Chapter 8 - Showtime
2 Weeks Later
Two weeks. Two weeks of preparation. Tensions are high, but even with these high tensions, we're working together to make this place as defendable as possible. We've got barbed wire along the top of the wall, Mitch has been working on making explosives with some propane and fertilizer, which the thought of absolutely terrifies me, but whatever helps us beat the raiders, I can accept. Mitch also taught Benji a new trick- molotov cocktails. A little bit of propane, an old rag, a glass bottle, and a flame can do quite a bit of damage apparently, and Mitch was more than happy to teach my brother, as well as supplying the bottles and a generous amount of propane, to build these devices. While Benji's never been one for this sort of thing, I can't say I'm too upset that he's thinking of creative and effective ways to defend our home. I've been working on a little sniper perch, overlooking the courtyard. In reality, it's a spot on a low-hanging roof that I can lean on, with a couple of pieces of wood hammered into the roof so I can set my feet. While the perch is pretty crude, it has a perfect view of the gates, so if anyone gets in here that isn't supposed to, I'll have a good view of it all.
The tension here is thick. But then again, we're waiting on an attack where there's a legitimate chance that we don't make it out alive, or that we're gonna be slaves to these raiders. At that point, I'd almost rather die than fight for them, but I don't exactly want to do that, either. If there's one thing I can really credit the kids with, it's that we're at least congealing pretty well, but I guess the risk of dying to a bunch of murderous raiders can do that to a group.
Despite this, however, the stress is getting to some of us more than others. Especially those that haven't spent a lot of time on the road, so really everyone but me, Benji, Clem, and AJ. The most recent of the kids to have outbursts is Aasim and Willy, the two of them erupting in an argument over a trap they want to set.
"You need to start thinking straight!" Aasim yells at the boy, who immediately glares back at him.
"Hey! Hey! Break it up!" Violet says to the both of them as the others walk over to see the commotion. "What the Hell's going on between you two?"
"You told us to work on setting a trap in the Admin Building. But Aasim won't listen to any of my ideas!" The boy whines, to which Aasim scoffs.
"Because your ideas suck. I have an idea for a duffel bag full of bricks, we drop them on the raiders if they get to the Admin Building. Willy wants to use a giant, idiotic, swinging log to take out one raider at most. It's completely stupid."
"You're stupid!" Willy says back to him.
"You're being childish."
"I am not. I'm trying to help."
"So help, then. And stop arguing."
"Actually, Aasim, the swinging log sounds like to could do some serious damage." Clem chimes in, and Willy beams in agreement.
"Sure," He agrees, "Damage to like one person, and that's IF it hits anybody." He turns to Willy, "I don't know why I'm surprised, though. You know, I can't remember the last time Willy did anything useful for this school. You can barely handle guard duty."
Willy balls up his fist, throwing a mean right hook to Aasim's abdomen, to which Aasim collapses to the ground entirely. Willy, realizing what he's done, backs away and runs inside.
"Dude, you okay?" Louis asks Aasim, still trying to catch his breath,
"Yeah. Fine. Shit…" He groans.
"We're all gonna kill each other before the raiders get the chance." My brother remarks as Aasim hobbles over to a couch, collapsing on one as he drops onto it.
Louis smiles as he pulls out a deck of cards. "What we need is something to break the tension." He tells us as he leads us to the couch. "Hey buddy, how's it hangin?"
"Dude, fuck off." Aasim dryly replies, still clutching his abdomen.
"Aww, come on Aasim. Sulking in the corner isn't gonna help against the raiders, nor will it help turn that frown upside down." Louis lightly teases the boy, who's clearly irritated. "A game of cards will help lighten the mood."
"We haven't played cards in forever, not since that night with Marlon." Violet reminds us, getting a frown out of me.
"My last night with Brody where I saw her the next morning." I grumble, and a few of the others look over at me.
"If you wanna ask Ruby to come play, I don't mind waiting." Louis coyly tells Aasim, and they boy's cheeks redden, even despite his tan skin.
"Shut up dude!" He responds ashis cheeks redden even further.
"Awww, you've got a crush on Ruby?" Violet asks him, and he nods quietly, barely noticeable, as AJ and Tenn join us.
"What're we playing?" the youngest of the group asks as Louis shuffles the deck of cards.
"Truth or Dare! Highest card asks, the lowest card does. Pretty simple. Like war, but with an extra step to it."
