Soon: Hello! Here comes that "Soon" creature, back again, with more words and stuff for you to peruse at your leisure. For those of you who didn't read my very first upload on here - welcome, and to those of you who did - welcome back!

Now for a brief interlude from my main story, as I take the time out to post my newest TWDG project on here. Unlike Salvation Lost, this is completely new material which I have only recently written (well, in the last six months or so, anyway). I basically plan on alternating between re-typing Salvation Lost, and also typing up other things as well (some new, some old), in order to try and keep my interest levels fresh and sharp. If I just sat down and focused solely on Salvation Lost to begin with, then I'm fairly sure that I'd fall into a state of complete boredom and lethargy - re-typing such a long, meandering story isn't exactly my idea of fun, y'know? So, I came up with this little beauty to try and maintain my creative spark for this whole writing malarkey.

As for the story itself, well, you'll notice that there's no Introduction chapter this time? Well, that's because this is only going to be a short story - five chapters, to be exact. It isn't going to be your everyday short-story, however. This is going to be a "choose your own ending" type of thing, where a decision that you, as the reader, make towards the end of the second chapter will determine how your own personal story ends. In other words, you might say that this story is tailored by how you play. Hehehe. ;P

Chapter 1 (this one, in other words) is going to be the set-up, Chapter 2 is going to feature the actual choice itself, Chapters 3 & 4 will feature the two main outcomes of said choice, and the final chapter will demonstrate what will happen if you refuse to make a choice at all, as well as featuring my author's notes to wrap the whole thing up.

I'm genuinely interested to see what the results of this are gonna be. I think I'm going to call it ... a social experiment. I'm actually quite eager to see how everyone will interpret the upcoming choice, but I shan't be spoiling what it is just yet. Maybe you can have a guess at what it might be after you've read the chapter below, hmm?

The cast of this story will be similar to that of Salvation Lost (season 1 characters, in other words), with several notable absentees, and one extremely notable addition - Ben Paul. Yay! Who doesn't love a bit of Ben, right? I was looking forward to adding him into the fold for this one, and I certainly didn't disappoint myself. :D

The cast is: Lee, Clementine, Kenny, Lilly, Carley & Ben. Some of the most popular and/or influential characters from the first season of the game, in other words.

The story will branch off from the main plot of season 1, as it's set in a universe where the group have been chased out of the motor inn by the bandits, before being discovered by the St. John brothers and getting tricked into going to their now-infamous dairy farm. So, Larry and Mark are still very much alive at this point in time, despite not featuring in the actual story itself. Okay? Got it? Good.

Let's get this thing underway, shall we?

Prologue:

Having fled the fallen Motor Inn together and headed north, the group eventually made their way into the dense mountain forests of northern Georgia. Ambushed by a horde of wandering walkers as the sun began to set in the sky, the ten survivors were reluctantly separated during the resulting furore. Katjaa and Duck were whisked away into the trees by Larry and Mark, leaving Lee, Kenny, Lilly, Carley, Ben and Clementine with no choice but to dart off in the opposite direction. Lost and bewildered by their unfamiliar surroundings, the remaining six group members take a brief pause to re-evaluate their options. Lee informs his weary comrades that he has visited this area once before, many years ago, having stayed a "special" hotel resort with his wife, while they were touring America on their honeymoon. Believing that the mountain getaway is their best possible chance of finding somewhere safe to haul up for the night, the not-so-merry band set off to track down the elusive hotel - the growling moans of the dead, and the gnawing concern for their missing loved ones bearing down upon them all, as the few remaining hours of daylight relentlessly tick away…

Chapter 1: The Prelude

A male walker - his hair long, blonde, and matted with disgusting clumps of dried blood and flesh - continues to stumble through the trees, peering blearily around for the source of his next meal. The rattling noise of the air trapped inside his lungs carries off into the afternoon air, but no creature seems to be stirring. A sudden clicking noise catches his attention, and a sharp turn of his rotten head reveals a squirrel, sitting on a felled tree trunk some five metres away, voraciously nibbling on an acorn it had picked up from the littered forest floor. With a strangled cry of longing, the walker makes a beeline straight for the tiny critter, clumsily extending an arm towards his prey, as he threatens to trip and fall on every twig and pebble lining his path. The squirrel, alerted to the presence of danger, takes the precious nut in its teeth and hastily scurries up a nearby tree, climbing far beyond the reach of the reanimated corpse.

