Chapter 5 - Panic
A nice midmorning breeze flows through the woods as the four of us walk down a path to the fishing shack. Benji, Brody, Violet, and I have been tasked with getting some fish from the stream nearby. It's always nice to go out with Brody, and I'll never have an issue with spending time with Benji, but having Violet around Brody has brought on some increased tensions, to say the least.
Nonetheless, things seem to be going decently. But things start to turn South after Brody asks us a question.
"You know, I've been thinkin'... I wish we could all go on a road trip together. Wouldn't that be nice?"
Violet scoffs at my girlfriend. "Road trip? Why even bother? It's not like there's anything worth seeing anymore."
"Oh c'mon. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff to see. I'm sure Brett and Benji could show us around. Or Clem and her boy. There's a lot of covered ground between the four of them."
"That's true. Starting off in Wisconsin, the two of us have traveled around quite a bit the last seven years. We traveled East and then made our way down South, I wouldn't mind continuing South all the way down to Florida." I remark, and my brother nods in agreement.
"Who can drive, though? Outside of Clementine. I don't know if I'd trust her driving." Violet says, and Brody sternly glares at her.
"Be nice, Vi."
"Benji and I know the basics." I tell her. "How to turn it on, how to steer, which pedals are which." Most of the technical stuff probably doesn't matter anymore, being the end of the world and everything, you know?"
Finally, we get to the shack, looking run-down as ever. Brody walks up to the old truck parked outside of it, just as run-down as the shack itself.
"I wish this old rust bucket was still working. We could just jump in and start driving. We could take turns sitting in the back. It'd be like driving one of those cars with the top that goes down."
"We'd run out of gas eventually." Violet sighs.
"It's still fun to imagine though, isn't it?"
Violet simply snidely chuckles as she walks off, leaving the three of us.
"Well, Brett said he'd drive down to Florida, where'd you go, Benji? If you could go anywhere in the world? If gas wasn't an issue?"
"Honestly? I'd want to go to Europe. I'd see all the sights to see out there, the Louvre, Venice, the Eiffel Tower, everything I could."
"Europe would be incredible. You get to see so much. All the art and history, plus I hear Paris is super romantic." She says with a cute smile, which I return and offer her a wink.
"Oh yes, because you may get torn to shreds by walkers, but at least you got to see old art and shit with someone you love." Violet remarks in disgust, to which I glance back at her.
"C'mon Vi, would it kill you to live a little?" My girlfriend asks her.
"Don't you start with me." Violet snaps back before walking down the stream.
Brody sighs, walking into the shack. "Can you boys help me get the equipment? We've got some spears in the shack."
The two of us follow her in, closing the door behind us, and we see Brody searching all over, before pulling out a few makeshift spears.
"Benji, do you think you could bring these out to Violet? I need to talk with Brett."
He eyes the both of us for a second, before nodding and taking the spears outside to Violet, leaving me and my girlfriend.
"So, Violet's still pissed at you?"
"Of course she is. She still blames me for everything that day, and being around the anniversary of us losing Sophie and Minnie, she's just feeling depressed about all this. I wanna tell her I'm sorry, but how do you apologize for something that fucked up? I don't know. Maybe I deserve all the shit she's throwing at me."
"Brody…" I tell her as I hug her. "You know it's not your fault. Don't tell me that it's your fault, cause you know that's just not true. Things happen, it's nobody's fault."
"Still, I was the one that had to break the news to her. And ever since I did, she's become distant. We all used to be friends, and I guess I just kinda miss it."
"So what do you want me to do?" I ask her.
"Do you think you can talk to her? I know she's close with your brother and all, but do you think you can just talk to her? Just see how she feels about me?"
Before I can answer, I hear Violet shouting from outside. "Hey! Are you two fucking or something? Come on! We've got shit to do!"
I roll my eyes at her remark, but I smile back down to Brody. "Sure thing. I'll talk to her."
Relieved, I feel her nuzzle into me. "Thanks, Brett. I knew I could count on you."
I kiss her forehead. "Of course."
The two of us walk out of the shack, and Brody heads further down to check some fish traps, leaving me, Violet, and Benji to do some spearfishing.
"Mind if I join you guys?" I ask as Benji hands me a spear.
