The Ones Who Remain/Issue 2

This is issue 2 of The Ones Who Remain, entitled: Negotiations.

Issue 2; Negotiations
As the sun started to rise, Mike still lied in his bed, shirtless, Nikki sleeping next to him, her head rested on his chest. As uncomfortable as he felt, he loved Nikki. Mike thought of Nikki as someone he needed to protect, a younger sister that he needed to make sure survives.

As he lied there, he felt her head stir on his chest, and before he knows it, her eyes are open, staring into his. She's smiling flirtatiously, to which he ignores. He's so used to her doing that, that he just brushes her off and smiles back. He can't help but notice that the cut above her lip had darkened, and that her cheek had swollen a little.

"You feeling better?" he quickly asked.

"Yeah," she said, yawning. "I guess I just needed some peace and quiet..."

"Good. I'm glad you're feeling better." he said, as he started to get up, and Nikki does the same.

"Do you ever think of life outside those walls?" Nikki asked, wandering over to the window, which she stared out so lively. Mike looked over at her, and let out a small laugh, to which she turns round quickly, smiling. "What?"

"We're safe here, Nikki. There's really nothing for us on the outside of those walls."

"I don't know about that." she said, looking back outside the window. "We should just-- run away. Somewhere far, somewhere safe."

"If any where's safe, it's here." he said, walking over to her. "You can't just leave because you fought with your mom... if it's really bothering you, come stay with me."

"It's not just that." she quickly said, turning toward him. "I hate being forced to live in here-- the biters are dying down. Everyone else knows it. There's not as many as there used to be. Especially out here."

"So you wanna live out on the road-- just the two of us? As much as I'd love that... we can't just leave everyone and everything behind."

"I know." she said quietly, as Mike threw his arm around her. "I just really hate it here."

"And I know that." he said smiling, giving her a kiss on the side of the head. "But, we can't go out there... I'd rather you unhappy and alive then happy and dead."

As he gave her a playful nudge, she turned toward him, smiling. "You love me."

"You know it... you ready to go train?" he asked, walking back to his desk where his pistol lied.

"Is Cal ready?" she asked, turning toward him.

"I don't know. Let's go find him."

As Mike and Nikki walked through the street together, the two knew they were getting glances and weird looks from the other residents of the safe-zone. They all knew about their little fiasco outside of the safe-zone, as rumors and news spread quickly in the small town of Livingston.

"Sheesh," Nikki muttered under her breath. "These people are looking at us like we're their next meal..."

"It'll all blow over." he said in a hushed tone. "Eventually."

As the two continued to walk, they quickly rounded the corner, and headed into the direction of the bar. Mike quickly walked up to the door, Nikki close behind him, and opened the door.

Inside the bar, nothing really stuck out to the two as they walked inside. In the far corner, an older man with a beer drank scotch from the bottle. The bartender, a man named Jared, watched them come in and just shook his head, smiling.

"You're not supposed to be in here." he said, catching their attention.

"You haven't heard?" a voice called from behind the counter, where a young man stood, who hopped over the counter. "The two are officially married. Get them some Champaign, man!"

"Cal..." Mike said smiling, patting the man on the back. "What's up, man?"

"Same old, same old." he said, before hugging Nikki. "What's up with you two? I saw you climbin' in his window last night, did you two tie the knot yet?"

"Not yet, he won't let me touch him..." Nikki said, smiling, to which Mike just shrugged his shoulders.

"You two are adorable." Cal said, still smiling, turning back to the bartender. "Jared, get us a round of something good please!"

"C'mon guys," he said. "You know I can't sell you anything, Mike... you too Nikki."

"Then sell it to me!" Cal said, walking over to him, sitting at the counter, to which Mike and Nikki joined him.

"C'mon Jared..." Nikki said innocently.

"Nikki... your mom made it very clear, I can't give any alcohol to you nor Mike."

"And why do you have to listen to them?"

"They're my superiors." he simply said. "They could have me hung."

"Wouldn't be much of a loss..." a voice called from behind them.

Nikki immediately rolled her eyes at the sound of the cunning Adrianna, but both Mike and Cal looked back at her. She walked with suck power, such confidence, it was almost mesmerizing. Mike stood up, and met Adrianna half-way, giving her a hug.

"Nice to see you." Mike said, smiling.

"You too, buddy." she said, as Cal made his way over toward her too, giving her a hug.

