Chapter 15: Loss of a Friend, and Gaining a New One

Anne had her arms wrapped around me as I started crying while the two of us, Verity, and Clem walked downstairs.

Reggie was… Carver had murdered him. And there was nothing I could do.

I looked at Anne. "What are we gonna tell Tess, Em, and Bec, baby?" I asked through sobs.

She started rubbing my back. "Shh. Shh. I'm here, baby. We'll be okay." She assured me.

We soon saw Bonnie, Emily, and Patrick were standing there with a woman with short brown hair holding buckets filled with nails and bolts. Anne and I recognized her as Shel, another of the guards of this hellhole Carver calls a community. She was also Becca's older sister.

Bonnie looked over her shoulder and noticed us.

"Oh, hey." She greeted as she stood up. Shel noticed us. "Chris and Anne? Haven't seen you two in a long time." She mused as she smiled.

"Yep." We said at the same time.

They handed us the three buckets. "So, they want you to guys to run some supplies out to the guys workin' on the expansion. Real simple, just take these over to 'em." Bonnie explained.

Emily smiled. "Those jackets look good on you guys." She commented. Bonnie smiled and crossed her arms. "I don't know what Tavia's talkin' about…" She said.

Clem looked down. Bonnie noticed and her smile faded. "What's wrong, guys?" She asked.

We were silent for a minute. "You guys look like you've seen a ghost." Shel said. I ran into Emily's arms.

"R-Reggie's dead, Emmy." I said tearfully. All four of them widened their eyes. "What? What are you talking about, man?" Patrick asked me.

"How? Was he-?" Emily asked.

"Murdered. By Carver." I replied.

"Maybe it was an accident." Patrick said, making Verity shake her head.

"It wasn't an accident. It was straight up murder." She said.

Emily joined me in crying. We then walked away.

Anne's POV

As Chris and Emily walked away, I felt terrible for the two of them. Reggie was dead. I figured out they were going to find Tess to break the news to her.

"Listen to me, girls. Just take this stuff over there and come back." Bonnie said quickly. "Just… be safe, OK? Now ain't the time to be callin' attention to yourselves."

"I've got to go find out what happened." Shel said.

"I'll go see if I can give Chris and Emily some comfort." Patrick said. I assumed he wanted to offer his condolences to Chris in order to earn his friendship.

Bonnie walked over to a door and opened it. Verity, Clem, and I stepped out the door, and we were outside. "Hey, Troy! Verity, Anne, and Clem's just gonna take some nails down to them boys!" She called up to Troy, who stood on the roof.

"Alright!" He called down. Bonnie then looked at us. "I'm gonna go try and find Chris and Emily. Go on." She whispered, then shut the door. I heard Verity gasp and looked over my shoulder. Reggie's corpse was just inches away from us.

I finally turned away, unable to take the sight. Verity gagged, which told me she wasn't used to seeing a corpse.

"Hey! That ain't your concern!" Troy snapped at us. "Get that stuff to them boys! Just follow the cables."

Like hell it's none of our concern! Reggie was my friend!

Growling under my breath, we followed the cables. We stopped and looked at a makeshift wall, which had walkers pounding on the other side.

"I'm not comfortable being so close to those things." Verity admitted.

"Nobody is…" I told her before we stepped into an abandoned store.

"I ain't nobody's laborer! Fuck that!"

Now what?

"Boys, please." A female voice spoke up.

I turned my head to see my mom trying to separate Kenny and Mike, the guy from last night.

"No, Evonne! Let 'em do this shit themselves if it's so goddamn important!" Kenny barked as he held Mike against the wall.

"Get your fuckin' hands off me!" Mike snapped.

"You ain't gonna force me to do this bullshit!" Kenny growled.

"I said get your hands off of me!" Mike repeated.

"Or what? You gonna tell on me?"

"I'm trying to help you, asshole."

"Boys, please stop." My mom pleaded.

We dropped our stuff and ran to them. "Hey, you two! Knock it off!" Verity snapped. I looked at my mom. "Mom, what's going on here?!" I asked. "Why are you guys fighting?!" Clementine asked.

"This sonuvabitch keeps testing me!" Kenny replied.

"Hey, I just want to get this work done!" Mike shot back.

"We all do, Mike. But we can do it without being at each other's throats." Mom said.

Suddenly, a board blocking the window slid down because of the fight, revealing walkers pounding on the glass.

Aw shit…

The walkers pounded on the glass one more time, and the window shattered, and the walkers started pouring in.

