Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.
Lee took the lead as the group got closer to the motor inn. He reached the outside gate and he yelled, "Get the gates open. We got wounded."
Bud jumped down from the RV upon seeing it was his brother. It wasn't long until the gates opened and there was a loud commotion from inside the motor inn. All of the commotion made the toddler in Vince's care cry again. She must not have been used to all of the yelling. Lee entered the motor inn and was immediately greeted by Clementine. The toddler now wore a cream colored dress, black tights, and black flats. She had a pacifier in her mouth and had her hands up in a gesture for him to hold her. Lee obliged and he bobbed the girl in his arms.
"What's going on here?" Carley exclaimed amongst the panic.
"Who the hell are these people?" Larry snapped.
"Everyone else okay?" Bud asked as he looked around the group members that went out. "What happened out there?"
"Lee… LEE?" Lilly snapped. All of the commotion stopped except for the baby's cries. It was the baby in Vince's arms. "What the hell? You can't just be bringing new people here. What were you thinking?"
"Hey… that's my call to make. He made the right choice!" Bud argued.
"Right choice? He brought more mouths to feed!" Larry snapped.
"They would have died if we left them." Lee said.
"So what?" Larry spat.
"So… they had a baby with them." Vince said as he continued to comfort the toddler in his arms.
"We are not responsible for every struggling survivor out there. We need to focus on our group… right here, right now…" Lilly snapped.
"Now, hold on. We don't even know about these people yet. Maybe they can be helpful." Carley said.
"Come on Lilly. These are people. People trying to survive just like us. We have to stick together in order to survive" Mark said.
"The only reason you're here is because you had food… enough for all of us…" Lilly said. "But now… all that food is apparently gone…" She sent a glare toward Bud.
"Okay… and what about me? You guys let me in." Wyatt said.
"Trust me… I regret that decision every day." Lilly spat.
Bud sighed and he said, "We got a week's worth left of it."
"Which means we can't be wasting it." Lilly said.
"I'm not kicking these people out. One's injured, one's a kid, and the other is a baby." Bud said.
"You won't have to. I'll kick them out for you." Larry said.
"No. They stay… and that's final." Bud said.
"Hey Lee." Vince said. He made a gesture with his head to go away from the group as they argued. Lee nodded. It was probably a good idea especially when he saw that Clementine was covering her ears. She hated arguing and yelling.
Lee walked away with Vince joining him. "Hey… I might be looking after this little one for a while." Vince said as he gestured to the toddler in his arms. "Won't mind if I could borrow some of Clementine's supplies?"
Lee smiled and he said, "I don't mind at all. They're probably the same age."
"Yeah…" Vince said. "I need to get her into something warmer." Vince said.
"Sounds good. I packed spares in everything." Lee said.
"Thanks." Vince said. He went over to Lee's room as Lee placed Clementine on the ground and had her follow him to the play area. The arguing was intensifying, but Lee didn't care. He decided to let Clementine play for a little while. The toddler sat on the ground with the pacifier still in her mouth as she colored with her crayons.
Lee looked over when he noticed that the arguing had started to die down. He saw that Bud was shaking his head and appeared to be angry and stressed. Lee felt bad for him, but it wasn't like he could do anything. He had a baby to look after.
Lee noticed that Duck and the teenage boy were coming back over. However, he also overheard another set of footsteps. He looked over to see Vince carrying the toddler from earlier. She looked more comfortable and was wearing a green long sleeve shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of white shoes. She also had a pacifier in her mouth. "Hope you didn't mind that I borrowed a pacifier for her." Vince said.
"Vince, you helped me a lot. Of course, I don't mind. So did we get a name from her?" Lee asked.
"Danielle." Vince said as he sent a smile to the toddler. "Can you play with Clem? She's the same age as you."
The toddler shook her head and cuddled up to him. "Okay…" Vince said with a chuckle in his voice. He sat down and placed Danielle in his lap.
"She looks a lot better." The teenage boy said.
"Yeah… I bet she feels better." Vince said. "She's probably not as cold or as wet as she was. That's probably why she was so fussy."
"I wouldn't know. We found her last night. Mr. Parker, my teacher, tried to take care of her." The teenager said.
"Hmm… okay… well, she definitely doesn't talk much… I think she's traumatized from being separated from her parents." Vince said. "I barely got a name from her."
The toddler in Vince's arms just watched Clementine while staying on Vince's lap. "You sure you don't want to play with her? I bet you'll have a lot of fun." Vince said. He was drawing on his own experiences when he had to watch Clementine, but the little girl shook her head again. "I think someone might be tired." Vince said.
