Black James(!)
Location: Near 545 Corinth Rd, Newnan: In the woods. (Not far from the Coweta County Water Authority)
This was stress. Had to be. Nothing else made any sense to him. James only saw Caesar for an instant, but it was
so real. He could hear the slosh of tequila in his bottle, even caught the light scent of death that always seemed to follow him, like he was born into slaughter. He wasn't a Walker, that James was sure of. He died a hero and was treated accordingly. That vision of the old man was damned convincing though, so convincing he had to say something.
The moment he did, he felt like a crazy person. The reactions of his travel buddies didn't help, either.
"Seen what?" he repeated back to Beatrice, pointing over toward where he witnessed the old man. James took his slightly worn stetson from his head and clutched it to his chest.
"Muthafuckin' ghost, that's all. Y'all ain't never met El Jefe 'fore he died, did you?" It was rhetorical, really. He was the only one out of their group that was in Newnan before Caesar's passing.
"Well if y'all looked up in time, y'all might of met him after." Gavin looked lost in a world of packed provisions and watercraft. Well, more power to him. Ryan had walked off, and who knows? Maybe he saw Caesar too, and was a little disturbed by him. Lord knows James would have been, if he didn't know the guy. The mildly shaken Hogger started to walk back to his truck, mumbling to himself.
"Goddamn Jefe's my spirit animal or guardian angel or some shit. Ain't that a thing?" and more loudly, so that the rest of the group could hear,
"Aight, I'm pullin' the truck inside and closin' us up. We gots thangs to discuss." James started up the Silverado and looked around.
"C'mon, Ryan!" he called.
"I'm 'bout to close up shop." James swung the door shut and slowly pulled his truck inside the building.
Location: North Of Newnan (Veterans Memorial Park - Corner of Temple Ave. & Jackson St.)
"Jesus fuck, Lola!" exclaimed Thalia, waving a hand in front of her to ward away the swamp burble that was her Kiwi companion's belch,
"Can you vent that smoke?" Thalia had given Lola a minute or so with her tank's controls. It was almost like a ritual, giving them some uninterrupted personal time first thing before they headed out. But the moment that they lurched forward with definite path, she picked the conversation back up. She had considered mentioning that the snowplow impression she had made might have just buried their new acquaintance up top, but decided against it. It was what it was, no helping it now.
"You know me, Lolz. I don't like wasting ammo. Think about it, though. I'm sitting up here playing lookout all day, getting pretty damn familiar with the controls. And what happens when you need to fire on the go? Just saying, give it a think." Placing one hand on the interior ring of the turret, Thalia leaned down to grab her bag. She opened a side pouch that seemed filled with scraps of paper, bark, frayed fibers of unknown origin, etc, and added to it similar material from her jacket pocket that she had gathered from the park earlier that morning. It was a survival technique she had picked up during her time with the Fairburn group; always keep a measure of tinder and kindling on you if you're traveling exposed overland. A tank wasn't precisely
exposed overland travel in the traditional sense, and they had plenty of scavenged, hunted, or stockpiled supplies that would last the two of them for quite some time, but Thalia preferred to have the extreme low-tech backup on standby. She placed her bag back on the floor, and contented herself with gazing out of the optics.
Involuntarily, her face twisted a bit, assaulted by a generally unpleasant odor for which she had not braced.
"Fuck's sake, Lola, it came back!"
Ash & Thana
Location: Building
10 (Medical Garden)
Ash's head turned slowly over to Jack, who seemed to be having an existential crisis of his own. Point of fact, he had the shocked and confused, lost and faraway look of a man who had unexpectedly seen Ed McMahon performing hot yoga naked (except for a classy pair of argyles). That was just
peachy. Well, at least he wasn't alone. But the thought sliced through his frontal lobe like a slippery icepick: If Jack
was in the same boat as himself, then why? Hell, Ash had almost gotten used to the idea of being a little nuts, as long as he knew he was cracked and it didn't affect his judgement, but if his second was leaping bodily off of the deep end, they were all in trouble.
He had half a mind to look to Thana and tell her that he was no longer fit for command and forked over his sidearm right there. Instead, he spoke to Jack.
"If you would, please radio your wife. Find out where she is and let her know that I'll be taking that appointment first thing after supper." Ash looked back to where he had seen Alicia a moment before, only to find empty space.
"If you would." His voice was eerily calm.
