Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.
The group had found their way to a nearby truck. The guards forced them into the back of the vehicle, and they proceeded on a long drive. Thankfully, Clementine was allowed to remain in her wheelchair. The device and its occupant was tied down with the use of some rope and the use of the wheelchair's manual break. They had spent several hours on the road in silence to mourn for the deaths of their friends. The vehicle jerked from hitting a couple of bumps until Kenny spoke up, "Alright, we got to do something. Come on. Anyone got anything sharp? Anything? We need to get these bindings off." Kenny then looked to Lee as he found that no one else was willing to assist him. "Hey! Lee, help me find something that will get these off. Anything sharp that can cut these…"
"And what good is that going to do?" Rebecca asked.
"What the hell is wrong with you people?" Kenny inquired. "We got to get out of here."
"Kenny, think man… We're not in a position to do anything and there's no way out of this thing." Lee said.
"Are you f****** serious, Lee? We need to get out of here!" Kenny exclaimed. "We're in a f****** precarious position here. We got to do something about that!"
"Settle down, Kenny." Carlos said. "They took everything from us. We have to keep a level head."
"He's right." Rebecca said. "You don't know Bill like we do."
"Bill?" Kenny inquired. "This whole time it has been Carver, Carver, Carver. And now it's Bill?" The truck hit another bump from outside and the back shook. "Oh, I see what it is. Y'all are just getting a ride home, aren't ya? That's what's going on here."
"You don't understand. He's different… he's worse." Rebecca said.
"The f*** are you talking about?" Kenny snarled.
"He-He's not going to kill us, right?" Clementine asked.
"I don't think so. Otherwise, he would have done it back in the lodge." Carley said.
"He's a f****** psychopath!" Kenny exclaimed.
"You have no idea what you are dealing with!" Carlos exclaimed.
"Oh he gave me a pretty damn good idea back at the lodge, and I don't intend to sit around here and let that happen to the rest of us!" Kenny said. The vehicle hits another bump as Kenny continued, "I'm trying to help!"
"And I'm sure Walter really appreciated that help!" Carlos criticized Kenny.
"Like you helped Alvin." Rebecca said in a cold tone.
Kenny looked down with a frown at the mention of the two people who were slain as a result of his attack on Carver. "That's not fair. You're blaming him for the actions of a madman!" Sarita said.
"Let's face it. That asshole was off his rocker to begin with. I doubt he was going to spare either of them." Lee said.
Carlos sighed and said, "You're right. He outright killed Nick for no particular reason." He looked up to Kenny and said, "I'm sorry, but you have calm down. Rash actions will only put us at risk and we can't afford that with Sarah and Clementine in here."
"So what do you suggest?" Lee asked.
"We go in there and look for an opening. There has to be something we can use." Carlos said.
"Who knows how long that will take?" Kenny said. "That asshole is a ticking time bomb and with the girls… it's just too risky."
"It's more risky to go your route." Carlos said.
"Stop fighting!" Clementine exclaimed. "Please…"
"Clem's right. We need to figure out a plan." Carley said.
"We'll have a better look at their defenses once we're there." Lee said.
"And we still have Luke out there." Carlos said.
"If he was going to do something, he would have done it by now." Kenny said.
"Who knows what he's dealing with." Rebecca said. "Anything can happen out there."
"I'll tell you what happened." Kenny said. "He abandoned us; after all, this is what he wanted for Clementine."
"What are you talking about?" Carlos asked.
"Luke wanted me to… kill Clem so he could keep the rest of you safe, but I refused." Lee said. Clementine began hyperventilate again. She didn't like all of the recent attention that her disability was giving her.
"I… I can't believe Luke would ever do something like that." Carlos said.
"We might be on our own on this one." Lee said.
"Hmm… Luke's made some stupid mistakes in the past, but this beats them all." Carlos said with a bitter tone in his voice. Suddenly there were series of bumps which rocked the vehicle.
"We're close." Carlos said.
"Okay, are you sure that this plan of yours is going to work? We're just going to find a weakness inside?" Kenny asked.
"I guess we'll find out." Carlos said. A loud beeping sound filled the air which indicated that the truck was backing up. Sarah started to whimper in fear which got Carlos's attention. "Sh… it's alright, sweetie. We're going to be alright."
