S2E71 - The Preamble
As we pull up to the farmhouse, several people rush over to us. T-dog and Morales go over to Tony's side to help him out, while Gerard and Kim clear the way for them. As soon as I step out, I'm embraced by Amy. I wrap my arms around her, but I struggle to find any words. She pulls back and looks me over while constantly asking if I'm okay and if I'm sure.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm sure."
My head feels as though it's in the clouds right now. Everything she says barely registers to me as I look at Tony being dragged away. Blood runs down his leg, painting the side of his jeans crimson. It even drips down his shoes, leaving bloody footprints coming from the truck.
I feel Amy's hands grab the sides of my face as she forces me to look at her,
"Penny!"
Her words finally register as I look into her bright blue eyes. Tears fall from them and drizzle down her face like delicate waterfalls. Behind her, I see Clem being held by Carol and Sophia as they look at me.
I take a deep breath and look at Amy, giving her a weak smile. I wrap my arms around her tightly and say,
"I'm fine. Really, I am. I've only got a few scratches, I promise."
Amy moss her head,
"That's good. C'mon, I'll take care of your wounds."
I shake my head as she attempts to reach for me,
"Just a second. I got another person worrying about me as well."
Amy looks over at Clem and nods her head before saying,
"Alright. I'll be in Hershel's house waiting for you."
I nod to her and walk over to Clem. The little girl looks at me with tears before exploding out of Carol and Sophia's grasp, wrapping me in a big hug as she sobs through her words,
"You-hic You promised me!"
I kneel down with her and pick her up, holding her tightly. I speak to her softly,
"I did. And I kept that promise, even when some bad people wanted me to break it."
She nuzzles her face into my right shoulder and says,
"Those bad people should go die."
I nod my head and say,
"Don't worry. People like that don't last long. They'll meet someone they can't handle one day."
Clem nods as I hold her. Seeing as she's not gonna let me go now, I decide to take the baby Koala with me into the farmhouse. As I enter, I find Amy sitting down in a chair beside one of the recliners in the living room. She motions for me to take a seat, which I do. Amy pulls my shirt off my left shoulder and cuts a hole in my pants at the two grazes.
"The one your shoulder is the worst one. You've got a couple small scrapes elsewhere, but they'll be fine with some disinfectant. I can probably just wrap a bandage around your thigh, but the one on your shoulder will probably need stitches. You're lucky with the one on your thigh,too. An inch lower and it would've hit your knee cap. While we wait for Hershel, I'm just gonna put a bandage on it."
I lay my head down on Clems while Amy cuts through the rest of my pants leg to be able to wrap the wound. I clench my teeth as she tightens the bandage around the wound. Clem lifts her head off my shoulder and looks at me. I take the sleeve of my shirt and wipe the tears from under her eyes. As I start to pull away my hand, she reaches for it and holds my palm up to her cheek.
I give her a smile as she sits down on my lap sideways and leans over into my shoulder.
As I run my fingers through her fuzzy hair, I can help but think about Tony. How he could be dying just a few rooms over thanks to my stupid mistake. I haven't heard any crying or yelling coming from the room, so I take that as a good sign.
I think back to the fuckers that shot him. An intense rage begins to bubble within me as I think back to everything that's happened recently. I bet those bastards are the same ones that found the farm house. They were waiting for us. They attacked us deliberately. I feel a hand grabbing my own and realize that I'd been clenching my fist. I open my hand and take the other in mine, which grasps around my own gently. Amy speaks to me,
"I'm so glad you're okay. Thank you for coming back to us."
She puts her head down on the arm of the recliner, taking in a couple deep breaths. I rub her palm with my thumb for a few seconds before reaching over and putting my hand on her face, lifting it up to look at me. I look into her eyes and say,
"I'll always come back. You know that."
She nods her head and says,
"You do have a track record of that…"
I reach up and push her hair back behind her ear, cupping my hand under her chin. I rub her cheek with my thumb and say,
"I'm gonna keep that record. I got two girls I can't abandon, don't I?"
She smiles at that and nods her head. After a few seconds, we hear the front door open up behind us. Amy scrambles and sits back down in her chair as we hear light footsteps coming from the front door. I see Dale come out from behind us. He sits down on the sofa in the living room and asks,
"So, who did this to you two?"
I take a breath and say,
"There was a group out on the highway. They tried to ambush us and just started shouting through the car. I… I don't have proof or anything, but I think they're the same group that we're scouting out the farm."
Amy and Dale listen as I explain what happened in detail. How they tried to pin us with a jeep, me shooting the guy with the LMG, everything. Halfway through, Otis joins us as well. Amy is the first one to speak,
"I'm glad you're safe, and I'm also glad you managed to get one of them. Those jerks deserve it."
