Always the Quiet Ones
Chapter II: A Broken Soul
"Ok, you guys seem cool… I don't mean to be rude or anything but you mind if I join you guys? I probably don't really have much to contribute except some we- Stuff." Eddie said. Nick didn't know what to think about Eddie. He seemed like a weird guy. Definitely not dangerous.
"You helped us get out of there." Luke smiled.
"How? All I did was reach down my hand." Eddie questioned.
"Goddamn my feet are tired. Why don't we just sit down?" Luke groaned. He was quite weak since he was caught trying to steal some food. Carver attacked him, wounded him. Luke was capable of some reckless actions, but he tried his best to avoid them.
"I guess." Nick replied. The five of them reached an area where there was a few logs, and a somewhat clean open area. They would be able to tell if walkers came around. Nick wasn't sure how Sarah was going to come back. After Carlos died, the Sarah that was once there was gone. Vanished. She didn't even look at anyone. Good thing Clementine was there, or else they would have to leave her. Nick couldn't even live with himself if he had to just leave her there to die.
"I'm sorry, just… I haven't gotten much rest since we escaped Carver's. You guys can go on ahead." Luke said, panting.
"Go where? We have no destination." Nick rolled his eyes. Nick thought Luke was being a bit lazy, especially for him because he's always been the 'keep on moving' guy. Nick was always the one who gave up easily.
"You have to find the others. Scout on ahead, take Clem or Eddie with you." Luke said.
"Oh, so now you're Mr. Boss Man?" Nick rolled his eyes again. Luke had been making a lot of stupid mistakes lately, and Nick was tired of it. Usually he would be the one to do the reckless mistakes.
"What the hell is your problem?" Luke growled. Nick scoffed and turned around. Nick rubbed his stubble facial hair.
"Drama, huh?" Eddie said, elbowing Clementine in the arm. Clementine glared at him. Eddie just turned away, awkwardly.
"How's your arm?" Luke asked, remembering that he was shot in the shoulder.
"I bandaged it." Nick replied.
"How'd you know how to do that?" Luke asked. Nick remembered back at the Cabin when Carlos was giving him tips on how to bandage someone.
"Just wrap it around their wound, and then once it's laced around, just put some tape on it. It's easy." Carlos said, ripping off another roll of tape.
"I still don't get why your teaching ME. Why not teach Luke, or Uncle Pete?" Nick asked. Carlos had been teaching him and him only how to bandage properly. Nick never had a good idea why.
"I'll get around to teaching them as well. I can't do it for everyone all the time." Carlos answered.
"Alrighty then." Nick said, stretching his arms. A crazy survivor had jammed a knife in his arm, because he just randomly attacked. Nick never knew why the crazy asshole did that. Carlos was patching up the knife wound. Luckily for Nick, Carlos was the best doctor he's ever seen. And the only doctor he's been with in the apocalypse.
"Carlos taught me." Nick answered him, grabbing his hammer.
"This hammer sucks. I need my rifle back." Nick sighed. Once he said that, Pete's voice popped into his head.
But you can't shoot for shit, son! Didn't you shoot that innocent man? Jesus, son. You still want a gun!? Nick shrugged Pete's voice out of his head.
"Well, I think they confiscated that back at the Hardware Store." Luke sighed.
"Well, I was thinking we could go to Parker's Run, but you want to sit here.." Nick sighed.
"Oh, for fucks' sake, Nick! Fine! Let's go, Jesus." Luke yelled as he got up, walking off into the woods.
"I wasn't…" Nick wanted to apologize. Fuck it, he thought. Nick followed after Luke, and Sarah and Clem did as well. Luke was storming off like a bull running into a wall.
"Don't let me down, Sarah." Clementine said to Sarah. It had been about two hours since they had rescued Sarah from the trailer park.
"But, I'm not okay…" Sarah said, blankly.
"You will be." Clementine smiled. Eddie lagged behind the two girls, feeling awkward. His presence didn't seem to be welcomed, but he wouldn't really expect anything different. Nick started to slow down, but he kept a medium pace so he could keep an eye on where Luke was heading. Nick slowed down to walk next to Clementine.
