Clutzycutie-Glad you are enjoying the story and I hope you'll like this chapter
Bicorn-Lee did indeed pass out in a jewelry store, the officer that Clem killed as a security guard for the store.
I87-I already plan on changing the story wildly soon so look forward to that but as for Molly, all I can say is I don't have an immediate plan to kill her so rest easy for now at least.
ArktosFTW-Oh poor Matthew, he is considered such a doomed character. Well only time will tell if/when Matthew will bite the big one.
Smeake-Thanks as always man, hope you like this chapter.
WolfKomoki-Lee is going to change things and I hope you will all like how he does it.
Guest-Glad you liked it and hope you like this one.
Fewpolecat93-Have an idea for Nick I may put in but I can agree that his off screen death was a bit shit but that's what happens to determinate characters unfortunately.
Worker72-I have an interesting idea for Jane and Molly and I can agree that Andrea's comic version was far superior to her TV counterpart. And don't worry Howes will be more explored eventually.
pokemonashxleaf-Glad you like the story, hope you like this one.
Enjoy
Lee let out a groan as he felt Molly shake him awake, "Hey, Lee. They're here." She whispered out quickly. Lee's eyes sprung open and he quickly got to his feet, as he did this the rolling doors opened, Carver flanked by Troy and a few other men walked inside.
"Everybody line up! Bill's got something to say." Troy snapped out causing everyone to wake up and run over toward the front of the room. Troy's eyes narrowed and he moved over to Clementine who was still asleep. Lee watched him closely as he gave Clem a light kick waking her. Clementine glared back at him coldly, "Get up, Bill's gonna have a word." Troy grumbled out to her before turning back around and walking away.
Clementine reached the rest of the group as Carver began to talk, "There has been increased walker activity along the fences so be mindful if you're outside the fences today. The herd has moved closer as of last night but that doesn't mean it will hit us. Still rest assured that the situation is under control." Carver said firmly as he looked around at the group,
"Herd? How many?" Lee spoke up.
Carver looked over at him with a small raise of his eyebrow, "A few hundred." Carver replied blankly. Carver looked around the group and stopped at Matthew, "Now...I'm sure some of you may be upset about how things went. Well that's all in the past now...some of you are new to our community. Some of you are members who went astray. But know that you can find redemption here, forgiveness, by proving your worth through what will undoubtedly hard work." Carver paused as everyone soaked in his words and then looked back to Lee, "Regardless of age or ailment you will make yourself useful to this community." Carver looked over to Reggie, "Reggie, you are almost back in. Continue along your path and we will welcome you back in with open arms." Just then they all heard Sarah whispering to Clementine from the back of the group. Carver's eyes flared up and he yelled out, "Carlos!"
Everyone looked over to him in shock and some fear, "Yes?" Carlos whimpered out to him,
"Your child seems to be in need of some correction." Carver said glaring over to Sarah,
"I-um-I'm sorry. Sarah, a-apologize to ." Carlos stammered out to his daughter,
"I'm-I'm sorry sir." Sarah whispered out as she let her head drop down,
"No. No. That ain't gonna cut it. I can't have this type of behavior on day one of your reform. You discipline her know Carlos." Carver said with a cold glare, "One good smack to the mouth should do it."
Lee narrowed his eyes as Carlos's eyes went wide, "I-I'm not sure I can...with my hand." Carlos said holding up his broken hand hoping to dissuade him,
"Well that's why you got two." Carver replied as he walked up to Carlos, "And I don't want some pamby thing, I want a good hard smack. If you don't do it, Troy here will and we wouldn't want that. He can be...overzealous, is that the right word?" Carver asked with a small smirk,
"If it means I'll smack the shit outta her, then yeah." Troy replied with a small shrug,
"Hold the fuck up." Lee interjected, "She's just a kid, hell she already apologized."
"That she did, but this here is a lesson." Carver replied, "And I'd urge you to stay silent."
"No, knock this shit off." Lee said with an agitated tone, "Smacking a little girl because she is talking isn't a lesson." Lee said as he took a step forward,
Carver narrowed his eyes and turned fully to Lee, "Think what you like but this is happening. Now since you're new here i'll give you one final warning, talk again and she'll get one too." Carver said pointing his thumb back towards Clem. Lee continued to stare at Carver but kept his mouth shut, Carver gave him a small pleased smile before turning back to Carlos, "Now." He said firmly.
Carlos took a step towards Sarah who was whimpering softly. "It'll only hurt for a second sweetie." He said trying to comfort her,
"Do it." Carver said with a cold tone. Carlos closed his eyes and shot his hand out smacking Sarah across the face and sending her to the ground. Carlos started to kneel down but Carver stopped him, "No, you are done coddling that girl! Let her sit there, think about what she's done. The rest of you, someone will be in to bring you to your assignments."
