Welcome-to-the-404- No worries pal, I didn't feel attacked or anything by your comment, criticism is very important especially during a rewrite as I don't want to deliver anything subpar. As for Kenny, not to worry, this chapter is him running off the high that is reuniting with Lee. Although, I'd argue that Kenny while going through heavy trauma would be almost faking pure joy as he seemed to be in early season 2 with Sarita. I always saw him as putting on a fake face for everyone else as well as him, trying to convince himself he was fine when it was obvious there was always something wrong. He was only able to talk about his family when he was at his lowest and felt alone.
Supernova1219- Thanks my friend, I'm glad you liked the chapter and I hope you like this chapter with some more focused discussions between Lee and Kenny!
Worker72- Sarita and Matthew are two characters that I want to expand on more this time around as I felt like I could have done way more with them.
Rabbitman02- Thanks for the big review, I really appreciate all my reviews but I love when someone goes that little extra step. Also glad to see you've followed the old version and are around for the redux! As for your requests, I have no problem confirming now that Matthew is going to survive once again, only this time I want to use him better than before, I felt that after I saved him in the old version I didn't do enough with him and I want his character to actually interact with the group and have more depth. As for your second request, no worries, Bonnie is definitely one of my least favorite characters, while I will use here, I am planning on the 400 days cast being very involved, and the main lead with them will be Vince.
Enjoy
Lee and Kenny left the store and began to walk across the parking lot towards Kenny's truck, "Damn thing is a gas guzzler, and ain't running right, lucky you and Molly showed up when you did," Kenny noted as he reached into the bed of the pickup grabbing a fuel can and a siphoning tube. "Damn pal, it really is good to have you back," Kenny warmly stated, "I thought I was seeing a ghost back there,"
"You're telling me," Lee dryly replied, the momentary joy of meeting up with Kenny already starting to fade away, "How long ago did you meet Sarita?"
"A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon her and this other guy she was with. He was bitten and well, we tried what you did," Kenny explained as he began to siphon the little bits of fuel remaining in the pickup, "He weren't as lucky,"
Lee slowly nodded back, reminding himself just how fortunate he was to even be standing here, his own amputation was shoddy work and he knew it should have killed him. Pushing those thoughts to the side, Lee attempted to focus on Kenny and out of his self-pity, hell the man still only lost his family less than a month ago, "How have you been Ken? I mean, considering everything that's happened,"
Kenny instantly seemed shaken by the question, he turned his gaze away from Lee and pulled out the siphoning tube from the truck. "C'mon, Let's put this in that new ride," Kenny softly muttered as he picked up the fuel can. Lee pursed his lips, silently understanding why the man avoided his question and followed close behind. As they reached the car Kenny paused and stared at the station wagon Lee drove up in, "Is that-"
"It is, it belonged to the guy who took Clem. He wanted to get back at us for taking his food." Lee explained quickly while his voice hollow, though at the base was some deep-seated resentment,
"But, how did he-" Kenny tried to ask but Lee interrupted once again,
"The radio, Ken, Clementine told him we did it. He tricked her, used her, tried to turn her against us...me." Lee said as the pair reached the side of the car, suddenly Lee slammed his fist into the car door, Kenny slightly recoiled from the action, having not ever seen Lee act out before. "And it worked...Clem ran away, he had her but he didn't keep her. I was able to stop that...the only thing I was able to stop" Lee breathed, resting his head against the top of the car as he spoke,
Kenny stared back at Lee, his eyes slightly wide, unsure of how to respond. He couldn't just lie to the man and tell him everything was okay because it damn sure wasn't. Not to mention that he wasn't used to this kind of switch, Lee was always the level headed one, the one who was able to take the guilt, anger, and hatred in stride for the good of the group. "This, uh, this ain't gonna get us too far, we should...check the other cars for fuel," Kenny muttered out rubbing the back of his neck,
Lee took another deep breath calming himself, "Yeah, you're right, I'll take a look, see if they've been hit already. Put what you got in the tank, just in case we gotta run," He said walking to a few parked cars in the lot without looking back at Kenny.
