A New Day - Act IV - Around Every Corner
Part II - Down By The River
The front door to the house slowly opened as Lee stepped outside, carrying the deceased child's corpse in his arms. Having put him down only moments earlier, he had taken the boy's body down to the courtyard to bury him. He slowly walked over to the hole he had dug and gently placed the deceased child's corpse within, next to the dog. He sighed grimly before he took hold of the shovel nearby and began to fill in the hole with the dirt he had dug up an hour or so ago. Halfway through his dig, he heard the creak of the door and glanced behind him.
Clementine.
Lee frowned upon seeing the young girl peeking out from within the house, who in turn gave a saddened expression. The two kept eye contact before Christa walked out. She took one look at Lee and sighed before placing a hand on Clementine's shoulder and returning inside with her. The man then went back to burying.
After he had refilled the hole, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
On the other side of the iron barred fence beside him stood someone; a man.
Lee's eyes widened, though the man had already started running from him upon being noticed, sprinting down the empty street and turning the corner.
"Hey, hey!" Lee shouted, running over and gripping the bars of the fence as the man fled. "Who are you?! What the hell do you want from us?!"
Wendy, Robbie, Christa, and Ben sprinted outside. Christa spoke up first. "Lee, what's going on out here?"
"I was being watched." Lee looked over his shoulder.
"Watched by something? Or someone?" Carley asked.
"Didn't get a good enough look." Lee sighed and approached the others. "The way they moved though, too fast to be a walker.
"Do you think it's that crazy ass on the radio?" Wendy crossed her arms. "The one who's been following us?"
"I don't know, they didn't say anything." He shrugged. "Just stood there, watching. Creepy as hell."
The front door opened again, and Kenny stepped out, rubbing his left eye with his hand momentarily.
"Kenny?" Lee and the others looked over at him.
"I'm fine. Just...I'm fine." Kenny responded as Robbie, Dipper, Mabel, and Clementine exited the house to meet with the others. "What's all the ruckus?"
"Lee thinks he might've seen someone out there, spying on us." Ben replied.
"Maybe it's that goddamn bell-ringer." Kenny gritted his teeth with distaste.
"Man, remember when walkers were what we were most afraid of?" Ben sighed and crossed his arms. "Those are starting to seem like the good old days…"
"Well to hell with this. I'm not gonna let whoever it is out there keep us from gettin' our boat." Kenny shook his head. "We've holed up here long enough, I'm heading down to River Street."
"I don't know if Omid's well enough to move yet." Christa said.
"Well he'd better get ready, cause I'm going down to River Street right now to find a boat." Kenny argued. "And as soon as she's ready to go, we're moving out."
"I don't know if it's safe to leave just yet." Lee said.
"Why the hell not?" Kenny asked. "Walkers look to have cleared out."
"That's not all I'm worried about." Lee looked over out the fence again.
"So you'd rather just hunker down here, and just let whoever's out there keep us boxed in? Wait for them to starve us out?" Kenny glared. "No thanks."
"I hate to say it, but Kenny's right." Robbie added. "Omid's not in great shape to move, but we really can't do much for him here. Without meds or a doctor, he's only gonna worsen."
"Alright alright, I'll head to the river with Carley and Kenny to scope out a boat, while Wendy and Christa, you two get Omid ready to move." Lee explained.
"What about me?" Ben asked.
"Uh, yeah, and me?" Robbie sighed.
"You two'll stay here with the group." Kenny glared. "You'll only slow us down."
Robbie glared back. "Watch it, old man."
"Wait, can't I come?" Clementine walked over. "My mom and dad can't be far now, maybe we can look for them on the way to the river?"
"Clem, honey, I think it'd be best if you stayed here with the others. I need you to watch out for Omid, help him get ready to move out." Lee said.
"But you said I'm supposed to always stay close to you!" Clementine frowned.
"I know, it's just this once. Sometimes we all have to put aside what we want for the good of the group." Lee replied, before smiling. "Hey, don't worry. I'll be back before you know it, and if I find your parents on the way, I'll bring them with. Okay?"
