White Rabbit - A Criminal Minds Fic

Thirty

Over a breakfast of porridge and fruit Spencer and Charlie filled Alice in on the last five years, Spencer using the information he garnered this morning from his time with Lewis, and Charlie filling in the blanks. Breakfast itself had been an odd experience as Alice had gone up to Hazel and Richard who were serving up that day. She knew them both from her time there before and both of them had given her questioning looks as they greeted her.

"Welcome back Ally" Hazel had said as she filled her bowl with oats. She'd locked her eyes on to Alice's, cocking her head to the side. "We thought.... When Lewis and Marnie told us you'd left, neither of us expected to ever see or here from you again. We thought... Something else had happened to you."

Alice smiled nervously as she spoke with the couple she'd last seen five years ago. "Well here I am!"

"Yes. Here you are."

It was a very strange exchange and Alice very much got the impression that they wanted to say more to her but couldn't.

As they sat at the small table, the three adults kept their voices low as Abby ate. Alice discovered that in total, there were only around forty people remaining at Wonderland, eight of them children. A virus that Spencer said sounded very much like the bird flu virus had swept through the camp around eighteen months after she'd left. It had infected a lot of the residents, taking the lives of some of the elderly and the children. Those it hadn't claimed had been weakened, falling ill the following winter. The infirmary had been packed, Charlie had told them, and then another infection had taken hold but neither Oliver or Molly, the nurse, had known what it was. It began as a series of small bumps on the skin, effecting only those who were in the infirmary already. It quickly manifested into a strong fever and the bumps turned into boils which no matter what they did, didn't seem to heal. Oliver and Molly reportedly tried using all of the antibiotics that they'd managed to get their hands on but nothing worked against it and eventually the residents who were infected organs began to shut down and that was the end for them.

"MRSA" Spencer had commented, Alice wriggling up her nosebut nodding in agreement.

"So two viruses took out two thirds of the camp?" Alice asked quietly. Charlie shook his head at her.

"No. After you left.... some other people decided to try to escape too. I guess not everyone was as believing in my Father's story and plan as they let on."

"How far did they get?" Alice whispered.

"Some, all the way I think. Others....were caught before they made it out, but they never rejoined camp" he gave her a pointed look and she understood.

"Charlie... You don't believe... do you?"

He looked around carefully. "That my Father was sent back in time from the future to prepare for some sort of apocalypse? No. I used to, because he's my Father and you accept what your parents say no matter how crazy it is. But I've grown up a lot since then and it just doesn't make any sense, it CAN'T make any sense. And his reasoning behind a lot of the things he does is just..... Wrong. I think he's a very sick man mentally, one who functions very well and has managed to sway a lot of other people into his illusions."

"Charlie, I'm finished!" Abby announced, her spoon making a clanging sound as she placed it back on the table.

"Good girl. Go put your bowl away now Abby, ready for washing up duty." The girl stood and scurried away to the other end of the room.

"You two aren't married are you?" he asked quickly and quietly.

"Not in here Charlie." Alice hushed him.

"Later then. We'll talk later. I want to help, I'll tell you anything you need to know. I want out of this place too, I want to live an actual life away from here. I assume that's why you're here... To bring this place down?"

Spencer and Alice exchanged a glance, neither of them replying to him, not knowing if they should give a concrete answer where they were.

He sensed their hesitation. "Okay, we'll talk later."

...

Back at the FBI base the team were processing the mounds of new information they'd garnered. It had seemed that Lewis had simply taken Spencer on a tour of property this morning, so they'd been able to cross off areas on the layout that Alice had drawn them, if they were no longer in use or relevant.

Since the infection outbreak, the infirmary had moved buildings, the one sensible thing the camp elders had done. They'd heard Spencer asking about disposal of the deceased and Lewis telling him that because they lost so many in such a short period of time, they opted for a mass grave which was set outside of the camp. So many camp members had been weakened that they couldn't afford the time or labour to take each body back to town where the deceased could be collected and laid to rest by their families.

At least that explained the absence of the mass influx of victims, although they were going to have to find this mass grave at some point or another.

They had more details that they needed to know they answers to though, details they needed Spencer and Alice to get for them so that they could plan how they were going to proceed.

"What are you thinking so far?" Aaron asked Rossi.

"Mainly that we need to separate Lewis, Rebecca and possibly Eric away from the others. Right now, I don't think the rest of the camp will be that dangerous. If we can separate those three and bring them in, I thinking the others will come peacefully. From what we've heard Charlie say it sounds that a lot of the residents are disillusioned with the place and want to leave anyway, they just can't figure out how to."

"I agree. There may be a few other elders we need to be aware of, perhaps Oliver and Molly. We need to know what the weapon situation is, although we know that they lost their weapons trainer to MRSA. Alice didn't mention anyone else that was ex army but she might not have necessarily known herself or people may have come after she left."

"True. From what Lewis told Reid though, they've had a severe lack of newcomers recently. He's holding up very well so far. So is she aside from the curve ball she threw us all last night."

Aaron sighed. Alice having a child at the camp did complicate things even if it was a child that she didn't feel particularly connected to. He understood why she hadn't told them, but he also couldn't believe that none of them had picked up her outright lie to them which had made him internally question the validity of other things she'd said. However when Spencer had had a brief moment alone this morning in the bathroom, he has whispered into the listening device that he had no other concerns about her. He believed and trusted her still and that was the important part.

Now they just had to wait to see what Alice and Spencer could find out from Charlie this afternoon.