-Quentin's POV-
Two minutes later after Amy hit the ground, I found myself standing over her unconscious body as Jane desperately pressed rag after rag to Amy's bloody stump whilst Judy placed her hands on Amy's neck. I stepped back to give the two room to work, and moments later, Jane and Judy sighed in relief.
"We slowed down the bleeding for now." Judy said. "For now?" I asked. "We can't exactly do much with old guitar strings for stitches." I was about to let out a breath that I didn't realize I was holding, but the door suddenly swung open with Brock and Gary standing in the doorway.
"What the fuck did you do?!" Brock yelled. "Amy got bit, and I hacked off her arm." I replied, hoping Brock would understand. However, Brock's reaction was different. "What the hell man?!" Brock yelled. "I…" Brock slowly fell to his knees, softly sobbing over Amy's unconscious body. "Leave me alone, please." Just as I was about to step away, I heard Gary speak up.
"At least she won't die from the bite." This caused Brock to quickly stand up and furiously glare at Gary. "She's missing a fucking arm, you think that's exactly helping?!" Brock yelled. This was actually the first time I've seen Brock not just mad, but enraged, and man it was intense.
"Just leave me alone." Brock said. Slowly, Gary closed the door and let out a loud sigh whilst I crossed my arms, just thinking of poor Amy. "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that…" Gary spoke. "...poor kid, she doesn't deserve this at all."
"No one deserves this." I replied. "She's a good person, I really hope she pulls through." It was then that I remembered Gary's admission of not ever being bitten, and I decided to ask about it. "Hey, Gary?" I asked. "Yeah?" Gary replied. "Why'd you lie about the fact you've never been bitten?" Gary let out a sigh in response and idly stared at his missing finger.
"Early in the apocalypse, I joined a group that seemed good. Food, water, and the people were just people trying to get used to the end." Gary paused before he continued. "It's...where I met Harley." I saw his composure falter a bit, but he retained himself. "There was this woman, Penelope, she was a massive bitch. She always wanted control, made sure that no one challenged her, basically, the only people she treated with a hint of respect were those who weren't weak and those who sucked up to her."
Sounded like Thomas alright.
"I ignored her for a while, but when she actively began capturing people and making them prisoners, it came tough to ignore." Gary said. "You do anything?" I asked. "I couldn't, I had to keep my head down in order to survive." Gary replied. "Eventually, we got into this spat with another group that Penelope was trying to capture, mainly stemming from one of the guys, Wendell, losing his arm to two people one of the opposing group members killed and let turn. Wendell went to get revenge, and he nearly killed the guy who got his arm taken, some bearded guy, but it turns out they took another guy hostage, Terrance I think his name was."
I felt my head itch at the name, as it somewhat sounded familiar. Gary didn't notice, and continued with his story. "We caused one of them to get separated, some young woman, but Harley and I lost her when we tried to track her down. It wasn't until we got back to the camp that we found out Penelope gave up on capturing them all and killed two of their guys." Gary proceeded to sit down on a nearby chair and continue his story. "Penelope was able to track down the truck they used, and we managed to shoot out the tire and knock the truck over a hill."
"Did anyone get out?" I asked. "The co-leaders, bearded guy and a guy with a beanie." Again, I racked my brain as the last guy sounded familiar. "Penelope did everything she could to make them fail in her sick challenges for them, but they managed to survive. She decided to kill them herself next by feeding them to the undead." Gary looked down at the floor once he said this. "That Terrance guy, he had enough of her, and he shot her dead." Gary looked up at me and stood.
"I guess what I'm saying is that the reason I lied is because Thomas was like Penelope, an arrogant psychopath who made it their mission to keep complete control over everyone they're watching over, not caring who dies as long as they're in charge." Gary said. "If I wanted to stay, I didn't want a repeat of Penelope, and that's why I lied about being bitten."
The door swung open just as Gary said that, and Brock was standing in the doorway, looking even more pissed than he was when he told off Gary. "You...lied?!" Brock yelled. "It works, seriously!" I yelled. "Yeah, then what was all that about Gary lying?!" Brock replied. "You were never bitten, you just lied and gave everyone a little false hope on how less people could die!"
"Brock-" I said, but he cut me off again. "For all I know, you intentionally decided to cut off Amy's arm for no fucking reason!" Brock stopped for a moment, then walked towards the exit, but before he left he looked back at me and glared.
"After everything Amy and I have done for you, being your friend, trusting you, saving your damn life, and this is how you repay us?" Brock huffed. "Screw you." Brock left the room, leaving me and Gary alone, trying to process what just happened. Not for long however, as Jane and Judy entered carrying a basket of medical supplies.
"Jane, Judy, can I ask you something?" I asked. Jane and Judy stopped and looked at me in curiosity. "How many people don't know about the brain?" Jane and Judy looked at each other uneasily. "They've...never dealt with this before."
I couldn't help but just laugh. Laugh in disbelief and in anger at this. Not only did these people somehow survive for six years without knowing about the amputation (which I could sort of understand), but they somehow survived without knowing about destroying the brain before turning.
"Quentin, are you alright?" Jane asked. "Oh, I'm just fine knowing that not a single fucking person here knows about destroying the brain to prevent turning!" I yelled. "We could've not had one of our gardeners die, and what's even better, Amy wouldn't be on that bed right now with her arm missing!" I threw up my arms and walked outside, just wanting to go to bed after everything that just happened. However, just as I shut the door, I saw Andrew standing there, a stoic expression on his face.
"Andrew." I said. "What happened?" Andrew asked, and I just let out a noise that sounded like a sigh and a laugh at the same time. "Get this, so first off, turns out Amanda decided to not only get her friends to set up a plan to fucking rape me, which was why we held off on the mission, but also, after one of her buddies killed Ashley and Jeffrey, Amanda said she was fucking pregnant!" Andrew raised a brow, but didn't speak up. "And guess what, turns out no one knows about the destroying the brain part, so know Brian's dead, and Amy's missing an arm and Brock's pissed at me because Gary lied about being bitten, and now that those fucking sickos are after us, it's like we're a goddamn skinny kid against fifty jocks in a dodge ball game, so basically, we're fucked!"
Andrew still didn't speak, he just let me yell it out, and it honestly helped a bit. As I was approaching the house I had decided to take residence in, Andrew spoke up. "Tomorrow." Andrew said. I looked back at him confused. "Tomorrow, we go and talk to Johnny and Peter, get them on our side, and I'll go with you."
"Anyone else coming?" I asked. "Just you and me, besides, we need to focus, and considering Brock's pissed, Amy's out of it, Gary's confrontational and Gabriel's not the most serious, plus I actually know where they are."
"Alright, I'll see you in the morning." I said as I opened the door to my house. As I was about to step inside, Andrew spoke up again. "I saw your list of council members, and I saw I was on trading." Andrew said. "Really?" I asked. Andrew, for the first time since I've met him, gave me a small smile.
"If it makes you feel any better, I accept."