CHAPTER FOURTEEN-SPECIAL VICTIMS

As the late fall and early winter passed, they were isolated as a small group inside the fortress. Jay faced wiring issues and instead of getting the dorms warm and lit, he had lit up and heated the main building, which was empty office space. Chess had everyone move from the dorms into the main building. Out of relative comfort and beds to the warmth of lighted office space. They moved furniture and rearranged the entire second floor to make it and its office space comfortable and livable. As he and Julia chose their room and everyone else chose their living space, Chess observed how the main building came to pass as the family home and quarters in Julia's free state future. It had been Jay's fault. As time passed, they completely cleared out the second floor offices, moved furniture, beds and personal effects from the dorms into the second floor of the main building. The dorms were empty and by the time they had finished, the main building was more comfortable and had a more homelike atmosphere.

During this cold spell no one sought shelter from them. No one clamored at the gate and no one knew the Mastro campus existed. Once Jay got the solar situation out of the way, everyone was settled in the main building and all it would take to get the dorms running was a flip of a switch.

Julia spent her time with Jayson during the day and they came up with the plan to aid those in the streets and homes around Mastro. As teams went out and scavenged more from boredom than necessity, Jay and Julia hung their signs at specific places where people would see them if traveling. They stuck to main roads and thoroughfares to direct people to designated sites on specific days at the local library and the local Y and a couple of the local churches. There were instructions at the meet sites to wait and someone would be around during the day to meet and assist if needed. Their effort started off slowly. Jay suggested it was due to cold and Julia surmised that trust in humanity was lacking.

As they scavenged they managed to pick up a few strays along the way. Dego Joe as he was called and Martin Savage were the first two. They didn't ask for much, a place to stay and get out of the bitter cold. January winter was upon them and the first snow and ice storm had hit and started to melt a little during the day, they were found scavenging in an area where Tav and Chess were looking for fuel stores. They considered themselves siphoners, had coined that phrase themselves as they walked the ruins outside the fence and siphoned gasoline and diesel fuels from the abandoned cars and trucks on the roadside.  As Chess surmised, there would be an interstate, a turnpike and local highways full of untouched fuel out there.

Chess handed off a gas can and a siphoner tool he'd created to the two newcomers and got them siphoning as well. They moved faster and took more and then tagged each vehicle, marking it as empty with an S, which meant siphoned. They also took supplies from the empty vehicles and killed whatever they found that was living dead. Along the road there would be no burn, they left them where they were killed.

Dego Joe and Savage became fast friends with those in the group, being around the same age with the same story of surviving the initial days and months sometimes with more people and sometimes going it alone. They'd lost their entire families and then some. People they had met on the road to shelter and surviving together, nothing really lasted that long. They'd either not get along or they'd be overwhelmed by death as it moved in on them. Whatever they tried to establish had always failed due to too much leadership or a lack thereof. No solid ground on which to stand and no solid shelter in which to hide. Lack of weapons and those able to use them. Lack of food and ability to either gather some or grow some. There were days they both wondered how they had survived and if they would live to survive to see the next day. Conditions were unfavorable and unlivable.

They'd met Casper McKinley next, living among a small group of roamers. Tavin and Chess decided at first glance that the others in his group weren't welcome, then learned they were not interested. The group itself was too far gone to acclimate to a sheltered setting and didn't want to in the first place. The leader had stated they were heading to a place near Oaks to join up with exterminators. This was the first they'd heard of exterminators and they'd heard about the rebel group through word of mouth. From what the leader of that group had described, exterminators would be on the streets day in and day out taking out the dead around them. It was meant for only the strongest of survivors, those with "balls, man. Got nothing to lose and everything to gain".

"What's there to gain?" Chess asked curiously, but he could only imagine. These men looked like trouble, like they were only interested in causing trouble. They were looking to raise some hell and 'bring the pain on these dead motherfuckers', one of them had said.

"Gonna bring the pain, huh?" He'd heard that before.

"Already do. Just like you, saw what you been doing along this road." He countered them.

"But this is a rebellion." Casper added, adjusting his bag over his shoulders.

"So you, you're gonna bring pain?" Chess laughed a bit at the thought of the ginger haired skinny kid bringing any pain on anything living or dead.

Cas himself wasn't a killer. In fact he feared the dead and managed to survive as a direct result of being a part of this group. They only let Casper, or Cas, as he was called by them, tag along because he was familiar with the medical field, carried his bag of supplies with him and could patch up those who were injured.

They invited Tavin, Chess, Dego Joe and Savage to go along with them and when they declined, one of them handed Chess a piece of paper with an address. Chess didn't recognize the address, but Tavin sure did. As the group of men departed, Tavin spoke up. "It's the bus station." He tucked the paper inside his pocket and he and his group of 4 went about their siphoning business, thinking about what the exterminators had to offer. An address written on a piece of scrap paper was all he had to go on.

"How bout we send Jo to that bus station, see what's going on?"

"Why Jody? Always Jody. I got two fucking feet and two fucking hands. I can do something other than siphon gas, Chess."

"Then you do it then."

"You want the kid to join them or what?"

"Just go to the meet up and see what it's about, Tavin. I didn't say sign up and infiltrate the damn thing. Find out who's running it and what it's about is all. If there's muscle out there exterminating, we should know who they are and what they're about."

Tavin and Jody wound up going to the meet, which was held at night. "This doesn't sound like the brightest idea here, Tavin." Jody commented as he climbed into the pick up truck passenger seat. "Who organizes a meet up at night? What sense does that make? It's freezing cold, there's half a foot of snow on the ground-" Jody complained, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made.

"What? We getting killed or something?"

"The opposite." Jody replied. "Drive."

As they neared the bus station, they parked and walked there. In the dusk, armed and waiting. Jody knew what was coming toward them. They were in for a fight if anything. It was cold, but not that cold that the nests wouldn't come out. Whatever nest existed in the area would come down on them and anyone else that wound up at this meet spot. Jody was nervous, but he was confident.

They walked to the station, putting down day walkers all around them. They'd been rushed a couple of times. They'd been successful with their knives, but they were not the only ones. They heard gun shots from all directions. This was smart, whoever organized this meet, to clear the streets around the station. The work had already begun. Those who'd arrived to the station in one living, breathing piece gathered there and found more than 50 people, all men dressed for the winter in heavy coats and clothes. Their breath exhaled as they breathed and their thoughts consumed by the possibility that a nest would drop on them at any minute. Most of these men were looking up, not at the sky, but for a place to move and position themselves that was above ground and where nothing could sink a claw like fingers and sharp teeth into them. These men, the strongest of the strong in this area were not looking to hide, but deciding how to strike.

Jody saw it first and nudged Tavin ahead toward the bus shelter a short distance from them. They stopped, looked up at the ten or so feet it stood off the ground. Not exactly the greatest height, but it would possibly give them a slight advantage over those on the ground.

"Nah, we don't need it." Tavin said as Jody looked around for something to turn over so he could hop up there.

"Yeah, we do." Jo answered.

"I've done this before too, Jody." Tavin argued as the darkness fell on them. "There's enough of us here that we don't need to move up or over or under. Trust me on this."

"Trust you. On this."

"Sure." Tav nodded, pulling his gun from his waist into his gloved hand. "They're coming." Tavin said, pulling Jody into the bus shelter. "Stay together."

"Together? Keller, gonna get us killed doing this."

"Shit, man, let them kill them all." They stood with their backs against the bus shelter wall shoulder to shoulder. Jody and watched as the melee ensued in front of them. There was just enough light from burning trash cans to give them a view of dying nest zoms. As the nest descended upon those at the station, they didn't fan out and attack, they roved together and swarmed. Fast on their withered feet, their skin tough like leather as opposed to rotted out and brittle. The nest zom was more or less like a non living animal as opposed to the typical walker from the street.

"Do nothing." Jody said simply under his breath.

"There are no innocents here. It's an audition. It's kill or be killed. It's only the strong survive." Tavin fired at one of three that closed in on the shelter, who'd broken off they main group and ventured out on their own. Jody followed suit and they used the darkness as their shield. the plexiglass of the bus shelter helped them as opposed to hinder them as a few were on the shelter behind them. The noise was what bothered Tavin the most. These creatures, because that is what Tav believed them to be, were growling as opposed to groaning. They sounded angry, feral, hunger driving them toward their meal. As they rounded the shelter, Tavin killed each one. A bullet per creature. Their sense of hearing and smell enhanced, but their vision lacking.

"This is an audition." He finished his sentence as those were put down heaped in front of them in the bus shelter. "I think this is smart." Jody agreed quietly. He didn't much feel like getting in the middle of the nest, in the thick of it and he liked Tavin's idea of let them come to us. "What if there's more?"

"Then we'll deal with it."

Deal with it, they would have to till morning. No one would open the gates for them on Mastro campus till dawn anyway. Whose idea was this? They soon found out as the nest was put down. They dragged bodies into a pile in the street in front of the bus station and they were lit bright in the darkness, declaring a victory, a win. They all gathered inside the bus station as the doors had opened. They lined the walls and the empty space inside the small building. Torches lit up the room and bodies warmed as they were out of the January wind, which cut exposed flesh like a knife.

Behind the sales window where on any normal non zombie world day appeared a person, short and as bundled as those in the room only this one was female.

"Shit, Jo, it's Red." Tavin sighed. They were positioned in the rear of the station a distance behind that window opening and a distance behind the crowd of men between her and them. Obscured, yes and out of her field of vision.

They listened as she spoke. They listened as she explained the exterminators main goal and directive. Kill, clear, shelter and expand. Kill the dead, clear the streets, find shelter for those who needed it and then expand their territory. That simple. One order and there were no more orders till the goal had been reached. They would fan out across the great state of Pennsylvania until the living outnumbered the dead and until the streets could be reclaimed from the dead for the living. As her address at the bus station on the Oaks-Maverick line wound on near a half hour in front of a crowd of 50 men who were running on adrenaline alone, she was well received. She had almost sold them on her plan and if they didn't have any responsibility to people or the campus, then they would have been all for it.

She spoke of no end game. She spoke of no ideal of what life would be like once their goals had been accomplished. She gave no indication of who would lead and who would follow as it was clear from the outset, those who were the strongest survived. Nothing to lose and everything to gain. The people she had with her, at her side, were those who had been exterminating. The nest they had just eliminated was the last and final nest in the area. She and her team had been exterminating for weeks. They'd been moving nest by nest and zom by zom and this was a cry for help from her fellow man. As she finished speaking, those who flanked her took the questions from the men in the station and they answered them. She disappeared into the back of the station and no one saw her again. She spoke and her people acted on her behalf.

When Tavin and Jody approached the men who had flanked her, they asked directly where the girl had gone.

"The girl?" Had been the response. "She doesn't speak to you. She speaks to us and we speak for her. So are you with us or not?"

"Not. We have a place, so no" Jody replied.

"We got a shelter like she was talking about."

On that note, the man with whom they spoke didn't try to dissuade their decision. "You change your mind, then you know where to come. There's info posted regularly on that message board." Before leaving them and moving away to speak with the others who would join, he said, "You need to speak to Jeffrey."

A man pursued them on their way to the exit. "Where y'all heading? Where's your shelter?" He asked, limping an awkward gait as he joined them outside next to the body pile and the warmth of that malodorous fire.

"Got a place in the country." Jody replied.

"I'm Jeffrey." The older man announced. "I work with Elena." He added, pulling a flask from his coat pocket. "Water, want some?" He asked, extending the flask toward them.

"No, thanks." Tavin answered, shaking his head. They carried their own and had more back in the pick up. "I'm Tavin, this is Jo." He introduced them as Jody shook his hand next.

"I run the shelter outreach." Jeffrey announced as they stayed put in the fire's glow. "I ask where's your place because we'll need to have displaced people placed in shelters. Elena has a couple she uses already and I am always looking for another."

"There's meet spots we have set up along route 22. We'll pick up Wednesdays and Sundays. Send them there. Two churches, the Y and the library."

"Easier to send them directly to you." Jeffrey said.

"No, the place is locked up and no one gets in, especially after dark. The places we chose are safe and have a few supplies to tide them over till we arrive."

"Why not everyday?"

"No one's ever there. No one believes it or trusts it's possible."

"So my people send people to those specific places and you will get there and take them to the shelter. The one out on 50 is full."

"Miller's place, yeah. He knows to send them to the meet spots. Saw him last week." Tavin added.

"He don't take everybody in either."

"He's picky." Jody replied. "Any place with women and children will be picky."

"That's what you got, women and kids."

"What do you got?"

