"Son of a bitch!" Kenny shouted out happily, "whatever you did lit the dash up!"
Alyssa came through the door and widened her eyes "Did you figure out a way to get the train going?" she asked Lee, "seriously?"
"Seriously," Lee glanced at the note, "okay looks like the last two are out here, wish me luck."
"You'll do it," Alyssa smiled at him "you always do!"
"She's right pal," Kenny nodded "if we're in a tight spot, you're the one who gets us out of it, god knows what would happen without you."
"Save the praise for when the train's running," Lee snorted, going out of the door, "then I'll be a genious." He walked along and opened up the engine compartment and spotted the number nine and glanced again at the instructions, "Left, right and that should do it," Lee muttered, "here's hoping."
He turned the dial left and then after it clicked back into place, to the right. He held his breath but still nothing and just as he was about to give up hope, the train came to life and there was whirring noises as power came back to the locomotive.
"Holy shit!" Kenny said from the doorway, looking excited "we're golden!"
Lee didn't want to ruin his good mood by asking about Duck, so instead smiled back "Yeah, we are. Golden. Man, feels good!"
Kenny looked out and nodded "Let's fuckin' enjoy this" he grinned at Lee, "c'mon, let's see if she'll move."
They headed back into the cabin and Alyssa beamed at them both, "Can't believe we're gonna travel by train!" she said "let's see the walkers try and get us now."
Kenny nodded, "You're goddamn right," he sat down on the stool and glanced back at Lee, "all yours" he indicated to the throttle and Lee slowly moved it forward and for a few glorius seconds the train moved also but then came to a stop.
"Damn it!" Kenny closed his eyes and swore to himself "of course, we're still attached."
"I'll go have a look," Alyssa said, "see if I can get us un-stuck."
"I saw some tools in one of the engine compartments," Lee said to her, "mabye one of them will help, I'm gonna go tell everyone the good news; we could use some of it."
"You're damn right there," Kenny muttered, looking out the window at his family, "I don't think I could take anymore bad news."
Alyssa gave him a sad glance as she exited the cabin; there was one more bit of bad news and that was when Duck had no time left, she glanced over and saw Katjaa try to give him more water but he coughed and began to cry into her shoulder. Shaking her head, she concentrated on her task and opened the engine compartment. As Lee said, there were several tools in there and she frowned; which one was the right bloody one?
Picking up one at random, she shut the doors and made her way back to boxcar and hopped out on the other side and seen where the problem was. Lifting the coupler bar she groaned when she seen it had snapped off and was no use anymore. She slid the monkey wrench under the coupler and pushed hard to get it up, when it seemed like it wasn't going to work, there was suddenly a bang and it lifted out, seperating the attached boxcar holding them back.
"Hey, Kenny!" she shouted up to the front, "we're loose!"
When she got no answer, she shook her head and walked back to the boxcar; she couldn't wait to tell Lee that she had managed to do it. Just as she stood up straight after climbing in, there was a gruff male voice behind her.
"You touch any of my stuff?"
She jumped and looked around to see a homeless looking man, with a large jacket on, he walked closer and looked down at her, but Alyssa held her nerve "My friend took the map of the train route."
"That's fine," the older man said, "you can have those."
"Really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow; she thought that homeless people were protective of their stuff.
"Yeah, I got 'em all up here" he pointed to his head then offered his hand, "names Chuck, Charles if you're fancy."
"Alyssa" she said shaking his hand.
"That your crew outside?"
"Yeah, that's what's left of my group."
"And the guy up in the cab?" Alyssa nodded at him "I saw you walking through here and thought about scaring the pants off of you."
"Glad you didn't, could have got messy" Alyssa snorted.
"Couldn't force myself to do it" Chuck smiled "already met everyone outside; they all warmed to me right quick in direct sunlight."
He hopped down and Alyssa followed him back over to the group where Clementine jumped up excitedly at her, as Chuck sat down and picked up a guitar. "You met Chuck!" she said happily.
"Yeah, I did," Alyssa replied back.
Katjaa smiled at her, "It's so nice to meet someone normal for a change," she said.
