Dom had stayed up most of the night coming up with a plan of action for everyone in the group. He decided that each person would be tasked with keeping tabs on different people, from a distance of course. He wanted them to see if they could see or hear anything that might help them put the pieces together and figure out what Del was up to. Tori was going to take Del himself, since she planned on going in and asking him about the food shortage. Dom would take Shawn and his gang since he figured he would be the safest in defending himself against them in case something went wrong. Matthew was taking John, the guard that stood by the back door of the barn at work. Diana decided she would try Cora, Sarah's older sister, to see if maybe she knew anything from the streets, and Marie would go talk to Sharon. Dom thought maybe they could use the festival as cover to come together and work some leads they got from their investigations, but they only had two days to get their stuff together.
Thursday morning started the same as always. Everyone got up and got ready for work, except instead of going about the routine in a robotic fashion they all seemed to be sparked up a bit, probably from the adrenaline of playing super spies. The girls met the boys by the door outside of the building and they walked to the central part of town together where they said they're goodbyes. Tori headed for the stand, Matthew and Dom hopped onto the trucks and Marie and Diana marched off to their cleanup crews.
Matthew
When the trucks stopped at the fields everyone hopped off and headed to their areas as usual. John was already in his spot in the back of the barn, tipped back in a chair against the wall with a bottle of water in his hand and his gun across his lap. Matthew waved to him and he waved back. The horses were pretty tame since it was still early, so Matthew had no problem getting them out into the fenced off area they had to run around in. When he came back from the meadow John was still in the same spot and it looked like he hadn't moved, and he was pretty sure no one had come in while he was gone.
The first few hours went by and nothing happened. Everyone worked as normal and John held his post like a semi-fluid statue. It wasn't until lunch that anything interesting happened, and Matthew was too far away to get anything from it. On his way to the lunch truck to meet Dom John answered his radio, speaking into it with his back turned to the barn opening for close to thirty seconds before replacing it and sitting back down. Matthew couldn't hear anything he said and he was still too far away to judge his facial reaction.
"Anything yet?" asked Dom.
"Nah. He's been pretty stationary all day."
"Is that not normal?"
"Well it's not not normal, if you know what I meant. I saw him use his radio on my way up here but I was too far away to get anything from it."
"That's alright." Dom took a bite of two pieces of bread stacked together with nothing in between them. "We'll see what the rest of us can come up with and go from there."
Matthew listened in the best he could for any conversations from John for the rest of the day but truth was it was pretty radio silent. He hung around inside the barn as much as possible without making it look like he was doing it on purpose, and John stayed in pretty much the same position the whole day. When the horn blew for end of day Matthew made sure the horses were set up and headed back to the truck with his head down, a little upset that he wasn't able to get any information. Dom patted him on the back and nodded some encouragement as they rode back to town.
Dom
Once they were back in town Matthew headed up to the apartment and Dom split towards the park, hoping he could find a way around to the other side where the fence blocked edge of the park from the buildings next to it. Shawn and his gang usually hung out in the corner spot and Dom figured if he could manage to stay inconspicuous he could listen in on their conversations. He took a left at the corner when Diana had went straight and made his way around, hanging a tight right at the next corner. He stayed close up to the fence and crouched along, making his way into earshot of the group. After about ten minutes of listening he realized that not all of them were there, only two of the guys and one of the girls. He looked around in worry hoping that none of them were coming towards the park from a direction he could see them, and suddenly he realized his mistake in not planning his moves more carefully.
"Where'd you get that bag at?" one of the guys asked.
"I pinched it from Shawn's room when I was over there last night" said the girl.
"If he finds out you're stealin' his shit he's gonna be mad."
"Nah, he's alright. Besides, he takes from me, so why can't I take from him?"
"What does he take from y-," the man paused for a second, "oh. Yeah, nevermind."
