chapter 33 : Welcome to the South

Two days later, Calvin, Christina and Rachid prepared their departure while near King, the others were there to say goodbye with Clémentine who was sulking, she was really angry not to leave with them but Calvin couldn't. Take her with them like that, Lee wouldn't have allowed it.

 Lee : Are you sure this is a good idéal ? The road is long and certainly dangerous.

 "Besides, I don't want to jinx it but if we remain realistic then it's possible that they are already dead." Molly said from behind Clementine while her hands were on the girl's shoulders.

 Christina : We'll see, but we'd rather be clear about it.

 "Riley, I'll bring you a souvenir from California and then we'll go see Duane in Alexandria…" Rachid said to his friend while Paul looked at Calvin who didn't say anything to him.

 Cal : I'm counting on each of you to watch over our people and manage everything here. Make decisions together and consult each other, be careful especially with newcomers.

 "I'll never talk to you again…" Clementine said to Calvin crossing her arms, she was so frustrated that she was on the verge of tears.

 Cal: Are you sure these are the last words you want to say to me? What if I don't come back?

 "No…" She said running towards Calvin who took her in his arms while she was crying, the scene moved even Molly who wasn't a softy. Clementine made Calvin swear to come back and he made her that promise, he was the extremely protective and loving big brother that this apocalypse had given her but for the first time, they were going to be apart for a while.

 Christina : Molly, you'll have to keep an eye on Diana and her girls for me, they'll have to be evaluated before joining our community like everyone else.

 Molly: (to Calvin) Are you okay with that? Even I, who am a woman, was annoyed by these bitches…(to Christina) We'll need you here .

 "Let's hope they learned their lesson last time." He replied amusedly as Lise arrived with a nurse pushing her wheelchair with a disgruntled look on her face.

 Lise: You were really planning to leave without saying goodbye to me, Calvin.

 "LIIIISE, my favorite doctor. You seem to be doing better and in 39 to 45 days you may be able to stand on crutches." He told her amusedly.

 "39-45…" She repeated in her head just like Paul to understand the viciously well-placed joke from Calvin who looked at him smiling.

 Lise: It's not funny, it's not funny anymore Calvin and it never was. When do you plan to return ?

 "When we are certain that our loved ones have survived or died. Once we are clear about it then we will come back home. This can take a really long time, especially if there are complications. I wish Christina would stay but you know her..." He said as Christina smiled crossing her arms.

 "Come back quickly and above all take care of yourself, okay ? Especially you Christina, you're pregnant and I really hope you come back before giving birth" She said with concern and Calvin patted her shoulder making her promise to come back before Lise received a hug from Christina who gave one to everyone.

 "We'll take care of things here but don't take too long there. Lincoln needs you, President…" Paul finally addressed Calvin by calling him by his nickname with a slight smile while holding out his hand.

Calvin shook his hand but responded to Paul's smile with a dull expression. He unemotionally asked Paul to just do his job and call him by his name only in the future.

 This cold exchange from Calvin disturbed the others slightly because he and Paul were usually very friendly and close but Cal seemed very cold towards him. Lise in her chair saw this and very quickly understood what it was about.

 "Lee, regarding our friends in Alexandria I want you to leave them in trouble if they run into any problems until I get back. Duane and Sophia will have to evolve there alone because it is their community for the moment, they'll not develop fully if we're always behind them. Clementine and Riley will also have accelerated training, I want to be pleasantly surprised when I return. Lincoln is under your protection now my friends..." He told them before shaking hands with Lee and the others.

 They finally got on King and left Lincoln after making all their preparations. Calvin was driving with Christina sitting next to him while Rachid was reading DC comics (fuck Marvel).

He asked Christina if she was sure she didn't want to stay and a meaningful look from the woman made him shut up. 

Christina wanted to put on some music and saw on the dashboard screen the mp3 list of music to play a song she liked was [Ozark Mountain Daredevils – If you wanna get to heaven].

 "That was one of my dad's favorite song..." Calvin said recognizing even the first few seconds of the music, his eyes became watery with emotion and Christina replied that she once watched him play that song at the guitar when he isolated himself several times so she thought this music made him feel something, it was the music from her promotion when she was in the army.

 ~ I never read it in a book

 I never saw it on a show

 But I heard it in the halley

 We have weird radio…~

 "If you want a drink of water, you got to get it from a well. If you wanna get to heaven, you got to raise a little Hell…" the couple sang at the same time, smiling while Calvin placed his hand on Christina's Belly, who herself placed her hands on Calvin's, she loved that he touched the place where their child was developing.

Thus, the journey of this little family began towards the other side of the country without them suspecting the global threat that was developing.

 In a week, they arrived in Arkansas and it took a long time because of the various problems on the congested roads, the malicious survivors but especially the hordes who littered the roads.

 Did Calvin fear hordes? Fuck, NO! What he didn't want was for his beloved vehicle to be tainted with rotten flesh and bones that could seep into the vehicle's parts, and King was already heavy on mechanical maintenance.

 After stocking up on the resources they needed in Memphis, they reached Little Rock. For their water reserves in the truck, they began to head towards the banks of the Arkansas River but as they crossed the streets almost without walkers, a large bus came out from the side to block their path.

They had fallen into a trap but as Calvin wanted to turn back, another large bus blocked the road behind them. Clearly, someone had spotted them and it wasn't very difficult considering King's size.

 A man got off the bus in front with 10 other white men with short hair and beards, they had some tattoos on their bodies including a tattoo that three of them had in common and which he recognized, it was a three leaf clover and a swastika in the center with the letters AB written in gothic script underneath.

The man leading them had a Celtic cross on his forehead and was advancing with his armed men and 11 other people got off the bus behind.

