Live Like You Were Dying

Jayr POV - Earth, Georgia, Atlanta's Survivor Camp - 2010 

As Shane and Carl continue playing in the water, I finish washing my spare underwear, wring them to release the excess water, and after doing that, I start removing my T-shirt to give it a quick wash as some dust, dirt, and blood did get on it which makes it slightly uncomfortable.

At the same time, I hear Jacqui loudly complain to the other women doing laundry nearby, "Can someone explain to me how the women wound up doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?" 

Hearing that Amy casually comments, "The world ended. Didn't you get the memo?" followed by Carol who warily glances at her shitty husband as he watches the women washing the laundry from his vehicle before she meekly mutters, "It's just the way it is." but then Andrea quickly adds, "Come on, girls. This time it isn't so bad, at the very least we can enjoy a very nice eye candy..."

Shortly after she siad those words, I felt the gaze of those 4 women on my body and that was quickly followed by their exclamations.

"Oh my...!"

"That's quite a nice sight... If only I was 10 years younger..."

"Wow... look at his muscles. They are no joke... he must take care of himself diligently."

After that, I hear Carol's voice as she quickly changes the subject and complains out loud as she is scrubbing a particuarlly dirty piece of cloth, "I do miss my Maytag a lot." 

This causes a chain reaction as a few seconds later Andrea sighs and comments, "I miss my Benz, my sat nav." followed by Jacqui who also sighs before she says in a longing tone, "I miss my coffeemaker with that dual-drip filter and built-in grinder, honey." which makes Amy also remember things she misses and taken for granted before the zombie apocalypse, "My computer… And texting." 

This creates a much somber atmosphere that lasts until Andrea suddenly burts out, "I really miss my vibrator at the moment." which immediately makes the girl start to cheerfully giggle and exclaim. 

"Oh!" 

"Oh my God!" 

Before Carol also admits in a very low tone that only the nearby women and I with my enhanced senses can hear, "Me too." 

This makes the girls laugh even louder totally breaking the depressed atmsphere of a few seconds ago, at least until I notice that Carol's shitty husband is becoming upset for some reason and starts to walk toward them. 

The piece of shit gets close enough and asks in a rude and aggressive tone, "What's so funny?" 

Not intimidated by that piece of shit's posture, Andrea calmly replies, "Just swapping war stories, Ed." followed by her younger sister who says, "Yeah." 

Then seeing Carol's future late husband coming closer, Andrea calmly asks, "Problem, Ed?" 

In response, Ed glares at Andrea and shouts, "Nothin' that concerns you. And you ought to focus on your work. This ain't no comedy club." 

At the same time, I hear Lori arriving at the quarry on the other side and yell to Carl, "Hey, Carl, what did I tell you about not leaving Dale's sight?" making the young boy explain, "But Shane said we could catch frogs, remember?"

Upset by her son's reply, Lori quickly says and orders, "It doesn't matter what Shane says. It matters what I say. Go on back to camp. I'll be right behind you."

I hear the young boy sigh quite loudly before he heads back up to the RV and shortly after, Shane tells her, "I've got to tell you, I do not think you should be taking this out on him."

Further incensed by his words, Lori shouts, "You don't tell me what to do. You lost that privilege." before I hear her starting to storm off, Shane calls her out, "Lori, could you just wait up a sec? I think we should talk. We haven't had a chance…"

Before he can continue, she interrupts him and says, "No. No no. That's over too. You can tell that to the frogs." which makes Shane once again try to explain himself, "Damn it, Lori. Look, I don't know how it appears to you or what you think…" 

But again Lori interrupts him and shouts, "How it appears to me? I'm sorry. Is there a gray area here? Let me dispel it. You stay away from me. You stay away from my son. You don't look at him. You don't talk to him. From now on, my family is off-limits to you."

At this point, Shane tries to remain calm as he comments, "Lori, I don't think that's fair. I don't think that…" making Lori yell, "Shane, shut up. Don't! My husband is back. He is alive." 

In response to that, Shane asks, "He's my best friend. Do you think I'm not happy about that?" but this upsets Lori even more as she yells, "How dare you? Why would you be? You are the one that told me that he died. You son of a bitch." before she storms away in anger leaving behind a very upset Shane. 

Suddenly, my attention focuses back on the women doing the laundry while that waste of oxygen Ed lecherously watches them as I hear an annoyed Andrea's voice as she asks, "Ed, tell you what… If you don't like how your laundry is done, you are welcome to pitch in and do it yourself. Here." 

I turn my head just in time to see a standing Andrea toss a T-shirt at Carol's husband but he immediately throws it back at her, almost hitting her face while saying, "Ain't my job, missy."

