Someone's gonna die

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!

Chapter Fifteen: Double Whammy 

Sam’s POV:

“How’s your ass, Perco?” His group of friends gathered in the small medical tent he had been taken to. 

“Never had any complaints.” Seemed like the man was back to his usual self. 

“He needed 6 stitches in his natal cleft.” A voice spoke from behind the group, everyone’s head turned to see who was speaking. 

The medic looked up at all of them from his perch, he seemed to have a permanently worried look on his face, but he looked kind all the same. 

“Natal cleft?” Mars asked never hearing those words before in her life. 

“He means my ass.” Frank called from his position lying face down on the bed. 

“No, Perconte, I mean your natal cleft. It's the deep groove which runs between the two buttocks from just below the sacrum to the perineum.” The group stared at the man blankly, the man sighed and rubbed his temples before he explained, “His ass crack.” 

A collective ‘ahh’ rose from the team. 

“And how long will he be out of action?” Sam questioned, earning a few disapproving glances from the men. But the girl promptly ignored them, she hadn’t all of a sudden started caring about their opinions of her. 

“Maybe about two weeks.” Gene estimated, “But it’s hard to tell. We will just have to wait and see.” 

The older girl huffed, Bull elbowed her in the side with a raise of his eyebrows silently telling her to reign it in. 

“Guys!” Lieb’s annoying voice rose from outside of the tent. The group made their way out to join him in the empty space. “Just cause you’re newbies, doesn’t mean we let you get off easy. We have work to do.” 

Sam rolled her eyes, even the voice of this man infuriated her to no end. 

“Do you have a problem, Jackson?” Liebgott hadn’t missed the look of pure annoyance on the young girl’s face. 

Sam sucked her teeth and tried to even out her anger before she spoke. 

“No problem here.” She dismissed the man, not giving in to his humiliation tactic. 

“You’re missing something.” His eyebrows raised and his friend, Tipper, who stood beside him tried to control the smile that crept onto his features. Tipper and Marleen made eye contact and she mirrored his expression. 

Sam didn’t speak, if he was so desperate to piss her off she wasn’t going to fall into the obvious trap. 

“Are your ears not working?” Lieb tried again, crossing his arms over his chest. The only people he was making uncomfortable were the rest of the group that stood around her. 

“They work perfectly well.” Sam’s tone was snarky and rude. She could feel Bull’s eyes boring a hole into the back of her head. 

“So, tell me what you missed.” Liebgott’s smirk grew. 

Sam’s fists clenched at her sides. “No. Problem. Here.” She paused a moment before she fully finished her sentence, “Sir.” 

She wanted to punch the smug look right off his face, but she stayed in her place. 

“We need to restock firewood. Get into two groups and follow me.” Lieb and Tipper turned on their heels and made their way out of the locked gates. The men standing armed at the fence stood aside to let them pass before closing and relocking the perimeter. 

Two teams; one of three and one of four stood with space between them so that the men could tell who was where. 

Shifty, Martin and Lip made the team of three, leaving Sam, Mars, Luz and Bull on the other. 

The men wandered further out into the forest, they had walked so far that the noises from the camp faded into the distance until they couldn’t be heard. 

Tipper and Lieb whispered quietly before turning around to face the groups. 

“Team of three, follow me.” Tipper didn’t wait for them before he turned on his heel and walked away from the remaining group that stood watching them leave. 

“And you lot are with me.” Lieb grinned. They had clearly done this on purpose; the man seemed to be obsessed with Sam. 

Thankfully, Bull and Luz fell into step with the tall Lieb and kept him occupied with friendly chatter while Sam hung back with Mars. 

“Are you ok?” Marleen asked again, the second time that day. She had noticed the effect this man was having on her friend and suspected this type of interaction was new to her. 

“I don’t like that guy.” Sam watched the men walking ahead of the pair, “He has it out for me.”

“Yeah, cause he likes you.” Mars said as if it was obvious. 

The older girl had never been loved before, not even liked by someone, but she wasn’t sure this was how people acted if they were attracted to someone. Weren’t they supposed to be nice? 

“I don’t understand other people’s feelings.” Sam reported dumbfounded. 

“It’s ok, that’s why you have me!” The younger girl attached herself to the taller woman’s arm as they walked along. 

“Where is he taking us? Aren’t we supposed to be collecting wood?” Sam's nerves had already been set on edge when they had first met these people, but now her senses were even more heightened. 

“This is our woodstock.” Lieb announced as they came to a small hutt that was filled to the brim with logs. 

“We collect from here to take back but what you take you must restock. That means that the wood can dry out and be ready for use when we need it.” The man announced their system. 

“So, let’s all go collect wood and bring it back here and then we can go back to camp. Don’t get lost and be on guard, even though we’re sheltered here doesn’t mean we are completely safe from the hoards.” The men nodded, patting their weapons that they had on their person. 

Sam took Mars’ hand and led her away from the group. She needed the younger girl to stick by her side since Marleen wasn’t confident enough, nor did she have the skills to defend herself. 

“So, how good are you at fighting?” Lieb had circled round the group and fell into step with the taller girl who clamped down on her lower lip trying to keep her cool. The man continued when he realised Sam wasn’t going to answer him. 

“You might be good, but that’s only cause you fight other women. I don’t think you would be able to take down a skilled male.” Liebgott was good at one thing, pushing her fucking buttons. 

Sam’s steps faltered and she turned to look deadpan at the taller man that smiled, all too pleased with himself. 

“Do you wanna find out?” Sam gave a threatening smile. 

“Sam.” Mars whispered under her breath tugging gently on the older girl’s arm. 

Taking a deep breath she continued on her journey, she was going to be the bigger person even if she hated it. 

“Too scared?” Lieb prodded the angry bear. 

But Sam persisted in her walking. Ignore him.

His firm hands found the top of her back as he shoved the girl forward. Sam stumbled a step or two before she regained her balance. 

Be the bigger person, be the bigger person. 

Fuck the bigger person. 

Sam swung around at speed. Lieb didn’t even see her fist flying towards his face before it was too late. Her punch swept him clean off his feet and he hit the ground with a hard thud. Sam was on top of him in seconds, Mars let out a high pitched squeal as she watched the pair collide with the ground. 

Liebgott groaned in pain but recovered quickly and grinned up at her, the tang of copper in his mouth, he could admit she had gotten him good. 

“Say one more thing.” Sam dared the man with her fist pulled back awaiting her next strike. 

“Samantha!” Bull had obviously heard the commotion and came running over. 

“Daddy’s calling.” The dominated man teased.

Her fist shook with power, she was so ready to pummell the shit outta this kid. 

“Get off him, Sam.” Bull commanded. 

Sam leaned in close so that no one could hear her next words apart from Lieb. 

“I will skin you alive, you maggot eating fuck.”

The taller girl was swiftly removed from the man, Bull’s large hands captured her upper arms and hauled her off. 

“Sam, what happened to keeping a low profile?” Bull asked sternly as he placed her back on the floor, but still kept his grip on her so couldn’t attack again. 

“He started it!” She felt like she was six again being reprimanded by her teacher. 

“Liebgott, she didn’t mean to.” Bull covered for his younger companion. 

“No, I knew exactly what I was doing.” The tall girl growled, Denver squeezed her biceps in warning. 

“It’s fine. It was just a bit of roughhousing.” The man got to his feet and dusted the dirt from his pants. “No harm done. Dougal doesn’t need to know about this.” 

“Let’s just finish this task.” Lieb smiled as if he hadn’t just been decked in the face not moments ago. He spat the blood from his mouth and wiped the crimson from his lips. 

“Behave.” Bull whispered in her ear before he let her go. 

“Sam, oh my God!” Mars looked shocked as she approached the angry girl. “You punched him!” 

“He pushed me!” Sam huffed exasperatedly. “You know what, never mind. Let’s just collect this damn firewood.” 

—---------------------------------------

Mars’ POV:

Mars followed closely beside the still fuming Sam, jogging to keep up with the taller woman as they reentered the camp grounds.

She had watched the whole interaction happen in slow-mo, but she would be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy watching Liam get what he deserved. 

As the locked gates swung open more men appeared walking around the camp. Mars hadn’t seen so many people since the day Denver and her had fled the city on the first day. 

“Alright guys we will find you in an hour or two, you’ll be helping prep dinner.” Liam clapped, gaining the attention of the younger girl who’s eyes skimmed over the crowds. 

“Come on Sam.” Mars led the older girl along behind her, otherwise she would’ve spent the rest of the afternoon trying to kill Liam with her eyes. 

Not looking where she was going, too busy trying to herd Sam, Mars crashed straight into another person.

“Mars!” The older girl called, seeing that Mars was now sitting on the floor, “Would you look where you’re going.” The taller blonde tsked. 

“Sorry about that, Miss.” A polite voice captured the younger girl’s attention. A man with red hair and a kind face peered down at her. He stuck out his hand offering assistance to help her get to her feet. 

Mars gratefully accepted that young man’s hand as he heaved her to stand. 

“Don’t be sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was walking.” Mars smiled widely at the man, who in turn matched her bright grin.  

“Babe.” He began shaking her hand which he still held. 

The pair looked at the man curiously. It was clear they were both trying to figure out who he was calling ‘Babe’. Marleen glanced over at her companion, wincing when she saw Sam’s clenched jaw and tightened fists. 

“I’m sorry?” Mars asked politely before the older girl could chime in and say something rude. 

“Oh, sorry.” He released her hand, “My name is Edward Heffron, but everyone calls me Babe.” The redhead clarified, smiling sweetly. 

“Marleen Fin-” The young blonde began, but the man quickly interjected. 

“I know your name, Mars. That’s the only thing the men can talk about. We haven’t had any women join us. You two are like celebrities.” 

“Oh, I see.” Marleen paused before remembering the beginning of their odd interaction, “Why Babe? How’d you get stuck with that gem?” 

“Ha, it’s a bit of an inside joke.” The red head gave a shy chuckle, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. 

“Guess that means you have to keep it to yourself then.” The older girl mumbled loud enough to be heard. Her short companion waved her off. 

“Don’t be silly! We love inside jokes.” Marleen smiled brightly as she encouraged the man to explain. 

“Well, before all this went down, I was starting work as a building apprentice. And on my first day, my mum called and some of the guys overheard her calling me ‘her sweet baby boy.’ It got shortened to Babe and just stuck.” 

By the end of his anecdote both he and Mars were cackling like old friends. Sam, on the other hand, stood back and watched with her arms crossed over her chest, completely unamused. 

“What’s so funny?” A thick accented man who was walking by, stopped to join their conversation. Sam ignored him entirely, barely tolerating this entire situation. 

“Speak of the devil.” Babe winked, “This here is Ol’ Gonorrhoea!” He slapped his friend on the back in good nature, earning a dry ‘ha, ha’ from the older man. 

“I suppose you have an explanation for that one too?” Mars laughed, her eyes crinkled and her cheeks were beginning to ache from smiling so hard. 

“The name’s Bill Guarnere. Gonorrhoea- Guarnere, you get it.” He shrugged

“So you two worked together… you know, before?” The young girl asked, apart from Denver she hadn’t seen anyone she knew from before. 

“Yeah, the three of us have been together since day one.” 

“Three of you?” Her curiosity piqued and she couldn’t help but investigate. 

“Yeah, us and Toye… I actually think you met Toye already.” Guarnere told the girls. 

“Toye?” A confused look found its way onto Marleen’s face, “No, I think I would’ve remembered someone named Toye.”

“Yeah, no you guys definitely met.” Babe snickered. 

“Remind me what he looks like again? There are so many of you it’s hard to keep track of everyone- lot of names to remember.” Mars spoke light heartedly, brushing her confusion aside- it wasn’t like her to forget names or faces, she was a people person through and through. 

“He’s right,” the young redhead turned around trying to locate his friend, “over,” his eyes scanned the area, “there!” The man pointed, both girls followed his aim. 

Sam couldn’t hold back a short burst of laughter while the younger girl stayed silent. Her cheeks quickly warmed when she realised who he was talking about. 

The tall handsome man she had completely embarrassed herself in front of earlier. 

“Toye.” She tested the name on her lips, “What sort of name is Toye?” 

“It’s his last name, his first name is Joe; Joseph. But Joe is a common name, we have two, so he goes by Toye.” Babe explained, grinning. 

“You girls alright?” Denver appeared, eyeing up the men conversing with the ladies, “These guys bothering you?” His question was more for Mars than Sam but he still wanted to check up on both of his girls. 

The older female threw Bull a bored look paired with a minuscule shrug and with that, the stocky man stepped closer to Marleen. 

“Oh hey, Denver!” The short girl grinned, always happy to see her old neighbour. He reached out to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a side hug. 

“You good?” The tall man whispered to her while keeping his eyes trained on the men, from Bull’s point of view it looked like they had been flirting with the naive blonde. 

“Yeah, all good, Denver.” Mars nodded, snuggling into his side. 

Guarnere turned his head to his redheaded friend and the pair shared a look, the exchange was so brief it went unnoticed. 

“Well, we should be off. Work to do.” He voiced, Babe nodded along with him. 

“It was nice meeting you! See ya guys around.” Marleen spoke cheerfully to Babe and Guarnere as she hung onto Denver’s arm, completely unaware what was running through their minds. 

“You girls ever need anything…” Guarnere trailed off, his implication clear. The two Easy members gave friendly smiles and nods before wandering off. 

“I thought they’d never leave.” Sam grumbled, as she turned and fell into step with Denver and Mars, who walked with their arms still wrapped around each other. 

————————-

The newbies, minus an injured Perco, were split into groups once again. This time Mars, Lipton and Luz were sent to the designated food area to help prep for dinner while Sam, Denver, Martin and Shifty were given the task of setting up the campfire area. 

Winters had come by to explain that this bonfire was for them, a way for the new people to integrate and make friends with the existing members as well as let the existing members know who the newcomers were.   

Sam was less than happy about being separated from Marleen and vice versa, but the older girl realised she would rather heave logs of wood around as makeshift seating than have anything to do with cooking. That didn't stop her from glancing over and checking on Mars every few minutes.

The younger girl seemed to be enjoying herself, laughing and joking with the guys who worked in the ‘kitchen’. 

Mars had met four men while doing food prep. Firstly, a blue eyed guy who introduced himself as David Webster but she quickly noticed everyone called him Web. 

Next was a pair of young boys, her age or maybe a year or two younger: John Janovec and James Miller. And lastly, Tony Garcia- she had noticed a trend of the men going by their last names and just went with it. 

Not long after greeting these men, Marleen acquired the knowledge that Garcia spoke Spanish. She spent the next hour yapping at him in their shared language, it felt nostalgic to her, reminding the young blonde of her family. 

“Oh Christ!” A voice sounded, pulling Marleen’s attention away from her newest friend, “There’s another one? Great! Just what we needed- two spics.” His comment was mumbled under his breath but everyone still heard it. 

Her jaw dropped, had he really just said that? The young blonde turned to see a man she was yet to be introduced to. He was tall and lanky, she hadn’t recalled seeing around the camp at all that day. 

“I beg your unbelievable pardon?!” Her voice squeaked out, eyebrows raised in disbelief. Perhaps she had misheard him or maybe he didn’t mean to offend. Mars would give him a chance to back track before she took drastic measures. 

“Just leave it alone, Marleen.” Garcia whispered to her, his gaze had shifted to the floor and a crestfallen look rested on his face. He almost looked ashamed and that was her final straw- maybe this guy shouldn’t be given a chance to explain. 

“You heard me, sweetheart.” The new arrival spat out clear hatred on his features. 

“Cobb, leave her alone.” Garcia spoke up in a moment of bravery, but the disgusted glare sent to him from the argumentative man, promptly shut him up.

“What makes you think it’s okay to talk to people like that, huh?” Mars couldn’t help but respond, it was like a fire was lit under her, warmth filled her veins. She stepped closer to this stranger, her heart pumped fast and she had the sudden urge to scream. 

“Don’t. It’s not worth it.” This time it was Web who spoke to her, trying to keep the peace between Marleen and this guy. She ignored him, brushing his gently placed hand off her shoulder and stepped even closer to the offending person. 

“Are you deaf? Or are you that stupid and need me to repeat myself?” Cobb barked. 

Mars didn’t even listen to the end of his sentence before she found herself winding her hand back and slapping it across his cheek. 

The sound of skin on skin contact echoed throughout the campsite. 

The noise alerted Sam and she raised her head to investigate, instantly noticing Mars squaring up to a member of Easy. 

The older girl dropped the armful of kindling she had been carrying to the fire pit and ran to her friend's side. She was followed by several others, including Denver. 

A flurry of voices burst; Cobb was yelling and swearing, Mars spat out spiteful comments in both English and Spanish while Web and Garcia were doing their best to soothe the pair. 

“Enough!” A deep voice boomed. Speirs had marched over when he noticed the quarrel and now he stood in front of them with his hands on his hips and a furious expression. 

“Someone had better explain what the hell is going on.” But nobody even moved to speak, keeping quiet and trying their best not to make eye contact with the authoritative man. 

“I’m going to get Winters. That gives you two minutes to get your stories straight.” Speirs announced before stomping away. 

The second he was out of earshot, both Denver and Sam began talking to the short blonde girl. 

“Marleen! What the hell!” 

“What did he do?” 

Mars didn’t say anything, she just glowered at Cobb. Sam took in this man’s appearance, looking him up and down- and she didn’t like what she saw. He came off as weasley as he snivelled and held his reddening cheek. 

Sam wanted to snarl at him, knowing whatever he had said or done to the cheerful girl was worth more than a little slap. 

Denver let out a sigh at the short girl, “Marleen.” He spoke softly, urging her to say something. 

“He started it.” She mumbled out, holding her hands behind her back like a child being scorned by a parent. 

Denver brought his hand up to his eyes, rubbing them in frustration. 

“Mars,” His tone was heavy with disappointment, “I expected more from you.” 

Sam frowned at his words, she knew that something must have pushed the younger girl to strike someone as she would never normally do anything like this. Not without good reason. 

Marleen clenched her jaw, it looked like she was going to cry but she did her best to hold it together. 

“We are guests here, these guys are helping us and both of you girls have been acting like children.” Bull looked between the women, “I kinda knew Sam would act out like this,” He waved his hand at the named girl, who rolled her eyes and scoffed at his comment. 

“But I had hoped you would reign it in- and you.” He stepped closer to Marleen, “I thought you would behave better. Now, tell me what the hell happened?” 

His lecture seemed to be over, neither girl was happy and everyone who surrounded them came across as uncomfortable having witnessed the ladies be reprimanded. 

As if being saved from giving her recount of the event, Speirs and Winters appeared. Both kept their faces as neutral as possible yet they did not look happy. 

“I want a recount of what happened.” The redheaded man declared. Nobody jumped to speak up, so he was forced to single someone out. 

“Marleen, I’ve been told you hit Cobb. Is that accurate?” 

“She wouldn’t have hit him without prompt, Sir.” It was Sam who raised her voice. She knew she had to defend Mars and no matter what had happened she would take the girls' side. 

Winters nodded thoughtfully, pausing to think of his next words, “I’m sure you’re right, Sam. But I still need to know what went down.” His voice was soft, he knew his men and Cobb was a troublemaker. Winters may not know the new additions so well but he was almost sure this scuffle was warranted. 

Just when it looked like no one would speak up, the young man with a buzz cut stepped forward. 

“Cobb used a slur. He called Marleen and Garcia… a slur.” Janovec paused, not wanting to repeat it. Then added on, as if he remembered who he was speaking to, murmured, “Sir.” 

The group that had gathered collectively clicked onto the situation. Denver sagged his shoulders now thinking he had been too harsh on the girl while Samantha seethed. 

“What?” Sam spoke through clenched teeth. 

“Is this true?” Winters aimed his query at the man in question. He glowered and lowered his gaze before muttering a quiet “Yes, Sir.” 

“Come with me.” The redhead left no room for discussion as he turned and left towards the unfinished building. Cobb hesitated for a mere second before he followed after Winters, sulking as he did so. 

The rest of the kitchen crew busied themselves with their work, leaving the two women and Denver to have a semi private conversation. 

The bulky man opened his mouth to apologise, he had been on high alert all day and hadn’t meant to let his stress out on the short blonde. 

“Don’t.” Marleen spat out, tears had filled her eyes over the course of her reprimand and she couldn’t hold them back any longer. They fell down her cheeks and she quickly turned and stomped away, not wanting to stand in front of Denver and cry. 

“Real nice.” The taller girl commented, following her counterpart to their tent and leaving the southern man to wallow in his guilt. 

Sam jogged after the short blonde, she could be fast when she wanted to. 

“Mars! Wait!” But Marleen had already unzipped and entered their shared tent, ignoring Sam calling out for her. 

The older blonde ducked as she entered the tent, immediately noticing her friend crouched on the floor atop her sleeping bag. She knelt beside the girl and pulled her into a hug without hesitation. 

She stayed there with her arms wrapped around Marleen's smaller frame and let the girl sob. 

Once her cries dimmed, Mars pulled back from the embrace.

“I don’t know why I’m crying,“ She hiccuped, “I just got so mad and-“ Mars didn’t really have an explanation for her behaviour. 

She wasn't even from Mexico like the slur suggested, but it had still worked her up. And after getting to know Garcia as a soft spoken, kind hearted guy, she was angry for him. The fact that he seemed used to this treatment pissed her off and she couldn’t stand by and say nothing. Her emotions took over when she reached out and slapped Cobb but she didn’t regret it. 

