One and a half days, that's how long it took me to finish this. Damn, I am on fire! Been pumping out words like crazy this past week, and I don't think I'll be slowing down anytime soon, plus the next installment in the works. So, dear readers, enjoy!

Chapter 25: Episode 4: Same City, Different House

For about two or three whole blocks, we ran like bats out of hell, following right behind Kenny. The ex-fisherman lead us around another corner onto a smaller street; as we ran, a nice sized house caught my attention from the corner of my vision, almost instantly. I turned my head. From looking at it, I could tell it wasn't the same house from when I had played as Lee in the game, yet, it was somehow familiar.

The house was made from mostly brick, about two storeys tall with flowery vines growing up its front and side, giving it an old, but homey appearance. The porch and steps were painted white, and a small porch swing was set in front of the front window.

A small pain shot through my head, only for a moment, followed by a memory.

I was around seven or eight-years-old, sitting in the backseat of a car with my head leaned against the window, as the car pulled to a stop. Once the car was turned off, I grabbed my backpack and stepped out the vehicle, closing the door behind me. Standing on the curb next to my older and somewhat taller cousin, Aveline, I starred up at the nineteenth century house in slight amazement as my Uncle Lee got out the driver's seat of his blue Lincoln continental, hearing the sound of him locking to car doors.

"Oh, wow, this is your new house?" I said, excitedly.

"Yep, pretty cool place to spend the weekend, don't you think," a older girl said.

I sucked my teeth and put a hand on my hip. "Um ...maybe. I don't know, your house looks kinda haunted."

"No it doesn't," Aveline said, making a face as if she were offended. "Its pretty. You're just mad because its bigger than your house, Toothpick."

"I'd rather live in a smaller house instead of a haunted one," I retorted, laughing. "When is Uncle Lee calling the priest."

"It not haunted!" Aveline said. "Dad, tell Taylor our house isn't haunted!"

Lee, who had been heading up the porch steps, stopped and half turned. "I don't know, Sweetpea, this is a pretty old house," the dark skinned man said, playfully. "I didn't hear anything about ghosts from the neighbors. But, you never know, Taylor could be right."

Aveline pouted. "Dad, that's not funny!" Lee chuckled, and continued towards the door.

I laughed. "See, told you!"

"Shut up, skinny!"

"Ow! Hey, don't hit me because I'm right!"

"Aveline, keep your hands to yourself," Lee said, sternly.

I immediately slowed to a stop before I passed the house completely, the few others behind me darting past. This can't be a coincidence. I thought. That memory, seeing this exact house just now, it had to be more to it. For all I know, it could be important to our survival. "Everyone, stop for a minute!" The group came to a halt and turned in my direction, panting.

Christa made a face. "We can't stop here, the walkers could be right around the corner!"

"No, we can stay here," I said, pointing at the house. "This is my Uncle's place."

Kenny walked over to me, looking up at the house. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm positive. I didn't notice the street, but I recognize the house. We can wait the horde out here."

Kenny looked at me, then glanced at everyone else. After taking a few moments to think, he spoke. "Okay, let's get in there!"

I took the lead and walked down the side lane of the house, right pass the metal remains of my Uncle Lee's car; there was a high brick wall separating this property from the next door neighbor's. I pushed open the creaking black gate, sword at the ready, and I strode into the backyard; the space it took up was about as much as Clem's backyard, with a large tree in the middle, surrounded by wildly growing grass and weeds; high up in the tree was a small tree house, a little wider than the one Clementine had been hiding in at the start of all this.

The back of the house had a porch similar to the one in the front, and just like out front, the large window near the back door was boarded up from the inside, making it impossible to see. The metal gate creaked shut once again. The snarls and moans of the walkers in the distance gradually getting closer.

Even so, I highly doubted the horde would turn down the same small street as we did; they couldn't see us, and they didn't have our scent, either. We had time to take a breather for now until we got the backdoor open; as long as we made no loud noises, we'd be fine.

