Author's Note: So, I saw the reviews for the last chapter and they were all pretty positive, so keep it up guys. I'm also trying to work on bettering my writing by looking at stories that are written more coherently than mine and applying what they do. Check out a story called The Walking Dead: Day's Gone because that's the story I'm using.
Solidghost - Most people believe that the U.S. Military has either collapsed or the few assets left are in Hawaii, so no military personnel will be found in the story. Still, thanks for taking the time to read my story, I appreciate you visiting this corner of the website.
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or TWD as they belong to Microsoft/343 Industries and Skybound.
"Quotes."
"Radio Messages."
Thoughts and/or reading
On The Road, Georgia
November 16, 1908 Hours, 2012
It had been several hours since they had been forced to run from the motel due to the bandit attack. Morale had all been shattered as the remaining nine of them sat silently or spoke at a low volume.
Cal sat with her helmet in her lap, Clementine leaning against her having fallen asleep. Carly and Mark were treating Doug in the back, doing their best tending to his gunshot wound, but Cal knew he wouldn't make it. The bullet entered his side, unfortunately hitting one of his lungs causing a hemopneumothorax. His labored breathing and pained coughs made Cal painfully aware that he wasn't going to make it.
Not wanting to be the bearer of bad news after suffering a defeat that could be considered the apocalypses' version of New Constantinople, she decided to hold off until later to tell them. Looking at Travis, the kid looked like a complete wreck. She couldn't blame him though, as his best friend had been found to be a traitor to the group and was summarily executed.
Kenny and Katjaa, they got the very short end of the stick. Katjaa had been doing her best to bring Duck back to life, but there was nothing she could do. Kenny had by now stopped crying, but his face red and puffy, still holding onto the guilt and sadness.
Cal moved Clementine so she could rest in her lap before taking a look at her guns. Removing the magazine and sliding back the bolt of her M4, she counted the remaining bullets, coming up with fourteen left. Reinserting the magazine, she laid it down on the seat before pulling out her shotgun and wracked the pump until all loaded shells came out. Counting up her shells, she noted there were eleven left, not having to use one since the drug store. Laying it over the M4, she then pulled out her pistol and did the same actions as she did on the rifle. It's ammo was in an even worse state, with only nine of the original seventeen bullets left.
"Kenny?" she asked.
"... Yes Cal?" she heard him weakly answer.
"Do you still have those spare mag's I gave you the day I raided the police station?"
"Yeah. I'm guessing you need one, right?"
"I'm almost out for my handgun, so yeah. If you're good on ammo, I'll take two."
Reaching into his pocket, Kenny pulled out two full magazines of 9mm ammunition and held them out behind him. Taking the magazines, Cal gave a quiet thanks before putting both magazines into her vest.
At least we still have some weapons. she thought. Carly, Lee, Kenny, Me… and Doug. She sighed at his name. I can't help to think that this is my fault, that it could have been avoided. she thought, exhausted. Exhaustion turned to anger as she started berating herself for the loss. If I hadn't let my guard down and become relaxed, the bandit's wouldn't have even been able to make it across the street. But because I failed to continuously watch out for danger, we lost our home!
The stress of the situation started to hit her. Several months of grinding attrition, low morale, and now being stabbed in the back made her tired. Deciding to get some sleep, she relaxed her body and closed her eyes, waiting for wherever Kenny would take them.
Cal's eyes slowly opened as she felt a force lightly pushing on her shoulder.
"Cal, wake up." A voice said.
Blinking several times to clear her vision, she recognized that it was Mark. Once he saw that she was awake, he took his hand off of her shoulder as she sat up. Looking around, she noticed that they were stopped.
"Mark, what's going on? Why did we stop?"
"We uhhh, we ran into a roadblock a few minutes ago. Kenny told me to wake you up. The others are already outside having a look." He informed her.
"And what about Doug." She asked him.
Mark's gaze slowly turned to the floor, Cal clearly understanding the message. "How did he die?" she asked, her voice wavering.
"He suffered cardiac arrest an hour ago. Carly and I… we.. we tried to save him, but there was nothing we could do. We brought his body outside, it's sitting by the road. It's the best we could give him in terms of a burial. Kenny and Katjaa are giving their kid his own right now."
Cal stared at him with a long gaze, making the old desk jockey nervous that he did something wrong. His eyes started fluttering and his breathing differed in paces.
