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It would have been nice to get one full night of sleep without interruption or otherwise trouble, but with the world in its current state and everyone losing their minds, that wasn't a guarantee or a probability. It was a dream, a dream to be able to dream in peace in a world where dreams were shattered.
This time it was Lee's own doing. In his slumber that night he would allow his mind to wander, he was able to suppress a lot of his internal fears, but there was one that for some reason shone through that night, one that he hadn't had to deal with in a while. Everyone has peeves, some stranger and more specific than others, but everyone has them. One of Lee's problems was the same one that plagued his dream.
It was the illusion of choice.
He had decided after a while that it had something to do with what happened the day before, namely what happened in the drug store. He thought that letting those people in the store was a conscious choice he made, but the more he thought over it, he disagreed with himself.
He was always going to let them in, following Clementine's example, there was no choice. Even if he didn't let them in, Clem or Glenn would have. It frustrated Lee the more he thought about it. He felt as if he needed control. He needed it if he was going to be able to protect these people, namely the girl, but every time he felt like he had control, a choice of what to do, it would be later revealed that his choice never mattered.
With the troubling thought bouncing around in Lee's mind, he woke up in the middle of the night. He didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't what he saw. It wasn't quiet, he wasn't the only person waking up. There were two cliques of people arguing, Lilly and her father and Kenny, seemingly defending his family for some reason.
Lee rubbed his eyes and made his way to his feet. He wasn't sure how long he was out, but however long it was, it helped his leg considerably. With the self-treatment that he applied to himself the day before combined with sleep, things were finally starting to alleviate.
He got to himself and his senses and began to trudge over to the squabble with little rush. He wasn't sure what the situation was, nor who was in the right, so he decided to give himself a second to observe the situation before interjecting, although he had more reason to believe Kenny was in the right, all things considered.
"She'll find the bite, and the first thing he'll do is sink his teeth into his mom's face," Lilly's father exclaimed in a rash tone.
Lee shifted his gaze over to Kenny as the man rebutted, "She won't," he said. The large old man took an aggressive step forward.
Kenny lowered his stance, perhaps preparing to protect his family.
This was the moment that Lee decided enough was enough. With much urgency, the man interjected himself between the two other men, sticking his hands out either way to prevent the two from attacking each other.
"What the hell is going on here?" Lee inquired in a hurry.
The two men pushed against Lee's restraints. Whatever the issue was, both men were heated.
"A little help here," Lee yelled.
In seconds, Lee found help from both Glenn and Carley, exactly the two people he needed to defuse the situation. The two helped Lee keep the two away from each other, allowing Lee to once again inquire, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"
Still pushing against the restraint, Kenny answered, "This bastard is trying to argue for killing my son!"
Lee turned to the other man with a persecuting expression. The man was quick to come to his own defense, "The kid is bitten!"
Lee looked back at Kenny, "It's just dirt, Duck is alright," the man pled.
Lee then turned to look at the aforementioned child. He was covered in muck, something had happened since Lee had fallen asleep.
"Why is he covered in all this crap," Lee inquired.
Kenny's wife, the child's mother was soon to respond, "There was a walker in that office room over there, it tackled Ducky, but he wasn't bit, I'm telling you!"
Lee got a closer look at the boy. He didn't physically inspect him for a second. He only stared at the boy, into his eyes to be specific. After a sufficient observation, Lee turned to face the old man and walked straight at him. Lee decided to put an end to the situation. He walked straight up to the man, looked him in the eyes, and punched him right in the side of the face, knocking him flat.
The man hit the floor with a lot of impact. He didn't even try to get back to his feet initially. Lee stared down at the man, glaring into his eyes and letting out one final phrase, "Stay the fuck away from the kids."
The man laid there, speechless, his daughter came to tend to his swelling cheek and bloody nose.
Lee turned his back on the conflict, everyone watching as he returned to his place of sleep. Clementine was wide awake, likely watched the whole thing, and stared straight at Lee as he sat down beside her.
"You okay?" Lee asked the girl.
"Uh huh," she muttered.
"Go to sleep, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow," Lee instructed.
Clementine slowly and silently obeyed. Once her head was on her makeshift pillow, Lee took off her hat and placed it beside her, rubbing her shoulder as he pulled up her equally makeshift blanket (his overshirt).
