Chapter 2: Morgan.
We walked along the road for a few minutes, still in silence, before coming across an overturned bike and an undead torso which snarled and reached out. This caused Rick to fall back with a little squeak before he picked up the bike and rode off.
He didn't go fast so I could jog to keep up with him, I looked back at the walker once before going along with Rick.
We ended up at his house soon after, he went inside and started shouting for his wife and son, all along frantically searching for them.
He broke down and started crying in his living room, hysterically hitting himself in his head. I walked over, placed my hand on his shoulder, and calmly said "Calm down."
"Look they're probably fine. This house doesn't look like it's been looted, the only thing missing is the pictures on the walls."
He looked over at the walls after he stopped hitting himself and finally noticed the missing pictures.
At the sight he stood up with a smile on his face before running out through the open door. He didn't get far though as shortly after he left a loud *thunk* was heard before he collapsed back into the house.
I quickly ran out to see a small boy standing over Rick with a shovel shouting about knocking him down.
"Daddy, Daddy I got the sumbitch, Ima smack him dead!" the boy shouted before raising the shovel again.
I grabbed the shovel and shouted towards the man who was approaching the walker coming up the street.
"Hey what the hell is wrong with you people? Why'd you hit him with a shovel?" I said to Morgan.
I had to keep up my façade of unknowing before he explained everything.
Morgan pulled his gun before putting the Walker down and pointing it at me.
I dropped the shovel and held up my hands "Whoa," I said "what the hell is going on?"
"That bandage on your friend's chest, what's it from?" Morgan said, still pointing the gun at me.
"He got shot. We're policemen." I said back. "Now could you please lower your weapon and explain what the hell is going on."
Morgan lowered his gun before glancing around and pointing to a nearby house.
"Grab your friend and follow me there, we don't wanna be out here when they start gathering."
He then grabbed his son and walked into the house.
I knew they wouldn't shoot us as they were just a little cautious, so I grabbed Rick in a princess carry and walked into the house.
It wasn't until about 3 hours later that Rick woke up. During that time Morgan had filled me in on everything that had happened in the past two months.
To be honest it was quite informative. I learned quite a lot of things from him that I didn't from the show.
Morgan's voice was pretty grating though, I had to take a break halfway through.
As Rick was being filled in I stepped into another room and pretended to look around while I talked to Z.
'So can you do anything Z, like those systems in novels?'
(What am I? A dog? You want me to do tricks c'mon man.)
'Hahaha nah man sorry, it's just...I don't really feel safe in a world where it's one bite and you're done.'
(I feel ya man. Lucky for your sorry ass, I've got just the thing for you.)
'For fucks sake man. Really? Don't keep me in suspense.'
(Haha. Yeah three things I can do, plus a little knowledge for ya.)
'Great, go on.'
At that the same transparent screen from earlier appeared with some information on it.
It was long and wordy but the jist of it was this:
# Ability to use a minimap that scales off of my mind stat.
# Ability to store anything I have copied, which I can do to anything.
# Ability to appraise anything, people or objects.
# In order to use my ability I needed to use energy and I needed to be in close proximity to my target.
And perhaps the most jaw dropping one,
# Other beings would gain skills as well.
I was pretty awestruck by that last one. I used my appraisal on Rick just to make sure and I saw something which I half expected.
/Name: Rick Grimes
Status: Healthy
Skills: Berserker (Lvl1), Intimidation (Lvl1)
Traits: Sharpshooter, Survivor, Alive, Natural Leader/
It made sense that he already had skills, he was the main character after all. What surprised me was that Morgan and Duane didn't have any skills, plus their only traits were Alive and Survivor.
It seemed that skills were pretty rare, which was both good and bad. Good because the storyline would change too much if there were a lot of people with powers; bad because it would be harder to find skills for me to steal.
I looked into Rick's skill descriptions:
/Berserker - Level 1 - The user enters a state of rage, negating physical attacks. This halfs the mind stat of the user whilst in this state (Skill is active until the user's energy depletes)/
/Intimidation - Level 1 - Allows the user to exude an intimidating aura. Causes enemies with low willpower to enter a state of fear (Skill is passive and so doesn't have an energy consumption)/
Both skills looked pretty good and they fit Rick very well. I decided to try my Copy-Paste skill for the first time on his Intimidation skill.
/You have gained the skill /Intimidation (lvl1)/
I checked my energy stay and it had decreased by 30, I felt pretty tired after that.
Luckily it was then that we all sat down for dinner, though it was only some baked beans, not exactly a stomach filling meal.
After the unfulfilling meal we settled into the living room to sleep.
Although I was tired, I couldn't find it in me to sleep yet. So I decided to appraise the guns I had found earlier.
/Item: BAR Safari
Status: Broken
Description: A damaged semi-automatic rifle chambered in 30-06. The internals are extremely damaged and the barrel is bent. The magazine remains undamaged and holds four rounds./
I took it apart to make sure and the appraisal was right, it must have been left there for a reason as it's internals were fucked.
