AN: Hi guys sorry it's been so long since I've updated. I've had this one-half done for awhile and just got it done. I hope you like it. Please leave any thoughts, ideas or opinions in the comments or PM me. Thanks!
I woke the next morning to the gentle lull of conversation. Familiar voices bounced around the yard in splendor. The cold, hard ground beneath my tired body somehow felt much more comfortable than it had the night before, my head pillowed on my numb and tingly arm. But the lack of feeling bothered me little while sleep so readily pulled at my eyelids. I heard the hushed giggle of two young girls and the smile graced my lips before I even saw them. Something so gentle made me almost able to forget this whole mess. There was a quiet shushing from one of the girls before the grew quiet again, then the giggle strum back up. I peeled open my eyes and looked around. I saw nothing but a pair of woman feet as she loomed off to the left of the bunks. I rolled over, the sight of the short haired stranger drummed up memories of fright from the night before.
I slowly began to sit up, and with my lack of grace hit my head off the bunk above me.
"Fuck," I growled quickly throwing my hands to the site of the pulsing pain. My fingers came away sticky with blood. Of course, I thought frustrated. When all this is over everyone's going to have badass scars from fights with walkers or gunshot, and you'll have a scar from where you hit you damned head of a piece of job Scarlett.
I whipped the small trickle of blood away as quickly as I could, but the blood seemed determined to keep flowing. I crawled out from under the bunk and stretched out my tight muscles.
"What was that noise?" A tired voice asked beside me. I turned and saw Nick sluggishly waking up on his wooden board above where Sartia and Kenny slept.
"That serious popping and snapping, well that would be my joints," I said as I stretched my arms above my head, my shoulder popping in time proving my point.
"No, it sounded like…" Nick looked at my head "Wait what happened to your head?" He said, I dropped my hands back down to my sides and looked away.
"Wait, did you?" Nick didn't even need to finish his sentence before he began chuckling, I just looked at him less than amused. I tried wiping the blood away again, it was starting to clot and I could feel the tangled mess it was leaving in my light hair.
"Forget what I said about you being a badass last night, you're a straight up cults." I rolled my eyes at him, fighting the urge to shove him off the bunk.
"Not one of my best qualities but true none the less," I said dusting a cluster of dirt from the sleeve of my coat.
"Scarlett! Nick! Get over here." Kenny called from where he and all the others crowded around a table. Nick and I made our way to the table, joined shortly afterwards by Jane and Mike. The two odd members out of this secret meeting. I watched the woman, Jane with caution. She skulked around the compound, never talking but always listening, learning. She was smart and knew how to keep herself alive, but she would do it at any cost. Of that much I was certain. I had met people like her before amount scavenger groups, places where no one trusted anyone. Places where the only one that mattered was yourself and everyone else was expendable.
Everyone was there and Kenny took this as his single to speak.
"All right, we're all here."
"Someone's gotta get the radio out to Luke. What's the problem?"
"We should probably figure out who's doin' what before we—" Kenny didn't get to finish as the stirring behind the gate warned everyone to the danger of the guards beyond it. Kenny scrambled to pick up the radio and tuck it away from view. Octavia and a pair of lackeys spilled in from the large buildings guns, as the ready. The large woman barked her order to my companions as Sarah squeak a cry of fear toward her father. Octavia showed her no warmth and order her, as well as most everyone in the room save; Kenny, Clem, Mike and myself. The door gave a strangled cry as it slid back down rusty hinges and our group huddled back into itself.
"All right, look, if we're gonna do somethin', we have to do it now. And if Luke's all we got, then we pair up with him." I nodded, a pit had dropped in my stomach, something felt wrong.
"I can do it. Where's the meetin'?" Mike asked. Clem, Kenny and I looked at him. He had proven his want to help us but that was only because it helped him. How well could we really trust him?
As Kenny spoke and much more appropriately suggested Clementine be the one to make the meeting Mike showed his dismay.
"Are you fuckin' kidding?" A loud clang from the grate dew everyone attention momentarily, and I took the silent to make sure things were understood.
"Mike is nothing against you personally. We just, we can't trust you. Not whole heartily." I told him crossing my arms over my chest.
