Less Than 3%

Chapter 32 - Glimmer of Hope

All of us but Jerry and Emma sat silently in the back of the battered van. I gazed into the distance out of the broken rear doors watching the billowing smoke from the blazing car flood the sky. I couldn't help but think that it was impossible for Dean to be dead, he must have planned to take over my position as a sacrifice the second he left. I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, it was Mark.
"Dean saved us all, you know. He must have known that this group needed you.. still needs you. He gave up his life for all of us and he would want you to carry on leading us all to a better one too. I may not be as brave as you or him, just like a lot, if not all of us aren't but we will do everything we can to help because that's what a team does."
He comforted me.
He removed his hand from my shoulder and sat back down. I dried my eyes from the now falling tears and stood to my feet. I turned to face the rest of the group.
"Okay, everyone listen up. I know losing Dean was hard but as Mark just told me, he wouldn't want us to give up hope. We need to find a decent shelter now, the threat of The Razors has been dealt with and we have the upper hand here. With all of our skills and the resources from the carpark, we can make a fortress. We just need to find a suitable place to start."
I had captured everybody's attention completely so I continued.
"I've been thinking about where to go for a while now and the place I had in mind would be a warehouse of some kind. It has high fences and gates, open space for development, more often than not it has building resources and if we're lucky it might even have generators to finally get ourselves some working electricity."
The group looked at me with understanding and hope, the exact thing that Dean died for. He knew that all the group needed was hope, everything else would surely follow.
"There's a warehouse not far from the plane, maybe we could check it out Jay?"
Karl announced.
That was it, that was the start we needed. We needed something to strive towards and now we found it. The original plan was possibly to take over a radio station, but if we could take the equipment a warehouse would be better suited.
"Brilliant, thanks Karl we'll have to take a look. Mark, if we managed to gather up some radio equipment would you be able to set up a broadcasting message from the warehouse itself?"
I asked.
"It will be tricky setting it all up and moving it from one place to another but, yeah, I guess it's possible. I would need a hand though, the antenna would be the hardest thing to move."
He replied.
"Okay so if we find a warehouse. Would it be possible with Jerry, Emma and I helping you?"
"Yes I suppose so."
The glimmer of hope was glowing brighter within the group the more the plan grew.
"And Karl, Cass, Liam, Will. I saw what you guys had managed to make out of scrap plane parts. I would be grateful if you joined us at the warehouse and helped build sturdier walls. Mary and James would you be able to set up a decent area for us all to sleep please?"
Everybody nodded in agreement.
Everybody had a role to fill and a job to do. First thing was first though, we had to get to that warehouse.

The fiery farm of The Razors base was far in the distance and we were getting closer again to the car park where all of the supplies were kept.
When we arrived we all jumped out of the van, assessing the damage of it, it was surprising that the thing was still running. A back door was missing, the other was crooked, bullet holes were splayed all over the side and it was bent to an unfathomable state. We were all in one piece and that was all that mattered.  Whilst everybody else thanked god to be still and on land, I walked over to the door of which the supplies were kept behind. Upon it, I found a note, it wrote.
"Jay, if you're finding this, then I succeeded and I am dead. You have to keep going, the group needs you. All my life you have been there to save my ass, it was about time i returned the favour. You never gave up on me and I wasn't about to give up on you. This world needs somebody like you, someone to see the good in all of the bad shit. I know this isn't how you wanted things to go but it is for the best. Good luck mate, Dean"
I folded up the letter and placed it in my pocket. Dean gave me the push I needed to get shit done.
"We need to find another truck."
I shouted.
"There could be another one by the supermarket, they usually have a parking bay for them behind some shutters."
Mary replied.
"Brilliant, okay. So Jerry, Emma, Mark. Maybe we should go and get the truck and on the way back we should grab the radio equipment from the radio building next to the truck crash. That way we can load everything into the truck and use that on the road. Everybody else, wait here for the time being, if you stay inside the store room you should be safe. We can take the battered van, it should make it to the town. Any questions?"
I announced. Nobody answered, silence was obviously a no.
"Okay then, let's get started."
Emma said as she walked towards the van. Jerry smiled and followed whilst everybody else made their way into the storage room. I grinned, patted the pocket with the note in it and accompanied Jerry and Emma alongside Mark.