"Used to be men till this movement Elena started. I don't go out and fight the fight. Lost my leg in the gulf." He lifted the pant leg on his left and showed them the prosthetic. "Lucky to be alive." He dropped the pant leg and spoke. "Got few women. Women don't last long out here, if they can't protect themselves or ain't with men who protect them. Children, haven't seen children in ages." He shook his head.

"We'll take women and children. No harm will come to them."

"Problem is no one believes it anymore. Not many kids alive and if they are, no parents. The women out here are abused, raped, passed around and when they get out of line, they die."

"Not with us." Tavin replied.

"Understood." Jeffrey said. "So route 22. That's a distance, but we'll get em out there if you'll come for them. Once we get more people out in the streets, we could send them your way. There's a couple places down Lancaster that we use. There's one out in Gettysburg, another out in Harrisburg. We look for large, guarded, strong places that are established."

"Well, we are." Tavin responded, sounding positive. This is what Jay and Julia were looking for and wanted in regards to helping people. Those two weren't in for warring with the dead, but they wanted to take people in and help people.

"Mind if we put up a few signs around here? Maybe you all could come down this way and do a pick up?"

"If you head out there on Sunday, you can talk with the guy in charge of it. I'm not the guy." Tavin answered.

"Definitely. I'll have people with me. I got a small group holed up now. Bout ten bodies. Can you handle 10 bodies?"

"Yes." Jody replied. "Gonna need extra hands come spring. Got fields that need planting if we ever expect to make it through the next year. The more hands the better."

"You run this place?"

"We're part of it." Tavin answered, looking at Jody.

"There's more where we come from."

"What are you doing here then?"

"We were sent here to find out about the exterminators and what it's about, that's all. Never intended on joining."

"You know anyone who wants to, I'll get them where they need to be." Jeffrey said his good byes and offered a 'see you Sunday,' before he hopped into a pick up truck that would usher him back to his shelter.

"He's gonna see Elena." Jody smiled. "Tell her about the shelter."

"Jay and Julia will be happy."

What they believed to be an end to their long night was only the beginning. Those inside the bus station were split up into teams and they head out, weapons in hand and they started what had been started before they arrived, clearing the streets around them. They fanned out in all directions and Tavin and Jody joined them without hesitation. They didn't plan on joining any rebellion just yet. They had a feeling the rebellion would come to them. Since they couldn't reenter the campus till sunrise, they wouldn't be standing around doing nothing. Elena and her original exterminators had cleared the nests, yes, but old virus still walked the cold streets, some were stuck in snow drifts, some frozen in place in snow drifts. They were easily put down and left where they lay. Another team would swing through in the morning and drag them off to burn piles. The clearing and the burning were underway and Julia-Elena had started this in her own back yard. Maverick had been her home after all. Julia went where she was familiar and started with what was close to her heart. Word of mouth garnered her at least fifty more men willing to assist the clear out. Jody mentioned she had formed her infantry. She had started what he had originally wanted to start months ago, but couldn't get anyone to listen to him.

"This coulda been us, Keller." Jody said, his voice was most unpleasant.

"This is the beginning, Jo. If you wanna join em and exterminate them, then go exterminate. What on earth is holding you back?"

"Not sure." He answered. Most people assumed it was Tia, but inside he figured these people gave him a sense of normal and family that he hadn't known before. He liked the family element of it. He always felt like an orphan. The world had taken his family away from him, but Julia had handed one back to him. They accepted him, welcomed him into their weird fray. Never shooed him or expected him to leave. While they lived at the house, they expected him to occasionally move out of the way from time to time and they fully expected him to get out for awhile and find something to do to occupy his time, but other than that, he was welcome to stay. Good people who he could trust were hard to come by.

Tavin and Jody made themselves useful through the night. They stuck with the team till the sun started rising and they ducked out back at the station and made their way back to the truck. They didn't realize they were being followed till they were getting inside the pick up. 

"Don't shoot me. Don't shoot me." The kid's voice was pleading as he covered his head with crossed arms. The orange haired kid from the turnpike had tagged along and caught them by surprise, having guns aimed at him. "I can't go with them." He sounded scared.

"You're the kid from the highway." Tavin said. "Casper."

"That's me. Can I go with you? I'll die out here."

"Who is this?" Jo asked curiously as he lowered the gun. The kid had no weapon. Only carried a couple bags. Maybe, just maybe, Jo thought, that's why he wouldn't survive. One rule in the new world, don't sneak up on people. Another rule, always carry a weapon.

"Yeah, climb in back." Tavin told him, getting in the truck and starting the engine. He looked at Jody. "We told you guys. He was with the group that we met siphoning."

"Oh, Ronald McDonald."

"Yes." Tavin put the truck in drive and pulled away.

Julia welcomed Casper into the fold, calling him initially by the name Tavin and Jody had called him, Ronald. Dego Joe and Savage met him all over again, said hello and left Julia guide him through the first floor to the office where she sat with everyone and learned about them. Being that Ronald was 'scared of his own shadow' they felt comfortable letting Julia hang alone with him till Jay was updated on the Sunday meet for ten bodies.

"Your name is-"

"Casper McKinley." He answered, giving Julia a rundown on his past, his hometown, occupation, education. She certainly wanted to know a lot and had a list of questions she wanted to run through before she showed him around and made introductions and offered him a room somewhere.

"Casper? They called you Ronald though." She said, looking over the pale white, orange haired kid that sat across from her.

"I know, like Ronald McDonald." He frowned a little as he ran a hand over orange ringlets of hair.

She gave him a disapproving face and apologized. "I thought it was your name." She spent 45 minutes chatting with Casper. She felt comfortable with him and nonthreatened, so they explored the main floor and she got him something to eat and introduced him to the people they saw.

Chess met him with a firm handshake, "Cas, welcome aboard. Tav wants to talk with you when you're finished with Julia." He kissed Julia's cheek before moving on and leaving them.

"What's he want to talk to me about?"

"Tav's our medic. You'll be working with him." She answered. "You'll learn a lot." She added as she led him out of the caf and into the hallway.

"Thanks for letting me stay here, Julia. It's nice here."

"We wanna keep it that way. Stick to the rules and don't go bat shit crazy and you'll be fine." She reminded him that all males and most females were armed with firearms and most with knives. She, herself had her belt on. She had since Joe and Savage showed up. Although they fit in fine, she was still getting used to their presence. Taking people in was a risk. "There's a handful of females here and you may make people uncomfortable at first. Just be yourself."

"I don't even like girls, Julia." He admitted. "So you don't need to worry about that."

"Oh, geeze, then. Well, if anyone bothers you, which I doubt will happen, please make me aware of it."

She showed him to the second level rooms and decided that maybe he would be better off rooming with Jo as opposed to Joe and Savage. She decided to let him choose and he chose Jody's room. He mentioned the dorms, that he could stay in one of the rooms across the way. The dorm was closed and until they had more people to put in there, they wouldn't light or heat the dorms. She explained how it worked and he understood. He set his things down by an unmade bed and went to fetch him some linens. Jo knew the possibility of a roommate could happen and when she approached him about it, he had no issue with it.

"Not my room anyway." He smiled. Jody had chosen that room for a reason and if and when Julia returned, she could take possession of her room once again. It was always her room in the future and Jo expected her to come home one day and want her room.

"Whose room is it, Jody?"

"You'll find out one day." He answered.

Meeting took place that evening after meal in the war room. Chess liked that room, up and away from the rest of his people. No eyes prying and no ears listening. They gathered around a small table and listened as Tavin and Jody described the meeting and described the purpose and point to the exterminators. They'd been up near 36 hours at this point and as soon as meeting was over, they full intended on sleeping till noon the next day.

"Any issues so far with Cas?"

"No. I like the guy. He seems genuine. I put him in with Jody."

"Sure, yeah. Anything we should know about him?"

"His name is Casper, not Ronald Mc-fucking-Donald." She complained as she looked at Tavin and Jody. "You guys wouldn't pick on me cause I am a redhead, please don't do it to him. He's sensitive enough."

"Sensitive?"

"Yes, very, so don't pick on him." She asked of them. "Emotional, soft spoken, harmless honestly."

"Ok."

"You two had me calling him Ron for a half hour. I felt like an ass."

"I spoke with him. He's gonna shadow me on Sunday when the noobs get here."

"Oh, ok. What about Sunday? Why are any of you going on Sunday?"

"Because people, Julia."

"Just me and Julia go when we bring back no one and none of you follow us for that." Jayson told them.

"Yeah, we usually go alone. What's the deal?" Julia asked, looking at Chess.

"There's the possibility of real people."

"There always is the possibility. Me and Jay can handle ourselves. Jay is always with me and we never split up."

"Yeah, I got her."

"What do you expect a bunch of refugees to do to us?"

"You think this is some sort of set up or something?"

"Not exactly. No, but you never know. The guy sounded stand up. He spoke for the leader, you know." Tavin added. They didn't know they had seen and listened to Julia as Elena Gilbert.

"You don't think Jay and I can take care of ourselves?" Julia rolled her eyes. "You think we're gonna get hurt or something?" She asked. Tavin and Jody looked at Chess and waited for some good reason why they couldn't be allowed to go outside the fence alone like they did any other Wednesday and Sunday.

"I wouldn't let anything happen to her."

"Yeah, well we set this up with Jeffrey and I want it to run smooth. That's all." Tavin told her.

Julia and Jay eyed him with skepticism, but allowed it. "No fucking sun's out, guns out shit." He said to Chess.

"I got nothing to do with this." He assured him. "I am against this, but you people seem to think it's a fantastic idea."

"We got a field to plant. I'm not planting any field." Jay stated as a matter of fact. "I planted enough fields in my time. No."

"I agree. Won't find my skinny ass out there either. I'll stick with pot and tobacco. It's what I like and what I know."

"It's hard work." Jody nodded. "I'll do it cause I wanna fucking eat."

Meeting closed and left Chess and Julia alone at the table. She climbed out of her seat and sat on the table, sliding over to him. He leaned back and let her shimmy in front of him, unbuttoning her pants for him.

"We have a bed, baby." He smiled as he watched her lift and push her jeans down to her knees. Her Uggs came off one by one and then he pulled her jeans over her legs.

"And I like it in here." She reminded him as he unbuckled the belt from his waist and left it drop onto the floor with half her clothes.

"Gonna freeze in here, baby." He said, pulling her hoodie over her head.

"So." She smiled. "Warm me up." She set her feet on his knees and spread her legs.

"You ready?" He asked, touching her between her legs.

"I am always ready for you, my Chess." She rolled her eyes at him as he fingered her. "You know Cas is gay?"

"Yes." He answered. "You didn't?" He asked. "Why do you think I left you alone with him?"

"Ah, so I was safe cause he's gay?"

"I'd say so. I was right." He answered, loosening his pants with his free hand. "Not interested." Chess told her.

"Why? He's sweet. And I think he'd be discreet. He doesn't seem like a talker, you know."

"You wanna watch me fuck the ginger?" He laughed, standing up between her legs. He yanked her body toward him, sliding into the wet Julia as he moved her down the table. "I already fuck with one ginger. I don't want another one."

"Then who?"

"Fuck, baby, it's not that important."

Julia quieted and left him fuck her without all the conversation. She liked to talk out her day and sometimes chose the strangest times. He didn't want or need to hear all of it while between her milky white thighs.

"Pull out." She reminded him as he moved harder inside her. He ignored her half the time and this was one of those times. "Chess, pull-" He came and she stopped reminding him. "Out." She finished as he slid her off the table into the chair with him. She held her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I love you." He said before she started her calendar talk. She was obsessed with the calendar since Jody explained it to her.

"Gonna love our little babies too." She moaned, poking his chest.

"Of course." He answered, thinking they didn't have children together. That had never been part of Julia Morgan's future. Half the time he did pull out it was to make her happy. He only did so when they were in bed when he could come on her in some interesting spot, which she rather enjoyed for some odd reason. Julia had some strange sexual tastes and if he had any weird ideas, she was all for them, wanted to hear them and act on them. She, like the other, was pretty much up for a good time. Anywhere, any place, any time. Julia liked sex. 

"Trying to get me pregnant." She complained.

"No, I'm not." He answered. "Julia, where was I supposed to come exactly? On the table? I put it where it belongs."

"When in doubt, my mouth is always a viable option." She sighed, separating from him.

Having been with the two redheads, he was never surprised by anything that came out of her mouth anymore. He thought he'd honestly seen and heard it all thanks to one or both of them. The only thing that would ever actually surprise him and spoil him from them would be the both of them together. The odds of that ever happening were astronomical and he didn't dare mention that idea, keeping that as a family fantasy. He wasn't the only one who'd thought of it.

