"Okay, now let's decide the order of the transition points. So to the east, there's PeachtreeCity; I can leave it for the return trip.
What awaits me ahead is Union City, where Billy spotted the shopping mall and two police stations.
Currently, College Park is a question mark; none of us know what to expect there, and finally, East Point is before entering Atlanta.
7 shops, 3 for clothing, and others are diverse. 4 bars, a university and a high school, 2 pharmacies, 3 police stations and one large hospital.
2 warehouses, and it has been confirmed that one of them is for farming tools and other materials and seeds.
The second one is closed, and its contents are completely unknown.
Public market, 3 car shops. Truck parking lot, public parking lots, shooting range training center.
4 gyms and a zoo.
I hope to finish all of this as soon as possible; there is still the construction center on the other side."
"Hmm, animals...The hawk," Sasuke suddenly remembered his second summoning. Gurada.
If the snake could be summoned, so could the hawk. It didn't matter if it wasn't as massive as he remembered...
Sasuke bit his thumb to draw blood and did a few hand signs to see if he could summon the second animal he used to have, the eagle.
Yet exactly like the first time he tried the storage sealing jutsu, foreign thoughts and info flooded his mind, making him halt the process.
^Do it yourself.^
He summarized all the information in that one sentence...you need a summoning animal? Find one, make it your contracted summon, and feed it your chakra to have it become...bigger and stronger.
He didn't know whether to be grateful or annoyed now; he needed that summon now, soon, but he was given the fucking formula to train his own summoning animals, to choose them and make them evolve himself into whatever he wanted...that was even better.
Sasuke looked around him.
"How the fuck am I supposed to find one now?" Just making a contract would usurp 10 threads permanently, let alone the chakra it would need to grow larger and stronger; he seriously was grateful his snake only needs time to grow, not his already pitiful chakra.
An eagle, or something born to conquer the sky, fast, aggressive, smart...
Yep, only eagles falcons and the likes fit that description.
Where to find one? His luck on the outskirts, or a high place where they may have made their nests
Sasuke swept a hand through his hair, sighed, and then boarded the SUV and kept going north on Highway 85.
There were few walkers here and there, but nothing dangerous.
He briefly contemplated whether to check on the farm but chalked that thought; whatever happens there is none of his business now.
Sasuke then drove to his path of great looting...
=====
While Sasuke started his journey to become rich and find an aerial partner, Billy's own journey came to an end, and he was preparing to make the move today.
He already finished creating traces, investigating the perimeters with the snake, and even indirectly rescuing a surviving dozen whose empty camp was raided by that shitty governor and a bunch of his men the next day.
Which also proves the integrity of the info; he wasn't a man to let alive, and this close to the prison.
Awareness, intelligence, usefulness...those were things Billy got to discover about the white snake; she wasn't a mere hole, a space hole...
She was way more helpful, knowing which path is empty, which one has humans, and which one has walkers. She drew a freaking "X" with her tail whenever the path ahead was dangerous.
If he is ever in danger, the snake would announce its presence to divert attention, and Billy would have to find cover, as there would be a kaboom, either dropped by the snake or herself as the price.
Welp, Billy promised himself to not mess things up; no way he is going to have her explode.
'She's ten times more useful than those cunts in the farm.'
Thus, Billy started treating her like a fucking VIP in their shabby shelter they found.
He left a trace nearby, one that can be picked up by whoever has good awareness.
And as expected, they were on the move the next morning.
This governor lacked the number of fighters, and Billy decided to use that.
Impress, prove your value, gain their trust, and help Sasuke unleash doom the next moment everything is clear.
Billy signaled for the snake that it's starting with the hand sign Sasuke showed him, grabbed his now bloodied mace which head was nailed, and walked, following two walkers.
Not far from the clear spot in the forest, 4 men who parked their armored car watched from a distance.
"This should be him?" One of them asked the man with severed hand.
"I'm sure, that club bat in his hand should be the weapon used to kill those 13 walkers we found."
"Impressive"
"He doesn't look that strong, honestly; let's just test our beardy." Merle, the one who tracked Billy, walked from their hiding spot, gaining the attention of Billy, who smashed the heads of the two walkers and turned to him, appearing cautious.
"Well, well, well, we got a dirty ol' man here. Lost yer way?" Merle waved the arm with a long blade where his hand used to be. Sneering at the disheveled man with a beard.
"Old man?" Billy swatted the blood from the spiked mace before pointing it at Merle and looking at the emerging figures behind him.
"Only ma little brother had the right to call me old man, you? Try calling me that one more time, and I will have that red neck of yours snapped the right way to give you a peer at your ugly red ass."
"See that, governor? Loudmouth with no essence, he is but a frail senile man, not the warriors we are, and we need to have" Merle swaggered forward, putting his good hand on Billy's shoulder, and spoke to the clean white man who seemed to be the leader, the governor.
Billy, who was half a head taller, gave him a menacing side glare and tapped the mace at Merle's thigh.
