Yet another quick update AND almost 3000 words in this chapter? You lucky ducks! Well... I mean, not Duck considering the past few chapters... Enjoy reading!
Ben looked broken. He didn't talk to anyone, not even Travis, and stood away from the group.
"He's taken this pretty hard," I pointed out to Travis.
"It's been one hell of a day," he sighed, lifting his head up from resting on mine and rubbing his eyes with one hand as he'd fallen asleep.
I apologised for waking him up, receiving a smile back. Travis looked almost as bad as I did, his skin looked washed out and his hair was messy, his clothes dyed with blood stains from the walkers we'd battled.
I observed my own clothes, seeing how my jeans were crumpled with dry blood on my wounded leg in particular. I wished I could have something different to wear.
"What's on your mind?"
I let out a small laugh. "You sound like a popular social media site."
He chuckled. "Very funny. Tell me in one hundred and forty characters or less, please."
"Wrong one," I grinned. I played with the sleeve of my hoodie that had rips all on the wrist. "I was just thinking about how I miss the simple things, you know?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Like?"
"Having a change of clothes would be one thing. I feel disgusting."
Travis agreed.
"I just want to get a shower or a wash, brush my hair and teeth, put some make up on and walk the streets without having to worry about corpses attacking me."
"I miss my bed," he sighed. "I had a double sized one and it was the warmest thing you could imagine."
"I miss the stupid things that felt like such a big deal at the time but actually meant nothing. One day, I was playing with the dog outside and accidentally threw a toy into our neighbours window. I cried about it for like a week because my parents had to pay for the damage and we never even got the toy back."
Travis tried not to smile. "Your neighbour didn't sound very nice."
"They weren't, but my parents didn't really mind me breaking the window because apparently she deserved it," I laughed, before feeling a bit sad and trying to get off the topic of my own family. "What about yours?"
"My parents? Uh, they divorced when I was a kid. My dad was in special forces so I didn't see him all that much anyway."
"I'm sorry."
He continued. "My mom worked in a shop. It wasn't the best pay so sometimes she'd do overtime to make sure we had money and I could have the best possible life. I guess it didn't really matter in the end though. I wonder if she's still alive."
I tilted my head up at him. "She could be."
"I'll just think she is," he said. "Marcey?"
"Yeah?"
"What... What happened to your family?"
I tensed.
"Nevermind," he quickly said. "You can just tell me whatever you want when you're ready."
I nodded my head and relaxed.
Lee walked in a bit later on and sat with Clementine, talking. I really didn't like how close they sat to the edge of the train.
My eyes widened when Lee stood up and took a gun out of his pocket.
"Lee?" I panicked.
"Clem needs to know how to protect herself," he told me. "This might be good for you both, too."
I nodded my head and leaned away from Travis, watching as the young girl held the deadly weapon in her small hands and aimed it at a bottle.
Lee covered Clementine's ears and I did the same to my own.
She fired the gun and let out a frightened squeak.
"Everyone okay?" Lee checked.
"All good," I confirmed.
She kept shooting until the bottle had been hit without any direction from Lee.
"Awesome, Clem!" I beamed.
"Not so scary, huh?" Lee smiled.
"Nuh-uh," she passed the gun back to Lee.
"Now, we need to talk about your hair... It's not safe."
"That's not nice!" Clem narrowed her eyes.
"What?" Lee looked to Travis and I for help.
"Are you saying it smells?" The girl asked.
Lee relaxed. "No."
"Because it does, kinda," she frowned.
"We're all the same, Clementine," Travis told her.
"What do you mean then?" I asked the man.
He sighed. "We need to cut it, so a walker can't grab onto it."
I felt my own hair which was now tied into a messy ponytail, the rubber band beginning to snap.
"Maybe it'd be good for you, too," he suggested.
Clementine sat down so Lee could cut her hair.
"Do you know how to do this?" She asked as he got the scissors ready in his hands.
He hesitated.
"I'm going to look like a boy," she moped.
"Want me to do it?" I offered. Lee smiled gratefully and I shuffled over to cut the young girl's curly hair, ignoring the pain in my leg.
"You know, I always wanted curly hair," I told her while cutting it.
"Your hair is really long," she replied. "I always wanted long hair."
I instantly felt bad about cutting it off, but if it was one danger removed then I couldn't feel guilty.
"I wish I had another band to keep it back, then I wouldn't need to cut as much off," I said, brushing some of the fallen strands off of her shoulders.
"Here, I have some hair thingies," she passed me them.
"Where'd you get these?" I questioned, tying a purple one into her short locks.
"Lilly gave them to me for sleeping."
I looked at Lee who folded his arms. "Mind if I keep one of these? This rubber band won't last much longer."
"Sure."
