"You understand, don't you, dear?" She pleads, stepping closer to Dani and me. "You saved my daughter and sons last night, but their father lost his life to that monster from the truck." She turns an angry eye back to Leon, pointing an accusing finger in his face as he calmly sips his coffee. "Leon refuses to call for a burial! My family won't get to mourn properly if you burn them with the infected! It's blatant disrespect for the people who defended this place!"

"Alison, please, you must understand the situation we're in," Leon says softly, setting his coffee down, "Taking the time to properly bury our dead will paint a target on our backs and give the Widow's a chance to attack once more." 

I clear my throat, stepping inside with Dani. "Listen, I understand where you're coming from, Leon," I start slowly, "but these people just went through Hell last night. They deserve to mourn their dead properly. It would help morale, too." 

Leon levels me with a stern look, his mouth in a tight line, and Dani squirms under his intense gaze, her grip on my sleeve tightening slightly; I don't back down. "Believe me, Cassandra," he says, his voice hard, "if we had the time and resources to hold a burial for two dozen campers, we would. As it stands, we're down on manpower and can't afford to lose any more time. My answer will not change." 

The woman - Alison - glares daggers at Leon before grabbing her son and briskly storming away without another word, giving me a grateful look before disappearing down the stairs. 

Leon sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I appreciate what you're trying to do," he sighs, "but seeing as how you're leaving soon, I would appreciate it if you didn't incite my people."

"With all due respect, Leon," I growl, "these people aren't soldiers. You can't order them to just move on with their lives after something like this."

"They may not be soldiers, but they are survivors," he returns. "They will have to get used to 'just moving on' if they wish to continue to be survivors." 

I glare at him, wanting so badly to make him see reason.

Or punch him in the face. Both sound viable right now. 

"You should at least wait to move on until some of your injured are healed up," I counter. "They won't survive outside of the camp for more than a day at this rate."

Leon simply watches me for a moment, his expression unreadable, his eyes flicking between Dani and me. His gaze land on where Dani has my sleeve in her grip, and he raises an eyebrow at Dani, prompting her to quickly let me go.

Is her face looking a little red?

Nah, it's just the light.

After a beat, Leon asks, "I'm assuming that this is what you're here to talk about?"

Dani jumps in before I can rip into him. "Yes, sir. I wanted to talk to you about postponing moving the camp."

"You know why we can't do that, don't you?" 

"And you know that moving us now will only do more harm than good?" Dani bites back. As soon as she says it, she freezes, as though she's never talked back to Leon before. Even Leon seems surprised at this, raising an eyebrow and glancing over at me.

I smirk.

"I thought you were taking your family and leaving, Cassandra?" Leon asks slowly, and I can hear some annoyance in his voice. 

"Changed our minds," I shrug. "We fought and bled for this place last night, just like everyone else. It's just as much our home - even temporary - as it is yours now, which means we get just as much say in what happens to it."

"You're making quite a few assumptions there, young lady," Leon responds evenly.

"Please," Dani interrupts. "Just hear us out, sir." 

Leon turns his gaze back to Dani, who stands at attention. He gestures for her to continue speaking. 

"Cassandra brought up an excellent point this morning about the Widow's," Dani continues. "After the attack, they suffered just as many losses as we did last night, and their raiding party was relatively small, which means that they came from a smaller camp. Judging by their gear, it was probably just a scavenging outpost. Cassandra thinks that they're holding up in a feed mill to the east of us, which also means that they don't know these woods as well as we do." 

"And how is Cassandra so sure of this?" 

Dani opens her mouth, thinks better of it, and glances over at me, curious.

"Because," I answer, "you're not the only people who dealt with the Widow's or been on the receiving end of raids. At most, there were probably thirty or so who conducted the raid." I explain. Leon still looks unconvinced, however. I roll my eyes as I continue. "With the number of people that they sent, on top of a Titan, they likely made the assumption that this raid would be the thing to do you in. I counted twenty-one Widow bodies last night; well over half of their raiding party. It's going to take them time to regroup and gather their strength before they try coming back. I don't know anything about what a scavenging outpost is, but they usually only leave behind a fourth of their raiding power for basic defense."

"What are you suggesting?" Leon asks. 

