Post by MSS Productions on Feb 4, 2021 23:46:20 GMT
Darkness fills the screen with the soft murmuring snarls of the ferals in the background. The snarling murmurs continue as the swell of music begins like the rising of the wind. At its height, it’s joined by the soft sounds of a piano and a few seconds later by a cello of the opening of Hit Houses “Ordinary World”.
The first visual of the episode opened with the familiar group of survivors huddled inside an abandoned supermarket around a small fire. Dead ferals were piled off in the corner and by the looks of the group, only hours had passed since the attack on Cold Creek. They all bore the blood and battle wounds of that horrific fight.
“Came in from a rainy Thursday on the Avenue.
Thought I heard you talking softly.
Turn on all the lights, the TV and the radio.
Still I can’t escape the ghost of you.”
As the words whispered the camera came in on two of the survivors, Gema Delacroix and Gwen O’Neal sitting close together. Gema had her arm around Gwen with Gwen’s head resting on her shoulder as she wept softly.The loss of Jackson Mawl was still so raw.
“What has happened to them?
Crazy some would say.
Where is the light that I recognize?”
The camera continues to move through the crowd finding Josiah Crane and Alice Cornell sitting together near the doors, Vanessa and what little remained of her ‘PeaceKeepers’ were grouped together and everyone else surrounded Abigail and Madison near the center of the group by the fire. Even the citizens of Cold Creek had been absorbed into the group in the middle rather than with Vanessa and the Peace Keepers. The camera suddenly shifts to the road as the voice of a little girl softly begins to sing.“But I won’t cry for yesterday.
There’s an ordinary world somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.”
The open road calm is suddenly broken by the tires of two motorcycles and a convoy of trucks and buses driving by throwing the leaves into the air. The camera pulls back to reveal the line of cars all heading west with the two scavenger bikes out in front. Abigail and Madison riding side by side.
The shot changes in a flash to a camp site with the survivors, now cleaned up in makeshift tents. Abigail is lying on her side asleep until a hand reaches into the tent and shakes her awake. She sits up groggily rubbing her eyes and comes out to a dark camp being broken down by the group, then in a flash they are back on the road before the sun even comes up.
“Passion or coincidence once prompted you to stay.
Pride will tear us both apart.
Well now pride’s gone out the window
Across the rooftops
Run away.
Left me in the vacuum of my heart.”
As the words were sung flashes were shown of Josiah, Vanessa and Abigail arguing. Flashes of different light levels and different camps as the two camp leaders and the most experienced Scavenger fought over where they should go, and when. Each time an argument was shown it would flash immediately to Abigail getting on her bike and the convoy following along behind her before they would stop for the evening and the whole cycle would begin again.
“What has happened to me?
Crazy some would say.
Where is my friend when I need you most?”
The shot immediately cuts to a fire lit camp in the dead of night with Abigail sitting on her makeshift bunk with her hands over her face. She was dirty and rode weary, but the weight that pulled her down was more. It was the small “Sky Holder” patch that she held clutched in her hand.A patch once worn by Jackson Mawl, given by her late husband so many years before.
“But I won’t cry for yesterday.
There’s an ordinary world somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.”
The tempo of the song picks up as the lead singer, instead of the little girl, belts out the chorus to a sudden bass drop. As it plays the group is shown in flashes fighting. The fire exploding from the Mossberg in the hands of Madison takes a feral in the side of the head, taking most of its head off. An arrow fired from Miles’s custom made bow takes another in the side of the neck, while Vanessa drives a knife into another’s skull from below and Gema’s twin hatchets make quick work of one coming for her and Gema in another flash.
The music slows down again as the girl's voice returns as the shots on the screen shift with it to show the convoy riding on, with people huddled together on the buses and in the back of trucks.
“What has happened to it all?
Crazy some would say.
Where is the life that I recognize?
But I won’t cry for yesterday.
There’s an ordinary world somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way to the ordinary world
I will learn to survive.”
As the song plays a group of Ferals comes around a pair of trucks and begins to sprint at the small group near the rear of the working survivors where a single woman was watching over what few children had survived the attack.
