The Protagonist System

130 Turbulent Times Part One

The camp became much more pleasant after I used the tractor to make individual parking spaces for the apartment vans around the camp to give everyone more privacy. The four vans acted like a temporary barrier and gave off an extra sense of safety, which everyone appreciated. That each could still be driven, after disconnecting the toilet refuse container, made them even more appealing.

I took the same afternoon watch slot and the men all took showers. T-Dog won the draw to go first and he was really happy about it, because he had a date planned with a woman named Jacqui, pronounced Jack-E, because she made sure everyone knew how to say it right. They were going to be a good match, I was sure.

The best part about that was Jacqui hadn't met the good doctor at the CDC and the man didn't convince her everything was hopeless. She didn't give up and she didn't die with him when he destroyed the lab. That was a huge win in my book. Every time I saw her smiling face as she whispered about T-Dog, I knew her future was going to be a much brighter one than what she was supposed to have.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Carl, playing card games and making all the kids laugh, because you knew as soon as one kid was doing something fun, they all wanted in. It was Basic Kid Care 101. When I mentioned it to Amy, whom had drifted over as she followed the kids, she nodded and said she used the same tactic to corral them when they started acting up.

Supper consisted of the leftovers of the curry and rice from four days ago, thanks to storing it in the freezer part of my refrigerator. It was just as good when it was reheated as it was when I first made it, which surprised everyone, and most of the women begged me to share the recipe. That made me laugh and I said they couldn't reproduce it because they couldn't add the same tender loving care that I could.

Instead of discouraging them, it only made them want it more, Amy included. I shared it with them, even though there was no more chicken to make it. That they knew of, anyway. I had insider information about where to go to find chickens, cattle, and goats, which would open up meat, milk, and egg production for the camp.

I wasn't going to reveal that until I built my airplane, though. A quick overflight would let me discover them naturally and cover up how I knew about it, which was the best way to not ruin everything. If they knew the truth about what was out there, they would lose hope in the future and I didn't want that. At all.

Of course, once I had access to a plane, there were a few places I needed to visit, like a large distribution center and the closest army base. My plan to stay away had to change when I gained access to my magic again. It unlocked so many possibilities that I had a hard time not rushing off to put them into effect.

The problem I have is that using foreknowledge can backfire pretty spectacularly if I'm not careful, like when I was in High School DxD. I screwed that up pretty badly before I had to leave it... even if it was with a bang. I barely ignored the phantom rush of power I felt tingle down my spine as I remembered exactly how large that bang was.

Amy saw something on my face, because she leaned in and whispered in my ear that she didn't want to wait to have another date night. All I could do was nod and she kissed my neck and went back to eating.

Needless to say, I spent the evening with Amy as I showed her around the inner fortifications I had built and what I planned for the outer ones and that we wouldn't have to worry about walkers ever again after I installed the moat. Amy laughed and hugged me, kissed me pretty soundly, and dragged me to our moving van and inside.

That was a thing, too. She officially moved in after I fixed the wiring and added both lights and electrical plugs all over the place. Andrea wasn't too happy about that, until I offered to switch places with her once a week, so that she and her sister could have a girl's night hanging out in plush luxury. I used those words exactly and made them both laugh, because Amy had stolen one of our pillows a few days ago and had given it to Andrea.

I didn't miss the appreciative looks that the both of them gave me and I chose to ignore them, because I was making Amy happy by including her sister in our lives and not ostracizing her like Andrea was worried about. How did I know that? I didn't use any magic spells or anything, I noticed Andrea's eyes when she looked at us carrying on and I just knew she missed having that with Amy.

The evening ended with Amy and I in bed and her muffled yells as she tried to scream my name. Yeah, I knew it was coming and I made sure to keep her mouth occupied every time she came. The amused look she gave me each time let me know that she knew what I was doing and found it funny.

The next morning contained another shared shower between us and I had to agree with Amy's view. I was definitely spoiled by having a beautiful blonde in there with me and I took full advantage of it every time. Amy was perfectly fine with that, too. After a quick breakfast of eggs, using up the last of the crate I revealed a week ago, I dressed in my full sheriff uniform and earned raised eyebrows from her.

