A/N: Okay folks, I am officially writing my story A Change of Fate, which follows a big 'what if?' What if Lee was separated from the group rather than Kenny in "No Time Left"? It starts during the events of "No Time Left", right after the group finds out that the boat was stolen.
I intend to break this story up into about five "episodes". The first three will be titled "No Time Remaining" due to the fact that it takes place during "No Time Left", "All That Remains", and the time in between. The next two are altered versions of "A House Divided" and "In Harm's Way". The story will also feature more of the 400 Days characters, and have original storylines following "In Harm's Way", and before "A House Divided". In fact, I have come up with a very expansive storyline that will take place after "In Harm's Way", and continue past this story.T
P.S.: This chapter will mostly just be completely canon events that are seen/done by most people who have played the game, but most other chapters will not be like this.
Well, without further ado, here is A Change of Fate! Enjoy!
Previously, on the Walking Dead:
"What if my parents come home, and I'm not there?" Clementine nervously inquired, before assuring both herself and Lee by saying, "I've got my walkie talkie in case they try that way."
"Holy shit!" Kenny exclaimed, "Baby, you gotta see this. There's a shitload of food and supplies back here!" After a brief discussion, the group decided to take the supplies from the seemingly deserted station wagon.
"You didn't come into town by the railroad, did ya? Vernon inquired.
**Ben, seeing a large cluster of walkers from the train, yelled "WE GOTTA GO!"**
"Yeah, why?" Kenny said, curious as to what had prompted Vernon to ask that.
"Lee. We both know." Ben stated, letting go of Lee's arm. "Let me go.
After a brief moment of hesitation, Lee ignored Ben's request, and pulled him up, as the duo narrowly escaped the approaching horde of walkers.
After much discussion with the group, it was decided that Lee, Christa, Omid, and Kenny would head out, hoping that they would be able to find and rescue Clementine, while leaving Ben in charge of guarding the boat.
Suddenly, a garbled voice came out of the walkie-talkie, "Lee?" Clementine asked.
Lee instantly picked up the radio, and attempted to reach Clementine, only to hear another man reply "Hello, Lee."
Looking at his bloody wrist, Lee knew what needed to be done. "Fuck it." He muttered, "Cut it off."
Upon discovering Ben, and not the boat, within the shed, Ben blurted out, "Don't get mad…the boat's gone. They were waiting for me in here. Vernon, his whole crew." Leaving Kenny to scold Ben freely.
And now that the 'previously' is out of the way, here comes the story!
Lee's POV
Omid had climbed over the fence into the yard, and opened the door. Beckoning with his hand, he urged the others to enter the courtyard, presumably worried about walkers having pinpointed the source of Lee's gunshot. The group slowly began to walk into the courtyard, all the while listening to a furious Kenny berate Ben. Lee felt many different emotions when it came to the kid. He was angry with him for stealing meds from the group back at the motor inn, and for screwing up at Crawford, but he knew that Ben meant well, and could not bring himself to truly despise him like Kenny did.
Kenny's voice broke the silence, "Where the hell do you get off?" he scolded, furious that Ben had screwed up yet again.
"I'm just saying we should ALL chill," Ben quickly replied, seeming fairly flustered, "not just you." It seemed to Lee that Ben was unsuccessfully trying to end Kenny's outburst, but Lee knew Kenny, and he knew that nothing Ben did would stop Kenny from berating him. Taking a deep breath, he sighed as he watched the scene unfold before him.
Kenny grew even more furious at these words. "CHILL? Bandits? Hey, CHILL, here's some pills," Kenny mocked, "Vernon, hey, CHILL, HERE'S OUR FUCKING BOAT!" With every word Kenny said, Ben flinched and shrunk back, feeling more and more guilty and angry.
Ben's face fell as he gazed at the raging redneck before him, guilt and sadness clogging his gut. He desperately said, "This isn't my fault," presumably hoping that he could calm Kenny down. Lee opened his mouth to protest, but no sound came out. He couldn't think of anything that could possibly calm him down.
