"I could have sworn you had the fancy one here considering how good of an aim you have," Sparrow points to an expensive-looking hunting bow that I never would have been able to afford before the apocalypse. 

"Yeah, no, that's not mine. It wouldn't be terrific to use in combat anyway," I note. 

He shrugs as he grabs his sword, and we all step back out so Ethan can mark off who has what weapon. Ethan glares at Josh, who has his rifle, two pistols, and Dani's shotgun. 

"You know the rules, Simmons," Ethan levels. 

Josh gives Ethan an innocent grin. "Dani's prepping our vehicle and asked me to get her stuff for her."

"Dani's a big kid and can grab her own shit," Ethan remarks. 

"Come on, man," Josh huffs, "lighten up a bit, would you?"

"I'm not letting you wander out of here with more than two weapons," Ethan growls, "Now when those Spider bastards could come around at any moment." 

I open my mouth to tell Ethan to go suck a dick but stop short when I notice Dani walking over to us, looking annoyed. 

"Don't worry, Ethan," Dani says once she's close and pats Ethan's shoulder. "Two of those are mine; I asked Josh to grab mine for me."

Ethan glares at Dani as she takes her shotgun and pistol from Josh. "We don't send this many people out at a time, kid. Leon's losing his damn mind if he thinks this is a good idea."

"Well, right now, it's the only one we have," Dani returns as she shoulders her gun and slides her pistol into its holster. "We'll be back before you know it, and you can keep your precious inventory in check. Come on, we're ready to go."

We all file behind Dani, leaving Ethan to grumble to himself in front of the armory and pile into the truck. Josh starts it up while Jocelynn gives the trailer one last look over, then whistles to the front gate, where the guards open them up. 

"Alright, Cassandra," Dani notes from the front seat, "you know more about what we're walking into than we do. What are we expecting?" 

Josh glances back at me in the rearview mirror as he pulls the truck outside of camp, and Sparrow gives me an encouraging grin. I pull out my journal and flip back a couple days to the date where my siblings and I stayed there.

"It's not that big of a place in all honesty," I start, skimming over the entries. "It used to be an industrial factory, I think for AC units. The main building still has a lot of heavy machinery, and it looks like it was still used for some sort of manufacturing, but the generators have been shut off for a while. I think it might have been shut down before the infection."

Sparrow hums in thought. "Will the material still be good to use for building then?"

"Yeah," I nod, "the storage building was locked up pretty tight, and I don't think there were any holes in the roof, so it should be safe from the weather. The only concern at this point would be bugs, considering it hasn't been treated against termites in four years."

Dani glances back at me, moderately impressed. "It should be fine. We can grab as much as we need and figure out the rest once we're back at camp. You also mentioned something about there being Feral's there?" 

"At least a dozen or so," I confirm. "We were there a week before we found your camp but had to leave for obvious reasons."

"Will they be an issue?" Dani asks. 

"They shouldn't be," I reply, putting my notebook aside. "The infected don't usually hang around places like that for long when there's not a viable food source nearby. Considering that you guys have been pretty well hidden so far, the infected - or Feral's, as you guys say - should have either moved on or thinned out at least." 

Matt grumbles. "I don't like dealing with all of these assumptions we're making."

Dani glares back at him. "You're more than welcome to walk back to camp."

Mat flashes Dani a sarcastic grin before rolling his eyes and glaring out of his window. 

Josh drives on as we sit in tense silence, Matt brooding behind Dani, Dani keeping an eye out, and Sparrow twiddling his thumbs, seeming to just enjoy the ride. 

I can't help but get lost in my own thoughts as Josh makes his way down the old dirt path. I've already heard several times that Leon doesn't usually send this many people out at once, and that's already a red flag. It would have been more discreet to send only two or three while everyone else stays behind to watch out for everyone. On top of that, the walkie he had on his desk was suspicious, too. I haven't seen anyone else around camp with a walkie, let alone a military-style red one with 'EMERGENCY' written in big, bold letters. 

Who is he contacting? Does it even work, or does he keep it around as a memory? Why hide it, in that case? 

Something about this mission is fishy. Recalling the face Leon made when I told him that my siblings weren't going to come with us, it makes me wonder if he knows why we're going to Atlanta. There's no way he'd know about the locket, right? As far as I'm concerned, I nor Felix or Octavia told him or even mentioned it to him. 

