Lee had no idea where the man on the radio could have taken Clementine, but somehow he knew that he was responsible. It seemed that the group had been walking around in the open for hours (with Lilly trudging along in the back), when in reality, it had only been around half an hour tops. But there was still no sign of Clem.
"You think we should look in any of the buildings?" Kenny inquired. "Ain't no way that fucker would be out in the open like this."
"Yeah, you're right," Lee nodded. He noticed the hospital above the sewer where he had met Vernon and the other cancer survivors, and decided to try there. He announced to the group, "We should check here first."
The group obliged, following Lee into the hospital floor just above the hospital morgue. Lee held out his gun, but luckily, things were all clear. Everyone looked around, but it was dead quiet, at least for a few seconds. They could hear some walkers growling at the exit, so they would need a new plan to get out. Kenny found a clipboard just small enough to fit through the door handle, and gave Ben a warning glare.
"Lee?" a static voice broke the silence. It was Clementine!
Lee immediately picked up the walkie-talkie. "Clementine! Are you alright? Where are you?"
"Hello, Lee." It was the voice that they had all heard earlier on the walkie-talkie.
"Who the fuck is this?" Lee questioned angrily.
The stranger chuckled. "You should really watch your tone," he ordered. "Clementine's fine, but if I were you, I'd choose my next words VERY carefully."
"Please, don't hurt her," Lee begged, while the other members of the group listened on.
Sarah pulled her dad's arm. "Is Clem gonna be okay?" she questioned, scared for her friend.
"Yes, sweetie, she will be fine," he answered her.
"Hurt her?" the stranger asked, "I'm not the one who hurts people. There's an ocean of dead between you and me and her, and if I can thank God for anything anymore, it's that!" he finished, before the radio clicked off.
"Just hold on, Clementine, I'm coming for you..."
"Don't worry, pal, we'll get her back," Kenny assured his best friend.
"Definitely, one way or another," Omid added with a smile.
Lee nodded, and looked around. Walkers were now blocking their only visible exit, and the windows were out of the question due to the ones roaming around, so they had to look for another way out.
Carlos walked into the hallway and noticed an elevator. It was on the floor below them, meaning that they would have to stand on top of it, but there was a ladder in the back. "I think there's a way out over here."
The others walked over to where he was and looked in, noticing that he was right.
"We're gonna have to go as quiet as possible, and see if we can get to an empty floor, or even the roof," Christa pointed out.
"We should get goin'," Lee agreed.
Sarah, on the other hand, looked up and noticed how high the ladder went. She was deathly afraid of heights, and began to tremble slightly. This was probably one of the scariest thing she'd had to do yet.
Carlos noticed her trembling, and placed his hand on her shoulder. "It'll be okay, sweetie. Just don't look down. I promise, we will all make it safely."
The group began ascending up the ladder, one after the other, with Lee in last place. They tried to climb as quietly as they could, and so far, it was working. "You're doing great, Sarah," Carlos encouraged as he climbed behind his daughter. Her whimpers could still be heard, though, and that was the only noise that was coming from them. They were almost at the top, when suddenly, Sarah's foot slipped off the ladder, and she let out a small scream. Carlos grabbed her leg before she could fall. "I've got you, sweetie." He held onto her.
That's when more walkers could be heard. "Shit!" Kenny cursed.
"Oh man... oh jeez..." Ben muttered.
"Shut the fuck up, Ben!" Kenny whispered harshly.
"Everything okay up there?" Lee asked.
"I think I just peed myself," Ben answered, causing Sarah to laugh slightly.
"So, yes then," Lee said. They continued to climb up the ladder until, finally, they made it to the rooftop.
Just below them, they could see hundreds, if not thousands, of walkers meandering around and growling. It wasn't a great thing to view from above, but at least they weren't caught up in all of that.
"Remember when Savannah was empty?" Kenny questioned.
"Those Crawford bastards did one thing right, I guess," Christa chimed in.
