The Good The Bad The X-boy-Aha! Yes, someone caught the reference to the walking dead show! That was indeed a call to Rick and the prisoners, good eye. And believe it or not I do like Russell, and time will tell if he will only hinder the group or help out.
Kylegriggs13-Yeah Mike and Rebecca both bit the dust, no pun intended. As for walking dead main characters, we won't be seeing someone like Rick, but we may see some characters from the books/comics eventually.
CosmicArmor-Not trying to defend Russell's aggressiveness here but he does have some warrant being that Lee showed up, told them that everything they had was his now and that they may be kicked out depending on what his group thinks. Both sides are on edge right now. Still, Russell could chill out some; he's only making things worse.
Smeake-I had it planned out for Rebecca to die here for awhile but Mike was a bit of a recent idea. Still, I think it works, not everyone should have an intense death. Mike was just unlucky, and when Mike left the group in episode five I can see why he did it, doesn't make it right, but it made some sense.
Worker72-Well Mike left in canon due to Kenny's poor leadership ability. I love Kenny to death, favorite character after all, but Kenny can't lead anyone because he can't handle stress. With Lee leading here, him betraying the group was never a certainty, but that doesn't matter anymore…
Lone Wolf aka Black Hawk Omega-Well that was a little journey I saw in your reviews haha, glad that my storytelling converted you from not a fan to a fan. Hope you stick around and enjoy where the story goes from here!
Enjoy
Mike screamed out and let the reanimated Rebecca drop from his arms. As she fell away, she tore a significant portion of muscle apart causing blood to pour wildly from Mike's neck. He let out a gurgle and stumbled back onto the ground, holding the gaping wound with his right hand. "Mike, Holy Fuck!" Kenny exclaimed,
Rebecca swallowed the flesh she had in her mouth and raised her head, letting out a snarl to the others, suddenly a shot rang out striking her in the temple, killing her instantly. The others looked up and saw Lee, holding Carver's revolver firmly in his hand. A silence hung in the air while they all stared at Lee, the only sound came from Mike, who writhed on the ground. Lee narrowed his eyes, pulling the hammer back on the revolver a second time, and walked up to Mike.
Mike, now laid in a pool of his blood, and let out sputters of blood from his mouth. Lee loomed over him and raised the revolver, so the barrel was level with his head. Mike weakly raised his right hand, extending it towards Lee, but Lee quickly put a round through his head, granting the poor man some mercy. Lee then, without looking back to the others, dropped the revolver and slowly walked upstairs towards Carver's office, leaving the others behind. Each of the survivors looked to one another, each of them not knowing what to say or do.
"W-what happened to her?" Shel asked, finally breaking the silence after a few minutes,
"The cold, the hunger, the birth, take your fucking pick." Kenny retorted before looking over at Luke, "Look, Lee...Lee's needs a fucking minute so looks like me, and you are gonna have to work on getting this place cleaned up."
"Yeah…" Luke said staring at Rebecca's body for a moment before finally looking up at Kenny, "We'll need to drag the bodies out, and get a fire started quickly."
"Let us help with that, it's a lot of work, and it looks like some of you could use a rest," Vince interjected glancing over to Nick who still stood weakly, clutching his shoulder,
Kenny turned his head and glared at the man, despite Vince's help earlier Kenny was still wary. Jane, however, spoke up accepting Vince's help, "Yeah sounds like a plan, why don't you guys help with pulling the bodies out. Me and the kid here can start with the fire." Jane said peering over to Clem,
Kenny let out a short scoff and shook his head, yet to the surprise of the others he let out a nod, "Fine, Clem you take AJ, he needs to get warmed up." Kenny said sternly while carefully handing AJ to Clem. "You too kid, you should go with 'em," Kenny added on looking to Sarah who meekly shuffled over to Clementine.
"Nick why don't you go too, you still need your rest man," Luke said easily to him,
"Molly helped me out; it's feeling better. I can help." Nick replied in weak defiance,
"Nick, you had an infection that probably got into your blood. If you didn't get those meds you might have died already, so what you need to do now is rest and let your body continue to heal." Luke immediately replied firmly,
"Jesus?" Shel pipped in, "Let me take a look."
"What would you know about-" Kenny started to ask while she walked over to him,
"I was Carlos's assistant; he taught me a few things." Shel quickly replied while leading Nick towards the pen, "And infections was one of them."
Luke let out a little thankful nod before looking back towards the main group, "Alright let's get this going, faster it gets done the quicker we can all get warm."
