### Molly ###
(The morning of the same day, Dom and Jackson rescued Clementine from the stranger)
Our day began rather.. "odd", as Dom would say. After waking up and getting some food, we got an unknown but greatly worried looking visitor. He knocked on the main door of the house, right after everybody finished up eating.
Because of recent distant gunshots and sounds of fighting, we were a bit on edge, and a few of us went to open the door. Lee and I went to it while Kenny, Omid, Christa and Chuck hid themselves in the entrance area and gave us cover.
A young man, clad in a dark pullover with its hood pulled over his head, looked at us. "You have to leave this city!", he immediately started ranting. "The army is going to invade Savannah from the shore and take it back one by one. They will shoot everything that moves on sight, so you better get the fuck outta here.", he said frantically.
"Hold on, hold on. What are you talking about? The army? Why would they shoot us?", Lee interrupted his rant, who had lifted his hands up, trying to calm the man down. Unfortunately, this did not work. He continued speaking very fast and with a petrified tone in his voice. "The army is an enemy. Don't trust them. Me and a few friends of mine got into their radio communications system and heard them talking about the upcoming invasion. I swear to god, they will shoot you. They do not care if you are one of the undead or not, they will open fire.", he said frantically. "How do we know that we can trust you?", I asked him, watching him with narrowed eyes. "You will know it very soon. I know how they're gonna pull this off. The army is already scouting out this city with a drone. Soon, helicopters will come and open fire on any hordes the drone marked for them. After that, landing rafts filled with a fuck ton of soldiers, APCs and even a tank will land at the port and construct a provisional HQ there. And finally, they will clear the city out, step by step and like I already said; they will shoot every one, undead or not. I heard the officer say that it would be a safety precaution", he explained.
"I don't know what to think of this. I just can't imagine the army opening fire at innocent survivors. We'll keep our heads up and leave the city if your theory proves to be true. Now I need to ask you to leave, we have a lot of stuff on our hands.", Lee replied calmly. The man looked unsatisfied, but he gave in and nodded. "When my theory proves right, which it will, it'll be already too late to leave.", he muttered and left. He didn't even leave a trace. As fast as he unexpectedly appeared, he disappeared. I looked at Lee with a perplexed expression on my face. He also looked really irritated, but tried to shrug it off. "You can come out of your hiding now. He's gone.", he told the others, who hid themselves in case things went south. "What drugs was he on, man?", Kenny asked, dumbfounded. "No idea. You heard everything, right?", Lee retorted and looked at everyone in the room. "Yep, we did.", Omid replied, nodding. "Sounds like a bunch of crap to me.", Christa blatantly spoke with a blank expression on her face. "I have a hard time believing this too.", Mark said, who suddenly came into the entrance area. "The army would never shoot unarmed, innocent civilians. Even in the most chaotic situations.", he stated and shook his head. "We'll keep our eyes open but until then, we keep on looking for Clementine. We have to find her.", Lee ended our discussion and left the hallway.
Another loot run was necessary. Even though we had a lot of stuff stored in the mansion, we still were a big group and had a high rate of consumption. Of course, I was always one of the people who left the house and that gave me a chance to take a few looks around the city, to find Dom eventually. I knew the chances of me finding him were so slim it would be nearly impossible, but giving up would be the last thing I would do.
Kenny, Lee, Mark, Chuck and I formed the scavenging squad. While the others were entering houses and shops and other buildings, I was climbing around on the city's rooftops and kept an eye on everything around them. Scouting out what was going on, on the streets of Savannah, was my main task.
While doing that, I realized that the weather was surprisingly nice. The sun brightened up the city and made the extreme chaos in it even more obvious. The temperature was, while warmer, still reasonably chilly, so I therefore pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and hoped it would protect my ears. The wind had a natural greater impact on me high up on those roofs.
I haven't seen any sunshine for a few weeks, so I just let the sun shine its bright light in my face for a while. With my eyes closed, I took a deep breath and enjoyed the fresh air getting into my lungs. I hated the angry stench of death on the roads of Savannah. The rooftops were the only place where I could get some desperately needed fresh air.
While just enjoying the sunlight, I realized that something in the air obscured its light from my face for just a split second, making me open my eyes. Dumb mistake, since I was still looking directly at the sun. I quickly turned my head away from it, blinking a few times. As my vision regenerated, I saw something white and shiny zip through the air. At first, I thought it was a huge bird, but I soon realized that this thing wasn't moving a bit. It couldn't be a bird, right?
