Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.
"Hey get up." A southern accent sounded in Zach's ear. His eyes opened and looked to a man with a bass pro shop t-shirt on, a pair of black jeans, a pair of black shoes, and an orange and white hat. He had the distinctive trait of having a fully grown mustache, where Zach never had the opportunity to let his beard grow out due to the fact that he was in the service.
Zach got up and yawned as Clementine stood by scratching her arms. "Uh… I'm itchy." Clementine remarked.
"Well that's because you slept in a barn little lady." The southern man said. "Lucky, you don't have spiders in your hair." Clementine immediately gasped and ran her hands over her black curls to check and see if there were any unwanted arachnids in it. "But I'm sure your daddy here, scared them all away, huh?"
Zach stood up and said, "I'm not her dad. Name's Zach." Zach then extended his hand out to shake hands with the southern man.
"I'm Kenny." The man said accepting the handshake.
Suddenly, a young boy ran to the entrance of the barn door and exclaimed, "Dad, we're going to build a fence! There's a tractor and everything!" The boy then rushed off in excitement.
"We better get going, or we'll never hear the end of it." Kenny remarked. Zach chuckled as he looked over to a tired Clementine. He picked her up and placed her on his hip to carry her. Rather than fighting Zach, Clementine accepted him carrying her. She wasn't exactly a morning person and she has come to trust the young man who has been looking after her up to recent. She laid her head on his shoulder as Zach and Kenny walked over to a couple of hay bales where the young boy and an overweight woman were.
"That's my boy, Ken Jr, but we all call him Duck." Kenny said.
"Dodging or quacking?" Zach asked with a chuckle.
"Quacking." Kenny chuckled.
As if on cue the young boy exclaimed, "DAAAD!"
Kenny smirked and said, "See." Zach chuckled as he and Kenny approached the overweight woman and Duck. "So you interested in going to Macon? We're thinking of heading there ourselves, and it be nice to have a strong ally like you."
"I'll have to see what Clem wants to do." Zach replied.
"Ah, got to check with the missus. I understand." Kenny said. He then turned to his son and the overweight woman and said, "Honey, Duck, this is Zach, and uh what's the girl's name?"
"Her name's Clementine." Zach replied.
"And Clementine." Kenny said as he finished introducing the two.
Kenny's wife who was the overweight woman smiled and said, "Now that is a very pretty name."
"Thanks." Clementine said weakly as she tried to wake herself up.
Shawn approached the group and said, "Well we should get to work. We've all seen what those things can do out there, so the faster we can get this fence up the better."
"I want to help build a fence." Duck said enthusiastically, trying to get confirmation from his mother.
"Yeah?" Shawn asked. "Well I do need a good foreman. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take a water break."
"On the tractor?" Duck said enthusiastically. "Cool!"
"Duck and I will hope to it." Shawn said. He then left with Duck close behind. Zach looked to Clementine who was still fighting off sleep; she looked to him as well with a smile.
Kenny's wife, Katjaa, looked to Zach and said, "I can hold onto your little girl until she can fully wake up. We can visit in the meantime."
"I appreciate it." Zach said. He looked to Clementine and asked, "Could you let this nice lady hold you while I get our stuff packed up?" Clementine nodded her head and Zack gave the young girl to Katjaa. Katjaa placed the young girl on her lap as Kenny went off to examine a blue and silver truck that was near the gate.
Zach went into the barn and picked up Clementine's lion toy and blanket. He placed the blanket inside her backpack and grabbed a box of animal crackers that he found in the girl's house yesterday from his own backpack. "She's probably hungry." Zach said to himself as he looked at the animal crackers and back towards the house. He left the barn with his and Clementine's backpacks and approached Katjaa and Clementine.
"You have very pretty hair." Katjaa complimented.
"Thank you." Clementine replied with a squeak. Zach smiled to see how close Clementine had gotten to Katjaa, but Katjaa seemed to be a wonderful mother so it made sense that she and the child would get along.
