Hello everyone, 087-B here, I'm back with another issue of this story. In the last issue, stuff happened, in this issue, stuff WILL happen. Let's read on…
In this issue, Rick and Trace are gonna learn how to do a supply run in the city. Which city? Macon, Georgia, of course. I wonder if they'll meet a familiar group with a leader protecting a girl, a redneck protecting his family, and others…? Nope, they won't. There won't be any events or characters from TellTale's game in this story whatsoever. Why? Cause the comic series takes place in the same world as the video game… But this universe is different. So yeah, Glenn HAS a chance of showing up… but he won't.
Now, on with the show!
Issue 3 - Today We Go
Another morning, another struggle at waking up, and another small breakfast meant to ration food… actually, it wasn't. The breakfast today was bigger, a more family like breakfast, as Nick, Elizabeth, Maria, and Christie did not return empty handed from the run the previous day, coming home with food that would be a natural breakfast.
"You won't believe what we found on the last run, Rick." Nick said to Rick as they walked toward the dining cabin. "We got waffles, syrup, bread, eggs even, all preserved."
"Shut the hell up!" Rick said as they both chuckled. "You did NOT find that!"
"Hell yeah we found that!" Nick said. He walked ahead of Rick and went inside. Rick was about to enter but Lucas stopped him.
"What is it, Lucas?" Rick asked.
"I want you to stay away from my boy." Lucas said sternly.
"You gotta stop being overprotective over him." Rick said, his eyes narrowing. "He can handle himself."
"Oh yeah? How do you know that?" Lucas said. "Listen, he's my child, so he does what I say, understand?"
Rick didn't respond, he simply walked inside of the dining cabin. As soon as he walked in, he heard Trace's voice.
"Rick! Over here!" Trace pointed to the empty seat next to him, and Rick walked over and sat down in it.
"You seem so eager to sit with me." Rick said. "Why is that?"
"I don't know." Trace said. "Anyways, let's just eat." He slid a plate in front of Rick, filled with breakfast foods.
"God I miss these kinds of breakfasts." Rick said. "Don't you Trace?" Trace rapidly shoved forkfulls of food in his mouth and simply nodded to Rick, then continued eating. "So Nick, can me and Trace join you on a run?" Lucas dropped his fork.
"Absolutely not." He said sternly. "My boy does not need to experience such things like a supply run."
"Lucas, you need to let Trace learn these things." Maria said. "If he doesn't, he'll die."
"He won't die!" Lucas said.
"Well what if he's surrounded?" Rick asked.
"I'll save him." Lucas said.
"But if you already died?" Rick said. "If he doesn't learn how to survive, he won't survive." Lucas muttered something angrily, then returned to his breakfast.
"So anyway, can we come along?" Rick asked Nick.
"Yeah sure." Nick said.
"Awesome! We'll be the best foursome!" Elizabeth said.
"Sorry Elizabeth. Total of three only." Nick said. "It's safer that way."
"Oh, alright." Elizabeth said. "I guess I could take a break from going on runs."
"So when do we head out?" Trace asked.
"In a few hours." Nick answered. "I gotta teach you to jump roofs and about what to grab."
"No way! My son is NOT jumping roofs!" Lucas yelled. "What if he falls?! He'll have broken legs, and in a few minutes, his organs all over the place and a bite wound in his neck!"
"He won't, I'll protect him." Rick said. "I promise we'll return here together, alive and in one piece."
:::::
About three hours later, Nick, Rick, and Trace piled into a car with Nick driving and Rick and Trace in the back seats. Nick started it up and drove off toward Macon.
"Remember, aim for canned foods and preserved foods, gasoline, boxes of unused ammunition for the guns, medicine, and canteens, hopefully fresh water inside." Nick said. "You guys got that?"
"Yep." Rick said.
"I understand." Trace said. "What else should we try and get?"
"Maybe oil for oil lamps, matches, candles, general light sources… If we could get a generator, that'd be great." Nick said.
"Alright then, sounds simple." Rick said.
"Oh, believe me, these runs are more fun than dangerous." Nick said.
They pulled into Macon and Nick drove into an alleyway to hide the car. Once they got out, they looked up and down the streets. Not a single lurker in sight. Hopefully it would stay that way the entire run so they wouldn't have to waste any ammo.