I put my hand on her shoulder and give her a smile. Dale speaks next,
"That guy would've been a major problem for you. I'm surprised you managed to hit a shot like that while driving. I nod my head and say,
"Honestly, me too. I fired a couple times to be sure, but I'm surprised I even hit him, let alone killed him."
Otis asks,
"Are you sure you killed him?"
I shrug my shoulders,
"I at least got him to stop firing at us. That's all that really matters."
As I finish my sentence, the door to the bedroom opens, revealing a puffy-eyed Kim with Gerard holding her to his shoulder. I instantly put Clem to the side, stand up, and speak in a soft tone,
"How is he?"
Gerard lets out a deep breath and says,
"Hershel said that the bullet luckily missed any vital organs. It did clip his liver, but that'll be fine. What IS an issue is that the bullet clipped a part of his spine. He could end up paralyzed. He also did have an exit wound, so he lost quite a bit of blood."
As I hear the news, I'm quite conflicted. I'm glad he survived, but knowing that he could be paralyzed makes me angry. At both the people who did this, as well as myself. I see Kim looking at me with a bit of anger under her sorrow. As she sees me looking at her, she says,
"Why did you have to take him… Of all the people… You could've taken me…"
Gerard looks down at her with a bit of shock. I myself struggle to find any words. When they do come to mind, Kim is already talking,
"No… I'm sorry, that wasn't right of me… I just… I'm sorry."
I shake my head and take a second before sighing and saying,
"No, I'm sorry. We had taken a backroad to get to the prison, but I forgot the way back to it. I decided to take the highway. You have every right to be angry at me."
Kim shakes her head and walks over to me, giving me a hug. Her voice shakes as she tells me,
"No. I'm sure Tony would've told you to go that way anyway. I'm sorry for taking this out on you. You did everything you could've."
I take a second before putting one of my arms around her, giving the shorter girl a hug. I whisper something to her, just for her to hear,
"I'll make this right. I promise."
She pulls back and looks at me with a slight smile before mouthing,
'Thank you.'
I give her a nod and fall back into the chair, letting Clem climb back onto my lap. My shoulders relax as I know that he'll most likely survive. Gerard and Kim both sit down on the couch with Dale, comforting each other.
As I finally start to fully calm down, the pain from my wounds starts to flare up. I feel a bit of burning coming from my shoulder, and an icy pain from my leg. The pain from the small cuts I got from the window are ignorable, like they're not even there. The soreness from my arm is equally ignorable, so long as I don't use it.
I sink into the recliner, feeling Clem rising and falling with her breath on my chest. The quiet and calm of the indoors threatens to put me to sleep, pulling me closer and closer to unconsciousness. But, that anger starts to build again. God. If I was a cultivator, I'd say this was a heart demon or whatever they call it Heh.
Suddenly, I hear a ding and see a system message pop up in front of me,
[Quest Received!]
[Get Revenge: +2 STR, +1 AGI, +1 INT, 2000p, skill: Warlord]
I look at the quest and smirk. It's tempting me, isn't it? Almost like it's daring me to do something about it. Goading me.
And I'm taking the bait.
I feel Clem nuzzling into my chest and look down at her, her sleeping facing calming me slightly. Not yet. Not just yet.
I look out through the window, over the trees, seeing the sun just barely starting to give way to the moon. Clouds dot the horizon, obscuring part of the sun. The warmth of Clem and the last vestiges of sunlight begin to lull me to sleep, the stillness of the room adding onto that.
—-------------------------------
(The Next Day)
I awaken feeling Clem slowly climbing off of me, my back stiff from my uncomfortable position. I stretch out while seated, feeling a popping sensation climb up my spine, and feeling my muscles relax themselves. It feels like my head rolls for a second, causing a small amount of nausea, but nothing too bad.
I look over to my right, and find Amy lying down on the couch, covered by one of the Green's quilts. I stand up and walk over to her, running my fingers through the sleeping girl's hair. Some of her hair sits on the tip of her nose, which I take and push behind her ear. She begins to stir, slowly opening her eyes. I give her a smile and say,
"Good morning."
She sits up for a second, yawning and wiping the sleep from her eyes before saying,
"I could get used to waking up like that."
I chuckle at her and say,
"Glad my voice is a suitable alarm clock."
Clem stands over to the side, still half asleep. She blinks a little bit before walking over to the couch, stealing Amy's blanket, and lying back down. Amy and I chuckle at her actions before fully waking up. Amy speaks to me as she runs her fingers through her hair, brushing it slightly,
"Well, you want anything for breakfast? Otis killed a deer yesterday before you got back and made some sausage patties out of it. It's pretty gamey, but it tastes better than the MRE's."
