Chapter 60 - Three Months Later

Lee, Mark, Kenny and I went out hunting today since our supply of food was slowly dwindling into nothingness.

I was going around with Kenny, while Lee was with Mark, as we had split up into duos. Hopefully, either of us will catch something.

"Hey, uh... Kat and I, we were talking... we'd like it if you came with us on the RV once it's fixed" Kenny said smile on his face.

"Wait, really?" I asked.

"Yeah," Kenny said, his smile turning into a grin.

"I'll... think about it" I said.

"Alright" Kenny responded.

After that, we kept on walking around, until he asked me another question.

"So... did you have anyone you liked before this whole fucking fiasco?" Kenny asked me awkwardly.

"Yeah, my fiance... well, I didn't technically propose, but the apocalypse happened and we got split up, not giving me a chance to propose... she was pregnant at the time," I said.

"Oh... I... I'm sorry for your loss" Kenny said.

"...She's not dead Kenny... she can't be, that's just impossible... she's just with my family and our guards... and they're just looking for me right now, at this very moment" I said, a small hopeful smile on my face.

"Alright... well, let's just keep on hunting, hopefully, we'll find some food and get Lily off our asses for just a day..." Kenny said in a pitying tone.

'Good, it seems like he bought my lie that I'm a delusional rich kid, I just have to keep up the appearances now' I thought, as I kept on walking alongside Kenny in silence.

We walked around the woods until we heard the sound of someone screaming in pain.

"Shit! Was that Lee?!" Kenny exclaimed as he ran towards the screams.

"Wait for me, Ken!" I shouted as I ran after him.

We ran toward the screams and found three people, one in a bear trap and the other two trying to help him.

Two were teenagers in what I presume to be their school uniforms and the other one was a middle-aged man with his leg caught in a bear trap, screaming in pain.

"Oh god! Get it off!" The man shouted in pain.

"Fuck! Tom, we gotta get outta here, this screaming's gonna attract walkers!" Kenny said.

"Huh? Oh shit! No no! Please don't kill us we just want to help our teacher! We'll leave I swear!" One of the teenagers had heard Kenny and exclaimed in shock.

"What the fuck's going on here!?" Lee who just got here alongside Mark shouted.

"Well Lee, what's going on is that guy got his leg caught in a bear trap and we're getting him out," I said, as I walked up to the man in the beartrap.

"You're going to be alright, okay," I said, "But, you're going to have to trust me"

"Okay..." The man said.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"D-David... David Parker," David said.

"Okay David... are you bitten?" I asked.

"What, no!" One of the teenagers shouted, "He's not bitten!"

"Alright then I'll believe you... well, there's good news and bad news, what do you want to hear first?" I asked.

"The... good news," David said.

"Well, the good news is... we can get you out of the trap," I said, and he sighed in relief, "The bad news is... we're going to have to cut your foot off"

"Wait, what!?" David asked, completely shocked at the thought of cutting off his foot.

"There isn't a release on the beartrap, whoever set it up was obviously expecting something smart enough to try the release to get caught," I said.

"Wait, someone intentionally did this!?" Kenny asked.

"Most likely... I mean, wouldn't a walker have already walked into it if it was just laying here?" I said.

"...Fuck it... take it off" David said.

"But Mr Parker!" One of the teenagers shouted, "What if they're lying! What if they're the ones who set up the traps! O-or with the guys that raided our camp!"

"Travis, don't be stupid, why would they even go through the effort to mislead us when they could just shoot us?" David asked.

"I- I don't know, maybe it's some sick fetish or something! I don't know!" Travis said in a stressed out tone.

"Kid, what do you take us for? Psychopaths? Just... look away, it's going to get ugly" I said to Travis.

"O-okay..." Travis said, as he turned away.

I grabbed the fire axe from Lee, and swing it down on David's foot.

"Gaah! Stop!" David shouted in pain.

"There's no going back now, David," I said, as I swung down on David's foot again.

"Gaaaah!!!" David screamed.

"Dude! Stop! You're killing him!" Travis shouted.

"Stop!" The other teenager shouted.