The only thing that she regretted was upsetting Denver. The disappointment on his face was etched into her mind and that made her want to cry all over again. 

“He didn’t mean it, you know?” Sam spoke as if reading her mind, “I’ve been winding him up since we got here, threatening to fight everyone. And when I punched that asshole, Bull was pissed.” She tried to lighten the mood with a smile and a nudge of the short girl's shoulder. 

It worked momentarily as Marleen giggled through her sniffs, but the forlorn look found it way back onto her features.

“Do you think he’s super mad at me?” Her whispered tone made her sound a lot younger than she was. 

“No.” Sam shook her head, “In fact, I think he regrets it. He was just having a bad day and snapped but I know if he’d have heard what really happened, he would’ve been proud of you for standing up for yourself, I know I am.” 

“He called us ‘Spics’.” Marleen said under her breath, frowning as she did. Sam kept quiet and let her continue.

“I speak Spanish, sure. But I’m not Mexican, my mum came from Spain. But it still pissed me off. It hurt.” With her last words came more tears. Sam could only watch and pity her confidant, pulling her into one more hug.

There wasn’t much she could say to comfort Mars, but showing her empathy with physical contact was more than enough for the younger woman. 

Marleen snuggled into the hold, clinging onto Sam as she willed herself to stop her silent tears. 

“He says anything to you again, I’ll kill him.” 

Marleen chuckled but Sam didn’t, “I’m not kidding.” She spoke flatly. 

“Thank you, Sammy.” Mars smiled warmly knowing this girl was becoming her best friend and she was definitely growing on the guarded heart that belonged to Samantha Jackson. 

AHHHHHHH she got him!!! LMAO, but I mean he deserved it winding up Sam like that will only get you punched in the face so...

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!

Chapter Fourteen: First Impressions

Mars POV:

Nerves bubbled in Marleen’s gut as she helplessly watched Sam being led into the rundown building. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to follow after the older girl but when she had tentatively taken a step towards the building, a firm hand was placed on her shoulder. 

Already on edge, Mars flinched at the contact. Her head flicked around to see Denver standing by her side and she relaxed ever so slightly. 

“She’ll be alright, Mars.” His thick southern accent should have been comforting to her but worry still swirled in her stomach. Marleen wanted to protest, she wanted to storm into the building after her friend and she wanted to tell Denver; ‘You don't know that!’ 

Instead she showed restraint, and only because she trusted that if Sam were in trouble she would be able to protect herself. 

Mars knew Sam. 

Okay, maybe she didn't know about the older woman’s past or her family. But so what? Sure, she wasn't privy to Sam’s birthday or star sign but she knew her. 

Sam was tough, not just her mask that she wore. She was a fighter, a protector. Sam had saved Marleen the first time they had met. She had absolutely no reason to, she could've just kept walking and ignored the younger girl’s cries for help but she didn't. 

Sam pretended not to care, to be indifferent to strangers but in reality, she cared very deeply. 

Whatever Dougal had said to the taller girl had triggered something in her, she was acting differently; Weird. And it seemed like only Mars could see it. 

“Come on, we'll start puttin’ up our tents. She'll come out soon.” Denver gently tugged on the girl's arm, steering her in the other direction.   

Marleen was unsettled the entire time the two girls were separated. She hung back and stared at the mysterious building until something distracted her. Denver had noted his young neighbours' twitchiness and set up her tent for her. 

“Hi, I heard you have an injured member?” An unknown male voice stole the young blonde away from her intense staring contest with the brick structure.

“Huh? Oh yeah- um.. Perconte.” It took a second for Mars to remember why they were even there in the first place, “This way…” She trailed off in hopes he would divulge his name. The thin man seemed to pick up on her hint.

“Gene. Eugene Roe. But most people call me Doc.” He followed her as she walked him towards her wounded associate.

“Marleen, but most people call me Mars. Are you a doctor?” Her curiosity got the best of her, a doctor would be handy to have around during the end of the world. 

“No, I'm a nurse.” He didn't seem to be the chatty type, at least not when he had a patient to tend to. Speaking of patients, Perconte came into the pair's view.

“Frank. This is Eugene, he's here to help.” Marleen told the short man, who lay on his stomach,  awaiting the arrival of assistance. 

“I’m going to need to move him to the medical tent. Lieb! Tipper! Give me a hand.” The man gave him a quick once over, humming thoughtfully before announcing his plan of action. 

The two men he called for appeared and all three of them skillfully moved the maimed Perco, but not without whining coming from Frank.  

Denver had watched Mars interacting with the Easy men and tried to stay close to the young blonde, his protective nature reared its head when the short girl was involved. He looked away for barely a second and when he turned back, the girl was gone. 

“Mars?” The southern man called out, the slight panic in his tone faded when he spotted her. She had seen Samantha and basically ran to her friend's side. Denver shook his head before continuing to fix the tents. 

“Sam!” Marleen didn't waste a second before flinging herself onto the older girl.

“Are you okay?” The confusion in Sam’s voice was evident but she still wrapped her arms around her friend. 

“I was about to ask you the same thing.” Mars pulled away from the tall blonde, “What happened in there?” 

“Oh… nothing.” Samatha brushed the younger girl off, doing her best to appear nonchalant but Mars knew better. The girls began walking side by side towards their designated camping area.

“Sam.” She warned, looking sideways at the aloof woman. 

“Did you set up our tent already?” It was her attempt to change the subject and distract Marleen, but she wasn't falling for it this time.

“Denver did.” Mars paused, “You’re avoiding the question.” 

“Oh, well then, thank you, Denver!” Sam called over her shoulder, she didn't look to see his reaction but he did raise a hand to her in recognition, hardly pausing from his task. She was ignoring Marleen and the younger girl, who would typically let it slide, was starting to get annoyed. 

“Sam,” The shorter woman followed steps behind as Sam led them into the heart of their campsite. They were now completely surrounded by members of their original group of eight, no Easy men in sight. 

“Sam, would you just stop for a second and talk to me?” Marleen almost never raised her voice, especially at her female companion, who froze, giving Mars her full awareness. The men they had arrived with paused their actions and threw concerned looks around. 

Now that she had the attention of the older woman, Marleen voiced her troubles.

“I-” Mars let out a tired sigh, “It feels weird… being here.” 

“What do you mean?” This wasn't like Mars, she normally loved befriending strangers, so Sam had no choice but to hear the girl out and take her unease seriously. 

“I just think we should be… careful. We don’t know this group and they’re a lot bigger than us. Plus I don’t really trust that Dougal guy, he gives me the ick for some reason but I can’t place it.” 

“When we meet Luz you basically begged to let them join us, and now you want to get serious about stranger danger?” Sam only wished her young friend had applied this logic earlier. 

“There were only three of them and five of us! It was different! Plus they needed food and seemed super nice.” Marleen reasoned.

“Well, some of them are okay. That Doc guy? He’s helping us like we helped Luz and Martin and Perco, what’s the difference?” Lipton brought up; a fair point. Why would this group help them, give them medical care and a safe place to sleep if they were planning something sinister?

“His name is Eugene. Eugene Roe. And he’s a nurse.” The young female couldn't help but interject with her newly learnt information. 

“How do you know that?” Sam queried suspiciously, she had only been gone for a few minutes.   

“I asked him, duh.” The short blonde rolled her eyes as if annoyed by the implication. 

“See! You’re making friends already.” Lip pointed out, his tone was chipper as he tried to ease the tensions and soothe the youngest girl's discomfort. But his comment went ignored.

“Maybe Marleen’s right, we should stick together for a while, just until we can really trust them.” Martin added his voice to the conversation. 

“Thank you! See, Martin gets it!” Mars called out with an exasperated sigh, she threw her arms up dramatically. 

“Okay, we’ll stay together for a bit until we can suss them out, that sound fair to everyone?” Lipton offered, his calm tone lulled the group. Maybe this could work out? 

There didn't seem to be any objections with Lipton’s suggestion, even though Mars couldn't shake the feeling, she would deal with it.

“Easy, they call themselves Easy.” Marleen interjected once again. 

“For someone who wants to stay away from them, you sure know a lot about ‘em.” This time it was Sam’s turn to roll her eyes playfully at her companion. 

Before she could respond, Sam had spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and swivelled round. A man that looked to be in his late twenties walked out from the unfinished structure. 

“Fucking hell.” Sam mumbled under her breath, even from a distance this man was a literal walking embodiment of the young girl’s ‘type’. Tall, dark haired, handsome and covered in tattoos- all Marleen’s weaknesses rolling into one.

Sam sneakily stood in front of Mars blocking her vision from the approaching man. But she couldn’t spend her whole stay forever keeping the pair apart, they were eventually going to meet, especially when he was b-lining towards them.  

“Mars.” Sam swung around and grasped the girl’s shoulders firmly. “You will not fall in love.” 

Marleen’s brows scrunched together in confusion before a laugh escaped her lips. 

“Did you hit your head somewhere?” The girl reached up to try and find an injury on the older girl’s head but Sam stopped her.

“Repeat it.” Sam shook her slightly to capture her attention. 

Mars scoffed and rolled her eyes, Sam was acting so odd today, but still she compiled. 

“I will not fall in-” Mars started but just as she was about to finish her sentence the most gorgeous man stepped into her view. She felt her mouth fall open as her heart skipped a beat. 

“Love.” Mars finished the sentence with a dreamy tone. 

Sam groaned, the girl had literal love hearts bursting from her eyes, Mars had clearly set her sights on him.

“No! Bad Marleen, bad!” Sam waved her pointer finger in front of the young girl's face but she wasn’t even paying attention, her stare was glued to the tall man that walked through the camp. 

“Wow…” That was the only word the girl could conjure, every other thought had escaped her brain. 

“Marleen Hazel Finch!” Sam was serious, if there was anything that really was off limits it was falling in love.

“Stay away from that man.” The older girl scolded. 

“Too late.” The short blonde squeaked. 

“What man?” At that exact moment the object of their conversation arrived. 

Sam swivelled around giving a deadly stare, “It’s rude to eavesdrop.” She spat out, purposefully  positioning herself so that Mars was somewhat hidden behind her. 

But in a second, the shorter girl had side stepped around her tall friend and now stood in front of the stranger, a sweet smile on her face. She stuck her hand out and began to introduce herself with pink tinted cheeks.

“Mars-leen. Me, that's me name. Uh- MY name ha, it’s Marleen Hazel Finch, I don't know why I just told you my full name. You can just call me Mars, for short. As a nickname, you know?”

“Mars?” Sam interrupted. Both she, and everyone within earshot of Marleen’s word vomit were visibly cringing. She had to interject and stop the train wreck of embarrassment. 

“Yeah?” She squeaked out, frozen in her spot and unable to look away from the handsome stranger in front of her, who seemed to be taking this odd interaction well. Or at least he was hiding it well, not an ounce of discomfort on his face, he just patiently waited for the girl to finish rambling. 

“Stop talking.” 

“Okay.”

“Walk away.” Sam was left with no choice but to aid her friend.

“Yes.” Mars spun on her heel, stopping in a random direction and walked with all the determination she could muster.

“Well, that was adorable.” The tall stranger smirked as he watched Mars’ retreating figure until she was almost completely out of view. 

He said nothing more, just turned and left. But Sam didn't like the way he had looked at the younger girl, something about him rubbed her the wrong way. 

“Well, they’ve certainly met.” Bull leant over to whisper to the tall girl. 

“An actual disaster.” Sam’s head fell into her hands. “Should I jump that guy now or later?” 

Bull chuckled quietly under his breath, but when he turned to look at Sam her face was completely serious. 

“No, Sam. No jumping anyone. We don’t want to piss off this group.” The tall man said lowly. 

“We just have to bide our time until Frank heals up.” 

Sam growled in frustration. She hated this. There were so many people, everyone was chatting and getting in her space, it was driving her mad. 

“I need some air.” The tall girl raked her hands through her hair trying to relieve the tension in her head. 

Sam walked away from the group and rounded the back of the building. A sigh left her lips as she let her body sink down and pressed against the cool brick. 

“Hiding already, Dollface?” 

Every sense of peace that had flooded into her blood immediately vanished from the sound of his voice. 

“Are you following me now, Creep?” Sam growled from her crouched position. 

“No, I came to tell you, you aren’t allowed back here.” Lieb sank down to join her on the ground, “But since you’re a newbie I’ll let you off.” 

Sam rolled her eyes rising from her spot. “Fine, I’ll find somewhere else.”

“The big man is eyeing you up already, you must be pretty impressive.” Lieb started talking as Sam took a step to leave. 

“He just knows my father.” Sam brushed off the speculation. 

“Mmmh, I wouldn’t say that. He was talking a big game about you, Miss Specialist.” Lieb knowingly provoked the younger girl. 

Sam took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her fists. Low profile, we’re keeping a low profile.  

She mustered the sweetest smile she could and plastered it to her face. She’d admit it most likely looked more like a snarl than it did a smile. Lieb raised up from his spot, walking closer to the girl until he stood within arms reach of Sam. 

“Stay away from me.” It was a clear warning but still the man only smirked. 

“Matter of fact stay away from everyone in my group.” The girl stepped forward so they were only inches apart. 

A huff of amusement passed through his nose as he slowly dragged his eyes along the length of her body. 

“I like you.” Liebgott whispered, his breath fanning her face and made the loose hairs around her cheeks tickle the sensitive skin. 

“I don’t like you.” Sam bared her teeth and looked at him with a sinister glare. 

“You’re cute when you’re mad.” 

His hand shot out and everything slowed, she watched in pure shock and his fingers brushed a strand of her fallen hair from her face back behind her ear. 

“See ya round, sweetheart.” Lieb walked off casually as Sam was still stuck in place. 

Pure rage filled the girl's body as she harshly kicked the brick wall. Never in her life had she met someone so aggravating and she was best friends with Mars. 

A shaky breath left her lips as she tried to calm herself down. Low profile, Sam. Low profile. 

Bull was right, they just needed to keep their heads down until they could leave again. 

—--------------------------------------

Toye’s POV: 

Being called into the rundown building was usually a good thing but Toye’s stomach was in knots as he walked down the corridors and stopped in front of Dougals room. 

He raised his hand to knock but before he could, a voice called out, “Come in.” Toye swung open the door and entered. 

“Ah! Toye, I've been expecting you.” The older man spoke, “I have a special task for you.” 

The younger male kept quiet, waiting for his superior to continue. Toye wasn't much of a talker and Dougal seemed to respect that, like it, even.

“The group that just arrived, you heard I assume?” Dougal tipped his head forward, awaiting reply, so this time he verbalised an answer.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good, good. Well, I want you to keep an eye on that girl.” Dougal lowered his voice. No one else was in the room yet his tone made this seem like a secret side quest that was for his ears only, “Report back to me with any information you get, I want to know everything, okay?” 

“Which one?” Toye assumed they were talking about the same girl but wanted to be sure. Out of the pair of ladies one was certainly more menacing than the other. 

“The shorter girl.”

“Her? Why?” Toye was yet to interact with her but had seen her enter with her group and spotted something in her that Dougal apparently hadn’t. He saw lightness, a flame of pure joy and kindness. 

He had watched her from across the camp as she smiled and joked with her friends and certainly didn’t think she was capable of anything sinister but maybe Dougal had clocked something that he had missed. 

“I just want to know if she’s going to be a problem… for the group, of course. I don’t want Easy to be jeopardised because of her, that’s all.” The older man explained nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as if it wasn’t so important to him. 

Toye knew that was a facade, he could see this held meaning so he agreed, “Okay… and if she is a problem?”

“Eliminate the problem.” His words were final, there was no need for him to explain, Toye understood the unspoken meaning quite clearly and while the dark haired man was shocked at the brash order given to him, he kept his face stoic and free of any hint of emotion. 

The younger man slowly nodded, Dougal took this as his sign to dismiss his underling, waving a hand lazily. Toye exited the area, now left with his own thoughts. 

He would have to get her alone if he wanted any real information, she seemed like a very social person so that might prove difficult. But getting to know her a little couldn’t be a bad thing, right? 

Toye quickly learnt that Marleen was chatty. 

When he first approached her, she was standing with her friends in their slightly separate camp. He had overheard the two women speaking, something about ‘staying away from someone.’

That captured his attention, were they being hassled already? Surely not, they had barely been here an hour. 

When he opened his mouth to speak, he noticed the shorter girl was staring up at him with her round eyes that glistened in the light. He found himself involuntarily frozen as he observed her small rant of an introduction. 

Watching her fumble her words made something swirl in Toye’s gut but as quickly as that feeling came, he brushed it away. He had to keep focused on his task at hand; get to know the girl while also doing his best not to befriend her or more accurately- let her befriend him. He had to maintain a distance with her despite the instant draw he felt to the short blonde woman. 

It was only when he witnessed her walking away, that he realised he had completely forgotten to introduce himself. 

Smooth.

Ah Mars was real smooth with that first introduction, also Sam immediately clocked that Mars would have a thing for Toye lmaoooo. See you all on Saturday, love ya!

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!

Chapter Thirteen: Here Comes Easy 

Sam’s POV:

Speirs and his men turned and led the way, but Sam didn’t follow. The rest of the group passed her by while she quietly seethed. 

“What was that all about?” Mars appeared by her side grabbing the older girl’s arm and dragging her along. 

“What was what all about?” Sam asked looking down at her smaller companion who wore a mischievous expression on her face. 

“You and Liam.” Mars wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. She had obviously meant Lieb who Sam encountered first, but she couldn’t be bothered trying to correct the younger girl. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bam.” The girl clearly thought she had seen something. 

“Oh, you SO know what I am saying!” Mars tugged on Sam’s arm as if trying to get her to confess to something. 

“Mars, you need to be more mysterious around these men, please.” Sam changed the topic before the girl got too carried away.

“Mysterious, please I am so mysterious.” Mars cheesed, she 100% believed her statement. 

“Marleen Finch, you are the farthest thing from mysterious I have ever met. I literally know everything about you, and that was on the first day. Within the first hour I knew all of your family members' names, your birthday, star sign, address; both of them, and I quote, ‘your type on paper’.” Sam listed the extensive list of things she knew about the younger girl. 

“You don’t know my type.” Marleen scoffed.

“Tall, dark, handsome and mysterious.” Sam quoted exactly what the smaller blonde had told her on their first meeting. 

Mars’ mouth opened and closed in shock. Had she really divulged so much about herself, and also the older girl had remembered most of the information she had seemingly dumped on her. 

“I- uh. I can be mysterious if I want to. I just trusted you.” The younger girl clarified. 

“Oh yeah. You trusted me from the very first second you clapped eyes on me?” Sam asked but she knew the answer to her question, Mars was so easy to read she could see it written all over her face even in that moment.  

“YES! But I can be mysterious, ask anyone else here and they will tell you I can be.” The younger girl wanted to prove her point. 

Sam took her word for challenge. 

“Bull!” She called out to the older man, he slowed in his pace and turned to look over his shoulder at the girls who smiled at him. 

“Bull, would you say that Mars here is mysterious?” Sam asked. 

The older man burst into laughter and then at the look of shock on poor Marleen’s face, sobered quickly. 

“Ah- I would have to say, no.” He cleared his throat. Sam wore a smug grin as she turned to look at a disheartened Mars. 

“But that’s not to say you don’t have other good qualities.” Denver attempted to soothe his young friend, “you are great at making friends!” The short blonde pouted as she pondered his words. 

“I guess I am a bit chatty.” Mars relented. 

“A bit?!” The older girl teased. 

“Okay, a lot! But I can’t help it. I like talking to people.” Mars mused smiling to herself, people were just so fascinating she couldn’t help it. 

“You mean you like talking at people.” Sam laughed, poking the younger girl in her side. 

“Don’t be a meanie, Sam!” She swatted at the taller girl’s arm.  

“But I am being serious, Mars. I have an odd feeling about these men. I think we should keep our cards close to our chest.” A more serious tone fell over the conversation. 

“Shouldn’t you be telling everyone else this as well?” Mars looked ahead to the rest of the group that followed along behind the people they had just met. 

“No offence to them, I don’t really care what they do. You on the other hand, I do care about.” Sam had only one person in her head who she needed to protect and that was Mars. She was in too deep now, she couldn’t lose the literal ball of sunshine. 

“Shut up!” Mars squealed, jumping up and down as she walked. 

“What?” Sam had been surprised by the younger blonde’s sudden outburst. 

“YOU-“ Sam clapped her hand over the younger girl’s mouth signalling for her to lower her volume. Only when the girl nodded in confirmation did Sam remove her hand.

“You care about me?!” Mars tried again, this time in a more quiet voice. 

“Mars!” The older girl rolled her eyes at how excited the smaller girl was. 

“What?!” Marleen objected. She was just so happy. 

“Don’t make me repeat myself.” Sam bumped shoulders with the younger girl, for the first time in her life she had felt heat rush to her face, and she didn’t like it. “Just tell me you are going to behave.” 

“Promise.” Mars gave a sharp nod of her head. 

Sam stuck out her pinky finger. Marleen's eyes widened before she collected herself and connected her finger with the older girl’s.

“I promise.” 

Being blindly led by strangers to a larger group of even more strangers was daunting. Sam still felt uneasy about these four men but Frank was in dire need of medical supplies, so she was forced to suck it up.

