Special Infected

Disclaimer: I don't own The Walking Dead or any of it's characters.

Author's Note: Okay, so this is my first Walking Dead story. I hope you guys like it. First off, this starts just after Lee and Clementine leave the Marsh House at the end of season one and pretty much follows my own story line from there. You will see some familiar scenes and dialogue from season two though. Also, this is based on my choices in season one, and I pretty much agreed with Kenny almost all of the time, so he will be like Lee's best friend in this story. Also, this will contain some aspects from two other zombie games, Left 4 Dead and Dying Light. For those of you who have played those games, you will know them when you see them. But it`s not necessary to have played those games to understand the story.

Chapter 1 – Escape from the Marsh House

Lee and Clementine left the Marsh House and walked out onto the walker-infested street. They stopped for a moment as they watched walkers shambling to and fro mindlessly searching for their next meal.

Lee could feel the small shivers that racked the small frame next to him and instinctively held her a little tighter. He couldn't blame her for being scared. They were about to walk through a horde of walkers. He was a little scared too. He hoped his theory about covering themselves in walker guts would mask their scent was correct and that's the reason that walker didn't attack him back at the Marsh House. Otherwise, he was walking them straight to their deaths.

Lee took a deep breath and began to walk through the herd with Clementine at his side. The walkers didn't even seem to notice they were there and the plan seemed to be working for which Lee was grateful. They walked very slowly to avoid attracting any unwanted attention, stopping every so often to avoid walking into any of them.

Everything was going fine at first until Clementine stopped in her tracks and stared at something across the street. Lee looked back at her, and the look on her face was of pure horror. He followed her gaze to a couple of walkers hanging out by a lamp post. He recognized them immediately from the family photo he had seen in Clementine's house. They were her parents. He felt horrible that she had to see her parents like that, but he would have to console her later. Right now, they had to keep moving.

"Clementine, honey. Don't look. We have to keep going," Lee said as he put his arm around her and nudged her forward. With a small whimper, she closed her eyes and pressed her face against his side and they continued walking.

They must have walked past hundreds of walkers, their white soulless eyes staring through them as if they weren't even there, until finally the herd started to thin out. As the number of walkers dwindled to nothing but a few stragglers here and there, Lee finally felt relaxed enough to walk normally and release his tight hold on Clementine somewhat. Although he noticed, she didn't relax her hold on him one bit. She hadn't even opened her eyes at all since seeing her parents, and Lee sincerely hoped that seeing her parents as walkers hadn't scarred the little girl for life. Even though she had seen a lot of truly horrible things since this whole mess started, no child should see their parents as flesh-eating zombies.

Lee sighed as he took stock of their surroundings trying to figure out where exactly they were in the city. He realized that they were pretty close to the outskirts of the city and that the train tracks weren't far away. He sighed in relief that they didn't have to go far as he led the way to the tracks where he had told Christa and Omid to meet them. Hopefully they were already there waiting. As they were walking, Clementine finally broke the silence between them.

"Lee?" she said softly.

"Yeah, Clem?"

"I-I saw my parents. They're dead."

Lee closed his eyes briefly and sighed sadly as he knelt down to her level. "Come here, sweet pea," he said as he pulled her into a tender hug.

She wrapped her arms around him tightly and laid her head on his chest. "It's so horrible," she cried tremulously.

"I know, Clem, and I'm sorry you had to see that." He rubbed her back soothingly for a few seconds before pulling away gently to look her in the eye. "But you still have me, and I'm going to take good care of you."

"You promise?"

Lee opened his mouth to answer, but closed it immediately as he remembered the bite on his arm. He lowered his eyes as he stood up straight and turned away from her. He looked at the bite on his wrist as he realized that he actually felt…good. The numbness that had been spreading throughout his arm had started to recede as he was entering the Marsh House. He hadn't noticed it at the time because he was so focused on getting Clementine back, but now he realized that the numbness was completely gone. The burning pain was gone as well and so was the dizziness. He actually felt better now than he had in days. He took a closer look at the bite. There was no decaying flesh, no sign that there was any sort of infection at all. In fact, it looked pretty healthy all things considered. It looked like it even might be starting to heal. But how was that possible? He should be dead or dying right now so how was it that he was up and walking around with no ill effects? Could it be that…? Could he be immune?