I nod my head,
"Yeah, I'll take one. I'm gonna check on Tony first, though."
Amy nods her head and walks off to cook some breakfast. I head into the bedroom, seeing Tony lying on the bed looking pretty pale. On the chair by the bedside is Kim, still asleep. I feel relieved seeing his chest rising and falling at a steady pace and release the breath I was inadvertently holding. I walk back out of the bedroom, allowing the two a bit more rest.
I walk out to the kitchen, finding Amy cooking on the gas stove. I get a feeling welling up inside me, seeing the sun glint off of her beautiful golden hair. I come up behind her and feel my heart race slightly as I wrap my arms around her waist and put my head down on her shoulder. I'm tense for a second, until Amy lays her head down on mine. Instantly, the tension in my body melts away and is replaced with warmth. My shoulders drop, and I let out a sigh. Amy lifts her head back up and turns it, placing a gentle kiss on my forehead. My arms wrap around her more tightly as I nuzzle into her shoulder. A sweet scent fills my nostrils as I breathe in. That same feeling wells up inside me again as I look at Amy's neck before I lean forwards and plant a kiss on it.
"Mm!"
Amy lets out a muffled moan as I lean back, stunned by the beautiful noise. I just barely manage to stop myself from doing more as I release her and take a few steps back, needing to take a few deep breaths. I look at the side of her head, seeing her ears turn a bright pink. I look down and scratch the back of my head while saying,
"Soooo… Uh… Sausage?"
—----------------------------------------
[Later that night…]
I look out into the forest, just barely able to see deeper in, the last vestiges of sunlight showing itself. Amy took a turn going on this watch with me. Dale's apparently been training her with his rifle, and she turned out to be a pretty good shot. I decide to go ahead and check out her status:
————————
[Friendly Status:]
[Name: Amy Harrison]
[Age: 21]
[Health: Healthy]
[Stamina: Full]
——
[STR: 7]
[AGI: 11]
[DEX: 13]
[INT: 11]
——
[Skills:]
[First Aid 2]
[Rifle Shooting 2]
[Pistol Shooting 1]
————————
She's getting pretty tough, honestly. Much better than I thought. We walk around the edge of the property, keeping our eyes on the deeper part of the woods. As we walk through, I feel like I spot movement in the back. I put my finger up to my mouth and point where I was looking. Thanks to my eyes being a bit better than normal, I can pretty much guarantee that I saw something. I whisper to Amy, putting my hand on my pistol,
"I saw something out there. Not sure what, but it sure as hell ain't one of us."
Amy nods her head and holds her m16 up towards the treeline. I put my hand on the barrel and push it down before saying,
"No, no. If this is a person, and they're part of the ambush group, we need them alive. We can find out how many of them there are."
She nods her head and follows behind me, still keeping her gun ready just in case. As we walk closer towards the woodline, I feel a pair of eyes on me and see someone peek out over a bush. I quickly draw my pistol, activating deadeye, and aim at them, firing three shots in quick succession,
*BANGBANGBANG!*
"GAAAH!"
Hearing the yelp, I tell Amy,
"Watch my back!"
And run into the woods, towards where I fired. I didn't get a notification, so I keep my gun aimed towards him. I decide it'd be smart to flank around just in case, and come around the tree they were crouched behind. I find a young man crouched down, aiming his gun and holding a bullet wound to the side. I reach down by my side again and draw my revolver, reactivating dead eye. I take aim at his hand and fire a round straight into the barrel of his pistol sending sparks and chunks of molten lead flying everywhere.
"GAH! F-FUCK!"
I knee him in the back of the head, earning another groan of pain as I take his head and shove it down into the cold dirt. I put my gun to the back of his head and push my knee into his back, keeping him pinned. I speak to him,
"Don't fucking move, dipshit."
I take out some rope from my inventory as he start to swear at me,
"GAH! YOU FU-GHK! FUHN BIH!"
I take the rope and use it to muzzle him. As I tie the rope behind his head, I pistol whip him in the back of the skull, knocking him out. As I feel him go limp, I start to pick him up over my shoulder. Amy comes up from behind, holding her rifle in a ready position. As she appears I say,
"Keep an eye on the woods just in case. We don't know if this guy has friends with him."
She nods her head and aims the rifle behind me. I can see her hands shaking slightly as she aims it. As we get to the clearing with the farmhouse, I see several people running towards us. T-dog and Morales being the first two to arrive. T-dog speaks up first,
"The fuck happened?"
I motion to the guy on my shoulder and answer,
"I caught a peeping tom."
He nods his head and asks,
"So, why did you bring him here?"
