AN: Holy bananas, Batman! This is the most reviews I've ever gotten for a story on here, and this is only chapter ten! You guys are giving me a heart attack lol. Thank you, my Wellington reviewers (or should I say soldiers now)! Hope you like this next one!
"What the hell are we gonna tell the rest of the camp?"
"Really, Luke?" Kenny asks angrily, gesturing to the bag sitting in the snow, "Eddie's fucking decapitated head is sitting like a bowling ball in there, and that's the first thing you think of?"
"Yes, actually! Because now we've got some fucking psychopath coming with a boat-load of people to take over Wellington – and I don't think the other people here are gonna be mighty too happy about some random assholes trying to destroy their home!"
Eddie's… head… is still moving around slowly in the bag. Obviously it's not enough to cause any physical damage, but if they were looking for a scare tactic, then it definitely worked. How could they do something like this?!
Immediately I go over to Sarah and block her line of sight.
"Clem! What's going on? I can't see anything!" she complains, trying to poke her head around in vain.
"Just… don't worry about it, alright? You don't need to look… all it would do is make you sad."
"Why? Did it make you sad, too?"
Glancing back over at that horrible scene (which Lee still hasn't gotten up from), I nod vigorously and encourage the two of us to find somewhere else to sit. I think she and I need to have a little chat.
"Clem, what's going on?" Sarah asks quietly as she sits across from me at a picnic table, "You're kind of freaking me out."
"I'm not gonna lie," I tell her directly, taking off my hat for a minute and rubbing my hand through my hair, "We're… in trouble. I mean the whole group is, and we're going to have to be prepared to fight back. That means guns, and that means shooting, and that means… dead things. Do you understand?"
"These aren't walkers, are they…" she asks, pretty much already knowing the answer by my tone of voice.
"I wish they were," I sigh, frowning slightly in sadness, "But no. These are bad people, Sarah. They're going to try and hurt us, but we won't let them, alright?"
"Why do people always want to hurt one another?" she asks inquisitively, shaking her head, "I mean, yeah, sometimes I get mad at people, but I'd never want to hurt anybody!"
"Sometimes people can be mean to each other, but that doesn't mean that you can't defend yourself. We need to be strong."
"You say that like it's so easy," she states matter-of-factly, "But not everyone can be like you, Clem. I'm just not built that way."
"But you can be," I encourage, putting my hand on top of hers, "It's just in case anything happens, but I know you can do this. Your… your dad would be really proud of you, I know he would."
Sarah doesn't seem to believe me, since as soon as I mention Carlos she hangs her head depressingly. She's probably imagining her dad sitting right next to us and telling her that everything's going to be alright, and that no matter what happens we're all going to get out of this together.
I can only hope that's true.
"What do you mean people are coming to kill us?!" we hear an older man say as a bunch of his friends join the group. His hair is greying at the sides, and his beard is starting to grey a bit too, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him physically. "What in blazes did you people do?! You dumbasses have been here for less than a month, and you're already bringing violence! What are we supposed to tell our families?! That they need to be on the lookout for thugs as well as those monsters out there?!"
"We're sorry to involve you…" Bonnie mentions, looking slightly ashamed at the outcome. "But we need your help. All of your help, if we're going to make it through this."
"Is there any way to get some kind of peace treaty with these guys? I mean, I'd sure rather be willing to negotiate than test our luck with this stupid thing," Mike chips in.
Lilly looks over at Lee and the bag still on the ground and shakes her head. "Looks to me that they made it pretty clear what they want to do. All we can do is try to defend ourselves."
"Or we could toss your asses out of here!" another man suggests, folding his arms over his chest while the rest murmur in agreement. "We'll let you deal with your problems yourselves!"
"You do that, and they come to Wellington anyway and kill all of you without a second thought," Kenny states, referring to the type of people these guys are. "You ain't gonna get a better place than this – trust me, there's nothing out there like it."
"He's right," Jane chips in surprisingly, "The lake, the food, the gates… not many people can say that they've got the same."
"Which is why personally I'd rather stay here defending my home, rather than going off and abandoning the one good thing we've got going," Kenny finishes, putting his hands in his pockets.
Their group falls silent for a moment, with most people returning to what they were doing before, but a select few staying behind to work out some details. Sarah and I go up to see what's going on. Lee shakily picks up the bag and goes outside to dispose of the contents… as respectfully as he can.