“I'm making one last search through the city before I bring back the last van. If I find anything interesting, I'll bring it back as well and this outfit should mitigate any circumstances that might come up.” I told her.

Amy nodded in understanding and kissed me goodbye before she lifted the two full baskets of our laundry out of the van.

“You don't have to do that, Amy. I can do it myself on the weekend when I'm not so busy.” I said and she looked surprised, then she laughed. “What?”

Amy put the baskets down and walked back over to me to kiss me passionately. “I love you, you perfect bastard.” She said and went to the baskets and carried them away, her hips swaying more than normal to catch my attention.

Yes, I stared at her ass covered in hip-hugging denim. Was I ashamed of doing it? Hell, no. She had a great ass and she loved that she could so easily gain my attention. The knowing smirk on her face when she looked back at me, kind of gave it away, too.

I closed up the van and waved at the others getting up and moving around, especially the kids, and I hopped onto the motorcycle. Merle was near the campfire and was cooking several nice slices of deer meat and I waved at him and pointed to the motorcycle. He nodded and waved back, getting that I meant it was the last time I was borrowing it.

I also may have enchanted it a little, just so it would last that much longer and was very easy on the gas I added to the tank. The empowering runes I used on the electrical panels seemed to work well on the engine and were the first ones I had managed to get working on something mobile. It was a great breakthrough.

With it and a few other smaller experiments I had planned for today as I waited to come back to camp, I was sure that while I worked on putting the airplane together, I could reinforce it like I had with the original. I couldn't make any new parts yet, though. Even with a wand, the transfigurations needed were just out of range of my ability. It shouldn't take much to unlock it, however.

I did a couple of laps on the highway to see if any walker stragglers had shown up since the last time and a few dozen appeared in the large fields across the highway. I spent the next twenty minutes shooting them in the head and clearing out the area, then did a few more laps. No more showed up, so I drove off into the city to a particular area that I hadn't gone near yet.

I avoided it for the simple fact that we didn't have enough food to support an entire old people's home of residents and the Vatos gang that were protecting them and trying to make enough vehicles to take them out of the city. Why would they want to leave a heavily fortified facility for a faint hope of more food? They were probably running out of food and definitely didn't have enough gas to go far.

I slowed down the motorcycle and let it idle as I drifted in neutral to make the engine sound less loud. It worked and I pretty much coasted by the industrial complex that was the Atlanta Nursing Home. Unfortunately, I didn't see any movement or could hear anything, which meant one of two things. Either their plan already succeeded or they had been overrun.

I pulled the brake on the handlebars and the motorcycle slowed to a stop out of sight of the facility. I stored it in my inventory and crept back towards the building and around the back where the parking lot for workers was. Every vehicle remaining there had their gas tank covers removed and there was a couple of clearly empty spots and sets of abandoned tools.

They left in a hurry. I thought and looked at the open back door. There were no sounds, so I entered the facility and it was the break room with offices and lockers in the next set of rooms. I checked every room I passed, my gun out, and I found nothing until I reached the patient area. I sighed at seeing each room had a secured body inside and they had clearly turned and had been shot in the head.

I found a large group of bodies in the recreation area and some of them had been dealt with execution style. I shook my head at the waste and moved through the facility to the laundry area. I wasn't surprised to find two industrial sized washers and two dryers, giving me a very neat idea. There was a youth group van back at camp that both washers and dryers could easily fit in.

When I checked the cafeteria, it was stripped to the counters and there was nothing left, not even baking soda to keep the stronger smells down. However, it could explain me finding and bringing back a lot of the perishable things I had stored from the hospital cafeteria I raided after I woke up.

It took me quite a bit of time unhooking everything and I stored the four large machines. I could get them into the back of the van easily; but, I couldn't fit them and the plane parts into the same space. I sighed and would have to make two trips, which annoyed me. Why couldn't I have things be a little easier, hmm?

