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Grit might be her most hated texture on earth. It leaks into every crack and crevice. It works away at even the most resistant materials over time. Everything out here is gritty. And beige.And if beige isn’t enough to aggravate you…let’s make it gritty. It grates at her skin, underneath her fingernails and her clothes and in the nooks of her elbows and knees and sometimes the shit even rattles in her lungs, making every breath feel like a struggle against life itself. Like fighting the undead isn’t enough. Let’s add sand to the mix.It covers every single inch of her. Her skin, her clothes and her boots. Even her guns are covered in beige, gritty sand. She fights against it. She shakes out her clothes every morning. She covers as much of her face as she can while she’s traveling. She wears the wretched goggles that make her feel like an alien on her own planet.As much as she can, anyway. It seems to have a lifeforce all of its own. Her feet sink into the sand on top of a dune in the middle of fucking nowhere. She searches and searches with her binoculars.Beige, gritty sand is all she sees. For miles and miles and endless miles.She reaches behind her to grab at the plastic bottle hanging from her belt. There’s not even enough water for her to laugh at left sloshing in the bottom. Maybe she’ll die before making it to the next dune. Kara can only hope.Fuck this beige, gritty world.----------------------------------------------------------------There are 187 cans left on the shelves. 187 tin cans full of a small variety of food…fruit mostly, sometimes beans, rarely any type of meat. But sometimes...they get lucky. When that happens, Cat is proud to say that the people in her caravan reach out. They reach out to the ones closest them to share. That sometimes means that 7 people are sharing a measly can of tuna.You can’t possibly expect anything more. She’s proud of what they’ve built. 187 cans for 23 people.Just over one week and they’ll be out of food and she can’t imagine what will happen. Cat has brought these people together. She’s bound them together in this ridiculous fight for life in a world she’s not even sure is worth surviving in.The kids are already weak, the adults struggling. She’s long since had a hard time staying awake long enough to take a turn at the wheel. Cat jabs the end of her knife into the decrepit, wooden, picnic table. They’re camped at the remnants of some long gone rest stop on a highway that’s so much more than lost. Her blade sticks without much force and the sandy dust flutters, but settles quickly.She sighs and bows her head to rest against the butt of her knife.How in the hell will she keep them alive if they can’t find food?Water? They’re ok. Not great, just ok.Gas? The same. She grabs the handle and pulls, strikes it back in quickly and begins carving out the beginnings of the curve of a C. She grits her teeth as she whittles away the dry wood. She started this convoy with one ancient bronco and a pallet’s worth of beans snatched out of the back of a Goya delivery truck in southern California. 187 days later, she has 9 vehicles and 23 people in a caravan across the California desert…and 187 cans of food. The irony of that number does not escape her.187 is both her triumph and her downfall. 23 people was once 45. Then 39. Then…well, you get the picture. The undead have claimed the living and Cat is sick and fucking tired of letting them go.“Cat!” she hears from behind her. She grabs the thick hilt of her knife and pulls it as she stands. It’s tucked back into the side of her belt within a second. She steps sideways and turns to see her second in command jogging towards her, binoculars in his hands. “What’s wrong?” “There’s…something?” James pants in question. He holds out the specs and leans his hands down on his knees. The lack of food and water is getting to even the strongest of them. “To the west. 10 degrees down sun. There’s a blur…it’s getting bigger, getting closer. I don’t know what it is. None of us do.”Cat takes the binoculars from his grasp and points them in the direction of his hand. It takes her a moment, but then she sees it. It can’t be anything but…“Get everyone ready,” she speaks quickly, but quietly. “We need to move…now.”“But…” he asks, not understanding what’s going on.Cat stares ahead again as she sees the flock turn and tuck like a wave. “Birds,” she says quietly, turning her head to catch his eyes. He’s still struggling for breath. “They’re probably infected.”James looks from vehicle to vehicle quickly. They’re ready. They just need to load and go…but most of their people may be already asleep in tents at the moment. He’s yelling before he even takes off at a dead run.Cat moves quickly, she grabs her pack from where she dropped it by the table. Her gun is already tucked in the back of her waistband, but she reaches a hand back just to be sure. Everything is secure, they just need to move. Fast.She begins to jog to the 3-seat army truck at the end of their line. Cat hears the people stirring and she yells out a few encouragements to move faster, but she has a feeling from the darkening of the sky…the sound of flapping wings…that they may be for nothing. Cat yells louder. “To the trucks! Now! We need to move!”Cat hears the tearing first…through the army truck’s canopy. They’ve reached the back of the line in no time. She ducks between the cab of their supply truck’s cab and trailer. When she looks to the opposite side, she sees her stock manager, Vasquez. The short-haired brunette gives a wry smile before ducking out into the fray of fluttering wings and screeching beaks. Cat rolls her eyes. Susan was always a bit off.She can still hear James directing people…directing the drivers. That’s good. She ducks out of her safe space and darts towards the back of the caravan. She needs to get to that truck. “Cat!” she lurches to a stop and feels her boots and her ass sink in the sand as she struggles to turn in the shifting surface. She knows that voice. She sees his curly head through the haze of wings and sandy dust underneath a massive truck.“Carter!” she screams, scrambling underneath the nearby semi as she feels the overwhelming presence above them. A few seconds and sand in her face, Cat feels the lanky, warm presence of the boy within her grasp. “Got ya,” she jokes as she buries her nose in his curly hair. She wraps her arms around his thin shoulders and pulls him closer. She pulls him back to look in his clear, blue eyes. “You know I’ll never forget you, Target.”He laughs with tears streaming from his eyes, even as the apocalypse rages around them. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll always be Target, never Nordstrom,” he jokes, clinging to her, praying for a miracle to save them.“That empty Target store brought me a son, my darling,” Cat says solemnly, laying a kiss within those brown curls. “Doesn’t matter if we end here or 20 years from now, Carter. You’ll always be my son.”“I know,” he grins, clinging to her tighter. “But this isn’t our end, Cat.” “Come on!!” she hears bellowing from outside their safe haven. The blur of the birds' wings has thinned and she can see the sunset in between. It’s James that is yelling, so she pushes Carter out the opposite side of the truck and they scramble into the cab.Cat struggles to catch her breath even when they’re safe within the truck cab. She can still hear the thumping of the birds as they attack its sides. “Cat?” she hears Carter ask from her side. He’s intently focused on the rearview mirror. “Something’s happening.”“What do you mean…something’s happening?” she asks incredulously. She ducks around him as much as possible to both spy in the rearview mirror and also to see out that side. The truck is positioned more to the south than the other vehicles.“There’s someone…out there…” Carter says in wonder. “She’s just walking towards us. The birds…they’re not bothering her.”“What else can you see?” Cat asks frantically. “Does she have some sort of weapon?”Carter only stares. “No, she’s not using a weapon…” he trails off.“Carter?” Cat asks, frantically trying to start the truck. With the sand swirling like it is, there’s not much hope. “Carter?” she asks again, reaching out a hand to her side. He only grins in response. “I think…she’s here to help,” he says quickly. “Look,” he pleads, pulling on Cat’s arm to look out his window.The birds are swirling above her…dipping and diving, but never touching. She walks with steady steps and she’s almost among their vehicles when she stops.The birds…they’re still violently swirling above her. They know that she’s stopped…so they swirl in a tight circle above her. Until…she slowly raises one hand and they all turn their direction towards it’s point. They fall into a formation to dive down upon the tip of her fingers…But just as they pause in their final formation, her head shifts up…and her eyes glow a bright white-blue just before they blast a red line of fire and heat into the air.
It cuts and slices through the flock of her enemy. They fall lifelessly and thankful to the ground, free from the curse set upon them by this earth. The entire process only takes a minute or two. Many fly away and she doesn’t chase them. If they have the knowledge enough to flee…maybe they have some sort of a conscious left.“Cat?” Carter asks lowly. “I think she killed them all,” he says in wonder, before popping the latch on the door and falling out onto the sand, his knees bowing on the impact. He takes a few steps before Cat can even reach out to stop him and before she knows it, the young boy is standing in the unknown’s shadow…holding out a shaky hand.“Hi,” he says quietly. “You…you saved us all. Thank you.” He keeps his hand out, even though she’s staring as though she’s never seen the custom.Then, Kara lifts her arm slightly, settling her hand in his as gently as possible. “I’m…just glad you’re all ok,” she speaks slowly, cautiously.“We’re ok, because of you,” Cat says firmly as she settles a hand on Carter’s back. She stares at the woman, her entire body and neck covered by her coat and scarf. The only glimpse of any distinguishing characteristics, the long blonde strands of hair that refuse to stay within that scarf and her startling blue eyes.Kara struggles to find her words. She’s been alone for so long. And now, she’s thrown herself in the middle of a group rescue to boot.“What in the hell did you just do?” Cat asks, both amazed and terrified by the answer that may come her way.Kara stares. The shorter woman wants an answer and all she can do is stare at the stark green of her eyes. It’s the first vibrant color she’s seen in…months.Kara finally...smiles widely.Fuck this beige, gritty world.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There’s not much to look at. What once was a roadside diner and gas station is now covered in thick layers of dust. The pumps are long dry and the windows so thick in grime that you can barely even see the outline of a reflection pass by.Kara sits slumped against one of those dry gas pumps, her legs splayed wide and boots wedged into the sand. She’s perched precariously on an ancient three-legged stool, what once might have sat a bored attendant…one that would only have jumped up if the ding of a bell sounded. She hears every word they say, even from across the short expanse that separates them. The eclectic cluster of trucks, vans and hybrid SUVs…even an ambulance and what looks to be an army transport…it gives them a tight circle to gather in. To discuss…well…her.She tries to scrap up a bit of concern for the questions…the troubled concerns. But she can’t. Kara has long since given up trying to placate people who may be afraid of her when there are literal monsters trying to eat them alive. She’s much more concerned with practicing shooting the deadheads with her left hand. The living can deal with their feelings about her later and she can finally reach her goal of becoming ambidextrous.She turns her head slightly to the left, tucks her head just enough to dart a glance under the ancient arm of the gas handle, the hose rotted and cracked under the oppressive heat of the desert sun. Kara spots a pair of ratty, threadbare converse coming her way. Maybe in their prime, they might have been stark black with white laces. The chrome rivets in the top would have shone in the sun when they were brought out of the box, but now…their entire surface is a dull, monochrome grayish-beige with the toe of the left foot worn through. They come to a stop a few feet away.Kara cocks her head up to let him know she’s aware and she laughs internally when the boy shuffles his feet and swipes his hands on the dark, dirty fabric of his skinny jeans. “Hi,” his voice cracks a tiny bit. “Uh…I didn’t get to introduce myself earlier. I’m Carter,” he sticks his hand out bravely, although she can see the slightest of tremors shake through his digits. Kara lifts a lazy hand and grasps his. He stares at the gloves that cover her hands and the wraps of fabric around her wrists. “Don’t worry, dude. I don’t have gruesome scars or anything,” she says wryly. “I just don’t like the sand in between my fingers. It’s annoying as fu…hell,” she passes off quickly, holding out her other gloved hand and cocking her head like she’s inspecting a new manicure.“Yeah,” he rushes out, his voice breaking again. “I don’t like it either. It’s…everywhere,” he breathes, taking a glance around the surrounding desert, but never letting loose of her grip. He looks down and realizes he’s still grasping her hand and quickly lets go. “Um, anyway. I just wanted to say thank you. Again…for what you did before. I don’t think we would have been able to get away from the birds without your help.”She stares for a few long seconds, but can only sense kindness from the young boy. “You’re welcome,” she says. “And my name is Kara. It’s nice to meet you, Carter.” She nods, hoping that the sentiment is enough for him. And it seems to be.“Kara,” Carter smiles timidly. “Um, I don’t want to bug you…it’s just, people are wondering how you did what you did. I just wanted to let you know.” He pauses, looking at the ground a bit uncertainly. “I don’t care how you did it, I’m just glad you showed up when you did,” he finally says. “My…” he stutters a tiny bit, “Cat is trying to calm them down, to keep them happy. To make sure they know they’re still safe.”Kara turns her head again. The words have diminished in the circle of vehicles. There’s only one voice now…but the people still linger. Her words are strong and comforting. She reaches out as she talks, laying a comforting hand here and there, a strong handshake in between.
Cat. She seems to be lobbying for her. For Kara.

She turns back to the boy and gives him a gentle smile. “I promise you, Carter. I’m not here to hurt anyone. The only things I hurt, that I kill…are the undead,” she nods as she finishes, hoping that he can see her sincerity, even through her rough exterior.

He kicks at the sand at his feet, but she can see the tiny smile trying to break through. God, it’s been forever since she’s been around a kid.

The sun is setting now. The grimy windows of the diner reflect only the tiniest bit of the waning sun. Everything is orange…a thick, dark…stark orange that turns their beige, dust-covered clothing to a warm, rich glow. “You should come with us,” he finally says, taking a glance towards their sacred circle of transportation. “If you want, I mean. They’ll come around…they’ll see how much of an asset you are,” Carter nods his head in satisfaction at his proper use of the word ‘asset’.

Kara laughs internally again, but lets a tiny smirk through. “I’d be honored, Carter. But it depends on the rest of the people. I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable.”

“Good,” he blurts, overly excited by her willingness. “I’m sure…I’m sure that they’ll understand.”

