Max ran up to me.
“Where is everybody?” he cried.
“Shhhhh!” I said.
And I heard, faintly, sounds coming from the storage room.
“They’re in the back,” I told Max. “Come on.”
Just as we reached the doors, Alex came out.
“Dean,” he said. “I was coming for you. There’s people at the door!”
I pushed my way through the little kids to the front of the group, near the intercom.
The screen was a dull gray, with two shapes standing a bit off.
Niko: “They could be dangerous!”
Josie: “They need our help!”
Jake: “We can
Brayden: “But they know Mrs. Wooly!”
It was the last one that caught my attention.
“What?” I yelled. “They know Mrs. Wooly?”
“We’re going to vote,” Niko declared.
“WAIT!” I shouted. “Somebody tell me what’s going on!”
“We were taking the trash to the Dump when Henry heard a voice,” Josie told me. “I came back here and a man was asking us to let him in. Craig Appleton is his name.”
“And he has a friend,” Niko interrupted. “There’s two of them.”
“The friend knew Mrs. Wooly,” Brayden added. “He’s the maintenance guy from the grammar school.”
“Yeah,” said Chloe. “He fixed the buses and snowblower and stuff.”
“How did they get through the guy?” I asked Niko. He looked at me blankly. “The
Now the little kids started asking what guy guarding the store and Niko shrugged.
“I didn’t ask.”
“Well, shoot,” Jake said. “Let’s ask them now.”
So Niko stepped up to the intercom.
“Excuse me, sir, we have a question for you.”
One of the shapes stepped up to the intercom. His face was wrapped in layers of some kind of plaid material. Maybe a wool throw rug?
“Yes, Niko, what’s the question?”
“Well… There was a man. Who was deranged from the compounds. As we understood it, he had sort of decided the store was his and he wasn’t letting anyone get—”
“Yes,” said Craig Appleton. “We had to shoot him.”
Niko told Josie to take the little kids, including Sahalia and Alex, back to the Living Room. Josie refused.
“I’m not going to be left out of this decision,” she argued.
“Me either,” said Sahalia.
Niko took a deep breath.
“I tell you what, Sahalia,” Niko said. “If you take the kids to the Living Room and play with them, I will stop considering you a little kid. You’ll have full big-kid status and all the privileges of a big kid.”
“Oh, now I’m a big kid? You guys treat me like dirt but when you need something—”
“Sahalia!” Niko shouted. “I. Need. Your. Help!”
“Fine,” she spat. “But I want my vote counted.”
“And what’s your vote?” Niko asked.
“Let them in. Maybe they can tell us what the hell’s going on out there. Come on, guys,” she said, rounding up the little kids.
“Let them in! Let them in!” shouted Chloe through the ruckus of little kids’ voices.
“Hey, Sahalia,” I called as she herded the kids off. “We set up a sundae bar…”
“For breakfast?” she said, disapproving.
“Mr. Appleton, you’ll need to wait for a moment,” Niko said into the intercom. “We need to discuss this and take a vote.”
The man’s muffled face came close to the monitor.
“We understand that you need time to decide,” he said. “There’s a lot of very scary people out here. But you can trust Robbie and me. That’s why Mrs. Wooly told Robbie about where you were. She and Robbie are good friends.
“But now I am injured and we’re out of supplies. Food and water are very scarce out here. If you could just help us stock up, we can give you the only thing we really have to trade.”
“What’s that?” Niko asked.
“Information,” he said.
It was as heated a debate as we’d ever had. Niko and Jake made a good case for
Niko was really concerned that they had shot the O monster. They could use their gun (or guns) against us. We could end up their prisoners. They might take over and try to rule the Greenway.
“My job is to keep you safe,” Niko said, his arms crossed. “They have guns and they are adults. They can take care of themselves.”
“If they try to take over it’ll be a total downer,” Jake drawled. His eyes were glassy and strange. “They should just go on their way. We don’t want strangers in here, telling us what to do.”
Brayden shook Jake’s arm.
“Dude, are you insane?” Brayden said. “They can tell us what’s going on out there! We need to know! And we got tons of stuff. We trade stuff for information.”
“I agree with Brayden. We should be generous and share what we have. We need to know what’s going on outside. It’s worth the risk,” Josie said.
Alex was opposed to adding any variables into what was a stable environment.
What tipped it was the rules Brayden proposed.
And my vote.
Niko turned to all of us.
“I just want it on the record that I am against this. I am only doing it because I’ve been outvoted. I think it’s a bad idea.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Brayden said. “Do you want to tell them or should I?”
Niko turned, sighing and pressed his finger onto the Talk button.
“We’ll let you in,” said Niko into the intercom. “On the following conditions. One, you give us your guns for the duration of your stay. Two, you agree to leave tomorrow morning, no matter what. Three, you promise to take no more than we give you, and four, you swear you will abide by our rules.”
“Agreed,” said Mr. Appleton, without consulting Robbie. “Now how can we help you open up this door?” he asked.
“We can’t open it,” Niko answered. “We’ll throw you a ladder down from the roof.”
I was banished from the storeroom, as were Niko and Brayden.
“You, too, Josie,” Niko said.
“But we don’t even know what type I am!” she protested.
“Exactly,” said Niko.
Alex and Jake would be the ones to let the men in.
Jake and Alex got bundled up in layers of clothing as a preventative measure. Niko handed Jake the home