Troy looked down at Sarah in surprise and let out a small chuckle, "God damn doc, you really smacked the shit outta her."
"Everyone get to work!" Carver snapped out as he turned around and headed out of the pen.
The group sat there for a moment before they were slowly separated. Troy grabbed Kenny, Mike and Matthew and brought them outside the wall to work on the "expansion" this was rather a simple fortification job on the connecting shops. Tavia took Molly and Clementine too the armory and the others split into small groups doing clean up, organization, and working in the greenhouse. Lee was the last one in the pen and to his surprise someone he actually knew walked into the pen, a local from Macon, Vince.
Lee raised and eyebrow and got to his feet, "Vince?" He asked a bit cautiously,
Vince looked Lee over for a minute, "Lee Everett...well god damn, didn't think I'd ever see someone from Macon." He said a bit surprised,
"Last I heard about you, you were being tried for Murder." Lee said letting out a short stretch,
"Funny, I heard the same about you." Vince said with a smirk. The two paused and stared at each other for a moment before Vince continued, "Anyway, you're with me this morning." Vince said returning to the point,
"Doing what?" Lee said with an annoyed tone,
"Taking inventory. Bill brought in a lot of new supplies with you guys, our job is to catalog it all and hand it off to the stockers." Vince explained as he turned around and lead Lee out of the pen. Lee looked around the store in a bit of surprise, most shelves were stocked with food, water or hardware supplies. Vince peered back at him and let out a small smirk, "Surprising right? Food, water, power, when was the last time you had all that?"
"A day ago." Lee replied dryly, "We lived in a ski lodge with a bunch of food and water. We even had a wind turbine but you all had to fuck it up."
Vince went silent and chose not to respond to Lee. While it was true from what he heard that Carver could have handled that situation better being here seemed better than a ski lodge. As they reached the back of the loading dock Lee's eyes narrowed as he saw the multiple boxes of Walter's food supply. Vince let out a little sigh, "Alright so we'll keep this simple. We unload a box find out exactly what and how many cans are inside and mark it down."
"Yeah." Lee said as he walked forward and took one of the boxes down. Vince reached into his pocket and pulled out a small note pad along with a pencil, "First box, beans." Lee said as he began to pull out the cans.
Meanwhile in the armory Molly and Clementine were lead inside and both let out a frown upon seeing Bonnie. "Hey...looks like ya'll are starting your day with me." Bonnie said with an awkward half smile. Molly and Clementine walked over to the workbench where boxes of loose ammo, "Were loading magazines." Bonnie explained as they all picked up a rifle mag, Molly and Clementine began to silently load bullets into the mags, "That's it, you got it." Bonnie said with a warm smile,
Molly and Clementine stay quiet as they worked, Bonnie could feel the tension lingering between them. Finally Molly broke the silence, "Look at you Clem, handling this like a champ." She said with a warm smile,
"Thanks." Clem said with a little smirk, "Christa taught me how to load clips."
Molly let out a smile and nodded but it quickly lowered when they heard Bonnie speak up again. "I suppose I owe y'all an apology...I wasn't exactly truthful when I came up upon you."
"Oh yeah? Do you suppose?" Molly shot back with a low grumble,
"And I was shown a kindness I never would have expected to see. Now folks are dead...and I can't help but think I'm to blame." Bonnie said hanging her head a bit,
"That's because you are." Molly said sharply,
"That's not fair, Bill had to start defending himself, that guy Kenny-" Bonnie said trying to defend herself,
"Kenny was shooting because you had us on our knees at gunpoint and he was torturing Carlos." Molly said with a icy glare,
"Stop." Clementine said firmly, "Carver was the one who was shooting, so it's his fault."
Bonnie let out a slow nod, "Still...I apologize, that's all I can offer right now." Bonnie waited a moment before looking back to Clementine, "So, how was your first night in the pen?"
"You mean my first night in prison?" Clementine replied with a grumble that made Molly let out a smirk,
"It ain't a prison." Bonnie said a bit halfheartedly,
"Tell yourself whatever you need too." Molly said sarcastically as she picked up an empty clip,
"But ya'll need to look around, we got food, water, power...and Bill wasn't always like this." Bonnie said trying to win them over,
"But he is now." Molly said with a small scoff,
"You know I was going to leave with Luke's group, when they all left originally." Bonnie said looking over to Molly who was not all impressed,
"Why didn't you?" Clem asked curiously,
"To be honest, guess I chickened out. I justified myself by saying it's easier to fix something that's broken then just abandoning it." Bonnie replied as she put down a full clip, "I mean take this herd, that's the type of thing that could rip a community apart. Bill though...he keeps things in line. He has a lot figured out."
