CosmicArmor-I see the sting of what those two characters did in cannon is still strong. Not saying I like them either, could do without both those characters honestly. Also can't stop the teasing with the author's notes, too much fun!
The Good The Bad The X-boy-Luke is wary for sure, not really confident in Lee leading the group. Also with the meds, people really need them this time around but Lee stole stuff the group needed and it all fell apart because of that.
Guest-Sorry for the wait, hope it's worth it though.
Smeake-Thanks man, as always.
Cutie-Give or take that is what happens when you're nice Kenny. If you let him talk and express what's on his mind he calmly tells you how he really just hates his life as it's non stop punches at him.
Kamsko-Will do, thanks for the review
Worker72-I figure that he may have been stashing them there then going to grab the rest of his group, in an attempt to stop them from being stolen. And I agree with hiding until he left but even in game he will just suddenly spot Clem and force the full scene to play out.
Guest-Well thank you for taking the time and showing your support my friend. Hope you like this chapter as well!
Enjoy
Lee, Clem, Mike and Bonnie all slowly approached the large museum which sat inside a heavily windowed building. Lee scanned the area trying to make out any walkers or, god forbid, people inside. Mike slowly moved up next to him, "What do you see?" He asked,
"No much, place looks like shit though. Almost all the windows are broken not to mention how open it is, we couldn't stay here even if we wanted to." Lee replied with a frown,
"We gotta look around, there still could be something here." Mike said firmly,
"Fair enough, let's look around." Lee said as he stood up and lead the others out of the brush. Mike and Bonnie moved ahead while Lee lagged behind with Clementine, "Just like old times huh?" He said with a little smile,
"You know we never really had good luck with searching together." Clementine replied with a grin,
"Oh we had luck with the searching part, we just never had any with safety. Always had to deal with some damn walkers." Lee said with a little shake of his head,
"Swear." Clem said with a sarcastic look,
"Please tell me I'm not still on that watch." Lee replied causing Clementine to laugh. As they walked inside the museum Lee put his hand on Clem's shoulder and stopped her, "Listen, I know we haven't had much time to really talk with everything that's been going on. But you know that if you need to talk about something you can talk to me right?" Lee said sincerely,
"Yeah?" Clem replied with a slightly confused look, "Why are you telling me this?"
Lee let out a little sigh and knelt down, "It's just, you've been through a lot in the last few days and I don't know how you're doing. You haven't really told me, you know?"
"Oh." Clementine replied. She slowly rubbed her arm with her hand before continuing, "I just, I'm doing my best to handle it myself."
"Okay." Lee said with a nod before stopping. He rubbed his eyes and said, "Listen I know i'm not the same guy you remember but I still love you Clem. I'm here whenever you need me, for anything." Clementine let out a small smile and reached out pulling Lee into a supportive hug. Lee put his arm around her and held her tight for nearly a minute before the finally separated. Lee stood up and sniffed a bit, "Right, now lets see what we can do here." He said as he walked forward.
Lee headed over to Bonnie while Clem moved over to Mike. Bonnie noticed Lee and headed over to him quickly, "What's up?" She asked expectantly,
"Since you got the rifle I want you watching the woods for us while we search. Last thing we need is something sneaking up on us." Lee said firmly,
"Was just thinking the same thing, just leave it to me." Bonnie said confidently as she walked towards the front of the museum and began to watch the tree line. Lee watched her for a moment before turning away, starting to search around the small displays for anything useful.
In the meantime Clementine had already started to search around the building as well, being close to Mike he spoke up to her, "I sure hope we find something for everyone back at camp." He said with an almost pessimistic tone,
"Me too." She replied as she moved over to another display. She continued to move past the cannons and map layouts. She suddenly spotted a small gift shop stand with a bust of a civil war general. She let out a childlike smile as she moved over to it and began to look through the little flags and key chains. Her smile widened as she spotted a specific keychain, she picked it up and slipped it into her jacket pocket before moving on.
After another moment Lee picked up a folded jacket from one of the displays, "Not really a blanket but it'll help." He said with a little shrug,
"I'm sure Rebecca with appreciate it." Bonnie added in as she turned back to him. Lee nodded in agreement as he slipped it into his pack. As he turned away to continue to search Bonnie stopped him, "Lee, could you hold up for a second."
