1:31 PM
The Sanctuary

They'd been in this council chamber for an hour already and hadn't even made a dent in everything they would need to cover over the next week. "Let me see what we have so far," said Gavin, gesturing for the notes Laura was taking. She passed the yellow legal pad over to him:

March 25 Council Meeting Minutes

Here present:
Gavin P. (chairman)
Laura F. (secretary)
Gordon R.
José S.
Gina L.

Agreed – Any council member may introduce a motion. All motions must pass by a minimum vote of 4 council members.

Motions:

1. All former Saviors, like workers, must use points to purchase items in the marketplace. No more "freebies."

Passed 4-1. Laura objecting.

2. Minimum wage increases from 40 points a week to 60 for full-time work, and from 1 point per hour to 1.5 points per hour for part-time work.

José - That's 1.5 times the old minimum. Won't that deplete food and supplies too quickly?
Gordon – You have no idea how much the Saviors used to skim off the top, do you? Looks like the skimming's going to stop. And there are a hell of a lot fewer Saviors now. It'll be fine.

Passed. 5-0.

3. 20 points a week bonus hazard pay for dangerous jobs: Guard, supply runner, etc.

Gordon – 40 points, to ensure the jobs are filled
José – 30 points is more reasonable

Revised: 30 points a week bonus hazard pay for dangerous jobs.

Passed 5-0.

4. 30 points a week "skill bonus" for hard-to-fill and managerial (foreman) jobs.

Passed 5-0.

5. 20 points a week bonus pay for councilmembers.

Gordon – Should be 40 points, this is going to be a lot of fucking meetings.
Gavin – We don't want to breed resentment between the council and the workers, and we all have other work.
Gina – We should certainly get something for our efforts. 10?
Laura – 15 at least.

Revised – 15 points a week bonus pay for councilmembers.

Passed 4-1. Gordon objecting ("too low").

6. Hire and train 5 new guards and 3 supply runners. Workers may apply. DJ will train guards. Laura will train runners.

Passed 5-0.

7. Everyone must contribute 2 points per week to a "welfare fund" for the support of children, disabled, the elderly, or the temporarily sick who have no one able to work for them. Qualified people may apply to the council for points from the fund as needed.

José – 2 points is too high a tax.
Gavin – It's less than 4% of the new minimum wage.
Gina – And about 2% if you get bonus pay. That's not fair. People making more should pay their fair share.
Gordon – 2 points a week on the first 60 and 1/10th a point on each point over 60.
Laura – Too much. 1/20th a point on each point over 60.

Revised motion – 2 points a week on first 60 and 1/20th a point on each point over 60 tax for welfare fund.

Passed 4-1, José objecting.

8. Create an inventory manager position to take inventory and make weekly adjustment on the prices of communal staples based on supply to ensure rationing of scarce resources.

Gordon – But not with the full power to set prices. The council has to okay the prices each week.

Revised motion with Gordon's amendment – passed 5-0.

9. Make public postings of an assembled job list (list to be compiled by council). All applications due by 9 AM March 27. Council will meet to discuss applications and make hiring decisions at 10 AM March 27.

Passed 5-0.

10. Council members will receive lodging in the old lieutenant's rooms.

Passed 5-0.

11. To alleviate crowded living conditions for workers and provide greater safety, families with children under the age of 16 will be lodged in the harem and in Negan's old quarters, which will both be reconstructed for multi-family living quarters.

José – Are they all going to fit?
Gina – It's mostly single mothers. One couple. There will be 7 adults and 8 children.
Gavin – The two largest families in Negan's quarters, the three smallest ones in the harem. Both have single bathrooms. The harem housed six women comfortably at its peak. Negan's quarters are spacious. It should be fine with reasonable reconstruction and good use of space. I'll get my construction crew on it when we're done with the fence.

Passed 5-0.

12. Child labor laws: No child under the age of 12 will be permitted to work accept with chores assisting parents or guardians. Children age 12-14 may work up to 20 hours a week at appropriate jobs. Children age 15-16 may work up to 40 hours a week at appropriate jobs. No child under 17 may work a high-risk job.

Passed 5-0.

Gavin now pushed the notes back to Laura. "Should we start compiling that job list? Or rules and penalties first?"

