The Weight of the World

Chapter 15: Art of the Deal

 "Connor has asked us to stay."

Joe's voice was one-note, unlike my response.

"Absolutely fucking not."

"Don't be like this." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "We need this."

"Joe is right, Ava said. "It has been a single night with proper shelter, and already we look fresher. The bus is stifling us."

A few voices grumbled agreement, but I remained more venomous still. "We arrived, and within five minutes one of them tried to kill me. You can't expect me to want to stay!"

"Yeah, Issy's right, Joe," Bilaal said. "We're not safe here."

"The pair of you are overreacting," Joe said. "Albert was a one-off. Connor is sound, and so are a few of the others. Yeah they're posh twats, but it doesn't mean they'll kill us in our sleep."

Bilaal and I shrank back, cowed a little. Lacy picked up the slack, regardless. "They were this close to turning us away, yesterday. What happened to change their minds?"

"Well," Joe faltered.

"What's the catch, Joe?"

"They want us to pull our weight. And they want us to help train up the lads to fight."

I couldn't bite back my laughter. Sat cross-legged, I rolled back in hysterics. I could feel eyes on me, but I didn't care enough to stifle my giggling. Wiping a tear, I sat back up. "Wait, you're serious? Who do they think we are, the SAS?"

"That's not fair, Issy," Mike said. "We can hold our own, we've proven that. Plus, Connor said they've never even seen a zombie yet, so they wanna be ready."

"You seem awfully chummy with them." Lacy's eyes narrowed.

Mike groaned. "I just wanted to get to know them before I made a judgement, unlike some."

Cat, who had been listening silently so far, spoke softly. "I think we should give them a chance. At worst, it turns out poorly and we have to leave again. At best, we have a good place to live."

I looked at her, a serious look on her face, and sighed. "Alright, fine. Maybe staying is a good idea, for the time being at least."

"I'm glad you see it this way," Ava said.

"We'd best get our fighting arms on," Chris said, flexing his arms.

"I'll have to teach them how to use a pipe properly," Taylor grinned.

"You're an expert on pipes, aren't you Taylor?" David punched him in the arm.

"They don't call me ten-inch tail for nothing," Taylor laughed back.

"Enough," I said. "I can't hear myself think."

The boys continued to giggle, but did so more quietly.

"So, we're all in agreeance. We're staying?"

Nobody argued otherwise, so with that settled, everyone went their separate ways. The boys continued their pipe-related discussion, whilst some of the younger kids; Salma, Kya, Ella and The Kid rushed out into the field. It was good to see they were still being kids, free enough of worry.

A few days later, I'd dragged everyone out of bed, nice and early. Between the crips air and everyone being half-asleep, I thought it'd pretty accurately represent most of my fighting experience.