We want to say thank you again for all of the reviews and feedback. This is just one of probably a couple of "in-between" chapters. Enjoy!
A few days later, the remaining group were settled back in safely at the motor inn. Even though they were still shaken up about things that happened at the dairy farm, they were slowly but surely managing. And since Kenny and the rest of the group had taken those supplies from the trunk of that car they found in the woods, they were well stocked on food and supplies. However, Carlos, Sarah, Lee, and Clementine didn't want any of those food and supplies.
Other than that though, things were fine between everyone. The kids were getting along great, and even the adults were getting along somewhat. Things were relatively quiet around the motel, and in this day and age, that was a very good thing.
Ben, on the other hand, knew something everyone else didn't: there was a group of bandits spying on the motel. Their leader had cornered him when no one else was looking and told him that they'd had one of his friends in their hostage, and in order to see that friend again, Ben would have to give the bandits a little bit of supplies every day; otherwise, they would kill his friend. Needless to say, Ben didn't feel right about stealing, but he knew that he had to do it.
At the moment, Carlos had just finished checking on Kenny's wound, which didn't appear to be infected. Nearby, Sarah and Duck were sitting on the hood of the truck, talking. Sarah was swinging her legs as she listened to Duck intently.
"So then, after that, me and my mom went to the store and-" Carlos could hear Duck talking all the way on the other side of the lot of the motor inn. He decided that he should go check on his daughter.
"You doing okay, Sarah?" Carlos asked as he approached his daughter and Duck.
"I'm fine, Daddy," she smiled.
"What about you, Duck?" Carlos asked.
"Yup! I'm okay," he replied.
Sarah interrupted, "Oh, Dad, I was talking to Lilly earlier and she said that she wanted to talk to you when you weren't busy. I think she's in her room," she explained. "You should go talk to her, it seemed important."
"I will, sweetie," Carlos said. "Be good, okay?" he said, and began to head to Lilly's room. He wondered what in the world she had to talk about.
Once he arrived, he knocked on her door knowing that it would probably be rude to barge in. "Lilly? It's Carlos."
A few moments later, the door opened to reveal Lilly, and it was clear that she had been expecting him. "Hey," she greeted.
"Sarah said you wanted to talk to me about something," Carlos told her.
Lilly nodded. "Come on in." She held the door open for him.
He walked inside, and she shut the door behind him. "What's all this about?" he asked, sitting down on the bed. "Sarah said that it sounded important."
"It's not really that important," Lilly replied.
"Okay good," Carlos sighed of relief. "You had me worried there for a minute."
Lilly sighed, "I actually wanted to talk to you about Sarah, if that's okay," she said, hesitantly. "I mean, I know it's not much of my business, but I just wanted to know more about her. She seems like such a sweet girl."
Carlos had to smile a little at that statement, as he agreed wholeheartedly. But he was a bit curious too, as he didn't imagine Lilly being all that interested in kids.
"What is it you would want to know about her?" Carlos inquired. "I can tell you anything."
"Well, she's different," Lilly pointed out. "That's obvious."
"She's always been that way," Carlos replied.
"Do you know why?" Lilly asked curiously. "I'm not trying to be rude or anything-"
Carlos interrupted before she could continued, "I know, and it's okay. A lot of people asked about her. Her teachers, her babysitter, other kids...I've gotten used to it. And to answer your question, I really don't know why she's like that," Carlos answered. "I never thought about questioning it. I like that she's different."
"It's not a bad thing," Lilly responded, shaking her head. "A few of the others were curious about her, too. Lee, Carley, Katjaa. That's why I wanted to ask."
Carlos nodded in understanding. "I don't mind. Is there anything else you wanted to know?"
"Hopefully nothing else too personal," Lilly answered. "Just so I can remember, she's twelve, right? Or thirteen?"
"She's thirteen, her birthday was a few weeks ago."
"Tell her I said happy birthday," Lilly smiled.
"I will," Carlos replied. "She really likes you, you know that?" he asked. He didn't know why his daughter was so fond of the woman, but he was glad that she had found a new friend.
