I stand there, watching Thomas squirm on the ground. His cries getting weaker and more gargled. This is taking too long. I turn around to the group and look at Tony before saying,

“Alright; Tony, you and I are gonna go back to the farm after we get these bodies out of here. I want this place to be nice and clean before the kids get here.”

Tony nods his head as he glances at the bleeding Thomas behind me. After a second he nods his head and says,

“Yeah, sure.”

I look up at the sky and notice a few dark clouds on the horizon. I clear my throat and say,

“Alright. First, we’ll take a bit of a break. I imagine a few of us may need that right now. Myself included.”

Shane speaks up after me,

“You could say that again.”

Daryl shakes his head and says,

“Feel like I could sleep for a year.”

While we rest for a bit, I get the notification for Thomas’ death. I sit down and decide to check my status for the first time in forever since I got quite a few notifications during the clearing, while Daryl puts a round in the corpse’s skull. Plus, I felt like I was a little too strong compared to before.

—----------------------------

[Status:]

[Name: Penny Miller]

[Age: 20]

[Health: Healthy]

[Stamina: Fine]

[Points: 950p]

—

[Stats:]

[STR: 20]

[AGI: 16]

[DEX: 16]

[INT: 15]

—

[Skills:]

[Knife Fighting 3, Pistol Shooting 3, Psychological Strength 5 -> Calm Mind 1, Walker Killing 4, Shotgun Shooting 1, Rifle Shooting 2, Walker Sense 2, Shadow Fighting, Sword Fighting 3, First Aid 2, Assault Rifle Shooting 2, Dead Eye, Trap Detection 1]

—----------------------------

Ah, I see. That explains it. A lot of my skills leveled up, and I’m over twice as strong as I used to be. Psychological Strength changed to something called Calm Mind. I guess when a level five skill levels up it changes into something else? Well, none of my skills are close enough to test that theory, so for now I’ll just assume that most skills won’t. 

Looking through the store, I find a new skill that wasn’t there before.

 

[Archery 1 - 500p]

 

I go ahead and buy it since the rest of the skills aren’t really viable for me right now. Next up, I’m gonna save up for the mechanic skill. Or maybe Hostility Sense. That would definitely help when trying to work with other groups.

While taking a break, I go ahead and sharpen my knives and clean my guns. Andrea and Rick join me soon after, taking a seat at the wooden picnic table with me. As I finish putting together my pistol and take off my rifle, Andrea speaks to me,

“Well. I guess now would be a good time to talk about this while Amy isn’t here…”

I look up at her as I take out one of the pins to the gun,

“Yeah? Anything wrong?”

She shakes her head,

“No, not really. Just some stuff about her.”

I nod my head and put down the receiver, giving her my attention.

“I know that you two are… Close. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issues with her preferences. But I do want her to be happy.”

I look at her and then to Rick who gets very uncomfortable and says,

“I don’t guess this is a conversation I need to be a part of.”

He then starts getting up, earning a chuckle from Andrea and I. I look at Andrea and speak with her earnestly,

“I never expected to get feelings for anyone in our group. I have a rather… Unhealthy history when it comes to relationships. Before the whole apocalypse, I had only ever been in two relationships. The first was with a guy when I was like twelve, which made me realize I liked women. The second was with a girl named Regina. It was fun… But it was very clear that neither of us truly wanted to be in a relationship.”

I look out over the horizon as I continue,

“We ended up fighting so often that during my senior year of high school, we only talked once. When college started, we decided to finally call it off and just be friends. Which I’m thankful for. She was the best friend I could ever have, but she was not a good lover for me.”

I look back to Andrea and continue,

“Then I met a girl after the apocalypse. V. Short for Vanessa. I had been getting shot at and eventually ran into a house to escape the shots, where she came up to me and saved me. At least I thought she had. I made a very stupid decision and got drunk with her, which is where that story I told Thomas comes up. I ended up killing her. She was one of my first kills that wasn’t in self defense.”

Andrea nods her head and listens intently,

“When Amy confessed to me… I was happy… But I was also scared. My brain keeps telling me these stupid lies that I’ll end up killing her too, and so I just can’t… be with her right now.”

Andrea shakes her head and reaches out to take one of my hands, rubbing it with her thumb to comfort me. She speaks to me gently, a tone so off from who she was in the show,

“You’re not gonna kill her. You know that. This feeling and that feeling you had for V are two very different things. With V, you felt like she had saved you. Add onto that the liquid courage, and it’s no wonder you felt comfortable around her. She betrayed that trust in a very bad way. Amy would never do that.”

I nod my head and look down at our hands, saying,

“I know. I know she wouldn’t. She’s an absolute sweetheart who puts up with my bullshit no matter what it is.”

I look up at Andrea and then over the prison, eventually landing on the dead body of Thomas. I lower my head in defeat and say,

“Honestly, I’m more scared of becoming someone she could never love. This world is changing me. Or I guess it’s better to say that I’m changing with it. I went from being a college girl to a girl with more kills than the average soldier.”

Andrea shakes her head,

“We’ll all turn into that eventually. Amy included. Hell, I was about a second away from shooting that prisoner that tried to charge you before you did. And I’m sure most of us were wanting a chance to kill that bastard over there.”

She points her head over towards Thomas and squeezes my hands. We sit there in silence for a bit before she stands up and says,

“Well, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t playing with Amy. It’s clear that you aren’t. Thank you for putting up with my bullshit.”

I shake my head,

“Not at all. If it were my sister, I’d be concerned too.”

The conversation seems to go stale, so to keep it going,

“Sooooo… You and Shane?”

She looks at me with mild confusion before getting a slight blush,

“No! You got it wrong…”

I chuckle and say,

“Sure, sure. I think you two would make a cute couple.”

She looks down with a blush that’s honestly kinda adorable. But then she looks back up at me and says,

“Shane’s… got a few issues to work out before anything else.”

I nod my head and say,

“Lori, right?”

She looks surprised but nods her head. I sigh and say,

“I don’t get what he sees in her. I guess everyone’s got their own tastes, huh?”

She nods her head and takes a sip from her canteen. I lean back and let the sun hit my face, feeling it’s warmth easily cutting through the chill of the coming Autumn. I think for a second and chuckle before looking back at Andrea,

“We’re all kinda messed up, aren’t we?”

She scoffs and says,

“Yup. That’s what makes us human.”

I nod my head and look up at one of the clouds overhead. It slowly begins to cover the sun, casting shade onto me as I say,

“Guess that's true.”

---