/Item: Mossberg 500
Status: Usable
Description: A shotgun that is usable, it shoots shells. The internals are in good condition, though it could use a clean. The gun holds five rounds in the pipe and one in the chamber/
I couldn't see myself using a shotgun but I could give it to the group later.
/Item: M4A1
Status: Good
Description: An automatic rifle in good condition chambered in 5.56. The internals are in good condition and will hold up for a long time. It is equipped with a red dot scope for close range combat. The magazine holds a maximum of 30 rounds/
The last one was very good. Throughout the start of the show automatic weapons were quite scarce but they were very useful later on.
*Car alarm sounds*
I was shocked from my screen by the sudden blaring of a car alarm outside. Everyone else also jumped.
"Calm down. It's nothing, one of them must have bumped a car." Morgan said in a low tone as he stroked his son's hair.
"Are you sure?" Rick asked, to which he replied with a nod before expanding.
"It happened before, went on for a few minutes..." He scrambled to stand up and grabbed his gun. "Duane get the light."
Duane turned the lamp off and we peaked through the windows.
It was a car down the street where most of the walkers were heading.
One however didn't head for the sound, Morgan's wife.
It was honestly fascinating how the zombie seemed to remember where it had stayed.
Rick and Morgan had a heart to heart whilst I appraised the walker through the peep hole.
/Species: Zombie(Lvl1)
Status: Walker
Skills: None
Traits: Undead/
There was nothing special about her so I couldn't understand how she turned the handle.
I decided to leave it as my tiredness finally started to overwhelm me. I knew that none of the other three in the room would do anything as I slept so I succumbed to the exhaustion and ended my first day in this world.
#####
By the time I awoke I saw Rick and Morgan gearing up to head outside.
I joined them and got to witness Rick's first zombie kill, he had changed his clothes and had a visor over his face as he smashed the skull of an approaching walker.
He stood gasping for a moment afterwards, to be honest I would probably be worse off if I had done it.
I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that I had to kill zombies to survive, slowly but surely.
We headed down the road aways to Rick's house. Entering the front door Rick starts to go about how his family is alive due to the lack of photos and clothing.
Morgan had a little crisis as he remembered his wife doing the same.
Duane suggests that they are probably in Atlanta due to the refugee centre that was broadcast on the radio, as well as the CDC.
I didn't quite know what to do about these places. I knew from the show that Atlanta was fucked, but I also knew that we probably needed to go there to figure out where the group's camp was.
The CDC was a bust, but it was where everyone learned about the virus, plus it had a lot of supplies that I could copy and store.
I was honestly torn but I decided to follow the show.
Rick walked to the kitchen to grab some keys after hearing about Atlanta and we all headed out the door.
###
We soon arrived at the police station.
We all entered through the backdoor and were more than delighted to find that there was hot water to shower with.
After a long and pretty weird shower we got dry and dressed before heading for the gunroom.
It was a sight for sore eyes, It must have been some kind of plot armour that it hadn't been completely ransacked.
It was mostly shotguns and handguns: 22 handguns and 12 shotguns.
There were three rifles remaining though.
Two Remington 700's and, much to my glee, a BAR Safari.
Sadly there were only around 40 rounds for the BAR, though that wasn't very hard for me.
I took the rifle and a Glock 17, which I strapped to my newly acquired utility belt.
I took as much ammo as I could carry in my duffle bag as well as the M4A1 from earlier and about 12 of the handguns.
Rick got the other rifle and seven shotguns as well as about 300 rounds of ammunition.
There was still a lot left over which I stored in my inventory.
I only did this after they left of course, I told them to go on ahead as I tied my lace before storing everything else and turning off the light.
We left through the same door we came in and headed towards the police cars lined up in the lot.
Morgan and Duane decided to stay put and Rick gave Morgan a walkie-talkie.
"I'll turn mine on everyday at dawn. That's how you'll find me." They shook hands before finally parting ways as Morgan headed to his new car.
I was waiting for the zombie in the show to appear for a bit after that only to be snapped back by Z's voice.
'It won't turn up dumbass. That zombie was you.'
"Well shit." I said with a look of realisation before I turned around and followed Rick.
"Don't you have some place to go?" Rick asked as I took the seat next to him in the car.
"Afraid not. My mom died when I was 13, and I never knew my dad. It alright if I stay with you?" I replied. It was a true story, not some sob story I made up on the spot.
"Yeah, sorry for bringing it up." He said back as I just shrugged it off. It was a long while ago and she lived a good life, I wasn't sad about it anymore.
As we drove down the block aways I remembered something important, as did Rick.
He pulled up to the half of a zombie we saw earlier. When Rick had his moment putting it out of its misery, I ran into the yard and cut a length of pipe from a hose in the garden.
I knew we'd be needing fuel in a little while and didn't want to have to go riding bitch on a horse with Mr Cowboy here.
*BANG*
Rick fired his shot before getting back in the car and driving away.
He looked at me weird when he saw the hose pipe in my hand.
"In case we need gas later on." I said while pointing at his meter which was only about a quarter full.
"You think ahead." he said with a surprised look.
"Can't afford not too." I replied back curtly. "Not anymore."
He nodded his head and took off driving towards Atlanta.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone