Lee slowly opened his eyes to see what, if anything, made the brush shake. Half asleep, he rubbed one of his eyes and looked at the very well lit fire that appeared to have been given more wood by, probably Gerry. He saw nobody, only Gerry, so he shrugged and laid back down; assuming it was just the wind. Suddenly, he heard a scream coming from the fallen tree; where the Linda and Lilly were sleeping. Instantly, he sprang up and sprinted to the tree just a few meters away, once he got to the tree he saw the lower half of a walker inside the truck.
"Hold on!" He yelled as he grabbed the walker by the ankle and pulled him out of the tree, one handed.
The walker reached towards him and tried biting at his leg but, was met with a hard kick to the face, the one-armed man then proceeded to repeatedly stomp at the walkers head, yelling while doing so, eventually there was no face left to be seen from the walker, a large bloody gash in it's place.
"Man… are you girls alright?" He asked, turning to look them beside the fire.
Gerry was checking his daughter up and down for any bite marks. "They're fine." Gerry said with a cold tone.
"Why did you relight the fire? I kept it low for a reason." Lee questioned.
Gerry didn't reply.
Linda spoke up: "We need to get the hell out of these forests, there's no food, we can't light fires, apparently, and we have no shelter from walkers."
Lee was about to reply but, Gerry spoke up, "Lee I know what you're going to say, and your wrong; your little girl isn't here, if she is still alive she probably found one of those big camps to join up with, nobody would stay in any of these forests for long. We've been here for awhile, we know."
Lee considered this. "Where do you guys want to go?"
Linda looked to Gerry then looked back to Lee. "My sister went to join up with a camp here in Georgia. It's expanding well, I'm sure."
"This place was worth it, right?" Lee inquired, doubtfully.
"It's secure and more and more people are popping up there." Linda told him.
"Well, then why didn't you guys go there with her before?" Lee asked, skeptical about the whole idea.
"We went looking for my dad in Athens." Linda told him.
Lee thought about the idea. If this place is safe, plus there's a chance he'd find Clem, it might be worth seeing. "Alright fine let's get moving north to Athens, maybe we can find a car or something to get us moving faster." Lee proposed.
Lily looked very nervous, twiddling her fingers and shaking, "Mommy can we just go home?"
Linda sighed and looked at her daughter with tired eyes then got down to her level, putting her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "No, baby it isn't safe there anymore."
Lee felt guilty, as though he endangered this family. "I'm ready, whenever you guys are."
Gerry was glaring at him but, softened his expression. "Sure, we're ready to go."
With that, Lee began walking in the direction of the road he left Nate on, the family followed just behind. After an hour of walking, with Lee still leading the small group, Lily walked up beside Lee and stared up at him curiously, saying nothing.
Lee turned to greet her with a small smile. "Hey there."
"Do you miss your arm?" Lily asked.
Lee took a moment to reply. "All the time." he said in a soft-spoken manner.
"Is it harder to do things with only one arm?" Lily asked quietly.
Lee looked ahead and said calmly: "Life is a little harder with only one arm, I can't tie my shoes very well, I can't carry two things, and I probably won't be learning any chords on the guitar either." He joked.
Lily giggled at that.
Lee smiled and continued: "Life is even harder when you're not with your family, I cut it off so I could help the only person who never gave up on me when times were tough."
Lily smiled and said: "That's really nice of you."
Lee looked at his arm and smiled; finding something positive in a tragic loss. "Yeah."
After another few hours they reached the road, finally out of the woods they were in direct sunlight, all exhausted.
"Okay well I don't see any cars anywhere, just trash." Gerry said, looking into the direction of Athens city.
"Well how about a truck?" Nate called from the opposite direction.
"Aw, shit..." Lee whispered.
"Hello Sir! Could you give us a ride into Athens?" Linda asked.
Lee interjected: "No, no, we'll be fine, we just have to keep walking that way." Lee began making his way down the road away from Nate.
Nate laughed and said: "Well, Lee you made some friends! Hop in everyone!"