"..." I just stayed silent, as I swung down for the third, and last time, amputating David.

"Alright, Lee! Grab the guy and let's get out of here!" Kenny shouted, as he started firing at the walkers that were lured by the sound of David's screaming.

"Go! I'll cover you!" I shouted, as I pulled out my pistol and started to fire at the walkers nearby.

Then, all of a sudden something pushed me down and bit into my shoulder!

"Fuck! We got a runner!" I shouted, as I shot it in the head, stood up and started firing at the walkers again.

"Y-you're bitten," Travis said.

"Trust me kid, it's not the worst thing that's happened to me," I said with a smile, as I continued to fire at the walkers, until it was just me and Travis left.

"Let's go!" I shouted, as I shot a walker that snuck up behind Travis.

"Y-you saved me," Travis said in shock.

"Yeah, I did. Now! Let's get the fuck out of here!" I shouted.

Travis and I ran through the woods for a couple of minutes, until we found the others.

"Fuck, Tom! You're bitten" Kenny said.

"I'll be fine," I said in an annoyed tone.

"N-no you won't!" The other teenager said, "Y-you're going to turn"

"Nope," I said, "Mutation"

"W-what?" The teenager was confused.

"Listen, kid, did you see that running asshole?" I asked.

"Y-yeah" He stuttered.

"Well, that's a mutation on the walkers... thing is, us humans can also mutate," I said with a small smile, "And it so happens that my mutation is that I'm immune to the virus, it makes me stronger and I can regenerate incredibly fast"

"W-wait, what?" Travis asked, "Ben, dude! If what this guy's saying is true then we could be like... fucking superheroes!"

"U-uh... how do you know if you have a... mutation?" Ben asked.

"Well, I found out when I got bitten..." I said, the two teenagers looked shocked, "But, you could just go to our scientist dude... he figured out the other mutations, Enhanced Sight, Enhanced Endurance, Stoneskin and Air Manipulation"

"Wait, Air Manipulation!? What!? How!?" Ben asked, confused.

"I don't know how, but that little girl got a pretty fucking powerful ability," I said with a grin, "But... it won't save her from a bite... and she still has to learn to precisely control it, so it's not completely overpowered"

"Wait wait wait," Travis said, "A little girl can control the air!?"

"Yeah, Clementine... she's a nice kid, a bit too nice to a fault, but she's fucking deadly when it comes to her ability," I said with a grin, "She calls herself Tornado Girl... it's cute... but a bit annoying times"

"So... uh, do you think either of us has abilities?" Ben asked.

"Can't really say... it's sort of like the lottery, you can't predict who does and who doesn't get it" I said.

"Okay, that makes sense," Travis said.

We kept on walking through the woods until we got to the motel.

"We got wounded!" Lee shouted.

"Shit! Get inside!" Lily, who was on watch shouted, as Doug and Carley opened the gates.

"Oh my god, what happened?" Katjaa asked.

"He got caught in a beartrap with no release, so I had to cut his leg off" I answered.

"Get him on the truck, I'll try to save him," Katjaa said to Lee who was carrying David.

"Alright!" Lee said as he gently placed David on the truck.

"C-can you save him?" Travis asked.

"I don't know, but I'll try as hard as I can," Katjaa said reassuringly.

"Orochimaru! I'm going to need your help!" Katjaa said.

"My pleasure," Orochimaru said, as he walked over to Katjaa.

"Hey, do you want to see my drawing?" Clementine asked, as she led the two teenagers away.

"What the hell happened out there!?" Lily asked, "You know full well that we don't have enough to feed us! And you bring more people here!?"

"What!? Did you expect me to let them fucking die!?" Kenny asked.

"Well, why the fuck not!? It's not like they were carrying groceries with them!" Larry shouted at Kenny.

"Hey Larry, back the fuck off!" I said, as I got in between Larry and Kenny.

"Make me," Larry said angrily as he made a fist.

"Okay..." I said with a smirk on my face, as I punched Larry in the face and knocked him out.

"D-Dad!" Lily shouted as she ran to her unconscious father, "What the hell's wrong with you! Hitting an old man!"