I left the facility and went out the back, the same way I entered, and made sure I was out of sight when I took out the motorcycle from inventory. I hopped on and drove away, found a good spot that was out of the way and had no sight lines, and took out the last moving van. I added the industrial machines in the back and only had enough room to pile half of the crates and packages of fresh food on top of them. The motorcycle barely squeezed into the space by the door.

I stored the food again and waited around a few hours as I did my experiments on scrap pieces of metal. I stayed there just long enough for it to be believable that I had worked on the van and I put the food items back on top of the machines and drove back to the camp. I would have to make up an excuse about finding the museum and wanting to check it out later, only I had found the food first and rushed back to camp to offload it.

With some luck, it would all be distributed into the fridges of the five moving vans and wouldn't spoil. When mixed with the piles of dry goods they already knew about, we would have enough food to last us for most of the winter. The supplements that Merle and Darrel added for meat and the fish Amy caught, that we could now freeze and save, would expand that to spring at least and that was without rationing.

I chuckled as my radio came to life and Carl asked me what I was doing, just like he did every hour, and I was tempted to not say anything about coming back early. I couldn't lie to the little guy so blatantly, so I told him I stumbled onto a bunch of fresh and refrigerated foods that I was bringing back to the camp right away.

The cheers were so loud that I winced and had to turn the volume down on the walkie-talkie. They were all overjoyed about the find, apparently.

*

Amy was in awe as she watched the rest of the survivors raid the last moving van of everything. Thankfully, Dale was there to stop them from eating bits of everything and possibly ruining it. He quickly organized a proper storing system and spread the food out to each available refrigerator, including his own.

Dale also made sure to group things together to stop any one person from having a monopoly on the available food... and there was so much of it! Sooo soooo much! Amy hadn't seen so much food in one place before and she had seen what the college cafeteria had available, and wasn't that a surprise?

No one else seemed to notice what the crates and packages of food were on as they emptied the back of the van of edibles. Amy did see what was there and her eyes went to her man... her man... and he gave her a look that instantly made her wet. She stepped forward and grabbed one of the boxes with some of the sorted food in it, took Rick's hand, and went to their home.

Amy calmly and methodically put the food into the refrigerator, picked several things that could be frozen and added them to the top compartment to freeze them, and then tossed the empty box over the kitchen counter and gave Rick that same look back.

Her eyes dropped to his waist and saw him poking a tent and she turned around and peeled her tight jeans down over her hips, her thin panties following along with the thicker cloth, as if they wanted to be dropped off. She moaned as Rick entered her from behind and she leaned onto the counter, her moans not muffled at all as he took her right there.

Amy lost herself in the sensations and she let her body do the talking, because she really didn't have the words to express how he made her feel. In the back of her mind, her college education told her that it was her caveman or lizard-like hind-brain that was telling her that Rick was an excellent provider, giving her a home and food, and she needed to do everything she could to make him happy.

“And you called me perfect this morning.” Rick whispered in her ear as his hardness plundered her.

“OH GOD!” Amy yelled and came hard. She came so hard that her eyes rolled up and she almost passed out.

“That was a nice one.” Rick whispered and kissed her cheek, then he stood up and gripped her hips and kept going... and going... and going. He didn't stop until it was time to cook supper and Amy was little more than a soft bag of loose muscle and flesh that could barely move. She tingled all over, felt absolutely wonderful, and couldn't remember when they had moved to the bed.

Rick wouldn't be able to move the washers and dryers until the next morning and he worked on installing them in the youth group van, with T-Dog's permission. He added a water tank and power, a water heater, and added lights in case anyone wanted to wash clothing at night.

At lunchtime when he was done, everyone quickly realized they could have genuine washed and cleaned clothes that could be then dried in an actual dryer. It was no surprise that Rick's reputation with the entire camp was now through the roof.

None of them bothered to ask Rick why he was taking the last moving van back to town, not even Amy. It wasn't that they didn't care, because they did. They all just assumed he had a good reason and that was enough for them.