Static crackles in my ears.

"All rise for King Jaime!"

Fanfare music follows before another voice, poised and airy speaks.

"And you join the Peoples' Radio today as we attend the first State Opening of Parliament in several years here at the House of Commons, newly cleared of zombies and refurbished for the occasion," The reporter says happily. "I must say, the patchwork cushions look cheerful, and the handmade scepter and mace are a delight!

"And here comes King Jaime himself, accompanied by an honor guard of, it says here women of the Royal Roller Derby."

A small smile makes its way on my face. The girls are well enough to skate again. At least... the girls that are still alive are.

"Roller guards, formation crossover!" Natasha yells, and applause erupts a moment later. The cheering makes me wish I could be in there to see what that move was.

"Well, that's a very moving sight," The reporter says, clearly impressed. "Much may have been lost in this country-the last government feel just six weeks ago-but watching those women unfurling their sparkling Union Jack pennants, I know we haven't lost our sense of pomp and pageantry."

"Yeah," Sam agrees softly. "You know, they do look quite good. When Jaime told me, I wasn't sure, but actually-"

"Sam!" Jody whispers harshly, and I flinch. "Urgent coms only! Me, Five and Twenty-seven are just on the outer wall. It's so quiet, anyone could hear."

Nicole rolls her eyes, her good hand coming up to ruffle her hair, which has grown out just long enough to put in a ponytail. "If you wanted someone to be quiet on coms, you should have had me in there instead of out here. Not that I mind, but we both know Mr. Obscure Pop Culture Reference can't go five minutes without talking or flirting with Singer."

"I haven't flirted with Five this entire mission, thank you. And she's my wife, so I think I have a pass to flirt with her whenever I want."

"Both of you, quiet," I hiss, and Nicole wrinkles her nose at me while Sam huffs.

I didn't realize them becoming siblings-in-law would make them bicker more than they already did. Man, it gets annoying.

"And here come the leaders of the major factions around the United Kingdoms, each wearing a pennant of their house or settlement," The reporter continues, and we go silent. "Of course, there's important business to debate today, but proper form must be observed first."

My back straightens at the low rumbling that reaches my ears, distance shouts and hollers soon following. My face scrunches up as a vulgar curse slips past my lips.

"Yeah, I hear it too," Jody says with a sigh. "Bikes."

"Yep. I've got them on cams. Coming in from the east." Sam sounds just as annoyed as we are. "Oh buggar. I thought Janine's intel might be wrong."

The blonde's eyes go wide. "She'll hear you and beat you with an Abel pennant later. Janine's intel is never wrong. Those are not latecomers to the conference."

The roar of the motorcycles as they get closer border on painful. The shrieking laughter of the Riders mix with the sounds of breaking glass as they destroy everything in their path.

The reporter clears her throat. "And there's a little disturbance, as we all knew there might be, but this parliament is well protected."

"Alright," Sam says, "there's eight-no, ten-bikers approaching, wearing Last Rider jackets. They have the usual souped-up bikes, whirling chains around their heads-oh, they've got flaming arrows now too. That's new."

Nicole chuckles and looks at me. "Reminds me of St. Lincolns back in D.C. Remember?"

"Unfortunately," I grumble, before my attention goes to Jody when she speaks.

"Come on. It's up to us to head them off, or this peace conference is going Guy Fawkes faster than you can say Rule Britannia! Run!"

I roll my eyes at her reference to one of those old history documentaries that someone managed to upload on Roufflenet. Sam was really into it because one of the Roman soldiers was named Samnium or something.

The entire thing seemed more like a Roman Zombie AU than actual history, especially since it said something along the lines of the dead coming back. Plus one of the Roman soldiers that helped Samnium was suspected to be a woman in disguise-a woman with a Greek name, at that.

I push the thoughts away and swallow down the teasing insults that rest on my tongue as we head out. The bikes are getting louder, meaning the bikers are getting closer. Peace never seems to be an option. Even though it's clear that nearly everyone wants it, there's always that one person or group who refuses.

This peace conference is already on shaky ground with everyone still trying to come to terms with the fact that the country's former leader was a nutcase who started the apocalypse. Some are still wary of Jaime, and even warier of Janine.

Nicole suggested that Jody be the one to be in the conference while Janine helps with security, but it didn't go over well. Even though she hasn't tried to kill me recently and has been formally made a runner with her own designation, Janine, Sam and everyone else still feels slightly wary of her, since she still works for the A.M.T.B.

Not that I blame them. Even I don't fully trust her.