That piece of the conversation was interesting to Dom. If Shawn was seeing one of those girls they might be able to use that as leverage against him in the future. Dom stood up slowly and as quietly as possible, peeking over the fence to get a look at the girl. When he saw her he realized she was the same one that was standing next to him the first time he saw the group. As he thought over the information he heard a yell from the other side of the fence and more footsteps coming towards him.
"Damn Bekkah you pinchin' my stash again?"
"Just a little bit baby. I gotta do something when you aren't here."
"Speaking of which where were you?" asked the same guy from earlier.
"I had to make a phone call, that's all you need to know."
"Was it that same stuff about the festival?"
There was a smacking sound and an 'ow' with some laughter from Bekkah. "Keep your mouth shut fool."
Shawn was sneaking off making secret phone calls that the rest of his crew didn't know about, and mentioning the festival was apparently a giveaway to something. Dom noted each thing down mentally as it came to him, stepping carefully away from the fence so he could get out of the area before someone noticed him. He got to the corner and crossed the street when a voice called out to him to stop. There were no visible people around him but he stopped anyway, since it was very possible that someone had a gun trained on him from a window.
"Turn right."
Dom did as he was told and after a second he noticed an older woman sitting on the porch of a mostly destroyed house. These houses near the park weren't being used since they had taken a lot of damage and the cleanup crews hadn't gotten to them yet. The construction crews had been working a little ways down the road to repair some of the roof damage but they hadn't gotten down to this side yet. Dom walked across the other street and down the way to the woman's porch, looking behind him to the park to see if Shawn or anyone in his crew could see him.
The woman was most likely in her forties with shoulder length hair and a thin face. She wore a gray long sleeved shirt and jeans with black shoes. Dom looked around her at the house and eyed a twelve gauge shotgun lying on the porch next to her chair.
"Spying like that will get you in trouble someday, kid."
"I'm pretty confident in my skillset. Who are you?"
"Connie. You?"
"Dom."
"Well Dom, why are you spying on Shawn and his boyfriends? They do something to you?"
Dom laughed at the comment but when he remembered his expression went blank. "They tried to hurt a friend of mine."
"Ah. I take it that's how he got the sling?" Connie pulled a cigarette out from behind her ear that was previously hidden by her hair and lit it.
"That was a gift from me, yes."
"Well I can tell you one thing, those kids aren't half as tough as the image they put up, but they're being back by someone who is."
"Why do you say that?" asked Dom.
"I see Shawn leaving by himself a lot, sometimes not coming back for an entire afternoon. They have things no one else has, an attitude that would knock out a football team and will use any excuse they can to flex their muscles."
"And if something did happen they would be able to call big brother or find a way to handle it themselves and big brother would clean it up for them." Dom nodded, slightly annoyed at their childishness.
"Exactly. I know they're mixed up in somethin', just not sure what. I can see that you're trying to find out, though. If you do let me know."
"Sure thing, Connie. Thanks for the info."
"Stay safe and don't let it go to waste."
Dom watched over his shoulder as he headed back toward the apartment complex. Another piece of the puzzle down, but unfortunately it looked really similar to some they already had.
Marie
The girls told Marie about Sharon and where to find her, so she headed towards the store as soon as work detail let out, hoping to catch her before she left. About a block away she ran into a woman that looked like the description that Diana and Tori had given her so she decided to check her luck.
"Sharon?"
Sharon stopped in her tracks and looked toward the voice. "Yes?"
"Hi, I'm Marie, I'm friends with Tori and Diana, the two girls that came into your shop last Sunday."
"Oh! Hello dear, what can I do for you?" asked Sharon.
"Well we're all trying to talk to some people and get more information on the town you know, since we're thinking of documenting all of it and chronicling the rise of Wanagi out of the ashes of the conflict." Marie hoped that he excuse didn't seem too forced or see-thru.
"Well of course then, follow me."