"OH SHIT!" Verity shouted as we all backed away from the window. "Grab something!" Kenny yelled as he grabbed two hammers and handed one to my mom. Clem grabbed a plank of wood, but I looked away when I saw two walkers coming for me and Verity. I looked at her and smirked.

"How about we show these two lame-brains some girl power?" I asked, and she smirked. "I'm on board." She said, then grabbed a crowbar while I grabbed a screwdriver.

"Okay, Anne. I'll take the one on the left! You take the one of the right!" She said, and I nodded.

She swung the blunt end of the crowbar at her target, while I moved to the left and then stabbed the walker in the head. I then looked at Verity to see her swing twice at her walker. On the third swing, the walker died.

I turned my head to the right and saw a third walker coming towards me.

SHIT!

I picked up a hammer and slammed the claw end into the walker's head. I slammed it into its skull again and then it died.

WAY too close.

"Where's Clementine?" Kenny asked as my mom killed the last walker in the room.

All of a sudden, Troy stepped out of the back room with Clementine behind him. "Making me save your ass…" He grumbled.

Kenny sighed with relief. "Oh, thank God you're okay!"

Troy rolled his eyes. "Alright, enough mushy shit! You get back inside right fuckin' now! I'm sure they've got shit for you to do." He snapped at Verity, Clementine, and I. "Now! You think I'm fucking around?! Now I gotta sit here and babysit you assholes! Can't do a simple fuckin' patch job without me crackin' the whip?!"

I glared at him as Verity and I stepped out first.

"Man, I hate that prick so much..." Verity muttered.

"You and me both..."

She looked at me and smirked. "I gotta say… you handled those walkers pretty damn good."

"… You weren't too bad yourself."

Verity and I walked down a hall, with her telling me she'd ask Patrick if he would like to go out with her, when someone drew our attention.

"ANNE!"

I turned around and saw Chris, Emily, and Tess running to us.

"I heard what happened to Reggie. How did it happen? Is he-?" Tess asked.

"Murdered. By Carver. He pushed Reggie off the roof." I replied.

"Oh my God…" She said, then embraced me.

I rubbed her back soothingly and closed my eye sadly. Reggie was good friends with Chris, Tess, and Emily.

Tess pulled away from me and sniffled. "C-Come on… we have to get back to the yard..."

I sighed and nodded before the five of us walked back to the yard, with me holding Chris's hand.

We sat around the campfire as we ate our dinner.

"So, he just pushed him off the roof?!" Chase asked.

Chris took a bite of beans and nodded sadly. "That fuckin' monster…" Chase growled.

Chris looked at Tess and Emily. "I tried all I could to stop him, Tessie." He said, earning a nod from Tess.

"I know you did, little bro." She said.

Bec shed a few tears, hearing that Reggie was dead.

I closed my eye. I'd never hear him call me 'Raggedy Anne' again.

"He was the one who started calling me 'Raggedy Anne'…" I muttered. "I miss him already…"

Chris placed his hand on my shoulder and I rested my head on his shoulder.

We were silent for a few minutes. After that, Chris, Tess, and Emily walked to a corner, while my mom saw my guitar.

"I didn't know you could play, baby." She said and I blushed.

"Y-Yeah, I can." I admitted.

"Why don't you let us hear something?" Sarah asked.

I nodded, placed my guitar on my lap, closed my eye and strummed my guitar and started singing Don't You Worry Child.

Chris's POV

As Anne was singing, Tess, Emily, and I did a little reconnecting.

I sighed. "You guys remember that camping trip Dad took us on?" I asked.

They nodded. "Yeah." Tess said.

"I remember you caught my fish." Emily said, and I looked at her.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault you thought the salmon was on your line." I defended.

"I also remember we got a little booze in us." Tess said.

I nodded. "Yeah. One of the few times he was okay with us drinking." I said.

Suddenly, everyone gathered back by the campfire, making us walk over to them.

Anne saw us coming and ushered me to sit beside her.

"What's going on, y'all?" I asked.

"Kenny's proposing we make a lotta sound to draw that herd to us and use it to escape." Evonne replied.

Tess, Emily, and I went wide eyed. "Another suicidal plan?" I asked.

"Look, we all know what happened this morning! I don't know what that sonuvabitch is gonna do next!" Kenny said.

I gritted my teeth. He'll die before he can do what he's gonna do next!

Anne sensed my anger building and put an arm around my shoulder, calming me down.

"So you wanna ring the dinner bell for a herd of walkers to show up? How good is that?" Mike asked.