Julia walked with Jayson through the dorm and looked over the living space. There were plenty of beds and plenty of space. They talked about their newcomers. They talked about whether to cram them in with the family or place them in the dorm. They were stretched for space in the main building's second floor.

"They're gonna be strangers, Julia. I think the dorm is the best way to go."

She nodded her approval. "I guess so. I don't want any problems, Jayson. Can we make this work?"

"I think it's possible and this is what we wanted. We have a connection now though. That contact that Tavin and Jody found will be the link for people and safety. I think we'll help a lot of people and I think we'll have a lot of help that we need."

Jay looked out the dorm window to the field that they would have to turn, plant and harvest. Then he looked to the tent that still had the animals inside. They needed to build a structure and had no idea how to accomplish that. They needed people who they could work with and everyone would benefit from people working together.

"Ever planted a field worth of food to feed us through the winter?" He asked as he stepped a couple feet away from her.

"No." She answered as she looked out the window. She noticed he stepped away from her. "What? Why do you do that? Do I smell or something?" She raised her voice to him.

"Huh? Do what?"

"Move. Every time I stand next to you, you move away from me."

He laughed at her. "Nah, you definitely don't smell bad." He paused, keeping his distance. "You remind me of her. Just let me move."

"Chess says I am nothing like her."

"He lies." Jay replied. He leaned on the sill and looked around the campus. It was huge. Plenty of room for everything she had planned in that binder of hers. Why'd he have to burn it? "Ready? Let's head out and do this, partner."

"I'm nervous, Jayson."

"Yeah, I know. Wanna stay here? You can. I can do this alone. It's no big deal."

"No, no. It's important."

"You'll be great. I promise. We did this before. You know what it's like going from that to this. We both do. So chill out, Jules."

She and Jay got in the van with Tavin and rode out to the Y first, because it was closest. No one was there and they moved on to the library where there were people waiting for them with Jeffrey. Julia had sent them to see Ann. They parked on the street and Tavin walked up to Jeffrey, shook hands, introduced Jay and Julia. Jeffrey was caught by surprise when he saw Julia and eyed her suspiciously. "Looks exactly like Elena." He commented.

"Elena Gilbert." Jayson said. "Where is she?"

"She doesn't let us know where she stays. I wouldn't tell you if I did know." Jeffrey said.

"Where did you last see her?"

"At the meeting the other night."

Jayson glared at Tavin. "You saw her and said nothing, Tavin?" He was pissed. "Did you talk to her at all? Where has she been? What did she say?"

"Jay, man, can we do this later?"

"We can do this-"

"Later." Julia smiled, placing a hand on his arm. She stepped away with him, guiding him away from his brother. "Jay, calm down, we'll find out everything you want to know when we get back."

"They kept this from me, Jules. They know I been looking for her and they saw her and-" He tried to calm himself down. He tried to get Julia to understand, but she couldn't. She didn't know what it was like to have someone walk out of her life and never see the person again and never get an answer to the questions in her head.

"I know exactly what that feels like." She hissed. "And this is not the time or place for this, Jayson."

She held his arms in her grip and then hugged him as he stood there devastated that she had been seen and that they were close to her and said absolutely nothing. "Jayson, Jay, please calm down. We'll figure this out, I promise."

Jay's body didn't react the way she had hoped, standing tall and arms hanging at his sides. He could not very well embrace this girl and let that happen. "Ok. You're right. I'll talk with Tav. Did you know?"

"No, Jay. I would have told you." She assured him.

Ten bodies. Ten people. That was their first of many encounters thanks to the connection between Jeffrey and their group. Jay and Julia spoke with Jeffrey and with the people he had brought them. They agreed to go to the campus, having heard about the fence and that they would be safe. They couldn't guarantee 100% safety for anyone, including those who were already sheltered there.

"Hey, kid, if I see her, what do you want me to tell her?" Jeffrey asked Jayson before he left.

"Tell her to come home. That's what I want you to tell her."

"Will do. Good luck."

With that Jeffrey limped to the passenger van he had parked along the road and drove away. Julia had piled everyone into the van and was getting everyone settled while Jayson and Tavin had it out on the sidewalk.

"Guys, please." Julia called, breaking their heated conversation up.

"Jay, no we didn't get near her. She was there, she talked to everyone in the station and she rolled out before we could even get a chance to find her and talk to her."

"Did you say anything? Hey, Red, where the fuck you been or anything?"

"No, Jay." Tavin answered honestly.

"Why the hell not?" He yelled.

"Excuse me." Julia smiled at the ten people that were waiting out their argument. "They're brothers and they're having a moment. I apologize." She closed the van door and she stepped over the snow piles toward the brothers as they argued on the sidewalk about "a girl who doesn't want to be at the campus or with anyone on the campus. So can we please get ourselves together and leave?" Julia interjected herself into this conversation before it turned uglier than it was. She felt for Jayson and she felt bad that his brother was so indifferent to Jay's pain.

Tavin took that moment to step away and start the van for the ride home. Julia got into the Prius with Jayson and they drove home in silence. Joe and Savage were ready with the gates as they drove through the road to the school and they drove the vehicles inside and around the main drive to the courtyard where they ushered everyone out of the vehicles and through the courtyard into the caf.

"He knows." Tavin mumbled to Chess as he met them by the caf entrance.

"He pissed?"

"Yes."

Tavin turned Jayson and physically moved him outside and away from the ten new people who had seen and heard enough for one afternoon. Chess left Julia and Casper momentarily with their newcomers and found Jody, then dispatched him outside the courtyard and away from the people.

"Explain this to me again. You saw Julia and you didn't bother to speak to her."

"It wasn't like that, Jay." Jody answered quickly. "She spoke to everyone and then she left."

"You didn't think interrupting her would be a great fuckin' idea?"

"Not really. She had people and it would not have been smart to interrupt her."

"Not smart." Jay repeated.

"Where was the meet? When is the next one?" He asked seriously.

"Bus station, you know that. I don't know when the next one is because I didn't plan on going to the next one."

"You didn't tell me. Why?"

"Cause you're still fucked up over her, Jayson."

"Fucked up." He repeated as his eyes glistened with moisture.

"Not over her." Jody suggested as an alternative to being 'fucked up' over someone.

"How long does it take, Tavin, to not be fucked up over someone?" Jay asked. "How long, in your opinion, of course, should it take to get over the girl that I spent the last 6 or 7 years of my life in love with?"

"Jay, I know what you mean and that's why I didn't mention her. This is what would happen, that's why we didn't feel as though it would be a great idea to bring up her name." Tavin explained. "You're getting all upset and freaking out and you were doing ok."

"This is not doing ok." He yelled as the tears rolled over his flushed cheeks. "It is not ok. I am not ok. I stare at her all fucking day, Tav. I am not ok."

"Kelly, where is Kelly? I can't do this." Tavin said as he turned away from his brother. "I can't do this with you, Jayson, I'm sorry."

"You don't care about her."

"Fuck you, Jay. I do care about her, but I can let her do her what she wants. I always have. You're the one who-I can't do this, Jayson."

"Uh, Jay, wanna ride out there and take a look around?" Jody asked.

"I have things to do." Jay answered, motioning toward the caf. "I can't leave her do it alone. I can't..." He paused. "Where's Chess?"

"With the people, Jay." Jody replied.

"I need to get high." He said, crying but angry and confused. "Fuck, I'm so mad." He complained. "At her, not you. I am not mad at you two, I get it, but I don't like you hiding it from me. Fuck, she makes me mad." He turned away from Jody and walked around the dorms where he sat on the steps. Jody stepped away and found Chess who joined him with a joint and a water bottle.

"You still weeping?" He asked, lighting the joint.

"It never ends, Chess."

"I get off easy. I still kinda have her with me. Not the same, but still..." He passed Jay the joint and sat with him while he went on and on about Julia. "I get it, Jay. No one gets it better than me."

"Which one would you choose if you had to?" Jay asked.

Oh, no. We are not heading in that direction...Chess thought. "Jay, I take what's given to me and I deal with it." He looked out over the field and the pond before him. "Know what I do when I miss that bitch?" He asked seriously.

"What?"

"Well, I start by calling her by the name she should have been given at birth-bitch. Then I think of all the horrible fucked up shit she ever did to me and then I don't miss her."

"Chess, she didn't give me any shit, man."

Chess snorted a laugh. "Should I remind you, then, Jay?" Chess asked. "Cause I can think of ten things off the top of my head that can start some major shit between me and you."

"Oh, the lab stuff."

"Yeah, so if you want me reminding you so you can hate her I will sacrifice myself." He grinned. "Hey, remember that time I fucked her when she was pregnant?"

"Which time?"

"You choose, Jay." He answered pretty fast. "Hey, she likes to call me king when I fuck her."

"You wish." Jay laughed.

"Yeah, I kinda made that up, but she does like to call me her king from time to time. Hey, remember when she fell in love with Tavin again and then fucked him two doors away from you for how long? And remember when she finger banged Jess at Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, my God." Jay mumbled. "Ok, I'm good now. Thanks."

"Remember Stef?"

"What about Stef?"

"Think about that when you miss her."

"Then I'll start missing that psycho." He laughed.

"Remember when she fucked your brother."

"Oh, come on." Jay whined, getting up. "Trying to think of someone they didn't fuck."

"Yeah, but the good one, you let that one go."

"Who was that?" Jay asked.

"Jess." He shrugged. "But so did I, and here we are."

"Eh, I don't want Jess anymore."

"You need new pussy, Jayson. Someone to take your mind off the old ones that are surrounding you. Why didn't you just go with her when she wanted you to go?"

"I don't wanna leave. Even if I found her and saw her, I never planned on going anywhere with her."

"What did you plan on doing, man?"

"Killing her." Jay answered honestly. "I would finish what I started." He walked around the dorm to the courtyard with Chess at his side. "But then I still wouldn't be able to do it. I'd listen to her and cry on her and beg her to come home."

The next morning Jay and Jody took a ride out to the bus station in Oaks. The message board was empty. The burn circle was there and there were ashes instead of corpses. The street was fairly clear of death and only a few stragglers made their way through the bus station parking lot. Jay and Jody put them down and left them in the cold lot. Jay drove home, to Green Street, figuring if she was starting her rebellion in Maverick, then she'd be home. They parked on Green Street, were greeted by complete silence. There were no zoms, but the evidence that they had been there was clear. The wood at the end of the street was minus a lot of trees and trash cans stood in the road where there had been burn activity to keep warm. Other than evidence left behind, there were no people living or dead. Jay checked out a couple houses on the street and found no one and no belongings that indicated she was anywhere in the vicinity. Jody suggested she may have cleared out or hadn't been there at all. Jay took that excuse and accepted it. On their way back to Mastro campus, they drove out to the farmhouse. She wasn't there either, but Jay spent some time with Care while Jody waited on the porch steps.

"You won't find her until she wants to be found." Jody said as Jay left his daughter's grave.

"This is a miserable day."

"It'll get easier, Jayson. I have done this."

"With my sister. Yes, I have heard all about it."

"I still miss that girl. Every day of my life I think about her."

"You can't go looking for her, Jody. I can."

"The truth is, you don't have to. She's in there." Jody pointed at Jay's head. "That's where she lives now. You won't see her or hear from her or talk to her or touch her or anything. You need to realize it."

"Like you did."

"We do not have a choice, Jay. The choice was taken from us. Forced on us."

"You're right. Doesn't make me feel any better though."

Jody agreed on that much. "I miss her too, Jay." Jody admitted. He didn't have the type of feelings Jayson had for her and he hadn't known her nearly as long as he and his family had, but the last year they had grown close, closer than he ever expected to when it came to the girl he started out as calling Morgan and ended up calling Julia. Sexual relations or no sexual relations, Jody could empathize with his friend who missed his girlfriend.

"Yeah, even when we weren't anything, she still talked to me. She still made time to keep in touch. She never excluded me."

"You held her at gunpoint, man."

"I shot and tried to kill her once, too. I know it doesn't make sense, Jo, but it makes sense to me."

He and Jay went to the campus that afternoon. He slipped into his room he shared with Tatia and he didn't come out for a few days. Only to eat, then he disappeared again. Sometimes he had Tia in there with him and they'd play whatever Tatia wanted to play or he could be heard reading to her or talking to her or singing with her. The rest of the usual activities fell by the wayside.

"What's your brother doing in that room, Tatia?" Chess asked.

"He crying, Uncle Chess. I tell him it's all gonna be ok. I think he's scared."

"Of what?"

"The dead people outside the fence." She answered easily. Maybe Jay told her that's why he was crying, but Chess knew better. Sending Julia after him, he guessed, would be a mistake, so he let him have his time and sent Jesslyn instead. Jess soon disappeared along with him and when he went to find them both, they were sound asleep under the covers on his bed.

