223 Heated argument and the bet
“We did it!”
It was such a simple shout. Whether one would consider it from the point of semantics, philosophy, or even sentence construction, there could hardly be any simpler sentence.
And yet, in this precise moment, Mathew judged this simple set of three words to be right on the money.
“We did it!” Frank quickly picked up the chat, raising his spear in a triumphant gesture. “We did it!” he shouted again, this time making two of his fellow hunters follow suit.
And soon, everyone outside of the school started chanting with not a single soul paying attention to how it only agitated the zombies who failed to make it through the gate.
“Yay, we did it!” Nadia shouted as she approached Mathew’s side. “And what exactly are we celebrating?” she then whispered to his ear, not wanting her question to act like a bucket of cold water for everyone’s celebratory mood.
“The conclusion of the first fight of the hunting squad,” Mathew whispered back, rolling his eyes.
His gesture wasn’t aimed at the girl, though, but at the truth that she hinted at with her question.
“I’m glad you didn’t name it a victory,” Nadia then chuckled lightly only to pull herself away and then shake her head. “But someone has to bring down the reality on them,” she pointed out, turning her eyes to the celebrating bunch only to shake her head with a look of pity in her eyes.
“It would be best if either Carol or Frank realized the truth on their own,” Mathew commented, only to turn his eyes to his most recent wife.
And as it turned out, she was the only one who actually didn’t tune in to the celebration. Instead, she continued to hold down the body of the one hunter who didn’t get to celebrate with the rest, cautious of any signs of his potential turning.
And contrary to all the times that Mathew could observe her before, there was no smirk of hidden superiority on her face. Instead, her expression was dark, most likely caused by the face of her former schoolmate of hers who she continued to stare at.
“How long are you going to scream like a bunch of fucking kids?!” Carol, as if following Mathew’s orders, erupted. Yet, from the look of extreme anger on her face, she was genuinely upset. She then stood up and took a few steps away from the motionless body of the unlucky hunter only to point her hand at it before making her way forward as if with the intention of confronting everyone else.
“Does this look like a reason to triumph for you?!” she screamed out, instantly cutting the celebration as she eyed down any and everyone who dared to keep having fun. “There were only five of you and you lost we lost one of us in the very first fight we took part in,” she said in a sudden cold and composed voice. Carol then lowered her head and took a few breaths… Only to rapidly raise her head with a maddening fire at the depth of her eyes. “At this rate, you will all fucking day before the week’s end!”
“What the hell do you want from us?!” one of the hunters that were previously celebrating cried out, clearly upset by Carol’s words. “It was our very first fight,” he then continued in a somewhat calmer voice. “We were defending against an entire damn horde, for fuck’s sake! And by all accounts we were successful,” he then added, looking around as if searching for approval of his words only to realize everyone was staring at him with looks of disapproval and disappointment.
Now that Carol’s words forced everyone to confront reality, the rest of the hunters weren’t that eager to keep celebrating anymore.
“You want to know what I think?” Carol asked, approaching him slowly but surely in spite of her considerable weight disadvantage. “I think you forgot something in the rush that came with your success.”
Carol then moved her hand up and pointed it towards the gate.
“There are hundreds, no, hundreds of thousands of zombies only waiting for even the tiniest mistake of ours,” she claimed. “And starting from tomorrow on, Mathew and his wives won’t be here to keep us relatively safe!”
“So what?!” the arrogant hunter decided to double down on his take. “He was either unlucky or simply unfit to be a hunter,” he claimed only for a wide smug to appear on his lips. “I don’t know how many he has killed, but I finished at least twenty of them!” he proclaimed in a proud tone. “TWENTY!” he then shouted to reinforce his point.
“Oh, you killed twenty zombies!” Carol repeated after the man in a mocking tone. “What a man you are, aren’t you?” she then added only for her expression to turn into a mix of amusement and disgust. “What now, maybe all the girls within the survivors’ group should open their legs for you and beg for your dick, for how much of a hero you think you are?!”
‘Okay, now she lost me,’ Mathew thought, observing the situation with quite a bit of curiosity.
“Hey man, you should stop it,” Frank then joined in, talking in a hushed voice to the arrogant hunter.
“Fuck off!” the man shouted at the only volunteer in the squad only to shove him aside before turning his eyes back to Carol.
“I killed twenty zombies,” he stated once again, this time in a perfectly calm voice. “And I didn’t get to fuck that guy,” he pointed his hand at Mathew, “to get some magical powers as you did!” he then added, turning his fingers towards Carol’s face. “But still, tell me something,” his lips twisted up in a deranged smile of victory. “How many zombies did you kill in this fight?”
“I have no idea,” Carol replied without even a second of hesitation. “I was too busy keeping the waves of incoming zombies thin enough to bother counting,” she then added, cleverly attacking the man from the side he didn’t expect. “And later on, while you were finishing off the zombies that others cut down, I was too busy making sure our companion wouldn’t turn into a zombie only to then attack us from the back!”
‘That’s stretching the truth a bit,’ Mathew thought. Yet, even though he could see the falsehood in Carol’s words, he smiled lightly instead of correcting her out loud. ‘But it wouldn’t do any good to deprive her of her authority right now.’
“Hey, shouldn’t we stop them?” Nadia then asked in a hushed voice, her forehead starting to wrinkle as she observed how the celebratory mood from before first went to shit and now threatened to turn everyone against each other.
“No,” Mathew denied Nadia’s suggestion. “This is something Carol has to deal with on her own,” he then claimed, crossing his arms on his chest as if to gesture with his body that he wasn’t interested in interfering with the conflict.
“Empty words…” the arrogant hunter hissed, tightening his hands into fists. What’s more, he still held a Mathew-provided spear in his right, the blade of which now threateningly moved in the direction of Carol’s face.
“It seems like you really think you are something big,” Carol then said only to release an exhausted sigh. She then threw a quick glance at Mathew, only to turn her eyes back as soon as she noticed his expecting stance. “Then, let’s see who got bigger balls here,” she then said, taking a step forward as if she didn’t mind the blade pointing right at her stomach at all.
“What?” the man barked, unknowingly moving his spear aside, clearly not tough enough to keep up with his tough-man ruse.
“I bet Mathew and his girls are going to hunt more zombies tonight,” Carol then stated only for a wide smile to appear on her face. “So we will go out with them and whoever will bring back more cores will be the winner,” she then gave out an innocent suggestion. “Is that alright?” Carol then asked, ignoring the man in front of her and turning her eyes towards Mathew.
“Fine by me,” Mathew replied and gently nodded his head.
“What’s the bet about?” the man raised his chin, looking at the girl along the line of his nose. “What’s the punishment for the loser?”
This time, it was Carol’s turn to reveal just how vicious her smile could be.
“Whoever loses, then for the next month, they will take three hours a day,” she stated only for all the negative emotions to disappear from her face as she gently smiled at the man. “Will be a comfort station for all the other survivors, no questions asked.”