- I don't know about you, but this drugstore is not a permanent solution.
Kenny said after a while, drawing people's attention to himself.
- What do you suggest?
Carley asked, leaning on the counter near the door.
- We need gas. Then we can get out of Downtown Macon, fast.
He said, crossing his arms and leaning his back on the counter next to Katjaa.
- I can get out and get gas.
The young man in the cap said, and Kenny looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
- There is a motel not far from here. I'll work my way there and then I'll come back, scavenging what I can.
- Are you going alone? With those things outside? The slow ones, I understand, but the running ones...
Lee said, scratching the back of his head.
The young man looked at him for a while, a little uncertain, even with a spark of fear in his eyes, which made Lee sigh.
- I can do it, I'm fast, I can get in and out of dangerous situations fast.
He said.
- I don't doubt it, the point is, those things are fast too. And they can run for longer than you can. I can go with you, give you cover in case something happens.
Lee said, looking at the boy, who was a little nervous, anxious perhaps.
- Look, I don't know if you guys have noticed, but the world is ending out there. There are more things for you to worry about than me. Jesus, if I wanted to go out and kill everyone I meet, I would have done it the moment I walked in here.
Lee said, a little irritated.
And it was understandable, especially for Ed, who was staring quietly ahead.
Those hesitant, slightly frightened and even suspicious looks toward Lee had been lingering for a long time. There were more dangerous things than him out there. Things they should be more worried about.
Besides, no one seemed to look the same way at that old man, who literally tried to shoot a child.
- Hah, is that supposed to make us feel empathy for you, Everett?
The old man said, and Lee rolled his eyes.
- Shut the fuck up!
Kenny grunted, looking at the old man in anger.
- Don't you get it? He's trying to get you to trust him, to let your guard down. And at the first moment, he's going to kill you!
The old man just ignored Kenny.
- Oh, for fuck's sake!
Kenny complained angrily.
- And what are you doing, old man? Trying to turn people against him, thinking we'll magically forget that you pulled a gun on my son?! You're as dangerous as you think Lee is, I don't know why we haven't thrown you out yet!
Kenny said, feeling Katjaa gently grab his arm in an attempt to calm him down, and stop him from making a thoughtless move.
- Are you crazy, asshole? Don't try to throw him out of here!
Lilly said, standing next to the man.
- See, and his daughter is covering up what he did. There are more dangerous things than Lee right now.
Kenny said, rolling his eyes.
- We shouldn't have opened those doors.
Lilly grumbled, putting her hands on her waist.
- But we did, now enough of this discussion. There are more important things at risk here.
Carley said, turning to the young man in the cap.
- Glenn, I think Lee should go with you, you'll have someone to help you. He's the one with the shotgun, and well... I would go with you, but look at him, and look at me. He's twice my size.
Carley said gently, and Glenn alternated his gaze between them for a while, until he sighed in defeat.
- Okay, fine... I wouldn't know how to act if I found one of those things alone, anyway.
He accepted, and looked at Lee, who nodded in his direction.
- Okay, all right then. The rest of us can go back to trying to get into that pharmacy.
Lilly said, looking somewhat mockingly at Lee, still angry that he had punched her father, and then pointed to the room next to her, with shelves still untouched with various types of medicine.
- Are you trying to get something?
Diana asked, getting up, putting Clementine down, and walking a few steps toward Lilly.
- What does this have to do with you?
Lilly asked, looking at the woman with a certain displeasure.
- My wife is a doctor, but you are right. It has nothing to do with her, so she doesn't need to help.
Ed said, crossing his arms and returning the mocking look to Lilly, who slightly widened her eyes.
- They don't seem so willing to kick us out now, do they?
He asked wryly, looking at Clementine, who had her back to him, but he could see where the girl was looking, and couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable.
Although he understood why the girl was staring at Lee, he was the one who had saved her.
- No, wait... my father has a heart condition, it's under control at the moment, but we've been trying to get into that room since we got here.
