Ch. 19 Mac's seal of approval

Back on the farm Mac stands there pissed off with his situation. Not only is this place unsafe, now he is going to look like an ass bringing everyone here instead of one of the heavily fortified estates like he promised. How can he get comfortable in this dump? He looks around considering how he can make the most of this situation when he notices a little boy staring at him. "What do you want kid? I'm busy."

Carl shrugs "I dunno. Wonderin' if you have superpowers too I guess."

"Superpowers? I assume you mean the breathing techniques?" Carl nods. Mac can only think to himself how much of a showoff his brother is again. "Yes, I can. What of it?"

"Can I see one of your sword moves?" Carl asks curiously, he had only heard of Julius' incredible skills.

"If I showed you, I'd have to kill you." He answers in a dark tone, crouching down to be eye level with Carl. His killing intent quickly kills the boy's enthusiasm. "Still wanna see?"

"I-I can handle myself. My dad taught me how to be fight." Carl stammers trying not to look scared.

Seeing he had a backbone Mac's demeanor softened a little. "I'm sure he has, but you should know there's a difference between brave and stupid. Don't go looking for trouble, be ready for it." Mac advises. Carl stops to think about that when his father comes over.

"Carl! What are you doing over here? Don't you go botherin' the Doc, go find your mother. Sorry about my boy, he didn't give you any trouble, did he?"

"No, he's alright. A curious one I see." Mac says watching him walk away. The curious ones usually grow up to be either be a pain in the ass or really useful. So he has potential.

"Yeah, that boy is always up to something, but he's a good kid." Rick explains.

"I see…" Mac answers before opening up with his own questions. "So this farm, what's the situation here? Do you have clean water? Is the perimeter secured? What skills do your people have? How often do stragglers wander through here? Have you had to-"

"Hang on now, one thing at a time," Rick stops him seeing he was nowhere near finished. "I'll show you around and introduce you to everyone so that you can see it all for yourself. Besides I don't think we'll be here much longer. Hershel was only letting our group stay until Carl got better, and well, he's fine now."

"I see," Mac takes in the new information, Julius didn't say anything about relocating but if it means an upgrade to their living situation Mac has no objections. Still for now, he needs to know what he is working with.

"I'll still take that tour," Mac adds not wanting to leave anything to chance.

"Alright consider it done. Since you're Julius brother I know you're a good person but it's something we ask every new person to the group. How many walkers have you killed? How many people have you killed. And why?"

"Walkers? Huh that's a fitting name. You already know Julius so no point in lying about it… I never counted how many walkers I've killed, and I lost count on people years ago. They're both a lot. Why? Survival or jobs." Mac answers plainly. Mac half expected Rick to have some sort of breakdown but he took it pretty well.

"You were a mercenary too?"

"Assassin actually, I retired a few years back."

"Retired? You're still a kid!" Rick was barely able to accept the fact that they once killed for a living, but the idea that he was able to accomplish enough to retire a few years ago when he's not even eighteen yet is absurd.

"What, were your parents James Bond villains?"

"My grandmother might have been…" Mac answers nonchalantly.

Rick couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but decided its better to leave that topic alone. It seems like one of those never-ending rabbit holes. "Got it… And the group you were travelling with? What about them?"

"You don't have to worry about them. From the looks of it, your group has more experience in that right. Except for Heather. She's my bodyguard." Mac waves to the forest and she drops out of a tree holding a sniper rifle. "She's amazing at her job."

"Everything alright Mac?" She asks appearing next to them.

"As good as it could be, You can get the others." Mac answers.

"Right away. Hi," she smiles at Rick before taking her leave, basically vanishing.

"Wait, was she there to-"

"Only if necessary, don't worry about it." Mac says disregarding his concerns. Now about this tour?"

"Alright, alright, lets go. Eager fella, ain't you?"

"Fortune favors the prepared." Mac answers.

The first stop on the tour is the well. Curious about what was going on, a few others gathered around.

