Myriah & Reggie - Outpost - The Council & Matt/Tyler, Bex & Enrique
The council stood on the wooden dais that served as the meeting place for the town. Eleven men and women stood before their community of about fifty people, their faces grim. The news was going to upset some people, all of them knew. Myriah and Reggie stood at the front, whispering into each other's ears. Eventually, Myriah placed a hand on Reggie's shoulder and stepped forward.
"Hello, everyone," she said. Her voice was low and steady. When Myriah spoke, people tended to quiet down. Myriah never needed to speak up. "Today's meeting will be a brief one. We have some news to discuss with you and a change in some of our plans. But first-" Myriah nodded to someone in the audience. She continued to speak as the pushed through the crowd. "As you are all aware, we are a very multicultural group of individuals. We all come from different places and different backgrounds. We all have different beliefs and different lives. But here we are, together." She paused as Richard and Elliot walked on to the dais. Elliot looked absolutely miserable. "I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for us all to try and become familiar with a little taste of a culture unfamiliar to us."
Myriah placed her hands on Elliot and Richard's shoulders, beaming. "These two young men will be offering classes on American Sign Language. But that's not all." She stepped forward and swept her gaze across the crowd. Somehow, no matter who they were, Myriah made it felt like they mattered. That somehow in the fraction of a second her gaze was on them, Myriah was their best friend in the world. "I know English is not everyone's first language here," she continued. "I invite everyone to sign up for language classes. Whomever is willing to teach can teach. Just because the lives we lived before our gone, doesn't mean we have to stop living. I hope that this will be another opportunity to bring our community together and to help take back a fraction of the lives we lost to the biters."
The crowd murmured approvingly. It sounded like a good idea and no one could find fault in it, even if most of them had no interest in learning. Myriah waited for them to die down before she continued. "You can go now, boys," she said, leading Elliot and his brother off the stage. She turned back to the crowd. "Now, Reggie has something he wishes to say." Myriah stepped back and Reggie took her place. Unlike her, he didn't once smile at the crowd. His relationship with Outpost was one of respect, not friendship.
"My scouts have been working diligently to track the biters in the area, and we have come to a distressing conclusion." The man let that sit. He had an air for the dramatic, probably because it made people listen. "There is a horde that will be hitting Outpost on its way into the city. Our walls have protected us for this long, but they can not take the force of an entire horde bearing down on them. What we need to do from this moment on is to prepare. We will have to fight back." Reggie looked into the crowd, seeking out the young men. His words were mostly for them, after all. "Unfortunately, we don't have the manpower for a siege. With both my scouts and the people on the wall, it still isn't enough. That is why we must hold off on the wall's expansion in order to focus on training our soldiers."
Reggie balled his right hand into a fist. "I need anyone- anyone- willing to join my people to do so. We need to fight for our community or before long there will be no community to fight for. If you care about Outpost, then I urge you to join me." When Reggie stopped talking, it was deathly quiet. The crowd had been shocked by the news that their long awaited expansion was being out on hold. Not only that, but none of them had even imagined a horde would come through. Outpost was supposed to be safe from these kinds of things.
But Reggie's words inspired some. Both men and women stepped forward and cried out. "I'll join!" they said. "I'll fight for Outpost!" Reggie smiled and nodded with approval.
"You can sign on tomorrow, during our scheduled scouting mission. When I get back the next day, we will begin preparations. Outpost will not be going down without a fight."
The crowd broke out into applause.
***
Reggie, flanked by Lucas and Rudy, opened the door to the cabin. Reggie grimaced at the blood and broken furniture. Thomas was quick to greet them, apparently having been waiting. "Sorry about the mess, boys. We had a bit of a walker accident."
Reggie shouldered his rifle. "We call 'em biters."
Thomas shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me." He jumped off the couch with surprising gusto. "My boys were just resting up."
"We have to get fucking going, dude," Rudy said, speaking up. "You should be happy we came after the sun came out."
Thomas smiled at this and walked toward the hallway. "Hey! Bex! Enrique! Get your butts out here!"
