Chapter 1: World that I used to know (4/4)
"Here we go..."
"Thanks."
"Did it have soup?"
"Hot soup is a nice choice since we just came out of a cold rain, don't you think?"
"I guess."
After basically getting everything they needed from the Save-Lots store and putting everything on the car, Bentley Jones, James Kim, Sophie Juno and Tennessee Earle, continued with their search. Unfortunately, they found nothing and we're eventually forced to retreat back to Bentley's apartment due to the darkness that came with the nightfall and the heavy rain that just got worse as a result. At the moment, the four friends were sitting down, eating some canned tomato soup that James prepared for them.
There was an electric lantern on top of the table that was in front of the couch that they were using to illuminate the living room. In truth, it was dark as hell outside and that was the reason why they came back instead of keeping searching.
"You know, I prefer chicken soup." Bentley commented as he ate a spoonful of soup. He was sitting on his father's chair with his boots off and his coat and shirt on the armchair.
"I don't really like soup, but..." Sophie commented as she ate a spoonful as well. She was sitting at the end of the couch right next to the chair that Bentley was sitting on, with her hoodie on the floor and her shoes off.
"But it tastes good." Tenn said to Sophie as he devoured his soup. He was sitting beside Sophie with his shoes off.
"There were some cans of chicken soup in the car, you should have said so." James spoke in response to Bentley's comment. He was sitting on the floor at the end of the table, right besides the chair where Bentley was.
"Nah, tomato soup is good enough." Bentley wasn't complaining, he was just pointing out. "Besides, there are a lot of cans of tomato soup anyway." He pointed out since whoever filled the box that was in the car, seemed to have a fondness for tomato soup.
"Where did you find the cans anyway?" Sophie asked him.
"They were already in the car." Bentley replied as he ate another spoonful.
"Where did you find the car?" Tenn asked him in confusion.
"I found it... Somewhere..." Bentley doesn't really remember where he found it. "I was running away from a horde of those things until I found the car." Then he remembered what he did afterwards, and remembered something. "Could you guys do me a favor?" Bentley asked the trio.
The three seemed confused.
"Ummm... Sure, what is it?" Sophie asked him with a confused face.
"Does it look too bad?" The blond boy asked as he removed his sleeveless T-shirt.
"Woah!" Tenn widened her eyes in response.
"Jesus Christ!" Sophie reacted in surprise.
"What the hell happened!?" James asked in shock as he stood up to see it closely.
What Bentley just showed his friends was the big bruise on his chest that was caused by the shotgun blast that he took inside of the gas station. Thankfully, the bulletproof vest and the relative distance that the shot came from, saved him from receiving any severe damage. But he still got a big bruise on his chest because of it. Funnily enough, he actually forgot about it but remembered after the gas station came into his mind.
"Long story short, some guy shot me with a shotgun when I was getting gas for the car." Bentley explained as Sophie and James immediately inspected his bruise. "Luckily, I had a bulletproof vest on."
"It looks bad, but I don't think it's that severe." James told him as he touched his chest.
"You should apply some ointment or something." Sophie suggested as he touched his abdomen, since that's what Bentley did with the bruise on her face.
"Can you two stop touching my torso?" Bentley requested since the two kept touching his bruised torso with James was touching his pecs and Sophie was touching his abs, so he got the impression that they were actually feeling his muscles or something.
"Ummm..." James immediately removed his hand, clearly embarrassed, which confirmed Bentley's suspicion.
Sophie, on the other hand, kept touching it. "Are you feeling any pain on the inside?" She asked, indicating that she wasn't touching him for the same reason as James.
"No, I don't have any internal bleeding." Bentley already inspected that after the shot. "It only hurts if you press the skin." He explained as he put his shirt back on.
"You have to be careful, BJ." James told him.
"Definitely, but accidents happen no matter what." Bentley replied as he picked his bowl of soup back and sat on the chair to continue to eat.
Suddenly, the trio heard a thunder coming from outside. Reminding them of the heavy rain outside and they quietly sit down to continue to eat their soups. Bentley could tell that all four of them had the same thing in mind. That the others may be under this rain at the moment, and the thought was quite unpleasant. Despite being equally worried about everyone, it was Clementine that he was the most worried about. He thought about his baseball hat wearing girlfriend, or his semi-girlfriend since they never really made it official. Eating each spoonful slowly, Bentley tried to formulate a plan for how they would search for their friends, but unfortunately, nothing really came to mind. Because they literally could have gone anywhere after the crash and he only found Sophie, James and Tenn by pure luck.
After a minute or two, Bentley finished his bowl. "Thanks for the soup." He told James as he stood up and moved to place the bowl in the kitchen sink.
"You welcome..." James replied as he continued to eat his own bowl.
