Furzombie - a gay furry zombie apocalypse

Chapter Twenty-four - Sam

"326" the lady called, "meeting room 4 around the corner on your right" I noticed the lights on inside the hotel, and I'd been here before with my sister, the western themed town was just behind it and the bird sanctuary off to the left.

The meeting rooms were along a bland white wall with pale wooden rooms simply labelled with their number.

I pulled the handle on number 4 not quite knowing what to expect.

A black furred man, around our age stood the other side of a table with a Perspex screen, it resembled an ancient bank set up, or an old post office with a small slot to pass items between the two sides.

"I'm the Deacon, I run the trades" the fur said staring directly at us

"I'm Sam and this is josh" I offered biting my lip as I refrained from announcing ourselves as Lord Sam the third, and emperor Josh of the mushroom kingdom.

"not seen you two before, I guess you're not signed up for the credit scheme then?" he eyed Josh up uncomfortably, not really making eye contact with me.

"well no, we're trying to find my mum Linda" Josh said

"Well we can get to that, let's see what you have to trade first"

I placed the boxes of cartridges on the table, I had two more at home and the crossbow was the better weapon anyway so I didn't mind giving them up "60 rounds I think" I said looking directly at him, "about 120 credits looking at your flyer, what will that get us"

"that's quite a fair haul there, did you rob them, should we expect trouble to find us?"

"no they're mine, I'm a farmer, we all have this stuff lying around"

He didn't look too convinced

"listen we are a community here, we do look for members from time to time and we do allow exceptions to the 300 credit rule for certain people" he again was eyeing josh

"are you two together" the Deacon asked, josh looked at me and back at him "not like that we're just friends"

"oh ok, I'm surprised, listen, this isn't the norm, but you can trade your cartridges for 120 credits for future use, whatever you want to take with you in the morning, tins, food, fuel, you'll be sorted I'm sure, but you can stay here in the sanctuary tonight and you will be treated as our guests, there's food, showers, clean beds, think of it like a hotel from before the outbreak"

"what's the catch" I asked with a scowl on my face, there was always a catch nobody gives anything away for free even before the outbreak.

"no catch" he holds his hands up, "I just want you to experience the sanctuary, see what its like, and if you like it I'll be honest with you, I might get two new supply runners out of it so you can earn a place here, if you don't want to stay and work here that's fine too"

Josh looked a little excited by the prospect, I had to admit the food and a shower sounded enticing

"warm showers" josh asked inquisitively

"there's power and hot water yes" the fur said opening the Perspex door on the side, "I'm Ricky by the way" offering his paw out to shake.

"what about my mum, Linda, is she here" josh said as Ricky shook his hand

"what's your surname, ill take a look at the register to see if she's listed, might take me a while though I've a few more trades to sort out before ill be back in my office"

Ricky sounded suspicious there was no one else around, so where the hell were these traders, I thought it best not to pry hooding we could find Josh's mum.