As Naje, Lee, and Kenny were heading down to River Street, Kenny stayed silent. Naje and Lee did most of the interacting and small talks, but Kenny said nothing. Unless one of them spoke to him first. Lee and Naje both took a few seconds to check up a car. It was broken up. Tires, doors, and windshields missing. The cover of the engine was propped up for some reason. Kenny just kept walking, slowly with an intense look om his face. Naje and Lee looked at Kenny then looked at each other. They eventually caught up to him. They stayed behind and let Kenny lead the way. Lee finally decided to break Kenny's silence.
"Hey, so... you wanna talk about it?" Lee asked.
"About what?" Kenny said.
"About what happened back there. In the attic." Lee said.
"No." Kenny replied.
"You sure, man? I mean-"
"River's right up ahead." Kenny interrupted.
Seconds later, a town bell rung. It sounded similar to the first one when the group first arrived at Savannah. Then all the men stopped. Kenny pulled out his gun and aimed it at a direction. Naje pulled out his gun as well.
"Son of a bitch. That bastard's fucking with us again. It's another trap." Kenny said.
"No. Listen. That's not the same bell as before. This one's farther off. Whatever it is, it's gonna get the dead moving over there."
At the end of the street, there were walkers walking, but they weren't going towards the three men. They were going straight to the sound of the bells. They then hid behind a wall to avoid being spotted.
"What in the hell is going on?" Kenny said.
"I have no idea. But someone must be ringing those bells." Said Lee.
"Whatever, man. I find whoever's doing that, I'll ring their motherfucking bell for'em." Kenny replied.
"Good one." Naje said. Once the walkers cleared on, they got a move on again.
"Hmph. Let's keep movin'." Kenny said.
Kenny and Naje were walking forward as Lee was walking backwards to see if any walkers were walking up behind them.
"Still nothing moving behind us. I think we're- Oh my God." Lee said. Lee responded the way he did because the men arrived at the dock on River Street, but there were no boats from what they were seeing. Lee put his hands in the back of his head. Naje just put his hands in his pocket and blew out a breath.
"There's gotta be a boat... There's gotta be." Kenny said still staying positive.
"Are you sure about that? It doesn't look like it to me. I think maybe we should start thinking about a plan B." Lee suggested.
"This is the plan, Lee! It's the best shot we got. You said so back at the house. You agreed with me!" Kenny responded angrily.
'Yeah but that was before-" Lee said but couldn't finish because Kenny ran off to the deck. Naje and Lee ran behind him.
Kenny was checking out a boat that he found, but the boat was half sunken and had a wooden post pierced through it when a pointy top.
"This one might still be salvageable." Kenny thought.
"Seriously?" Lee said.
"You got a better fucking idea?" Kenny said. "I'll check it out. Lee, you look further along the waterfront. Maybe there's something at the end."
"I don't think we should split up too far." Lee said.
"We don't have to. See that telescope? You can see all the way along the waterfront from there. See what you can find." Kenny said.
"Okay." Replied Lee. Lee went on over to the telescope.
"Naje, you're the lookout. Let us know if you see anything or anyone coming up on us."
"I'm on it." Naje said.
As Lee was making his way to the telescope, he found a barrier of dead and alive walkers impaled on spikes. He also saw a wooden board sign beside the barrier that said "STAY OUT" spray painted in red.
"What the fuck? What is this meant to be, some kind of warning? Who would do something like this?" Lee said to himself.
Lee went back to the telescope to use it to look out to the waterfront. But the telescope wasn't showing anything because like most telescopes, it needed a quarter to be used.
"Great." Lee sarcastically said. "Needs a quarter to work."
Lee then walked around to see if he can find anything that took coins. He found a cash register. He looked inside but it was empty. Naje noticed Lee having trouble.
"Looking for something, Lee?" Naje asked.
"Yeah, a quarter. I need one to look through the telescope." Lee said.
"Oh." Naje reached into his pocket, pulled out a quarter, and gave it to Lee. "Here you go."
Lee took the quarter. "Thanks.. Uh, where did you find this?" Lee asked.
