The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival
Chapter 11: put to work
Hello, everyone, I got news that Episode 4: Amid the Ruins should be released somewhat in July. I sure wonder what will happen to Sarita, Rebecca, Sarah, regarding their fates. Let us hope it will be a great episode. Before you read, here's the choices I made in 400 days that may effect the story later on.
Vince's story, Day 2: I saved Justin and killed Danny.
Wyatt's story, Day 41: I stayed in the car and left Eddie behind
Russell's story, Day 184: I left Nate.
Bonnie's story, Day 220: I lied to Leland and got him to come with Bonnie, and Bonnie was the one to leave him afterwards.
Shels story, Day 236 and 259: I did not vote on Roberto's fate which resulted in Roman voting for me and killing Roberto and I left in the RV.
Epilogue, Day 400: I got everyone to join Tavia's group.
While Lee was making conversation with Reggie to distract him, Clementine proceeded to speak to her best friend Sarah, whom had been sitting quietly the entire time they were in now. She looked worried, possibly due to her father not being with her at the moment.
"I'm trying to be good." Sarah admitted when she noticed Clementine had arrived.
"What?" Clementine inquired.
"Reggie asked me to be good, so I'm being good. I don't want to get him in trouble." Sarah explained, but that was hardly a reason to be quiet and not speak to anyone. "I'll talk to you later."
Sitting right next to Sarah, Rebecca and Carley were discussing about Alvin and how he much she missed him. She continued talking when noticing Clementine had arrived to check up on her.
"I didn't treat Alvin very well these last few weeks...Things go so complicated so fast..." Rebecca continued speaking; now speaking to both Carley and Clementine. "It became all about getting through each day..." she silently prayed to herself that Alvin would come back to her, safe and sound. "I'm trying real hard to remember the last time I told him that I loved him...I've been racking my brain...but I just can't remember..."
Clementine was unsure if Rebecca was going to be able to continue after losing her husband. Clementine knew it was her job at the moment to help comfort Rebecca. It is what Alvin would have wanted. "He's watching over you, so he sees you now and knows how you feel about him."
"I hope that's true. I miss him so much." Rebecca admitted, appreciating everything Clementine had done for her, despite the fact she was just a little girl. "All right, you can get going now, Clementine. I'll be fine. I appreciate you checking up on me. Thank you."
Clementine left Rebecca alone and proceeded to continue investigating the area, but she was unable to find anything useful. She even did a double-check around the place, but there was nothing they could use to escape. The only way in and out was the security shutters. She walked back over towards Lee, whom had just finished distracting Reggie.
Lee knelt down to Clementine's height level, anxious to know if she had found a way out of here. "Find anything to help us, Clementine."
"Not really." Clementine answered in a sad tone.
"Shit...I was hoping you would catch something useful." Lee admitted as he stood back up to full height.
The security shutters had opened again from the opposite side, and to everyone's relief, it was a familiar face that had turned up safe and sound: Carlos. He was being escorted inside by Troy.
Sarah cried with enthusiasm when seeing her father and ran over towards him. "Dad!"
Carlos embraced his daughter in hug; feeling so relieved to see her safe and continued to hold his only bit of family left in his arms.
"All of you go the fuck to sleep. I'm going to start shooting the first one of y'all I see wandering around before it's time to get up." Troy ordered in a harsh yet serious tone. He proceeded back outside the yard and closed the security shutters behind him. "Everybody get the fuck to bed!"
No-one wanted to get themselves into trouble and face the consequences, and made their way over towards the bunk beds (Rebecca on the comfortable bed in the corner) to get as much sleep as they could for the morning. Although there were a couple of extra beds, Lee and Carley decided to share one together.
Lee turned to his left where he saw his adoptive daughter sleeping in the next bed beside him on the ground, and could not help but worry for her safety. Walkers were one thing that you could just run away from, but being trapped in a place with people loaded with automatic rifles seemed twice as worse. "Hey...Clementine. You think you're going to be okay?"
"...I...I don't know, Lee." Clementine admitted, lying on her side with her head tucked in her arms.
