Hey all! I'm really sorry for my absence. No, I didn't quit on the story nor did I get bored of it. I was struggling a bit with school so I had to do that for a while. Now I get a break and I can finally continue with the story. As I mentioned before, I have really great plans for this fanfic, so it's wayyy far from over. Thanks, several chapters are in the making. Thanks for reading!
The issue over the loss of Bella, and the stress of her absence was noted throughout the whole community. Several days later, everyone was inside, socializing with one another, and the heating system suddenly blew out.
"Damnit. What now?" Coach quickly put on his jacket, a few seconds had merely passed and the area was already getting cold.
"What controls this? Maybe we can fix it." said Dalvin, as he looked at the controls.
"All heating systems are controlled by a generator. Bella was the one who knew how to control it." Shelby told the others. Everyone saw that everyone else was getting outside, making fires to keep warm. They did the same, as the continued with their night.
Clementine leaned against Lee's arm while they sat close to the fire.
"Hey Dalvin, that bow, where did you get it?" Zoey asked him, since she always saw him mess with it.
"It's more of a crossbow, but call it that. I found it in a store that was burnt to the ground, luckily I could repair it, best way I could. It's saved my life several times."
Bonnie got up to stretch a bit, and as she turned around, she saw several walkers pour in from the dark, they began to devour the other members of the community.
"Fuck, Walkers!" She exclaimed, as they all scrambled to get their weapons, since they got caught off guard.
They just kept coming. Nothing was stopping them.
"How the hell did they get in?!" Exclaimed Philip, who was getting the rest of the people to safety, as they fought them off.
"Gotta be a hole or something, we gotta seal it off!" Mike began to shoot them from a distance, but they came in in multiples as he killed them.
Most of the community was getting wiped out, but Philip and Josh were doing their best to get them out of danger, while the others fought them off.
Clementine was shooting at one of them, when she suddenly saw a light reflect in the distance, from above the trees.
"Hey." She quickly tugged at Dalvin's sweater and told him. As he checked it out with his scope, a bullet flew by, almost hitting him.
"There's a shooter, take cover!" Dalvin yelled as he threw himself next to a car and began to fire back, as walkers kept coming in.
Bonnie ran over, but a bullet pierced her leg, causing her to fall to the ground, but she kept firing back, as more shooters appeared, but they stayed on the outside of the wall.
"Fuck, I got her!" Emile quickly ran over and began to drag her towards cover.
"This isn't ending, we have to get out there now!" exclaimed Coach.
"Cover those ears!" exclaimed Dalvin, as he threw a flashbang towards the walkers. While it didn't do anything to them, the flash let him see the hole in the wall from where they were getting in.
"Carter, cover me while I get to the other-" Before Lee could finish asking, a Walker ripped into his neck, while Cass ran off towards Claire, who were both shocked, but they had to fight.
"Fuck man.." said Mike.
"Damnit, okay.. We got this. Focus on the walkers, I got the son of a bitch on the wall." Lee aimed the rifle at the man, after exchanging some rounds, he fell to the ground.
"If that's the last of them, we still need to get them out of here, and seal that hole!" exclaimed Mika. She was keeping the walkers at bay, along with the others, but she wouldn't be able to do that forever.
"We're wasting time here. We need a plan instead of just shooting at them." said Zoey.
"Got any bright ideas?!"
"I do." said Shelby. She was helping clear the walkers out, but she hadn't said much up to that point.
"They're right off of the road. If someone can get in a car, with some noise, that'll draw their attention, which will get give us time to fix the hole."
"Alright.. I'll take a car. Someone back me up." Emile quickly jumped in a vehicle and rammed out the gate, as he circled around, honking and firing his weapon, trying to draw their attention.
"I don't think we can hold them off... Much.. Longer!" Exclaimed Kate, her and some of the other group members began to throw objects at them to slow them down, noticing that they were down on ammo.
"We can take our home back, I know we can!" Philip continued to fire back at them, but it seemed useless.
"Lee, cmon, we can't wait longer!" Mika was holding onto his arm, trying to drag him away from the horde.
"We can't leave Emile behind, no one gets left behind!"
"Fuck it, this should give us a chance!" Coach nodded at Clementine, she tossed him one of the flares she brought back, he lit it, and threw it several yards away from the walkers, drawing some of the towards it.