"Not at all." He replies as he throws his spear into the water, and pulls it out with a fish impaled by it.
"You two weren't actually fucking in there, were you?" Violet asks as she spears a fish, casually dropping it in a bucket. "That shack is fucking gross."
My face reddening, I plunge my spear into the water, missing a fish. "Uh, no we were not."
"I still don't know what it is you see in her." She snarkily says to me. "She's just so annoying and she always gets on my nerves. I just don't get it."
I scowl back at her, crossing my arms at her last remark. "Look, I don't know what the fuck happened before Benji and I got here, or what things were like before Minnie died, but you gotta stop pinning that on her. She was Minnie's friend, too, you know. I know the two of you were something, and I understand how it feels to lose someone you love, but it's not like she killed them herself. She thinks you hate her when it wasn't her fault."
"I don't hate her," she mutters. "It's just… ugh. God!" She angrily throws the spear into the stream, bagging a fish as I do the same.
"I think they've smartened up." She notes the lack of fish swimming upstream, picking up her bucket. "Let's go see if Brody had any better luck with her traps."
"Look," I tell her before we walk over. "She feels guilty as Hell about Minnie and Sophie. And maybe she hasn't apologized for it, but it's eating her alive. She wants to tell you, but she's worried you're gonna tear her to bits over it."
She hangs her head. "I just feel awful about this whole thing."
I stare at her, confused. "Why?"
"I was supposed to go out with the twins that day." She confesses. "I wanted to do lookout so I asked Brody to switch with me. But then…" she shakes her head. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."
"Jesus…" I hear Benji say under his breath from behind me, as Violet continues.
"I wanted to talk to her, tell her I don't blame her. But every time I'd try to, I'd be reminded of who we lost. It was a lot easier to just not talk about it."
The three of us walk off toward Brody, who in turn walks back to us. "Any luck with the fish?" She asks us.
We show her our haul, it's a decent amount, but not much to last. She frowns, as she shows us that all the traps were empty.
"We should catch up with Louis, Aasim, Clem and her boy to see if they had any luck." She suggests, and we start heading back.
"The Grand Canyon." Violet says, and Brody looks at her with confusion. "That's where I'd go if we went on a road trip. Just keep driving until we hit the Grand Canyon."
"Yeah. That would be good." My girlfriend warmly smiles. She looks over to me, and I give her a nod that tells her all she needs to know.
The two of them start to pull ahead of us, so I whisper to Brody. "It went as smoothly as you could've asked. She wants to talk about it."
"Thank you. Seriously, thank you." She says with a kiss on my cheek, making my cheeks pink like usual.
"Come on. Are you slowpokes coming?" Violet asks us. Brody and I look at each other and smile.
"Yeah, we're right behind you." I assure her
The team of Louis, Aasim, Clementine, and AJ meet us on our way to them, and their expressions are not optimistic.
"Hey guys. What's going on?" I ask them, and Aasim is the first to speak up.
"What's up? Someone fucked with all our traps, that's what."
"What're you talking about?" Violet asks. "We've been robbed?"
"Bingo." Louis tells us. "Someone knows we're here, and they're fucking with our stuff."
"What're you going off of?" My brother, the once-aspiring detective, asks them, as Clementine pulls out an old, hand-rolled cigarette.
"None of the kids smoke, do they?" She asks, and I shake my head.
"Ever since Mitch's tobacco supply was finished I don't think anyone has anything to smoke. Looks like someone is fucking with us."
"Fuck… Fuck… FUCK! That's fucking… Oh no, FUCK!" My girlfriend curses, and it becomes evident she's having a panic attack, she starts shaking and her breathing becomes rapid.
"Brody, what's going on?" I ask her, but she doesn't answer, she just
"We need to get her back to Ericson. Benji, help me get the fish back. Brett, you focus on getting Brody back, alright?" Aasim tells us. The two of us look at each other and nod before we start heading back.
"Try and scrounge up some more food while you can, alright? Try to get back here by dark." Aasim tells Clem, and the four that are left go out looking for more.
Hours pass by after we get back, and while her panic attacks have gone down, although I can tell she's bothered by something. She won't tell me what it is directly, with the promise that she'll tell me eventually. I want to get more out of her, but in the state she's been in, that just might not be a good idea.
