Thanks for the (quick) reviews. XD

\\\\

Luckily for Sarah, Becca was sent off with Tavia to work on some other task, so she was left with Shel (who was generally nice to her) to work on the weapons. Shel had to assist her a little bit, but didn't seem to mind. It was now around mid-afternoon.

"Okay, good," Shel praised when Sarah was able to put together the trigger. "Now you-"

The door opened, and in walked Tavia, holding her rifle and wearing her usual angry face. "That's it for today, Sarah. They want you back in the pen."

Sarah was confused, since they usually had to work until dinnertime, but put down the gun and followed Tavia back to her "home." What was going on inside shocked and horrified her. Of course it involved Carver.

Carver was hitting and punching Luke repeatedly, causing Sarah to gasp out and run towards Carlos.

"Don't look, Sarah," Carlos whispered.

Carver slammed Luke down one last time, when a cracking noise was heard. Luke let out a cry of pain. Carlos rushed over to him and knelt by him. The rest of the group was in shock, not knowing what was even going on, and why. Sarah stood close to Rebecca.

"We put our faith and our trust in you," Carver explained. "Hell, you all could have been let out of this pen and been upgraded on your living quarters within a few days. And how is it that we're repaid for our trust? With treachery? With deceit? With theft!"

No one said anything, and they all knew what was happening when Carver held up one of the walkie-talkies.

Oh no, oh no, Sarah thought, her anxiety building up. I can't breathe... Rebecca placed a hand on her back to calm her, which luckily worked.

"Whatever you were planning is over, it's done," Carver scolded. "You can't just run from your problems. You can't just up and leave when it gets tough...'cause there's nowhere else you can go where it ain't. Tough is all we got now. Get that through your fuckin' skulls. Luke here, he can't help you now. You gotta help yourselves. You gotta help me find the strength to forgive you. Now you can start by telling me where the other one is."

Mostly everyone knew that Clementine had the other radio, but no one was about to call her out. Not when she was so useful.

"I'm gonna count to three. If that radio ain't in my hand by then, we'll have to make things more difficult. One..."

Silence.

"Two..."

Clementine opened her mouth to speak, but closed it.

"Thr-"

"I got it right here!" Kenny yelled, holding up the radio for all to see. Sarita looked afraid, and he turned to her. "It's all right." He walked forward. "Sorry about that, not sure what I was thinking."

The bearded man dropped the walkie-talkie into Carver's hand.

"Three," Carver finished.

"Heh. Fucker," Kenny muttered.

Almost immediately, Carver hit Kenny in the left eye, leaving the rest of the group even more shocked and horrified.

"No!" Sarita screamed, beginning to cry.

"My God!" Luke cried.

"Jesus Christ! Stop!" Nick exclaimed.

Stop hitting him! Please stop hitting him! Sarah thought, but she was too afraid to yell it out.

"Stop him! Somebody stop him!" Sarita shrieked. She attempted to run over, but Carlos held her back. "Let me go!"

"Troy, do something!" someone else demanded. Sarah couldn't tell who in all this chaos, however.

"Stop! Clementine, help me!" Carlos called over to the little girl.

"You don't have to do this, Bill!" Nick pleaded.

"NO! STOP IT! KENNY! KENNY!" Sarita shrieked, desperately trying to free herself.

But Clementine either didn't listen or didn't hear him. She began to charge towards Kenny, but was met by the end of Troy's rifle. Troy hit her so hard that she fell to the ground, a gash already forming on her right cheek.

"You little shit," Troy hissed at her.

Sarah's mouth dropped open, her eyes wide. There was violence going on left and right, with Kenny and Clementine now both being hurt. She began whimpering at this, and Rebecca turned to her and began to comfort her.

"They'll both be fine, sweetheart," she whispered into Sarah's ear. "They're gonna be okay. Don't worry."

Sarah sniffled and nodded, but just wanted to stay close to Rebecca for now, and gave her a long hug.