Clem thought for a moment before she smiled a bit. "Okay."
"Daylight's burning." Kenny said. "Gonna go grab my gear, then we'll head out."
"C'mon Clem." Dipper walked over. "Let's go see if Omid needs anything, alright?"
Clem nodded and followed Dipper back into the house, the others following suit. As Lee approached the door, Ben stepped in front of him. "So you're just gonna leave me on the bench again?"
"That's not how it is, Ben." Lee shook his head. "I need you to stay here and keep an eye on Clementine."
"I can do that." Ben nodded.
"Well just so we're clear; while I'm gone, anything or anyone tries to get inside this house, you shoot them." Lee explained. "Don't even think twice about it. Understand?"
"I've got no problem with shooting walkers." Ben replied.
"Did you hear what I said?" Lee sighed. "Anything, or anyone."
Ben stared for a moment before nodding.
"Good." Lee said.
Ben returned into the house, and Lee took one more look over his shoulder at the fence before heading back inside along with him.
Evening would be fully set in soon as Lee, Carley, and Kenny continued down East Bay Street. The scenery around them was repetitive and grim; nothing but old, boarded up brick buildings with smashed windows and dented fire escapes, torn papers on the walls, and on occasion, a banner that was either blank or dirt-stained with the word 'Infected' written on it. Lee and Carley checked various cars, Kenny just continued on ahead, a very determined but very grim expression on his face. Lee and Carley exchanged worried glances before the woman nodded, and Lee walked ahead to talk with Kenny.
"Hey, so...you wanna talk about it?" Lee asked.
"About what." The man replied gruffly.
"About what happened back there." Lee said. "In the attic."
"No." Kenny didn't even look back at Lee.
"You sure man? I mean-"
"River's right up ahead." Kenny interrupted.
Then the bell rang again.
Kenny withdrew his glock quickly. "Son of a bitch. That bastard's fucking with us again. It's another trap."
"Wait, you two, listen." Carley reached for her glock but still signalled for them to be quiet. "That's not the same bell from before, this one's farther away. Whatever it is, it's going to get the walkers moving over there."
Hearing growling from behind them, the three turned to see walkers crossing at the turn they had come from, moving from the right to the left. They quickly ducked into a small opening behind a brick wall.
Kenny glared. "What in the hell is going on?"
Lee looked out from their hiding spot. "I have no idea. But someone must be ringing those bells."
"Whatever man." Kenny shook his head. "I find whoever's doing that, I'll ring their motherfuckin' bell for 'em."
"Good one." Lee commented.
Carley readied her glock. "Maybe they didn't see us. Let's just stay calm and quiet for a moment."
Soon, all of the walkers cleared to the other end of the street, their stumbling bodies out of sight and their growling becoming more faint by the second.
Kenny stood up and started down the street again. "Let's keep moving."
Lee and Carley followed, continuing down towards River Street with Kenny leading them. Lee glanced behind them. "Still nothing moving behind us. I think we're-"
He stopped once he turned to face where Kenny and Carley were staring, his eyes widening before he sighed. "...oh my god."
The dock was desolate and empty, little to no boats to be found, and the ones that were there, how few there were, were either crashed or partially sunk. The wood making up the docks was heavily corroded but still stable looking, and the faint growling of walkers could still be heard, though there seemed to be none in the area.
"There's gotta be a boat." Kenny said, those his expression was weary. "There's gotta be."
"Are you sure about that?" Carley asked. "Doesn't look like it to me."
"Maybe we need to start thinking about a plan B." Lee said.
"This is the plan!" Kenny shouted. "It's the only one we've got, and you pissin' on it in front of everyone like you did back at the house ain't exactly helpin'. Well screw you, I ain't giving up that easy."
The man sprinted down towards the docks, and Lee sprinted after him, Carley close behind. Kenny hopped a railing and landed on the dock, which was not that far down from the jump. Peering over another railing, he looked at a boat nearby, which seemed to be in decent condition.
