A/N: Merry Christmas to everyone. My Christmas gift to you is updating a day earlier with SoT.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Walking Dead. All rights reserved to their respective owners.
Clementine and Keith continued to walk up the stairs and into Carver's office. As they walked up the stairs, Rebecca ran out of the office crying, her hand covering part of her face.
"Rebecca?" Clementine said worriedly. The woman ignored the child and continued to walk down the flight of stairs.
"She's a strong woman, surrounded by weak men. I ain't lettin my kid get raised around that." Carver said as the two children turned to the leader of the community. He wore a smirk as he continued, "After all, I already let that happen once, and the results were disappointing."
Keith glared at his father and asked, "What did you do? Why was Rebecca crying?"
"How disappointing." Carver stated. "Keith Blake, you could be an amazing leader for this place, but all you ever concentrate on is the weak, such a waste." He then looked at both children as Keith lost his glare and only shook his head, disappointed by his father's cruelty. "Now get in here." Carver said.
Clementine and Keith entered the office to a gruesome sight. Alvin was beaten to a bloody pulp. He appeared to be unresponsive and was slumped down in the chair.
"Alvin! Alvin!" Clementine exclaimed as she approached the man. Keith looked on in horror as Carver entered the room.
"He passed out hours ago." Carver explained with a slight chuckle in his voice. The two children turned to the psychotic leader as he continued, "He can't hear you. No point in making a racket."
"Why are you doing this?" Clementine asked.
"Me and him, we got history. Understand?" Carver explained. "A couple things we had to… get worked out." He glared at the two children and continued, "I wouldn't be too concerned on his well-being if I were you two. Not with you both so close to the fire yourselves." Carver then looked to his desk and said, "Now…" He made a hand gesture for the two to sit in front of the desk.
Clementine and Keith obliged and sat in a couple of chairs. "You two make sure and tell me the truth when you're sitting where you are… and you won't end up over in that chair." Carver said as he made a gesture towards the chair that Alvin was in. "Now you may not believe this from what happened earlier, but… I liked Reggie." Carver smiled and relaxed, but Keith could tell that his father was only putting up a façade to fool Clementine into thinking that he was a decent man. "He was a funny guy. He kept things light. You need folks like that… it's easy to let depression sink in during times like this." Carver walked behind the desk to address both children before he continued, "But he was weak. And I don't mean because he was maimed, that wasn't his problem. He was weak in will, weak in character. And we can't have that around."
"That's a lie." Keith said which shocked Carver. "You hated Reggie, the only reason you kept him around was to convince Luke's group from escaping again. But as soon as you found out that he failed, you saw him as something useless, a liability, and decided to toss him aside."
Carver smirked and hummed. "I'm quite impressed Keith Blake. You figured that out, all on your own?"
"Wasn't hard to figure out." Keith explained. "Why put Sarah and me on the same project with a man who can barely do his own work? You set him up to fail, and even if by some chance that we pulled through, you were still going to kill him."
Carver began to clap his hands and said, "Bravo. You definitely got your mother's analytical brain." He looked back to both Clementine and Keith. "You see, Reggie put us at risk with his incompetence. He's had a string of screw-ups lately." Carver got up from behind his desk and approached Clementine to sit in front of her on the desk. He stared down to intimidate the girl which worked slightly and continued, "Killing one to save many is a part of survival. It's one of the tough decisions that a weaker person couldn't make. It's why it falls to people like us to bring them to safety." Carver then directed his attention to Keith and continued, "And one day, Keith Blake, you will have to make the same decision. To kill or let everyone else die."
"No…" Keith said. "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13."
Carver glared at the boy and asked, "You still believe that book of lies?"
"No, the Bible has no lies, only truth." Keith replied. "After all, you believed in it too when you were still William Carver."
