The Protagonist System

155 The Walking Living

My estimate of the military's intelligence had been spot on, unfortunately. They had made many stops along the way and drew hordes of walkers towards the highway junctions in each state between Washington DC and Georgia. It was an annoyance that I didn't want or need; but, I had listened to Merle's advice and brought a minigun along. I didn't have the time to pick the walkers off individually.

Instead of the 11 hour straight drive it should have been, I wasted 3 entire days picking my way across the interstate highway and had to clear out thousands of walkers along the way. I stayed on the CB radio as much as possible and kept Amy and Andrea informed, too. I didn't want them to worry and I made sure I always called them back after every skirmish I was involved in.

I rolled into Washington DC in the early morning hours and was surprised there was no roadblock or even a checkpoint. It was a little disappointing, really. Weren't they expecting people to come here after them or were they just that arrogant that they thought their people would always prevail?

Merle was right and they are definitely idiots. I thought as I drove along the main road and saw all the dead bodies everywhere. They hadn't policed up the dead to dispose of them and left them out to rot, which contaminated everything around them, like the local the water source and possibly any crops grown on the nearby farms.

I brought my truck to a stop inside a car park that was left open and unguarded. My opinion of their competence dropped even further when I didn't see any patrols or any kind of physical surveillance being done of the area. Of course, that brought my mind right to the fact that they could be relying on cameras to do the work for them and I started looking around for them.

Sure enough, I saw several recent and hasty installations on several of the light poles in the area. The extra wires were terribly patched and I had to ignore my instinct to let my skills take over to fix the mess. I was not there to help them and I only needed to deliver the data package. That was what I was trying to convince myself to do, anyway.

As I cast my concealing spell and silence spell and moved towards the building the wires led to, I discovered it was the main parliamentary building. I also saw that there were a bunch of people going about their day as if we weren't in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. I stood there and stared as people wearing business suits and carrying coffees entered the building.

It was mentally jarring for me to find an area where the people were so delusional that they acted like nothing was wrong and ignored the rotting dead that were well within their line of sight and their smell range. Shock just couldn't describe how I felt and then my mind went back to one of my punishment worlds that Death had sent me to in order to teach me a lesson.

It was the Land of the Dead where I had mentally inhabited a zombie that used to be an acquirer for the rich people living the good life in a high rise tower in Philadelphia. They paid a lot of money to have scrubs like me go out and raid the countryside for supplies and they never had to lift a finger or had to struggle with life like the normal people in that world did.

I felt anger bubbling up from inside and I didn't fight that feeling. I probably should have, because I felt like I needed to do something stupid. I took out the hard drive and stared at it as I let several ideas, each even more stupider than the last go through my head, and a crazy smile appeared on my face as I decided on what needed to be done.

I put the drive away and waited for the right moment. I changed my clothes into a suit and the door was opened by a man leaving and he was wearing a similar suit. I grabbed him and pulled him aside, knocked him out, and took his security pass. A quick glamour on my face that wouldn't last long was applied and Harold Simpson walked right back inside.

“I'm sorry, I forgot something on my desk.” I said and held up the pass for the security guy to scan it.

The man didn't say anything and the computer beeped approval.

I walked over to the elevator and saw a map of the building was on the far wall with everything conveniently marked on it. I couldn't have been happier about knowing what to target first.

*

The heads of the government in power, or so they declared themselves without being duly elected, sat around the conference table and discussed their latest scheme to bring more people under their control and to spread their influence past their current borders. The more people they had control over, the more they could influence people's thinking and how the country would turn out after the current crisis was over.

None of them paid any attention to the food delivery guy after he had delivered their meals. They didn't notice how long he spent kneeling by his cart or that a few special things had been added underneath the conference table. They all talked about the next push they needed to do when their main strike force returned from their current campaign in Georgia, their previous successes in other states making them bolder in their actions.

No one noticed the delivery guy leaving and they started eating their food. A few commented on how good it tasted, because it was even better than their usual fare, then the table suddenly exploded and mulched everything in the room. It set off several alarms and no one responded, because they were all dead, too.

*

I slipped back out of the building and didn't worry about being caught on camera. The first thing I had disabled had been the security station and then all the guards. I felt a little bad about a few of them that talked about their families, then I remembered those families were living high on the hog as if the rest of the world hadn't gone to hell. They would learn the truth soon enough, just like the rest of us had.

I had a funny thought about visiting a museum, since they had some of the biggest and most extensive ones right there in the US capitol. I immediately thought about the aeronautical museum that should have examples of different planes from the Wright Brothers up to the Space Shuttle, and took the turnoff to head down the main street.

