In The Water

Despite my first moments in this world being damn near a video game where I slaughtered zombies with an M16 and grenades like an action hero, if it wasn't for Gamer's Mind, and sex, I don't think I'd want to live here at all.

This place, was a complete wasteland.

The state of Georgia was an absolutely empty and desolate place, and now it was torn apart by the Infected, and the looks on Hershel's family's faces when they saw the reality of what I was trying to tell them.

Was something I don't think I'd ever forget.

There were entire towns burned to the ground by the army just, for no reason we could gather. Or burned down by survivors, out of desperation or insanity.

The highway was completely empty, an interstate connecting one side of the country to the other, a massive network of cars otherwise throughout the deep South, but no one was here. No one was anywhere.

Why?

Because everyone was dead, Infected, or hiding.

No one would stand next to the road with a sign begging to hitchike. Why?

Because some survivors killed each other, just because, or to steal their supplies. We saw it when we came across a cabin just off the road with all the people inside stabbed or shot to death.

I recognized the reasons for their death right away. I just shot them straight through the eye the moment the door to the house opened and they started to run at me.

Shawn Greene killed the last few remaining.

"You alright?"

Shawn, didn't really know how to respond.

"How are you. You know, alright with all this?"

"Science has apocalypses all throughout history. The black plague, the dinosaurs were struck by meteors. Guess this is our turn."

"Yeah but, the world never ended cause of those." Shawn said quietly.

I shrugged. "The world did. Humanity adapted, or, our biological ancestors did."

"Biological ancestors?"

"You never heard of evolution? It's kind of what's happening here, just, in a really fucked up way."

"Nah." Shawn muttered in a small breathe.

I sniffed, holstering my pistol. "Well this is great."

"What?"

I pointed at the bodies of the Runners we'd killed. "This one didn't die of starvation or something, it was stabbed. Right through the heart."

"So, how did they turn? I thought you had to be bitten to become one of them."

"They don't have any bites on them, this can only mean one thing. Whatever the hell is changing them, just dying is enough to make you Infected."

"How? Don't you have to get infected to become sick?"

I scratched my chin. 

"I studied biology." True, I was getting ready to start a major in microbiology when I was graduating from highschool. "Microbes, they're impossible to-"

"Speak English." said Shawn.

"Ok. This virus, the sickness that's spreading. Everyone has to have some version of it, it can't just override your body when it's a corpse. It has to hijack your central nervous system and consciousness when its cellular integrity-"

I cleared my throat.

"When you're still alive, at least for a few hours when cells can still function. I don't know, at least, I'm pretty sure that."

Shawn dropped his rifle, falling back a little bit.

Some pans on the counter behind him clattered around.

"You okay?"

Shawn blinked, I'm pretty sure he was having a panic attack.

"We-We've all got this shit?"

"We have to." I couldn't lie to him. "Or, this thing spreads through the air, able to turn corpses into monsters not long after people die. Or maybe later. Either way, you don't have to get bitten to turn, that at least is sure."

"No matter what I do. When I die, I'll become one of them?"

I shook my head. "Whether or not there is a cure, or whether or not it can be implemented. You won't become like these folks."

"Why not? Look at them."

I looked at the dead family in this cabin. They looked like regular people, probably killed for their supplies given the ransacked look of it all. Someone broke into their house, murdered them, took everything they had, and left.

Shawn rubbed his face. "I don't, I don't get it. Does this thing make you crazy too? I, I-"

"Shawn!" I said firmly.

I gripped him by the shoulders. "You are not going to die."

Shawn began to sob.

"You are not going to die! Your sisters, your parents, their farmhands. They all need us. We need to get to Macon, we need to find more people. Sane people, not like those that did this. And we're going to find a cure, and we're going to find a way, a safe way, to survive."

"How can I trust you? How can I trust that when nothing makes any damn sense?"

"You see the truth now of everything I told your father, why I made everyone leave. You really think I'd be lying to you too about trusting me on top of that?"

Shawn moved his tears away.

I didn't blame him. Beth, only a few years younger than him, raised in the same environment and somewhat the same person, went into complete shock, and was practically suicidal when she learned the truth.

Which begged the question, how was she doing?

I shook my head. "Look. Go back to the truck, tell your parents we didn't find anything."

"How can I-"

"Shawn, go back to everyone. Tell them I'll be out in a minute."

He nodded, walking back. I made sure to shoulder his rifle for him.

When he was gone, there were some things I needed to take care of. Leveling my [Tracking] and [Sleuth] skills in the process.

I looked around the house, there was no sign anything useful was left in the house. No weapons, no food or medical supplies. There wasn't even anything I could use to fix or maintain a car, motorcycle or anything with an engine.

I walked around the back of the cabin, judging from the tracks and the hasty escape made through a broken window, they broke in through the side door, killed them. And then fled into the woods not too far off.

What I wanted to know was clear. These bandits, or whoever did this, was not on the highway. We needed to keep moving. Fast.

…

I was driving in my red truck, no one questioned that I had given Shawn's rifle back to Hershel, the rest of his family in cohorts in another car, or the RV we'd looted in the small caravan behind us.

Shawn was, off, for the entire car ride. I didn't blame him, watching the empty, ruined, and unrecognizable countryside of the otherwise pretty fields, and moors of rural Georgia as we drove towards Macon.

Suddenly, he spoke for the first time in an hour, we had taken a left turn off the 29, had to take some back roads, before getting back on the 411 . Athens was impassible from a massive blockade made out of ruined cars, and tractors, that some survivors had made, telling folks to:

Stay away from Atlanta, God bless.

"Are you sleeping with my sister?"

I told him the truth. "No."

We did had sex, but we never slept in the same bed. From the state he was in, I wasn't going to make Shawn's life any worse.

"On top of all this shit, you show up. Uproot my whole family, and you're screwing my sister."

"Maggie and I never did anything."

"I see the way she looked at you ever since you came to our doorstep."

I glanced towards Shawn, Donnie panting quietly in the backseat of the truck. "Look man, I never did anything with her, I swear."

"Would it kill you to tell the truth for once?"

At this point. It might kill Shawn, for all I knew. I truly felt bad for him.

I saw a nearby sign. "We're not too far."

Frustrated, but glad we changed the subject, Shawn turned. "Finally."

Macon was about a half hour drive away.

Shawn then wondered. "How in the world did you make it out of that town? Like most we've seen, it's either impossible to get into. Or impossible to get out."

"Luck. My brothers took me hunting since I was little, I was good at shooting, hiding, running, and don't forget. I managed to find this dog."

