Craig of the Dead

7. The Not-So Leader

It was amazing how odd the world could be sometimes. My biggest wish had always been for people to hear my voice, to be able to make change happen. Now I had gotten my wish. So why wasn't I happy? At all?

"So what is the problem here?" I asked, sighing and rubbing my eyes. I couldn't remember when I had last gotten a good night's rest.

"Bebe isn't helping with any of the cleanup!" Red shouted angrily. "You told me 'Red, you're on cleanup duty after lunch with Annie and Bebe.' And what did Bebe do? Nothing!"

"Hey! I wasn't doing nothing! I dried some dishes too!" Bebe protested.

"Ladies, stop bickering! Please!" I racked my brain, trying to figure out a way to diffuse the situation. The right thing to do would to just call out Bebe, tell her to get off her butt and help out, but then Bebe would have a meltdown. Lots of girls respected her, she was probably the most popular girl in the grade, so I couldn't risk her turning against me.

"How about this? Bebe, instead of rotating out for your free period after lunch tomorrow, you could help me clean up with Nicole."

"No, I earned that free period!" Bebe whined. "This is stupid, we shouldn't have schedules! What is this, school? And who made you in charge, anyway?"

"Because nobody else had the courage to take charge, and if it was any of you we would all be zombies right about now." I growled, trying to keep my anger in check.

"Wendy's got a point, guys. She does have natural leadership skills, and we've made it this far with her as leader." Nicole said.

"Well I think that I could be a better leader." Bebe said.

"I'd like to see you try." I glared at her, with her returning my icy stare. We stood there in dead silence, all of the other girls' eyes fixed on us. Waiting for one of us to back down.

Finally, Bebe shifted her eyes to the ground, mumbling, "Come on, guys, let's go." She and a few of her friends left, shuffling out of the room. Yeah, not today bitch.

"Man, that was a close one." Nicole stayed behind to chat with me for a little while longer. "I almost thought that she had you there."

"Aw, come on. Have a little faith in me." We both gave a half-hearted laugh. "What are we going to do? I mean, I can't keep all the girls on my side for long. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened."

"What do you mean?"

"Listen, have you read Lord of the Flies?"

"Ew, gross, no way."

"It's not gross, it's a book by William Golding. In it, a group of young boys find themselves in situation like ours. No adults or anything, having to rule themselves."

"Okay, so what's your point?" Nicole asked.

"My point is that in the novel, Ralph takes over as leader, but then another popular boy decides that he could do better, so the group splits up between Ralph and Jack. That's what's happening here. One day Bebe is going to have had enough, leave, and take a bunch of girls with her. And let me tell you, the story doesn't end well."

"So why do you care so much? If Bebe wants to be a brat, let her."

"I care because all the girls in our class are idiots who couldn't survive an apocalypse if they had a How-To guide shoved in their face." I muttered. "If they did leave and someone in the other group got hurt, or died, I would still feel responsible. I can't let that happen."

"Man, that sucks. I thought you and Bebe were, like, BBF's?" We began heading to my room as we spoke. Although it was my free hour, I was going to try to help out anyway. Or maybe I would just rant with Nicole for a while longer. Both things needed to be done.

"Yeah, we were. I don't know what happened. She used to be so nice and friendly. All she cares about now are looks and makeup and boys."

"On the topic of boys, where do you think they are?" Nicole sat down on my bed as I lay on the floor, which was cluttered with notes on loose-leaf. "I mean, we haven't seen any sign of them, but we haven't really gone looking for them either."

"Yeah, well, I need to put my own girls first. Once we have a steady system going, and once I can stop worrying about mutiny, we can start to send out groups to search for more kids. And please, I figured out where the boys were hiding out ages ago. They're over at that old house, the one that the new family just moved into."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but it was just a husband and wife. They moved in because I think their other house was too small, they were expecting, you know? Anyway, they're both long gone now. I'm almost positive that the boys have a base set up there." I said, studying one of the pages on the floor.

"Do you really think that the boys would band together like that? I know we did, but boys are dumber than us, they might have just scattered like mice the minute the first walker showed up."

"Yeah, I know Nicole. They might not all be there. But a lot of them sure are." I bit my lip. "I think."

"Okay, so why did we come up here? It's your free period, go have fun! Let loose, relax, you desperately need it."

"I don't know, I just, uuggg! I need to get away from it all!" I was so exhausted. Maybe I should just take a nap and let the other girls run wild. If one of them got hurt, it wouldn't be my fault.

Would it?

"Come up here Wendy." Nicole said, patting the bed. I pushed myself off of the carpet and sat down on the edge. "What's up?"

"I just wish that I could be certain about something! Everything I thought I knew has been turned on its head! No, I don't know if I can protect everyone. No, I don't know if the boys are all okay. No, I don't know anything and yet I'm trying to make everyone believe that I can lead them!" I cried out, feeling tears pushing against the back of my eyes. I shoved them back. I was not going to cry. Crying was for stupid people who didn't know how to handle their emotions.

"Look, Wendy, you're doing the best you can, and it's pretty good. You are a great leader, don't fool yourself into thinking otherwise." She said, patting my shoulder reassuringly.

"Thanks." I mumbled, not feeling any better. Sometimes, I wished that I had no down time. I couldn't afford to be sad and alone and emotional if I was always working.

"Wendy! Quick, you're gonna want to see this!" Nelly burst into my room, out of breath. I jumped a bit, startled, but soon I switched my brain into leader mode.

"What is it?" I asked, pushing all my emotions away as I sprung from the bed.

"We found something!" She explained as the three of us made it to the front door. "We didn't want to let them inside, not yet. We thought we should question them first, then—"

"Wait, who are we talking about?"

"The boys." Nelly said. "We found boys."