"Hey, Clem." Nick greeted her. Clementine nodded as a 'hello' and smiled as she kept on walking.
"So what do you think of the new guy?" Nick asked. Clementine shrugged. They had just met the guy, so they didn't have a full opinion. He seemed like a weird guy.
"Does, uh – Kenny know that I shot Matthew?" Nick asked, he figured he would just ask now, because he still regrets it.
"I don't know. He hasn't talked to me about it. Hasn't mentioned Matthew since we left the ski lodge." Clementine replied.
"Oh, ok. He'd probably kick my ass if he found out. I mean.. Walter took it better than I would have. If some random stranger shot Luke, and I had sheltered the person who did it, I'd be pretty pissed off. But he took it better than I would have, if I was in his shoes." Nick said, still keeping an eye on Luke who was actually starting to slow down.
"Walter was a good guy. You didn't know if Matthew was a threat or not." Clementine said, reassuring him with a smile. The eleven year old girl really acted like an adult, and that kinda scared him.
"Thanks, Clem." Nick smiled. Luke went towards a building, placing his hands in a form as if he was putting on sunglasses, and he looked inside the window. Nick ran towards him, figured he might as well use this chance to catch up. Sarah, Clem and Eddie followed.
"What is it?" Nick asked. Luke raised his finger to his mouth, telling him to shh. Luke pulled out his machete, sneaking up from the corner. Nick ducked down, looking to see what was inside the building.
"Oh, fuck." Nick muttered as he put his head down. It seemed to be a nursery home, but perhaps an indie one. It was full of walkers, he noticed some walkers had to push through each other to even move.
"Did you see what's in there?" Luke asked, whispering.
"Who cares!? It's full of those things." Eddie said. He didn't seem to have a weapon of some sort, not a pistol, not a blunt weapon, nothing.
"Look, do you see that? A stash of meds, guns, and food, just sitting in the corner." Luke smiled.
"It's probably a fucking trap. Even if it isn't, it's still not worth it. There's too many of them, Luke." Nick said, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"Let's just keep goin'." Nick sighed. Luke nodded, but as soon as Nick turned around he dashed into the building, as fast as he could.
"Dammit, Luke!" Nick growled as he grabbed his hammer and ran in there, hitting the walkers that were around the front door. Luke grabbed the handgun, and put it in his holster that he had. He must have lost his handgun before. Then he grabbed the shotgun, and the bag of meds. He zipped open the bag of meds, stashing as much as food as he could, and then zipped the bag.
"Cover me!" Luke yelled, as he threw over the handgun he had acquired. Nick shot at the walkers, and Luke did as well with the shotgun. Luke couldn't see an opening. Not a place where he could just jump over a walker and run out the door. There had to be a couple hundred of them. The desk where all the equipment were on had held some of the walkers off, but not all of them. They were starting to figure out to go around the desk. Luke kept firing until he ran out of shells.
"Damn it!" Luke said as he ran out of ammo. He held the shotgun the other way, and started smacking walkers with the butt of the shotgun. It wasn't that effective, but it was all he could do. Luke then
"Jane! Help Luke!" Luke heard Nick call out. Luke spotted Jane slicing the head of a walker, and knifing through. Luke had tripped over a walker, losing grip of the shotgun, he forgot having it in his hand, so he left it there.
"C'mon!" Jane called out as she ran out the door, and Luke followed.
Jane shut the door behind him, and grabbed a wood plank that used to be boarded up against the window, but apparently fell off. She put it through the door handle so the walkers couldn't get through.
"What the fuck were you doing?" Jane questioned.
"I got supplies. Food, medicine. And guns. Well, one gun." Luke sighed as he forgot he dropped the shotgun back in that nursery home.
"You fucking idiot." Nick pushed Luke.
"You coulda died, man? What the hell were you thinking?" Nick growled. Luke frowned.
"Who the hell is this?" Jane questioned as she gripped her knife, holding it towards Eddie.
"I can just leave. Okay?" Eddie gulped.
"Jane, it's good to see you." Nick smiled. Jane smiled back as she walked away, telling them to come on. Luke had caught up to Jane.
