Chapter 293 - Ch: 138-142

138 Relationships Are Difficult

Amy showed up a short time later and saw the Harry Potter book, gave me a bit of a glare, then she jumped onto the bed to have her wicked way with me. It lasted for quite a while, as if she needed to make sure I was covered in as much of her fluids as possible, and that was a lot. When we were done, she looked a little bloated and very satisfied as she cuddled me.

Andrea entered our home not long after that and gave me a nod, patted Amy's back as she passed the bed, and went to the bathroom to shower.

"We need to clean up, too." Amy said and sat up as she looked at me. "You definitely do."

I made a snort sound and then laughed. "I may be a little sticky from residue, that's true."

Amy laughed as well and climbed off the bed. "Come on, I'll help wash your back."

I climbed off of the bed as well and followed her to the bathroom. This was where I was treated to a surprise, because Amy opened the door and brought me inside. We leaned against the sink and watched the woman still taking a shower. Andrea had noticed us right away and didn't rush or tried to cover herself up.

Andrea finished her shower and stepped out to dry herself off with a towel, still not trying to cover herself up. "Why are you suddenly okay with letting him show that off, Amy?" She asked and motioned to my erection.

"Even after all this time, you still haven't tried to make a play for Rick." Amy said with a shrug. "Since he hasn't come to me to say you've been flirting with him behind my back or without me nearby, I know my trust was never misplaced. It's not like he would have accepted your offer, anyway."

Andrea looked surprised and then shook her head. "You really are naive, little sis."

Amy smiled and stepped by her. "Did you really think I didn't watch you to see if you would slip a hand in or play with us a little while we were busy? I might be tired after a long day of taking care of the kids and the camp; but, I'm not ignorant. You didn't even try to give him an early morning blowjob when I was too tired to, and you've had months to try and be sneaky about it."

Andrea looked conflicted about that and sighed. "I wanted to. I really did."

Amy reached out and placed a hand on her bare shoulder and caressed it. "I know. We know." She said and glanced at me and back at her. "You've spent so much time pretending to not be a part of this that you feel too guilty even thinking about doing more than what you already do."

Andrea's eyes dropped to my bobbing erection and licked her lips. "He's so tempting, Amy. He's been getting hotter and hotter and no one else at camp can even compare."

"It's these growing muscles he keeps trying to hide from everyone but us." Amy said and her hand caressed my chest, my abdomen, then my shaft. "If he wasn't shooting blanks, I would have been knocked up after our first week together."

Andrea caught her breath and stared at her sister's face. "Excuse me? He's what?"

"Shooting blanks." Amy said with a knowing smile. "We can go at it all the time and we never have to worry about what Lori and Shane are going through right now."

"Well, not until I can get a medical van set up for things like that." I said and both women's heads turned to stare at me. "There's about 7 or 8 months before she's due, so I have plenty of time to find an ambulance or something and then I can dig up some books on medical procedures and birth complications."

"You... you really..." Amy whispered.

"Just because I don't want anything to do with Lori, that doesn't mean I want her baby to be in danger. I'll talk to Shane tomorrow and I'll make sure he knows that." I told them.

"I love you." Amy said and gave me a slow and passionate kiss. "So much."

"I love you, too." I responded and gave her another kiss. We broke it and stepped away from each other, only to hear Andrea sigh.

"Dammit, I love you too, Rick." Andrea admitted and didn't step forward to try and kiss me. "I keep trying to deny it and I can't anymore. Every time I convince myself I'm being silly, you do or say something that just makes my self-justifications disappear."

"Andi..." Amy started to say.

"No, I know. I do. It can't work. I'm already so far away from my normal behavior that I sometimes don't recognize myself when I look in the mirror." Andrea told us and hung the towel on the shower door to let it air dry. She turned back to us and had a sad smile on her face. "No matter how much I'd love to take those last few steps, we both know I'd never do anything to ruin your life. I love you too much to do that."

"Just not like that." Amy said with her own sad smile.

"No, not like that. I could never..." Andrea paused and walked over to her to give her a hug. "...you're my sister. I can't even contemplate being with you sexually, no matter how good the sex with your man would be. It could never distract me enough to forget you're the only family I have left."

Amy hugged her back. "I feel the same way. I can't even try to get my mind wrapped around the thought of... licking you... down there." She barely managed to say and shivered in a bad way.

Andrea let her go and stepped back to give me a pointed look. "I hope this doesn't give you any ideas, Rick. There's no chance that anything can happen between us, no matter how much potential is there."

I didn't want to deflate her ego any more than she was already doing to herself, so I nodded and stayed quiet. I did not tell her that I wasn't attracted to her or that even naked as she was, I wasn't hard for her. It was Amy that had me this way and we had a shared shower to get to.

"I'll start moving..." Andrea started to say.

"No, you're not!" Amy interrupted her with a shout. "Not even when winter is over and spring starts up. I'm not letting my only family go back to living in a fucking tent!"

Andrea looked shocked at the outburst and at a loss for words.

"Good, you know there's no argument you can give me, anyway." Amy said and took my hand. She didn't say anything else and brought me into the shower and started it up, then she soaped her hands and started washing me off.

I was kind of stunned myself and didn't try to reciprocate until her hands went down to my member and she started stroking it. It was a blatant prompt to get to work and I took it and started washing her, too. It quickly devolved to groping and then some enthusiastic sex against the shower wall. Amy didn't try to be quiet at all and I didn't try to silence her, because she was making a point that it wasn't needed.

