Happy New Years readers, a little bit late to say that but it's still early January (at least at the time of writing this). Anyway, let's continue where we left off.
"The name's Earl. Earl Oakton. Welcome to my compound."
"Um, yes, hello sir!" Double D greeted, his voice cracking a but. "We are the group that came from Canada and we were told that we could, um, seek refuge here?"
Earl laughed heartily at Double D's nervousness. Something to which the bot wasn't sure if he should be worried or relieved about.
"No need to be bellyachin' son! Now listen, you're free to stay here as long as ya' want! 'Course I would like to at least know everyone's names."
"I am Ed!" Ed greeted cheerfully, shaking Mr. Oakton's hand.
"My name's Jonny, this is Plank." Jonny greeted, showing Earl his companion. The rest of the group introduced themselves to the compound owner and his family. They were having a rather pleasant conversation despite the reason they were all there. Eventually there was something Earl had to address, his tone and facial expression
"It's great to get to know you all, but being here isn't all fun and games. If you're all gonna stay here, you gotta help everyone with hunting, cleaning, growing crops, woodworking, and stuff like that."
"Yeah, we'd be happy to help!" Kevin said confidently.
"Rolf and his family shall tend to this land as if it were our own!" Rolf added.
"Glad to see you're eager to help." Earl sighed. "But there's another thing I wanted to bring up. On your way here I'm sure you've seen or at least heard of a group of bandits that have attacked everyone they come across."
"Yeah, they almost turned us into swiss cheese!" Eddy stated. "Thankfully, big Ed managed to get us out of that situatuon with some quick thinking!"
Ed felt flattered at the compliment, not noticing that May was giving him a hug for saving them.
"I get ya', I don't know what they call themselves but us folks around here started calling them The Marauders. They go after anyone just for their supplies. Men, women, children, even those that aren't all there in the head or have a messed up body, it doesn't matter to them. They kill who they wanna kill and take what they wanna take."
"That's horrible!" Nazz interjected.
"Damn right!" Earl agreed. "That's why we try to make our security as tight as it can be. They've tried coming after us before. The reason I'm tellin' y'all this is so you can keep an eye out for 'em and help make sure this place stays safe."
The group were quick to agree, which pleased their host.
"That's what I like to hear. Now, I gotta go check up with some of my buds over in our radio shack, so my boy Dusty is gonna show you to where you'll be staying." Earl stated as he got up from his seat. "Dusty!"
The teenage boy the group saw when they entered came into the room. He was older than Sarah and Jimmy but younger than the rest of the teens. He wore a red flannel shirt and blue jeans with brown boots; a rather simple look but this boy looked like he enjoyed his simple lifestyle.
"Show these folks where they'll be staying."
"Will do, Pop!"
Dusty spent the last few minutes praising his dad and the compound as the gang followed him. Some of them thought it was quite nice that the boy thought so highly of his father, but others didn't exactly think the same way.
Eventually the group stopped in front of two rather large cabins. One on the left and the other on the right of the group. Both lacked any paint but did have windows, a chimney stuck out from the roofs of both buildings.
"Well, here ya' go!" Dusty said. "These cabins here were just built but they have electricity and running water thanks to our generator. There's one for both the boys and girls. You folks can go ahead and get settled in, we'll be having dinner in the mess hall soon."
"It's just like our time at camp, Jimmy!" Sarah said excitedly as she hurried to the left cabin. "Girls call this cabin!"
Jimmy chuckled as he entered the cabin that the boys were left with.
"Gotta admire their cheerfulness." Matt sighed, the men and women headed towards their respective cabin.
The cabins were more or less the same in tetms of general layout; three bedrooms with four bunk beds each, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and an attic.
Eddy wasted no time in claiming the top bunk of a bed for himself, he was more than happy to be in a bed again.
The Ed's were sharing a room with Rolf, who was in awe at the handiwork of the cabin. The cabins were made of brick on the outside but had a neat wooden interior that was very finely cut and smoothed out. The beds were metal but were comfortable for what they we're, not like anyone was conplaining though.
Rolf finished getting unpacked and took out two bags from his luggage. They were both labeled in his native language. One of them was clearly potatoes, as evidenced by the holes in the bag. The other was a black bag made of an unknown material, and its contents were also a mystery. The only thing the Eds knew was that they could hear a swishing sound, like something moving in water.
"Rolf shall return shortly, Ed boys. Rolf simply wishes to give our hosts a gift for welcoming us into their village!" Rolf said eagerly, leaving the room.
