The Dead Frontier (27)

"You can leave the watch to me now since I have already eaten. It's beans boiled in some bone broth. It's tastes heavenly, Aunt Sarah has outdone herself this time again. I bet her restaurant will be popular when we reach-"

"Okay, okay Arno. I get it" said Glen as he got up from the rock he was sitting on.

Arno was one of the oddballs in this group. He was a tall, lean young man with brown hair and hazelnut eyes. He was also twenty this year, slightly older than Ezekiel. Despite being so young he had a bushy untrimmed beard. If you coupled that with his slightly sunken eyes and uncombed hair, you would have the textbook image of a crackpot scientist.

Yes, Arno was a scientist... sort of.

He called himself the inventor of the century. He had a lot of weird inventions under his name, like; a swimsuit made out of cork, so you don't drown or a doll that moved by itself which was even creepier than Chucky.

Honestly, in his lifetime Glen never would have thought that he would see a nightmare fuel doll, especially in the wild west. The way the doll crawled by itself was just so unnerving.

"Oh, before you go take this!"

Arno started to rummage through his satchel. This was not good news for Glen as Arno carried all his tools in there, so this meant Arno had invented something again. Hopefully, it wouldn't be so scary this time.

Glen looked at the fork that Arno handed. It looked like a normal fork except for the fact that it looked a little tackier. The ends were also weird as well, since it was shaped like human fingers with one of them being on the opposite side.

Was this some kind of spork?

"What's this?" The moment those words left his lips Glen instantly regretted it.

"Glad you asked! You see, since you have *ahem* a little trouble in the arm department, I decided to build a tool that would help you in the process of eating. That way you would feel more comfortable. You see, there is a button at the back of the fork. If you press on it, it will release the spring mechanism inside the fork and that would, in turn, cause the little 'thumb' of the fork to 'clutch' the food you are trying to eat. That way-"

"Okay! I get it!... Thank you. I am pretty sure it will come in 'handy'" Glen joked as he left in a hurry.

The kid had a fatal flaw and it was the fact that he didn't know when to stop speaking, especially when it came to his inventions.

It wasn't a bad thing per se, but it was certainly annoying after a while so Glen didn't want to spend any more time with him than necessary. Also, his inventions might seem novel to the people of this era but from Glen's perspective, they were all ridiculous!

Though he had come clean with something. He didn't know if the kid was really talented or not. After all, he had already seen the wonders of the modern society, so no matter what ground-breaking inventions the people of this era created, it would always seem backwards to him.

Then again, his opinion could change if they could create ion thrusters for rockets or, more importantly, a godd*mn cure for the zombie virus! Until then, every inventor in this world would look like a sham to him.

However, he wasn't disregarding Arno's intelligence either. Maybe this kid would become the Thomas Edison or Nikola Tesla of this world. Who knows?

"Here you go, Mayor Rhodes. I already saved your share"

When Glen arrived at the campfire he found a spot that was already saved for him next to Lillie.

Lillie Dowell, this was the name of the girl who hugged Glen when they first met. She was a tailor and well, another one of the oddballs of this survivor group.

If Glen were to summarize her with one word it would be 'fangirl'.

She was Glen's or rather 'Night Rider's fan. She admired any and all his actions. Most of all, she liked to tell stories of his past which he would very much rather forget at this point.

If she just told stories, it would be fine with him. Heck, he could even be persuaded to tell a couple himself.

The thing was, in Lillie's stories, Glen was like some sort of an omniscient god that could do no wrong. He would always know what to do and be ten steps ahead of his adversary. It was impossible to even touch his hair unless it was an ambush!

This was pretty awkward topic for him. At the end of the day, even if he was a good one with morals, he was still an outlaw. So when she criticised others for ambushing he felt pretty weird. It became worse when she painted his ambushes like a great tactical decision.

So if he was ambushed it was a cowardly act, but if he ambushed someone it was a strategy...

Basically, her perception of him compared to the real version was worlds apart. Maybe that was the reason why there was a saying like never meet your heroes.

Still, Glen didn't want to fault the girl either. After all, he was amazing... well, not just because of that.

He knew that he had saved her when she was at her worst and didn't have any hopes of living. He had literally brought her back from the jaws of death. Couple it with the fact that he was handsome, it was natural for her to idolize him.

He was happy as long as she didn't create a religion out of this.

"Lillie, can you please not call me that?"

"Call you what?"

"Mayor... I don't really like that title"

"But why? You will always be the Mayor of Rionel's Keep for me"

"Because... it reminds me of memories I wish to forget. I am just Glen now. Not Night Rider, Mayor Rhodes or Scourge of the Red Plains. I am just Glen, a survivor"

"Really? But aren't you still the same person?"

"No, I am not. I am ashamed of that part of my life, so I really would like it if you didn't keep reminding me"

"I still can't understand. You didn't do anything to be ashamed of, did you? Sure, you stole and plundered but you never killed anyone that surrendered. You even escorted the merchants so that they don't die to jackals. During your reign, there weren't even any notorious gangs around either. You protected the common folk better than the army could! Not to mention the countless people you saved. There are also people you protected at Rionel's Keep. If not for your help, they would have died in the wilderness long ago. Maybe it didn't end well but none of the people that died there would blame you. Sometimes life is unfair and that's it. That's why you have to be proud of yourself, otherwise, it would be an insult to all the people who believed in you... I am sorry, I rambled too much again but I stand by what I said"

Glen was taken back by Lillie's sudden rant. When he looked at her determined eyes his heart suddenly skipped a beat. He knew that she was beautiful but he had never looked at her properly before.

Who knew why his heart suddenly skipped a beat? He didn't think he loved her or even liked her yet. At best, it was a slight crush thanks to the words she said.

Because those were the words he hoped to hear someday deep in his heart.

"Old man?" seeing the frozen Glen, Ezekiel wondered what was going on with him.