"What's up?" Julia asked as she stood beside him in the doorway. She looked in the room and saw them sleeping. "Oh," She smiled. "You think?"

"Probably not." Chess answered. "I doubt it."

"Oh, well, hmmm." Julia responded sounding disappointed. "Should we put Tatia in with us just in case?"

"It's early yet. We'll see." He shrugged, pulling the door shut as they left them.

Jay woke to darkness and a warm body next to his. For a brief moment he wondered where he was and as he woke up and listened around him, he for a moment thought he was in the farmhouse. Hannah...he swore he heard her laughter, then he sat up and realized it must have been Tarin. He glanced at Tatia's bed and it was empty. Jess lay beside him, reached for him and pulled him back in place against her.

"Jay, no."

"Yeah, Jess, sure." He said, laying back on his bed, curling his body against hers. "What are you doing in here anyway? You never come in here with me."

"Chess asked me to make sure you're ok and you're not ok yet."

"Well, you're gonna be here awhile." He whispered in her ear.

"Jay, you can do what you want. If you need to, I am ok with it."

"Need what? Sex?" He asked quietly. "He ask you to do that too?"

"He asked that I do whatever I have to, so sex." She giggled softly. "I am volunteering as you own what lays at your side."

"Wanna use each other till she comes back and then get hurt all over again?"

"Not what I had in mind and it doesn't have to go further than this, right now."

"I thought she told you not to sleep with me."

"What is she gonna do, Jay? Nothing." She asked. "I am done playing this silly game she made up. She is gone and we're still playing."

"Sounding mighty liberal, Jesslyn."

"We are hers as long as we allow-"

"You believe that shit she was doing?"

"Like you, yes. It is something we entered into together and I took her seriously, but I don't see her here with us." She sounded assertive and self assured. "Jay, it's your name on my-"

"I know. Shh, stop." He hushed her, holding her face in his hands. She kissed his forehead. "I love you, Jess."

"I love you too."

"Turn the light on." Jay sighed.

"What for?" She asked, sliding off the bed and going to the door. She flipped the switch and illuminated the room.

Jay sat up on his bed and pointed at her. "Cause I like to see the pussy when I eat it." He answered, pulling his shirt over his head. Jess started undressing for him, dropping her clothes on the floor by the door. "When was the last time you shaved? I can't see my name."

"I didn't plan on doing this, Jayson."

"Fine. Come over here. I know it's there." He said, holding out his hand to her.

She took it and she lay next to him, letting him kiss her and touch her and then as he started his descent into the overgrown forest of hair between Jess's spread legs, the door opened. Jay covered her body pretty quick. "What?" He asked as the door pulled shut.

"Um, are you coming to meeting?" Alex asked.

"Does it look like I am coming to meeting, Alex? Lock it and leave."

"Yeah, sorry, bro." He said as his hand reached inside and locked the door. He pulled it shut firmly.

Jay went to work on Jess until she was whimpering and out of breath. He loved listening to the gasping and the ooh'ing and aah'ing as she came for him. He relished the reaction, making her body numb and trembling at the slightest touch of tongue or finger. It worked every single time on every girl he ever went to bed with. It was relatively easy and he stayed put between her thighs till she told him to stop.

"How do you do that to me?" She asked, her hands gripped around his hands pretty tight. "Jayson, that makes a girl fall in love."

"If you say so." He laughed, pulling off her to his knees and taking his hands away from hers. He lay next to her, putting his arms around her waist. He pulled a blanket over them and let her gather herself. Jess always needed a moment. She'd said it a million times like she had to get her head together to think clearly.

"Yeah, no one does that like you."

Not that Jess had a lot to go on experience wise, but it was a fair assumption for her. Julia had said that too and she had a lot more to go on than two sex partners.

"I like doing it." He said, closing his eyes as he rested his head on her shoulder. Jess wiggled her body back against him. "You don't have to, Jess." He sighed, putting a hand on her hip. "We already went too far."

"You are worth the punishment I would receive, my Jay." Her hand reached behind her and pushed at the waistband of his shorts. 

"I don't want her punishment though, Jess." He whispered. 

"You telling me no?" She asked playfully as he lifted for the shorts to slide down.

"That's what I'm saying." He replied as she wiggled back onto him.  "Guess you don't care." He said as he felt her warm wetness over his erection.

"Not really." She answered as she moved on him. "It feels good, Jayson."

"I'm not saying that I don't appreciate anything you did. All I'm saying is I don't wanna fuck with you anymore." Julia told him.

"What did I do?" He asked.

Julia couldn't believe that he asked her that question as they climbed the steps to the efficiency above the coffee shop. She lit the kerosene heater then waited as she ate cold spaghetti out of a can for it to warm the place up. "Motherfucker, did you ask what you did?" She yelled at him from across the room. She thought about hurling the can of cold spaghetti at his head, but that would be a mess that would stain the carpet and the wall with sauce and she would have to clean it up. Plus it was her meal.

Julio moved across the room to her. Five foot 8, stocky with a winter coat and a woolen hat on his bald by choice head. His brown eyes looked into hers and he asked again, "Why?"

"Two blonds and a brunette." She replied because she didn't know their names and he couldn't recall them either if the truth be known. "I leave for a couple days and come back to find naked chicks in your house. You know that wasn't Kyle and don't try to tell me it was."

"I love women. I love you." He said, inching his way toward her. He was nonthreatening and he had a smooth way about him. He'd done this before and she swore she wasn't gonna fall for it as she spooned a bite of spaghetti into her mouth.

"Two days, Julio. I was gone two days." She complained, wondering why she'd ever started messing with him to begin with. "And this isn't the first time. You're a whore."

"Ok." He smiled that toothy grin. The man loved pussy. In fact he was the first to admit that. He was not blinded by color or size either. The more the merrier. In fact he preferred them fatter than Julia. Each chick she caught him with was heavy. Julio liked them thick for sure and whenever they made love he complained about her bones. His pelvis slamming into hers, bone against bone. Julia didn't feel such a thing, but he did. He wanted her to plump up. He finally made his way to her and stood directly in front of her while she ate. "I want this pussy, Julia." He smiled, placing a hand between her legs. His large hands cupped her crotch and rubbed her hard with his calloused hand. He had the roughest hands she'd ever come across. Hard work before the world shut down and harder work after the world shut down. "Your Papi loves this pussy, flaca."

Flaca...skinny...that was the problem. She was skinny. She'd never met a man who had this issue before. Normally the skinnier the better. This Latino had a preference. "I don't want you to go away. I don't wanna fuck with you anymore. Amigos, you know." She suggested. "I still need my Papi." She smiled.

"Yes, you do. You need it." He took the can of spaghetti from her and set it on the counter. That hand kept a steady rub between her legs and his mouth went to work on her neck and her mouth.

"My needs are outside this apartment." She corrected him, but she never stopped him from covering her with those lips and she never stopped that hand from making her wet either. Julio was an amazing and confident lover. She'd heard before men who said they could do what no other man could do and he was one of the few who lived up to his very own words.

Julio was fit and had a nice body. 35 years old, he knew how to live in the world before it ended and after. He'd come from nothing on the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, some dirt floor slum without electricity and plumbing and he wound up with nothing in the great zombie land of opportunity. Before the shit hit the fan, he worked for a fairly successful landscaping business with a lot of regular contracts and deals. He kept the landscape beautiful in the burbs. Going back to nothing was not much of a culture shock to him. He took right to the lack of basic things unlike his fellow neighbors and he managed to stay alive and planned on staying that way.

Julio was genuinely a nice guy. One of the good ones. He was a hard worker. He was loyal. He had ideas, no fear. He attached to her like white on rice and he stuck by her side from practically day one. He was the first, Kyle as well. They worked as a group of three and added on to their crew of nest hunters. Eventually they gathered up enough people and worked their way further and further through Maverick, worked 16 hour days, worked from sun up to sun down. They sheltered people until they could move them out to other places. They gathered supplies and cleared and burned and made the streets around them safer and cleaner. He was the most important sidekick she had in the world. A motivator, fun and funny. He kept optimism alive when she felt like giving up. He knew this and she told him all the time.

He lifted her with ease off the floor and he carried her body to her bed.

"Julio," She complained as he set her feet on the floor and he started undressing her. "Are you listening to me? Did you hear a word I said?"

"Si, Chula." He answered. "I ain't going anywhere tonight and neither are you, so let's do this. I wanna make love to you." He dipped his calloused hand into her open jeans and played with her clit. "You want this." He said, slipping a finger inside her. He worked his finger in and out of her. "I love you." He told her as she felt her body reacting to his touch.

"Mmm," She moaned as she came for him, holding his arms tight with her hands. When he tried pulling his hand away, she held his arm in place and started pulling off his layers till she found what she was looking for, abs. Julio had such a fine body and that abdomen of his was well defined. 35 years worth of solid, thick muscle revealed itself beneath those layers, which originally had surprised her. She would have never guessed on their first encounter, because although thin, he hid that body well beneath clothes. She pulled off layers, revealing black ink tats of skulls and roses and the like across his chest and up and down both arms. Ink, she learned, she liked ink, most of which he'd done himself. He tried getting her to put a tat on her body somewhere, but she was chicken. She could handle bullets, wounds, infections and child birth, but the idea of a needle dragging across her skin frightened her. She rather fancied the idea of a zombie sleeve down her arm, but she wouldn't volunteer for it. "Oh, wow, do you work out or something?" She had asked him weeks before when she actually took a minute to view the body beside her.

"Never. I work hard. My body always looks like this." He'd slapped hand over firm abs and it made a little echo noise. Possibly the nicest body she'd ever had the privilege to look at and the ink only added to it. She spent forever looking over tattoos, listening to him tell her about each one, where he got the idea for a particular tat and how he chose which body part to apply it.

Julio turned her around and pushed her onto the bed. She knew the drill as she got herself onto her knees and lifted her ass in the air. Julio got on his knees on the floor and put his face directly into her. The mouth and the tongue and the fingers all worked in tandem and he gave the most mind blowing oral she ever experienced. She thought Jay gave excellent head, but Julio could have done it for a living. He left no part of her un-licked, un-prodded or untouched from back to front and then back again. Julio always started off with oral in some random position, then he'd fuck her half the night. His stamina went unmatched as well. He loved pussy and he loved eating and fucking pussy, which was the problem. He loved all pussy equally, the whore. Julio would fuck her till she was dry then dip back between her legs with that mouth and make her wet all over again. Julio was like a rollercoaster ride in bed. Twisting and turning and always fun, but when he got into his feelings, it was even better. He'd take her slow and hold her and make her body feel so good, so relaxed. He spoke in her ear the sweet Spanish words and she had no clue what he was saying, but that turned her on even more. She could only imagine and whenever he translated, it just didn't sound the same, so she never wanted the English language version.

He never asked a thing from her. She'd move when he moved and when he set her little body on top of him, he seemed satisfied. He would lift her off him and guide her down between his thighs where he expected her to apply the tongue, the mouth and the suction. If she was not doing it right, he'd tell her and she'd switch up. He was only demanding when it came to head. He had a certain way he liked it and she needed to step up her game for him. She'd at least pretend to like it and by the time she finished on him, she was usually turned on because of his reaction. When he lay sleeping and she lay awake and sitting next to him in the dark, she would think of Jay and fight the guilt for enjoying another man. She watched him dress in the morning. He had such a perfect round ass. He had no shyness or shame and he was comfortable walking around as nude as the day he was born. He gave her a kiss good bye and said he'd see her around.

From that day on they worked together, but had no rollercoaster encounters. He'd flirt and he'd say his words and he'd sneak a handful of her ass occasionally, but he never tried to take her to bed again. They seemed to get more accomplished that way. Julia was more focused on her work and changing the world in which she lived. Julio and Kyle still looked out for her and made sure she was ok in that apartment of hers. Whenever she was at their house she'd find a reason to leave quick. Pussy, it was everywhere and Julio seemed to carry on as usual. He didn't flaunt it, but it was plain to see.

"Why you mad at me now?"

"I'm not mad at you." Julia answered him as he left her off at the curb in front of the coffee shop.

"You ok, then? What's wrong with you?" He asked, hopping out of the Humvee and stepping in front of her. "What are you crying for?"

"You hurt my feelings."

"You broke up with me, Julia." He said, holding her shoulders. He kissed her cheek. "You lonely? Want me to come up? I'll come up."

"No." She frowned. "Go home to your whores." She snapped at him.

"I never lied to you about anything."

"I'm sorry. I know. Go home. I'm ok. I'm stressed out is all."