Bex shuffled into the room, looking like he had one hell of a night. Rudy found himself grinning at the sight of him. "I'm ready," said Bex.
Bex - New Orleans - The Scouts & Hazel's Pub
Here they were, in the heart of New Orleans. Bex didn't imagine he'd be back so soon and especially not after such a rough morning. Reggie had said it was imperative they change up their plans and ransack what they could from one of the city's more wealthy neighbourhoods. His reasons why were a secret, or at least they were to the three potential recruits. "The priorities are things that we can use," Reggie had said. "Food, clothing, tools, even small things like spoons and forks. You grab what you can but you must be careful about it. You start ransacking too much clothing and you have no room to carry food. It's about being smart and managing what you take." Then Reggie had given Bex and the others an odd look; A look intended to convey a message. "And under no circumstances are we to hoard items for ourselves."
Once they were into the city proper, Reggie had started to divide them into smaller groups. These groups were maneuvered in a way that spread out like a cone so that they could hit a larger number of buildings. Out of the group of eleven that they had, Bex noticed that Reggie never left Tyler or Enrique in the same group as him. They didn't show it much, but Bex realized the Outpost men were a distrustful sort. They were also a disciplined sort. No matter who Bex was grouped with, they moved with an efficiency that would have put Tyler's old group to shame. They tended to communicate wordlessly, sometimes not even having to signal to each other. Bex had watched a walker get the jump on Rudy, but before Bex even anticipated a movement, Rudy had turned the walker into the waiting blade of another man named Jerry.
It was approaching mid-day by the time Bex found himself slumping against the wall, his arms sore and his back stiff. He was little more than a pack mule at this point, his bags filled to the brim with the spoils of the day. They were on the second story of an abandoned house. The place looked divine compared to most of the other dumps they'd swept through. The furniture hadn't been ransacked and none of it was toppled over. The sickly green wallpaper was spotless aside from the seven months of dust it had accumulated. It wasn't hard to imagine an elderly couple lived there once.
Luke lounged in an armrest, a radio to his ear. Reggie's voice issued instructions to Luke, telling him to only do two or more locations. "We could camp out in one of these houses," Luke responded. "They're secure enough."
"Today's gone well, but that doesn't mean the city's stopped being dangerous," said Reggie's voice. "We'll hit a few more places and do one last rendezvous. The only camping out we'll be doing is out in the forest."
"Alrighty, Reggie. Roger that." Luke stood up with a sigh. "Day's almost done, guys. Wanna hit that motel we passed by?"
Jerry moved from his seat and adjusted his backpack. "Fine with me," he said. Bex gave his agreement with a nod.
On the street, they didn't have many walkers to contend with. Most of the corpses they passed were not about to get up and start walking. With the street relatively free of vehicles, there were no places for hungry walkers to be hiding, making for an easy walk to the motel. Bex watched Luke as he scanned the upper windows for signs of movement. "Don't see much. No biters banging at the windows, at least." He walked across the small parking lot and gestured for them to follow. At the entrance, Luke trained his rifle on the door. "Get the door, Jerry."
Bex had to admit that Luke surprised him. His heavy-rimmed glasses and awkward demeanor gave Bex a strong impression of what he felt was a nerd, but Luke was far from a stereotype. He was quick to lead the charge, always volunteering to check out a place that the group had thought to be dangerous. He was a bit reckless, but somehow still unbelievably calm at the worst of times. They had witnessed a walker devouring a man and a child two houses ago- a sight that Bex had found himself unable to look directly at- but Luke hadn't batted an eye. He had taken out the walker before turning to Bex, saying, "I'm sorry. Children are always the hardest, aren't they?"
Jerry stepped forward and threw open the door. Luke rushed inside, his gaze sweeping the hallway. He stepped to the side and gave the wall three loud thuds! Then, he waited, his hand held out to keep Bex and Jerry back. After what felt like about a minute, Luke shrugged and let them come inside. "At least we know it's not swamped. The motel's not that big, so we shouldn't have to split up. You keep an eye on our backs, Bex." Bex nodded, and the group pushed further into the motel.
