Chapter Five, Alaina

"That is a lot of firepower," Alaina commented, not lifting her eyes from her binoculars. Hunter sat beside her, both inside the top floor of an abandoned house.

Alaina finished the count. "37 visible men with rifles, 14 pistols, countless mags, two tanks, and 9 troop carriers." They were former military by the looks of them.

Hunter sat his binoculars down and put his hand on Alaina's shoulder. The pair had settled in a neighborhood off of highway 78, and had done a full raid of all the buildings. There wasn't a plan, but Hunter desired to move closer to the city. In his mind there would be more opportunities, and maybe groups to link up with. Alaina hated the idea. She just wanted solace.

The apocalypse had gone on for over two weeks. Alaina had seen all manner of suicides, murders, and other violent deaths. Most at the hands of the living.

"We're gonna have to move north soon if we are going to get ahead of the curve." Hunter said softly.

"Or it will get us killed."

"It would be better sooner rather than later." Hunter removed his hand and laid back flat on the carpeted floor. It had a smell to it, but the texture wasn't unpleasant. Otis had been watching from across the room, and took that moment to walk over. He stood over hunter, then licked his face. "God, boy."

"Dufas," Alaina laughed, nudgeing the dog playfully. He caught her hand in his mouth, gnawing on her knuckles. "Alright. I'll come with you to Athens."

A separate convoy of vehicles passed by the house a half hour later. These vehicles looked like they'd seen more action. They were covered in dirt, bullet holes peppered all about. Blood smeared both the doors and the glass all around. The emblems were mostly of the Dixie National Gaurd, as well as official Dixie Army. How the hell did they overwhelm the military? This is, if they aren't them.

"Dixie national gaurd station sounds like a good starting point to move to." Hunter commented, after the convoy had passed. "There can't be more of them."

"I actually like that idea."

The station itself stood at the junction of highway 78, and 316. Years ago Alaina remembered it had been a truck stop, but the DNG expanded rapidly thereafter. There was another operation center toward washington, on the east side of the state. The one on this side was deserted.

"Fucking armory is empty, but I guess that's to be expected." Hunter commented.

"This is the station all the men were from, right?" Alaina asked, holstering her gun. The pair stood in the war room, maps across the walls and a large table covered in abandoned documents.

Hunter picked up a coffee cup, and put his finger into the liquid. "Yeah, not warm but warmer than it should be."

Over the next day they raided everything they could from the place. Bandages, mass produced pain meds, and a lot of tactical gear. The bets find was the pair of Jeeps. They were bullet ridden, but Hunter found no issues under the hoods. "Ah there's the catch." Hunter commented, opening the door of the hummer. "Key's broke off. We'll hotwire these things."

---

"Ow fuck," Hunter commented, rolling up his sleeve to check his arm. It was overcast, and 3 weeks into the apocalypse. Hunter and Alaina were on the south side of the loop, raiding cars.

"What?" Alaina wiped at her forehead with the top of her arm, then felt the same pain Hunter did. She grabbed at the back of her head. "What the fuck?" Her hand came back bloodied, as did Hunter's arm.

Alaina heard more before she felt it, hunter took her hand and yanked her into the hummer they were using. Metal clanged all around, and the sky drew darker as the hail streamed down. The sprint to the car minimized the damage, but Alaina still had to bandage hunter's wounds, he worked on hers.

"It isn't molten but that shit did burn us." Hunter commented after they'd been patched up. "Metal hail."

Rather than drive and damage the hummer further, the pair decided to lay low. Several minutes passed and the hail slowed. Both Hunter and Alaina donned the national gaurd armor, and left the vehicle. "I feel like we need to collect this stuff." Alaina said, brushing a small pile into her hand. The stuff was oddly shiny, as if in an oil slick.

"Hands up," A female voice sounded from beyond the hummer. Shit. Hunter and Alaina both obliged. "Good, thanks. Now, where are the others."

"Others?" Hunter asked, forehead wrinkling.

"You known what we're talking about." Another female voice said.