The woman could only stare in shock as the Ferals came sprinting at her but, as the beat drops hard ending the song, Abigail appears with a handgun in each hand walking between two abandoned cars opening fire.
The bullets tore through the ferals hitting limbs, heads and torsos, but most of the shots found their mark in the throats and necks of the crazed undead creatures sending them to the ground and the eternal slumber of redeath.
Afterlife
Voice of Josiah Crane off screen: “Is that all of them?!”
Abigail Ryder: “I think so.”
Abigail answered, shoving the two handguns into their holsters on her thighs. On the other side of the group of kids, Madison loaded a few shells into the shotgun, casting a withering eye on Josiah.
Madison Chaney: “Not that you did much to help with it.”
Josiah Crane: “I do my part, Chaney.”
Josiah snapped and walked up behind the short, pretty blonde, Penelope Hargrove.
Josiah Crane: “My talents are found elsewhere, huh, Darlin?”
Penelope looked for a moment as if she both wanted to throw up and panic all at the same moment. That moment however passed and she turned, planting a palm into his chest shoving him back away from her.
Penelope Hargrove: “Keep your damn hands off me!”
Penny stalked away muttering to herself and Josiah turned his gaze to the brown haired Alice Cornell who was looking after the young blonde scowling.
Alice Cornell: “Someone needs to teach that little bitch some manners.”
Josiah chuckled and caught the eye of the dark haired former leader of Cold Creek, who had returned to the PeaceKeepers after the fight with the Ferals.
Vanessa: “Rubbing off on her, aren’t I?”
Vanessa called out as she extended her hands toward the crackling fire that the PeaceKeeper had gotten started. Josiah made a face and turned away without comment which only served to amuse Vanessa.
Abigail checked on Madison, the camera watching as she spoke quietly to the blonde girl. Once she was done she looked around at the people milling about and let out a shrill whistle to get the groups attention. Madison walked over to a pair of blondes, Gwen and Gema, and put her hand on their shoulders speaking quietly to them.
Abigail Ryder: “No one get comfortable.”
She commanded, to a collective groan.
Abigail Ryder: “We’re rolling out as soon as we can get this checkpoint clear.”
Vanessa looked out at the people that had come from Cold Creek. The Peace Keepers, families and now orphaned children that had all looked to her for protection. She blew out a deep breath out through her nose and pushed herself up with her hands on her thighs.
Vanessa: “And just why the hell are you the one giving orders, Ryder?”
The words got everyone’s attention, most of all, Josiah, whose head snapped up in intrigue. Gema, Madison and Miles all glanced over with raised brows but said nothing. Abigail’s lips twitched, as if she half wanted to smile and half wanted to snarl.
Abigail Ryder: “Just be ready.”
Abigail turned but before she could walk away Vanessa grabbed her by the wrist. Abigail froze and looked down at her wrist which was enough to make Vanessa release her. She’d seen first hand inside Cold Creek that the rumors about this woman had, if anything, been down played.
But it wasn’t Vanessa who spoke up. It was Josiah.
Josiah Crane: “She’s got a point! There’s two people here who have experience leading people and neither of them is Abigail Ryder.”
Vanessa motions to Josiah with one hand.
Vanessa: “Iron Lake and Cold Creek, we have experience running a community. One of us should be in charge.”
Abigail just sucked in a deep breath in through her teeth and was about to tell them they could have it when Miles pushed off the hood of one of the cars that had pushed out of the path of traffic.
Miles Wright: “Does this look like a community to you? Does it look like we’re behind four walls and a shitload of fences?!”
Vanessa: “....”
Miles Wright: “And for that matter, your communities failed!”
Josiah Crane: “Now hold on a damn second!”
The sound of a shotgun racking in a shell drew everyone’s attention to Madison who was staring daggers at Josiah.
Madison Chaney: “He’s speaking.”
Miles looked down at the road and did his best to hide the little grin that touched the corners of his mouth but it didn’t work well. After, and only after, he had regained his composure did the bearded man look back up at Josiah and Vanessa.