Amy gets up and walks behind her sister while saying in a low, pleading tone, "Andrea, don't."

But Andrea ignores her younger sister and stares at Carol's husband while asking in a challenging tone, "What is your job, Ed? Sitting on your ass smoking cigarettes?"

In response, the man blows out some smoke from his mouth and replies in an irreverent tone, "Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity smart-mouthed bitch." before he casually looks at his wife and demands, "Tell you what… come on. Let's go."

Carol slowly gets up and starts to move toward her husband but Andrea doesn't let go and still stares at him in the eyes and says in a tone that almost dares him to do something, "I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed."

Ed simply glares at her and says, "And I say it's none of your business." before he looks at Carol and presses on, "Come on now. You heard me."

At this point, Andrea looks back at the meek woman and gently says, "Carol, you don't have to do this." but Carol shakes her head and says, "Andrea, please. It doesn't matter."

Upset by Andrea's attitude, Carol's husband doesn't hesitate to call her out and say in a threatning tone, "Hey, don't think I won't knock you on your ass just 'cause you're some college-educated cooze, All right?" before he glares at Carol and shouts, "Now you come on now or you gonna regret it later." 

Hearing those words, Jacqui quickly rebukes, "So she can show up with fresh bruises later, Ed? Yeah, we've seen them." but in response to Jacqui's accusation, Ed simply starts to laugh before he shouts, "Stay out of this. Now come on! You know what? This ain't none of y'all's business. You don't want to keep prodding the bull here, okay? Now I am done talking. Come on." 

The situation starts to turn chaotic as Ed tries to grab Carol and the girls try to protect her while shouting.

"No no."

"Carol, you don't..."

"Carol, you don't have to..."

Seeing that, I calmly grab my still wet shirt and spare underwear and quickly move toward them just as a very frustrated Ed yells, "You don't tell me what! I tell you what!"

At the same time, the breathing meatbag raises his hand with the clear intention of slapping his wife in the face, but before he can swing his arm, I arrive beside him and firmly hold his hand in place while calmly saying, "It isn't nice to raise your hand against a defenseless woman. Even more so when the woman in question is your wife. Does that ring any bell? The woman you swore to love and protect for the rest of your life?" 

In response, the meatbag's face becomes red from fury as he tries to break free from my hold while shouting, "Shut up! A shitty fag like you has no say in these matters! She is my woman and I do whatever the hell I want with her!"

When he realizes that he can't break free, the meatbag yells, "Let me go!" before he throws a punch aiming at my face, but I calmly stop him by grabbing his wrist with a mocking smile before I say in an even tone, "How pitful... A man who can only feel confident, powerful, and important by hitting and lording over defenseless children and women... what a failure. Let me punish you a little bit, maybe this way you'll learn some respect... or at least fear me enough to behave."

Shortly after saying that, I quickly let go of his arm and wrist and with my free hands I "lightly" tap a precise point in his body that shuts down his sense of touch which makes the meatbag fall on the ground like a puppet whose strings got cut much to the shock of everyone else who remains stunned in place.

The brief moment of silence is quickly broken by the meatbag's panicked voice as he shouts while his body uncoordinately twists and twitches around, "W-what did you do!? I can't feel...! I can't feel my body!!"

I look down at him and calmly say, "I just shut down your sense of touch... basically I could smash your nuts with a rock and you won't feel anything."

After explaining that, I look down at him and see the horron in his eyes, then a mocking smile forms on my face as I say, "It is a pretty trippy experience, isn't it? The sudden loss of the sense of touch... You can't feel anything, your own body, the ground under it, the slightly chill air touching your skin... nothing. And this is only the start..."

Shortly after saying that, I once again lightly tap his body which makes the meatbag yells as his eyes lose focus, "Aah! I can't see!! I can't see anything!!" before I calmly explain, "Now, I've just shut down your sense of sight... actually, this is a lot better than suddenly losing the sense of touch. After all, humans experience something very similar when they suddenly wake up in total darkness, but that doesn't mean that it is a nice experience."

As his screams start to annoy me, I again tap his body in another area which makes him let out some intelligible grunts as I calmly explain, "With that, I shut down your sense of taste... it also has the nice side effect of shutting you up."

After saying that, I calmly tell him, "The next to be gone will be the sense of smell..." before I again lightly tap his body shutting down his sense of smell.

At this point, I explain to the wriggling meatbag on the ground, "Soon, I'm going to shut down your sense of hearing too. At that point, you will find yourself in a very dark and quiet limbo, unable to feel, see, smell, listen, and perceive anything... there you will finally learn the human mind is the worst kind of prison one can find oneself trapped into, especially your own mind."