Lee turned back to her, "What'd you need?"
"Nothing." She said as she walked over to him, "I just wanted to talk to you for a minute."
"Bonnie, you had the who trip over to talk to me." Lee replied with a slightly suspicious look,
"I know, I wanted to but I was trying to work up the nerve. Listen I just need to say that I am so sorry for what I put ya'll through. I know trust ain't easy to you, and I can imagine what I did to you back at the ski lodge didn't help in the slightest. I just hope that y'all won't always think of me in that way." She quickly said trying to get it all out as fast as possible,
Lee held a silence between them for a moment thinking it all over before saying, "You've got a lot to make up for." He finally said causing her face to drop, "But you're with us now, so you've got more than enough time." He finished causing her let out a little relieved smile,
As Lee and Bonnie talked Mike and Clementine moved over to the small office in the museum, "You know this place is still locked up, chances are if anything is here it'd be inside there." Mike said as he crossed his arms staring at the office.
Clementine looked over to it and saw that while the door was locked the shutter over the courtesy desk wasn't fully down. "Maybe I can unlock the door by putting my hand through the shutter." She said as she walked up to it,
Mike let out a nod, "It'd help out a hell of a lot." Mike said supportively,
Clementine stood up on her toes as put her hand into the office, she let out a little grunt as she tried to reach the lock on the door. "I...can't...reach...AGH!" She shrieked out as a walker took hold over her arm. Lee and Bonnie quickly turned to them and sprinted over,
"Shit Clem, hold on!" Mike shouted as he began to slam his body against the door. Clem continued to yell as she did her best to pull her arm away from the rotting hand the gripped it. Lee and Bonnie quickly reached Clem and started to pull her body back. As she got pulled away the walker's arm slowly got pulled out from under the shutter. Lee quickly grabbed the shutter and slammed it the rest of the way down severing the decayed arm and finally releasing Clementine from its grasp.
"Are you alright!?" Lee exclaimed as he moved to Clem, she let out a quick nod before pointing back to Mike. Lee turned back just as Mike kicked open the door, he watched as Mike grabbed the walker and forced it to the ground.
As Mike held the flailing walker he shouted out, "Someone kill this fucking thing!". Lee quickly moved over and jammed the heel of his boot into it's skull causing a splatter of blood and brains to shoot out hitting both him and Mike. With the walker dead Mike let go of it's shoulders and wiped his brow, "Damn, that was a clo-" He started to say only to feel Lee grab his collar and pulled him to his feet,
"What the fuck were you thinking!?" Lee shouted as he pressed his arm to Mike's throat pinning him to a wall, "You almost got her killed!"
"I didn't know!" Mike exclaimed as he pushed against Lee's arm, "She thought she could get the door unlocked!"
Lee kept his eyes locked on Mike while his face was stuck in a rage induced anger. After a few seconds he realized what he was doing and pulled away from Mike, "I'm sorry." He said slowly,
Mike held his throat coughing for a moment before saying, "It's-it's fine." A bit gruffly, "But jesus man take it easy. I wouldn't try to hurt anyone."
"I know, I was still...reacting to everything. I shouldn't have done that." Lee replied,
Mike took a few slow breaths before his eyes flickered over to two large jugs of water, "At least it was worth all the trouble." He said as he got to his feet. Lee walked over to the water and started to grab it with his one arm, he let out a grunt and did his best to lift it, "I got it man, don't worry." Mike said as he walked over and picked up both jugs before walking out of the room. Lee stood there for a moment and shook his head angrily as he stared at his stump before walking out of the room himself.
As Lee left the room he followed Mike over towards the front of the museum, as Mike slowly put the jugs of water down he let out a little sigh, "We're gonna have to be conservative as hell."
"We'll work out a plan, ration it between everyone evenly." Lee replied,
"Yeah, but Rebecca's gonna need more." Mike pointed out before looking around, "That baby is gonna be hard on everyone, Rebecca especially and between you and me, she's not looking to good."
