AN: Just a couple things before we get started here. First off – holy shit, 15 reviews for one chapter?! Man, thank you guys so much! That's cray-cray! :D

And second off, in case people were still wondering, yes, the St. John's are good guys in this story – weird, I know. Rebloxic and I just wanted to go more into detail about the farm, get in some much-needed character development and whatnot.

Anyway, that's it. Enjoy!

The first thing that Lilly does as she awakens is violently cough and woozily open her eyes as the world slowly comes back to her. The whole room is spinning, which is never a good sign in and of itself, but at least she's not getting burned alive anymore…

Wait… she's not getting burned? How is that possible?

Rolling onto her side, Lilly winces as she lands on a sore spot that she didn't realize she had. Figuring that she must've hit her rib cage somehow, the hard-nosed woman tries to shake off the pain as she pats down onto her pockets.

"…what?" she says to herself, urgently checking around and panicking when she comes up empty. All of that medicine that she had before she passed out? Gone; completely barren and empty.

"Fuck…" she whispers, standing up slowly as to not disturb the injury any further. Deciding that freaking out is only going to make things exponentially worse, Lilly takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a second. In… and out. In and… out. Those therapy sessions that she had been forced into by her boss must not have been total bogus after all.

Why was she forced to go to therapy? Ha, take a wild guess!

Glancing around the dimly-lit room, Lilly decides to retrace her steps. Let's see… got attacked by the helicopter… chopper crashed into the building… building went up in flames… couldn't find –

"Carley?!" she calls out, not seeing her companion anywhere in this dark, dreary box that she's in. Is this still the pharmacy? No, it couldn't be… there aren't any shelves around, and she would've been able to smell the embers by now.

Suddenly, her ears perk up to the sound of some muffled noises coming from the outside. Making her way over to a little door, she tries her hand at unlocking it, but the handle simply spins in a circle and is completely useless to her.

"Hold on a sec… it only works from my side for some reason…" a new muffled voice calls to her from the other side of the door. Lilly, fearing the worst, narrows her gaze as she waits behind the door; fist raised in preparation. They won't take her alive!

As the person shimmies around with the door for a couple of seconds, it's suddenly opened by a rather short, Persian man with short hair and thin facial hair.

Lilly immediately punches the man square in the nose and hears it crack as her knuckle connects.

"OW! SHIT! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" he swears, quickly backing up as he holds his nose tenderly with both hands. "Are you fucking insane?! I think I'm bleeding now! God damn it that smarts!"

Stepping out into the sunlight, Lilly tries to get her bearings and demand where Carley and the meds are, but all of a sudden this other tall woman appears at his side and holds a gun straight at her head.

Lilly, seeing as though she doesn't have a weapon of her own, reluctantly raises her hands in surrender.

"On your knees! Now!" the woman demands and Lilly obliges as she slowly does what she's told. "Hands behind your head! No sudden moves or I'm pulling the trigger!"

"Ugh… you couldn't have done it a little earlier?" the shorter man jokes, wincing as he tries to wipe the blood that's rolling down to his chin. "Oww… Man, you punch hard, you know that? What did I ever do to you?"

Great, Lilly thinks to herself bitterly, I'm surrounded with no way out. Awesome planning skills, Lilly…

Showing her distaste for her captive, the tall woman shakes her head before trying to tend to the Persian man at the same time. "You alright, Omid?" she asks, glaring angrily at Lilly as she simply blows out a raspberry and sits there. Maybe these people aren't as bad as she had thought.

Chuckling, Omid shrugs his shoulders as he softly rubs the tender spot on his nose. "Despite probably having no cartilage left there, yeah, I'll be alright. I was getting bored of my old look anyways."

"Can I say something?" Lilly tries, but getting cut off as the tall, angry woman aims her weapon even more menacingly.

"You're lucky I didn't just shoot you right away! What the hell were you thinking?!" she demands, interrupting Lilly as she tries to explain herself. "Actually, you know what? No – I don't even care, you little ungrateful shit! We saved both of your asses from a burning building, and your thanks is to punch my boyfriend in the face?!"

