Chapter 2: Lost

"Nice to meet you." Reynaldo said with a smile, looking at them as the Jesse drove.

"Likewise." Seth said.

"Thank you for helping us and taking care of Devin" May said, "We were getting worried about him."

"It's no problem." Richard butted in, "We're not going to leave people stranded on the side of the road."

"What he said." Reynaldo stated.

"Hello." Richard said to the girl, "I'm Richard."

"I'm Melissa."

"Nice to meet you." Richard stated, "So, how old are you guys."

Seth looked up from Devin, "Oh um, 37. Devin is too."

"I'm 35." May added, "Melissa is 14."

"What about you guys?" Seth asked.

"25." Richard answered.

"I'm 23" Reynaldo added.

"Same as Richard." Jesse said as well.

"24" Owen stated looking up from Devin.

Delmon looked up from the walkie, "23" He said before looking down at it again, "You think we're in range yet?" He asked of Jesse.

"I don't know." Jesse answered, "I would wait awhile though, we dont want to waste the batteries."

"Yeah…"

**One hour later**

"Clem? Are you there?" Delmon spoke into the walkie talkie. He waited for about thirty seconds before he switched the station, "Hello? Anyone?"

Another thirty seconds later he tried again, "Clementine? Can you here me? If you can stay at the house, I'm almost there."

And once again, there was no answer.

He switched the radio off, "Fuck…" he muttered. He had been trying for the last thirty minutes, hoping he would get through to her, he knew that the rest of his group were getting annoyed with the constant talking into the walkie. But they understood why he was doing it.

"He's getting worse." Owen said looking down at Devin, "I don't even need a thermometer to tell that his fever is getting higher, his temperature has changed drastically."

"The antibiotics didn't help?" Delmon said looking down at Devin's bandaged shoulder.

Owen shook his head, "I don't know why."

Looking at Devin, he looked very pale, and the whites of his eyes had turned yellow. Seth was sitting next to Owen and Devin, he looked worried, "Is he going to live?" Seth asked.

"At this rate, the fever could kill him." Owen answered.

"In what way?"

"Really high fevers can cause organ failure, I'm trying my best to cool him down but it isn't working." He paused for a second, "I'm sorry."

"God damn it." Seth said solemnly as Owen placed another rag on Devin's head.

After about five minutes of silence, Jesse stopped the car, "Hey Delmon, which way?"

Delmon looked out the front window and saw a fork in the road, it took him a second to realise where they were, "Left." He said thinking again, "Then take a right at the next intercection."

"Got it."

Delmon unbuckled and moved to the front, stopping in between the driver's and the front seat and continued to give Jesse directions for a few more minutes, "I can see the city." Jesse said looking towards the distant buildings. It had been awhile since Delmon had been here, he knew it would be nothing like he remembered, they all knew going into the city was a horrible idea, so they decided against it. Luckily his parents house was just outside Atlanta, they drove straight for a few more minutes.

"Turn left here." Delmon said, realizing they were getting close to his street.

Jesse followed his direction and turned, after a minute, Delmon spoke up once again, "Turn Right."

They began driving down his old street, passing the familiar houses as they went, "Shit" Jesse muttered has they came to a stop, "There are cars blocking the way."

"My house isn't far, I can walk." He said opening the car door, eager to get to his house, hoping he would find his sister.

"I'll go too." Jesse said taking the keys out of the ignition, "Rich, catch." he said tossing the keys to him.

Richard caught them with one hand and looked at them before locking eyes with Delmon, "If you don't come back, I'll come looking." he said.

Delmon nodded and shut the door to the car.

"Lead the way." Jesse said.

As they walked, Delmon remembered the last time he had been here, Clementine was excited to see him when he came over to Christmas, like she was on Thanksgiving. He always strived to be a good big brother, he remembered calling every week or so. He also thought about the last time he talked to her, she was kind of upset that she wasn't able to go with their parents to Savannah, she also talked about how there was a raccoon in her tree house a few days ago and how their father let her borrow his prized baseball cap. He really hoped she was okay.

Delmon stopped, and looked at the house in front of him.

"This it?" Jesse asked with his rifle in hand.

"Yup…" Delmon said taking his pistol out of his holster.

"Del…" Delmon turned to Jesse, "What ever we find in there…"

"Stop." He interrupted, "She's okay… She has to be."

They walked towards the front door, Delmon knocked loudly on it, "Clem? It's Delmon, you in there?"

No answer…

"Shit…"

He tried the doorknob. Locked. Delmon looked at the door, and then to Jesse, "I gonna kick it in." He said, not even going to try the window.

Jesse nodded.

He stepped back and lifted his leg, he kicked the door as hard as he could. And with a loud crack, the door flew open, he walked in.

"Clementi-" He froze.

There was a body on the floor, and he rushed over to it. Looking at it, the body was female, but too big to be Clementine, blood covered the floor around her, and her face was distorted because it was smashed in by something.

"Who is it?" Jesse asked.

"It's probably her babysitter. I never saw what she looked like, but Clem told me about her on the phone." He said looking at her destroyed face, he stood up and began to walk towards the stairs, as he did, he saw all the blood in the kitchen. He walked past the stand where the phone is and saw the family photo of him, Clementine, and their parents.

He looked away from it and continued walking, "Clem?!" he said rushing upstairs.

He ran to his parents' bedroom, which was the door closest to the stairs. He flew through the door and looked around at the lifeless room. He ran out of the room and went straight into the bathroom, only to find it empty as well.

"No... No. No. No!"

He pushed the door to his sister's room, he ran straight to the closet door to find it empty, and then he ran to the last room in the house. The door to his old bedroom flew open as he began searching it, but once again, it was devoid of life, "Clem!" He yelled, becoming desperate.