I wiped the blood from the blade of my weapon with a torn piece of cloth from my jacket pocket, and then sheathed at my side. I had handled a good number of walkers, but the dullness of the blade was starting to show. I had to use much more force to cut through them, and having done so with my sword already slightly dull only put my sword in worse shape. I've been neglecting doing proper cleaning for far too long. I need to take care of that today. However, before I could relax and do anything, I had to make sure the youngest members of our group were alright.

"Man, I thought we were goners," Andy voiced. He sounded both happy and frightened.

"I'm gonna go check on my Mom," Duck said, worried. "A walker almost got her."

"That was way too close, talk about bein' lucky, huh, Clem," Andy said.

Clem nodded. "Uh-huh."

I tossed the bloody cloth to the side, and walked over to the young trio with a look of concern. "Are you three alright," I asked, catching their attention. "We had a pretty close call back there; do any of you have any scratches or open cuts? We don't want anyone getting infected."

Andy started checking himself on the spot. "I don't think so. Ya killed em' before they could touch us. I feel all jumpy for some reason, though, is that bad?"

"Its probably just an adrenaline rush," I answered. "Considering what just happened, I'd say its normal; what about you, Duck-man, everything good?"

For the first time, Duck didn't say anything much, he simply said. "I'm okay," and without saying another word, he ran off towards his parents. Katjaa pulled the boy into a tight hug the second he reached them.

I smiled at the sight. I was more than a little happy that she didn't get bitten, or somehow ended up walker food. I wanted to try my best to keep everyone alive; Chuck, it seems there was no chance in saving him, even if I wanted to. Some things you can't change, just like with Lilly leaving, and Mark. I shook my head and looked at Clementine. "Clem, what about you," I asked. The little girl didn't answer me, she starred at the ground, still clinching her knife in her hands. Her quietness made me worried; so much was going on at once, and I began to wonder if something had happened when my attention was split between killing walkers and being protector.

I knelled down to her level, and gently took the pocket knife from her hands. "Clem, what's wrong?" she uttered something I couldn't quite catch. "...What?"

"I-I'm sorry," Clem said, meekly. Tears started running down her face.

I raised an eyebrow. "Sorry for what? You didn't do anything wrong."

"B-but, I did. Y-you taught me how to kill a walker, and I got too scared to help you," the little girl sobbed quietly. "I thought I could f-fight, too. But, I couldn't do anything at all."

"Clementine. Please don't cry." I hated seeing children cry, especially Clem. She was a smart, tough kid, who could handle more at her age than most other kids older than her could. To think she'd feel bad for freezing up and being scared, thinking I'd be disappointed in her, when in fact it was the exact opposite.

I sighed and pulled her into a hug, patting her on the back. "Clem, its alright. I'm not mad at you."

"But, I didn't help," she muttered into my shoulder.

"Clem, listen to me," I pulled back, wiping away her tear with my thumb. "You froze. It happens all the time to everyone, hell, its happened to me more than once. I don't expect you to go out right away and start killing walkers like a pro. I taught you how to kill them just in case you had no other choice," I smiled. "Let me tell you something I should have told you months ago. Sometimes, the best way to survive, is to run away and do nothing. The reason why I killed all those walkers back there, wasn't because I wanted to, it was because I was trying to protect you kids. Had I been by myself, I would've ran before I even had to worry about killing any of them."

"So I didn't do bad?"

"Nope. If anything, you handled yourself fine; we were surrounded by walkers, and you were scared, but you know what you didn't do." She shook her head. "The one thing I told you not to do in situations like that, panic," I said. "You were scared, but you didn't let your fear control you. You did exactly what I told you to, and when we made a break for it, you ran right through that crowd of walkers without even hesitating. I'm pride of you."

Clementine face brightened. "Really?"

