A Long Road to Fortune/Issue 38

This is the second issue in Volume 7 of A Long Road to Fortune. It is titled Blades of Glory.

Blades of Glory
Dust in the wind. Dirt dust. It cakes the air around our zone, our home. The troops march, and stare. They rest not, have not, for days. The threat is real, which makes fantasies die. Tecpan is no longer safe and will probably never be again. These men and women, however, want to prove me wrong. Their home is theirs to protect, no divine force can make sure of it. The divine force only caused death in recent times, as far as they could tell. Yet, hope and the divine are two completely different things. Nevermind both being associated as one in the immediate previous civilization.

Mendoza, the man behind it all, the successful and flourishing leader of a survivor's stronghold and a hope to many future generations. The safe zone perhaps, is his biggest accomplishment. Expansions and rising numbers of survivors every day, without a day of rest. Sweat and hard work from people under his leadership, it all gets them so far and ready to spread their life along the soil. What else was there to do, anyhow.

The Tecpan Safe Zone's army is at the ready, as all of them anticipate the impending storm with a rifle in hand and a vest shielding the best of their wishes. Greek tragedy or a full coming of hope can decide whatever the outcome will be, but in a harsh reality such as this, what can we really hope for. Life really did seem less narrow staring at it from the view of a rifle's scope, a thought which Jose and Francisco believe.

Gustavo approaches the leader, as he inquires to what the following days will bring. A man of such violence and skepticism as he anticipates conflict. After all, conflict is what made the military a great experience, but while he was never close to his fellow soldiers, the same thing he can't say for the zone. Humanity served on a platter, just for him. In all his life, this is a first for Gustavo.

"I'm going on a run, just me. Gonna hit up Tetitlan again-- clear the path,, then find some more supplies. Keepin' it all plain and simple. I'll try to be back before dawn-- though I ain't making any promises." Mendoza turns back to face Gustavo after his words and nods in agreement with his fellow protector.

"Sounds good. Will you be taking a vehicle?" the leader asks. Gustavo shakes his head.

"I'm walking but I'm hot wiring the first decent-lookin' thing I see." Hot wiring, a skill which his fellow apprentice Valdez, taught him several weeks earlier. Gustavo was a sort of delinquent himself belter joining the military, so he became quickly acquainted with the proper technique.

"You're probably the last person who needs backup, I trust you to it. Try to make it back as soon as possible, we may need you." Mendoza tells this Gustavo with a firm tone, and Gustavo answers back with it as well.

"Sure, I got it."

Gustavo proceeds to exit out of the west most gate, which Pepe soon closes behind him, watching him go on. Gustavo's large frame keeps him intimidating, even from behind and from a distance. Mendoza looks on himself for a second, but then returns his gaze back to his army.

A warm lover's embrace is a nice thing to feel at the start of the day, Ashton would know. He has spent the night with Liza's arms coiled around his torso, and his own hand was spent between her soft thighs. Ashton opens his eyes with a slight grumble and without much motion, peeks at his phone. 6:50 AM, still a slight dusk out, the sun will rise at any moment now. Ashton smiles warmly, shifting his body to the side, so that he is viewing Liza's sleeping face.

Now morning Liza is still a gorgeous Liza, to Ashton anyway. They say love can make young people oblivious to whatever silver lining may apply to a relationship and those blind might find it when it's too late. Despite the existence of this claim, Ashton has nothing to complain about, because a relationship with Liza has been in the making his entire life. Ashton feels like the champion of the world when he's next to her, and she is his queen. Together they are one, two opposite halves that come together to form something beautiful and much greater than either one as individuals ever can.

Ashton runs his hand through some of Liza's smooth and silky dark brown hair as she slowly opens her own pair of eyes, smiling at the sight of Ashton. How did Liza feel about Ashton? Greater than he feels about her, perhaps, but I wouldn't be ready to make a wager on that. Liza pokes Ashton's left eye and he instinctively closes it, making Liza chuckle slightly. She is amused as can be.

"Morning darling." Liza says as she kisses Ashton's forehead. "No mouth-to-mouth until we both wash those jaws." Ashton smiles to Liza's words and nods, wholeheartedly agreeing. Their bare bodies are still very warm and both continue embracing for a little longer.

"I wish this moment could last forever..." Ashton mutters calmly, Liza sighs in relief.

"I can make it last as much as you want. You just have to let me know how much you want to spend by my side..."

"I think you already know my answer to that." Ashton says right before he violates protocol and dives in for the kiss. Liza playfully pushes his face back as soon as the brief kiss ends.

"Hey! What was that we just agreed on?"

"I'm sorry I don't think I was listening to you." He wittily replies and goes for another kiss to Liza's mouth, one that goes down her neck, making Liza's lips quiver with pleasure.

"I see. So that's how you want to play it..." A devious smile grows on Liza's face as she abruptly gets on top of her man and goes down under the sheets.

"Hey! Now it has to be too early for that." Ashton says. Liza stops to say "We're young, it's never too early for this!"

Ashton peeks under the covers quite amused and smiles defiantly.

"I see, that is how you want it. I'll play along then." and his defiant smile soon turns devious, joining Liza underneath the sheets. The couple giggles and smooches on, in their very own nest of thundering passion.

Later in the morning, Mimi wakes up, only to find that Yvette had beat her to the punch this time.

"Oh crud." Mimi mutters to herself in disappointment. She wished to be the first awake again. Just once more may she be that person and feel as mighty as she felt that morning. "Aranza the Mighty", no, "Mimi the Mighty", she liked the sound of that.

Mimi goes downstairs after her teeth have been brushed, nevermind the mess of her morning haircut, just tie that sucker back and you're good to go. Peeking at the dinner table she finds a groggy Yvette playing with her spoon and moving it around her oatmeal, her right elbow resting on the table and supporting her right cheekbone. Yvette is just as bored of having nothing but oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast every morning as everyone else (besides Ashton, who seems to love it even more each day), but she is one to show it a lot more with her less-than subtle expressions and mannerisms.

"Just once more in my life I'd give anything for bowl of cereal...or some jelly toast, please..." She painfully mutters to herself, the misery in her tone more than translucent.

"Hey Yvs shut up, at least it's something, or would you rather let me have seconds?" Fausto remarks right before a spoonful of oatmeal enters his mouth.

"No, I'm never giving someone as mean as you seconds of anything." Yvette sourly remarks.

"I'm not mean, I'm sweet and caring and I've always been nothing but." Fausto goes on to state much to Yvette's chagrin.

"Ugh, no. If you're so "nice and caring" then why do you berate me so often? If it's not Mimi, every single other time, it's always me!"

"Because you give me plenty of reason to. Besides, it's my way of showing affection to dear friends like you." Fausto continues to fill his mouth with spoonfuls of oatmeal in between each exchange of dialogue.

"You're a real dick about it man." Mimi says after she sits next to Yvette with a bowl of food and spoon of her own. Yvette turns to her side and smiles at Mimi, her friend replying with a wink. This display of protection causes Fausto to shrug his shoulders and continue eating.

Liza shows up soon after, wearing a white bathrobe. The reaction from the others is mixed as Fausto simply chuckles to himself, Yvette turns red, and Mimi rolls her eyes. Living with each other for five months now, these youngins are smart enough to know that Liza wearing a bathrobe in the morning signified her dance under the sheets with Ashton the night before. It was infrequent, but it happened.

"Mornin' guys." Liza says before closing her eyes and humming quietly to herself, soon disappearing into the kitchen.

"Fausto, you still got five more months on it?" Mimi asks quietly from across the table, Fausto nods. "Yup, gonna smoke your bet. Nine months is too much. They're careful enough and all but one'll slip through eventually." Fausto is certain his bet will win.

"Guys..." Yvette sighs as she sees this, her two friends betting on the future of a couple's love life. Liza comes back just after this small interchange ceases.

"Where's Ashton and Valdez?" Mimi asks while still munching. "Ashton went to check on his aunt. Valdez went back early with the military guys." Liza casually eats after every bit of dialogue.

"I don't know how you can be so happy at at time like this..." Yvette starts. "...cartel on the horizon-- I can't focus on giving my classes and my students are too horrified by what might happen to even show up most of the time." There's clear disdain in her tone of voice but that's to be expected of the meek Yvette.

"Dude-- everyone's scared, not just you." Mimi starts. "True, but I guess some of us are just calmer about it. I may make it look easy but I'm trembling on the inside." Fausto goes on in her place. "Well, what can I say? I think we might have a shot. The whole zone has been training hard and keeping surveillance tight. Then there's us being a union-- filled with amazing people like Mendoza, Pepe, and Paloma. We can keep each other safe." Liza says these words with most of her confidence held tight. She knows she needs to be optimistic about it, there were already enough gloomy souls who thought otherwise. There needed to be a balance if this society was going to work out, and Liza is keen on staying positive. It'll make the defeat of those cartel bastards much more memorable for her, and there was nothing she wanted more than to see the mighty Costa Grande Cartel fall, crumble down to dust and ruin.

"Well, that makes one of us." Fausto grumbles.

The searing heat is another thing challenging the spirits of the people's zone. Hard at work, hard to avoid bay. Valdez, even him, is ready. He holds his rifle and peers over the gate from time to time, watching master snipers Jose and Francisco at work. The men routinely mark their spots and think of speedy ways to reach when the fallout finally comes. They stare in each other's way for a moment and salute each other with a chop off of their foreheads. The two finest snipers of the Tecpan Safe Zone knowing their bout is about to start. The threat is real, any day now the cartel is coming for them, all of them. Their guided bullets are worth more than any other bullet fired by the resistance.

Down below, leaving the rooftops over the concrete canopies, the street levelers take it to it. Paloma, Daniel, Yuri, Jaime, Pepe, amongst others, are there to hold it down. Sweat drops down their foreheads and past their eyelids, as if it respected each individual eyeball it passed. They were small in size but packed more of a hopeful punch than any other rapscallion politician before the ballot results are announced. A vest of best wishes and a rifle of soul bullets are in their possession, igniting the fiery decor and grace that they persist on maintaining.

To their sides, the people of the marketplace make their stand. Even those inexperienced in military combat such as Jesus, Curly, and Sandra, and those inexperienced in firearms, like the blood-boiled Mario and the pale stone Santiago, are more than willing to fight against the king. They don't intend to miss.

The icing on the cake, the kids, the future as Zarez puts it, are there behind the man. Yvette and Mimi in opposite ends, Fausto standing next to Yvette, Valdez next to Mimi, Max next to Valdez, and Liza next to Fausto. In the center of their magical circle of youth is Ashton, the first child prodigy to ever become a sack of shit. I guess fate has a twisted sense of humor.

The man himself is quite obviously Mendoza, as he stands tall and strong holding the flag, a white flag that slowly turns red, matching the flaming glare Mendoza gives to the opposition. Slightly behind Mendoza is Gustavo, the second man behind the Safe Zone. Their army and lively good standing behind them, facing the wave of what could be their ruin.

The short and meek-looking (oh but looks are quite so deceiving aren't they) but immensely powerful Don Tucan, stands opposite. His peons and and pawns, willing to do his bidding. The man doesn't even smoke yet lights a cigar, clearly no reason behind that. The demonic faces of those belonging to el Kanguro, Scorpion, Silvestre, Claudio, Shaman, Gloria, Punta, and the other bandanas get lost in a dark sea of other bandanas. Two sides, all about to clash.

This was no chessboard, as the kings lead the path, they do not cower. Though, there was no doubt of all of them being pieces in the goddamn battlefield.

The afternoon is still doing the usual thing, the heat having been already described countless times. A soldier, tall and form, with a slim muscular build, grips her own fist. Looking out in front of her. Paloma battles her own thoughts of uncertainty-- will they succeed? Will they fall? Break.

Jesus pats the woman in the shoulder and gets her attention. Paloma's serious trance is gone in a flash as soon as she turns to face her dear friend, and little brother of sorts. Paloma's serious look is washed away almost as fast as it got there. Jesus smiles back to her.

"Hey Pal, you look like you've been getting a little too much sun lately. Come on, let's grab a bite and you can tell me how my strings are doing." Jesus asks and Paloma's expression changes to that of surprise.

"Since when do you ask me for feedback on your musical endevours, Jesus?" Paloma asks with intrigue.

"Heh. Well, Mario's cousin Manny wants to pick up the guitar himself and he wants me to teach him, says he finds Mario too an impatient teacher for his liking, wants someone more mellow-- so he came to me." Jesus sounds sure of himself yet begs the question to be asked.

"Really? What do you need my help for then? You're amazing guitarist-- I'm sure you can teach the kid without a hitch." Paloma states. Jesus offers her a half smile and rub of the back of his head in return.

"That's the thing-- I like your criticism a whole lot. I really think it's helped me mature as a musician. I just want you to receive my first lesson before I give it to the kid, make sure it's alright. Are you up for it?" Paloma is amused and gives Jesus an affectionate noogie.

"Yeah, you got it Jesus. I'll be your first pupil. It'll just have to be a little later, I'm under strict surveillance duty at the moment."

"Hey thanks a bunch Pal! And hey no worries I'll just come by your place later. Really appreciate it Pal!" Jesus says as he waves goodbye to Paloma and leaves her be with her defender duties. Paloma does the same thing.

Once Jesus leaves, Paloma's smile once again falters, and the serious militant look comes back to warp her face.

In Tecpan, there exists a place elevated from the rest of the town, atop a hill so high. From it, the whole center town of Tecpan can be seen, a sight that reaches out just to the town of el Suchil. The distinctive characteristics about this place is the giant white cross coupled with the statue of Jesus Christ that can be seen from the town below. Locals and visitors alike call this place "La Mira". The sun is even more of an enemy atop this hill, showing no mercy to those who ever come to pray. Most of the year the place is unvisited, save for a special day of the year, the 3rd of May, also known as "Día de la cruz", or "Day of the Cross" for us less proficient.

Ashton sits down after having just finished cleaning Patricia's grave. The nephew felt horribly about the meager grave he had given his aunt when he first awoke into this new reality. Ashton was so meager back then, more than he is now. Five months in the apocalypse already seemed like a year of regular life, even if assault and battery were no longer part of his everyday life.

Patricia was a saint, one of the few to enter Ashton's life. Even after his release and reformation, Ashton still lacked a moving home life. He'd still come home to an empty house, no sounds coming anyone who want he. At this point, Ashton didn't even mind thr social anxiety, because feeling anxious meant he was talking to someone. Even after growing accustomed to the lonely shelf life, Ashton is able to recognize that humans needed human interaction every now and then, something he envied from others for a very long time.