Miles Wright: “And we aren’t in a community now are we? We’re out in this shit and tell me something? When was the last time you were out in this shit? Either one of you?!”
Vanessa had the forethought to actually look away when she knew the answer to that but Alice stood up and coughed drawing attention to her and Josiah.
Alice Cornell: “The last time you were out in the shit someone needed to save your ass if memory serves?!”
Miles Wright: “True enough, Smart Ass, but do you know whose ass has never needed saving? That bitch.”
Miles said levering the type of an arrow in his right hand at Abigail.
Miles Wright: “And you, any of you, think you are better suited to get by in this hellish world that we all live in now then step forward.”
Gema Delacroix: “There’s a reason none of us were scavs.”
Abigail didn’t say anything. In truth, she didn’t have to. She lowered one arm from where they had been crossed over her chest and rested the heel of her palm on the butt of the pistol on her thigh.
Abigail Ryder: “Any more objections? No? Good, then let’s roll out.”
If anyone wanted to argue the points presented by the bearded scav had all but silenced everyone. People began to gather their gear and weapons while others finished moving the abandoned cars from the path.
Once the station check point was clear they all piled back into the buses and trucks before pulling back out onto the road with Abigail and Madison riding side by side in the rear of the convoy.
The camera followed the line of vehicles through the checkpoint and back onto the road where they picked up speed, cruising happily along. The camera shifts around behind the group where the landscape opened up with a shot of the mountain they were running from looming far off into the distance.
The camera shifted around, the light adjusting to show the time displacement as the group came around a corner with a rock ravine with a roaring river on one side and a sprawling green field on the other. As they rounded the corner a stone structure came into view.
The structure spanned one hundred yards between one side of the ravine and the other with stone pillars lining each side and steel cables suspended overhead. The cables were stained red, with what appeared to be rust on both sides.
The convoy pulls onto the bridge, moving slowly across with the camera coming in on the faces of Gwen, Gema and Penelope. Each of their eyes scanned the bridge and the strange red stains and an uneasy look crossed the women.
Gwen O'Neal: “What do you think caused it to rust like that? In groups like that.”
Penelope Hargrove: “If it is rust.”
Gwen O'Neal: “What do you mean?”
Penelope Hargrove: “Could be blood.”
Gema Delacroix: “Don’t go putting that nonsense into her head.”
Gwen O'Neal: “What?!”
Gwen glanced over at the blonde woman sitting behind the wheel of the school bus they were all in and crossed her arms over her chest.
Gwen O'Neal: “Like I’m some kid?!”
Gema glanced behind her into the two seats near the front where Gwen and Penelope sat and then quickly back at the road.
Gema Delacroix: “You know it isn’t like that Gwen...you know that I have to respect what Jackson would have wanted. Even if we didn’t agree with it.”
Gwen O'Neal: “Just because Jax treated me like a kid doesn’t mean you have to!”
Gema Delacroix: “It’s not about that, Gwenny, and you know it. It’s about making sure that one of us stays alive to keep his memory alive....”
Penelope looked between the two women and took her lip between her teeth. She could see the scar of this injury was still fresh.
For both of them.
Penelope Hargrove: “I didn’t really know him. Iron Lake was the only community my parents found and once you get to Iron Lake, you never leave….”
Gwen O'Neal: “Jax was….”
Gwen found her voice was thick, like her tongue was too big for her mouth. To her eternal thanks Gema didn’t make her finish.
Gema Delacroix: “Jackson was the kind of person who wouldn’t ever let harm come to someone he cared about. No matter the cost to himself, he’d pay it. He’d pay it a thousand times over.”
The words hung in the air as the shot shifted to the pair of women on the bikes at the rear of the convoy and the face of Abigail Ryder, whose husband had been one of Jackson’s former brothers in the Titans.
Gema Delacroix: “He’d never betray someone who trusted him. He was a good man….”
The youngest blonde of the group looked at the woman driving over and gave a small sad smile.
Penelope Hargrove: “You loved him?”