"I can't point to one THING that's happened that isn't somehow your fault!" Kenny shouted, staring daggers at the teenager. If looks could kill, Ben would not be dead, he'd be wiped off the face of the Earth. Lee considered intervening at this point, but he knew that what was going on in front of him wasn't his fight.
"Lee should have left you in Crawford." Kenny angrily added, causing Ben's face to contort in anger. Lee's eyes widened slightly at this. What had exited Kenny's mouth was cruel and unnecessary, and it made him feel all the more sorry for the teen in front of him.
Ben opened his mouth, but he only got as far as shouting, "FU—" when unwelcome yet familiar noise pierced their ears.
Lee craned his neck to the side, only to see a sight so horrifying that his heart seemed to have skipped a beat. Gasping in terror, Lee instinctively took a step backwards as hundreds of walkers edged their way towards the manor like sharks to blood, presumably drawn by the thundering sounds of gunfire and shouting.
Christa's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates upon seeing the vast number of corpses that were approaching their doorstep. "Oh shit!" Christa declared, rightfully frightened by the sight. "Here they come!" She bellowed.
"In the house!" Omid exclaimed, as the group turned around and began to run. Once Lee was sure that everyone had entered, he quickly slammed and locked the door, putting another line of defense between them and the herd.
Lee felt a sense of fear overcoming him as turned around. He was hoping that the others might be able to instill him with the sense of confidence that he always seemed to give them, but he was only met with the sight of their terrified faces. "They shouldn't be able to get into the backyard, right?" Kenny asked hopefully, fidgeting nervously while he waited for an answer. The man's hope was crushed when the group heard the walkers break through the shed and into the courtyard. "Maybe not." Kenny added, managing to maintain a calm demeanor.
"We can secure this place." Christa reassured them, a determined look in her eye.
Lee turned to his group-mates, and with an authoritative voice, he began to tell them what to do. "Christa, search the house for weapons." Lee ordered, knowing that with their limited supply of ammunition, any makeshift weapons would be vital to ensuring their safety.
"Kenny, move anything you can up against the doors and windows." Lee instructed, realizing that blocking and reinforcing the points of entry were needed to keep the herd at bay.
Lee directed, "Ben, help Christa." He recognized the fact that given the fact that Christa was searching a large house in a short amount of time, and that she needed help in order to maximize efficiency.
Kenny, Christa, and Ben ran off to follow the commands given to them by Lee. 'Here's to hoping that'll work.' Lee thought. He finally turned to Omid, who was gazing, wide-eyed, at the manor's main entrance, transfixed by a terrifying sight. "Omid." Lee commanded. Upon receiving no answer, he asked, "What is it?" At this point, Omid ran towards the front doors as fast as his legs could carry, which to Lee's horror, were ajar. At this point, Lee mustered up his most authoritative voice, and yelled, "EVERYONE, HELP OMID NOW!"
Lee himself began to rush to the front doors, but he was tripped by a walker that had somehow reached through the mechanized pet-door. Attempting to free himself of the walker's grasp, Lee kicked the pet-door with all his might, but the walker still clung to him like glue. Not willing to give up, Lee slammed his boot against the door again, feeling the walker's grip loosen slightly. After a third solid kick, Lee bore his teeth with determination, and pushed as hard as he could, breaking free of the walker's undead fingers, inadvertently severing the walker's entire hand in the process.
Climbing to his feet, adrenaline still coursing through his blood from his close-encounter, Lee turned back towards the front doors, where he noticed Ben, Christa, Omid, and Kenny struggling to shut the double-doors, which had several undead hands reaching in between them. This, unfortunately, prevented any further progress, leaving them with the difficult job of keeping the crowd of walkers from barging in. "Lee, HELP!" Kenny hollered in his southern accent, fear in his eyes, baring his teeth with resolve as he pressed his hands against the double doors,
"Cut their fucking arms off!" Christa shouted, struggling to withstand the weight of dozens of walkers pressing against the door. Her teeth were gritted from effort as she spoke, and her tone was a frightful one.