"...this one might still be salvageable." He muttered.
"Seriously?" Carley cocked an eyebrow.
"You got a better fucking idea?" Kenny glared. "I'll check it out. You two look further along the waterfront, maybe there's something at the other end."
"Kenny, I don't think we should split up too far." Carley sighed.
"We don't have to. See that telescope?" Kenny pointed down the road. "You can see all the way along the waterfront from right here. See what you can find."
"Okay." Lee replied calmly.
"It'll need a quarter to work, probably." Carley glanced at the telescope.
"Leave that task to me then, I'll find us one." Lee said before walking off to inspect the telescope.
"I'll guard the end of the street then, in case anything comes our way." Carley added, withdrawing her glock and going to the end of East Bay Street from where they had came, aiming it down the road.
There's no way that boats gonna work…
Carley slowly lowered her gun and glanced over her shoulder at Kenny, frowning a bit.
That man's in a dark place...Christ, this sucks.
She then saw Lee approaching the telescope and sliding something into the slot on the side; a quarter, having already found one apparently. Taking one more look at the street, she then quickly walked over to Lee. "Hey, Lee, see anything?"
"No, not yet...just nothing but water." Lee replied as he glanced around with the telescope.
"Oh, alright…" Carley sighed. "Can I...talk to you about something?"
"Sure thing." Lee stopped looking through the telescope and turned to face Carley. "What do you need?"
"...I've been thinking, about back when Soos died." She replied. "It's weird but...what if it could've been me?"
Lee cocked an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
"...Lilly was almost accusing me as well. I was kinda thinking, if Soos wasn't there, maybe she would've killed Ben, or...me." Carley explained.
"Or Ben." Lee responded. "You really think that?"
"Yeah, it's weird, of all the things to stress about." Carley shrugged again. "It's kinda dumb, and I'm not saying I'm glad Lilly killed Soos, but...you get what I mean, right?"
"Yeah, I do." Lee nodded.
Carley smiled and caught Lee off guard by kissing his cheek. "Thank you, Lee."
"Fuck!"
Lee and Carley looked over to see Kenny approaching.
"What's wrong?" Lee asked.
"It ain't gonna work." Kenny walked over and sighed. "Hull's cracked beneath the waterline, plus someone stripped out the battery."
"You can't fix it?" Carley asked
Kenny was about to answer before his eyes widened. The others turned to see what he was staring at, and their eyes widened as well.
Not too far off was a large wall of bodies, rotting dead ones, with large pikes sticking out from the mass, undead walkers impaled on them. They continued to faintly growl as the three stared, though the walkers appeared to have not noticed them yet.
"What the- what the hell is that?!" Kenny asked.
"Jesus…" Carley muttered and shook her head slightly.
"A fate worse than death…" Lee replied, before looking back into the telescope. "What the hell?"
"What do you see?" Carley asked.
"Get down, get down!" Lee whispered loudly before jumping over the nearby railing onto the dock. Carley and Kenny followed as he peeked out under the railing.
"Why the hell are we hiding?" Kenny whispered.
"Someone just came down from that building at the end of the street." Lee replied. "They didn't fall, they just...climbed down."
"How the fuck do you just climb down a building?!" Carley readied her glock. "Where'd he go?"
"Saw him run into that newsstand over there." Lee answered.
"Could be our bell ringer." Kenny muttered. "How about we go find out?"
"We didn't come here looking for trouble, Ken." Carley sighed.
"Yeah well, it seems to have a way of finding us anyways." Kenny looked at Lee. "Look, this could be the guy from the radio, the one who's been messin' with us. If he is, we can put an end to it, right now.
"You head up the middle of the street, I'll go around the side, cover your flank, and Carley will stay here in case things go wrong. We'll come up on him quiet, take him by surprise."
Lee glanced down at Kenny's glock, firmly held in his hand. "We just wanna talk to this guy."
