Chapter 22 Dinner

Waking up the next morning, John decided not to leave Amy. He held her close for a couple hours, when she woke up, he kissed her, then he went outside the tent with her. They ate breakfast for the day and talked, feeling a lot closer to each other after they had that meaningful conversation last night.

After they had finished eating John went around the camp and talked to everyone, he wanted to see how they were feeling, after the CDC turned out to be a dead end. The group seemed pretty positive; John thought the farm was helping them feel some normalcy.

When he was talking to Lori, she was indeed pregnant, she asked him to get her some abortion pills, but John shut her down straight away. He said firmly, "You should talk to Rick before you decide to do anything." Completely shut down, Lori walked away, John saw her talk to Glen. Shaking his head, John ignores the fact that she didn't take his advice.

John saw Glen nod, and he also saw Maggie on her horse, seems she was going into town again. Glen talked to her for a second, before they went to the stables and got another horse, leaving quickly down the road.

Otis then came over to John, asking him if he wanted to go hunting with him, John answering with a yes. John runs to his tent to grab his gear, while Otis readies the truck. Both ready, they hop into the truck, driving out and down the road aways, before parking on the side of the road.

They both get out of the truck and start to walk into the woods. They walked very deep into the woods, brown tree trunks and bushes surrounding them. Walking deeper they start to see some tracks on the ground. They follow the tracks and eventually arrive in a clearing, in the distance there was a small herd of deer, in the clearing there was also a small white church, with a silver cross sitting on the church's steeple.

Seeing the deer unmoving and unstartled, John and Otis look at each, nodding. They each aim at different deer, they were aiming at the two largest deer, an 8-point buck, and a 10-point buck. Taking their shots, they manage to hit them, John hit his buck straight in the heart, Otis didn't quite hit the heart, instead hitting the lung. John seeing Otis's buck starting to run, shoots it once more, the buck dropping to the ground with a "Thud".

Walking over to the dead deer, John and Otis decide to bleed the deer here in the clearing. The trip back to the car was going to be a long one, and they didn't want the blood to coagulate and make preparing the meat harder. John leaves Otis to bleed the deer while John walked to the church, he opens the doors, swinging them both open quickly. Inside John saw about 7 walkers and they were all wearing fancy clothes. Pulling his knife out John walks through the church killing each walker, using the pews as obstacles. Making quick work of the walkers, John then looked around the church. Finding nothing of value, John walks out of the church and runs over to Otis.

The deer had been bled, by the time John had finished in the church, so they started walking back to the truck. John carried the bigger deer, while Otis dragged the smaller deer. When they arrived at the truck, John put both the deer into the bed of the truck.

With that done, feeling happy about their haul, they drive back to the farm. Listening to some country music on the way, they get to the farm at around 2. The group was once again surprised when they saw the two deer in the truck. Apparently, Otis didn't have the greatest luck when trying to find deer to hunt.

John and Otis then skinned the two deer, right in the bed of the truck. They did so, only because they had already bled the deer. With the deer all processed they gave the meat to the group of women that came over to them. They were going to cook a grand feast, for everyone.

Otis and John splitting up, John looking around the camp, he saw that Glen was back. It seems he had already given the pills to Lori.

John then walked over to Amy, seeing her talk to Maggie, they seemed to get along quite well. John was happy that they liked each other, taking Amy by the hand, John lead her away from the group of women.

Walking over through the camp, John collected some empty cans. After he had a decent amount, John lead Amy over to a fence where he set the cans on top. John then told Amy that he was going to teach her to shoot. John showed her the pistol, explaining its functions and how to safely use it.

John then showed her his M16, telling her about its functions, and also about the different attachments he had put on it to improve it.

When John felt Amy had a pretty good understanding of the weapons, he showed her the proper stance of holding the pistol. He then gave her the pistol, telling her to get into a stance, John corrects her form slightly. With her form fixed John tells her to aim at one of the cans and try to shoot it. Amy took her time and then shot but she missed, feeling a little down. John tells her not to think about that, before giving her advice.

Amy, after listening to John's advice, aimed once more hitting it dead on. She looked at John with a happy expression, John giving her a smile. John then had Amy train with the pistol for a while, when he felt she had gotten comfortable with the pistol. John had her use the M16, she had an easier time using this gun even though it was a little heavy for her. She really like the sight on it and was able to hit almost every shot. He had her continue for a while longer, when she was comfortable John stopped her.

He then had her follow him to a nice area, John then had her get into a self-defense stance. He then started to spar with her, showing her the flaws in her technique. They spared for quite a while, Amy eventually laying on the ground from exhaustion.

John helped her up after she had rested for a while, walking hand in hand back to their tent where they got changed. They then walked back out, they saw that the girls had just finished cooking dinner, and they were carrying different trays into the house. They saw that the whole group had begun walking into the house to have dinner.

Following the m inside, they sit down at a smaller table where Maggie was sitting. The group all sitting together with Rick and Hershel at each head of the table. When the food had all been passed out, Hershel said a quick prayer, before everyone started to eat.

While they were eating, John was talking with Maggie and Amy, Beth was also sitting there, chiming into their conversation now and then. Their table was talkative but at the larger table, everyone was being quiet, a little uncomfortable around each other as they were still not very used to each other.

Maggie handed John a note sneakily, John read it and saw that she was asking to meet up at night. John wrote down to meet him at the barn, before giving it back to her. Maggie was unable to read the note as Hershel and Beth were looking at her.

After everyone ate their dinner, they had happy expressions. They had been living good, since they had come to the farm. They then left the house after saying goodbye and thanking Hershel for allowing them to eat together. John then brought Amy to their tent, Amy falling asleep almost immediately after the training they did today.

Seeing her sleeping soundly, John left the tent quietly after a while. Walking over to the barn with a blanket. When he arrived there, he heard some knocking on the barn door, so he walked over and saw at least 20 walkers in there.

John was interrupted by Maggie; she came running over and asked if he had seen anything. John decided not to lie to her, said yes, he did. She begged John not to tell anyone and John said "Okay", he knew that he could kill all of the walkers anyway, so he didn't worry about it. He could tell that Maggie still had some misgiving about walkers, but he would convince her about what they really are slowly.

Maggie hearing that he would keep the barn a secret for her, walked to him and kissed him. The she took John's big hand and lead him out into the field.