"C'mon Bud, you can do it. Just a little further" Kris cooed to a giggling AJ in the middle of the store. Clementine had disappeared off somewhere, and left Kris to tend to the infant. AJ was getting old enough that he was starting to crawl around.
"Come on AJ, just a little bit more" Kris extended his hand and grabbed AJ, dragging him the rest of the way. The little tike was nearing 5 months old and was already crawling, which surprised both Kris and Clem. Most babies start crawling at around 6-8 months old, yet AJ was already crawling around the store.
"Kris, have you heard anything from Jake or Kenny?" Clementine shouted from the skylight above Kris, startling the older man.
"Nothing, they've gone quiet" Kris shouted back, picking up AJ and standing up.
"They should've been back a few days ago" Clementine muttered, dropping a rope down from the skylight.
"Truck might've run out of gas. Don't panic Clem, I'm sure they're ok" Kris emphasised to the young girl as she slid down the rope towards him.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Can't help but worry though…" Clementine sighed, taking AJ out of Kris' hands.
"Hello? Anyone in here?" a voice echoed through the store. Clementine and Kris looked quickly around the store, searching for the source of the voice and spotted a man walking through the door. Kris threw his arm back and un-holstered his gun, pointing it directly at the intruder.
"Who the fuck are you?!" Kris spat, moving towards the door.
"Woah, easy. I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I'm just trying to find a safe place for my family" The man spoke quickly, raising his hands.
"You have a family?" Kris' gun faltered in his grip, and he lowered the gun slightly.
"Yeah, its just Me, my wife and our son" The man explained, waving behind him. A woman and a young boy, about Clementine's age, walked in behind the man.
"Look, we're only trying to stay safe. Please, don't put us back out there" The woman pleaded from behind her husbands back, clutching their son.
"Kris? What should we do?" Clementine turned towards Kris, staring up at him. Kris seemed lost in thought, his gun still raised. He stood rigidly, the gun still raised before he sighed and holstered the gun.
"There's a spare room off the main floor with a few beds. Clementine oversees any work she deems you three need to do. Do not make me regret this" Kris ordered, walking away towards the stairs.
"Thank you, thank you so much" The woman walked up to Clementine, and shook her hand furiously, thanking her repeatedly.
"You heard Kris. Rooms over there, go unpack and get some rest" Clementine pointed out a small room across from the armoury.
"Thank you, we'll be ready to work hard tomorrow" The man walked past, the young boy trailing behind him. Clementine glared at the boy, making him shrink slightly and chase after his father.
"Hey, I didn't get your names!" Clementine turned and shouted to the family. The husband and son walked into the room and ignored her, while the wife turned and walked back.
"My bad. My name is Patricia, my husband's name is Randy and the boy is Gill" Patricia smiled, turning back towards the room her family went to and walked in, shutting the door. Clementine looked up into the open skylight and saw the sun was beginning to set, and AJ was fussing. She walked to the kitchen and grabbed a can of baby food and sat down to feed the infant.
"You know, I don't appreciate you staring down my son" Randy's voice echoed coldly behind Clementine, startling her slightly. She ignored the man and continued to spoon the green mush into the smiling infant's mouth.
"Hey, don't ignore me!" Randy snapped, grabbing Clementine by the wrist and spinning her around.
"Let. Her. Go" A gun clicked behind Randy, sending his heart into overdrive. Clementine looked back to see Kenny behind the man, a gun pointed directly against the back of his skull.
"Kenny, you're ok!" Clementine smiled, happy her friend had returned safely.
"Yeah, we're ok. And, we brought company" Kenny explained, his eyes never leaving a frightened Randy.
"So, care to explain what you're doing in here manhandling my little girl?" Kenny's words had a slight poison behind them as he kept his gun trained.
"L-look, I w-was just trying t-to get her attention. I d-didn't mean to h-hurt her" Randy tried to explain, fear consuming him.
"Well, Kris already explained you guys are new, so I can't exactly kill you. But, I have something better in mind" Kenny grinned evilly, grabbing Randy by the back of the shirt and dragging him out of the kitchen.
"What are you going to do with him?" a strangely familiar voice echoed from beyond the door. Clementine walked out behind Kenny and felt her heart drop.
"You…" Clementine spat.
"Clementine? You're alive?" Lilly looked at her shocked and moved to embrace the young girl.