Lee stayed awake as Clementine eventually drifted off to sleep. He wished she didn't have to see so much violence, but he was glad that she watched the confrontation. If nothing else, it was good for her to learn to be tough, especially if this was going to last a while.
Lee eventually followed Clementine's example and fell to sleep himself. The rest of the night was nothing but peaceful and relatively comfortable slumber, Lee wouldn't complain.
…
Many hours passed. Lee had long since woken up, Lilly's dad, which Lee was informed the name of, Larry, sat in silence in the corner of the drug store, Clementine stayed by Lee's side as they cleared out the store, and the rest of the group went out in separate scavenging runs with the warning to "Choose your life over a few supplies if it seems too dangerous."
Everyone was coming back, one by one, which was pleasing to Lee, so much so in fact, that Lee decided that he and some people would go out on another run right away. This one was going to be more important. He wanted to secure this place, and it was going to require some work.
He chose a few different people for this mission. Since they would have to go outside to lock down the area, it would have to be most of the stronger survivors. He tried to ask Larry to come, as he seemed pretty strong but was told to "Go to hell," in response, so he decided to ask some other people.
In the end, he settled on Glenn, Carley, Kenny, and Lilly, leaving the rest the defend the shop, and more importantly, the children. It would have been a shock if Larry did something stupid at that point. Plus, they left one of their two guns with Doug, so there would be bloodshed if he even tried.
With the group sufficiently safe, Lee and the others left the store with several objectives in mind. They needed to collect gas, just in case they needed to make some sort of escape. They needed to try and find weapons, lord knows that two handguns weren't going to be enough. Finally, they needed to scout out the area. Lee knew that a small town like Macon was defensible, especially if they only sought control of one block of the town. All they would need to do is clear out whatever walkers there were and things would be fine.
Lee was starting to get used to calling them that.
The first order of business was the most important one, weapons. Lee knew the town like the back of his hand, as did Glenn, having grown up in Macon himself. Both of them knew the best place to find some weapons.
There was a gun store, not even too far from the drug store. The group would venture there, taking care of whatever walkers they had to in the process, which wasn't too many. Lee was always acutely aware of how many he killed, there were six.
The group made it to the store with little to no problems to speak of. The door was boarded up from the outside, a good sign.
With a few good kicks, the board was cracked and the door was still not opening. Lee, assuming there was no second entrance to the place, decided to take a risk. With all of his momentum, he charged the door with his shoulder.
It didn't even stand a chance. The door was knocked down quickly, but with risk, there can come consequences. The room was dark, but Lee immediately heard groaning and began to see more telltale signs of walkers.
Lee did his best to get to his feet, narrowly avoiding being grabbed from the shadows.
"Anyone got a light?" Lee asked.
He looked back at the other three survivors he had with them. They all exchanged worried glances.
"What? We need weapons," Lee argued.
The three exchanged a few more glances. As walkers started to ooze out of the front door, the other three survivors turned and ran the other way.
"I guess I'm doing this myself," Lee let out through an angered expression. He had no weapon, save for a tiny steak knife, which would have to suffice for the time being.
The walkers came through that door with no obstruction. There were at least ten, but Lee was becoming overwhelmed. He couldn't handle all of these at once. He handled the walkers at Clementine's house, but those were far different circumstances.
They came at him with ravenous intent. They hoped to rip him to the bone, consuming the flesh that he wore right then. Lee, of course, had other ideas.
As they came at him, he dispatched them with that knife. It went in their eyes and they were instantly dead. He was just starting to find a rhythm when the worst happened, his knife got stuck.
By his count, there were still seven walkers there and they all pursued him freely. With his single offensive weapon depleted, he would have to find another. He gritted his teeth and took yet another risk. Once he had brought them as far as he could from the door of the place, he ran right by them and into the gun store. He slammed the doors shut behind him, but they were no good since he busted the lock knocking this door down before. Lee could barely see a thing.
He backed away from that door as fast as he could. He thought that the darkness would work as some sort of veil for him, granting him access to any weapons that this place held, but no matter how quietly he moved, they still approached him.
They could smell him.
Lee had to find a weapon, now.