"We will get out of here, Clem. I promise." Lee promised, raising a slight smile across his face. "You trust me, right?"
"Of course I trust you, Lee." Clementine assured, wondering why her guardian would ever say that to her. She trusted him with her life.
"All right. Let's get some sleep for the night, Clementine." Lee bidden her farewell as he tried to get comfortable on this bed. He knew for a fact that tomorrow was going to be a tough day for each and every one of them. They needed to get out of here as soon as possible. For now, it was best to do what Carver says until they can get out of here, that is.
The next morning, Lee had woken up in a groaning tone when he felt someone nudge him in the stomach. He opened his eyes fully and cleared out his blurry vision to see it was Troy, one of Carver's most trusted guards. "Was it necessary to kick me?" Lee inquired.
"Just get the fuck up." Troy ordered in a normal tone for once. "Bill's going to have a word with y'all."
Lee wanted nothing more than to just punch this man and take his weapon and shoot his way out of here, but he knew that would be nothing but suicide. He obeyed and got out from his bunk bed and proceeded over towards the center of the yard where everyone else was. Carver was also present with Tavia, Troy and Hank guarding the area. He was currently giving a little speech towards each and every one of them. "There's been increased walker activity along the fence so be mindful when outside the walls. The herd's moved a little closer as of this morning, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll be hit. Know we're monitoring the situation. Now...There are some folks might be sore about what happened...at how things went. Well, that's all in the past now...Some of you are new to our community. Some of you are members who went astray. But know that you can redemption here...Forgiveness...By proving your worth through what will undoubtedly be hard work."
Carver shifted his attention over towards Reggie, who did not dare do anything or say anything to ruin his chances of being let back into the group. "Reggie, you're nearly back in." Carver told him, and this caused him to smile for a moment. "Keep following the path, and we'll welcome you back with open arms."
"How'd you sleep?" Sarah, who was standing in between Carley and Clementine, asked Clementine in a low voice, but that was not quite enough to keep Carver from hearing. He was unsure of who said it exactly, but continued speaking nevertheless. "I couldn't sleep all that good, last night. It was just so hard, you know."
"HEY!" Carver shouted, and this caused a couple of them to jump in fear. He marched in between the group who stood out the way for him to go through, and had his attention focused on the three girls. "I heard one of you talking. Don't you know it's not nice to talk over other people? Now, I want to know which one of you did it, and if you don't tell me, things will have to get ugly."
Sarah was in extremely fear of what Carver was going to do to her for speaking. She sure did regret speaking over him now. She nervously rubbed her hand over her arm and was about to speak up. "It was-"
"Okay, you caught me." Carley had suddenly spoken up over her and took the blame for the young girl. "It was me. I am sorry."
Carver growled silently under his breath as he caught Lee in the corner of his eye preparing to do something if he dared hurt Carley. He raised his hand up and Lee only assumed he was going to slap her, but instead, he placed his hand upon her shoulder. "Now, I would normally punish someone for stepping out of line, but since you're new here, I will make an exception this once."
Carley merely glared towards him in response as she folded her arms together. She turned towards Sarah just for a second and winked towards her. Sarah was certainly shocked by this. No-one who was not a part of her family had never taken a blame for her like that. She would certainly not get herself into trouble again, and was extremely grateful for Carley's help.
"Now, each of you has different assignments this morning." Carver continued as he marched back towards the front of the yard. "It's time to get to work. Lee and Mike, you two are with Troy outside. Carley, you're going to be working in the cafeteria with a couple others. Clementine, you're with Bonnie in the armory. Carlos, you're working on some of the injured this morning, Hank will take you there. Lilly, Sarah, Sarita, you three are going to help Reggie. As for you, Rebecca, we need to talk in my office. Any questions?"
No-one replied.
"Excellent." Carver grinned. "Now all of you know your duties. Get to work. The sooner you prove your loyalty to me, the sooner you can all be out the yard. Dismissed."