"Look no offense, but- c'mon. That's crazy, she's a kid. Why would-" Kenny but Mike off fast.
"There's a million reason." Kenny went off listing the reason and I looked down to Clem. She looked tired, amber eyes rimmed with dark circles and strained with red. Poor kid. I put my hand on her back as a comforting gesture, she relaxed into it but the tension remained locked into her small frame.
"Kenny's right, I should do it," Clem said and I nodded, hand still resting on her back.
"Don't do somethin' stupid just to get some respect." Mike scolded her. I glared at him warning him off of her. She already had our respect, he shouldn't amuse otherwise.
"That's right, and I want Scarlett to take the other radio," Kenny said sternly. I looked over at him.
"What?" I asked. Kenny turned his gaze from Mike to me, the frustrated anger dissipating with the change of subjects.
"Look Luke told us yesterday that he was gonna be lookin' for you. Chances are he'll find you or Clementine. You should both have a radio in case the other can't find him. Besides Rebeca told me that Carvers got a sweet spot for you, maybe he won't beat up on you as badly as he would one of us." I looked at Kenny hard, my stomach twisting into painful knots.
"What did she tell you?" I asked, my voice a hard line, anger coating it thick and heavy. Kenny shrieked back, his soft eyes large in fear. She stepped back from the table.
"Nothin'!" He exclaimed, "She told me nothin'." He walked over to where the second radio was hidden among a pile of junk and quickly came back. My eyes never leaving him, burning holes into his head.
"Look, Scarlett chances are Luke's gonna find you at some point and if Clem misses him at least you can get a radio to him. Forget what I said about Carver. You need to do this because you're the only other person I trust too."
"Yeah well, your options are pretty damn limited aren't they?" Clem put a hand on my arm, I looked away from Kenny my burning gaze turned down as I looked at the small girl.
"It's okay like he said you're the best one for the job." I closed my eyes, letting out a heavy breath.
"Give me the radio," I said, my voice having lost its bite, I stuck my hand out and Kenny planted the from sold weight of the walkie talkie in it. I slipped it into the back of my jeans and covered it with my t-shirt, sweater, and jacket. It be hard to spot.
"Just give me the fucking radio." Mike started, I turned my red hot glare on him and opened my mouth to speak when the gate door shuttered open again.
"All right little chickens, let's get to peckin'," Troy shouted as he waltzed in. He scolded the group and I rolled my eyes. He thought he was so tough, but the dumbass was too stupid to be trusted outside the walls. Until now.
"I'm afraid I need an answer, girl." He said as he talked down to Clementine.
"You can take your answer Troy and shove it up you're-" I stopped when Clem cleared her throat and pulled my sleeve. I looked down at her and she shook her head. Right, we need to be unnoticed. Ops.
"What was that?" Troy asked, stepping closer so he could get in my face. I clenched my jaw and slowly looked up to met his daring gaze, oh how I wanted to finish that sentence.
"Nothing," I said sourly. Tongue clamped between my teeth to keep me from speaking my mind.
"That's what I thought," He said retreating from my personal space and back toward the gate.
"Come one." He snapped and the group followed after him. Kenny stopped and tucked the radio into Clem's pockets. Troy turned to get a look at what was going on but Kenny narration and my blocking the view kept him ignorant.
Another shout of angry encouragement and our group headed from the building. The cold air of outside forgotten to the stiff and stuffy air of the building.
"Scott, take her to the shed, Bill wants her doing inventory." Troy nodded to me and one of his followers stood beside me, eagerly waiting to fulfill the request. With a few cautious looks shared with Kenny and Clem, I nodded and followed. Scott, a burly man with ratty blond hair lead to the stage area where most of the food was kept. Waiting outside of it was Tommy. He held his gun lazily in his arms but straighten when I came into view. The look I gave him was darker and the one I had given Kenny, the anger behind this one was directed strong and heavy. He needed to feel the anger I felt for it. His eyes found mine but quickly squirmed away as I got closer.
"She's on inventory?" Scott asked my brother. Tommy nodded and grabbed a clipboard from a crate beside him.
"Yeah, Bill just wants a count of everything in storage here, nice easy job." He said hesitantly handing me the clipboard. I took it with force and went through the door not bothering to look at him anymore. I had to lay low.
