Lee glared at Nate from his opposite position beside the truck, "We can talk about our plans of splitting up later." Lee stated blankly.
"Let's see what this kid wants." Nate suggested while walking towards the stranger. "Well, what do you want?" Nate called to the person standing before them, it was a scrawny light-skinned boy with black hair and a brown jacket,
The boy cleared his throat. "Do you have any supplies I could have? I'm real hungry..."
Nate squinted at the boy.
Lee spoke up, "Why are you alone? Or... do you have any people with you?"
The boy looked nervous; he twiddled his thumbs, double checking the woods to his right.
"Look if you're in trouble, just let us know, we can help." Lee told him.
Suddenly a large bearded man came out of the woods with a shotgun. "Get your gun out, boy!" the man yelled to the boy in the road, in a moment's notice everyone had their guns drawn "So did they say what kind of supplies they got on em?"
"Look we don't want any trouble you put your guns down, and we will do the same." Lee said, attempting to defuse the situation.
"Naw what's going to happen is, you're both putting your guns down and we are taking your shit! Play ball and I might let you keep the other arm!"
Lee looked at the boy. "Look this won't end well both sides are going to suffer if you let him do this." The boy looked panicked unsure what to do.
"Don't listen to em! They will kill you!" the man ordered.
Lee still looking to the boy tried once more "Everything is going to be alright." The boy looked at Lee and dropped his gun and then slumped to the ground in tears.
"YOU LITTLE PISS SHIT! GET YOUR ASS UP!" the man yelled frantically focusing all his attention on the boy.
Suddenly a shot was fired. The large man fell to his knees then, the rest of his body slumped forward; never to move again.
Lee turned to Nate his eyes wide with shock.
Nate returned the stare, "He was just about to kill us Lee. I was just keeping us safe, man."
Lee heard sobbing and slowly turned to look at the boy; not looking forward to the sight.
"Dad? Dad wake up! Dad please!" the boy was pushing on the body of his former father, tears coming down his eyes. Nate crossed his arms and looked away without remorse. Lee began to approach the boy slowly reaching out his hand. The boy turned and screamed: "YOU LIAR!"
Lee stopped and closed his eyes in shame. "I'm sorry."
The boy snapped at him "GO AWAY!"
Nate began to walk to his truck, unconcerned.
Lee stood there, hoping to aid the boy, "Is there... anything I can do?"
"You've done enough. Just go away."
Lee began to walk to the truck, grief-stricken. Suddenly the sound of rustling bushes and yelling could be heard towards the left-most tree-line. "His people!" Lee thought.
"Come on! let's go! The inbred're on the way!" Nate yelled as he started up the truck.
Lee sprinted towards the truck and hopped in before he slammed his door shut.
Nate pushed on the gas, the wheels screeched just before they began speeding away.
Lee looked in the rear view mirror seeing several men around the boy all in panic and disbelief, Lee sighed.
"THAT was intense man, did you see that guy? He was nuts!" Nate stated.
Lee could see through the mediocrity.
"Where are we headed now?" Lee asked in a tired tone of voice.
"Back to Georgia, man. I left an extra special stash of booze up in Athens."
Lee looked out his window and then said: "I'm not going to Athens." Without giving Nate a second glance.
"Why not? We were having" Nate asked, displeased.
"I have other plans."
Nate kept his eyes glued to the road, "Look Lee, you're a good guy I can see that but, good guys don't live very long in this world. I did what I had to do to do, survive."
Lee shook his head without a response.
"Come on man! You know I'm right... I thought we were on our way to becoming friends. Who's going to chase tale and drink booze with me?"
Lee turned to Nate, "Bullshit." He said, glaring at him.
Nate raised his eyebrow "What's Bullshit?"
"You were going run that boy over before I stopped you, how do you justify that? you're a cold blooded killer, Nate. You say you want us to be friends but, really you just want someone to WITNESS your acts of cruelty. Well I'll have no part of it. When we get back to Georgia, I'm leaving on foot and hope we never cross paths again."
"Fine, be a pussy; see if I care." Nate replied.
Neither man spoke for almost an hour; simply driving calmly without further incident.
Lee was looking out the window; scanning the tree-line; hoping to see Clementine walking with Omid and Christa, probably asking moral questions or telling them the funny things she enjoys to do. His heart ached as the road stretched ever onward.
"So what were your plans? Or rather what are your plans? You got some place you're heading off to?" Nate inquired casually; hoping to revive the conversation.
"I'm, uh, looking for someone." Lee told him. with tired eyes.
"Someone special?" Nate asked in a teasing manner.
Lee smiled "Yeah, someone special." There was silence yet again as the day began to fade. The road was turning dark. Lee shut his eyes, drifting off...
He was walking down a narrow road that seemed to go on forever and where you would expect sidewalks and building was just open black space that stretched into infinity,
eventually, after walking aimlessly for what felt like an eternity; there was a dead end, the road didn't stretch past this point.
