Chapter 63

- Xenon -

I woke up after two hours of sleep. Most of the soreness I felt was gone, which made me think that my earlier assumption was probably right. My recovery rate skyrockets when I'm sleeping. I took my equipment with me and headed for the woods again.

"Hey, Xen!" I stopped when I heard Amy's voice. "Can I join you?" I frowned at her request. I wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Are you sure? It will probably bore you to death." I asked to give myself more time to think about it.

"Come on, it will be fun. That way you'll have some company at least." Amy gave me the puppy eyes again. I spent a few seconds thinking about it and eventually nodded.

"Alright. Get your hatchet."

"Yay!" She ran back to her sister's van and came back with both said weapon and her handgun. "Let's go!" I wasn't sure why she was so excited about this, she'll just end up tired, barely able to walk back after we're done... I shook my head silently and followed her.

We started with some warm-up exercises, before moving on to practicing with our weapons. I used my small hatchet as well this time, though ideally, I wouldn't use any. But I had to show her how it's done, so she could get used to it.

I did notice something different when I started using [Empowered Strike] with my hatchet. The flow I felt was a bit different than my earlier training, I wasn't sure what the reason for that was. I decided to experiment a bit, using different movements, and did end up concluding that the flow depended on the movement I was doing. Not something immediately useful to me, but something I had to take note of. Amy got tired after a while, but I didn't stop, doing the same movement over and over again, taking small breaks every now and then.

After about two hours, I could finally feel something move within the flow, a result of my actions no doubt, that lifted my spirits to no end. I was able to reproduce it a few more times before I was satisfied with my progress for the day.

"Want to move on to guns?" I asked Amy after catching my breath. She was reading a book she brought with her, as she got tired from exercising.

"I thought you'd never ask!" She said enthusiastically, taking out her gun. I took out its magazine, and emptied the bullet in the chamber, before giving her the impotent gun back. I wanted her to get a good posture first before we move on to the practical part. I corrected a few mistakes she was making and repeated the procedure over and over again until she 'looked' ready.

I attached my suppressor to her gun because I didn't want to alarm the others. Not that we would be shooting here anyway. We'll walk a bit further before doing that. Not to mention, we didn't have any good targets here, and I could spot the perfect target on my map.

"Let's go a bit further. I don't want to alarm the others." I explained to her, to which she nodded. We walked in a 'random' direction for a while, chatting along the way. When we were close enough, I gestured for her to stop. She looked at me uncertainly, before she understood what I meant, having witnessed the same scene previously. We could hear some footsteps in the distance.

"I think it's only one walker." I whispered, though I already knew that beforehand. "We may have found your practice target." She nodded hesitantly. "Don't worry, if anything happens I'll be next to you."

"Okay." She looked a bit more comfortable at my reminder.

"We'll grab its attention now. Take deep breaths, calm yourself, aim your weapon, and take the shot." I reminded her again. "And don't forget to take your time, we are not in a hurry, worst case we can just fall back until you get it right."

"Alright." She nodded again, and we proceeded to do as I said. She aimed her weapon at the walker and seemed unsteady at first. The bullet landed on its lower jaw. The walker stumbled a bit but kept walking.

"Try aiming higher this time." I suggested before she nodded again. The walker wasn't that far away and was walking in a straight line at us, so hitting it shouldn't be that difficult. Though in her defense, this was the first time she ever shot a gun. And yet, she managed to hit it right on the forehead on her second try.

"Well done." I praised her. "Though we've run out of targets to practice on now, it seems."

"Yeah, if only there were more walkers around we could shoot." She said dreamily. I turned to her with genuine shock. Did she just mean what I think she meant? "I'm just joking... Just joking..." A smile slowly spread through her face, sending a shiver down my spine, before she started cackling madly. "The look on your face... I can't breathe..."

"You had me worried there. That was creepy..."

"I know!" She laughed for a while until she had tears in her eyes. She eventually stopped. I'm honestly surprised she wasn't repulsed by what she has just done, because I'm quite certain she would the first time I met her. Am I a bad influence?

We made some makeshift targets for her to practice on, and we stopped after she finished her Magazine. I'm sure she'll get other opportunities to practice, but for now, we better save those bullets.

We made our way back to the camp, and Amy asked me if she could join me again the next day. I didn't see the harm in it, so I ended up agreeing.

- Narrator -

Daryl had a permanent scowl on his face, not that the others noticed anything, since it was hardly a change compared to his usual expression. But he was genuinely pissed off. They had been staying there for four days, and he didn't see anything changing on the horizon. The others were getting comfortable in this place, assuming it was safe for some reason. The new guns they were now equipped with give them more confidence than they should have.

But Daryl knew. This place was the farthest from safe. They've all witnessed the proof the first day they came here. More than a hundred walkers attacked this place, destroying the fences in the blink of an eye. They believed that setting up a watch would be enough for their safety, that if they had a warning of a horde attacking them, they could respond accordingly, but for how long would that last? They would eventually run out of bullets, and when that happens, they'd be left defenseless. Daryl believed that those bullets should be used to secure a place that would make them safe in the long term.

He observed them, the other members of his group, seeing them chatting merrily, without a care in the world, the only dominant conversation were things completely irrelevant to their survival in this apocalyptic world, which filled him with rage. The fact they were already dealing with a massive issue, yet none of them haven't even realized it yet. He then looked at Xenon, who seemed to be doing the same thing as him. Their eyes met, and he found that Xenon was giving him the same scrutinizing look in return. He nodded at him almost imperceptibly, something he didn't understand at first, but soon enough, the message reached him. He scoffed loudly, attracting some attention to himself.