Marie tagged along with Sharon until they got to her place in the old building. She seemed to live by herself since there wasn't very much stuff inside and there were no indicators that a man stayed in the place. There was one chair in the living room next to a coffee table that was filled with books. A few pictures hung on the walls of what Marie guessed were family members, but she wasn't entirely sure if they belonged to Sharon or if they were still up from the people that had lived here before.
"Are those your family pictures or were they here from the people before?" asked Marie.
"Those are mine. This is my place, always has been. I didn't leave during the riots, I just decided to bunker down in here and wait it out."
"Good call I guess."
"Yeah it did work out in my favor. Now what is it you want to know?"
"Anything" said Marie. "When we got here we had only known about the conflict for a week, but we learned from Ralph that it had been going on for at least three, so we missed the beginning."
"Oh, well then" said Sharon, bringing cups for tea and some crackers into the living room. "I heard about the crash the day after it happened."
"Crash?" asked Marie.
"The market, how this all started. It bottomed out and everyone lost their money. The people were going crazy in the streets demanding that the government do something. Bank execs and Wall Street big wigs were fleeing the country as quickly as they could. That was when it really started to be honest, the big wigs leaving. People decided that if they were literally skipping the country that something must be terribly wrong, and immediately it was like we were all barbarians again."
Sharon stared down at the floor, searching her memories of what she'd seen. "The first few days weren't too bad. News reports kept the video to a minimum and they tried to show more positive things instead of focusing on the riots. Government issues orders, of course. But after the first weekend we lost all broadcasting capability over here."
"So people realized they didn't have any money anymore and just went nuts?" asked Marie.
"Pretty much sweetheart. When you work your whole life and save up money when you can, thinking you'll be able to invest in something here and there to make your money make money and get you out on top a bit, and then the whole thing bottoms out and you lose everything you've worked for? That's going to make some people see red."
"I bet. I can imagine I'd be pretty upset if that happened to me, but I don't think I could go out and join the riots like we saw on TV in Chicago."
"Believe me they were much worse in person than you saw on TV. It's all about pack mentality. One person decides they're going to just go into the nearest store and take whatever they want since their livelihood was gone and they had nothing to lose anyway. Then another person sees them do it and thinks, 'well, if he can do it, so can I.' and eventually it snowballs."
"What were the riots like out here?"
"Something I'd like to forget."
Sharon got up and went out into the kitchen as the teapot started screeching. Marie wondered if she'd struck a nerve and went into an area that Sharon didn't want to talk about, worried that maybe she would bottle up. A few minutes went by and Marie chewed on her thumbnail for something to do, her nerves getting the best of her. Sharon reentered with the teapot and a small bowl of sugar cubes, placing the cubes on the table before pouring a cup for each of them.
"During the second week I went outside one day to see what was going on. I'd been in here for almost 9 days straight, tucked away from the violence hoping that if they didn't know I was here they would leave me alone. Worked, too. After a while I was going a little stir crazy so I went out to get some fresh air. Seemed to be OK at first, aside from some charred vehicles and the remains of the houses around the corner that had been either burnt down or blown up. I was going to walk to the store and get a few things that I was running low on when I saw a woman with a gun pull another woman out of a car and demand everything she had. The man got out and tried to calm the other woman down but as soon as he stepped towards her she shot him square in the chest. Killed him almost instantly."
"Holy crap," said Marie, "what happened to the woman?"
"When the woman with the gun found out she didn't have anything to give her, she killed her too. And that was when I really realized that we'd gone to a place we couldn't come back from."
"How did you escape from that?"
"I was by the corner when it happened. She hadn't seen me and when she shot the man I backtracked and went home."
"That's crazy. So from there how did Wanagi get started?"
Sharon sipped her tea and smiled. "Well, I watched out the window quite a bit during the day to see what was going on. Into the third week I hadn't heard any noises for a few days. No gunshots, no explosions or anything, so I figured the fighting had died down. I was looking out one day and I saw Del and a group of others walking around, pointing at buildings and talking. Making sweeping motions with their hands at the burned cars on the side of the road. I didn't know then but they were making the original plans to start the town.
