"Anybody want Starbuck's?" Lilly asks sarcastically as we pass yet another one of those coffee shops while making our way through this one-horse town. Seriously, I think there are more of these places than houses around here!
We've been driving for so long that my legs are starting to cramp in the back seat, as Lilly and I switched spots not long after we passed by those zoo animals on the road. That whole incident for some reason reminded me of having to put down that dog that bit me a while ago… Man, Sam would've been a great dog, I'm sure of it.
Apparently we had travelled deep through Mississippi (I always misspell that word) without my knowledge, and by the time Jane had mentioned we were nearing the big river that runs through this state I was pleasantly surprised. We've gotten a lot of ground covered in just a day and a half, but the sun's coming down soon – perhaps it'd be best to stop for the night.
I want to get off this stupid truck for a little while!
"Maybe we should stop to look around here for a bit," I suggest, sticking my head in between Jane and Lilly's seats. "It's getting kind of late, don't you think?"
"Can't you just sleep in the back?" Lilly asks, but sighing when I give her my best puppy dog face. I'm telling you, it's hard to resist. "Fine… we'll get a few hours of rest, but then it's back on the road at first light, understand?"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I cheer happily, grinning as even Lilly manages to pull off a smirk no matter how much she tries to be stoic. After spending just three short weeks with Jane and I again, I think I'm finally starting to get into her good graces. This is far more enjoyable than having to worry about her snapping at me or trying to pull a gun out on someone.
Well, as Jane pointed out a while ago, someone that didn't deserve it.
The three of us might not agree with each other on everything, but I think that's for the best. It lets all three of us say what our opinion is, and we can rationalize better than any group that I've been in so far. Sure, Jane and Lilly might fight a lot, and sometimes it can get kind of violent and ruthless, but they're less prone to just immediately rush into violence than Kenny ever was.
Maybe I did make the right choice after all.
"No way…" Jane remarks in amazement, pointing into one of the Starbucks coffee shops as I follow what she's on about. As soon as I realize what she's surprised about, I too shake my head in wonder.
Somehow, there's still electricity in here; when all the other lights have gone out.
"There's gotta be somebody in there, though," Lilly muses as the three of us hide behind some trash bins. "I'll head in first – you two watch my back."
"What are you gonna do? Shoot whoever's living in there?" Jane asks sceptically, glancing up above the trash bin and gazing longingly into the store.
"Hopefully I won't have to," Lilly muses before quietly maneuvering towards the brick part of the building. Jane swears under her breath before looking at me and running behind her. Taking one look back at the truck to make sure nobody's stolen it, I quickly follow the both of them with my gun at the ready.
As soon as she's ready, Lilly carefully opens the front door, hearing the dinging sound of a bell as she enter the Starbucks. When nobody comes pouncing out to kill the intruders, she starts checking her corners with her gun raised in front of her.
"Clear on this end…" Lilly whispers as Jane and I enter the coffee shop.
Man… even after over two years, this place still smells like coffee and treats. The aroma flows through my nose and is really pleasant as I can practically picture some huge cookies in some of the display cases, but to Jane it looks as though it's almost intoxicating. She closes her eyes and breathes in through her nose as I smirk and shake my head. Grown-ups are weird.
"I don't see anybody," Lilly finally calls out as she stands up, prompting us to do the same as I relax and place my gun back in my pocket. Seems as though the coast is clear for right now anyways.
"Let's just have a quiet night," I suggest, placing my backpack on one of the little tables they've got placed around here.
"That's something I can get on board with," Jane agrees, hopping the counter and playing around with the various dusty machines. "Damn… it's been a long time since I've had a real mug of joe."
"Don't even start on that," Lilly laughs bitterly. "I used to drink coffee by the bucket back when I worked at Warner Robin's."
"Aren't you supposed to drink it in mugs?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Exactly," she says matter of factly, "my coworkers used to call me the Queen of Caffeine back in the day. God knows I've had withdrawal symptoms since then."
"That would explain some things…" Jane mutters out of ear-shot from Lilly – wisely done because Jane would probably end up with a smashed coffee pot at the back of her head. I simply roll my eyes and take a look at how our food situation's coming along.