"Village?" Eddy asked, he and Double D shared a chuckle at Rolf's choice of words but they knew it couldn't be helped. Rolf still had a bit of difficulty when it came to English but he was more or less used to the language.
"Is Rolf gonna cook?" Ed asked, his mouth watering. His fellow Ed's winced a bit, knowing Rolf's native foods were...not very appealing.
In another room, Terry just finished settling in. He debated bunking with the Ed's so that he could spend time with his little brother but he changed his mind, he didn't want to risk opening any old wounds. Instead he was bunking with Kevin, Matt, and Jonny.
Kevin finished unpacking as well, but he simply sat on his bed, thinking about how he saw Armando at the compound. But maybe he was just paranoid, Armando was probably dead in a ditch or turned into a zombie by now.
But what if Armando really was there in the compound with them? He had to tell the others A.S.A.P.. Dinner was supposed to be served soon, so maybe the others would find out themselves. But what if telling them makes things worse? People like Eddy and the Kankers would definitely go after Armando if they found out he was there and they'd definitely want to give him a piece of their mind. But in doing so, they might get kicked out of the compound and left to fend for themselves again.
Kevin decided he would wait until after dinner to tell them and hope none of them saw Armando if he was there. But he might also have to look out for Armando himself just to confirm if he really was there, he didn't want to raise a false alarm.
"Hey Kevin." Jonny asked, snapping Kevin out of his thoughts. "What'cha doin'?"
"Nothin', just thinking about something." Kevin replied flatly.
"What's that, Plank?" Jonny asked his wooden friend, holding it up to his ear. "Plank says that you can't think on an empty stomach! Come on, everyone else is going to go get dinner now."
Kevin was getting hungry, as he followed Jonny out of the cabin he had one last thought. If he was just getting paranoid about everything and that he must have confused an innocent bystander for his enemy, then he had nothing to fear. If this was the case then he and his friends would be able to enjoy their new lives here in peace, at least for the time being.
The mess hall was essentially what was expected, but it felt nice to be around people that were living peacefully. There were twelve tables in total in four rows of three, with each table capable of seating twenty-four people each, the Peach Creek group sat at the corner table in the fourth row. The people cooking graciously accepted Rolf's offerings, Rolf himself even cooked with them. They served Rolf's homemade multi-meat sandwiches (which seemed to have squid and several different types of lunch meat served on a bed of lettuce and tomato with some sort of vinegar and with goat cheese on top) and baked potatoes.
Once everyone had their food, Rolf joined his friends at their table. He looked pleased to have helped cook and immediately began to eat. Most of the others looked unsettled at the sandwiches but ate the baked potatoes. Ed and the Kankers happily ate everything.
Double D, not wanting to offend Rolf, took a bite out of the sandwich. It took a while for every flavor to properly blend together, but once it did Double D found himself taking another bite of the sandwich. It wasn't the best thing he had ever tasted but he found out it was actually wuite good!
The same thing happened with everyone else, as they found themselves enjoying Rolf's cooking as well.
As Kevin ate, he tried his best to casually look around for Armando. Even though it wasn't too long ago since he had last seen him, Kevin couldn't forget his face.
Kevin stopped looking for a moment when he noticed a hand trembling on the table next to him. He looked over and saw Erin trying to keep herself composed and failing miserably at it.
"Hey, you ok?" Kevin asked, placing his hand on hers. The others were too busy talking amongst themselves to notice the two, except for Nazz, who began watching the two curiously.
"Look." Erin said quietly. "At the third table in the row in front of us."
Kevin looked at the table Erin pointed out and immediately saw what had her so shaken up. It was Armando, and this time Kevin was positive that it was him. Now that he knew Erin saw him as well, he had to alert the others.
"Ok, we can't make a scene, we'll tell everyone about this after dinner. Pass it along the table." Kevin said. The two quietly passed this information to the person sitting next to them, many of them tried to physically restrain themselves from speaking out or turning back to look at Armando, but that might raise suspicion.
Even Ed, as happy-go-lucky and loud as he could be, was silent and looked completely serious.
After the news finished spreading amonst them, they ate in silence for five minutes. It felt oddly nerve-wracking when Jimmy had accidentally dropped a spoon onto the floor and went to pick it up. Janyse felt a burning sensation in her throat that was climbing up to her mouth, thankfully she forced it back down.
Kevin felt like the whole world might end faster than it ready had been. All of this anxiety brought about not solely because of Armando, but at the fact that there were was the risk of all of them getting sent back into the wilderness if they tried anything.