"CHRISTA STOP!"

Looking up, Lilly sighs in relief as she sees Carley limping over towards them; a look of warning on her face as she shakes her head. It seems that the help has finally arrived.

"She's with me," Carley explains more calmly, earning the stink eye from Omid's girlfriend. "Put the gun down, Christa. Lilly's friendly… well, kind of. She's on our side, is what I really mean."

Miss Caul manages to relax and slowly stand up when Christa reluctantly puts her pistol back into her pocket, but the woman looks less than pleased about the whole thing. Lilly can't really blame her, but she had her reasons.

Noticing that Omid's slightly hunched over and groveling in slight pain, Carley looks pointedly over at her comrade; knowing fully well that this was her doing. "Why? Just… why?"

"They trapped me in there!" Lilly excuses herself, pointing back towards a tiny shed that's barely got enough room to fit a car inside of it. "What was I supposed to do, Carley?! They could've been holding me for ransom for all I knew!"

"We saved your lives!" Christa reiterates, getting annoyed at her behaviour. "You wouldn't wake up no matter what we tried, so we kept you in there until you'd come out of it."

"Or if you turned and tried to eat us," Omid points out, causing Christa to roll her eyes and laugh bitterly.

"Yes, Omid – or if she turned and tried to eat us," she repeats, wanting to smack him but figuring that he's in enough pain as it is already. "You can always look on the bright side of things, can't you?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood a little, that's all."

Seeing that no harm's going to come her way by these two clowns, Lilly puts her hands in her pockets before turning to Carley with curiosity. "How'd you get out? I couldn't find you anywhere in the drug store."

Glancing over at the couple, Carley nods her head in appreciation. It looks as though they weren't lying after all, but Lilly's still and always has been weary of newcomers.

Out here, new people (or just people in general) can be even more deadly and dangerous than the walkers.

"Sooooo… what were you guys planning on doing?" Carley asks, flashing Omid an apologetic smile. "Did you have anywhere to go? Because we could always – "

"Carley…" Lilly interrupts firmly, folding her arms as she eyes the couple wearily. "The drugs I was carrying when you found me – where are they?"

Scoffing, Christa steps in before either Carley or Omid get a chance to do so. "They're with us, where they belong. And rightly so," she states, making Lilly's blood boil as she clenches her fists tightly. "We risked our own hides to save you, so it's only fair that we get the medicine. We need that stuff."

Stepping forward with a pissed off look on her face, Lilly gets all up in Christa's grill as Carley tries to break them up. The reporter tries to hold Lilly back as much as she can, but she's a lot tougher and stronger than she is, so Lilly practically swats her away.

"You stole them from us!" Lilly barks, sneakily snatching her rifle off of Carley's back and clutching it in her hands. "Our group needs those drugs to survive! My Dad's heart medication is in there, plus a few morphine packs! Our people are suffering, and you're just gonna take that shit away?!"

"We're all suffering!" Christa retorts, not liking this lady's attitude towards her and Omid. "Don't act like you're the only ones who've gotten the short straw – everybody's been dealt a shitty hand! We need this just as much as you do, so don't start…"

"Babe," Omid says calmly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder that immediately annoys the living hell out of her. "These guys could be just what we need… we can't do this on our own forever, you know that… Maybe we should give them back."

Christa, unable to believe what she's hearing, turns towards her boyfriend with shock written all over her face. "So let me get this straight," she says, gesturing to his bloodied nose, "we drag them out of the pharmacy, keep them alive, get punched in the face, and now you're saying that we should be nice to them? That's your answer for all this?!"

As the birds chirp overhead on this early morning, Omid shrugs as he feels the warm rays of sunlight heating the back of his noggin. Despite getting hit so violently, Omid knows fully well that there have been way too many close calls for them recently – he's certain that Christa knows this as well.