Andrea's moan of pleasure reached us through the sound of rushing water and our own sounds of lovemaking. I glanced over and Andrea had propped herself on the toilet seat and had spread her legs to give me a completely unobstructed view for the first time. She licked her own soaked fingers and stared at me as she did so. I nodded in acknowledgement and then gave Amy my full attention.

After we were all done and left the bathroom, both sisters were satisfied and were happy. The nebulous relationship the three of us had was fully defined now and we all knew there was a line that none of us would ever cross. It was a relief, honestly. I had been worried I would wake up with my dick in Andrea's mouth and I didn't know how to handle that, and now I knew I would never have to worry about it.

We got dressed in warm clothes and went to the kitchenette to make supper. In the middle of the prep work, Amy suddenly leaned over and kissed Andrea's cheek and thanked her for being there for her. Since I didn't want to be thought of as a jerk by either of them, I leaned in and kissed her other cheek and thanked her for the same thing, being there for Amy, and made Andrea blush.

After supper, we changed the sheets and blankets on the bed to relax on it. In the middle of the conversation about what we were doing tomorrow, Amy changed the subject and told her sister about me having her favorite book and hiding it from her. Andrea gasped and looked scandalized, then I was suddenly tackled by both of them and tickled until I revealed where I was hiding the rest of them.

The two of them abandoned me on the bed and ran for the wall covering the electrical panel and gasped at there being a small pile of Harry Potter books inside. They gathered them up and ran back over to the bed and dumped them onto me. My shouts and complaints were ignored as they climbed onto the bed and shoved me against the wall. With most of the bed available, they spread the books around and then snuggled against each other to start reading.

I had to chuckle at them intentionally ignoring me, despite their soft laughter at my pouting face, so I let them enjoy themselves and settled back to close my eyes and let my mind wander. I had plans to form and things to set up for the spring. Maybe I could borrow Merle's motorcycle again? No, I couldn't bring it back if I did find an ambulance and a source of medical texts.

That meant a long walk into town and I would have to talk to Glenn about what route he takes. It would also let me clear out any walkers that might have started to show up while I've been inactive. I should probably grab one of the car horns and a battery to make enough noise to draw more of them out, since the pit near the camp had been empty for a while.

The defenses worked great and no one was stressed out about walkers being nearby. The survivors at the camp were happy, relaxed, and were settling in for the long haul. They knew there was no point in leaving the safest place they had ever been, not after my comprehensive report about what the rest of the state looked like.

If we wanted to find anything like civilization again, we would have to travel a long way to try and find it. That wasn't a priority, especially after Dale told everyone about my plans for making farming fields nearby and trading MREs for some grazing animals from the farm I had found. That had really brought people's spirits up and they were making their own plans and added ideas about the right tools and things we would need.

Dale was keeping track of it all and he would have the completed list ready by the time I would need it. I still planned to make more trips around, only my method of travel had to change. I couldn't take the motorcycle, since it lacked protection. My police car was an option that I could bring back after I pretended to search the construction company for more diesel fuel, since that's where I faked leaving it.

That was when I realized something. Glenn might have passed by there during one of his many trips and he wouldn't have seen the police car there. I cursed in my head and mentally sighed, because that cut my options down again, because I couldn't just outright ask him if he had seen my car there when I knew it wasn't.

I felt mentally drained and let sleep claim me, because I didn't want to think about things for a while. I could worry about the things I needed for my plans later.

*

Andrea saw Rick hadn't moved or took large breaths for a while and still talked in whispers. "He really isn't interested in me, is he?"

"No, and I'm not sure why." Amy whispered back. "Maybe that first impression really stayed with him?"

Andrea sighed. "It's not my fault we all suspected he wasn't an actual cop after everything we've been through."

Amy leaned in and rested her forehead on her sister's. "I know. I just liked ribbing you."

Andrea huffed. "At least he's forgiven me for not trusting him."

"He forgave Glenn right away, remember? I think Rick kind of expected it after what he said about just meeting your group and not earning any trust." Amy whispered.

"Yes, and that irked a lot of us when he showed up at the camp right behind us." Andrea whispered back. "He followed us right back here and none of us noticed there was a brightly painted police car behind us the entire way back from the city."

Amy softly laughed. "That's even more proof that he's a good sheriff."

Andrea shook her head. "Shane said they were partners, so he's only a deputy. The badge and uniform are fakes."

"Nope!" Amy said a bit loudly and then hushed herself. "Sorry, sorry."

"Why isn't it fake?" Andrea asked.

"He promoted himself and signed the paperwork back at the precinct. He was the last serving deputy, so he automatically took office by default anyway and he figured he might as well make it official and signed in and left it on the sheriff's desk." Amy explained and then smiled. "His desk, actually."

Andrea gave her a disbelieving look and then softly laughed. "Okay, that was smart."

"Don't sound so surprised. You told me he was smart after he flew away in that death trap." Amy reminded her.

Andrea put an arm around her and hugged her briefly. "He came back like he promised."

"I should have said in one piece." Amy said and let out a relieved sigh. "He's been great since then."

"I know. I've been here to see it all." Andrea said and then blushed. "That's why I said I loved him. He's been so good to you and he only pretends to complain when you give him restrictions. He really loves that you care so much about him."

