[Human killed x2 - 200p]
[560p]
[STR +1]
The group looks at me with varying expressions. People like Daryl, Shane, and Andrea look at me with a slight bit of admiration. People like Rick, Glen, and Tony look at me with looks of shock, but understanding. People like Maggie look at me with a slight bit of fear. The other remaining prisoners look at me with the same expressions, though mainly fear. Axel falls to his knees in tears saying,
"I AIN'T WITH THEM! I SWEAR!"
Big Tiny just looks at me with trepidation, almost like he's trying to get himself ready for a fight. Oscar just stands there with a neutral expression, with a slight amount of fear hidden beneath the surface. And Thomas just looks at the bodies with a slight smirk.
My group all has their guns pointed at the group of prisoners, keeping an eye on their every move. I stand there for a few seconds, not speaking while everything sits in with everyone. After everyone calms down from the adrenaline jump, I speak,
"Well, boys? You eager to join your friends?"
Axel shakes his head and says,
"No! Nonono! I was never with them! Never was!"
I look at Big Tiny and see him lowering his shoulder and shaking his head,
"N-nah… Nah…"
I then look over to Thomas and see him smirking down at the split skull of Tomas. Something about that smirk… Wait…
I look over to the group and say,
"Tie their hands up. We'll keep them locked up while we finish clearing the prison."
After tying them up, we go through the rest of the prison with little other interference. Most of the walkers were actually outside thanks to a massive hole in the wall of one of the cell blocks. For now, we sealed off the gates to that area and locked the doors leading to it. With the entire prison cleared, we all gather in the mess hall of cellblock A and talk to each other.
I look at the group and say,
"Alright. Now that this place is cleared out, we're gonna be bringing the group. I only want two of us going back so that the rest of us can keep a watch on both the prison and the prisoners. But before that, I wanna check out the prison records and see if I can find each of these guys and see what they're actually in for. I don't trust that Thomas guy one bit."
Maggie, for once, speaks up,
"Yeah, I'll be honest: the rest of those prisoners don't really bother me. Axel is a little weird, but he's otherwise fine. I think they'd be great additions to the team. Thomas, on the other hand, creeps me out to no end. Especially with how he was smirking at the dead bodies."
I nod my head to her as Rick speaks up,
"Yeah, but we can't be hasty. Being creepy isn't exactly enough of a reason to kill someone."
I shake my head and am about to counter that when Shane does,
"Nah, man. With the world we live in, being creepy is exactly enough of a reason to kill someone."
Daryl nods his head and says,
"I agree. People who give off creepy vibes only survived before because they were protected by the law, and were prevented from being a creep by the law as well. They give off creepy vibes for a reason."
Tony answers next,
"But still. Killing someone for that reason alone is bad and will set a bad precedent for us, leading us down a much darker path than what we have been."
Shane shakes his head and says,
"Morals get people killed in a world like this. I understand us having some base morals for our people to uphold; but our morals absolutely have to shift to survive in a world like this."
Rick counters,
"I'd say our morals have already degraded some considering the fact that there's currently a decapitated body outside, as well as hundreds of rotting corpses."
Shane shakes his head,
"But that's not enough. We've seen some stuff, Rick. People are vicious and violent now. They kill people for the slightest of differences, or just for fun. A good example is what just happened. Had Penny not killed that prisoner, he would've drawn his gun on her, killed her, and then wounded one of us."
Andrea, who was eating an MRE, speaks up on Shane's side,
"I agree. If she hadn't been a quicker draw, that prisoner woulda killed her. She's been adjusting to this world at a far greater pace than the rest of us have. I mean, she went from being a girl crying after killing two guys that were trying to rape her to this."
Glen speaks up,
"And this is a good thing? I don't mean to sound combative. It's just… I dunno, I guess I'm just not too acclimated to this new world just yet."
I speak up and answer him,
"No, it's not a good thing. Being used to killing is never a good thing. However, being good at it is. I won't lie and say that killing is a good thing. It absolutely is not. In a perfect world, we'd all fight together to take out the walkers and come together as a species to reach utopia. However, that is wishful thinking. Humans find conflict where no conflict should exist. We kill each other over resources, religion, race, political ideologies, or any other type of shit that doesn't really matter. It's human nature to follow survival of the fittest. And the fittest isn't the one who likes to kill, or the one who refuses to do so. The fittest is the one who hates killing, but is still damn good at it."
