Chapter 10 - Defiance
A single gunshot from the Delta ship drops a walker in front of us, and Clem drags it into the tall grass. She dusts herself off, and ruby gives a groan of disgust at the thought of what some of us are about to do.
"Only the team that's blending in with the walkers needs to cover themselves." Clem reminds us. That team is her, AJ, and Louis, AJ and Clem having done this before, covering themselves in walker guts to blend in with the other walkers. It's disgusting, and I'm glad I'm doing overwatch, but someone needed to go with them, and Louis drew the short stick, so here we are.
"So, no we just need your walker friend to show up, right?" Ruby asks.
Before Clem can answer, AJ turns around and beams. "He's here!"
I turn in the direction he's facing, and I'm met face to face with a walker. Well, not really.
It's Clem's friend, James. The one that wears walker skin. Even despite this, I still step back a bit, taken aback by the sight of him. Something about wearing walker skin leaves me… unsettled.
"Uh… hello…" He whispers to the rest of us, and I can already tell he doesn't feel comfortable here.
"This is James, guys." Clem introduces him to the rest of us, and we warmly smile back.
"He's my friend." AJ adds, which gets a bit of a smile out of James, too.
"He's, uh…" Tenn stammers, unsure how to feel about him. Willy, however, has a different reaction.
"So. Cool! How do you get the skin like that? Can I try it on?" Willy bombards James with questions, and he's clearly uncomfortable now.
"Willy, calm down." Clem tells the boy. "Someone might hear you."
"Sorry, I'll be quiet." The boy concedes.
"Clementine," James turns to her. "May I speak with you alone? For a moment?"
She and him walk off into the woods, probably to discuss strategy, and Louis taps Tenn's shoulder, a sad look on his face. He and Tenn walk away, as well, and I know exactly why. He's breaking the news about his sisters. Sophie's dead, and Minnie's… an enemy. Poor kid.
"How're you feeling?" Ruby asks me, and all I can do is shrug.
"I'm nervous as Hell," I confess to her, "But we can do this. We've got a plan, and if James' walkers show up, we should be good to go."
As if on cue, the raspy groaning starts to come in within earshot. A lot of them, too. Looks like James came through.
"Speak of the Devil." Reby remarks, and Willy and I smile. It's time. Clem walks back to us, a determined look on her face as James walks off toward the impeding herd. Louis and Tenn soon join as we huddle up.
"He's ready to go." Clem announces to the rest of us. "The walkers are getting close. Ruby, you're in charge of the horses. Willy and Tenn, you take care of the supplies." She reminds them of their duties, each giving a confirming nod back.
"And I'm in charge of the bomb." Louis adds, pulling out Willy's creation. Packed with propane and fertilizer, this is gonna be one big fucking boom, if it works.
"Find the boiler. There'll be a door on the bottom with ash and stuff. Put it there." He reminds him. Louis nods, as Clem turns to me.
"Brett, you're on overwatch. Make sure you've got a spot where you can see them, but they can't see you. Don't shoot unless you have to. If we have to go loud, it'll be up to you to cover us until we get inside."
"Roger that." I give her a thumbs up.
"Alright, guys. See you on the other side." She says to the others, as they all disperse to their respective positions. All except Tenn, who sticks behind, solemness on his face, Louis' talk with him must've absolutely killed him.
The boy, frown on his face, walks over to Clem. "Louis… he told me… about Minnie. Sophie's dead, and Minnie's one of them now. Just, um, if you see her out there, tell her I forgive her. I'd tell her myself but… I just wanna see her safe."
"Yeah, sure." Clem smiles to him. "If I see her, I'll tell her."
"Thanks." The boy lightly smiles, before walking off to join Willy.
"That boy has seen Hell." I mutter next to Clementine. "Twelve years old, and he's had to go through so much shit. Poor kid. I hope things get better."
"I know." She responds. "I feel really bad. But you saw what Minnie was like back there. She's been fully immersed with these people. I just hope the others haven't gotten to that point yet."
"That's why we're doing this, right? We get our people back before Lilly corrupts them. So we can see Benji, Omar, Aasim, and Violet again, hopefully not as raiders. Benji's a strong-willed guy and all, but with how vicious Lilly is, I'm not so sure how well the others are holding up there."
"I guess we'll have to find out. But, hey, it's been a couple of days. Maybe it hasn't gotten to that point yet. We just have to find out."
