A/N: Just a quick little thank you to those that followed/favourited this, or even made the decision to read it! It means so much to me!
Three months dragged by. Nothing new really happened. There wasn't much to do at the motel, and food began to run low. Lee and Carley taught me how to protect myself, my weapon being a screwdriver we found buried in one of the dead walkers. We saved the lessons for going out into the forest opposite the inn where we usually stumbled across a couple of walkers.
I'd decided who I trusted out of the group. Lilly and Larry were bottom of the list. It wasn't that they were horrible to me, more that I disapproved of how they treated everybody else, particularly how Larry was with Lee and Kenny.
I was walking with Kenny through the forest on a hunt for food, while Lee was with Mark, a guy we'd met over the months.
"How much food is left?" I kept my eyes peeled for walkers.
Kenny didn't answer.
"Crap."
"I know," he replied. "We'll find something, even if it's small, as long as you kids get to eat."
"I'm not a kid, Kenny," I hit his arm lightly. Kenny was a good guy. He'd tried to look out for me a lot and I trusted him almost as much as I trusted Lee.
"You're seventeen, which is still a kid," he chuckled and then stopped walking. "Well, would ya look at that."
My mouth turned up into a smile when I saw the creature hopping along the ground. A little rabbit.
"We're gonna have to kill it."
The smile disappeared. "I'm not hungry enough to eat one of those! I had a pet rabbit once. Her name was Fluffy."
Kenny rolled his eyes. "Do ya wanna starve, Marcey?"
"No, but-"
A piercing scream echoed through the forest.
"Lee!" I gasped.
Kenny and I raced through the trees to the location of the scream. I prayed in my head that it wasn't Lee.
We burst out of the trees and into a clearing, spotting Lee and Mark who were looking at two teenage boys and a man on the floor.
"Lee! You guys okay?" Kenny rushed.
"Get it off, get it off! God dammit, get it off me!"
"A bear trap!" My hands flew to my mouth as I saw the man's leg trapped.
"Travis, maybe they can help!" One boy said to the other in a worried voice.
"These might be the same guys that raided our camp, and we barely got away from that!" The other, Travis, shot back.
"Why the fuck is there a bear trap out here?" Kenny asked. I wondered the same thing.
"I don't know, man," the taller boy answered.
"Calm down, you'll attract the walkers if you keep speaking this loud," I snapped before rushing over to the man on the floor.
"Marcey!" Lee ran over to join me protectively while Kenny glared at the two boys in blue and white jackets.
"Was he bitten?" Lee asked.
The taller boy waved his hands around, shaking his head. "Bitten? No, I swear!"
Mark joined my side and examined the bear trap.
"Lee, this trap's been altered, there's no release latch."
I stepped back and out of the way, looking around to see if we were safe.
"Oh no," Travis, the shorter, dark haired boy said.
"Shit, walkers! It's now or never, Lee," Kenny stated.
Panic filled my veins and my breathing suddenly felt difficult.
"Get back!" I yelled at the two boys.
"Pleaaaaase! Get me out of this!" The man in the trap begged.
I looked at Lee who seemed lost. Kenny began firing at the walkers with Mark.
"Shooting is just going to get more of them," I panicked. "Lee, what do we do?"
Lee sensed the fear in my voice. He turned, looking at the herd of walkers that were fast approaching, then turned back at Kenny and Mark who were struggling to shoot them all. He looked at the two boys that stood watching with wide eyes.
"Lee!" I yelled.
The taller boy pleaded desperately. "There's got to be something we can do!"
"I'm going to have to cut you out," Lee told the man in an eerily calm way.
"No, no, no!"
"I'm sorry, we don't have time for that. We have to go!" Kenny fired more shots.
I ran up to Lee, placing my hands on his arms. "We have to go."
Lee looked down at the man, who now just looked like he was beginning to accept his fate.
"Go," the man instructed.
I turned and began to run away, Mark following behind me. Kenny and Lee made the two boys follow as the walkers got closer to the trapped man.
"Nooooooo!" The tall one cried when a walker bit into the man.
Kenny stopped running then aimed it at the man's head, firing and putting him out of the pain while the walkers landed upon him and began tearing him apart.
We arrived back at the motel after a few minutes of walking, the two teenagers walking in the middle of the group.
"What's going on?" Lilly's voice yelled, anger obvious in her tone as we entered the gates with the boys.
"Who the hell are they?" Larry boomed.
Lee pushed me behind him a bit so I was out of the line of fire from the argument.
