TWD - Chapter 587: Hidden Talents (Patreon)

Without waiting for Reg to argue, Ancheta headed for the row of storage rooms.

Reg gritted his teeth and followed, forcing himself to keep moving.

The rustling grew louder as they approached. It was coming from the closet at the far end of the row. Its door was shut tight, with rust covering the metal and darkness filling the gap beneath it.

Ancheta signaled for Reg to be careful.

Reg stayed close behind him. His palms were slick with sweat, and his heart was pounding so hard he could almost feel it in his throat.

Ancheta reached for the cold doorknob. He took a deep breath and pulled the door open in one swift motion.

A plump gray rat shot out, darted along the base of the wall and disappeared before either man could move.

Reg froze, then exhaled so forcefully his knees nearly gave way. "Jesus Christ! You almost scared me to death..."

Ancheta released the knob with an equally relieved laugh. "It was a rat!"

Leaning against the wall, Reg wiped the sweat from his forehead. "One of these days, you people are going to give me a heart attack."

Ancheta burst out laughing. "And you call yourself an engineer? With nerves like that?"

Reg gave him an irritated look. "I didn't become an engineer so I could fight in a war."

Ancheta opened his mouth to answer, but his smile abruptly vanished. Reg felt his stomach drop and glanced toward the open closet.

A blackened, decomposing hand reached out of the darkness.

For a moment, Reg's thoughts stopped altogether.

"Walker!"

Ancheta reacted almost before the warning was out. As the hand reached for him, he sprang backward and its grasp closed on empty air.

A decaying body lunged after it, emerging from the closet with the ferocity of a starving animal.

The walker still wore the remains of a janitor's uniform. The cloth had rotted to ribbons, exposing putrid black skin beneath. A sickening stench rolled off it.

Its face was badly disfigured. The nose had rotted away, its lips were gone and rows of uneven teeth showed through the ruined flesh. Its clouded white eyes could no longer see normally, yet it sensed the living man directly ahead.

Locked inside the cleaning closet, it hadn't been able to follow the walker attractants used during the earlier sweep. Now it threw itself at Ancheta.

Reg stood three meters away, unable to do more than watch. His mind was completely blank.

He was a man in his fifties, holding nothing more dangerous than architectural plans and a pen. Faced with a creature like that, he had no way to defend himself.

If he'd been the one standing closest to the door, he'd have been finished.

Ancheta was another matter.

He stepped into the walker's path, seized its collar with one hand and clamped the other firmly against its head.

BAM!

He drove its skull into the wall so hard that dust shook loose and drifted to the floor.

The walker convulsed. Ancheta didn't let up.

THUD!

He smashed its head into the wall again. The body began to sag, but he struck several more times, refusing to stop until the skull burst and red and pale matter spattered the wall.

Only then did he release it. The ruined corpse slid down the bricks and crumpled at their feet, completely still.

Ancheta stepped back to examine it. The upper part of the neck had been crushed to pulp, leaving a sticky dark stain spreading across the dusty floor.

He shook the black blood from his hands, rubbed them against his dirty clothes and swore. "Holy shit!"

Reg was still rooted to the spot, staring at the remains. He hadn't even begun to recover from the shock.

Ancheta waved a hand in front of his face. "Reg? Hey, are you all right?"

Reg blinked and hurriedly shook his head. "I'm... I'm okay."

"Scared the life out of you, didn't it?" Ancheta asked, patting him on the shoulder.

Reg nodded, still trembling.

"That's normal," Ancheta told him with a reassuring smile. "Everyone's scared the first time they see one up close."

Reg studied him. "You... you've dealt with a lot of these, haven't you?"

"Quite a few," Ancheta admitted. "After you've killed enough, you get used to them."

For a moment Reg was silent. Then he asked, "Ancheta, what did you do before all this? Your reactions just now were incredible. They were fast, precise. You don't move like an ordinary person."

Ancheta hesitated. "Me? I was a combat engineer. I served with Leah's group."

"But that didn't look like something a typical combat engineer could do."

Ancheta paused before replying. "When you're a sapper, you learn a bit of everything. Roads, bridges, buildings, machinery. You have to understand how all of it works. And fighting walkers? That's easy compared to defusing bombs."

Reg's eyes widened. "You used to defuse explosives?"

"Sure. I handled a few in Afghanistan," Ancheta replied, as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

Then, almost regretfully, he added, "I haven't had many chances to use those skills at Rock Fortress. I feel like I'm getting rusty."

Reg looked at the man as if they'd only just met.

Ancheta grew a little uncomfortable under the scrutiny. "What?"

"Nothing." Reg shook his head. "It's just... Rock Fortress really is full of surprises. The man running industrial engineering turns out to be a former special operations sapper!"

Ancheta shrugged. "That's nothing. Rock Fortress has plenty of capable people. Most of them just don't make a fuss about it.

"I heard Hank's team came across an Aikido master living alone in the Great Smoky Mountains. Apparently Calista's been sending people to speak to him over the last couple of days. Now there's someone who really keeps his talents hidden."

Reg couldn't help laughing.

Standing beside the walker they'd just killed, they both began laughing for no particular reason, perhaps simply because the tension had finally broken.

When the laughter subsided, Reg looked at the corpse. "What do we do with that?"

"Leave it for now," Ancheta said after considering it. "We'll send someone to dispose of it later. Come on, there are other places to inspect."

Reg agreed, and they headed back toward the gymnasium entrance.

***

On the second floor of the UTK library, the former reading room had been turned into a meeting space. A map of the campus hung on the wall.

Elena, Ancheta, Reg and Deanna sat around a table while Calista stood in front of the map.

"Let's hear the progress reports," she said.

Elena went first. "The water treatment equipment is installed. We should be able to start supplying water this afternoon. We've also put up forty solar panels, enough to power the library and administration building. We'll begin the classroom buildings next week."

Calista nodded.

Ancheta took his turn. "The gymnasium generator is repaired and running. The roof still needs fixing, but we're waiting for supplies. My team inspected the perimeter walls, too. Most of the original structure is sound. Only a few sections need patching."

"We've got enough materials for that," Reg added.

Calista looked toward Deanna. "How's the resettlement plan?"

Deanna opened her notebook. "The first five hundred settlers will come from the industrial park next week. We're assigning them to Dormitories Six, Seven and Eight. Each holds two hundred, so there's space for all of them."

She hesitated. "But there's a problem."

"What problem?"

"What will they do once they arrive? Not everyone knows how to repair buildings. They need jobs, or we'll end up with trouble."

Calista was quiet for a few seconds. "We have no shortage of work."

She indicated several places on the map. "Clearing streets in the East District. Repairing walls. Patrols and guard duty. Farming, cooking, laundry. Which of those jobs doesn't need people?"

Deanna thought it over, exchanging a look with Elena. "Then the departments can work out the staffing needs for the East District and draw up a list of positions. We'll move the first group in to fill them."

"Good," Calista said. "We'll keep using the existing Contribution Points System as our basic arrangement. I want you to oversee it."

Deanna nodded. "I'll take care of it."