Author's Notes: I am still alive, sorry if this chapter seems a little rushed after the last chapter was only around 1k words I felt like I owed you more and so here it is! Things are going to get intense soon and those chapters will be however long they need to be. Also I've been planning for this to have Story Arcs that will be 12 Chapters each. And we are currently halfway through this one so expect some rising tension, more Militia backstory, and action in the next few parts. And feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.
"None of us have been there before, it's not safe!" Violet argued.
"Well unless you see guns and ammo just laying around in the little cabins we have searched then we have to," Clementine replied, "It's still early we'll go soon."
"Wait, we?" Louis asked.
"Yeah, we," Clem replied, "We're heading out in ten minutes."
Logan and Nico saw Anne and Bethany and walked over to them.
"Is it as bad as everyone says it is?" Anne asked.
"Yeah," Logan muttered.
"We can do it," Nico said, "We just need to have faith."
"Well if we find guns I'll feel much more confident," Logan chuckled.
"What ever happened to your other knife?" Anne asked.
"Remember when we were passing through a bridge on our way out of some town and walkers swarmed us? I was knocked over by a few and my knife fell into the river," Logan replied, "It was a matching set too."
"Am I the only one that thinks we should be more cautious about going into a town with people that we don't know who could try and kill us?" Nico asked.
"They could've done it here if they wanted to," Logan replied.
"Alright time to go," Clementine called.
The people who were going walked over to Clem. Willy had decided to stay behind since he was only fourteen so it was just Clem, Logan, Louis, Aasim, Violet, and Nico who were going. They left the courtyard and went into the woods with Willy shutting the gate behind them.
"So how far away is the town?" Logan asked.
"About fifteen miles," Louis replied.
"It's going to take us six hours if we don't run there," Logan exclaimed.
"Well we don't have vehicles so I don't know what you expected," Violet scoffed.
"I could try to hotwire a car if we find one," Logan replied.
"Wait, you can do that?" Clem asked.
"Well I'm no expert but yeah," Logan replied.
After two hours of walking and awkward silence they made it to the highway and saw no intact cars in sight. There was just a really bad car accident with all the cars involved absolutely destroyed.
"Shit," Louis moaned, "I honestly thought that we would catch a break by finding a car."
"There's still hope still ten miles before we get to the town," Nico replied.
They continued their long trek to reach town their hopes of finding a working vehicle that still had gas fading with each passing minute. Clem's prosthetic was clearly starting to hinder her ability to walk. And who could blame her? The prosthetic was made shittily like it was made by that eight year old kid which it partly was.
"We can take a break if you want Clem," Louis said.
"I'm fine there's no time to waste. We need those guns," Clem replied.
"Let one of us carry you then," Louis suggested.'
"I can walk just fine," Clem muttered.
"A little backup guys?" Louis asked.
"I'm going to have to agree with Louis, Clem," Logan replied.
"Yeah me too," Nico added.
Louis picked up her arms and Logan grabbed her foot and shitty prosthetic and they continued on. Nico and Violet started talking while increasing the gap between the two groups.
"What I wouldn't give to not have to worry about walkers," Logan said, trying to initiate a conversation.
"I feel that," Louis chuckled.
"Do you guys think this is ever going to end?" Logan asked.
"I'd say when they get so decomposed that they can't walk, but considering it's been around ten years and they are still not decomposed enough I honestly don't know," Louis answered.
"Hey guys we found an intact car!" Violet called.
"Hooray!" Louis cheered.
They carefully let go of Clementine and walked over to the car. Logan tried the door and to his surprise it was unlocked. He popped out the steering column and took out a bundle of wires.
"If only we had pliers then I could do a much better job but it should work," Logan muttered as he started stripping the tips of the wires with his knife. He wrapped the tips of the blue and red wire together then moved his attention to the brown wire.
"Please work," Logan mumbled.
He fiddled with the brown wire scrapping it and the car sputtered to life.
"Fuck yeah!" Logan chuckled, "Let's go!"
They all piled into the SUV and took off down the road.
"Damn that went better than I thought it would," Logan said, still chuckling as he accelerated the car, "Also roll down the windows we aren't using the air conditioning we need to save gas."