"You look cute, and a lot harder to grab," Lee reassured her when she looked up at him with a worried face. He gave her the hat she always wore back.
I looked at the scissors in my hand, sighing as I thought of my own hair. I'd been growing it for years.
"Want me to do it?" Travis asked.
I passed him the scissors and didn't say anything, sitting in front of him and closing my eyes.
"How much do I cut?" He scooped my hair back in his hands.
"The same as Clem," I replied immediately.
There was a metallic sound and my hair felt lighter. It kept going until I could feel air on my neck.
"Done."
I opened my eyes and felt for my hair, tying it up with the tie Clementine gave me in place of the rubber band, which I kept on my wrist.
"We match," I forced a smile at the little girl, who returned it.
The floor was full of blonde strands, which I brushed out of the train as best as I could.
"How's your leg?" Lee asked me.
"I've not tried to walk on it for a while, so currently it's numb," I giggled a bit then decided to stand up, which gave me a shooting pain. Lee put his hands out to catch me and Travis stood up, too. "I'm fine."
I took a few steps, limping but managing.
"I think you'll be back to normal in no time," the man smiled before making his way to the front of the train.
I tried walking around the train more. I wanted to see Kenny and check if he was okay. I missed him.
I left Travis with Clem and headed towards the front of the train, passing Ben along the way.
"You okay, Ben?" I asked him.
He lifted his eyes to look at me, his face heavy with sadness and he shrugged.
"Maybe things will get better," I sighed, then began moving away. "Ben?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you apologise in the RV after I got shot?"
He turned his head away in silence, so I decided to drop it and move on.
"It was me," a small voice said.
I froze and rotated around to look at Ben. "What?"
"It's my fault. The bandits... Carley, Duck, Kat."
I held up a hand, signalling for him to stop. "Ben, I don't want to hear this. I can't hear this. I'm going to get Lee, you can talk to him."
Ben stuttered, and I shot him a look of disappointment. He nodded and I walked away to the front of the train where Lee stood near the controls.
"Lee, I think you need to have a conversation with Ben."
He raised an eyebrow. "Okay?"
Kenny came through the door and Lee left.
"Your leg is doing better, then?" Kenny noticed.
"I think so," I half smiled. "How are you doing?"
Kenny thought about it. "I'll need time, but my main concern now is finding a boat. We can't have more lives gone. This will bring our safety, I'm sure of it."
"I hope you're right," I replied. "How long until we reach Savannah?"
"I suspect we'll be there pretty soon. We've been travelling for a while now."
I nodded my head.
"You cut your hair?"
"Travis did it," I felt what was left with my hair and sighed. "Lee said it'd be safer for Clem and I."
"Good. Uh," Kenny awkwardly avoided my eyes. "That Travis kid seems to be keen to help you out."
I blinked a few times. "He's kind."
Kenny let out small laugh or a big breath. "Now ain't the time for relationships, Marcey."
I opened my mouth to reply, my face beginning to blush.
Kenny turned to face me. "I'm serious, Marce. It's good you've got him, but this apocalypse makes people act for themselves a lot instead of other people... Back on the farm when Lee was being attacked, you saved him. I just hid. I hate to say that ain't the first time I saved my blood first."
I shifted my weight onto my good leg, wondering what to reply. "Before I met you guys in Macon, I was wandering the streets looking for survivors or supplies or safety. One road was empty of any movement, and there was a food delivery truck there. The door was lifted in the back, so I doubted there'd be anything there, but I went to it anyway. I found a survivor. They were as shocked as I was to have found another living person, but before they could speak, a walker appeared and went to attack me. And I ran away. I could have killed it, and instead I escaped like a coward. I just heard the sounds of the person crying as I ran."
Kenny had a frown on his face. I figured he was just as disappointed in me as he was in himself.
"Trouble ahead," another voice interrupted our conversation, and we quickly glanced ahead of the train just in time to see something hanging from a bridge and blocking our path.
"Oh, shit! Hold on everybody!"
Kenny stopped the train as quickly as he could, and I fell forward slightly at the motion.
Chuck walked through the door and stood with us. "How we gonna get past this then?" He asked expectantly like we already had a plan.
"No fuckin' clue," Kenny shrugged. "I'll go check it out, Marcey you get back with the other kids."
He went to leave but I grabbed his arm. "Don't dwell on what happened, okay? It wasn't your fault."
Kenny lowered his eyes, softly and sadly. "You too, Marce. Thanks."
I nodded my head and he left the train, so I headed back to the train car I'd left the others in.
Clementine, Ben and Travis were getting off the train, so I did the same.
"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuck!" Kenny shouted.
Clementine covered her mouth and I stared at the floor.
"Maybe we could walk," Ben suggested.
"That's fuckin' stupid, Ben."
"I'm just sayin'."
