Chapter 101: Reap What You Sow
When we reached the next settlement, we found just a normal family completely untouched by the chaos. I stayed outside while Beatrice and Tony argued with them; apparently, their news was hard to believe without proof. Voices were raised, and eventually, Beatrice had to pick me up as they were chased off by a couple men carrying pitchforks.
We only had to run for around 5 minutes down the path before we long outpaced the angry men. Beatrice seemed conflicted about the whole incident. "I can't believe they thought we were lying! What did they think we were going to steal from their farm or something? As if they wouldn't know we were lying when they got more than five minutes off the farm."
Tony paused as if he was considering Beatrice's words. "I bet that they thought we would rob them once they left. Or we had friends that would frisk their place when they were away."
"Don't you know them? They’re your neighbors."
"Yeah, more than a day's walk away. I think Da knows them but I never met them myself." Tony said with a bit of bite in his voice. "I haven't heard anything bad about them per se, but I also haven't heard anything good about those two either. That’s the more telling part. My Da doesn't say bad things about anyone."
Beatrice scoffed. "Well if they want to sit and wait for the dead to find them, let them."
"There isn't much else we can do." Tony sighed with what I thought was significantly more sympathy in his tone.
Really, I was just disappointed. Another group of humans from outside had attacked us. Tony and Beatrice seemed to find it less dangerous than the others, though. I guessed that was because they weren't trying to kill us, just drive us away. But still, the use of force was entirely too excessive. I wasn’t sure if I should have retaliated.
We moved on to the next house the same day.
***
As we saw the light of the clearing at the end of the trail, I picked up a commotion on my sensors. Not wanting to show up too late, I requested Beatrice set me down.
I wanted to just zip forward and go ahead full speed, but a treacherous root caught my wheel and sent me tumbling not 17 feet from where I was set down. Before I lost all my momentum, I extended my arm and nudged the ground so that I would land on my wheels. My models worked perfectly as I landed on my wheels while retaining 54% of my momentum.
As Tony readied his iron rod, Bee thought that he really needed a better weapon. Tony was starting to fall into the same trap she did when learning the broom. The rod worked well against the slow-moving opponents that were weak to blunt force to the head. Against something quicker like a skeleton, the defensive capabilities would shine through. And if he ever had to fight a ghoul...
"I think you should give them a try." Bee told Tony.
"What? All by myself?"
"Yes, They aren't that high a level. None are above 20. I think you can take them." Bee insisted. At the skeptical look she received, she remembered that she had never told Tony about her scan skill. At this point, it wasn't that she still didn't trust him, but now wasn't the time.
"If you say so." Tony took a step forward.
"Oh, you should think about your next skill carefully. You might want to pick up a weapon proficiency." Bee called out to him. Tony shot an annoyed look over his shoulder.
"Is now really the best time for this?" He asked.
"Well, you might level up here. It would be a waste to have you pick something that would help you in the short term out of panic, especially while I’m here and can step in if you need time." Bee said.
"Sure, thanks," Tony said before charging at the left-most zombie. Bee wasn't sure she understood his strategy at first, but as he swung at the head of the zombie while moving past the group, they all turned to face him. His momentum added extra force to his swing, which connected, leaving a large dent in the head of his target. It also carried him past the group rather than getting swallowed up, as he would have been if he had gone for the center. This gave Tony room to work.
Unfortunately, the first one struck didn't go down, and while not inside the group of enemies, he was only a few paces away. Still, it gave him time to repeat the attack from the other side of the group. This time the one that he struck fell. With less speed as he struck, it meant that he also had less speed getting away. Still, he managed it.
This time, instead of immediately charging back in, Tony backpedaled. With more space, he had room to maneuver some more. While the zombies were an unthinking horde of beasts, that didn't mean they just targeted the nearest person. A few broke off from the group and started shambling towards Bee while more aimed for the house. Tony now only faced a few while the rest went to targets that he needed to defend. Bee wondered how he was going to handle this.
Looking around at the fight, Tony saw the issue and ran at the group going after the house, swinging his makeshift club viciously. It was riskier as he could no longer count on being out of range of any counterattacks. Dodging the hand that reached out for him, he wailed at the zombies desperately, trying to finish them off so he could get to the group approaching Bee in time.
The two that he had run away from, though, were not satisfied with just waiting for him. Instead they moved toward the house from a completely different angle. Bee could see sweat forming on Tony's brow. It seemed that she might have to intervene - not to save Tony, but rather to help contain the threat from Void.
As she was about to step up and assist, a cry from the house wrenched her attention away. "No! Please, we can't!"