Donnie continued to pant, smiling and licking his mouth in the backseat.

"I just thought he was yours."

"No, I found him in somebody's backyard when I was trying to escape. He was probably gonna starve if I left him locked up, so I decided to bring him with me."

"Why would you do that?"

I shrugged. "Why not? Dogs can be helpful, and it was a poor animal in help."

"But for all you know, it could've bit you and you could've died. And if not, it could've just made things harder for you keeping a dog around. Either way, why go out of your way, potentially risking everything for a dog?"

He again, had no idea I had the Gamer. Secondly, he had no idea that even though I wanted to get the hell out of that town, I wasn't in any real danger from trying to keep Donnie with me.

I smiled, continuing to drive towards Macon. "No Donnie never bit me. Even if he went by Billy back then. Isn't that right Donnie?"

The good boy didn't bark or anything, just continuing to pant quietly, before laying his snout in the backseat.

"You wouldn't risk anything for a dog?"

"Hell no. After what I just saw, I don't think anyone's risking much for anyone else but their own kin."

I sighed.

He wasn't wrong.

"Did you tell your sisters what you saw, your parents?"

"You told me to say nothin'."

I was curious about this next part. "Why didn't you?"

"Shit man, I was unsure of what you'd do if I did. It was a matter of time before my maw, or Beth, or whoever became one of those things after somebody came along and tried to kill us. And if not, we'd just be standing around, waiting to never come up with a plan."

"You agreed that sitting on that farm forever was pointless? Or dangerous?"

"I'm here aren't I?"

I paused.

"Then, why wouldn't you trust me?"

"I just told you I trust you. At least, to figure out how to survive in this mess, you made that very clear."

"But you don't think anyone would risk anything for someone else at this point?"

Shawn frowned. 

"I was never a big fan of the government, or any politicians or even the army. If they let all of this happen, then no one can protect us. If we made it to here, it's because someone didn't care enough. There's someone to blame."

I never felt sadder than hearing Shawn say that, sounding so hopeless and spiteful.

"Those." Shawn sighed. "Those goddamn people, shot and killed in their own house. Just for what was probably a week's worth of food. Turned into cannibalistic monsters."

"Shawn, I told you-"

"Admit this is impossible!" Shawn looked towards me, and stopped looking towards the field.

"It's not impossible, it's just-"

"Start making sense for once! People die, they turn into, whatever the hell those things are. Then because the army and the police all went to who knows where, they're attacked in their own homes. Explain how a cure is the answer, that there is one to something so insane."

The Gamer could've been mistaken about that Quest for all I knew. But if the CDC was as big of a dead end as the Gamer made it out to be, I never would've said what I did to Hershel.

"What's the alternative? Not trying to survive?"

"I don't know. But I still am having second thoughts about leaving my farm man. At least I-"

Shawn stopped.

I don't think I ever felt worse for anyone else than in that moment.

He just stopped talking again, he froze.

This is why I believed some died in the Walking Dead, at least, faster than others. Running Dead? Until I power leveled my knowledge of [Biology] and [Research Science], which were both very low level, I don't think I could ever fully grasp whatever was infecting people.

Not because they were stupid. Not because they were incompetent. Although, there were plenty of both of those cases. Not because they were unlucky, there was that too.

But because they were hopeless. Their fire, their drive to want to fight, to at least try to build a society from the ashes of this apocalypse. It convinced me that Shawn Greene died because he wasn't like Maggie, or at least, the woman I knew from the TV show, technically different people.

He had no desire to want to survive. At least, he still mistrusted my leadership. And my decision to help his group.

I had nothing to say to him. How was I supposed to convince someone they were wrong like this? In his shoes, I'd say the same thing.

Taken away from his home, shown the barbarity of this world. And a stranger the only one to lead them.

…

"Well that's interesting."

I lowered my binoculars, passing them to Hershel.

We were standing on top of the RV, on a large hill overlooking Macon.

Macon was a shitshow, and after what we'd seen, that was putting it mildly.

There were no stores or buildings not broken into and overrun with Undead, in fact. The entire town was overflowing with zombies.

From front to back, Runners were everywhere, far too many for a town of this size, I suspected a horde was just moving through and stopped here.

There was no way I could clear them all out, not unless I wanted to reveal my powers, and show how the Gamer pretty much made me superhuman.

Hershel frowned. "So much for this place then. So much for your plan."

"Look we drove this far, we-"

"Son, you convinced me there was something out here that would make us safer than we were at home. There's nothing here."

We could hear the mild drone in the near distance of hundreds of Infected milling about.

"Nothing at all."

"There are survivors here, people who can-"

"We've driven for four hours. No sign of any cure, no sign of any people alive. No sign of anything at all. I don't think you were lying to me Marcus, just that you were wrong."

"Please, let me just-"

"You have until tomorrow evening. Convince me there's something out here, or I'll get my family, and drive back."

I nodded quietly. "Fine."

"Why Macon?" Hershel looked at me. "Atlanta I'd get, it's likely your brothers went there and you mentioned it too. But you chose a smaller and pretty random town. Why?"

"I don't know, thought Macon just seemed like a good place to start."

With my binoculars, I found the drug store where Lee Everett was trapped in. It appeared to have already been broken into.

Okay, that's a start.

…

There was one more place to try, one last hell mary, and it apparently paid off.

The Travelier Motel, a place situated very well upon approach.

It was impossible for walkers or anyone trying to break in from behind, there was a small locked power station and the back of a large hill protecting it. 

The Travelier Motel appeared bigger than I imagined initially, looking different in some key bits of architecture. But there were trucks and cars protecting the entrance, and a long stretch of woods by the front of the Motel far enough that if anyone approached you could spot them well beforehand.

I stopped driving when I saw a man perched in the trunk of a pickup truck, aiming a rifle right at me.

We got out, and I heard him say. "That's about far enough."

"At ease, we're friends."

"I think I'll be the judge of that frankly."

[Kenneth Fields - LV 27 Survivor]

Kenny fixed his cap with the barrel of his bolt action rifle. "Do me a favor kid, to show there's no bad intentions. Disarm yourself."

"Okay." I threw my pistol on the pavement of the long driveway past the motel, and then raised my hands.

"One more thing, get all of your people to get out of that RV, and that other car, just so I know how many of you there are."

I could already see Patricia and a few others peeking out, watching me speak to Kenny.

"He just showed you we're cool." said Shawn angrily. "What's your problem man?"

