Chapter 23
- Xenon -
It was decided we'd make another run to the city that day to get the rest of the supplies and a truck or van to keep everything. Though only Jim and Glenn are with them from the previous group: Jim because he was a mechanic before, ergo he would be tasked with acquiring the new vehicle, from making sure it's working properly, to hot-wiring it if they didn't have the keys, a skill I would ask him to teach me when he comes back, while Glenn went with them for obvious reasons. Poor guy always had to go, and I'm surprised he never truly complained about it. He could put his foot down and nobody would blame him, but he never did.
Dale, Theodore and myself would stay here to protect the camp, though only Dale and Theodore would be running shifts, so I had the rest of the time to myself. But before anything, I need to get my chores done… And that's washing my clothes. That's right, I gotta do my own laundry now. * Sad Xenon noises *
Though once Carol saw me with a bundle of clothes, she asked me to give them to her and she'd take care of them. I tried to refuse, the keyword being 'tried' there, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. I didn't really build a solid case either, I mean, I get out of doing laundry, that's a win-win, right? I did make sure to sneakily put my underwear in my inventory for obvious reasons…
- Author -
It was implicitly agreed upon in their camp that the women would take care of certain tasks, especially household tasks. That is why everyone of them was currently in the shore of the pond, using its water to wash the clothes. While Andrea, Amy and Jacqui took care of their own mostly, Lori, Carol and Miranda had to do the men's as well.
"We haven't heard the details of the expedition yet. Mind sharing?" Lori asked as they were working.
"Well, the only different thing from all the previous ones is that this time, we didn't run from the walkers. We fought them." Andrea proudly said.
"That must've been scary." Carol commented. "I don't know how you could face those things…"
"They were plenty scary, alright. I'm still terrified from what we've done, to be honest." Jacqui exclaimed.
"So why'd you do it?" Lori asked. "Surely, you could've looked for another way, right?"
"True. But we were promised we wouldn't have to fight, actually. Just bait them." Andrea shrugged. "We did take a shot at them in the end, but it was up to us. The others took care of them."
"I hear it's mostly because of Xenon." Lori added. "How is he, by the way? I never got to talk to him besides a few words."
"You wanna take this, Amy?" Andrea teased her sister, who just rolled her eyes at her.
"He's a really nice person." Amy answered.
"How nice are we talking, exactly?" Andrea smirked.
"Will you stop it already?" Amy whined. "We're just friends, and we only spoke a couple of times."
"He's got a good head on his shoulder, I can attest to that." Jacqui said, before a pointless argument started. "I wouldn't go as far as saying that he isn't afraid of the walkers, but he sure doesn't shy from facing them."
"But fifteen of them at once, it sounds a bit suicidal, don't you think?" Lori frowned. She could barely imagine fighting one of them, but fifteen is definitely too much.
"He showed us a way to control their numbers and movements." Amy said. "He volunteered to be the bait, so he'd drag a few walkers towards a place where we set an ambush, then those who wouldn't fight just keep backing off, drawing the walkers' aggro, while the men would finish them off from behind easily without being in any danger."
"Aggro? What's that?"
"Um, it's a term for 'attention' apparently." Amy explained.
"And it comes from video games." Andrea added. "Who knew a guy like him would be into that kind of thing."
"Well, he is sixteen." Lori pointed out.