A/N: I know I've been alternating between Lee & Lilly and Carley and the main group, but I'm going to have to do one more, or several Carley chapters as of this one. If I don't then there's going to be massive time gaps between the two groups which'll probably not only confuse some readers, but probably myself as well. So anyway, here it is. Hope you enjoy.


Chapter 11

Haven

"Looks like you've been taking care of yourself these past few months," Rebecca said to Carley as she led the rattled group out of the study room to go downstairs after they finally caught their breath. Carley's heart was still wild, overjoyed by the fact that her best friend had survived the carnage that followed that first hellish day months ago.

"I wouldn't exactly say that, unfortunately," Carley sighed. "We've lost our own share of people over time. Good people who didn't deserve it." She looked down at her feet and sighed, relieved that at least Lee didn't die as she first thought after he was shot by the witch. The same couldn't be said of Mark, Larry and Duck, however, and she still missed Doug, the man who first saved her life and whom she still admittedly had lingering feelings of regret for.

"Tough world, isn't it?" Rebecca shrugged and proceeded down the staircase. "In my case, one minute I was on my way to visit you and your family in Atlanta, and then all hell broke loose."

"You were what?" Carley asked.

Rebecca chuckled. "Yeah, it was gonna be a surprise. Phone calls never really match up to in-person talks, y'know. I scheduled a few days off for myself with my employer so that I effectively had a long Independence Day weekend during which I was going to stay in a hotel in Atlanta. I was driving along the highway into Atlanta while listening to a music CD, but I noticed that a lot of police patrols and other cars were streaming out of the city."

"You were listening to music while all hell was breaking loose? Talk about being out of the loop," Carley scoffed.

"Hey Carley, you should know yourself just how stressful our profession can be," Rebecca smiled and stepped into the kitchen, which was situated deeper into the house through a narrow corridor after taking a 180-degree right turn from the bottom of the staircase. A large bronze-framed photograph of a family of five – all with fair hair and brown eyes, the mother and father appearing to be in their late forties or early fifties, while the three children, two girls and a boy, appeared to be late teens or young adults – hung on the wall a few yards away from the entrance on the left wall. All the windows of the house were boarded up save for the ones located high-up, so as to allow sunlight in without risking being seen by walkers.

"Sure," Carley chuckled, although she had to hold her breath a bit due to the house not having been vacuumed for many months and being swamped by dust. "I had no less than three coffees a day while working for WABC Atlanta. Things can get stressful as hell, if you were a flop like me."

"A flop? You? Are you kidding?" Rebecca smiled at her. The others simply followed silently, choosing to let the conversation take its natural course rather than butt in awkwardly.

"Compared to you, I am, Miss Channel-6-Action-News," Carley laughed. "I always said when we were in college that no-one could match your looks, couldn't I?"

Rebecca smiled, fondly remembering the old days when all the boys she and Carley walked by would shoot subtle stares at them on the college campus. Come time for prom night, boys would ask the two of them to be their dates for the evening, and all but the luckiest were given as discrete rejections as possible.

Taking advantage of the momentary silence, Omid interjected. "Sorry for interrupting your reunion and all, but…what are we going to do from here on out? Y'know…boat, Chuck and Ben, surviving in general?"

"Chuck and Ben?" Rebecca asked, turning her head and looking over her shoulder.

"The two guys who fell behind," Kenny sighed. "I'd look for them if we could, but…probably dead by now."

"I'm not so sure about that," Rebecca said.

"Not sure? How?" Christa's eyebrows rose as she asked.

"You see, I carry these things around. Molly and I keep track of one another by using them," Rebecca explained and pulled out a walkie-talkie from within her jacket, showing it to the others by holding it up beside her head. Carley couldn't help but let out a noticeable gasp which prompted Rebecca to look at her. "She and I stayed in contact while I was leading you guys into this place. She said she saw the two of them slip through a manhole and into the sewer. She's trying to track them and save them if she can."

"Well, that's a relief at least," Omid said. "Hopefully the sewer won't have many walkers at all."

"Bec, where did you…get that walkie-talkie?" Carley asked.