"There must be thousands of them..." Lilly trailed off.
"Did they follow us here?" Ben inquired.
"It sure seems like it," Kenny confirmed.
"That's crazy; they can't track. They just roam!" Christa said.
"That fuckin' train wasn't exactly discreet."
"Clementine's out there, gobbled up in all of that," Lee finished.
"Look, let's get our bearings and see if we can make it across town. Good? Good."
The group went their separate ways around the roof, with Carlos and Sarah together over by the farthest corner. Everyone was in a different direction, looking for an opening through the very many walkers. Once again, it was Lee's job to figure out a way off of the roof.
He looked around for anything that could be of use to them, and there honestly wasn't much on the roof. It looked as though it had already been cleared off long ago. The rest of the group began looking, too. "There's a fire escape here," Ben noticed, but it lead right down to the giant horde of walkers, and they didn't want that at all. They needed to avoid the walkers at all costs; the faster they got to Clementine, the better. No one could tell what that sick fuck on the radio was going to do to her.
And, suddenly, Lee noticed the bell tower just across from the roof. Molly came to mind, because that was how she got the walkers to move. "That could work..." Lee mumbled to himself. But how was he going to get across?
After a brief search, he noticed a ladder in the center that was probably used to paint the unfinished message on the building, and got an idea. Lee picked it up and began walking over to the edge, extending it so that it could get over to the bell tower.
"The bells..." Christa observed as everyone else came to see what Lee was doing.
"Yeah, could buy us some time," Lee answered, "draw as many as we can this way, get down off the opposite side, and bust our asses back to the mansion."
"You sure you should do this?" Kenny wanted to know.
"My leg's feeling better, I'll do it," Omid offered.
"I'll do it!" Ben added.
"Yeah, Ben will do it," Kenny scoffed, and Lilly snorted in somewhat agreement.
"If we have to decide who takes a risk like this, it should be the guy who's got the least to lose," Lee pointed out. Lilly stepped forward as if to remind him of yesterday's events, but he continued, "What's the worst that could happen? I get bitten or something?" The group looked at one another. "So, we're agreed, then."
"That thing looks a little rickety," Kenny pointed out.
"You think you could keep that shit to yourself next time?" Lee asked. It seemed like he didn't like heights too much, either.
"Yup."
Lee slowly began to climb the ladder, but about halfway through, the ladder started to narrow down. "Oh, shit!" he cried. Quickly, he jumped over to the bell tower, just barely making it. This action surprised the others.
"Holy shit, man!" Omid yelled over to him.
"Are you okay?" Christa called.
"I'm fine!" Lee called back to the group. He then proceeded to ring the bell to draw the walkers away from where they needed to go. It seemed to work too, because they began to walk towards the sound.
"They're coming this way!" Carlos yelled.
"Tons of them!" Omid called out.
"Jesus!" Kenny exclaimed.
"Try to find a way back here now," Christa said. Lee didn't know how he was going to make it back to the hospital rooftop, and the drop below seemed to be quite the jump. His eyes widened as he looked down.
"I think I have to jump, there's no way back!" Lee nearly yelled.
"You can make it!" Kenny encouraged. "It ain't that far!"
"You got this...you got this, motherfucker," Lee muttered to himself. He got a good running start, then propelled himself across the gap between the two rooftops. Thankfully, he barely made it, and was able to pull himself up on top of the roof.
"You okay?" Lilly asked, helping him stand up.
"I'm fine," he insisted.
"Good goddamn leap, pal," Kenny said, approaching him. "Let's get the hell off this roof!" And they all ran to the exits.
With no walkers out after them, it didn't take long for the group to make it back to the mansion. Lee shot the only walker they had seen, but there was no noise due to how close the gun was to its head. They walked over to the other side of the shed, only to find the doors open, and another surprise.
"Holy..." Christa trailed off.
"What the fuck?!" Kenny exclaimed, placing his hands to his head.
The boat was gone.
