Chapter 13 - Welcome to the Rest of Our Lives

Dusk, The Next Day

In the fading sunlight, we finally approach the off ramp, 'Richmond' written in bold block text on the sign. In the distance, I can see bright lights coming from the city. Sure enough, this place is real, not that I had any reason to believe otherwise.

"That's it." Clem notices me looking out toward the city. "Richmond. The front gate is a couple more miles, but we'll be there soon enough."

With a nod, the group keeps walking through the remnants of the old city. Crumbling buildings, now overrun by moss and other foliage, old cars, paint chipping, stripped for parts and whatnot, and walker corpses aplenty litter the area. The area is quiet, except for a couple severely decomposed walkers laying on the ground, still alive, but their bodies broken down to a point where they're unable to actually move, making them incredibly easy to deal with. A single stab to brain with no resistance is all it takes.

Another hour or so of walking later, and a large metal wall comes into view, a faded red insignia painted on, mostly visible due to the torches and lights along the top of it. With confident poise, she leads the way, right up to the massive wall.

"Hey! Anyone there?" She calls out, despite no one being there. A few moments pass by, before a rougher-looking man pokes his head out, noticeable scars under both his eyes.

"Clementine? Is that you? And AJ?" He asks, a heavy Southern accent in his voice, like many other people I've met recently.

"Sure is, Max!" She grins.

"Holy crap! We thought for sure you were- wait a minute." He pulls out a walkie talkie, saying something into it, before turning back to us. "Boss is gonna wanna see this."

Minutes later, the gate slowly creaks open, and almost immediately, a young boy, younger than AJ, runs out to greet Clem.

"CLEM!" He yells, running right into her arms, giving her a great, big hug. "AJ!" He yells with a loud giggle, pointing at AJ, who grins and joins in on the hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you, too, buddy." Clem smiles with a giggle of her own. "Where's your daddy?"

"I'm right here." We all turn to see a man, tall, a neatly-trimmed beard, a backwards baseball cap, a green plaid flannel, and some dark wash jeans, walking toward us. Clem and AJ run over to him, and he grins as he pulls them in for a hug. "It's so good to see you guys. When you didn't come back from your supply run, we feared the worst. We sent out a search party and they couldn't find anything. Weeks passed by, and we all accepted the inevitable. I can't believe you're back." He says, relieved at the sight of them, safe and sound. "And I see you brought some friends."

"They saved my life." She tells him. "Without them, we'd be walker food."

"Thank God…" He smiles before turning to us, his son in one arm. "Well, any friend of Clem's is a friend of mine. Welcome to Richmond. My name's Ian Sullivan, I'm what passes for a leader around here nowadays."

We all take turns introducing ourselves, and he welcomes us into his community with open arms, leading us in and showing us around a bit, before we wind up at what appears to be an old school.

"So, as is standard with all new people, we need to check for bites and whatnot. I trust Clem's judgement with all this, but it's just for safety. I'll have one of our doctors come and check on you, ask a couple of questions, and then you'll be good to go. In and out in, say, fifteen minutes, tops."

I shrug. "Sounds reasonable." He leads us into the school, downstairs to what looks to be an old locker room. As we make ourselves comfortable, he leaves us with some parting words.

"I'm gonna go put Chandler here down for the night. I'll have Eleanor or Devin down here to check you guys out, and I'll be back."

With that, he disappears around the corner, leaving all of us by ourselves once again.

"Wow… We're really here." Louis says, amazed. "This place looks amazing."

"I gotta admit, I wasn't sure about going here," Ruby admits, "But seeing y'all so determined to go here, and seeing it for myself, I'm glad I was wrong." She says with a smile. The general consensus nods in agreement.

The door opens, and a pair of people walk in. A taller, asian woman with straight brown hair and a purple bandana around her neck, and a tall, slender but ripped man with a dirty blond crew cut.