"Dead military personnel," Rebecca said and headed for the cupboards once she walked into the kitchen, putting the walkie-talkie back into her jacket. "Molly and I took a handful of them from army people after they died and turned. We keep spare walkie-talkies, weapons and food stashed in a small number of houses across the city. Keeps us from having to run around with bulked-up jackets."

"Food? You mean you have some?" Kenny gasped, his stomach instantly stirring at the very mention.

"Indeed we do," she nodded and reached up to open a cupboard, revealing a stash of some vintage cheeses which were guaranteed to not go off over time, as well as dozens of water bottles. "Tuck in." She tossed some blocks of cheese and water bottles down to the anxious group who immediately tore away at the wrapping to see if the cheese was good for eating. The smell was intoxicating enough, and their hunger made the temptation all the worse.

"Where the hell did you get all these?" Omid asked after taking a sizeable chomp out of his block.

"We were lucky," Rebecca explained and gestured to the kitchen table and walked towards it. "The family who owned this place were very wealthy, it would seem. They have a vintage cellar downstairs which has a whole lot of wines and cheeses. It was one of those 'secret' cellars, I guess – Molly and I came across it after some dumb luck. We spread the cheese around to our different hideouts just in case this place is no longer safe."

Six seats were situated around the kitchen table, and all of the survivors each took up one except for Rebecca, who opted to let the exhausted people rest up. After the group took their seats, Rebecca looked with a smile at Clementine who sat right beside Carley while resting her heavy head against her guardian's shoulder. It intrigued Rebecca to see her old friend become a mother figure of sorts, but it was heartwarming nonetheless.

"Enjoy the cheese, but make sure to keep your distance from me when we're talking face to face. If you know what I mean," Rebecca joked and leaned against the kitchen counter while she looked at the group eat. "Now, I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what's gonna happen from here on out, but right now you need to have a rest and clear your heads. Plus, getting a few questions out of the way would do nicely."

"Well," Kenny muttered after taking another bite of cheese, "a proper introduction would be nice, seeing as you led us down here barely a minute after we first got here."

"Ah, crud, there goes my manners again," Rebecca chuckled. "Rebecca Chang, former reporter for Channel 6 action news, Pennsylvania. Pleased to meet you all. Don't let the knives unnerve you in any way – I just need them, because making noise that attracts the geeks in this city is like signing your own death warrant."

Carley raised an eyebrow. "Geeks?"

"That's what we decided to call them, Molly and I," Rebecca shrugged. "Molly always joked that the 'geeks' were fanboys of mine who wanted a piece of me." She paused briefly when she noticed Omid chuckling to himself, then turned to him. "What's so funny?"

"Nah, nah, don't worry," Omid continued to laugh. "It's just that now that you mention it, I had a friend of mine who lived in Pennsylvania and was practically head over heels for you for quite some time. Joined a Facebook page that was a fan page of yours and everything."

Bec rolled her eyes. "Typical. You had many of those pop up about you, Carley?"

"Yup," Carley grimaced. "I was curious and googled myself one time. Needless to say, there were some…flattering photoshopped images of me on various pages." She chose to keep it discreet as possible, knowing that they weren't exactly child-friendly messages for Clementine.

"Hey, ya ever got bombed by a bystander while reporting? Just curious," Omid grinned.

Rebecca raised an eyebrow. "Bombed? Like…"

"Y'know, people interrupting your reports by yelling and stuff. Boy, do I miss seeing random people come up to reporters and go, 'Baba booey, baba booey!" Omid said comically, shaking his hands in the air for added effect.

"Howard Stern's penis…yeah, I know," Rebecca slapped her hand against her forehead. "Got one or two of them myself." Except for Omid, none of the others seemed even lightly amused, especially Christa who was frowning harshly beside him.

Choosing to move away from Omid's joking tangent for Clementine's sake, Carley spoke. "But Bec, how on earth did you come here? And why are you staying here, of all places?"

"Well, I suppose I should start from the beginning, but I'll make it brief. I found that I was pretty much screwed the moment I drove into Atlanta, because my car was running low on fuel at that time and I needed a refill. I ran into a small group of survivors who helped me to locate your family's house, but…"

Carley leaned forward. "But?"