"There's gotta be a knife or something in there!" Omid yelled hopefully, his voice strained with effort as he worked to keep the dead from spilling into the mansion.
"HURRY!" Christa pleaded. Hearing this, Lee darted into the kitchen, and looked around, wondering where these people would place a knife. 'Where the fuck could it be?' Lee thought worriedly, his eyes scanning the counters. He instinctively opened a short, wide shelf, and was lucky enough to find a gleaming meat cleaver.
Giving it a brief once-over, he ran towards the front doors and severed a walker's writhing arm as it blindly struggled to reach its prey, blood mist spraying onto his face and upper torso. Not bothering to wipe it off, he noticed another arm slightly below it, and he promptly sliced at it, the detached appendage making a slapping sound as it hit the floor. Not seeing any other arms, he was puzzled as to how the door was still not able to close. After his third time scanning the doors, he finally noticed an isolated group of fingers protruding through the crack, which he made quick work of with his cleaver.
With much strain and several grunts of effort, the group was now able to shut the double-doors, temporarily preventing an influx of the dead. They looked around, assessing the precarious situation that they were caught up in. Sweat pouring down his temple, Omid asked the question everyone was thinking, "Now what?
The mansion looked secure, and its foundation seemed fairly sturdy, but Lee doubted that it would withstand a herd of this magnitude. "Get ready to fight." He uttered, tightly clutching his bloody knife with grit.
Christa, on the other hand, was more optimistic. "This place seems sturdy to me. I think we're fine." However, the seemingly 'sturdy' mansion quickly descended into chaos as the army of corpses began to crawl inside via the windows; the bottlenecked horde assaulting the back door were also able to succeed, toppling it with a ravenous hunger.
"Sturdy my ass!" Lee declared, "Get upstairs!" Kenny, Christa, and Ben quickly heeded this order, and started sprinting up the stairway two-steps at a time. Omid decided to linger behind to shoot at the approaching walkers, launching well-placed bullets into corpse after corpse. Lee raised his newfound cleaver as a walker approached. It was…Brie. How she got from Crawford to the mansion so quickly, he did not know. All he did know was that the creature that was once a friendly, helpful woman stumbled towards him, her arms slothfully reaching for her prey. Lee quickly put the woman to rest with a quick slash to the head. 'Rest in peace,' He thought sadly.
Lee noticed Omid bolt up the stairs, and after noticing the vast legion of the dead pouring into the foyer, he quickly followed in suit. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the front doors come clean off their hinges, toppling to the floor; the herd now had yet another entry point, causing the foyer to be inundated by yet another wave of the undead.
Adrenaline running through his blood, Lee ran up the steps like a jackrabbit, reaching the second floor in a matter of seconds, his eyes focused on the approaching horde. Hearing a grunt of exertion, Lee spun on his heel, eying Kenny relentlessly pushing a desk, presumably to use as a makeshift barricade. "Guys, help me with this!" Kenny demanded. Lee didn't argue, and began to help shove the wooden desk over to a side hallway. While the desk would definitely impede the walkers' process, Lee knew that there was no way that it would keep them at bay forever. "This'll slow'em down. We get to the end of the hallway…and take a fucking stand!" Kenny hollered valiantly.
"We can't let ourselves get trapped." Lee stated, his heart thumping harder and faster at the thought of it, recognizing the likelihood of his imminent death.
"Let's get as many as we can, and when we see an opening, we go for it. " Kenny suggested. To Lee, this was far from a good plan. In fact, it would likely fail. But no one else, including Lee, had any other ideas, so he decided to stick with Kenny's plan. "How many bullets do y'all have?" Kenny inquired.
"Three." Christa answered.
"Five." Lee uttered.
"Four." Omid declared.
"Two." Ben said nervously.