"Hey there, I'm Eleanor, and this is Devin." The woman introduces herself and the other doctor. "We're two of the doctors here at Richmond, and Ian wanted us to check you guys out, make sure everything's good."

They have us all line up, and Benji and I find ourselves on the end. Eleanor and Devin both work their way outwards, and eventually, Eleanor makes it to me, right after she examines Violet's burns.

"Hi there, I'm Eleanor." She offers her hand to me with a warm smile, both of which I return.

"Brett. Brett Sanderson."

"So, Brett, any sort of medical issues I should know about?" She asks as she starts checking for any bites, which I don't have any, so no issue here.

"None." I say as I shake my head. "I'm about as healthy as someone in a zombie apocalypse can be." I joke to her.

She lightly chuckles. "How fortunate. And how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

I hear her scribble something onto her notebook as she continues. "Any allergies?"

Once again, I shake my head. "Nope."

"Okay… seems like everything is in order." She says, writing down one more thing before going to my brother. "Hi, I'm Eleanor."

"I'm Benjamin. Benjamin Sanderson. But please, call me Benji." He respectfully introduces himself.

"Brothers?" She asks us, and the both of us nod back.

As she starts checking him out, her first question, rightfully so, is his missing right foot. "How'd that happen?"

"Walker got me a few days ago." He informs her. "My brother cut it off to save my life. I was almost a goner."

"Jeez." She shudders, "Normally, I'd have you on observation for a couple days, but you made it all the way here, and you look really healthy, so I think it's safe to let it slide. If you have any difficulty with your crutches, let me know, alright?"

"Sure thing." He smiles and nods.

"Elle," Devin speaks up from the other side of the room, inspecting Aasim. "It's probably a longshot, but do you think Conrad might be able to make him a prosthetic?"

"Hmmm," She ponders for a moment. "He is pretty handy. We can ask him in the morning."

My brother's face sports an excited grin, and frankly, mine does too. To have him walking around somewhat normally again will be really good, and I know he has to agree.

Getting back to the inspection, she asks him the same questions she asked me, all of the answers being the same except that he's two years younger. Like with me, she writes some things down on her notepad, and that's it. She and Devin leave to go get Ian, once again leaving us in the locker room.

"A prosthetic, huh?" Benji asks with an optimistic smile. "Guess I might not be on crutches for too long."

"Let's hope so." I agree.

Minutes later, Ian returns. "Everything all set? Good. You guys gotta be hungry, right? Come on, my wife's making dinner back at home."

He leads us back out of the building, through the streets, bustling with life. This music, laughter, happiness, it's something unlike anything I've seen in a while. This place is amazing.

Toward the back end of town, a decently sized house, with a hitching post out in front with a raven on it. He walks up a path to the front door, motioning us to follow. The door opens, and he welcomes us all into his home, which looks a lot bigger on the inside.

"Hey, Kate?" Ian calls out. "Come here a sec, I've got a few people I want you to meet."

From around a corner, a medium-height woman, tan skin, long, brown hair put up in a single braid, with a noticeable pregnancy bump, she's absolutely gorgeous. She turns over to us with a surprised look on her face. "Jesus, Ian! When you said a few people were coming over, I figured maybe, four or five at most, not a dozen!" She lightly scolds him, to which he sheepishly grins back.

"Well, you see, about that..." He motions to Clem and AJ, who found themselves behind me, Benji, and Louis, and they soon make their way to the front, and Kate's demeanor immediately changes.

"Oh my god…" She whispers. "Clem… AJ… But you…"

The three of them go in for a hug, before Kate breaks away and looks over to Ian. "Does Gabe know she's back yet?" She asks him, and he shakes his head.

"That was my next thing. When's he supposed to be back?"

"Any minute now." She tells him. "I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to see Clem, you've seen how he's been the past few weeks."