"I know, but we'll help her through it. Then we'll figure out where to go next." Lee said in response only to stop as he heard Clem let out a little noise. They looked over and saw her and Bonnie waving them over while also telling them to stay quiet. They both slowly moved over to the girls and slowly crouched down as they saw a raccoon standing by the back door rubbing it's head.
"Walked in like it owned the place, figure it could make a nice meal." Bonnie whispered over to them,
"We can eat raccoon right?" Clem asked Lee,
Mike quickly peered up and stared at the raccoon, "I'd eat the shit out of that raccoon." He said with a husky breath. Everyone looked up at him with raised brows, "Not like that...I just meant i'm really hungry." Mike stammered back to the others amusement,
Suddenly the walker let out a squeal before jumping away, "Shoot, don't let it get away!" Bonnie shouted as everyone got up,
After a moment of looking Clem pointed to the right, "There it is!" She exclaimed,
The group ran towards it attempting to catch it yet it simply jumped around and ran through their legs. Clementine dove after it but she missed and it quickly ran out the museum. It turned back and hissed at everyone while Mike quickly pulled out his pistol. Lee shot his hand out and pushed Mike's pistol down, "Not with all the walkers around." Mike slowly lowered his pistol completely.
The raccoon slowly ran away along with a few of its children which were waiting for it outside. Clementine let out a smile seeing the family leave, "Is it bad i'm happy we failed?" She asked as she watched them disappear into the brush,
"No, that's alright sweet pea." Lee said with a warm smile on his face. Another moment passed before Lee spoke, "Alright, let's get moving." He said as he lead the others back towards the water and then back down the road towards camp.
The four of them made there way back to camp within an hour just as the sun was dropping and the sky began to cloud up, "You still okay Mike?" Bonnie asked as they reached the camp outskirts,
"Yeah, I could do this all day." Mike said with a weak laugh before grunting a bit.
Just then they both heard Rebecca cry out in pain, Lee, Clem and Bonnie quickly ran over to them as Mike walked over to put the water down. As they ran over to her Lee noticed Molly who was stitching up Nick's bullet hole. He stared at her confused as Kenny spoke to Rebecca, "Just stay calm, and keep breathing like I told you."
"Molly...where'd you get the medical supplies?" Lee asked as he watched her slowly wrapping up Nick's arm,
Molly looked over to him and her eyes went wide a bit, "Oh, Lee you're back! Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Lee replied, "But where'd you find all that stuff?"
"Oh it's just...I found it-" She stammered back only to be cut off by Sarah,
"Clem-Clementine!" Sarah screamed out causing everyone to turn to her and see the dozens of walkers approaching the group,
"Oh fuck me!" Molly exclaimed as she got to her feet,
"How the hell did they sneak up on us!? Where is Luke?!" Lee shouted out as he looked around angrily,
"Lee, we've got to do something." Clem said as Kenny slowly stood up.
He reached down and picked up his crowbar, "Get the baby to safety." Kenny said with a low tone before he walked towards the group of walkers,
Lee reached to his belt and pulled out a hatchet, "Go, get to the gift shop, we'll be right behind you."
"Lee, no! You can't just-" Molly began to protest,
"We don't have time, they'll protect us." Clem said as she took her hand and pulled her back towards the gift shop.
Molly grimaced before turning away and leaving Kenny and Lee behind. The two men moved forward and quickly slammed their weapons into the first walkers that reached them. Lee kicked his walker off the hatchet while Kenny let his walker fall to the ground before he began to repeatedly smash its face it. Lee looked around and saw that the amount of walkers could surround them too quickly. He quickly moved over and grabbed Kenny's shoulder, "We gotta move, come on!"
Kenny looked up at the walkers before let out a grunt and spinning around following Lee towards the gift shop. The two men quickly caught up to the rest of the group who were slowly moving up the stairs with Rebecca. Mike moved along the secondary entrance to the building and quickly jammed the shutters down. Everyone slowly filed into the gift shop only to See Luke and Jane fixing their clothes, "Luke?" Clementine asked confused,
"C-Clem? What's going on?" Luke asked as he jumped to his feet,
"What's going on!?" Lee shouted out, "I'll tell you what's going on, were running from walkers that you were suppose to be on the lookout for!"