Nobody moved, Gerry and Linda were unsure of the past Lee had with this man they had just met.
"Lee, just get in the damn truck." Nate said, annoyed, "You seriously going to let these people die of dehydration?"
Gerry placed his hand on Lee's shoulder, "Lee it's safer to drive than to walk; we have to accept this ride."
Lee turned back to face Nate, "Fine." He consented.
As they approached the truck Lee whispered: "You guys sit in the back..."
Gerry nodded and as they reached the truck, Lily, Linda, and Gerry hopped in the back. Lee threw his backpack in the truck-bed with the others and got in the passenger's seat yet again.
"So I guess I was right, huh? Lee" Nate stated, feeling victorious.
"We left for their own safety." Lee said, carelessly slamming the truck door closed.
"Yeah whatever, man." Nate said before picking his nose with the same kind of carelessness.
Lee turned to check on the family then looked back ahead.
"What is it with you people? Always so fucking rude; just accept a ride when it comes your way. You're no better than me." Nate ranted.
Lee kept staring but, he frowned, "You people?"
"Yeah, I think you know what I mean..." Nate said without rethinking it.
Lee never kept his eyes away from him, "Fuck you, Nate."
"Fuck you, Lee there was no way that guy was going to let up; so feel bad all you want but, it's not my fault." Nate reasoned.
Lee kept looking ahead.
"I don't blame you for that; I had a similar experience with a woman in the woods, but, were you really going to run that kid over? Is that a thing you do normally?"
"Lee what is this shit? You going to give me a talk about God or some shit?" Nate said, agitated.
Lee turned to him and said: "Let's just leave the past in the past, then."
Nate half grinned, "About fucking time." Nate looked in his rear-view mirror to get a visual of the small family, "So what's their story?"
"I heard gunshots and went running towards them, found three guys attacking them."
Nate scoffed "Yeah I see, so you were the hero of the day right?"
Lee looked out at the trees beside him and continued: "Anyway, they told me that they were looking for someone in Athens before, and that there is a large camp somewhere here in Georgia that's apparently pretty secure."
Nate looked at his steering wheel, the fabric was wearing off, he poked at it with his thumb. "That's not very descriptive of them, is it?"
Lee shrugged and looked ahead seeing a few walkers here and there. Nate rolled his window down and stuck his head out, "HEY! WHATS YOUR CAMP CALLED!?" He yelled through the wind accumulated from the speed they were traveling.
Linda answered: "HOWE'S!"
Nate pressed a button, raising his window back up, "See that? That's something you need to know."
Lee rolled his eyes, "If you say so."
"So why are you guys going to Athens?" Nate asked.
"We are going to find a suitable car to travel in." Lee said.
Nate looked at Lee with a brow raised, "You know what you're sitting in right?"
Lee felt unsure about his next question, "So you want to go to Howe's with us?"
Nate began picking at his index finger with his thumb, "Maybe, if there are some very pretty ladies there for us."
Lee ignored that, and asked: "So you managed to find some gas in these two days?"
Nate looked at the gas needle, "Half full, I found something to do while you went running through a random forest looking for random people."
Lee opened the glove compartment; he began shuffling through it contents, "Got any maps in here?"
Nate kept his eye on the road and said: "I did have a nice pocket knife in there... I wonder who took that…"
Lee pulled out Nate's pocket knife. "Here." He dropped it in the glove compartment and closed it.
Nate then in a sarcastic tone said: "Huh? Lee how could you!? I trusted you!"
Lee shook his head in disbelief of this man's lack of maturity. "Well, you know I did leave a good amount of food here for you."
Nate replied: "Whatever, tasted like rat shit anyway."
Lee didn't reply.
"So uh, why are we heading to Athens? Don't ya'll need a 'ride'?"
"We need a map so we know where the camp is as I already pointed out." Lee said.
Nate slammed on his brakes.
Gerry nearly fell out but, he held onto the side skirt of the truck, "Whoa! What's going on up there?!" Gerry complained.
