"Okay. Jody, Callista, Nicole, Janine's evacuating the peace conference," Sam reports, and I give a small sigh of relief. "The Last Riders that were waiting with their Molotov cocktail arrows took off in their big rig after you blew the World's End barrier. How's it at your end?"

"The water's gone down a bit, but we're still marooned," Jody replies. "We turned Chelsea into a lake, and we're all stuck on a concrete pillar in the middle of it."

"Yeah, I can see you on the cams. Uh, well, you could maybe try swimming?"

I stay sitting down with my knees tucked close to my chest, peering over to look at my reflection in the murky water just a few feet below the pillar. "Uh, yeah, that might not be the best idea since there's most likely zoms in there. I'd rather not have us all dragged down into the dark water below by the undead, never to be seen again."

"I'm going to have to cut down your Peter time. You're starting to sound like him now."

I roll my eyes. "I'm just saying. I mean, I'd probably make it out. That's just my style, but I'd rather not put Jody or Nicole at risk. I... wait, do you hear that?"

We all pause, and I push myself up to stand as the sound of a boat engine carriers itself across the waters.

"Ahoy, Abel Runners!"

Nicole closes her eyes and breathes out slowly. "Should have known it would be him."

"Is that-is that Brent? In the speedboat from Moonraker?" Sam asks disbelievingly.

"Samuel!" Valmont says, a smile on his face as he gets closer to us. "Yes, it is. Sorry. I hope you don't mind me hopping on your coms channel. And talking of-Jody, Legs, Songbird, hop on board."

The three of us send each other curious looks, but comply.

Not like we really have any other choice.

"What are you doin' here?" Jody asks, and Valmont smiles again.

"Well, rescuing you. Also recruiting you for a mission that's conveniently en route. You might want to hang on to something. I haven't quite got the hang of driving this thing yet. Roger Moore made it look deceptively easy."

I sit down immediately, grabbing onto the underside of my seat. The last thing I want to end up falling off this boat and into the dirty-and probably cold-water below. Even though the weather is pretty warm right now, I get cold easily and then it takes forever to get warm again. Plus the possibility of being dragged down by a swimming zombie is very real, and I actually feel like drowning and not dying would be worse than drowning and actually dying.

"Wait, what mission?" Sam asks.

"One that concerns you, actually. I would have used A.N.N.I.E., only the old girl's not quite herself at the moment." He looks over his shoulder to us, his lips pressed into a thin line and one brow cocked. "You wouldn't have any clue what's up with her, would you?"

Sam hesitates, his voice catching in his throat, so Nicole speaks up.

"No. The last time Abel's dealt with your AI friend was when she tried to kill Singer and King Jaime and Milo in that geothermal well. So, if anything's changed since then, well, we certainly haven't heard anything."

Her face stays completely neutral, almost looking disinterested. Valmont sighs in disappointment.

"Oh well. I'll get to the bottom of it eventually. But in the meantime, I've tracked down some files that might be useful. I think they'll tell us what happened to some of the missing immune women, including your sister, Sam."

I perk up. Sam stays quiet for a moment, processing, before excitedly replying, "Oh! Y-Yeah, thank you."

"Think nothing of it."

"Have you heard anythin', Sam?" Jody asks, and she looks at me, knowing that I'd know if Sam did, since I've been doing everything I can to help him find her.

My face gives her her answer and Sam's words confirm it.

"No. Her name was in Sigrid's books, but Callista and I talked to all the women we rescued from the serum factory, and none of them had met a Nikki Yao. She was tough, though. If anyone survived, it'd be her."

"Well, you may learn something to our advantage today," Valmont says as the speedboat comes to a jerky stop. "Here we are, Abel runners. Dry land."

Jody's nose scrunches up when she steps out of the boat and her feet sink down into wet earth. "Dry-ish, you mean. It's dead muddy!"

"Also, the boat engine's attracted a bunch of zoms," Sam adds. "I mean, you do have the cure, but being bitten still hurts. I'd know."

Valmont scoffs. "And what's the point of getting cure side effects when you can get fresh air instead? Don't worry, I have a plan. And like all my plans, it's both daring and fun!"

"Fun for who, exactly?" Nicole asks, but he doesn't give her an answer.

"Let's run!"

