Evan's Future Lieutenant

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

✦

"You were trained, same as Rick."

"But when it comes to tactical execution, you're the best choice in this camp."

"Yesterday, you asked me what you were supposed to do."

"Stop trying to fight Rick until one of you breaks."

"Shane, be my second."

"Protect the people you want to protect in a way that actually helps them."

"The future Prison has a place for you."

This time, Evan did not hide anything.

He had no interest in untangling whether the child Lori carried was Rick's or Shane's.

With their current medical resources, there was no way to know.

And if Shane chose to believe the child was his, then in Shane's mind the child could be his.

Evan had made something clear the night before.

Whatever Shane felt for Lori, and whatever Lori had once felt for Shane, much of it had been two frightened people clinging to warmth after the world collapsed.

Lori had chosen what she wanted.

Now Shane had to choose what he wanted.

Endless resistance and rivalry would only split the group apart.

In the end, he would destroy the very things he claimed he wanted to protect.

So Evan's message to Shane was simple.

Join my side.

Protect the people you love.

Become useful in the world that comes next.

Stop wasting yourself.

All of it came down to one sentence.

"Shane, join me."

Hearing it, Shane touched his own chest by instinct.

The stone that had been pressing there seemed to shift.

Evan's words from the night before still echoed in his ears.

For a moment, Lori's face appeared in front of him.

She was smiling.

And suddenly, Shane felt something release.

Evan was right.

He had been fighting.

When stripped down, he had been fighting over two things.

Power.

And Lori.

When Rick, his former fellow deputy, returned, almost everything inside Shane had narrowed into hunger for authority.

Even fighting for Lori had become part of fighting for that authority.

Shane had not been willing to let go.

He had been obsessed.

But after everything he had been through, especially after brushing so close to death just now, something finally became clear.

The things he had once believed he could never give up were not as impossible to release as he had thought.

Exhaustion arrived all at once.

He dropped onto the floor with a heavy thud.

Shane lifted his head, removed his helmet, and looked at Evan with solemn eyes.

"Listen. I can't stand Dale's mercy sermons. They'll get everyone killed."

"I want heavy weapons. I want steel around the whole Prison. One day, I want to train an army."

"And at least... at least for now, Lori is still my line."

"I can stay away from Lori. But you have to make sure she's safe."

Shane stared straight into Evan's eyes and spoke words he had clearly already shaped in his mind.

Wanting to train an army meant he still wanted authority.

That was fine.

At least Shane was no longer orbiting only Lori. He could see other people again.

That was why he could talk about arming the Prison.

For now, Lori was still his line.

Evan caught the shift in emphasis.

The phrasing mattered. Shane had put a clock on it, even if he did not seem to realize it.

After a moment, Evan's thoughts landed on the baby girl still to come.

Lori's daughter.

In Shane's eyes, she was his child too.

Shane was giving ground.

He was no longer extreme.

He was making conditions, and that was good news.

Evan smiled and offered him a hand.

"Deal."

For Shane's personality, this was already the best result.

If Shane had fallen all the way into darkness, even joining Evan might have sounded very different.

"With our strength, we could rule the Prison together."

"Rick is my brother. I don't want to kill him myself. Help me get rid of him, and all I want is Lori and Carl."

"Give me that, and I'll work for you."

"You sit in the warden's chair. I'll clear out anyone who doesn't listen."

That kind of Shane would have meant every word.

No hesitation.

Leader might never be the best role for Shane.

Executor, though?

There were not many people better suited to it.

Evan pulled Shane up from the floor and personally set the Heavy Tank Suit helmet back on him.

"The Prison is what we build the future on."

"Everyone can live safely here."

Evan smiled and patted Shane's shoulder.

Shane did not answer.

He only nodded hard.

Because what reached his ears was something else.

Your child can live safely here.

His grip tightened on the machete.

The stone in his chest finally dropped away, and for the first time in a long while, his whole body felt light.

The thing that had been eating at him finally released.

In the blink of an eye, Shane seemed like a different man.

"Then the second floor is yours," Evan said. "Check it carefully. I'm going to look at the third."

He picked up the Remington and began feeding it 20-gauge shells as he spoke.

Rick had given him those shells too.

A 20-gauge shell had a bore of about .615 inches, roughly 15.6 millimeters. It could hunt animals that were not especially massive.

For targets a little over a hundred pounds, it was enough.

Evan put the hammer away, held the shotgun ready, and climbed the switchback stairs to the third floor.

His steps were light.

When he reached the top, he found the floor just as silent.

But old survival-game instincts told him exactly what that kind of silence could mean.

The quieter a place was, the more likely a pile of walkers was waiting to burst out.

There had been an old joke among players.

A building might look like metal and concrete, but the real structure was walkers packed into every empty space.

They were everywhere.

Evan looked around.

"So the third floor is where the warden and deputy warden worked."

Compared with the two tighter floors below, the third floor felt much more open.

It had clearly been designed for the comfort and privacy of very few people.

Semi-transparent office windows revealed most of the space at a glance.

In the left corner of the floor, an elevator sat dead, leading straight down to the outside of the first floor.

But the warden's office and the deputy warden's office had one thing in common.

No walkers.

Too clean.

Evan waited outside for a moment.

He tested the doorway with his left foot, then pulled it back fast.

No growl answered.

Everything stayed as it was.

"Did the game logic suddenly learn manners?"

Evan frowned, then strode into the office.

A wall separated the warden's office from the deputy warden's.

Inside the warden's office, Evan noticed something odd on the wall.

A clear window, about the size of a small framed print, looked directly into the deputy warden's office.

From this side, everything inside could be seen.

When Evan circled around into the deputy warden's office, that same panel was only a mirror.

"Huh."

Evan gave a smile anyone would understand.

"The warden was definitely a man, wasn't he?"

✦

✦

✦

Want to keep going?

You can read ahead on my Patreon, with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🔑

https://www.patreon.com/c/EliasVane