CHAPTER 29

AS THE MONTHS GO BY

The Chapter In Which Time Passes

"Here." Olivia said as she took a seat next to Zeke, handing him a cup of coffee. "Anything new?"

It had been two months since Liv had came to Toon Town and she was doing a lot better. She had gained some weight and was closer to her normal. Her stab wound had healed up nicely, leaving a star-shaped pucker in its wake. Her skin was no longer pallid and sickly, but her regular pale rose. She was sleeping better, talking more, and could even stand to let Jared leave her direct line of sight. She had gotten used to the day-to-day of Toon Town. She would make herself useful doing odd jobs and—once a week—would go on runs with Isobel.

In that time, Zeke and her had bonded over their now mutual suspicion of the camera/net traps. Ever since Olivia had first questioned the cameras he had begun paying more and more attention to them. There wasn't much to go on but there were a few things that didn't seem to have an explanation. Where the people went, for one. Even then—that wasn't much. If something suspicious was happening, whoever was behind it was covering their tracks. So, for two months, Zeke and Olivia had searched for an Olivia wasn't out on runs, she was there with Zeke staring at the cameras—waiting for something to happen.

Maybe she was paranoid—nothing else about this town shouted danger. The people were pleasant and no one was treated unfairly. There was no insane dictatorship or fear-inducing methods of gaining obedience and complacency. This place, by all appearances, was a normal and cooperative place, full of good people. But Liv couldn't shake her feeling of paranoia. She couldn't believe it—it was too good to be true. Something had to be going on. There had to be something. Good places—good people didn't exist anymore. This place was a ticking time bomb, she was certain.

"Thanks." Zeke said, taking the cup and taking a sip, letting out a sigh of satisfaction. "And no. Haven't seen anything today. But—" He put down his cup and looked around, making sure that the other people monitoring the cameras and runners weren't paying them any attention. Zeke pulled out a piece of paper. "I've been looking at blueprints of the place."

Liv eyed them up—they were very thorough—no place for any hidden rooms. "What am I looking at, dude? I'm seeing nothing."

"Exactly. Nothing." He said with emphasis as if that gave them a lot of information. Liv just looked at him. He jabbed a finger at a doorway at the end of the line of clinics that Liv had been first brought too when she had came to Toon Town. "This door here. This is where they take the people after they have been through the Clinics."

Olivia frowned. "Yes. We already know that. They take the people in, they get a pre-screening to check for any bites or scratches, and then the guards take them to this door here." She pointed at the door Zeke had indicated before. "You said before that this is where they take all people who have bitten. Is that an incinerator or something?"

Zeke shook his head. "The incinerator where we burn bodies is over… umm… over here." He searched the map before pointing at an area on the far side of the map. He raised his brows at Liv as if he was proving a point.

"Oh…. kay?" She said and Zeke looked at her, unimpressed. "What? This means nothing to me! What are you getting at?"

"Why wouldn't they build the incinerator closer to the gates? Everything else in this place is built for maximum efficiency, except that. Why would they build the clinics here where people are diagnosed with the Plague, and then have to walk them all the way around to the incinerator? They could fight back in that time."

"R-right!" Olivia said leaning in, excitement growing. Were they finally onto something? "Ok. Yeah. That's odd. What is the room behind the door listed as?"

"Nothing. It just goes down to the labs." Zeke said with a frown.

"Oh." Olivia felt herself deflating. "Well, maybe they are using these people as samples for their experiments." That, in itself wasn't a pleasant thought but she could excuse it. If they were really trying to find a cure, then they would need samples and people who were bitten were a lost cause either way—might as well make their death meaningful.

"Probably." Zeke frowned, deflating as he realized he had found nothing. "Well, maybe we could talk to a Hunter or a Guard—maybe you can try talking to Jared again?"

Olivia shook her head. "No. He told me to drop it. Besides I don't think Jared knows—"

"Don't think Jared knows what?" A voice spoke behind Zeke and Olivia, clapping a hand on their shoulders and chuckling as they jumped in their seats. "Ooh! I surprised you! Are you two up to no good?"

Olivia scowled up at Jared as he sent her a large shit-eating grin. "Jesus, Jared! Don't do that!."

He laughed as he walked over and grabbed a chair from another monitoring station and dragged it over, sitting backwards on it and resting his chin on the back. "Well, I wasn't exactly quiet, stomping up behind you guys. You were certainly absorbed in your conversation. What are you up to?" He glanced down at the blueprints and Zeke quickly grabbed them, shoving them into his backpack. "Blueprints? Why are you looking at blueprints?"

