The Good The Bad The X-boy-You will have all your answers in good time, I have had this part of the story planned out for so long and I'm so ready for this to be written. Hope you enjoy it as well.
TheNameShion-Ah, glad you like Day's We've Lost. It's probably my favorite one I'm writing since I have access to so many characters. But with this one Lee, being one of the few to think ahead but also direct, realizes that at the very least they need to go back and get supplies.
CosmicArmor-Luke, an idiot...yeah I can see that. He is a nice one though, Jane however not really an idiot just very selfish. Anyway hope you like the new non canon part of this story.
Smeake-Thanks man, fixed that, hate when simple stuff slips through the cracks. Also glad that everyone seems to be quite accepting to the idea that the story is out of canon. Hope you like it.
Guest-Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoy it bud. Thanks for the review.
Worker72-Ah I love the constant flow of Jane hate from everyone haha, every chapter since she showed up it's been a running thing and I can't stop laughing. Anyway back to the point Sarah and Nick can add to the story and you never know what could happen with the group at Howe's whether they are going to stay, make a quick stop.
Enjoy
Lee slowly lead the group through the woods back towards Howe's Hardware, each of them clutched their shoulders as snow came down around them, Rebecca however clutched her newborn baby. Some like Nick had nothing but their shirts to warm them others like Kenny had only thin jackets. In the hours that past the cold had begun to overtake the group, Rebecca the worst. "How much further do ya think we got?" Kenny asked Lee quietly,
"Maybe thirty minute, just hold it together." Lee replied firmly as he pushed past his body willing him to stop,
"I hope we still got thirty minutes in us." Kenny muttered lowly to him,
"This is-this is stupid! We should have waited, Rebecca isn't doing good and this storm is only making it worse!" Luke exclaimed suddenly,
"Keep your mouth shut and keep moving." Kenny shot back quickly,
"What is it with you guys?! You don't even ask, you just go around barking orders!" Luke immediately returned with,
Lee made a sudden stop causing the whole group to halt, "Alright genius, what do you want us to do? Go back, go another direction? I am leading us to a shelter that will have food, water and medicine and you want to tell me I'm doing something wrong. So come on, tell me. What the fuck should we be doing?!"
"I-I..." Luke replied meekly as he avoided Lee's gaze,
"Luke, Lee is trying to help us. We need to listen to him." Clementine said firmly,
Luke looked down to her yet before he could talk Rebecca let out a pained moan as she fell to her knees. The three men quickly stopped and ran over to her as Mike helped her over to a nearby stump, "I just...I just need a minute." She mumbled out,
"Of course, of course. Take your time." Lee said softly,
"Here let me take him." Kenny said as he reached his hands out for Rebecca's baby, "Just let you rest."
"No, it's okay I got him." Rebecca said weakly,
"You need your rest, I got him." Kenny said easily to her,
"She doesn't want to give you the baby Kenny, don't make it weird." Luke snapped over to Kenny,
"It's not your baby Kenny." Clementine added on more concerned than angrily,
"I...I was just trying to help." Kenny replied lowly clearly hurt,
"Everyone relax." Lee said as he glance back, he put his hand on Rebecca's head and shook his head, "Molly, did you find any anti-fever in all that medicine you found?"
"Uh…" She replied as she dug through the bag quickly, "Yeah, yeah, here." She said while handing him a bottle,
Lee popped open the bottle and took out two pills, "Here take these." He said as he carefully put them in her hand. As she shakily brought her hand to her mouth Lee grabbed his bottle of water and brought it to her lips. She took a small sip and quickly coughed and spurted up a bit of the water, "Hey, hey, easy, nice and slow." Lee said softly to her,
"T-thank you." She murmured to him,
"Listen Rebecca you can't sit here but you are in no position to start moving. Give Kenny your baby, let him carry him while Mike carries you. Once were at Howe's you can rest with him, I promise." Lee pleaded with her,
Rebecca let out a soft smile, "You should show this side of you more often, you're sweet." She whispered out weakly,
"I'll work on that." Lee said with a little chuckle, "Now, what do you say?"
Rebecca slowly lifted her head causing the light to hit her very pale face, "As long as muscles doesn't drop me."
Lee looked up at Mike with a bit of an amused smirk, "Think you can handle that?"
"Yeah, I got it." Mike said with a little nod.
Kenny walked over and Rebecca carefully handed him her baby, "Gonna have to give this little guy a name." He said as he rested him in his arms close to his chest,
"AJ." Rebecca said as Mike slowly lifted her up,
"Huh?" Kenny asked as he turned back to her,
"Alvin Jr. He should be named after his dad…" Rebecca answered softly as she rested her head against Mike's chest,
"AJ, it is then." Kenny said with a nod,
"C'mon, we need to get moving. We're almost there." Jane interjected,
"She's right, let's keep moving." Lee agreed as he stood back up.
