But of course, as soon as the words had left my mouth, he came right up to me staring me down with both hands in his pockets as if he had come out of your typical 1970's New York City mafia movie. "You know what kid sure I like your style very bold of you!" He said, bursting out laughing, not getting intimidated at all.
"So what's in the safe, tough guy?" He asked almost immediately after walking just a few short feet away from me.
"I don't know; we picked it up out of a house we raided a while back. We don't have the tools to open it, so here it is. Not much use to us. But to you, who knows. '' I said, slipping in only one white lie. Off in the corner of my eye, I could see Jim wanting to say something, but thank god he didn't.
"Hmm, ok, load the safe up, boys! Along with the gun on the right, then let's get the hell out of here." He said, ordering his goons around as if they were nothing better than living puppets.
"Hey that wasn't a part of our deal, we agreed on one item!" I yelled at him getting more confident the farther away he got.
"Too bad kid deals change, and I'm sure you don't want me back any time soon." Then just like that, he and his goons had loaded up the safe and taken one of our few rifles with them. Then just like that, they were gone out of our hair for now, at least. We quickly packed everything back up and went about our day. But while nothing else eventful happened that day, right around Four PM, we all could hear while loud a muffled explosion was coming from the direction of where the thugs had driven off in. While it could have been another gas station getting raided by Cep's something in me wanted to believe that the safe had been rigged by someone, anyone before we got it. And when those bastards opened the bloody thing up, they just might have gotten their just deserved.
A few days after the thugs left we kept waiting for them to come back and make more trouble for us but they never did. Eventually, we moved on and forgot about their general existence. If something had happened to them and it didn't wipe them completely out they would have been back to exact their revenge. So they were either completely fine living the good old life or in my case preferably dead. Caught up in a beautiful rain of fire sending them all to an early grave.
But thoughts of them could wait, today we had more important things to discuss. By now we had a pretty consistent routine in place, every morning we would meet in the first-floor conference room and discuss what we needed. Whether that be supplies wise or what we could do to improve our overall situation. Today's meeting was mainly focused on the latter part.
"So what does our situation look like right now as a whole?" I asked the moment I walked into the room. I assumed everyone was in the room when I said it and thankfully I was right.
"Overall we have plenty of food to last us for a while and as long as nothing bad happens we should be fine," Jim said before anyone else could say anything trying to voice his opinions first.
"Now what if something does happen like someone breaks a bone, what then?" I said to the whole group not just Jim. It took a second of everyone looking at each other trying to read the room but eventually, Owen was the one to speak up.
"In the case, something happens that needs medical treatment the person in question will probably die. We are missing even the most basic medical supplies and without them, I fear we could easily lose someone." Owen said taking a solid stand, in a way that seemed to make Jim visibly upset.
"Yes we are indeed missing medical supplies but the risk does not outweigh the reward if we try to obtain these supplies," Jim said almost immediately once Owen was done speaking. I don't know why but Jim was very clearly trying to stop the group from leaving, maybe it was a feeling he had or something else but he wouldn't voice why.
"Now why is that Jim?" I asked trying to get to the bottom of this whole situation. "Couldn't we just go to a small pharmacy nearby and raid it?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation level headed.
"We can't get the medical supplies we need from a pharmacy. They are too small and have very little of the supplies we need," This time it was Own speaking up and he was practically defending Jim's hatred for leaving which made no sense.
"But we do need the supplies I suggest we raid the hospital," Owen said this with a look of determination in his eyes and had no intention of backing down on this idea. But Jim's thoughts were the exact opposite. For the next hour or so these two went back and forward about why we should and shouldn't raid the hospital. The biggest reason being the amount of Ceps that would be roaming about. But at the same time due to that problem, almost all of the supplies should still be there. Eventually, everyone looked at me waiting for an answer to what we were going to do.
"Both of you have valid points for each side but I think that Owen is right here, we need the supplies that this raid can give us. It is worth the risk," I said after finally growing a pair and waiting what seemed like enough time to make a fair and informed decision. I knew that if we didn't get these supplies we could lose someone during the winter due to sickness or due to a broken bone. But at the same time, Jim's clear disposition to the whole idea was worrying me, but I knew I couldn't let that show as I made my decision.