State of Decay✔️

Chapter 29: Darkening

Marcus sighed quietly to himself.

He didn't like this...but he liked the alternative even less. He also thought that it wasn't right that he had to be in such a bad mood on the day after he finally had gotten together with, if he was being honest with himself, the woman of his dreams. It was something he honestly hadn't even realized until he'd started thinking about it as he pulled out of the gravel parking lot of the church, but Maya was...everything he wanted in a woman. Smart, strong, independent. She didn't seem like she'd bullshit him with things like being overly clingy and jealousy. She was extremely attractive, she could look after herself, she clearly had a lot of willpower.

Was he in love?

Marcus shook his head and focused on driving. Too soon to tell about that. Or was it? Wasn't love supposed to come on really fast and strong? He heaved another sigh and stopped thinking about it. Maya was back at the church, keeping an eye out. Marcus was driving, alone, through the wasteland that had been Spencer's Mill. It looked more desolate than ever. There were more and more zombies cropping up and Marcus supposed that made sense. It was just the church group and the trio down in the Tartan Mart now.

Thoughts and worries of the future drifted through Marcus' mind. He got the feeling that things were going to come to a head soon, somehow, someway, they'd have to make some kind of decision. And those points in time, like nodes, could go either way, it seemed. But the dwindling resources and population of Spencer's Mill wasn't even the most obvious problem. Neither were the zombies. No, it was the Wilkersons.

How to deal with them?

Marcus couldn't help but feel that they were evil men and they were pretty much always looking for a way to stick a knife in your back. If you weren't with them, you were against them kind of mentality. How to deal with that kind of problem? He supposed the only real way was to do what he was doing now: watch your own ass and try to protect the people who wouldn't listen to reason. Like the people he was going to escort right now. They were Ben and his enclave, the man he'd rescued from the Wilkersons earlier, trading some of their own ammo for the man's life. Ben hadn't wanted to join up with the church group.

Perhaps Marcus could change his mind.

He came out of town and drove along the winding road until he came to the farm he was looking for. Three figures were waiting for him in front of the house. As Marcus pulled up, one of them broke away and walked up to the driver's side.

"So...they sent you? I didn't really peg you as one of the bad guys," the man, who Marcus recognized as Ben, said.

"Wait...what?" Marcus replied.

"I told the Wilkersons that we wouldn't do this deal without a neutral witness...and I also figured that they'd send someone to pretend to be one."

"I'm not a bad guy. I'm not doing this for them, I'm doing this for you. Also, I'm not neutral. I'm for you, I'm here to protect to you, to make sure the Wilkersons don't try to rip you off. That's the only reason I even agreed to this," Marcus replied.

Ben stared at him for a moment, then his features softened. "Okay, I'm sorry. I just...it's been a really hard couple of days. We've been fighting a lot of zombies off recently and we're low on ammo. It's the main reason we're even doing this."

"Why didn't you come to me? To us? We would have traded fairly with you. Also, the invitation to come stay at the church is still open..."

Ben seemed to consider all this. He glanced back at the others. "Well...we're kind of stuck in this deal right now, and it's a good one, actually, really good, which made me kind of suspicious, which is why I insisted on a driver. But after this deal, well...how about I come over for a visit tomorrow and we have an in-depth discussion?"