Then one day came the saint. Patricia took some warming up to at first, considering where she was in her own life, reduced to nothing but an abandoned woman with an inability to be fertilized. Yet Patricia got over her problems, because she found reason to worry about Ashton's himself. He could never thank her, he never had. All he ever did was express these thanks to a tombstone, with a rotting corpse underneath it.

As a young boy, he'd be confused and frustrated at his situation, left alone by his parents with no else raising a hand for him. Other kids received all the nurturing and assistance that they needed, something which Ashton rarely ever got. He remembers the time he learned how to write in cursive over a weekend while his parents were off town in Acapulco. They came home and ignored their child because they had just gotten a raise, the fruit of their labor. Labor just happened to topple over love on that occasion. Pretty soon, both of them phased out of Ashton's life, to the point of becoming ghosts. Ashton need never talk about them.

As the faint wind hits his face, Ashton now worries for the terror of the cartel. Could he take more hostile lives? Yes. Does he wish to take more hostile lives? Not at all, how can anyone wish to take a life period? He may be everything bad out of a noir comic book, but never will he be a violent man. Not ever. Then again, violence is the only tool Ashton has to keep what he loves safe. He clutches some dirt and scatters it around the air, imagining them to be nothing but senseless bullets.

"Yooo-- what's up man? Liza said I'd find you here." Ashton turns his head back to catch Valdez on his sights, approaching Ashton with open arms. "The sun's killer up here but I'll admit-- the breeze feels nice." Valdez takes a seat on the white boulder next to Ashton.

"How's aunt Patricia doing man?" Valdez asks. Ashton raises an eyebrow.

"Still dead Valdez. Nothing is going to change that." Ashton says this without a hint of despair.

"Yeah, that still sucks. I can't believe I only met her once man. Lovely lady, real kind-- and good-looking to boot. She's what I want my future wife to be like man." Valdez says while staring out into the town view, just like Ashton.

"She really was something special. The only reason I'm even standing here right now is because of her. She gave her life for me. I can never forget her."

"I know Ashton, I know. I bet she's happy you're here with us. She, like the rest of us compadres, knew that you weren't such a piece o' shit. A damn good judge of character that woman was."

"Want to know what the first thing she asked me about you was, Valdez? She asked me if you were a major perversion case."

"I rest my case-- that woman was really something else."

"Thanks again for helping me move her grave all the way up here, man."

"You don't have to bring it up everyday Ashton, it's just what us bros are here for. Besides, you've done more than a hell of a lot for pervy ol' Valdez here. I'm oweing you for the rest of my days." Valdez speaks nothing but honesty. He feels he'll never repay his old pal, or ever be as great as he is. To him, you didn't get better than Ashton.

"I just think we make a good team, you know? Which is amazing considering we're opposite halves." Ashton replies smiling softly, still looking out to town.

"Amen to that man, I couldn't have asked for a better partner-in-crime. The shit we've pulled is the stuff of legends man." Valdez pumps his fist in excitement at all of those memories, of times not too long ago.

"You're my brother man. Simple as that. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you."

"Likewise. Thanks for you everything Valdez." Ashton and Valdez share a fist bump and a devious smile, the same smile that flashed on them as the notorious delinquents that once ravaged the whole damn municipality of Tecpan.

"You cool, alright? Don't want you being a dick to yourself anymore. You should keep being a dick to Liza-- if you know what I mean. Me and the guys got a bet going you know. So if you keep it stiffy, it ain't looking good for my end of the deal." Valdez laughs and Ashton pushes him off of the boulder, and subsequently lends him a hand up. Smiles and laughter never leave each other's faces.

"I'm glad you've never changed. The world needs Alejandro Valdez-- just as he has ever been." Ashton says this as he pats his brother on the back. Both can agree that they're more than thankful for each other.

"Hey let's head back down man. It'll get dark real soon-- and it's the wrong season for us wabbits, ya know?"

A wonderful melody from a delicate guitar graces the ears of Paloma. Jesus has indeed just finished giving Paloma the trial version of his lecture, the one he will be giving Manny in due time. Paloma claps in excitement and Jesus bows his head to the praise.

"You're on tune as always Jesus. You're still the perfect guitarist, what are you so worried about exactly?" Paloma reassures Jesus.

"I guess it's a special form of stage fright-- I mean, I've never been a tutor to anyone before. This is new territory for me and an honor for any honest-to-god musician." Jesus says with a worrisome tone, but Paloma just laughs it off.

"You'll do great-- trust me. There's nothing for you to worry about."

"Heh. Alright then Pal, thank you for giving me the confidence I needed. Always there for me when I need ya." Jesus really holds her to high regard and Paloma feels honored.

But.

Paloma is a woman of secrets, secrets she is afraid to tell Jesus. Why? They may happen to be very, very dark.

"Hey...Sus." Jesus is alarmed by Paloma's sudden swap of tone. "What's wrong?" He asks.

"Would you really think of me like that, no matter what?"

"Of course, always. Why're you asking me this?" his eyes squint slightly.

"There's still a lot you don't know about me. I'm not at all couture and glamour, let alone sugar and spice. Many horrible things have happened to me-- or because of me." Paloma's business stare returns and sends a chill down Jesus' spine.

"I know you've been holding out on whatever it is happened to you. But I just think like that Pal, to me you'll always be a great person. Throw at me all you've got, Pal now is still the Pal I like." Jesus offers her a reassuring smile, which seems to calm Paloma down, but not change her expression.

"I'll tell you everything, everything that's been hurting me." Paloma declares, once and for all.

"Sounds good. Pal, but I'll give you some time to it. I have to meet up with Manny soon. It's getting dark out." Jesus nods and stands up, holding his guitar over his shoulder. "I'll drop by later okay? Thanks for the help." his warm smile and his closed eyes make Paloma feel special, like she could really be that great to someone.

"Okay, I'll see you later Jesus."

---

Just on the town square outside, some of the troops are also resting their bones and bodies. Today has felt exactly like all other days have felt, exhausting and exhilarating, both for all the wrong reasons. The nurses and doctors are all feeling the same too, but the mental toll of them is much worse.

Max continues to help his mother in her investigation once again. Sandra is only a nurse, she only studied to be a nurse, even if she had to study her fair share of biology and chemistry along the way. By no means does she feel qualified enough to do this, but she's the only candidate for the job at the moment. Nothing else to say. Currently, the Gomes' are packed up for the night.

"Is this what happened to grandma?" This abrupt question zaps Sandra's attention to her son. "Was she under this much pain after she died?" Max goes on to ask.

Sandra's mother, Gladys Texta, was bitten by a grosero during the cruel beginnings. Sandra herself admitted her to the hospital, on that first day the people with bite marks first came in. Gladys succumbed to blood loss pretty quickly. Sandra grieved as much as she could before more patients began to lose their own lives. The hospital became a graveyard rather quickly. All she could tell Max about her grandmother was "she went fast and painlessly". She regrets saying those words her little boy now.

"Yes, yes she was. All of them were-- I should've told you a lot sooner-- I'm sorry cherub." Sandra frowns and looks down to the floor, making Max sad.

"It's okay mom, I'm a big kid-- I understand. People die and it hurts them."

"I still shouldn't have hidden this from you, you had all the right to know baby." Sandra digs her face into her palms for a second before running her right hand through the top and back of her head, breathing out rapidly. "Things aren't like they used to be anymore-- I don't know why I keep lying to you."

"It's okay, we are all together still. I'm happy and you are too." Max breaks, and goes on to speak once more. "I wish grandma didn't feel pain when she died..." Sandra rubs her son's hair.

Gladys wailed horrifically the moment she reanimated, just like their grosero test subject had when it passed. The subject in question was a supply runner who came back with a branch stuck through his abdomen. He died of blood loss before Sandra could begin to operate on him. With Mendoza's approval, Sandra replaced the man's "corpse" with a previously reanimated double. All groseros look alike, after all. Sandra and Mendoza are the only people aware of this.

"Mom, did all of those people scream like grandma did?" Max ask a fairly innocent question. Sandra can't see a reason to avoid answering it.

"No, cherub. Some of them didn't make a sound or move a muscle."

"Why do you think that is?"

Sandra shrugs.

"I guess they still had something left to do."

---

"Hey Daniel. You ever think about what we're gonna make out of our lives now?" Jose asks. Currently, the two are sitting on some concrete on the zocalo. Daniel has placed his weapon aside, while Jose just fiddles with it on the ground, spinning it around with his index and middle fingers.

"Nah man. What's there to think about-- we keep this place safe and help it grow. It's duty." Daniel is still his usual serious self but surprisingly mellow now that he is taking a short break while others are out on patrol.

"We can do that-- we can do that and much more, man. Don't have to be just that. I wanna paint again, and maybe paint some murals around town. We just need to run into some more-- eh-- paint. And take care of things. You don't see yourself farming anymore?" Jose asks casually.

"I have nothing to farm, not even some goddamn tomatoes. We barely get onion and lettuce crops, and even those are dropping numbers. Maybe if I had some cattle, sheep, some damn chickens at least, but we got nothing." He halts his speech. "Someone else can give it a try if they want, but truth be told-- I'm done as a farmer. Thirty years of that and I'm finally off of it. I just want to continue working with the zone, just like everyone. Let some other guy farm his ass off." Daniel speaks his deep mind, first time since April.

"Heh. Whatever suits your needs man. I'm thinking I could fancy up that alley by the old pharmacy, make it a mural of our defeat of the cartel. What you think?"

"Not a bad idea. This place could look a lot nicer." Daniel takes another sip from his canteen, as both continue to talk and rest for the long, sure to be arduous or abrupt, conflict ahead of them.

---

"Frank..." Yuridia, a voice of kindness and flower, asks her beloved. "Where do you see our relationship in one year?" Yuri massages Francisco's sore shoulders while she sits in the zocalo's concrete benches, opposite of Jose and Daniel.

"If things go well...I'm thinking happily wed, as savior a of the zone, just like everyone else." He says with a relaxing moan. Both are soldiers, but Francisco has not rested nearly as much as Yuri has, or anyone has really. Francisco here, has been on high alert since the morning after the fabled Christmas celebration. No New Year's celebration followed it.

"Wed huh? Aren't we thinking a little ahead of ourselves here?" Yuri mocks.

"Really? You don't want to marry all of this?" Francisco uses both hands to feel his chest and abdomen from top to bottom. Like many people in the zone, Francisco has gained a more muscular and overall fit physique thanks to the rigorous work put in on expanding the safe zone.

"Yeah, I don't think all of that could handle me for life. Have you seen what kind of assets I'm packing here?" Yuri doesn't need to point, and I don't need to point for her either. Frank smirks, his eyes still closed and relaxed.

"I've closely inspected them-- many times." Frank smiles proudly and Yuri gives him an affectionate play slap across the temple.

"Hey! Don't be gross about it!" This prompts laughter from Francisco. "You're the one who brought up them assets. I'm just a fan is all." Yuri shakes her head.

"You're lucky you're real cute you know? So cute that I may just agree to marry you. We'll see what the future has to say about that." Yuri playfully pulls on Francisco's top lip.

So cute, so warm.

Spin the bottle is a great recreational, but rather experimental, party game. Livelihood and worry is happening right now within Ashton's home. Ashton, Liza, Mimi, Yvette, and Fausto are all huddled up in a circle, sitting on the living room floor. With a lack of board games and no imagination currently flowing through the brains of anyone, the few friends decided to give spin the bottle a try, with some established ground rules, of course.

It is Fausto's turn to spin the glass bottle of pop that has been dry for months now. With a nice grip and a twist of his wrist, the bottle spins around for a few seconds before the drinking end lands on Liza. Liza raises an eyebrow.

"Liza Cabrera, the bottle has chosen you to be the first schmuck of the night. Truth or dare?" Fausto says. Liza contemplates for a second.

"Truth." Liza's inner being smiles, as there's not much any of her friends can inquire to. They really do know a lot about each other.

"Are you late?" The room goes silent. "Huh?" A dumbfounded Liza goes.

"Are you late? You know-- on your period." Fausto asks with a straight face, as if it were a normal question. Liza's raises both eyebrows, clearly weirded out by the question.

"Uh-- weird question much?" Liza starts. "No Fausto, I am not. My periods are very much on point-- thanks for asking." Fausto curses under his breath and Mimi snickers just enough so that Fausto and Yvette are the only ones to notice her. "My turn." She finishes.

This time, the bottle lands on Yvette. Yvette's cheeks turn a little red and she shivers slightly. Her entire focus is on that bottle, pointing directly at her. Fausto shakes her by the shoulder, he sits to her left.

"Yvs, Liza said truth or dare." Fausto says. "Well uhh, I guess-- dare?" Yvette speaks. She trusts her gal pal Liza will make this easy for her. Chicks before dicks, after all, or maybe that phrase made no sense in her current predicament.

"Alright." Yvette looks directly at Liza's pink blossom lips. "I dare you to-- go out and flirt with Curly." Yvette feels sick to her stomach. "What?!" She reacts. Liza and the others, save for Ashton, chuckle. What the hell Liza, this is not what gal pals do to each other!

"I'm just kidding Yvette, I'd never make you do something like that. How about you just give Fausto a little peck on the cheek? Yvette calms down a bit, but the sick feeling in her stomach is still there.

"I guess I can do that..." Yvette says, she's done it before anyway.

"Yvette, are you alright?" Ashton asks, noticing Yvette's slight disorientation. "Is this too much for you? It's okay if it is, you can tell us." Ashton finishes, but Yvette holds her temple and shakes her head.

"No, I am good to go. Heheh." Awkwardly smiling is never a good sign of comfort.

"C'mon Yvs, my cheeks are waiting." Fausto teases, which fumes her a little. "It's not like this is anything new."

Yvette gets closer and closer to Fausto's cheeks and slowly shifts her lips to create a "kissy face". Those soft lips get closer and closer, but Yvette's disorientation just gets worse and worse by the second.

"What's taking you so long?' Mimi asks, and a second later, Yvette's cheeks fill up just after her gag reflexes fail.

Yvette let's loose a projectile made up of green puke, directly at Fausto's cheek. Yvette covers her mouth and darts to the bathroom, letting everything else loose into the toilet. Fausto closes his eyes and sighs in retaliation. Getting puked on by anyone, let alone his best friend, is a first.

"Holy crap that's nasty." Fausto says as he abruptly stands and follows Yvette to the bathroom, but heads to the sink instead. Everyone else in the room is a bit dumbfounded.

