The Protagonist System

126 Making Progress

Almost as soon as I opened up the back of the van that afternoon, making sure to wait around enough to explain getting so much done so quickly, several of the women ran over and started chatting and pointing. Their attention at what I'd done, soon had most of the camp abandon their chores and tasks to come over and look, too.

Merle and his brother Darrel came over as well and the looks on their faces were mixed. Darrel looked indifferent while Merle looked calculating.

I ignored him for a moment and pointed at Andrea. “I think the sister of my girlfriend should have the first hot shower.”

That set off a lot of chattering and surprise, since they assumed I had already used it.

“I'm not done working yet, so I didn't try it beyond testing that the shower, sink, and toilet all work.” I said and waved inside the back of the moving van. “I'm only offering the use of the shower for now, if you bring your own towels, since I don't have any until I make a run to the city. The floor's heated as well.”

Andrea cursed under her breath and gave me a longing look, almost exactly the same look Lori had given me that morning at breakfast. “I'll be right back.”

She almost ran across the camp to her tent and dove inside, making me and a few of the women chuckle.

I walked through the small crowd to Merle and neither of us missed Darrel tensing up and gripping his compound bow tightly in his hands. “I've got your rifle in my trunk and two spare boxes of ammo.”

Merle's face changed from resting bitch face to a smile. “You really are making it hard to hate you on pure principle.”

I laughed and motioned towards the squad car parked off to the side of the driveway. “If you missed seeing the gun rack on the wall of the van, you should know yours is on par with the quality of what my old office had in stock.”

Merle and Darrel followed me over to the car and I unlocked the trunk. They saw the two other full gas cans and the couple of boxes of ammo I had left there, including a large crate of handgun ammo. I lifted out the rifle and handed it to Merle, barrel down, and then kept my eyes on him as he checked it over and I used one hand to grab two boxes of rifle ammo for him, which Darrel took.

“I have some experience with gun maintenance, so if it needs some tweaking or fixing up, let me know. If you just want to buff out the scratches from the pavement when it was dropped, there's sandpaper and polish in the pile of supplies over there.” I said and pointed to the tarps where I had left most of the things I stole from the hardware store. “Oh, and here's a strap for it for easy carrying.”

Merle huffed and attached the strap to the right spots and hung the rifle on his back with the strap across his chest. “You don't happen to have an automatic or anything, do you?”

I shook my head. “The precinct was pretty much stripped when I finally made it there a couple days ago and I took what was left, which wasn't much.”

“Figures.” Merle said and clapped his brother on the back. “We're heading out to hunt for some meat.”

I closed the trunk and nodded. “If you're worried about any stragglers, make your way off to the far side of the quarry and shoot off a couple of blanks to get their attention.” I said and handed them to him. “I should be on the highway by then and I'll start blaring my siren to clear out the area.”

“You're fucking nuts.” Darrel commented, his voice flat and without inflection.

I chuckled. “I did it twice already, once back home and then again in Atlanta. If you set things up first and watch your surroundings, they can't sneak up on you... and you have lots of bullets...”

“HA!” Merle said and it was my turn to have my shoulder clapped. “Next you're gonna say you're turning this place into a fortress or something.”

I let a huge smile grow on my face and he laughed.

“Let's go have fun stalking prey, Dar.” Merle said and grabbed his brother's arm and walked away.

“Are you going to do that?” Amy's voice asked.

I turned around and saw her carrying a couple of baskets full of wet clothing. “Let me help you with that.” I said and took both of them, making her give me a relieved smile. “Yes, I'm heading into town to grab a backhoe, then I'll be back to start setting up some actual defenses for the camp.”

“A backhoe? For what?” Amy asked and waved me over to the multiple clotheslines set up to hang dry clothes on.

“I was thinking trenches and high mounds as barriers, since both are difficult to climb over, and then have them herd any walkers along a set path and into a huge pit.” I said and Amy stared at me. “It'll be easy to dispose of them when they're pretty much helpless. I have sledgehammers and lots of handgun ammo.”

