Hellcyon Days Ch. 02

John and Talaitha looked a bit nervous at the words of Alex, but they refrained from intervening as his women seemed to wordlessly support him, so they'd trust in their judgment. It was better to present a unified front to the captured duo.

The pair paled at his words while the girl stuttered out, "She's a cop, you... can't do that to us..."

Alex just silently ramped up the intensity of his glare, before making as if to grab one of the two.

The greasy man's nerve broke, "We were hiding in the house next door. We saw your group enter this place and we saw the amount of supplies you had, so we were just going to take a little. You guys have so much after all."

The punkish girl clamped her lips shut, refusing to add anything.

Julia said with a frown, "So you intended to steal from us? Couldn't you just have asked?"

The female thief spat, "You guys have guns! Why the hell would you give us supplies for free?"

Leira added thoughtfully, "Wait, there's definitely food and supplies in other houses and most of our provisions are still in the jeep, so they didn't need to break into the house."

"Guns," John answered succinctly.

At the single word, both would-be thieves clammed up.

"So that's what they were really after..." Alex murmured almost to himself.

"We can spare you two handguns," Julia spoke, surprising everyone, "We can't give you too much ammo, we need them too."

The pair exchanged shocked glances, their upset expressions fading before they exclaimed, "We'll take it! / We don't want them."

The dreadlocked man's head whirled to face his partner as he spluttered, "What? They're offering us guns! We'll be able to defend ourselves from those things!"

From her seated position, the punkish woman, jerkily spun her body in small hops to face the man, "Corey, these guys look like they know what they're doing. We'll be safer if we stay with them..."

Talaitha quickly interrupted, "Wait a minute, we didn't offer to let you accompany us, we'll give you some guns, that's all."

"Look Leslie, they don't want us here, so let's grab the guns and leave," the male of the duo answered.

This time it was Emily who spoke as she glanced around the group, "Actually, can we discuss this?" She quickly walked a short distance away, gesturing for the rest to follow her.

"From what we've seen, there aren't many survivors, we've travelled more than 50 miles and this is only the second group we've seen," Emily entreated softly when they moved away from the bound duo.

"I understand where you're coming from, but these two are thieves, they snuck in to steal our weapons. Had they managed to take them, who knows what they would have done," Talaitha countered calmly, "They might have just left with their prize, or they might have intended worse with us at their mercy."

"Yes they might have, or they might have not, but is it fair for us to assume the worst?" Emily implored.

"Em, it doesn't matter if it's fair, but would you gamble our lives on this? There are so many situations where disaster could befall us because we were dragging those two about," Leira said solemnly, gesturing towards the pair.

"Emily, I'm a cop and I want to save people, but I don't know if those two are worth the danger," Julia added.

The redhead looked near tears as she looked to Alex for support, "Alex, can't you read their emotions to judge their sincerity? If they seem to have ulterior motives then we can refuse them?"

Seeing the blotchy cheeks and red-rimmed eyes of his lover, Alex was reminded of his earlier promise to his girlfriends, "Alright, I'll scan their minds as we offer them the chance, but the group still has final say, okay?"

Emily nodded happily, wiping away unshed tears, to hug Alex. The group moved back to the furiously whispering pair and Julia stepped forward, "Okay, do the both of you want to join our group? We can't promise you safety, but we will try our best. No one's dead weight, so both of you have to take care of yourselves. Just know that if you agree, we won't give you any guns yet, you'll have to earn our trust first before we let you hang about us with weapons."

The greasy man remained sullen as the slim woman spoke, "We want in, though we want to know what your plans are."

Inside Alex's mindscape, he focused on the feelings of the pair; the woman seemed earnest enough, with understandable fragments of fear and distrust meshed into the little orb of emotion. The man was similar, though his orb was more heavily stained by fright and suspicion. Neither seemed to be harboring any feelings of malicious intent or spite though, so Alex nodded deliberately at the group.

Slowly, each member gave an accompanying affirmative nod, some more enthusiastic than others, and Julia turned back to the cross-legged pair, "Alright, you're in. We're heading to grab some people in the morning. Now, I think it's time for the both of you to introduce yourselves."

The punkish woman answered first as Alex and John moved to untie the pair, "I'm Leslie Harper, I'm a graphic artist, nice to meet ya."

"Name's Corey Wiles, I'm pinkie's roommate and a professional musician," the sullen man continued, and Leslie immediately retorted, "You can't call yourself a professional if you haven't had any jobs." Corey just gave a long suffering sigh, not even acting annoyed at the sniggered barb.

The group was surprised at the duo's background, they had expected them to be jobless or criminals, but they had surprisingly innocuous jobs. Then again, if they had been involved in the underworld, they wouldn't have needed to steal other people's weapons, so it supported their claims.

Taking their own turns to introduce themselves, any further discussion was cut off by a huge yawn from Emily. "Sorry," she blushed prettily as the rest of them felt their eyes drooping, the constant surges of adrenaline were tiring and their sudden awakening hadn't helped.

"I think we can talk more in the morning, you two can take the couches," Julia said as she waved toward the aforementioned furniture.

The women immediately trudged straight for their sleeping areas, exhaustion overcoming them as the excitement wore off. Corey regarded the supine Leslie, surprised at the trust his roommate was exhibiting, before shrugging as he replicated her actions, walking over to lay on the second couch, and before he knew it, sleep snuck up and claimed him.

John moved to replace Alex for watch duty, but was quickly waved off, "You can sleep, I'm still wide awake and I'll wake you when I'm tired." John wanted to protest but the look in Alex's eyes convinced him, so he lay back down beside his wife, hugging her like a bolster to sleep.

Alex retook his seat beside the window and resumed his silent musings as he looked out onto the shadowed street, his mind miles away.