"Hiya." Zach said as he approached the two.
"Hi Zach." Clementine chirped. She had definitely woken up and was noticeable chipper now than a few minutes ago. Her big amber orbs went to what he had in his hands and she said, "You have my lion."
"Yeah, I do." Zach said. "Here, I figured you would want him back. And here is some animal crackers for breakfast." He extended both items to her.
Clementine took both item with a thankful smile and she said, "Thank you so much, Zach." Clementine opened the box of animal crackers as she held onto her toy and she looked up. "Share?" Clementine asked.
"No, sweetie. That's your food. You go ahead and eat as much as you want." Zach said.
"Okay." She then looked to Katjaa and asked, "You want to share?"
"Oh no honey, I'm fine. Go ahead and eat." Clementine nodded and she started to munch on some of the animal crackers.
Meanwhile, Zach placed his and Clementine's backpack next to an unused hay bale and looked to Katjaa. "If Clem gets thirsty, I have a couple of water bottles in my backpack. And thank you for looking after her."
"It's no problem." Katjaa said. Katjaa then looked to Zack's backpack and perked up. "Your backpack? Were you in the army?"
"No, I was a Marine." Zach replied.
"You would know more about this whole virus thing than any of us." Katjaa said. "Do you know anything about this?"
Zach sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest. "We were told to defend the CDC with our last breath; they said that they were trying to make a vaccine for… this." Zach said. "We were slow in discovering how they were multiplying, one bite, one scratch, that's all it took to become one of them. Unfortunately, we learned to late. Our medical facility got overran and we became outflanked."
"Oh my gosh." Katjaa said sadly.
"Yeah…" Zach said.
Clementine stopped eating the animal crackers and resealed the container. "I'm done." Clementine said. "Thanks for the animal crackers."
"You're welcome." Zach said as he took the box from her.
"Can I go explore?" Clementine asked.
"I, uh, sure." Zach said hesitantly as he recalled that Shawn asked for his help last night, but he couldn't just let the five year old go through out the farm without someone keeping an eye on her.
"Ow! Dammit!" Kenny exclaimed as he waved his hand from getting shocked by his own truck. Zach turned to the older man slightly concerned to see if he was alright.
Katjaa chuckled while shaking her head and said, "How about you go help Kenny with that truck? I'll keep an eye on your little girl in the meantime."
"Thanks." Zach said. "I need to help Shawn with the fence on top of that."
"That's fine." Katjaa said. "It's going to remind me of the old days when I had to keep an eye on Duck, except something tells me that Clementine will behave herself better."
Zach smiled and he turned to Clementine. "Clementine, make sure you stay in eye-sight. If you can't see Katjaa, she can't see you."
"Okay." Clementine squeaked.
Katjaa placed the five year old on the ground, and the curious little girl sprinted off to explore the barn. Katjaa got up and followed Clementine as Zach went up to Kenny.
"You need any help?" Zach asked.
"Nah, just touched the wrong wiring." Kenny said. He then looked up and asked, "Do YOU need any help?"
"What do you mean?" Zach asked.
"I mean in taking care of that little girl." Kenny replied as he kept his focus on Zach. "Do you know what you're doing? Did you have any kids of your own, before all of this?"
"No, I didn't have any kids." Zach said.
"You see that's what I'm worried about." Kenny said. "I'm worried that you aren't going to be able to take care of her, and that she'll be left out on a limb."
"I think I'm doing a good job so far." Zach said. "I've kept her fed, watered, checked on her several times, and I've even kept her entertained."
Kenny sighed and said, "That's exactly what I was afraid of. You're focusing too much on her base needs that you're neglectin her emotions. You got to be able to protect her, to care for her." Kenny then glared at Zach and continued, "Right now, I just don't see you offering anything like that." Kenny then went back to work, trying to bring the truck back to life. "She needs to be cared for by someone who ain't a young, heartless Marine."