He rushed behind the counter of the place. He couldn't see a damn thing, but he was able to make out one thing, a single gun, a double-barrel shotgun.
Lee sprinted to the weapon, picking it up as fast as he could. The thing would only hold two shells, plus, there was no ammo that Lee could see on the floor or counter, so he would have to make the two shots inside the thing count.
He squirted, trying his best to make out at least some of what was in front of him. He finally found a clump of them and let out a shot. The whole room flashed in a brief glimpse of light. The shell fired straight into several of them, but only two walkers fell as a result.
There were still at least five and Lee only had two bullets and no vision. With a heavy lump in his throat, Lee rattled off his last shot when he spotted a few walkers. In the brief flash that followed, Lee watched another walker fall. That left four more that were somewhere in the dark with him.
Lee slowed his breathing and focused all he had into his ears. He listened with intent for footsteps, which he heard a few of. They were more drags than steps, but they made the general location of the walkers a little easier to tell, so Lee was thankful. He squinted again, scanning around him for any sort of weapon.
He saw something and dove on it in immediate excitement. It was some sort of assault rifle. He picked it up and shot off a shot to see. He smirked as he aimed down the sight, pulling the trigger and ending the half-lives of all walkers in his way.
Lee let out a sigh of relief and searched for a light in the room. Upon finding one, he flicked it on and marveled at the supplies he saw. Immediately, he rushed behind the counter again, found two duffel bags, and started loading them.
Clementine sat in the corner of the room with Katjaa and Duck, Kenny's family. The younger one, a child of Clementine's own age, wouldn't give her ear a break. He went on and on about comic books and monster fights, even Clementine was getting annoyed.
Doug, a heavyset blond guy stood by the door, staring at Larry. The man was sat at the back of the store with his hands tied behind his back.
From Clementine's perspective, things were, as she would put it, scary. She wasn't used to situations like these and she never wanted to be. She was used to having a loving family and the only hate of any kind she would get would be racial, which even that wasn't so big a deal to her anymore because her parents taught her how to put up with it.
Now, she couldn't imagine her problems being that small. Her parents were gone, Lee was gone, she was hungry, and there were monsters trying to eat her. It was scary, but more than that, it was unfair.
Nobody deserved to be under these circumstances, let alone her, but here she was. Silent, scared, hungry, in a pharmacy with a bunch of strangers.
Before she realized it, she had zoned out. When she came to, Duck was still talking, Larry was still tied up, and she was still alone. She got up from her seat and walked over to Doug, luckily without Duck following. If she had her way, she would put a bug under his pillow tonight, in fact, she would make sure he did.
She stood by Doug and looked out the window.
The man didn't say a word, whether it was because he was too awkward or just because he didn't care, Clementine was grateful for some quiet. She tried her best to look for Lee out that window, but it was blurry.
"Can I- Can I open the door?" Clementine asked.
Doug looked down at her and raised his eyebrows. He looked out the door and saw her problem.
"You know, they'll make it back. They took our best survivors, I'm sure they won't let anything happen to each other," Doug assured.
Clementine accepted the reassurance, but still wished there was a way that she could know for sure that the people would be back, or at least that Lee would come back to her.
She kept looking back at the old man, which she was sure he hadn't noticed. She was really scared when he and Lee almost got into a fight and he didn't seem to have cooled down since then.
Either way, the more she sat in that store with the unfamiliar people, the more unsettled she became. She decided to keep to herself and mess with her walkie-talkie while she waited.
Things were peaceful for a short while, but of course it couldn't stay that way. From where she sat, she kept hearing Larry plead to the people around him, claiming that Lee was in the wrong. Of course, Katjaa wasn't going to agree with that, especially after the stunt that he pulled last night. She tried to get her child killed. Sure, there was a chance he could have been bitten, but he wasn't, and Larry was so adamant to claim the opposite.
Doug also ignored his pleas. Doug had no reason to listen to him anyway, what with the constant flow of insults. So there was only one other person that he could direct his nonsense at, Clementine, the child whose mind was so pure and filled with good that she couldn't just ignore him.
"Little girl," Larry called in a tone too quiet for the other adults to hear.
