Thedarkpokemaster-Ben doesn't really hate Chris, he was just trying to keep him calm but Tyreese does hate Chris. Only time will tell what will happen with Ben around now.
Kylegriggs13-Well it's a thought for sure but you never know, I could surprise you. Anyway hope you will enjoy the time Ben is around for however long he is.
EroSlackerMicha-Yeah Chuck got such a short stick even though he was an awesome character and absolutely meatloaf, it's the best! Lol
Enjoy
Chapter 3: The Grand Tour
"Hell fucking yes, we'd love some meatloaf!" Kenny exclaimed with a large smile,
"Seriously, that'd be amazing!" Tyreese added on,
Dexter stood up from his seat as the three of them walked towards him, "You can follow me to the back to grab some plates and shit. Then just help yourself, we've got plenty-trust me." Dexter said with a smirk,
"Really? How much do you have?" Rick asked with a hopeful look,
Lee let out a grin, "Enough to feed the whole room and that's just the meatloaf."
Rick paused then let out a smile, "We've got a few more people who could use a meal, you mind if we go grab them?"
"Don't make a difference to me." Dexter said with a shrug,
"Great, Kenny why don't you go grab everyone." Rick said with a nod,
"You got it, be back in a few." Kenny said turning back around then exited the cafeteria,
As Kenny left the room Tyreese walked over to the prisoners, "So, anything we can do to help out?"
"Well if you have more people coming we could set up a buffet with your help." Lee replied, "Chuck, Axel why don't you two go grab the plates."
"Sure thing." Chuck said with a nod as he and Axel walked to the back storage room,
"Hey Lee, make yourself useful and get these open." Dexter said as he tossed him a duffle of cans,
Lee narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chest as the impact almost sent him to the ground. He shook his head and turned back to Rick and Tyreese, "Here guys, open these cans while we get the rest of the food ready."
"Not to be a prick but I thought you guys said you had meatloaf." Tyreese said stopping Lee,
Lee let out a smirk and said, "No worries, canned meatloaf is a thing. We can heat it up with our stoves. They run off propane apparently." Lee said as he returned to the back of the cafe.
It took Kenny nearly twenty minutes to round everybody up but this worked out perfect for the crew in the cafeteria as they were able to put together a large buffet with actually hot food. As everyone shuffled into the room Rick walked over and greeted them, "Alright everyone the food is back here, help yourselves. I know you're all starved."
"Starting to change your minds about this place yet? Think we can stay here?" Carol asked with a smirk to Lori and Katjaa,
"Perhaps I was a bit to judgemental." Katjaa said with a nod as she followed Kenny and Duck towards the buffet,
"Alright i'll admit, it's pretty amazing." Lori said with a nod,
Everyone quickly started filling their plates to the brim and barely made any conversation as they were all too busy stuffing their faces. Lee had calmly waited for the others to get their food before he made his way to the table. As he began to fill his plate he heard a tiny voice from behind him, "Um excuse me mister, could you get me a piece of that meat stuff?"
Lee turned back and let out a smile as he saw a small girl where a baseball cap, "You mean meatloaf, and sure hand me your plate." He said as he began to slice off a piece of meat for her,
"Oh." Clementine said having learned something new, "Thank you, mister..."
"Lee, and of course it's no trouble." Lee said quickly as he placed a slab of meat onto her plate, "What's your name?"
"I'm Clementine." She replied with a little smile,
"Well Clementine would you like anything else, we have a lot of vegetables up here." Lee said with a warm smile,
"Um, I don't think so. Thank you Lee." Clementine said before turning around and heading back towards her group.
Lee watched Clem as she sat down across from Duck and she gave him a small wave which he returned. After this he filled his plate and walked back over to his table and sat down next to Chuck, "Damn, it's nice to see these guys. Rescue couldn't have come at a better time." Lee said with a grin,
"Don't know about it being a rescue son." Chuck said dismissively as he looked at the group,
"Yeah look at 'em. They look like they haven't eaten in weeks, you follow me?" Axel said with a nod,
"And what rescue team brings a bunch of kids with 'em. Something ain't right here." Chuck said as he got up and walked over to Rick, "Excuse me son, hope this doesn't come off as rude but ya'll don't look like a rescue team."
