306 rolled over and slammed his elbow into the flimsy face of his undead assailant. He heard a sickening crunch, which oddly heartened him.

He swung his elbow back again, this time crushing the Trepid's skull against the brick wall beside him.

306 clawed at the ground desperately and seized anything he could get a hold of. His hands caught onto two, round, hard, small, objects and he snatched them up, eagerly.

With deadly aim he thrust them, again and again, into the body wrapped around his. And he didn't stop until long after it stopped moving, or making sounds.

Only after being certain it was dead, did he shove the Trepid aside and reached up to touch his neck, relieved to feel that the bite had just barely broken skin. That's when 306 looked down at his hand, to see what he'd been fighting with. To his surprise, he held two apples.

"Huh, and who said apples don't keep the doctor away?" 306 chuckled. He set down the heavily bruised fruits, and grabbed a couple of the better looking ones to bring along, for the trip.

With that, he carefully stepped over the corpse and jogged back into the alley.

"Don't worry I'm f-" 306's voice trailed off when he realized the alley was empty. Nobody was there. His entire team was gone.

"Wimpy shits, ran away," he huffed, jogging down the alley. He didn't call out, he wasn't sure they would hear him anyway, and plus he didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention.

They couldn't have gotten too far, he thought, leaning against the back of a building to listen for footsteps. He hadn't been gone long enough for that. They had to be just around the corner here somewhere.

306 wouldn't put it past Lawrence to hide, and eventually return to Eden without him, but he doubted Reagan and Melvin would've agreed to something like that. Even if he was a pretty poor companion.

He had never minded that nobody liked him. It never bothered 306 that he didn't have friends, or family. In a way, it was good for him. It meant that he didn't lose anybody he cared about when the apocalypse began. It'd always been 306 by himself. The only thing that'd changed since then was the scenery.

Thunder clapped above him. But even so, inside the broken bakery window, 306 was able to hear a sniffle.

Fucking losers. I'll beat the shit out of them for leaving me in that alley.

He eased open the back door of the bakery and lowered himself behind the stove. He was pretty sure this was a human. At least he'd definitely never heard a Trepid or phantom sniffle. But before he made any rash decisions, he needed to be certain.

Ducking under the counter, 306 rolled across the ground, and glanced through the serving window.

His eyes fell on an axe resting atop the counter. He carefully lifted it into his arms, having lost his own gun during the skirmish.

Thunder lightly shook the ground beneath him.

He heard the sniffle again, and ducked down. Then he heard a muffled sob.

Standing up from behind the counter, through the darkness, 306 spotted a person huddled against the wall. A little girl.

"Hey," 306 called out.

The girl's head shot up, barely visible through the darkness. A small whimper escaped her lips when he came forward.

306 froze. "Hey, don't worry. I won't hurt you. I just came to take you home. You're safe now,"

She glanced from him, to his axe, and back again.

306 lowered the weapon to the ground, and dropped it with a quiet thud. "Don't worry okay? Things will be different this time. I promise. Nobody's gonna hurt you," he offered her his hand.

The girl nodded slowly, and leaned forwards, just enough that her hand hovered slightly above his.

A drop of blood fell off of her hand, splattering onto his palm.

"What the-"

Lightning struck in the distance, lighting up the room, and the girl in front of 306.

Her hair was red, bloodshot green eyes, pale skin. A Trepid.

306 stumbled backwards. In a desperate attempt to escape her grasp, he fell over, flat on his back. His hand shot out and scooped his axe off the ground, cocking his arm to throw it into the girl's head.

But he never did. Instead he stared. Frozen in shock: she was crying.

The monster was at least as terrified as he was. If not more so. She'd scrambled backwards as far as she could, pressed up against the wall, tears running down her face. She flinched and sobbed everytime he so much as moved a muscle.

306 watched her glistening cheeks with curiosity, and surprise. Her chest was heaving. There were cuts scattered along her face. She trembled enough that it almost vibrated the hardwood.

That's when 306 realized: When he came in, she hadn't been scared because she thought he was a Trepid. She was scared because she knew he was human.

But then why did she try to grab his hand?

