𝙵𝙻𝙴𝚂𝙷 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙱𝙾𝙽𝙴 | 𝚃. 𝙾𝚃𝚃𝙾 𐂃

Chapter 1

Cristine's eyes greeted the daylight, her muscles expanded with the stretch of her body. It took her a moment to shake off the sleep. A soundless yawn spilled over her lips as Cristine welcomed the serene dawn. Flexing her muscles like a cat would, Cristine rubbed her eyes before slowly sitting up in her bed. As a  window was nearby, the corners of her vision were momentarily blindsided by the bright sunlight peeking through in all of its glory.

After taking one more minute to come to herself Cristine swung her legs over the bed and unlocked the rest of her joints. Stalking to the small bathroom in the back, Cristine undressed for a cold shower in this warm morning. The cool water felt like a blessing to her skin, the air already rising the temperature of her home like an oven set on pre-heat. Cristine relished in the essence of the cold droplets. Afterwards, she brushed her teeth and dressed in some light, but protective clothes for outside.

"Cristine come in, over." Surprised by the unexpected voice, Cristine quickly grabbed the walkie-talkie from her night stand and thumbs the talk button.

The sound just crackles when she answered, "Blake? Where the hell have you guys been?" Frowning, Cristine was surprised to hear a sign of life. Troy and the militia left for the military depot some weeks ago to get fuel. Her and Blake kept in touch frequently just to stay up-to-date or talk about everything and nothing. Hell, Cristine would even admit they'd gotten closer over the period as friends, which Hailey used to tease by insinuating things that weren't there.

"Aw, you miss me?" Blake's voice sizzles and Cristine could only imagine that smug smirk on his face. She sucked in a harsh breath and pushed down her annoyance at his nerve to joke with her after being MIA for weeks.

"You guys should've been back weeks ago," she spat. "What's the hold-up?" Stalking through her cabin, Cristine grabbed her keys before stepping outside. The sun was barely up  ut already began to blaze a bright orange behind the horizon. But with the location of her new semi-permanent home, the wind pitched up a notch and made the pressing heat bearable.

"A few problems near the border. Nothing we can't handle. Troy doesn't want to leave it up to chance though," Blake answered in a hushed tone and Cristine's mind wandered off to the experiments that never stopped. She was even inclined to believe they got worse. A potential threat wouldn't be the only motivation for the militia to preemptively attack. Not when Troy was in charge. It was one of the taboo subjects she and Blake didn't discuss when talking. They didn't speak of the dead when they didn't have to, no theories or research and no experiment talk.

"Makes sense, but you still haven't answered the question. It's a simple fuel run. What's taking so long? You know they'll send someone back home to check you."

"Let's not talk about that." Blake diverted the conversation into something light-hearted, "how you settling in your new kingdom?" Cristine smiled with a light shake of her head.

After the debacle that was Ben and the potential threat of his group, the Ranch fortified both manpower and walls. Fortunately, nothing awful occurred, no attacks, no all out war and not a single peep of this group even heading in their direction. It was as if the dessert swallowed them up. One of the good things was that the militia recruited between the 20-30 men and women. Cristine helped train many of them and there was fixed system in place when it came to their armed forces now. In return, Troy vouched that Cristine occupy outpost Beta, while McCarthy was in charge of Alpha.

For Cristine, she now had a place to really call hers. She wanted it ever since she was on the Ranch, even after fully earning her keep. Of course, Hailey and her father weren't happy about it, but Cristine wasn't going to let that hinder her peace of mind. She was happier now and felt at peace with herself. Could sleep a bit better and still pulled her weight. When she saw strange things, she reported them back in, went on runs, and brought back the valuables to the Ranch and created her own little pantry stash. Aside from that, Cristine went back to Broke Jaw every two days to see her family. Hell, for her sister, Jake, Blake, and Charlie, this outpost was a new place for them to hangout. Her social contact was still there and that was more she could ask for.