"What is this about?!" Shane, who was sitting on a stumped stone outside the farmhouse, shouted, seeing Rick walking beside Otis out from the treeline with the fat man holding a stick that was closing around the walker's neck that was being guided toward the barn.
"Shane, calm down; it's the way they want it to be done here. It will be put in the barn with others."
"The way? Guiding damn walkers to the barn that is a short walk from Lori and Carl is the way?. What's next, Rick? Are we going to cook for them too!?" Shane kicked a stone, frustrated at seeing Rick agree to what Otis is doing right now.
"What do you want me to do? Kill them."
"Yeah, exactly, every one of those walkers, those in the barn too—enough with this madness, people, wake up!!" Shane bellowed at the group that began to gather near Rick while Otis slipped away to put the walker in the barn.
"Enough, Shane, not now." Rick walked to him, trying to calm the matter, seeing people gathering around to see what's going on.
Hershel, who came hearing the ruckus with his daughters, turned to Shane. "If you don't want to choose this way of living, you can always leave like that boy; nothing will change."
He never liked Shane, who wasn't much different from the violent type like Billy and Sasuke.
"Hahaha, nothing? You people must be forgetting who we are talking about. What are walkers, and who went with that Uchiha?" That mockery made the majority here confused.
Shane was beaten by Sasuke, and now he is glorifying him?
Shane sneered seeing their confused looks.
"We are all infected, remember?? And the only one who made a solution for that issue is no more here because of this same madness."
Rick felt like a ringing bell echoing in his head: Sasuke, Jenner, and the cure... Hershel's people still aren't injected with it...
'How did I forget that?'
"The serum and...Jenner went with Sasuke." T-Dog held his head in realization, same with their group around.
"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked, confused, standing beside her sister and Jimmy.
Rick rushed to the truck nearby, followed by others, while Glenn started explaining to Hershel and Otis about the matter.
"~zzz~ Rick Grimes here, Morgan, Billy, Sasuke...anyone receiving? Over.~zzz~"
'Please answer, please answer, please answer.' Rick sweated, imagining how bad it would turn if someone from Hershel's people died suddenly at night.
There were few silent moments as everyone waited for the reply that came... Sasuke's voice, who was driving.
"~zzz~ It's unusual for you to use my channel, Rick. Is everything good? ~zzz~"
"~zzz~ Yeah, um, Sasuke So...I recall you said there was an additional batch of the cure for the airborne virus, but Hershel's people weren't injected with it. ~zzz~"
"~zzz~And? ~zzz~"
"~zzz~ We need it, Sasuke; you know how important it is.~zzz~"
"~zzz~ Is that so? Is Hershel with you right now? ~zzz~"
"~zzz~ Yes, yes, he is near.~zzz~" Rick felt it; he knew Sasuke was the type to hold grudges, and there's a big chance he will refuse.
"~zzz~ Cool, I want 6 from of every type of livestock he has, two mature horses of different sex, all healthy. and a hundred kilos (220 lbs) from each stacked supply of crops from his land, fresh, half that of seeds. I trade with the bunches only; I'll give six serums in exchange for what I asked. That's the price, Rick. ~zzz~"
Sasuke decided to stop being the "good guy" and put in that rule.
He wanted to stop worrying about the issue caused by natural death? Easy, pay for it.
Hershel, Otis, Jimmy, Beth, Maggie, and Patricia.
Six.
For each one of them, one type of cattle is exchanged.
And hearing that, everyone was surprised; they weren't used to Sasuke being this...materialistic. He was always the one to give.
"~zzz~ Sasuke, why? ~zzz~" Rick asked him, ignoring the blabbering, and the reply echoed again in the same cold, egoistic voice.
"~zzz~ I'm not trying to be the bad guy here, Rick, but that is the price...and I'm doing this only because of you and his innocent daughters.
I was treated like some kind of outcast just by doing the right thing to protect you guys; my people were out on the road with not as much as a fucking corn given to us...now you are saying I need to give that cure for him just like that? Should I start calling myself Clark Kent as well? ~zzz~"
"~zzz~ It doesn't have to be this way, Sasuke; those are our people. We don't have to do this...we can help each other.~zzz~" Unfortunately, his talking-no-jutsu had no effect on Sasuke, who graduated from the master of that shit.
"~zzz~I have new people with me; I would rather have them take the cure rather than people who won't contribute anything to my own.~zzz~"
"~zzz~ What about Maggie, Beth? as you said, is that what you want, Sasuke? ~zzz~"
"~zzz~I said it, if it weren't for them and Jimmy, no one there was going to have that cure. Tell me, Rick, what do you think the right price of that cure is? If I ever traded it with whatever surviving community is around, or the military, no one could steal it from me after all. Humans and hordes are all the same when it comes to putting them down.~zzz~"
Rick sighed in frustration, knowing the answer: that cure. Some would offer everything to have it, as in the end, unless there were dozens of armed people, Rick can't imagine how to take down Sasuke.