Everyone proceeded to their jobs like he demanded. Each of them followed the guards they were assigned, too and were unwillingly ready to work for the day. Before Lee followed Troy outside, he patted Clementine's hat a couple of times, assuring her that it would be fine. "Good luck, Clem. Just do what they say, okay?"
"Okay." she nodded.
"All right, I'll see you later." Lee said as he followed Mike and Troy out of the yard. He sure hoped Clementine would be okay on her own here. She was not like other girls, of course, and was smarter than the average kid, but it still did not mean she would be safe in this place. Thank the Lord she was not going to work with Carve or Troy.
Clementine was about to walk outside but suddenly froze a bag of soil had dropped only a couple of feet away from her. That could have hit her if she was a little more to the left. She looked up to the roof where Jane looked down to investigate the dropped soil. "Oh, shit." Jane cursed.
"Clementine, let's go!" Tavia ordered, causing Clementine to run towards her in fear of getting herself in trouble.
It was going to be a while before everyone in their group was reunited with each other, and for now, they were going to have to work their fingers off to the bone to prevent themselves from getting in trouble. Carley, who had been sent to work on her own with strangers, had eventually arrived to the cafeteria while being escorted by one of Carver's guards. She was surprised to see the guard escorting her was just a kid.
He looked around his late teens to his early twenties, his ethnicity looked to be African-American, he had short black hair, he wore a blue hoodie with blackish jeans, and carried an AK-47 was his main weapon like most of the guards did in this community. "You should get work." he suggested to Carley. "Bill doesn't like idle hands."
Carley did not respond and entered the cafeteria while the kid stood outside the guard. She was inside the huge cafeteria area to see she was working with two other people.
The woman looked around in her early twenties, her ethnicity seemed to be Caucasian-American, she had dark brown hair tied in a ponytail; she wore a blue jacket with dark bluish jeans.
The younger girl looked Caucasian-American, she looked around the same age as Sarah, she had medium sized dark brown long hair, and she wore a light brown long sleeve shirt and grey pants.
The older woman noticed Carley and beckoned for her to come over. "Hey there, you must be one of the new comers."
"More like new prisoner." Carley thought to herself while proceeding over to the two girls in the kitchen area. "Hi, I'm Carley."
"I'm Shel." Shel introduced herself but as for her little sister, she merely stood there with her arms folded. "And this is my sister Becca."
"Nice to meet you." Carley admitted. "So, Carver says I got to work here. What's my job?"
"Simple really, we're just washing dishes and bowls." Shel answered, beckoning for Carley to follow over her towards their work station. "It's simple really. You wash, I'll dry up and Becca puts them away. You actually got one of the easy jobs. Well, I suppose we best get started."
"Alright." Carley folded up her jacket sleeves and moved over towards the bowl that was already full of hot water for her to do the washing up. She got a move on and began washing the dishes, plates, and other kitchen material. She could not remember the last time she did any washing-up in this day and age.
While they were working, Shel decided to make conversation between them both as they continued working. "So how did you get here?"
"If you must know, that Carver was searching for his people and decides to bring us back with him." Carley answered with a hint of anger yet sarcasm in her voice.
"I know how it must feel, but it's really not that bad here." Shel assured as she passed a couple of dishes over to her younger sister. "I know Carver seems intimidating at times, but once you got use to him, and if you say on his good side, you'll see what I mean."
"Uh-Hu." Carley nodded, not seeming too interested to what she just said. "So, what's your story? How did you two end up here?"
"Me and my sister were staying at this gas station with this guy Roman, but after he wanted me to kill someone in our group because she wanted to leave..." Shel trailed off as she closed her eyes for a moment with a sad expression across her face. "...I refused, and Becca and I left. We met up with four other people and stayed at this camp for a while until Tavia arrived and offered us to come here. We wanted somewhere safe, and thought that maybe here was our best bet."
"Sounds like it hasn't been easy for you." Carley admitted.
"Yeah..." Shel agreed, but now she decided it was her turn to ask the questions. "What about you? What's your story?"
