System Of The Undead

Chapter 108: The New Haven

Clementine was left looking like a fool, she was hurt that Sam had tossed her aside like some used rag but she knew she had to pretend not to be hurt.

She didn’t want those around her to judge her and see this as a weakness.

"That fucking dickhead!" Lillian exclaimed, she didn’t like Sam and this was part of the reason she never opened up to him like she did Jason.

"Are you alright?" Rachel asked Clementine and she nodded.

She couldn’t avoid being distracted, if she was lucky she could find a car here and go to base, it wasn’t out of the equation and this was why she wasn’t bothered.

"I’m alright, don’t forget why we’re here," Clementine quickly moved the attention away from herself.

Jason didn’t look sympathetic, he didn’t agree with Sam’s methods but he respected them.

"We still have quite the road to travel, everyone should remain focused," Clementine said.

This was looking bad, the fact they had lost their leader Sam would affect their leadership skills.

Clementine wanted to take charge but something told her that the others wouldn’t respect her as much as they did Sam.

"She is right. Sam is gone, he might have been an extremist but his absence will be felt," Jason said.

Jason has accumulated the most injuries ever since the apocalypse began but he wasn’t dead, that was the one thing to be grateful for.

They could see an encampment up ahead, it should take ten minutes on foot to reach there but how they would be received was unknown.

Sam took the stash of guns with him, only leaving a handful of guns with them to defend themselves with.

Allison was here as well, she was strong and this meant that they had enhanced the group’s fight prowess.

Jason knew he had to be careful because these people’s lives were firmly in his hands.

Sam wasn’t here to make the tough decisions, it all fell on him and he knew what needed to be done now.

They walked and walked, and it didn’t take long for them to reach their destination but they saw a huge pit around it and zombies were in that ditch, clawing at the walls.

"Put your hands up!" A voice screamed and Jason didn’t hesitate to do that because he knew that whoever these people were, they would be on edge.

There was no need to agitate them further, he looked back and the others followed suit as they raised their hands.

"We mean no harm, we’re here because we were invited!" Jason responded, screaming so they would hear him.

He was surprised about the pit that they had dug around their camp, it was pretty smart because the zombies would fall in and be a lot easier to kill due to them on lower ground.

This was a quick observation from Jason, his attention was focused on the people before him.

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" A boy said, Jason didn’t recognize him but he seemed to look at them with a familiar gaze.

"That’s no way to treat our guest," The person was revealed to be Carl.

"You can’t keep doing as you please, Carl!" The security barked.

"Yeah, yeah," Carl dismissed him, he wasn’t going to listen either way.

A wood was slid across the pit for them to walk across, the width and depth made it impossible for one to cover the distance with a single jump.

Jason heaved a sigh of relief, he looked over his shoulder and they knew the first hurdle was done.

Jason didn’t know if they would even give them entry but it was too soon to celebrate, anything could happen as it stands.

"Welcome, welcome..." Carl said; Jason noticed his eyes were on Rachel but he couldn’t even blame him because Rachel was stunning.

"The kids were the first to be ushered in but the adults were stopped in their tracks.

"I’m sorry but we will have to ask you a few questions before letting you come through. Security protocols and all," Carl said as he began to walk away with Lillian, the boy and toddler.

Jason tried to take a step forward but all he heard in response was the sounds of guns cocking.

"Not another step," The man commanded.

"Don’t worry, they will be safe. You have my word, if I wanted to harm them I would have done so already," Carl revealed and this made sense considering that they met him there.

He could have easily harmed them if that was his intention.

Jason knew they must follow protocol, they were adults and as such, more of a threat.

"Fine," Jason conceded, the girls around him skeptical about his decision because it would leave them at the mercy of these people.

Rachel was worried about Lillian but she knew her younger sister could handle herself.

She needed to start trusting her more and the fact that Lillian didn’t resist showed that she had it handled.

Lillian knew better than anyone else that people would only react when they saw them as a threat but there was something about Jason that made everyone instinctively be on guard.

It was due to his size and the ladies agreed with Jason.

Jason noticed one thing, these people had the ladies frisking Rachel, Bella, and Clementine with the man before him frisking him.

This told Jason they at least had a policy in place that resembled the world that had just fallen.

They were disarmed but no questions were asked, they knew that people in this world would need to protect themselves.

"Right this way," The tone of the guard changed, he was a lot more friendly.

Jason didn’t trust him and had it at the back of his mind that this might be an even more dangerous place than the camp that they had just escaped from.

The guard noticed Jason’s injuries but they couldn’t risk valuable resources to treat him when he hadn’t been accepted into the camp.

They were ushered in through the gates, the difference between here and the camp that they had just escaped was glaring.

Allison’s jaw dropped, she understood the moment she stepped in why these people never told them their location and used them the way they did. It was so they never had to get their hands dirty.

This looked very much like a suburb, children were playing and running around, this told them there were families and a level of safety here.

"Hey man, I didn’t mean to be a dick earlier, it is just we don’t know who you are," The guard apologized with an awkward smile.

"My name is Glenn and this is our community but we need to question you so we know you share our values," Glenn said.

Glenn was a young man, he had a large scar across his forehead but judging from the tissue, it was clear that it happened long before the apocalypse.

He had a golden cross around his neck, his eyes sharing the same colour completed with wavy black hair.

He wasn’t ugly but he wasn’t attractive either, he had sort of a bland face that one would either find incredibly attractive, or incredibly ugly.

"I’m Jason, may I ask where you’re taking us?" Jason asked as he looked over his shoulder only to realize he was being separated from the ladies.

Jason wasn’t worried because these ladies were probably stronger than him, especially Allison.

"We’re just going to ask you a few questions man. If you pass, you’re one of us," Glenn said in an upbeat tone, it was hard to discern his age by appearance alone but something told him that this boy was in his late teens due to his mannerisms.

"And if we fail?" Jason asked.

"I just hope you don’t man... I really don’t," Glenn was cryptic but he didn’t need to say more than that, Jason understood what he meant by that.

He got a few stares from the ladies around but that was to be expected, it wasn’t because of his looks but rather because he was a stranger in their community.

Jason recited the stories that Lillian had told the other man because there was a high chance that they would use that information as a basis for their questioning.

"Is that why you separated us?" Jason was trying to gather information without being too obvious about it.

"Oh, that? It is policy, we have had some sickos take advantage of these things so we separated it to correspond with the gender of the person being questioned..." Glenn said.

Jason knew he should be worried but this showed that they actually cared about what went on.

"Sickos?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, they were expelled to a place that suited them," Glenn responded, he was surprisingly free and spoke without caution.

"The camp..." Jason thought to himself, there was no doubt that he was referring to the camp.

"Shit! Allison!" Jason’s thought finally realized that Allison might be in trouble.

These people knew about them, there was no doubt that they wouldn’t be aware of the tattoos that the Specters had. If they saw it, Allison might be in danger and this might jeopardize their safety.