"I have another motion first," José said. "Motioned that anyone may transfer their points to anyone else to purchase any personally owned item or any personal service at a price agreed upon by both individuals."

"Are we talking prostitution here?" Gina asked.

"We're talking consenting adults being able to trade amongst themselves using the existing currency system."

"We're going to end up with a brothel instead of a harem," Gina complained.

"Then at least it will serve more than one man," José said.

"The harem served the lieutenants, too, on occasion," Gordon observed. "Gavin used to get rewarded good and hard with Frankie, didn't you?"

"Strike that from the meeting minutes!" commanded Gavin, pointing at the legal pad on which Laura was writing. Then he jabbed a finger in Gordon's direction. "And you, shut the fuck up before I come over there and – "

"- And what?" interjected Gordon, sitting forward and leaning onto the table. "Beat me with a baseball bat? Try it. You know the workers outnumber the Saviors more than ten to one now. Half these workers think you're some kind of god or hero for liberating us, but don't mistake me for one of them. I haven't forgotten that you weren't a worker for more than a few weeks, that you became a Savior as fast as you could by backing Negan in the first rebellion, or that you were his lieutenant for months."

Gavin gritted his teeth.

"Settle down, Gordon," Gina said. "The man Negan overthrew was just as bad as he was. But Gavin's clearly trying to make things better." Gordon sat back with a glare still on his face while Gina turned her attention to Gavin. "What happened to those wives who escaped, anyway?"

"Tanya died. The rest are somewhere safe now," Gavin said, "in another community. Now can we get back to the motion?"

"I think this is just going to create a black market," Gina said.

"It's not a black market if it's not illegal," José insisted. "It means more freedom to trade. Say a man sees a shirt I own and wants to be able to pay me one point for it. We should be able to make that trade in the bank accounts. Or say a woman wants to pay me a point to repair some personal electronic of hers that broke."

"Or say you want to pay her a point to suck your dick?" Gina asked.

Gordon smirked. "I don't think anyone is going to suck José's dick for only one point."

"I assure you, plenty of women – "

"- I don't have a problem with this," Laura interjected forcefully, "as long as it's all agreed to and the prices are set by the individuals and there's no extortion or threat. In these private exchanges, people have equal power. And a secondary market could help relegate resources to their highest valued use."

"Were you an economics major or something?" José asked.

"Let's just vote on it," Gavin muttered. "All in favor?" Gavin looked around the table. "Motion passed, 4-1, Gina objecting."

The door to the council chambers opened and Alden popped his head in. "Sorry to interrupt. Gavin, but we need you on the factory floor. There's been another fight."

"Jesus Christ!" Gavin muttered. He pushed back his chair and stood. "Start on the job list while I'm gone."

1:35 PM
Fun Kingdom

When the group got to the entrance of Fun Kingdom, they spilled out of the van and marched to the gate where T-Dog already stood. Shane was on the other side of the gate, a hand on both his hips. Carol recognized him first from his posture. His face appeared different, though, leaner, and he'd grown a dark, full goatee which looked like it hadn't been trimmed in about four days. He seemed more muscular, if that were possible.

Beyond him, parked in the circle, was a Humvee mounted with a machine gun, a military truck, the back of which was concealed by an army green canopy, three motorcycles, and a pick-up truck. There was also an eighteen-wheeler with a busted headlight, a shattered front windshield, a duct-taped-on front bumper, and a dented hood. One soldier – the only woman among them - stood by the eighteen-wheeler, leaned back against the side and smoking, but the rest of the soldiers stood armed on either side of Shane.

Carol's eyes swept over the soldiers' faces again until they fell on a shockingly familiar one. "Morales?" she asked.

"Carol," he replied. "Good to see you alive. And T-Dog and Glenn, too. T-Dog tells us Sophia is well. And that Rick, Daryl and Carl, are here, too, but they're sick?"

"Yes, we can't let you in. Not now, anyway. It's a bad virus, and it's contagious. We're all symptom- free here" she nodded to her fellow soldiers, "but many others inside are not. Your wife? Miranda? And the kids? Eliza and Louise?"