"Oh we're gonna talk." Kenny carefully hopped back over the railing and crept over to the alleyway by the newsstand. Keeping his finger on the trigger of his handgun, he signaled for Lee to move.
Lee nodded and climbed over the newsstand. He eyed the mysterious survivor who had crept down from the building with some sort of tool. They had been wearing a red and black hoodie with the hood up, a pair of blue jeans, black shoes, a backpack, and a mask over their mouth and nose, like the ones found in dental offices or hospitals worn by dentists, doctors, or nurses. They rummaged around behind the counter of the stand, their back turned to Lee. The man crept over as the survivor ducked down to look at the bottom shelves. Once he reached the newsstand, he took out the monkey wrench he had found in the train station earlier that day, and stood up, readying to strike.
Nobody was there.
Lee's eyes widened. "What the-?"
He was quickly disarmed from behind. Turning quickly, Lee was barely able to react to the survivor's quick strike to the side of his head with his own weapon, making him grunt in pain and sending him to the pavement. With dazed vision, Lee watched the survivor toss his weapon aside and take out an ice climbing pick, bringing it up and preparing to stab it into his head.
"No!"
Click.
"D-Don't move!"
Lee's attacker stopped and looked over their shoulder to see two kids, one of them a girl in a ballcap, and the other a boy in a similar cap, aiming a gun at them, though their hand was trembling.
Lee Blinked and sat up. "...Clem? Dipper?"
"Please...don't hurt him!" Clementine pleaded.
"G-Get off of him!" Dipper tried to stiffen his arm and tightened his grip on his handgun. "P-Please…!"
The survivor simply stared at the children before slowly standing up and hooking the ice pick back onto their backpack. Lee stood up and dusted off his shirt, shooting a quick glare at the survivor, before walking over to the kids, placing a hand on Clementine's shoulder and gesturing Dipper to lower his gun, which he did, holstering it back in his pocket.
"You're not from Crawford."
Lee blinked and looked at his former attacker. "What?"
The attacker lowered their hood and removed the mask, revealing blonde hair with a blue hair clip in it.
It was a girl.
"Crawford?" Lee asked. "The hell are you talking about?"
At that moment, before the girl could answer, Kenny stepped out from the alley and aimed his glock at the back of the girl's head.
Lee's eyes widened. "Kenny don't!"
The girl reacted quickly and dropped low, delivering a spinning sweeping kick to trip the man, sending Kenny to the ground, the impact causing his gun to go off and fire randomly into the air. The glock fell to the ground, and the girl kicked it away. The noise had riled up the impaled walkers nearby. Then the girl took out her ice pick and quickly brought it down, though moments before she could make impact, someone approached and stopped her by pointing a gun at the side of her head.
"Don't, he's with us."
It was Carley, who had quickly rushed over and firmly held her glock, positioning it at the girl. The girl looked around at the group as Carley slowly lowered her gun once the ice pick was put away. The girl crossed her arms and continued glaring at the group. "Who the hell are you people?"
"Everyone just calm down." Lee sighed.
"I'll calm down once she tells me who the fuck she is!" Kenny shouted.
"Back off, asshole." The girl said rather calmly, yet still irritably. "The name's Molly."
"Molly, I'm Lee. This is Kenny, that's Carley, and the kids are Dipper and Clementine." Lee explained. "We're not looking for any trouble."
"Hi." Clementine smiled at Molly.
"Hey, sorry for pointing a gun at you…" Dipper chuckled nervously.
Molly simply eyed the children. Clem waved, still smiling, but Dipper just stared awkwardly. "...you guys really aren't from Crawford, are you?"
"I don't even know what that is." Lee replied.
"Everything beyond that barricade." Molly used her elbow to gesture to the large wall of bodies behind her.
Clementine grimaced at the sight and Dipper turned his head away. "Aw Christ…"
Lee's eyes widened. Carley looked over at the barricade. "Just what the hell happened here…?"
"You sure you wanna know?" Molly asked.
After a moment, Lee slowly and silently nodded.
