The Walking Dead: The World We Live In
Chapter 8: Tip of the Spear
Lee sat on the edge of his bed as Katjaa sat in front of him holding his arm in her hands.
"I told Kenny that the barbed wire wasn't necessary, but of course, he didn't listen. He's lucky you didn't hit a vein," Katjaa said shaking her head as she wrapped the pristine white gauze around Lee's bloodied, raw wrist.
"It'll keep out any stray walkers, or people," Lee said with a shrug.
Katjaa sighed, her light blue eyes exhausted after working on Mark for the past few hours.
"So how's Mark?" Lee asked standing up and balling his fist up testing the pain which had greatly subsided.
Katjaa pushed the chair back under the desk and put her hands in her pockets walking outside onto the balcony with Lee, "He's stable, thank God. If you three hadn't found him-" her words drifted off as she stared at the light rain that was barely illuminated by the moon.
Lee squeezed Katjaa's shoulder supportively, "You did great, without you he would be dead," Lee said smiling proudly at the shorter woman.
Katjaa gave a tired smile in return, "Thank you Lee. I just hope we have enough supplies to last us and Mark, because he will need extra. At least for another week. I want to make sure his body regenerates all of the blood he lost and the best way to do that is to keep him well fed and watered."
Lee chuckled slightly and leaned against the damp railing, "You act like he's a plant."
Katjaa laughed for a moment, "You know what I mean."
Smiling, Lee nodded at her.
Katjaa sighed, "Well, I should head back over to Mark. Make sure he's settled to slew the night."
Katjaa began to walk off but turned around after a few seconds, "I almost forgot, your girl is still with Kenny, Glenn, and Duck."
Lee nodded and thanked the woman before he walked into his room and unbuttoned his navy blue button up shirt and tossing it into his bed. He rolled his white sleeves up neatly and walked out onto the balcony once more. Lilly still sat atop the RV, she was soaking but didn't appear to care, she still watched the tree line intently even when Larry had asked her several times to come down.
Lee stuck his hands in his pockets as he neared Kenny and Katjaa's room. He could practically see the large sound waves of Kenny's voice bouncing off of the walls, "Atlanta? You crazy kid?!"
Lee leaned against the wooden door frame and observed the four. Duck was spinning around on the desk chair stuffing his face with a pudding cup as Kenny and Glenn sat opposite of each other on the two double beds in the room. Clementine sat next to Glenn nibbling on a chocolate chip cookie until she saw Lee. She smiled as her hazel eyes lit up, "Hey Lee!"
Lee hugged Clementine, "You want a cookie? Carley gave me a few earlier, she said to save some for you."
Lee smiled at her, "No thank you, sweet pea. You can have them."
Clementine smiled, "Okay."
She sat atop the double bed next to Glenn once more. Lee sat himself beside Kenny, "So what's all the fuss about, guys?"
Kenny pointed at Glenn, "This one wants to go into Atlanta tomorrow-"
"Alone, I just want to scavenge the outskirts for supplies is all," Glenn cut Kenny off.
Kenny ran his hand through his uncapped black hair, "Alls I'm saying is that it's foolish. You can't go getting yourself killed for a box of Kleenex or somethin'."
"Yeah, I know and I'm fast. I'll take the duffel bag with me so I can get as much as I can. I'll take the car, too. Faster and easier to hide, also-"
Kenny stopped him with a raised hand, "You should just come with Bud and I tomorrow into Macon. There are still plenty of supplies there too."
"Look, all I'm saying is that I can go in get thins we need and you guys can be like the 'B Team in Macon-"
Kenny scoffed at being put on a B Team, "I'm about to B-Team my foot up your ass in a damn minute if you-"
"Up his what dad?" Duck asked, mouth coated with chocolate pudding.
"That's a swear," Clementine scolded looking up from her chocolate chip and M&M cookie.
Lee laughed as Kenny reluctantly apologized to the eight year old, "So Lee, what do you think?" Glenn asked.
"Well if you think you can make it, go 'head. I'm sure Ken and Bud can hold their own right?" Lee asked Kenny.
