Chapter 25

- Xenon -

You think that after three hours of trial and error, I'd finally get the skill because I had a system? That's cute. Yeah, that didn't happen. I was frustrated, I was getting nowhere. I still wouldn't quit, I had nothing better to do. So, I settled for the next best thing: taking a rest and asking Daryl when he gets back from his hunting trip. Why Daryl, you ask? I'm not even gonna answer that question.

I went back to camp, looking for Dale, specifically. I found him sitting on top of his RV, gazing at the clouds.

"Hey, Dale?" I brought him back to earth.

"What is it?"

"Have you got any maps of Atlanta, or the area? Or anywhere really?" I asked him hopefully.

"No, I do not. Why do you ask?" he asked curiously.

"I just wanted to check something. Never mind then." I was about to go on my merry way, when he said: "You wanna play some chess? It's getting pretty boring up here." I had nothing to do, so I shrugged and climbed on top of the RV to play with him. He already had a chess set there, Theodore was probably playing with him before I arrived.

"So, which part of Georgia are you from again?" he asked me, making small talk. I wasn't from Georgia, nor did I know shit about Georgia. And yet the answer came almost instinctively to me.

"Mansfield."

"You have family there?" he noticed my frown, so he quickly added. "I'm just curious is all."

"Yeah." I lied. I don't even remember my family from my previous life, let alone this world when I didn't exist until a few days ago. "I lived with my parents there. I'm not sure for the rest though, my parents never had the best of relationships with them."

"I'm sorry about that." He offered sympathetically. I didn't particularly care. "Do you want to look for them?" he asked. "Your parents, I mean."

"I don't have to." I said stoically. "They're dead."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Dale said again, then a silence settled between us, as was quietly played the game. He seemed to be deep in thought, I didn't know if he was thinking of his next move or something else. My question was answered when he opened his mouth the next time: "Is that why you hate them?"

"Huh?"

"You feel the need to kill the walkers, to satisfy your need for revenge?" he questioned me, though this time, he tone wasn't sympathetic, but bordering on accusing.

'Dude, I don't even have parents, I just made that shit up, why are you getting all worked up.' I cursed him in my mind, but that wouldn't do. Having him have such dangerous thoughts about me and PRESENTING them to the group would make me completely unreliable to them, and destroy any influence I've managed to build through the last expedition.

"You have a wild imagination." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you write novels, by any chance? You should write one, that story would be a major hit. Though your audience is mostly dead walkers right now, so you'd have to convince them to pick up reading first."

"It makes sense, you know?" He ignored me. "Why you always want to face them, even though there are other alternatives. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I would certainly not." I shook my head calmly. "And you're awfully sure of yourself."

"I'm fifty years old, son. I have experience under my belt." He shook his head.

"Experience in being a dumbass?" I chuckled, and he glared at me. I know it was a low blow, but fuck you. "Don't look at me, you started it. It's annoying, really, you acting like you know me just because I told you my parents were dead. Hell, I didn't even tell you how they died. You just assumed. And I don't want to kill them all because it brings me satisfaction, I am a realist, I recognized the situation for what it was, and believed that the best way to deal with it was through a fight. Nothing more, nothing less." 'Wow, I'm getting good at this shit.'

Whatever he was about to say, he didn't get the chance to say it because Daryl called out that time. Dale ought to be smarter than this, I don't understand why he'd make such a stupid mistake, my age was definitely clouding a lot of people's judgment…