"Mark, calm down, it's ok. You tried your best. No one can blame you for trying to save him." She reassured him.
Mark calmed down and nodded, getting a hold of himself. "I took his pistol. With our lack of… well everything, I thought it would be a good idea."
Cal nodded. "It was. We're almost out of ammo, so every bullet is worth it."
Standing up, Cal grabbed her weapons and followed Mark out of the R.V. Looking at the roadblock that he told her about, she realized that it was a semi - wrecked train. The sound of shuffling leaves brought her out of her trance as she looked over to Kenny and Katjaa who were covering their dead son.
Mark then walked by her, heading to a knocked over log Clementine, Carly, and Travis were sitting on. Following the man, Cal made her way over to Clementine who was looking away from Duck's dead body.
"Hey Clem." She greeted the girl. "Are you doing ok?"
Clementine shook her head. "No. Duck's dead, isn't he?"
Cal sighed, it was only a matter of time before Clementine found out. "Yes, he is. I'm sorry Clem, but there was nothing we could do for him."
"I know. I know." Clementine started with a weary voice. "I don't want anyone else to die."
"I can't make any promises Clem. This world is cruel and not everyone will make it." Cal said, softly.
Clementine turned away from the Spartan, upset at the answer she was given. Cal placed a hand on her cheek as an act of reassurance. "Don't worry Clem. I'll make sure we see this through. Once we find someplace safe, we can live our lives in peace, ok?"
"Ok." Clementine said, nodding slightly.
Cal got up and walked over to the train, a feeling of anxiety coursing through her body. The open boxcar was her first destination. Stepping inside, she noticed Lee staring at a map.
"What'ya got there?" She asked him.
"It's a map. One that shows where the tracks go." Turning it around, he showed it to her. "This line heads right down to Savannah."
"That's… actually really good." Cal told him. "You should show this to Kenny in a few minutes, I'm sure he'll want to see this after he's done grieving his son."
"Yeah. Several thousand tons of steel in between us and the coast. I can almost see the zombies being crushed already." Lee joked.
Cal let a smile touch her lips. "I'll see if this train still works first. After that, we can settle in and finally have a win for once."
Lee nodded to the woman, heading out of the boxcar and heading over to Kenny. Cal went through the door, walking out onto the locomotive. Heading to the engine room, she saw something sitting in the chair through the glass.
She pulled out her handgun and pointed it at the figure. Knocking on the glass trying to alert the occupant failed as she received no reaction. Opening the door, Cal kept her pistol trained on the back of its head. "Hey." She said. Still getting no response, she grabbed the body and threw it out of the chair.
Upon further inspection, she found that the top half of the train engineer's head was caved in. Holstering her pistol, she grabbed the body and dragged it out of the engine. "Ugh, gross." Carly said behind her, seeing the display.
"Not the worst I've seen." Cal responded. Tossing the body over the railing, she went back into the engine, being tailed by Carly.
"Speaking of which," Carly butted in, "you've never gone in depth about your background. What did you do in the military anyways?"
She heard a sigh come from the more physically imposing woman. Cal turned to face the reporter. "I might as well tell you guy's now while there's still people to tell. I wasn't exactly part of the United States military. Hell, I'm not even from here."
Carly cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean? Were you a spy for some other country?"
"No it's not like that. I'm not from this world."
"That's ludicrous. We never discovered aliens, how could you not be from Earth?" Carly asked.
"Go get Mark and Lee, then let you know the specifics."
"Ok, but you better tell us the truth." Carly told her, heading out to get the others. She returned a short minute later, practically dragging Lee and Mark into the room.
"Carly, can you please tell us what this is about?" Mark begged.
"I can't because I don't know. Cal has something she wants us to know. Something about her past."
