บท 58: Chapter 58

**- Xenon -**

I ran towards them, to give us more space to maneuver. He didn't think that he was walking back to where the cars were, so he may end up getting the others hurt. I fixed it by taking the lead, dragging them to the other side.

I took my aim, and shot 34 rounds at them, taking my time with each. No need to waste them just because I was too hasty. I had a silencer equipped to my handgun. I've fallen in love with the Glock, and I will be using it for the foreseeable future.

"My turn now!" Hershel shouted, as he began shooting the walkers. I used the time to reload to my extended Mag, which was fairly quick, as I had practiced it before.

"Let's switch!" I said, as I began shooting them some more. But within tenth's shot, I noticed something: the bullet didn't go off, and the gun's top was stuck.

"My gun's got jammed! Fall back!" I shouted, doing so as I tried to fix the problem. This was a pretty common issue. Hershel was quick to react, at least as quick as his fat body could allow him. He began running as well. It took me about ten seconds to fix my gun, so I began shooting again. He switched with me again, and seemed to be running out of bullets. But that's fine.

What wasn't fine, however, was him tripping as he was trying to shoot them, something that pissed me off to no end, as he just signed his death warrant. I was in the middle of reloading, so I couldn't buy him much time to get up.

In the middle of all the pressure, my mind could somehow quickly conjure an alternative that would give him a decent chance of success. I took out a light throwing knife, and aimed it at the closest walker to him. By some stroke of luck, the walker fell in front of the others, making them trip as well, as they tried to get over him, which gave me a few extra seconds. I ran with [Sprint] on towards Hershel that was failing miserably at getting up. I grabbed his hand, and using [Empowered Strike], I pulled him off the ground. I may have dislocated his shoulder in the process, but I couldn't care less at the moment. "RUN!" I shouted, as I dragged him along.

I finished reloading my Glock, and emptied the rest of my extended Mag on them. There were around forty-eight walkers left, and I didn't want to be left with no bullets. They need to be there in case I am in a tough spot, I thought of trying another method of trimming their numbers.

"Listen, we need to separate them. I can fight them easily that way. You don't have to fight them, just drag them with you for a while, run circles with them. They're pretty dense." I shouted as quickly as I could. "You got it?"

"Alright." Hershel said, panting heavily. I'm not sure if he could hold this on for long.

I changed direction, as a good chunk of the horde followed me. I threw about ten other throwing knives, all of them finishing their targets with deadly accuracy. I had ten more walkers following me. I switched to my hatchet, but this is proving to be rather tricky.

I approached the first one, and struck him with my weapon on the head. And what I feared happened. My hatchet was stuck, and I with it. Thankfully, I prepared a counter measure for this. I activated [Empowered Strike] and pulled with all my might.

Two walkers were on the front lines now, and I definitely couldn't fight both of them at once. I used a throwing knife that I pulled out of my inventory, and struck one of them with it. I repeated the same strategy for the other. I circled around them, and grabbed two of my knives. At some point, I wouldn't be able to explain how I pulled them out of my ass. Not to mention, I was running out of them. I eventually finished them all off, but I was still short five melee kills for my quest.

I took three of my throwing knives, before running towards Hershel... Though I could see he wasn't alone anymore. A girl was there holding him as they ran circles around the horde. I could see he was on the verge of collapsing, and there was only so much the girl could do for him.

I took my Glock in one hand, the hatchet in the other. Taking them by surprise from behind, I hit the first one with my hatchet, and once another one turned to me, I shot it with the handgun. Three others turned to me. I created some distance between the rest of the group, before shooting two of them, and finishing the last with my hatchet. I was eventually down to three of them following Hershel and the girl, that were panting heavily by now. I used my throwing knives to finish two of them, and finished the last with an [Empowered Strike] of my hatchet. Hershel was out of breath, and collapsed immediately on the ground, breathing quite loudly, while the girl, his daughter, from how she was calling him "Dad", was fussing over him... Oh wait, is that Maggie?!

Now that I think about it, there some resemblance to her characters in the TV series... But that's probably because I was used to an older version of her.

"Is he alright?" I asked her with concern. I really didn't like to go through all this trouble, only to have the old man die in the end. He is the most valuable out of everyone here, after all. But to be honest, I already consider this little stunt of mine a success, because the true rewards lay far beyond saving a few people, because of the discoveries I made...

**- With the group -**

"It looks like we're done with this place." Dale said, as they were gathered next to the RV. It was around 6 PM, Xenon had left them for a while now. They had more than enough time to move all the vehicles, take the fuel and all supplies that could be of any use. "And Xenon isn't back yet."

"Maybe we should go look for him." Amy said worriedly.

"He said he'd be back before sunset." Shane said. "We'll wait for him another day. If he doesn't come back, we can only assume the worst."

"Maybe he just got lost." Amy defended.

"It doesn't change anything." Shane shook his head. "We have no way to find him. At this point, we can only hope he comes back on his own. In the meantime, we should think about camping in the area."

"We shouldn't be moving in the dark anyway." Jim remarked. "Going to the prison right now is a bad idea. I agree with Shane, we should settle for the moment." Shane nodded.

Their discussion was cut short, by the distant sound of ringing bells. They all turned to the source of the sound, even though they couldn't see it.

"Maybe that's a sign from Xenon! Maybe he needs help." Amy remarked nervously.

"I don't think Xenon would do this." Rick shook his head. "He's been away for a few hours now, and those bells seem pretty close to me. I'd say a nearby church."

"There may be people there." Theodore chimed in. "We should go check it out."

"He's right." Rick nodded. "But only some of us should. We can't take all our manpower there." Rick seemed to be learning from his past mistake.

"I'll go." Jim volunteered.

"I'll go with him." Daryl said, nodding at Jim. He was their best tracker, and no one would question that. If there were survivors there, Daryl would be their best shot at finding them.