Suffering: Male Reader x TWDG

Chapter 3: A Close Shave

"What were you running from?" he asks you.

"Biters sir. There was a whole bunch of them" you answer starting to sweat a little.

"Is that what you call them?" he says smirking. "Here we just call them infected, sounds much more official and professional. You don't look like you're much of the survival type. I just don't see you having been out there on your own for very long" he says clearly trying to push you for further information.

"My group got attacked the night before. We were camped not too far away from a lake" You say caving in to the pressure.

"Attacked, by what?" He asks. 

"Infected" You say quick to catch on and use his preferred language. "And a group of men with guns".

"Was it this camp?" he asks pulling out a picture and handing it to you. You examine the picture and see your old camp completely destroyed with piles of corpses dotted around.

"Yes" you reply with tears welling up in your eyes.

He stands up and starts pacing around. "Thank you for the info Y/N. I am truly sorry for your loss. We sent some scouts in the direction you came from and this is what they found. It's one thing if it was just infected but I hate to know that there is a group of raiders on our border somewhere."

You hear a knock at the door, the General swings the door open and a very tall very muscular man steps into the room. He is clean shaven and his head is shaved as well, he has a very chiselled jaw and looks stern. "You requested me sir" he says standing to attention.

The General points towards you, "This is our newest recruit Y/N". The General then turns to you  "Y/N this is Sergeant Edwards, he will be in charge of you and your training. Now, I have a meeting to attend so I will leave you to it". The General walks past both of you and heads towards an olive green pickup truck, you watch as he enters the passenger seat and is driven out of the gates. Edwards notices you watching. "It's rude to stare boy" he growls as he motions you to follow him.

"Where is he going?" you ask bracing yourself to be growled at.

"A meeting" Edwards replies as he continues to lead you through Fort Summer.

"Outside the gates?" you ask quietly not wanting to upset Edwards but being too curious to stop yourself.

"He'll be telling the others" he replies with a snarl.

You pause for a moment and look up at him "What othe-".

He cuts you off before you can finish speaking "Christ, why do you ask so many fucking questions? It's like you've never heard of us or something. He'll be going around warning the other settlements 'cos y'know it's kind of our job as The Militia. Wait, haven't you heard of us before?"

"No" you reply sheepishly shrinking in on yourself.

He calms down and turns to face you. "Huh, well we protect the settlements in the local area and in return they pay us with supplies and ammunition. He's on his way to speak to them about what you and the scouts saw. Sorry for snapping at you, I thought you were just acting stupid". 

By the tone of his voice you can tell he genuinely means this apology. "I uh... I heard what happened to your parents. I'm sorry about it. If you ever need to talk about it you can request a meeting with the therapist".

"Thanks" you say feeling less scared of him as he opens the door to a small cabin and leads you inside. It seems to be one of the cabins that has electricity as you can see wires hanging from the ceiling and there is a fan in the corner of the room blowing cold air at you.

A man greets you both as you are led into a chair. The man looks at Edwards and asks "Buzzcut?". Edwards nods and the man fetches a pair of shiny silver electric clippers. You realise what's about to happen and close your eyes as he turns them on.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Once the buzzing stops you look at yourself in the mirror on the wall opposite you and sure enough, your head has been shaved. "I look horrible" you exclaim laughing at your own reflection.

"At least you don't have that mop on your head anymore" Edwards says grinning as the barber brushes the hair off of you and onto the floor. Once done you get out the chair and Edwards leads you out of the cabin.

"Where to now?" You ask glad to see that he doesn't look as stern as he did before.

"Well it's getting late so there's no point taking you to morning training as you have already missed most of it so instead, you are going to help with some chores". He says leading you down towards the lake.

"I thought you were in charge of the training?" you ask as you reach a fishing pier at the edge of the lake.

"I am but I have someone covering for me and need to get back quickly. All you need to do is help the people fishing with whatever they need you to do. Will you be able to do that?" he says putting his hands on his hips and looking down at you.

"Yes sir" you reply with a salute as he turns around and walks off leaving you at the fishing pier. You see about four people fishing, three men and one woman. They turn to you and wave before continuing their conversation. The small pier looks like a recent addition to the lake and has a few rowing boats moored to it. You approach the people fishing.

"Hey so do you guys need help?" you ask saluting at them. They chuckle at you and the woman hands you a spare fishing rod. "You ever fish before" she asks sitting back down at the edge of the pier.

"My dad taught me" you say sitting down with them putting bait on the hook and casting your line. After a few minutes one of the men turns to you. "You know you don't have to salute us right? You only have to salute those in the chain of command. Don't matter if you're a soldier or a fresh recruit. However, I'm not gonna complain about it" he says as they start to laugh. 

"Don't worry" the woman says. "You'll get used to the rules eventually". You can practically smell the sympathy seeping from her. You feel yourself turn a bright shade of red. You hate when people feel sorry for you. It makes you feel stupid and useless.

It's probably something you learned from your father. He hated sympathy, giving it and receiving it. Although if you're being honest, he just hated emotion in general. After filling a bucket up with fish they told you to take it to the freezer in the kitchen. You pick the bucket up with one hand and balance yourself slightly with your other arm and head off in the direction of the cafeteria. 

As you enter the kitchen through the door in the cafeteria you are hit by the smell of something cooking. A man wearing an apron over his uniform comes up to you. "Thanks for the fish. Here, I'll take them" He says scooping the fish out of the bucket onto one of the counters before walking off to stir a pot.

You leave the cafeteria and start to head back towards the pier when out of nowhere you get shoved onto the floor. "Watch it jackass" the kid says before spitting at you. You recognise him as one of the kids who sat at the table with you but unfortunately you don't know his name. You call him a jerk as you stand back up which grabs his attention as he turns around and runs at you hitting you with a right hook to the jaw.

You stumble backwards just managing not to lose your footing and proceed to swing a left hook to the nose followed by a knee in the stomach that topples him to the floor. You walk towards him, anger in your eyes. He puts his arms up to shield himself and you can see that you gave him a nosebleed. A very strong arm puts you in a chokehold and you panic grasping at it trying to loosen the grip but it remains firm. "Calm down kid" a familiar voice growls.