This got the interests of both of the men who look at Cal. Taking off her helmet, she set it down on the dashboard of the train. "I'm not from this world. And before you say anything, no, it's not some grand cliché. My name is Callista Harris, Spartan 141 of the United Nations Space Command, the military and science branch of the United Earth Government. To give you the short version, in the year 2075, several of Earth's major nations banded into one entity under the United Nations. By 2160, humanity was already colonizing the Sol System when two opposing factions called the Freidens and the Koslovics, Fascist and Communist organizations respectively, rose up in opposition to administrations on Earth and took up arms. In response, the United Nations formed the UNSC, which was a global coalition of Naval and Marine forces. Over the course of the next decade, the UNSC would fight and win several wars against the factions, reigning in an era of peace. After the wars, the United Nations would be reformed into the United Earth Government as the head administration of humanity. Several hundred years later in the early 2400s, an insurrectionist movement tried to tear our newly colonized planets away from the UEG. The UNSC was sent in response and, after several years of fighting, their own extremism turned the population against them, ultimately destroying them. It wasn't until 2494 when a new insurrection sparked due to economic, military, and political divides between newly established outer colonies and industrialized inner colonies. Again, the UNSC was dispatched to deal with the threat, but the situation got out of hand. In 2515, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the intelligence branch of the UNSC, began looking for recruits to enter their Spartan Program." She said, starting to spin the story to remove the child kidnapping. "I was one of those who joined, a hundred and fifty of us total. We trained rigorously for several years, trying to become the very best we could be. After our regular training was complete, we were brought to a specialized laboratory where we received our augmentations. Out of the entire company, only thirty five of us survived the process, with the rest either being crippled or dying."
"Oh my god…" Carly said in shock.
"So that's how you've been doing things no one else could. These 'augmentations'. What… were they?" Lee slowly asked, almost as if he was too afraid to get the words out of his mouth.
"Carbide Ceramic Ossification, Muscular Enhancement Injections, Catalytic Thyroid Implant, Occipital Capillary Reversal, and Superconducting Fabrication of Neural Dendrites. Now, I know that doesn't make any sense to you, so pretty much the gist of it is the strengthening of bones to make them unbreakable, increased density of muscle tissue, hormone implant to increase skeletal and muscular growth, higher blood flow to our eyes that increased our vision, and decreasing our reaction times to that of twenty milliseconds."
"So… they just ripped you guys open and pumped you full of drugs?" Mark asked, trying to wrap his head around it.
"In layman's terms, yes. But the story doesn't end there. After receiving the augmentations, we were given out Mjolnir armor, and this undersuit I'm wearing was part of the armor system."
"So what happened to the rest of your armor?" Carly asked.
"I died." Cal stated bluntly.
"You died? How's that possible?" Lee asked, questioning the validity of it.
"During the fight against the Insurrectionists, a coalition of genocidal aliens called the Covenant arrived in February of 2525. After that, all hell broke loose. For the next nineteen years, humanity has been fighting a losing battle against the Covenant's. In the year 2544, I was sent on an operation with a team of ODST's to eliminate a prophet to interrupt the covenants supply lines.
"And those two things are?" Carly asked.
"ODST's are elite units who drop in pods from low orbit. Think about a more advanced paratrooper. As for prophets, they make up whatever governing system the Covenant have. Anyways, on this mission, we lost an ODST on the drop after he was knocked off course and burned up in the atmosphere. The rest of us made contact groundside." She then turned to Mark, asking him, "Mark, do you remember when I told you the story about O'brien?"
"Yeah? I'm guessing it's involved with what you're about to say next."
"Indeed. Near the end of this operation, one of the heavier units the Covenant utilize ambushed me and my team on a ridgeline. In order to save one of the ODST's, I pushed him out of the way and took a hit in the head." She said, pointing to where the Brute Chieftain's hammer hit. "We finished the mission, but I died shortly thereafter. That's when I woke up in the middle of a forest and met Lee." She said, finishing the story.
The three of them stared at Cal in shock. The room was silent for a minute until Lee spoke up to ask, "How could you be losing a war for nineteen years and still fight? We've been stuck in an apocalypse for barely three months and it's hell on Earth."
"Every time we lost a fight, we retreated and regrouped, making sure to delete or destroy any intel that got left behind. It's slowed them down, but I don't know how long we can keep it up."
"What happened to anybody that got left behind?" Mark asked, a dismal look on his face.
Cal swallowed. "They either fought to the death or were glassed."
"I doubt I even want to know what 'glassed' means." Lee remarked.
"No, no you don't."
Carly walked to the door, a horrified look on her face. "I think I've heard enough to last me a lifetime. I'm going to see if Kenny is feeling any better. With any luck, we can get this train moved, and we'll need his expertise." She said, opening it and heading outside.
"Is it ok if I go tell the others your story?" Mark asked with weary eyes. "It's only fair that they hear it too. Besides, I doubt anyone would care that you're an alien."
Cal nodded. "Sure, go ahead. Keep it brief, I don't want us having to spend longer than we need too here because of it."
Mark went outside, closing the door and following Carly. Taking a look out of the window, Cal saw leaning forward and giving the R.V. a one thousand yard stare.