"Well if we're trying to get this done quick then you should have someone on watch for you guys." Becca replied dryly, "Bonnie and I could keep an eye out, so you all aren't expecting to get jumped at any second."
"Sounds smart, easier to work if you feel safe." Bonnie agreed,
"Fine, let's just get a fucking move on." Kenny snapped out while walking towards the pen to grab Carver and Troy's bodies. The others spread out heading to grab a walkers corpse then start dragging them out of the building. Molly, however, took this opportunity to head up towards Carver's office and find out if Lee was alright.
She carefully made her way up the stairs and lightly knocked on the office door, receiving no response. After a moment she opened the door and saw Lee sitting on the floor, leaning against Carver's desk, staring at the floor. Molly stared at him for a few seconds, before walking in and closing the door behind her, "What are you doing?" She asked with a little-raised brow. Lee glanced up at her and let out a short scoff, "Alright, so this is serious." Molly said more to herself then him while she moved to his side, "What's on your mind?"
Lee took in a slow breath and rubbed his brow for a short minute, "I can't do this Molly." He said plainly,
"What, move the bodies, we got all that worked out," Molly replied in a bit of confusion,
"No Molly," Lee snapped back while jumping to his feet, "This! All of this!" He shouted out, "People are looking to me for answers while everyone drops like flies around us! I don't know what the fuck to do, I tried to get us somewhere safe, and now two more of us are dead!" Lee continued, "My life is fucking death, it surrounds me and I can't do a fucking thing about it!" He exclaimed while swiping the papers and notepads off of Carver's desk,
"Lee, calm down. Just take a breath." Molly said while easily putting her hands up, "You've only done what you thought was best for everyone, and we need you more than ever now."
Lee glanced back to her before turning his head back to the desk. His hand rested on the wood, and he let out a slow exhale, shaking his head slowly, "No," He finally said in an eerily calm voice, "I can't do this, I won't."
"Lee, you-" Molly tenderly said only to stop as he held up his hand. She stopped, letting out a sharp exhale, "Fine, you want to be like this then stay up here." Molly shot out as she swung open the office door, "Be selfish." She added on before leaving the office.
Molly made her way down the stairs and headed towards the pen; she could see both Jane and Clementine at the firepit. Sarah sat with AJ, her face sunken in and she almost seemed to be lost, she stared out towards the sky her eyes blank as if she wasn't even really there. Molly gave her a short sympathetic look before moving over towards Jane and Clem. As she knelt down, she looked over to see Jane pulling out a small nail file, "Found this on one of those walkers the other day." She said with a grin,
"How does that help us? It's just a nail file." Clementine said with a little scoff,
"Hey, versatility is not overrated. Check this out," Jane said while pulling out her knife and move both of the items of the firepit. She quickly slid the blade over the file, causing a small sprinkle of sparks to fall over the pile of kindling.
"Whoa," Clementine whispered out under her breath as she saw the fire immediately start to take. Molly quickly reached over and began to feed the fire some dry bark while Jane turned over to Clementine with a smug smirk, "I would never have thought of that."
"Well, you gotta start thinking like that kid." Jane said while extending her arm that held the nail file, "The biggest thing about surviving is to find workarounds, nothing is ever gonna go the way you want it to. So you need to be ready to figure out another way to reach your goal." Clementine let out a small nod and took the nail file.
As the three women continued to tend to the fire, making it grow in size and intensity, Kenny walked past them, with Luke pulling a metal cart right behind him. Kenny made his way next to Carver's frozen corpse; he glanced up to Luke who quickly moved over and took hold of the man's feet. "Keep your head down and listen, alright?" Kenny grumbled out as he grabbed Carver's arms,
Luke immediately looked up, a look of confusion prominent on his face, "Huh?"
"Head down asshole." Kenny hissed out causing Luke to lower his head quickly,
"Sorry, but what the hell is this about Kenny?" Luke asked just peering his us up towards the man,
As Kenny lifted Caver's body, he craned his neck, making sure no one was nearby. After a moment he said, "Look, this plan Lee has worked out ain't gonna work. You heard these guys, they don't want us here, and they think they can call the shots on all this shit." Kenny whispered out to him,
"What? Man, I don't know." Luke said with a little grunt while they tossed Carver's body onto the cart, "Sure a few of them are a little rough, but Lee said we could trust 'em. I won't lie, we don't usually see eye to eye a lot, but I know the guy wouldn't be alright with them if they were an issue."