Amy blushed a little. "It's been really nice to have him here most of the time."

"Only most of the time?" Andrea asked with a smirk.

"He's insatiable and I love him, even when he tracks me down during my chores and we have fun like I used to do for him when he was stuck in bed." Amy said. "It's almost too much, you know? I mean... I like sex as much as the next girl... but, I just have a feeling that he could keep going and... and I..."

Andrea waited for several seconds for her to continue, and she didn't. "What is it?"

Amy blushed fully this time from embarrassment. "I don't think I'm enough to keep him satisfied."

Andrea blinked her eyes in shock for a moment and then realized what she meant. "You can't seriously think of bringing someone else to your bed."

Amy shook her head. "I don't want to ruin what we have by trying to add someone else into this... whatever we have here. It's working and I'm not looking to wreck it. I just... I want him to be happy and... I know he's not, you know..." She made a jerking motion with her hand. "...done when I am."

"Oh." Andrea whispered and understood. She knew her sister had played with Rick a lot before she started getting involved as a witness and a spectator, she just didn't realize the enormous amount of sex they had had before that. "The new couple period isn't over yet?"

Amy blushed for a different reason. "He can't keep his hands off of me."

Andrea gave her a pointed look. "You know that's a good thing, right?"

"I do and it is. I've never felt so wanted and needed. I'm happy with it, really." Amy said, her blush staying on her face. "He's just so... robust? He stays hard for as long as I want him to and he never says anything or looks disappointed when I tell him I've had enough. It's just... if I could keep going... I don't think he would ever stop."

Andrea's mouth dropped open and she stared at her sister in disbelief.

"I know, I know. It's wonderful and I've definitely taken advantage of it." Amy said and then smiled warmly. "It's why I'm so confused about why Lori wasn't happy with her life with him. They were married and she just... why would she... how could she give up on that or want something else?"

Andrea gave her another hug. "What's that old saying? The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?"

Amy nodded. "I know what that means."

"Yeah, I know you do. What you don't realize, and what I think Rick does, is that when you are on the other side of that fence, it's the grass you just left that is now the greener grass."

Amy's eyes widened. "Oh, my god! Rick is Lori's greener grass!"

Andrea nodded. "That's right. He knew Lori would figure that out eventually. When she did, he told her in no uncertain terms that his grass was being tended by you. Why would he want to give up his greener grass for her? She chose to cross that fence and he told her to stay there."

Amy nodded and closed the book between them, set it aside, and snuggled into her sister's warm embrace. Andrea hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead, settling in for the sleep they knew would claim them after so many revelations. The two drifted off to sleep and were glad that they had repaired their damaged relationship and they resolved to always be there for each other, no matter what.

139 A Bit Of A Timeskip

The reaffirmed dynamic in our home seemed to make both Amy and her sister Andrea relax as much as I had. I wasn't sure if they reflected my own attitude towards the situation or if they had come to the same realization as I had. Either way, the loving atmosphere grew as the winter days wore on and the three of us were constantly smiling.

I had to delay my trip to town after Glenn's warning about leaving tracks on the snow. Not only would it give away that there was someone moving around in the area, it would also lead whomever it was that found those tracks right back to the camp. We couldn't even remove or destroy the tracks, because the snow removal in a specific area would also bring attention where it wasn't wanted.

So, my life was contained within the large confines of the camp's protections, just like everyone else. Luckily, neither Amy nor Andrea told anyone about the pile of Harry Potter books I had. They knew, just like I did, we would never see them again if we had to loan them out. It wasn't just from someone keeping them, either. They could be damaged or lost and then no one would have them. They were all first editions, too.

I pretended to maintain the showers, the water levels, the heaters, replacing car batteries occasionally, and fetching more wood for the main campfire when it was needed. The watch over the camp from the top of Dale's RV was almost redundant by this point; and we all still did it, because none of us wanted for that one time we didn't do it to cause the loss of the camp. It was almost funny that we all had that same worry, wasn't it?

The days didn't quite merge together into one massive repeat after another, thankfully. I had even reduced how many times I hunted Amy down during her chores to get her off and thank her for looking after me. She was both sad and looked relieved about that, so I made sure I didn't take her for granted and used our time in bed more wisely. Sex was supposed to be fun and not another chore for her to do.

I continued to use my magic when I was out of sight of everyone, trying my hardest to level the skill as much as possible. It was a relief to find out that any magic cast would increase the main skill and not just the individual spells. Of course, maxing the spells out also granted me certain boons and bonuses, as did using the spell books from both Harry Potter and Familiar of Zero.

Let me tell you, that first time I successfully transfigured three pebbles into three brass stones, something that only a second tier mage or higher could do because of how difficult elemental transfigurations were, it had me so excited that it gave me a partial erection and unlocked another huge section of my inventory.

By the time I reached Amy and kissed her passionately, I was fully hard and dragged her home to have my wicked way with her. The best part about it? Amy didn't even ask me why. She just laughed and was happy that I was happy.

Amy really was the best thing to happen to me in this world and while we cuddled in the afterglow of the quickie, I told her so. She blushed, looked pleased, and kissed me soundly. Andrea's soft moaning voice from behind the kitchenette counter fully agreed with me.

