So, we've come to the end of Episode 3! Once again and as always, thank you all so much for the reviews! You are all respectable subjects. Anyway, I got some more talking to do, but I'll leave that till the end, m'kay?
Thank you all for reading!
Lee always thought of himself as a merciful man, who always tried to do what he presumed was the correct thing to do. He put the safety of others ahead of his own, partly due to selflessness; partly due to the fact he was a killer, he wanted to mend things by saving anothers.
But in this instance, with walkers closing in all around, Lee could only nod to the grief-stricken Kenny and depart hastily.
With guilt suffocating him as he ran, Lee began to have second thoughts, was that the right thing to do? Clementine and the others could be in trouble, but so was Kenny. When Irene had asked for the gun back at the motor inn all that time ago, he had downright refused. He couldn't let humanity surrender, even if it was the sensible thing to do. Irene was bitten, there was no hope for her, and Lee remembered all those nights he wished he had given her the gun, and let her go with ease.
Kenny had just lost everything, his family was the world to him. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. Katjaa and Duck were no more. Lee heard the several shots ring out behind him, and winced at each one, horrified to wonder what they were used for. Kenny had promised him to meet him back at the train, and Lee had forced himself to believe it.
The locomotive came into sight, and Lee felt the anxiety rise in him when he saw the walkers surrounding the train.
Remembering he was unarmed, Lee stooped down to a crouch. He had to find a way into the boxcar to check if everyone was safe. Sneaking around the walkers, Lee stuck to the treeline to avoid being spotted by the dead. Slipping over the tracks and scurrying through the shrubbery to the RV, Lee managed to evade any unwanted attention.
The walkers wandered unintelligibly around the train, a few pounding on the side of the boxcar. Lee had to draw them away from the locomotive if he wanted to get to his friends. Noticing the RV he was hiding behind, the professor began to craft together an idea.
Bundling into the vehicle, Lee breathed out a 'Thank you' to Kenny for leaving the keys in the ignition. Turning them, the RV sprang to life. Lee couldn't remember the last time he drove a car, and felt a bit rusty at the controls, reversing into the vegetation on the other side of the road. Lee saw the walkers beginning the notice him, stumbling slowly towards the vehicle.
He needed to be louder, and with a little bit of hesitance, he began slamming his fist against the horn, which rang out brashly throughout the area.
The walkers definitely were aware of his presence now, and began to give chase. Lee accelerated slowly down the road they came from originally, pressing the horn the whole time to keep their attention. Lee wanted to draw them away from the train, before abandoning the RV and looping around through the forest back to the train.
Glancing in the side view mirror, Lee felt increasingly worried about the sizable herd following him. There were too many ways this plan could go wrong, but it was all going to plan till this point thankfully.
Judging that he was a safe enough distance from the train, Lee gave the horn one last blast from ditching the vehicle with a leap, rolling along the roadside. He hastily moved through the thick shrubbery, cursing at the thorns that cut his skin, but he tried to ignore it and push through. He had to return to the others, where Kenny hopefully had rejoined them.
Emerging from the forest and out into the open sunlight at the other end, Lee glanced around to find the area around the locomotive clear of the dead. He was impressed with his own improvisation, but didn't reward himself for too long, bolting for the boxcar door, clambering onto the train.
Attempting to push through it with no success, Lee remembered the door was unlocked when he last was in there. Putting his weight into it, banging desperately for anyone to open up. Lee wasn't aware how much time he had left before the walkers lost interest and came back, so he wanted to get the train moving once and for all.
The door suddenly gave way, and he fell through onto the filthy boxcar floor on the other side.
"Lee!" He heard a familiar sweet voice call out.
Clementine ran into him, hugging him tightly as she nestled her head into his shoulder. Lee sighed in relief and wrapped his arms protectively around her tiny frame, delighted to see that she was no worse for wear.
"Hey sweet pea. You okay?" He asked warmly, pulling away and placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm okay. It was scary but you drove the monsters away." She beamed, grateful that her guardian had returned to her.
"Yeah, thank you Lee. I was wondering what all that noise was." Carley smirked, before embracing Lee herself. He hesitantly placed his arm around her back, trying to act natural, as difficult as it seemed to be.
"I'm just glad you're all safe. But we need to get out of here, those walkers could come back at any moment." Lee explained warily, strolling away to the cab to get the train moving.