Julia took to her apartment and she let the feelings pass. She let the sadness pass and she went on with her life. She was content to be alone for the time being and she spent her nights busy reading or thinking. She would figure out what she wanted out of life as soon as life was safe enough to resume. The entire point to leaving Jay behind was to make a new way for herself. She had a lot of reasons and a lot of plans and she only wanted to focus on work. All day long, she focused on work. She had ridden out to Elke's abandoned farm with Julio and she had left competent people there to get the place functional. She left with orders to tell her what they needed and she would find it. She spent her time sheltering those who were arriving to the area, redirecting them from Oaks or Maverick to the route 22 meet ups Jay and Julia had organized. If it wasn't a pick up day, then she sheltered them in the coffee shop on cots or in sleeping bags, giving up her space heater for them to be warm. She would stay at Julio's if need be. If she ever was out near the farm house, she'd stop and see Caroline. She made sure her house was still standing and she made sure it was still dark with no one dwelling inside its walls. She'd found squatters a couple times and had ushered them out overnight at the library. One night, she set them up in the living room and set a fire in the fireplace. A man, woman and their 3 children, which she would send to Miller because it was late Wednesday afternoon. If Miller chose not to keep them, then he could run them out to Mastro campus or house them temporarily till the scheduled pick up at the library. Julia always sent her shelter seekers to Ann. She always had a go between for Mastro campus as well.

She heard that Juliana had died, so Julia had her exterminators out there looking for a nurse, EMT, medic, anyone with medical experience. When the woman was delivered to her, Julia ushered her to Miller's and then spent the night there, catching up with him and the people she had met. Julia had spent at least a day a week there after Juliana passed, some days longer than others. Sometimes she'd spend the night. The last time she informed Miller to have Mastro campus up their pick up days to daily at a specific time during the day, 2pm sounded fair.

"Ok, I'll tell them when I drop off the family of 5." Miller assured her.

"If they do not, I will give the shelter seekers the address. Make sure they understand or I will send them straight to the gates."

"Understood, boss." He smiled as he hovered over her in his room. His arms around her upper body. "Offer still stands if you wanna move in."

"Awe, you're sweet, but I got so many places I don't know whether I'm coming or going." She broke from the embrace hello or good bye and she looked up at him. "You find a girl yet, handsome?" She asked.

"Waiting for you." He joked, sitting back on his bed.

"Look, I can't fuck with you. I have my reasons."

"Didn't say you had to." He shrugged. "Never did. That was all you that night."

"And Captain Morgan and Percocet." She smiled, stepping in front of him. "You want me to help you out, Miller? I will if you want me to." She smiled, kneeling in front of him.

"Please."

"Oh, he's polite." She sighed, unbuttoning his pants. "Listen, handsome, there's a few chicks out on that Mastro campus. Stop by and say hi and hang out there a while." She tugged at his jeans. "Lift, Miller." He lifted and she guided his jeans over his hips. She leaned and put him in her mouth. She used what she'd learned from Julio and was just getting started when she felt the pulse in her hand, the pending orgasm and as he unloaded in her mouth, she swallowed and then kept going on him. She licked him all around his flaccid shaft and then sucked the head a little for flavor. "That was too easy, Miller." She smiled at him.

"That was too good, Julia." He corrected her, yanking his jeans up over his hips.

She rarely made it home at night. She would stay wherever she worked that day. If it as on a farm in Lancaster, the farmhouse, a shelter on the road, a vehicle, it didn't matter. She'd sleep till sun up and wherever she was working she set her bags and she helped. She helped raise barns, she helped shelter people and she shuttled people to shelters, sometimes driving them there herself. She had made her way as far as Gettysburg and back with supplies and people. The rebellion, she had heard rumors about herself. A mysterious commander. "Really? Who?" She asked as the people would only venture a guess. As she arrived and departed, hearing rumors of commanders and mysterious leaders, no one would even guess it had been her. No one questioned her arrival or departure and took whatever supplies she needed and delivered whatever supplies were needed. Never selfish and she never took more or gave more than what was needed. There were days she wished she had some help. There were days she would give her left arm to have someone to unload the madness on. There were days she was lonely, but if she ever got lonely she would focus on work. There were days she was angry and if she got angry, she'd join a team and kill the dead, exterminate a nest, then burn them in a pile. Some days there were so many burn piles going at once, the sky was smoky for miles. Then there were days that they couldn't hunt or burn because of the uncooperative Pennsylvania winter. They could kill, but they couldn't burn. Too wet or too damp or conditions were unfavorable. She couldn't wait till spring, they'd pick up momentum.

Eventually she would make her way back home and to her efficiency, thinking as each day passed fewer and fewer corpses walked among them. She hoped one day soon she wouldn't have to walk her street armed and looking over her shoulder or in any and all directions. She'd receive report from Julio and several of the local team leaders. Jeffrey would update her on the shelters, shelters numbers and who was full and who was not at capacity. Miller left message with him that Mastro said they had room and could accept more. Jayson and Julia personally visited Miller and ran into Jeffrey and demanded to know where all the local shelters were, who ran them and what conditions they were in. Did they need anything and if so they could possibly trade something for work.

"What do they need done, Jeffrey?"

"Don't know, Elena. They never ask for anything. All they do is take people, but they're so secluded in there, they don't take anyone at the fence. They only go to the meet spots."

"Everybody needs something."

"Wanna take a ride out there with me?"

"You wanna talk to Chess Morgan or Jody Mayers. They'll know what needs to be done."

"The two at the pick up sites always say they're fine and they don't need anything."

"It's how they are. Let me know and we'll get them what they need."

"Where are you gonna be so I can relay this information to you?"

"You can drop me off near there and then come back for me. There's something I wanna do."

Jeffrey dropped her at the farmhouse and she went inside. A mild, early February afternoon for once. There was little wind, so the cold wasn't so unbearable. She walked out to her field of dreams. She kicked around some dirt and she decided she wanted this field planted too. Who would do it and when she thought about while she waited for Jeffrey to return. It dawned on her who could do it suddenly as she took a seat on the ground by the fire pit. "Those fucking Mexicans." She mumbled as she warmed up by the pit. "They've been telling me no for years. Not this year." She grinned. She had a Latino in mind for the meet up, too. It was the one and only shelter that turned her people away. It was the one and only shelter that never sought shelter or anything else from the outside world.

As a couple hours passed, she began to wonder what exactly happened to Jeffrey? She'd rebuilt the fire a couple times waiting for him and she nearly gave up and head inside when he suddenly pulled into the drive way.

"What is this place, Elena?"

"It's my damn house, Jeff." She answered him as she extinguished the flames. "This is home, what I call home anyway. Let's go to Julio's and you tell me what they need."

A barn. A fucking barn. She'd helped raise a couple and she knew people in Lancaster.

"Ugh," She groaned. "What do they have to trade?"

"Nothing. They got nothing. That's why they don't ask for anything. They're barely getting by, but they take in all our women and children. They got a skeleton crew of men who couldn't build a Lego house."

"They got the supplies?"

"No."

"I'll think of something. Um, get out to Ephrata and find us a barn. I think we can make this work in our favor, too. I can get rid of Ronks once and for all."

"That smart, Elena?"

"Been wanting to do this. You know that and I think...I will think. Just set it up, please."

"Now? You wanna do this now?"

"I think so."

"And you're sure you wanna send them into a compound with women and children."

"Yes." She nodded eagerly. "You'll have to talk with Morgan again, but I think so, yes. He can take them out."

"That little fella?"

"Kill em all. Kill em and burn them." She muttered.

He left her out at the end of Houser Street and she walked down to Julio's where she sat down with him and told him her plans for rejects out of Ronks and the field of dreams on the land at the farmhouse. He was all for both plans and agreed to head out to the school the following day with her. She wished she could contact Chess and explain this plan. But she had people to take care of the details for her. She orchestrated everything in the background, especially when it came to Mastro campus. She could not get involved with them. Chess had killed strangers for less. Jeffrey would make him understand and then he'd head out to the Pastor's farm and put a bullet in his head for the cause. Everything on that farm would be property of the state of Pennsylvania. 

"He wants to meet with you." Jeffrey said.

"No." She shook her head. "Make him understand." She stressed this to Jeffrey.

"Elena, he said he won't kill anyone until he tables it and then -"

"God damn it. That man." She growled. "Why can't he just do what I ask, when I ask?"

"Who is he to you?"

"Jeff, he's my husband."

"Damn, and the cute and sweet version of you with the long hair?"

Julia hesitated. "My sister." She answered, sounding more annoyed than anything.

"Oh, I see." He grimaced.

"I won't waste time explaining this family tree." She rolled her eyes and in a huff she pulled her bag onto her lap. She wrote an address on a piece of paper and she handed it to Jeffrey.

"He comes alone." She handed the paper to him and she got out of the truck and went into her apartment.

Julia hopped on her bicycle and pedaled herself across Maverick to Chess's house. She rode up his driveway and she dropped the kickstand, parking her wheels at the top of the driveway. The morning was not her best time of day and as she waited for her husband, she sipped hot Colombian black coffee from her thermos. He arrived shortly after she did in the Prius and parked behind her bike. At first they said nothing to each other as he got out of the car and he took a seat next to her in the sun.

She handed him an extra thermos from her pack. He raised an eye brow at her. "Coffee?" He asked feeling the warmth in his hand. She nodded. "Thank you." He smiled, twisting the lid and tasting his first drink of coffee in weeks. "I should pick your skinny ass up, throw you over my shoulder and take you to him." Chess initiated the conversation. She opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted her. "But I won't do that. Let me say, before I entertain anything you have to say, that Jay is devastated and hurt. What you're putting him through is beyond cruel even for you."

"That's not fair." She said quietly.

"He's still crying, Jules."

"Ok, so am I." She replied, sipping her coffee. "It takes time, Chess."

"I don't get it, but I won't question it."

''Thanks." She nodded.

"Gonna build my barn, wifey?" He asked, making himself comfortable. "You want me to kill the men who build the barn."

She shook her head in response. "No. They're good men."

"Who are we taking out?"

She handed him an address written on a piece of paper. "It's a farm out in Ronks Kill the men. Then, I want you to kill the Pastor."

"Then throw them in a circle and burn them." She nodded. "You have a pretty good reason for this, I assume." She nodded. "Can you speak?"

"Yeah," She answered. She'd been trying to keep quiet, fearing her voice would crack and he'd hear how shaken up she was having to sit and talk with him after running away. She cleared her throat. "Yes, of course." She said softly. "You have a need and I have a need and we can both have what we need." She said, clearing her throat again. "You do this for me and I do that for you and I have another strong shelter that can take in a lot of people, which diverts them from yours."

"How many?"

"10 to 20."

"Why?"

"Because I am asking you to." She replied.

"Why don't you do it then with your exterminators?"

"We took out a chunk of them. I have been trying to find an opportunity to finish what we started. This is the way to finish it." She replied. "You get a free barn."

"I don't know."

"Now. Now, you choose to have a moral dilemma." She sighed. "My exterminators are gone, moved on. They're busy."

"I haven't brought this to the table yet."

"It's not for the fucking table." She raised her voice, then cleared her throat again. "Sorry. This is a need to know basis and no one needs to know. Consider it a side job, a favor."

"So they come. They build a barn, then sometime soon me and Jo and Tav have to go to this farm-" He held up the piece of paper in his hand. "And we assassinate ten to twenty men and a preacher."

He summed it up fairly nice.

"Kill em all." She agreed.

"I'll figure this out on my own. This whole thing is shady."

"That's the way the world works now, Chess. It's shady as fuck. Anyone else is gonna want to be paid. This is how you can pay. It's like Philly, taking the trash out to the curb." She explained this as best she could. "So, let Jeffrey know on the next pick up whether it's a yes or a no."

"I'll talk with Jody and Tav." 

"Why aren't your streets clear yet?" She asked, sipping her coffee. "Why are there dead on your fence, Chess?"

"Haven't got around to it. Where are you living?"

"Here, there and everywhere. I'm mobile." She answered. "That's all. We're done here." She said before he took the leap into personal.

"Gotta be close, wifey, if you got a bicycle."

"Closer than you think, Chess." She replied, placing her thermos in her cup carrier that Temple found and attached to the handle bar for her.

"Yo, did you get the bodies out of the basement?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at his former home.

"What do you think?" She replied sarcastically.

"This is crazy. I know she had something to do with this." Chess said angrily at Jody as he looked over the tent in a shambles. "Can you believe this fucking shit, Jo?"

"We need a barn. She can give us a barn. I say we do this, Chess. If Jules wants them dead, then they're dead."

