The Walking Dead: The World We Live In
Chapter 23: A Death in the Family
Lee was stirred from an uneasy slumber by Kenny who slammed his fist against the steering wheel, "God damnit!" his yell echoed throughout the RV, disrupting the thick air of unease and waking those who were lucky enough to fall into the grace of slumber.
Lee wondered how long it had been since Kenny had gotten some decent sleep. Clementine, who obviously had a very rough past few hours, was still very much asleep so Lee gently slid her down his arm as he got up to allow her more time to sleep. Despite how fit he had become Lee's joints still ached as he got up, 'The perks of getting old,' he broods as he walks and leans against Kenny's chair.
"You see this fucking shit? A goddamn train!" he slams his fist against the steering wheel once more, "Damnit!" his shoulders were so tense, Lee noticed, as Kenny cuts the engine and stands up.
"You might want to find a spot for you and Duck to sit, the sun is coming up and it ain't gon' get any cooler in here," Kenny says to his wife who simply presses Duck closer to her bosom, utterly defeated. Lee presses his lips together as Kenny gestures for Lee to follow him, "Let's see if we can get the fucker moving."
The duet exits the domicile and onto the black topped road, which was inconveniently dominated by a locomotive. Kenny strokes his mustache with a hand on his hip, brows furrowed in thought as his eyes scans left to right, "How do you suppose we move this thing?"
Lee looks at the head of the train to the cargo hold, "Maybe we take a look around there; see if we can find a way to start it and look for supplies?" Lee suggests as he hears foot steps scuffling behind him.
"You guys need some help?" Ben asks crossing his arms and looking expectantly between Kenny and Lee.
Kenny frowns and looks past ben; Katjaa is carrying Duck over to some collapsed logs near the train, "Yeah-," Kenny runs a hand through his hair shakily, "Yeah, why don't you and Lee give the train a good look over would you?"
Ben seems eager to show his worth to Kenny, somewhat like soldiers in older times; Lee really wouldn't mind grading those history papers right about now. Hell, he would love for things to go back to normal- anyone would, but that wasn't the way the world worked anymore. "Sure thing."
Lee and Ben stalk over to the boxcar, it's metal door was slid right open, Lee climbs the latter up and meets the acrid smell of decay. In the corner he sees where someone once might've had a home here. Cardboard spread out nicely, accompanied by a torn knit blanket and some bags. However the decay didn't come from the cardboard, or the old guitar, or the blankets and bags; it came from the long decayed body sitting in the opposite corner of the boxcar. The walker moaned feebly, too long decayed to even stand properly, Lee pulled his gun from his back pocket and have its soft skull two hard blows, the first collapsed the skull and the second ripped into the brain.
Ben looked slightly deterred at the sight of Lee emotionlessly dragging the corpse out of the opposite side of the box car and tossing it out, "You found anything, yet?" Lee asks whiling his hands on his pants.
Ben shakes his head and looks down at the metal floor, a clipboard sticks out to the seventeen year old boy and he bends down to pick it up as Lee scrounges around in a green backpack. It likely belonged to the walker, oh well, it was theirs now if it was anything useful. "Lee!" Ben says calling his elder's name, ale stands up and looks at the clipboard the boy extends to him.
"This is a map of the train route," Lee says, a slim smile growing on his face, "These tracks, if I'm reading this correctly, will lead us straight to the outskirts of Savannah."
"That's perfect," Ben says.
"Good work, Ben," Lee compliments patting the teenager on the back.
"C'mon, I don't think there's much left in here to constitute sticking around for," Lee says walking out of the car and down the walkway to the head. They approached a metal door with a broken glass window, the cracks and hole in the glass were caked with old, dried blood.
Beyond the glass lay the controls of the train, a shady slumped over figure also lay in the room. It was most likely dead but Lee had to be sure. He opens the gray metal door and cringed slightly as it eerily creeks as it swings open, the figure still did not budge to the sound of protesting metal. Lee gripped the barrel of the gun tightly, he rose it above his head, then with all of his might he swings it down to the body's temple. An unnerving sound of soft bone breaking apart and flesh being caved in and separated filled the small, cramped control room as the body fell to the floor.
It was the conductor, he had never even became a walker, "It looks like he took the quick way out," Lee observes bending down and picking up a gun that was lodged in the man's rotting hand.
Lee extends the gun out to Ben, "Why don't you hold on to this?"
Ben holds the weapon in his hands shakily, "Are you sure, I mean-"
"Yeah, you'll be fine. It's just a thing," Lee says and turns to the vast array of levers and buttons awaiting his command. Hopefully one of them will get the train started.