"Don't worry about it." Liv mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

"We're trying to decide where to put our… um…. our…" Zeke tried, and Jared raised his eyebrows, waiting. "Our flower garden."

Jared frowned. "And you don't think I know anything about flowers? Everybody knows I'm an expert when it comes to floral arrangement. Seriously, ask anyone!" Jared joked. "But seriously, what's up?" Zeke and Olivia didn't say anything, suddenly taking an avid interest in the monitors. Jared glanced between the two. "No. C'mon guys! You're still stuck on the net traps? Come on. It's nothing! Why are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill!"

Olivia spun around in her chair and swatted his arm. "Shut it! Keep it down!" She hissed in a whisper as he rubbed his arm, sending her a dirty look. She glanced around to make sure no one was paying them any attention. "Look. How is it not suspicious that the only things these nets really catch are humans? And I've been at them—they aren't exactly placed in areas where large game hang out!"

"—Yeah! And it's only ever a single person! We saw that once a person got caught and then another came and tried to get them out. The hunters let them go! They only ever bring in people who are alone and apparently bitten! Why bother?"

"You two are putting too much thought into it." Jared rolled his eyes before looking around. "Hey! James!" He waved over a man at another monitor—a Hunter. Zeke and Olivia waved at Jared, trying to get him to shut up. "Those people you bring in from the net traps—how come you bring them in when they're infected?"

James looked over at them. He was a big and intimidating man—bulky, huge muscles that hinted he had spent a lot of time sculpting them. What he lacked in intelligence he made up for in muscle. All of the Hunters seemed to fit this qualification—not to mention a severe lack of compassion and empathy. If they hadn't been occupants of Toon Town, Olivia would have thought they were part of a group like Randall's had been. "Dunno." He grumbled, peering at them through dark, beady eyes. "Protocol, I guess. We're just told to bring everybody in."

"What about that group of people you found a month ago?"

James turned in his chair, giving them his full attention. He eyed them up. Olivia felt hot and sticky. "They didn't want to come." He shrugged his massive shoulders. "Why?"

"No reason. Just something we—" Zeke tried diffusing his suspicion.

"These two have too much time on their hands. Making conspiracy theories." Jared said with a laugh, not noticing when no one else laughed with him. Olivia shot him a glare, urging him to shut up.

"Maybe they should find more work. Keep their noses out of where they don't belong." James said with a warning, turning back to focus on the monitors.

Jared laughed. "What a charmer that guy is." Olivia and Zeke exchanged nervous glances. They were going to have to lay low for a while, now. James's warning didn't do anything to qualm their suspicions, however, only fuelling. If he was warning them to mind their own business, there was something they were hiding.

Olivia and Zeke kept their gazes forward, feeling rather like scolded children. Jared nudged Liv's shoulder. "See! It's nothing. Now, you ready for lunch? Or do you two have any more conspiracy theories you want to run by me?"

Olivia glared but nodded, standing up to go with him. She sent a look to Zeke who returned with a small smile, looking rather pale. They both rather felt like a noose was now hanging around their necks. Jared was chattering away as he led Olivia out of the Comms Tower and to the mess hall. He had no idea the gravity of the situation—and why should he? From where he was standing this place was an Utopia with nothing wrong going on—and everyone was good with pure intentions. Olivia wished he was right… but she just knew he wasn't.

Olivia turned to glance behind her and made eye contact with James as he exited out of the Comms Tower. He nodded his bulky head, give her a sneer-like smirk as he sauntered in the opposite direction. Liv quickly returned her attention forward—feeling paranoid. What was James doing? Why was he leaving his Comms shift? She glanced at Jared who was nearly skipping in his oblivious bliss. God, it was at times like this that she missed Tony. He would be here with her trying to figure this out—he would be just as suspicious as herself.

Tony. Liv winced thinking about him. She was still angry. Jared had tried—continued to try convincing her that Tony had been forced to leave her. Olivia didn't care. She had been able to return to the farm. Surely he would have been able to too. Surely him or Daryl or anybody. Someone should have returned to look for survivors—or left more indications on where they are going. But they hadn't. They left. They abandoned her.

Daryl. Another sore spot. She wasn't sure how she felt about him. She hadn't really expected him to return for her but it still hurt nonetheless. She had thought that he had felt something towards her.

"Oh, look!" Jared exclaimed happily, bringing Liv back to reality. They entered the mess hall where a line of cooks were serving food. "They made fries!"

"Yay." Liv said dully. That was one thing that was great about this place—the food. She hadn't thought she'd ever be eating fries again. It had her mouth watering—despite the fact they would be lacking spices.