"Fuck off, you saw that he was threatening me," I said angrily.

"Why don't you fuck off! The three of you!" Lily shouted furiously.

"Fine, Lee, Kenny, you know what? Let's go work on the RV" I said, as I looked at Lily with a cocky smirk.

"Now you're speaking my language," Kenny said happily.

"I'll just... stay out of it, I'll go see if Mark needs any help with the wall," Lee said as he walked over to Mark.

"So... who do you think we should take with us when we leave?" Kenny asked.

"Hmm... my people are coming obviously... Lee and Clementine because those two are inseparable, Carley because of her skills and ability, Doug, also because of his ability and the fact that he could actually help you with the RV's maintenance... those two kids could be helpful too..." I said.

"Damn man, so you're basically saying to take everyone but Lily and her asshole father? Ha!" Kenny laughed, "I like the way you're thinking!"

"So... do you think the dude's going to survive?" I asked.

"The guy who got his leg chopped off? Well, I don't know... I mean, I'm no doctor or anything... but, it didn't look exactly... good" Kenny said.

"Yeah, well... it was my first time amputating someone," I said.

"Alright... fine... hey, can you tell that... Orochi... maru? Guy to stop creeping people out" Kenny asked, "I mean, it's the fucking apocalypse and that guy's going around creeping the shit out of everyone... sooner or later someone's going to shoot the guy"

"Oh, well... I'll get right on that, after he helps Katjaa out with the legless guy" I said with a smile on my face.

"Ah, alright... hey, can you pass the wrench?" Kenny asked.

"Here you go," I said, as I passed a wrench over to him.

"Thanks," Kenny said with a grin.

"Hey guys, do you need some help?" Doug, who just walked up asked.

"Sure, hey Tom can you go check on Katjaa?" Kenny asked.

"Alright," I said as I walked over to Katjaa who was talking to Lee.

"Hey guys," I said.

"Oh, hello Thomas" Katjaa said.

"Uh... how is he?" I asked Katjaa as I pointed at the unconscious David.

"...He's dead" Katjaa said.

"Well... fuck, I should tell those kids," I said with a sombre tone.

"Yeah, you should-" Katjaa said, before getting cut off by an undead David grabbing her from behind.

"What the fuck!?" I shouted, as I pried Katjaa away from the undead David, "Get the fucking axe!"

When I shouted that, Larry ran towards me, axe in hand.

"Get off of him you son of a bitch!" Larry shouted, as he tried to kill the walker, but he missed and got the axe jammed in the truck "Fuck!"

I tried to keep the walker away from me with my foot, but I fell off of the truck.

It tried to bite me, but I tried to keep its head away from my neck, as it'd be pretty much an instant death if it bit me there.

"Tom! Get out of the way!" Larry shouted, as he aimed the axe.

"Okay!" I said, as I moved myself out of the way, allowing Larry to cut into the walker's head, killing it.

"Thanks" I said.

"Well, you would've done the same for me... and I actually like you and your friends, I wouldn't want to compromise our relations by letting you die" Larry said as he helped me up off of the ground.

"Those fucks!" Kenny shouted, "You said he wasn't bitten!"

"He wasn't bitten I swear!" Travis shouted.

"Then why did he fucking get back up from the dead!?" Kenny shouted.

"Y... you guys don't know, do you?" Ben asked, as everyone crowded around him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kenny asked.

"I-it's not the bite that does it... you come back, no matter how you die... if you don't destroy the brain, that's just what happens, it's gonna happen to all of us..." Ben said.

"God help us..." Lee muttered.

"It makes sense, those first days... it spread so fast" Mark said.

"Car accidents, suicides... everything was making more of them," Lily said.

"When I first saw it happen, we were all hiding out in the gym, everybody thought we were finally safe... but one of the girls Jenny Pitcher I think... I guess she couldn't take it, she took some pills... a lot of them, someone went into the girls' room the next morning and... god..." Ben sighed.

Then, all of a sudden we heard some bells ringing behind Doug, it was an alarm he was working on.

"Shit, get down!" I whispered as I crouched down.