"What kind of name is Ten Thousand?"
"What kind of name is Juggy for a girl?"
⊰⊱
What do you get when you mix a broken girl, a mysterious sniper, a crazy mission, and zombies?
That's still what Aria 'Juggy' Tate is trying to figure out.
After a gro...
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Only a day or two out of Cheyenne and the van had broken down, ran out of gas, and they couldn't find more, so they were forced to move on foot.
They were headed East, thanks to the fallout from the nukes, and the dust storm of radiation that was headed their way. Moving East and then South just to head West was the new plan, so they could go around the radiation cloud.
Aria could hear the rumble of thunder behind them as she hiked uphill beside 10K. She had a new spear, finally, strapped behind her back with left over rope given to her by 10K so she could carry it on her back and keep her hands free.
With some good distance between them, Cassandra trekked uphill behind the group, too. Aria wanted to turn and look at her, praying that her best friend—her sister—was still in there somewhere. But she didn't look.
"We are going the wrong direction. Again," Murphy's nagging voice whined.
"You left us no choice," Warren told Murphy from the lead. "Too much fallout in the West."
"Again. That was not my fault," Murphy said to Warren as the group came to a stop. Aria rolled her eyes at Murphy but remained silent. She knew better than to start an argument with him because he'd argue until he was blue...r in the face.
"Murphy, don't make me have to explain the term 'failsafe doomsday weapon' again. Please," Doc said to Murphy.
"How do you even know California's still there?" Murphy asked Warren, dismissing Doc's comment.
"You're looking ripe," Vasquez told Murphy before Warren could even say anything. "You better hope it's still there." He shoved Murphy forward forcefully. "Move."
Murphy turned around to look back at Vasquez as the man walked up to Murphy also, the two of them standing face to face. "You are not the boss of me," Murphy said lowly. Then, he bucked his head to Warren. "She is."
Warren moved forward quickly as Vasquez was about to retaliate. She got in the middle, holding Vasquez back with just one hand. "I can handle this," she told Vasquez. Warren shoved Murphy back, away from them both, and then she held her arm out. "Move."
"Gladly," Murphy said, turning around and moving in the direction they were moving in initially.
"You'll get used to him," Warren said to Vasquez.
Aria shook her head and mumbled to herself, "I've been traveling with him for a year and I'm still not used to him."
10K chuckled since he overheard what she said and she blushed, shoving him slightly with her shoulder as the two of them continued to follow the group.
As they walked, Aria finally sucked up her pride and turned around to look at Cassandra.
The half-zombie girl was still dressed in the gold two piece with the fishnet stockings and knee high books, the faux fur white coat still on her shoulders. She looked like a hooker and it still pissed Aria off that Murphy actually dressed her in it.
Cassandra looked over at Aria with her soft puppy eyes, but Aria lowered her gaze and turned around.
She's not Cassandra. Not really. Not anymore.
The team came up on some black smoke circling in the air and they stopped at the edge of a small cliff. Aria stood on Warren's right and 10K stepped up to the woman's left as she addressed him.
"10K, let me see your scope." The raven-haired sniper pulled his sniper rifle from his shoulder and passed it to Warren as she requested.
Warren perched it against her shoulder and looked through the scope. Aria could see the smoke and the flames ahead of them as Warren said, "Oh, looky here."
"What are we gonna do about her?"
Aria turned her head toward 10K and then looked back at Cassandra. She was perched behind Murphy, who was chewing on a piece of wheat grass, and she was massaging his shoulders like his slave.
She is pretty much his slave.
Aria frowned and looked back at 10K, who was watching her sadly. He knew she was upset about what had happened to Cassandra.
"Cassandra?" Warren asked him softly.
Aria looked away from both of them, turning her gaze to the distance, to the smoke, and she said, "She's not Cassandra. Not anymore."
"Maybe there's a way back for her, when we get to California," Warren told Aria softly. She hoped the young girl wouldn't lose faith in her best friend if there was a way to save her.
Aria shrugged and scuffed the toe of her boot in the dirt under her feet. "Maybe," Aria mumbled.
She couldn't help turning around to look at Cassandra again. As she did, Cassandra lifted her head and she ceased her motions in massaging Murphy's shoulders. She tried to offer Aria a small smile, like she was telling Aria she was still Cassandra.
But then she turned back to Murphy, her emotionless expression back, as she started massaging his shoulders again.
She's not really Cassandra.
Aria took in a deep breath and looked away from the two half-zombies of their group. She felt a hand take hers and she looked over at 10K, who stepped up to her.
She leaned one side of her body into his chest, wrapping her arm around his hip but continued to look out at the terrain in front of them.
A loud engine rumbled up and Aria recognized it as a semi-truck. She'd heard a few of them before; when she was 8 and riding in the car with her foster family to Mexico before she knew something was wrong.
On the road in the distance, she saw the truck and two other vehicles drive down the road toward the vehicle on fire. There was something on the front end of the truck but she couldn't really make it out, just that it looked like two large steel plates on the grill.
"Is that some kind of post apocalyptic wagon train?" Doc questioned now that he and Addy joined them.
"Well it ain't the 3:10 to Yuma," Warren told him matter-of-factly.
Gunfire sounded in the air and Aria turned back to the road. She could see the gunfire was coming from behind the car that was on fire.
The semi veered off to the left and parked. "Don't get out the truck," Warren said out loud, like the wagon train could hear her.
"It's gonna be a slaughter," Addy said, shaking her head.
"Can't expect to travel through a valley without an ambush. Didn't nobody ever watch westerns growing up?"
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