He shook his head. No, that was just wishful thinking. That was impossible, wasn't it? No one could be immune. Of course, what did he know? What do any of them know about what was really going on, and what was causing the dead to walk. Maybe it was possible that someone could be immune to a walker bite. He ran his hand through his hair. It would be amazing if he really was immune, but he couldn't be happy just yet, not until he knew for sure. And he couldn't tell Clementine yet either, not until he knew whether he was going to live or die. He didn't want to upset her any more than she already was. If he started feeling weak and dizzy again, then he would tell her because then he would know.

"Lee, are you ok?" Clementine asked worriedly as he had been silent for quite some time.

Lee pasted a smile on his face as he turned back toward her. "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's get going."

They continued walking for a while longer, passing the occasional walker along the way, until finally they caught sight of the train. Luckily there were no walkers hanging around the train so it was a safe place to stop and rest. Unfortunately, Christa and Omid were nowhere to be seen.

Lee frowned as he peered inside the train car. Where could they be? They should have been here by now, he thought.

"Lee, what are we doing here?" Clementine asked.

"I told Christa and Omid to meet us here, but it doesn't look like they're here yet."

"Oh," Clementine replied. "But what about Kenny?"

Lee sighed and lowered his head as he remembered that they had lost Kenny to a building full of walkers after he managed to save Christa. He still couldn't believe that he was gone. Kenny was his best friend. Sure, he could be tough to get along with and he argued with almost everyone, but Lee agreed with him most of the time. Kenny had been a good guy who was just trying to look out for his family and the people he cared about. He was really going to miss him.

"Clem, sweetie," Lee began as he turned to face the little girl. "Kenny's gone."

"W-what?" she stuttered.

"He got stuck in a building full of walkers and we couldn't reach him. I couldn't reach him."

"Lee, no," she whimpered as tears finally began to fall from her eyes.

Lee hugged her once again as she began cry. He was wondering when the tears would come. He guessed losing Kenny had been the last straw, the last horrible event that broke open the flood gates so to speak.

"First my parents, now Kenny!" Clementine cried.

"I know, sweet pea. I'm sorry. I'll miss him too," Lee said comfortingly.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

Lee gently broke the hug and put his hands on her shoulders. "Clementine, this is not your fault," he told her.

"But it happened while you were trying to rescue me. If I hadn't…"

"Clementine, listen to me," Lee said sternly, "It just happened. Sometimes bad things happen. In fact, nowadays pretty horrible things happen, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. The fact that we were on our way to rescue you when it happened doesn't make it your fault."

"But it does!" Clementine cried, shaking her head vehemently. She refused to be comforted when she knew without a doubt that it really was her fault. "After you fell asleep on the couch, the man on my walkie talked to me again. He told me he had my parents. He told me that if I went outside, I could see them. But he was lying, and then he grabbed me. I know I shouldn't have gone out there, but I wanted to see my parents so bad, and I was mad at you because you said we couldn't look for them."

"Aw, Clem," Lee sighed as he pulled her close once again and let her cry on his shoulder. Now he knew why she seemed more broken up about losing Kenny than losing her parents. She felt guilty because she thought it was her fault Kenny had died. "Listen, sweet pea, this is not your fault. It's his. He lied to you to get you out in the open so he could grab you. He was just a crazy guy who saw you as a means to make up for his past mistakes." And a way to get back at me, he added silently, but she didn't need to know about that. He felt her nod against his shoulder, and he hoped she was finally starting to understand what he was trying to say.

"Lee?"

Lee whipped his head around toward the familiar voice. His eyes widened in shock as he slowly stood up to his full height.

"Kenny?"