"It was too late," Bec sighed and hung her head. "The place was completely tarnished, and I saw your mom and little brother. They were…"

Carley brought her hand to her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief. Of course, given that all hell was breaking loose and growing thicker on the earth, she expected nothing less. But to hear from Rebecca that her family was truly gone…it broke her heart. Beside her, Clementine hung her head a little, as if she herself was losing hope in finding her parents.

"I'm sorry to have broken it to you, Carley, but it's the truth," Bec admitted. "I just ran away from the house when I saw them. I didn't have the heart to put down your family. They always treated me like one of their own whenever I dropped by."

Rebecca was her lifelong friend since her early years of elementary school, and Carley used to do everything with her. The two of them practically grew up together, going to the same elementary school, high school, and then both chose to study journalism at Georgia State University. They rented a small apartment room during their college years, and Carley never forgot the day Rebecca was offered a big opportunity to work with Channel 6 Action News barely six months after their graduation ceremony. The interview was held in an office of a Georgia-based subsidiary of Channel 6, and Rebecca had borrowed one of Carley's shirts for the occasion. The same shirt she was wearing now was the very one Carley had lent to her.

"Anyway, I took refuge in the mall complex with a bunch of other people. Eventually, the mall fell, and many people lost their minds afterwards, and were in fact more dangerous than the zombies themselves in some cases. I stayed close with a small group of my own, but eventually we all scattered when the geeks cut us all off from one another."

"So how did you end up here in Savannah?" Christa asked.

Rebecca waggled her head. "Wandered here and there, but found that I wasn't gonna get my hands on any food or water anytime soon if I did. I figured that despite the danger that a city posed compared to the rural countryside, a slim chance of food was better than none. The minute I came here, I was astounded by the, umm…lack of zombies or bodies in general."

"Yeah, why is that?" Clem inquired.

"Crawford," Bec flatly said.

"Crawford?" Carley asked. "Bec, you'll need to give us more info than that. Especially if it poses danger to us."

"Crawford…," she sighed and hung her head as she leaned back against the counter. "Crawford is…a hellhole. A prison. Some might even call it a concentration camp."

Kenny spoke, bewildered. "Concentration camp? What the hell?"

"It was formerly an ordinary district which had in it St. Felicity's Catholic School. The guys who took over it turned it into their own little dictatorship. Survival of the fittest to the max," she explained, crossing her arms. "No children, no old, no sickly. Only the fittest and most combat-savvy people were allowed to stay, and an extremely tiny number of their dependents, so long as they could take care of them. Molly and I, we…we were coerced and blackmailed into joining. But one day, we just decided that we'd about had enough. Three weeks ago, we decided to go it alone, the two of us. We left Crawford at night and never returned."

"Why did you leave that place? I mean, it sure as hell sounds like it was a pretty well-defended place to begin with," Omid noted.

"It was safe, yes, but…it was tormenting on the inside to stay. The way they treated those who happened to fall ill to malnutrition and other sicknesses…it was the last straw for Molly and I when we saw them outright executing the sickly."

"Jesus Christ," Kenny said. "Talk about being full-on Nazis."

"And the streets being empty? Why is that?" Katjaa asked.

"Beats me," Rebecca sighed. "The leader of the entire gang, Crawford Oberson, ordered his goons to scour through the entire city and kill anything and anyone they could find – walker or not – and bring their corpses back to the school. Always wondered why they insisted on it, seeing as walkers aren't intimidated by anything. Of course, the Crawford gang's few numbers means that they can't possibly hope to take out every walker. Hence the reason why we were chased through the streets."

Just then, a bell went off from far away, due east. Its loud and melodious chorus rippled throughout the entire cityscape, and the party felt their blood chill when they heard the moaning and groaning of the walkers on the streets outside. Judging from the dimming sounds of their cries, the walking dead seemed to move off in the general direction of the bell, away from their location at the house.

"What was that?" Omid gasped.

