AN: Sorry about all that disappearing chapter nonsense last time – it's up there now though and hopefully it'll stay. Something was going wrong with the site I think, but anyways it's done now so whatever. Here's the next chapter.

Lilly's POV

"…and that's pretty much why I ended up in the construction industry," Tommy finishes saying as I try going over all of the details – and failing. He really goes in depth with his stories, that's for sure.

Mine aren't nearly as exciting as his seem to be.

"Hmph, never thought that you'd be in the construction business," I comment, plucking a wild flower from the ground as I twirl it within my fingers.

"Oh really? Well, what did you think I was doing then?"

"I dunno – just… not that."

Chuckling slightly, Tommy scratches the back of his head as he speaks again. "Yeah, well I was in line to be heading the whole company until this shit started piling up. I actually got my big brother a job with one of them contractors back in the day…"

"You mentioned him earlier," I remark, trying not to overstep my boundaries. "Sounds like he was really important to you."

Pausing for a moment, the man frowns sadly as the creases on his forehead grow deeper. Thinking that he probably doesn't want to talk about it, I go back to staring at the flowers in order to avoid the obviously touchy subject.

"I'm sorry," I apologize quietly, not really sounding that sincere. I've never been one to easily forgive or be forgiven, so naturally I'm not very good at this kind of stuff. "I umm… shouldn't have asked."

"We just didn't get along all the time… had our fair share of spats in the past," he explains with a shrug. "He got married straight out of high school and had a kid shortly after… She was such a… a beautiful little girl. When all of the dead started walking around… well, she got shot by some fucking asshole soldier. I killed the bastard but… it was too late. My brother was never the same after that."

"…they're not all like that, you know."

"What d'ya mean?" Tommy asks, his Texan accent giving me pause.

Thinking back to my military background – well, more my Dad's military background – makes me a little bit biased towards the soldiers who risked their lives every day for our country, but I'm not going to hide behind that. I'm not ashamed of who I used to be, even though secretarial work wasn't exactly high on my list of jobs that I wanted to pursue.

"I'm saying in this case, it might just be one bad apple that spoiled the bunch," I tell him, trying not to offend him as he gets ready to fire back. "I know, Tommy, I know. What that guy did was horrible, and it never should've happened. But not every person's the same, and we've all had to do things that we're not proud of."

"That fucker didn't have to kill her! There was no reason to shoot a little girl in cold blood like that!"

"I'm gonna assume that he didn't shoot her for no reason," I insinuate, watching as he struggles to find the right words to say. "I know that's not what you wanna hear… but people die all the time. Shit, I'm sorry 'bout your niece, I really am. But everybody's lost someone."

I can tell that he's getting kind of agitated as he shuts his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose, but if this helps him out in the long run, then so be it. The truth hurts sometimes and we both know it. Turning to face me again, I retain my calm expression as he tries to do the same.

"So what the hell are you sayin' then?" he asks with fervour. "Are you telling me that I should just forgive and forget? Pretend that that son o' a bitch didn't murder my niece and shatter my brother to pieces?"

"You don't have to forgive him," I advise, shrugging my shoulders, "just stop holding a grudge. Not all people are the same, you know."

Balling his hands into fists, Tommy contorts his face in anger as he prepares to stomp off; making his way down the hill before turning back to me with a small glare.

"You know what Lilly?" he asks, disappointment etched into his words. "Up until just now, I was about to think the same thing. But people aren't different at all."

Great job, Lilly. You've pissed yet another person off – what does that one make, like 350 now or something like that? I can pretty much count every person that I've ever known to that list… but this time I'm not regretting it. I'm too stubborn for my own good sometimes, but Tommy will thank me for that one day.

You see, I went through the same thing; that feeling of anger and hatred against everything and everybody. After Dad died and I took off in the RV, I felt nothing but white-hot, bubbling rage. The whole world was out to get me; planning shit behind my back and always looking for ways to break me down.

And you know what? For a long time it actually did.

"Heya," Jane calls up to me as she walks up the hill. I grab her hand as she makes the last few steps; intertwining her fingers in mine as I drag her into the flower patch. "Soooo… I probably shouldn't even ask this, but Tommy…"

"He's pissed at me," I shrug, not really caring considering that he's still practically a stranger to us. "I may have said some things that he really didn't want to hear, but it'll do him some good in the long haul. I'm pretty sure at least."