Kenny let out a scoff and shook his head, "You see what's going on with Lee, I'm not sure if he's the one who should be calling shots right now. I mean hell, he's not even here right now, he's up in the office doing god knows what."Luke's eyes widened slightly, and he looked at Kenny in some shock, "Easy boy, I'm not saying Lee's a problem, but the guy's got a lot on his mind. I'm not sure if he's thinking clearly." Kenny quickly said defending his words as just, "And if he's not thinking clearly then he's putting us all at risk."
Luke let out a slightly irritated sigh and rubbed his face, "Man, why the hell are you telling me this?" He snapped out,
"Because we are in a precarious fucking situation right now." Kenny grumbled back to him, "With Mike dead, we just lost some serious fucking muscle. Think about it, Nick and Lee are both fucked up, that just leaves Me, You, Clem and Molly to defend ourselves if these guys get any bright ideas."
"And Jane," Luke said, his brow slightly narrowing,
"Doubt it," Kenny blankly replied while reaching down, taking hold of Troy's mangled corpse, "She's someone who goes with the winner, if things get tough she'll either split or join 'em."
"You don't...you don't know what you're talking about." Luke stammered back, becoming a bit defensive of Jane,
Kenny let out a sharp exhale, quickly becoming agitated, "Yes I do boy, and I need to know your head's on straight if things start to go wrong."
Luke shook his head in response, "Kenny you're looking for trouble right now, nothing's gonna happen."
"He's right Luke." Nick's voice suddenly said making the two men jump slightly. Luke looked up, and Kenny turned his head only to see Nick standing a few feet to the side,
"Jesus man, how long you been there?" Luke asked taking a short breath,
"Long enough to know what you're talking about." Nick replied while walking closer to them, "Kenny's right about these guys, we were part of Carver's crew, we know how they think. Right now, if I were in their situation, it'd be wanting to do whatever I had to so I could come out on top. Letting us in, and taking whatever supplies we need isn't something that'd benefit them."
Kenny let out a smile and nodded his head, "Exactly, push comes to shove I got no doubt in my mind that they'd just be looking out for themselves."
"Seriously guys, talking like this is what causes the problem you're talking about. You start treating them like the bad guys, and that's what they'll become." Luke pointed out,
"Maybe you're right, but it can't hurt for us to be prepared. I mean you saw what Russell was like, the minute he saw us he was pushing us." Nick replied while looking out towards the shop floor where the others continued to drag out walker bodies,
Kenny tossed Troy's body onto the cart while Luke moved over to Nick, resting his arm on his shoulder, "Sure Russell may have been acting tough, but Shel offered to help you and Vince got the others to help us out. You gotta look at it from their point of view; they just don't want us to leave them high and dry." Luke replied with some sincerity before walking back towards the exit of the pen.
As Luke slipped out of the pen, Kenny moved to Nick's side and crossed his arms, "If I can keep these guys busy, think you can get into the armory and get us some firepower?"
Nick, without even looking at Kenny, let out a short nod, "Absolutely."
"Good." Kenny stoically replied, giving Nick a small pat on the shoulder while walking away.
While Kenny prepared for a fight, Vince was doing his best to prevent one. He made sure to keep Russell far away from the others by making him and Wyatt drag the walker bodies to the dumping hole on the far side of the strip. Bonnie and Becca patrolled along the route, keeping them safe but Vince started to grow concerned when Luke began to pull his cart of bodies down to the dumping hole. He wouldn't be able to monitor the people outside; he just hoped that everyone would keep their minds and realize nothing good could come from a fight.
As Vince worked on preparing another cart of bodies for Wyatt and Russell to take down to the dump, Shel came walking over. He turned his head as he heard her steps and stopped working once he noticed her face was showing some worry. "Oh hell, what now?" He muttered out while walking over to her,
"I think we are going to have a problem," Shel said while pulling her hair back and tying it off into a ponytail,
"Tell me about it; I've been doing my best to minimize Russell's interaction with the new guys." Vince agreed,
"That's good, but that's not what I was gonna say." Shel replied while peering over to the far side of the building where both Kenny and Nick were, "Those two, Nick and the one with the beard, they're an issue."
Vince let out a low sigh and rubbed his eyes slowly, "Sonofa-why, what are they doing?"
"Nick doesn't trust us, or at least not all of us, and the other one-" Shel began to explain,
"Kenny." Vince reminded her,
"Yeah, Kenny, he doesn't trust any of us." Shel finished,
"That's a problem, but Lee can handle them. We just need to focus on controlling our people and hope he does the same." Vince said with a small shrug,
"That's just it; Lee isn't even down here. No one has seen him since Mike died, and with him gone it looks like Kenny's the one in charge." Shel replied looking back to him,
Vince ran his fingers through his hair and let out a long exhale, "Fuck, that would be a problem huh?"