We take off, trudging through the mud as quickly as we can. It sticks to my skin, and it's going to itch when it dries, and I'm going to have to wash these shoes again. Hopefully they won't fall apart from so much use and the many washes they've endured.

But on the bright side, the zombies behind us are sinking just as we are, most of them falling on their faces because they can't pick their feet up properly. It would be kind of funny if I weren't so focused on not tripping and falling myself.

I eye the back of Valmont's head as he runs. He looks around, smiles, occasionally saying a word or two about this or that. I don't really listen. Valmont's interesting, but some of the things he says sound like complete nonsense that I can't bring myself to understand.

I cock my head to the side, eyes grazing over his form. He shows no sign of uneasiness, and nothing in his tone of voice gives away any deceit. Of course, with how much he's helped us, I don't think he'd suddenly turn on us, but he isn't someone Abel completely trusts. Everything he does, he does for a reason. He has his own agenda.

As nice as he seems to be, Amelia was married to him at one point. That alone tells me I need to always be slightly suspicious of him.

And what exactly does he gain by helping Sam find out where his sister might be?

I suppose it could be because he wants to gain trust and a good reputation amongst the settlements and factions. Many people do like him, but there are many people who don't. Plus with A.N.N.I.E... Veronica on the fritz, he may feel that his defenses are down.

And it's not like we can tell him what Veronica did. We could, but there's no way to be sure how he'd react. I'm not even sure he knows that there was a good and bad A.N.N.I.E. fighting each other before Veronica did the whole merging thing.

I guess we'll find out his reasoning for this soon enough, and I guess I should just be grateful that he's helping us, helping Sam.

Sam's been stressed about things now that he knows his sister is alive, but doesn't know where she is, or if she's safe. He is still losing the gray streaks, his hair turning back to the dark black it originally was. It's a good indicator he's not stressed to the max, but he's still losing sleep, and when he does sleep, he wakes up to tell me about the bad dreams he keeps having of not being able to find her.

I'll do anything to put a stop to that. Sam's the greatest person I've ever met. He doesn't deserve to go through this.

"What's that up ahead I see?" Valmont asks with a smile in his voice, pulling me from the thoughts. "Could it be Little Venice canal colony? Why, yes, it could."

"Oh, it's pretty, isn't it?" Jody asks, gazing at all the barges roped together with multi-colored shacks on top of them.

"Looks like a sort of low-budget British Waterworld," Sam comments, which earns a snicker from me.

"More importantly, they're in possession of a certain object my plans require," Valmont says. "Although I was expecting a welcome by now, especially since you're here in your running uniform, Legs. They're tremendous fans."

A blush spreads across my cheeks. "Oh. Uh, fans? I don't... That..."

I trail off. I don't really know how I'm supposed to feel about that. I definitely don't deserve fans. I'm not a movie star or anything. And idolizing someone only creates unrealistic expectations, and I've already let enough people down in this apocalypse.

Nicole looks at the shacks. "None of the lights are on. You sure it's still inhabited, Brent?"

"It was a week ago. Let's try looking on one of the boats."

We shakily step on one, and Nicole grabs her pistol as an eerie silence falls upon us. I grab the doorknob, turning and pushing the door open with caution.

I'm met with soft, cream colored carpet, tiny, bright red and green chairs and round desks low to the ground. There's a whiteboard on the wall and markers in a small tin.

"It's a primary school," Jody says, stepping inside. "But where are the kids?"

"Oh, look at this, Legs. There are drawings of you." Valmont points to the messy crayon drawings on the wall. I almost laugh at one of the drawings. It's a stick figure with a shirt that has 'Adel 5' instead of 'Abel 5'. "But really, your ears aren't that big."

"'That'?" I emphasize in offense. He immediately puts his hands up, to which I shake my head. "That's what I thought... I'm not a blonde either but some of these kids seem to have drawn me that way."

"You seem a lot less weirded out about this than I thought you would, given you seemed unhappy at hearing you had fans."

I shrug. "My son used to draw a lot. I was one of the few people that would sit still long enough for him to actually get a decent piece of artwork in."

"Oh, you mean Milo, right? Isn't he a runner too?"

I hesitate in answers. "He's... taking a break from everything for-for a little bit. He's helping out in New Canton."

"New Canton?"

I sigh, looking down at my feet. "Yeah."

"Uh, guys," Nicole says, gaining our attention. "Check this out."

