Fracking Apocalypse - a ZNation 10K/Tommy Fanfiction

S8E11

S8E11:

Bailey POV

"There's debris everywhere." Bailey said through her ragged breathing as Warren sat beside her and rubbed up and down her arm. Just seeing how the people had been coming out put enough ideas in Bailey's head to give her nightmares for months about what might have happened to Tommy.

Warren seemed to be able to tell where her mind had gone by the look in her eyes, "Don't go there. He's fine. He'll come out fine, you have to believe that."

"I should be in there helping Doc." Bailey said, her voice becoming insistent as she regained some of her strength from all the sitting around she'd been forced to do.

"Oh no." Warren said grabbing her shoulders and pulling her back forcing her onto her butt again. "Everyone else has to sit out here and worry about their loved ones who are still in there and so do you. We can't just have everyone who wants to go in run in and try to be a hero."

"Warren –"

"No. You have to listen to what George and the rescue teams are saying." She said sternly, "I know it's hard, after apocalypse life and years of looking out for yourself. Knowing no one else would look out for you, no group of marines, no military, no one but you. It's easy to fall back into that, to count on yourself and know that you'll try harder to keep yourself and your loved ones alive. But the world is moving past that, we're rebuilding, and with that comes swallowing your pride and your baser instincts and trusting other people to do their jobs to the best of their abilities."

"Warren no one is going to keep searching for Tommy if they're afraid the ceiling is going to cave in and cost them their life." Bailey argued.

Warren gave her a long hard look before she responded, "What do you think it was I did when I signed up for the National Guard? I ran into life and death situations to help people I didn't know because I could provide help to those who needed it. That's what I did, that's what firemen did, police officers, EMT's, every other branch of military. Yes I worked with some people who were jackasses and who might run to save themselves or disgrace the job but it made me work harder to bring honor to it. To ensure people that the one bad seed they saw on the news was the few and the good people like Garnett and like Sarge, those good people were the many and we outnumbered the bad a million to one. You have to put your trust in these people now, once it's safe to go back in there they are going to fight tooth and nail to get your husband out alive."

Doc POV

He noticed it was starting to get lighter and when he looked up from his hands he turned to the doors to see the clouds outside were getting lighter – the sun was rising. And he still hadn't found 10K. He'd been up all night and was exhausted and running out of steam to keep turning over the debris.

"Jeff." He sighed out loud wondering if pleading to the dead would work. "I know I never did right by you or your mom, bailing like I did. I never called, I never got to meet you. But you raised a great kid, and your boy is in here somewhere. Help me find him. I gotta find him."

He was on the verge of tears as he lifted his head and looked around the room again. This time he caught a glimpse of something red among all the grey. It didn't look like blood, it didn't shine like a liquid would, it had texture, it looked like fabric. His eyes almost fell out of their sockets when he realized it was the red fabric that was tied around the base of 10K's antler, and that thing poking out of it wasn't debris, it was the Kid's false hand. One prong of the antler had snapped off making it now shoot out like a stick but looking closer it was definitely a broken antler. Doc rushed across the room and started digging through the pile praying that he'd find the Kid still breathing under there.