"It's been forever since I've been in a car!" Louis exclaimed.
"I'd really love to find solar panels so we can get a cd player working and listen to music," Logan said, "But finding solar panels at this point is pretty much impossible."
They talked and laughed and occasionally flew to the side as Logan swerved the car to avoid walkers. In the distance they saw the outline of buildings with the afternoon sun shining down. Logan slowed the car to a stop and maneuvered it so it was facing the way they came and turned it off after he closed the windows.
"Let's all meet back here in twenty minutes," Clem instructed.
Logan, Nico, and Louis went to the east while the others went to the west.
"Man I am so fucking impressed with that hotwiring shit," Louis said.
"Thanks," Logan replied.
"Now if only we had a therapist because we definitely all need one since growing up in an apocalypse certainly doesn't keep your mental health intact," Louis replied.
"Like that little kid that shot our friend?" Logan asked.
"Hey, he was born after the world went to shit what the hell were you expecting?" Louis asked.
"For him to not almost kill our friend. He's killed one of your friends hasn't he?" Nico asked, "Some kid named Marlon?"
"Look I get it he's Clem's kid, but from what we heard he just kinda got shot and you all forgave him," Nico replied, "Wasn't he going to kill some woman on a ship if she hadn't stopped him? It doesn't really seem like he learned a lesson after that if you ask me."
"Alright Nico you may be taking this too far," Logan interrupted.
"No I'm not if anything I'm saying it a hell of a lot less far than I should be," Nico replied.
"Nico do not mess this up for us especially when we still need their help to get Hazel and Ruby to fix Mary and Henry," Logan growled.
"Let's just get the stuff," Louis muttered.
They walked in an awkward silence as they went into a building and searched the cupboards and cabinets. Logan found a duffel bag and put it on the table. After some scrounging around Nico had managed to find some canned food and put it in the bag. They heard the sound of creaking but shrugged it off as the floors since no one had stood on them for a while.
Clem, Violet, and Aasim weren't having as much luck when they were scavenging. Most of the buildings they had come across were infested with walkers and too dangerous. They found an old Walmart and decided to go in. There were big holes in the ceiling with sunlight shining down which provided the only light in the store. A few walkers were ambling towards the old toy section.
"We should be able to find some guns near the back," Clem whispered.
They started to tiptoe towards the gun section carefully. When they passed the food aisles they saw that all the non perishable food was long gone. As they came to the back of the store Violet found a backpack with supplies in it that looked like it had been recently dropped judging from the lack of dust on it.
"We're not the only ones that were here today," Violet whispered.
"Let's stay focused, we're so close to the guns," Aasim murmured.
They reached the guns and had noticed that surprisingly there were still quite a few.
"Hey Aasim can you look around for a duffel bag for all this?" Clem asked.
"Sure thing," Aasim replied.
While Aasim searched for a duffel bag Clem started to inspect the guns.
"I think we may have just hit the jackpot," Clem smirked.
After a few minutes Aasim returned slightly bloodied from a few walkers he killed.
"Alright let's load 'em up," Aasim said.
They began filling up the bag with the rifles and pistols as well as some holsters Aasim picked it up. As they began to leave they heard an agonizing scream from the other side of the store.
"Holy shit, Jeff!" a man screamed.
"What the fuck?" Violet asked.
"There's a person!" Aasim replied.
The echo of gunshots came from the electronics section leading them to rush over there. They were almost there when walkers started pouring through the isles attracted to the gunshots. A bunch of them split off from the rest upon spotting them.
"Fuck we're going to have to leave them," Aasim shouted.
Clementine spotted a fire exit and led them towards it. Once they got out they immediately decided to head back to the car.
Louis had opened a door into a closet while the roof caved in and walkers dropped down.
"Fuck!" Logan choked coughing on the dust.
Louis was knocked down but quickly got up and bashed one on the head with his chair leg with nails. Logan threw a couple out the window before stabbing the one sneaking up on Nico.
"Screw this let's go!" Louis shouted.
