A/n:
I am finally back from sleep away camp.
It was good.
My depression from ep5 is coming close to an end.
Which is good.
Hope you all like this chapter for today.
I took a couple more steps, approaching the half-torn piece of paper that Lee had dropped earlier. Getting a closer look at it, however, turned out to be a picture of a man, rather than a plain piece of paper that I once thought I saw earlier. Picking the photo up, examining the man in it carefully, turned out to be someone, who looked familiar.
Lee.
He stood before, which looked like the front of the pharmacy, posing for the camera. I couldn't believe it with my own eyes. He looked, well, kind of different. He looked slightly younger, wearing a long-sleeved, buttoned-up shirt, along with a black tie. Judging by the photo, it looked like it'd been taken before everything went crazy, when the world was normal.
I didn't feel like tossing the photo back onto the cold, blood-stained floor. It felt wrong, somehow. Even though I had just met this man yesterday, he has shown immense amounts of kindness towards me, despite the fact that he was a convicted murderer. I just felt like stuffing this photo into my pocket, not mentioning this to Lee at all. Maybe he had a purpose of leaving this photo behind, maybe he didn't, and I don't want to see the reaction on his face if I were to show him the photo I found tossed onto the ground.
I stuffed the photo into my pocket, keeping my lips sealed about it.
Exiting the office, I hear a sudden buzz. Turning my head to where the sound was coming from, it made contact with my walkie talkie. It may be Glenn.
"Hey there, this is Glenn," The voice spoke out, slightly muffled against the fabric of my jeans. Clipping the walkie off my belt, I held it up close to my face. "I'm kinda in a jam here."
"What do you mean?" I queried, speaking into the walkie.
"You're Clementine, right? So uhm, I'm kind of stuck here, by the motel?"
"Stuck?"
"I saw a chance to get some supplies down by the motel, but a bunch of those things got the jump on me. I'm hiding in the ice machine but they won't leave."
"What's up?" Lee asks, approaching me from the corner of the drugstore.
"Well, uh, Glenn's trapped over by the motor inn," I responded, dropping the walkie talkie down by my side.
"Here, let me have it for a second?" He questioned, gesturing his arm out for the walkie, which I dropped in the palm of his hand. He held the walkie up to his face. "Hey Glenn, we're gonna talk it over and send a group to come and get you, all right?"
"Cool, awesome. I'll sit tight 'till then," Glenn sighed in relief.
"Sounds good," Lee said, turning the walkie talkie off and handing it back over to me.
"What do you think?" Kenny questioned, leaving his family alone for a moment.
"I think Doug's not great around zombies, and you've got your family here. I'll take –"He paused, looking back and forth between me and Carley. He stopped, however, to turn his head down and face me. "I'll take Clementine with me, get Glenn, and get back here as fast as I can."
I grinned at him, happy that I'm coming alongside with him in order to save Glenn. I'm glad I was gonna do something productive, besides sitting in a drugstore and doing nothing. I took my gun out, letting it dangle freely in my right hand.
"Really?" I asked, my face glowing with happiness.
"Sure. After all, you are a "sharpshooter" now," He tells me playfully. "We're also a team, aren't we?"
"If that's what you want to do-" Kenny commented, but was cut off.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Carley interjected, glaring at Lee. "You can't just take a little girl with you! First of all, I am a better shot than she is, and second, for all we know, she could wind up dead! And third, well, I don't really have a third reason, but you see the point." She hissed. "I doubt she even knows how to use one correctly."
"I've seen her use one before; she's fine!" Lee contradicted.
I scowled at her. For me, I felt like I was dealing with Sandra 2.0, but only with an older version. I wasn't gonna take this, her bossiness, at all. I never thought that she would be such a "Nag" type of person at all. She seemed like such a decent person on TV. But I was definitely not gonna let her talk to me like that.
"Carley, you're not my mom. Don't tell me what I can or cannot do," I frowned, placing the gun back into my pants. "Lee asked for my help. Not yours. My. Help. So just leave us both alone, okay?"
