Deadland

Chapter 63- Shoulda', Woulda', Coulda' (Part 1)

We bring the three police officers back to the warehouse we were staying in, Rick, Noah, and Alyssa are looking over the map we drew. 

"Your friend," The woman cop starts. "What's his name? I need to talk to him. Your plan is going to get me and my friends killed." 

"We're gonna make it work." Sasha sasses, walking in front of the cops. 

I scoff as I pass the woman, "You underestimate us." I follow Sasha and walk in front of the cops, their vision now watching my back. 

"It would work if you had different cops to trade." There's some sense of pleading in the woman's voice, her voice quivers ever so slightly as she speaks.

This catches everyone's attention and we all turn to look at the cop. 

"Dawn's running Grady into the ground. A bunch of us want her out and she knows it. Pretty sure she knows we want Lamson to replace her, too."

The man who headbutted Alyssa looks at the woman, "Dawn doesn't know that."

His face pisses me off.

"She might." The woman cop retaliates. "And she's smart. So there's a good chance you can't make this deal work and that'll leave us all dead. But if you let us go, we'll take care of Dawn ourselves and then we'll let your friends go and this is over."

"No," Lamson speaks up. "We're not gonna do that." Everyone looks around at each other confusedly and suspiciously. 

"Do you want to die?" The woman asks. 

"No. I just need you to shut up right now." 

Thank you, Jesus.

"You can make this work." Lamson starts. "But you gotta be able to talk to her."

"Noah told us all about her." Sasha says, rolling her eyes. 

"I've known her for eight years, ma'am. I know this woman. And my only interest is peaceful resolution, not dying, and sleeping in my bed tonight. So, please...let me help you."

Okay, I trust him zero percent but I kind of like him.

"Hey, Rick." Daryl calls, motioning for Rick to come over to us. "You're gonna want to hear this." 

Rick has Lamson tied up to a pole, isolated so that he can talk to him alone. 

Alyssa's sitting on the floor, reloading her gun before we head downstairs. I walk over to her, fidgeting with my fingers. I'm not good at apologizing. 

"Hey," I say somewhat quietly, avoiding eye contact with her. 

"Hi." She responds, shoving bullets into the magazine of her pistol. Her words don't have sass in them though they don't have traces of her usual giddiness. 

I sigh and bite my cheek, "I'm um...sorry about earlier. You just can't go off-"

 Apology, not lecture.

"I'm sorry."

Alyssa looks at me, "Why?"

I make a confused expression. "What?" 

She stands up, "Why are you sorry? You were right, Rick would have come and I almost died. I shouldn't have gone over there to help Daryl. I'm sorry."

I become lost for words. I'm not used to people apologizing to me, usually when I apologize Nick would hit me or lecture me on why I shouldn't do whatever it was I did again.