Consequence

Chapter Twenty Four

Ada stood a little shaken for a moment though it quickly passed, as she looked at Tommy.

"You okay?" She breathed. He nodded weakly. "Yeah. I'm good." He sighed deeply, leaning over to retrieve his fallen weapon. "Better than him anyway." He joked darkly with a snicker. Ada couldn't help the breathy laugh that quirked at her lips and exhaled through her nose. She turned to make her way back towards the alley when the sound of his voice called her back.

"Hey Ada... Check this out." Tommy hollered after strapping his weapon back onto his backpack, he'd leaned down to check over the dead man's pockets. But it was the patch worn on his bulletproof vest that had caught his eye. He'd pulled it off the man's shoulder and threw it to her. She caught it effortlessly, her green eyes narrowing in confusion as she read the letters and stared at the etching of a wolf.

"WLF? The hell does that stand for??" She wondered. Tommy shrugged.  "No idea, but this bastard must of been pretty fuckin' important to be this heavily armed." He said, as he checked over the man's holsters on his belt. Four pistols, two on each side. A shotgun and sniper rifle strapped to his back too. Wherever the man had come from, he'd obviously been planning to run into a fight. Tommy didn't waste any time in checking the pistols were loaded before handing two to Ada and taking the other two for himself.

"Military maybe?" Tommy shrugged again, rising to his feet. Holstering one gun and tucking the other down the waist of his jeans. "If he is; he's not like any Military person I've ever seen before."

"What if he's ex-Fedra?"

"Whaddya mean??"

"I mean, every other zone seems to have ended the same as this one... with the residents fighting back against Fedra. What if some of them managed to get away and regrouped to form their own militia?"

The man pondered it over for a moment; his brows creasing in thought before shrugging once again. "I mean it makes sense. Taking back the town they used to control with the government. I imagine when most of the QZ's fell, the government high tailed outta the place without a second thought." Ada nodded in agreement. "Which means there's more of these bastards around and we need to be careful." She said, "I just hope the girls haven't run into em' yet."

With that the two checked themselves over before moving on further down the road. Relieving the dead man of the rest of his weapons, Tommy taking the sniper while Ada had the shotgun. They strode down the street with purpose in their stride before Tommy faltered slightly as he paused in his tracks.

"Hold on..." He paused.

"What?"

"If we're right and there are more of them; then that means they'll have a base somewhere right? And a base means supplies..." he started, staring at his sister in law with a pointed look.

"And supplies means..." he trailed off expectantly waiting for her to catch on. 

"Guns. Ammo... I'm with you. But how do we find it?" She finished, crossing her arms over her chest, glancing at him with a raised eyebrow. They were both on the same page now. He took a second to survey the area turning on his heel to face her again. His head tilted upwards as she followed his line of sight along the extension of his arm pointing to a building in the distance.

"We get to higher ground. Get a good lay of the land and we should be able to scope it out with any luck. At least now we're armed again, we're not running around blind.  But these won't last long. Especially if we run into any more infected." 

"Right so... apartment building?"

"Apartment building." He curtly nodded in agreement as they took off together.

When they reached the building, dawn was fast approaching. The morning light bursting through the softly painted clouds with warm rays of a red and yellow shade. And though the dawn could be mistaken as perfectly picturesque; both were on full alert. There were fresh footprints along the dusty floor tiles. They made their way through the floors of the apartments cautiously; reaching the top level to find it empty. Though with air clearly disturbed and the couch noticeably slept on. There were empty cans left upon the coffee table and discarded packets of old beef jerky left on the floor. It was evident that someone had been staying in this apartment, though whoever it was had undoubtedly moved on now.

Ada silently followed Tommy as they made their way to the fire escape that led out onto the roof. Once at the top they took in the view before them. The town was bigger than they'd anticipated. Much bigger. The unmistakable walls of the quarantine were bordering most of it. Holding the crumbling and decaying buildings like caged animals. Though in the distance it was easy to make out a hole in the structure. Most likely blown apart by explosives during the uprising against Fedra. Ada took in the view, her tired eyes scanning every road and alleyway. Every building window and doorway she could make out, knowing Ellie and Dina were out there; below them. Somewhere. Her stomach twisted at the thought, the more it ran through her mind.

Please be okay. Please be okay. It repeated on a loop through her head like her very own mantra in a poor attempt to focus on the task at hand. It didn't work.

"There." Tommy announced pulling her from the cacophony of her brain. She looked to where he was pointing. Noticing a banner hanging from a balcony; the same initials and etching marking the sign.

WLF, the wolf.

"Hospital. Pretty on the nose don't you think?" she said sarcastically. Her brother in law chuckled lowly at her words. "Well you know as well as I do Ada, supplies are hard to come by. And where is likely to have the most supplies? A hospital. Shall we?"

"By all means, age before beauty." She smirked. The blonde rolled his eyes dramatically as he picked up a plank of wood and laid it across towards the roof on the other side. "Cute...but I'm pretty sure we're the same age." he pointed out with a childish huff.

She scoffed at his sulking. "I stand by what I said, get moving Miller."

Tommy paused, his brows rising slightly as he grinned at her words. "Again...you're also a Miller because you marrie- you know what, never mind." He dismissed in jest as he took a tentative step forward onto the wood. Ada watched with bated breath as he made his way across, the wood strained and creaked against Tommy's weight. Dipping lowly in the middle as he shuffled himself over. His heart raced as he heard the wood crack and splinter under his feet.

"Tommy!" Ada cried. It happened all too fast for him to register. His feet moved of their own accord, twisting and running as the plank snapped and crumbled beneath him. He propelled himself forward, as he felt his body hit solid ground with a heavy and painful thud. He'd grazed his forearms as he held him out instinctively to catch himself. His knees burned from the impact as well as he groaned in pain. Pulling himself to sit up, he twisted to see the damage he'd left in his wake. The plank of wood was gone. He, on one side of the large gap between the buildings and Ada on the other.

"Shit! Fuck!" he hissed as he dragged himself to his feet. He looked at the gap between them, then down at the ground below. It was a long way down. "Can you jump it?" He asked, already knowing the answer as Ada's nostrils flared at the absurdity of the question.

"Of course I can't fucking jump it, Tommy! Don't be ridiculous!" He sighed in defeat, cradling the worse of his injured forearms against his chest, turning on his heel and looking out to formulate a plan. "Okay...Alright...You see that radio tower, a few miles east of the hospital. Meet me there, from the looks of it; you should be able to get to it by crossing that river down there. I'll make my way back down when I can and meet you there before we head out for the hospital."

He turned back as the wind picked up, whipping around him. Swaying his tired frame against the heavy gales. Fluttering through his tied hair and pulling at his jacket. Ada took a moment to think through Tommy's plan as she stared out to the path below.

"That okay with you?" He prompted when she still didn't answer. She shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess it'll have to be." She called back. "If neither of us makes it by tomorrow morning, then we both assume something is wrong?" He nodded, turning back to take one last look at the hospital in the distance. "I'll see you soon then. Be safe." He said. Ada sent back a firm nod as she began making her way to the fire escape to climb back down.

"You too."

And with that, the two parted ways.