Groaning in apparent disappointment, the walker allows his decomposing arm to fall harmlessly back to his side. He turns slothfully on the spot, perhaps searching for another, less speedy, victim to feast upon. It is then that a hard, blunt object collides abruptly with the back of his head, as the butt of a rifle sinks deep into his skull, fracturing the bone with a sickening crack.

Lilly steps out from the shadows of a nearby bush, from which she had launched her sneak attack (a specialty of hers), her jaw set and her body tense, a look of revulsion mingling with the grim determination already present on her face. Twisting her neck ever so slightly to one side until it cracks, she watches on with cold indifference, as the flattened walker begins to push himself up from where he lay, turning his head this way and that, clearly dazed and confused by the sudden, unforeseen blow to the head. An impatient noise, similar to a, "Tch", escapes Lilly's throat, as she clutches her rifle firmly in both hands, before delivering a second controlled blow to the left side of the monster's head … then a third … and then finally a forth, violently smashing his already fractured skull to bits. With his brain tissue penetrated - a walker's one and only weak spot - the creature collapses back onto the floor with a final, gurgling moan.

A small sigh of relief passes Lilly's lips, as the immense tension in her body begins to ease up at last. She motions over her shoulder with her right hand, calling out in a remarkably composed voice for someone who had just forcibly crushed a skull to pieces, "You can come out. It's dead."

Her fellows seemed to materialise from within the nearby trees and bushes, just as Lilly herself had done, and began to approach her from behind. She bends down to clutch at a handful of the fallen leaves at her feet, picking them up and using them to haphazardly wipe away some of the ooze and filth caked on to the butt of her bloodied rifle. As she does so, she notices that some of the blood spray from the walker's brain had also splattered onto both her jeans and her jacket. With an irritated growl, she takes a moment to briefly scan her surroundings again, looking for something she may be able to use to clean herself up with … or perhaps just looking for a suitable object to kick and vent her frustrations on ... one or the other.

"…We're bumpin' int'a more an' more o' those things by the minute", muttered Kenny darkly, glancing down at the tattered remains of the walker beside Lilly's boots. "We're sittin' ducks out here!"

His own choice of phrasing then seemed to strike a sudden chord and, after an abrupt pause, Kenny's face seemed to collapse in upon itself, crumpling under the weight of his own anxiety and sadness. Perhaps the term "ducks" had not been the smartest thing for him to say at that particular moment.

Taking a second to stare at Kenny and let his sympathies with the man sink in, Lee then turns to the others, uttering his agreement with the Floridian, "Yeah, we really need to get a move on now. It's gettin' dark out."

"You think I don't know that?!" came Lilly's tetchy response from the base of a nearby tree, which she was now crouched beside, apparently busying herself with searching through the clutter of leaves and twigs at the foot of the trunk.

"Er … Lilly? What are you doin'?" asked Lee slowly, as though fearing for the woman's sanity.

"What do you think I'm doing, Lee?" snapped Lilly impatiently, before going on to immediately answer her own question. "I'm trying to find the stick that I set down earlier. That will tell us which direction we should be heading in next, since I'm pretty sure we've been past this tree-", she patted the trunk with her right hand. "-several times already."

"So we've bin goin' round in circles for the last few hours?" said Kenny incredulously. "Great."

"Arrrgh", growled Lilly as she straightened up, her frustration blatantly reaching peak levels now. "I can't find it anywhere! One of those bastards must have kicked it into the undergrowth or something, because I know for a fact that the one I picked out was far too heavy for the wind to blow it away."