"I use to be a news reporter in Macon, but after all this began, I met up with my boyfriend Lee at this drugstore and we all stayed at this Motor Inn for a couple of months, but we had to leave when we were attacked by these bandits." Carley explained, trying to keep her story as short as possible. "We went to Savannah, looking for boats to get us out on the open sea. We found one, but there wasn't enough room for all us, so me, Lee, and Clementine decided to stay behind and make a go of it. We kept moving until we met Carlos and his group. And then, that's pretty much it."
"Sounds like you've been through a lot." Shel admitted. "Well, in any case, you're safe here in this community. And I know Carlos and his group made mistakes, but Carver has forgiven them. He can forgive you, too if you give him the chance."
"We'll see." Carley replied, but deep down, she would never stay here in a million years and wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, in another part of Carver's community, Carlos had been put to work in the medical area with another man who knew before. His name was Vince, he looked around his middle thirties, he had longish brown hair with a slight goatee, and his ethnicity looked Asian-American. And to top it off, he wore a red jacket with a white shirt underneath and blackish jeans. He carried a Glock 17 as his main weapon.
Carlos walked inside with Vince guarding the area while he attended to a couple of injured people who had been either shot or injured badly.
Vince could not help but notice his bruised face and his broken fingers wrapped in bandages. "What happened to you, Carlos? You look half-dead."
"If you must know, Carver did this to me." Carlos answered. "He broke my fingers and decided to torture me just to find Rebecca."
Carlos moved towards the nearest person as Vince continued speaking towards him. "Forgive me for saying this, but I think it's good that you and the others are back, Carlos. You're safer in here than you are out there."
"Safe?" Carlos repeated, shocked to what he had just told. "Carver is a very dangerous man, Vince. He just killed two of our own people. And you think staying in here is safe?"
Vince was about to argue with him, but he could not think of anything to say. For now, he changes the subject while he stood guard of the area. "Just get back to work would you, Carlos."
Carlos obeyed his request and continued working on the injured people of this community. He could not wait until it was time to get of this community again, but with him having broken fingers and other injuries, and with Rebecca being pregnant, that was going to make it a challenge.
In yet another area of the community, Lilly, Sarita and Sarah had been escorted by Reggie to the rooftop of the community. Their job was to take some things over to another part of the community, but as for Sarah, she had another job to do. Once Reggie had taken them to the stockroom area, he gestured his one arm to multiple crates stacked-up against the wall for them to carry. "Okay, girls, these are crates full of materials for a couple of people working on the fence outside. Just take all of these to them. Simple."
"What's in these things?" Lilly inquired as she picked up one of the crates that felt somewhat heavy for her to carry.
"Just stuff." Reggie simply answered. "I can't really say. Look, this should maybe take you around fifteen-minutes to half-hour tops. I'm going to go and take Sarah to where she is going to be working. Just exit the door, keep going straight until you find the fire exit and take these to a man named Wyatt working outside. Simple, really?"
"All right, a man named Wyatt." Sarita repeated as she herself picked up one of the crates.
"Okay, come on, Sarah." Reggie said, walking away out of the stockroom with Sarah beside him.
After he was gone, Lilly and Sarita proceeded to get a move on with their jobs and made their way out of the stockroom and kept going straight like Reggie had instructed. Fortunately for them, they were working with Reggie and not one of the bad people here. Neither of them wanted to do this, but it was either do the job or face the consequences. Once they made it to the fire exit, Lilly opened up using her foot due to her hands being full and walked outside. However, she stopped and looked up to see Troy standing guard of the area on top of the roof, looking down on them. "What are you both doing?" he called out.
"We're just taking these materials to someone named Wyatt!" Sarita called in return, wishing he would just let them go already before she lost her grip.
"Alright, exit out that gate. He's working outside!" Troy instructed.
The duo obeyed and made their way down the path and out of the opened gate until they eventually came across a man hammering wood against the windows with a couple of others. The man looked Caucasian-American, he wore glasses and had a brown/yellowish long hair and beard, he looked overweight, he looked around his middle twenties to early thirties, and to top it off, he wore a green jacket with blue jeans.
