Chapter 28: The Living
"Your base is quite far from the town", Damian said as he sat in the backseat of the car alongside Jim as they drove to their base.
"We can't just sleep amongst trailers now, can we?", Jim replied.
"Trailers?", Damian asked. "Yes. We call those creatures trailers. They leave behind the trail of death", he said. "What do you call them?", he asked.
"Well... infected people? Recently... walkers", Damian replied.
"Walkers. Huh? It does have a nice ring to it", he said as he smiled at Damian. "Now listen. We are about to reach there. Our leader. He lacks the ability to trust people. So, you will have to show what you bring on the table. What can you do for the group. Okay? You do that, and you are in, and we enjoy wine today", he said as others also seemed to have gotten happy hearing about wine.
"I got it", Damian said and looked outside through the window.
After some time, the car stopped, and Jim said, "We are here. Let's go".
Damian stepped out and saw that they were in front of a middle school. He looked around and saw 4 people watching from the roof. He looked at them but couldn't see their faces in the dark so, he followed Jim inside. Entering in, Damian saw men standing with guns, assault rifles, like they were going to war or something.
"Why are they all carrying weapons?", Damian whispered in Jim's ear.
"Rules. Always stay alert", Jim said.
"Jim. It seems you brought a guest", a voice came out from the corridor ahead and Damian saw a man stepping down the stairs and coming towards them. A middle-aged man with normal stature and a gun in his hand approached them smiling and looked at Jim.
"Who is he?", the man asked.
"Someone wanting to join our group", Jim said.
"And you brought him here?", he asked.
"I tested him. He will be a good addition to the group", Jim said.
"Last time you went out, you got a man killed and two people injured. This time you brought an unknown person in the base without permission. Do you think you are the boss here?", a bulky man from behind looked at Jim and said in a very aggressive way.
The man looked back at that man and said, "Don't interfere when I am talking", shutting him up.
"So. You say you tested him. How?", He asked.
"He had many chances to kill me. He didn't. He said he was alone for a month or so and was going insane. So, I asked him to join us", Jim said.
"Oh. So, you invited him", He said mockingly.
"One more reason is that he is a good fighter", Jim added seeing it wasn't going where he thought it would.
"Oh, is he?", he asked as he looked at Damian and then looked around as he stepped back.
"Guys, no use of weapons. Beat him up. Let's see if he can really fight", the man said as others dropped their weapons and some put them back in their belts or pants.
Damian looked at the leader and then other people preparing to surround him. He gave his bag to Jim, giving him an angry look as Jim took it and went back towards the room. Several men had already surrounded Damian by this time but didn't attack. Damian kept looking sideways to prevent the attacks from the back. Suddenly, a man came forward unprepared trying to look confident in attacking Damian alone. Damian took a step forward and punched the man as the man didn't see him move until the punch had already made impact, making the man fall on the ground coughing seriously. Others looked at the fallen man and flinched a bit before staring at Damian who was prepared to face them. A man suddenly came from behind and grabbed him from back as the person in front saw this and approached preparing his fist to punch Damian. Damian, shifted left-right to confuse the struggling person holding him and suddenly hit his face with his head. The impact made the man let him go and face the approaching man in front. The fist came for Damian's face who dodged it before it could land while landing his own fist on his face in response. The man stumbled back a bit before Damian kicked his left thigh from side making him to fall on the ground. Suddenly, others looked at each other and came at him together. Two people grabbed his arms from the side as three started punching him in his stomach. Damian took few hits before taking support of his captors and jumpkicking one of the people in his chest. This made the two holding him step back a bit, losing their tight hold on Damian giving him time to respond with a low blow on one of the men who released his arm due to pain and then swung that arm on the face of other one getting himself free from them. He then looked at the two people standing before him, hesitating to attack anymore. Looking at the situation, the bulky man from behind stepped up pushing those guys sideways as he unclothed his shirt showing a muscular build. He was almost 6'4 or 6'5, a bit taller than Damian who was 187cm. Damian knew he was not like those guys earlier, so he composed himself and entered a defensive stance. The man approached with so much killing intent and swung his fist from down. Damian jumped back dodging the hit. The man smiled showing off his strength while others were also looking excitingly at the fight. Damian again formed a boxing stance and started walking towards him as he also did the same. This time Damian swung his arm at the man but had to pull it back and defend from the fist coming at his face. The impact made Damian stagger back a few steps while the place where the punch hit, became red. Damian looked at the man who was smiling at him and suddenly paced himself towards him jumping towards him and hitting his shoulder with his elbow. The man couldn't react in time and bend down on one knee looking up. Damian instantly tried to connect another hit on the man but before that, the man suddenly grabbed his leg and pulled it making Damian fall down. The man tried to punch the lying Damian but Damian rolled sideways to escape it while he hit the man in the head with his boots. The man staggered sideways as blood started coming from his head. He looked at Damian furiously and marched towards him like a mad bull. But just as both men were about to enter another bout, a voice came, "That's enough", the leader stepped forward stopping the bulky man.
