"Then... if you knew all of those things, why would you put your family on a truck heading straight for our compound?" Trevor calmly asked. The way he calmly spoke told me that he was used to having a gun pointed at him in one way or another. I was finally convinced that they were bad, even after being fooled into how good they came off initially.
"Because you would get confident when you were able to convince us of that much. You say Vincent is a smart man because of his unconventional techniques, but you don't know anything about me. You were out-smarted by me, and most importantly, by Ernesto and Grace. Remember them?" Dad asked Trevor and Dustin.
"I should've known... we should've shot them dead the first time we spotted them again. So, you're going to kill us and take our truck? I'm sure Vincent won't have a problem with that," Trevor commented, getting sarcastic even in his current situation. It didn't seem too smart... but I wasn't the one being held at gunpoint, who knows what he was thinking.
"Kill you? Take your truck? No... I'm offering you one last opportunity, to leave the High School. Do you think I don't understand you don't want to do this? I can even see the frustration on your faces. You leave that school, you deliver for us, and you'll be in better care, I promise you," Dad declared to the two. They looked at each other and gave a light chuckle while Trevor finally let go of the steering wheel.
"Remind you of that time Vincent said the same thing to us? Who's to say you don't have the same goal in mind? To enslave us, to make us do your dirty work for you, to lead unsuspecting people into a trap they won't ever escape from?" Trevor asked Dad. He seemed hopeless, and because of that, I put my gun back into the holster and just decided to listen.
"When I said that I wanted to talk to Vincent, I was dead serious, but the only reason you two worked with us was that I was willing and unsuspecting. You suspected that we would be led into a trap, and instead, you fell into mine. Do you think I mess around like that? Do you think I'd take advantage of you behind your backs? Let me convince you otherwise. I've taken advantage of you from right in front of you, do you think I'd even need to go behind your backs to do it again?" Dad said.
Time and time again, he proved himself to be so beyond intelligent that nobody could outsmart him. I glorified him at that point, knowing he was the best leader that wouldn't be stumped by anybody's plan to take advantage of him.
"Then we can't get our supplies from a place like the High School. They have medicine for those who need it, you guys don't have anything of the sort!" Trevor started to get loud. He put the truck in park and got up out of his seat, standing right behind Dad as he held the gun closer to Dustin's head, scathing his balding head with the cold barrel of the gun.
"I know we don't, that's why we took what we could when we could. If you deliver to other places around here, spread the name of our base, and start to build an interconnected network of civilizations that are still out there... I'll walk you in the front door of Vincent's myself. I don't have the power alone to stand up against him, but we do," Dad said. He put the gun down from Dustin's head and turned back to look at Trevor while walking into the back of the truck.
"You're an idiot to think we're not going to kill you after you put a gun to my head!" Dustin screamed out. He reached into the front for his shotgun, but Trevor stopped him, pushing it into the floor with his foot while looking back to Dad, then to me specifically.
"He wasn't going to shoot us with both of his kids in the back seat. Make them deaf with the gunshot, and traumatize them? No, he just wanted to make a point. Okay, say we do join your ranks, Charlie, who will stop Vincent from protecting you? Who's to say he won't run The Horde right through your base?" Trevor asked Dad next. He holstered the gun in his pocket, but Mom, Uncle Brandon, and Jason were still adamant to keep them raised in case of anything.
"For the same reason I don't make you run this truck through his front door. It's because we want people to stay alive. Even if I die in that attack, when he pushes that horde onto us, he's not stupid enough to assume that one of us won't make it out and kill at least one of his people. It's a dumb move, that's why he hasn't done it yet," Dad explained to everybody. He looked back at me, trying to reference the same movements that Jack Waters used to tackle me down the hill. That's the reason he didn't kill me but tried to kill Dad...
Wow, Vincent was really smart. He's trying to kill Dad. I didn't even notice until now, that all of the signs were there. Maybe that was even Korin's mission too...
"I have to admit... I'd rather work for you than Vincent. The only thing is, this is his truck. If we take it, he'll know where it ends up, especially because he sends out scouts to every place. If he finds it at your home, he might not hesitate that time around," Trevor enticed Dad to make a rash decision, but he wouldn't budge, and even smirked at the thought.
"Then, you should leave it in the middle of the road where The Horde is running through. Stage your deaths, and run back to our place, you might find shelter there," Dad said. With the truck stopped in the middle of the road, Trevor opened up the back latch and we all walked out, leaving it there.
Before walking away, Uncle Brandon slashed the back right tire, which would've made our story more believable. The plan that we spent a week creating to be flawless ended up in the garbage, and the plan made in under five minutes of intense conversation ended up being the take-home for the group.
"Color me impressed Charlie, I didn't expect that to go so well," Jason said to him. Dad nodded, looking back at the truck and asking questions about The Horde's path. Apparently, it was set to roam past that part of the road in under an hour with its current pattern of momentum.
"I'm just glad it did go in a productive direction. We have a lot of work to do, back home, and away from Vincent," Dad said. We turned the corner into our old, burned down, and abandoned neighborhood, to take the back way to the school once more.