Shane was eyeing the line of Fun Kingdom soldiers as they talked. Footsteps slapped the pavement behind them as Rosita and Sasha caught up to the rest of the group and fell in line. Shane, who had never seen them before, looked each woman up and down quickly, not lecherously, but as though assessing their risk level.

Morales exhaled. "I lost Miranda. I lost my wife. I should have gone with Morgan to Terminus instead of going to Birmingham. Or stayed with Rick from the start. Miranda and I did find her family in Alabama, and they did have supplies. It was fine for a while, living in their bunker. But then we were raided. I got the kids out alive, but I couldn't…" He sniffed and swallowed. "We lost everyone else. That was a week ago. I was headed for Terminus with the kids when I ran into Shane on the highway." He laughed a little bitterly. "Small world, huh? The kids are asleep in the back of the pick-up."

"Morgan's here, too," Carol told him. "And Duane, but they're both sick."

"Darren? The other man that went with them to Terminus?" Morales asked.

"He would be in Terminus."

"No," Sasha said. "He was one of the Terminus mercenaries who helped us fight the Saviors. He's dead."

"Jocelyn?" Morales asked.

"She died of the sickness in Woodbury," Carol said, "which I guess you went to first?" She glanced at Shane, who was staring hard through the bars but saying nothing.

"It was mostly burned up," Morales told her. "Except a few buildings. There were dozens of feasted-over dead bodies outside of it. Completely picked over. And there were scores of walkers in this deep moat, two layers of them." His face scrunched up in disgust. "Piled on top of each other, writhing, trying to claw their way out and climbing over one another."

"Most of the herd must have fallen in the moat trying to get inside Woodbury for our dead," Rosita said. "When they were done with the Saviors." She swallowed hard. "And with Abraham and Axel on the outside."

"About a dozen walkers managed to get over that bridge and were feasting on people inside," Morales said. He looked warily at Shane. "We went inside and killed the walkers that were in there. We almost got pulled down off the bridge doing it. One man did. Those things tore to him to pieces. Then we checked out the bodies, but not much was recognizable. And we gathered what supplies we could. The warehouse didn't burn down, because of some fire-retardant coating on it, though it was pretty badly blackened. It looked like it had been a quarter emptied."

"We got out what we could before we had to run," Sasha told him.

"Well, the rest of that shit's ours now!" shouted a soldier who was missing a front, top-row tooth. He sneered with his gnarled mouth and looked over Sasha lecherously, his eyes lingering on her breasts. Three of the other soldiers were similarly eyeing Rosita, Maggie, and Patricia. Carol would not trust these men inside her gates.

Shane spoke finally. "Enough chit chat. Where's Lori? Did Simon take her?"

"Simon's dead," Carol told him. "He was one of those picked over bodies."

A soldier let out a sudden puff of air, whether a sigh of relief or shock, she didn't know. Two other soldiers whispered to one another.

"All of the Saviors who attacked Woodbury are dead," Carol told him.

"Holy shit," one of the Savior soldiers muttered.

"Where's Lori?" Shane repeated, with a raised and angry voice. "I don't think she was one of those bodies, but it was hard to tell."

"Lori died," Glenn told him. "I'm sorry, man, but she died in childbirth. Five days ago."

Five days ago? Carol thought. Had it really only been five days since her wedding and Lori's death? It seemed like a grim eternity had passed between now and then. Time played tricks with you in this world. It sped up and slowed down, sped up and slowed to a snail's pace again. Less than ten months ago, she'd been Carol Peletier, and yet it seemed she'd been Mrs. Dixon for years. Sophia had matured three years in the course of less than one, she was sure. And she herself had matured a lifetime.

"What?" Shane asked, as though the words had not yet sunk through his ears into his brain. "Dead? In childbirth?"

"We did everything we could," Glenn assured him. "But…one of the babies died inside her."

"One?" Shane echoed. "One of them?"

"She was pregnant with twins," Glenn said. "The girl lived, but the boy died, and Lori died. She's buried in our cemetery."

"No." Shane shook his head. "No! You're telling me she just died giving birth? To my son?"

"I'm so sorry, man."

"Where the fuck was Rick?" Shane roared. "He just stood by and let her die?"

"He didn't let her die!" Glenn insisted. "There was nothing he could do. There was nothing any of us could do."

