To All-To all the reviews from last chapter expressing support and love for the story, thank you so much, and I am so happy that you all love the story!
TheFallenBlade-I will admit that I don't have plans for season 3 characters as of now, so Vince's team will not encounter Javier's family now. If they show up, it won't be until much later.
Whitetiger789-Arvo isn't gone forever, that's all I'll say about that for now...
Dragon-Sarah learning to survive is totally something I'm going to explore over the course of a few chapters at least!
AnUnorthodoxDecision-Lee and Kenny have always been my favorite duo in all of the walking dead games, in any situation as long as they had each other's backs they'd always be able to figure out a way out of any problem. And in this story, after all they've been through, their bond is nearly unbreakable as their trust in each other is cemented for sure.
Guest-Lee and Clementine bonding and relaxing is actually coming next chapter when we spend some more time focusing at Howe's so it's on the way soon enough!
Worker72-I have some big plans for season 4 locations and characters in the future of this story, so I hope you'll be just as excited as me when that time comes around!
Thedarkpokemaster-I have some enemies planned out for the group in the future before we hit future seasons, the only hint I will give is, Arvo hasn't forgotten what happened to him.
Titan616-I'm glad you're liking the story as well as Molly, just adding her and Lee to the mix has made all the difference to the season 2 story and I feel she adds a lot to the group!
Enjoy
"She's going too?" Nick asked as he watched Molly pull the bow over her shoulder before grabbing a quiver with a few arrows,
"Wasn't exactly the plan," Kenny admitted before shaking his head, "But probably for the best, Molly kept me and Lee fed for over a year on the road," Kenny pulled down a lever-action rifle and looked it over before taking the weapon for himself, "Besides with my eye, I ain't gonna be the best shot out there no more,"
"As if you ever were, grandpa," Molly teased,
Kenny rolled his eyes at the comment, "Only I could end up babysitting two fucking kids today,"
"I ain't a kid," Nick snapped back as he grabbed a pump-action shotgun, "You're not babysitting me, I told you I know what I'm doing,"
"You taking that?" Kenny merely asked back as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall,
"Yeah, what of it?" Nick frowned,
"You got any fucking brains at all?" Kenny scoffed as he quickly walked over and snatched the gun out of Nick's hands and put it back on the wall,
"What the hell?! I know what fucking gun to use!" Nick argued,
"The hell you do," Kenny muttered back, "You ain't gonna kill a damn thing with that unless you get right up behind them, and even then, you think we want to take all the time to pick all the buckshot out?" Kenny grabbed a simple hunting rifle with a shot ranged scope attached, "Here use this one, a clean shot will take a deer down without a problem," He explained while tossing the gun into Nick's hands, the man fumbled to get ahold of it for a moment, "That making sense?" Kenny asked with a bit of snark,
"Yeah, whatever man, I'll use the fucking hunting rifle," Nick mumbled back as he moved over and pulled a box of rounds out,
"Twenty rounds apiece boys," Molly chimed in, "All Lee said we could afford to use,"
"We use twenty rounds without getting anything, I'll have to use one more on myself," Kenny smirked as he and Nick loaded up, putting the loose rounds in their pockets after loading their guns, "Ready kid?"
"Yeah, let's just get this over with," Nick grumbled as he shoved past Kenny and Molly,
Molly peered over and was surprised to see Kenny with a smirk on his face, "Enjoying yourself?" She asked the southern man.
Kenny's smirk quickly fell away and he slung his gun over his shoulder, "C'mon, let's get moving, we're burning daylight,"
As the trio made their way to the exit of Howe's Vince jogged over to them, "Hey guys, here, take one of these with you," He held out a walkie talkie to the trio which Kenny quickly took, "Short wave radios, not totally sure the distance on them but if you get into any trouble hopefully you can call us on it. Lee's got one and I'll take one too, better to be safe right?"
"Smart thinking Vince," Molly agreed, "Best of luck out there,"
"You too, hopefully, we'll be bringing the power and you'll be bringing the food tonight," Vince chuckled before turning back and jogging to the weapons room as well.
