Chapter 11: A Surprising Discovery

The next day was standard. Searching with no success and then getting back to work. It was gonna be like this, but nobody cared. They just wanted to find what they were looking for. But this time, it was Tut, Rudy, and Danny that went off to find her. The other guys were busy with something else.

Dexter got to work on the truck. He was calibrating the engine. Hogarth and Arnold were giving him a hand handing him tools, and doing their portions of the work, but it was Dexter that was doing the major stuff

"Hand me that wrench," Dexter said.

"Here," Hogarth said handing it to him, he then got back to fixing up the tires. Arnold was cleaning up the interior of the truck.

"Hey I got a question Dex, what will this run on," Arnold asked

Hogarth looked up from his work, "Yeah I remember when we found this thing, you said something about getting it to run on a different source, what do you have in mind so far."

"That's what I'm working on, I figured we could use another element to work as fuel, something that is abundant and we see everyday."

"What would that be," Arnold asked.

"Dirt, we can find it every single day and it's all over the place. We could last for years with that fuel source. That's why I'm gonna make this engine able to use it as the fuel, and then all I got to do is add the extra input that'll make this truck able hold 20 people, so all of us can fit. You guys, me, Elizabeth, Tut, Danny, the kids, and maybe the others."

"That's a great idea, where did your genius come from Dex," Hogarth asked.

"I don't know, I guess I was born with it," Dexter said.

"You think Mr. Ages, Basil, and the girls will come with us," Arnold asked.

"I don't know I was just thinking you know."

"I'm not sure if they will. I mean they do think it's safe here, maybe we could stay here instead," Hogarth suggested.

"Because you're girlfriend is here," Arnold chortled.

"Will you stop that," Hogarth snapped, "she's just a friend, and if it wasn't for her Martin would be dead,"

"He's got a point Arnold, she did help us," Dexter stated "Okay that should do for now, why don't you guys go off and do your thing, I'll work on the rest."

"You sure," Arnold said.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Whatever you say," Hogarth said, "I'm gonna go work on the crops."

At that point Arnold didn't know what to do. He would mostly feed the chickens, and even then it only took a short amount of time.

After he was finished with that, he just sat, not knowing what to do. Maybe he'd go practice shooting or something.

"No, that wouldn't be good, I'd get some unwanted attention from the walkers."

He then looked and saw the barn. He couldn't help but think about it. Mr. Ages forbade them from stepping foot in there, because he said there was an infectious fungus in there. Arnold was more suspicious though, there had to have been a darker secret to why. His curiousity getting the better of him, he got up and walked towards it.

"There's gotta be something else to this barn," he thought to himself.

He looked around and made sure nobody was around to see him. No sign of the girls, Hogarth, Basil, Ages, anybody. He tried to open the front of he barn but it was locked.

"Damn it."

He decided to go up above and look at what was inside from there. He carefully opened the door and walked inside.

"Seems like a regular barn, doesn't seem like anything dangerous is in here," he said.

He then heard something that sounded like moans. He moved in a little closer and looked down. He gasped at the shocking sight.

There were dozens of walkers standing at the bottom of the barn. They were pacing back and forth growling and moaning. He was lucky he didn't go through the front entrance.

"This can't be real," Arnold thought to himself, "this has to be a bad dream, please tell me it is."

This was frightening enough already. But there was something else that was confusing. Why was Mr. Ages hoarding walkers? He didn't know why someone like Ages would want to do this.

Arnold was about to leave and when he turned around he bumped into someone. He opened his eyes and saw Basil standing before him. He had a serious look on his face.

"You weren't supposed to know about this," he said in a haunting tone.

It was another uneventful searching day for the group. Nothing whatsoever, but it didn't matter anymore, they made it clear they wouldn't stop and this is what was going to go on for a long time.

"Let's stop for a second, I need to drink some water," Danny said.

After sitting down for a second and not speaking, Tut broke the silence.

"You know, I think you guys may be right."

"What are you talking about," Danny asked.

"Maybe she didn't...y.. you know..uh," he stammered trying to get the words to come out.

"What're you gonna do if that's the truth man," Rudy asked him.