And unlike the resources you can scavenge again if you have the muscles, that cure isn't available anywhere so far.
"~zzz~ I'm outside and busy right now, and I will switch off the CB. Contact Morgan's channel when you decide; he knows of this. ~zzz~"
Sasuke said again, and the line cut off.
...
"Wait, the cure was made by Jenner...with one of our blood. What if he took the one whose blood we need with him too? And they took Dr. Jenner too. How did we forget this? What to do if they died there..." Jacqui asked them, worried about Hershel's family.
"It won't happen. No one died from that group," Glenn said. He was with Rick when they checked on the other group, who had successfully conquered the damned prison.
"He has no right to do that!! It is our blood. We need to take it back and call Jenner!!" Lori spoke; they were staying most of the time in Hershel's house after all. She didn't want anything to happen there, where her son is spending most of his time.
"Sasuke was the one whose blood made that cure." Rick, whose frustration reached the peak, spoke to them in one sentence that made the whole place silent for moments before...
"What??" "But he said it's one of us..."
"It can be a lie, or the whole thing is and it spreads only by bites."
"Even so, he can't just take it like that. Jenner made it; he has no right to decide on a matter concerning us all." And like usual, many of them ware the black sheeps.
"He can!!" Rick punched the wheel, making them jump in fright from the unexpected horn.
"He can because he made it by spilling his blood! By cutting his damn flesh for the experiment!! Yes, he can, over and over and over. You just had to keep going against him. He was the one who got you out safe from the horde in the quarry back in Atlanta, then from the CDC right after using liters of his blood and taking a piece of his shoulder, then the next horde where he was shot.
But tell me!! Who here had gone to say a fucking thank you? Who here has done that?" Rick got out of the car and shouted at the large group of people who were cursing Sasuke and even Jenner.
Hershel stood by the side, still horrified from what he heard; he finally understood why one of the old neighbors he found was turned without a visible bite...
"No, for whatever reason, at the first sign of instability with him, you turned against each other. You think I stayed here because I disagree with Sasuke? NO!! I stayed because of my expected newborn!!! I had no choice but to try and cling to this safe haven for my child, for my pregnant wife.
So yeah, deal with it, his blood, his cure, his damn price!!!" Rick slammed the door shut, glanced at them, and then left, cursing the shitty situation they were in now.
Just when he thought everything was on the right track, Sasuke struck where no one had expected.
It is now either halving their stock or having death hover near them all the time.
Hershel is already old; one wrong heart attack and it's all hell again.
And Rick knows too damn well that the man won't chain himself to sleep; he is just that unreasonable, even if it means risking everyone, including his daughters.
'I need to speak with Morgan; maybe he can help out with this,' but deep down he knows, at this point, between them and Sasuke, Morgan would always choose Sasuke.
===
Sasuke, who exited the warehouse he had just emptied after clearing a horde right around it, looked at the figures aiming their guns right at his face.
Sneering like they were looking at a rabbit about to be slaughtered.
"There was nothing in there, just a waste of my time and effort; you can check it." Sasuke spoke and turned to leave.
"Don't move, pretty boy; put down that sword and the bike's keys that you parked on the other side. I liked it," one of them laughed, aiming a shotgun at him in a threatening gesture.
"Are you sure you want to do it this way?" Sasuke spoke again, uncaring about the guns aimed at his face.
"Alright, big boy, now you have to strip too. We got no wom—" and the unfortunate bastard received a kunai straight to the skull.
The other 4 were surprised to see their friend drop with a knife to the head even though the boy had never moved. And they instinctively rained Sasuke in bullets, just to be perplexed by what happened next.
His body exploded in a cloud of smoke....
The real Sasuke, who was watching all this unfolding from the roof, turned, did a hand seal, and left, hearing the deafening boom caused by the explosion tag tied to the kunai buried at the head of the one he killed.
'Well, a clone and basic sound genjutsu are still as useful. Hmmm, let's see what's next. the college...' He checked the map, deciding on the route for his next trip, got in the BMW S1000RR, revved the engine, and drove away.
The scene behind him was a mess of blood and gore.
And while all the chaos was happening on both sides of Rick and Sasuke, the Lancasters had finally settled in their new peaceful shelter and were meeting new people, surprised by what they saw and more by what they heard about the merciful guy known as Uchiha Sasuke.
======
\\\A/N:I know there was a lot of the ~zzz~ buzzing shit, and it may be annoying, but that is the static of the walkie-talkie and the like. I add it to make it clear what was said through the CB and what was only heard by the people who were near Rick...the normal discussion.
If you have another method better than the zzzz? Do me a favor and suggest it.
Have a good day. ///