"Why is she buried in your cemetery if she died five days ago in Woodbury?" Shane demanded.

"She didn't die in Woodbury," Glenn explained. "She was here." He glanced at Carol. "Visiting."

"Visiting?" Shane asked. "Visiting?" he roared. "She was over eight months pregnant and Rick brought her visiting?"

"She wanted to come," Glenn insisted. "And the babies weren't due for five weeks, and she was in good health – "

"In good health?" Shane echoed. "In good health, but she died under Rick's watch? Son of a bitch!" He shook his head. "I told her! I told her he couldn't protect her and Carl, that he wouldn't do what it took to keep them safe. And look what happened? She's dead! My son is dead! And Carl's in the infirmary?"

Glenn exhaled.

"Son of a bitch," Shane muttered again. He strode forward and seized the bars of the gate. Carol stepped back. "Let me in. I want to see my daughter. Let me in!"

"Can't, man, sorry," T-Dog said. "The virus. You might catch it."

"None of you caught it!" Shane roared. "You're all walking around in there. Let me the fuck in!" He rattled the iron bars, or tried to, as if he were rattling a cage he was trapped in.

"Calm down, man," Morales said softly.

Shane let out a growl, released the bars, stepped back, and turned on Morales, hissing, "Don't you tell me to calm down! They won't let me see my daughter, and the mother of my children is dead!"

"So is the mother of my children!" Morales yelled back. He lowered his voice. "And I know how much that hurts. Believe me. But you've got to calm down. Let's talk this out, man. Reason it out."

Shane paced frantically back and forth in front of the gate. The back door to the pick-up truck in the circle creaked open and Eliza Morales slid out. "Papi?" she called. "Papi, are we there yet? Is Sophia alive?"

"Sophia's alive. You can't see her right now, though," Morales hollered. "Get back in the truck with your brother! Shut the door!"

Eliza, looking frightened, obeyed. The plump female Savior by the eighteen wheeler dropped her cigarette, snuffed it out under her boot, and lumbered toward the gate. She was in her early sixties, with gray-brown hair, and looked haggard. A rifle swung from her shoulder.

"Hey, Molls," said the Savior she came to stand by. "You got another one of those smokes for me?"

"No, Donnie. I have exactly enough for myself." She looked at the people on the other side of the gate. "So what's going on here, Shane? They won't let you see your kid?" She looked straight at Carol. "Hell kind of woman doesn't let a man see his own kid?"

Carol tore her eyes from Molls and looked directly at Shane. "Give us five days," Carol said. "For this sickness to finish passing, for the last of the sick to get out of quarantine, and to bury our dead. Then come back. Just you and Morales and the kids. No one else." Her eyes shot across the line of Saviors. "And if you come alone, you can see Judith. And visit Lori's grave. But keep in mind – Rick intends to treat Judith as his own child. As Carl's full sister. And as far as Carl knows, Rick's her father." At least, Carol didn't think he knew, but Carl might know more than he let on. Sophia had figured it out, after all. She also didn't know if Carl or Rick would both survive this virus, but what they needed right now was time, and if Shane had that consolation, maybe he'd relax and give them time. And take these rough men he'd brought to their gates away.

"Just let me see her now," Shane insisted.

"Come on, man," Glenn said. "You've been poking around all those dead bodies in Woodbury. A lot of them died of the virus. For all we know, you picked it up and just aren't symptomatic quite yet. We can't risk you getting near the baby. Do what Carol said. Give us five days. If you're still symptom free, and if we're all symptom free, then you can see her."

"Shane, let's do what they say," Morales pleaded. "We can set up camp back at that park we passed by that lake. Wait a few days."

Shane gritted his teeth and his nostrils flared, but he said. "Four days. We'll set up a temporary camp nearby, and I'll be back in four days."

"Just you and Morales and the kids," Carol repeated. She looked at Morales. "Sophia will be thrilled to see Eliza and Louise again. So will Carl, I'm sure."

"Come on," Morales said to Shane. "Let's get that camp secure before night fall."

Shane nodded. "Move out!" he ordered, but as he left, he stopped to punch a ticket booth, and he hit it so hard he put a hole in the plaster. He let out a growling exclamation of anger and ripped his now likely bruised fist back out before pacing on. Morales eyed him warily as he followed.

