Alright! So this is Chapter 2 of Just a Few Words.
TheWhiteWolf28: Thanks, and I can promise you it will get better!
P.S: I apologize for not explaining what happened to Ben. He was separated from the group while they were leaving Savannah.
:)
16 Months Later
Clementine, Kenny, the couple Christa and Omid, and their new friend Sarita were sitting by a campfire in the forests of North Carolina.
They took Lee's advice of going to the countryside. It worked out at first, but they met more survivors that told them of a place named Wellington "up north".
The four met Sarita while heading for the interstate, holed up in an old restaurant eight months ago. She was all alone, so the group decided to invite her in. Kenny seems to have a crush on her which the girl, for some reason approves.
Clementine is now 11. The death of Lee still affects her to this day. Occasionally she would think about him, and how it's her fault she died. But her companions keep telling her it's not her fault.
Christa was poking the stick with squirrels they managed to hunt earlier that day.
"Ugh.. this rain. We can't keep it lit with the weather like this." Christa moaned.
"I told ya all we should'a chopped more wood. Now we fucked our meal."
"Calm down, Ken. Guys, I have a few more cans from our run in that town by the river."
"Nah, none of us are THAT hungry. Clem?"
"You're gross, Kenny."
The entire group laughed.
None of them heard a faint gunshot coming from the forests.
"Enough of this. Shall we find a sleeping area soon?"
"Of course, darling. Omid, you know the way to that small cave, right?"
"Oh. Hey, did you know this part of North Carolina was used in the.."
"We don't care about that, Omid." Clementine joked.
The group once again laughed, this time at Omid.
"Ahh.. alright. Head the way?"
They heard the gunshot before it made sense.
Two ATVs were passing by the road in the forest, followed by a convoy of a couple of vehicles.
"What in the fucking hell.." Kenny was more stunned by the sight of the armory it caried than the sight of Ben harassing him a year ago.
The first one noticed Omid as the group ducked behind a rock, with Omid failing to.
"Civilians? Hey, you! Show yourself! We're not bandits, or one of THEM.."
"Are you sure they're civilians this time, Brian?"
"Of course miss Lilly Caul. Those.. walkers? They don't duck, do they?"
"Well, fine. Go ahead."
Lilly Caul. Kenny had convinced Lee to abandon her for killing Carley in cold blood.
Will she take her revenge and kill her in return? Maybe he could steal this guy's rifle..
No, too powerful. More of those guys would come out and blast the living shit out of them.
The man, Brian, walked to them and discovered them hiding like little kids. Except, one was a little kid.
"Lilly! They're civilians, for this time. Two guys, two girls.. and a kid? Come here, you five."
"Look man, we don't want any trouble. Can you just walk away?"
"BRIAN! We don't have time for this bullshit!"
"Fuck off, Lil. Let me handle this."
The man gave Kenny a deathly glare, or so he thought.
"Heard of a place called Wellington? Well, we sorta moved south."
"Wellington? You guys are a goddamn convoy?"
"Not exactly. We had to move because of lack of food at Michigan and constant bandit attacks. Care to join us? We have kids, too.."
"Well, if they got kids hun, I'll have to join them." Christa agreed, and so did Omid.
"Look, we can't stay out in the open after dark. You can join us if you want. There's still space in the barracks truck."
"Okay, man. But don't screw us up."
Brian directed Kenny and his group to the barracks truck, which contained a small amount of survivors.
"You guys get comfy in there. We found these other people hiding from some guy named Carver."
Brian got inside his ATV, with Lilly behind him. The convoy started to drive away from the forest.
"So.. you guys are from where?" Kenny asked to the other group.
"Man, that really don't matter. We're just glad these dudes got us before Carver did." replied a bulky man.
"Speaking of Carver, do you know of him?" asked a Hispanic man.
"Carver? Nope. We were from Georgia, things went to shit in there."
"Ya sure?" asked a pregnant woman, skeptical of Kenny's group.
