At my silence, Leon's face softens by degrees. "I understand your mistrust, and I know how this must look and sound," he tries. 

"I'm not so sure you do," I retort. "I was fine with being questioned, patched up, and given shelter - albeit rather prison-like - but this?" I throw my hands up at the general situation, exasperated. "You quite literally dropped a bomb on my head here, Leon." 

"I know," he sighs.

"If you know us as well as you say you do, then just let us go," I plead. 

"I'm afraid I can't, Cassandra," Leon repeats. "Unfortunately, we have a strict order of business when handling outsiders here at Cottonwood, and if I show the three of you leniency, the rest of the camp would feel unsafe regardless of whether or not they are aware that I know you."

I sigh, pacing in place as I pinch my nose. 

He gives me an imploring look as Danielle and Josh watch the scene before them with caution before glancing at one another with a look that conveys sympathy to us.

Leon continues, "You will only be in here for a day in quarantine while the rest of camp settles down. Danielle will bring you and your siblings some of the venison you brought in and check on your wounds at dinner time. In the morning, you will be free to leave with no complications." 

"Just like that?" I demand. 

"Just like that." 

Tension slowly begins to leave my shoulders the more I watch him as he talks. If he's lying, his tell is hard to spot. "Great," I finally note. "Then I guess we'll just be here." 

"That you will," Leon replies with a small grin. "However, I do recall that you have not answered the inquiry I had initially proposed." 

"I told you my head was fine," I breathe.

His grin disappears. "I would like to know what has brought you all the way to Georgia in my neck of the woods. Last I heard from Thomas, the lot of you were in Texas." 

"It's the apocalypse," I say. "We're just trying to find someplace safe." 

Leon raises an eyebrow at that. "And there were no safe places in Texas?" 

"Surprisingly enough, no," I quip. 

"And what happened to Thomas?" 

"He died," I lie. 

"How?" 

"A building we were sleeping in caught fire, and it collapsed on him."

"But not on the three of you?" 

I close my eyes as I take a deep breath, shifting in my seat. "Do you really need a play-by-play?" Opening my eyes to watch Leon, the pain of the memory resurfaces as I say, "Our uncle is dead; what more do you need?"

Danielle and Josh exchange glances, and, to his credit, Josh clears his throat this time, getting Leon's attention. 

"Sir?" He offers. "I know you said that you were friends, but he was their uncle. I don't think they want to relive the memory of losing him again." 

Leon levels Josh with a cold look that freezes Josh in his place, but a second passes, and Leon's face relaxes. "You're right," Leon sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm sorry, Cassandra. I just haven't seen Thomas since before the outbreak, and when I recognized the three of you, I had hoped he was nearby." 

"No," I mutter, finally looking away. "It's… just us now."  

"I see," Leon says, standing straight and resting his hand on the door to the shed. "Then I shall leave the three of you to rest for the night. Danielle and Josh will be among the rotating shifts, guarding the three of you while you rest. Lunch will be served shortly, and dinner will be sent in later tonight." 

Opening the door, Leon ushers Danielle and Josh out of the shed but casts a meaningful look my way before he exits at last, locking the door behind him. 

Octavia quickly pulls on my shoulder, nearly yanking me into her lap. "I thought you said that Uncle Tommy was alive? What the hell was that all about?" she hisses. 

"Shut up," I grumble, straining my ears to listen for their footsteps as I glance out of the barred windows. Once I see the back of Leon's head growing smaller as they leave, I sigh. "I lied."

"What the Hell for?!"

"Because I don't trust a single word that came out of that man's mouth," I hiss back. "Come on, Tavia, use your head! We're jumped in the woods and brought to a remote camp that's led by a guy who just happens to know our whole damn family?"

"I mean, yea, the odds are one in a million-"

"Try one in a billion! Need I remind you that most of the world has been turned into these cannibalistic freaks, and there are very few actual people out there, and even fewer who are friendly," I mutter, sitting up on the cot between my siblings. "Trust me, Tavia, I want to believe that this place is safe, but nowhere is. Everyone is out to get something, and everything has a price. I don't doubt that the second we try to leave in the morning, they try to guilt us into staying or say some shit like 'you owe us for patching you up.'"

"You know, not everyone is out to get you, Cass," Octavia huffs. 

"And not everyone is our friend, Tavia," I return. "Just because they haven't killed us doesn't mean they won't try to use us." 

Felix hums in thought, interjecting himself into the argument. "They did mention that they have a bit of a Widow problem here," he adds. 

"Yeah," Octavia rolls her eyes. "And we've established that neither they nor we are with those assholes." 