"I'm with Mike on this one, y'all." Jennifer said, voicing my thoughts.

Chase nodded. "Kenny, I gotta say that that is the worst plan I've ever heard of…"

"This place'll be chaos when that thing hits! No one will be paying attention to us. And that's when we go. That's our opening! We just gotta figure out a way to draw 'em to us." Kenny said as Clem sat down. Bec looked at her. "Your friend here wants to get us killed by a herd of lurkers before Bill can do it." She sighed. Kenny frowned and looked at her. "What is it with you?"

"That's what it sounds like to me." She shrugged.

"You know that's not what he's saying, but… it does sound dangerous." Sarita said.

"This shit is all dangerous!" Kenny snapped.

"Kenny! Do not speak to me like that." Sarita scolded.

"Sorry…"

"Maybe Luke could help us." Clem chimed in. "He's outside. He wants a remote to help keep an eye on the guards."

I nodded. "I'm with that plan."

Clementine rose an eyebrow. "You guys know about Luke?"

Anne nodded. "Yeah. He flagged us down not too long ago and told us his plan. He mentioned he talked to you." She confirmed.

"If Luke can tell us what's going on with the guards, we can use that as a good time to escape." Verity said. "That sounds reasonable." Sarita agreed.

"Who know when that'll be." Kenny sighed. "There was a girl back at Crawford that used bells to send walkers all over the city. We just need something really loud." He said.

"Well, the PA system that Dad uses is pretty loud." I pointed out.

"There's some speakers outside the building… pointed towards the parking lot." Mike explained. "I saw 'em when we were walking out to the work. Troy's always standing next one of them. There are a few of 'em on the roof."

I nodded in agreement. "Tess, Emily, and I noticed them every time we came back from a supply run." I pointed out, looking at my half-sisters to see them nod.

"I saw the controls… they're in Carver's office." Clementine explained.

"She's right." Emily muttered.

"It's all controlled from Bill's office. There's a switch that'll turn it on." Bec explained.

"How do you know that?" Rebecce asked.

I sighed. "Bec and Tess used to help make announcements back then." I explained, earning a nod from Tess. "I had it flipped on once… luckily there wasn't much around at the time to hear it, but it was plenty loud though…" Bec remembered.

Kenny smiled. "That's perfect! We just gotta get into his office! Why didn't you say something like that sooner?"

"Cause it doesn't change anything. This ain't a discussion about how to do it, it's a discussion about whether it's stupid. And it's still stupid. The best thing to do is get Luke the radio and wait for an opening." I said.

Kenny looked at me and sighed. "You're real difficult to deal with sometimes…"

"Kenny…" Sarita said.

I shook my head. "No, that's alright, you ain't exactly a peach either."

"Luke's in no shape to help us. You wanna put our faith in THAT guy's hands? It's not happening."

Anne leaned towards my ear. "Luke DID look tired last time we saw him." She whispered.

"We should get Luke a radio." Clementine said. "If we do, he can tell us what's going on and find us a way to get out."

"OK, I can go with that." Kenny agreed. "So we get that turd a radio, he keeps us posted on the walkers and the guards. We fire up the PA thing and bring the walkers to roll over this place." He planned.

"And then what? What do you plan to do next?" Anne asked, voicing my thoughts.

"Get some guns and shoot our way out. I don't know, whatever we can! We improvise." Kenny told her.

"That's not a plan." Mike disagreed, earning a nod from me. "Mike's right. You don't plan to improvise." I said.

Bec looked at Kenny. "I've figured out what your problem is. You don't think stuff through. If the end of the plan is just to stroll through a herd of walkers, then you should know from the jump that there's no way it's gonna work."

"Actually…" A woman piped up, more specifically, the woman from earlier. She then started walking towards us. "I do it all the time."

I looked at her shocked. How in God's name is this chick still alive?!

"Now that is fucked up." Anne said.

Mike and I nodded in agreement. "First words I ever hear you say, and it's some crazy stupid shit." Mike said.

"Hush." Sarita whispered before she looked back up at the girl. "What do you mean exactly?"

"When you cover yourself in their smell… rub the walker guts all over you… they can't tell you apart from one of them." The girl explained. We all went wide eyed at this news.

"I don't know who's crazier now... you, or my twerp of a half-brother, who decimates herds of walkers to calm down." Tess said. I glared at her. "You, Anne, and Emily know I have a bad temper." I reminded her.

"Trust me, I've walked through herds before. It works. You just have to stay calm and make sure your good and covered." The girl said.