Once he placed the dirty bowl inside the sink, he grabbed a cup and filled it up with tap water to drink. Still trying to come up with an idea of how they were going to search for the others. Finishing his cup of water, the blond boy saw his little friend entering the kitchen with his own bowl at hand. Placing the empty bowl in the sink, he turned to Bentley and asked. "How did Sophie get her bruise?" The dark skinned boy asked how his step-sister got hurt.
"My neighbor punched her after she refused to hook up with him." Bentley bluntly answered his question.
"What the hell, BJ?!" Sophie also appeared in the kitchen with her empty bowl.
"Wait, seriously?!" James was right behind her with his own empty bowl.
"The creepy fat guy?" Tenn asked as he saw Frederico a few times when he came to Bentley's home to hangout. "What happened?"
"Ummm, Tenn, maybe w-" Sophie tried to change the subject but Bentley continued.
"He basically took her to his apartment and tied her to his bed, but before he could do anything with her, I arrived and saved her." Bentley spoke as he refilled his cup of water.
"Did he try something?" James asked them.
"He tried to kill me with that sword, but I used a lamp to defend myself when he tried to swing at me and managed to tackle him into the floor and bash his face with punches." Bentley gave a summary of his fight with Frederico.
"Did you... kill him?" James asked him.
"No, I just punched his face until it was disfigured and locked him in a room." With the corpse of the grandmother that he apparently killed. "He's probably still there, but I tossed the keys of the doors of his apartment out of the window."
"Ouch..." Tenn cringed in response to what Bentley said.
"Are you sure he can't get out?" Sophie immediately asked him in worry.
"I kind of tied him up with the same rope that he used to tie you up, so..." Bentley assured her.
"Isn't that a little cruel?" James was clearly a little bothered by that.
"I'm pretty sure that what he was going to do with Sophie if I hadn't shown up would have been much more cruel, James." Bentley replied to his Asian friend as he put the cup down.
"BJ is right," Sophie clearly had no sympathy for that perverted murder. "Besides, he is definitely dangerous and it's better to just leave him tied up." She told the boys as she also placed the dirty bowl inside of the sink. "Now, take off your shirt again, I'm going to apply ointment on that bruise of yours." She scarily sounded like Clementine when she said that, because of how much that sounded like an order. And Bentley is half-certain that was the intention.
"Look, the bruise isn't that bad and I really think we should save it if one of the others is actually hurt when we find them." Bentley pointed out.
"It will only be a bit anyway, so I don't see a problem." James told him in response. "Besides, it's not good to leave that kind of bruise unchecked even if you're not feeling anything."
"Come on, BJ." Tenn decided to join in.
Bentley sighed and basically said. "Fine." He accepted.
Bentley, despite still seeing no point in doing that, decided to comply. So he took off his sleeveless T-shirt once again.
Tenn grabbed his shirt to hold it.
"Lay on the couch." Sophie told him.
Bentley then moved back to the living room with James and Tenn following him, before he laid on the couch.
"How does it feel to get shot?" Tenn asked him in curiosity as he looked at the bruise on his chest.
"Remember when Clementine kicked that football ball and it accidentally landed on your belly?" Tenn could only cringe at that unfortunate accident, because it landed on him like hard. "Imagine if the ball was smaller, made of metal and it came at you way harder." By the face that Tenn made in response to what he just said, he apparently understood that it hurted like hell.
"Why was Clementine kicking a football ball?" James asked him since Clementine plays Soccer, despite not necessarily liking it.
"Marlon kind of implied that Clementine couldn't kick a Football as well as she could a Soccer ball and she took it as a personal challenge." Bentley explained while chuckling since he remembered Marlon's face when she proved him wrong.
"Oh yeah..." Sophie, who just appeared in the living room, remembered since she was there and giggled a bit.
"Hey, it's not funny..." Tenn spoke since his belly hurted a lot after the impact.
"Marlon's face was." Sophie clarified what she was giggling about. "You grunting in pain definitely wasn't." She was right, watching Tenn get hurt will never be funny.
Sophie then kneeled down in front of the couch with some bottle of ointment on her hand. Then she picked a bit on her hand and applied on Bentley's torso. Another thunder was heard by them on the outside, which reminded Bentley of something that he wanted to ask them.
"When you guys were running away, did you leave the supplies on the van?" Bentley asked his friends.
"I saw Aasim and Ruby taking that backpack with the medicine inside." Tenn told him.
"I'm pretty sure Marlon and Louis got the bag with the food and supplies inside." James added as he watched Sophie apply the ointment on his chest.
"I saw Vi with that bag of guns that James and Clementine got, she ran away with Minnie." Sophie explained she gently applied the ointment on his abs.
"Only Mitch knows how to drive that Van properly, so if he got back to it..." Bentley pointed out since he tried to drive it once and it was a complete disaster because the Van has a lot of tricks that only Mitch knows about it. "Willy probably ran with Mitch since he always sits on the passenger's seat." He added, and Tenn nodded confirming that was indeed the case.