Shortly after saying that, I don't hesitate to tap his body one last time, shutting down his sense of hearing for good while thinking, 'It has been quite some time since I shut down someone else's senses... It feels very refreshing. Moreover, it is a very good way to punish a piece of shit like this one without actually killing them. After all, death isn't always the right punishment, especially when it can become a form of relief.'

I'm suddenly brought out from my thoughts by Shane's voice as he exclaims, "Jesus Christ! What in the holy hell was that?"

He quickly approaches us and checks on Carol's husband wriggling on the ground before he mutters, "He is alive..." before he looks at me and asks, "While I have nothing against what you did as I was just about to make a move myself, I have to ask... What the fuck did you do to him?"

I calmly smile and exclaim, "Don't worry, I didn't physically hurt him in any way and he is still perfectly healthy, I just shut off all of his five senses trapping him in his mind. Think of it like a mundane case of sleep paralysis, he is conscious but in a state where he can't see, hear, smell, taste, and feel anything."

Hearing that, Shane gets up, looks at me, and asks, "How can it be possible for someone to shut off a person's senses just like that? It feels like something out of a comic book."

At the same time, Shane's question makes the girls also snap out of their stunned state and Carol bursts out in tears and kneels over to check her husband while muttering, "Oh God! No. God! Carol him. Carol: Ed, I'm sorry. Oh my God. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Ed. Ed, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Ed." 

I ignore Carol for the moment as she still isn't free from the hold the meatbag has on her, so I focus on Shane and casually answer, "Nothing that outlandish. One just needs to have a very, very good and extensive knowledge of human biology, and I'm not talking about the common one taught in schools, but the more advanced and obscure one in addition to the capacity to actually use them. To deal with him I used something called pressure points which are some kind of structural weaknesses and quirks hidden in our bodies that by pressing them with a very precise amount of force can cause all kinds of effects that can be used for both healing and damaging the body."

Hearing that, the other girls and Shane don't know how to react at first, but then Andrea comments, "That's good. Ed for sure needs some time to cool off that hot head of his." followed by Jacqui who adds, "That's right and let's not forget that he was about to hit Carol. I say we keep him in that state until tomorrow. Maybe this way, he will learn to treat his wife and kid better."

At this point, Amy suggests, "Anyway, we can't leave him and Carol here. Let's at least help her bring him back to their tent."

Hearing that, I and Shane look at each other before we both nodded and agreed with Amy's suggestiuon, so we picked up Carol's husband and carried him back to the tent while the girls explained to the curious people of the camp who saw us carrying the apparentily unconscious Ed what happened.

After that, I watch as Andrea and Amy take a canoe and head back to the quarry as they want to try fishing in the lake before I call Shane and ask him to follow me to a quiet place a few meters away from the camp.

Once there, Shane stares at me with a gaze that barely hides all the emotions he is keeping bottled up and bluntly asks, "So, what do you want to talk about?"

In response, I don't cut around the issue and reply, "About the very messy situation that you, Lori, and Rick unfortunately found yourself into."

Hearing that, a frown immediately forms on Shane's face, but before he can say anything, I stop him by raising my hand and saying, "Yes, I know that it isn't my business, but I heard what you two said back at the quarry and saw how her words upset you. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I didn't act you would have vented all your frustrations on that piece of shit beating him up an inch of his life." 

In response to my words, Shane stands in silence acknowledging the truth behind my words, and seeing that he is still willing to listen, I smile a little before I continue, "The reason why I decided to involve myself in this mess is that from what I heard, it is clear that because of her current state, Lori will continue to make one bad decision after the other that will possibly end very bad to the point of putting you and Rick against one other and maybe even the whole group in danger."

Shane tense up in response to my words especially since he doesn't miss a little detail as he repeats, "Because of her current state? What do you mean?"

I smile wryly as I reveal without any hesitation, "She is pregnant... well, she is just in the first few weeks of her pregnancy, so none of the clear symptoms will appear yet. But her body is already starting to go through the usual changes. Usually, those are very difficult to notice especially in the first weeks, but I can state with absolute confidence that I'm one of the best doctors alive in this world, and if someone can notice that, that one is me." 

In response to that revelation, Shane becomes rooted on the spot with his eyes and mouth open wide unable to say anything before a frantic expression forms on his face and he starts to turn around but just before he can run back to camp, I put my hand on his shoulder and hold him back while calmly saying, "Wait. If you rush out and confront Lori now you will only further worsen the situation, and that will only put this group in danger, but even more so, Rick, Lori, Carl, and your unborn child."