"So can we count you guys in to help?" Luke asks, motioning to a completely bald guy with a motorcycle jacket, the older gentleman from earlier, and a woman with brown-blonde hair and an orange jacket.
"I suppose we don't have much of a choice now, do we?" the older guy says sarcastically. "I'm Vernon, this is Brie, and this punk over here is Roman."
"Watch it old man," Roman jokes, sharing a smirk with the old-timer. "So, you're sure about all of this? Are there really a bunch of assholes coming to try and kick us out?"
"There's no way they're bluffing… and if they are, then they've done a hell of a good job," Lilly comments dryly, "We need to come up with a defense strategy – they could be here tonight for all we know."
"We'll get you more familiar with some of the grounds," Vernon advises as we follow him down rows and pathways that we've never visited.
How the hell did I not see these things before? There are a couple of… poles, I'm guessing? They've got painted faces of birds, people and other animals on them, and to be quite frank they're kind of freaking me out a little bit.
"Totem poles," Luke says when he notices me rub my hand along the surface. "I've seen them in a couple of art museums before – they're actually pretty cool though, don't you think?"
"Yeah… wait, you've been to art museums?" I ask with a smirk, "I didn't see you as an artsy kind of guy."
"Well, I am a pretty mysterious guy," Luke jokes around, but the both of us straighten up as Lilly looks at us over her shoulder. Right, we need to stay focused here.
More tents line up around us, but theirs seem to be more… homier. They've made their surroundings reflect what they want it to, and you can tell that some of these people have been living here for quite some time. It's kind of nice actually, seeing a real community being formed here.
"Most of the townsfolk from this section aren't fighters, understand? They haven't had to deal with this kind of problem before, so don't be surprised if they want to shy away from any combat… myself included," Vernon concludes before leading us to what appears to be some sort of bunker.
"There's not a whole lot of room in there, especially if you're going to try and fit a bunch of people inside, so be mindful of that when setting up your fortifications," Vernon instructs, opening the door and revealing a dusty, grey room that looks like it really hasn't been used for anything in a very long time. There are old Scouts Club posters that are still taped to the wall, a couple of campsite maps revealing some nature trails and a table for cards and such.
Lee catches up to us, takes one sad look at me and goes over to study the maps. This whole cool-down thing might take longer than I thought it would.
"I'll be running things in here – trying to keep people calm and whatnot," Brie informs us, to which we all nod. Somebody needs to do it, so who better than a person who's been here for a while? "We can put some food on the right side of the building and other essentials, but you're going to have some angry people on your hands. Half of their things are going to have to be left behind."
"Do you have anything we could use as a bunker? Sandbags or anything like that?" Lilly asks as I look over at some of the old posters. I'm so glad that my parents never signed me up for one of these things.
Roman looks wearily at Vernon, and then shrugs his shoulders. "The best we can do are the canoes, probably. But, uh, I don't think they'll do much against bullets."
"We'll stack them, but it's just as a precaution," Lilly nods, probably formulating a plan right now. "Nobody should be out in the open like that anyways. So, where to next?"
…..
After about an hour and a half of touring the grounds, Lilly, Lee and Kenny get to work on assigning positions and tactics out to people. Originally, the three of them insisted that I stay in the bunker with Sarah, but there's no way that I'm staying in there – not with my friends' lives hanging in the balance. Instead, they suggested that I stick with Bonnie and Luke near the trees in back. We're joined by three other people whom I don't know, but our job is to keep them from getting too close to the bunker, the lake or our food supply.
"You're our last line of defence, okay?" Lilly told me, placing a hand upon my shoulder. "You've got this, I know you do. Just stay close to Luke and Bonnie, and you'll be fine. If all goes well, you might not even need to fire a bullet at all."
Come on, Lilly! When do our plans ever go well?
We aren't sure at all when or if they're coming at all, so I'm sitting against the tree just talking to Luke and Bonnie while the other three are talking amongst themselves.
"Never thought I'd have to do something like this," Bonnie comments, pushing a strand of hair back behind her ear.
"You bet," Luke agrees, shaking his head slowly in disbelief, "Don't we have enough problems as it is? I mean, you saw them, Clem. How many people do you think they had?"
"It's not the number of them that we should worry about… It's who we're dealing with," I murmur solemnly, bringing my knees up to my chest. "You saw what they did to Eddie – they're animals."
