Walking Dead Wizard
Chapter 29
They quickly found the gas station; there were large signs up 'no more gas' hanging on both pumps, the area looked deserted but Harry more than anyone else knew how deceptive appearances could be. Harry entered the RV and grabbed three gas containers and a hose just in case Merle took the only other canister and hose they had. "Dale go up top, it will give us a birds eye view, Andrea, Amy stick to the back of the RV, Carol stay at the front, whistle if you need us or see anything. Everyone sticks together, at least two people at all times, nobody goes off alone." with that Harry jogged over to the pump, Daryl close to his back as always, lodging the nozzle inside the canister, and pressed to see if anything would come out, unsurprisingly nothing did he hadn't expected anything to due to the signs. Pressing his magic through the hose, summoning the gas, watching as it did began to pour into the canister. Cursing in surprise when it overflowed, cancelling his magic, he grimaced in disgust, trying to flick the greasy gas from his hands it didn't work, finding faded white paper he grabbed it and wiped his hands. Screwing the cap on he did the same with the other two canisters, so much for 'no more gas' he thought sardonically.
"That's all we can take," Harry commented idly as he stood, his eyes zooming around the area for their missing members. Luna and Merle were not nearby, but he found them, Merle it looked as though he was opening cars to see what they had available in terms of gas while Luna searched the back of the cars for anything and everything. Maybe he should have used a spell on one of the containers to expand it to fit all the gas that was here inside it but there were plenty of gas stations he could come by on his own one day without arousing suspicion.
"Can I help them?" Carol asked, her gray cardigan wrapped snugly around her frame, she looked bored, and she wanted to help them someway instead of just standing there.
"You don't have to ask, just let someone know where you are," Harry declared, giving her a firm nod. "By the looks of what Luna's putting side you might want to grab a few bags." he grinned wryly, shaking his head, "You should look for stuff for yourself, Sophia and the others too if you come across anything." there were over a dozen cars along the street, probably enough to fill the last canister that Merle had. At least they weren't going to have to worry about gas for a while, well after they got to the prison at least.
Carol gave a soft laugh before she went into the RV to get a few bags before wandering over to Luna and Merle content to help.
"Yo, there's a full tank here," Merle said with a proud smirk. As he put the hose into the tank and grimaced when the gas hit his mouth as he inhaled to get it coming out quickly stuffing the other end into the black canister.
Harry cursed when he saw a Walker; Merle's loud voice had obviously attracted it. He was just about to stealthy make his way towards it when an arrow went zooming past, catching the walker in the temple causing it to fall down. Un-holstering his knife he made his way over to the area, his body tense and alert, Daryl doing the same making his way for the walker to claim his arrow back. Another loudly made its appearance causing Harry to quickly yank his knife into its brain silencing it.
Another five appeared out of someone's back yard, breaking down the white picket fence as if it were nothing. "I wish I had my bow," Harry grumbled, making a mental note to keep it with him more often. He wasn't going to use guns not when there were enough people here to take care of them without using them. That and he couldn't expect the others to refrain from using their guns if he was going to whenever he wanted.
Daryl quickly took care of one, refilling his crossbow, while two made their way directly for Harry; another two broke off to the left, but not for long as Luna swiftly decapitated them in one smooth stroke of her sword. Harry kicked one away from him knocking it down as he stabbed the other one, before dealing with the one he'd knocked down which had just grabbed his ankle which was safe due to his boots. He regained his bearings to see Luna jabbing her sword into their eyes stilling the snarling heads.
"Keep going, we're heading off in ten minutes so be quick," Harry commented, wiping the blood off his dagger onto his trousers before sheathing it again only once he was sure the area was clear for now.
Harry wandered towards the furthest car in the little cul-de-sac and began to inspect it. The tank was empty, was the first thing he noticed as he opened the door. The keys were still in the ignition, but the car itself was dirty so it had been lying for a while. Searching the car absently, keeping an eye out every few seconds just to be on the safe side. He found a green medical kit in the glove box, a few packets of unopened biscuits under the seat. He took them all and the keys to check the boot or trunk as the others called it.
