"*Huff* *Huff* *Huff*, h-how are you still standing?" Amy looked up from the ground at Sasuke who finally came to a halt; this was their fourth time she and her sister had joined him for morning exercise, and it was getting harder by the time.
"Hm, Should I drop down?"
"You are carrying a damn tree; you run *huff* what? Triple our distance?" Daryl, who joined for the first time, sat on the ground sweating; he was the second to last the longest, but that didn't feel like an achievement at all when you compare it to that ninja.
Andrea gasped, grabbing at her sides; she felt like vomiting as she answered Daryl.
"Quadruple, passed by me 3 times on my first lap, then three on my second, and damn 5 times before I finished my third...monster, you are a fucking monster, Sasuke. Are you sure you are eating the same food as us?"
Katniss couldn't even talk; she was stubborn and pushed herself more, but she still lost to Daryl, coming third in who ran the most distance.
Sasuke? He wasn't even in her current to-beat list.
'I wouldn't have lost to Daryl if he hadn't done that last night.' She closed her legs remembering the awesome feeling of pleasure Sasuke made her experience; fortunately, she was already a mess, thus no one noticed the deep blush.
"You guys wanted to join the morning exercise; well...this is it." Sasuke tossed the trunk he was holding on his shoulder aside and stretched his muscles.
The original Sasuke wasn't one to go for physical strength; he was strong but focused on agility more.
But here, he decided to focus on his body's strength and stamina more.
What no one knows is that the tree was a mere addition by now; the weight seal had limits, unfortunately, thus he added the trunk.
His speed is good; he needed the juice to keep going for the longest time he could, at least until he was sure hordes in great numbers won't tire him.
"Take it after water; you won't feel hungry for 5 hours, as this will replenish whatever your body lost and more, so don't force food into your stomach; wait five hours or don't take it from now." Sasuke tossed a soldier pill to each of the four tired people. Which was just something resembling a rice ball, and brown.
"What's this?"
"Good shit, bad taste," he let them see for themselves.
Daryl, curious, took one and munched it; he forced it down his throat.
"Tastes like mud, your version of energy drink—whoa, that's new..."
"Are you feeling it? You would need to offer that stinky ass in the clan if you knew its damn price Daly, and even then, no one would've taken you on that offer. A thank you would be nice, though."
Amy stifled a laugh, swallowing the one in her hand just to scrunch her face. Mud? That tasted like wet hair; don't even ask how she get that.
They all agreed that the taste was awful, yet everyone showed surprised looks shortly after; they were standing up a few minutes later like all of the effort and exhaustion was a dream, their bodies full with energy.
"This is...amazing."
"Are you sure it's not dope? Drugs?" Daryl asked him, flexing his muscles and feeling no more ache.
"Don't get used to the feeling; this is just because I felt generous today. Let's go back."
"You won't eat one?" Amy asked him curiously, seeing how he didn't consume one.
"Nah, I'm good."
Katniss closed on to him, pinched his hip and whispered to him. "You already have that scary stamina; you aren't planning to consume this when we do it right? Right? Hey Sasuke...are you going to give me one?" She shivered at the thought of being bedded by this ninja.
Sasuke just had too many unusual things on him. He could stretch his damn tongue...she didn't want to imagine what would happen to her if the thing that choked her back in the CDC got any longer.
"Why are you looking at me? I'm damn virgin; I don't know what is going to happen." He decided to be honest; he had no idea what was going to happen in case of full intercourse.
She opened her mouth agape hearing that.
"You're joking, right? Nobody gave you the green light even with that face and body?"
"You think I had that on my mind?"
They kept beckering as they made it back. Sasuke joined in eating the breakfast cooked by Jess, Jenny, and Alena while others watched, experiencing the one downside of the pill.
You will feel stuffed even with delicious food in sight.
They suddenly realized why Sasuke refused to consume one.
'Did he smirk? Sneaky bastard.' Daryl rubbed his forehead; that pancake there looked delicious, yet he felt like vomiting when he swallowed the first bite.
After finishing, Sasuke signaled for Daryl to come to the side.
"Hey, I need your help with something."
"Shoot," Daryl nodded.
"We were planning to take food to those 4, right, so I thought...how about a test? I have something to announce later, and I need that thing clear from now."
Daryl became interested in that.
"What test?"
"Moral test, humanity test, IQ test—I still don't know how to call it. Anyway, I need you to act as a clueless guy, a bait to see what they are made of. I will be close watching your back; just tone down your instincts and give them an opening to act. It will help to see just what kind of people they really are. Remember, they still think it's just us four in here."
After detailing the plan, Daryl nodded, agreeing to it.
He took the food prepared for the prisoners, as Sasuke had already told others what happened and his thoughts about them.
And soon Daryl was in front of cellblock B; Oscar was up, sitting on the stairs and reading a book that Sasuke gave them to pass time.
"Your breakfast"
"Thanks, yesterday's pizza... It tasted amazing; thank that bow girl for us." Daryl nodded not correcting him, keeping his gun and ready to act.
He waited patiently for others to eat before telling them they need to get out, move corpses to the field, and burn them.
"We can at least relax for some time outside in the sun. Yeah, bro?" Axel asked him, and Daryl nodded again.
He followed behind them, opened the exit, and they stepped into the sunlight.
The corpses Sasuke helped move were nearby.
"You will need to move them to the yard there and burn them. I got some gasoline here." He passed them the bottle and watched from the side.
What no one saw was a man standing upside down under a shadowed dark spot on the roof of a building nearby.