"Herds come through before?" Clem asked surprised,
"Yeah...Bill always got us through it." Bonnie said with a short nod,
"Yeah probably by holding a loaded gun to your heads the whole time." Molly said with a role of her eyes,
"Regardless of his tactics he's been able to keep us alive and that's what I keep in mind." Bonnie said slightly defensive. Just then Bonnie's radio went off, she picked it up, "Bonnie here, what's up?"
"That girl, Clementine? Bill wants her up in the greenhouse." Tavia replied,
"Alright, she'll be ready when you get here." Bonnie replied firmly, "You taking Molly too?"
"No just the girl." Tavia answered back, "I'll be there in a second."
Bonnie put down her radio and walked over to a rack, "Almost forgot, I found this back at the lodge, thought you'd look cute in it." Bonnie said with a smirk as she passed over a puffy blue jacket with a rainbow on it.
Clementine put it on and while feeling warm the style really didn't fit her. She looked up at Bonnie with a uncomfortable face, "It's kinda ugly actually."
"Really? I thought it looked nice." Bonnie said with a small frown,
Molly let out a little laugh and walked over to Clem, "Nice one kid, tell it how it is." She said with a smirk, "Still, warmer than your shirt."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Clementine said with a little smile as Tavia walked in. Molly gave her a small wave goodbye as she lead her out. Bonnie and Molly both went back to work but they worked in silence as Molly clearly didn't want to talk to Bonnie in the slightest.
Meanwhile Vince was now curious about his old hometown and tried to talk to Lee, "So, did you ever head back to Macon after you got loose?"
"I did." Lee said as he put some already recorded cans away,
"And? How was it?" Vince asked as he knelt down and began to help him,
"How do you think?" Lee asked with a sarcastic tone,
"What about your folks? Your brother?" Vince asked a bit concerned. Lee stared at him for a moment, "Sorry, my brother was dead too." Vince said with a sullen voice,
Lee waited a moment before letting out a small exhale, "They died early on, I had to put my brother down myself." Lee said thinking back to that day,
"Sorry man, didn't mean to dredge up old wounds." Vince said sincerely,
Lee waited a minute before looking back up at him, "I don't get it, how the hell do you people live under a guy like that?"
Vince let out a small shrug, "We just do, you toe the line and it works out fine for us."
"Toe the line?" Lee said with an almost disgusted voice, "You can't make people live like that, in fear."
"I know it sucks, hell I've been in the pen before but...I mean we are so much better off than other people. Hell from what I hear you guys didn't have walls, just beans and a lodge." Vince replied,
"We were still better off, we were surviving with one another not under one." Lee replied firmly,
"Can't work that way, you need a leader." Vince said shaking his head,
"I was in charge but I didn't make my decisions and force the others to agree upon threat." Lee said while furrowing his brow, "You can't expect to make it in this world if you just force people to do what you want."
Vince took a moment and let out a small nod, "I don't know man, Carver used to be a good guy. Then everything happened with Rebecca and then the group left after stealing some supplies. Maybe now that he's back he'll come back."
Lee slowly shook his head, "You don't come back from the line he chose to cross, trust me." Vince stared at Lee for a moment before he went back to his work.
Vince chose to stay quiet as he and Lee continued to work. After almost two more hours of sorting and cataloging Vince's radio went off, "Vince, is that fella Lee still with you?" Carver's voice asked,
Lee looked over with a raised eyebrow as Vince picked up the radio, "Yeah we're just about done sorting and cataloging the new supplies." He replied quickly,
"Good, I want you to send him up to the roof. I want to have a chat with him." Carver replied eerily calm,
Vince looked over to Lee a bit surprised before going back to the radio, "Yeah, alright, I'll, uh, I'll send him up right now."
"Good." Carver replied before quickly ending his conversation. Vince and Lee turned around and he lead him to a closed of stairwell that lead to the roof. Vince gave him a small shrug before heading back towards the loading dock leaving Lee alone.
Lee opened the door and saw Clementine slowly making her way down the stairs, "Clem?" Lee said quickly as he could see a look on her face, "You okay sweetie?"
"He killed him." Clementine said blankly,
"Who killed who?" Lee asked kneeling down,
"Carver...he, he just killed Reggie. He pushed him off the roof." Clementine said in shock, "He said he was weak, and that he had no place in this world."
Lee pulled her into a hug, "It's alright, honey." He said trying to calm her,
"I, I have to go. I'm suppose to go and bring supplies to Kenny and Matthew." Clem said pulling away from the hug,
"Alright." Lee said standing back up, "We'll talk later."