Gema Delacroix: “We never really talked about it. He always said his time was better spent talking to me as his head of security to ensure people’s safety than about our “Personal baggage” as he would call it but yes….I think I did. He was good to me.”
The caravan crossed to the other side of the bridge where it was greeted by a small gate of sorts, crafted of wood and large bits of fallen trees. From behind them came a short concise set of three matching honks of a horn, the signal to slow to a stop.
The convoy pulled to a stop and the pair of bikes came around it. The truck, now sitting beside the first bus opened the passenger door and Miles’s head popped up looking at the blockage while speaking to the pair of women sitting next to them.
Miles Wright: “What do you think?”
Abigail rested her hands across her lap and canted her head at the obstacle.
Abigail Ryder: “The horde?”
Madison Chaney: “Other direction.”
Abigail Ryder: “A choke point?”
Miles Wright: “To what end? Doesn’t look like a battle took place here. So why’s it not manned?”
Abigail and Madison both looked at the strange blockade when an unhappy voice from behind them said.
Vanessa: “None of you spend much time in the communities did you? It’s a border marker.”
Abigail Ryder: “Never seen a border marker like this….”
The door to the first bus opened and Gema popped her head out.
Gema Delacroix: “We continuing on?”
Abigail began to chew on her bottom lip and stare at the strange gate like structure. Miles looked between her, the gate and the faces he saw in the windows of the bus.
Miles Wright: “We could use a break Abbi.”
Abigail Ryder: “Not you too….”
Vanessa: “Look at the people Abigail, they’re run ragged.”
When Abigail cast her eyes upon the dark haired woman and blew out an annoyed breath but before she could put words to it Vanessa shook her head.
Vanessa: “This isn’t about leadership anymore.”
She pointed back the way they had come toward the mountain that was now nearly disappeared in the distance.
Vanessa: “Sooner or later that damn Horde is gonna catch up to us Abigail and when that happens do you want them to find fresh bodies ready to fight or run down exhausted, easy prey?”
Abigail Ryder: “Fine.”
The dark haired woman said, blowing a breath out through her nose.
Abigail Ryder: “Everyone knows the drill, Madison tell them to get settled in.”
Madison Chaney: “Where? Here?”
Abigail Ryder: “No, let’s go back to where the bridge starts. I don’t wanna camp out so close to this border marker.”
Madison gave a single nod and climbed off her bike to begin letting everyone know. The group made their way back to the mouth of the bridge and pulled the buses and trucks into a semicircle with the group’s camp directly in front. So nothing could come at them from behind and they could keep an eye on the boundary.
The group began to break out the supplies and small personal tents and before long the inside of the semi circle was filled with people sleeping or dozing beside a roaring fire. Even Madison had retired to a tent to get some much needed rest.
But not Abigail.
The woman sat on the folded down bed of one of the trucks with her hands tucked into the pockets of James’s Kutte. The flesh of both her arms had the faintest little outline of goose bumps running up and down the flesh but it was clear it wasn’t from the cold.
Her eyes stayed focused on the darkness beyond and the great wooden boundary wall that sat in front of them. Though, she wasn’t so out of it that she didn’t notice the sound of boots hitting the pavement, no matter how soft.
Abigail Ryder: “Why aren’t you asleep?”
The camera pans around away from Abigail to find a pair of worn boots stepping into frame beside the bed of the truck. It slowly pans up a pair of jeans and a loose fitting vest like top where a folded up compound bow was laying on a shoulder just before revealing the head of Miles Wright.
Miles Wright: “Can’t sleep. Never could on nights like this.”
Abigail looked up sharply and shorted moving her eyes quickly back to the darkness and Miles chuckled.
Miles Wright: “Thought I was Madison didn’t you?”
Abigail Ryder: “Don’t get cheeky, Fucker.”
Abigail fell silent for a moment then asked under her breath.
Abigail Ryder: “Something bothering you?”
Miles Wright: “Other than the fact that something is circling us? No.”
The denim and leather glad woman glanced over sharply and met Miles’s eyes.
Abigail Ryder: “How can you tell?”
