Disclaimer: The Walking Dead Series is NOT my work. It is owned by TellTale, all rights, commendation and acknowledgement goes to them.
However, "Derek Brooks" is my own fictional character and apparently the only thing I own in this story.
Chapter 2
Derek aggressively kicked the door open, prompting Clementine and AJ to rush out. Tens, maybe hundreds of walkers heard the loud explosion, not to mention they would be overrun soon if they stayed any longer. The clear option is for the trio to get away as far as possible.
Derek gazed upon the dozens of walkers, shambling about towards them. He gritted his teeth in anger. "We. Are. Leaving!" Derek yelled out, emphasizing each word. He carried AJ with his left arm, earning a disapproving grunt from the person in question.
Unfortunately, the way to the car was blocked by walkers. Clementine got her knife and assumed a fighting stance. Derek let go of AJ and motioned him and Clementine to stay back, he balled his fists and tightly clenched his machete as he faced the walkers. He mentally counted the number of walkers as well as what he should do.
'Three. Aim for the neck. This'll be easy.' He thought smugly.
The first walker tried to reach him, its arms outstretched, eager to claw his face and eat his guts out. With one hand, Derek swiped his machete at the walker's neck with all his might, feeling the flesh and bone ripping through easily, Derek smirked and with a grunt, he delivered a strong kick at the dead walker's chest, knocking it down and separating the head from its body.
The second walker followed and charged at him but Derek was faster and dodged to the left. Without missing a beat, he jabbed the hilt of his machete on the side of the walker's head, disorienting it. Not giving it any chances, using two hands, he brought down his machete downwards to the walker's skull, killing it.
However, it got stuck, Derek tried to remove his machete but the last walker charged absentmindedly from behind. Acting by reflex, he let go of his machete, ducked down and did a leg sweep against the walker, tripping it to a fall. Derek looked at the downed walker in disgust before stomping its head. Brains, blood, and bones scattered around, making a bloody mess to his boots and on the ground. He walked back to the walker that still had his machete and with a grunt, he managed to pull it out. He quickly examined it for any damages but nothing too severe, just a few chips and scratches.
Derek looked back and was surprised on seeing two walkers. Fortunately, Clementine handled it, one was already dead on the ground while the other was just recently stabbed in the skull. Using two hands, she grunted as she pulled out her knife from the walker's head.
Derek nodded at her in approval, suddenly more groans and moans of the undead arrived. Looking around, he noticed more and more are closing in.
"No time to waste. Let's go." He yelled out. Clementine nodded in agreement and the trio ran towards the car. Clementine opened the door, prompting AJ to get in. Derek vaulted over the hood, purposively knocking down the walker at the opposite side, making it roll down the hill. Derek reached for the passenger door but a walker's growl stopped him in his tracks.
It charged aggressively at him, its arms outstretched but Derek dodged in the right moment. Missing its intended target, it slammed to another walker, knocking both of them, as well as a few others, down in the process.
Just as he was about to open the door, a walker, missing its right arm, managed to sneak behind Derek, eager to take a bite at his neck, it was just a few inches away in achieving it until it made a fatal mistake, it moaned in hunger. With lightning-reflexes, Derek turned around just in time to stop the walker from biting him, using his right elbow as leverage against the walker's neck and using his left arm to hold off its arm. However, the walker's momentum carried just enough force to slam Derek between itself and the car, knocking his machete out from his hand.
At this distance, Derek got a good long look at the walker, its right eyeball falling out from its socket, dangling side-by-side, its rotting flesh, skin and bones, slowly fell apart from its face, and lastly, the smell was comparable to a sewer not cleaned up for decades. All in all, it wasn't a pretty sight, nor smell nice either.
"You are one ugly motherfucker!" Derek exclaimed out loud. As if the walker understood him, it growled in anger and got more aggressive. Derek struggled to keep its jaws away from his face.
"Agh! Fuck!" He exclaimed. Using all his might, Derek pushed away the walker, giving him a small distance between them but the walker is relentless and continued its charge. However, Derek anticipated this and weaved to the right, he grabbed the walker's back of the skull and slammed it hard on the car's roof, doing it three times for good measure, realizing it's dead, he let go, watched as the body went down like a sack of potatoes. Blood and bones splattered across the roof of the car, as well as a small dent where he hit the walker's head. Satisfied, he went to look after his machete but dozens upon dozens of walkers showed up, followed by their inhuman growls and moans. Gritting his teeth in anger, he went inside the car reluctantly.
