"Noon, tomorra'," Nick voices from the doorway, leaning with arms crossed over and seeming far more relaxed than anyone in the colony should be.

Dalton, at Hannah's side, when she came to wake, felt these past few hours went by too quickly. They are pieces in Russell's game, clearly. If he wanted, he could have come for Hannah by now, thrown her and the rest of them to the zombies, and be done with all this. However, they were no fools. The colony was under distress, under attack from forces within, and Russell was losing control of everyone. It had been what Dalton wanted, their goal here to set in chaos and spy on Ana Maria, but with the lives here at stake, Dalton felt a pang of guilt in his deceptions to Hannah.

"I know, Nick," Dalton replies in irritation, shooting him a look to keep quiet, as Hannah looks between the two of them in confusion, "How are we going to stop all this? All these people are going to get killed when they go to trial, too..."

'And it's our fault,' Dalton added in a passing glare through silence, one Nick heard louder than the spoken words.

"They arrested that nurse that was helpin' ya. Jus' naw. E'ryone's talking' 'bout it. They took in tha soldier, too," Nick replies, knowing damn well who Sophie was since their awkward encounter in the medical center, and having noticed her before with her assistance to Dalton's injuries. She made house calls—no one else seemed to unless directed by her to do just that. If he didn't think her to be rude in their own interactions, he might have actually sought her out to help Hannah. However, his last impression of Sophie was that the last thing she'd want to do is be anywhere near him.

"The soldier?" Dalton asks, trying to place who Nick's talking about.

Hannah pipes in, "Doyle. He's a sniper. Really, the only one with a license to kill in this damn place. Russell's hated him since day one. I'm guessing the feeling is pretty mutual by how he's probably second to me in making snide comments around here..."

"You know him?" Dalton asks.

Hannah replies, "Not really. I've just seen him around a lot, showed him, Sophie, and the doctor around when they first arrived. He's noticeable. A lot of people seem to know him, even though he's not much of a socialite."

Nick wants to roll his eyes with the subtext of what the girl was saying. The soldier was attractive, so she might as well have just said that, rather than trying to make it something more.

Hannah continues, "A lot of people who hate Russell, especially, talk about Doyle. Not sure if you heard the story, but they were in a helicopter that crashed, not too far off. They were from District 1 and the stories on how they got here make the guy seem like he's the Hulk or something...he's a threat to Russell. Been a threat when those stories started. Russell's been lookin' for excuses to take him out. That, I know for a fact. I've heard things from the horse's mouth."

"How is he a threat from stories?" Nick asks, his arms unfolding and he takes a step closer to the pair at the bed.

Hannah shrugs, but the effort is half-assed.

She replies, "He's military. Knows how to shoot. How to fight. And, he doesn't like Russell. He's like..a symbol or something. I think he represents something from the old world that people miss, something that' missing around here. He's not...corrupt...and he doesn't take shit. He's the first that's publicly made criticisms about Russell when he first heard the laws. Started asking questions when people disappeared, made accusations to his face, in front of people. They just don't get along and Doyle's really the only one who can do anything about it, the only one who has had the balls too and can't really just go missing with his clout in the doctor, Elisa. Elisa is of high value to Russell, to District 4. If something were to happen to Doyle, it would affect her, and Russell can't lose her."

"But he's just one person...?" Dalton asks, but it's more of a comment.

"Yeah, a person people automatically looked to. A lot like how they looked to Russell, at first," Hannah says, "A guy like Doyle commands attention by his presence alone. There's just something about him...and he has the experience to back it up...and the clout with Elisa in his corner. Doyle has Elisa, but Russell has Kate."

"Doyle's no good to us naw that he's arrested," Nick replies, straightening and taking a step toward them, "We gotta make a plan and make one naw. Clearly, Russell's got himself all distracted by Doyle and he's vulnerable. We should take a shot naw, fuck waiting' till noon tomorra—"

"This trial..." Dalton starts, cutting Nick off pointedly, "How do they come to a verdict?"