Nate pressed a button on his door, bringing down his window, he poked his head out. "Nothing, just sit tight for a minute, but, uh could the lady come here for a sec?"
Lee frowned. "What the fuck, Nate?"
"Nothing, I've got a map, jackass." Nate replied while watching Linda approach the driver's side of the truck.
"Everything okay, guys?" Linda asked, placing her hands on her hips.
"Mmm, well, sweet cheeks Lee has informed me that we are going to Athens for a map."
"Yes, that's uh, right…" Linda replied uncomfortably.
Nate pulled out a map from under his seat and handed it to her.
"So where would Howe's be at?"
Linda unfolded the map and examined it. "Right here." She pointed.
"On Perry highway near fort valley… Lee we're going the wrong way, okay hop back in, sugar tits oh! and thanks for the help."
Linda rolled her eyes and made her way to the back. "Asshole." She said under her breath.
Lee shook his head. Nate started up the truck and began turning the truck around.
"So, Nate what was your job before the plague?"
Nate ignored his irrelevant question. "So you think your family might have made their way over to this camp? Worth a look, until it's not."
Lee looked towards the horizon, there was a large dark cloud ahead. "I don't know." Lee said half paying attention. "Nate would you do me a favor?" Lee asked.
Nate kept looking ahead.
"Whaaaat?" Nate asked, dreading their conversation.
"Could you pull over, slowly this time and let me swap seats with them?"
Nate turned to face him. "Why?"
Lee looked at back at Lily. "It's going to rain in a little while, don't want all of them in the back."
Nate slowly pushed the brakes. "Go on, Mr. Witness." Nate mocked.
Lee opened his door and stepped out. "So, one of you and Lily should sit in the front, it's going to rain pretty soon."
Linda automatically spoke up. "Gerry you go up front, I don't want those gashes on your face to get much rain."
Gerry nodded and carried Lily out of the back, Lee hopped in the back.
When Gerry slammed the door shut, they sped off, almost on que. After a few minutes, Linda spoke up over the sound of wind rushing by their ears "Not so much fun in the back huh?"
"It's a little chilly with the speed we're going." Lee replied.
"Yeah, well get used to it, winter starts next month."
"Well, we should find Lily a nice jacket."
Linda smiled at that. "You two seem to be getting along pretty well."
Lee looked beside him to check on them, Lily was resting on her dad while he rambled on to Nate about something, Nate looked very bored.
"She's always very straight forward, all the time." Lee inferred.
"You can blame that on Gerry."
Lee laughed.
Linda continued. "I bet she reminds you of that Clementine you two keep talking about."
Lee looked saddened by that comment. "I don't know..."
"Oh uh, I'm sorry Lee I didn't mean to upset you."
Lee looked at her and said: "You remind me of a friend of mine."
"Oh? Who?" she asked.
"A woman named, Christa, she was always letting her boyfriend go first and babying him."
Linda laughed. "You think I baby Gerry?"
Lee smirked. "Not, 'babying' exactly."
She continued laughing, but the humor ended when they began feeling drops of water hit them.
"Well, here comes the rain." Linda said.
A moment later the rain began falling heavily, Nate sped up a bit, occasionally roughly turning to dodge a car or a walker.
Lee turned to Linda to see all her hair was soaked and sticking to her face.
"Like my hair?" Linda joked.
"Sure don't." Lee replied.
Linda kicked him and she continued laughing; despite the weather conditions. Half an hour later Nate turned down an intersection, Howe's warehouse was well in sight.
"Well that's got to be it." Lee inferred.
Nate drove into the empty parking lot and stopped to examine the place.
"WELL? WHERE ARE THE SURVIVORS?!" Nate yelled to Lee through the rain.
Suddenly a woman called from the roof of the warehouse, turning everyone's attention to the heavens. "GO AROUND BACK!"