Four of the Saviors gave the Fun Kingdom women one last once-over, and one even licked his lips, before walking on. Morales got in the pick-up with his kids, Shane in the Humvee, Donnie in the military truck, and Molls in the battered eighteen wheeler as she lit up another cigarette. Three of the men hopped on motorcycles, and the other four jumped into the back of the military truck. The caravan rolled out, with Shane's Humvee in the lead.

Carol exhaled. "Why didn't we have the tire spikes out across the parking lot entrance?"

"We did," T-Dog said. "He saw and stopped to move them."

"That truck was Simon's," Sasha told them. "The eighteen wheeler. It's the one they used to get over the moat, and then a Savior drove it into the woods and ran over Axel and crashed it up."

"And all the stuff in it is ours," Rosita said. "They robbed our warehouse! Sasha and I were planning to go back for all that when the fire was out and the herd moved on." She turned to Carol. "Why'd you just let them drive off with it? There's probably enough canned and storage food in there to feed fifty people for a month!"

"I didn't want to make things any more tense than they already were," Carol said.

"At least we got all the ammunition out of the warehouse," Sasha said. "They sure don't look like they need any more. Did you see that clip in that machine gun? And all the loaded high-capacity .308 magazines they were carrying? Four to a belt. Probably more in that military truck."

"I didn't like the way a couple of those guys were looking at Maggie," Glenn said.

"If you didn't like it, imagine how I felt," Maggie told him.

"I'm just saying, we should have extra security awake tonight, in case some of those Saviors decide to do their own thing, you know?" Glenn asked. "Some of them might slip out of their temporary camp, come back and try to bust in here."

"Shane recruited those soldiers," Michonne said. "And he came rushing down here like the wind because he heard Lori was in trouble. And now he thinks Lori is dead. And it sounds like he blames Rick. I wouldn't be so sure he's in his right mind." She looked at Carol. "Are you really going to let him in to see Judith?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We just needed to get him to cool down and walk off with those soldiers until we're in a better position to deal with him. Half our fighters are in quarantine right now."

"Fair enough," Michonne said. "But I'm not letting that man near Judith – or Rick for that matter - without a heavily armed escort."

"We're in complete agreement there," Carol told her.

"I'll take tower slides for the first half of the night," Maggie said. "And Glenn can take the gate. Then we'll switch – Patricia slides, T-Dog gate. We need someone awake at the house at all times and probably someone doing perimeter check all night."

"I'll do perimeter check the first half of the night," Sasha volunteered.

"And I'll take the second half," Rosita said.

Carol agreed to stay up the first half of the night at the house to be able to rouse people if needed, and Michonne volunteered for the second half.

"What about the Royal Banquet? Shouldn't we have a guard on that?" T-Dog asked. "And the theater? And the infirmary?"

"Dixon's being released from quarantine this evening," Carol said. "We can put him on guard inside the Royal Banquet. And maybe give a rifle to Charlotte, too. Owen's mom in there. Daryl's in the theater. He's symptom-free now, just waiting out the twenty-four hours. We can run a rifle down there to him, put him on guard."

"Oscar, too," Rosita said. "He only has moderate symptoms."

"Yeah, and a gunshot wound," Sasha reminded her.

"Doesn't mean he won't fight if a couple of Saviors manage to scale the fence unseen and sneak in."

"All right," Sasha agreed. "And let's get a rifle and some extra ammo to Bob in the infirmary, just in case."

"What about those oil tankers y'all brought in?" Patricia asked. "We don't want those somewhere where a rouge Savior can come and shoot an RPG into them and explode them."

"We can move them into the railroad tunnel," Glenn suggested. "It's long enough to fit both of them, back-to-back. It's pure cement and toward the middle of the park. No way an RPG is reaching that from the outside, and that way they wouldn't see the tankers if they somehow made it inside."

T-Dog nodded. "I'll go move one."

"And I'll get the other one," Rosita said. "I do love driving big trucks. I had a boyfriend once who was a trucker."

Sasha smirked. "Of course you did."

The group broke apart and got to work preparing to further secure their camp.