Description: Things never went his way. If only he could have done something right, protected his friends, protected the one he cared about the most. They wouldn't have hated him so much, and maybe in the end he wouldn't have been alone. Ben's POV, DougxBen.
My Way, Chapter One
"Luck is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it." – Hunter S. Thompson
Everything was going to be okay. The others had made it. I was lighter than Lee and Kenny. I think... I stand on the railing of the balcony and jump, but something snaps, and I hear myself scream as I crash down to the pavement. How many floors was that? Was it only the second floor we'd been on...? Yeah. So I was okay...
I was okay, wasn't I? I lay there in a kind of painful shock, not even entirely sure what hurts as Lee and Kenny come to help me. "Ow..." I hear myself muttering as Kenny kneels down, Lee approaching quietly. I hear the walkers coming, their disgusting, congested breathing getting closer.
"Uhm, I'm okay!" I say, a strange and fearful hope in my tone, "I'm okay! Just...get me out of here."
"Shh! Quiet Ben. Or they'll be on top of us." Lee answers as he turns to look toward the end of the alley.
There had been so many of us once...
"Yeah, try to keep your mouth shut," Kenny says in turn, starting to pick up all the trash that's on top of me. I'd never seen Kenny look so... I don't know what the word would be. It wasn't sad, but it wasn't normal either.
"I'm sorry, just get me up. My legs hurt. I think..." They do hurt. I think I'd landed on them first. But the pain...it's weird. Like something was there that didn't belong there. It didn't really hurt... It was just strange.
"We're gonna get your ass up," Kenny says quietly, looking at me with the same kind of face.
"R-really?" I ask, "I thought you..."
Hated me.
What happened to the others...? Where did they go?
After a few moments Kenny clears away the debris, and I think they'll reach their hands down and help me. But they just stare at me. "Fuckin' Hell," Kenny mutters, Lee staying quiet, just looking...
"What is it? I'm okay...I-I'm okay..." Kenny says something and tries to pick me up, but something hurts. This terrible pain shooting through my stomach and chest, and then I finally look up.
It's going through me...
The two of them speak as I stare, wondering just what's going to happen now. Damn it, I can't do anything right! I can't even die right! And now they're gonna get me! I can't help but scream as they try to pull me up again, and I see the walkers right there now. "Oh God, don't let them get to me!" I beg, and Kenny looks at me with a kind of sadness...or maybe pity? that I'd never seen before.
David... Katjaa... Doug...
'Ben!'
I can hardly hear anything as Kenny and Lee shout at each other, my eyes are getting kind of hazy. Is this what dying is like?
"Oh God! Kenny, ple-" I hear a bang.
Was that me talking just now?
'Ben!'
Doug...?
Why? Why can't anything have gone my way...?
There had been so many of us before now. Now there's only three. Me, Travis and David, who says we don't need to call him Mister Parker anymore. It isn't like it matters. But it's hard to get used to. He's actually a pretty cool guy - he knows a lot about edible plants and stuff, and yesterday he caught a rabbit for Travis and me.
We've been out on our own for a few days now. Thank God we got away from those other guys. They haven't looked for us i don't think, but ever since we got away David doesn't sleep. He doesn't even relax. Travis sleeps like a rock. I have nightmares. I miss my mom and dad. I miss my sister Brianne. I miss Nikolai too...
I don't really know why. We broke up almost a year ago when he went to college in New York. Maybe it's just because I miss everyone else. I thought about going with him - I mean, going to that college when I graduated too, like we'd said at first - but it was more of a technical school, and I wanted to go into literature and art. So we broke up.
I guess it doesn't matter now, though. It's just the three of us now. Another sort-of peaceful night's over, and I'm tired as always. We're supposed to sleep in shifts, half because we need to look out for each other and half because we don't even have a gun, so if a walker comes we need to run. But Travis just sleeps.
I get up quietly and go over to David, who's already starting to get a move on. Though I have no idea where he plans on bringing us. Travis gets up less gracefully and joins us, walking alongside me..."Damn it! I'm starving," he half-shouts to no one as we walk, and I elbow him hard in the ribs because one, yes, we're all hungry and two, David hasn't eaten anything in two days and gave him a rabbit yesterday. So shut up.
That only makes Travis mad and he turns to hit me, but David catches his arm and starts quiet-yelling about how the three of us are on our own now and we're all the family we've got. And while the three of us are distracted and walking I hear a sudden snap. Or maybe it was a crash. I don't know. It sounded like metal banging against metal. And suddenly David screams and hits the ground, and I see metal. And blood. And he just keeps screaming.
