The Walking Dead: Warlord

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“Well, shit.”

Shane exclaims, looking over the edge of the railing. A horde of well over one hundred walkers is gathered around the building, all reaching for us. I can’t help but nod my head in agreement.

“Shit indeed. Let’s get up to the roof just in case. I don’t trust this rickety old metal to hold us up for much longer.”

I’m helped to my feet by Amy and Gerard, and manage to stagger up the steep metal staircase with a bit of difficulty. My muscles were practically screaming at me to give them a break. When we finally reached the top of the roof, I finally gave into their demands and plopped myself down with my back against an air conditioner. Shane continues to look over the roof before suddenly realization comes to his face,

“Oh, dammit! We forgot our walkies, didn’t we?”

It’s true. We were only expecting one group, stupidly, and didn’t think we’d need them. That’s not all we forgot, though. I look at Shane and say,

“We don’t have any food or water, either. Other than the canteens on us.”

I look out over the horizon and see some rather mean looking clouds, as well. My muscles start to feel better enough that I can walk over to Shane with Amy and point them out,

“Looks like we got a storm coming through, too.”

He nods his head and starts looking around the rooftop, trying to find a way to get into the store and comes across a hatch. He kneels down and grabs the handle, giving it a yank. Unfortunately, this does nothing. He reaches up and grabs his short hair in exasperation, letting out an angry yell.

“GRAAAH!”

Glen shakes his head at this and says,

“Look, there’s gotta be a way we could go along the rooftops and get down without this horde following us. Is there, like, a plank of wood up here or something?”

Unfortunately, there was not. A bit of searching revealed nothing but a couple dead birds and a lot of detritus. Honestly, I could easily get us out of this situation. Give everyone enough ammo to deal with a horde five times the size and still have ammo left over. Bring out a few walkies for us to use. Enough food to last us for months. Obviously, though, this would involve revealing my powers to them. Powers that are, quite literally, magical. Sadly, I don’t think I can see another option.

I look around at the group and can tell, everyone is beyond stressed out. Amy most of all. After all, this is her first mission out of the prison in months. Actually, Hector may be even worse. He’s not a fighter, and just barely knows how to use the rifle in his hands and is visually trembling. I lean on the railing and put my head down on my arms before making up my mind. I turn to the group and say,

“I can get us out of this. But, you’re all gonna have to listen. This is going to sound crazy, and it is.”

The group all look at me with visible confusion. I hold my hand out to the side and will a spare handgun out of my inventory and into my hand. Glen blurts out,

“Wh-what the fuck?”

I look at them and say,

“I was just as confused. After a bit of time passed in this whole apocalypse, I randomly found that I have… This power. I can store and take this out of some other… Space, or dimension, or something like that. Kinda like a video game inventory. And, ever since I realized this power, I’ve been stockpiling. For situations like this.”

The entire group looks at me with… Mostly confusion. They stare at the gun in my hand in silence, not truly understanding what just happened. Shane walks a bit closer to me and speaks with a tone full of hurt,

“And… You’ve just been keeping this stuff from us this entire time?”

I nod my head and look away while sighing,

“If you had these abilities, would you go around telling people? Would you not be afraid of people looking at you like you’re a freak?”

Shane shakes his head, and begins to raise his voice as anger takes over,

“Of course I would be! But this is something that could have saved our lives multiple times!”

I walk towards him and raise my voice a little bit in return,

“And it has! Where the hell do you think I pulled that grenade from in the CDC? How do you think I got away from those kidnappers in Atlanta? Where do you think those MRE’s came from when we started to run low on food?”

Shane thinks for a second, looking back at the times where it was pretty obvious I randomly found something that was helpful, or pulled something from nowhere. He looks back at me and speaks in a bit of a calmer tone,

“And why not tell me? Why not tell Amy?”

I look over at Hector and see him slightly shying away from me, and get a cynical smirk on my face. I point him out and say,

“That’s why. People will look at me like I’m a freak. They’ll shy away from me, scared of what I could do with this ability. They’ll treat me like a monster.”

Shane goes quiet after this, apparently unable to retort. Guess it’s true. I look over at Amy, expecting to see her backing away in fear, but instead, I see tears beginning to form at the edge of her eyes. Instead of shying away like I was expecting, she walks towards me, and wraps me in a hug.

“You’re so stupid sometimes, Penny. I’ve told you before, and I’ll tell you again; I love you. So goddamn much. You mean so much to me. A little bit of magic isn’t going to be enough to get rid of my love.”

I slowly wrap my arms around her as well, feeling the warmth from her body seeping into mine that had gone cold from adrenaline. Relief washes over me as I release muscles I didn’t realize I had tensed up. I can’t help but smile as she plants a kiss on my cheek. She pulls back slightly and looks me in the eyes,

“But, that’s enough of the secrets, okay? I know you want to protect us all and need us to trust you, but how can you expect people to trust you when you don’t trust them?”

I feel a bit of strength leave me and place my forehead on her shoulder, while holding her tight. I whisper in her ears and say,

“I’ll tell you everything after this, okay?”

I tilt my head to the side and plant a kiss on her neck before leaning back up and speaking to the group,

“Well, storing things in another dimension isn’t the only ability I have. You guys have probably noticed how quickly I went from being a regular college girl to a girl who’s the best shot around. I’m able to grow my skills with pretty much anything at a much faster rate than the average person. I also have a few skills that could be considered magic, too. For example, I’m able to sense any walkers in a specific radius around my body. It’s how I spotted that horde showing up before the majority of them were visible. And the only reason I was able to grab Shane’s hand is because of an ability I have that slows down time when I draw a pistol or revolver.”

Glen is the first one to speak up in an excited tone,

“Oh shit, like in Red Dead Redemption?”

I chuckle and nod my head,

“Yup. It’s pretty similar.”

Gerard is the next one to speak up,

“God damn… You think there’s anyone else like you out there?”

I shake my head,

“I sincerely doubt it. But, anything’s possible I guess.”

We stand in an awkward silence for a few second before Shane speaks up,

“Well, should we get started clearing this place out?”