Amy shivered a little and then shook her head. She took one of the baskets and pointed me to another line. “Use the clothespins there. Double them up if you have to.”

“Double them up?” I asked.

“Use one pin to hold the edge of two things. T-shirts and lighter things work best. Jeans and pants need to be hung separately.” Amy informed me.

“Ah, got it.” I said and walked over to the other line and quickly started to hang everything up. Even though it wasn't really a skill I had before, at least not an active one that I knew of, I still ended up finishing off the entire basket and filled half the clothesline in only a few minutes.

“How the hell did you do that?” Amy asked me, clearly shocked.

I turned and saw she had only the top part of her basket empty. “I have great hand to eye coordination.” I said and glanced down at her body and then back up to her face. My distraction worked, because she blushed and then bit her bottom lip. I walked over to her and anticipation was on her face. “Is there any more I can help with?”

“D-down by the water. Three baskets. Over there.” Amy said, her voice wavering slightly as she pointed.

“I'll get them.” I said and leaned in.

Amy closed her eyes and puckered her lips slightly for me, so I gave her a hug and a nice kiss that wasn't too outrageous for being out in public. I felt her shiver and held in my laugh as her hands rubbed my bare chest.

I let her go and she opened her eyes, desire flaring in her gaze. “Don't look down.”

Amy of course did look, saw the tent pole in the shorts, and her hand reached for it.

“Work first, play later.” I said and stepped away.

“Dammit.” Amy groused and gave me a mock glare.

“We now have a private sleeping area all to ourselves, my dear Amy. Believe me, we won't be wasting it.” I reminded her and she bit her lip again. “I'll be right back.”

I walked off fairly quickly and didn't bother trying to listen in as Miranda and another woman rushed over to Amy and started talking in hushed whispers.

*

Shane was on afternoon watch again and he used Dale's binoculars to see what was going on around the camp. Did he spend a little too much time checking out the women as they did their chores? Maybe. Did anyone know he did? Probably not. There wasn't much entertainment in the middle of an encampment that had been hastily set up, especially with no power.

The situation with his old friend Rick had turned out better than he ever expected, even with him back to life. Lori was almost resigned to everything, even if it hurt her to admit that her and Rick had been having problems long before his stay in the hospital. It was one of the reasons Shane had so easily convinced her to let him give Carl another father figure to look up to.

The best part? Carl saw him as a favorite uncle and Rick had already latched onto the most eligible blonde in the camp. Most people thought it was the older sister Andrea; but, he knew better. Amy was the fun one. The loud sounds she made while having sex, had set both him and Lori off last night, and he suspected that a lot of other couples had also enjoyed the secondhand help. There were definitely a lot more smiling faces today, that was for sure.

Shane watched Rick gather the laundry and went about putting the wet clothes on the lines, which kind of surprised him. When did he do domestic work like that? Lori always complained about doing all the cooking, cleaning, and washing since they were married.

He shook that thought off when the back of the moving van opened and he used the binoculars to watch a very happy Andrea be helped down from the back. Her hair almost shined in the sunlight and her skin glowed with health. He laughed under his breath as there was a mad scramble to be the next one to take an actual shower.

“What's funny?” Dale asked as he sat down beside Shane and handed him a sandwich.

Shane handed him the binoculars and accepted the offered lunch. “Check out the moving van.”

Dale looked through the binoculars and chuckled. “Okay, I see what you mean.”

“We might have to make another schedule to keep them under some kind of control.” Shane said and bit into the spam sandwich.

“Naw, the novelty will wear off quickly, just like cooking on a tiny stovetop in my RV did.” Dale said and Shane nodded. “I don't see any power cords or anything.”

“Rick said he'd jury-rig something to get it up and running first, then would work out how to get constant power later. We should ask if he can grab some extension cords, assuming there's none in that huge pile of supplies already.” Shane said.

“Camping lights do suck up batteries fast, don't they?” Dale asked and Shane nodded. “I'll head over with some sandwiches and ask.”

“Thanks, Dale.” Shane said and Dale handed him back the binoculars. The older man stood and went to the ladder, climbed down, and went inside to make more sandwiches.