We pass the deck around for the first round, and Violet wins, Clementine loses.
"This should be good… Marry, Fuck, Kill."
"Vi." Tenn interrupts her, and she rolls her eyes.
"Fine. Marry, Flip, KIll. Ruby, Aasim, or James, that guy who saved you."
Clem's face turns a bright red, clearly because she has a boyfriend and is being asked this question, but she still answers it rather easily.
"I'll marry… James."
"He sounds mysterious… Didn't you say he wore skin? Like walker skin?" Violet asks, to which Clem nods. "Whatever makes you happy, I guess."
"I would, um, flip…"
"Flip, Flip, Flip, Flip…" Louis starts chanting, and AJ joins in,
"Ruby." Clem answers confidently, and Louis erupts in laughter
'Wha- Sorry! I was just imagining her glare while Clem propositions her. 'What? You sure that's a good idea? What's wrong with you?'" He adds a heavy southern twang to that last bit, mocking Ruby.
The group starts to laugh along with him, mostly cause of the Ruby impression.
"Right, so that means you're killing… Aasim!" Louis announces.
"Oh, thank God." He mutters in response.
"What? You'd rather die than marry or flip Clem?"
Aasim begins to stammer as he backtracks. "N-No, I didn't mean it like that."
Clem softly giggles at this, seeing Aasim's embarrassment show once again.
"This is great, we're all laughing, we're all bonding. It's almost as though we're not just using this as a way to forget about the possibility that homicidal assholes are gonna sneak into our home to kidnap us." Louis remarks, the second half of that completely sarcastically, of course.
I smile, "Yeah, that would really be some shit, wouldn't it?" He simply chuckles in response as the deck of cards goes around again. Clem wins this round, and Aasim loses. Poor guy can't catch a break.
"Alright, definitely a dare."
He sighs. "Ok, do your worst."
"You have to ask Ruby for a kiss."
Jaws drop. She really asked him that.
Reluctantly, he stands up, and cooly walks over, well out of range for us to hear. We watch in suspense as he walks up to Ruby. It's dead silent, all until Ruby slaps him, and laughter erupts once again. He slouches back over, dejected, as the rest of us laugh. Louis laughs the longest, going well past Aasim coming back.
"Well, I think we all learned something about our good friend Aasim today. Mainly that he has no romantic charm whatsoever." He quips as Aasim hangs his head in embarrassment. Shit, I kinda feel bad for the dude.
The deck goes around for a third time, and this time Louis wins, and Benji loses. With a devilish grin, Louis asks away.
"We've been pretty hard on poor Aasim here, teasing him about sweet Ruby. It seems only fair we tease someone else about unrequited love. So, Benji, anyone here you like-like?"
My brother's face goes straight red, and I see him gulp, before quietly nodding. I look over at Clem, and she gives me an inquisitive look, but I quickly look away and don't say a word.
"Well? Who's the lucky lady? Or dude? I don't judge." Louis prods further.
"Louis, don't. He answered your question." Violet scolds him, and he shrugs. My brother remains silent, making sure everyone gets the hint that he doesn't want to be put on the spot like that.
With that, the deck is passed around once again, and this time, Aasim wins, Tenn loses. Instead of going for something tough, he asks the boy a simple question. "What's something you've never told anyone,because you were afraid they'd make fun of you?"
Tenn hesitates, but finally musters up the courage to say it. "I… um… I think… I think walkers won't always be around. They'll go away,someday. Because… the world goes in cycles, right? Ice Age, Stone Age, um… some other ages. So, it's like that. This age'll end, and another one will start."
I glance around, and no one dare mocks the boy. In fact, everyone seems impressed and intrigued.
"An age without walkers." Clem says. "Like it used to be. That's a beautiful idea, Tenn. I never thought of it that way." Tenn beams, but AJ frowns.
"What's wrong, AJ?" I ask the boy.
"I don't know what it's like, a world without monsters. All of you do, but I don't."
"You know what, little dude? It's okay that you don't. Believe me, the world before this one was pretty shitty." Louis remarks, getting a giggle out of AJ.
"I don't know, man. Think of all the things we had back then that we can't have now. Ice cream, TV, baseball, not having to worry about walkers. I'd give anything to go back to those days, if I'm being honest." I say back to him, but he jokingly scowls.
"Yeah, but you'd never meet us if the world was still normal." He remarks, and I shrug. I can't argue that one.
"You got me there." I concede, and he smiles.