"Definitely. But in the meantime, I'm starving and I'm sure these kids are, too. Let's eat!" Ian enthusiastically remarks, and Kate rolls her eyes with a small smile, going back to the kitchen as Ian sets some extra plates down. Minutes later, the couple serves us dinner, roast chicken with a couple loaves of bread, and we all dig in.

"Mrs. Sullivan, I gotta say, I love what you've done with the place. You have a real eye for interior decoration." Louis remarks with a sly smile, getting Kate to giggle.

"Why, thank you, Louis. You're a real charmer."

"I like to think so." He responds confidently, as I've seen Louis do so often.

"Easy there, buster. You know that's my wife." Ian jokingly warns him with a warm smile of his own, and Louis immediately backtracks.

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it, sir. Clem's told me plenty of stories about you, and I wouldn't dare get on your bad side."

He has a big, hearty laugh, likely reminiscing about the past. "Is that so? Well, yeah, I had to do some pretty messed up things. Sometimes justified, sometimes not so much. I like to think I'm a changed man now. Leading a community like this, it's helped me become a lot smarter about those sorta things."

Omar, usually the perfectionist, especially with food, is the first to remark on the food. With a toothy grin, he turns to Kate. "Mrs. Sullivan, this is amazing. Some of the best food I've ever had."

"You should know how big of a compliment that is," Aasim adds. "Omar is a perfectionist, especially when it comes to food. He takes cooking very seriously."

"Thank you, boys." She smiles, with a slight blush. "If you're that good, maybe you should make us dinner sometime, Omar. And please, call me Kate."

"I will gladly cook dinner for you guys." Omar smugly smiles. "Hell, these guys already know what that's like, given I've been cooking them for years now."

"Yeah!" Willy exclaims, "Those few days where you were kidnapped were terrible. We could barely cook anything, and it wasn't good."

Ian looks at the rest of us, intrigued and concerned, as he keeps eating. "Kidnapped? Jesus, what happened?"

Clem looks at Ian, a stone-cold serious look on her face. "It was Lilly."

He freezes, dropping his fork back into his food, as he looks back to Clem. "What did you say?"

"It was Lilly." She tells him. "She… she's still out there."

"You're kidding… She's really still around. God damn it…"

"What's all this about?" Kate asks her husband and Clem, the two that already knew Lilly. "Who's Lilly?"

"Lilly, she… she was part of my first group. I went to high school with her, and we went our separate ways afterwards, she went into the military, and I went to college, where I met Carley, my first wife." That last part, he emphasizes for the rest of the group, who listens on in surprise, not daring to say a word."We met up again when this mess started, a good three years after high school. I was engaged to Carley, and we were looting a drug store in Macon, Georgia, that was abandoned, where she was with her group, including her asshole of a father. Anyways, we joined their group, and that group got bigger over time. Lilly was in charge, and while she was kinda moody, things were actually going pretty well."

"So, what happened?" Violet asks. "Things seem pretty good, and like, almost a total opposite of the Lilly we know."

"Lilly's father, Larry, was a real rough dude, both physically and personality-wise. I guess he lost his wife to cancer or something and was never able to get over that, and he had a real bad heart condition that almost got him killed a couple times. One night, they got into a bad situation where they got kidnapped by a family of cannibals. Her dad had a heart attack and died right there. We had just learned that a bite itself doesn't turn you, and it was fresh in our minds, so a couple of guys in the group they… threw a salt lick on his head so he wouldn't turn." He says with slight hesitation. "Lilly was never the same after that. Shorter temper, more frequent outbursts, even the occasional physical altercation. This all got to a boil when it was revealed that someone stole supplies from our group. We got attacked by another group that afternoon, expecting a package of drugs that they didn't get. Lilly immediately suspected two people, this kid, Ben, and my wife. When Carley stood up to Lilly, Lilly shot her like a rabid animal, trying to kill her."