"I also didn't know that at that time he had had his radio broadcast going for about a week. I started seeing more and more people pouring into town and walking the streets freely, so I decided I'd give it another shot and headed out myself. Went out, talked to a few people and they told me about the 'man on the radio' that promised them a new start. That same night Del called everyone that had arrived together and told us his grand plan to get the town jump started, and then he went to work planning the work details and all of that. A couple days later we started working and everything fell into place from there."
Marie mulled over the information and tried to situate the pieces correctly into her timeline. Apparently nothing really obvious had happened on the outside that she would be able to get from Sharon, but she did appreciate the background to their current situation.
"What do you think is in the future for this place?" Marie finished her tea and set it down on the table.
"Hopefully it'll keep growing and producing enough to sustain what we have so far. Everyone's come a long way to where we are now, it would be a shame to see it go."
"Well I gotta get going, but thank you for the tea and the stories. It was really nice to get a feel for what's happened here and actually sit down and have a normal conversation with someone not in my group." Marie laughed and stood up, heading for the door.
"Come back anytime."
Diana
When Diana's crew finished cleaning out the last house on the left side of the street they were working on the director called it a day, blowing the horn same as the field director to announce to everyone that they were free to go. Diana asked someone what the fastest way to get to the YMCA was from where they were and the girl pointed straight ahead at the side street they were cornered to. A quick walk of about five minutes and the building was in site, giving Diana the jitters. She was a good leader and headstrong when it called for it but that didn't mean she never got nervous.
Inside the Y Sarah was in the same room as before, playing with the little kids as their parents came one by one to pick them up. She waved at Diana when she was in sight and helped a little boy put his shoes on since his father had arrived. The boy stood up and ran to his dad, jumping up into his arms and giggling. Sarah watched with a smile and her good nature made Diana like her even more.
"Hey Sarah, do you know where your sister is?"
"Yeah, Cora's in the teen room down the hall. Do you need her?"
"I just need to talk to her for a bit, nothing big" said Diana. "I'll come see you on my way back out, OK?"
"OK, sounds good to me."
Diana made her way down the hall into the teen room she had passed before. A few kids hung out playing billiards while Cora sat on the counter in the corner with a nail file. The room looked bigger somehow in the daytime. The walls were tinted a sort of yellowish color, making Diana think that maybe the kids smoked in there when no one was looking. One of the kids at the billiards table saw Diana and looked over to Cora with a nod of his head. She looked up when Diana walked in and jumped down to greet her.
"Hey there, what's up?"
"Not much" said Diana. "Is there somewhere we can talk privately? Or do you have to be in here?"
"We can go to the old screening room, follow me."
They took two hallways and finally ended up in a small screening room that looked like it was from the fifties. The screen was maybe half the size of a regular theater screen and it was square instead of rectangular. The room was very dark since there were no lights except those of the hallway ceiling and with dark red and black materials it was difficult to see. Cora took a seat next to the door where there was still some light and Diana sat across the aisle from her.
"So my friends and I were just going around today to talk to some of the people in town and get a feel for what the place is really like. I mean Del has his little radio broadcast that preaches a better America and whatnot, but we wanted to talk to the people that live here and know the place to really get a feel for what's up."
"You mean you want dirt?" asked Cora. She smiled with a condescending eyebrow raise.
"Basically yeah" said Diana.
"Well I don't really have much to tell you. I'm sure you've heard about the big things that have happened like the militia coming to town and the drunk guy they dragged away, right?"
"Ron was his name, wasn't it?" asked Diana.
"Yeah. He was Sarah's father. I still feel terrible that she doesn't have her family anymore at such a young age."
Diana was floored at the news. "Really? I had no idea. She also said you two are sisters, how does that work?"