"Let's get out of here!" Derek said half-angrily, half-hurriedly.
"The keys!" Clementine pointed at the walker, the keys jiggled side-by-side at its eye socket. Derek incredulously looked between the walker and her, his mouth opens ajar.
"You know what? Fuck it. We'll improvise." Derek exclaimed in frustration. A walker broke through Derek's windshield, scattering glass around his seat but Derek remained unflinching, still looking at Clementine, he nonchalantly elbowed it in the face, knocking the walker out.
Suddenly, the window behind the car broke, glass scattered everywhere and one walker managed to crawl inside, its arms reaching at AJ.
"Ahh!" AJ screamed in surprise and fear, he quickly moved to the front with Derek and Clementine, away from the walker. The walker moaned in hunger and attempted to reach them but Derek stabbed it in the head using his knife.
"Get this thing moving!" Derek said frustratingly noticing more and more walkers closing in.
Clementine grits her teeth in frustration, thinking quickly, she released the hand brake and shift the gear to neutral. Letting the walkers push the car, the sounds of flesh and metal impacting each other, followed by moans of hunger. Unfortunately, they were being pushed towards the steep hill downwards.
"I think this is the part where we fasten our seatbelts." Derek said, looking wide eyed at the incoming steep.
"Agreed." Clementine said, nodding in shocked agreement. She grabs her seatbelt and locked it in place.
"AJ, stick with me while I fasten our seatbelt." Derek said, as he wrapped the seatbelt around AJ and him.
The car moved slowly at first, then slowly gained speed going down. It wasn't long until the car started to move at a high speed. The trio were pushed back into their seats as the force was strong enough to push them to their seats. Derek covered AJ's head with his arms as he braced for impact, while Clementine tried her best to steer away from danger, turning left and right from incoming trees but all went in vain as the car hit a rough patch. Combining the high speed, momentum, and the angle of impact. The car flipped violently, flying a few feet from the ground before crashing down the end of slope with a large crash.
"Ugh…." Derek groaned out in pain. He opened his eyes, his vision still blurry, he blinked to regain his sight and was surprised by the unfamiliar view. He blinked his eyes again, and again, only to realize that the unfamiliarity is just because the car is upside down. Realization dawned on him, he looked down and saw AJ, still attached with him, safe but unconscious, he sighs in relief when he noticed there were no wounds. He glanced towards Clementine, who was unmoving and unresponsive.
"Clem." He called out, only to receive no response. Just as he's about to call out again, he noticed the blood dripping on the side of her head. His blood went cold, as he stared at the unmoving body.
'No…' He thought, unbelieving. 'She can't be dead. She can't be!' Not believing for a second that the strongest, bravest, and cutest girl she ever met is dead. Just as his thoughts were about to go wild. Clementine coughed roughly, indicating that she's just injured but alive. Derek let out a sigh of relief, however, they're still not out of the woods yet.
"Clem. You okay?" Derek asked in concern. However, Clementine didn't respond, only mindlessly move her head left and right, moaning in pain all the while.
'Concussion. She must be disoriented.' Derek thought in concern. Holding AJ close, he unfastened his seatbelt and landed on the ground ungracefully, followed by a loud thud.
"Oof." Derek coughed out. Fortunately, AJ was safe from impact. He settled AJ aside and pulled out his knife to cut Clementine loose. Suddenly, he felt something grab his leg, he looked behind in alarm but it was too late as it pulled him out of the car through the window.
Derek desperately grabbed anything to stop himself but to no avail. Suddenly he stopped, turning around, he saw a disfigured walker eager to take a bite out his leg. Derek kicked it in the face but the walker merely shook it off and went for the bite. Pulling his leg back for more force, he strikes the walker's head, letting him go in the process.
Derek got up quickly and dashed to the downed walker and stomped his foot down on its head, smashing its head. Blood and gore littered the ground, but he didn't pay any attention to it. Huffing in exhaustion, he went back to get Clementine out, however stopped when he heard growls from behind. Several more walkers came in, Derek mentally counted and took note for any weakness.
'Five of them. Wide apart from each other. Skin and bones, weaker types.' he unconsciously went for his knife at his bandoliers but was surprised when he felt nothing. 'Crap! Must've dropped it inside the car. Gotta make this quick!' Derek thought in alarm, he assumed a fighting stance as the nearest walker charged at him. Acting quickly, he dodged right and backed off to gain more distance between him and the group.
