Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Dead On Arrival~ Season 2- Episode 23: Keep Your Enemies Closer

Episode 23: Keep Your Enemies Closer
"Morning," Madison beamed peeking out the door with a mug in her hand. She appeared to be in a good mood, but her expression change to one of concern with one look at me. She furrowed her brow. "Are you ok?"

"I'm... I'm fine," I grunted.
I knew I had to look like shit. I didn't sleep a wink. Didn't even nod. Gemma didn't move the whole night, but I didn't take my eyes off of her. Not once. I had to admit I was scared of her. Maybe I was prejudging her based on what happened in the junkyard, but her behavior last night didn't calm my concerns. In fact, I felt strangely threatened.

"Are you sure you ok?" she said looking even more worried as she stepped out on the porch. She looked me over. "You...you look pale."

"I'm fine."

She turned around and looked down at Gemma. She was still sleeping. Quiet as a mouse actually. She sat down beside me and handed me the mug. Her voice a whisper. "Well, how things go with her? Did she give you any trouble?"

"Well, she acted strange. Bizarre actually. The way she talks. Just everything. Frankly, she give me the creeps."

"Oh, God. What did she do?"
"Well, let's see. She talked about you being unhinged and then she said I remind her of her boyfriend. Then she caressed my face."

"What?"

"Oh, why hello," Gemma chirped catching the two of us off guard. She lifted up and smiled. "You should have woke me up, Nathan. I didn't know Madison was here."

I looked over at her feeling flushed. Just the sight of her grinning from ear to ear was intimidating. Her eyes then landed on my mug as I took a long nice sip of the piping hot joe.

"Can I have a sip?"

Madison answered for me. "No."

"Nothing like coffee in the morning though," she said nonchalantly as she rolled up her sleeping bag. She then twirled her hair on her finger and chuckled. "Were you guys talking about me?"

Madison scoffed. "You should know. You were probably listening."

"And what would give you that idea?" she asked innocently sounding all too fake.
Madison scowled at her but turned back to me. She rubbed my shoulder and smiled. "Go inside and get you some rest. You had a long night."

The idea sure sounded nice, but my pride and lack of sleep was clouding my judgment. Besides, Matthew wanted me to be more involved and step up. Slinking off back into the house while they decide would just prove Gemma right. No, I wanted to be here for whatever they decided on.

"No. You can't just leave me out," I said bitterly. "Don't I have a say in the matter?"

Madison frowned. "Of course. I just thought you might want to get some rest. I can always fill you and Matt in..."

"Oh, so Matt put you solely in charge now? You make the decisions and you just fill us in?"
Madison looked taken aback but continued. "No. That's not what I meant at all. No one put me in charge of anything. I'm just worried about you is all. You've been up all night. You need to rest."

"I don't need rest. I'm fine. I'm not leaving. I have just as much say on this matter as you do, so I'm staying."

Madison looked confused, but let it go and remained strangely quiet. Gemma, on the other hand, looked smug and that irritated me more than Madison trying to brush me off.

"You said we were keeping her out of our discussions. Why is she still here?" I snapped.

Madison seemed to take this personal too regrettably. She looked sad, but she said nothing. She turned around to the window and knocked on it loudly. She then shouted. "Luther!"

Mr. Jones then appeared at the door. He greeted us cheerfully as usual. "Hello, good people."

"She's wake," Madison murmured.

"Ah, good. Ms. Gemma, I would like to speak with you inside if that's ok. Just like to have a nice chat to see if you would be a good fit here."

"Oh, that's fine Mr. Jones. I've been looking forward to talking to you anyway," she gushed.

She stood up and took his arm. As they stepped into the house, she looked back at us smirking.
The two of them then disappeared into the home leaving the two of us alone. I felt instantly relieved. A little awkward, but relieved.

"Madison. I'm...I'm sorry. Thank you for the coffee," I said offering a verbal olive branch.

She smiled. "It's...it's fine. Aaron made the coffee. He was worried about you."

"Really? I guess that explains the bitterness of it."

"Yeah, I was worried about you too you know. I'm sorry if I seem like..."

"It's ok. I'm just a little grumpy I guess."

"Like your brother?"

"Don't insult me. He's grumpy 24/7!"

We laughed and she turned to me looking suddenly stern. "As much as I would like to know what happened last night, I want to pass an idea off on you quickly while we're alone."

"Huh? What you mean?"

"Gemma. What should we do with her? I was thinking we might need to do something drastic."

"Like what?"

"Well...um... execute her. Take her out before she becomes a danger to us."

I gasped. "You mean kill her?!

"Not so loud," she whispered. "But yes. It would solve the whole kicking her out and coming back scenario."