We all walk behind the teacher's desk where Nicole stands, and my stomach twists at the blood stains on the floor.

"What happened here?" Jody whispers.

Valmont shrugs. "Attack by another colony, strategic retreat now the Ministry can't guarantee their borders, zoms. Distribution of the cure has been slapdash since Sigrid's demise."

"Guys, you've got zoms coming up the canal path. You need to get out," Sam urges, and Valmont walks over to the little desk in the room that holds a cage. He opens it.

"Let me just grab this little fellow." The rodent squeaks when he grabs it and pulls it from its cage to pet it. "He's a key part of my plan."

Nicole cocks her head to the side. "A chinchilla is a key part of your plan?"

"That's what I said." He grins and looks down at the chinchilla in his hands. "Isn't that right, little one? Yes, it is." He puts him back in his cage and picks the whole thing up. "Alright, come on. Let's get out of here before those zoms eat him. And us."

We leave, and I take one more passing glance at the messy crayon drawings as we do.

We run through a plethora of stores once we get out of Little Venice. I grab a few things from the shelves and shove them in my backpack. We'll always have a need for pencils and paper and clothing. It doesn't slow us down, although we don't lose the zoms right away. They're slow and persistent, moaning and groaning. It's an annoying sound, but it's better than the animalistic roars that came from the V-Type.

Fortunately for us, it only takes us a few minutes of going at a quicker pace for Sam to announce we're zom free, having lost them in IKEA. When he directs us to the exit and we head down the road, I can't help but feel surprised we didn't get lost in there ourselves.

"That looks like a train station at the end of the road," Jody says, squinting. "We could get a train the rest of the way."

"Yes, you could, if the trains were running," Valmont replies. "Which they're not. Not since you took down Sigrid."

"Seems that there are people living in the trains now," Nicole points out, and as we get closer I notice there's a line to hang out clothes from the rusted window, and there's a person sun bathing on the roof, not noticing our presence yet.

"Did you meet that Colonel Sage at the peace conference?" He asks. "He's an interesting chap. Lots of theories about how societies break down, and more importantly, rebuild."

"We didn't meet him, but we heard him speak. I think he's the guy Ellie went to work with," I answer. "He was the only one who stood up for Janine."

"We need people like him to get through this, or we'll all end up living in broken-down trains that are going nowhere."

We all jump at the metallic banging that hits the air like a hammer to glass.

"What the hell is that?" Sam asks.

"An alarm," I say. Anyone outside the train is rushing inside, pulling down metal shutter on the windows, slamming the train doors shut. They do it with such urgency I can't help but tense up. "Are you sure we lost the zoms?"

"Uh, yeah. I'm trying to see what spooked them, but they just keep looking towards-ah. No, I get it. It's not a zombie alarm. It's a people alarm. They're hiding from you."

A child begins crying when Jody holds out her hand to her, and a second later a woman runs by and grabs the child, dragging her inside a train car and slamming the door shut.

"Wait! We're harmless!" She yells desperately.

Valmont clicks his tongue. "They don't seem convinced. Let's hide behind that rhododendron ponticum until they calm down." We duck down in the foliage and Valmont opens the chinchilla's cage. "Now here, Alejandro. Have a little nibble."

"You called the chinchilla Alejandro?" Jody asks incredulously, but Valmont doesn't answer.

"Uh, buggar," Sam mumbles. "That alarm's attracted quite a large group of zoms. You'd better get out of there fast."

Valmont puts Alejandro back in his cage. "Right then. We don't need anything from here anyway. Let's go."

•

"Okay, you've crossed the boundary into Edgeware. Wait." Sam pauses, and I slow down my pace. "Are those Welsh flags on the buildings?"

Valmont nods. "The Edgeware Dragons are a Welsh separatist colony. Alright, before we go further, let's hide behind this statue of Owain Glyndwr. You lot aren't terribly popular here."

We couch down, staying out of sight from the very few people that are about. They don't really seem to be looking anyway, eyes focused on one certain goal. They all seem to be dressed professionally too, as if the end of the world hasn't happened.

"What have we ever done to them?" Jody asks.

"Everything bad that ever happened, according to Sigrid. They were one of her closest allies. Very keen on law and order, this lot. Look over there." He points to an underpass checkpoint. "That leads straight to Sigrid's facility. That's where you'll find the files."