Time moved on again and the cold weather started to slack off, meaning spring was going to spring soon and it would be time to start working on making the camp the best camp that I could. With magic as my secret helper, things weren't going to take as long as the others thought they would. Not at all.

*

On the first official day of Spring, thanks to the homemade calendar by the kids during one of Andrea's crafting lessons, both Glenn and I left the camp with empty backpacks and long lists of 'essentials'. Glenn's was much different than my own and he was chuckling under his breath as we walked along the old path he used and read through the list.

"Let me guess. Your essentials are pretty much all feminine care products?" I asked and Glenn nodded. "Then why haven't you gotten laid yet?"

Glenn made a sputtering sound and his face went beet red.

I laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm just kidding, buddy. There's not much to pick from back at camp." I said and we kept walking. "I'm sure there's people at that farm that's about 50 miles or so away. With winter ended, we can head on over there as soon as we find an appropriate vehicle."

Glenn's face stayed red. "At least you're not thinking about walking all that way."

I laughed again. "I would have flown if the plane still worked... or was salvageable... or could be used in any real capacity for travel."

Glenn gave me an odd look. "You really liked that old thing, didn't you?"

"I loved it." I admitted and his eyebrows rose up. "I built the thing with my own two hands... assembled it from the ground up... and then I flew it around the entire state of Georgia in only two days. It was like a taste of freedom that few people ever get to experience."

Glenn's odd look disappeared and changed to thoughtfulness.

"Yeah, you know the feeling." I said and elbowed his side lightly. "How many times have you escaped the camp for your supply runs again?"

Glenn gave me a huge smile in return. "Escaped? Y-yeah, I... I think that's exactly what I've been doing. Getting away and just..." He motioned with his hand in an arc and wiggled his fingers.

"I totally get it." I said and nodded.

"Totally? Really?" Glenn asked and looked like he was trying not to laugh.

So, I pulled off my best surfer dude impression. "Yeah, like totally, dude! Riding the waves, catching some air, it's totally radical!"

Glenn burst out laughing, then he kept laughing as I told him all about the best ways to hang ten. It was completely made up, of course. I had no clue how to do any of that and just spouted nonsense. It just made him laugh even more, because it was a surfer dude explaining the meaning of life to him, and it was hilarious.

We split up at the first subdivision we reached on the outskirts of town. Before he left, I gave him my backup handgun and two boxes of ammo, just in case, and told him to make sure any bodies he found had a hole in the head. Glenn looked serious when he accepted the gun and holster, then he moved off a lot quieter than we had been moving before.

I did as well, since this was pretty much new territory for me. Driving around on streets is one thing. Moving along on foot through yards, paths, patches of woods, and then along abandoned streets, was a completely different thing. The ambience was almost stifling with how still and unmoving everything was. Even the wind had died down to the point that the bare trees barely moved. It was eerie.

I didn't let that stop me, though. I had a job to do and I needed to do it quickly. My first stop was any store that carried tools that could be used in farming, like shovels and pickaxes. That was a surprisingly widespread amount of stores, since there were more than a few farms in Georgia.

I first tried a general store and it was empty. Even the shelves were broken apart and knocked around. The next attempt was only slightly less ransacked and I found a pickaxe buried through the decayed skull of a walker and embedded in the floor. I couldn't pry it up, so it was jammed in there pretty good. I didn't waste any effort on it, however.

I stored it and it disappeared from sight, then I took it back out and saw that the end that had been in the floor was slightly bent and explained why it had been stuck. Whomever had used it had not been holding back when they destroyed the walker, because it took either a lot of force to bend it or it had been heated up to make it malleable or something.

I took out my wand and used the repair spell on it and the creak of metal was really loud in the silence. I stored my wand and the pickaxe and ran to the back of the room and out of sight to wait. Nothing happened and there were no other sounds, so I didn't accidentally attract anyone's or anything's attention.

With a soft sigh, I left the store after checking for more things and didn't find anything else useful. I moved on and kept looking for several hours, not really finding anything, and then I sighed and slapped my forehead like the idiot I was. I had passed by about a dozen sheds in the subdivision that Glenn and I had walked through and never once thought about looking through them for tools.

I lost another hour as I backtracked and went to the very first shed I saw. Inside was a smorgasbord of everything a budding farmer would need. Several kinds of shovels, spades, rakes, two pickaxes of different sizes, a box of gardening gloves, a stack of six bags of fertilizer, a riding lawnmower, every kind and size of gardening shears from scissors to the huge branch cutting ones, two chainsaws, the tools to work on small engines, a small engine from a lawnmower, and many more things.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I thought to myself and left the shed without touching anything, because I just didn't want to look at the treasure trove of stuff anymore. I would have missed it all if I hadn't remembered that people's sheds had stuff like that in them.

I was glad that I did step out to clear my head, because my eyes landed on a freestanding garage that was two houses away. There were only two reasons that someone had an independent garage like that. One, they had a huge truck that wouldn't fit in a normal garage. Two, they wanted a space to put all their things that the wife didn't want them to keep in the house.

I closed the shed door behind me and walked over to the garage. I was not surprised to see that the side door was padlocked and the garage door was chained and welded shut. Whomever this guy was, he wanted his stuff protected. Since I knew that, there would probably be a security system as well.

If I was lucky, it would be off with no power. If I was unlucky, it would have a battery backup and only activated when breached. I mentally sighed at the conundrum and then glanced at the house. It was a nice two-storey one and it could also have a security system. Then again, if all of his important stuff was in the garage, the house wouldn't be that high of a priority.

