After surviving three years into the apocalypse Bailey Hawthorne strongly believes she has the new world figured out. She's got her best friend Addy beside her along with her team Delta X-ray Delta and together nothing can stop them. If the dead com...
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S5E08:
The journey from Bakersville to Heartland would take two days on foot because they'd given Murphy and the bakery family the ATV's since it was more important to get them back to Limbo to feed the starving Talkers. They walked all day until they came to a town that was marked on Addy's map. It hadn't been settled by anyone but Bailey remembered George saying she had hoped the small neighborhood would be used once Newmerica was a thriving country. It rested between Pacifica and a place called the Brewers that Bailey had never been to but knew that's where the outposts got their liquor from. The Tree Dwellers was the source of lumber, Old Frontera handled livestock while the High Plains focused on agriculture. The Inlanders supplied textiles while the Islanders fished, the Mountaineers worked well with stone while the Waterkeepers guarded and maintained the dam. More north of them was the Rangers which Bailey knew was empty so for now other outposts had been using it as a storage center for old machinery they'd moved to make room for more people. Pacifica's big seller had been their books and providing education which drew a lot of people with children, but Heartland's role in the Newmerican dream was providing grain.
Once they'd found a house to stay in for the night Warren divided up watch shifts and they secured every exit so nothing would get in while they slept. It felt just like old times, Bailey thought while she stood on the porch keeping watch, occasionally looking through the window to watch Addy who was working on the handheld radio Bailey had brought as she and Warren tried to contact Kaya to send a message to Doc and George. 10K had vanished a while ago and Bailey wished he'd come out with the rest of them but understood he needed some space every now and then.
It wasn't until a good four hours later when Bailey was starting to get tired that 10K came out to take his shift. The first thing Bailey noticed was the new hook he was wearing on his wrist. It looked like he'd taken an old tin can and some coat hanger wire and secured it with duct tape so it resembled the trigger finger he'd lost on the truck.
"Hey." He said stepping out of the house, "Warren said I'm up for watch."
Bailey smiled at him and got up from her chair and stretched her arms. She was heading back inside when something in her gut stopped her and she turned to look at 10K who was now leaning on the rail of the porch.
"I heard what you told Addy. . .about your dreams." She began and even from behind him she saw his shoulders tense up, "I remember that. . . I know what it's like." She crossed her arms and leaned against the house, she could tell by her peripheral vision that he had turned around and was looking at her confused but it was suddenly like she couldn't look at him, but it was too late, she'd already brought up the subject. "After the submarine, when I thought you were gone and I was traveling north by myself." She took a deep breath, "I remember what it's like to spend the whole day trying to tough it out, to deal with it, but then you go to sleep and your dreams just. . . bombard you with what you lost. It feels so real, to have it all back. Then you wake up and it's like losing those things all over again."
