Chapter 67: 67
He seemed taken aback from the simple response.
“I can debate for you for hours on how I can do things but, in the end, it’s all just words. A man of action like yourself would be more convinced if you could see the place yourself.” I said.
“What’s your situation on food?” he said.
“What about yours? I believe Thelma manages a store near the gas station. How come you’re worried earlier to prepare some with us? I left her a note too.” I counter-asked and he was speechless.
“Thanks to that note, I managed to place supplies on the trucks though one of my workers took off with one of the trucks that I was supposed to bring here. We’re left with one truck and it’s all we have. Johnny is contemplating on going outside to loot a few places but we decided to ration and avoid going out at all costs.” Thelma explained.
“I knew that something happened.” I said to myself.
“Even though we have a few guns in here, we’re not really sure if that is really what it takes since we haven’t gone outside yet. The news said a shot to the head is all it takes but I still think it’s too dangerous to go out so I convinced him to stay put for now.” Joanne added.
“Your problem will be solved if you choose to follow me. We have people, we have supplies, and we have guns. What we need now is more people. You’ll have a place to sleep and food to feed your family. All we need from all of you is to contribute and follow my lead.” I said earnestly.
“Will you still accept me even with this?” he said as he showed me a prosthetic leg on his right side.
I just smiled and said, “That’s it? I have a friend there who can’t walk since birth and has a more positive outlook than you, no offense. He traveled from Cavite and left his house just to be here.”
“Dear, I think we could help each other and survive together when we come with him. We could start packing our stuff, we could always come back here if we don’t like the place.” Joanne said to his husband.
Johnny rubbed his glabella and he gave a long sigh.
“Fine. We’ll check your place first and we’ll decide if we stay or not, is that acceptable?” he said.
“Sure.” I said.
“Can we make a stop for my shop at the 2nd floor of the funeral home first? We still left a few when the thing started.” Joanne said.
“No need. We already went to your place, that’s why I found this address.” I said.
Her eyes widened. She said, “Oh! Are the guns still there?”
“Yes, all of it is in our pickup. To be fair with you and as a sign of good faith, we’ll split it in half. Sounds good?” I said.
She was taken aback though she seems to mull over something.
“Wait! That is ours!” Johnny exclaimed.
“Was. Last time I checked, the world has gone to shit and everything is fair game now. Do you have the luxury to go back there now and get them back? We cleared a lot of them to get those and I’m being generous letting you keep half of them. You already got half of them in this place so technically we’re keeping a quarter of it. You did say you planned on looting other places; will you give them back what you took if they asked for it?” I said flatly.
“I ah-” he was taken aback.
“Dear I think that it’s more than generous.” Joanne said.
He grumbled for a bit though he relented in the end.
“I’ll wait for an hour for you guys to pack up. You could place some of your bags in our truck if you need more space. I’ll be in it splitting the guns and ammo.” I commanded.
“Thank you.” Thelma said to me while I nodded.
They started on packing their stuff so I went back in the pickup. We have two long rifles and 18 handguns with 36 boxes of ammunition. I smiled a bit since it’s an even number and could be split evenly. Their family has two vehicles here, a minivan and a coupe. They started on placing their bags on their vehicles at 3:26 PM. We would be a bit late for the broadcast but it would repeat so I did not urge them to hurry.
“It’s a lot of them.” Kaley said.
“Yeah, we got 10 people in one go.” I said.
“Do we need to worry?” she asked.
“I don’t think so. Bobby seems to be a normal dude and Johnny is just an overprotective serviceman. We’d learn more about them if we spend more time with them. We need to know a few things like knowing their occupations and what not. However, it’s not bad to always keep another eye open just in case. In my opinion, it’s still almost a week after it started, the electricity is still on and the water is still being given out. We’ll start to worry about people when the resources start to dwindle and the daily necessities ran out. That’s why we’ll need to get more people in the early stages since they haven’t gone to the deep end yet.” I said.
“Hmm, true. But wouldn’t it be better to find more people that has experienced this first and still turns out to be the good ones?” she replied.
“That is a good hypothesis. We never really know what people are deep down but… this is gonna sound sinister but here me out…” I said as I moved closer to her and whisper.
“We’re never gonna get 100% good people. There may be times when we meet good ones at first but turning out to be evil assholes later. If we found the people that you mentioned, it will be the best scenario. That’s why we get them to our side, we make them think that this is the best place they could ever have so they regard us like their benefactor or something.” I said quietly.
“Isn’t that some sort of manipulation then?” she asked.
“Yeah, something like making them obligated to follow our orders. Like when someone helps you a lot and when that person asked for a favor you immediately help them without question. I think that’s better than leaving them here to die or killing them because we don’t want the risk of them knowing our place. We’ve been lucky since wandering people would stumble upon the DDR camp first before ours.” I explained.
“But what would we do if they do something bad after all that we’ve done for them?” she asked with a worried expression.
“That is a hard question but with a simple answer. I think you already know the answer to that. Anyway, it’s still early to think about that.” I said.
“I understand. How long do you think this thing would last though?” she asks.
“In my honest opinion, it will vary between countries. I feel that in this country, I’m thinking 5-10 years at the earliest. The other ones where it’s all just separated by borders, probably a lot more. We’ll have kids by then.” I said innocently.
“I see… wait, what?!” she exclaimed as she looked at me.
“What?” I tried to act normally.
“Kids?!” she silently exclaimed.
“It’s an honest estimate. Well, talking about it now is too sudden. We’ve been together for almost a week now… I-”
She punches me in the arm while she blushes.
“You changed a bit when we got together, when Oscar and your aunt were teasing you with me, you’re more fidgety but now you’re more…confident. Is there a reason for that?” she asked curiously.
“Don’t you know that that’s what’s being in a relationship is like, you doofus!” I said her words back at her from before.
“You!” she began to playfully punch me a couple of times while I just laughed hysterically.
“C’mon, just help me divide the guns here.” I said then Joanne approached me.
“Mr. Ishiyama, my husband would be mad at me but I’ve decided to let you keep all of what you got from my store. Take it as a sign of good faith from us. Taking us all in without question is the best thing we could hope for.” she said.
“Really? I won’t be polite then, thanks!” I said with a smile.
I heard some grumbling noise when she went back to their house and I placed all of them back to the duffel bags with a smile.
“You hoarder.” Kaley said with a smile.
“Heh, being like Jared huh? I think I’m hoarding people as well.” I said while scratching my head.
“You are, but it’s really kind of you. I first thought we would be only taking people that has a set of skills.” Kaley said.
“Why? I’m the best there is, why would we need another one? I could always teach people.” I said with a grin and an innocent look then she kicked me.
“Why are you so violent?!” I said as we talked for a while.