"He gave us candy. Ben, too!" Clementine told her, Alyssa glanced at Ben who was still chewing and he shrugged at her and she raised an eyebrow shaking her head at him.
"Can you play?" Alyssa asked, sitting down next to him, "been ages since I heard music."
"I know a couple of tunes," he said, playing a soft tune, "it's nice to have an audience for once, the walkers don't appreciate my guitar skills."
Lee came walking over from the RV and saw the older man sitting by the group playing the guitar, he knew at once he was no risk as Katjaa and more importantly Alyssa didn't give him worried looks or anything, he walked up and Chuck saw him and stood up straight, "Welcome," Lee said.
"Thank ya," Chuck said, "nice seein' people who are alive for a change."
"Chuck lives on the train," Alyssa informed Lee, "he's cool."
"Is that so?" Lee said, "well, I'm sorry for us invading your home, I didn't realise."
"It's okay," Chuck said shrugging, "you folks didn't seem dangerous."
"Have you met Kenny?" Lee asked, wondering why he wasn't storming out here demanding to know who this stranger was.
"Sure did," Chuck sat back down, "man shares my love of the road."
"That's for certain," Lee nodded, he was going to ask Chuck more questions when Duck suddenly began to cough violently, his little body shaking from the pain and Katjaa tried to soothe him.
Chuck gave Katjaa a sad look "I'm awfully sorry your son's not feeling good."
"I appreciate your concern," Katjaa nodded weakly.
"Well, with a little TLC I'm sure he'll be fit as a fiddle in no time."
Lee hung his head; if only that was the case, he wished with all his being that it was just a bug that Duck had, not a walker bite but there was no point, there was no changing what was going to happen to the young boy.
"And I can offer ya'll whatever I got, although it ain't much" Chuck said kindly.
Kenny had joined them and gave Chuck a suspicious glance but Katjaa smiled back "Thank you .. we'd like to do the same."
"Why don't we hold off on-"
"Stay with us," Katjaa interrupted Kenny giving him a look, "we'd like the company." Kenny shot her an annoyed look but she didn't glance at him, sensing the tension, Chuck went and sat down and began to play again while Kenny headed back to the train.
Lee glanced and grinned at the two girls smiling as Chuck played; it had been a long time since they had heard music. He walked over to Kenny and looked at the ruined part of the train, "So we cut loose?" he asked him.
"Alyssa managed to prise it loose, thank god," Kenny said "I reckon it's time to go."
He walked back over to the group and Lee followed him, "We ain't got much left, so just gather whatever you have" he said to them "we're burnin' daylight, let's go."
They got up and headed over to the boxcar and began to climb onto the train, Alyssa hung back and walked alongside Chuck, "Are you coming with us?" she asked him.
"Well, it sounds like your friend here is taking my home," he answered.
"That's a yes then" Kenny rolled his eyes.
Chuck chuckled "Haven't found anything better for keeping the creepy-crawlies out than that boxcar" he walked over and hopped on "so yeah, I'll tag along."
Clementine came to a stop in front of Lee and gave him a sad look, "Duck's still sick" she said quietly.
"Get on the train, Clementine" Kenny snapped a little angryily and Lee shot him an annoyed look as Clementine hung her head and done as she was told.
Katjaa carried Duck in her arms and gave Kenny a worried look, "He is getting sicker" she whispered.
"Let me look at him," Kenny said shaking his head and he looked into his son's face and Lee saw his eyes sadden at the sight and he took a step back.
"We can keep going if you want" Lee said comfortingly.
Kenny frowned at him, "Damn right I want. That's what we're doing."
"I think Lee just wants to talk it through" Katjaa intervened.
"It's TALKED THROUGH!" Kenny snarled suddenly and Katjaa looked down sadly "get on Kat, I'll be up front. I don't want to hear any nonsense until we get where we're goin'."
Lee helped her to get on the train and then Duck and he bit down the angry comment he wanted to give to Kenny for snapping at everyone, it wasn't the time and then headed up to the front of the train to join Kenny, "You know what to do," Kenny smiled faintly and indicated to the throttle.
