A Second Chance

Chapter 8

"Aw shit! Hold on everybody!"

I grabbed onto Clem, making sure she didn't fall as the train screeched to a stop. Once secure, I stood and made my way to the enterance of the boxcar.

"Careful, Lee." Carley warned, coming to stand beside me.

"I know what it is. It's cool." I assured, smiling down at her.

"Know-it-all bastard." She joked, hitting me gently in the shoulder.

"Hey! I'm injured! I'm an invalid! You can't hit an invalid!" I joked back, smiling fiendishly at her.

"Well, I guess we can't do anything in the bedroom, if that's your logic." She smiled, winking. I rolled my eyes and jumped down onto the soft, grassy ground. My eyes were met with an overhanging PSVF tanker.

"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUUCK!" Kenny screamed, tilting his hea in frustration.

"Maybe we could walk?" Ben suggested, following our lead out of the train.

"That's fucking stupid, Ben." The older man replied, hanging his head sadly.

"I'm just sayin…"

"Hmm. I dunno; I ain't got much experience with yall's fortitude but we could probably deal with that. We got a goddamn train." Chuck laughed, obviously pleased with himself.

"That thing's not full of milk, Charles. That's gas or diesel; something that's going to explode." Kenny replied, gathering himself.

"YOU gotta get ahold of yourself. This is a crew here."

"This ain't shit."

"This-" Chuck started, only to be cut off.

"Yo, you keep screaming like that and you're gonna get your face chewed off." I looked up to see Omid leaning over the barrier, staring down at the wreck.

"Are you guys going to be trouble? Because we could've just kept walking." Christa piped in, poking her head over to join him.

"No, we're friendly." I directed my voice to Kenny. "Put your hand down, Ken."

"That's what everybody says." Christa countered, making me smile at how familiar she was.

"We know." I said, chuckling.

"You guys got a problem with your train?" Omid shouted, looking at our transport.

"Yeah, you're standing right in front of it." Kenny replied, shifting his focus to the tanker.

"Dude, it's a wreck. It's not so bad from up here." The smaller man shouted, observing us sceptically. "Send your buddy up to have a look."

I was about to oblige when Kenny held out a hand to stop me.

"Anything goes sideways up there, we won't let them escape. We got more to think about." He assured, winking at me. I strode over to the ladder, my heart pounding. Slowly, I climbed up, happy to finally see my friends again.

"Hey dude, I'm Omid." He greeted, turning to look at me.

"Lee." I introduced myself, mentally laughing at how absurd the whole situation was.

"Christa. What's the deal with the train?"

"We're driving it." I answered, smiling lightly.

"OH, MAN." Omid exclaimed. I'd almost forgotten his obsession with trains.

"Look, you want to help us out? We could use some able bodies and… yeah, we really need some help." I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

"What's in it-" Christa started. At first, I was confused. Thenn I realised thet Clem had followed me up.

"Oh, shit!" He laughed, almost disbelieving. "Goddamn, you guys have a kid!"

"What are you doing up here?" I asked Clementine, not unkindly.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've seen a kid? Shit! What's your name?" He asked, genuinely happy.

"Clementine." She answered, stepping forward.

"Oh, so he gets to swear?" I joked, nodding my head towards the smaller man.

"Well, this is great." He stated. He directed his words towards his Girlfriend. "See, things are looking up."

"You're not her dad. He down there?" She asked. It felt surreal to have her be so suspicious towards me.

"It's that obvious?"

"To me." She answered, resting her hands on her hips.

"And no, he's not down there." I continued, uncrossing my arms.

"Hmm. What's your story?" She pressed, trying to get information out of me.

"I came across Clementine alone the first day all of this happened." I replied calmly. "We've been together ever since."

"And everybody down there, they're cool?"

"Well, Lilly lost her Dad." I replied without hesitation.

"Man. How long ago." Omid asked, sympathy showing.

"Not long." I answered.

"Goddamn."

"We're sorry for anything that's happened to you guys." He stated, genuinely upset. "That train is awesome though."

"That tank is your real problem. We'll help you with it, but if we see anything we don't like, we're moving on down the road. Alone." Christa threatened, laying down her rules.

"We'd appreciate the help." I thanked.

"You can't just blast through it, I guess." Omid asked, inspecting the tank.

"If you could get it down, the rest would be pretty easy." The woman said, stating the obvious.

"We'll start there." I assured.

"We'll come down and settle in, and see if we can help."

I made my way back down to our group. Ben Chuck and Kenny were gathered by the train. Carley, Duck and Katjaa sat on the ground to our left. Lilly sat in the boxcar.

"Guys, this is Omid and Christa." I introduced, lifting Clem down the last couple of rungs. They were met with blank stares.

"Not big on welcomes…" Omid muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. I chuckled lightly.

"Like I said, we could use some good people." I addressed the group. "The plan is to cut that tanker down and be on our way."

"Seems like plan enough for me." Kenny muttered, nodding.

"You wanna start on that tanker?" Omid asked, turning to me.

"I'll get to know the girl for a minute, if you don't mind." Christa interrupted.

"And why don't I show you how this thing works, in case something happens." Kenny said cheerily.

"Really, Ken?" I asked, disbelieving.

"It's probably for the best." He assured, patting my side as he walked past. I winced softly, unknown to the group. I felt blood seep through the bandage.

"Someone might want to have a look inside of that station wagon back there, too." Carley suggested, walking up to me.

"Sounds great. Let's do this thing." Omid agreed, following Kenny. I felt my world spin. Blood began seeping through my shirt. I heard Carley gasp. All went black.