Lin Feng and the others moved up fast, cutting down the pursuing walkers in short order. Once the last one dropped, Marcus crouched beside the unconscious stranger and started checking him over.

"Not bitten," Marcus said, looking up after a brief examination. "But dehydrated, and running a high fever. Needs fluids and cooling down as soon as possible."

Lin Feng crouched and studied the man's hands. The backs were covered in small, scattered scars. Calluses at the base of the fingers, calluses at the web between thumb and forefinger, the kind of wear that only came from handling guns day in and day out.

"Merle. Take a look."

"Huh?" Merle stepped over, squatting down to examine the calluses first, then pressing two fingers into the muscle along the arm and at the shoulder blade. Firm. Dense. And there, beneath the skin, a round, smooth scar. A bullet wound, long healed.

"Holy shit." Merle sat back slightly. "This guy might be active-duty. Or at least recently rotated off a battlefield. Can't rule out mercenary either."

Merle looked over at Lin Feng, voice dropping into something almost like a warning.

"Lin. This one's trouble. The dangerous kind."

Lin Feng grinned. "Sounds like we're getting another companion."

Dangerous? Sure. As long as the man wasn't some twisted psychopath, Lin Feng would take him.

In this world, anyone who wasn't ruthless enough didn't last.

"Your call," Merle said. "But put someone on him. If this guy causes a mess, it won't be a small one."

"Looks like our Mr. Sheriff is about to come out of retirement." Lin Feng raised an eyebrow.

Who better for the job than Rick, sharp eye, steady head, and the kind of commanding presence that made people fall in line without even realizing it?

The others exchanged a look and let it drop. Lin Feng had made up his mind, so that was that. And if this stranger did turn out to have bad intentions, well. There were ways to handle that, too.

Maggie arrived late, pulling up and killing the engine before walking over to find everyone clustered together. "What's going on? Someone hurt?"

They shifted aside to show Orion lying on the ground.

"Nothing serious. Picked up an unlucky guy."

"Oh." Maggie glanced down at him. "Okay. So what now?"

"Load the supplies, and bring him back. He needs treatment."

Maggie nodded and didn't push further. If Lin Feng said it was fine, it was fine.

They packed the supplies onto the pickup quickly. Then Lin Feng and Daryl lifted Orion into the truck bed, and they headed home.

---

Back at camp, Lin Feng dropped down from the truck bed and helped Daryl carry Orion over to the shade of a tree, setting him down in the cool.

Lin Feng thought for a moment, then turned to Daryl. "How many pairs of handcuffs did we pull from the police station last time?"

Daryl thought back, then nodded. "I'll grab them."

Something shifted in Merle's expression, a dark flash, like a bad memory surfacing, and a quiet curse came out under the breath.

Lin Feng laughed low. "Relax. Not cuffing you this time."

Merle had a cigarette clamped between the teeth, lighter halfway up, and let that hand pause just long enough to shoot up a middle finger. "Nobody's gonna think you're a mute if you keep your mouth shut. OK?"

Rick had been walking over and stopped cold. "I — sorry," Rick said quietly. "Back then, I did what I did because—"

"Save it." Merle bit down on the cigarette, jaw tight. "Me not causing trouble doesn't mean I'm willing to forget it. And I sure as hell didn't say I forgave you." Cigarette still clenched, Merle turned and walked off toward the tent.

Lin Feng watched with a quiet smile. Face bigger than the sky, mouth faster than the brain, that was Merle. But if there was truly no forgiveness there, would Merle be sitting around the same fire, sharing drinks and food? Some people just couldn't admit to a thing directly.

Rick stared after Merle, then scratched the back of the head. "What's that about?"

"Running a high fever," Lin Feng said, "then deciding to run a marathon with the walkers anyway. Didn't win. Passed out from sheer frustration."

Rick let out a short laugh, and then Daryl tossed the handcuffs over from across the camp, and that laugh went stiff.

Lin Feng caught them, snapped them onto Orion's wrists, then looked up. "This one might be dangerous. The background, anyway, the kind that's spent years living and breathing guns. For the camp's safety, keep an eye on him."

"Dangerous," Rick repeated.

"More precisely: a dangerous profession. Someone who's dealt with guns and gunfire for a long time."

Rick crouched, picked up Orion's hands, turned them over, studied them. Nodded slowly. "You're not wrong."

