(Hey everyone, so far I have been trying to write a chapter a day but as I get closer to schools' start that is going to slow down. I intend to keep this story updated and publish new chapters often, but just not at the same rate I have been. Thanks for all the support. Please leave reviews, good or bad, they help.)
(I do not own Halo, the Walking Dead, or any other franchise I pull concepts or character from.)
A brief recap of last chapter:
Chief and Cortana detected and followed a phantom communication which lead to Lily's camp.
Chief tried to slow an attack on the Ericson kids by destroying their munitions tent.
Lily made up her mind that she was going to attack sooner rather than later.
Chief armed and helped the kids fortify the school and plan a battle strategy.
Lily is enroot to Ericson with a small army.
…
"Lily, I get what the boss told us about grabbing their leader and his nephew. I don't have anything against that. But do we really haft to waste all those other kids?" Jackson asked from the passenger seat in their jeep.
"Sorry for answering a question with a question, but you are always the calm cold calculated one. Why're you now coming to the defense of the people who killed Milly, Yonatan, Gabi, and all the rest of them?" Lily asked.
"I've done a lot that I'm not proud of during my time with the agency but at least they could justify it. You only want those kids heads to regain your social status back home. I could get behind avenging our fallen comrades but when killing children becomes just another way to get power, that's where I draw the line Lily. And besides, with what you did to Milly by making her kill her own sister, she was probably better off as a corpse." Jackson said.
"So what if she was, Sophia brought us nothing but trouble and I only want to make these kids pay for killing a lot of good people." Lily said as they got closer to the boarding school. Jackson sighed knowing that he couldn't save the other kids, he only wished someone else could. They had started parking in front of the school when they realized that only one person was in sight. The green armored giant from before.
"You killed three good people. But right now I only want those kids so step aside and we'll spare your life." Lily said.
Chief didn't move. He kept his position just outside the gates.
"This is you're only warning!" Lily yelled.
"Those kids aren't here, I warned them that you were coming and they took off into the woods. But if you all are edging for a fight, then I will be happy to oblige." Chief responded coldly.
"Bullshit, those windows are boarded up and the courtyard is ready for a fight. They're in there and I've run out of patients. Waste this idiot everyone!" Lily called. But as everyone raised their guns Chief had already started firing. Lily watched as four mercenaries' heads exploded from a very high caliber round before anyone got a shot off at this guy.
Lily and Jackson ducked to avoid their comrades fate as Chief finished off the front line. Lily shot under the car at Chief's foot but it didn't do a thing!
"How the hell is that guy still walking!" She yelled.
Just then a different gun fired and took the head of another mercenary off who had been well hidden behind a truck. The shot came from one of the upstairs rooms and was obviously an incredibly high caliber as it had gone straight through the truck's engine and out the other side with enough remaining force to remove someone's head completely.
"Sniper!" Jackson called out.
Chief had gone around to flank the mercenaries but ran into a man carrying a rocket launcher. However fast Chief was he couldn't have stopped someone who was obviously waiting for him. Chief's shields tanked most of the explosion but he was still sent flying through the gate. Violet had been just to the side of the gates when they came off their hinges as Chief flew through them. Chief impacted the ground hard leaving a small crater in the concrete but to Lily's amazement he got back up like nothing had happened. However, the gates were down, and a golden opportunity presented itself.
"Suppress the big guy and the sniper, charge that entrance!" Lily called out while shooting at Chief.
It was now that Aasim and Louis chose to reveal their presence as they popped out of cover and killed a couple mercenaries who had followed Lily's last order. Chief switched his battle rifle out for the Spartan laser and began charging it.
"That big guy has got to go if we want to get in this place!" Jackson yelled, though secretly he was smiling because of this guy's presence.
"How about we go around him!" Joe yelled from behind another car.
"Good thinking, Jackson stay here and keep them distracted. Joe, spot that sniper and radio who they are and where they are to me! Dean, Andy, Roe, Jack, Max, Lucas, Teagan, and Cory with me!" Lily called.
Just then Chief finished charging the Spartan laser and fired. The sound drowned out all the other gunshots around as it totally destroyed everything in its way. Lily and Jackson watched in horror as Max was hit directly by the beam and literally exploded.
"Dam!" Willy said in shock.
