agreed to keep their mouths shut. What you younger people and kids didn't know could not be beaten out of you before you died.' She let her words sink in for a moment and continued, 'Now many of us know Tim has been angling for a council seat for the past couple of weeks, he seems to have it in his head that this is some sort of a Democracy or something, really folks you are living in a dictatorship, I have never made any bones about it, the council, in theory keeps me in check as a balance of power, that is it. The only difference here is that you are all free to come and go as you please and we can kick people out too.' She stared at Tim as she went on, 'In fact that very thing has come up a few time recently when discussing, well, hell, let's just get it out there; You Tim. And how you don't work worth shit.' The meeting turned frosty, but several of the people looked on with amused attention, this would be another meeting to remember.
Dora went on. 'Yes, I'm calling you out, you don't do your share around here and we are sick of it. Like how you excuse yourself from patrolling the perimeter and how you make more progress on report writing, which we don't need, instead of on getting a building finish, which we do need. Do the people around you look like they need a god damned report to keep them warm in the winter? No? It's no surprise you are not the most popular guy, getting to the top of the food chain is not going to endear you to anyone and bringing up privileged information had to be about the number one way to make every other adult in town hate you. You just put the rest of us at risk. I am half tempted to shoot you myself.'
Three of the nearby adults offered Dora their pistols, handle first, while a couple of the older kids near Tim and some of his few supporters, backed away from him.
Tim looked around nervously, obviously he had not anticipated this turn of events. Dora thought that he probably was expecting a common uprising from the people to toss out the council and make him the new dictator for life. 'You had no right to keep that information from everyone! It was not fair, everybody should know what is going on so we can decide what to do!'
'Really? Why didn't you say anything at the meeting before this one? Why didn't you speak up then?' Dora waited, but Tim said nothing, 'Oh? So it was politics. Well Tim you got your wish now, everyone knows. Can anyone think of anything to do about our situation now that you have this added information? Here is our plan in a nutshell…unless you other council members think I should keep it under wraps?' Looking around none of the council members tried to stop her, so Dora continued, 'Okay then our plan is this; We find a couple of school or city buses, we load them up with supplies and we head towards Iowa. There may still be someone left up there. The plan is to get the buses and fuel tomorrow, then load up and leave within four days. I think it would be better if we left sooner now. The sooner the better. Any suggestions?'
From the crowd a younger voice yell, 'Kick Tim out!' Several other people agreed loudly and Tim looked around wildly, whatever support he came with had disappeared.
Dora smiled and responded, 'Oh I want to, you know I do. He doesn't work for shit, he causes problems and I really I just don't like him. But we can't.'
A chorus of 'Why not?' came back at her. Dora held her hand up, 'Think about it, we kick him out who finds him? Our enemies, he spills his guts to them, one way or the other and then we are all screwed.'
'Why?' called out one of the older kids.
'Because, if you haven't figured it out yet, the zombies want to keep us here.' Other calls of 'why' answered that and Dora held up her hands trying to calm everyone down, 'For the love of Christ people quiet down! We think, we suspect, the zombies are keeping us here, to, well, eat.' The uproar of this was loud enough that they crowd of a hundred or so could not be calmed down. The rest of the people guarding the perimeter looked towards the meeting and wondered at the noise and what was going on.
Dora eventually gave as much detail as she could about Jeff's patrol and what they had found, pictures of the National Guardsmen at the gas station, not dressed in their uniforms and ordering zombies around. She went on to say how Jeff, Nadine, Jack and Willy were lost the night of the big fight and was about to continue when a little girl, perhaps twelve years old raised her hands up to get Dora's attention.
'What? What sweetie, Dora is talking here.'
'Willy isn't dead.' the girl said in a quiet voice.
'No dear he didn't make it.'
She shook her head violently from side to side. 'No. He did make it. I talked to him two days ago.'
Dora stopped smiling and stared at the girl. 'Are you sure? Where were you at when you saw him?'
'I was on the west side near the fence. Mr. Parson had to use the bathroom so he set me up to lookout and call him while he, well, you know.'
'And Willy came over to you? Alive?'
'Seemed like it, yeah. He was outside and asked me to throw him some water. So I did. I asked what he was doing and he said he was looking for Jack.'
'What? Why?'
'They made a pact. If one of them turned the other would find them and kill them. He said he wasn't coming back until he found Jack. He said Jack got bit apart that night when they got back, out in the trench. He said he pulled Jack away but they got stuck in a house. Kind of a bad house, you know, blown up. He said that they heard us fighting, but Jack was hurt really bad. They got tired from being up all night and Willy fell asleep, when he woke up Jack was gone. So he thought he turned and has been looking for him.'
'And you just thought to tell us this now?' Dora said, a little bit of anger in her voice. The girl shrank back and the rest of the crowd was busy relaying the conversation in a low murmur.
'Has anyone else seen Willy?' Dora called out.
No one raised their hands or said anything. 'Well we are going to have to figure out what that is about later, but from now on if your friend gets bitten come back to town, don't stop in a blown up house. Now, back to our original discussion, if anyone thinks of anything that might help us, look up a council member and tell them okay?'
The meeting ended and the guards were changed, they got the news from other people in town and the council members all retreated to Dora's house, with Steve pulling Tim along by one arm.
As they approached Dora's house Tim screamed out, 'No!' Then started kicking and fussing like a two year old denied his favorite toy.
'Goddamn it Tim, stop!' said Steve, who had already taken Tim's pistol away from him.
'No! If I go in there you will kill me!'
'Tim, we could kill you out here and no one would say anything about it.' Dora said, stepping up to him.
Realization seemed to dawn on Tim as he looked around at the leaving townspeople. None of them spared him a second glance as they walked away. Tim looked back at Dora's leering face and started sobbing as she took another step closer to him.
'Tim, you made this situation. Not me, that is politics baby, it is a deadly game.' by the time she finished her sentence her face was inches from his.
A sharp smell of urine reached her nose and she backed off in disgust as the man wet himself. Steve cried out and pushed Tim to arm's length.
'Oh for Pete's fucking sake, Tim! No one is going to kill you, you wet motherfucker!' Dora was waving her hand in front of her face. 'I guess we will deal with you out here as you wanted, I was trying to spare you from any more humiliation, but I suppose you are about as low as you can get now.'
'What are we going to do with him?' Mary asked.
'Shoot him, just get it over with.' said Steve.
'No, he is a scared pain in the ass, but we can't shoot him. He hasn't killed anybody.' said Alex.
'An eye for an eye, huh Alex?' said Dora, 'Still I am not in favor of killing him either. Despite what you might think Tim. Why don't we just confine him, keep him out of the way and decide later. It has been a long day and I am tired.'
'Where should I put him?' asked Steve.
'Good question.' Dora thought for a minute then said, 'Oh perfect! We still have handcuffs you got off those cops we found right?' Steve nodded, he had four sets of handcuffs. 'Then rig something up next door at Nina's place, Tim can sleep there. Bring him a plate of food, some water and a sleeping bag or blankets. He'll be fine.' Turning towards Tim she said, 'I…we, the town, can't afford any more distractions, so you will stay there chained to your failed building to think about things. Got it? Until then just think, for once, think about what you can do to
