The sun slowly starts to rise over the horizon – illuminating Wellington with its bright glow and starting a new day. I walk outside of the tent without crutches while also letting Sarah obtain at least a few more hours of sleep. With all that she's been through, I feel that she deserves the extra rest. But I can't sleep a wink; not because I'm an early riser, but because there's still no sign of him.
Lee should've been back hours ago.
What Luke had told me last night is really troubling me. Sure, he may have had to adapt to his surroundings over the last two years while practically being alone for a majority of it, but that doesn't mean he's dangerous - especially not to the rest of the group.
Why did he have to tell me that, anyway? Luke knows how happy I was when Lee stumbled back in. There was no reason for him to take that away from me; to make me second guess myself for the billionth time. Lee's always been there for me, and he'd never let me down.
Right?
"He's still not back, is he?" Kenny asks, startling me as I didn't see him approach. When I shake my head, he sighs deeply and rubs his hand over his face. "Of course not. The bastard's left you and Lilly here worried sick without telling us where he was going, other than to some fucking camp out in the sticks. We don't even know where it is, for Christ's sake!"
"You two need to start getting along," I state, yawning and stretching my arms to the sky. "Just try patching things up with him – he's not so bad once you get to know him."
"Clementine, I know him as well as I'm ever going to. This… This'll take more than a few apologies thrown each way, trust me. Sometimes things just don't work out."
"Could you at least try? Please? For me?"
Sighing, he's about to answer when Bonnie and Lilly step out of their tent with huge bags under their eyes. In fact, it seems that everyone looks that way. I guess nobody's been getting much sleep lately.
"We need to look for Lee," I say, more so to Lilly than anyone else as Mike, Jane and Luke come out to join us. "If something happened to him, then we need to help."
"What's he look like?" Jane asks, folding her arms across her chest.
"Picture Mike, but with more hair, less weight and one arm," Lilly describes, getting a huff of annoyance from the big guy. "Anyone know where he might've taken off to?"
"He told us he was going scoutin' last night," Luke admits, not meeting my gaze, "The guy he killed mentioned some camp a little ways off of here. He might still be around, but…"
"But what?" I ask, frowning as he cuts off his sentence.
"It'll be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, Clem," Luke says, "We shouldn't all go out searching for the guy in case he comes back on his own."
"That's what you said about Lilly, too," I point out, narrowing my eyes at him. "I'm going either way. And before any of you ask, yes I can walk – enough to get there and back at least."
"What's the plan then? I say we take a small group of us to scrounge around and find out where he might've gone off to," Lilly pitches in, pretty much telling me that she's going too.
Looking around at the group, I see three other hands go up: Mike, Jane and a very reluctant Kenny. I'm pretty sure the only reason he did was because of our conversation moments ago. Guilt trips sure are fun! I should use them more often!
Lilly doesn't seem to think that's a good idea though.
"Kenny," she sighs, shaking her head, "I think it'd be best if you stayed here. We don't want too many people out there, plus if anything happens then we'd need you to defend our spot. Same goes for you, Jane."
"Remind me again who named you queen of the camp?" Kenny grunts, but relenting. He'd take any excuse to get out of interacting with Lee that he could get. Jane kind of just shrugs her shoulders and mumbles something about why she bothered coming here in the first place.
Bonnie hands me a pistol with some extra magazines, which I accept gratefully and place gingerly in my backpack. I'm surprised that I still have this thing after all that's happened to us.
"Looks like we're all set," Mike comments, saluting the rest of the group who simply roll their eyes. "Come on, we're burning daylight."
"That's my line!" Luke calls out, but I tune him out as we reach the gate. He's kind of getting of my nerves right now, to be honest. It's almost like he doesn't want us to find Lee at all, especially after all the things he said last night. Odd, I thought Luke and Lee would've gotten along much better than this.
…..
"Alright, let's just rest up for a minute," Lilly orders as we all set our packs down. My leg is pretty sore, but the freezing cold temperature is kind of numbing it down a little bit. "I'm gonna have a look around – don't worry, Clem. I won't stray too far from you guys."
"You worry me sometimes, you know that?" I joke, to which she just shakes her head and walks off. I swear, sometimes Lilly can be colder than winter itself, but I know she means well.
We've stopped at a fork in the road, with dirt paths leading in two different directions. I sit on the side of the road and roll up the cuff of my jeans to get a better look at the prosthetic. Still attached, thankfully, but it's digging into my skin and it kind of hurts. I can't really complain though – I wouldn't be out here without it.
"That thing sure looks painful," Mike comments, grimacing as some of the scars show from where I was chopped. Damn… and to think that Nick shooting me in the arm was actually less painful.