"When her father got dragged away and never came back her mom lost it. She got really paranoid and thought they were going to come for her too and she ended up running away. Just left Sarah one day when she was working cleaning detail and took off, hasn't come back. I brought her home with me and basically adopted her, so we're sisters now."
"Who all is at your place?" asked Diana.
"My mom, Sarah and I" said Cora.
"Sorry if this is too many questions or too personal, I'm just trying to learn about the people here you know."
"Yeah I hear you. What about you and your group? How did you come together?"
"My girlfriend Tori and Matthew both worked together at a record store in Chicago. Marie is her best friend, and Dom is Matthew's brother. I stopped into the store one day and Tori asked me if I wanted to hang out sometime and we just clicked. A few days later we were in a car explosion on our way out of town and now we're here."
Cora's eyebrows raked her hairline. "That's insane. Glad you made it out okay, though."
"Thanks. Really my main reason for coming to you is because we're around the same age and everything and I just figured you might be able to tell me something about Shawn and his group."
Cora's face went blank and she stared down at the floor without speaking. Diana noticed the change in her demeanor and wondered what had happened with them in the past to make her change like that so fast, and she thought of the worst. He and his little lapdogs had tried to attack her, so why not Cora? She was every inch as beautiful and an easy target living so close.
"I knew Shawn before the conflict. We went to high school together in Denver, and for a little while at the end of senior year we dated."
Diana couldn't believe what she had heard. "Wow, so it's pretty crazy that you both ended up here, huh?"
"Not as crazy as you think. I ran into him when things started to get bad in the city and I was on my way out with my mom. He tried to get me to go with him instead down towards Texas but I said no, and he got really frustrated. He kept trying to tell me he was sorry treating me the way he did when we were together and that if I went with him he would keep me safe but I kept telling him no, and when he realized that I wasn't going to go with him he decided to follow me here."
"I'm not surprised by that. Did he ever hurt you?"
"He grabbed my by the back of hair one time and shook me really hard when he thought I wasn't listening to him, and after that I bailed. He tried to get me back so many times but I blew him off constantly, and after a while he just stopped."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that"said Diana.
"Thanks. He was in with some bad people down there right before I left and he followed me. I don't know what he was doing but the guys I saw him talking to when we ran into each other that day looked pretty serious."
Diana checked her watch and realized it was starting to get late. "I appreciate you talking to me and trusting me with your story, I think that's really cool."
"Well you can't have too many friends in this town, especially people our age" said Cora.
"And speaking of, I know a guy that happens to be single and I think you would be perfect for him."
Cora blushed and laughed quietly. "A boyfriend? That's just what I need is Shawn seeing me walking down the road hand in hand with some other guy."
"He's not as tough as you think. I gotta go but maybe after the festival you can come over to my place and hang out with us? The boys scavenged a TV and an Xbox for some entertainment."
Cora looked happy at the last part. "I used to love playing video games, that sounds great. Find me at the festival and we'll work it out."
They both stood up and headed back to the room Sarah was in. She was in the middle of changing a diaper and Diana didn't want to bother her so she just waved goodbye. Outside the air was warm and still latticed with smoke from things that had burnt during the riots. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, heading back to the apartment to give her news to the group.
Tori
Del was usually in the City Hall building so that's where Tori decided she would look for him. She walked up through the parking lot and into the double doors, greeting both of the guards on the bottom floor.
"I need to see Del about something. It's important."
"I'm sorry miss but he's not in the building at the moment."
Tori looked between each guard to see if she could read any feelings from them. "Well where is he? This is serious."
"He's out. If it's very serious you can tell me and I can contact him on the radio."
"I need to talk to him directly" said Tori. "When will he be back?"
The guard shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. He didn't say where he was going or how long he would be gone."
"And that doesn't seem odd to you?" asked Tori. "He's the Mayor of this town that's at a crucial point in the middle of a country-wide conflict, and he just disappears somewhere for who knows how long?"
"It's not my job to track his movements" said the guard. "He has this town's best interest at heart, and I know that whatever he's doing is to benefit the people. But now you must go. I will tell him you came and to find you immediately when he gets back."
"You do that" said Tori, making her way back outside.
As the sun started to drop in the sky the group all met back at the boys' apartment. They showed up one by one and hung out playing video games until at last Diana was the final member to come in. Dom turned the Xbox and TV off and got up to grab some waters from the fridge, tossing one to each person. Marie was tending Matthew's wound to make sure it was still clean and wasn't pussing or tearing so they took up most of the couch. Tori motioned Dom to sit on the end cap and she and Diana sat next to each other on the floor against the wall.
"So what did everyone find out? Matthew, how about you first" said Dom.
"Well I didn't find out much. John's a pretty tight-lipped guy. He doesn't move around a lot while we're there and I only saw him talk on his radio once, but I was too far away to get any of it."
"Alright, no worries. Marie?"
"I talked to Sharon for a little while. We had tea and she told me how this place started. Did you know she was actually here before the conflict?"
"No I didn't," said Tori, "that's cool."
"Yeah. She saw some pretty horrible things in the beginning but once the town started to come together she said it got better. Nothing about Del or any of the tribe members or anything, though. I guess she wasn't in the position to find anything out that we could use."
"Well a little back story is better than nothing" said Dom. "You'll have to fill us in on it later. Diana?"
"I talked to Cora for a little while, she's a really cool person. It turns out Sarah, the girl I met on work detail, is the daughter of that Ron guy."
"Really?" asked Dom. "Interesting. What happened to her mom?"
"She bailed when her husband never came back. According to Cora she got paranoid they were going to take her too so she left and just left Sarah here."
"That's awful," said Tori, "who does that?"
"I don't know, but the most interesting part was that she knew Shawn before the conflict."
Everyone snapped to attention at that little detail and Diana continued with renewed energy. "They lived in Denver and went to high school together, even dated for a little while senior year. But I guess he treated her like crap, surprise, and she dumped him."
"I'm surprised he didn't try to force her to stay" said Marie.
"She blew him off and eventually he went on to some other girl but they ran into each other when the city started to fall. She said he was talking to some really serious looking people, shady to the max, and when she declined to go with him he followed her here."
"That's odd since I found out earlier from listening by the park that Shawn is sleeping with Bekkah."
"Good, hopefully he'll continue to leave Cora alone. What else did you find out?" asked Diana.
"I talked to a woman named Connie that lives in one of the ripped up houses by the park. She said that Shawn sneaks off by himself sometimes, making phone calls, and doesn't come back for the whole day. I'm starting to think that maybe Shawn is involved with some stuff that the rest of his group don't know about."
Everyone was silent for a minute while they digested each other person's information and put it together in their own mental images.
"Well I struck out" said Tori. "Del wasn't in City Hall when I went and the guards said they didn't know where he was or when he would be back."
Dom looked worried as he clasped his fingers together with his elbows rested on his knees. "So we have a lone gangster from the city making secret phone calls, a Mayor that's MIA and some miscommunication, intentional or not, between the Honovi members." He thought about John on his radio at the field, Del being out of reach and Shawn making shady deals behind everyone's backs. Suddenly he sat up straight with his eyes trained on the front door. "The festival."
"What?" asked Matthew.
"The festival. Think about it. If you were Del and you wanted to make some kind of deal or move some illegal substances or whatever shady business practice you're doing, what's the best way to get it done?"
"By cover of something bigger" said Diana.
"Exactly. When everyone is having fun at the festival Del and Shawn are going to sneak away, do whatever they need to do and come back just before it's time to make a speech." Dom's smile turned into a frown rather quickly and all eyes in the room moved to him. "There's only one problem."
"What's that?" asked Marie.
"We have no idea what's going down."