Zach was completely taken aback by the insult and even felt hurt by the comment. However, Zach never liked to feud with another person and would usually avoid it like the plague. So he left Kenny and went to go talk to Shawn.
Shawn was busy building up the defenses of the fence with some plywood as Duck pretended that he was driving the tractor. Zach smirked at the young boy's excitement, reflecting on his own days as a young boy.
Shawn noticed Zach out of the corner of his eyes and said, "Hey there you are. Could you go ahead and cut a couple of those two-by-four's to length?"
"Yeah, I'm on it." Zach said as he went to a makeshift stand to cut the lumber.
He grabbed the saw and started to cut the wooden board in half as Shawn said, "My dad doesn't know how bad it is."
"I don't think anyone does. If anything, this might just be the beginning." Zach said as continued to cut the board in half.
"I saw a guy in Atlanta kill a kid. A boy." Shawn said. "Just shot him right in the face."
"Damn." Zach muttered, astonished by the extreme brutality.
"Yeah, no shit damn." Shawn said as he stared off distantly to the cornfield. He was obviously haunted by the images of the boy being murdered that day. "He didn't even hesitate, he just turned, put the barrel of the gun between the kid's eyes and pulled the trigger." Shawn then looked to Zach and continued, "I mean you don't see things like that; it's not in the movies."
"They don't fall like you think." Zach said.
"Did you have to do it?" Shawn asked.
"Do what?" Zach asked as he finally sawed through the first board.
"Kill." Shawn said. "Have you had to off one yet?"
Zach contemplated as he picked up another wooden board to cut. He placed it on the stand and started to saw the wooden board as he said, "I had to slice this poor girl's brains out."
Shawn was visibly shaken by the brutality and said, "I don't think I could off one like that." Shawn then went back to working on the fence and said, "I'm just glad that we're getting this fence built. Dad just wants to keep the family safe and thinks that inviting people in is a bigger threat than whatever is out there." Zach finished the second wooden board and proceeded to cut a third board as Shawn asked, "How about yours? How's your family?"
Zach stopped sawing and sighed. "I had to put my wife down. She was one of those things by the time that I got home. As for my and her parents, I have no idea."
"No shit." Shawn asked with surprise. "I'm sorry that you had to do that." Zach looked down at the wooden board that he was cutting but decided to leave it. "Thanks for helping me out Zach." Shawn said.
"Thanks for the ride back in Atlanta." Zach replied.
"Sure thing." Shawn said. "I couldn't leave you behind." Shawn then went back to working on the fence until he added, "By the way when you see my dad around, he might need some help in the barn."
Zach nodded and looked to the barn to see Herschel enter it. He also noticed that Clementine was looking at the chickens that were in a pin with Katjaa and decided to head over. He approached the two and asked, "You like the chickens, Clem?"
"Yeah, they're fun to watch." Clementine replied. She wrinkled her nose and said, "It smells like…"
"Manure." Zach finished.
"Manure? Is that like when a horse plops?" Clementine asked.
"Just like that." Zach replied. "It's used for fertilizer." Clementine looked to him weirdly and Zach continued, "Fertilizer is used to make plants grow."
"Oh… okay, I got it." Clementine replied.
Zach then noticed Herschel inside the barn and said, "I'll be right back." Zach said. "You stay near Katjaa, okay?"
"Okay." Clementine replied with a nod.
Zach smiled to Katjaa appreciatively. She smiled back in response but quickly directed her attention to the five year old. Zach went into the barn and approached Herschel who was using a pitchfork to clean the ground floor of the barn. Zach nodded to the older man. Herschel recognized him with a stare, but he quickly went back to work with the pitchfork.
"This is quite a piece of land." Zach complimented.
Herschel scoffed and said, "If you said twenty years ago that I'd be doing the same thing now, I would have told you that you were full of crap. It was never part of the plan, but it was part of the family and I guess so was I. Family's important. Do you believe that?"
"I was raised that way." Zach replied. "Yes."
"So where is your family?" Herschel asked.