Lee pushed it and this time when the train moved, it kept going and nothing held it back. He shared a smile with Kenny but noticed how it slipped off his face quite quickly and knew he was scared about what was happening to his son. God. If it was Clementine or Alyssa, Lee was sure he would be in denial too.
"Well, this will make it easier to get to the coast" Alyssa said, walking into the cabin and smiling at the both of them.
"Damn right," Kenny said snapping out of his sadness and putting an arm around her shoulders, "let's see the walkers stop us now."
Clementine sat quietly in the boxcar, slightly swaying as the train rushed them forward. She folded her arms on top of her knees and leaned on them, watching Duck lie sleeping on his mother. She still couldn't believe that he had been bit and felt like crying when she thought about what was going to happen.
At the start she had wished that there was another kid her age in the group, or even that Alyssa was a little younger but as the days went by, Duck had become her best friend. Sure he could be annoying but he was company and they both played games and ran about, not worrying about anything and she came to think of him like a brother.
Clementine remembered the day Lilly had told her she wouldn't be getting rations as she had some the previous day, and how hungry she was but Duck came over and shared his rations with her and they both promised to share rations so neither of them would go hungry. They even pinky sweared on it.
Now they were homeless, rationless and Duck was going to die. She was going to lose her best friend.
Lee stood up leaning against the boxcar, next to Chuck, she liked Chuck; he could play the guitar and he had a box full of candy and given her some more. She only wished she could share them with Duck; he'd love the candy Chuck had.
"Gotta be hard on ya, eh?" Chuck said quietly to Lee, "three adults taking care of four kids; no disrespect" he added looking at Ben and Alyssa who looked a little annoyed at being called kids.
"There were more of us," Lee said quietly.
"Dead get'm?"
"No."
"Ahh," Chuck said sadly "livin' got 'em."
Suddenly there was a choking noise, and Lee glanced over at Duck who had blood coming out of his mouth as he choked, "LEE!" Katjaa said worriedly "Lee, I need you. Right now" when he came over she looked down at the napkin she had been holding, "would you get that off of his face? My hands are full here."
"Sure," Lee said sadly, and picked up the napkin.
"Thank you, could you just get that off of his face, please?"
Gently, Lee wiped the blood off of Duck's pale face and sighed; it was killing him enough to see the young boy like this, he couldn't imagine what Katjaa and Kenny were going through. "He's out of time" Katjaa sounded close to tears, "we need to stop this train."
"You stay with Katjaa," Alyssa said standing up "I'll go tell Kenny."
Lee nodded, knowing full well she could get to him better than he could; Kenny would probably punch him in the face rather than stop the train, "Let him know we need to stop now" he said firmly "his son needs him."
Nodding, Alyssa rushed through the boxcar before Lee changed his mind and made Kenny stop the train. Holding onto the railing, she walked up to the cabin feeling the wind in her hair, she opened the boxcar door and looked at Kenny sadly.
"You need to stop the train."
Kenny ignored her completely and kept his eyes on the train tracks ahead, Alyssa sighed and rubbed her head; this wasn't going to be easy. "Katjaa needs you Kenny," she said softly "so does Duck."
"Duck will be fine!" Kenny said angryily.
"He won't be, he's going Kenny."
Kenny glanced at her, and she seen the anger and fear in his eyes "What's the goddamn deal? He's a little sick, but we can't just quit!" he shot her an annoyed look, "it's a scratch! He's not like the others. Jesus, all y'all are makin' it worse!"
"This isn't about Duck" she said softly.
"The hell it's not!" he snapped "you think you know me? You're a stupid little girl who doesn't know a damn thing! What, you think you can pick me apart with the crappy education you got!"
"It's not like that!" she said, hurt by his words.
"The fuck it isn't!"
"You think you're the reason, you think it's your fault that Duck was bitten" Alyssa said shaking her head slightly "like you had this coming, or something?" It came to her, "you didn't kill Hershel's son."
Kenny held his head in his hands "Yes, I did. And now it's catching up to me" he said wretchedly.