“Understand what?” a deeper voice questions. Kara’s smirk only deepens when she sees the young boy jump at the sound. He turns and fidgets and shuffles his dusty converse in the sand once again as he faces the older blonde.

“Uh…I mean…everyone will understand that Kara,” he cuts his eyes to hers in a quiet plea for compliance, “that she’s here to help us. That…whatever they’re afraid of…it shouldn’t be from her,” he nods in satisfaction, but still stuffs his hands in his back pockets and worries at his lower lip.

“Mmmm,” Cat hums in contemplation. “Why don’t we let Kara actually say what she wants?” she asks lightly, slipping her eyes from Carter’s to the clear, sky blue hidden behind dirty, blonde locks. Cat gives him the tiniest jerk of her head towards the others. The sun has set now and the only light shines from the few battery powered lamps hung from dusty side mirrors. He trots off, happy to not be in trouble…happy to be alive…it feels like the two come hand in hand lately and Kara totally relates.

“Kara wants…” she speaks in the rare third person, but is unable to finish, laughing at herself out loud. It feels…silly. Childish. And she is anything but childlike lately. “I’d like to stick with your convoy for a few days, if you’ll have me,” she says from underneath thick, long lashes. She drops her gaze from those piercing green eyes to the sand beneath her feet. “I have food for myself, I won’t freeload.”

Cat shifts her weight. From the hand on her hip to her shoulder against the gas pump opposite her. “We’ll have you, supergirl,” she murmurs. “Just…know…that it took a good bit of convincing just for that little invite.” Her eyes travel slowly from the tip of her boots to the tan skin of her chest, only visible because Kara has finally shrugged off her coat, leaving it crumpled in the dirt behind the sad, three-legged stool. Her thin, v-neck shirt is soaked in sweat, sticking to her skin as she shifts. “And I don’t think anyone would consider you a freeloader after you literally saved all of our lives,” Cat throws out as she turns to look back towards the others.

“My name is Kara,” she breathes out, knowing the lithe older woman can still hear her. “And I promise you, I’m not here to hurt anyone…anyone living at least.”

Cat stops short. She turns, barely able to see the younger woman in the almost dark. After a few moments searching eyes she shouldn’t even be able to see, she finally nods and then jerks her head towards the vehicles. “I can find you a place to sleep, if you want. It’s not an actual bed, but it’s at least inside. You won’t have to constantly worry about the dead.”

Kara hesitates. She’s been sleeping on two layers of flimsy fabric for months…hell, it seems like years. “Yeah,” she finds herself saying. “Only if you have a space.” She shuffles to her feet and reaches down for her coat before falling behind her in step. She follows as Cat leads her through the crowd of vehicles. They finally come to a stop at the side of a gigantic, ancient SUV. The tires are ridiculously large, jacking up the truck to an obnoxious height and Kara can’t help but bark out a laugh. How does the tiny woman even reach?

“Something wrong, stretch?” Cat asks and Kara can hear the mirth in her voice as the older woman reaches up and swings the cargo door open. “Carter and I usually sleep in the front. I thought you might be able to make this work,” as she nods to the mostly empty cargo area. There are a few blankets there and what looks like a bundled sleeping bag in the corner. Kara stays quiet as Cat shifts uncertainly. This is where she sleeps…where she lets her…son?…sleep.

“It’s perfect,” Kara says with what she hopes is a kind smile. It’s been so long since she’s been around people…so long since she’s had a night not constantly consumed by the thoughts of the undead. She doesn’t know sometimes if it’s worth living…but then, if she wasn’t, she may have never met the green eyed monster truck driver smirking at her now with her arms crossed across her chest.

“Good,” Cat smiles and Kara instantly relaxes. “You’re welcome here, Kara,” she breathes. “They’re afraid, yes,” she says with a wry smile. “But you saved us. You’re welcome here,” Cat says again, reaching out and grasping a hand around Kara’s arm.

“Thanks,” Kara murmurs, her mind reeling a bit from the touch. “Will your son mind if I crash with you guys?”

Cat falters a bit, but not unhappily. “Carter…no, he won’t mind.” She takes a glance towards the front of the giant truck as her hand drops and she can just see the top of a curly head laid back in the passenger seat. “I found him in a store…a Target to be exact,” she laughs lightly and turns back to look into knowing blue eyes. “It’s our little joke…he says he keeps me on the straight and narrow…”

“On Target?” Kara asks with a teasing smile. Her teeth are white against the tan, dirty skin of her face.

Cat can literally feel her pulse beating in her veins at the sight. She looks down at her feet inside her mud-caked boots. Her jeans so dirty you can’t even call them blue. The ridiculously large thin flannel shirt she has tied at the waist is so dusty you could beat it and start a dust storm. She can’t remember the last time she even looked in a mirror and she’s getting flustered over one simple, flirty smile from a younger woman she barely knows. She clears her throat a little and side-steps around the intent eyes of the tall blonde. She reaches the driver side door.

“Need a boost?” Kara asks, her voice low and gravely, propped on one shoulder against the dusty SUV. One boot crossed over the other and her bare, tan…and muscular… arms the same.

Cat glares and tries not to stare at the same time. She yanks at the door handle and waits patiently as the automatic side step lowers from beneath the side of the massive truck. She steps up onto the lower rung with a smirk she doesn’t feel. “I think I can handle it,” she bites out, fighting the blush she can feel traveling up her neck.

“Shame,” Kara smirks before sweeping her eyes up Cat’s form and disappearing behind the back of the truck.

Cat feels the dip as Kara lifts her weight into the cargo space and the thunk of the door shutting and locking. She shuts and locks her own door and cracks the window, just as Carter has beside her. She reaches behind her to pull her makeshift pillow onto the seat and reclines it back. Laying down feels so good after such a shitstorm of a day and she turns on her side to check on her boy only to find him cracking a small grin in her direction. She sighs and collapses against her pillow.

“What?” she mouths in a whisper.

“You like her.”

She glares and motions with her eyes to the back of the truck.

Carter rolls his eyes in response and says it again, only in a tiny whisper. “You like her.”

“I don’t even know her,” Cat responds with a huff.

“She saved us,” he whispers again softly. “She’s…special.”

Her eyes pop open. She starts to speak…

“You dreamed about her…saving us from the birds,” he whispers and her breath catches in her throat.

The nights they’ve spent in this aging bronco together have brought them so close together, Cat can barely imagine her life without him. They’ve shared in every aspect of each other’s lives since she found him, huddled in a dressing room with an aluminum bat poised ready to take down anyone ready to take on his lanky, 12-year-old frame. They’d picked apart that Target for anything and everything they could scavenge and the one thing she didn’t know she was looking for…the son she never thought she would have.
“Carter…” she murmurs, about to launch into an explanation she’s not even sure where to start. How can you explain away your own dreams?

“It’s ok,” he rasps out. “Just give her a chance.” She can only nod in response. “Night, Cat.”

“Goodnight, Target,” she says as she reaches out a hand to ruffle his curls. She checks the locks on the doors one more time and makes sure the keys are in the ignition before letting herself settle in for the night.

In the back, in a more comfortable spot than she’s had in more than six months, Kara lies on her back staring out the dusty back window of the truck. Not seeing the stars over her head is a hard thing to give up, even if she’s safe inside a tin can on giant tires in case the undead start knocking. She’s heard every whispered word between her hosts, even though she wishes that she could give people the privacy they deserve.

But…green eyes…Cat…has dreamed about her…

The green eyed, tiny blonde that drives a monster truck and leads a fucking convoy in the middle of the literal zombie apocalypse…dreamed about her saving them.
Kara smiles.

Yeah…fuck this beige, gritty world.

She has a feeling it’s about to get a lot more colorful.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Stark, cold water rushes over her feet, bringing with it a deluge of sand that rushes and wanes over her bare feet and back through her toes. She clenches them in the thick, wet sand, then digs them down…inches beneath into the cold, comforting thickness of it.

Kara blinks rapidly, the images in front of her are only blurry, grey shapes until her eyes finally clear and focus. She recognizes the shoreline around her…the centuries old driftwood logs that seem to be eternally rooted to their specific spots at the edge of the water.

The beach. The one where she spent her teenage years, beneath the rocky cliffs of the Danvers’ home.

That’s where she is.

Kara pushes herself up into a sitting position with a groan. The muscles in her legs and back protest immediately, but she’s done with the freezing waves lapping at her toes. She gives herself a few seconds to clear her head before she struggles to her feet.

Kara turns in a circle finding everything she expects to see. The log where she and Alex spent afternoons balancing slick, water smoothed stones into impressive towers. The aging wooden stairs embedded in between the rocky face of the cliff rising in front of her. She looks further up and finds the tip of the roof of the home…where a family that didn’t have to…took her in when she had no one else in the world.

They were selfless and giving…opening their home to more than just her, even though they had a daughter of their own, but who had the same compassionate spirit. So…Kara and then later, Mike, became a part of their family on a cliff side in California.

Kara looks to her left and then her right. There’s no one in sight and the only movement she can see is the ever persistent crashing waves behind her.

In fact…she focuses in on the scruffy trees growing haphazardly out of the side of the cliff in front of her. Their leaves are thick and glossy to protect the plant from the harsh seawater spray and gusts off the surface of the ocean….but yet, they’re not moving…at all.

She lifts a hand in front of her…and then one finger to her mouth to wet it. She holds it up in front of her.

No wind. No movement of air of any kind. But yet, she stills feels the rush of the lapping waves behind her and the sound of the ocean. Still, no wind and no birds. No sounds of any kind besides those waves.

She sees just flashes of light at first. She blinks to clear her vision. The flashes turn into glimpses…pictures of another life. They persist, relentlessly. And Kara falls to her knees as flashes of memories rush before her eyes.

…Her nervous reflection in the polished stainless steel of elevator doors…she’s in pale blue scrubs with a picture ID hanging around her neck.

…Her work there, was simple. She was just a technician after all. But being the one who took blood…who sampled the very thing that all their data was based upon, Kara saw things. She knew things. The very things she had fought her way there for.

…People are running, screaming in panic, as their coworkers, their subjects rose up against them…the hallways are littered with abandoned stacks of paperwork, the individual papers floating, drifting to the blood splattered floor.

…The scientists…the people she worked with…they should be dead. But they’re not…

…And they’re after her.

Her eyes pop open wide and all she sees above her and around her are white walls and a white ceiling. The beach is gone and Kara fights and struggles against the bindings at her hands, her feet, her waist…but she’s helpless as she takes in breath after harsh breath into her lungs.

“Now, now, dear. No reason for all the fuss,” the voice comes from her left side and Kara turns sharply, the bindings on her hands and feet cutting sharply with the movement.

“Dr. Luthor,” she croaks out, her throat so parched and so dry it makes Kara wonder how long she’s been under.

“Ah, good. At least you remember the important people,” the brunette says with a smirk as she comes to rest at Kara’s side, hypodermic needle in hand. It holds a reservoir full of a glowing blue liquid.

“Do you really think the second dose is necessary?” Kara whips her head to the other side as she sees the dark haired man step closer. Maxwell Lord.

“Of course, it’s necessary, Max. We have positive confirmation of her binding with the virus. Why wouldn’t we see how far it goes?” Lillian Luthor says incredulously, waving the needle about in a flourish.

He lets out a light laugh. “Why wouldn’t we see what she’s capable of first?” he asks, pointing towards Kara’s restraints. “We have the facilities. We have the opposite of the ‘binding’ as you call it,” he smirks. “Why don’t we see what abilities the virus has given her before we possibly force the overdose?”

The brunette rolls her eyes and drops the needle to the stainless steel table beside her. It clangs incessantly within the empty room. “Fine,” she seethes. “It’s the end of the world. Might as well see the results.” She walks to the far wall and presses a button not visible unless you know where it is. Everything is thing room is invisible. She can’t discern a door…a window…even a seam in the ceiling.

One of those seamless walls suddenly develops a split and a window slides away and Kara is left gaping as she sees… a monster.

A monster in her foster brother’s clothes.

Mike.

She could never mistake the ill fitting chinos…the ridiculous bow tie and now…she hiccups a sob as she sees his misshapen head and the bulk of his chest, straining against the torn, cheap fabric of his favorite plaid shirt. God, she’s both hated and loved Mike at the same time over the years…but in the end she will always consider him her brother and now…now they’ve turned him into a monster.

“Now,” Dr. Luthor says, sweeping away from where Kara is restrained to another invisible door. She presses a button and it slides open with a rush of air. Four guards in all black, face shields in place walk in formation to where she lays, two on each side. “When the room is secure, escort her next door,” she says in passing, picking up a tablet from one of the stainless steel tables, its screen dark. “Oh, and don’t agitate him when you let her in…do it quietly. I want to see how he reacts.”

Kara’s breathing escalates when she realizes their intents. She watches Lord’s exit. He glances back at her only once, then to the monster next door. He smooths his hair back on one side with the quirk of a smile and exits behind the fair doctor.

The guards begin to release her restraints…one at a time. Her left foot first, then the guard’s weight is held down upon it…followed by her right. She’s confused at their caution until the last guard begins to gently pull the electrodes from the skin at her temples. A rush of heat follows as they’re removed…over her ear and down her neck. Her face flushes and her fingers and toes tingle as though electricity is flowing through her. Kara lifts her left foot easily and flings the guard against the glass, where he lands in a crumpled heap upon the gleaming white floor.

