"You say you're human, but how are you so strong?"
After a lot of convincing, Michael managed to finally convince Rosie that he had no ill intentions towards them and only had goodness for them. Which would have raised some eyebrows to people familiar with his somewhat pragmatic ways, almost Shane like, someone who always has some kind of an objective behind their every deeds.
While slowly cruising along the road towards Fresno, Rosie was on the passenger side with her nephew sitting with the siblings at the back. On her hand, was a pistol sneakily pointed towards Michael, it is clear that she is still skeptical of his actions and remained guarded towards him.
Michael glanced at her, then down at the pistol in her hand. "Well, you can say that I'm somewhat of a very special guy."
Staring at him, Rosie's frown deepened, "Special Forces? CIA? Or maybe an off the books secret organization that's only known to a select few?"
Listening to her words, Michael let out an amused chuckle. "You have got quite the imagination lady."
Though he said those words, the latter part of her words actually made him think about the possibility that the original owner of his body might have been related to some secret organization, either funded by the government or the world's elite.
'That conjecture is not impossible if I think about the superb learning ability this body possesses.' Michael did not ignore that possibility since he experienced it first hand on how he can turn into an expert in less than a month when trying new things.
'This body was not originally a product like Captain America before it turned rogue, right?'
"I have a perfectly normal imagination, but you on the other hand certainly do not." Rosie responded with a shake of her head.
"Just be honest with me, because even the most fit person on the planet is certainly not capable of eradicating at least a quarter or almost, of that horde of monsters while engaging them in a straight hour without any breaks."She knew the man beside her has some secrets and she's determined to get the bottom of it, somewhat.
While on the other hand, Michael was more confused on why she's so adamant about it when it's;
"None of your business." Like she wanted, Michael gave her an honest response that quickly shut her mouth.
While the two are getting on each other's nerves, the kids behind them were happy to have made a new friend.
Well, one of them is.
After a long hesitation, Jose finally gained the courage to open his mouth while stealing a glance at Athena. "I'm Jose. Jose Espinosa, what's your name?"
"Me? I'm Noah Baker and I'm turning 8 next month..I think." Noah enthusiastically introduced himself at first, then became confused at the latter part of his words.
"Athena. Why did you continue staying in that stinky neighborhood?"
The two adults at the front heard what Athena said, and it also made Michael curious while Rosie showed some embarrassment in her face.
"I don't know. Aunt came back just as soon you guys arrived. Maybe around a minute or so?" As a kid, Jose was more straightforward and did not care if his aunt was embarrassed about something.
While quietly driving, Michael threw her multiple glances her way.
"What? I was out for a couple of hours, alright?" Rosie was slightly annoyed by the subtle glances. The memory of her accidentally falling down the stairs surfaced in her mind and it caused her to let out an amused chuckle.
Michael slightly smiled as he's the only one who knows the reason behind those glances from him.
'She really has some nice legs'
"Right, I never got your name. I'm Michael, you?" Even though he already knew her name, Michael knows that he still has to do this since he might slip up and cause even more problems later on.
Rosie glanced at him from the corner of her eyes before responding. "Rosita. Rosita Espinosa, but people call me Rosie. Well, only Jose calls me Rosie now though."
"Michael Fisher." He didn't know what his last name was, but he thought that right now might be the best time to decide on what name he'll go by from now on.
"So, why did you really come looking for us? I don't quite believe your reason earlier that you're only looking for survivors to join your community." Seeing that they finally got through the phase of knowing each other's name. Rosita became a little more comfortable with him and even placed her gun back to its holster, much to Michael's relief.
"But I'm indeed looking for survivors to join us." It was a lie, but at the same time it also wasn't since he was indeed on the lookout for survivors while also trying his luck on looking for this woman seated opposite of him.