They finished their food, even though many of then were losing their appetite...
They all waited until they were sure Armando left before heading back to their cabins. The anxiety they felt had gone away for the most part, Double D and Jimmy felt like they had barely made it out with their lives.
"What jist happened there?!" May asked.
"I don't think I've ever seen a mass anxiety attack like that, but I never thought I would see zombies either. It was most likely our bodies responding to all of the stress we've endured since our journey began. Coupling that with the thought of our enemy being here and potentially causing a ruckus during dinner most likely caused us all to experience that wave of anxiety." Double D proposed.
"Well whatever happened back there, now we know that Armando is here now. We dont know how long he's been here, but he got here before us so he might have made some connections while he was here." Kevin began. "Question is, how are we gonna handle this?"
"Um, why not tell Mr. Oakton?" Jimmy suggested. "Maybe he'll believe us and kick Armando out?"
"Now, I see where you're comin' from, but it might not be that simple, Curly Q." Lee responded. "Maybe that backstabber got in good with ol' Earl? We could be in trouble if he did. I say we handle it ourselves, Kanker Style!"
"Ok, hold on." Rachel began. "We can't make any sudden decisions. How about we do this; tomorrow morning we split up into groups. One of those groups will let Mr. Oakton know about this kid ans hopefully he'll handle it. The other groups will work around the compound like we were asked to do and if we see Armando, we keep a sharp eye on him. If he tries anything, beat him down. Right now though we should get some sleep, especially after that anxiety attack, sound good?"
Everyone seemed happy to go and get some sleep. Most of the gang headed into their cabins except for Double D and Kathy, who looked impressed with how easily Rachel solved the issue.
"Pardon me, Rachel." Kathy said. "Eddward and I were wondering how you managed to quell that dispute so easily."
"Heh, simple. I used to be a camp counselor every summer for the past few years. Kids would argue like that all the time, granted they were over less serious things. I may not really know who this Armando guy is, but if he nearly killed you all then he needs to be taken care of."
"Absolutely!" Double D agreed.
"Then I suppose we'll do as you proposed tonorrow morning." Kathy noted.
"Right." Rachel nodded. "Now if you need me, I'm going to bed."
Rachel yawned as she headed into the girls cabin. Double D and Kathy did the same, the former was almost immediately asked if he wanted to play cards with his fellow Ed's, Jonny and Kevin, while the latter was held up by someone she didn't expect.
"Nazz?"
"Hey, Kathy. Do you have a minute?" The blonde girl asked.
"I suppose, is everything alright?"
"It's about Kevin. I know you don't know him too well, but you do know Erin better than I do."
"To an extent, why do you ask?"
"Well, Kevin use to be my boyfriend a while back but we broke up months ago. Now I'm not trying to get back together with him but I think he might like Erin and i kinda want to play matchmaker. She seems like a nice girl and we honestly do need a bit of positivity in our group."
"Well, i suppose I could try to help, although I don't know very much about relationships." Kathy blushed.
"Hmm, well i don't want to sound nosey but is there anyone in our group you might like?" Nazz asked teasingly, Kathy blushed even harder and averted her gaze.
"Well... I do find that boy Rolf to be rather handsome. He has his quirks and I find them to be rather charming!" Kathy admitted.
"Aww! Cute! Rolf's totally cool too, once you get to know him!" Nazz said, the sky was beginning to darken and the area became colder as the sun set. "Why don't we head inside, its getting way too cold out here."
The two girls continued their conversation as they headed back inside.
Hours passed.
Armando left the cabin he was in at around 11 at night. He had his face hidden in a heavy coat. Armando made his way to the wall surrounding the compound and exited the location via an open area in the fence that had been hidden using a rock.
After walking through the woods for twenty minutes, using a flashlight and holding a machete for protection, Armando found a camp full of tents with about twenty people wearing brown coats and animal skins sitting around a campfire.
"You're back." One of the people said, it was a man who was rather fat, his bear pelt made him look like the actual animal.
"Yup, and we might have to put our plan into action ahead of schedule. Let's just say I have a bit of a rat problem I need taken care of."
"Remind me again why we're doing this?" A woman in the group asked.
"If this works then you all get a better place to live, all the food you can eat for the next few weeks, and better guns." Armando replied.
"Sounds good to me!" The woman replied, excited at the rewards of their plan.
"Right. There will be some changes though..." Armando stated, sitting down with the group around the fire...