SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

62

MIKE

Mike cautiously opened the cell door, preparing himself for the possibility that there might be an ambush waiting on the other side. There wasn't. Ed Stillson and the other two men in his group peered up at him from their bunks with expressions caught between wariness and barely-checked hostility.

He gulped and entered, making sure to leave the door open a crack so the guards outside could intervene in the event of a problem. He walked in unarmed, not providing the prisoners with an additional edge should they get the upper hand on him. Dealing with Stillson on his own would've been a challenge, never mind facing three against one.

"Hi, guys. I'm Mike. The colonel asked me to check up on you. Make sure you were settling in all right." Mike took in the sparse quarters, decorated with nothing more than video cameras running on a backup generator. "I know the accommodations aren't what they could be. It's just temporary. This is a rather unexpected situation. We just needed a little time."

"Time for what?" Stillson grumbled. "To build our gallows?"

Reacting to his question, the ship captain stared down at his hands. The one named Merl exhaled a long, shaky breath.

"Nobody's dying here," Mike reassured them. "If we wanted you dead, we could have left you on that boat to fend for yourselves."

"Maybe you should have."

"What does that mean?"

Stillson glared at him. "What are you expecting from this? That we'd be grateful to you after you chased us out of our home at gunpoint? Don't hold out hope that we'll kiss your ass for taking us prisoner. You're the enemy, plain and simple."

"Where are the girls?" Merl asked, his courage bolstered by his companion's bravado.

"Next door," Mike replied. "They're safe, don't worry."

"None of us are safe here," Stillson muttered.

Mike sighed. "Look, I'd be lying if I said I was happy about how this whole thing went down, but you need to remember something. Both Emerson and the colonel had the same idea when it came to Mystic. They knew its continued existence put you all in mortal danger. That's why they were both set on destroying it when they couldn't come together."

"Rupert burned it down to keep it out of your hands," Stillson argued.

"And the colonel was prepared to do the same thing to prevent anyone else from taking it over," Mike retorted. "We're not so different."

"Says the man who's free to walk out that door."

Mike took a breath and gazed up at the ceiling. He was getting nowhere with this. Their animosity towards Harvard – justified though it was – left them deaf to reason.

"We have no intention of keeping you here indefinitely. This is not a prison," Mike said. "If you can bring yourselves to move past recent events, we'd like to offer you a new home, here with us. If that's not to your liking, we're willing to drive you somewhere safe and leave you to make your way back to the rest of your people. In time, maybe you'll see that we only want to coexist peacefully. Now that the power plant's gone, I hope that's a possibility."

"You're letting us go?" Merl frowned, skeptical.

"Don't trust them," Ed snarled.

"If that's what you prefer, we'll give you some provisions and send you on your way. No weapons, though. Can't have you turning on our people during transit. You can scavenge what you need after they drop you off," Mike replied. "Or, you can stay here where it's safe and maybe one day tell the rest of your people that we aren't the monsters you make us out to be. It's up to you."