"Get that hand off before I shove this up your throat."
And Merle, now annoyed, turned to face him and tried to punch Billy in the gut, who sidestepped away and kneed his side.
Leaning back, he let the blade tied to Merle's severed arm pass his head before headbutting him.
Blood splattered from Merle's nose as Billy followed with a kick to the chest, dropping him to the ground.
He put the spiked mace near and forced a knee atop Merle's chest to keep him in place. Billy then punched Merle's face.
He swatted the punch thrown at him and grabbed the bladed hand, keeping it in place with his other knee before punching Merle's face again, blood splattering over his knuckles.
"Hey hey hey, look at me, cunt, warrior? Nah, lemme tell ya what..." Billy's hand closed around his neck, pulling his face closer, and grinned, seeing the dazed and bloodied Dixon, while the governor watched all of this unfolding without interfering and signaled for others not to do so; he figured that another strong man was about to join him.
"You are a potato," Billy spat those words with a devilish smirk, mocking the older Dixon.
"A fucking PO-TAH-TO," and headbutted him again, putting him to sleep.
...
..
.
"Hah, nothing beats a bath and a cold drink. Damn thank you, Mr. Governor" He cringed at that but played the role perfectly.
'There's no way some ass there is calling himself a king too? Pfft, gonna pick a funny one for Sasuke then.' The idea amused him.
Anticipating Sasuke's face when everyone starts calling him...the boogeyman.
"Don't worry about it; it's what we should do for struggling people who suffered alone out there."
'Yeah, right...' Billy's expression showed nothing but ease as he drank to his heart's content.
"I know nothing is free, as ironic as that is especially since now the world itself is for everyone to grab, but for all this? I am willing to work. You just say the word; I was never the type to sit back anyway."
"Glad to have someone as...enlightened as you, Mr.Jack, but for now have a rest, enjoy our little welcome gift, and take a look around the town. We got sweet people here, kids and all who need our protection."
"They are lucky to have someone fight for them, protecting them from the bloody meat grinder outside there..."
"Well, we do what we can for a better future."
"Indeed, for a better future," Billy clinked his glass with the governor's.
...
"So Jack, You talked about a little brother earlier in the day; is he..." Philip, the governor, took a sip and started his soft investigations.
And what better opening could there be other than a family subject amidst the apocalypse?
Emotional subjects tend to naturally have...unexpected information unintentionally shared by the other drunken party, especially after a relaxing bath and warm dinner.
'They all let down their guards,' and sure enough, Jack soon started willingly spilling his grievances.
"I don't know; I couldn't reach him, and I couldn't find him."
'Must be enjoying peach, that little bastard...' Billy thought of Sasuke and the damn bunch of flowers he was attracting right and left just by existing.
"The world is dangerous now; I hope he is okay."
"He should be; he is strong." He smiled, imagining how the governor would react if he knew that they were talking about someone who can clean this damn town for breakfast.
"You love him I see, your brother. I'm interested in meeting him; he seems to be a good man."
"Indeed, He got a heart of gold, cares about everyone, but is often misunderstood and hated. Maybe because he never was the type to express his love with the pink words."
"Hated? So you're the only one who found the goldness on him, huh?" Philip smirked hearing that.
Hated? That's even better; ^hated^ means dangerous, ruthless maybe...the kind he liked to control as pawns and the perfect soldiers, and tools.
"You don't have to be bad to be hated; sometimes it takes being better...and he was that, better at everything than anyone."
Billy spoke in double meanings; this man in front of him did some diabolical shit out there, yet everyone in town seems to love him.
Sasuke always did the right thing, yet the majority just gave him the dirty glare.
"Those who couldn't keep up, those who only dreamt of it, and those who couldn't accept that he is just damn good and they would never be him. They hated him. Simply just because he was being himself."
Sasuke might not know or care about the reason why many people turned against him the moment they found the safe farm...but Billy knew it was mostly but damn inferiority; a bunch feared Sasuke would be the leader, knowing how serious he is with everything, their ego refusing to listen to someone younger even though he was the best option.
Others just hated him for his look, superior strength, skill, and the influence he started gaining, knowing they would never reach that, so they chose to not have him near; one of them even talked about how Sasuke would eventually put his eyes on his wife.
Billy nearly laughed as he heard it that time when he was hiding his presence.
Wife? If it wasn't a bad time, Billy would have told him that she looked like a fucking lizard; even if Sasuke was the playboy they all were tagging, he wouldn't go for that woman when Katniss was right there.
"Must be hard to be in that position... misunderstood and hated."
"Nah, he never cared what unimportant extras thought about him. Were you good to him? He would make sure you are...cared for like a family."
"If you messed with him, though?" Billy grinned, looking at the governor.
"Let's just say that he was the type to pay that debt a hundred times worse. Welp, bad for walkers...they did just that," and relaxed, taking a sip from the expensive whisky that somehow tasted worse than the cheap one he used to drink when he was with others...
'Am I having a fucking homesickness now?'