Gooffy- Glad you liked it, hope you enjoy this one!
SuperSonicHeros- I enjoyed pairing up everyone's last chapter into their little duo's and this chapter was fun to write their bonds and also how they deal with bigger issues. This chapter though is definitely the first step into the war to come, so hope you enjoy it!
Thedarkpokemaster- The future of these characters as well as the characters to come are definitely something I've thought a lot about. Though season one of the game will be the sole focus all the way up until Alexandria in the comics, because yes, there is tons of things to touch on and do from the material in season one.
Kevinrock8899- Oh and things grow right into a boil in this one too!
Don 77- Only time will tell what happens with Judith, but just like everyone else, no one is being given the guarantee of life!
Rodan1920- I was so sad when they killed Kenny, I was saying the same thing myself haha!
Bluntwave- Coming up there will be a whole chapter based only on what happened inside Woodbury since the group escaped which I'm looking forward to write, so that'll show a lot of what they are planning. And who knows how everything will end!
Enjoy
Chapter 31: The Storm
Martinez and Molly walked into the Save Lots as the rest of their group rushed to grab an empty cart from the storefront, "This is a bad idea," Martinez quietly murmured to the blonde,
"No fucking shit, I'll stick with them, hurry there asses along, watch for Oberson, you know that prick while send out his team to check everything out soon," Molly replied,
Martinez nodded in agreement, "Let's just hope Mark is right and they'll just pass us over without a second glance, not likely but we can hope,"
"Hope ain't worth shit," Molly muttered in response as she made he way back towards Billy,
"Right, everyone keep your eyes peeled if you're going into the back of the store, no telling if a shambler is sticking around," Tyreese announced at the group gathered around,
"We'll be quick, honestly, if you think we need it, just grab it, we have the room between the truck and the RV still, and like I said, this is our chance to make our life in the prison a bit comfier," Mark grinned,
"Let's just make sure it's fast," Lee tacked on,
The group quickly spread out making their way down the aisles filling their carts to the brim with clothes, blankets, pillows, board games, dvd players, and of course all the movies and books that they could find. "You think it's stupid if I grab a game console? I know we won't always have the power but-" Billy sheepishly began to ask Mark as Molly moved to the electronics section grabbing her fair share of music players and headphones,
"Hell yeah man, you really think Doug won't be able to figure out a way to get that power running off of solar or something eventually? I have no doubt that come this time next year that prison is going to be powered up twenty-four-seven," Mark confidently replied to the teenager,
Billy let out a breathy laugh of disbelief, "God, I can't even picture next year, I'd like to but I've just been thinking day by day, maybe week by week at most,"
"Smarter to live in the now, you never know what could be taken away in an instance," Molly's pessimistic voice piped in, "Now enough talking, we need to get this shit done fast,"
"Is she always such a buzzkill?" Mark softly asked the teen,
"She's been through...a lot since all this shit, she's being pragmatic, that's all. And she's got a point, we should speed this up, huh?" Billy replied as he tossed a few games into his cart and pushed it along.
Across the Save-Lots, Lee and Axel came running back inside after loading a cart of supplies into the back of the truck. "You know it's funny, isn't this what got you into prison in the first place?" Lee lightly joked to Axel,
"Ain't robbery if there ain't no one left to own this store, you follow me?" Axel chuckled back as he grabbed an empty cart, "Think I'm gonna take a run down the liquor aisle though, I know the old man and I could use a splash, and without a woman to warm the bed it's the next best thing,"
"Right," Lee lightly agreed, "I'll take a run into the baby aisle for Rick and Lori, make sure we pick up a few things for them,"
"Smart thinking, that little one is gonna need a lot if she's gonna have a real room," Axel agreed just as the pair separated.
Lee made his way through the aisles until he finally reached the children's aisle, a lot of it was tossed over but a few packs of diapers remained along with just enough baby supplies that would help Rick and Lori keep things comfortable for their kid. Lee pulled his cart into the aisle and quickly began to toss the items inside, not caring exactly what he was taking, they were likely to need everything.
Lastly, Lee located the cribs and began to load one into his cart, he knew without a doubt Rick needed one beyond anything else. Lee, however, paused as he finished loading it and looked back at the remaining ones. He ran a hand along his chin for a moment before reaching down and grabbing a second one just as Andrea came around the corner, "Oh hey Lee, I didn't think anyone got this section yet," The blonde one said as she looked over his cart, "Nice, that's everything Rick and Lori need, and you even found...two cribs?" Andrea asked as her eyes slowly grew, "Wait, wait, wait, is Carly-"
"No, no, she's not...we aren't even trying for anything like that but in the future, who knows what might happen. Ben and Julie are young kids, so you know that's a pretty big risk, better to have an extra than have to go back for one right?" Lee swiftly replied as Andrea helped the man lift the second crib into his cart.
A few more minutes passed by and Tyreese had found himself back to the front of the store with his own filled cart. He looked over to Martinez who was sharply pacing along the window front watching outside with his rifle clutched in his hands. "Easy man, we're almost done, my cart is full, Lee and Axel already loaded one and I'm sure the others will only be another minute, then we're gone,"
"Not soon enough, I don't like this, you guys don't know these people like I do, Oberson and The Governor don't just sit around. I can feel it, something isn't right, we need to go," Martinez retorted,
"You're being paranoid, it's not healthy for you," Tyreese calmly replied while walking over to the former teacher, "I know these guys are scary fuckers but-"
"I'm not a coward, I'm trying to be smart, and keep all of us alive. I lived with these guys since they showed up, right now they've sent out the strongest guys in town armed to the teeth to go out and-" Martinez sharply explained only to be cut off by Tyreese,
"Find us," Tyreese finished as he stared out the window at a group of four men marching towards them, in the center of the pack was Bruce holding a battered automatic rifle, and on either side of him were men holding pump shotguns and lastly was one with a semi-automatic rifle. "Fucking shit…"
"You two, check out their vehicles. Sam and I are going in to find these motherfuckers," Bruce swiftly commanded his three goons,
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Tyreese muttered while jumping down behind a checkout counter with Martinez, "They've seen our trucks, they're coming right in here, we aren't going to be able to hide from them. We can't just hide. Are they going to attack on sight?"
Martinez hung his head and let out a few sharp breaths, "They might, but I can get them away from you guys,"
"What?" Tyreese asked back only to see Martinez get to his feet and confidently walk towards the door, "Hey, Martinez, what the fuck are you doing? Stay down," Tyreese hissed to the latino who ignored his every word,
"They come in here, they get you all, I didn't come this far with you all to let you get killed now," Martinez muttered back before finally walking out the front door right into the view of Bruce, "Hey man, long time no see, great to see a friendly face," Martinez said with a smile as he attempted to approach the bald man,
Without hesitation Bruce's rifle shot up, leveling with Martinez's chest, "Guns up boys!" Bruce shouted out followed by the other three men aiming at Martinez as well, "Not one more fucking step, Ceaser!" The muscular man commanded,
"Whoa, whoa, easy man, what the hell?!" Martinez exclaimed while holding his free hand up,
Meanwhile, inside the store the rest of the group slowly began to converge on the front of the building, hearing the commotion from the parking lot, "What's going on?" Billy asked Tyreese who instantly held his hand out halting the others,
"Oh shit, what the hell is he doing out there," Mark exclaimed,
"Get down and stay quiet, he knows what he's doing...Billy, Andrea, be ready with your rifles, just in case," Tyreese firmly stated, not taking his eyes off of Martinez,
"Bruce, it's me, you know me. What the fuck are you thinking? Sam put your damn gun down!" Martinez exclaimed while shaking his head in anger,
"Y-You've been gone for weeks Martinez," Sam replied with a short gulp,
"I've been out scouting to find where those people lived, The Governor gave the order, but they found me and Jeff and killed him. I barely got away but now I'm finally getting back home to your guys and this is what I get?" Martinez shot back, "Bruce-"
"What did you do, Caesar,? At the Guard Station? What the hell did you and those fuckers do?" Bruce growled, "You think I believe that story you've spun, I know what you did to Gabe and Larry, you shoulda stayed gone," Bruce finished before firing a single round right into Martinez sending the man flying back and onto the ground with a thud,
"Martinez!" Mark exclaimed,
"What the-" Bruce began to say before the bark from Billy's rifle was heard sending a round directly into Bruce's neck,
"Billy, what the fuck are you doing?!" Molly shouted out as the teen suddenly took out running out the door,
"Hands up, or you're dead!" Billy frantically shouted while swinging his rifle from man to man, though eventually, his gun landed directly on Sam giving the other two soldiers enough time to slip into cover behind the national guard station truck,
"Billy get your ass inside!" Tyreese ordered as he and Andrea ran out behind him followed by Mark who quickly ran to Martinez and began to pull the man back into the Save-Lots,
"No!" Billy shouted back to Tyreese before glancing back towards the truck, "Look, I don't want to have to shoot this guy, but I will if you don't give up!"
Suddenly a shot rang out from behind the truck and blood spurted from Billy's head as he dropped to the ground like a ton of bricks, "Billy!" Andrea screamed from the top of her lungs in horror.
Just then Molly ran from the store and jumped onto the hood of the truck, running across the vehicle before dropping hardly onto one of the men, slamming her boots onto one of the man's heads, slamming him onto the pavement. A sicking crack was heard as the back of the man's head cracked open and blood began to pour out of his head and within the next instant, a squelch followed as Molly jammed the blade of her pick through the bottom jaw of the man who shot Billy, killing him instantly.
Sam looked back in horror and began to hyperventilate while looking at the group of prison survivors that now surrounded him, "Y-you killed them! You killed all of them!"
"Don't move! Drop the fucking gun!" Andrea ordered as Sam looked at Molly who yanked back on Hilda, pulling off the man's jaw, "Listen to me, dammit!"
"You fucking monsters!" Sam shouted as he lifted his shotgun to Andrea who finally took the shot, a bullet ripped right through Sam's head and sent brain matters over the pavement before he finally dropped to the ground.
"H-He left me no choice, I didn't want to do that, but he-he was going to shoot!" Andrea defended herself while looking at the others, her arms shaking and her eyes in disbelief in her own actions, "I had to,"
"Andrea, you did the right thing, alright? You hear me girl, you didn't do a thing wrong," Tyreese said as he approached the woman,
"You did something you should've done sooner!" Molly suddenly shouted, "Look at what just fucking happened! Look!" Molly screamed while pointing to Billy's body lying on the ground,
"Guy's Martinez is still alive, but not for long if we don't get him back to the doc!" Mark called out,
"Oh fucking god, what are we going to tell Hershel?" Lee gasped as he walked from the building cupping his mouth in horror as he looked at Billy,
"What if more of them are coming, we shouldn't hang around, you follow me?" Axel added on,
"Everyone shut the hell up, and calm down, we'll figure all this out! Whatever you have toss in the truck, you have three fucking minutes, Lee, help Mark with Martinez, I'll...get Billy," Tyreese commanded while rubbing his forehead slowly, after a moment he looked around at the others still standing still, "Move!" He shouted out finally jumpstarting the others back into movement.
Meanwhile back in the prison Ruck sat outside in the yard along with Kenny, the duo taking a genuine moment to breathe while drinking in peace of having a few days inside the prison. "Stevens really believes that he can fix your hand?" Rick asked Kenny who could only grin while he looked over the damaged appendage,
"Doc x-rayed it, said everything was screwed up and healed wrong but it wasn't fucked up beyond repair. I mean, he said it'd take a while and he'd have to rebreak all the bones so they could heal again but the right way, ya know?" Kenny explained causing Rick to grimace in sympathy, "It may suck but I am willing to try anything to get it back into working order,"
"I can't say I wouldn't be thinking the same thing...if I could," Rick muttered as he looked down at his stump,
"Um, Mister Grimes?!" Julie's voice suddenly called out grabbing his attention so he could see her pointing to the cellblock door.
Looking over Rick and Kenny saw Lori stumbling out of the cell-block clutching her stomach, barely standing, "Lori?! Lori what's wrong?!" Rick exclaimed while jumping to his feet and running to her side, "Is the baby hurt?! Are you okay?!"
"It's happening Rick...it's t-time," Lori grunted as she reached out and grabbed onto Rick squeezing him tight,
"That's I'm taking you to Alice and Stevens! Julie, Ben, can you please go look for Hershel and send him to the infirmary as well!" Rick exclaimed causing the teens to take off running, "Oh Christ Carl, we need to-"
"Y'all get going! I'll watch your boy same as mine, just get her to the Doc," Kenny all but ordered as he stood up as well,
"Thank you, Kenny!" Rick called back as he supported his wife and brought her back into the cell-block.
Only minutes later Rick burst his way into the infirmary with Lori around his shoulder, "Stevens, Alice, I hope you're ready, it's happening!" He exclaimed to the pair,
"Oh, crap…" Alice gulped as she jumped from her desk of bookwork,
"Yes, we are ready," Doctor Stevens said in complete confidence while wiping off his glasses on his shirt quickly, "Alice, set up an IV while I sterilize my hands, Rick, Lori, we have a gown right over there if you could get her undressed and out of that jumpsuit," Stevens calmly stated as he moved to the bed Rick helped Lori lay down in, "Lori, everything is going to be just fine, you're in good hands,"
"T-Thank you," Lori whimpered back as she felt relief on the end of a contraction,
Just then Ben and Julie came rushing in with Hershel, the elder farmer quickly moved to Rick's side, "What can I do to help?"
"I want Alice to be monitoring and watching everything I do, that way if this happens again, which it will, and I'm not around, then she will know exactly what to do. So, I'll need you to be my assistant if you can Hershel," Doctor Stevens explained to the man as he turned and headed towards the sink, "This isn't the ideal time for this to start, I was hoping for an early birth but we have to play the hand we're dealt. With it getting dark soon we're going to need to run the generator tonight to keep the lights on. We can't have this room go dark for a minute, unfortunately, we just sent Douglas down to the generators to turn them off from Ken's x-ray earlier." Stevens explained to the group as he finished scrubbing his hands, "Someone needs to go down there and either stop him or start them back up,"
"I suppose I could go-" Rick began to say only for Lori's hand to shoot out grabbing his collar,
"No! I need you here with me!" Lori all but growled to her husband, her eyes inflamed by the thought of him losing,
"I can do it!" Ben suddenly interjected, "I'll go right now,"
"Yes, Ben can do it, he's been talking with Doug about the generators these last few weeks," Julie jumped in supporting her boyfriend immediately,
"Perfect, Ben I cannot stress enough that these generators need to be kept running all night, they can not turn off for a minute!" Doctor Stevens reiterated,
"O-Okay, okay, I'm going now!" Ben rapidly nodded while turning and rushing out of the room,
"Okay, let's get this started, Lori, Rick, please we need her to take her jumpsuit off." Stevens said once more while turning his back to offer some privacy, "Hershel if you'd please sterilize your hands. Alice, how is that IV coming?"
In the meantime, Ben was sprinting his way through the hallways praying he'd run into Doug, as despite hearing all about the generators over the last few weeks he barely remembered a thing and knew he wouldn't be able to do it on his own. However, as he closed in on the room he was still alone and starting to panic. It was in a mixture of shock and relief that he screamed out as soon as he saw the backside of Dale wandering off in the distance, "Dale! Dale, please, I need your help!"
Dale spun around in surprise, "Ben? What's wrong, what the hell is going on?!"
"L-Lori is having her baby," Ben panted as he braced himself for a moment,
"Does Rick know? Is she with the doctor?!" Dale exclaimed ready to take off running as well,
"She's with him, Rick's there too, they're fine, but I need to get the generators turned on and they need to be fueled up for the whole night! I-I don't really know what I'm doing so please, please, help me!" Ben pleaded,
"Relax, relax, let's go, I'm right behind you," Dale calmly replied,
"Great, lets go!" Ben exclaimed while turning and sprinting off,
"Slow down you little shit! Christ!" Dale shouted out nowhere near able to keep up with the teenager's adrenaline-fueled speed,
As the pair reached the generator room Ben nearly let out a cry of joy as he saw Doug at the control panel, "Ben? Dale? What are you two doing down here?" Doug asked in surprise as he turned to face the wheezing old man and teen,
"Doug, we need to turn the generators back on, Lori is having her baby and they need the lights! Flip all the switches man, get it back on!" Ben exclaimed,
"Y-yeah," Dale panted while holding his side,
"Oh, o-okay," Doug gulped as he quickly began to turn knobs and flipping switches, "The thing is...we, um, we are almost out of fuel,"
"Son, you better be fucking kidding me," Dale growled out,
"No, we only have enough for an hour or two before it's empty, we were planning on doing another gas run tomorrow or something," Doug explained, "I can get it started but-"
"We have to go get gas, Dale, we have to!" Ben interrupted,
"I know Ben," Dale muttered back, "I get it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it...damnit, grab a few cans, Ben, Doug get this thing turned on, let's go!"
Fifteen minutes later Ben and Dale were outside the prison fences walking towards the parking lot, the elder had his gun drawn and was walking at a steady slow pace while Ben followed, shaking wildly while clutching a few gas cans, "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," He whispered under his breath,
"Stay calm, kid, it's dark they can't really see us and they haven't built back up around the fences yet, we're fine, just stay alert," Dale firmly stated,
"I know, I'm just not good around these things man, everyone knows that," Ben gulped,
"If they get close shoot them, if they follow us, be ready to shoot them, beyond that just stay calm, and alert, and we'll be just fine," Dale reminded the teenager,
Ben nodded and picked up his pace, keeping close to Dale as they made their way to the parking lot, "I'll start siphoning from that one," Ben murmured while pointing to a nearby car,
"Go ahead, I'll watch your back," Dale replied as he took a stance by the car one over, slowly scanning the dark sky, making sure the few walkers he could make out were staying away. After a moment he heard the sound of gas trickling into Ben's can while he let out a small cough and spit gas from his mouth. After a minute Dale glanced back to Ben, "How's it going?"
"Pretty good, this one had a lot, but we need more," Ben whispered back,
"We'll hurry up then, it's getting darker by the minute," Dale replied before suddenly letting out an ear-piercing scream. Ben fell onto his back and crawled back as he looked over and saw Dale on the ground screaming as a walker bit into his ankle, ripping out his Achilles tendon and swallowed it whole,
"Oh my god!" Ben gasped as he got to his feet, grabbing his gas can and spriting back towards the gate, leaving Dale and the feasting walker, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so fucking sorry!" Ben cried while he continued to run. Tears began to run down his face as he began to run into walkers, shoving a few out of the way while shakily pulling out his gun, "I'm so sorry Dale, I'm-ugh!" Ben tripped and rolled onto the ground, looking around he watched as the walkers moved in to feed on him.
Lifting his gun he attempted to shoot at one before merely dropping his pistol and laying onto his back, "I'm sorry, Dale. I'm sorry, Lori...I'm so fucking sorry, Julie, I let you all down...I let you down!" Ben cried out as the sounds of walkers hungry growls grew closer and closer.
Okay, first off, so sorry for the long wait, things go so crazy in my life but I'm happy to be back! I hope you all liked the chapter as it was an intense one to write and I'm curious to hear what you all thought about it! I also want to assure everyone that no matter what I'll always be coming back to this story until it's done, no matter how long it takes! Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you're excited for the next one!