"You trust the bitch. You always have trusted the bitch. I know the bitch had something to do with this."

"Yes, Chess, Julia made the snow so heavy it collapsed the tent barn." Jody agreed. "She speaketh and the universe provided." He joked sarcastically. "So what do you say? We take a ride over to this farm, check it out, see what we're up against."

"This is off the table. I don't need morals getting in the way of murder."

The next time she saw Jeffrey, she had a yes answer. The universe was on her side that week as the snow collapsed half the tent they used to house the animals. It was not funny. In fact, she felt bad for them, but the universe had directed the course of events and Chess had no other choice short of getting out the hammers and nails. She and Julio had a meet up with the Mexicans in the school and Julio laid the way for her farm house to be planted and harvested. She wanted full fields, they could grow what they wanted and needed on top of what she demanded. They were welcoming and they were more than willing to listen to what Julio had to offer. She stood quietly, only spoke when she was spoken to. She had no clue what was being said anyway. It was a good week all the way around. She celebrated alone and she planned out the course of action. She already had a handful of people chosen to stake a claim there. More would be sent. It was definitely a good week.

Chess and Jody parked a distance from the Ronks farm to avoid being spotted by anyone. Jody saw acres and acres of pristine land with living animals and barns. The place was massive and could house more than his own school. From all appearances outside the farm, it looked serene and normal. People worked. They could see women from the street walking in and out of the barns and in and out of the main house. Multiple small structures lined the land, all with chimneys and constructed of wood. Orchards of trees and fruit bearing bushes.

"Are we at the right place?" Jody asked, setting down binoculars between him and Chess. The longer they sat in the truck, the more activity they witnessed. Lines of many women formed from the cabin structures and they filed with their heads down into a building at the rear of the main house. "It's a church." Jody said quietly as he watched them. Men dressed for winter weather filed out of one of the larger cabin structures and began working the field, chopping wood, then carting it from cabin to cabin. Animals led out of the barns and they fed them. "Seems pretty normal."

"Dogs." Chess groaned. Chess saw dogs, shepherds specifically. They trotted around the yard and grounds. Sniffing, shitting and pissing. He'd have to take out the hounds from hell before taking out any man.

"It's only a church commune, Chess. Are you sure we're at the right place?"

Jody watched the activity alongside Chess from the comfort of the pick up. They saw absolutely nothing that would indicate a threat let a lone the dire need to remove these people from the face of the earth.

"Fuck it." Chess moaned and he opened the truck door. He aimed the gun and he fired a lone shot toward the farm. He hit the main house from what it looked like. He was tired of waiting for something interesting to happen, so he made something interesting happen. No one noticed the chunk of house that was hit and broke off, but heads turned and looked toward the sound of the gun shot. Chess aimed and fired again, adjusting the aim for wind and he fired, dropping one man where he stood. "Chest shot." He smirked as he tucked himself back in the cab of the truck. Women, a band of women rushed out of the church and went to the aid of the fallen man. "Better run." Chess commented as they huddled around him.

Jody lowered the window and fired into the air, which scattered the women back into their shelters and away from the dead man on the ground by the house. A man emerged from the main house, carrying a shot gun. His white hair blew in tufts in the wind. When Chess aimed and fired the next bullet into his chest, his white button down shirt turned red. He clutched his chest and grasped at suspenders that held up khaki pants. He dropped to his knees, and he fell face forward onto the porch. The shot gun skittered over the porch boards and down the front steps. Jody took them to the next level and started killing as the men rounded the house from the rear. Chess took down those in the field with axes and then that was when all hell broke loose on the farmhouse doorstep. The pastor rose to his feet, staggering his way to the steps and tumbling forward. Jody and Chess watched as it unfolded before their eyes. The man Chess took down first rose along with the pastor and fed on those who were rushing from the rear yard. As these men fended off their turned attackers, Chess and Jody took them down and all was fairly zombified on the inside of the church compound.

"Why are we doing this now? I thought we were coming back later." Jody asked. "You know, kicking in doors and exciting stuff like the movies."

"Dogs, Jo. I'm allergic to dogs."

"I'm not allergic to them." Jo sounded disappointed there wasn't a more organized form of attack.

"How many did you hit?" Chess asked, moving his finger off the trigger.

"11. You?"

"7 plus the old man with the shot gun." Chess pulled a handkerchief from his back pocket and tied it over his face, especially his mouth, hoping that would help from developing the allergic reaction, but he doubted it.

Chess started the engine and he drove the distance from where they'd been parked to the front gate. The dogs rushed the fence, barking and growling. Chess fired at them and the squeal was saddening from each animal as it was put down. Doors started opening to the cabins and Chess ordered them shut. Doors slammed, but faces were seen in the windows of each one.

"Now is when we head in like the movies, Mayers." Chess laughed as they cautiously opened the gate. They put down those zoms who were getting to their feet and clumsily working out their movements with seemingly unfamiliar coordination. Chess could feel the irritation starting in his throat and then as he approached the house itself, his eyes started watering and burning. "Fuck." He complained loudly as he let Jody step ahead of him and move inside. "Be alert, Mayers. Fuck, my eyes." He backed away from the entrance and retreated outside the gate to the truck as his flesh started itching. He could feel the welts raising on his arms and chest beneath his clothes and knew he was in for a very uncomfortable day. He yanked the handkerchief off his face and started scratching over his clothes, but he couldn't make it stop or go away no matter how much he itched. He felt like he had a hundred unreachable mosquito bites as his eyes watered and his throat stayed scratchy. "This bitch is trying to kill me."

Jody came to the door carrying an infant in one arm and a bloodied child in his other hand. The child, all of four or five, had turned and was not as strong as the hand Jody had firmly in her long brown hair. He held the kid's body out and away from him and he brought them to the dog pile at the gate. He was pissed off. "That bullet you shot at the house..." Chess lifted his gun and shot the girl where Jody held her. Her small body folded like a house of cards onto the carcasses of canines. "The baby alright?" Chess hoped for an affirmative response, but from the looks of the child he'd just put down, he surmised she had been feeding on the infant that Jody cradled in blankets.

Jo set the baby next to the girl and then turned and walked away, over the dogs and back to the house. Away from what he could not do. Jody had limits and he had just laid his limit in front of the man that caused the turn and the death on that house. He shuddered as he heard the gun shot.

This was not a good day. "Her mother? Their mother? Where is she?" Chess hollered with a hoarseness to his voice that Jody had never heard before. Jody lifted his arm and pointed at the door, then stepped away from there as well, rounding the main house toward the rear to look over the rest of the land and structures. Jody found the root cellar, took a couple bags of carrots and potatoes along with a hand full of jellies and spreads. Twenty-some less mouths to feed, he helped himself. He did not return to the front gate until he heard the last and final gun shot.

"That was an accident." Chess groaned as they drove away from the church compound. "She's gonna kill me."

"Chess, she won't kill you." Jody tried sounding reassuring. She definitely wouldn't be pleased, but she wouldn't kill him.

They drove to the fortress and as they arrived, Chess tracked down Jeffrey as he sat with the men who constructed the barn. In the short time they'd been gone, this barn was near done. He was impressed.

"What happened to you, kid?" Jeffrey asked as he saw Chess approaching. He looked like a mutant, swollen around the eyes and cheeks. His lips were blown up. "Stung by 100 bees?" He asked, stifling unsuccessfully a laugh.

"Dogs." Chess replied, he was starting to wheeze at this point. "We need to talk about the Ronks farm."

"It's done?" Jeffrey asked surprised. "Already?"

"The men and the dogs are burning." Chess answered honestly. He looked at the ground and his insides churned with anxiety. "There were a few casualties." Chess said as he looked to Jody who was clearly in an emotional state. "There were three kids..." Chess stated. "A bullet hit the house, entered and from what it looks like, took out the child who took out the infant who took out the mother. A child gave birth to that infant."

"The pastor's wife, you mean. The child who had the infant was the Pastor's wife."

"Let her know." Chess turned and walked away, trying to avoid completely breaking down. The past came back in a rush in his mind. He heard the screams of third graders echo through his brain. He wound through the courtyard and into the cafeteria, then left in the main hall to medical where he banged on the door till Tavin answered it. He only said two words when Tavin opened the door. "Help me."

As he collapsed onto a seat next to Tavin's desk, he started crying.

"Chess, I got this. Calm down. You're gonna be alright." Tavin sounded confident as he handed him a couple pills. Chess cried like a baby. His skin itching uncontrollably. He swallowed them down and then another pill chased the first two. "What the hell happened?"

"Dogs. Shepherds." He cried.

"That's gonna make you sleepy. Go lay down and I'll check on you in a little while."

Julia appeared at the door and walked with him to the stairs. She was concerned and nervous. "Dogs, Julia. It was dogs. I feel horrible." He complained as he dropped in tears onto the bed. He kicked his shoes off and he fumbled with his clothes.

"Where were you? You two left and didn't say anything. We didn't know where you went." She helped him remove a layer of clothes and she tucked him into bed.

"Doing a favor for someone."

"Who? We know people?" She asked. Julia was clueless about the side job and anything that had to do with it.

He felt the first effects of the pills he took. A heavy feeling, sleepy as Julia fired questions at him. "None of your business, Julia." He said as he cried. He felt the pillow moist beneath his head.

"I would never say that to you. None of my business?"

"Some things are not your business, but everything is my business." He explained. "I mean, it's just- not now. It has to do with the barn."

He knew one thing if he knew anything, this was not her business.

"What do you mean he killed three kids?" Julia raised her voice, leaning against the truck door in the window. She thought about the school. "I wanna see him. Same time and same place." She ran her hands over her hair.

"Farm's empty and the men are dead." Jeffrey said as if that was a bonus. "Uh, barn's raised and animals are housed."

She kicked the side of the truck. "Dammit." She moaned as she started pacing the street.

"Friendly fire." Jeffrey answered.

"Thanks, yeah. Thanks. Get him that message. I gotta get out to that farm ASAP. We have work to do."

"Hop in." Jeffrey said, putting the truck in park. "I'll wait."

"No, get out to the shelter and get word to Ye and Hank and have them ride out to Chester County."

"Now?"

"They can stay there over night and bug out in the morning. I'll meet you back at the Ronks farm."

Jeff looked pissed. "I'm sorry, Jeff. I'm being bitchy, but you have your shelter."

"I don't like this much."

"I'll get out there and get those girls off the land. It'll be empty by morning."

"They're defenseless women."

"I got a plan for them too. Off you go. You got a long drive ahead of you before dark."

"All the way back to Mastro, then out to the Coatesville school and back to Ronks." He complained.

"And you still have your shelter. I'll leave you a woman. Deal?"

"Deal."

"I'll catch you later and you can take a nice long break. You're doing double the work and no one appreciates you more than me." She softened her voice. "You got your land, Jeff." Julia paced long after the truck pulled away. She and Julio had a long night ahead of them. Ye and Hank were heading out to Chester County for those sheltered there.

Julia walked cabin to cabin and scanned the females who sheltered inside them. A small female tried hiding behind the larger of the girls. She was compact, light, and her face read complete fear. "You're coming with me." Julia smiled, reaching a hand out to her. The girl hesitated till the fist connected to her right cheek. Julia grabbed her by her hair and shoved her out the door into the arms of Julio's friend. "Temple's." Julia said as the girl straightened herself and whimpered. She rubbed her face where Julia had punched her.

"What's your name?" Julio asked.

"Whatever Temple wants to name her." Julia yelled, scanning the rest of the females in the cabin. She turned and walked away from them, through the cabin door and into the hard dirt ground outside. "They all go." She said to DeMarius as she moved to the next cabin. The warmth of the stove enveloped her as she entered. She found her in there. "Hello, you come with me." The blond stepped away from the wall and looked at the rest of the girls who she roomed with. This one stayed quiet, didn't question, had been in this world longer than the rest maybe. "Main house. Wash up and stay in the master bedroom." Julia walked at her side and the female, around age 25 listened as Julia spoke. Julia walked the woman to the steps of the main house and she watched the female walk inside. DeMarius stepped in behind the woman and Julia held him by his arm. "She's Jeff's. You got cabins to choose from, if you want company. But first you work."

"Who the fuck are you?" DeMarius asked as pulled his arm away from her.

"I'm the bitch giving you females for absolutely nothing. That's who the fuck I am. Step off." Julia raised her voice. When were these young thugs going to realize that the world had changed? She was tired of preaching to them, explaining the way the world worked.

"Ain't nothing free in this world."

"Dumb ass." She muttered, moving away to the next cabin. She opened the door and she was feeling quite doubtful by this point. Had they been wrong? Had her exterminators pointed her in the wrong direction? She scanned the females inside there and she let out a sigh of relief. She extended a hand to the blond. "Hayley, I would like for you to come with me."