Dani looks over at me, looking awed. 

"I'm suggesting," I say slowly, "that we show them Cottonwood isn't worth messing with. They won't listen to reason, and if you leave, they'll just follow you. Trust me on that one..." I mutter, glancing down at my leg, the half-healed scar throbbing at the memory.

Leon watches me quietly, glancing over at the others, and sighs. "Alright," he says. "I assume that you have a plan in mind?"

Wow. Not gonna lie; I expected him to fight us more about that.

"I do," I say, shaking off my temporary surprise. "We'll have to start with rebuilding the front gate and reinforcing it with whatever we can spare. The stronger the gate, the better our defense will be. The Widow's will be expecting the gate to be weakened and will likely charge it again like last night. We can put pikes on the front of the gates and road spikes hidden in the dirt leading up to it to slow them down." Josh and Dani look over at me, surprised, as I continue. "When we were escorted here, I saw that there was only one direct way here big enough for a vehicle to be able to take, so that's where we'll bolster the defenses. We can scatter area-based traps in the surrounding forest to slow them down and funnel them in."

"Funnel them in?" Josh asks. "Why would we want that?"

I grin. "Because you have the upper hand here. They'll get cocky, arrogant, start to think that they'll get an easy win," I explain. "We'll funnel them in close towards the ruined cabins, and that's when we'll strike. They're looking to wipe you out while causing minimal damages to your supplies, and the area near the cabins is perfect for cover."

Leon cocks his head. "And where would we get the supplies to make these traps?" 

"If there's not enough material already at camp, there's a lumber mill to the west of us, but..." I trail off with a sigh. "The lumber mill was getting overrun, about a week ago, by infected. The, uh, 'Feral's,' as you guys call them."

"It was overrun?" Josh asks.

"Yeah, it happened pretty quick," I explain. "My siblings and I stayed there for a while after I got hurt. Then they started coming in. We assume it's a pack."

Dani gives me a concerning look at the mention of my injury but doesn't say anything; Josh does it for her. "How did you get hurt?" he asks. 

"Just got caught in a nasty trap, nothing I couldn't walk off," I dismiss quickly, shifting my feet.

"Okay," Dani says slowly. "So, we go to the lumber yard, get the material we need, hope we don't get killed by Feral's or Widow's along the way, and build these defenses and traps, also hoping we don't get killed before we're done. Solid plan." Sarcasm drips from her words, thick like honey, and I roll my eyes. 

"You brought me here to give Leon my two cents, so I did," I retort. "Do you have a better idea?"

"Instead of leaving camp to get materials from a Feral infested lumber yard," Dani says, "we should use the materials from the ruined cabins to bolster the gates."

I shake my head. "The burnt wood won't do anything to stop them from ramming it; it's already weakened as it is. If anything, we can deconstruct some non-essential buildings and use that material to fix the gates. The only problem is, unless you have a massive stockpile of ropes and wood just lying around, we won't have anything left for traps."

"Why wait?" Leon asks. "Get the supplies you need now, and we don't waste time in getting everything ready."

"Because the Widow's are likely watching the camp right now," I return. "We need to have able-bodied scouts in the woods watching the road and the surrounding woods. How many do we have?"

Leon glances over a couple papers on his desk and sighs. "Five of our twelve scouts aren't as wounded. I can cycle in a few of the guards as well if need be."

"That'll work," I say. "I'd give them about five to seven days before they gear up for another attack. That's been their buffer pattern at several safe zones we've been to, so I'd bet my life on it. We need to get everything ready by day four."

Leon looks me over with calculating eyes for several moments, and for a while, I'm scared that he'll completely dismiss the plan, but eventually, he sighs. "Very well, Cassandra. I'll let my people know that they're to bolster the gates and hold off on moving everything. I'm putting you in charge of the defenses." 

"Wait, what?"

"And," he continues, looking over at Dani. "I'm putting Dani in charge of you." 

Dani blinks. "Wait, what?"

Oh, no...

"The campers are wound up from last night's attack and are looking for people to blame," Leon says. "I'll have Josh in charge of making the traps, which leaves you more than capable of watching over Cassandra and her family."

"No offense," I interrupt, "but I don't need a babysitter watching over us."