"Yeah, good thinking pal…" Kenny softly agreed, watching as Lee stepped past him, his eyes closed and head hanging,
Back in the store, Sarita followed Molly around the store, watching as the blonde woman gave a few quick glances over the empty store shelves and cluttered floor, "Unfortunately it would seem others got to this place well before us," Sarita hummed out to Molly who instantly let out a scoff,
"You give up too easy, lady," Molly muttered back,
"It's Sarita," She quickly corrected the blonde, "Not lady if you please,"
"Right, Sarita," Molly replied, rolling her eyes while kneeling down next to a fallen shelf, peeking her head under it, "Rule one of scavenging Sarita, nothing is left that isn't hidden. You either learn that quick, or you're gonna be shuffling down the street looking few human meat before you know it," Molly explained before looking up to the woman and motioning down to the shelf, "Help me lift this,"
Sarita quickly knelt down and the two girls let out a few whining grunts as they lifted up the toppled shelving unit. As it was resettled Molly let out a grin and knelt down, grabbing at an assortment of small bags of chips, a few cans, candy bars, and even a couple bags of instant noodles, "Oh my," Sarita softly gasped with a large smile, "It seems we are lucky to have someone such as yourself to look for these things,"
"It's not hard, you just need to think outside of the box," Molly retorted, "You think like everyone else you're never gonna get ahead anymore,"
"I suppose that is very true, lucky for us that most people still overlook some things," Sarita reluctantly agreed, kneeling down and helping Molly gather the supplies,
"Yeah, some people are as dumb as the damn geeks. That's honestly scarier than the walking dead themselves,." Molly agreed causing Sarita to let out a hearty laugh,
As Sarita quieted down, she glanced at the door and then back to Molly, "So, you were in Kenny's last group?" Sarita asked as she began to put food into Molly's backpack,
"No, I met the old man for a day almost three weeks ago, he was just as much of a cranky asshole then too. I stuck around with him and Lee for a bit but in the end, I headed off on my own, wasn't a day letter I bumped into that dumbass outside again, this time armless and once again in need of saving." Molly said with a little smirk,
"Oh? Why did you leave? Going off alone is very dangerous," Sarita asked curiously,
Molly rolled her lower jaw, asking herself the same question before merely reverting to the answer she gave Lee when he asked the day she left, "They had a boat, it wasn't big enough to take all their people with them. I was going to try and trade my way onto it but I guess I couldn't bring myself to do it." Molly said with a shrug, "I figured that group needed it more than me, But that didn't happen so whatever, right?"
Sarita gave a small nod, "Then you don't know anything about what happened to Kenny before then." She stated a bit saddened,
"No, but Lee should. He's been with him since the beginning." Molly paused then looked over to her, "Why do you want to know what happened to him before?"
Sarita let out a little sigh, "Kenny's a wonderful man, ever since I met him he's protected me like my own life mattered more than his own. He helped my friend when he passed on and always has this air of confidence like he knows what he's doing even if he doesn't. It's comforting but I know something is weighing on him, something terrible. He won't talk about it but I feel if I knew then I could help him get past it."
Molly shook her head dismissively, "If you ask me, that's a dumb idea, everyone's got shit they just want to forget. Bringing it up doesn't do anything but make it worse."
Sarita looked up at her sympathetically for a moment, then she continued to pack up the few food supplies. The two women got up and moved to the front counter. As Molly dropped her pack onto it and quickly started to give the check out a quick once over Sarita asked, "So this man Lee, are you two involved?"
"What?! N-no! Why would you ask that?" Molly retorted in shock,
"You seem to hold him in high regard," Sarita said with a smile,
"What are you talking about, I just called him a dumbass less than two minutes ago!" Molly quickly argued, "And after I had to run in here and try to save him from you two, what makes you think I hold him up?"
"My mother always told me to look at the way someone looks at others. When you ran in her, I saw this look of fear in your eyes, you...handled me quickly but your eyes were always on him. And every time you spoke to him, there was this light inside them, it seems to me that-" Sarita explained with a warm smile,
"Look lady, peddle that stupid mumbo jumbo to someone else, I ain't listening or buying it. Lee and I aren't anything, so just drop it, alright?" Molly interrupted and picked up her bag walking to another part of the gas station. Sarita watched Molly with a smirk before shaking her head and continued to check the counter, deciding not to press the idea with her any further.
Meanwhile outside Lee and Kenny were working on siphoning out the few cars that had fuel in them. As the final car's tank dripped into the gas can Kenny lifted it up, "Looks like half a can, which wasn't great but it'll get us moving." Lee nodded back in agreement, "Getting colder out." Kenny mumbled as he stood up and started to walk back to the station wagon,
"Yeah." Lee replied with a small nod, "Figure it must be august, maybe September by now." He said looking around at the trees that's leaves were now a bright yellow or orange,
"This trip ain't gonna be easy, but what choice do we got?" Kenny continued as he reached the vehicle and started to pour the gas into the car,
"Can't be harder then what we've already been through," Lee said while leaning against the car, he took hold of his stump and rubbed it,
Kenny peered up and frowned, "How's that treating ya?"