"Well, that feels like a good place to call the game." He announces as the others start to get up.
"We should probably finish up our work anyways, it's getting dark." Violet adds, and I agree.
"Yeah, I've got lookout anyways. I should probably get set up."
"Can I come?" AJ asks, and I can't help but grin.
"Sure thing, buddy. The more the merrier."
He and I both grab a lawn chair, setting them up on on the lookout perch and watching over the woods.
He pulls out a pair of binoculars and starts scanning the area. "Nothing."
"So far, so good." I softly smile. "We don't want to see anybody. Well, I shouldn't say that. We don't want anybody to be out there. If someone's out there, we want to see them."
"I hope they come. I wanna beat 'em so badly, they never attack anyone again." He tells me, and I warmly smile. The kid has fire. I like that.
"It won't be easy, but we've been preparing for two weeks. I think our chances are as good as they're gonna be."
"Good. I wanna get Abel."
I look at him curiously. "Abel?"
"He's one of the raiders. The guy that screwed up our traps." He explains to me. "I think he shot me, too."
I nod. "I see. You're one super tough kid, you know that?" You got shot in the belly, and yet here you are, all better and everything."
He beams at my compliment. "Clem taught me to be tough. Ian, too. But mostly Clem."
"It shows. Brody shot me with an arrow my first day here, and that was painful as Hell, but getting shot in the belly with a gun, that takes a lot of guts to come back from so quickly, no pun intended."
He looks at me, confused. "But I thought Brody was your girlfriend. Why'd she shoot you?"
I smile, reminiscing that amazing day. "She was. This was before we were part of this group. She was scared of me and Benji, and she accidently shot me, cause she didn't know who we were. I didn't hold it against her, mostly cause it hit me in the leg. Next thing I knew, we were in love. Life just works that way, I guess."
He doesn't look much less confused than before, but he nods. "Do you blame me for shooting Marlon?"
I look at the boy, stunned, but I shake my head. "No, I don't. You're a good kid, AJ. You made a mistake, if I can even call it that, and they overreacted. I probably would've shot him if you hadn't."
"Because of Brody?"
"Exactly. You're five, buddy. You tried to do the right thing, and it went too far, but you didn't know. But now you do, so just think next time."
He nods. "Next time, I'll think it through."
This gets a warm grin out of me. "Perfect."
Hours later, the two of us are still on lookout, only now a few walkers scatter the area, but still quiet. I hear someone climbing the ladder, and the both of us turn around to see Clem joining the two of us. She's got lookout duty after me.
"Hey guys, having fun?"
AJ grins. "Yep."
"Yeah," I add, "AJ was just telling me a bit about Richmond. Sounds like you guys have a pretty solid system there."
"Ian does a pretty good job. It's not perfect, but it was a whole lot better than the last regime. We did that city a huge favor."
"That reminds me, why'd you stay?" I ask her. "Not that I'm against you staying and helping us, you know, not get murdered or kidnapped by these raiders. But, you've got a life back in Richmond. You don't think that your boyfriend is scared shitless right now cause he hasn't seen you in, what, almost three weeks?"
She softly smiles. "Gabe's kinda a dork. I miss him, but this is more important. I've seen firsthand how vicious Lilly is, and you guys wouldn't stand a chance. No offense, but that's how it is." She tells me bluntly.
"But why even help us? We kicked you out. You had every right to leave us for dead and let us get completely annihilated by Lilly and her people once AJ was feeling better."
"I couldn't do that to you guys in good conscience. Because even if the group fucked me over, Violet said half of you guys wanted to keep me around, including you and your brother."
I nod. "That's right. Me, Benji, Violet, Tenn, and Aasim." I don't know if I should've told her who voted for her, but whatever. Too late for that, now.
"Exactly. You guys aren't bad people, and I can't just leave you guys like that. I don't hold it against you guys. That vote doesn't matter anymore. We're gonna beat Lilly, and then we'll decide what to do from there."
"That guy, Abel. He's gonna be with them?" AJ asks her.
"That's right, kiddo." She confirms. "I think Abel's gonna be with them."
"I fucking really hate that fucking dickhead shitfuck." He remarks as he looks through his binoculars.
I can't help but do a glance over at the boy as the giggles start erupting from me. To hear a five year old swear that many times in one sentence, I can't help it.
"That's a little much, don't you think AJ?" Clem asks the boy, who just shrugs.
"Well I do."