"So basically, Aasim and Ruby got the meds, Marlon and Louis got the food, Violet and Minerva got the guns, and Mitch and Willy got the van." James pointed out the situation with their friends.
"And we have no idea what is the situation with Clementine, Brody and Omar." Sophie pointed out as well.
"Yeah..." James said.
Bentley could only sigh in response, since he was now even more worried about Clementine. Moving his green eyes to look at James, he decided to ask. "So... What did you and Clem put in that bag of weapons?" He decided to ask, mostly to try to change the subject for now.
"Some pistols, revolvers, shotguns, rifles..." James started to list, but he clearly didn't know the names of the guns. "Some boxes of ammunition and a pair of Walkie-talkies."
Hearing that, caused Bentley to widen his green eyes. "What was that last part?!" He asked him to repeat it.
James was confused. "Some... Boxes of ammunition and a pair of Walkie-talkies..." He repeated.
"Tenn." He moved his head to look at Tenn. "Grab my backpack for me." He requested his little friend while pointing at his backpack which is right behind his father's chair.
Tenn was confused as well, but did what he asked. So he stood up from the ground and moved to grab his backpack, clearly having a bit of difficulty but he brought him the backpack and Bentley wordlessly checked inside the backpack with the trio looking at him with confused faces. Until he actually pulled out a Walkie-talkie from the backpack.
"Do you know the Channel?" He asked James as he showed him the Walkie-talkie.
"I think it was..." James took the Walkie-talkie off his hand in an attempt to try to use it.
"Hello, can anyone hear me..." James tried to speak but another thunder was heard on the outside. "If anyone can hear this, please, respond." He tried to call but no answer.
"Worth a shot, but this rain is probably not good for the signal." Bentley pointed out.
"Do you think it's gonna work better when the rain stops?" Tenn asked him.
"Probably," He laid back on the couch so Sophie could finish. "Maybe we should let it on in case o-" As Bentley spoke, they heard something coming from the Walkie-talkie.
"C- anyo- hear m-!" Suddenly, they heard someone speak from the Walkie-talkie, but there was a lot of interference. "We n-d h-p!"
"That's Minerva!" Sophie recognized her sister's voice despite the interference.
"Minerva!" James immediately tried to talk to her, but there was a lot of static coming from the walkie-talkie. "Are you alright?! Where are you!?" He tried to ask her.
But more interference came out of it, until they heard some words. "H- we're stu- in a -ce call- Buckman's -," They could barely understand what she was saying. "PLE- HELP!" That was the last thing that they heard before they completely lost signal.
"Minnie!" Sophie grabbed the Walkie-talkie and called for her sister. "Minnie!" She tried to call her but they completely lost the signal.
The four of them were justifiably bothered by what they just heard, mostly because of how desperate she sounded. But sadly they could barely understand what she was saying. "Wait?" Except for a single word that Bentley recognized. "Buckman's..." Sophie, James and Tenn looked at him after he said that. "Marlon's dad worked there for a while as bouncer after he retired from boxing." Bentley remembered that, because he once told Bentley and Marlon a story about how he had to fight five guys one night. The reason why he remembered it was because the story was so absurd that it was hilarious. "It's a bar, ten blocks from here."
Sophie immediately stood up. "We gotta go there." The red headed girl said.
"Sophie is right, if Minnie is there and she's in trouble we gotta help her." Tenn agreed with his sister.
Bentley simply stood up from the couch and grabbed his T-shirt, which Tenn was still holding. "Agreed." He was with them on that, since they could be in danger and he was certain that he heard Buckman's. "But I don't think it's a good idea for all of us to go." He was specifically referring to Tenn.
"BJ is right," James agreed with Bentley. "I think it's better that we both go while you two stay here." He suggested as Bentley puts his shirt on and buttons it up completely.
"What?! No way, it's my sister!" But Sophie was immediately against it.
Bentley responded by approaching her ear and whispered. "You want to leave poor Tenn here in deep worry for his sister's safety?" It wasn't really a question, he was just pointing out why it was better for her to stay with him. Sophie simply looked at his eyes in response for a few seconds, until she sighed, indicating that she saw his point. "I'll bring her back to you and Tenn, I promise." The blond boy affectionately touched her shoulder when he said that.
"Okay..." She decided to accept his word as she touched his hand.
Bentley nodded and moved his head to look at James. "Hey, that revolver of yours, let me see it." He requested.
James simply moved towards the floor where the hatchet and the revolver were. He handed the Colt SAA to Bentley. It was completely loaded and he inspected to see the caliber of the gun. .357 Magnum, what a funny coincidence. Bentley thought it was the exact same caliber as the revolver he had. "You got any more bullets?" He asked.