She raises her head as four more guards enter.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

“Kara….Kara,” Cat finally yells, shaking the blonde from over the back of the bronco’s back bench seat.

The tall blonde’s eyes pop open and she scrambles against the wall of the truck, her chest heaving and her eyes darting from one point to the other rapidly. She realizes her place almost instantly and slumps against its side, closing her eyes and trying to calm her racing heart. Kara clenches her hands in the slick fabric of the sleeping bag she had been using as her pillow and lets out a long slow breath before she dares open her eyes and face the questions.

“I hope you like beans,” Cat says dryly after a minute or two, her expression still but sympathetic. “It’s pretty much all we’ve got in the way of breakfast lately.”

Kara watches and waits as the older woman shuffles back towards the front of the truck without another word…without any question. The truck dips slightly as Cat exits the driver side door.

Well.

That’s not exactly what she expected.

----------------------------------------------------------

Beans are good.

The pensive stares that come along with them are…less good… and suddenly, Kara longs for her sad, three-legged stool over by the dry gas pumps. She scrapes her plastic spoon along the bottom of the bowl that has seen better days and sighs as she stares at the isolated expanse of desert stretched out in all directions.

Yeah. There’s a reason she travels alone.

She lifts her last spoonful of…some sort of beans to her mouth and looks up to catch the glance of one curly-haired, teenage boy who is smiling brightly in her direction. Kara does her best to give a smile back, but she’s pretty sure it may have come out as just a bean-filled grimace. She glances down to her sad bowl to lift the last spoonful to her mouth and relishes in the knowledge that this one little bowl is the greatest gift she could receive from a group like this. They’re obviously low on food and they spared one for her.

Kara looks up just in time to see that Carter isn’t alone and is whispering emphatically to Cat, who has apparently just sat down beside him. She doesn’t even have the time to move away before the whispered words hit her ears. “I’m not bothering her, Cat. All I did was smile, seriously.”

“I didn’t say you did, Target. All I’m saying is that we don’t need to pressure her.”

“I’m not. I just…even if we could get her to stay a little while…” he says, the pleading transparent in his voice.

“No pressure, Target. I’m serious.”

He nods as he lifts another spoonful of his breakfast to his mouth. Just as she’s about to move on he says, “It’s ok to feel stuff, ya know…just because it’s the end of the world, we can still have hope.” He shrugs, feeling self-conscious as he tucks in his thin shoulders.

She reaches over a hand to sift through his dirty hair. God, she hopes they find a place with running water soon. “I know, Carter,” she breathes with a smile. “I do have hope. Otherwise, I never would have found your skinny ass in a department store dressing room.”

He gives her a wide knowing smile and then shoots a look across the campfire to Kara, who is trying very hard to look like she can’t hear. Carter doesn’t reply. He just reaches out a hand and tugs playfully at the loose fingers on her left hand. “You should ask her to ride with us today,” he says seriously. “To scope her out, ya know.”

Cat narrows her eyes and points a firm finger down at his half-empty bowl. “Eat your breakfast,” she says before stalking out of the dusty circle towards the army truck which holds their food stock. She throws a glance towards their new charge…the young woman that showed up out of nowhere to save them. Her tired eyes meet ocean blue for a second before she continues.

Time to count their limited cans of food…again.

Cat might have one more mouth to feed.

----------------------------------------------------------------

“That’s all we’ve got, Cat,” he speaks lowly, clutching to his spiral bound notebook like it holds the secrets to life. “We’ve stayed right on schedule, but with the last few towns coming up empty on resupply, we’re running drastically low,” Winn says solemnly. “We can start the ration tomorrow morning…half portions will last us twice as long, easy math,” he tries to laugh, but it catches in his throat when he sees her expression. “But, honestly. Even rationing will only get us about two weeks…and that’s really stretching it.”

Sadness.

Hardship.

Failure.

All of these things flutter across her face. Cat sits down on the bumper of the ancient army truck with a thump. She’s gotten them this far. “Water?” she asks absently.

“We are good for 4 weeks with water,” he replies instantly, checking and rechecking his calculations in his notebook.

People have died. Parents. Children.

But they didn’t die of starvation.

They didn’t die because they didn’t have water or food or shelter.

They died because the undead have risen and taken over the earth.

And it’s beyond anyone’s control what happens or doesn’t happen along their route. “Stretch it at far as you can, Winslow. I’ll let everyone know what to expect,” she stands from her spot and gives him a few pats on the knee as she passes by and walks back towards the circle.

“It’s just…Winn,” he murmurs as he goes about his numbers, splitting and resplitting the rations to make their community last as long as it can.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Cat later finds herself at the top of a small, rolling hill. She’d given her necessary talk about the rations. Everyone had understood, albeit grudgingly.

The sandy desert in front of her is calm and devastatingly hot. Every direction she turns, she sees nothing in the distance. No roads. No buildings, no landmarks of any kind. Just rolling sandy hills.

She huffs out a frustrated breath before turning on her heel and walking back towards the cluster of empty buildings and vehicles. She stops and turns her head to stare at herself in the dirty, gas station window. The blurry, mangled image looking back at her is a far cry from her past self.

Cat Grant was once a media force to be reckoned with. Always put together. Always ready to face the harshest situations…the toughest interviews and the strongest critics. Now, any criticism thrown her way isn’t due to her words. It’s because of her actions, her decisions, as she tries to do right by almost two dozen people who have followed her across the desert, trusting her with their lives. Their children. Across a wasteland, she huffs again, blowing her hair out of her face.

What she sees now in that dirty window…it’s the real her…the woman that has always been at the base of her attitude. She knows how to follow her instincts. She doesn’t know what’s waiting past the unknown hilltop. And she doesn’t care. She puts up with no shit. From anyone. Her decisions don’t falter. For anyone.

Until one word reaches her ears from the side of the building. “Hey.”

Cat turns her head sharply to the side to see Kara leaning casually against a rusted metal gas pump, much like she had propped herself against the end of her truck last night, tanned arms crossed at the chest, one foot propped behind the other. “Hi,” she rasps out.

“I know, last night, you said I could tag along,” Kara says lightly as she pushes off her prop and she steps closer, her thumbs tucked into the loose leather belt at her waist. “I just…I don’t want to overstep. If you’ve changed your mind, I can be on my way,” she says with eyes that speak the exact opposite.

“I meant what I said,” Cat says as she starts walking toward where her truck is parked at the front end of the circle of her self-built convoy. “But to be fair warned, we’re running low on supplies. We need food, and water…yesterday.”

Kara nods as she looks around at all the trucks and all the people who go along with. “I can help with that,” she says quickly, giving Cat an infuriating wink before stalking off in the opposite direction where James is toiling over a map on the hood of what once might have been a gorgeous, black Mustang GT.

Cat follows behind slowly, stopping to check in on Vasquez where she’s filling and double-checking their two struggling generators, blowing out as much sand as she can and wrapping them tightly in the tarps they picked up at their last stop. “How do they look, Sus?”

The short haired brunette continues her maintenance, only looking up after a handful of seconds in mock surprise. “Oh! Were you talking to me? Because I could have sworn you called me ‘Sus’ which is a name I do not answer to,” she snarks from her knelt position. “You can call me Vasquez or Vas or even just fuckface and I’ll probably answer,” she continues with a smirk that Cat loves to bring out.

Cat nods solemnly. “Fuckface it is,” she murmurs as she moves past, reaching out to thump the woman’s ear as she passes.

“I’ll keep my name for you a secret for now, boss lady,” Vas yells as she rubs her throbbing ear. “You know, they say keeping the mystery alive in a relationship is important.”

Cat can’t hold her grin back at her teasing, only lifts a hand and gives Vas the middle finger salute as she walks towards where James and Kara seem to be arguing over the map.

That didn’t take long.

She makes her way to the side of the car slowly. “No offense, but you just showed up out of nowhere. Why would we trust you to take us over 80 miles off course just for what might still be there?” James continues to argue.

“Look, dude,” Kara says, rolling her eyes. “James. I’m just trying to help. I was in this spot only two days ago. I can even show you from the food I have in my pack, ok? It’s a warehouse…like for a big box store. Pallets of untouched canned goods. Water. Paper goods, too,” Kara says calmly. She spots Cat standing to the side and reaches out a finger to pinpoint the spot on the map. “Cat. About 75-80 miles due West. There were even a couple of gas pumps. Probably for refilling the company trucks.”

Cat leans over slightly to trace what would be their route. “James…what is this routes’ difference between what we had designated as our next stop? If I recall, it’s to the northwest anyway?”

He flounders for a second as his mind registers the question. He reaches into his back pocket for his notebook. Kara takes a peek at his fuel estimates as well as he scowls. “I think it would only be a 25 mile difference if we swung by this spot,” she says cheekily. “I was a trig ace, Jimmy,” Kara slaps him on his shoulder as if they’d been friends for years. “No need to double-check my math. I’ll just…be over here, while you two kids work it out,” she smiles, walking backwards to where she sees Carter and the young man Cat had called Winnifred playing some sort of card game on her favorite stool.

“I don’t know, Cat,” James begins, about to launch into one of his lectures. She holds up a hand to stall the inevitable.

“How about…we give her the benefit of the doubt, James?” she asks with a raised eyebrow. “She did save us after all. We didn’t ask for her help. She hasn’t asked anything of us, as a matter of fact.”

He crosses his arms over his chest and waits. “Ok, Cat,” he says finally. “All I ask is that we stop a couple of miles out…send in some scouts to make sure this isn’t some sort of trap.”

She nods her head solemnly. Unfortunately, they had reason to question…everything. “Deal,” she says quickly. “And if anyone…anyone has any reservations, we pull back. Deal, Jimmy?” she quirks a smile as she turns and walks away, her hips swaying with the possibility of a gold mine in front of them.

“That’s not my name!” he yells indignantly as he begins to fold up his precious maps.

Cat makes her way through the people she holds dear. The kids that she’s come to love as her own. She’s trusting them to the word of a stranger. She turns her head to regard their newcomer, sitting with smiles all around playing cards and joking with the people she’s traveled with for months. Blue eyes lift to meet her own. She gives a slow nod to let Kara know that they’re going to try this.

They are going to try this. They are going to do this. They are going to throw caution to the wind and follow the words of someone they barely know.

Cat narrows her eyes as she gets closer to her beloved truck. Kara said ‘big box store’. She pulls open the heavy door and climbs up into her safe haven to recline in her seat, the words heavy on her mind. Stores like that mean frivolous amounts of staples…but not just staples…the things that you really can do without, in gallon sizes or bigger. Her mouth waters in anticipation.

She closes her eyes and smiles as she hears the laughter of her some-what adopted son and their new friend. She came out of the desert to save them from literal destruction and now she’s leading them to sustained life…at least for a little while.

One thing is for sure, though, Cat thinks as she wiggles into her worn leather seat for a mid-day nap. If she’s not eating out of a gallon size container of Nutella before the end of the day tomorrow, there will be hell to pay.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The air in the truck is stifling. The air conditioning is long gone and the remaining vent just seems to blow more grainy hot air in her face. Rolling down the windows is out of the question. Even as the lead in the convoy of mismatched vehicles, the dust and sand stirred up would only be sucked right into their eyes.Kara pulls desperately at the stretched-out neck of her tank-top, relishing in the tiniest bit of relief the movement offers. She leans her head back against the headrest of her passenger side seat, trying to remember the feeling of the crisp air conditioning in the labs where she’s worked over her years. The brisk autumn wind blowing through her hair on a sunlit Midvale afternoon. The humid, cool breeze off of the ocean near her family home…All glimpses from a life long past…only surviving in the memories she holds so dear. She lets out a long slow breath to calm her suddenly frantic heart. It clenches for her foster mother, the sister that she held so close in the life she cherished before the darkness fell. She opens her eyes to see the ruddy, beige world she fights for now…is it really worth the trouble?Suddenly, she feels a tiny, blissful breeze and looks over to see Cat’s hand moving away from the rusted metal fan clipped to the dash. She’s pointed it in her direction.
Kara starts to speak, to tell the woman it’s unnecessary, but the slight breeze against her face is like heaven on earth and all she can get out is a guttural moan of satisfaction as her head drops back against the headrest once again. Cat chuckles and leans heavy on the metal door of her truck, sweeping unruly strands of hair out of her face and leaning her head against her fist. “I…” Kara starts but is unable to finish, her throat dry in the parched heat. “I was about to proclaim… ‘no, Cat, don’t sacrifice your precious fan’ and then I got caught up in heaven,” she laughs, her head rolling back against the ancient vinyl surface of the Bronco’s bench seats.“Sorry, I forget how little air comes through those vents. We had to add extra filters for the sand,” Cat explains with regret. “I don’t know how he stands it back there,” she nods to the back seat where Carter is laid out fast asleep, his feet propped up against the filthy north-facing window.Kara shakes her head in agreement and stretches in the seat, her long legs causing her booted feet to butt up against the underside of the dash. “I don’t either,” Kara says with a smile, looking back on the boy with a fondness unfound for someone you’ve known for literally 24 hours. “He looks like he’s sleeping peacefully though, so I’ll steal his turn at the angelic fan of life,” she jokes, running her fingers back through her long blonde hair, flicking it above the headrest and off the back of her sweaty neck.Cat muses for a while, looking back and forth between the endless hills of sand in front of her and the ridiculously gorgeous expanse of human beside her. Well…at least she thinks she’s human… thinking on the definitely unhuman things she’s seen her companion do…this could definitely be a question to get out of the way. “I have a question,” the older woman asks finally, “about the things you did.”Kara’s eyes close and she breathes out a long breath. She reaches one finger out to turn the rusty fan back towards the driver in a sign of peace. She only gets what she assumes is a scoff in return. “What’s the question?” Kara asks with a smile that she hopes isn’t sarcastic. She’s really enjoying riding in an actual vehicle, away from the constant deluge of sand against her face when she had a bike. But, God, she misses that bike.“My question,” Cat clarifies as she fiddles with the mirrored Ray-bans which cover her eyes, “is what are you?” She huffs lowly as she lifts the glasses back to their position on her nose, noticeably glancing back to check that the kid is still snoozing in the back seat. Satisfied that he’s out for the rest of the morning, she continues “What you did isn’t normal…I just want to know that someone I’m trusting with the people that trust me is that you’re at least human.”