"What? No hug, Nikki?" she asked, smiling, to which Nikki casually flipped her off.

"C'mon, Adrianna..." Mike started.

"Fair enough, I'll leave you three be." she said, walking over to the opposite side of the bar, where Jared made his way over to her. Both Mike and Cal walked back over to Nikki, who was rubbing her temples, and the two sat on either side of her.

"You know how much I hate her..." Nikki said.

Cal smiled, and placed his hand against Nikki's neck. "You're really burning up, girl."

"Yeah, it's ok, Nikki. We patched things up... we're friends again." Mike said, putting his hand on Nikki's shoulder.

"Why? What happened?" Cal asked, looking between both Mike and Nikki.

"Don't worry about it." Nikki quickly said. "Let's get ready to head out, I wanna get this over with."

"Fair enough..." Cal said, getting up from his seat,

The bar door suddenly flied open, and a man, sweating profusely, wanders in. "Echo..." he said, trying to catch his breath. "Echo just showed up-- a whole bunch of them... started taking people at gunpoint."

Jared, from behind the bar counter, pulls his shotgun out of one of the drawers. He hops over the counter, and looks back toward Mike, Nikki, and Cal, as the three, along with the other bar residents stood up.

"Keep calm, I'll handle this." he said, before jogging out of the door.

Brenda and Emma walked quickly through the street, where a whole crowd of residents were being restrained by the Echo soldiers, the group being forced onto their knees, throwing their hands behind their heads. The two exchanged worried some glances before pushing past them, where Johnson, one of the Echo soldiers, stood, looking over a small notepad.

"What the hell are you doing?" Brenda asked angrily, catching Johnson's attention.

"Ah, just the woman I wanted to talk to." he said, a small smile forming on his face. "We need to talk."

"You let my people go-- right now."

"They will be unharmed... but, we need to talk... you have been lacking on your part of the bargain. We need the supplies you promised us... so we need to do a little negotiation."

"Let me hear it." she said, looking behind her as Jared made his way over to them, gun in hand.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" he screamed, pointing the gun at Johnson, who remained unfazed.

"This is my insurance policy." he casually said. "Someone hurts me, all these people die... now I advise you put that gun down, son."

Jared took a look behind him, where an Echo soldier inched closer to the group, a young girl, no older than five, in his grasp, a gun pointed at her head.

Jared looked back at Johnson who just smiled, and then to Brenda who just shook her head. Jared reluctantly dropped lowered his gun, placing it on the floor.

"Now, Brenda, why don't we go somewhere... a little more private?" he asked, still smiling.

"Follow me then." she said, pushing her way past Jared and Emma, Johnson close behind her. Both Jared and Emma looked at each other, before being ushered to get on their knees by one of the Echo soldiers.

Brenda and Johnson sat in Brenda's office together. She just watched him as he flipped through his notepad, looking for the correct page.

"Ah, here it is." he said, looking up at her, passing the notepad to her. "So, you can go down that list, or I can just straight up tell you that we're going to need a bigger supply from you."

Brenda looked from the list to him, unbelievingly. "No." she simply said. "We barely have enough to keep ourselves going, how can we possibly give you more than what we have?"

"I would suggest setting up more supply runs... maybe taking a loan out from one of the neighboring communities. Cause if we don't get what we need, or what we want, we will come back here. And we will kill everyone here... even your son."

That's what made Brenda wince. Her son. She stood up, now boiling with rage, placing her hands on the desk, looking over at him, who just watched her, unmoving. "You are not going to touch him." she simply said, her face turning red.

"Then get us what we want." he simply said, standing up. "Well, ma'am, it's been a pleasure doing business for you."

"The pleasure is all fucking mine." she said angrily, not taking her eyes off of him, to which he chuckled.

"You have something to say to me?" he asked, smiling. "I don't think you do. I could've ordered my guys to raid all your houses, all your stores, kill everyone, and I didn't. Be grateful."

"Auntie Brenda?" a voice called down the hall. "You have to see this, those assholes are taking our people."

Brenda only sighed as Mike, along with Nikki and Cal, hurried into her office. The three immediately froze up and looked at Johnson, who immediately grabbed for his gun, pointing it in their direction.

"Woah man." Cal said, putting his hands up. "Didn't know you were here... we'll go."