I look around and the group and continue,
"We unfortunately do not have the luxury of avoiding conflict by running away anymore. If someone attempts to push us out of our home, we can't just leave our home and call the police to get those people out. If someone attempts to rob us of our last bottle of water, we can't just go buy another at the grocery store. If someone tries to hurt us, we can't pursue legal action against them. Our world has changed."
I look towards Rick and Glen and say,
"I'm not saying we abandon our morals. Morals are always a good thing to have. However, they have GOT to change. I'm not saying we kill the guy for being weird. I say we check out what he's in for, and then kill him if it's something really bad."
Daryl gets up from the table and says,
"I'll go grab the papers."
I nod at him as he heads off to the warden's office. Glen looks at me and asks,
"So, what are we gonna do if he actually did something really bad?"
I shrug my shoulders and say,
"Simple. We take him out back, and shoot him."
Maggie asks me,
"Why not just let him go? You were gonna let the prisoners leave before, anyway."
I shake my head and say,
"Nah. I was never gonna let them go. They would've never actually left. Exile may seem like a good idea, but that's before the exiled person comes back with a group that wants our shit. If they would've actually agreed to leave, I woulda shot them in the back as they left. I'll do anything to keep this group safe."
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AN: i'm incredibly busy this week, so i may not upload on wednesday and friday. i'm sore in places i didn't know could get sore. penny's gonna check her status soon.
That final line about exile was fantastic. And creepy or not she should be pulling their files anyway. Do wonder who she will leave behind though. That aside; Hope the soreness fades soon and your busy week goes well.
i hope so too. it's weird having the right side of your body be sore while the left is fine
DAYUM! tftc author~
You've outdone yourself again! Wonderful story! 😁
Love your story 🤩🤩
TFTC
Thank you for the chapter
MAN I'm glad she caught his weird behavior. It was looking kinda close there for a second.
Also hope you feel better soon
The line about exile is perfect and with complete sense, if there is exile as a punishment it's because the people don't want to kill the guy or he has a lot of power
It's human nature to follow survival of the fittest.
eugh, really don't like that. Like, it's perfect for the story, and nobody here is a philosopher/academic capable of seeing how messed up such a sentence can mean, but Absolute human nature and endorsement of a type of social darwinism is very disturbing to read. Especially when some of the earliest signs of humanity is the disabled being taken care of. Again, perfect ideology in this survival scenario without any kind of knowledge on political philosophy and trying to organize a group and it's philosophy from first principles, love the story, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how uncomfortable that specific language is as a target due to violating others notions of human nature and survival of the fittest.
I completely agree with social Darwinism being stupid, but you’ve completely missed the point of her saying that. She’s saying that those who live off of killing others won’t make it in the long run, but those who don’t but are good at it will. Which is a fact. People who live off of killing will eventually run into someone who’s better at it than them. You’ve brought in real-world anti-disabled politics into my book about an apocalypse. If I was gonna leave something out of my fictional story that’s a problem in the real world, my story would have no killing, no stealing, and no lying. I get stuff in my book making you uncomfortable, but please don’t go bringing real world issues into it. It’s fictional, and she meant literally nothing more by it.
@Sorrest I'm sorry I phrased it in anyway that upset you, as I was trying to stress that my discomfort and uncomfortable parallels are truly wholely separate from the ideology she is developing in the story in response to her conditions and understandings as to what makes a stable society, namely how strongest wins isn't sustainable, nor is pacifism. I should've also elaborated how fascinating it is how similar wordings can truly mean so different things. I did not intend to imply that the story in any way endorses anti-disabled politics, and I apologize if I did.
I completely understand the ugliness of the story being critical, because that's what makes it come alive, is what creates te complicated emotions and feelings and ideas being explored through fiction.
@ZephaZeph It’s all good, I think I also read into your comment too much. I’m sorry I acted so combatively, as well.