Kenny rolled his eyes, "That's easy for you to say, pal. You'll be staying here, nice and cozy, not in Macon with us. You know, trying not to die."
Lee smirked and looked at Clementine, "I was actually thinking about going down to the lake Lilly and Carley had marked on the map and getting us some fresh water and fish."
Kenny sighed, "You can come with me next time," Lee laughed.
Kenny scoffed, "Oh I will, that way you won't come back with nothing when you're with me," Kenny joked.
"You hear that, Clem?" Lee asked the little girl, "We're going to show Kenny tomorrow, huh? We'll show him we're better at fishing than he is!"
"Yeah, we'll catch a thousand!" she said excitedly causing the three adults to laugh.
"Please do, darlin'. Maybe then Lilly will pull that stick out of her ass-"
"Swear."
"Force of habit."
Clementine shook her head and yawned tiredly, the melodic pelting of the rain left Lee tired as well. He stood up, "Alright Ken, Glenn, Duck, you guys have a good night. Clem and I are going to retire for the night."
"Night Lee," Kenny said lying back on his bed and placing his forearm over his eyes.
Glenn got up and followed Lee and Clementine outside, "Yeah, I should get some sleep too, I've got a big day ahead. Speaking of, do you need anything while I'm gone?"
Lee thought for a second, "Maybe some razors and shaving cream?" Lee said rubbing his growing beard, "Oh and get some notebooks and colors for the kids too."
"Got it, goodnight guys," Glenn waved and headed off to his room.
Clementine yawned once more, "C'mon kiddo, let's go get some shut eye," he said ushering the girl to their room.
"Can I come? Can I come?" an eager Duck asked Lee.
Lee pursed his lips and looked to Katjaa who nodded at Lee, "Yeah, sure why not. Come on."
Duck pumped a victorious fist in the air and Clementine shook her head almost as if in embarrassment. Lee smiled and yelled up at Carley, "We're heading out!"
"I can see that!" she yelled back.
Kenny, who was loading he and Bud's truck up with supplies, looked up and yelled up at Carley, "Oh no! We must follow all rules and regulations in the prison camp of Lilly!"
Larry, who was helping Katjaa prepare first aid kits to place around the lot and in every vehicle growled at Kenny, "You shut your useless fucking mouth!"
"Oh, fuck you!" Kenny replied hotly and angrily continued his work.
Lee shook his head, "Alright guys, let's go."
Lee pushed open the gates and closed them as soon as the kids were out and into the sidewalk. Lee gestured for the kids to follow him across the street and into the tree line. Lee donned his navy blue button up shirt again when he woke up in the morning, he also changed the gauze again. The wound had long since stopped bleeding so he put a light layer of gauze over the wound for the day.
The mud on the forest floor was molded by his footsteps and the footsteps of the two children behind him.
"So we're going fishing?" Clementine asked, her soft voice barely carrying to his ears.
He turned around and nodded at her and lifted the red ice chest up that he had in his right hand.
"Well where's the rods?" Duck asked jumping and balancing on tree roots.
"Well we don't have any and we're not in the position to wait around for a full meal, so- well, I'll show you when we get there. Shouldn't be too long now," Lee said observing the map, from the second fork in the marked path he could tell they were very close.
"I should have brought my tennis shoes," Clementine sighed as mud coated her black ones.
Duck smirked, "But the mud is awesome!"
"That's because you're a boy!" Clementine accused.
"You don't have to be a boy to enjoy mud, Clementine," he countered.
Lee could hear the water filtering through rocks and emptying into a two foot drop into the river, "Hey kids, we're here!"
Lee placed the ice chest down on a towel he brought with him and took out the three long spears he had in his brown pack.
"We're going to fish with sticks?" Duck asked confused.
"These aren't just sticks, Duck. They're- come on, fill in the blank," Lee coaxed the boy who's head was tilted sideways in thought like a confused dog.
"A sharp stick?"
"No, Duck, this is a spear," Lee said gesturing to the knife sharpened point.
Duck remained confused and scratched his head, "How are you going to fish with that?"
Before Lee could speak Clementine interrupted, "I think you have to stab the fish and then put them in the ice chest, right Lee?"
