Chapter 2
Franky took a moment to admire his handiwork. He had always been the kind of man who took pride in building things with his own two hands. Even if those hands were mechanical prosthetics. Which he needed due to a pre-Zombie Day accident while in the act of building something with his own two hands. He was not one of those "zombie bite amputees" that were popping up. This was his own damn fault.
Still, today was one of those rare days. The kind of day where you could add the qualifier "damn" to your "fine day". He stood there on the front porch of his house, drinking his cup of coffee, and really took the town in.
Granted, it wasn't much of a town yet. There was only one other person but him living there. And the town consisted of a cul-de-sac that had been walled off with thick metal sheets, with only a single main entrance allowing entering and exiting. Seven houses in a circle, each of them empty except for the one he was using and the one his associate was occupying.
Franky was one of two people at the Little Garden outpost who had both worked the construction project and also volunteered to live there as one of Hancock's representatives. As such, he and his partner were the only two people currently living there. He was the perfect combination of eccentric in a speedo and tropical shirt, and handyman who could repair or build pretty much whatever he wanted. He was also built like a fucking pickup truck and he had a thing for loud ways of disposing of the undead. Even his prosthetic arms were painted in bright, flashy colors, with red stars painted on the forearms. If you were looking for someone to personify what Hancock's community was like, just look at Franky.
His partner was good old Baby 5, who as you may remember, was running security detail on the outpost's construction when we last saw her. Baby stepped out onto the front porch of her designated house and waved to Franky, calling out to him with a hearty "GOOD MORNING MONSIEUR FRANKY!"
"MORNIN' KIDDO! TODAY'S THE DAY!" He called back. She bounced on her heels to properly illustrate her excitement and started down the steps of her front porch to meet him at his house. When they were no longer within shouting distance of each other, Franky gestured to the walls around Little Garden. "Morning patrol?"
She nodded, following after him while he led her to the perimeter. They had been alone like this for a few days. With construction completed, the builders and patrolmen had gone back home. It was Franky and Baby's duty to go around the entire inner perimeter and make sure the walls had no structural damage. Breaches were unlikely, but it never hurt to be too cautious. They started in Franky's backyard and headed clockwise, occasionally pounding on the walls to see if there was any snarling or gurgling on the other side. The walls were solid steel plates, ripped from the sides of semi trucks or buildings, whatever they could find. They were welded together and riveted in place, held up with i-beams embedded in the ground. It would take a grenade to get through these walls. They wouldn't have much trouble with rotting hands beating themselves literally to the bone against it.
"Since when do you drink coffee?" Baby asked, glancing down at the mug in Franky's hand.
He shrugged, grimacing a little. "Since I ran outta damn cola yesterday. It's loaded with sugar and stuff, so it's still super sweet," he took a sip, shaking his head. "Just ain't the same…"
"It is a tragedy, Monsieur… Were zhere a Coca-Cola shipping facility nearby, I would risk life and limb to secure a 12-pack for you! Wizhout zhe slightest hesitation!"
Franky laughed heartily, clasping her on the shoulder. "I don't need you drivin' off on a super dangerous mission just to give me a sugar buzz! Appreciate the thought though."
Baby's empathy and self-sacrificial nature would be the death of her yet. She let out a weary sigh, mourning Franky's loss of preferred caffeinated beverage as he took another wincing sip of his coffee. It wasn't like he'd be without cola forever. "Empress Hancock'll send some of the homemade stuff up next time we get supplies. I'll just have to deal for a little bit."
Ever since Bellemere had partnered up with Hancock to produce cigarettes and tobacco for both communities, Hancock had pursued the development of other addicting substances to please her loyal subjects. This included cola, which is why Franky was so damn willing to repay her by working on the construction and maintenance of Little Garden.
They continued making the full circle around the walls, passing by the front gate. The front gate was also the only gate. The only way into Little Garden save for blowing out the walls the hard way. A solid slab of steel on rolling tracks, it couldn't be opened by hand. Instead, there was a button operating like a garage door opener that was only accessible from the inside. Someone had to be inside the outpost in order to let more people in.
The walls also had a balcony in a ring all along the inner side. Ladders were placed at intervals allowing anyone on guard duty to easily access the balcony from any given point along the perimeter. When Franky and Baby had circled around the entirety of Little Garden, Baby made the climb up one such ladder to stand guard near the main gate. She had brought a sniper rifle, among other assortments of firearms, and brought the scope to her eye. She scanned the horizon, eagerly expecting either the caravan of cars meant to populate the outpost or any sign of trouble. Secretly she was hoping more for the trouble than anything else.
