AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ay, so here I am with another story :) Lmao I'm just messing around, but this is a story I've wanted to write for a while now. For the past several months, I have been playing and replaying the Telltale Walking Dead games and man were they great. But with the release of Skybound X's Clem comics, I felt a need to make my own rendition of the whole thing. Of course, some things will be the same, mostly characters and shi but I plan on making a vastly different story, even with a lot of the same characters. I won't spoil anything yet, but I will say that I feel like certain characters have more potential and maybe my rewrite can show some of it.
So, to start, similarly to the games, Clementine is obviously the main main character but to start, Lee will be the point of interest in the story, as I am taking a different but similar direction with him. Some moments will be from his POV and others from Clem's, but I will make it clear which is which, and there shouldn't be much room for speculation. I have only played the games, I haven't read a single piece of fan work for this because every time I tried, it was just a gaylove fic, which, to be clear, there is nothing wrong with, but I want to tell a story, not a fanfiction. The only fanfiction part of this is the website and the fact that I am a fan writing fiction, but I want this to be more serious and dramatic in a more "The Walking Dead" way, so keep that in mind.
I'm making a new page on insta for this story lucashtwd
Chapter One: Invincible
Actions have consequences, a proverb that parents tell their children from birth. Everyone knows it to be true, but never is it taken seriously enough. Many men fall victim to the failure to realize the truth behind the proverb. Never do you expect these actions to come out, but they do, and the only measure of the person behind them is why they did it.
This man had finally come to this realization after spending so long with the proverb in his head. He too had been taught that actions have consequences, but he was none the wiser when it all happened. No, he fell victim to rage, just as so many men before him had.
And here he was, Lee Everett, in the back of a police car, heading to jail for killing a man who slept with his wife.
He didn't feel sorry for himself, he didn't feel sorry for the man he killed, and the jury didn't feel sorry for him. He had been sentenced to the death penalty after the court had determined that he would be willing to kill again. He didn't want to, but after having killed once, he knew that he would be capable of doing it again. The only problem was, he had no reason now.
He had lost everything. He lost his wife, his job, his car, his home, his respect, and even his innocence. He was finally beginning to understand it all. He should be killed. He needed to be killed. He didn't want to kill again, he didn't want to be a danger to others, he didn't want to live in a world where every time someone looked at him, all they saw was a murderer.
He deserved to die and it needed to happen.
"I reckon you didn't do it then." The police officer in the driver's seat broke the silence.
Lee didn't even take a second to consider another option, instead, involuntarily cursing at the man.
"Fuck you," Lee replied. He had no interest in talking to the man, even if by some twist of the mind he was on Lee's side.
The man up front shut up for a few minutes. Eventually, he looked at Lee in the rearview mirror and continued, "You may have the right to remain silent, but that doesn't mean that I have to."
Lee ignored the man's snarky remark instead of choosing to stare out the window.
The police officer looked back at Lee through the rearview mirror again, this time with apologetic eyes.
"I paid attention to your case, I gotta say, I'm mighty surprised to not hear you say you didn't do it. I didn't mean nothin' by it," He said, still not earning Lee's gaze.
He continued despite Lee's apparent lack of interest, "I've driven hundreds of fellas just like yourself and it's usually right about now that-"
"Not from me," Lee spoke with an annoyed voice, still not removing himself from the window.
There were several solemn moments of silence before the man would speak again, feeling that things had calmed down a bit, "For what it's worth, I can respect that. They say there's no such thing as an honest criminal, but I think that we're all just one misstep away from committing a crime ourselves, so, I can respect it."
Lee looked directly into the man's eyes through the rearview mirror and finally gave the man his attention.
He sighed before finally giving in to the man, replying "Got that right."
The officer smiled and nodded.
Suddenly, a voice came through the screen on his dashboard going on about a "Riot in progress," and adding "All officers available for incoming 217's. Rolling calls and dispatches to all locations."
The officer muted the communications device and looked back at the city. Several helicopters and cars were heading that way with an exponentially higher number of civilian cars heading out of the city.
"Must be one hell of a riot," Lee joked.
The man turned and looked out the window again, agreeing "Got that right."
The officer continued to look back at the riots, Lee looked forward, noticing the man's shotgun was unattended, he pushed down his strange impulse to make a move for it and looked at the road, something he wished the officer was doing.