 "The fucking Aryan Brotherhood ! Really ?! Of course, we're in the south ..." he said before asking Christina and Rachid not to open the door to anyone except him.

He went to grab his defcon 5 holster over his dark blue shirt as the man with the Celtic cross on his forehead began to speak.

 "Hello my friends and welcome to Little Rock. My name is Kane and I'd love to speak with the owner of this magnificent vehicle." He said rubbing his hands. The driver's door opened and Calvin came out to face them to the smirks of these men.

 "Well well weeeell ! What do we have here? Another cotton picker and chicken eater." One of them said while pointing his gun at Calvin.

" I don't have time for that so let's be polite, say what you want and then get out of the way, I'm in a hurry. The next person who makes a racist allusion against me will die..." Calvin said calmly. 

 Kane: Have you heard Malcolm X, guys? Ahahah let's stay courteous guys, otherwise he'll get angry...

 "Hahaha very funny…"

 "These people have really become arrogant…"

 They began to make fun of him and the other men in the back bus began to examine King from outside while admiring the vehicles.

 Kane: I know you weren't alone in your vehicle so here's what we're offering you, you leave the vehicle and everything inside so we'll let you go without the car and a few injuries as a bonus .

 "What if I refuse?" Calvin asked with a smile. 

 "It seems like you don't quite understand the situation…?" » Kane asked as he moved closer to Calvin in a threatening manner.

 Bandit #2: Show this monkey who's in charge here Kane...

 Bandit #3: It's been two months since we hung a nigger, I brought ropes on the bus just in case...

 "SHUT UP, YOU DON'T-(interrupted)" Kane wanted to reprimand his men when suddenly Calvin punched Ken hard and he spat out four of his teeth before taking him hostage as a human shield and drew one of his silenced pistols to fire two bullets into each of the heads of the two racists who had insulted him.

All this action happened extremely quickly to the point where none of the gangsters could react, one of them wanted to point his gun at Calvin but he was shot in the head

 "SHIT"

Three of the bandits behind King tried to react but they suffered the same fate, Calvin was much, much too fast for a normal human and he had improved his abilities terrifyingly since their arrival in Washington D.C.

 "The first one to move dies, I warned you that anyone who made a racist allusion against me would be dead but I suppose It was too much to ask you to be intelligent. 

Hurry up and get your buses out of there, I'll continue on my way and no one else dies..." He said, stepping aside to watch the two directions where the bandits were.

 Kane: RAHAHAHAH (spits blood) You just made a big mistake...

 Cal: Shut up, unless you want me to kill you.

 Kane: Do it, I may be the leader of this little group but in the brotherhood I'm a low ranking leader. There are more than 1,600 members in this city (laughter). You're a DEAD MONKEY , you dirty Nigg-(interrupted)

 *Crack*

 Calvin snapped his neck before pulling out his second gun, he had warned about these reactions to racial insults towards him but it was apparently like talking to squirrels.

He quickly fired in both directions while moving horribly fast on the road to avoid getting hit by the bandits' shots.

 As they were killed by every bullet Calvin fired, the bandits watched in disbelief as he ran and performed acrobatic tricks at such speed that his afterimage was the only evidence of his passage, he had become even faster by dint of training his gifts and in barely four seconds, he massacred everyone.

 "One bullet, one dead. Thank you my darlings…" Calvin said as he gave each of his two engraved silver silenced pistols a kiss.

Not liking waste, he began collecting guns from bandits and storing them in his truck. Christina had witnessed the entire confrontation from inside King and although what she saw was surreal, she was already used to seeing her man do crazy things like this.

He wasn't fast enough to avoid a bullet but could move effectively to avoid getting hit.

 He got on the bus in front and started it to park it elsewhere while clearing the way for King. As he walked back to his vehicle, something caught his eye and it was a detailed map of the state and its infrastructure, it was on the ground near where he parked the bus near the dead body in military uniform.

At the moment when Calvin wanted to pick up the card, the military corpse came to life and wanted to grab Calvin who, without panicking, decapitated the zombie with a slap before picking up the card.

As soon as he touched the paper, all the necessary information entered his mind, he knew almost every useful facility in the State of Arkansas and only the military facilities really piqued his interest.

 As he put the map away, he heard quiet footsteps behind him and immediately turned around, pointing his gun in a certain direction.

 "Three seconds is all you have to come out of your hiding place before I come and kill you. » HE said in a threatening manner and immediately, a very pretty young black girl came out of a corner raising her hands in a frightened look, she must have been at least 13 years old.

 "Why are you following me? "He asked the girl who started speaking in sign language, apparently she was mute even though she could still hear. 

 [I'm hungry, my group is hungry...I saw you killing the bad people. Help us…] She said with her signs and Calvin understood it very well, he had already touched several manuals concerning sign language.

She then tried to rummage in her bag to take out a small notebook and a pencil to write with, thinking that Calvin hadn't understood her when he answered her...

 Cal: [Who tells you I'm not meaner than them? ]

 [You understand the signs!!] She said with a slightly excited expression while smiling slightly, one of the most beautiful smiles Calvin had ever seen.

She wrote her name on a piece of paper and showed it to Calvin.

 "Walen? Is that your first name?" He asked the girl who nodded and asked him for hers but Calvin knew her direction things were going to take.

 Cal: You don't need to know my name, I'll give you some food and then you go back to your group. That's all I can do for you.

 She looked at him a little sadly before following him as they returned to King who Walen looked at in fascination . 

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Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I can't update every day except weekends 'cause of my work and you've certainly noticed that. I may post book 1 of my fanfiction on Berserk (until the end of the golden age) in the meantime so that you have something else to read if my updates on The Walking dead are not regular even if I continue to write this story.

If you agree then I'll do it, love y'all.