Sobs racked Vita's body as she tried to get herself under control. Yet more and more tears flowed down her face. To make matters worse, the sobs were loud and unattractive, drawing more attention than she ever wanted.

Rob was alive.

The only person who really understood the grave nature of the situation was attacked and stuck two states away. What if Gunnar said something about the baby? What if Rob came looking for her? What if he went crazy and killed Gunnar? And why the hell did the last one scare her the most?

Mischa, who moved around a little better on her feet now that her leg was healing, sat by her side with Quinton. Mischa rubbed her back and asked Vita to tell her what was wrong. Biting her lip, Vita shook her head. She was in too deep to admit any of her fears. Behind a blurry curtain of tears, Cynthia and Mr. M. walked by to check on her as well.

Vita wanted to chalk this all up to pregnancy hormones, but a deep pain penetrated her chest. It grew tighter and the world around her got even foggier as the pain intensified. Everything faded as the throbbing overtook her body. Air got lost on the way to her lungs. The room went up at least five degrees. Vita shuddered, wondering if this was the end of her and the baby.

"Vita, you need to breathe," Cynthia's voice was a lot closer than Vita anticipated.

Vita tried to focus on it, but she was lost for what felt like an hour to the pain and fear. Scenes of bleeding babies, a bruised-up Gunnar and a burning pile of bodies, hers at the top, flashed before her eyes over and over again. A soundtrack of screams, crackling flames and crunching bones echoed inside off the inside of her skull.

"Stop!" Vita yelled. Familiar voices crept through the din.

"You can do this Vita. Just purse your lips and take a deep breath. And exhale." Cynthia continued to coach her through the breathing until her chest felt a little lighter and the images faded. The pain gradually slipped away.

"You're doing great Vita," Mischa's voice came from her left. A hand squeezed her sweaty palm. Her whole body felt like she'd spent half an hour in a sauna.

"You're going to be okay," Cynthia said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're strong. You'll get through this." She brought a glass of water up to Vita's lips and she took a drink. Coughs overtook her body as the liquid went down the wrong pipe. Eventually, she got it right.

As she became more aware of her surroundings, more and more people had stopped to watch her meltdown. She grimaced at those who had nothing better to do than gawk at someone losing their shit. Quinton stood up and tried to move some of them along.

"What was that?" Vita asked Cynthia, her voice shaking, almost afraid to hear her informed answer.

"My best guess would be a panic attack."

"Are you sure? It felt like I was going to die, or like..."

Cynthia looked her over again. "I can't be sure, but given the circumstances, that looked like a panic attack."

Vita cradled her head in her palms. Her situation was bad enough, and now she had stupid over-reactive panic attacks to add to the list. Gunnar had hardly been here for any time at all and they'd hated each other far longer than they'd tolerated one another. It made no sense that she was so upset about this!

"I should go." She tried to stand up despite Cynthia's protests. Cynthia and Quinton caught her as her wobbly legs gave way.

More tears fell from her eyes. Her mattress landed with a thud a few meters from the group of them. Mr. M and Winston stood beside it with wide eyes. Her heart throbbed in a different way. Poor Winston was already having such a hard time dealing with the transition. Her sorrow would only confuse him more. She held her arms open and tried to choke down her tears as he dove in for a hug.

"Come on Winston, we need to let Vita get some rest. Unless you want some of us to stay," Cynthia said.

"Quinton and I can," Mischa said with a smile. She met Vita's eyes. "If you want us around."

Vita blinked away a few more tears and nodded. Even if they weren't as close as they once were, it would be comforting to have someone. Quinton would have been one of the last ones to see Gunnar before they left as well so maybe she'd get a few more details on his escape.

As Vita drifted in and out of sleep, she overheard whispers between Mischa and Quinton. She didn't pay them much attention until she heard Gunnar's name.

"Were Gunnar and Vita close?" Quinton asked.

"I honestly don't know. I thought she hated the guy, but-."

Vita nodded off for a moment then slowly reopened her eyes

".... something more to it. Did he say anything?" Mischa asked.

"Not about her, no."