The group once again began to trudge through the snowy woods towards Howe's. A silence lingered between the group, Luke, Bonnie and Mike were a bit off put by Lee and Kenny. Nick and Sarah however were both silent focused on themselves, Nick's arm had improved but the infection still had him weak and Sarah was still in no condition to even be alone for a few minutes.
Finally forty five minutes later the group finally saw the building coming into their view, "Thank god." Molly muttered out. Lee held the group back and slowly scanned the area, the snow storm made it a hard to see but he couldn't see any lingering walkers. "What are you thinking?" She asked as she moved over to him,
"That we need to be careful." He replied lowly before turning around to face the group, "Listen up guys, I'm not seeing any walkers around the perimeter but we have no way of knowing what's inside. I want to take a small team inside to check and clear it while the others stay here. Luke I was hoping you'd be up for it."
Luke looked over at him surprised, "Uh, yeah. I'll go." He stammered back to him,
"Good, Kenny I want you back here, watch over the others. Still could use one more." Lee said scanning the group,
"Why you looking over there, i'm right here." Molly said with a little nudge to his side,
Lee let out a smirk, "Okay, Molly, Luke and I will clear the building. I want you all to stay calm and stay very quiet. If we aren't back in thirty minutes then something has gone wrong. I don't want you to all come running, if you have to send one person to come check on us but no more than that. Jane, Bonnie, Clem I'm counting on you three to protect the others."
"You got it." Bonnie said with a nod,
"Okay Lee." Clementine said sternly as she pulled out her hatchet.
Jane let out a silent nod to him, "Alright, let's do this." Lee said turning back around leading both Luke and Molly towards the building.
The three of the them slowly approached the back of the building, Lee carefully walked over the few fallen walker corpses that still laid on the parking lot. His stomach curled into knots as he was able to spot the very little that remained of Sarita, Carlos, their bodies now eaten leaving only bones and blood all over the pavement. "Jesus." Luke whispered out as he covered his mouth,
"I know, just don't look." Lee whispered back to him as the slowly reached the loading dock doors. The three of them slowly pulled themselves into the building, as they entered Lee crouched down and paused listening closely. He slowly moved deeper into the building and paused as he heard a little groan. He peered back and saw Luke looking at him, yet just Luke, "Where's Molly." He quickly whispered out,
Luke looked at him confused and turned around, "I don't know. She was right behind me." He said while holding a perplexed look,
"Fuck." Lee hissed out as he looked forward once again, "We aren't alone in here."
Luke slowly reached for his machete and unsheathed it, "I don't hear many, maybe half a dozen."
"Yeah...god dammit where did Molly go?" Lee grumbled to himself as he took out his hatchet,
"Maybe she went back or circled around somewhere. Look man if we can clear the building we can get the others in here and look for her but we can't do it if these things are lurking around." Luke quickly said trying to get Lee back on point,
Lee let out a sharp exhale and shook his head, "Yeah, you're right. Let's do this, quick and quiet." He said as he slowly turned his head back towards the noise of shuffling walkers. As much as he wished he agreed with Luke, all he wanted to do right now was stand up shout for Molly and tear this place apart until he found her. Yet he couldn't, he thought back to all the others counting on him, he had to do what was best for them not himself. Lee motioned his head telling Luke to move up, the two men slowly moved out of the loading docks and into the main store front.
Luke eyes immediately fell on a few walkers that lumbered down the aisles of the store aimlessly. Lee on the other hand saw a walker that sat against a shelf with a bloated gut and blood dripping from it's mouth. He slowly moved to it and the gluttonous walker could barely react as he stood mere inches from it. Lee quickly slammed his hatchet down into the walker's skull killing it instantly. As he ripped the hatchet from the walker's skull Lee heard a little gurgly hiss and turned to his right seeing a walker lumber towards him.
Luke wasted no time and moved from his position right behind it, by the time it covered half the distance to Lee, Luke was able to jam his machete through the back of the walker's skull, forcing it out of it's mouth. Lee moved back to Luke as he pushed it off his machete letting it tumble to the floor. He gave him a thankful nod and entered an aisle quickly. The men quickly started to pick off the few walkers that lingered around the store, and after ten minutes the storefront was clear. "I think we're good." Luke said to Lee as he stood up and put his machete back into its sheath,
"Well we're gonna need to triple check this place, we need to be sure." Lee said a bit defiantly but in no way agitated towards him,
"Course, but I think we can bring the others in from the cold," Luke said as he and Lee slowly walked back towards the loading dock. "What do you th-AGH!" Luke exclaimed as a walker turned the corner just as they entered the room. It's gnarled hand quickly grabbed Luke's shirt and pulled him towards it's hungry mouth. Lee fumbled to grab his hatchet yet the pair suddenly heard a loud crack and a spurt of blood splattered over Luke's face. The walkers hand fell from Luke's shirt and Luke slowly opened his eyes only to see the walker's head pierced with a climber's pick. Molly let out a little grunt as she pulled the walker back and let it drop to the ground, she let out a half yell as she ripped her pick from the walker's skull before letting out a sigh.