"Tell me about it," Shel replied, smirking at him,
Vince looked over at her and after a moment let out a short chuckle, relieving some of his stress. "Right, listen I think what we need to do here is just get as much space between our groups as we can until Lee comes back. The less we see of each other right now, the better, think you can help me out with that?"
"You got it; I'll head outside and do my best to keep everyone separated, besides I should keep an eye on Becca. She can cause more problems than you expect." Shel said causing Vince to laugh once more. Shel returned with a small giggle of her own before moving to the loading dock and hoping down, out of the building.
Nearly three hours past as everyone worked on their given and personal tasks. Jane continued to tend the fire while Molly and Clementine worked on finding more firewood to keep it going. Nick had done as Kenny had asked him and snuck into the armory, he secured a few sidearms for everyone, he did think he could smuggle anything more significant out without being noticed. Meanwhile, the others had finished taking all the dead from the building, Vince had taken a short time also to bring some cots into the pen. Until they had the chance to thoroughly check the whole hardware store and make sure it was secure, the pen was the safest place for them to sleep. Unfortunately, this meant that they'd all be squeezed in one large, not more than twenty feet separating them.
The only person yet to be seen was Lee, he still hadn't come down from Carver's office. Each passing minute served not only to make Molly more and more angry at him but also made the chance of conflict between the two groups even greater. Molly and Clementine had located a pile of chopped wood in the back of the loading dock, they grabbed a few pieces each and began to walk back towards the pen. As they came back into the storefront, Molly glanced up towards Carver's office and noticed Lee looking down over the store. Their eyes met for just a moment before Lee walked from the window, "Fucking asshole." Molly muttered out,
"What?" Clementine asked, her eyes widening in some shock,
Molly shook her hand and looked down at the girl, "Lee, he's just given up. After everything we've been through, he's just stopped. I thought I knew him, but for him to just turn his back on everyone who needs him...I guess I was wrong."
"Molly…" Clementine said a bit weakly,
"What?" She quickly shot back, her eyes flaring up a bit,
"He's not turning his back on us; he can't," Clem replied, though not very convincingly,
"Yeah? Then why hasn't he come down?" Clementine lowered her head, unable to answer her question, "I'll tell you why Clem because he was telling the truth when he told me he was done leading."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Clementine asked in an almost shocked terror,
Molly looked at her and let out a slow sigh, "Listen, just forget about that, ignore me."
"No, you don't just get to say that and then not tell me. What did Lee say to you." Clementine said sharply,
Molly shook her head, annoyed in herself before saying, "It was earlier, I went up to try and talk him into coming down, but he told me he was done making choices. I mean he thinks he can just decide to do that, leave us to deal with this alone." Molly bitterly explained, Clementine's brow narrowed, and she dropped the firewood onto the floor. "What are you doing?"
Clementine pursed her lips and walked past Molly, "I'm going up there and talking to him."
"There's no point, just leave him to stew up there," Molly said dismissively,
"No, he needs to be reminded that there are other people out there that need him." Clementine shot back while storming towards the office. Molly shook her head but turned back towards the pen; she knew that Clem wouldn't stop, she was as stubborn as Lee. Along the way Molly paused once more, noticing a few cans of soup, she grabbed the cans ready to makes some dinner as well.
Clementine in the meantime wasted no time in making her way up the stairs, she burst right into the office and saw Lee sitting at the desk. He raised his head lazily towards her, his eyes were soft, and he let out an almost pained sigh, "Clem...what are you doing up here?"
"I should ask you the same thing!" Clementine shouted out to him while entering the room and slamming the door shut,
"It's nothing; I've just been thinking things over." Lee replied unfazed by her outburst, "You should head back downstairs, get warm by the fire."
"Maybe you should stop being an ass and get the fuck up!" Clementine shot back,
"Excuse me?" Lee said narrowing his eyes, "You need to watch your mouth."
"Are you serious," Clementine scoffed back while crossing her arms, "Lee, you're up here hiding when people need you! You need to stop being a coward!"
"A coward?!" Lee exclaimed while jumping up, "I'm a coward for trying to do what's best for everyone?!"
"Yes, because you think giving up is best! We need you to help us Lee, and you're just-just...hiding!" Clementine shouted while walking towards him,
"You don't understand; I can't help anyone! I can only get them killed!" Lee finally screamed back, "Carly, Ben, Walter, Matthew, Mike, Rebecca, that's on me, Clem! And I can't have any more people on my head; I just can't!"