"This is my wife Lori, that's Andrea, Carol, her daughter Sophia and you've met my son Carl already." Rick introduces the ones who joined them.

"Hi."

"What's up?"

"Hello."

Mac already has varying opinions about them from what his brother has said. "Nice to meet you all." He nods to them before getting back to the task at hand. "So about the water? Is it safe to drink?"

"If you had asked two days ago the water was clean enough, but everyone's been scared to use it since we had to fish a walker out yesterday morning. We aren't sure how it had got in there, but-" While he was talking Mac dropped what looks like a pill in, and the water immediately begins water fizzle loudly.

"What did you just do?"

"Purified the water, give it about five minutes before it's ready though. You're welcome." Mac answers already ready for the next thing.

"What?"

"We can wait the five minutes if you want. You'll see my purge pills will dissolve every contaminant in there, including itself once it's done, leaving only water. You'd be able to drink ocean water after an oil spill with this."

"Is this stuff really that potent?" Lori asks watching the water continue to bubble. "If it could clean up an oil spill, why hasn't it been used in the messes on the news?" She wonders aloud.

"That is a good question," Andrea follows up. She's been wondering, why wouldn't this so-called miracle worker have more headlines if he was a world-renowned genius?

"It's an all or nothing kind of thing," Mac answers. "If you used enough to clean the ocean, you'd do more damage to the environment than the oil ever could. Literally everything would be gone…you could see the seafloor though. I guess that's a plus."

"Oh…" Andrea says turning her attention to the bubbling water.

Before long Heather returned with the group from California in tow. Rick pointed out where Julius and Clem had set up camp, and they put their stuff up near there. Daniel, Travis, Madison and Liza come to speak to Mac. He could tell they were less than enthused about where they ended up, hell he was too.

"Mac…" Liza starts.

"Don't start right now, this is not what I had in mind either. I'm working on-"

"Don't start right now? Pinche Pandejo(fucking asshole)!" Daniel grabs him by his collar ready to punch his lights out.

"Where is this big fortress you promised? We trusted you and you brought my family into the middle of nowhere to die?"

"Daniel calm down!" Travis moves to stop him.

"Whatever's going on we can sort this out like civilized adults." Rick also moves to help.

Mac just grabs Daniel's arm and then squeezes. With enough pressure, his grip is quickly loosened and he's now wincing in pain. "I made a mistake, this place is not the location I intended to bring you all to. I will fix my mistake and ensure your safety like I promised. However, DO NOT make the mistake of thinking you have any power over me." Mac says instantly becoming cold, in that moment everyone can easily see the eyes of a killer who had ruthlessly taken an untold number of lives and had no problem adding to the count. "If I didn't think you were useful, I'd have taken this arm… I will get you to a fortress, but let me work. We're here for now so I am trying to make sure we have suitable living conditions. If you don't want to wait you can have the chopper, take your family wherever on this godforsaken earth you want to go. But if you touch me again, I will kill you where you stand." With that Mac pushes Daniel away and glares at the others.

"Anything else? Or can I get back to work?"

After a silent standoff the tension is broken by the crying of an infant, grabbing everyone's attention.

Nick carries the nameless child to the group and hands him over to Mac, "he started crying and nothing is wrong with him so here."

The baby immediately calms down in his arms. "Damn I made a scene already...." Mac thinks realizing he let his anger get the better of him. He notices that all eyes were on him so he takes a deep breath and calms down, rocking the baby gently. It was good way to diffuse the situation, which earns Nick some points back, but he was still mad about the snitching. Mac throws Daniel the keys to the chopper and turns back to Rick. "Does that fence surround the entire perimeter of this farm?"

"No Doc they don't , it covers most but the creek and swamps act as a natural border on the sides of the farm."

That one hurt him to hear a bit, that just sounded like a sneak attack waiting to happen. "Lets see about making that more secure." He walks down the hill without another word.