And if the weird cravings and irrational mood swings have been any indication, then they'd need a place to stay in order for…

"How's about this?" Carley proposes, letting go as Lilly's arms slump to her sides. "You two can come back with us – we're staying at a farm a few miles from here, and I'm sure a couple extra bodies won't hurt. We've got food and shelter, which is pretty much a miracle around this place. In exchange, we get the drugs for our group. What do you say?"

Mulling it over, Christa closes her eyes before coming to a solid conclusion. "We'll give you most of it," she says, choosing to keep some of the bandages and pain medication while handing over the rest of the bag. "Everything else is yours. If we don't like what we see, then we're walking away. Alone."

Strapping the bag around her shoulders, Lilly huffs in annoyance before slowly taking off down the road; the rest following in behind as Carley catches up to her friend.

Once she realizes that they're a decent distance away from Omid and Christa, and are more or less alone, Lilly decides to have a little chat with Carley; all the while shooting down a walker like it's her day job.

"I can't believe you agreed to that…" Lilly mentions, making sure that the noise didn't attract any other walkers around them. When she sees that it's clear, Lilly slides the gun back over her shoulders while keeping a close eye on the two newcomers. "We don't need them here! We've got enough problems with our own group as it is – you think adding two new assholes into the mix is a good idea?"

"You need to start trusting people more – they're gonna be good to have around. As far as I'm concerned, we could use a couple of fresh faces," Carley states her opinion as they start back up the hill out of the town. "Trust me, I've got a good feeling about this one."

"That's what you told me about Ben and that dead guy they brought in, and look at what happened – the guy came back to life and tried to bite Katjaa," she points out, wearing an all too familiar scowl as she shakes her head. "And what a waste of fucking space Ben's turned out to be. I'd rather have Duck on watch than that blithering idiot."

"…you don't really mean that, do you?"

"…no. Together I think they've got the combined brain power of a sloth."

Chuckling, Carley tries to come back with something about them just being kids and all, but even she has to admit that Lilly's got a bit of a point. "Well, it'll be different this time," Carley promises, although that doesn't really sell her case very well. "Just give them a chance, maybe you'll surprise yourself."

Looking over her shoulder to see Omid desperately trying to remove some gunk from his eyelid, Lilly sighs deeply and shakes her head.

"I highly doubt that I will," Lilly declines; so sick of being surrounded by idiots that don't have a clue what they're doing.

…

Omid, for his part, seems pretty pumped that there's actually a group out here that's not completely crazy for a change. Although he finds Lilly to be more than a little rough around the edges, Carley seemed friendly enough, and she's practically assured them that this new group will welcome them with open arms.

Honestly though, he'd probably end up saying yes to anyone who'd offer them a nice, dry roof over their head for a change. There's only so much camping that you can do before you've decided that enough is enough.

The man's had a lot on his mind lately, mainly consisting of making sure Christa's health is in tip-top shape while also maintaining himself for the joy that he's going to receive sometime soon. A baby… wow. He could hardly believe the news that Christa broke to him a little while back, but now that the day is coming sooner?

It's literally freaking the poor guy out to no end.

Omid doesn't know the first thing about being a dad, and to do it in these conditions?! How is he supposed to help raise a child in the middle of the apocalypse? It's never been done before… well, at least to his knowledge. The guy's pretty sure that walkers haven't been around throughout history before, but who knows? Maybe they just weren't talked about before!

Or even better – maybe they're the ones that killed off the dinosaurs! Can you imagine getting chased by an undead tyrannosaurus rex?! Just thinking about that makes Omid chuckle in childish wonder.

"Are you sure about this?" Christa suddenly asks him, bringing the guy out of La-La-land. "Omid, we were doing fine on our own!"

"You call getting chased out of a motor-inn by a pack of wild lunatics doing fine?" Omid questions, getting the shivers just thinking about it. That place was nice beforehand - nobody around, a big parking lot with a whole bunch of rooms to explore, couches sitting out in the open, and a big, old RV in case they ever wanted to go cruising.

But all that changed last night when they were forcefully removed from the one stroke of luck that they had in a long while. Bandits had come bursting from the forest and invaded the Travelier Motel. He and Christa barely made it out of their with their heads still attached to their shoulders.

