The City of Wanderers - No Peaceful North Part One

Chapter Fourteen

Keri had brought Wes and a few others to a park on the other side of the arena. It was covered in snow still with a makeshift stage to one side. Surrounding it was the older arena Wes remembered along with a few other recreational buildings. Everyone Keri had brought was wearing the same outfit as her except Knox, Aditya and himself. Wes recognized his father in the crowd and chose to avoid eye contact with him.
Keri climbed onto the stage alongside Ophelia and Lawrence while everyone else stood around it. Wes stood more towards the back of the crowd with Aditya. Keri announced "Alright, we are gathered here to initiate a new person, y'all know the drill already. Any volunteers?"
One person immediately raised their hand and Keri pointed at them with her skeleton arm while exclaiming "Yes! You! Go get 'em!"
The crowd then moved to form a semi-circle around Wes and the person who volunteered.
"The rules for this match are simple. It's just a one-v-one match, no weapons and nobody is allowed to tag themselves in. It ends when one person surrenders." Keri announced again as Wes shouted "WHAT?!"
"I don't think this is very necessary." Aditya also mentioned. Keri then shouted back "ENOUGH! MY TOWN MY RULES!"
She then more calmly told them "Now Aditya, please kindly move out of the way so Wes' sister can fight him."
Aditya didn't try to argue back, instead he moved himself to be with the rest of the crowd. Wes didn't know he had a sister, he couldn't see any defining features on the person in front of him either. Keri then told her "Get him, Cass."
Before Wes could even react, Cass ran up and swiftly tackled him to the ground. She whispered into his ear "You shouldn't have come back."
She then pulled him back off the ground and gave him a moment to recover as the crowd kept telling her to keep going. Quiet enough for only Wes to hear, she told him "Keri won't let you leave now."
Cass then tried to throw a punch at him but Wes was quick enough to block it that time. He grabbed her arm and tried to throw her to the snowy ground only for her to grab onto him and take Wes down with her. Wes managed to pin Cass down and tell her "Listen, I don't want to fight you. I don't even know what I'm signing up for. I'm sorry."
She replied "No hard feelings, this is what I signed up for."
Cass then kneed Wes in the stomach, causing him to recoil and giving her a chance to get back up. Wes would then surrender to her, he didn't want to gain more injuries.
"Ah, don't feel too bad about it. Cass is just my best fighter, that's all." Keri told him as Aditya was helping him back up. She then continued with "No matter, I still liked what I saw. You're in, Wesley."
The crowd then gathered around him to congratulate him as Ophelia approached to give him the outfit. Wes wasn't sure if he wanted to join anymore if that's how they did things.
"Well, congrats I guess." Aditya awkwardly said to him as Keri suddenly appeared next to him to tell them both "There's still one more thing I must do, it involves you and the kid you brought. Meet me at the new hospital out on the hills by the middle school."
Once more of the crowd dispersed, Cass told Wes before she left as well "Tonight, if you can, see me at Jim's place. Same place as before you left."
In response, Wes only said "Uh, okay."
Once she was gone, Erin and Knox joined them while Aditya asked "Since when did you have a sister, Wes?"
"I'm just as confused as you are." Wes replied as Knox suggested "Maybe one of your siblings transitioned. Just a theory."
That was possible. Wes' youngest sibling was always into things considered 'girly'.
"Maybe, but I think it would be rude to ask." Wes responded to what Knox said. He then told Wes "I'm sure she wouldn't mind you asking, just as long as you don't out her to anyone who would hurt her."
Knox then changed the subject with "Also, does anyone else get the weirdest vibes from this place? I'm glad you two are still here to make it better but I don't feel any safer here than I did in Pacifica."
"I do as well. Keri scares me." Aditya confessed as Wes added "Yeah, same here."
When they were kids, he and Keri were considered the weird kids all throughout school. So Wes wasn't too surprised she was still like that, but she seemed to have gotten much worse.
"As strange as Keri may be, I still prefer her over Randy any day." Erin contributed to the conversation. Knox agreed with her by saying "Yeah, you're right."
"I think she wants you three to get vaccinated now." Erin told them as they all stared at her as if she confessed to murder or something. She then said "Oh, right, that's also a thing here."
Wes thought about it, he recalled hearing a rumour of a pair of nurses in Ontario who found a possible cure but disappeared as soon as the Republic found out. Maybe that was Keri and Ophelia. Though he still wondered about the town being run by a wanderer, Keri didn't seem to be one. Wes was a bit suspicious about it, however.
Eventually they all went to where Keri told them to go. That area of the city was also new to Wes. He remembered it all being farmland. So much changed he still barely recognized the place. He might as well have been in a city that he'd never been to before.
Once they got there, staff working there directed them to separate rooms where they had to wait alone. After a few minutes, Keri entered the room wearing more appropriate clothing for a medical setting. Upon her arrival, she asked Wes "Prepared to have your mind blown?"
Wes simply replied with "Uh, sure."
She then showed him a syringe and explained "Using my blood and some unethical experimentations, we created what I call 'The Cure for Madness'. It's a vaccine for Pestis Cerebri."
Wes then felt like he should ask "Wait, are you one of those nurses who fled Ontario?"
Keri smirked and replied "Ah, so you've figured it out. I'm also a wanderer, but recovered. It only cost me an eye and an arm."
That answered Wes' next question for her. Keri then told him "Now, promise me you won't say a word about this to anyone outside of the city. I can't have this info reaching Paradise or the Republic."
Wes put his hands together and promised her "I won't say a thing."
Keri started pacing a little as she explained again "Now, there are some side effects but they are rare and better than having Cerebral Plague. I can't force you to take it, but I encourage it, especially if you're gonna be out dealing with wanderers."
Wes only had one question about it, which was "How effective is it?"
"Nobody outside of the arenas here is infected and the living who do go inside never get infected." Keri answered before asking him "Do you need to think about it?"
It was a lot for Wes to take in. Something like that could start a whole new era where nobody had to worry about Pestis Cerebri, or Cerebral Plague in other terms. Humanity could finally move on and rebuild. Eventually he told Keri "You can give it to me."
Keri would then inject her vaccine into Wes' arm, which he exposed for her. It hurt a little, it had been a while since Wes last had a shot. Once she discarded the syringe, Wes decided to ask Keri again "Ever thought about giving that to other still-existing cities?"
She responded "I don't trust people enough with it. It will be misused."
That was a fair point to Wes. Knowing how Pacifica was run, they would keep it for the wealthy and make the workers work for it like they did with everything else. Wes wasn't a fan how they re-invented capitalism without money as the ideal way to live when 3/4 of the population was wiped out.
Perhaps that was the beginning of the end, though there was no way anyone could return to normal life at that point. Wes for sure couldn't. He would never be who he was before again.