There, in the middle of the road, was a person limping across the freeway, right in the path of the police car. Lee made to shout at the man but was too stunned to muster a word. The man looked forward just before they hit the person.
"SHIT!" The man screamed as they hit the person straight on. The car spun out and flew to the right, making impact with the guardrail and flipping right over it. Lee saw his life flash before his eyes in these fleeting moments. It was so ironic, the man driving him to prison for killing had just killed, and here he was, flying to his own death. It felt so strangely peaceful. Lee was ready to die, he had long since accepted that he would be executed as soon as he was delivered to the prison, so why not die now, it made plenty of sense anyway.
He wouldn't get his wish though. As the car continued to flip, hitting the ground every time, he survived still. Every time he expected that the crash would just be too much and it would finally take him, but it refused to. Even in the moments that he was condemned to death and embraced it, the world said fuck you and kept him alive.
When the car finally stopped flipping, all Lee could hear were the hyperventilating breaths of the man in the front seat of the car. Lee gasped for air as well, but more worrying was the state of his leg, which had clearly been broken in the crash.
"WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING KILL ME ALREADY?!" Lee screamed. The man in the front seat glanced back and saw that Lee was alive, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Very soon after, although Lee was clearly in a different place mentally right now, he was dragged out of the car and left on the ground, sobbing as the police officer ran up the hill they rolled down to check on the person he had hit, praying that he hadn't killed them.
Lee rolled onto his back and stared at the sky, pleading for the world to just put him out of his misery.
"I don't deserve to live," He pleaded.
"Why won't you just let me die?" He asked.
There was, of course, no response. He lay there, on the ground, done with life. There was no other way to put it. He just wanted to go and no matter what, they wouldn't let him. It was, of course, by some miracle, that Lee turned his head toward the totaled car and saw a sign from God himself.
The shotgun.
It lay there, with the sun's glare against its metal barrel. Lee cried tears of joy, seeing a way out, finally.
Lee tried his damndest to crawl toward the gun. It was rough, agonizing as his leg scraped against the ground, but once he made it to the gun, he would finally be able to put an end to it all.
Through agony and furious intent, Lee made his way, inch by inch toward that gun, he was growing near the end, he needed to reach it.
Left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand, the man pulled himself along. It took far longer than he could have imagined, but he finally made it. He grasped at the butt of the gun, finally gaining enough leverage to pull it toward him.
Lee held the gun with both hands, holding it horizontally across his lap as he propped himself against the side of the police car. He glared at the weapon with a smile, it was finally going to be over.
He reminisced about his past life, loving his wife, teaching students at Georgia State, and aspiring to be a father, god how wrong it went. He ruined it. His wife cheated on him, but he ruined it. He should have never come home early that day. It would have all been avoided, sure he would have been mad later, but he wouldn't have murdered them. Why did he have to kill them? He knew why he killed the man, but his wife? He loved her so much that it hurt, but he still had it in him to kill her? What a monster he must have been.
Before Lee even realized it, the barrel of the gun was in his mouth and he stared down the top of the gun, finger inches from the trigger. His heart ached as a tear rolled down his cheek.
To his side, Lee could hear the Police Officer returning to him, he knew he needed to act fast. He needed to put an end to it, now or never.
With added urgency, Lee braced for impact and pulled the trigger.
…
Nothing.
The Police Officer sprinted down the hill and toward Lee. Lee opened his eyes and pulled the trigger again, still nothing. In one final attempt, Lee cocked the gun back, hoping that had been the only reason that it hadn't worked. He pulled the trigger once more, expecting it to finally work, but nothing, the gun didn't shoot.
God damned him again, he couldn't die.
Lee dropped the gun in his lap and dropped his head. Finally, the Police Officer made it to him and grabbed the gun from Lee with no contest.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?" The man shouted at Lee. There was no response.
The officer cocked the shotgun again and checked the barrel, there was, of course, no ammo.
"It's no time to pity yourself boy, there's some serious shit going on." The policeman continued. Lee remained motionless, staring at the ground.
The man opened the door to the police car and sat down inside, turning the keys in the ignition and somehow managing to start the car. Immediately, he unmuted the radio and heard the worst.
"Open fire on all hostiles, I repeat, open fire on all hostiles."
Lee turned slightly to face the car with an unamused expression.
The policeman looked straight at Lee and put his hand on his forehead. His eyes opened wide as he kept listening.
"Son, that's no riot." the policeman said directly to Lee.