"Y'all know where to aim." Kenny said, as he turned his attention towards the desk in front of him. After several seconds, a lone walker made its way into their line of sight. Taking a deep breath, Lee instinctively pointed the gun at its head and pulled the trigger; the bullet flew through the air, hitting the walker directly in the forehead, piercing its frontal lobe. It was almost as if the single gunshot provoked them, because it was at that moment that horde began to converge on the group. The small group of five raised their guns and began to shoot them down, one by one. However, the walkers were being replaced as quickly as they were being killed, and their already limited supply of ammunition was not.
"I'm out!" Christa said, a look of terror appearing on her face, desperately pulling the trigger of her empty firearm.
"Me too." Kenny replied, looking wide-eyed at the encroaching horde, at a loss for ideas.
"Fuck, where do we go?" Omid asked, looking around for a potential escape route, not yet willing to accept his fate.
"There's no goddamn opening!" Kenny worriedly proclaimed, as walkers began to slither over the desk.
Suddenly, Christa's face brightened, seemingly having found an escape route. "Up!" She shouted, pointing at the entrance to the attic, which was folded up, ready to be opened at a moment's notice.
Having been there himself a few days ago, Lee instantly realized what she was talking about. Not wasting any time, Lee grabbed the string and tugged, allowing the wooden ladder to unfold. "GO!" He commanded, anxious to be out of harm's way. One-by-one, the group climbed the ladder. Lee hastily began to climb, but he accidentally dropped Carley's old handgun, a Glock-17. He was sad to lose it, as it was his last memento of her, but he knew that he needed to put his life first, and bolted up the ladder. Eying the approaching undead army, Ben followed in suit, and upon his entrance, Lee lifted the attic ladder, sealing them inside. The walking dead below them desperately clawed at the air, but they were now separated from their victims the attic floor.
Ignoring the frightening groans beneath him, Ben approached Lee, with a gun in his hand, and gave it to Lee. "Here, umm…I'm not good with these. You dropped it down there." Lee graciously took the gun, and holstered it in his waistband. 'I guess this isn't goodbye.' Lee thought, happy to have a memento of the former reporter.
"That could've gone better." Kenny murmured, stating the obvious. Lee had to bite his tongue to stop himself from saying, "No, really?"
"Everyone okay?" Christa inquired, looking around at the rest of the group to ensure their health. While no one gave her the luxury of a response, she seemed to relax once she was sure that nobody was injured.
"Lee's still bitten." Kenny proclaimed, reminding Lee of the fact that at the moment, he might be a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off. This, of course, was something that Lee did not want to be reminded of, especially when they had bigger problems on their hands.
Apparently, Christa felt the same way about the situation. "Shut up." She angrily retorted, her eyes narrowing as she gazed at the pessimistic Kenny.
"Okay, let's get out of here and keep movin'." Omid stated optimistically, his eyes taking several seconds to scan the room for a potential exit, finally resting on a window on the opposite side of the room, which he promptly approached for a proper inspection.
Kenny nodded in approval. "Kid's right, we gotta get moving. Think there's any chance we can get Clem and catch up to those goddamn thieves?" Kenny wondered hopefully, staring at Lee for an answer.
"I don't know. Maybe." Lee answered. Despite the words that had escaped his mouth Lee knew that despite all their efforts to fix it, the boat was long gone. Clementine, however, was (hopefully) still attainable, and Lee would do everything in his power to get her back.
"Well we're not going out through this window." Omid interjected, approaching the rest of the group. "No latches, no roof access, and thirty feet straight down."
"Anyone got any ideas?" Kenny asked expectantly, looking from person to person in hopes that someone would come up with an ingenious plan.
Omid sauntered up to a bust of a man, presumably an ancestor of the manor's residents. Kneeling down to take a closer look, Omid joked, "I bet this guy would. He's got a resourceful air about him."
"Knock it off Omid." Christa begged, vexed by the current situation.