"Wait, where's Kenny and Katjaa?" Carley asked, stepping forward.
Lee froze on the spot, somehow forgetting about Kenny and his unknown whereabouts. The guilt began to return as he was stuck with explaining to the group the tragic events in the forest.
"Carley, I need to talk to you privately." Lee urged, holding the boxcar door open for her to follow him. Once they were outside, Lee spun around to the reporter, a miserable look in his eyes. Carley glared expectantly at him, pressing as always.
"I'm not going to lie to you, everything is very bad right now. Katjaa took her own life." Lee blurted, watching as Carley gasped in complete horror, shocked that the mother who always seemed to look for any optimism had just given up. The pain of losing her son proved too much to live with.
"Holy shit, I-I can't believe it. How could she just give up like that?" Carley mumbled, completely appalled that Katjaa would resort to an untimely end to escape her grief.
"I don't know, Carley. It's all just so horrible. Kenny is still out there. The walkers were closing in on us and he told me to leave, that he needed to handle Duck on his own, I tried to stay with him, but he wasn't having it." Lee remarked, crossing his arms across his chest while gazing down the road, wary of the walkers that the walkers could move back in their direction again.
"And you just left him?!" Carley hissed.
"What else was I supposed to do?! Drag him back here? There was nothing I could've done! Kenny said he would meet us back here." Lee exclaimed, trying to support the logistics behind his own actions.
"Do you... Do you think that... He-
"I don't know Carley, I sure hope not. We'll just have to wait and see I suppose." Lee shrugged, devoid of what else to do. Carley nodded lowly, turning her back on Lee and walking back to the boxcar without anymore negotiation. Lee knew Carley did not agree with his choice, but what else could he have done? What were they going to do now? Did they have the time to wait for Kenny?
Returning to the boxcar, Lee decided to rally everyone up and explain the plan. They needed to have the train ready to go in case their situation made a turn for the worst, which was seeming increasingly likely.
"Everybody, gather round. We need to talk." Lee announced, catching the group's attention. "We've got ourselves a precarious position right now, Kenny is out there somewhere, I don't know where exactly, and we all saw the walkers that were outside. We don't have much time to rely on right now."
"Wait, where is Katjaa? Is she okay?" Clementine questioned, clearly concerned about the woman. Lee winced at the question and how he was going to explain it.
"Listen Clem, I'll explain later. She's... She's not in anymore misery right now, same as Duck, okay?" Lee remarked softly to the little girl, who seemed bewildered and anxious about the response.
"We need to be ready for when those walkers come back, and I'm not saying this is what I want to do, but perhaps we should think about-
"-leaving me behind?"
Lee spun around to see Kenny with a ghost of a humoured smirk on his face, but the emotional devastation was evident on his face. The man had lost everything he held sacred.
"Good to see you're okay Kenny. We were all worried about you." Carley informed, standing awkwardly back with Clementine. Kenny seemed unmoved by the comment.
"No time for words, we gotta get this train moving, the plan hasn't changed." He told the group firmly, his voice gravelly and emotionless. Lee nodded, following him up to the cab to put the locomotive in motion. Kenny collapsed into the conductor's seat, shifting over so Lee could release the throttle. Pulling the lever, the train slowly crept forward before jolting and remaining stationary once more.
"God fuckin' damn it!"
After detaching the train from the wreckage behind using a monkey wrench Chuck had found, they were freed and on roaring down the tracks. The sun was floating leisurely in the sky, revealing it was about evening time. Lee listened to the clicking of the train against the tracks as he strolled past Ben, who had his head in hands, looking less than willing to talk. With a map of Savannah in his pocket, Lee entered the boxcar again, walking over to take a seat beside a tranquil Clementine, who was letting her legs dangle off the side of the train, watching the scenery flash by.
Initially, Lee was ready to tear Chuck apart when he heard that he told Clementine was going to die, and Carley had a similar reaction when she was informed about it. But after some stern discussion with the old man, it actually turned out that he had some very valid points about Clementine's safety, and how it could be unknowingly jeopardized by treating her as a helpless little girl. Clementine was already precocious enough as it was, but she still needed some vital aspects dealt with if she was going to survive in this increasingly dangerous world.
Having already followed Chucks advice in teaching Clem to handle a gun, with the help of Carley, and to give her a much needed haircut, all Lee needed to do was to figure out a plan for when they reached Savannah, and formulate what they were going to do when they arrived.
"I want to talk to you about Savannah." Lee began, hopeful they could both reach an agreeable plan.
"Me too." Clementine smiled back. Lee was aware that Clementine was determined to find her parents, which only piled onto their current issues that plagued them already.
"And what we're going to do when we get there. We don't know what to expect; the city could be bad or totally under control." Lee explained, laying out the city map between them, studying the various streets and buildings. "The thing is, you and I, we're a team, you know? And a team needs a plan."
Lee saw the small smile that grew on Clem's face when he referred to them as a 'team'. She must like the idea.
"Aside from everyone else, when this train stops, you and I should know exactly what we're doing."
Clementine nodded understandably at his words. "A plan, I like it."
"We need to help find a boat. It's our best bet at safety." Lee remarked, knowing well Clem had another idea at mind.
"Okay, but we'll be in Savannah and my parents were in Savannah." Clementine replied.
"I know, look-
"-No! I don't care about safety. I care about finding them." Clementine exclaimed suddenly, her eagerness was firm and final.
Lee sighed in defeat, knowing trying to convince her otherwise was a futile task. "Okay, we'll look for them."
"Really?"
"Yes, of course. I'm sorry. Let's look at the map. If we can figure out where they were, we can start there." Lee mumbled, knowing that this was always going to end badly.
"Okay, let's."
After some rigorous observation of the map, they had found the Marsh House was the best place to start searching for her parents. Lee was skeptical about the whole plan, but he couldn't bring himself to tell Clem that her parents were gone, even if that meant he had to lie to her.
"You think we have a good plan?" Lee asked, knowing she would be fully in favour of it.
"I think it's very good." Clementine nodded, enthusiastic and evidently more bright about their voyage to Savannah.
After a brief pause, Clementine adorned another curious expression on her face. "Can I... tell my parents? You know..."
Lee had to flinch a the question slightly. Why would she want to tell her parents about Lee's past? He was aware that Clementine was at times a puzzle to decipher, but this was unnecessarily risky and unneeded for her parents information for her parents to know, but realizing that they were more than likely not alive anymore, Lee decided to take the risk and let her go ahead.
"Sure. All right, how do you feel?" Lee inquired, trying to change the subject quickly.
"Good, better. I'm glad we have a plan."
"And you're a good little shot."
"Thanks." Clementine smiled gratefully.
"I guess we should see how far-
"Oh shit! Hold on everybody!" They heard Kenny bellow from up in the cab, with the train screeching to an eventual halt. Lee could only sigh as he hopped down off the side to find out what their next obstacle was.
Hopefully, when they reached Savannah, things would get better.
Ugggghhhhh, yeah okay, I'm skipping a large chunk of the episode featuring the introduction of Christa and Omid, but I was writing this and I realized, even with all the differences, that this part wouldn't really differ from the way in went in the game. Lee and Clem work together to get the blowtorch, they take down the tanker, Omid injures his leg, and Lee discovers Clementine has been talking to someone on her walkie talkie.
It's still pretty shitty of me that I'm just skipping over it though. I'm sorry, I don't got a lot of time and I wanted to upload this now cause I'm pretty late so yeah... Sorry about that.
Anywho, that is the end of Episode 3! Thanks to everyone that has been following this story, I'll be continuing with Episode 4 soon enough, don't worry.
In the meantime, send me some PM's with any questions you have. Also, here's a little vote for you to do since their is no big choice in this chapter; Should Lee play along with the fact that Clem's parents are still alive? Or should he be direct and tell her the truth now? Not a major decision, but an important one. Let me know what you think, as Clem might not take the truth so well, but we all know where letting her believe they were still alive got us in the game.
Anyway, thank you all so much for reading! Have a great day!
Leave Lilly?
76% of Readers voted Leave Her
Give Antibiotics to Carley or Duck?
66% of Readers voted Give them to Carley
Put Duck out of his misery?
60% of Readers voted Put Duck out of his misery.
Vote Ben to stay or leave?
81% of Readers voted for Ben to stay
Stay or Leave Kenny?
64% of Readers voted to leave Kenny