Marcus came over with an armful of medicines and syringes. Lin Feng and Rick stepped back without being asked, clearing space for the work to begin.

---

Beth came running across the camp the moment word got back that Lin Feng had returned, pulling up short in front of the two of them.

"Lin — are you alright? Did you get hurt?"

Lin Feng reached out and ruffled the top of Beth's head. "I'm fine. Don't hug me yet, though. I'm filthy."

Beth glanced at the blood drying on his clothes, then looked back up with an expression of pure curiosity. "Then why haven't you taken them off? Are you shy?"

Lin Feng gave Beth a flat look.

The nerve, honestly. A while back, Beth would go red and hide behind both hands. Now? Direct approach, no hesitation, and the occasional commentary about his physique thrown in for good measure. It made him want to laugh and snap at the same time, and since he couldn't do either properly, he usually just let it go.

"Later. I have questions first. Behave."

Beth's mouth pressed into a small pout, but settled obediently to one side, and then those eyes drifted to Marcus, watching him mix the medication, draw the syringe, and administer the injection with smooth, unhurried precision. Something lit up in that gaze. Quiet, but intent.

Lin Feng remembered their late-night talk. He asked, low: "Want to learn?"

Beth nodded. The front lines, fighting walkers, close-range and brutal, that wasn't a fit, and Beth knew it. But sitting at the back as decoration for the camp wasn't acceptable either.

The goal was to stand alongside Lin Feng. To actually contribute something real.

Marcus's medical knowledge had caught Beth's attention for exactly that reason.

"It's not easy," Lin Feng said. "This isn't like putting down walkers, where you just point a pistol and pull the trigger. The apocalypse didn't make medicine simpler, if anything, it made it harder. Have you really thought it through?"

Beth looked at him steadily. "Even so, isn't that better than standing around helplessly worrying?"

Marcus glanced over and smiled. "I think Beth's got a point. If blood doesn't make you faint, I can teach the basics, rapid bleeding control, wound suturing."

Everything beyond that required time and accumulated practice. Not the kind of thing to rush under these conditions.

"No objection from me," Lin Feng said, shrugging. "As long as you're willing to teach." He'd take an extra field medic at camp without a second thought.

As for a medical license, who was checking credentials these days? Someone who could stop bleeding and close a wound was worth their weight in gold.

➤ Next: This Is Reputation

Chapter 64 - This Is Reputation

Orion opened his eyes at dusk, his consciousness dragged back by the smell of food drifting in from the camp, Nancy and Carol Peletier cooking dinner.

He moved his hands on instinct. Realized immediately they were restrained. Went still.

He looked down.

Handcuffs?!

He closed his eyes and ran back through it. High fever. Total exhaustion. He'd tried making it to a pharmacy for medicine and ended up inexplicably swarmed by over a dozen walkers. No condition to fight. He'd run. Someone had pulled him out.

But why the handcuffs?

He was still turning that over when footsteps pattered away, Carl, off to tell Lin Feng that Orion was awake.

Lin Feng broke off his conversation with Marcus and Rick. All three came over to the shade of the tree.

Marcus stepped forward and pressed a hand to Orion's forehead, then turned back. "The medicine kicked in. Two more days and he'll be fully recovered."

Lin Feng watched the man keep up his unconscious act. The mischief in him surfaced right on cue, and a wicked grin spread across his face.

"Good to hear. So if we eat one of his legs today, that shouldn't cause any problems, right?"

Orion's eyelids twitched. Out of the tiger's den and straight into the wolf's lair.

What the hell, were these people cannibals?

Rick blinked, caught the smirk on Lin Feng's face, and caught on immediately. "Maybe fatten him up a bit first?"

Carl's small head held one very large question mark.

What were they even talking about?

The man still didn't react. Lin Feng drew his Bowie knife, making sure the blade scraped loud and deliberate coming out of the sheath. "No good. I've been starving for days. I'm taking a leg now."

Orion's eyes snapped open, gaze sharp and hard.

He arched up, drove his right foot straight up in a nutcracker strike, going for the fastest takedown available.

Lin Feng caught his ankle with one hand without any effort. The kick landed like a gentle nudge. He didn't even shift his weight. "Huh," he said, smirking. "Playing possum."

He dropped Orion's foot and slid the knife back into its sheath. "For the record — we're not short on supplies, and we don't eat people. Now: shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"

Orion put it together. The man had seen through the act from the start. Every word of that had been deliberate.