The Lt. Commander rose her brow slightly as her eyes remained on Ash. One moment he seemed like he had seen a ghost, the next he was suppressing laughter, now he was remarkably calm; too calm. Taking an appointment with the woman from earlier? Perhaps he just wanted to get it out of the way.
But hadn't someone just asked him something? Like, a basic piece of conversation that had been overlooked. Looking back to Thana, he remembered finally.
"Hard to say." The businesslike, commanding tone to his voice was back. Ever the dutiful Captain.
"Are you okay?" Thana's brow still hadn't come down as Ash finally addressed her question from earlier.
"Yes Captain. Fit as a fiddle," she stated rather matter-of-factly. Slowly lowering her brow she held out her hand.
"Keys and radio if you please sir," she said with a frankness in her voice but there was a flash of concern in her eyes.
The Captain looked down at his hands. He had indeed just relieved the security detail of James's radio and keys. Looking at them, he realized that the very recently replaced Agricultural Lead's house keys were still on the ring. Domestic staff hadn't gotten a chance to give his house a good once-over yet, likely hadn't even thought to get the necessary personal keys from Security. But Thana's insistence was justified; they belonged to her now.
"Yeah, sorry. My ah... mind is elsewhere. One sec." Ash removed the Building C keys from the ring and turned both them and the walkie over to Thana. He then gave her a momentary stare.
"Thana? Probably a stupid question, but bear with me on this. Does anything seem strange to you? Anything at all?" Taking the keys, Thana looked down as she hooked them to her belt loop and answered the Captain.
"Sir, unless it is dire that I answer that question post haste it will have to wait until after I finish my duties for the day," Thana said before she looked back up and over to Ash.
"I do need to tour the medical garden right now, if you would care to escort me there perhaps we can talk while I am looking over the inventory," she added before motioning towards the fenced garden just to their northwest. Things did seem off to her but it was Ash that was acting off and she wasn't about to question his mental state in front of his second.
The garden was surrounded by a tall privacy fence with barbed-wire along the top and left open for sun-light purposes. Steam rose from the garden, from which Thana could only assume was from heaters placed within the walls to keep the plants from succumbing to the snow that had fallen.
"There are a few things I do need to speak with you about as it is Captain, this would be an opportune time if you have a moment to spare," Thana said, hoping he would get the gist that she was trying to get him alone and away from prying eyes to be able to speak more freely; without saying
"You're acting like you are cracking and I think we should go home, now," out loud.
A momentary look of knowing showed on Ash's face before it reverted to its default stoicism. In fact, he had a couple of earnest things he wished to discuss with Thana; one related directly to her end of the business, the other more of a more delicate nature. Ash looked around his immediate surroundings, curious as to whether he was going to have another of what he hoped was merely a benign hallucination.
"Absolutely, ma'am. I have a moment. Please lead the way." Even if he wasn't concerned with his mental state, he really did have a moment.
"Yes Sir," Thana said with a curt nod of her head before she turned on her heels and proceeded to walk towards the Medical Garden. As they approached the door, she unclipped the keys from her belt. It was a quick moment later and the door was unlocked and she was stepping inside and glancing around. She had been told of others that worked Agriculture as well as a couple that worked the medical garden. Her eyes darting about to see if there was anyone else there and smiling inwardly to herself to see that there was no one to be seen.
Following a half-step behind, Ash trailed Thana's movements up to and inside of the Medical Garden. It was noticeably warmer in there, prompting him to wonder if now was a good time to kill the heaters. Lucky for him, he had the place to himself with the local expert on the subject: Dr. Thana Martin, Newnan's Agricultural Lead. And if she felt that the heaters should be off, she would likely be attending to that as long as they were present. This was her baby now. Instead, Ash turned around and latched the door behind the two of them. Privacy, or what passed for it outside of their home, was upon them.
"What's on your mind, Thana?" Hearing the door latch Thana turned around and one could almost see the
off duty thought pass right through her eyes. Sure she wasn't technically off duty right then but to her it was more of a
smoke break. Stepping over to Ash, Thana didn't say anything at first. Simply wrapping her arms around him as she rested her head against his shoulder. It was a long caring embrace. Something she had wanted to do since she saw the look in his eyes when he had had to exile James that morning. She couldn't then. There had been too many prying eyes and he couldn't show weakness. Now though, it was different. They were alone and while not at home they had privacy.