"I just didn't expect that there'd only be two of you there." Michael let out an amused chuckle. Earlier, he thought that he might have encountered a group of experienced survivors and had some expectations of it, but he was slightly disappointed that it was just a woman and a kid. Though that disappointment quickly evaporated the moment he laid his eyes on her since a single Rosita is far better than a small group of survivors.
"Heh." Rosita let out a snort. "So, are we heading back to your base?"
Taking a left turn, Michael responded. "That should have been the original plan, but I came here with others. I need to make sure they've reached Fresno safely before heading back to Georgia and then dropping them off on the way."
Listening to him, Rosita jumped in her seat and turned her body towards Michael. "Georgia?! You came all the way here from Georgia? Is Fort Benning still standing?"
Her sudden enthusiasm slightly startled him for a moment before he finally responded. "Sorry, no. I drove through there on the way here and saw that Fort Benning had long fallen, either during the initial chaos or some time after that."
Hearing his words, Rosita became crestfallen, even Jose who was at the back and was cheerfully talking to the siblings became a little quiet when he heard Michael's words.
"We..we were planning on heading there." Rosita became dejected, like she had lost her purpose in life.
"Don't worry though. We've already built our own community there and you can join us. That was the reason why I was looking for survivors anyway." Michael tried to cheer them up. Obviously, he wasn't very good at it.
"Looking for survivors all the way from Georgia? Why? Did Georgia run out of survivors now?" Rosita snorted in response.
Shrugging his shoulders. "Well, there were a few I met, but the most number of survivors I encountered was when I reached Meridian City. So yeah, you can say that Georgia is not faring so well. Especially Atlanta, I encountered a huge herd of walkers migrating when I was there . Maybe there are even more now while I'm out here."
"I wonder if the others are doing well in my absence."
Georgia, Prison Community.
A lot of changes had taken place here during Michael's absence. Unlike in the original storyline where the survivors never bothered reinforcing their defenses, the survivors today had managed to fix the hole on the wall at the back of the facility and even built a two-meter palisade made of wood of varying sizes surrounding the facility.
To top it off, that same wall was also surrounded by another layer of fortification called an abatis. It was meant to stop cavalry charges, now it was used to block off stray walkers from coming too close to the palisade.
"Michael will be very surprised when he returns and sees how this place has turned into."
Standing on the watchtower by the gate, Amy looked at their work with a proud look on her face.
It was hers and Jill's idea to build the defenses around here. This plan was supposed to be implemented back at the farm, but they got kicked out before they could even start on it. Now, their plan finally saw the light of the day here at the prison.
"Yeah, he sure will. Though I wonder how he's doing out there. It's been two weeks since he left." Andrea gazed towards the distant horizon with worry in her eyes.
The two sisters quietly remained on the watchtower while down behind them, a group of survivors were busy watering and weeding off the weeds around the garden that have seedlings growing on it.
On the opposite side, another group of people are in the process of tilling the remaining land over the prison yard for another garden bed.
There were some unfamiliar faces among them. It shows the group had now grown quite a bit since Michael left and had rescued quite a few survivors since then.
And one unfamiliar face looked at Cole while getting rid of weeds around the garden bed. "Hey, is it true that aside from Rick, there's also another leader around here? How come I don't see him? I heard he's really strong and had taken down tens of walkers all by himself."
Cole paused what he was doing and looked over towards the speaker and saw that it was the young lad they had rescued two days ago. "Yeah, he's called Michael. I'm not really sure what his background is and to what extent his skills are, but he's incredibly strong. I once witnessed him sprinting, he was so fast that I think he had already broken the record for the fastest human in the world. Ohh, I also heard that he cleared two or three of the prison blocks here all by himself back then."
Looking at Cole's animated expression, the lad thought he was exaggerating things. "Come on now. Don't lie to me. No one in their right mind would do something so dangerous all by himself."
"Well, Michael isn't one with a right mind. That guy sometimes goes nuts when he encounters walkers." Cole shrugged his shoulders. Unfortunately for him, he does not understand the joy of earning money when killing a walker.