There were several seconds afterwards where the beeping sound continued until it forced everyone to sway from colliding with something from outside. A few moments later everyone could hear Troy's bantering. "Damn brakes ain't working for shit!" Troy spat from the other side of the door. The door was lifted up, and in front of the door stood Troy, Bonnie, and an African-American woman with each holding an assault rifle.
"Alright, up and at em!" The African-American woman said. The group slowly got up from their seats and were led from the truck. However, Lee looked to Clementine with concerned eyes.
"Don't worry. I got your little girl." Bonnie said.
Lee was more than hesitant to trust Bonnie, but he knew that he had no other options. "Thank you." Lee said. He looked over to Clementine and said, "It's alright, honey. You're going to be fine." Lee said. He walked out of the truck. He walked on feeling nervous.
"You okay?" Carley asked.
"No, I don't want to be away from her. It doesn't feel right." Lee said.
Carley turned back and smiled. "That Bonnie girl is with her. They're right behind us. So how about you relax?" Carley said. The two could hear the door to the truck slam shut which was followed by Troy passing them. He caught up with the African-American woman and the two led the group while Bonnie took the rear and continued to push Clementine. The two in front pushed the doors open to the store. It was intimidating. The store was covered in guards. They were all standing around with assault rifles at the ready. It was a display of power.
Meanwhile, Carver could be heard over the PA. "We've got some familiar faces back with us tonight." Carver explained. "Now, I understand some of you are confused as to why we'd bring some of these people back when they left us as they did."
"I think I got an idea." The African-American woman commented from the front of the group.
"It might not come all at once." Carver continued over the PA. "But time will heal these wounds, so be patient with them until it does… And take solace in knowing that they're here to help us make this home a better place. All these feelings you have of anger…betrayal….hate… they're all valid. No one needs to forget what they did… but we have to find it in our hearts to forgive them."
The group continued forward as Lee looked over to the shelves of food. "They got quite a bit of food." Lee said. "Man, I wish we had that kind of food when it was just Christa, Clem and me."
"Come on, we need you for something." Troy said to Carlos.
"Can't it wait until morning?" Carlos asked. "We're all exhausted."
"Just come the f*** on." Troy said with a bitter tone in his voice which left no room for argument.
Carlos sighed and he followed Troy over to talk to a young woman as Sarah stopped. "I need him. I need my dad. He-He takes care of me." Sarah said. She, Lee, Carley, Bonnie, and Clementine stopped as Troy walked back over and gestured them to move on.
"Come honey. Your father's going to be fine." Lee said to the girl. Having no choice, the young girl kept moving with the adults following her.
"He'll come back, sweetie." Carley said to keep the girl's spirits high.
"When?" Sarah asked.
"I don't know but he will come back." Carley said. "If you need anything, you just come to me or Lee."
Sarah smiled to the older woman and said, "Okay. Thanks Carley."
Lee looked back to Clementine and asked, "You okay Clem?" The girl nodded in response but it was easy to see that she felt nervous having a complete stranger push her.
"Just shut up and keep moving." Troy said.
"Hey, it's alright for him to worry about his little girl." Bonnie snapped at the heartless guard.
"Why bother having her around? Bill should have offed back at the lodge… or at least let me do it." Troy said as an evil smirk formed on his lips. Lee sent a glare toward the guard before he turned back around.
"Troy, do us all a favor and shut up for once." Bonnie said as she continued push Clementine.
The group made its way to a garage door where the African-American woman was. "Make sure y'all are off the fence." The African-American woman warned. "Bill can see if you're messin with it." She opened the garage door and turned to Troy and Bonnie and said, "Take off their bindings and close up shop. I gotta go make a report."
The group entered the courtyard which now acted as a prison. The courtyard consisted of a fire pit and lawn chairs that surrounded the fire pit. Next to the fire pit were a couple of dining tables and furthest from the fire pit was plywood which acted as bedding.
Troy and Bonnie took off the group's bindings with each person rubbing their wrists once the bindings were gone. "Y'all better get some rest, cause there ain't going to much for ya tomorrow. You're going to be working hard." Troy said.
"That's for you." Bonnie said as she gestured to the cot that was adjacent to the garage door.