What could he be up to? 

"Uh, guys?" Matt's voice pulls me from my thoughts, and I look over Sparrow to see what's wrong. "What has four legs, runs like a bear, and looks like a giant Feral?" 

Dani groans and turns around to glare at Matt from her seat. "Stop fucking around, Murphy-"

THUD!

The truck careens to the left as something massive slams into the passenger side door, nearly knocking Dani over the center console and shattering the window Matt was just looking through. A loud snap sounds behind us, and a cursory glance backward is all I need to see that the trailer is no longer attached to the back of the truck.

Sparrow shouts over our screaming, "Jesus Christ! What is that thing?!"

I catch a glimpse of a massive leathery, spindly, contorted body before the creature retreats back into the cover of the trees while Josh corrects the truck. 

"It's a very pissed-off Banshee, and it made off with our trailer!" I exclaim, grabbing for my knife as we screech past the sign welcoming us to the lumberyard. 

Josh steers the truck into the open doors of the storage building, where we all leap out to slam the door shut and loop the chains through and around the handles. The doors buckle with the weight of the Banshee as it throws itself against the wood, nearly knocking us back on our asses. Wild screams sound from the other side of the storage building, and the rattling of a chainlink fence rings out from far in front of us. 

Matt rounds on me while the others get ready for a brawl. "What the fuck did you drag us into?!" he exclaims. "You said they should have moved on by now! What the fuck is that thing outside?!" 

Dani grabs Matt by the scruff of his neck and yanks him out of my face to jab a finger in his chest. "Back the hell off, Murphy or I'm putting a buckshot in your face," Dani growls as Josh and Sparrow sprint off to find out where the Feral's are. 

"You heard her, Danielle," Matt spits, pointing a finger at me while Dani stands between us, "she told us that this place should be fine, and she called that thing a Banshee! She knew it was here," he sneers at me, "didn't you?!"

Dani shoves him away from herself and draws her shotgun, leveling it at his chest. "Calm the hell down and stop pulling shit out of your ass!" 

His jaw snaps shut as he shifts from foot to foot, eyeing the pistol in Dani's hands. "You can't seriously tell me that you trust that bitch," Matt growls. 

Dani doesn't look back at me but firmly plants herself between Matt and me. "I trust her a lot more than I trust a hot-headed trigger-happy moron like you, now back the hell off and help us barricade the doors!"

Matt glares daggers at me but eventually nods, running towards the door to slap material against it as the Banshee continues its assault. 

I don't even get a sigh of relief before Dani rounds on me, backing me against the truck and trapping me between the truck, her arm, a pissed-off expression, and the barrel of her shotgun. "You are going to explain to me exactly what your plan for getting all of us out of here is," she growls, low and dangerous and much more terrifying than Matt could hope to be, "and you are going to do it before I throw you out to the Feral's outside, am I understood?" 

I gulp. "Can you at least take a step back?" My voice shakes, and I can't stand how close she is. Her silvery eyes bore into mine for a tense moment before she wordlessly inches away, her shotgun pointed down, but the coldness in her eyes never leaves. 

Sparrow and Josh round the corner, panting but unharmed. "They're trapped behind a fence," Josh gasps once he's close enough. 

"Yeah," Sparrow breathes, "but not for long! They're really riled up back there!"

Matt appears behind Dani, still looking moody. "Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with her ringing the dinner bell," he accuses, pointing at me. 

I glare right back at him, challenging him. "How was I supposed to know that a Banshee would move into this place? From what I've seen of them, they don't usually leave the cities!"

"Yeah, well," Matt argues back, "guess they're running out of food in the cities!"

"None of this is my fault, either," I argue back. 

Matt moves in to get in my face, but Dani and Sparrow step in between us. "Enough!" Dani exclaims. "I don't care whether or not it was Cassandra's fault; what I care about is all of us getting out of here alive!" She turns to me. "Cassandra, you know this place better than we do; your life rides on all of us getting out of here." 

"I know, I know!" I snap, "Let me think!" The doors crunch and bow and wane as the Banshee continue to wail against it, and a thought pops into my head. "The generators," I mutter, staring at one of the light fixtures.

"What?" Matt deadpans. 