Sasuke, sticking to its surface and keeping himself hidden, watched all of this unfolding, his gun aimed and ready to drop whoever made a move.
'They aren't hostile, but as expected, he is ruthless.' Sasuke watched the man with a cobra tattoo named Thomas gripping a walker's arm sneakily.
He then forced it apart until the sharp bone was outside the rotten flesh, gripping the hollow part in the middle. He acted as if he was about to lift it, and with a wet squelch, he pulled the bone.
He turned around to look, anxious, but Daryl wasn't paying any attention to him.
'Now,' he let the body drop and jumped at Daryl, trying to pierce his head with that sharp bone, already planning to take his weapon next.
Oscar who saw that ran trying to shove Daryl away and watched as Daryl jumped forward, evading the strike, while a bullet went through Thomas's head.
Dropping down, Sasuke approached others who dropped to their knees seeing him and Daryl aiming their weapons at them.
"We did nothing, man. I swear we didn't know."
"We aren't with him, bro. Please, don't do it. We have nothing to do with this...they were the bad guys who used to terrorize us, Thomas and Andrew. Please believe me."
Big-Tiny and Axel tried to tell him that they got no business on this.
"I know, you were caught for theft, you were caught for having a gun, and you...were reported to have beaten the husband of your ex wife." Sasuke nodded pointing at Oscar, Axel then Big-Tiny respectively and told them what he discovered from the records.
"I was just nearby and he was trying to hit her; I simply interjected but he was a cop. I got no chance at the court." Big-Tiny clarified his case while Axel swore it was a fake gun; the one they found was his brother's.
While Oscar remained silent, finding no need to defend his actions, he knows that what he did was wrong and he had already paid his due and months more. If that matters anyway.
"Mhm, Thomas had three serious cases on his file, two kills and one for rape. Andrew shared the rape case with him...1 separated murder case."
"They were the bad guys; I swear we had no dealing with them...we just got locked together, and they didn't turn on us because no one knew when we would need to fight our way out."
Sasuke put his silverballer on the holster again, gesturing for Daryl that it's fine to do so too.
"I will give you two choices, one chance."
"Anything, man."
"I would be leaving soon; I need to figure out some place, and my planned route is heading toward Atlanta, so if you want to, I can drop you somewhere on that route."
They stayed silent. Oscar glanced at the walkers gathering way down at the fences; there were at least ten of them, and this was the prison area, away from the population. He doesn't need to be a genius to figure out how the city is now.
A tear ran down his cheek imagining his mother, and wife...what would have happened to them now? They were in the heart of the city.
"Are you sure there are no big shelters where survivors holed in?" He asked Sasuke.
"I wouldn't come for this prison if there was any."
"What's the second option?"
"You keep in the cellblock, fed and clothed, until I'm back."
"Then what?"
"Can't we join you? We can help you guys." Axel asked him while Big-Tiny nodded; they both saw how strong this guy is, how well armed he is, and how well trained he is; he has the whole stack of food now...it looked like the best choice now.
"Once I'm back, we will work on that, frankly. I don't trust any of you. You are strong men; so we can help each other, yeah...but that needed to be left until I'm back.
Just know that I take my group's safety extremely seriously, like with him..." He pointed at Thomas's body.
"I won't hesitate to put anyone who threatens them down. And I'm good at it, so are we good? You stay in that cell until I'm back? Or the former choice, I'm heading in the direction of Atlanta. You want me to drop you someplace?"
'With memory loss,' he kept that to himself.
And Daryl knew Sasuke wasn't stupid enough to leave that to chance; for him, he thought that Sasuke would probably have them dead some way or another.
Brutal? Yes, but for him, that was the right thing to do.
Eventually they agreed to his term to stay in the cellblock.
He helped move bodies to a far spot and burned them, Thomas's included.
Sasuke, who was with Daryl heading back to their cellblock after having the three ex-prisoners in their cells, spoke clarifying his decisions.
Daryl trusted him, and he deserves to know some things...
"The morning pill I gave you—you saw its effect, right?"
Daryl nodded. "Out of the world."
getting your body to peak with no serious side effects? Priceless.
"I have another type; once consumed, it causes a memory loss of at least the last year, depending on the target." For shinobi, that substance effect may be a week at most; for those here? He figured it would be many times that.
"I'm not even surprised. So you planned to have them amnesiac, left in some corner out there to fend for themselves, huh? If they decided to leave."
"Of course, I'm not taking any chances of them having info on our numbers and all; they would've been ignorant but still kept the instincts to fight and survive. Loose ends are never good."
"You know, it's great to have someone think that deep in every decision and act decisively upon it. Ya think people back there are still discussing whether to kill the walkers in the barn?" Daryl asked him, remembering the talk with Rick yesterday.
"Unless something happened to make them change their minds today." Sasuke shrugged, not particularly concerned; he had bigger things to waste his brain juices on.
They had contact one time each day to check on the group since the separation.
And Rick asked them if they were fine, when Daryl asked him on the CB if they had dealt with the barn.
"It has caused no problem so far; Glenn and others are keeping watch on it."
That shit nearly made Daryl curse at that stupidity.
How long has it been since they separated? Three days?.
They cleaned a whole damn overrun building inside the prison, making it their shelter, even the field outside. Found more food and medicine and are about to progress further into other buildings to search for an armory.
Yet those at the farm are still debating over whether they should kill walkers or keep them alive in a fucking barn meters away from the house.
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Yo Author here, so...you ain't getting any chapter tomorrow lol.{don't hate me for that}
The ch51 will be released on Thursday.
Hope you are doing well and have a great day.