"Here," Carol said making her way over to him, causing Harry to glance back, Merle and Luna were on the last car not too far from him. She placed the large white laundry basket on the floor, before helping him go through everything. The bag she had contained mostly clothes for a man, but she put anything decent into the basket, but at the very bottom she found a gun and a box of ammunition.
"Looks like whoever it was, was ready for the apocalypse," Harry mused thoughtfully as he removed a few knives and a sword. There were a few gaudy shirts that looked as if someone from Hawaii would only wear. Dale would probably like them; he certainly wore his fair share of shirts like that he added them to the pile anyway. "Aspirin, antibiotic cream, bandages, antibiotics, and a few other medications can't hurt to take them." he flung them in too, and before long the cars had been picked clean of anything useful.
"Music really plays on that?" Luna asked incredulously, staring at Merle as if he had grown a second head from the car they were clearing out. She'd flung it aside disinterestedly and Merle had claimed it instead, proclaiming he'd keep it if there were any decent songs on it.
Merle smirked at her, "It's called an I-pod." unwinding the earphones he flicked it on and offered her one, "Put it to your ear." he grunted as he pressed shuffle and let the music play. "Won't last long, ain't any power to charge em."
Luna's eyes widened in surprise when music did come from the earphones.
Merle stared at her in contemplation; she'd really never seen one before? No wonder Harry didn't want her near Rick or Shane, they would have known there was something weird right away. Even he knew what they were and he was just a redneck from a cabin in the remote areas of Atlanta. Seeing the genuine delight spreading across her face caused something uncomfortable in chest, that and a odd feeling of pride that he'd put it there in the first place. "Keep it," Merle grumbled, getting out of the car, his brother heard him and gave him a strange look.
Luna got out of the car, still listening to the song, when she noticed an apple tree, it reminded her of home. Gripping her sword tightly, she wandered over, her footsteps silent and her blue eyes ever watchful, even after the war she'd kept her caution, some would say it was paranoia but she'd spent a year almost under Malfoy Manor being tortured so she'd rather be thought of as paranoid than dead. Her poor father hadn't had a clue on how to deal with it all. He felt to blame for what happened, and Luna had scolded him for trying to get Harry caught, it was the one time in her life where she'd felt disappointed in her father. Thankfully he hadn't succeeded, otherwise she dead to think of what would have happened.
Between Carol and Merle the last trunk was checked thoroughly within a few minutes. Carol was quite ecstatic as she found quite a lot of teenager clothes that would fit Sophia either now or quite soon in the future. She even took the trainers, you never knew how long the boots she had would last, and she definitely would need footwear.
"Damn it Luna, I warned you about going off on your own!" Harry hissed as he jogged over, he saw her grabbing apples from a tree and placing them in her t-shirt clutching the other side so the apples didn't fall. She was checking to make sure they were whole before she added them not taking any that was bashed or broken.
"Harry there's a vegetable garden around here, full of fruit and vegetables, why don't you get something so we can take some with us?" Luna suggested.
"Or take everything," Harry suggested rounding the back of the property, "Taking it all down might be worth setting up at the prison or wherever we go."
"Nobody else is here," Luna pointed out, "We could just shrink it." she added in a whisper.
"No, they'd ask how the hell it got there," Harry shook his head, "I'm surprised they've not asked how the hell I had so many guns to hand out. We can put it all in the van if we can, it will definitely come in handy. Fresh fruit and vegetable will be impossible to find otherwise. Let's go see the others and get this done; it's bound to be ten minutes by now."
Both of them walked away, Luna had her arms full to the brim of apples.
Harry asked, "Daryl could you bring the van closer for me please, there's some stuff we want to move in here." he wished he could do it himself, but he'd probably make a million mistakes and probably end up damaging it.
Daryl nodded and moved off towards the van.