"Rescue team?" Rick asked turning back to Chuck with a confused look, "We're not a rescue team we're just people. You guys are doing much better in here than we were out there. Were not here to rescue you." Rick said to their shock,
"What are you talking about? Then why would a bunch of people break into a prison?" Lee asked visibly concerned,
"Well because there really isn't anywhere else for us to go." Rick said a bit hardly,
"What are you-" Axel started to ask only for Kenny to cut him off,
"Don't you get it, nothing is fucking left. Military, government, resistance, all of it is gone. Best guess would be ninety percent of the population is fucking dead. This place is the first safe place we've actually found." Kenny said plainly,
"How? What happened?" Chuck asked as he slowly sat down in shock,
"It was some kind of disease or something like that. Whatever it is it brings anyone who is bit back, and when they come back all they do is kill. It's just horrible out there, it's hard to explain but just know there is nothing left." Rick said hanging his head,
Lee started to think about his family and panic, "What about Macon? My family is down there, do you know if it's bad? Do you have a phone I could use to call them?" Lee said jumping up,
"You're not hearing us man, there are no phones. Macon hell any town is gone, your family...I'm sorry but they are either gone or dead." Tyreese said causing Lee to fall back into his seat and lower his head,
"I'm sorry son." Chuck said resting his hand on his shoulder,
"Wait a minute, you guys aren't guards are you?" Rick said narrowing his eyes,
"Guards?" Dexter said with a scoff then a laugh, "Oh that's rich, do we look like prison guards to you?"
"No, I suppose not." Rick said glaring at him,
"Katjaa watch the kids." Lori whispered out before standing up and walking over to the prisoner, "You're criminals!? What crimes did you commit?" She yelled out firmly,
Each of the men looked at each other for a moment then looked back to Lori, "Stealing Whiskey." Chuck replied,
"Armed Robbery." Axel said not looking her in the eye,
"Breaking and entering." Lee lied, just next to him Chuck looked over at him confused but luckily no one else picked up on that,
"Tax fraud, but it wasn't my fault." Thomas quickly said,
"Drugs man! Selling and doing, you name it i've done it." Andrew exclaimed with a bit of a twitch,
"Murder." Dexter said coldly,
"M-murder?" Lori stammered out while she backed up behind Rick,
"Yeah and I know what you're thinking but you've got nothing to worry about as long as you aren't my wife and her boyfriend and you can't be them because they are dead." Dexter said with little emotion. Lee peered over to Dexter with a bit of shame as he had been man enough to own up to his crime but once he looked over at Rick's group's faces he knew he made the right choice in lying, "But the real one you should be worried about here is Andrew." Dexter said with a smirk,
"Oh enough with this shit man." Lee said rolling his eyes,
"No, what are you talking about?" Rick said quickly,
"Well Andrew caused all this mess, didn't you Andrew? Go on, tell them." Dexter said with a nudge from his arm,
"Yeah right, well it's like this. A few weeks before all this went down my life was a wreck, I was into drugs like hardcore, taking them everyday. It was only a matter of time before they would have killed me so I prayed. I prayed for them to be taken away from me, so I could never use again. Two weeks later we start hearing about some crazy shit and now look at me, sober and never getting off the wagon." Andrew said full heartedly causing Rick and the others to look at him in confusion, as well as awkwardness. Rick peered over to the other prisoners and saw Lee who's eyes were narrowed and was shaking his head,
"So, how did you guys get locked up anyway?" Rick said turning away from Andrew's wacky tale,
"Shit was getting bad, guards were leaving, heading home I guess. Suddenly one night, I guess some of those things got in and started to rip up the place. Don't know why but they let us out of our cells. Could have been a prisoner or maybe the guards couldn't live with us just starving to death in our cells." Lee explained,
"Doesn't really matter why they did it but once they did we were trying to make a break for it with some guards. They promised to let us out once we got to the exit, but they fucking turned on us instead. Locked us in here and never looked back, I hope they got their fucking brains eaten." Dexter said coldly, "If you want I could show you around the place, kinda itching to get outta here anyway."
"Yeah I'd be will to come to, see what shape this place is in." Lee added on,
"Let's go." Rick said as he turned back to his group, "Listen up everyone I'm heading out with Lee and Dexter to scout out the rest of this cell block. Tyreese stay here, hold down the fort for me. Kenny, you willing to tag along. Would like the back up incase I run into any company."