Clem turned her head and faced the man. She knew what he was going to ask, but Lee had told her not to listen to him. He was a bad guy and if he got out, he might hurt somebody.
She didn't respond at first.
"Do you want some batteries for that walkie-talkie?" He inquired.
She continued trying to ignore the man, but she couldn't ignore that offer. The walkie-talkie was the only thing she had that could lead her to her parents.
They had left her at home and she would sooner leave Lee and run after them than not at least look for them. She wanted to ignore him, she wanted to listen to Lee, but she had hope, and that was a blessing and a curse in a time like this.
Clementine walked over to the man and asked where the batteries were. She wasn't going to be fooled so easily if the man didn't actually have the batteries. Fortunately for her, the man cracked a smile and showed her his hands. In his palm, there were two double-A batteries.
Clementine didn't know how to feel about this. She really didn't want to disobey Lee's orders, not because she was afraid of him, but because he was kind to her, and she knew that he cared about her, but she needed to know about her parents. She refused to believe that they could have died. She had convinced herself that her parents were not only alive in Savannah but waiting for her to find them. She needed to find them.
She took small, reluctant steps toward the man. Every step felt like a betrayal to Lee. She looked toward the other adults. She noticed that they were talking, not paying attention to her and Larry. She looked back at Larry and took several more steps. She was only feet away from the man now.
Clementine closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she saw Larry not holding his hands out, but lunging at her with his bound hands. She tried to dash away, but Larry got his binds over her head and managed to pick her up.
By now, both of the adults were watching the situation unfold, Katjaa standing, terrified by Doug's side, Doug aimed for the man's head, but he was less than confident that he could hit the shot.
Clementine kicked and screamed in the man's hold, but only prompted him to grip tighter. She dangled as the man only used one arm to hold her.
"Drop the gun," the man commanded.
Doug flashed a look lacking any confidence toward Katjaa.
"Shoot him," Katjaa exclaimed.
Clementine wriggled some more, trying anything to get out of the chokehold that she had found herself in. The man adjusted his hold, pressing his binds against her neck in a far more threatening position.
"You have ten seconds to drop the gun and slide it towards me," Larry declared.
Doug didn't look at Katjaa this time, because she obviously had no answers. Instead, he weighed his options. In his current position, there was no clean shot on Larry, and the guy was huge, meaning there was no guarantee he would be brought down with one bullet.
"10."
"9."
"8."
The man's verbal countdown pressed Doug to make a decision. He raised the handgun in preparation to take a shot, focusing his eye down the sights of the pistol.
"7."
"6."
"5."
Doug brought his finger to the trigger of the gun and took a deep breath. He hadn't even killed a walker yet, let alone a living human. Through more deep breaths and sweating, he gripped the gun tight.
"4."
"3."
"2."
"1."
BANG
All Clementine could hear was a loud ringing in her ears. It was so loud that it felt like it overshadowed all of her other senses, so much so that she didn't even notice when she had fallen to the ground and landed hard on her chest, hitting her head in the process.
If the ring wasn't unsettling enough, her blurred and distorted vision was. She could barely see and she felt nauseous. Almost unconsciously, she crawled away from the man and toward her saviors. She closed her eyes and tucked her legs. With no control over her fear and her heart beating out of control, she did what she was taught to, take deep breaths. She took those breaths as quickly as she could. She did it for a minute, waiting until the noise finally faded. With one final exhale, she was calmed down, at least enough to open her eyes and reassess the situation.
She opened her eyes and immediately saw Larry's slumped body, with a hole in the head. She looked away as fast as she could, but that image was definitely not leaving her mind any time soon. Clementine got to her feet and ran to Katjaa, burying her face into the woman's side.
Doug still held the gun, shivering as he stared at the body. Eventually, he lowered the gun and looked down in shame.
There were footsteps rapidly approaching.
Clementine removed herself from Katjaa and glanced at the door of the shop, where four of the five survivors that left before stood as the doors swung open.
"Is everything alright?!" Kenny asked frantically. He scanned the room as quickly as he could, missing the body and spotted his family, unharmed physically. He ran toward them and turned to the others. Lilly was the next to run in. She saw Kenny with his family and looked for her own.
Glenn sprinted into the door behind Lilly, bearing witness to her reaction.