"Umm...how did that happen?" Liza asks. "Man, I have no idea. Yvette's just weird like that." Mimi replies. "I've never seen anyone else blow chunks like that before in my life."

Ashton notices that a bit of puke has stayed on the ground that stood between Yvette and Fausto. "I will take care of that, I guess." He regains a stance and disappears into the kitchen. Liza then turns to Mimi.

"It was an innocent enough date, right?" Liza asks Mimi with a shrug. "I have no idea anymore-- Yvette's weird as hell." She answers. Liza just sits in confusion and looks in the direction to the bathroom.

---

Yvette has just finished expelling the rest of her soup from her body. She hastily snatches some toilet paper and cleans her lips of the green mess. Simultaneously, Fausto has finished washing his whole face, and then shakes off some of the excess water. Some of it lands on Yvette, much to her discomfort.

"Damn Yvs, did I rub you off the wrong way earlier? What did I do to deserve that?" Fausto asks.

"Ugh...nothing okay? I lost it for a moment, that's all." Yvette says with a sore tone. Fausto rolls his eyes. "I'll get the bucket." He says.

There was just an uncomfortable atmosphere created by the context of such a game, she thinks. That, and the thought of flirting with Curly got her bowels riled up to return their contents to the exterior world.

A moment later Fausto returns to the bathroom, and Yvette stands up, moving out of the path to the toilet. Fausto rapidly dumps the water into the toilet, triggering it to flush. Fausto then turns to look at Yvette.

"Are you seriously alright? I've never seen ya like this, even after you lost the report wars to Ashton." Fausto goes on worriedly. Yvette looks away from him.

"I'm-- it's just, how could we be playing such a dumb game at a time like this?" Yvette reacts. "We should be thinking of ways to save our lives, not making me kiss you!"

"Peck me, Yvette-- not kiss." Fausto interrupts.

"Beside the point! Do you know how many armed men are going to be exchanging bullets with each other soon? Why are we wasting our time like this!" Yvette's clearly distressed.

"Hey, we played that dumb game because we're all together and we have each other! What's there not to get? You're really being a buzzkill here Yvs!"

---

While Yvette and Fausto exchange words in the bathroom, the others are left to hear them from the living room. Mimi in particular is, disturbed by the situation.

"What the hell is wrong with ya Yvette..." She mutters to herself.

"She doesn't sound sad, she sounds pissed." Liza stops to look at the bottle. "I guess this really wasn't the ideal time to play 'spin the innocent enough bottle'." Liza adds.

Ashton comes back from disposing of the dirty paper towels and nearly regains his spot next to Liza when a knock on their front door sounds. Liza, in particular, finds this odd.

"I'll-- go get it." Ashton says, turning in the direction of the door, until Liza grabs a hold of his wrist. Ashton looks right at her and Liza shakes her head.

Soon, Ashton is out towards the front door, where the knocking starts once again.

"Hello? Who might this be?" Ashton asks.

Earlier that night...

Sandra has just finished tucking Max in for the night, thinking her son will be safer behind many steel locks and dead-looking house. This has been a mother's drill for the last few nights. Shotgun at the ready, as well. Sandra makes her way back to the new hospital, one they have built near the zocalo. It is much smaller than the old hospital was, but big enough to accommodate the population of the safe zone. Sandra is still a nurse by trade, but now she has taken, more or less, the role of a doctor. The general populous still refers to her as "nurse" though.

It is a starry night in the zocalo, as only a few people are still awake, apart from the soldiers in the walls, which have now expanded beyond the zocalo. Sandra can see Jesus, Mario, and Mario's cousin Manny sitting in some benches from afar, playing guitar. Sandra smiles at Mario's social progress, proud of her dear friend who up until just a few weeks ago, was still a bit of a sociopath. Sandra keeps trekking, looking in the direction of the hospital.

Straying away from the zocalo, down a southeast path, Sandra notes that the only lighting in the street comes from the light post at the very front of the hospital, which is still about 30 feet from Sandra. It's pretty close by, so Sandra does her thing and continues to walk the darker path.

"Don't. Move. A damn. Muscle." An Uzi, poking her right in the back. Sandra instinctively tries to reach for her shotgun, but the sound of her assailant almost cocking his weapon reminds her not to. "I said don't, got it?" Sandra can't see the man's face but she can feel his clothing. He wears a leather jacket and is considerably larger than she is. We know him as Scorpion.

"Make a sound, and your son grows up without a mother." He quietly threatens. Sandra gulps in fear and nods.

"Okay, I'll cooperate. I'll do it-- just don't pull that trigger." Sandra pleads quietly.

Scorpion doesn't respond to her, and proceeds to place a dark sack over Sandra's head.

"Move" he urges her.

--- Jesus sits, playing Caraluna in his guitar for Manny. Manny watches intently, not losing track of a single string. There's just enough light coming from a nearby lamp post to properly teach him. Mario watch his cousin, rather impatiently. He knows Manny is the type of kid who learns by self-tutoring, not teachers. It's always been that way for him, kid's just wasting his time and Jesus' time.

"Okay, you know all of the basics and a few songs, so let's see you try playing Caraluna yourself." Jesus asks the kid. "Yeah no problem, I've got the hang of it." Manny states. He begins playing the song as best as he can, not too shabbily.

"Hey that's pretty good for your first try. You sound a lot better than me when I first played it." Jesus gives the boy a pat on the back. "No big deal, I'm a born musician." The kid declares.

"You didn't even want to become a musician until a few months ago." Mario interrupts. "So stop being a sassy shit." Manny nods to his cousin's words.

"Sure cuss, whatever you say." Manny responds sarcastically, fully expecting Mario to reprimand him further. Mario instead shakes his head, much to Manny's surprise. He shrugs.

"So what other songs do you think I could play, Jesus?"

"First I want us to work a little more on Caraluna and make sure you get that one down-- then we can start thinking about other songs for you to play."

Mario stands up and extends his hand out to Jesus, which he shakes as soon as they meet a grip. "I leave him to you Jesus. Thanks for being a friend." Mario says, Jesus nods. "Sure thing man."

Mario then turns to Manny. "It's not safe at all, so if anything fucking happens you come running back to the house okay?" Mario points to Manny. "Yeah cuz got it. We're just gonna be here playing strings anyway." The boy replies. Mario then takes his leave south, in the direction of his house.

A full ten minutes later, Jesus and Manny have made more prepress on the song, but Manny is displeased.

"Aww c'mon, what do you mean my timing is off?" Manny asks and Jesus answers quietly. "You're playing too fast, you have to remember-- Caraluna isn't a rock song, it's a lot more mellow than that."

"Then I know just the perfect answer-- let's forget this pop stuff and teach me a rock song! Who cares if it's not an electric guitar?" Manny says.

"Slow down, okay? You're still a novice, even if you're showing a lot of talent. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is talent." Jesus lectures the very impatient young man.

"Alright alright, let's play more snooze fest songs then-- I'll play as many as I have to before I take on the real stuff." He says with confidence. "Haha. Okay then, take it from the top again."

As these two musicians play, their quiet surroundings go unnoticed. Such is the power of human distraction.

Manny is suddenly whacked behind the head, knocked completely unconscious by the butt end of a rifle. Jesus freezes on the spot when the man points his weapon at him. He can't make out the man's identity, because a bandana is donned over his face, the only distinction is his messy buzz cut Mohawk.

The man is completely silent, because he more than communicates his bidding to Jesus in just his eyes alone.

---

El Kanguro and Scorpion return to an abandoned shed, quite a ways down the main avenue, in a neighborhood referred to as "el Fortín". This shed in particular, is quite a bit a ways away from the east wall, which ends in the neighborhood of "Corea". Each of the two men have their packages with them. Once at the door of the shed, they knock. After a few moments, Silvestre answers..

"Ah, about damn time. C'mere, shows us what you picked up." He signals them in with his head. Scorpion keeps pushing Sandra with the end of his Uzi, while El Kanguro does the same with Jesus, Manny is slumped over his shoulder.

Once deep inside the shed, the hitmen make a stop, and toss their preys into a lighted part of the otherwise dark shed. They then remove the sacks from their faces, revealing them to be in the presence of the omnipotent Don Tucan. Sandra and Jesus freeze completely when they get a peek of the devil, pretty much what he is to them. Sandra can also spot two other hitmen, a man and a woman, in the corner of her eye.

"Is this her Fernando? Is she the nurse?" Don Tucan asks. Scorpion nods "Yes sir." Don Tucan looks at Sandra intently, as if he were observing a treasure up close. "Yes, quite a valuable asset to the zone, or am I wrong?" Sandra is too terrified to answer, not seeing past the man's dark shades.

The man then leaves turns his attention to Jesus, and the unconscious Manny, this time he doesn't look as pleased. "These are not the people I asked you to bring me, Javier." Don Tucan says with a cold, professional tone that would send shivers down the spine of any other man. "I asked you to bring me the Galeana boy, and the woman stunt double. Instead, you bring me them. Care to explain yourself?"

"The teenager, he is the Galeana boy's cousin, and the musician is someone valuable to the woman. It was a two-for-one, sir." El Kanguro explains. Don Tucan still doesn't look pleased. "They are useful, yes, but neither of them are who I asked for. You need to work on following my directions more, boy." El Kanguro nods after this.

Don Tucan picks up a list, attached to a clipboard, sitting on a bench behind him. Grabbing the list, Don Tucan retrieves a own from his pocket and proceeds to make some edits. The list now reads:

Pepe

Jaime

Daniel

Jose

Sandra

 Paloma 

 Mario 

Yuri & Francisco

Liza

Delinquents

Don Tucan smiles, as the list is making progress. Strike the opposition quietly, dwindle the numbers, smile dastardly. Then, attack. He'll let Mendoza see for himself.

"Come on out." The man and the woman come into view.

The man is medium height, dark skinned, wearing a leopard print dress shirt and black pants. He has dreadlocks as well. This is Tuco Rivas aka "Shaman".

The woman is shorter than the man, but not by much. She is a little on the thinner side, but surprisingly bulky. She wears a jean jacket with the sleeves torn off, above a white tank top, with some tight green pants covering her legs. Distinctly, a collection of tattoos paint her body. This woman, with her nicely shaped cheekbones and long black hair, would be gorgeous otherwise, but she is just too damn menacing. This is Gloria aka the she-devil.

"It is your turn to hunt. Do not disappoint me." Don Tucan firmly states, both hitmen nod and proceed out.

---

Shaman has his eyes on a young man, tossing a stick up and down, catching it each time. He is a ways outside of the walls, going to a neighborhood located uphill. Shaman gets closer and closer, but first he retrieves a walkie-talkie and mutters a few words into it. Once he's finished, he places it back in his pocket.

The unsuspecting boy here is Valdez, who is getting pretty damn close to Ashton's, which has grown to become his own home for the past 5 months. Valdez is all shades of calm, whistling away the hunting tune. Completely unfrightened by his surroundings, Valdez has a sudden change of heart when Shaman sneaks up on him and points a desert eagle right on his lower. If he somehow lives through the shot, he certainly will not be walking ever again. Valdez is quiet and does his best to resist any sudden jitters or screams.

"Now I know you be knowin' what this here is, so you best cooperate." Shaman whispers to Valdez. Valdez can't even move his mouth to reply. "So how about you make this a whole's lot easier for me n' you, that alright?" Valdez nods and Shaman pulls him back down a different street. "Just keep movin'."

Valdez keeps moving at Shaman's behest, keeping the man's gun from eviscerating his entire lower back and abdomen. Shaman puts the moving to a stop for a few moments. Valdez is still too afraid to move his lips. This picks a bone with the hit man.

"So how come you ain't blabberin' off to me? You scared? I thought you had a big pair of huevos, Ringo, so why am I hearin' your pussy lips flappin' around?" Shaman taunts Valdez, who twitches slightly at the mention of Ringo. That's one name he hasn't heard in awhile. "Heh. Can't even tell a joke? Maybe you will when my buddies get here, they love jokes." Buddies meant Shaman had indeed called in more hit men. Valdez can't believe his rotten luck.

Another vehicle arrives, a black Toyota pickup truck. Only around five hitmen appear from it, but it is clear to two in particular take the lead. One is thin, more handsome than the other. His hair spikes up and his stare is menacing, while the other man is bigger but not attractive in comparison, maybe a little overweight. Their names were Martin Solis and Ronaldo Sanchez, Punta and Pachinko, respectively. Valdez raises an eyebrow, as they are two sons of bitches he had hoped to never see again in his life.

"What's up compadre? Holdin' it down?" Punta asks, Shaman shakes hands with both men. "Like we always do." Shaman responds. Pachinko then turns to look at Valdez.

"Eyy putito! How's it going? You fuck over any people lately?" Pachinko says to Valdez while he pulls on his right cheek, painfully so. The feeling of soreness sets in for Valdez.

"Hmm, how come he ain't respondin' back?" Punta asks.

"His balls are gone. He traded em' in for a snatch." Everyone laughs at Shaman's answer.

"Heh, whatever putito. Why don't we go say hi to your bitch boy friends? Sound good?" Punta asks, keeping his long dagger close to Valdez's neck. With Shaman's gun also still in his back, Valdez and the hit men make their way to Ashton's.

...back to present.

"Hello? Who might this be?"

"Heyyy Ashton, just me bro, how's it hanging. Just uh-- coming home for the night. Heheheh." Valdez says uncomfortably. Ashton hears a slight step coming from his room up above.

Ashton decides to open the door. A choice to give them room to contemplate indeed.

Shaman, Punta, Pachinko, and the other few hitmen are there, with their gun right on Valdez. Valdez looks terrified once Ashton opens to the door to see the sight. Ashton frowns and grits his teeth. It was a trap alright, but he half expected that.

Punta and Pachinko can't hold their excitement, and the latter grabs Ashton by the collar and slams him down on top of the hood of the run down junk car that stands in front of the home. Valdez is still being kept still by Shaman.

"Sup Ashton ol' buddy! We thought you was dead! But look, ya clearly ain't! That's hella interestin' right Pachy?" Punta asks Pachinko, who tightens his grip and slams Ashton a second time. "Yeah that's right." He responds. "So damn interestin' that ya got me wonderin'-- how many more lives you got in ya, ya renegade mothafucka'?" Punta adds.

Punta and Pachinko are two notorious figures in Ashton's life. Like everyone else who knew anything about Ashton, they thought it was great that he had died, especially when the hospital finally collapsed on itself. The fact that he has been alive this entire time is a rather unpleasant surprise.

