The Protagonist System

142 The Long Haul Part Two

In retrospect, I have to admit that I severely underestimated how lonely it could be for someone without a partner to share isolation with. Being locked up back at camp had made Glenn downright eager to leave at the first opportunity and he had found a kindred spirit in Maggie, whom had been locked up on Hershel's farm for the same amount of time.

Needless to say, the two of them had stuck together like glue and had been talking non-stop about everything, as if they had to get it all out of their system before they ran out of time. Everyone else looked at them with amusement and the only one not happy with this development was Hershel himself.

He was a God-fearing man and he was worried that his eldest daughter was going to succumb to sin and temptation from the heathen she had just met. I knew he was right, too. Glenn and Maggie had fallen for each other hard, as in the whole love at first sight kind of deal. Fortunately, they were respectful and hadn't started pawing at each other after the meet-and-greet with her family.

Supper was not a quiet affair because everyone asked us about where we were from and what we had been doing. I let Glenn tell his story first, since his was a much longer one than mine after the outbreak started. When it was my turn, I earned a lot of sympathy after they found out I had been left for dead at the hospital and abandoned when everyone evacuated.

It inspired them when I gave the details of what I did after waking up, gathering supplies, and made my way to the survivor's camp in Atlanta to look for my son. It was quite a riveting tale as I told them about stumbling across the supplies group Glenn had been a part of and then clearing out the horde of walkers to make it easier for them to escape the trap they had found themselves in.

Glenn looked relieved when I glossed over our interactions and how things went, which was why I did it. I then told them that I followed the group back to where my ex-wife and son were, assuming that was where they were with the other survivors. All of their eyes dropped to the ring of lighter skin on my ring finger where my wedding band used to be.

“I died in that hospital, so my vows ended. My ex-wife had already moved on and I didn't feel guilty as I moved on, too. Since then, I've found a wonderful girl and we've become a family worthy of the name.” I explained.

“I think your interpretation of your marriage vows is shortsighted.” Hershel said, frowning.

“I disagree. Rather than divorce, which the church and a lot of normal people look down on, I died and fulfilled the clause for death do us part. It gave me the moral high ground as well.” I said and then explained about Lori and Shane getting together almost right away after I was presumed dead, because I assumed that Lori wanted a stable life for Carl to grow up in during the apocalypse.

The couples around the table had understanding looks on their faces, Maggie was distracted by Glenn, and Michonne looked like she wasn't paying attention at all.

“Besides, it gave me the chance to find Amy and she completes me in ways I didn't think were possible. We fit together like we've been married for years and we hardly ever fight over anything.” I said and that gained nods from both Maggie and Glenn. “We've been doing our best to improve the camp as much as possible with our available resources and it's shaping up to become self-sustaining.”

“How are you doing that?” Hershel asked.

I smiled and told him all about how I had converted a moving van with a large rear cargo area into a mobile apartment, then about Glenn's idea to keep doing that with the others. We had five of them now and the families moved into three of them, the first was mine and Amy's, and the fifth was a communal one the others took turns staying in during date nights.

“We even have televisions and movies.” Glenn said, proudly.

Everyone at the table made surprised sounds, even the distracted Michonne.

“All we need to do is find one of those big grocery store warehouses that haven't been ransacked and we can finally have coffee for the coffee makers.” I joked and Glenn was the only one that laughed.

“You really have electricity?” Maggie asked with a whisper and more than a little awe.

“Yup! Rick's been setting things up with proper panels, car batteries, something I don't understand with old car alternators, and a few other things.” Glenn said and then shrugged. “I never was one to understand how anything like that works.”

Hershel almost glared at him and then let out a soft sigh and looked at me. “As the hosting family, it isn't proper for us to ask visiting guests for a favor. However...”

I held a hand up to stop him. “Before you start anything, we came here for a reason.”

“I knew it!” Otis exclaimed and jumped from his chair towards the rifle leaning by the wall behind him. “You're here to steal our food and our women!”

Everyone except me scrambled away from the table and I needed to head this off before it escalated. I picked up the steak knife by my plate and flung it across the room at Otis' back as he grabbed his rifle. The thunk sound the knife made as it sank into the wall right beside Otis' ear made everyone freeze, especially Otis. He may also have peed himself a little if the acrid smell was any indication.

“Let me repeat myself.” I said as I picked up Glenn's steak knife and slowly stood. “Before you start anything, we came here for a reason.”

“P-please d-don't kill him.” Patricia stammered, her hand shaking.

“You've broken bread at my table, sheriff.” Hershel said, the frown back on his face. “How dare you attack...”

“DAD!” Maggie yelled and the older man flinched. “Otis broke the house rules first!”

Hershel tried to glare at her and it was rebuffed by her own. “He still raised a weapon in anger...”

“No, I didn't.” I interrupted him and flipped the knife in my hand to check the balance. “Look at my face? Do you see anything like anger on it?”

Hershel did give my face a long look, as did the others except for Glenn and Michonne.

“I didn't want him shooting someone by accident. He's not handling that firearm properly and it could go off at any time.” I pointed out and everyone looked over to where Otis had jammed his hand into the space where the trigger was. Two of his fingers were dangerously close to pulling it and the barrel was very close to pointing at his own head.

“O-Otis... let... let the rifle go.” Patricia whispered.

“Carefully.” I added and she nodded as she reached over and touched her husband's shoulder.

“Move back and relax. He's not going to hurt you.” Patricia said in a calm voice.

That wasn't actually true. I would do more than hurt him if he was a danger to everyone around him; but, I didn't correct her assumption. I let her deal with him and waited until he had finally let go of the rifle.

I put the steak knife down and walked around the table and picked the rifle up properly, racked the slide back and dislodged the bullet loaded in the chamber, easily caught it, then I set the safety on the rifle and laid the unloaded gun on the table.