"Yeah, but how do we get past them?" I ask, looking at the armed guards who stand there. One of the men... well, he looks like he could break my arm like a toothpick.

"That's where Alejandro and I come in." Valmont looks at us, his eyes shining. "When you hear the word 'backdate', make a run for it."

Nicole frowns as he stands. "But what are you... And he's gone."

I peer around the statue, watching as Valmont waves the chinchilla cage rather roughly around the armed guards.

The guards don't reach for their weapons, though. They actually smile at Valmont as he approaches. It's a closed-lipped, professional type smile, but I think a smile is better than a bullet.

Maybe they aren't upset with him for helping Abel after Sigrid's secret got out. Or maybe they are, but he has resources they need so they just put up with it.

That makes more sense.

"Mr. Valmont, nice to see you again," The smaller guard says politely. "If you show us your paperwork, you can walk right through."

"Ah, yes, slight problem," He replies, rocking on his heels before raising the cage up to eye level. "I'm afraid there's not just me that needs an entry visa. There's also this little chap."

As if on cue, Alejandro squeaks.

"Gareth, come look at this. He's only gone and brought a chinchilla."

The mountain of a man, Gareth, strides over to them, tipping his head to the side in thought.

"Oh dear," He says, sounding less gruff than I thought he would. "Still, if you fill in the accompanied rodent pet form 23Z, then you'll be okay."

Valmont nods. "Good, yes. Only, well, I have to confess, I did let him nibble on some rhododendron ponticum. He's got some on his fur. That's an invasive plant species, isn't it?"

Gareth frowns and grabs a walkie-talkie from his hip. "Now that is a problem. Gwen, Aeronwen, come over here. I need some advice on what form to use."

"We could always backdate 542E."

"That's it! That's it, guys!" Sam exclaims. "That's the signal. Run for the underpass!"

I push off, using the momentum to give me a good start. We keep our steps quiet, running behind the small stand that is probably for the guards to sit in for a rest break. We're only a few feet from the guards. They only need to turn to the left to see us as we run from the stand and down the underpass.

My heart hammers in my chest as the three of us push closer together, as if that will do anything besides make Jody step on the back of my heels.

Brent and Alejandro keep their attention. They never even look our way, too engrossed by Brent and whatever he's saying about forms and regulations. How he can remember it all baffles me.

But that's how Valmont is. He's smart and cunning and charming, making him excellent for missions like this.

His voice fades the further down we go. The road above us is the one that gets more traffic since this here only leads to one place, so we don't see anyone else. It's all quiet and dark, giving off the same feeling everything of Sigrid's does-a feeling of something, everything, being off.

I don't think I'll ever understand how the Edgeware Dragons can hate us after finding out we were the good guys. I mean, I don't expect them to love us, but the fact that they still partially believe Sigrid's lies baffles me. Are there other people out there refusing believe the truth, even with the evidence that Sigrid started the apocalypse? Why? What's the point of that?

We have proof, and even if we didn't, why cling to the idea that she was good? She broadcasted a rant about how we all were unworthy and deserved to burn. None of the people of the Wakened Land were considered good enough. None of the people in the Edgeware Dragons were considered good enough. Why would they think such a leader is good when she was who one who wanted to-who planned to-slaughter them without mercy?

"Guys? Guys, can you hear me?" Valmont whispers. "Look, the guards are getting form 362ZB, so I can talk. Are you through the underpass?"

"Right at the end," Jody answers.

There's a door there. When we reach, I jiggle the handle, surprised but pleased to find it unlocked. I open it and am met with darkness. Thankfully, it only takes a few seconds of awkwardly patting the wall to find a light switch, and once I flick it, bright yellow-ish light fills the room.

"What can you see? I don't have any cams in there. Is it Sigrid's facility?" Sam asks breathlessly.

"Looks like it," I answer, disdain in my voice. "There's a giant picture of her on the wall looking all noble and thoughtful and not at all like a homicidal maniac."

"And the files?"

"There are filing cabinets in here, yeah. Just-" I try to open it, but it's locked. I huff. "Just give me a second to-ah, that'll do."

I grab a wooden chair, lift it up over my head, and then smash it into the ground. Sam yelps at the sound. The chair splinters, one of the legs cracking off. I pick it up and jam in into one of the drawers of the filing cabinet, forcing it open. I hand it over to Jody so she can do the same to other drawers.