"You get used to it," I reply, rubbing the sore spot tenderly to alleviate some of the stress.
"Your friends mentioned how tough you were – never thought they meant like this, though," Mike admits, shaking his head in disbelief. "No painkillers, either?"
"Nope."
"Jesus…"
"A walker got the jump on me," I tell him, deciding that now's as good a time as any to explain some things. "Sarah and I stuck together while we all went through a tunnel on the way here, but I didn't see it in time. Luckily Kenny took my foot off quickly enough, so I'm still around."
"Seems there's a lot more to you than meets the eye, kid," Mike notices, straightening up as he sees some movement in the trees. "Shit… I think we've got walkers coming straight at us."
"What should we do?" I ask, not wanting to risk the noise of a gun but not liking my chances with an amputated foot and a knife. I probably should've thought this through more.
Frowning in concentration, Mike grunts and pulls out his pistol, which signals to me that I should do the same.
"Fuck it," he spits, "We can't have any close calls. Let's just get to Lilly and take them out at a distance."
"We need to find an opening," I say, firing off a round at a walker that gets a little too close for comfort. It looks as though this isn't just some small pack of the things, unfortunately.
"Probably came from Detroit or something," Mike muses, taking two more walkers down as he reloads his weapon. "There! Through the bushes, go!"
Unfortunately for me, I can't run at all with this thing, so Mike beats me to the bushes by a mile. Luckily for me, he seems to notice this and is blocking off the pursuit while ushering me to hurry up.
"I'm going as fast as I can!" I yell, trying not to just completely fall face first in the snow. Any misstep will be the death of me, and all of this will have been for nothing. I don't want to die! I'm too young to die!
"Shit!" Mike curses before disappearing into the brush – the snow on the evergreen trees preventing me from seeing him.
"Mike?! Lilly?!" I yell out frantically as four walkers start to advance towards me. I manage to take one down in a hurry, but I have to keep moving. It's literally like watching a race between four tortoises, with me in the lead and the other three catching up behind me. I'm a little bit faster than they are thanks to my smaller size, so I can slightly outmaneuver them, but if I get tired then I'm done for. Screw this stupid foot!
I have no idea where I'm going, but for some reason I feel that I'm going the right way. It's not as if I have any other choice anyway, but as I trudge through the trees and into a clearing, I'm greeted to the site of what's undoubtedly a campsite. For a moment I stop to catch my breath and try to see if Lee could be anywhere in this place.
What I'm greeted to instead are two of the guards pointing to me before grabbing some of their buddies to try and fetch me, while the walkers keep on my tail.
Perfect – just perfect. As hard as my lungs are willing, I push myself and make a left; taking off and hoping that whatever catches me first is friendly. Something tells me they won't be.
Lee's POV
"Dude? Are you awake over there? Hellllooooooo?" Eddie asks, trying to get my attention. Funny how things work out, eh? We both look for the murderer only to get caught in their spider web, metaphorically speaking of course. God, my university lectures must be catching up to me.
"Barely," I admit, twisting my wrist around painfully. That lady (who I later found out was named Tavia) cuffed me to this ATV and closed the door behind us. That was well over four hours ago now, though. Nobody's walked in here since. "How you holdin' up?"
"Shitty, man. This is straight fucked up."
"Can't argue with you there."
"Do you think there's any way out of here?" Eddie asks as he struggles to untie himself from the motorcycle he's strapped to. I hadn't known that this place used to be an auto shop – although this obviously dealt less with cars or trucks, and more with smaller vehicles. I'm guessing they just set up camp around this place just for that reason alone. Maybe these things still work.
"Even if there was," I say, sighing as another attempt to slip out of the cuffs fails, "we're stuck here. Plus, they took all our guns and shit away."
"Damn this thing," Eddie mutters, lowering his head slightly. "Fucking Arvo… I used to call him invincible, you know? He never stopped, just like the horse his buddies named him after. Hell, even with a busted-up leg he still lasted longer than other folks I knew. Just didn't think his luck would run out, you know?"
"Sounds like you guys were close," I conclude, giving him a sympathetic nod. "I'm sorry, man."
"Did you get him?" he asks suddenly, staring at me intently. "The fucker who gunned him down… did you tap him out?"
Nodding slowly, Eddie nods back. "Good," he says flatly, sighing as he leans his head back on the motorcycle. "Doesn't bring him back at all, but at least we kind of avenged him, you know? Like that super hero movie."
"Sure," I agree, trying to figure out how at all this was like the Avengers. I'd love to have some super powers of my own right now. Being able to move through walls would be a lot of help.
