"Been a few weeks since we've arrived at Howe's. I've got to say, I'm impressed by this. I've made a few friends, Luke, Nick, his uncle Pete, who Wyatt loves to repeat is a 'white' version of me, Dr. Carlos, his daughter Sarah, and Rebecca and Alvin. They seem nice enough, I'm just finding it hard to make friends nowadays. Don't know if that's a good or bad thing."
Becca sighed and clicked the device, the tape made a quick buzzing sound and stopped at the next message.
"C'mon, I know there's something funny in here…" Becca giggled, pressing play.
"Things are getting a little more stressful here as the months go on. Bill's getting more on edge, Bonnie keeps sneaking off somewhere every day, Russel isn't talking to anyone, Wyatt's suffering, saying he always needs something to smoke, I'm surprised Shel's still standing, Becca's hardly made it easy on her-
"Dick…" Becca said, fast-forwarding the tape.
"I just told Carver about Luke, Nick, Pete, Alvin, Rebecca and Carlos, about how they left during the middle of the night. Carver's already been drinking a lot lately, now that he knows people are starting to abandon him, he almost flipped a table and shoved a knife down my throat…"
Becca grew sad at this, expecting to find something humorous, instead finding wave upon wave of problems and depressions.
"I know where Bonnie's been sneaking off to, her and Wyatt are hiding in a corner where nobody can find them, smoking…something, I don't know, I told Bill and he said he'd talk to them."
"Wyatt's been having nightmares again, always talking in his sleep about how he needs weed. I keep trying to calm him down, but I don't blame him…Bill's not the supportive guy I met at the start of this year."
"It's Clementine's birthday…saddest thing is, I don't know how old she is anymore…eleven…I think…maybe…"
"We're still searching for Luke and his friends. I feel like I'm among a dictator and his followers when I'm around carver. It's not like it used to be. Now it's feeling less like St. Regis, and more like Alcatraz. I'm almost considering-
Lee growled and snatched the recorder out of Becca's hand. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Lee yelled, slamming his backpack down on the bench Becca was sitting at.
"I was just trying to have a little fun, asshole." Becca spat. "Where are you going?"
Lee zipped the recording device in the front pocket of his backpack before swinging it back over his shoulder. "Looking for Clementine." He said coldly, walking over to the munitions room. Becca following him closely.
"They're not letting you out, the walls are still being repaired from the break out. And you're not getting out through the broken walls, that place is crawling with zombies. Didn't you hear about Reggie?" Becca said, as Lee grabbed his rifle from his gun cabinet.
"Carver's given me permission, because unlike you, I can leave without a chaperone." Lee groaned.
"Well fuck you too, Lee. Why don't you do us all a favour and go find your girl, then don't come back." Becca grunted.
"Just…" Lee sighed and grunted before continuing. "…give this to your sister." Lee approached the gates as he passed Becca a sealed envelope. "Don't open it…"
"Why…?" Becca said, dazed and confused.
"This is the first time I'm going out on my own, Bill can't spare the men, now if I don't make it back by sundown, give it to your sister." Lee sighed.
Becca sighed and dropped her arms to her side. "Alright…sorry." She said.
Lee smiled and then turned back over to the gate, Troy and another asshole Lee didn't care to remember were out guarding it. Lee nodded at Becca once and walked down to the gate. "Where you off to?" Troy interrogated.
"Looking for Clem, open the gate." Lee said, assertively.
"We're on high alert and Carver's is out looking for Luke and his band of merry queers." Troy's bigot friend snorted.
"You are. I'm not, I have permission to leave." Lee said, passing Troy a note with Carver's signature.
"Fine…Open the gates, Lee's going out in search of his young lover…"
Lee rolled his eyes at the petty joke, and took out the car keys from his pocket, approaching the small box of a car in the almost empty car park. He clicked the car open and threw his bag into the front seat and inserted the keys into the ignition. He exhaled and sat back. "I'm sure…" He said out loud to himself. He quickly sped out of the car park, knowing they'll find his room any second, the endless notes of paper practicing to imitate Bill's signature under the bunk, or that Becca will undoubtedly open the note reading how he has left to find Clementine and for them to leave too.
Lee began driving straight out of Howe's and back into a long and straight country road. He decided to start from the beginning. The greatest clue he found, just to make sure, he picked up the voice recorder, clicking it to play. "The first clue that I've found, possibly the best, and the worst. I found a body in the bathroom while helping Tavia search for some survivors at the diner. Omid's body. He had been put down but we had to fight a girl to get to him, I don't know whether she was related to his death or not, but it was Omid for sure."
Omid was dead, but if he was with Clem and Christa, they had not been slaughtered yet. Lee pressed the button to skip the next few recordings and pressed play again. "Luke and his friends told me they were planning to leave…they said they wanted to bring me with them, and gave me time to think about it… I don't know what to say to them. Things are dropping here, it's getting too much, clearly, but my friends don't think so. I need to get out of here, but I can't leave them. So I've decided, I don't know anything about it. But I'm saying this loud and clear, in case I change my mind. They've gone south."
Lee clicked stop on the recorder and placed it next to him in the car, before spinning round down onto the south roads.
Alright, I'm thinking this may seem a little bit rushed. But to justify this thought, I was thinking that taking about 6 more chapters to prolong and stretch that out would be boring and idiotic. If you think differently let me know, and if you think the same, help me feel like I'm not a…awful writer, just a bad one xD