Not looking too good, I'm afraid. We're living off of scraps as it is, and we're dangerously low on food now. We have enough for maybe two days' worth left, but hopefully that'll be enough at least until we get to Texas. According to Jane, we still need to cross over Louisiana in order to get over to Houston, so it shouldn't be that much more driving from here on out.
Closing the bag back up, I watch as Jane heads outside for a little bit; muttering something about leaving her knife in the truck or something like that. Instead of just sitting here on my hands, I decide to get up and look around this restaurant a little bit. Yes, I know that they're mostly the same at all of the locations, but maybe there are some leftover treats laying about that people may have forgotten.
What Lilly and I find instead, however, is much more disturbing.
In the back room sits a diseased corpse propped up next to a radiator; a bullet wound in his head as his blood is splattered against the wall behind him.
Now, who does this remind you of?
I can't help but feel sorry for the guy as Lilly bends down to inspect some sort of machine that's running next to him. He must've been in quite a bit of pain before he died, as it looks as though he got bitten right in the neck. I wonder if he did this to himself, or somebody else did it first. There's no gun around anywhere, so we can't really tell – somebody could've come in here and taken the gun with them afterwards.
"I think we owe the power to this guy," Lilly comments, unfolding a piece of paper and reading it. "These are instructions on how to keep the motor running. It says that it can power the store for up to a week before turning off."
"So somebody's been here recently," I conclude as my nerves increase significantly. Hopefully whoever was here doesn't come back.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Clem," Lilly advises as she puts the note back down. "This place has been picked clean. If anyone were to stay here, it'd only be for a day or two. No sense in keeping a place with no supplies."
"Then why did he want to keep the electricity on?" I inquire; the whole thing seeming rather confusing to me. "Why would he bother?"
Picking up the instructions again, Lilly shakes her head sadly after reading it before telling me to look at the bottom paragraph. I hold the paper up to the light and begin scanning through it like an ancient artifact.
To whoever's still left alive,
My time has come, I'm afraid. I've been bitten, and I don't want to turn into one of those horrors that plague the cities and the countryside. I just couldn't bear the thought of waking up and… eating… people. Even writing the words down makes me gag.
Anyways, this place was my temporary home, if you will. I came across it after so many close friends of mine had departed, and I managed to get this small backup generator working again. As is to be expected, the machine only operates for a limited time before shutting down, so be sure to follow the instructions and handle it with care. Don't shit where you sleep, is what I'm trying to say.
Hopefully a little light will brighten your life – even in this perpetual darkness. This madness will end someday, I'm sure of it, but unfortunately I won't live to see that wish fulfilled. If you're reading this… then perhaps you'll see it for me.
Take care, and good luck.
Norman Reedus
"Who do you think he was?" I ask as I carefully place the note back to its resting place; glancing at this once kind man who met his untimely demise.
"Maybe an engineer? I don't know…"
"Well, whoever he is," I remark, glancing as Jane comes bursting through the door, "he did one heck of a job of this place."
Jane doesn't seem dampened by the fact that we just found somebody's corpse in the back of this restaurant, as she waves a sheet of Bristol board around with vigor. I've never seen her this enthusiastic or hopeful about anything.
"You won't guess what I found," Jane remarks, beckoning for Lilly and I to follow her back into the dining area. "I don't know if this is bullshit or not, but look!"
As she lays the paper flat against the counter, I bend under Jane's arm to get a look. The writing's pretty crappy, almost seeming like whoever wrote it was in a rush, but I can still make it out.
"Houston Hills: Sanctuary and Refuge for all," I read aloud, realizing why this got Jane a little bit excited. I smirk at her as she pats my shoulder. Lilly doesn't seem too impressed, but that's not surprising.
"Finally! This might be a sign that we're on the right track!" Jane boasts as Lilly shakes her head and scowls at the paper. Told you that we argue a lot!
"This is obviously just some kind of trap people are laying out," Lilly states her opinion, scrutinizing every word. "Why would somebody come all the way out here to advertise this shit? They'd be overpopulated, and this is definitely some kind of sham."