"Push the metal plating in now!" Everyone shoved the metal plating back in place where the hole was, crushing several walker heads in the process. Josh drove a truck and rammed it against the plating for support.
"That won't hold for long. We'll wait until Emile gets back to get everything under order." Lee holstered his rifle and put more supports on the wall. Some minutes later, Emile came back in, with news that he drew the walkers off towards the road.
Many casualties had been suffered, but what Lee and Philip wanted to know, is how it all happened.
"I thought you said these walls were supposed to be safe?!" exclaimed Dalvin. He did most of the bulk of the work, taking out the majority of the walkers, but they were still at risk.
"They are. These are steel walls, walkers don't just break them down like that. Someone punched a hole in it.
"I shot someone out there. They were on top a tree outside the wall, that's how they shot Bonnie. Didn't look like anyone we know," added Dalvin.
Throughout all the commotion, Kenzie slowly walked out of the house, observing all the mess and damage that had been done.
"What happened here?"
"Where the hell were you?! We were dealing with walkers and we could have used your help!" exclaimed Emile.
"If your brother was out there with no one to help, possibly dead, you wouldn't be in the right mind to even be outside, but what would you understand!"
"Both of you, stop it. Let's look around this wall for clues. I doubt we'll find anything but it's worth a shot." Mika looked over at the hole. She took a look at Claire, who was still grieving over Carter's lifeless body.
"I'll make sure he doesn't attack her. Don't worry," Kate reassured her.
The wall looked as if it had been pried open with some sort of heavy tool, but there were none around, just a endless pool of bodies.
"This is a grenade pin. Must have been what made the hole," Mike reached for it from the ground.
"I don't remember hearing a blast, all I remember was seeing walkers in the courtyard. It should provide us with something at least. Let's keep looking."
Mika slowly chose her steps, not wanting to put her foot next to the Jaws of a walker, not wanting to risk it. They spent the next several minutes looking for anything to provide them with a answer, but all they came up with is that the hole was made by a grenade or a large tool.
"It'll take some time to cover up that hole well enough. We can keep that truck against it so nothing gets in." said Philip, who had a worried look on his face.
"Where did you get this steel? Maybe we can salvage some more I guess." added Amanda.
"We got this from a nearby highway, a trailer was transporting it from Colorado. We took all of it so we don't have anymore."
Dalvin pulled Lee aside from everyone else at the moment.
"Have you thought about the plan?"
"What plan?"
"Our plan since we left Atlanta was to get out of the state. Are we still doing that?"
"I talked about it with Mika and we were still on it, but the winter hasn't exactly been friendly."
"It's over. We have a few more chilly days at the most. But these guys clearly have beef with someone, and I'm sure you don't want to be in the middle again."
"Traveling on the road will be hard, we don't know what we'll find out there, and I'm trying to keep Clementine safe. How are we gonna start, we don't even have our vehicles anymore?" Lee said. For one of the few times, he's asked someone else for advice.
"The highway ain't far off from here. We can look for vehicles, it's not that difficult. I know that this place looks like paradise, we've all been there, but we have our goals, and we can't get sidetracked."
Mika appeared around the corner with rifles strapped around her back, and she put them in the duffle bag the group used for weapons.
"When do you want to leave." Asked Lee, in a monotone voice.
"Let's give everyone a day or two to recover from this mess, and we'll move on from there."
Clementine was in the room where she had most of her stuff in boxes. She began to go through it to make sure she had everything and wasn't leaving anything behind.
Lee came in through the door of the house and checked up on Claire, who didn't look too bad, giving what happened to her dad.
"How are you doing?"
"Not as bad as I thought I would be. Things just don't work out for me, or any of us in general. We just gotta get used to it."
"We're still going with our plan. We'll be outta here soon enough, don't worry."
Dalvin was leaning against the wall, and called Lee over.
"How do you think these guys are gonna take us leaving?"
"I don't think it should matter, we've only been here a few days. We've already lost one of ours, and almost lost Bonnie. Just not worth the risk."
"What makes you think it'll be easier on the road? It might not be as cold as before, but we gotta sleep with a eye open, and with your weapon next to you out there."
"You need to do that anywhere. Not just on the road. Claire isn't in the best place to be traveling right now, and if we can't all work together, it'll be tough."
They all spent the next few days preparing to leave, gathering their supplies, while trying not be much of a nuisance towards the local inhabitants.
One morning, Lee was cleaning one of the rifles when Mika approached him.