"There. Got one."

"Is there, um... well, is there anything about immune people?" He does nothing to hide the hope in his voice. "Or where Sigrid sent my sister? Look, I was thinking like... well, maybe because she was good with numbers and stuff, she might have had a job somewhere."

"There's a lot of names, but they're not filed alphabetically," Jody answers as she flips through the files and Nicole cracks open a drawer to look through. "They're done by 'instruments of leverage'. Each file is a person. This one's got the name Gerald West but only labeled 'Romantic'. It's got a photo and all these notes."

"What're the notes?" I ask, too busy looking through my own drawer to read them myself.

"'Two sisters, one deceased, the other estranged. Wife and a boy. Boy asthmatic. Wife had an affair with D.C. Darby, ref. 44AZ.' Oh. Romantic leverage."

"Huh," Sam says, intrigued. "Well, we knew she was spying on people."

"There's so much detail though," Nicole replies. "I was trained to digging regarding the..." She trails off, remembering that Brent is still listening. "Well, I know how to find info on people, but this-Listen to this here. 'Allergic to penicillin. Strongly motivated by greed. Coulrophobia.' I believe that's the word for being afraid of clowns, right?"

"I think the word for that is 'sane'."

I laugh, but it fades when a name catches my eye, along with the leverage labeled there.

My mouth goes dry.

"There must be thousands of files in here, Sam!" Jody says, and from all the cabinets, she's not exaggerating, meaning there must be a reason for me to have chosen this exact filing cabinet, this exact drawer with these leverages, this name. "There might be somethin' about your sister in here, but..."

"You haven't got time to find it," Valmont finishes, his voice just slightly strained. "But according to my intel, there should be floppy disk copies of all the data. Why floppy disks, you might ask? I couldn't tell you."

"You're right." Jody shuts the drawer and walks over to the medium sizes boxes tucked away in a corner. "If you can take one, Five, I'll carry the other. Twenty-seven, keep your gun handy."

"It's about all I can do since I've only got one good hand." I can hear the slight bitterness in Nicole's voice. Everyone can.

"Grab them and get out!" Valmont yells. "You must have set off a hidden alarm. The locals here are sending a welcome committee with guns-so more of an unwelcoming committee, really. Anyway, get away from there, and meet me outside the eastern border."

"Run!" Sam commands, and Jody grabs one of the boxes. I look at it, then at the file in the drawer, debating.

"Five, come on. We've got no time to waste!" She yells, and I nod, grabbing the file and shoving it into my backpack, making sure they don't see.

I grab the other box. "Sorry. Sorry. I wasn't-" I cut myself, knowing I can't say I was distracted without them asking more questions than necessary. "Sorry. Let's go."

•

"Ah, there you are!" Valmont says with a grin and a wave. His smile widens at the sight of the boxes in our hand. "And you've got the disks. Overall, a plan well-executed, I'd say."

"Except we haven't got anythin' that reads floppy disks in Abel." Jody frowns. "Since we're not, you know, livin' the in 1980's."

"Maybe we could take a trip to Noah Base. They had a lot of that old tech," I suggest, but Valmont quickly shakes his head.

"Oh, don't worry. I can take care of that. A.N.N.I.E. might be on the blink, but I still have access to her hardware. We can go through these for you. I can't promise they'll contain information about your sister, Samuel, but they should be useful regardless."

Jody's face hardens quickly. "No, they won't. We're not goin' to start blackmailin' people or threatenin' them into joinin' us."

"No," Sam agrees. "We didn't get rid of Sigrid just to start doing things the way the she did. Now that's just not us."

Valmont tsks, seeming only mildly displeased, if that. "Entirely understandable, but... there's a power vacuum at the heart of this country. If you don't fill it, there are plenty of other undesirables more than willing to do so. You didn't get rid of Sigrid just to replace her with another Sigrid, did you?"

"No! Why do you think we had the peace conference? We want to work together," Jody adds, and he just scoffs, a small smirk on his lips.

"But I'm afraid the peace conference failed, so maybe you should start thinking about what comes next." He sighs when we don't say anything, and he hands the cage to me, swapping it for the box of floppy disks in my arms. "Here. Take Alejandro back to Abel. With the way things are going, you're going to need all the friends you can get."

A/N: Here you go, guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!