Lee looked over to Clementine upon hearing a yawn. "I don't think she's the only one." Lee said as Clementine picked up the pacifier that fell from her mouth. "It's probably time for a n-a-p."
"You actually spell out words?" The teenager asked.
"Have to… otherwise she fights it." Lee said with a smirk. He got up and picked up Clementine.
"Me play…" Clementine whined with the pacifier in her mouth.
"No way… You're tired." Lee said. "Did you already get food today?" Clementine nodded in response as she did her best to fight off sleep. Another yawn escaped her lips and Lee caught the pacifier. He placed it in her mouth and sat down with her. He cradled her in his arms as Vince did the same with the girl that he had. However, it seemed like she was shifting in her sleep. She might have been uncomfortable. Vince adjusted his hold on the toddler which was the key. She wasn't fidgeting around as much. If anything, she was getting more comfortable.
It wasn't long until both toddlers were asleep. Lee got himself up first and went to the room. Vince followed close behind.
"Are we just going to put them in the same crib?" Vince whispered.
"We'll have to." Lee whispered. "You put Danielle in first. She's probably harder to put to sleep."
Vince nodded in response. The two men entered the room. Vince laid Danielle down first and then Lee placed Clementine down in the crib. Lee tucked them in before he and Vince went to the door. "They're adorable." Vince said as they walked away from the door.
"Yeah… Maybe you could be a guardian to Danielle until we can figure out what happened to her." Lee said.
Vince smirked and he said, "I wouldn't mind doing that."
"Shit Katjaa!" Bud exclaimed. Lee and Vince looked over to see Katjaa in the grip of a walker while Bud tried to separate them. Lee went back to the room and grabbed his axe. He then ran back over to where his brother was.
Lee couldn't believe his eyes. It was the teacher that was the walker; he somehow turned. Bud slammed the walker against the sides of the truck to disorient it, but the creature was still putting up a good fight.
"Bud, push it back!" Lee exclaimed as he arrived at the truck. Bud struggled for a couple seconds until he was able to kick the creature off of him. It growled as it slammed into the glass window. Lee brought the axe back and slammed it into the skull of the walker. Lee released his grip on the axe and the body of the walker fell onto the truck bed. "Dammit…" Lee muttered. He looked up to Bud and he asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah… thanks…" Bud said. He climbed out of the truck while the rest of the group ran over.
"Why'd you bring him here in the first place asshole?" Larry inquired.
"Dad, calm down." Lilly said.
"You're going to get us all killed." Larry snapped before he stomped away. Lilly looked to Lee and Bud before she chased after him.
"Why didn't you tell us he was bitten?" Kenny inquired. The two brothers looked over to see Kenny glaring at the teenager.
"What?" The teenager exclaimed.
"He was bitten, and you didn't say a damn word!" Kenny snapped.
"He wasn't bitten. I swear!" The teenager said.
"Well your non-bitten friend here came back to life and tried to kill my wife!" Kenny snapped.
"What?" The teenager exclaimed
"Hold on… You guys don't know?" Vince asked.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Kenny inquired.
"Wait I thought you guys knew…" Justin said. "It doesn't matter if you're bitten or not, you come back regardless."
"Wait… how do you know that?" Mark asked.
"Because… we've seen it happened… We were on a bus when all of this started. Some lunatic strangled someone… and well the strangle victim came back to life." Vince said.
Kenny glared at Vince and he said, "When were you going to tell us about this shit?"
"We thought you knew." Justin said. "That was our bad…. We won't assume anymore."
"Is there anything else we need to know?" Kenny snapped.
"No… there's nothing else." Justin said as he looked away from Kenny's glare.
"Back off!" Carley was heard. The group turned their heads toward the woman. She had her gun aimed at two men who were outside of the motor inn.
"Whoa lady. Relax… me and my brother here were just looking for gasoline." One of the men said.
"I said back off!" Carley exclaimed.
"Carley, easy." Bud said as he made her lower the weapon. "We don't want any trouble." Bud said to the two brothers.
"Of course… neither do we." The man said. "I'm Andrew St John. This here is my brother, Dan. It looks like y'all got the motor inn locked down… which is fine, but if you could spare us some gas… we'd be much obliged."
"Why do you need gas for?" Lilly asked.
"Our place is protected by an electric fence… Generators provide the electricity." The other man, Dan, said.
"Our generators run on gas…" Andrew said. "Listen, we come from a dairy farm. If you'd all be willing to lower your guns, we can talk about some kind of trade."
"How are you doing on food? We got plenty at the dairy." Dan said.
Everyone in the group jumped at that. They were running out of food, so the trade seemed like a good idea.