The storage shed was large than I thought it was going to be. Towering shelved stacked high with canned and boxed food. I looked down at the clipboard of blank paper, it was torn and frayed at the edges, a water stain on the corner. There was a small pen shoved under the clip, I looked at it for a long time before I picked it up. My eyes scanning the room for something to count. Why was I doing this? Canned beans, why not? I tried writing on the page but it was harsh and unpracticed. It had been years since I had written anything, it felt strange and wrong, but also easy and familiar. Like putting on a pair of old shoes. But my printing was skewered and my letter rough, my hands were no longer meant to wield a pen. A gun felt much more at place in my grip. I put the clipboard down on the shelf, blues ink staining the old paper on its surface. I ran my hands over my face and into my hair. Brushing past the patch of dried blood. The swollen flesh hidden by my blond hair stung when my fingers grazed it. Thoughts of Tommy and Carver flooded my mind pounding against my skull like a hammer to nails. Everything was so wrong, and we needed to leave. I needed to get Clem out. A tight pain gripped my chest and lungs like a vice and it was almost hard to breathe.
I jumped when I heard something fall, subtle and quiet but still there. At the end of the room around the last shelf hidden in the shadows, something had fallen.
"Hello?" I called into the empty room, my voice climbing up the walls and bouncing off shelves. There was no answer. Walker, I thought, my fingers grasping the pen as my weapon as I took a step closer to the sound. Could there really be on in there? Had they let it slip through?
"Scar?" A familiar voice said, shadows slipping out from the darkness to reveal a welcoming sight. Luke, stood at the end of the room, tired and pale. The dark circle of his eyes clear even in the dim light that shown from the skylight above. I remembered him saying my name and how everything around me had stopped in an instant, the next thing I knew I had my pouring head was buried between his shoulder and neck, my hands balling up the fabric of his shirt beneath my fingers. His hair smelled of sweat and dirt and I could feel his racing heart as it pounded against my chest. It was unclear who had hugged who first, but it didn't really matter. He was there, he had come all the way from the lodge, dodged guards and walkers alike, and he was still there. I knew he was inside the building, that he had come all this way; but to see him and hear him speak was a million times better than the sheer knowing he was there, this made it real. Relief flooded my system like adrenaline, making my heart beat just as fast. He was alive. Something about the pure idea of just him made this whole situation seem possible. As the tight desperate hug lingered longer than it should have and my mind shot to Nicks stupid comments. I stiffened, at my sudden rigidness Luke pulled his hands away from where they had been resting on my back and tangled hair. We pulled apart far enough to see one another, but still far too close to put Nicks rumor to rest. His face was streaked with dirt, his eyes heavy with lack of sleep."Are you okay?" I asked worry cutting through my voice. One hand flying to touch his sunken cheek but I caught it before I physically touched him. I curled back my fingers petrified at the movement, my hand floating in the space between us as I slowly lowered it back down to my side. I found Luke's eyes watching my hand intently like he regretted my drawback. I quickly cleared my throat and tucked both hands into my pockets, eyes lowered to the ground. "Sorry." I cleared. He gave a small half smirk before he spoke.
"I'm fine, just a little tired is all. Turns out these guys are a little harder to avoid than I thought." He said and my eyes jumped away from their bashful gaze on the ground.
"Did anyone see you?"
"Nah," He shook his head. "I've had about a dozen close calls tryin' to get here, but no one knows I'm here." I let out a sigh of relief, my shoulders relaxing eyes shut for a few seconds.
"Good," I returned my gaze to his, he looked tired and drained but there was just the slightest smile in his eyes and on his lips. There was a small pause where he just looked at me and soon the relaxed feel of the environment was betrayed and I found myself unable to keep eye contact for much longer. This was Nick's fault. He made this weird.
"Are you worried I'm not sly enough to stay out of trouble?" I smiled and found the competitive strive of petty teasing pushing all tension away.
"Well, let's face it. You're not the stealthiest man I know." His smile widened as did mine.
"Since when have I been anything but stealthy?" He took my challenge with passion.
"Might I remind you of that time you fell off the bridge." He laughed and looked away before returning my gaze, his smile draining some of the exhaustion from his features.