"Alright… so… you and him were just… talking then?"

"Yeah, why?" I ask, but sputtering out in laughter as I immediately clue in to what she's trying to say. Jane frowns as I continue to chuckle; shoving off my hand as she folds her arms across her chest. "Oh my fucking god… this is rich… this is really rich!"

Huffing, Jane looks indignant as she rolls her eyes at me. "I don't see what's so funny about any of this."

Laughing some more, I dodge her hand as I grab her cheek and tug it back and forth a little bit in a teasing manner.

"You're jealous! That's what this is!" I smirk; my grin only getting bigger as she swats my hand away. "Holy hell… out of the two of us, I really didn't expect you to be the one who got like this, no offense."

Drying my eyes as my breathing starts to settle, I hear silence on the other end, and turn to see that Jane is less than amused with me. Okay, maybe I stepped over the line there just a tiny bit.

Awesome! Jane's number 351!

"Are you finished yet?"

"Jane, come on," I remark, unable to see how this could be a problem. "That guy? Seriously? I talked to him for maybe ten minutes! Besides, I've already got somebody special in my life – I don't need another."

"You do? Who is this fucker?! I'll tear them apart!" Jane jokes, sticking her tongue out at me as I rub her knee with my thumb. Seriously, I can't tell where the jokes are ending and where the seriousness is starting at this point.

"That'd be you, dumb ass!" I roll my eyes, leaning back far enough so that my hair's brushing against the flower petals. "Honestly, Jane, what's this all about? Why do you think I'd cheat on you?"

Looking rather squeamish about the whole thing, Jane shrugs before plucking a flower and twirling it up into the wind as it flies freely.

"I don't really know," she confesses, giving me an apologetic grin. "…well, he's got nice hair, I guess."

I have to repeat that over in my head to make sure that I just heard right.

"Are you fucking serious?"

Jane giggles as I look on in disbelief; probably realizing how stupid that sounds as she says it aloud. Nice hair… I'll have to remember that one someday. It'll probably go on my list of "Worst Possible Excuses for Acting Irrationally" or something of the sort. Does she really think I'm as shallow as to go after someone else because of something dumb like that?

Glancing down the hill, I get a mischievous glint in my eyes and decide to mess around with the girl a little bit… not what you're thinking, believe me. There's a time and place for everything, as I've said before.

"Well, now that you mention it," I comment, fully expecting the shocked look she gives me, "he does have some pretty nice flow going on. It's almost like Thor with the way he twirls his head around. Should I go ask him what kind of shampoo he used to use?"

"Lilly!"

"See how ridiculous it sounds?" I ask, watching as Jane's face falters a little bit. "I'd never do anything like that to you, get that? You're stuck with me, girlie, whether you want to punch me in the nose or not."

Not saying anything else, the two of us simply drop the topic altogether as we gaze out into the horizon – nothing but grassy hills as far as the eye can see. It's amazing how something so incredible can still survive when almost everything else has been destroyed. There are no walkers that I can tell, no cars and nothing to detract from the beauty of this place. I'm kind of out of my element here though, aren't I? Sitting with Jane out in an open field and just… relaxing. I don't do relaxing, least of all when we're not in some kind of shelter.

Moments like these don't last and are few and far between, but that's precisely why I choose to remember each one. Caring about someone… it's changed me forever. My outlook on life has done a complete 180, and I think that's relieved Jane in a lot of ways.

I wasn't always so positive about going on with life.

"I do have OCD," I suddenly blurt out, not entirely sure why I'm telling her this. That kind of came out of left field. "Back at Clem's house, when we were sorting through that stuff and I was making sure that the house was secure? You were right, and I lied about it to cover it up. Explains a lot, doesn't it?"

"How long have you had it for?" she questions, genuinely interested as she looks over at me with concern.

Tilting my head up to the clouds as I try to recall, my memory jogs back to the days of my youth. It wasn't easy growing up in the same house as my Dad (not that he was ever really there early on), but the day I got diagnosed was just adding salt to the wounds. "I must've been nine or ten at the time," I tell her while shaking my head. "I used to try and straighten up every picture frame we had in the house, and I'd never just be satisfied with the fact that they'd never be completely perfect. That was just the beginning."

