Ch.65

Things became awkward in the group as my position had been made clear to them all. I put the sword away in my RV and went to cook, clean and make things. I extended the picnic table with shoddy tree ones first, but it got more refined the more I carved and worked. They were smooth as marble by the time I finished and cleaned up the mess.

Then came the Greene's generator that Maggie asked me to look at. It was old and loud, taking a lot of gas to run. I told her and Hershel I'd do what I can, but they'd have to go without power for a few hours which they were fine with. I worked on it and by the time I turned it back on, it was as silent as a hum and shiny like new.

Hershel asked what I did and I shrugged. "I used acid wash to clean the rust off inside and out before putting a sound dampening muffler on it here."

I tapped the muffler before grunting. "That's all aesthetics though. What's going to save you gas is this."

I tapped the line going to the roof of the building it was under and walked him out. He saw the black paneling and I grunted. "Solar sheeting. My RV has it as well. It'll cut your gas needs down to a tenth and ensure you don't need oil either. Even if you run out of gas, so long as you're careful, it'll run you about a week on reserve power that's now being stored in the power cells in those boxes there. Now those are dangerous and lead lined so don't go opening them, but it's the best I could do with what I had."

Hershel nodded and thanked me before I showed him the gage and what may need cleaned every few months. After that, I headed back to making lunch for everyone which the women had nearly finished. I apologized for my tardiness and took over finishing it, setting the table and putting the food out. The Greene's joined us when I offered, telling them the benches was so everyone could eat, talk and socialize without sitting awkwardly indoors.

I told Hershel they'd stay unless he wanted them gone cause I had no use for them beyond their intended purpose. He said they were fine and commented on the work.

I shrugged. "My father was a wood craftsman and farmer by trade. He restored furniture after he came to America and settled down in Kansas on a farm. He married a farmer's daughter and inherited the farm, doing his work from sun up till sun down and after that he'd be in the barn restoring old furniture, painting frames and pretty much anything you could think of. He used to carve wooden figurines for me. Nothing fancy, just little knights, dragons and a chess set when I got older and he figured I had more brains than brawn."

T-Dog snorted and said I was jacked and I sighed. "Now, but I was a short skinny lanky boy back then. One strong breeze would kick my ass and living in a small town with jocks who took offense to me being not entirely white, I got my ass kicked a lot."

Amy asked. "So what'd you do?"

I shrugged. "I learned to stand my ground, plant my feet and use what little strength I had to make it not worth their time. See, my daddy was a Brazilian jujitsu and martial arts master. He trained as a freedom fighter back when people were burning and kidnapping folks for ransom in South America. He taught me judo, tae kwon do and how to take a beating without being hurt. With that, high school wasn't so hard for a nerdy type like me."

I took out a knife and carved a little knife from a piece of wood saying. "He spent years teaching me everything he knew because he feared someday I'd need it. I took fencing lessons to learn confidence and mixed martial arts from the age of ten. My mother passed when I was seven see, so he feared for me and being a thirteen year old in college, he had a lot of fear in him for a supposedly dangerous man."

I set the wooden flower in front of Amy telling her. "The best thing he ever taught me was how to carve and create things. Without it, I might've killed some people before I could grow out of my rebellious teenage phase. It gave me an outlet for creative expression and kept the gate in my heart at bay. He died when I was nineteen of a flu strain outbreak that his body had no defense against. My daddy could whoop ass against the best of him and he was beaten by a bug a ten year old could shake off with some soup and napkins."

I shook my head. "I learned then that whatever time I have, I wanted to make it count and fight for every second I have on this earth, because even the toughest of us can fall if we're not prepared for it."

I sighed. "After that I took over the farm and juggled classes with work while taking on extra hands. By the time I got into the program in Atlanta, I had thirteen master degrees in all sorts of things from languages to engineering. I have seven PHDs from applied mathematics to earth science. I can tell you how to increase a crop yield and growth rate forty percent simply using hydroponics and certain enriched nutrients, but none of what I knew could prepare me for what came less than a year after I got to Atlanta. Freaking zombie apocalypse."