"My wife died shortly after the outbreak." Zach replied sadly. "I had to be the one to put her down."
"Hmm, I'm sorry to hear that." Herschel replied. "And now you got this little girl to take care of. Clementine was it? How did you find her?"
"I went into her house for some food and supplies." Zach explained. "I found a hand-held radio in one of the cupboards and talked to her with it."
"Humph." Herschel muttered as he stuck the pitchfork into one of the hay bales. He approached Zach and asked, "What did you do?"
"I don't quite understand." Zach said shocked by the older man's change in attitude.
Herschel huffed unimpressed by the façade and continued, "You obviously did something wrong. You're very skittish and your hands are shaking; my boy does the same thing when he has done something wrong. Besides that, I doubt that the military would allow a capable young man such as yourself to leave so easily. Now are you going to keep lying to me? Or are you going to be honest with me?"
Zach sighed and said, "I was positioned in downtown Atlanta. Our Intel told us that reclaiming the city from the dead would be easier by capturing downtown Atlanta and spreading out from there. But then it became too heavy and we were getting surrounded. Our medical facility got overran and everything fell apart after that."
"You should probab-" Herschel began but was interrupted when both men could hear someone yell.
"What the?" Zach asked. He ran out of the barn and looked over to see Shawn who appeared to be struggling with a couple of walkers.
"Go, I'll go get my gun!" Herschel exclaimed. Zach ran past Katjaa and Clementine who were alerted to the scene by Shawn's screams. Zach reached Shawn and Duck just in time to see Duck being grabbed by a walker; thankfully, the young boy kept himself on the tractor and out of reach of the walker's mouth by holding on to the steering wheel. He screamed in horror as Shawn tried to escape from the two walkers that were trying to get him as well, but to no avail as the tractor's front wheel was on his right leg.
They both screamed in horror as Zach looked to the scene deciding who he should help out first. He made his decision and ran to Duck. He wrestled the boy from the walker's grasp and got away from the fence with the boy clinging to Zach.
Zach huffed as Kenny ran over and grabbed Duck from his grasp, comforting the boy saying, "I got you."
Zach quickly shifted gears and he ran to the front of the tractor to push it off of Shawn. "Kenny, help Zach!" Shawn exclaimed. However Kenny immediately ran off ignoring Shawn's pleas. "Kenny!" Suddenly both could hear the cracking of wood and Shawn exclaimed, "They're almost through."
Zach huffed as he thought of a new strategy since the current one wasn't working. He quickly placed his hands under the tractor and using all of his strength he tried to lift the front end of the tractor. This of course didn't work as the tractor proved to be too heavy. Suddenly, wooden planks gave way and the two walkers fell on top of Shawn. Zach backed away upon instinct as one of the walkers bit down onto Shawn's leg. Shawn screamed in pain as the other walker bit down on his neck. This stopped his screams and both walkers continued to feed on him. Herschel finally arrived with a shotgun, but he was too late. He glared at the walkers and fired at the one chomping on Shawn's neck. The other one that was eating Shawn's leg growled, but was quickly shot by Herschel. Finally the third walker that tried to bite Duck came towards the dying Shawn but was shot dead by Herschel.
Herschel looked over his son worriedly, as Zach picked up on some whimpering that came from Clementine. She looked on horrified by what had happened and she was on the verge of tears. Zach went up to her as Kenny and his family approached Herschel. Kenny had an especially regretful look aimed towards Herschel.
Clementine continued to whimper as Zach crouched down in front of her. He wiped the tears that came down from her eyes. She looked to him with tear-filled eyes and she finally hugged him tightly around the neck, allowing herself to cry.
"Sh… it's okay, honey." Zach said as he rubbed circles on her back to soothe her. "It's okay."
"GET THE F*** OUT OF HERE!" Herschel could be heard screaming from behind Zach. Clementine gasped in between her cries upon hearing Herschel, but Zach quickly calmed her recent fright by picking her up and rocking her in his arms. She kept her grip around his neck and closed her eyes tightly.
