"I'm gonna ask again, what the fuck are you doing?" Chris stares at me for a long time and I don't know how to respond. If I tell him the truth, he'll more than likely hate it. If I lie to him though, he'll know I'm lying and try to figure out the truth.
I take a deep breath and look at Chris. I guess the truth is really unavoidable, isn't it? "Okay," I start, "but you have to wait until I'm done speaking before you hate me."
Chris just stands in silence, waiting for me to continue speaking. "I was at the other community when you guys attacked, and this girl had tagged along when we left. I realized you guys were still going strong, so I wanted to come back and join you guys again."
Chris waits, so I continue. "I left her in the middle of the night in the woods. Well, come to find out this guy had some weird obsession with her. Like really creepy, pedophilia type shit."
"So, what?" Chris asks me. "Just because he was creepy doesn't mean anything happened, and I know you don't like killing people."
"He was sick," I continue. "He attacked her shortly after I left, and I looked like I ditched her for dead. That was never my goal and I've felt horrible ever since. Just because I don't care for that community doesn't mean I don't care about helping somebody."
Chris shakes his head and stands in silence for a minute. "Okay," he finally says. "But just promise me this friendship of yours won't distract you from the endgame when we're actually fighting. I get why you did it, and I'm sorry you had to."
He walks over to me and grabs my hand, holding it softly. "Let's go get rid of him before somebody sees us," he says. I nod my head in agreement and start pushing Steven towards the stairs.
After Chris and I manage to get his body down the steps, we are finally outside in the cold night air. I shake a little from the surprise, and Chris throws his jacket over my shoulders. I shoot him a smile in response.
Chris grabs a shovel from his place. We wander around the outside wall for a while until we find a nice open space by a tree. He starts digging and I offer to help, but he insists. After about 10 minutes, we've got a decent sized hole. We lay Steven down in it and start throwing dirt on top of him.
Steven's arm shoots up out of the dirt, and Chris falls back, scared out of his wits. I forgot to stab him in the head, what a damn idiot. I reach in my pocket and pull out the switchblade, stabbing it into Steven's brain, leaving him motionless once again. The snarling stops with it.
Chris stands back up. "Crisis averted," I say, laughing. He chuckles with me and continues piling the dirt up. Once he's finished, we head back into the community and go back to Chris's.
Chris opens the front door midway, then stops. "Listen," he says. "Nobody has to know about this. No one in this community was that aware of him or even great friends with him. If anyone asks, we'll say he left in the middle of the night."
I nod silently, too exhausted to respond. We get inside and I fall fast asleep.
☠
"Alright, is everyone here?" Chris asks the table. There are about five other people sitting here, besides me and Chris. Some battle preparation meeting is what Chris called it.
After a few moments of silence, he nods his head and turns to me. "Okay, Jessica," he responds. "Tell us what you know about the other community." The members of the table all look at me patiently.
I begin telling them the things that won't affect the community as much. I don't tell them about the sewer tunnel running from the road to directly inside. I don't tell them that there is a back gate barely watched. Instead, I give them a battle plan the other community will expect.
"You know, that car you guys drove into the wall left a pretty big opening," I said. "If we can find a way to get people up inside, we would be able to sneak people in quickly and quietly."
Chris smiles and the other table members smile as well. "I didn't even think about that," he said. "I'll be damned. I say we go and check out that spot, see how easy it would be to get a ladder of some sort up there."
I quickly respond. "I'll go! At least if we are spotted, you'll be able to duck and get away, and they won't know I'm with you guys."
Everyone around the table nods and shrugs collectively. Chris smiles. "It's a date then," he says. "We'll leave in just an hour or so. Everyone else, keep watch while we are gone. We need to keep our guard up."
The members of the table get up and leave the room. Chris opens the door for me and we head to his place to pack.
☠
We're about a fourth of a mile out from the other community. Chris hasn't said anything to me yet, and I haven't had the energy to start a discussion. We both know what we are out here to do. He comes to a stop a little way back from the wall. He crouches down behind a bush and I follow suit.
He grabs his binoculars and looks at the wall for a while. Finally, he puts them down and looks at me. "Listen," he says, "Our relationship before wasn't perfect, and that was me, and I'm sorry for that."
I nod my head and lie. "It's okay."
"No, it's not," he continues. "I was abusive with my words and the way I treated you was never fair. I always wanted to make sure you were treated right in the community and lost myself in the process."
I don't know what to say to him. It's not like everything he's saying isn't true, because it is and I deserve an apology. I just didn't expect one, and it still isn't changing my internal opinion of him.
"Thank you," I respond and grab the binoculars. I look towards the guard posts and notice they are empty. "What the fuck?" I exclaim quietly.
"What?" Chris asks me. I throw the binoculars down and start sneaking up to the wall, beckoning Chris to follow closely behind. Once I make it to the van, I get Chris to give me a boost and climb inside.
I get on my knees and crawl to the front, peering through the dirty windshield. "What do you see?" Chris asks me, wishing he was up here 'doing what I was doing but better'. That was always his mentality.
I crawl back over to the edge of the van and look down at him. "Actually, nothing," I respond. "The place is completely deserted."
Chris laughs loudly. "Maybe they shit themselves and finally left," he responds. "Oh well, the less the merri--"
He stops speaking as we hear gunshots coming from the distance. I jump down and we grab our weapons, running back to the community as fast as possible.