Chapter 3

Sam tried to keep Grizz from his thoughts as he did his best to focus on Becca's hands. A couple of days had passed since he watched his boyfriend lead the way into the forest that surrounded their town. His stomach felt queasy whenever his mind drifted off to him possibly being hurt or even dying out there. After all, it wouldn't be the first time, but he couldn't dwell on that now.

'I understand, Will, but this really isn't the best time to be holding elections,' Becca signed, translating Allie's words for him to make sure he could keep up with the conversation.

Sitting in his cousin's kitchen, Sam, Becca, and Will sat in the available chairs on one side of the island as Allie, Luke, Clark, and Jason took up space around the rest of the counter.

'The food supply is starting to run low. Now is not a good time to get everyone riled up and picking sides. We need everyone focused on making it through the winter and preparing for what is to come next for us to continue to survive here,' Becca finished signing for Allie. 'Maybe when spring comes around we can discuss elections again, but now is not the right time to worry about who is going to lead us.'

"I can't believe Allie is holding off on the elections," Clark whined as he, Luke and Jason made their way towards the church downtown. The weather felt pretty nice for the first week of December, a slight chill in the air, and they decided to take advantage of it. "This could have been our chance to actually have a say in stuff."

"What, you think Allie's doing a bad job?" Luke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Clark shrugged. "No, but . . . It's not like we made her little Miss Queen forever. It's about time we gave someone else a chance to make the rules."

"I don't know," Luke admitted, before crossing the street. "Allie is doing a pretty good job at this. Even if we did hold elections, she would probably win anyways. Just let her worry about making the decisions. Plus, nobody gives a shit about what we think."

"They should, though. I mean, we are the ones that do all the dirty work around here," Clark pointed out. "We should at least get a say in how this place is run. This could have been our chance to be more than just the muscle. Don't you want to know how that feels?"

"What? Being in charge?" Jason asked, jumping into the conversation.

"Exactly," Clark nodded. The three friends made their way up the stairs of the gazebo that sat in the middle of the grassy courtyard outside of the church and took a seat on the bench. "She is fucking wrong, bro. We got ideas. We got substantive ideas."

"We do?" Jason quipped, only half listening at this point.

"Big word for you, Clark," Luke noted sarcastically, reaching to pull off one of the cans of beer from the six-pack that Jason had carried for them. "Substantive?"

A pop sounded as Clark pulled on the tab of his can and bubbles fizzled from within.

"I'm serious, guys," Clark snapped after taking a sip from his beer. "If given the chance, we could really make some positive changes around here."

Luke leaned forward with a sigh, elbows resting on his knees. "There are actually a few things I would do differently if given the chance," he admitted. "And Allie didn't say there wouldn't be an election. We'll just have to wait a few months."

"So . . . What would you guys do differently?" Jason ventured, eyeing the two boys that were sitting next to him.

While the members of the Guard talked on about their future endeavors, a young man sat on the ground behind the gazebo leaning back against the wall. As he eavesdropped on the conversation, a smile creeped across his face.

For the past couple of months, Campbell had been keeping himself busy with Elle, and he was happy . . . At least he felt something close to happiness. Seeing the emotions on the faces of the people around him was one thing, but what the feeling actually was and how it felt was a mystery to him. Nevertheless, Elle made him feel closer to normal than anyone else had in his life up until that point. But lately, he had been feeling bored. Restless. He needed something besides Elle to focus his time and attention on.

For almost a year, he had sat on the sidelines and allowed first Cassandra, and then Allie, to lead the town in the way they saw fit. He followed their rules, worked the jobs he was assigned, and, for the most part, kept out of their way . . . but maybe this was his chance.

Honestly, he had never really considered being Mayor. He knew that most people didn't like him. In fact, many were afraid of him, and running a town was not something he could accomplish on his own. Not without people around him to back him up and help him enforce his demands. And with the Guard constantly following Allie around and acting like her bodyguards, there was little to no chance of finding the right opportunity to take her down. From the way they stuck to her side, he had assumed that Allie had the Guard's complete and utter support, but now . . . It sounded like there was an opening to possibly deceive them.

From the town meetings he had attended with the rest of the teenagers, he knew that the public was growing tired with Allie's rules and from what he was overhearing, even the Guard was ready for a change.

Still, with everyone's personal opinion set in place surrounding himself, he doubted he could get anywhere close to the majority of the students to follow him. What he needed was someone else to be the head of his leadership campaign. Someone that he could easily manipulate to accomplish his wishes, but allowed him to stay behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

And he knew exactly whom he had to talk to about that.

With the steady sounds of flaky, crumbly leaves under foot, and the soft snaps of branches with every couple of steps, Grizz slowly led Gwen, Bean, and Mickey through the dense forest.

All of the leaves had fallen off the trees weeks ago, and the gray bark felt rough and cold against Grizz's fingertips. As a cold breeze ran past them, a shiver traveled up his spine and he tugged the zipper of his jacket up closer around his throat. The only sounds to reach their ears besides for their footsteps against the debris covered floor was the occasional drumming of woodpeckers hidden in the bare trees, sounding like rap music, and a squirrel or two as the creatures darted quickly across the ground before springing into the branches of the trees.

On their first day in the woods, the party had started by heading due west for two miles before turning north and slowly arcing towards the east, trekking in a circular path around the perimeter of the town. By the third day, they had still found nothing but trees.

"If we don't find an open field, do you think we could clear enough trees to make our own?" Mickey asked, the condensation forming a plume of white steam in the cold air.

"In the middle of winter?" Bean huffed under the weight of her pack.

"What does it feel like to starve? It's really slow, isn't it?" Gwen had stopped in her steady march to stare up at the graying branches.

In the shadows of the receding sunlight, the sickly looking branches resembled the reaching arms of pale skeleton hands and a shiver ran up Grizz's spine at the eerie thought.

"Or do you think we would turn on each other first?" Gwen continued, casting her fearful gaze around her traveling companions.

"What, like eat each other, you mean?" Mickey asked, and a horrified expression flickered across his face for a split second. "There's not enough of us to eat. It may buy us some time but . . ." He shook his head to get rid of the thought.

"I don't think we'd get that far," Grizz sighed, staring at the bark of a tree that was planted between the two girls, not being able to bring himself to lock eyes with any of them. "If we come back without an answer . . . people aren't just gonna wait around to starve. We'll kill each other first for the food that's there. We'll never make it to January."

Silence drifted over the small group, blank expressions staring back at their expedition leader.

"Kind of dark, Grizz," Mickey noted sarcastically, breaking the silence.

"Umm, guys?" Bean softly spoke up, and Grizz frowned at the young woman's puzzled look. "Do you see that?"

Following the girl's pointed finger, Grizz paused as he took in the sight of the immense gray towers of steel and glass that were reaching towards the sky beyond the tree line. Not able to form words in his shocked state, he could sense his companies gathering closer to him to get a better look at what they were seeing.

"Is that . . . a city?" Gwen asked, obviously as baffled about the buildings' sudden appearance as the rest of them.

It may have been his imagination or a side effect from the glare of the setting sun that Grizz was trying to see passed, but he could have sworn the image of the towers was warping and shifting slightly in his vision. He narrowed his eyes in the hope of trying to clear it up but it didn't help much.

"How did we miss that?"