Melissa's P.O.V.

We had stopped at the zoo and I was not happy.

I hated the zoo.

I don't know anyone who liked the zoo.

The place was too quiet and disconcerting. Literally nothing ever went there, not even zombies. You know, except Evelyn, she was the only one stupid enough to go anywhere near that place. Obviously whenever she needed to visit Steve she brought me here, but she never brought me to meet Steve.

She would just make me wait in the car like a child or something.

Apparently he didn't like new people so she was trying to warm him up to the idea of me before she introduced us. However, seeing as I would soon be trying to kill her, I kinda wanted to meet him, make sure that I could take him before I did something that would entice him to chase me down and kill me.

"Okay," she said as she turned the engine off. "Stay here, don't touch anything."

I cocked an eyebrow at her, but didn't bother to tell her that I never did touch her stuff. "How long are you going to be?"

"Not long, I'm picking up some supplies and talking to Steve about the trip, see if he'll come with me," she said, reaching around her seat and pulling her canvas backpack to her.

"He may not come?" I asked hoping that I didn't sound too hopeful. Usually I was disappointed when Steve decided not to come on our adventures. I didn't want Evelyn wondering why I was so happy he wasn't coming on this one.

"Maybe, depends on how busy he is," she said. "He probably will though, just need to ask him."

She hopped out of the car and jogged over to the entrance of the zoo. She stopped to wave back at me, it was a code, a promise that she'll be back and I was just to wait. Once I couldn't see her anymore I went in search of a weapon. Sure I had my own, but I wanted to take her out with something soundless, something that wouldn't attract Steve or any zombies.

I settled on the flare gun she kept in her glove box. I knew it was for emergencies, it was to signal the people at Biocom that she needed assistance. At close range though, it could probably kill her, or at least incapacitate her so I could finish off the job, I could use a knife for that. I carefully concealed the flare gun in the inside pocket of my jacket and then sat back and waited.

There wasn't really much to do. I knew better then to mess with Evelyn's car. I would need it to get me back to Toronto when this was all over. I could have brought a book to read but honestly I didn't think it would take that long for Evelyn to talk to Steve. This was usually an in and out operation, she always got what she wanted and left. He never seemed to have time for social visits, and when he did she never brought me along with her.

Orion to Eve-ie, Orion to Eve-ie.

I stiffened in my seat and stared at the radio. There was no way in hell that was the real Orion. The King of the Drifters was not calling Evelyn.

The silence weighed down on me but the call never came in again. I had to guess that this was some terrible joke. I mean obviously Evelyn had already called Jack about her trip, I had heard the tail end of the conversation as I got in the car.

She had been talking to Godrick about some sort of ecosystem but she never answered me when I asked her what that was about. She always acted weird when it came to Godrick and I didn't know why. She obviously had a soft spot for him but I had yet to get a reason why from her or him. From my understanding they didn't have anything but a work history, but she obviously preferred him more than her other clients. Hell I think she preferred him over me.

But unlike her deflective answers about Godrick, I wouldn't be accepting them about Orion. She was going to tell me what was going on and if she really knew him.

When Evelyn came back she looked troubled, and it also didn't look like she had a lot of stuff with her, so I was curious as to what kind of supplies she could have picked up. But when she got in the car she had her normal confident smile was on her face and I figured I could ask her about the supplies later.

"What did he say?" I asked the second the door closed behind her. Evelyn opened her mouth to answer, but...

I've given you fifteen minutes of silence Evelyn. That's the only courtesy you're going to get from me.

Evelyn stared at the radio blinking her eyes in surprise. I watched her, I saw the fear alight on her face and I felt it creep up on me as well. She knew who that was talking to her and she was afraid to pick up that radio.

According to my man in Toronto you're leaving town. So here's what I'm going to do the second you set foot out of town Eve-ie, I'm going to be on you. My men are going to get you and take you to me and we are going to hash out old times and figure out a restructuring plan for Toronto. And trust me it's going to be more fun for me than it will be for you.

Evelyn's eyes narrowed in anger but the fear was still there. She was breathing heavily as she stared at the radio. I could see her mind whirling and I knew that she was thinking of some sort of plan.

"That's Orion right? King of the Drifters? I kind of thought that he was one of your friends but I'm guessing he isn't," I whispered to her. "But you still know him, right? Like personally?"

Evelyn ignored me though. For a minute she just stared at that radio, a furrowed look upon her brow before she picked up the receiver and took a few deep breaths.

"Do you really think I'm going to leave Toronto without back up?"

I shot a look at Evelyn and realized that this answered my first question. And suddenly I wasn't just afraid of what the King of the Drifters was threatening to do, I was pretty sure if my plan failed I was going to die. Hell I might even die if the plan worked.

