Day 8: Hello, Cruel World
Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
July 4th, 2010, 10:17 AM
Morales had been right about my van and the heat. I'd slept in the passenger seat last night, the windows up to avoid the nuisance of any little bugs that might want to get in. With the quarry in such close proximity, I could confirm that we had a real mosquito problem. I woke up in a hot sweat and getting into the quarry to cool myself off was all I could think of. Grabbing my toothbrush, I hopped out of the van and began for the body of water.
"Joel," Shane beckoned.
God, I couldn't be up for a minute anymore without someone wanting something.
"What's up?"
"That meetin' we were gonna call?" he said as though it was the most obvious thing. "It's late in the day."
"Can't be that late."
"Tell you what, why don't you wake up a minute, I'll gather everyone."
I nodded and continued down to the quarry. Finally finding myself alone down there, I knew I was free to let loose a little bit in terms of bathing. I waded in the cool water- a little to cool for my tastes, but beggars couldn't be choosers, especially not anymore. Once I was finished with that as well as brushing my teeth, I met up with the group by Dale's RV, everyone standing around chatting.
"This everyone now?" Shane said once he saw me return.
"Glenn's been gone another day now," T-Dog reminded everyone.
"He left by his own choice without tellin' anyone, that's on him," Shane tried to the best of his ability to shut the conversation down.
Before anyone could argue, I chimed up, "I'll go out and look for 'em soon as we're done talkin' here. He can't have gone far. If I don't have him back by today, you can count on tomorrow."
Unfortunately, though, Shane was right. I had no leads on where the kid had gone. He left without telling anyone where he was going. He would come back, or he wouldn't. Don't get me wrong, if I knew where to look, I'd look there, but I had to be realistic. If he trusted himself enough to go out on his own, I had to trust him too. I needed to go out and look for supplies anyway.
"That's if he's still alive," Guillermo pointed out.
"Let's try to be optimistic here," I encouraged.
"Listen up," Shane demanded the authority in the group again. "To keep each other alive while we're waitin' on the rescue team, we're each gonna need to pull our own weight, play our own part. We need ways to keep food comin' in, keep geeks out, and keep everyone healthy. I ain't forcin' anyone to be a part of the group, but I figure we can help each other out. I'm going to put together a camp guard. I figure we don't need too many people out here in the middle of the woods, but enough to be safe and make sure nothin's gettin' in here. Joel will put together the scavengin' team. But we need more than that, domestics, childcare, hunters and fishers, foragers. Anyone with any skills that could be put to use, make that known."
"I'm a mechanic," Jim offered hesitantly.
"See, there we go, that's good," Shane walked over to Jim and patted the taller man on the shoulder. "Jim will be in charge of keepin' the cars runnin', he can help out elsewhere when there's nothin' to be done."
"I'm familiar with HVAC too and plumbing," Jim elaborated. "I dabbled a bit in about every construction related field while workin' on my own house."
"I'm sure that will all come in handy. Maybe we can set up some AC units somehow," I proposed. "You know anything about solar power?"
"A bit," Jim nodded. "I'm just gonna need the right equipment."
"We can come across some," I assured.
"For now, Jim, we're gonna need you to give every vehicle in camp a good checkup. We need to know that if we need to get out of here in a hurry, we're capable of doing that."
"I can do that," Jim agreed.
"Anyone else got any special skills that might come in use?" Shane asked.
"Yeah, I'm a doctor," Sandra Stevens confessed.
"That's more valuable than gold," Shane chuckled excitedly. "Great! So, Doctor…"
"Stevens. You can call me Sandra."
"She'll be in charge of checkin' up on everyone," Shane included.
"I was a nurse too," Felipe offered.
"I could always use an assistant," Sandra replied.
"Perfect. You two got medical covered," Shane said.
"We're more than lucky to have two medical professionals let alone any at all," I inputted. "These woods got a lot to offer. We're gonna need some foragers."
"I took a horticulture class in college," Amy offered.
"She got an A," Andrea boasted, offering her younger sister a proud smile.
"Perfect, that's great. Let's get a few more people in on that," I looked around at the crowd.
"I've got some cursory knowledge on plant medicine, I'm sure I could teach Felipe too," Sandra added.
"Sounds good to me," I nodded to the doctor. "If no one else has any knowledge, anyone want to learn from Amy and Sandra?"