"I mean really what the fuck were you doing?!" Kenny spat out,
"What? J-just hold on, tell me what's going on!" Luke exclaimed with a irritated look towards them,
"What's going on is you're a reckless fucking moron." Kenny grumbled back as he helped Rebecca lay down,
"Walkers are right behind us! We have to keep them from getting in here." Clementine quickly explained,
"Oh fuck, i'm sorry." Luke quickly said,
"They're coming up the stairs!" Mike called out from the observation deck,
"Okay maybe we should-" Luke started to say only for Lee to grab his shoulder,
"You want to help them help us outside!" Lee shouted as he pulled him along.
Clementine looked down at Kenny and quickly said, "I'm going outside to help them."
"Go, I got Rebecca. I've been here before." Kenny said mostly to himself as he looked down at Rebecca,
As Clem ran to the deck she saw the walkers at the top of the stairs pressing against the metal gate. Lee pulled out his pistol, "We need to control this quick, shoot them!"
Luke ran over and handed Clem a pistol, "Make 'em count, we don't got a lot of ammo."
Everyone put up their guns and began to take shots hitting walker after walker, yet no matter how many they hit they continued to pile at the gate. Rebecca let out some screams from the inside as she was finally in the final stages of birth. "There's too many!" Jane shouted out as she lowered his pistol.
Lee saw the gate started to bow inwards, he quickly ran forward and slammed his weight against the gate. Luke looked around and saw Nick and Sarah staring at the others, "Get inside, now!" He shouted before pulling out his machete and running up to the gate. While Lee, Mike and Jane pushed against the gate Luke jammed the machete through the gate killing as many walkers as he could.
Clem looked over and saw a cannon that they could use to block the door, "Luke!" She shouted getting his attention. She simply looked over to the cannon and he nodded, the two sprinted over to the cannon and slowly turned it around before pushing it towards the gate. Suddenly they all heard a snap as the cannon fell through the deck. Everyone pulled away as the right hall of the deck and stairs collapsed under the weight. "Oh shit!" Clem shouted as everyone dove towards the gift shop entrance as the support cable on the right snapped.
Lee stumbled back and tried to get to the sturdy ground. Both he and Jane failed and started to fall, "Lee!" Molly shouted out and jumped out grabbing onto his arm. Luke took hold of Jane and pulled her up as Lee dangled below the edge, "Y-you're not going anywhere!" Molly grunted as she grinded her teeth trying to hold his weight,
Lee tried to pull himself up but couldn't get the strength, Clementine crawled over and grabbed his arm as well, "Help us!" She shouted out. Mike ran over and reached out grabbing his arm as well. The three let out a groan as they slowly lifted Lee up onto the desk as the walkers below slowly started to crawl up the now sloped deck.
As Molly pulled Lee into her arms and held him tightly Clementine looked around at the others, "Oh shit, we gotta drop the rest of the deck." Luke said as he watched the walkers,
Clem got up and looked at the second support wire, "Mike, give me a boost!" She quickly said as she grabbed Lee's hatchet. Mike nodded and lifted Clem onto his shoulders, Clem wasted no time and began to slam the hatchet onto the wires connector to the building. After a few chops the extra weight on that wire combined with the now weakened connector snapped off and dropped the rest of the deck.
Mike slowly set Clem down while everyone else stared at the walkers below them, the events were slowly settling into everyone's mind and finally the silence was broken by Sarah's voice. "Oh-oh no."
The others turned back only to see Kenny holding Rebecca's baby who still hadn't takens its first breath. "No...not again." Clem whispered out as everyone went very silent. Suddenly the baby let out a little cough and took a deep breath before crying. A look of relief washed over everyone's face before they all moved into the gift shop.
Nearly an hour two hours past as everyone settled in and sat in silence, waiting for the walkers to move away, which to their luck they had already begun to do. Clementine sat across from Rebecca, she watched her holding her baby which was wrapped up in a small towel no, "Clem." She whispered out, "Do you want to hold him?"
