CHAPTER 4 NEW ERA

Everyone gather around here; I have something to say to you. So, I was thinking of how we will start a new life, a life where we have what we call ours, a life where we don't have to go and look for food out there.

"What are you suggesting John." Judy asked. I was thinking of, what if we had a small farm around here, cultivate it and plant some crops, keep some livestock and many other practices to help us fight hunger.

"Not bad mate." Mercy said. "So, John, just a question." Mercy raised her hand. Yes, Mercy go on, what's that burning question. "Ok, my concern is, do we have some seeds, or seedlings or do you have any idea where we can find the seeds?" Mercy asked.

Yeah, that's not a problem at all, while we were at the mall, I picked some tins containing seeds, we have a variety, we can start with that. "That's great John, I second you." Pinky added. We can have our own fence here by gathering barbed wire from the neighborhood.

Mercy, I need you to go and interrogate our prisoner, get whatever you can from him, we need to know everything he knows just to be safe. "Ok sir." Mercy responded. Pinky find something to keep you busy, Judy you as well. I will go and start making some repairs on our house, its really in bad shape.

"Hello mister, you ready to talk now?" Mercy asked the prisoner. "Let's start with your name. What's your name?" She asked him.

"I am afraid I can't tell you that." He replied. "And why is that so difficult to tell me, its just a name mate." Mercy asked. "You wouldn't even understand even if I told you." He replied.

"Ok let's see about that, don't say I warned you." Mercy said angrily. Mercy goes to the next chamber in the house, picks a pair of pliers and a bottle of spirit. "Ok, lets begin, shall we?" Mercy said to the boy.

"Do you know why these are here?" Mercy asked him while pointed at the pairs of pliers. "I don't fucking care, does it matter?" He answered in a rude tone. "Fine, we will see about that in a few." Mercy said.

Mercy picks a rope, ties the boy's hands on the chair, picks the pair of pliers and plucks on of his finger nail from the finger, takes a piece of cloth, sprinkles the spirit on the cloth and places on the boy's finger.

"Ok! Ok! Ok! Stop please! I will tell you whatever you want." The boy cried looking helplessly.

Mercy what are you doing that, you can't do that to him, that is not who we are. I had to untie the boy from the chair. We couldn't do that to that poor boy, even though he was one of our enemies.

"We can't trust him at all John, you of all the people should understand that." Mercy said showing some anger issues. I get it Mercy and I understand how you feel about him, but that is not how to go about it.

Let me take it from here. "Ok fine, as you wish, don't say I warned you." Mercy said as she slammed the door behind her. Hey, relax we are all friends here, I am not going to hurt you, what is your name? Are your people a threat? Should we be worried of what is about to come?

"Yeah, you should be a little bit, because when my people come looking for me, you will have a lot of trouble with them." He said. "My name is Pablo; my father is the leader of the people you scared away, and I am sure he will come looking for me, even if it takes one decade." He added.

What do they want with us? How did you find us? "We move all over the cities to find food and snatch from other people items that could be important to us." Pablo explained. "But you can trust me, I have no bad intentions with you people, you people here are peaceful and have a better life than us, we barely eat." Pablo said in a soft voice.

I felt sorry for him. He seemed nice to me, he wasn't like his people, but I couldn't know that for sure? People do change after some time. What if he was a spy?

Ok, I trust you my friend, I will discuss this with the others, if they agree that you should remain, we will stay here with you but on one condition. "What is the condition?" He asked. Then the condition is you can't go back to your father ever because we can't know what your plan will be.

"I know you are a good person; I know you can trust me man, don't treat me like I am some animal, thank you for understanding." He pleaded. Don't thank me yet, I have to hear from the others first.

I have talked to our stranger, his name is Pablo, his father is the leader of the group we scared off the other week. He is a nice person, that's what I think of him, so I am here because I want everyone to vote whether you want Pablo to stay or not. He has promised me that he can be trusted.

"I can't believe you are falling for this kind of nonsense, so count me out." Mercy said. She was annoyed. Ok we can talk about this, hey let's think about it like if was our brother or it was your own son. Hey Pinky say something. "I think we should give him a chance to prove his trust." Pinky supported me.

Judy also raised her hand, so it was three against one, only Mercy was against us, the majority had already won it. She was furious, but she had no choice but to accept it. Mercy left the room.

Hey, today is your lucky day, you are a free man, three of us voted in your favor, you know what that means, you will have to behave yourself, don't make us regret this. "Thank you, I really appreciate your kindness." Pablo said excitedly. He was happy, I could see the smile on his face.

Our family had now grown by one, this is what we wanted to be normal for the remaining human race, togetherness and love for one another for survival to happen.

We worked together to achieve whatever we wanted, we cultivated our small farm, we planted our crops, we now had varieties of foods. We were sure that we couldn't have a challenge with the food. Pablo had matured into a masculine man.

Everyone was loving what they were seeing, what we called our compound was green all over, we only had one big question, was what we had worked hard to achieve safe? Would Pablo betray us after all the hard work we had done?