I kept my eyes glued on the mysterious flying object, trying to figure out what exactly it was. While doing that I noticed that it was circling over the city with a great sense of orientation, never leaving the airspace of the town and, as already noted, did not move one bit. It flew very robotically, as if it were not a living being at all, but some kind of flying device or vehicle. That was the moment when I finally realized what was happening. That one totally stirred up guy was right: It wasn't a bird at all… but a drone.
The growling of some Geeks on the street in front of the house I was standing on caught my attention. A group of them was marching rather coordinated towards a house, which looked completely abandoned. All its windows were shattered, and the front door was missing. It's actually quite amazing how nature takes back everything built by humans in such a short time. The outer walls of the house were covered up by wildly growing ivy. "Heads up guys. There's a bunch of Geeks walking towards a house to the north of you rather desperately. I think we might have some people hiding in there.", I wanted the others over the radio. "Copy that, Molly. We might take a look, just to be sure.", Mark replied, who kept the other radio with him.
Lee also had a radio, but his was connected to Clementine's walkie-talkie. He had hoped she might contact him through that. Strangely enough, it still seemed to work. A few hours prior, we heard wired chatter coming from it. We didn't know what to think of it, but as we tried to answer, nothing happened. But when we listened closely, there were two faint voices coming out of it. However, it was impossible to make out what they said or to make out who was speaking. The static was just too loud and their voice too silent and suppressed by the electronic sounds to a great extent.
"Molly, we have a problem. Walkers have us pinned down. They haven't made us out, but we would be putting ourselves at great risk if we left this house now. Is there anything you can do to help us?" Lee suddenly asked over the radio. Surprised, I straightened up and looked in the direction the men had gone. Sure enough, there was a frighteningly large crowd of geeks strutting around. But when I looked around for a moment, I immediately saw a simple solution to this problem. "Nothing easier than that. It'll take a few minutes, though.", I spoke into my radio, my eyes fixed on a bell tower not far away from my position. "No problem, just get those things away from us."
At a good pace, I sped across the rooftops of Savannah and leapt over some narrow alleys that came my way. In less than two minutes, I arrived at the said bell tower. All I had to do was climb it, get inside and make some noise.
However, just as I was grabbing some protruding bricks to pull myself up by them, I heard something that made me look around rather confused. A strange muffled clatter in the distance that continued to grow louder and louder. The source of this sound revealed itself when I turned my head to the right. Not far away in the sky, a black something was flying in the sky right towards Savannah. It didn't take me too long to identify this as a helicopter.
A military helicopter, Black Hawk to be exact.
With a deafening noise, the gigantic beast came straight at me only to fly overhead, which slightly deafened my hearing. I stared after the flying object with my eyes wide open. Was this the sign that all hell was about to come down on Savannah?
"Molly, what the hell? Was that a helicopter just now?", Lee's confused yet horrified voice, rang out from my radio. Still completely perplexed, I released my hands from the bricks that remained glued to them the whole time. A little clumsily, I plucked the radio out of one of my pockets, almost dropping it in the process. "Damn it, Molly. Get a grip," I cursed to myself. I would never have admitted it, but I was obviously shaking. Things could very well get very bleak for us soon.
"Yup, that was one. A military transport helicopter, if I'm not mistaken," I finally replied. "Does that mean that freak from earlier was right?" asked Lee through the radio, though it seemed he was asking himself that question and had just deliberately pressed the transmit button. "I have no idea what to think any more, Lee," I said quietly and stowed the radio away again.
I was about to grab the wall of the bell tower again when I noticed something astonishing, but at the same time frightening. What looked like every geek was marching in a huge army through the streets of the city in the direction the helicopter had flown. So, roughly speaking, the aircraft did my job itself.
Again I dug out the radio. "I think your geek problem should have just resolved itself. Every undead in the entire city is chasing after the helicopter." I said. "Yeah, that's right. We're free, so to speak, but that doesn't really reassure me all that much," Lee replied. "Nor me, quite the opposite. It's pretty scary," I replied quietly.
"We'll still take advantage of this situation and search all the shops and houses we can. This helicopter has given us a window of opportunity. Maybe you should come down and help us too," Lee decided spontaneously. "On my way," I confirmed and made my way back across the rooftops to the others. It didn't take me too long to spot Mark in one of the small kiosks and I climbed down the side of a building not far from him.
"You sure are talented at climbing, I have to admit," Mark praised as I joined him. "Thanks. It has saved my life a few times," I replied with a grin. "I believe you," Mark replied nodding, also smiling. We continued to rummage through the shelves, looking for something useful.