"Yeah, I'm done here anyway. One more bite and I'll pop." He said with a little chuckle as he stood up. He leaned down and kissed Katjaa on the head and ruffled Duck's hair before heading over to the cafeteria doors along with the others. As the group exited the room Carly stared at the door, she couldn't help but think she had seen that man Lee somewhere before but she couldn't quite put her finger on it just yet.
As the group left Ben sat with Julie and Chris, as they finished up their plate Julie spoke up, "Gotta say Ben that was pretty brave today, you heading out to help my dad and the others."
Ben blushed a bit but shook his head, "I didn't really help, I just loaded pistol clips, they did all the real work."
Chris narrowed his eyes, "Who cares, nothing really matters. It's all about us taking control of our lives from here on out."
Ben looked at him confused while Julie hung her head a bit, "I don't know, this place is pretty nice."
Chris scoffed, "It's a prison Julie, what's nice about a prison? Besides, this place can't keep us together forever, only one way that can happen."
Ben raised an eyebrow, "What are you talking about man? Who cares if this is a prison, this place is the safest place to live. I doubt we'd ever find another place like this ever again, just think we might not ever have to worry about walkers soon." Julie looked over and gave him a small hopeful smile before returning to her plate of food.
Back with Rick's team they entered the very back of the kitchen, "Since we're right here might as well start with the pantry." Dexter said as he lead the group into the pantry that had about a dozen of rows of shelves stocked with cans,
"It's like Christmas!" Rick exclaimed as they walked through the the pantry towards the back,
"What's in here?" Kenny said as he walked over to a large metal door and took hold of the handle,
"Whoa don't open that!" Lee exclaimed quickly,
"He ain't kidding." Dexter said with a nod,
Kenny looked over to Rick with a raised eyebrow, "Why? What's in there?" Rick asked suspiciously,
"That's been our bathroom for the last few months. With the power out we figured that the air tight freezer was the best choice. I ain't gonna lie it's pretty god damn unpleasant in there and if you so much as crack that door your people are gonna be doing the opposite of eating." Dexter explained quickly,
"C'mon let's get moving, we got a lot to see before it gets dark." Lee added on causing Rick and Kenny to follow them back into the hallway.
"Gym's up this way." Dexter said as he lead the three men while Kenny and Rick shined their flashlights for their light,
"Lead on, just keep your eyes open, they don't move fast but they could be anywhere in this darkness." Rick said as he shined his light around,
"What exactly are they?" Lee whispered over to them,
"Dead," Kenny said blankly, "Just know if they take a chunk out of you, you're dead."
"How do you kill them?" Dexter asked stoically,
"Gotta destroy the brain, anything else you do won't stop them." Rick explained,
Dexter narrowed his eyes and looked back to Rick, "Well then I'd be a lot safer with one of those gonna give me one?"
"Way I see it, if you're a decent man you wouldn't mind proving it." Rick said with a cold glare,
Lee could feel the tension lingering and quickly spoke up, "Just relax Dex, i'm sure we'll be fine with these guys watching our back."
"What about them? We don't know shit about them." Dexter shot back to Lee,
"Well we didn't shoot you on sight so I guess you'll just have to trust us." Kenny said with an uncaring tone,
"Guess I ain't got much choice." Dexter said with an agitated tone just as they reached the gym. "Well this is it but looks like someone cuffed the doors shut."
"Well whoever did it left the keys in them so they could be opened." Rick said as he clicked open the cuffs and stood up. He and Kenny pulled open the door only for the four of them to gasp in pure horror as they saw dozens of walkers crowded in the gym. Kenny and Rick quickly slammed the door shut and cuffed the doors, "We'll deal with that later." Rick said while taking a deep breath,
"Sounds good to me." Lee said rubbing the back of his neck,
"I second that shit, laundry is right up here." Dexter said turning down a hallway to his right,
"Lot's of clothes here if you don't mind orange." Lee said with a smirk as they past the laundry room,
"Any clean clothes work for me." Kenny said with a smirk as Dexter lead on,
"To you left is the showers, don't know if they still-" Dexter started to say only for a walker to lumber around the corner,
"One sec." Rick said as he walked over and slammed his hatchet into it's skull and dropped it to the ground,
"Right, this way. Only one thing left to see here." Dexter said leading them to the very back of the building, "This is the garage, never been in here myself."
Rick looked around at the large buses along with motorbikes and police cruisers, "This stuff will definitely come in handy."