"Yeah, it would be." Rebecca said with a glare. "F****** Bill. Leaves me out in the cold, but at least I will be comfortable"
"Do you… happen to have one for Clem? She's had a bad back since Nick shot her." Lee said as he approached Bonnie.
"I'm sorry, but my hands are tied on this one. I'll ask Bill if she can have one for tomorrow night." Bonnie said.
"Hey guys." An unknown voice chimed.
Rebecca looked to the man and exclaimed, "Reggie!" She gasped upon seeing him and went up to the man. "I'm so sorry!" Rebecca exclaimed as she hugged him. "I'm so sorry." They separated from the hug and Rebecca saw that he had lost his left arm. "What happened to you?"
"This could have been worse. Trust me." Reggie said. "I'm lucky to be alive."
"Now, who's that?" Lee asked Sarah.
"That's Reggie." Sarah said. "He was supposed to come with us when we tried to leave."
"What happened to his arm?" Clementine asked.
"I don't know." Sarah said as she looked back to Reggie with a questionable stare. "He still had both arms when we left."
The three looked back to Reggie as he continued to explain his story. "…A walker must have snuck up on me while I was hammering in something. It's a good thing they took the arm off quickly. Saved my life."
"That's awful." Rebecca said. "I'm so sorry."
"Enough with the apologies already. It was my decision to help you guys." Reggie said.
"Hey, Reggie." Troy said as he approached the man.
"Oh… hey Troy." Reggie said somewhat reluctant to talk to him.
"Don't go f***** up now!" Troy spat. "Bill's real close to letting you out of here. You make sure everything stays nice and quiet out here tonight, and I'll be sure to let Bill know just how helpful you were."
"Yeah, you can count on me. Thanks Troy." Reggie replied.
"Don't mention it." Troy said and he and Bonnie left the courtyard. They closed the garage door as they left.
Reggie who looked to the rest of the group with a questioning stare. "Oh right. Let me introduce you. We were with them when we got caught." Rebecca explained.
Reggie smiled and he went to greet the newcomers. "Hi, I'm Reggie."
"That's Sarita…" Rebecca introduced the Indian-American woman.
"Hello." Sarita greeted the man.
"That's Kenny." Rebecca continued.
"Hi there." Kenny said with a smile.
Reggie turned to Lee who nodded to the one-armed man. "Hey, name's Lee."
"Hi." Reggie greeted.
"I'm Carley." Carley said as she stepped up to greet Reggie.
"Hi, there. It's nice to meet you both." Reggie said. His eyes wandered toward Clementine and his smile fell. "Hi, who are you."
"I'm Clementine." The eleven year old said with a friendly demeanor.
"It's nice to meet you." Reggie said. "I don't mean any offense, but what happened to you?"
"It… It was an accident. Nick shot me." Clementine said.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I bet it isn't easy." Reggie said as he aimed an apologetic stare towards the girl. "I hope it isn't permanent."
"We… uh don't exactly know yet." Lee said. Reggie turned to the older man as he continued, "That all happened a few weeks ago. Carlos did say that the spine wasn't damaged beyond repair, but we don't have the equipment to help fix it."
"Hmm… well that's too bad… You must be her father." Reggie said.
"Yeah, kind of… I adopted her for her tenth birthday." Lee explained.
"Well, good for you." Reggie said. He looked around the group and a frown formed on his face. "Hey, where is everyone? Is it just you and Sarah?" Reggie asked as he turned back to Rebecca.
"Carlos is inside." Carley said. "He must be doing something in the medical facility."
"What about everyone else?" Reggie asked.
"Helen got bit a few weeks after we left." Rebecca said as she frowned. "There was nothing we could do for her. Pete got ripped apart by several other walkers about a week ago. I don't know where Luke is and f****** Bill killed my husband and Nick."
"And if he wouldn't have killed Nick, he would have killed my girl." Lee said.
Rebecca sent a glare towards Lee and said, "Your girl should have been the one to die back there, not Nick. Nick didn't do anything wrong."
"And neither did my girl. Do you think she wanted that to happen?" Lee said. "Nick made his choice and stood up for her."
"He would still be alive if it wasn't for her." Rebecca snapped.
