Outside Of Life [WayHaught]

Time To Go

Once the group had taken a few hours for sleep, Doc and Dolls taking it in turns to keep watch, they gathered in a circle and Nicole began to draw the plan on the floor. Lucky for her, wherever they went, there was dust.

"Here is where we are," she said, marking a small circle on the ground. She'd already outlined some streets and buildings. Dolls kept watching over the group's heads as if a herd were about to walk in off the street. Waverly often wondered if he even trusted his team.

"And we want to get here," Nicole made another circle further along the map. "This is a collection of tents that we came across on an earlier mission and previous recon teams lead us to believe that there are intelligent beings inside. Unfortunately, we just don't know how intelligent."

Waverly gulped and looked at the red-head. The Sergeant was either avoiding her gaze or simply trying to focus on the map she was drawing. Either way, the younger Earp was beginning to realise the scale of the mission ahead.

"What, pray tell, do you mean by a level of intelligence?" Doc lent forward from the circle, one hand on his knee and the other on one of his guns. "I remember a time where a man was not judged by arithmetic but by the speed he could draw a weapon."

Dolls looked over his shoulder for a moment and said, "We, including Sergeant Major Nedley, think there may be some sort of human-zombie hybrids in residence."

Wynonna let out a very loud gasp. "No way. You told me that was a lie."

Dolls shrugged.

"Dammit, Dolls! That's so cool though. Can I use my new rocket launcher on them? Pretty please? I promise I'll do as I'm told this time."

The younger Earp could hardly believe her ears as the Sergeant started to laugh.

"The day you follow an order, Earp, is the day the world is truly doomed."

Nicole coughed and brought the attention of the group back to the map. "As I was saying, our plan is to gather as much intel on this facility as we can. From what the Sergeant Major could remember, the area was a medical and relief compound when all of this first started. It was run solely by military personnel. This adds to our concerns about the safety of the mission but we need to do this."

She then circled the entire compound, before drawing an arrow on one side. "This is where we'll breach the fence. From our last exploration into this area, there was only some barbed wire fencing around the compound so we'll cut through, and have a look around the best we can. The aim of this mission is to find out what we can about these people; are they infected or just hostels?"

"Thank you, Sergeant Haught," Dolls said, walking over to the group. He peered over Waverly's shoulder as he looked down on the map. "I feel like with some of the company we have here I need to say this; do not put your lives at risk. If you do not feel safe in approaching a new building, stay where you are. If at any time, you are at risk of being found or seen, you have orders to leave and take cover a safe distance from the compound. There will be no heroics. There will be no snooping for the sake of it. And there will be no Wynonna-ing. Is that understood?"

"What the hell is Wynonna-ing? Rude much? Jeez, Dolls. Warn a girl before you rip into her."

Within a couple of hours, the Outsiders had made their way to an old police building which Dolls and Nicole had deemed a safe distance as their rendezvous point in case anything happened. They dropped off their bags and emptied out anything they wouldn't need for the mission. Private Gardner was then tasked with protecting the supplies, mostly food and medicines, before the Sergeants made their final checks with everybody. No-one on the team had done a mission quite like this one before, and Waverly could tell that everyone was nervous.

Waverly was armed with her trusty shotgun as they ran towards the compound and alongside the wire fencing. Dolls lead from the front, followed by Nicole, Doc, Wynonna, Bouillon, and then her, Van Tilburg and Perry at the back. She was annoyed that she couldn't be closer to Nicole, but she also knew that this mission was far more important than her desire to be close to the red-head.

Suddenly, Dolls held his fist in the air and the entire team crouched so low they were basically touching the mulchy, wet ground. There was a short pause before he waved and they continued walking. The side of the compound they were walking on was mostly thick, green, canvas tents, but every few meters they'd come across a break in the fabric sheeting. It was in those moments that Waverly started to wonder why she'd wanted to join the Outsiders. It wasn't long before they got to the part of the fence they wanted to cut and seeing Sergeant Haught in action reminded the younger Earp of her motives. She wanted to protect her girlfriend, and also the rest of their settlement, nicknamed Purgatory. She also loved the adrenaline pumping through her veins as they peeled back the wire fence and entered the compound.

Exchanging a look with Dolls, Waverly took a deep breath and stepped through the hole in the fence. She most certainly didn't feel safe anymore. With rain having fallen hard the night before, the wet ground was proving useful for being able to hear the heavy footsteps of the personnel inside the compound. Every few steps that the Outsiders took was followed by a halt and crouch from Dolls. Her heart was beating so fast Waverly could hear the ba-dum ba-dum echoing in her ears. She almost felt dizzy from the deafening volume of it all compared to the eerie silence amongst the tents they were creeping between.

Dolls stopped the group once more and signalled for them to break off into two teams. He would go with Wynonna, Bouillon and Perry. Nicole would be leading the other team including Waverly, Van Tilburg and Doc. While Dolls headed South with his team, Nicole led them North. The idea was to cover as much ground as possible, as quickly as possible.

While Waverly was happy to be closer to the Sergeant again, her joy was short-lived as the turned a corner to find three heavily armed soldiers standing in their way. They didn't open fire, and neither did the Outsiders. The brunette looked to Nicole for some sort of signal to attack or to retreat but there was nothing; the red-head had frozen. 

A/N: Uh oh... Don't forget to leave a comment! Any feedback or ideas are wonderful to hear!!