"Just in case a horde shows up, we better start roof hopping to get around." Nick said. He climbed a nearby ladder that was connected to a nearly collapsed brick building. Rick and Trace started climbing as well. Once they reached the top, they walked around on the roof top.
"Nice breeze today." Nick said. "Get ready for a rush."
"Wait, what?" Trace asked. Nick dashed towards the edge of the building, then thrust his legs forward, leaping into the air and landing on the adjacent building, tumbling over. The landing was obviously not perfect. He stood up and wiped some dust off of his jeans.
"You comin' or what?" Nick called over. Rick's eyes widened as he grinned.
"Hell yeah!" He ran forward, then leaped over the edge onto the adjacent building. "Whew! I haven't felt a rush like that in a while!"
"Trace! Get over here!" Nick called out.
"Um… Nah, I think I'll just enjoy the view from here!" Trace called out, smiling sheepishly.
"You afraid of heights?" Rick asked. Trace reluctantly nodded his head. Rick held out his arms. "Don't worry, just jump. I gotcha."
"…you sure?" Trace asked.
"I'm sure." Rick said as he nodded. Trace hesitated, but he shut his eyes and ran forward. However, with his eyes shut, he didn't jump at the right time and his foot slipped off the edge, sending him plummeting down towards his doom.
"AHH!" Trace flailed as he fell but Rick grabbed his wrist, letting him dangle in the air. He pulled him up and Trace hugged Rick, trembling.
"It's alright Trace. You're okay." Rick said.
"I-I almost d-died…" Trace stuttered in his speech.
"I don't mean to spoil this moment, but how are we gonna keep quiet if he keeps crying and snotting all the way?" Nick asked. "It'll attract lurkers, what with the noise and all."
"Yeah, you're right…" Rick said. "He can hang onto me when I jump."
"You sure that'll work?" Nick asked.
"What could go wrong?" Rick asked mockingly.
Trace wrapped his arms around Rick's waist, then Rick jumped from building to building along with Nick. He constantly looked down as Rick jumped, thinking of the possibility of falling and dieing. After jumping a few more buildings, Nick got one building ahead of them. Rick jumped to the next building, but as soon as he landed, the building rumbled a little.
"What's happening?!" Trace clung to Rick as the roof collapsed, sending them falling into the building. "AHH!"
"Trace, calm down!" Rick said sternly.
"WE'RE DEAD! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Trace continued to wail as they fell. Once they landed, Rick looked at Trace's tear streaked face. "W-We lived?"
"Calm down Trace, we're fine." Rick pulled Trace into a hug. Immediately, he was reminded of Carl and how he had a fear of heights as well. "Everything's okay, we just gotta find a way outta here."
"Okay…" Trace said, sniffling a little, then wiping his eyes.
"You just sit and wait, I'll look around for anything useful, okay?" Rick directed Trace to a floor cushion nearby that sat against a wall. Trace sat down on it and sniffled again. "You just wait here."
"Alright, Rick." Trace muttered.
Rick walked into a room that appeared to be an apartment bedroom, one for a child. The TV was smashed and the bed was dirty and covered in blood. Rick looked through piles of stuff before finding something interesting. He grabbed it and left the room.
"Hey Trace." Rick said. Trace looked up.
"Yeah Rick?" He asked. Rick held up a gray rectangular box with a monochrome screen on it, along with a directional pad and two buttons, one marked A and one marked B.
"I found something for ya." Rick brought it over to him.
"A Gameboy?" Trace asked. "Does this even work?"
"You tell me." Rick said with a small smile. Trace stared at the screen, then flicked the power switch up. It took a moment but the screen flashed, showing a logo that read Nintendo on it. Trace smiled.
"Wow, thanks Rick." He said. "This is awesome, it means a lot."
"Well if you're happy, I'm happy." Rick said.
"Maybe there are games for it in that room?" Trace suggested, standing up and walking in to the room. Moments later, he exited with a small bag filled with unknown contents, a smile on his face.
"What'd ya find?" Rick asked.
"Games, extra batteries, and a charger." Trace answered. "I'll never get rid of this thing. I'll keep it as a memento."
"And for your entertainment." Rick said. Trace chuckled.
"Yeah, that too."
:::::
After searching a little more, the two came across an exit. They climbed onto what remained of the roof and leaped over to the building Nick stood on.