There were a lot of memories of my childhood that I refuse, flat-out refuse, to go back to – most of them are just too painful. A lot of them involve screaming matches, shattering glass and a swift slap across the head. Why can't you just be fucking normal?! That got tossed around quite a bit from my mother whenever she'd be in a drunken rage. I realized much later that she often didn't mean the things she said, and that her getting drunk was just a way to cope with the fact that she had to raise me alone. But it still pained me… and I promised myself that if I was ever lucky enough to have a kid of my own, I'd never treat them that way; not in a million years.

I think any chance of that happening just flew out the window, but I'm content. Something about being with Jane just overwrites the desire to raise a family out in this hell of a world. This isn't a place for kids to grow up in; not here, not out in the wilds.

Besides, if Jane and I were to ever raise a child of our own, I'm pretty sure the thing would turn into a swearing, raging alcoholic by the time it turned four years old (thanks, Emily Rose lol).

"Well, you certainly manage to keep me in line. So there's a plus," Jane mentions, getting a friendly punch on the shoulder from me. "But that must've been tough."

"It was," I nod in agreement, but not wanting to go into any mushy shit as I straighten up a little bit. Feelings are definitely not either of our specialties, and that's a bit of an understatement. I'm pretty sure you'd be at it all day trying to get the two of us to express our feelings. "Anyway, are we about ready to go?"

"In a rush to get there, are we? I'm not sure – I'm pretty sure they don't trust me after crashing into a possum earlier."

"That's what it was?"

"Pretty sure, at least. Regardless, I haven't built up anybody's confidence with my driving," she chuckles, pulling out a bent picture of her and her sister as she studies it carefully. "Did I ever tell you about the time Jaime and I rode in a Lambo around the street?"

Shaking my head, I smirk as she reminisces on the past. By the way her face lit up just now, I'd say that she's got a lot of fond memories of Jaime, even though she admitted to being kicked out of the house a long time ago.

"I had just gotten my license the week before, and Jaime and I were wandering around downtown one day bored out of our skulls. We turned the corner and saw it – this awesome red Lamborghini just sitting there in the parking lot. So, naturally, I did what any other eighteen year old teen would do."

"You didn't…" I remark, groaning as she nods her head. Who would've thought that my girl used to be a juvenile delinquent?

"Jaime didn't want to, but I dragged her inside. The guy who owned it left the keys inside for some reason, so I hopped into the driver's seat and revved the engine," she explains, pretending to be driving the vehicle as she grips an imaginary steering wheel. The sight of her not having as many fingers saddens me, but thankfully she doesn't notice. "We thought we were so cool, driving around the block like that. There was actually a cop on one of the street corners, but he just glanced our way for a second and then moved on without a word."

"Did you get caught?" I ask, causing her to snort as she tells me the next part of her tale.

"The owner was standing out in the parking lot when we came back," she says, causing me to put a hand to my mouth. "I thought we were done for, and that I'd be sitting in jail for a good while – we were pretty young, so it all seemed like we were completely fucked. Turns out the guy was so shocked that we actually brought it back, that he just took the keys and left. Never heard from him again, never got the cops called on us – nothing. Jaime and I only ever brought it up when we were alone."

This is absurd. She got caught stealing by the actual person she stole it from, and nothing came of it? Not even a slap on the wrist?!

What the fuck is this bullshit?!

"I had to sit in the mall security office for three hours over snatching a chocolate bar," I reply, causing her to chuckle as I shake my head in disbelief, "but you get off the hook for stealing a Lambo?!"

"I liked to think of it as borrowing," she tells me as I run my fingers through my hair. So damn unfair…

I'm about to say something else, but that's when we start to hear the shouting coming from behind us. Turning around, I immediately hiss for Jane to get on her stomach as we hide in the flowers; watching with anger as a group of bandits holds up our group at gunpoint.

Fucking typical.