They didn’t have to travel far, their camp was set up just outside of the town in a mostly sheltered area. A field that was backed by the thick woods, Sam had to hand it to them- they picked a good spot. 

Several vehicles which were parked in a way that gave them more cover. Sam noted small groups of men walking around doing various tasks, she tried to count them and from what she could see there were at least ten. 

Her heart pounded harder in her chest, the closer they got the more outnumbered they were. If things were going to go wrong their chance of survival was looking more dire by the second. 

Sam sped up her pace, she was going to get answers to the questions that overwhelmed her brain. 

“What exactly can we help you with?” The tall girl asked after she had finally caught up with Speirs. 

The older man didn’t even glance at her before he answered. “We need more hands on deck. We have a large group but we needed more experience.”

“And how do you know we’re experienced?” Sam questioned.  

“We don’t.” Speirs said casually. “That’s why we have the trial.” 

She couldn’t ask anymore questions as Speirs stopped the group and addressed them all.

“Welcome. This is Easy, we are a group of 24, all men so far and this is our campsite for the moment. We have brought you here with the offer of medical supplies in exchange for assistance.” Speirs announced loudly, he stood just outside the gates of the campsite he spoke about. 

“We will put you through a trial. Everyone here has been put through it, so you’re not the only ones we have tested. The trial will last two weeks, we will put you through various exercises and then if you’re competent enough you’ll be allowed to stay.” Sam’s brows furrowed as she opened her mouth to disagree but before she could the locked gates behind the older man swung open. 

“Follow me.” He called before he turned on his heel and led them into the heart of the grounds. 

The group glanced around the big space, there were small tents set up in the middle of the campsite. The chain linked fence surrounded the entire area, small fires were burning away near the edge of the perimeter. A half built structure covered the back half of the campsite, men came and went from the building. 

“Sam.” Mars whispered from beside her. “What if I don’t make it through this trial?” A worried look crossed over the younger girl's features. 

“You’ll be with me no matter what happens. Plus we still need to get to Idaho.” Sam brushed the silly thought away. She wasn’t planning on sticking around. The rest of their group could stay if they so wished, but Sam had her own mission.

“We have rules and a hierarchy. You will all start at the bottom, the harder you work the faster you can go up in ranks.” Speris stood on the steps of the main building so he was elevated. 

“Is this like an army?” Lip asked from the back of the crowd. 

“Good question, my boy.” An older man stepped out from the front door. He was tall and broad, his salt and pepper hair gave away his age. Speirs stepped out of the way as the man descended down the stairs.

The man scoured the crowd and then stopped on the tall blonde who stood in the front. 

“My my, if it isn’t Samantha Jackson.” He smiled at the girl, a confused look washed over her features.

She felt the rest of the group and the men that stood with the older man turn their eyes to her. 

“Do you know me?” The salt and pepper haired man didn’t look at all familiar, but then again Sam never actively remembered faces. 

“My name is Dougal, General Jim Dougal.” He announced his status. Everything seemed to click into place, the trial, the hierarchy. If he was running the show of course he would do it this way. 

“I’ve worked a few times with your father.” The mention of her father had Sam’s skin crawling, she hadn’t thought about that man for a long time now. 

Dougal’s eyes scanned the rest of the crowd, confused looks were on their faces. 

“Don’t you folks know the infamous Samantha Jackson?” He asked the rest of her group. The man was met with silence. 

“This girl is one of the top ranking Specialists in the tri-state. Sam has been on three tours back to back, she’s a great shot and an even better fighter. I heard you won all of the tournaments you entered.” Dougal shared her information to the rest of her group. Things she hadn’t ever told them. 

A heat rose to her cheeks and goosebumps prickled on her skin. Never had she had her accomplishments shared so proudly, not even her father cared about her achievements. 

“That’s correct, Sir.” Sam fell back into old army habits, her voice projecting loud and strong. 

“You must’ve been holding out on them, Sam.” Dougal smiled down at her from his perch. 

“Her father is a high ranking officer as well. Though that never got her brownie points. Everything she did was by herself. General Jackson must be proud of you?” 

Sam couldn’t get her mouth to move. Anyone would assume with the amount of effort she put into her work that people would’ve been proud of her. But that just wasn’t the case. 

Dougal smiled down at her and moved on swiftly when the young girl didn’t answer. She exhaled, sighing in relief she didn’t have to answer that question. 

“As I said, my name is Dougal. This is my group, as an army man I did have to name my ‘company’, as I like to call it. Welcome to Easy.” The man was firm in tone but still open enough that he didn’t appear too intimidating. 

Marleen stood behind Sam, she wasn’t partially listening to this man -Dougal- drone on but something felt off. 

Her mind was still catching up with the new information about her friend's past, but that was something she’d bring up later. The more important topic was Sam currently. 

Mars knew that the older blonde wasn’t talkative. She had witnessed first hand her standoffish behaviour and brooding silence. But this was different. 

She took a second to really look at Sam, her body language was chaotic. Sam’s fists clenched, in fact, her whole body was ridged. Marleen slowly and subtly stepped closer so the girls were side by side. 

The next thing the younger girl noticed was Sam’s eyes. Her gaze was fixated on the empty space in front of her and her features were unreadable; a mix of shock, slight anger and maybe some sadness? Marleen wasn’t totally sure as she’d never seen the woman like this before but whatever it was, she didn’t like it. 

One thing was very clear to Mars; it was something Dougal had said that threw her friend into this state. She couldn’t pinpoint what and that made her even more suspicious of the man. 

Mars watched him, trying to piece together their odd interaction. She couldn't help but squint her eyes at the older man as he stepped around the new group, taking in their appearances. His focus halted on Perconte. He didn’t have to say anything, he just gave Speirs a look and the man was off. 

The shorter woman redirected her focus to Sam, slowly reaching out her hand to gently touch the elders arm. 

The moment she did, Samantha roused, turning her head and making eye contact with Mars. She relaxed a little and forced a small smile onto her face in an attempt to reassure the younger girl, an expression Marleen mirrored even though it didn’t feel quite right. 

“Is there something wrong here, ladies?” A deep male voice sounded, making Marleen jump and quickly turn to face the person it came from. 

Dougal was standing in front of them having circled round their friends. 

“No, sir.” Sam blurted out like a knee jerk reaction. Her posture went stiff and Mars could do nothing but watch as Sam acted in a way she had never seen the older woman act before. 

For the first time in quite a while, Marleen stayed silent. Her eyes flickered between Sam and this random old guy who apparently knew more about her friend than she did until she noticed he was looking at her. 

It was as if he was waiting for her response. 

So, with the kindest smile she could muster, Mars spoke, “We’re all good, thank you for asking.” 

It was in her nature to be polite, manners had been drilled into her at a very early age. Manners were ladylike and Marleen’s mother wouldn’t tolerate anything less than perfect lady behaviour. 

Dougal looked at the girls a moment longer before finally accepting her answer, nodding and turning to speak with someone else. 

“Hello everyone, I’m Winters, Richard Winters. I’ll be showing you around, if you have any questions feel free to ask. I’m here should you need me.” Mars watched as Dougal retreated back into the half done structure. Now a redheaded man stood in front of the group. 

“I will take you for a tour of the compound.” Winters marched forward as the men parted so he could continue in his path. “Follow me.” 

“You can set up your tents here.” Richard gestured to the designated area where the rest of the tents were already pitched. “We have dinner around the main fire.” Mars craned her neck so she could see better, a large fire pit was set up adjacent to the sleeping area. 

The man walked around the grounds showing them where everything was. “I know it’s a lot. If you get lost at all you can ask me or the team that’s going to be looking after you during your trial.” 

“The main building is for leadership personnel only. That’s myself, Speirs, who you’ve met, Nixon, Welsh, Compton and Dougal.” Winters reported but Sam was far too distracted. 

She glanced back over her shoulder to the structure. Dougal stood in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest, he watched her intently. She felt as if she was back in her Private days. 

“You know Lieb and Tipper, they will be watching over you for the time being.” Winters introduced the two men before he gave a curt nod and walked away. 

The pair began speaking but Sam could hardly pay attention. 

“Sam.” The girl jumped at the touch on the back of her arm. She turned to find Richard standing behind her. She glanced around hadn’t she just seen him walk off. She shook away the thoughts, this was the most off she had felt in a while. 

The man still looked at her waiting for her response. 

“Ah-Yes.” Sam stepped out of the pack of people and moved closer to the lone man. 

“Come with me.” The redhead didn’t give her time to say yes or no, he only walked off expecting her to follow.  

Samantha glanced over her shoulder to find a worried looking Mars staring at her.

‘I’m fine.’ The older girl mouthed to Marleen before she walked after the man. 

He led her straight into the building, she followed him around twists and turns before they came upon a closed door. 

“Dougal is waiting for you in there.” Winters gave a polite smile before he left. 

Sam swallowed the lump in her throat and wiped her sweaty palms against her pants. This was the feeling she got in her stomach every time she had to go and see her father. The nerves and unknowing of what was to come. Sam could read people well, but her father was an enigma to her. 

Seeing that Dougal held the same rank and demeanour of her father it put her body on edge. It was an innate fear she hadn’t been able to get over. 

Taking a deep breath she reached for the brass knobs and turned it, she stepped into the room. Dougal sat at a tattered desk, maps and information hung on the bare walls and cigarette smoke filled her senses. 

“Sam!” The man rose from his seat with a wide grin on his lips. “Shut the door and take a seat.” 

The girl did as she was asked. Sam was stubborn and brash when she wanted to be, normally to everyone but something about older army men had her feeling like she was five all over again. 

And she hated it. 

She tentatively took a seat, not a word had left her mouth. Sam wore a blank expression on her face, but it was like playing poker with a master. He could tell from the slightest of her movements if she was bluffing. 

It was Dougal’s job to read people like a book, and that shook the normally calm girl to her core. 

“You wanted to see me.” Her voice was dry in her throat. 

“Yes. Sam, I know you, well I don’t know you personally, but I do know your work and your ethic. I don’t need you to go through the trial, you can join my men. You’d be an asset to the team.” Dougal spoke just like her father, something about the strict tone and low timbre of his voice washed over her with familiarity. 

“That’s kind of you, Sir. But you know I’m not one to take handouts.” A tight smile graced her lips briefly before her blank mask slipped back into place. 

This only made the old man grin more.

“I knew you’d say that, but I thought it worth the try. Ha, even at the end of the world, Sam, you still won’t take the easy route.” Dougal crossed his broad arms over his chest. 

The man wore a flannel shirt with a black fleece vest over the top, his blue jeans were well worn and stained and his combat boots were far from shiny.   

A huff of sadness or maybe amusement left Sam’s nose. Dougal wore exactly what her father used to wear. 

“I like to be self-sufficient.” Sam had let a twinge of attitude slip into her tone. 

“I’m sure you do. You were always the hardest working. Well, thank you for your time, go back to the tour.” Dougal causally ordered the girl, but she followed, her training was embedded into her blood.   

The girl stood from her seat and stepped toward the door. 

“Oh, and Sam. If you change your mind.” The older man hinted with a smile on his face before he lit a smoke and took a deep drag. 

“I know where to find you.” The blonde girl finished for him, he gave an approving nod as the smoke left his nostrils. 

WOOOOOOOH TELL ME HOW YOU FEEL!!!!

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!

Chapter Twelve: The More the Merrier

Sam’s POV: 

Somehow the lone party of one was now eight. Sam was fine travelling all by herself but the trouble seemed to have started once the friendly, all loving, all inclusive Mars arrived. 

The group Mars first introduced her to seemed to be fine, she was more than capable of handling them. The men were mild mannered country boys who were respectful of Sam’s space and lack of communication skills. 

She would’ve gone as far to say she had befriended the younger man, Shifty. Sam never felt uncomfortable around him and his knowledge of hunting and wildlife fascinated her. 

However the newest group of Perco, Luz and Martin were a completely different story. 

Luz and Mars were scarily alike. They had the same sense of humour, the same loud demeanour and the same endless energy. 

And when Perco, Mars, and Luz were together, it was nightmare fuel, they were loud, rambunctious, idiots together. Seemingly forgetting the world they now resided in. 

Martin seemed to be more reserved but when Perco and Luz wound him up enough he would also join in on the fun. 

It wasn’t all bad though, seeing them get along so well while the world was falling apart seemed to lift the group's spirits. And having eight people in the group was actually pretty beneficial, although Sam would never admit that. 

Eight pairs of eyes and eight pairs of hands went a long way when scouting, looting and looking for danger. 

“Luz!” The younger girl squealed when George ran up behind her and poked her in her sides. The man laughed loudly at the blonde girl’s reaction. 

“They seemed to be enjoying themselves.” Shifty commented from beside Sam, who rolled her eyes. They had been going on like this ever since they had met two days ago. 

“Guys!” The older woman scolded the pair as they gave sheepish ‘sorry’s’ before elbowing each other in blame. 

“Ah, go easy on them. They’re just having fun.” Bull clapped his large hand over Sam’s shoulder. But still she wasn’t impressed. 

“Yeah, so much fun. And then someone falls over and we’re all doomed.” Bull chuckled at the blonde woman’s stubborn tone. Denver liked the girl, she was strong and dependable, she also looked after the younger girl with great care, even though she pretended she didn’t. 

That seemed to be her MO, harsh and cold on the outside but with enough of a push she was kind and generous. 

“How did we end up with two Marleen’s?” Sam massaged the lines from her forehead. 

“You mean two George’s?” Martin joined the small group that hung back from the mischievous trio. 

“Either way, they’re an accident waiting to happen.” Lip confirmed with a sharp nod of his head. The older group laughed amongst themselves.  

—----------------------------------------

The group of eight had been walking for a day or two. They had enough supplies to last them a few more days in the forest and then they would need to venture out to another town to restock. But it was becoming harder to do with more mouths to feed, and hungry ones at that. 

“Lights fading, I think we got an hour left of sun before it sets.” Shifty glanced up to the sky as he measured the time with his hand. “We should make camp.”  

The rest of the group came to a halt dropping their heavy bags to the ground in relief. 

“My shoulders.” Perco whined as he massaged his sore limbs with his palm. 

“Get my back, I’ll get yours.” Luz jumped in front of the man. They both held each other’s shoulders whilst maintaining odd eye contact. They grunted, it was hard to tell if it was in pleasure or pain. But the sight made Sam uncomfortable. 

Turning away she set up the tent as Mars hunted for wood. The shorter blonde cutely tagged along behind Bull, chatting excitedly as she went, seemingly forgetting her task and then every now and then she would remember and bend down to pick up a random stick. 

Soon the fire was roaring and everyone sat around it with mildly full bellies, food was getting more scarce by the day. 

Everyone was sharing stories over the campfire. It had become an odd ritual they all fell into. 

Each member would share an account from their past, or a ghost tale, something to pass the time. Sam had always shared made up or scary stories, she had heard from others but never divulged into her own past. The rest of the group loved sharing history about their families and their lives beforehand. It was an odd way to get to know each other. 

“Rumour has it the disease came from water.” Perco reported from across the fire. 

Mars at that exact moment was halfway through her sip. Her eyes widened in panic, the young girl trapped the water in her mouth, stopping it from going any further down her throat. 

She was just about to chuck her full water bottle across the space and project the water she had stored in her mouth out, when Sam’s hand landed on her knee before she could do anything. 

Mouth ballooned with water Marleen turned to look at Sam who shook her head. 

“Bambi, we’ve been drinking this water for days. I’m sure if it was tainted we would be mindless rabids by now.” The tall girl reassured her petite counterpart.

The young girl swallowed the liquid that she still had in her mouth, wiping the sides of her lips from any of the water that had escaped during that time. 

“Right.” Mars agreed with Sam as she nodded her head. 

“Yeah, no it’s not from bottled water. Word has it they did an experiment on a small rural town and put whatever chemicals they were using into the town's water source. And then they shut down their mains pretty quickly after it… got out of hand.” Perco shivered at the thought. 

“It would only be their water supply that would have been contaminated.” Sam reassured the still tense looking Mars. 

“Do you know where the town was?” Sam enquired further, but Perco shook his head. 

“Nah, it’s only rumours I’ve heard in passing, so I have no idea if it’s true or not.” The group collectively sighed. They were completely isolated from the current events, but it appeared everyone was. With no means of communication there was no way for anyone to truly know what was happening in the world. They could only go from word of mouth. 

“Wish my phone still worked.” The young blonde sighed. She was desperate to know how her family was fearing in this hard time. Mars wanted to let them know she was safe for the moment and to hold on for her return. 

“You know my Dad called me every day.” The young blonde flashed her bright smile. Before it fell from her face and a heavy sigh left her lips, Sam quickly wrapped her arm around the young girl pulling her closer. The older girl gave a reassuring squeeze before someone else picked up the conversation that Mars had started. 

“You alright, Bam?” Sam whispered down as the rest of the men talked amongst themselves. The younger girl already had tears forming in her eyes but that didn't stop her from nodding and giving Sam a tight lipped smile. 

“What did he do?” The older woman prompted, seeing a hint of confusion on Marleen’s face, she explained, “Your dad, what did he do?” 

“Oh!” The tears were forgotten and Mars’ eyes lit up with a sparkle of purpose, “He owned a hardware store- two actually. He was trying to turn it into a franchise. He looked after the first one in Adair- that’s where we grew up.  And Rowan went to business school so he could run the other one, it was one town over in Bushnell but still close enough to come over every Sunday for dinner.” 

Samantha let a small smile creep onto her face as she watched the girl's demeanour change. Mars went on about her weekly family gatherings and how she would get to spend time with her niece and nephew. 

She explained how her mother moved to America from Spain when she fell in love with Desmond; her father. And how her Mum used to be a school teacher but retired and helped her dad with the garden section of their shop. 

“He’s alive. They all are, I just know it!” 

“Bam…” Sam’s smile had dropped, she didn’t want her friend to be filled with false hope. The likelihood that all of her family were alive was low. 

“Yeah?” Marleen’s big wide eyes looked up at Sam. She faltered, pausing slightly, she looked to her side and made eye contact with the nearest male member of the group; Lipton. 

The men had gone quiet while Marleen spoke of her kin and he had obviously been listening in, so when he heard Mars’ declaration and Sam’s hesitance, he looked up. 

The look on Sam’s face must have been a questioning one as Lipton answered with a small shake of his head. 

The older blonde was torn between being honest and probably hurting Marleen’s feelings or letting her have a moment of good. 

“I’m-“ She started, but the childlike look in the shorter girls eyes had softened her, “I’m sure you’re right.” 

———————

Leaving the forest had many pros and cons. 

The biggest pro: Going into towns or houses and finding supplies. The biggest con: Being out in the open where there is more chance of running into humans or rabids. 

But it was necessary, venturing into the nearby town of West Hickory was the group of eight’s big plan for the next few days. What could go wrong in only a day or two?

Sam was walking near the front next to Shifty, the pair navigating the group out of the forest and towards the township. Lip, Bull and Martin followed the leading duo side by side by side. 

As usual, the troublesome trio were lagging behind and goofing off. Luz was teaching the other two some aimless game and once they got the hang of it, there was no stopping them. Giggles and laughs echoed through the otherwise silent team. 

A scream rippled from the back of the group, causing everyone to pause their movements in shock. All heads whipped around to find the reason for the unexpected disruption. 

It wasn’t a noise you wanted to hear in the middle of the apocalypse. The group rushed back to find the owner of the scream. 

George and Mars stood, seemingly crowding around the other person who was on the floor. Perco lay on the ground groaning in pain. 

“What happened?” Sam pushed her way in between Luz and Marleen. The young girl stood with her hands clasped over her mouth and a worried look on her face, Luz wore the same expression. 

“We were just goofing around and Frank slipped.” Mars finally released her mouth from her grasp so that she could talk. 

“Oh shit, I hope it isn’t bad.” George cringed looking down at his friend writhing in pain on the floor. 

“Where are you hurt?” Lip asked as he knelt down by the man. 

“My-” Perco started and then stopped again. The group that surrounded the man collectively lent in so that they could hear him. 

“Your what?” Martin prompted the man.

“Uh-my…” But Frank refused to finish the sentence. 

“My god man, spit it out!” Sam urged, she needed to know now whether or not she needed to put him out of his misery.

“MY ASS!” Perco yelped.

Everyone fell silent processing what the man had just said. There was a beat before the whole group was in hysterics. The short man seemed less than impressed. 

“Oh yeah, laugh it up guys, real funny, ha ha. I fell over and hurt my ass, ok! It’s an actual problem!” Frank replied grumpily, but the group couldn’t hear him over their shared laughter.   

“Oh damn, man that’s terrible.” Luz tried to comfort the man but he couldn’t get his shit together enough to string a coherent sentence. 

“You’re all fucking children, you know!” Perco reprimanded his friends who laughed right in his face. 

“That was your greatest asset.” Luz elbowed Martin who about doubled over at his stupid pun. 

“To ease the pain in your butt I’ll grab you some ass-prin.” The man couldn’t help himself. 

“I mean I’d make a joke about your rear, butt it’s too cheeky.” George doubled over in hysterics but the rest of the group's own laughter had died down, they all watched the man laugh far too hard at his own joke. 

“Get it, rear!” But no one seemed to be in on his hilarious banter. “Oh come on, that was the best one!” Luz pouted, but his peers focussed their attention back onto the man who still lay on the ground. 

“You’re gonna have to show us the damage.” Bull told Frank, who clutched his ass with both of his hands. 

