On The Road Again

The worst part of any operation was waiting. Years of military service had taught her that much. The adrenaline pumping through your veins never made that task any easier, and it hadn't in her case nor Justin's as far as she could tell. Pre-mission jitters, most servicemen called it. Only she nor Justin were in the military any longer. They weren't fighting for their country. This, was a lot more personal. If they failed here, the consequences were a lot worse. They felt a lot worse. It wasn't just going to be her, this time. It would be Justin, Kelly, Sarah and Fearah too. Thankfully the sound of an engine interrupted her dark train of thoughts, and she exhaled to steady them, to steel herself for what was about to happen. 

Alexandra carefully watched each and every one of the men that got out of the vehicles. Small arms for the most part, and nothing that would punch through their plate carriers even with armor-piercing ammunition. A smile flickered across her face when she saw the man sporting the AK. It was some locally produced variant for the American civilian market that she didn't care to identify. At least they'd be able to scavenge plenty of ammunition off of these idiots. Still, if they got hit at all, this had the chance of going very, very badly. 

She turned to Justin to see what his take on the situation was, and an exchanged glance she closed her eyes as he leaned in for a kiss. With a kiss like that, she was more than ready to do what they had to do. Reluctantly, Alexandra followed Justin's lead and raising her hands as well, climbed the berm. Her reluctance came from not instantly shooting these bastards. Alexandra missed the familiar weight of her rifle in her hands when she found several weapons pointed right at her. She let Justin do the talking. She was more than capable of dropping her accent for the duration of the conversation if she had to, not that it really mattered. Even so, she didn't have any words for these men that would help their situation, and so she was more than content to let Justin handle it. 

What she saw next however, she found herself using all of her deceptive abilities to control her reaction. The mere sight of what she was looking at made her sick. She wanted nothing more than at that point to shoot these bastards, find their boss, and give him a taste of his own medicine and then some. She couldn't believe what had happened to Kelly. What had happened to her eye? Had the bastard done any real damage? She'd skin him alive if he had. Then there was the matter of the other two. Alexandra took a breath in through her nose to control her emotions, subtly enough that it wasn't noticed. She blinked at Kelly subtly, hoping that she'd know that she was trying to tell her that everything would be okay. 

Alexandra nodded at Kelly and then shook her head before she sucked her teeth. "Better be good one, then. Do you make a habit of damaging goods and then trying to unload them on your clients?" When she spoke, all trace of her accent was gone. There was in fact a certain coldness in her voice that before this neither Kelly nor Justin would have heard before. Alexandra was doing what the GRU had expected of her, to sell a lie, and to do it well. 

Alexandra felt anger well up inside her. She wanted nothing more than to draw one of her Shaitan knives and show this bastard what she thought of him, a bullet to the brain was too good for someone like him. She kept her composure however, and just nodded dismissively, as if such a thing was perfectly acceptable. As if she couldn't care less either way. She was going to have to settle for shooting the fucker in the head in any event. 

Two weeks of supplies along with any ammunition they had for three girls? Who paid this sort of thing? In a world where supplies and ammunition came at a premium, who would throw it all away to engage in this barbaric trade? With the dead walking around like they owned this place? It was madness to Alexandra, sheer and complete lunacy. What else could it be? She just kept her cool, and hoped that Kelly was alright. 

The conversation continued, and eventually three weeks of supplies was settled on. She resisted the urge to smile. These bastards weren't getting exactly what they were hoping for, and the ammunition was going to be delivered a little warm for their taste. She returned Justin's nod before  he asked them how they were going to deliver the supplies. The man explained the process, which Alexandra only half paid attention to before he handed the three of them over. 

It was like a weight was lifted off of her chest when they received the three of them, but Alexandra continued to keep up the deception as best as she could until they reached the berm. The very first thing she did then was reach down and pick up her Alexander Arms Ulfberht. She saw Justin give the signal, and from where she was, she watched the chaos unfold. Bracing the weapon against the edge of the berm, Alexandra decided to add to it. 

One of the men was taking cover behind the door of their vehicle. Alexandra took aim, inhaled and then pulled the trigger. The large .338 lapua magnum round punched through the door as though it were flimsy sheet metal. The round caught the man in the temple. She took aim again, this time aiming for one of the M4 wielding guards, the massive round tearing through his plate carrier with ease. She splattered his brains onto the ground with a second round to prevent him from being a problem for them even in death. 

