Down the line

22 - Redwood

I run all the way to the front gate. Some of the people of Wellington were stood by the gate with guns.

"Why is the armory open?" I snap at all of the people stood by the gate.

"Sir, if you see what's out there you'll understand why" one guy says to me as he passes me a holster to clip on.

I clip it around my belt. I'd never used a gun before, only on a course my dad had constructed once for fun.

I was passed a revolving pistol and I placed it inside the leather holster. It felt cold.

"These people are demanding, it's hard to understand what they want. We thought you would be most suitable to speak to them." A guy older than me says as he pats my shoulder.

Why me? I was having a bad fucking day and now this? Did the world just hate me or something.

"And why's that?" I question reasonably.

"Cause you're the only Turner that would most likely listen and be listened to." He pats me on the shoulder again and pushes me towards the gate.

"Good luck, we have snipers on the leader if things turn south." Another man says as he opens the gate. What the hell was this?

The old shipping container front pushes open and I step through.

"I've heard so many great things about you. You hear ghost stories about Wellington constantly. Josh Turner?" The bearded man in front of me says.

"Lewis Turner. Josh is my father and he is no longer with us." I announces sadly.

"Well, I'm sorry for your loss." He smiles unsympathetically.

He was surrounded by hundreds of people. All of them men. Maybe even enough to out number us solely on this basis.

"And you are?" I question as he holds out his hand to shake. I shake it unsure what else to do as everyone watches me. I didn't know what this man had to offer. What he wanted.

"Samuel Redwood, but you can call me Sam. Leader of the Redwood community in Illinois." Sam says, all of the eyes behind him watching me. I was anxious.

"What can I do you with Sam?" I ask the man casually.

"I have some proposals we should discuss." He cocks back his rifle and I give him a concerned look.

"Maybe we should go inside and discuss? Your men stay outside." I command and I scan my eyes over the mass amount of men. Some coughing some just standing there staring at me with a gun.

Sam nods and I gesture him inside the walls.

"We take your weapon for now." I glare at him. He does as I say.

"Seems reasonable"

I take him to reception where the meeting table still sits.

"Hendrix, this is a meeting now. I need you gone." I say as me and Sam walk in. Some patrol members follow us but I swiftly shoo them away. I needed this to stay small. The hundreds of men outside proved otherwise.

Hendrix just stared at Sam and I quickly gestured a reassurance. I got Sam to take a seat at one end of the table and I did the same. We sat in silence for a few seconds.

"So...Sam? What is it you want from this community?" I ask the man. He leans forward slightly.

"Well first of all, I want you to know that if you harm me in anyway every single one of my men outside will gun you down until you are nothing more than a pile of blood and guts. Secondly if you kill any one of my men I will personally hand pick one of your men to kill." He begins to tap on the table with his dirty fingers.

"Are you threatening me?" I tilt my head sideways and stare at the man.

"It's not a threat. It's an order. You seem like a smart guy, my third point will be you listen to exactly what I have to say." He begins to pick at his teeth, as if personal hygiene wasn't an issue.

"What exactly is it you want to say?"

"My people have worked very hard over the years. However our power lines are down and so is our filtering system. Them things seem to be working very nicely here so my people would like a bit of a break. We would like to live here." Sam admits as I stare at him on the other end of the table.

"We can initiate some form of extended living area, it wo-" As I begin to talk and tell him my plan he interrupts me.

"You just don't get it. Why would we live here when you're here?" Sam begins to laugh. Taking me back slightly.

"What are you suggesting?" I stand up making my chair fly backwards.

"I'm suggesting you either take your people and move along, or everyone of you will get a bullet through your heads. We have enough to spare." He grins.

This had turned from a bad day to a horrible day. I just wanted to crawl up in bed with Kelly and let the day be over with but even I couldn't do that now. Fuck sake.

"We could work something out here. We don't take kindly to people just showing up expecting everything." I snarl.

"So this has happened before then? Then I guess you know how to handle this." He stands up as well and begins to leave.

"So what's happening here then?" I ask before he even has the chance to leave.

"I'll give your people three weeks to pack up and move along. If not you have three weeks to prepare for war." He smirks and makes his way out of reception. I watch him walk down the steps and towards the gate.

I walk after him. This totally wasn't happening.

He turns around and smiles at me at the last moment.

"Three weeks. Pack your bags or prepare for war. Your decision, you could save a lot of lives. Play the hero or play the villain." Sam smirks at me one more time and takes himself out of the gate.

He grabs his rifle off of one of the men and steps outside. I follow after him.

"Turn around, we have a three week wait ahead of us." Sam Redwood shouts to all of the people in front of him. They all do as he commanded. There was so many people.

I stare at all of them, all people like me. Most likely with tragic back stories. I needed to sit down, I couldn't process all of this.

"What was that all about?" A man who opened the gate for me asked. I just looked at him and sighed.

"I think we're going to war."

******
Should Wellington go to war?