James then reached inside of his pockets, revealing six more .357 Magnum bullets. Bentley immediately grabbed and moved towards his Duster Coat to grab the Ruger Blackhawk that was inside it's pocket. He loaded the bullets into, but instead of putting it back, he handed it to James. "Here, if you have to use one, change to the other once it gets empty because this kind of revolver takes a long time to load."
"BJ, where did you learn to use a gun anyway?" Sophie asked him since his knowledge of them is a little advanced.
"My grandfather was aMarksmanship Instructor in the Military and he won multiple gold medals and championships." His grandfather had a belief that everyone should have at least basic knowledge of firearms. "He taught me how to use all kinds of guns." He handed the two revolvers to James.
Suddenly, another thunder came from outside. With Bentley noticing that James's outfit isn't suited for rain, he moved towards his wardrobe. Where he picked up one of his jackets. "Here, put this on." He tossed him a souvenir jacket that he got from his grandfather's girlfriend. The jacket was white with blue sleeves and the image of a blue dragon on the back.
"Where did you get this jacket?" James asked, clearly liking the jacket.
"My grandfather used to date this Japanese woman that owned a clothing store and she would bring me a bunch of free stuff." His grandfather was quite the womanizer, even in his old age. "Looking good." He gave a thumbs up once James put it on.
Once the jacket was on, James took a deep breath and grabbed the hatchet. "Ready?"
Bentley shaked his head in response before moving to put his Duster Coat, his gloves and his bandana on, before grabbing his knife, his handgun with some extra ammo and his sword. He also put on his thigh pounch with the bombs on. "Now, I'm ready." He decided to leave his backpack there since this will probably be something that requires agility, but he did pick up his flashlight and place it in his coat's pocket. His knife was on his ankle, his handgun was on his hip and his sword was on his back.
Suddenly, Tenn hugged Bentley. "Please be careful." He told him as he returned the hug.
"Get ready to give Minnie a tight hug when I bring her here." He spoke with a load of confidence.
Tenn simply nodded before he moved to hug James.
Sophie then proceeded to hug Bentley as well. "Are you going to be okay here?" He asked her as he returned the hug.
"I got that bow that I brought from that store and that small gun you gave me." Sophie reassured him. "BJ, please bring my sister back." She practically begged him, not that he could blame him because all that he wants right now is to find his friends.
Bentley's response was to simply kiss her in the bruise on her eye and stare deeply into her eyes. "I will."
Sophie just smiled at him before she moved to hug James. "Be careful."
"I will." James replied.
Once the hugs were done, Bentley signaled James to follow him to the door. And he did as he zipped up the jacket. After a few steps, Bentley opened the door for James, and after the two passed through the door frame, Bentley told Sophie. "Lock the door and only open if you hear our voices." He instructed Sophie.
She nodded in response as she hugged Tenn from behind as the two watched as the boys made their way out of the building, until they closed the door and locked.
"You gotta be fucking kidding me..."
After leaving Sophie and Tenn, Bentley and James went to the car and drove all the way to the Buckman's Bar while a thunderstorm was going on. The way there was peaceful enough, only for them to get screwed as soon as they arrived. Because they found out that the whole street was filled with Walkers. More than that horde that he and Sophie saw earlier when they were on their way to find Tenn and James. Thankfully, the way that they used to enter the street had several abandoned cars around, so Bentley quickly drove close to them and turned off the car to blend in, which allowed them to hide themselves as a result.
"There's gotta be a thousand or more." James pointed out in a low voice as he and Bentley kept their heads down.
"More than a thousand seems more likely." The light that came from the thunder allowed them to see the horde and they couldn't see the end of them.
"Where is this Buckman's Bar anyway?" James asked as he was visibly frightened by the sight of the absurd amount of Walkers.
"Right there..." He pointed at a building where there was a sign with a big and ugly caricature of the owner of the bar, but it was damaged so they couldn't see it properly.
"Seriously?" The place was located right around the middle of the giant horde. "How are we going there?" The boy wearing a Souvenir jacket asked.
The blond boy had to look around in order to come up with a plan. Looking through the windshield as the heavy rain fell on top of it. A distraction won't work, it's too many of them. He could have James distract them with the car, but he highly doubts that it will attract all of them. Pushing through would be suicide. If it was just a small number, they could do it but with that many. Nothing around we can use. Moving his head to look around him, he was unable to see anything that they could use, but Bentley did see the open door on his right. "Hmmm..." Bentley then wondered if there was a backdoor that may lead to the other street where it might be less crowded. "Maybe we can get through from the other block." He suggested to James while pointing at the door.
"Worth a shot, but we don't know what is on the building." James told him. "Is that... Bakery?"
"Only one way to find out." Bentley said before signalling his friend to get out of the car.