As the Asian man entered the room he saw Russell, Shel, and Jane packing up their bags of gear. Lee marked down what they were taking before noticing Vince and moving over to the man, "I don't want you guys going in under-equipped," Lee explained, "What do you think you'll need?"
"I want to keep it quiet," Vince replied as he moved over to the weapon racks, he noted that Russell had taken an automatic rifle while Shel and Jane kept it small with only a few sidearms, "Think I'll go with this," Vince said after a moment before grabbing a crossbow off the wall, "If we're lucky we won't have to make noise with any guns, but if we're unlucky, well at least we got Russell,"
"Fair enough, that should keep us pretty well stocked here if we run into any trouble while you're all out," Lee said more as a side note to himself, "Kenny get the radio?" Lee asked while taking his final notes,
"Yeah, he's got it," Vince replied as he picked up his pack giving it a final once over before feeling confident that he was set, "Everyone got rope, a knife, bandages? Vince asked his team, "Anything we may need if we get stuck of if something goes wrong?"
"Nothing is gonna go wrong," Jane replied while crossing her arms, "I've done a million runs into the city before, if we're quiet, and not stupid we can get in and out no problem,"
"Yeah, I got my stuff, Vince," Shel pipped in before Vince could reply,
"Got what I need," Russell followed,
"Good, let's get moving," Vince said while he gave Jane a side-eye for a moment, he then looked back over to Lee, "Hope I don't hear from you," He joked,
"Me too, remember if you're not back by tonight we're coming first thing in the morning," Lee said with a stern look, "Don't take risks if the town looks bad just come back and we'll figure something else out. Keep eyes out for walkers but more importantly, anyone who might be following you, last time my group was out...Molly ended up taking medicine from someone, that means we aren't the only ones around here, and we didn't exactly make friends by doing that,"
"Lee I got it," Vince assured, "Just worry about what's going on in here, we need a place to come back to," He reminded the man. Lee nodded back and watched as the four walked out of the armory and headed out the back exit as well. He followed them over and closed the loading doors behind them. "Alright, the town is a few miles from here, keep up, we're gonna have to move fast to be back by night," The four survivors lightly began to jog out of the parking lot of Howe's and into the woods, following the main road as they went.
Back in Howe's Lee headed back up to his office to put his notes away as he dropped the clipboard onto his desk he pulled his radio out and called Luke, "How's everything looking so far?"
"Uh, well, ain't seen much activity in the distance so far, just the occasion walker, but they wander off quick enough," Luke replied, "Wyatt and Bonnie took a quick patrol around the ground level, just to make sure no walkers have snuck up on us,"
"Good, the others just left, so we gotta keep on our toes until they get back," Lee reminded Luke, "Let me know if anything changes or if you get a call from one of them,"
"Will do," Luke fired back before the radios went silent once more.
Lee let out a slow exhale as he thought of everyone who had left, he was concerned with what they may find or who may find them. Molly, of course, was a main concern but he couldn't deny that Kenny and Vince were a close second. Without them, keeping their group together would be harder than ever, but Lee tossed the concern from his thoughts. He knew he couldn't help them and to worry would only waste his time today.
Lee headed out of his office and headed back down towards the pen where he saw the three girls still inside. Sarah continued to care for AJ as best she could while Clem and Becca were finishing up a short conversation. "Okay, so you ready to go again?" Becca asked while stretching out her arms for a moment,
"Yeah, I'm good," Clementine nodded before the two raised their hands and changed their stances. Lee raised a brow for a moment and watched as Becca charged forward. In a surprising show of skill, Clementine grabbed Becca's arm and flipped the girl over her back, swiftly pinning her to the ground, "Pinned," She smiled,
"Yeah, congrats, you can take down anyone my size," Becca retorted while Clementine let her go and she rolled over to get up, "Still, we're getting faster, and stronger. We should at least be able to hold our own now,"
"To say the least," Lee interjected causing the girls to look over at the man, "Where'd you pick that up, Clem?"