What did I say that made her reach out to me? 306 wondered, thinking back.

Don't worry okay? Things will be different this time. I promise. Nobody's gonna hurt you.

He glanced up at the axe above his head, and then to her tear streaked green eyes. Slowly, 306 lowered the weapon down to the ground.

The sudden movement made the Trepid girl practically jump out of her skin. She yelped, before she realized that he was merely disarming himself.

She stared at the blade of the axe, refusing to take her gaze from it until 306's hand had returned to his lap. Only then did the girl let her eyes travel up to meet his.

They both took several seconds of deep breaths, as they looked each other over.

"Okay..." He breathed slowly. "Okay,"

The girl squeezed her eyes shut, and covered her face with her knees. Obviously she just wanted to disappear.

Just go! Run away! His conscious demanded. She won't follow.

A great idea. 306 started to climb to his feet.

Thunk.

One of his apples escaped from his lap, rolling across the floor, and coming to a rest against the Trepid's foot.

Her legs parted ever so slightly, as she gazed at the fruit next to her. Then her hand shot out, seized the apple, and brought it to her mouth. In seconds, it was gone. Core and all.

"You're not really supposed to eat the middle," 306 mumbled. But he dug the second one out of his pocket. After a moment of indecision, he rolled his second apple to her, which she devoured hungrily.

"Thank you," the girl whispered, leveling her gaze at him.

"Words," 306 sat back down, stunned into submission. He rubbed his temples as he attempted to process everything that'd just happened. "It can talk,"

She leaned forwards to grab a piece of the apple that'd she'd dropped during her feeding frenzy. She yelped and grimaced in pain at the slight movement.

"What?" 306 jumped forwards, startling his companion. She recoiled and pressed herself back up against the wall. "What happened?"

His shoe splashed the hardwood around them, when he brought it down next to the Trepid girl. 306 squinted through the darkness, in an attempt to see the ground.

She was resting in a pool of blood. Her own blood, judging by the sizable gash on the side of her leg.

"Hold on," he reached under his hoodie, and tore a piece of his shirt tail off. Then he wrapped it tightly over her leg. He didn't know if this technique would work on the living dead, but it was all he knew at the moment.

"Sorry," he apologized, seeing her wince as he tightened the makeshift bandage. "Medicine isn't my strong suit,"

"294? Is that you?" A voice called from the back door.

Shit! It's Lawrence. He spun around and seized the girl's shoulders. 306 cleared his throat, trying to keep the panicked edge out of his voice. "Look, you have to trust me here okay? If they see you, they will kill you. Understand me? They're not like me, they won't see how different you are, they'll just shoot. You have to trust me,"

She gazed at him only a second, before slowly bobbing her head in agreement.

"Yeah, it's me," 306 called back over his shoulder, hurriedly stripping off his hoodie and throwing it over the girl's torso.

She was tiny, and the hoodie was baggy even on him. So the tail went down past her knees, and her hands were nowhere near the end of the sleeves. It covered her completely.

306 flipped the hood over her head and yanked the drawstring closed just as Lawrence peeked through the serving window.

"There you are, you dumbass. We've been looking everywhere for you. I order you to get your ass outside," Lawrence snapped with an arrogant smirk. "We're heading back,"

"Yeah sorry, I was just hiding out in here after you people abandoned me in the alley," 306 snapped.

"We were being chased," Lawrence retorted. "If you died one on one it was your own damn fault," he watched 306 lift the sweater with feet off of the ground with curiosity. "What have we here?"

"I found the girl that went missing," 306 lied quickly, adjusting the girl in his arms to conceal her as much as possible. "Wrapped her up so she wouldn't get cold in the way back,"

Lawrence raised an eyebrow. "Really? Let me see,"

"She doesn't want to be seen right now," 306 shook his head, then he lowered his voice. "She got pretty banged up, and she's pretty upset about how she looks now,"

"I'm sure she's fine, let me see her," Lawrence demanded taking a step forwards.

306 took a step across the room, putting a table between himself and Lawrence. "It's fine Lawrence, back off,"

"If it's 'fine' than you'll have no problem with me seeing what the hell you've got there," Lawrence snapped. "Hand it over!"