One button, however, stood out from the others. "Look, I think this thing can still work," Lee says pointing to the button that flickered on and off.
Its soft yellow glow flashed behind the plastic at even intervals, "Push it," Ben suggests.
Lee raises an eyebrow and turns to Ben, "Are you crazy or something?"
Ben shrugs and leans his tall, lanky form forwards and presses the button. The train releases a steamy hissing sound that pierced Lee's eardrums, "See? It's just the brakes."
"Alright, good one- again," Lee says as Kenny bounds through the door, a large smile forms upon his face, "She's still kickin'?"
Lee grins, "It appears so. And good news, this train can take us all the way to Savannah." Lee says as Ben drags the corpse out of the car.
Kenny beams ripping a map from its holder on the metallic side of the inner train, his eyes scan the map, "I'll be damned," he muses, "This will be a lot faster than that RV too."
"Okay, this is good. Why don't you go check on everyone while I get the feel for this baby?" Kenny suggests patting Lee on the shoulder and sitting down in the black swivel chair.
Lee steps outside of the train and takes the ladder down to the soil. The sun had steadily risen, just now peaking over the pine trees that loomed over the survivors like giants in the sky.
Most of the group members had situated themselves upon a fallen tree trunk, aside from Jacob who stood at the edge of the tree line staring intently into the vegetation.
Lee sat next to Clementine who was conversing with Carley, "So, Clem, you liked first grade?" Carley asks while flashing a smile at Lee. Lee planted himself next to Clementine, "It was alright I guess, it was actually really easy," she admits running her foot through the dirt slowly.
"How are you two holding up?" Lee asks placing his elbow on his knee and his chin in his palm while cocking his head to the two girls.
Clementine glanced at Duck who was being held tightly in his mother's arms, his whole body was limp, weak. Clementine hung her head. "As good as we can be," Carley says rubbing Clementine's back affectionately.
Lee frowns, "Things..." he sighs tightening his jaw, "Things are going to get better, maybe not today, but I promise you two that things will get better. There's always a silver lining."
"Lee!" Kenny shouts from the window of the front car, "Give me a hand with this?" he asks holding a yellow notepad out.
Lee kisses Carley's cheek, "I'll be right back."
Lee walks back to the locomotive and into the front car, "What's the problem?" Lee asks as Ben brushes past him to go outside.
Kenny thrusts the notepad into Lee's hand frustratedly, "Look at this- some asshole tore the instructions off of it!"
Lee studies the paper behind the ripped out sheet, "Whoever wrote it pressed down very hard with his pencil," Lee observes biting down softly on his lower lip.
His eyes dart up and fall into Kenny's confused orbs, "So, what are you saying?"
Lee runs a finger over the marks, "You got a pencil?"
Kenny pats down his front and back pockets, he frowns, "No, why?"
"Leaf rubbings," Lee says with a smile. Kenny's lips part inquisitively as Lee brushes past him and places the paper in the sunlight flooding in from the windshield, "I remember when Clementine was drawing she told me about leaf rubbings. It turns out that if you place a paper over a leaf and brush it gently with any sort of writing utensil, excluding a pen, it will leave the imprint of it in the paper. You're basically capturing indentations, this paper has indentations in it already from writing down the engine start up. So, if I were to run a pencil over the page lightly the words will appear again."
Kenny absorbed all of the information and looked from the paper to Lee, "You, my friend, are a goddamn mastermind."
Lee chuckled softly at the compliment, "Well, I'm going to check the RV for a pencil." Lee says taking the paper with him and walking to the RV.
He bounds up the two stairs of the RV and catches a figure hunched over the back table in his peripheral vision. His eyes dart to the left and he sees Bud shaking, his left hand is risen slowly and unsteadily towards his face. It falls back down to the table as he hisses in pain, "Bud?" Lee speaks softly, "Hey man."
Bud's voice hitches in his throat, he lowers something on his face, likely the eyepatch. He turns around and leans backwards on the table. Lee's bottom lip quivers at the sight of Bud, an old trail of blood runs from under the blood stained patch down the length of his face and neck to his shirts. Bud stands up straight, his breathing is shallow and steady. His posture falls as his arms sag downwards weakly, Lee stumbles forwards and allows Bud to fall into his brother's embrace. At this point Lee truly realized how close he had come to losing his brother; the person he had grown up with.
Bud shakes and whimpers quietly in Lee's grasp. Bud composes himself and pulls back from Lee, his posture is stiff as he speaks and his one good eye is set in Lee's, "Where is she?" his voice was different, so very different. It was raspy, he was speaking through the wave of pain oppressing him.