"You folks are in the wrong neighbourhood," their leader smiles devilishly behind a red bandana and sunglasses. He reminds me a lot of those assholes at the motor-inn all that time ago. "You're in our house now, so I suggest you empty your pockets and give us your rations. You wouldn't want any blood to be spilled over something like this now, would y'all?"

"Hunters," Jane spits, glancing over to me as I look at her curiously. "Bryce was telling me about them – apparently they're organized groups of bandits or some shit."

"Organized?"

"They're smarter and more united than your average group of bandits," she explains, though not really believing it herself. These guys all look the same to me. "At least, that's what Bryce told me. Apparently his crew used to run with them out here."

Narrowing my eyes, I pull out my pistol and turn the safety off; ready to aim and fire at anyone that I can get at from here. I need to make this a clean shot.

"Is that so? Well, one thing's for sure – they'll bleed like everyone else," I snarl, closing one eye as I prepare to make the shot. It'll be difficult as hell from up here, and suddenly I really wish that I had my rifle with me.

Jane puts her hand over my arm and shakes her head before I can do anything.

"Can't risk it from here," she tells me, and reluctantly I agree with her. Even if I manage to kill one of these punks, it'll just reveal our position. Then it'll just turn into one massive slaughter fest, all because of one stupid mistake.

Stupid mistakes cost lives – lives can't be replaced.

"Let's just wait it out for a bit," she suggests, trying to be as still as possible. "We'll see where it goes from there."

"If you say so," I grunt, watching the exchange with an itchy trigger finger. Just give me an opening, dickheads…

There's at least eight of them from what I can see, but there could be a few more covered by the treeline and out of my field of vision. They've got Tommy, Derek, Lorna, Bryce and the rest all with their hands in the air in surrender, although Lorna seems really pissed about the whole thing. In this instance, I can't really say that I blame her.

"Nothing has to go down," Derek calmly says, trying to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand. "We don't want any trouble here."

"Well, you've got it anyways! Now don't make me repeat myself!" the man orders, pushing his pistol into Derek's chest threateningly.

It's never a good idea to play with fire, dude! Hasn't he learned that by now?

"…what if I made you an offer?"

"Derek, no," Lorna shakes her head, not liking the prospect of submitting to these goons. "Don't even think about it – not this time."

"This could be just the opportunity we need, Lor. For both parties, in fact."

Hmph, that's just a code word for "we don't have any other choice". Of course, though, the bandit's… or hunter's, I suppose, interest is piqued as he tilts his head to the side. I guess that not everyone's unreasonable.

"What kind of offer?" he asks, not taking his gun off of its target as he says this.

"I thought you'd be interested," Derek smiles, not fazed by the fact that he could die at any given moment. "We're heading to a safe zone out in the city – the Houston Space Center. Ever heard of it?"

The hardy chuckles from the hunter group tells me that they definitely have. They probably think it's as unrealistic as we do.

"The place is cursed – nobody can get in there. Those that do never return," he elaborates, making it sound like some kind of horror flick that I used to watch as a kid. I used to love the thrill that they'd bring, especially late at night. "You'd be wasting your time, friend. The city's a mess and the people left there are fucked in the head."

"So… is he talking about himself right now?" I whisper, causing Jane to snicker quietly as Derek shrugs his shoulders.

"We've heard that before," Derek acknowledges, showing that he's more of a diplomat than he lets on. I'm still surprised he hasn't gotten shot for even trying. "But that was with, what, a handful of people at a time? If we had a large enough fighting force, then we'd have much more of a fighting chance. We're going to take that place over, mark my words. So… are you in?"

"I'll consider it if you sweeten that deal," the man comments, getting a bunch of protests from his buddies. "What?! Do you wanna keep living out in the shits for the rest of your lives?! No? Then quit your bitching!"

Turning back to Derek with an annoyed look, the hunter gestures to the trucks in a business-like manner.

"Half your supplies go to us," he orders, making my blood boil as he continues to demand more. "If and when we take this place, my boys and I get first dibs on living quarters and supplies. You break any of this, we put your whole group in the dirt. Got that? We're in control now, motherfuckers, so get that shit through your head!"

"Got it. Done," Derek nods, slowly standing up to shake his hand. The rest of the hunters aim at Derek in case he tries to shoot the guy, but the man's a survivalist – he knows when to shoot and when not to shoot.

