Always the Quiet Ones

Chapter 12: The Long Walk Forward

Nick, Luke, Russell and Vince had just came back from the woods, they had gathered a few supplies, it wasn't much, but they had to make do. They walked upstairs, Russell still keeping an eye on Nick and Luke considering he still didn't trust him.

"I'm all right!" Rebecca growled.

"Really? You just fell, you aren't all right!" Mike argued.

"I just gave birth, Mike. Rebecca growled.

"What the hell happened?!" Luke questioned, looking to see Rebecca bleeding a bit from her head. She had a small bump on her head as well.

"Rebecca fell. She's okay, now. I think." Mike shrugged, giving her some water that Mike, Bonnie, Clem and Nick had given her.

"Any progress?" Jane asked. Clementine was sitting right beside Rebecca. She didn't even look happy - Nick could see it in her eyes.

"We found some stuff. We can go again, tomorrow. We have to just get on by with what we got." Luke said, tossing the backpack full of supplies over to Jane. She caught it, then put it on the ground.

"Where's Sarah?" Nick asked, she was originally laying on the ground, considering she couldn't even walk. It was like there was two newborn babies.

"Oh. She's in here, she needed to use the bathroom." Shel pointed to the bathroom door.

"There's a bathroom there?" Nick didn't realize. There was a bathroom the entire time.

"Clem, can I talk to you for a second?" Luke asked. Clem nodded, and the two of them stepped away from the group for a few minutes. Luke crouched down to her height, and looked at her.

"Look, I don't know - if Sarah's gonna make it. We're gonna have to move soon. Nick will have to carry her - I mean, he will if he has to, but it's bad, Clem... I-I..." Luke couldn't think of putting Sarah out of her misery.

"She's not turning, Luke. She'll be fine." Clementine growled at Luke's thought.

"Clem. You don't understand - You.." Luke began to say.

"Why are you so eager to give up? Back when Pete died, when I was with Nick - he told me you were the one who kept on moving, the one who kept on giving hope to people. Now you are the one who's giving up on people!" Clementine growled.

"Clem, I - People change. You aren't listening to me..." Luke said. Luke tried to reach out to her, but Clem jumped back.

"Leave me alone!" Clem ran off.

"Dude, what the fuck did you say?" Nick growled, walking towards Luke and pushing him back.

"I didn't.." Luke began to say, but was cut off by Nick.

"I heard you talking about Sarah. I didn't hear all of it, but I heard SARAH. What did you say!?" Nick demanded an answer. Luke feared this would happen, his own best friend for 20 years would turn on him like this, but Nick wasn't even at fault here. It was Luke, him and his fucking mouth. He's been such a fuck-up as of late, he thought about what Clem had said, Nick saying that Luke would keep moving on, never give up on people. Maybe he had changed. Maybe he didn't.

"I said that Sarah might not be able to walk again, maybe because - she's going to slow us all down." Luke admitted, crossing his arms. Nick gave him an angry glare.

"Uh, guys..." Mike said, thinking if he should calm things down. Nick shut his eyes for a second, and then punched Luke straight in the face, knocking him back. Nick saw the blood that was on his knuckles. He had just punched his best friend. Nick was so angry, he couldn't control himself.

"Whoa, Nick!" Mike reacted as Nick started punching Luke in the face.

"N-Ni-Nick...c'mon, ple-" Luke begged as Nick didn't stop.

"SHE'LL BE FINE!" Nick yelled, Mike grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back. Luke got up, wiping the blood from his nose, he now had broken ribs, a bloody nose, and a black eye.

"N-Nick..." Luke wanted to apologize. He totally deserved what he got.

"Just go. We don't... we don't need you here." Nick panted, he then winced in pain as he felt pain in his shoulder.

"I-I..." Luke didn't know what to say. They wanted him to leave. He obviously wasn't wanted here. Luke grabbed his machete holster with his machete inside that had fallen off, and laced it around his back again. He then walked down the stairs, taking off.

"Luke!" Jane called out, running down the stairs, running after him. Jane grabbed him by the arm, turning him around.

"What?" Luke questioned.

"He didn't mean it. He's just angry." Jane replied.

"He did mean it. I can't put anyone else in danger. I'm leaving." Luke said, he continued to walk off.

"Well, if you're leaving, I'm coming with you." Jane said.

"No. Stay with everyone else. I-" Luke ordered.

"I'm not-" Jane growled.

"I don't want you with me." Luke replied. Jane backed up.

"Fine. Good luck." Jane sighed, turning around and walking back to the observation deck. Luke kept walking, walking into the forest. He wasn't needed there, so why should he be there?

Bonnie

"I don't trust your new friends." Kenny told her, picking up a log.

"Could ya help me with this?" Kenny asked, struggling a bit with the log. It was a pretty big log, but could be easily carried by two people. Bonnie didn't entirely trust Kenny either, Luke was right about him being a bit reckless, but she still thought he was a good guy, but a broken one. Bonnie grabbed the other end of the log, and the two of them walked slowly. There was a bit of snow on the log, so her hands trembled at the cold feeling.

"Just walk slowly, we'll get in there in no time and have some heat tonight." Kenny told her.

"Tell me about your friends, because if they are gonna stay here, I need to know if I can trust 'em." Kenny asked.

"You can trust them. They're good people. I ran into Vince, the asian man, and Wyatt, the dirty blonde bearded man. They were in a small camp together, and they gave me food, and some shelter. They were nice, and I survived with them for a while, till Russell joined. We lost our camp, and ran into Russell. He didn't trust us at first, same for you guys, and then eventually he trusted us. And then Shel and Becca joined us, and we heard that they had escaped from a gas station with an RV." Bonnie explained.

"Escaped with an RV, huh?" Kenny asked, remembering when Lilly had stole the RV, Lee was so stupid to keep Lilly with them even after killing Carley.

"Yeah, why?" Bonnie said, confused by his question.

"Me and Clem were in a group with a woman named Lilly. Our place got overrun by bandits, and Lilly thought another woman named Carley, Lilly shot her because she thought she did it, then a man named Lee didn't want to leave the murdering bitch behind, so he let her back in the RV. She then drove off in the fucking RV." Kenny got angry just thinking about her.

"Uh - I'm sorry, Kenny." Bonnie didn't know what to say.

"Let's get this damn thing back to the deck." The two of them continued on.