"I can't imagine what he's going through." Lee said with sympathy.
The scene made her remember Daisy, causing some pain to bubble to the surface. "If it's anything like when I found out Daisy died, I know exactly how he feels. Your heart shatters, but you eventually lift your head and continue moving forward. Honor their memory by living."
Lee placed a comforting hand on her shoulder with a sorrowful look on his face. She nodded to him before hardening up and shifting her gaze towards the dashboard of the train. "And if we want to continue Duck and Doug's memories, then we need to move this train. Lee, I want you to check those panels outside. I'll look around here for a manual or something."
"You got it Cal. Be safe."
"No promises."
Once Lee was outside, Cal started taking a look around for something useful, which didn't take long. Finding a taped note titled Engine Startup with several drawings underneath would probably be her greatest find of all. Grabbing the note, she looked at the instruction images that showed how to operate the dashboard.
This better work. If it doesn't, I'm going to smash a window. She thought as she flipped the proper switches and dials. After she completed what was drawn on the note, the interior lights came on.
A knock at the door brought her attention away for a moment. Looking through, it was Lee who gave her a thumbs up but asked, "I see you got the power on, what did you do?" Cal placed the note against the glass of the door, allowing Lee to read it. After his eyes scanned the page twice, he nodded to her and went back to the compartment that held the startup sequence.
A few seconds later, the sound of a hum ran through the steel beast. Cal, in a moment of excitement, threw her hands up in the air. The door then swung open as Kenny and Lee entered the cabin.
"Holy shit." Kenny said, a smile forming on his face. "I can't fucking believe it. You guys actually managed to get her running."
"And, better yet, she'll run all the way to Savannah." Cal gleefully told Kenny.
"Really? Shit, that's the best news I've heard in two days. Let's get this sucker running so we can get the hell outta here." Kenny said optimistically.
Sitting down in the chair, Kenny looked around confused. "Uhhh, is there a manual or something?" He got his response in the form of the note Cal found earlier. Taking it, he flipped through the pages until he found instructions on how to operate the train. After giving the page a quick read, he placed a hand onto the lever that was supposed to move forward and gave it a push.
The train jolted forward before being stopped. "Dammit, I think we're still coupled to the rest of the cars." Lee said, figuring out the problem first.
"I'll head back there and get us loose. Be ready for when I give you the all clear." Cal notified them. Heading outside, she climbed down the side of the train and saw that everyone had piled around the boxcar.
"I see you got the train going." Carly said, stopping Cal in her tracks.
"Yeah, now I'm just going to get us detached from the rest of it. You all should get on, once we're free, we're leaving." Cal told them, sharing some of Kenny's newfound optimism.
Heading around to the back of the boxcar, Cal saw the coupler. Grabbing it, she pulled upwards, meeting stiff resistance with the locking mechanism. Huffing, she climbed onto the coupler and pulled with as much strength as she could muster. It finally paid off as the entire coupler broke off the train a few seconds later.
Jumping down, she started walking back to the engine. "Kenny, we're good!" She yelled. She didn't get a verbal reply, instead, she got it in the form of the train moving slowly forward.
She chuckled. Even after losing his son, he still has a decent sense of humor. She thought, grabbing onto the ladder. Climbing up, she met back with Lee and Kenny in the cabin, both of whom were grinning ear to ear at her.
Clearly getting the message, she rolled her eyes. "Come on guys, all I did was get the train going."
Kenny snorted at Carl's attempt to play down her importance. "Yeah, keep telling yourself that Miss Super Soldier. You're the only reason any of us are still alive." He praised.
"I'm with Kenny on this one. You've gotten us through so much shit that I can't even count it on both of my hands." Lee said, agreeing with the Floridian.
"I'm just doing my job to keep you all safe." Cal said, trying to dodge their statements.
Kenny's eyes went wide as he feigned being shocked. "Now ain't that the understatement of the century. Wouldn't you agree Lee?"
"Definitely. Especially after you told us who really are, it just makes you even more of a badass."
Cal sighed, realizing this was one fight she was not going to win. This made the two men start laughing. Grabbing her helmet off of the dash, she opened the door, walked out, and shut it, leaving them behind.
At least now I can spend some time with Clem. I should enjoy the intermission while I have it. Who knows what's beyond these tracks. She thought, making her way over to the boxcar.