Nate drove to the back of Howe's to see one open loading port, where moving vans would normally back goods into the store. At the entrance were two people, a younger man maybe mid-twenties with brown hair and a machete strapped to his back, the other was an older man maybe late forties with a large brown fur-lined jacket on. Nate, Gerry and Lily got out of the truck and began walking towards the two people, Lee and Linda followed not far behind.
"Hello, everyone I'm Luke, and this is Bill." The younger man to the left greeted, somewhat awkwardly.
The older man, presumably Bill, spoke up, "Welcome, please don't cause any trouble and contribute as best you can, Luke will show you the place. I need to take care of some things; welcome again."
Luke rolled his eyes as Bill walked towards the stair case beside him, "So, what are your names?"
Lee stepped forward "Name's Lee, this is, Gerry, and his wife Linda, and their daughter, Lily." He introduced, motioning his hand towards each of the family members beside him.
Nate frowned, "And I'm Nate, thanks for asking."
Luke smiled. "Well it's very good to meet y'all; let me show you the place." Luke turned around and walked towards the empty isles with orange tents put up inside for privacy. There were also, large yellow generators and thick red chords visible throughout the floors of the building; most likely powering the lights and any other outlets.
"This is where most people sleep." Luke said while leading the group.
"Wow, there are a lot of people here." Lily said.
"Yup Bill has our scouting parties search through Georgia for other survivors and some, like you people, just show up. And when we don't find others, we usually find places to scavenge." Luke explained.
A Pakistani man approached Luke holding a radio; he was balding and had a short trimmed beard. "Hey! Luke! I got your radio working. Try not to drop it again, will you?" the man asked.
"Thanks, Reggie." Luke said as he took back his radio, staring down at it, "Hey, have you seen Carlos anywhere?"
"Oh, I think he's checking up on Stewart in the armory." Reggie replied.
"Ah, okay, thanks. See you later, Reggie." Luke told him, patting his left shoulder before walking past him.
Reggie turned his attention to Lee and the others as they followed Luke. "Good to see some new faces. We can get better acquainted later I hope." Reggie told them with a friendly smile.
"Looking forward to it." Gerry said, sounding completely uninterested as he passed him.
"Okay that's, Reggie, he likes to make small talk but, he's a fun guy." Luke said.
"Do you know where I might find my sister?" Linda asked.
Luke turned slightly while leading them. "You want to check in with Rebecca, she is usually up in Bill's office making announcements and what not."
The intercom screeched on. "Attention, Bill requires extra hands for tomorrow's scavenging tomorrow. Thank you." A woman's voice boomed through the warehouse.
Luke laughed. "That's her, she keeps the clip board of all the new people, so, you'll be seeing her anyway."
Lee looked among-st the tents, hoping to see Clementine. The group approached a red door.
"Here is the armory, now if I were you, I'd just not poke around unless you have permission from Bill; he can be difficult to reason with."
Nate spoke up. "Why? Is that where he keeps all the booze?"
Luke rubbed the back of his head. "Uh, anyway lets meet Carlos, he is our doctor." He pushed open the Armory door to see Carlos, a Hispanic man with a black mustache and slicked back hair, stitching an over weighted bearded Caucasian man's shoulder.
"Gaaah fuuuck!" Stewart groaned painfully, gripping his exposed arm just below his right shoulder tightly.
"Calm down, and stop squirming." Carlos demanded.
"Hey Carlos! Meet-"
"Not now, Luke." Carlos told him.
Luke shrugged and shut the armory door, "Okay um, he's the doctor. Rebecca is up in carver's office; the stairs to his office are over there in the corner opposite to us, I'll let you guys get to know the place for a bit on your own." Luke told them.
"Thanks for showing us around." Lee said.
"No problem." Luke replied as he walked off.
"We should go check in with Rebecca, see if your sister is still here." Lee suggested.
"I agree, don't want to skip procedure and get kicked out." Gerry said.
"Mommy... I'm hungry." Lily said as she tugged on her mother's blue shirt.
"We'll go get something to eat after we finish up with this Rebecca lady."
With that, they all began making their way to and up the stairs to the office Luke pointed out. At the top of the stairs was, a large black man with glasses and a dark grey jacket.