Knowing him, I'm almost completely positive that Derek's still in control. He's been in power from the very beginning.

Slowly coming out of our hiding spot, we ignore the obnoxious looks from our new "friends" as Tommy and Bryce join us back in the car.

"Drive nowhere but to Houston," the radio calls out as Jane grips the steering wheel firmly in her hands. Derek's no longer on the other end of the line. "We're watching you closely, Jane. Don't screw this up for the rest of your family."

…

Without a doubt, this might be the sketchiest-looking city I've ever been in. I'm sure it was much nicer before all hell broke loose, but now… Jesus. I can't imagine anyone actually choosing to live here.

The sign at the front that was supposed to make us feel welcome to this city was spray painted over in red. Now it simply reads "GET THE FUCK OUTTA OUR TOWN!", and it doesn't help that there was a dead guy propped up right beside it.

There are walkers literally everywhere. Not since Atlanta have I seen it as bad as this, but even then it's not on the same level. If I recall correctly, Houston was one of the biggest cities in all of America, so that explains quite a bit.

It doesn't help that there are now four vehicles (one from the hunter group) trying to plow their way through a walker-infested zone.

"This is one time where a cow catcher would really be helpful," Jane remarks bitterly, failing to hide her nerves as she cautiously drives ahead. "Damn it, Bryce! Are you sure this is the right way? We're infested over here!"

"Should be," he simply replies, causing the both of us to groan as Tommy locks his door. Realizing that that's probably a good idea, the rest of us do the same as the rotting faces of men, women and children stare at us hungrily.

I won't lie to you – this is really freaking me out.

"Don't panic – we'll be fine," Derek's muffled voice rings in, having gotten the radio back just a little while ago after much convincing. "Keep your wits about you, people. Jane, just keep pushing forward. The rest of you, don't fall behind."

"Easier said than done," I mumble, having half a mind to roll down the window and shoot one of these guys. "There's gotta be thousands of them out here."

The sky is nearly pitch black with none of the street lights working, so the only light source that we have are the front headlights. If they go out, we're screwed and will have to hold on until morning; defeating the whole purpose of getting here at this time in the first place. The whole point was to break in under the cover of darkness, take over the place and then… I don't really know.

There have been some doubts in my mind as to what this is going to entail.

"Anyone else feel… kinda shitty about this?" I ask, hearing Bryce snort at the irony of it all. Yeah, that might make me sound like a hypocrite, but it doesn't change things here. "I mean, what are we gonna do? Break into someone's fort and kick them out?"

"I'm pretty sure Lorna's got darker motives than just that," Tommy chips in, causing me to look back at him in surprise. Jane's too focused on her driving to pay the conversation much mind, but even she can agree that this sounds pretty bad.

The more that I think about it though, the more I realize exactly how much this happens. The prison, Houston Hills, the camp in Dallas, Howe's… now the space center. People have to pack up and move within a moment's notice all the time. It almost reminds me of barbarians coming to sack a village and pilfer them for gold, jewels and all that other shit that you heard about in the history text books.

Does it make it right that we're doing it now though? I'm not so sure.

"Looks like it's starting to clear up," Jane acknowledges, giving me some temporary relief as she speeds on down the street.

"Make a left up here," the hunter leader tells us, so Jane obliges as we go down a narrow street. You couldn't even open the doors out here it's so tiny, and to make matters worse there's (what else?) some walkers coming towards us.

"Shit," Jane hisses, realizing that there's no other way to go now. The trucks are coming in behind us and the massive herd is still out in the street a little ways back. "Hold on, everybody. This might get a little messy. Lilly, pull your gun out."

Doing as instructed, I rest my arm on the dashboard as she starts to rev the engine. I know exactly what she has in mind as she speeds forward; not bothering to slow down as we get closer and closer to the walkers.

Shooting through the front windshield, it takes two bullets for the first one to go down, but Jane has already ran the second one over before I could get a shot off.

"Wraaaaaggghhhh!" the thing snarls as it gets caught on the hood, slowly sliding off as it fails to keep its balance. I bounce around in my seat as the walker falls underneath the wheels; making me squeamish as I hear the crunch of its skull underneath the rubber.