"In case you haven't noticed, we're not in this motel just because we're having a vacation, not exactly five star locale. It's a safe place to hide in. So, frankly, what's your problem?"

"Shawn," I said firmly and kept my hands raised. "Go get your family, tell Otis everything's fine."

Shawn obliged never keeping his eyes off of Kenny the whole time.

"Some pal you got there," Kenny muttered, hopping out of the truck and walking towards me.

He slung his rifle over his shoulder, speaking to me quietly. "Gotta say I'm not really his friend, just trying to be anyway."

"Name's Kenny, yours?"

"Marcus."

"Alright Marcus, where are you from, what do you want?" he asked simply.

"I'm from South Carolina, the folks I'm traveling with are from a farm a few hours north of here. We're just looking for a bigger group to try to survive with, maybe figure out some sort of plan."

"What plan did you have in mind?"

"Find a cure."

Kenny's laugh was one of the sweetest and most 'I'm from Florida' kind of things I'd ever heard in my life.

"That's rich, but honestly. I can't say I hate your optimism."

He turned to see Patricia, Jimmy, Otis, Annette, Shawn, Hershel, Maggie, and Beth all step out.

"I hope you don't mind, but I want to take two of you back with me to talk to my people. You okay with standing out here till we get back?"

"Not at all." a few of them muttered.

"Thanks."

Hershel walked forward. "I think it'd be best if I go with you."

"Sounds fine to me."

…

"Let me get this straight," a bitter man by the name of Larry said. "You just met this kid who came to your farm. And then decided to leave for no other reason than the promise of a cure?"

This was still so surreal. 

Clementine, hiding in a window of a motel room was nearby. Lee Everett was standing in front of me, mostly silent, arms crossed.

Everyone was here, even Doug and Glenn oddly, for reasons I didn't quite know yet.

"I trust what he said." Glenn stated calmly, with a voice that sounded a bit like Steven Yeun and only mildly resembling him. Again it was so surreal how these were all real people, not actors nor video game characters.

"Really?" Larry looked at him.

Hershel, myself, Kenny, Lee, and Lily were all around a small campfire Lee's group had made.

I saw Carly, Doug, and a few others on the second floor of the motel, watching quietly.

"Yeah, he was a good farmhand, told Hershel's family what was really going on. And they trusted him for it. The only weird part is why they'd go to Macon, I mean, it's not a terrible place just kinda random."

"It was odd to me too." Hershel said. "But as tough as the roads seemed, we got there in one day."

"He rigged some sorta cow catcher to that truck he was driving," Kenny said. "But honestly, I still don't know if we can let you stay here. At least, not here in the motel."

"Why not?" I wondered.

"For one, we just met. I don't buy parts of your story, especially the cure part. But even if I did," Kenny said. "We have too many mouths to feed as it is. We've got a weeks worth of food at best, and then, I don't know what the hell we're going to do."

"Are any among you trained in medical science?" I asked.

"Not really." Lee said the first words he did in the ten minutes or so that I met him.

"Hershel here is a vet, he could help you a lot."

Lily scoffed, crossing her arms. "Yeah in case a Runner bites us, I'm sure we can have some nice cow medicine to heal us up. Besides, Kenny's wife's already a vet."

"Now look-" Hershel tutted and spoke kindly.

"You people have no business being here. There is no cure, and even if there was, there's no way this random kid really knows about it." Lily glanced at me, her father, Larry, nodding quietly next to her.

"Agreed," Kenny muttered.

Lee seemed to be in accordance. The fact that they were agreeing with Lily and Larry, told me the gravity of the situation.

I sighed. "Do any of you have any medical conditions?"

"What're you, a doctor yourself?" Kenny asked, again, I was worried because Larry scoffed along with him.

"I'm just wondering."

"I don't know why you'd care, but yes. My father needs special pills, nitroglycerin pills."

I put my hands in my jacket pockets. "I can get you those pills. We have about a week's worth of food ourselves, but I can find some more for you."

"How much food?" asked Larry, with an extremely ungrateful tone.

"A considerable amount."

"How much?" Lily insisted.

"For both our parties? Well."

Lee's group was a few people. Himself, Clementine, Kenny, Katja, Duck, Larry, Lily, Doug, Carley, and Glenn. I think there might've been one or two more I'd seen, so all told, around twelve people. 

My group was myself, Hershel, Jimmy, Annette, Beth, Maggie, Shawn, Otis, and Patricia. So eight.

Twenty people. Let's say each needed around two to three pounds of food every day. Two times twenty, that's forty pounds. Forty pounds times seven days in a week, times two weeks….

Hm, I could safely loot Macon, and the farm I knew was nearby in a short minute.

"Give me a day or so. I can come back with my entire truck full of supplies, that's enough food for about two to three weeks I think."

Everyone was in complete disbelief. Lee looked at Kenny as if to say 'the fuck is with this kid?'

Larry chuckled, shaking his head, Lily whispered 'Bullshit' and Glenn just asked.

"Hold on, you're going to go out, and come back with as much food as your truck can carry? How?"

I crossed my arms. "Do you really care how it gets done? Or do you want it done or not?"

Glenn and Lee looked at each other. All things said and done, who were they to say no.

"Let's say you find this food, somehow, I don't even-" Lily waved a hand. "Anyway. What then?"

"Then you let us join your group. We build a better plan to either fortify this motel, or make plans to seek out a better arrangement. Eventually, I can go with some of you to find the cure."

"Ah yes," Larry laughed spitefully. "The cure. I'm sorry, but are you incapable of speaking in anything but bullshit?"

I laughed myself too. "Okay, you know what? I'm tired of arguing with all of you, if I get the supplies and come back here. Is it enough to get my folks to stay?"

"You do something like that and yeah." Glenn chuckled. "You can stay."

Probably because it seemed so impossible to them.

But they forgot, as hard as the apocalypse seemed to them. It was literally a video game to me.

"Great."

"Now let me ask," said Lee respectfully. "Why would you follow the word of some teenager you just met? Enough to move your whole family around?"

"I trust my daughter a great deal, and she trusts him. More went into that, but I don't think I know any of you well enough yet to tell you everything."

Hershel seemed honest enough to at least convince Lily to glance towards me with anything that wasn't pure disdain.

"Okay, fine." sighed out Lily quickly. "Kenny move your truck, help them set up new barricades on either end of the driveway just outside. Lee, get their RV parked right here in the middle of the parking lot."

Lee didn't say anything while Kenny spoke sarcastically.

"Yes ma'am." he said, clearly not wanting to take any orders but doing so anyway.