Jared peered at her when he caught her tone. He reached forward and tapped her nose. She flinched away with a scowl. Liv was irritated at him for being such an idiot and yelling out her secrets but she couldn't really stay mad at him. It was like trying to be mad a puppy for chewing a shoe. "Why the frown, clown?"

"Fuck off, pig trough." She muttered, slapping his hand away. Jared just grinned at her, not insulted in the slightest. He was used to her grumpy disposition.

They walked up to the serving table, filling up a plate, and greeting the servers with a smile and some small talk. Liv felt disgusting—like a wild animal forced to perform circus trick. It felt so… wrong pretending things were normal in a world that was anything but. But, she supposed, maybe these people needed it.

Jared and her found a table and sat, Jared eagerly digging into his meal while Liv poked at hers—still not entirely used to eating this much food. Or that quantity of hot, good quality food. She had lived on canned food and jerky for months by herself. This food was almost alien to her.

Jared began chattering away but Liv was lost in thought. If James had issued a warning to Zeke and her, then they were obviously on to something. But what? It had to be something about the net traps… but what exactly? Maybe they would have to investigate that door Zeke had pointed out. That would probably lead to nothing, though. Just a dumbwaiter or something going to the labs. Nothing.

Still, it was their only lead.

Liv stood up and planted the head of her shovel into the ground—taking a break. It was well into winter so she wasn't overly sweaty but shovelling animal crap was still a very labour intensive job. She glared down at the shit. This was the worst part about living in Toon Town. Because Liv didn't have a lot of 'valuable skills' like teaching or being a doctor, she got assigned to odd jobs on days when she wasn't on runs—something she did once a week. Right now, she was assigned with mucking the stalls. It was a shitty job.

She nodded at the other workers who were walking past her, wheeling away shit. She didn't know their names—there were too many people in Toon Town to learn everyone's names even if she wanted to. And she didn't want to. She didn't trust them. They would betray her if they gave her an inch. The only people she somewhat trusted was Zeke and Isobel (who she often went out on runs with), but even with them she was wary. She had been burned once.

She sighed, getting back to work. She had been here ever since lunch and now the sun was beginning to work it's way down—not quite yet setting. Must be like three of four in the afternoon.

"Hey, Olivia!" A voice called from the other side of the fence and Liv glanced up. Zach. "You almost done there? Elm wants to see us." He sounded baffled. Frankly, Liv was too. Why would Elm need to see them?

"Just give me a couple of minutes!" She called back, mind whirling as she began quickly shovelling—hurrying. Her blood ran cold—maybe his was about Zeke and her's investigations, although that didn't explain why Zach would be there. He had nothing to do with it—Zeke had made sure of that. Zach knew nothing.

Liv scooped the last of the shit into her wheelbarrow, and walked it over to the pile where it would be used to fertilize the soil. She quickly washed her hands and returned her gloves before joining Zach.

"What's this about?" Liv asked as they began walking towards Elm's elevated house.

Zach shrugged. "No idea. James just came and told me Elm wanted to see us."

Liv looked at him suspiciously. "…James did?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Olivia just shrugged as they began ascending the stairs. She stared at the door like it held her doom. So, James had gone to Elm. Had he mentioned what Jared had idiotically told him? But that still didn't explain why Zach was here. Her finger's twitched. She was really wishing she had a weapon at the moment. But, Elm was an old man. She could handle him if she needed to.

Zach knocked the door as they came to it. "Come in!" They heard Elm call from inside. Zach and Liv glanced at each other nervously before heading in. Old Elm was sitting in his usual spot—his worn in Lazy boy—and James was there with him, seated on the couch beside Elm. Liv stared at James and he stared back, tilting his head.

"Come, sit down." Elm waved them over and they obeyed. As they got closer Liv noticed a map spread out on the coffee table in front of them. Zach and Liv sat nervously next to James and Liv found herself awkwardly squished between Zach and James. Liv tried learning herself closer to Zach, unwilling to be pressed against the bulky meathead next to her. Elm didn't say anything, just eyed them up as he crossed his hands.

"U-um. You asked for u-us?" Zach stammered. As a runner in the 'Non-essential' category he rarely encountered Elm. Liv wasn't surprised he was intimidated.

Elm nodded eventually. "Yes. Zere is somezing I vanted to discuss vith you two. A run." Liv and Zach glanced at each other. Elm had never discussed runs with Runners before. "I vant you zree to go out on a run. It vill be further zan zee runs you are ushed to—it may take two or zree days to complete."