Miles stared off into the darkness, his eyes shifting back and forth.
Miles Wright: “No different than tracking a dear really”
At that exact moment a sound came into camp carried on the wind. A snarling scream from somewhere nearby but still far enough away to not be deafening. Abigail pushed off the bed of the truck immediately and lowered her hands to her thighs.
Abigail Ryder: “That’s a damn feral.”
Miles was suddenly as alert as she was, his bow extended with a single hand and an arrow nocked in a split second.
Miles Wright: “Seriously? It’s been weeks since we’ve seen one. You think the Horde caught us/”
Abigail Ryder: “We’d know if the Horde caught us. The ground around Cold Creek was shaking.”
As the two stood talking and surveying the surrounding a figure came out of the darkness sprinting at them. Abigail’s hands came up immediately, a glock in each of them and the barrels pointed at the figure while beside her Miles leveled the bow but when the figure raised its hands and skidded to a stop neither fired.
Person: “Don’t fire! Don’t fire!”
The figure was that of a tall woman in her mid to late twenties with brown hair. She was dressed in rags and her face was covered in bruises and smudges of dirt. Her hair, which hung down to the middle of her back, was dirty with leaves and twigs sticking out in strange places.
Miles suddenly lowers the bow again and she flinches back as she heard the string release but slowly opens her eyes when she doesn’t feel the arrow, but hears it strike flesh. With one eye open she looks behind her and finds a Feral on the ground with an arrow sticking out of its mouth and down into its neck.
Stranger: “Oh, thank you!”
Abigail Ryder: “How many were there!?”
Stranger: “Just the one….”
Miles Wright: “And you...ran….from it?”
Stranger: “It’s a member of the undead….of course!”
Abigail Ryder: “You’ve never killed one?!”
Stranger: “....A few.”
There was something about the way the women said, “A few..” that sent a chill down Abigail’s spine and she didn’t know why.
Abigail Ryder: “Come in closer, out of the dark where we can see you.”
The woman crept closer slipping in toward the dying embers of the fire revealing the true state of her. Her face was littered with bruises and patches of dirt and her clothing looked as if she had been running hard for months.
Abigail Ryder: “What’s your name?”
The woman’s eyes continue to shift from the pair to the wall hovering in the distance.
Stranger: “Katherine.”
She said looking between Abigail and the wall again.
Stranger: “Dr. Katherine Gray.”
Miles Wright: “Dr.?!”
Katherine Gray: “...Once upon a time…”
The woman answered looking back and forth between them and the fence again. Abigail finally looked back at the wall and back at the doctor arching a brow.
Abigail Ryder: “You seem to be concerned about the wall, Katherine.”
Miles Wright: “She’s a doctor, Abigail.”
The denim clad woman just stared at the brunette woman.
Abigail Ryder: “There's a reason you seem so concerned, Katherine?”
Katherine Gray: “Have they come out yet?”
Miles Wright: “Who?”
Katherine licked her lips and took a step back away from the light but Abigail’s hand dropped to her thigh and rested on the butt of the glock freezing her in her tracks.
Abigail Ryder: “Has who come out yet?”
Katherine Gray: “I don’t know, it’s not like we are on a first name basis!”
The sound of the raised voice, even hushed as she was trying to make it was enough to arouse several of those sleeping nearby. Josiah Crane, Vanessa and Madison all lifted their heads at the sound of the disturbance and to her credit, Vanessa was on her feet nearly as fast as Madison was.
Madison came around the truck behind Abigail and Miles with the Mossberg in her hand and the barrel pointed at the woman while Vanessa came around the other with an assault rifle in her hands but neither of them said a word.
Abigail glanced back over each shook and shook her head when she saw the sudden trepidation on the face of the brown haired woman.
Abigail Ryder: “Good of you to join us, Ladies.”
Vanessa: “The fuck is going on?”
Madison Chaney: “Who’s our guest?”
Abigail Ryder: “This is Doctor Katherine Gray and she was just telling us about the people on the other side of the wall.”
Madison Chaney: “Did you say a doctor?”