"Course. Unless you mean George Washington Carver the scientist." replied Omid, obviously.
"Not the first time we heard that joke." replied a young man in his 20's, wearing an orange shirt.
"Anyways, why were you people running from this.. Carver?" asked Christa with her habit.
"Well.. too personal really. We left his mad group and he's been tracking us down since."
"And how about you? You asked us, we can ask back." replied another young man who seemed to resemble Kenny.
"It's a long story. How 'bout I tell you our locations? Alright then. Florida, Memphis, Atlanta, countryside, Macon, crazy cannibal farm, the long road, Savannah.. countryside, some other bullshit places I forgot."
"Good enough for me." replied an older looking woman in her early 50's, who might be the mom of the guy who looked like Kenny.
A loud thump shook the vehicle, which startled Clementine for a second.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we've just crossed the border. Welcome to Georgia."
A couple hours later, the convoy, which consisted of the two ATVs, a pickup truck, a blue pizza delivery car (which reminded Clem of something), a rather old-looking sportish RV different from the one at the motel, and last but not the least, the barracks truck Clem and her group were in, along with a couple of strangers.
The ATVs came to a stop by a medium-sized cul-de-sac just south of Clayton, Georgia. They had to avoid the fallen city by going around it, luckily the countryside was the same as Savannah's. More people gathered around the street, a man wearing glasses and had a mustache came out of the pickup truck with another man with piercings on his nose, lower lip and ears (Clem thought he was gay).
A bald man wearing a leather jacket, two elders and a kid and her sister came out of the RV. From the delivery car, as Kenny and Clem expected, Glenn came out of the car with another Asian. They greeted each other briefly and went to where the group was meeting.
The entire group, which was approximately more than twenty people, gathered at the center of the street.
"Fellas. As you may have known we've come a long way from Michigan to get to Florida, where the US Navy will be expecting us. Lilly here will explain further how our plan will go."
"Yes, so, uhm.. we've made contact with what's left of the government. A couple of FBI still operate east of Alabama, they have contact with the Navy and are expecting us at the coast of a town south of Miami before the winter hits. And wait a second.. Kenny?"
Kenny tried to hide himself in the crowd, but was spotted by Lilly.
"Come here, you son of a bitch!"
Kenny tried to make a run for it, but knew it was useless.
What shocked him is instead of punching him to death, she threw her arms around him in a hug.
"You piece of shit! I can't believe you're alive!"
"Wait.. you forgive me?"
"It was my fault Carley died.. so who was it really?"
"That shitbird Ben.."
"I fucking knew it. Anyways, no time to argue. We've received a couple of weak transmissions close to Newnan, Georgia. That's close to Atlanta. Their plan was to head to Washington, D.C., which is one fucking bad plan. Anyways, we're not stopping them. We have to scavenge as much gas as possible. Don't worry, you guys keep your cars. There should be lots of space in that ship."
"I'm afraid we don't have much gas left. So people, we have two choices. We can try for Clayton or find another place. Be sure to say your names before you vote. Voting starts now."
"Shel, Roman and Becca vote for Clayton." the man wearing the leather jacket said.
"Boyd and Joyce vote the same." said one of the elders.
"The cabin group vote we find somewhere else." said the Hispanic man.
More hands went up. Wyatt and Eddie. Vince and Glenn. Lilly, Brian, Mike and Robbie. The votes were a tie, and the decision of Kenny's group would be their destination.
"Kenny, Clementine, Christa, Omid and Sarita vote we go somewhere else. You guys should have seen Savannah. Yeah, Clayton might be smaller but we can't take the risk again." Kenny announced.
"People, we've made a choice. We'll use whatever gas we have left. The next place should be.. no, overrun.. nope, nope.."
It took Lilly about a minute to figure out where they were going next.
"Looks like we'll have to go a little bit below our schedule."
She pointed her finger at a place in the Georgian map drawn with a prison on it.
"We'll go visit some friends in jail."