Carver was stunned for a second at the mention of his former self. "We all are more alike than either one of you two would like to believe. There's no other way you could have lasted this long, otherwise." Carver focused on Keith and said, "I realized back in that cabin, that the world had molded you into something I could only dream of achieving. The annoying little boy that had no backbone, no will, no strength, he's gone now and you have taken his place." Carver turned his focus to Clementine and said, "As for you, I must say, my boy has good taste in picking out a strong girlfriend. I could tell when I held you at gunpoint that you were scared, but you looked me straight in the eye and kept your nerve this morning. That's what we need. If we're going to survive this, the next generation is going to have to be stronger than the last. Kids like you two, raised the right way. The way my new child will be raised. It ain't any herds that keeps me up at night. It's if this community has a future, and I came so close to having a good leader, a good applicant, but it might be better to start from scratch."
"It's not your baby. It's Alvin's." Clementine said.
"Well, even if that was true, it's mine now." Carver said with a slightly disappointed look. Neither children were thinking like him in the slightest, which was starting to irritate him. "Now-"
"Bill, you there?" Tavia asked from a radio transmission.
Carver went up to the radio and picked it up. "Yeah? I'm here." Carver replied as he looked out to the hardware store from his office.
"The loading bay door is jacked." Tavia replied. "Troy really knocked the shit out of it."
"How bad is it?" Carver asked as both Clementine and Keith eyed the PA system setup.
"Rails are tweaked so it won't shut all the way." Tavia explained. "I don't think it's an emergency or anything, but it's something that Stan should take a look at when he can."
"I'll get him on it. Out." Carver grumbled, easily annoyed by the new mess that Troy had made. "That f****** idiot. A herds on its way and he puts a ding in my door. Go on out back to the yard… it's almost supper time." Carver said as he contemplated over the new information.
Clementine and Keith got up and walked to the door while looking at Alvin sadly. They proceeded to exit the office and went towards the yard, both contemplating on the best course of action.
True to Carver's word, it was supper time and very dark outside. Keith and Clementine entered the yard as Tisha opened and closed the garage door for them. "…Because we all know what happened this morning. I don't know what that sonuvabitch is going to do next." Kenny exclaimed. Clementine and Keith walked up to the fire pit where everyone was gathered.
"So you wanna just ring the dinner bell for a herd of walkers to show up?" Mike inquired. "How's that better?"
"Cause this place will be in f****** chaos when that thing hits." Kenny explained as Clementine and Keith sat in a couple of unused lawn chairs. "No one'll be payin attention to us. And that's when we go. That's our opening. We just got to figure out a way to draw them to us."
"Your friend here is trying to get us killed by lurkers before Bill can do it." Rebecca said to Clementine.
"What is it with you?" Kenny asked.
"That's what it sounds like to me." Rebecca replied.
"You know that's not what he's saying… but it does sound dangerous." Sarita said.
"This shit is all dangerous!" Kenny exclaimed.
"Kenny!" Sarita snapped. "Do not speak to me like that!"
"Okay, okay, sorry." Kenny apologized.
"I have to admit, I agree with Kenny." Nick said. "Staying in here any longer is a mistake."
"Maybe Luke could help us… he's outside." Clementine explained. "He wants a radio to keep an eye on the guards."
"Thank you." Rebecca said happily. "That's the plan I vote for."
"You know about Luke?" Clementine asked.
"He flagged us down when Troy wasn't looking." Mike explained. "Told us his plan… mentioned that he talked to you two."
"If Luke can tell us what's going on with the guards, we can use that to pick a good time to escape." Rebecca explained.
"That seems reasonable." Sarita said.
"Who knows when that'll be?" Kenny inquired. "There was a girl back at Crawford that used church bells to send walkers all over the city. We just need something really loud."
"The PA system that Carver uses is quite loud." Sarita said.
"There are some speakers outside the building… pointing towards the parking lot." Mike said. "I saw them when we were going out to work."
"My dad has the PA system controls in his office." Keith said. "There's a switch in there that will turn on the speakers."
"How do you know that?" Mike asked. Everyone looked to Keith waiting for his reply.
"I used to help mom with announcements back in the day." Keith explained. "I accidentally turned it on once; thankfully, there wasn't many walkers around to hear it. But it was plenty loud though."