"Don't you dare touch me" Clementine snapped coldly, pushing the older woman off her.
"Clem? What's the matter?" Jake walked up behind Lilly and looked confusedly towards the young girl.
"This… This… BITCH KILLED CARLY! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT AFFECTED THE REST OF US?! HOW THAT AFFECTED LEE?!" Clementine screamed in rage, staring down the older woman. Everyone was shocked to hear Clementine lash out like this, even Kenny.
"Clem, I did that for the good of the group…" Lilly tried to explain, getting cut off by the raging child.
"NO! YOU DIDN'T DO IT FOR THE GROUP, YOU DID IT BECAUSE YOU HATED HER! YOU HATED HER, AND YOU KILLED HER!" Clementine screamed, shutting her up. Lilly looked on as the reality hit her. Clementine was no longer a scared 8-year-old girl, she was a hardened survivor.
"Clementine, trust me when I say what I did back then… I really do regret it. I'm sorry for what I did years ago, and I know I can't take that back" Lilly tried to reason, though Clementine wouldn't budge.
"After everything you did. After you killed Carly, stole our RV, and caused Kenny so much grief, you have the guts to say, "I'm sorry"?! IM SORRY DOESN'T BRING CARLY BACK! IM SORRY DOESN'T BRING LEE BACK!" Clementine huffed, staring once again into her eyes.
"Wait, bring Lee back? He isn't-" Lilly looked generally surprised.
"No, he isn't here. He got bitten and died in Savannah. We took the train into the city, and he got bitten" Clementine's voice dropped when she started talking about her old mentor.
"Shit, Clem. I didn't know…" Lilly sighed, looking away in shame.
"Just don't bother. You can share a room with Randy and his family" Clementine snapped sadly, storming back into the kitchen and slamming the door shut.
"Man, you guys have issues" Kenny heard the snarky remark and turned to their new medic, Winter.
"Yeah, guess you could say that" Kenny mumbled as he dragged Randy over to the pen they once stayed in.
"You'll be spending a night in the beautiful outdoor section of our home, The Pen. Gate's gonna lock, and I have the key, so their aint gonna be any breaking out. You can come out tomorrow morning, hopefully with a bit of a better attitude" Kenny explained blankly as he opened the large shutter to the pen and shoved Randy inside.
"Whatever" Randy spat back, storming into a far corner and sitting down.
"Kenny, what happened? Clem's locked herself into the kitchen and won't open up" Kris appeared suddenly behind the beared man, startling him.
"We had a uh, slight problem with one of the new guys. I sort of forgot Clem hates Lilly, hell even I don't trust her, but we gotta make do. She's a hell of a shot, as much as I hate to admit it" Kenny explained, walking away from the locked pen.
"Well that's just great, we have a nice dysfunctional family going on" Jake joked sarcastically from behind them. He was sitting atop the shelves, moving boxes of supplies around.
"Fuck off Jake" Kris flipped his friend off, chuckling.
"So, Kenny, you want to explain where you found those other two?" Kris looked over at Kenny, expecting him to dive right into the story, but Kenny didn't say a thing.
"We'll wait till Clem comes out, and I can tell it to all y'all" Kenny waved off Kris and walked towards the room he, Kris, Jake and Clem, along with AJ, shared at the top of the store. Kris watched him go, before walking back over to the kitchen and knocking on the door.
"Clem? C'mon it's Kris, open the door" Kris called through the door. He heard a shuffling and a can hit the floor, before the door clicked open.
"What." Clementine answered emotionlessly. AJ was asleep on the table, wrapped up in a spare blanket.
"You gotta come out Clem, we're worried about you…" Kris explained, stepping into the kitchen and shutting the door.
"I just need some time alone…" Clementine replied, her voice void of any feeling.
"She must've worked herself up too much seeing Lilly again" Kris thought to himself.
"I know you might be upset because of this Clem, but you can't just lock yourself away. You need to talk to someone. Me, Kenny, even Jake as much as I hate to admit it" Kris huffed, turning towards the door.
"I don't need to speak to anyone. I just want to be alone" Clementine mumbled as Kris left the room.
"Hey, you're Kris, right? Have you seen Randy around? I can't find him anywhere" Patricia piped in suddenly as Kris left the kitchen. He jumped in surprise at Patricia suddenly appearing, spinning around to the woman.
"The new guy? He's out in the pen for the night" Kris explained, walking away.