Vanessa however had ignored that completely and locked her eyes on the denim clad woman.
Vanessa: “Who’s on the other side of the wall?”
The camera comes in close on the brown haired woman’s face, shifting back and forth between her and Abigail and Vanessa. The doctor licks her lips and looks up at the wall again saying under her breath.
Katherine Gray: “I never got their names. They come out just about every night to clear out the ferals who are on the bridge. Always in groups of ten or twelve.”
Vanessa: “Like a camp? A community?”
Katherine Gray: “I guess?”
The woman answered, licking her lips nervously again.
Katherine Gray: “I learned a long time ago to stay away from people.”
Abigail Ryder: “Yeah, most of us did but we don’t really have that choice anymore. Not with what’s coming.”
Katherine Gray: “What do you mean?”
Vanessa: “You haven’t heard?”
The black haired woman asked with a dark little chuckle and rested the rifle on her shoulder.
Vanessa: “The Ferals have organized somehow. They have...a Queen...for lack of a better term.”
Each word that came out of the crass woman’s mouth only seemed to darken the brown haired woman’s face, while at the same time draining that same color from it. Each word causes this reaction to worsen and yet keeps the same puzzled expression.
Katherine Gray: “Organize...you say?”
Madison Chaney: “And have five women who help her control them.”
Katherine Gray: “..Five…”
Before she could finish her thought, Miles let out a shrill whistle and the camera turned as the bearded man spun around, swinging the bow with him and leveling it at the wall.
A light was reflecting off the twisted structures that made up the wall. The whistle was enough to bring Abigail and Vanessa’s heads. Katherine uses that moment to try and slip backwards back into the darkness.
Before she can get very far however the sound of a shell being racked into a shotgun rang out and the doctor looked up to find that Madison had slipped around behind her and was now standing with the shotgun held lower toward her stomach.
Madison Chaney: “Not yet.”
Abigail Ryder: “You good, Maddie?”
Madison Chaney: “Five by five.”
Abigail Ryder: “Keep the doctor safe. We may need her if things get bad.”
Abigail, Vanessa and Miles all began around the car to put themselves between the group and the wall only to be joined by Gema and surprisingly, Penelope, with a half a dozen of the peace keepers. Josiah and Alice stayed behind with the other peacekeepers and the rest of the civilians from Cold Creek while Gwen moved over to stand with Madison.
The light continues around the strange structure, becoming brighter and brighter until it was revealed to be that of a torch held in the hand of a tiny woman with black and red hair. Behind her walked a dozen other men and women all dressed in what appeared to be animal furs, all cured, cleaned of all fur and strange looking.
The group all froze near the opening of the gate and stared at the group at the end of the bridge while Abigail, Miles, Vanessa, Gema and the peacekeepers stared back. It was Vanessa who raised her hands to take the rifle off them that broke the stand off, though the strangers were holding no weapons any of them could see.
Vanessa: “Good evening!”
The called out greeting was met with silence, but also without hostility. When the dark haired woman took a step forward however the weapons the strange group had hidden came out. They were all made of polished metal, sheet metal in most cases made into axes or knives.
The instant the weapons came out the dark haired woman came to a stop and immediately lowered her rifle to aim it at the group, but they never advanced. The woman at the group's center with the red and black hair looks back and forth across the survivors as if surveying them before opening her arms and a big smile spreads across her face.
Woman: “There is no need for such hostility!”
Vanessa: “Then tell your people to put their fucking blades away!”
Woman: “Technically you all had weapons on us the instant we appeared so my family is well within their rights to defend themselves. Not to mention, it's usually well within someone’s rights to defend their home. You are the invaders here.”
For a moment no one moved, with everyone looking to Abigail for some kind of sign of what to do now. Even Vanessa, as the camera moved to her, looked nearly instinctively to Abigail. She had never been out and met a hostile force in hostile territory, Ryder had.
Abigail Ryder: “Everyone lower your weapons.”
Gema Delacroix: “You sure about this, Ryder?”
Abigail Ryder: “We have guns, they have blades. I think if things get out of hand we can handle ourselves.”