Lee smiled affectionately, "Exactly! Good thinking, Clem!" he praised.
"Well, I wanna spear some fish!" Duck said his excitement sky high once again.
"In a minute. First, I want to show you how to catch the fish," Lee led the trio to the edge of the crystal clear river.
A cool rush raced up his legs as he got a few feet into the water, the kids close behind. He spotted a gray fish caught in the stream and trying to use the current to its advantage.
"You just have to lead them," he trailed off locking his eyes onto his prey and raising the spear with two hands, "And strike ahead of their path!" he said quickly as he drove the spear down into the gray fish.
Lifting it up and out of the water he received applause from the two kids as the gray fish flipped its wet tail about.
"Think you can do that, Duck?" Lee asked handing the spear to him and dropping the fish in the ice chest which had a very thin layer of ice inside.
"Sure!" he beamed taking the spear from Lee.
"How about you, Clem?" Lee asked the girl.
Clementine gazed at the spear unsure of herself but then nodded determinately at Lee. She picked it up and weighed it in her small hands, "Heavy?" Lee asked.
"Nuh uh," Clementine said walking into the water with the spear.
She jabbed at one immediately and missed, "Aw, dang it," she pouted disappointedly.
Lee stood behind her as she struck at another fish and, again, missed. Lee put a hand on her shoulder and positioned her hands properly in the spear and held her in the proper position, he then pointed at a fish who was approaching the two foot drop into the lake.
"Watch him," Lee said, and just like that, Clementine's gaze and undivided attention was on that fish.
It was about ten feet from Clementine now, "Raise it," Lee commanded.
She raised the spear above the fish's path and as soon as it was right about to pass under it Clementine sent the edge of the spear down at it. The sound of would penetrating scales bounced around his eardrums as a small area around the speared fish had been contaminated with blood that was being carried off by the current.
"I did it! I got it!" Clementine exclaimed happily.
"I knew you would, Clem!" Lee hugged Clementine and placed the third fish, seeing as Duck had already caught one, into the ice chest.
"You guys look like you can handle this, I'm going to go look around for a bit. You Hillary if you need anything okay?" Lee instructed.
Duck and Clementine were laughing in between attempting to catch fish, they also splashed each other with the water. Lee smiled and headed down the river bed.
After he had gone out of sight of Clementine and Duck he saw a large dip in the river. It was a small waterfall emptying into an even larger river. There seemed to be a decent sized camp on the other side of the river. Lee observed the three large tents looking for any sign of activity in the camp.
The torn fabric of the tents rippled in the wind as Lee looked over the camp. There were two cars there, both looking abandoned. One was a white pickup truck and parallel to it was a gray car with bullet holes plastered into the windshield. Lee squinted his eyes at the scene trying to see if anyone or anything was nearby, but there was nothing. It was desolate.
Lee made a mental note to go check it out later with a few of his group mates, but for now he had to go back and check on Clementine and Duck. Lee made the short walk back to the two who were sitting on too of the ice chest and were talking.
"Hey guys, why'd you stop?" Lee asked looking at the two sticks that were jabbed into the mud.
"There aren't any more fish coming this way, we haven't seen any in a little while. But we caught about seven more!" Duck stated proudly.
"Well that's good," Lee smiled and picked up the three spears.
"We should head on back to camp then," he picked up the ice chest, "Maybe there'll be more tomorrow?"
The trio made the fifteen minute trip back to the motor inn in silence. Aside from Duck, he didn't stop point things out the entire trip back.
"They're back!" Carley yelled down at the people on the other side of the makeshift gate.
It was Lilly who opened the gate, "How many did you guys catch?"
"Seven!" Duck piped up, practically skipping into the parking lot.
"Ten altogether," Lee said walking in with Clementine by his side.
Lilly nodded taking the ice chest from him, "I'm going to see if I can get more ice, we can cook five tonight."
"Sounds good to me," Lee said.
Clementine looked up at me, "How's Mark, Lee?"
Lee shrugged, "I'm not sure, but I'm confident he'll be just fine," Lee assured the girl.