"Okay, Bec, I'll go take care of it." He said to whoever was in the room as he made his way down the stairs quickly saying: "Hey guys." As he kept rushing.
Lee entered the office with the others following just behind. Once all were inside the office, they saw a woman shuffling papers next to what appeared to be controls for the microphone she was previously using for the intercom no less.
"I guess you're the new people." Rebecca said while picking up a clipboard and approaching the group.
"Yeah we-" Lee said before being cut off.
"Write your names here please." She ordered, showing them the clipboard as she pointed to it.
Lee took the clipboard and placed it on the desk and wrote his full name then, handed it to Gerry he wrote his families names and handed it to Nate beside him, who did the same then handed it back to Rebecca saying: "Here, beautiful."
She examined it and handed it back. "Mr. Everett please mention your disability please."
Lee frowned and wrote 'Amputee' as she held the board for him.
Rebecca took the clipboard and placed it on the desk. "Mr. and Mrs. Davis do either of you or your daughter have any medical issues?"
They looked at each other then back to her and said: "No ma'am."
"And you, sir?" She asked, turning to Nate.
"Nope." He said, smiling and still intently scanning anywhere but her eyes.
"Alright, everybody, eventually Bill will give you jobs to do. Nothing too hard really, he just wants to make sure everyone contributes evenly."
Lee nodded. "I could help with that scavenging job he's got going on tomorrow."
Rebecca ignored that. "Any other questions?"
Linda spoke up: "Is there a girl named, Taylor here?"
Rebecca picked up the clipboard and flipped through it and found the name 'Taylor Davis' Rebecca's expression softened. "Well, baby, we had a Taylor Davis a month ago but it says she is 'deceased'"
Lee looked to Linda with concern. Her eyes were wide with shock.
"Linda are you okay?" Lee asked. When he did, she began sobbing.
"Come here, Lin." Gerry said trying to comfort her, pulling her face into his shoulder.
Lily walked up to her mother and began rubbing her back.
Lee turned to Rebecca who also felt saddened for the weeping woman before her. "Do you have anyone named, Clementine here?" Lee asked.
"Let me check." Rebecca said as she flipped through the clipboard again. "No, sorry." Rebecca said while placing the clipboard down on the desk.
Lee turned to see that his group was already leaving the office, "Thanks Rebecca, do you know where I can find Bill?"
Rebecca nodded. "He's on the roof, ask around if you can't find the roof access."
"Thanks again." He said while leaving the room.
Minutes later he found his way up to the roof, there was a gardening room or a greenhouse that appeared to have very few plants as far as he could tell from the open windows on each side of the small room. He could also see that Bill was talking with a large dark skinned woman inside. Lee pulled open the door to the green house.
"I need you to find some, 'under qualified' people to work in here, Tavia." Bill told her.
"Can I help you?" Tavia asked Lee.
"Oh, uh, I was looking for Bill." Lee told her, scratching his head.
"Well you found him, what do you need?" Bill asked as he stepped up towards him.
"I'd like to help you with your scavenging tomorrow." Lee stated.
"Uh, no offense but I don't think you're qualified for that sort of job." Bill told him.
"Look, I 'single handedly' saved the lives of all those people who arrived with me, I can handle walkers." Lee said staring Bill straight in the eyes, slightly offended.
"Oh is that right? Well can you carry supplies to our trucks?" Bill questioned, placing his fists on his sides.
"I can't carry as much as other people can but, is that really why you need more hands for this job? Besides if I die out there that's just one less mouth to feed, right?"
Tavia interjected. "Why do you want to go with us so badly anyway?"
Lee turned to her and said: "I came here looking for my family, maybe if I go on runs with you guys I might have a better chance of finding them."
Tavia was about to decline when Bill stepped closer to Lee. "Alright, you got the job. What was your name?"
"It's Lee."
The two shook hands.
"Now, Lee, don't make me regret bringing you along." Bill said as he walked past Lee with Tavia following.