The question is straight-forward enough, but Kara can see the tiny smirk upon the woman’s lips. She can see that’s she’s trying to make light of the obvious. Kara isn’t normal…but maybe that’s ok. “Human,” she says with a lazy smile.

“That right?”

“Totally.”

“How about you expand on that after our next stop?” Cat asks, seeing the expected truck stop up ahead that James had warned her about.

Kara sits up in her seat and reaches down for the guns she has stowed beneath her feet. She nods when she finds both exactly where they should be. “I will,” she nods.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The truck stop turns up a small amount of diesel and an even smaller amount of water which Winn won’t let anyone touch before he boils and bottles later that night at camp.

A couple of 12-packs of warm soda is what gets everyone excited. Even Cat, who takes one of the last cans handed out with a smile.

“Hey,” the dark haired young man calls out from his seat on the back of the army truck. He swings his legs back and forth under the tail-gate as he reaches into the almost empty red and white box. “Kara!” he calls again when he gets his fingers around the last can.

The lanky blonde turns at the sound of her name and smirks as she watches him try to look away from her chest. She stops a couple of feet away from him. “Yeah, Winn?” she questions with a smirk.

He squirms in his seat at her knowing smile. “Uh…hey. Just wanted to see if you’d like the last soda, that’s all,” he laughs nervously, scrambling as his tiny pencil rolls off into the dirt and his precious notebook flutters to the ground after it. He will swear later that his heart stops as Kara bends at the knees to pick them up, reaching over to set them together at his side. “Thanks,” he stutters.

“You’re welcome. Everyone got a drink?” she asks, glancing at the red can in his hand with veiled interest.

“Yeah,” he says quickly. “Just enough for everyone. Promise,” he says, taking his finger and crossing his heart in what he hopes is a cute gesture.

“Thanks, dude,” she breathes out and quickly snatches the soda from his hand. She can’t wait and pops the tab open, takes a big gulp immediately. “God, that’s awesome,” Kara says, prompting a laugh from her squirmy friend.

“Nothing like it,” he agrees as he lifts his own half-empty can to his lips.

She turns to go and even takes a few steps before stopping and looking back at his hopeful face. “Hey, Winn?” she asks lightly.

“Y-yes?”

“I just want you to know you’re really cool,” Kara says slowly, biting her bottom lip the entire time.

“I…thanks,” he breathes, self-consciously. “You…uh, seem really cool too.”

She sighs at his hopeful face and takes another sip of her hot soda. “I know you’re really cool…but I just need to say that I, uh…well,” her bottom lip is firmly caught between her teeth again.

“Kara! Get your dusty ass in this truck. We’re moving out!” Cat yells as she pounds her fist on the top of her Bronco. Kara’s head whips to the side to stare in that direction. “Chop chop, people! Load up!”

“Uh…guess that’s your ride,” Winn says as an afterthought. It falls on deaf ears as he watches Kara smile wide and track every movement as their fearless leader gives a few more orders from her step-side pedestal. “Ahh…” he breathes as the obvious slaps him in the face. “Guess that answers that question,” he mutters as he gets to his feet and stows his list in his cargo pocket for safe keeping. He can’t help but crack a smile when he sees that the young blonde still hasn’t moved an inch. “Hey, Kara,” he calls and laughs when she finally realizes he’s still there.

Kara turns her head around in confusion. “Winn! Hey. Sorry, I got…distracted. I was just gonna say…”

“No need, dude,” he says quickly as he hops down, creating a tiny cloud of dust. “I get it,” he smiles.

“Oh,” Kara blushes. “Sorry…”

“Nope, no need to be sorry…but...” he steps a little closer and motions her closer. “You want to get on the boss’s good side?” he asks with a knowing smile.

Kara looks around quickly as if they’re sharing military secrets. She stands up straighter, making sure their fearless leader is still rounding people up. She leans down slightly. “And if I did?” she mock whispers.

Winn leans even closer. “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands,” he says quickly, then slams up the tailgate and makes his way to the driver’s side.

Kara watches him go, glancing back and forth as she watches everyone around her taking their positions, doing their assigned tasks. She looks to the lead once more and catches dark hazel eyes as they stare in her direction. She lifts her red and white can in Cat’s direction before taking another gulp. She only gets a raised eyebrow in response and starts walking.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

It takes almost an hour for Carter’s sugar high to wear off. He passes out into a dead sleep around mile 22 of the second leg of their drive.

“He’s out,” Cat says with one last look over her shoulder. “Talk.” As a reprieve, she reaches over and turns the rickety fan in Kara’s direction.

Kara exhales a long breath…one she feels as if she’s been holding the entire way. “The way I am…the things I can do…it’s because of the virus. The one that infects the undead,” she says quickly. Her gaze stays forward, but Cat doesn’t falter. There’s only silence. For minutes…even a dozen or so.

Finally, the older woman takes a deep breath and asks. “You were exposed to it? Had to fight them?” she asks calmly.

“Exposed,” Kara says. “But not to them, to the virus itself. The people who created it…I was trying to expose them. They caught me and used me as a test subject,” she confesses, closing her eyes as a barrage of memories flash before her eyes. Strapped to a table in a stark white room. Released only to be set against her own brother in a fight for life or death. Her eyes open wide to the desert outside. She looks to her companion to see her reaction. Kara can see the flare of Cat’s nostrils as she exhales sharply.

“Why…why didn’t it kill you? Why aren’t you like them?”

Kara exhales at her calm tone and at the gentle way she asks the questions. “I don’t know,” she breathes out as she stares at her fingers as she stretches them out in front of her. “I don’t know why. I just know that it gave me strength. It gave me…powers that a normal person doesn’t have.”

Cat nods, her emotions hidden behind her mirrored sunglasses. “How long have you been on your own?” she asks quietly.

Her breath hitches in her throat. “I don’t know. Six months…maybe longer.”

Cat straightens in her seat abruptly as she takes her foot off the gas. The truck lurches a bit as it slows. Kara looks straight ahead as the dust settles and bodies appear.

“What’s your purpose, Kara?” Cat asks stiffly, seeing the herd of undead that reaches out in front of them, only a few miles between them and their goal.

The young blonde has already ducked to check the guns that now rest upon her hips and is settling the double cross-sheath onto her back, pulling the blades out in habit, only to settle them back in under a second. She turns to look Cat in the eye as the truck skids to a stop. “I’m here to kill them all,” she growls, right before she rips open the door and runs right into the herd in front of them.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Cat’s heart beats a staccato rhythm in her chest while she watches in awe as Kara attacks the horde in front of them, moving her arms and her weapons like a wave of destruction around her. There must be at least a hundred-head moving towards them, their slow stagger funneling down towards the one thing they can’t take their cold, dead eyes off of.
Suddenly, Cat realizes she’s staring at the same thing. She can’t take her eyes off Kara either. She hears shuffling in the back seat and reaches out a hand to let Carter know she hears him. Cat feels his lanky fingers grab onto her own and his unbelieving stare soon resembles her own as he finally gets his bearings and leans through the opening offered by the bucket seats. “Is she…even real?” he asks, his voice still rough from sleep. “She’s real,” Cat muses. “A little scary, but real,” she quirks a smile in his direction, making sure he knows she’s joking. He nods a bit too fast before raking one of his hands through his curly hair. “How about we give at least a little help?” Cat finally murmurs, reaching down below the console to find the business end of her radio. “She…just took out four at once,” Carter says in awe. “With swords? Knives? Where was she hiding those?” he asks incredulously.Cat just shakes her head in disbelief. Kara doesn’t need help, but she’ll be damned if she just sits by and watches as the woman exhausts herself. She lifts the mic to her mouth, “Alright people, pick your jaws up off your floorboards and let’s give our newest convoy member a little support from the outside. Out the top only, I don’t want to see any feet on the ground, understand?” She ends the command roughly, but is appeased when she hears a chorus of affirmatives rattle over the scratchy radio.The rarely used sunroof is slid out of the way in mere seconds and before Cat can even get comfy, a rifle is shoved into her hands from below. She twists her hat around backwards and settles down on the blazing hot roof of the Bronco, her mirrored sunglasses shining in the afternoon sun. She gets Kara in her sights, then sweeps to the side and starts picking them off one at a time. Clean shots to the head only. No wasted bullets after all the practice she’s had. Once she starts shooting, she hears the sounds of carefully spread gunfire from her flanks. After taking out at least a dozen, she looks to the left and spies James sitting out the window of his beloved Mustang. He gives her a thumbs up after shaking his head in disbelief at the display of power in front of them.To her right, Vasquez is fanning herself like a blushing southern belle and giving Cat a wink from the roof of her ambulance.Despite their efforts, it seems like an endless stream of undead are filtering out of the desert towards them, towards Kara. Kara follows through with a wide sweep of her blades and twirls to a stop looking towards the coming herd. She hears the gunshots ring out behind her and sees the bodies falling to the sand like dominos. As much as she’d like to take every last one down with her own hands, with her own blades, she knows the convoy is using up a large amount of ammo and she makes a split-second decision. They’ve already seen it anyway…well, at least some of it. Might as well get the shock out of the way…She sheathes her knives on her back with a satisfying thunk and plants her boots in the shifting sand. The walkers are less than a dozen feet away when she crouches, gathering all of her energy in her legs and pushes up away from the scorched earth.She’s up…up, up in the air, hovering as it crackles with electricity, with her own power...then, she descends. Down to the ground. Down like a thousand-ton weight into the sand, causing a visible shock wave towards the undead. It travels like a wave of unseen destruction. They’re blown off their feet, blown into bloody pieces as the energy she lets loose tears through the air like a million bullets shot from a million guns.

The aftermath is…ridiculous. A quarter mile of scattered body parts…stretched out in front of them.

The butt of Cat’s gun hits the roof of the Bronco as her mouth opens in shock. She scrambles down into the cab and out the door, only sticking her head back in to tell Carter to stay put.

Kara is still in the sand, one knee and both of her fists buried in the ground. “Kara,” she calls as she jogs to where the young woman sits. “Kara, are you ok?” she asks in a panic as she slides to her knees in front of her. Cat lifts her hands to Kara’s cheeks and can’t hold back an outrageous laugh as she sees the wide smile on the tan face in front of her.
Blue eyes meet green. “I’ve never done that before,” Kara rasps out.
“You could’ve fooled me, stretch,” Cat laughs once again. She turns on one knee, but can only see still bodies laid out in front of them as far as the eye can see. She turns back and swipes a hand through the dirty blonde hair that has fallen in the young woman’s face. “How about some water and all the fan time you want until we get to our destination?”

Kara nods, excited of her domination over the undead, but even more from the feel of the thin, warm fingers of Cat Grant on her face…the admiration in her eyes. She can’t wait to see more of that.
She’s tugged up and back towards the truck, a murmur of awe and approval stretched out in front of her. She lifts her head and meets Jimmy’s eyes, then Vasquez on the other side, Carter in the middle.
Nothing but wide smiles all around.
Maybe this place…maybe these people…this is where she’s supposed to be.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Water is so good. Seriously, it’s so good that Kara can’t think of anything else right now. She gulps down swallow after swallow, gulp after gulp where she sits on the back of Winn’s supply truck. “Here ya go, Kara,” Winn says from inside the hunter green flaps. He holds out a neon green pack.

“Skittles? Really?” she glares after catching her breath from her gulping. “Those last around here?”

He gives her an admonishing look. “Please. Those are in the special stash. Carter would eat those in a heartbeat if he knew I had them.”
Kara hands them back with a gentle smile. “I appreciate it, Winn, but I’m ok.” He gapes at her. “Really. Just having water I don’t have to filter through an old t-shirt is luxury enough."
“You really are Supergirl,” he grins.

“Don’t call me that,” she admonishes. “Well,” she corrects, “You can call me that after we get where we’re going…I think it’s going to help more than anyone can imagine,” she breathes, knowing that her gut reaction to bring these people back to the warehouse is right.

“I know it will,” he agrees, bringing a questioning glance from the young woman. “I trust you,” he says with hands and eyebrows raised. “You have kind eyes,” he offers with a shrug of his shoulders.