"Whoa you can actually see the bottom of the well…" Andrea says noticing the water stopped bubbling. It was now crystal clear without so much as a spec of dirt floating in there. "Who wants to try it first?"

Rick, Nick and Carl go with Mac walking to see how far the fencing goes and where there were gaps. It did seem that the marshy areas were hard to traverse, but it is far from an acceptable defense. In some of the farther reaches they find and kill any stray walkers they see, including one who's legs seem to be stuck in the ground. Oddly enough the baby wrapped in harness laughed whenever they did, they were all starting to think he was a little off but no one said anything.

"Alright, now you've seen it all, how are you going to fix this?" Nick asks curious about what Machiavelli has in store. "You got an electric barbwire fence up your sleeve?"

"Not quite, but this will do. Backpack, close the gaps. Start farther back along the fence, just focus on the area where the farm actually is." Like last time his backpack jumped off his back and scuttled away.

"What the hell is that?" Rick steps back in surprise.

"My trusty backpack, I made it myself." Mac answers proudly, "It's very useful, watch it go." From on fencepost is planted a piece of metal and ran towards the other fence trailing a steel cable. As it goes it drops small rods that extend into full fenceposts. In just a few quick laps the backpack has the farm completely closed off before returning to its perch. "Good work backpack." Mac could rest more easily with that done. While it's far from the best defense, it'd be enough to deter some straggling walkers. "Do you have power here?"

"The house does, It runs on a generator. That and Dale's RV" Rick answers.

"Good…but that will only last so long. I want to add a backup."

At the house he goes over to the fuse box, looking it over he see's it's components are still intact. He places a disc looking object with a tiny solar panel on the side, and it sticks magnetically. After a few seconds it made a soft beep and a light flickered on.

"The power discs run on solar energy, it won't take long to build a charge."

"Got you." Rick nods. "What's next on the list?"

"I want to see about-"

Just then Maggie came outside in a flustered panic, Glenn wasn't far behind. "What is it? Are you alright?" Rick asks trying to her calm down. "Just breathe and tell me what's going on."

"I- I can't find my daddy anywhere. He isn't in the house and his truck is gone!" She gets out barely able to slow her breathing. "On top of that Beth just collapsed!"

"Hershel left the farm? What's he thinkin' at a time like this?" Rick says with an exasperated sigh. His leaving was probably a big contributor to Beth's collapse. "Don't worry I'll go find him, you have any idea where he might've gone?"

"I saw his old flask out in his room…"

"I thought your dad didn't drink," Glenn comments.

"He doesn't…he quit when I was born…" Maggie corrects him.

"There a bar nearby he used to go to?" Rick asks, trying to get an idea where he might be.

Maggie racks her brain for a moment to think of the name, "I think it was called the the carriage bar."

"That's where I'll look first." Rick says getting ready to go immediately. "Glenn, with me. Don't worry we'll bring him back in one piece."

"I can go help too." Nick volunteers.

"We hardly know you, I can't ask you to go riskin' your life with us right off the bat." Rick tries to turn down his help. "Did you even talk to your folks?"

"I'll be alright, besides safety in numbers and all that right?"

"But-"

"Just let him go, I think he enjoys risking his life." Mac interrupts.

"So it's safe to say you're staying Mac?" Nick asks sarcastically.

"Correct, I have more work to do." He wasn't going to add that he was really just wanted to stay close in anticipation of Julius' return.

Nick was already halfway gone before Mac finished speaking. "Alright just tell my mom I'm helping wrangle a cow or something, and say hey to Julius for me." He laughs saying the last part knowing that's why Mac really stayed. This stuff wouldn't take him too long to upgrade at all.

"I'll see you soon." Glenn kisses Maggie and rushes after Rick and Nick.

"Please be safe," she calls after him. Mac felt awkward just standing there, but he still needed someone to finish showing him around. Maggie, however, turns and speaks to him first. "Doctor, there's something else I needed to ask you about specifically. Could you take a look at my sister?"