Louis joins us, and the nerves start to get to him. He fiddles with his hands, making the occasional soft groaning noise. "Fuck… we're really doing this, aren't we? Shit..."
"Easy, Louis. We're doing this." I assure him. "Everything's gonna be fine."
"But what if it isn't?" He asks back, with legitimate concern. "What if I fuck this up? You all know I fuck up A LOT. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if ."
"Would you rather fuck up trying to do the right thing? Or live with not even trying at all, and let our friends turn into Minnie?" Clem asks him. He looks down at the ground, taking a deep breath before looking back up at us, a more determined expression on his face as he nods back at us. "That's what I thought. Snap out of it. We've got a boat to catch."
AJ take out his knife, cutting open the walker corpse Clem grabbed earlier. And Louis once again changes expression, this time to pure disgust. "So you weren't joking when you said we had to do this, were you?"
"Nope!" She responds with a smile, grabbing a handful of guts and coating herself. AJ giggles at her upbeat response as he does the same.
"Oh, God." He groans out, and I can't help but giggle myself.
"It's a shame. That's a real nice coat, too." I laugh to him, and he simply glares at me.
"If you care so much about the wellbeing of my coat, you're more than welcome to switch spots with me." He offers, but I simply grin and shake my head.
"Nah, that's all you, buddy. Until you can handle the kick of the 700, I'll have overwatch duty."
He rolls his eyes as the three of them start coating themselves in guts, much to Louis' chagrin. I wish them good luck as I walk off to find an area I can snipe from, away from the walker herd, but still clear enough to see the ship and its crew. A patch of tall grass, within view of the river and the horses, pops out to me in the darkness, so I set up shop, laying down and getting a good view, just as the three of them slowly creep into the herd.
The Delta use a spotlight to spot the walkers, and then sharpshooters shoot them down, pretty simple and easy. Clem leads the way, using the walkers as meat shields, being sure to avoid the sharpshooters when the spotlight gets on her. Soon enough, the three of them get through, taking cover behind some wooden crates, and all attention shifts to a bright flame to my left, the hay that ruby set ablaze. The horses start getting antsy from their pen as troops start walking out from the dock, to kill off walkers and deal with the fire. One of them turns towards me, and I immediately freeze, thinking I'm seen. Fortunately, he looks past me, toward the river, where Willy floats downstream on the raft. With the troops preoccupied on the walkers, fire, and supplies, Clem, AJ, and Louis use this as a chance to sneak down the pier to the ship.
The same troop that noticed Willy and the supplies starts walking towards the river, and also me. I place my rifle on its side and stand still, watching him slowly walk past me and towards the river. His own rifle raised, and ready to open fire on Willy, I pull out my knife, ready to ambush him. As he reaches the dock, about to fire on Willy, I make my move, slowly creeping out from the grass, knife in hand. He doesn't see or hear me coming. My left hand covers his mouth, my right hand dragging my knife across his throat, and the man, muffled by my mouth, chokes on his own blood, quickly bleeding out. I drag his body out of sight from the spotlight, popping him up behind a tree before sticking my blade through his skull to make sure he doesn't come back.
As I quickly get back in my hiding spot, something, or someone, rather, comes into view, and I simply groan.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Tenn…" I mutter as I see the boy running toward the pier, away from several walkers. I run out from my spot, right to him, and I grab him, just as I'm engulfed in the bright spotlight. "Damn it…" I curse to myself. "What the fuck happened, Tenn?"
"Willy and I got separated. I'm sorry, Brett." He solemnly admits, and I try to console him.
"It's ok, buddy. You were scared. Don't-"
I'm cut off by automatic rounds being sprayed right at us. Or rather, not directly at us, but at the walkers that were getting dangerously close. As the gunfire stops, and the walkers drop, the pitter-patter of footsteps quickly approach, and soon Tenn and I are met with several Delta troops.
One of them, a tall woman with short, blonde hair walks right up to me, kicking me in the knee, forcing me to the ground. She kicks my rifle to the side, soon doing the same with my handgun and knife. As I look up at her with a defiant glare, all she does is sneer at me, dropping a land of spit on my forehead.
And then, darkness.
Benji's POV
I wake up to the sounds of automatic gunfire from the top deck. Lots of it. As I step over to the door, looking out the grate at Aasim, who looks back at me.
"What the Hell's going on?" I ask him groggily.
"I don't really know." He tells me. "I've heard something about walkers, so I guess there's that."