Alexandra slowly surveyed the carnage that they'd wrought. She hadn't been in a firefight this pitched since they'd encountered that group at the gas station. She was silently thankful for the fact that it appeared that none of them had been injured. Alexandra tried to steady her heart rate, the adrenaline that had kicked in once the shooting started still pumping through her veins. Coming off the adrenaline high was always difficult for her, and during which was always a little too on edge. The familiarity of Justin's touch helped, and so her reaction wasn't quite so drastic. 

Hearing him ask her to get the keys, she nodded and moved off to go and get them. She moved slowly, her rifle up and shouldered, carefully watching for any sign of survivors, dead or undead. Just to be sure, she slung her rifle, and drawing her handgun put a round in each of their heads as she took the magazines from the men with the M4s and the man with the AK while searching for the keys. Finding it on the corpse of the bastard she'd spoken to initially, she placed it in her jacket pocket before she retrieved the two LC9s carried by two of them men and their accompanying magazines. She was carrying a lot with her now, but she'd long learned that you often never lived to regret letting good equipment go to waste. 

On her way back to the others, Alexandra made sure to put a bullet through the receiver of the AK and the M4s. Denying them the equipment was certainly going to be better than just leaving it there for them to reclaim. She reached the others and handed Justin the keys, "Here, dear. I brought some fresh ammunition too." Of course, Justin rewarded her efforts with a kiss, and that 1000 watt smile of his. She blushed like a school girl, then she placed the mags in front of Justin before drawing the LC9 she'd appropriated. Kelly was in no state to shoot. Kelly didn't look like she was in a state to be doing much, but Alexandra had found that she was certainly made of sterner stuff than she looked. True to that, she was still standing. 

She caught something one of the girls had said about kicking the hornet's nest. If this bastard was ready to send more at them, she was more than happy to keep sending them back in body bags. They had no choice, acquiescing to him was not an option, so that left fighting. She considered giving the LC9 to the newcomer, but seeing as she barely knew her, decided against it and instead tucked it into the back waistband of her pants. "I'll go and get our sniper team," she said to Justin quickly, before heading off in the direction of where Sarah and Fearah set up. 

It wasn't long before she'd reached where they were, and she waved to them from halfway to signal them to get ready to get moving. Once she was close enough for conversation, she smiled proudly at them. "That was a hell of a job back there you two. Good shooting. Kelly's more or less fine, by the way, no more hurt than when we saw her." She looked at Sarah specifically when she said 'we', referring to their scouting run together. "So come on you two, let's get going." With that, she pulled  her radio out and keying the transmit button, said to Justin, "I've got Sarah and Fearah, we'll head back to the camper and wait for your there." 

It didn't take terribly long for them to rendezvous back at the camper, and they were on their way before long. Justin was driving, and Alexandra was in the front with him, watching for any signs of an ambush or that they were being followed. A camper wasn't exactly the most bullet resistant vehicle that they could have appropriated, but it fit their other purposes very well. She trusted Sarah and Fearah to watch over their two new guests. She very much doubted that they were going to be trouble, but Alexandra still refused to let her guard down yet. The leftover adrenaline in her system wasn't helping much either. 

It was as they were pulling into Dan's that Alexandra saw not only Dan standing outside, but two others with him and another camper parked outside. Reflexively, Alexandra snapped her rifle up, but when she saw that Dan didn't look like he was under duress, she took a breath. "Who the hell are they?" she muttered under her breath loud enough just for Justin to hear. Newcomers were complications, complications given the situation they could ill afford. She turned to Justin, giving him a questioning look with regards to what their next move was. 

Having spent the better part of a week on the road as they headed north from the military base down in Texas Ellie tapped her foot on the floorboard of the vehicle with a never ending drum, Clara and Emmi were currently asleep in the rear compartment which left Ellie alone with her thoughts, a time she cherished to no end as Clara's droning on served as a proverbial stopper for her thoughts most of the time. Having passed the US, Canada border about thirty minutes or so prior Ellie chose to stick to the road that hugged the river. It had come to her realization that it seemed like Clara always found game closer to watch and so she had began making a point to stick close to it whenever she found it. Taking a right to continue following the body of water Ellie started humming a tune, "Argon, Boron, Silicon and Neon. Erbium, Fermium, Pluto-nium. " Turning to humming the next bit she looked across the water. 'Wonder if I could find a book on this place.' she thought to herself before continuing the song to pass the car ride "Chlorine, Fluorine, Gallium and Xenon. Thallium, Strontium." Hearing someone stir behind her Ellie stifled her song and set to tapping her foot again. "Wh-What were you singing?" Clara asked sleepily as she clambered to the passengers seat from where she and her sister Emmi had been sleeping. "Where are we?" she then asked as she took up the map that was folded in the seat before her.