"Fascinating", Carley mumbled under her breath with a subtle roll of her eyes, causing Clementine, who was stood beside her, to shoot her a frightened glance - after all, the last thing that they needed right now was for anyone to rile Lilly up even further. Ever since they had been forced to abandon the Motor Inn several weeks ago, Lilly had been growing increasingly quick-tempered with them all, as they had trudged across the walker-infested countryside together. And since they had been forcibly separated from her father and the other surviving group members, several hours ago now, Lilly had been nothing short of a live wire, liable to spark into life at slightest misplaced comment.

"So, what do we do now?" Carley continued, as she turned to the others.

"M-Maybe we could carve a mark into a tree or something?" suggested Ben, peering nervously around at his fellows.

"One more stupid suggestion like that and I'll carve a mark into your face instead!" Lilly threatened menacingly, her rage bubbling over, as it so often did these days. Ben recoiled so badly at this that you would have been forgiven for thinking that Lilly had drawn a sword on him, which caused Carley to fire a fresh scowl in Lilly's direction.

"Hey, leave him alone, will you? I happen to think that was actually a pretty good idea. Why can't we just leave a mark on a tree?"

"Because, Carley, we don't even have a fucking knife", said Lilly through gritted teeth. "And in case it's escaped your attention, my dad and Mark are currently in possession of the axe as well."

"Well, we can just use the butt of the rifle to make an indentation instead", shrugged Carley dismissively.

"And draw every walker within a 500-yard radius directly to us? Yeah. Great plan, genius", Lilly scoffed, her right hand now resting on her hip. "Besides, it'd take too long to make a distinctive enough looking dent in the bark, and we're running out of time here."

"Look, all this bitchin' an' whinin' ain't gettin' us anywhere", said Kenny wearily, stepping forward as Carley continued to frown in Lilly's direction, clearly trying to muster up her next retort. "The last thing we need right now is more bullshit ideas. What we need is decisive action."

"What do you think I've been trying to do?" spat Lilly angrily, throwing up her hands in exasperation. However, Lee briefly raised his right hand before Kenny could respond, attempting to forestall another argument in the process.

"Okay. What d'you suggest?" he said, turning to Kenny, with a mixture of curiosity and desperation plastered across his face.

"Look there", said Kenny, nodding towards a gap in the trees ahead of them, where a large, rocky outcrop dominated the line of vision. "That thing's big enough that we'd be able to see ev'rything in the area, if we climbed it."

They all turned to look towards the great mass of rock as Kenny continued, "You wanna know what I suggest? Well, I suggest we climb to the top o' that plateau over there, have a quick scope o' the terrain, find out where we're headed, an' then get to gettin' there before we lose what little light we have left. That's what I think we should do. Should'a done it hours ago, in fact. But our leader over here-", he indicated towards Lilly with a slight sneer on his face, "-wanted to play Jungle Jane an' go traipsin' aimlessly through the woods instead."

Lilly's eyes narrowed, and a familiar fire seemed to erupt within them - never a positive omen. "Are you kidding me, Kenny? That is one of the worst things that we could do right now." She rounded suddenly on the others, causing a few (mainly Ben) to jump backwards in alarm. "Look, it's almost nightfall as it is. Do you guys really wanna go hiking up to some godforsaken hilltop - in the dark - and then be forced to make an even more treacherous descent if or when we find out where we're headed? Because I don't. That is literally at the bottom of my priority list right now."

"Well, what's the alternative?" Kenny asked her, sneering again.

"We keep going on as we have been", said Lilly, and when her words were predictably met with tuts and grumbles from many of her fellows, she added angrily, "No, listen to me! Lee, you said that we're definitely in the general area of that couples' retreat, right?"

"Shouldn't be more than a mile or two from here, yeah", Lee confirmed, frowning slightly in concentration. "What's your point?"