"So if ever there was a doubt that Chief and Cortana were from the future, it just blew up with that guy." Omar said.
Having been friends with Max, Joe shouted a curse at Chief and fired his sniper rifle hitting Chief directly in the head. The impact caught Chief off guard and along with giving him a good headache, it also dropped Chief's shields. Chief ducked into cover behind the warthog to let his shields regenerate.
"Kolby take Max's spot and book it around the wall!" Lily said.
The small band of mercenaries got to the wall just as Chief popped back out of cover again with newly recharged shields. Violet, having not fired a shot the entire time ran to the warthog and got on the turret. She started chewing any cover the mercenaries had to pieces and killed a good number of them who popped their heads up to see what was happening. Lily and her gang had found one of the walls weak points and hopped over it into the grave yard.
"Dang, they bury their dead. Maybe they're more civilized than we thought" Jack said sarcastically.
"Well look at this one." Roe said as she pointed to Minnie's headstone.
"Guess Milly got off that boat after all." Dean said.
Lily simply read all the names that were there. "Marlon, Brody, Minnie, Sophy, Michal, and James. Happy now?" She asked.
"Well, after we kill the rest of 'em, we should bury them here with them. After all, they did that for one of us." Kolby said.
"Let the dead bury the dead, we have a job to do." Lily said as she walked toward a boarded up window of the main building.
Lily had brought one brick of C4 with her which was a precious commodity these days. She placed in between two boards, backed up and shot it with her pistol. The blast shook the whole building and messed up one of Clem's shots.
"Dean, Andy, Roe, when Kolby and I give the signal you rush those stairs and shoot anything that moves. Jack, Cory, Lucas, Teagan, you guys go in and draw the fire of anyone in there. Kolby you and I are going to go around the building and hit them from another side." Lily said.
Just then Joe started calling Lily's name over the radio. "Lily, Lily, pickup!"
"What is it?" She asked
"That sniper is in the front most upstairs room on the left side of the building, whoever they are, they're dropping our people out here and fast." Joe called.
"Good work, pull everyone back a little. Lure them into a false sense of security." Lily said as she motioned for the attack to begin.
Lucas was the first person to try and run out of the breached room and into the hall way but got shot in the head from down the hall.
"That will teach them something!" Willy called out.
"Keep an eye on that room." Cortana said from her chip on the table.
"Trust me, anything that comes out won't be moving for long!" Omar yelled as he positioned himself behind a wall with the Saw.
Teagan started shooting blindly down the hallway as he covered Cory who ran across to a room closer down the hall. However, after Cory made it, Teagan stepped out into the hall way as Jack ran behind him to the same room.
After Jack made it, he looked back in horror to see Teagan riddled with holes and falling over dead.
"Anyone else feeling lucky!" Mary yelled.
Cory and Jack were scared out of their minds at the weapons these kids had.
"How on God's green earth did they get machine guns!" Cory asked.
"I think it has something to do with that guy who blew Max up!" Jack yelled.
Just then they heard a gunshot and a teenaged Girl scream; "Omar!"
Having taken a bullet to the back, Omar doubled over backwards. The Saw fell directly on his face knocking him out, but giving the appearance of death. Mary saw Lily grabbing AJ out of the corner of her eye but didn't have enough time to shoot her before she knocked AJ out and pulled him behind a wall. Ten tried to charge the wall but had to duck into cover to avoid being shot by another raider who was covering Lily. Mary grabbed Cortana's chip and ducked into cover. Willy didn't get as lucky though as a rifle bullet grazed his shoulder.
"This is Cortana to all remaining defenses. Omar is down, Willy and AJ are injured, and hostile troops have breached the building from the east and west wings! Requesting immediate backup!" Was the message that everyone heard over their com links, including Lily who had taken AJ's. "Who an earth is Cortana?" she thought. Upon hearing the message, Clem, Chief and Violet all ran to help.
Violet was about to enter the door when a flurry of bullets hit the main door from Cory and Jack's direction. Chief instead entered by ripping the door of the wall and using it as a shield for Violet. He shot Jack's leg to ribbons but couldn't finish him off before he and Cory returned to cover. Clem had also gotten down the stairs by now, even with crutches and had gotten to Mary and Cortana.
