and watched the credits roll on the second movie they had watched.

"Why's that?" He asked, munching on chips from one of the bags beside him. "You haven't ruined anything."

"Well, yesterday was such a good day and here we are in a place you don't know and I am like this and it's not what I expected for sure."

Jody kissed her a moment and pulled away, "What did you expect?"

She smiled at him and held his hand. "Not TV and chips." She sighed, still feeling a little excited from their previous day. "You clearly do not understand the position you have placed yourself in." She reached for the remote and turned off the on demand, turning on CNN for a minute. "Even if it is temporary. This is not the way I pictured us starting our, um, what are we starting? Are we starting something, Jo?"

"Think we were trying to." He replied. "But if we're taking it slow, then this is the slowest I have ever seen."

"Me too." She admitted, holding onto his hand. "I don't and won't feel a thing. Dammit."

"So, it's not worth my time to take you to your bed and finish what we started last night."

"Honestly, for me, no." She replied. "If you need to, then I will. I should describe what you're in for though."

"Like?"

"Not everyone is as understanding as doctor Keller up there." She shrugged. "Dylan was not. He was sweet, but-"

"Like, Julia?"

"Urine. I take a pill to help retain urine. My alternative is a catheter, which is gross enough. When I pee, which happens frequently, I don't completely empty my bladder, so I have to catheterize myself 3 or 4 times a day to empty completely." She cringed when she admitted it, but she had to.

"Oh, ok."

"I should explain before you get in there and find out on your own. I learned this the hard way. No one told me before I did it with him." She pointed to the ceiling. "Or Dylan." She added. "Um, it's so embarrassing."

"You wanna wait? Cause I'll jump in head first."

"We should. Yes."

Jayson had waited long enough for her. She hadn't arrived to the truck like she said she would the day before, so he went looking for her. He really didn't need her, thought about leaving her altogether, but thought better of it. Their job, not his job. Normally Julia didn't bail on him, so he head back to the main building to the second floor and knocked on her room door. "You up or what?" He yelled through the closed door. He heard her moving around in the room. "I got everything in the truck and I am ready. Are you coming or not?"

"Who is that?" A girl's voice called through the door to him.

"Jayson, who do you think it is?" He answered. It was not Julia's voice. "Who are you?"

The door opened slightly and he saw those beautiful brown eyes looking back at him. Only her head, though. "Jayson, where am I?" He put his hand on the door to open it and she held it shut. "I have no clothes on. Where on earth are we?"

"We're at the Mastro school. Where did you come from?" He asked.

"I was at Julia's with her and Chess. I woke up here. I was scared to come out, because I don't know where I am. We were high, but I don't remember coming here, Jayson."

"Oh, uh, ok. No clothes, huh? Kay's about your size, wanna come and get dressed?"

"I can't, no. Chess would not like that."

"Well, I will bring you some clothes." He told her. "It's good to see you, Macy."

"Yeah, you too."

"Hey, don't be scared. You're safe here, Mace. I promise."

Jay crossed the hall and knocked on Kay's door. She answered and gave her the clothes he requested.

"Seen Jody?" Jay withheld Jody's whereabouts and only said no in response. First thing in the morning and Kay was reminding him of Julia's newest lover. Julia...he had no regrets leaving as quickly as he did. As the last couple days had passed, he thought it over, and he had been right to leave when he did. The thoughts of her had diminished over the course of time, but the last couple days those thoughts of her beneath Jody Mayers crossed his mind. He had chosen to give up understanding her and seeking the why's or the why not's when it came to Julia. She obviously had no answers for him and he was done trying to figure her out.

He delivered Macy the clothing she requested and he left her to dress while he searched out Julia Fry. He found her and Chess in the court yard as they conversed by the cherry tomato plants in garden containers. He opened the door to the court yard and he caught her attention. "Are you going with me or not? I am ready to go." The mood between Chess and Julia seemed tense, but they chatted on a few more minutes before she left him in the court yard having given him a lifeless kiss goodbye. She accompanied him around the building to the courtyard in silence and climbed into the truck. She adjusted the belt on her waist and applied her seat belt.

He drove through the farm heavy area and made his way out to Miller's compound with the crates of fruit and vegetables that he had requested. Jay didn't press her for conversation, thinking that Macy's appearance didn't settle well with her. He was dying to know her thoughts and what the hell had happened for Macy to be standing in their bedroom. What had gone on there, because as far as Jay knew, she and Jess had grown close. Where would Macy Monroe fit into the equation? Turned out, Julia wondered the exact same thing from the passenger seat.

They passed two hours at Miller's stronghold. They met the newcomers who had thankfully been accepted there, but Jay did ask if Miller wanted anyone to ride out with them. Mastro sending teams out into the great wide open of zombie land to kill and clear and shrink, they had room at the inn. They'd have a revolving door of empty beds, which would allow for an influx of people. Julia's head wasn't in the business of people, however and she kept unusually quiet and helped unload the truck of the fruits and veggies that Jay had loaded up.

