Eventually, I managed to force myself out of bed and out to the showers. Thankfully, we managed to get the hot water heaters hooked up to the generators we got running. The warm water really helps to wash away the soreness that generally comes with living life like this.

The time to utilize my [Hostility Sense] comes a lot sooner than expected, as I hear footsteps coming up behind me. As the person rounds the corner, I first feel their eyes land on me. Then, immediately after, a disgusting feeling washes over my entire body. Like cold tar is being dumped on me from head to toe. I don’t even have to turn around to know who this is. The one person who goes against everything I say and do.

“Hello Lori.”

I speak without even turning around, still washing the soap out of my hair. I hear her voice, sounding more grating than ever before,

“Penny.”

No more words are spoken between us as I hurriedly rush through my shower, hoping this disgusting feeling goes away sooner rather than later. As I finally finish up washing the soap away, I head away into the locker room to dry off and get clothed. Thankfully, the feeling dissipates as I leave her presence. If it was proximity based rather than sight based, I would’ve had to kill her somehow. I could not live with that feeling constantly washing over me.

As I get dressed, I spot myself in the mirror. My abs have gotten a lot more visible, with a big scar from when Otis shot me. My arms are a lot more toned, but not massively muscular. My thighs are pretty thick as well. Overall, I’d say I’ve got a great figure. 

I throw on my button up red flannel shirt, a nice fitting pair of dark tan cargo pants, brown hiking boots, and a fur-lined black denim jacket. Afterwards, I take the upper half of my hair and put it up into a small ponytail.

—

As I walk into the dining area, I spot Shane, Rick, and Morales all gathered around chatting. I head over to them and listen in. I find out very quickly that they’re talking about the wall as well as future endeavors to protect and grow the prison. As he notices me, Rick motions for me and says,

“Penny here had a couple good ideas on how we could grow going forward.”

I nod my head and say hello to everyone before getting on with it.

“As Rick said, I’ve got an idea on how we could grow. We start putting up signs at every major travel point we could think of. Railway signs, billboards, even at different junctions. We all tell them to come to the prison, giving details of where exactly said prison is, how to approach us, the whole nine yards.”

I give everyone a second to voice any concerns, and the first to do so is Shane,

“That’s nice and all, but I’m not too fond of the idea of projecting ourselves out to others. Why not just let a community form naturally? If we start displaying ourselves to the world, eventually we’ll have to deal with people who ain’t too friendly. You, yourself constantly talk about being wary of others.”

I nod my head to him.

“We absolutely should be. That’s why the messages will tell people that we’re armed. It’ll act as both a method of showing people they’ll be safe, while telling others that we aren’t afraid to fight.”

I give everyone another second, which prompts Morales,

“What about if we get someone who’s infected?”

I answer him,

“We’ll have people split up between men and women and have them strip searched for any signs of infection. Bites, scratches, hell even bullet holes will be inspected. If they have anything that may even slightly be considered an infection, they’ll be quarantined. If they refuse to be quarantined, they’ll either be shot or exiled depending on their actions.”

Morales nods his head but then says,

“What if those people come back with revenge in mind?”

I nod my head. That’s a good question. I answer him honestly.

“My goal is to eventually replace the wooden walls with thick reinforced concrete. Enough to take artillery shelling and shrug it off. Hell, I may even one day look into plating the concrete with a thick layer of steel. For now though, I want us to get a couple military vehicles equipped with weapons to protect ourselves from any attackers. I’m talking—hummers with machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, and even tanks. I want us to be the best armed group on Earth.”

Shane nods his head,

“So your goal is to get us militarized, and then start letting people in? Not a bad idea, but what if we get a group of spies or other kinds of not-so friendly folk?”

I nod my head.

“Good point. We’ll likely have members of other factions attempting to integrate themselves into us. That’s just gonna be inevitable if we let them in. That’s why during the whole strip search and screening process, we’ll have people asking different questions, and we’ll confiscate anything that could be used to speak with outside forces.”