Hearing that seems to work as Shane calms down and looks back almost with a pleading expression as he asks, "What should I do? I can't lose them! They are the only ones that kept me sane and alive while shit truly hit the fan!"

Before he can continue, I interrupt him and say "First, take a deep breath and calm down... For sure the situation is very complex but it isn't like there is absolutely no way out of it."

At this point, Shane focuses back on me as I say, "The first thing to do is to talk about it with Rick, possibly without Lori's presence as in her current state she is only a destabilizing factor. You have to be honest and upfront with him. While I don't know him as well as you, from what I have seen, he seems to be a very good and smart man, sure, he may be upset at first, but I have no doubt that he will understand and forgive you in the end."

Seeing Shane nod in silence, I continue, "Another thing that you have to do is going to be a bit more difficult at first... You have to let go of your feelings for Lori." 

Hearing that, a frown forms on Shane's face, but I ignore that and continue to explain, "From what I have seen, I think that she genuely still loves Rick and will likely fiercely fight back both out of guilt and self-hate from what happened. You already had a little taste of that a few minutes ago when she told you to stay away from her family. Give her a little bit of space and with time she won't go against you anymore and you'll be able to stay by your child and Carl's side keeping them safe with the help of Rick and the rest of the group." 

After saying that, I sigh loudly and say, "I won't lie or sugarcoat it to you. At first, it won't be easy and you'll likely be the one subjected to the most pressure but I think it is better than the alternative of you all drifting apart until the point of no return where you and Rick end up going against one other which could very well end with one of you going too far and kill the other. That isn't something I wish to see, both you and Rick are good men, and considering the current state of the world, good men are needed more than ever if we want to build up a better world for kids like Carl, Duane, and your unborn child. Think about it and let me know, I'll be there to help you get through this nasty situation in the best way possible for everyone."

At the end of my speech, I start to walk back to the camp leaving behind a pondering and distressed Shane. 

Back at the camp, I walk around and check on the rest of the survivors to know them better and see if they need some medical attention before I meet up with Morgan and spend some time talking about some random topics with him.

At the same time, I notice that Dale is keeping watch on top of his RV and that he is watching through his binoculars a specific area and see that in a field above the campsite, Jim is furiously digging holes into the ground with a shovel which makes me remember of the situation caused by his mental breakdown combined with a heatstroke caused by the whole end of the world situation and intense summer heat. 

Shortly after, Dale gets down from his RV, and worried, he carefully approaches Jim in the fields, seeing that, I excuse myself and follow after him.

It doesn't take long for us to arrive at the fields where Jim is digging and once there, Dale walks up to Jim, stopping a few meters away from him, before he cautiously calls him out, "Jim? You okay?" after a short pause filled with tense silence that is only broken by the sound of Jim's digging, Dale, who grows more and more concerned each passing second, adds, "You keep this up, you're gonna keel over out here. Drink some water at least."

But Jim completely ignores him and continues to dig holes into the ground that are clearly graves, something that worries the old Dale even more as he stands there watching Jim dig unsure of what to do next.

Seeing that, I walk up and stop next to Dale and try to reassure him, "Don't worry... It isn't anything too dangerous at the moment" 

Dale glances at me for a moment before he focuses back on Jim while saying, "You are that new guy. The Doctor Pucci, right? Do you know what is going on?"

In response, I nod and say, "That's right. But you can simply call me Jayr, or even Doc like Morgan does. I don't care too much about such things." before I explain, "Regarding what is happening. Jim is likely going through a mental breakdown. Considering what is happening in the world, it is natural for something like this to happen, especially to people who have witnessed and experienced a very traumatic event and didn't have the time to actually internalize what happened. Because of that, any random thing can trigger a mental breakdown, a sound, a smell, or even a dream. In addition to that, Jim is clearly also affected by a heat stroke caused by this high temperature which worsened his condition even further."

Hearing that, Dale's eyes grow wide as he exclaims, "Then we have to do something! I'm going to call someone to help..." but I interrupt him and say, "Don't bother them. I can deal with this on my own. Moreover, it is better that the kids don't see Jim in this state."

After saying that, I approach Jim from behind and before he can even react, I gently trip him on the ground before I trap both his arms behind his back and hold them in place using my knee while I restrain his body using my body weight and his head using my left hand.

Of course, Jim tries to struggle out of it but my physical power and the technique behind my hold are just way too much for him to do anything against it.

At the same time, I casually tap his pressure points to forcefully calm him down from his agitated state while whispering, "It's okay, it's okay. Take a deep breath... It's alright. Everything is going to be fine."

I continue to hold him and repeat those words until Jim follows my instruction and starts to take deep breaths.

After some time, tears start to fall from his eyes as he mutters, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."