11 Ch. 11 A phone call away

Back at the farm the atmosphere was dreary to say the least. The boy that Otis shot had been saved, and Otis died getting supplies that were not needed. There was still one person who could smile throughout it all. During the morning everyone was beginning to awaken to handle chores. They all went about in somber silence, even Rick whose son was saved. As they step out of the house they begin to hear loud sounds.

Swinging and clanging metal, grunting, and even the rumbling of thunder could be heard. They walk outside searching for the sound on high alert. The group follows the sound to a small clearing, about fifty feet of grass surrounded by trees. In the center the kimono wearing siblings sparred with high intensity. Clementine is attacking Julius with a sword from all angles fast, so fast they can't keep up most the time.

Inside the fight

'Clem really is a monster! Her body is already starting to adjust to her new speed. She isn't over shooting anymore either.' Julius thinks as he dodges a waist level circular slash by jumping onto the blade and pinning it to the ground.

Clem lets go, slides back, and pulls her short sword. She goes for his leg that stands on her sword. "Thunder Breathing: first form Thunderclap and flash!" She rockets at his left leg, but he uses his foot to throw her sword back at her, disrupting her motion. Julius takes a deep breath and following the sound of a dragon's roar carried on the wind he appears behind her, putting his sword on her shoulder.

With a smile he says "That's enough you're getting better fast. Your thunderclap and flash is great, but thunder breathing is more than that."

"One more time." She asks determined to outdo herself and score a hit.

"No, look around." He says pointing to the crowd now watching with a varied mix of expressions across their faces. With a traditional bow he says "I'm sorry if I disturbed you this beautiful morning." His words are accompanied by that pure childlike smile. No one really knows what to say about this situation, it was disturbing but not in the way he implied.

"What you doing out here this early in the morning making all that damn noise! Y'all gonna attract those things boy!" Shane barks with a face full of righteous indignation, like he got one up on him this time. His words do stir some people, but most think he was being dramatic. The sound of their training was no louder than the normal daily work.

"Every hour we run around the entire area of the farm, and we hunt the dead while we do. So I don't see the problem. Seems like everyone wins." Julius says with an unusual seriousness for his cheerful self, a demeanor Shane was quickly becoming proficient in bringing out. Andrea's body language is already showing she is afraid of the growing hostility, and Dale giving him those please stop eyes.

"Boy, you trying to tell me you run and this little girl run around all these acres every hour? You can save your bullshit for someone else." Shane looks around to appeal to the group.

"Pfft," a snicker escapes Julius mouth before erupting full blown laughter. "Hahahaha that's a riot really." As he finishes laughing he vanished from everyone's vision, reappearing behind Shane and slamming his hand down on Shane's shoulder. Shane can't react to Julius's speed and power, let alone defend against it as he is pushed to the ground. "You should know of all the people here, your opinion is the only one I completely disregard. I held Otis's hand last night! Where were you?!" Julius says applying more pressure to him.

"Boy you wasn't there, it was me and Otis! He told me to go!" Shane yells frantically.

"Now Julius you should know this ain't Shane fault. Let him go and we can talk," Rick says.

"So if I continue to hold him then….. what?" Julius says applying more pressure but looking Rick dead in his eyes. The beastly look in his purple eyes brought dread to the man. As he steels his nerves Hershel's family had come out the house to see the situation.

"Rick you were a cop, were you not? So either you don't want to see it, or you were bad at your fucking job." Julius says shoving Shane away face first into the dirt. Julius just walks away after greeting Herschel's family.

"Now what was all that?" Hershel asks.

"It was no-" Rick starts but gets interrupted by Shane.

"That damn boy is Crazy and a liar! You hear him just lie on a dead man and say he was there when Otis died! Not only that, he's making all that damned noise with this samurai ninja shit! He's gone get somebody killed just you watch!" Screams Shane now yelling louder than any noise Julius and Clem made.