Sighing, Christa stays silent and decides to follow Omid's judgement. He might not be right about everything, but he's at least right about some things – and something is better than nothing!

Besides, it's not like they've got much of a choice now, anyways.

"It's good to interact with the locals, you know? Get a lay of the land," Omid starts, causing Christa to groan in annoyance. She knows it's coming – one of Omid's famous historical rants. "You know, back in the day, the area surrounding this town used to be nothing but farms, trees and – "

"Omid," Christa interjects, trying to sound as kind as possible, "just… shut up, sweetie. We need to focus out here. Never know what might be creepin' up on you."

Putting his hands in his pockets, Omid kicks over a stone with a sigh. He knows that she's probably right – after all, they barely know this place, being from San Francisco and all. Life was so much more relaxing back home in California, and Omid misses it dearly. They lived in a one bedroom apartment which wasn't the biggest in the world, but the view of the water and the Golden Gate Bridge more than made up for it.

It's a damn shame that their cat couldn't –

"Oh shit…" Omid gasps, putting his hand over his mouth as Christa looks over with concern. Carley and Lilly stop on the path and ask what the holdup's for. "Nothing, nothing! Don't worry about it! It's just… fuck, I totally forgot that Jamal was still in the room when we left…"

"Jamal?" Lilly questions, scratching her head in confusion. "Who's Jamal? Is he, like, your son or something?"

"Jamal's the cat," Christa chuckles slightly, embarrassed that this was even brought up. "We're actually from San Francisco – Omid wanted the Great American Road Trip, but of course I wouldn't let him bring the cat with us."

Looking at each other in silence for a moment, Carley and Lilly suddenly burst out laughing before turning around and shaking their heads; heading down the pathway as Omid turns a small shade of red.

"Great… now they think we're a couple of crack heads," Christa complains, rubbing her eyes tiredly as Omid shrugs his shoulders.

"Hey, look on the bright side," he suggests, trying to make light of nearly every situation he comes across. "At least we don't have to feed him anymore."

"Just shut up, Omid."

"Yes ma'am."

…

"Please…" Christa wheezes, having just spent a long time wandering around with no rest beforehand, "tell me… we're here already…"

"Yep, home sweet home," Carley announces, getting a look of relief from the newcomer.

As the four of them wander down the long driveway that leads up to the St. John's farm… Lilly feels kind of… kind of odd. Why does it smell like absolute shit around here? That can't be from cow manure or anything, since as far as she knows there was only one cow on the property.

No, this is different. It almost smells like… rotten, decaying bodies or some nasty shit like that. A bunch of the fences are bent over and not turned on, and it's difficult to tell, but a bunch of the barn looks like it's been ransacked by a bear.

Or, you know, a bunch of walkers, as the four of them notice at least a dozen of them all sitting in a smoking dogpile nearby. That's what that smell was – burning dead guys.

"Ugh… disgusting…" Carley remarks, scrunching up her nose as she looks upon the bodies. The walkers have all been put down, thankfully, but that's not exactly a welcome sight for people coming up the drive.

Especially when you're trying to convince two new people to join up with you.

"Are you fucking serious?" Christa deadpans, clearly not expecting to see something like this. "Why would you people keep the dead ones around like that?! Didn't you say you had kids around somewhere?!"

"Holy shit, you guys have kids?!" Omid interjects a little too excitedly. This rubs Lilly the wrong way, and the Persian man quickly retraces his steps and holds his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, I didn't mean it like that! I just meant that… well, shit! It's been ages since we've seen another kid around! Most of them are… well, you know."

Turning back around, Carley and Lilly are about to go inspect the pile for themselves, when all of a sudden Clementine spots them and comes rushing out the door; tears in her eyes as she runs straight towards Lilly.

Concerned, the woman widens her eyes as Clem comes barreling towards her; pressing her hands firmly against Lilly's stomach.

"Hey, now… Clem, what's the matter, kiddo?" she asks softly, always having had a soft spot for the girl. "What, did Duck finally catch you for putting bugs under his pillow?"