"That's perfect." Kenny said. "We just got to get to his office. Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"Because that is not a good plan." Keith replied. "Have you given any thought about Alvin? How are we going to get him out of the office? Do we need to split up so that some people could go get him? How are we going to protect ourselves?"
"Look, I think we just need to worry about ourselves." Kenny said.
"That's my point proven. A good plan gets everyone to safety including injured members. Your plan's too erratic and neglecting of safety." Keith replied.
"You're real difficult to deal with sometimes." Kenny said.
"Kenny…" Sarita scolded.
"Look, I just want to get everyone to safety. If you consider me some sort of ungrateful idiot for it, fine, but I don't want to leave someone here and let my dad have his way with him. No one deserves that." Keith said.
"Why can't we do both?" Clementine asked. "Even if we bring the herd to us, it's probably good for Luke to be able to tell us where they're coming from."
"You know what?" Kenny said. "Fine. I can get behind that."
"Yeah, two plans are better than one." Keith said. "However, we should make it a priority to get Alvin."
"I agree." Rebecca said with a smile, thankful that at least someone was looking out for her husband.
"Okay, so we give that turd the radio, he keeps us posted on the herd's movement. We fire up the PA thing and we bring the walkers to roll over this place." Kenny said.
"And then what?" Mike asked.
"Get some guns and fight our way out." Kenny replied. "I don't know, whatever we can do. We improvise."
"Then that's not a plan." Mike said. "You don't plan to improvise."
"I just figured out what your problem is… you don't think this stuff through." Rebecca said. "If the end of the plan is to stroll through a herd of walkers, then you should know from the jump that there's no way it's ever going to work."
"Actually that's exactly what we're going to do." Keith said.
Nick looked to Keith with a weird expression and said, "Now, I know you've lost your mind."
"Actually…" The woman from the other night approached the group and said, "Your boy's right. I do it all the time."
"Great, now we have two people who lost their minds." Mike said.
"Hush." Sarita hissed at Mike and then looked back to the woman. "What do you mean exactly?"
"When you cover yourself in their smell, rub the walker guts all over you… they can't tell you from one of them." The woman explained.
"Now I don't know who's crazier." Rebecca said.
"Trust me." The woman said. "I've walked through herds before. It works. You have to just keep calm, and make sure you're good and covered."
"You sound like you know what you are talking about." Sarita said.
"Yeah, she's telling the truth." Keith said. "At some point, I got covered in walker guts. The walkers couldn't tell the difference between me and them."
"Lee figured that out." Clementine said.
"What?" Kenny asked shocked by the mention of his deceased friend's name.
"That's how we got out of the Marsh House." Clementine explained. "Lee covered me and we walked right through."
"Really?" Kenny said with a smile. "Holy shit. Good one Lee." Kenny then got up and asked, "Alright! What are we waiting for? Let's get that stupid radio."
"We still have to find a way to get into the stock room." Rebecca said.
"I got a plan for that too." The woman replied. She looked over to Clementine and said, "Come on, kid. I'm going to need your help." Clementine got up and followed the woman with Keith following Clementine.
"Where the hell did she come from?" Kenny asked.
Keith eyed what the woman was looking at and smirked. "Ah, I understand where you're getting at. You want to use the winch. Someone pulls Clem up high enough to where she can use the ladder and she climbs up from there." Keith said.
"Exactly." The woman replied. She then looked to Clementine and said, "Once you're up there, just drop down from one of the skylights. There are shelves and stuff to land on, so… you probably won't fall to your death."
Everyone else approached Clementine, Keith and the woman as Clementine shuttered from the last sentence. "Everything sounded okay until you mentioned that last part." Clementine said.
"That thing breaks all the time." Rebecca said. "Unless something's changed, it won't support much weight."
"Alright, up and at em." Kenny said encouragingly to Clementine.
"Don't push her, Kenny." Sarita said.
"She's our best bet. I mean that, Clem." Kenny said.
"He's right." Keith said. "No way is that winch going to support my weight. You're the best we got, Clem."
"It seems pretty flimsy." Clementine said referencing the wench.