"You two, go on in and fetch the little fishies. You'll make boss happy." The three other hitmen comply with twisted grins plastered on their faces.

Pachinko and Punta both lift Ashton's shirt and see the scars, the product of their relentless assault. They're quite happy with what they see, as this effectively renders Ashton's abdomen a monstrosity.

"You see that shit, Asstan? We did that shit. Us!" Pachinko states proudly. "I bet these here stab wounds hurt a hell of a lot, huh?" Pachinko test this theory out by giving Ashton a well-placed blow to to the gut, causing Ashton to double over and fall to the ground in pain, wincing slightly once he has hit the bottom.

"Ashton! Man!" Valdez yells, but Shaman promptly tugs on him. "Shut up."

---

Inside the house, Yvette, Fausto, and Mimi hide before the hitmen can begin to spot them. Yvette shakes in fear a little, and Mimi has her hand placed over Yvette's mouth. Fausto is hidden across the room from them, huddled up in fetal position so as to limit his size as much as he can. The hit men wander into the dark living room, and Liza looks at them through the scope of her rifle, from the secrecy of the second floor. She sees one hit man approaching Fausto's location, and the other burly figure walk down to the kitchen, away from Mimi and Yvette. Liza moves, if she is to save that meddling Fausto.

Liza whistles. "Hey-- over here!" The two idiots immediately turn to the source of the voice and spot Liza, which gives the rest of their friends to escape, out the back door and through the pool. This goes unnoticed by the hit men.

Liza is now forced to maneuver herself out of trouble as she exits the bedroom, out the small bridge that leads to the other set of rooms. The hit men raise their guns to intimidate her but Liza doesn't stop running and they don't stop to shoot.

"Remember, this little plan of mine will not work if we do it guns a' blazing. Use your heads to control the situation." Tucan's words echo through their heads.

The hit men separate and Liza covers herself. She has her rifle at the ready, waiting for anything to come out of that door. Instead, a smoke bomb fills the room. Liza coughs and moves towards the window, frantically trying to undo the lock before she is either grabbed or suffocates. Seeing that it is no use, Liza opts to instead push herself through, smashing the window, plummeting to the street below. Liza's fall is broken when she lands on top of Shaman.

"Gah. The fuck is this?" Shaman says as he and Liza both wince in pain. Her shoulder feels more than a little injured.

Ashton acts on this opportunity and slugs Punta, knocking him down, but is bear grabbed by Pachinko before he can do anymore damage. Valdez is still stumbled down on the floor. Ashton sees this, and his protective instinct kicks in.

"Forget it man! Run! Get away from here, and don't look back." Ashton yells before he is shut up by a swing from Punta. Valdez is still sitting down, clearly not registering what Ashton is telling him.

Liza takes Shaman's gun and quickly slams his head back against the pavement. She regains her footing, but a kick to the gut from Punta sends her right back down. As soon as Liza falls beside him, Valdez gets up and makes a run for it, with Punta aiming, but not taking the shot at him, despite his silencer. The air is too open for the time being.

"Okay mami, watcha say ya hand over that rifle and Shaman's baby for me?" Punta puts his foot on Liza's hand before she can even grab the gun, kicking it away from her. "I ain't gonna repeat myself, not even for ya." Liza reluctantly complies and unstraps her rifle.

"Nice nice." Punta says as he examines it. The hit man who threw the smoke bomb at Liza emerges from the front door and helps Shaman back to his feet.

"Fuck, bitch packs a punch." Shaman says, rather, in a tone of respect. "Where are the fishies?"

"Carlo's got them. Nothing to worry about." The hitman replies.

---

The downside to Ashton's home has always been its uphill location, reverse of the street next to it; it's a few feet on higher ground. Yvette, Mimi, and Fausto, in that order, climb down a rope, each slowly descending down about 25 feet. The rope is tightly knotted to Ashton's house above, as a quick emergency escape in case anything ever went wrong.

"C'mon Yvette, hurry up! We're gonna die if that cartel fucker gets to us." Mimi pushes her friend who is indeed descending slower than they are. Yvette is in no way an athlete; the fact that she can even hang on to the rope is a feat of the adrenaline currently flowing through her.

"Mimi, lay off her! She's not taking this as well as we are." Fausto whispers. Yvette doesn't notice this whatsoever, as she is fully focusing on not falling to her death.

"Shit's gonna hit us in the face, Fausto! You know this!" Mimi's words come true a second later when the young girl spots the hitman, Carlo, looking out the window, and down to them. In a mere second, he slashes the rope, sending the youngsters to their apparent doom.

"Shi--" Mimi mutters before she hits the ground a second later, landing on her shoulder. The stinging hurts her too much to allow her to speak.

"Fuck, my arm's busted." Fausto mutters. He and Mimi regain their stance whichever way they can, but it is clear that their injuries are more than a little slowing. Yvette herself cannot even stand up.

"I can't-- my ankle hurts. I think I've sprained it." Yvette says, wincing in pain. Fausto and Mimi help her up, acting as her crutch.

Carlo smiles from above, knowing that the fishies cannot get too far.

---

"I got something you're gonna like." Carlo, who has just returned to the front of the house, tells this to Shaman quite proudly. Shaman gives him a sinister smile followed by a slight chuckle, which is reciprocated by the the hitman. Shaman retrieves his Desert Eagle from Punta before he leaves.

"Alright, you three keep an eye on em' fuckbuddies." Punta, Pachinko, and the other hitman nod in agreement, with Punta kicking Liza down as she once again tries to stand back up. Shaman and Carlo disappear down the road.

"Back to having some fun times we are. Tell me Ashton, how many times ya gush in that pretty little, smoooth pussy of hers?" Ashton is visibly disgusted and Liza grimaces, much more when Punta nudges Ashton with his shoulder. "You been doin' it enough times? Cause' if not, we'd be more than happy to lend a hand."

Ashton grits his teeth and gives Punta a fearless death stare, much to his amusement. "Hahaha, relax. Just wanted to get you riled up. The big Tucan has a thing against rape, you know. We don't wanna cross whatever he orders. But you know, if she's willin' to get down and bout', then who is we to stop her? We'll leave that pussy numb"

"You're trying really hard, aren't you?" Liza's words come right out of nowhere, causing Punta to turn and face her. "The fuck you just say?"

"You're hiding the fact that you play for the other team, right? I don't see your friends here mouthing off about my vagina at all. You don't sound so confident when you do either." Liza's shit eating grin gets to Punta, who pushes his face closer and closer to her.

"What the fuck is you sayin' then? Speak bitch!"

"It's simple-- you're a faggot." Punta stops what he's doing for a second, stunned in place, before he follows up by sticking his tongue down Liza's throat, which leads her to gag. After that, he tosses her back and begins to wail on her with some powerful kicks.

"Ya wanna see just how big a man I is? Huh? Huh? Keep runnin' your mouth, honey! Pitch my damn tent!" Pachinko has to admit, he finds this quite amusing. His friend's insecurities have always been his sort of downfall.

Ashton is not having any of what he's seeing, his blood boiling more than the scorching earth. In a mere more, he swiftly headbutts his captor, Pachinko, and catches him off-guard, loosening the grip on the hug more than enough for Ashton to give him a hook right to the jaw, powerful enough to knock Pachinko on his ass. Then, Ashton pounces on Punta, leading both of them to wrestle. Liza, despite being in excruciating pain, regains her stance and kicks Punta off of her beloved, quickly retrieving her rod from the back of her shirt, lining it up exactly with the man's neck.

Ashton attacks the third hitman, easily dodging a punch from him and countering with his own blow, knocking him down. Pachinko, however, has since regained his stance. He proceeds to grab and pick Ashton up over his head, slamming him down the concrete next to the wheel of the run down vehicle. The third hitman draws on Liza before she can kill Punta.

"I'm practically giving you a lap dance, so where's your tent? Punta grits his teeth in anger, prompting the hit man to take aim.

Ashton sees this from his spot on the floor, kicking Pachinko's legs away from him. As quickly as he can, he reaches for the top of the wheel of the vehicle, and Pachinko stops in his tracks when he sees what Ashton has cooked up.

Ashton great us heavily, as he is now in possession of a pipe bomb and lighter. Pachinko takes a few steps back, not even bothering to draw on the boy.

"Get your gun away from her-- or we're all going down."

---

Valdez has since come to a stop, culminating paths with his injured friends. Yvette is still unable to move around and Fausto and Mimi are both hanging on. Valdez, as the only healthy member of the quartet, has decided to carry Yvette. Panic still runs through his veins however, and his friends don't move fast enough for him to calm down.

"You piece of shit Valdez! You just left Ashton and Liza there by themselves..." Mimi's eyes tear up and Fausto bites his lips. "They better be alright damn it! Damn it!"

Each one of Mimi's words sting him, having deserted his friends in their time of need, even with their insistence.

"I know Mimi but-- fuck. I couldn't do shit. I had nothing! I wanted to do something!"

"But you froze...pussy. Fucking pussies, both you and Yvette!" This causes Fausto to lash out.

"Shut the hell up Mimi! This is not easy for anyone! I'd like to see you have the balls for that kind of stunt yourself, these people are cold-blooded killers! The fuck, they deserve to feel terrified if they want!" Fausto and Mimi are at odds, each tearing up or fixing their friends, all while moving as hastily as they can.

"Bitch, I can do it alright-- I don't care what happens after that. I'm never feeling like a pathetic sack of crap again!" Mimi lashes back.

"Guys...don't argue, things are getting worse." Yvette says in between her pain. She is promptly ignored by her friends.

"You should listen to your friend you know." Shaman and Carlo have caught up, and now Shaman points his Desert Eagle from across the street. They're all lined up perfectly, like bottles at shooting practice. "She's a smart one."

Carlos walks up to the frightened teens, with Fausto looking straight at Mimi, who is just as frozen as the rest of them are.

"Put that down Ringo." Carlo sends fear into Valdez. "I'm not gonna repeat myself." Valdez obliges and places Yvette down on the floor. Carlo smirks and pistol whips Valdez across the face, knocking him down.

Shaman walks closer to the group, particularly Yvette. His smile penetrates her mind and soul, forever burnt into her memory. He grabs the young woman and carries, his smile never letting go of her.

"Put her down you bastard!" Fausto acts up for the first time and moves towards Shaman, but a swift knee to the gut from Carlo dispatches him relatively easily. Carlo steps on his head, making sure the defeated boy stays down.

"Tch. Like a bitch." Shaman says. "We taking a walk."

---

"You're one damn crazy bastard Asstan, I'll give ya that. But who is you kidding? You're gonna blow us all ta' hell, including this precious thing on top of me?" Punta so cunningly states, before Liza delivers him a bitchslap.

"Like you just said, I'm crazy." Ashton grins and lights the fuse.

Quickly, he throws the bomb a few feet up in the air and doves straight for Liza. The couple run about for a few feet before the bomb finally detonates, sending shrapnel a flying everywhere. Pachinko and Punta are sent back by the blast, but manage not to catch any dangerous side effects. The other hitman isn't as lucky and a shrapnel joins his throat, falling dead almost immediately.

Liza and Ashton manage to avoid suffering a similar fate. Among the smoke, Ashton and Liza go back for Liza's weapons, making a move for it. Liza retrieves her rod and Ashton her rifle.

The walls of the marketplace are now disturbed, thanks to Ashton's elaborate ploy. All guards are now on high alert. The cartel has arrived. I mean, why else would a bomb of all things break the streak of silent nights around Tecpan?

Francisco, quietly and soundly, has been moving around this entire time, shifting from sniping point to sniping point. Alas, he stopped just mere moments ago when the explosion had gone off. From his small building locations scattered across around town, Francisco knows the battle is coming. He can't help but feel frustration, as no sign of this bombing had appeared prior to it. Not a single gunshot had gone off. 'Twas too late now, battle is coming. Francisco awaits from his spot, having a pleasant view of the main avenue. Any vehicle or body should be his for the sniping.

---

"Where the hell did that come from?" Pepe asks to his fellow guards, who are currently patrolling the perimeters of the westernmost wall of the zone. "Whatever the hell we've been doing up until now, it's clear that we've been slacking off. Get it going guys, the fight's just--"

Pepe and the rest of the guards are interrupted when ropes snare their feet together, killing the balance, before they are pulled off of the wall with great force. Pepe lands harshly on the ground below, injuring his left shoulder in the process.

A single woman is at his feet. She grits her teeth menacingly, shooting the other guards dead before they can even react, leaving her alone with Pepe. Pepe regains his stance, yet his rifle is too far from him. This heavily tattooed woman is the enemy and she has him at her mercy. Gloria, the hitman, casually tosses her gun aside, it's quite unimportant. Pepe squints his right eye slightly, not sure what this woman's gameplan is. However, he feels like quite the fool a second later. This is the god damn she-devil, Gloria.

"The she-devil? Here to take us all out, you crazed bitch?" Pepe keeps his tone of voice firm, he's not actually scared of the woman, or many other things to be exact.

"Tch." Gloria spits out to her right. "You ain't shittin' your pants, big guy? C'mon then, fight me. You got the balls right?" Gloria provocatively waves her fingers at Pepe. "You gonna hit a girl right?"

"Quite honestly, I don't think you even qualify as a woman-- or human, anymore. I'll fight you alright." Pepe raises his fists, as does Gloria.

"You flatter me too much, kiss ass." She responds. That is, until a few more hitmen show up to accompany her. Gloria calms them down with wave of her hand.

"This'is between me and him, got it? Any of you punk ass bitches get in the way, I'm rippin' off your ballsacks. Comprendido, motherfuckers?" Gloria says this and all of the hitmen back away in respect.

Gloria doesn't waste anytime in charging at Pepe. Pepe avoids her swinging punch and nearly loses his footing. Gloria sure is quick. Pepe proceeds to kick at Gloria but is amazed to see that she catches his leg and uses her legs and back to flip him. Pepe falls back onto the ground and quickly rolls out of the way to avoid Gloria's curb stomping of his face. Pepe stands up and strategizes anew as Gloria runs towards him again. Pepe parties her punch and lands a good one on her gut, leaving Gloria stunned for a moment. Pepe follows with a powerful kick to her chest, sending Gloria to a fall.

"Pfft." Gloria spits some of her own blood out to the left and returns to her feet. "I have to admit, that was pretty damn good. Those muscles aren't just for show." Pepe closes his eyes for a brief moment.

"I'm not holding anything back, I trust you're not doing that yourself?" These words make Gloria smile.