"You don't know that. You know how crazy this Carver guy is." Carley said.
"Can you guys save it for the morning?" An angry exclamation was heard from one of the plywood beds. The group looked over to see a lean man who wore a gray and black hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans, and black shoes with a slight glare and he continued, "Some of us have to get up early in the morning."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Clementine said. In response, the man placed the pillow on top of his head to ignore some of the noise.
"Who's that, Reggie?" Rebecca asked. She had calmed down from her confrontation with Lee. "I don't recognize the voice."
"That's Mike." Reggie said. "He's kind of a dick when he's tired but… he saved my life so I put up with that shit. Bill put him to work outside the wall with me."
"I'm so sorry." Rebecca said.
"Stop with all of the sorry." Reggie said. "It was my choice. Besides, he said once you were all caught, he'd let me rejoin the group, so I'm glad that you are here." Clementine looked over and noticed that there was a young woman who was glaring at the group. She wore a brown leather jacket, a light blue pair of jeans, and black combat boots.
Reggie scoffed as he continued, "I'm just kidding."
"I know." Rebecca replied.
"He did actually say that, but it's probably bullshit." Reggie said.
"Who's she?" Clementine asked.
"Hm? Who?" Reggie asked.
"That girl over there." Clementine replied as she gestured to the young woman.
Reggie looked over to the woman as she got up from the table and headed for one of the plywood beds. "Oh yeah, her. Okay, so she's f****** weird." Reggie explained. "They found her sneaking around outside of the camp covered in guts and like the grossest shit."
"Ew…" Sarah shuddered at the thought of Reggie's details.
Clementine and Lee looked to each other with a knowing stare. They remembered doing the same as her to prevent detection from the walkers back in Savannah. Somehow that young woman also figured out how to disguise herself.
"I know how it must look, but… it really is not that bad here." Reggie explained.
"Reggie…" Rebecca said.
"No, I'm serious!" Reggie exclaimed. "Where else are you going to find food like we have? We've got the canned stuff and now with the greenhouses coming along we've got fresh food. The building's getting more and more secure all the time… mostly through forced labor, but that's only temporary. They've even gotten the solar panels working. When was the last time you've had electricity, huh?"
"We actually came from a place powered by a wind turbine." Sarah said.
"It's not a competition." Reggie said. "I'm just saying that it's not as bad as you think. We're building something great here. A real community and Bill is making it happen."
"That does not make up for what he's done, Reggie." Rebecca said.
"Look, I made mistakes and Bill had every right to kill me, but he didn't and instead he's giving me a shot at redemption." Reggie explained. "I wasn't looking at all of my options earlier, but now with my arm, I'm starting to see what this place has to offer."
"That doesn't matter." Lee said. "My little girl wasn't able to walk out there amongst all those walkers. I was nervous when we were out there, but now, I'm horrified. Your leader is just too dangerous to be around."
"He is not." Reggie said. "Bill's just under a lot of stress and it didn't help that you guys left like you did."
"Speak for yourself." Carley said as she sent a glare towards Reggie. "The way I see it, we got dragged into the middle of all this shit for no reason."
Reggie sighed and said, "Listen, I'm really close to getting let back into the group and once that happens, I can do a lot more to help you guys get comfortable."
"Comfortable?" Kenny inquired. "What do you think this is?"
"I just don't want you guys to mess things up for me. I've worked really hard to get to this point." Reggie explained. "Will you please just try not to cause any trouble?"
"We won't cause you any trouble." Clementine said.
"They're expecting me to keep things in line out here." Reggie said.
"Well, if Carver's such a 'great guy' I'm sure you have nothing to worry about." Kenny said. He received a glare from Sarita which went unnoticed by him.
"We can at least talk about it in the morning." Reggie said. "Just have a quiet night and chat again tomorrow."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing." Rebecca said. Suddenly, Rebecca jolted from a sharp pain that came from her stomach. She gasped and grabbed her stomach. "I need to sit down." Rebecca said.
Sarita approached Rebecca and said, "Yeah, come on. Sarah? Can you help me find something to drink for her?"
"Yeah, okay." Sarah replied as she went towards the fire pit.
