Dayo

The full moon shone into Dayos room, bathing it in a ghostly white glow. He sat up in bed and looked out of his window at the church tower.

2 am.

Sighing, he scratched the stump of his leg. He wasn't going to get any sleep by fretting about it. He decided to look through the rota for the up coming week. One of the results of being related to Herman, was that he had been made responsible for his own mini troop. He would be told by the Seniors what area of community life they would be responsible for-Farming, Patrolling the Wilds, Scavenging or Lookout. He then had to decide how to organise them, who to group with who, who to give what day free. He needed to be able to pick up on any odd or irresponsible behaviour and decide how to deal with it. In short, he needed to be a leader. And he seemed to be doing ok. No one in his troop had died, and he had never had to report anyone. It helped that he currently had the smallest troop in the community so far, consisting of Zxander, Bella, Leven and Jacki, although he hoped that Herman would assign Sayid and Michonne to his group. Both had fitted in well with the others, and seemed to have started to bond. Sayid chatted away to Zxander and Dayo nineteen to the dozen. He had a natural charm and charisma that endeared him to everyone he met. Dayo knew for a fact that about ten women had already declared themselves madly in love with him. Michonne was a lot quieter, but she seemed at ease with everyone, immersing herself into teaching sword classes, which had been packed every time.

Then there was Georgie.

Dayo frowned as he attached his false limb, just below his knee. Standing, he took a moment to regain his balance before he went to the living room. Lighting a candle, he pulled the papers out of the envelope George had handed him earlier that day and studied them. Seemed they had the week off. He sighed. These weeks were the hardest to organise. Weeks off never really meant weeks off. It meant making sure all team members were on standby in case odd jobs needed doing, and making sure that they spent at least half their time training. At least they had the novelty of two new classes, which meant it would be easier to keep them focused. It would be even better if they had three, if Georgie had agreed to teach archery. But it didn't seem like she had any intentions of putting down roots in Elysium.

She was hard to read. She wasn't rude, or snobbish. She pulled her weight around the town-Dayo had seen her carrying things to and fro, and helping with the vegetables. But she seemed to be isolating herself from everyone. She had made no real effort to create any relationships within the town. Any questions about herself were met with a single sentence, or deflection. And Dayo was sure he'd seen her scoping out the entrance to the town. She had probably already figured out that whilst by no means were people kept prisoner, a strict register was kept of who was coming and going. Dayo didn't understand why if she wanted to leave, she didn't just go. What did she think was going to happen?

He sat at the table and started to think. Bella would defiantly want to be in Sayid's knife class, but he needed to make sure that she went and revised her knowledge of snares with Grace. Far too often her traps came up empty when they went hunting on the outskirts of the wilds. He could probably do with brushing up on them himself. He pencilled them both in, and to pacify Bella, went to sign her up for knife classes, but couldn't see them. Puzzled, he scanned through the papers, his eyes eventually resting on a small piece.

Sayid and Michonne have asked to be assigned to your troop. They will be under your care. Perchance you can persuade Sayid to take turns with Jack as doctor? We also need to discuss continuation of their weaponry classes. What do you think of evening classes? We can discuss the matter further later in the week.

Oscar.

Dayo stared at the paper for a moment. He really was going up in the world. Not only was he in charge of his own troop, but now a Senior that wasn't related to him was actually asking his opinion on something. He wondered how balanced the discussion would be. He packed the papers back in the envelope. Better to look over this tomorrow, after talking to Sayid and Michonne. The absence of Georgie's name did not surprise him.

What to do now. He wondered over to the window and looked out on the street. Evening classes. The idea made him smile. It was so...YMCA centre. So...normal. Well, kind of. The closest his local Y had gotten to how to slash a zombie head open with a samurai sword was the weekly kick boxing classes. Which he had only attended once, and then been too embarrassed to go back to, after he had nearly broken the instructors rib with an over enthusiastic kick to the chest. He had learned to control his strength better since then, but he could still hurt someone if he wasn't careful.

Suddenly, a figure darted across the street. He jumped, and then leaned forward.

Georgie. It was obvious it was her. For one thing, she was making her way towards the wall, for another, she had her crossbow and quiver slung over her shoulders. Dayo blinked. How had she gotten hold of those? They had been locked away in the armoury...or they should have been? A sense of unease passed over Dayo-had she somehow managed to subdue the person who should be standing guard? What if she had done more than subdue him? Had they been wrong about her all along?

Grabbing a jacket, he staggered out of the front door. His false leg rubbed furiously against his stump as he ran down the street, and he wasn't being quiet enough to sneak up on Georgie, but he didn't care. He reached the wall, and scanned it. He spotted her and almost gasped out loud.

Somehow, she had managed to find a part of the wall that was climbable, and was almost a quarter of the way up it. How the hell had she managed that? For a moment, he stood in disbelief, and then remembered why he was there.

With a running leap, he grabbed her by the legs and yanked her off the wall. Before she could scream, he placed his hand over her mouth, and wrapped one arm around her body. In this position, she was helpless, and she must know it. He intentionally flexed his muscles, sending a silent message.

"One false move, and I can break your neck like a bread stick" Still she wiggled, twisting her body around, kicking and squirming. Several times, she made contact with a part of his body-painful contact-but he gritted his teeth and held on. At some point she would have to realise that he wasn't letting go.

It took her longer than he expected, but eventually, she stopped moving. He leant down to her ear and whispered

"When I take my hand of your mouth, I want answers-honest answers. You scream, you bring out everyone, and then the shit hits the fan and you're on your own. You understand?" She nodded, still breathing heavily. He took his hand away and she gasped for air.

"You kill anyone?" She glared at him.

"No."

"How'd you get your stuff back?"

"I just unlocked the window when they took us to store our stuff. Snuck in and out, no one saw, no one got hurt." Dayo nodded. Inside he was impressed with her, and annoyed with who ever was on guard. They should have noticed that. But at least she wasn't dangerous. He slowly let her go and she dropped to the ground. She stared up at him.

"Shit. Shit you're strong." She sat on her heels and rubbed her ribs. "What you going to do to me?"

"What?"

"What's the punishment? Whipping? Starvation?" Dayo stared at her. She sat back and stared at him. "That's how places like this work right?"

"Places like what?" Dayo couldn't follow her now.

"Prisons. I mean, you let people roam around and you treat them well, but they still keep tabs on you walking in and out. It's still just a big cage."

For a moment, Dayo stared at her. Where the hell had this woman come from? What made her think like this? He couldn't think of a response. Instead he grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"There's no punishment. People come back because they want to." He looked at her curiously. "Question is what's out there that's so important to you that you would risk death to find it." He looked at her face closely. "Or is it who?" A shadow crossed her face and he nodded. "Who." He sighed. "Walk with me. In fact, support me. You got a hell of a kick and I think you busted my good leg." He leaned on her shoulder and half guided her towards his porch.