I gave her a small smiled. "Yeah. Now wiped those tears, young lady. You froze this time, and that's okay, you're still young and I was there protecting you. But when the day comes that I'm not around to help you, you can't freeze up like that. You have to take action; remember what I told you, right? One of the four big rules of survival."

"Sometimes, its better to shoot first and ask questions later?"

"No, the other one," I said. "What I said about fear."

"Oh ...never let fear control you, you control it," she answered.

"Exactly. Always Remember that, and you'll be fine," I said. "We good now? No more tears, right?"

"I'm okay, now."

"Good. Now you and Andy sit tight, while the grown ups try to open this door," I flipped her pocket knife closed and stuck it into her pockets, before I went to flick Clementine's D hat down lightly with my finger, only to get my hand swotted away and a pout for the attempt. I chuckled and stood, strolling towards the house. I went up the porch steps, next to Carley, who was reaching up above the door, searching for a spare key.

"Any luck," I asked.

"Your uncle doesn't happen to keep any spare keys around somewhere, does he," Carley asked.

I gave a shrug. "Not that I remember. I've never seen him or my cousin get locked out of the house before, so if he did, I wouldn't know," I answered.

"That sucks," Carley let out a deep sigh and let her hand down, turning to me. "Is Clementine, okay? She looked kinda upset."

"She's fine," I said. "She was upset for not killing any walkers back out on the streets. Poor thing thought I'd be mad at her because she was scared."

"We were all scared back there," the ex-reporter said, softly. "She did better than I would have at her age. They all did."

I chuckled. "Those three are tough. Before I turned ten, everything that scared me made me cry, even the stuff I knew wasn't real. To this day, I still don't know why," I put a hand to my chin in thought. "But enough about me being a cry baby. How the hell are we going to get this door open? I rather not kick it in, or break the lock."

"We might not have a choice," Carley said.

I took a couple steps back, and tapped my foot, starring up at the house. The windows on the second floor were pretty high up, not to say I couldn't grab onto a ledge with a boast, I just had no idea if the old ledge would hold my weight. Still, I could chance it. I mused, tilting my head. I turned my focused to the second window above the door, across from the first, or rather the thick branch leading up to it from the big tree. My eyes followed along the branch to the tree, then back to the window.

Then the sharp pain came, making me wince, and another memory flashed through my brain.

I was my younger self again, standing in the backyard by the big tree. I stood off to the side, watching as my cousin tried opening the back door. After a few minutes, she groaned loudly at her last failed attempt, and turned to me, frowning.

"We're locked out," Aveline stated, stumping down the porch steps. She walked past me and took a seat in the grass, against the big tree, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Can't believe I left my key on the couch. Dad's gonna kill me."

"But, we only went down the street to get ice cream," I said.

"And, I didn't ask Dad to go. We weren't suppose to leave the house until he got back," Aveline said.

I didn't want her to get in trouble, especially since we snuck out because I wanted ice cream. I starred at the second floor window above the backdoor. It was closed, but the window lock was broken, so it could be opened from the outside if you pushed on it hard enough, and the branch of the tree went close enough that once I opened it, I could climb inside.

I smiled. Feeling like a genius. "We can climb through your window."

"We don't have a ladder that big."

"We can use the tree."

Aveline looked up, her eyes following from the tree to her window. "I don't know, Tay'. I might be too heavy for the branch."

"Then, I'll go."

"Nah. That's way too dangerous. What if you fall?"

"I won't fall, just watch."

"Taylor, I said no."

I ignored her and quickly started up the ladder to the tree house; once I was inside the tree house, I crossed the small space in the wooden house and climbed out the tree house window onto the branch, pushing on it with one foot, and then stepping on it with both, and began crawling across, towards the open window.

"Taylor, you dummy! You better not fall!"