"What the hell do you mean?" Alaina asked, as confused as Hunter.

"You are driving a fucking hu-" The speaker cut off, and Alaina heard a thud.

"Fuck," The first voice said quietly. She holstered her gun, and approached the surrendered pair. The girl was older than Alaina by a couple years, her hair was brown, with streaks of gray in the front. "Corinne meant you were driving a Hummer, National Gaurd."

Hunter laughed, to Alaina's chagrin. "I see how this looks."

"We raided their shit after they left." Alaina rolled her eyes.

"Oh, they left?" The odd woman asked, She seemed to watch carefully as either of them spoke.

"They headed southwest, down 78. Maybe toward monroe?" Alaina offered.

"Huh, well alright." The woman scratched at her forehead with the light under her pistol. "Oh, you can relax." She holstered her pistol and proffered her hand. Hunter shook it. Alaina narrowed her eyes but did the same.

"I'm Alaina Cross, he's Hunter Graves."

"Arden Monroe," She sighed, "That was Corinne Ice. Severely Narcoleptic." Arden gave a half-hearted smile.

"You're deaf, I presume," Alaina said, standing with Hunter's help.

Arden was taken aback. "I am, how the hell..."

"You speak and read lips very well."

"Well damn. I haven't had a normal person notice that fast before."

"Hummer. You were driving a hummer," Corinne said, stumbling to the trio.

"Oh my god. Yes they aren't a part of their group. The gaurd went southwest."

Corinne was oddly dressed, wearing leggings and a leather vest. Arden on the other hand had a similar getup to Hunter, camo pants with a tan jacket. Corinne's hair was also strange, Dyed purple with streaks of red and orange. "I see you're all acquainted. I'm Corinne, forgive my delay."

"Hunter," He gestured to himself, " this is Alaina."

---

"We were scavenging to the east a ways, past Timothy road." Corinne explained, came this way to check out the national gaurd center, but y'all already got to it. But that's why we came in hot."

"Not to mention the metal rain." Arden said, "That shit put us on edge."

All four of the women and man sat at the bar in the basement of Corinne and Arden's house. They'd located all their belongings there. The house was nice, clearly pre war.

Hunter took a swig of bourbon, then lit a stolen cigar. Alaina watched Otis and Scrap play in the sun room adjacent. "We're thinking of going through athens and gathering people. To form a group of sorts."

"That'd be a good idea," Corinne flicked a butterfly knife around.

The house was undamaged from the hail, unlike Corinne and Arden's truck. The movement exposed the truck to more hail than Hunter and Alaina, which ruined the front glass.

"I was wary of the gaurd, but now it all seems well." Alaina said, leaning against the wall to her right.

"I've seen too many movies and read too many books to not be wary," Arden said, carving into the bar counter with a fixed blade Karambit. "I hate the idea, but also the odds we all live without a larger group are so slim."

"Also don't forget about the walker math. If everyone remaining alive kills like 10 a day we will be rid of this in a year or two." Hunter commented, sitting the bourbon bottle down, and sliding it to Alaina.

"Not if everyone's infected. We could all be slowly turning." Corinne posited, "Oh and what about the animals?"

"That's fair. I have yet to see an undead animal though." Hunter shrugged.

"The metal hail could be bad too. That can't just be it." Arden said, shuddering. The hail may not have done much damage this go round, but Alaina considered the environmental affects, and damage it could do to unprepared people or animals.

"Anything we could do to test it?" Hunter asked, sliding off his bar stool. He stooped to pet Scrap and Otis, who'd walked back into the bar area.

"I wish I knew how," Arden shook her head.

"Is it worth collecting at least?" Hunter asked.

"Perhaps for bartering. We at least need to clean off the solar panels if we don't collect right away." Corinne commented.

"Yeah, fuck future us." Arden said, standing. "I'm gonna wash some clothes, the solar batteries should have enough power for a couple loads." Alaina followed, handing Hunter's bottle back to him. He smiled and returned to drinking.