"Well if it is, then we'll avoid this place," Jane reasons, still not backing down on moving to Texas. We've come this far already, and it'd be a massive waste of time to just turn back around and leave after all the trouble we went through to get here. "Look, I know this might sound like another Wellington bullshit fantasy land, but at least we'll be warm and relatively safe down here! Besides, there are more places than just Houston in Texas, Lilly!"
"They want people like us to come here!" she argues back. "They lure people to them with phony messages of someplace better, but it's all an illusion! We'll be out in the desert looking for an oasis, when all we'll end up finding is a mirage! Or even worse, walkers."
"What kind of sick-minded fucks would do something like that? Besides, you said so yourself – why would they come all the way out here just to trick people?!"
"I don't know!" Lilly huffs as I watch on in silence. Neither side is being completely unreasonable this time around, so I'll let this debate continue. For now, anyways. "You've seen how some people get when they've lost everything – they go crazy! I'll admit it, and Clem knows this, but I was a fucking mess after I lost my dad. It gets you into a dark place, and some people just… lose it. They don't act rationally. Some people just want to watch the world burn…"
"Then what would you have us do, huh?" Jane asks with hostility as I grab onto her wrist in hope's that it'll calm her down and prevent this from escalating even further.
"Turn this rust bucket around and head up north somewhere… or even fucking east again, I don't care! But heading into the lion's den is never the right answer."
"I can't fucking believe this…" Jane mutters darkly, shrugging off my grip and facing the woman with whom she argues so viciously. "The first sign of actual hope we've had since Howe's, and now you want to just turn tail and run?!"
"That's what this is!" Lilly accuses, jabbing a finger into Jane's chest and knocking her back a step.
"What are you talking about now?"
"You're just looking for another god damn Howe's!" she blasts as her fire comes back. That's odd, I thought that it had burned out entirely. "You just couldn't let go, could you? You were so friggin' proud that you could control a place like that by yourself, and it burned you when it got overrun by a group of walkers!"
"That's nuts!" Jane bites back indignantly, folding her arms across her chest. "Don't start talking down at me as if you know better! You don't! You're just a lonely, pissed off little girl who lost her way and is looking for someone to blame for all of her problems! Would you just get a fucking grip on yourself, Lilly?!"
"DON'T!" I bellow, immediately stepping in between the two of them and pushing as hard as I can against Lilly's stomach, even though it doesn't do much. Lilly does look down at me though, as some angry tears prickle at my eyes.
"We can't do this again…" I mutter pathetically, banging my fists uselessly and softly against Lilly's sternum as the fighting reluctantly stops. Shaky sobs erupt in my chest as Jane mutters about keeping watch for a little while.
Lilly bends down and does the one thing that I never would've expected from her in a million years – Lilly Caul actually hugs me!
Yeah, you heard right! She bends down to my height and wraps her arms carefully around my shoulders; squeezing comfortingly as I rest my head on her shoulder. This is new territory for me, but I don't question it – the both of us need this right now.
"I'm… I'm sorry, Clem," Lilly murmurs shakily, realizing why I'm getting so upset about this. "This won't be another Carley thing, I promise… I've learned since then."
"How can I trust you…?" I mumble into her shoulder as she shrugs with a light chuckle.
"You can't, remember?"
Shaking my head, I release myself from her as she looks at me with a small smirk. Her eyes are a bit teary as well, but this time she's not trying to prove her toughness to me. Like she had told me, there's no point in just trying to be tough all the time. It'll wear you out anyways.
Damn it… this scene feels so familiar. So many people have told me that they wouldn't leave me; that it'd be okay as long as we stuck together. But almost all of those people are dead, and I don't want to lose either of these two very special women in my life. As much as I'd like to think that I could make it on my own, and as much as Jane has drilled that belief into my head, I highly doubt it would work out.
Besides, what's the point of surviving if you have nobody left to fight for?
Lilly suggests that we should all hit the hay after a couple more hours have passed – yes, ALL of us, Jane included. We lock all the potential entry points for walkers to get through, even though Jane mentioned that the only walker she saw was trapped on the pointy end of a chain-link fence. Really though, it's nothing to worry about.
There's a skylight in the roof of this Starbucks, so I look up through the window at the stars as Jane and Lilly get settled. As if it's some practical joke from beyond the grave, the power goes out just before I sit down as the three of us laugh at the irony. The only source of electricity we've had in a long time is gone, but at least it was nice while it lasted.