I tap the boy's shoulder. "Hey, AJ. A word of advice, don't swear so much at once. The words start to lose effect that way, and you don't sound as grown-up if you swear a lot."
He nods with a smile, still looking out at the small crowd of walkers roaming through the woods.
"When he comes here, I call dibs on killing him."
I feel myself choke on nothing as I start coughing. Clem and I both turn to the boy, concerned.
"AJ, I don't like the way you're talking. Killing another person is never easy, or fun, or to be treated so casually." She scolds the boy, who frowns.
"Is it because I'm trying to be good because of Marlon?" The boy asks back to her.
"It's just because you should never think about killing like that." She replies.
A minute or so passes by of silence, and I hear AJ quietly count the walkers in his binoculars before he asks Clem another question. "What if we played rock, paper, scissors?"
She shakes her head. "AJ. I said no, drop it."
The boy frowns once again, slumping over in his chair. "You know you won't be able to tell me no forever, right?" He mumbles, and Clem glares.
"What did you just say?"
He wisens up, knowing she heard. "Nothing, I didn't mean it."
He gets back to looking through the binoculars, and moments later, he points out into the darkness. "Hey, I see something!"
"Not a walker?" Clem asks curiously as he hands her the binoculars.
"Look."
As she looks through the binoculars, I rest my rifle on the ledge, looking through it. Sure enough, I can see something moving among the trees. In the pale moonlight I see them, maybe half a dozen troops and two horses, carts attached to them.
"I count six people, and two horses. Are these your raider friends?" I ask her.
"I'd put a lot of money on it. This is it."
For some reason, I grin. "Showtime."
I'm the last to get down as Clem and AJ get the others to huddle around. We go through one final check. The traps are ready. We've got our tables flipped on their sides for cover. The piece de resistance, so to say, Mitch's explosive, is ready to blow these assholes to kingdom come.
"If they get through, I'll keep them focused on me. That should give Willy and Mitch time to set up the bomb." She reminds us.
"I'll set it under the carts. It'll work, I promise." He assures us. I glance over at him, and him back to me, the two of us both nod to one another.
"If they get in, we fall back to the Admin Building. Right into our traps. We set that off, and it'll do some real damage. Brett, we'll need you on sniper support from your perch. Are you absolutely certain you can see the entire entrance?"
I nod. "One hundred percent. I'll be able to see them from the only way they can get in. Just give me the signal to start shooting."
"Alright then. So, any last words of wisdom, Clem?" Louis asks.
"No matter what happens, look out for-"
CRACK
Omar falls to the ground with a pained cry as the rest of us scatter. I find myself behind one of the downed tables with Clementine, not too far from Omar, still writhing in pain just a few yards in front of us.
I poke my head out as I see the muzzle flash coming from the sniper's rifle, a round lodging itself into a table behind us. I dart out from behind cover, running to Omar, despite the sniper's gunfire, narrowly missing my knees and suffering a similar fate to Omar. I grab the boy by his shoulders, dragging him behind cover, as more shots whizz past me. I get him back behind cover, as Clem grabs my arm.
"I'll help him. Get to your spot!"
I nod as I rush inside, hearing a gravelly voice yell out. "Come on! PUSH!"
Another woman's voice echoes, in almost a sing-songy way, which only sends chills up my spine.
"Clementine? I know you're in there! Clementine?"
"Open up kids!" The same man's voice from before yells out as I hear crashing noises, likely them trying to break in. "This doesn't have to get any uglier."
I jump down onto the low roof, setting my feet just as I hear one massive crash. The gates fly open, and the raiders walk in, rather smugly. Two men, three women, and the sniper, who stopped firing shots, make up everyone who came. As the five who walked in start to spread out, Clem pops out from cover.
"Lilly!" She yells out, pointing her bow at the tall brunette woman. "Move, and I'll shoot!"
One of the men points his rifle at her, and another one, an older man with the gravelly voice, yells back to her. "You won't get the chance."
Lilly raises her hand, indicating for her people to stand down, as she slowly approaches Clem. "Where's our new recruits?"
"They're not yours!" Clem growls back at her.
Lilly turns back to her troops as they start to spread out, looking for us.
"We're gonna find them, you know." Lilly tells Clem. "And then we'll take them. And you. And your little boy. If you don't want this to get any messier than it already has, you'll surrender now."
"Take me." Clem volunteers. "You want soldiers? Fine. Take me with you. But leave everyone else."