So she was delusional, Vita thought as she tried to squish any feelings she might have had. No wonder he stayed at that new place. Mischa and Quinton were pretty engrossed in their conversation so they didn't notice when Vita opened her eyes for longer than a few seconds.

"Do you think he'll be okay?"

Quinton's body stiffened at the question. "Gunnar's resourceful enough and Matt's with him too. Of all the people that could be in that situation, they'd be the best equipped to deal with it."

"What situation?"

Quinton shifted again. "Before you get mad, remember I had nothing to do with deciding to leave. It was Olivia's job to get him out."

"Oh my god, Quinton, what happened?"

Vita's palms grew sweaty and her body trembled. She tried to focus on her breathing to avoid another attack.

"Did Vita ever talk about a guy named Rob?"

Breathe, breathe, Vita coached herself. Things probably weren't as bad as she thought.

"Rob, like Gunnar's friend Rob?"

"Friend is a strong word for those two."

Mischa's eyes went wide and she crossed her legs. "Maybe they had some kind of falling out, but they were together when the storms hit. All of us were until I got taken."

"He seemed pretty hell-bent on getting revenge on Gunnar for abandoning him and there was some kind of a fire." Quinton leaned closer to Mischa and his voice grew quieter. "If they were all together, do you think Vita would have tried to hurt Rob?"

Mischa's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "Not without a very good reason."

"Navjot talked about a report saying that a girl escaping a fire before Rob was rescued but it didn't mention Gunnar."

Rescued? Who in their right mind would want to keep that man alive? So he sat up in some fancy facility with his face healing while she starved in a warehouse with his unborn baby. The world hadn't changed one bit.

"Wait, Navjot?"

"I'll explain it later. Do you think Vita set that fire?"

Vita closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing as Mischa's body turned toward her.

"I, I don't know."

What the hell? Since when did Vita go from nice girl to potential homicidal manic in her best friend's mind?

"You didn't answer my question about Gunnar," Mischa said, turning back to Quinton.

Quinton relayed details about Gunnar finding his sister, getting threatened by Rob, trying to talk to his sister, then getting taken out by the guards and Rob. Vita's heart sunk. If Gunnar found his sister, there was little hope that he was coming back. No wonder Olivia had given her that message. It was probably Gunnar's way of saying he was done with her.

"Do you think he's alright?"

"We broke into the facility, kidnapped its members and impersonated them. What would Mr. M do?"

"Kick him out or..."

Vita took more deep breaths, hoping they would go unnoticed. Gunnar was tougher than anyone else she knew. He could find a way to survive this. The upside to Quinton's story was that nowhere in there did her bastard child get mentioned. Gunnar must have kept that to himself which brought more tears to her eyes. When the hell did he get so loyal and likeable?

"What do you think he'll be able to do?"

"His plan was to talk his sister into leaving and get out which would have worked well had he not been discovered. I think now, he'll have to work with Matt to come up with something pretty clever and be lucky enough not to get caught."

There was no way she could just sit back and let him suffer. Her muscles, drained from the earlier panic attack, protested as she sat up. Two sets of eyes were on her in seconds and Mischa rushed to her side.

"How are you feeling?" Mischa draped an arm around her shoulder.

"I'm fine. I shouldn't be the one you're worried about." Vita's hands clenched for a moment before she tried smoothing them over her pants.

Mischa ran a hand through her hair while looking Vita in the eyes. "What happened earlier was scary, Vita. I know you don't want to talk about it, but I can help. I want to be a good friend."

Vita's face flushed and her body temperature raised again. "A good friend wouldn't have left."

Silence filled the seconds as Mischa's eyes swam with tears. 

"That's bullshit and you know it," Quinton said.

Vita's hair flew away from her face as she whirled around to face him. "Excuse me?"

"From the moment I met this girl, she was torn up about having been forced to abandon her friends. When she had food and shelter, she'd sit there trying to think of how to break out and get back to you. Who does that when they're safe and taken care of? She cares a lot more about you and Gunnar than you two do about her."