"Clever boy, I not takin' it easy on you anymore. Congrats though, you got my respect." Few people, if any, have managed to make the she devil bleed with their fists alone.

Gloria takes advantage of Pepe's position near a wall and runs to it, hopping off of it with a kick that Pepe manages to block, but makes his arms hurt-- a lot. Pepe punches Gloria in the face soon after, yet the moment his fist lands on Gloria's face, her fist lands on his face. As this mutual punch goes on, Pepe grits his teeth and Gloria keeps smiling. In a brief flash, they depart from each other.

"What the hell is the deal with you? You're not like any other person I've ever fought." It's true, those powerful blows from Pepe are all he has ever needed to knock out a foe, and Gloria here is taking it all like a champ while dishing out the same kind of pain.

"I'm not a little bitch, that's all. You gonna keep talking or are we gonna keep this going?" Pepe takes that as a sign, Gloria's next move.

Pepe charges her this time, bypassing her arms and going straight for her neck. He grabs a hold of it and slams her down. Gloria smiles, as she takes this opportunity to wrap her legs around Pepe's back, kicking at his exposed lower back. After there clean hits, Gloria has loosened Pepe's grip on her neck, and proceeds to bash his face with a powerful elbow strike. Pepe staggers back and Gloria grabs hold of his left arm, tugging him back down. Now, she wraps her legs around him once more, this time his neck. Now having Pepe face down, Gloria briskly moves Pepe's arm, 'till a sickening popping sound is heard. Pepe screams in pain but he knows he needs to win this. He hastily tries to roll and strike Gloria, which works to a degree. Gloria is unexpectedly hit in the face by the back of Pepe's only working fist, allowing Pepe to free himself. He wastes no time pummeling Gloria a few times, until Gloria kicks him in the bottom of the chin. With an arm gone and a blurred field of vision, Pepe doesn't see this next one coming.

"You're damn good, but I'm damn better."

Gloria, using her blinding fast speed and reflexes, performs a flip kick that hits the top of Pepe's skull. This hit is enough to defeat our hero. Gloria smiles and places her foot on the defeated Pepe's chest.

"String him up for me, I'm not done with him yet." A command from Gloria is not to be ignored or delayed to.

Now Pepe hangs upside down, both feet tied with rope. Gloria gets ready to giver her new punching bag a test round.

"Tch." Gloria changes between hooks, punches, and even elbow strikes, just to give Pepe the damn greatest beating of his life.

This goes on for several minutes, until Gloria is done with seeing Pepe's blood flow down his mouth.

"I'm done. Give me a sack and cover me, I'm taking him to the boss. Don't follow me all the way there, either."

I guess that's why they call her the she-devil.

---

Gloria has just finished returning the package to base, while gunshots riddle the streets outside. Don Tucan stands pleasantly, admiring everything so far. Shaman, Punta, Pachinko, Scorpion, Carlo, and el Kanguro join their boss and Silvestre.

"Good work Gloria. The list is dwindling down in numbers, slowly but surely. It is really a shame that our cover has been blown, however." Don Tucan turns to Punta and Pachinko when finishes saying this. "You two have a lot to make up for."

"Yes, sir. We will." Punta replies simply.

"You two putos cost us our advantage, and you didn't nab the kids either. Shaman, should've done that shit yourself, why'd you trust these idiots?" Silvestre berates him and Shaman is at a loss for words.

"I went an' overestimated them. This is my fault as well." Respecting your superiors is one of the basics of Cartel 101.

"Damn right, cabron!" Don Tucan pats his old friend in the shoulder and instead relays a new message.

"There is a lot more still left to do here, men. Do not keep me waiting any further." Don Tucan instructs his soldiers, pointing them out the door. "Except for you two, you will continue to stay here and make sure our guests stay behaved."

Kanguro and Scorpion acknowledge their orders with a nod. Sandra and the rest are all still horrified, looking at what happened to Pepe.

"Hoooly shit. I still can't believe that's Pepe. He got fucked up." Mimi whispers to the rest, who are just as shocked. Pepe is literally one of the strongest guardians the safe zone has at its disposal. The fact that one smaller-framed woman was able to put this much of a hurt on him is just too much to believe.

"Pepe, can you hear me?" Sandra whispers directly at the man, laying down, battered and beaten, but still breathing.

"Yeah, I hear you. Damn, she got me good. That Gloria is something else…" Pepe mutters back to her. Sandra is relived to see that Pepe is still with them.

Don Tucan is still disappointed that Ashton and Liza had not been abducted as well. They will not be getting very far though, good ol' Don Tucan is sure of that.

Francisco is still hiding in the buildings, alarmed now that many enemies have suddenly begun flooding into the safe zone. While Francisco notes that many of these are just generic-looking hitmen under Tucan's pocket, the sight of young men, ranging from 16 to 40, also armed and actively fight in the zone. Whatever they were, something was still true-- there were too god damn many of them, their numbers needed to be cut down. As a sniper, that's exactly what Francisco is here to do. Taking aim, a random soldier of Don Tucan's falls down from a guile headshot. Francisco pulls the trigger two more times, causing two more bodies to follow suit and fall. After this, Francisco stands up and changes location. Firing anymore and he is sure to give himself away.

"Like hell I'm letting you get your hands on anyone else…" Our warrior thinks to himself.

---

Mendoza is taking point right in the middle of the zocalo, with only Yuri and Paloma as any real backup. There are some guards with them too, but most are falling victim to the situation.

"Surrender your guns, sergeant, it's that simple. You keep the lives of you and your people as well." A hitman calls out to him. Mendoza shakes his head and appears from a vehicle behind him, knocking him with a swing of his shotgun.

"Can it. None of that bullshit will be coming from me." Paloma and Yuri follow closely behind him.

Mendoza has definitely noticed that these "soldiers" are avoiding killing anyone, so he has yet to be shot at himself. However, giving up his weapons isn't an option either.

"Mendoza, what the hell are the planning anyway? Why haven't they tried to waste us?" Paloma asks her boss.

"Who knows for sure, really. This is all a game for the cartel. They'll only shoot and kill if we do that first, that's the only way I can see it. I don't know how much longer we can keep that up though. We've already lost people that tried doing that. We need another way to push them back and out the zone!" Mendoza says this with such confidence, thinking he knows what Tucan wants. A gentleman's wager, and maybe a fighting chance for himself.

"Then leave it to me. I'll dispatch as many as I can myself, I'm pretty good at sneaking around." Paloma points to herself with her left thumb.

"If you find any of our civilians, keep them safe."

"No need to tell me twice." Paloma winks and rolls out to the dimly lit corners of the safe zone.

"I've never seen anything like this before, sir. There's so many of them." Yuri says.

Indeed, there are many defeated enemy bodies piled all over the ground, but more will showing up any second now. Out of the corner of his eye, Mendoza spots two more-- chasing after Max.

The young boy sprints with all of his might, quite unsuccessfully trying to escape his prosecutors. Mendoza and Yuri sneak in closer and wait for their chance to strike.

"I just want to know where my mom is! Leave me alone, please!" The boy screams, prompting laughter from those chasing him.

The ragtag group gets closer to Mendoza's location, and the man assaults them from one side and Yuri from the other. Mendoza punches their lights out and Yuri breaks a jaw with a swing of her rifle. Max runs to Yuri's arm, scared for his life.

"Relax, Max. We're here, we won't let anything happen to you." Yuri tells this to Max as the boy embraces her.

"They took my mom and I don't know where she is. I just want to find her and make sure she's okay. I don't want anything to happen to her…" Yuri rubs the top of the boy's head in an attempt to comfort him. Mendoza urges her to stop this quite soon however.

"Come on, let's get a move on. More of those bastards could appear at any moment." Yuri nods in agreement, and she follows him along with by her side.

---

Ashton and Liza continue running the seemingly endless streets of the uphill Tecpan communities. This particular neighborhood is known as "el PRI". Many hitmen and enemy bodies alike have joined in on the hunt for the couple. It doesn't help that by now, Ashton has caused the death of a hitman and Liza has begun to fire at them. Bullets have come close to grazing them for several minutes now.

"We're way too far from the walls now, Ashton. No one's coming to our magical rescue!" Liza exclaims, panting for air after every few words. Ashton is not as fatigued as she.

"Liza, whatever we do, we need to stay together. That's the only thing that matters!" Ashton ducks from a bullet's path after this.

The couple turns a corner and enters a new street going east now that there's good distance keeping them away from the angry mob trying to gun them down. Quickly, the couple finds an alleyway that leads them back up north, and without another choice, they take it. Now they're one step closer to escaping by way of the hills-- which is actually quite the gambit. The hills, other than La Mira, have not been cleared of groseros yet.

When they finally reach dirt and see no one in their pursuit, the couple finally stops to take their first breath in a while. Liza immediately places her bum on the dirt, breathing rapidly.

"Are they gone? Are they still following us around?" She asks while panting. Ashton nods his head. "For now, at least." Liza pulls Ashton down beside her and rests her head on his right shoulder.

"I felt like we were going to die back there. I've never felt this much adrenaline in me-- ever."

"We're still breathing and kicking though, and we're together. That's what matters." They hold hands for a brief moment, a moment so brief that snarling, of all things, breaks the silence. Liza turns to to look.

"Oh, shit." Oh shit is right, Liza, because both herself and Ashton get up in a heartbeat.

Liza, being the only one with any weapons, attacks the groseros with her rod and butt of her rifle. While Ashton tries his luck on finding a weapon of his own. His momentary search culminates in the discovery of a small but thick branch, which Ashton begins to carve in a moment's notice, using a stone.

"These hills are riddled with these things! There too many!" Liza keeps getting backed up closer and closer to Ashton, as simultaneously dealing with more than a handful of infected is trouble for anybody crippled of a gun.

"Don't worry, I'm coming to lend a hand!" Ashton declares, dashing to Liza's side, dispatching of a grosero with his newly made wooden spear. This cuts their numbers quite a bit, until Ashton is suddenly pulled into the group by a stray verrucose hand.

"Hhng! Agh!" Ashton struggles to remove the hand from his shirt. Liza severs said hand and pulls her beloved back to her.

"You alright?" She asks hastily and worriedly. Ashton nods.

"This isn't going to work, alright? Any more plans?" Liza asks. Ashton thinks for a moment. "We can really only go on one direction-- and that's towards La Mira. It's cleared, we just need to lose this angry posse." Ashton's quick thinking calms Liza down a bit and she smacks the hell out of an incoming grosero with her rifle.

After that, the pair makes haste to their desired location.

--- Jose is having quite a bit of a problem. Having fired several warning shots at the incoming cartel gunmen, he has since been forced to run and take cover as often he can to avoid turning into Swiss cheese. You know, the kind of cheese that's riddled with holes.

"You're cunning and all my friend-- though we ain't currently in the market for that." Shaman casually says this with his loud, menacing voice. He knows that Jose can hear him from where ever it is that he is hiding.

Jose peeks outside his refuge, only meet the bottom end of Shaman's boot. Shaman uses his surprise to his advantage and kicks Jose square in the face. Soon, he is surrounded by the enemy forces. They are all circles around him, aiming directly at him.

"If you're gonna do it-- then go ahead and do it. Don't delay it." Jose tells the man and his comrades, not a hint of fear in his voice. It really seems like he has accepted his fate.

"Hahaha. Would that be som'thin' you would want? No sniper, we appreciate you not picking us off when you could've. Boss would rather see you alive n' well." Boss? Could he mean?

"What?! You're not taking me to that old capo directly, are you?" Jose is shocked that his life isn't ending quite yet.

"Ding. You win the lottery my friend. Now, you best hope this sack fits over you perfectly-- or we're makin' it fit."

---

Jaime and Daniel are just two more of the many souls fighting the glorious and determinedly lethal bout currently transpiring in the safe zone. Both members of the duo have just been backed into alley by Punta and Pachinko, two guys who are nothing but trouble.

"Look at you, like pigs inna fuckin' blanket! This sure is swell for us." Punta reveals his long, dangerous, and metallic trademark weapon. His long dagger, with his pseudonym carved right at the hilt.

"We be Punta and Pachinko, and you're our prey!" Punta states, prompting Daniel and Jaime to exchange a look of boredom.

"God, shut up will you? We're not impressed!" Jaime remarks, tching Punta.

"Alright then. Pachinko, take care of the big black guy over the--"

"Man what the fuck." Daniel interrupts.

"Yeah I got him, don't worry." Pachinko bumps his fists as a threat, but Daniel still isn't impressed.

Punta rushes Jaime with his dagger, slashing directly at him. Jaime simply swerves to the side and counters with an elbow to the hitman's face.

"Agh-- you sonuva bitch!" Punta remarks in pain.

Jaime hooks the man right in the bottom jaw, causing him to crunch his teeth together-- painfully so. Punta swings at Jaime once more and manages to get a good slash on his left arm, but any injuries are merely superficial. Jaime learns to keep his distance.

"Gon' get cut bitch." Punta smirks.

Daniel's battle with Pachinko, on the other hand, is a lot tougher. Pachinko himself is no pushover.

"You should know-- I'm the strongest man in the cartel. I could crush your head like a watermelon." Pachinko says as he and Daniel wrestle each other down.

"Your trash talk isn't any good if you can't back it up worth a damn you know." Daniel breaks from the grapple and bashes Pachinko right in the face, making the big man stagger back a little.

"Good shit-- good fuckin' shit." Pachinko compliments the strength of his opponent.

Meanwhile, Jaime seems to be having more trouble dodging the lethal end of Punta's dagger. Punta wasn't lying, he really is good with that blade.

"Gettin' the gist if it yet? I'm gonna carve ya-- every single part of ya!" Punta laughs. Jaime sees an opening and grabs Punta's dagger arm, gripping it tightly and nailing him across the face, causing the guy to drop his knife. Jaime gives him one more good punch in the temple, followed by one to the gut. Punta finally doubles over, defeated.

"Daniel, I'm done here, how are you doing?" Jaime asks. Daniel is currently exchanging blows with the large man, Pachinko, who finally seems to be slowing down.

"Not done yet, but I'm about to be." He firmly states.

"You really think so? I'm thinkin' we're far from done. I don't go down easy." Pachinko retorts. Daniel takes a quick breath and unleashes his haymaker, knocking Pachinko off of his feet.

"Look, you're strong but you're a lard ass. I'm all the goddamn muscle!" Daniel comes back with a retort of his own.

With both of the hitmen defeated, Daniel and Jaime take a quick breath, one that doesn't last very long, because the sound of many rifles being pointed at them are what finally defeat them.