"We have four canisters, which is more than enough to get us to the prison and if its not doable then we should have enough to get us on the road to somewhere else." Harry stated, relaxing, he felt a lot better than he had in months. The past few weeks had been tough on him, seeing Rick bumbling around, admittedly he'd calmed somewhat at the farm. But Harry hadn't been able to calm down because he'd known it was a disaster waiting to happen. Then there was Shane and bloody Randall to deal with. This was much easier, even if he had to lead - he now had a purpose and it was a good thing.
Merle grunted out an agreement.
"I'll be right back," Harry said absently, beginning to walk around the house again, the others followed him taking his words earlier to heart. Merle and Luna followed him, Merle as always silent. "Luna, what exactly did you say to Shane the other day there?" he had been meaning to ask but with everything that had happened afterwards it just didn't seem important.
"He was hitting on me," Luna shrugged, "I told him even if he was the last guy on earth I would never sleep with him. He laughed thinking I was joking, I got angry and then I said I'd never be with a traitorous arsehole that would kill someone just to survive like he did Otis. He grabbed my arm then demanding to know who I'd been talking to, trying to threaten to into keeping quiet…that's when you came and punched him in the jaw."
"I should have killed him when I had the chance," Harry gritted his teeth; "He should consider himself lucky that he is dead." although he wished Carl hadn't had to take part in it.
"I'll get the vegetables," Luna said absently, hoping someone would come with some sort of carrier bag or something to put them in. There was a small vegetable patch nearby, whether there would be anything of use dug underneath remained to be seen.
"Okay," Harry said sliding the green house door open, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, French beans, chillies, aubergines, sweetcorn even onions, carrots and strawberries in grow bags and pots. Lemon, lime and pear trees. Peaches and even grapes, they'd definitely hit the jackpot with this. Grabbing the first of the many he planned on taking, when he got out he found everyone in the garden.
"We needed to turn the RV around anyway," Andrea commented, "I'll take it," she said eager to help instead of standing around doing nothing. She didn't give Harry a chance to say anything before taking it and quickly wandering off to the van which Daryl had backed up over the broken fence and walkers to get everything done quicker. With that they all began to take what they could from the greenhouse.
"Would you look at this? A whole box of seeds," Carol said as she carried it out, it would definitely bear keeping.
"Probably find an even bigger selection in a garden store, nobody thinks we better take all the gardening seeds," Harry grinned wryly, unable to help himself fortunately Carol was already well aware of his humour having been speaking to him from time to time while back at the quarry. So she just gave him a humorous look before sliding the box of seeds into the van.
"If we do stay at this prison there will be enough room to plant things," Andrea commented, "It would be absolutely perfect."
"Don't count your chickens," Harry cautioned her as he passed. "The prison might not be a good fit, I hope it is, but it might not."
"We know," Amy said, "We hope it is though, I thought you were nuts at first when you mentioned it but now that I've had time to think about it…you're right, we would be able to sleep soundly probably for the first time since this all happened."
"Nuts eh?" Harry grinned, "Truthfully though it was Luna that spotted it."
"I did," Luna agreed, "That's everything eatable pulled from the patch." Sophia nodded eagerly besides her, having been helping her, well that and watch Anubis run around like a maniac chasing his tail causing her to giggle in delight.
"Take any tools you see as well," Harry called out to the others. Relaxing slightly, they all seemed to work well together, no snide remarks, no arguing or disputes just hard work to get everything done. Was it because they were a smaller group or because there was no conflict between the people here? Had Lori truly kept everyone constantly on edge? Or was the fact they were able to feel useful truly useful that was causing this? He didn't know and probably wasn't likely to find out any time soon.
"There are herbs in the house," Luna said recognising them immediately. Thyme, Rosemary, sage, Parsley, chives, bay and basil.
"Don't go alone," Harry warned her as he lugged the large citrus fruit tree along to the van.
"I got it," Merle said, quick to follow Luna.
"Should we search inside? It looks pretty untouched?" Andrea suggested.
