The Protagonist System

141 The Long Haul Part One

With everyone busy doing different things, I was once again free to implement my own plans. Because I had so much diesel fuel available, both Dale and I could drive the tractor for multiple hours in a single day to get a few things set up. We claimed two of the larger fields that were near the camp and left the farther one alone to grow normally and added grass seeds used for lawns to help it along.

The closer one we cleared out of everything, bushes, trees, rocks, and levelled it all off with only a slight grade for water run-off. It was easy to set up a wide horizontal water seepage trough all along the top of the field and smaller vertical tracks every ten feet through the field to end at the run-off trough at the bottom.

Dale was only confused about it until I told him how it would constantly feed water to the field without us having to manually water it constantly. We spread out the bags of fertilizer all over the large field and even set up a spot to construct a few water towers to catch rainwater and they would let us fill the top trough whenever it was needed during the drier parts of the growing season.

After we finished setting all of that up over the next week, the camp's library officially opened. It had taken a couple of extra days to complete the inventory and to set the books up on the available shelves. There was plenty of room for everything with some empty spaces between the different sections, in case I found any more books to add to them.

The next thing we had to do was construct fences or berms around the fields as well as leaving an access road for both people and animals. We also added to the walker collection pattern to lead them away from both the animals and our future source of food. That would take another week at least and Dale was enthusiastic about planning it all out and putting into practice.

In fact, he offered to do it all by himself while I go and try to trade for some animals. I thought about refusing, then realized he was right. I could be over there to Hershel's farm, visit for a couple days, and be on my way back by the time he was done. I agreed to his idea and he looked very happy about that and he went with me to try and convince Amy or Glenn to come with me.

Amy gave me a hard no, because she was helping Andrea at the library and watching the kids as they started giving them school lessons that they were quite far behind because of the apocalypse. I was disappointed by her immediate refusal and I didn't argue much about it before I dropped it. She gave me an odd look for several moments, as if she was surprised I had argued with her, then she smiled a knowing smile and went back to the library.

“That was weird.” Dale whispered and I nodded.

We searched the camp for a short while and found Glenn in his tent preparing an overnight bag.

“I guess we don't have to convince you that I need a second pair of eyes along on my trip.” I joked and Glenn gave me two thumbs up. I chuckled and Dale patted Glenn's shoulder, then mine, and he left to start working with the tractor again. “We already offloaded the barrels from the back of the truck, so we're good to go.”

“Great!” Glenn said and hefted his backpack up to hang over his shoulders. “Let's go.”

We left his tent and he zipped it closed before he put a small padlock on the zipper. I didn't question it, since it would kind of deter anyone that wanted easy access. If they did anything else to get inside, it would be easily seen.

A few people waved at us and wished us good luck. We returned the waves and said we would be back in a week and climbed into the truck. Glenn looked excited and I shared his feelings. It would be the first time in a while that either of us left the local area and it would give me a different perspective than flying over it all.

I had to be careful driving, because it was only on the highways that there were wide sections of empty road for us to safely drive on without worry. The smaller streets had more obstructions and damage, sometimes it was abandoned cars and sometimes it was car crashes. It was sad, because it would take a lot of time and effort to clear them all off.

Luckily, the truck I drove had a large front bumper and a lot of torque in the gears. It was only slightly difficult to push a wreck over enough to get through some of the spaces and we could go off-road in other places without risking too much damage to the tires and undercarriage.

Glenn used his map of Georgia to mark the spots that were the worst and numbered them to add to a list of what was where. That was really smart of him, since we had to come back through the same way and it would be valuable information for the return trip.

I thanked him for being such a great navigator and he looked quite pleased, then he joked that Amy told him I wasn't allowed to travel anywhere alone and needed a minder. At least, I thought it was a joke. When I gave him a pointed look, he grinned and made a whip cracking sound and flicked his hand at me. After a second, we both burst out laughing.

The drive that should have been only an hour on an open road had ended up taking over six hours. That was mostly because we came across a few areas that were swarming with walkers and I diverted slightly to hide the truck and made Glenn stay there with it as I cleared them out. Having unlimited ammo with a handgun and a shotgun had been a godsend and essential for my survival.

On the plus side of the stops we had to make, we now knew where all the obstacles we needed to avoid were and we could get back through it all with a small trailer behind us without trouble. Glenn also promised to keep an eye out for one that we could borrow, in case they didn't have one at the farm for carrying the animals.