"Aw hell no." Daniel and Jaime stand, defeated, not resisting to the sacks being placed over their heads.

--- Alicia, holding on tightly to Mario, is a full emotional wreck. Not only does her twin telepathy tell her that Manny is in trouble, it also now quite obvious that the cartel men are finally attacking. Mario, currently held up in a hidden shed with Santiago, Curly, Zarez, and both the Barrera and Suares families, is now taking point as a lookout with Santiago, with whom he feels he has gotten off on the wrong foot.

"Mario, I'm terrified. Manny is hurt, I know he is!" Alicia sobs, Mario tries his best to call her down but nurturing isn't his strong suit.

"I'll kill those bastards if they lay a finger on him, don't you worry." Mario clenches his fist in anger. Santiago leans against the wall, completely bored.

"Stop saying that Mario! You're not going to rescue Manny and you know it!" Alicia snaps.

"You don't fucking know that Alicia, you guys are all I have left, I'd risk it all to save you both." Mario responds.

"Really then? Go out there and bring him back! Right now! Get my brother back from those monsters!" Mario finally shuts the hell up, which infuriates Alicia.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You always have something dumb to say! Say something!"

"Look-- I'm not gonna leave you alone in here alright? You're here-- with me-- where I want you to be. I'd have to be a fucking dumbass to desert the only family I have by my side."

Alicia shakes her head. "You're such a hypocrite Mario! You say you wouldn't leave any of us behind, but that's exactly what you're doing to Manny right now! You're leaving him behind for those dogs to eat up! You're deserting him in his hour of need-- so you don't get to tell me you don't leave family behind! Because I see with my own eyes that you clearly do!" Alicia finishes ranting, and and storms off to the corner of the she's the furthest away from Mario.

Mario looks down in shame because he knows Alicia is right-- Manny is being abandoned right now. He's facing it though-- Manny is a goner, and so is possibly everyone who isn't currently sitting in this room. Alicia doesn't need to lose her uncle too.

"Can I offer you a word or two, man?" Santiago asks Mario. Mario looks up and raises his head at Santiago, as if to say "yeah".

"This whole messy business with the cartel is a drain and a strain, maybe two. Everyone's fussin' about it, and with pretty damn good reason. Alicia there is dealing with it just as the rest of us are, in her own way. But you're doin' the right thing not choosing to abandon her, 'cause she's always gonna need you. So don't feel too bad alright?" Santiago's words resonate with Mario, but Santiago knows Mario will not respond. A simple nod is what he gives Santiago in acknowledgement to his words.

Curly turns to look at the sobbing Alicia in the corner and snickers; clearly others are taking this better than others. Curly himself doesn't mind perishing in this fated battle, it's not like he has much going on, or any friends or family left to keep him happy at that. He's just a goddamn loner, and perhaps, maybe the zone should burn down along with him.

"Hey Zarez." Curly asks. Zarez stops his train of thought and acknowledges Curly. "What is it, Curly?"

"You think anyone would miss me if I'm gone? You think anyone would care if I weren't seen around no more?" He asks. There's sorrow in those words, Zarez can sense it.

"Yeah, I know people will. Curly, just because you haven't tried crafting new relationships with the others, does not mean that you will wind up a ghost if you disappear. You're part of the community, you know. So, maybe if you learn to love yourself, son, you would see that for yourself. I know I would very much miss you." Zarez responds.

"You really think? That sounds rather nice...I wish that were the case."

"That is the case, Curly. Don't be so rough on yourself. We all have our merits, we just don't know how to play them sometimes." Wise words from the man he looks up to the most, Curly thinks.

"Thanks Zarez, you're awesome." Curly says, making Zarez smile.

Mario scans the room with his eyes once more. He sees Pedro and Lila Suares comforting their children, Ramiro and Maria, while Jacobo and Leslie do the same thing with Paco. That's the kind of warm, family love Mario wishes he would have experienced growing up.

Maybe, if they make it out of this one, he can salvage that bond with Alicia.

---

Leaving a trail of bodies behind him, Francisco has kept himself active and moving this whole time. He has no idea that he is one of the last men standing for the safe zone, has no time to even inquire to that. All he inquires to is his rifle and where to aim it next. It's his duty as protector of his home.

The hitmen have yet to pick up on his scent, which is great news for him. Standing atop a pediatrician's office building in the main avenue, Francisco uses his binoculars to get a good view of Tecpan past midnight. Street lights continue to brighten the zone and its outskirts, still allowing Francisco to snipe away the opposition. He didn't have a watch to check the time but he was sure that it had to be at least 1 AM by now. This is one of the longest nights of his life. Scratch that-- this is the longest night of his life.

His binoculars reveal more hitmen heading east, taking his coordinates as a reference point from the zocalo, and down the main avenue. The only other communities still within the perimeter include the Tepetate and La Reforma, as the walls still haven't extended out to places like el Fortín, ending swiftly where he stands, in the Corea vicinity.

Nevertheless, Francisco aims at the small group of unsuspecting enemy soldiers, gunning them down one by one.

"I bet none of you ever saw Frank coming like that, did you?" He mutters to himself, before packing up and moving locations again.

---

Mendoza, Yuri, and Max have since been spotted and persecuted by a small group of enemy soldiers. Luckily for them, they've also come across several more of their own troops. Mendoza now commands fourteen others apart from himself, Yuri, and Max. He has no idea that, apart from Francisco and Paloma, this is everyone he has left.

"Remember the plan, goud them back to the zocalo. Once they're there, you leave it to Paloma to take them by surprise and help us incapacitate them. Just remember the one crucial thing-- we do not shoot!" Mendoza's orders are loud and clear as he and his troops double back and finally enter the zocalo, where Paloma has put together some tripwire.

After Mendoza and the rest make it past said tripwire, Paloma and another safe zone protector pull, causing the small group to trip and fall. After the enemies have fallen, Mendoza, Yuri, and the others use their weapons to whack them unconscious.

Eventually, many troops have been defeated, unarmed, and tied with rope. With the zocalo under control, Mendoza is sure that the only other enemy individuals out there are the notorious hitmen, specially el Kanguro and Scorpion. Mendoza is sure that they're responsible for the disappearance of their people.

"Yuri, are you doing good? How about you Paloma? How about everyone else?" Mendoza asks. He ponders on about the locations of everyone else.

"I'm fine. So is Paloma as far as I can tell." Yuri responds "

Yes, I'm fine." She divulges.

"Any clues on where everybody else is?" Yuri asks everyone around her.

"Hiding from it all, I hope. Even Ashton's home is empty, and damaged. I'm certain the explosion we initially heard came from over there." Paloma answers. Mendoza ponders on about it and is pretty quick to reach a logical conclusion.

"That bastard has been attacking this whole time!" He clenches his fist. "The others could have already fallen prey to his imbeciles. Well, we can't give Tucan anymore leeway-- stay together. We must continue holding down the fort in case any of ours wonder back in. Is that clear for everyone?" Not a single head objects.

"I can feel another wave coming in. I just hope the rest of our people are okay." Mendoza thinks to himself.

They are all in the midst of glorious battle, after all. One victor is what can be, and to that victor will go the damn spoils.

However, the sound of a large vehicle approaching the zocalo gets louder and louder, until the moving stops. Mendoza knows exactly what this vehicle is, and who might possibly be driving it. The electrical noises of a megaphone follow soon after.

"Good night Mendoza! How are you and your champions doing? I bet it's one hell of a night! I'm a little late to the party but I knew you weren't going to be a pushover, unlike the rest of your aficionados." The voice from the megaphone calls.

"Grr...it's that damn Claudio!" Mendoza warns the others.

"Tch. I'm flattered Dozie, you don't change do you? Not even with age!" The third capo, Claudio, speaks into the megaphone. "But I must say, that eyepatch is new. Lose an eye already, huh?"

The tank and other vehicles come into the zocalo's view, but Mendoza and his unit stay put. They're making a stand, just as both Claudio and himself want it.

Claudio exits a vehicle near the tank, letting the tank move forward. The old, gray-haired bastard isn't beyond wearing shades a night.

"You've got quite a good number of 'rogue enemy soldiers' all tied up don't you Dozie? Reminds me of our old squadron days, you too yeah?" Claudio taunts. He places his hands behind his back and casually walks forward. "Remember that? You were just a simple private and I was your sergeant." He adds.

Mendoza glares back at his opponent. "Those are not what I would call 'fond memories'. You were a damn tyrant then and you're a damn tyrant now!"

Claudio is taking way too much enjoyment in this faceoff, though neither party can do much about it. Mendoza has hostages, and Claudio himself has orders. He walks closer to Mendoza until they are both a few feet apart, and face to face.

Claudio isn't unarmed-- Mendoza can see his pistol holstered. But Claudio is indeed fearless, as at that blank range, he would be no match for the automatic weapons of Mendoza's unit. Likewise, Mendoza doesn't have much of an answer for that tank either. It was the sight of a true stalemate.

"So what now, Claudio? Are we doing this dance all night?" Mendoza never breaks apart from his glare.

"We should spare each the bloodshed, shouldn't we? That way we can both stay…relatively fine."

A fight can of course go down right now, but Claudio is relatively outnumbered, not to mention the hostages, which Mendoza knew better than to execute, but still. A man and a few others, plus a tank, just manages to even the odds. A full fight right now wouldn't benefit either of them, but Claudio is doing his job well enough.

"Very well then, Claudio. We have until the morning."

And with that comes a close to Mendoza's part in the battle, choosing to end it early In exchange for keeping Claudio and his tank under control. The tensions wouldn't be so high otherwise,

"One more thing, Mendoza…" Gloria appears from the shadows and stands next to Claudio. "I can't trust a certain soldier of yours...you know who I'm talking about." He adds.

"No, I do not. Please, enlighten me." Mendoza deduces whom it is he refers to.

"Why don't I just have Gloria show you who I'm talking about. Oh, and don't you any of you try to interrupt her. The whole point of this standstill is to avoid bloodshed, is it not?"

Gloria enters Mendoza's side of the zocalo, showing relative ease to it. Gloria stops beside Mendoza and flashes him a smile. Her trek continues on all the way to Yuri and Paloma.

"Please, go ahead Gloria." With that command, the she-devil smiles.

She spins and delivers a back fist to Paloma, who catches it and is ready to deliver a counter-attack of her own. She stops midway, remembering the terms of the standstill. Gloria cackles villainously and switches her attention to Paloma's abdomen, delivering a direct blow to her liver. Paloma doubles over in pain and Gloria proceeds to knee her twice on the side of the head. Paloma falls to the ground, injured, but not out. If only she could fight back.

Yuri is alarmed by this physical onslaught, which practically happened in just over a few seconds. She draws her rifle on Gloria, who quickly reacts and roundhouse-kicks the rifle off of her hands, before kicking her in the guy and knocking her down. Yuri is left terrified and Gloria has done her job. Nonchalantly, she heads back to her side of the battlefield.

"She's a damned piece of work alright." Mendoza firmly states. Claudio smiles.

"Isn't she?"

Now that we know where almost everyone's fate lies, it's perhaps time we tie up loose ends.

The downside of the safe zone these past five months has always been the same. The walls extended farther than they've had in these five months, but still not far enough. Northern uphill communities, although mostly cleared of infected, still have not been walled. Naturally, this means that the hills even further up north are on the same boat. Ashton and Liza had no idea just how many of these damn groseros still laid about on the other side of the hills.

The couple still struggles to gain distance, but recent rains have made the terrain muddy and slippery. There needs to be a good mix of speed and balance from both of them if they are to make it out of this one alive. Liza, in particular, is closer to the groseros, given that she has the better weapons currently equipped. As soon as one gets close enough to her Liza simply hits a homerun and sends heads flying. Ashton pulls her forward with him after that, once they go further uphill, almost to the point where the couple can see both Tecpan and to the opposite side of the hill. Of course, the night time skies keep them both from seeing the bottom of each abyss. The same doesn't go for the snarling of the groseros, however.

"We are still just a little ways off. Shouldn't be that much longer to my aunt's grave." Ashton assures Liza. "I just don't like the thought of bringing groseros into her tomb." He adds. Liza bites her lip, as La Mira is generally cleared of groseros. Their plan is stumped when that realization comes into mind.

Ashton peeks forward once more and can make out the silhouette of a run down vehicle, much like the one out in front of their home. However, he can also make out moving silhouettes, silhouettes that were unknowingly on their way to converge with them.

"Groseros up ahead." Ashton whispers to Liza. Liza curses under her breath and hastily moves past Ashton.

Her anger becomes more apparent when she sees the groseros in their path move faster. Liza acts fast and drags her beloved along with her and into the vehicle in the path. They shut the doors quietly and lay low, keeping their sounds low. Throughout the ordeal, they never stop holding each other's right and left hands.

They do not nothing but breath for few minutes, hoping the groseros have missed them. Ashton decides to peek out the window and check. There are still groseros in their immediate vicinity. They're not moving past the area and just move their heads around, presumably to look for himself and Liza. Ashton sighs when the groseros don't move, even more so when the group from up ahead joins in with the group that had been tailing them up until now.

"I guess we are stuck here for a while. How are you holding, Liza?" Ashton asks, Liza's looks directly at the roof of the car, annoyed.

"Been better." She sighs. "Could be much worse though." The moment seems endless. "But I'm just happy that you're next to me. That's all I really need." She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

It goes on like this for several more minutes. Endless minutes that don't seem to part the groseros away. In fact, they get riled up in a simple second, because gunshots come into view. One is inexplicably alarmed when a bullet hits the hood of the car. Daring to peek out, Ashton sees groseros fall and the hunting party from earlier catch up to them. Luckily, they don't seem to know that he and Liza are hiding inside of the car but Ashton isn't willing to be push his their luck any further.

"You see that right?" Ashton asks Liza, who nods in return. "I don't like what I see. They're going to see us eventually." It's true, they're getting closer and closer, killing groseros left and right.

Liza takes a few deep breaths and a brief moment to look at Ashton. His face is the most beautiful she's ever seen. His soul one of the most humans. His qualities worth more than any precious soil on earth. His eyes deeper than the night sky itself. His dedication for good bigger than even Mendoza's. Her love for him greater than anything else she has ever felt or known. Liza tears up slightly and begins quietly sobbing to herself. The hitmen get closer and closer. Any second from now they will be facing them straight on, with their rifle ends firmly planted on Ashton's face before her own.