"Did you find the others?" Luke asked. Jane nodded. She still had some touches of walker guts over her face. Luke sighed in relief.
"Who is all there?" Luke asked.
"Everyone except you five. And Sarita." Jane replied, she said that with no emotion. Nick knew she was quite a hardened person. But c'mon, at least show some sympathy.
"I heard Kenny gave you a rough time. You did the right thing, Clementine. I hope you know that." Jane said.
"It didn't work." Clementine frowned. Nick was still amazed how such a little girl could be capable of handling all the hardship. She cut off Sarita's arm. Whoever taught her to be that strong obviously was a great man. He heard that he had died, quite a while ago.
"You wha-?" Luke began to ask, but was cut off by Jane.
"At least you tried." Jane said, patting her shoulder. Clementine sighed and looked to Luke.
"Sarita was bit. I cut her arm off…but it didn't work. Walkers got her." Clementine explained to Luke, still frowning at the failed attempt.
"Jesus. I'm sorry, Clem." Luke sighed.
"So, who is this guy?" Jane asked Nick and Luke, referencing to Eddie. The guy hadn't talked much since they let him join the group.
"His name is Eddie. We met him at the trailer park when we got Sarah out of there. It was his trailer. It got overrun, and we let him in the group. In fact, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself?" Luke said, walking backwards a bit to Eddie, who walked awkwardly and quietly.
"Uh, I'm Eddie. I'm a guy." Eddie said, rolling his eyes at his stupid choice of words.
"I wouldn't have guessed." Nick chuckled. Eddie shrugged as he couldn't say anything good about himself. He could tell them about his past group. And past friends.
"I was with a group, two weeks ago, about a group of seven. It was a bad place. Walkers roamed in every night of the week. We couldn't keep defending the place. Eventually a herd of them just strolled in like they owned the damn place. And they killed everyone. Except me. I had to find a place, so I found this trailer park. I hated living in that damn trailer, looking like some white trash hillbilly freak, which kind of reminded me of my friend Wyatt. Heh." Eddie chuckled at his last sentence, picturing Wyatt's crazy facial hair just sitting in a trailer.
"Wyatt? How much hair does he have?" Luke asked, he thought he knew that name. Wyatt. Hm. A thought of long hair came to his mind when he heard that name.
"He's got a lot up top, not sure how much he has down the- yeah." Eddie explained, deciding not to bring up dirty jokes in front of two teenage girls.
"Dirty blonde?" Luke knew Wyatt. He was apart of Carver's camp. They talked once, briefly.
"Holy shit. That guy? That guy was a weirdo." Nick said, remembering Wyatt.
"Holy fuck! You know who that is!? I've been trying to find him for two years! He's like – my best friend! He.. uh, left me at a dark interstate." Eddie said, laughing with joy.
"Good friend." Nick muttered. Jane was ignoring the whole conversation between Luke, Nick and Eddie and kept walking. Jane looked back to Clementine walking right next to Sarah, who was holding her shoulder. That girl was broken. Just like her sister, Jaime. Her sister Jaime was her 'best friend' according to Jane. They did everything together. She remembered when Jane gave her sister a bad haircut, and she'd laugh at how stupid and idiotic it was to walk around with that hairdo. Jane even giggled quietly out loud, but fortunately nobody heard it.
"You have to tell me where he is, man!" Eddie cried. Luke stopped walking, and Nick did too. Jane didn't stop. She didn't turn back.
"He's at a place called Howe's Hardware. They have – HAD a leader named William Carver. We escaped the place because he was a crazy fucking psychopath. He's dead now, but he was there. I don't know if he is now – the only reason we escaped was because there was a herd on it's way to the Hardware Store. We lost some good people escaping." Luke explained fully, a tear began to swirl around his eye as he thought of Carlos and Sarita. Luke looked to Sarah who didn't even blink. That girl was gone.
"Oh – fuck, um. Shit. Sorry." Eddie said, scratching his head.
"Are you guys coming or not!?" Jane yelled over, as she was quite a long way from the four of them.
"C'mon, guys. We better head back to the others." Luke said, beginning to walk down the path to Jane. Eddie nodded and followed behind Luke. Then, Nick followed with Clem and Sarah.