Lilly was the one to speak up as she approached him with a normal expression across her face. "Are you Wyatt?"
"Yeah, that's me." Wyatt answered as he put his hammer down for a moment to greet them.
"Reggie told us to bring these to you." Sarita declared as she and Lilly set down the crates onto the path, unable to hold them anymore than they needed to.
"Ahh, yeah, thanks dudes." Wyatt thanked, turning around for a moment when he noticed a walker approaching him and the rest of his people. "We got a lurker."
"I got it." one of the guards assured, pulling out a small blade from his belt and patiently waiting for the walker to approach him. When it was in range, he lifted the blade and stabbed the walker directly in its forehead, killing it instantly. He grinned and placed his blade back into his belt, and proceeded to get back to work. "I got it. Everyone get back to work."
Wyatt and the couple of people he was working with continued nailing wood against the windows. Lilly and Sarita made their way back into the building to fetch the rest of the crates for them. The duo knew it was going to be a long day of nothing but hard work for them.
Back inside the community, the young girl named Clementine had been put to work in the armory with Bonnie. The two were reloading magazines with each other, and even got the chance to bond slightly.
Bonnie had to admit that she did like Clementine as a friend, but did feel somewhat guilty for lying to her when they first met. "I owe you an apology, Clementine...I wasn't truthful when I came across ya'll at the lodge...And I was shown a kindness I never would have expected from a group of strangers...Walter was so kind, and now he and Alvin are dead. I wanted no-one to get hurt. I thought that was the intent. "
"Carver's the one who pulled the trigger." Clementine told her as she continued reloading magazines with bullets. "He's to blame for all this. Walter was a nice man and didn't deserve to die."
"Yeah, but...Well...I don't know." Bonnie admitted. "I thought if I was the one that found everyone, I could control the situation and get everyone back safe without anyone dying.
Clementine stared at her for a moment with a slight sad expression across her face, realizing that Bonnie was not all that bad unlike the many members this community. She still did not trust her after what she did, but was starting to warm up towards her.
"I'm sorry." Bonnie apologized. "Which don't mean much now, but I just want us to be friends and start over."
Clementine did not answer, but Bonnie could tell by her face that she had forgiven her. The two continued the rest of their work until Bonnie had spoken up once again, trying to make conversation and to get to know Clementine a little better. "So, what's your story, Clementine? How long have you known Lee for?"
"It's kind of a long story." Clementine admitted, unsure where to start during the past two-years she spent in this world. "Lee found me when I was alone in my house when all this started. My parents were on vacation and left me with a babysitter. Lee and I were together with Carley, Lilly and a few others. Some of us died and some of us got separated. We went to Savannah to look for a boat and to find my parents, but...Not all of us could fit on. Most of them left, I found my parents as walkers...And Lee, Carley, and me have just been moving ever since."
"Sounds like it ain't been easy for ya, darling." Bonnie admitted, unable to imagine what it was like growing up in this world. She had another question for her, nevertheless, regarding the member of the cabin group who was nowhere to been seen. "If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Nick? I noticed he wasn't there when we arrived."
"I don't know. He was out there with Lee and the others when walkers had attacked." Clementine admitted, unsure of her friend's current fate.
"Well, I hope he and Luke are alright." Bonnie hoped, changing the subject once she had another question on her mind. "How was your first night in the yard?"
"You mean my first night in prison?" Clementine queried.
"It ain't a prison." Bonnie quickly responded, hoping to assure Clementine that this community was a great place to be in. "It's more of a...place to rest until it's time to work."
"Didn't they do those in prisons?" Clementine clashed, being able to outsmart Bonnie just with her own words.
"I...probably. I don't know..." Bonnie admitted. "I never been to prison. Don't tell no-one. Trying to keep a tough reputation."
Bonnie picked up another magazine and began reloading it while she and Clementine continued to make conversation between them both. "Did you know I was supposed to when Luke, Carlos and all them left? I was planning on leaving too. When Luke had told me about it, I thought he was crazy. But it's safer here. We got everything."