He stood there at the door of the greenhouse as he watched them leave the rooftop. He stayed behind and eyed the horizon; he saw an endless amount of trees. After staring at the green trees, under the grey raining sky, he saw a dozen walkers exit the forest and begin making their way in the direction of the warehouse. He shrugged assuming it was no big deal. After a few moments, he could see many walkers begin to enter the parking lot. Before long, it looked like a hundred were in the parking lot.
"I've gotta to tell someone, fast." He inferred, his eyes wide with fear as he ran towards the rooftops stairway exit.
However, due to the rain making the roof slippery, he slipped and fell back slamming against the ground; he aching in pain. He got to his feet and swung open the door and down the stairs into the room full of tents. He began running towards Bill's office. When he made his way up the stairs leading there, he noticed the room was empty. He ran up to the microphone, pushed down on the speaker button and yelled:
"ATTENTION, THERE IS A LARGE HERD OF WALKERS COMING TOWARDS THE CAMP!" When he said that, he saw everyone on the lower level panic and scramble to grab weapons from the armory, the wall, or anywhere they could find anything; complete hysteria.
Bill stood in the middle of the ordeal and began leading them to the rooftops, pointing and yelling.
He left the office running and began following the crowd of people up the roof of the hardware store.
When he arrived he saw Tavia, Luke, Carlos and Bill positioning the other survivors, while trying to yell through the loud rain. "HEY! YOU WITH THE BALL-CAP! TAKE POSITIONS WITH LUKE AT THE END HERE!" Tavia yelled.
He saw what appeared to be an organized system of defense.
Carlos approached him and handed him a standard nine millimeter pistol. "Go downstairs and kill anything that gets in." He ordered, Lee nodded and made his way back down. After a few seconds in the warehouse he could hear the sound gunfire outside.
A young girl with red glasses sprinted up to Lee. "Mister! The big door over there is going to break!" She told him, pointing to a loading bay door nearby.
"Go and find a place to hide." He told her.
She nodded before running off again.
Lee saw that the loading bay door was being raised by several walkers beating and placing their arms under it. He placed his new gun into his jacket, dropped his backpack and ran to the armory. When he entered, he grabbed the first sharp thing he could find, a machete. He ran back to the loading door and began swinging downward, cutting off the hands of the walkers trying to get inside. After all the arms were chopped off, the door slammed back down.
One of the bay doors to the left was lifted up. A foot of space for walkers to get in with; their heads could be seen poking into the warehouse. Lee ran towards it, pulled out his gun and fired several shots, hitting each walker in the head, each going limp, blocking the entrance. There were several shot-dead walkers piled up in the opening of the bay door, others were piling on top.
Suddenly, a scream of a young girl was heard, "Help!"
He ran in the direction of the voice. When he was close enough, he saw Lily and some other children; along with a couple of adults running away together.
He ran past them to see Gerry and Nate fighting several walkers.
"Hey Lee! Move that crate up against that door!" Gerry yelled while whacking a walker in the head with a plank of wood.
"Alright! I got it!" Lee ran to the crate and began pushing it in the direction of what appeared to be an emergency exit. He stopped pushing due to a walker advancing towards him. He quickly pulled out his gun and shot it in the head, then continued to push.
When he had pushed the crate a mere few feet away, there were three walkers in his way and many others outside, scattered and limping this way. However, Nate dispatched them with his 9mm, getting them out of Lee's way.
"Thanks man!" Lee yelled as he finished pushing the crate into the door, closing it just before another walker could enter.
"Phew..." He said before turning to see walkers still attacking Nate and Gerry.
Nate had his pocket knife out, he stabbed a walker straight into it's right temple; he tried to pry it out but, the handle snapped off. He stared at the red knife handle before tossing it at another walker nearby.
Half a dozen walkers spread out around the three men. Two lunged at Nate but, he sprinted off away from the scene.
Lee pulled out his gun and killed one of the two that were following Nate; both fell to the ground with no problem. When he turned his sights to Gerry, his eyes widened with shock.