"You're insane! We can't just kill someone!"

"Why not? Our justice system did as much.”

"Yeah, with fair trials and humane executions!"

"I personally think we would be doing her a favor. No more running. No more walkers."

"Yeah, I'm sure she's just dying to be killed."

She frowned. "Is that sarcasm and a horrible pun?"

"We're talking about killing a living and breathing human being, Madison!"

"No we're talking about eliminating a problem and that's the only way to do it. I don't hear you offering up any ideas."

"Who else have you ran this idea by?"

"Matthew, Vince, Lin, and I sort of mentioned it to DJ last night but he got kind of upset and went to bed."

"Good God. I bet he did."

"Well, Matthew reacted a lot like you did, but he took it better than I thought he would. Then Vince was sort of onboard. Lin too. I think they want revenge for what happened and they agreed that Gemma is a threat," she said. "But I already know Mr. Jones won't go for it and I don't think I can convince him, so I'm not entirely sure what to do."

"What we do is not kill. That's what we do."

She sighed and we heard the door beside me creep open. DJ and Audrey stepped out. They looked over the porch and back at us. Both with serious expressions on their faces.
"Enough." DJ boomed glaring at both of us. “Nate’s right. What we do here is not kill, so squash it.”

“You..?”

“Yeah, we overheard you two.”

I gasped. "Oh, God."

Audrey shrugged. "I'm perfectly fine with it though if it comes to that."

"It won’t come to that,” he said sounding almost incensed. "I told her last night. It will not come to that!"

Madison scoffed. "How you figure that?”

“Because it won’t. It can’t!”

“Why can it?”

“Because I said so, so drop it!”

“I understand taking a life is difficult, but sometimes it’s necessary. Especially now. For example, this place. It’s like gold. People will kill for it. Kill you for it. One day or another you’re going have to defend yourself and people may get hurt. Someone may even die. You’re going get blood on your hand like it or not. This is a dog eat dog world now, DJ.”

“You don’t think I know that, Madison?! I’ve killed before to keep this place from danger. I’ve seen death face to face. This wouldn’t be my first rodeo, so don’t lecture me on that. What I’m saying is I will not allow another person to die needlessly on this property.”

“Needlessly?! Whoa! Wait? You’ve killed before? Here?!”

He leaned on the banister and sighed. "Yes. One night a man covered in blood came here looking for shelter. There was a slight language barrier as he spoke Spanish, but from what I gathered his wife had been bitten and that she had fallen ill. Said he had left her to find help. He had been the first stranger I had encountered when this all happened and I had heard so many horror stories. We also had just lost my grandfather’s nurse and housekeeper to a biter, so I was still pretty shaken up. I was afraid. There was no way I was letting him in, but he begged and he begged. Still not understanding him, he became loud. Finally, I had enough and told him to get off my property. He pulled out a gun. I shot first. The look on his face. I will never forget it."
"What happened to his wife?" Audrey asked looking solemnly.

"I don't know. She turned maybe? I don't know. I can’t help, but think now if I had just let him in maybe things might have turned out differently.”

“DJ..I’m..I’m sorry. I no idea,” Madison stuttered.

He continued. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. All I know is grandpa banned guns on the property that night. Told me to never spill blood on this land again and that I must repent. So the killing talk needs to stop. It’s not going happen, so enough."
As he said this, Wade appeared at the door. He shot DJ a look but stepped on to the porch. He looked from one to the other. A hint of suspicion flashing across his face.

"What the hell are you guys talking about?!"

"Nothing!" Audrey blurted out abruptly.

"What?"

"Yeah. We were just talking about Gemma and how we should follow the rules," DJ said emphasizing the last part as he cut his eye at Madison. "You know no guns or murder!"

"I heard you the first time," she mumbled. She stood up. "We were just talking about what to do with Gemma”

"Gemma? Murder? What are you guys going on about?" he drawled. Everyone went silent. He crossed his arms and his mouth went agape. "Noo. No. You...you were talking about killing Gemma weren't you? Are you nuts?!"

"Wade..."

"Talking about murdering people?!"

DJ seethed. "Shut up both of you. You're being too loud. The whole neighborhood can hear you!"

"I'm pretty sure the neighbors are dead," I joked getting nothing, but eye-rolling and dirty looks back. “Sorry.”

"Regardless, the old man is going to flip his lid if he hears us. If he even catches wind of this, we're done."

"No, we're done. Not you," Wade said. He glared at Madison. "But that's what she does. Everywhere we go, she sabotages it."
"I sabotage it? Like how? We've only been to one other place together, Wade. Where we had the displeasure of meeting."

