Chapter 36 – Daryl

I'm walking across the yard with Charlie and Lauren, but not letting on how incredibly pissed I am at myself. Even though all ended well, I never should have let Charlie surprise us like that. I'm always acutely aware of my surroundings and that he was able to take us both hostage was unforgivable. I had to try to take him down, but he's a brute of a dude. I just couldn't let him hurt Lauren, that would have destroyed me. Thank God that didn't happen.

Lauren saved us. My girl saved my sorry ass. We're both just lucky that she remembered this guy and he her or he'd still be ranting about the government and who knows what would have happened. Least now when we get inside I have questions for him. I'm still trying to get this weird ass town figured out and hopefully he can help.

Walking towards the house, I have a hand on his shoulder to show that he and I are cool…sorta and I have a death grip on Lauren with my other. If he makes any sudden moves I'll feel his muscles tense up. I'm still not sure we can trust him. I'm still trying to trust myself.

Once we get inside, Charlie goes to the kitchen and Lauren turns to me. "Hey, it's okay…we're okay. Daryl…relax."

I don't trust myself to say anything, so I just give her a quick kiss before she turns to help Charlie. I guess she can read me better than I thought.

I go and sit on the worn sofa watching them the kitchen. Twenty minutes ago he was choking me to death and now we're joining him for dinner. Is this a fucked up day or what!

I'm definitely staying alert as this just ain't right. I look around the living room. It's clean, but it looks like he hasn't changed anything in many years. It still has that female touch to it. Everything is dated back at least twenty to thirty years and reminds me of the house we had before my mother burned it down. I shake my head, trying to get rid of the bad memory.

"Come on over Daryl," Lauren says to me. She's standing by the old wooden kitchen table and I see three bowls of steaming food there.

I get up and sit down at the kitchen table across from her and we dig into the stew. "Charlie, this is damned good venison stew, man." It really was.

"Thanks Daryl," he says. "It's my Momma's recipe and I used vegetable from my garden."

"Thank you so much for inviting us, Charlie," Lauren adds. "We haven't had a meal this good in a long time."

I finished my stew and pushed the old chipped bowl forward. I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I was anxious to get some answers. "Charlie, you think it's alright if we ask you a few questions?"

"Sure, what you want to know?" he answers. He's fiddling with his spoon, so I think he's nervous.

"Hey dude, it's alright," I tell him. "If you don't want to answer anything, just say so." Charlie nods yes.

"You said that the government came in and took everyone away? Do you know why they did that? Lauren and I want to understand what happened here." Lauren eyes caught mine and I could see that we were on the same page with the questions.

"It was back when people started to get sick and they turned into aliens. The military came to take everyone to a hospital camp, but I knew the truth. I was always good on sneaking up on people and I heard them talking that they thought everyone in town was sick and they were all going to die. I knew I wasn't sick, so I didn't go. They tried to find me, but I know how to hide in the woods…so I got left behind."

"Did they ever come back, Charlie?" Lauren asks.

"A couple times, I think they were still looking for me, but they never found me," Charlie smiled as he told his matter of fact story. "I've been living here quietly ever since." Sometimes I couldn't tell if I was talking to a grown man or a kid. What was with this guy?

"Now what about these aliens that you talked about, what happened with them?" His story was coming together slowly.

"Well, people were dying and then the aliens took over their bodies and they came back to life."

"We call them walkers," I told him. "But I got another question for ya, Charlie."

"What's that Daryl?" he asked with a smile. I wish l could figure him out. Was he slow or was there something else going on.

"Where did all the walkers go? We haven't seen any since we got here and they should be all over the place." Lauren and I locked eyes for moment. This was the answer we had been waiting for.

Charlie looked at us with a big smile. "I made them go away. I have some applesauce, do you want some?" Charlie started to get up from the table.

"Whoa, big guy…hold on a second, how did you make them go away?" That we had seen zero walkers since arriving was the only things that actually had me possibly believing him.

Charlie looked a bit shy all of a sudden. Lauren put her hand on his in encouragement. "You can tell us Charlie. Is this that secret you were talking about in the barn?" Charlie nodded yes.

"I…I used my spectromagnatrometer and they left."

"Your what?" I asked. I looked at Lauren, but she didn't seem as confused as I was. Figures.

"Can you explain a little bit more, Charlie?" Lauren asked. She reached out to squeeze his hand again for reassurance.

All of a sudden Charlie starts talking about magnetic fields, positive and negative photons and setting up electromagnetic pulses around town. I'm completely lost, but Lauren isn't. She asks him some key questions which he answers. This guy may be slow, but he's smart and I'm nothing but confused.

Lauren looks over at me and I give her my "I'm completely lost look," and she laughs. Nice my girl is laughing at me now.

"Charlie is it okay that I explain this to Daryl? It will help if I can tell him about the accident too? Is that alright?"

He nods his head quickly. "I'll wash the dishes while you talk to Daryl." Charlie gathers up the bowls and hurries to the kitchen sink. The water in the sink starts to run.

"You understand that shit he was talking about?" I ask her. "Is he making this up?"

"Actually, I think he's brilliant. Let me give you a little history on Charlie. When he was in his late teens I think, he was being recruited by some top electrical engineering companies. He was born here, but had the brain of a genius. Then according to my Dad, he and his father were hit by a semi one night. Charlie's father dad died and Charlie suffered a traumatic brain injury. He was never the same since."

Things were starting to make better sense now about Charlie.

Lauren continued, "From what I know one he got out of the hospital, he moved in with his mother and has been here ever since. My dad says that he likes to build things and invent things, isn't that right Charlie?"

"Yes, that how I built my spectromagnatrometer." He sat back with us at the table. "I have pulse stations set up surrounding the town to keep it safe. Nobody came back, until you two."

"How many of these pulse stations do you have around town?" Lauren asked.

"I have thirty-two. I needed to surround the whole town." He made this sound like he was setting a normal every day thing like a mailbox.

I look at Lauren. "How does these pulse things work?"

"It complicated and I don't even quite get it, but from what I can gather he uses electromagnetic fields to repulse the walkers. Oh my God Daryl, that's it! Remember when we were heading back to find the group and we found that small herd on the out skirts of town and it was like they couldn't cross some invisible line? That was the magnetic field holding the back!" Lauren's eyes lit up with excitement. "Charlies found a way to keep the walkers away!"

Lauren got up and threw her arms around Charlie's shoulders and gave him a kiss on the forehead. The poor guy turned red. Then she came over to me and sat in my lap and threw her arms around me.

This was the best news we had heard in a longtime. Walkers could be kept away as long as this magnetic thing was working. I couldn't wait to tell Rick and the gang.