Clementine's eyes instantly went soft, and she lowered her arms, "Lee," She sympathetically said, "That's not your fault, people die, there's no one to blame for that. A-and you do help, you help everyone. Especially me! We need you, someone who can protect us can think of everyone, not just a few." Lee let out a slow sigh, rubbing his eyes, "Lee, please, we can't do this without you...I can't."
Lee went utterly silent and leaned against the desk for a minute. Clementine stared at him, internally hoping that he'd change his mind. Finally, he looked back towards the window before turning back towards her, "What's going on down there anyway?"
"What do you think?" Clementine said with a little shrug, "Everyone is looking for someone to tell them what to do."
Lee let out a small nod and stepped away from the desk, "Look, I don't know about me doing all this alone again. I think I'll need some help, maybe from someone who understands when someone needs to have some sense talked into them."
Clementine let out a small smile, "I can try, at least for now."
"Sounds good, now c'mon, guess I should head down there." Lee calmly said as he walked to the office door, a focused look now on his face. Clementine let out a relieved exhale and followed him out the door.
Meanwhile, at the Penn, things were about to come to a boil. Molly had returned to the fire and began to make the few cans of soup. While everyone gathered around her, ready to grab a bowl once it finished Vince and the others walked in. Russell immediately spotted the soup and his eyes flared up, "Hey, what the hell!? Who told you, you could take that stuff?!" He exclaimed,
"Russell, relax." Vince quickly interjected putting his hand on his chest,
Kenny turned back and slowly got to his feet, a pistol tucked into his jeans, "No one told us because we didn't have to ask." He sharply retorted, Nick got up as well and stood at Kenny's side while Luke got up, his eyes turning a bit fearful,
"C'mon, Y'all, just keep cool," Luke said in a weak attempt to keep peace,
"How many times do we have to tell you, this stuff isn't yours! It's ours!" Russell shouted,
"Russell relax, it's just a few cans of soup." Shel butted in,
"No Shel, that's not the point. Russell is right, they don't ask, we're the ones trying to show some respect to them, but they are just taking what they want." Wyatt pointed out, "Why should we have to back off when they aren't showing us any respect."
"Respect?" Kenny scoffed, "You show us respect when you snatched us up and brought us to this hell hole? The way I see it, you owe us!"
"Besides we cleared this place out, without us you guys would still be locked up on the roof," Nick added on,
"Damn straight." Kenny agreed,
"Man fuck you guys! You didn't have to fight for these supplies; you didn't stay and try and defend this place when a horde came through! You just split and came back, claiming this was yours! Now you're just spitting on us!" Russell shouted pushing past Vince and moving right up to Kenny,
"Hey back off!" Nick shouted out, quickly shoving Russell back,
"Whoa, guys enough!" Vince shouted out while Russell ran back and shoved Nick back,
Just as Kenny reached back for his pistol, Lee and Clementine entered the pen. "What in the hell is happening here!" The others turned towards him before looking back at one another,
"Lee these fucking people don't get it they just-" Kenny started to say,
"Kenny, what did I say, we aren't gonna start fighting each other! I don't know why that's so fucking hard for everyone to understand!" Lee shouted out stopping Kenny dead, "And you, why the hell are you so intent on starting a fight?!"
"Because you people don't know when to-" Russell tried to explain,
"When to stop? Stop what, trying to survive?" Lee asked, "You're asking my group to starve just because you think we're leeches. But we just helped you clear, clean and secured this building." Lee explained while walking towards the center of the pen, "Everyone needs to understand something, Carver was right about something. People are a resource! We need people to make it, we survive by pulling together not apart, think about it! Look at what you accomplished in just a few hours, think about what we could accomplish given a month! Why do we need to put that chance aside to fight?!"
"Listen to him," Vince piped in, "Instead of making a rift we should pull together. We have a chance here, to build something great, something safe!"
Lee nodded in agreement, "So it's time we stop making a threat in here! We should focus on the real threat out there! The dead won't stop coming, bandits and looters won't waste a second to take what we have, and the only way that we can stay safe is if we work together! Just give it a fucking chance! For once try and see the good that can come out of our situation!"
Well, that was a fun chapter to write. Full of speeches and intense drama, definitely one of my favorites so far and I hope it was yours as well. I think of this chapter as well as an end to the Carver arch officially; next chapter will be the start of a new journey with different problems and enemies that aren't related to just Carver and Howes. Anyway, leave me a review letting me know what you thought about the chapter, as they always keep me focused and inspired to keep on writing and I will see you in the next one! Also Thank You All For Twenty-One Thousand Views!