Considering it's around a four hour drive for both Bellemere's group and Hancock's group, Baby would be waiting for a while. So while she sits there and waits patiently for something to happen, I'll take the time to explain a little more about the Little Garden outpost.
It took about a year of hard work and dedication from both sides to to turn the cul-de-sac named Little Garden into the outpost named Little Garden. Not only did they have to get the walls up, there was also the matter of getting the plumbing operational, solar panels and generators to provide power, as well as stocking the seven houses with enough supplies to get by. Little Garden was also about a half hour's drive from the coastline, meaning they also had access to a fishing boat if they wanted something a little fresher.
When it came to supplies, the idea would be a biweekly delivery alternating between the two settlements. Wait, not biweekly. What's the one where it's every other week? That is biweekly? Then what's it called when it's twice a week? You're kidding. Well that's just- you know what? Never mind. So it works like this: Bellemere sends a delivery truck out with supplies and then two weeks later, Hancock sends a truck, and then two weeks later Bellemere does.
What the hell is up with the English language?
The point is, this place was pretty well secure and all situated to allow the crews from both sides to live fairly comfortably. As long as they were all willing to cooperate and not cause any bullshit drama, they'd be all set for years to come. Which is exactly what could have happened if you all wanted this story to be over right now. In fact if you want you can just pretend it ends here and you can close the tab and move on. Everyone is happy and it all works out for the best
For those of you that are still here, I thank you for your commitment. It's about time for people to start arriving.
Baby heard the sound of engines running and scrambled to scan the horizon for the source. She looked between the houses of the subdivision, sweeping her rifle left and right searching for a target. The sound could belong to friend or foe and the prospect of either made her heart flutter. She'd either make new friends or get to shoot someone. Either way, she won.
The only downside of living in the middle of a subdivision is she didn't get a good look at the cars approaching until they were literally turning onto the street leading to the outpost. Three vans all driving single file approached and stopped in front of the gate. The driver of the van in front, who we know as Nami but Baby knew as Potential Threat, stepped out and waved to the woman that we know as Baby but Nami knew as She's Pointing a Sniper Rifle at Me.
"UH! HEY! THIS IS UH… THIS IS LITTLE GARDEN, RIGHT?" Nami said, her arms raised above her head.
"PER'APS! AND WHOM AM I ADDRESSING?" Baby asked, keeping the gun on her.
The van last in line opened its driver side door and Sanji hopped out, looking around eagerly. "I heard a sexy French accent, what's up?" He said, scanning the area for the voice's owner. Instead his eye caught the sight of a red dot traveling from Nami to the ground to his leg and then up his body until it was out of sight. He froze in place, a big dumb grin still plastered on his face. "Oh."
"TELL YOUR FRIEND HE IS TO STAY WHERE HE IS!" Nami expected the authoritative tone, but she didn't expect the hint of glee overlaying the command.
"Sanji, why don't you let me handle this?" Nami whispered.
"The floor is yours," he said, still not moving.
"WE'RE WITH BELLEMERE'S GROUP! I'M HER DAUGHTER, NAMI! THE OTHER FIVE ARE LUFFY, ROBIN, VIVI, COBY, AND SANJI HERE!"
"AND HOW CAN I BELIEVE ZHAT? FOR ALL I KNOW, YOU ARE RAIDERS WHO AMBUSHED ZHOSE POOR PEOPLE AND ARE POSING AS ZHEM! YOU COULD BE TRYING TO… HOW YOU SAY… INFILTRATE US!"
Nami hesitated. The sniper had a point, they didn't have much in the way of proof. She glanced over at Sanji, who shrugged. She thought, and then glanced to Luffy who was still in the passenger seat. He also shrugged, which was not unexpected. You'd have to be pretty desperate to look to Luffy for an idea.
There was a quiet whispered argument coming from the middle van. Baby couldn't hear it, but Nami and Sanji could. When it finally died out, an arm stuck out of the passenger side window. It waved, drawing attention, and then Vivi's voice cried out "PARLEY!"
Nami and Sanji could see Baby lower her guard. She brought her head away from the scope, but watched carefully as Vivi stepped out of the car. "Parley!" Her hands were above her head just in case Baby thought she was armed or something. "I know Hancock's people follow the rules of Parley, we have to negotiate until we settle on an agreement!"