"The generators!" I exclaim, pointing at the light fixtures. "They have gas, or they did when we were here last time!" I push past everyone to point in the direction of the main building. "The generators have enough power to turn the old machinery on in the main building! We can use it as a distraction to get out! The noise and lights will draw the normal infected, and the racket everything will make will draw the Banshee! I can turn them on while you guys gather as much material as possible, draw them to me and the main building, and I can trap most of them there."

"Wha- Gather material?!" Matt exclaims, incredulous. "We're getting the fuck out of here! Fuck the material!"

Josh gives Matt a warning look as he speaks, "No, we're here for a reason, and I don't plan on going home empty-handed."

Sparrow nods, his hand on the handle of his sword. "Especially not with what we have on the line."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "Then it's settled; I'll turn on the generators and gather their attention while you guys get everything that can fit in the truck."

There's a murmur between everyone before Dani steps forward, a stern look on her face. "Not alone," she announces. 

"No offense, Dani," I deadpan, "but I don't need a babysitter to push a couple of buttons."

"I'm not going to babysit you," she returns, and the look in her eye tells me everything I need to know; she doesn't trust me still. 

The realization is a slap to the face; after everything I've done to help these people after she attacked me in the woods, after sleeping under the same roof, eating beside her, and helping them plan a defensive strategy against the Widow threat, she still doesn't trust me enough to help them on my own. 

"Fine," I growl, deciding that arguing about it while surrounded by angry Feral's is not the best time. "We can get to the generator room through the main building; the best way to get there now is up there," I inform her, pointing up to the loft where a crane and shoot are visible through the window. 

She nods and turns to her brother. "Keep a lookout while the other two gather the materials we need. We'll signal when it's safe to come out."

Josh gives her a firm nod and looks over her shoulder to me, a strained grin on his face. "Look out for this one, 'kay? She likes playing the hero any chance she gets!" 

Dani punches him in the arm as I manage to crack a grin, leading the way up the stairs and to the broken window, where the duct is situated. Below the window, dozens of Feral's make their way out of the surrounding woods and over towards the storage building, riled up from the truck and Banshee. Several of them spot us looking out of the window to them and begin to gather under us, though luckily, there isn't enough of them to start climbing over one another. 

"We'll climb over it and into the main building," I tell her, suppressing a shudder at the sight of the Feral's below us and shouldering my bow, but she stops me from climbing onto the duct. 

"I'll go first," she declares, watching me with suspicion. 

Biting my tongue, I throw my hands up to let her pass, knowing that arguing back will further escalate the situation. Shouldering her shotgun, she carefully eases herself out of the window and onto the duct, which creaks precariously, but holds her weight. She slides herself further along the upward slope of the vent towards the main building, the thin metal bending and squeaking the entire time. After several tense seconds, she's on the other side and quickly gesturing for me to follow after her, keeping an eye out on her side for other Feral's. 

I take a deep breath, trying to force myself to forget how much I hate heights, and I step onto the vent shaft. The metal bends dangerously, and my heart leaps to my throat, but I urge myself on until I'm entirely on the duct. 

"Okay, Cass, it's just like gymnastics..." I mutter to myself, chancing a peek down. "Several feet above solid ground that's teeming with infected who would love to have me for breakfast..." 

Oh, boy...

Shaking, I slide one leg in front of the other, shuffling my way up the vent as the whole structure waves and waivers in the breeze, the creaking only serving to quicken my heartbeat even more than it already is. 

And then the duct sinks below my feet. 

I suck in a breath, latching onto the support in front of me as the section of the vent below me snaps and collapses onto the group of Feral's below me, crashing and folding in on itself. My feet dangle above the Feral's like a tasty treat, and for a moment, I imagine the searing pain of having them rend the flesh from my bone. The ghost sensation is enough to spur me into action. 

I latch my foot into the now broken vent and haul myself back up, but the vent section I'm on is quickly starting to cave in as well. My eyes snap up to Dani, who watches on in terror, leaning out of the window with her hand outstretched. "Come on!" she exclaims, as though it's enough to save my ass. 

Moving as quickly as my body will allow, I clamber back on top of the vent and, throwing caution to the wind, crawl with all the strength and vigor of an overgrown lizard as the sections below me drop nearly as quickly as I move over them. 

"Damn it, Cassandra, jump!" Dani yelps, stretching her arm out further.