It doesn't help when the body is run over three more times afterwards.

"God…" I close my eyes tightly, trying to prevent myself from hurling all over the dashboard. You'd think that after all of this time I'd be okay with that kind of stuff, but occasionally it still gets to me. "Please tell me we're almost there…"

"It's hard to tell," Jane squints, pointing up to a pretty tall building in the distance. "There, that big building with the glass windows. Is that a winner?"

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner," Bryce replies dryly, no doubt just wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. Quite frankly, so do I. "There should be a way to get across this."

"Across what?" Tommy asks, causing Bryce to just point out the front road onto the street. "What? The road? I don't see any of them creepy-crawlies out there, boy."

"Put your high beams on," Bryce comments, sighing as he rubs his forehead tenderly. "See for yourself."

Flipping the switch, Jane, Tommy and I all carefully step outside with our guns out; making sure that we didn't miss a walker lurking around. When the coast is clear, we all step forward to where Bryce had pointed to.

"Holy fucking shit," I remark, tossing a stone down into the massive hole in the ground. I don't hear a ting for about four seconds, not really telling me how deep it is exactly but giving me a bit of a guess at least. This is one damn big hole. "What do you think happened over here?"

Taking a knee, Tommy peers into the gaping monstrosity as he whistles in astonishment. This couldn't have been from a walker, which only leaves…

"I'm guessing that it got set off on purpose," he tells us, making me remember how he used to work in construction. "Support beams are built to resist almost anythin', and can last a long time after we're gone."

"How long exactly?" Jane questions as I notice all the rubble, debris and ruined vehicles crowding down below. Dust flies from the wreckage as I – wait, is that a bus?! Good god, I hope nobody was down there…

Scratching his chin thoughtfully, Tommy begins explaining stuff to Jane as I turn around to find the rest of our group waiting impatiently behind us – probably all eager to get into some real shelter for a change.

"Well? What's the hold-up here?" the hunter leader asks, as I still don't know what his actual name is. Derek steps out with Lorna as the rest of the group comes to check out what we've discovered.

As soon as they see the hole, everyone starts to panic a little bit.

"What in the actual fuck?!"

"How the hell are we gonna get across?!"

"This is bullshit! We've come so close!"

"We should've stayed in Dallas!"

"Everyone calm down," Derek soothes, trying to nurse a growing headache as he tries to figure out what we're gonna do. I'll be extremely pissed off if this is what keeps us from reaching our destination. "We'll figure this out – we've been through worse shit before. Just have a look around and search for something we can use."

"I say we just make a pile o' hunters and step on their corpses to get across…" Lorna mumbles, thankfully quiet enough for only Jane and I to hear. Looking over towards me, she ushers Jane and I to follow her under the excuse of checking out another area. Once we're out of earshot, she whispers to us urgently. "I ain't lettin' these boys tell me what to do! No way, no how! I say we send them out first; let 'em act like bullet sponges for the rest of us to break inside."

"Christ, Lorna! They're people too, you know!" Jane protests, giving her a sharp glare as I try my best to ignore her. Arguing too much with Lorna isn't healthy. "Not everyone's a psychopath like you!"

Chuckling humourlessly, Lorna fixes her jacket before turning back towards Jane; giving me a sharp look as well beforehand.

"You're one to talk about killin', ain't ya? Slaughtering those prisoners and taking back that house!" Lorna chastises, causing Jane to furrow her brow. "Face it, Janey-Jane-Jane, us three gals are the same. We get shit done out 'ere; we don't take shit, but we deal it out to those who get in our way. So don't stand there berating me for trying to do the hard thing! I ain't takin' orders from anyone, you hear me?!"

"Loud and clear," I snap icily, pointing back towards the rest of the group. "Now go – we've got work to do over here. I know fully well what you plan to do."

Oh, I know fully well. And I'm practically convinced that whatever she's planning to do will happen soon. I'm not being paranoid, I'm being realistic. All of the threats, the dirty looks and manipulation… it's all lead up to tonight. If she doesn't act soon, then all of that will have been nothing more than a charade. What better time to strike than during a struggle like the one we're undoubtedly about to have?