“No.” Perco shook his head. “That’s not necessary, see.” The man struggled to get to his feet only making it halfway up before cursing in pain and crumpling back to the floor. 

“Fine.” Perco admitted defeat. “But the girl’s can’t see.” 

All eyes fell on the two women who watched the man in concern. An aww fell from the younger’s lips, while the older shrugged. 

“I didn’t particularly want to see your ass, Frank.” Sam grabbed the shorter girl by her shoulders and manoeuvred her away from the men. 

The pair sat far enough away that they couldn't see what was happening but they could still hear it. Frank cursed wildly as the rest of the guys discussed their game plan. 

It took an hour for the group to sort out his wound, they had little in the way of medical supplies. Bandages and a few steri-strips, they had nothing but water to clean the wound. From the sound of things it was a big injury. 

“God, now there’s blood all over my pants. Thanks Lip!” Frank called in disgust. 

“Well it’s your ass that won’t stop gushing, Perco!” The men continued to bicker between themselves. 

Finally they had the wound semi-covered and had stopped the bleeding for the time being. Frank clutched onto the neck of Bull as he piggy backed him. 

“Ladies, we're gonna need to find somewhere with medical supplies. I’m worried that it will get infected if we don’t stitch it up.” Martin informed the girls who were sitting on a nearby log waiting for everyone to be done. 

“Next town is only a few miles away. We can get there by nightfall and stake it out from there.” Sam stood from her position with Mars jumping up by her side not long after. “Shifty and I can go ahead and make sure the path is clear, so we don’t have to worry about any more accidents.” Martin gave a curt nod before he called over his shoulder for the men to get ready to move out. 

The group moved slowly, Bull carrying Frank on his back and the rest of the men carrying his belongings since he couldn’t do it himself. 

“Shifty!” Sam called, turning around as she walked, he had dipped out of sight just before she turned to look for him. The girl went against her own rules and continued searching for the man as she travelled not facing the way she was going. 

The woman met a solid wall. This is why she always followed her own rules. Sam turned examining the hard object she had collided with. 

Her eyes widened as her gaze trailed up the structure. Though it wasn’t a structure, it was a man. Sam whipped her gun from her hip and pointed it directly between the eyes of the person who cockily glanced down at her. 

“Who the fuck are you?” The words growled from her throat. She was good at menacing. 

“I like a woman who can use her words.” Somehow the man’s smile grew even more smug. His hand came up to Sam’s face, his fingers so close to her cheek. She resisted the urge to shoot him right at the moment. 

“Don’t touch me.” The blonde woman warned the stranger. 

“You walked into me, Dollface.” Something about the way the pet name rolled off his tongue made her shiver. She didn’t like the unknown feeling that washed over her skin.  

“Don’t call me Dollface, you creep. I will use this.” She gestured to the weapon she clutched tightly. Yet he didn’t flinch, his smile grew wider as his eyebrows raised. 

“Feisty.” The tall man leaned forward ever so slightly, as if he was testing whether or not she was bluffing. 

“Lieb.” A stern voice came from behind the man. At the same time the rest of the group finally found their way to Sam. They stopped short behind her assessing the show down she had found herself in. 

Shifty fell into stance beside her, his own weapon raised.   

A man came into view, tall with jet black hair and stubble across his chin. 

“Ah, the boss is calling. Nice talk, sweetheart.” The man reached forward to tap his fingers under Sam’s chin, but stopped when Shifty’s gun turned to him. 

The stranger threw his arms up in mock surrender before he sent a wink to Sam, then turned and walked away. 

“Sorry about him, he doesn’t listen to simple commands.” The end of the statement seemed to be aimed towards the man as he walked back to the older looking gentlemen. 

“You can lower your weapons, we aren’t here to fight you.” But Sam didn’t budge. “You’re right. I‘ve given you no reason to trust me.” The man spoke to the tall blonde, a smile grew on hip lips. 

“Speirs.” The man gestured at himself. “You met Liebgott, I have two other men with me.”

And just like that two guys appeared from the bushes. It made Sam’s stomach turn, if something was to go wrong with the first interaction those men were lying in wait. She narrowed her eyes at the group of four.   

“Tipper and Grant.” Speirs introduced his men. 

“You can be on your way then.” Sam spoke harshly. They had picked up enough strays, she also wasn’t going to look behind her for the group vote, this was her decision. 

“I think we found you just in time.” Lieb said arrogantly, “Looks like you have a casualty.” He gestured his head back at Perco who still clung onto Bull’s back. 

“Why would you offer us help, we haven’t given you anything.” Shifty now spoke from her side. Sam was glad she wasn’t the only one who found this situation fishy. 

“You can offer us something.” Speirs replied. Sam’s eyes narrowed even further. 

“Sam.” Martin called from behind her. “Perco isn’t looking too good. We need their help.” 

The tall blonde ground her teeth together. There was no way she was asking for help from these men. 

“Samantha.” Bull’s voice was stern, the girl still hadn’t lowered her gun.  

“Fine.” The older girl huffed and finally relented, flicking the safety back on and statshing her weapon on her hip. 

“How can we help?”

HEHEHEHEHE ok so let me know all your thoughts, do we like the introduction? More BOB men you're welcome! Poor Perco and his pesky ass wound, classic BOB men if I do say so myself! AHHHHHH I'm so excited for the next chapter! Love you guys!

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy if anyone else wants to be added, please let us know!!

Chapter Eleven: Sleepless Nights of Sam

Sam’s POV:

“Abby, no-don’t.” Sam called out as she made her way towards the girl who turned around to smile at her. 

It played in slow motion, her boot finally coming in contact with the ground before a blast of light and heat knocked Sam back. 

The blonde lay on the ground gasping for air that wasn’t making its way into her lungs. The ringing was all she could hear, she couldn’t force her limbs to move as she stared up at the sky that now was slowly filling with smoke.   

Finally she was able to fill her lungs and make enough sense of the situation to sit up. That’s when her hearing started to fade in again. It was filled with screams of agony. 

Sam got to her feet and stumbled towards the scene that played in front of her. She made her way closer to the hazy mass that laid on the floor. As she walked she tripped on a solid object causing her to fall to her knees. Sam glanced down and let out a gasp of horror, it wasn’t an object that had tripped her, but someone’s unattached leg. She leapt away from it, then she rushed forward. It was the mass on the ground that screamed with such pain it caused Sam’s heart to squeeze in agony. 

“Help me!” It was Abby, her voice was unmistakable. “Please, help me!” She continued to beg as Sam arrived at her side. 

“Oh, fuck.” The blonde mumbled taking in her comrades' appearance. Abby had been halved literally. 

The place where the rest of her legs should’ve resided now was empty. Pools of blood gathered beneath her, she choked and spluttered on the crimson that filled her throat. 

Sam gathered the girl into her arms. “Base, base, this is Foxtrot Alpha, we’ve been hit. I repeat we’ve been hit. One casualty. Position outer edge, I repeat our position is outer edge. We need medical immediately. Over.” The girl hastily reported the information into the radio fastened to her shoulder.   

“Rodger, Foxtrot Alpha. ETA 10 minutes. Over.” The radio crackled back. 

“Base, base, we need more urgent care, send in a bird. Over.” Sam debated.  

“No can do, FA, we can’t reveal our position. Over.” The man replied. 

“We just got fucking blown up, our position has already been revealed!” Sam yelled down the receiver. The radio didn’t answer back. 

The blonde quickly got to work tourniqueting both of Abby’s legs to slow the blood loss. 

“Sam. I’m cold.” The girl didn’t move but her hand reached out trying to find the older blonde. Sam made her way back to her side, there was nothing else medically she could do for her. She again bundled the girl into her lap and stroked her hair. 

“Everything is fine, Abby. They’ll be here soon.” She tried to reassure the young girl. 

“I’m tired.” The brunette whispered, her eyes fluttering closed. 

“No, no. Abby, you have to stay awake. Look at me, open your eyes and look at me.” Sam begged her hand gently tapping the girl’s cheek to keep her attention. 

“Sam?” Abby asked gently. 

“Yeah, what is it?” The older girl leant down to hear her better. 

Abby reached up and with shaky fingers pulled her dog tags from inside her top. “Can you give this to my Mum? Tell her I love her, ok?” Tears rolled down her cheeks and into her hair. 

“Abby, you give it to her yourself when you get home.” Sam shook her head and pushed away the necklace she offered her.  

“You and I both know that isn’t going to happen.” Abby smiled weakly. A whimper escaped Sam’s lips. 

“It’s ok Sam.” The dying girl reassured the older woman. “How could we have known?” 

Somehow the girl had read Samantha’s mind, it was her patrol that she was supposed to do, but Abby had offered instead, and she let her. Sam let her go, knowing it was her responsibility. It was her fault that the girl now lay in the middle of an abandoned town halfway across the world from her home dying.

“I’m glad it was me.” Abby’s bloodied hand reached up to rub away the tears that had escaped Sam’s eyes without her knowing. “Tell my mum, ok, you tell her she was my last thought.” 

“Sam!!” The blonde was shaken awake. A gasp left her lips as she sat bolt upright. 

“Are you ok?” A concerned looking Mars knelt beside her, “You were screaming in your sleep.” 

The older girl must’ve fallen asleep completely, she hadn’t had that dream in years. Sam clutched at her racing heart. 

“Bad dream. Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you.” She apologised noting it was still dark out, the fire was in its last stages of life, so it must’ve been early morning. 

“You’ve never had a bad dream before.” Mars whispered, she had woken up in a panic hearing the cries of the older girl. 

“Cause I don’t sleep.” Sam confessed. The younger girl’s brows furrowed in concern. 

“Like ever? How are you alive?” Mars asked scooting closer so the two could whisper. 

The taller girl let out a sigh before replying, “My mum left when I was five, I stopped being able to fall completely asleep. Any noise would wake me, it could have been the quietest noise but I would still hear it.” 

Mars laid her hand on her friend's knee and nodded, signalling for her to continue. 

“I would wake when my father would get home. It was like clock work, my body would jolt me awake at the sound of his keys in the door. From then on I never fell deeply asleep. That’s why we never did watches, cause I knew if I heard something I would wake up.” Sam dragged her hand down her face.

“When I was little, if I ever fell into a deep sleep it would be plagued with gruesome nightmares, things that haunted me, my biggest fears.” The older girl admitted. She had never told anyone about her sleeping habits or the terrible nightmares she suffered from. 

“My brain protects me and never lets me sleep fully.” Sam had been through enough trauma in her life to make the nightmares she had the worst, worse than any horror movie she had ever watched. Her experiences were far more terrifying.  

“Who’s Abby?” Mars asked in a soft tone, craning her neck down trying to see the older girl’s face in the dim light of the morning.

“I’ll tell you another time.” 

Mars didn’t push, this was the most the older girl had ever shared about her past, and though it was awful to hear, Mars was glad she felt safe enough to let her in. 

“Get some sleep before we have to be up again.” Sam nudged Marleen back to her own bed and tucked her in when she lay down. 

“Will you sleep?” The younger girl asked, peering her head out from her blanket. 

“See you in the morning, Bam.” And with that the older girl rolled over and laid down. She waited for Marleen to fall back to sleep before she slipped out of the tent. 

Samantha prodded the dying fire with a stick, there was no chance of her lying back down and trying to rest, she had had enough excitement for one night. 

“Can’t sleep?” A voice pulled her from her thoughts. She whipped around readying herself for a fight. 

“Woah! It’s just me.” Shifty held out his hand showing he meant no harm. 

“Sorry, force of habit.” The girl excused her jumpy nature. The young man sat himself beside Sam, not close enough that they were touching, but not far enough away she didn’t feel his warmth. 

“Why are you up?” Sam asked him. 

“Someone wouldn’t quit snoring.” He gestured his head backwards towards the tent that him and Lip shared. Loud growling noises came from inside the shelter. “I mean, is he starting a car?” 

Sam couldn’t help but laugh, it did sound exactly like an old car failing to rev to life. 

“Plus I heard some commotion coming from over your way.” Shifty looked back over to the tent where Sam had left the flap open a tad to see in and make sure Mars was ok. 

“Sorry, that would’ve been me.” Sam went back to prodding the fire with her stick, her knees curled up into her chest as she rested her chin on them. 

“It’s ok, no one really sleeps well now.” Shifty grabbed his own stick as she shuffled around the hot coals mimicking the girl he sat beside. “I’m used to it though. Reminds me of hunting trips with my Dad. You never really slept the best, always had an ear out for the creatures.”

There was a beat of silence between the pair. Before Sam worked up the courage to ask. 

“Where is your Dad?” She didn’t want it to be bad news but the way the young man spoke about him with such love she wanted to know more. 

She watched as Shifty’s smile faded and she cursed silently under her breath. Nice one Sam.

“I didn’t get home in time. I was driving to get him. I had everything packed and ready, the car was fueled, all I needed was him. Then when I got home I looked everywhere. Last place I looked I found him. Maybe if I had looked there first I could’ve got to him in time. But he was much older than the other parents. I was an accident, a happy one, but still not planned.”

“All that hunting had got to his hearing, why he was always so strict with us kids about wearing our protection. I guess he didn’t hear it coming. The beast had slaughtered him from behind, ripped his neck clean open, killed him in the process. He didn’t even come back as one of them. I didn’t really have time to mourn cause the beast tried to come for me next, I fought him off but then.” Shifty swallowed. 

“Then Mama got home from school, she was a teacher, she came out back and called for us. Distracted the thing and it charged for her. And I missed, the one shot I should’ve never failed, and I missed. It got her, and then-” He quickly wiped away the tears that streaked down his cheeks. 

“I didn’t have the heart. That was my Mama. I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her, even if it wasn’t her anymore. So I left. The car didn’t last long, everyone else was driving like crazy, caused me to be run off the road. Grabbed what I could carry and now here I am.” 

“I’m so sorry, Shifty.” The man seemed so lovely and sweet, Sam felt awful making him relive that day. 

“I’m sure everyone has had a pretty awful time.” The young man sniffed. “I’m just glad I found those guys.” 

“Yeah, they seem nice.” Sam nodded. 

They fell back into comfortable silence until the sun rose fully, and the birds in the trees chirped loudly. 

The rest of the group slowly made their way from their tents. Everyone packed down quickly and ate before they were off moving again. 

Moving through the Susquehannock state forest wasn’t easy, thankfully Shifty seemed to know the woods well. The terrain was difficult and treacherous at times, there were pros and cons to this. It meant no one else was up there with them, but it was hard work and dangerous. The days were long, climbing up and down steep hills and fighting through thick bush that had never been trekked before. 

It took them longer than it would’ve to go around the state forest, but this offered them safety in a way. 

The weather was unpredictable as well, the mountains were high and when a storm moved in it was fast and vicious. Often the group was caught unawares, scrambling for cover from the weather. 

But Shifty was able to lead them through the state forest, stopping them from getting lost multiple times in the dense brush that had them turned around. 

“Girls!” Lip called to the two ladies who walked ahead of the group. Mars paused her conversation to turn and look over her shoulder, Lip was signalling for them to stop. 

Mars and Sam made their way back towards the group which had paused. 

“Everyone alright?” Marleen asked as her eyes scanned over the men, looking for any signs of distress. 

“We’re pretty low on supplies, we'll need to make a stop in the next city if we can.” Shifty said. 

It took less than a day to trek to Emporium, so they had an hour or two to search the town for supplies. Food and water were always the first priority- anything else was a bonus. 

The five of them managed to clear several abandoned buildings, but only found a few odd cans of food and a single bottle of water. 

The light was fading and the decision was made to set up camp in an empty house. 

“You guys get some sleep first, Sam and I will take the first watch.” Marleen offered up, she took note of the annoyed look Sam shot her but chose to ignore it. 

The girls took their post in the living room while the three men chose to sleep in one of the bedrooms, leaving the other empty. 

“So…” Marleen prompted her friend. Sam kept silent, giving her a blank look.

“What do you think of them?” Mars continued after realising Sam wasn’t planning on starting up a conversation. Before the older woman could answer, Marleen spoke up again, “They’re pretty cool, right?” 

Samantha shrugged which caused her younger companion to roll her eyes in jest. 

“I know you don’t like people-“ Mars scooted across the couch so she sat directly next to Sam, “But I think we should stay with them.” Her voice was soft like she was testing the boundaries. 

Mars noticed Sam’s facial expression twist and quickly added, “I know Denver, he’s a good guy! Plus Lip and Shifty are both really smart. We probably wouldn't have made it through that forest without them.” Her words tumbled out in one breath. 

“Okay.”

“Wait, I really think- uh wha… did you just say okay?” Her mouth hung open. Mars was expecting more of a fight from her tall friend. She wanted so badly to follow up with a whole bunch of questions but didn’t want Sam to change her mind or take it back so she did her very best to stay quiet. 

“These guys are…decent.” Sam managed to say, straining as if the words hurt to say. 

“Woah, was that a compliment?” Marleen teased, grinning at Samantha.

The older girl turned her head away to hide the smallest of smiles from her easily excitable friend. 

Was this a new leaf the older girl had turned?

——————————

Morning broke over the small town, the girls both rose with the sun. It had become their new norm. 

The boys had already packed since they were on the later watch together. 

“You girls ready?” Shifty poked his head into the room the pair occupied.  

“We sure are, Shifty!” Mars replied every so cheerily. 

“Well isn’t someone chipper for a 6 o’clock start.” The young man noted, sending a bright smile back to the petite girl who grinned up at him. Her smile was infectious. 

“Yeah, too happy.” Sam observed, looking over the suspiciously joyful blonde, “What’s got you so excited?” 

“Nothing!” Mars’ high pitched sing-songy voice told the older girl otherwise. But the younger of the two kept her mouth shut about what had made her so excited. 

“Just excited for a brand new day.” The girl bounced to her feet. As the older one groaned. 

“Don’t go all disney princess on me Bam, I think that may actually kill me!” Sam mocked being stabbed in the heart, letting her eyes roll back in her head and she stuck her tongue out to the side. 

Mars swatted the older girl. “Sam! Don’t” The young girl pretended to do CPR on the tall lady. 

“You guys are on a new level of strange.” Shifty laughed at the pair's antics.  

“We need more supplies, we hardly got any from this town.” The trio had walked into Lip complaining as he rummaged through his gear. 

“I agree.” Bull nodded, his head lifted as the group entered the once nicely furnished lounge that now was a wreck. 

“Girls, how did you sleep?” Denver asked. 

“Very well, Denver!” Mars skipped over to him as she slung her arm around his shoulders, he knelt on the ground so the short girl was able to reach them. If he was standing she would’ve had to jump. 

“We think we should stop at the next town over. We barely got enough to last us more than a few days.” Lipton shared his thoughts with the group. 

“I think so too.” Sam nodded, they had only been able to obtain one bottle of water that was not going to last very long. They needed to restock. 

The next town over was Johnsonburg, 30 miles away, they would be able to make it to the edge of town by nightfall.

After an 11 hour walk they had made it to the outskirts of Johnsonburg. Mars perched on a flat log that laid on the ground. 

“Will we set up camp and go in tomorrow?” She asked as she took a sip from her bottle. The group had moved relatively fast and she was tired. 

“I think that’s best.” Lip stood beside her looking out into the distance. “We don’t want to be tired going into the town. Best we get some shut eye and food into us. Then tomorrow we take Johnsonburg.” Lipton propped his foot on top of the log that Mars sat on, he looked like an explorer, with his hands on his hips and a tall stance. 

“Ok Christopher Columbus, cool it.” Sam had arrived behind the pair. Lipton laughed at Sam’s comparison. 

“Let’s get a small fire started.” Bull announced sending everyone to work. 

—----------------------------------------------

“Shifty, is it clear your way?” Sam asked as she glanced around her corner trying to find any signs of life or death. 

“Yeah all clear.” He whispered from next to her. “Call ‘em through.” Sam signalled from over her shoulder calling the rest of the group forward to where they stood. 

The three other’s slowly appeared from the brush they had been hiding in. They crouched behind Sam and Shifty who were currently leading the scope through the small town. 

“Let’s go.” The duo moved together in unison, they each took a side as they swept their surroundings. 

The group moved slowly through the small city, they had found a few abandoned stores with more goods than they found in the last one. 

“Is everyone happy with their haul?” Shifty looked around the group as people stashed items into their bags. 

“Right, we should move out. Then we can do a stock take and see what we want to do from there.” Bull informed the rest of his peers who agreed. 

And just like that the group set off; Mars, still in her spectacular mood, skipped ahead of the others. She sang to herself, mumbling the words as if she didn’t quite know them. 

The distance Marleen was putting between herself and the rest of the crowd was starting to concern Samantha. 

“Stop skipping, Bambi.” The older girl told her younger peer. 

“I won’t trip this time!” The excitable blonde called over her shoulder, not slowing her pace or watching we’re she was going- a dangerous combination. 

Especially when rounding a corner. 

“Wait! Mars!” Sam had seen the shorter girls path and just knew something was coming. She began jogging to catch up with her companion but it was too late.

Marleen had smacked straight into something and fallen flat on her ass. 

“Mars!” Sam’s jog turned into a run, her only thought was getting to the girl and protecting her from whatever evil she may have encountered. 

The footsteps of the men in their group followed her and Sam drew her gun, preparing for the worst. 

“Mars, are you-“ The tall blonde wasn’t able to finish her sentence, she cut herself off when she noticed the presence of other humans. 

