While Sasuke finally reached his destination, Billy got to the prison with the new additions safely. Rick and his group, too, reached their next stop, a warehouse.
Empty, of course, but they huddled in it for the night.
Still, one thing made them all...conflicted.
The trip here was by no means easy; they fought, struggled, took many wrong turns, and felt cold, hungry and desperate. Every place around was lacking in something, either too small for them, too open to the outside, too close to the walkers, or simply unsuitable.
Houses held some useful things, but...they came too close to losing someone while scavenging.
Which made Rick shoot his python, and it forced them to run away, leaving many things behind due to the sudden emergence of a small horde.
But now, they got something; two hours ago, in the midst of all that despair, they found food and three guns and ammo.
Dropped simply in the middle of the road they were walking through.
"We can't keep going like this," Rick spoke, looking tired and clearly suffering from the lack of sleep.
"Like what, Rick?" Shane sighed, glancing at Rick, knowing exactly what Rick meant, but he still asked.
"This... struggling to move an inch forward just to be pushed a damn mile back, we need a solution."
"And that solution is?"
"I don't know; we had already been in two farms you knew of, Hershel. Both are destroyed or have nothing to help us there."
"The bodies in the police station—they were killed in one clean slash. It's clear who had emptied it." Shane leaned back against a wall, tired from doing most of the job. They got an old man and women with them and a guy who is all words but no essence.
"Sasuke, he must have walked this way; maybe the prison is closer?"
"It's not this way, five or so miles to the east from here," the old man Gale spoke answering Glenn.
Deep down, he was wishing they could just drop this ^dependence^ matter and go there; he was too tired of moving, but he knows this isn't like back in the quarry. Here, he is a burden, and he can't risk speaking his mind and getting abandoned.
It would've been okay if he was alone, but not now, when his wife was beside him, alive.
"It's been just two days; we still can look around, and maybe we will find something. We got guns now and some food, enough to last five days if we consume it cautiously."
"This must be a sign."
Mike and Hershel spoke, not really sure themselves at this point.
"Or maybe it's poisoned or something?"
Maggie rolled her eyes at Lori's input.
"Why would somebody put poisoned food with guns? It would've been more efficient to ^poison^ us all without giving us those guns. Heck...maybe someone dropped them by mistake," but both Shane and Rick agreed with Lori; the situation was just too bizarre, and now...they were forced to test that theory.
It was a small chance, slim in fact, almost 10%, but a chance nonetheless; if not poisoned, then anaesthetic.
The issue is, Rick can't risk consuming it; he has a wife and boy and an unborn child. Even if that chance of it being poisoned is 1%, he can't risk it, Otis. Hershel and Gale felt the same.
Unconsciously, Lori and Mike glanced toward Glenn, a subtle gesture that only Vivian, his girlfriend, seemed to notice.
"You can try it yourselves; stop looking at him." She moved slightly in front of the confused Glenn, who finally caught on.
Another debate was about to start when the sound of the cover being torn from the can sounded; they turned, seeing T-Dog who tossed it away and simply started eating the canned beans.
"Where was that cautiousness when we needed it? Now you are thinking about food being poisoned?" T-Dog muttered and just enjoyed the food; if it was a deadly meal, so be it, at least he will go with a full stomach, and he has a belief that it wasn't.
"That's what we are doing; mistakes made us learn how some things needed to be thought of multiple times," Gloria, another woman who survived, spoke to him.
"Oh, you don't tell me...what a magnificent way to develop. What's the next step? Stopping to have walkers in a barn, stops kids from wandering around with guns? And arm the adult females instead? Basically, every suggestion from Billy and Sasuke that you guys disapproved of?"
"Enough, we won't be having that talk all over again." Rick glared at T-Dog; no one here is in the mood to discuss whose fault it was.
Glenn, too, moved forward, taking two cans and started eating, nodding at his girlfriend. Before speaking to Rick:
"Actually, we need to. Look around; we found no place. For how long do you think we can keep going around like this?"
That gesture from Lori made him start rethinking some things, things that he figured...he was an idiot all along for ignoring.
'Why did I follow people who thought of me as the best bait all this time? Why does it matter if I wasn't some best buddy with Sasuke when he and his people had never treated me like that?'
"As long as we can, they fought, so we can." Mike spoke to Glenn, hesitating whether to start eating. Or waiting more to see the result.
"You still don't get it, do you? Why do you think that I and Tee are saying all of this? They don't need to fight, and when they do, they don't fear for casualties, because Sasuke isn't the kid you all think he is; he can kill to what reaches a hundred and have all his people safe. You know what that means? That means those people won't be paralyzed by fear, live in paranoia, and fight each other; they move on, plan the next step, and do what matters." Glenn chuckled from sheer frustration looking at them.
"Look what we were doing those days: break into a house, make a ton of noise because all of us get in together with kids and no plan to retreat, attract walkers, and escape. And every place we stumbled upon is useless; no one here has any sort of a plan other than the stupid hope. I want to do something meaningful rather than debating about stupid canned food. Have any of us thought about what we should do next? No, probably just wandering again like a bunch of lost sheep."
"You talk a lot for someone who was sitting in a corner when your hero went his way."