"Lily, we can't keep this up for long. We've taken too many casualties!" Jackson yelled over the walky talky.
Suddenly Lily had an idea. "Stop all of you, stop shooting! I have AJ and I'll kill him if you don't." She said over the enemy com link.
Everyone inside the building stopped shooting, even Chief.
"Good, now I'm willing to pack up and leave if nobody fires another round and Clementine surrenders herself to me! Failure to comply with those terms will result in AJ getting a hole in his head!" Lily said coldly. "Clementine, you have till the count of ten to surrender and come over here."
Cortana secured the coms between her and Chief.
"How likely is it that she follows through on that?" Chief asked.
"I have no clue, but normally she was a scheming opportunist and with how badly beat her forces out there are, she is probably trying to look for a way to cut and run." Cortana said.
Lily started counting. "One…Two…Three!"
"I have to go." Clem said under her breath.
"No!" Mary said. "She's goanna kill AJ anyway, and then she'll kill you too!"
"Then just know that Chief is the best person to replace me." Clementine said as she got up and started walking.
Ten started crying as he saw Clem get up. Violet knew that Clem would go the ends of the earth to save AJ but this just seemed like suicide to her. Clem turned to Chief and said; "Take care of them for me." Chief nodded. Everyone else was thinking that Clem was committing suicide but Chief understood that it was a leader's job to do everything in their power to keep their people alive. Even if that meant losing theirs in the proses. Lily had reached eight when Clem walked around the corner where Lily was hiding. Lily paused a second when she noticed Clem had lost a leg. She then grabbed her knocking Clem off her crutches and pulled her behind the wall as Kolby pointed his gun at her to make sure she wouldn't move.
"Nobody shoot at anyone, and don't try to follow us!" Lily said as they followed cover to a knocked in window. Cory helped Jack through the hall way and after handing Jack off to Dean who was still outside Cory looked back and saluted Chief. Cory then sighed, hesitated and left.
Outside, Louis and Aasim had actually beaten the raiders back quite a bit. They hadn't heard the communication because of all the noise on the front lines. They thought they had won when all the remaining raiders suddenly started retreating and getting into their last operational vehicles. They didn't waste the opportunity to kill any raider that stuck out too much or went back for the gun or body of a fallen raider. When the last vehicles were well off in the woods they got up, gave each other a high five and yelled in victory. However, that mood soon changed when they came inside.
"We won! Those losers are running back to their community in shame!" Aasim yelled.
"Wait, why all the down faces? We won didn't we?" Louis asked.
"L…Lily killed Omar and took Clem and AJ" Ten said, still half in tears.
"W…wait, what? Chief, he can't be serious! This is all a joke or something, right?" Aasim asked.
Chief just hung his head down and said; "Sorry guys, but the kids telling the truth."
Louis fell to his knees, he felt like his entire world had just been flipped upside down. Violet tried to comfort him but could tell that Louis was devastated. Aasim just wandered over to Omar's body. Mary came over next to him.
"One minute, I think I just beat an army. The next, I find out my best friend's dead." Aasim said. He looked at Mary and asked; "H…how did he die?"
"Lily, shot him in the back. The gun he was carrying crushed his head. I tried to save him, but… his injuries were too severe." She said softly. "Aasim, even if the brain trauma hadn't killed him, the blood loss would have. Lily hit one of his major arties."
"He won't turn, will he?" Aasim asked in a tone that was getting angrier.
"No, he won't." Mary said.
"Aasim, I'm so sorry." Cortana said. "Chief and I have lost friends before but none that were as old as Omar. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."
"I'm fine Cortana. We should bury Omar and the raiders. All that noise will have attracted every walker within miles." Aasim said.
"Then let's get to work. There are a ton of bodies out there." Willy said.
"You all go bring the bodies inside the walls, I'll deal with any walkers that come this way." Chief said.
"Wait who made you leader? Just because Clem is gone doesn't mean that we can't appoint a new leader!" Aasim yelled.
"Aasim, don't your grief out on Chief. If it weren't for him, we would all be dead right now." Violet said.
"Yeah, and Clem made him leader before Lily took her!" Willy yelled at Aasim.
"Besides, who else would we make leader. Chief is obviously the most logical choice!" Violet said.
