The hallway was eerily quiet. Only Andrea, Adele, Dale and Rick stood there, all with weapons, staring out of the windows. T-Dog heard the door behind them open, and heard Daryl urging the two boys to go on upstairs. T-Dog felt, rather than saw, the boys leave without as much as a murmur of a word of protest. Daryl moved to Georgie's right, enclosing her in between himself and T-Dog. Dale turned to them from the window. The look on his face did not reassure T-Dog.
"We've been watching the window for a good fifteen minutes now, and those trees, they keep moving. I keep seeing figures...I don't know if I'm imagining it or...I don't even know how many people I'm seeing..."
"Six. Harry said there was six. Matthew agrees-countin' the one he killed." Georgie looked at Daryl in surprise.
"Matthew killed one of those...people?"
"Yeah." Adele answered for Daryl, never taking her eye off the woods. "It was a close up, but he did it alright. That's why he's been a bit cagey" Georgie bit her lip.
"Maybe we should arm him. Have him on look out with someone upstairs. If he can pull a trigger and he can keep his cool..."
"What, you got a plan now? You want to lead?" Rick's voice was strained, and even though he sounded angry, T-Dog knew he was hoping for Adele or Georgie to come through with some of the "training" the Governor had given them.
"I don't have a plan. But Adele and I have tactics and we can come up with something. I think." Georgie started as the restaurant doors opened, and Glenn and Ben walked through to the hall. Both had arms full of decanters with strips of table clothes stuck out of them. Inside, a few of them, a clear liquid swished around.
"What the hell..." T-Dog wondered if he was seeing right. "Are those meant to be Molotov cocktails?" Ben grinned with an element of sheepish pride.
"We haven't got much in the way of petrol, but vodka and spirits burn pretty well." T-Dog grinned as he remembered the vast supply of alcohol in his room. Adele nodded.
"Get some sugar from the kitchen and mix it in. It'll help the liquid to stick better. Use some of the bloody bandages for wick, blood has the same effect." T-Dog stared at her.
"Err..how do you know this stuff?"
"You never got bored and googled things at work?"
"Yeah, but..." Georgie interrupted them both.
"We need to retreat upstairs. There's only this entrance and the fire exit, and the fire exit only opens from indoors. Down here, there are multiple exits and entrances to cover, we'll be spread too thin." Everyone nodded their agreement and made their way up the stairs, Rick and Andrea last, eyes focused on the French windows. As T-Dog retreated up the stairs, he caught a glimpse of a movement outside. A lean figure was skulking in the woods. The way it moved reminded T-Dog of a predator, waiting for it's prey to make a mistake so it could pounce. The thought made him shudder and he moved upstairs.
As soon as he entered his room, Miao rushed to him and threw her arms around him.
"Is it true? Are there really cannibals out there?" Behind her, Sophie and Carl were huddled under Maggie's arms, fear in their wide eyes. Sophie ran to Georgie, Carl to his father. T-Dog could hear Georgie whispering to Sophie, he imagined she was trying to comfort her. No small feat, seeing as Georgie must still be raw from grief herself. T-Dog wrapped his arms around Miao, and found himself vowing that the people outside would have to rip him limb from limb (which given what Georgie and Matthew seemed to know they would) before they laid one finger on Miao. He moved towards the couch and sat her down next to Dale. He looked around, it seemed everyone was in his room, waiting to be told what to do. Adele and Rick swept the mess of clothes and empty bottles off the coffee table and took charge.
"Right." Adele picked up a small pillow. "This is us in the hotel." Everyone gathered around to watch. "Currently, we're surrounded by we assume at least six of those...people out there. They seem to be armed and given the fact that they killed Katie, and shot at Georgie, Matthew, Daryl and T-Dog without provocation, we can only assume that they are hostile. So, we need to defend ourselves." She looked up at Rick. "And we need to be ruthless." T-Dg breathed in. Adele's meaning was perfectly clear. The people outside were out to kill. So they needed to be ready to kill too. He looked around. Daryl and Georgie looked resolute, as did Andrea. The rest of them, Rick included, looked less sure. Adele carried on with her analysis.