Remembering her own berating of Ashton for his heroic tendencies that nearly got him killed, Liza finally sees her chance to return the favor and save her soul mate from an untimely demise.

With a sudden move, Liza grabs Ashton by both shoulders and makes him face her directly. Her serious stare manages to send the coldest shiver down his spine.

"Listen carefully Ashton because I'm only going to say this once." She starts. Ashton's face is painted with a look of despair. "I'm going to make sure you get out of this alive. I'm not going to let you die, you hear me? I'm armed, you're not. Once those motherfuckers spot us it'll be you who they kill first, not me." She goes on.

"Liza what are you--"

"Shut up!" She interrupts Ashton. "I'm grabbing my rifle and making my move. Once that happens I want you to bolt and run to safety. I don't care how you do it, you just never look back. If you look back even once-- you're an ungrateful bastard you hear me?" Liza stops. "You hear me? I love you, Ashton-- I always will. That'll never change." Ashton has trouble accepting this sudden sprung. "I love you so much." Liza gives him the deepest kiss of her life, one that lasts more than a few seconds, which unfortunately ends with her pulling away briskly. "Don't force me to fall in love again. It's impossible-- I just can't." Liza takes one more look at Ashton's face before giving it one last smile.

Liza, rifle and rod in hand, jumps out of the car, shooting a grosero right in the face. This gets the attention of everything in the vicinity-- grosero and hitmen alike.

"Hey!" She calls out fiercely. "You want me? I'm over here you sons of bitches! Come and get me!" Liza declares, shooting a bullet towards the hitmen, hitting one in the neck.

Now Liza docks before bullets are sprayed in her direction, rolling an opposite direction from Ashton. Groseros and hitmen give chase to her.

Ashton, who watches it all from within the safety of the vehicle, is horrified. Liza is giving it all up for him. Everything, except her love.

"Get that bitch! She killed Brian!" One of the hitmen screams. "Get that bitch!" "Kill her!" They all scream as they give chase, along with the slow groseros.

Ashton's hand is touching the window. He can just pretend Liza's hand is on the other side.

Liza pants slightly as she continues to run for her life, down the opposite side of the hills. Any groseros converging with her are picked off by the hitmen or killed by her rod. Liza grits her teeth the entire time, as she never stops struggling. She grits them so hard that she manages to damage them, slightly tasting her own blood as a result.

She runs even faster but slips and falls. She takes this opportunity to shoot at whatever is behind her. The hitmen and groseros, all practically group together, find it impossible to dodge Liza's shots. One of each falls down, and more, and more.

When Liza tries to abruptly get up, a bullet hits her right arm. The sudden pain is new to Liza, but she doesn't dare stop. With her adrenaline at full speed, Liza must push on. Everything is after her and not him. Just like she wants.

Liza dodges incoming groseros, piling them up for the hitmen to deal with. The hitmen are forced to stop and dispatch the groseros. Liza takes this opportunity to take cover behind a boulder. There, she begins picking off any hitmen she can, dwindling their numbers down from seven to just four. Once all groseros have been killed, Liza makes her final stand.

She runs across and takes more shots, but this time she isn't so lucky. A bullet grazes her side and she loses her footing, causing her to fall and roll downhill, crashing against many rocks and boulders along the way. Liza finally stops rolling at the foot of a small cave, but she has since left behind any hitmen, who watched Liza's descent from high ground.

"Forget about'er, she's done." One says, and the three of them proceed to turn back. Any further groseros are still attracted to them thanks to their guns a blazing.

But the Liza threat has been taken care of.

---

Liza took it all on just to save him. Her sacrifice, her penance. Liza is fighting for glory. Maybe it'll be the last bout of her life. Maybe not. Maybe. Just maybe.

Ashton sits in front of Patricia's grave, which now has a proper, makeshift tombstone. Ashton stares sadly at it. Never has he wished to defy orders more than he does now.

"Aunt Patricia…" the only words that manage to escape his solemn mouth.

Francisco still has to carry out the lonesome task of saving the night. With all others indisposed and stalemated, he seems to be the last light. He's for sure unaware, as all things he's wary of the night are out to haunt and dispatch him. He gets distracted not by these thoughts, or any others.

He has since left the rooftops behind as he traverses, as the buildings begin to lose stories and enemies become harder to spot in the dark. Sniping sure isn't easy in the moonlight. Francisco, landing back on street level, traverses quietly and slowly, staying out of sight for as much as he can.

The walls are behind him, following the men back to their source. Francisco has eyes on the location, a decently sized, but abandoned shed. His close-range weapons have already been silenced, but who knows how many of those hit men are ready to pour out. With that in mind, the sniper returns to the shadows and does his trick.

He shoots, one down.

He shoots once more, another one down. The rest of the hit men don't suspect a thing.

Francisco makes his third shot and changes positions, this time he doesn't get to take another hit man out. More continue to leave the shack, but leave in a hurry, not stopping to notice their fallen allies a few ways away from the shed. He can't risk that attention too much.

Falling back and waiting for more to leave, Francisco waits in his new sniping position. He waits there for several minutes, each seeming endless. Francisco sees three more leave, exactly three more, and follows ten down the street with his scope. He disposes of all three of them rather easily.

"There you are, you little sniper."

Francisco looks back and sees Carlo, one of the hit men responsible for abducting Yvette, Mimi, and Fausto earlier, walk straight towards him. Francisco draws on the man with a pistol that is swiftly kicked off from his grasp.

Francisco lunges at the man and they both roll around the elevated location. Their struggle accompanies grunts of strength and worry.

Punta, who is pulling up near the shed, examines the fallen bodies.

"What the-- ?" He mutters to himself.

Above, the struggle continues. Carlo is laying into Francisco, punching him across the face as he gains the dominant position. However, Francisco turns the tide with a sudden pull and headbuttsc Carlo, popping the man's lips open. Francisco wails on his stomach next, but Carlo is larger than he is, and much stronger too.

Carlo tackles Francisco and nearly sends him falling off of the platform, Francisco managing to save his life by hanging on with one hand. Carlo sees the man on a cliffhanger and steps on his hand.

"Any last words sniper?" Carlo asks.

"Just these." Francisco raises his free hand and reveals his firearm from earlier, having discreetly recovered it during the struggle.

Carlo only manages to look dumbfounded for a second before Francisco pulls the trigger and causes the top of the back half of Carlo's head to blow up in chunks of flesh and bones. When Carlo finally topples over lifeless, Francisco pulls himself back up the platform and breathes easily. That was one close call indeed.

Back on top, he sees that the hit men have stopped exiting the shed. He finally decides that it is time to make his move.

Strapping his rifle and leading with the pistol he just used to take Carlo's life, Francisco steps closer and closer to the shed.

He can feel his heartbeat get heavier and harder with each step, his adrenaline being out of control-- yet he clamps himself together. Now is not the time to lose his composure.

"I'm telling ya boss, there are no more of them wild knick knacks runnin' around." Shaman tells Don Tucan, who simply rubs his chin.

"Not everyone on the list is wholly accounted for. You still have not gotten me the other delinquent or the missing sniper." The boss firmly states. "You told me I could trust you with this. Show me the results I trusted you with." Don Tucan's words earn a nod from Shaman.

"Yes sir." The hit man responds.

Yet as soon as he turns around, he is shot in the abdomen.

Shaman falls to the ground, clutching his rib cage. He feels like a rib has definitely shattered, even with his vest protecting him from most of the impact.

El Kanguro and Scorpion dart into action, but the former is shot in the side and the latter in the arm, knocking them down before they can even react. With Pachinko still out cold, Francisco has subdued everyone, and has Don Tucan all to himself.

"You wanted me, you got me. Here I am." Francisco keeps his aim on the powerful capo. Don Tucan looks tense, sure, but not scared. If anything, he feels respect for the man, dispatching his "experts" so easily.

"I see you have my friends over there. They're all hurt aren't they?"

Mimi, along with the others, have seen everything go down. The young girl calls out to him.

"We're alright Frank! Just shoot his ass already!" Mimi retorts. "End this nightmare!" Sandra adds.

Francisco nods in agreement, and takes one sudden and final breath.

"Game over, Don Tucan." He says, just before his finger squishes the tri--

Shhhwick.

Blood pours from Francisco's mouth, and the atmosphere changes in almost a second.

"Yeah? Yeah? How's that ya fuck?!"

It is none other than Punta, who has impaled Francisco from behind with his signature dagger. Punta keeps on twisting it through Francisco's insides as our hero chokes on his own blood, gurgling it out of his mouth.

"You thought you could pull a fast one on us huh?" Punta keeps going on to say. He finally removes his dagger from inside of Francisco when he has caused enough damage, leaving him to topple over in front of him.

He can't breathe worth a damn, and is losing too much blood too fast. That's a shame. It really is.

Don Tucan kneels down beside Francisco, who has turned himself right side up using the last of his strength, starting right into his killer's wild eyes. Then, he turns to Don Tucan one last time before his vision blurs out and his eyes close.

The captured inhabitants of the Tecpan Safe Zone cannot believe that they just witnessed the demise of friend.

"That was quite a valiant effort from you, young man. Perhaps I should not have taken your lot so lightly. You did in fact, nearly leave me out of the game. Not a single man had ever gotten close to doing what you just did. You are the first of your kind." Don Tucan regains his regular stance.

"You have my respect, sniper. As my token, I shall make it so that you not become a wanderer. Punta, go ahead."

Without hesitation, Punta puts two bullets into Frank's head.

It was good knowing you.

"He killed a whole lot of us, the bastard." Punta says to the boss. "He's been leaving a god damn trail."

Don Tucan contemplates his next decision.

"Blood must be paid with blood, after all. You two, walk, come here."

El Kanguro and Scorpion do their best to ignore their injuries and join their capo's side.

"See to it that Yuridia Baltazar is next. She will answer for the blood of her beloved sniper." Don Tucan begins to say. "As for them, we cannot even begin to make the blood he spilled even. Two of you will have to do." Don Tucan continues.

El Kanguro retrieves a machete and Scorpion retrieves a syringe.

"Would anybody like to volunteer? Cowardice makes no difference, two of you are not leaving this shed still drawing breath. If any of you would like to play the hero, the time is now." He stops for a moment,

Nobody tries to speak, not Daniel, not Jose, not Sandra, not Manny, not Jesus, not Yvette, not the wounded Pepe, not Jaime, not Fausto, not Mimi. Nobody.

"I see. Then it is up to me to make the choice." Don Tucan resumes.

"You, young man." Don Tucan points to Fausto. "You will be the first of the two."

"What?!" Fausto freaks. Yvette and Mimi are left shocked, cannot even begin to bring out a word.

"No, not him!" Jose calls out.

"I gave you all a choice earlier, none of you made it. This young man will be the next."

"Fuckin' senile old coot…" Manny mutters to himself. Don Tucan catches ear of this.

"Excuse me, young man? Something you have to say?" Don Tucan urges.

"Nu-- nothing. I didn't say a thing." Manny freezes up. He didn't think Don Tucan would hear him.

"Change of plans boy, it is you who will be on the chopping block."

"What?! No! No no no no! Please! Not me, please!" Manny pleads, already tearing up.

El Kanguro and Shaman drag him near them.

"I will repeat myself one more time, would anybody like to volunteer? Honestly, it is even so humane of me to let you all live and continue on with your lives, let alone allow you to choose which of you will meet your demise." Still no voices are heard. "I can guarantee you will not like the next choice I will make." Don Tucan turns to look at Sandra.

"Fine, I volunteer." A man takes a stand. It is Jesus. "I'm not letting anybody else take this on their conscious. I choose myself." Jesus fearlessly declares. "I came far in a world full of monsters, what more can I be thankful for." A tear escapes his left eye. "Just end it already."

"Very well, musician. You have chosen your fate. I commend you."

Jesus walks over to el Kanguro and Shaman, not looking back at the peanut gallery of injured allies.

"You know how we like to do this. We like to put it all in one nice package, just like the meat at the supermarket." Don Tucan so eerily states. "Do you wish to give the boy the quicker demise?"

"Yes." Jesus replies.

"Very well." Don Tucan turns to look at Scorpion. "Dispatch the boy."

Manny has since been seated and strapped to a chair, in which he shakes uncontrollably, clearly terrified for his life.

Scorpion approaches him with the syringe and calmly places the needle inside of Manny's forearm. Manny is in pain, but the pain does not continue to compare when Scorpion pushes down on the contents of the syringe.

Manny grunts in pain, horribly so, but it only lasts a few moments. Not even 10 seconds later, he has already been killed by the venom. Manny's eye dilate, and remain coldly open.

"Get to chopping." Don Tucan orders Shaman. He begins to chop up Manny piece by piece, placing each piece of him inside of a large, black garbage bag.

"Just get it over with." Jesus urges his killer. He is already laying down on the cutting board.

El Kanguro swings his machete down once, and dismembers Jesus left arm.

"Hyuaghh!!" Jesus grunts in pain horribly as he continues to be cut up alive.

With each swing of the machete, a new limb was removed. The hand, the feet, the thighs, the knees, and so many more limbs, until all that is left on the cutting board is Jesus' severed head, eyes and mouth still open.

Every captured inhabitant present in the room did their best to either look away, not hear Jesus' agonizing screams of pain, or struggle to look away.

Mimi in particular, is left frozen in shock by all of this. The cartel are nothing but monsters.

Dawn gets nearer and nearer, yet Ashton still cannot find signs of his beloved. Liza is nowhere to be found. Right back in the place he last saw her, and even followed the corpses down the hill. The young man in love is feeling the hole in his chest that was wrought upon by her sacrifice only get filled with more and more air than before. Air is a fickle bitch to him now.

Ashton keeps his spear handy in case any groseros decide to show their way. He's so far only had to use his weapon twice, to out down the reanimated corpses of their former trackers. Tracking Liza proved to be a failure more and more, nothing smelled like she did. Ashton is sick of the smell of the dead, but it was the only smell present. That being said, he knows he has to keep looking, Liza cannot be dead. She just cannot.

He stumbles about a small cave, in which lies an empty bottle of rubbing alcohol, along with broken pieces of skirt. Signs of Liza's life alright, but the confirmation of her injuries made things all the worse for Ashton.

If she is still alive, then she is not here in the hills. Liza must've already begun to return to town, as there was no way she could survive much longer without proper help or antibiotics. The woman of his dreams had to still be fighting.

Ashton leaves the hills behind and enters the town through the way of La Mira once more. He sees the door to his home left open, some groseros already having had found their way inside. Not many, just four. Ashton lures then outside with his mere presence and kills them there.