"This town is so gutted. We won't be able to stay here much longer," he said after a while. "Yeah, especially if that one guy's theory turns out to be true and the military really does storm the city soon," I agreed with him. "I can only very dimly imagine that, though," the former Air Force pilot doubted. "It's questionable to me too, but it's better to be prepared for anything unlikely than to be caught completely unprepared in World War III later on," I gave a little jokingly. Mark smirked a little. "You're right," he said.
### Narrator ###
"Molly, Mark, we found something quite interesting. We shouldn't be too far away from you. Liberty Street in the direction of Crawford, a big red brick building. You might wanna check this out.", Kenny reported, his voice emitting from the Radio in one of Molly's pockets. "Liberty Street. Huh, that's two roads north. I went a bit further into the town than they did.", Mark commented. "We'll find it somehow, just sit tight.", Molly replied to Kenny. "Not a single walker here, this is strange.", They heard Kenny say. "Yeah, you have a point. Streets and alleys are completely empty here, too.", Molly confirmed to him. "I don't think they're still chasing this helicopter. It's way faster than them, and who knows where it has flown to. They probably won't be able to hear it any more.", Mark stated. Molly agreed to him mentally and nodded. "Stay on alert. I might take a look around on the rooftops.", she spoke into the radio and stowed it back in one of her pockets.
"And me?", Mark asked with a bit of a surprised expression. "You can come up with me if you like." Molly grinned and turned to leave the tiny kiosk. "Don't bother. I'm sure I'll fall flat on my face and die right away.", Mark declined, while shaking his head and followed the younger blonde. "Well then stay on the ground but try to keep it close to me, okay?", she offered. "That shouldn't be too hard.", Mark agreed, while looking around.
With her climbing tool in hand, Molly searched for a good place to start climbing the walls of the multi-storey terraced houses. Some of them had balconies, which Molly wanted to avoid. She hated them when climbing. They were always in her way. "There we go." she whispered after finding a spot she could climb up the building. Swiftly, she climbed on top of it and checked her surroundings. Following the rooftops of the apartments, she came across an alleyway which she looked down on. She spotted Mark, who was carefully passing it. "You know the way, G.I.?", she asked teasingly, referring to his former career in the USAF. "I sure do. And don't call me that." He replied with a chuckle. "I'll think about it." Molly gave back mischievously. Teasing others was something she really enjoyed if the situation wasn't too tense. But she had her rules. If she feels that the person she teases doesn't take it too well, she would stop. She wanted to avoid hurting or insulting people, after all. Mark seemed like a guy who took it easily and didn't mind.
Following Mark via the rooftops, Molly quickly got in visual with Liberty Street. A main road divided by a treeline. She then realized that the description Kenny gave her was very vague. There were a lot of red brick buildings. She remembered that Kenny said that the house was in the direction of Crawford, therefore to her left, but still, there were many buildings like that. Fumbling for the radio, she threw a short glance towards the ground, spotting Mark who was standing right on the southwestern half of Liberty Street, also not knowing where exactly he should go. "Kenny, we need further information. There are many buildings that fit your description.", she spoke into the radio. "Uhm,… you see this big cemetery? Shouldn't be too far away from you." Kenny replied. A cemetery? Molly looked around and indeed spotted it. "Yeah, I got it." She spoke into the radio. "Right in front of it are a bunch of houses. The one in the middle is the one we are in. There's a wrecked truck in front of it. You shouldn't miss it." Kenny said. "Got that. See you soon." Molly ended the conversation and nestled her ice pick from her belt. The rest she would traverse on the ground.
### Molly ###
"You got any plans after we leave this place?", Mark asked as I joined him again. "I'll just quietly follow you guys if that is okay. When all this shit started, I thought that Hilda and I would be best on our own. But the opposite proved to be true. Your chances of surviving are higher in a group. A stable one at least.", I admitted. "I was on my own for a while, too. I'm glad that Lee and the others took me with them. It was getting really hard and quite lonely and depressing.", Mark replied quietly. "Oh yeah. I haven't even talked about loneliness. I'm pretty glad that I met Dom, and we got along quite well.", I said. "Are you like… a couple or something like that?", the ex air force pilot asked with a slight smirk on his face. I immediately felt a sudden heat rushing in my face. Stop blushing, you fool!
"No we're not. Just good friends.", I stuttered. "But you do like him.", Mark retorted. Well, he got me there. Yes, I was quite fond of Dom, but never gained the courage to tell him. I was too scared about losing him after I admitted my feelings for him. Just thinking about this theory made no sense. Regardless if we were a couple or not, him dying would be immensely devastating for me. "It's complicated.", I replied quietly, hoping to dismiss the topic with it. It seems to have worked because Mark just grinned, nodded and continued walking down the road in silence.
