ACT III

CHAPTER 24: CALM BEFORE THE STORM

It's been two weeks now since I band together all the surviving cliques and had them all clear the school. So far, things have been good. There has been no problems from the outside. No attacks from the hordes of undead and no break-ins from the Savages. I still don't know if they know that we're all here now, or if they are all dead. But either way, it's good that they haven't attacked us yet. No problems from the outside, but there is still tension between the cliques, specifically between the students and Townies. We're hoping that this problem goes away very soon.

Ever since we cleared the school, we have established a council for the school safe-zone. So far in the council, we have Clayton, Zoe, Pete, Russell, Johnny, Edgar and me. We each have been making and voting on clear and safe decisions. We only have a handful of people going out to town to get supplies, we select different people for patrolling the perimeter and we even have assigned what areas that the different groups can dorm. No one has complained about their living space and their patrol duties so far. That was at least a good sign.

The council usually meets in Crabblesnitch's office, where we have placed a table and some chairs for us to sit around and talk about our next actions. I was in there right now, looking over the south side of the school. It was hard to believe that two weeks ago, this place was overrun with the undead and now we have complete control of the school. While I was staring outside the window, there was a knock at the door. I turned around and saw that it was Clayton with a crossbow strapped on his back. "Now where did you get that?" I asked him as he entered the room. "Hal Esposito found it with some of the military hardware back in Bullworth Town last week", Clayton answers. "He didn't want it, so he handed it to me. I've been pretty good with it so far. I'm going to head out into the woods and kill me some squirrels". "But we already have some people out getting some supplies. I don't think that you heading out is a good idea", I told him. "I'll be fine. Besides, I need the fresh air. I need to clear my head of the...you know". "Still have nightmares?" I asked him. "Yeah. But it's nothing that I want to talk about right now. I just need to go outside and expose myself of the dangers. Just to remember why I have to kill", he tells me. "Okay then, just be careful", I told him. "I will", he says as he walks out the office. After a while of staring out the window, I decided to go out and patrol the grounds for a while.

As I walked out the front door and made my way down the towards the Athletics Area, I couldn't help but have people greet me as I walked by. "Hey, Jimmy", Pete says as I walked by him. "Hey, Pete", I told him. "Jimmy", Angie says as I walked by her. "Angie", I told her. "Morning, Jimmy", Andrew says as I walked pass him. "Morning Andrew", I told him. There was a few more people that greeted me, but I couldn't keep track. After a while of walking and being greeted, I finally made it to the Athletics Area.

Once I got to the Athletics Area, I went straight to the football field to check up on the Bullies. Ever since we took back the school, we had each of the different cliques patrol the different exits. The Townies patrolled the front gate, the Greasers patrolled the parking lot gate, the Non-Clique students patrolled the exit by the Library, and lastly the Bullies patrolled the exit leading to the Observatory. "What's the status here?" I asked as I approached Russell. "Everything good here", Russell says. "Nothing going on here", Wade interrupts. "No zombies pounding on the door, no one breaking in, nothing". "Good. Keep up the good work", I told them. Just as I was about to walk away from them, Wade stopped me and told me, "Our friend Troy never had a chance to tell Clayton thanks for healing him that day on the Bus". "Then maybe he should tell Clayton that on his own later today", I told him. "Clayton hasn't been feeling well for a while now and I think that it will help him out to hear that". "Right, he killed Ted Thompson way before we came back here", Wade pointed out. "Russell would have too to save little buddies", Russell says to Wade.

"Thanks Russell", I told him. "I'm going to check up on the Greasers now. Keep up the good work", I said as I left the football field. As I headed up the stairs and walked by the Gym and Pool buildings, I couldn't help but think about how all this would have played out if Ted hasn't tried to kill me. Would the Jocks have worked together with the other cliques? Would they have attacked us all and taken over the school themselves? I don't know. Either way, I can't dwell on that now, especially since they are dead.