"My point is that we've already combed this area pretty thoroughly, so we've gotta be close to finding this place by now", Lilly explained hurriedly, a slight note of desperation now present in her voice, as she continued to fight against the tide of approval that Kenny's idea seemed to have created. "All we need to do is work out which directions we haven't tried yet and keep searching until we find it. We could be there within twenty minutes, if we strike it lucky and guess correctly on our first try!"

"You've had yer chance, Lilly", said Kenny flatly, folding his arms and staring her down in a slightly smug fashion. "We trusted your "expertise" an' look where it's got us - nowhere. As usual."

"It's called a process of elimination, Kenny", spat Lilly, her temper steadily rising by the second. "We establish a point and then gradually work our way outwards in circular pattern. Logic, in other words. Though I'll understand if that's a foreign concept to you", she added mockingly. Kenny unfolded his arms and bared his teeth at her, but she ploughed on before he could stop her, "If you'd come up with this brilliant idea a few hours ago, then maybe I'd have considered it - although it still would have been a stupid risk to take, even in broad daylight - but now? You can forget it. It's too dangerous."

"Well, if we'd jus' hurry the fuck up an' get goin', instead of listenin' to you rantin' on, then maybe we'd be able to get there before the sun goes down. You ever consider that, Lilly?"

"And what if we get cornered by walkers once we're up there, huh? They're everywhere, Kenny! We'd be lined up like a fucking buffet for those freaks! Once again - in the dark. Is that really something that you wanna be dealing with, Kenny?"

"Hehe! Are you even listenin' to yerself anymore? They ain't some master hunters who're gunna follow our footprints an' track us down. They're a bunch'a brain dead morons!"

"That doesn't mean that they won't-"

"Alright, enough!" said Lee firmly, finally losing his patience with the both of them.

"What do you think, Lee?" Kenny demanded, turning towards his companion. "You're on my side with this one, right?"

"I should hope not", muttered Lilly snidely. "Not if he's got any sense, anyway."

"I said enough!" Lee repeated, stepping forward to have his say at last. "Look, you both bring up good points, but this constant fighting is getting us nowhere, so how about we take a vote on it?"

Lilly rolled her eyes impatiently, uttering a simple, "Fine", as Lee turned towards Carley first.

"I go wherever you go", she said with a smile.

"Me, too!" said Clementine happily, piping up for the first time.

Lee smiled at both of them, then turned towards Ben instead, who was shuffling his feet awkwardly. "Well, I think it would be best if we-", he began to say, before glancing sheepishly towards Kenny and Lilly. The former had his arms folded again, and was giving Ben a dubious kind of look with one eyebrow raised, as though he was certain that whatever was about to spill out of Ben's mouth was bound to be asinine. Lilly was looking daggers at him from behind Kenny's back, and her glare was so fierce that Ben was honestly starting to fear that she may begin to breathe fire at him if he dared to side against her. "O-On second thoughts, I-I'll leave the decision up to Lee. Whatever he decides to do is good with me."

"…Great. Thanks for your input, Ben", Lee muttered sarcastically, releasing an exasperated sigh while gently rubbing the back of his neck. It seemed that the inevitable had resurfaced once again. He always seemed to end up being the deciding vote in these constant battles waged between Lilly and Kenny. Just once, he wished that someone else would step up and take some of the responsibility from his shoulders for a change.

"Looks like you're the swing vote, Lee", Kenny pointed out with a knowing grin, clearly confident, now that the ball was in Lee's caught, that he was going to emerge from this debate victorious.

Lee crossed his arms, thinking. He was all too aware that they were fighting against the clock in either scenario, and so there was an element of panic to the hastily assembled rationale that his mind was currently forming for him. Although there were pros and cons to both sides (as was so often the case where Kenny & Lilly were concerned), it seemed to him that Lilly's methods were not guaranteed of producing any immediate results - they certainly hadn't so far - whereas Kenny's plan, if it worked, at least had a more concrete chance of getting them where they needed to be … although, it also carried a much greater risk. Either way was a gamble. The question was, whose gamble was he prepared to back? It all rested on him, after all…

"…I think that we should give Kenny's idea a go", Lee decided finally, unfolding his arms and addressing the group once more. "See where it gets us…"

"(Hopefully not dead)", whispered a small voice in the back of his head.