"That'd be Molly," Rebecca smiled. "Luring the walkers away from the sewer manhole by ringing bells far away. It's a pain in the ass to pull off, but better that than be faced with unending hordes blocking your path. Now," she walked over to the table, "as much as I'd like to hear everything you guys have to tell me about all your exploits so far, I think it's best that you soon get rest for now. You sure as hell need it. But before that, can you guys very briefly explain to me why you're here in Savannah?"

Carley looked sideways to see that Clementine still had a glum expression on her face. She didn't have the heart to break the poor child's heart, and although she felt terrible that Clem had to take the message in a subtle yet piercing way, a part of her felt relieved that she didn't have to coax and mince her words when telling Clem the inevitable truth about her parents.

Seeing that Carley was preoccupied with Clem, Kenny answered on her behalf. "We're lookin' for boats. Anything that floats and is capable of taking us southwards, at least to Florida or someplace."

Bec scoffed. "Hah. Good luck with that. All the boats were either taken or scavenged by the people of Crawford in the early days. Kept 'em locked tight in that little fortress of theirs. Nobody gets access to them. Not a soul."

"I don't get it," Katjaa wondered. "Why on earth would they have decided to stay there instead of take the boats?"

"Same reason we stayed at the motor inn, I guess, Kat," Kenny said. "In times like these, you'd rather find and stay somewhere safe – stay in numbers instead of scattering about."

"I remember the tales Molly told me about that place in the early days," Rebecca said as she walked closer to the table and stood beside Carley. "People were panicking, screaming and running everywhere, and a lot of them were picked off by the geeks. Many of them made a dash for the school, some to make sure that their children were fine and protected, and also because it was a place that had walls around its perimeter, making it easily defensible. They figured that the best thing to do was to wait it out a bit and protect the school complex. Days turned into weeks, then into months, and…we didn't budge. Only Molly and I decided to ditch that place. The people at the top are psychopaths and wouldn't even let one person leave with a boat."

"But why didn't you try to leave before that? As an entire group, I mean," Carley asked. "We were considering abandoning our old motor inn because of supply shortages before we were forced out of there by bandits and walkers. Didn't Crawford ever run low on supplies?"

Rebecca shook her head. "Not really. Of course, people went hungry, but that was because of Crawford's insane rationing rules. It went so much further than your standard serious rationing requirements; the guys who ran that place were full-on Nazis, I tell ya. Survival of the fittest to the max. Not one day went when your stomach didn't cry out like an atomic bomb. Because all the townspeople either died or fled very quickly, there was ample food available all over the city. All of the visible foods that could be easily located and brought back – unlike our cheese and wine stash – were gathered up and taken back to Crawford. The place was still strong on food supplies when Molly and I left just a few weeks ago."

"We have to get over there," Kenny said, drawing everyone's amazed attention. "We have to get a hold of those boats! At least one of 'em!"

"You serious?" Omid winced. "From what I've heard just now, Crawford isn't a place that any of us would wanna mess with."

"He's right," Bec nodded. "Think this through, this plan of yours. You saw how I took out those walkers who were about to eat you alive by using my knives, yes? Well, that's just standard combat methods for you when it comes to Crawford. Those people are gonna eat you alive if you even dare to set one foot within 500 yards of their territory."

"So what are we gonna do, then? Just rot in here eating cheese and drinking wine?" Kenny flung his hands up in the air. "Sure as hell I can use the wine right now given what's happened over the past few days."

Bec cocked her head towards Kenny in curiosity. "Seriously? What happened to you guys? You seem downhearted as hell."

Kenny simply looked down and fell into a moment of silence. He put his cheese down on the table and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes while his wife put her hand over his. Once again, Clementine made a glum face, this time even sadder as she similarly closed her eyes and hung her head.

"I'll talk to you later about it later, Bec – fill you in on the details and all that," Carley said. "Right now, we really need to get some rest."

"That would be for the best," Bec agreed. "The bedrooms are upstairs, and you can't miss them. There's four bedrooms each with a king-sized bed, so make yourselves comfortable. And be sure to keep the lights off – don't want to attract any attention."

"Sounds good; my muscles are aching like crazy," Omid muttered as he rose from his seat, and so did the others apart from Carley and Clementine. As much as they were all worried about Chuck and Ben and eager to find them, they knew that simply going out to investigate for themselves would prove to be fruitless and reckless, given that they hardly knew the layout of the city, never mind the sewer networks.