Julia stayed outside when the truck was empty and she helped Miller's people feed and tend to the animals. Then she waited for Jay at the truck when they'd finished with the animals. On the ride back to Mastro, that's when things suddenly became strange. Jay drove through the small town on the way to Mastro and stopped at a red light. He did it from habit, having driven in the real world enough to know that yellow meant slow and red meant stop. He look to Julia at his right confused. "See that?" He asked with a strange look on his face.

"I see that." She replied as she pointed at the traffic coming toward them from a distance.

Jay looked in the rear view mirror and then the side view mirrors. Behind them zombie world lay in its normal barren state. Ahead of them, a different story. The light turned green. Julia sensed it right away and as Jay drove through the green light, she felt her stomach stir. A nausea overcame her and she looked over her shoulder and the barren landscape changed as well to match that which they entered.

"Jayson, turn around. Go back."

"Go back where? Miller's?" He asked as he glanced her way. "Julia, what just happened?"

"I-uh-I don't know." She replied, looking through the rear window at the traffic light they'd driven through. "Jay, where are we?"

Jay turned right at the next stop light and he turned the truck around at the next side street. They drove back to Miller's through perfectly landscaped yards and through farmland that had fully planted acreage. People went about their daily lives as though there were no zombies and there was no threat. A UPS truck passed them, then a semi truck and a line of cars. Stores were open and life seemed perfectly normal. Like they had not just delivered crates of fruit and vegetables to a stronghold that held out zoms and housed refugees. The Miller Compound had once again returned to the nursing home state of affairs. Its campus neatly landscaped and it was void of animals, roof patrols, water catchment systems. The kitchen hadn't been half destroyed and put back together and their were cars in the lot, clean and parked in spots that had previously held storage containers and fuel stores.

"I don't understand what happened."

Jay drove out of the former Miller compound and he drove directly to Mastro campus, stopping at street lights and obeying stop signs and all other rule of law when it came to driving. He realized he had no ID on him. He had no paperwork for the vehicle he drove. He had no money. He pulled off the road in front of Mastro school and he had an idea. He drove to the gate which stood open. He drove to the HR office and he walked inside like he worked there and when the HR lady recognized his face and started running her fingers over paychecks. "Hello, Jayson. A beautiful day out there, huh?"

"Yeah, yes. Thanks."

She handed over his pay check. "Doing yard work, honey? You're filthy."

He gave himself a quick once over. Filthy wasn't the word for it. "I landscape in my off hours for extra cash." He said as he tucked his pay in his back pocket and left the office with a quick good bye. He climbed back into the truck and tore open his pay check. June...he turned his head and looked at Julia's belly. Thank God...he thought as he saw no bump.

"What is that?"

"Well, Julia. It is my paycheck."

"Oh, nice." She said, looking around the campus from the vantage point of the truck. He started the engine and he drove off campus.  "Where are we going, Jay?"

"Home." He replied, because it was the truth. He drove through the countryside from the campus and he drove through Oaks first, then Maverick to Tavin's house. He parked on the street and he cautiously got out of the truck and head to the house. He looked through the window. All their stuff was inside. The house was quiet. Empty. A neighbor had come out from next door and said good morning to him, addressed him by name.

"Hi, good morning." He responded and he hesitated to enter that house. He hesitated to stay anywhere near it. If they were back on the flipside was that house under surveillance? Were he and Julia still being sought over the...no...he answered his own question. It was June. Julia had the baby on his birthday. He looked back at the truck and he waved at her. Pointing at her, then waving again to get out and join him. "Welcome home." He told her as she followed him around back and then through the door into Tavin's humble dwelling.

"What? I don't live here." She protested.

"You're upstairs. Alex and Jo stay downstairs. So, um I wonder where everyone is?" He opened the fridge out of habit. The house was empty, but the fridge was not. He doubted they should stay. He looked at a very thin Julia who was very without child. "We cannot stay here long."

"We shouldn't be here at all."

"You don't understand, Julia. If this is the flipside, then...shit...you should be pregnant. This is gonna be a problem."

"Well, I am not pregnant, Jay."

He pulled out a pitcher of iced tea from the fridge. He poured himself a glass and then one for her. "We'll be cool for a bit though. I need to look at my cell. Where is my cell?" He asked as he put the pitcher away. "Hungry, Julia?" He asked as he looked over the leftovers in the fridge.

"I ate with Chess, thanks."

"This where Mace came from?" He asked her, deciding that the subject of Macy should come up at that moment.

"No." Julia answered. "Macy arrived from...have you graduated from high school?"

"Uh, yes." Jay laughed. "Couple years ago. Three now."

Julia explained the era from which Macy had arrived. Before the graduation, before the marines.

"June there too?"

"I suppose." She guessed. "Julia had mentioned the graduation party. That they should set up a place for Mace and then they talked and held hands and she read his mind."

"But they came back."

"Yes, obviously."

"Think we will?"

"How should I know?" She asked sounding as grumpy as she looked.

"You're psychic."

"Ha, funny, Jayson."

