Vince

They sat in a perfect circle round the roaring campfire.

Vince counted eight of them, sat in their campchairs warming their hands over the fire, meaning three were missing. He quickly worked out that this number included Becca, Shel's teenaged sister, who now spends her nights on the roof, gazing down at the herd of walkers surrounding the complex. Also missing from tonight's gathering was Tavia, who rarely left Carver's office, where she would spend ours by the side of Hank, the third and final missing person, tending to his gunshot wound as best she could. Apart from the usual missing persons, everyone had managed to show up to tonight's meetup, despite Vince only having organised it several hours prior.

Looking around him, Vince spotted Wyatt, who sat to his right, scratching his beard. Beside Wyatt sat Vera and Tisha, who leaned close to each other and whispered, most likely catching up on the day's gossip. Lowell and Tyler were chuckling about something together; a sound that had almost become alien to Vince since the herd had arrived. Distancing himself from the group, Russell sat brooding; he'd been doing nothing but for the past few days. To his left, Vince caught Shel gazing at him. She gave him an enthusiastic smile.

It was time to begin.

Vince cleared his throat. Silence followed immediately after, boosting Vince's confidence. The only sound to be heard was the constant moan of the undead, which the wind carried from outside to echo through the halls of Howe's Hardware, as well as the occasional clatter of metal as the walkers hammered and scraped with their claws at the complex's many gates and fences.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming here tonight," Vince began, his voice bouncing from wall to wall of the enormous main foyer. "I know Bill is usually the one to call these kinds of meetings but, obviously, he's no longer with us." The others remained silent. "And, with Troy gone too, I think it's about time someone stepped up to fill his shoes," he declared, feeling the weight of the words on his tongue. "Now, I'm not saying that I'm the man for the job. All I know is that, despite his flaws, Bill Carver kept us alive. I can do my best to do the same, but if anyone else thinks that they can do a better job, now's their time to speak up."

The men and women around the campfire were silent, each of them with their eyes fixated on Vince. He noticed Lowell whisper something in Tyler's ear. He carried on.

"It's been a week since that herd outside formed, and it's number continues to grow every day with no sign of dwindling," Vince recalled. The herd had surrounded the Hardware complex the same night Carver had been murdered, and that Bonnie had helped the assholes responsible to escape, betraying them all. "That, coupled with the fact that our boiler bust a couple of days ago, with Winter right around the corner, means that this place is no longer liveable."

The news earned an orchestra of mutters and whispers from the settlers, disheartened and frightened by Vince's words. They exchanged worried looks. "Where else can we go?" Lowell cried out from across the campfire. "We can't go anywhere with that herd still out there!" Vera pointed out. "Do you even have a plan?" Tyler demanded to know. The settler's eyes were back on Vince.

"People, please!" Shel urged from beside him, raising her hands in a feeble attempt to calm the displeased settlers. "There's no plan as of yet, but that's why we called this meeting, so that we could come up with something together."

"And yet," Vera began, "I can count at least three people who aren't here."

"Four if you can't Bonnie," Lowell cut in. "That fuckin' bitch cut and tun first chance she got. She helped Luke and those assholes attract the herd. She helped them escape. She even stood and watched whilst they beat Carver to death. She's to blame for all of this!"

The mere mention of Bonnie made Wyatt speak up. "Bonnie made her bed. Don't drag her into this, Lowell." It was only when it came to defending Bonnie that Wyatt would ever raise his voice so. Normally, he was more chilled out that Vince could fathom, but that was probably due to all the pot. "Besides, who says she's really with those guys? She could be spying for us or something," he suggested. It was a long shot, but one Wyatt was willing to take.

That was when Lowell stood up from his chair. "I don't care what you say," he argued, pointing a crooked finger at Vince. "The way I see it, things started turning to shit the day Tavia brought the six of you back here. I'm starting to think she should have left you all out there to rot!"

"Lowell!" Tisha barked from nearby. "How can you say something like that?"

Tisha's outrage went ignored by Lowell, who leaned over the campfire to point his crooked finger right in Vince's face. "You want to go? Fine. But I'm staying right here," he assured him before turning on his heels and marching away.

Vince got on his feet. "Where are you going?" Vince shouted after him.

"To find someone who knows what the hell they're doing," Lowell shouted back before disappearing into the shadows.

That was when Vince finally knew that he'd lost this uphill battle. "That could have gone better," he muttered to Shel as the crowd began to disperse.

"Don't worry, you'll grow on them," she reassured Vince. Before them, the men and women returned to their beds. "They're just frightened, is all." She watched Wyatt pour a bucket of cold water over the campfire, extinguishing the flames with a loud hiss.

"And you're not?" Vince asked her as the two walked down the foyer, side by side.

Shel looked up at Vince. "Of course I am," she replied. She is, Vince thought. I can see it in her eyes. "Aren't you?"

"Sure," Vince replied. "But I sure as hell can't afford to let it show," he said. "Carver didn't."

"Carver's dead," Shel reminded him. "Besides, you're not like him."

It was true. Vince lacked the ferocity and brutality that had come to William Carver so naturally. He was nothing like the man. "No," he agreed. "But maybe I'll have to be."