The moment she thought about Ben, Carley felt her heart fall into a state of conflict. A part of her felt sympathy and concern for the boy, after having grown fond of his positive nature over the past three months. On the other hand, she loathed him for almost causing Lee to die at the hands of Lilly. She had always been a good Christian, attending church services every Sunday, but now felt hopelessly lost and confused. At the same time she wished to forgive him now that Lee was alive and well, she wanted to strangle him and leave him to wallow in eternal torment as a walker. She felt pity for Chuck, knowing that he would be forced to put up with whatever hell came his way, all because of a stupid boy who cost the life of Duck and almost destroyed that of the love of her life.

"Come on, sweetheart, let's go upstairs," Carley said, patting Clem on the arm. "It's been a long day."

"Okay…," Clem replied, clearly downhearted.

"Carley, wait," Rebecca gestured to her with her hand, and Carley looked up at her, slightly dizzy after franticly running on an empty stomach.

"Yeah? What is it, Bec?" she asked, holding Clem's hand.

"Could I…y'know…talk to you for a while? Alone, I mean," Bec replied. "After all, it's been ages since we actually saw each other. I'd like to catch up a bit, if you're not too tired."

"Sure, why not?" Carley smiled, but then her expression faded when she looked down at Clem, who appeared to be emotionless. "Christa?" she called out to the woman who was now at the staircase.

"Yeah?" Christa looked at her, one foot on the stairs.

"Could you help Clem settle into a room?"

"Course I can," Christa smiled, then extended a hand out and beckoned to Clem with her fingers. "Clem, come on, honey."

"Go on, Clem, I won't be long," Carley assured her with a gentle push of encouragement. The child did as she was requested, and didn't seem at all comforted by even the thought of a warm bed after spending days in an uncomfortable RV and train.

"She sure seems like a nice kid," Rebecca smiled as she watched Clem go up the stairs and disappear from view. "Why's she looking so down? I couldn't help but notice, but I wanted to give her some space in case it was something serious."

"It is," Carley sighed and walked over to the kitchen counter and leaned against it, with Bec joining her. "She's lost her parents, just like I had."

"Christ," Bec gasped. "Can't imagine how she feels. She must be torn."

"I think…I think she knows by now," Carley rubbed her sore head. "I've been meaning to tell her that it'd be pointless to look for her parents, but…I just don't know how to break it to her, y'know? She's just an eight year-old kid."

"Where are her parents? Or, where were they, precisely?"

"Right here in Savannah," Carley exhaled. "Lee, my lover who's not here with us but is alive and well in Woodbury, told me about the message left by Clem's mom on her home phone when he stumbled across the place by chance. By all logical conclusions, her parents are just as dead as mine. Lee and I promised her that we'd look for them, but at the end of the day we were just trying to make her feel good and keep on kicking the can down the road."

"Carley," Rebecca shook her head in dismay, "if there's just one thing that you have to get your head around nowadays, it's this: you can't mollycoddle children anymore. It's just not possible. Not in this new world of ours."

Carley stared at her, fear seeping into her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"At the end of the day, it doesn't count for shit whether the child feels ready to adapt or not. It's not a matter of choice, but necessity. Crawford has drummed that lesson into me in a way that's so rough that you won't be able to imagine."

"What exactly happened?" Carley asked.

Rebecca turned so that her front was facing the counter, and she leaned forward and placed her elbows on top of it, supporting her face up with her hands. "I found a little boy, around Clementine's age, about three weeks into the whole apocalypse. He was holed up in his house, starving to death and his water bottle completely empty. I brought him back to Crawford despite knowing the rules about children and the sickly, but I was allowed to keep him with me because the boss knew that I was well and truly capable of looking after him and also because I promised that he'd not cause any trouble. Things went well at first, but then one night he was playing around with a pistol he nabbed from a sleeping guard inside the school building. He fired it by accident and killed the guard with a shot through the heart. He was locked away in a storage room, and then…and then…" Rebecca stopped and began to sniff, almost on the verge of breaking down into tears.