I shrug and say,
"If he's from the group on the highway, which I'm 100% certain he is, he'll be able to give us info on them. How many of them there are, what they have for firepower. Pretty much anything. Mind getting me a bucket of water? We'll need to wake this dude up after I get him chained."
T-dog nods his head and jogs off to the well to get some water. Amy and I head to the shed and sit our prisoner down, chaining him up to a wooden post. T-dog comes back with a bucket of water, and Morales brings some metal zip-ties. I give them a nod of appreciation. After zip-tying his hands behind his back and his legs together, I take the bucket and splash it on his face.
*SPLASH*
"KUH! GUHK! HAAAAH!"
I kneel down beside him and grab onto his hair,
"Alright, wakey wakey."
He grunts as I pull his head back to the post, making him look at Amy, T-dog, Morales, and I. I give him a second to think and collect himself before saying,
"Alright. I'm gonna take that muzzle off of you. I'm gonna be very clear with you. If you don't tell us what we wanna hear, you end up as walker bait, alright? And I hear there's some hungry ones out there right now. Probably having some cravings for the flesh of a young man like yourself. So, be civil, alright? No bullshitting."
He nods his head and side eyes me with fear visible just under the 'tough guy' surface he's trying to show. I take my knife and put it under the rope on his cheek, making sure to cut his cheek slightly to show him just how little I care about hurting him.
"GAH! Fuck. Did you have to cut me?"
I shake my head and put the point of my knife up against his thigh, causing him to squirm in discomfort,
"No, no, no. I told you. You're gonna tell us what we want to hear. No bullshitting. Nothing more. Nothing less. Capiche?"
He nods his head,
"Alright alright! What- What do you wanna know?"
I check out his status first to see what exactly we're dealing with,
————————
[Enemy Status:]
[Name: Jeremy Goldberg]
[Age: 17]
[Health: Injured]
[Stamina: Low]
——
[STR: 12]
[AGI: 11]
[DEX: 11]
[INT: 9]
——
[Skills:]
[Scouting 3]
[Rifle Shooting 3]
[Pistol Shooting 3]
[Knifeplay 1]
————————
Knifeplay, huh? That's a new one. But damn, he's only 17? Shit.
I look at him and say,
"First up, a name. What do we call you?"
He nods his head,
"J-Jeremy. Jeremy Goldberg."
I nod my head and pull my knife back,
"Alright Jeremy. We know you're part of that group that ambushed my truck on the highway, right?"
Jeremy shakes his head,
"N-no! I'm not- GAH!"
I take my knife and push it into his leg slightly, maybe about an inch, before dragging it up his thigh, into his hip. I give him a second before saying,
"Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy. I told you earlier. Let me spell it out clearly for you, since you seem to lack a couple brain cells: If you lie, you die. There's no way you just stumble on our little farmhouse coming from the same direction as the last guys without being part of the highway group. Unlike you, we're not stupid. We can tell a lie when we see it. Now, you're gonna be honest with me, or some walker somewhere is gonna pick the flesh from your bones after we hang you in the woods. Upside down."
He nods his head,
"Gh… Alright… I was part of them. I was…"
I nod my head and say,
"Alright. Good. How many people are in that group?"
He glances down at my knife and says,
"A-around fifteen. It's a smaller group."
I raise my eyebrows at this and say,
"Oh! A smaller group, huh? Where's the bigger group?"
He pales as he realizes the information he inadvertently gave away. He gulps down a glob of spit and says,
"Uh. Woodbury."
This shocks me. To think we'd already be having an altercation with the Governor. I barely let this shock show on my face and continue on,
"Alright then. Why'd you attack us? Why set up that ambush?"
He suddenly gets angry at me and says,
"Because you killed ours first! In Crawford!"
I nod to him. It's as I thought.
"Your people in Crawford were animals. Setting up families and executing them like that. Using them as human shields. Animals on top of being cowards, really. Your people locked a girl up on top of a building's roof and left her to bake in the sun till she died. Then you left her corpse up there to turn. I have no sympathy for the people I killed there."
He shakes his head and yells at me,
"SO WHAT!? Have you seen the world around you? So what if we kill a few people and take their shit! THEY'RE WEAK! We can take whatever the fuck we want! It's survival of the fittest! And you!"
He looks me in the eyes, full of venom,
"If I wasn't tied down right now, I'D CUT OFF YOUR FUCKING HEA-"
*BANG!*
Suddenly, the raging boy is silenced by a bullet flying through his skull, painting the pillar behind him, and me with crimson. I turn around to see Amy standing there, aiming her rifle down at the guy. Anger is painted on her face, with her teeth clenched and brows furrowed. She breaths slightly rapidly before saying,
"Don't. Fucking. Threaten her. Bitch."
--------------------------------------------
AN: Nearly 4k words. damn.