The corner of his mouth pulled into something that passed for a smile, flat, hard, not pleasant to look at. His parched throat made his voice rough. "Orion Walker. Recon scout before the outbreak."

Lin Feng glanced at Rick. Rick gave a small nod.

Rick had felt it the moment they'd gotten close, that familiar quality, the same scent of someone forged in the same fire. But harder than Rick. Colder. And far more shut off.

Did this guy get discharged for psychological reasons?

"Active duty or veteran?" Rick asked.

"...Active duty." A beat. "I was on annual leave. Came here as a tourist."

Orion seemed to know what Rick was actually asking and answered the unspoken question along with it.

"Carl, go grab a bottle of water." Lin Feng said it quietly.

"On it, Lin. Back in a second." Carl jogged off toward the food storage tent.

Orion's gaze shifted. He'd assumed the one running things here was the other kindred spirit, the one in the cowboy hat. He hadn't expected it to be this Asian kid in front of him.

Lin Feng didn't bother with the surprise in Orion's eyes. He was already working through the problem of how to keep this man in the camp.

Active-duty regular military. Combat capability was a given.

The only real question was whether the man had any bad habits, and what his temperament was like day to day.

That would take time. Daily contact was the only way to find out.

"Sorry, Mr. Walker. You know how bad things have gotten. There are elderly people and children in this camp, and their safety is something I have to think about."

Orion looked down at the handcuffs. He gave a slow, tired nod. "Understandable."

His life was already in someone else's hands. What was the point of making trouble?

Besides, the blood on this Asian kid wasn't any lighter than what clung to someone like himself.

"So — do you want to consider joining us?"

Orion stared at Lin Feng, momentarily unable to follow the logic.

One breath: talking about safety concerns. Next breath: extending an invitation.

Was the man just naturally big-hearted? Or genuinely confident he could handle the risk?

"And if I refuse..."

"Then I keep you cuffed here for two days. Once you're recovered, I give you some weapons and food and send you off to find somewhere else."

Orion narrowed his eyes. When he spoke, it wasn't the question anyone would have expected. "Are you Chinese, or Chinese-American?"

"Chinese."

"Then I'll join."

"..."

Lin Feng's brain stalled out completely.

What did showing your nationality have to do with agreeing on the spot?

Was this what people meant by reputation?

Orion seemed to read the confusion on Lin Feng's face. "Chinese people are good people," he said. "I'm willing to trust that."

Lin Feng's guard went up a notch despite himself. It had come too easy. Too clean. The whole thing felt slightly unreal.

Orion seemed to drift toward some memory that caused him pain. He didn't explain further.

Lin Feng turned it over for a moment, then pulled a key from his pocket, unlocked the handcuffs, and hauled Orion up off the ground.

"Thank you for the trust. I'll prove with actions that you made the right call." He held the man's gaze. "But I'm also asking you to be straight with us, so we can get through this rotten world together."

Orion's eyes shifted, something moving behind them, as though he'd caught the shadow of someone else in Lin Feng's face. He nodded. "I will."

Lin Feng clapped him on the shoulder. "Come on. You've got to be starving."

Carl came jogging back right then. Orion's cuffs were already off; Carl read the situation at a glance and held out the water with a grin.

"Here. There's more if this isn't enough."

Lin Feng reached over and ruffled Carl's hair. "I hope you're still smiling like that in two days."

Carl: "? Lin, child abuse is a reportable offense."

"Great. I'm sure Rick would love to have that conversation with me." He laughed. "Hahahahaha."

Rick watched Lin Feng with an unreadable expression. Something was being plotted. Rick was almost certain of it.

Then Rick caught the thread of what it might be. "You're not planning to put Carl through the training too, are you?"

"Why not? Rick — have you forgotten what happened to Sophia?"

Rick's expression went quiet. Of course Rick hadn't forgotten. Sophia alone in the woods, lost, Rick had nearly broken beyond repair over that.

"But Carl is still just a child..."

"Those walkers with nothing in their heads but eating people don't care about that. The sooner someone learns to handle a weapon, the sooner they have the ability to protect themselves. Isn't that right?"

Rick was silent for a long time.

Then, finally, a nod.

➤ Next: Orion Observes, Lin Feng Strikes It Rich