"Stop yelling at Aasim Violet! Omar just died and Aasim didn't even get to say goodbye to him. Don't you have a heart?" Mary yelled at Violet.
Everyone started bickering except Chief who was neutral and Louis who was still taking in the fact that he had lost a good friend, the person that he might have asked to marry him, and his possible future step son. Chief helped him to his feet and led him into another room.
"Are you ok?" Chief asked.
"Chief I… I was supposed to protect her! I promised her that I would protect her after she lost her leg and I failed!" Louis said, obviously still in shock.
"You didn't fail her; she chose to let Lily take her to save AJ." Chief explained.
"Listen kid, I'm not good with speeches but I know how it feels to lose someone that you really care about. I never really opened up to anyone in the UNSC except for Cortana, a couple childhood friends, and one sergeant that I served with. On our mission to stop the flood, that same sergeant trusted me to have his back. I let my guard down and he got killed. Point being that you didn't fail Clementine and you still have a chance to save her. But you need to be strong in order to do that. Don't make the same mistake that I did Louis." Chief said.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Louis said as he seemed to calm down. "Let's go rejoin the others."
They walked into the main room and everyone was still arguing, even Cortana. Chief, having listened to the bickering long enough, shut the arguing down.
"Everyone stop!" Chief yelled.
Everyone paused and looked at Chief.
"I don't really care who the leader is but Clementine told me to take care of you all and whether I'm leader or not, I plan to do just that. Aasim you have every right to be angry but don't take it out on us. Violet, Aasim is grieving the loss of his best friend, try to respect that fact when you take a different point of view than his. Now those raiders bodies aren't going to bury themselves and if left to decay they're only going to attract walkers. We also need to properly bury Omar. Does anyone have a problem with that?" Chief asked.
Everyone shook their heads.
"Then let's get to work." Chief said.
…
AJ woke up in the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. He was next to a fire pit in a strange room. It had a wooden desk in the back and bookshelves behind it. The side of the room that he had his back to was comprised of two large windows that weren't boarded up. The wall to his left had several shelves and had a door. He expected to be tied down but found himself completely free to move around. He searched the office and found a loaded revolver. Just as he was about to shoot the window the door opened to reveal a man wearing a green jacket and black jeans. He was coaction with brown hair and a short beard. AJ immediately pointed the gun at him and yelled; "Where am I?"
"You're in my office." The man said with a smile on his face.
"Who are you? And where are Clem, Chief and the others?" AJ asked.
"Well, my name is David Carver. I know this might come as a shock, but I'm your uncle." The man said.
AJ slowly lowered the gun.
"Resourceful kid, I thought that you wouldn't find my gun." David said.
"I learned how to find secret drawers from Clem, where is she?" AJ said in an ice cold tone.
"Well you see, we rescued you from a vile woman named Lily. I'm sure your acquainted." David said as AJ nodded. "During the shootout with Lily and her soldiers, one of my men accidently hit a young teenage girl. I'm sorry AJ, but she died and turned. We had to put her out of her misery. As for the others, we assume that Lily and her men killed them but we can't know for sure."
AJ dropped the gun and started crying. David hugged him and stayed there with AJ for a long time.
…
Chief had officially killed more walkers than there were raider bodies. The battle had brought every one of them in a thirty-mile radius to what was left of Ericson and they were still coming. One walker tried to bite Chief's neck from behind but Chief slammed his head back just in time killing the walker instantly. He brought his head back again to smash the face of another walker coming at him from the front. He punched straight out to his side and through the heads of two more of them. Another walker tried to take Chief from his other side but got its head side kicked off. Chief continued to defend Ericson while the kids and Cortana gave Omar a proper funeral. It had about ended when Cortana recited the burial rite of fallen UNSC soldiers.
"Rest now, fallen hero. Your battle is fought; your war is won. Cursed be the blade that struck you down and dammed be its wielder. May the angels set upon he who hath felled you and be as a merciless storm. May we never forget your sacrifice, nor your eternal courage. May our descendants look to you as an example of service. You who have given your life, serving those who did not know you. Because of you soldier, our future is brighter and our cause more noble. It is because of you soldier, that our enemy runs in terror. Because of you soldier, our lands may prosper and our causes flourish. May the powers on high sing of your courage. May you become as one of the stars to light our way in battle. May God Himself lead you through the gates of heaven and may your reward there be great. May you find eternal rest and peace."