"It's ok." Johnson said, cracking his neck, not taking his eyes off the three teenagers. "You may wanna fill them in on our new... agreement, right, 'Auntie Brenda'?"

As Johnson left the room, smiling to himself, Mike, Nikki, and Cal just watched Brenda as she sat back in her chair, rubbing her temples.

"What was that about, ma'am?" Cal asked, breaking the silence.

"I'll address everyone later." she simply said, before looking up at the three. "Just... go."

As the Echo soldiers took the guns out of the survivor's faces, Jared immediately picked up his gun, handing it to Emma, and then the crying little girl who was used as a hostage earlier, Emma running close behind him. The two ran back to the bar where Adrianna, along with three other survivors were waiting for them.

Jared handed the little girl off to Adrianna, who tried to calm her down, as Jared ran his fingers through his hair, stressed out.

"What was that about?" Adrianna quickly asked, looking at Jared and Emma.

"Like hell if I know!" Jared quickly said. "They just took everyone at gunpoint, then they all started packing up like nothing happened."

"We shouldn't let them push us around like this." one of the men said, to which the other one nodded his head in agreement.

"No, we need to talk to Brenda first... see if she knows what's going on." Emma said.

"Adrianna, can you keep everything under control here?" Jared asked, to which she quickly nodded her head.

Jared and Emma then quickly left the bar, heading into the street. The two quickly made their way through the streets, Jared taking his gun back from Emma.

Brenda sat in her office, alone, looking at the notepad Johnson left for her. She was at the brink of tears... how could she possibly get all this stuff for Echo AND her own community. There was no way a few more supply runs could fix anything, and she knew that.

But, a knock on her door pulls her out of her thoughts, and she looks up where Jared and Emma stood. The two nervously entered the office, and Emma took a seat in front of her.

"What happened?" Emma asked quickly, not wasting any time.

"Yeah, what was that all about?" Jared asked, coldly.

"Here's what." she simply said, throwing the notepad at Emma, who started going through it. "We need more fucking supplies now."

"And how can we do that? All of the stores have been picked empty, have been for a long time." Jared said.

"What about that safe-zone-- the one who got overrun a couple of weeks ago?" Emma quickly asked, looking at the two.

"You mean the one next to Echo's base?" Brenda asked.

"Yeah, I assume everything is still there-- couldn't have all been raided. And it ain't in Echo's restricted area either."

"Fine." Brenda quickly said, looking at the two. "Jared, I expect you to lead the supply run into town. Take ten volunteers and get in, get out, as quickly as you can."

Jared nodded, and quickly exited the office, hurrying down the long corridor.

Brenda slouched back into her seat, rubbing her temples. "This is bullshit." she muttered.

"There's nothing we can do about it though." Emma said, sighing. "We just have to carry on..."

"No." Brenda quickly said, standing up. "We need to fight back."

"What?" Emma asked, unbelievingly.

"Round up a handful of soldiers. If they come back, tell them to shoot on sight."

"That is suicide, Brenda." Emma quickly said. "My daughter lives here-- we can't throw ourselves into harm's way like this."

"And what? Live our life in fear of Davie and his goons? Fuck that... go tell Kim to get her group ready."

Emma shook her head un-approvingly, before reluctantly leaving the room.

Mike, Nikki, and Cal sat together in the empty woods. The three, guns on their laps, waited and waited for a biter or an animal to come across them.

"This is stupid." Nikki muttered, looking at the two boys. "Why are we out here?"

"Sooner or later you're going to have to learn how to kill." Cal said, shrugging his shoulders.

"But-- Mike..." she said, looking at Mike, pleading with him to reconsider.

"Don't look at me like that." he said, looking from her to Cal. "He's right."

"But, there's nothing fucking here! We're in the middle of nowhere! Can't we do it with bottles or something?"

"Shhh..." Mike said, throwing his arm around her. "It'll only take a few hour."

"How come I always have to be third wheel?" Cal asked, jokingly. "I need some new friends--"

"I heard Jared's looking for a new lover." Nikki stated. "Heard him and his boyfriend fighting last night on my way to Mike's, got pretty gruesome."

"Yeah, I'll be glad to give it to him." Cal said, throwing a stick at a tree, to which both Mike and Nikki chuckled.

But, a groan catches the three off guard, and Nikki instinctively grasps Mike's arm, who looked back in the direction it came from with Cal.

"Relax." Mike said, standing up with Cal. He then grabbed Nikki by the hand, handing her a gun.