Inside it, not everyone shared the same outlook at Lee, Kenny, and her. Travis was staring out of the open side door while Katjaa was sitting against the wall holding a family photo.
She shook her head at the scene. They need time to grieve. Hopefully they get enough during our ride to Savannah.
One the other hand, sitting in a corner was Clementine, who smiled when she saw the super soldier. Cal returned the smile, walked over, and sat down next to the girl. "Hey Clem, how ya doing?"
"Is it true that you're a super alien?!" Clem asked off the bat.
"Yes it's true."
Clementine then turned to look at the floor, a saddened look appearing onto her face. "So that means, a lot of people have died fighting each other…"
Cal sighed. "Yes, it has Clem. But they were bad people. They wanted to hurt others because they didn't agree with everyone else. It was our job to stop them so they couldn't hurt anyone anymore. Do you understand Clem?."
"I… guess so. But what if something bad happens to you, like what happened to those people Mark talked about, or Doug, … or Duck?" Clementine asked morbidly.
"You don't need to worry about me Clem. With every advantage I have, the apocalypse has just been like one long mission, going from one obstacle to the next." Cal attempted to reassure her. "Sure, not everything's easy, but we make do with what we have. We learn from our experiences and use them to adapt to the next one."
She needs to learn how to shoot. If I fail to protect her, knowing a gun inside and out will be paramount for her survival. Her hair also needs cutting. She won't be able to keep a steady shot if her vision is blocked.
"So what do we do now?" Clementine asked her with not - quite - so - hopeful eyes.
"I," Cal said, getting off of the floor, "will teach you how to use a pistol. But first, I'm going to have cut your hair. We can't let it get in the way of aiming when the wind is blowing or you're running away from something."
Clementine swallowed, a nervous look grew on her face, but nonetheless Cal picked her up. Looking around for a pair of scissors, she found none.
I guess we have to use a knife then. She thought.
"I'll be right back Clem. I need to go get a knife." She said, naming her way back to the engine.
If Clementine looked nervous before, she was now down right panicking. After Cal came back from retrieving a knife from Lee, she got to work cutting her hair.
Clementine's body tensed up as the knife began cutting. "Relax. Take a deep breath. The more you tense, the harder this is going to be." Cal reassured.
Doing as she was instructed, Clementine felt a little calmer. "Have you ever done this before?" Clementine asked.
Cal shook her head. "No. Quartermasters would typically handle this."
Clementine scoffed. "I'm going to look like a boy." She complained.
"It doesn't matter what you look like Clem. It's safety that matters." Cal said, quickly finishing cutting. "And… done. Now I need something to tie back the remaining pieces."
"I have some stretchy things that Carly gave me." Clementine said, holding up a pair of hair ties.
"Oh yeah? What for?" Cal asked, taking them and putting them onto her hair.
"For sleeping."
"Well, she certainly chose the right color. They look cute on you." Cal complimented.
Clementine reached at her hair and noticed that instead of being large and puffy, it was now cut down to two small bundles. She slouched, getting a chuckle out of Cal.
Cal pulled out her pistol and checked if it had a bullet loaded into the chamber before handing it off to Clementine. "Now that your hair won't be a problem, we can focus on your shooting. Let me go set up a target."
Walking over to a set of boxes, Cal inspected them to see what she could use. Finding nothing, she started growing frustrated. We'll improvise then. She thought.
Slamming her hand into the side of the boxcar, she got the attention of the others. Taking hold of a piece of metal, she ripped it out and bent it in such a way that it stood up. Placing onto the boxes, she went back to Clementine who was looking at her pistol in detail.
"Alright Clem, I want you to aim at that steel sheet and shoot it. But before you do, remember that a gun is just a tool to serve a purpose, never use it when you don't need to. And while aiming, you want to make sure that both your rear and front sights, the little notches on top, line up on the target. Now, since this is your first time, you'll want to squeeze the trigger slowly." Cal instructed her as she fixed her posture. Covering her ears, Cal said, "Go ahead and take a shot."
Clementine squeezed the trigger of the handgun. Not anticipating the recoil, she jerked back as her arms were thrown into the air, almost losing the gun entirely. Cal leaned forward, compensating for Clementine's movement. The shot was a miss, hitting too low and off centered to the left.
"Ok. You hit too low and to the left. Can you tell me what I noticed you doing wrong?" Cal asked.
Clementine thought long and hard about it, but simply couldn't find an answer. Shaking her head, Cal put a hand on her back and started explaining.
