The streets were empty, bare and most importantly dead. There was nothing in sight except for a bunch of broken and torn apart cars. Leaves just covered the entire pavement, but it was only a thin layer. The group walked together, they had a set protocol and knew the safety guide. Don't break the pack, unless you have a damn good reason. Omid was limping after he had jumped on to the top of a moving train. He had seriously miscalculated his jump and damaged his leg, but that was better than dying. Clementine took in all the sights of Savannah, she had remembered when she was here a few years ago, but it was all very vague. Since then Lee had taken her walkie-talkie, she had stayed very close to him like he instructed her, but she couldn't help but stare at her walkie-talkie, it was attached to Lee's belt and she needed it back soon. There were pressing issues to deal with.
"Can't I just hold it?" Lee looked down at her, he was very disappointed with Clementine, but he knew that being a dad meant that you have to take both sides to parenting: both good and bad.
Lee looked over Carley; she shook her head. "Not now, Clementine. Maybe later, okay?" In Lee's head there was no later, but he knew what the walkie-talkie meant to Clem.
"Okay." Clementine moped along with the rest of the pack, although she knew how to shoot a gun and quite well at that. Clementine just wasn't ready yet to face a walker, maybe she just had to prove herself.
Lee looked over to new member Christa "How's Omid?"
Christa looked ahead and frowned at her husband; she wasn't ashamed just tired. "His leg's pretty bad."
Omid fought back, though. "I'm fine!"
Christa knew he was in pain, but Omid's lack of self-awareness made her crazy. " You're not fine, you need to rest. He needs to rest."
She snapped her head back at Lee, but nobody had talked about whether Lee was going to stay leader.He meant to talk to Kenny, but was cut off by the unexpected radio call from out of nowhere. Lee wanted to find shelter first of all and then decide collaboratively what to do next.
"It's not safe to stop out here in the open, we need to keep moving. He can rest after we find a boat and get out on the water."
Christa worried and looked back at her husband, Omid. "I don't know how much longer he can keep on like this. If his leg gets any worse we're going to have to carry him."
Kenny was leading the charge, for now, he knew Savannah better than anyone in the group and he knew where the river was. Being a fisherman of now, sound mind, Kenny needed to prove that he was up to scratch to lead the group. "Or leave him."
Christa was surprised. "What? No, that's not an option. We can't…"
Kenny kept his eyes dead center; it appeared as though Kenny had lost his faith a bit. "Lady, I've known you for all of twelve hours – you don't get to say we…"
Lily put her hand on his shoulder; she shook her head. Christa had a big argument to make, but Lily didn't want a fight, she had denounced her fighter ways for the time being. "Let's just wait till we find a shelter to discuss what we is. Right now, we need to stay focus and not let anything…"
Bong! The church bells had rung "Distract us." Bong! Everyone had turned, as the bells went on and on.
"Maybe this city's not so dead after all…" Bong!
Kenny turned around and faced the group; he's heard this bell a thousand times. "Keep moving. No one's ringing that bell, it's automatic, on a timer."
Lee looked at his watch perplexed. "What kind of church bell goes off at twenty past the hour?"
Everyone turned to face Kenny, but Lee and Lily spotted something lurking at the top of the church. Something moved or someone.
"Someone's up there" Carley smiled, she thought that this was Lee's attempt at lightening the mood. "Lee, come on. That's not funny, good try."
Lily was upset; she knew what she saw. "I know what I saw Carley, there was definitely someone up there. Oh. he's quick… or she."
The radio had flipped on, what timing! "If I were you, I'd get out of the street. Now."
Christa turned to face Lee; she wasn't too happy with what had happened to Omid and now Lee had just lied to her or so she thought. "I thought you said that thing didn't work!"
Lee ignored her. He needed to know who was on the other end of the line. "Who the hell is this?!"
Carley had never seen Lee this mad, but he had every right to be. "Hello? Hello? I said answer me!"