On a whim, I walked over to the back door and looked inside. The place was pristine and looked completely untouched. Was the place hermetically sealed? Why wasn't there any dust on anything?

I shook those thoughts off and went to the front door. Right there on the window was the security system warning and it had a picture of both an electrical bolt and a car battery.

Paranoia for the win. I thought with a chuckle and went around to the back of the house again. I could see a large picture window that gave a great view of the woods behind the place, so I could easily see inside.

I knew I couldn't open the doors or windows, or break them, just in case the loud alarm was set off and it would gain a lot of attention. That left me with two options. I could leave and forget my curiosity or I could take a chance and do something stupid. Since there wasn't really a choice, I took out my wand and cast a silence spell, then held it up vertically in front of my face as I stared into the house.

Deliberation, Determination, Destination. I thought and pulled on my magic. With the wand, it came rushing out, because of all my practice giving me much better reserves to call on for bigger spells. Just as I was about to cast the apparate spell, a text box appeared.

Warning: Chance of spell failure is 67%.

Do you want to spend 10 Karma Points to ensure success?

I blinked my eyes in surprise at the option, because it was the first time I had received a warning before doing something stupid. It was usually after I died when I was told why something had been a bad idea. It also gave me another idea.

How much would it cost to max the spell out and I won't have to worry about it? I asked.

Cost of spell modification to never fail: 50 Karma Points.

Do you want to spend 50 Karma Points to ensure permanent success?

Yes, please! I thought, almost giddy, and I felt a shiver go up my spine. Knowledge flowed into my head and I remembered being an expert in the spell when I was back in my reward world of Harry Potter. I didn't need a wand or anything to cast spells, either. I really miss that feeling!

Now that I didn't have to worry about the stupid part of my plan, I apparated into the house and there wasn't even a crack of noise. I used my wand to search for the security panel and went into the basement to check the thing. I hit the switch to cut off the battery backup and saw that the garage had its own separate panel.

I flipped that switch as well and went back up to the living room to look out the window and apparated over to the back door of the garage. I didn't actually need line of sight, it just made things a lot easier. I stored the padlock holding the door secured and then vanished the door handle and the deadbolt lock.

Before I opened the door, I used the human revealing spell. Nothing appeared, so I pushed the door open and looked inside. It was as pristine as the house and my eyes widened at the contents. A four-wheeled ATV was off to the side by the wall, two canoes hung from the rafters, and in the middle of the wide space was a huge 4x4 truck with oversized tires.

Off to the other side of the garage were three stacks of metal toolbox cabinets that were filled with tools of all kinds and would allow for the maintenance of almost any vehicle. There was also an acetylene torch and the matching tanks. The only thing the garage didn't have was a diagnostic computer and I wasn't sure those had been released for civilian use yet or were even needed for the more modern cars.

With a shrug and a laugh at the luck of finding both a working ATV and a truck that could haul it around, I grabbed the loading ramps and tucked them into the back of the truck, stored the ATV, and then dropped it into the back of the truck. I secured it with straps and climbed into the driver's seat, then sighed at not seeing any keys.

Before I tried to go back into the house to look for them, I searched the dash, the center console, under the seat, and in the small hidey-holes in the doors. The last place I checked was where I found them, of course. I pulled down the sun visor above the driver's seat and the set of keys dropped down and I caught them.

I shook them out to check what was there and it had the garage key, the house key, the ATV key, and a spare key for the BMW. I knew all of that because they were all clearly marked. It also meant the BMW was the car they used to flee the apocalypse and I silently thanked them for making the wrong choice. If they hadn't, we wouldn't be benefiting from it now.

I started the truck up and the gas tank registered as full, proving the man took great care of his prized things. I immediately shut it off, since I didn't want to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning. I hopped out and went out through the side door and to the front of the garage door. I tried to store the chain and it was partially welded to the door and the metal base of the door.

"Screw it." I said and pulled my mythril sword out of my inventory. It had only become available recently, thanks to all my efforts and hard work raising my skills. I charged it with magic and swiped it at the weld and it sliced through the partially melted chain and the door with ease, proving that Tsubaki's training under Hephaestus was worth it.

My heart beat a little faster at that remembered relationship, because it had been both fun and playful. Tsubaki had enjoyed both the dungeon diving and me diving down on her, which had surprised her the first time at how good I was at both. We had a great time together, too.

I grabbed onto the chain and pulled up on the garage door, only for it to make a rattle sound and it didn't move. "For fuck's sake, of course it's powered and can't open." I said in frustration.

I tried to not stomp my way back around to the side door and didn't quite succeed as my boots slapped down on the concrete. I went inside and saw where the electric door opener was and the chained tracks it used. A few more swipes of my magically sharp blade severed the door from anything holding it back and I pulled up on the garage door from the inside.

It slid up easily, like it was a hot knife going through soft butter, and clanged when it was fully up and against the ceiling and reached the end of the rails it was mounted in. With it out of the way, I went to the tool cabinets and stored everything, including the acetylene torch and the tanks, the spares, and just for the hell of it, I stored the two canoes and then put them on top of the ATV in the back of the truck.