Her facial expression grew even angrier. She took the second to glare at me, then back at Lee. "Don't come crying back over to me if she dies over there," She retaliated, stomping back to the register counter to fiddle with a radio.
Lee took the moment to exhale in relief. He twirled his head down to look at me, with a grin on his face. "So Clem, now that that's done, you ready to head out?"
Before answering, I contemplated at my gun. I was kind of anxious to use it, now that I have learned the proper way to use it. On the other hand, I really didn't feel like using it, because of the "numb" feeling in my right hand. All I could think of was, 'what could go wrong,' in my head. But still, maybe I might be able to still prove my maturity to Glenn and Lee.
"Lee, am I going to have to use this gun at the motel?" I whined.
"That depends, Clem. But most likely, you may not," He replies.
"Okay then," I sighed. "I'm ready."
"Good. Let's go."
Lee led the way over to the motel, which was good, since I had no idea where anything was in Macon. We loitered around the entrance of the motel, looking for Glenn. We crouched down, behind the small wall that stood outside of the parking lot. Peeking up, there were plenty of walkers in the parking lot, some of them eating flesh of what was left behind to rot.
"Have any idea where Glenn could be?" Lee whispered.
"I think that he mentioned that he was hiding in an ice machine. I'm not so sure though," I reply.
"Well, shit," He muttered in frustration.
"Maybe he might contact us on the walkie," I pointed out, trying to get his hopes up.
But before he could open his mouth to say anything, he was cut off by the loud banging against something, creaking loudly at each attempt.
We both scooted over to the noise, finding the ice machine in front of us. The banging still occurred, causing Lee to develop a frightened expression on his face.
"I think that Glenn is in there," I remarked, the words barely audible.
"You don't know that, Clementine. For all that we know, a walker might be in there. Get out your gun, just in case," He murmured. "It's loaded, right?"
I nod at him, pointing my gun at the ice machine.
The banging still went on, but eventually stopped once the ice machine door busted open, seeing Glenn crouched inside in an uncomfortable position.
"Guys!" Glenn exclaimed with joy, letting himself out of the ice machine. "Oh man, I'm glad you're both here." He jumps over the wall, sectioning off the parking lot of the motel and the street. We all crouched down behind the wall.
"Alright, that wasn't so hard," Lee smiled.
"Lee, can we get out of here now?" I begged, trying my best not to make it sound like a whine. This place gave me the creeps with all the walkers lying around, especially at night time. I immediately regretted coming over here. I should've just let Carley come instead of me.
"Not yet," Glenn said. "There's a survivor trapped up there," He pointed at the motel rooms on the second-story. "So listen. I was up here looking for gas. And then, up there in the corner room, I heard crying coming from the inside."
"Who is it?" Lee asked.
"It's a girl. We talked and she got frightened. I was trying to get in and help her but she started yelling and saying I was bitten," Glenn whispered. "I tried to convince her I wasn't and that's when all these guys came out of the forest. A couple almost got me and I ended up hiding in the ice machine."
"Well, we can't just leave her to die!" I added.
"Damn right we can't," Lee agreed.
The three of us stalked over behind the other wall in the motel lot, with a walker eating out rotten flesh on the other side of the wall.
"Okay, this is the plan," Lee declared, "We don't know how hard it's gonna be to get her out of that room."
"Yeah, it's boarded up," Glenn muttered.
"So we have to kill every one of them in here. Quietly," He says in a loud whisper, his eyes pointing towards me and the gun. "Noise attracts these things. Now let's have a look around."
"Um, kid, you sure you're okay with using a gun?" Glenn asks me in a quivering voice.
"Of course I do!" I hissed, "Why else would I be holding one?"
"Jesus, you don't have to throw a hissy fit just because I asked you a question," He muttered.
I rolled my eyes at him. Meanwhile, Lee peeked his head over by the side of the wall, dragging a pillow into our view shortly afterwards.
"And you expect to kill these things... with a pillow?" I asked him sarcastically.
"You'll see what I have in mind for this, Clem," He responds. "Meanwhile, we should all go over there by the brown pickup. I think we all found everything we need here."