The group, some of them uneasily, holstered their weapons and began to walk toward the other group, while they did the same. Josiah and Alice had worked their way through the crowd to near the front, as if they had been there all along.
The red and black haired woman at the head of the group of strangers came forward first and held out her hand. Abigail noticed immediately she was far cleaner than she would expect for today's world and extremely busty. She would have been considered a catch in the old world with her full lips, thick hips and generous bust but she seems to have adjusted well as the razor sharp knives hanging from her hips appeared blood stained.
Woman: “I am Fang.”
Abigail’s brow shot up and she bit back a laugh.
Abigail Ryder: “Fang?”
Fang: “That’s right. I am the leader of the southern outpost.”
The woman called Fang turned quickly motioned with her head and began to walk back toward the gate expecting the group to follow her. The group followed along, with many of them keeping an eye on the others in the woman’s group.
Gema Delacroix: “Southern outpost? How many are there?”
Fang looked back at the tall blonde amazon woman and considered for a moment not answering based on the look on her face but decided against it.
Fang: “Three. Southern, Eastern and Western.”
It seemed like she wanted to say more but the woman suddenly fell silent. The group walked past the bridge where a second barrier had been erected on the street between a pair of corner stores that stood near twenty feet high The wall was made of chain link fence reinforced with bits of what appeared to be charred wood and melted metal with some kind of glow shining behind it.
Fang: “You’re actually in luck…”
The wall suddenly split up the middle revealing a roaring bonfire that stood ten feet high. People stirred all around, all of them wearing the strange furless cured hides. None of them paid the group any attention as they approached, but the camera lingered on several faces that turned to stare at the group once they had passed.
Fang: “Claw and Talon, the leaders of the other two outposts are actually visiting.”
Abigail Ryder: “Do you often take it outsiders?”
Fang: “No. We actually never allow outsiders.”
Katherine Gray: “That’s an understatement.”
Abigail glanced back at the doctor, who was being frogged marched by the elbow by Madison who had stayed true to her word not to leave the woman alone. She didn’t speak on the woman’s words choosing instead to focus on the black and red haired woman.
Abigail Ryder: “What made you change your mind?”
Fang: “Nothing you did. You just happened to arrive at the right time.”
Vanessa: “Right time?”
Josiah Crane: “What’s so special about now?”
Fang: “It’s the great gathering.”
Alice Cornell: “The Great Gathering? What’s that?”
Fang: “The three great tribes gather and pay homage to the divine that protects us all and showed us the way.”
The woman continued to lead the group through what had once been a small bridge on the side of town. The stores had all been gutted and turned into houses and what few houses were in the town proper had been torn down to use for building material.
Abigail’s eyes lingered however on a part of the town that had remained whole. The church had been left completely untouched and sat with the doors closed but all the crosses removed. She raised a brow but said nothing as they walked back it toward what had once been the town's local post office.
The windows were boarded up and covered by thick plates of crafted metal and wood. As they neared the doors they pushed open and a pair joined them. Another tiny woman, this one slender with bright blonde hair and the other a thick bodied bearded man. Each of them wearing the same furless cured skin for clothing.
The red and black haired woman embraced the two fondly, even friendly with a warm hug and a kiss on the mouth.
Blonde woman: “Who are your companions?”
Bearded man: “Yes, introduce us dear.”
Fang: “Claw. Talon...You know…”
The red and black haired woman turned and looked at the group, looking them over one by one before her eyes finally fell on Abigail’s own.
Fang: “I never did get your names.”
Abigail Ryder: “I’m Abigail Ryder....this is Vanessa, Gema, Miles….”
Abigail continued listing off the names of the group, introducing them all one by one but left out the name of the doctor, who had seen these people before and she wasn’t at all sure she wasn’t familiar to them.
Fang listened to the introductions then opened her arms allowing the tiny blonde woman and the bearded man to slip their arms into her own to form a linking line of the three of them in front of the door to what had once been the post office.
Fang, Claw and Talon in unison: “Welcome to Eden.”