"So, I found Hilda." She said with a little smile to Lee,
"You found-are you serious?! You left us and went to get your pick? Do you even know how fucking worried I was, I didn't know where you went!" Lee exclaimed to her. Molly looked at the man not flinching at his tantrum, rather she was almost amused by it. "You could have told me you know! Or better yet you could have waited!" Lee finally finished,
"All done?" Molly simply asked him,
Lee glared over at her and pursed his lips, "Yes I am." He replied sharply,
"Good, so I cleared out the walkers by the infirmary and the armory. I was also able to check Carver's old office, that was still clear. I think this place is good now." Molly explained to the men,
"Yeah I thought that too." Luke muttered out as his eyes stayed glued on the walker on the floor,
Lee took a slow breath, "I was telling Luke we need to do double and triple checks, last thing we need is one of these things sneaking up on us or worse one of the kids."
"Can't argue with that, why don't you two go get the others. I'll watch the door for any lurkers trying to get in." Molly said as she slowly walked back towards the loading dock doors,
"No, you two head back and grab the others. I'm gonna stay back check around again." Lee replied,
"Fair enough, we'll be back here in a minute." Luke said as he jumped from the loading docks,
"Be safe." Molly said to Lee as she followed Luke out,
As the two headed back across the parking lot Lee turned around and began to walk through the store again. As he reached the pen he glanced in only to see the bodies of Troy and Carver still laying on the ground. Lee glared at the two men hardly, his face hardening before turning away from them. He slowly began to walk down the isles, he noted that a large amount of food had gone missing, and come to think of it the truck that brought them all here from the ski lodge was missing as well. Just then Lee heard a large crash, the sound reverberated around the store, "The hell?" Lee asked as he quickly pulled out his pistol from his belt.
Lee slowly made his way towards the back of the building, listening closely for the shuffling feet of a walker. As he made it to the armory, another loud crash was heard, this time Lee could tell that it was coming from the roof. He quickly headed towards the door that lead to the roof, he pulled the door open and held his gun up. No walkers wandered the stairwell, so Lee slowly made his way up the stairs until he reached the roof access door. He pressed his weight against the door and let it creak open, Lee's gun still up expecting the worst.
"C'mon on you bastard!" A muffled voice shouted out before a loud boom,
"Russell stop that man, you're making too much noise." Vince's voice,
"You should listen to him, Russell. We need to just calm down." A woman agreed,
"Shel, unless you both have forgotten Tavia and the others locked us in! All thanks to Vince and Bonnie!" Russell exclaimed,
"Russ, we all agreed that Vince did the right thing last night. And what happened to Carver isn't why we're in here." A man quickly replied,
"I-Yeah I know. It's just, maybe we should have left with her, at least then we wouldn't be in locked in a greenhouse." Russell said a bit calmer,
Lee slowly walked up to the greenhouse, his eyebrow raised, "Vince!? Vince, that you in there!?"
"What the fuck?! Who the fuck is that!?" Someone exclaimed,
"Wyatt, shut up." Vince said as he walked towards the door, "Lee, that you!?"
"Yeah, what the fuck happened?!" Lee asked as he gave the door a once over,
"They locked us in!" Another girl replied, with a little sarcasm in her voice,
"I can see that, who?!" Lee called back as he put his gun away and reached for a piece of wood jamming between the door handle.
"Tavia, she was Carver's second in command. When the herd started to break away she and the others wanted to leave. We didn't, when they said they were taking the truck and as many supplies as they could take...well they figured it was easier to just lock us in here." Vince said as Lee struggled to unjam the door.
"Hang on, I almost got this fucking thing." Lee grunted in response before finally clearing the door. He then stood up, wiped his brow and pulled the door open. Inside he saw Vince along with four other people. He trusted Vince, but the others, he wasn't sure about. The one thought that rung out in his mind was, This may be too risky. Lee glared around the group before looking back over to Vince, "So they locked you five in to...rob you?"
"Yeah, by the end of the night there were only twelve of us left." Vince replied with a nod, "Tavia said this place was done, she was gonna take the truck and leave. The others agreed, they wanted to load up on supplies and go."