It takes a few seconds for me to understand what's happening. Travis is already on the ground and trying to get this...thing...this trap...off of him. And I try to help too, but he just keeps screaming and I don't know what to do. There's no latch or anything to get it off, and it's old and rusted and hard to touch without it cutting your hands...
Travis turns away and starts shouting, "No, No! Please don't kill us we just wanna help our teacher, we'll leave I swear!" And I turn and see two men standing there, both holding rifles.
One of them's pretty young, maybe in his mid-twenties, who's short with glasses and dark hair and some kind of work shirt that says his name, Mark, on it. The other one look's about David's age, maybe a little bit older. He's black and has a beard and is taller than Mark - I'm assuming Mark's the other man's real name - and he looks more nervous too. After a second another guy with a gun shows up, this one wearing a trucker cap and a big mustache, and before I can observe him David starts screaming "Get it off! Get it off damn it get it off me!" and in an instant I'm trying - and failing - to help him again.
"Travis! Maybe they can help!" I say with a kind of desperate hope.
"These could be the same guys that raided our camp!" He bites back.
But I don't care, I just want my friend to be okay. "Our camp got taken over and Mister Parker said that we should stay away from the streets and we-" I stop as David starts shouting again, and look at them like I'm ready to start begging and grovelling. "PLEASE!"
"Ben, shut up! My dad was special forces, I know what I'm doing!"
I ignore him. "Just see if you can get him out! After that you can leave us or whatever! I don't care! PLEASE!" It might be hard for Travis to understand, maybe because he and I were never really friends to begin with. But I've been in our school band since I was a freshman, and David's always been there for me when I needed help. He's like my best friend now...
It's pretty blurry after that, mostly because it was so hard to watch.
They chopped off his leg. The screaming was a lot to deal with, then the short guy picked him up and starts carrying him, and I run behind. I don't really know what happened to Travis, but he got left there.
Now here we are. It's an inn, or a motel or...something. People are shouting the moment that we walk into through the gates, and I'm scared they're gonna toss us out without even trying to help David. The woman there, who I think is named Lilly...? shouts at them, and I find out the other two guys' names: Lee and Kenny. They all start yelling at each other, and an older guy coming over and siding with her.
Lee stays quiet for the most part, and then he and Kenny ask someone else to help David.
Kenny, Lilly, the older guy and Mark keep shouting at each other, either about how they can't help anyone else or about how they need to help, and the only ones who stay quiet are me and these two kids. And this other guy, who looks about...twenty-three? He doesn't seem to agree with the woman and the older man, and he kind of smiles at me. I would have smiled back if I wasn't so scared.
But the group settles, and a small hand takes hold of mind, "Come on and see what I drew."
I look down and see the little girl there, and shake my head, "N-no, I-"
"Just come on, okay?" she asks, pulling me away from David and the others. I want to stay, to hear what else they'll say. But I go.
And I'm stuck there for a while. The kids try and talk to me, and I appreciate that, but it's so hard to focus...
Lee comes over and gives the two kids some food. He gives me something too, a piece of beef jerky. At least, I think that's what it is. I want to save some of it, maybe for later or maybe for David, but I end up just eating all of it. As the kids talk I sometimes hear a bell go off, and I look behind me and see the guy from before, whatever his name was, fiddling with a bunch of bells tied up against the wall. I don't bother to question it.
After a few more minutes I hear footsteps coming up from behind me. I half-expect it to be that woman, there to tell me to take David and leave, or for it to be David, telling me everything will be fine. But it's neither. A hand touches my shoulder and I turn. It's the man from the wall, the one who'd smiled at me.
"Hi," He says, still smiling a little. He can see that I'm scared. Anyone could. I stand up, a little relieved to have an adult to talk to for a few minutes.
I'm a little taller than him, and thinner. But he's not really short or fat or anything like that, just built differently I guess. He has this nice, light brown hair and brown eyes, and a nice smile. I like it. Though I'm sure he can't tell at the moment. "Hi," I say in turn, not sure what else would be right.
He keeps smiling, not in a creepy kind of way or anything. "Are you alright...Benjamin?" He asks, looking at the name 'Ben' engraved along the left side of my jacket.
"I'm okay," I mutter, though I don't really know if I am or not. After that I added, a little awkwardly, "My name is Benton."
"Oh! Sorry," He says, the smile fading for a moment before it comes back, "Like Thomas Hart Benton or Benton, Pennsylvania?"
"Uhm...I guess?"
But my awkwardness doesn't deter him, and he's still friendly. "Benton," he repeats quietly, before he nods and puts his hand out to mine, "I'm Doug."
Doug.
Doug...
Why couldn't everything had gone my way? For once?
End of Chapter one. Feel free to leave a review!