The room stays silent as Ian recounts what happened. Clem told me the short version of this story a few weeks ago, when we were preparing for the attack. Hearing Ian tell it from his perspective, with more detail, I can't tell if I should feel even worse for her or if I should've killed her when I had the chance. "After she shot Carley, we ditched her on the side of the road. I could've killed her, but I was more concerned with seeing Carley safe. She survived the incident, thank God, but still."

Kate looks at her husband, stunned. Clearly, this was her first time hearing this story, too. The room remains silent as Ian gets back to eating, taking a sip of his wine as he does so. "This is really good, Kate." He says to his wife, who just looks back at him, bewildered.

"What did she do to you guys?" She asks us, and Benji is the first to respond.

"She tried to mess with our minds, that's what. She thought she could scare us into being her soldiers, fighting a war for her community up North. Needless to say, she failed. We blew up her boat, and most of the crew died."

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore. Here in Richmond, we are strong, well-defended, and can beat anyone that tries to pick a fight." Ian confidently assures us. "You have my word to the grave on that."

"So, you mean-" I ask him, and he cuts me off with an enthusiastic smile.

"What, did you think I'd invite you in, have dinner with us, and then tell you to scram? Of course not, I'm offering all of you a spot in Richmond, should you choose to accept it. Of course, I can't think of many people who would choose the alternative in this day and age."

Ian's offer is immediately met with enthusiastic cheers as we all graciously accept. AJ beams the most at this, knowing we're still gonna be living together. After everything that's happened the past few weeks, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Actually, that's not entirely true. There is one thing I'd change.

Brody. I wish she was here with me. If she was here, this would be perfect. But then again, maybe it's a good thing she's in Heaven now. She didn't have to stress about the attack, which I know she absolutely would have. If I lost her during our little war with the Delta, that'd be worse than what happened with Marlon, if anything. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if that happened. But still, on the off chance everything went well, this moment would be absolutely perfect.

My thoughts are interrupted as the front door opens, and two men walk into the house, one older man, around Ian's age, maybe, with thick brown facial hair wearing a black jacket and the other younger, around my age or so, wearing a blue denim jacket and a red beanie. "What the…" The younger one says, seeing the dozen of us in here.

"Gabe! Welcome home, buddy. We've got a few guests tonight for dinner." Ian greets the younger one.

"Certainly one way of putting it." The older one says, walking in and taking off his shoes. "Lotta new faces here. Are these new members?"

"For the most part, Javi," Ian responds. "We've got a couple of old friends here, too."

"Oh really? Who-" He immediately stops himself, in shock at the sight of Clem and AJ, unable to say anything, his jaw drops.

"What? What is it, Javi?" Gabe asks as he joins the other man, only for Clem to run over to him with a squeal and pounce, knocking him to the ground as the two kiss, much to his surprise.

Kate covers her mouth as she laughs at the sight of it all.

"Clem I-... I thought you were dead. It's been three weeks." The boy stammers as Clem shuts him up with another kiss.

"Are you kidding? You can't kill me that easily, you dork." She giggles, pecking her boyfriend one last time as the two get to their feet. Louis keeps an uncomfortable look on his face, I guess he still has feelings. Well, that definitely shattered any hope of that. Poor guy. I look back at Benji, who has a similar look on his face, and I pat him on the shoulder. I feel bad for the both of them, but things'll change for them, soon enough.

"Well, everyone, this is Javi and Gabe. Javi's my brother-in-law, and Gabe is his nephew. The two of them work in the security division, Javi being the head of security here. Eleanor, who you all met earlier, is the head of the hospitals, and I'm in charge of community affairs. The three of us make the hard decisions around here, to keep this place running." Ian explains to us. The two of them introduce themselves shortly after, they seem like good enough guys. Ian grabs Javi and Gabe plates of food and gets a glass of wine for Javi. As time passes, we all converse and get to know each other a bit better, when Kate all of a sudden gets up from her seat, and everyone looks over at her, a wide smile on her face.

"So, this might be as good a time as any, but for those of you who can't quite tell, I'm about six and a half months pregnant with our second child. Well, I saw Dr. Lingard today for an appointment, and, well… in early February, we'll be having a girl!"