"We crossed the Canada border a handful of minutes ago." Ellie said, her tone slightly annoyed from being interrupted from her peaceful quietness. "Really? Think we'll see a moose?" Clara asked as she practically jumped with joy. "I don't know, don't get your hopes up or anything." Ellie responded, "Yea, I don't think we'd be able to hold all the food it would give us anyway, not to mention keeping it all fresh." Clara said, her snap to reality when it came to hunting always served to catch Ellie off guard and as usual Ellie found her eyes look in the girls direction with a certain admiration. While she was useless with most things, hunting, thankfully wasn't one of them. Taking another right Ellie followed the road further and soon the sound of a rumbling stomach broke the silence between the two girls. "Heh, sorry, I. I guess I'm hungry." Clara said with a blush. Truth be told Ellie was feeling it too. It had been a solid two or three days since they had anything larger than a snack.

"Rabbits!" Clara shouted with excitement as her finger shot straight forward towards the side of the road.

"What?" Ellie asked as she slowed the camper slightly to look where Clara was pointing, There, in the tall grass just outside an outcropping of tree's was a cluster of rabbits, fat enough to serve as meals.

"Stop the car, I wanna hunt some wabbits." Clara said with a joyful smile before hoping to her feat and booking it to the rear of the vehicle to collect her rifle

"Fine, Fine. I guess we could all use something to eat." Ellie returned as she brought the camper to a crawl before parking it on the side of the road near the small outcropping a tree's. The tree's in question were a curious thing. They seemed to form a nearly perfect circle near the water with the end reaching all the way to the waterline. hearing the door unlatch and swing open Ellie turned to tell Clara to be careful and watch her back but she was already gone. The door swung shut again and through the window Ellie saw the brunette skipping through the field before plopping to her stomach to take the shot.

Downing one the rest scattered into the tree's and with that Clara got to her feet again and began her chase.

"♫ The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No words were laid on stream or stone When Durin woke and walked alone. He named the nameless hills and dells; He drank from yet untasted wells; He stooped and looked in Mirrormere, And saw a crown of stars appear, As gems upon a silver thread, Above the shadows of his head.♫" Dan sang gleefully as he set about putting the finishing touches on the rings for Justin, Having finished the first one about an hour ago he gently tapped the last inlay into the applicably heated metal before bringing it up to eye level to inspect. With a smirk and a nod he quenched the ring in the nearby basin of water. Bringing it out steam still rising from it's circular form Dan inspected it once more. "Good." he said to himself before setting the second ring next to the first to cool

Setting his tools to the side Dan then stretched with a hardy sigh, it had been a good while since he had been tasked with making something so intricate, even if it was just two simple rings the material from which they were made along with the small inlay of a vine on each made for arguably tedious work compared to the majority of other things he had done as of late. "Well, Now we just gotta wait for our adventurers to return, may their travels fair well." he said as he pocketed the two rings in preparation for giving them to Justin once they all returned. Climbing the steps out of the basement that led to the back end of the kitchen Dan's ears perked up at the sound of a muffled gunshot to the east. "Oh geez.." He said to himself as he heard his wife start to panic. "Dear, Dear. It's fine. For all we know it could be our brave adventurers signalling their return." Dan said in an attempt to calm his wife. She just shrugged. Together the two of them made their way to the front door and after informing their kids to stay inside headed out to investigate the sound, Dan was armed with his trusty hammer and his wife a kitchen knife, Not good if the people had guns and ill intentions.

Soon a camper came rolling down the road, but this one had a different design than the one Justin and company piloted, No, this one was driven by a blonde female with another brunette by her side. "Who are they?" his wife demanded, Dan brought his hand up to signal her to calm down "I'm not sure, they look young though, Think they're friends of Justin's?" Dan asked, forever the grand optimist he was he looked on with a smile as the two girls in the front came to imerge from the camper, their hands raised and unarmed as the younger of the two said that they meant no harm. "Greetings." Dan called back as he waved them over. Staying silent until they approached Dan looked the two girls over, They couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen he thought. "What brings you to our part of the woods?" Dan asked as he looked to the older of the two girls.

"My apologies for the sudden intrusion Sir. We were unaware that the cluster of tree's we were hunting by served as a vale to conceal your abode." The blonde spoke with elegance like the high elves which caught Dan offguard.

"You're mighty well spoken there young lady." He said, the blonde nodded.

"Thank you Sir, I am Ellie, This is my... Sister, Clara. We are three in number, the third being our youngest sister Emmi who still slumbers in our camper."