Derek looked around to find anything useful, his eyes landed on a thick branch on the ground not too far from him. He rushed towards it, grabbing the makeshift weapon, and tightened his grip on it.
The nearest walker charged at him, he positioned his arms as if he was playing baseball, and swung his weapon against the walker's head. Blood and gore flew, as well as several pieces of wood, as the walker dropped to the ground, dead. Unfortunately, the branch broke on impact. Derek looked at the remaining piece of wood left on his right hand.
"Shit." He muttered in anger. Another walker charged at him, arms outstretched, Derek smacked away its right arm to make space, dashed into the walker's space and grabbed the walker's shoulder with his left hand for leverage and impaled the piece of wood to the walker's eye socket. Blood spurted on him but he continued to drive the piece violently, as the walker went limp, he shoved it off him.
Noticing the three walkers left, Derek readied himself again. With no weapon and nowhere to run, he's left to the only option he can think of. Fighting barehanded. He craned his neck, feeling the satisfying pops and glared at the three walkers with fierce determination.
The first one charged at him, he raised his right leg, the knee touching to his chest, and gave the walker a firm, solid kick to the chest. Dust and blood spurted on impact, Derek felt a few bones break upon impact, the walker desperately tried to regain balance but failed, falling back and landing on its back, temporarily immobilized.
Another one charged at him its arms outstretched. Derek dodged to the left and grabbed the walker's right arm, and neck. Then he rotated his whole body, still grabbing the walker, and used it as a human battering ram and slammed it to the other one. The two walkers fell down with a thud, not giving them a chance to recover, Derek dashed towards the walkers and stomped his foot down hard, killing one. He then turned his attention to the other one and did the same treatment but it was too weak.
Grunting, he mustered whatever strength he has left and brought his foot down, smashing the walker's skull as well as spurting blood, bones and gore everywhere. Derek heaved in exhaustion, putting his hands to his knees and heaved heavily.
"That…. Was…. Close…." Panting each word out. An inhuman growl got his attention, snapping in attention, he noticed the walker he kicked down earlier slowly got up. He weakly raised his arms in defense.
The walker turned its head at him and slowly walked. However, it was short lived when an arrow hit the side of its head, its head violently jerked to the side, blood spurting on impact. Then it dropped down like a bag of potatoes.
Confused, Derek attempted to look for the source base on its trajectory, only to see a white Caucasian-American male with blond hair and weird hair style, wielding a modern bow and arrow its arrow nocked, but thankfully not aimed at him. He was followed by two more people, wielding weapons of their own. One was a black African-American male with black hair styled into dreadlocks. He's wielding what appears to be a table leg with nails at the edge of it. The last one was also a white Caucasian-American male, with long brown hair. He's holding up two small knives, in which he used to stab a nearby walker with.
"Hey you over there!" The one with blonde hair called out.
"We'll get you out. Just hold on!" The three of them started to get to work, killing walkers left and right. Derek snapped out of his trance and jogged back to the car. Grabbing his knife, which he dropped earlier, and cut Clementine's seatbelt.
Unfortunately, he forgot to hold her up, as the last fabric of the belt was torn. She fell down, like a heap of rocks, hard to the ground.
"AHH!" Clementine shrieked in pain upon impact to the ground, Derek flinched unconsciously as he saw her fall, moaning in pain.
"Oops. Sorry." Derek whispered in apology, then he shook his head in disappointment to himself. He sheathed his knife, positioned her upright and slowly dragged her out of the car, then went back to get AJ as well, who was safe and unharmed all the while.
"Need help?" Derek looked beside him and saw the guy with dreadlocks, motioning to Clementine and AJ. Derek nodded and handed him AJ, unbeknownst to him, the guy had a brief look of disappointment but accepted AJ nonetheless.
"Mitch!" The African-American called out, the one who was wielding two knives turned in attention, the guy handed him his weapon, the table leg, and proceeded to carry AJ with both hands.
Derek lifted Clementine up and positioned her for a fireman carry, he grunted as he lifts her over his shoulder.
'Either I'm getting weaker or she's heavier than I remember.' Derek thought.
"Let's get out of here!" The guy with the bow and arrow called out, as he and 'Mitch' got out, followed by Derek and the African-American.