"And I can aim just as well." Glenn, who didn't want any more of that scornful look from the asshole, aimed his Beretta straight at Shane's temple, surprising them all together.
"Why so silent? Go on, speak again. What are the chances that I'll zap your brain before your hands perform their disarming movie scene? You're no ninja."
"Alright, lower it down; let's not do this." Shane, who didn't expect such a thing from Glenn nonetheless, stiffened, trying to calm him.
"Glenn!" Rick, too, stood abruptly, raising his empty hand, trying to talk Glenn out of it.
"You can stay and build your damn empire; we are leaving first thing this morning. Is it okay, Vivian?" He moved to a corner, shielding his girlfriend and keeping his gun ready, until the morning; he will treat those people as potential danger. He was grateful his girlfriend trusted him enough, and she backed away with him, even though her heart was beating like drums from anxiety and fear now.
=======
'Protect him from now on,' Sasuke ordered the snake, witnessing the whole thing.
One thing started disturbing his mind: why was Glenn treated like this even though he always jumped to danger first?
'The protagonist can go to hell,' he thought. Dropping the matter altogether, it's time to stop treating those people like the heroes he saw on the fucking TV.
If someone good sought his protection, he would get it.
Now all Sasuke needs is to take the Vatos people with him and have Glenn, who was some distance away, reach their base safely with his girlfriend.
"Those are they?" The deep voice beside him made Sasuke focus ahead, seeing 4 men aiming their guns at him, tensed but with eyes telling that they won't hesitate to pull the trigger.
"Easy, I see you are Guillermo, right?" Sasuke held his empty hands up, palms forward, showing that he is here for discussion.
"Who are you?" The man with the buzz cut spoke, still aiming his shotgun at Sasuke's head.
"A friend, if you lowered that gun of course and let me finish my talk, or, I can beat the shit out of you all, and we will have that talk either way. Billy sent me by the way; he came some time ago with a sheriff and dropped you some guns."
"Butcher?" Guillermo and Felipe, a big white man, shared a look of realization hearing Sasuke.
"Yeah, British accent, tall, black hair and a beard, annoying smirk, a tomahawk," Sasuke detailed Billy shortly, the one they met at that time.
And Guillermo lowered his gun but signaled for others to keep theirs aimed, not fully trusting but in fact, only a few were loaded; most of the ammo was already used by this point.
"How is he doing? I guess he is alive from what you said." A faint smile marked his tired face.
Sasuke just glanced at them undisturbed, while ^Ghost^ kept his assault rifle aimed at the other four. Making every one of them flinch instinctively with every faint move from him.
"And kicking, he was busy with something, and I got you a record from him. Here, check it briefly if possible; the full video can wait when we are on the way back. Pack your things first; I want to be home before midnight if possible." Sasuke passed the tablet to Guillermo, who checked it himself, starting the video, surprised that someone is still using electric devices at this point.
Soon after Guillermo was sure he was the right guy, he invited Sasuke inside.
It was Sasuke's first time in this place; he noticed the signs of bullet holes around. Clearly, things weren't good for those people here.
The place was silent inside, even though it was kinda big, which made him ask what happened to the people that were here, the sick people that Billy told him he saw when he first came here.
"We were attacked; some armed people out there tried to raid us. I don't know how they figured out our location. There were more of them than us, all armed.
During the shootout, two of us went down, Ramy and an old man. Someone moved their bodies to the back; we were busy with the attackers and didn't notice. Somehow, the two of them turned and attacked the elderly in the back. We were too late when everything settled, only five of us and two old people who were in separate rooms survived."
Guillermo's eyes moistened as he remembered the scene of his people, and him putting them down later after they turned to walkers, the same people who laughed with him that same morning, thanked him, and encouraged him like they always did.
"Sorry for your losses; my condolences."
Guillermo nodded his head, muttering a quiet thank you. and started helping with the packing.
"I was late, unfortunately," Sasuke sighed, meeting the two old people who were lying in bed, asleep.
And Guillermo looked at him, confused why he said that.
"We met a scientist when we were trying to find a place; things happened, and we got to know that we are all infected already. Death is one of the triggers to turn, unless the brain was damaged."
Guillermo took in a deep breath, his face scrunching in despair at hearing the confirmation of his theory.
"But we made a cure for that so that even if someone died by natural ways and the like, they won't turn. I can promise you that it worked; I've seen the result with my own eyes, and you all will be injected with it when we are back. I'm sorry it came late for your people."
"Don't be," Guillermo shook his head.
"In this world, having that is already a blessing. We met some people, bad people, so I'm sure you did too. We all were struggling to keep them safe here. I understand how heavy it is to have people depend on you and put their hopes on you; it binds you and makes you unable to be in all places, and I know that it's not your fault. We are grateful you even came for us, man. Thank you, really." Guillermo patted Sasuke's shoulder; the losses weighed on him, but he wasn't the kind to get beat that quick; he still had responsibilities.
Responsibilities he vowed to uphold until his last breath.
'I was but a damn nobody; why did I even get to live while the good ones were gone?' he sighed and woke the two old people up to help them move into the ambulance that Sasuke said he parked nearby.