"Bill!" Bonnie called as she entered. "That's enough, Bill! Please! There's a breach!"

Carver hit Kenny one last time, sending him down. Clementine just lay there on the ground, and it looked like she was about to fall into unconsciousness.

"Alright, everybody come with me," Carver ordered, tossing the radio aside. "Bonnie, you stick around. Make sure these folks don't get into anymore trouble."

"Yeah, okay," Bonnie agreed.

Carver began walking out, but turned back. "No supper for y'all tonight. Maybe an empty stomach'll give you some perspective. We'll try this again tomorrow."

Sarita and Carlos were now looming over Kenny, while Bonnie was rubbing Clementine's shoulder to comfort her. The rest of the group had nothing to say, and Sarah still shivered in Rebecca's arms.

"Do your best with him, Carlos," said Bonnie. "You need to get him able to move, 'cause we're leavin' tonight." After receiving surprised looks from Carlos, Luke, and Rebecca, she repeated herself. "We're leavin' tonight."

Carlos glanced down at Kenny before nodding. "All right. Nick, can you please help me carry him over to the bed so I can have a look at him?"

Nick nodded and rushed over, getting Kenny's lower body while Carlos grabbed the upper. Sarah let go of Rebecca and watched as Kenny was laid on Rebecca's bed. Luke walked over and gathered Clementine in his arms, and went to place her on her bed so she could rest.

"Sarah, can you hand me that bandage over there, please?"

Sarah reached over and handed Carlos what he needed. It was about one or two hours later now, and it was dark out. Kenny and Clementine were still out of it, and all was mostly quiet except for Sarita's sobs.

"Dad, will Kenny be okay?" Sarah asked innocently.

"I don't know, honey," Carlos replied truthfully. "His eye is in terrible shape. It may have caused damage to his brain."

"Oh," Sarah looked at the ground.

"Why don't you go check on the others?" Carlos suggested. He glanced over, and turned back to Kenny.

Sarah nodded and walked off. She approached Sarita, who was crying into her hands. Rebecca had an arm around her shoulder and was whispering soothing words to her.

"Are you okay, Sarita?" Sarah inquired.

"She's just worried about Kenny, Sarah," Rebecca informed her.

"My dad's working on him right now."

She turned, and saw that Clementine had finally woken up. Luke and Mike returned from speaking with Bonnie, they had been discussing their plan of escape. Mike sat down, and Rebecca began talking.

"What'd she say?" she wanted to know.

"She said she can get us out of the pen if she can get the PA system going," Mike explained. "Second she hears it, she'll run over and spring us."

"That's great!"

"It's not great," Luke almost spat.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look, I know part of this is my fault, I-I know," Luke stuttered, "I was hungry, I got reckless tryin' to steal some food, and I got caught..."

"We can't stay here!" Clementine argued.

"Exactly!" Rebecca agreed. "We have no idea how long Alvin's got before Bill just kills him. We have to leave now!"

"Look, I hear what you're saying, but it's risky!" Luke replied.

"It is pretty damn risky, guys," Nick agreed.

"Risky? Did you see what that sonuvabitch just did?" Mike asked. "Look, the plan works. Nothing needs to change, it's all set up. The hard part is done. This guy's fucking crazy. Who knows what he'll do next?"

"Yeah, but we're dealin' with a guy beat to shit, Sarita in no shape to do anything, and I'm a goddamn mess!" Luke cried. "Look, we should rest up, okay? We should bide our time, and we should wait for an opening!"

"Bonnie's agreeing to help us tonight-"

"And that doesn't mean she can't do it some other night!"

"I don't know, guys. Luke's making sense," Nick spoke up. "Maybe we should wait."

"We're not waiting!" Rebecca disagreed.

"Ain't nothin' out there, guys! Trust me, I looked!" said Luke. "There's no food, no supplies. They picked everything clean."

"Where's Kenny?" Clementine asked.

"Doc's over there working on him, it don't look good."