Lee looked back at the man with confusion. "What the hell are you even talking about?" Lee asked.
The policeman got out of the car and faced Lee. When Lee looked at the man standing in front of him, his confusion deepened. A bloody spot on the man's bicep was revealed and his expression gained sincerity.
"That woman I hit, she wasn't dead. Hell, I don't even know if she was alive. When I got up there, she ran right at me and bit me. I- I had to kill her." The officer explained.
Lee stared at the man several moments before starting to laugh. This was no joyful laugh, but one coming from a man who had nothing and had discovered that even more was going wrong.
He laughed heartily until the officer felt the need to put an end to it, slapping him across the face. Lee stopped immediately, not out of fear, but anger.
"Kill me,"
It was a simple request, one man to another.
"You're a fuckin' idiot," the officer declared.
Lee dropped his head again. They remained there, silent, both contemplating until there was a noise coming from the bushes. Slowly, a man crept from behind the brush. He looked fairly beaten up. Lee and the officer shared a glance and looked back at the man. He walked with a limp, but once he spotted Lee, he gained some urgency.
The man was running at Lee and it was only then that Lee finally feared something. Just before the thing could take a piece out of Lee as the woman had to the cop, the officer shot him right in the head. On the way down, the man's head his the side of the car and left a bloody streak behind it.
Lee crawled away from the man backwards. He was scarcely breathing, staring at the body of the man that the officer just killed.
"What the fuck is going on?" Lee asked.
The officer looked at Lee, paused, and finally told him "There's no telling."
The officer was surprised when Lee was the one to finally make the next command, "We need to get the hell out of here."
The man nodded and walked to Lee, helping him to his feet.
"Is that going to be okay?" Lee asked, talking about the bite in his arm.
The man looked at his arm, huffed, and answered "Let's just try to find some bandages."
Lee scanned the area, turning back to the man and asking him "Where?"
Suddenly, the two heard more ruffling in the bushes, they faced the noise and saw several of those things walking toward them. It was horrifying, even to the man who wanted to die moments ago.
"Jesus Christ," Lee said.
Wordlessly, the two ran in the opposite direction, where they saw wooden fences, maybe those houses would have some medical supplies.
Inside of a dark room is a terrified soul, left alone in a place beyond her. She quivered in place as she took ragged breaths. She tried, desperately to do what Sandra told her. She was supposed to "Stay calm," and "Get help," but when Sandra tried to hurt her, she was just too afraid. She had run from her babysitter and hidden in her treehouse.
She could hear growls and snarls from below, but they never grew closer, she knew that. She was a smart girl, smarter than most, and she knew that there was something wrong with Sandra. When she had come back from the street with a bite on her arm, Clementine was already afraid, it only made things worse when Clementine couldn't help her.
Clementine watched Sandra die, but worse than that was watching her rise again.
Now, here she was, too terrified to move, her parents in another city, and her babysitting trying to eat her. She let out a sad whimper and heard Sandra start to growl louder.
Clementine started to sob. This was too much for anyone, let alone an eight-year-old girl, and she couldn't take it anymore.
Luckily for her, the world spared her from having to bear it for another moment. Clementine heard something else, two voices, and they were getting closer. Clementine crawled to the door of her treehouse and held it ajar, spotting the sources of the noise. There was a police officer and a man in handcuffs. Oddly enough, the man looked a lot like her dad, only more in shape.
Clementine wanted to shout at them for help but was too scared to muster a noise. Instead, she watched in terror as the two made it into her backyard and Sandra ran over to them.
As Lee hit the ground, he felt a dagger of pain in his leg. If there was any doubt it was broken before, it was gone now, but he couldn't worry about it now. There was another one of those things crawling toward him and the officer had run out of ammo a while ago.
When the creature dove onto Lee, he held her back using the handcuffs and managed to keep her at bay for long enough for the officer to push it off and stomp its head in.
As Lee gathered his breath, the two heard a loud noise, gunfire, coming from the direction they had just been. Then, more bullets, someone was saving them, even if they didn't know it. The two sighed in relief as the noise of the herd following them stomped off.
The officer tried to help Lee to his feet, but when Lee grabbed his hand, the man screamed in agony, dropping Lee back to the ground. Quickly, Lee used the fence to get himself to his feet and backed away from the man.
"Man, are you okay?" Lee asked.
Lee saw the man clench his fist as he stopped screaming. The herd was coming back.