Kara nods happily. “What’s your poison, Winn?” she asks quietly.

He gives her a side-glance and a knowing look. He looks around to make sure they’re alone and leans down close enough to whisper. “Shaving cream.”

Kara cocks an eyebrow at him. He can’t be serious.

Winn glares. “I don’t care if it’s lavender and peony scented…I need some lubrication,” he states in quiet declaration. “Olsen may be able to shave with the bowie knife he kills zombies with, but I need a schick razor like I need water,” he pleads.

“I can tell how important this is to you, scruffy,” Kara laughs quietly as she gets to her feet on the tailgate. “I think you’re about to hit the razor jackpot and be the most clean shaven man in the apocalypse,” she says right before she jumps, both feet thumping into the sand at the same time. She reaches up a hand to grab the fresh bottle of water stretched her way.

“You’re a good woman, Kara,” Winn says with a smile.

“You are correct, Winslow,” Cat says from behind mirrored sunglasses at the edge of his truck.

Kara stares at the woman where she leans upon the bumper of Winn’s truck, black tank top stretched over the top of tan cargo pants that have seen better days. Those mirrored sunglasses don’t hide much from her enhanced vision and she can’t help but smirk as she sees those green eyes linger. A slight tilt of Cat’s head and she gets an admonishing look for peeking. Kara sighs as she rolls her eyes and brings her fresh water bottle to her mouth.

“Oh-kay,” Winn breathes out in amusement. “The two of you are smitten,” he says with a happy clap of his hands. He ignores Cat’s glare. “If only I had a laptop,” he muses as he digs in a bin on the tailgate. “Badass lesbians in the zombie apocalypse!” he exclaims, digging down far enough to bring out a tiny, brown package into view. “I’d be the next cult fiction writer for sure…For our fearless leader, of course,” he says in placation, handing over the tiny pack of chocolates into Cat’s hands.

Cat tugs her glasses off her face and snatches the candy from his hands. She tears off the top and pops a few chocolates into her mouth. “You may stay, Winn.”

"Twilight, eat your heart out," he says dramatically. He mock bows to an invisible audience and makes a quick retreat behind his hunter green flaps.

After a brief, loaded silence, “So, chocolate is the way to your heart,” Kara muses. “I wonder what will happen when chocolate is mixed with peanut butter…or even,” she pauses playfully, “even hazelnut,” she whispers.

“I’m not sure you’d know what to do with that kind of reaction,” Cat hums around a small mouthful of chocolate candy. She turns away towards her Bronco getaway, “but if you do,” she turns back quickly, “you better be ready.” Cat gives her a look that makes every muscle in her body twitch in response.

“I am so ready,” Kara breathes to herself, her eyes never leaving Cat’s backside which is slowly leaving her view. She looks to the side of the truck where both Winn and Vasquez are making rude hand gestures in her direction.

She deftly flips them off and decides to follow the leader.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

“All clear, Cat,” she hears through her radio. Cat recognizes James’ voice instantly and drops her mic on the ancient gray console carpet.

“Ok, I guess we’re ready to check it out,” she says slowly to both Kara and Carter who has been bouncing in his seat for over half an hour.

“I can go in first,” Kara says quietly as she checks the blades on her back. “I have plenty of ammo and…well, I can see…if there’s anything that we can’t handle, I can let you know to pull back,” she says knowingly.

Cat nods. “There are also doors on the west and north ends. We can circle round and open those to let in some light.”

“That will be perfect,” Kara agrees. “But I can do it at the same time…the element of surprise and all,” she surmises with a grin.

Cat just cocks her head in wonder. “You’ll be careful,” the older woman murmurs. “You have people now, Kara. A group. People who care about you…depend on you.”

Kara stares, startles as she feels one of Carter’s hands wrap around her arm. “I’ll be careful. I have…people,” she repeats in monotone, but the lift of her eyes betrays her feelings. “People are depending on me,” she breathes out lowly.

Cat nods slowly before letting go of the hand she doesn’t remember grasping. Her eyes dart to Carter’s, but his focus is set. “I want you back here,” she says solemnly, catching Kara’s eyes.

Kara slowly nods before stepping out of the truck. The gray monotone building stands in front of them…it’s multiple loading doors stood stock still in the blinding sun. She walks slowly to where James and Vasquez are looking over every option with critical eyes. They both turn an eye to her when she reaches them.

“How do we do this?” James asks as he steps closer with his automatic weapon ready for action. Vasquez is right behind him, but with her gun slung behind her shoulder with a smirk.

“Like this,” she says, right before she turns to face the bay of doors and closes her eyes.

They watch as her fingers and eyelids twitch, but it only takes a handful of seconds for the groan of metal to reach their ears. The loading doors rise together, opening the warehouse to the outside sun. Light shines on pallet after pallet of goods, shrink wrapped and ready for storage or shipment. “Jackpot,” she breathes after she finally cracks her eyes open, only mildly aware of the fear instilled by her powers.

James is unable to speak. He only stumbles forward, gun at the ready. “Let’s go,” he yells with one arm up, bringing his small group of fighters in behind him, stumbling down the sandy slope they’ve been standing on.

Vasquez is slower to move. She takes a step closer to Kara, close enough to bump against her shoulder. “She’s special, you know,” she says quietly. When Kara finally turns her way, she nods. “Cat. She’s not your ordinary human. She’s…more than extraordinary,” she grins. “She cares,” Vasquez emphasizes as she sways in place, gun at the ready and still listening to her friends on the radio.

“I know,” Kara breathes. “I can tell, could tell, from the first moment I met her.”

Vasquez just laughs, looking back and forth from Kara’s face to the open warehouse in front of them. “She does care. She’s the greatest person I’ve ever met.”

Kara can only nod, trying to tune in to the people inside, searching for any threat of danger. She startles when the short-haired brunette steps close enough to end her, forcing her to turn half a step to bring them face-to-face. “Look here, blondie,” she growls. “You’ve got a nice aura around you and I can get down with the pre-apocalypse yoga shit.” Kara freezes, fearing for her life even though she knows from experience that it’s impossible. “You hurt one blonde hair on that woman’s head and I will slice you from toe-to-ear, understand?” the brunette sneers in her ear.

Kara swallows thickly, knowing she’s getting the shovel talk in a mildly insane way from a protective detail in the middle of the literal zombie apocalypse. “Uh, understood,” she finally rasps out.

“Good,” Vasquez growls, then smiles brightly and Kara now realizes the brunette may actually be insane. She’s holding out a fist in comradery and Kara can’t help but bump it in barely veiled terror.

“I like you, Supergirl,” Vasquez smiles again as she lifts her rifle to sweep. She turns her boots in the sand and deftly slides down the dune into the concrete parking lot, disappearing inside the warehouse and leaving Kara in stunned silence.

“Why does everyone keep calling me that?” Kara groans. She turns on her heels to look back towards the rest of the group, stuttering out a ragged breath when her eyes reach the top of the Bronco where she’s been riding shotgun. Cat is propped out the top of the sunroof, hunter green baseball cap tucked over her ears with her shiny, mirrored sunglasses blocking out the glare off the desert sand. There’s a rifle propped in one hand and a radio in the other. She sees the smile start across the woman’s face after James gives the all clear through the radio.

“Good news?” she calls out, not moving from her spot at the edge of the dune.

Cat drops the radio and reaches up to yank her glasses off. “Food, clothing and running water,” she yells. “Looks like we’ll get to see how you clean up, stretch,” Cat smiles, sending tingling awareness down her spine and into every nerve ending in her superpowered body.

Kara shivers off the electric feeling and rolls her eyes, looking back towards the vast warehouse with interest. “I could use a cold shower,” she muses.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The worn rubber of her boots make almost no sound as she walks slowly through the aisles of the giant warehouse. It’s quiet, except she can still hear the excited whispers from the group as they pillage through pallet after pallet. Dry and canned goods. Some perishables that can be salvaged. Clothing. Even candy and wine, which of course bring the most attention. A water hose in the back brought a yell of delight from Cat and she set to work immediately to rig up a make-shift shower, sending Carter off to search for soap and anything that can be used to dry off.Kara grins and rolls her shoulders, swinging her arms wide in the humid shade of the metal roof. She had lost her long coat as soon as Cat found the water hose, muttering something about an apocalypse laundromat. It leaves her arms bare, but her blades still rest crossed on her back, her guns holstered at her hips. Sweat drips steadily down her spine and she sends up a silent prayer that Winn might get the electricity back online…at least for the fans. The heat is stifling and she can’t wait for her turn in the ‘shower’.Pallet after pallet of goods make up the aisles, with industrial strength shelving built up almost three stories tall along every turn. She pauses as she thinks again of her idea for sleeping, to get them up off the vulnerable ground floor, but it will take getting one of the sand-ridden forklifts up and running. Vasquez is already working on it. She left her happily humming, her hands already greasy as she stuffed her mouth with granola bars and chugged Gatorade like a champ.Kara slows as she reaches a corner flooded in sunlight from the still open bay door. She had wanted to shut them almost immediately, but with no electricity and a few hours of daylight left, James put people on watch until they either kicked on the lights or found a pallet full of batteries to run the lamps. She pauses in the stream of light and focuses her vision on the surrounding desert. She scans slowly, searching as far as she can, but sees nothing. Nothing but the unforgiving sand. Kara exhales slowly and is about to continue on her sweep when she feels something pelt her in the back of the neck. She looks down to the concrete to see the culprit slide to a stop in front of her. One lone M&M.She looks back and up to find Cat, her legs swinging from the third level of shelving with a wide smile on her face and a jumbo bag of chocolate candies in her lap. Kara sighs. “So, I bring you to the chocolate and now you assault me with it?” she asks with her arms raised at her sides, a playful grin on her lips.Cat smirks and pops a few more candies in her mouth. “You can take it.”Kara crosses her arms over her chest and continues to stare. Cat’s hair is wet and she’s dressed in a pair of jeans and a tank top that must have just been busted out of a pallet. In the few days that she’s known her, she hasn’t seen her so happy…so carefree and she vows to keep her that way. “Mind a neighbor?” she asks even as she’s already walking to directly below where the older woman is sitting. She bends her knees slightly and jumps, propelling herself dozens of feet in the air, her fingers catching the metal railing. Kara pulls herself up with little effort and only barely registers the shock on Cat’s face when she settles in right beside her. “Gimme,” she nonchalantly motions to the bag, holding out a hand for a portion of chocolates.After a few seconds, Cat just huffs and pours out a generous heap into Kara’s waiting hands. They stare at each other for a few moments, but end up just looking out of the open bay door of the warehouse.They eat chocolate and watch as the day dies in a beautiful orange sunset.---------------------------------------------------------------------Cat and Kara part ways when they reach the rear of the building where everyone has gathered. The vehicles have been pulled inside and the cooking gear pulled out. A few of their torches are lit and the smell of rice, beans and corn fill the air. They’re the easiest to cook quickly of the things they’ve found so far. Kara lingers, chatting with the couple looking over the largest pot of rice she’s ever seen. They’re so happy…so relieved to be out of the sun. To have food and water. When they thank her profusely, she can only wave them off.“Kara!” she hears from behind the last row. She takes a few steps towards the rear, nodding at James where he’s inspecting pallets and ducks towards the flashlight beam she can see bouncing around in the back corner. “Winn? Is that you?” she asks as she gets closer. “Yeah,” he calls, his voice muffled. She sees why when she gets close enough. His small flashlight is held in between his teeth as he stares into a gigantic breaker box. “Um, can I help?” she asks uncertainly as she stares at the tendrils of wires trailing out of the box. “That doesn’t look good…” she murmurs.“Hey,” he says suddenly, shining the light underneath his chin like they’re at a twelve-year-old’s slumber party. “I need your laser light show, sparky.” He smiles giddily and waggles his eyebrows.She narrows her eyes. “I could kill you without even blinking.”“Harsh,” he says in a high pitch, holding his hands up in surrender. “Look, I can get this breaker back up with a sharp weld right…here,” he points to a bundle of wires in his hand with his pinky. “I don’t have a soldering iron, Kara. You can be one,” he emphasizes. “Your little laser eye trick could get us up and running. What do you say?” he asks hopefully.

She sighs and her shoulders drop. “Is there any way you don’t have to hold it? Or at least spread out?”

He snaps his fingers in triumph. “One person on either side. We’ll be out of the way and you can zap it real quick!” he drops the wires and runs toward the group, returning only a moment later with Cat happily in tow.

“Dude!” Kara hisses. “Can’t James do it? He’s fucking grumpy already. If I burn off a finger, will it really be much worse?” she fumes.

“What are we doing?” Cat asks, bouncing on the toes of her squeaky new shoes. “Let’s do it,” she says quickly.

Kara narrows her eyes. “How much sugar have you had?” she asks slowly, reaching out a hand to circle Cat’s wrist. She tugs lightly and the older woman quickly ends up in her loose embrace, running her hands up Kara’s chest and just starting to circle her neck when Kara catches her hands. “Not sugar,” Kara surmises. “Boxed wine?” she smiles, her gaze drifting from happy hazel eyes to wine stained lips and back.

“I like wine,” Cat whispers, close enough that Kara feels her breath upon her lips.

“Hey, L Word Live, can we do this?” Winn snarks from the breaker box, holding wires in both hands.