The wooden paddles were next, as were the life jackets, and I climbed into the truck. I started it up, let out a sigh to let my frustration fade away, and drove out of the garage. I made note of the address and would come back to the nice house to raid it for everything else later. For now, I drove my claimed truck to the camp to offload the new toys for everyone to play with.

140 Another Great Find

I had severely underestimated exactly how much happier the people at the camp would be to have something new to do. The ATV was more of a curiosity than anything else, since most didn't want to travel far from the camp and be so unprotected. The canoes however? I was mobbed with hugs, kisses on the cheek, and a few gropes of my butt. I ignored it for now and hoped that it was Amy.

Apparently, Amy's stories about spending relaxing time on the lake with her father, had really resonated with everyone and they all wanted to try it, even the kids. The parents were especially grateful for all of the life preservers I had grabbed, too. The mob ran off with my ill-gotten gains as they happily chatted about making another rotation list and everyone would be getting a turn as soon as possible.

Dale came over to me and he looked like a proud father. "You keep giving us all so much joy, Rick." He said and patted my back. "It's almost shocking, you know?"

I chuckled. "I do and I'm almost as shocked, since I hadn't intended to bring the canoes back at all. It was a whim I had after loading up the ATV. I figured it was much more versatile and could travel much farther on less gas, giving us a more stable option than Merle's motorcycle."

Dale chuckled, too. "So, you're saying your mistakes are more beneficial than your plans?"

I laughed and shook my head. "I just need to stop expecting certain things to come out the way I think they will." I said and motioned to the ATV in the back of the truck. "Give me a hand unloading this thing, will you? I still need to grab those gardening things and the tool chests I saw."

"Sure thing, Rick." Dale said and we unstrapped it and opened the back, set up the ramps, and he volunteered to ride it down.

I showed him how to kick it into neutral and where the front and back brakes were, how much pressure to apply to not jerk him and the ATV around, and how to start it and shift gears. Dale looked quite happy at the quick lesson and then he rode the free-rolling ATV down the ramp and used the momentum to swing out and do most of a u-turn to face back towards the truck.

"Nice one, Dale." I praised and he had a huge smile on his face. "You can start it up and drive it over by the motorcycle. Just make sure to keep the keys in your pocket until I can teach the people that want to try to use it how to use it properly."

"No problem." Dale said and started it up, revved it a little, then set it into first gear and drove it off down the driveway to park it near the motorcycle.

I watched him set it near but not block the motorcycle, which was perfect. I waved to him and he waved back before he walked back over to the RV, the huge smile still on his face. I climbed back into the truck and backed up, turned around, and drove away. No one wanted to come with me for my second run and that was fine.

It would be a lot more movement intensive if anyone came along, because I couldn't use my storage trick to load up the truck if they were there. So, I drove back to that subdivision and stopped at each and every shed to raid them. Some of them didn't have much inside, like only a lawnmower and some junk. Most of them had what I wanted, like shovels, lawn care tools, and bags of fertilizer. Apparently, this subdivision took great care of their lawns and it showed.

I loaded up the back of the truck with everything I could find and eventually made it back to that first shed I found on my way back to camp. I raided it and took everything except the lawnmower, filling up the last of the space in the back of the huge truck. That meant another run back to camp to drop all this stuff off and I would have to come back to check out the house.

The trip back to camp went fast and my return gained almost no recognition by anyone, except from Dale. He waved and pointed to the spot where the old tarps used to be. We had spread out the various parts that were left between the different vehicles for the winter, which meant I'd need something small like a two-wheeled trailer or something to keep it mobile and to collect them back together.

Well, it wasn't like I needed them anymore, since no one questioned me anymore about where I was getting all the things I was. It was almost like they expected me to pull things out of my ass when they were needed and I didn't discourage that. Being seen as a miracle worker would only benefit me and my reputation.

I dropped off all the things there, not concerned that there were no tarps, because it was all going to be used in the dirt anyway. I gave Dale another wave and headed back to the subdivision to pretend to grab those tool cabinets. I wasn't sure if we would ever need them; but, I'd rather have them and not need them instead of regretting not revealing that I had them.

Unfortunately, the cabinets and the welding tanks filled the back of the truck again and I had to make yet another run all the way back to camp. Dale looked constipated as he fought to not laugh at me appearing again so quickly and I still had to go back to town. I flipped him off before I turned the truck around and he laughed and laughed.

I made it back to that well-protected house and slowed down as I passed it. I did a quick check around to make sure there were no stray walkers, honking my horn a few times to draw them out, and then went back to that house. There were no movements or sounds, so I hopped out and went to the back of the house. I apparated inside and began my search.

You see, if the house was this well-preserved, there had to be something worth protecting inside. It didn't take me long to find what it was. A small library. It was filled with books of all kinds, including a collection of encyclopedia from A to Z, and all kinds of fiction and non-fiction. I nodded at my theory being confirmed, so I also needed to check something else in the basement.

The books had to have been brought in somehow, because doing it individually would have taken way too long. I found what I wanted in the far corner and smiled at the high stack of folded cardboard boxes. I was really grateful for magic, because cardboard was very easy to make copies of. I took the stack and went back up to the library, set it down, and cut the string holding it together.

The whole stack popped up into the air, like one of those springy snakes from a Pringles can, and they flopped all over the floor making me laugh. I didn't bother trying to pick them all up, because I was going to be using them all anyway. I grabbed the closest one and pulled on it to make a box shape, cross-folded the bottom, and used sticking charms to hold it closed because I didn't have any packing tape.

