Chapter 94

- Xenon -

I am not sure if I ought to curse my luck or count my lucky stars for the events that led to our situation, but it was an extremely close call. The horde of walkers was practically harmless for us. We've trained extensively on how to deal with walkers. It was training I made mandatory for anyone who wanted to go out of base for whatever reason. And that includes how to communicate even when surrounded by a horde of walkers. It was quite difficult to pull off, and it needed a lot of practice. We avoided communicating unless it was necessary, and in our case, it wasn't. We've already agreed on how we would operate.

We had three walkie-talkies with us, so we separate into two groups. Two because I would be leaving them soon, so the others would stay close to the talkies for easier communication. They'd leave it on. Walkers won't attack unless your behavior passes a certain threshold outside of what they consider walker behavior. And having a device attached to you that makes sound is not, funnily enough.

There was a little problem concerning how we'd eventually break out of the horde without having them following us at every turn. The trick is fairly simple: for you to lead walkers, more specifically to have them turn with you wherever you go (as a walker yourself), is to moderate the angles of your turn, making sure they are progressive rather than sharp. Otherwise, they'll just ignore you and continue walking their way. meaning that as long as we made a sharp turn in a slightly different direction than the wave was going, we'd eventually get out by repeating the same maneuver. It's unavoidable to have a few walkers following you regardless, so we'd have to dispose of those.

I slowly broke off the horde, a process that took me fifteen minutes, mostly because of the size of the horde. It's going to be a long day, the rest would have to walk for as long as they could, and they were already pretty tired from all the efforts they've been through during the day. From how motivated the governor's group seemed to be, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't give up on the hardware so easily. By now, I assume we're presumed dead because of our suicidal stunt, meaning they're only waiting for the horde to clear to grab the loot. I'm sure they'd still go back home and call for backup, it is the smart thing to do after all.

That means that the horde we're leading in circles is the best deterrent we can ask for. The problem is, we'd have to increase the "circle's radius" significantly, so there was the slightest chance they'd come back and grab everything, or a huge portion of it before we had the chance to act. This is why I needed to separate myself from the group, to keep an eye on things. In case they came back, I just have to warn them through the talkie and draw the walkers in again.

- Shane -

He drove past the barrier with the vehicle he and Jason managed to find. There were plenty of them around, most with enough fuel in the tank. Though they weren't very lucky in that department and had to change it after two hours on the road. Jim was already at the gate, having been informed of the unusual arrival. They thought it was someone else at first, but they received a message through their communication device from Shane.

"What happened?" Jim asked with a frown as soon as Shane got out, noticing his distress.

"We got ambushed. Turns out we weren't the only ones after that hardware store." Shane said, giving him a brief summary of the events leading to their circumstances. "We need every person we can afford. We're going all out for this. Have anyone capable of holding a gun stand watch until we come back. Have Hershel and Dale take charge in the meantime."

"About that..." Jim said vaguely, a bit reluctant to give him the bad news when he was already full of them.

"What?" Shane snapped at him, expecting him to get to work instead of wasting time talking to him.

"Dale left this morning." Jim told him grimly, observing how Shane's complexion went from bad to worse. They both knew what it meant, and neither liked the implications of his departure. The idiot was digging their graves without even knowing it, and he chose the worst time to do so.

"FUCK!" Shane cursed loudly, punching the window of the car they came in, hurting his hand with glass wounds, a very ugly sight to see. Shane blamed them for it, because how could they allow him to leave knowing what the idiot would do. They should've just shot him dead. But somehow, reason managed to win the fight as he realized pointing fingers right now would only delay their urgent task.

"We'll worry about him later." Shane took a deep breath to calm himself. "We deal with today's problems first." And so, the group got to work. Everyone was armed to the teeth for their outing, ready to fight the world should the need arise. This outing would lose a significant amount of resources, but the reward would be worth it. They were taking two trucks and six cars with them, one of which was a special pickup they took the liberty of modifying, installing a machine gun on top of it for extraordinary circumstances like this one. They also brought with them grenade launchers, RPG launchers, and the whole Launcher family. Long story short, their assailant would rue the day he decided to mess with them, and oh how they wished they'd be attacked on the road.

- Xenon -

It seems they got tired of waiting after four hours. I've been at the same spot for hours now, using the time to read while occasionally checking the surroundings. The walker's behavior was certainly unusual, and I have no doubt they'd noticed it. I couldn't tell exactly where they were, but they've certainly been monitoring the situation. Now, they went straight to the horde with a car and started shooting, earning their undivided attention. I guess the plan is for one car to drive them away, while the others swooped in and took everything else.

"Do you hear that, Xen?" I heard Daryl through the talkie. "It seems they finally got tired of waiting. They're dragging the walkers away themselves."

"Yeah. Have everyone come meet up with me at the same spot we spoke the first time." I said, thinking over how we'd deal with them. All we had to do was buy some time until backup came. Judging by the size of the party that would come to raid the trucks, I'll have to adapt my strategies.

They arrived in less than ten minutes, but their state had me frowning. It was very worrying, they were in no state to fight. They were dead tired and spent from exhaustion, and I can't blame them for it. They didn't have the supernatural regeneration I had.

"You guys don't look very well." I commented dryly.

"I don't think we're in a good position to fight, Xenon." Richard said with evident worry in his voice. Was he afraid I'd still ask them to fight a battle I knew we couldn't win? Give me some credit here, I'm not that stupid. Besides, I already know where the solar panels would go should we lose them...

"I can see that." I nodded, before sighing heavily. "Well, we did our best." I shrugged.

"We gonna let them take our stuff? After everything we've been through?!!!" Daryl snarled, ready to fight anyone who would disagree with him.

"Not really. We'll just let them safe-keep it for a while." I offered humorously, but it fell on deaf ears as he glared at me. "I mean it." I smiled.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He demanded, clearly not willing to play word games with me. Spoilsport.

"I'm pretty sure I know where they'll take it." I smiled enigmatically. "As in, I know where their base of operation is." His eyes lit up, and his expression made a hundred and eighty degree turn for the better, as he was thinking of all the ways he'd make them pay for what we had to go through. "We'll let them take the win, for now, we'll ta-"

"Xenon, are you there?"