James nodded before grabbing his hatchet and opening the passenger's seat. Once he got out of the car, Bentley followed behind him, getting out through the passenger's seat. Closing the door behind him and running towards the entrance of what it seemed to be a bakery. The rain was cold as hell, so they wasted no time in getting under a roof. It was dark inside, so Bentley pulled out the flashlight and used it to illuminate the area.
Bentley then closed the door and he inspected the area using his flashlight. With James looking around to see if there's any of them inside. Thankfully, it was empty.
"Ohh... Cake..." But there were a lot of really nice looking cakes on display. The one that caught his attention was a frosting strawberry cake that was on top of the counter that was already cut into pieces.
"Seriously?" James asked with a quiet laugh as Bentley removed his glove, grabbed a piece of the cake with his left hand and devoured a piece of it.
"Whaeit?" Bentley asked with his mouth full of frosting. "Dessert." He said after swallowing and eating another piece.
"Was this a birthday cake?" James asked as he also grabbed a slice for himself.
"Nah, It's a graduation cake." Bentley pointed out as he ate the second slice of cake.
"How do you know?" James asked after swallowing his slice.
Bentley grabbed a piece of paper that was right besides the cake that was written: For Tara's graduation. And showed it to James.
"Oh..." James seemed a little guilty of eating Tara's cake, but Bentley really didn't see the point of feeling bad about it since poor Tara probably won't get to graduate. "Ummm...BJ, we're wasting time." He reminded Bentley that they had a task at hand.
"Yeah..." He ate his piece of cake and quickly put his hard knuckle glove back on. Moving his head, he saw a door right over the counter, that Bentley assumed to be the backdoor. "There." The blond boy signalled his friend to the door.
The boys then proceed to jump over the counter in order to reach the door. But as soon as Raziel touched the door, he heard some noise coming from the other side, so he signalled to James to be quiet before he crouched down and slowly opened the door to check. Opening a very small gap in the door, he saw that it lead to the kitchen of the bakery. Shit... Bentley thought as he saw a Walker eating a corpse. But he only saw one, so he lifted his index finger to signal James that there was one inside. James nodded and Bentley slowly opened the door in order to sneak inside and take the Walker from behind. James went ahead with the hatchet at hand in order to do it himself.
It only took a few seconds for his friend to close the distance and shove the hatchet on the Walker's skull.
"Nice one." Bentley praised James in a low voice as he looked around the kitchen for any more of them. The kitchen was relatively messy, but it was probably because they were in the middle of service when the Walkers appeared. After looking around for a bit, he found the backdoor of the building. "Come on." Bentley said to his friends. But the moment he moved his head to look at James, he noticed him looking at the corpse that the Walker was eating.
It was a guy around his early twenties, his face was disfigured, probably because the Walker ate parts of it. He was wearing a cooking apron, indicating that he worked there.
"James?" Bentley approached his friend from behind. "What's wrong?" He touched his shoulder affectionately.
James moved his head to look at him and Bentley saw that he had a sad face. "It's just..." He seemed reluctant to talk about it. "He... Kind of looks like Charlie." Charlie was the name of James's older brother, who took care of James after their father died.
Bentley made a very confused face in response. Moving his head to look at the corpse, a completely ripped apart body of some poor guy. Until he widened his gray-green eyes in deep shock. "You mean..." Was Charlie ripped apart by Walkers?!
James only looked at him with tears in his eyes, confirming his brother's fate. Bentley's response was to immediately hug James tightly. "I think... He tried to hide inside of the... Food truck... But they got in..." James told him as he returned the hug and sobbed on Bentley's shoulder.
"Shhhh..." Bentley shushed him as he caressed his hair. "I get it... I get it..." He spoke in a very soothing tone to his grieving friend. But sadly, he knew that they didn't have time to waste, so he reluctantly told James. "James," He held his cheeks and looked into his eyes and pressed his forehead into his. "I'm here for you, but we have to get moving." Violet and Minerva could be in danger and there were more than a thousand Walkers in the street.
James heard him, and held his wrists in response. "Okay... Okay..." He replied to him.
"Okay." Bentley wiped the tears off his eyes with his thumbs.
But, out of nowhere, James moved his head forward and pressed his lips into Bentley's. He was surprised but barely reacted to the action, until James realized what he just did and pulled back. "I-I-I'm sorry!" Immediately, he started to apologize in desperation. "I didn't mea-" The Asian boy tried to explain himself.
But Bentley simply covered his mouth and said. "It's okay..." It really was, since he just lost his brother and was probably overwhelmed with everything that is going on. And Bentley is aware that James is probably still in love with him. "I understand, but we are still in a very dangerous place and we have to keep moving." He gently explained to James, clearly not bothered by what he just did.
"Ummm... Y-yeah..." James replied after Bentley removed his hand from his mouth. Wiping the rest of his tears, he seemed very ashamed of what he just did.