Kara glares and he suddenly remembers her earlier threat, his mouth snapping shut with a pop. “Cat, stand right here,” Kara directs her and puts the bundle in her hand. Winn follows suit and without hesitation, her eyes glow red and the wires are melded together before he can even give her direction.

Winn whoops in excitement and tucks his flashlight back in between his teeth. Kara reaches over and tugs a giddy Cat back to her side, trying very hard to ignore the thumb rubbing circles above her navel.

“We have running water, you know,” Cat says from her side, swaying a bit in place before Kara tightens her hold around the woman’s waist.

“Mmm, I know,” Kara says as she keeps an eye over Winn. She shivers as the fingers on her stomach suddenly slip beneath her tank top to smooth directly over her skin. It startles her and she clamps a hand over the wandering fingers immediately. “Exactly when did you have time to get this drunk? I just walked away from you like ten minutes ago…”

Cat smiles and shrugs. “I haven’t had much to eat besides those chocolates you found me, stretch. Then Vasquez gave me wine...” she trails off, distracted by the line of muscle in Kara’s bicep. She traces it with her finger, sending chills up the taller woman’s spine.

“Well, I’m going to give Vas…” Kara startles when suddenly the florescent lights overhead flicker to life…the gigantic fans in the sides of the building groan to life.

“Hey!” Cat exclaims loudly, clinging to Kara like a leach. “Winn, you’re a genius!” she says giddily.

“I like her like this,” he says quickly. Kara rolls her eyes and points the tipsy woman back towards the masses.

“You probably won’t like her like this in the morning, Winifred,” Kara deadpans.

“Gotta live in the now, Supergirl,” he yells.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

After depositing a very clingy convoy leader with Carter, Kara goes to find Vasquez. There should be forklifts in working order if the woman is handing out boxes of wine…
“Kara!”

“Vasquez,” Kara murmurs as she walks closer. The short haired brunette is sitting in the driver’s seat of one of the two forklifts with her feet propped up on the dash. One hand fiddles with the steering wheel while the other pours boxed wine into her face at an alarming pace. “I mean, Lush,” she shakes her head as she quickly snatches the wine and hides it under the seat.

“Karas…I mean, Kara,” Vasquez hiccups. “You…are insanely hot,” she says matter-of-factly. “And I know that I tried to scare you away from mama Cat, but honestly,” she hisses as she almost falls on her face out of the driver seat, reaching out to pull Kara closer by the straps of her tank top. “There may not be a hotter couple.”

“Um...thanks?”

“No, Kara…” Vasquez whispers fiercely with a smile. “Thank you.”

“Okay…” Kara draws out as Vasquez passes out in her arms. She hefts the woman over her shoulder and starts making her way back towards the group, hoping she won’t be dealing with too many more tipsy convoy members.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I am so sorry,” Cat murmurs a couple of hours later. They’re sitting side by side against the cool concrete wall, relishing in the air circulating around them. Winn cut the lights at quarter power for the night, leaving them in a warm glow when the bay doors shut out the harsh world.

Kara chuckles. “It’s okay, Cat. Honestly,” she bumps her shoulder. “If I could get drunk, I promise you, I would have been headfirst in a pallet of chardonnay.”

Cat chuckles and chugs at the massive bottle of water in her hand. “Thank you for taking care of me,” she muses as she turns her head to the side. “You got us here. You got the electricity thrumming…”

“You’re my group,” Kara repeats from early in the day. “I have people that depend on me…that care about me…”

“We do,” Cat says lowly as she stares at her profile. “Know what would make me care about you even more?” she asks, leaning over to rest her chin on Kara’s shoulder.

Kara turns her head, leaving them only inches apart. She can feel the warm puff of air from Cat’s lips and can see the gold flecks in her eyes. “What’s that?” she whispers.

Cat stretches a tiny bit closer and runs one finger up a bare arm. “A shower, Kara. Seriously, what are you, twelve?”

Kara’s eyes widen in amusement. “I was being selfless…making sure everyone had a turn. This is the thanks I get?” she scoffs, pushing against Cat’s shoulder until she falls over in laughter.

Cat wraps a hand around the closest arm and tugs herself back up. “I’ll find you some clothes,” she says chuckling. “We’re going to try and wash tomorrow. You’ll get your precious coat back.”

----------------------------------------------------------------

Kara sleeps that night. The bay doors are tight with vehicles parked mostly in front and she’s laying in bliss on a twin-size air mattress, her arms and legs stretched wide. Bless Carter for being unstoppable in his search for simply luxuries the night before. She’s clean, in men’s boxers that are too big and a tank top that is too small, which brought a smile to her face knowing who had picked out her clothes.

When the morning sun breaks through the windows at the top of the warehouse, the smell of coffee hits her nose and for one brief moment she thinks the world is like it was before. Kara remembers the window seat in her tiny apartment in National City, where she sat watching the sun rise with her cup of freshly brewed coffee. She was happy there…in a kind of unknowing bliss. She had her job…stringer was a step up from assistant, at least. She had her tiny apartment and her car. She had weekends up the coast to visit Eliza when she wasn’t working. She talked to Alex whenever she could, Mike more often since they worked together. And then on a whim, she got involved in his lead…to uncover the big story, the next biological weapon…then this. A life amongst the undead, fighting for every day in a wasteland.

Kara startles…shakes her head to dispel the thoughts and turns to her side, pulls her legs in tight, blinking to see that a curly head is faced her way from just a few feet away. Blue eyes struggle to stay open as one skinny arm emerges from a sleeping bag to raise a closed fist her way. Kara smiles and reaches out her own, giving it a quick bump before Carter retreats into his cocoon of warmth and safety and sleep.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

The end of their second day finds them in a comfortable silence. With the electricity working, Winn was able to get the pumps going. All the vehicles are gassed and ready to go. Generators too.

Clothes are clean and dry. Trucks are stocked with as many dry goods as they can fit in case of a fast exit. Now as they relax against the cool concrete walls, Cat wonders what their next move should be. They need a rest, for sure, but what then? They’ve found food, shelter, gas and water. Shouldn’t they stay? But…she feels the pull. She feels that necessary instinct to keep moving. To what, she doesn’t know. But it’s there. Nagging at the back of her mind.

Kara is restless. That much is for sure. She’s pacing the outside aisles, listening at the walls for any movement outside. Cat has watched her make countless rounds as the afternoon fades…unable to rest, unable to relax. She huffs out a frustrated breath and heads off in the last direction she saw the young woman. She finds her settled on a pile of dog food, staring at the bay door they first came in.

Cat approaches slowly and settles on the stack next to her. “Bored?”

Kara huffs. “You?” she asks lowly, picking at the frayed edges of the bag she’s sitting on.

“A little,” Cat confesses. She bumps against Kara’s shoulder, getting a tiny grin in response. “It’s been so long since we had a choice…of what to do. We have the resources, thanks to you. I just don’t know what to do with them,” she breathes, twisting her fingers together.

“I…I don’t either,” Kara says. “I wish I did. You have such a great group of people. They deserve better than this…better than a gritty, stifling hot warehouse.”

Cat reaches over now and circles her right hand around Kara’s bicep. “We wouldn’t even have this if it wasn’t for you,” she whispers. She tugs and blue eyes meet hers. So blue they’re like the hottest part of a flame. “We were on our last leg when you came along.”

Kara stares. At Cat’s eyes and then her lips and then back again. She swallows thickly. “Don’t act like you weren’t my salvation too,” she rasps, moving ever closer. She’s literally millimeters from capturing the lips she’s been dreaming of when she hears the sharp pang of metal against metal. Kara jumps up from her seat, hands at the ready, one at a gun, one at a blade. She turns to Cat. “Hide,” she growls before stepping towards the door.

Cat scrambles towards the back of the warehouse, looking for Carter, signaling to James and Vas.

The metal groans at the force against it…Kara takes a step back and yells. “Get them up! Get them up in the racks!”

“Kara!” James yells as he leads the rush of fighters only to be halted by the force from her hands.

“No! Stay back!” she yells as she faces the doors, plants her feet and pushes with her mind. “Go to the rear, now! Get them up!”

“Kara!” Vasquez yells harshly, catching her focus from the other side. “They’re up! Now, let us help,” the brunette growls.

Kara bears down and vibrates with energy as she lets loose a scream of frustration, trying to hold back against the overwhelming force pushing against the door, but the two don’t move.

“Let. Us. Help.” Vasquez growls again.

Kara stares even as she hears the metal groan and bend in front of her. “Stay ten paces behind me,” she spits out before turning and taking her defensive stance again. She looks to her sides immediately to see them right beside her and she rolls her eyes. “Do you two not understand ten paces?” she growls.

“Get over yourself,” James says, gun at the ready.

“I am too hungover to count,” Vasquez chimes in but with a wink to soften the blow.

The metal door groans again and Kara stiffens, ready to take the brunt of whatever may be threatening her people.

The door lifts and the light filters in slowly behind a shadow in the middle of the door and she steps forward, ready to fight.

“Kara Danvers!” yells out a voice from the entry. “I’m here for Kara Danvers! We mean no harm!”

Kara steps closer to see who or what is speaking, happy that the others are staying put behind her. When she can finally make out a shorter, female figure she relaxes. “I’m Kara,” she yells after a minute. “What do you want with me?”

The figure steps closer and finally Kara can see more detail. Dark, curly hair falls around her head, fierce green eyes. “Kara,” she breathes with a smile. “We’ve followed you for miles across this godforsaken desert. We’re here to help.” The brunette looks around, only smiling gently when she sees multiple guns pointed her way. “We have a place…for all of you. It’s safe.”

Kara is staring behind the newcomer, but only sees one Humvee and one other human in the vicinity. She doesn’t relax. “How do you know my name?” she asks sternly.

“My father is a general,” the brunette says. “He’s been fighting against this virus…trying to find a way to beat it. We had intel in the facility where you worked. That’s how we know your name.”

Kara relaxes and turns a bit, catching Cat on her right side. The blonde gives her a slow nod. “What’s your name?” she calls.

The brunette grins. “Lucy Lane.”

“How did you get that door open?” Kara asks, as she sheathes the blade in her left hand.

Lucy smiles even wider. “I’m infected,” she says. “Just like you.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

At the word ‘infected’, Kara hears James and Vasquez clench their hands hard around their weapons…the people behind them don’t react much better and she grimaces as a murmur of worry spreads through their small crowd. She lifts both arms out in either direction and catches their frantic eyes. “It’s okay, guys,” she soothes. “Let’s just hear what she has to say.”“Kara,” James begins stubbornly, but stops when he sees a slight form take a step into the light to stand in line with them. Cat is looking his way, but with her mirrored sunglasses on, he can’t feel her out. He only gets a slight nod from their leader and Vasquez gets a hand upon her shoulder to calm her nerves.Kara glances that way and gives the older woman a nod of her own before taking a deep breath and looking back towards their intriguing visitor. “How?” she asks as she takes a tiny step forward. “How are you infected?”“I volunteered,” Lucy says softly as she takes her own tiny step forward, her expression neutral in the face of the nervous caravan. “We’ve built a camp…so much more than that now. Houses, cabins, whatever we could pull together in the forests of northern California. All kinds of people are there along with my dad. He was a general before all this…We’ve worked together to build a community. We support each other. We all have our jobs to help take care of one another…” she muses as she looks around. “Scientists settled with us…one of them was able to isolate the genetic markers of the humans that can bond with the virus.”Kara shakes her head in disbelief. “How would they even know that could happen? The only thing that virus has done is turn our world into a wasteland.”“She had previous experience,” Lucy murmurs lowly, low enough that only Kara can hear, and then turns her head to the side as someone approaches from the side of the door.
Kara braces as she feels someone come closer, but stays calm to not cause panic. Another figure soon blocks out the bright sun streaming into the open bay door. She can make out the curves and long dark hair of another woman before her eyes adjust and every single muscle in her body clenches in shock.
“Hi, Kara,” the brunette says softly, coming to stand a few feet from Lucy.“Lena,” Kara growls.-----------------------------------------------------------------It takes almost half an hour to calm Kara down. She lurched forward at the sight of the scientist, only stopped by the strength of her friends and the inhuman strength of Lucy. Now she sits where she collapsed against the concrete wall of the warehouse, glaring as Cat talks to the curly-headed brunette. James and Vasquez stand guard at the door where Lena stays just inside out of the glaring sun. Kara sits up, ready to pounce when she sees Carter approach with his hands full of water bottles. Cat takes two and after a quick glance over to catch her eyes, Kara relaxes as she watches the blonde hand over one of the bottles to Lucy Lane. She rolls her head back against her sweaty neck and wills her racing heart to calm. Seeing the familiar face of Lena Luthor had sent her brain into a panic…only able to remember the last week of her time within the facility where her life changed forever. She didn’t know her…they only ever exchanged a few words and she seemed nice enough at first. But her face…her face is burned into her memory. Once Kara was held captive, she watched as Lena handed over vial after vial of the virus to her mother, never with a stitch of remorse. Not one emotion touched her face as she handed over the death of millions…“Kara…” she hears whisper from nearby, startling her from her memories. Her blue eyes open wide to find Cat hovering in front of her with a worried look.
She swallows thickly. “I’m fine,” she lies, lifting her head and giving what she hopes is not a grimace. “Kara, I think you should talk to Lucy,” Cat says quickly, never losing her gaze. She holds her hands up in defense before there’s anything to defend. “I want you to ask every question you can before you turn them away…just know, that if you turn them away…there will be no questions asked,” Cat says sternly. “Ok? I will take whatever your decision is as law, Kara.”Kara’s blue eyes dart back and forth between stern green. “Really?” she asks hoarsely.“I trust your judgement,” Cat says as she reaches forward for one of Kara’s hands. She circles it with both of hers, her thin fingers wedging between the young woman’s. “When you’re ready, I think you should talk to Lucy. You don’t have to talk to the other one…”“Lena Luthor…” Kara growls again, trying not to squeeze Cat’s fingers between her own. “And here I was worried she would steal you away from me,” Cat jokes lightly in an effort to lighten the mood.“Not a chance in hell,” Kara swears immediately, blushing in spite of her bravado.Cat chuckles and hands over a full bottle of water to the brooding woman. “Talk to Lane. I’m going to chat with the other one…under full witness of James and Vas of course,” she says quickly after feeling the woman’s body tense.Kara reluctantly nods. She twists the cap off her water and takes a huge gulp as she watches Cat walk over to where James and Vasquez are flanking Lena with their automatic weapons. She takes a deep breath and looks to where Lucy is sitting, quietly chatting with Carter. She closes her eyes and listens…Lucy’s heartbeat is calm and steady. She opens them again. Carter gives her a small smile. Damn him for being a good judge of character.----------------------------------------------------------“I get why you’re freaked out.”“I am not freaked out,” Kara hisses. “But you bring the woman who created the virus that’s infected us and you think I’m not going to react?” she asks incredulously. “She literally started this apocalypse.”Lucy breathes deeply to control her reactions. “She had no idea the plans for her research, Kara. She thought she was synthesizing antibodies that fought against viruses, against cancer, against HIV…She was deceived.”