"Christa," Clementine replied with a small proud smile,
"She taught you that?" Lee said in some surprise,
"Not exactly," Clementine explained, "Awhile ago, we got attacked by some people on the road, one of them had a knife, but Christa grabbed their arm and got them to the ground just like that. She told me she took a self-defense class before everything happened, and I thought maybe, we should have something like that too,"
"Can't say it's a bad idea," Lee nodded, "We really should be training everyone on how to defend themselves, how to use knives properly, and how to fire a gun. They are important skills nowadays,"
"Anyone who can't fire a gun by now is dead," Becca retorted, "That might as well have been day one stuff for me,"
"I...I don't know how yet," Sarah quietly pipped in,
"Would you like to?" Lee calmly asked,
"I'm not sure...my dad said they were dangerous," Sarah softly replied,
"Your dad is dead, Sarah, it doesn't matter what he said before," Becca frowned,
"Becca!" Clementine exclaimed. Sarah hung her head and let out a few sniffles, "What the hell?!"
"What? It's the truth Clem, she has to forget that crap and learn before something happens to her," Becca retorted,
"Yeah, but you don't need to be an asshole about it!" Clementine yelled back as she gritted her teeth,
"Alright, everyone calm down," Lee interjected his voice firm with a touch of anger, "Becca I know damn well your sister taught you better than that. Now everyone is gonna learn how to do this right but no one is gonna be forced to do it,"
"No, I wanna...I wanna learn," Sarah spoke up as she sniffed,
"Then you'll learn," Lee nodded,
"We'll teach you, Sarah," Clementine smiled.
Meanwhile in the woods a few miles from Howe's Kenny, Molly and Nick felt that nearly two hours of travel was a safe distance to use guns safely and not bring back trouble to Howe's afterwards. "Okay well I marked trees back to Howe's so if we get lost we should be able to find our way back," Molly explained as she pulled her bow off her back,
"Good, we need to keep sharp, no telling what could sneak up on us out here," Kenny added while looking over to Nick, "And we don't take a shot at nothing unless we know were gonna make the kill, get me? If we make too much noise, we're only painting a target on our backs,"
"Yeah, I know," Nick muttered as he turned scanned the treeline behind him, "Doubt were gonna even get anything,"
"Don't think like that," Molly rebuffed, "I saw rabbits and squirrels while making our way out here, not a lot, but enough to feed us for a few days,"
"Squirrel? Seriously?" Nick almost snorted,
"Knock off the whining would ya?" Kenny snapped out, "Food is food, meat is meat, and you need to change up this fucking attitude, were gonna be out here awhile,"
"I'm fine! If you would just get off my back, we could already have started!" Nick fired back,
"You boys have fun," Molly sighed with a roll of her eyes while she wandered off into another direction,
"That's your problem, you just want to do shit, but you don't want to take the time to do it right!" Kenny continued, missing Molly's exit completely,
"I know what I'm doing, I told you I've done this before!" Nick growled,
Kenny's jaw locked but instead of shouting he slung his rifle over his shoulder, "Fine, go ahead sport, you know what you're doing, then lead the fucking way,"
"Thank you!" Nick exclaimed as he stormed off with Kenny in tow.
Nearly twenty miles away, Vince and his team were slowly making their way towards the far away town, they were making good time but keeping up with Jane was proving a bit difficult. The woman was moving at a grueling pace, and didn't seem interested in keeping with the rest of the group, add to the fact that Shel, Russell and Vince hadn't been this far out of Howe's in months didn't help. "Hey, break?" Vince huffed out to Jane who kept moving silently, "Jane!"
"What?" The woman dryly asked back, not slowing,
"Let's take a break huh? Just catch our breath?" Vince explained while looking over to Shel and Russell who nodded in agreement,
"You're out of breath?" Jane frowned, "How are you going to be able to carry what we find back if you can't carry what you already have?"