Lilly said, softening her expression and looking at Diana.
- Nitroglycerin pills?
Diana asked.
- Yes. We still have some left, but they won't last long.
Lilly said.
- And why should we help the guy who almost shot my son? No, I want to understand this shit, are we really considering not only helping him, but letting him stay with us?
Kenny asked, somewhat indignantly, and looked at Diana.
- Especially you, he said the girl was infected too. Imagine what he would do to her.
Kenny said, and Diana bowed her head and got a slightly darker expression.
- But he didn't!
Lilly said, and Kenny looked at her, almost incredulously.
- But he thought about doing it, and that alone is enough reason to throw him out of here!
he retorted.
- As a mother, I don't want him anywhere near my daughter... but as a doctor, I can't just deny him help...
She said, and Kenny sighed angrily, closing his eyes tightly and putting his hand over his face.
-... The entrance is in the office... but you need the key, and the key is only for authorized staff, the people who used to work here.
Lee said after a while in silence, looking at Kenny's somewhat surprised expression.
- I'm not doing this for him, Kenny. Honestly, fuck this guy, but...fuck, I'm different from him, I may be a killer, but I haven't abandoned my humanity.
Lee replied, giving a tired sigh.
Helping someone, even if only with words, was harder than he thought.
Especially if that someone was someone like that old man.
Kenny shook his head, and grumbled angrily once more, but he sighed defeated.
- Okay, damn it... fine. We'll... we'll go take a look around.
He said, and it was possible to see his regret when he said that immediately afterwards.
- Okay, me and Glenn are going then...if all goes well, we'll be back in a little while.
Lee said, waving to Glenn, who started walking towards the office.
- Are you sure about this? It's just the two of you.
Kenny asked, looking at Lee with some concern.
- Yes, you have your family here. Same thing with Ed. Doug doesn't seem to be very good with zombies, and although Carley also has a gun, it's better if she stays here, not only because of what she said, but in case they get in, she will be the last line of defense until you leave.
He said, grateful for his newest friend's concern.
Kenny nodded and returned to his wife's side, while Lee and Glenn walked to the office.
Before Lee could close the door again, however, his eyes fell on Clementine, who was walking towards him a bit shyly, nervously, causing him to arch an eyebrow.
- Ahm... are you all right?
He asked gently, lowering himself to her height, and ignoring Ed's gaze.
If they were really going to be together as a group, he would have to get used to it.
The girl looked down and played with her fingers in a clear sign of nervousness.
- I... thank you... for not letting that thing hurt me, and... be careful.
She said in a sweet, somewhat low tone, as she put her arms behind her and looked at Lee.
He stared at her for a while, but then smiled warmly.
- Don't worry, I will be. Thank you.
He said, getting up and walking into the office, not before nodding slightly to the girl.
(...)
The way to the hotel that Glenn mentioned was somewhat uneventful.
They had to take a couple of detours because the streets were infested with those things, but luckily they didn't have too many problems.
And the few zombies they encountered along the way, Lee managed to deal with them without having to shoot.
- So... what does an murderer, I mean... how... no, why... ah, never mind.
Glenn tried to ask, but ended up stumbling over his own words, and despite the rather... delicate subject matter, Lee found a little amusing the problem the boy was having forming a simple sentence.
- He was sleeping with my wife, I punched him, he fell and broke his neck. Pretty simple.
Lee replied, stopping walking and hiding behind a small wall that ran along the entrance to the motel's courtyard.
- Oh... so, you didn't really mean to kill him?
Glenn asked, looking at him a little less nervously now.
- It was more of an accident than an intent to kill. I meant to punch him a few times, but nothing more than that.
Lee said, leaning his body slightly upwards and looking at the motel parking lot, grimacing when he saw that there were some zombies around.
It wouldn't be much of a problem, but what made things worse was that there was a runner right in front of that RV.
Lee took advantage that he wasn't noticed by that thing, and watched him for a while.
