"Can we play something else?" Duck complained, grunting as once again his dog had to go to jail.
"Why?" Clementine asked, rounding her clothes iron around the board and smirking as she collected another $200. "This is fun!"
"Yeah, maybe for you…" Duck mumbled, trying to roll doubles so that his character could get out of its prison cell. He really wasn't in the mood for paying a handful of bail money right now.
Ben reluctantly moved his car six spaces around the board. The teenager groaned and put his face into his palm as he landed on Boardwalk, giving Clementine the rental cost. What could be worse than this?
…Oh, right. Zombie apocalypse, yeah.
"Hey, how come you got to be the race car? I've been stuck as the dog last time!" Duck asked, waving to Lee as he approached.
"Ben won last time, remember? Besides, someone has to be the dog. We don't have any other pieces anyway," Clementine replied, smiling as she collected the free parking money.
Looking at his properties, Ben sighed. Sure, Clem and Duck were great kids by all accounts, and he was grateful that Lee had managed to find the game in one of the motel rooms, but something was eating him up inside.
Sure, the bandits may not have been the most trustworthy or reliable people in the world, but what choice did he have? If he hadn't made a deal, not only would he never find out if his friends were alive, but the bandits would come into their camp guns blazing. As long as he kept the deal going, he figured they'd be safe.
"Lee? Can I have a word?" Kenny called, beckoning for Lee to join him and Katjaa over by the RV. Kenny certainly didn't look too pleased.
Clementine frowned, as she wanted to show Lee her leaf drawing that she had made earlier that day. "Why do you think they fight so much?"
Shrugging his shoulders, Ben organized his play money in order from least to greatest. "They're probably just deciding on what's best for the group. I wouldn't worry about it too much, Clem."
"I hope so…" Clementine replied, sounding very unsure. The eight year old was nothing if not perceptive – even more so after the whole dairy incident. She was whole-heartedly glad of Lee's actions that day, such as trying to save Larry, not killing either of the St. John brothers and not taking stuff from the abandoned station wagon. His morals were in the right place, it seemed.
Kenny, on the other hand, was scaring her. She didn't want to admit it, but she wasn't becoming too much of a fan of his. Anger just came so easily to him, and he took it out on Lee most of all. It seemed sometimes that Kenny was even angrier at Lee than Lily, and that was no small feat.
"Clementine! It's your turrnnnnnn!" Duck interrupted, holding out the dice in front of her face. Taking them out of his hands, Clementine went to roll the dice, but not before he heard Lee shout for everyone to come over to the RV.
"Game over, I guess," Clementine stated, folding up the board and putting it back into the box. Duck thought he was being sneaky, but Clementine caught him and gave a scolding gesture as he sheepishly but the race car back inside the Monopoly box. He was so close too…
"What's going on?" Carley inquired, standing in between Lee and Clementine as the rest of the group (minus Lily) gathered around in a circle.
Lee, for his part, didn't answer. Instead, he just looked solemnly at Kenny, who didn't seem to notice Lee's disappointed expressions. The ex-history professor then bent down to Clementine's height, in the same gesture that he used whenever he had to tell her something important.
"Clem…" he started, unsure of how she would take this or if she would even consider this. "You trust me, don't you?"
"Yeah… why?"
"Well…"
"Oh for Christ's sakes, Lee! Just spit it out! We're splitting up, going our separate ways! Kaput!"
Lee sighed audibly as he shot Kenny an exasperated look. "You really don't know the meaning of subtlety do you?"
The rest of the group gasped, even Katjaa, who apparently didn't know what they were planning. "Ken! You never told me this! Where did this come from?!"
"This has been a long time coming, hon," Kenny replied, almost snarling at Lee, "this guy's so idealistic that he can't make the tough decisions. Well the safety of my family comes first. I ain't gonna sit around this motel any longer, not with those damn bandits attacking here every night. And I'm certainly not putting my family's well-being in the hands of this guy."
Lee looked visibly hurt by his words, and Clementine squeezed his hand in a comforting gesture. This whole thing was tearing him up inside.
"What the fuck is going on out here?" Lily called, walking towards the group in confusion.
"We're leavin', that's what," Kenny replied, his moustache getting more frazzled by the second.
Holding her hands out and going on about how stupid Kenny's plan was, Lee brought Clementine over to the side so that they could talk in private. He needed to make sure that if she was prepared to do this, that she was alright going off with him instead of Kenny or anyone else.
"You okay?" he asked, trying to ease his way in, but Clementine was having none of it.
