Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter One: Bitten

Previously on The Walking Dead: After their camp is overrun by walkers, Clementine and the survivors are forced to flee the hilltop, but not before Donald is bitten and Tom's wife and daughter are killed. As they leave the camp behind in Tom's RV, the group are now forced to deal with Donald.

Molly scanned the dark and gloomy hallway for any sign of walkers. It was empty – lifeless. Cobwebs decorated the hallway from one side to the other every few feet. Molly ducked and dodged her way through the cobwebs to avoid destroying them and depriving their owners of a home. At first, she walked straight past the room, but something drew her back. It was something that Molly noticed about the room's door as she passed it – the door was ajar. The door, which was now the focus of Molly's attention, was also missing the layer of dust that caked the rest of the room doors on that floor, and in the entire building as far as Molly could tell. She was about to call out to Ryan, but she decided that may not be the best idea when she considered the fact that the room in front of her may not be empty.

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to kick it down," Paul declared as he regained his breath. He was huffing and puffing with his hand on his knees having just tried to somehow push himself through the locked room door. Getting into the room was starting to become an obsession between the three of them. Todd giggled femininely at the thought of Paul trying to break down the door with his strength, which he had just proven to be very limited. Ryan, meanwhile, wondered why Paul was acting so macho when Molly, the only girl in their group, wasn't even around.

Ryan thought back to when the three of them had first met Molly. They were on their way to the coastline when they were surrounded by a herd of walkers. That was when Molly jumped in to help them. She took out three or four walkers, or "geeks" as she calls them, with her trusty ice tool "Hilda" in the process of saving their asses. Molly explained that the rooftops were a much safer way of getting across Savannah. She also told them that there were no boats left; another group had sailed away with the last one. From then on, the group had been scavenging for supplies across the city, and they had eventually made their way to here; The Marsh House.

THUMP! The loud noise of Paul's boot hitting the door hard brought Ryan back to reality. He laughed when he saw the door still stood strong and Paul was holding his leg with his teeth clenched in pain. Ryan and Todd both laughed hysterically together as Paul fell onto his backside, sucking in as he tried to hide the pain; although neither of them were sure whether it was his leg or the embarrassment that hurt him more. But when something grabbed his shoulder tight, Ryan screamed at the top of his voice shamelessly. He turned, with his hands pressed up against himself to make a puny and cowardly gesture, to see Molly standing there, with Hilda over her shoulder. Then, the whole group was laughing, including Ryan. Ryan tried to remember the last time all four of them had laughed together, but he couldn't remember, and then he laughed some more.

When the group finally remember where they were, they followed Molly back to this mysterious room she had found. Molly, eager to find out what was behind it, was the first to make it back to the door, still ajar. She looked back to see Ryan, Todd and Paul brush past the cobwebs blocking their way. They destroyed the cobwebs with their hands as they passed through them without giving what they were doing a second thought. Molly sighed, although a part of her couldn't believe she was giving so much thought to the idea of a few spiders being made homeless, especially when she had been fighting off the undead for the past few months. When the four of them had finally assembled in front of the door, as prepared as they could be to face whatever could be behind it, Molly pushed the door open with Hilda's butt end to reveal what was on the other side.

They slid into the room one by one. Molly kept Hilda raised until they were all inside, somehow she knew they would need it, and she was right. Todd and Paul's attention were immediately on the draws, cabinets and boxes in the room, praying that they would find one unopened and packed to the brim with goods to loot. Molly didn't like to call what they were doing looting; whoever had lived here certainly didn't need these things anymore, but she knew what it was like to have something precious taken from you all too well. Molly shut the door behind her as the rest of the group kept themselves busy. Paul picked up an abandoned bowling bag next. He inspected it carefully, but due to the low-light conditions he couldn't make out the bag's contents. But all became clear when Paul tipped the bag upside down, and a bloody rotted head fell from the bag and hit the floor with a thud.

The head's features could hardly be made out. Molly, Todd and Paul had gathered around the head, and as they stared into the walker's dead grey eyes, it stared straight back at them. Drool seeped from the walker's mouth through rotted yellow teeth, suggesting the thing hadn't been dead for long. Molly looked as though she was about to throw up when the head snarled at the group, causing each and every one of them to jump out of their own skin. It was still alive. The walkers tongue wiggled slightly as foam left its mouth. Now, Molly looked truly ready to vomit. Instead she turned away from the walker. She saw Ryan backing out of the next room, which she assumed was the bedroom. At first, she was happy to see him, and she even smiled slightly. But then she saw what Ryan was backing away from.

The walker swiped and clawed furiously at the air in front of Ryan, its claws missing his pointy nose by inches. Everything felt as though it was in slow-motion as it played out. Hilda was raised into the air as Molly charged towards the walker. She cried out something as she did so, but she couldn't remember what it was exactly – some kind of ridiculous battle cry. Molly threw the ice tool down through the air, and Hilda's point sank into the walker's head. Ryan was backed against the wall by this point, and he watched as all the remaining life left the walker. It's body tried to fall, but Molly was keeping the walker from dropping as Hilda's blade was still sunk into its head. She eventually pulled it free, spurting blood across her orange jacket, and the body fell to the floor limp and lifeless. Ryan was now sat on the floor with his back against the wall, still trying to work out what had just happened. Molly offered Ryan her hand. He took it, and she pulled him up until he was back on his feet. He dusted himself off and smiled at her, not sure whether to thank Molly or kiss her. She smiled back, and eventually let him have his hand back.

"Umm… Guys?" Paul said awkwardly, interrupting the moment between Molly and Ryan. "I found something."