Then they realized we had horses.

I thought it was selfish of them, but this was the zombie apocalypse. It was a fuel free method of transport when fuel was scarce, and it was a matter of months before all fuel on the planet, or at least, around here, went bad.

…

Never in all my life, would I see Beth Greene helping babysit Duck and Clementine while a few of the other adults got to know each other around the motel.

"I heard about the deal you made." a decently pretty girl told me. "Name's Carley, you must be Marcus."

"Indeed I am."

"I'm wondering by the way, how do you plan to get all those supplies?"

"Trust me, I have a plan."

Carley snorted. "At least you're sure of yourself."

I glanced upwards, the sun was starting to set. The plan was already set in motion, and the pieces in my mind were vague Telltale storylines from my childhood mixing together.

I remember some crazy lady lived in the woods nearby, I guess I could start there.

…

When the sun went down, I went off on my own towards the forest.

Already, everyone at the motel, the twenty or so people who I'd promised I'd feed on my own must've realized I was completely crazy for doing so and leaving relative safety, just by myself.

Or that I was incredibly good at surviving.

Again, it was a video game to me.

The few Runners there were there were easy pickings. I just shot them, again I didn't give a shit if I attracted more, plus there weren't that many around.

I also wasn't afraid of this crazy woman either, I could shoot her even if she knew I was coming.

Eventually, after some hiking and walking around, I found her camp. She was sitting by the fire with a crossbow by herself.

The woman appeared on edge, I think she must've heard me coming because of the gunshots. But I don't think she knew where I was, I had the Gamer to thank for the [Sneaking] ability I'd leveled up to LV 16, I got from sneaking up on zombies and stabbing them in the brain before hand.

I had a knife, my fully loaded M16 that I took out of the back of my truck before I left with some ammo packs, and two revolvers.

Before I attacked, I considered how to proceed. I couldn't exactly loot Macon, sure I could just mow down every zombie there, and then everyone at the motel would wonder the next time they tried getting more supplies from the drug store or just exploring, it was very nearby.

How the fuck did I manage to kill a horde of zombies just on my own? Sure some of them knew I escaped a town full of them, but they didn't know the details.

No, I had to pick a different spot.

The farm full of cannibals I remembered could have some supplies. My memory was fuzzy because I hadn't played the Telltale Games in years, but they should have something.

I'd have to see something else, might as well start with this lady.

Out of sheer darkness, I raised my revolver and blasted her with perfect accuracy right through the shoulder.

She shrieked, yelling at the top of her lungs, I didn't feel bad for her. I knew how creepy and crazy she was.

[Jolene - LV 24 Bandit] rolled around on pain on the ground, I kicked her crossbow away.

"So. Would you happen to know about some food around here?"

"Wh-What the. What the fuck is wrong with you!?"

I shrugged. "Don't look at me, you seem like some tweaker lady covered in shit out in the middle of the woods. If I approached your campfire to talk to you, you'd probably shoot me on sight. Wouldn't you?"

"No- I don't-"

"Wouldn't you?"

Jolene screeched with laughter, nail on chalkboard I can't take this laughter. "Go to hell you son of a-"

She roared in pain again when I cocked the pistol and sent a bullet right through her knee in the blink of an eye.

"You don't care about all the Infected out here in the-"

"Use your head, I already killed them before I got here. That's how you probably heard those shots, now. The next one's going through your eye, where do I get some food?"

"Alright alright! There's a farm closeby, I-"

"I already know about the farm." I opened the wheel on the pistol loading a few more bullets in it, and spun it back in. "Start talking."

She chuckled, holding her bloody knee. "You really want to find some food?"

"Yeah."

"There's a whole supermarket full of food, protected by a gang of asswipes. The meanest, ugliest, nastiest pieces of shit. You seem good at shooting."

"Sure." I said quietly.

"Now lookit," Jolene winced, still laying on the ground. "I don't think you could outshoot them. Frankly, I don't care. But they raped my daughter. They raped her, and they killed her, and then they came back here, and raped me too and just to tell me what they'd done while they did so."

I blinked, remembering this with complete surprise.

"They kidnap folks, and do the same. Torture 'em too."

"How do you know this?"

Jolene looked up at me, obviously with nothing left to lose. "Cause I was one of 'em. You live a long enough time on this planet, you do whatever you can to protect yourself. And your family."

"Where is this supermarket?"

"It's called Save-Lots, run by the most worthless fucking scumbag who ever walked this Earth named Jake. Just off Highway 85, head east outta Macon, you'll see it right there."

I cocked my pistol again. "I'm sorry about your daughter, not for your sake at all, for hers. Word of advice, if you camp out. Never start a fire, you have to figure it out otherwise. You can see fires easier in the dark, if you're someone unfriendly, or the Infected."

"I just have one wish before you shoot me dead." Jolene raised a bloody hand, begging. "Don't let me become one of those things."

I didn't even hesitate. "Nope." I told her.

I aimed right at the center of her chest, drew the pistol to my hip and let loose with all six barrels.

[You've unlocked Hip Fire! (15% to LV 4)]

[You've gained +300 EXP from unlocking a new Skill!]

[You've gained +400 EXP from killing a Bandit!]

I found it pretty messed up that the Gamer rewarded you for killing people, but then again, Bandits were pretty fucked up.

They murdered, tortured, raped, and kidnapped pretty much at will if it let them survive easier. I honestly wouldn't feel bad at all for what I was going to do.

I looted Jolene's camp, netting me another level and about six pounds of food along with some extra supplies. 

The Gamer generated two quests, mostly rather similar.

They were [Annihilation Quests] similar to those I got when blasting my way out of the town I started in. Just, blow up everything that moves that's evil, and then just loot the rest.

…

I decided to take a quick glance at my stats before I began to absolutely annihilate the Save-Lots supermarket.

It was on a flat open terrain of dry land about a five minute drive past Macon. Because I could run really fast because of the Gamer, and unable to be lucky enough to find a working car, it only took me a half hour to run from the woods outside the town to the Save-Lots.

After I caught my breath, I opened my Status menu.

[Gamer Status

Name: Marcus Liederman

LV: 143

Age: 19

HP: 3600/3600

MP: 4000/4000

STR: 141

DEX: 171

VIT: 130

INT: 171

WIS: 140

LUK: 160

Skills: Born here in Wildford, South Carolina, raised by your two older brothers, you have an extensive survival background. In hunting, fishing, trapping, shooting, and camping. Your two brothers were also helping you to become a mechanic someday.