She spotted the body and the hole in his head. She looked at the other survivors in the shop. It didn't take her long to figure out who shot the bullet.
Doug was frozen in place.
"Now wait a minute-'' Doug started.
Lilly went for the gun on the ground and instantly pulled the trigger.
BANG
Another gunshot rang out, surely alerting any walkers in the area of their location, ringing the proverbial dinner bell.
Nobody moved a muscle as they watched the body hit the floor. The sound of the body hitting the ground was unmistakable.
Carley stood in the door of the store, eyes wide and mouth agape. It was only then that Clementine noticed Lee's absence.
"Where's Lee?" Clementine asked. Her question fell over deaf ears. Lilly stared at her father's corpse and began to sob.
"What the hell happened?!" Lilly practically screamed.
"He was threatening to hurt Clementine, Doug had to stop him," Katjaa rapidly explained.
"Hurt Clementine? He was tied up!" Lilly fired back.
"Clementine got close to him and he grabbed her!" Katjaa yelled.
"Wha- Clementine?" Lilly stuttered.
She walked toward her quickly, furious as to how this could have happened. She wasn't sure what would have happened otherwise, but Kenny wasn't going to let her find out. He stepped in between the girl and Lilly.
"Don't even think about it," Kenny remarked.
"What are you- What did you seriously think- Who do you think I am?!" Lilly pleaded.
Everyone in the room stared at her as she panicked. She was hyperventilating. Clem hadn't seen anything like it before. It was such a crazy mix of emotions, and yet they were all so visceral that you could pick them all out.
There was obviously denial, she just walked in on her father's corpse. Clementine couldn't imagine what she would do if her parents were dead. Lilly was angry, Doug killed her, now he was dead. It made sense. It was still wrong. Clementine knew it was wrong. It had to be.
Lilly pounded her fists on the ground as she sobbed. She looked at the gun in her hands and held it to her head. Quickly, Glenn came and pulled it away from her. Now she had nothing.
"Clementine, he wasn't going to hurt you. They're lying, I know it." Lilly said directly to Clem.
She didn't know how to respond.
"No he-" Clementine started.
"He's not that kind of person, he-" Lilly interrupted.
"He just tried to kill a fuckin' kid, how is he 'not that kind of person'?" Kenny asked.
"Oh shut the fuck up, you're glad he's dead!" Lilly shot back.
"What? You know what, yeah, I am. Maybe Clementine and Duck can sleep in peace now," Kenny yelled in response.
A poor choice of words.
"Fuck you!" Lilly screamed as she punched Kenny in the side of the face. He immediately gathered himself and lunged at Lilly. He aimed a strike for her face, but she dodged it masterfully and struck him in the side. He grunted and fell to the ground again with all of his momentum.
Carley and Glenn stood speechless in the door with wide eyes and gaping mouths. There was no context to the situation and it seemed like Kenny was in the wrong. The intricacies of the situation were above even them.
Kenny writhed on the floor as Lilly stood above him.
Katjaa held Duck close and Clementine remained only a foot away.
Lilly scanned the room and saw all those horrified faces. She wasn't in the wrong, she was so sure of it. They killed her father. They disrespected him even in death. How was she the bad guy?
She looked down at her hands and saw warm crimson blood on her knuckles.
"I- I-" She struggled for words.
With little more motion, she fell to her knees and fainted.
Everyone watched in silence for several seconds before another noise could be heard from behind Glenn and Carley. The sound of two duffle bags full of weapons hitting the floor rung out all throughout the room.
Lee didn't even say a word. He only looked down at the ground in frustration. He turned and shut the doors behind him before finally breaking the silence.
"We don't have long, we need to secure the doors."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys, so this one took a minute to get out. Sorry about that. To be honest, I haven't added to this one since the weekend before last. I just hit a wall and didn't know where to go, but now I do and I feel much more confident. I can't make any sort of promise that the next chapter will come out any faster, but it will at the very least be for a different reason. To be as specific as I'm willing to be, my first regular season football game is next Friday and the season could last into December if my team is as good as we look like. I will try to write on the weekends as much as I can, but once again, I can't make any promises. I will most likely get another chapter out before Sunday, no promises, but I will try.
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