Chapter 17
“Wait! Wait!” A woman’s
voice shouted out from outside. I turned to where the voice came from and saw a
woman wearing a tattered dress came running through the open door. It was an
odd sight, her dress was bright a colourful even if it was tattered and her
hair was long and blond a strangely clean, but she was also wearing huge combat
boots a few sizes too big and holding a large rifle. “I saw their cars outside,
they’re not undead!” She panted, out of breath.
There were two others,
the ones pointing their guns at our heads, one looked like a young man,
probably younger than me, with a pistol. The other was older, I assumed he was
the leader, holding a rifle just like the woman’s. There some long moments when
they just sat pointing their guns at us, I knew we had the numbers but even if
we tried to attack at least half of us would be dead before any of us fired a
shot. “What’s wrong?” The woman asked confused, “why are you still”-
“Because the fact that
we’re alive doesn’t mean we’re not a threat,” I pre-empted her question, there
was no way a gunfight would end well, our only chance was if I could talk our
way out of this.
“He’s right,” the older
man spoke finally, but I could tell from his voice he wanted to shoot us just
as much as I did, “if we lower our weapons what’s to stop him from shooting us?”
“We wouldn’t do that,”
Connor assured a bit more desperately than I would have liked, “look I used to
be a police officer you can trust me”
“Yeah ‘cause the police
were all saints before yeah?” The younger man pitched in sneering
“Pete,” the woman
sighed exasperatedly
“Lindsey, go outside, and
take all but two of these guys with you, carefully,” the older man said to the
woman, then turned to me, “we can talk, but we keeping our guns where they are,
the rest of your people won’t be harmed, unless they try something.”
I nodded, and the rest
of our group started to move through the door, lead by Lindsey and her rifle.
Connor tried to stay, but I gestured for him to go, and grabbed Brookes arm
instead. “I can help,” Connor argued quietly
“Yes you can, outside,”
I replied, “make sure no one does anything stupid.” Connor left, and I could
feel the eyes of the older man, judging me. “My name’s Greg,” he introduced
himself gruffly, “the delinquent here’s Pete.” Pete looked shocked at his
description
“I’m Todd, this is
Brooke, and we’re not here to hurt anyone,” I replied as calmly as I could
“I believe you, but not
enough to let you run off, you understand,” he said a bit patronisingly
“So what do we do?”
Brooke spoke
He sighed before
replying, “I’m part of a larger group, and if I let you go and it bites us in
the ass it’ll be my head.” He fell silent and thought for a while, I thought about
saying something but thought the better of it.
Eventually he spoke, “I
trust you enough not to shoot you on the spot, and even if I let you go we
could miss a big opportunity”
“Oppurtunity for what,”
I thought I knew what he meant, but I wasn’t 100% convinced either
“Trade, diplomacy,
alliance, whatever you want to call it.” I breathed a sigh of relief, I don’t
know what else he could have meant, but I had to be sure, “So what’s next?”
“I contact our fearless
leader is what’s next”
“Really?” even the boy
was surprised, “do you think that’s necessary?”
“Do you feel qualified
to make a decision for 156 people?” Greg asked him sarcastically.
My mouthed must’ve been open for a solid 5 minutes,
156 people? That’s was how big these people’s group was? I couldn’t even
believe there were that many people alive let alone in the same place. No
wonder they were so cautious about strangers, that a lot of responsibility. I
felt the weight of 13 people, I could only imagine what kind of person had the
strength to lead a group of that size. Brooke’s voice reminded me to close my
mouth, “are you the group that was collected by the military?” I almost yelled
when I realised what that would mean, all of us had lost families and we know
that at least Nicole’s family were in that group. But my hopes were raised too
soon
“No,” Greg replied sadly
“No one knows what happened to them, last we heard
they were headed for Melbourne,” even Pete was serious, I assumed everyone had
lost someone in these past few months.
We were quiet for a while, lost in our memories, but I
shook myself out of it, and focused on what was ahead, 156 people was hope
enough for now. “How do you contact your people, radios?” I wanted, needed to
find out more
“No, too many raiding groups, not enough radios,
people need to eat and we have a lot of people,” as Greg spoke I still felt
like I was dreaming, “we use smoke signals, a few brainiacs back home figured a
way to have coloured smoke, it doesn’t draw zombies and it allows for some
simple signals.” As he spoke he didn’t move and at first I was confused, until
I remembered they still had guns pointed at our chests.
I considered my options for a moment and then came to
a decision. I dropped my gun, “I’m willing to trust you, if you trust me”
Brooke looked concerned to say the least, “we’ll drop our guns, give you the
keys to our cars, if you lower your guns and let us met your leader”
“’Let you’ meet our leader?” he asked amused
“I’ll admit I’m more than excited to find a group as
large as yours,” I did my best non-threatening smile as I spoke, and apparently
it worked.
He lowered his weapon, and after an annoyed grunt so
did Pete. We walked outside and he told Lindsey to do the same, I could see Connor
was negotiating too, and from the astounded looks on the others’ faces (except
for Monica, nothing shocks that woman) I could tell they heard the news too.
156 people. Finally there was some hope that somewhere a family remained
intact, that a group of teenagers didn’t have to run for their lives or
scrounge for food. Greg lit a strange tube of fire and a ton of Blue smoke came
pouring out of it, rising into the air. I don’t know what will happen in these
negotiations, hell we could still be shot. But for once that bad feeling in the
pit of my stomach receded. Things were going to be alright.
50000 words :D