After a heavy sigh, Vita's throat tightened. There were many times she wanted to go tell Mischa about the baby, but she was too scared of what she'd say or how their relationship would change. At this moment, she knew she couldn't because of what she wanted to do next. They'd never agree if they knew she was pregnant. But she needed another way for Mischa and Quinton to trust her and that meant being honest about at least something.

"Things got pretty bad after you left," Vita's voice trembled. "Sometimes I'd wake up and Rob's hands would be all over me. At first, I'd try to ignore it because I needed Gunnar to try and find you." She shuddered as repressed memories overpowered her.

"Get off me!" Vita tried to shove Rob away but his hands moved from her chest to her shoulders, so tightly she was sure to bruise. She couldn't hear Gunnar moving around anywhere in the house, not that he would have been much reassurance. For all she knew, he'd do this to her next. The odds of finding Mischa grew lower every day, meaning she needed their help less and less.

"Vita, sweetheart, we're good to you, aren't we? We share our food. We keep you safe. We've been helping you find your friend." Rob's grip on her left arm softened as he stroked her skin, sending chills down her spine. Her attempt to pull herself away was too weak and his grip tightened again.

"That doesn't mean you can assault me," Vita said loudly enough that maybe someone would hear.

"Assault? Four nights ago, you could hardly keep your hands off me and now you change your mind. That doesn't sound much like assault."

 If she had control of her arms she would have punched the slimy asshole in the face. He trapped her legs in his as she went to make use of her other weapon.

"You don't like being surprised, I get that. There're a lot of scary fuckers out there and you don't know if it's one of them."

Vita gritted her teeth and failed at another attempt to get out of his hold. He was a monster masquerading as a saint.

"Every member of our group needs to have something to offer. Gunnar's great at defending our territory and doing the dirty work. I find our food and negotiate trades that work out for all of us. What do you do Vita?"

"I find food too."

"Not very much. As pretty as you are to look at, soon things are going to get harder, less food, more fights. We can't always keep pretty things that aren't useful."

He released her and took off from the bed as she let out a ragged breath.

Vita's trembling hands were encased by Mischa's softer ones. "After that, they left with all the food. For the next two days, I tried leaving the house but spent more time hiding than finding anything to eat. I wasn't able to cover much ground and someone discovered my hiding spot later that night."

"Oh my God, Vita," Mischa wrapped her arms around Vita.

"Rob and Gunnar found me before he did too much, but it scared the shit out of me and I found a way to be useful to Rob so they wouldn't leave me again. But knowing Rob, he was probably the sick asshole that set the whole scene up."

Mischa's voice came out faintly. "Vita, I'm so sorry. I feel like that was all my fault. If I knew they weren't going to let me take you and Gunnar to the facility, I would have never pushed you to come out that night. I fought with them, but they sedated me."

"It's not your fault, Mischa." Vita's tears tumbled out with her words. She meant them, but it was still hard to imagine people so willing to give up on all but the chosen few. Mischa's arms squeezed her tighter. 

Vita pulled away a minute later so she could address both of them. "But knowing how Rob was to me when he didn't even hate me, you'll understand that we can't just abandon Gunnar there."

Quinton's expression darkened. "Vita, that's way too dangerous. This is a legitimate threat. They have power, technology, security, not just a few people patrolling with whatever the hell they scavenged. It's like the place Quinton and I escaped from, but they're preparing for something, some kind of attack."

"What if they plan to attack us? Wouldn't it be better to stop them on their turf instead of letting them find ours?"

"Why would they attack us?" Quinton asked.

Vita shrugged. "It's not impossible to consider."

Mischa placed a hand on Quinton's arm. "Someone organized stopped nearby to burn those bodies. They know people are around Albuquerque. Maybe want us dead too."

"You're going to make it that much easier by going straight to them. None of us wanted to leave Gunnar and Matt there, least of all Olivia and she still made that call. That should tell you a lot about how dangerous they are. That woman is tough."

Folding her arms across her chest, Vita let out a sigh. "I can't just do nothing."

"We aren't. We're moving to better ground to try and set up a more self-sufficient and safer place. When they get back, they'll be much more comfortable."

"If they come back," Vita added with a pointed glare.