Chapter 26: Orientation
Dakota took them into the small town. “The town square is actually in Kill Devil Hills,” Dakota informed them of the safe zone hierarchy, “There live our two leaders, Alana and Adam Cutler.”
“Husband and wife?”
“Brother and sister.”
“One of the Safe Zone laws is to bring refugees into the Town Square immediately.”
“And here we thought we were getting a free ride,” Annie whispered to Marcus who were both sitting in the back bench.
“They can help you get to the cape.”
Dakota brought them to the town square, which used to be the Wright Brothers National Memorial Visitor Center. Dakota pulled into the practically empty parking lot and parked, turning the car off and getting out along with everyone else.
They got inside easy enough. The front doors were unlocked. There was no security, just a giant conference table in the middle of the floor, filled with loose paper and old leatherbound books. All the chairs around the conference table were empty, except for two. Dakota brought them in and they all had a seat around the table. Samuel and Atticus sat next to Dakota, who introduced them to Adam and Alana.
“Right, so one of the first things we like to do-”
“For new member orientation-” Alana interrupted her brother.
“Is,” Adam tried to go on now uninterrupted, “go around and say your name, where you’re from, and what you did for a living before the outbreak…”
Samuel answered for the group, “We’re not staying.”
“What?” Quinn spoke out.
“Wait a second,” the rest of the group started to stir, “We haven’t decided anything yet.”
Marcus stood up at the other end of the table from his seat next to Annie, “I’m with Samuel, we can’t stay here.”
Everybody started arguing with each other and Atticus stood up and let his temper loose, “NOW LISTEN UP! Nobody has to come with us! But Dr. Chase, along with myself, Dr. Pratt, and Marcus are leaving and continuing our mission to the prison.”
“A prison?” Adam commented, while he, his sister, and Dakota watched these strangers argue amongst themselves.
“A prison with tall concrete walls and miles of barbed wire fencing,” Marcus told them, ‘”A prison that is holding my brother.”
“Well, if that is your decision,” Adam told them, “We will not stand in your way, but we cannot afford to give out any more supplies. So, if you are in need of anything you’re going to have to figure something out.”
“Like what?”
“Well, we have numerous services set up for trading or working within the Safe Zone,” Alana instructed them as she shuffled papers around in her hands and stacked them together. “If you would just step right this way we can start the process.”
“What if we want to stay?” Quinn stood up.
“Then please come over to this side of the table and take a copy of these forms,” Adam responded.
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Quinn stood up along with Chambers, Tyrell, and then Rebecca. Samuel was shocked; Atticus was also completely thrown off guard. He felt like a fool mentioning her name along with Samuel and Marcus before, making her decision for her was not what he intended to do; and if she was just choosing to stay out of spite, he would feel even worse for affecting her like that.
“Rebecca?” Atticus insisted.
“I’m sorry, but this is better than a prison, and they said they needed doctors.” Rebecca apologized as she followed the line to get her papers and put her name down on the new member sign-in sheet. Nobody else in the group before her had recognized it on the sheet, the name, why would they? All three of them joined the group after Samuel’s apartment. They didn’t even catch the last name, but Rebecca did. The moment she saw it, she knew.
What were the odds?
“Samuel…” she muttered to herself as she let go of the pen strung onto the clipboard and took it off the table, “You have to see this.” Rebecca tossed the sign-in sheet on the clipboard over to Samuel. Samuel read the document and his face changed immediately. He looked up at Rebecca, “That’s his hand writing!”
“Whose?” Adam asked.
“My son’s.”
“Warren Chase?”
“You know him?”
“I know every person on this island and every name on that list. He came in a couple of days ago. Seventeen year old boy, with a dog.”
Samuel was too relieved to catch it, but Annie did, “A dog?”
“Yeah, your kid calls him Jackson,” Alana confirmed, “How could you forget a name like that for a dog?” She shuffled through the file cabinet behind them and pulled out Warren’s file. “We sent him to Nags Head, under Gibbons and Slate, food recovery, because of the do.”
Samuel got up from his seat and walked over to Dakota, Alana, and Adam “Can you take me to him?”
Adam looked at Alana, they were still processing the forms from Quinn, Chambers, and Tyrell, and helping Atticus and Marcus with their resupply forms. Marcus remarked only to Atticus, “Never thought the apocalypse would require so much paperwork.”
Dakota felt compelled to help Samuel. “I’ll take you to go find his son.”
Annie also joined them as they left. Rebecca sat at the middle of the table, now undecided. Her heart was conflicted with her mind. Logically, she would be safer here; it just made more sense for her to stay here altogether. But when she saw Samuel’s son’s name on the list it felt like a sign. She was a rational woman who had a reliable instinct most of the time, but this time she had feelings that clashed with her instinct, and the only sense she could make of it was that it had to be fate. Fate led Samuel right to her. And deep down she knew, Samuel was the key to humanity’s salvation. The choice came down to faith versus reason.
Rebecca sat there without making a decision, and let the world unfold around her.
Adam and Alana were thoroughly impressed by Tyrell’s background after reading his papers. “Oh, we have been looking for someone like you!”
Adam wasted no time and took Tyrell out of the town area and over to the bay where there was a flooded oil refinery. It was leaking black sludge into the bay, dead fish and crab littered the swampy beach.
“This is priority one.” Adam showed him.
They were not as impressed with Chambers’ forms as they were with Tyrell’s. “Look,” he said to Alana, trying to plead his case, “I can keep this place safe. I can be security.”
“Sorry Mr. Kahn, but we don’t need protection against the zombies, we’re on an island.”
“You always need protection, even if it’s from each other.”
“Well, we have a sheriff from Virginia here for that very reason. Would you like to meet him? He is always looking for new deputies.”
“Aw hell, why not. Everybody’s gotta pull their weight; I’m a firm believer in that. I’ll be a pig.”
“Okay, Ms. Quinn, would you like to come with me, and gentlemen, Adam will be back shortly to go over your requests.”
Atticus and Marcus stared at Chambers as he left without any explanation on why he was abandoning the group. Up until now he had never shown the slightest inclination of not wanting to go to the prison. Maybe that was just because the prospect of a Safe Zone had never been entertained. So, they let him go, they let them all go.
Atticus really did not care, he knew there would be a day when he would be completely alone; he knew he would be the last man standing. This place was misleading, it had all the superficial comforts of life back before the outbreak. They did not take extra precaution outside of destroying the bridge. Hypothetically, if a zombie got over, perhaps on a boat, or meandered across the ocean floor, there would be nothing stopping them from tearing this “Safe Zone” apart. That was reason enough not to stay here for Atticus. As soon as they got their supplies and met up with Samuel and his son they would be on their way.