Glenn and I followed Lee to the brown, crouching on the way there. We were still in the motel parking lot. We crouched behind the pickup truck, now facing our next target. A walker leaned against the door of the car just across from the pickup. However, it didn't seem like it was capable of walking. It just sat there on the ground, with its legs pointing out in front of it.
Lee stood up, with his knees bent, approaching the window of the pickup.
"Is there anything in there?" Glenn interrogated.
"Yeah, just a screwdriver. I don't see anything I could use to open the window though," Lee sighed, crouching back down.
His eyes turned over to look at the walker leaning against the door of the car. "Clem, have your gun out," He whispered.
"But what about the noise Lee?" I perked up.
"Just follow my lead. Stay right behind me," He ordered, approaching the walker.
Following him, he used the pillow to cover the walkers face.
"Shoot it!"
I place my gun on the surface on the pillow, pulling the trigger, letting out a soft, quiet gunshot. The walkers blood spilled onto the pillow, causing both me and Lee to flinch. But thankfully, the walkers head collapsed onto the ground, unmoving.
"That was sick!" Glenn uttered in complete disgust.
Lee signaled Glenn to follow by gesturing his arms towards us. We all crouched behind the car, letting Lee open the drivers door. He unlocked the gearshift from 'park' to 'drive.' Just as he was about to close the door, his attention was caught by this small, shiny, metal object lying on the driver's seat.
"It's uh, a sparky thing," Lee notes, closing the driver's door.
Glenn carefully examined the object in Lee's hands. "Spark plug... you should hold on to that. Could come in handy."
Just in front of the car, there was a walker furiously slamming its fists against a fortified window, its attention away from us and the car. Lee used this opportunity wisely, as he pushed the car in the walker's direction, crushing it against the motel wall, but not killing it.
"That was awesome!" Glenn compliments.
From there, we all rushed back behind the brown pickup. Lee, holding his newly acquired spark plug, holds it up in the air, about to throw the spark plug at the glass window of the pickup.
"Wait!" Glenn whispered loudly, grabbing Lee's attention and stopping him from his current actions. "Let me see the spark plug."
Lee then hands the spark plug over to Glenn, who, immediately threw it on the ground, crushing it with his foot. "The porcelain inside these things turns car window into tissue paper," Glenn noted, picking up one of the left over remnants of the spark plug, handing it over to Lee.
Lee, having hold of the porcelain fragment in his hand, threw it into the glass window of the pickup, causing most of the glass to shatter. Slipping his arm through the window cautiously, he grabs a hold of a screwdriver on the way out. He held it out to show it to Glenn.
"That could scramble a brain pretty good," Glenn commented.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Lee divulged.
From there on, we all quietly rushed to our original start point of the motel, crouching behind the wall. If front of us now, was still the walker from earlier chomping onto flesh. Farther from it stood an RV.
With caution, Lee sneaked up on the walker devouring its meal. Gripping onto the screwdriver tightly, and before the walker had the chance to turn its head around, Lee stabbed into its head, causing it to plummet onto its own meal. He rushed over by the front of the RV, away from the walkers attention and viewpoint. Once he did so, both Glenn and I followed him.
The three of us stood there crouched in front of the RV. Lee turned his poked his head out to the right, grimacing as soon as I saw his facial expression.
"Shit," He mumbled.
"What, what is it?" I questioned nervously.
"Walker, at the end of the RV," He replied, "I think may have a plan, though. He's one out of the two left on the parking lot."
He tilted his head over in the walker's direction, letting out a loud, brief whistle.
He caught his attention, I can tell. I heard footsteps and groans gradually increasing. Once it got to the max, I felt like it was right next to me.
Lee was quick. Before it had the chance to touch any of us, Lee shoved the screwdriver into the walker's chest. It was wounded, but not dead. Lee finally jabbed the screwdriver into its eye, blood streaking the pavement beneath us. One down, and one to go.
We stormed over to the walker trapped between the wall and car. It frantically waved its arms out in front of its own body, trying to release himself from the pressure. Lucky for Lee, there was a fire axe that was attached against the motel wall, right next to the walker.
But first, he slammed the screwdriver into the walker's eye, making its head bang furiously onto the hood of the car.