"Neither were those assholes in Jackson that shot Felix," I add. "Or that group in Birmingham that tried ritualistically sacrificing you to the infected. Or that group in Shreveport that stabbed me because they thought we were with the Widows and tried justifying it by insisting that we were." I pinch the bridge of my nose, unsure of how else to make my point to my sister. "Just because they aren't with the Widows doesn't mean they aren't worse." 

"What I meant," Felix continues, patting my shoulder as he adjusts himself to face my sister and me, "was that if they are having Widow problems, maybe we can use that to our advantage." I pause, giving my brother a curious look and prompting him to continue. "I personally don't trust that Leon guy any more than Cass does, and I think she's right; he's definitely hiding something. But, and hear me out on this, what if we can use this group and we all get what we want?" 

My sister and I exchange looks, both of us intrigued. "What are you talking about?" I ask. "I hope you don't mean using them like cannon fodder." 

"No, no, nothing like that," Felix assures. "What if we can convince them to let us stick around for a little bit like he wants? Rest up, get some decent night's worth of sleep, and then make a deal."

Octavia, getting impatient, huffs out, "What sort of deal, Felix? I know we're gonna be stuck in this shed all damn day, but you don't have to use all that time to explain this plan of yours." 

"I'm getting there; chill out," Felix rolls his eyes. "We can offer to deal with their little Widow threat, and in return, we either get some supplies or a vehicle that can get us to Atlanta or some of their people give us an armed escort?" 

Immediately, my sister and I launch into an argument.

Octavia exclaims, "Deal with their problems?! Felix, we can barely deal with our own problems!" 

I add in, "I can't trust these clowns to be able to tell a squirrel from a deer, let alone give up a vehicle or even people for an escort, even if we could deal with the Widows." 

"We're just a bunch of stupid kids; we're not soldiers."

"I wouldn't say we're stupid kids, but yeah, we're not exactly a militia." 

Felix makes various 'shut up' noises and gestures, quieting my sister and me down. "Listen," he emphasizes. "I'm not saying we go out and kill all the Widows in the area; we don't have to. What we can do is what we did back in Shreveport to those bandits that stabbed Cassy; show them we're too much trouble to mess with." 

I wince, remembering the chain of events that nearly got all of us killed while Octavia cringes. "Uh, I don't know if you hit your head since then," Octavia starts, "but we almost died in that stunt, and we did lose Uncle Tommy." 

"We lost him before we drove a semi through their base." 

"Felix, that was a military convoy truck we drove through their base," I correct. "And we drove it through their gates and straight into their leader. Last I looked, we aren't anywhere near a military base to get another convoy truck to plow through the Widow's camp." 

Octavia nods. "We don't even know where their camp is, either." 

Felix shrugs, dejected. "It was just an idea…" 

I smile at him. "It was a good idea, Felix. We just don't have the manpower, supplies, or credibility to pull off such a stunt. Besides, we're late enough as it is getting to Atlanta."

Sighing, Octavia leans against the wall of the shed again. "God, could you imagine though? These guys would be indebted to us for life if we could pull that off." 

I laugh. "I'm not so sure I'd want them to owe us anything. I'll just be glad to be away from this place and these people and get back on the road." 

My sister grumbles something under her breath I pretend not to hear, but I'm sure it was something along the lines of wishing she could take the hot doctor girl with us. 

Several hours pass and Danielle eventually returns to hand us lunch, which consists of the trio of squirrels I caught earlier today with a side of garden vegetables and a fresh loaf of bread. 

"I'll be back later to check on your bandages," she informs as she starts to leave. "The venison will be for dinner tonight."

"Thank you for the food, Danielle," I tell her, at least making an attempt to be cordial with the girl before we eventually leave. 

She pauses in the doorway, her shoulders stiffening at her name. "Just call me Dani," she replies, hardly glancing back at me before leaving and closing the door once more. 

My sister gives me a meaningful look, batting her eyelids, and I shove her, careful not to spill the food we were just handed. Octavia yelps, dissolving into a giggling fit as my brother and I scarf down our food, glad for a full meal at last for the first time in weeks. After a few more hours of quiet, idle chatter and attempting to get some rest as the sky begins to darken, the chatter from outside begins to grow restless, and the voices of the guards outside our shed sound worried. 

"... here? Already? Damn it, you don't think they led them here?" an unfamiliar voice asks. 

Another stranger replies, "No idea, but it can't be a coincidence! We need everyone at the gates now!" 

Glass shatters nearby, and a burst of light erupts from beyond the barred windows, lighting up the dimness of the late afternoon sky. My siblings and I leap to our feet as tall flames quickly fill the empty space we can see through the bars, the voices from outside yelping in surprise and pain. 

"Widows!" They scream. "They found us! Protect the front gates!"