He turned around slowly to walk back but, was startled by the sight before him; there were people standing before him, people he knew...
The girl at the motor inn who shot herself... Doug... Carly... Larry... Mark... Ben... all his friends... the Saint Johns... Chuck... the stranger... the senator... the man who tried to rob him earlier...
all the people he feels he is responsible for being gone,
they had injuries that were fatal, heads shot open, bodies deformed broken or missing limbs and so on.
The crowd of old friends and foes were repeatedly saying, "Lee…Lee…Lee…Lee…" all in unison... walking closer and closer to him... every single step was also in unison, step…step…step.
Lee sprang awake, panting. His heart was racing he put his hand on his forehead rubbing sweat off. Nate was still driving staring blankly at the road. "Where are we?"
Nate turned and half smirked. "Well my witness, we are in Georgia. You slept like a baby and, there's something you need to know."
"Where in Georgia?" Lee asked, trying to forget his night terror.
"Not too far from Athens. Just following the road..." Nate said in a bored tone.
"Did you see anyone on our way here?"
"Nope just dead guys. You know; about a week ago this old guy shot out my tires, took me HOURS to find new ones."
Lee reached down to grab his black backpack and zipped it before fishing around inside of it, "Want something to eat?" Lee asked, feeling less resentment for him at the current moment.
"No... alright what do'you got?"
Lee pulled out a can of Vienna sausages and shook them. "I always hated the smell of these." Lee said.
"Are you normally this high-maintenance?" Nate asked.
Lee pealed the thin top off and reached into the small can; pulling out a sausage and offering it to Nate. "Here."
"So, when are you going to be taking off? We are in Georgia now."
"I think I'll stick around for a little while; see how things go."
Nate laughed, "Whatever, man... going to have to make your mind up sooner or later. You know; you can tell me if you're having intimate feelings towards me."
Some several minutes later, Lee could see a sign ahead that he was all too familiar with. It was a large white wooden sign with words in green that read, "You are now entering Athens County" Lee felt somewhat uncomfortable as they sped towards his past.
Nate drove for another 15 minutes until he reached the city of Athens. "Well, here we are, I hope nobody took my shit." Nate said
"What, I don't count?" Lee joked.
"Hey! I haven't done nothing wrong by you so, why don't you just zip it?." Nate said as he drove through the looted, damaged, polluted city until he neared the City Hall which, surprisingly enough, like the rest of the city, seemed to have no walkers. The building were mostly light colored and two storied. Eventually, Nate turned the truck and parked the on top of the curb in front of the city-hall building.
"Nice parking job." Lee added, pulling the handle to his door and hopping out onto the pavement.
"Nice arm." Nate returned as he opened his door and stepped out.
Lee frowned, "I was just joking, asshole. Thought that was something you knew a lot about."
Nate laughed. "Well so am I, asshole." Nate walked up the white steps and pulled the wooden double doors open before making his way inside the City Hall. When he returned, he was carrying a wooden crate filled with bottles of Rum.
"So we only came here to get shit faced?" Lee inquired.
"Why not? Want a drink?" Nate asked as he walked past Lee and placed the crate down on the passenger's side seat.
"Naw. Need to stay frosty you know? At least one of us does."
Nate pulled out a rum bottle and eyed his torn, blood-stained clothes, "Yeah you're definitely going to stay frosty, if you don't change out of those rags."
Lee scoffed, "Well then point me to the nearest not already ransacked clothing store, then."
"There's store across the street. Go check it out; it'll give you something to do whiling I'm drinking." Nate told him before pulling a dark red rum bottle out of the crate and taking a greedy gulp.
Lee made his way around the truck and across the street. He looked up to see a tan colored building with a big red sign which said, 'Sun blister' He approached the tan colored building which, had large windows along the front like most clothing stores generally would, only one side had been shattered; the other left with a white poster with a '50% off' on it. He entered to see multiple clothing racks knocked over. It was mostly untouched though, pants were folded and hung on the walls, shoe boxes lining the back of the store, sun glasses near the check-out counter and a section of hats.
"Guess I'll look for a shirt first." He noticed a knocked down rack of shirts, he grabbed it by the center and slightly struggled to pick the rack up off of the floor. There were mostly T-shirts on the rack. He chose a Plain white T-shirt; fit for warmer climates. "Okay, now maybe there are some jackets around here? It is going to get cold out eventually." He put his selection in a cardboard box he found lying next to the rack. He approached a rack that appeared to have many assorted jackets. There were hooded sweatshirt's, ski jackets, sleeveless jackets, and leather jackets.
He eyed the leather jackets. "Doesn't look like a walker will be able to bite through any of these." He inferred, as he reached down and picked up a black jacket off the rack and approached the cardboard box he left by the other rack, dropping it into the box. "Shirt and jacket, check." He said as he made his way towards the racks of pants towards the left of the store. There were cargo shorts and pants, skinny jeans, regular jeans, and even skirts. He grabbed a regular pair of Navy blue jeans and placed them in the box with the other clothes.