"Who? Who are you?" She asked as she lifted off the floor in the corner of the cold and dirty cabin.

"I'm your ticket out of here." Julia answered.

Zombie world version of Hayley Bond stood before her like Cinderella in her rags. Where Hayley was heading was not much better than where she stood, but eventually it would pay off for her. The dogs kept Chess Morgan off this property and thankfully Jody Mayers hadn't snooped while he visited. The dead children probably had something to do with that. She led Hayley out of the cabin and to the main house. She took her to a room in this large and warm farmhouse and shut her inside with instructions to clean up, change into some decent clothes and go to sleep. She hadn't really wanted Hayley this soon. She didn't know what to do with Hayley and she hadn't planned on heading into Philly for a few months yet. Julia moved from the smaller room in the back of the farmhouse to the master bedroom. She opened the door and she found Jeffrey's woman who had complied with Julia's commands. She sat in a chair by the window and looked out over the grounds.

"It's warm in here. Remove your clothes." Julia ordered her. She didn't speak, but she rose from the chair and moved to the end of the bed. The curvy blond stripped off clothing and stood before Julia nude. Not the perkiest of breasts, but she was curvy and petite. "Turn." The woman turned slowly and she jiggled in all the right places. "Jeffrey will come to you and you will do as he says." Julia stayed in the doorway and the female listened as Julia spoke. "Jeffrey is a decent man. He's kind to those who are kind to him and you will live in this house as his woman until he tells you different." She had no comment thankfully as Julia didn't need a talker on her hands. She preferred women compliant, docile and mute nowadays. If she knew what was good for her, she would understand that and comply. Julia hated this part of her job the most. She avoided this sort of thing at all costs, but she had no clue what to do with four cabins full of female body parts. Julio knew. He had a couple reserved for himself already and DeMarius had a business to run. Julia got first pick and the rest were loaded up and moved out. Where they would wind up, Julia had no idea. Girls like these, they had no place in the world. Without people to speak for them or protect or advocate for them, they were done for in a world like this. She couldn't house them and she couldn't advocate for them. Not yet. Women in this world needed to start advocating for themselves. If they couldn't do it, then they were used and abused and most, if not all, would die.

Jeffrey arrived shortly after dark. He'd hit max speed through deep affected areas that had yet to be cleared. Julia waited out the arrival. She wanted an update and she wanted to roll out of there. Jeffrey, on the other hand, wasn't in the mood to talk. He knew what waited for him on the second floor of his new house on his new land and he fancied the idea of company as opposed to conversation. Julia walked and talked.

"Ye and Hank are in Coatesville. I saw Mayers at Mastro and he'll pass the message to Morgan."

"You didn't speak with Morgan directly."

"Dogs did a number on him."

"So..." Julia hummed, "Ye and Hank will be out with Coatesville in the morning. I can run by after I see Morgan and get things organized and running for you."

"Ok. That sounds great, Elena." She shadowed him as he limped step by step to the second floor. He stopped at the bedroom door. "I think I got this. I don't need help."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Um, I got another girl in that room over there. She's a guest for now, please, till I figure out what I wanna do with her."

"A guest." He repeated.

"An off limits, don't fuck her or let anyone else fuck her guest."

"Yeah, yeah. Your guest can stay."

Jeffrey opened the master bedroom door and closed the door in her face. "Thanks, Jeffrey. You're the fucking best."

Julia hung around and made sure that DeMarius got off the grounds with his girls. She and Julio closed up the gates and left the newest shelter to head toward home. From Ronks to Maverick took an hour even in the best of conditions. Little conversation. Julio knew the female exchange bothered her. In the rear of the SUV, there were 4 of them. 3 that he planned on taking to Houser and one for Temple. He dropped Julia and the young one off at the storage lot and Racer attacked the gate. The Chihuahua mutt snarled and growled till Temple appeared at the gate. He slipped a key in the lock and opened the gate, then secured it again. He led Julia to a storage garage, one of the smaller ones. His wood stove burned and his lamp glowed in the corner near his bed.

"You crashing, Elena?" He asked as Julia brought the girl by her arm into the warmth of the garage. He closed the door and shooed Racer off to the corner to her bed. He tossed her some sort of treat and she curled in her bed, gnawing on whatever it was.

"Yeah. I don't feel like walking home and my bike is over Julio's."

Temple stretched long arms around her and gave her a tight hug. He kissed her cheek. "What you bring me?" He asked as his head turned toward the quiet girl in the corner by the door.

"Be fucking nice, Temp." She warned him as she separated and collapsed her tired body into the easy chair next to Racer's dog bed.

Temple liked them young. Julia normally had Julio find girls who were older, but looked younger.  As she handed over a fresh 13 year old to Temple to fuck, she reminded herself she swore she wouldn't do it again. The girl had been willing and had been around her own block or two, but was too young to know better. Temple liked to use them till he finished with them and then get rid of them. It was a whole new world out there where the taboos were no longer taboo.

She had good reason to lock him inside that lot alone with Racer. He was brutal, yes, and he was not the kindest of characters either when in the company of females. She never mixed company with him too long. He had issues. There were lots of men with issues and she usually kept her distance. Temple was the abusive type. Girls frustrated him. He could switch up his moods at the drop of a hat. Sweet and caring one minute, mean and abusive the next. He was all apologies afterward. The street would not have been a good place for Temple. Someone would have killed him by now if he were out. That lot, although a valid form of employment, was also his prison. If he expressed a desire to leave at some point, Julia would consider ending his life before he made it off the lot.

She pulled the lever on the chair and propped up her feet. Julia pulled a throw blanket off the back of the chair and covered under it. She leaned her head back on the cushion and she asked him, "What's her name, T?"

"Ashley. Looks like a Ashley. What you think?"

"I think so. I also think that while I am here, you are gonna be nice to Ashley."

"Yes, E. I'm gonna be real nice to Ash."

"I can take her with me in the morning if you aren't pleased, ok."

"Yeah, E. Yeah."

Julia left her eyes closed and she tried to think of other things while Temple got familiar with young Ashley. Temple was no Romeo. He exchanged no words and didn't speak with her at all before he forced her onto his bed. The girl was scared and uncomfortable and crying. She definitely didn't give her consent to anything that took place in bed with Temple that night. All the whimpering and crying got on her nerves. 

"Don't that bother you, Temp?" Julia finally asked.

"What?" He asked. "Does what bother me?"

"All that crying?"

"Hell, yeah." He answered. "But you told me to be nice, E. I can shut her up."

"So can I." Julia replied, drawing her gun from the belt she had set on the floor. She decided shooting her wasn't an option, but threatening her sure was. Temple lay between this kid's legs, his hands gripping her to hold her legs open. He kept moving his waist, fucking the kid despite the noise and the struggle.

"Yeah, what you gonna do?"

"Stop, Temple." Julia groaned, aiming the gun at her. Ashley's tear streaked face turned to Julia and she gazed at her.

"Shut. The. Fuck. Up." Julia ordered. "This is happening whether you like it or not. Open your legs for my friend." She said softly. Julia's held the gun aimed at her face, her eyes were terrified and Julia could understand why. "Relax. It feels good." She said to her. "Tell him he feels good inside you." Her voice was barely audible as she looked at Julia and spoke, but Julia stopped her. "Uh-uh. Tell him, like I said. Open your legs wide, take him inside you and tell him it feels good." The girl hesitated, obviously uncomfortable and scared. "If you would like to stay alive, you will do what I ask." The girl ceased her struggle, letting her legs fall open and Temple let her go. "Tell him how good he feels."

"Feels good, T-Temple." Her small voice eeked out words she didn't believe or want to say.

"Keep your legs open and let my friend fuck you."

She'd heard enough. She was tired and she had an early morning, she thought as she retreated to the easy chair where she got comfortable again next to Racer who stayed chewing on her treat.

Julia woke when the sun was coming up. Temple and Racer were already up and out in the yard. Temple took better care of his dog than he did any girl. She gathered herself and made sure that the girl was still among the living before venturing outside. She slept soundly on the bed, Julia watched her chest rise and fall. Thank God...she said to herself. Temple's last girl didn't fair this well and the fact she'd made it to the morning was a positive sign.

She took a piss behind the storage garage, zipped up and found them in the office of the storage lot. Temple could be found there during the day, going in that office like he was really at work. He only lacked a uniform tee and a badge. "Hey, Temp." She said as she took a water bottle. She sat on his lap and the dog growled.

"Hey, hey, Race. Quit it." He hushed Racer and held Julia around her waist.

"She can stay with Julio and Kyle and come back anytime you want her."

"I want her here."

"I don't want her dead, T." Julia said, laying back against him. "Don't kill her."

"I won't. The last one wouldn't shut up. We weren't clear. She was-"

"I know. You told me."

"She just a whore, E."

"She's not a whore, Temple. She's a kid." Julia told him. "Would you treat me like that?"

"Like what?" He asked. Temple had no idea what she meant.

"Lay me down and fuck me."

"If you wanted to fuck, yeah."

"Julio sees a mark on her, he's taking her. Got it?"

"Yeah." He said. But Julia knew it would happen. Julia had seen it before. He'd done it before. "I don't mean to hurt them. They just-"

"Try, Temple. Geeze. You don't hurt me."

"You don't piss me off."

Lord...."I gotta go." She lifted from his lap. She kissed his cheek. "I love ya, T." She said.

"Yeah, love you too."

Temple left her out and locked up again. She set out on foot the 25 minute walk to Chess's house. She didn't make it that far because he passed her as she walked. He honked, pulled over and he let her in.

"Where you coming from?"

"Mav self storage, believe it or not." She answered as he drove. "Where we going, Chess?"

"Not sure. You tell me."

"The park near Tav's since you're driving me." She answered.

They rode and sat in relative silence for some time where he had parked along the street. He shared a thermos of hot chocolate with her and they watched the empty park like people would eventually arrive and play with their children.

"How you feel?" She asked. He looked alright. No longer swollen. Jeffrey had told her he looked like a mutant.

"Sleepy." He answered honestly. The Benadryl was doing a number on him. Tavin had been dosing him around the clock since he got back from Ronks. "As if I wasn't ugly enough." He chuckled. He looked sideways at her and he patted her head, touched her hair. "What on earth did you do to your hair?"

"I-uh-it was in the way, Chess."

"Well, you got pretty eyes anyway. I guess it brings em out." He said as she glanced at him with her pretty blue-green eyes, which were more on the green hue this particular morning. "Always had a pretty face." He pulled his hand away. "So what was that about yesterday, Julia? Those people looked normal to me."

"They were." She replied. "Thanks." She added, sipping the hot chocolate from the thermos. She offered him some and he declined. She hadn't had hot chocolate in ages.

"So you used me and three little kids got in the way?"

"You didn't intend on killing three kids, did you?"

"No, but-"

"You shot the fucking house and a bullet hit a kid. It was an accident." She shrugged.

"So why am I here if you're not pissed?"

"Thought you'd wanna unload all that."

"All what?"

"Whatever is in your head, Chess. You killed three kids. They turned, I assume. One bullet doesn't strike three kids. You're good but not that good."

"The wind. I didn't account for the wind."

Chess unloaded on her like she suspected he would. He couldn't very well open up that can of worms on Fry as she was clueless as to what went on.  As he described the events as they took place, Julia cringed, thinking that Jody had found the children and brought them out. "To me. He brought them out to me." He described the mental flash backs from the school, which had hit him harder than what he faced the day before. She didn't expect him to still be crying about the school. The school readied him for the Ronks farm. They were already turned, already monsters. Small monsters. The infant didn't even look real, he'd said. The times they lived in now, those kids were in a better place.

"But you used me."

"I had to use someone. You got a barn out of the ordeal."

"So they weren't bad people?"

"Er, um...not exactly." She answered. The people on that farm were just a religious commune, choosing to remain isolated. The Pastor only took in females and housed them in cabins on the land. He preached to them in his spare time. The kid who had the infant had been with him from the days before the zoms came. One of the daughters of the light. Not necessarily his daughter, but she had been in the original commune. The farm had weathered zoms and nests and had strong faith in God. God had guided them in their battle against evil. Satan had been eradicated from their land. "We eradicated Satan from the land." Julia said. "He got Satan off the land if Satan got in." The Pastor would not share. He was asked to shelter people. He declined. He was asked for food to help feed those he refused to shelter and those in other shelters. He declined. He hadn't been willing to assist the exterminators in any way. Julia had begged to allow them shelter over night for rest in order to get back out the next day and continue to battle Satan. He declined. "You were there. You saw it. It's one of the few places in the area that has living animals, fertile fields and a lot of them. He had what I wanted. End of story."