"I don't know…" Clem said nervously,
Just then Lee's soft voice spoke out, "Go on sweetie, you can do it." He said as he slowly sat up trying not to wake Molly, who slept next to him. Clem let out a smile and moved over to Rebecca, she carefully handed the baby over to her. Clem let out a warm smile as she held the baby close in her arms, "A natural." Lee whispered out,
"Yeah, he likes you too." Rebecca agreed as Clem let out a short laugh. She let let out a visible shiver, "Damn it's cold."
Lee quickly turned around and grabbed the civil war jacket from his pack, "Here, sorry they were out of union." He said with a smirk as he moved over and handed it to her,
"You think I care about that?" She replied with a smirk,
Just then Kenny walked into the room from the outside, he had opted to take watch on the small amount of deck that was left. "What are y'all doing?" He asked as he walked over, "You should be sleeping, especially you." Kenny said to Rebecca, "Let me take him so you can get your rest."
Clem slowly handed Kenny the baby and he let out a smile as he held it close, "When was the last time you slept Kenny?" Rebecca asked with a concerned tone,
"Oh, about two years ago." He said with a smirk, "I'm fine."
"Good, we need to talk." Lee said as he slowly got up,
Kenny looked at Lee for a moment before nodding, "Don't worry about us, just get some sleep."
Rebecca let out a nod as Lee and Kenny slowly moved out of the gift shop. They both moved over to the second room, "Alright what's up?" Kenny asked with a raised brow,
"We need to talk about what we do tomorrow." Lee replied as he peered outside starting to see some snowflakes falling, "We need to get somewhere safe and where we can get warm. Like it or not we're already in winter."
"I know, I was thinking about that town." Kenny said with a motion towards the other side of the river, "We could at least find some food." Lee turned and went silent for awhile, clearly holding back. "What are you thinking Lee?"
Lee turned back and moistened his lips before saying, "I'm not thinking about anything, I'm gonna tell you what we do tomorrow." Kenny let out a frown,
"And what's that?" Kenny asked back,
"We're going back to Howe's." Lee said sternly,
"Carver's place?! Why the hell would we do that?!" Kenny exclaimed,
"It's not Carver's place anymore, in fact it's no one's. The walkers should be mostly gone, it's already got defenses in place not to mention the stockpiled food and ammo. This isn't up for discussion Kenny, we're doing this." Lee said with a hard glare,
Kenny pursed his lips for a minute, "Fine we can go back, but we shouldn't stay. Wellington is still out here, and that place is a hell of a lot better than that place ever could be." He said before pushing past him. As Kenny headed to around the corner Luke came walking over to the Lee.
"What, uh, what were you talking about?" Luke asked,
"We're going back to Howe's tomorrow. It's our best chance." Lee replied,
"What?" Luke said surprised, "Rebecca needs rest, she's in no condition to travel."
"It's not that far and once we get there she'll be safe." Lee retorted, "Or would you rather her stay here with no food, or warmth." Lee asked with a glare, "Or maybe you just want to stay here longer since it holds so many fucking memories for you." Lee shot out,
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Luke asked as he crossed his arms,
"What do you think, you had one job today and that was keep an eye out for walkers." He snapped out causing Luke to lower his head in some shame, "But instead of doing that you snuck off to tumble around like a fucking kid, someone could have fucking died Luke!" He shouted out,
"I know that!" Luke exclaimed, "I am so fucking sorry about that but-"
"But nothing Luke! This isn't a game, we got one fucking chance here and you almost fucked that up!"
"Look!" Luke shot out, "I get it, I fucked up. But Jane made an offer and I'm sorry but I took it. In case you haven't realized everything is shit! So forgive me for trying to forget about it five minutes!" Luke screamed out at Lee,
Lee's face tightened up for a moment, "Fine, I'm done talking about this. Just know you do anything to put this group in danger again and you'll pay for it." He replied icily before pushing past Luke and heading back into the gift shop.
Alright everyone Chapter 20! So here we are, shocker no one died this time around on the observation deck and second surprise, the bigger one, the group returns to Howe's next chapter. I am finally taking the story out of the canon storyline meaning anything can happen from here on out, so get ready for that. Anyway tell me what you thought about this chapter or on the new route Lee is taking the group, I'm eager to hear what you think!