"Seems like a lot of commotion for some walkers, don't you think?" I ask, curiously. He simply shrugs back as Minerva and Dorian, one of the Delta troops, the tall black woman, walk past the cells.
"You need to focus, Minerva." Dorian scolds the girl, who timidly looks up at the woman, not looking like the girl that threatened me the other day.
"Yes, ma'am." She whispers as she walks back toward the cells, her voice breaking. "I… I have a little brother. Short, scarred face. Is he… he's not out there, is he?"
"We've discussed this," Dorian scolds her. "The Delta is your family now. There ain't no room for anyone else."
"Yes, ma'am." Minerva solemnly responds, and I feel a small frown forming on her face. I kinda feel bad for her. She clearly still loves Tenn, and even if I'm supposed to hate the Delta, maybe they're not all bad people, after all. There's a strange silence after Dorian walks away, and Minnie stands by the cells, refusing to say a word.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see some movement in the shadows. A couple of figures, slowly moving around, keeping quiet. One of these figures slowly rises out of the darkness, pointing her drawn bow right at Minerva, who raises her crossbow in retaliation.
Clem.
"Get out." Minerva growls to Clem.
"Not without our people." Clem fires back as AJ and Louis emerge from the shadows, AJ pointing his revolver at Minerva, as well.
"I swear to God, if you got Tenn caught up in this…" She glares back at Clem, but her voice breaks again. "Just… please tell me he's safe."
"He told me to tell you he forgives you." Clem confides in her, and I can hear Minerva's demeanor completely change.
"Shit…" She mutters. "I'll help you get everyone out. Then you take my brother, and run. Get him back to where it's safe."
"Clem?" I hear Omar ask from the next cell as Clem walks over to them. "Holy fuck."
"Oh my god. Are you guys okay?" She asks them, especially Omar, still nursing the gunshot wound.
"I'm fine." He assures her. "Get Violet. She needs to know you're here."
"I'll unlock the other cell." Minerva tells her, already unlocking the latch on Violet's cell, allowing Clem in. "We don't have much time before Dorian comes back."
Clementine cautiously walks in, and Minerva gets to work on unlocking the other cells.
At least, she pretends to.
Instead, she turns around, and from inside the cell, all I can hear is a thumping noise. Louis backs away, raising his hands up in surrender.
"What the fuck, Minnie?"
"Get in the cell, now." She warns him. "I'll kill him, Louis. Don't test me. Drop your weapons, and get in the fucking cell!"
Keeping the bow pointed at Louis and AJ, she strolls over to my cell, unlocking it, and opening the door. "Don't you dare get any ideas." She warns me as she ushers Louis and AJ in, slamming the door behind them, leaving the three of us in here, with nothing at all.
"Damn it!" Louis yells as he slams his fist into the wall. "GOD DAMN IT!"
"What the fuck is happening?" I hiss to him. "Why are you here?"
"Why do you think?" He asks me, rhetorically. "We were gonna break you out. Shit, this is really bad. Really fucking bad."
"Where's Brett?" I ask him. "He can still get us out."
"I don't know." He responds. "He was doing overwatch, so he's probably still out there. But we have bigger issues."
"Like what?" I eye him, curious and concerned.
"Willy made a bomb, and it's set to go off when the boiler starts going. That bomb is gonna destroy the ship, and us, too, if we don't get the fuck off it."
"Shit…" I mutter. "Well, unless you guys can think of anything. We're fucked."
"Violet? What happened? Are you okay?" We hear Clem's voice from Violet's cell. Sounds like she woke up. But Violet doesn't seem to be in a talking mood. "Violet, talk to me. We're here to take you home."
"I looked for you! When they grabbed me, I saw… you let them take me. I'm just supposed to forget that now that you're here now? Some fucking friend you are." She snaps back.
"Vi, what the Hell's wrong with you? Come on, let's get out of here."
"No, Clem. I'm done. This whole situation is so fucked. At least here I have Minnie."
"You mean the Minnie that betrayed us?"
"Don't act like you know her. She tried to escape, her and Sophie. They said if I'd fight back they'd kill Minnie, or one of you. All you've done is get us hurt or killed. If you fuck this up worse… I'll stop you myself."
Violet's words shock me. I know she held a grudge against Clem, and maybe she had a valid reason to. But this, she sounds like one of them. She's barely said anything at all since we were captured, but is this it? Violet's throwing in the towel, just like that?