Instinctively, her arms raised up and aimed her weapon their way. 

“Who the fuck are you?” She growled out, eyes squinting into a menacing glare. 

There were three of them- three men. 

One sat in the same position as Marleen, rubbing a spot on his head. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that he and Mars had- quite literally- run into each other. 

Sam rushed to the young blonde and used one hand to grab ahold of her arm and heaved her upwards until she was on her feet. 

Her other hand still pointed the loaded gun at these strangers. 

“I told you to stop skipping.” Sam's voice was low, almost threatening as she told off the recovering woman. 

Mars looked down, slightly embarrassed but didn’t open her mouth to speak, instead pouting like a child. It made Sam feel like she was a mother telling off her excitable child who refused to listen. 

One of the other men mirrored Sam’s actions, shuffling closer to his fallen friend and picking him up. He also sent the younger man a scolding look- something told Sam he had been doing something similar to Mars when they crashed into each other. 

“Sorry about that. Purely accidental, it won’t happen again, right Luz?” The oldest stranger spoke, his last words were aimed at his companion, who scratched the back of his neck and nodded.

“We’re not looking for any trouble, okay?” The oldest told Sam, raising his hands to her as he eyed up her gun, “We’ll just be on our way. No harm done.” 

“Wait, Martin! Maybe they could help us?” The third man finally spoke up. 

“Yeah, maybe they know about Idaho?” ‘Luz’ added. The two shorter men flanked the leader of their little trio- Martin. 

“No, I don’t think-“ But Martin never finished. 

“What do you need help with?” Marleen's sweet voice sounded. Sam wanted to slap a hand over the girl's mouth; how could she be so trusting of literal strangers? 

Sam still had her gun out, pointing towards the newcomers but she had noticed they weren’t copying her actions. She wasn’t sure if that should settle her nerves or not and decided to keep her weapon drawn, just in case. 

“We got robbed a couple days ago.” The brown haired Luz offered up. He got a dirty look from Martin but completely ignored it. 

“Yeah, they took all our food and water.” The third guy added on. 

“We’ve been going from building to building trying to find something but it looks like this whole town has been looted.” Luz continued. 

“Oh my gosh! That’s so rude, they didn’t leave you anything? I mean, how hard is it to look for supplies for yourself? No, they had to steal it from you guys? Unbelievable.” The young blonde said, her emotions were plastered on her face, easy to read. 

Sam could tell where this was heading and tried to shut it down before Mars started to work herself up. 

“Marleen. No.” Sam’s voice was stern and her look was even sterner but Marleen wasn’t even fazed. She pouted at her friend and pushed her eyebrows together, silently pleading with the older woman. Sam shook her head but Mars only stuck her bottom lip out more before mouthing ‘please’. 

That had Sam rolling her eyes in defeat. She glanced over at the men they had been travelling with and saw no qualms. 

“Fine. But only because we just stocked up, we can’t afford to do this every time we meet strays.” Sam had to put her foot down, but let the matter slide for just this one time. 

“Hi!” Mars jumped ahead and was already shaking hands with the men, she hadn’t even waited for confirmation from the older lady before introducing herself.

“I’m Marleen, call me Mars, pleased to meet you guys!” She shook the hand of the man who had bumped into her, so hard his whole arm moved. He mirrored her action, shaking her back with vigour.

“George Luz, but everyone calls me handsome.” He threw a charming smile over Mars’ shoulder to Sam who visibly cringed at the terrible line. 

“Luz.” Martin, the older man, growled. 

“What? I was just introducing myself.” George grinned as he sauntered over to the taller woman. 

“What might your name be?” The shorter man purred as he picked up Sam’s hand from her side. 

“Uninterested.” Sam snatched her hand away as she saw Luz craning his neck down to kiss the back of it. 

“That’s Sam. She isn’t that friendly to newcomers.” Mars introduced the girl, knowing she wouldn’t do it herself and the male members of the group nodded in agreement. 

“Enchanté.” George didn’t seem all that fazed at the displeasure that the tall woman wore on her face.  

Sam stepped back from the interested man, all he did was smile up at her undeterred by her indifference. 

“Johnny Martin, you can call me Martin.” The older man stepped forward and politely shook Marleen's hand, “And this here is Perco.” He gestured behind him. 

“Frank Perconte.” The short man waved to the group who nodded back in greeting. 

“Ok, enough with the introductions. We’re exposed here and it’s getting dark. We need to move.” Sam’s eyes scoured their surroundings, the coast appeared clear but it could be easily changed in a heartbeat. 

“Bossy. I like it.” Luz smirked at the stern woman. Marleen couldn’t help but giggle at the look on Sam’s face. 

“Let’s go.” Sam said to the group, ignoring the chocolate haired man. The taller girl made sure to secure Marleen’s hand before she stalked off, hand in hand with her grinning companion. 

Oof another gut punching chapter, poor Sam has seen some shit. But then we got more boys whoop whoop. Luz and Mars are gonna be besties I can tell!! And Sam is gonna be pissed that there is now two Mars' lmaooooo!! We also got the lovely Martin who is so Fatherly, which we love, these girls need some guidance. And we have the cutie patootie which is Perco, someone get this man a toothbrush and toothpaste stat!!!!!

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy

Chapter Ten: Stranger Danger 

It had been an awkward walk. Marleen was clearly still pissed at Sam and Sam, well she didn’t know how to relieve the tension. So they walked in silence, which was odd for the chatter-box that was Marleen. But every time she went to open her mouth to speak to Sam, she quickly snapped it shut, remembering the harsh words and new promise Sam had made to her the previous night. 

The older girl’s words flashed through her head, ‘Mars, I think it’s best if we do find someone else to take you.’ 

‘There are better people to help you on your journey.’

‘I am sorry, Mars.’ 

Each time Sam’s voice echoed in her head the more she became angry all over again. 

Mars grunted in frustration as she kicked a rock with force. It flung ahead and pelted into the tree in front of her. Her eyes followed the trajectory of the stone and saw movement. 

Sam had noticed the same, signalling for the pair to stop. Even though she was angry, Mars still abided by the rules. Crouching down next to her taller so-called ‘friend’, they strained their eyes and ears to listen. 

Marleen's eyes widened with shock. She sprung from her hiding spot and sprinted forward towards the familiar voice. 

“Marleen!” Sam called out quietly. Mars had been too quick from her position; she didn’t even have time to lunge for her. 

“For fucks sake.” Sam went against every fibre of her being and ran after the petite blonde woman. 

The younger of the two couldn’t help the smile that plastered itself onto her face. She dove for her target, pelting him full force in the chest. The man who she now had in a bear hug, ‘oofed’ out at her sudden attack. 

“Denver!” She squealed in so much delight. The man’s face went from shocked - to puzzled - to pure joy. 

“Hands off!” Sam emerged from the bushes with her gun raised, she aimed it right between the big man’s eyes. 

“You’ll have to tell her that.” The man’s southern tone quipped. He was right, it was Marleen who clung to him like a limpet. 

“Mars, what the hell are you doing?” Sam questioned the younger girl, had she lost her damn mind all together or was she that pissed at Sam she was endangering her own life to get back at her. 

“What happened? How did you get here? Did you get hurt? I’ve been looking for you everywhere. Do you know how happy I am to see you!” Marleen couldn’t shut up, her word vomit was like a broken dam; forever spilling from her lips. 

“Woah, now hold up there, little lady. Take a breath before you faint.” Denver smiled down at his young neighbour, Mars had no idea how relieved he was to see her alive and well. 

The built man pressed the young girl into his chest to hold her tightly. “My girl, I’ve missed you so much.” He pulled back with teary eyes. 

“I missed you so so so so so so so-”

Denver cut her off with a soft kiss to her forehead, “So much.” He finished her sentence for her. 

Marleen practically shook with delight, she couldn’t contain her excitement, “I could scream. I won’t, but I could.” 

“Wait, I am.” She pressed her face into the man’s big chest like he was a pillow and screeched with all her might. 

“My goodness. Good to see that the end of the world hasn’t dimmed your sparkle, young lady.” The pair couldn’t tear their eyes away from each other, forgetting their surroundings completely. 

Until a clearing of someone’s throat pulled them back down to earth. 

“Well, that was quite a reunion.” The taller man that had been walking with Denver interrupted. Mars finally stepped back from her beloved neighbour. 

She took in her surroundings. Sam still stood with a rigid posture, hands tightly gripped around her weapon. Mars was going to tell her to relax but the two men who stood with Denver captured her attention before she could do so. 

“You going to introduce us, Bull?” The shortest man spoke. Mars couldn’t help but smile at him, his face was built with soft features and kind brown eyes. He looked familiar and inviting. 

“I’m Marleen Finch. But you can call me Mars.” She didn’t wait for Denver to introduce her, she stuck out her hand for the man to shake. A smile broke onto his lips and she eagerly smiled back as he gently shook her hand. 

“Darrell Powers, but everyone calls me Shifty.” He introduced himself to the young blonde. 

After shaking his hand she turned to the taller leaner man, “Pleased to meet you.” She greeted everyone in her friendly manner. 

“Carwood Lipton, call me Lip, ma’am.” The tall man politely spoke. 

“You can lower your weapon miss, we mean no harm.” Denver's soft voice pulled Mars’ attention back to Sam. 

“Bam, how do you know him?” Sam asked questioningly, still not shifting from her defensive stance. Mars forgot that Sam wasn’t as eagerly pleased to see other human life like she was.

“Oh, um. Sam, this is Denver. He is my neighbour. We were together at the start of the outbreak and then I lost him, we got split up by a hoard. I was by myself for a bit before you found me. But he saved my life. This was the nice neighbour I told you about.” 

Mars had avoided talking about Denver, feeling too sad and guilty about losing him. She conveniently ‘forgot’ to tell Sam how she ended up in her predicament and Sam being Sam, she never asked.    

“Denver, Lip and Shifty. This is my good friend Samantha-uh, Sam.” Mars paused, trying to recall her surname but came up blank. Sam hadn’t told her what her last name was. “She saved my life a couple of weeks ago.” 

The men smiled at her cheerily, but unlike with Mars they kept their distance from Sam. 

“Hi.” Sam’s retort was short, she wasn’t planning to stay long or get to know these men. 

“Well, Mars. This looks like the group for you.” Sam tucked her gun back into the holster on her hip. 

“You aren’t planning to stay?” Lipton asked. 

“Mars and I thought it would be for the best if we split up. We were just looking for a safe group for her to join.” But during her explanation Mars huffed in displeasure. 

“We? No, I never said we should split up. But old Sam here doesn’t think I am safe with her.” Mars’ turned to Bull to complain. 

“Would you like to spend a few days with us? If you truly don’t want to stay, we won’t force you.” Denver offered a solution. 

“Yes.” 

“No.” 

The girls both replied in tandem. 

“Don’t listen to Sam. Yes, she will take that offer. Thank you Denver.” 

“Marleen!” Sam tried to argue, but the younger girl held up her hand, in turn silencing Sam. 

“Stay and make sure I’m safe. You promised.” Mars’ tone was firm, she didn’t fuck around with pinky promises. 

“Fine.” The older girl sighed, rolling her eyes at the smug looking Mars. 

After the awkward introduction and decision to stay as a group, everyone continued on in their journey. 

“Where are you guys heading?” Mars asked as she walked alongside Denver, “And what’s with Bull?” She had caught the nickname that Lip had called the larger man. 

“We are heading to a safe zone in Idaho.” Denver informed his smaller counterpart. 

“And Bull got his name from when we first met.” Lip interrupted their conversation, he fell into step next to Denver. 

“Do tell.” Mars pried, curious to know the reason for the odd nickname. 

“Well, Shifty and I watched this behemoth of a man tip a whole car onto an oncoming hoard. He was like a bull on steroids. Hence the name.” Lip clapped his friend on the shoulder as he grinned widely. 

“The car was already half tipped.” Denver ever so modestly clarified. But Lip only laughed and squeezed the man’s shoulder. 

“So, what’s up with your friend?” Bull leant in to whisper to Mars, his eyes cast forward on the lone walking woman ahead of them. 

“Well, when I lost you I thought I could try and find you in Albany. So I did my very best and made my way there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find you, but a group of unfriendly men did. Sam had arrived just as things were getting hairy and saved my ass. I have been superglued to her side ever since.” Mars explained the nature of their meeting. 

“She’s not much of a talker.” The young blonde started and stopped when Bull started to laugh. 

“What?” She asked, tilting her head in confusion. 

“Marleen, you aren’t one to be quiet. Poor girl, you must’ve chatted her ear off.” Denver teased the young woman. 

Mars chuckled and nodded her head in confirmation. 

“So, where’s she from?” Bull naturally enquired about Marleen’s friend. 

“Uh-“ she started, searching her brain for the information, “I’m not sure.” The young blonde shrugged, but Denver’s brows furrowed together. 

“What did she do?” He asked another basic question, one that Mars would surely know. 

“I- I don’t know.” Mars shyly replied. 

“Where is she going?” Bull continued in his line of questioning. She surely had to know something about the girl. 

“I-uh. Um.” The young girl stalled before she sighed, “She didn’t tell me. But in hindsight I can’t remember asking.” 

“Marleen, how long have you known Sam?” Denver questioned his young friend. 

“Like two weeks.” Mars replied meekly, ducking her head out of view. “I told you she isn’t chatty!” 

Bull laughed and swung his arm around the young girl's shoulders and squeezed her in tightly. He had so dearly missed Mars, and was thanking his lucky stars that she had found someone, however mysterious, to keep her safe and well. 

—--------------------------------

Sam walked ahead of the group, she could hear them chatting behind her. Mars seemed thrilled to be reunited with her neighbour, but Sam felt on edge. 

This was now more people she didn’t know and quite frankly didn’t really want to try and get to know. She had gone against everything in her being to befriend the young blonde but now there were three new people. 

“SR-25.” The young man fell into step with Sam. 

“Yeah, government issued.” The tall woman glanced over her shoulder to her army rifle that was slung over her back. 

“Army?” Shifty asked.

“Three years.” Sam confirmed with a nod. “I am, was, a specialist.” 

“You served?” She queried, the man seemed to know his rifles.

“No. But I do enjoy hunting. My father loved to hunt and shoot, taught me everything he knew.” The young man seemed to beam with pride speaking of his father. He appeared to take him in high regard. 

“You must be a good shot.” Sam hummed in agreement. 

“No, no. I’m not a good shot. Now Dad, he was an excellent shot- excellent, I declare. He could shoot the wings off a fly.” 

“Don’t listen to Shifty, Sam.” Lip caught up with the pair as Bull and Mars were hot on his heels, “That boy is the best sharp shooter I’ve ever met. He can toss a coin in the air and hit it with his rifle. Hits it dead centre every time.” The taller man boasted about his shorter friend who blushed.  

“Ah, I’m not that good.” Shifty smiled widely up at the taller man. 

“Shifty, you’re too modest.” Bull chimed in, patting the man on his shoulder. 

Mars smiled along the line that fell into step with Sam and Shifty. Even though she had only known the two men for a couple of hours she could tell they had the same nature as her neighbour. 

The group had made camp in a clearing in the woods. The men had their own tents, and equipment, so Sam and Mars kept their sleeping arrangement. 

Mars quickly set up the tent a couple of metres away from the firepit as Sam searched for wood to burn. She laid flat their sleeping bags and slotted their bags into the opening of the shelter before she zipped it up. 

The young girl perched on the log next to Sam as she started the fire. She watched the girl lean over and spark the flint. Mars sighed in content resting her head on the older girl’s back as she worked. 

“You allgood, Bam?” Sam checked in, cursing slightly when the wind blew out her small fire. 

“Just happy we are altogether.” The blonde let her heavy eyes close as she listened to her friend's steady breathing. 

Mars seemed to be more exhausted than normal. After Sam had successfully started her fire and sat up straight the younger girl let out a groan of complaint. Samantha didn’t think much of what she was doing as she pulled the petite blonde’s torso into her lap. Mars’ head laid on her legs as she snuggled in getting comfortable. 

“Sleepy?” Sam questioned the quiet girl. She nodded, her eyes still closed. “Must’ve been all that excitement. Huh, Bam?” Sam ran her fingers through the girl's hair. 

It was oddly second nature and unlike before it didn’t feel uncomfortable. Sam felt as if she had a small kitten nestled into her lap. 

Mars mumbled incoherently. Sam craned her head down to hear her better. 

“What?” She whispered not wanting to disturb the settled girl. 

“Stay.” Mars said sleepily, her breathing quickly turned even as she fell asleep.  

“She’s tuckered out.” Bull said as he took a seat next to Sam. 

The tall blonde nodded her head looking down at the now peaceful girl on her lap. 

“I wanted to say thank you.” Bull started, making Sam look up. 

“For what?” Her brows furrowed, she had done nothing to this man for him to give thanks. 

“Looking after Marleen. You don’t really seem like the type of person to take kindly to strangers.” Bull had made a quick assumption about the girl, but he wasn’t wrong. 

“And I’ll be the first to say she can be quite a handful.” The bulky man jested, attempting to lighten the mood and extend an olive branch. Sam smirked, she knew exactly what he meant. 

“So, where are you from Sam?” Shifty asked as he sat across from the pair on the log they had placed on the other side of the fire.  

“Massachusetts.” Sam replied politely, it seemed like Mars had rubbed off on her. “Where are you all from?” 

“I lived above Mars in New York but I’m originally from Arkansas.” Sam could tell that Bull was a country boy from the thick twang of his accent. 

“I’m from Virginia and Lip is from West Virginia.” Shifty answered for his friend who settled beside him with a smile. 

“We met up when we were both trying to flee the state.” Lip added. “We both appeared to be heading in the same direction, so we stuck together. And then we found Bull wandering on his lonesome, so we had to pick him up.” 

“Yeah, the boys found me just in time.” Bull replied with his head down. The two other men shared a sad smile. 

“Did something happen?” Sam finally caved and asked the group. 

“A group had found me prior to these two, took everything I had and roughed me up a bit. Bastards left me for dead.” The larger man frowned in displeasure at the memory. 

“When we found him he hadn’t eaten or drunk in days and had some serious blood loss.” Shifty noted. “Didn’t seem fair ten against one.” 

Sam’s brows raised in shock. It was sick how people thought they could get away with anything during this time. But then her own actions flooded through her head, the way she had killed that man was nothing but brutal. However, Sam would never leave someone half dead and struggling. She always finished her jobs. 

“It’s been crazy out there.” Sam stated as the rest of the group nodded. 

“Yeah, people have kinda lost their minds.” Lip agreed. 

They spent the rest of the night sharing stories around the campfire, it was mostly the men who talked amongst themselves while Sam listened. Mars by the end of the evening was still sleeping soundly in the older girl’s lap. 

“Would you like some help?” Bull asked as Sam looked down at Mars trying to figure out how to get the both of them back into bed without waking her. 

“Oh, yes please.” The tall girl lent back as Denver scooped the small girl from her lap and into his arms. He seemed to lift her with ease, the girl snuggled into his warmth as she buried her face into his chest. 

Bull and Sam walked to their tent, Sam opened the sleeping bag for the large man to carefully place Mars. Once she had been sufficiently tucked in, Bull ran his hand over the sleeping girl’s hair. 

“Night, you two.” He whispered waving Sam goodbye as he made his way back over to where the other men had set up their tents. 

The taller girl got into her own sleeping bag and laid her head on her makeshift pillow, which was just t-shirts she hadn’t used yet scrunched into a ball. 

Mars lay facing towards her, her features were at rest. At that moment Sam didn’t think she had anyone look so at peace. The older girl reached over to her sleeping friend and brushed the stray hair away from her face. 

“I’ll stay.” Sam whispered before she turned over and fell asleep herself. 

Taglist: @malarkgirlypop , @mellow-human , @next-autopsy

Chapter Nine: It’s All Fun and Games

Sam’s POV 

Sam quickly found that for anything to really stick into Mars’ brain she had to make it interesting. 

The young girl tended to zone out when Sam was trying to explain complicated and boring drills. Marleen loved to talk about her family, typically her brothers. During her childhood growing up on her big property she often played games with her two older siblings. 

Sam knew of children's games but in her upbringing she didn’t seem to play them, mostly because she never had any friends to play them with and even in her youth seemed to isolate herself from everyone else. 

Mars’ voice pulled the older from her thoughts, “I actually think I was the best at ‘Sneak up Granny’, I have a knack for being stealthy.” The blonde boasted. A huff of amusement passed through Sam’s nose, unbelieving that this girl could be quiet for two seconds, let alone long enough to sneak up on someone. 

“Yeah, sure you were, Bam.” The nickname had become even shorter but Sam for some reason couldn’t help herself, “So, how do you play ‘sneaky grannies’?” 

Mars laughed at Sam whose brows furrowed, unsure of what was so funny, “You're hilarious!” The girl managed to say through her hysterics. Once she had sobered herself, wiping the tears from her eyes, she sighed. 

“It’s ‘Sneak up Granny’, first of all. Secondly, you really don’t know how to play? What about in school?” Marleen asked, but the tall girl replied with yet another shake of her head. 

“Do you want to play? Is that why you’re asking?” The young blonde’s eyes grew wide with excitement. 

“No.” Sam shut down the idea before Mars had a stroke, “It would just help me imagine it better.” The older girl lied, knowing she was using Marleen’s schoolyard games to ease the lessons into the shorter girl’s memories. 