Clementine looked down, she knew she could sort this out, but there was no way in hell Lee would let her hold the walkie-talkie. Everyone surrounded Lee, everyone had clearly broken pack and become distracted by Lee's conversation with the mysterious radio.
Omid was, as usual, the first to break the silence "What the hell was that? Is someone trying to fuck with us?"
Carley was quick to interject. "Sounded like a warning. Let's get out of here. Now."
Chuck turned away from the group "Ask not for whom the bell tolls…"
Kenny was annoyed and turned to face whatever Chuck was looking at. "What're you yammering on about?"
Everyone needed to turn and face Chuck and Kenny at this point Chuck had almost replaced Lily as contending alpha male. No one was shocked at this point it was expected considering their luck. "it tolls for thee…"
Walkers came from every street front and behind. It seemed like they were waiting for a long time to ambush some live people. This was the welcome party that the group was used to and needed to get the hell out of here.
Lee quietly instructed the group "Run."
Kenny knew this meant, trouble. "Goddamit. Follow me!"
Everyone pulled out their respective weapons and went to their usual entrance tactic, running and gunning. Kenny shot walkers as he lead the group to a safe house, where as, Chuck wanted to dig his way into the walkers with his shovel. The Everett Family looked at one another, it was time to work together despite all the disappointment with Clementine. It's time to go.
A walker that was wedged underneath a car grabbed Kenny. He tripped, but Lily calmly took care of the walker."Little close, don't ya think princess?"
The Everett Family were cornered by about ten to twelve fully sized walkers, but this was nothing for them. Carley and Lee wasted no time and cleared out all the walkers in under a minute. To be fair, they felt lucky that they hadn't missed a single bullet, but with Carley agreeing to train Clementine and Lee to improve their shooting gave Lee confidence and he couldn't miss now. Even when Carley and Lee weren't there for Clementine in these massive walker raids, they knew that they had friends that they could trust.
The group was easily killing off walkers one by one, but there were just too many at one time. Kenny quickly rushed to the end of the road. "Come on time to go."
Everyone rushed towards him, as Kenny got a gate open. Everyone rushed in, except for Chuck who was stopped at the door by Kenny. "Give me one reason why I should let you in."
Lily spoke up. "Kenny! Now is not the time!"
Chuck held his hands up "Because I got balls to do the hard thing. You used to have it, but do you have it anymore? I think not."
Kenny held up his gun. Everyone stayed silent, it seemed like he was aiming at Chuck, but the walker behind felt Kenny's wrath. He stepped to the side, as Chuck entered. "I would have shot me."
Kenny closed the gate, locked it and looked down. The pressure was still on, a little iron gate wasn't going to keep all of the walkers out. Carley was examining the door and Omid was groaning about his leg.
"You okay?" Omid didn't want to be what Chuck accused Kenny of being "Ugh…yeah."
Christa analysed Omid's battle scars and they weren't good. "You've opened up your wound, you're bleeding. Shit, that's gonna get infected. We've got to get him inside, clean him up!"
Lee ran over to the door and to Carley, who was being assisted by Kenny. "Carley! Go help Omid! Kenny how's that door?"
Carley nodded, Lee noted Kenny's displeasure in his tone. "I'm working on it, I'm working on it."
Lee walked over and noticed the dog door, it was metal and unlike any dog door he had ever seen. Christa wanted to squabble, but Lily held her back and distracted her with Clementine. Carley was tending to Omid, he was still star struck, but in pain. Carley noticed Omid's attitude and pinched the underside of his leg to cause him a bit of pain, but just a bit. Lee had an idea with what to do with the door, he grabbed Chuck's shovel and started to dig.
Carley turned her head, she was disturbed by his random digging. "Lee, what are you doing?"