The truth was that my brothers and I had a pretty decent amount of knowledge in this area, but our skills were needed more elsewhere, so I wasn't going to bring that up just yet.
"I'm willin' to learn," Lori stepped forward.
"Alright, Lori's in," Shane stated. "I'll pick up where I can, but I need to put together a camp guard first. We need to start by knowin' who in camp is armed. No one's gonna try to take your guns away. I want my armed men on the front line."
Andrea reached into the back of her belt, pulling out a shiny silver pistol. "What about your armed women?"
"Men and women then?" Shane corrected himself. "Who else got a firearm aside from Joel and myself? Obviously, you do Lam. You'll be part of the guard."
"Well, everyone knows I do too," Dale spoke up.
"That it for now? Alright. Joel and I picked up a good arsenal at Dick's. So, if anyone knows their way around a gun- safely- I'm willin' to arm you. May be able to teach some people too."
"I'm a good shot," T-Dog said.
"Me too," Mia announced.
"Me and Jorge are good," Guillermo offered, although reluctantly.
"It's been a while, but I can learn," Morales said.
"Same here," Ahmad agreed.
"Perfect, perfect," Shane spoke. "That's our guard right there. Me, Lam, Andrea, Dale, T, Guillermo, Jorge, Mia, Ahmad, and Morales. We'll go over details later. Gonna want some people scoutin' the woods, some at the bottom of the hill, some walkin' perimeter of camp. We'll take shifts."
"I got a rifle of my own, but I think my skills would best be in the woods," Ed said. "I know how to hunt."
"Good, we're gonna need more hunters than Daryl and Merle. Anyone else know anythin' about huntin'? I'm sure Ed could use a partner."
"I don't know much about hunting, but my dad made sure I was a good shot with my bow," Haley added.
"You got your bow with you?" I asked.
"Sure wouldn't leave it behind in all this. Are you kidding me?"
"Then Ed and Haley will be a huntin' duo," I summarized. "Who is any good at cookin'? We need people to prepare healthier meals to keep everyone strong and a few people to keep track of food inventory and rations. We ain't gonna take anythin' you brought with you if you don't want to share, but what I bring back, I intend to be split among everyone."
"I'd be comfortable doing that," Carol piped up, giving a strange glance to her husband as if to see if he was okay with it.
Something was starting to not sit right with me about the situation.
"I'm pretty good myself," Sheila chimed up.
"Great, you two ladies will take up on that," Shane assigned. "For all the kids, we're gonna need someone watchin' em."
"I got the most of them, so I'll take that up," Miranda volunteered, holding her children on either arm.
"Well, I wouldn't want you doin' it all on your own," I said to Miranda, then looking at everyone left without jobs which I now noticed was only women- and Glenn who wasn't back yet.
"I was a preschool teacher," Eileen offered. "I know our kiddos are a bit older, but I still think I'd be handy there. I can teach them some skills if everyone is willing to teach me."
"Sounds great, Eileen, thank you," I replied. "What's that leave us with?"
"The domestics," Shane said. "So much for your scavengin' team."
"Scavenging?" Jacqui repeated, almost incredulously. "I hope you don't think anyone else is as dumb enough to go back out there as you are, honey. No offense."
"Have a little respect, he ain't doin' it for himself," Shane defended me, as well as the run he had gone on.
"It's alright, Shane. I ain't gonna ask anyone to go with me, then. I'll take volunteers here and there. For now, y'all can leave it to me and Glenn."
"If he comes back," Shane said, unnecessarily.
"He'll come back, what you mean 'if'?" T-Dog shot back.
"Guys, guys. Let's keep it calm now. We got to stay cohesive," I mediated. "Whose left without assignments?"
"Well, I am, that's why I'm sayin' I hope you don't think I'm joinin' your suicide posse," Jacqui said.
"Not at all," Shane interjected. "Domestics, like I said. Looks like it's you, Paula, and Rowan. Y'all can take on the laundry. Maybe some gardenin' if Carol and Sheila don't mind pitchin' in to."
"Jesus, Shane, do you think we're going to be out here long enough to grow a cornfield?" Andrea pointed out.
"Listen, I don't like it either, but realistically, we need to prepare for the worst," Shane said, speaking empathetically to Andrea.
The group began to chatter over each other in their agreement or disagreement with Shane.
"Guys!" I interrupted. "No one is saying we're going to be here forever, that no one is going to come for us, but Shane is right. It's better to be prepared for somethin' that's not gonna happen then not be prepared for anythin' at all. If we get the chance, we're plantin' seeds. No one waste any seeds at all. We'll have Carol and Sheila store them."
"Sounds like we got everythin' figured out then for now," Shane said.
"Yo, what about me though?" Miguel spoke up. "I hope you ain't expectin' me to sit around with the little kids all day. I'm fourteen."
"Why don't you just shadow whoever you'd like, pick up some skills here and there, sound good?" I proposed.
"Fine with me," he shrugged.
I thought he was young, but I sure didn't know the kid was that young. He should have had his parents still. I was glad he seemed to be tight with Guillermo, Felipe, and Jorge though. I wasn't sure how they knew each other, but they all seemed to have been close before the apocalypse.
"Everyone knows their jobs, get with your groups, talk with Shane, try to figure everythin' out," I instructed. "If y'all will excuse me, I'm gonna go gear up to find Glenn."
Truthfully, I didn't have much gearing up to do. I needed to save as much space as possible to fit whatever loot I could find. The van was pretty much completely empty.
On that note, I simply got in the van and took off down the dirt road out of the foothills.
It was somewhat overwhelming- all of the freedom the surviving members of humanity had obtained in the last week or so. Nobody was anywhere to tell us where we could and could not be, what we could and could not take. Whatever America's founding fathers had in mind, this land wasn't the land of the free until now.
Driving down the road, I saw the first place that caught my attention: an apartment complex- not a dainty one either. These looked like borderline luxury homes. This would be sure to have a lot of different supplies from various walks of life. And if I were Glenn, I would have certainly stopped here before going anywhere else. Although apartments had an urbaneness about them, but it was far enough out in the woods that I might be able to find plenty of survival gear.
The apartment complex was a collection of buildings- five of which that I could see. The look of them was rather tacky in my humble opinion, the collections of red, beige, and brick. It certainly wasn't my taste, but now was not the time for architectural criticism.
I parked my van on the street behind the first building and hopped out, walking through the dirt and grass up to a stairwell. These were the type of apartments with outside access rather than all front doors being within one main building. From what I could see, each building had several staircases which would have access to a handful of apartments. Before heading up the stairs to the higher-level apartments, I approached the apartment on the right-hand side. Trying for the golden knob, I wasn't surprised to be out of luck in finding it locked. But this was an opportunity for something I thought looked a lot more fun when I was a kid before I became a cop. A good old-fashioned door-kick. This wasn't going to be easy though. That was one sturdy door. I could tell this development hadn't been up all that long.
I lifted my foot as heavy as I could, kicking the door in, feeling the hinges start to break and the door itself to become looser. With another kick, the door was completely caved in, exposing a white themed living room at the end of wood laminated hall, the pale couch facing a flat screen television on the far wall. What mostly held my interest though was the kitchen. The locked door was a good sign that this place hadn't been touched, and I was more than eager to fill my stomach.
The open floor concept gave me full view of the kitchen once I reached the end of the hall, and I continued straight to it. Hurriedly, I swung open the refrigerator door. The light was still on, and the fridge was full. These were apartments on the side of upper-middle class. No one out here was starving. Larger apartments sometimes indicated a lot of kids too. People with kids tended to keep their fridges full.
A thought entered my mind. There was electricity here. It wasn't far from the quarry. Maybe it would be better to move everyone into the apartments here? We could secure this building, maybe build a wall out of cars? I wasn't so sure yet though. What was keeping the electricity on here? I honestly had no idea how the power company really worked, so maybe this was the last little bit that would run before everything shut off? Maybe this complex had backup generators or even solar power? The solar power was doubtful though. I hadn't spotted any panels on my way in, and an apartment complex usually wasn't privy to solar power. They wanted those electricity bills filling their pockets. Though I knew they'd be very necessary in the coming days… months… years.
Considering the state of the fridge being full and the food in good condition- I was going to treat myself, or rather- stuff my face until I couldn't anymore. It had long been since I had actually eaten a meal. Jerky, beans, and peaches were getting old, and I was sure I was lacking in nutrients. Pulling out a carton of eggs, I flicked on the kitchen's light switch then began opening cabinets and counters, looking for a pan to start frying them in.
