It was early the next morning when the train finally stopped in Savannah. Lee quietly walked over to Clementine and gently shook her awake. The little girl yawned and stretched before looking up at her guardian.
"Lee?" she questioned, sleepily rubbing her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm here, sweet pea," Lee responded. "Listen, I'm gonna need to hold on to your walkie-talkie for a little while, okay?"
"But why?"
"I just do, Clem. Can I have it, please?"
Clementine reluctantly obliged, getting the walkie-talkie out and handing it over to Lee. The two of them exited the front cab where the others were waiting. Christa and Carlos were helping Omid down from the boxcar.
They had finally made it to the outskirts of Savannah, and were ready to explore the city. "Is that everyone?" Kenny asked, once everyone was out of the boxcar. Their group was still large, but not as large as it had been at the motor inn. Maybe there wasn't safety in numbers...
"Yeah," Carley answered, "Let's get moving." The group began to walk into the city, eyes alert, and feet quiet. Christa had to nearly carry Omid because of his damaged leg. The city though, looked empty; desolate even, with not a single person, or walker for that matter, in sight. Lee knew that could soon change though.
As they walked, Clementine couldn't help but to stare at the walkie talkie on Lee's hip. "Can't I just hold it?" she asked, looking up at him slightly.
Lee glanced down at her, "No, Clem, don't ask me again."
"Okay," she frowned.
"How's Omid?" Lee asked, changing the subject.
"His leg is pretty bad," Christa answered.
"I'm fine," Omid insisted, which caused Sarah to glance suspiciously at him.
Christa glared at him. "You're not fine! You need to rest." She then turned to the rest of the group. "He needs to rest!"
"Kenny, how much further?" Lee asked, secretly hoping that they could stop soon as well.
"Should just be a few more blocks up ahead," the mustached man replied solemnly.
"And there'll be boats there?" Christa wanted to know.
"There'll be boats," Kenny assured her. "Have to be. Have to be."
"It will be fine, Kenny," Carlos spoke up.
"He knows what he's doing," Ben said to the rest of the group.
The group stopped walking when they heard a church bell ringing, and they all looked around in confusion.
"What the hell?" Lilly asked.
"Maybe this city's not so dead after all," Christa frowned.
"Keep moving. No one's ringing that bell," Kenny replied. "It's automatic. On a timer."
Just for good measure, Lee looked at his watch. "What kind of church bell goes off at twenty past the hour?"
Suddenly, he saw someone running up on the rooftops. "Someone's up there!"
"Are you sure?" Ben asked. "I don't see anything."
"Show yourself, motherfucker!" Larry yelled up to the rooftop.
"Dad, you'll draw walkers," Lilly quieted her father.
The walkie talkie then made a buzzing noise, and someone spoke, "If I were you, I'd get out of the street now."
Christa turned around to look at him, "I thought you said that thing didn't work!"
"Who is this?" Lee spoke into the walkie-talkie. "Is that you up in the bell tower?"
For a few seconds, no one said anything, and everyone was confused.
"What the hell was that?" Omid finally inquired. "Is someone trying to fuck with us?"
"It sounded more like a warning," Ben added.
Chuck turned around and frowned. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls."
"What are you yammering on about?" Kenny asked. The rest of the group turned around to see that walkers were coming from around the corner, attracted to the noise that the church bell had rang out.
"...it tolls for thee," Chuck finished.
"Everybody, RUN!" Lee yelled.
The group obliged to Lee's request and began running away from the oncoming horde. Kenny pulled out his gun and began firing shots so that he could make a clear path to get the hell out of there. But then he tripped on a walker, which caused him to fall down, and drop his gun. "Kenny!" Lee yelled, and shot the walker who was grabbing him.
"Little too close, don't ya think?" Kenny asked, looking up at Lee with wide eyes.
Chuck was fighting them off with a shovel he had found on the train, and the rest of the group were doing the best they could with Christa and Carley covering them. "Ben!" Lee heard Clementine yell, and Lee turned around to see her and Ben surrounded.
"Ben, help her!" Lee ordered, but he didn't listen and ran away. "Goddammit!" Lee yelled.
"I got her, Lee!" Carley yelled back and began firing shots to get the walkers away from Clementine.
Once all the walkers were taken care of, Lee ran over and hugged Clementine in relief that she was okay. He turned around and noticed Carley shooting more walkers, at one point saving Carlos from being bitten on the leg. He then saw a lone walker meandering over to her, but he didn't have any more ammunition.
"CARLEY, LOOK OUT!" Lee yelled.
But he was too late. The walker grabbed Carley from behind and pulled her down, causing the former reporter to let out a scream as the walker began munching into her. The people who weren't fighting off walkers looked on in horror.