I used my wand to point at the first shelf of books. "Pack." I said and swiped my wand to the box.

The books floated out and sorted themselves into the right shape and slid right into the box and it closed and sealed.

"Awesome." I said and repeated that, over and over.

When I reached the last of the unfolded cardboard boxes, I made it into a box shape and then duplicated it to use the copy instead. It cost a single Karma Point to make permanent, so I asked to make the Copy Spell itself mastered. It cost 50 points, just like the Apparate spell did, and my spine tingled as the small amount of knowledge for the spell flowed into my head.

I swiped my wand across the room and dozens of finished boxes appeared and I nodded. "Pack." I said and another swipe of my wand sent the rest of the library into the boxes. There were a few left over, so I unfolded them and added them to the stacks of boxes. I levitated the first stack over to the back door and repeated that until the living room was filled with cardboard boxes.

I unlocked and opened the back door, went to the truck, and turned it around and backed it up to the back door. I cast the human revealing spell and nothing showed up, so I used the levitation spell liberally to move the stacks of boxes into the truck. God bless sticking charms, because there was no way I was getting all of them into one load if I didn't stack them really high.

I was halfway done before I realized how ridiculous it looked with the boxes twice the height of the truck and sighed. I needed to make multiple trips and it was getting late. I hadn't eaten after missing lunch and supper was going to be soon.

I didn't want to make delivery runs in the dark, since that was just asking for trouble, so I moved the boxes around to even them out and counted how many were already in the truck. Only two runs would have to do and I would make it to supper just in time. I secured the boxes with straps and stored the rest into my inventory before I locked the house up and drove back towards the camp.

That was when I realized something important. I had nowhere to store the boxes of books. I groaned and came to a stop on the side of the road as I thought about it. I would need something huge for the books to be taken out, assuming people wanted to browse through them.

After ten minutes, I couldn't thing of anything and sighed at not being able to figure it out. I started the truck up again and started to pull back onto the road when I saw something that might be exactly what I needed. A transfer truck. More specifically, the back of it. I had a powerful truck that might be able to haul one of them if it was empty. Maybe a featherlight spell on it would work?

I pulled over again and went over to it to knock on it. It returned an echoing sound and I smiled. I went to the truck's cab and saw it was partially crushed with a smaller car's rear end half up onto the engine. I entered the thing and saw where the airbrakes were. I tried them and nothing happened, so I nodded at there being no pressure in the lines.

I closed the door and went to where the trailer was attached to the truck's cab. I pulled the release pin and unhooked the airbrake hoses. I didn't hear any hissing or air release, so I tied them off and took out my wand. I cast the human reveal spell again and nothing showed up. With a smile, I touched and stored the entire trailer.

I could feel the weight in my mind and cursed at myself for not casting the featherlight charm first. I carefully walked back over to the truck and checked the rear trailer hitch. It was not in the right shape and that was okay, because it was going to be. I used the original as a model and transfigured the hitch into a bastardized version that would work.

I took out the trailer and it rattled as it settled onto the pavement. "Right, be more careful with the placement with heavy things." I said and then spent several minutes casting the featherlight charm on the huge trailer. One charm wasn't going to do it, because the thing was huge. Surprisingly, I did not get the option to make it a maxed out spell. Perhaps there was no better or stronger version of it?

I finished with that and then used the levitation spell to move it that last foot or so and set the thing down onto the transfigured latch. It clicked into place and I ran over to the transfer truck cab and grabbed the securing pin and ran back to my truck. I slid the pin in place and used a sticking charm on it.

I let out a long drawn out sigh at it working and then stored everything in the back of the truck. I went to the back of the trailer and opened the doors to see that it really was completely empty. I climbed up inside and quickly dropped all of the cardboard boxes of books I had in my inventory. I spread them out into a single layer across the floor so they wouldn't topple over or anything.

I then realized there were no shelves to put them on and growled at not thinking of that earlier. Instead of driving all the way back to the house to try and take the shelves down, I instead apparated right into the library at the house and examined the shelves. Once I saw how they were set up, I used my wand to make a copy of them, with part of the wall included to keep the shelves stable.

With one section prepared, I stored it and apparated back into the rear of the trailer. I had to store all the boxes of books again and then took out the section of wooden shelving. I copied it and used a permanent sticking charm to secure the copy to the left wall of the trailer. Using the original as the base, I made a bunch more copies and lined them all along that side of the trailer as I stuck them into place.

I was on a roll, so I did the same with the right side of the trailer and stored the original. I was proud of what I had done so far and saw that it was kind of plain with the bare metal floor and nowhere to sit. That just wouldn't do. I apparated back to the house and cut out a piece of the expensive carpet and stole the long rectangle table and chairs from the dining room.

How was I going to explain how I did all of this? I wasn't. There was no need for me to, because the things looked so expensive that no one would believe I had created it from pieces. I covered the remaining floor with the nice carpet and then set the long table at the front of the trailer in the middle of the shelves and put the chairs around it. I duplicated as many as I needed for everyone to sit down at the same time and I was done.

I dropped all of the boxes of books into a single layer again, except I packed them around the table and chairs as well to stop them from moving around. I stepped out of the back and closed it, secured the doors, and went to the truck.