As dusk comes, the four that went out haven't come back, and the others start to grow concerned, myself included. Even with Brody casually laying on the couch with me, things don't feel right, so much so that Marlon comes by, asking to talk with her in private. I get up to give the two of them privacy, just as the gates open, Louis and Clem both walking in with duffel bags.
"Took y'all long enough!" Ruby remarks from the fire, to which Louis smugly smiles.
"How poor are they that have not patience?" He asks as he and Clem both place their bags on the table. Inside them, food. So much fucking food.
"Wow…" Benji says in awe. "There's so much. I don't think we've had this much food just lying around since that buck Brett bagged."
"Where did you find all this?" I hear from behind us, Brody walking over and looking at the haul.
"The old train station. Clem knew where it was." Louis informs her.
"Old train station… That's outside the safe zone." She notes, shooting Marlon a look.
Violet sighs. "And we'd have even more, but we ran into the creep that fucked up our rabbit traps"
"Creep? What creep?" Brody asks.
"He smokes those nasty Bible cigarettes. He had weird, different-colored eyes." Clem describes the man they ran into.
Brody looks around, noticeably uncomfortable. "Did he follow you?"
Clem looks at her in confusion. "No, I let him have some food, and we lost him in a swarm of walkers.
"You just let him take our food?" Brody asks in bewilderment. "What the fuck? Now he knows we're out here, but he'll come back for more."
I put my hand on her shoulder in reassurance. "Calm down, Brody. There's other hungry people out here. If Clem let him have some food, it just means there's someone else out there that isn't hungry tonight."
"You don't know that! There are bad people out there, and we don't know if they'll come for us." She counters back, and despite my skeptical looks, Clem says something before I do.
"He would have shot us if I didn't do what I did. I made the right call."
"Bullshit! What if he wasn't alone. You don't know what people are capable of out there."
Clem scowls, crossing her arms, "Think. Again."
I get between the two, trying to defuse the situation like with Mitch and Aasim last year. "Guys, let's calm down and have some dinner. It's been a long day, but we'll figure this out."
"What the Hell's goin' on here?" we all hear Marlon's voice as he joins us, Brody immediately turning to him.
"She took them outside the safe zone. They saw someone. You know what that means!" I glance over at Marlon.
"What the Hell is she talking about?"
"Enough!" He says to the both of us. "It just means there's a hungry guy out there looking for food. It's happened before. You are overreacting."
She looks at him shocked, before chuckling. "You cannot be serious!"
"Come on. Let's go somewhere and talk about this." Marlon mutters to her, grabbing her arm, and a glare forms on her face.
Without a word, she shoves him to the ground, before turning back to Clementine. "If ANYTHING happens, I am holding YOU accountable!" she yells to her before storming off.
A stunned silence from the group follows, wondering what the fuck we just witnessed. I look around, and everyone looks back at me. Without saying anything, I nod and follow her, inside one of the old admin buildings.
"FUCK!" I hear her crying at the end of the hall, and sure enough, I see her sitting on the stairs. I feel my heart drop, and I sit down next to her, she cuddles up next to me, still crying.
"What's all this about? I get that it's dangerous outside the safe zone, but they only saw a dude trying to make it out here. I don't know how that makes him dangerous."
She sniffs. "It's not just that. It's because-" Brody's cut off by the sounds of someone coming into the building. Sure enough, Marlon comes down the corridor.
"There you guys are. Brett, can I talk to Brody for a bit? In private?" I eye him suspiciously, and then back at Brody, and finally back at him. "Seriously, go get some dinner before Louis eats everything."
Conceding, I give Brody one last look of support before walking out. This all feels wrong. Something's going on that they're not telling us, and I want to get to the bottom of it.
Dinner feels like an eternity. People talk, but not me. I can't stop thinking about Brody and Marlon. The whole thought of it leaves an awful taste in my mouth, that the leader of our group and my girlfriend are hiding something from the rest of us. I don't even feel hungry, so I just walk back to my room, sitting down on my bed.
Benji comes in minutes later, sitting down in his bed. Normally, he'd grab a book and start reading, but not this time.
"What's been going on?"
I simply shrug back to my brother. "I don't know, man. I wanna talk to Brody, but she can't seem to tell me."