"Violet, they're just trying to scare you!" Clem pleads to her, "I'm afraid, too, but we can't let them get into our heads."
"I'm not afraid, I'm realistic." Violet snarls back. "Whatever you do, leave me out of it."
Clem sighs, and I finally get to see her as she walks up to her cell door, right across from mine.
"Hey. Are you alright?" I ask her.
"I'm fine." She responds. "Where's AJ?"
"Over here!" He calls out to her from next to me, poking his face through a hole in the sheet metal that covers part of the door.
"Thank God," She sighs in relief. "How are you guys holding up?"
"We're alright. We've got some time to get out of here, I guess. We're not moving yet, at least." Louis remarks, glancing around. Clem does a little fidgeting with the sheet metal, noticing hers is a little flimsy.
A light bulb turns on in Clem's head as she turns back to AJ. "AJ, do you still have your knife?"
AJ fiddles with his pockets, before pulling out a sharp, wooden tool. "Yeah, I've got the small one. I had to drop the big one."
"Good, can you slide it over to me?"
The boy nods, sliding his makeshift weapon across the smooth wood floor. It slides under the gap in Clem's door, and seconds later, we hear a light tapping noise as she chips away at the metal.
Dorian storms toward the door, slamming on it, and surprising Clem. "HEY!"
Clem stands up, looking up at Dorian's vicious glare. "Whatever you're doin', don't. I promise you, it ain't worth it." Dorian warns her as we hear another voice. The same one we've gotten uncomfortably used to these last couple of days.
"She awake?" Lilly asks as she approaches Clem's door, turning to Clem's door with a smirk on her face. "Good. I'll take it from here."
Out of pure instinct, I feel myself stepping away from the door, avoiding Lilly's gaze, while still looking out to see what's going on.
"Where's Abel?" Lilly asks Clem in a nasty tone.
"He's dead." AJ quips her. "He turned into a walker and then Brett shot him in the head."
"Fuck, you little monsters." She slowly walks to our cell, slamming on the door. "Damn it!"
With a quick hiss, she pulls out a handgun, an M1911, and turns back toward Clementine. "Back up." She orders.
Clem complies, stepping back to the wall, and Lilly continues. "Open the door." She
orders to Minerva who, of course, does as she is told. The door slowly creaks open, and Lilly walks in, gun still pointed at Clem.
"Normally, the trouble you've caused, I'd shoot you and toss you overboard. But, I'm genuinely impressed. First, you organize these idiot kids into a fighting force, and kill several of my most experienced soldiers. Then, you sneak onto my boat under the cover of a herd? I bring a prize like you back to the Delta, it might make this whole clusterfuck of a mission worth it. Someone like you, so young with so much potential, you're far too valuable to kill."
"Look, if I'm the one you want, let the others go." She volunteers. Lilly chuckles, but shakes her head.
"No, this isn't a negotiation. This is me telling you how things are going to be." She walks into the cell, closely followed by Minerva as she continues. "My father, Larry, was a military man, and when I was a kid, he had all sorts of rules. The thing that bugged him the most was waste. If I ever left a light on after leaving a room, he'd flip. No matter how many times he ranted about the cost of electricity, I could never remember to hit that switch. So one day, he let our power get cut. He liked to use… illustrations. To show that actions have consequences. No more TV, no more hair dryer no more ice cream sandwiches. Just a miserable family, sitting in the dark."
"Well, I guess asshole runs in the family. Is that the consequence, that you're an asshole?" Clem fires back, and I can't help but snicker rather loudly. Dorian walks up to my cell, a look on her face that would kill, if it could. Cheekily, I flip her off, as Lilly gets back to her story.
"The consequence is, I never left a light on after that. My father had his faults, but he taught me the effectiveness of teaching by example."
"Oh, is that what this is? A lesson?" Clem glares back at her.
"Let me tell you another story, one you might relate to a little better." Lilly begins again. "Let's call it the parable of the twins. Two girls were taken from their home, and brought to a new place to live. They had to leave their friends and family behind, and that was hard at first. They shed a lot of tears. But the new place was a good place. The people there grew corn and raised pigs, and the twins ate well for the first time in years. They had hot showers, clean clothes, beds. They were given guns and trained to use them. The people there were kind to these girls. All they asked in return was that they helped defend the group. You see, this place had a lot of enemies, killers and thieves, who wanted what they had."