"Shit," said Lee as the groans grew closer.
"Into the house," the officer commanded. Lee obliged, limping his way to the sliding back door of the house. It was unlocked, thank God. The two made it in and locked it quickly, finally taking a moment to catch their breaths.
Lee caught his breath first, as the officer was much older than him, so, he was first to look out the window again. He saw the spot of blood where they landed over the fence and saw those things all over the wall. There were so many of them. That couldn't mean- no, that's ridiculous. There were just so many though. Where did they come from? How did it start? When would it be over?
Lee soon determined that that wouldn't be any time soon, as the fence started to bend. They were going to make it through, and if the fence couldn't hold them, would a glass window do any better?
Lee limped over to the kitchen as the officer sat down at the dinner table, still calming himself down. As Lee scavenged the drawers for anything to help the officer or their current situation, the officer walked over to the home phone, which kept blaring about missed calls, a bad choice.
The two were forced to listen as the calls came through. There were three missed calls, all from the same person, a mother, terrified for the life of her daughter.
The first call was casual, the mother, Diana, went on about how her husband, Ed, had a "little incident," and was in the hospital. So, he had been bit. Good thing he got to the Emergency Room.
The second call was much more panicked, as Diana went on about how some girl named Sandra needed to "Keep Clementine safe," She spoke about how she didn't know how Atlanta was, but Lee could only imagine.
The third call was the most disheartening. Diana pleaded to Clementine, telling her to call the police, telling her that she loves her as she sobbed. The call ended with a terrifying noise. Diana was killed.
Lee opened the last drawer in the kitchen as the message ended, but he didn't look down at its contents until he heard a noise, a beep to be exact.
Lee jolted his head down, spotting a walkie-talkie sitting there in the drawer. There was static and silence on the other end for several seconds, but when Lee picked it up and waited, eventually he heard it. A quivering voice.
"H- Hello?" Clementine spoke through the walkie.
Lee stared in shock at the thing, then heard a noise from the walkie talkie, the fence broke, and whoever was on the other end was close to it.
Lee looked back at the officer, who had since sat down on the couch.
"I can't get up, Lee."
Lee didn't respond to the man, instead speaking on the radio, "Hello? Where are you?"
There was silence over the line for a while, but eventually, the static returned, albeit with added groans from the creatures in the background, but it was back, a great sign.
"I'm up in my treehouse, but there's monsters everywhere. I'm scared." Clementine responded.
Lee took a moment to weigh the options. He walked to the back door, which was thankfully holding very well. He looked outside and saw at least fifty "monsters". Some were under the treehouse, some wandered the yard aimlessly, and some banged at the back door.
Not a lot of options, Lee determined.
"Hey, you're Clementine, right?" Lee asked.
Clementine, of course, quickly responded with a short "yes". And Lee continued, asking a question that he wasn't even sure he would be able to answer with a yes.
"Can you be brave?" Lee asked.
There was a long silence that followed the question. Clementine sat in that treehouse, silently, until finally, she answered with another "yes".
Just when Lee was going to tell her to stay put for the night, the monsters started to swarm over to the treehouse, she must have screamed. The tree held firm, but the treehouse began to shake. Lee imagined that the screaming grew, as the monsters approached the treehouse in mass.
Shit. Lee thought.
In a stroke of courage that Lee wasn't even sure where he came up with, Lee opened the back door and walked out, closing it behind him. Now that he was out here and they were in a focused area, Lee was able to count how many of them there really were, some hand wandered off since the fence broke, but there were still seventeen under the tree house. Lee looked around the yard for some sort of way to help Clementine, but he couldn't find anything.
He wouldn't give up. He may not have cared about his own life, and that was a matter for later, but he would be damned if he let an innocent child die when he could have stopped it. So, in that moment, he made it his mission to save her.
He looked around again with added vigor. He finally spotted something, a pistol in the back pocket of one of the creatures' pockets.
Fuck me, Lee thought as he committed to the plan. With one leg to support him and however many bullets were in that gun, Lee would save Clementine, even if it killed him.
He took his first step, a silent one, in the grass. He was lucky the pistol was so easily accessable, because reaching past one of them was a situation he didn't want to imagine.
He gained rhythm, taking step after step until he was finally in reach of the handgun. He took a deep breath and snagged the thing. The monster he took it from was the only one to react, turning around to face Lee while the others stood under the treehouse.