"Wait, the pen? That outdoor area? Why is he there?" Patricia questioned, chasing after Kris.
"According to Kenny, he grabbed Clem and tried to hurt her, so he got thrown in the pen" Kris walked on, opening the door to the bedroom where he, Kenny, Jake and Clem shared the few decent beds in the store.
"Oh, I see" Patricia nodded as she retreated back to her own room.
"That was awkward" Kris thought to himself as he shut the door to his room.
"Hey Jake, wanna come chill on the roof?" Winter shouted up to Jake, who was moving the last of a few boxes around.
"Sure, give me a sec and ill meet you up there" Winter nodded and ran up to the roof. She spotted a high area at the top of the store, next to an apple tree.
"What the heck? These guys grow their own apples?" Winter looked at the plump red fruit glimmering in the moonlight.
"Don't touch them, they aren't ripe yet" Winter spun around to find Kenny standing behind her, a smirk on his face.
"Sorry, its been a while since I've seen actual fresh fruit. Can't help being fascinated, right?" Winter laughed, walking away from the tree.
"Here, let me" Kenny walked towards the tree and pulled an apple from the centre, which looked a lot riper than the rest.
"Enjoy" He chuckled as he threw the red fruit into Winter's hands, her eyes lighting up like stars.
"Wait, really? Thanks!" Winter bit straight into the skin of the apple, tearing it off and munching happily. The juice of the apple flooded out, which in turn parched her throat.
"Good, right? Clem grows 'em up here all the time. We're also looking at doing some for oranges and maybe even bananas" Kenny laughed, picking an apple off for himself.
"Can I take a few down for the others? I'm sure the other guys in our room would love some of these" Winter looked over at Kenny pleadingly, as she chomped down again into the apple.
"Sure, let me grab a few off" Kenny nodded and grabbed a handful of apples off the tree, handing them to Winter.
"Thanks a ton!" Winter shouted as she scrambled down the stairs towards her room. She pushed the door open and found Gill and Patricia talking on one of the beds, and Lilly sitting on her own bed, cleaning her rifle.
"Guys, look at this!" Winter threw two of the apples to Gill and Patricia, threw one to Lilly, then remembered Randy and threw the last one to Patricia.
"Are these… apples?" Gill looked genuinely confused at the ripe fruit in his hands.
"Yeah, fresh off the tree" Winter pointed out as she chomped down again on her own fruit.
"Damn, they must have some time on their hands for this shit" Lilly chuckled as she bit down on the fruit.
"I know, right? Apparently, they even plan to do the same thing for oranges and bananas" Winter explained, biting into the core of the apple.
"Man, I'd love to see that" Gill fantasized as he bit into his apple, his face breaking out into a smile.
"I'm sure we might" Patricia smiled, watching her son bite into the apple happily. Winter watched as the others ate happily, laughing amongst themselves, then remembered Jake.
"Uh, gotta go!" Winter turned and ran out of the room, heading straight for the stairs back onto the roof. She ran past as she saw the young girl from earlier, Clementine, leave the kitchen clutching a baby.
"Hey, you're Clementine, right?" Winter turned away from the stairs and walked over to the child.
"Yeah?" Clementine turned and faced the girl, who smiled back. Winter had a sort of uplifting air around her, which reminded her of Sarah.
"I saw what happened earlier. Not trying to pick sides or anything, but at least try to give Lilly a chance? I've known her for a while and she has mentioned on many occasions how much she regrets killing Carley like that" Winter looked down to the child, who's face faltered for a moment.
"Ill try" Clementine finished, walking away. Winter shrugged before turning and heading back up the stairs.
"Took ya long enough" Jake laughed, startling Winter as she got onto the roof.
"Sorry, got a bit distracted" Winter chuckled, climbing onto a higher perch on the roof.
"I can see. I'm guessing you found the apple tree?" Jake chuckled, throwing a piece of cracked stone at a walker in the parking lot.
"Yeah, Kenny grabbed a few apples off and I ran them down to Lilly and that other family" Winter explained, sitting on the edge of the roof next to Jake.
"Cool. Hope they enjoyed then, Clem took ages to grow the tree" Jake yawned, stretching back and laying on the smooth rock of the roof.
"Gill sure enjoyed it. He ate half the thing as soon as I gave it to him" Winter laughed, throwing a rock at the same walker, knocking it down.