"Do you think she's hiding something?"
I nod to my brother. "That has to be it. I don't know what it could be, but with the way she and Marlon have been the past few hours, I would guess there's something they aren't telling us."
He nods in agreement. "I think so, too. The way she got so aggressive toward Marlon just then was a dead giveaway. But, I have no idea what they could be hiding from us."
"I've never seen her like that before. My guess is that there's something really bad going on behind the scenes. But I'm gonna try to figure it out, one way or another."
"Good luck with that." He says as he slumps down into bed. "It's getting late, you may wanna wait till the morning."
"Yeah, maybe. I'm gonna go see if I can talk with Brody." I wish my brother goodnight, and I head down the hall to Brody's where I see the door is cracked open. I open it further, and I see her laying in bed, trying to sleep.
"Brett?" I hear her ask in the darkness.
"Hey, I didn't mean to wake you. I was just checking up on you. Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, it's fine. Marlon and I talked, and I think things are better now."
"So what exactly is going on? You sounded like you were about to tell me something back there."
"Climb in bed, please." I see her outstretched arms as I hear her tell me with a yawn. "I'll explain in the morning."
For a moment, I just stand there, almost wanting to talk about it now, but knowing her, I know that trying to prod information out of her when she's stressed is a bad idea, so I oblige. I crawl into bed, feeling the warmth and trying to feel more relaxed.
"I promise that I'll tell you everything in the morning. Anything you want to know about this, I'll tell you the whole truth and nothing but it, alright?"
"We can't do this right now?"
"No, this is something we need to do face to face, not in the dark. Understand?"
I sigh, "Sure. Tomorrow morning. I wanna know what this is."
"Of course. Hey Brett?"
"Hmm?"
"I love you."
Despite everything that's going on, I can't help but smile. "I love you, too."
To the sound of a light rainfall, the two of us fall asleep, with her in my arms. Although, how anyone could sleep with the uncertainty I'm feeling is beyond me.
The crashing of thunder and lightning wakes me up with a gasp, jerking me up from my lying position as I look around. Something's off. Brody's not here, even though it's still nighttime.
"Brody?" I whisper out, hoping she'd answer, but I get no response. From outside, I hear muffled voices, shouting about something. I look out, and in the darkness, I see a small figure, pointing a gun at a bigger one. AJ?
I throw on my jacket and boots, running out into the rain and sure enough, AJ holding Marlon at gunpoint, surrounded by the others.
"Where is she?" The boy yells to Marlon, visibly scared of the boy. "Where's Clementine?"
"She's in the basement… S-she murdered Brody!" He points in the direction of the basement.
The words pierce my heart, and I feel my guts churning. The same girl I was just sleeping with hours ago, gone. Just like that.
"What did you say?" I roar out at Marlon, my chest pounding, tears welling up in a way I hadn't felt since Dad died. "What the fuck happened?"
"Brody… she's… she's fucking gone, man. I'm sorry. I tried to do what I could, but Clem killed her." He admits, and I lose all feeling in my legs, collapsing to my knees. The murmurs of the others, just as shocked as I am, are the only sounds I can hear, other than the rainstorm that was starting to pick up. All of this until-
"That's bullshit Marlon!" Clem yells at him as she walks over, covered in blood, making my heart drop even further. Brody, she's really gone. "You killed Brody. You hit her so hard, her head split open!"
All eyes go to Marlon, who, of course, defends himself. "That's a lie! I saw YOU kill her! Look at her hands, Brett. She's covered in Brody's blood!"
I gulp. He's right. Her hands, coated in red. My girlfriend's blood.
"Jesus Christ, Clem." Aasim says, followed by Tenn, who is visibly shaken by all this.
"What did you do?"
Marlon rushes AJ, distracted by Clem, and steals his gun, proudly raising it in the air. "We saved their lives when anyone else would've kept walking! We fed them, we kept them warm, and this is how they thank us? Guns being pulled and murder? Well fuck them!" He yells out, pointing the revolver at Clem.
Despite having the gun pointed right at her, Clem remains calm, "You shoot me, and what do you offer up to your raider friends when they come knocking?"
"What the Hell is she talking about?" Aasim and I both say at the same time.
