Dead love in my hands (Troy Otto story/ Fear the walking dead/ ftwd)

Greek motifs

The greatest human stupidity is fear. Fear of doing something, talking, confessing. We are always afraid, and that's why we lose so often.

G. Bernard Shaw. 

I felt the cold iron against my shoulder.

"Who are you ?" a rough male voice rang out, making me shudder.

"Well, will there be an answer?"the voice continued.

"What is the answer to a stupid question?" I responded.

"Turn around!"

"I was just going to!"

At that moment, I turned around, grabbing the rifle by the barrel and abruptly pulling it out. There was a young man in front of me. He looked about 25 years old. The sun was already setting, but I could see the color of his eyes — light blue, even almost gray with a slight blue. I was surprised to find that he was also looking at mine. His calmness made me tense. His face showed absolutely no emotion, as if he was just looking at the wall, and not at a direct threat to life. It's strange that he wasn't taken aback by the fact that I took away his weapon.

"So what's next?" I decided to break the silence.

"I knew it was necessary to aim at the head, and even better to shoot right away", he grinned.

"Exactly!" I snickered.

"Exactly" the man teased me.

His face still didn't radiate any emotion.

"Raise your hands! Now!"

"No"

"Then I'll shoot!"

"Come on! The whole ranch will gather for this show!"

He noticed correctly. If I pulled the trigger, people who haven't gone to bed yet would definitely crawl out of their homes at that sound.

"Okay, then give me the keys to any car, and I'll just leave here, you won't see me again. I'll throw the gun over the fence, a couple of meters from here, I promise."

Suddenly he laughed. His laugh was so ringing that if I closed my eyes, I probably would have thought that some carefree teenager was laughing. There was a real dissonance in my head.

"Are you crazy? Are you dictating to me on my territory, standing with my rifle, some of your conditions? You have no choice, better give me back my thing before one of my soldiers shoots you, they're all standing around the perimeter."

I looked to the side and, indeed, 200 meters away from me I saw a man with a gun standing near the fence.

"I won't even kill you if you give me your rifle now and go quietly with me to bosses."

"The bosses?" I raised an eyebrow inquiringly.

There was a brief silence. Apparently, he wasn't going to explain anything to me, but just waited until I gave him the weapon, and obediently went somewhere unclear. And I was just about to do it when I suddenly noticed that someone was running towards us.

"Oh, well, here's my brother," my new acquaintance said, then shouted, "Jake, look, a girl took aim at me!"

He laughed again. The laughter was completely inappropriate, but for some reason it defused the situation, and I lowered the rifle. It flashed through my mind: "boss", "brother"...So I took the rifle from the brother of the head of the ranch. Not bad, not bad at all.

"What happened here?" Jake asked, slightly out of breath. He didn't look like his brother at all. 

"Yes, it's okay, I just got a new girlfriend!"

"Troy, are you drunk?"

Oh, so that's your name! So, Greek motifs, interesting. Against the background of my thoughts, a showdown unfolded:

"Actually, my friend is going to leave the ranch, and my father is not doing a damn thing to keep our commune from falling apart, and yes, I drank some whiskey, is it forbidden?"

"No, drink as much as you want, but do not take up arms when drunk. Is that clear to you?"

Jake threw an angry look at his brother and, without waiting for a reaction, turned to me:

"What's your name? Who are you?"

"Della, well, I'm a doctor, a psychiatrist, to be more precise, it's true, it was in a past life. Now I'm just like everyone else."

"The irony of fate is that you met with Troy. He definitely needs a psychiatrist," Jake said sarcastically, "So what happened, how did you end up here?"

"She wanted to steal a car from us, that's how, brother, will you still be nice to her?"

"Yes, I didn't want to steal anything from you, I'm looking for my sister. We went with her to get supplies, and at night she disappeared somewhere. I woke up alone, went looking for her and came across your ranch when you pointed a rifle at me, I just climbed over the fence, I wanted to look for her here."

"Why did you ask me for the keys?" Troy insisted.

"Yes, because it's faster to move by car, but ours ran out of gas while I was looking for Clara."

"Clara? With that name, she's definitely already been devoured..."

"Troy, shut your mouth and get out of here," Jake said angrily.

"I was going to leave on my own, without your advice, Jake. Goodbye, I hope you really didn't want to steal anything, and by the way", he tossed me the keys, " If you need a car, then mine is right at the gate, gray, but you won't find anyone alone, especially at night."

He turned and ran down the small hill on which we were standing. The setting sun shone on his back, flooding his slightly battered military uniform and shaggy nape with gold. I shifted my gaze and absently looked at the keys, almost lost in thoughts about Clara, but Jake's voice brought me back to reality:

"So you're leaving right now? You look tired, maybe you'll rest and have a snack, and in the morning, Troy and I will help you find your sister, okay?"

"What if it's too late?"

"I think if she left, there was a reason. We'll find her, but it'll actually be easier in the morning. Let's go buy you dinner?"

"Thanks, I'm not hungry," I lied.

"Then at least some tea? To refuse tea is simply dishonorable!," Jake laughed.

"I won't refuse tea, you're probably right, it's just stupid to go searching at night, but I can't even imagine where she could have gone."

While we were walking home, I asked Jake about this place. He said that many people want to flee because of enmity with the neighboring settlement, so he would be glad if my sister and I stayed with them. Over tea, we discussed in detail how to start looking for Clara, and after Jake showed me the room where I stayed the night. Surprisingly, there was even a shower, a bed, bed linen... How is this possible? Did I finally find the place that Clara and I have been looking for for so long...? I couldn't believe it. I wish she was here now.... Why isn't she here? .. Plunging deeper into my thoughts, I did not notice how I fell asleep.