Perks: Immune - One of the few people among those in the entire world able to develop an immunity to the virus.

Survival Skills: LV 171

Mechanic Skills: LV 87

Sneaking Skills: LV 31

Legendary Shooting Ability: LV 147 skill with single shot rifles, automatic rifles, pistols, grenades, and handguns.

Legendary Looting: LV 180 Perfect efficiency with taking ammunition, food, or other supplies from cabinets, corpses, or any other places where supplies are found.]

Stealth should be optional for this mission right?

I checked the Gamer quest, using the same objective for two locations, technically being two quests.

[Bonus Objective: Complete both Annihilations on Save-Lots, and St. John's Dairy without every having to heal or using stealth at all. +4 LVs.]

"Deadpoooool." I whispered to myself, cocking a pair of Colt pistols before running so fast up the wall of the Save-Lots I made it to the roof. "Captain Deadpooool! Nah, just Deadpool."

I got ready for this mentally. "God, I can't wait until I find some swords." I muttered to myself.

I kicked the door to the roof so hard that it flew away.

And then, I just started blasting.

The fact that I moved faster and shot more efficiently, accurately, and quicker, and the Gamer calculated I dealt more damage about fifteen times in all aspects than a single person, I was simply untouchable.

I put a bullet between the eyes of a Bandit who was just standing around speaking to his friend.

The Gamer even let me switch between weapons instantly with how fast the Inventory was, and I just went to work.

I could ran up around walls, shooting so fast with revolvers I was basically blurring around. I ran into a maintenance room in the supermarket, and shot a Bandit directly through the stomach eleven times, saving the last bullet for his pal running around everywhere.

Not even looking at him, I shot him straight through the neck.

Then I ran forward, and shoulder tackled a door open.

I pulled the pins from a pair of grenades as two people inside scrambled for cover and drew their guns haphazardly.

As they begun to fire, I was already safe behind the door, and they were killed by the grenades.

I ripped the metal door right off the hinges and then walked forward, looking around what would've been a manager's office for the supermarket before the apocalypse began.

There were body parts of the two Bandits inside I blew apart, I wasn't fazed, it was utterly disgusting but after everything I'd seen. It doesn't bother me at all.

[You've gained +2 LVs from killing a Bandit Leader!]

Guess that was Jake.

Jake's pals set off an alarm, did this place have a generator? That could be useful.

I was able to run so fast, that I smashed apart the glass of the manager's office on impact and ran straight onto some tall metal shelves. The Save-Lots was less of a supermarket, and more like a giant retailer. Like a Costco or something from my previous life.

I was running across the tops of metal shelves so fast that bullets were missing me, not even close. I think one even grazed my ankle, it should've wounded me, but I just took about 300 HP and it sort of stung.

"I think he's over there!"

"Someone shoot that fucking guy!" I heard another bandit say.

Oh cool, they had lights, that's probably how they saw me.

I reloaded both pistols in under a second, and then blew out every lightbulb in the entire wholesaler.

"Where is he!?"

"I think he's-"

I found the two idiots talking, seriously, didn't they realize that making noise was the only way I'd be able to find them now?

I just shot them both in the head, one bullet apiece. 

I began hurling grenades around, I only had a couple left, so I decided not to use them anymore until absolutely necessary.

My reflexes and strength were so high that I could sneak up to a Bandit Assassin's Creed style and then slit his throat.

I found another pair of them looking around, holding AKs or something, and I stood behind them in complete darkness.

"Boo."

Before they could so much as twitch I shot them to smithereens with [Hip Fire].

I picked up the bleeder, his pal wasn't so lucky, I think his body folded in half from how riddled to pieces the three bullets I put through his spine were. I guess my STR stat meant damage was calculated to the point a bullet pretty much shredded your entire body from me.

I hurled the Bandit, still yelling in pain, right through several metal shelves, most of them empty.

That gave me an idea.

Bored of just shooting them all with M16 shots or the pistols, I decided to pick up an entire one of these metal shelves. Not one that was too big, just something around fifteen adult men would be able to pick up, I think it used to be a freezer unit back when it still held meat.

I then smashed it repeatedly on whatever Bandits I could find, splattering them like pancakes. And pretty soon, I had killed over thirty of these people, thirty terrible, rapacious, murderous, kidnapping bastards, extorting whatever survivor camp they could find with whatever means they had.

I used the giant freezer unit as a shield, blocking around five Bandits from shooting me. 

I placed it on the ground, dug in with my shoulder, and ran forward at full speed.

There was nothing left of them after I threw the freezer unit aside, nothing but some pasty red splotches mixed with some completely thin white pieces of what I assumed was bone.

I could hear car engines kick alive, I was already by the front entrance.

No. 

I couldn't let them flee, not after what they'd done. Not after the threat they posed to everyone I was protecting.

I started hurling freezer units right at the cars. Smashing right through their windshields, knocking them off balance. One truck even was knocked over on its side.

I had such perfect accuracy with my M16, that I could shoot through the bottoms and sides of the cars, and turn whatever in the world was still in there into hamburger meat.

No one was left.

[You have finished the Annihilation of the Save-Lots Bandit settlement!]

[You've unlocked the mini-map!]

[You've unlocked x2 EXP gain!]

So having enough speed and strength stats that I had auto-aim and super strength as well as super speed wasn't enough. No, I also had a mini map now as well as the ability to level up twice as quickly.

I think my next best bet after finding Rick would be too find the CDC and min max INT, just to come up with a cure strong enough to fix the disease.

…

There was no one around for miles, so I was able to leave the store quickly, but not before getting some supplies. I had no interest in alcohol, at least in drinking it, but I still could find some use for it.

I used one of the Bandit's cars, the few I hadn't lit on fire, blown up, or smashed apart with old refrigerators, and drove to St. John's Dairy farm.

I had been able to create [Molotov Cocktails] out of several bottles of booze and rags I'd found around the wholesaler I'd looted.

As if killing child rapists and murderers wasn't enough, these people were as bad. The cannibals.

I'd long since forgotten their names, the minimap alerted me that most of them were already asleep.

I began to hurl over two dozen Molotov cocktails all over them.

I don't know why, but I wanted them to suffer.

They fed people to people, this farm was the salvation survivors everywhere needed. And they fed human beings to them if they asked for food.

I took out a manila folder, and it was right then and there, watching St. John's Dairy farm burn, I knew what I needed to do. What my plan was.

I had looted the entire Save Lot's store in about fifteen minutes, including some very useful bits of information I found in Jake's office.