Mars’ eyes squinted with suspicion. But Sam gave her the smallest smile back and it seemed to work the trick when a huge grin broke out on the younger girl's face. 

“Well, someone is ‘Granny’ and they stand ahead of the group and you try to sneak up and tag her, when she turns around you have to freeze. If you get caught moving you get sent back to the start.” The blonde explained as Sam nodded along, “When she turns around she holds up her fist as she searches for someone near her to tag, if you get tagged, you also get sent back to the start.” 

“Like this?” Sam held up her fist and Mars confirmed with a nod. 

“Well, how about when I raise my hand like this,” she demonstrated, holding out her closed fist, “It means stop. Just like in the game.” 

“Oh, I like that!” Mars agreed happily, “We should practise!” 

Marleen quickly picked up the new skill. Sam would walk ahead and hold up her fist until she wanted the young blonde to follow. When Sam relaxed her hand into an open palm with her fingers pointing to the sky, Mars would walk forward to join the girl. 

The more time the girls spent together, the more Sam implemented drills and survival techniques into games for Mars. She was picking up what Sam taught her quickly. They spent the day coming up with ideas to help Mars remember all of the things Sam wanted her to learn. 

“Do you think we should make camp?” Mars asked, not because her feet felt like they were going to fall off or anything. She just thought it would be best to look for firewood in the last remaining hours of sunlight. 

Sam looked around, they were still deep in the forest and other than the random group they came across a day ago, they hadn’t really seen much else. 

“Sure, I’ll set up the tent. You want to grab wood?” The taller blonde asked, but when she heard no reply her head shot up. A tightness overwhelmed her senses as if someone had struck a blow to her gut. The feeling was relieved when she saw Mars skipping away from camp, stopping only to pick up fallen twigs and sticks from the ground. 

The older girl couldn’t shake the feeling that Mars had given her when she thought something had happened to the young woman. Never in her life had she felt that inherent fear. Sam chewed her lip as she gathered logs of her own and set them in front of the fireplace so that the girls had somewhere to sit. 

“Everything ok Sam?” Mars asked when she arrived back to camp. She threw down the armful of sticks she was holding, before dusting her hands off and sitting down on the logs Sam had placed. 

Samantha sat next to the girl, sorting through the kindling and bigger wood they would burn later. 

“Fine.” She replied but she was still so busy in her own thoughts to give Mars a proper answer. The older woman gathered the tinder into a small bundle, piling twigs on top. She struck the flint and allowed the flames to grow, eat away at the set campfire and provide warmth. 

“I love campfires.” Mars hummed in delight as the fire roared hot, she held her hands out soaking in the warmth it provided. “My family and I would do summer camping trips to Lake Shelbyville.” She reminisced fondly. 

“I think they were my favourite thing about summer break. Everyone would squeeze into the car and then we would have a road trip. I would always have to sit in the middle because Brendan and Rowan would fight each other. We would do ‘I spy’. And then my favourite part was choosing a campsite. Dad and I would scout ahead to find the most perfect spot.” While Mars chatted Sam put more wood on the fire so it could continue to burn. 

“Sounds nice.” The taller girl said as she continued in her task. 

“What about you? Did you go on family holidays?” Mars asked, turning her body to face Sam. 

The older woman chuckled coldly, her father took holidays but that was to get away from her. Sometimes she would live in her house for months without knowing the whereabouts of Robert. The nanny would be there when she was too young to be by herself. As soon as she came of age to be legally alone her father stopped hiring the lady who cared for Sam since she was a baby. 

Sam would remember coming home during her summer holidays to enough money on the bench to last her months, no note, no communication from her so called father. Then she usually spent her time off studying or fighting. 

The tall blonde looked over to the cheery young woman, a wide grin on her lips. She waited with anticipation for Sam to answer her, and the older girl didn’t have it in her heart to tell her the sad reality of her life. 

“My family was never the camping type.” Samantha put it gently and watched as the younger girl's smile faded into a sad expression. 

“Oh.” The melancholy noise fell from Mars’ mouth. Her expression turned quickly, a smile grew on her face as she spoke, “Hey, but we get to camp now!” 

Sam chuckled, the girl was forever an optimist,“I guess we are.” 

“Sucks we don’t have anything to make s’mores with, I was crowned best s’more maker in the family.” Mars bragged and the older girl couldn’t help but smile, “Oh, you liked that did you?” The young blonde jabbed Sam in the side, only to be startled when an odd yelp/scream sounded from the taller woman's throat.

Sam covered her mouth in shock as Mars gaped up at her friend. “What was that?” 

“N-nothing.” The older girl stuttered out, she had never made that noise in her life. 

“You’re ticklish!” Marleen was thrilled with her finding, the older girl was ticklish. Sam who had killed multiple rabids and appeared stoic at all times, was ticklish. 

“I’m not.” But the girl's movements said otherwise as she guarded her sides, “Don’t even think-“ Before she could finish her warning, Mars had lunged at her, hands outstretched and fingers wiggling. 

Laughter erupted from the typically straight faced woman, which only seemed to egg Mars on, giggling as she did so. Tickle fights had been a sibling specialty in her childhood- something in the way Sam spoke about her family and indicated she was an only child. 

Mars finally ceased her attack on the poor blonde who had tears streaming from her eyes due to her laughing so hard. 

“You’re a menace, Bambi!” 

“What can I say, with two older brothers you kinda have to be.” Marleen laughed, thinking about the countless times she had sneak attacked the boys. “Haven’t you had a tickle fight before?” The young girl enquired, she was intrigued to know more about the elusive Sam. 

“No siblings.” The older woman replied, her eyes trained on the fire that still burned brightly. 

“Your parents didn’t want anymore?” Mars knew she was pushing but she couldn’t help but investigate further. 

“My parents didn’t want kids, it just took them having me for them to find out.” The malice in her voice was hard to conceal. Sam forgot herself and the company she held. 

There was a beat of silence before a soft sniffle, the taller girl glanced over her shoulder to find a grief stricken face. Mars looked as if someone had shot her beloved pet and made her watch, her mouth hung open and water filled her eyes. 

“Oh! Marleen, I didn’t mean- uh.” Sam stumbled over her words unsure of how she was going to comfort the young woman. 

“Don’t cry, it’s ok. See, I’m fine.” Her reassurance didn’t seem to be working as the tears spilled over and ran down Marleen’s face.

With no idea of what exactly to do Sam went against all her instincts and laid her hand on Mars’ back. It felt awkward as she rubbed circles trying to comfort her. 

“There, there?” Sam cringed at herself, who the fuck says ‘there, there?’ 

With one deep breath the older girl lent in and wrapped her arm around Marleen’s shoulders. The young girl didn’t hesitate, burying her face into the crook of Sam’s neck. 

“At least they figured it out before they had more, right?” She gave a breathy chuckle, trying to lighten the mood but all it did was make the small blonde hiccup. 

“Oh, god. I am so bad at this.” Sam mumbled under her breath. 

“Don’t say that!” Marleen sobbed as she softly hit Sam in the chest with the back of her hand. Suddenly the younger girl pulled away, staring up at Samantha with red eyes, a blotchy face and a snotty nose. The taller girl bit her lip trying not to laugh at the sight of her. 

“What?” Mars asked as she swiped away the tears streaks from her cheeks with her hands. 

“You’re a goose.” The older girl shook her head and wiped away the remainder of the tears the Bambi had missed. Mars sniffled, before she chuckled.

“I’m not a goose!” Her words were defensive but the smile she had on her face told Sam that it was all in good fun, no real resentment or anger. 

“You shouldn’t cry for me though, Mars. Really. I’ve wallowed in enough self pity to last me lifetimes.” The older girl gently bumped their shoulders together. 

Marleen’s brows drew together as she huffed, “How could they not see how amazing you are?” 

Sam was truly defying her nature as she smoothed down the misplaced hair on the younger girl's head, “It doesn’t matter anymore.” 

The older girl had put her family far behind her, they were not her priority anymore. She had spent so much time just trying to be seen by them, she had lost herself completely. Sam had set herself a new goal, one that she had wanted to accomplish the day all of this had started. 

Sam wanted to be free. 

“I’m sorry for crying, I know you don’t like that-“ The shorter girl began, “It’s just so sad. Having to come to terms with the knowledge that your own parents didn’t want you, regretting having you. That’s-“ Marleen caught herself, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to rub it in.” 

She let out a sigh, unsure of what to say next. 

“You apologise too much.” Samantha noted. 

Mars’ POV: 

The routine the two women had fallen into was a fast paced one. Up with the sun, walk till sunset then set up a little camp and sleep. It was very physically demanding but that’s how they spent the past few days. 

Marleen trailed behind, huffing and puffing while she attempted to catch up with her companion. 

“We’ll need to stop for supplies, there's a small town up ahead.” Sam’s voice sounded and Mars nearly groaned out in relief. Stopping in a town usually meant slowing while they searched, which gave Marleen time to stretch out her sore limbs. 

“You know the drill?” The taller girl asked, they had done this so many times before, but this time was different. They had been practising new hand signals and in theory Mars had been picking them up well, but it was now time to put it to the test. 

Sam raised her fist and Mars knew what she needed her to do. The young blonde crouched down behind a fallen structure as she watched her friend creep forward. Samantha led with her gun, scoping around each corner making sure the coast was clear before signalling to the petite woman who patiently waited behind her to move forward. They continued this strategy as they made their way into the heart of the city. 

The town was eerily quiet, by now they would’ve come across at least a group of rabids, or even a small group of people. But nothing. The city was silent. Sam’s brows furrowed, something in her gut told her this wasn’t right. She flexed her closed fist open to signal for Mars to come forward. She waited for the sound of quiet footsteps behind her and then the heat of Marleen crouching down. 

But it never came. 

Her heart dropped, whipping her head over her shoulder. Marleen was nowhere to be seen. “Mars?” Sam whispered loudly. She turned back to where she last saw the younger blonde. 

“Marleen!” There was more urgency to her voice, “Fuck.” Sam cursed, standing from her position to get a better look of the area. 

“Looking for this?” A cold voice echoed from behind Sam. The girl’s heart dropped as she swung around again, weapon raised. A tall man with a long scar down his face held Marleen flush against him, his arm wrapped around her neck and gun pressed to her temple. 

“Mars.” Sam’s mouth dropped in shock, and for the first time in her life her hands shook with fear, but not for herself, for her smaller friend who was held captive. 

“Give me everything you have and you will get her back in one piece.” The man growled, tightening his hold on Marleen’s neck, she whimpered in pain. Her hands clasped around the man’s forearm trying to loosen his grip, she had to stand on her tippy toes so that she wasn’t fully engulfed into the man's large arms. 

“Who said I want her back.” Sam asked nonchalantly, lowering her gun. She watched as the poor girl’s eyes widened with shock and tears welled. 

“You’re together.” The man’s eyes scoured her with suspicion. 

“Hmm, not really.” Sam said in a bored tone, taking on more of a relaxed stance. “I was kinda forced into looking after her. But I’m not too fussed about her outcome. So, bye.” The taller girl turned on her heel and took two steps forward. She heard the man relax as well, he sighed in frustration, like he was about to let Mars go. 

In a quick movement, Samantha swung back around and sprinted full force towards the unassuming pair. 

In surprise, the man stepped back letting Mars go altogether. Sam pushed the young girl out of the way as she dived towards the man. Even though she was smaller than him, she hit him in a way that made it impossible for him to stay on his feet. Sam straddled the man’s upper body, her knees pinned down his arms by the crook of his elbows as she forced all of her weight forward. 

The scarred man cried out in pain as her fists started to fly, pummeling into the man’s face and head. Sam screamed as she crunched his nose back into itself, her fingers delved into his eye sockets and ripped his eyeballs from his skull. 

The man hollered in pain but still Sam never ceased her onslaught, she retrieved her knife from her boot slicing the man’s tongue from his throat. Only then when the man was gurgling on his own blood did she sit back on her haunches. Sam watched him slowly choke to death and then still. 

A sobbing noise pulled her from her trance. She glanced over to find a horrified Mars, her hands covering her mouth as she dry retched. Sam looked down to find herself covered in the man’s blood, her own knuckles were open and bleeding themselves. 

“Mars.” Sam started, but the girl only shook her head holding her hands out for the taller girl to stay away from her. 

“He was going to hurt you. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I’m sorry you had to see that, but I’m not one for leaving survivors. He would’ve done it to someone else, I couldn’t let him do that. He was clearly alone, so no one else was hurt. Mars, you have to believe me. I saved others, I swear.” Sam never had talked so much in her life, but she found herself trying to explain her ways to the still shaking girl. 

“I-I, I under-st-stand.” The petite girl mumbled out, “Maybe next time a heads up would be nice.” Mars tried to joke but her skin was still so pale. 

“We should move, someone, or something probably heard that.” Sam finally got off of the corpse she sat on. Mars nodded looking away from the scene. The taller girl bent down and looted the dead man, as Mars glanced around the area, trying her best not to think about how her friend was currently raiding a body.  

Sam didn’t find much on the man, a few more knives, matches and other smaller things he had in his pockets. 

“You know, I do care about you, Marleen.” Sam told the girl as they continued their scavenging. Mars looked over to the older girl, shock etched into her features. “I was lying, a little reverse psychology never hurt. Well, I mean apart from him, but-uh.” Sam tried her hand at a joke only for Mars to look horrified all over again, she was clearly thinking about the horrific attack. 

“You need a better weapon than just your knife.” Sam slung her backpack from her shoulder and rummaged around in her bag until she found what she was looking for. 

“But I like my knife.” Mars clutched the small weapon to her chest. 

“Were you able to get it out in time to fight off the man?” Sam looked up from her kneeling position on the floor. 

“Uh-no.” Mars went to say but then conceded and agreed with Sam, “He came up so quickly I didn’t really have time to do anything, not even scream.” 

“Then you will have this gun, more of a deterrent than the knife. Wave it around, make it seen. No one will really want to mess with you.” Sam took the bullets out of the weapon and put it back into her bag.  

“Why are you taking the bullets?” Mars asked, watching the taller woman fiddle with the weapon. 

“Are you gonna shoot people?” Sam countered. 

“Uh-no.” Mars said again just like she had started before, making Sam laugh. 

“A deterrent.” She confirmed as she handed the now empty gun to the young blonde, who tentatively took it into her own grasp. 

“Deterrent.” She whispered as she trailed her fingers along the sleek black metal.   

The girls had found a jackpot of supplies, they eagerly took their fill and then safely ventured out of the city and back into the safety of the woods. 

Sam had found a small creek to bathe in and wash the remainder of the blood that covered her skin. She returned back to camp to find Mars had started the fire and set up their tent. 

“Thanks, Bam.” Sam ruffled the hair of the girl who sat in front of the fire cooking. “What’s on for dinner?” She asked as she sidled up next to Mars. 

Over the time they had spent together the girls had gotten surprisingly close. It was odd for Sam, she had never had friends before but now understood why everyone wanted them so bad. Someone was always there for you to confide in, not that Sam ever shared anything that personal with Mars, but the smaller blonde seemed to be able to divulge her stories and thoughts with Sam. Which she appreciated, shockingly.  

Sam had never really had anyone in her life which she could trust, but she found herself leaning toward the young girl she had saved. But she was still worried, because in turn of never having anyone in her life, she didn’t know what it was like to lose someone. The fear of letting anyone close enough to hurt her walled her off to truly letting the young girl close. Her wall she had made since she was young held fast, and she wasn’t ready to let someone in. Sam didn’t think she would ever be. 

“Beans!” Mars groaned. The one thing the world seemed to have in supply was beans. No matter where they searched, or for how long the majority of the food they found was beans. 

“Great, that means your farts will keep me up all night.” Sam huffed, but the smile that tilted her lips broke her annoyed tone. 

“I do not fart!” Marleen swatted at the tall girl who chuckled. 

“You chuff like a chimney!” A laugh sounded from the older girl's throat as a look of pure horror appeared on Mars’ features. 

“Samantha! Do not tell lies!” But Mars was laughing along with the older woman. She watched in awe as Sam threw her head back in hysterics clutching her stomach as she shook with laughter. 

The girls ate in silence until it was broken by Mars who wore a serious expression, as if deep in thought, “That wasn’t you today.” Sam didn’t need context; the girl’s face said it all. 

“On the contrary, that was my true form. I have killed a lot of people Mars, more than you think. I’ve done terrible things. I’m not a good person.” The taller girl sighed, she hated herself for what she had done, but it didn’t mean she would change what she did. 

“But were they innocent? The people you killed.” Mars asked. Though she was only met with silence from the older woman. But Mars could see in her eyes that what she had said was true.  

“Exactly.” The smaller girl confirmed. 

“Mars, I think it’s best if we do find someone else to take you. I’m not good for you. What I did today put you in danger.” Sam's words hung heavy in the air. Mars could feel the tears already welling in her eyes. 

“You were only trying to protect me.” She tried to reason, but Sam shook her head, she had made her decision. 

“Yeah, but did I? Sure, the man’s dead, but I made you witness something unspeakable. Next group we see, if they look good, we should part ways.” It was settled, Mars couldn’t fight Sam when she had already made up her mind. If the older girl was anything, it was stubborn.  

“Why are you pushing me away?” The smaller blonde scrambled for some form of semblance.  

“Bam, it’s for the best. Trust me.” But Mars was just the same as Sam, stubborn.  

“Says who? You? You don’t know what’s best for me.” This was the first time Marleen had raised her voice at her friend, but she couldn’t help it. At this point she was grasping at straws. 

“I actually do. I know myself and there are better people to help you on your journey.” Though

Mars wanted to stay, Sam knew they weren’t meant to stay together in the long run. Samantha wasn’t meant to be with anyone, it just took her longer than normal to realise it.   

The young blonde had blindsided the normally sharp girl. With her kindness and sweet nature, Sam almost forgot herself and her own temperament. 

“Bullshit.” Marleen spat out, “That’s bullshit and you know it.” 

Sam gave a small smile, one that held so much regret. She had allowed Mars to get close cause it felt nice. But she let the younger get too attached, and she was the only one to blame. 

“I am sorry, Mars.” Sam patted the girl’s knee before she stood. Making her way into the tent, she settled down for the night. Marleen didn’t come back into the tent until it was dark out, after she had cooled off. The sniffling girl made her own nest before crying softly to sleep. Sam waited for her breathing to finally turn even before she rolled over and let one single tear drip from her eye before she collected herself again. 

Sam couldn’t be weak, not for herself but for Mars. She deserved better than this.

Woah Sam went rage mode, and she's kinda scary, poor Mars had to watch that as well. I couldn't imagine seeing someone get their whole eyeballs ripped out, but I mean I guess it works 😬.

The rest of the time Sam had spent with Marleen, the girl had talked about her family, upbringing and everything in between. She now knew why the young woman had gotten herself into so much trouble. Mars was far too trusting, loyal and kind. Traits in the normal world would be seen as civilised and friendly, but now in this new age were concerning and reckless. 

Mars could talk endlessly about anything and everything. Sam didn’t even need to converse back. Mars had the whole conversation covered. 

The overly friendly blonde seemed to be able to push every single one of Sam’s buttons. From the incessant talking, to getting very distracted, not being aware of her surroundings at any stage and prying into the taller blondes life. Sam seemed to be at her wits end, and it was only day three. She still had to make it to the next town and find someone who was stupid enough to agree to taking Mars. 

“I never had a sister. But I can imagine this is what it’s like.” The blonde skipped ahead with a daydreaming smile, “Don’t you think?” She asked as she twirled back to look at Sam. 

“Bambi.” Sam sighed, the name had stuck from their first meeting. Mars was the small wide eyed deer from the children’s movie. Her legs often got away from her, often causing Mars to stumble, trip or fall. Her big doe eyes found Sam with wide eyed innocence, so sweet it made Sam’s teeth hurt. And whenever there was danger afoot, the blonde seemed to get caught in the headlights, just like a deer. 

“What did I say about the skipping?” Sam ignored the initial comment Mars had made. The taller woman had found out the hard way that Marleen’s feelings were easily hurt. 

A few days ago Sam had made the girl cry after Mars had driven her to the point of madness. Samantha exploded at the young lady telling her to, ‘Shut the fuck up!’

The girl immediately burst into tears and sobbed the whole night. The next morning in a hoarse voice from crying Mars gave Sam a whispered apology. She then was in a funk the whole day until Sam had finally accepted her apology and forgiven her. Sending Mars instantly back into the happy go lucky girl she had gotten to know. 

“You said no skipping.” Mars stopped in her tracks huffing. The last time she was skipping she almost broke her ankle in a rabbit burrow. It would have been disastrous and most likely the end of the young woman’s life, as Sam was not that willing to stay with her the whole time her ankle healed. Luckily she got away with minor bruising and whining. 

“The rules are stupid.” Mars grumbled kicking the stones at her feet. 

“You’re more than welcome to leave.” Sam offered for what felt like the millionth time. 

“And leave you all alone. That wouldn’t be nice.” Mars teased as she fell into step next to Sam. 

“That would be the nicest thing you’ve ever done.” Sam mocked gratitude. 

“No, you’d miss me. Cause you love me!” The young blonde sidled up next to her tall companion, giving her a cheeky smile. Sam fought the urge to smile. She didn’t need to give the young girl any more motive to tease her. 