"Wait, you ate it? C'mon, tell me I'm not the only one who hates apples…" Jake joked, poking Winter in the back.
"Of course. When the world goes to shit, and this is a rarity, you can't really afford to be picky" Winter sighed, trying to remember life before the apocalypse.
"Hey, do you see that?" Winter squinted in the low light and noticed the outline of a person in the tree line.
"Hey, there's someone out there" Winter dodged down as she felt a bullet graze past her.
"OPEN FIRE!" Someone shouted from the trees, and 30 odd people began shooting towards them.
"Shit, get down!" Jake grabbed Winter's shirt and dragged her down to a lower section of the roof.
"Where did they come from?!" Winter called out, clutching her shoulder.
"I don't know! We gotta go down and warn the others!" Jake scrambled to run to the door and storm down the stairs, finding everyone already gathered in the middle of the store.
"Shit, what's happening?" Kenny shouted as he ran over to unlock the gate and get Randy out of the pen.
"Bandits, I think. Damnit, why can't we ever catch a fucking break?!" Kris cursed, loading a rifle.
"We can't stay here. They outnumber us 5-to-1. We need to get out, while we still can" Jake suggested, throwing Kenny and Winter an extra pistol each.
"Are we really suggesting leaving this place?!" Patricia asked in fear. Her family never found somewhere as safe as here, and they were already planning to leave.
"We don't have a choice. If the bandits don't kill us, the walkers those guns are gonna bring will" Lilly snapped, cocking her own gun.
"Kenny, you, Winter and Patricia go load up the truck with as many supplies as we can take physically. Clem, you and Gill hunker down in the kitchen, keep AJ safe. Jake, you, Lilly and Randy are with me. We need to keep anything that isn't us out" Kris ordered, running towards the loading bay.
"Got it" Everyone else shouted in unison, moving off to do their delegated tasks.
"Wait, why are we hiding? We can help" Gill shouted to Kris, who ignored him.
"Just don't question it and follow me. Least we can do is pack the food up for Kenny to move" Clementine pointed out, opening the door to the kitchen.
"Here, take AJ and put him on the table" Clementine handed the sleeping infant to Gill, who took the baby and sat him on the table.
"Ok, what should we pack?" Gill asked, grabbing a bunch of boxes.
"Everything. If we can eat it, pack it" Clementine ordered, packing shelves of cans at a time into separate boxes.
"What about the water?" Gill began packing cans as quickly as possible, packing as tightly as possible.
"Throw it outside, its going in the truck" Clementine replied, pushing another box out of the kitchen.
"Got it" Gill packed yet another box and pushed it out, making quite the stack of food.
"Shit, the fucking truck is out of gas!" Kenny shouted. Of course, with their luck, they had forgotten to refuel the truck.
"I'll fill it, you guys pack the truck" Patricia offered, grabbing the many cans of fuel and pouring the gasoline into the tank.
"Kenny, looks like the kids are packing the food in the kitchen. You move that, I'll go get the meds" Winter raced across the store into the infirmary, slamming the door behind her.
"Truck's full, now what?" Patricia shouted to Kenny as he opened the back of the truck.
"Ammo. Get those duffel bags and load all the ammo you can" Kenny ordered, grabbing a hand trolley and running to the kitchen. Patricia followed suite with the duffel bags in her arms, slamming the door open and beginning to load bullets, magazines, guns, anything weapon like into the bags.
"Damn, we have a lot of ammo" Patricia thought to herself as she pushed more and more rounds into the bag.
"Fuck, how many of them are there?!" Kris shouted as he reloaded his weapon yet again.
"I don't know, but we can't give up yet!" Lilly shouted from above him, taking down yet another bandit.
"Fuck me, I never knew my aim was this bad!" Randy shouted, throwing another empty magazine on the ground.
"Doesn't matter, just keep shooting!" Jake called out, shooting a walker that appeared from the trees.
"Shit, walkers! We don't have much time left!" Kris hollered, moving towards the stairs.
"Kris, where the hell are you going?!" Lilly snapped back at the retreating man.
"I'm moving down to cover our people down there. We need to speed this up and get out of here!" Kris shouted back, moving down into the store. He hit the ground running, literally, as he ran towards the kitchen where he saw Kenny moving boxes towards the loading bay.
"Kenny, how's the packing going?" Kris shouted, grabbing 2 boxes and following Kenny to the truck.