"You know about Macy. Why is this bothering you so much?"

"We were supposed to talk about her first." She replied, taking her iced tea from the table and heading into the living room. She turned on the TV and it was already on CNN. She listened as the commentator and a guest doctor discussed the virus that had people filling up urban and some suburban hospitals. She looked at the pictures that hung on the walls, the family, children. "Bathroom." She stated out of the blue, startling him as he concentrated on the news report. Nothing he hadn't heard before. They both understood clearly what virus was being discussed and frankly both had other things on their minds to care, considering where they had come from.

"Upstairs. Can't miss it. Can't miss your-her room either." Jay replied as he thought about getting a decent shower and then a decent meal.

Julia slipped upstairs with her glass of tea and Jay head downstairs to the basement to gather some clean clothes for a shower. He head up two flights of stairs and then met up with her as she had the very same idea. He let her go first, watched as she looked around the bathroom and then in the hall closet. "What are you looking for?"

"Tampons. Pads. Something along those lines."

"Shit. Kell and Jules are both pregnant, so there aren't any."

She stood empty handed. "This day gets better and better." She cried as she went in the bathroom and she closed the door.

Damn it...Jay thought to himself. He set his things down and he dropped down a flight of steps to the door, taking ten dollars from his back pack on the way out. As he stepped outside, he quickly stepped back inside, dropping a gun belt on the floor by the door. Within 10 minutes, thanks to the truck, he had driven to and from the store and he returned to hand over a box of the tampons she used. His one simple accomplishment put a temporary smile on her face. She thanked him and he thought...if she only knew how many times I have done this for her. Jay took his clothes and head into the bathroom. He commented before closing the door, "I don't think we should stay here."

She stood in the hall wrapped in a towel and she was clueless as to why. She was already crying and having a bad day, so his words, without any explanation, meant little. She had thoughts of Chess on her mind. Their conversation. He called her jealous and possessive when he had told her he wished to make love with Macy. He was probably doing it at that very moment despite her protests that she was not in favor of that idea. His idea of a discussion before that would happen amounted to him informing her it would happen. Odds were about 110% that would occur. She only cried more, emptying her tears into the towel as she cried on Julia Morgan's bed.

"Julia, I don't know what happened, but I am sorry." He said as he heard her crying from the hall.

"When are we leaving, Jay?" She asked him.

"I am not sure yet. I need to look at my phone. Before the next doc appointment. That's a definite."

"Where will we go, Jayson? We have no money. How will we live? How-"

"There's money, Julia." He said to her as he peeked around her door. She was decent so he entered. He opened the drawer beside her bed and he handed her the wallet. "Debit card." He said. "0815 is the pin." He opened up her phone and he punched in the pin code. 0815, then opened up the bank app. He entered the username and password, then clicked on her bank account. He turned the phone screen toward her face. "Money. You are her, so it belongs to you."

Julia's eyes widened when she saw the balance. "Oh, my." She said, squinting and turning her head to make sure she saw the amount correctly. "That's a lot of money, Jay."

"It is, Mrs. Morgan." He closed the app and he set the phone back on her charger.

"How do you know the passwords and stuff?"

He stood up, taking her empty glass from the bedside table. "I been with the girl on and off for 6 years, Julia. I know everything about her. Inside and out." He left he there on her bed and closed her door on his way out.

24 hours later, they realized they were going to be the only people living in the house. No one came or went or called or stopped by. The two of them ate and watched television and went to sleep, then woke up again in that time frame. Jay began tossing around ideas of where they would go and what they would do until they eventually transitioned back to the flipside. Julia was depressed, cried on and off during their waking hours. "What if we do not transition back?" She asked as day two began.

"I don't really care. We start over."

"But how? Where's my family, Jayson? I don't belong here."

"You're not alone. I am sitting right next to you. You pick up and move on, live life as Julia."

"Ok." She wept quietly on the sofa, legs curled against her chest.

"Julia, what on earth? It cannot be that bad, whatever you two were arguing about."

"We did not argue. He wouldn't allow it. He asked me to get to know Macy and that was that. End of discussion. I have no say whether he makes love to her. I have no say whether he continues a relationship with her."

"Well, I say you do. But on the flipside of that, you knew going in."

"Thanks, Jayson. I feel better now."

"Mace is a great person. You should get to know her."

"That is not the topic."

"Ok, you got every right to be upset. You are right. Asking him to stay committed is reasonable."

"I was a virgin, Jay."

"Really?" He stifled any further discussion on that matter. "And? You regret it now?"

"I should but I do not. That's the problem. I love him."

"It hasn't been a year yet, geeze."

"When did you know you loved Julia, Jayson?"

"The minute I laid eyes on her."

"So, that wasn't a year."

"You're right. Look, I am the last guy on earth who should give relationship advice."

"Would you take her back if she came home and asked you to?"

"Yes." He replied. "I always will, so how is that any different from what you got going on?"

"Think they're wondering where we are?"

"Yeah. I do."

"How long before someone looks?"