"What else can I do," he said solemnly. They knew what he was implying there.

Danny got up and went over to Tut. He looked at him for a few seconds. Then immediately hit him across the face. Because Tut was a mummy it would seem he would fall apart there, but he didn't.

"Don't say shit like that you little moron," Danny growled at him.

"Wha.."

"Don't give me that, you know exactly what I mean. I know it's sad, but killing yourself is not an option. It is both the stupidest and fucking worst thing you could ever do. So don't even fucking think about that at all," Danny yelled at him.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, "I just don't know."

"I found something," Rudy yelled, motioning for them to come forward.

"What'd you find Tracy Morgan," Danny asked.

"Please don't call me that, anyway I found this," he then held up a necklace. A silver pendant with a chain. Cleo wore something like that while they were together.

"Let me see that," Tut said taking it from Rudy. After taking a good look at it for a moment, he came to a conclusion, "this was Cleo's. Her mother gave it to her, she always wore it around."

"So what do you think now," Rudy asked.

"We're close," Tut said. The look of depression in his eyes was gone. He actually was uplifted. Maybe they were getting closer to Cleo now.

"We got to tell the others," Danny said, "this means something."

"It does," Tut said.

They then heard some moaning and growling coming from afar. It was definitely far, but it was getting closer.

"Let's get out of here, before they get closer," Tut said.

They got out of there quickly. This discovery of Cleo's pendant meant something important. It meant she could still be alive.

"Why are you doing this," Arnold asked.

Basil led him out of the barn after he found the walkers there. It was then that Arnold really wanted to know. Why were they keeping walkers in the barn?

"Mr. Ages feels he can help these people, we can combat this disease and save everyone, return them to normal humans."

This was totally ridiculous. Those people were dead, even if they tried to save them, they couldn't bring them back to life, they'd still be dead anyway. Arnold became dumbfounded by this phrase and it was also enraging.

"That's bullshit, they're dead," Arnold snapped.

"No they're not, they are just sick." Basil counterattacked.

"They are fucking dead, even if Mr. Ages somehow finds a cure, nothing can be done. They'll just become non moving corpses. There's nothing he can do."

"Something will be done, and I would appreciate it if you never talked about this to anybody. Not to your friends, not to the girls, and especially not to Elizabeth."

"No," Arnold uttered weakly. He knew he couldn't win this fight, but he wasn't ready to give up.

Basil looked him straight in the eyes with a death stare. It was both a frightening and intimidating look that stared right into his soul.

"If you tell anyone about this, you're group will be kicked off the farm. You'll have no place left to go, so I suggest you stay quiet about this."

Arnold couldn't say anything else. Basil pretty much won this fight.

"Alright, I won't say anything." Arnold said, admitting defeat.

"Now get back to your daily chores," Basil ordered.

Arnold just walked away. He wasn't going to let some giant mouse intimidate him. He was going to tell the group, there was no way he could this a secret.

"We found it today while on our daily search," Danny said, showing the other guys the necklace. The guys looked a little more excited than they were the past couple of days.

"This has to mean we're getting close right," Hogarth said.

"Yeah, unfortunately we didn't get any farther because walkers started coming our way," Rudy said.

"We're going to have to go back out soon, and fast. If Cleo's alive we've got to hurry," Tut said

As they talked about that. Arnold was sitting there, contemplating what he should say about the barn.

"Guys."

"What is it Arnold," Dexter asked.

"I've got to tell you all something, something very important," he said.

"Okay what, tell us," Tut said.

Arnold took a deep breath. He had to muster up some courage to tell them all this. After that he said it.

"There's walkers in the barn."

Yep, we all knew this was gonna come around soon enough. You know I saw a different series of fanfics with different cartoon characters, one was a bleach fanfic, taking the place of the original walking dead characters, so I figure I'm just acting it out in that way. Anyway if you watch the show you know what's gonna come up next. And I have something else planned out for the future.

Also my old underrated classics series which I put on hiatus for American Tail, I'm considering an update. But right now it's very indefinite. Also I have a fictionpress account started where I'm going to write independent stories, with some planned out as of now. Thanks for all the support guys.