Dan nodded "Well, It's good to meet you all, by any chance do you know what that noise earlier was?"

This time Clara spoke up. "S-Sorry dude, That was me. Ya see, we didn't know anyone was like, like living here and there was some mighty juicy looking rabbits outside the tree's you guys are hide'n in. We were hunting them and I found you guys when I chased them into the woods."

Dan smiled and nodded at the kids answer. "Ah-ha, I see, That would explain it." He said, as he was about to speak again however the sound of another engine approaching met his ears and soon the sound was joined with the camper belonging to Justin and Company. "Oh, looks like our bad-ass adventurers have returned.

At the sound of his words Dan watched as Clara's eyes lit up with excitment. "Bad-ass?" she questioned with renewed vigor, the nerves in her voice nearly entirely gone like someone switched a flick. Dan couldn't help but laugh to himself. "Yes little miss, They're some Grade A Badasses."

Alexandra nodded in response to Justin's comment, but didn't lower her rifle at all. She nodded again when he suggested that they should go and figure out what was going on. She intended to do just that. She felt Justin's hand on her shoulder and halfheartedly returned the smile that he gave her. It wasn't that she really thought the two girls were going to be a problem, she just found their timing to be far too convenient for her taste. It was for that reason alone, that she didn't really trust them not to try something. She followed Justin down the stairs of the camper, but unlike him, she did not extend the two new comers the courtesy of shouldering her rifle. Instead, it was cradled in her arms, her right hand closed around the grip and barrel resting in the crook of her arm. 

When Justin called out to Dan, Dan noticed them and introduced the two newcomers as Clara and Ellie. He mentioned Clara to be a 'woman of the woods', which to Alexandra translated as her being skilled with either hunting, survival or both. Which concerned her a little more. Despite seeming unarmed, these two were carrying weapons. How else did Dan know that otherwise. One thing was for sure, they knew that if they approached unarmed they stood a better chance of not getting shot. A wise decision. She'd have been less inclined to keep her weapon pointed elsewhere were that to be the case. She did notice that this Clara was quite excited, and was somewhat curious about that. What did she know about them? Did Dan say something? 

Those questions were answered by Clara when she let out a torrent of questions, statements and exclamations. Alexandra raised an eyebrow at this. A few things she'd said stood out. She called them badass, for one. That was more or less true, they kind of were pretty badass. Then she asked if they could teach her to be badass, and it was about at this point that Alexandra found her enthusiasm to be somewhat endearing. There was a certain...innocence to it that seemed unaffected by the world around her, both in a figurative case and in a literal case. She couldn't be older than fifteen, maybe sixteen. Alexandra reminded herself that this could all still very much be a very clever ploy, as slightly paranoid as that sounded, even to her. A little paranoia was healthy, it kept you and yours safe. 

The other girl with her, apparently her adopted sister, apologized for her behavior. What she meant by adopted, she wasn't quite sure. Maybe she'd ask later, if they proved to be trustworthy that was. She cited human contact as the reason for her sister's excitement. Well, that was an understatement if Alexandra had ever heard one. She mentioned that their youngest sister was asleep in their camper. Alexandra guessed that she must be pretty young, the world as it was could take quite a toll on the young. She couldn't imagine what that girl was going through, if of course her sisters were telling the truth about her. Given what she'd witnessed today, she wasn't keen on taking anyone's word for granted. 

Justin introduced them, using her cover identity when it came to her. She thanked him silently for that. Maybe it was paranoia, but she wasn't sure when that part of her past might catch up with her. Especially if someone was close to discovering her deception near the end. She then inquired as to their background, or rather, what about it would constitute them as badasses. Justin answered her with the succinctness she knew he was capable of. A slight smile flickered across her features in response to his delivery. Sarah and Fearah joined the conversation, and before long they were escorting the two girls off elsewhere. Which was fair enough, they probably hadn't run into too many people near their age. Justin asked her about it, to which she replied, "They'll be fine." She trusted that even if they were unarmed, Sarah and Fearah could handle the two girls if they proved to be a problem. 

Dan was ushering Justin over, and so when he left to see what Dan wanted, Alexandra turned her attention to the two newcomers. So far, they didn't seem like a threat, and there was nothing to indicate that they would be a problem, even if she did find their timing to be a little too convenient. Alexandra was a trained and talented liar, and she was good at sniffing out lies in people. Nothing either girl had said so far reeked of a lie to her. She let out a sigh, perhaps there was nothing going on here, but she'd be remiss if she let her guard down. 

