Rue peeked around the foilage at the road about a hundred yards in front of her. Her little make shift family lay in wait behind her, holding their breaths as they waited for her verdict. Rue scrutinzed the large, boustrous camp that had been set up on the highway. People were trickling back from hiding in the mountains, and here where I-26 met I-95 people had begun to gather, hoping to meet their loved ones also on their way back as well. That was excatly what Rue and her group were hoping for too. But Rue wasn't about to risk the kids she had managed to keep safe for the past five months just because there was a good chance that each of their families were there. 

Rue bit her lip, and then turned to face her kids. After five months, that's what they were, her kids. It had just been her, Blaise and Piper for a few days. They they had come across Jack, traveling by himself already robbed of nearly everything he had escaped the coast with. A week after that, they had stumbled across Will and Merlin trying to surivive as best as a 13 year old and a three year old could. Not two days later, they found the starving and lost tweleve year old twins Eric and Erica hiding out in a broken down semi. The last pair of children that the managed to take in were nine year old Katie and seven year old Nick, who after getting seperated from their parents had returned to their home. The nine children quickly banded together under Rue's leadership, simply because she was the eldest and the only one that could drive without having a panic attack (Jack). They had piled into Katie and Nick's parents' van left behind and driven using back roads all the way out of the coastal regions before it became impossible to find gasoline. Now, five months later, with word of the waters receding, people were making their steady way back to their homes, if there were any left. 

"Alright you lot. I know this is what we've all been waiting for. I know you are dying to get out there and start looking for lost family members, I am too. But that doesn't mean we let our guards down. People are still desperate. People are still looking for easy targets. So, pair up! All of you!"

There was a scramble of movement as each kid grabbed for their usual partner. Rue had assigned one of the older kids to a younger counterpart a while back. No one went anywhere alone. Blaise and Will, Jack and Nick, Merlin and Katie, and the two twins together. Rue was usually by herself, unless she took Piper. This time, however, she handed the puppy's lease to Blaise. 

"You all have one hour. Got it? We meet back here in one hour. If you find your family and want to stay with them that's great!" Rue said sincerely, voiceing everyone's hope, "But you can't abandon your partner, okay? We've come this far together. So if you find your family, after the hour's up, please, please, please, walk your partner back to the meeting place, right here, okay?" Everyone nodded. It was hard to imagine leaving behind any one. They had become like another family in the past nine months. 

They were all bouncing on their feet, however, even Jack was leaning back and trying to peer through the leaves. Rue laughed. "Okay guys, okay. Let's try to be a little organized. From what I've seen, the camp's sectioned up. Family's are over in that direction, " Rue pointed behind her and to the far right. "Kid's are grouped together nearby, more towards us. So, Jack I recommend looking for your brother there." He nodded "Just adults are right behind me, straight up the middle. I imagine that most of you will be searching there?" All the kids nodded vigoursly in response, wanting to find their parents. Rue smiled. "Alright, I'll look in the out lying areas. There are a few clusters of people, like us who have banded together to travel. They are all camped out around the roads."

She scrutinzed each of her charges. "You all stay safe alright? Don't go running off by yourselfs. Promise?" She asked, narrowing her eyes seriously. They all choursed their agreements, anything to get started in searching. Rue smiled, and then jerked her head behind her. The four pairs restrained their excitement and walked seemlessly out of the forest to join the hustle and bustle of the huge camp. Rue grinned, proud of them. They all had changed and learned quite a bit in the past few months. How to be invisible, how to be silent, how to be unnoticed. All these talents were important when trying to survive. 

Rue watched until she couldn't seen any of her friends anymore before setting out herself. She circled the huge camp, and traveled silently through the shadows, watching the groups enteract with each other. She knew who her friends were looking for. Jack had no parents, he had been living two brothers, one older and one younger. The three of them could have been triplets the looked so much alike. Same blue eyes, same brown hair, same crooked smiles. Eric and Erica were searching for their mom, their dad having died a few years ago of heart failure. She was a petite woman with fly away blonde hair the same shade as her children. They had a picture of her that they shared with everyone. Nick and Katie were looking for both their parents, their mother Rue couldn't remember very well from the pictures, but their dad was an imposing six foot three character with a handlebar mustashe and hands the size of plates, hard to miss. Merlin and Will were trying to find thier grandparents, their father having run out on their mother, and their mother having drunk herself to death as a response. And Rue knew what her dad looked like. 