It doesn't take long for us to get out far enough to see unwelcome guests.

"They're circlin' the buildin'," Jody says, and I narrow my eyes at the war paint on their faces and the tattoos lining up and down their arms. With how messily they're done, I can only guess they got them after Z Day from someone who's not a professional.

All of them have pieced cheeks, too, and they're also not done properly. They stick out too much, a sure sign that their bodies are rejecting them. If they don't get them out soon, it'll lead to infection-if they aren't infected already-and bad scarring, not that they seem to care.

"They've got flaming arrows," Nicole hums, and Jody gasps.

"Bloody hell. That one's got a nice crossbow. If you get your hands on it, it's mine, okay?"

She shrugs. "I just want one of their motorbikes."

"The spikes all around the House of Commons are keeping them at bay for now," Sam cuts in. "The peace conference must be their target."

"No shit," She scoffs. "But what do they want? Just to stop it from happening?"

He sighs. "All we have are rumors. I mean, we've ran into them a few times before. They just seemed to like destroying things, but... well, there's been some stuff about weird bone-obsessed cannibal bikers in North Yorkshire on Operator Roufflenet for a while."

Nicole frowns. "There's Operator Roufflenet? How come I never knew about this?"

"Because you never asked, Miss... I'm Convinced I'm A Better Operator Even Though I'm Not."

"You've got to work on your insults."

"Oh, shut up. And, yeah, there is Operator Roufflenet. Just to share intel between settlements, rumors, that kind of thing. A lot of it turns out to be nothing, but this... well, they're saying Sigrid had a deal. She just didn't bother them, and they kept their murder/cannibal stuff north of Thwaite. They did, of course, come around every once and awhile to set a building on fire or something, but they weren't too bad. But since Sigrid fell, well, they've got ambitious. If you can call anarchists ambitious.

"The peace conference is supposed to bring people together, to work out how we're going to organize the country now Sigrid's gone. So obviously, they want to sabotage it."

I make a face. "That cannibal stuff can't be true, can it? I mean, there are easier ways to get dinner. Chickens aren't that hard to look after, unless that chicken is Mildred Van Dur Grauff."

Rest in peace.

"No one knows! And I mean, you've dealt with cannibals before, like that Greek man a few years back. And the Riders might have put it out about themselves to make people afraid."

"Well," I cross my arms, "it won't work on us. I've got the caltrops, so all we have to do now is get them to-"

"Abel!" A Rider screams, his voice gruff and raspy, as if he's been smoking too many cigarettes. "Abel scum! Look at their uniforms!"

"Uh..." Sam trails off, sounding slightly nervous.

The Rider that screamed at us turns and starts driving towards us. I can see the wide, almost crazed smile his face holds.

"No uniform will save you from the chaos, Abel!" He laughs, before making kissy noises at us. "Come here, little Abel."

Jody recoils. "Ew. I am gettin' a very Weinstein vibe from that biker. At least we hadn't had to try to get their attention. Come on, Five. We'll lay the caltrops as we run east."

I nod, turning on my heel and sprinting off. I hand a few to Jody and Nicole. We can't drop them right now, since it's too close to the House of Commons. Any caltrops the Riders don't run over would be there for the vehicles of the people at the peace conference.

The Riders behind us hoot and holler as they follow us. It gets to the point of being obnoxious, and I can see Nicole itching to grab her pistol and start shooting. The only reason we aren't is because we don't want to attract any more zombies than we probably already are. I'm sure these screaming idiots are attracting tons of them, and even with the cure, the zombies can still eat us, which would also result in death.

That might be what they want-attract zoms, make things harder. But if that's the case, then they're either too stupid to realize zombies will also come after them, or they just don't care about whether or not they die.

I don't get it. I mean, I've been in positions where I didn't care whether or not I lived or died, but I didn't want to bring everyone down with me. Why cause more unnecessary pain? Why put more blood on my hands?

But I've learned there are a lot of things and people that I will never understand. The mindsets of these Last Riders are one of them.

Ten minutes of running and listening to those idiots on bikes scream and shout insults at us pass by. I find it funny that they want to call us scum while they are literally destroying everything in their path. It's hard to stay ahead of the bikes, but they seem too distracted by the destruction they cause by running over plants and flowers and small animals to rev up the engines to catch us.

I also think they might be going slower than necessary so they can simply keep the chase going. They like toying with us.

We're panting as we finally start to drop the caltrops. None of the attendees at the peace conference head this way on their way back, so they should be fine. It's only a few minutes later that Sam speaks up.