I'm stunned by Clem's offer, but then I see that she's bluffing. Behind the raiders, I see Willy and Mitch setting up the bomb on one of the carts. This is all a ruse to buy them time.
Lilly looks at her curiously, and I can't tell if she's calling the bluff or not. "You'd do that? You'd come with me if I let the others go?"
Clem simply nods back.
"You've changed." Lilly says to her as she crosses her arms. "God, you are just like him. Lee would've been heartbroken, knowing he taught you all the wrong things. That the sweet little girl he protected turned out like this."
"He taught me how to survive." Clem fires back. "How to kill. Lee would be proud of me."
Lilly scoffs. "Yeah, some job he did. He still died, Clementine. Tell me, how long did it take for everyone in that group to die? How long did it take for you to realize that everything Lee taught and did for you only led to more suffering, more pain, more death?"
"Ian's still alive." Clem informs her. "And his settlement is close by. You should leave, before his people come looking for me."
"Ian…" Lilly glares. "That scumbag. He left me on the side of the road with nothing at all. I'll never forgive him. Not after that shit."
"You tried to kill his wife. And failed, by the way." Clem reminds her, almost in a taunting way. "You don't deserve his forgiveness. He's a better person than you could've ever dreamt of being."
"Whatever." She snarls, "What I did seven years ago doesn't matter. What does matter is our needs now, and if you won't help me find the others, I'll find someone who will. We've recruited from this school before." She smirks, before walking around, announcing out to the others. "Minnie wanted to come along tonight, to tell you how well she's adjusted to our life. How happy she is. She said she had a girlfriend back here. Friends she missed. One guy, she said he could always make her laugh, no matter what."
I glance over to the left, there they are. Violet and Louis. I can't tell in the dark, but I can only assume how they're feeling right now. Especially Violet. Jesus…
"But the one she misses the most? Her little brother."
From right by Louis and Violet, I see Tenn poke his head out. With a slight hesitation, he walks out into the open, right into view.
"Where are they?" He asks her.
"Let me take you to them." She coaxes the boy, who looks uneasy, and rightfully so. "You'll be happier where they are, and they'll be so happy to see their little brother. They both miss you so much."
"Don't listen, Tenn! You know she's lying!" Clem warns him, but it's too late. She grabs Tenn, holding a knife to his throat.
A bright flash and a loud boom engulf the area as I have to shield my eyes for a second. The bomb went off, and it did some serious damage. One of the troops on the ground, regaining her footing, grabs her rifles and takes shots at Clem. I patiently line up my sights, finger inching toward the trigger, but something else catches my eye. Benji, that clever bastard, uses the commotion to sneak along the wall, molotov in hand. He lights it, throwing it toward a tree, and suddenly the entire thing is up in flames, along with the sniper in the branches, whose flaming body falls from the tree with a thud as his dying screams are soon drained out by the fire.
To the left, I see Mitch dart out, rushing Lilly.
"Mitch, get back!" I yell to the boy. But, he ignores me, running right at her. With her quick thinking, she sticks her knife into Mitch's throat, holding him in place as she digs it deeper, before letting his body drop, making sure to puncture his brain, and keep him dead.
"MITCH! NO!" Willy cries out to his friend. Fuckin' Hell, he's gone. God damn it.
"Kill who you have to! Take the rest!" Lilly announces to her troops, as they start firing at the kids, shooting arrows and throwing rocks back at the adults.
I line up my sights on one of the troops, the tall, bearded fucker, and my crosshair slowly makes its way up his body, when I feel a spasm in my arm, and I accidently squeeze the trigger. Thankfully, the shot still lands, as he drops to the ground, holding his knee, but I'm met with shots back at me. I duck down behind the roof, just to see most of the kids falling back to the Admin Building, and I peek back out to see them following, so I take this as a chance to recoup with my brother, who sits behind cover, loading his bow.
It seems all the raiders followed the kids inside, which allows me to slide off the roof, down toward my brother. As I land, I immediately run behind the cover, kneeling next to him.
"You good?" I ask him
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. But Mitch-"
"I know. He's gone. We've gotta focus on this now. There's, what, five of em left?"
"Four." He corrects me. "I saw the log trap claim a victim, the big bearded guy."
"Beautiful. So what's the plan?"
He shrugs, peering out from behind the cover. "Shit…"
"What is it?"