Her nostrils flare with anger and Kara ducks her head, clenches her hands around her ears. Tears are in her eyes when she raises her head again. “Lillian…” she trails off.

“Her mother lied to her,” Lucy vows. “Lena has done nothing but help us since we rescued her.”

“She infected you.”

Lucy sniffs in indignation. “I volunteered,” she vows. “Our numbers were dwindling in the beginning. We couldn’t keep the walls up against the dead. We needed strength…power. I had myself tested and I volunteered.”

Kara’s nostrils flare again. “So you trusted one lone scientist with your life?”

Lucy smiles, wide and bright as she reaches into the cargo pocket of her tan fatigues. “Not just one. Three,” she says as she holds out a faded picture in her hand.

Kara hiccups a sob as she reaches out for the memento, recognizing it immediately. It sat upon their mantle for years after she went to live with the Danvers. She clenches it to her chest as she feels a hand fall down upon her shoulder. She feels Cat kneeling beside her. “Kara?”

Lucy leans forward, reaches out a hand to swallow the one surrounding the picture. “They’re alive, Kara. Eliza and Alex are alive,” she smiles as she falls to her knees.

“Is that her family?” Cat asks harshly. “You’re using her family against her?”

Lucy chuckles and dips her head, the tears readily streaming down her face. “If I come back without Kara, I’ll be sleeping on the non-existent couch for months,” she laughs. “Kara, I…I love your sister. Honestly, if it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be in this desert nightmare.” She smiles when she gets a narrow-eyed stare from the younger Danvers, but it fades when her smile and tears don’t.

“Eliza’s ok too?” Kara asks timidly, feeling small within Cat’s arms.

Lucy laughs again. “She’s so ok. That woman is a force of nature. Just ask her minion over there,” she says with a wave towards Lena.

Cat and Kara both give a wary reaction.

“Look, I get it. I had the same reaction. But, that girl, honestly, there’s not a mean bone in her body. She lost ten pounds before we could get her to eat meat,” Lucy says incredulously. “We just didn’t have the crops in the beginning. Now she lives off potatoes and corn.”

Kara sighs and all the fight leaves her body. Cat feels it, pulls her closer. “Kara, darling, I think you should try and talk with Lena. You need to be with your family,” she says, her voice breaking in uncertainty.

“I need to be with you…” her voice breaks, “and Carter, Winn…Vasquez…even James…” Kara jokes.

“We have room for everyone,” Lucy swears suddenly. “Water. Food. Shelter. We’ve just expanded the walls. Farmland and plenty of wood for building. Fishing too.”

“You get Alex to eat fish?” Kara asks with a watery smile.

Lucy huffs. “Yeah, right. She won’t touch it,” she hisses.

Kara laughs and leans on Cat’s shoulder, who just rolls with it, strokes her shoulders and holds her close.

“Kara?” she hears a timid voice ask. Kara sits up, but doesn’t let go of the hand held in hers.

“Lena,” Kara nods. “I think we should talk.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------

The next few days are a blur for everyone.

Kara, Cat, James, Vas…they all had their chances to talk with the two women…to try and feel them out.

Hell, even Carter got a try.

But, every single time…they got the same answers. The same pleas to come to safety.

To come back to life.

So, they had a meeting. Cat laid out the details. She told them the history…she told them the truth about Kara and Lucy, how they were infected.

She told them this was an offer of safety. But there was no guarantee.

They took a vote.

It was unanimous.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they finally reach its edges, the forest is lush.

They’ve been over the expanse of the desert and the mountain ranges in between. They’ve been traveling for days, maybe even weeks…driving during every second of daylight, camping at night. And now they’ve finally reached the edges of the northern California forests that Lucy and Lena have talked about at length…that Kara remembers vividly from her childhood.

At a mid-day stop, Kara finds Cat sitting happily on the hood of her beloved Bronco, leaning back on the windshield with a bottle of water in each hand. The cool breeze is blowing out of the shadow of the forests in front of them where they parked beside a small river.

“I always thought it was a little creepy,” she says from the side of the truck, staring into the dark, thick forests of the coast. The late morning mist rolls out like something you’d see in a scary movie.

“Mmmm,” Cat hums from the hood. “I get that,” she nods. “I had a beach house. You know, before,” she says with a dismissive wave. “It was on the coast of a forest like this…always cool, always windy…earthy,” she hums again.

“You were a reporter? Before?” Kara asks with a knowing grin, tilting her head in Cat’s direction.

“I…I was a reporter…more than that in the end…but nothing that matters now,” Cat dismisses as she shifts her body and her legs dangle over the side of her massive bronco.

Kara hums in response. “Before…I wanted to be a reporter, too. I guess that’s why I got caught up in all of this,” she says as she looks wide around at their surroundings. She laughs. “I only wanted to write puff pieces though, you know,” she says with a quirk of her head. “I only wanted to write the things that made people smile.” Kara lifts her hands around Cat’s slim hips and settles her down on the ground before the older woman can even realize what’s happening. Her small hands slide up Kara’s chest to circle around her neck. “I never thought my career choices would bring me to the feet of the Queen of all Media,” she whispers with twinkling eyes.

Cat drops her head right underneath Kara’s chin and chuckles. “I think…maybe it’s better we met this way, Kara. I wasn’t an easy person to deal with…before,” she smiles, lifting her head just enough to look the younger blonde in the eye.

“Mmmm, yes. You’re a bowl of sunshine now,” Kara hums again, only to get smacked in the arm. “Maybe better this way. But I know we would have met…no matter what.”

“Oh really?” Cat asks, a bit of her former snark shining through that didn’t match the ratty green baseball cap tucked over her ears.

“I know it. Because there was a Thursday morning interview that I was really nervous about eight months ago,” she ends in a whisper. “I didn’t make it…because I followed my brother Mike off on his crazy search for truth.”

“An interview?”

“Mmm. An interview to be an executive assistant.” Kara taps her forehead against the bill of Cat’s ballcap.

Cat stiffens in her arms. “Danvers,” she says abruptly. She pulls back to see the knowing look in Kara’s eyes. “You are my infamous 10:15.”

Kara brightens immediately. “I’m infamous?”

Cat scowls. “No one misses an interview with me, Kara.”

Her grin turns into a full-blown smile. “I didn’t miss it, Cat. I was just extemely…late.”

Cat tilts her head to rub her nose against the one in front of her with a mischievous grin. “I don’t deal well with tardiness, Keira.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eliza cries.

She cries and cries as Alex jumps into Kara’s arms.

She cries as Lucy falls into her own.

The tears may not stop anytime soon. She holds Lucy close as Kara and Alex squeeze each other tight and turn in circles in front of what is their hospital/lab.

Lucy loosens her hold to vault into her father’s arms. He’s dressed in his normal tan fatigues, a wide smile on his face as he holds her close. His hair is grey and thin and she’s tiny in his arms.

Eliza looks back, watches as Kara tugs an older blonde woman and a young teenage boy close to Alex, introduces them. She watches as Alex uncharacteristically embraces the woman in a hug, then the boy. She’s never seen Alex so open and all of a sudden, she knows that their little family has potential new members.

“Liza!” she hears, right before she’s bowled over by the enormous power of her youngest daughter.

“Kara,” she breathes into dirty blonde hair. “My Kara,” she cries and holds on for dear life.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Their ‘camp’ is expansive.

School. Cafeteria. Hospital. Walls that stretch miles.

The amenities go on and on. The people are welcoming and friendly and hardworking and protective.

The resources are…plentiful and renewable.

Cat settles quickly, working with General Lane to organize. James, Vasquez and Winn fall in with the existing security and organization with ease.

Vasquez takes a special interest in protecting their lead scientist and Lena doesn’t protest. The two hit it off even in the desert, much to Lucy’s delight.

The rest of the caravan finds life easier here. There’s still hard work…every day. But there’s shelter. There’s food and water and people…they’re out of the blinding sun and blazing heat.

There’s order. There’s a life here…and no one complains.

But…Kara finds adjustment a bit harder. She’s used to fighting. Day in and day out. Now, she just needs to exist.

And she doesn’t know how. Not anymore.

She doesn’t understand why she feels this way. She wanted to walk through those gates into her family’s arms and then turn around and embrace the one she’d found and brought with her.

She wanted Cat.

But when the opportunity was there to grab. She felt lost and helpless and inadequate.

She didn’t know what to do.

So, she pulled herself away.

She spends her time in the north point, taking watch after watch from an old fire rescue tower. For more than a few days now, she’s spent her time on the lookout…looking and waiting to alert the camp to a threat…but it hasn’t come. Walkers have gone by of course…but nothing that would threaten their walls.

It’s a forestry service lookout at the crest of the mountain overlooking their camps. It’s secluded and quiet and hard to get to and after four days Cat is completely over waiting for the broody blonde to come down from her ridiculous perch.

She sets out after a late breakfast with direction and a knowing smirk from Alex and after a half hour hike, she’s there, standing beneath the shadow of a square, wooden hide-away. She finds herself at one of the most ominous points of the camp. The strong walls stand high, blocking out the morning sun, leaving her in the shadow of the looming forest. “Hey, Supergirl! You entertaining visitors?” she calls strongly from below.

A few seconds pass before she sees the flickering lamp light from a square opening in the bottom of the tower. She can see the shadow of long hair blocking the light. “Do you have an appointment?” comes the surprisingly playful response.

Cat gives a half grin and tucks a lock of blonde behind her ear. “I think I was supposed to be here at 10:15, but I could be a little late,” she says strongly.

A worn rope ladder falls down a few feet in front of her and her grin turns into a glorious smile.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Cat huffs out a breath and collapses into a wooden chair that has seen better days. It sits in the corner of the darkened lookout. The wooden window covers are propped open, allowing the cool morning breeze to blow through, but they are still in the shadows from the towering redwoods that surround them. Kara has two lanterns flickering in opposite corners, making the inside of the small space glow with flickering light. Cat pushes out another few breaths, still winded from her long climb up the rope ladder. She sits and watches as Kara neatly pulls the ladder back into the hatch. “Guess you don’t want unexpected visitors?” she finally jokes, after the younger blonde pulls the door shut and latches it.Kara cracks a smile, but it fades quickly. She freezes for a few moments, stutters out a response. “I…yeah,” she breathes out harshly. “I’m sorry. I…I’ve been having trouble…adjusting, I guess,” she shakes her head quickly. “I don’t really know.” Her head hangs, her long hair in a curtain around her face as she still sits on her knees on the floor of the small room, fiddling with the ancient metal latch. She rises after she settles it and sits in another chair, the exact opposite of the one Cat’s sitting in. “I’ve been in camp,” she murmurs, her face towards the hills. “In the early morning to check on things and shower…I just haven’t felt like being around people, I guess,” she ends quietly.They sit and they stare out into the surrounding wilderness, the towering trees, the lush mountains, a bit scared of breaching the wrong subject. “Well…I’ve missed seeing you these last few days, Kara, but there’s no need to apologize,” Cat says finally, softly, but not moving from her perch on the wooden chair as she takes a quick glance to gauge the other woman’s reaction. When there is none, she turns her head to look out again at the miles and miles of evergreen rolling hills around them. “All of this…quiet. This…safety. It’s a big shock to the system after what you’ve been through,” she says quietly, taking another risky glance and this time, catching blue eyes. Kara stares…seemingly in shock as the words hit her brain. All of a sudden it clicks. “What we’ve been through,” Kara says strongly as she rises to her feet and falters. She stands in the same spot for a long time then starts stalking for a few steps in either direction, looking for all the world like a frustrated kitten on the prowl. “God, Cat, you led a group of people through the god damned desert,” she says, throwing her hands into the air. “I only had to look out for myself,” she huffs, crossing her arms and looking out the opposite window. “Now I’m stuck in a funk for no reason…like a moody teenager,” she pouts, kicking her foot against the wooden slats of the wall, wincing when the dirty toe of one cross trainer breaks through with a splintery crack. She yanks it out with a sigh and collapses pitifully in the corner where her sleeping pad and bag are laid out. She kicks the trainers off and rubs her bare feet on the slick fabric of her sleeping bag. “All of your people…they’ve fought tooth and nail to get here. I just walked right in. I should be out there…fighting,” she ends dejectedly. “I’m just…I just don’t feel worthy of this now. I want to,” she interjects. “I really, really do…but it’s like this cloud…it followed me before. It’s found me again and I can’t find my way out from under, you know?”