Hannah rolls her eyes thinking of the trial at noon, missing that Dalton's trying to cover something else they're talking about.

She says, "Russell and a few members of his guard decide. And then there's Kate..."

"Who's Kate again? I don't even think I've seen 'er...?" Nick asks.

"The prissy ginger vampire that sucks the life out of every room she walks in with her obnoxious heels. Heels, yeah, the only living person who wears them now. She talks a lot, but just to Russell. She won't even look at anyone else, let alone speak to anyone. Only thing we have in common is that it's obvious she hates Ana Maria, but she pretty much hates everyone just for them not being anyone from District 4...other than Russell, of course. They sent her here from the District in Atlanta, District 4. Russell once told me she knows General Connor himself."

Nick interjects, "And the General's alright' with how Russell does things 'round 'ere? What does the District have to do with this colony anymore, other than this Kate girl, I ain't seen anyone else from there..."

"Nothin' really," Hannah replies, "They send supplies occasionally and we send them food from the crops. Kate's one of Connor's engineers or something. Originally sent here to fix some generators, and to bring us in after Russell made a distress call when our town fell. When she arrived with us there were a lot of people that went missing. Some think Russell killed them like he killed a lot of others, or sent them away, some think she had them taken back to the District. I think it's both."

Dalton and Nick share a moment of passing, a weighty silence that draws Hannah's attention.

Though she presumes it's from fear of the districts, much like the rest of them who stuck to colonies over the feared rumors of Connor and his regime in the cities. Instead, the two men dwell on the safety here even after Russell is gone. Especially, when the claws of a spy are within the fibers of this colony and spreading madness and maybe, even information.

"What about Abby? Do you know what they did with her?" Hannah asks.

"I don't know who Abby is..." Nick replies.

Before Hannah can respond, Dalton answers for her, "It's the little girl that lives with Sophie. She used to talk about her when she'd stop by to change my bandages."

"Is that her daughter?" Nick asks.

"No," Hannah says, "It's a kid they rescued with them when they escaped the district in New York...or that's what I was told to write in their file."

Not sure why Nick really asked that question, Hannah starts to suspect Nick took a lot of noticing to Sophie with the connections he was trying to make with all the nurse's relationships.

"Hopefully, they keep the kid out of it," Dalton mumbles, but Hannah's quick to reply.

"Nobody stays out of anything anymore. Lines are being drawn. Sides, more than before, are being chosen. Now that they arrested the sniper and the nurse, the colony is going to be more on its back than ever. I wouldn't even be surprised if the District is showing up to take people."

"They've already arrested o'er-a dozen others," Nick says, "For minor things, Soup tells me they're mainly women too."

"Soup says a lot-a things," the man himself enters the doorway behind Nick, that weird hat in his hands and his bald head lays bear for Hannah to behold for the first time. Never, in all her time here had she seen him without that stupid hat on.

Making his way in, Soup tells Hannah, "It starts with you. Your trial. Town's already twisted with what the Sheriff did to ya," The older man looks at all of them, then back to the girl, "But you and I both know, Hannah, that that son of a bitch is gonna kill you in front of all those people tomorra to prove a point. You don't stand a chance and you best leave now. If the District's come it won't be much better either. They're gonna take whoever they want and then God help ya with what they'll do."

"If he puts Ana Maria on the jury, I'm definitely screwed," Hannah says, "I'd take the District over any of this."

Soup hesitates before he speaks, stammering over a word or two before he says, "Then it shows how ignorant you actually are. You don't know nothing 'bout the districts, girl. None of ya do. You don't ever meet a Master and come out a winner."

Hannah's eyebrow arches as she replies, "And what do you know about Masters or the districts? You were here before me, Soup. Before Russell. You've never said nothing to any of us about the districts. You just hide out here in your shithole of a farmhouse."

"Nice, charming. Sweet mouth on you, darlin'," Soup says and before he turns his back on her and talks of Masters no further.

"Sounds like yer screwed no matter what. If they're under Russell, you got death or exile waiting for ya," Nick adds forcibly to get back on topic.

"I'll take exile over being killed, but something tells me I'll be dead no matter what they decide," Hannah replied.

Hating to admit it out loud, she saw Soup's point. She made the same mistake trying to flee into the world of the zombies. She stood more of a chance here with the devil she knew.

She bites it back her lip, then lets it go to put the final nail in her coffin as she reveals, "He killed my brother. My brother was a scientist, a doctor, like the doctor that came in with Doyle and Sophie. Russell asked him to do some experiments and my brother couldn't find it in him to do it. I don't know the details, but it's something to do with the upper levels in the medical center. There's the floor that bitch tortured me on, then there's the floor above it, the final floor. It's locked, kept under key..."

Dalton finishes her thought out loud, "Maybe if we find out what he's hiding up there we can get the upper hand once and for all."

"No," Nick replies faster than Dalton had ever heard from him, "We focus on gettin' through this trial first...and maybe getting one of us on the jury. The colony will be demanding it, they have to be. No way anyone's going to support a decision from a rigged jury."

Though Nick's brain constantly turned in the opposite direction, it turned quickly all the same. Dalton learned this about him, after some time, but their original plan wasn't good enough. They couldn't wait for the others to arrive, to save them, they had to take their own action too, before Hannah, or anyone else got killed or exported to District 4.

"And maybe that's the perfect opportunity to go poking around. With the entire colony distracted with the trial, someone can find out what he's hiding and expose him..." Dalton adds and though both men thought of different plans, Dalton found a way to merge them.

"He's not going to let you on the jury," Hannah says, letting out a gusty laugh of opposition, "Any of you."

Soup shrugs, "Ain't like he got nothin' against me. I could end up on that jury, easy."

"No, no. You guys are being stupid. Russell might seem like he's the understanding guy who will back down if he's overwhelmed, but he's not. He's not stable. Someone questions his authority and he'll have no problem shooting down anyone who's against him, or who gets in his way. The guy is a dictator. Democracy has never been his thing. Trust me on this...he will find a way to get the outcome he wants, even if he fools the shit out of all of you," Hannah says.

"Well, Miss Hannah, if he shoots then we're just gonna have ta shoot back on 'im. They're picking' the jury in the mornin'. Dalton, Soup, and I will head-on-down to the town hall and work on getting on that jury, or get you out if things go south..." Nick replies matter-of-factly and Hannah's continuing to stare at them all like they're insane.

"None of us have guns. Remember?" She replies.

"Don't ya worry about tha'. I've got an in. I'll be concealing during yer trial. I'll git Dalton and Nick a gun too," Soup tells them, and Hannah, with eyes of fire, finds ice quickly in the deadest stare he'd ever met in his life.

"What about me? Don't I get a gun?" She asks.

How come no one ever wanted to give her a gun? She thinks to herself.

Meeting her levelly, Nick adds, "No. If they search ya, we'll all be outed. Yer just gonna have ta trust us."

A thick silence fills the room. One, that causes Dalton to awkwardly shift, but the two at odds couldn't have been stiller.

"Alright." She says, relaxing at last when her spine takes a different curve. "But if the shit hits the fan, you get me the fuck out of there."

"It's a promise," Nick tells her, and Soup nods. The creole crosses the distance and holds his hand out for her to shake.

She takes it with half the firmness that she might normally, not really giving a shit for this formality that clearly meant something binding to the man who had saved her life already. And, if it weren't for that fact, she wouldn't have trusted him at all and smacked away that dirty hand.

To the watchtower left abandoned in Doyle's arrest, Nick makes the climb.

From his pocket, he removes the lighter and from the other, the wad of paper he uses to light aflame.

In the pile of cloth, tissues, and other flammables, he assembled at this post, he casts the fire. It spreads quickly and as Nick makes his hurried climb back down, the watchtower of wood is lit in a signal that stretches out for miles, just as he intended.

Now, the beach camp knew to come at noon tomorrow. Just as they'd always planned...to arrive and ambush at the next trial...when the entire colony would be distracted.