"Two days." Jay replied. "He'll start at Miller's then go from there."

"What if he arrives here too?"

"Then that's ok. He lives here too. Well, at his mom's or in Maryland, wherever. He belongs here."

"What about the kids?"

"They're with Chess. Alex will take care of Tia. He knows how now. They will be ok until we all come back together." Jay answered as he sat back on the sofa with a pint of strawberry ice cream. "Want some?" He asked her as she cried.

"Yeah." She moved closer to him and he fed her like he used to feed Jesslyn ice cream when she was on her period.

"You're a nice guy, Jay." She smiled as he gave her the last bite.

"Depends on who ya ask, Jules." He set the ice cream down and they sat beside each other and watched Maury. Turned out she got the same thrill from the show as his last girlfriend. She rambled during the commercial break about whether the man had fathered the baby, debating herself as opposed to him, because he didn't care. He thought that they had 5 more days of freedom before the next doc appointment and then they'd be on the move from there. Where, he hadn't figured that much out. He knew the end of the world was about to close in on them too, because there were more and more cases of the Z virus popping up all over the continental united states. Their clock was ticking like a time bomb either way. They would only need to stay hidden till the shit hit the fan. They'd be subjected to momentary isolation and hiding from the government to seeking a similar isolation from walking dead. Starting all over from scratch, and the irony was he would do it again with Julia. Always with Julia, which would be a far better apocalypse than the one he spent with Stef.

"Shit." He muttered. "Stef."

"Who is Stef?"

"Honestly, she is my girlfriend." He replied. According to a year previous, he and Stef were fighting and fucking. Julia gave him an odd look. "Me and Julia split while she was pregnant." He explained. "I lived with Stef."

"Oh, ok."

"On and off, like I said."

"You loved her?"

"Wasn't love. No." He answered. "Crazy, bipolar, mean and abusive. Physically and mentally."

"Then why would you be with her?"

"It's a long story, but to get back at her for fucking Chess. It backfired on me though."

He dropped the subject and he crossed his fingers he wasn't talking her up. So far he hadn't seen hyde nor hair of her and he didn't want or need to go through that again. He told himself if she showed up, then he would end things. Recently he focused on a goal called peace of mind. Stef wasn't included in that goal. Although the pussy would be a plus, but he could have had that over the course of the last year. He had a couple times thanks to Jesslyn insisting upon it.

Hours passed and they got hungry again. Jay suggested they go out to eat and take a look around town, see what was going on, if anything, and then when they got home they would come up with a plan from there. It was obvious Julia didn't plan on cooking, but offered to as she rummaged in the freezer. She pulled out chicken, still frozen, and said she would make that the following day once it defrosted.

"You can cook." Jay asked her.

"Of course, I can cook. It's not that difficult. There's directions on the package." She pointed at the chicken's packaging. "Jay, my father's an alcoholic that lives with an alcoholic. Which alcoholic is making dinner for three children?"

"Oh."

"I was there, they weren't. From the time she had Tatia, I was pretty much on my own there at the house. I was-" She thought as she looked at the chicken. "It's June, Jayson."

"So."

"If we're here, then where are my sister and brother?"

"Where are mine?" He asked as he looked at her over the counter.

"While we're out, can we ride over there? To the apartment."

"You do not come from here."

Julia turned a fancy shade of red, which indicated she was annoyed with his answer. "Jay, the apartment in Oaks where my brother and sister live."

"But, sure, yeah, we'll ride over there." If it makes you happy, Julia...he sighed...gonna be a long apocalypse making this one happy. Julia Fry was not as insistent and obnoxious, asking him and suggesting things to him. The other would have removed the keys from his person and walked out alone, leaving him behind. "Sure, we'll do that. I wanna eat first. There's this -"

"Mexican place in the square. I love eating there. They have such good guacamole, Jay. And the-"

He listened to her ramble and finish his thought. He was going to suggest the place. He hadn't been there in ages because Stef wasn't into it, but Julia loved the food, the spicy content and she normally complained the entire time that her stomach couldn't handle food like that as she would stuff hot sauce laden tacos in her mouth.

They left their belts at home, but he kept his knife on him, hidden beneath his clothes. Julia scoffed at the idea as she came down the steps in a light sundress with flats on her feet. "Wow, you look so pretty, Jules." He complimented her as the sundress dipped between two small breasts.

"She has no bras." She mentioned as she placed an arm across her chest.

"She has no tits." Jay answered her, pulling his hair into a pony tail.

Julia let that comment slide, clearing her throat. "She doesn't have panties either, but there was a bag of clothes in the closet I found that had one little pair of white ones."

Jay looked casual in a pair of cargos and a plain light blue tee. He left the tee hang loose instead of tucking it in as he normally would. Over the knife. He wasn't taking any chances. It was getting dark and he didn't know what he was driving into. They weren't planning on driving through a portal into the flipside a day before either. He wanted to take the guns, but she said no. If they got caught with them, then they'd be in trouble. If they got stopped in the truck, they'd also be in trouble, "So your point? Wanna walk or take the bus?"