Shane nods his head,

“Good plan. We’ll need to work together on some good questions to ask before we start inviting people in. It’d be great if we had someone that was ex-CIA or someone who dealt with spies in the past, but that’d be a bit much to ask for.”

I agree. Obviously, with my hostility sense, I’ll be able to find out if anyone has anything seditious in mind. Sadly, I can’t exactly tell them about these abilities. At least just yet. Maybe I’ll let a close inner circle know one day… Wait… That gives me an idea. I look at everyone and say,

“Now, one thing’s been on my mind for a while now.”

They all look to me and nod,

“We’ve been pretty much leaderless for a while now. I think it’s time that we finally have a named leader.”

The group of three men all look at me with confusion visible on their faces. Rick shakes his head and squints at me before saying,

“I mean, we all kinda assumed you were the leader.”

Shane and Morales nod at this, with Shane adding,

“Honestly, yeah. You’ve kinda been in the leadership position since the CDC. Do we really need to come out and say it?”

I look at him and say,

“Unfortunately, I think we do. Some people, no matter what, will refuse to accept that I’m the leader without me being chosen by the group. They’ll always assume that it’s someone else. I mean, who would expect a twenty year old woman to be leading a group of a bunch of burly men? People will always assume, whether because of my age or all kinds of other matters, that I couldn’t be the head of such a group.”

Rick bites his upper lip as he realizes who I’m talking about. I continue on,

“So, we need to finally make it official. Now that we’re finally set up rather comfortably. Plus, it’ll validate a couple plans I have for the prison more.”

Rick nods his head, but adds on,

“We’ll still need another group to go over and recommend plans. After all, a leader who doesn’t listen to the voice of the people isn’t a leader for long.”

I answer him,

“I agree. That’s why I have this planned out. I will essentially be our little group's version of a president. Then, there’ll be a group under that, essentially the congress. They’ll vet any ideas, debate on their efficacies, and then send them to me to be carried out. We’ll have one person there for security, agriculture, infrastructure, and anything else we can think of.”

I look at the group and see them racking their brains trying to think of how this could work before I say,

“We can talk about this later when everyone’s thought it through. Besides, we’re hardly the entirety of the group. We’ll have a discussion with everyone after this. For now, let’s go over the progress of the wall.”

Shane is the one who speaks up,

“It’s going. With the help of that excavator, we’ll be able to cut down and move enough trees to get the next fifth of the wall done by the end of the week. We’re estimating that by the end of a month, we’ll have it done completely. Hell, some of the guys have been saying we should go ahead and wall off another area for fields.”

I shake my head,

“We probably will later. For now, let’s focus on security.”

Shane nods his head,

“I agree. I already washed that idea out of their minds. I think they just got a little excited at the thought of finally finishing it.”

Morales speaks up after,

“Damn right! That thing was absolute hell without that excavator. Dragging each log by hand was getting us all tired before we could even get the log up.”

I nod my head and look at Rick and ask,

“How about the fields we got?”

He nods his head,

“The ones we got under greenhouses should be ready to harvest again by the end of the week. The spinach, carrots, garlic, and cabbage we got growing outside are doing pretty well despite how cold it’s been getting. Cleaning out that freezer was the best idea we’ve had, too. A lot of the deer meat that Otis, Daryl, and the others on the hunting teams have brought have all been frozen. We’ll probably have enough meat to last us a good few months. Not to mention the canned stuff and MRE’s.”

I smile at that,

“That’s good. Keep up the good work.”

I look over to Shane,

“Any of the away teams notice anything strange in the neighboring towns?”

Shane’s face, which was smiling at how much food we have stored, suddenly turns grim.

“Ah, yeah. So… We probably shouldn’t go spreading this around, but we found remnants of the military. Dead remnants.”

I look him in the eyes as he says this, and can tell that they’re not the walking kind of dead. I can’t help but look down at the table and cover my mouth as a word escapes my lips,

“Fuck.”

---