“Uh- what was that?!” The girl squealed in delight. Clearly Sam hadn’t been subtle enough about the smile that fought to tug at her lips. 

“Did you just smile?” Mars leapt in front of the taller woman’s path to look up at her. 

Sam shook her head trying to side step the excited Mars. “No I didn’t.” 

“You did! You did! I saw it! With my own eyes!!” Marleen pitch raised with each word. 

“Volume, Mars.” Sam corrected before the whole forest knew their exact location. 

“I saw you.” Marleen whispered as she finally stepped out of the way of her companion. Mars chuckled to herself, proud of her accomplishment, before tagging along behind her fast moving friend. 

Mars POV:

Marleen didn’t know much about her new companion, she knew her name was Sam, assumingly short for Samantha although not confirmed, she was 23 years old and she was alone. Sam kept telling Mars she preferred to be alone, although the younger woman didn’t believe it. 

She noticed little things about Sam; like how Sam would check up on Marleen when she thought the shorter girl wasn’t paying attention, she’d make sure Mars was still walking in the right direction and without touching, herd her until she was on the correct path. Or how she turned her head ever so slightly when Mars was ranting to show that she was listening- granted, she may not have done it consciously but it still warmed Marleen’s heart. 

The day that Mars was mostly quiet really proved it to her though. After Sam snapped at her, which in turn caused her to spend the night crying, Marleen tried her hardest not to piss the older girl off anymore. 

The simplest way to do that was to apologise and shush. 

And that’s how they spent the entire second day together, in a weird silence. Sam had given Marleen all sorts of looks, starting with glares and eye rolls but slowly they got more concerned. Mars never said anything about these looks but she knew she saw them, microexpressions that spoke louder than Sam ever had. 

Mars had long enough to study Sam(antha?) and wasn’t surprised when she had accepted the apology in her own way- “Would you stop sulking?” Sam had asked her that evening as they settled down for the night. 

“I’m not sulking.” Marleen had tried to be convincing but even she could hear the childlike pout in her mumbled retort. She didn’t mean to act so immature, but being yelled at was not something she was used to and she quickly found out it wasn’t something she liked very much. 

Mars had expected a sarcastic response from Sam, maybe a snarky 'Sure you aren’t' but it never came. Instead the girls sat in a patch of quiet, a nice kind of quiet, the calm kind. 

“Why are you in New York?” The unexpected question had the shorter girl reeling and she froze in disbelief- 'was Sam instigating a conversation with her?' Marleen’s hesitation had turned the calm moment they were sharing into an uncomfortable one. 

“I just-“ Sam sighed, “You talk a lot about going home to Illinois, so why were you in New York when all this happened?” 

“Oh- right! I uh, sorry.” Mars has to find the words, this was the first time Sam had voiced interest in her; she could feel the walls breaking down and it excited her to no end. This was the moment Mars realised they could truly be friends, that Sam cared, even if she acted like she didn’t. It would be hard but Mars would befriend the moody angry woman if it was the last thing she did. 

“I moved to New York last year.” She finally picked the right words, doing everything to keep Sam’s attention. “I was studying at NYU, got a scholarship and everything. I didn’t really want to move away from home, from my family, my two older brothers both work for the family business. I had the biggest FOMO- you do know what that means right?” She asked Sam as she crinkled her brows unsure of what Mars had just blurted out. 

“It’s fear of missing out, F.O.M.O.” Mars didn’t wait to confirm that Sam had understood before she carried on, “Everything seemed to be happening at home, my brother and his wife had their little family, dad was training my second brother to take over the shop. Everyone seemed to have their place. But not me. I mean- I had my place in my family, but uh- ugh, it's hard to explain.” The younger blonde was finding it difficult to articulate what exactly she felt about her family. She loved them of course, she shouldn’t be complaining her family was amazing, the love they all shared was picture perfect. 

So Mars felt like a whiny ungrateful child when she complained about her picturesque family, but there was something that was missing, it made her feel empty and useless- she pushed extra hard trying to make up for this missing piece although nothing seemed to work. 

“It’s ok Mars, you don’t have to explain it to me. I think I understand.” Sam said lightly, Marleen’s head shot up from its position. Firstly the girl had used her actual name and secondly she was being kind. It swirled butterflies in the young blonde’s gut. 

So she continued, “My parents felt as if I wasn’t living up to my potential. And then the scholarship came up and everyone was so proud of me. I knew my parents wanted me to go, but I didn’t even have time to think of what I wanted. I thought maybe this was the thing that would make things right, to be away from home, live my own life. I know that sounds incredibly selfish but I wanted to get away and just- Be!” Mars barely took a breath between sentences, constantly rambling, “I have always been known as a Finch, never Marleen. I’m always Rowan and Brendan’s little sister. Or Desmond and Erin’s daughter.” Mars huffed out, finally pausing long enough for the other woman to speak.

“So, why are you going back then?” Sam enquired as Mars caught her breath. 

“Because, I love them. Yes, I was having some trouble finding myself amongst everyone else but it’s my family. I fit, I have a place.” It seemed like she was trying to convince herself at this point, hammering home the idea of her fitting. 

“I’m their golden child.” Mars wiggled her eyebrows trying to make light of the situation, but the heaviness of her statement weighed on her chest all the same.  

Sam’s lips puckered as she watched the girl intently. 

“What? You don’t think it’s a good thing?” She asked the older of the pair. 

Samantha tilted her head in thought, “I think that’s a lot of pressure.” That was all that she said but the seriousness of her comment slammed into Mars like a tonne of bricks. 

The older girl was right, it was so much pressure. But look at diamonds, they’re formed under pressure. The most beautiful and expensive gem on earth. How is a little pressure bad? At the same time Mars felt as if she was suffocating, like she was forced into the depths of the ocean.

“So that’s why I went to NYU. To ‘find myself’ I guess.” Mars wasn’t so sure now why she took the scholarship. 

“I want to be a reporter. I think.” Mars seemed to be flustered, everything she had convinced herself she wanted so badly seemed to be crumbling at her feet. 

“And you liked it there?” Sam asked gently. 

“Yeah, I have my own little apartment. In a dodgy area, but my neighbours-” Mars choked on her sentence. Here she was venting all of her feelings to Sam, when Denver, the one who had saved her life in the first place was missing, and she was unsure of the predicament he was in. 

Mars swallowed her emotions. “My neighbours are really nice. Well one of them, but um-” She wanted to steer the conversation away from her lost friend. 

“I’m not sure I liked journalism. My mom wanted me to be on tv- a news presenter or something.” Marleen fidgeted with her nails, her stare was locked onto the floor- guilt flooded off her, “But now we won’t know. Cause you know, the end of the world and everything. I just want to get home and make sure they’re all alright.” Mars didn’t want to think of the possibility that things weren’t ok at home. Mars knew her family, they were strong, they would survive this and she would make sure of it by getting home safely.  

“Wow, you must really love your family.” Mars gave Sam a puzzled look. “Well, just- to go across so many states to get back to them.” The older girl clarified. 

“I think I would go to the ends of the earth for my family. I mean, wouldn’t everyone?” Mars looked over to Sam. Her big brown eyes filled with so much love and compassion it made Sam’s heart squeeze. The young girl had only known love and kindness from her kin, she lived a sheltered enough life to believe even if they did you wrong, they still loved you with all their being. 

A sad smile plagued the taller blondes lips, “Yeah, something like that.” She brushed away the mental images of her own parents, “We should get some shut eye.” Sam straightened, “It’s going to be a long walk tomorrow.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” The younger of the two spoke softly. Sam had stood from her position so now she stared down at the blonde. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Bambi.” Sam tried to lighten the mood, not something she would normally do, so the smile that slid onto her lips felt forced like a grimace. But Mars didn’t seem to care whether or not it looked unnatural on Sam, her own sweet smile, one that could blind, spread onto her face when she realised that Sam had smiled at her on purpose for the first time since they had been together. 

“Sure thing, Sammy!” Mars sprung to her feet, remembering to not grab onto Sam like she would usually do. 

“Don’t call me that.” The older scolded but her tone was far from harsh, Mars would even reach to say it was endearing. 

Sam’s POV

The girl’s had been together for a week, and had fallen into a rhythm. Sam led and Mars followed, without a care in the world. Her near constant chatter had resumed, she told Sam about her siblings and how much she cared for them. Her two overprotective brothers liked to be the only people that were allowed to mess with her. 

Sam listened to her go on and on about how her brothers didn’t play fair in childhood games. Specifically, Brendan- he would always trick her and it wound her up in a way that only siblings can.  

“Ugh, playing ‘Tag’ with him was the woooorst!” Marleen cried out, “He would pretend that our older brother Rowan was ‘it’ when really; it was him! But I would trust him and when he was close enough, he’d tag me and run off! Like- how rude!” 

A lightbulb flickered to life above Sam’s head- she’d have to teach Bambi how to survive or she’d surely be taken advantage of. When another group took Mars in, she’d have to know how to protect herself, who she could trust- how to survive. Sam wouldn't be there to look after the short girl but she could pass on some wisdom before they split up. 

“I probably would’ve been able to tell that he was tricking you - I mean, if I were there, I could’ve warned you.” Sam spoke up for the first time in the conversation. 

“How would you have known? He’s a pretty good liar when he wants to be.” 

“Rules.” 

“Huh?” Marleen’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion only for a second before something Sam had told her earlier reappeared in her head, the rule that Sam was referencing clicked, in tandem both blondes called out, “Sam knows best.”  Maybe Sam’s training was actually rubbing off on Mars.

The pair grew closer as time went on, at least Marleen thought so- being together 24/7 for almost an entire week tended to turn strangers into friends. 

The route Sam had picked out kept them in mostly unpopulated areas, they only ventured into townships when they needed supplies- which was also something Sam was in charge of. Mars just blindly trusted her but she was happy to do so. Sam had kept Marleen alive so far, making sure she was fed, watered and not sleep deprived. 

The pair had only encountered a few undead, steering clear of them was the way to go unless it was unavoidable- then Sam dealt with them while Mars hung back. Sam had a mental note to spend some time teaching the younger girl how to wield her weapon, giving her the confidence to fight if and when she needed to. 

Timing was an issue. There was hardly a right time to stop and teach a combat class when rabids were on the loose. 

Voices broke the comfortable silence the girls had found themselves in. Sam had requested one unbroken hour of quiet time per day so she could keep her sanity intact. 

Sam’s closed fist raised, signalling to her companion to halt all movements- a sign used commonly in the army. However, Mars didn’t have the memo. She kept walking, eyes focused on the ground in front of her, so when she smacked her body directly into the back of Sam’s, it was all the more unexpected. 

“Oof.” The younger blonde let out when she tumbled to the floor, landing in a sitting position. Sam only sighed, she’d have to work on that.  

The voices that had prompted a brief pause in their walking, grew louder and now Mars had picked up on the situation. She quietly got up and crouched next to Sam, mirroring the older girl's stance. 

A group of living people came into view- there were around seven or eight people, men, women and even a child. Mars' heart dropped, she had hoped that Sam had forgotten the pinky promise they had made to each other at the beginning of their journey. Sam had said if she found another group to take Mars she wouldn’t hesitate to send her away. The young blonde chewed nervously on her lip as she watched Sam observe the group. 

The people wandered aimlessly through the forest, they looked gaunt and tired. Her chest became tight, they didn’t look like they were doing well at all. The young child trailed slowly behind them, his feet dragging along the ground. 

“Come on, Jimmy, pick up the pace we need to find shelter before nightfall.” The woman who Mars assumed was his mother, called out. 

“My feet hurt!” Came the whiny reply. Mars chuckled knowing the feeling but was silenced by a single look from Sam. “This sucks!” The child continued complaining in his high pitched tone. 

“Yeah, well too bad! Do you want to die?” The oldest man in the group spoke, quickly swivelling around from his position in front. Jimmy froze, tears welling in his eyes before he started to sob. 

“Graham!” The mother scolded before walking over to the young boy who clutched himself into a hug. She scooped the child into her arms and squeezed him tight, “Shhhh, don’t listen to him. He’s just grumpy cause he's tired.” 

The group walked on, completely unaware that they were being watched and soon they were out of the blonde duo's sight. 

Mars wanted to speak up and ask Sam why she had just let them go past without talking to them, she truly thought this would’ve split them up and Sam would be on her way. 

Yet, the shorter woman hesitated; maybe Sam had forgotten? It’s very possible it slipped her mind and Mars didn't want to remind her. 

They waited until the fading voices of the group were nonexistent, gone entirely, then Sam stood to her full height and kept walking like nothing happened. 

Not wanting to be left behind, Mars copied her companion, jogging to catch up with the fast paced woman. 

“You missed your opportunity.” Marleen whispered, they had been quiet for so long it was odd to speak again. 

Sam’s eyes never left where she was walking. “They seemed like they had enough problems without you.” 

That was all she said before they fell back into silence. 

An hour passed, maybe two; Mars had kept quiet - very unlike herself, the only thing that could be heard was the footsteps of the two women. 

“You going to ask or are you just going to keep quiet and wonder?” Sam spoke up, she stopped moving and turned to the younger. 

“Uh-“ For probably the first time ever, Mars was speechless. Of course she wanted to know but some irrational part of her thought that if she said the wrong thing, Sam might leave her here. In the woods. By herself. 

“You want to know the reason I didn’t leave you with that group, don’t you?” The words were taken out of Marleen’s mouth and all she could do was nod blankly at the older woman. 

“That group isn’t going to last long. They were most likely low on food and water, if I left you with them you’d all be dead within a week.” Sam didn’t leave room for arguments, “I promised to find you a group or person who could take you- they couldn’t.” 

The grin that crept onto Marleen’s face was astronomical. 

“I knew you liked me.” Mars told her friend, ignoring Sam’s eye roll at her comment and stepping ahead to resume their path. 

“Yeah, whatever Bambi.” 

A/N: Personally I love these girls and their black cat/golden retriever dynamic!!

Taglist: @mellow-human , @malarkgirlypop , @next-autopsy

Chapter Seven: And then there were Two

Sam’s POV: 

Walking was the easy part of Sam’s journey, the hard part was avoiding everyone else. Especially the humans, she didn’t need to meet anymore people like the family she had only buried days ago. 

There could be no guilt clouding her thoughts during these times, she needed to be focussed not sentimental. The last thing she needed was a friend. 

Her army comrades often called Sam the lone wolf of the pack, often adjacent from the other troops who were bonding and making lasting friendships. Sam enjoyed her solitude and didn’t have the patience for stupid people, she had other activities that filled her boredom. 

Fighting mainly, as it was a good way to release her stress. She often found that after having a rough day, letting out her pent up emotions on the punching bag felt good. Sam never felt the need to vent to her “friends”, her fists did all the talking she needed.  

If she didn’t feel like fighting, books had the same effect as talking to people. Except she didn’t have to say anything back to them. She didn’t enjoy fictional novels about romance and friendship and adventure. The blonde preferred the cold hard facts of history, she would learn from everyone else's mistakes and not make them herself. 

Unfortunately sometimes Sam would have to deal with people during her job. On her tours in Afghanistan she was paired with the most annoying girl in the squad. 

A lucky dip that was not so lucky. 

Her partner drove her mad almost every single day, trying to befriend the tall woman. Sam was not having it, she didn’t need nor want a friend. The soldier was a petite brunette that was only a couple of years younger, but for some reason she was always so happy. Always a pep to her step and a song in her heart, the girl was joyful on crack. 

Even in her demise she still somehow had a smile on her face and was optimistic about her doomed fate. 

The girl, Abby, had died only days before they were set to depart back home. She had offered to do the final sweep of the night for Sam, which she had been scheduled to complete. On her route back she had misstepped, accidentally setting off an IED that in turn took her life not hours later. 

Lying on the street with her limbs scattered about, she bled out slowly and painfully. But still the young girl managed to smile and laugh, making a joke. Abby had laid in Sam’s lap as she lost her blood and quickly turned cold. The last thing she had said was, “I’m glad it was me and not you.” 

Abby had died later that night in hospital from her wounds. Her death still haunted the angry blonde. 

Her depressing thoughts were interrupted by boisterous noise. Sam looked up with disgust etched into her face. These were the stupid fuckers she was talking about. 

Even from a distance she could see their unkempt oily hair and dirty clothes. They smiled at each other while they joked, some misogynistic comment falling from the shorter ones mouth as the other two chortled together. 

“Ugh, gross.” She muttered out loud. Sam didn’t enjoy people, but men were her least favourite. It may have been her army upbringing but all the men she knew were cunts, especially her father who seemed to be the worst one of all. 

The only reason there were other people here was because she had made it to Albany. Walking all day for two days she had made good time from Pittsfield. But even though the city offered food and other resources, it attracted everything else along with it. Just like the group of men who stood only 50 feet away, laughing amongst themselves. 

Somehow luck didn’t seem to be in favour of the young woman; she accidentally kicked an empty can across the street as she tried to evade the group. 

“Fuck me.” Sam cursed under her breath. She watched the men swivel their heads around to investigate the noise. Sam ducked quickly trying to hide behind the abandoned car she was standing near but she knew she had been spotted. 

“Hey pretty lady!” One of the men cooed. Sam rolled her eyes so hard she was concerned they were going to get stuck in the back of her head. 

“We see you blondie, come out!” The other greasy man joined in. 

Sam silently screamed in her head, she was not in the mood for people. Drawing in a deep breath she stood. She cracked her neck as she walked out from behind the vehicle. 

The men started to walk briskly towards her. Her fingers flexed at her side, itching to latch around the weapon on her hip. But she stood still, a relaxed posture and bitchy face, well her normal face but still, she looked menacing. 

“Quite a scowl you got blondie.” The tallest man of the group smirked at her. 

Her face didn’t change even with the comment. Sam didn’t speak, she didn’t want to seem like she was trying to make excuses. Plus men dug themselves into deeper holes in silence than in conversation. She would bait them. 

“Not much of a talker.” The short thinning haired man stepped closer, even though he was still a good foot away she could smell him from here. 

“Yeah but she is a looker, hey Jeremy.” The snivelly looking man egged on the tall one, Jeremy, elbowing him in the side.  

“You sure are pretty.” Jeremy licked his lips. Sam’s disgust was audible at the action. 

The young woman flicked her eyes around the group. They didn’t seem to be all that well equipped, noting the baseball bat the short chubby man held, and the grimey machete on the rodent looking man’s belt. Jeremy seemed to be the only one with a gun, tucked into the front of his waistband. Sam scoffed that was only good for one thing, getting his dick shot off.   

“I think she’s scared of us.” Weasel man continued. He looked like the fucking jester of the group, though he didn’t seem all that funny. 

“You don’t have to be afraid, we’re really nice.” The chubby man had the audacity to reach out to try and touch Sam’s arm. 

Her reflexes were faster. Sam’s hand shot out from her side and gripped the man’s limb like a vice. 

That set the group on edge, the other two sprung back, hands clasping around their own weapons. 

“I’m not afraid of you horrible fuck-eyed wank cloths.” Sam growled, squeezing the man's hand even harder. He let out a whimper of pain and tried to wiggle free, but Sam’s hold didn’t budge. 

“Leave me the fuck alone, before I rip of every single one of your ballsacks off and feed it to the rabid motherfuckers while you watch.” The man guffawed at her statement, her words were clearly not enough for the men, she would have to show them. 

“Oh you need proof. Well baldly, how many fingers you want broken?” Sam sneered at the man, his face bright red with rage and pain. 

“Now you’re quiet?” Sam wrenched the thinned haired man’s finger backwards extending them towards his back. “That means I get to choose.” She whispered before completely twisting the chubby man’s hand completely backwards until there was a satisfying crunch. 

Baldy howled in pain as he clutched at his now broken wrist. It hung limply from the joint, the men who had watched the whole interaction, now began to rile up. 

“What the fuck is your problem blondie?” Jesterville Jones piped up, his buck teeth exposed as he hopped around like the rabbit he was.     

“I chose wrist.” Sam shrugged, seemed like he wasn’t paying attention, or was an idiot. Most likely an idiot. 

“We didn’t do anything to you.” Jeremy whined as if his mum had just taken away his PS5 privileges. 

“You approached me, that was your first mistake. Then you called me blondie, you half chewed pencil looking fuck. And this literal easy bake oven tried to touch me. So if I counted correctly, which he can’t.” Sam pointed to weasel face. “That would make three things you did to me.” 

“Now do you all want limp wrists, you slimy turd canoes?” Sam threatened the gaggle of fucking morons. “Or would you like to leave with the little dignity you have still intact?” 

As soon as she finished her sentence the men fled. Tails between their legs like the small chihuahuas they were.  

Mars POV: 

Getting to Albany was simple. Marleen packed up and left as the sun was rising, unwilling to be near that house any longer. She followed along the highway, using road signs as her guide. 

The houses began getting closer together until she found herself at the city's edge. The closer she got the more her nerves started to scramble. Mars spotted several small groups and lone rabids and did everything she could to avoid them, turning a three hour journey into five. 

Marleen had never been to Albany before, but she could imagine what it was like; the roads bustling with vehicles, people everywhere, everything teaming with life. 

And now, it was barren. Abandoned. 

If she had to guess she would say there were live humans in this vast city somewhere but nowhere that she could see. 

That could be a good thing though. At least that’s what Denver always said. And just like that she was tearing up once again- how many tears did she have left? Surely her eyes would run dry at some point? 

Shaking her head, Mars headed into the eerie ghost town. 