He was agitated, hands trembling, breathing heavily, if he was breathing at all. He had an expression of pain, mixed with anger on his disfigured face.
It was as if he was a person who had taken a few doses of cocaine or some such drug.
The difference was that this particular person had one of his arms completely stripped of flesh, leaving his bone visible.
His ribs were also visible, blood dripped from all over his body, and he had no lips.
"How is this thing alive?...rather, how is it still moving?"
It should be impossible. That creature had lost a lot of blood from injuries of that magnitude, not to mention that its heart wasn't beating, its muscles were torn, and would tear the more it moved.
It was a dead body... how was it moving?
This went against his biology classes. And anatomy.
Wounds that would kill someone from shock, or from loss of blood...
No blood...
No oxygen... how... just, how...?
"Or maybe this thing is alive..."
He thought, but soon after discarded that idea.
If that creature really was alive, it wouldn't be able to move for the pain of its shattered body.
Not to mention that the runner he saw earlier wouldn't be able to run with his guts falling out of his body.
- Okay, we're going to have to eliminate them if we want to get that gas.
Lee said in a whisper, bending down and turning to Glenn.
- Do you have enough ammo for all of them?
- Quietly...noise attracts those things...and it's better to save ammo for the ones that run, they are harder to deal with.
Lee said, taking on a slightly more thoughtful expression.
- Okay, what do we do then?
- We have to look for something we can use to kill them silently. The slow ones are not the problem, that runner is. If we can eliminate it first, the rest should be easy.
Lee said, walking crouched towards a car parked further ahead, taking cover beside it.
That vehicle was the only thing he saw that could be useful, at least easily accessible.
Getting up slowly, he looks inside the vehicle, and his eyes focus on an ice pick lying on the passenger seat.
He tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"great... I'll have to break the glass"
He rolled his eyes crouched down again, turning around and looking for anything else he could use, or anything he could do.
His eyes focused on a car up ahead, a few feet from where he was standing, where a zombie was lying with its back propped up on the wheel.
Looking around, Lee walks towards the zombie, and quickly hits it in the head with the stock of his shotgun a few times, stopping only after checking the hole he made in its skull.
Checking his surroundings again, Lee opens the door after seeing that he had not drawn attention, and his eyes fell almost immediately on the spark plug on the seat.
He arched an eyebrow and picked up the object.
- Oh, what a great find. These things are extremely sharp, you can break glass without attracting attention.
Glenn said, picking up the spark plug and walking back toward the other car.
He steps on the object and picks up the porcelain inside, getting up and walking towards the car window shortly after, while Lee stood guard.
After a while, Glenn returned with the ice pick in hand, and Lee arched an eyebrow, looking at the broken car window.
- I said... just be gentle when using these things, and glass is not a problem. I've done that enough.
He said, handing the ice pick to Lee.
- What did you do before all this?
- I delivered pizza... why?
Lee stared at him for a moment, with both eyebrows arched.
- Nothing... here, hold the shotgun while I deal with those things.
Lee said, and Glenn took the gun from his hands, looking at the thing with somewhat nervous eyes, not really knowing what to do with it.
And trying not to accidentally pull the trigger.
Lee walked along the wall until he reached one of the entrances to the parking lot.
Leaning his body to the side, he made a mental route of the best way to eliminate those things.
Considering that that runner was standing in front of the RV, it was not difficult to get to it. And the nearest zombie was too busy devouring a corpse.
Lee came out from behind his cover and walked calmly towards the runner ahead, keeping to the left so as not to risk getting in that thing's line of sight.
As he approached, he stood up and raised the ice pick.
The runner heard his footsteps, and tried to turn around, however, Lee was faster and stuck the ice pick in the middle of his forehead, accompanying his body to the ground, and avoiding making noise.
Lee looked at Glenn, who looked at him a bit surprised, and nodded, while walking towards the zombie that was eating that corpse.
The zombie tried to turn around, but Lee stabbed him in the back of the head, pushing his body slightly forward as he pulled the ice pick back.