I see where Lilly is taking this story, and it's painfully ironic. THEY'RE killers and thieves.
"They needed help fighting, or they'd lose everything they'd built. Their crops, their power, even their lives. One of the girls saw that this was a place worth fighting for, and her tears dried. But the other twin, she could never forget her old home. She rejected every gift, every opportunity. She stirred up trouble every chance she got. She convinced her sister to steal a raft and leave on the river. Of course, they didn't get far. What happened then, Minerva?"
All sights turn to Minerva who, shaking and quavering, immediately snaps back to her cold, ruthless expression. She says three words, clear as day.
"I killed her."
Louis' jaw drops as he looks to the ground in pure shock. "What the fuck, Minnie?"
Some commotion from Omar and Aasim is immediately quieted by Lilly getting back into the conversation. "You're own sister? Why would you do that?"
"She was twisting my head with her lies."
"And?"
"I made a mistake. I needed to show loyalty to the place I called home."
"Like it or not, you're one of my people now, Clem. The question is, which twin will you be? The loyal one? Or the dead one?"
"You fucking brainwashed her. You people are sick in the head!" I yell out at Lilly. "And you, what kinda person are you?" I target Minerva. "Killing your own family in the name of blind loyalty? You're no better than any of these sick fucks!"
"Y'all better back away from the door!" Dorian warns me again, to which I look back at her, dead in the eyes, but I don't say a word, nor do I move a muscle.
"I'll be the one that cuts your throat while you sleep." Clem growls back to her, which only seems to amuse her.
"That's kinda what I expected you to say. No matter, you'll soon find out I'm not playing around. Pull the mouthy one out of the cell."
Dorian opens the door, and Lilly adds some more. "They clearly didn't get the moral of the story. We'll have to help them understand."
Dorian walks up to me, pulling out a butcher knife. I gulp as I accept the inevitable, and AJ steps in between us.
"Stop. Don't hurt Benji. Or I'll hurt you." The boy says menacingly.
"Ey, yo. You better cool it, before you get yourself hurt." She threatens back to the boy, shoving past him and grabbing me by the collar. She throws me to the ground with ease, grabbing my hand as she tries to keep me still. "Stay still. Don't make this any worse than it needs to be."
My breathing quickens as I try to wiggle free, but I can't do very much. She has me pinned under her. "That's it, just breathe."
I close my eyes, ready to lose a finger or a few as my entire body stiffens. My jaw locks up, this is it. Dorian screams out in pain as the pressure on top of me is suddenly lifted. I open my eyes, looking back up to see her throw AJ off her back, towards the wall. As he sits up, he spits something big out of his mouth. A bloody piece of her ear.
Dorian feels her ear, noticing a chunk of it missing, as she kicks AJ back into the wall. "You son of a bitch!"
"That's enough." Lilly states.
"What the- He bit me!" Dorian protests.
"I said, that's enough." She repeats herself, and Dorian stands down. I use this as a chance to crawl back against the wall, my breathing slows down and I calm down, seeing I'm not gonna lose any fingers.
"You deserve to die!" AJ yells out. "We'll kill you!"
Lilly, intrigued by what the boy's saying, walks over to our cell. "You think you can kill me?"
"I know I can!" AJ responds fiercely. "We'll put a knife in the side of your head!"
"Big talk for a little guy." She says back, enjoying this a little too much.
"I know I can do it. I killed Marlon. I'll kill you, too!" He pretends to hold a gun in his hands, pointing it at Lilly's head. "Bang."
She crouches down, in front of AJ and meets his eye level. "So, YOU killed Marlon. Huh. I bet you'd make a great soldier. Clem seems to care a lot about you, doesn't she? Come on, let's go have a chat. Just us."
Before AJ can react, she grabs him by the shirt and drags him out, locking the cell behind her. Minerva does the same with Clem's cell before she can rip the two apart herself, although she puts up a Hell of a fight.
"Get this thing moving. I want to be far away from here, fast." Lilly orders Dorian while dragging AJ away.
"I'll fire up the boiler." Dorian confirms as she walks downstairs.
"Don't you dare look at me that way." Minerva says to Clementine. "This is the only way we survive."
"Are you serious Minnie?" Louis cries out to her. "After everything she's done, you're just gonna help her? Fuck You!"
"Shut up!" She yells back at Louis, as Clem disappears from the cell door once again.