He knew who Bud was referring to, the woman who had taken his sight from him, "She's gone."
Bud sighs and his shoulders slump down, "Is Carley okay?"
Lee cracks a small smile, "She's okay, you saved her life."
Bud's dim eye lights up softly, "She's alive because of your sacrifice."
Bud smiles, "Two eyes are for losers anyway... loser," he says lightheartedly, he groans slightly and touches the eye patch as a layer of blood seeps through, "Damn."
Lee puts a hand on his younger brother's shoulder, "Take it easy, man."
Bud waves Lee off, "I'm fine, it just burns. I'm gonna go outside." Bud, with one hand fingering the eyepatch around, steps down onto solid ground and walks over to the fallen logs.
The dog runs out from behind him and sprints into the forest, Lee doesn't really blame him.
Lee walks to the front of the RV and looks down to see a pencil laying isolated in the cup holder. He picks it up and brushes against the notepad, like he thought the instructions to start the engine appeared in the yellow spaces that were left unscathed by the pencil's shading. He grinned, that's exactly what they were looking for.
Lee exits the RV to head back to the train and sees Bud on his knees embracing Clementine, here arms are strewn across his back with her eyes shut tight. As Bud pulls away from
Clementine and stands up he is encased in a hug of gratitude and respect from Carley. Clementine smiles dimly at Lee, at least one thing is going right today. Lee hops back into the train, "Ken, look at this," Lee says handing the notepad to the old fisherman.
Kenny furrows his brow as he flips the correct switches into their correct positions, "Wait, where the hell is nine?" Kenny asks scratching his head as the dash lights up.
Lee purses his lips in through, "I think it's on the side of the train, they had the number nine on one of the doors."
Kenny nods, "Alright, let's check it out then."
The pair walk outside feeling a cool breeze whip through each book and cranny of the train, as leaves scrape against the ground and press themselves against the train Lee opens the locker-like door to see the ignition, "Left then right," Kenny reads.
Lee follows the instruction and the train roars to life, "Fuckin' A!" Kenny cheers, "Let's get moving. We might be able to make it to Savannah by the evening if we go full throttle with this thing."
Kenny jumps down from the rail of the train to go notify the group that they were green lit to get moving. Lee waits at their make-shift passenger boxcar as the group filters into the red car. Clementine stops in front of Lee, "Duck is sick," she says feebly looking behind her and frowning at the young boy slumped over his mother's shoulder.
"Get on the train, Clementine," Kenny says bitterly placing his hands on his hips.
Katjaa raises her eyebrows, her once bright, joy filled blue eyes were now reddened and glossed with tears that have yet to fall, "Duck- he's getting worse."
Kenny sighs, "Let me look at him," he says leaning over to look at his dying son. The sight of a pale, shallow breathing child on the way to death shocks Kenny causing him to recoil backwards, "Should we really keep going?" Lee asks.
Kenny frowns and his face contorts in aggravation, "What the fuck else are we going to do? Dick around with are thumbs planted firmly up our asses?"
Katjaa frowns at Kenny, "I think Lee just wants to talk out what we're going to do."
Kenny's eyebrows raise in shock, "What? About Duck? You two act like he's some kind of disease!"
Katjaa shakes her head rapidly, "No! You know that's not what I'm insinuating!"
Kenny turns away from Katjaa, "It's talked through, just get on the damn train," his voice is soft and defeated.
Lee gives Katjaa a sympathetic look and climbs onto the train shortly after her. It lets off a hiss and rolls into the sun ridden path ahead.
Two hours pass when Duck coughs up blood, it had been well past twelve hours since he was bitten; it was time. Lee swallowed the lump in his throat, "Lee, please get that off of his face..." she has such composure, any other woman would be breaking down now at the thought of losing the person who had come from her and who she had raised for eleven years. Yet there she was, being strong for everyone in the boxcar, even Lee himself, "I- I think it's time," she concludes as Lee gently rubs the dark blood from the child's freckled face. Lee frowns and shuts his eyes tightly and stands up, the whole car is silent, everyone is in their own world. Worlds of mourning, disbelief, guilt.
The air is thick with remorse as Lee opens the door and makes his way to Kenny. He is leaned over his chair, staring intently at the never changing tracks looping in front of him. "Stop the train," Lee says, his voice is so awkward in the noisy eeriness.
Kenny grunts, "I fucking told you, Lee, he's fine."
Lee grits his teeth together and shoves the bloody cloth in Kenny's face, "You see this? This is your son's blood! Wake up, Kenny, it's over!"
Kenny stands up and shoves Lee's hand away, "Why are you ready to give up on him so quickly? You wouldn't give up on Carley, or Bud, or Clementine," he spits venomously, "But no, this boy isn't your son. You don't know what it's like to lose your own!"