The file included several settlements, these pieces of shit didn't just want to extort people, no they wanted to keep tabs on where they moved or lived so they could find them again. And they wrote it all down on a list.

The Travelier Motel was included.

Old motel off backroad on the southern end of Macon, near a forest - Over ten people, five pounds of food a day.

These shitbags had several settlements or survivor encampments listed here. There were easily one hundred and twenty people all told here.

The paper was disgusting to me, but my intention with it wasn't to extort the people on the list.

Quite the opposite, I wanted to help them.

The Gamer let me store whatever I found in my inventory just by touching it. I now had about three thousand pounds of food, presumably all perfectly kept in the condition it was found in. 

I had the medical supplies, ammunition, and any other supplies I'd need to fund a small army of around forty people.

I had the desire, and the means to save everyone. 

Never in all my life, since, seeing Shawn's face, had I ever wanted to help someone so much.

I don't think I was given these powers to do bad. I could easily make a piece of shit society, where we killed and stole at will, and I forced a group of women to marry me.

I didn't want to be Negan, but even worse. 

No.

I had seen what this virus, or fungus, or whatever the hell had done to these people. I wanted to give them hope.

I got back in my truck when I made sure the pinpoints on my minimap marking the cannibals faded.

…

I didn't even look at Kenny's reaction when he told the others to move the car.

Over twenty people all watched, a few muttered nervously, others happy to see me with so much food. An entire truck full, almost bursting with food and supplies.

Instantly, Lee walked forward, Clementine let go of the pant leg of his jeans.

The man offered a hand to shake. "How can I thank you?"

"Will letting my people stay be enough?"

I shook Lee's hand, and I know what this meant.

Potentially, it meant he wouldn't have to live in a world. Making a series of decisions resulting in his death.

"What else do you want?" Larry scowled.

"What is your problem?" asked Beth.

"Yeah, what's wrong with you!?" someone else said.

Glenn scoffed. "Look the guy's weird, I'll admit it. But he just saved our lives. We have enough food here for-"

"I don't care, he's leaving out one part." Larry walked forward and pointed at me. "Where in the world did you find this much food? Did someone give it to you?"

"If they did. Why?" asked Lily. "Even the best scavenger in the world can't find that much food on their own."

Larry spoke. "You expect me to believe someone just left a truck's worth of food just lying around? And in three hours you come back and you have it all?"

Kenny rubbed his temples. "I hate to say it, as grateful as I am that we won't be hungry. He has a point, how in the name of shit did you manage to scrounge up what would take us a month to get. In just an hour?"

"On your own!?" asked Lily.

"I traded for it."

"Traded what!?" asked Larry.

I handed him a folder.

He opened it, looking inside.

"There's a whole list worth of other survivors this side of Georgia I found in a store, someone was using these people to extort food and supplies. These people are gone."

"How?" asked Lily instantly.

"They all managed to get in touch with each other, said enough was enough. The leader of all those folks got in touch with me when I went out searching for food on my own. Told me there was enough help for everyone."

There was some silence, for a crowd of twenty people, and no one made a sound.

Glenn broke it, looking at me. "So you managed to go out on your own, and you found folks who helped you? Helped us?"

"I know so many of you are hopeless."

Katja rubbed Duck's shoulder, drawing her son closer to her. Shawn couldn't meet my eyes.

"I know that you've seen so much death, you don't think there's any life left out there. That with so much of our world gone, there's no more humanity anywhere, anymore. But I promise you, there is. You just have to trust me."

"Why should we? Because you brought us some food?"

"Yeah Larry, because I brought you some food." I said quietly. "It may seem strange how I found it but -"

"No." Kenny's wife said, still holding Duck. "We're all grateful."

"And this cure you mentioned?" Kenny still looked confused. "You're sure about it?"

"I have to be honest with you all. It's only something I heard about, but it's something I'm hoping for."

"Hoping?" I heard Carley ask.

"Yes. Hoping." I said. "Hope is all we have. Besides, some guns, bullets, and a decent bit of food. A safe place to stay," I looked around the parking lot of the Travelier Motel quietly. "For now."

I felt like I was starting to gain a bit more of their trust. "There are people out there who will exploit your hopes for a better tomorrow. A day where you won't have to live in fear for your children, for yourselves. Where."

I sighed.

"The dead run."

There was a bit more of silence, and Doug stepped forward.

"You know I worked in IT for the Federal government before this all got started. A buddy of mine called me when it really started, and said no one even knows who's alive anymore in the major cities when he was sent off someplace."

Too dangerous to try anymore anyway to figure out who is alive.

Doug looked at me up and down. "I honestly don't think much more than a third of the world survived at best. Not with the way these things can run at you."

"A fifth," I said. "I think I agree with what you said."

Doug and I made eye contact. I recognized his intellect.

The group had more than potential, I trusted them. I just hope they trusted me.

For some reason, they weren't saying anything. I could see by the way they looked at me and spoke that they were grateful. But I was sad, still.

I sighed, drew a pack of nitroglycerin pills and handed it to Larry.

"Here."

The man merely nodded to me before I walked past the group and went upstairs to the other motel rooms.

I was able to spot Donnie laying by the campfire who instantly ran to my side.

He was the only one who followed me up, I still told him to go back with everyone.

I fed him, he trusted me. If only the rest of us were as simple as a Golden Retriever.

…

I was sitting in my hotel room, about to get some sleep, when someone knocked on my door.

It was Maggie.

"You're not wearing your hat."

"We're not in the country anymore I'm 'fraid."

"Right." I smiled a bit, letting her in.

She sat on my bed after I closed the door.

"Here." she revealed a jar of peanut butter and a spoon. "It's not much, but Kenny, Lee, and my father decided it's what fair. You probably haven't had dinner yet."

I shrugged. "I think it's fair too."

"You do?" asked Maggie. "Weren't you the one that found all those supplies?"

"But I'm not the only one living off of them."

Maggie patted a spot on the bed and I quickly joined her.

She handed me the jar and I started to eat.

I got a decent way through and asked the obvious question. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I thought everyone was all weirded out about where the supplies came from."

Maggie shrugged. "I trust you."

"I know but, now too?"

Maggie smiled lightly. "I gave you my virginity. Do you think I wouldn't have done that if I didn't trust you? Or even, like you?"

I smiled back at her, enjoying another spoonful of peanut butter. "Thanks Maggie."

We cuddled, and I quickly was able to finish the jar of peanut butter, not the best dinner I'd had by a longshot.

"Did Donnie eat?"