"Dude, where'd your weapon go?" Glenn asks, shrugging his arms a bit.
"Into that ice pick sized hole," Lee muttered.
"Ha, holy shit," Glenn chuckled, "It's cool. Now you got this," Glenn added, pointing to the fire axe attached to the motel wall.
With the fire axe in his hands, Lee approaches the outdoor staircase of the motel, where the girl was supposedly trapped on the second-story.
"Why don't you guys lag behind; Just in case this goes to hell," Lee suggested, a quarter of the way up the stairs.
"Lee, don't worry, we'll be here for you," I assure him.
He nods, making his way all the way up the stairs. We followed him little by little. The door, in which Glenn claimed where the girl was inside, was trying to get breached by two walkers, continuously clawing their hands against the boarded-up door.
Without any hesitation, once the two walkers got their attention focused on Lee, he cleanly sliced through both of their hands, continuing over to the boarded up door.
"Rad," Glenn casually said in amazement, both of us closing in on Lee and the boarded up door.
"Hello in there? We're here to help," Lee announced, slamming onto the door with his fists.
"Please, just go away!" The voice begged, filled with tears and cries.
"If you open up we can take you somewhere safer. We've got a group in town," Lee offered.
"No! No! No! Please no!" She cried.
"She's in trouble!" Glenn exclaimed.
"Miss! We're coming in!" Lee stated, his axe chopping through the wooden plank that held the door locked. He turned the knob, but the door wouldn't budge. He continuously started kicking at the door.
"Stop, just stop. I'm coming out.." She announced, her last few words barely audible.
She reveals herself from her hiding place, coming out with such a constipated expression on her face, half of her stomach was torn open as well.
"You're hurt..." Lee pointed out.
"I...I said stay away," The woman sobbed.
"We need to get you help!" Glenn panicked.
"It's.. too late for that," She choked, place a hand over her wound.
"She's been bitten," Lee whispered to us.
"What?!" Glenn perked up, trying not to believe what he was hearing.
"I told you! I said go away. But you wouldn't just leave," The woman sniffled.
"Let's calm down, you could be fine..."
"I won't be fine! My boyfriend was bitten. You get sick and you die and you come back killing anything you can find!" She grimaced, cutting Lee off from his sentence.
"You have a boyfriend?" Glenn questioned in disbelief, receiving dirty looks from Lee and I.
"I don't want that. It's not Christian. Please, just leave me, please go," She begged.
"Okay, we'll leave. Just try and take care of yourself for whatever time you've got left," Lee said.
Her eyes had ogled to the pistol I was holding in my hand.
"You have a gun," She noted.
"Yeah, and?" I said, expecting her to finish my sentence.
"Can I borrow it?" She stammered. "I can just end this, you know."
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Lee frowned.
"Please, I don't want to be one of them. They're... satanic," She sobbed.
"We can't let you do this to yourself," Lee counteracted.
"Then do it for me!" She practically yelled.
My eyes widened in horror as she inched up closer to me.
"It's just two seconds, one bullet, and I could be with my family..." Her arm reached out, trying to grab for the gun.
I backed away from her, my back leaning against the railing of the deck. The floor had suddenly broke apart under our weight, causing both the woman and my footing to lose control. Lee and Glenn instantly backed away from the crumbling floor. I shrieked for help as I dangled off the edge of the deck. My fingers felt like slipping off as each second went by.
"Don't worry Clem! I got you!" Lee yelled, rushing over to grab me by my forearm, slowly and easily pulling me up. Thankfully, I had avoided the two-story fall, possible life ending. He lifted me up to my feet, making sure that I had my full balance.
We both turned our heads to look at Glenn, continuously throwing up on the untouched parts of the deck. Bewilderment had filled the atmosphere, and the woman was no longer in sight. I looked below the broken part of the deck, to notice that the crazy woman had fell to her death head first, parts of her brain spilling out. Lee and I turned our heads away from the horrendous sight. Covering my own face, I violently thew up over the railing of the deck.
"I... I think we should get out of here," I croaked, wiping the excess vomit off my mouth.
"Agreed," Lee nodded.