Someone, Not Something

"Do you understand me, Leon?" Korin asked me again. He walked further away from the fence with a knife in his hand. I had no idea how he got that, and several thoughts started to fill my mind as he got closer.

I thought to myself, that if Korin was able to sneak a knife into his possession, if that's the worst he had... or maybe he found himself equipped with a gun...

"Yes! I understand!" I blurted out. I closed my eyes, wincing in the case I was hurt by that knife. Korin came up to me, sliding the knife down my shirt sleeve, and smiling with a cursed look on his face as it scathed my shirt.

"I knew you would be the only one who understood. Let's keep this between us, shall we?" Korin asked. He walked past me, putting the knife in his pocket, and I watched him slowly move back toward the school. I wasn't sure if Niko and the others followed me outside, but if they did, evidence would be solidified that he was too dangerous.

In fact, regardless of how he warned me, I would be telling my mom and Dad, and his mom and Dad. They would punish him... and exile him, for good.

I wasn't scared of him, even if my body reacted in the way it did. That's because he was up in my face but couldn't threaten Dad. If he even tried, Dad would put him in his place.

I ran back to the school after giving Korin enough time to get back to his room and opened the door to see Niko and the others standing right in front of me.

"Did you guys hear that?! Did you?! Did you?!" I almost shouted out, but Niko calmed me down.

"Yes, keep your mouth shut, we'll handle this. I can't believe Korin is like that..." Niko said under his breath. Connie had an irritated look like she had told everybody the right answer all along, and we constantly ignored her. It wasn't that I didn't trust her, it was that I wanted to believe there was good somewhere in him.

Dad gave me my mission, and it felt like I failed it. I wasn't equipped to handle disputes like this, and in the end, I just came running back. I can't be independent at all.

"I should've killed him out there," I flatly said to everybody. I waited for a moment after admitting what I was thinking, and lifting up my shirt by my hip to reveal a gun.

"Woah... you're allowed to carry one around?" Niko asked me in surprise. He did the same, revealing an even more concealed gun on his hip. I guess it would make sense that he's trusted with one, but it was still a shock to see.

"Are we going to kill him? That doesn't seem right..." Skylar butted in. It reminded me of her old attitude, worrying about things like this when the answer seemed obvious. It's funny how I thought that to myself, even though I didn't have the strength to pull the trigger.

This isn't a zombie, this is a real person. Somebody with aspirations, dreams, wishes... how can I be judge, jury, and executioner?

"He's proven himself to be a danger. Either we exile him, and he goes to Vincent to tell him our secrets, or we kill him and put his body in the creek," Connie suggested. I'll admit, I considered it for a split second, but hearing it out loud was like a flash bang in my ear.

"Jesus Connie! That's just brutal!" Cody said what we were all thinking. Connie held up her arms, as if she was innocent, and calmed the atmosphere by lowering them in front of us in a repeating pattern and backing away slowly.

"It's just what Dean Walker would've done," Connie suggested. After a little more clarification, I learned that Dean Walker was the main character on the zombie show she always talked about with Dad. Maybe Dean Walker would've had the answer, but how was anybody else supposed to come up with it?

"I'll talk to Dad about it, you just get to bed. Korin won't bother you, not yet. Everybody go back to bed and prepare to talk to my dad tomorrow. He'll want to hear from us," Niko said. He pointed toward the hallway while talking, and funnily enough, Dad started to walk down toward us with a stern look on his face.

"Somebody want to tell me why Leon was stealing from the cafeteria, preferably you, Leon?" Dad asked me. It was as I feared, Korin wasn't running to return to his room, it was to play this trick on us to make us look less credible.

"I wasn't stealing! I was only looking like it so I could figure out what Korin was doing!" I told Dad. he didn't seem to believe me, crossing his arms and shaking his head while looking at me.

"You're not lying to me, are you?" Dad asked me again. Niko and the others stayed silent while he was talking to me, and I adamantly shook my head while keeping a straight face.

"No. I'm not lying. Korin was stealing... and it was to feed a horde of zombies by the outer gate of the school! He said if I told you, he'd kill me, and we really need to do something about it!" I told him. Dad nodded, taking a deep sigh, and adjusted his footing while turning back to look further down the hallway.

"I know, dammit, this is spiraling out of control..." Dad muttered. He rubbed his eyes in irritation, and then pointed his head up toward the back door of the school. I wasn't sure of his initial look, but as soon as he tilted his head while getting closer to the window, I had some feeling that I knew what was going on.

Korin had been feeding his sister an apple, feeding her every night he could by throwing the apple into the forest, but when I had brought one of my own to the area, I dropped it before he could throw it over. I was absolutely convinced this was my fault, however, it could also be attributed to the fact that I tried to take ownership of this entire problem because I couldn't kill Korin when it mattered the most.

"What the hell?! Where did all of them come from?!" Dad crouched under the window, looking at all of us, and leading us toward the front of the school.

"Come on! Go to every classroom and wake everybody up. Tell them to be quiet, and move toward the lunch room, I'll keep watch for the zombies outside," Dad told me. He peered above the window, watching some zombies turn their heads toward the lights that were on inside of the school.

"And kill the lights, please!" He told us, pointing toward the first classroom on the left.

I ran with Niko and Skylar as he kept himself crouched and ran in. In the first classroom, Gammie and Papa were sleeping, and it was our job to wake them up.

While Skylar shook them awake, Niko kept watch, and I only sat, thinking about all of the reasons I had to kill Korin the second I saw him. It was ignorant, childish rage in my mind at the time, but that doesn't make it wrong. Half the time, that's what makes it right. Being as barbaric as children are, sometimes they can do the right things. Sometimes that's what we have to do.