"Found it earlier in the sofa when we were checking to house to see if it was safe. Loose change, man. I actually found four of them. So I just instinctively took them since it's the apocalypse and there's no use for them." Naje went on.
"You're one of a kind, Naje. Glad to have you around." Lee said.
"Thanks, Lee."
Lee was heading back to the telescope until Naje stopped him.
"Hey Lee?" Naje called him.
"Yeah?" Lee answered.
"This is probably no knucklehead question, but how do you think Kenny's holding up?" Naje asked.
"He's going through a lot, man. He just recently lost his son and wife." Lee said.
"We're all going through a lot." Naje assured him. "And yes, I feel bad for Kenny because he lost his family, but the rest of us has lost ours, too. He's just been a bit bossy lately."
"He's just trying to do what's best for the group because he doesn't wanna lose us either." Lee said.
"Lee, did you find anything yet?" Kenny shouted.
"I haven't looked yet. I needed a quarter for the telescope."
"Well c'mon, man. We don't have all eternity."
"See?" Naje pointed out.
"He's just a bit on edge." Lee said.
"Yeah yeah. I need to be on lookout. I'll notify you if I see anything or anyone." Naje said as he walked off.
Lee went back to the telescope, but before he could put the quarter in, he heard a yell by Kenny.
"Fuck!" Kenny yelled in frustration.
"What's up with the boat?" Lee asked him. Kenny walked over to Lee and Naje came over as well to see if there was a problem.
"It ain't gonna work. Hull's cracked beneath the water line, plus someone stripped out the battery." Kenny said.
"So you can't fix it?" Lee asked. Kenny looked past Lee and saw the barrier of impaled walkers that Lee saw earlier. Naje noticed it too.
"What the- what the hell is that?!" Kenny said.
"A fate worse than death..." Lee replied.
"What kinda sick minded fuck would even-.. good grief." Naje said as he sighed and shook his head.
Lee finally, without anymore interruptions, put the quarter into the telescope and looked into it. He was calling out everything he saw to Naje and Kenny. He even saw a boat, but he told him that it was too far out and it was non-salvageable like the one Kenny was looking at. Then, he looked at a hospital building, with someone standing at the top of it.
"What the hell?" Lee said. The person had a ice axe and used it to climb down from the building.
"What is it?" Naje asked.
"Get down, get down!" Lee told them.
Lee, Kenny, and Naje went down to hide behind a wall. Lee peaked over to see where the person was. They went into the newsstand.
"Why the hell are we hiding?" Kenny asked.
"Someone came down from that building at the end of the street." Lee said.
"Where'd he go?" Naje asked.
"Saw him go into that newsstand."
"Could be our bell ringer. How about we go find out?" Kenny suggested.
"We didn't come here looking for trouble." Lee said.
"Yeah well, it seems to have a way of finding us anyways. Look, this could be the guy from the radio, the one who's been messing with us. If he is, we can put it end to it, right now." Kenny said. "Okay, Lee you head up the middle. I'll go around the side, cover your tank. We'll come up on him quietly, take him by surprise. Naje, you lay back here, take cover from the back."
Kenny pulled out his gun. "We just wanna talk to this guy." Lee said.
"Yeah." Naje agreed.
"Oh we're gonna talk." Kenny said as he leaped over the wall and quietly rushed over to take cover at the corner of the building.
Lee went over the wall, Naje stayed behind the wall and peaked over it. Lee started sneaking up to the newsstand. As he got closer, the person ironically ducked down. Lee approached and pulled out his monkey wrench he got from the train they rode on to get to Savannah. He popped up with the wrench in the air, but the person had disappeared.
"What the.." The person had somehow sneaked up behind Lee and snatched the wrench out of his hand. They attempted to hit Lee with it, but Lee blocked it and hit the punch the person across the face, which caused them to drop the wrench. They came back with an uppercut, but Lee dodged it and punched the person down to the ground with one shot. Lee sat on the person and held his pistol close to their face.
"Lee." Came a soft and calm voice from behind. Lee looked behind him and it was Clementine. She was just standing there with her arms crossed.
"Clem?" Lee said with a surprised tone. Naje had a confused look on his face when he saw her. Naje came from behind the wall and ran over to her. She smiled as she saw him. They met each other halfway with an embrace.