"Why didn't you just fucking say that?"

"Chess, times have changed. If you don't share with me, then I take what I want. It is no longer a state of choice. The state of Pennsylvania owns everything you own. You're either a part of it or you will be removed."

"What if someone did that to us?"

"Chess, you're already in this. You are already a part of it. That decision has been made and it's not one you get to back out of. It is a state in a state beyond emergency."

"Why didn't these exterminators do it?"

"We did. Got half. You took care of the other half. Now this makes way for another huge shelter. More of those cabins will go up. More people will move in. I already have Chester County's shelter moving in this morning. That's where I am going today."

"Wonder why I don't trust you?"

"There's things I do to get the job done and even though you don't like the way I go about it, the end result is all that matters." She shrugged. "Chess, it's a new world. There's things I gotta do that I don't like, but I do them anyway. Work is work, but sometimes I also have to make people happy. Know how hard that is nowadays?"

"Make people happy." He repeated.

She drank down the last of a cooled hot chocolate. "Sometimes drawing the line between what I exterminate and what I am is fuzzy. I walk a fine line between doing good and depravity, Chess. It sucks."

"Tell me about it."

"Like I am just as bad as what I get rid of. I cross the line and I try like hell not to stay over that line. I know the things I do are wrong. I know that there's right and wrong. I fall into the category of wrong half the time even though, bigger picture, down the road, it benefits all of us." She paused, screwing the lid on the thermos. She motioned her hand back and forth between him and her. "And I don't mean us like me and you. I mean us as a whole. The bigger picture."

"I don't see wrong out here, Jules. You're doing a lot of good."

She laughed. She looked at him and shuddered to think it let alone admit it. "I watched a girl get raped last night and did absolutely nothing about it."

"What the fuck, Julia? Why?"

"Cause I brought her there and gave her to him."

"Do the right fucking thing, babe. What happened to do the right thing?"

"It wasn't the right thing for her." Julia shrugged. "Overall, though, Chess. Know what her options were outside the realm of where I placed her?"

"Huh?"

"Huh, what? I placed her there. I placed another elsewhere. I saved one. The rest are gone to a much worse fate. Chess, I can't save everyone."

"I would have taken her, Julia."

"Moral dilemmas, Chess. Can't have them anymore. Outside your fence, Chess, there's no morals. It's a cold world."

"I don't understand you. You know what it's like."

"I saved her from a much worse reality. She was taking one for the team either way only I chose the team."

As she gave Chess an earful, telling him her tale of woe outside the fence, she wondered exactly who needed to unload their shit on who. She originally thought it would be Chess needing an ear.

"Why are you telling me all this, Jules?"

"Who else will I tell it to?"

"You got people, babe."

"I have associates. I have no people, Chess. No one gets in this head anymore. No one...thanks for the ride. Go away." She sighed, feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. Anxiety twisted in her gut. She reached for the truck door, but he pulled her back. "You have people, Chess? You got people to unload this shit on?"

"Jody. Thanks for bringing him to us. You were right about him. He's a good guy." Chess admitted. "I don't tell anyone 1/2 this shit in my head. I don't put it out there, you know that." Chess quieted a moment. "But, he's so pissed off right now, he won't speak to me at all and I am hoping like hell he doesn't tell the rest of them."

"He won't. He knows what off the table means. He'll keep it off the table."Julia assured him. "And, yes you do share what's in your head. It's why you're here now. It's-I thought you'd need to say it. It eats at you. I get it."

"Know what I want from you?"

"What?"

"The truth, Julia, if you need something, just fuckin ask."

"I didn't think it was an option and the barn seemed like an even trade."

"Jules, I always will have your back. If you need help, just fuckin ask for help. You ask everyone else, except the people who'd be willing to give it without anything in return."

"Chess, I don't want Jay involved. I don't wanna see him, talk to him, interact with him."

"So we won't do that." He said, taking her hand. "In fact, we shouldn't be sitting down at all, me and you."

"Oh, sure, great Chess. Didn't you just say you had my back and now we-fine..."

"No, you're not listening as usual. I am not saying I am mad or hate you or anything. I love you, so we shouldn't really be face to face like this. I think Jo would be a better alternative."

"Oh, sure. I can deal with Jody."

"I love her, too."

"Awe. Cute." She rolled her eyes.

"Awe, cutie means well and she's trying and she's learning. She's gonna be great. Like you said."

"Love, though. Really? That takes so much time and you're all in love."

"Yes. I am. I love her."

"Glad to hear it."

"Are you mad about that?"

"Nope. I gotta go, Chess. Go to Mastro and be in love." She smiled, floating air quotes around 'in love'.

"Woman." He groaned.

"Man," She gave him a grin and looked up at him with her blue-green eyes. She leaned and picked up her bag off the truck floor. "Wanna come with me? Start some shit, fuck shit up, have fun?"

"Don't tempt me."

"Awe, my Chess. You must be in love. You are showing great restraint." She put her bag over her shoulder and opened the truck door.

"Where do you live?"

"Not telling. I don't want you in your feelings on my doorstep. Love you, ride or die."

"Yeah, me too, Julia." He smiled. "Go away and deal with Mayers from now on." He started the truck as Julia closed the door. She walked away toward Tavin's house and he put the truck in drive and drove away from her. She had been right, he showed great restraint.

"Where did you go today?" Julia asked, folding arms over her chest. "Won't tell me about yesterday and you won't talk about today."

"Julia, enough. It was business."

"With people. Yes, what people? I do people business, Chess. You do Mastro business and how dare you say something is none of my business? I didn't like that at all. I don't think it's fair cause I wouldn't keep anything from you and I-"

Chess spun her little body around, bent her over his knee and he beat her ass. He hadn't done it in weeks, abandoning the whole sub ordeal since they had moved from the war room to the second floor with the rest of his group. He had heard enough and had started to get out of line with him. He loved the girl, but he'd had enough. When he stopped slapping her ass, he took her and he set her in the corner.

"Get on your knees." She opened her mouth to speak and he put his finger over it. "Remove your clothes and kneel, Julia Fry."

"Yes, Chess."

He effectively put her on mute. "You will not speak until I give permission." Julia knelt in the corner of the room, nude and silent. He walked to her, let her hair down. "You stay there until I return."

He had heard her all day long. He had compared the girl in his head all day long to the woman he left at the Houser Street Park. He missed the girl he had left at Houser Street Park. He worried about her.

Chess left the room and walked to the war room. He held meeting. They noticed Julia was missing, but Jay could easily speak for her as he and Julia were attached at the hip since their outreach program picked up some speed. He listened and couldn't focus on the information at hand. Tavin had absolutely nothing to report. Since Chess was his one and only patient the last few days, he asked Chess how he was and left it at that. His anaphylactic reaction had resolved.

"Wanna tell us where you ran into dogs? Like how many were there? 100." Tavin joked.

"A kennel." Chess responded dryly.

"Where is Julia?" Jay asked as meeting began.

Chess smiled at Jayson. "She's thinking."

"Oh," He smiled awkwardly. "I got nothing for you, then. I guess I speak for her, since she's thinking. There's no one out there today. We hit all the usual spots. It's lightening up."

"Cool." He nodded. "Um, the barn good?"

"It's good." Jody answered. "It's got animals."

"So let's cut this short. Any issues?" He looked around the table and no one spoke.

"Not into this tonight?" Alex asked.

"Other things on my mind is all."

"Well, I got something." Alex volunteered.

"What's up?"

"Julia is pregnant." He replied.

"How do you know?" Tavin asked him.

"Uh, she's not getting her period and she's sick all the time."

"I'll see her in the morning." Tavin said. "Dammit, Alex."

"She wanna keep it?" Chess asked.

"You got a abortion clinic running outside the fence? Is it next to the kennel?"

"I can ask-I know someone who might be able to hook her up."

Alex spoke up at that point. "Ask Julia. It's her decision."

"With an abortion, Chess? What kind of back alley shit do you think is out there?"

"I don't know. I was just suggesting it." Chess said. "Is that something you could figure out how to-"

"Fuck no." Tavin snapped at him.

"Jay, you have anything to add? You look sadder than usual today. How's things with Jesslyn?"

"Not so great, and I don't appreciate the hook up." He replied sullenly.

"Jesslyn would disagree."

"One night. She made me do it. I didn't even plan on it and she-"

"She raped you, Jayson." Tavin smiled, thinking he was joking.

"Possibly. I said no, but she made up my mind for me." They stared at Jay with skepticism. He sounded quite serious on the matter and they didn't quite know how to approach it.  "I know how it sounds."

"Like an episode of Law and Order, Jay."

"Yeah." He agreed. "I'm not traumatized or anything. I could have pushed her off me once it started, but I went along with it for her. I ain't mad about it. Don't say anything to her."

"Uh, we won't. Don't worry." Chess assured him, looking at Tavin with a most confused look. "Um, should we keep her away from you or-"

"No, I don't wanna talk about it." Jay sighed, putting his head down.

Chess looked at Tavin again. "What the fuck" he mouthed at him. Tavin shrugged and looked at his depressed and sad brother. Chess closed the meeting pretty quick after that confession from Jay.

"If you need to talk, Jay-" Tavin said. But Jay kept walking. Alex filed out next, leaving Tavin, Jody and Chess at the table. "What the hell was that?" Tavin asked, looking into the hallway.

Chess slid back on his wheely chair and shut the door. "Ice cream is a predator." He tried not to laugh. Sweet and harmless Jess. The three of them tried like hell to picture a scenario where the innocent Jesslyn would force herself on anyone.

"I'll speak to her." Chess said, rubbing his head. The headache was just beginning. "You can talk with Julia. Let me know what the hell she wants."

"I don't feel comfortable sending her out of here for some dirty abortion and I won't even suggest it."

"Christ. They're fucking kids."

"Who have no birth control." Tavin added.

"None of these people follow the damn calendar. I swear to God it works if they'd only work the days out like they're supposed to." Jody commented.

"It works for real."

"It does. I have done it."

"You pulled out every time you were supposed to."

"Yes, I did." He replied. "You don't?" He looked back and forth between the two at the table. "It does work, if you keep track of the cycle."

"You know what day Kay is on?"

"Yes, I do. She doesn't. I do. These women are dumb, no offense."

"Julia is well aware of what day she's on, thank you. I hear about it every fuckin day of my life."

"Yeah, Kell is covered. That IUD is the best invention ever."

"What about the other women you fuck?"

"You sound like Kell."

"Trudy, brother..."

Tav rolled his eyes at Chess. "Since ice cream is a sexual predator, I'm gonna start hanging around her. See if it's true."

"Fuckin crime stopper, you are." Chess laughed.

"Sounds like a chick I don't have to beg. So, commit the crime. I'll survive."

"You know, he's serious."

"We waited till he left to laugh at it. Jody, you really believe that she raped him?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. It's not funny though."

"So I saw our contact today. I want you to deal with her from now on."

"Ok." Jody nodded his agreement. "What did you see her for again?"

"She knows what went down at Ronks farm. She ain't mad. We talked about it. We came to an understanding."

"How is Red?"

"Red is a lying bitch. What else is new?" Chess complained. He went into the true story of Ronks farm, leaving out a few details of their conversation, but covering the highlights.

"I agree with you. She could have asked and I would have done it." Jody said.

"That's what I told her, Jo."

"Well, I think I have heard it all now. Child zoms, raping girls. What the hell is wrong with people?"

"We're all guilty of one thing or another, Keller."

"This is all supposed to usher us into a new world."

"It will." Jody responded dryly. He couldn't be any less enthusiastic discussing the dead children.

"She's right."

"I hope she explained herself to you better than you just explained that shit to me." Tavin sounded relatively disgusted the more he heard.

"Imagine what she keeps to herself." Chess pointed out. "I'm sure she left out a lot. Like where she sent the rest of those women. She set two in the hands of god knows who and she said she saved one. Who was that and why?"

"You ask?"

"No. Has nothing to do with us. So I didn't ask." He replied. "So from now on Jo is gonna deal with her."

"Good luck, Jo." Tavin remarked, getting out of his chair. "You haven't been fucked or mind fucked yet."

"I'll take my chances. I don't allow her nonsense." Jody said, getting up along with him.

The three left the war room and each head in different directions. Chess returned to his room and found Julia on her knees. He knelt in front of her. "What I do outside the fence is ugly and it doesn't help people. That is not your business. Understand me?" She looked him in his eyes, trying to figure him out, trying to picture him hurting people. "It's a yes or a no."

"Yes, Chess. I understand."