"When everything started going to shit, some people got together and sealed off that whole neighborhood. Folks willing to do anything to stay alive, stop the dead getting in." Molly explained. "I try to avoid 'em."
Kenny crossed his arms. "Why?"
Molly looked over at Kenny. "Let's just say they have a zero tolerance policy for anyone who won't - or can't - live by their rules."
"So how did you know we weren't a part of Crawford?" Carley asked.
Molly slowly looked back over at Clem and Dipper. "Because there are no children in Crawford. Not anymore."
"What do you mean, no children?" Lee asked. "Why not?"
"No children, no elderly, no-one with an advanced medical condition." Molly explained, walking over towards the barricade. "Basically no-one who might be a burden on the community. Crawford's all about the survival of the fittest. That's how they survived, while the rest of the world went to shit around them."
"Jesus Christ…" Kenny muttered.
"Well, just the opposite, when you think about it." Molly muttered.
"What exactly did Crawford do with all of these "burdens"?" Carley asked. "What happened to them?"
"Well you've met some of them already." Molly sighed and gestured to the walker barricade.
Kenny rubbed his temple. "Fuck me…"
"Yeah, anyone who got sick, anyone too old, anyone they figured wasn't strong enough to survive." Molly explained. "To them, those people were just mouths to feed, a drain on their precious resources."
Lee looked over at Molly. "...how do you know all of this?"
"Everyone in Savannah knew." Molly simply stared at the barricade with distaste, before walking back towards the newsstand along with the others. "What was going on inside Crawford got passed around like a ghost story. Except this one was true."
Lee, Dipper, and Clementine shared a worried glance, before Lee decided to change the subject for the moment. "Do you know who's been ringing those bells all over town?"
"Yeah, that would be me." Molly said nonchalantly.
"I knew it!" Kenny glared, storming over to Molly and angrily pointing at her. "Lee, I knew she was the one who's been following us, fucking with us!"
"Get that finger out of my face, grampa, before I jam it straight up your ass." Molly crossed her arms again. "I haven't been following you, I don't even know who the hell you people are."
"Calm down Kenny, the voice on the radio was a guy, remember?" Carley said.
"Yeah, well," Kenny looked from Lee to Molly. "Whoever you are, ringing those bells this morning nearly got us all killed. Raised the dead all around us!"
"Well sorry for nearly killing you, but that's the idea, genius. It's how I get around." Molly explained. "I ring a bell in one neighborhood to attract the local geeks toward it. Buys me some time to scavenge the areas they've cleared out."
"Geeks?" Carley chuckled. "Is that what you call them?"
"Yeah, you know, like at the carnival?" Molly said. "They'll eat anything, alive or dead."
"That's pretty smart, with the bells." Dipper piped in, having gone silent for a while.
"Well kid, it doesn't take much to outsmart the dead. Bunch of dumbasses is what they are." Molly smirked. "You just gotta move fast; get in and out before they start to wander back again.
"Look, I'm gonna ask you people again; you're not from Crawford, so who the hell are you, what're you doing here?"
"We came down here looking for a boat, hoping to get our people out of here and find someplace safe." Lee explained.
"Yeah, good luck with that." Molly said sarcastically. "Anyone with a boat took it out of here as soon as people started eating each other. Any that got left behind, Crawford stripped 'em for parts. Cars too."
Kenny sighed and crossed his arms. "...there's gotta be something."
"If there was, do you think I'd still be here?" Molly asked. "I've been over every inch of this city, this whole place is picked clean."
Kenny shook his head and stormed away. "Goddammit! Fuck!"
Molly glared. "Hey, moron, you wanna keep your voice down?"
Kenny simply stared out past the waterfront, then he glanced over at the sunken boat he had hoped would work. He looked down drearily. "Shit…"
Molly looked to the others. "Since you're not getting on any boat, I'd advise you folks to go back to where you came from, before-"
Molly was cut off by loud growling as walkers began to suddenly pour into the street from where the group had come from. She sighed.
"Great. Just great."
-(End Of Chapter)-