Justin's voice pulled her out of her thoughts, and she turned to him, as he told her that he had a question for her. She was curious as to what was going on, he had something of an extra measure of purpose in his stride. The girls were otherwise occupied, did he want to...Eh, better to let him answer it. "Shoot, I'm all ears," she replied, a grin forming on her face. He took her by the hand and led her a short distance away, prompting her to sling her rifle over one shoulder. Now she was curious. What did he have to tell her that he needed her alone for? Had something happened? No, then he wouldn't be this happy. No this was something else. Was he-her train of thought was interrupted as she could sight of Justin's trademark million dollar smile. He leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips, she closed her eyes, and then opened it when he pulled away, "Hmmm....you're buttering me up..." 

Alexandra never got a chance to finish that sentence, because Justin dropped down to one knee and she instantly knew what he was going to ask her. Her eyes widened in surprise, her heart was beating a million times a minute. Then, he asked the all important question that Alexandra would never forget as long as she lived. Alexandra blinked twice to see if she was dreaming, and thankfully she wasn't. She looked into his eyes, a broad warm smile on her face that wavered ever so slightly. She was so overjoyed, she could cry. "Yes. Of course. Yes, a million times," she said, nodding slowly with each statement.  

Having stayed near the camper after arriving back at the place all the troubles had started from Kelly brought her arms around herself as she slumped into a ball near the wheel of the camper after following all the rest of the people out. Watching as the rest of them went off to greet the newcomers that were talking to yet another face Kelly didn't recognize she sighed with enough force to blow down a small building. She was safe again yes, but the shear trauma the ordeal brought had taken it's toll on the young girl and all she could think about was sleeping for an eternity. Her hand came to feel the bandage that wrapped itself around her head and served as a cover for the wound caused by whatever that man hit her with, his name she couldn't remember. A tear snaked it's way down her cheek.

Turning to look back to the happenings towards the house Kelly smiled, a small tinge of joy trickling through her heart at the site of Justin taking a knee in front of Alexandra. 'You finally popped the question, Good job bro.' she thought to herself as the sensation of the bandage that clung to her head still weighed on her mind. Running a hand along the fabric of the wrappings Kelly returned her gaze to her knee's for a time as she felt the pain from the other day had faded a good amount. With a deep breath she unwrapped the bandage and felt the wound directly, to the outside observer the wound was still fresh, stitched and cleaned by the people at the compound for reasons she didn't care to think about it was in far batter shape than it would have been if she had kept her consciousness after the blow, Not that she'd know that though. Once the bandage was fully off there was still one issue, the right side of her vision was still dark, what was going on? As a minor panic set in to the girls mind she kept moving her hand to and from her eye, still nothing was seen. "What's going on?" she asked herself in a hushed panic as she got to her feet and began walking towards Justin, who had since returned to his feet and was standing confidently next to Alexandra. They had just finished talking to one of the newcomers it had seemed and the taller blonde had since moved off towards the rest of the kids, a smile seemed to be stuck to her face.

Quickly she made her way to them and as she approached she kept her head tilted to keep them in her vision. "J-Justin... Alex... I think somethings wrong." she said as she came to stand before them.

"What's wrong Kels?" Justin asked as he knelt down to her level, on his hand now rested a ring made of metal from a bullet from the looks of it.

"I.. I can't see out of my right eye.." Kelly responded in a small panic.

"Can't see?" Justin asked as his arms came to pull her in to examine the eye, at first glance everything appeared normal, the eye looked out at the world just as the left one did, but one thing was off. It didn't respond to anything happening in front of it. That's when Justin noticed. The wound that was now stitched up and was bandaged up to recently cut into her eye, not by much but it was visibly enough that it had damaged some part of her eye in a way that caused her vision to fail her.

"Yea.. I can't see anything out of my right eye. What's going on?" Kelly asked again, her tone noticeably more panicked now that Justin seemed to be at a loss for an explanation she looked up to Alex hoping she would have something to say on the matter, maybe she had some more insight.

Justin got back to his feet after giving his sister a long hug of comfort and looked to his wife for her thought, "That wound damaged something in her eye. How.. How do we tell her that.. If you look at it you can see it." he whispered into her ear in a volume Kelly wouldn't be able to hear.

With the panic from the realization that whatever was causing her vision in her right eye to fail was leaving even Justin speechless on the matter Kelly stretched her arms out to wrap them around her big brother. "What's going on Justin..." she said desperately.Soon she felt Justin's hand begin to run along her back and softly he sang to her,unknown to her though he was looking to Alex and his singing served to conceal whatever she had to say on the matter. He too hoped she would know what to do, he had never dealt with something like this before, at least not with someone so young.