"I imagine that they were working on the element of surprise. From what we've seen, their plan was to pick us off one by one. Let us assume that wild animals or walkers were getting the better of us. But now that we know that they're out there-and they know we know-they've gone onto plan B. Which seems to be to storm the hotel and take as many of us as they can.
Now the way I see it, we have a few advantages. We have a decent supply of ammunition-bullets, guns and now apparently fire." Here she glanced at Ben and Glenn, who were busy emptying vodka and sugar into bottles and shaking them up to mix them. "We have the strong hold here, in the hotel, with several points from which we can spy and shoot. And the biggest one is that they are probably underestimating us right now. So far, they've only seen us run and the men hunt. And as far as they know, one of us is injured. So they're probably thinking that there are only two real threats to them and that everyone else is a woman, a child or incapable of fighting. I'm sorry sweaty but it's true." This last comment was aimed at Ben, who shrugged.
"So what you're saying is, that we have the element of surprise?" Rick looked hopeful.
"In that respect yes." Adele looked around the room. "Daryl, we can't risk you aggravating your arm any further, so the crossbow is out. But how are you with a shot gun" Daryl looked at Adele as if she had asked him if he could breath in and out. "I'll take that as a confident and able. Then we obviously have Rick and T-Dog as the two they're expecting to fight. Then there's me, Georgie, Dale and Andrea as good shots. Glenn and Miao aren't bad either. Then of course, there's Matthew and the rest of the kids..."
"No way is Carl getting involved in this. Sophie either." Rick spoke abruptly. "They are too young to be fighting, it's too dangerous. NO Carl, I've made my decision and that's final."
"You're not my dad." Sophie spoke angrily. "If Georgie and Adele think I can do it, I can do it."
"I'm overruling them." Rick turned to Georgie who had moved forward to protest. "No. They stay in a room, safe, away from this."
"They'll have to fight one day Rick, you can't keep them from this world forever." T-Dog was surprised at Dale's words.
"I know Dale. But it's not going to be at the age of eight. They go with Maggie and they sit in a room and they are safe." He looked at Harry and Matthew. "I'm guessing even if I tried to put my foot down..."
"Ain't up to you." Daryl's eyes narrowed. "They're safer with gun's in their hands an they're old enough to use them." Rick didn't look happy about this outcome, but it was obvious that Daryl wasn't going to budge.
"So I guess that leaves me and Maggie on babysitting duty?" Ben looked less than happy at the prospect. But Georgie seemed to have caught on to Adele's idea.
"Brilliant. You want to play mind games with them." She came to the coffee table and knelt down, reaching for a few empty bottles. She positioned some around the pillow, some on it. She looked up at Adele, but Adele motioned her to carry on.
"Adele's idea is simple. It allows us to make maximum damage with minimum effort. The idea is, to make your enemy think you're stronger than you are. They panic, and you are left with the control. With me so far?
So, how do we make these guys panic? Simple. We make them think that even our 'weak links' are formidable opponents. If they think they've underestimated the weakest of us, what will they think of the ones they thought they had to worry about before? So they get sloppy. And then we can make our real move."
T-Dog looked around. Many of the others looked as uneasy as he felt.
"I hope you're not suggesting that we send the kids out to fight first and then follow them." Dale looked worried.
"Usually yes. In the complex, the Governor taught us not to concern ourselves too much with the... "lesser beings safety". But here, we have an advantage. We can create the illusion of a one shot army." Adele looked around at their disbelieving faces. "We have enough good shots to pair up with what they perceive as a weaker element, plus two covering the stairs. We sit at a vantage point and wait. When we see one of them, the sharp shot shoots. When they look up, they catch a glimpse of our weaker element. Then they begin to crap themselves. They become unorganised. Usually, that's when they think of rushing the building. And then..." She motioned towards the glass bottles full of clear liquid.
The group looked around at each other. Dale spoke first.
"This is the only plan we have, short of going out there and blasting blindly into the trees. At least we'll be inside."
"How can you be sure that they'll come out?" Maggie looked uncertain. "How do you know they won't just wait in the tree for us?"
"Oh they'll come." Adele looked grim.
"They'll get hungry."
Sorry for making it a bit drawn out. There will be gun fire soon. Promise