"What happened to him?"

What Bec said next made Carley's blood freeze solid. "They…they decapitated him the next morning. A little boy. Cut his head off slowly with a saw, so that the rest of the people gathered around watching had a 'lesson' to heed. I loved him for the short time he was with me. It broke my heart to see him die. The screams…the fear in his eyes…Good God…"

"Boy," Carley remarked. "Seems like you were really attached to the kid."

"I loved him," Bec sighed. "In times like these, the people you stick with are the only family you have left, at the end of the day. Don't you feel that about Clementine?"

"Yeah, I do," she admitted. "Besides Lee, I love her more than anything else in the world. I'd rather die than let anything happen to her."

Once the crushing memory of the poor child passed, Rebecca allowed a smile to form on her face. "You love her, don't you?"

Carley's face contorted eerily as she answered the obvious. "Of course I do."

"Heh, I could tell from the minute I saw you guys together in that room I pulled you up into," Rebecca laughed softly. "She's so attached to you that it might make some strangers suspect that you're her mother."

"Well, I pretty much am her mother now. And it's gonna stay that way for a long time," Carley blushed, intrigued by Bec's observation.

"If you put it that way," Bec yawned and stretched her arms a little. Heavens knows how long she was up, let alone running and hiding all across the city during the day. "But right now, to me, it seems that it's time that mommy went upstairs and tended to her daughter. Y'know, breaking the truth like a hardass, as tough as it may be?"

Carley grimaced. "You really think I should do that? Right now?"

"I know that it seems hard, Carley, but you have to get this sorted out right now," Rebecca insisted. "There's never a good way or right time to break this kinda news, but it's better to get it out of the way than have it come back to bite later."

Then, Carley remembered. How she encouraged and convinced Lee to tell the truth about himself to the rest of them. She recalled hearing him tell the truth to Clementine without any fluffy or deceitful words, only stopping short of describing the murder of the state senator in graphic detail. The only one who wasn't told about the incident was Duck, who was too busy running around the place and playing detective to pay any attention.

It was probably the hardest thing for Lee to have ever done, and there was no reason for Carley to keep the honest truth from Clementine's ears.

"You're right, Bec. I should tell her. Lee would have done the same thing."

"You keep on mentioning this 'Lee' character. I'd like to hear more about him when we get the chance. Sounds like a real nice guy," Bec said with a smile and a cheeky little wink. "But now, you should go upstairs and get some shuteye. I've always wondered what you'd look like without your regular coffee, and Christ, you look ravaged."

"Okay, then," Carley grinned at Bec's little quip, knowing herself that she turned into either a shrieking hagraven or a reactionless sloth when she lacked coffee at the vital moment. "I guess I'll…uhh…head upstairs."

"And don't be worried!" Rebecca assured her after she walked by. "As long as you keep the lights off and stay quiet, the geeks probably won't come strolling over. I'll keep watch, so don't you worry about anything."

"I'll make sure of it," Carley nodded with a smile and began to walk up the stairs, her eyelids finally allowing themselves to grow heavy at last.

"One more thing," Bec said, and Carley momentarily paused to look at her. A smile stretched across Bec's face, reminding Carley of the good old days. "Sleep well, sis."

Cherished memories of happy times only ever came back to Carley's mind when she dreamed at night in the safety of the motor inn. She would often dream of her family, all the merry holiday seasons and celebrations they shared, and especially of her dear younger brother who was now lost to her forever. All the time she spent with Rebecca over the span of over two decades meant that she was nothing short of a true sister to her in her heart, and that she was a person whom Carley could absolutely put her trust in.

After exchanging one more warm smile with Rebecca, Carley walked upstairs, hoping that she would be able to get a good night's sleep.

Hoped.


A/N: Like I said earlier, I'm probably going to have to add another chapter with Carley and the main group in order to avoid having confusing time gaps between them and Lee, Lilly & Glenn. I also need to slow things down and get some more character development and backstory exploration in order, because I don't want to rush things forwards too hastily.

Once again, thanks for all your reviews and support, and I hope to bring you another update when the time comes.