Lee was focused on his digging, Chuck had observed Lee's working out and understood his answer. "Automated dog collar"
Carley now understood what was going on and responded to Omid who needed the help. Christa continued to try and take care of Omid, but Lily was good at distracting her, reminded her of her dad. She was not found of thinking of her dad, but thoughts are random. Lily also tried to distract herself with Clementine; it might take her mind off of her new passive behavior. Lee had finished digging and everyone had come round to see what he had dug up. Carley had taken Clementine away to sit with Omid and Christa couldn't contain her reaction to the smell. God that smell! Lee reached his hand and grabbed the dog collar the sheer force snapped the poor dead dog's neck. Lily and Christa both began throwing up, Christa knew why she was throwing up, but Lily just found it disgusting.
As Lee brought the collar over and unlocked the door, everyone had a go at trying to open the door. Clementine, wanting to feel useful, quickly snuck in and unlocked the door from the inside. Lee was furious, but Carley put her hand on his shoulder. The door had opened
"Ta-da" Clementine said, as she waited for Lee's response.
"Good job, Clem!" Kenny cautiously walked in with Lily and Chuck to scope the place out.
"I did good right?" She needed his approval; she need to know that he still loved her even with all the mistakes she made with the walkie-talkie. "Yes you did. You did good."
Carley opened her arms up for a hug and Clementine instantly followed her up on that offer. Just before Omid could complain about his leg, Kenny announced that the house was safe to enter. Everyone rushed in.
Christa helped Omid lay down on the nearest couch. "Argh!" Omid squealed with much discomfort.
"Sorry! Sorry!" She had fully put him down now.
"No, it's okay. I'm good. Feel better already just being off my feet. Thanks, babe." Omid tried to muster a smile, he did not do a very good job.
Christa walked over to Lee, Carley and Kenny who stood next to the kitchen. "So, when we're you going to tell us about the radio."
Before Kenny could snap at Christa, Lee put a stop to him, it seemed now that Kenny was put on a leash and he did not like that. "Tell you what?"
Carley shook her head at Lee. She was also unaware of this phenomenon until a few hours before entering Savannah "That it's working."
Lee thought he could explain "I was going to tell you. Kenny, Lily and I only found out yesterday."
Christa was still unhappy with his decision. "So the five of you were keeping it from the rest of us? Great."
Carley felt the need to interject. "I also found out about this a few hours ago and I should have known much earlier. Can we talk about this later? Right now, Omid needs medicine and we need food. What are we going to do about that?"
Lily was on her own looking at some of the art, but even she felt the need to wander over and listen to what Kenny had to say. "Yeah, who gives a shit about that damn radio? I'm more worried about whoever it was out there ringing that bell and bringing the dead down on top of us! It's like they didn't want us to make it to the river."
Christa was smart, but she wasn't afraid to speculate. "What makes you think it's not the same person? Whoever was on the radio was close enough to see us in the street. And we didn't see anyone else other than the guy in the bell tower."
Carley face-palmed and walked away to go find Clementine, she knew she wasn't going to be heard in this argument, so she decided to put her time to better use.
Kenny on the other hand kept the fight going "Because that doesn't make a lick of damn sense. Why would they bring out the dead like that and then try to warn us about it?"
Lee was also unafraid to make speculations, but he wanted to just the conversation over and done with. "Whoever, it was, seemed like they're following us. And I don't like being followed."
Kenny, like any good essay-writing student, needed to go back to his central argument. "All the more reason to get on a damn boat, where we can't be followed."
Christa did the same. "I'm not going back out there any time soon. Omid needs to rest."
Lee knew that either one of those things was a waste of time, but both had to be done according to his original plan. "Why don't we rest up for a little while, we've just gone through a lot of walkers and then go look for a boat, as a supply run." Christa smiled, but Kenny wasn't too happy.
"Suit yourselves. But I'm not gonna wait around too long for someone else to grab up those boats, that's our ticket out of here." Lily waited for the awkward pause that was going on right now. "Place seems secure so far."
Christa was still feeling anxious. "I'll feel better when we know that for sure. We need to check the whole house."