He ran down stairs, and made his way towards the backdoor, running past Jesse as he did, he slid the door open as fast as he could.

"Del-"

"Clementine!"

"Delmon!" Jesse yelled.

He barely even looked at Jesse as he bolted into the backyard and climbed the makeshift ladder into the treehouse. It was empty except for some empty cans and a can opener, which he looked at before he climbed back down. He jumped off the ladder on the last few steps and began searching the rest of the yard.

"Clementine!"

No answer.

"Clementi-"

Delmon felt a hand on his shoulder and felt himself be pulled backwards. He landed on the ground with a thud, and looked up to see Jesse standing over him.

"You need to be quiet man, you going to attract unwanted attention." Jesse stated.

"You have no idea-"

"Look I get it, but your going to get yourself killed if you don't shut the fuck up. I'm trying to help you man…"

Delmon sat there for a few seconds before he nodded and Jesse helped a him up.

"Did you see any sign of her?"

"There were some empty cans in her treehouse…" Delmon told him.

"That might be a good sign…" He paused for a second, "Did you leave a voicemail?"

"What?"

"When you called yesterday… Did you leave a message on the answering machine?"

"Yeah…"

"The new message light on it isn't lit up, and the power is still on... So someone must have listened to it." Jesse said.

"So you think that maybe-"

"I'm not saying that your sister is the one that listened to it, I'm saying that someone did, most likely the person who smashed in the face of the babysitter," He said, "and I doubt that your eight year old sister could kill that thing."

"Do you think that whoever listened to it helped my sister?" Delmon asked.

"If they weren't going to help her, they would have left her here, and do you see her around anywhere…"

"But that's just one possibility."

"But it's the most likely one," Jesse argued, "And either way you're not going to find her here."

"She's got to be around somewhere, there's no way she's out of Georgia."

"We'll find her… just not here."

"Yeah… Cmon, let's get back to the car."

They walked through the back gate into the front yard, Delmon needed to find Clementine, he couldn't leave her here. He also needed to get to his parents in Savannah, but him and his sister had the least amount of distance in between them, so Clementine was his number one priority right now.

"Here…" Jesse said holding something up to him.

Delmon looked up and saw him holding the picture frame with the picture of Delmon's family that was on the stand. Delmon took it from him, "Thanks." He said.

"You okay man?" Jesse asked.

"Honestly… No."

"All this shit is so fucked up."

"Yup."

"What the fuck made the dead start walking?"

"I just hope this whole fucking situation will die down, the military should roll in and fix this in the next week or so… So lets just try and survive until then…"

"Ye-"

BANG

They both instinctively ducked down at the sound of the gunshot, it took them a second to realise that it came from the direction of the car.

"Shit! Cmon!" Jesse ordered as he began running.

Delmon followed as fast as he could and they eventually reached the car. They both saw the body of Devin on the ground with a bullet through his head.

"What the fuck happened!?" Jesse yelled as he reached them.

"H- He fucking shot him!" Seth yelled pointing at Reynaldo.

Jesse turned to Reynaldo wide eyed.

"He died!" Reynaldo yelled, "Me and Owen were getting him out of the car and Devin fucking lunged at Owen! He turned into one of those fucking things, and he was about to kill him."

"He was already gone! If he didn't shoot him, I would be fucking dead!" Owen added.

"Hostiles!" Richard yelled.

Everyone turned to see a small horde of them slowly stumbling forward in the distance, following the sound of the gunshot. Delmon bolted towards the car, "Everyone get in! Richard throw me the key!" he yelled as he opened the driver's side door.

Richard did so without question, Delmon caught them and slammed the door shut, and waited until everyone was in before he slammed his foot on the gas. The car sped forward, leaving the body of Devin behind.

"Too fucking close!" Jesse yelled as the hostiles reached the area the gunshot originated from.

"What happened back there, how did he turn?" Delmon asked.

"It was probably the bite," Owen answered, "It looked ten times worse before he died."

"Is that how they make more of those things, a bite is all it takes?" Jesse questioned.

"Seems like it…" Richard said.

"Then this is worse then I thought." Delmon muttered.

"Where do we go now… What's the plan?" Richard questioned after a few seconds.

"What happened at the house Delmon?" Reynaldo asked.

Delmon was silent for a moment, "There was blood in the kitchen and I found my sister's babysitter with her face smashed in, she must have turned…"

"Jesus…"

"I couldn't find Clem though, and there was evidence showing that someone else was in the house. So she might be with them. I can only hope that they're good people, whoever she's with…"

"I said we would find her man." Jesse said.

"Yeah," Delmon realised something, "What if they went to Atlanta?"

"Then that would be a problem." Richard stated.

"I'm sure whoever she's with isn't dumb enough to go there," Jesse said, "It's a death trap, the only reason someone would go there is if they were looking for friends and family." He gave Delmon a look.

"Yeah… I won't go there, don't worry."

"Good, because I do want to help you, but I'm not going to risk everyone that is here's life to find her."

Delmon nodded solemnly.

"We still need to figure out where to go." Richard added.

"Away from the city," Seth said, "I'm not having my family anywhere near that place."

"We passed through Macon on our way here," Owen said, "We could always head there."

"Anywhere that's closer?" Delmon asked, wanting to search the closer areas for his sister.

"Probably, I need to check a map though. I was following road signs the entire time I was driving." Owen said.

"Here." Jesse said handing Owen his bag, "The map is in the front pocket."

Owen opened it and pulled out the map.

There were a few seconds of silence, "McDonough… It's a city about 20 miles away. Should have a smaller population than Atlanta, so it will be little more safe."

"There should be road signs that show you how far away you are from it." Jesse said.

"Yeah, I see one now."

McDonough 22 Miles