"He won't shoot me, because he needs me alive. Brody told me Marlon was gonna give me and AJ up to raiders in exchange for safety." Clem explains, "The same way he gave up Sophie and Minnie!"
Everyone freezes, myself included, and especially Tenn.
"Oh my God…" Ruby says, before Marlon's yelling cuts her off.
"Shut the fuck up, Clementine!"
I finally stand up, slowly stumbling over to the group. "No, let her talk."
"Brody told me the truth, and that's when Marlon killed her!"
"Oh come the fuck on!" Marlon roars out. "They only met up with these raiders because Clem insisted we go out there. Seems like quite the coincidence, doesn't it? It's a shame I don't believe in those."
No one says a word, so Marlon continues, "Think about how scared we all were when the adults left. I pulled us out of that fear. I gave us all courage again. So who're y'all gonna believe, huh? Johnny-come-lately and her little fucking lunatic? Or me, your friend?"
Clem glances right over to me. "Brett! You're not seriously buying this, are you? He killed her to keep her quiet and to save his own ass!"
"Don't let her trick you, Brett. Remember, Brody was my friend. I wanted nothing but the best for you guys, and she took her from you, from US!"
I feel my chest pounding as all eyes fall on me. I feel my entire body shake, not from the cold or the rain, but from the sheer tension. I feel a lump in my throat as I begin to stammer, not knowing what to say. "Fuck… Clem, I… Shit…"
"Brett, her last words to me were that she loves you, just as she was bleeding out in my arms. Are you gonna let that be for nothing? Or are you gonna step up and do the right thing? What would she want?"
"We will all feel safer once I pull this trigger." Marlon tells us all, his arms a little shaky. Shit… Maybe Clem is telling the truth.
"If you were there that day, he'd have given you away, too." She tells me, and I gulp.
Step by step, I feel my feet moving slowly toward the two of them, as though they have a mind of their own, and finally there I am, staring down the barrel of the gun, while Marlon stares at me, confused.
"What are you doing, man? She killed Brody!"
"Put the gun down, Marlon. I don't know who to believe, but we're gonna figure all this out the right way."
"Stand down, Marlon. Be reasonable." Aasim tells him, as him and the others start surrounding Marlon.
"You don't get it. You really don't understand at all, do you?" He asks us, inadvertently waving the gun around, "I'm trying to protect you! All of you! Every fuckin' one of you!"
"He's lying to you! He can't- or won't, protect you. Look what happened to the others, Brody, Sophie, Minerva. You suck at protection." Clem fires back.
"Shut your fucking mouth! I made the right call. I saved the lives of everyone in this fuckin school. If they came back, I'd do it again!"
A collective gasp comes from the rest of them. Marlon admitted it. He gave the twins away. He lied about it. He…
I feel a fire blazing inside me, and it takes all of my willpower to not beat him right here. "Wait, so you gave away Tenn's sisters away, lied to us about it for a year, and then you murdered my girlfriend, all so you could save your ass?"
He looks at me with a somber expression before nodding. "Mhmm. I didn't mean to. I didn't want any of this. I wanted to save them… Sophie. Minerva!"
I feel my fists tighten as I snap. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
I see myself swing at him, my right fist colliding with his nose and making a nasty cracking noise as he falls to the ground, AJ's gun clattering off to the side. As he's down, I starting wailing on him, my right fist throwing punches while my left holds him up.
Soon enough, I feel someone pulling me back, and even as I fight back, my body soon loses all its will to fight. "You're no leader! You're a fucking monster! You fucking coward!" I cry out as I'm finally let go. Instead of running back over to finish the job, I just sit there, unable to move. Me stands back up, his nose bloody and his face bruised.
"You're right." He says, tears running down his face. "You're absolutely right. Just let me leave. You'll never see me again. Just let me become a bad memory." He begs us. I don't even know what to think. I want this fucker to burn, that's all I know.
"You don't-"
Violet gets cut off by a single gunshot, and Marlon's body slumps to the ground.
I'll be honest, this chapter was kinda a tough one to plan. I wasn't sure if I'd stick with the canon, or if I'd do the same thing with TFG, if you know you know. I ultimately decided to stick with the canon for reasons you'll see later. So for those of you expecting to see a long-term Brett/Brody relationship, I apologize. Anywho, that was Chapter 5. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week.