"This plan?" Kenny said. "Yeah, I agree with that. Clem it's you or nobody, so you're nominated."
Clementine still looked unconvinced; Keith approached her and hugged her. "Have I not command you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged…" He separated from her and held her by her shoulders as she smiled to him with bright eyes. She knew this verse; it was the same one that Lee would read to her every time that she woke up from a nightmare back at the motor inn, "…for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."
"Joshua 1:9." Clementine said with a smile. Keith nodded with a smile. "Okay, I can do this." Clementine said to the rest of the group.
Kenny nodded and said, "Okay, we got to get that rope down." He turned to Mike and said, "Mike you wanna boost her up?"
Mike headed for the wall where the winch was and said, "Come on, kid." Clementine followed him.
Mike lifted her up onto his shoulders as Clementine said, "Don't let go."
"I got you." Mike said. Clementine was in arm's reach of the rope and started to pull on it. Eventually, the hook to the winch came down from the roof. Mike placed Clementine on the ground and grabbed the rope.
Clementine placed her foot into the hook of the winch and Mike began to pull on the other end of the rope. Clementine started to ascend to the stairs, and it seemed as though things were going as planned. "Try to hurry." Mike whispered. "I don't think that they're the sharpest guards in the world, but they're no idiots either."
"I don't know about that, Mike." Keith replied. "I think a monkey can do Troy's job."
Mike scoffed and said, "You got a point there kid." Suddenly, they could all hear footsteps from the other side of the warehouse garage door. "Shit, he's coming back." Mike whispered. "I got to let you go. I can't stand here. Grab something."
Clementine nodded to Mike and leapt for the ladder. She grabbed onto the ladder and started to climb up it. As she climbed the ladder, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A large herd of walkers were slowly making their way to the community; the herd's size rivalled the herd of walkers that Clementine had to walk through with Lee back in Savannah. "We're in trouble." Clementine said. She refocused and continued to climb up the ladder.
She reached the top and noticed a guard on the roof looking out to the herd radioing to someone. Clementine had to move quickly before the guard could see her. She ran for the skylights as the guard said, "You are not going to believe this. There are thousands of walkers heading right for us…"
Clementine looked down one of the skylights. It had a couple of shelves and freights that she could use to maneuver her way down safely. She opened the skylight and landed on one of the shelving units. She then looked down to survey the area. She noticed Tavia talking into one of the radios, she was probably talking to the guard on the roof. She got up from her seat as Clementine continued to eye the area. Clementine looked to what was sitting on the boxes next to Tavia and her eyes widened. It was a couple of chargers with several radios on them.
Clementine started to descend from the shelves being careful as to not get Tavia's attention. She slowly approached one of the freights from the shelving and descended onto it, she then descended on another freight as Tavia walked around. She overheard Tavia talking into the radio as she finally reached the ground. "I know what you mean, I thought we would be used to it now." Tavia said. Clementine approached the charging station of the walkie-talkies until Tavia came back around the corner.
Clementine quickly backpedalled and hid from the guard behind a freight. "You never got used to that, not even a light buzzing?" Tavia asked into her radio. She looked over the freight thinking that she saw something as the reply came in on her radio. "I'll give you that one." Tavia replied as she walked away.
Clementine came out upon hearing Tavia's voice getting fainter. "Bill wants me to start getting that bay door fixed." Tavia said. Clementine approached the charging station as Tavia continued to talk to the guard on the other end of the walkie-talkie. It was followed by a muffled voice that couldn't be identified. "…Yup." Tavia replied. "…Troy backed into it when he brought the prisoners- I mean new people in."
Clementine reached the walkie-talkies as she could hear the guard at the other end say, "See? It's hard not calling them prisoners."
"Anyway, I'm looking at it now and… I don't think we have what we need." Tavia said. "I mean, we repurposed a lot of shit to get this place built. I can't say for sure if we had the materials before we started expanding." Clementine saw her chance and tried to grab one of the radios but quickly ducked when Tavia turned her head towards the girl's direction.