Rue shifted her leather backpack into a better postion and thought about pulling out her jacket as it was getting cooler out. She decided against it however, since the silk, antique japanese haori had some brighter greens in it that would be easily visible in this light. Her real jacket, a fatigue green heavy coat was currently being worn by Erica, who had lost her jacket when the two twins had been chased by bandits. The haori was a family heirloom, and one of the few sentimental things their father had let them bring from their home. After extracting a promise that Rue would carry it. He himself had a set of Japanese daisho, given to his great-great grand father in World War II, that he strapped to his side and carried. Those he had passed quickly into Rue's shaking hands as he sent them ahead on an abandoned motorbike they found stashed in the underbrush. It had killed Rue and Blaise to leave their father behind, but he had insisted. 

Those swords now stuck out of Rue's pack, within easy reach. Rue had no sword training, any idea of how to handle one was from watching anime, or seeing a handful of her father's kendo matches. She knew one position and one strike, the simple rise and lunge, as she like to call it. Her father would practice a hundred of those a day in the late after noon after he got home from work. Not wanting to be to weak to handle the katana, if it ever came to that, Rue began to practice those as well, a hundred a day, usually while she did the evening watch. The .38 special her father had also thrust on her in their last moments together, was in the shoulder rig he had helped her into. It was rather big for her, but Jack had fixed the buckle by drilling a few extra holes in the leather some months back. The rig was hidden by the button down blue dress shirt she had borrowed from Jack for the purpose of hiding the rig. 

Rue circled another group, this group much younger than anyone they were looking for. The next group she skipped altogether, it was filled with drunken louts, much like the ones that had bagered them up and down the roads as they traveled, trying to take advantage of them. However, her luck didn't hold out. They might have been drunken louts, but they obviously knew the value of having a watch as well. 

"Hey! Stop right there, Missy. Turn around."

Rue did as told, knowing better than to disobey. She was right, he had a very nice shotgun trained on her torso. He escorted her into the circle the men made around the fire. 

"Ho, ho, ho, what do we have here, Blake? Where'd you find her?"

"Lurking in the trees, boss. Thought I'd invite her back for a drink."

"Yes well, the shotgun is no way to treat a guest. I'm sure there isn't much she can do with that oversized toothpick I see sticking out of her bag."

The men all snickered. Boss stood up and stretched, thrusting out his pelvis so that his handgun stuck in the waist of his pants showed plainly. The men chuckled again as the Boss made his way over to her. There was no doubting what he had in mind, the discusting leer on his face gave Rue plenty of warning. Rue tensed, and Boss noticed. 

"Don't be stupid," He hissed, "I can have my gun drawn and fired before you could even pull that sword from the sheath." Rue smiled, and in a quick move that had been practiced, she drew her .38 from her shoulder rig.

"Good thing I carry this as back up then huh?" She trained the gun on the Boss, who raised his hands in surrender. The men around her jumped to their feet, all drawing weapons of some shape or form. 

"I have no wish to fight, or engage in any kinds of violence. I am, as most here, looking for family or friends. I was merely passing by your group, trying to get to the next one. I'd like to be on my way." She said plainly, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible. There were thirteen men to her one girl. They could over power her easily, at the probable loss of two of them before they got her down and unarmed. She was counting on no one wanting to be those two. Boss chuckled nervously. 

"Alright, alright, lass. I can see when I've been beat. You go on your way, you'll get no further trouble from us. Right lads?"

There was a chours of half felt agreements, and Rue began to steadily retreat from the circle, keeping her gun trained on Boss man. 