"Hmm… okay… Mark and I are going to head on over and check this place out. We got to see if it's legit." Bud said.
"I'll come with you." Wyatt said. "I still have to repay you guys for taking me in."
"Me too. I got your back if things seem fishy." Carley said.
"So what are y'all thinking?" Andrew asked.
"You got a deal. We'll bring some gas to your dairy and in exchange you give us some food to take back… We'll see how it goes from there." Bud said.
"Sounds fair. A couple of gallons ought to power our generators for a while." Andrew said.
"Lilly, you're in charge while we're gone… and don't kick that boy out…" Bud said.
"I won't make any promises." Lilly muttered.
Bud sighed and he said, "Hey kid… You're coming with us."
"Oh… uh okay." The teenage boy said. "By the way, my name's Ben."
"Alright. Nice to meet you Ben." Bud said.
"What about the baby?" Ben asked.
"She's staying. I'm going to look after her until we can figure out where her parents are." Vince said.
"You sure you're up for it?" Justin asked. "Looking after someone that young isn't easy. Just ask Lee."
"I've babysat for Clem a couple of times. I can handle it." Vince said.
"He's right." Lee said.
"Okay… I'm going to go gather a couple of gallons for the trip." Wyatt said.
"Sounds good." Bud said. "We'll be waiting by the gate when you're ready."
Katjaa walked up to Vince and she asked, "How is that little girl? I'll need to check her over to make sure she's okay."
"She's clearly traumatized. It must be from being separated from her folks." Vince said. "Other than that, she seems relatively okay. There were no scars or scratches when I changed her."
Katjaa nodded in response. "I'll take a look at her when she wakes up. For now, I'm going to go clean up." Katjaa said. She turned and went to the room that she shared with her family.
"Hey… Can I talk to you guys for a minute?" Justin said.
"Sure… what's up?" Lee asked.
"In private…" Justin said.
Without another word, the three men walked away from the group. They went near the play area where the kids were usually at. Justin sighed and he said, "You know I've been doing supply runs with Wy up to recent, right?"
"Yeah… we know that." Lee said.
"Well… we found this map… Pointed towards somewhere in Missouri..." Justin said.
"What are you getting at?" Vince asked.
"There has to be a settlement up there… Why else would someone circle it and make a path toward it?" Justin said.
"Justin, we're in no condition to go check that place out. Larry's got a heart problem and now we have two babies with us. I just don't think it's going to happen." Vince said.
"Yeah… I know... That's why I think I should leave the group and go see it for myself." Justin said.
"Alone? And after everything we've been through? I spared your ass! I had a choice between you and Danny, and I chose to sacrifice him!" Vince exclaimed and he pushed Justin.
Justin staggered back but regained his balance. "I'm not going to be gone permanently. I'm going to check that place out, and if it's good, I'll come back down and get you guys."
"Justin… we may not even be here. We're out of food, our supplies are slowly dwindling, and who knows what will happen between now and then. And what if this place is a dud, then what?" Lee said.
"And that's if you make it up there." Vince said. "You've gotten stronger, but people out there are ruthless. They'll pick you off easily."
"I'll take my chances. Bottom line, we need to do this. Don't you want to give those girls a life that doesn't include killing walkers?" Justin asked. "I'm trying to think of the group…"
"No… you just want to find some place, so you don't have to do so much work." Vince said. "If you leave here, don't come back."
Justin glared at Vince and he said, "Fine… I get it… But if I do find this place, I am coming back here for the kids…" Justin turned and stomped away.
"Well… that's not good…" Lee said.
"No, it's not…" Vince said.
"Alright, we'll be back in a bit." Bud said to the group as a whole. He turned and headed out of the motor inn with Wyatt, Carley, Mark, and Ben following along.
"Then… there's those two brothers…" Vince said. "I don't know why, but I just can't shake the feeling that there's something not right about them. It might just be my paranoia talking or something."
"I don't know." Lee said. "I have to admit that there was something off about them." Lee said.
Vince shook his head and he said, "I don't think either of us should go if the deal turns out alright. We should stay here and keep the motor inn safe while they're gone. We'll stay here and look after Clementine and Danielle."
"I agree. This just doesn't look right. They seemed almost too friendly." Lee said.
"Exactly…" Vince said. He walked away to work on another project while Lee went over to the couch to read his book. It was an autobiography of Ulysses S Grant. He would read it in between Clementine's naps.
…To be continued.
A/N: Well… I decided to add baby Danielle to the fic. Now don't panic. Vince is actually right. Danielle is traumatized from being separated from her mother. In this version, she was never raped.