"Yeah, there's some water over by the benches." Reggie explained as the three walked to the fire pit. "That didn't go as planned… should've actually made a plan." Reggie remarked as he walked towards the group, leaving Kenny, Carley, Lee, and Clementine to talk amongst themselves.
Kenny crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Man, f*** that guy. I don't think we can trust him. Clearly, he has drank too much of the Kool-Aid."
"Yeah… he seems too dangerous." Lee said. "He'll do anything to get back in there which might include telling Carver about us making a plan to leave."
"We can't talk about any plans on leaving around him." Carley said. Lee looked around the area that they were in and huffed.
"What's the matter?" Kenny asked.
"There's no way we're getting out from in here. This place seems pretty boarded up." Lee said.
"Well go ahead and look around. There might be a weak point. That Troy asshole is gone for now." Kenny said as he looked to the garage door. "This is our chance. Don't worry about Reggie. I'll go help run interference on him." Kenny then went to the fire pit and started to talk to Reggie.
"I got Clem. We'll spend some time catching up." Carley said as she took the handles to the girl's wheelchair.
Lee nodded and said, "Thanks Carley." Carley smiled to Lee before she pushed Clementine over by the fire. Lee looked back to the wall and approached it. He noticed it was too high up for any of them to scale it. He turned to be face to face with the young woman that his adopted daughter saw earlier. He jumped back from being surprised and looked to the woman with a questioning stare. "Can I help you?" Lee asked.
The young woman looked over to Clementine and back to him and glared. "Why is she still alive? She'll always be liability. You should have done her favor by offing her." The young woman said.
Lee crossed his arms over his chest and sent a glare towards the woman. "First of all, that isn't your decision to make. Secondly, she wasn't always wheelchair bound. And finally, I've already had to deal with someone just like you. I don't want another conversation like this." Lee said.
"Sounds like that person knew what they were talking about." The young woman said. "Look, I'm going to make this plain and simple so an idiot like you could understand. Your girl has to die otherwise people will die in her place. Whatever she could have been is gone now. She's not worth protecting."
"I'm more than capable enough to take care of her." Lee said.
The woman's glare intensified and she said, "I doubt it. Here's your options. You can either kill her off or I'm going to kill her myself."
"If you hurt her in any way, I will kill you." Lee said.
The young woman spat in Lee's face which made him break off his glare. He wiped off the saliva while grumbling under his breath. "F*** you asshole." The woman said as she held up her middle finger before retreating to the plywood beds.
Lee shook his head in disgust of the disrespectful woman before he finished his investigation. It was no use. The defenses were too strong for him to find a way out and there was nothing that could be deemed useful in his investigation. Lee walked back over to Kenny as the older man turned to him after talking to Reggie. "Hey, you find anything?" Kenny asked.
"Nothing. Defenses are too strong in here." Lee said.
"Damn…" Kenny muttered. "I was hoping you find something that these old eyes of mine missed. They seem to be getting more useless by the day."
Lee chuckled and said, "I hear you. I ain't exactly getting younger myself."
Suddenly the garage door opened up. Everyone looked over to see Carlos walking into the courtyard with Troy escorting him.
"Dad!" Sarah exclaimed and she ran up to hug her father.
"Alright, the rest of you go the f*** to sleep." Troy barked. "I'm shootin the first of y'all that I see wonderin around before sun-up." In his typical sour mode, Troy left the yard and slammed the garage door shut.
Lee turned to Clementine and Carley and said, "I guess we don't have a choice." He got down and picked up the younger girl. Clementine rested her head on his chest as he carried her over to the plywood beds.
"Did you or Ken find anything?" Carley asked.
"No, I hope we can find an opening in the hardware store." Lee said.
"Yeah… or Luke can come and help us." Carley said. "He is one of the last people out there."
Lee looked down with a doubtful stare before he laid Clementine down next to one of the plywood beds. He laid down next to her and placed an arm around her upper body. He didn't care that his arm would be asleep by tomorrow morning. He just didn't want her to be in too much pain.
"Daddy, what are we going to do now?" Clementine asked. She looked to him with curious and scared eyes.
"I'm not sure if there's much we can do sweet pea. We're kind of stuck at the moment." Lee said.
"Will we ever get to Wellington?" Clementine asked.