"What the Hell happened to you?" He asks her, sincerely. "You killed Sophie. What the fuck? You just decided, 'Hey I'll work for these people, they seem friendly enough'."
"You wouldn't understand, Louis. We're right. Stop fighting it. Please."
From behind her, Clem and Violet fight, with Clem easily overpowering her. This gets Minerva's attention. Perfect.
"Hey! What're you doing? Stop!" She unlocks the door, trying to break it up. BIG mistake. Just as she opens the door, Clem runs right at it, knocking her backwards, and losing control of her crossbow.
Almost immediately, she grabs the latch to our door, unlocking it, just as Minnie gets up. "Clem, behind you!" Louis warns her, just in time for her to turn around to see Minnie rush her with a knife, knocking her down on her back and sticking a knife to her chest.
"You're the fucking problem here! I won't let you get them all killed!" She yells to Clem, slowly overpowering her.
Louis is the first out of the cell, grabbing the crossbow and pointing it at her. "Minerva, stop!"
She blatantly ignores him, just as we hear Dorian's voice quickly approaching. "What the Hell's going on down-"
She's immediately cut off by the crossbow bolt that Louis fired directly into her mouth. Her eyes roll backwards as she drops down dead, the bolt sticking out of the back of her throat.
This does just enough to distract Minerva, who turns around to see her comrade dead. Louis, in shock that he killed someone, drops the bow, but the damage has been done.
With one punch to the head, Clem manages the get Minerva off her, and another one knocks her out cold. For once, we can finally breathe, even for just a second.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Louis panics, and Violet walks out of the cell, taking in everything that just happened. She crouches next to Minerva, holding her in her arms with a light sob.
"Minerva, we have to go, now." Clem tells her, unlocking Omar and Aasim's door.
"NO!" She protests, still sobbing next to her ex(?)-girlfriend.
Clem sighs in annoyance. "We planted a bomb on the boat. It's gonna go off."
"Fuck you, there's a bomb! Mitch is dead! Just fucking go!"
"Clem, we need to get off the boat. That bomb is gonna go off any minute now."
"Go." She tells me. "I need to find AJ."
"We better see you on dry land." Aasim tells her, and she nods back to him before going to the upper deck.
Brett's POV
I come to as I feel myself being dragged along the top deck, a strong breeze blowing in my face as I look up. My hands are binded, likely by the same woman from earlier, the blonde with the short haircut, who drags me along the deck. Tenn, captured with me, is dragged by another man. Finally, we reach the end of the boat, and sitting there, James, his hands also binded, a pissed-off look on his face, which I see for the first time without his mask.
"James…"
"They got me…"
"Don't tell 'em a fuckin' thing." I tell him. "Not a damn thing."
"Quiet!" The woman yells to me, smacking me in the side of the head. "You will tell us whatever we want to know."
"Fuck you. You don't fucking scare me." I spit right at her, the drop landing on her boot, which only pisses her off more. She slaps me in the face again, leaving a stinging sensation on my cheek, but I grin anyways, resisting.
"We're gonna focus that energy. Sharpen it." We hear Lilly's voice approaching. "I've known Clementine since before this all started. She'll come around. You'll come around, too. Once you see what we have to offer."
"Ma'am!" The man dragging Tenn says. "We found a couple more sneaking around the docks."
"Tenn!" AJ calls out, seeing his friend being held hostage.
"Tennessee!" Lilly exclaims, absolutely delighted. "Did you get lost?"
"He wasn't alone, ma'am." The woman adds. "We've got a couple more over there."
"Right this way." Lilly leads the boys over towards us, and she only looks more delighted to see the both of us tied up.
"We found him with the boy." The blonde points to me, and I send a nasty look to both of them. "And we found this in the herd." She nods at James.
"So that's how there were so many walkers." She remarks. "You must've thought you were clever, leading all those walkers here. Or was that Clementine's idea?"
James remains quiet, staring back at Lilly.
"Nothing to say?"
"You don't fucking scare me."
"Is that so?"
"You've already signed your own death warrant." I assure her. "It doesn't matter if it's right now, tomorrow, a day, a year from now. Even if it takes the rest of my life, you're fucking dead."
She smirks as she crouches down, inches from my face. "Just like your brother. Defiant as ever. It's a real shame. You'd have made a Hell of a soldier. Kill them."
"No!" AJ yells out. But just as the blonde raises her rifle, about to shoot James and myself, Tenn makes a quick move, swiping her handgun from its holster, pointing it at her, and then at Lilly.