We arrived near were we needed to go and I didn't drive up to the place without any warning or invitation. Not only would that be rude, it would also set the wrong tone to the visit I had planned.

“Is it just me or is there not a lot of walkers around here?” Glenn asked.

He was right and I unfortunately knew why. The man running the farm, Hershel, was gathering them up in his large barn and was keeping them fed and docile. It was a foolish plan to keep them 'alive' long enough for a cure to be found, mostly because they were his friends and family from the nearby homesteads.

“It's not just you.” I said and stepped out of the truck and put on my sheriff's hat. “Slide over here like usual and keep an eye out. If you see anything, approaching you or not, honk the signal. I'll be right back with guns blazing.” I said as I reached under the seat where I had pretended to stash the shotgun and slung it over my shoulder. “Keep your gun at the ready, too.”

“Yessir!” Glenn said with a salute and then patted his holster that was already unbuttoned.

“Good man.” I said and rapped my knuckles on the trunk's steering wheel twice and the horn beeped twice. I stepped back and shut the driver's side door.

“Stay safe.” Glenn said and I nodded.

I moved off down the road, keeping an eye out for both walkers and people. The horn should have gotten attention from the people at the farm, since a car's horn was such an odd thing to hear these days with so many vehicles crashed, broken down, and disabled.

As I approached the well-barricaded farm, I could see an older man and a much younger one, both armed with rifles. They stood away from the farmhouse and about halfway to the driveway, clearly ready to fight. There were two young women standing on the porch with another young man, there was a black woman with dreadlocks and a sword standing off to the side of the house, and a woman standing off to the other side of the house.

My approach on foot had been the right choice, because I was sure that they would have shot at any moving vehicle as a first action and then they would ask why I was there, assuming I was still alive. I stopped walking about 20 feet from the barricade blocking the driveway and took off my hat to wave it at them.

“I had a whole prepared speech ready to convince you all I'm not here to cause trouble, then I realized just coming here would do that.” I said with as calm a voice as I could.

The approving look on Hershel's face let me know I had said the right thing.

“With that said, I'm going to move off a ways and make a lot of noise to gather any walkers still around. I'll clear the area out as much as I can over the next few hours and then I'll come back to talk.” I said and put my hat back on. “I figure that's as good of a peace offering as I can give you before we can meet up officially.”

Hershel nodded and I smiled, then I walked backwards up the road. I did not take my eyes off of either him or the young man beside him. Thankfully, they did not raise their rifles or shouted threats at me, so that was a huge relief. Once I was out of their sight, I turned and jogged back to the truck.

Glenn slid over to the passenger side. “I heard all that. Nice going.”

“Thanks.” I said and stashed the shotgun under the seat as I stored it. I climbed in and put the truck in reverse. “We'll head off down that side road and I'll lay on the horn for a few minutes.”

“If there are any walkers around, they'll come quick looking for us.” Glenn warned me.

“I've set off a horde or two before. We just need to find a nice choke point...” My voice drifted off and I pointed at another farm's large front gate. “I'd say that should work. We can scrounge stuff from the abandoned farmhouse and block off half of the road and use the gate on the other half.”

Glenn nodded. “It shouldn't take us too long to set it up.”

I brought the truck to a stop just inside the gate. “I've done this a bunch of times already, so I'm used to the pressure. Do you want to help out or do you want to keep guard of the truck? It's our only safe way back to camp.”

Glenn thought about it for a few seconds. “I'll guard the truck. You know as soon as they start coming, they won't only come from the front.”

I smiled and patted his shoulder. “Then I'll turn this thing around and you can use the cargo area for cover. Please use it and be careful.”

Glenn chuckled. “Shouldn't I be telling you that? You're going to face a potential horde with a handgun and a shotgun.”

I turned the truck around and faced it towards the road. “That's why I have so much ammo packed into my pockets and on two ammo belts. Always be prepared.”

Glenn nodded and we left the truck to gather the things we needed to block part of the road off. Setting up a kill area was surprisingly quick and easy, which Glenn commented on before he climbed into the back of the truck. I used a stick to set it against the seat and jammed it onto the middle of the steering wheel.

*HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNK!*

After 30 seconds, I knocked the stick away and grabbed the fake ammo belts to hang over my shoulders, then I walked out to the road and took up a firing position.

