TWDG\\II-South State

FIVE

AJ
My fingers tired as I began to click the arsenals in their containers. They were heavy, and the washed grit left paint on my palms. I glanced at Ash, the black haired woman who was supervising me. She paced around the outside of the building, an old walkie talkie held up to her face. I bite my tongue, and start peering into the container. It was filled and counted to the brim. I saw random bits of shards. I needed real bullets. I knew I couldn't just stick my hand in, and move it around. The broken, shot bullets would pierce my skin. I sighed, and eyed through every individual as quickly as I could. I knew I needed to get some weapons, just like I had promised Clementine and the others. I looked outside again, Ash's lips still moving to the radio, a worried look prised across her face.
I stand up, and sneak to the other side of the room. I know I couldn't sneak a gun out of the weaponry, but I sneaked about five half empty boxes of ammunition into my jacket pocket. I zipped them in securely until they bulged from the pockets by inches. I looked around more, before finding a small pocket, red pocket knife. I turn it around in my fingers. I then click on a button, a blade swiping it just inches from my fingers. I grit my teeth. I guess I need to be careful with that. I carefully closed it to its case, and slipped it into my jeans pocket. I smiled, and sat back down. I would get some more the next time I'm in here, maybe when I've had enough trust to walk back on my own.
The door opened, and Ash came in. The worried expression on her face was unconvinced washed away with a look of annoyance.
"Why aren't you working, dickhead?!" She said, and sighed. I nodded, and picked up a shard of bullets. I blunted the sides of the damaged bullet, and set it down on the magazine to glue it to the arsenal for recycling. "I can't believe the only use they have for me here is babysitting some wetside kid."
I bite my lip. Anger flamed through me, and I scoffed.
"That's mean." I say, and I immediately felt like a little kid. I should have thought of more words to call her.
"Oh yeah? Nice to know." Ash laughed. "That's mean? Who are you, government law enforcer. Shut up. You're making me laugh."
"What I meant to say, was you're acting like a total bitch." I said, and Ash stared at me. The hurt and anger in her eyes was visible, mad well as the reflex like she'd just been slapped across the face.
"Excuse me?" She demanded, and stepped toward me. I didn't even have the chance to fight back as she gripped my left arm, making me drop the shards I was holding clatter to the floor. I was yanked out of my chair, and I grunted as Ash started to twist my wrist. I kicked her foot, and stepped backwards.
"Leave me alone, bitch!" I yelled, as she threw me to the ground. My right side felt like it had sets of scrapes from the impact. Ash kicked my chest, and I was winded from the impact. She lifted her leg to kick me again, but I cornered it. Ash started frustratingly shake her leg, yelling hurtful sentences, and I gripped around her ankle and foreleg. Eventually, she ripped the jacket from my shoulders to hold me down against the cement ground.
The bullets cluttered out of the pockets.
Ash throws me to the side, and began examining the ammunition bullets, and lifted one up.
"Fucking thief!" She hissed, and pulled me from the ground by my shirt collar. I twisted in her reach. "Wait till Jerome hears this!"
I scrunched up my nose, and spat at her.
My saliva trailed down her eyes and nose. She wiped her face, and drew her fist at my jaw. She dropped me to the ground, and I cradled my struck mouth.
I heard Ash unclick her walkie talkie from her holester and began dialling over he stations.
"Ash? Ash? What's going on? How's it going with that kid?"
Came a voice over the other end.
"He's a little shit!" Ash spat into the radio. "That little fuck got into a wrestling fight with me, and then those fucking bullets you retrieved fell out of his pockets. The little cunt tried to steal from us!"
I heard a silence, before the voice responded:
"Jerome wants to see him right now. Bring him over."
The radio clicked off, and Ash grinned at me.
"Well, this'll be fun." She said, and lifted me up. She pinned my shoulder between her fist, and led me out.
She dragged me across the dirt, my sneaker scuffing as we went along. The grey buildings tired in the afternoon air as Isaw a man nudge another in armour, and giggled at my position. I looked back at them, only receiving a shake from Ash, before approaching the administration centre. As Ash opened the door, a man with a coloured sleeve shirt approached us.
"You fought this little guy?" He asked, and frowned. "That's low Ashlee, even for you."
"Shut up, Ivan." She muttered, and burst through the door.
Jerome, who was sitting at his desk, swivelling his knife, jumped from his seat from the commotion.
Ash threw me forward, and I fell to my knees, embarrassed. I stood up.
"What the fuck?!" Jerome cried. "Ash!"
"He tries to steal, Jerome." Ash shook her head. "Those bullets in the armoury? They were in his fucking pocket."
"How do you know that?" Jerome sniggered. "Unless you were fighting him."
Ash was silent, but the anger and hatred on her face answered Jerome.
"Wow. You can't win a fight against your own size, so you'll pick on a six-year-old." Jerome chuckled, his voice low and scratchy.
With that, Ash walked out and slammed the door. Jerome shook his head, and plucked a tissue from his desk, and handed one to me. I took it, and stared at him. He pointed to his bottom lip, and I touched it with my finger tip, revealing red liquid. I held the tissue to my nose, and Jerome gestured I sit in the chair sitting across from him.
I did, and stared guiltily at Jerome. He smoothed over the stubble that littered around his jaw and chin.
"So." He scoffs. "You tried stealing bullets."
I had no excuse. There was no reliance to come to my mind.
"Yeah, I-I'm sorry, Jerome, I j-just--"
"Don't sweat it, AJ." Jerome waved me off. "You stole bullets. I'm not worried. You have no guns. You're just a kid, curious of these things."
Curious?
Is that what Jerome thought this was? Me being a dumb little kid looking at weapons? That's what babies do.
"Yes. I was...curious." I repeated, even though I probably sounded stupid.
"I guess you were. You're young. Exposed to others shooting and hunting. Perhaps you'll learn one day." Jerome sighed.
Idiot. I already know how to shoot and hunt.
"Yeah." I say. I looked at him. I saw Willy and Javi stare back at me. Cian and Gavin. "I'm sorry."
He didn't kill them. Wynn did.
I shook my head, trying to get these thoughts out of my head. Jerome was the enemy!
"It's okay AJ." Jerome smiled. "It would of been nice if you just stayed my nice solider."
I was reminded of the one day of training I had gotten to fight. How much Jerome trusted me.
Why would Jerome trust me now?
I destroyed his community.
"Yeah." I say, and look at my hands.
There was nothing I could say to that.