Clementine nodded, "But I was just about to go check on him, do you want to come with me?" Lee asked.
"Sure," she said following Lee closely as he walked across the parking lot to the slightly opened door just behind the stairs.
Duck and Katjaa were already inside, "Duckie, why don't you go ask Lilly for those syringes, please?" Katjaa asked her son.
"Oh, hello Lee, Clementine," Katjaa smiled at Clementine as Duck half sprinted out of the room.
"How's he doing?" Lee asked sitting down on a brown, plastic chair
Clementine leaned against the doorframe and looked at Mark's sleeping figure.
"He's much more stable than yesterday. I redressed and stitched his wound this morning, he woke up not too long after that and was able to eat," Katjaa said gesturing to the small, empty paper plate.
Lee bit his bottom lip, "So he's been up kind of off and on?"
Katjaa nodded as Duck walked in with a plastic bag that held two syringes, "Thank you Duckie, why don't you and Clementine go play outside for a bit?"
"Sure, mom. Come on Clem, you know Mark piloted fighter jets? He was telling me this story and it was so cool!" Duck began explaining the story excitedly as the two kids walked outside.
"That boy is always excited for something," Katjaa laughed.
"Oh, I've noticed," Lee said standing up and stretching in the sunlight that pushed its way through the open door.
"Can you lift his sleeve up while I prepare his medicine?" Katjaa asked.
"Sure, what's it for?" Lee asked as he rolled up Mark's long sleeved green jacket.
As Katjaa searched for a vein she spoke, "He was running a fever this morning before he woke up and his laceration was beginning to look inflamed so I'm giving him this shot to fight any infection that might have gotten in."
"Ah, I've got it," Lee said.
Lee put his hands in his pockets and looked out at the RV which Carley was sitting upon and frequently checking her watch, "Well I've got watch duty, so I better head on out."
"Sure, Lee," Katjaa said absently, all of her attention was treating Mark.
Lee walked outside and saw Clementine and Duck playing hide and seek, he more so saw Clementine trying to look for Duck. Clementine walked to Lee dejectedly, "You looking for Duck, Clementine?" Lee asked getting eye level to her.
"Yes, but I can't find him anywhere," she said pouting slightly.
Lee grinned and looked over at the overturned cardboard box near the far wall, "Maybe you should check under there," Lee suggested putting a hand on Clementine's shoulder and pointing at the box.
Clementine with a devious smile thanked Lee and skipped over to the box. Lee stayed put watching her, "I think I'm just going to sit heeereee," Clementine exaggerated.
The card board box sputtered, "NO NO PLEASE DO NOT DO THAT!"
Clementine pulled the box off of Duck's crouched form, "I found you!" she chirped proudly.
"Aw man," he moaned getting up.
Lee laughed to himself as he climbed up the RV, "Hey Car, you about ready for a nap?" Lee asked standing behind her.
"Car? Pet name?" she asked turning her head to face him smiling at his embarrassment.
Lee scratched the back of his head, "Well, no I just- I didn't feel like saying Carley, okay?"
"Woah there big guy, I didn't say anything was wrong with it," she giggled getting up.
She placed the scopes rifle into his hands, "Glenn said he should be back in two hours and Kenny and Bud in one, okay?"
"Yes ma'am," Lee said.
Carley rolled her chocolate brown orbs, "Don't 'yes ma'am' me, makes me feel old."
"You don't look a day over twenty-five," Lee said sitting down on the plastic chair.
He could hear Carley scoff as she went down the ladder, "You're too sweet," she said sarcastically.
Lee leaned his head back as the sun washed over him and thought, 'Just six hours and I'm done.'
AN:
Hello once again ladies and gents! I see we've almost hit the double digits on the chapter count! And I just want to let you all know there is a very special event coming up in Chapter 10 (It'll be marked Chapter 9: The Red Zone, but nevertheless it's still the tenth in this story!). Luke Voice: I say we've got thirty- forty more chapters until we reach the finale, and boy oh boy have I got some things for you guys! But on a serious note, I really appreciate all of the positive feedback I've been getting on this story. Thank all of you so much, and I'll see you in the next chapter!