" Bad news, transmission on the truck is busted. It's not getting us anywhere." she said, in a tone of disappointment.
"There should be another vehicle we can use. One big enough."
"All the cars here are being used, or are owned. Our best bet would be to scavenge one from the road, few miles away." Replied Mika. Ever since Lee met her in Savannah, she hadn't changed one bit. She still had the right idea on a lot of things, and cared for the others.
"I'll go with you. Can I?" Clem asked her.
"Um... Sure. Just stick close."
"I'll go also. Can't be too safe." added Emile.
"Alright. We'll head back as soon as we can. I don't know if these radios still work, but I'll try it if something happens." she replied, as the trio headed towards the gate. Once the guards opened it for them they went out towards the road, looking for a answer.
" I don't like how these guys are just letting us go. I feel like they might try something." Emile commented.
"I um... Really hope it doesn't come down to that. We're rough as it already is, we don't need more of that. At least for now." Mika replied.
"There's something over there." Clem pointed towards the side of them, towards a tent, that looked like it had been crushed somehow.
Emile nodded at them so that they could check it out. He pulled out his knife, while Clementine sort of stayed back a little just in case. There were several boxes thrown all over the area, with some packs of clothes as well.
"Hmm... Looks like there was a struggle here." Emile noted, as he kicked the boxes around to check.
"Umm... There's no blood either. Looks like they got out in a hurry. Check out the tent, me and Clem will watch out for something."
Emile nodded as he used the knife to cut a hole in the tent, he tore a hole with his hands afterwards and poked his head in.
There were a couple of sleeping bags inside, some blankets, but nothing else.
"Nothing we can use here. Let's keep going," he said as he took his head out of the tent, and they continued down the path.
Back home, Lee was inspecting the stab wound he had on his shoulder, which he received from the man who had kidnapped Clementine back in Savannah. Kate approached him.
"When do you think they'll be back?"
"Soon. I don't want to worry about it as much."
"But you let Clementine go with them. I don't think it's safe for her yet."
"Don't worry about it, she's with Mika. She's one of the people I trust the most. Once they're back, we'll get on the road."
Dalvin was packing their weapons into a duffel bag. They didn't have a lot, but it was enough for them to get by. Coach and Zoey were trying not to draw attention, since the community was against people coming and going.
Bonnie had recovered from being shot, and Mike was trying to fix the car they were originally gonna take, but without the right materials, he knew he was just wasting his time.
Back out in the woods, the trio were climbing a hill that would lead them towards the main road. They jumped over the metal wall that was dividing the woods from the road, and saw the dozens of cars that were stranded in the road, clogging it up.
"Okay so if we found a car that works, how are we gonna get it out of this crap?" Emile began to inspect some of the cars nearby.
"Umm.. Our best bet would be to find one on the edge or something. Either that or we push the cars out of the way." Mika added. She lightly kicked one of the cars on the wheel, revealing it was very low on air pressure.
"Yeah. We can push these cars around, if we had half a day. I'll go this way, you stick around here and check them out."
"Hey, just stay close. I feel better if you're not far off." Mika told him. He nodded as he made his way into the pool of cars.
"Alright. Remember, carefully. Mika opened the driver seat of a SUV nearby, and cleared it from the bodies that were in it.
"Does it work?"
"Umm..." Mika sat on seat with the door open, and looked at the steering wheel.
"If I can find the key, I might be able to check if it's good."
"Kenny once told me if you put two wires together the car turns on."
"Yeah, but I'm not good at that. Plus if I do it wrong it'll activate the alarm, and we don't want that." She began to look all over for the key, and eventually found it in a box in the glove department.
She put the key in the ignition and turned it, looking at the state of the vehicle.
"Tank's not that empty. Uh... I think it's good. We can siphon enough gas from the other cars into this one, plus a few extra gallons just in case."
They set the vehicle apart and began to check the other cars for any remaining fuel. Most of them were empty or had been drained already, but they did manage to fill some water bottles they had found instead of using a actual gallon.
"Looks like you guys had more luck then I did out there. That's good."
"What do we do now?" Clementine began to rub her arms, since the sun was going down, the temperature in the area began to drop.
"We can set it to the side, we can all come by tomorrow and leave in the morning. That seems like the best bet."
"Or we can round everyone up when we get back and come and get out of here."
"It's Whatever the group decides on. For now we can head back and once we're all together we can make a decision." Mika replied, as the trio began to walk back towards camp, finally with a solution.