"I don't know about you, but it seems like we really shouldn't be doing this yet." The guard at the other end of the walkie-talkie said. Tavia went back to looking at the radio which allowed Clementine another chance to grab the radio. "Can't we just wait until need more space to make more space?"
"I don't know, Hank." Tavia said. "Bill has a plan. Look, let's say we'll call it for now. We'll talk later."
"Alright, talk to you later." The guard, Hank, replied.
Tavia lowered the walkie-talkie to her side and went to inspect the door that she would have to start fixing tomorrow, thanks to Troy. Meanwhile, Clementine reached for a couple of the radios and quickly grabbed them off the charger. She then started to climb back up to the skylight.
She was halfway up to the skylight when she noticed Tavia pulling out a cigarette. She gasped upon hearing a new voice. "You can't be smoking back here!" The man exclaimed.
"Vince come on." Tavia said in a defeated tone. "Don't give me that. I've had a rough day having to watch a couple of snot nosed kids."
"Hey, from what I heard from Bonnie and Wy, they sound a hell of a lot better than having to put up with some of the asses that live here." Vince said. Clementine went back to climbing out to the skylight as Vince continued, "Besides, you know if Bill sniffs a whiff of smoke back here that he'll flip. What're you thinking? You know what? I'm just going to tell him. I'm not going to let someone else get blamed for this. That's bullshit." Vince started to walk away from Tavia as Clementine reached the skylight and began to pull herself up.
Tavia threw the carton of cigarettes on the ground and pursued Vince calling out his name a couple of times.
Clementine was back on the roof with two radios, one in each pocket in her coat. She made her way back to the ladder and descended down. Once she was on the last rum, she noticed Mike leaning against the wall. He noticed her and asked, "Did you get them?" She nodded in reply. He smiled and approached the ladder. "Go ahead and drop down. I got you." He then angled himself underneath the ladder, ready to catch the young girl.
She released her grip from the bottom rum, and Mike immediately caught her. "We best get in bed; Troy will be back any minute." Mike said as the two approached the plywood beds.
Kenny and Nick stirred upon seeing her. "Well?" Kenny asked.
"You okay, Babs?" Nick asked.
"I got em." Clementine replied to Kenny and she held out one of the radios. "And I hate that nickname, Nick." Clementine said as she turned to the young man.
"Don't blame me." Nick said with a smirk. "Boy Wonder was the one to suggest it."
Clementine smiled in response. "Nicely done, Clem." Keith said.
"Everyone stay where you are." Kenny said. "No need in drawing attention."
Everyone laid down, congratulating Clementine on her success. The last person to congratulate her, Jane, said, "I told you, you probably wouldn't die. Nice job."
"Thanks." Clementine replied.
"Yup." Jane muttered. "Anyway, get some rest."
Kenny laid back down as Clementine started to close her eyes. "I thought about Duck today, about his dumb little face…" Kenny said. Clementine opened her eyes as Kenny looked up to the plywood bed above him. "…first things that come to mind are always the dumb things he was doing… Kid was always running in circles. Every damn place we went, he'd just run. Couldn't stop him… makes it harder to remember that he was a good boy." Kenny finished with a tear in his eye. He seemed to stare off distantly as Clementine's eyes started to droop. Finally, sleep overwhelmed her and her eyes closed, only to be open again for the morning light.
Morning
Morning and the group groaned as they woke up. They all went to one of the dining table to discuss plans on how to get Luke the radio. "Alright, we're all here." Kenny said as he looked to his companions.
"Someone's got to get that radio out to Luke." Rebecca said. "So what's the problem?"
"We should probably figure out who's doing what before we-" Kenny started to say but was interrupted when the garage door started to open. Kenny quickly grabbed the walkie-talkie before the door completely opened. The radio was now out of sight as Tavia entered the yard.
"Time to get up." Tavia said. "Daylight's burnin. They let y'all sleep in all things considered.
"Where's my dad?" Sarah asked. It was true; Carlos was not in the yard at all last night. More than likely, Carver forced him to work until he fainted from lack of sleep.
