Not much had happened while I was asleep except that the survivors that lived in this building now took me for their new leader. It was something I wasn't expecting to be honest and I didn't know how to feel about this. At one point when Lydia and I got inside the elevator and were heading to the second floor where the others were. As we got off we met a middle aged woman who was walking in the corridor with a six year old child who I assumed was her son.
As soon as she saw me she actually ran over and gave me a deep bow saying things like
"Oh I'm glad to see you awake and well leader" she had said at that time and I didn't know how to reply so I had said the only thing that had come to the surface of my mind.
"Uh…thanks uh…" it had been a very awkward and odd situation for me. Lucky for me Lydia was there with me.
"Thank you so much ma'am now if you would excuse us the leader still has things he needs to attend to" she said and the woman smiled and said goodbye before bowing once more and making sure that her son did the same before they walked away.
After that incident the rest of the walk was a silent one with me mostly being lost in my thoughts. I couldn't get what had just occurred behind me.
On one hand it felt nice that all these people could actually put aside their pride and prejudices to actually place their trust in a 14 year old. It was a novel feeling to be honest and it stroked an ego within me that I didn't even know I had.
One the other hand however I felt uncomfortable. I had never had any leader-like role in my life be it in kindergarten, middle school or high school so I felt somewhat reluctant to take on the role. Plus there was another problem on top of all that
'If I do become the leader of this place does that mean I have to stay here?'
What about mom? How am I supposed to look for her if I get tied down to this place? It was decision between these strangers and my mom whose condition was still unknown by the way and I'm afraid that if I was to choose between these between people and my mom then without hesitation I'd choose my mom. And that wasn't even the end of it Jordan's mom was somewhere in York Town, then there was Billy's parents, I couldn't possibly leave her behind. Both for my own sake as well as Billy's I had to make sure that they were alright. Lydia also might want to reunite with her family and it didn't seem like they were in York Town.
Sometimes I even wondered what Lydia was doing in York Town with her background.
'We need to plan our next moves very carefully'
Just as I finished the thought I finally noticed that we had arrived before a door that led to another room.
"We're coming in guys" Lydia announced right as she pushed the door open and entered. I followed in after her.
The room looked like a replica of the one I had woken up in with only one striking difference. It had a couch on the side of the bed. Jordan was currently sitting on the bed and he looking relatively better than the last time I saw him. He was still wearing his Bronze Armor.
"Hey look what the cat dragged in" he flashed me a goofy smile so infectious I also smiled back.
"I see you finished licking your wounds to a significant level" I said causing Jordan's smile to stiffen. His face looking as though he just ate shit.
Lydia couldn't hold it in anymore. Her light giggles filled the room.
"You…two…are too much" she gasped in between laughs.
I shook my head before making my way forward and sitting on the side of the bed causing it to dip considerably.
"Hey hey hey can't you sit on the couch instead? Your making the bed dip uncomfortably" he said
"Not a chance" I retorted. "…well unless you can push me off?"
"You know damn well that I can't"
"Not my problem then" I shrugged. "By the way where are Rina and Candice?"
"Don't know Candice said something about organizing the food supply in the basement floor or something" Jordan replied
"Food?"
"Yeah we found food. Lot's of it" he said. Having food was a good thing especially during times like this where you never know where the next meal's gonna come from (well we could always hunt beast but not everyone was brave enough to pick up a weapon to do so) regardless it was still a good thing
"Was there anything else?" I asked
"Yeah" it was Lydia who answered. Turning my head towards the couch where she was seated i gave her an inquisitive look. "…We found a working police scanner and radios"
I could feel my heart pounding in excitement of this development. It would make communication so much more easier and efficient. Though it was still unknown what the maximum range they could communicate over was, it couldn't be less than a kilometer.
"Okay so we got a safe place to stay somewhat but we still need to plan our next moves too" I said after taking a moment to think.
"What do you have in mind?" Jordan asked
"Well I was thinking of getting to Billy's parents as well as your mom" I said and I saw his pupils trembling with two emotions I was well acquainted with. Worry and longing.
Jordan and I were similar in the sense that we both cared deeply for our mom's. It wasn't that Jordan had any love lost for his father, quite the opposite really his father had been a very lovable man as well a cool uncle to me. Unfortunately two years ago he died in a car accident, a hit and run while he was crossing the street. Some drunk rich kid had been too distracted by the hottie in his passenger seat to look where he was driving and…well you know the rest.
I could see unshed tears glistening in his eyes.
"Hey now don't go crying man" I said with a teasing smile.
"Thank you man" he said
"Don't…you don't ever have to say that. You'd do the same for me wouldn't you?"
"You know I would" he said with a firm nod.
"First thing's first though what are we gonna do with this place. We can't stay here forever we'll have to move out soon" I said
"Simple" Lydia who had been silent throughout the entire emotional moment between my best friend and I, finally spoke. "We tell the people exactly what we're going to do"
"But won't that cause people to riot I mean we probably the strongest people who could protect them as it is" Jordan said
"He's got a point people won't be so happy when we say that" I seconded
"Then we find a way to move the survivors with us. First from the school to here and then from here to…" she trailed off at the end
"The northern sector" Jordan and I said in unison
"Exactly" Lydia said with a bright smile that tugged at my heart strings.
"So we make plans to meet the survivors then" I said standing up. "As a leader I need to make my presence known right?"