Adventures Of Bayek: Through The Void And Beyond

Maggie was laying on the bed, staring at the wall thinking about god knows what. She lifts her hands to eye level and stare at the blisters on her right hand that she acquired last night from the chisa katana.

Knock knock…. Could be heard from the door and she turns her head to see her father, Hershel, walked into the room.

"Maggie, how are you feeling?"-Hershel

"Not bad, although my muscles are extremely sore, I'll be up and moving tomorrow…I think"- Maggie

"Yes, you should be able to get moving tomorrow. However, I was referring to your mental state. This morning…when those people brought you back back, Maggie. You looked like a horror film, what happen at the high school?"-Hershel

"Daddy… My mental state is the clearest it's ever been since the world got sick... I tried to tell him daddy, I tried to tell him that those people were sick, they need help, and that a cure would come eventually…"

Tears started wailed up in Maggie's eyes "I tried to tell him what you told me…I wanted to believe every word I said because if I didn't, that would mean he was right and those things… those things are monsters…"

Hershel looked at his daughter and he could see the internal conflict of emotions and his heart began to shake

She continued, "And in that barn down there, is my mom, Shawn, Mr. and Mrs. Fischer, Lacey, Duncan. I want to believe that they can come back… but last night, last night daddy. If you were there… you go down to that barn and put a bullet in to each one of their heads…"

Hershel began to shed tears also, remembering the state that his daughter was in, hearing her words now, fighting against his beliefs, and realizing his unwillingness to accept the truth could have gotten his daughter killed someday.

Maggie continued, "Because whatever is inside of those…. corpses... and turned them into those…'things'… are a disrespect to our people's lives and their bodies! Daddy, they do things that should never be allowed on this earth and the only cure for them… is true death."

As Maggie finished talking, she whipped her tears away with her left hand and turned her face away from Hershel, she loved her father but, she felt lied to, slightly betrayed. She knew her father was a smart man and he told her and Beth the very opposite of what he knew to be the truth.

Hershel in emotional turmoil and with tears of his own, turned around to walk out the room only to be greeted by his second daughter who looked utterly distraught.

"Beth..."-Hershel

And hearing Hershel's words Maggie threw her head around to face the door to see her ghost faced sister

Beth fell into a state of shock and walked off just about as lifeless as the dead, a perfect Imitation of a walker.

Back in the bedroom that Bayek was staying, he laid there for a moment before getting up and getting to business. Walking outside Bayek went straight to his tent. It was a spacious tent. The group had passed a Kroger and Bayek thought it would be a good idea to grab a couple of those big twelve feet by ten feet 'Ozark Trail' tents. Mosquitoes in the summer, carried active virus DNA.

Opening up the tent doors. Bayek laid his eyes on a Sleeping Benji and Hazel. He liked Benji. He was a good kid with nerves of steel, and he was picking up archery with ease. Bayek hoped that sometime in the future he would be as good as Hazel.

Grabbing the map and things he need, Bayek left the tent quietly and went around waking some people up...

"Hey, meet in the big house." Was all he said to them.

A few people from the group, after recuperating and replenishing their gear, went back out during the dark morning to find Maggie and Bayek. When they came back, they crashed. Bayek, hated to wake them after they came back for him. But shit had to get down and Bayek couldn't do it by himself, in a timely manner.

Walking into the big house, Bayek found Hershel in the kitchen , staring at a bottle of single barrel whiskey.

"Hey, it's not about what's done to us. It's about how we react to it." Bayek said in a low voice then grabbed the whiskey bottle to pour himself a drink.

"It was cold f.u.c.k.i.n.g world before the apocalypse. Did you expect it to get better with dead people hunting us to eat our guts."

Hershel just looked at him, a little confused

"Suck it up, we need to talk business." Bayek downed his glass and passed then poured Hershel a drink.

"You look about 20, yet you handled that boy's injury like you've been doing this stuff for years. And talk like you've lived a full life."

Bayek just smiled at Hershel " I've been told I have an old soul. It was just simple field medicine. You did the real work, remember?"

Hershel thought and nodded. Taking a sip from his glass. From that point on the two men drunk in silence. Shortly after, People began filing in. The first to arrive was Morales, Then Finn, Em, April and Max. Bayek didn't wake any of Rick's people.

"Alright, first I want to say thank you. Now moving to business" Bayek started to explain the rout he plotted to New Orleans. With a few tactical stops along the way. He then divided up the vehicles and assigned people to re organize them and take inventory.

"What about Rick and his family?" Hershel asked

"Rick can do whatever he wants, I just hope you let him stay here. It's a dangerous world out there"

"Hmm, if he's a man. He'll have to come speak to me for his own people."

Bayek gave him a nod and carried on with his plan of action

Sometime later, Rick and his people woke up to the commotion. It looked the trucks were being gutted and putt back to gather. They didn't know what to think of it. Rick walked to Bayek's tent to ask him what was going and Bayek gave him a simple reply.

"My people and I are leaving."

"Why? The world Is a mess out there. There's nothing but death and misery"

"Well, death and misery it is. But we're leaving and you can talk to Hershel about staying or you can keep going to Ft Benning."

Bayek walked to his tent doors and opened them, gesturing to Rick, to get out.

While the team was dealing with inventory, I went to check on Maggie. When I got to her room, she was laying in bed, staring at the sealing. Looking at her now, she looked like every other human. But deep down I knew that wasn't the case. Her veins had returned to normal; her eyes had cleared, and the stench was gone. Though she had changed in a way I wouldn't be around to see... Like a breeze, I vanished before she realized I was there.

For the rest of the day I practiced Archery with Benji. When nightfall came. We knew exactly what we had and what we needed . The next morning. We packed our tents and hit the road.