Chapter 15
The
first few raids we went on went on were quite successful. Just like the
warehouse we targeted places that were away from small roads and residential
areas, they were less likely to have been emptied. Regardless there were still
some places which we got to too late, and wasted petrol and energy, but what we
gained from our successful trips was worth the risk.
Everywhere
we went we found varying sizes of first aid sets, and we filled our supply of
bandages, painkillers and antiseptics quite quickly. Food was found often too,
but less often was it fresh enough or preserved enough for it to be worth it.
Weapons were also a rarity, and none were recovered for the two weeks since we
started raiding. Blankets, wood for building, and basic supplies like toilet
paper and toothpaste made up the majority of our haul.
While
the raiding team were out, Will and Nicole were in charge, and they made good
use of their time. They made sure everyone, including the raiding team,
practiced their shooting, surprisingly Nicole supported this. She said that in
a situation where someone needs to use a gun they might as well be trained.
They also used the building materials we gathered to reinforce the warehouse,
and create a bit more privacy between the sleeping areas. None of us had any
experience in building or carpentering, but we learned quickly that it didn’t
have to be pretty, just effective.
Eventually
Malcolm was well enough that Nicole and I agreed to let him join the raiders,
something Emma wasn’t happy about. Although our newest member was trusting us
more and more I could tell she still didn’t feel at home. She had grown close
to Lauren and eventually to Daniel, but she seemed uncomfortable eating our
food without contributing anything worthwhile. Mainly Emma helped the others
with the construction, but she thought that fighting and raiding would be a
better use of her time. I suspected that the reason behind this was so that she
could search for Anthony, which was just one of the many reason why I wouldn’t
let her come along.
When
he wasn’t off raiding Connor was working with Will to try and get in contact
with anyone else with a radio, specifically other police stations. He never had
any luck, but one day he came to me with a worrying suggestion. ‘You want to do
what?’ I asked incredulously
‘I
want to take the raiding team to a different police station,’ he answered
insistently, ‘they haven’t made contact on the radio so it’s probably empty’
‘You
haven’t stopped to think maybe they’re not answering because they’ve been
overrun by the dead?’
‘The
dead have no reason to be there,’ he said excited, ‘the army would have cleared
the place out just like they did my station, there would be no one living there
to attract them’
‘I
don’t know Connor, police stations are usually in pretty packed areas’-
‘Not
this one,’ he interrupted, ‘I chose this one specifically because it’s so
separate from any other building.’ He showed me a map of the surrounding area
and I had to agree it was pretty isolated.
But
I wasn’t completely sure yet, what was worth risking travelling further than we
ever have before for? ‘What do you hope to get out of this Connor?’ I asked,
careful not to give him false hope
‘Isn’t
it obvious? Guns,’ he answered, and I had to admit he had a point, ‘and not
just that there should be more police radios there, another generator too.’ I
groaned, trying to decide, the possible gains were more than tempting, but the
memories of the last station were still fresh in my mind. After a while I
decided, ‘we’ll take it before the group, let everyone decide.’
…
I gathered everyone except Chris and
Malcolm who were on watch. I carefully explained everything, the possibility of
finding more guns, and the risk of entering another situation like the one we
just got out of. A few nodded their heads, and a few asked questions, but after
an hour it was time to make a decision. ‘So what do we do? Should we take the
risk?’ I asked
‘Don’t you decide?’ Emma asked
‘He’s our leader not our general,’
Will replied sarcastically
‘This would be a risk everyone would
take,’ I answered her, ‘it’s not my decision to make’
‘I don’t think you should go,’
Daniel spoke up, ‘we have enough guns for all of us here, and the generator and
radios aren’t worth it’
‘We might have enough to sustain us,
but what about others,’ Nicole disagreed, ‘eventually we will meet other people,
or at least I hope so, and we would either fight them, join them, or trade. No
matter what the outcome extra weapons, fuel and communication would help’
‘She’s right, our numbers will grow,
hopefully, we should be prepared for that,’ Brooke pitched in
‘And who knows maybe we’ll meet
other people at the station,’ Will added, and gestured to Connor and Andria ‘you
guys were at the other one, maybe there will be some people hiding out in that
one.’
A few groups separated and began to
discuss, but eventually I stopped them when I noticed Monica deep in thought. ‘What
do you think?’ I asked her, but she didn’t even seem to react until she spoke
‘I think we should go,’ she agreed, ‘no
matter what is waiting there for us, staying here and only raiding what is
close won’t work forever. Eventually we will have to venture further, why not
make it now?’ I agreed with her, and soon enough most others did too. Lauren
and Daniel still disagreed, and after being consulted Malcolm did too, but they
all conceded to go with the popular vote. I was glad of that, we may be a
group, but too big of a disagreement and people could still leave. I valued
everyone here more than I thought I would, even newer people like Emma, Andria,
and Malcolm were important to me. Maybe it was because they thought of me as a
leader, or maybe it was that for all I know they were the only other people
left in this world besides me, but I didn’t want to lose anyone. Not to the
dead, and not to pointless politics, I just hope everyone else felt the same
way.
I told Malcolm he didn’t have to
join the rest of us if he disagreed with the choice we had made, but he said
that if we were going to risk our lives, he might as well try and help save
them. In the end only five of us were going to go on this raid, Jade and Chris
were going to stay at the warehouse. In previous raids all seven of the raiders
went because we weren’t gone long enough to worry. But if the dead came while
we were away I’d prefer to have more than six people here.
It was hard saying goodbye to Jade,
even though it was only for a short while. On other raids she had come along,
and I didn’t have to worry about us being separated, but now I did. ‘Come back
to me okay?’ she said joking, but I knew she was worried
‘I’ll be back before tomorrow, I
promise,’ it was a promise I hoped I would keep. The six of us got in the
people carrier, usually we’d take the Ute and a small faster car for raids, but
once again my concern for the others changed our tactics.
For two weeks every time we left to
raid I had a bad feeling in my gut, and now it was worse than ever. But I had
learned to suppress it, nothing had gone wrong for a while, why would things go
wrong now?
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