I stopped walking when I noticed the completely empty cargo area and had a neat idea. I took out the diesel barrels I had, only one of which was full, and I poured some fuel into each of them. I took out my wand again and tried to use the Refilling charm and the damn thing worked! I laughed and filled all four barrels with fuel before I secured them with straps.

I climbed into the driver's seat and started the truck up to drive back to the camp. I would have to park pretty far away and needed to figure out how to move the other vehicles out of the way to make room for the mobile library, then I laughed. I just remembered that I had the perfect place that had plenty of room for me to park the thing.

It was right in front of the wrecked plane on the long runway that I could no longer use.

*

Dale was the first to notice the huge silver thing rumbling down the access road to the quarry, thanks to his binoculars. He raised the alarm, just like he was supposed to. The few people not near the lake and enjoying their canoe lessons with Amy, rushed over to the RV and asked what was going on. He explained as he continued to watch through the binoculars and then he saw what was hauling it.

"Jesus Christ, Almighty." Dale whispered in awe. "It's Rick!"

"WHAT?" They all exclaimed as one.

"He somehow hooked up a damn tractor trailer to the back of that suped-up 4x4 truck he found." Dale said and saw Rick's arm sticking out the window and that waved at him, then it pointed off to the side. "It looks like he's going to the runway."

"You stay here to keep a lookout and we'll go see what's up." Shane said and they all rushed off towards the road to the quarry that Rick had made with the tractor to easily move the larger rocks for their protective barriers.

As they approached the runway, they heard the telltale beeping of a large truck backing up. There were no lights or anything to show them it was, though. Rick hadn't thought they were needed, considering how short the trip back to camp had been.

Shane stepped off to the side and waved at the side mirror to let Rick know he was there and Rick honked the horn in response. Shane started to guide him with hand signals and Rick followed them until Shane held up both hands in a clear stop gesture.

"Thanks for the help." Rick said and hopped out of the truck and went to the front of the trailer and pulled the securing pin. He went to the side of the trailer and used the little crank there and let the trailer support lower to the dirt. He cranked it a little more and then set the lock.

"What the hell is this thing for?" Shane asked.

Rick gave him a crooked smile. "It's something that should keep the women and kids happy for a long time."

Shane's eyes widened at the bold claim and Rick laughed and slapped his shoulder.

"Give this thing another few cranks when I say so." Rick said and went to the other side. He cranked it down to the same spot and set the lock before he subtly dismissed the featherweight charm. "Okay, on three, and crank it five times to lift it from the truck."

"Got it." Shane said. "One..."

"Two..." Rick said.

"Three." They said as one and then grunted as they cranked the little cranks.

"What... do you have... in this thing?" Shane asked between breaths.

"A lot... more weight... than I thought." Rick answered.

They reached four turns and heard the clink of the hitch separating and gave it one more crank.

"Set the locking pin!" Rick shouted.

Shane did as he said and let the small crank go. His hands stung and he sat in the dirt to stare at the metal trailer.

Rick came back around and hopped in the truck, drove it a foot, and turned it off and climbed back out. He walked over to Shane and patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry about that. I hooked the thing up before loading it up with... something."

Shane huffed and held a hand up.

Rick took it and hauled him to his feet. "Give me a hand opening the back and we can let the lookie-loos have a gander inside."

"Lookie-loos?" Shane asked with a chuckle.

Rick laughed. "I don't know where I picked that up, either." He said and walked over to the back of the trailer where the others had gathered and were muttering about what it could be. He stood there and let them speculate about it for a moment and nodded to Shane. The each took a door and unhooked it and pulled the handles to open them up.

The small gathering stepped back and a few of them gasped.

Shane hooked the door handle in the slot to hold it open and looked inside the trailer himself. "What's so good about a trailer full of empty shelves?"

"Don't you see those?!?" Miranda asked and pointed at the boxes.

"They're boxes." Shane said.

Miranda shook her head and looked at her husband. "Juan, darling, help me up! We must start right away!"

Juan looked as confused as Shane and did as she asked. He picked her up and sat her on the back of the trailer's opening.

Miranda used his shoulders as braces and climbed to her feet. She then looked at Rick. "You need to go find Andrea right away. She needs to be here to help, as you very well know."

Rick nodded. "Try to not let anyone run off with anything, all right? Until we get an accounting of everything, no one can borrow anything and they have to stay inside."

Miranda smiled and nodded. "We'll have it done in a few days. It's too important not to."

Rick walked off at a fast pace and left the others there.

Miranda saw they were still slightly confused, so she opened up the closest box and reached in to pull out two books, which made the other woman there immediately try to climb inside. Shane and Juan gave her a hand without grabbing anything important and helped her scramble up inside.

"I don't get it." Juan said.

"Books, dear. It's books." Miranda said and gave him a very sexy smile. "All these boxes that made this thing so heavy are all filled with books!"

"We have our very own library!" The other woman almost shouted and opened another box. "Ohhh, the Encyclopedia Britannica! I hope it's all here!"

Shane and Juan exchanged looks with Jim and all three of them turned and walked away without looking back. They heard Andrea's excited shout and sped up their walk to a jog to try and hide before she saw them. None of the men wanted to spend the next few days sorting books and putting them onto the shelves.

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.

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 Rick 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 and 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 the next day, 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 given to me from Hershel 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. My thoughts lingering on how happy everyone would be about not having to ration toilet paper anymore.