Jay drove, used the debit card to fill up the truck's gas tank. He thought it was awesome that he didn't have to siphon gas out of anything and he didn't have to refuel with a gas can. As he looked through the window while he pumped the gas, he thought she looked too damn pretty to be sitting in that old beat up pick up. When he got inside he smelled her, a sharp contrast from the gasoline he'd just pumped. Happy...she smelled amazing. She normally didn't smell too horrible, but being home and having access to a shower and hygiene products and perfume she looked and smelled out of this world. He hadn't been turned on by this girl in ages.

Oaks was a bust, having driven all the way out there to the apartment only to find an elderly woman and her cats. She was friendly and warm when Julia and Jay knocked on her apartment door, informed them they'd found the wrong apartment. Julia had hoped to find a living brother and sister, but she handled the news well that she had been wrong. Jay explained that Alex and Tia lived in the house they'd left in Maverick with Jody and her and Tavin and Kelly. All under one roof. People came and went like Ray and Chess, Macy, their parents and friends. Julia appeared sad, but she wasn't overcome with tears.

They parked in the lot adjacent to the restaurant and Jay shadowed her as he would on the flipside. He always felt like he was guarding her, like something may happen to her. He held the door for her and they were hit with a blast of cool air. Music played on the overhead system inside and they waited for their table.

"You have a twin." The hostess told Julia as she pulled two menus from the stack on the counter.

"No, I-"

"You do. She's right over there. I seated her party fifteen minutes ago." The hostess pointed over the wall that divided the two sections, having given Jay and Julia a more private two seat dining experience. The hostess thought they were on a date. When she left them with their menu's Julia stood and peeked over the divider wall between the two sections.

"Jayson." Julia whispered, motioning to him, getting his attention from his menu. "You may wanna see this."

Jay rose and saw clearly over the wall from behind her. "There's your twin, sissy." He said to her. Julia, Jody, Tavin and Kelly sat at a table on the opposite side of the restaurant. Jay picked up their menus. There were three extra seats at the table and he planned on taking up two of them with his sidekick. The waitress arrived at the table to take their drink orders. "Yeah, we're going to join them." Jay said, pointing over the wall.

"Sure, ok. She looks just like you." The waitress said to Julia.

"She's my sister." Julia answered as Jay walked her along to their table. Her nerves were kicking in and she hadn't seen Julia Morgan in a year almost. They took their menus to the table.

"Hello." Jay said, pulling out a seat for Julia Fry. He sat himself next to her and the round table got a little smaller as the waitress arrived to take their drink orders.

"Where did you two come from?" Tavin asked, after they all gave their drink orders.

"The flipside." Julia spoke softly.

"You look pretty." Jody complimented her as she looked at them quietly.

"On a date, guys?" Julia asked.

"No," Julia answered emphatically as she shook her head. "Only dinner."

At that moment, Kelly, who had no idea what was going on, spoke up. She had been with them all day long and she was beyond excited to be included and not have to hide that she and Tavin were together. For some reason, Tavin wasn't as secretive as usual. Neither was Julia. "Who is this?"

"Kell, this is Julia." Tavin answered her. "Like twins, baby. Don't ask."

"Oh, you don't have a twin though. I didn't know."

"Well, now you do." Jay said to her. "Damn she looks young. Where have you been? You haven't been home."

"My house." Julia answered. "I'm-uh-still at daddy's. Right, Tavin?"

"I'm at daddy's too." He replied, eyes looking the menu. "Sandy's eventually, whenever I feel like leaving. Haven't seen Cal yet. Have you?"

"No." Jay replied. "So we're-where are we? Like why? The last thing we did, we were dropping stuff off at Miller's."

"How'd you get here?" Julia asked him and Julia. "We woke up here. Did you wake up here? Together?"

"Oh, don't be all suspicious, Julia. We drove here. We were leaving Miller's and drove here, through stop lights. In the truck."

"You drove here."

"Yes, stopped at a red light, then went through the green light and we drove here."

"How long have you been here?" She asked.

"A day and a half."

"Doing what?"

"Well, what have you been doing?" Jay shot back at her, then looked to Jody who was mute through this conversation.

"Stop, please." Julia spoke softly. "We are all here. Ok? I'm hungry."

"You brought her here, Jayson?"

"You brought him here, Julia." Jay responded quickly. "Hey, this place was her idea."

"This place was her idea, too. Tacos." Jody stated.

Kelly sat confused and awed. "Um, guys." She got their attention. "This is Jayson?" She asked, holding onto Tavin's hand.

"Yeah, I am. You know who I am, Kell. I live with you for crying out loud."

"Jay, you drove into a dead zone. This is not present day Maverick, honey. You're a ghost."

"No, it's not. You got a doc appointment in 5 days and I gotta think of a way to get our asses out of trouble. Any fuckin ideas, boss?"

"A ghost." Kelly repeated. "I never met you alive in person. Tavin, I don't understand what's going on."

"This is my brother Jayson."