"She doesn't trust you," 306 snapped.

"Oh but she trusts you?" Lawrence mocked. "Let me see her... Now 929!"

"It's 306 dammit!" 306 yelled. "And back the fuck up!"

Lawrence shoved the table out of the way, and grabbed the girl's hoodie, but her two little hands shot up and caught the hood, holding it over her face.

"Please don't look at me," she squeaked. "Please. Not until I'm better," a little sob broke free as she buried her face against 306's shoulder. "I just wanna be better," she cried.

"Oh, I-" Lawrence blinked, surprised. "I didn't..."

306 jerked her out of Lawrence's grasp and glared at him. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He snapped "I just got her to stop before your ass showed up!"

"Sorry," Lawrence held his hands up in surrender. "I didn't mean to make her cry,"

"Just lead the way home," 306 snapped, shoving him out the back door with his elbow. He cursed Lawrence under his breath until the leader was definitely out of earshot. Then he peaked into the hood and gave the girl an amused smile. "Nice job, short stuff,"

She smiled back, and stuck just enough of her hand out of the sleeve to give him a thumbs up.

***

"Well? How about we call this meeting to order?" Eric suggested. He had been the one that wanted the self-appointed 'Seattle Section' to have a team meeting at dinner time.

He just hadn't expected the food to be unappetizing enough, that even he almost called in a raincheck.

Next time, we're doing this in my cell. He thought, mixing his lamb skin with the turnip puree, to see if that might make it taste edible.

"I've been appointed head of security," Adam told them, wisely having decided to forgo the dinner of the night.

"How'd that happen?" Eric demanded. "I'm still fighting for that job and you're not even a captain!"

"No," Whynn shook her head. "You're on the Battalion. Your job is keeping the Trepids and phantoms out. He's on security. His job is making sure everyone in the Eden is following the rules. He's the cops, you're the military,"

"Oh, in that case congratulations!"

"Max gave me Eden-wide clearance to all of our data and resources," Whynn added, sitting in the chair beside Eric and leaning against his shoulder. "He says I'll have everything I need to work on finding a way to get rid of Trepids and phantoms permanently,"

The lights flickered several times in succession, causing the entire cafeteria to go quiet. Nobody spoke until several minutes after the electricity returned to normal.

"So that doesn't happen anymore?" Adam guessed.

"Exactly," Whynn laughed.

"So with Eden-wide clearance, and head of security status," Eric pointed at his two friends, "you two can go anywhere you want,"

"Except for the third floor, banshee's quarters," Whynn told them, and Adam nodded along.

"I believe he wants to keep the banshee at bay until we have something we might be able to use to get rid of it permanently," Adam told them. "It being our first test subject,"

"I don't know how he can work so close to something like that," Eric shivered, recalling their own encounter with a phantom, and what it had done to Terrence.

Everyone muttered in agreement.

"What's up with Layla?" Eric asked. "She seems quieter than usual,"

"Charlie says she can't move her mouth too much, until her cheek is healed. Or else she'll have another hole in her face forever," Whynn explained.

Layla grunted in annoyance, stirring her liquefied lamb-turnip-surprise.

"Who's everyone bunking with?" Adam asked.

"Layla moved in with another inmate down the row, who's a deeper sleeper than I am," Whynn answered for her friend.

"So now I moved in with Whynn," Eric told them, beaming with pleasure. Whynn smiled at him and nudged his shoulder playfully. Obviously the bad blood had worn down over time, distance, and near death experiences.

"And I'm by myself still," Adam told them. "I think the next person rescued will get paired with me. But until then, I'm a loner,"

They all took a second to absorb everything that they had around them, as they couldn't think of anything else to talk about.

"Just think... Four days ago, we were in that attic, telling each other goodbye," Whynn breathed. "And now..."

"It's looking like we might just have a chance," Adam finished for her.

Layla stuck a straw into her blended up dinner, and sucked in a healthy mouthful. Then she returned the straw to her lips, and emptied the mouthful back into the cup

"Unless food poisoning takes us out," Eric burst out laughing.

For most of the people at that table, it was their first time laughing in a long time.