I parked right in front of the place, since there was no one around to tell me otherwise or to arrest me for it. I went inside and checked the maps and found which of the many buildings had the best stuff.

Ooo, the world's biggest diamond is on display? Thank you, very helpful information booth. I thought and skipped back out of the main building to drive down the street. If I was lucky, they would have some of those large rubies and emeralds, too. Maybe I could stop off and see if any of the jewellery stores are still intact? There are a couple of women back at the camp that should appreciate some upgrades to their jewellery collections.

I robbed... ahem... appropriated the resources I needed from the museum displays of fine jewels. It was almost ridiculous how easy it was to get them after the power was turned off. I did that to stop the alarms from blaring and letting anyone know I had been there, in case the people in charge had set up a police militia or something.

My next stop was the space museum. It was a kind of misnomer, since it was actually a tribute to flight display. They even had a full 747 hanging in the main area and you could walk on the wings and go through all the little spaces the workers used to do maintenance on the plane. The space shuttle was quite the sight, too.

I freely admit to geeking out a little and I may have giggled like a little girl after sitting in the pilot seat and pretended to fly the thing for several minutes. Did I have to steal one of the space suits on display? No, I didn't. It wasn't really for me, anyway. I also pilfered a modern flight captain's uniform to drive Amy wild, since it was the first time I had a chance to replace the old one.

The biggest find of the day was a shocking one. It was the first jet aircraft ever built and it was complete. The thing was made from mostly simple parts, just like the old fighter plane I used to have, and the only thing advanced on it was the jet engine... and it came with an instruction manual on how to build the thing and listed all the parts with diagrams and everything! It was awesome!

I drove out of Washington DC with a packed inventory and a huge smile on my face.

As I travelled, my thoughts went to the reason I went there in the first place and I could honestly say that I did leave the hard drive of evidence on the desk of the self-proclaimed president and left it up to him how to handle it. I would never mention to anyone that I blew him and everything else up, though. That wasn't necessary information, not after learning they had already attacked several other states before they came after us.

It was no wonder they went in all gung-ho like they had, if they met almost no resistance at every other survivor camp they went after. Why would they expect anything different from civilians that were so far away? They wouldn't. They were the trained ones and had nothing to worry about while facing people only trying to survive.

I chuckled at those thoughts and drove onto the interstate and headed on home. The trip was going to be much quicker this time, since I had cleared out most of the walkers on the way here. I didn't bother trying to stop or rest anywhere else and took a few things out of my inventory to put in the back of the truck. I didn't want to go back home empty-handed, after all.

*

Despite being in contact with him constantly, Amy was still stressed out for the entire time Rick was gone. She worried that he was not coming back, even though he kept reassuring her that he would always come back to her. When he finally showed up at the camp after being gone for five whole days, she wept and hugged him tightly and made him swear that he would never leave her again.

Rick happily did so and remained at the camp from that day forward. He kept everything running somehow, replacing car batteries and recharging them on a generator that no one asked him where it came from. They also didn't ask where the gas cans came from when the RV and the other moving vans needed fuel to keep them running and functional.

Maggie and Glenn soon had a pair of fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, and everyone celebrated. She recovered just as fast as Lori had and the other women saw this and agreed with Amy. If Rick could make their birth recovery that easy without him being an actual doctor, then they were more than happy to have a few more kids to add to the next generation.

With so many people wanting a more permanent home to live in, Glenn started a search for appropriate vehicles for Rick to convert into living spaces for them. Their own harvesting of cars for the monster truck rallies made the job a lot easier, too. They found a school bus, an old camper, and another transfer truck trailer to change over.

The trailer was divided in half and real doors were added to make two separate apartments. T-Dog was thankful to get one of them for himself and his common law wife. Morgan and his son Duane moved into the other one and no one asked why Jacqui spent an equal amount of time in each of those apartments. It wasn't that they didn't want to know, it was that they knew it was none of their business.

Life at the camp improved once more with everyone out of the tents and into better living conditions. They were all happy that no one else would ever come after them to take what little they had. It removed a worry that everyone had and couldn't shake off, not until Rick took care of it.

With luck, no one else would ever bother them again, not until they themselves reached out to see if friendships could be started with other survivor camps.

*

Amy gave birth to a little boy that looked just like Rick and she couldn't have been happier. It was proof of Rick's promise and she loved him and their little boy more than she thought was possible. Andrea's baby girl was born barely a month after that and she looked just like Amy did as a baby, so Andrea was in constant tears over the fact she also had proof of her love for her sister.

