TWD - Chapter 588: The Hermit (Patreon)

Deep in the Great Smoky Mountains was a stretch of dense forest not far from the geothermal survey site.

Reaching it, however, meant struggling over broken ground and through thick brambles. Even Hank's experienced patrol team made a point of avoiding it.

Walkers weren't the reason. Few of them wandered that far into the mountains. The real dangers were sheer cliffs hidden by brush and old hunting traps left in the undergrowth years before.

One day, while the team was escorting the geothermal engineers as usual, Hank took Glenn and Maggie out to look for wild game. They spotted a deer, gave chase and accidentally strayed into that very forest.

The animal knew the terrain better than they did. It slipped away and vanished among the trees, leaving all three hunters thoroughly lost.

They were wandering about with no better plan than startled flies when they came across a cabin.

It stood halfway up a mountainside, backed by a cliff and looking out over a broad, open valley.

In front of it, potatoes and corn grew in a carefully tended vegetable plot. A wooden fence enclosed the garden, with several faded garments hanging over the rails and stirring in the breeze. Someone clearly lived here.

Hank stared. Who would choose to live somewhere so isolated?

He gestured instinctively to Glenn and Maggie. They understood and separated, moving toward the cabin with care.

"What kind of lunatic lives all the way out here?" Glenn muttered.

"Shh," Maggie warned. "Keep your voice down. He might hear you."

Hank didn't reply. His eyes stayed fixed on the cabin.

They had almost reached the fence when a middle-aged man stepped through its partly open front door.

He was tall and broad, balding on top, and wore a worn white T-shirt. There was no gun or knife in his hands, only a little garden trowel, as though he'd been on his way to pull weeds.

He regarded the strangers outside his home without fear or visible caution. His gaze moved from Hank to Maggie and then Glenn.

"Are you here to rob me, or are you lost?"

Glenn had met every kind of survivor: people paralyzed by fear, people driven mad, and people eager for violence. He'd never met one quite this composed. The man even smiled with several guns pointed at him.

Before anyone could answer, he shook his head. "I'm not looking for a fight. Please leave."

The three exchanged uncertain glances. They couldn't tell what sort of man they were dealing with, so they neither attacked nor backed away.

Their hesitation drew a weary sigh from him. Then, without warning, he moved.

Glenn was nearest. Something flashed across his vision, too fast for him to follow, and suddenly the wooden staff that had been leaning against the fence was in the stranger's hands.

It cut a sharp arc through the air.

CRACK!

The tip caught Glenn's firearm with remarkable precision. The gun flew free, spun once and landed three meters away.

Glenn stood stunned. Maggie reacted by raising her own weapon and stepping forward.

Two quick cracks followed. In the same swift fashion, both Maggie's and Hank's guns were knocked out of their hands.

The stranger's staff seemed alive, darting left and right, rising to parry and sweeping low. His movements were so fast they were difficult to follow.

Every blow avoided a vital area but found a wrist, elbow or knee. None was intended to kill, yet Glenn and Maggie winced from the pain.

Hank managed to hold his ground. He could tell the man wasn't trying to take their lives. After hesitating, he chose not to draw his knife and tried instead to restrain him with his bare hands. The stranger's staff kept him several meters away at every attempt.

Finally, Hank and the man stopped at the same time.

Maggie rubbed her numbed wrist and stared at the stranger, who now stood five paces away, breathing hard and resting his weight on the staff.

"I told you I don't want to fight!" he said. After a pause he added, "So are you leaving on your own, or do I have to send you away?"

Hank opened his mouth and found nothing to say.

"He really is crazy, isn't he?" Glenn whispered.

Maggie glared at him before bending to retrieve her gun, keeping a wary eye on their opponent.

The man made no move to stop her. He simply waited with his staff planted on the ground, showing a patience she couldn't quite understand.

It occurred to Maggie that he wasn't behaving like a madman at all. Someone truly unhinged wouldn't have such a peaceful look in his eyes.

"Who... who are you?" she asked.

He seemed to consider the question. "A man who lives here."

He pointed to the vegetable patch. "I grow things, hunt, read books and sit around thinking. That's about it."

Hank stood silent for a few seconds before admitting, "We're lost."

"I know," the stranger replied. "I could tell."

Using his staff, he indicated a direction through the trees. "The engineering survey camp is north of here. You went too far west. Head that way and cross two ridges. You'll see the tents your people put up."

Hank was startled. "You know who we are?"

The man smiled. "You're wearing matching uniforms."

"Then if you know about our people, why haven't you come to join us?" Hank asked.

The stranger considered this, too. "I don't want to."

"Why not?"

The man's gentle eyes seemed to hold something Hank couldn't name. "Do your people kill other people?"

Hank hesitated. "We kill walkers. And... raiders, when we have to."

The stranger nodded. "Then there's your answer. I don't kill people."

He turned away and went back to his garden.

Hank watched him go, unsettled by feelings he couldn't quite sort out. Finally he told the others, "Come on. I think his directions are right."

They turned toward the route he'd shown them.

After a few steps, Maggie looked back. The man was already crouching among his vegetables, calmly pulling weeds with his little trowel.

From then on, whenever Hank's team passed anywhere near that forest, they deliberately took another route. None of them wanted to disturb the quiet place or its mysterious inhabitant.

Carol, however, saw things differently.

After Maggie told her what had happened, Carol sat in silence for a long while. Then she said, "Maggie, I'd like to meet him."

Maggie stared at her. "Meet him? He's out there living alone, and he doesn't even want to join us."

"I know," Carol answered firmly. "That's why I want to see him."

Curiosity flickered in her eyes. "A man who refuses to kill people. I want to know how someone like that has managed to survive in this world."