- Holy shit... it's working.
Glenn whispered, hugging the shotgun as he propped himself up in front of the RV.
Lee finched beside him and leaned his body slightly forward, watching a zombie standing there, staring at the rear window of the vehicle.
He ran his eyes around the place, counting that zombie further ahead, there was another one trying futilely to enter a room not far away, and two zombies on the second floor of the motel, motionless.
Lee stood up and walked with quick steps towards the nearest one, and as soon as the infected turned around, Lee stabbed the ice pick into its head.
Dropping the body to the ground, he soon walked towards the other one who was trying to enter the room, and since he had his back to him, distracted by his own noise, it wasn't difficult for Lee to kill him. One quick movement, and a hole appeared in the back of the zombie's head.
- Holy shit... that's strangely satisfying.
Glenn said, a little louder, since there were no more zombies in the lower part of the motel.
- You like it? You keep it. Now we have this.
Lee said, handing the ice pick to Glenn, and picking up the axe beside it.
- This should do quite a bit of damage...
The young man said, looking at the axe in Lee's hands.
- Okay, there are only two more ... you stay down here. I won't be long.
Lee said, walking cautiously up the stairs, and looking at where the zombies were.
One of them was standing facing the corridor, meaning that he would see Lee approaching, while the other was further back, standing looking at a door.
Lee took a deep breath and walked down the corridor, swinging the axe at the zombie's head as soon as he saw it.
Pulling his arms tightly, he raises the axe and waits for the other to approach, and quickly cuts off half the head of what had once been a woman.
Lee stares at the bodies on the ground, there was a strange feeling in killing them.
It was not the same feeling he felt when he accidentally killed that senator, it was nowhere near the despair and numbness he felt then.
But it was strange.
The whole situation was strange, so he just ignored it.
- Okay... everything's fine.
Lee said, leaning on the fence in front of him and looking at Glenn, who nodded at him.
However, both men were startled slightly when they heard a thud coming from one of the rooms on the second floor.
Lee turned quickly and held the axe steady in his hands, while slowly walking away.
The thuds became louder, and Lee heard something resembling a female voice.
The door was slammed hard, and a woman, pale, light brown hair, not very tall, came out from inside the room.
Her eyes focused on Lee, and she advanced toward him. Fast, very fast.
Lee's eyes widened and he tried to attack her with the axe.
However, the woman was not bothered when the axe pierced her arm, and tried with some violence to get closer to Lee.
He pushed the woman back, and shortly after, the woman's arm fell off, and the axe was loose.
Lee's eyes widen again, and out of reflex, he throws himself backwards, pulling the axe in the process.
The woman grabs Lee by the shoulder and tries to bite him, however, he puts the axe blade in front of him, and stares deep into the woman's red eyes.
She seemed to have cried a lot before she became that.
For some reason, he could not take his eyes away from the woman's red ones, which stared at him with a mixture of anger, pain and sadness.
And despite this, she still tried to attack him, not caring about her severed arm, or the cut the axe was making in her mouth.
Sighing and shaking his head, Lee pushed the woman backwards, and in one swift movement, drove the axe through the middle of her head.
The woman's body fell to the ground, and Lee just continued to stare at him with a rueful expression.
Glenn's footsteps caught his attention, and he turned to the boy.
- Are you okay, man?
He asked, alternating his gaze between Lee and the woman's body.
-Yeah... I'm fine.
Lee said with a sigh, pulling the axe back.
- Jesus... poor woman.
Glenn said in a heavy tone, looking sadly at her body.
-...she was bitten on the side of her abdomen...it must have been desperate to know she was about to die.
Lee said, shaking his head slowly.
- Even more desperate to know that she would come back as one of those things.
Glenn said, and Lee sighed.
Should he feel grateful that the same thing hadn't happened to his parents?
He tried not to pay attention to the blood he saw spilled on the office floor as he left, he didn't want to think something like that.
-Let's go... we've been here long enough.
Lee said, turning and walking back down the hall.