Author's Notes: Hello, I'm alive sorry for the break but after the consistent chapters for three weeks I was feeling a bit of burnout and needed a break, but like a Phoenix, I've been reborn from the ashes better than before! I sincerely hope you enjoy.
Bob led them to a table and motioned for Logan to sit down.
"So the whole breaking in thing it's cool it's fine you guys didn't know. Although you will have to help barricade the door since if we don't have rules and consequences all hell would break loose," Bob chuckled.
"Yeah fair enough," Logan replied.
"If we give you supplies we'd like to know where your little settlement is for more convenient trading and you guys know where we are so it only seems fair," Bob explained.
"I mean, okay," Logan replied.
"Great! That's wonderful to hear," Bob exclaimed.
"Do you guys have any cars nearby that I can hotwire?" Logan asked, "It would make showing you our little home much more convenient and less time consuming."
"Actually yeah, we just snagged one from an old car dealership we haven't siphoned off yet there's some gas still in there," Bob answered.
"Is it big enough to carry my friends too?" Logan asked.
Bob took a quick glance and nodded.
"Hey Clem we're leaving," Logan called.
Clem walked over in the new prosthetic leg that was working. She had no staggering limp whatsoever; it was like she never lost her leg in the first place.
"Hey Green, can you and Ken gather all those kids up?" Bob asked.
Green gave a thumbs up and picked up Louis while Ken grabbed Maren and Aasim. Bob, Logan and Clementine got in while Ken and Green set Louis, Aasim, and Maren down in the trunk of the SUV. Green and Ken then sat in the back row of seats.
Logan was behind the wheel and started driving.
Bob found a CD in the glove compartment and popped it in. It turned out to have old ACDC songs on it.
"Ahh just like the good old days," Bob chuckled.
The windows were down and the music was blaring as they drove through the town.
"So how's your day been so far?" Logan asked.
"Which one of us?" Ken asked.
"It honestly doesn't matter, the silence is just kinda awkward," Logan replied.
"Well my day has been fine so far," Ken said.
Green just gave a thumbs up and went back to looking through the window.
"So have any of you guys had any hostile encounters?" Logan asked.
"I mean some guy named Danial saved me from a deranged man. I haven't seen either of them since," Ken replied.
"Oh well there's no shortage of deranged people these days," Logan said, "I remember like around four years ago, back at Riverside I was on a supply run with Mary, Tom, and Ashlyn. We went to a strip mall and saw some assholes calling themselves the New Frontier or some shit. They weren't too pleased we were looting "their" stuff then the gunfire started and they… killed Tom."
The car was plunged into an incredibly awkward silence.
"I'm sorry I made it awkward, that's my bad," Logan sighed.
"It's cool man, I'm pretty sure we all lost someone to an asshole in this thing," Bob assured him.
They were in the home stretch and saw the turn to the boarding school. Logan opened the window and called for Willy to let them in. The gates screeched as Willy opened them just wide enough for the car to get through. They drove in and turned off the car. Bob opened the door and got out.
"Really nice place you got here," Bob said.
"Who the hell is this?" Nico asked.
"This guy helped us out, he's cool," Clementine replied.
"We would be walking back since Louis crashed the goddamn car if it wasn't for them," Logan said.
"Mary, Willy, and I ran into some random people in the woods who shot at us, these guys could be part of their group," Nico exclaimed.
"My people never attack unless provoked and my people haven't even been in this direction for two years!" Bob said.
"I'm going to have to back Nico up on this," Omar added.
"And I'm going to assure you that my group had nothing to do with this," Bob said.
Ken and Green looked nervously at each other fearing that things would escalate, but they continued to carry Louis, Aasim, and Maren from the car to the picnic tables.
"Everybody calm the fuck down!" Clementine ordered, "There is no possible way Bob and his people could have done this. We know that Gregory was from a bigger community; it was probably the allied communities."
"Whoa hold on," Bob interjected, "When we were talking about this whole little partnership and trade thing you mentioned nothing of being at war!"
"First of all there's just one mysterious backer as far as we can tell and this is the first contact we've had with them!" Nico argued.
"This was a mistake," Bob sighed, turning around, "Ken, Green, c'mon let's go."
"Wait, can't we still work something out?" Logan asked.
"I don't want anyone from my group involved in some slaughterfest. I've seen this before multiple times. If an armed militia three times the size of your community is backed by a much bigger possibly multiple communities that's a shitstorm waiting to happen and not a risk I'm willing to take. You guys are on a dangerous road and if you keep going down it you'll all have died gruesome deaths," Bob replied.
Bob turned on the engine and waited for Ken and Green to buckle up. Once they did they drove out of the courtyard and Willy quickly closed the doors behind them.
"Good job," AJ said sarcastically, "You spooked off literally the only friendly people we've met!"
"Oh so the little shit who's never had to actually fight assholes hand to hand gets an opinion now?" Mary asked, "Last time I checked you haven't gone on any supply runs and the only time you've shot people was when they surrendered or when they were knocked out!"
"Hey don't talk to AJ like that!" Clementine scowled.
"No she's right Clem!" Willy argued, "He never even really apologized for shooting Marlon; you guys were sent away then he was shot and just instantly forgiven because we had bigger fish to fry! We never back tracked to the cold blooded murder!"
"Enough!" Clementine shouted, "What AJ did to Marlon was wrong, but do any of you really think he would've let himself be a prisoner and not try to stir up any sort of shit? You guys said we pushed it aside because we had bigger fish to fry. We still do have bigger fish to fry! I'm not asking to forget this conversation. Just to postpone it until a time where we aren't being threatened by strangers!"
Everyone mumbled in somewhat agreement and went to do whatever chores they had. Logan went over to Henry and Mary to talk to them about the recent events.
"This group is much more of a powderkeg than we thought," Logan said.
"Did we really confront Gregory head on so that they could fall apart now?" Henry asked.
"Things will get better once everything has settled down and there aren't enemies knocking on our doorstep," Mary added.
"I sure hope it does," Logan muttered.