UNDER EDITING 𝐺𝑅𝐴𝑉𝐸 𝐷𝐴𝑁𝐺𝐸𝑅 | 𝐴𝑃𝑂𝐶𝐴𝐿𝑌𝑃𝑆𝐸 ✔︎

Settling Disputes

(Cooper's POV)

Sprinting quickly down the sidewalk with my shotgun in hand, I see quite the scene at the community center.

Two locals seem to have been fist fighting, while other townspeople shout for them to stop. Carlos grabs at one man and tries to hold him back. "What the fuck is going on here?!" I shout.

One of the men, the shorter of the two, glares at me. Carlos interrupts anything the man was going to say by saying, "Cooper! Thank God you're here. There's been a few issues with... rations."

The taller man of the two rips away from Carlos' grasp. He walks straight up to the smaller and socks him right in the jaw. The other man stumbles to the ground gripping his face intensely.

"Everyone stop!" I say while holding up my shotgun firmly. The two men quickly calm any rage they once had bottled and looked at me terrified. As they fucking should.

Carlos clears his thought after a moment of scarce silence. "You see... we've been low on rations for a day or two now and we've been trying to spilt food evenly amongst the community."

I nod ushering for him to go on.

"This man," he gestures to the taller man, "wanted to have more than his fill because he claims he is working harder than everyone else. This man here was just putting him in his place. I don't think he should've used violence though." Carlos finishes.

I give Carlos a long look of confusion. He's in charge here. Why isn't he handling this?

I scoff a bit annoyed. No... a lot annoyed.

I stomp over to the now terrified taller man and lifting him up by the collar of his shirt. "Working the hardest huh? I think you need to work a lot more on keeping your damn mouth shut. People like you are what get us killed. If biters heard you we would be in deep shit." I let go of his shirt and he tumbles to the ground.

"I won't hesitate to take care of you if this happens again, got it?"

His face turns a ghostly white as he nods quickly. He mumbles an apology. "Good. Now get back to work!" I hiss.

Everyone trails away from the scene, including the terrified men. I sigh a bit. That wasn't as bad as Jeanine said it was.

I wipe sweat from my forehead. Jeanine runs up to me a bit relieved. "Thank you so much for doing that Cooper!" She exclaims.

I give a confused nod. "Um... you're welcome? I didn't do much of anything though. Just put the dipshits in their places."

"I still consider it brave. Anyways, where is the rest of your family?"

My face turns a bit shocked at the term. Family? Now that I think about it, Jasper, Noah, and Lexi are my new family. I haven't considered anyone but Jasper family in a while. Not since Delores and Harold.

I clear my throat. "They are all fine. I should probably tell them that the issue was nothing serious. I don't need Lexi freaking out because I scared her half to death." I chuckle.

"Of course and tell them I say hello." I nod and turn to walk away. "Oh Cooper? Are you going to the community dinner tonight?"

I turn my head and shake it.

"There's a dinner? I'm only just now hearing-"

She shoves a flyer in my hands. "Here's all the info! No need to dress nice or anything. It's just a nice way to keep stress at bay!"

I give her a confused look. "Didn't I just hear we are low on rations? Why would we throw a dinner party? That's just not the right tactic."

"It's okay! Carlos always has a plan! I'll see you then!" She then runs off towards Carlos.

(Noah's POV)

The door creaks open and Cooper struts in casually. Lexi runs up to him and examines him while asking, "What happened down there? Are you hurt! Why did she need you in such a hurry! I-"

Cooper raises a hand for her to shut up. Lexi does tend to annoy people with her rambling. "I'm fine Lex. Just a fist fight between two nobody's."

He holds up a flyer. "There is, however, a dinner party tonight." She grabs and examines the paper. "The weird thing is, though, that we are low on rations here."

I give a confused look. "Who's stupid enough to throw a dinner party when they're low on food? That's just stupid."

Cooper laughs a bit. "Exactly my thinking. We're still going though. I'm gonna see what's up with Carlos and this whole pleasing everyone act."

Oh yeah... Carlos.

I glance over to Jasper who then nods to me.

"We have something to tell you." Jasper says sternly. Cooper and Lexi focus their attention on us.

"When we were in Carlos' office, we found something." I sigh.

"There was a 'junk box' filled with things that we recognized. Things from... our old camp." Jasper finished.

Cooper folded his arms. "What? There's no way. We didn't bring anything back with us when we went to find our people. There's no way that stuff is ours."

"It really was! There were toys from the children and even my pocket knife!" Jasper exclaims.

Cooper looks at us wide eyed. "...you're sure of what you saw?" We both nod vigorously.

"..we think that maybe... before we went there... that one of Carlos' groups went there and maybe... killed them for supplies?" I mutter.

Cooper still looks questionable.

"I mean think about it. When we went there, the only supplies were tents and trash! We had tons more stuff before we left. The weapons were nowhere to be seen and we had plenty of those!"

Cooper nods his head, understanding my evidence. "That would make the most sense. Someone definitely killed our group other than biters."

"I'll confront Carlos about it. Just not in front of others... I don't want to scare anyone."

Lexi giggles and lightens the mood, "Thats a first, isn't it Coop?"

He shoves her playfully and Jasper and I laugh a bit.

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