Emile hesitated at her response for a bit. But he had other plans in mind.
"Look, I'm just doing whatever you people want me to do, I got us this ride, so we should take advantage of it!" he exclaimed in a high voice. It threw Clementine off a bit.
"Hey, keep it down! Just because it's quiet doesn't mean we're alone here. And for the fact, I found this SUV. We're a group for a reason, we're not on our own out here. Cmon, let's head back." Clementine nodded in response as they began to walk back, with Emile sort of lagging back a bit.
It was already nighttime by the time they got back, which they were all exhausted, as they went in the house and unpacked their things.
"Find anything?" Coach asked. He had packed most of the their stuff himself, and he did most of the carrying.
"Yeah, we got one. We wanted to see if you all wanted to leave now, or we can wait until tomorrow or something."
The group spent the next several minutes debating, but they eventually came to a mutual decision.
"You know driving in the dark isn't the best idea. We wait until tomorrow, once we're all up. Get some rest, this might be the last time in a while we get some rest." Lee told everyone, as he made his way to the sleeping bag he had next to Clementine. Kenzie was just sitting on the table next to him.
" I'm not going."
"Huh?"
"You guys are leaving. I don't want to go. If Kyle is out there, he might still come back. I don't want to leave and him coming back isn't good."
"Stay then. You'll hold up fine." He coldly replied. The fact that they barely knew her he didn't really like her contributed to the fact.
She sighed, looking out the window, and observing the full moon in the sky. She looked down at the ground and hesitated before going to bed.
The next morning, mostly everyone had gotten up, except for Clementine, who had slept in a bit.
"Clem? You awake?" Lee lightly shoved her shoulder, she rolled around a bit.
"Time to go. You can sleep more on the road if you want." She hesitated, but eventually got up as everyone got the rest of the stuff, and exited the home. The gate was open for some reason, as the group made their way into the woods, towards the road.
"Are you sure we'll all fit?" Bonnie asked. Over the last few days she was feeling grateful of how Lee and the group still welcomed her in despite being part of Clay's group, but she felt like she redeemed herself by helping them escape.
"I'm sure. If not, we can find a smaller car and form like a small escort or something. But I'm sure we-" A walker that was somehow hidden under a bunch of fallen branches reached out for Emile's foot, causing him to stumble and fall.
He quickly regained his footing and took it out. They continued down the path. They were approaching the hill that led to the road, as Dalvin suddenly stopped. Being the leader of the group at the moment, everyone else stopped as well.
"What do you hear?" Zoey hissed in a low tone, still not knowing what it was.
"Over there. Walkers along the path." Amanda pointed out. Lee and Mike went along to take them out, as they jumped over onto the road.
"Which one is it?"
"This one. We refueled it, plus there's extra gallons in the back. Thought of it at the moment," Mika commented.
"Alright, I think we can drive out of here. Most of these cars are along the side, so we should fit nicely through the middle. Hop on," said Mike. He was the person in the group who knew more about cars. It kind of reminded Lee of Kenny, how he was always working on the RV and at one point, the boat they had found in Savannah
" I call the window side." Emile added. Everyone was still piling their stuff into the back of the SUV, while he stood guard. The rear of his eye caught something moving fast along the trees, causing him to aim his rifle at the movement, but it was no longer there.
" Hmm.. " he scratched his head a bit.
"What did you see?" Kate asked. She usually didn't get nervous being out in the open, but at this moment she did feel like it.
"I don't know.. I swear I saw somethin' moving along the trees." He responded. He shrugged and took his eyes off the trees back onto the road. A few seconds passed when a sniper bullet pierced his shoulder, his reaction was to throw himself against a car beside him to avoid getting shot again..
"Fuck, stay down!" Lee shut the door of the vehicle with Clem in it as he crouched for cover.
"Dalvin!"
"On it!" He quickly responded as he tossed Lee another rifle from the duffel bag, so he could get a good eye on who was shooting, as the group responded with some shots as well.
"I can see that it's just one of them, but they're too quick!" exclaimed Claire, as she kept Cass to her side, while trying to shoot back as well.
He followed the treeline with the scope, but he could only see the movement of the person moving along, quick.
"Damnit.." He adjusted the scope and kept following the movement, eventually getting a stable view as the shooter stopped moving.
"I knew we couldn't trust you." He said under his breath.