I walked back around to my seat and sat back down. I was not surprised that the steak knife was no longer there. Little did they realize I didn't need the knife, since it was only one of the less lethal options I had at hand. If I'd thrown the butter dish or my plate at him, that could have given him a concussion or worse.

“Is everyone calmed down? Good.” I said and they all stared at me like I would explode or something. “As I told you before, we're trying to make our camp self-sustainable. We need a few things for that to work, like chickens, pigs of you have them, goats if you don't, and a male and female cow. If you have any crop seeds available for trade as well, that would be wonderful.”

They all kept staring at me and no one said anything.

“As for trading, I have about a year of MREs I can spare.” I said and Michonne sucked in a sharp breath. “Only one person knows what they are?” I chuckled and looked right at Hershel. “An MRE is a Meal-Ready-to-Eat, a staple food of every branch of the military. You just add a bit of water and let it sit. The chemical reaction heats it up and hydrates it into an edible and nutritious meal.”

“Where did you get them?” Hershel asked.

“I cleared out an army base that used to be a refugee camp that was overrun with walkers, all by myself.” I said and they were all staring at me again. “I almost died a couple of times because I didn't scout out the place properly; but, I made it out alive and that's all that matters.”

They were all silent as they thought about that.

“Are they in the truck?” “Did you bring them with you?” Beth and her boyfriend asked at the same time, as if they were desperate to eat something else besides the food they had at the farm.

I chuckled again. “I've had a lot of experience with negotiations like this. You never bring valuables to the first meeting or say where they are. That's just begging to be shot and robbed.”

By the looks on a few faces, I doubted the being shot part. Robbing? They would definitely hold us prisoner and raid the truck if I had brought the MREs.

“I can also see that getting some electricity going around here might also be something I could trade. I'd need to make a run into the closest town for certain supplies. Is your hot water heater still connected?” I asked.

“H-h-hot... hot water? You can give us hot water?!?” Beth almost shouted and Maggie hugged Glenn so tightly that he squeaked. He didn't try to push her away, though. Their lips met a moment later and they completely forgot there was anyone else in the room with them.

I gave Beth a warm smile and then looked at Hershel. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”

Hershel sighed and sat back down at the head of the table. His eyes went to Maggie and tried to ignore her making out with a boy she just met. “Yes, I believe we do.”

*

Maggie wasn't sure how she had fallen so hard for a guy she just met. They just had so much in common, had so many shared interests, and they were both so stir-crazy that they would do anything to get away from where they had been trapped all damn winter. When they said they planned to stay for a few days after the negotiations, she had been overjoyed.

Of course, sharing her bed with Glenn and having him inside of her, was the best feeling ever. He was so enthusiastic about seeing her naked that it made her orgasm just from him putting it in. That had never happened before and she was so into it that she never once thought about protection or that they were taking an awful chance with pregnancy.

Then to her shock and happiness, he had pulled out and came all over her belly. He was so thoughtful!

After that, she had to have him fill her up properly as a reward. It was only fair, you know. She came so hard when he did that she almost blacked out from feeling his added warmth so deep inside. It was a fullness that was indescribable and also felt completely right.

She eventually fell asleep with him held so close that they were almost one person. After feeling like she just did, she never wanted to let him go and wanted to keep feeling that feeling for as long as she could.

*

I left Glenn at the farm, not that I could have convinced him to go anywhere without Maggie. She was pretty much attached to his hip and went with him everywhere. It was endearing and a little scary, if you thought about it. Neither of them did. They were too lost in each other's eyes to care what anyone else thought about them being together, not even her father.

I followed the directions to get to the closest town and was glad they had a few places that weren't completely destroyed. The pharmacy only had the front part wrecked and the back supply area was mostly intact. All of the hard drugs had been pilfered, however. There was no morphine or Oxycontin to use in medical procedures, so I had to keep looking. I still stored everything anyway, since I had lots of room.

I found a great hardware chain store, one that carried some of everything, and I took everything that wasn't nailed down. I even disassembled and stored tons of metal shelving. They were handy and versatile, so why wouldn't I take them? I had used the last of my old stock to make the stairs for the library and needed to stock back up.

I raided the electrical and plumbing areas, since most people ignored those when searching for survival gear. I even found more boxes with free-standing showers and sinks inside, so I stored those as well. Unfortunately, some idiot had taken a sledgehammer to the toilets and ceramic pieces were all over the place. I took the sledgehammer, too.

After checking the directions again, I silenced the truck's engine and travelled out past the town to where the main road veered off to join with the interstate highway. I normally wouldn't risk doing that, especially with the threat of raiders and bandits; but, there was a huge big-box store just before the on-ramp.

The company had built it there because of the extra traffic and the business made tons of money. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too picked over, because it was the first huge store I had seen and the sign for 'one stop shopping' had me almost giddy. With luck, it would be.

I didn't bother going in the front doors because that was just asking for disappointment. No, I went around the back to the service entrance. I stored the truck in my inventory and cast the human revealing spell, and nothing showed up.

I smiled and vanished the lock and deadbolt on the back door. I opened it and stepped inside before sealing it shut with a sticking charm, then I walked down the hallway and ignored the offices as I went out through the last door, with hope filling my heart.

“Oohhhh, yeaaahhh.” I said out loud, because I was in the back of the warehouse where they stored the restocking supplies. My voice echoed back and I laughed, which also echoed. I walked over to a pallet full of packs of toilet paper and used my wand to shrink it from eight feet high to the size of my head. “This is going to be fun!”

I stored it and went to the next pallet to do the same thing, then I went to the next one and the next one. My soft chuckles continued to echo as I kept working.

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