"That boy did make it to Otis last night. Whether he was alive or not, I don't know, but I was watching when Pat put that handkerchief in his back pocket. Y'all were getting in the truck right after. That ain't no lie, and the boy brought Otis' wallet back. I tossed that to him myself when he was packing things to take, never know these days. I done told you this, or am I a liar too? If you think so you're welcome to leave my farm." Says Hershel shocking the whole group. At first it was reasonable, but now it seems this man is targeting this boy and that makes Hershel suspicious. Dale on the other hand went around the corner.

"Blerhgh," he vomited as his thoughts finally aligned with Julius'. Why was he steadily trying to make sure the majority believe Julius wasn't there? Why does he keep picking at the boy who brought us so much stuff? He's even been standoffish to that little girl. Out of all the things he's shown so far he loved kids, even if they weren't his own children.

"We've let a good man get murdered by this psychopath" Dale thinks to himself.

Ring ring ring

Shocking everyone a phone starts ringing in the backpack beside Clem. They know phones don't work, hell the CDC didn't have working phones. To their surprise Clem goes to the bag and grabs a phone.

"Hello?" She says through the satellite phone.

"Is this my new little sister?" Says a mischievous voice from the other side.

"Is this Machiavelli?" she questions. She'd heard so much about him, but never from him directly, he was like a myth at this point. Julius is very proud of this brother of his, so of course Clem was curious.

"Hahah, at least you know you have another brother. How come you never called me? You're breaking my heart." He says teasing the little girl.

"It wasn't that, I didn't want to, honest! Julius keeps the phone, and and-" the little girl was flustered and feeling guilty about it until she heard a smacking noise and a woman's voice saying stop on the other end of the phone.

"Always ruining stuff Liza… Anyways I was only messing with you Clem, Julius probably told you I was a bad influence huh? That's just because that brother of ours doesn't care about his life, and anyone who values their own is a coward. Don't let him trick you into being a suicidal maniac like him." Mac says from the other end. Getting an eye roll from half the group with him, he was cautious to the point of paranoia and thinks he's not a coward.

"Okay I'll try not to do dangerous things." Says Clem just happy to be on a phone again, especially with the 'legendary' Machiavelli. All good things must come to an end as everyone starts to crowd around her asking her about the phone.

"Who is that?" Says Maggie.

"Is that a satellite phone?" questions Glenn.

"Is it the military?" says Jimmy.

"Give me my phone." says Julius with his hand outstretched. Clementine knew she had messed up. He had one rule, don't answer the phone without his permission. She was already scared to silence when the voice on the other side spoke.

"I got you little sis, just give him the phone." Machiavelli says sounding confident.

She hands the phone to Julius who puts it to his ear and walks away with no one daring to stop him. "What!" he barks. Machiavelli could tell from his voice he is in a foul mood, and he knows why. Aside from himself, only his mercenary group would call that phone. He hasn't heard from any of them since he gave the order to get to Atlanta. So as the smart one now was not the time to care about face, the monster likes to fight all day! They fought for thirty-five hours straight once, so he'd rather change the subject and avoid him being pissed off at him altogether.

"You're going to be an uncle!" he says with feigned excitement.

"What?!" Julius exclaims.

"Yeah, I saved a baby, and it's a whiney little snot that cries unless I hold him. He's already putting me in danger." This was a situation out of Machiavelli's nightmares, but it was sugar to Julius who loves kind acts, and your general goody good shit.

"I'm proud of you, so what's his name?" Julius asks.

"Uhhh…the high altitude is causing interference. Breaking up, bye." He says hanging up the phone.

"He/I forgot to name him…" they think at the same time thousands of miles apart.

"Hey bro you didn't ask him where he was at, you know that right?" Nick asks, looking at Mac who suddenly ended the call.

Mac just silently sits there looking at the child. He's not calling that overly righteous man back, at least not until he has the best name for the little liability. He was never going to hear the end of it otherwise. "What should you be called?" He thinks intently.

"Mac, do you actually know where we're going?" Liza asks him.

"Georgia." Mac says.

"Where in Georgia?" "Nick asks again.

"Don't worry about it." Mac brushes him off. "You'll know when we get there."

"Don't tell me you've flown us this far without finding out," Alicia guesses.

"I'm trying to think." Mac wasn't paying the conversation any mind, as far as he was concerned, he could call back after he came up with a name and still have time before reaching Georgia, but they wouldn't shut up.

Back in Georgia the group had surrounded Julius. It was a slightly calmer version of what they did to Clem. Julius was not having it either way.

"Okay, okay, one at a time! I can't answer all of you at once!" he exclaims, walking back towards the house.

"Where did you get a phone?" Hershel walks up to him and asks. The rest of the group listening hard.

"It's my phone." He says showing Hershel the case with the JZ engraved in gold.

"I mean how did you get a satellite phone? Now listen I'm on your side but you're a little too mysterious." Hershel says in all seriousness.

"Oh me and my family own Z corp. Of course, I have a satellite phone. We make and sell satellites." He says.

"Z-corp like the mega company?" asks Lori asks from the background.

"Conglomerate, but yes." Julius answers.

"So your brother is Machiavelli Zoldyck?" Hershel asks.

"Yes." Julius says trying not to show that he was offended they knew Mac and not him. He put that feeling aside for now. "How have you heard of him?"

"I have a magazine of him, analyzing the best pet medicines. I have to say he is a genius." Hershel says looking up to Julius who looks incredibly smug. He had just one last thing to ask. "I thought you said you had a twin? From what I've seen Machiavelli seems Asian?"

"I'm half Japanese too." Julius states calmly. Hershel wanted to say something but was drawn to his facial features he indeed did not look completely white, at least after studying his facial features. He follows up with another statement. "Yeah we apparently look extremely, like one parent, were fraternal anyways so we would've never looked identical." Julius states.

"Wait you're Asian?" Glenn asks again.

"Yes, I grew up in Japan, so I got that a lot." Julius looks at him and responds.

"Cool," says Glenn.

"Aren't you Korean?" asks Julius.

"Yeah, so what? I'm happy to have another Asian American around." He says simply. To which Julius nods. "And how did you know I was Korean?"

"My grandpa had a disciple who was from Korea, he had a son with a lady from Japan. He ended up dying so his son Mica grew up with us, we went to Korea alot together. He's my best friend after all." Julius states with a reminiscing smile on his face. "Clem, that's why I don't let you use this phone. Besides Mac, I've only heard from MuJin. He was with some people but not everyone, I have been waiting on my family to contact me."

"I'm sorry Julius." Clementine says looking sad, he rubs her head.

"It's okay." He said in response.

"Why don't you just call them?" she asks. This elicits silence from Julius. He just looks at her then grabs his phone and dials three. Ring ring.

"Land Hoooooo!" Was the response from the voice from the other side. A handsome man with flaming red hair, a beastlike appearance complete with fanglike teeth and eyes that almost look slitted. He wore a White T-shirt, with black jeans and a golden belt holding a longsword in a blue scabbard. He is a lover of the Murim, and he loved swords to sabers.

"Mica! Mica! Where are you?! You better talk now!" yells Julius.

"Or?" Mica asked with a devilish grin on his face.

"I'm probably going to punch you." Julius says calmly.

"Haha you can try! I'm off of the coast of California right now. I heard that the coward left without me, but he left me some transportation." Says Mica confidently.

"Definitely going to punch you in the face, how did you get to Cali?" Julius asks now that he listens, he hears waves in the background.

"A custom rowboat!" Mica says proudly rowing on the sea with the phone to his ear. Click. Julius hangs up on him. "Hello? Did you hear me? Jules? Don't hate! Jules!? Fucking hater…" he says putting the phone down rowing and putting his focus into moving towards the coast. "I wonder how strong he is now?" Mica thinks as he continues rowing up to the docks. A Temptations song pops into his head and he begins whistling 'Treat her like a lady'.

Back in Georgia

"Yeah Mica should find his way to me soon." Julius says to Clementine.

"I could hear the whole conversation, everyone could." She states looking around at everyone who was sitting around watching.

"Well Mica will be a big help, out of everyone I've met he's the only one who rivals me. He too is a monster." Julius says leaving Clem shocked