"Why the long face, Daryl?" Shane asked him. "Something upsetting you?" Daryl turned to him with a glare, not that it was different from his usual expression, so Shane wasn't particularly offended.

"I'll tell you what's upsetting me. This!" He made a gesture with his hand. "Is upsetting me! What the hell are we doing here? Weren't we supposed to go secure that damned prison? Why the hell are we sitting here by the campfire, FOUR DAYS LATER! It's like you guys don't get it! THIS PLACE IS NOT SAFE! We found it attacked by a zillion walkers when we first came here, so tell me why the hell are we still here?!"

"Easy there man!" Shane said placatingly. "And I can answer that for you. The reason we're here is that Carl got shot, remember? You just expect us to leave him here? He'll get well soon enough, then we can get the prison to ourselves, won't we?"

"I agree with Daryl, Shane." Xenon said, with the same usual calm expression he wore when discussing a rather sensitive situation as if he was discussing the weather instead. "And before you make assumptions, I do not mean we have to leave Carl. But what are we accomplishing here, really? Carl is being cared for by Hershel. This place is temporarily safe from walkers. So, instead of wasting our time waiting for no reason, we could do something more productive, like cleaning up the prison, where Carl would have a safe environment to recover." Xenon was happy to notice that, even though he was speaking for a while, no one interrupted him, which showed him to an extent how much respect they had for him.

"What if the farm is attacked again while we are away?" Dale asked with a frown. "Us being here is providing him a safe enough environment for the time being. We should wait a week or two until he gets better. The prison won't go anywhere now, would it?"

"It's not about the prison going anywhere." Xenon shook his head. "The fact is, we are running out of resources, by wasting time here doing nothing. We don't even have anywhere to store them, as I don't think Hershel would appreciate us messing with his property. And I doubt Rick and Lori would come with us regardless of what our decision is." He looked at them.

"That's right. I won't be leaving my son's side." Rick said firmly.

"As you should. I don't expect you to." Xenon nodded. "But leaving you with enough ammunition should be enough to keep you safe. Worst case scenario, a horde walks by, you wait it out in the house until we come. Taking over the prison shouldn't take longer than a day."

"Less, actually." Jim added. "If we use our guns, it's only a matter of a few hours." Almost everyone nodded at that, except Daryl, Shane and Xenon who didn't believe it was such a good idea.

"We shouldn't use our guns." Shane said. "Guns should only be used in case of an emergency. We have no way to get more ammo, and I'm pretty sure there are more walkers in the US than there is ammo."

"I agree with Shane. We should use ammo sparingly. It's the new currency now." Xenon added.

"Let's not get carried away. Think we should clarify the first issue first, are we going to the prison or not?" Daryl asked angrily, challenging the others to disagree.

"Let's vote." Shane proposed. "Show of hands, those in favor of taking over the prison tomorrow?" The only ones who didn't raise their hands were Rick and Lori for obvious reasons, Carol and Sophia since they doubted they had a say in the matter and Dale who disagreed with the plan in the first place.

"It's decided then. We move out tomorrow." Shane nodded.

"Dale can stay here as a backup for Rick, just in case." Xenon added helpfully. Dale glared at him, as he did not appreciate his underlying message: 'You're useless', at least for that particular endeavor. And Dale couldn't find it in his heart to disagree with him. He was old, and his aged body was no longer as strong or as fast as it used to be. In a physical confrontation, especially against walkers, he wouldn't be of much use.

"You said you wanted to take over the prison without weapons. Let's talk about that for a second." Jim brought their attention back to the subject.

"We can use the same strategy we used before." Theodore proposed. "Made dealing with them a lot easier. Now with our numbers, it should be even better."

"We'd be in plain sight this time, however." Jim added.

"Actually, there is a way to make the walkers ignore us." Xenon brought their attention back. "As Shane here can attest."

"Yeah." He nodded. "We went right beside them, they didn't blink twice in our direction." Xenon and Shane proceeded to explain what they've done, and were glad to notice that they weren't exceedingly repulsed by the idea. Except for Andrea and Amy, who were visibly disgusted, but only by the fact they'd have walker gut all around their bodies. They didn't voice their concern, however, realizing just how counterproductive that would be.

Xenon proceeded to make several suggestions on how they should operate in the prison, raising several points about the strategy they discussed in length. He was glad to notice they weren't as afraid as they were the first time they heard about fighting walkers. There was fear, obviously, since any mistake could potentially end their lives. But with all the guarantees they had? As long as they followed the plan, nothing should happen to them.

Andrea and Amy insisted they would be part of the attacking team, refusing to stand on the sidelines as the men did everything for them. Though Andrea hoped her sister would back off it, she understood it was futile to deny her wishes, so she'd settle for the next best thing: being by her side constantly and making sure nothing happens to her.

Lori was furious about their departure, but Rick did his best to convince her otherwise, albeit unsuccessfully. Although he would've preferred they stay here instead, he was smart enough to understand the benefits of what they were doing. He'd be lying if he said he was comfortable staying in the farm, especially since Hershel made it abundantly clear he expected them to leave as soon as Carl was better. Having somewhere safe to go to when it happens was for the best, and he would not be getting in the way of it.