"You fell too." I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Yeah, only while trying to save your dumbass."
"Okay, you're right, but I think we're even now. Wouldn't you say?"
"I'm not sure." I joked and the smirked that creased his lips as he shook his head made me think even harder on Nicks words, I didn't know why.
"I broke into a highly protected base camp of a lunatic, and I haven't slept or eaten anything in days. We gotta be close to even."
"Alright, I'll call it even. But only because I pity you." He gave a single chuckle and looked down at his feet before looking back to me, thinking on his answer no doubt.
"You know, now that I think about it after we get out of this place the scale will shift. And if I've done the math right you'll owe me." My eye thins to slits but my smile remained.
"This is a group effort, and besides I'm getting real sick of saving your ass. How am I going to pay off the debt?" His smile did not falter.
"I'm sure I could think of something." His word struck me speechless, for once I was without a witty response or comeback. I felt heat prickle my ear and cheeks and I quickly threw my gaze in another direction.
"I hope you're creative." Why did I say that?
"Very." Well shit. I felt his hand on my own and my eyes jumped to stare at his hold on my fingers with alarm. There was little space between us, he barely needed to move to touch me, but the fact that he acutely did was surprising. He must have seen my struck expression and he quickly released my hand. He threw his arm up and over his neck, taking a few steps away from me.
"Sorry, I just, I thought. The way we were talking, I thought that maybe you… I don't know." He stammered.
"No, no, no." I clambered to clarify my voice tight breaking in a croak at my first cry of protest.
"It's not that I don't, I-I mean that is if you want to, I just, I mean. Fuck." I swore, running my hands through my tangled hair. I took a deep breath and turned to him again. I looked at him gently, waiting for him to return my gaze. Slowly, he raised his eyes from the ground, a small tinge of color painting his ear and cheeks red.
"We're in a storage closet, in Carver's base. Maybe we should put off this convention, whatever it is."
"Yeah, your probably right," He admitted with a heavy sigh. "I'm just willing to bet that after this, if everything goes right, which I'm praying it does, we won't have much time to be alone." He still kept his eyes away from mine, so bold one second and bashful the next, it was kind of cute. The sheer fact that the idea cute blazed through my mind made me want to hit my head against a wall. Stupid groups, this is what happens, this is what I was trying to avoid.
"I'm sure we could find some way to be alone." I cooed, my voice much too smooth to be my own, I half thought someone else must have said it. Luke looked back to me, his hand still hanging on his neck.
"All right, well, good then. This whole living in the apocalypse thing has gotten me to realize my life might not be all that long, and I don't want to spend the rest of it thinking about the things I want to do and acutely doing them,"
"And what might those be?" He looked at me with a half-smile but kept his eyes down.
"Kissing you." He said so blatantly that it took me a moment to process it.
"Kissing me?" I asked a little stunned. He took up my hand again but this time I didn't tense up.
"Among other things." He said and when he looked up at me it was with a wide smile, he was trying to bug me and I laughed, I pulled my hand out of his and shoved his shoulder gently.
"Real classy," I mocked and he chuckled, stepping closer to me. I had to look up at him now, his hands on either of my upper arms as he looked down at me with a relaxed smile.
"You know me, always the gentlemen." He leaned his head closer to mine and I felt my heart racing in my chest. Stupid feelings. I wouldn't have felt this way had Nick not pointed it out to me. Stupid Nick. Regardless of Nick's fondness for sharing secrets, Luke had still liked me regardless of whether I knew. Stupid him. His lips were inches from brushing my own, I felt like I couldn't breathe and in the seconds that followed I felt a million different things at once.
Alarm, at the loud bang of the door hitting a wall. Fear, at the shouting and swearing bouncing off the walls of the over-packed room. Sadness, at the sudden loss of Luke's closeness as he was flung away from me onto the ground. Anger, as I watched Caver throw his foot hard into Luke chest while Luke still lay on the ground. Surprise, as my brother appeared behind me to hold me back. Pain, as I tried to rip myself free of Tommy's hold. Paralyzed, as Carver walked away from Luke who lay bruised and bloody on the ground and picked up my radio that had fallen to the ground.