"Lee, what the hell! You can't just be bringing new people here, what are you thinking?" Lilly raged.
"Hey, you wanna calm down for a fuckin' minute?" Kenny snapped back at her in defence of Lee.
"No, I don't!" She argued. "I want to know why you thought bringing more mouths to feed was a good idea! We are not responsible for every struggling survivor we come across, we've got to focus on our group, right here, right now!"
Carley appeared, speaking up. "Well, hang on. We haven't even talked to these people yet, maybe they can be helpful."
I looked over to the two boys who stood nearby looking nervous and a little bit scared. I walked over and tried to block out the sound of the argument heating up.
"Come on," I said to them. "Let's go over there, the guys will sort Lilly and Larry out. Clem?"
Clementine rushed over and followed as I lead the two boys to the opposite end of the parking lot.
We went over to where Duck sat drawing and Clementine joined in.
I sat down on the hard floor and turned to the two boys.
"I'm Marceline," I greeted them. "I'm sorry about that guy you were with."
"I'm Travis," the darker haired boy replied.
"He was our teacher," the taller one commented, sadness filling his voice.
"He's Ben."
"This is Clementine and Duck," I told them, nodding my head to the two children. Duck was scribbling away at a picture intensely while Clem looked distracted.
I turned my head to see the group separating, everyone walking different ways. Everything had been so much more difficult since the food supply ran low and damn it, I was starving. My stomach made a rumble sound, drawing eyes Travis and Ben to me, but I refused to acknowledge it.
"Maybe it would be best if we leave," Travis whispered to Ben, loud enough for me to hear.
"You can't just leave now," I interrupted before Ben spoke. "This sh- This argument has broken out now, and where else would you go? You realise the city is entirely infected, right?"
Travis looked defeated and looked away.
"Look, I don't know what you've been through, but being in a group makes things a bit more worth living, I think. Loneliness isn't good out here anymore."
"Being in a group does fuck all to your survival!" Travis practically shouted at me.
Clementine and Duck looked up at the outburst.
"Don't swear around them," I replied coldly, deciding to drop the conversation now.
Travis raked a hand through his hair before standing up and walking away, muttering under his breath.
"Sorry about him," Ben apologised. "This whole zombie... It's not been good."
I nodded my head, understanding.
Lee appeared near us after a few minutes, looking from Clementine to me, then to Duck. I noticed the four pieces of food in his hand. Damn.
"Go speak to Lee," I told Clem, who nodded her head and went to talk with him.
I tried not to make it obvious that I was watching, but I was. I knew Lee would give her the food, but just had to make sure.
Clem was given half an apple, and she sat down eating it happily.
"How are you doing, kids?" Lee asked us all.
"Ok!" Duck grinned. "Me and Clementine are colouring."
"Guess what it is?" Clementine held up her drawing.
"I don't know," Ben didn't seem happy to be guessing. "A dog?"
"Nope."
"Oh, I know! It's a goat, right?" Duck asked.
"No!"
"A stripey cat or a tiger?" I guessed.
Clementine smiled at me and nodded her head. "Cat!"
Lee shook his head with a small smile before crouching near Duck.
"Hey Duck, how about a little food?"
Ben's eyes drifted to the food in Lee's hand.
Duck lit up with a huge smile and insanely big eyes. "Yeah! Oh man, I'm so hungry," he happily took the food Lee offered him.
Lee turned to Ben and I. He threw some food to me and I caught it.
"Lee, I can't take this. Someone else will need it more than me," I went to pass it back to him.
"Your stomach would beg to differ," Ben commented.
"Eat," Lee commanded.
I nodded my head and sat back down, opening the food and beginning to eat.
"So, who are you people?" Lee asked Ben. "The group's gonna want to know."
"I'm Ben, Ben Paul," he greeted. "He's Travis. The man trapped back there was the band director at our school. We came down from Stone Mountain for playoffs when... when everything happened."
Lee patted Ben's shoulder. "Have some food."
Ben looked at it before taking it in a bit of a shock. "Thank you."
Lee walked away and went to check out the fence.
Travis sat back down on the floor next to Ben, looking a little more calm than he previously had.
"Lee gave us the last bit of food," Ben told his classmate.
Travis looked at it the same way Ben had. "I'm not hungry."
"Travis, just eat it and be happy Lee gave you it," I sighed.
The boys eventually began sharing the food.
"I'm sorry for how I acted before," Travis spoke up.
I shrugged. "It's cool."
There was silence as the group of us sat eating the food, a slightly awkward one.
And then the fence broke down and five walkers broke through.
