chapter 31: Intermission

"Ryan! Ryan! Ryan! It's coming!" Leonard called out to Ryan.

"I...I ...I can't, Leonard..please!" Ryan begged him.

"I'm going to shoot it," he told her solemnly.

"No please..don't Leonard...don't do it." again she begged.

"Please make up your mind quickly Ryan….I can't hold on to it forever!"

Ryan was shaking out of nervousness and bit on her lip hard with a bit of tear on her eyes.

"I'm bringing it closer now." Leonard then began to move closer to the girl.

However the closer that Leonard moving close to her, she once again shivers in sheer terror and dropped her weapon- which is a revolver.

Leonard could only let out a sigh.

*Bang, he shot the walker with the pistol.

"Maybe we can do this another day Ryan…" Leonard tries to comfort the now terrified girl.

"I'm so sorry Leonard, I just couldn't do it," she answers him.

Flashback to the day before.

A roughly a month has passed since the cannibal St. John incident, things now are back to normal and everyone has been less stressed out on the food supplies since their raid on the station wagon and the now deceased St. John cannibals dairy farm.

Leonard got back from his daily zombie hunt with Conner today, the excuse they gave to the other when they go out was to help clear out any nearby zombies so that they don't wander in too close, to say nonetheless everyone was happy with that reason, when they got back to the Motor Inn, Ryan and Mavis were waiting for them.

"Leonard…." Ryan called out his name.

"Yes...Ryan?" he answered.

"Please...help me get stronger….I don't want to be useless," she asked him.

Mavis was giving her a thumb up while standing on the side.

That's how it all began, back to the present in a suburb area of Peachtree.

"Ryan….listen to me….if you want to get stronger then you have to do this sooner or later." he held onto her shoulder.

"They're just corpsed, slow, and dumb...you have the luxury of using weapons such as the "Guns" of this world to kill them," he added in.

She looks at him and just bit her lip.

"I want to try again," she told him.

"That's more like it." he smiles at her and handed her back the revolver that she dropped previously on the last encounter.

"Alright let find another one," Leonard told her as he surveyed the deserted street, it was then that he caught eye of sounds coming from a nearby street.

Way too many noises to be that of only one zombie.

"....Ryan...look like your supposed target for practice manage to find a few friends."

He said as his eyes fixated at where the noised are coming from.

*moan *gurgle~

Then out from the blind side of the street, a pack of zombies shambled out into their views.

"Leonard….isn't that way too many?" Ryan asked him nervously as the pack of vicious zombies are coming closer and closer to them.

"No no, I brought more than enough bullets for you to practices of them, this is your chance to add in some magic to your reserve as well as learning some magical spells," Leonard told her.

She gave him a surprised look.

"Magic? You know to use magic Leonard?" she looks at him.

"Well yeah...we do have a magic caster in the group- that's Mavis, it would be strange if I didn't pick up any trick from her." Leonard reminded her of Mavis identity.

*moaning *moaning.

The sound of zombies moaning brought her back to their current situation.

The zombies slowly advanced toward them at a slow pace.

"Just shoot them, try to kill a few, sooner or later you will get used to it." he then held up her hand in a shooting position.

"Alright just pulled the trigger and have a feel for the gun." he encourages her.

*Bang *splatter the bullet hit one of the zombies in the crowd and splatter its head.

Ryan notices that her first shot manages to take down one zombie, she was happy.

"Good shot, one down and many more to go, just keep shooting," he told her.

*Bang *bang *Bang *bang *bang *click *click

The sound of the revolver firing bullet one after another sounded through the entire suburb.

A few of the zombie was hit but unfortunately, some shot still missed.

"Reload and try again, there are still many more R-" before he could finish saying her hand.

Ryan hand was rapidly reloading bullets after bullets and began shooting again.

Her face now no longer displayed that of a young, innocent lady, but that of a ruthless yandere.

It's kinda reminded him of the yandere queen.

"Hahaha! This is fun Leonard!" she called out to him.

Leonard was sweating bullets as he witnesses her change of personality after a bit of encouragement and firing a few rounds.

"That change in personality is too drastic?!" he thought, what the hell happened to her all those years ago, what did her family taught her?!

She kept on shooting and backing away as the zombies moved closer to her until there were no more bullets in her pouch.

After the smoke has settled, there were only one or two zombies left standing, however, he chooses the word "Standing" because he lacks a better term to describe it.

Because those zombies that survived her onslaught of bullets were nothing but sieve, riddled with holes.

"Nicely done there Ryan...I never knew you had it in you...like really…" his face twitched as he looks at this "adorable" teenage girl who always needs protection from the group to survive up till now.

To turn into a bloodlust gunzerker with just a bit of encouragement and live target practice.

"Maybe I should take you along with me to do some hunting once in a while," he told her.

His voice now brought Ryan back to her usual adorable self.

Her face went pale as she witnesses the destruction that she caused.

"I did all of that?" she asked him.

"....yep...it was none other than you, my dear…," he whispered.