The branch wiggled under my weight, but never broke. When I was finally close enough that I felt comfortable trying, I stood up and jumped. Aveline yelled my name, fearing I'd fall, but my hands caught the ledge. I hang onto the ledge with a death grip. I felt a smaller ledge under my foot and pulled myself up until I was level with the window; using one hand, I pushed the window open and climbed through, falling to the floor on the other side.

"Taylor," Carley said, tapping my shoulder.

I blinked. "Huh?"

"You okay, you were starring off into space for almost a minute," she said.

"Yeah. I'm fine, just thinking," I said, before a grin spread on my face. "And I have a way to get us inside."

"Well, we're all ears, kid," Kenny said, coming up next to us.

I gave a nod, and started explaining what happened when I was younger from the memory, and using the tree to get inside. The only part of the plan that I didn't like, was who would have to execute it; the branch would break without a doubt if I or one of the other older survivors tried to crawl across it, meaning one thing, it had to be one of the kids.

"Kid, are you crazy," Kenny said. "We don't know what's in there."

"I'm not saying for them to check the house," I said. "All they need to do, is get inside, and run and unlock the backdoor. That's all."

"We can't take that chance, if one of them ends up getting grabbed by a walker, we won't be able to do shit out here. I'm not risking it."

Carley sighed. "I'm gonna have to side with Kenny on this one. If something happens to one of those kids ...I don't even want to think about that."

"What about a gun. Clementine knows how to shoot, and so does Andy," I said. "We hand one of them a gun. If there are any walkers inside that get in the way, they can put them down at a safe distance. Problem solved."

Kenny made a face. "We'll just end up with more fuckin' problems. Those gunshots are gonna draw the walkers right to us; we are fucked if that happens," he said, rubbing his temple. "Look, its a good plan and all. But if we have to use one of the kids, I'm not going for it."

I let out a sigh. So much for that idea. "Then, we're back to square one-."

"Clementine, that's dangerous. Get down from there!" Katjaa yelled, in fright.

Carley, Kenny and I looked up just in time to see the little girl stepping onto the branch bridging the gap from the tree house to the window. Her balance seemed kinda off and shaky, and a fear rose in me that she might fall.

"Clem, what are you doing," I said, loudly.

"Opening the backdoor, like you said you did," Clementine said, before she began crawling across the branch, slow and steady, being sure to keep her grip. Girl had some damn good ears, being able to hear me talk from where she and Andy were.

"Clem, go back now before you fall and hurt yourself," Carley said, sternly.

"I can do it! I won't fall, you'll see!"

I watched anxiously as she got closer to the window; in the back of my mind, Kenny's concerns started to echo through my thoughts. What if there were walkers inside the house, what if someone was staying there? Sure, it was Lee's house, but who's to say that he and Aveline didn't leave and somebody else set up inside. Anything could go wrong, and Clem was already too far across the branch to turn back.

"Clem, you be careful, you hear me," I said, loudly. My charge made her way towards the end of the branch and stopped. "Don't you dare look down! Your almost there!"

Clementine stayed where she was for a few seconds, before she stood up and jump from the branch to the window. My heart nearly stopped as she grabbed onto the window ledge. She secured her foothold on the smaller ledge under her feet, and pushed open the window. Probably a bit too hard, because she went falling through, followed by the sound of shattering glass and a loud thud.

"You alright in there, Clem," Carley asked. After a few moments, the little girl stuck her head out the window, and nodded, smiling.

"Hurry up down stairs and open up the backdoor," I said. "We still need to check the house. I don't want you in there by yourself."

"Okay!"

The little girl's head disappeared back through the window. I couldn't hear anything from inside, no screaming or the sounds of a struggle. So far so good. I thought to myself. A good minute passed by, until the rattle of a chain and the click of the lock could be heard, then the backdoor opened, with Clementine standing there was a big smile of accomplishment.

"Ta-da," she said, happily. "I told you I could do it."

I breathed out a sigh of relief, and smiled at her. "Nice work, Clem. Just don't go doing dangerous stuff like that again, without back up."