"I'm sorry." Kenny apologized.
"YOU'RE SORRY?" Herschel inquired. "Your son is alive, you don't get to be sorry!" Zach approached them as he continued to rock the five year old in his arms in an attempt to calm her down. "And you." Herschel said as he looked to Zach. "You tried to help him, but this piece of shit let him die."
"You can't blame Kenny for something like this." Zach said. "Crap just happened. There's no one to be blamed for this."
Kenny smiled with a bit of a surprised look. He was surprised that Zach defended him since he was being rather mean to him earlier. However, Herschel was angry at Zach for defending Kenny and he turned to his deceased son. "Just go." Herschel said sadly. "Get out and NEVER come back."
Clementine seemed to have relaxed in Zach's arms as the conflict came to its end with him and her back on the road. If anything, she felt more like deadweight. Zach shook her in his arms but in response to his efforts, he only got a dribble of droll on his t-shirt which indicated that she wore herself out from crying and had gone to sleep. "You got that ride to Macon if you want it." Kenny said as he passed by Zach.
Zach nodded and Kenny's family left to grab his and Clementine's backpacks and placed them in the truck. Zach looked down to Herschel one last time, looking to the older man remorsefully until he moved on.
Zach sat down in the vehicle and adjusted the young girl to where she would be sitting on his lap. He succeeded in waking the child to which he apologized and put her back to sleep by rubbing her back on the way down to Macon.
Hours Later
They were finally in the city of Macon, but as luck would have it the truck was running on fumes. By this point, Clementine had woken up from her nap and was coloring in one of the coloring books that Zach had grabbed from her house. He held the crayon box for her as she continued to color.
"You're doing a good job at staying in between the lines." Zach said.
"Thanks." Clementine said as she looked to her guardian with a smile.
"I remember that I couldn't do that when I was your age." Zach said. "I was too busy thinking of another thing that I could get into or another thing that I could break."
Suddenly, the vehicle puffed. Clementine jumped slightly and the vehicle started to puff some more. "What's happening?" Clementine asked.
"We're out of gas?" Zach asked Kenny.
Kenny looked to Zach and said, "We've been runin on fumes for the last ten minutes, so yeah…" Finally, the vehicle came to a stop in the middle of the town. Zach quickly placed all of Clementine's things in her backpack and the group exited the vehicle. "That's as far as she's taking us." Kenny remarked.
"Then it's far enough." Zach said as he handed Clementine her backpack. The five went towards the center of town with Clementine holding Zach's hand. Zach kept his right hand over his katana waiting for any walkers to come at them. They walked up the street surprised to see the once buzzing city reduced to a torn apart wasteland with garbage, wreckage from nearby structures, and abandoned cars littering the street. Zach noticed the local pharmacy which had become very popular up to recent do to the eldest son of the store owners committing double homicide.
Clementine looked to him and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." Zach started to say until they both could hear Duck.
"Look!" Duck exclaimed as he saw someone crouched down beside a truck that was several feet away.
Kenny looked to the man that was several feet away and yelled, "Hey there, you friendly? Truck's out of gas." Suddenly the man looked up and growled sickeningly. Its grotesque features and milky white eyes indicated that it wasn't a man at all, but instead a walker. "F***!" Kenny exclaimed.
Suddenly more and more walkers started to appear and surrounded the group. "We're trapped!" Katjaa exclaimed.
Suddenly, the four could hear Duck scream in horror as a walker growled, satisfied that it had captured a potential meal. Duck's family looked on in horror as Duck wrestled with the creature, which was short lived do to a shot that came from a woman in a white blouse, black skirt, black stockings, and a pair of black heels. She fired off several shots and killed some of the other walkers as Katjaa and Kenny helped Duck to his feet.
