Serendipity ○ All 14

24. Corey

Corey walked down the streets of town, his right hand in Raven's, and his left arm linked through Addie's. The rest of his brothers trailed behind them, pointing out random stuff and marveling over the old architecture of the buildings.

Every now and then, he could feel the burning gazes of his brothers on his back. Smugness settled deep in his bones. That's right. Be jealous.

It was the first monthly survivor meeting they were attending at the town hall.

Even though they had been there a few months, they held off on the meetings so they could get to know the townies more. They would also use the oppurtunity to search for whoever attacked their girl.

Addie knew they were keeping an eye out, but she had told them that it was a fruitless endeavor. She said there were a lot of people who held something against her, so it might be a tiring search.

She didn't know of their background in the Academy, or all of the training and skills they had to make the search easier.

It would probably be best that they tell her about it soon though, before they got too serious. With everything she revealed about her past, Corey didn't want her to get upset about them hiding their own from her.

After she told them that they would waste their time searching, they had all promised to themselves that they would look deeper into the greenies that showed up right before the incident. The timing was too suspicious.

Sighing and letting go of the stressful thoughts, he let his eyes wander towards the picturesque town square. The white gazebo stood proudly right in the middle, small businesses and the town hall located around it in a square.

He had seen it plenty of times before, but he still couldn't get used to how the town looked like it belonged in a Hallmark movie.

Addie pointed things out to him, Raven and his brothers. The tree that she fell out of and broke her leg, the store her and her brother Jace egged back in high school because 'the owner was being a big bag of dicks', the roof of the small, haunted movie theater building that they'd climb and watch the firework shows that the town would put on for the Fourth of July.

They loved to listen to her talk about her life before the virus. There was a wistfulness that consumed her tone, but no heavy grief.

It was time for them to start reciprocating. He knew she was getting tired of them keeping so much of themselves from her. She held back on invasive questions, which was a blessing, but if Corey were in her shoes, he wasn't sure that he'd be able to do the same.

"Miss Addie," Owen called out when her voice tapered off slowly, causing her to turn her head slightly to show him he had her attention. She didn't leave Corey's side. "Can you tell us what to expect out of this meeting?"

"You already know that the meetings are for the survivors to bring up issues or ideas to improve things, but if I were you, I'd hold on tight. It can get pretty ridiculous. Last month, one of the townies - Ernie is his name - told Teddy that he was gonna riot if we took down the American flag during winter."

"That doesn't sound so bad," Victor said.

"...when I asked what he would do, he said he would behead all of Old Betty's chickens and stuff the heads in everyone's pillows." Addie told him awkwardly.

"Oh. Oh wow."

"Yeah..." she trailed off, looking foward, flicking imaginary dust off her jacket. "That's pretty tame actually."

"How the fuck is that tame?" Gabriel practically shouted, looking disgusted.

"You guys didn't meet Billy - he wasn't a local, he came across New Haven when he was travelling - but he believed that he was the President of the United States after everyone died from the virus. Tried to make us follow all these laws and vote in the meetings."