Kenny smiled in triumph, and heartily patted Lee on the back, clearly delighted to have his friend on side again. "Good on ya, pal! I knew you'd see sense eventually."

Lee flashed a swift smile in Kenny's direction, but his gaze sought out Lilly. He found that her eyes were already locked onto his and, although her leer was firm, she didn't seem to be too angry with him. She also didn't appear to be remotely surprised by the outcome of the group vote. No, she looked more disappointed with him than anything, which made his insides clench a little with guilt. He just hoped that he'd made the right call.

Lilly strapped the rifle she'd been holding onto her back, then turned and set off towards their towering destination, without so much as a backwards glance at her comrades. "You guys better get your asses in gear if we're gonna make it there before nightfall", she called out, the bitterness clear in her tone, despite her best attempts to mask it. "Move it."

"…You heard the lady", Lee murmured with a helpless sigh. He didn't really know what to say to Lilly during times like these.

"Roger that", said Carley wearily, taking out her gun to double-check that it was loaded and in good working order.

"O-Okay", Ben mumbled shakily, straightening the straps of the bag of supplies that he was carrying on his back.

"You ready to move, Clem?" said Lee tenderly, peering benignly down at the girl as she approached him.

"Y-Yes", stammered Clementine, not quite meeting Lee's eye as he offered her his hand. Nevertheless, she took it in hers, and began to walk with him as the pair of them brought up the rear, the rest of the group having already traipsed off after Lilly by this point. "Lee…?" she uttered quietly, after they had walked a short distance in silence.

"Yeah?"

"What - What if Lilly's right? What if the walkers corner us when we're up on that big rock?" She looked up at him worriedly, clearly seeking reassurance.

Lee hadn't really given this outcome much thought, if he was being completely honest with himself. Like Kenny, he thought that the chances of a large mass of walkers following them all the way up there were extremely - perhaps even insignificantly - small. He was more worried about the prospect of potentially having to make the descent in the dark … assuming that they could even make it to the top in one piece, of course.

"Try not to worry about it, Clementine. If anything happens, I'll protect you", said Lee after a moment's pause, applying a small amount of pressure to her hand in the process, hoping that it might ease some of her fears. She reciprocated the act, her gentle touch becoming firmer against his own palm.

"…Promise?" she asked him timidly, her eyes wide and watchful.

"Promise", was Lee's swift response, said with as much sincerity as he could muster at such short notice. It seemed to have done the trick, however. Clementine beamed up at him, pulling herself slightly closer to him as they walked, still intently gripping his left hand with her right. Lee's eyes seemed to shine with pride as he looked down at the girl - she had almost become something equivalent to his own daughter at this stage, and he had told himself, time and again, that he would do everything in his power to protect her. He only hoped that he'd be able to keep that promise he had made to himself, which wasn't always easy … with the world the way it was these days.

Picking up the pace slightly, in order to catch up with Ben & Carley - Lee, Clementine, and the rest of the group, gradually made their way towards the foot of the immense rocky structure, the groans of the undead echoing into the night all around them.

Soon: Ohohoho~! And so it begins. That's the set-up chapter well and truly out of the way.

Oh, what's that? Some of you wanted to agree with Lilly instead? You didn't want the group to go on a late-evening mountain hike at all? ... Well, too bad. You don't have any say in the matter just yet. Your part will come at the end of the next chapter. I mean, isn't this the way that TWDG always goes? You're never allowed to prevent shit from going down, you usually just have to try and pick up the pieces afterwards, and attempt to make the best of a bad situation. It's not like you were allowed to agree with Lilly when she (rather sensibly, in my opinion) wanted to leave the dairy farm in the game, is it? No, you weren't. You were forced to scope out a bandit camp and then go and snoop around in the barn with Kenny instead. Well, I'm just following in the game's footsteps here. So ... you can blame Telltale, not me. :P

Besides, Kenny's idea seems pretty solid, don't you think? I mean, what could possibly go wrong here, right? *evil grin*

And on that subject, what do you guys think the actual choice is gonna be? I'm sure that reading the chapter (as well as the story description itself) will allow some of you to get somewhat close with your guesses, but I'm more wondering if any of you will actually be able to hit the nail directly on the head, so to speak. I guess we'll see... Feel free to post your theories in the review section, as you'll likely only have twenty-four hours or so to discover whether or not you're right (or wrong) on this.