"But I can kill him", bulky said.
"I know you can. But that's not why you were fighting. He proved he can fight", the leader said as he looked at Damian and said, "Welcome to the Living. You are family from now on". Everyone started cheering as a man shouted, "Stop. You guys would attract the Trailers", bringing the voices down.
Jim approached and said, "Didn't I say, he was good?", as he laughed while patting Damian on the back.
"As you said, he is good. Too good. Tell me. What did you do before all this?", the leader asked.
"I killed people. I was a mercenary", Damian replied.
"That tells how you are so good in fights. Nate. Nate Miller", the leader introduced himself offering his hand to Damian. Damian held the hand and shook it, saying, "John Smith, Nice to meet you too".
"Bob. Come shake hands. He is the part of the family now", Nate called out to the bulky man who seemed sulking in the corner as he looked and came towards them. Damian offered his hand which Bob grabbed and shook but the hold got tighter and tighter making Damian look at him strangely. "That's enough, Bob", Nate said, and Bob suddenly released his hand and pretended he didn't mean to do that. "Sorry. I was still in the moment", Bob said to Damian. "Don't worry. I recover pretty fast", Damian said looking at him.
Others also started coming and introducing themselves. The ones beaten earlier no longer held any bad feelings for him and took him inside.
"People, we have a new member joining us. This event asks for a party, I say", Nate said as the cafeteria got filled with hurray's. The man called Dave once again warned people to keep the voice down which everyone ignored this time. Everyone drank except few people - Nate, Damian and one more person, named Sean who was holding a crutch.
"What happened to him?", Damian asked Jim about Sean. "A crazy woman happened. Fucking crazy chick. He just wanted to have a good time and she shot the poor man's leg and ran away", Jim said drunk. "We don't have doctors among our group, so we had no choice but to make do with whatever we could. He was unlucky. Now he can't walk. Ever. And he is no longer useful to the group", Jim added.
'He was the one who I saw that day in that road', Damian thought.
"So, what do you do with people who can no longer be helpful", Damian asked but this time, instead of Jim, Nate answered. "He will have to show he can be worth something. If not, he'll have to leave us", he said without any emotion.
Suddenly a boy dropped the glass on a man, spilling all the wine on him. "This idiot. Hey Randall, where are you looking, Bitch?", the man grabbed the boy furiously.
"Sorry man, it happened by mistake", Randall said as he looked at everyone for help but no one said a thing.
"This motherfucker...", the man said as he raised his hand making the boy close his eyes and tighten his face. But suddenly the man started laughing, followed by others. The boy was confused as to what was happening and laughed himself with breaks. "Don't worry about it, man. But walk carefully from now on. Bob would have beaten the shit out of you", he said as everyone laughed again as they looked at a Stoic looking Bob.
Coming back to their conversations, Damian asked, "Do you not have women in the group?", and looked around pretending to look for women.
"Women are trouble. We encounter them from time to time but don't include them in the group", Nate said. "They... uh... manipulate men to do their bidding", he added.
"Yeah, we had women here with us before. Bob was in love with this woman, he said he would do anything for her. She asked him to become the leader of the group and kill Nate here", Jim said, "Next day he tried to kill Nate when they were outside. But he almost got bit by Trailers but Nate saved him. Few others died due to the fight. Bob felt so guilty that he tried to kill himself with his gun but Nate again stopped him telling him that he's not the one who should. That day, he went back and dragged that woman to Nate. Nate played with her for some time before he asked Bob to kill her. He followed his command that day and since then he is following his command and is always there to protect him", Jim finished.
"We also decided that our group would not have women", Nate said. Damian, although disgusted, just nodded, not showing the disgust on his face.
"So, what do you guys do when you find women these days", Damian asked.
"Whatever we want", the fatty called Tony said from the back with lecherous smile.
The conversation stopped but the party went on till late night. Damian stayed there with everyone until they all started going to sleep. Jim asked Damian to accompany him from that time on. Damian knew that Jim wanted to grow his presence in the group using him but he didn't mind, so he went with that.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone