Author's Notes: Sorry that this chapter is so short and took so long school started and I've been pretty busy, but I will try to put out at least a chapter a week. Also thanks for sticking around I appreciate it!
Everyone was in bed except for the three lookouts who had a shift change in the morning. The window in Nico and Logan's room was open with cool spring air coming through. An ear splitting crack echoed outside waking Nico and Logan up. They put on their shoes and ran outside. They looked around the courtyard and saw Willy, Louis, and a little boy they hadn't seen before. After they got closer to them they noticed Henry and Mary on the ground.
"What the fuck? And who is the kid?" Nico asked.
"Don't look at us, it was the kid who shot her," Willy replied.
"We'll sort this out later," Logan said, "Where's Ruby?"
"Probably in the admin building with Aasim playing Uno," Louis answered.
Logan picked up Mary and started running towards the Admin building while Nico got Henry and did the same.
"Ruby!" Logan called upon entering the admin building.
Ruby came out of the piano room and saw Mary and Henry.
"Follow me," Ruby instructed.
They followed her to a hallway with a sofa and a cot. Logan set Mary down on the sofa while Henry was placed on the cot by Nico. Ruby picked up a bag of medical supplies.
"How'd this happen?" Ruby asked while patching Mary up.
"I honestly have no clue how Mary found Henry or how he got bandaged, how they lost Hazel, and how they even got here," Logan explained, "All I know is that an eight year old shot her."
"God damn," Ruby muttered.
"Mary's going to make it right?" Logan asked.
"AJ hit pretty close to an artery and a lot of the blood is coming out," Ruby began, "I honestly don't know."
"Please try your best. I can't lose any more of my friends. We can't lose anymore" Logan sighed, "We lost Cecily, Lukas, Samantha, Allie, and so many others already."
Logan got up and went outside for some air.
Nico slumped against a wall and facepalmed. Ruby continued to work on Mary eventually stopping the bleeding and wrapped bandages around Mary's upper arm.
"C'mon let's get them into beds," Ruby said.
They carried Mary and Henry to their rooms and set them on their beds. Ruby grabbed the duct tape and taped their hands to the bed frame.
"Is that really necessary?" Nico asked.
"It's a precaution we take with any injured person. We even did it to Clem when she showed up injured," Ruby replied.
Nico sighed and went back to bed. A few minutes later he heard the door creak even though Logan was opening it slowly. Nico faintly heard him sitting down on the bed and taking off his shoes.
Several hours passed and sunlight poured in from the window. Nico sat up and yawned in his bed before stretching. He put on his shoes and left the room to go outside. Anne and Bethany were sitting at a picnic table and talking.
"What do you guys think about the whole Henry and Mary thing?" Nico asked.
"I think that kid's insane and that we need to go," Bethany replied.
"We can't leave Hazel behind!" Anne argued.
"We don't even know where she is!" Bethany remarked, "Or if she's even fucking alive! But we may not be for much longer if we stay here! Not to mention the goddamn raiders!"
"No we're not leaving without Hazel and especially since the raiders only found them because of us," Nico replied.
Clementine walked out of the dorms and approached them.
"Are you guys ready to find your friend?" she asked.
"Yeah," Nico replied.
"We're sending you with a heavily armed search party," Clementine explained, "In case you run into those raiders or a herd. They'll be ready to start soon."
"We appreciate the help," Nico replied.
"No problem, I understand how it is to lose someone out there and not know where they are," she replied.
Nico briefly thought about bringing up what AJ did, but decided to wait until they found Hazel.
Logan came out of the dorms with the others who were heavily armed, to say the least.
"You guys really don't fuck around with hostile people do you?" Logan asked.
"We had a bad experience with some in the past," Aasim replied.
They stopped at the gate and waited for Nico. When he finally joined them Logan handed him a knife.
"Alright well let's do this," Logan said.
They began walking and Logan almost immediately noticed the corpse of a full grown man tied to a tree.
"I'm assuming that was one of the raiders," Logan said.
"Uh, yeah," Aasim replied.
They walked through the woods and when they ran into walkers they'd kill them. After a while, they saw a train station at the top of a hill with a crashed car sitting at the bottom of it. They searched the train station and noted tire tracks along with boot prints.
"Well I'd say these are relatively fresh tracks," Logan pointed out, "They haven't been disturbed by the wind yet."
"You're a tracker?" Louis asked.
"No I do have a few skills though," Logan answered.
Shortly after they fell into a silence that was somewhat awkward.
"So how've you guys been surviving?" Logan asked.
"We kinda just stayed at the school the whole time," Violet explained, "It kept us extremely safe for almost a decade. But then the raiders showed up and Marlon who was in charge at the time traded the twins who were here. Then Clem showed up a year later and Marlon planned to trade her to the raiders he got killed by AJ then the raiders showed up and killed Mitch. Clem prepared us, but Mitch was killed then Clem led a team to rescue the kidnapped people. After the boat blew up we got separated and she was bitten and then amputated by AJ."
Logan immediately felt bad for asking them that since it clearly brought up bad memories and immediately decided to not ask about her missing eye.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Logan replied.
"Nah it's fine you asked," Violet said, "That was all two years ago."
"So Clementine sounds like quite the fighter," Logan said.
"Was quite the fighter," Violet corrected him, "The prosthetic she has isn't really professionally made, it's basically just some scraps that could fall apart at any time."
"Wow I understand the whole tying us up in the basement now," Logan chuckled, "But holy shit."
Suddenly they heard the sound of people cheering and got down. Aasim handed both Louis and Logan binoculars. They looked around in sheer awe of the size of the camp. There were at least thirty people with vehicles. Logan saw Gregory standing up on a truck bed giving a speech.
"It seems like he's rallying the troops," Logan told them.
"We're not going to be able to blow that up easily," Willy muttered.
"How about arson," Violet suggested, "Get some gas and pour a trail around there and boom they roast alive."
"Someone I know would love that, but no that's way too brutal," Logan replied, "They are still people."
"We can decide this later we need to go because if we get spotted here we're screwed," Aasim replied.
They got up and scurried back to the school. After dealing with a few walkers they arrived.
"I expected us to be a little unmatched, but holy shit," Violet muttered.
"How'd it go?" Clem asked.
"They have forty people," Louis replied.
"And they've got full on working vehicles," Nico chimed in.
"Yeah that too," Louis said, "There is no way we could possibly win."
"We're going to need some luck," Clementine said, "And bullets."
"But there aren't any more nearby houses that we could get bullets from," Violet argued.
"Looks like we're going into town and getting some supplies," Clementine said.