"But not you guys huh?" Lee asked with a little raise of his brow,
"No, we're not fucking stupid." A young girl said with a dry unimpressed look to him,
"Becca!" Shel exclaimed, "Now's not the time for any of your sarcastic shit." She hissed out to her,
"Sorry," Vince said while rubbing the back of his neck, "But what the hell are you doing back here. I saw you guys running through the herd, thought I'd never see you again man."
"We didn't have a choice, Rebecca had her baby, we got no food and it's snowing. We needed shelter." Lee explained as he walked towards the edge of the roof, peering out seeing the others walking towards the building. He let out a low sigh and peered back to Vince's group, "Listen, I don't want this to get ugly. We want to stay here, and that's what we're going to do." Lee said hardly,
"Yeah, of course. I'm not sending you guys away." Vince said simply,
"Vince! You can't just-we don't even know how many supplies we have left." Russell quickly chastised,
Lee narrowed his eyes a bit towards the kid causing Vince to quickly jump in to defuse any growing tension, "Easy guy," He said as he raised his hands slowly, "We can ration, no way Tavia took everything."
"She didn't, I saw most of it while we cleared the building out." Lee replied while his gaze stayed locked on Russell,
"It's our stuff." Russell retorted,
Lee couldn't help but smirk at this comment, "Yeah? That counts as yours, while you were up here locked in the broom closet?"
"Listen-" Russell said as he took a step towards Lee,
"Whoa! Everyone chill the fuck out!" Vince exclaimed,
"Seriously guys." Wyatt agreed,
"Look, we can work together here. This doesn't have to be two groups under one roof. Carver is gone, Tavia is gone, the community is gone. This building is empty right now,no one to run it, we can protect it together." Vince said while looking between Lee and Russell,
"He's right," Shel said while taking a step forward, "We can rebuild, turn this place into something better than it was. Lee has the people and we got the supplies, this is a no brainer."
"Lee, can you work with that? Can we just keep the fucking peace for one day?" Vince nearly pleaded with him,
Lee looked at him for a moment before glancing around at the rest of the group. He let out a slow exhale, "I need to talk this over with the others, but I can manage one day." He said not very reassuring for Vince but truthful.
Vince grimaced just a bit but steadied himself before nodding. "Alright, I get it." Lee gave him a silent nod before walking towards the roof access,
"Seriously, you're okay with that?" Russell asked with a furrowed brow,
"Lee's a good guy, and so are his group. He'll convince him, just relax alright?" Vince quickly replied with a stern voice,
Russell shook his head and just walked towards the roof access, followed by Wyatt and Becca. Shel hung back for a moment and as soon as the others were out of earshot she looked to Vince, "Do you really believe that?"
Vince let out a low sigh, "I don't know, I hope so, but it's like you said. Lee's got the numbers, if he want's us out of here, he'll get us out." Vince replied in a low voice before following the others to the first floor.
As Lee lead the others to the loading dock, the rest of the group were climbing inside. "What in the fuck?" Kenny hissed out, while his eyes flared up. The group turned and saw Lee, leading Vince's group towards them. "Lee! What in the fuck is this shit?!' He exclaimed while storming towards them,
"Kenny relax." Lee said with a glare, "We don't need to start any problems."
"Don't need to-Lee this is Carver's crew for shit sake!" Kenny exclaimed as he glared at each of them coldly,
"Vince helped us, he fucking saved my life and yours." Lee quickly said in their defense,
"It's true, they're all good people." Bonnie quickly pipped up,
"Besides this is our place, you don't get to make calls on us." Russell spat out to him,
"Excuse me boy? After what ya'll did to us, you're lucky I don't blow your fuckin brains out." Kenny replied as he slowly moved his hand to his side arm,
"Russell shut the fuck up! Look we don't want any trouble." Vince quickly interjected,
"Guys we don't need to be at each other's throats right now." Molly said while looking between the two groups,
"Sound to me like they ain't too friendly." Kenny grumbled out while keeping his eye on Russell,
"Alright that is enough! We are not going to throw down in the middle of this store! We are going to get a fire going, warm up and have a meal. Then we will talk about this and decide things tomorrow. That is what's happening." Lee shouted out in a firm voice,
The groups both slowly seemed to be calming down until they suddenly heard a groan. Then within a second they heard a hiss and a wet crunch was heard while Mike screamed out. The others quickly looked back and they were horrified to see that Rebecca had died in Mike's arms, and worse yet, she had reanimated and sunk her teeth into his neck and shoulder.
Alright guys, sorry for the wait. I hope you all liked this one as I sure did, and of course that surprise little ending. You didn't really think so many were going to avoid death like that did you? Anyway I look forward to reading some reviews so I can hear what you think of bringing back the 400 days characters. Until the next ones guys!