As if on cue, Carlos walked over, looking downcast. Sarita looked up at him.

"You better fix him...you better!" Clementine told him nervously.

"I'm doing my best," said Carlos, before he turned his attention back to the group. "His orbital is crushed. I don't think there's much hope for the eye. I got him as stable as I could, cleaned it, got some of the swelling down, bandaged it as best I could. But until he wakes up, we won't know if there's any damage to his brain."

At that news, Sarita looked down and began to cry again.

"Okay, look, maybe I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but if...damn it, if y'all are serious about goin' tonight," Luke announced, "then we're gonna have to start talkin' about...leaving some folks behind."

"No!" Sarita cried.

"There's No. Other. Way."

"This is bullshit," Rebecca argued.

"Well, I don't like it either, but guess what? It's where we're at."

"Kenny and I are only here because of you people, and now you intend to leave us behind," Sarita pointed out.

"So we should risk all of our lives?" Carlos asked.

"No! We're not leaving Kenny!" Clementine cried. "That's not fair. We stay together!"

"Life ain't fair, Clem," said Luke. "We're just trying to make the best of a bad situation here. No one wants to leave Kenny."

"Good, 'cause...you won't have to," a weak voice chimed in. Kenny had woken up from unconsciousness.

Everyone in the group was relieved. Sarita walked over and hugged her boyfriend, who assured her that he was alright.

"We leave tonight. Plan don't change," the Floridian man announced.

"Not bad, old man," Nick praised.

"Thanks, asshole."

Why does he always swear at people? Sarah thought. That's bad.

"You are one tough bastard," Mike complimented.

"Do tough bastards get their ass kicked in front of everybody?" Kenny joked.

He's still swearing. He needs a bar of soap in his mouth.

Clementine walked over, and Kenny talked to her.

"You all right? That wasn't your fault, okay? So don't go blamin' yourself."

The little girl replied by hugging him.

"It's all right."

"So, like, what now?" Luke asked.

"We get out of here."

"Like, now-now?"

"Yes!" Rebecca spoke up.

"Where are we going?" Kenny inquired. "Like in case things get squirrely and we gotta make a break for it, we need a place to meet up."

"We could meet up at Parker's Run," Mike suggested.

"What the hell's that?"

"It's a civil war sight a few miles north. Tourist trap. Got signs all over. Just follow the road."

"We stopped there when we escaped the first time," Rebecca pointed out. "Luke and Carlos know where it is, it's not that far."

"Well, at least if a few folks know where it's at, it'll be easier to find if we split up," said Kenny. "Alright, that works."

"Then we just need someone to go set off that PA, right?" Luke asked. "I mean, you never bothered to explain who's supposed to do that."

Everyone looked at...that's right, Clementine.

She sighed. "Why's it always me?"

It was back to where the group started. Mike boosted Clementine up, and she pulled the rope. Sarah felt more confident this time. If Clem could sneak in somewhere once, then she could do it again.

"Be sure to remember to flip the switch for the outdoor speakers," Rebecca instructed the little girl. "Just the indoor speakers might not draw the herd. It's on the right in the microphone box."

"Right," Clem noted.

"By default it's set to play music, so you should just have to turn it on, right? Then climb back up and drop into the stockroom. We'll meet you there."

"Down into the office, outdoor speaker switch, turn on PA, up to the roof, into the stockroom to meet you guys. That right?"

"Perfect," Rebecca praised.

Mike began pulling the rope until Clementine could get to the roof. All was quiet for the next two or so minutes, but Sarah nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the announcement. It was quite loud.

"This Fourth of July, make sure your backyard barbecue is complete with Howe's coal-liner products-"

At that very moment, Bonnie opened the door to the pen. "Come on! I know where the exit is!"

The group ran out as fast as they could. They were almost there when they heard a voice.

"And just where do you all think you're going?"

Carver.

\\\\

The next chapter will be the final one of Episode 3. It may be a little shorter for obvious reasons, so be prepared. And please review! :D