"I've never felt so sick in my entire life, that's for sure. If this is really happening… then we do it for him. Eddie and Arvo deserved better," Bonnie says more confidently, clenching a fist tightly.
Seemingly in his own little world, I wait a moment before nudging him on the knee.
"You okay?" I ask as all three of us huddle closer together for some form of warmth. I'm in the middle, with Bonnie on my right and Luke on my left.
"Just, uh… thinking about Nick, actually," he laughs mirthlessly while reminiscing on old times. "The kid was always getting into shit, but every time we'd either laugh about it or shake it off. Just didn't think his luck would run out, you know?"
"This is for him, too," I whisper as I glance out at the lake. "For Nick, Pete, Alvin, Rebecca, Carlos, Ben… Duck…"
"All of them," Bonnie agrees, wrapping a friendly arm around my shoulders. God, I love these guys. "We'll keep their memories alive."
Falling silent for a moment as the sun begins its descent, we watch as a raccoon scurries about near the shoreline; shaking out its fur as it steps away from the freezing-cold water.
"I'd totally eat the shit out of that raccoon," Luke comments, earning snorts from Bonnie and I as he realizes what he just said. "Err, I mean, umm… I would really love to eat that raccoon. If we weren't positioned here by Officer Lilly and her two generals, then I'd totally go over there and… you know what, I'm just gonna stop talking now."
"Probably a good idea."
An hour passes, and then another… at this point, my eyes are starting to dip down slowly. However, as soon as I realize what I'm supposed to be doing, I immediately shoot my head back and force my eyes to open wide, much to the amusement of Bonnie and Luke.
"Clearly you haven't mastered the art of All-Nighters," Luke smirks, adjusting his body so that he's more comfortable. "Trust me, once you hit eighteen, you'll be doing it all the time."
"Maybe that's why you're so miserable all the time," Bonnie jokes, sticking her tongue out at Luke's fake-insulted expression.
Leaning my sleepy head against Luke's shoulder, I can almost hear Bonnie's "Aww!", but that's drowned out by the loud yelling of some other people… and it's coming from the entrance…
Shit.
Quickly breaking apart and pulling out our guns, I hear Luke swear under his breath. We can't see too much, since Vernon insisted that we not have any fires tonight in order to prevent the enemy from seeing where they were going. Our only companion is the moon that's reflecting off the waves of Lake Michigan, but that's not going to help Lee and the rest of them too much. I hope he's alright…
"You've got one chance to surrender and get out here, you fucking cowards!" I hear Nate's voice call out. He must be using a bullhorn or something, since there's no way we'd be able to hear him from over here. "Come on out, kiddies! I'll even give you a candy bar if you want! My treat, I swear!"
"Told you he's nuts," I whisper quietly to my two friends, who don't say anything at all. From my position against the tree, I can see two of the other people that we're with, but the last one is obstructed from my field of vision.
"Nothing gets past us," one of the men say aloud, as I hear him loading up his rifle. "Let's try to take them by surprise if we can, alright?"
"You've got it," Luke agrees, nodding in the darkness.
Did I mention that I'm absolutely terrified right now? No light, a weaker leg, a pistol up against their bigger guns, and my small frame. No wonder Lilly stuck me back here…
But then I remember: that night out in the woods with Troy and Carver. I was smaller than the both of them, as well as bound and weaponless, and I still managed to outsmart them. I just need to use my small size to my advantage, and I should be able to survive this. If not, then I'll see Mom and Dad on the other side.
"Nobody wants to come out to play? But I brought snacks!" Nate booms; his voice echoing around us and sending a cold shiver up my spine. Or maybe that's just some snow, I don't know. "Fine then! Have it your way! I brought some barbecue stuff, too! I'm making BURGERS!"
"What's he talking about?" Bonnie asks, to which I shrug in response. I can barely understand him when he talks normally, let alone when he's forcing us to surrender.
"I don't hear any gunshots yet," Luke comments, poking his head out from behind the tree for just a brief second. "Maybe they're… negotiating?"
I sincerely doubt that, as in the distance I can faintly smell… smoke? Oh no!
Some of our tents are being lit on fire, and the howling of Nate reverberates through the bullhorn like a criminal mastermind. This is no bluff, this is no prank or illusion he's pulling over our eyes.
Nate and Tavia's group is here, and they're getting ready to kill us all.