Lee, determined now more than ever, aimed and put a bullet between the thing's eyes, drawing the attention of the others as well.
Lee was no moron, and no slouch when it came to knowledge of weapons, as a history professor at Georgia State, he learned a lot about weapons, from the musket to the glock .19, which he knew he had. If it was standard, it would have fifteen rounds, fourteen now, and if he counted correctly before, he had sixteen of those things walking toward him.
"CLEMENTINE! GET INSIDE THE HOUSE!" Lee shouted over the groans of the monsters. Like clockwork, the girl obeyed. He saw the hat-wearing child climb down the ladder and walk to the door, but just before she could open it, bang was heard, coming from inside.
The officer was dead, and he turned into one of these things.
Lee stared in horror at the revelation and was frustrated when Clementine climbed back into the treehouse.
With cuffs on his hands and a vastly more complicated mission, Lee needed to be even more effecient.
BOOM BOOM
Two more rounds, two more dead.
He fired off three more shots, landing two and missing the third.
He was down to nine rounds and twelve monsters. Even with only five dead, it was much more managable now, even with a limp, they were slow and didn't seem too smart. Otherwise, Lee's leg would have gotten him and, more importantly, Clementine killed.
Reminding himself of the stakes, he refocused himself. One of the things got too close and Lee managed to knock it down for a moment with a punch.
Lee focused hard with his next three shots, making sure not to back himself into a corner as he rattled them off.
BANG BANG BANG
Three shots, three dead.
With six rounds and nine more enemies, Lee was able to navigate the yard much easier. His leg was still in pain, but adrenaline became his saving grace as he found himself more able than he should have been.
"CLEMENTINE, PLEASE COME DOWN!" Lee shouted.
He glanced over to the treehouse and saw Clementine, shaking with the door open. He felt terrible for her, but he knew he needed her to come down.
"PLEASE! JUST BE BRAVE!" Lee shouted.
Clementine made a face, still nervous, but she came down.
Lee took four more shots, landing three of them.
That left him with two more bullets, which he soon shot at the monsters, this time he managed to kill three with the two bullets, as one managed to go right through one head and into another, this was the type of luck that Lee needed right now.
Clementine was on the ground now, standing behind Lee, shaking in fear.
Lee tried to shoot more bullets, but knew he was out, which the click of the gun confirmed. There were three monsters left and Lee had no weapon. He couldn't go inside with Clementine because the officer was in there, pounding at the door, hoping to take a bite out of either one of them.
Lee scanned the yard again. He spotted the pool, something that he hadn't taken time to notice before.
Then he got it, he kept Clementine behind him and backed toward the pool with a limp. The adrenaline was wearing now, but he was almost done. Just a little bit more and he would be out of the woods.
When he made it to the pool, he used the cuffs to his advantage, pushing one of the monsters into the pool. There were only two left now and Lee finally knew how to deal with them. He dealt with the first one easily, giving it the same treatment as the last one. The two that were stuck in the pool flailed around and eventually sunk to the bottom, walking around down there.
With only one left, Lee got cocky, and with that, he became sloppy. When he tried to push the last one into the pool, it bit the chain of his cuffs and brought him to the ground. Lee pushed against it and just barely over powered it, flipping it over and beating its head in with his bare fists.
Lee breathed heavily and rolled onto his back.
"Are- are they dead?" Clemenine asked.
Lee caught his breath before responding, "Yes, they're dead, you're safe."
Beyond his vision, Clementine dropped the hammer that she was holding. Lee looked behind him and saw what she dropped.
"Did you have that the whole time?" Lee asked.
Clementine nodded.
Lee wanted to be mad. He wanted to yell at her, but something deep inside him forbade him to. Instead, he sighed, choosing to say "Good." Whether he meant it or not was unknown, but he was happier than ever after saving the girl, but it left one matter up for debate, what to do next?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, a little different, huh? I know that Lee seems very different, but don't let it turn you off, because you know, character development. Yeah, that stuff exists. I know what I'm doing for the next chapter and I'll be writing it really soon, so be on the lookout for that. Other than that, I just made a page on Ig for the story and it is lucashtwd . This story is going to be on both Ao3 and , so feel free to check it out under either site, it will have the same name, "Actions Have Consequences", and I will post updates and releases of the story on Ig. Please feel free to leave a like, review, and a follow/favorite to stay up to date! See you soon, hopefully!