Omid squinted his eyes, enabling him to read the fading text on the base of the bust. "Dixon Kent the Third, industrial…" Omid continued, seemingly ignoring Christa as he plowed on with his joking speech.
"OMID!" Christa interrupted, having reached her breaking point.
"CHRISTA. I'm just trying to lighten the fucking tone." Omid retorted, getting back to his feet as he glared at his girlfriend, who was glaring back as she towered over him.
"We need solutions, not stupid jokes!" Christa yelled, her arms crossed in anger. After a brief moment, she said, "I'm sorry." feeling slightly ashamed.
"There's gotta be another way." Lee insisted, wiping his sweaty brow. Blood loss from the earlier amputation was taking its toll on him. He just hoped that it wouldn't finish him off.
"Check the floor for any other access." Christa added. "A vent, anything." Lee doubted that there would be anything, but he knew that he needed to find something, anything.
"Or we wait for the house to clear out and stick to the high ground." Kenny argued. Lee felt like rolling his eyes after hearing that comment. All the walkers were located upstairs, directly below them. It would probably be days before the story below them was cleared, let alone the entire house, especially when considering the sheer magnitude of the herd.
Lee began to cough, and wiped his forehead once more. He didn't feel great, but he needed to push through it. Christa noted this, checked his temperature, and remarked, "Hey. You're not looking great. And you're warm."
Lee backed away from his friend, sweat trickling down his forehead, a fiery sensation overwhelming him as his fever seemed to spike. Lee began to speak, but he started to feel tipsy, staggering backwards, his mind going out of focus. He managed to say, "I'm okay. Don't…", but a state of extreme dizziness overcame him, preventing him from finishing his sentence.
Suddenly, another voice fizzled into existence, one that Lee knew all too well. "Lee, Lee, Lee, I'm okay." Clementine uttered, her voice echoing through the attic. Lee was finally able to break free of his dizzy, feverish state and hear Clementine state, "I'm where my parents…oh no!" Lee raised the radio to his mouth as fast as he could, but as soon as he pressed the device to his lips, the little girl's voice at the other end faded into static.
Christa stared wide-eyed at the device in Lee's hand. "What does that mean?" Christa inquired,
"She's at the hotel, where her parents were staying; he hasn't moved her." Lee responded. He began to feel more confident. Lee now had a destination in mind, which was more than he had for the past few hours. However, they still faced one crucial problem: they were still trapped in attic with no way out.
"Yet." Kenny pessimistically reminded him.
"Yeah." Christa agreed. "Yet."
Lee began to look around the room. "We have to start thinking about more than just Clementine when it comes to our…urgency." Kenny uttered. Lee thought that he was referring to the fact that they were stuck in the attic, but he reconsidered when he noticed Kenny's eyes resting on his stump of an arm, which was covered in a bandage that had turned completely crimson.
"What do you mean?" Omid asked, worriedly looking at the imposing redneck before him.
"How do we get out of here?" Kenny inquired, looking at everyone around the room, hoping that someone would have an answer. Lee racked his brains, but he no answer escaped his lips. He was out of ideas.
Omid replied, "That's the whole point; we don't know."
Kenny then repeated the question, saying, "Okay, now your life depends on it. How do you get out of here?"
"I don't know. I don't get it." Omid told him firmly, giving Kenny a shrug, which indicated his cluelessness.
"Stop it." Lee ordered. "We can't panic." His voice, usually calm and reassuring, was still commanding, yet it seemed to have a slightly panicked undertone, which was quite ironic. It didn't seem like anyone else had heard it, so he decided to forget about it and focus on Kenny, who was continuing his rant.
Kenny looked back down at what was left of Lee's left arm. "Do you think that worked?" Kenny said, gesturing towards his stump.
"I don't know. I hope so." Lee responded, also curious as to what was in store for himself.
"I think we need to have… an 'adult' conversation. About what happens if Lee takes another spill. Kenny stated ominously, pacing back and forth across the room.