"Hey," So Bentley touched his shoulder once again. "Don't be ashamed, as I told you once, if I was into guys, I would definitely give you a shot but unfortunately I'm straight as this sword on my back and I'm hopelessly in love with Clementine Everett." He repeated what he said to James after he confessed that he was in love with Bentley. "Now, we really need to go back to try to get to the bar." The blond boy pointed at the door.
"Yeah, you're right." James seemed to have regained his focus. "Let's get going."
"Come on, buddy." Bentley called him with a smile and James also smiled before he followed him.
The boy wearing a duster coat and the boy wearing a souvenir jacket, made their way to the back door of the bakery. With Bentley listening through the door to see if she heard anything on the other side. The only noise that he heard was the noise of rain falling down. So Bentley slowly opened the door and saw that it actually led to a back alley. Thankfully, he saw no Walkers. So he placed the flashlight inside of his coat's pocket and signalled James to follow him.
Once again, the two of them were under the heavy rain. But they wasted no time in making their way through the empty back alley that had nothing but trash in it. Running through the alley as the loud thunder came from the sky. However, sadly, they arrived at the end of the back alley that led back to the street. A one way street that leads to the other block. But thankfully, the horde wasn't moving there, and they could see the beginning of another alley that did lead to the back of the bar. Looking at the corner, he saw that the horde was dangerously close, thankfully, the streets were dark enough, but the thunder illuminated the area when they came.
Bentley then looked at the sky and counted. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Then he saw the thunder had an interval of seven seconds. "When the next thunder comes we have until the count of seven to get there ." He informed James while pointing at the other side as the rain soaks the two. He nodded and Bentley prepared to run.
...
...
...
...
The moment the thunder came, both boys ran as fast as they could to get on the other side. One, two, three, four, five, six... Luckily, they arrived at the other back alley before the light of the thunder revealed their presence.
"Come on, we're almost there." The soaked boy moved forward. With James following behind him.
Running through the back alley, the two eventually arrived at the back alley. Only to see a bunch of Walkers from a distance devouring a corpse right next to the back of the bar.
Bentley responded by pulling the upper end of the scabbard on his back over his left shoulder and pulling the sword out with his right hand. "Watch my back." He told James as he approached the Walkers.
There were four Walkers eating the corpse. Bentley stabbed the nearest one on the back of the head. The second moved it's rotting face to look at him but he responded by chopping his head in half. The third one tried to grab him, but he responded by grabbing it by the neck and hitting his face with the pommel of the sword, three times, hard. The fourth one, James put the hatchet through it's skull.
"Nice one, James." Bentley commented as he let the rain clean the blade before he put it back on his back.
"No backdoor." James pointed out, since there was nothing but a wall at the back of the Buckman's Bar.
"No, but there's a back window." Bentley pointed out, while pointing at a small window right next to the wall before the wall of the other building. "Come on." He wasted no time in moving to get under the window and out his hands together in order to help James get up there.
James immediately saw what he wanted him to do and made his way towards Bentley. Placing his foot on Bentley's hand, before he helped him climb up to the window. He tried to open but. "It's locked." He informed him as another thunder came from the sky.
"One, two, these four," Bentley started to count, and fortunately, James understood and immediately prepared to hit the window with the hatchet. "Five, Six, Seven." Another loud thunder came and James smashed the window open with the back of the hatchet. "Careful with the broken glass." He warned his friend.
"It's a bathroom, and it's empty." James informed Bentley as he passed through the window.
"You sure?" Bentley asked just to be sure.
"Yeah." James said as he entered.
"Okay, here I come." Bentley warned him as he took three steps back, before charging towards the wall and stepping on to create an impulse that allowed him to reach the window. Passing through it just like James did. "Fuck..." The bathroom had an excruciating unpleasant smell of piss .
"I wanted to get out of the rain, but this isn't really a good trade off." James semi-joked as he pinched his nose.
"Yeah..." Bentley agreed as he pulled the flashlight from his coat's pocket and illuminated the place.
The bathroom was clearly a man's bathroom since it only had one toilet stall and a lot of urinals. It was quite dirty and didn't seem like it had been clean in a while.
Slowly, they approached the door and Bentley placed his ear on in an attempt to hear anything. He actually hears a strange noise coming from outside, so he pulled out his combat knife and held it in a reverse grip like always. James noticed that and he also held the hatchet tightly. Quietly, he opened the door of the bathroom to see what was on the other side. Only to catch the horrible sight of the horde roaming outside through the door and windows of the bar. Immediately, he turned off his flashlight. "Large windows in the front." He warned James.
"Dammit..." He immediately responded in a very low voice. "Any sign of Vi or Minnie?" He asked.
"No." He responded as he tried to look at the place without the flashlight. Luckily, the light from the thunder allowed him to see it properly and apparently, there was some blood on the floor. Please don't be Vi or Minnie's blood. Bentley practically begged before he had an idea of how to check the place without being seen. He laid on his stomach on the dirty floor and prepared to crawl. "Count to seven at each thunder and play dead on seven." He instructed James.