Maggie nodded. "Yeah, my mom fed your dog a couple of beans."

We made eye contact, Maggie and I had been rubbing against each other on top of my bed for a few minutes. By the time we started making out, I stopped her.

"Should we tonight?"

Maggie smiled, her hand moving around my chest. "I miss it."

"Me too, but, your um." I sighed quickly. "Your brother asked."

"Oh please." Maggie scoffed. "My brother and sister have not been in the best headspace as of late."

"Have you?"

Maggie took a deep breath. "I've been hanging in there, you've helped."

The room was decently dark, only slight bits of moonlight entering through the bedroom window of the motel room.

"Glad I've been able to help."

"I know I help you too." whispered Maggie, unbuttoning my jeans.

Fucking right she did.

By that point, she had raised my spirits a bit.

I looked into this girl's eyes, my god was she beautiful.

"W-What?" asked Maggie in disbelief.

"Nothing."

Everyone had so many questions about who I was. How I could do what I did. Convince Hershel to move here, and find that food, and how I got here.

I guess no one's seen enough of the apocalypse yet to get tired of asking those questions. But Maggie didn't ask those questions.

She hadn't from the moment we saw each other again tonight, she just wanted to be here for me. And the sex was one thing, whatever.

But that was genuinely touching.

I pulled Maggie into a very deep and long kiss.

She pulled away and said. "You remember when we raided that drug store?"

"How could I forget?"

"Yeah um." Maggie said in a quiet voice. "The condoms, weren't all that I brought with me."

"We still have plenty more."

"Yeah, I kept other forms of birth control, that pill you take. It's been a week and a half since I started taking them."

I was surprised. "Why did you start taking them? I know we've been together, but still."

Maggie pulled her hair back a little bit and exhaled. "Because I don't know when anyone's going to be able to make them again soon with all that's happened. And I didn't feel like just letting them go to waste."

"So, did you bring condoms?"

"I did, but I've been taking that pill everyday since we went to that drug store."

I inquired further. "I know I'm not one who should be asking questions but. Why?"

"I just told you, I-"

"Maggie, why?"

She rested her forehead against mine. "I've been feeling so strange since that town by my farm was empty. Since the first person I saw in weeks outside of my family was you. So confused, so worried about why things had changed so much."

I nodded, listening.

"It turns out my fears were true. There's nothing out here. I'm pretty sure all that's left of Macon are these folks we're staying with, everywhere else probably wasn't much luckier."

Maggie wasn't wrong. I found it suited to who she was that she wasn't particularly shaken by what happened. That it still affected her, but not her decision-making. 

Except it did, at least here.

"Sex has been the only bit of fun I've had at all. Since the outbreak, I wasn't allowed to leave the farm. And things have been a nightmare, I don't recognize my own brother because he's so out of it. And, given how grave things have gotten, we had to leave."

I looked at her calmly. "What are you saying?"

"Marcus, I don't just miss you inside me. I want to feel you, without any protection."

Hearing Maggie say she wanted me was the hottest thing I'd heard in a long time. Sex without a condom was risky, but man it felt great.

"Are you sure you haven't missed the pill for a day?"

"I always took it just in case, no haven't missed it."

I hugged her close to me, letting her rest her head on my chest as I thought to myself. 

Maggie was a lot of things, but a liar? No. I believed she had been taking the pill, that wasn't the issue. The issue was, that if for whatever reason she did still get pregnant, it would take an insanely good doctor to help her figure it out.

Lori died in childbirth. Without good doctors around, the likelihood of dying in childbirth went up dramatically. This wasn't a cross that bridge when we get to it, if Maggie got pregnant, she could actually die if things got bad enough.

"I don't want to get you pregnant," I admitted instantly.

"That's fine, I brought the condoms anyway."

Hold on.

I wasn't having sex too often in my past life, but from what I did remember. Nothing beat raw sex, it simply felt so much better. Girls more or less felt the same from what they told me, but at least for me, nothing beat it.

Maybe it was more of a romantic thing for Maggie? Granted she hadn't had sex before we did, so maybe she thought it was feel different?

Either way, I didn't question it.

What the hell. I'm sure the Gamer could let me raise my INT high enough to be able to become a doctor or something.

I could blow up an entire supermarket the size of a Costco full of armed people and loot the place in fifteen minutes, but I couldn't have raw sex? Come on.

…

What proceeded was the best sex Maggie and I ever had. Granted it was only twice before but still.

I was hard from the get go, and Maggie barely wanted me to play with her tits or fool around too often. She sucked me off for a split second and, the speed at which we were taking off our clothes told me she wanted to do it, fast.

I don't know if it was the bits of moonlight on her naked skin, or the fact that we were doing it raw. But I was loving every second of it. Maggie was smart, knowing the walls weren't the thickest and other people were trying to sleep.

And we still weren't trying to tell her family.

I could hear Maggie moan into my mouth as she laid on her back and I pushed into her.

Maggie's bare legs curled around me, her arms too.

"Marcus." she whispered, kissing the space between my chin and my earlobe. "Fuck it's so good."

I pushed in, and I couldn't believe a small layer of plastic could feel so much difference. She just felt warmer, and…better.

Maggie began to moan in my ear, picking up some of the motel bedroom covers in her fist and starting to scream into it as we fucked.

We kissed, and I felt her curl around me. Tighter, she was so hot, I could feel tiny bits of sweat started to build as I pressed int her more and more.

It wasn't by a whole lot, but that mind blanking bump that happened when I'm mostly certain the tip of my dick touched her cervix, yet again. Incredible.

I rocked in and out of her, Maggie gasping and groaning against my shoulder the whole time. I would draw myself out, and back in, almost all the way out, and all the way in.

Then I started to speed up, I sped up, more and more.

Maggie held me as tightly as she could when I sped up and we kept fucking.

The bed wasn't rocking too much, pure luck there. 

I ran my hand up her beautiful naked body, and cupped her face.

Then I kissed Maggie, continuing to pump into her, starting to grunt. I felt that it was almost uncontrollable, I was fighting the urge for it to end.

Don't end, please, this was so amazing-

Fuck!

I began to groan into Maggie's ear, each passing thrust started to slow down.

"M-Maggie, I'm gonna-"

"Pull out!" she whispered quickly, pecking me on the lips.

I did so just in time, and Maggie pumped my cock, letting me spray my load right over her stomach and gorgeous breasts.

I lay next to her, panting, cupping her close to me. She wiped away the cum a bit, smiling, gasping for breath a little too.