A few minutes later, the door opens, and in steps that bastard I met on the road that day. Eddie seems to know him as he glares straight at him, so I guess that kid I shot was telling the truth after all.
"Howdy neighbour," he chuckles at me, revealing his nasty grin that just screams insane. "Aww man, you should've seen your face out there, dude. Fucking priceless. You were practically pissing your pants."
I highly doubt that, you crazy bastard.
"So, Eddie," he turns to the beanie-wearing man, "You are one fucked up kid, you know that? First you jack my meds, then the guns, and then you take off like the wind. You know I've got sinus issues! My nasal drugs were in there, brother! Of course, we mostly just got high off them back in the camp now, didn't we? We were just a couple of regular junkies, you and me!"
"And you," he smirks, turning towards me, "Didn't take my offer very seriously, did ya? I told you what would happen, dude – sure, Arvo was a pretty stand-up guy, but he had to go. And then you came along… and killed my man. That shit's just not gonna fly."
"What the fuck do you want from me?" I snarl, curling my lips tightly and glaring at him. "I've got one fucking arm, so forced labour's not really gonna help you much."
"Ha! He's got a sense of humour, too! You could take some lessons from this jokester, Eddie. He's showing you up over here!" the fucker rants, placing his hands on his hips as Tavia and two other men come inside. "Cold out there, is it?"
"Are you about finished with them yet, Nate?" Tavia asks, surprising me as I had thought that he might've been the leader of this little operation they have going on here. "We're on a tight schedule here, and we caught another person trying to escape some walkers. They've got her up on the second deck."
"Alright, I'll be quick… buzzkill…" Nate shakes his head while shrugging his shoulders at us. "I don't know what to tell you, fellas. We can't keep both of you alive… but I'm a pretty reasonable guy. I ain't some wack job out in the sticks with some taste for killing folks like yourselves – my brother was, but I'm not. Don't tell my mother."
"NATE!" Tavia bellows, growing more impatient by the second.
"Anyway," he continues, ignoring the bushy-haired lady, "Here's how this is gonna go – I'm not gonna kill both of you. In fact, I ain't killin' either of you!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Eddie asks, just as confused as I am.
"Ohh… this is where it gets good, boys! You're going to kill each other! You're gonna fight to the death – until one of you go kersplat! Isn't that fucking great?"
Okay, I knew this guy was nuts before… but now he's just completely gone off the deep end. If he thinks that we're going to partake in this insanity, then he's truly lost his marbles. Why would we ever agree to this?!
"We're not doing it," I hiss, trying once again to break free of my chains. "You must be some kind of stupid to think we would. I'll kill you first!"
"Ha, doubt that my good man," Nate scoffs, tisking as he shakes his head. "Such noddy children you are! Oh well, this should be good entertainment to boost morale and all that junk. Might be a little bit messy, but we can just cover up the blood with some snow. It's not like we don't have that in abundance out here, am I right or am I right?"
"We're. Not. Doing. It." I pronounce each word, as if somehow it'll get through to him. "You won't make me kill him!"
"Oh, I think you will," he smiles wickedly at me as he turns to leave. "I'm a pretty charismatic and persuasive guy, you know. See you in a little bit."
With that, he, Tavia and their goons leave and shut the door behind them; the cold breeze of a winter storm briefly blowing in to touch our faces. Nate sounded pretty serious about this, and the way he said that last thing… Jesus… What does he mean by that?
"Told you he's fucking nuts," Eddie remarks, widening his eyes, "Why do you think Arvo and I left his ass in the dust in the first place? Maybe our friends will come rescue us or some shit."
"Now would be the time," I agree, though still wondering what persuasion he could be holding. The cards are in Nate's hands now – I just wish I knew what they were. I've never met anyone with such a lack of regard for human life – it's sickening and downright terrifying at the same time. I wonder if he was different before the world went to hell, or if this thing just accentuated his madness.
Either way, I need some time to think. If he's serious, then I need to prepare myself. I have to find a way out of this madness.
AN: Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it's for a good cause! I've sort of got a plan now for where I want this story to go, and I'm really sorry if this feels too much like the television show in any way! I didn't intend for that, and personally I think there are some big differences. And if for some reason you don't watch the show, then… you're missing out! Go and watch it already, especially the first two seasons!
Anyway, I hope you're liking this so far! Please keep reviewing :) Forty reviews within five chapters is bat shit crazy! I've never had that happen before with ANY of my stories, so thank you very much for that! Also, thanks to spiderclone for suggesting the Mike and Jane thing… I kind of screwed up by sending them away.