"Don't come in!" Clementine wails, shoving against her stomach with all of her might. Carley bends down to see what the problem is, but the young girl just shakes her head and can barely get the words out. "Just… don't! I…I don't want you to be mad!"

As Lilly meets the child's sobbing gaze, something tells the bossy lady that something's definitely not right around here. First off, why is she the only one out here? And second, why is Clem acting so upset about… something that she doesn't want Lilly to see?

A biting hunch gnaws away in the pit of her stomach, and suddenly Lilly starts to get scared; VERY scared, and so she tries to brush past Clementine towards the house.

"NOOOO!" she protests, trying to block her way to the house. Lilly, in response, simply picks the girl up by the stomach with indignity and hands her off to Carley; who's fighting to keep her calmed down. "NO, STOP! DON'T GO! PLEASE!"

"Easy, Clem, easy," Carley soothes, rubbing the poor kid's back as she sobs into her shirt. "Clementine, you've gotta tell us – what's going on? What happened here?"

Having given up on preventing Lilly from getting inside, the girl sniffles as the older woman slams the door wide open and rushes forwards. "It's… h-her… we couldn't save…. him…"

And all at once, everything clicks as Carley widens her eyes.

"Oh my god…" she exhales, as Katjaa steps out from the front steps with concern.

….

Completely frantic, Lilly runs up the stairs to try and find any sign of the man she cares about more than anything in this entire world.

"DAD?!" she bellows up the steps, opening one door as she sees Mark sprawled out on the bed. Ignoring him for now, she goes to all of the other rooms on the top floor as her breathing starts to get a little bit heavy.

Why wouldn't he be the first one to come see her?!

Sprinting down the stairs past Katjaa, Carley, Omid, Christa and a frightened Clementine, Lilly turns her head this way and that; checking the living room, the kitchen, the dining room – hell, even the bathroom. Everything's empty.

That only leaves one other place to check.

"Lilly, you need to calm down and think about this…" Katjaa tries her luck, still shaken up over her near-death experience last night. "We… we can just talk about this, alright? There's no need to go scaring the kids…"

"DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK?!" she yells, her eyes growing wide and bloodshot as she slowly starts to put the pieces together. Seeing that there isn't anywhere else in the house that he could be, Lilly opens up the back door…

…and immediately collapses on the back steps.

"…Dad?" she whispers meekly, tears of rage and complete grief coming to her eyes as she gazes upon the small crowd gathered out back. Ben's jacket hangs loosely on a picket fence nearby, but all Lilly can focus on right now is the group at hand.

Kenny's got a protective arm around his son, the St. John's are all standing there awkwardly as they see Lilly approach… and Lee has a shovel in his hands; scooping up dirt.

Once he sees the look on her face, he knows that they fucked up.

"…Lilly, I…"

"NOOOoooOOOoOOooO!" Lilly screams out incoherently; her entire world shattering around her as she sees the still chest of her dad from his spot in the hole. Larry, her father, is dead as a doorknob.

And she… she didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.

"Oh my god… oh my god…" she repeats, holding herself against the wooden frame of the house as her breathing becomes erratic. Her chest heaves up and down as she stares at the small dirt pile next to where Lee is right now, and all she can think of is… why?

When Lee takes one step forward to try and explain things, Lilly slams her fist violently against the side of the house; not caring that she's cut her hand open and left a small thing of blood on the wooden surface. Running around the side of the house and out into an open field of dying wheat and vegetables, Lilly couldn't care if every walker in the state heard her and came to get her.

At this point in her mind, getting killed would probably be a blessing.

"Why? Oh god… Damn it, WHY?!" she yells at the top of her lungs, tripping over an exposed root and laying in the dirt.

This just might be the thing that breaks her.

AN: So… it was close, but Katjaa won by a tiny margin. I know that was a shitty explanation of how he died, but don't worry – we're covering that in the next chapter. We wanted it to be a sort of surprise at the end, you know?

No worries – we want to flesh this out as much as we can. Anyways, next chapter will be coming soon!