"Listen lady," Russell grunted, "We've been just about running for the last hour trying to keep up with you, we just need a fucking minute,"
"Who said you needed to keep up with me?" Jane easily replied,
"Good point," Russell sighed as he slowed down next to a fallen tree and sat down, "We're breaking,"
"Russ, we really shouldn't split up," Shel almost winced as she began to slow with Vince,
"Hey, she's the one walking away," Russell argued as he pulled out a bottle of water from his pack,
"Vince?" Shel said nearly pleading,
Vince sighed and looked out as Jane continued to walk off, "Jane! Come on, just take a minute would you?!" Jane slowed down until she stopped, "We need to stay together, splitting up is only asking for trouble, Lee warned us about people being out here,"
Jane shook her head and finally turned back returning to the group, "Yeah, I know about people being out here, that's why I want us out here for a little as possible, the key to scavenging is getting out, quick and quiet,"
"I know, but staying together is better then going alone, if we end up getting jumped we only stand a chance if we're together," Vince reminded her,
"Besides, we haven't really done this kind of stuff in months, we could use someone with your...expertise," Shel added,
"Expertise?" Russell scoffed, "What's there to looking around for some food and water? How can you really be an expert at that?"
"Russ, c'mon, don't be a dick," Vince muttered as he shook his head,
"I'm not," He smirked back, "I'm just saying, expert sounds stupid," He shrugged back,
"Hey, I lived out here for years, I learned how to make it by myself, finding food, water, ammo, whatever I needed day by day, without anyone's help. Hell, at this point you're just slowing me down," Jane retorted with a frown,
"Yeah, okay, slowing you down. And didn't you end up in our camp, eating our food, and sleeping in our beds?" Russell reminded the woman, "Besides we aren't helpless we know what we're doing,"
Just then the group heard twigs snapping and the sound of a walker growl filled their ears. Shel's eyes went wide and she screamed, "Russell look out!" A walker slowly rose to its feet from the other side of the fallen tree, grabbing onto Russell's jacket and pulling his neck towards it's rotten jaws,
"Fuck! Fuck!" Russell exclaimed as he struggled against the walkers pull,
Vince and Shel struggled to pull out their guns and get a clean shot on the rotten corpse, Jane however moved with ease, and nearly without care, over the tree, jamming her knife into the back of the walkers head mere moments before Russell was bitten. The walker fell and Russell fell to the ground, crawling away his eyes wide in fear, "You were saying?" Jane asked with a raised brow.
"We...should get going," Vince gulped as he slung his crossbow back over his shoulder,
"About time," Jane gruffly agreed heading past the trio and towards the town once more,
"You okay?" Shel softly asked as she helped Russell to his feet,
"Y-Yeah," Russell nodded trying to hide his shivers, "Too close...haven't...damn,"
"Let's go, keep your eyes open, okay?" Vince interjected as he motioned for the pair to follow him.
Back in the woods, hours had passed as Kenny followed Nick, silently letting the man try to lead their hunt, and so far he was far from successful. While Nick constantly found tracks following them as his late uncle taught him, he wasn't finding anything. He embarrassment quickly turned into irritation towards Kenny, "Would you fucking stop," He grunted,
"I ain't saying shit," Kenny replied,
"I know we haven't found anything yet, but we're getting close I'm sure of it," Nick snapped back,
"Fine, I'm following you," Kenny reminded the younger man,
Nick pursed his lips and continued to lead Kenny for a few more minutes in silence before sighing and turning back, "Well, you could contribute, you know, you notice anything that I might be missing or something?"
"Yeah, I noticed a few things so far," Kenny replied,
"Like?" Nick asked,
"That you really don't know what you're doing, so far you've followed the tracks of walkers, dog, yourself...pretty much everything but what we're looking for," Kenny answered,
"You couldn't have said anything?!" Nicked exclaimed with tossing his hands up,
"You didn't want to fucking listen, so figured you'd find it out eventually," Kenny retorted,
"Listen I know how to...I'm not useless, okay?" Nick muttered,
"Never said that," Kenny calmly replied, "But doing shit wrong ain't gonna help no one, so how about you listen for once and learn something,"
"Fine, fine, go ahead," Nick finally lamented while stepping aside. Kenny walked forward and slowly looked at the ground, looking for trails. Minutes passed as Nick silently watched the man work, until he seemed to pick up on something, "Find something?"