"Quick run!" A man in a baseball hat exclaimed. He appeared to be a couple of years younger than Zach. He wore a leather jacket over a red t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of black shoes. Kenny and his family rushed towards the young man. Zach quickly followed but soon he realized that he was dragging Clementine along. She was frozen in fear as more and more walkers headed for them. "Come on man! Run!" The man in the baseball hat exclaimed. Zach proceeded to pick up Clementine and carried her into the drugstore. As soon as Zach passed the man in the baseball hat, he locked the gate with a combination lock and ran inside himself.
"We can't take risks like this!" A woman in a tank-top hissed as Zach placed Clementine on the ground. She grabbed his hand immediately out of fear.
He smiled to her and said, "It's okay sweetie, we're safe now." Clementine nodded and she released his hand. "I got to go talk to these people. I'll be right back." Clementine nodded and Zach went over to the crowd.
"We can't just let people die either." The markswoman replied.
"When I say those doors stay shut no matter what, I f****** mean it!" The woman hissed back. "We don't know who these people are. They could be dangerous."
"Or even worse, they could have led them right to us." An older man hissed. He and the woman in the tank-top appeared to be related.
"Where in the hell is your humanity?" The markswoman asked. "They would have died out there."
"Then we let them." The older man said. "We're in a war zone."
"We have kids with us." Zach said.
"I see one little girl." The older man said. As the older man said this, Clementine grabbed Zach's hand and squeezed his hand to get his attention.
"What is it?" Zach asked.
He could see now that she was shifting her weight from one foot to the other and she said, "I…I have to pee."
"I would go back out there in a heartbeat." The man in the baseball hat said to the woman in the tank-top who must have been the leader of the group.
"I bet you would, you're just a stupid kid." The woman in the tank-top replied.
"Can you hold it?" Zach asked.
Clementine continued to shift her weight from foot to foot and she whimpered, "No."
"Holy shit!" The older man said as he looked over to Duck and Katjaa. "One of them was bitten."
"He wasn't bitten." Zach said.
"The hell he wasn't." The older man snapped. "We have to end this now." He then approached the mother and son, but Kenny got between them.
"Over my dead body." Kenny said.
"Zach!" Clementine pleaded. Zach looked down to see Clementine. She was practically jumping up and down at this point and whimpering even more.
"Sorry, sweetie." Zach apologized. "Come on." He then escorted her towards for the bathroom as the conversation started to intensify.
"Don't you f****** people get it!" The older man exclaimed. "We've already seen this happen! We let someone in the group and we all end up bitten."
Kenny's glare went towards Zach momentarily and shouted, "Hey, how about a little help here?"
They all turned to Zach and he said, "I can't. I got to get Clem to the bathroom." Zach replied.
"Are you f****** kidding me?" Kenny snapped. "You can do this another time. This asshole want to kick my boy out, now! I need your help!"
Zach shook his head and said, "I'll help you out as soon as I get Clementine taken care of." With that Zach went up to the bathroom door and pushed on it. However, he didn't get any results and the door remained in its closed position. "The door's locked." He then looked to the group with Kenny getting more and more worked up. "Hey!" Zach shouted which caught everyone off guard. "Where's the key?"
"I think it's behind the counter." The markswoman replied.
Zach nodded and he quickly ran behind the counter to search for the object. Meanwhile, Clementine continued to shift her weight from one foot to the other, until finally Zach found the key. He jumped over to the counter and ran to the door. He unlocked it as the older man exclaimed, "He will and we're tossing him out right now!"
"F*** off!" Kenny exclaimed as he punched the older man in the face. The older man shrugged it off and responded with a hard punch to Kenny's face as well. Kenny landed flat on the floor to which Katjaa screamed. Zach looked onto the scene while he unlocked the door to the restroom not noticing the growling that was coming from the bathroom. He turned around just in time to be tackled by a walker which was now in the process of trying to chomp down on his neck.
Clementine squealed in horror as Zach struggled to push the walker off of him. He finally mustered up the strength required to kick the walker away from him and he shouted, "Get off me!" He kicked the walker off and it growled at him momentarily before having its head explode from a gunshot…
…To be continued.