---

"I don't know what I think of you two." Alaina said, folding a pair of Hunter's shorts.

"Same here, with you and your boyfriend." Arden said idly.

"He isn't... ugh."

Arden raised an eyebrow, "He isn't?"

"Not officially, but how many options are there anyway." Alaina went through the events leading up to Arden and Corinne's confrontation.

"Sure sounds like a boyfriend to me," Arden shrugged.

"What about Corinne, is she your..."

"No. I am not gay. I've known her since we were teens. We worked together up until the end of the world."

"Huh, well that's more normal than I'd expected." Alaina took a pile of Hunter's neatly folded clothes, and set them to the side. She began on her own next. Arden continued Corinne's laundry.

Arden chuckled, "You haven't heard what we did for a living yet."

"What?"

"I was an assassin, she, well, she gathered information," Arden said with a sly smile and an odd inflection on the description.

"A deaf assassin and a narcoleptic, what, torturer?" On the one hand, Alaina couldn't believe it, on the other hand, the Dixie government often had information it shouldn't have. Plus the former united states weren't exactly stable and friendly to one another.

"Well that was part of it, she's always had a love of the actual cutting off of loose ends."

"Ah, a narcoleptic serial killer. Weird."

Arden paused her laundry folding. "You don't exactly seem surprised."

"I find some of that stuff fascinating. I used to read and listen to all sorts of old true crime stuff from before the war."

"That's fair. I did the same, but I also used to read the northern and western accounts of the war. Nobody's hands are clean. Everyone's done something."

"That feels all the more true now that the world has ended."

Arden was a quiet sort for the most part, if she wasn't in a conversation she didn't so much as hum. Alaina tried not to break the silence, but that was hard. She began to hum and even sing, and Arden didn't look up from her task.

After a half hour they'd finished up, loading the washer yet again, this time with towels and linens.

---

"Lainey?" She heard, then peeked her head out front the upstairs bedroom, and peered down the hall.

"Hey Lainey, I wasn't sure where you were at." Hunter shifted his weight from foot to foot, holding duffle bags in either hand.

"Oh I'm here, you find a room yet?"

"Haven't actually."

An awkward pause fell over the pair, Alaina leaned against the doorway and grinned, "And you're here, outside mine..."

"Indeed I am," Hunter smiled and entered the room, just brushing past Alaina. She laughed and returned to her unpacking.

The bedroom was not unlike the others in the house. Gaudy ancient hand made quilts and pillow were piled all over, and two beds were separated by about 4 feet, like a hotel room. The place was old and could be widely known, Alaina had no idea. This made staying there long term impossible.

Sleep came slowly for her, she tossed and turned most of the night, but by 3 in the morning she sat up. Hunter had stopped snoring, so Alaina spoke.

"Where the hell will we stay?"

She heard the rustle of old sheets, "Wish I knew. Warehouse maybe?"

That idea wasn't a bad one, "But what about down the line? Nature can reclaim the city in like 10 years time. Without machines or anything, it will collapse into nothing."

"Deep conversations at 3 in the morning," Hunter chuckled. "This is what IRC was for."

"There are probably still some up, if we tried to find them."

"True." Hunter swallowed hard, "Sorry if this is awkward, me in here."

"Nonsense."

"Good. I like being around you, it makes me feel less on edge."

---

The three women and Hunter only stayed at the huge house for 3 days, walkers had finally begun to swarm the place. They seemed to be driven to the east. This was confirmed when Alaina heard sirens on the east side, moving around, closer and further.

"That has to be the work of some group. It's clever." Corinne said, signing as she spoke.

"It concerns me." Arden spoke, "This requires a lot of planning and manpower to pull off correctly."

"Be that as it may, this is the only opportunity for a while to go to Athens. If this isn't planned well it will pull the dead through the city, to then go south east." Alaina commented, Hunter's arm resting across her shoulders in the back seat of the hummer.

"Yeah, let's find a good warehouse." Arden said, pulling the hummer left onto Timothy road. Traffic was sparse, abandoned vehicles dotting the road. Some spotted with bullet holes, others had their glass smashed out, by the hail or by man.