"That's the Little Dipper, I think," Jane remarks absentmindedly; folding her hands behind her head as she looks up through the skylight. Lilly and I nod in silent agreement, glad that the fighting's stopped for at least another night. Honestly, I felt like the sad, crying child trying to keep their parents from arguing again.
It sucked.
"What's that one over there?" I point out, looking at a pretty set of stars with a long tail flowing at the back.
"It's, umm… Aquarius, I think," Jane says shrugging her shoulders as she ponders it. "Yeah, definitely Aquarius. What? I used to think these were pretty cool as a kid."
"I think that's my horoscope sign," Lilly admits, causing Jane to snort.
"You believed in that kind of stuff?" she asks in a joking manner; the tone having been calmed down a while ago after things got heated.
"When's your birthday?" Lilly inquires, and when Jane says December 21st, she bites her lip and tries to think of which zodiac sign hers is. "I'm pretty sure that makes you a Sagittarius. You know, the guy with the bow."
"Awesome," Jane comments with a smirk before turning to me. "When's your birthday, kiddo?"
"November 5th."
"Scorpio," Lilly tells me, which I think is actually pretty cool even in these circumstances.
"How do you know all of this?" I ask, watching as Lilly crosses her legs over as she relaxes in a more comfortable position. She shrugs her shoulders as she looks at the floor.
"I don't know… I never used to believe in that stuff. But my mom did all the time," she explains as she takes out her dad's wedding ring that she must've taken from him in the meat locker. "After she died, I kind of just wanted to keep a piece of her alive somehow… It was stupid…"
"No, actually," Jane chimes in, surprising the both of us as she gives a slightly sympathetic look towards her. "That's actually kind of cool. You should be proud."
"Yeah," I agree, nodding my head as Lilly rolls the ring around in her fingers before placing it back in her pocket.
The three of us drift off into a peaceful sleep, with Jane and Lilly on one side of the wall with me on the other. As soon as I'm sure that they've fully passed out, I carefully sneak my way over and plop a squat right in between them, and I grin slightly when Jane instinctively leans her shoulder against me. Lilly stays still for most of the night; almost as if the two of us being here gives her some small amount of comfort.
We're all that we've got left in this world – it'd be wrong for us to throw this away.
…..
Well, here we are. New Orleans, Louisiana – apparently this place used to be bopping around a certain time of year. I think Jane said it was called… Marty Grass, or something like that? I don't know, whatever. It's not as if anyone's around to celebrate that now.
But that's not the shitty part about this situation.
The really, really, REALLY bad part is that we're stuck – the truck's stuck in the mud, and by the sounds of it things aren't going so well under the hood. There's steam pouring upwards from underneath it, and Lilly coughs violently as she opens the thing up.
"Try turning it again!" Lilly calls to me as I do what I'm asked, giving it a few turns but with no success. After a few more turns and a cloud of black soot rising up into Lilly's face, she groans and walks a little ways away from the truck in an effort to wipe the stuff off her face. If she wasn't annoyed before, she certainly is now. "Jane! Jane, we need to jumpstart this hunk of junk! I don't want to be stranded out here! Jane!"
"Where'd she go?" I ask, hopping out of the truck and walking over to Lilly.
"The hell if I know!" she remarks bitterly, looking in every direction until her gaze turns up the large hill where she sees someone's shadow. "God damn it, what the fuck is she doing over there?!"
Trudging up the hill (and I mean trudging; we're both exhausted from travelling), we both spot Jane just standing there gazing out at something.
"Jane?" I ask carefully, my worry becoming more evident when she doesn't respond. "Jane, are you alright?"
"You might wanna give up on the truck…" she says flatly, but not turning her head as she speaks.
Curious, Lilly and I walk all the way up to where she's standing, and what we see makes Lilly kick a rock down onto the road.
Or should I say lake, because New Orleans is almost entirely flooded.
"You've got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Lilly bellows as her voice echoes throughout the area, with none of us really caring if she alerts some walkers right now.
Besides, how can you disagree with her this time?
AN: There it is, spiderclone! Thank you for the suggestion – your wish is my command lol. Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed that chapter, and there'll be more to come soon!