"Wait until Merle and Luna have searched from top to bottom if you do, and it better be a quick search, we aren't sticking around, we've been here too long as it is and we're wasting daylight, we can't drive in the dark its too dangerous especially with all the roads being jam packed with cars. We can't risk walkers finding us while we're trying to get through jams." Harry said sighing in relief as he finally put the heavy bloody thing into the van. His back was beginning to ache and strain from all the heavy lifting. Between them all they'd managed to get just about everything in, he estimated only a few more things left in there that they could actually take with them. The rest had been picked dry, they'd definitely be eating a lot of fruit and vegetables in the coming days, and he couldn't freeze or preserve them in his trunk unless he just picked a few things of everything to put in.
"Hey, Harry you said to look out for dog food right? Well there's a large bag of it here, might even be cans too!" Luna said poking her head around the door.
Harry just groaned they'd be here all day at this rate. "Everyone has ten minutes to get whatever the hell they want from that house before we're driving away…starting now. And by the way you might want to take duvets if you see one; I doubt it will be warm in a prison especially without heat. Sophia stay next to your mother, do not wander off."
With that Harry stalked into the kitchen and grabbed the dog food and also nicked the bowls, they were better than the ones he'd transfigured at any rate. While everyone scavenged around in the house, Harry poured some kibble into the bowl for Anubis who quickly and eagerly began to eat as much as he possibly could. He also risked pouring some water from his wand into the bowl, but nobody would see him due to the fact his back was to the house - he hoped.
Ten minutes later they all came happily clambering from the house, their arms laden down with bags of stuff they evidently wanted. "Did you even bother to leave anything behind?" he teased them his eyes slightly wide. "Alright, everyone get everything into either the RV or the van, Merle can you equally distribute the gas into the vehicles enough to get us to the prison at least?"
Merle nodded wordlessly before grabbing the canisters someone must have moved to the RV after he had ran down the road to deal with the walkers. Harry absently filled the bowl again and got into the RV and put them down for Anubis it was probably the first time he'd had actual dog food in months.
"It's too bad we couldn't do a few more houses, who knows when this stuff might come in handy?" Andrea said as she watched Merle fill the van.
"We're taking refuge in a house tonight when it gets dark, you might get lucky again but don't count on it…this is probably a rare find." Harry smirked, "A lot of properties were probably raided during the first month,"
"No, I think it will have been shops that were first, then houses later when everyone grew more desperate." Andrea gave her own opinion.
"Perhaps," Harry nodded thoughtfully, "Alright let's get the show on the road." everything was packed away in the van or RV and the gas was distributed it was time for them to leave and get as far as they could before nightfall. With that Harry moved towards the truck and joined Daryl as they began to move away from the houses and small gas station.
"Are you really alright with going to the prison?" Harry asked, idly watching the scenery passing by. "I can't help but get the feeling you really don't want to go anywhere near one."
"Why? Cus you think I've been in one?" Daryl barked out in annoyance.
"Where the hell did you come to that conclusion?" Harry scoffed in his own annoyance, his anger shimmering under the surface. "Do not try and tell me what the hell I think Daryl Dixon, stop the damn truck!" as soon as Daryl had slowed down Harry was out of the truck closing the door seeing Daryl already biting heavily on his nail, Harry quickly made for the RV. It would be the last time he showed him any concern. The van ahead had stopped until Harry signalled for him to keep going from the RV then the three vehicles continued on.
it's going to be eight months between Harry finding the prison and when Rick originally finds it...will Daryl and Harry bump into them scavenging earlier OR will it happen as it meant to? with Rick trying to get into the prison? thinking its free and clear? I know you're all desperate to see a lot of Daryl/Harry talking but there's only so much i can do with a guy who barely talks :D but i'm getting the hang of it! so who do you think Daryl should discuss? how his brother was never there and leave the father for another time or both? i know he only gives out snippets :P am i making Merle's change subtle but noticeable to the people reading? R&R please!