Baby nodded sternly. She was right, of course. Empress Hancock would follow the rules of parley. In fact, Baby was there a year ago when…
And suddenly it dawned on her. "OH! IT IS YOU! ZHE SMART ONE WIZH ZHE BLUE HAIR!"
"The smart one…?" Vivi repeated.
"Ahhh yes yes! All of you look familiar now! Except for you," she nodded to Sanji. "I would remember such an 'andsome face~"
The grin that spread across Sanji's mug could have been seen from space.
"Yes yes! You were all zhere! You stood up to Empress Hancock, yes? And you! Zhe orange one, oh you are zhe one who promised us zhe tobacco plants, yes? It is all coming back to me now!" Baby lowered the rifle completely. "Wait zhere! I will open zhe gate at once! Ohhh zhis is so exciting!" She practically sang as she disappeared behind the waist-high wall in front of the balcony.
"Was she really there that time..?" Vivi whispered to Nami.
"Hell if I know. The only other one I remember is the clown who gave me relationship advice," Nami said.
The heavy gate door sprang to life, sliding on its rollers with a low rumble. Nami, Sanji, and Vivi climbed back into their respective vans and filed in once the gate was open wide enough. Once Sanji's van had passed the gate, Baby stuck her head outside, scanning the nearby area for any ne'er-do-wells or bitey-ones. When she determined the coast was clear, she hit the button again to shut the gate. She then pivoted on her heels, causing her skirt to twirl up,and faced her new guests.
The three vans parked themselves in the middle of the cul-de-sac and the six riders climbed out, stretching after such a long drive. Sanji was first out the door, eager to get a closer look at whoever it was that owned that accent and said he had a cute face. Baby met them in the middle of the street, bouncing on her heels with every step.
"Oh do forgive me for zhe hostile greeting! I am Baby 5, I work in security and defense! You can never be too sure in zhis world! You understand, no?"
"Completely understandable~" Sanji said, his pitch changing with each syllable, practically singing every word. "A beautiful lady has to protect herseeeelf~" he said as he danced toward her.
"WHOOOAAA! THIS PLACE IS SO COOL!" Luffy cheered spinning around to take the entire outpost in. "It's like a fortress! Coby! We get to live in a FORTRESS! With huge walls and everything!" He grabbed onto Coby's shoulders and shook him, trying to force him to understand how cool the outpost was.
"Funkytown had walls too, Luffy! Remember…?" He was only partially asking that rhetorically. It was entirely possible Luffy had forgotten he lived in a town with walls.
"Yeah but this is way cooler! It's way more enclosed and stuff!" We're all gonna be neighbors and see each other every day and defend the fort when bad guys or zombies attack!"
"Hey, thought I heard some kinda commotion goin' on out here!" Franky emerged from the door of his house, adjusting his sunglasses and ambling his way to the center of the street to meet the new neighbors.
Luffy studied the approaching figure, made special note of his prosthetic arms, and his face glowed with excitement. "AND ONE OF OUR NEIGHBORS IS A ROBOT! THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
Coby's head snapped toward Franky's direction, an apology at the ready for Luffy's lack of tact. To his surprise, the man shared Luffy's enthusiasm. "YEEEAAAHH!" he cried out, raising his arms in triumph.
Luffy dashed towards him, fawning over his prosthetics like a kid with a Christmas present. Franky absolutely ate it up, striking flashy pose after flashy pose, like a Jojo character that didn't wear pants. Coby crossed his arms and watched from a distance. Luffy's ability to rip friendship from the jaws of awkwardness was a borderline miracle.
"I heard Luffy shouting, what's up?" Nami said, appearing behind Coby.
"He got excited because he saw a guy with flashy prosthetic arms and called him a robot."
"Uh oh."
"No the guy was cool with it. They're already friends."
Franky took a break from showing off to wave to Nami and Coby. "Hey hey! Welcome to Little Garden! Super happy to meet you guys! My name's Franky and I'm the guy who more or less designed this place!"
He extended a handshake to Nami who had to take a moment to figure out how to fit her tiny girl hand in his giant gorilla hand. "I'm Nami, we're the ones Bellemere sent? Hey did you tell your… French maid to threaten us?" She gestured over her shoulder at Baby, who was currently engrossed in conversation with Sanji.