Lee felt the person reach for something and he put the pistol even closer to their face. The person calmly and slowly pulled the hood of the jacket they were wearing from their head. It was a female, not a guy. Lee looked confused again after seeing the person was a female.
"You're not from Crawford." The girl said.
"You're not the guy from the radio. Who are you?" Lee replied.
"I'm not a guy at all as you can see." She said. "Mind if I get up?" She asked.
"Slowly." Lee said. Lee got off the girl and stood up. He kept aiming his gun at her. She eventually got up off the ground. She took the doctor mask she was wearing off of her face. Lee slowly lowered his gun. Lee turned around to Clementine and place a hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile. She gave one back.
Kenny came from around the corner and aimed his gun at the girl. She sensed him coming behind her.
"Kenny don't!" Lee shouted. On instinct, the girl leg sweep Kenny's legs from under him, causing him to fall and accidentally firing his gun. The unknown girl pulled out her ice axe and attempted to hit Kenny with it until Lee stopped her.
"No! He's with us!" Lee said.
The girl crossed her arms and looked at the group. "Who the hell are you people?" She asked.
"I asked you first." Lee said.
"The name's Molly." She answered.
"Molly. I'm Lee. This is Kenny, Clementine, and Naje." Lee calmly said. "We're not looking for any trouble."
"Hi." Clementine said to Molly. Molly looked at Clementine, and then the rest. Clem raised her hand up and gave a momentary wave to Molly.
"You guys really aren't from Crawford, are you?" Molly asked.
"I don't even know what that is." Lee said.
"Everything beyond that barricade." Molly said pointing to the barrier of walkers.
"What the hell happened here?" Asked Lee.
"You really wanna know?" Molly asked. Lee slowly nodded his head.
"When everything started to go to shit, some people got together and sealed off that whole neighborhood. Folks willing to stay alive, stop the dead from getting in. I try to avoid'em." Molly informed them.
"Why?" Kenny asked.
"Let's just say they have a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who won't - or can't - live by their rules." Molly said.
"So how'd you know we weren't them?" Naje asked her.
Molly turned and looked at Clementine. "Because there are no children in Crawford. Not anymore."
"What do you mean, no children? Why not?" Lee asked.
"No children, no elderly, no-one with an advanced medical condition. 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 around them." Molly went on.
"Damn..." Naje said.
"Jesus Christ..." Kenny followed up.
"Well, just the opposite, when you think about it." Said Molly.
"What did Crawford do with all these "burdens?" What happened to them?" Lee asked.
"Well, you met some of them already." Molly said referring and pointing to the barrier of walkers.
"Oh that's just fucked up." Naje said.
"Fuck me..." Kenny said in disbelief.
"Yeah. Anyone who got sick, anyone too old, anyone they figured wasn't strong enough to survive. To them, those people were just mouths to feed, a drain on their precious resources."
"How do you know all this?" Lee asked.
"Everyone in Savannah knew. What was going on inside Crawford got passed around like a ghost story. Except this one was true." Said Molly.
The members of the group all just looked at one another. Can't believe the things that happened inside that place.
"Do you know who's been ringing those bells all over town?" Lee asked Molly.
"Yeah, that would be me." Answered Molly.
"I knew it! Lee, I knew she was the one who's been following us, fuckin' with us!" Kenny snapped as he pointed at Molly.
"Get that finger out of my face, grampa, before I jam it straight up your ass. I haven't been following you people. I don't even know who the hell you people are." Molly said.
"Calm down, Kenny. The voice on the radio was a guy, remember?" Lee mentioned.
"Yeah, well, ringing those bells this morning nearly got us all killed! Raised the dead all around us!" Kenny said.
"That's the idea, genius. It's how I get around. I ring a bell in one neighborhood to attract the local geeks toward it. Buys me some time to scavenge the areas they cleared out." Molly explained.
"Geeks? Is that what you call'em?" Kenny asked, with a light chuckle.
"Yeah. You know, like at the carnival. They'll eat anything, alive or dead." Molly said.
"That's true." Naje said.
"That's pretty smart, with the bells." Lee said.