“I know,” Cat sympathizes. “Kara, I understand, but listen,” Cat stands and commands her attention. “You saved us. All of us. Every last one of us would have died in the desert that day.” She stalks across the few feet that separate them and stands above her, hands on her hips. “You saved our lives and I know that you saved more before us. You didn’t ask to be infected. You didn’t volunteer,” she sneers. Cat bends and settles on her knees right beside Kara, reaching out a hand to cup her cheek. “You were infected against your will and you used the power it gave you to help others,” she says softly. “You don’t owe anyone anything. If anything, we owe you.”

“I do,” Kara vows as she sits up slowly. “I was lost before,” she falters as she tries to find her voice. “I was lost before and I was lost after, Cat. You don’t realize how many nights I almost didn’t see daylight. Being by myself…it wasn’t a good thing.” She reaches up a cool hand to swallow the one against her cheek and preens against it, closing her eyes and relishing in the connection it offers. Kara reaches out her other hand to circle the back of Cat’s neck and she can almost feel the older woman’s pulse beating hard against her hand. “I owe you everything, Cat,” she breathes, her eyes darting back and forth between Cat’s rapidly. “I didn’t have a reason to live before I met you all. I might not have made it if I hadn’t met you,” she whispers as fingers rub against the soft hairs at the nape of her neck.

Cat shifts suddenly, one leg over Kara’s hips, leaving her straddling the younger woman, hips against hips. She takes a deep breath as a rush of feeling scatters over her. She winds the fingers of her other hand in the thick hair at the nape of Kara’s neck and relishes in the harsh breaths coming from the other woman. She tightens her hold and tilts her head back, bringing them face to face in the flickering light of a gas lantern. “You don’t owe me anything, Kara. You coming into our lives when you did…it’s something I never could have imagined,” Cat whispers, their lips only inches apart. “But if you truly feel you’re indebted, it’s time to state our price.” Tiny puffs of breath hit her face and Cat gets lost in the stormy blue eyes in front of her. “It’s time to settle up, darling,” she says softly, smoothing her fingertips along the soft lines of Kara’s face.

Kara breathes out harshly through her nose. “My price,” she repeats softly, closing her eyes solemnly. She dips her head, resting her forehead on Cat’s chin for just a moment. She feels warm lips hit her hairline and a shiver winds its way down her spine. She pushes and pries her eyes open, searching back and forth between the hazel eyes that have followed her through her dreams night after night. A deep breath later and she starts, “I don’t want to be alone anymore, wandering aimlessly, whether I’m lost in the desert or just wandering around this camp that we’re in. I want to have a place.” She pauses and rubs her fingers over Cat’s knuckles where they’ve ended up settled in her own hands. “I want to be yours,” she whispers.

“Done,” Cat says simply just a moment later, lifting her hands up and curling them around the back of Kara’s neck, bringing their lips together in a sudden surge of relief. It’s everything she’s imagined as she tastes her soft lips. They push and pull and when her tongue touches Kara’s for the first time, she scratches lightly at the blondes’ scalp and pulls her lips closer and closer, relishing in the strong hands running up and down her back…her hips…her thighs. She startles suddenly and pulls herself away when a crack of thunder rolls outside the lookout, but Kara reaches out and tilts her head back towards hers with a single finger.

“Just a thunderstorm, I promise,” she whispers before taking her mouth again, sliding and sweeping across Cat’s full lips. Kara loses herself in the feel of her mouth, her tongue which now commands her with every single touch. The sudden downpour outside echoes in her ears and a few small leaks make themselves known to her sensitive hearing inside their wooden getaway.

Cat pulls away for a moment, her face flushed and her breath ragged. “You locked up, right?”

“Yeah,” Kara replies, her hands sliding firmly around Cat’s hips and underneath the back of her soft thermal shirt.

“This is ok?” she asks, her hands shaking against Kara’s neck. Another flash of lightning and crack of thunder rumble through them.

“This is everything to me right now,” Kara confesses in a quiet whisper. “But…Cat…”

“What’s wrong?” Cat asks, smoothing her hands around the precious face in front of her. “We can stop, Kara.”

“I don’t want to stop,” Kara says quickly, “I just…this may not…fix me. This may not make this go away,” she shakes her head petulantly. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“Oh, darling,” Cat soothes, laying kisses all around Kara’s face…her lips, her eyes, her cheeks. “You could never, ever disappoint me. I…I just want to be yours, too.”

“Really?”

“Since the first moment we met, Kara. I felt it then. I feel it now. We’re here to help one another along.”

Kara smiles then and it’s real. Soft tears stream down her cheeks and Cat chases them with her lips. “I felt it, too.”

“Good,” Cat breathes, before settling her hands at Kara’s shoulders and pushing, tumbling them both back into the soft bed of Kara’s sleeping bags. All too quickly, the feeling of her body against Kara’s is overwhelming and familiar and…right.

Several thick, heated moments roll by before Kara rips her lips away from Cat’s neck. “Do you…” she gasps as cool thin fingers slip beneath her shirt and she feels light bites down the column of her throat. “Do you think…if I was your assistant…that we’d ever end up here…together?” she laughs as said shirt is slipped over her head with a flourish.

“Only if I’d fired you, darling,” Cat quips as she raises her head from Kara’s chest, her lips pink and swollen. “And with your smart mouth I don’t think that would’ve taken long.”

Kara’s eyes widen in amused outrage, her mood lifting quickly with Cat’s teasing. “My smart mouth?” she questions even as she flips their positions, her hips settling in between the blonde’s thighs easily. “I’ll show you how smart it can be, Miss Grant,” she quips with a playful, tearful smile.

-------------------------------------------------------------

“Vas?” a timid voice calls into the dark cabin where the artillery is stored. “Vas…are you in here?” Lena calls in exasperation.

“Here, my liege,” Vas appears suddenly, taking a knee, with a 10-inch bowie knife laid flat against her chest in pledge. Her recently trimmed, short brown hair brushes against her eye-brows and she blows out a breath to push them out of her eyes.

“You’re ridiculous,” Lena chuckles. It’s almost sunset in the camp and the sun is blazing through the west woods in a beautiful way, its light split and shadowed in infinite directions. It leaves them both in an amber glow tucked inside the front doorway of the cabin.

The short haired brunette looks up from underneath long lashes with a smart smile. “Don’t pretend like you don’t like ridiculous, Lena Luthor.”

Lena smirks. “Maybe…and maybe I was just coming to ask you to accompany me on that walk around the perimeter like you promised.”

“I am at your service, my lady,” Vas promises, bowing her head again and getting a playful slap for her trouble.

------------------------------------------------------------------

“I told Winn we would walk the north wall tonight,” Lucy calls as she washes her hands in the basin in their small cabin’s kitchen. “That’ll give him a chance to talk to Collin.”

“Really, Luce?” Alex asks incredulously from the bedroom. “Are you playing matchmaker again? Sweetie, I don’t even think Winn is gay,” she says as she leans in the doorway. She continues to button up her flannel as she gives her girlfriend a dubious look. “Kara mentioned having to let him down easy.”

Lucy huffs from the kitchen. “Please. You weren’t gay either, until you met me,” she says with an evil smile. “And…anyone with eyes would hit on your sister, she’s fucking hot.”

“Hey!” Alex says indignantly.

Lucy just rolls her eyes and steps closer to slip her arms around a sulking brunette. “Look, this is the apocalypse. There’s no ‘plenty of fish’ to fall back on, alright? I am the only compatibility questionnaire they need to master and those two boys are meant to be,” she affirms, kissing Alex soundly on the lips then stepping back to double check the rounds in her pistol. “Now, would you be my guest as I walk the north wall tonight?” she asks with a sly grin as she holsters her weapon and crosses her arms.

Alex rolls her eyes and grabs for her hoodie by the door. “Wouldn’t you rather have my sister?” she asks sarcastically.

“Nah, I bet Kara just landed herself a Cat,” Lucy winks.

“You’re an idiot,” Alex exhales.

“But I’m your idiot, Danvers,” Lucy smiles.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Kara hums and stretches when she wakes in the early evening. It’s even darker in the lookout now that the sun is almost set and with one of the lanterns turned down low. Her doing from earlier when the two of them settled together exhausted and sated and ready to close their eyes and drift away together. She can’t help but run her fingers down the smooth stomach in front of her, then back up again to run across Cat’s sternum and collarbones. Even with her eyes close, the older woman moves and rolls with the strokes of her fingers…just as she did a little while ago, causing Kara’s stomach to clench with want again.

“Mmm.” Cat rolls to the side and tucks her head underneath Kara’s chin and begins to lay kiss after kiss on the tanned skin of the younger woman’s chest. “Time?” she murmurs, humming again when she feels Kara’s arms tighten around her back, pulling her closer.

“It’s almost dark,” Kara answers. “I should get you back to camp.”

Cat shakes her head slowly. “Only if you’re coming along to shack up with me, stretch.”

Kara stills. “Are-are you sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure,” Cat laughs lightly. “If you think I’m letting you out of my sight now, you’re insane,” she huffs and collapses into Kara’s arms. “You’re mine now, Danvers,” she murmurs into the younger woman’s neck.

Kara smiles wide. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Cat smiles back as she starts to rise to her knees and look around for her clothes. “Now get your hot, zombie-killing ass up. I need my soft mattress to sleep on. I’m old.”

Kara rolls her eyes and reaches out a hand to tug the lithe woman back towards her. “You’re not old, you’re perfect,” she whispers as she tugs swollen lips to hers, sliding her hands around Cat’s still naked sides and pulling, toppling them back into the pile of sleeping bags and blankets.

“Perfect, huh?” Cat asks on a ragged breath as she props herself up, her hands on Kara’s abs.

Kara sits up, clenching the muscles in her stomach where Cat’s hands are resting. She smiles when she feels her squeeze and scratch. “You’re perfect for me,” she whispers. Cat’s hands slip up to tangle in her thick hair and Kara collapses, pulling them together once again in the waning flickering light.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

“Hey, you two,” Lucy calls happily, one hand holding firmly to Alex’s, but the other lifted in greeting to their neighbors walking the walls.

“Hey, Luce,” Lena says, bumping Vasquez’s shoulder to bring her attention to their friends.

“Oh, hey guys,” Vas says, holding her weapon at point and doing another turn around in her spot as Lena walks towards the other two women.

“Vas? What’s up?” Lucy asks quickly, seeing the woman on guard.

“I…I swear I felt something,” she murmurs as she finishes her sweep and turns to the woman. “About 50 yards back, I swear I felt…like a thud, a vibration,” she shakes her head. “No sound, just…like I felt it in my stomach, you know?” she asks, looking to Lucy in question.

Lucy nods and reaches to her waistband to get her pistol. She looks back to where Alex and Lena are standing talking. “Alex, can you radio my dad and tell him our position?” She gets a swift nod and hears Alex on the walkie immediately.

“What do you think?” Vas asks as she continues to turn wide and sweep the area.

Lucy takes a few steps toward the wall, sheet metal and steel in this area of the perimeter. She reaches out a hand and lays it flat. She closes her eyes and falls silent as she tries to concentrate on their surroundings. It only takes a handful of seconds for her eyes to pop open wide.

“Babe?” she hears Alex call lowly from a few feet away and she immediately raises a hand to keep them quiet and still.

Lucy reaches over to Vas and pulls her close to whisper in her ear. “We need to get them out of here,” she says quietly, catching Vas’s eyes and nodding when the other woman clenches her hand on her weapon. “Get them to camp, find Kara,” she hisses the last part as she feels a vibration rattle through her body. “Tell my dad we need everything we have.”

“I’ll find her. Be careful,” Vas says just before she takes off, shrugging her semi-automatic over her shoulder and snagging a struggling Alex and Lena, one in each hand, tugging them off through the woods.

Lucy watches as they disappear in the distance, listens as they start running in earnest when they hit the soft, worn path down the hill. She turns back towards the wall and narrows her eyes as she feels another thump of vibration. She tucks her pistol in the small of her back and crouches, looks up, then vaults herself 30 feet into the air into the tree next to her, settling onto the limb in a crouch with almost no sound.

She looks out into the dark, looming woods and concentrates, reaching out with the enhanced hearing and vision that the virus has given her.

What she sees and feels coming sends chills down her spine.

Walls won't hold this back...