And while I always love hearing his voice, I especially enjoy it compared to the dry yells of the Riders.

"Alright, you're doing a good job leading them around those warehouses facing the Thames. They're following. Oh, well, you could probably tell that from the screaming. You know, I used to know a guy at Uni who had a motorbike. He was quite nice. Did a lot of off-road orienteering."

"Yeah, I doubt that guy is in the Last Riders," I say, before yelping as an explosion goes off behind us. I look back at fire burning through the grass before tying out.

"That was a Molotov cocktail arrow that Rider just fired!" Sam exclaims, and I swallow when I realize it would have hit us if he didn't have such bad aim.

"Impressive," Nicole states as tires squeal. She looks over her shoulder. "They should be hitting those caltrops right about... now!"

Just as she finishes talking, one of the motorbikes hit a caltrop, then another. They swerve as the tires blow. They crash into one of the warehouses, metal crunching and taking over the sounds of yelling from the bikers. Thick black smoke erupts from the bikes, burning my eyes as the side of the warehouse catches fire. I hear more crashes follow, but it's hard to concentrate on it with the foul-smelling black smoke filling my lungs.

"Great work, guys!" Sam praises as I hack. "You've taken out about four bikes. Surely the rest of them will give up now. I mean, you just took a chunk of their people out. They aren't dead, I don't think, but they're way too wounded to get up and start chasing you, and those bikes are... yeah, they're not in great shape. And it's a peace conference! Who'd want to sabotage that?"

Loud, booming laughter reaches my ears, and I look over my shoulder to see a Rider emerge from the smoke, eyes glinting with murder.

"It will burn! It will all burn!"

"Who'd want to sabotage a peace conference?" Jody asks. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe the screamin' forces of chaos who have taken the zombie apocalypse as the chance they were waitin' for to go cannibal?"

"We're going to kill you slowly," Another Rider says, revving his bike. "We're going to eat you piece by piece, starting with the toes."

"Shut up, you foot-fetishizing freak!" Nicole shouts, but she only gets laughter in reply. She grabs her pistol and shoots the bike's front tire, and the bike flips, throwing the Rider off it.

Jody shudders. "You know, I sort of prefer the zombies. At least they don't narrate their cannibalism."

"Oh crap," Sam curses. "The ones that crashed are starting to chase you on foot now. How are-I mean, they're bleeding everywhere! Like, one's got a massive gash on his leg and the other looks like half his face has been scraped off. Doesn't matter. Three of the warehouses are on fire now, and I don't want you heading back that way. Head south. There's a foot tunnel under the Thames where you can ambush them. Go, quickly!"

•

"Okay, okay," Sam says, tsking at the Riders behind us, some still on their motorbikes. "You're through the underpass to the south bank. I know this bit. There used to be a burger van there and-uh, yeah. See the alcoves to each side?"

Jody nods. "Got it. We'll sit in facing alcoves. Here, Five." She hands me one end of a roll of wire. "Make sure you're holdin' the handle in a gloved hand and hold it low."

The wire unspools as we separate, Nicole heading with me. We go quiet as we crouch in the alcoves. We probably don't have to be quiet. I doubt the Riders would be able to hear us over the sound of the bikes and their shouting and laughter.

"Okay, now wait for it..." Jody mutters, and soon the Riders reach the wire. It's at tire height, and while the force does jerk me forward some, the bikes are what go flying, throwing the two people who followed us onto the ground.

"Yes!" I cheer.

"Sam, I can report that after an operation using a trip wire at tire height, the Riders that followed are off their bikes and injured. The bikes aren't looking so great either," She says as she respools the wire.

A small laugh leaves Sam's lips. "You sounded like Janine there."

She shrugs, trying and failing to hide her smile. "Learned from the best."

"How's she doing at the peace conference?" Nicole questions.

"Uh, well..." He hesitates for a moment. "By the look of her cams, just about holding it together during the Black Rod ceremony. She looks really bored."

Jody's eyes light up. "Oh, man. I always loved that kind of stuff. Not in a like, 'I love colonialism and slavery' way, just... there's always some of it that's good. Did you know the tradition is that they slam the door in Jaime's face as he tries to enter parliament, to say that democracy must always be able to shut out any dictator?"

He laughs in awe. "That's cool! Um, I think you've scared the other Riders off. I can't see them, anyway. You might be able to get back and see some of the ceremony."

As if on cue, one of the Riders that had been thrown off his bike pushes himself up. He can't really rest on his knees, so he's just in an odd position on his side. He giggles, lips stretching to reveal rotting, yellow teeth.