He then walked towards the hat section near the front of the store, beside the shattered window to the right side of the store. Most of the hats were just many different assorted colors; there was one that said "Georgia" none of the hats seemed to interest him. "Do I really need a hat?" He asked himself as he turned and picked up the box of clothes before making his way to the changing room in the back of the small store.
As he came out of the changing room and looked in the mirror, he eyed the left sleeve, "I should probably cut that off, when I get the chance." He inferred with a sigh. He turned and walked towards the front exit of the store but stopped; there were several walkers stacked up against Nate's truck. He had been drinking and might have fallen asleep inside the truck. "Damn it, Nate" He whispered to himself. "I need to find something to deal with those walkers, I don't have enough ammo and the sound would only draw more of them." He looked around the store for several seconds until he knocked over an empty clothing rack and used his foot to keep it on the ground while using his arm to bend it back and forth, after a few bends, it came off.
He wasted no time; he ran out the front door-towards the truck making it halfway across the street and yelled "HEY! OVER HERE!"
All nine walkers turned their attention to him, slowly pushing themselves off the truck and limping towards the screaming one armed man who was taunting them.
He swung and hit the closest walker over the head with the bent part of the rack, making a nasty crunching noise on impact as it knocked the walking corpse to the ground. He began backing away as they pursued him. Another lunged at him. In response, he stabbed forward, causing it to run itself into the rack; getting penetrated through the eye before falling to the ground, taking the piece of rack with him. He kept on backing up while the seven remaining walkers were still on him, growling furiously.
He began looking to the street for an alternative until he noticed a wooden cane similar to one his father used to have, only, with a metal handle. It was lying in the hand of a deceased old man across the street.
"That should work." He said as he ran towards it.
When he bent down and grabbed it, the small old man sprang up and tried biting Lee's arm but, the leather jacket prevented the bite.
"Shit!" He yelled, backing away from reach a few feet then running up to the old man, gaining momentum before lifting his leg and smashing the old man's head in with a firm stomp into the pavement; it's skull busted in half, releasing dark oil-like blood. Brain matter was visible along the pavement as well.
Before Lee knew it, the rest of the walkers were mere feet away, reaching out and growling furiously.
He managed to dispatch three of the remaining seven; smacking one to his left, then one to his right and one over top of it's head but, he broke the cane in half with the last blow. He turned and began running in the opposite direction; carrying the end which had no handle; just a broken piece of sharp wood. He saw a gated ally between two buildings as he ran. He darted towards it and hopped the gate using his one arm while swinging his legs over the top. He turned and gripped the piece of wood tightly as four more of the dead approached.
They slammed themselves against the gate, reaching their arms out towards him.
Lee then stabbed each of the walkers in the eye one by one with the broken cane half, yelling as he put effort into each strike. When he stabbed the last one he left the cane half in the eye of the walker and laid down on the concrete, "Damn." Lee said as he was catching his breath.
Some time later, he made his way back to the truck to see Nate was still unconscious inside the truck with an empty bottle in his hand. Lee shook his head and opened the door to the driver's side of the truck. Nate was lying against the passenger's side. Lee buckled Nate's seat-belt for him and started up the truck. He drove for twenty minutes through the city; staring at places he used to be a regular at. He eventually stopped in-front of a fine white multistory apartment. Lee looked up at it in remembrance and sighed, it was his and his ex-wive's former home.
It was the place where his life ended.
"I remember the early mornings, waking up and getting ready for work, Making coffee, getting dressed, driving to work, alone for days." He said with sorrow. "I wanted a family but that wasn't my choice, I shouldn't have tried pressuring you into that." He turned the keys, starting up the truck again. "Clementine is out there somewhere, she's the only family I have left. I need to find her."
He drove out of Athens, and eventually past Macon, and stopped on 1365 Macedonia road in the Oconee natural forest after a good deal of time on the road. He turned looked at Nate still sleeping against the passenger's side door. "Asshole." He said as he reached over and opened the glove compartment.
Inside were a bag of coke, some razors for shaving, and a pocket knife. He grabbed the pocket knife and, with some effort, cut the lower left arm of his jacket off. Lee sighed and said: "Don't have an arm, don't need a sleeve." He pulled up the shortened sleeve and examined at the bloody bandage that kept his arm from bleeding out back in Savannah "Need to change that when I get the chance."
Nate's truck was close to empty on fuel, Lee decided to leave a few cans of food for Nate and then got out of the truck. As he was walking away and towards the woods he heard Nate begin to wake up but kept on walking.
"Lee, man... hold up!" Nate called.
Lee stopped walking and turned to look at him.
"Where you headed?" Nate asked.
Lee stared down at the ground as he took a moment to answer before raising his head and answering the quetion the best that he could, "To find my family."
"Good luck man but, you're never going to find them." Nate told him with a scoff.
"Thanks for the ride." Lee said, ignoring what Nate said, determined in his objective.
He walked into the woods, alone.