Chuck immediately ran up and slammed the walker with his shovel, killing it. Somebody shot Carley in the head to prevent her from turning, but there was no time to see who it was.
"AHHH!" Larry screamed. He was clutching his bloodied shoulder for a reason: He was bitten.
"Dad, NO!" Lilly screeched.
"Come on!" Kenny yelled, "We've got to get the fuck out of here! River street is right up ahead!" he said, running away from the walkers.
"That's not all," Ben pointed out, as there were more walkers in front of them.
"Oh, gimme a fucking break!" Kenny yelled once more.
"Wait," Christa spoke, "where the hell's Chuck?" she asked and the group looked around only to find him fighting off walkers with his shovel. He was started to get cornered by them.
"Shit, he's in trouble, we've got to help him!" Omid pointed out.
Walkers were closing in on them. "There's no time," Kenny said. "We gotta go now!"
"I'll be fine!" Chuck hollered, "Just go!" The group obliged and ran away from the horde of walkers as fast as they could until they ran into an alleyway where there was a gate to a house's backyard.
"I'll get the door," Kenny said.
"Dad, what happened to Carley?" Sarah asked as they ran into the yard. Lee shutting the gate behind them. That's when Omid tripped and fell, hurting his leg even more.
"Carlos, I need you!" Lilly yelled over to the doctor. "My dad..." She couldn't even finish her sentence because she was beginning to cry.
"Sarah, stay with Christa and Omid," Carlos instructed of his daughter, who nodded and went to sit next to Omid. He turned to the Persian man. "I'll be right back in a minute."
Reluctantly, he walked over to where Larry and Lilly were standing. Larry didn't look too happy to see him, but he didn't care. "Look," he said. "Just let me examine it for a minute. It won't take long."
"Please, Dad," Lilly begged, wiping her eyes. She didn't want to appear weak in front of the group.
Larry grunted; Lilly was his one and only weak spot, and it was obvious that he would do anything for her. "Fine," he answered sharply, allowing Carlos to get a look at his bitten shoulder.
"Kenny, how's that door coming?" Lee asked.
"I'm working on it, I'm working on it!" Kenny snapped.
"Well, work faster, would you?" Christa demanded. "It won't be long until those things outside figure out where we went!"
"You know they can smell blood!" Lilly added. She was more than worried for her dad at the moment.
"Let me see if I can find a way in," Lee said.
He then walked over to examine the door, and saw that there was a pet door of some sort. "What's this?" Lee asked. "It looks like a pet door."
Ben turned. "I tried that already, it's locked too."
"Well who ever heard of a locked doggie door?" Kenny commented.
Omid spoke up while attended to his now open leg wound, "I have," he said. "My neighbor had one just like that. It's radio controlled. The dog wears a collar with a chip in it so the door only opens when the dog gets close to it," he explained.
"Well shit," Kenny shrugged, "Every day's a school day."
"Alright..." Ben trailed off, "So where's the dog?"
Meanwhile, Carlos was still looking at Larry's bite. "It's not that deep, right?" Lilly asked. "He won't turn, will he?" she persisted as Carlos continued to look at the fresh wound. "Come on Carlos, give me some good news," she begged, eyes still watered with her fresh tears. She couldn't lose her dad, she just couldn't. Especially not like this.
Carlos looked at the woman sympathetically. "I'm sorry, but there's no way of knowing how far the infection already is in his body," he explained. He then remembered the butterfly knife he always kept in his pocket. "There is something we could try, but it's not guaranteed that it will save his life."
"What? What is it?" Lilly asked frantically.
At that, Carlos took the knife out of his pocket, gripping the red handle, and turned to Larry. "Your arm may have to be amputated. It's the only way to remove the bite."
"You think cutting off my dad's arm will save him?" Lilly asked him. She sounded afraid and confused at the same time.
"WHAT?!" Larry shouted. "FUCK NO!"
"Can you keep it down over there? You're gonna draw them right to us!" Christa called.
"BITCH, I'D SHUT THE FUCK UP IF I WERE-"
"Dad, please, not right now," Lilly cut him off quietly, placing a hand on his good shoulder.
Larry's gaze then softened, "Lilly... I don't know if I can do that," he said referring to the amputation. "I've already cheated death once, maybe now is my time to go," he added.
"Don't say that, Dad," Lilly replied. "You can't leave me." It was discussed no further, because Lee had dug up the dead dog already to open up the pet door, and Clementine crawled inside to open the door. When it was finally open, the rest of the group made their way inside, and Carlos took that time to look at Omid's leg once more. But after searching the house, and figuring out it was safe, the group decided that it would be okay to rest for a while. However, now the inevitable was on Lilly's mind, if her father wouldn't do the amputation, then he was going to turn.
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