"That's not what happened. You looked out for your son, protected him like a Dad should and a bad thing happened to someone else's son," she bit her lip, "if anyone killed him it was me, I didn't save him in time but I'm not letting it get to me, you can't anymore, not in this world."
Wiping his eye with his sleeve, Kenny shook his head "There ain't no way this world let's my son live when I helped put someone else's in the ground."
"That not the way it works," Alyssa said softly "you know that" she tentatively put her hand on his shoulder and he gave her a sad look "stop the train, Kenny, please."
Kenny sighed and then put a hand on top of hers and with the other, pulled the throttle back so the train came to a stop, "I didn't mean what I said," he told her softly "you're not stupid, anything but."
"I know," Alyssa said, trying to hold back the tears "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"I know darlin', I know."
The train stopped completely and Lee sighed in relief, Alyssa had managed to convince him to stop. Katjaa let out a shaky breath and looked down at Duck and a tear dribbled down her face, "It's time," she said in a choked voice, "Lee, could you help me out please."
Katjaa got out and Lee gently laid Duck down on top of the blanket Chuck had given them to wrap him up in, his breathing was worse and he could hardly keep his eyes open. Clementine came forward and sat next to Duck and slowly took his hand in hers and squeezed it gently.
Alyssa came walking up with Kenny beside her, and the tears were already falling from her face and Lee felt his heart grow heavy at the scene before him. "Ken ... it's ... I think it's time" Katjaa whispered, giving him a sad look.
Kenny was silent before he sniffed and glanced at Chuck and Ben, "The boy's been bit. In case you haven't figured that out."
Chuck nodded sadly and looked down at the ground while Ben said nothing and leaned against the train looking stricken. Lee put a hand on Kenny's shoulder, "What do you need?" he asked quietly, glancing at them both.
"I ... I..." but Kenny couldn't say anything else after that.
"Katjaa?" Lee asked her sadly.
"It's time to .." she shuddered and let out a shaky breath as more tears came to her eyes "this is not possible" she whispered, smoothing Duck's short hair.
"What are we gonna do?" Kenny asked, sounding close to tears.
"We can't allow him to become one of those things," Katjaa bit her lip, "I won't allow him too."
"But what if ... what if he doesn't?"
"Kenny," Katjaa sounded tired and defeated "I love you very much, I love our son more than life itself. I need you to hear me, what you are saying, that he may not turn, is foolish."
"But-"
"No," she interruped him, standing up straight and giving him a sad look.
Kenny bit his lip, "Theres- come on Kat!" he begged, a tear running down his cheek.
"If you think of one," she said mournfully "you let me know."
"Isn't there some sort of pill, or something we can just give him ..." Kenny asked desperately.
Katjaa closed her eyes as if in pain, "Stop it."
"He can just drift off to sleep, right hon?" he let out a shaky breath and gave her a pleading look "I mean, Jesus, this is our son."
"I KNOW!" Katjaa snapped then she sighed, "but we know its ... here," she pointed to her head "or nothing."
"Well .. fuck ... just ... who then?" Kenny rubbed his face "you want me to?"
"You don't have too."
"I'll do it-"
"No! You don't have to do it!"
"Katjaa .. fuck ... I-I-I can ... I can do this"
"Ken, I love you, but this is beyond you," Katjaa said weakly "you cannot do it."
Lee stepped forward, "I'll do it," he said sadly "this is something a parent shouldn't have to do."
"No, it should be a parent" Katjaa said shaking her head.
"Lee's right, Kat. We cans say our goodbyes and ..." Kenny swallowed hard ".. just let that be it."
"I don't know," Katjaa said sounding conflicted, "Lee, you'd be doing this family a great service" she looked to him with eyes full of tears.
Lee shook his head "Like I said, no parent should do this" he gave Kenny a quick glance, "it's bad enough you both need to go through this."
Katjaa nodded and then looked at Kenny, "Why don't we take him into the forest. So Clementine doesn't have to see" he nodded sadly, blinking back tears and Katjaa glanced at Lee "give us a moment to say goodbye?"
"Of course."