"Mm." I saw her wipe the cum away with her right hand on one of the spare pillows on my bed. "So good." she nuzzled against me.

"Amazing." I kissed her on the cheek, hugging her tightly.

I just laid there, embracing her naked warmth before I drew the covers over her.

[You've managed to unlock a choice between two perks through the Romance Game route!

-Perfect Orgasm Control: You can finish whenever you choose.

-Hentai Protagonist: Enhanced penile function and much larger ejaculation.]

I was able to resist the urge to burst out laughing. Seriously? All that shit, and you can't have a Gamer enhanced function for male birth control or something? The one time the Gamer offers me something useless to what I really need and it's actually hilarious.

The Gamer could manipulate my metabolism to where I would only need to eat far less than I normally did and function fifteen times as efficiently. But it couldn't prevent me from impregnating my…sort of girlfriend.

"Hey, Maggie?" I asked.

"Mhm?" she smiled into my chest.

"What are we?"

I could see her frown and sigh with her eyes closed. "I thought it was the woman's job to ask that question."

"No I'm serious, are we-"

"I'm too tired to figure it out. Are you?"

Honestly yes, I was. I don't know if it was because I just came. But I just could've distributed a shitton of the supplies I found all throughout the usual looting spots we went too.

But granted, I didn't just need the supplies to get them. No, my objective was too prove that they could trust me. Or at least that I could provide for them.

On that note, I basked in the afterglow of our sex, feeling Maggie's embrace, holding her closer to me. Her perfect naked body under the covers, how nice her curves felt beneath my hands. Her sides, her ass, her back. I kissed her deeply.

She returned it, but then stopped, tiredly pecking away.

"You're tired?"

"Very."

"Me too."

It was getting harder and harder by the minute, but I couldn't resist the urge to fall asleep. 

"Maggie?"

"Mhm." she murmured, her breasts still pressing slightly against my bare chest.

"Do you have a way to get back to your room before your parents realize you're gone?"

Her eyes flew open. "Damn. You're right."

"You're what? Twenty four? Why do they care so much?"

"They're just as strict with Shawn too."

I sighed, leaning back on my pillow as I saw Maggie quickly start to redress herself. 

"The world has," I paused. "Ended, why does marriage matter so much to them?"

"It's not just that, they're just. They're really overprotective over all three of us." Maggie said, pulling her pants up from the ground.

I leaned back on my pillow, hands behind my head. "See you again tomorrow night?"

"Maybe I can fuck you cowgirl style tomorrow night."

That sounded so great, especially now that we were doing it raw. Riskier, but I think if Maggie kept taking the pill daily, we had a very slim chance of getting her pregnant.

In a way she was right, they would all just expire eventually anyway.

I drew her to me. "Maybe I can-"

Maggie pecked me on the lips. "It's getting late."

"Yup."

She smiled at me and left, and after the door closed. I felt something odd.

With my past relationships in my prior life. If we hooked up and then one of us had to leave, yeah it was awkward. But never totally unpleasant.

I actually missed Maggie when she was right here, just here, a moment ago. She was in my arms, naked, basking in the afterglow of our sex. We had just done it raw, it had felt so good.

But I missed her.

Something I'd thought about when I talked to her brother stuck with me.

The sex was fine, but why did I want to sleep with her?

I missed her here in my arms, speaking with her, touching her hair. I felt...

Happier with her alone.

…

I woke up the next morning and walked out.

Lee was in the motel room a few doors down from me and was already leaning on the railing, holding a coffee mug. 

"Morning Lee."

"Hey Marcus."

I looked at this man for a moment, confused. "I didn't know we had coffee."

"Kenny found it buried at the bottom of a box of supplies you brought back yesterday."

I was surprised by the kind and calm tone of voice he had, it almost sounded like the one I remembered speaking to Clementine. 

"Interesting to see you're not staring at me in silence."

Lee shrugged slightly. "Look, no one said they're not grateful. They're just a little weirded out that's all."

"The dead can run at you and try to eat you, but the strangest thing is me finding a truck's worth of supplies?"

He chuckled quietly, I was surprised by how heartwarming it could be to hear Lee Everett laugh a bit.

"I suppose not, but the truth is no one knows the truth about where you found them. When you've lost everything, I guess the truth is all you really have left. You went on about hope last night, and I guess you're right. But until you show everyone the truth, I think your words carry just a bit less weight."

They wouldn't believe me.

I looked out at the scene below, Doug was working on some sort of machine, maybe a radio. Kenny and Hershel were talking, I saw Kenny point out towards the woods as they talked, probably about organizing raiding parties to get stuff from Macon.

Clementine and Duck were chasing Donnie around in a circle by the put out campfire. Carley and a few other survivors were eating what breakfast we were able to ration from the other truck I brought back from the bandit compound.

Personally, I thought that town was done for, even if they knew the drug store still had supplies.

How was I supposed to tell them all the truth?

I killed forty bandits in about twenty minutes, and killed the cannibals they'd all encounter. The greatest threats to this settlement, all around Macon, were gone. I had inadvertently saved these people's lives.

But they could never know the truth.

I smiled a bit, making Lee look at me in surprise a bit.

As long as they're safe with enough to eat, that's fine by me.

I walked down and watched Kenny pick up a pot of coffee that was heated, from presumably the campfire everyone made by the RV.

"Mornin' "

"Morning. Thanks Kenny, how'd you sleep?"

"Erm, about as well as one really can throughout all this, but fine." 

I nodded, understanding what he meant.

"Look, I wanted to go with Lee and a couple of others out scavenging through the woods, maybe we can reach an airport out past Avondale. Might be lucky to find a plane."

"Sounds good to me, at least worth a try."

I sipped my coffee, dang. Kenny knew how to make a cup of joe.

"Nice." I admitted, nodding to Kenny when I finished the mug and set it down on a foldout table nearby. "So when should we get going?"

"The sooner the better, Infected are more active and harder to see during the nighttime, so the more sunlight we get. The more time we can get to bring back supplies."

I created a ring with my thumb and index finger. "Donnie, c'mhere boy!"

The Golden Retriever appeared instantly, Clementine and Duck running up from behind him.

"But Dad, we were playing." the little boy whined.

"Marcus and I need him for now. We've got chores to do, go stay with your mother." said Kenny quietly.

"Okay." Duck said sadly, walking off to sit near Katja.

Soon, Lily and Glenn moved a few of the trucks out of the way, opening the barriers, and Lee, Kenny, and Carley and I all walked off towards the woods.

…

…

…