Nikki extended her arms in the direction of the noise, shutting one eye closed, as the biter emerged from behind the tree. Mike walks behind her, and grabs her arms, straightening them out, to which she smiled. She didn't take her eyes off the biter, and as it got closer, she pressed the trigger.

As the gun goes off, the bullet went straight through the biters jaw, going out the back of it's neck.

"Aim higher." Mike said, smiling.

"You think I can't see?" she remarked, looking back at him.

"Just givin' you some pointers." he said as she looked back toward the biter.

She extended her arms again, aiming down the sights at the biter, before pulling the trigger again. This time, the bullet went straight through it's forehead, and as it fell, a smile of satisfaction went across her face. She turned back toward Mike who was smiling at her, nodding his head.

"Nice shootin'," he said.

"Hurry up, lovebirds." Cal called from behind them. "A couple more are coming this way."

The two quickly turned toward Cal, who had his gun aimed at a group of three biters.

"Now Nikki, let me show you something..." he said, as Nikki and Mike walked over to him. "With enough training, you can do this..."

Cal quickly fires off three rounds, each one connecting with a different biter's head. He smiles, looking back at the two, before bowing.

But, the sounds of men talking caught the trio's attention. The three immediately go behind a large tree, trying to remain as quiet as possible. Nikki, in fear, buried her face into Mike's chest, who calmly held her head. Cal on the other hand, gripped his gun tightly, ready to kill if he needed to.

Three men, all wearing the Echo uniforms, walked into the area, guns readied.

"The gunshots came from over here." one of the men said.

"Yeah," one of the other men said, getting on his knees, looking over one of the biter's dead bodies. "This was a fresh kill."

Cal then emerged from behind the tree, without warning, and started shooting at the three. Before the three men could respond, bullets had hit the three, and they all lied in the grass dead within seconds.

"It's fine to come out." Cal said, looking around the area in case there were any more of them.

Mike and Nikki emerged from behind the tree, and Mike, holding Nikki's hand, brought her over to Cal who looked over their dead bodies.

"Do you think we should head back now?" Mike asked nervously.

"Yeah... let's go." Cal quickly said.

Cal, followed by Mike who was still holding onto Nikki's hand, started to jog through the woods, back the way they came.

Brenda stood before the rest of the town of Livingston on top of the guard wall. Jared stood next to her, as did Emma on the opposite side of her.

"Well, I don't know how to say it so I'm just gonna come out and say it. We're up shit's creek in debt to Echo, and now they want more from us." as she spoke, Adrianna, who was standing in between a few of the big guards just rolled her eyes. Mike, Nikki, and Cal, who were just returning from their trip into the woods, quickly integrated into the crowd unnoticed as Brenda continued. "So, we need more supply runs... now. We need more people to go out hunting-- we need to do this or they threatened to kill all of us-- destroy everything we worked do hard for. So, Jared's going to lead a group of volunteers into Davidson's community across the way... and if we don't get what we need, it's coming down to if we can hold Echo off. So, be prepared for an attack, and I want every person to carry a firearm with them... got it?"

When the rest of the community failed to respond to her, and instead just stared blankly at her, she took that as a "Yes", and continued on speaking.

"Can I get a group to volunteer for the run?" she asked.

Adrianna's arm shot up first, as with the two guards she stood with. Brenda looked on in disappointment as only three people raised their hands in a group of one hundred.

"Really?" she asked, the disappointment heard in her voice. "No one else?"

In the crowd, Mike and Cal both looked at each other, nodding their heads, to which Nikki shook her head at them. "Don't do it..." she muttered silently. But, it was to no avail, as both Mike and Cal raised their hands. Almost instantly, Nikki raised her hand as well, which Mike only sighed to.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"If you're going, I'm going." she silently said.

"Alright, that's three more." Brenda said hesitantly, looking at Mike and Nikki.

It didn't take long for three others to raise their hands, bringing the group's total to ten.

"Alright, that should suffice." Jared said, taking a few steps forward. "We leave in five, I expect you to be ready."

Mike stared at Nikki unbelievingly, while she smiled back at him. "I told you not to." she said, before walking toward Jared.

"Keep an eye on her..." Cal warned, before joining her with Jared.

Mike only sighed and reluctantly walked over to the group, not taking his eyes off of Nikki. This was going to be a long day...