I then continued my way to the parking lot to check on the Greasers. While walking towards the fountain, I turned and looked at Harrington House. It was all vacant now. I should have returned to Tad's house earlier, then the Preps would have been here too. As I looked around the school grounds, I just couldn't help but notice the fact that it was completely empty. I mean everyone here each had a room in the Main Building, a decision made by Clayton for security reasons. No one bunked in any of the other buildings. But seeing most of this school void of life was just depressing. Makes me wish for the good old days, where I stopped the bullying and no one had to worry about people eating each other. Without any other distractions, I continued my way to the parking lot. When I got to the parking lot, there was a commotion going on between the Greasers and a few Townies.

"You miserable piece of crap. I'll going to kill you", Peanut says to Omar. "Go head and bring it on, pretty-boy", Omar says back. "Hey, what's going on?" I asked them as I approached the group. "These bastards got Hal killed. We were cornered at the Yum-Yum Market and they pushed Hal into the horde", Ricky tells me. "We didn't push him. One of the zombies grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him down to the floor. We would never do that. Sacrifice another person like that", Duncan says to them. "You're a fucking liar and you know it", Ricky tells Duncan. "Fuck you, Grease-ball", Gurney says. "Guys, that's enough", I told them, but they continued arguing. "At least we ain't losers that spend most of our time doing nothing", Peanut tells them. "Well at least we ain't stuck in the 1950's and have a leader so crazed about a fucking slut", Omar counters back. Around that time, several of the other Greasers came up to see what was going on. During that time, Ricky threw the first punch on Duncan and the two groups started fighting.

By that time, Johnny who came out of nowhere, tried to break up the fight. "Cut it out, all four of you", Johnny tells the group. "That tears it, we want three new members in our supply-run group that isn't a Townie", Ricky says. "Johnny, will you help me take them to the jail cell so they can cool off?" I asked him. "Yeah, sure", Johnny says. "Johnny, they killed our friend. Aren't you bothered by any of this?" Peanut says. Still, Johnny pulls his Spud Gun and escorts his friends to the jail cell. I pulled out my Spud Gun and escorted Omar and Duncan to the jail cell. Okay, it wasn't a jail cell really. It was the abandoned office on the third floor reserved for a Vice Principal. So far, no one accepted the job for Vice Principal for the past few years. Odd. And since no one wanted to bunk in there, we took and converted it into a jail cell. It's the least we could do in case someone like Ricky, Peanut, Omar, Gurney and Duncan misbehaved. In fact, it's not really a jail cell. Just a place to put someone in for them to calm down.

Once Johnny and I escorted the others to the jail cell, we pretty much pushed them in there. "You guys are going to stay in there until you calm down", Johnny told them. "Johnny, what the hell?" Peanut says to him. "We're your friends. You got to believe us", Ricky says. Before they could say anything else, I closed the door on them, locked it and went so far as to sticking a chair underneath the door-nob. I took a deep breath and said out-loud, "As if things are bad enough. Now one mistake happened and they're at each other throats". I turned to Johnny and asked him, "What do you think of this?" "I don't know", he tells me. "Edgar and I have a pretty understanding deal. I won't mess with him and his boys as long as he doesn't mess with me and my boys. But some of those Townies are hard to trust, especially since they got me locked up months ago". "Did it bother you putting your friends in there?" I asked him. "A little. But it's like you said before: we need to band together, not be at each other's throats", he says.

"We need to take action before this gets out of hand", I started to explain. "Johnny, go talk to your boys. See if they'll calm down with what you have to say. I'll see if I can find Edgar so we can have a meeting. We need to take action before anything else happens". "You got it, Jimmy. When should we have the meeting?" Johnny then asks. "Sometime around 12 to 1 PM", I told him. "Got it. Twelve to 1 PM", he says out-loud. He then left the hallway to deal with the other Greasers that were around the parking lot when the fight happened. I went over to the door and I said to the prisoners, "I'll let you guys out in two hours. That will give you enough time to cool off". "Fuck you", Duncan says through the door. I left the door and started going downstairs to look for Edgar. I'm hoping he's in a talkative mood. There's no way that I want fighting spreading across the entire school. That will leave us vulnerable.