"Yeah." Clementine said as she walked out of the room. Lee watched her with a concerned look as she seemed almost to be in shock. Lee began to walk up the stairs and after a minute he reached the roof where he saw Carver finishing a conversation with Sarah.
Carver looked back and saw Lee causing him to let out a small smirk, "Run along Sarah, I've gotta talk to Lee for a minute." Carver said as he gave Sarah a pat on the back,
"Yessir." Sarah said quickly before running to the stairs and leaving the pair on the roof,
"You wanted to talk to me?" Lee said watching him closely,
"C'mere for a minute." Carver said waving his hand over. Lee walked over cautiously to Carver who was standing at the edge of the roof. Lee looked down and saw Reggie's body which laid in a pool of blood. Lee raised his eyebrows in some shock as he saw Reggie's body was broken and collapsed in on itself, "I wanted to have you see this, I wanted you to see what I did but more importantly I want you to understand why I did this." Carver said as he rested his hands on his waste,
"You want me to understand why you killed this man?" Lee said shaking his head and backing away from the edge,
"Yes." Carver said now crossing his arms,
"Why?" Lee asked as he looked Carver dead in the eyes,
"I see something in you, I can see why people down there look to you." Carver said as he looked up and down the man, "Despite you ailment, you are strong, stronger than many." Lee went completely silent as he was now confused at what Carver was playing at, "Now you may not believe this but I liked Reggie, he was a funny guy that kept things light. That's important in these days, depression can sink in easily in this hard times. But he was weak and not because he was maimed, hell if that were true you'd never had made it here in the first place. He was weak of spirit, character. That is something I can not allow, not now."
"You killed him because he was weak? That sounds like an excuse." Lee replied,
"I can assure you it is not. That is one of the best reasons we have nowadays. Reggie's incompetence put us at risk...killing one to save many is part of survival. It's one of the tougher decisions that a weaker person couldn't make, that's why it falls to us to lead them to safety." Carver said with a smirk,
Lee narrowed his eyes, "A weaker person? There are no weak people, or strong people. There's just us and the dead, you're either alive or you're dead." He said with a icy tone,
Carver let out a chuckle, "Even you don't believe that." Carver looked around before looking back to Lee, "Let me ask you this, what am I to you?"
"A killer, a psychopath." Lee replied quickly,
"Sure," Carver said with a small shrug of his shoulders, "If I had to bet you'd kill me right now and do you know why you'd do that?" Carver said looking directly at Lee, "Because I am weak in your eyes, I am someone who is a threat to the group because they aren't strong enough." Lee diverted his eyes causing Carver to let out a grin, "See you know it's true, being weak is a matter of opinion, you just need to change yours."
"What the hell do you want?" Lee shot out,
Carver ignored his question and continued, "While I wish things were different, it's not. They are weak and we are strong. It's our duty to lead them to safety, and weed out the ones who are undeserving."
Lee clenched his fist and took a step to Carver, "I'm going to kill you. Not because you're weak, no, I'm going to because you don't deserve to be drawing breath."
"And there it is, that's all the proof I need. Do you think anyone down there who'd have the balls to say to me?" Carver took a step forward now mere inches away from Lee's face, "We're more alike than you think In fact, I think you realize that but you're just not comfortable with it yet. I've seen what you've accomplished and I don't just mean surviving with you injury." Carver took a step away, "Clementine, you've done a fine job of raising her."
"It wasn't just me," Lee replied coldly, "It was a lot of people, people who looked out for each other not just for himself."
Carver shook his head and smirked, "You can tell yourself that but we both know the truth, I saw it back in the lodge. You were scared, but you kept your nerve, looked me in the eye. Only other person that did that was her wasn't too big of a jump to see where she learned it from. People like us are needed, to teach the next generation how to be strong enough to make it in this world. That's the way i'll teach my child." Carver said with a sternly look. Lee and Carver stared at each other for a few moments almost sizing each other up until Carver continued, "The herd that's coming, that's not what keeps me up at night. What keeps me up is worrying about what would happen if something were to happen to me. If no one strong enough is here to pick it up after me, with you around I have hope that not all is lost."
"So that's what you wanted?" Lee asked with a scoff, "You want to tell me that you believe I could take control when you die."
"Lee you need to look at the big picture, this place isn't for me. It's for us, the people. There needs to be a strong, willing leader her to protect these folks and do the tough thing with a collected mind." Carver said thoughtfully, "Now while you think on that, Vince still needs you at the loading dock." Lee watched him for a minute before turning around and heading back down the stairs.
Alright hope you all enjoyed this chapter, sorry for the delay on it. I also hope you are enjoying Carver and Lee's relationship, it's a bit based around the Carver and Clem one but I feel this one will have a better back and forth. Anyway looking forward to your reviews and thoughts on the relationships built this chapter.