An hour later.
Michael with his crew once again gathered at the sixth floor together with Dawn and her colleagues to continue from where they left off.
"Let's not waste each other's time. So let me get straight to the point. We have reviewed the goods you want, but we can only provide half of what you're asking for since we're also in dire need of those." Dawn had barely sat down when she immediately went straight to the point and also handed Michael a piece of paper.
"I've listed the things we want in there in exchange. If you can come up with at least a third of the things listed there, then you got a deal." She said and at the latter part of her words, she turned her head towards the person holding a grenade launcher in his hands, Daryl.
'Are they trying to intimidate us with that thing?' Dawn was a little confused why they had to bring that kind of weapon here since it wouldn't just be them that would get hurt if they used it in here.
Michael took the paper from her and started reading it, but the more he read, the more his expression became darker. The people behind Dawn, especially Amanda, knew that shit is about to take a turn.
'I told her that being too greedy wouldn't do any good during this deal, but she just doesn't listen.' Amanda thought, then glared at the people who were complicit with Dawn's actions..
'Foolish idiots!'
Michael slowly placed the paper on the table and then slowly turned his head up to look at Dawn. His expression was grim and annoyed at the same time. "Are you messing with us? Over half of what you're asking for are weapons and ammunition. Do you think we're the military or something?"
Dawn did not show any nervousness. She was already expecting this kind of reaction from him. "I believe we're not. Seeing the weapons in your possessions, we had the assumption that you might have raided a military base or an outpost before this. We have a lot of medical supplies, but the thing we lack the most are weapons and I believe that with what you did today, our group needs to have an upgrade on our arsenal if we want to deter intruders that will be coming here."
Michael did not say anything and just stared at her in silence. Digesting her words made him realize that the commotion they caused today would certainly attract people with mixed intentions towards this place.
He sighed and scratched his forehead with a finger. "Let me take this chance to clear things up, alright? We did not raid a military base or any outpost that you're thinking of. Our weapons came from the same process we're doing now, a trade. I'm not rejecting your proposal though. So in exchange, we'll give two shotguns, one rifle, and three pistols. Including two dozen shell rounds, and fifty rounds each for the rifle and the pistols. If you agree, then let's proceed with this deal."
Dawn tried to hide her grin and forced herself to keep a poker face. She stared back at Michael and took a moment before opening her mouth. "I want you to double that and you got yourself a deal."
'No! The proposition is already quite good! Darn it, Dawn!' Amanda screamed inside when her words reached her ears. She wanted so bad to say something, but then she thought of something and immediately kept her mouth shut.
'These survivors are certainly not the people you want to mess with. If her audacity happens to offend them, it's going to be trouble.' She made it sound that she's worried inside, but the weird anticipation in her eyes couldn't be hidden, like she's waiting for something to happen.
Michael smirks, then a chuckle from him that slowly turns into a boisterous laughter. Everyone who heard his laugh immediately felt the air shifting and quickly became tense. Daryl and the other two gripped their weapons tightly, the same goes for Amanda and the other officers.
"Oh dear, it seems we can't agree to this deal then." Michael said with a dark expression. He was about to get up and leave, when he suddenly saw something that annoyed him.
'This bitch..!'
There was no speech, no hesitation, and no warning when Michael suddenly drew his pistol and fired a single round.
Bang!
The bullet struck Dawn dead center in her forehead, and it was like time itself had slowed down for everyone when the gunshot rang through the hallway.
Thud!
With shock and horror on her face, her body slowly tilted to the side before it hit the floor with a heavy, final thud.
Everything happened so fast that everyone could only stand there dumbly in shock, and only when her body hit the floor did everyone finally regained their senses and registered what just took place before them.
The officers immediately drew and raised their pistols, the same goes for Daryl and the rest. Daryl went as far as taking a cover on the doorway to the room beside him.
"Stand down!" Amanda quickly intervened with a yell, prompting her colleagues from retaliating. She feels her heart racing due to nervousness, but despite that, she kept her cool since she knew that what follows would just be pointless deaths if they start shooting each other here.
"He killed her." One of the officers glared at her and said through gritted teeth.