You're bringing Steve, aren't you?

I wasn't even surprised that he knew about Steve. Of course he knew about Steve. I bet he had met him too, I was probably the only one who didn't know who he was.

Evelyn's smile reappeared but it was shaky this time. "Of course I am," she said. "So here's what I'll do for you R. If you tell your men to leave me alone you won't have to deal with Steve's massacre."

You'll leave your precious house unattended?

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "You can set up shop in my house if you want R but when I come back I'll use whatever force I can to get rid of you and we both know I'd rather blow up my own house then let you have it. You know firsthand that I'm exactly that kind of spiteful."

There was silence once again and I stared at her. The smug look was back on her face and I could tell that she had won. Steve was the trump card, she was obviously bluffing about the house. She wouldn't possibly have her own safe haven rigged to blow, that would be ridiculous.

You win this round Ev. But watch your back bitch. One of these days I'm going to get one step ahead of you and then I'm going to take you and your little empire down.

Evelyn didn't bother to comment on that. She merely hung the receiver back up and then put her head in her hands.

I stared at her in shock. She was shaking and if I had to guess she was having some sort of breakdown. It was the first time I had seen that kind of reaction before. And it freaked me out.

I glared at her, what the hell had she gotten me into?

"What was that Evelyn? I need to know what you're taking me into," I growled.

Evelyn lifted her head out of her hands but wouldn't look at me. "I might have dragged you into a little bit of a grudge fight 8 years in the making," she whispered.

"What?" was the only word I could get out of my mouth.

"Okay, look. We all worked for a Government lab, Me, Cooper, Brandon, R—or Orion as you know him— and Noelle. We didn't really get along when we worked together but after the apocalypse hit we kind of exploded. We had an argument, a massive disagreement about the blame," she replied.

"For what?"

"For her death... and well... just you know... everything else that led up to that..." she replied. I wasn't about to take this elusiveness anymore but I could tell that there was something about this topic that made Evelyn uneasy. Suddenly I didn't want to know all her deep dark secrets. "We went our separate ways but R..."

"Seriously, his name is R?" I cried.

"No, but we don't call him by his real name, he doesn't like it. I swear he has a sixth sense, he always knows when we use his full name," she sighed. "Anyway, R... he was always unhinged, but you know laws kept him in place... mostly... I mean his experiments were always borderline inhumane and he was always getting in trouble from all sorts of committees and lawyers but once civilization fell..."

"He got to be criminally insane and he didn't have anyone to keep him in check?" I guessed.

"R's always been scared of me. I can kick his ass and I have Steve to back me up. He made the mistake of doing a particularly nasty experiment on him when he was younger and Steve has never forgiven him," she replied. I chose not to show how shocked I was that her relationship with Steve went this far back. That experiments were involved. "So he won't come into Toronto, but the rest of the world is his and travelling means I need protection, but he wants my house and that means leaving it unattended. Don't be surprised if we come back and your friends are dead and he's got the Drifters operating out of the place."

Yeah I didn't want that though.

"So he's coming then? Steve is coming with us? Where is he?" I wondered peering out the window to see if he was coming up the walkway. But no one was there.

Evelyn sighed again. "See... that's the problem. Steve can't come with us right now, but he will coming... just you know, later. He's got some things he needs to finish up here," she whispered. "This is something I really hope R doesn't find out."

I sat back in my seat and tried to take this all in. It all seemed to so weird that this group of people were more concerned with some grudge then the apocalypse. It seemed strange that this was what they worried about. And I was absolutely shocked that she bald-face lied to the King of Drifters.

"So what exactly does this mean?" I asked her. "Are we driving into a trap?"

Evelyn shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. All I can suggest is that we rendezvous with Brandon and bring him home as quickly as possible. The whole trip should take at least one day."

"Okay, but what about the house? Do we warn the others? Tell them to fortify and change the password or something?"

"Change the password?" Evelyn echoed and then suddenly laughed. "No, no, that password I gave your friends was a onetime use password, and it won't unlock anything useful. All it's good for is house functions. It won't open up any of the massive security features or the armoury and once they log out it's no good. You guys didn't know that? I could have sworn I told you."

I stared at Evelyn in muted shock. No she had definitely not told us this. I knew at some point I would have to radio the others and warn them but I didn't know when I'd have time. Evelyn smiled at me again, this time her glittering smile was her knowing one, the one that she used when her victims played into one of her carefully laid traps. I had a feeling that Evelyn knew more then she was letting on and I was going to have to be careful. I wasn't sure how to proceed now, I was going to have to choose. Kill Evelyn and loose the house or keep her alive for now.

Evelyn started the car again and I turned to look out the window. This was going to be a hard decision to make.