I was overjoyed to see the cabinets stocked with food. I knew we would be okay now. No more scrounging up what we could. If only though, we could find a better way to store the perishables. I would need to bring those back and have everyone finish them today. Was Dale's electricity working in the RV? I'm sure some of it could be stored in his fridge and freezer. I'm sure I could find him gas and maybe a new generator as well if that was needed. I didn't know if it required a specific type of generator though.
Finding the necessary pan, I started the electric stove up. Going back to the fridge, I found a fresh packet of butter and used it to lubricate the pan as it begun to heat up.
Cooking was something that could often be done on autopilot for me, especially for meals that I was so used to making. This gave me time to think and process, time that was necessary right now. I needed to evaluate what was best for the group.
This apartment complex was only practically right across the street when it came down to it. I know everyone would appreciate the electricity for however long it lasted- as well as the running, hot water that I'd been confirmed with when turning on the kitchen sink. Maybe it was a good idea to haul ass over here. If everyone was interested. It would probably be best if I ran it by Shane and made sure I was considering all options. The quarry would still be in good distance for water and hunting resources. I needed to make sure that this place was actually clear of the dead though. I'd say we had about thirty-five survivors and this particular building had about twenty or so apartments if my calculations of the windows that I'd seen coming in were accurate. It would be enough for everyone. It wouldn't be wise to spread out too much, though there were more apartment buildings in this complex. We would just search those ones. How hard would it be to build a makeshift wall around this place? There was a small fence around parts of it to start, but it was short and didn't adjoin in every place. I knew doing so may not look well among the group members which were still hopeful of rescue which was maybe everyone but me, my brothers, Shane, Lori, and Dale. Though I couldn't say the latter three weren't hopeful, just realistic. Glenn maybe was among those ranks as well, considering how he'd taken the initiative to go out on his own.
I couldn't help but wonder if Glenn was close by or if the kid was already gone.
From the top of the fridge, I pulled off a loaf of bread I had spotted. This particular apartment had one of those toasters fitting for four slices of bread, so I went ahead and indulged myself.
This apartment was clean and clear. It got me thinking of what the story was here. These people hadn't left in a hurry, nothing seemed to really be missing, but the door had been locked. My guess- they left for a walk or a drive to the store and never made it back. It was a sad day for the previous tenants, but a great day for me and the other survivors.
If I had any inkling to bring the group back here, I'd need to clear the entire place of the dead and do the due diligence of making the place livable for everyone. I didn't foresee myself having a lot of problems with the dead here. If anyone had died in their apartment, it couldn't be more than a family of four or five. It would be easy to put those geeks down.
Family. The thought had me thinking. I don't think I'd seen any children that had turned. Today might be a different day for that. Who knows what everyone else has seen? The day would have to come, though, for dead kids to start showing up. I'd wondered why they hadn't. Maybe it was size. Little bite sized snacks for the dead.
God, I was awful for thinking that. That was a joke I'd have to keep to myself for now. Though I'm sure Merle could appreciate it.
After finishing my meal, making sure my stomach was as full as it could be, a feeling I hadn't embellished in since before the dead arose, I began on my new project- clearing this apartment complex of the dead. Just this building though. I'd come back for all of the supplies later on, and to fix this door, not to mention. I wanted to avoid needing to fix as many doors as possible, so I decided that I'd do my best not to kick anymore of them down. It would be easier to board up a broken window then destroy the one door that led into these apartments.
Exiting through the doorless doorway, I decided to go straight for the door across from me in the stairway. Turning the knob, I was surprised to find it unlocked. I raised my desert eagle as I entered the hallway. The first bedroom door on the left was shut, so I slowly turned the knob, keeping my gun raised up.
Ahead of me, I was surprised to find two walkers, a male and female, once a young couple perhaps, probably around my own age, already put down and laid carefully on the bed next to one another. Someone had already been here. And by the look of how the bodies were displayed, this person had remorse for what they'd done or empathy for the lives lost here.
CLUNK. THUD.
These noises erupted from the next room over. I wasn't alone. And if these geeks were put down, I'd bet it was something living. Maybe just a cat or dog if I was lucky- or at least a human of the friendly variety.
I held my gun tightly in my hands at the thought of those odds. I'd hope it was just a geek, but I had to be smart. Maybe what I was about to do wouldn't have been under the right circumstances.
"Anyone there?" I called.
"J- Joel? Please tell me that's you."
"Glenn, what are you doing here? Your friends are worried about you. T-Dog," I called into the next room, relaxing as I now knew who it was.
I walked out of the room and into the next room where I found Glenn as he climbed from the floor back onto the bed. Upon the bed was an open bag of Cheetos and a book opened about halfway through. I didn't ask him why he was on the floor, I could only assume that he'd fallen when he heard me come in. It was kind of comical- scaring the kid so bad he fell down.
He sighed as he laid back on the bed, his head resting against the headboard. "I needed a little piece and quiet. And I didn't want to sleep in a tent. Look at this place. Walls. Beds. Electricity."
"You do the geeks in the other room?"
"Yeah. Figured they don't have any use for this place anymore."
"You're right. So, why didn't you come back and have everyone come here?"
"Jesus, I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe because these are other people's homes?"
"Chances are, Glenn, these people all either died here or died in Atlanta during the napalms. And if the explosions didn't get them, the dead did. If anyone by chance is still alive, they probably aren't coming back. Our people will be safer behind these walls with running water and air conditioning than out at that quarry."
"How can we know for sure they're not coming back? That no one is still here?"
"People get scared. They do what the TV tells them to. Leave your houses. Come to the city. We were lucky. If we'd gotten into the city- if we'd gotten there a little sooner. We would have been burned to a crisp, blown up. We wouldn't have all gotten out."
"We didn't all get out."
I looked to the ground then back up to his eyes for a moment before looking back down. He wasn't wrong. There were a ton of people there. Not everyone followed us back. God only knows where they ended up.
"You lost people?"
"You didn't?"
"I didn't have people to begin with," I muttered. "Met some people on the road who didn't make it."
"You have your brothers, don't you? And the other people you came in with? Mia and them?"
"Met them on the road too. And Merle and Daryl… that's kind of a recent rekindlement."
"I figured as much," Glenn let out a long, tension dense breath. "So, what do we do? Go grab Shane, T-Dog, a few others and make sure that the dead are all dead before we load the place up?"
I shook my head. "Shane don't wanna leave Lori's side ever again. I think we can handle this ourselves. Can only be so much in one apartment- if any at all. I think we only need this one building. It'll be too much keeping the whole complex secure with only thirty people. Not everyone can even handle themselves. We got kids and whatnot."
"Okay," he agreed, grabbing his baseball cap from beside him on the bed and standing up. "It'll be faster with just the two of us anyway."
"You're a brave dude," I observed.
He scoffed. "I just don't want to die."
"That's why you'd come out here by yourself?"
"I don't want to be responsible for keeping anyone else from dying."
"Don't know how easy that'll be. Domino effect and all that. Can't even be dead these days without potentially being the cause of someone else dying."
"Well, I'm doing my best to stay out of everybody's way."
"You got a weapon? Something quiet enough to kill these things without attracting more of them?"
"How do you think I took out the ones in the other room?" he pointed out, grabbing a bloody machete off of the nightstand next to him. "Do you have something quiet?"
"Fair point," I submitted. "There's gotta be somethin' in this place I can use."
"Already searched the whole place. You're stuck between the choice of a hammer or a kitchen knife. Maybe a pair of scissors or a plunger."
I sighed. "A hammer's really not ideal, but I don't think cleavers were made for combat. Where'd you get the machete?"
"Landscaper's shed in my apartment complex," Glenn answered as he past by me, leading me back out to the kitchen.
What was once an acutely clean apartment was now stained with blood, Glenn carefully stepping over a pool as he approached a cabinet drawer.
Opening it, he pulled out a small claw hammer and offered it to me. Accepting the tool, I turned around and headed towards the front door of the apartment, Glenn trailing behind me.
"You cleared any of these other apartments?" I asked him.
"No," he said. "I kind of just made myself comfortable in this one."
"You did look really comfortable."
"As much as I could be considering the circumstances."
Glenn and I stalked up the first flight of stairs. This door was left ajar, inspiring me to offer Glenn a telling look that we'd do best to proceed with caution. He nodded in understanding as I turned my head back towards the door, pushing it open slightly to find what was inside.
A smacking sound echoed throughout the corridor, letting us know we weren't alone. The two bedroom doors were closed, and I intended to keep them that way until I found out what was making those sounds from the living room and kitchen area.
Creeping forward from next to the dining table crouched a geek, chewing on what I could only assume to be someone's pet dog.