Amanda glared back and responded firmly. "I know, but it's not worth it."
"So we're just gonna ignore what he did?"
"No." Amanda responded and hardened herself.
She looks at Michael, who's just calmly standing there and staring at Dawn's lifeless body.
She also turned to look at her lifeless body, then turned her attention back to Michael and with a complicated feeling, she said. "We expect double the amount of goods from your side."
Michael slowly turned his eyes to Amanda, who's looking at him with a complicated expression and with some disguised glee behind her eyes.
Feeling amused, he smirked and chuckled. "You'll have them by tomorrow at this exact time."
He holstered his pistol and turned around. He started walking away from them and with his back turned from them, there's bound to be someone among the officers to have the impulse to shoot him.
Amanda just glared at him, extinguishing the man's impulsive thoughts. At the same time, Daryl also loosened his finger on the trigger of the grenade launcher.
Nolan and Glenn quickly followed after Michael. Daryl followed shortly after while walking backwards since trust had been broken.
There was an eerie silence as they descended from the stairs, but it only lasted for a while before someone finally couldn't stand his growing curiosity.
"Why did you do it? What prompted you to do it boss?" As always, Nolan does not disappoint.
"Her smile was annoying."
"What?"
His answer only served to confuse them, even Glenn thought it was stupid.
"Hahaha!" Michael laughed and after he was done, he added and this time in a grim tone.
"I'm not kidding. I let it slide when she tried to raise the terms, but her smile irked me after. That's when I realized that she did it on purpose. I wasn't curious to see what she's trying to do, so I just shot her to get it over with."
"You're crazy. What if they just started shooting us?"
"But they didn't, right?"
What followed again was another long silence, no one said anything since there wasn't anything to say after what happened earlier. Even the talkative Nolan had become mum, and while Daryl welcomed the silence, Glenn looked worried instead.
"Is it wise to still go through this deal? They're potential enemies after what happened today. Those weapons we'll exchange with them might one day be pointed against us. I say let's just forget about this since we already got a lot from this place. There's still other hospitals we can go to besides this one." Glenn voiced his concern regarding what happened and the effect it might cause in the future.
Michael had a small smile on his face and responded. "That officer called Amanda, I saw the ambitions and that disgusting glee in her eyes. She tried to hide it while she was talking to me."
He paused and turned to look behind him, towards Glenn. "So, I think this deal will go well, Glenn."
Glenn sighed. "I just hope you won't do something similar in the future. It's dangerous and not right."
"No promises."
Meanwhile, one of the officers immediately confronted Amanda once Michael and the rest left their sight.
"What the heck was that?!"
"Hey, back off man." Another officer called Franco got in between them, preventing the first guy from going to her face.
Amanda stared hard at O'Donnel. "If you want to die so bad Sergeant, then you're welcome to go after them, but don't drag us down with you. It's only been a couple of months since we made this place our home, but everyone knows that Dawn has slowly started to lose her shit. Also, let's not even talk about how she killed the Captain!"
"She did it for us. He was already losing his shit and getting people killed because of his stupid decisions. He became a variable for our safety." O'Donnel responded in a firm tone.
Amanda scoffed, she smirked. "And Dawn is not? Please, not with the excuses. Look at them, do they look like they agree with you?"
O'Donnel glared at her before looking at his colleagues, who quickly avoided his gaze. They're still displeased that they just lost one of their own today, but they also do not quite agree with him since Dawn's growing erratic behaviour lately had become unbearable for them and was causing problems.
"Do you see it? Only someone like you would believe that Dawn killed the Captain for the "greater good." The Captain was indeed losing his shit, but his decisions were still sound. It's only our inexperience with dealing with the rotters that a lot of us died. How can we blame him for those deaths when even he's just as clueless?" Since the dead can't speak up for themselves, Amanda took this chance to paint Dawn in a bad light, while she highlighted that the decisions of their late Captain was just some kind of a human error since no one had a proper procedure on how to deal with the undead.
O'Donnel stared straight into her eyes, and in a grim tone. "And what makes you different from Dawn?"
"A lot."
She smiled and started walking away, followed by those who's in line with her.