"From our dreams." She whispered. "Are we dreaming?"

"Oh, I wish we were." Julia mumbled. She glanced at Jay. "Someone wake us all up."

"You're in a mood."

"You're lucky I cannot get up. Putting me in this position, Keller. I should shoot you back right now."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Please, stop. This is not the time or the place for this." Julia spoke again, gripping her menu tight in her hands. "None of us understands why were are here and what the reason is."

"You sure about that?" Julia asked. "I know why. You don't?"

"No." Julia responded, looking at the waitress as she arrived to take their orders. Both Julia's ordered the exact same appetizer and meal and the rest ordered off the menu.

"Your hair grew back." Jayson mentioned.

"I realize that. Because this is a time when my hair hung to my butt."

"We were ok three days ago. You're angry with me all over again. I didn't do anything."

"Shhh, not here and not now." Julia placed a nervous hand on his and got his attention. She leaned toward him while Jody spoke to Julia. "She's in a wheel chair, Jayson. Be sensitive, please. You put her in it. I would be angry too."

Jay peered around her, looked a little closer. He understood what they meant by ghost at that moment. He was supposed to be dead. "Well, I am not dead." He looked at Kelly. "I'm as alive as you are."

"So what are we doing here?" Julia asked as she stayed closer to Jayson than the others.

"Chess didn't tell you?" Julia asked her as she reached for nachos and could not quite get across the table for them. Jody took the utensils and scooped some of them on a plate for her. "Thank you."

"Tell me what?"

"Well, I already told him what was going on, I figured he would have updated the table at the very least. He has known for months." She explained as she ate. "Think that he would have at least told you." she said to Julia. "Or you." She looked to Jody.

"So tell us now." Julia Fry raised her voice calmly.

"The timelines are blending together. All of them are converging. Overlapping. I noticed this when we got here. The universe sent us signals." She explained as she ate cheese laden nachos. "Hey, how's that fever, Fry?" Julia asked as she felt Jody's hand cover hers.

"Gone for a bit, but back now. So is my scar. How did you know?"

"Because mine is as well. My vax is gone, the welt is no longer on my arm from the injection."

"You were vaxxed?" Tavin asked.

"Yes, I was. He didn't tell you that either? There is one out there."

"He doesn't speak of you." Julia said.

"Yes, he does. Not to you." Jody replied. "We keep the contact and all her information between us."

Julia looked hurt. She had been left out of the loop.

"I knew who the contact was or is." Tavin admitted.

"Yeah, so did I." Jay added as he shared Julia's nachos.

"Only cause I told you." Tavin told him. "The table is always secretive. Some people know some things. That was not the way it worked originally."

"Agreed, everyone knew everything. It kept a certain level of honesty between us, that the work that was done was for the good of the entire group." Julia agreed. "It must change now. It can no longer be that way. The group is beyond 20 people on a farm. It's hundreds of people on farms. It's a greater vision of us. That is what you all cannot get through your minds. It is no longer us." Julia motioned around the table at part of her family. "It is all of us, beyond this family." Julia took a drink of her tea. "It doesn't seem to matter right now, though. The universe will work all this out for us."

"Where's Chess at?" Tavin asked Julia as she and Jay shared off one plate.

"He's with Macy."

"Ah, see. I told you. The universe is righting the wrongs that we have done. It's like it is resetting or something."

"Am I a wrong?"

"Not necessarily. It's also who's with who and who's connected to who and right place at the right time."

"So I am with you cause we're connected at the time you were in your wheel chair."

"Yes. I think. This one though, he stays with me. Our energy is intertwined too. Only it's different. I brought him into this world."

"He travels with you then?" Jody asked about himself. "Me, you brought me in, so we're-"

"Stuck on each other. Like little Kelly Keller here. She was with us, in our dreams. Both in reality and the flipside."

"So where is Chess?" Julia asked again. "Will he be along soon with his wife?"

"Honey, I am his wife." Julia snapped at her. "I will always be the wife. I will take that place till the day I die. Don't get it twisted. Anyone who wife's him, I allow. Don't forget it."

"I know that. You told them that. You will only share with Macy. Blah, blah, blah."

"Sometimes we get hurt by those we love the most. It's not personal." She shrugged.

"Awe, thanks. I feel so much better now."

"I already gave you permission. I gave it to you last year. I told you to go get him and live the life he wants to live with you. Don't fuck it up."

"Like you did."

Julia snickered. "Kinda. You could say that." She looked at Jay. "I don't know for sure, we should learn from our mistakes. How about that? Let the past stay in the past, whichever past we choose to place it."

"You have thought about this?"

"I have been too occupied to think about this." She stated as she adjusted her position in her chair. She lifted and straightened, off setting pressure on her ass a few minutes. "We're going with the flow. That's all. If I am stuck here, like this, I will deal with this till I get something else handed to me."

"Yeah, we're done figuring shit out." Tavin added as the waitress set the first of 6 plates on the table.

"As long as I don't wind up back at the farmhouse and have to start over from scratch, then I am fine with whatever comes my way."

