A Cheat's Survival Journal

The Council Members consisted of eight members. I became the leader of everyone due to being supernatural, cunning, planning, and my foresight, two others are considered second in command, Rick and Deanna. This keeps power divided between the two and myself on rare occasions, the only time my decision can be denied is if it involves a high risk that'll affect the majority of the lives living in Alexandria. Rick is Alexandria's General who handles wars, weapons, and scavenging; Deanna is the Administrator of People and Affairs, she acts as the representative for everyone who lives in Alexandria while also delegating jobs that fall under her authority. The only job that Deanna can't control is anything related to weapons and medicine, that falls under Rick, Denise, and myself.

The Council Members is made up of Olivia, Resource Management; Denise, Medical Director; Glenn, Security; Maggie, Diplomacy; and Noah, Research & Development. It's a pretty scuffed system but it works and everyone seems happy, except for Maggie since she has yet to do anything related to her job until now. Currently they were discussing on what to do with Jesus before he entered the room. Rick, Glenn, and Maggie were the first to get up and pull their guns out, creating a tension between Jesus and The Council. Jesus was suppose to be locked inside the prison but I interfered and allowed him to escape, making Rick and Glenn wonder how he escaped.

I got up my chair and greeted Jesus, "Welcome Jesus, I'm glad that you escaped as I originally planned." Everyone looked at me confused and Denise was the first to ask due to her anxiety, "You let him escape from the prison? Why?" I laughed a bit and said, "Because he isn't a threat. As a matter of fact, he's going to be a bridge to start getting diplomacy started. Congratulations Maggie, you finally get to do something and I know you'll do a great job. Everyone sit down now, including you Jesus, we got work to do now."

The four hesitated before they sat down, after Jesus found a seat which was on the opposite side of me, in the middle of the oval shaped table with everyone else sitting on the sides of it. Jesus asked after he sat down, "How did you know that I was apart of a community?" I pointed at his face and said, "You're well kempt and clean, it's not hard to tell after thinking a little bit. Also to keep in mind that you look well fed which would be hard if you were alone due to a lot of resources being snatched by groups instead of solo survivors. That's the meta right now, if you aren't apart of a settled group; you're pretty much dead already." He nodded and said, "You're very observant and it seems that you already know my intentions of setting up a trade. It seems like this place is very well off in terms of food, water, security, and weapons, I really don't know what we my community could offer."

Maggie was thinking for a moment and asked, "What does your settlement have that could be note worthy?" Jesus was about to answer and but I interrupted while asking, "Before we decide what we can trade, I would like to buy information from you. I'll give you an M4 if you provide us information on Neegan, how does that sound?" A smile crept onto my face and I felt my blood pumping, this is something that I want for a specific reason. Jesus stayed silent for a moment and everyone turned towards him since they all had read the report of how Abraham died, eventually he said, "They're a group extortionists who pressure communities by killing someone as an example and or taking someone as their hostage. They have been taking resources from my community along with a member of it. If you don't mind me asking, why do you want to know?"

I smiled and looked out the window, I said in a calm voice that everyone could hear, "They killed one of our residents and I'll be going to war with them whether it would be alone or with a group." Deanna shouted at me, startled from what I just said, "War?! We can't afford something like that. The 200 people that we have, only thirty percent would be able to fight without causing gaps in security along with keeping everything running." Rick gave his opinion as well, "She's right, Jin. I know you want vengeance for Abraham but we can't afford a war currently and we don't know how many there are." The other council members agreed, including Noah. He's now able to stand on his own two feet and everyone in the council is required to be neutral without any collusion for votes; after every vote, there is a lie detection test to keep the council clean.

"They have 600 and several different outposts. Not all of them are fighters, their fighters are only about half of that and about 50 are spread across their outposts which they use as a cache for items between scavenging and extortion. We could afford to go to war as long as we have settlements to setup diplomacy with a common goal of destroying a cancer who is impeding their growth." I said and everyone sat while thinking about what I had just said. I coughed and went back to talking Jesus, "Well, war will be something later in the future for now. Jesus, you can talk to Maggie about diplomacy and the two of us will visit your settlement." Everyone focused on the two while I began thinking about whether or not to fight the war alone, nothing could harm me since I was a rank 2 warlock along with my abilities.

After the two finished talking, The Council had a vote on whether or not to further continue with the diplomatic relations. Everyone who supported it raised their hand and those who didn't or were neutral didn't, everyone except Denise and myself raised their hands. I personally didn't care while Denise was still pretty timid and anxious constantly, I began to think to myself of whether or not to replace her off the council. The majority of the council said yes so Maggie, Jesus, and I left the room; leaving to set off after packing a few necessities.

'I'm gonna kill that prick there and annex that damn place if that bastard screws with Maggie or myself.' I thought to myself while rubbing my temples, imagining how annoying and cowardly the guy was.