The hail had slowed the past couple days, coming in bursts now and again. Wearing thick clothes stopped the impacts from getting skin, so the weather was less of a problem. The worst thing was the damage to ordinary shingles, which then let water pour in to regular homes in the rain, and damaged thin metal roofs as well.

At the very end of Timothy road, the group pulled onto Business 78. It lead to broad street at it's eastern end, and to the west it led directly through Statham. Bullet holes riddled the buildings and vehicles all up and down the street, and makeshift towers dotted the horizon. "This the Military?" Arden asked, but she did not receive an answer. She took the truck west, closer to Statham. The place had grown exponentially since the end of the secession war, it's population balancing out with Athens. The thing Alaina liked was how the people were more spread out. Athens was densely packed by comparison.

Gunfire could be heard in the distance as the hummer slowly rolled along. Arden reacted faster than anyone else when guns sounded nearer the group. She hurled them forward, past the mall and to the toyota dealership near the end of 78.

"What in the fuck?" Hunter asked to nobody in particular.

"So much for a friendly group." Corinne muttered. She slammed her hand on the glovebox, making it pop open. "Dammit."

Glass shattered in the back of the truck. Hunter pulled Alaina down, covering her. "Fuck." He drew his shotgun as Arden and Corinne tumbled out of the front seats. The Hummer was a four door, but Hunter and Alaina stayed put. She got low, adrenaline rushing through her veins as she reached under Corinne's seat for her rifle.

Hunter cleared the glass from the back window, barely looking over the bench seat. Alaina caught a glimpse of the assassin and narcoleptic returning fire, before ducking out of sight to the north west.

"Well, if we don't survive this, I've been..."

Hunter was interrupted by more fire, rolling in from the southwest. We're fucking cornered. The wave burst fourth till Alaina would have sworn they were done for, and the side door burst open. A youngish girl, under 18 popped into view, shoving Hunter's shotgun aside. "Get the hell out of here." She sent a long stream of fire toward the enemy, then hissed, "Now you idiots."

Rose's rifle rounds felt like impacts to Alaina's heart as they continued behind the pair. Hunter led the way, and was first to duck behind a building. "Who the fuck are you? Where are Corinne and Arden?" The man now at gunpoint could not have been older than 23, he had black wavy hair, and green eyes.

"I'm with Rose. The others from the hummer went north west, but I reckon they'll circle back to the south. I killed the other mall guys."

"Who is Rose?" hunter demanded, still hesitant to lower his shotgun from the young man's face.

"She pulled y'all from the hummer, I am Rhett."

"Alright." Hunter said, removing his shotgun, but not shaking the man's hand. "You lead us south. I'll kill you if you make any bad moves." Rhett nodded, drawing his pistol and heading south.

"Who the hell is that?" Corinne asked, poking her crazy haired head from above a gas station's canopy above the pumps. How did she even manage that?

"You sure are a lively bunch," Rhett laughed, "I'm Rhett."

"Saved us, with a girl," Hunter added, propping his shotgun on his boot.

"Oh," Corinne disappeared, then hurtled herself down from the canopy.

Arden pulled the door to the gas station to, then turned, startled by so many faces. Corinne signed to her, which was translated later to Alaina. "Saved the lovebirds, with a younger girl."

The group headed south further, stopping when footsteps sounded behind. Rose joined, coated in a disconcerting amount of blood. "Hello y'all." She got no response, then looked down, then back at the group. "Corpses and newly created corpses. Ain't mine."

"You guys got a place? Those mall guys ran us out of ours." Rhett asked, changing the subject, with a wry smile.

"Yeah, down timothy. One of the old money neighborhoods." Alaina said, receiving a disapproving look from Arden and Hunter. She just shrugged.

"Mind if we tag along? Need some company in this shithole." Rose asked, smearing the blood on her face with her also bloody hand.

"Fuck it, let's go." Hunter sighed.