In his hands, Paul was holding a walkie-talkie. He was fiddling with it, trying to get it to work. When Molly decided he had no idea what he was doing, she snatched the radio from him. She ended up doing the same as Paul had done, messing with its buttons and hoping for the best. Eventually, she opened up the back of the radio. She recognised the brand of batteries it used straight away, and pulled them out. She replaced them with some fresh ones out of a box of batteries she kept stashed in her backpack, knowing they would come in handy. As soon as the second battery was fit into its place, the walkie-talkie came to life. Molly held the red button and crossed her fingers.

"Hello?" she said, unsure of what kind of a reply she was expecting.

"…Hello…?" Another voice returned. It was a girl, she sounded as young as eight or nine years old. "Who is-" the girl's words were cut off by the loud and clear sound of a man's screams. She heard a thud from the other side as the walkie-talkie was obviously dropped and hit the floor. Molly could still hear the man's screams and the cries of several other people, all barking commands at each other. She heard another woman's high pitched scream, and eventually decided to let go of the button.

The room was silent once again. Molly lowered the walkie-talkie and looked around her. When they first heard that little girls voice, the group had looked overjoyed, all of their faces beaming optimistic and reassuring smiles. But now, Molly looked around her to see Ryan, Todd and Paul all looking uncertain and anxious. Paul was biting his lip, Todd was rubbing his forehead, and Ryan's head was bowed.

"Let's get out of here," Molly finally said in a desperate attempt to break the room's silence. She had hoped this girl and her group, whoever they were, may have been nearby and able to offer them some help, but it sounded like they needed help even more so than they did.

At long last, the RV came to a halt. The tires spat dirt behind them until they fell still. For a moment, all was quite. But then, the RV door slammed open. Lilly, with a rifle in her hands, came charging out of the door. Coach was slowly backing out of the RV, holding Donald's legs in his hands. Johnny was opposite him, his hands under Donald's arms. Between them, they carried Donald out of the RV and slowly lowered him to the ground outside, but not before Alice laid a blanket down for her husband to lie on. Clementine was watching from the window. She saw Alice kneel beside her husband. The tears didn't stop for a moment. She wiped her eyes to make way for the next set of tears, and then stroked her husband's cheek, trying to tell him that everything was going to be okay. In truth, she had no idea how things were going to be.

Christa was the last one to leave the RV. Omid still laid on the sofa, barely awake and still suffering from his leg wound that had opened up again. Christa had done her best to bandage the wound, but it was refusing to heal any quicker. Christa sat beside Clementine now, trying to put what was happening into words for the little girl.

"You need to stay with Omid," Christa told Clem, trying to keep her focus away from Donald. "He's hurt bad, Clem. Don't let him fall asleep." She said with a look of deadly seriousness.

"I won't," Clementine replied. She looked behind Christa to Omid, who was weakly raising an enthusiastic thumbs-up gesture at Clementine. It looked as though it had taken all of his strength to do so.

"And stay away from the windows," Christa ordered. Although she was unsure why, Clementine nodded.

When Christa left, Clementine was sat on the sofa bed with Omid's head on her lap. Christa smiled, and took a deep breath before she went to face the nightmare outside.

The whole group, minus Clementine and Omid, stood around Donald. He was breathing heavily, unable to keep his eyes open as the rain fell onto his face. Alice never let go of her husband's hand. Lilly checked the bullet count in her rifle every couple of minutes, and this was making Christa feel uneasy. Except for Lilly and Alice, none of the group had known Donald very well, but not one of them had been ready for this. Everything had changed the moment Donald revealed his bite to the group. Whatever happened to Donald now, only one thing laid certain with everybody there at that moment: nothing was going to be the same again.

Johnny was still catching his breath from lifting Donald's weight. When he was finally able to stand again properly, without having to rest against the RV for support, he took a wide look around him. He had parked the RV by the side of a dirt road. The road was slap-bang in the middle of two green fields. The first field Johnny had driven the RV through to get here, if you followed it through, you would eventually find the camp's ruins and a herd of walkers, which is why Johnny was driving in the complete opposite direction. The next field Johnny would have driven straight through, it sloped downwards and Johnny could see that on the other side of it was the highway, but a fence blocked their way. Johnny was looking for a path around it when it was found that Donald had been bitten. He hadn't stopped immediately however - he had no idea what to do, and he still didn't. Instead, he took Alex's hand and looked to Lilly for guidance.

All eyes were on her know, and she knew it. Everyone knew what had to happen next, but were too afraid to say the words. Nobody spoke a word, the silence had returned. All that could be heard was the sound of Alice sniffling as she allowed herself to cry. Lilly looked at Donald. He was still laid on his back, one hand on his chest and the other taken by his wife as she polished his wedding ring with her finger. Lilly eventually turned away, her eyes closed. A part of her hoped that when she opened them, she would be back at the Motor Inn with Lee, her father and the rest of the old group, back when things were so much simpler. But now, things were far from simple. She was here now, and the Motor Inn seemed like some kind of paradise that existed only in her dreams. She took a breath, and finally uttered the dreaded words that needed to be said: "Tom, go get your axe…"

Next time on The Walking Dead: The group are forced to deal with the situation with Donald, using extreme methods. Life for Clementine and the survivors will never be the same again after this. Meanwhile, Molly and her group run into some trouble in The Marsh House.

Hey guys! So, The Walking Dead is back! Hope you guys all enjoyed Part One of Tales of Crawford and of course this chapter, the first chapter in Episode Two. I'm happy to say that Episode Two is totally done! How soon I upload it just depends on feedback from you guys. So it's the usual drill. Feed me reviews! The sooner I hear back from you the sooner Chapter Two goes up!

Thanks guys!

-George