"I wonder why," Lilly joked, laughing slightly. "Everyone else here seems to think that I'm some damn Nazi."
"You're really not that bad," Carlos tried to assure her. Sure, she could cut down on the arguing and bickering that happened in front of his daughter, but other than that, the Hispanic man didn't really have any other complaints. He trusted Lilly around Sarah, and just in general.
Outside, Sarah was walking over to where Clementine was drawing when she accidentally bumped into none other than Larry, the only person that she didn't like around here. Larry glared down at her, and she looked up at him with wide eyes.
"S-Sorry! Sorry, I-I didn't mean to," Sarah apologized, hurrying away from the much taller man. If Larry said anything back to her, she didn't hear it, and continued on her way.
She looked over at Lilly's room, and wondered what they were talking about in there. Curiosity got the best of her, so she decided to go see what was taking her dad so long.
"Well I'm glad somebody around here thinks so," Lilly replied with a smile before hearing a faint knock on the door. "Come in!" she called out, and the door opened slowly.
"It's just me," Sarah said softly before entering the room. "I wanted to see what was taking so long," she confessed.
"We were just talking," Lilly said.
"Oh," Sarah answered, placing her hands behind her back innocently. She turned and smiled at Lilly.
"Is there something you need, honey?" Carlos wanted to know.
Sarah shook her head. "I just wanted to see what was going on. What were you talking about?"
"We were talking about you, actually," Lilly said truthfully. "I just wanted to know a little more about you, so I thought I'd ask your dad," she added with a small smile.
"You should have just talked to me!" Sarah replied. "Oh, and I almost forgot. Here, Lilly," she said while pulling something out of her pocket. It was a folded up piece of paper. "I drew you something," she added, handing the piece of paper to the older woman. "I hope you like it."
"That's very nice of you sweetie," Carlos praised his daughter.
"Lilly's my friend, so I thought it would be a good idea to make her something," she confessed.
Lilly, after she got over looking a bit surprised, unfolded the paper and smiled, and Sarah's eyes lit up when she saw the smile. She had drawn a bouquet of purple tiger lilies, vase and all, in front of a windowsill. She figured that Lilly would like it, since the flowers matched her name.
"Do you like it?" she inquired. "I was thinking of making a picture for everyone here at the motor inn!"
"Yes, I do," Lilly replied. "Thank you, Sarah. It's very pretty."
Sarah beamed, and at that moment, Lilly's watch (that was seated on her bedside table) beeped. The older woman looked at it and noticed that it was time for switch positions for who was on watch.
"Looks like it's my turn to keep watch," she mused, then stood up. "We should talk again later," she added before leaving her room. Making her way outside, she noticed Mark was still atop the RV doing his watch shift.
"My turn up?" he asked and the woman nodded. "Okay," he said, and climbed down off of the RV slowly.
"How does it look out there?" she asked Mark.
"It's pretty quiet out there," he answered honestly.
"That's good," she mused. "Go make sure that the others are doing what they're supposed to be doing," she ordered.
"Will do," Mark said, before walking off. "Oh, by the way, have you seen that kid Ben? He's been slipping off every now and again," Mark noted.
"You should ask Travis," Lilly said. "He might know." After all, they were friends. But she was glad that this information about Ben had been given to her. Nobody knew but her, that some supplies had been coming up missing this past day or two, and now she could make an investigation of it.
Whenever Lilly found out who had been taking the supplies (whether it was Ben or someone else), they would be dealt with accordingly. Some of those supplies contained her dad's nitroglycerin pills, and she didn't want to know what would happen if he didn't have them. She knew that it couldn't be Lee, Kenny, or Carlos since they all had families (you could practically say that, in Lee's case) to look after.
Lilly put on that familiar frown as she thought about this. She would be damned before she let her dad die from lack of medication. Not now, Lilly, she chided herself. Deal with it later. She looked over at Carlos, who was talking with Mark and Lee.
There was a feeling about him that she couldn't quite shake off...maybe they should talk again later?
Alright, hopefully you enjoyed this filler chapter and don't forget to tell us what you think. Also, hopefully you all have a nice Christmas/25th. :)