Going back inside, he finds the place ransacked, their food and other essentials gone. The only thing the hit men bothered to leave behind is clothing, none of it really missing. No food or medicine did not look good at all however.

Ashton exits out into his front area before reaching the door, but quickly hides when he chatters whispers outside his home.

"Tucan wants us all in the zocalo. It's time finally claim this bitch ass town for ourselves haha." A hitman says to another.

"More food and bodies, all in a days work. You think old Tucan will finally let us have ourselves some good ol' women?"

"Don't wish too hard."

Ashton hears their footsteps get lower and lower, so he finally leaves his home.

Whatever has been happening in the zone since last night is about to reach a climactic conclusion. Ashton knows this cannot be good, and not just because his inner pessimists tells him so.

He nears the site of the hour, the zocalo, but once again hides behind overturned vehicles as the hit amass behind their leader's transport vehicle. Ashton sees the vehicle stop right before the entrance to the zocalo. Well hidden, he has all eyes from his vantage point. That's when he sees the man himself step out of the vehicle.

An old man, needing a cane to get by. He didn't look frail enough to have to use, rather, looked like he just wanted to use it. Ashton takes a good look at the man's face when he turns to talk to his driver, who had stepped out soon after. A tall man with a bandana covering his face. Ashton didn't know why but the sight of that man in particular brought him an inner chill. More hit men exited from the vehicle, and all ventured into the zocalo.

Don Tucan and the size of his army threaten Mendoza, who simply bats an eyebrow, and clenches his fist. Don Tucan is as smug as ever, after, apocalypse or not, he remains the most powerful man in the country. Even the president knew that. Maybe he still does, where the hell is he is off hiding.

"I must say…" Don Tucan begins "this zone is the most impressive zone I've had the pleasure of visiting. You are the leader, are you not?" Don Tucan asks Mendoza, whom he is directly standing in front of.

"Yes, I'm the one in charge here in the zone. No need for formalities, we all know who you are and what you came here to do." Mendoza goes straight to the point.

"I see. I do appreciate a man with a good business ethic. Straight to the point, no confection, no foreplay. Very well. You know what I came here to do." The old man stands as still and as calm ever. Mendoza swears he can see the old man's orange eyes behind his aviator sunglasses.

"The real question is, do you pose a resistance?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Mendoza keeps his stare directly pinned on the old man, never mind his sarcasm.

"If we are to clash in this current point in time, I'd rather we all be fully equipped."

"That'd be a nice start."

"My people for your people, then."

Behind Mendoza stand Yuri, Max, Zarez, Mario, and the rest of the people that were hiding out in the shack, along with the rest of the safe zone forces that helped subdue the cartel the night before. Said subdued enemies are still tied up.

Don Tucan has Claudio, Silvestre, and his prized hitmen, more prominently Scorpion, el Kanguro, and Gloria. Behind them are countless other generic-looking boys and men, with none too good intentions on their faces.

"Dump them here." Don Tucan orders.

"Do the same." Mendoza orders as well.

Daniel, Paloma, Jose, Valdez, Mimi, Yvette, Jaime, Pepe, Sandra, and Fausto, they're all there. Mendoza has the much higher count of hitmen placed there too.

"Free them." Don Tucan orders.

"Do the same." Mendoza orders as well.

Every person in the negotiation goes back to their original side, ready to carry on the possible battle.

"Wait…" Yuri starts.

"Just…" Valdez says.

"One…" Paloma says.

"Goddamn" Mario says.

"...minute! There are people missing here." Mendoza demands an answer.

"Oh, yes. You see, a certain percentage of your people, quite small really, spilled my people's blood. And as you know, in my business, blood is paid with blood."

Punta drags along with him Francisco's corpse, which hits Yuri like a bullet to the heart. Her knees begin to weaken, she instinctively covers her mouth, and begins to weep.

"No no no no…" Yuri begins, unable to look away from Francisco's corpse.

"That's not all."

Pachinko dumps the two garbage bags in their path as well. The garbage bags move and snap around, suspiciously.

"As for the delinquent and his girlfriend, the girl has been 'simply dealt with', as it was reported to me. I hope that is accurate information I was given."

"..." Ashton, hidden perfectly, grips a hollow metal pipe, feeling his blood boiling, boiling hotter than it has ever boiled in his life.

"And the delinquent, well, he may pop up whenever he feels welcome. He will not make much of a difference."

Upon hearing those words, Paloma and Mario put two and two together, they sprint over to the plastic bags.

Mario is the first to open his bag, and find Manny's reanimated head snapping around.

"MANNY!!" Alicia's blood-curdling screams enter the atmosphere.

"YOU SONS OF BITCHES, I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Mario runs over to Don Tucan and attempts to attack him, but a gang of hitmen jump on him, and begin beating him into submission.

"YOU WILL NOT FUCKING GET AWAY WITH THIS YOU HEAR ME! YOU FUCKING CUNTS!! I'LL FUCKING KILL ALL YOU!" Mario screams as he gets the living shot kicked out of him by a small mosh pit on hitmen.

Paloma also finds Jesus' reanimated remains snapping about, with the head biting Paloma right on her left ring finger.

"Jesus...I'm so sorry, this is all my fault. I couldn't protect you...like I promised you I would. I'm a fucking failure…" Paloma cries in agony, not noticing Jesus' head going for her neck.

"Oh hell no! Watch out!" Santiago sprints Into action, attempting to get Jesus' head away from Paloma, managing to swiftly kick it away from her embrace. Paloma continues to cry on the spot, as Santiago tries to talk to her.

"Your finger! Ya gotta lose your fucking finger now or you'll turn too!" Santiago's screams are ignored, that is until Gloria shoves the short man out of the way and clips off Paloma's infected finger before the virus can spread.

Paloma looks at the stump where her own finger used to be. She returns the glance to Gloria.

"You can thank me for that later, skank." Gloria says. "I'm gonna be the one that kills you, not some damn snapping head."

"Fuck off!" Paloma snaps, causing Gloria to smirk and head back to her side.

Yuri still cradles Francisco's corpse, and does not want to let it go. She was ready to begin imagining spending the rest of her life with him. Why couldn't that be the damn case for once. The best thing that ever happened to her, literally murdered.

"This is quite the tragic sight? Wouldn't you agree, Mendoza?" Don Tucan starts again, this time, he starts to circle around the sergeant.

"Just think of how much worse it will be if you do choose to combat us now. More innocent people like that musician and that boy, needlessly meeting an unfitting end."

Mendoza wants to tear the capo's throat out right now. But, if he did that, the he might as well also be signing the death certificate of everyone around him.

"This really is a well-managed zone. It would quite a shame to see it burned to the ground."

His main mission as a military man is to keep as many lives as safe as possible. That has always come first. He could try and give it a shot, to end it all right here and now, but the cost would be too deep. He cannot cause the deaths of all these lives he has been struggling to keep safe for nearly a year.

"Sigh...you win. The zone is yours." Mendoza begrudgingly says. "No more people have to die today. No more have to be raised, no more blood has to be spilled." Mendoza continues. "You hear me, Tucan? The zone is yours. It is damn yours." Mendoza finishes.

Don Tucan smiles.

"I knew you were a good leader, and a rational man at that. You see there is a difference between good men and rational men. Mainly, that there are more rational men standing around, while the good men that tried play the hero simply burrowed underground. You live in the surface, Jorge Mendoza."

"OH CUT THE FUCKING BULLSHIT--" a feminine but tomboyish voice calls out to Don Tucan.

"What the hell happened to you, leader? You're giving up that fucking easily? Are you being serious? You, the man who has been fucking leading us for almost a fucking year."

This voice is revealed to be Mimi.

"You're just going to stand there and let this monster take everything away from us? Everything we built? This is our zone, this is us! If he takes this fucking place THEN WE ALL MIGHT AS WELL BE FUCKING DEAD."

Mimi's screams shatter the air around the zocalo.

"Grow a fucking pair man!" Her eyes begin to water.

This whole time, there has been a considerable amount of distance between Mendoza and Don Tucan. That of about 10 feet. No one ever dared to get close to Don Tucan at all.

Mimi fucks this, and comes right up to the old man's face.

"YOU ALREADY HAVE EVERYTHING! WHY DID YOU NEED TO TAKE MORE? WHY ARE YOU SUCH A GREEDY MONSTER?" Mimi goes on.

Don Tucan is frozen in place, completely unsure of what to do, as images of a young girl doing the same thing to him decades earlier flash through his eyes. The old man sweats and even fucking shivers. Why? Because of one girl who got too close.

"YOU ARE THE REASON THIS FUCKING WORLD IS SUCH A ROTTEN PLACE! SCUM LIKE YOU ABUSING THE REST OF US LIKE MULES! ALL BECAUSE YOU WANT TO! NONE OF THIS HAS EVER HAD TO FUCKING HAPPEN? PEOPLE LIKE YOU COULD HELP SO MANY PEOPLE, BUT YOU JUST DON'T GIVE A SHIT! WHY? WHY GODDAMN IT? WHY? ANSWER ME! WHY?" Mimi continues on in her rage.

Don Tucan is still lost in the trance, he sees Mimi as that little girl who got close to him decades earlier, and reached her frail little hand out to him. Don Tucan has been magically transported back to that era. He is frozen.

"Scor-- Scor--" Don Tucan stutters. "Scor-- Scor--"

"WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME???"

"Shoot her! Scorpion, shoot her.!" Is all that Don Tucan manages to say.

Scorpion looks at the young girl, while el Kanguro only wonders why the capo is asking Scorpion to do the deed, as opposed to him? He is supposed to be the one asked.

Scorpion draws his gun, but still looks unsure. Why would the boss even bother with such a defenseless girl anyway?

"SHOOT HER NOW!" Don Tucan yells.

"I'm sorry girl." Scorpion mutters to himself.

He pulls the trigger three times, all bullets fly directly into Mimi's abdomen. The girl's expression changes to shock once more, as she falls to her knees, clutching her blessing abdomen. She looks at her bloody hands and holds them up in front of her face. Don Tucan mistakes this as another gesture, and slams Mimi across the head with his cane.

Mimi lies on the ground, still clutching her stomach.

Everyone in the safe zone's side is horrified by this. There is no one who can look away, not even Yuri, who still cradles her beloved.

"Oh f- f- f- fuck. Mimi…" Valdez says in shock, still unable to register what just happened. Yvette is bawling in tears, and a teary-eyed Fausto holds her back from running to her.

Don Tucan begins to walk away from her.

That was the last straw.

Ashton, crying out like a warrior, emerges from hiding, swinging his pipe around, ko'ing the hit men that are in his way. Their teeth are knocked out of their mouths completely. He maintains his sprint, heading right for Don Tucan.

Gloria steps in his way, and Ashton docks her her punch, instead countering the she-devil with a swing to the side of her head, directly hitting her with the pipe, sending her out of the way.

"That bastard is going after Don Tucan!" El Kanguro says.

Ashton swings at Scorpion, who grabs the pipe out of Ashton's hands and swings back at him. Ashton disregards that and jumps on him, pummeling him over and over again, before getting up to run at Don Tucan. El Kanguro intercepts him, elbowing him right between the shoulder blades.

Ashton shakes this off, and surprises el Kanguro by grabbing his fist and delivering a right hook to his face. Ashton delivers two more in succession and knocks the man off of his feet.

However, before Ashton can get to laying a hand on Don Tucan, he is pulled back by Scorpion, who elbows him in the face. Ashton swings wildly at him, smashing him some more. El Kanguro finally calms him down by head butting Ashton square in the face, knocking the boy down. El Kanguro then goes for a curb stomp, but Ashton grand his heel and squeezes as hard as he can. El Kanguro winces in pain and Ashton tries to regain his stance once more.

With his unbelievable speed, Ashton hooks el Kanguro two more times, managing to cut his face with a knuckle. Scorpion returns the favor with a hook of his own, knocking Ashton back down. There, he and el Kanguro begin to kick him all over.

Ashton's sheer bravery and will to continue despite clearly being overpowered, manage to get through to Don Tucan, who raises his voice before the hitmen can finish beating Ashton to a pulp.

"That will be enough, you two." Don Tucan approaches the barely conscious Ashton. "Do not kill him. I want him alive."

The two hitmen put a sudden halt to their onslaught, immediately as the boss demands it.

"He will come with us." Don Tucan says.

"I w-- won't." Ashton spits blood from his mouth as he says that.

"Yes, you will. You do not have a choice." Don Tucan retorts. "You see that woman? She is going to be executed because her partner spilled blood."

Ashton did not want another person to die too.

"Don't. I won't let you." Ashton says, still unable to move.

"Amusing. Throw them both in the truck. The woman and the boy." Don Tucan orders.

"I thought you were at least a man of your word!" Mendoza calls out to Don Tucan, and the furious capo returns a mad stare.

"I am a man of my word. This is my zone, you get to keep your lives."

"You killed that girl."

"So what? Be thankful I stopped with her!" Don Tucan finishes. "We are going back to Tenexpa, now!" Don Tucan commands. No one hesitates to follow the command.

As the cartel convoy leaves with not only their freedom, but their people as well, Mendoza feels the loss heavy at heart.

"Sir, you did the right th-" Jaime starts.

"Not now, Jaime, not now." Pepe stops him.

Mendoza examines the situation around him, as the people gather around Mimi, specially Sandra, urging everybody else for help. Manny's and Jesus' heads are put down, little Alicia and her uncle cry for their fallen relative. He could do none to stop any of this.

How could he continue to call himself the leader after this?

---

A hulking man walks through the empty streets of Tecpan, nearing the zocalo. He holds many supplies on the back of his vehicle, though the fact that gate was open when he found it did not sit right with him.

"Where the fuck are the guards?" Gustavo asks aloud to himself.

He almost doesn't notice a grosero coming for him in the corner of his eye.

"Damn it this is what happens when these dumbasses leave the gate open." Gustavo mutters in annoyance as he unsheathed his knife and heads over to the grosero.

But is alarmed when the grosero draws on him.

"What the fuck?!" Gustavo mutters. "Shit, it's just you."

"Texta? Where the hell have you been?" A frail-looking Liza asks him.

"What the hell happened to you, you look fucked up--"

The it hits him.

"God fucking damn it."

A few nights ago

''The precious full moon is at it tonight, grazing the two young lovers. ''

Ashton and Liza.

They lay together in their nest of love, covered in each other's passion.

They look into each other's eyes.

"I love you Ashton."

"I love you Liza."

I love you.