Amy was overjoyed by this as well and it brought them even closer together. Shared motherhood made their sisterly bond so strong that they had no problem nursing both babies when one of them was too tired to do it. Both babies quickly saw the sisters as both their moms and everyone was happy.

Life went on at the camp and no one else showed up. Maggie eventually convinced Glenn that someone had to go and check on Hershel's farm to see what was happening over there, and Glenn convinced Rick to take him, thanks to Amy. Rick would have refused if Amy hadn't agreed that he needed a day off and they had to try and get more animals, assuming they had more at the farm after the last breeding season.

Rick reluctantly drove Glenn all the way to Hershel's farm and they slowed down before reaching it. There were a lot of walkers around the place and they were inside the fence. None of the barriers were down, so that meant the overrun had happened from the inside. Rick and Glenn exchanged sad looks, took out their guns, and went to work.

Two hours later, all they found were walkers. The barn was torn open and the house was wrecked, too. They found Hershel tearing into the carcass of his prized cow and saw that the rest of the animals were long dead. Glenn did the honor and put Hershel down for good, because he was family. It was just too bad there would be no happy reunion between him, Maggie, and his grandchildren.

Rick and Glenn checked the house and no food could be found, not even stocks of harvested crops, so they left the farm with an empty truck and empty hearts. The return to camp was uneventful and everyone knew that things went bad at the farm by the looks on Rick's and Glenn's faces. Maggie cried and hugged Glenn and their toddlers, Hershel Junior and Bethany.

No further attempts to meet anyone else was contemplated, even if Dale kept trying the CB radio once a week to find someone else to talk to. No one wanted to feel more disappointment if Glenn and Rick only found death when they visited the other places that had heat signatures on that old map.

*

Years passed and the camp survivors grew old as the children grew up. Carl and Sophia had gotten together, as if anyone doubted that would happen, and they had two kids of their own. They weren't the only ones, not with so may other children being born so close together. Of course, it didn't really matter about the age differences anyway. Who was going to judge them for it?

There also wasn't a lot of choice of partners, either. Not if you wanted kids, anyway. Rick's implantation idea was used a bunch of times with different donors as well, just because of a few hang-ups and failed attempts to do it the normal way. They had to be careful of crossed genetics as well. They couldn't risk Carl's daughter and Rick's son getting together, or Andrea's daughter and Carl's son.

Playing around and having fun was fine, because the term 'kissing cousins' had come into being for a reason; but, children from those match-ups were a no-no. Also, their community was small enough that everyone knew everyone and no one wanted bad things to happen to their families, so diligence was always kept when it came to recording who had been with whom and who was who's father.

The thing was, none of them realized that they had enough genetic diversity within their group to restart humanity all on their own. They just needed the resources and space to do so, which they also had, thanks to Rick's magical 'I'm pulling it out of my ass' trick. It made them laugh every time he said it.

Also, the pilot and astronaut suits had been liberally passed around in secret and there were a lot of personal fantasies fulfilled, to everyone's delight.

*

An old and wrinkled Amy rested on her deathbed with a beautiful smile on her face as she looked upon her handsome husband beside her. “Even after all these years, you're still a hunk.”

Rick chuckled and patted his own wrinkly face. “I think your sight's finally going, love.”

Amy softly laughed and hugged him close. “No, your body is still bumpy in all the right places.” She said, her wizened hand caressing his arm and chest. “I love you just as much now as I did back then.”

“I do as well.” Rick said and his own hand caressed her arm and then her back. “I couldn't imagine being here and living my life without you.”

“Aww.” Amy said and leaned in to kiss him, her lips firm. “You need to keep your promise to me.”

“I will, Amy.” Rick said and gave her another kiss. “I won't let you turn.”

“Good.” Amy said and laid down on her back to take a deep breath. “You know... even after all these years... I'm still surprised you never fell in love with my sister or slept with her.”

Rick chuckled and it rattled in his lungs. “Why would I ruin the best relationship I've ever had? For some dirty time with someone I wasn't deeply in love with? If I wanted that, I could have taken Lori back.”

Amy chuckled this time. “I'm still glad that you didn't do that.” She said and closed her eyes as her breathing slowed down. “I never would... have met you... and fallen head over... heels for... the only man... that... lllove... everrr...” Her voice trailed off and her breathing hitched once, twice, and then stopped completely.

“Goodnight, my love.” Rick said and kissed her cheek before he raised the gun and aimed at her forehead. The bang was muffled, thanks to a silence spell, and he laid down on his back as he aimed the gun at his own forehead. It was a normal 6-shooter and not his gun with infinite ammo. He pulled the trigger and he didn't hear the muffled bang as the world faded away.

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