"What do you think is going to happen? We'll walk into the apocalypse with everything set up for us? If we're here when the shit hits the fan, then we will start over from scratch."

"Yeah, well, I won't be hiding in a basement." Julia said confidently.

"That'll be me." Julia groaned from her wheel chair. "Cause if I am stuck in this chariot, it's going to be a different world for me."

"We'll be alright. Please don't get emotional again." Jody reminded her.

"It's a possibility. If this timeline is the one I get stuck in, Jody, Jesus. I don't even wanna imagine the future. It'll be over before it begins for me. The equipment. The cath kits alone. I will die from a urinary tract infection before I ever get bit."

"Better than diabetes." Tavin pointed out.

"Touché, Tav. Good point." She laughed, munching on her second Taco. She watched Kelly looking at her cell phone.

"My parents don't know where I am." She said. "What do I tell them?"

Tavin took her phone and pushed the button on the side, turning it off. "Nothing." He answered.

"I'm gonna be in trouble." She said, looking at her phone as it disappeared into his pocket.

"Live a little, Kell. Be bad for once in your life." Tavin looked at Jay. "We're going to my house. My bed. my shower. My food. My girlfriend. You're coming with us."

"Should we separate?" Julia asked adjusting the strap on her sundress as it slid off her shoulder. She looked at Julia in her wheelchair. "I mean, if something happens, you're gonna need people, Julia."

"I got her." Jody said.

"Yeah, we got her." Tavin agreed.

"So we're all going to get up from this table and go away like none of this ever happened and go on with life?"

"Yeah." Julia answered her twin. "It's better this way. It's ok."

"How can you say that?" Julia said softly. "Julia, maybe the reason we're all sitting here is because you left and you shouldn't leave again."

"I have been on my own for a long time. I have lived. I don't get a horrible feeling from this. Guys, I don't think it's as bad as-"

"The universe. You and him talk about this stupid universe and you don't think this is a huge signal from it?"

"Yes, I do. But what on earth do you think I can do about it? It's resetting and we will wind up where the universe wants us. We jumped all over it like we control it. And we don't."

Jay smiled. "I agree with her. We ride this out and deal with what we're given."

"What's the alternative?" Jody asked. "Riding all over two counties and trying to find this mythical place we each call home?"

"Kinda sorta." Julia replied, shaking hot sauce on her third taco.

"Doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does. I want my brother and sister alive. I learned all this stuff from you guys. I want to try and make it right-"

"You cannot make it right, Julia Fry. That's what I am trying to say to you."

"How do you know though?"

"Cause I already made this right once."

"So if we cannot make it right, Julia, you were unsuccessful and none of this is real." Jay told her simply.

"It is all very real. The timelines are overlapping. Why don't any of you comprehend this? It will over lap until it's all one timeline."

"Then what?" Julia asked.

"Who cares?" She shrugged. "Stop looking to me for answers."

"You seem to know it all."

"I do not. You come up with the answer for a change."

"I don't think separating will be a great idea. We should all go to Tavin's. One night won't kill any of us."

"I don't have any supplies there. I don't have anything there that will help me. I can't even get in the house with this thing."

"Ever think that if you go with us, then you'd be able to walk, Julia? Ride into a different timeline."

"She has a point." Jody commented. "Wanna try?"

"You're tired of carrying me already." She smiled, squeezing his bicep.

"I will carry you anywhere. But she has a point. You gotta agree with that."

"Before her parents call the cops preferably." Tavin suggested. "I don't see how you have much of a choice, Red."

When the waitress brought their bill, Tavin cringed at the amount. Julia plucked it from his hands and head around the restaurant to the table where she and Jay originally were seated. She handed the waitress the debit card and the check. "Where's the ladies' room?" Julia asked her and she was directed by the waitress. She waited there while the waitress swiped the card and the charge went through. On the way back from the ladies room, Julia took the card, signed the check and gave her a generous tip. "Thank you." She smiled at her.

"No, thank you."

"What took so long?" Jay asked.

"I had to pay from over there. Right? The debit card wouldn't have worked from over here, right?"

"The debit card. You're spending my money."

"You never did." Jay replied as he walked with Julia to the exit. As he left, he saw the suburban in the lot across from their truck.

Tavin said he'd follow him home, same streets and route. "Take us to the house, brother."

Sitting in the dark back seat with Jody, Julia felt nauseated on the ride back to Tavin's. The same old gross feeling she got after eating a huge meal and that hadn't happened in the last timeline. We crossed...Julia said, lifting a leg and then her other leg. Gradually, the closer she got to Tavin's, her sensation improved and then she felt dizzy. A glitch perhaps. A bump in the road. Tavin parked the suburban in the driveway and they all head inside a familiar and comfortable house. Home again...Julia thought and realized as she got herself out of the suburban on her own and planted two feet on the pavement, she could balance and stand without issue. As she walked down the driveway and through the dark to the back patio where they climbed the steps to the kitchen door, she felt heavy and held down.

Jody glanced over his shoulder. "See, Julia was right."