It was surprising at first, when Thana took him into her arms. While Ash wasn't expecting it, he took to it like a parched man to water. Ash returned the embrace, wrapping his arms around the deceptively strong woman and leaning his head onto hers, feeling her warmth and breathing in the scent of her hair.
Letting out a slow breath she leaned back but did not release her embrace.
"You," she said simply as she gazed up into his eyes. All the worry and caring she had hidden through out the day came washing through her blue eyes like a wave.
"What's wrong?" she asked earnestly as her fingers curled against his shoulders.
Lots of things were wrong. Too many to count. But Ash felt that Thana deserved a straight answer, rather than a dismissive gesture. Reluctantly, he leaned back from her. He was not letting go of Thana, but he wanted to give her the respect of looking her in the eyes while he inexpertly tried to explain his situation.
"Different kinds of casualties in war, right?" he began, unsure on how to proceed.
"Hmm... damnit. Look, not long enough ago, I was on the cusp of going off the deep end, okay? Like, unfit for command nuts, but there was no one else I trusted to take over. Hell, I just inherited command, myself. So many people died that I was responsible for, and a few of them I was close to." He paused, but nodded to himself, forcing the words to come out.
"One. One in particular I was very close to. This happened about a year ago. Her corpse came back to us. I put a bullet in her skull - thank God for small favors." It was, really, in his mind.
"There's more uncomfortable stuff in this time period, but the short of it is that I just saw her. Hallucinated her." Thana reflexively leaned back just slightly, stunned by what he said. Ash hallucinated someone? That was a hell of a bomb to drop. It seemed bomb dropping was Ash's way of delivering news, no matter what it was to people. She arrives to town, gather everyone and drop the bomb. James kills someone, gather everyone, drop the bomb. They are all at the gate, drop the bomb she is now in charge of Agriculture. He is hallucinating someone, drop the bomb. What was next? Announce at dinner they were sleeping together? Trying to compose herself, she tried to go back
on duty but something kept her from doing so.
"Hallucinating her? Oh, coulds it be that her? I bets it is. Of course he be hallucinating some chic he dipped his wick in. I means, not likes he be the first guy to think of some other chic after you two step into their lives. Gavin couldn'ts bes getting over Christina and lets not fergets Tony," a voice rang in Thana's head. It was a familiar voice, too familiar. It was, for all accounts to Thana, her own. Swallowing hard at the sound in her head she looked away sharply.
"Well, that is an interesting turn of events," Thana said as she pulled away and went fully back
on duty. She couldn't afford not to right then. Distance and professionalism would be the only thing to keep her from falling back into that dark place she had been before she left Leesburg so long ago. Righting her head she took a parade rest stance and finally looked back at the Captain.
"It has been a stressful day Sir, perhaps you should retire for the rest of the day and allow your second to take charge until tomorrow. Clear your head." He recognized that action. Yes, this was way too similar to Ash's trademark stoicism, her suddenly pulling away and stiffening, her words reporting with more formality. His own voice tightened more than a little as he recognized that the situation had moved beyond what
he wanted. Ash had to start thinking about what was best for Newnan.
"One of the reasons I wanted you on board was exactly for this kind of direct but discreet advice. Something is wrong. If I'm compromised, I shouldn't be calling the shots right now." Ash sighed. This was not easy for him, but he was already in. The only way out was through, for better or worse.
"Here's where I need your counsel, Thana. Logically, Newnan should pass to my Second, Jack. He was promised a honeymoon. They deserve to be happy, even if it's just for two more days. I could reinstate Dr. Bonheur on the interim, but I just removed him from it because he has too much on his plate as it is. Now he's attending to Miss Sally." A wave of sorrow passed over his face, giving evidence that the usual stone of his expression was not a perfect mask, at least not that day.
"I trust you, Thana. I think you'd do an excellent job, but you aren't established enough with these people yet. With all that has happened today, I'd rather not let everyone know that I'm unfit for command - not right now. This need to be handled quietly, but I'm afraid my only option is to grit my teeth and soldier on." His eyes met hers, and the tone of his voice changed incrementally softer.
"Thana, please; I need your help." To his credit, Ash was lucid and fully rational. The last time he started to slip, it was different. He felt more stress, a general feeling of helplessness against an unforgiving world. He withdrew from people and sat in his own misery, drinking more of his own homebrew more than he should have. But now? He couldn't put his finger on it, but something was different. At least now he was seeking help.
"What do you recommend?" 
