Chapter 21: Welcome to Our Community
I'm writing this chapter as a filler to let you know it may be months until I update again. I am in an emotional place right now. My mother is dying, and so I'm going to take time to deal with that.
Also, I'm going to have surgery done on both of my hands. Thankfully not at the same time. This means no typing.
For those that say, 'You can dictate', well I can, but I would still need to type some. The dictation works for narration. Not so much for talking. It won't capitalize the first word after an open quote. That and for it to write a sentence with talking I have to say, 'open quote, sentence, comma, close quote'. That throws off my whole groove. I could go on, but let's keep it short and I'll just say, it doesn't work for me.
One more thing, romance is not something I do often, but this couple speaks to me.
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Michonne looked over her shoulder one more time. "Who was that?" she asked Sirius as they sat at a table. Her long braided hair flowed down her back. The armor that she was wearing was made of the many animals she had had to kill to survive. She had pants and a shirt under it all, and she was contemplating removing her top armor. It was hot here in Atlanta.
"That was the Grimms family. Rick, his wife Lori, and their son Carl," Sirius said, looking back at the family, who were still getting their food. He did note that Lori looked miffed.
"He doesn't look too particularly happy," she said, picking up her fork and looking as nonchalant as she could. She hadn't noticed that the family was now sitting behind her.
Lori was glaring at the newcomer. She didn't like the looks that woman kept giving her husband.
"I'm not one to gossip, but I can tell you this, there has been difficulties," the leader said in a whisper, nodding to the family.
"Oh," was all she said as she saw them. She looked back one more time at the family and saw that he was looking at her. And she blushed and turned her head away. "So, tell me more about what you have set up here," she changed the subject.
Sirius told her more about the structure of the community, and she nodded along. She made up her mind to stay at the camp. She preferred the outdoors. She was startled when more joined their table, she had been so enthralled at the set up, and then she was introduced to the group.
Harry was amazed at the looks of the new woman. She looked like the tales from the Amazons. A strong warrior woman. Most of the people that came looked like they were on death's door. "You've been on your own this whole time?" he asked in awe after she told a small part of her journey.
"Most of it. I lost some important people in the beginning, and I guess you could say that I wanted revenge. I've been hunting Walkers since," she replied, eating her meatloaf. She didn't want to think about her dead fiancé and child. Well, she didn't know if Andre, her son, was dead, but she didn't hold hope. The pain, the death, and the zombies put paid to that a long time ago.
"I'm sorry for your loss," Rick said from behind her, making Lori glare harder. He ignored her, and just kept looking at Michonne.
"Thank you," she said, nodding in his direction. She didn't know what it was about the man that made her feel like a woman. She hadn't felt that way in ages. Not since the beginning of this whole nightmare. She felt guilty over her budding feelings, but… She glanced his way again, but this time she met his eyes squarely. Neither looked away.
The rest of the table gave their condolences as well, causing the two to break their eye contact, and dinner moved on with the discussion of lighter topics.
The meal tent was huge now they had almost 400 people to feed, easy enough for the house elves. Still, Sirius was thinking they would need to do more runs soon. Maybe empty out one of the many, many apartment buildings. There had to be supplies aplenty in them. Nodding to himself, he planned on who to take.
"Rick, Glenn, Daryl, Michonne, Remus, Kingsley, and Tonks, we're going on a run after lunch. I want to clear out one of the apartment buildings," he said, looking at the people in question. "I want to show Michonne how we do it."
"Let's go for one of the condo places," Glenn said, thinking of the bits and pieces that might be in there. "They will have more stuff then say the slums," he added.
"More security too," Rick added, having turned himself completely around.
"We're wizards, locks won't keep us out," Remus said, giving the man a sly smirk.
"Locks fear us," Sirius added his two knuts worth, laughing with the rest of the magicals.
"If you say so," Rick said, laughing with them. He knew they spoke true. He had seen them get into many places that were tightly locked.
"We'll meet at the garage," Sirius said, putting his empty plate in the center of the table, showing Michonne what to do. She saw his disappear, so she did the same. Magic was wonderful.
The rest finished their meal, though Lori only picked at hers, and followed Sirius out of the tent, barring Rick who was waiting for his wife. They moved to the tent that housed all the flying vehicles. Michonne didn't know they could fly, and she would be in for quite a surprise when they took off. Sirius was looking forward to seeing her face.
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Rick and his family went out of the tent. Lori grabbed Rick and drug him to a private spot behind the structure.
"What the hell was that?" she hissed at him.
"What?" he asked confused.
"Mom," Carl whined, not liking it when she fought with his dad.
