Fracking Apocalypse - a ZNation 10K/Tommy Fanfiction

S5E02: Part 5

Great news! I FINALLY got all my data recovered! Thank God!

S5E02: Part 5

Once they had more gasoline they got back in the vehicle and continued driving into Texas. When they reached the border the Man suddenly cut south instead of west.

"Where is this rendezvous point with Zona anyway?" she asked.

"An old abandoned Air Force base. We had an agent out here a little over a year ago. We stopped hearing from him and assumed he was dead. But the landing pad will be enough for a Zona aircraft to land and pick us up." He explained and after being pushed off a cliff she assumed Zona had decided no more secret mountain base pick-ups.

"An agent?" she asked then groaned, "Not Dan Scully?"

The Man's head snapped to her, "You know him?"

"Knew him." She corrected confirming his suspicions that the man was dead.  "We stopped in Roswell and he talked about Zona. Back then we thought he was insane."

"He wasn't."

"Clearly." She replied, "Why the sudden turn south?" she asked and he pointed out the right window where she saw what looked like a junkyard in the distance.

"Officially it's Spontaneous Mass Mortality Site Number 247 but civilians call it 'The Great Pile'. Almost over two hundred square miles, with no path through it. It's one big no-go zone. We'll make one more stop for the night, then drive all day and should arrive at the rendezvous by nightfall."

She nodded her head and itched the side of her neck. Then the Man reached over and pulled the collar of her shirt. He stared at her wound for a long moment before he turned his attention back to the road. Bailey's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion before she pulled down the visor and flipped open the small mirror. She tugged her shirt off over her shoulder and looked at her disfigured skin. It was still grey but parts of it were starting to peel at the edges like sunburn, that's what had made her neck itch. Her skin was peeling and underneath in the small bits where she'd scratched she saw fresh blue skin.

She slammed the mirror shut and pushed the visor back up. She could feel the Man's eyes on her trying to gage her reaction but she just crossed her arms and slouched in her seat. She felt like she wanted to cry but she'd be damned if she let him see her weep. The whole thing only made her miss 10K again, she wanted him to hold her, to let her cry into his shoulder and tell her it would all be okay. But 10K wasn't here and she honestly wasn't sure if anything would be okay.

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The Man didn't bother to find an actual place for them that night, instead he just parked the car in an alley and locked the doors. Bailey had tried no far-fetched escape plan since he'd caught her and now he'd finally let his guard down just enough for her to try. She'd been hoping she'd be able to lose him if they ran into a big enough horde but now they were too close to his rendezvous point and she was running out of time. Luckily, another plan had presented itself and she wasn't going to miss the opportunity. She carefully unlocked the door, slowly pulling up the small pin in the door, then she carefully pulled on the handle and opened the door almost silently. She slowly closed it but not all the way before she crept out of the alley and took off down the street. Her instincts were screaming at her to head east again, that would increase the odds of running into 10K, but she also thought it might be too obvious. She remembered the way to the Great Pile they'd passed, and knew a place like that would be perfect to hide in if it didn't get her killed but with her new vaccinated immunity it wouldn't be as great a threat to enter as it'd be for the Man. She headed north towards where Texas and Oklahoma met, that's where she'd seen the Great Pile, and it hadn't been more then a few hours ago. She ran through the town and into the neighborhoods every now and then attracting a lone Z or two. Then she realized the biggest flaw in her plan, the Z's. They'd follow her and lead the Man right to her just like when Murphy had been trying to escape the bounty hunters back in Cheyenne. Which meant she had to put as much distance between her and him before he woke up and noticed she was gone.