Fight To Live

(OLD) Chapter 11: Locked Up (OLD)

Ethan's POV

"Well, sit down. The couch isn't going to eat you, and I don't plan on killing you... yet. Let's talk." Talia said as she walked in the living area of the small cabin, the three of us were standing around, unsure of what we should do. Archer was leaning against the wall, he was holding his assault rifle and glancing between Carl, Tony, and I.

Talia sat down in a small chair across from the couch and looked at each of us.

"Well, what do you want?" She asked when none of us spoke.

"It's more what we don't want. We don't want to fight your group. We know there's kids here, we know you've built a community. We don't want to destroy it." Carl said.

"Ah, you don't want to, but you will, won't you. If this talk doesn't go the way you want it to, you and your people are gonna attack us." She said and looked at all of us.

We sat there in an awkward silence. None of us knew what to say because that's exactly what we planned on doing.

"See. You can't tell me I'm wrong. Now, believe me, I get it, people are dangerous, more dangerous than the Dead in fact, because you don't know what to expect from them. It takes a lot to even try to do anything but kill them before they kill you." She said after a few minutes had passed.

"What are you gonna do to us then?" Tony asked.

"I'm not gonna do anything to you. You impressed me, you didn't march up to our wall, weapons in hand, ready to attack and kill all of us. Instead, you came with your weapons away, brought a gift, and when we asked you to turn over your weapons you did so. I like you guys. Now, I'm not gonna go so far as to say I trust you, because I don't, not yet at least, but I definitely think you're some of the few relatively decent people left in the world." She said.

Woah. I didn't expect that.

The three of us stared at her in stunned silence.

"You seem to understand something that most people don't. Fighting and killing each other isn't going to help anyone. It's not gonna make things better. The only thing that will make things better is people working together, trying to build a better civilization from the ashes of the old one." She said as she leaned toward us slightly.

"You seem very different from the way Damian described you and your group. He said you all wanted to kill us and that he had to convince you not to." Carl said.

Archer scoffed and Talia leaned back in her chair.

"Damian is a lying piece of shit. Always has been, always will be." Archer muttered quietly, as if he hadn't meant for us to hear.

"Damian is the one who wanted to attack and kill you, so much so that he convinced a lot of our people that we should. I had to keep it from happening. I'm the one that convinced them not to attack you." Talia said.

"What's going on with your group? I've seen a lot that makes it seem like there's a practical civil war going on between you and Damian." I said.

I hope I didn't just over step by asking that. Oh well... what's done is done.

"That's because there may as well be. Damian wants to get rid of me, and I want to get rid of him. He wants me gone because he thinks I'm weak, thinks I'm gonna get everyone killed by not acting. I want him gone because all he wants to do is attack and kill everyone from any other group. He's going to get everyone killed by dragging us into fights we can't win." Talia explained.