"I hope you have a good evening gentlemen," She said, before ducking into the increasing shadows of dusk. Rue didn't stop running until she was several camps away, her heart pounding in her rib cage. The adreline faded from her system, and Rue felt her knees grow weak. She crouched down in the shadow of a great tall pine to catch her breath. She clenched her hands into fists, one wrapping around the .38 with surprising force. Rue touched to cold metal to her forehead and calmed herself. She could fall apart later, preferably when everyone was asleep and safe. So, she put a lid on it, knowing it would keep until later.

The kids were all bedded down by the time that he found her. Blaise was the last to settle down, the oldest of the "kids"; with Will tucked up against her abdomen for warmth and comfort, his arms around the ever watchful Piper, who was probably the calmest puppy he had ever met. Jack stole out of the small clearing made by the towering oak trees and into the surrounding pine forest. He didn't have to walk far to find her. 

"You should be sleeping, you've got second watch," she said, not taking her eyes from the surrounding forest. In the beginning, there hadn't been a watch. In the beginning, there hadn't been a need for a Second either. 

"Why'd you make me Second?" Jack asked bluntly. Ruth, better known as Rue, looked up. 

"Blaise came by and asked me the same question," she said instead of answering him directly. Jack huffed with impatience.

"And you told her...?"

"Because you're older."

"Bull," Jack answered instantly, knowing beyond a doubt that that wasn't the case. Just because he was two years older didn't mean a thing. Blaise was capable, she knew things like Rue knew things, after growing up along side her sister in the same outdoor-sey family. Where as he, was the common city slicker, that really couldn't tell a matchstick from a regular stick. Blaise had knowledge that was far more vauable than anything he had to contribute.

Rue sighed and bushed back her tangled mess of hair. They were all messes. Showers were foreign things to them at this point, along with soap and hot water. She looked up at him again, her plain dark brown eyes meeting his bright blue ones. 

"You really want to know this?" She asked. Jack rolled his eyes in response and then took a seat next to her. 

"Yes, I really want to know. Now spit it out for God's sake," Another sigh.

"Remember that night three weeks ago?"

There was no clarification needed. He knew excatly what she was reffering too. It was the reason they now had watches. It was the reason, she had chosen a Second. All of them, so new to this lifestyle, hadn't tought about others setting upon them because they were percieved as weaker. In truth, they were weaker than their attackers. Six full grown men against nine childern, the oldest only just turned seventeen. That night had shattered many things for them. What was left of their precious childhood innocense, and any illusions they held about people coming together in this crisis. 

Piper had managed to give them some warning, but they hadn't reacted fast enough. Before many of them had even woken up fully, the situation was bad. Before any of them could protest, it was worse. The leader had every intention of using Blaise as a hostage against the rest of them. Rue had stood there, angry and scared, begging him to let her little sister go. When he refused, Rue had done the only opition he left her. She shot him. Without hesitation, without regret. She raised up her .38 special given to her by her father before she had left with her younger sister, and shot them man right between the eyes. The rest as they say was history. The other men, unwilling to do anything more since their fearless leader was dead had fled back into the forest. And ever since then, the four eldest have kept watch, Rue, Jack, Blaise and Merlin. 

"Of course," Jack replied, his jaw clenching. 

"Right before I shot him, what were you doing?" Jack was taken aback slightly. Since everyone had been present, and unwilling to recall the night, story-telling had not been practised. The event was never spoken of my mutual concent. 

"I was...reaching for my boot knife. I was going to stab the guy behind me and...."

"And what?" She asked calmly. Jack swallowed, he was unsure how she would react to what he was about to tell her.

"Well, his back was to me, so I was going to throw my knife and...kill him."

Rue looked over at Jack. In the dim light from the moon and stars, her skin glowed a strange silver blue color. Her eyes were darker than they actually were, and her black hair now had blue tints to it. 

"That's why I named you second. Because if the need ever arises, I can count on you to go all the way for the sake of the others, or myself. I can count on you to follow through, and to bear the burden afterwards."

Jack closed his eyes, and absorbed this. It didn't make him feel any better. Because the bottom line was, she chose him to be her Second, her back up, because she knew he could, and would, kill.