"Why are you guys doing this? Isn't it safer to be together?"
Looking at the ground, Lee realized that he'd rather be in any other situation than the one they were in right now – but he knew there would be no going back. Not after the spat that he and Kenny had while out looking for supplies.
"Clementine, sweet pea… I can't promise this is better, but having Kenny, Lily and I all in the same group is just going to make things complicated. I'm not sure if you understand but-"
"I do," Clementine interjected, once again proving to Lee that she was smarter than she let on.
"Alright," he continued, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I wanted to ask you where you wanted to go. Kenny's got his family and the RV, so you'd be safe. Or, you could go with Lily and whoever decides to go along with her. What do you think?"
"What about you?" she asked, terribly surprised that he didn't even mention himself.
"This isn't about me, Clem. I want whatever's best for you."
"Then I choose to go with you. It's like we're a team, like you said!" Clementine placed a hand on Lee's shoulder, as if she was assuring him instead of it being the other way around.
Inside, Lee was genuinely relieved that she wanted to come with him. He wouldn't have had much of a purpose left if the little girl she met all those months ago wasn't around anymore.
"Lee? Can we talk for a minute?"
Uh oh. Here it comes… the dreaded Carley conversation.
"Look, I meant to tell you. All three of you," he apologized, motioning as well to Ben and Lily. "But it honestly just came out of nowhere! One minute we were getting supplies, the next he starts telling me how he'd be better off without me slowing the rest of you down. What was I supposed to say? We're getting left behind at the motel?"
"That would've been a start," Lily mumbled, folding her arms over her chest.
Carley shook her head. "Ignore her," she remarked, also folding her arms over her chest in persistence, "but just know – we're coming with you. If Kenny thinks he can take on the world by himself, then let him. All the power to him."
"Jesus, Carley…"
"What? He's been on your ass ever since you met him, and his ego's gotten too big for his own good. We'll give him some medical supplies and ammunition, say our goodbyes and have them be on their way."
"Um, that might be a prob-" Ben started, but nobody heard him talking. The sounds of the bandits swears and arrows pierced through the sky, causing havoc among the survivors. Lee and Clementine hid behind one of the garbage cans for what little protection it could give, while Carley, Ben and Lily tried hiding behind one of the abandoned cars that was sitting in the parking lot. Kenny was already firing back at the bandits from behind the RV, while his family shook and shivered behind him.
"Stay close to me," Lee told Clementine, picking up the sniper rifle that was sitting a few feet away from him and waiting for the barrage to stop before popping out. He shot about three of the bandits in the head, all of which succumbed to the blow dealt to them. Almost as soon as the third man went down, another screamed in pure terror as a walker chomped on his neck; sinking its teeth into the vulnerable area.
A little ways away, Lily had tossed Ben a pistol that she had grabbed on her way out of her room. "Wh-why are you giving me this? I can't shoot!"
"Well, you can either keep up your bitching and die in the motel parking lot, or you can get off your ass and help! Your choice!" she replied sternly, firing off a few rounds at a pair of walkers that had managed to break through. "Shit! Carley, we need to get out of here now!"
"Wait! We can't just leave everyone! What about Lee and Clementine?!"
"They'll be fine! Just come on!" Lily grunted as more of their enemies broke through, hearing the shots and coming out of the woods like a dinner bell was calling them. Their time was slipping by the second.
Meanwhile, Lee was slowly running low on ammo.
"Don't suppose you've got any bullets on you, do you Clem?"
"Uh-uh… Just a rock,"
"Damn. Alright, we need to get back to the others and get out of here – KENNY?!"
He stared in shock and surprise as Kenny pulled his whole family into the vehicle and started the engine, trying his best not to look at Lee in the eyes. Even though Lee could tell he would regret doing this, he couldn't forgive him for it. Not this shit.
Kenny drove straight through the fence of the motor-inn, running over bandits and walkers alike. The gaping hole left in the barricade was a welcome mat for the lurkers, who came flooding in like a waterfall.
The situation was becoming grim. Lee knew he had to act fast, grabbing Clementine's hand and running up the stairs. He knew that there was a room on the upper floor of the complex that still could be locked if he wanted to, so they sprinted inside and shut the door – praying that Carley, Lily and Ben would make it out safe.
As Kenny silently drove off, with Katjaa staring aimlessly out the window, Duck sat in the back of the RV, turning the race car over in his hands that he managed to pilfer away when Clementine wasn't looking.
Right now, to Duck anyways, that little gimmick seemed to be just as much a betrayal as leaving their friends behind at the motor-inn.