Without hesitation, I brought the hammer down on the back of the geek's head with a hard crack, sending it forward over the dog's corpse. This one was freshly turned though, and one hit didn't quite do it. With a boot on it's back, I turned the hammer around and roughly drove the claw through the creature's skull, ceasing its movements for good.
"Oh, God," Glenn proclaimed. "You think they can turn too?"
"What? Dogs?"
"Animals."
"I don't know, but I don't want to have a dog after us. I don't even want to imagine what it looks like. I- can I use the machete?"
He handed the blade forward, and I took it by its handle.
Looking down at the lifeless golden retriever, a wave of sadness was sent over me. That, and guilt. My animals. I didn't know what became of them. I couldn't not know. Maybe the dead had left by now. I had to go back. I had to see if they were okay.
I lined up the tip of the blade with the dog's skull and looked away as I used my body weight to push it through the bone, pulling it back out.
"I never thought about that," Glenn said, his tone that of disgust. "I haven't seen any animals like… you know… like that."
"Haven't seen any kids either," I added as I handed the machete back to them. "I was thinkin' earlier- smaller meal is easier to… finish."
"Oh, God. Don't make me think about it any further than that."
"On the bright side, I bet animals can run away a lot easier than most of us."
"Let's hope. Last thing I want is to fight a turned bear."
"What about an elephant?"
"Haven't seen a lot of those in Georgia."
"Care for a zoo trip?"
"Not really," he shook his head.
Gazing up at the living room wall, I noticed the picture frames filled with family photos, some of them complete with the happy golden retriever at the foot of a young couple and their toddler daughter.
It made me wonder what had happened to these people. Why had they left the dog here? Walking up to the photographs, I began to take them down.
"Woah, what are you doing?" Glenn exclaimed.
"Our people aren't going to want to see this."
"Huh?"
"Moving into someone else's space. Seein' they're sleepin' in the beds of the dead, not everyone has the heart for that. We need to throw these out."
"We can't just throw them out," Glenn argued. "These were people with lives. Look!" He grabbed the photograph off the top of the stack I was creating. "They had families, people who cared about them."
I stopped clearing out the wall for a moment and looked up at him, trying to figure out what he wanted.
"Fine. Okay. We're taking them down though. Do what you want with them. Bury them, store them away. I don't care honestly. I get it. They were people, just as important as any of us. But they ain't here. We are."
I pushed the stack of photos into Glenn's arm, and turned around, heading for the closed bedroom doors. I hadn't heard anything moving in them, but I wanted to be sure.
Glenn set the photos down on the couch as he trailed after me.
"Hey, wait a minute," he called. "Maybe it's just me, but you're being a little weird about all of this."
"What do you mean?" I asked as I opened the first bedroom door.
Empty.
"I mean you're acting like you couldn't give a shit about these people, but you're not that guy. You care about those people back at the quarry."
"You don't even know me."
The second door. Empty.
"No, I don't. And you don't know any of us. So, why do you care?" he inquired as he followed me out of the apartment towards the one across the way.
"I don't know, Glenn," I threw my arms up and turned around to face him.
"How long has it been?"
"How long has what been?"
"Since you woke up and the dead weren't trying to kill you?"
"God, I don't know. A little over a week?"
"And look at all you've done for everyone. You've risked your life for these people. I have too. It gets to you."
"It gets to you, Glenn. It doesn't get to me."
"Bullshit. You weren't used to this. None of us were. Tell me you did this before. Leading people? Risking your life for some guns?"
"I've been on my own for a long time," I admitted. "Lived in the woods by myself."
"Exactly. But you stepped up. I was a pizza delivery guy for fuck's sake. I don't know what I'm doing! All I know is that it needs to be done. Some one had to come out here, and it can't just be you. So, I did."
"What's your point?"
"Those photographs. It hurts you to see what the world has become."
"The world has always been cruel."
XXX
Words: 5,554
Hello everyone. I know it's been a minute, but here I am! I've been really busy with work and other projects. This chapter featured some Glenn and Joel report building moments. I wasn't really planning on having the group move out of the quarry, but we'll see how it goes. Like I said, I'm just letting this story right itself. I really want it to capture what day-to-day life would be like in this world, so a lot of the chapters are going to feel like filler. It's fanfiction after all, so I don't have much of a need to write a complex exciting novel. I save that for my original stuff. The interactions are helping me cope with my loneliness lmao. Next chapter will feature more of Glenn and Joel in the apartments, and we'll see where it goes from there.
