Dash Dash Dot Dot

The Committee

The girls were led to an upper floor of the library. Willow was happy to see that many books had survived and still adorned the shelves. There were a couple large tables up here, three people already sat at the tables. They smiled as everyone reached the landing. "Please, everyone, take a seat." A slightly plump woman stood, she had short brown hair in a bob, with streaks of silver running through it, her skin was heavily tanned, it was a natural glow and not by a bottle, her smile was warm and welcoming as she watched the girls sit. "My name is Heather; I am one of the five committee members in this faction. This is Lee," She indicated to a Chinese lady sitting next to her. "Banjo," She pointed to an older Aboriginal man on the other side of Lee. "You met John," the guy with the air horn gave a thumbs up to the girls; he was large and bearded with tattoos. "And of course, Raj." The Indian man sat down on the other side of Heather. "And your rescuers are Matt and Tahla." The young men nodded and smiled. Heather extended her hand towards Willow. "And you are?"

"Well, I'm Willow." She took Heather's hand and shook it, going down the line of the other committee members while Tiffany introduced herself. "I'm sorry we caused such a fuss. We didn't anticipate the zombies at the gate, and we're sorry that we attracted more with the car, but it was quicker and a little safer than travelling by foot to get here."

Heather nodded. "I understand, the zombies around the fence can be a problem when we do our supply runs, we needed to do a cull at some point, you girls just brought that point forward. But we are happy to see you girls are safe and not infected. We have organized a room for the two of you, now unfortunately you don't get a room to yourselves, you'll be in a room with four others, Matt is one of them, and he'll introduce you to the other three when we have finished talking. With all the survivors we have and the limited rooms, we need to share the space. Now, your bunk will be yours, and you will also have a footlocker for your belongings. But the rest of the areas are communal." She explained.

"Bunk beds?" Tiffany piped up, "how exciting!"

"If you join any supply runs you can acquire whatever you find, as long as you have space in your bag to carry it and as long as you still help to carry the supplies you find for the faction to share. But we don't expect you, or anyone else, to go on supply runs, they are all voluntary, but if you choose to not join the supply runs, you are expected to help around the faction. We have gardens to tend and animals to feed and water, as well as the fence patrols, which is how Matt saw you, he was on duty on that side of the yard when he spotted your car. There is down time between activities so you can do whatever you desire. The library is always open; we only ask that when you have finished that you return the book so the other faction members can read it. If you find a book on a supply run, you can choose if you keep it or store it in the library, but remember the foot locker does have limited space."

"You two will get a week off to explore the faction, introduce yourselves to those here, ask questions, have a look at all the things we have available, you may find an area that calls to you for your work. But don't worry, you can always change or try something new, the more skills or jobs you try, the easier it is for our survival, and it'll help you to get to know the members here." Lee told them. "Aside from myself we do have two other medical personnel."

"I have first aide training." Willow told her. "Although it kinda sounds sad next to trained medical personnel like yourself."

"Not at all, if you have training then that's better than knowing nothing, I will let the other two know and maybe we can organize to get you some more practical knowledge, that is, if you're open to it." Lee suggested.

"Definitely, I would love to learn more. Thank you." Willow nodded.

"Wonderful." Lee smiled at them.

"I think we need to let these girls rest, they've had a tough couple of days." John spoke up and stood. "We can chat more with them tonight at the celebration. Matt, you wanna take them to the room and get them settled in? You might also want to catch some Z's considering you were up all night; I bet you don't even remember who brought you that torch last night."

Matthew shook his head, fighting off a yawn. "No, I don't recall." He blushed and stood. "Ladies, shall we." Willow and Tiffany followed him out of the library.

"Thank you for saving us." Willow said to him once they were out of the library. "And thank you for watching over us."

He shook his head. "I couldn't let you die considering you managed to get here. We have never had to do a rescue mission like that before, usually we just come across survivors when we're doing supply runs then ask them if they want to join us. Everyone except one guy has said yes. But he's pretty cool, he lives over in the apartment block across the way, says that the faction has too many people and that he needs his own space, he will drop off any survivors he comes across too, so he's not an ass hat." Matthew stopped in front of a door. "Welcome to your new home."

The room was nothing like it had been when willow had attended school. Most of the tables and chairs had been removed and bunk beds were along the walls. There were seven sets of bunks in the room. Three of them were clearly claimed, they were decorated with curtains pulled around them. Willow threw he bag onto one of the empty bottom bunks and Tiffany claimed the top, she excitedly climbed up onto it, dumping the contents of her bag out onto it.

"The others are probably out working or doing chores, but if you will excuse me, the exhaustion has now hit me. John was right; I need a good nanna nap." He crawled onto the bottom bunk next to the girls bunk and tugged the curtains closed around it.

"Have a good sleep." Tiffany called. "So shall we explore or what? I'm too hyped to sleep or nap or whatever. We're finally here Will! We made it." Willow set up the radio under the bed and turned it on low.

"I think I need a nap too. I stayed up way too late last night, worrying about today and how to get here." She stretched out on the bunk, the mattress wasn't bad, a little firmer than she liked but still comfortable enough.

"Ugh, fine, well I'm going to explore, I will see you at the party tonight. Also I'm going to take all the food we have left and give it to these guys, since they now have to feed us too." Tiffany held out her hand to her.

Willow rolled over and pulled her bag towards her, she dug through it and pulled out the last of the cans and handed them to Tiffany, her friend then left the room, humming softly to herself. Willow then pulled out her photos and teddy bear that were in the bottom of the bag and nudged the backpack under her bunk. She propped the teddy up between her pillow and the wall and slid her photos under her pillow. She tugged the curtains on her bunk closed and lay her head down. She drifted off with the sound of the radio playing softly.