"Hmm, I dunno. I ain't got much experience with y'all's fortitude, but we could probably deal with that," Chuck said to us. "We got a goddamn train."
Kenny turned to him. "That thing is not full of milk, Charles; It's gas or diesel, something that's going to explode."
"You gotta get a hold of yourself. This is a crew here."
Kenny stepped closer to him, a dangerous look on his face. He looked the older man from head to toe. "This ain't shit."
"This-"
"Yo!" A new voice called. "You keep screaming like that you're gonna get your face chewed off!"
Everyone looked up to the bridge where a man and woman stood.
"Are you guys gonna be trouble? Because we could have just kept walking," the woman put her hands on her hips.
"We're no trouble," I answered.
"You guys got a problem with your train?"
"Yeah," Kenny shot back. "You're standing right in front of it."
"You guys can come up here and have a look," the woman said.
"I'll go," Lee turned to the group.
"I'll come with you," Travis began walking with him, leaving the rest of us on the ground. I desperately wished my leg was healed enough to climb a ladder.
"How's your leg?" Ben appeared by my side.
"Okay. How'd it go with Lee?"
Ben shuffled on his feet and shrugged. "I can't tell anyone what happened. Not yet, anyway."
I nodded my head. "That's probably for the best."
"I feel like I should tell Kenny though," he admitted.
"No," I quickly grabbed his shoulders. "If you do that he'd go insane. You'd get kicked off the train, or shot, or worse."
Ben stared at me and then looked at my hands on his shoulders. I let go.
"Okay," he said, defeated.
There was a long pause.
"Are you and Travis ... together?"
"What?" I widened my eyes.
"Uh, sorry, never mind."
"Why does everybody think that?" I rolled my eyes.
"You're always so close," he ran a hand through his hair and began looking away. "It's nice though."
I shook my head slowly. "We're not like that."
"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna go talk to Kenny and Chuck."
I nodded and he walked away.
Clementine.
"Where's Clem?" I frantically panicked, then saw the little girl ascending the ladder near the top of the bridge. Lee appeared with her and I calmed down.
Part of me was worried for what the strangers would be like, but I trusted Lee's decisions, knowing he wouldn't take any risks that endangered Clementine. Travis was weary of people too, so the two opinions together would hopefully not clash.
I limped back to the train and sat in the doorway, legs dangling down just above the ground. I stared into the forest and fell into a daydream of wondering how the huge tank could possibly be moved without causing bigger problems for ourselves.
I noticed Lee and the others descending down the ladder so moved back to the small group.
"Guys, this is Omid and Christa," Lee introduced.
Nobody replied so I spoke up first. "It's nice to meet you both. I'm Marceline."
Omid gave a happy smile and Christa looked a little more relaxed.
"The plan is to cut that tanker down and be on our way," Lee told us.
"Seems like a plan enough to me," Kenny unfolded his arms.
"Let's get started then," I smiled.
"You'll be doing nothing," Kenny faced me. "You gotta rest up that leg."
I pulled a face. "Don't make me out to be useless, I can do something!"
"Marce, Kenny's right. If you put too much pressure on your leg already it'll take longer to recover, and your bandages need changing anyway," Travis watched me carefully.
"Fine."
"I'll get to know the girl for a minute," Christa looked at Clem before turning back to Lee. "If you don't mind."
"And why don't I show you how this thing works, in case something happens," Kenny suggested to Omid.
"Really, Ken?" Lee asked.
"It's probably for the best," Kenny began to climb the ladder onto the train. "Someone might want to have a look at that station back there, too."
"Sounds great!" Omid beamed. "Let's do this thing."
I sighed, watching the 'adults' go away to work while I stood still, beginning to feel the pain in my leg.
"Let's go fix up your leg," Travis put a hand on my shoulder and lead me back into the train. "Ben, come help me with this, will ya?"
"I can do it myself!" I shoved his hand away from my shoulder and pulled myself up onto the train.
Travis raised an eyebrow. "Right. Sure, go ahead."
He lightly threw a scrunched up bandage roll from his jacket pocket. I wondered where he'd even gotten that from.
"We'll be out here if you need us."
I rolled my trouser leg up, seeing the dried black blood coating the bandage. I picked at a corner of the bandage and began peeling it away from the wound with difficulty as it had all stuck together. Eventually I got down to the layer of bandage on my skin and bit my lip and I slowly tore it off, hurting me as I did it.
There was a round wound on my leg from the bullet. It wasn't very deep, but it looked horrible. I wished I had water to clean away the blood, but since that wasn't an option, I just bandaged it up again. The pain was bearable and not too awful, so I didn't mind all that much.
I sighed, leaning against the wall of the train after I'd fixed my jeans so the bandage was covered. I could hear conversations outside and shut my eyes, listening to the voices before drifting away to sleep.