"Yeah and you messed that up. You just had to find out the truth about what was going on there. You just had to stick your nose into that Sargent's business."

"Yeah, and if it wasn't for me finding the truth you might be cut up into little pieces for the Sargent's dead son. Oh and that's if the giant herd hadn't killed you!"

"Enough!" DJ snapped. "No one is killing anyone anyway, so let's just drop it. What we need is a real plan that plays by the rules."

The door opened and we all turned our heads to see Omar standing there. He smirked, “Arguing as usual I see. I can hear you two a mile away.”
"See!"

"Sorry. We were just waiting to hear Wade's genius plan," Madison scoffed. "So what is it? What's your idea, huh? Let her stay so she can give you more fake compliments and flirt with you."

"Actually, yes."

"What?!"

"Not for those reasons, but it's the only choice," he said earnestly. He sat down on the bench and continued. "I went over it in my head. At first, I thought we should just send her on her way with some supplies. Tell her if she ever came back we would shoot her on-site. Then it came to me. We should play the long game."

"The what?"

"We play the long game. Have you ever heard of the saying ‘keep your friends close, but enemies closer?’ Well, we let her stay and see what shit we can get out of her about these Vulture people. Follow her every move if we have to. She’s bond to slip up!”
"Oh, so you're willing to stay under the same roof as her? Wade, she can slit our throats in the night as we sleep. Not to mention she’s probably spying on us!"

"So killing her is going to solve all our problems? Ok, we kill her. Then what? You think that’s just going be it? That we're free? No. It’ll just get worse. Her group will go to contact her and she won’t answer. They'll go looking for her. Maybe they’ll find out she’s dead before they even set foot here. They’ll want revenge. People like that just don’t let things go, Madison!"

"We have people we have to protect here. Injured people!"

"And you're right, which is why my plan is safer."

"Safer?!"

"If we kill her they’ll bring their guns and their tank of our car. They’ll kill every one of us if they can! Injured and non-injured. We can protect ourselves from one measly woman. At least better than an army of them."

"It only takes one person to destroy what we've built here. She'll destroy us!"

Omar cleared his throat. "May I say something? Well, you both make valid points, but I can't condone killing her. The good book said thou shall not kill and I still believe in that. Grace would still believe in that. I know it's probably foolish to even think that way still, but I want to believe we can still believe in something. Besides, haven't we seen enough death? I know I have."

"Wise as ever my friend. Well, Madison," he said meeting her eyes. She shrugged looking defeated. He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Look, I'm not saying it's going be easy, but we have to be smart. We can't protect this place if we get kicked out you know. Then they win anyway."

"If I get kicked out you mean. It would be me as I would take full responsibility."

"Well, that's mighty kind of you but I'm not getting stuck babysitting the tweedle Dum and tweedle Dee twins. You're part of this group and your home is with us, like it or not."
"Tweedle Dum and tweedle Dee? You do know I'm still here and I can hear you right?!" I injected.

"So what do we do?"

"Well, killing her is not an option!" DJ persisted. "So.."

Madison groaned. "Fine. We're going with Wade's plan and fake it till we figure out something else I guess."

Wade grinned. "Finally, you're talking some sense. Thanks to me of course."

"Don't gloat. You're already unbecoming."

We shared a good laugh as Wade looked on unamused, but a knock on the window behind me broke up the light mood. I looked back to see Tao staring at us from inside.

"Yo! Jones and Red are coming!"
"Thank ya," Wade answered waving. "I told him to warn us."

"Well, what now?" Madison mumbled.

"Act normal. Remember we want her to think she's our friend. Get her nice and comfy here. Lure here into a false sense of security. She's bound to..."

"Yeah. Yeah. She bound to slip up. Well, she better Wade Dunn or I'm going to..."

She stopped mid-sentence as she heard the unmistakable sound of Luther's voice and Gemma. Everyone seemed to scramble off as if they were finding their places in a play. All of us seemingly finding it hard to smile as our expressions were a mixture of smirks and poker faces. Madison though stood in front and placed the perfect fake smile on her face just as the two of them came out on the porch.

Luther stepped out first. He clearly seemed to enjoy his chat with Gemma. Then Gemma who had the same silly grin she usually sported.

"Why hello everyone," she beamed surveying the scene before her. Her eyes then fell solely on Madison. "And someone seems to be in a better mood."
"Oh, I am," Madison said through gritted teeth. She closed her eyes and let out an audible sigh. She then flashed an even bigger grin. "Well, we were just talking about you and we all decided it would be nice if you stayed."

I made a ton of poses for this. Hope you can tell. :)

This is the ending you chose. The two people who did vote. xD The outcome of the other scenario will be explained. 

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