Without another word, Lorna casually walks with her hands in her pocket; feigning innocence as she walks over by Derek – probably the one person out of any of us that needs to watch out.

For his sake at least, he'd better start questioning her motives quickly.

"Found somethin'!" Tommy calls out, causing everyone to look as he returns with a long wooden board. "She should hold if we go one at a time, but it's just a matter of where to put it."

"This'll work," Derek nods, patting Tommy on the shoulder as they carry the board over to a smaller gap to the other side. The board doesn't look sturdy at all, but one by one everybody starts climbing to the other side.

The hunters are practically fuming.

"You're just gonna leave the trucks here?!" their leader exclaims, irate as the rest of us nod. We've forced Bryce to cross with us until we can be absolutely certain that this is the right place, much to his disdain. "You promised us half the supplies! That includes the trucks, asshole! Now get back over here before we resort to drastic measures!"

"Take your pick, sir – space center, or trucks," Derek reasons, weighing both options with his hands for added effect. "If I was in your shoes, I'd pick a potential shelter over sleeping in the car any day of the week. What's it gonna be?"

Growling under his breath, the man decides to cross the board along with the rest of his group… unfortunately losing one of the men as the board cracks underneath him. Looks as though it had to support too much weight.

"ARRGGGGHHH! Oh god, boss… Help me! Please!" the guy begs; both of his legs broken as he lays in a heap on top of a pickup truck.

Shaking his head in disgust, the leader simply tells us all to keep moving forward as his crony screams for him to come back.

That just left a horrible taste in my mouth – nobody even bothered to put the guy out of his misery.

…

Turns out that the building wasn't quite as far away as I had thought, as we're practically across the street now from the place. So this is the Houston Space Center… Clementine would've loved something like this…

I only wish that she could be here with us right now. You better be doing alright, kiddo.

"Make sure you're not out in the open," Derek advises, squeezing Lorna's hand in comfort as everyone prepares their weapons. Various rifles, machine guns and pistols of all shapes and sizes are out here in droves as the hunters get themselves prepared as well. "Once we're inside, we'll need to split up into groups. We go in hard and hit 'em by surprise, got it? No shooting unless they fire first – we want to take this place in good condition."

Taking one look at Lorna, I grow an uneasy feeling in my stomach. She's smirking, but I have no idea why. Yes, she's gonna try something, but what? If she wants to be a leader so badly, then why would she try hitting anyone? It's obvious that people will know her true intentions… or at least, Jane and I will…

Fuck.

"What the hell are we waiting for?" one of the hunters ask, looking eager to shoot something even though Derek specifically said not to. "Let's get in there! I'm getting hungry!"

"Easy, easy… Something doesn't feel right here," Derek shakes his head, peering ahead to look at the building across the road. "If this place is so dangerous, then where the hell are the patrols? There should be a guard or something around, right? Bryce, what do you know about this shit? Bryce?!"

Probably figuring that we'd forget about letting him go, Bryce sprints away and doesn't look back; making as much noise as he can to alert people of our position.

"God damn it…" Derek hisses, clenching a fist as he readies his rifle to charge into the building stealthily.

Figuring that this could end really badly, I grin slightly when I feel Jane's nervous hand grasp my own. We're gonna stick together like glue once we're inside; keep each other safe.

We're in this together until the end.

Meanwhile…

"…see them?"

"…yeah, we've got a runner," Clementine nods, looking out the scope of her rifle as she scans the street. "Bo, there's a lot of them. Do you think they're all bandits?"

Squinting his eyes to see as he adjusts his scope a little bit, Bo hesitates for a moment before answering. There's no real way to be sure, and he doesn't want to scare the kid at all, but he's been pretty straight with her up until this point. No sense in taking a chance.

And with such a big group, they're bound to be more than a handful of trouble. These guys look as though they mean business.

"They've got guns – every one of 'em," Bo acknowledges, sighing as he nods his head. "They've got to be bandits, Clem. Are you gonna take the runner, or should I?"

"No," she shakes her head, closing one eye as she lines up the shot. "Anyone else comes forward, you've got them. But that one's mine…"

Taking a deep breath, Clementine steadies herself before squeezing the trigger and shooting the guy – dead.

That sets off a stampede unlike anything she's ever seen.