Lee smiled and said, "Yeah… one day soon we'll get up there. Now get some sleep." The girl nodded and closed her eyes as Lee did the same. He hoped that if they do find Wellington that he could end the walkers and bring some sense of normalcy back to the world. In the back of his mind, Lee also hoped that there was a way that Clementine could walk again. He could tell that her disability was taking a toll on her. She didn't mind it back at the lodge, but out in this world, Clementine was struggling. Lee's troubled mind soon drifted off and allowed him to sleep.
Lee grunted upon feeling a kick to his arm. He groaned as he awoke to see Troy's glare. It was too early in the morning to deal with the heartless guard. "What do you want?" Lee asked with a glare of his own.
"Get up… Bill's going to have a word with you assholes." Troy said.
Lee turned to Clementine and shook her awake. "Clem, Clem, time to wake up." Lee said.
The girl groaned from being woken up and she asked, "What's going on?" She rubbed her eyes as Lee placed her on the ground.
"Time to get up." Lee said as he got up. He leaned down to pick her up, but he was stopped when he felt the barrel of Troy's gun.
"Hold it right there." Troy said. "You're going to get up, now." Lee grumbled to himself but obliged. He didn't want to leave Clementine on the ground for very long. Troy's glare was gone and now it was replaced with an evil smirk. "I need some entertainment especially since I'll be babysitting you assholes all day." He turned to Clementine and said, "Now, you, get to that door over there." He gestured to the garage door that would lead into Howe's.
Both Clementine and Lee were shocked by the command. "Now hold up, she can't walk." Lee said.
"Well no shit, Sherlock. That's why it's going to be entertaining." Troy said. He turned back to Clementine and said, "Now get going. I want to see you crawl."
"This is not happening." Lee said as he went pick up Clementine, but he was stopped when Troy held him at gunpoint.
"Oh yeah? Then how about I blow your brains out!" Troy snapped. "Come on make my day!" Lee glared at the guard and was about to respond.
"Okay, I'll go to the door." Clementine said.
"Clem-" Lee said, but she interrupted him.
"I don't want you getting hurt daddy. Just… I'll be fine." Clementine said. Troy turned with an amused smirk aimed at the girl. He started to laugh as he watched her turn her body so that she was on her belly and that her body was aimed for the door.
"Oh man, this is rich." Troy said as Lee watched on with the horrible feeling of being helpless. He wanted to go over and pick up the girl but he knew that she would be devastated if he tried and Troy would fulfill his promise of killing him. Clementine continued to drag herself across the pavement as Troy continued to laugh.
A small smile crept on Lee's face as he watched her drag herself to wheelchair. He mentally praised her on her quick wit, but his smile didn't last long. Troy noticed the where the girl was going and walked over to kick the wheelchair down. "I said nothing about you getting in that hunk of shit." Troy spat as he aimed his assault rifle at the girl. "Now, go the rest of the way."
"That's enough!" Lee exclaimed. His glare was aimed at the heartless guard. "She's not going all the way to that garage door."
Troy sent a glare of his own and shouted, "Oh yes she will, or I'm going to stick this gun up your ass and start shootin! How does that sound?"
"Enough Troy." A new voice said. Both men turned to see an Asian man who had Clementine in his arms. He sent a glare toward Troy.
"F*** you, Vince." Troy snapped. "You're always ruinin my fun."
"You're one sick motherf******… only a heartless asshole like you would force a disabled child to crawl across the pavement and consider it fun." The guard said. Troy glared at the guard and walked away toward the garage door. As he did so, he pushed the guard that confronted him about his psychotic behavior
"Thank you." Clementine said as she looked up to the guard with an appreciative stare. He smiled back down to the girl as Lee walked over to pull the wheelchair back up.
"I owe you one." Lee said.
"No, you don't." Vince said as he placed the girl back into her wheelchair. "Hell, giving me an excuse to give Troy shit made my week."
"I'm Lee and this is Clementine." Lee said.
"Nice to meet you both. I'm Vince." The guard said. Vince looked back to the gate and said, "We better get over there. Bill's going to be coming out any minute now." Lee nodded and he started to push Clementine's wheelchair toward the garage door with Vince following behind.
…To be continued.
A/N: Well, you guys saw this coming. You all know that I hate Troy and Jane.