"About as good as everything else in my life has," Lee muttered back, his tone turning irritated, "It's messed with my balance, can't hardly lift shit anymore, I struggle to load a gun...hell can't even tie my shoes,"
Kenny nodded back watching as Lee moved his hand to his eyes, slowly rubbing them as his shoulders dropped low, and his head began to hang once more. Kenny let out a slow exhale and pursed her lips for a moment before gulping hard, "I ain't thought about them, Lee," He weakly uttered, pushing the words from his mouth like a stone was caught in his throat,
Lee's hand slowly lowered and he looked to Kenny meaningfully, "Katjaa and Duck?"
Kenny closed his eyes and nodded, "I couldn't, it was too much to think about, and for weeks I just forgot them, pretended that everything before me wasn't real anymore. Each day, waking up like it was the first day of my whole life," The man bitterly explained, "And not just them, all of us, all the folks I've known and been with, I just left them behind, like they didn't matter,"
"Ken." Lee softly said, "It's alright,"
"No it ain't," Kenny sharply replied, "When I saw you, it took me a damn minute to even remember who you were, having to search my mind and unbury all these things I chose to forget. My family Lee, my wife, and my boy, forgotten...where ever they are now, I hope they can forgive me for that because I...I sure as well can't,"
"Kenny, you can't-" Lee began to say only to stop as he looked past the man and up the highway, "Hell…"
Kenny turned his head and his face twisted into anger, "You've gotta be shitting me."
They both watched as a herd of nearly forty walkers shuffled up the road, immediately they spotted the two men and let out some hungry growls and diverted in towards the truck stop. Lee swiftly reached into his pocket and tossed Kenny the keys to the station wagon, "Go get Molly and Sarita."
"What about you?" Kenny asked, confused. Lee didn't reply; merely pulled out his meat cleaver he started to march towards the horde. Kenny hesitated for just a moment from stopping Lee but instead chose to do as told, running into the gas station store while Lee began to slam his cleaver into one of the walker's skulls. "Grab your shit! We gotta go!" Kenny shouted out as he burst through the doors,
"What's wrong?" Sarita asked running over,
"Shit load of walkers is right outside, we need to get into the car and get the fuck outta here!" Kenny exclaimed while taking her hand,
"Where's Lee?" Molly asked as she ran over,
"Holding 'em back!" Kenny replied as he ran out the door, Molly quickly pulled out Hilda and sprinted out the doors just behind the pair. As Kenny and Sarita ran to the Station wagon getting inside, Molly stopped halfway and looked to the horde spotting Lee as he slowly was getting engulfed by the herd. His yells and grunts echoed followed closely by sharp cracks and wet squelches, nearly a dozen walkers laid on the pavement with split open heads. Molly wasted no time and ran forward, quickly swinging Hilda, driving the pick through the bottom of its jaw and into the brain of a walker that nearly got behind Lee and sunk its teeth into him,
"Christ! What is it with you?!" Molly exclaimed to Lee as she pulled Hilda out of the walker,
"What?!" Lee shouted back while kicked a walker off his cleaver,
"You know you only have one arm left, you can't afford to go making mistakes!" Molly shouted back with a grin as she swung Hilda to the side smashing it into a walker's head. The two of them began to back up heading towards the station wagon while Kenny was starting it up and reversing it quickly.
"Get your ass's in here!" Kenny shouted from the car. Lee and Molly put their weapons away and turned back sprinting back to the car. The dead were nipping at their heels, Molly swung open the back door and dove inside.
Lee jumped into the back as well and slammed the door shut just as a walker smashed against the window of the door, "Drive!" Lee shouted, Kenny slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the station wagon tore out of the parking lot leaving the remaining walkers in the dust.
"Everyone okay?" Kenny said peering into the rearview window,
"In one piece," Molly said with a heavy huff while sitting up,
"So to speak," Lee said with a smirk while looking over to her. Molly peered over and let out a grin and started to laugh. Lee let out a chuckle and let his head fall back against the headrest, taking heavy breaths while the adrenaline wore off. Lifting his head he caught sight of Kenny looking back at him from the rearview mirror. With a smirk, the redneck gave him an almost proud head nod before looking back to the road. Lee rested his head once more, shutting his eyes this time, feeling just a touch of hope having, against all odds, reunited with his old friend.
Alright so this is a slightly short chapter but it's definitely more expanded than the previous one. I still wanted to keep this one as a standalone as the next chapter will combine a few of the old ones as the group travels from the south to the north. I hope you guys liked the way it went, and I'm curious about one thing, would you guys like to see some Kenny and Sarita scenes next time as well? Since Lee and Molly met Kenny pretty early on, he and Sarita aren't together yet so I could show more of the start of their relationship if you guys would like to see that, anyway just let me know, and I'll see you in the next one.