She didn’t get very far before noticing undead stumbling in her direction. Shit. There were too many for her to stay and fight, she had no choice but to flee. They hadn’t seen her yet, giving her the advantage of stealth. 

As quietly as she could, Mars turned and treaded down a side street, off the main road and out of the zombies' sight. 

This repeated a few times; Marleen would come across a number of rabids and sneak away unseen onto a new path, slowly making her way through the maze of a city. 

Her luck was seemingly up. Avoiding certain death had never been easier for the young blonde.  

Until it wasn’t.

Mars rounded a corner, making her way down a narrow road- a glorified alleyway. And she did so without checking to see if the way was clear, her first mistake. 

Her second mistake was immediately dropping her only weapon the instant she bumped into something. 

Marleen had walked straight into a solid body and squealed. It took her a moment to realise that whatever she had walked into could be a human; like her or an undead and she had yet to find out which.

Her yelp was mixed with a low voice, arms wrapped around her body and held her close, it felt all too familiar. Mars cried out and struggled against the unknown person until she heard a distinct voice- the undead can't speak.  

Her head flicked upwards, revealing her captor as a living. In fact, there were three living men standing in front of her. 

All caution was thrown to the wind, she hadn’t seen real people since she and Denver had been separated two nights prior, and she found she was missing the social interaction. Being able to talk to someone who was capable of talking back, who didn’t have blood covering every inch of them- that was priceless to Mars. 

“Hey, shhh, It's okay.” The man holding on to her spoke, his grasp on her had stabilised the both of them, keeping the pair upright. Now that they were in no danger of falling, he released his grip on her and held up his hands in mock surrender.

From where she stood, she had a second to give them a once over and take in their appearances. They looked like they’d been through hell. Dirty and greasy and covered in filth. 

Something that stuck out to her was the shortest one favoured his left hand, like it was hurt. She would bring that up at some point, make sure chubby hadn't been bitten by a rabid.

She had two voices telling her two very different things right now and wasn’t sure what to do. 

One said: Absolutely do not trust these guys, turn and leave right now, you don’t know these strangers.

While the other said: Maybe they could help you? It’s tough being out here all alone, having friends is never a bad thing. Talk to them, ask if they can help you get to Illinois. 

“Uh-Hello?” Was the greeting she settled on, this seemed to please them as all three grinned at her. It should have been a good sign, the smiles; but for some reason it unnerved her. 

“Hello beautiful.” The tallest man, her ‘saviour’ spoke out, “you out here all alone?” Mars nodded slowly, still not totally convinced she could trust these guys. 

“Well what would a pretty girl like you be doing out here all by herself?” One of the others spoke up, he had buck teeth that resembled a mouse or a rat. All three men still smiled at her waiting for her answer. 

“I-I’m trying to get to Illinois.”

“Illinois, eh?” The rat man echoed the words as he stepped closer to her, “We can help ya get to Illinois.” 

“You can?” Mars felt a smile creep onto her face. She held hope that these men would be kind and helpful, regardless of their appearance. Don't judge a book by its cover and all that.

“Sure.” The tallest, who seemed to be their leader, smirked. 

“Yeah, we can help you.” Rat-man laughed as he nudged his friend's arm with his elbow, like they were sharing a joke- one that Mars was not privy to. 

It was then that Mars noticed the machete in the rat's grip, that paired with her dropped knife gave her chills- goosebumps rippled over her body. 

“You just have to do a little something for us first….” His voice gave Mars the heebie jeebies and she began to rethink her openness to the trio- maybe she should have been more skeptical of the strangers. 

“Scratch our backs, we scratch yours, blondie.” Rat-man reached out his hand and stroked Marleen’s cheek, her body instinctively flinched back, trying to get out of his reach.

“Really?” A louder voice sounded from behind the group of men. The trio seemed to recognise the person who had spoken, stilling in their actions and slowly turning. 

Between the gap of the men, Mars could see a tall, lean woman with a menacing stance. Her glare made the men shiver and Marleen found that she too was intimidated by this lady. 

Sam’s POV: 

Sam had tried her best to avoid the group after they had retreated. She continued on her search for food and water, but unfortunately before rounding a corner she had heard the slimy idiots talking amongst themselves. 

However what piqued her interest was a soft feminine voice that spoke back. Sam had stepped into the alley just as weasel face had said, “Scratch our backs, we scratch yours, blondie.” 

That pissed off the tall woman. For one, they had gone from one woman to the next, and secondly they didn’t even have the creativity to think of any better lines. 

“Wow! I thought you guys were fucking stupid, but this just really proves my point!” Sam gave her best cheerful sarcastic tone. 

“You seriously can’t think of any better material than Blondie?” She peered over their shoulders, finding a young petite woman backed into a corner by the group. The woman’s face said it all, please help me.  

A sigh left Sam’s lips, she was not in the mood for playing hero, but also the young girl, not even woman, looked so helpless it felt like a crime to leave. 

She cast her glare towards michelin man, who cowered under her hateful stare. He didn’t give her a second glance before darting off and ditching his so-called friends. 

“Dylan what the fuck dude!” Jeremy called out after fatso. Damn she had never seen someone of that girth run so fast. 

“Roly-poly has the right idea. Why don’t the rest of you scram and leave Bambi alone.” Sam looked over to the young lady, aptly named for her big doe eyes and deer in the headlights stare. 

“We aren’t scared of you, blondie.” Jeremy snarled. 

“Which one are you talking to, cause remember we are both ‘Blondie’ according to you.” Sam pointed out that the one name that had given each of the girls now didn’t work in the situation. 

“I’m talking to you-” He paused for a moment, pointing in her direction. “Angry blondie.” 

“Look at you using adjectives. Kind of embarrassing it took you that long to think of one, and angry at that.” Sam grimaced at the fucking idiot sandwich stood before her. 

“Can we be done now, I’m so fucking bored of this conversation?” Sam glanced down at her watch, she literally had better things to be doing than standing here wasting her breath on these white-trash shart hounds. 

“Well- uh- you.” The weasel man stuttered over his words. 

“You-uh-uh-um.” Sam mocked them. “Spit it out, speech impediment.”

“Right, that's it!” Inflatable balloon man bellowed in the least intimidating voice he could manage. In a quick motion he whipped out his gun from the front of his pants. Sam shied away worried he was going to whip out something else at the same time. 

“I don’t need to see all that.” Sam gestured to the man’s crotch. The young woman during the chaos, had bent down and grabbed the knife that had laid on the floor just in front of her. Sam watched her stand again, clutching the weapon to her chest. 

Jeremy surged forward with his gun, he flailed it around, it seemed as if he was unsure if he wanted to shoot Sam or hit her with it. It didn’t matter, the tall woman had disarmed him in seconds. 

Now she had the man by his neck and his gun in her grasp. Jeremy was pinned to her chest as he stared out at his mate who looked shocked but was still fixed in his position, not helping his buddy. 

Sam pressed the barrel of the man’s gun to his temple. Everyone froze, collectively holding their breaths. Weasel man’s face had drained of blood and he looked sickly pale. Bambi continued to wear her brown doe eyed stare, her mouth hanging slightly agape, Sam was unsure if this was due to shock or awe. 

“Alright lady!” Rodent man held out his hands showing his surrender. “We’ll leave you alone, just let us go!” The man pleaded. 

“Yeah just let us leave.” Jeremy sobbed like a young child who had lost their mummy in the supermarket. 

Sam brought the butt of the gun down hard into the side of Jeremy’s head, the man yelped out in pain as she pushed him away from her and he stumbled to the floor. Rodent man collected his friend from the floor, and urged him to leave. 

“My gun.” Jeremy held out his hand for his weapon. 

“It’s mine now. Fuck off.” Sam dismissed the command. She watched in amusement as the pair fled together, moving so fast they were falling over each other in panic. 

Turning on her heel she walked the way she had come from back out onto the street. 

Mars POV:

“Wait!” Marleen called out to her retreating saviour, “where are you going?” Her feet began following the mysterious woman- who completely ignored her. Her pace quickened, only slowing when she came side by side with the fiery lady. 

“Hey! I asked where you’re going.” Her statement came out whiny and she reached for the other woman's forearm. The moment her fingertips touched their target, the stranger sprung into action. She halted her steps and raised a closed fist so quickly that Mars barely had time to register what was happening.

“Woah-wait wait wait- it’s me! It’s me!” The shorter woman released her grip and raised her hands to cover her face, dropping her knife yet again. 

It clattered to the floor as both women watched.

“Who?”

“Me, it’s me?” Mars peered up at the taller blonde, her voice squeaked out from her defensive position, “From just now… you know, with those guys- Bambi! I’m Bambi…remember?” 

Recognition crosses over her face, “Oh. Right.” The woman lowered her fist, “You dropped your knife.” Her parting words as she turned swiftly and continued in the same direction. 

Mars huffed, bending over to pick up the weapon and then straightening to run after the other blonde. 

“You didn't answer my question.” Her words were spoken in between breaths, “Where are we going?” 

That seemed to gain the attention of her ruthless heroine, making her freeze in place once more. 

“We?” Her eyebrows raised in surprise, “WE aren’t going anywhere.” She gestured between the two of them with her finger. 

“But,” Marleen’s face scrunched in confusion, her bottom lip stuck out in a pout, “You just saved me?” 

“And?” 

Mars had no reply. It seemed logical to her that they buddy up, everyone needs friends and Mars could surely use someone as capable as her. 

The lean girl, hearing no reply from the smaller party continued on her journey. Once again, leaving ‘Bambi’ behind. 

And just like before, Mars chased after her, this time calling out “Can’t I come with you? I’ll be so quiet you won’t even know I’m there!” 

“No, I don’t pick up stragglers.” The woman’s husky voice sounded as she kept walking away from the young girl. 

“So why did you save me? Why not just let me die?” Marleen argued, genuinely curious. 

“I-”

“So you clearly have a conscience, or else you would’ve watched me be attacked by those men.” She spoke her thoughts aloud as they popped into her head, no filter and not even waiting to hear her responses. 

“Look-”

“Or you just didn’t want to watch it, so now you’re just leaving me to die when you don’t have to see.” 

“Jesus-”

“Cause leaving me now is like second hand murder. You know I’m not going to get very far by myself, but you’re still leaving.”

“Alright, alright! Fine! Christ, you made your point, I got it!” The lady finally got her words in before the young girl interrupted her once again. The taller of the two swung around to gesture for the persistent girl to cease her incessant yapping, “I will walk you to the next town over and then as soon, and I mean as soon as I find another group or person to take you, you are not my problem anymore. Understand?”

Mars let a cheesy smile break onto her face as she literally jumped for joy. “Deal!” Extending her pinky finger out to seal the promise the taller woman had just made. 

“I’m not making a pinky promise.” The lady shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Still Mars held out her hand, smiling widely, tipping her head to encourage the standoffish girl to accept her outstretched pinky. 

“No! I’m not.” The girl doubled down. But Mars ever so vigorously stood her ground, until the other blonde sighed and finally did as Marleen had asked. She reached out her hand quickly interlinking her pinky finger with the younger girl. The tall blonde snatched her hand away after sealing their deal. 

“Oh my God, are you normally this fucking infuriating?” 

“It depends who you ask.” Said with a shrug of her shoulders and a smirk on her face. “I’m Marleen, by the way.” 

“I didn’t ask.”

“You can call me Mars though.” Her cheery voice continued, “Sooo- what’s your name?” She was met with silence. “Okay, fine. Stay mysterious. I’ll just call yooou- Jessica?”

“No.” Her saviour deadpanned. 

“Okay, not Jessica…. Georgia?” Hope seeped into her words as she gently elbowed her taller companion in an attempt to gain her favour. 

“Please stop.” 

“You could just tell me your name? I’d stop if I knew what to call you- maybe Lauren?” 

Realising she wouldn’t shut her mouth until she got what she wanted, the calmer of the pair offered a solution, “If I tell you my name, will you be quiet?” 

“Yes.” Her reply was instantaneous and full of excitement. 

“It’s Sam.” She sighed out exasperatedly. 

“Sam!” Mars grinned, barely one second of silence passed before she was speaking once again, “Sam Sam Sam… is that short for Samantha?” 

“Shut. Up!” 

AHHHHHHHHHH our girls finally met oml oml, so excited for this duo you have no idea! But ah, Sam doesn't seem all the keen on it ahaha sorry girl you got lumped with a whole ball of sunshine. Let me know if you also love these girlies together as much as I do.

Mars had no luck. Denver was nowhere to be found, not even a trace of him. She wasn’t really sure what to do now; Should she stay in the town searching for him or wait for Denver to show up? 

A lightbulb went off above her head. Her neighbour had shown her maps and talked about getting to ‘Albany’ in a day or so. Maybe he had headed that way and if she did the same, they could reunite. 

With hope coursing through her body, Mars decided to head north to the city; Albany. She might not know what she was doing but she sure as hell had the pep. 

The young woman packed what little she had with her and left the empty house. The new goal gave her all the motivation she needed to begin this part of her journey alone. 

—-------------------

Mars had incredible luck.

She managed to walk for around four hours without encountering a single dead person, nor living. That could either be a great thing or terribly ominous. 

Now, as the sun got low, Marleen realised she would need to find shelter for the night. 

There were a few houses to choose from, she wasn’t exactly in suburbia but not totally rural either. None of the homes looked occupied but she knew she had to be careful. 

Eyeing up her options, Mars settled on one. It was a modest house, single story, surrounded by a fence and fairly large fields of land. 

So began the clearing process. Checking every room for people, zombies or signs of use with her knife poised in her hand. 

Once again, Marleen found herself an empty house. She closed all windows and doors, except for her escape route and picked a room to sleep in. It felt odd sleeping in someone else’s bed so she settled on bringing a blanket and pillow into the living room and getting comfortable on the couch. 

She was tired from the mental stress of losing Denver as well as all the walking she had done. 

The sun crept below the horizon, the last minutes of the day were fading so Mars used the light to sit and eat a can of fruit salad before it got well and truly dark.

The tin of sweet fruit was something Denver had spotted in a store they had looted together the day before. He had taken one for himself and tossed this one at Marleen, she caught it with ease and smiled warmly at him in thanks. 

The blonde was so lost in thought about her missing companion that she hadn’t even noticed warm tears quietly rolling down her face. The tears registered when she raised her hand to rub her jaw only to pull back a wet hand. 

“Oh.” She spoke aloud with no one around to hear her. It was a lonely night and one without much sleep. Mars lay awake, twitching at every sound and let her mind wander. 

Thoughts of the creatures that were destroying the world overtook her head. The pure rage that filled their eyes chilled Marleen to her core. 

They seemed to be ravenous, starved and would kill to get their next meal. Not just kill but quite literally tear people apart. These undead people didn’t act as if they had a conscience, it was like they didn’t care about the screaming and yelling of their victims. 

The biters weren’t the same people they were before- whatever illness or disease was turning them cannibal was also erasing their humanity. They were shells of humans, no longer your friend or neighbour but instead a violent angry killing monster after human flesh. 

Almost every rabid Mars had seen shared some key features. Streams of bloody tears running down their faces, in fact most of them were blood soaked, probably due to the violent acts and cannibalism. They all seemed to have the one goal of eating live people and didn’t come off very smart. And as far as Mars could tell, they couldn’t  speak, instead groaning or screeching if enraged. 

Their throaty noises echoed in her brain, it was almost like there was one in the house with her. 

That thought made her sit upright. 

She focused on the sound intently, trying to gauge if there actually was a zombie in the house with her or if she was just being paranoid and imagining things. 

The unmistakable shuffle of undead footsteps and creak of floorboards gave her an answer. 

Panic flooded Marleen as she sprang to action, reaching for her knife. She wasted no time throwing the blanket off of her and getting to her feet, raising the sharp object in front of her. 

She hadn’t been overly noisy but her quick movements had caused enough of a sound to attract the creature.

What once was a man now dead and hungry, stood in the same room as her. His gaze locked onto Mars and he made a noise of recognition. He had found his next meal. 

The woman had no time to think before the rabid lunged at her. His lack of critical thinking worked to her advantage as he had completely missed spotting the low coffee table in between them. When he ran toward her, his shins hit the piece of furniture, effectively tripping him. 

His body dropped to the floor, the loud crash made Marleen cringe. If any others were close by they definitely heard that. 

She had to act quickly. But her brain was stuck on what to do. Should she try to run or use her weapon to attack him? 

The blonde woman hesitated which did not work in her favour as it gave the rabid time to regain his footing. Immediately he went for her again, this time she moved.

Her flight or fight instincts kicked in and Mars ran. She sprinted to the next room, which happened to be the kitchen. 

Marleen turned, knife raised and at the ready. The undead man burst into the kitchen after her, he stopped to furiously look around the room and stopped when he found her. 

He didn’t lunge for her this time, he just stood there. The two of them in a stalemate, a game of chicken, who is going to move first? 

Mars took a quick inventory to see if the kitchen held anything weaponlike that could help her.

A tea towel? No. 

A frying pan? Maybe.

A picture on the fridge of someone who looked eerily similar to the dead guy trying to eat her? Shit.

She had to do a double take, flick her gaze to the rabid and then the picture just to see if it was him. He was smiling in the picture, his arms around an equally happy and heavily pregnant woman. 

It was him. There was no doubt in Marleen's mind. 

The moment of realisation had to wait as the biter had lost whatever patience he had and ran in her direction once again. His hands gripped at her clothes and he tried with all his strength to get her closer and closer to his face. She let out a short scream as his mouth opened and shut, snapping at her as if taunting. 

Finally, her instincts kicked in, a heavy rush of blood pumped through her body and it managed to wake her from her state of shock. Mars grabbed the handle of the frying pan and swung. A thud followed by a crack sounded but Marleen had no time to dwell on it, instead she reeled her arm back and swung at him again. 

A second hit to his head was enough to loose his hold on her. She needed to take it further, make him stop for good. Another smack of the metal frying pan and the undead fell down, blood seeped onto the kitchen tiles but Mars had to be sure. 

So she swung again. And again. And again. 

Until his fractured skull opened wide for her to see. His body was unmoving, not even a twitch. He made no noises. He was well and truly dead, for certain this time, no coming back. 

Mars couldn’t help but stare at the chaos she created, blood splattered on every surface she could see. It entranced her, she could only stand over his body watching with a blank look. 

Her eyes found the picture once again. Guilt poked its head and Mars remembered that he was normal before all this. 

This was his house. He lived here, making coffee and eggs in the mornings. He had a wife. The woman in the photo sported a shiny ring and there were more portraits of them stuck to the fridge. One in particular stuck out, the white dress had lured Mars’s gaze. He was a father or was going to be at least. 

The overwhelming feeling of guilt swirled in her stomach and Marleen dropped both frying pan and knife to sprint to the sink. 

She curled over and heaved everything she had eaten into the metal tub. Images of a happy couple played in her mind and she threw up again, this time bile that burned her throat.

The rush of life saving adrenaline was beginning to wear off and the fragile young woman couldn’t stop the tears from coming. Not just silent tears, full on sobbing. At one point her legs became jelly like and she crumbled to the floor. Her knees bent up into her chest and she held herself, it felt as though if she didn’t she might physically fall apart. 

Time was indiscernible, she might have sat there for minutes or even hours but there was no way of telling. 

Marleen was only 20 years old, she came from a loving happy family, she was a pretty blonde cheerleader in high school- she had certainly never killed anyone. Even if that someone was cannibalistic and trying to kill her. 

This feeling, the guilt; it made her sick. If she had anything left in her she might vomit again, but her stomach was empty and her body was shattered- physically and mentally. 

Her sobs had quietened down to sniffles and uneven breathing but she couldn’t bear to move from her spot. 

Marleen spent the remainder of the night unmoved from her place. Curled in a ball by the sink cabinet, next to the body of a man she had just killed. 

She wanted to reason with herself, it wasn’t her fault because this man was sick. He had whatever rage virus was taking over the world and if she hadn’t killed him, she too would have it. She was only protecting herself. 

But then Mars thought of him, his wife, his child. She didn’t want to be in this house anymore. They had bought it with the goal of spending their lives here, making memories. And she had tainted it with a brutal murder. 

It wasn't his fault he got sick, he didn’t ask for any of this. If he wasn’t infected with this cannibalistic disease he never would have attacked her. He was just a normal guy, he had a job, friends, family and now- he was nothing. 

Her thoughts turned to her own family. All she wanted was to be with them, to know if they were okay during these crazy times. Mars prayed her parents were alive, she prayed for her brothers to be surviving. 

She couldn’t bring herself to even think about her young niece and nephew. That would result in heartbreak, those kids were the closest thing she had to her own. She needed to focus on something else, anything else. 

Illinois. She had to make it to Illinois, survive long enough to reach her family home and find out for herself how her family was doing. 

The house she grew up in was semi rural. A lifestyle farm house but not a working farm. Sure, her mum had chickens and a vegetable garden but that was about it. Her dad was a very capable man, he was smart and knew a lot about camping, outdoors and survival. 

If anyone could make it through this violent spreading illness it was him. And he was a real family man, he would look after everyone, keep them safe. 

Marleen knew in her heart that her family were still alive, she just knew it. 

The room had slowly lightened which was Mars’s only indicator that time had indeed passed. Morning had come just like always, the only difference was now Mars had blood on her hands and a new purpose. 

Survive. 

an: Poor Marleen! She's really going through it, someone give this girl a break!