"So while you were aiming, you pointed the pistol downwards. In order to correct that, you have to have the front notch lined up in between the two rear ones as it dictates where the barrel is actually pointing as opposed to where you're aiming. The same thing goes for side to side accuracy; you were holding the pistol at an angle. As for the recoil, you locked your elbows which sends the shockwave into the arms rather than letting the gun do the work. Now, try again."
Setting back up into position, Cal watched as Clementine lined up another shot on the metal plate. Firing again, Clementine made sure to have her elbows loose, allowing the recoil to raise the gun and keep her grip on it. Her shot wasn't half bad either, as while it didn't hit the plate center mass, the bullet impacted and bounced off of the top.
"I hit it!" Clementine said gleefully.
Cal nodded. "But you can always be better, remember what I told you. Again."
Lining up another shot, Clementine fired, this time hitting the target in a more centralized area. "See? Not that hard. There's still six more bullets in that mag so go ahead and use them." Cal said.
Clementine lined up and fired more rounds, most hitting the target with a few missing or glancing off. After the magazine ran dry, Clementine handed the gun back to Cal. In the middle of reloading it, Kenny's echoed through the train.
"Oh shit! Hang on everyone!" They heard him yell.
As the train grinded to a screeching halt, everyone braced themselves except Clementine, who wasn't able to grab hold of anything. Cal dropped her gun and quickly grabbed the girl to ensure that she didn't fall, holding onto the side door herself. Once they finally stopped, everyone looked at each other, making sure injuries were sustained before disembarking.
They saw Kenny outside, staring at a large tanker that was hanging over the bridge blocking the tracks. "Son of a - FUCK, MOTHERFUCKIN - FUUUUUCKKKKK!" Kenny yelled, his anger boiling to the surface.
"Hey down there! You guys mind not attracting every walker in a mile radius?" A voice yelled to them.
The eight of them looked up, seeing a pair of people, a male and female, on top of the bridge. Cal grabbed hold of her M4, raising it at them. "Oh sorry! It's just that our only means of transportation is FUCKING BLOCKED!" Kenny yelled at them.
"If I were you, I'd put down that gun." The female suggested to Cal. She then turned to Kenny and yelled back, "And if you keep up like that, we're going to have problems!"
"Oh yeah?! Then come down here!" Kenny tried antagonizing.
Cal grabbed his arm and lightly pulled on him, keeping her weapon trained on the duo. "Kenny, there's no use in arguing. There could be more of them up there we can't see and we aren't exactly in the best position to fight." The man in question huffed, his frustration still lingering.
"I'm sorry about the hostility, but we've just been through hell and aren't exactly keen on meeting new people." Cal expressed to them.
"Well it certainly looks like it. You look like you're ready to kill a horde." The man jokingly answered. "Why don't you come up here, we can probably help with your train problem." He offered.
Cal thought about it for a moment, deciding to go with it. Holstering her rifle pulling out her pistol, she made her way to the ladder. As she started climbing, Kenny grabbed her leg. "Be careful up there Cal, please." He nearly begged. He received a nod in response which was enough for him to let go.
Climbing up to the bridge, Cal could hear the pair talking. The female was obviously more hesitant, questioning her male counterparts' more relaxed nature to help. Getting to the top, she scanned the bridge with her pistol. Seeing no one else except the two of them, she holstered the pistol and pulled herself up.
"Wow. You got up here quick, especially with all that gear." The male remarked.
"Gotta be quick in the apocalypse." Cal retorted.
"Can't argue with that." The female said. "So, what's your name?"
"Cal. And yours?"
"I'm Christa and that's Omid. We were honestly surprised when we saw you guys with a working train. Omid thought it would be a good idea to try and flag you guys down to get a ride while I disagreed, but it seems this wrecked oil tanker's on his side." Christa explained.
"C'mon Christa. I still think it's worth trying." Omid complained.
"Well we won't be going anywhere until we get it out of the way." Cal told them.
"Why don't you guys just plow through it? I'm certain it won't be able to stand up to your train." Omid asked.
"Well that just sounds crazy." Christa stated.
"And we'd all die because looking at the labels, it's gas. I'll find a way to get rid of it, you two head down and meet with the others." Cal said.
As they went down the ladder, Cal searched the bridge for something to release the trailer. After finding nothing she could use, she climbed down the ladder and told Kenny about the specifics of the situation. He pinched the bridge of his nose, swearing to himself.