I won't be including my "Soonian Analysis" section for this story, either. I mean, there's definitely plenty that I could say/point out about the chapter you've just read (as well as the ones to follow), but ... eh, it's just not really worth the effort, for a short story like this. At least in my opinion.

You guys want a Skit? ... What? You didn't think I'd post this without giving you one, did ya? Rahaha! Here you are...

Skit 1 (Lord Squirrelton of the Northern Wood)

Lord Squirrelton: *scurries up a tree* … "Back! Back, foul creature! You shan't be claiming my acorn, nor my life, this day!"

Lilly: *appears from the shadows and bashes the walker's brains in*

Lord Squirrelton: "Ho! What's all this? Who is this fair maiden, who hath appeared so suddenly before me, felling that blonde-haired, decaying monstrosity, and thus saving my life?"

Lilly: "You can come out. It's dead."

Lord Squirrelton: "Such composure in the face of danger. This woman is clearly a gilded knight from lands far beyond the sun's reach. I must pay tribute to her tremendous valour! I shall deliver her this acorn, as a token of my heartfelt gratitude for her heroic endeavours!"

*he hastily scurries back down the tree*

Lord Squirrelton: "Good evening, m'lady! A warm welcome to both you and your charming companions! Allow me to introduce myself - I am Lord Squirrelton, Master of the Great Oak Trees and Keeper of the Peace, here, in the Northern Wood."

Lilly: *does a double-take as the squirrel approaches her*

Clementine: *gasp* … "That squirrel is talking!"

Kenny: "Don't be silly, Clem. Squirrels can't talk."

Lilly: "Ssh! You'll scare it away!"

Lord Squirrelton: "Thank you so much for slaying that beastly abomination earlier. Your skills on the battlefield are truly a sight to behold! Please allow me to present you with this hallowed acorn, as a reward for your courageous-"

Lilly: *shoots Lord Squirrelton in the chest*

Lord Squirrelton: "-Ack! B-But … Why, m'lady?" *dies*

Lilly: "Awesome. Well, that's my dinner taken care of, at least."

Clementine: "Lilly! Why d'you always have to shoot everything?! He seemed so cute and friendly, too…" :'(

Lilly: *shrugs*

Kenny: "So, this is what it's come to now? That we have to start livin' off of squirrels?"

Carley: "Yuck… I think I'll pass."

Lee: "Yeah. Me, too. Not a very appetising thought, is it?"

Lilly: "You won't be saying that later on, when you're all starving by the campfire. Meanwhile, I'll be sitting a short distance away, too busy munching on my squirrel to care."

Kenny: "Hey, now! I didn't say I didn't want any…"

Lilly: "Well, tough. You can go and catch your own dinner if you're gonna have an attitude about it."

Kenny: "Yeah? Well, guess what, princess? We ain't even stoppin' to make a campfire, so you're just gonna have to eat ya little supper there raw."

Ben: "W-Well, she could always cook it by using her fire breath. R-Right, Lilly?"

Lilly: "Exactly. I'll just use my … wait, what?"

Soon: Let us all share a moment's silence, if you will, for the passing of Lord Basel Squirrelton, the noblest and wisest of all the squirrels in the forest... You will be missed, old friend.

...

Ah, well. A girl's gotta eat, right?

Chapter 2 should be posted tomorrow, accompanied by the dreaded choice. Let me hear from you, people! I wanna know if you guys are excited for this kind of story or not, you see?