"How the hell do you stay calm when there's a herd of walking corpses around you that want to eat your flesh?!" Anne asked. "I'm with my girlfriend on that." I said.

"You seem to know what you're talking about…" Sarita observed.

"Lee figured that out." Clem chimed in.

I rose an eyebrow. Wasn't Lee the guy that looked after Clem when hell broke loose?

"What?" Kenny gasped.

"What do you mean, Clementine?" I asked curiously.

"It's how we got out of the Marsh House after he saved me. Lee covered me and we walked right through the herd." She said.

"Holy shit. Good one, Lee…" Kenny said with a smile.

"He must've been one smart guy." Anne said. Clem smiled slightly and nodded. "He was…"

Kenny stood up. "Alright! What're we waiting for? Let's get that stupid radio!"

"We still need a way to get into the stock room." Bec pointed out.

The girl nodded. "I got a plan for that, too. Come on, kid. Gonna need your help. You too, Sunglasses. And while we're at it, Bandana can help as well." She said as she walked past us. Kenny looked at the group. "Where the hell'd she come from?" He asked.

I growled at the nickname she gave me. I looked at Anne and saw her frown slightly.

"We have names, you know…" She grumbled.

The girl smirked. "Oh yeah? What are they?"

"Anne." She replied. "And this is my boyfriend, Chris." I nodded.

The girl smirked again and nodded. "Jane." She replied as the four of us reached the wall and looked up at the winch. "We just need to use the winch… they can just climb up from there. Then just drop into one of the skylights over the stockroom." Jane told us as she turned to me, Anne, and Clem. "There are shelves and stuff for you to land on, so… you probably won't fall to your death." She shrugged as the others approached.

"Great…" Clem said flatly.

Bec looked up at the winch. "That thing breaks all the time. Unless something's changed, it won't support much weight, let alone the weight of three people." She told us.

"Come on. Up and at 'em." Kenny said to Clem.

"Don't push them, Kenny…" Sarita warned.

"Thank you, Sarita." I said, seeing as I remembered I was a little scared of heights.

"They're our best bet. I mean that, you three." He told us.

I sighed and nodded. Anne nodded as well.

"Now or never, I guess." Clem said.

Kenny smiled. "That's my girl."

Verity stepped over to me. "Chris, please. Let Chase, Dylan, or Patrick do it. I don't want you to get hurt." She told me. I then remembered she always was worried about me.

"I'll be fine, Ver. Besides, Anne and I know the exact same skylight that leads to the stockroom. And we know how to be cunning." I reminded her. She just nodded. "O-OK… just be careful." She told me.

"I thought you two said you hated heights…?" Tess brought up. I glared at her while Anne looked at the winch. "It's not that high up…" She said slowly, then looked at her. "Watch my guitar for me, OK?" She asked my half-sister.

She smiled and nodded. "Be careful, you guys."

I nodded. "We will, Tessie." I said.

"We gotta get that rope down." Kenny said, then looked to Mike. "Mike, you wanna boost her up?"

He nodded. "Sure. Come on, kid." He said to Clem as he walked over to the winch.

"Don't let go." Clementine told him as he picked her up.

"I got you." He assured her. Anne and I watched her as she pulled the rope down. Once the hook hit the ground, Mike set her down.

"Okay, big guy. Here's what I'm thinking: You toss me to the winch and pull the girls up." I said, and he nodded. He then got into position and interlaced his fingers. As soon as I placed my foot in his hands, I felt myself lifted into the air, and grabbed the bottom step and started climbing.

I looked down and saw Clem and Anne place their feet on the hook and Mike then started lifting them up.

"Try to hurry, alright?" He requested. "I don't think they're the sharpest guards in the world, but they're no idiots either. They see that you three are not in your bunk, we're done for."

He ain't wrong… We'll have to be quick.

Suddenly, footsteps could be heard. Shit, that's gotta be Troy…

Mike's eyes widened as he heard the footsteps. "Shit, he's coming back!" He said before looking at the girls. "I gotta let you go. I can't stay here! Grab something!"

Anne and Clem grabbed the ladder and held on tightly. I looked down at them. "Let's make this quick." I whispered and they nodded in agreement. As we climbed over the fence, I looked out beyond the wall.

Jesus Christ…

There had to be at least a thousand walkers out there! They kept kicking up dust, but I knew there were a lot of them.

I then said the first that came to my mind-

"We are so fucked up."

That's chapter fifteen. I'm so sorry it took me a long time to update this story. Schoolwork is being a pain in my ass. Anyway, y'all know the procedure.