"He is where the rest of you are going." Tavia replied. "To work. Rebecca, Sarita, Jane, Sarah… if you got to take a piss, do it now. The next break won't be for a while." She then looked to the rest of the group and continued, "Troy'll be coming out for the rest of you."
The group looked to her questioningly and stared back at each other. They all had the same thought. "Why just them?" Kenny asked.
"Like I said… Troy's coming for the rest of you." Tavia said.
"And you think that's a good idea?" Keith asked. "Do you have any idea how many times Troy threatened to kill me and Clem yesterday?"
"Trust me, if Troy does anything that stupid, he's going to answer to Carver." Hank said to reassure Keith. "And you know how your dad doesn't tolerates insubordination."
"Now let's move it ladies." Tavia said to the group that she called out for. They followed Tavia as she would lead them to their duties for the day. Hank closed the door as the last of them left the yard, leaving Nick, Keith, Clementine, Kenny, and Mike to devise a plan.
"Alright, look if we're going to do something, we got to do it NOW." Kenny said. "And if Luke's all we got, then we pair up with him."
"I can do it." Mike said. "Where's the meetin?"
"Bad idea." Keith said. "Mike, Troy's going breathing right down yours and Kenny's back today for what happened yesterday. If anything, I should do it."
"No, neither of you are doing it." Kenny said. "Clementine should do it."
"Are you f****** kidding me?" Nick inquired. "Do you have any idea what will happen to her if she gets caught? She'll get beaten to a bloody pulp! I ain't letting that happen; f*** that shit."
"Yeah, Kenny that seems like a long shot. I mean she's just a kid." Mike exclaimed. They then heard a loud bang from within the warehouse.
"There are a million reasons why she should do it." Kenny explained to the two. "She knows Luke, she can hide, she got the damn radio in the first place…"
"Who cares?" Mike said.
"I'm sorry Mike, but I don't know you from f****** Adam, alright?" Kenny said. "And if I'm trusting someone to do something this important, I'm trustin her."
"You don't trust me to get a radio to someone?" Mike inquired.
"Kenny's right." Clementine said. "I should do it."
"Don't do something stupid just to get some respect." Mike said
"She doesn't need your respect." Kenny snapped.
"Give me the damn radio." Mike said.
Meanwhile, Nick overheard footsteps coming closer to the garage door which was followed by a metal bang. Someone was opening the garage door. "Shit." Nick hissed. He immediately grabbed the radio from Kenny's grasp and said, "We're wasting time." He quickly crouched down to Clementine's height and stuck the radio in her coat pocket. After he finished, he looked to her with a smile and said, "Listen to me, you're going to be okay. You're tough, a lot tougher than me. Just know that, you're going to okay."
Clementine smiled back and she hugged Nick, thankful for his encouragement. He hugged back and patted her on the back. They separated as the door opened with Troy entering. "Alright little chickens, let's get to peckin." Troy said as he approached the group. "And don't think today is going to be like yesterday. No way. No shenanigans. This rooster's going to be surveying your ass every second of the day, you hear?" He looked to Keith and Clementine and hissed, "You got that? I need an answer from you two sickos."
"How about you back the f*** off?" Nick said as he approached Troy.
"How about I shove this gun up your ass and keep firing until finger bleeds?" Troy snapped.
"Troy, they get it!" Hank yelled from the door. "Get them to work, or I'm going to get Bill, and he's going to beat your ass to death!"
"F*** you Hank!" Troy hissed. He grumbled as he turned to the rest of the group and said, "Fine let's go. Come on." Troy then led the way for the group.
They passed by the door as Hank muttered to himself, "I don't know why Bill didn't kill his useless ass at that lodge. Ever since these guys have shown up, all he has been is a useless pile of goat shit."
…To be continued
A/N: Troy is doing an excellent job of pissing everyone off. Even the other guards are starting to hate him. Haha. Hank, you are my hero for saying that to Troy, but that will not spare you from death. You're still easy pickings, like everyone else except for Clementine and Keith for obvious reasons.