"Tell you what those buses would make a good replacement for our RV's if we ever had to leave." Kenny said with a nod.
Dexter lead the group back to the main cell block and walked to a cell, "Well from what you tell me A and B block are still filled with the dead. B is another cell block but A block is administration and I bet you'll want to get into those offices because those couches are gonna be more comfortable than anything we got here. Best part is even though the electricity is off we can still slide these doors closed without locking them and they'll be to heavy for something to open them without you knowing." Dexter said with a grin,
"Well alright, let's go get the others and start moving in." Rick said to Kenny who let out a nod and started walking back towards the cafeteria as Dexter entered his old cell and Lee went looking for his own cell.
Nearly twenty minutes later the groups had began to finish moving in, Lori and Carol were gossiping in their cells about the prisoners, "I don't know Lori some of them seem pretty nice, I don't see anything wrong with that guy Lee."
"I don't care, I'm just glad they are sleeping on the bottom floor. It makes me feel better knowing that they don't trust us as much as we don't trust them." Lori said angrily as she fixed her bunk with some small homey touches,
Just outside the cell Tyreese, Kenny and Rick were having a small argument over Hershel Greene and his family, "How could you even suggest that?" Tyreese said waving his hand no,
"Look I get the guy lost kids but we all ain't on the best of terms." Kenny said with a nod,
"I'm thinking long term here guys! If we're going to stay here for a long time we'll need him. And I don't care what he did and if I don't care I don't get why you do."
"Because he dangerous!" Tyreese shot back,
"Look at the circumstances man, he just lost his kids!" Rick replied definitely, "Kenny you have to see what i'm getting at here, just because you two have a sour relationship doesn't mean we should leave him out there with his family."
Kenny ran his hand along his chin not really able to find a reason to disagree with Rick, "What are you guys arguing about?" Lori asked as she walked out of her cell,
"Rick want's to go down to the farm, get everyone and bring them back here." Tyreese replied with a scoff,
"Look I miss Glenn, Mark and Doug as much as anyone else but you saw Hershel he was crazy." Lori said agreeing with Tyreese,
"Hershel had a lot going on and he's a farmer! He could plow some of these fields safely inside and we could survive here long term. Besides I couldn't live with myself knowing that they are out there while we have more than enough room here." Rick explained trying to convince her yet he could still see her disagreeance. Rick threw his hands up and started to walk away, "Trust me this is the right thing to do. With everyone here we could clean this place out in no time, I saw some gas in the garage I think me and Dale should go pick them up right now." Rick said showing that he was not asking but rather telling them. Dale quickly exited his cell and followed Rick down the the stairs while Kenny and Tyreese watched a bit worried and agitated.
Just below on the first floor Lee had finished cleaning up his cell and fixed the bed, he took a seat down just as Carly walked into his cell, "Uh, you're Carly right?" Lee said getting back to his face,
"Yeah, that's right." Carly said as she crossed her arms and leaned against his cell door,
Lee stood there for a moment before awkwardly scratching the back of his head, "Can I help you with something?"
"I know who you are, it took me awhile but I remember your face being plastered around TV right before all this shit started. Lee Everett, you murdered your wife and the state senator she was sleeping with. The others may believe your little breaking and entering story but I was a reporter for AGN." Lee stared at her with a slightly concerned look before she let out a little sigh, "I can understand why you would have lied and in honesty you don't seem like a bad man. Look, this situation isn't going to end and honestly we might need someone with your...abilities but if you end up hurting anyone here or being a determinate to this group. Well let's just say word will spread pretty quick." She said looking at him closely,
Lee stared at the short woman and ran his hand through his scruffy beard, "How do I know you won't just tell everyone as soon as you leave my cell?"
"Well you don't, you're just going to have to trust me." Carly replied blankly,
Lee thought things over and in honesty if she was going to spread the truth around she had no reason to warn him like this. "Okay, I trust you. Thanks." Lee said with a small smile,
Carly diverted her eyes and nearly blushed before saying, "Don't mention it." She turned back around and exited his cell as Lee laid down on his bunk and shut his eyes.
Okay so this chapter was technically chapter three and four put together from my last story, most I decided to actually expand on the skimmed over conversations and I hope you liked it better. Oh and if this was your first time seeing this story and you never saw the old one I just hoped you enjoyed this chapter in general. Anyway I'll see you all in the next one, though it may be a bit as I should update one of my others stories ha ha.