“Fuck, that was really loud!” I shouted and Glenn just pointed to his ear and shrugged. “Yeah, I should have thought that through a bit more!”

Glenn waved me away and aimed his gun towards the farmhouse and the barn.

I waited and watched the road, from both directions, and we soon had our first customers. Glenn had been right that they would be coming quickly and they were almost stumbling over themselves as they tried to rush towards us on stumbling legs. I took aim and fired. My first shot hit the lead walker right in the forehead and it dropped and tripped six others trying to walk over the body.

I really loved my increasing skills as they levelled up. It made things like aiming for instant kill shots and getting critical hits so much easier.

*

Hershel, his family, and friends sat at the kitchen table and looked both pensive and relieved. It had been over an hour so far and the sounds of handguns firing constantly and the occasional shotgun, really brought home how much danger that he and his family had been in and they didn't even realize it.

Their barricades had been hastily made and would keep out a lot of them; but, if what that sheriff was currently fighting off had come for them instead? They wouldn't have lasted five minutes.

“Why can't we go help them?” Beth's boyfriend Jimmy asked.

“Don't be an idiot.” Otis said and his wife Patricia glared at him. He sighed and continued. “If you go anywhere near there, the walkers will swarm you instead. If you somehow make it through them, you could be shot by the sheriff because he'll think you're one of the walkers.”

“Oh. That makes sense.” Jimmy said and Beth hugged him.

It was silent again until Maggie spoke up. “I wonder why he came here.”

Hershel let out a sigh and didn't try to hide the truth. “Isn't it obvious? He wants food.”

That answer made everyone around the table frown slightly. They were pushing their resources to the limit already with so many people on their small farm. There really wasn't anything that they could spare that wouldn't end up hurting them and cutting their own rations down. The mild winter wasn't going to help their crops retain enough water for the next growing season, either.

“Then what do we do when he comes back?” Maggie asked.

“This is our family's farm and no one is going to take it from us.” Hershel said and looked at his daughter Maggie and didn't see the strong conviction in her eyes that he wanted to. He shifted his gaze to his other daughter Beth and there was ambivalence there instead. He should have known that locking them inside the farm with nothing else to do would have soured them on the family business of farming.

“He doesn't want the farm, he wants...” Michonne stopped talking and her dreadlocks shifted slightly as she turned her head to listen. “The shooting's stopped.”

A feeling of dread flowed through the room because all of them immediately thought the sheriff had lost the fight and was overrun. None of them stood up from the table, though. It was almost like they were in denial and didn't want to confirm that another life was lost so close to their home and they hadn't done anything to help. Guilt soon replaced the dread and no one would meet anyone else's eyes.

“I... I'll get supper started.” Patricia said and started to stand.

*Honk! Honk!*

“Oh, thank GOD!” Maggie gasped as she lunged to her feet and ran for the door.

“Maggie!” Hershel and Beth said at the same time.

Maggie ignored them and threw the door open and ran outside. She made it all the way to the fence before she noticed anything except the huge 4x4 truck. She stopped behind the fence and held on for dear life as she stared at the two handsome men leaning against the truck's front bumper.

“Howdy, ma'am.” The sheriff said and tipped his hat at her. “Sheriff Rick Grimes at your service.”

Maggie didn't say anything and kept staring at them with a stunned expression on her face. She didn't notice that the shorter one was staring right back at her with the same stunned expression on his face.

Rick elbowed Glenn's side and whispered. “Introduce yourself so she can answer.”

“Oh! Right.” Glenn said and tried to not look embarrassed at being caught staring at such a pretty woman. “Uh, my name is Glenn. Glenn Rhee.”

Maggie had to blink her eyes a few times as her brain processed that information. She was glad she was taking her time, because it let her fight off the blush that had rushed to her face at being caught staring at them and the sheriff had given her time to get over it.

“It... it's nice to meet you.” Maggie said and started to smile a real smile for the first time in a long time. “I'm Maggie. Maggie Green.”

“It's nice to meet you too, Miss Green.” Rick said and nodded behind her. “Would you mind introducing us to the rest of these folks?”

Maggie glanced back and saw that everyone had followed her out of the house and were standing on the porch with their weapons at the ready. She waved her hand at them and turned back to look at Rick and Glenn, focusing mostly on the cuter one.

“I'd love to introduce you to my family and friends.” Maggie said to Glenn. Her smile grew brighter as his face flushed red.