"Easy, Tenn."
"Don't hurt them." He warns her. "Just… stop hurting people."
"Shoot her, Tenn!" I tell the boy. "Shoot her, and this is over."
"Why don't we all just take a deep breath?" Lilly suggests, slowly moving towards him.
"Give me my friends back!" He yells with conviction, pointing the gun at her. "Let us go, or else."
Lilly stands tall. "Fine, go ahead, do it. Save your friends." She literally puts her head to the barrel of the gun.
"Do it it, Tenn. Fuckin' do it." I mutter. "End this."
"This is what you came here to do, isn't it?"
The pressure of the situation weighing down on him, and he starts shaking. Tears start pouring out of his eyes. He can't do it.
"Oh, I see. You came here to cry." She taunts the boy, snatching the gun out of his hands. "Looks like you're not a soldier, either." She points the gun back at him, just for AJ to intervene the way he does best. He leaps up, grabbing her arm and biting down hard on her hand. The blonde raises her rifle again, about to shoot, but James runs at her landing a big hit with his shoulder. I turn to Lilly, just to see Clementine doing the same, tackling the woman to the ground. I'm forced to watch, hands bound behind my back, as Clem and Lilly both take turns being in control, but Lilly seems to be doing more damage. Lilly knocks the knife out of Clem's hands as she pins her against the rail.
"You've made a big fucking mistake." Lilly growls, pinning Clem down. "Such a fucking waste! OW!"
Lilly howls in pain as AJ plunges the knife into her knee, despite still managing to kick him away with her hurt leg. Clem uses this as a chance to kick the knife, cutting more of Lilly's leg, causing her to drop to the ground, holding her wound, spilling blood.
"Tenn!" I yell to the boy, doing almost nothing. "Try and get my binds loose!"
He nods, running behind me, and fiddling with the rope. After a minute or so, I feel it loosening, and I wiggle one of my hands free, I'm finally able to get up, dust myself off, and I look up to see AJ picking up the handgun that was knocked away during the fight.
Lilly, seeing herself in a no-win situation, concedes, kneeling, keeping her hands up, surrendered. "AJ, wait! I give up. I will give up. Put down the gun, I will let everyone leave. My crew and I will leave. We won't bother you anymore." She pleads to the boy with some very uncharacteristic desperation.
James wrestles the rifle away from the blonde, tossing it to the side as he turns to see AJ, refusing to back down. That glare in his eyes, the animosity tells me all I need to know. He wants to kill her.
But James tries to reason with the boy. "AJ! She's not a threat anymore. Lower the gun."
"You weren't down there. You didn't see what she did." AJ snaps back at him, "She tried to cut us all up!"
Clem staggers to her feet as Lilly continues to beg for her life. "You don't have to do this, please! Don't you fucking dare, AJ!"
That last line, almost sounding like a threat, leads me to a different conclusion, so I try to convince AJ to do the one thing he shouldn't have to do.
"Waste the bitch! We can't let her hurt anyone anymore, AJ! Do it!" I tell him, and James stares back at me, a grimace on his face, and a look in his eyes that tells me to shut up.
"I don't wanna die!" Lilly cries out at him.
"Lower the gun, AJ." Clem sighs.
The boy hesitates for a moment, glancing at Clem, then to me, then to James, and then back at Clem, before sighing himself, lowering the gun.
James, relieved that the boy won't kill, walks toward AJ to take the gun from him.
It all feels so fast from there, though. In one motion, Lilly slides the knife from her wound, and before I react, sticks it in James' back.
"James!" Clem and I both cry out at him, now laying on the ground with blood seeping from his back at he tries to cling onto life, but to no avail.
With a wicked smirk on her face, Lilly steps over to the clattered handgun, picking it up, and pointing it at me.
But then, a rumble, and the boat slightly lurches. Clem and I look at each other as the boat rumbles again. All eyes go upward, toward a smokestack shaking violently and billowing out smoke.
Shit. The bomb. They must've activated the boiler.
"Oh shit." I whisper, just before a violent blast sends us all flying backwards.
Happy Friday everyone. 10 Weeks, 10 Chapters. Had a lot of fun writing this one, but unfortunately this story is winding down, believe it or not. I'd say there's Chapters at most, but I do have an idea for a third story in the works, based in the same universe and combining aspects of my first two stories. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed. Would appreciate some constructive reviews to hear what you think. See you next week :]