"Two or three days?" Liv asked, staring at him. From what she understood, runs lasting more than a day were unheard of. Runners were only ever out for a day. Sure, there was that run to the CDC that lasted a couple of days but that had been a unique situation.

"Yes. Zer is some resources vee need from Newnan." He gestured to James who reached forward and indicated the city on the map—it was North-East of their current location. "Zey have an airport, a hospital, and a university zere. I vant you to look for supplies zere—mechanicals. I vant you to search zee University to search for any files zey might haf on zee Zeta Plague—the main reason for zis run. Zee scientists haf asked us to look for more information. Look for generators and any life-safing medication or equipment as vell as the usual supples."

"W-we c-can't look s-somewhere closer?" Zach asked as he examined the map. "W-why do we n-need to g-go so far? A-are we r-runnning short of s-suplplies?"

Elm turned his glare Zach, clearly not appreciating his orders being questioned. Zach shrunk back into the couch. "Vee haf cleaned out the supplies I have in mind in the nearby areas. Newnan is a new territory—as well as the University." He looked at James. "I am sending James vith you to offer more protection, as it is a longer Run zan I know you are ushed to. I haf chosen the two of you because I know you are capable."

Liv narrowed her eyes at him, trying to figure out if he was lying. She guessed that if he had chosen them for the reasons he said, he had chosen well. Olivia had survived by herself for months and Zach had done the same while carrying his brother. Not to mention they had fairly good endurance. If anyone was going to be able to survive this it was them.

But James. James was a wild card. All muscle—not much of a runner. He would make for a good bodyguard, though and Liv didn't didn't think he would flinch away at the idea of killing someone. But Liv couldn't trust him to watch her back. Not to mention what had happened earlier. It was too suspicious. Something was up. But she couldn't call attention to it without casting attention to herself. She would have to do the run—but she would keep her guard up.

Liv gave a hesitant nod. "When are we going?"

"Two days." Elm held up two fingers that were warped with arthritis. "James has zee list of supplies I vant you to gazzer." James held up a piece of paper that Liv could see had writing on both sides. If something was up, Elm was going to extreme lengths.

Liv leaned forward and met Elm's gaze, staring him down, trying to find any deception. Elm stared right back, daring her to protest. She didn't. Instead she turned her attention to the map laid out in front of her—a generic map of Georgia. "So what's the plan?"

James eyed her up before turning his attention to the map. "We're here near West Point Lake on the Alabama sid.." He pointed and Liv looked. She had seen their location on a map before and it still managed to surprise her. She had crossed the Georgia-Alabama border on her journey looking for her old group—she had gone further East then she thought. "Newnan is up here."

Liv frowned. "That's not very far from here… it's what? Fifty miles? How come it's going to take so long to get there?"

"We're not taking a direct route." James explained, dragging his finger around the bottom of West Point Lake—South-East of their current location. "And we'll be avoiding major roads." He brought his meaty finger up and around to Newnan—they'd be coming up from the South-East from the East of the City rather than the South-West.

She frowned down at the map—it was a rather elaborate way of getting to a city they could get to in a direct line. "Why?"

"There's some groups we know about up in Franklin—had some deserters came from them. We'd rather avoid them." James explained, looking at Elm who seemed to be ignoring them as he rocked in his chair. "And this way we can stop at the car manufacturing place—Kia, I think."

Liv and Zach exchanged glances before nodding. It did make sense, Liv supposed. And if they stopped at Kia Motors perhaps they could find some better vehicles to take. Or at least, some parts, tools, and other uncommon resources. She sighed, running a hand through her hair. This whole thing was fishy… but what could she do? From what she could see she had nothing to be suspicious about. By all accounts this was a reasonable idea—well, as reasonable it was asking three people to travel fifty miles away from safety in a land riddled with murderers and blood-thirsty zombies. Aside from that, this didn't seem suspicious.

But Liv couldn't shake the feeling that something was up. Elm or even James was up to something (if James was even capable of that kind of brain power). She glanced at Zach—he was shaking in his seat, his dark skin looking rather pale. He was scared. This would be the furthest he had been from Toon Town in a while.

Did they even have the choice to refuse? It wasn't something Liv had heard of happening—the unspoken rule that if you refused work you weren't being productive or contributing to the well-being of the group. Liv didn't know what would happen if she refused—she had the feeling that she was walking on thin ice. She felt like Elm was just waiting for an excuse to kick her out.

She didn't have any options but to go—but she would go ready. On runs was the only time she was allowed a weapon on her person and she'd be ready to use it.

She had worked too hard to get here—to find Jared. She wasn't going to go dying now.

:)

- Delaney