"Winter's on meds, Patricia's getting ammo and the kids are packing the food" Kenny reported, stacking yet another box of food into the back of the truck.
"Awesome, I'll give you a hand" Kris offered, stacking the boxes he was holding into the truck.
"Sounds good" Kenny thanked the man, grabbing yet another box and moving it.
"Kenny, that's the last of the food!" Clementine hollered, stacking the last box on the ground and moving back into the kitchen.
"I got the meds!" Winter called, pushing a cart into the truck and unpacking boxes off it.
"And that's the last of the ammo!" Patricia threw 4 bags into the truck, then ran back to the armoury to retrieve more.
"We're done here folks! Winter, grab everyone and get down here. Ill drive!" Kris ordered as he ran over to the truck and snuck along the front, throwing the door open and sitting the keys in the ignition.
"Guys, we're going! Come on!" Winter called out, firing a few rounds off the roof at the invading walkers. The last of the bandits had dissipated, but the walkers were flooding out at full force, surrounding the store.
"Gotcha!" Jake called out, firing the last of his ammo off and moving off the roof. Randy and Lilly did the same, before the 4 of them moved down the stairs and raced to the loading bay, except for Jake, who ran to the kitchen.
"Clem, Gill, lets go!" Jake shouted, running in and grabbing AJ off the counter and racing out. The two children followed, running behind the man and into the loading bay. Kenny was throwing the last of the boxes in, while Patricia and Lilly sat inside, as well as Randy.
"I'm going up to the front!" Clementine called out, despite everyone else's protests. She managed to push through the countless walkers and jumped into the front seat of the truck.
"Clem? What are you doing here?" Kris asked her as he started the truck.
"Everyone's in, just wait for their signal" Clementine replied, slamming the door shut. A few moments passed, with more and more walkers beginning to flood out of the forest. A banging noise began around them from the walkers.
"Kris, go!" Kenny shouted from the back of the truck, slamming the door shut. Kris slammed his foot down on the accelerator, peeling out of the loading bay and driving away from the store.
"H-holy shit" Jake cursed, sliding down the side of the truck and relaxing in the back of the truck. A lot of the space was taken up by the supplies, leaving little room for the 7 other passengers.
"That. was intense" Gill sighed, clutching his mother.
"Hey Randy, sorry about earlier. Just got a bit hot headed" Kenny walked over and held his hand out to Randy, who shook it without hesitation.
"Don't sweat it. I'm sure if it were the other way around, I'd probably do the same thing" Randy chuckled, releasing Kenny's hand.
"So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened to his parents? You two don't exactly look like his parents" Kenny asked, sitting down and pointing to Gill.
"One of our old groups, we were staying with him and his parents. They were amazing people, they truly were" Patricia explained solemnly, stroking Gill's hair.
"What happened?" Kenny asked, moving slightly so Randy could sit down as well.
"Our camp got raided, and they executed his parents as an example because our leader wouldn't come out. We barely got away and promised to take care of him" Randy finished, resting his head against a box and falling asleep.
"Well, I say we get some sleep. We're gonna need to shift in with Kris from time to time, until we can find somewhere to stay" Winter suggested, laying on top of her hands and dozing off.
"Well, there's a large city a few hours from here, Savannah I think, and there's an old shopping complex we can stay in" Patricia suggested. Kenny flinched at the mention of that death trap but remained silent.
"Sounds good" Lilly replied, dozing off.
"Kris, head for Savannah!" Jake called through the window between the cab and the back of the truck.
"Gotcha!" Kris called back, accelerating.
"Let's just hope there's something there we can use" Jake thought to himself as he laid down and fell asleep. Everyone else soon followed, and the soft sound of their snores filled the back of the trailer.
*A.N. HOLY FUCK THIS WAS LONG
So I decided to use a bandit attack and a herd of sorts, and now we have a great group of 9!
Next chapter is mainly going to be in the truck or stopped off, the group probably wont arrive in Savannah until Chapter 7, where I can use Chapters 8, 9 and 10 to add a bit of drama, and If I can figure out how, possibly 2 new characters.
Winter and Lilly's backstory will probably be explained next chapter, for those of you who saw them and went "Wait fucking what who are they?"
Also, to Worker72, my guy you are a legend. You're the only one really reviewing the story, but it at least show someone likes the garbage I'm writing =)
Anywho, im out.
Ciao,
Exfinity.