"Hey, look…" Omid interjected, his eyes nervously flitting between Kenny and Lee, as if he were watching a two feral cats circle each other in an alleyway.
Despite this interruption, Kenny continued and said, "We could be lookin' at a Larry situation here." Lee couldn't believe Kenny. He had actually brought up the meat-locker incident, and…was he threatening to…this filled Lee with fury, causing him to clench his fist so tightly that he drew blood, which soaked into and under his fingernails.
"Who's Larry?" Christa asked the men. When Lee remained silent, Christa uttered, "GUYS. I don't know what happened before Omid and I showed up, but we can cross this bridge when we get to it." The situation in front of her seemed to be making her nervous, and rightfully so. Putting two angry men in the same room, especially when one was provoking the other…it would be like locking two irate bulls inside a red room.
"Lee, I'm not advocating anything here… but how is this not a thing? We're all so worked up about Clementine that we're forgetting what the fuck happened to you!" Kenny ranted. Kenny was making Lee's blood boil at this point. Clementine was the priority, NOT his goddamn arm.
"My arm is not the issue! I'm not the problem! The five-hundred walkers in the house, and no door in this room are the goddamn problem!" Lee retorted, growing angrier and angrier by the second.
"Yeah, maybe at the moment." Kenny replied, still pacing across the room. "But who's to say when it becomes an issue? At that point, there may not be any time left to deal with it!" At this point, Kenny had slowed down to a halt, and he sauntered up to Lee until they were face-to-face. "You're gonna listen to me! We will get Clementine back, with or without you! Because I haven't given up everything to die, because we were stupid!" Kenny angrily yelled, his mustache twitching in fury as spit flew from his lips in anger.
"Then kill me you son of a bitch okay, don't even fucking hesitate!" Lee shouted, his eyes narrowing in a fit of fury.
"I WILL." Kenny retorted. Kenny had somehow pushed Lee past the breaking point, which hadn't happened since...he didn't want to think about it. Lee grabbed a nearby bust off of a short wooden pedestal, the one that Omid had previously approached, and vented out his anger by throwing it as hard as he could into the wooden wall. To everyone's surprise, the statue plowed through the wooden wall, creating a small hole.
Everyone began to stare in awe at the hole, before Omid awkwardly broke the silence and exclaimed, "You ruined that dude's face."
"Shut up sweetie. Look." Christa responded, pointing at the jagged hole in the wood.
Kenny walked over to the hole, and pulled at the wood for a few seconds until it broke off. "It's corroded to hell." Kenny said in awe, filling Lee with a newfound hope.
"What's on the other side of this wall, a thirty-foot drop?" Christa asked, looking intently at the small hole, her arms crossed.
"No, this mansion butts up against the one next door." Omid informed her, glancing once more at the gap in the wall.
To answer their questions, Lee grabbed a hefty coat rack to his right, and proceeded to smash it against the wall, causing dust to rise into the air as the wood was chipped away. "This wall ain't shit." Lee stated excitedly.
"Is this really possible…?" Omid inquired.
Kenny walked over to the coat rack, picked it up, and began to slam it against the wooden wall, filling the room with another wave of dust. "Yeah, we can do this. We'll work in shifts. Omid, Christa, and I. Lee, you rest. We have to work fast."
Omid and Christa approached an old couch on the opposite side of the room as Kenny continued to slam the coat rack against the wall. Lee lingered behind for several seconds, awkwardly shifting his weight as he stared at Kenny. "I'm sorry." Lee muttered, feeling a mixture of shame and guilt.
Kenny somberly replied, "Me too. I get it. Go sit down." Lee consented to his command as Kenny continued to batter the nearby wall.
A/N: So that was Chapter One! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Like I said, this chapter was mostly just normal events of "No Time Left", only this time, Ben never had his outburst in the yard, which may lead to some changes down the line. I promise you, later chapters will have more original storylines, and it won't just be the normal canon events that occur. Thanks for reading, please review, and see you next time.
-ZombieSlayer995
