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They call her Allison from Palmdale, like it's some kind of aristocratic title from the world that was. It's a joke, maybe. It has to be, because Palmdale doesn't exist any more, and for that matter, it's not like there are so many Allisons living in the tunnels that you have to mark one as being wholly different than another.
It doesn't matter though. Once, she was just Allison, a slip of a girl that managed to survive when so many others didn't. Now she's Allison from Palmdale, and it may all be a joke, but in quiet moments, Allison likes to think that maybe the name means something significant.
It is Allison that stumbles upon the Reese brothers, so she finds them, not the other way around. For all of Kyle's strategic and tactical genius, he's not good at being quick and sly when his life's not on the line.
The thing is, their lives are always on the line. They fight against metal, and they fight against one another. They fight to survive, to learn enough to survive, and Kyle scrounging for food in the tunnels is just another part of life.
She'll tease him about it years later, about how she snuck up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder and how he jumped into the air. And then he'll remind her how, after that, he had her pinned down in seconds flat. He was eleven.
That's Kyle's way of teasing her, but it's a warning for the others.
Death does not discriminate.
The children die along with the adults.
You either learn to survive, or you die.
It's a lesson Allison learns at a very early age. Her father always said she was a bright child.
In the beginning, they have a corner, the three of them -- Kyle, Derek and Allison. Kyle says they're like the Three Musketeers, and it makes Allison giggle. Derek rolls his eyes and says they're more like the three blind mice.
Well, that Kyle and Allison are blind mice, and he is the mouse that can see, will keep watch.
Allison is forever humming, Derek says, even in her sleep. He tries to act like it annoys him, but Allison shrugs it off. She knows it makes him happy, and being happy sometimes makes Derek sad, but it makes Kyle happy all the time, so. It equals out somehow.
One night she catches Derek watching Kyle watch her, and the way Derek's face is shuttered and considering, while his younger brother's face is open, but just as considering.
Allison knows then that Derek thinks that she and Kyle are having sex. Or Kyle's thinking about it. Allison wants to laugh, because though it's not like she hasn't thought about it (the human race has been nearly wiped out, but that doesn't mean sex and love were killed off too -- like other basic things, they became even more important, precious), it's Kyle, and though she'll wake up often enough with his body wrapped around her own, a strong arm holding her close, Allison knows that doesn't mean anything.
Kyle watches a lot of people like that, considering and cataloging. Part of Allison wants to let Derek in on that bit of the secret, so maybe he'll think that Kyle wants, really wants half the tunnel.
They see too much from their corner, in the tunnels, on the outside.
Then they all join the resistance, and they see more.
Allison, who still remembers her mother playing Chopin, and her father sketching buildings, becomes a weary fighter like the rest of them.
Kyle, her Kyle, becomes a leader. Derek follows, she follows and so do others.
He speaks with a man's voice now. Kyle speaks with assurance when Allison knows he has doubts, because he always has doubts, but only those closest to him know how to read Kyle best.
People start disappearing. People from the tunnels at first, which, while not unnoticed, does not elicit much of a reaction; it makes Allison's heart ache in a way she hasn't felt in a long time. Then people from the resistance cells scattered over the city, and finally, people that they know, people that they trust.
The metal starts attacking in the tunnels more and more.
They bring out the dogs, circle the tunnels as much as they can. Their defenses are strong, or as strong as they can be, but it all makes Allison nervous. But today she's patrolling with Kyle, and that always makes it better.
She's still laughing when they stop, and Allison can see the tension in Kyle's shoulders. Derek's in front of them standing with a young man -- a naked young man wearing one of Kyle's coats. Allison, still laughing, starts to raise an eyebrow, because strange things are always happening, but this is something entirely different.
And then he, the young man, looks at her and Allison's blood runs cold at the same moment the boy looks to lose whatever emotional foothold he has remaining.
He says his name is John Connor.
Allison thinks he looks familiar.