What Walks Among Us (book one)

The Emergency Meeting

There was a few moments of silence as we each took the scene in, all coming to the conclusion that while this sucked, we needed to divide it up into what was still good, and what was now waste. Two and a half hours later and we had about a fourth of the food in the good pile, half in the bad pile, and another fourth in the pile which we deemed could be used if it was used in a timely manner. But this still left half of the stockpile just completely ruined. Most of what had been saved were canned items, and random stuff that managed to be overlooked.

I busied myself with cleaning up a bit while Cody and Beck took a more in depth inventory, writing everything down in a notebook.

"We'll need to call an emergency meeting, let everyone know what's happened and see what we can do from there," Beck said, sounding a little bit drained, but the anger at the situation still lingered.

Cody nodded, "Once we finish up here, you and Kodi can go clean up and I'll go get the people gathered," he said, closing the notebook and running his fingers through his hair.

I cleared my throat before dropping my rag into a bucket of water that I had been using while cleaning, "Don't tell them what the meeting is about until everyone is present," I said, and continued while trying to ignore their confused expressions, "I mean, if you tell each person as you find them, there's the possibility of them telling someone else, and then soon enough once the meeting is called, there's a panic before we can even think of a plan."

Beck gave a smile, and crossed his arms as if approving and Cody nodded thoughtfully, "I think you're right, this needs to say a secret until we can come up with a solution," he put a hand on my shoulder as he passed and squeezed a little bit, "Good thinking, Kodi," he said, and gave me a rare smile.

Cody and Beck's approval had me in good spirits as Beck and I headed back to our house to change out of our dirtied clothes. I had taken off both jackets to clean up and now held them draped over my arm. Beck was quiet as we walked, though he did reach for my hand again. A fluttering in my stomach broke out, but I pushed those feelings to the back of my mind while I thought over what we could do now that so much food had been wasted.

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I once again found myself walking up towards the court like building, though this time Chester wasn't beside me, and I was holding hands with Beck. He let go to hold the door open for me and I smiled in a silent thank you. Cody hadn't come back to the house to change, so when I saw him in the hallway I wasn't surprised to see that he still had oil and random flour patches all over.

There was even a bit of rice in his hair, which I walked over and promptly brushed out of his hair for him. He gave a smile of thanks and nodded at Beck behind me.

"Everyone is here, and I've managed to avoid any questions, but they're not being very patient," he said, nodding for us to walk with him into the room that Mabel had been trialed in.

I looked back to see if Beck was following Cody and I, only to be met with a grumpy expression, when he saw me he scowled a little bit and looked away. Hurt and confused, I turned to face the right way and walked into the room after Cody.

Beck's attitude towards me was pushed to the back of my mind as I took in everyone who was present. Doctor Venson was sitting in a chair, looking tired and talking with a red haired man who I instantly recognized as Tucker, also talking with Doctor Venson was Evan, whom I had only talked to once but I knew he was a nice guy. There were a few other people who I recognized vaguely as people who stood guard and watched over the compound, and then there was Miss B. Lastly, there was Adam, Michael, and Benjamin.