"Well hold on now, there might be something in that building over there." Lee said, pointed to a station a few hundred yards down the track.
"I'll go check it out for anything we can use. You guys stay here and entertain our guests." Cal said. Walking away from the men, she went to investigate the structure. Making it about halfway, she heard the rapid movements of someone behind her. Turning around, she saw Clementine running her.
"What are you doing Clem?" Cal asked the girl
"Lee told me that you're going to check out that building over there. I wanted to come help." Clementine answered.
"It's just a quick check to see if there's anything useful. Head back to the group. I'll be right back, don't worry." Cal told her.
Clementine's eyes dropped to the floor, a little disappointed that she couldn't go with Cal. She understood that it wasn't anything special, she just wanted to help her guardian. Cal finally made it to the structure, pulled out her pistol, and tried opening the door, not surprised at finding it locked. Raising her foot, she 'gently' kicked it in.
Entering the building, she noted how dark it was, with the only light coming in through the broken door. The noise also got the attention of four zombies that had been peacefully resting inside. She pistol whipped the first one, almost severing its head from the rest of its body. The second and third zombies fared no better, as she grabbed the head of one and slammed it into the other. The fourth zombie was trapped behind a gate, reaching through trying to grab her. Simply kicking it open sent enough force for the zombie to hit the wall and crumple dead. Holstering her pistol, she looked around and found an ion torch already connected to a tank of propane.
Oh hell yeah. This should work just fine. She thought, picking up the device. Taking it back to the others, they smiled upon seeing her with the answer to their situation. Heading over to the ladder, she began climbing while hauling it up, taking a little longer than she liked having to share space with it. Getting to the bridge, she turned it on and started cutting the trailer loose.
Almost through the cut, the trailer suddenly shifted due to the change in weight, causing both a loud, echoing BANG sound and it now being out of her reach. Cal knew what this meant, if that noise drew any zombies, they would be out in the open, and with it now too far away, she called down to the group for someone to come up and help her.
Travis was, surprisingly, the one to answer. Once he reached the top, she told him, "The weight caused it to shift and now it's out of my reach. I'm going to hang you over so you can finish the job."
A shocked look spread across his face, unable to comprehend what she was asking of him. "You want me to do what now?"
"It's either you do this or we get now -"
"GUYS?!" Omid shouted, interrupting her. "We got a lotta walkers coming this way!"
Leaning over the edge, Cal could see a horde of what must have looked like hundreds, maybe even thousands of zombies heading towards the train. Her eyes quickly dashed to Kenny. "Kenny, get the train moving. GO!"
Not hesitating, Kenny ran to the engine, starting the train as the others loaded into the boxcar.
"Now or never Travis." She told him, holding out the ion torch.
He took it, realizing that a risk was better than a definitive. Cal grabbed his hand and leaned him over the edge, easily covering the distance. Travis began cutting what remained of the link, finally separating after a few seconds. As it fell off to the side, it destroyed the ladder but allowed Kenny to kick the train into second gear.
"We're trapped!" Travis exclaimed.
"Not yet kid." Cal said, grabbing him. She made her way over to the other side of the bridge and waited for Kenny to pass by underneath.
"What are you doing?!" Travis asked, shaking.
"We're jumping." She told him.
"Jumping?! Are you cra - AHHHHHHHHHHH" He tried asking, but didn't get to finish as he found himself falling.
She landed on the boxcar on her side with Travis in her arms. She was able to absorb the impact well, but Travis was a different story. The kid had injured his leg, not too dissimilar from how she found Lee when this all started. She slid off to the side, holding his wrist as she dangled him in front of the open side door. The others grabbed him and pulled him in before Cal swung herself in.
An expression of relief was mounted on everyone's faces, happy that they were able to get away from the mass of undead. Cal on the other hand took a look at Travis' leg wound and saw that it was bleeding badly with some muscle tissue being exposed. Thinking back to her combat lifesaving courses, she ripped off one of his jacket sleeves and used it as an improvised tourniquet, wrapping it around his leg.
"So, what do we do now?" She heard Carly ask her.
"We keep moving. We don't stop, we can't stop. Not now." Cal answered her.
She got up from the injured young man and exited through the door. Heading towards the Cabin, she found that Lee and Clementine had gathered with Kenny. They each gave her a smile, which she happily returned.
"Next stop, Savannah." She declared.