"One little piggy went to market, one little piggy stayed home, one little piggy went boom, boom, boom!" He cackles, before opening his jacket. My eyes go wide as Nicole lets out a curse.

"Uh, Sam," I say, "this Rider in the tunnel..."

"Left out two little piggies?"

I eye what he's got strapped to him. "He's got a bomb!"

The Rider laughs. "Oh, this is just the start. But you're going to miss the real fireworks! Watch out for 2845!"

He presses something on the device, and it starts beeping.

"He's armed it," Nicole states. "Other end of the tunnel. We don't know how long that timer's got before it blows. Run! Run!"

We take off, and the Rider laughs, cackles. He doesn't try to chase us. I don't think he can. He probably broke his leg when he fell. It's bent at an unnatural angle, and even through his manic laughter, there's an edge of pain. He also makes no effort to shed his jacket and get away. He just continues laughing. He says we won't see the fireworks, but it seems that neither will he.

And he doesn't care. He's just... laughing.

And he keeps laughing, and laughing and laughing as we run for our lives, desperate to escape, to live. It's a terrible sound, a haunting one. I think the Rider knows this. I think that's why he's enjoying this all so much.

He likes messing with us, even in his final moments.

Sick bastard.

We make it to the end of the tunnel just as the bomb goes off.

The laughter stops, the sound of the explosion ripping through the air. I cover my head as the tunnel cracks, but the cracks don't travel far enough to reach us. The explosion wasn't big enough. I still don't look back at the damage.

"Was that-" Sam starts.

"Yeah. Mini explosion," Jody answers, cringing as the tunnel behind us crumbles, the cracks in the rock causing it to give way. "Part of the underpass has caved in."

"They know how to construct a bomb," Nicole points out, running a hand through her hair, messing up her ponytail. "They couldn't have figured that out until recently, given they've never blown up anything else on their rare raids of the past."

Sam sighs, tired and worried. "Shall I... well, shall I call Janine?"

Jody shakes her head. "We don't have time to wait for her to get out of there. Real fireworks must mean there's a bigger bomb laid somewhere around here. If we don't find it and we evacuate the House of Commons, we could be sendin' them into terrible danger. Where were the other Riders when you last saw them?"

"Heading towards Trafalgar Square."

Her eyes go wide. "Oh my God, Trafalgar Square! 2845! Tom's told me about that. Old tunnels connected to a closed tube station. It was a secret World War II project. Post Office 2845 was the code name. The tunnels lead to-"

"They go under the House of Commons, don't they?"

"Yeah! Nearest entrance is along the Thames. Come on, Five. We've got to get there now!"

We take off again, panic rising as we push ourselves to go faster, faster, faster. I grit my teeth, anger boiling in my chest. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place, it seems. We can't evacuate everyone in the House of Commons-we can't even warn them without causing panic, but right now they're literally just sitting ducks.

Everyone there could die if we don't get there quick enough.

The tunnels become wider and larger as we go, although they weren't exactly small to begin with. I keep an eye out as we go through the tunnels, our footsteps echoing against the walls, filling the empty air.

I bite the inside of my cheek, thinking about what Nicole said about them learning how to build a bomb. The internet isn't much of a thing anymore. Yes, Roufflenet exists, but the information on it is nothing like the info that was on the World Wide Web before Z Day. Before then, of course you could google how to build a bomb. It may get you put on the FBI watchlist, or whatever the equivalent of that would be in England, but it could be done.

That info isn't put on Roufflenet though, since people know that not everyone wants to band together. I doubt there are many books you can find on the matter, since most libraries are falling apart and the books have water damage or were eaten by rats, meaning the only way they could have learned this was by someone joining their group who already knew.

And if more people are joining their group...

There's a rumbling behind us. It's faint, but there. I feel the vibrations in the ground, and Nicole frowns. We both crane our necks to look over our shoulders. It's too far to get a good look at it, but there are headlights in the distance.

"Pick up the pace," Nicole pants. "We've got company and they're gaining fast."

"It's okay," Jody says. "The entrance to the tunnel is a few more hundred meters ahead of us. Sam, I've been thinkin'. If me, Five and Nicole find a bomb down here... I know it's the first time all the factions have sat down since the apocalypse, and it's important for us to find a way to work together after Sigrid, and I know there could be some Last Riders still around, but you should get them to evacuate. We've taken enough Riders down. They should be okay."

"Yeah, there's a bit of a problem with that," He says, wincing when the vehicle behind us honks its horn. "There's a huge armored lorry behind you."