"Yeah, fresh tracks," Kenny replied as he ran his hand along his chin, "If we're lucky we may just get something,"
Nick readied his rifle as he and Kenny started to follow the tracks, "Where'd you learn to do this?"
"Hunted with my old man a few times, but that was when I was younger, about two months into all this shit Me and Lee had to start hunting for our group. Found out everything I thought I knew didn't mean shit, had to learn it all over again," Kenny explained, "But knowing that I either had to learn quick or starve was a hell of an incentive."
Nick let out a half laugh and shook his head, "Sounds like something my uncle Pete would've said,"
"Pete the one who taught you?" Kenny asked as he stopped to check the trail once more before moving again,
"Tried too," Nick sighed, "I didn't make it easy for him, but he tried his best. He, uh, he died a few weeks back now,"
Kenny looked over to Nick with sympathy, "I'm uh, sorry to hear that,"
Nick sucked in a sharp breath and shook his head, "Doesn't matter, shit happens,"
"You can say that again," Kenny agreed before stopping and motioning Nick to get down. The pair slowly crouch walked forward until they spotted a buck slowly grazing on the small vegetation that poked through the snowy ground below it. "Take your time, forget the head, aim for the neck of just below it's shoulder on its front leg," Kenny whispered to Nick,
"Huh? What are you talking about, you're taking the shot old man," Nick replied with a shake of his head,
"Hell I am, I ain't good enough without my other eye yet, and we aren't wasting this chance, you can do this," Kenny all but hissed back,
Nick swallowed hard and slowly lifted his rifle, putting the deer in his crosshairs, he took a few slow breaths trying to remember what Pete had taught him as well back when they used to hunt. Of course that was with a shotgun, and ducks, but he knew one thing was the same, he only had one shot.
Kenny leaned in watching the deer intently as Nick's breathing dropped to barely audible, his arms becoming rock steady. Nick's finger twitched slightly on the trigger as he waited, the animal continued to eat for a minute before lifting its head up, and then Nick fired. The bullet hit the deer directly in the neck and the beast fell to the ground with a thud.
Kenny's lips curled into a smile and he reached out patting Nick on his shoulder, "Hell of a shot," He warmly stated before standing up and moving to the deer to check their kill. Nick lowered his head and let out a smile breathing a sigh of relief before following the man over.
Back with Vince's group, they had reached the edge of town, the four could see the skyline of homes and even a large church tower, Jane and Russell moved ahead of Vince and Shel to scout of the town from a distance, making sure it wasn't infested or worse, inhabited by others, this gave Vince a chance to check in with Shel. "Hey, how you doing?" He asked the girl as she looked at a notepad,
"Good, just looking everything over, I really hope there is a store that has a baby section that hasn't been looted to all hell, AJ could really use some stuff. Diapers, formula, hell a crib," Shel explained,
"I'm hoping we can find some gas too, were getting too low back at camp," Vince added on,
"We're low on everything at camp, patience being number one," Shel lightly joked,
"Tell me about it," Vince agreed with a chuckle, "Still, its better now without Bill,"
"Yeah, what he had us all doing, attacking groups, killing people...and Becca had to see it all," Shel mournfully added,
"She's been through a lot, her and Clem both," Vince sighed,
"We all have," Shel added just as Jane and Russell returned,
"Town seems quiet enough, so we should do this now, again quick and quiet is the key here," Jane reminded the trio,
"Got it, and remember were here for food, water, gas and baby supplies. We need food and whatever else we can get for AJ," Vince added, "If you find anything let Shel know and we'll check it off on the list,"
"Alright, let's do this," Russell nodded while turning back, pulling his rifle off his back. The four survivors exited the woods and approached the snow-covered town that silent as the dead.
Okay, so it's been a long time since I updated this story but as with all my stories I write, that doesn't mean I'd abandon it completely. I just got a bit burnt out on the idea at the time but now after more thinking and new ideas, I figured it was time to continue! I enjoyed writing this chapter as while not a lot happened, I liked the characters conversations and growth, especially Kenny and Nick. Let me know what you thought and in the next one we'll get even more of Vince's group and Lee's group at Howe's!