State of Decay✔️

Chapter 16: A Day For Bad News

"I'll tell Jacob about Eli," Doc Hanson said.

Besides a formal introduction, it was the only thing he'd said on the way back. Marcus had kept quiet, he could tell how furious Maya was. He imagined that it was her control, perhaps her military training, that had kept her from pulling out a gun and shooting Job in his dick right then and there. Now, they were just pulling into the dirt parking lot of the church.

"Are you sure?" Marcus asked.

"Yes...I've delivered bad news to him before, when his mother died," Hanson replied.

"All right," Marcus murmured.

Maya parked the car and killed the engine. Doc Hanson got out immediately and began walking towards the church's front gate, but Marcus lingered, noticing that Maya wasn't moving. After a long moment, she said, "I shouldn't go back there."

"I'm honestly hoping that none of us will ever have to go back there," Marcus replied.

Maya shook her head. "No, I can just tell. These guys...they had huge stores and stocks of stuff. And his mention of friends. I can already tell, these Wilkersons are like the black market. I'm sure they'll have tons of food, guns, ammo, water, tools, medicine, cars...at some point, I'm worried we'll have to come to them for something."

"All the more reason to do our job of fixing this place up, of raiding the houses, finding survivors. If we do our job well, we won't need to rely on them for anything," Marcus replied.

Maya glanced over at him, and there was something different in her eyes. He honestly couldn't tell what it was. Not anger, not sadness...he couldn't tell. Finally, she just smiled and said, "You're real nice, you know that?"

"Well...I try," he replied awkwardly after a moment.

Maya smiled at him a moment longer, then pulled the keys from the ignition and got out of the car. Marcus followed her. They moved through the gate and lingered in the courtyard for a moment. Alan was standing atop the watchtower, ignoring them.

"Would you do me a favor?" he asked.

"What?" Maya replied.

"Go check on Ed, make sure the doctor sees to him? I...need to go talk to Lily, about her father," Marcus replied hesitantly.

"Oh...yes. Yeah, I'll do that..." she hesitated. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

They split up. Marcus made his way slowly, unhappily, towards the front door. Lily was in there, sitting at her radio, probably calling out to her father right now, hoping, praying, needing to see him again. And he was going to take that hope away. He felt listless and awful. Trudging up the steps, he pushed the front door open. Lily was the only person in the room. As soon as he stepped in, she turned around, her face lit up.

"Marcus-" she began.

"Lily, wait," Marcus said, and something in his voice dimmed her enthusiasm slightly. She slowly stood up.

"What?" she asked, and now a new caution had crept into her voice.

"When Ed and Maya and I were up on Mount Tanner...we ran into your dad and his friends, Wendell and this woman..."

"Shelia Brookstone," Lily murmured.

"Yeah. He was helping people at the ranger station, sent me and Ed to check the cabins. We found Maya, no one else...by the time we got back, zombies had gotten in. Everyone there was dead...including your dad. He came back...I had to shoot him. He's the one that bit Ed," Marcus said, his voice low and miserable.