"Armored?" I repeat, looking back. My jaw drops.

It's closer now, so I can actually see the details. On the front there are spikes sticking out. They'll ram right through us if it gets close enough. There are flaming mannequins on the roof, their heads nearly hitting the ceiling of the tunnel, and on the sides are Last Riders, hanging on ropes. They've got weapons and the look in their eyes tell me they'll jump on us as soon as they get in range.

They aren't the same ones as before, even though they all have those stupid tattoos and infected cheek piercings and face paint.

I clench my jaw as my brows furrow. "I see them. Looks like the guys from before called in reinforcements."

"Yeah."

"Why do they call themselves the Last Riders?" Jody asks.

"Well, maybe because they're not going to let us have a turn on their bikes?" Sam guesses with a shrug in his voice. "A-Anyway, there's another huge rig just like that outside the House of Commons. If we evacuate-"

"We'll be sending all those people straight into a bloodbath," Nicole finishes, growling in frustration. "And if we don't find the bomb and disarm it, there'll still be a bloodbath!"

"They've really gone belt and braces on ensuring a good supply of blood to bathe in, yeah."

If the situation weren't so terrible, I would have laughed.

"We've got to find that bomb and disarm it," I say instead. "If those leaders die, who knows what will happen between the settlements. Everyone's already on shaky ground with each other. If we lose all these people, we'll never be able to ever do this again."

"And we won't be able to defeat the Riders if we're divided," Sam finishes, and I nod.

"Yeah. Come on, guys. Let's run."

•

"Wow!" Jody laughs. "These tunnels are boss, actually. Tom said they'd open them up again. They want to give shelter to refugees here."

Nicole hums as she looks around, still keeping an eye out. We were able to lose the Riders by placing some more caltrops down. They seemed to be expecting a tire to blow though, because they brought spares. I don't know how long it'll take for them to change it, so we have to hurry.

"Well, it'd be a good place for it. They're concrete, warm, dry. Loads of little office rooms with nice furniture and camp beds."

"So, hunting for a bomb is going to take some time," Sam says.

"Well, right now we're following a trail of Riders graffiti," Nicole replies, her face scrunching up at the terribly done art on the walls. It's not good, not even unique. I've seen teenagers do better on the train that used to come through my hometown back in Arkansas. "By the look of the campfires, they must have been here for a day or two, and by the look of the spelling, they can't agree whether or not there's an apostrophe in 'Riders'."

"Well, I suppose being anarchists, it'd be against their principles to agree on anything."

I laugh, embarrassingly loudly in this empty tunnel. I cover my mouth in an attempt to soften the sound. "Yeah, I..."

I trail off when I see something at the end of the tunnel. A little light blinks through the darkness every few seconds. When I point it out to the others, we slowly approach it, cautiously, since we don't know just how this thing is built and don't want to accidentally trigger it.

"Current situation at the House of Commons, long pageantry palaver still continuing," Sam says softly. "Gunboat on the Thames doing a one-gun salute because that's all we could spare... just a second."

We reach the blinking device. It's beeping. It's got a timer.

"Sam, could you send someone to get Steve?" I ask quickly. "We've found the bomb, and if Four and I are going to diffuse it, he's the one we want talking us through it."

Jody frowns. "Wouldn't Nicole know how to do this, with her training and all that?"

She gives the younger girl an expectant look, and she shrugs. "I mean, I've had some training, but that was more of a thing for soldiers with expertise in explosives. I only had the basics, and diffusing it would be muscle memory, so I couldn't talk you through it, and because of my hand..."

"It's okay. I already called him," Sam cuts in. "Sorry, there's something... there's a zombie on the Thames embankment path heading for your position."

Four raises a brow. "Oh, yeah? A zombie? How rotted?"

"Um... I just want to... I'm trying to zoom in." There's a tinge of worry in his voice that I don't like.

"Well, we can worry about that zom later. We've got weapons, and the cure if we really need it. This bomb is tickin' down. Thirty minutes on the clock. We need the Builder now."

"Yeah, we uh... yeah." Sam clears his throat. "That zombie, it's walking, but half its head is blown off."

I pale. "Please tell me you're joking."

"Wish I was, Sweetheart. But I'm not. First confirmed V-Type zombie outside Battenbury. It's heading right for you. If you stay to diffuse that bomb, it's going to catch you, and there's no way to kill it."

A/N: First chapter of To Be A Warrior! I hope you all enjoyed it! I'm dedicating this first chapter to jettmanas. Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!