A few minutes later, just as Rick finished hanging up all three baskets of wet clothes and Amy was just finishing the first one, Dale approached them and handed out some sandwiches.

Shane couldn't hear what was said and could only watch as Rick nodded and then made the older man laugh. Amy looked happy, not that she ever looked anything but happy, and she put her arm around Rick's waist and leaned against him.

That's right, show Lori she can't go back. Shane thought and moved his view slightly to see Lori and Carl beside the moving van with towels. The look on her face was almost a scowl and Shane smiled. Yes, that's perfect. You're mine, Lori. All mine.

*

I didn't want to wait around long, not after what I said to Merle. I still only wore a pair of basketball shorts and nothing else, so when I put on my equipment belt and my hat, it made everyone laugh. I tipped my hat at them and made sure Carl knew I had my radio on me before I drove the squad car out to the highway.

As I reach there, I heard Merle fire off the blanks I gave him, which was the signal we agreed on. I hit the siren and drove at a normal pace for a mile each way from the camp. It didn't take long before a virtual horde of zombies, some from the abandoned vehicles, started to swarm the highway. Since I was an old hand at this, I quickly found and set up a condensed area to funnel the horde into a much more manageable size.

Since I suspected Merle and his brother would be watching me, I had to pretend to need reloading of my handgun. It was an easy ruse to keep up, since the narrow area I had set up was between a burned out bus and a transfer truck, which would give me plenty of time to fire and reload in both directions. The growing pile of bodies would also be a speed bump for the follow up walkers, too.

So, I spent about an hour and a half firing and reloading, taking my time to get head shots every time, and moving when necessary to keep the flow of undead after me and flowing into the smaller firing area. I even used the shotgun a few times to keep things interesting, which kept their own interest for much longer than just the handgun sounds did.

When the dirty work was done, there were more dead bodies on the highway than there were cars, and that was saying something. I definitely needed to go and grab that backhoe and I had to do it fast, because it was starting to get late. I also needed to stop in town for a bit of shopping, too.

I spent a few minutes pulling the bodies aside enough to get my car through and I sped along the empty side of the highway to reach the city. I didn't spend too much time searching, since I knew where to go. The department store where the group had raided already and the hardware store for a refrigerator and a stove, as well as more normal batteries and extension cords to share power.

I needed to cheat and used my inventory to load the large appliances into the wide front bucket of the tractor and secured them with straps. With that ruse successful, I filled the tank with diesel and stored the police car. I wasn't going to leave it here to be either ruined or stolen, or worse, have a walker inside to stink it up or break the windows.

I drove the tractor out of the construction business and down the road. It was a heck of a lot slower than a police car and it took me until near dark to get back to the highway and I had to shoot a few stragglers along the way. Tractors make a lot of noise when they move, apparently.

It didn't take me long to use the small rear bucket to clear off the side of the highway and piled them over the bus. I may have also crushed half of the bus because it was fun. What? It really was fun. It also brought more walkers, so I spent another half an hour clearing them out as well.

It was quite dark out by the time I drove the tractor down the road to where the camp was. To my surprise, I was greeted with cheers and applause by most of them. I turned off the tractor and climbed out of the cab, only to see a smug Merle saluting me with his rifle and a reluctant nod of respect from Darrel.

I couldn't do anything but laugh at the situation and hopped down into the arms of a very happy Amy as she huged me, then she stepped back and took my hand and raised it into the air.

“Our hero!” Amy shouted and there were more cheers and applause.

I accepted the praise for what it was, relief that I had cleared out so much hidden danger from the area, and spent a good fifteen minutes describing what I did and how. The awe on their faces wasn't misplaced and I was sure I overheard two of the women in the crowd that were in relationships had subtly suggested to Amy about having a 'couples night'.

Thankfully, Amy vehemently refused and wanted to keep me all to herself. Not surprisingly, I was perfectly fine with that, mostly because I had seen Lori's interested look at the suggestion. There was no way I was opening that can of worms again.