Hershel said he didn't believe that and I shrugged. "Well, if you don't that's your decision and opinion, but I can say for a fact that more than half the world's population has been killed off or infected and risen from the grave. I may not be a molecular biologist or a medical doctor, but I can say with some degree of accuracy how it's happened and what the most likely cause of this outbreak."

That got their attention and I sighed. "It is an organic virus that has both ancient and new qualities to it. At best guess it's a mutation from the fungal strain from the tropical forests called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Basically it's a fungus that infected ants for years, taking their bodies over from the insides, making them crave things that benefited the fungus and ensured its spread. The ants are essentially killed while their neural pathways are rewired by the fungus, sending a jolt to bring their basic motor functions back with the fungus driving them instead of the ant."

I waved a hand. "The virus shows properties of that fungal strain but it has something else, a near flu and other strains with even older plague like DNA. At best guess we did this to ourselves, either because global warming released an older virus and it grew in the warmer waters infecting things that drank or ate from them, mutating and reaching the rainforests I told you about where it went from slow and harmless virus our bodies fought off naturally to a zombie virus when it crossed the fungal spores of the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, or-"

I grimaced and went silent until Dale asked. "Or what?"

I shook my head. "Or some genius in a lab cooked it up using the worst things imaginable and it either broke containment or they released it intentionally as biological weapon. Both are plausible and both are just as grim because if it was intentionally grown in a lab, it may be immune to any vaccines created to combat it and if it's mutated naturally, then it could mutate again before a vaccine can be found, making it extremely hard to combat. Either way, after looking over the files Shane got from the CDC, I can only hope someone with more knowledge on the subject can find a cure cause I'm as stumped as you all are for now."

Hershel asked to see the files and I got up, headed to my RV and came back with the laptop and hard drive. I showed him everything about it that I could make out including the live test subject that died. He had enough medical knowledge to be able to tell it wasn't fake and it wasn't good. I told him to keep it because I had copies and I had another laptop.

I told him it was solar rechargeable so if and when we do leave, if he meets someone that can help later on he could possibly provide them a jumpstart on the cure. He nodded wearily and fired like while I went back to my RV and brought out a couple tubs of ice cream.

They were surprised as I set them on the table. "One of the towns a ways back had a working generator keeping a freezer cold so I snatched this. It may be a bit freezer burnt, but it's better than nothing and I've been saving it for an occasion. I'd say us not having to watch our backs so bad and finding a safe harbor in the storm outside the fences makes a good enough reason, especially with Carl recovering and most of us surviving Atlanta."

We all enjoyed some surprisingly not bad ice cream with toppings I snatched from the shelves. From nuts to M&Ms, gummy bears and basic chocolate and caramel, it was a hell of a lot better than we'd expected. Hershel closed the laptop and put it away before joining us. It was clearly taking a toll on him, but it hadn't hit home yet.

Glenn slipped off and Maggie soon followed as everyone split up to do their own thing. Amy had her little flower and pulled me to the RV where we made our own party of sorts. She laid in bed holding her flower in her panties and bra, smiling and stretching out, thoroughly satisfied. Andrea came in and asked if I'd join her in the shower so I did.

She asked me when we finished panting and the water slushed the sperm off her stomach if I was going to protect them. I told them that as long as they wanted me to, as long as they didn't mind sharing my bed, I didn't mind protecting them and teaching them how to protect themselves if they wanted. She agreed and turned in the shower, wanting it from behind now. She squirted after a good hard and long fuck that ended fast and furious.

I washed her ass and back off where I made my mess and she told me I didn't have to pull out even without a condom all the time. I shrugged and told her. "Now isn't the time for kids darlin, but some day when we know we have a safe place, ask me then and I won't tell you no."

She nodded and we shared a kiss before drying each other off. We went to bed and continued there where Amy did join in and for the first time I had them both at once. It was a unique experience not unlike having my way with Natasha and Jessica together. They both laid sleeping on each side of me and in the morning, I reminded them that the toys were unused, so I wouldn't be offended if they made use of them or gave them to someone who needed them more.