"You guys okay?" Nick asked.
"Yeah, we're fine." Rick said.
"And you Trace?" Nick asked. Trace didn't respond. "Um, Trace?"
"Hang on, hang on…" Trace was focused on his electronic appliance more than the conversation.
"Save the battery, Trace." Rick said. "Who knows when it'll run out."
"Right, right." Trace said, shutting the device off and placing it in his pocket.
"Where the hell did you find a Gameboy?" Nick asked.
"Is that really important?" Rick asked.
"I guess not." Nick said. "Now I saw a mini-mart down there. Wanna hit it up?"
"Why not?" Rick said.
The three climbed down from that building onto the streets. Luckily, the streets were still void of any lurkers, and the mini-mart was right across from them. They dashed over and hopped through a broken window to get inside, then hid behind an overturned shelf.
"See any lurkers?" Nick whispered. Rick raised his head to look.
"Nope." He whispered.
"Good." Nick said standing up. He pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. "Oh yeah, try and find extra flashlights and batteries, too. Those will be useful." He walked over to a shelf rack and began looking through it.
"Trace, let's go check behind the counter." Rick said, walking toward the still standing counter. Trace followed. They hopped the counter and bent down to look inside the built in shelves, the ones that would usually hold tools the employees would use to fix things in the store.
"See anything useful?" Trace asked.
"Not sure…" Rick continued to look through the shelves. "Why don't you start looking? You aren't gonna learn how to do runs if you just follow me around doing nothing."
"Fine, fine." Trace walked off and around a corner, then he saw three doors.
One of the doors led to a men's restroom, another of the doors led to a woman's restroom, and the last one… Trace didn't know where it went. He opened it and was faced with a long, dark stairwell, and the darkness only allowed him to see three steps down and part of the fourth step.
"Just my fucking luck…" Trace muttered.
He stepped onto the first step. It creaked loudly, making him nearly jump. He took another step. Another creak. Step. Creak. Step. Creak. Step. Creak. Step. Creak. This continued for a while as he went down until he reached a landing. He sighed in relief upon stepping onto it, feeling a sense of safety.
"Thank god…" Trace's eyes widened as he heard a small sliding sound from further down, then a clattering of metal before hearing a large door shut. He trembled in fear. "This place is like a damn haunted house…" He brushed off the thought. "It's just paranoia, Trace, it's just paranoia… These sounds are in your mind…"
Trace continued down another set of stairs that rounded the corner from the landing. What kind of basement was this?! By this point, he couldn't see shit. He could barely see the step in front of him, even when he bent down to make sure he was still going down.
"Just keep going down, just keep going down, just keep-" Trace was interrupted as one step crumbled beneath him, sending him falling down the stairs and landing on the ground with a thud. "Ow…" Trace tried getting up but fell again, wincing in pain. He then grabbed his ankle. "Shit, that hurts!"
Trace heard moaning and a dragging sound. Looking around, he could make out the figures of lurkers, dragging their bodies across the ground in the darkness. Eyes widening, Trace tried to stand up again but fell.
'Oh shit, I'm gonna die!' Trace thought. "RICK! HELP!"
Trace didn't hear any steps coming toward him, or Rick's voice even. He tried dragging himself away but he lurkers grabbed onto his arms and legs. Trace screamed as the lurkers swarmed around him, and just when he thought he was dead…
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Bullets pierced the heads of the lurkers, killing them all except for one. One lurker crawled up Trace's body as was about to bite into his neck when a hatchet chopped into the back of its head, killing it. Trace looked up, wiping lurker blood out of his eyes. Rick stood there, ripping the hatchet out of the back of the lurkers head.
"Rick!" Trace said as Rick helped him up.
"We should probably get out of this city." Rick said. "You okay?"
"I think my ankle is sprain." Trace said. "Other than that, I'm perfectly fine."
"Well then let's find Nick and get back to the camp." Rick said.
:::::
The car pulled into the camp at high noon as Nick, Rick and Trace stepped out of it. The survivors were surprised to see Trace limping and Rick supporting him. Lucas walked over angrily.
"See? He got hurt on this run! It's too dangerous!" He said.
"Dad, I just sprained my ankle." Trace said. "I'm okay."
"…alright, we better put some ice on it to keep it from swelling to much." Lucas said, calming down a bit. "But until it heals, you are staying in this camp. Understand?"