"Yeah, you could've gotten hurt, or worse," Carley added, softly.

"I was really careful, and I don't think there are any walkers inside, either," Clementine said.

I took notice of the small amount of blood on her hand, and brought it to her attention. "Clem, your hands bleeding."

"Oh, I knocked over a glass jar by the window. It was filled to the top with coins."

"Well, money ain't worth much anymore, darlin'." Kenny said as he adjusted his hat. "Lets get inside, and have Katjaa clean that cut, where its safe," he then motioned for me to follow him. "C'mon, kid, house ain't gonna check itself." Then he walked inside, and I followed behind him; for the first time in a while, I finally felt like I'd come home. Even though, I wasn't really home at all.

~ ~ (Loading)~ ~

The entire place was empty; Clem had been right, there were no walkers, or even a dead body. Kenny and I searched through different parts of the large house, and found nothing worth taking. Lee and Aveline must have left early on in the beginning of the outbreak; most of their clothes were gone, and the kitchen didn't have even a can of food in the cabinets; good thing we had enough rations to last us for the next few weeks, or we'd be going hungry by now.

The inside of the house was about as big as one would expect, looking at it from the outside. The backdoor lead into the kitchen, and the next room over was the dinning room with a big family sized table and a china cabinet, still filled with expensive silverware; upstairs had four bedrooms(one of which was a guestroom), two bathrooms(in the hallway and in the main bedroom), and an attic that neither Kenny or I bothered to check out as of yet.

In truth, I could have easily took a quick peek to see what was up there; a part of me, the cautious gamer part, was afraid of what might be found up there, since no little boy turned walker lived here. For all I know, I could find Aveline up there. I didn't know her asides from the memories, but I couldn't help feeling a protective affection for her, like I did for my little sister in the real world.

I wonder what Mina is doing right now. She and Mom must be worried sick about me. I mused, taking my weapon from my belt and leaning it against the arm of the loveseat(which if I remember my in-game memories correctly, was my Uncle's favorite chair). Do they even know I'm gone? I mean I've been here for months, but I have no idea how any of this works.

I didn't have time to ponder anything more, as Andy approached me, eating a granola bar, and held another out to me. "Katjaa told me to give you this."

"Thanks," I said, taking the snack bar.

"Uh-huh," the young preteen uttered, before moving back with the other kids and Ben around the coffee table.

Everyone was somewhere in the living room, either sitting on the sofa, the floor, or on the bottom of the stairs leading up to the second floor. Naturally, Christa and Christian were the first to take the sofa, since the baby need his diaper changed, and Omid was sitting next to his girlfriend; Katjaa and Kenny were near the steps, talking.

Carley wasn't sitting anywhere, she was near the television looking at a picture that was on top of the TV set. Standing up from my seat, I walked over to her, taking a look at the picture for myself; it was a photo of Lee and Aveline smiling, with a large body of water in the background, probably the river we were heading to. Aveline was slightly older than she had been in the memories I had of this place, and Lee looked pretty much the same.

"So, this is your uncle," Carley asked, pointing on the man in the photo.

I nodded. "Yep. That's my Uncle Lee." God, I swear, saying that out loud still feels weird. "And the girl is my cousin, Aveline."

"She was a cute kid. I can only imagination what she looks like, now," Carley said. She turned to me, giving a sad smile. "You must miss them a lot."

"Yeah, I do. I'm kinda disappointed. I was expecting them to be here when I saw this place, but I guess it wouldn't make much sense for them to stay in Savanna once people started evacuating," I said. Carley took my hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"If they're not here, they are probably alive somewhere else," Carley said.

I sighed. "I really hope you're right, Car'."

"Alright, people, break time's over," Kenny said, suddenly, as he and Katjaa walked from the steps to the rest of us. "We need to discuss some things."