"They've got some of them." He tells me. "Aasim, Omar, Violet, Tenn, Willy… shit…"
I look over, and sure enough, two of the raiders hold our friends at gunpoint, walking them out of the Admin Building. The two women, an older white woman, and a younger black woman, both hold rifles. But wait, where's Lilly and Abel?
A hand picks me up by the collar, and another does to Benji, as the two of us start getting dragged towards the others. We both look up to see Lilly, who snuck toward us "You kids are real pieces of work, huh?" she mutters as Benji and I try to squirm free, to little avail. She sends a swift kick to my side and I let out a pained groan as she sets us down. "These two are troublemakers, I can already tell. Keep an eye on them." She orders her troops, both of them responding with nods, and nasty glares our way, the latter of which I gladly return.
"Any ideas?" Benji asks, and I lightly shake my head.
"Let me think. If we get an opening, we have to take it." I hiss back to him.
That opening comes less than a minute later, as Clem and Abel crash out of the Headmaster's office, and the two struggle for a bit before they crash through the balcony down to the courtyard ground. Clem lands on top, as Abel writhes in pain and agony, his leg bent in a couple different directions.
That's all we need as the two raiders look over to see what's going on, and I take off, darting away and sliding behind cover. I dropped my 700 when Lilly grabbed us, leaving me with my M9. I peek out, and some of them got away. Others weren't so lucky. Tenn and Willy managed to sneak away. Benji, Omar, and Aasim weren't able to move, and I see Violet fighting with Lilly, the two of them wrestling as Clem struggles to get up, trying to escape Abel. Omar and Aasim are both butted with the black woman's rifle and loaded onto the cart, knocked out. The other raider, the white woman, drags Louis from his cover. The black woman, setting her eyes on Violet, drags her off of Lilly and toward the cart. Finally, Lilly, free from Violet, casually strolls over toward Benji.
I point my handgun at her, my vision beginning to blur from the smoke in the area, and I start firing at her wildly. Despite this, she keeps coming towards him, not fazed by the shots barely missing her, and almost smirking at me. As my magazine empties, she grabs my brother, holding him hostage with her knife to his throat.
I load another magazine, aiming it at her, but I can't fire. It's too close to Benji, too close to my friends. I feel myself freeze as I'm forced to sit and watch in horror as she hits him in the head with the handle of her knife, and tossing his limp body in with the others.
As the two raiders drag my friends toward the carts, the black woman clutches at her shoulder as one of Clem's arrows lodges itself in her shoulder. Louis uses this chance to run away. Unfortunately for Violet, before she can do anything, the other raider smacks her in the head with her rifle, and her unconscious body is thrown with the others. We have no choice but to watch as our friends, and my brother, are taken away as the carts drive off, I look on in shock that my brother is gone. Lilly takes one last chance to glare at us before joining the rest of her people, slowly fading into the night like ghosts.
"Benji… Benji… BENJI!"
Those of us remaining gather around Mitch's body, with mixed levels of sadness among us. I take this as a chance to look at who's left. Me, Clem, AJ, Willy, Ruby, Tenn, and Louis. There's seven of us left. Four captured, one dead. We lost almost half our people tonight, and yet here we are. We held them off. We're still here.
But Benji, my brother, he's gone. They took him. And I froze there. I could've shot her, but I was scared. Scared I wouldn't hit her, scared I'd hit… him.
"God damn… Aasim, Omar, Benji, fuckin' Violet. They're just… gone." Louis says, in pure shock.
"This should go without saying, but we are at war with these sick fucks." I announce to the others. "What happened tonight, we're gonna get back at them, and we're gonna hit 'em where it hurts. And we're gonna get our fucking friends back!"
"If I knew where they were going, I'd burn the place down myself." Louis remarks angrily, and Clem silently nods in agreement.
I glance over to my right, and a small smirk forms on my face. "Patience, Louis. We may not know where they are, but we have someone who does."
We walk over to the light pole, where Ruby did an excellent job tying up Abel, his leg broken in a couple sports, several open wounds, and bruises all over his face and head. He weakly looks up at us, a pained expression on his face, and I whip him with my handgun, putting him out like a light.
Sorry this is a little later than normal, truth be told I forgot it's Friday. Anyways, GOD DAMN How about that last episode from last Tuesday? I can already tell it's gonna be a lot of fun but also a total bitch to write in the coming weeks. But, being about halfway through TFS, we're also about halfway through the story, actually a bit more than halway in terms of chapters but idk. Hope you guys enjoyed, and see you next week.