Franky shrugged with a dopey grin on his face. "Nope! She just does that!" He looked over to Baby and Sanji talking, already beaming at the sight of strangers getting along.
"So, what did you do before all of this?" Sanji asked, unable to hide his own smile.
She was happy to answer, "Oh I was. DJ at a nightclub! Very successful, no? Zhat is where my name comes from! Baby 5, it was my DJ name. I would have been a gymnast, but I did not keep up wizh it. Not after I ended up viciously attacking zhe cheating bimbo who stole zhe gold away from me zhat one time..." Her tone suddenly turned harsh as she cursed her past. "I hope zhat bitch was devoured slowly…"
All Sanji heard was "I am French and flexible and bouncy". It took his brain a second to catch up to the violent bit of her response, but he quickly weighed in favor of ignoring it because she was so hot.
Robin pushed her way into Franky and Nami's conversation, already set on the task of unloading her van since it was clear Sanji was too busy to do it but no she got it don't worry it's fine, by calling out "Is it just the two of you? You don't have the other four hiding in wait, in case we make a wrong move or something?"
"Whoa!" Franky put his hands up in surrender. "Lotta attitude in this one!" His smile didn't vanish though. "Hey, I'm pretty surprised to say it, but you beat our guys here. Got no idea when they're arriving!"
Luffy's shoulders sank. "Aww… I wanted to meet them…"
"Aw, you'll get your chance, little fella," Franky said, clapping Luffy on the shoulder. "Bright side, you all get to pick where you're staying first!" He turned around and made a sweeping gesture at the seven houses around them. "Any place you want! They're ALL available!"
"If you are okay wizh roommates, zhat is!" Baby said, rejoining the group while Sanji dashed to the vans to frantically relieve Robin of unloading duty. "Monsieur Franky is staying in zhat house," she pointed at his. "And I am staying in zhat one!" She pivoted, pointing at hers.
"Oh! I'll stay-" Sanji started.
"I'll room with you, if that's alright," Robin said, cutting him off by slapping a hand over his mouth.
Baby nodded happily. "I would love a roommate! Zhe houses, zhey can get so lonely wizh just one person, no?"
"I totally agree. Baby, why don't you show me around while Sanji brings my bags in?" As Robin stepped away from Sanji, letting Baby lead her to their new house, she turned her head to flash the poor man the coldest fucking grin he had ever born witness to. He stood there, frozen in place.
Oblivious to Sanji's plight, Franky clapped his hands together. "Well! That's one of you guys down! Why don't I show the rest of ya the houses and you can pick yourselves!" The others, excluding Vivi, followed after him.
Vivi stood next to Sanji, leaning forward to look at his expression. She couldn't help but smile, even though she knew she shouldn't. "Wow. That had to hurt, didn't it?"
Sanji blinked a few times, letting the world come back into focus. "I just… She swept in out of nowhere. A drop-dead gorgeous… French maid… And Robin, she just…"
"Are you going to be okay, Sanji?" Vivi was almost a little concerned. He looked pale.
"She told me she used to be a gymnast. Before all of this. A gymnast, who likes guns and swearing and smoking. She's… She's perfect."
At that, Vivi's face lit up in sparkles. "Waaaiiit, are you saying you like her? Not your normal thing where you hit on any girl with decent boobs, you actually like her! Oh my gosh, that's so cute!" She cupped her cheeks with her hands, watching Sanji suffer in front of her.
He grabbed her by the arms and stared into her eyes. "What do I do, Vivi? You're married, you have to help me out! How do I deal with this?! Before it's too late!"
"Uh, well.. First off, I don't think Robin actually intends to sleep with her to spite you. So you don't have to worry about her stealing your girl. Second, I'm going to give you some advice I heard when I first met Coby."
Sanji stared so intensely at her, she felt he could see her secrets.
"Whatever you do."
"Yes?"
"Don't. Screw it up."
Sanji stopped staring at her, and instead focused on staring into the distance. "Don't screw it up," he repeated. "Yes. Okay. Got it."
"Good luck, Sanji!" she said, pulling away from his grip to go join her husband in house shopping. Sanji stood there in the middle of the road, around everyone's luggage and vehicles.
Eventually it dawned on him that Vivi's advice was the relationship equivalent of being told to "git gud". Technically right, but of no real help to anyone.
"I'm so fucked."