"They never mentioned you." Clementine admitted.
"Well, I would expect them not to mention me. You don't know me, do ya? What are they going to say?" Bonnie asked Clementine, chuckling slightly during mid-sentence. ""Hey Clem, Bonnie ain't here?"" You wouldn't know what he was talking about."
"I guess so." Clementine admitted. "But I still don't know why you would rather stay here. Nobody's safe here with Carver around."
"You're safe if you stay on his good side." Bonnie countered her sentence with her own.
"Does he even have a good side?" Clementine inquired.
"Clem, ain't easy keeping a group this big fed and protected." Bonnie admitted. "I wouldn't want to be in Carver's shoes. I figure that would make anyone a little stressed. I'm not defending what he did. You should know that I'm alive because of him. That's just a fact, Clementine."
Clementine could not believe what she was hearing. Who in the world would want to stay here with Carver and consider him a good person? "He killed Walter and Alvin!" she reminded.
"Only because Lilly shot Johnny and then shot Carver." Bonnie quickly responded. "Lilly could have killed us all."
"But she didn't." Clementine reminded.
"Bill overreacted. He was in the heat of the moment and he overreacted." Bonnie explained as she picked up more magazines to continue the rest of their work. "Luke had ideas about how things should go, but Bill never agreed...they argued and Rebecca started showing, and that only made things worse...Maybe Luke was right about him...I wish he was here...I just hope he's safe."
A static voice had spoken up on the radio resting on the table they were working at. By the sound of the voice, it sounded like Tavia on the other end. "Hey Bonnie, is Clementine still working in there with you? I need to come get her."
Bonnie picked up the radio and held her finger against the button to communicate. "Yeah, she's here with me. What's the problem?"
"Carver wants her at the greenhouse with Reggie." Tavia answered, but not before she turned off her radio on her end. "Out."
Bonnie noticed a slightly nervous expression across Clementine's face, and assured her that everything was going to be fine. "I'm sure it's fine. Oh, almost forgot. I got something for you."
"You have?" Clementine inquired.
Bonnie got up and proceeded to pick up something on the other end of the room. She returned and held up a small cerulean ski jacket with a rainbow strip around the middle that looked like it would fit her torso size. "This is for you. It's getting a little chilly recently, and I wanted to make sure you stayed warm."
Clementine examined the jacket that she accepted from the older woman. She put the jacket on over herself, and had to admit she did find it to be a little silly, but it sure felt different than wearing the same purple shirt every day. "It's cool. Where did you get it?"
"While no-one was looking, I grabbed it at that ski lodge y'all were staying it." Bonnie answered while she examined the jacket around Clementine. "Looks nice on you. I thought it was cute, but I didn't know what you would think. I got the feeling some folks might be jealous of that cool jacket of yours. Especially your friend Sarah."
The door had opened from the outside, and the duo turned around to see it was Tavia whom had arrived to collect Clementine. She noticed the new jacket across his Clementine and arched an eyebrow. "Oh, there you are. Where did you get the jacket?"
"I found it laying around here and thought it would suite her." Bonnie answered.
"Kind of ugly, isn't it?" Tavia inquired, causing Clementine to frown and cross her arms together.
"Tavia!" Bonnie sighed.
"What?" Tavia replied.
"Never mind. I'll see you later, Clementine." Bonnie bidden the young girl farewell, and proceeded to continue reloading the rest of the magazine clips on her own.
"Come on." Tavia ordered, marching out of the workshop.
"Where are we going?" Clementine inquired.
"Carver wants you to work with Sarah and Reggie in the greenhouse." Tavia answered as they walked up the fire stairs that would take them to the roof. Clementine could only wonder what she would be doing next, but she prayed she didn't have to work with anyone like Troy.
Everyone has been put to work for the day in Carver's community. As you can see, I decided to give some of the characters a scene on what they were doing during their time here. I also gave the other 400 days characters more roles since they merely had cameos in the story. Anyway, stay turned for more.