"There's the wrecked truck Kenny was talking about.", I said, pointing in front of us. "Yup. Seems like we're on the correct road.", Mark confirmed. Again I nestled the radio from my belt. "Guys, we're close to this truck you mentioned before. Are you inside the house or somewhere around it?", I asked through the device and waited for a reply. "We're inside, but I'll come outside and wait for you.", Kenny answered. "Alright, got it.", I acknowledged, ending the short conversation.
Not long after, Mark and I finally spotted Kenny stepping out of a rundown, tiny apartment building. He waved to us to come over, and we started walking towards him. "You're not gonna believe this. Check this out.", he said as soon as we were close enough. He turned around and got back inside the building, Mark and I quickly followed him. We went through a very narrow hallway and up some stairs, meeting up with the rest of our little scavenger group. "Take a look at this. It would last for months.", Lee said. "Holy crap.", Mark breathed out and stared into the room in front of us. I was also taken aback by what I saw. A gigantic stash of food, drinks and other supplies was filling up the accommodation. But, who did all this stuff belong to?
"You're still here? Guess you have a death-wish, then. Even after that scout helicopter flew over the city, you still do not take me seriously?", a voice asked from behind me. It was indeed the man in the dark hoodie, who came to us this morning. "I'm not going to leave this city without Clementine. No matter the cost.", Lee replied, more instinctively than willingly. "Then you should find this Clementine person quick and get the fuck out of here.", the stranger growled and walked into the room filled with the supplies. Not long after, he came out again, with a shotgun in his hands. I was too confused and surprised to even think about him possibly attacking us. Otherwise, I would have ordered him to drop the gun. "You can have all this shit. You'll need it more than I do, at least. I'm gonna get out of here. Before the yanks blow me to pieces.", he announced and disappeared as quickly as he appeared.
No one said anything for a very long time. Not really able to comprehend what this strange person was saying, it seemed. "Well, do we have some room in your bags for at least a fraction of all this stuff.", Kenny said finally. We all nodded. The loot run was quite unsuccessful. As Mark already said, Savannah was gutted beyond belief. Nothing was left in the northern part of the city, at least. And moving south seemed quite useless if the military really was on the brink of attacking. "Then grab everything you can and continue looking for Clem.", the Floridian decided, and began taking cans of food from the stash and depositing them into his backpack.
This guy must have raided Crawford, I swear. The number of supplies he had stored here was impossible to gather, judging by how guttered the city was. Thinking about this made me wonder about what had happened to the place. And what had happened to Dom. Was he still alive? Was he with Johnson? Was he hurt? Did he get out of the horrible cell they had thrown him in?
### Narrator ###
Some clouds began covering the sunny sky over the town of Savannah. A person armed with a shotgun stepped through the abandoned streets of the fifth-largest city of the state of Georgia. A cool chill hushed around the blocks, making the person shielding their upper body with their left arm. A radio chatter made the person twitch. "Civilian reconnaissance, Mr. Lee, are you out of the city yet?", a voice, emitted from a radio attached to their belt. With a groan, the person detached the radio from their clothing and held it to his mouth to speak. "Not yet sir. But I am on my way out. But be advised, there are survivors in the Northern downtown area. They refuse to leave, seemingly looking for someone called Clem. I explicitly warned them a few hours ago, told them to get out, but they did not oblige.", Mr. Lee spoke. "Did you identify yourself as one of us?", the male voice on the other end asked. "No sir. Pretended to have spied on you in of the lost camps.", Mr. Lee replied a tiny bit sheepishly. The man on the radio laughed, then replied with: "I do very much like your style, but these civilians are not our concern any more. They've received their warning, and if they wish not to take it seriously, then they shall do so."
"Roger. If I'm allowed to give advice, the attack choppers should focus on the port. A lot of undead have transferred their after one of the transports flew over.", Mr. Lee replied. "I appreciate your advice, I will report it to the attacking commander. Now you should get out of the city ASAP, we'll stay in touch.", the person said and ended the conversation for good.
"Told you to get out. But you just won't listen.", Mr. Lee said, shaking his head. He continued following Liberty Street due west, which would take him out of the town in a matter of an hour or so. His deed was done. He scouted out the city. Pinpointed the exact location where the most undead were and reported it to his contractor. The rest is history. Stuff he does not have to be bothered about.