"Doesn't take much to outsmart the dead. Bunch of dumb-asses. You just gotta move fast, get in and out before they start to wonder back again." Molly informed.
"Look, I'm gonna ask you people again: you're not from Crawford, so who the hell are you? What are you doing here?" Molly asked them.
"We came down here looking for a boat, hoping to get our people out of here and find someplace safe." Lee said.
"Psh. Good luck with that. 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. Same with cars." Molly told them.
"There's gotta be SOMETHING." Kenny said.
"If there was, do you think I'd still be here? I've been over every inch of this city. This whole place is picked clean." Molly said.
"Goddammit! Fuck!" Kenny shouted in frustration.
"Hey! Moron! You wanna keep your voice down?" Molly said.
Kenny looked at the boat he was trying to "fix" earlier. "Shit." He said under his breath.
"Since you're not getting on any boat, I'd advise you folks to go back where you came from before-" Molly was saying until she saw and heard a few walkers approaching.
"Great. Just great." Molly said. Everyone else turned around and saw them too.
"Isn't that-" Naje said until he was interrupted by Lee, because he knew what he was gonna ask.
"The way we came." Lee answered for him.
"Fuck! Gunshot must've brought them back." Kenny thought.
"Isn't there another way back to the house?" Clementine asked.
"Molly, is there-" Lee turned back and saw Molly running away. The group followed her. She went into a alleyway and used her ice axe to climb up a fire escape as if she was a ninja.
"Hey! You're just going to leave us here?!" Lee shouted.
"Sorry, I must have missed the part of our conversation where you became my problem." Said Molly.
"Don't leave us here! Please?" Clementine said as she beckoned. Clementine gave the puppy eyes and Molly couldn't resist them. Molly went down and extended her hand.
"C'mon! Make is fast!" She said. Lee gave Clementine a boost and Molly helped her up. The walkers were coming into the alleyway now. Next was Naje, who used his athletic ability to jump up to the fire escape and grabbed the rails to pull himself up. Molly helped him the rest of the way up.
"Oh, fuck me..." Kenny said.
"C'mon, c'mon, hurry!" Lee said. Then Lee gave Kenny a boost and Molly helped him on up as well. Lee was left there standing. The walkers were getting closer.
"Lee! Come on!" Clementine screeched.
Kenny reached his arm out to Lee. "C'mon man, one good jump!" He told him.
Lee reached up and grabbed Kenny hands, but they both lost grip, sending Lee back to the ground.
"Nooooo! Lee!" Clementine cried.
Lee went to push a dumpster out of the way and attempted to escape through the other end of the alleyway, but there were walkers coming from that way too. That stopped Lee in his tracks. Lee looked don below and noticed a man-hole sewer cover.
"C'mon Lee! Get your ass outta there!" Kenny shouted.
Lee tried to get the lid off with his bare hands but it didn't work. "Dammit! I can't get it open!"
"Here!" Molly threw her ice axe down to him. "Use that to pry it open."
Lee went down to pry the lid open with the ice ax, but a few walkers were getting too close. So Naje swooped down, landed on a walker to break his fall, and hit the walker over the head with the wrench Lee had, killing it.
"Nooooo!" Clementine cried.
"What the hell, Naje?!" Kenny shouted.
"Don't worry guys, I'm guarding him! They're getting too close." Naje said.
Lee managed to get the lid off. "We'll meet back up with you guys somehow!" Naje told them. Lee and Naje went down into the sewer.
"Lee! Naje!" Clementine shouted.
When they made it down, a walker fell down there with them. But they didn't have to worry as it fell face first into the floor and died.
"Clementine! Can you hear me?!" Lee called out. "If you can hear me, just get back to the house, okay? We'll meet you there!"
Lee turned back to Naje and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Thanks for backing me up back there, man." Lee thanked him.
"Don't mention it, Lee. Not a problem." Naje replied.
"But what is a problem, is we're stuck in a sewage facility now. And we can't go back up the way we got in because the walkers are still up there. So how else do we get out?" Lee said. Naje just looked at him and shrugged. Then they surveyed around the sewer and just let out a sigh, figuring out how to get out.