All the others were in tears as Cortana recited the rite. After the Funeral, Violet asked Cortana about how the rite was invented.
"The burial right of Fallen Soldiers was actually written in 2030 during the third world war. It was adopted by the United States, Great Brittan, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Israel, and South Korea as the standard field burial right when a proper funeral couldn't be performed due to a lack of a priest or minister. That practice also came about around the same time." Cortana said.
(Don't hate on me in the reviews for going a little Christian here, it's actually a military thing in a lot of countries and I'm just trying to keep it traditional.)
Chief said over the com link. "Ok there are officially too many of these things out here. The gate is busted and there are multiple breaches in the main building. Everyone get to the warthog; we're going to the Forward unto Dawn. It's easier to defend and its location is still unknown to the raiders."
Everyone was shocked that Chief would ask them to leave the place they'd called home for so many years but they couldn't argue that there was no way to keep it safe now. They knew that if the raiders came back, it would be the end of them all. And they also knew that there would be an army of walkers there by morning and they wouldn't be able to launch a rescue mission at all. So while Chief held the walkers at bay, the kids packed what little they could and got situated on the warthog. Chief finally let the walkers break through so that he could hop in the driver seat.
"Hang on!" He yelled as the warthog shot threw the advancing horde of walkers, killing any that were in its way.
Chief put Cortana in his helmet. Louis sat in the passenger seat. Violet manned the turret but didn't fire to avoid attracting more walkers. Willy sat in between Chief and Louis but on the turret platform though still hanging his legs between the two. Mary and Aasim sat in the corners created by the blast shields on the side of the warthog. Ten sat in Maries lap. They had a long drive ahead of them and Chief wasn't wasting time getting there.
"I bet these kids will think the Dawn's crew quarters are something out of a mansion compared to what they've been living in." Cortana said. "I can't imagine what they all must be going through right now Chief, there were more headstones in that graveyard than just Omar's."
"They've lost people before; they'll get over it this time." Chief said almost mechanically.
"Chief remember, these are kids, Not Spartans. They can't just push all their feelings away like you can. Ten has already lost both of his sisters and losing Omar is going to scar Aasim for life. Losing your best and oldest friend at that young of an age does stuff to your mind John. And not good stuff." Cortana continued.
"It could scar them for life, or it could make them more resilient than you could ever imagine." Chief said. "It's Louis that I would be worried about."
"Yeah, he might stop functioning if we lose Clem and AJ for good." Cortana said.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Chief said.
"When we get to the Dawn, get those satellites wired into the Dawn's sensor system. Look for anything on the internet that would pertain to the outbreak. Also find the community that Lily and her troops are based in." Chief said.
"Launching a rescue operation are we?" Cortana asked.
"Not them, just me. I can take that compound alone. I refuse to put these kids through any more than they already have been." Chief said.
"That's why you're taking them to the Dawn aren't you. To protect them." Cortana said.
"I made a promise to keep them safe and that's what I'm going to do." Chief said. "Especially since they could now be the new first generation of the UNSC."
They rode the rest of the way in silence. It was about midnight when Louis saw what looked like some kind of space ship. However, it looked like there should be more, almost like it got sawed in half. Then Louis remembered what Chief had told them about coming to their earth. When they got into the hanger almost everyone was asleep except for Violet and Louis.
"Wow, this is your ship!" Violet asked.
"Half of it." Chief said sarcastically. "Besides this is the hanger bay, let's get you all to bed, it's been a really long day and a half.
They both nodded. Chief carried everyone else to a room after giving Violet and Louis each their own. Some of the officer's quarters had survived so that's where Chief put everyone. Surprisingly there were more than enough for everyone to have their own. Cortana uploaded into the ships systems and got everything back up and running except for a couple systems but the ship had power, security measures, full medical capabilities, and a fully functional hanger and elevator.
"The kids are all sound asleep, the hanger door is closed, I'm working on a functional prosthetic eye for Violet, exterior guns and missiles should be operational within the hour, satellites have been integrated into the sensor grid, heck even the air conditioning is working. What now?" Cortana asked.
"Now we get to work on a rescue plan." Chief said as he walked down the hall.