Lee opens his mouth to speak but is shut off by Kenny, "No! Don't you even bring up that sham you're running with Clementine, you're not her father! If you lost her it wouldn't be the same as what I'm feeling! And if you think you are such a father to her then have you told her what happened to her real father yet? No? What a father figure you are."
Lee balls his fist, "I said I was going to get you to stop this train, and I'll be damned if you stop me."
"What are you going to do, Lee? Stop me? And for what, the boy is going to be fine!" Kenny protests.
"No, Kenny, he's not!" Lee yells trying to cut the words into the man's thick skull.
Kenny shoves Lee into the control console, "Do you think you're helping anyone, Lee?" he yells striking Lee's cheekbone under his right eye, "You're not helping me!" he swings and Lee puts his arms up in time to block his attack, "You're not helping Duck!" he swings again only to hit Lee's forearm, "And you're not helping Clementine!" Lee blocks and lands a solid gut punch on the man sending him to the ground grasping at his stomach.
"You think you can save him, but you can't! You think it's your fault, but it's not! You think if you wait it out that he'll be cured, but that won't happen and we'll only lose more people to him! Just- damnit, just stop the train and let's focus on the problem at hand," Lee says, his voice softening, "I'll have your back through anything Kenny, you know that. But you have to realize bad things happen to everyone, and I know it's hard to be yourself again after they do. But you have a wife back there who needs you, your son needs you, you need to stop the train."
Kenny sits on the floor silently and stands up, "I'm sorry," he chokes out as he lowers the throttle on the train causing it to slow to a halt.
Katjaa is the first outside with Duck in her arms, Carley has her arm wrapped comfortingly around Clementine as she looks up at her dying friend.
Bud and Jacob speak quietly amongst themselves as Ben sits alone inside the train. "Kenny, it's time." Katjaa says solemnly.
Kenny tries one more time to blindly reach onto hope, "Isn't there something we can find for him, some sort of pill- he's our son, Kat!"
Katjaa pulls her lips tightly, "Kenny, I love this boy very much, more than life itself. And I want you to, that what you're saying right now, is foolish. This is his last stop."
Kenny runs his fingers through his hair, "Fuck, well who's going to do it- I mean, I- I can do it."
Lee sighs, "I'll do it," he looks to Kenny sadly, "No parent should ever have to go through this."
Katjaa looks at Lee, "You would be doing this family a great service, but I like never ask this of you."
"I can do it, you two should never have to do that," Lee says to the woman, "Take however long you need."
Katjaa sniffs and blinks years out of her eyes, "Come on, let's take Duckie into the forest so Clementine doesn't have to see- and then we can say our goodbyes."
The broken family walks into the thick of the forest, Lee places his head in his hands and feels a comforting hand on his back, "There's nothing you could've done, or any of us could have done for that matter," Jacob says, "We're just going to have to move forward and hope for something better."
A gunshot sends crows flying upwards into the sky, "No!" Lee hears Kenny yell, "Get Clementine into the train!" he tells to Jacob before sprinting off down the forest path.
What happened? He thinks urgently as he raced through the orange and yellow vegetation. That's when he stumbled upon the scene, Kenny is cradling Katjaa's lifeless body- she had taken her own life. "Oh my God," Lee whispers, Kenny's eyes are flooded with tears, he was losing everything. First his son, now his wife.
"She just- shit," he cries into his hands, "Kat..."
Kenny closes her eyes, eyes that seemed to be looking up and watching the clouds, tall and looming, soaring over the clearing. Lee wraps one arm around Kenny, "I'm so sorry," Lee says, "She just couldn't take it," Kenny says, bottom lip quivering.
The raspy breath catches their attention, "Lee, I don't know if I can," Kenny says holding the pistol shakily at his side.
"That's okay, I've got it," Lee says gently removing the pistol from Kenny's grasp and extending it to the boy.
Lee couldn't find it in himself to pull the trigger, Duck seemed to know what was going on and rolled his eye to look at Lee, Lee knew the boy knew what was going on. Lee closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger.
AN:
Hey everybody, sorry for the delay for this chapter. I had quite a few tests and exams to take care of that didn't leave me with much time to write but I got this out! I hope you all enjoyed it! And I've also reached one hundred reviews and ten thousand views which is insane! I want to thank every one of my readers, you are all amazing people and I would never be here without you guys! This achievement is all thanks to you guys, you all inspire me to continue writing to the best of my abilities so that I can provide you all with good content. Thank you all so much, and I will see you in the next chapter!