Kenny gave up and let out a sigh. "Alright, fine. Lee take the upstairs, I think Carley already started. Lily, and me'll take down here. Make sure you check every door understand?"
Lee walked upstairs where Clementine and Carley were and they instantly rushed him. "Can I help? What if there's another locked door?"
Lee rubbed her head, she had done well today, despite the stuff with the radio. "I think you've been helpful enough for one day, kiddo. Why don't you just see what Christa and Omid need anything, okay?"
Lee was going to suggest Chuck, but something about Chuck just felt dangerous to him.
"Okay." Clementine was upset she wanted to make sure that Lee was still there for her.
Clementine began the walk over to the damaged couple, while Carley stepped into Lee's view. She stood next to a door and gestured Lee to go over to her. "I checked all the doors up here while you were arguing down there. Don't worry about it."
They held each other passionately; they hadn't done that since the train station. "Let's go in here, it's safe right?"
Carley smiled "Since when did you care?"
They walked in to the room and it turned out to be a bedroom. Of course it was a bedroom. Lee locked the door behind them and instantly ran up to Carley. They kissed, as he picked her up and threw her onto the bed. He was on top of her, kissing her neck and unzipping her jacket. They were having fun being in love, but Carley couldn't help but laugh.
"Not just yet. Lee Everett, Not just yet."
Lee frowned. "But why not? I think I did great today."
Carley kept smiling; she had a surprise for Lee. "Yeah I know, but we're going to try something a little bit different."
Lee stood up and crossed his arms, as Carley brought out a radio. Lee laughed. "I hope you put the batteries the right way in."
Carley rolled her eyes. "Come on. It's a romantic throw back, you gotta love those." Lee couldn't help but smile at his beautiful girlfriend, she hit play and turned the volume down, no one could hear the radio except them.
"Hold my waist, Lee." Lee did as she asked, when Carley wrapped her arms around his neck.
The radio spoke "Last song: Carpenters: Close to you." Lee rolled his eyes again, but sarcastically spoke. "Aww, Carley I didn't know you were so into clichés."
Carley whispered in his ear. "Just shut up and enjoy this."
The song began to play, as they rocked back and forth. They used this time to reflect on their relationship. They couldn't believe that they had come such a long way from the pharmacy. Carley was smiling, but Lee put on that cheeky smile that he was known for. Carley remembered back to the R.V. when Lee had been there to support her even when he was unaware of it. Lee couldn't help but remember the moment that sealed his love for her. "Don't call me small." She had said to him and just before that, kissed him. This was the first time that they had truly tried to romantically involve each other and this had become serious in the space of a few days. Maybe it was sexual on the very basis, but at the end of the day and even now they knew that they were perfect for each other. For a moment they were happy that all this was going on, otherwise, they may have never met.
The song drew to a close; Lee twirled her around and pulled her in. "Carley, I love you."
A tear came rolling down from her eye; she didn't think that he'd say it so fast. There were no social or financial pressures that could stop them, so Carley had no problem replying. "I love you too."
They stood there for a moment longer and shared a passionate kiss, close to their first one after retrieving the Animal Crackers and having their heart to heart. There was no more doubt, they were the couple that was ready to take on the world. Lee sensually picked her up and threw her on the bed gently. He got on top of her and slowly unzipped her jacket.
"Let's try that again, shall we?"
They finally did it, they began tearing clothes off of each other's bodies and began a long session of love making. They knew that this was the first of many more to come, but Carley and Lee were just meant to be. Carley had never felt so aroused, ever. And Lee knew that with Carley, he could explore the beast that he had held within him even before the apocolypse.
But we all know that Carley and Lee, were just meant to be.
Next time on "What if Lily missed…" :
It's time to set for the seas, but with which boat? It's time to choose one. Also, we learn about Chuck's recent behaviour and meet a Crawford classic, but how will everything change, now that Carley is involved.