"Carl, go to your class, I want to talk to your dad," Lori said, crouching down to be her child's height.
"Are you going to fight?" the kid wanted to know, already knowing the answer.
"Of course not, sweetie," she blatantly lied. She just hoped he listened to her.
"Go on, Carl, we'll be nice to each other," Rick assured his son. He wasn't going to fight with his wife. She could say her piece, but he had better things to do.
Carl gave them both a doubtful look, but he ran off quick enough. He wanted to get away from the drama. When his mom got to complaining she didn't stop for ages. Even he was tired of it. He learned from Harry and the runners, that complaining didn't change anything. If you wanted something to be different, you had to ask, or do something to change it yourself. It had been a hard lesson for him, but he got there in the end.
"Why were you looking at that woman that way?" Lori asked, this time keeping her voice even.
"I have no idea what you are talking about. I was admiring how fit she was, nothing else. You have to admit, she doesn't look like the rest of the newcomers. Most don't look like that until months of self-defense training. Oh, sorry, I forgot you don't take that class," he added, looking pointedly at her protruding belly. It wasn't huge or anything, but you could tell she was expecting.
He still had not come to terms with the fact that she was carrying his best friend's child. No matter how much she apologized. The fact that she slept with someone else, him not even a month gone. No, he was still bitter.
"Don't start," she said, like it was a constant fight.
"I didn't say a word," he offered, then looked at his watch. "I have to go. They are expecting me." He turned and walked away, her eyes burning into his back.
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Sirius looked around for Rick. He really wanted the man along for this run, if just to see more drama play out. He had no love loss with Lori. She had been a whinger from the beginning, and she had not let up since. He had no problem helping Rick get away from that harpy. Not that he'd call her that to her face, but…
A few moments later Rick came running up. He looked put out, so Sirius let his tardiness go. "Glad you could join us," was all he said, nodding to the man.
The ex-sheriff, who finally wasn't wearing his uniform anymore, just shrugged.
They moved to get a van and a few motorbikes. Each vehicle was equipped with guns and crossbows. "Daryl, Kings, and I will take the motorcycles. The rest get the van," Sirius directed, knowing who was best with what.
Glenn got into the driver's seat of the van, and the other three got on the bikes. They took off out of camp, and once they got to the highway the vehicles all lifted in the air. Sirius was smug at Michonne's "What the fuck?" He heard Rick explain it to her, and he grinned.
"We're coming up on a horde!" he yelled, pointing to where he could see a group of Walkers. They veered off and went to shoot them down. They only used half of their ammo, for two reasons. One, they might need it later, and two, they didn't have an unending supply.
"Follow me," Glenn called out after the zombies were taken care of. He turned to the upper society part of town. He knew where a block of condos was. They followed him, landing on the roof of the tallest. Everyone got out and they met at the door to the inside.
"Okay, we don't know what's inside, so crossbows only. We," he pointed to the magicals, "will do piercing hexes. Stay out of our line of sight, and we'll do the same," Sirius said, mostly for Michonne's sake. They had all worked together before.
"I have my sword," she said, putting her hand on the hilt.
"Are you good with that?" Rick asked, worried about her for some reason.
"I'm here, aren't I?" she snapped back. Offended that he even asked.
"Sorry, I'm just…" he trailed off knowing that there wasn't anything he could say that would help him.
"Let's go," Sirius ordered, pointing his wand at the lock. With a spell the door opened. They all sat there listening for a few moments. Nothing.
They slowly made their way to the first door on that floor. It was locked, and there were signs that zombies had tried to open it. Scratches around the doorknob were there, like they scrambled to get inside, but could not.
Sirius lifted his finger to his lips and tapped the knob. It twisted and opened the door silently. He poked his head in and saw nothing. He nodded to Daryl, who ghosted into the apartment, followed by Kingsley, then the rest. When everyone was in, Sirius closed and locked the door. He did a human revealing spell, but the place was empty.
"Grab everything," he stated, handing out bags.
"What can I put in this?" Michonne asked, looking at the tiny bag.
"It's a bag of holding," Glenn said, grabbing the huge tv and shoving it in the bag.
"Why do you need the tv? There's no electricity," she stated, noting that they were truly taking everything. She had no clue as to why.
"We have electricity," was the rebuttal.
"But there are no stations. Everything went black," she stated, confused.
"We have movies. People can work extra for things like TVs and movies," Sirius explained as he waved his wand at the kitchen, making everything in there fly to his bag.
"Oh," she said, just realizing that maybe she had found a good place to stop at last.
"Welcome to our community," Rick said, giving her a welcoming smile.
"Where safety and magic are alive," Sirius added, also smiling.
She couldn't help but smile back.