They almost reached the door but because of all the pressure from the walkers dropping in the floor below them caved in. They scrambled to get up as the walkers approached them and scurried out the door. Louis slammed it shut as Logan and Nico got out.
"Let's get back to the car," Logan coughed.
Once they were on the street they could see the number of walkers that had come through the hole in the ceiling through the windows.
"Well that was eventful to say the least," Louis tried to chuckle.
"Easy for you to say damn it I landed on a goddamn metal table when the floor gave up!" Logan retorted.
"Hopefully the others did better than us," Nico said trying to change the subject, "All of that for a few cans of peaches and beans."
Louis took out a can and looked at it.
"Kinda looks like a younger Clem doesn't it?" Louis asked, showing them the image on the front of the can.
"Damn it actually does," Logan replied.
Nico facepalmed as Logan and Louis continued to talk.
"But honestly though I think the best Star Wars movie is Revenge of the Sith," Logan said.
"You're kidding right?" Louis replied, "The best is clearly The Empire Strikes Back,"
"Dude the Order Sixty-Six scene though," Logan argued.
"But Darth Vader cut off Luke's hand!" Louis refuted.
"Everyone can have their own opinion, but yours is wrong," Logan replied.
They made it back to the car and Logan got it ready to be turned on for when Clem's group got back. Louis sat in the trunk space taking a quick glance at Nico sitting in the passenger seat before shifting his gaze back to the street. Eventually they spotted Clem and the others. Logan got the car to start up and drove over to them.
"So your trip was successful," Louis chuckled.
"It was fine until we encountered other people," Violet replied.
"Wait hold on other people?" Nico asked.
"Can we discuss this when we're driving away from the possibly hostile people?" Logan asked.
They got in and dropped the stuff behind them to where Louis was sitting who rearranged it and made himself comfortable. Logan sped off down the road not wasting a second at getting away from the other people.
"We had just found the guns and got them all packed up, but then some guy started screaming and another started shooting and then a whole bunch of walkers poured out so we left," Violet explained.
"Well I mean at least they didn't see you," Logan replied.
"That's good how?" Violet questioned in a sarcastic manner.
"Well what if they got and are with the Militia," Logan replied, "It would be pretty fucking bad if they saw you. Especially with those guns."
Logan turned on the headlights since the sun was almost down.
"Well we got guns, ammo, and a bit of food I'd say we're pretty good," Louis said.
"Oh shit!" Logan gasped as he quickly turned off the headlights and drove ten feet into the woods before stopping.
"What the fuck!?" Louis asked.
"There are other fucking cars coming down the road!" Logan exclaimed.
They turned and saw that he was right, a fleet of black trucks with three silver rings on them were passing them along with some people on motorcycles trailing behind. They all got done as one of them slowed to a stop and scanned the horizon. A Walker came and he quickly sped up to rejoin the others.
"Fuck," Louis sighed with relief.
"Was that even the Militia?" Violet asked.
"No the Militia's symbol was like a skull with a sword through the side," Nico answered.
"So who the fuck were they?" Logan asked.
"I don't know but let's not wait around to find out," Clem replied.
They got the car back on the road and resumed their journey to the school. After a couple minutes they onto the little side road that led to the school. They parked the car a little way out so they wouldn't scare everyone with it. Willy opened the gate once he saw them.
"You guys did it," Willy exclaimed with a smile.
"I'm honestly surprised too," Louis chuckled.
Everyone glared at him.
"What? It's a joke!" Louis said.
Logan and Aasim took the stuff into the admin building and dumped it in Clem's office before grabbing some food. They all sat down at a picnic table and started eating.
"So what was your haul?" Aasim asked Logan.
"Uh some cans of peaches and beans," Logan replied.
"And on the can of peaches is a picture that Louis and Logan insists looks like Clementine," Nico added.
They all laughed. Once they finished up with their meal everyone went to their rooms.
"That honestly took longer than I thought it would," Logan said while taking off his shoes.
"Well it wouldn't have if you didn't drive so slow on the way back," Nico argued.
"Well I'm sorry that I wanted to save fuel so we wouldn't have to walk for five hours," Logan rebutted.
"Whatever man, see you in the morning," Nico muttered rolling over.