"Yeah dad, I get it." Trace said, limping off to the RV with Maria following.
"So what did you guys get?" Lucas asked.
"We got food, batteries for flashlights, some ammo…" Nick said, looking through his stuff. "I found some candy for the kids and coloring books for them too. Gotta keep them entertained."
"Nice." Lucas said, showing a small smile. Then he walked off to check on the kids.
"What kind of food did you get?" Sachiel asked.
"Why do you seem so interested?" Rick asked.
"I used to work at a diner before all of this." Sachiel answered. "I can make a masterpiece if you really want me to."
"Well you and Nick can unload it in the dining cabin." Rick said. Sachiel nodded and he and Nick walked off toward the dining cabin.
"Hey Rick, can you help me?" Christie called over to Rick from the RV. Rick jogged over.
"Yeah Christie?" Rick asked.
"Maria said we have to start packing up." Christie said. "We're gonna be heading out soon."
"Alright. What should I help out with?" Rick asked.
"We already have most of the things ready, so if you could get the kids packed up, that'd be great." Christie said, then she walked back inside the RV. Rick saw Carlos and Sarah over by the tents.
"How're you two love birds doing?" Rick asked jokingly as he walked over.
"We're doing fine, Mr. Rick." Sarah said.
"We did target practicing today!" Carlos said happily. "Now we're ready to shoot guns!"
"You're ready to, Carlos." Sarah said. "I can already shoot a gun."
"We gotta start packing up." Rick said. "The camp will be on the road soon, so let's get rolling."
"Do we have to leave anything behind?" Carlos asked.
"Nope, you two can grab what you want to bring and hop in the RV." Rick said. The kids smiled and packed all of their things into the RV, then sat inside.
Sachiel, Nick, and Pete came out of the dining cabin with bags of food and other objects. They piled into Nick's car with Nick in the driver's seat. He started it up and backed out into the street, allowing room for the RV to move. Rick took one last look around the camp. Everything was pretty much packed up and ready to go, Sachiel, Pete, and Nick were in Nick's car, and Trace, Maria, Lucas, Sarah, Carlos, Elizabeth, and Christie were piled inside the RV. The tents were packed in the trunk of Nick's car and all of the bags filled the RV. Rick smiled and walked inside the RV, then closed the door as the vehicle started up. Rick took a seat next to Trace as the RV backed out into the road and drove off with Nick's car following close behind it.
"So where are we going?" Rick asked.
"Mom has her eyes set on Atlanta." Trace said. "She says the CDC there is a safe zone that survivors can go to if they need help or somewhere to stay."
"Well that sounds like a good place to go." Rick said.
"Yeah, but dad doesn't want to go there." Sarah said. "He says that staying back at the camp would've been better for us."
"Considering that we were attacked by lurkers two days in a row, it's best we move out." Rick said.
"Do you think we'll be safe at the CDC Rick?" Carlos asked.
"Yeah, what do you think, Rick?" Sarah asked.
"You know, I'm thinking the same thing." Trace said. "What do you think, Rick?"
"Well, to be honest…" Rick began.
"I don't know."
-(End Of Chapter)-
Not too much stuff happened this issue but it was nice to see Trace slowly begin to develop along with Rick, strengthening their bond. Heck, we even learned Trace has a fear of heights! Zombie apocalypse or not, fears are still prominent in some people. At least he has a Gameboy for entertainment… What? I'm only using logic: Gameboy batteries last a while, so finding one that was still intact with a battery makes it playable. I bet some readers want to see characters like Carl, Dale, and Shane, and you are. You've already seen them. Trace represents an older version of Carl, one who is still adapting to this world. Ironically, Carl looked to Rick more than Shane as a father, whereas Trace looks to Rick more than Lucas as a father, so it's the opposite in a way (as in Carl looks toward his father instead of the friend, but Trace looks toward the friend instead of his father). Pete is the moral compass of the group like Dale was, and he can be happy, he can be serious, and he can be protective, but most importantly, he can be wise. And Shane… you guess! Also, I wanted Rick to play a fatherly role in this chapter towards Trace as, well, his bond with Lucas is straining severely, so he needs someone to look up to. Did I do good with that? I hope you enjoyed this chapter, reviews are highly appreciated, and as always….
Stay Tuned!
~087-B