Everyone turns to Ian, whose jaw drops into the widest smile I've ever seen, as he and Kate hug, a loud cheer erupting from the crowd of fourteen or so. He kisses his wife to the sound of roaring applause. This day's been an eventful one, to say the least.

The light ambiance continues for a while, before it becomes evident that it's time to call it a night. The ten or so of us walk out of Ian's house, and he leads us to an apartment building a couple blocks down, where he explains that there's vacancy, and we all room up. After that all gets sorted out, Omar, Aasim, and Willy take one apartment, Ruby and Violet take another, and Louis, Benji, and I take one, and we also decide to let Rosie stay with us, at the request of Benji, interestingly enough. All three apartments are right by each other, so it's really just like dorming at the school, albeit on a much larger scale.

"Alright, now that you guys are all situated, I should probably tell you about... initiation." Ian hesitates, before turning to Clem. "It's not fun, but it's a way to show your loyalty to the community. You have to get the community logo branded with a hot iron somewhere on your body. Clem?"

Clem rolls up her sleeve, and right on her bicep, a circular mark with the same insignia we saw on the walls scarred deep into her skin. With a smile, she looks back to the rest of us. "Only hurts for a minute."

Clem's remark is met with worried murmurs, a few of the others even backing away in shock or fear, and I don't blame them. These people, they really brand loyalty into their people? What the fuck? After all these good things we've seen and heard...

A small smirk forms on Ian's face as he starts chuckling. "I told you they'd fall for it." He says to Clem before turning back to us. "Nah, we're just joking. That was something the old regime did, a buncha sick fucks that used to run this place before. Not anymore, thank God. No branding, don't worry about that."

The worried murmurs turn to relieved sighs and a couple unamused pouts as Ian laughs it off once again.

Before we all go our separate ways, Ian reminds us to get a good night's sleep, as our lives working and contributing to the community starts tomorrow. With that, he leaves the building, and the rest of us are left to go to our own places.

"This. Is. Amazing!" Louis exclaims as he plops down on the couch, propping his feet up on the coffee table. "Ian's really cool. And this city, oh man. I'm glad he offered us a spot here. This blows the school out of the water in every way possible."

"You can say that again." I grin as I collapse into a chair next to him. "This place is gonna be good for us."

"A new day, a new opportunity. We're gonna make the most of this place. Turn it into something better than it already is." Benji grins, opening the doors to one of the bedrooms, dropping his bag on the floor. I follow him into the room, dropping my stuff in front of the opposite bed, the two of us rooming together like we have for our entire lives.

"Welcome to the rest of our lives." I say to my brother as I lay down in my bed, looking up at the blank ceiling. All I can feel is a feeling of calm I hadn't felt in a long time. This is it. A new place to call home.

That night, I slept perfectly. No nightmares about Dad, Sierra, or Brody, nothing. Just pure, safe, peaceful slumber, something that was almost completely foreign to me at that point. A ray of sunshine pours in through the window as the next morning begins hours later, and with a wide smile, I sit up in my bed.

This is it. The rest of our lives starts today.

Well, that's it. The end of my second story. 13 chapters in 13 weeks, significantly shorter than my previous project, which was 42 Chapters over something like 13 months. I had a lot of fun writing this one, and hopefully you all had as much fun reading it. Once again, special thanks goes out to undyingrage98489 for his OC, Benji, who will be making a return in my next story, alongside the rest of the Ericson crew and the Richmond community, as well as some other returning characters. But, as I mentioned last chapter, I think my next project is going to be my most ambitious one yet, and I'm gonna need some help. I need as many OCs as I can get here, so I would greatly appreciate it if you guys would submit any OCs you would like to see portrayed in my next story. Feel free to leave a review with your OC or pm me using the format I left in the AN for last chapter.

Thank You all for the support, and I'll see you soon :]