James nodded. "Where do you get these ideas?" He asked.
"No idea." That was his response as the thunder came and he went out of the bathroom in a leopard crawl.
The bar itself was relatively spacious but shitty looking, the bathrooms were at the end of a small corridor, but Bentley looked back as he saw James also crawling out in a one-leg crawl and noticed that there was only one bathroom. Ewww... That was his opinion before the two dropped on the floor, playing dead as the thunder came. Once it came and went, the two continued to crawl in passing through the small corridor before the next thunder arrived and they played dead again. Eventually they arrived at the main area of the bar where they saw a counter, several tables and stalls. Fortunately, there were none of them inside, but there was some blood on the floor. Please don't be Vi or Minnie's blood. That was his only wish as he played dead with James once again. There were an absurd amount of them outside, and thankfully, they didn't notice that they were actually fresh. Something I managed to figure out about them is that, The Walkers seem to have good hearing and smell but poor eyesight. This functions as a double-edged sword in my opinion, on one hand, Walkers are drawn to gunfire and thus we must be careful about the use of firearms, but on the other hand, it is possible to sneak around them provided you stay out of sight and don't attract attention. Which is why Bentley has avoided using firearms against them, ironically, he mostly used them against people. After another thunder came, the two boys kept on moving, scanning the area for any sign of their friends, as they did, Bentley noticed that the main door was completely blocked with chairs and tables. Then he moved his head again and noticed that there were some stairs at the other end of the counter. With the corridor that leads to the bathroom being on the left end and the stairs being on the right end. Subtle, he pointed at the stairs to James before playing dead again. Once the light came and went, Bentley crawled towards the stairs before climbing it and reaching the middle of the stairs which was out of sight from the windows. As soon as another thunder came, James did the same and the two immediately climbed to the top without making noise.
"That was intense." James told him in a low voice.
"Don't say that because it could get worse later." Bentley said in return.
On the top of the stairs there was only a wooden door on their left. James immediately tried to open it, but it was locked. Then he tried to knock on the door to see if there was anyone inside. But Bentley grabbed his hand and signalled him to stay quiet because any minimal noise could mean their demise. So Bentley actually grabbed the flashlight from his coat's pocket and proceeded to make a stand behind him and he placed the flashlight on the floor right at the bottom of the door and started to turn it on and off in a pattern to signal anyone that could be inside. While James basically blocks the path way of the stairs to make sure the light doesn't get in the way.
Luckily, it worked, since they could hear small steps coming from inside. Turning off his flashlight and placing back on his pocket, Bentley smiled at James as they heard the door being unlocked. Only for the person behind to open it and immediately point a Over/Under shotgun at Bentley. "You fucker!" Someone yelled that at him before trying to shoot him, only for Bentley to actually grab the barrel and push to the side as it fired it loudly. Leaving everyone stunned by the very loud noise.
"Ahh... Shit..." Bentley cursed as he was suffering from Tinnitus, due to the loud noise. While his ears were suffering from the noise of roaring, buzzing, or hissing, he actually took a good look at who tried to shoot him, only to see that it was actually Minerva. "Fuck, Minnie." He cursed his redhead friend in response to what just happened. But then he moved his head to look at the stairs and saw something horrible, glass falling on the floor, which means that they just broke down the windows because of the noise. "Ah shit..." Wasting no time, he grabbed James who was standing at the end of the stairs and pushed Minnie inside with his right hand while simultaneously pulling James inside before closing the door behind them.
Thanks everyone for reading this chapter, your support means everything to me.
As always, Q and A:
Question:
Could you maybe list the big diferences between Rick and Bentley?
Strange question, but okay: (I'm gonna point out what differentiate Bentley from Rick.)
Physically: Bentley used to be a Jock before the apocalypse happened, so he is in excellent physical shape.
Intelligence: Bentley has above average intelligence and a wide variety of knowledge in scientific subjects.
Skills: Bentley has a wide variety of different skills that he learned from the people around him, so he is much more prepared to deal with certain situations.
Leadership: Bentley is a charismatic leader, who uses his communication skills, persuasiveness, and charm to influence others.
Combat: Bentley is a skilled combatant. Being able to use most firearms with effectiveness. He is also good at using most melee weapons but having a preference for blades. He's also a skilled brawler. But what makes him dangerous in a fight is his ability to improvise.
Now Bentley and Sophie are reunited with two others, Tenn and James who are understandably astounded to see Bentley alive. Hope they get some good supplies from the store, they are going to need it. So they probably head back to the apartment until things settle down, have plenty to talk about no doubt. They might have a good shot of running into Minerva given she give up on Tenn or Sophie and Violet is likely to be with her.
I'm not sure about the others though, they could either be heading up into Macon, or Hershel's farm where Kenny and his family might be.