Few minutes later
The group made distance between them and the crash, looking around there were no visible walkers nearby, huffing in exhaustion they mentally agreed to take a break first. The guy carrying AJ, noticed he was still asleep/unconscious, he slowly settled him down to a nearby tree to take a break as well.
Derek settled Clementine down, still unconscious, on a nearby stump. He examined her from head to toe and noticed there's a small gash by the side of her head. He unconsciously went for his pack only to realize it's not there. Realization dawned on him, he forgot to bring their stuff.
"Shit." He muttered quietly, luckily no one heard him. Sighing, he opened his bandoliers revealing first-aid supplies.
"Handy." The blond-haired guy commented. Derek looked at him in surprise but nodded nonetheless.
'It's getting dark out.' Derek noticed, as the sun slowly sets out at the horizon and less light is to be seen. He took out a few bandages, a bottle of peroxide, gauze, and some cotton. He doused the cotton with peroxide and carefully applied it on the wound. Clementine would flinch in pain at each contact but remained asleep. At the corner of his eye, the three rescuers looked at him with curiosity.
"Names?" Derek said simply, still tending to Clementine.
"What about you first?" A cocky, arrogant voice called out. Derek turned around and saw it was the knife-wielding guy. He looked at Derek suspiciously, sizing him up and down.
"Well hello Mitch." Derek said nonchalantly, earning him a surprised look from Mitch, seeing him surprised and unable to speak, Derek smirked to himself and went back to cleaning Clementine's wound. After he's done cleaning, he took some gauze and applied it on the wound, then grabbed the bandages and started to wrap the wound up.
Mitch shook his head from his trance and angrily glared at Derek's back, he took a step forward towards him but was stopped by the blond-haired guy, shaking his head and mouthed a 'no'. Mitch huffed in anger but reluctantly agreed.
"If we tell you, will you tell us yours?" The blond-haired guy demanded.
"Of course." Derek said nonchalantly, they were rather taken aback from the response but dismissed it right after.
"My names Marlon, the guy who helped you earlier is Louis, you already know Mitch." Marlon said, gesturing each respective person. Louis waved in hello while Mitch merely grunted in response.
Derek nodded in response, taking mental notes of who they are, what they look like as well as their weapon proficiencies.
'Not gonna deny, they're good enough to fight off those walkers earlier, but still sloppy.' Derek mentally critiqued.
After tying the bandage on Clementine's head, Derek nodded at his work. He stood up, dusted his hands on his pants and turned to them.
"The name's Derek, this one here is Clementine, the young boy is AJ." Derek introduced, gesturing to the unconscious Clementine and AJ.
"What happened back there?" Marlon asked, curiosity got the best of him.
"Not here, do you have somewhere to go to?" Derek asked.
Marlon thought for a moment, he looked between Louis and Mitch, having a mental conversation. Noticing no protests, Marlon nodded to himself.
"Yeah. It's not too far from here, we can take you there." Marlon said, gesturing with his head towards the deeper part of the forest.
"You're not gonna stab me and take my stuff, are you?" Derek asked, raising his eyebrow in concern.
"Only if you don't do the same." Marlon glared at Derek, as if daring him to try.
"I don't plan to." Derek looked at him unemotionally. Marlon only glared harder but gave up when he didn't even react. Marlon sighed and nodded to his two companions, Louis carried AJ with both hands while Derek carried Clementine, bridal style. The group walked towards their destination.
Several minutes past of silent walking and Louis's curiosity got the better of him.
"So…. Where've you guys been?" Louis asked.
"Everywhere." Derek said simply, his eyes fixated forward.
Louis rolled his eyes on that answer but didn't push for answers. The school came into view, Derek eyed the high walls, the makeshift tower, as well as the traps laid at the front.
"Cool." Derek commented.
"I know right?" Marlon said, he walked forward at the group,
"Welcome to Ericson's Boarding School for Troubled Youth." He said proudly, gesturing the place with his arms wide open.
Derek looked at the settlement, then at Marlon, he nodded in approval, earning a grin from Marlon.
"Where's the toilet?"
Some things just never get old.
A/N:
Just realized this chapter has a LOT of action scenes, will our trio have a welcoming stay in Ericson's? Or will they end up the same as before. The story will tell…
So, I'm planning to finish this story until the end of season 4 episode 4. So, spoiler alert hahaha. Also, there will be some changes that will affect the storyline so watch out for those.
Finally, don't forget to leave a favorite, follow, and review as it helps me out a lot.
Thank you, and have a great day friend.