"She was." Julia answered as she held the hand rail and pulled her weight up the steps to the back door. The first person in hit the light switch and the patio illuminated so they could all see clearly. She looked down as she placed her foot on the step to enter the house. "Take me back." She yelled, grabbing Jody by his shirt. "No, no. Take me back." He could tell by her voice that something was wrong. They all could, turning to look at her in the door way.

Jay's face contorted and his jaw dropped open. He appeared as shocked and scared as she did standing there in mid June in the doorway. "Jayson." The tears formed in her eyes. "Jayson, I-I don't know what happened. Jayson, take us back."

"Come in." Jody took her hand and pulled her in the house. "Can't just stand there all night."

"Take. Me. Back." She stammered as she pushed past Jody. "Jayson, now. Take us back. The way we came." She grasped his hand and his free hand rubbed her belly.

"Julia, the baby..."

"Yeah, the baby. Jayson, again, Jayson."

"Well, damn all we need now is psycho Stef." Tavin remarked, keeping a firm arm around Kelly's small and non-protruding waist line.

"I hear her." Jay whispered. His eyes filled with tears to match hers. They both stared at a swollen abdomen.

Long after everyone laid down and went to sleep, Julia sat at the counter in Tavin's kitchen like she had so many nights before that. She sat with a cup of coffee, decaf, and she couldn't sleep. All the worry and fear from a completely different condition flooded her as if it were yesterday. Occasionally she would cry, then Care would move sending flutters through her belly and then Care would settle. She glanced at the clock and she looked at her machine and put off taking a blood sugar.

"You can't sleep either?" Jayson asked as he climbed the steps out of the basement.

"No."

"You alright?"

"I am, yes."

"I have a lot on my mind too, Julia. Being back here. I-"

"I know, Jay."

"No, you don't." He answered, sliding onto the stool next to her. He took her kit and opened it up.

"Stick me and I will stick you." She whispered. He left the kit open on the counter.

"While you are here and like this, you need to take care of you and her."

She started crying again. "For what?" She placed her head in her hands and wept quietly. "For what? You know as well as I do what is going to happen here and I am thinking about it like it happened yesterday. What you did for me, for her."

He rubbed her back for her, "I will do it again. This is us, me and you. I got you like I did before. If we do this once or twice or twenty times, Jules, I will be right beside you."

"Ok." She cried. "I'm still scared and I'm still worried that something is gonna go wrong or-"

"I am too. She's all I'm thinking about." He said. "You are all I am thinking about."

"I am so sorry, Jayson."

"Hey, hey, stop it please, I don't like criers." He joked as he cried along with her.

She laughed at that as the most emotional person she knew asked that she stop crying. "The time we spend here is gonna be miserable, Jayson. Like this, all over again. The way I feel and the way I made you feel."

"Doesn't have to be that way, Julia."

"Yeah, it should have never been that way."

"It should have been the happiest time of your life."

"And yours."

"So what would make you happy? Does Jody make you happy?" He leaned back and waited for an answer.

"Happy isn't quite the word. He's very nice and he's my friend. Jody...do I have to explain Jody?"

"I know how you feel about him. It's more complicated now that you're sleeping with him." She for once had nothing to say, sitting up straight. "He spends a lot of time with the contact. That's all. I was guessing by all the secrecy."

"Oh, yeah. That." She smiled. "They didn't want to upset you."

"How nice of them." Jay sighed. He pricked her fingertip and he dropped a droplet of blood on her test strip. "226." Jay said, sliding off the stool to get her insulin from the fridge. "My brother told me, Julia. Thought I should know the truth."

"I was so excited to see him. Um, he's my only friend left really."

"Why would you think that?"

"Do I need to explain that? This last year, Jay, I swear I made some changes that I needed to make. For the better."

"Ok. Good to know."

"I did. I have been working."

"I know what you've done."

"Thanks. It takes a lot of my time and energy. But that's for the people, you know."

"I know all about the people." Jay agreed. "You sound like her."

"They would say it sounds like you. Do you realize you are doing with her exactly what I wanted to do with you and you were against it?"

"You wanted to leave Mastro, Jules."

"It worked, Jay. It worked for everyone involved. It's different times now."

"Now? Is it? From where I sit, nothing has changed, Julia." He told her as he opened a syringe and pulled up insulin for her. He squeezed what fat he could find on the back of her arm and he popped the syringe through her skin. He dropped the syringe into the container on the counter. "Go to sleep and quit you're thinking, mommy. Please."

"You do the same." Julia told him as he helped her off the stool to her feet.

"Anything you need?" He asked watching her walk to the steps.

"To get the hell outta this house." She rubbed her belly, started crying again. She looked up the steps to the dark hallway. She climbed the stairs to Tatia's room and head inside. It's soft pink walls and its Frozen décor lighted by a nightlight in the corner of the room. Bed made and speckled with throw pillows for a little girl who no longer laid in that bed. Julia stretched out beneath the Frozen throw blanket with the sisters emblazoned on it.