I guess Bentley and his group will end up in the prison eventually which I'm sure Lee Everett is at, there's no telling where the Atlanta group is going to be. Perhaps that's how Bentley ends up in conflict with the Governor, I doubt Bentley is fan of people as twisted as the Governor given what Bentley did to twisted psychopath like Federico.
When Negan sees Bentley, I suspect he will both glad and a bit uncomfortable. Glad that he has his favorite student back, and at the same time having someone from his past before he was the mighty feared founder and leader of the Saviors. Given that Bentley knew Lucille, I suspect the topic of talking about her will be a sensitive matter for Negan.
Will Alvin Jr be included in this?
You are right but sadly, Minnie and Violet were stuck and now BJ and James are equally stuck but slightly worse now.
We'll see...
Yes, let's just say that , BJ earns the Govenator's wrath after he puts Penny down.
Definitely.
Yes. (AJ has already been born here, and let's just say that his possible father, Willian Carver will be a problem later.)
Obrigado pelo capítulo incrível Autor-San!
De nada
The story is simple. but full of details By the time they're all together, there should be 4 more episodes.
-Sophia now has a Compound bow, who will be the tank in the team?
-Will there be a scene to show the head?
-Who is suitable to play the role of Bentley?
I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!
I'm trying to write like an episode of the TV-show.
If you mean the muscle, that would be Marlon.
What?
That's actually pretty complicated to decide.
Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow!
Glad Goldilocks found more of his friends
Shame he lost his shotgun and gas mask but again outweighed by him finding more of his friends
Now I assumed Shane would be running things in what would have been Ricks group but givin what a mess his leadership would likely be yeah don't see that group doing so hot
With Negan I was actually kinda hoping that when Bentleys group come across him and the saviours Bentley would pretty much immediately naturally slide into the role of Negan's right hand man and heir essentially so not so much Negan turns Bentley into his Vader but more Bentley just kinda naturally assumes that role
As for his group they to also assume senior positions in the Saviours
Since Bentley was close with Lucille to hope when he learns of her passing he and Negan open up two cans of beer to toast her that is of course if she still actually died in this
Yeah when it comes to characters from the show the ones I'm eager to see Bentley interact and share scenes with are Negan and Maggie
Also glad that Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss peeked your interest let me know then as soon as you've watched them
He hates that nickname because his hair qualifies as Goldilocks.
The shotgun would have been useful, but thankfully, he found a replacement.
Shane is too hot-headed and has a tendency of lashing out, not to mention that he hardly ever takes responsibility for his mistakes.
He doesn't know if Goldilocks has what it takes, only after he takes down Simon, is that Negan gets the proof that he needs.
The Saviours don't like them at first, because they get special treatment right away, is only after they prove themselves that they are actually respected.
He does that as soon as he finds out how she died.
Two Previews for you then:
{
Negan: Now, let's talk about how you will repay me for what you did specifically. (Points Lucille at David.)
David: What the hell are you talking about? I thought we already settled that!
Negan: Oh, we settled the debt that your people got with me for killing several of my people. (Points at Bentley and Clementine, who were watching everything from the window.) Now, we need to settle massive debt you just got yourself into when you stabbed my Goldilocks and punched my Princess Charming.
(The shirtless Bentley with bandages over his torso and Clementine, with a black eye, simply watched as Negan intimidated David.)
David: I... I don't...
Negan: (Pulls out a knife) You know, I fucking love those two as if they were my own kids, and watching them hurt like that because of you, is really something that I consider... unacceptable.
David: (Frowned in response) Get it over with.
(Bentley simply placed his head on his girlfriend shoulder as they watched David Garcia try to act tough.)
Negan: Good idea, bring him please.
(Two Saviors drag Gabriel Gracie towards the two.)
David: What are doing!?
Negan: Putting through the same thing you put me through.
}
{
Maggie: Listen, I understand but...
BJ: Why the hell are you making such a big deal our of this? Your father and I had a deal, I'm just honoring it.
Maggie: It's just... I really don't feel comfortable anymore, not after what happened. Beth doesn't think the farm is safe anymore an-
BJ: I'm gonna be very honest with you. This farm is doomed to fall apart eventually. The area surrounding the place is just to wide, and if a horde approaches, you will have nowhere to run and by what I saw, none of you, other than Otis, really can fight. So if hostile survivors find the place, you will all be in deep trouble.
Maggie: And where will you guys to then?
BJ: There's a motel at Macon that we can use as a temporary base to get through the Winter. There's a group of people staying there that offered us shelter in exchange of supplies. After that, we will move out.
Maggie: Where?
BJ: Doesn't matter.
Maggie: Why don't you guys spend the winter here?
BJ: Camping outside? No thanks.
Maggie: I can talk to my father for you guys to stay in the house.
BJ: Hah! Good luck with that.
}
I will.