"We almost died out there, Kenny," Christa said, gently rocking the now changed baby on her lap; the little guy was falling asleep, and who could blame him, I felt like taking a nap myself. "I think we've earned a bit more than a five minute break."

"Us almost dying is exactly why we need to talk about this," Kenny said. He looked at Carley. "You said you saw someone in the bell tower, right?"

"I'm pretty sure, walkers can't climb, last I checked," Carley answered.

"Then we have a problem. Whoever was ringing that bell brought the dead down on us," Kenny said, frowning. "Its like they didn't want us to make it to the river."

"If that's the case, we may have more than just walkers to worry about," Omid said.

Ben let out a groan. "Oh God, please don't let it be more bandits."

"Dealing with anymore of those types of people is the last thing we need," Katjaa said, tiredly. "Getting through this whole mess would be so much easier if everyone stopped fighting each other and tried helping each other for once. The walkers are bad enough."

"Katjaa, if more people in the world thought like you, the world would be a better place, even now," I said, smiling at the older woman. How many times had I thought the same thing over the years? That even without the world as we know it collapsing, working together would solve so many of mankind's problems. Too many times to count. I thought, before I continued. "Unfortunately, We're all different. Different backgrounds, different personalities, different morals, and sometimes no morals at all. Being unique from each other is both our blessing, and our curse. The only thing we all share in common, no argument, is that we're all gonna die, one way or another."

The entire room got quiet, everyone was just starring at me. I felt somewhat embarrassed, suddenly getting thrown into the spotlight out of no where.

"W-what?"

Omid was the first on to say anything. "Damn, dude, that was deep."

"Is that a quote from someone famous," Ben asked.

"No. I was only speaking my mind," I said, plainly. "There is nothing deep about it."

"Well, deep shit a side, we need to focus on this problem before we end up in some real deep shit," Kenny said, seriously. "I say we wait for the walkers to pass, then we make our way to the river and see exactly why they don't want us going there."

"And what if they rung the bell just to kill us. We have no idea what these people are thinking," Carley pointed out. "For all we know, they could be worse than the bandits."

That possibility didn't seem to change Kenny's mind in the slightest. "All the more reason to get a boat and get off the mainland," he said. "I'm not gonna wait around for someone else to grab up those boats. That's our ticket outta here."

"If you're going, then I'm tagging along, too. Someone needs to watch your back out there," I said. Helping Kenny was only part of the reason, however, the real reason was to defuse the situation between him and Molly just in case things got too bad.

"I knew I could count on you, kid," Kenny said, patting me on the shoulder. He turned to the others. "Everyone else can sit tight here. If were not back by night time, don't come looking for us."

Katjaa gave the man a concerned look. "Kenny-."

"I'm serious, Katjaa," the ex-fisherman said, sternly. "If something happens, we don't need anyone else getting hurt. I'm sure me and the kid will be fine, but just in case, stay here. We head out in fifteen minutes."

Fifteen minutes, that should be enough time to sharpen my sword. I thought. I walked over to our supply bag, and took my blade maintenance kit from it; the kit came with oil, a sharping tool, and other little things to give any bladed weapon a polished, sharp edge, and even the wooden box was nice to look at, with the shadowy outline of a samurai.

I grabbed my katana and went into the dinning room, and sat down at the table, unsheathing the blade. There was something calming about sharpening a sword; to me the activity was much like meditation, and gave me time to think things over in my head; the sound of the blade as I slid the sharpening tool along its edge, the smell of the oil and the careful motion of my hand.

Weird, yes. But, few knew how to take care of a sword properly, hell, a lot of people didn't even they had to clean their guns regularly.

My martial arts teacher once said: "A weapon is like a small child, it must be taken care of at all times, least it breaks under the pressure of its welder." And with the things I've been doing with my sword, the almost daily use, I'd done more maintenance now than I ever had before.

Remember to review and give your thoughts, it really helps having an outside opinion on how things are going.

Peace~!