The Walking Dead: only trying to do the right thing
Chapter 3: bonding and new friends
Okay, here is chapter 3 of "only trying to do the right thing". In case you are confused with what it means, it is because all that Ben tried to do is the right thing and then he got shot by Lilly. Just in case you did not know.
While Lee and Kenny were checking out the train that was currently blocking their way, Carley had been watching Clementine closely, who was merely sitting there, falling off into her own world.
Despite being in the same Motor Inn for three months, Carley had not gotten to know Clementine that well. She would usually watch her and Duck draw together while she was on watch, and on one occasion, she gave Clementine some batteries from the station wagon they robbed last week.
Now that they had some time to kill before Lee or Kenny could see if that train was working, Carley had the chance to bond with Clementine a little now that there was nothing to distract them such as: Kenny and Lilly arguing, on watch patrol, and hunting for supplies.
The former reporter looked towards Clementine, who seemed patient enough to wait for her guardian and friend to return, and decided to talk with her for a while to pass the time. "Hey, Clementine, how you doing?"
"I am doing okay, I guess." Clementine answered, looking towards Carley and snapping out from her day-dreaming session. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing good, thanks for asking." Carley replied smiling, placing her hands into the pockets of her purple jacket she had been wearing for a while now. "So, we have not talked much, have we, Clem?"
"I guess." Clementine agreed, knowing that what Carley meant and that they did not really have the chance to talk much.
"So, maybe this is the chance for us to get to know one and other." Carley explained, wanting to get to know the young girl better such as: her hobbies, her interests, and other various hings, but first, was the most awkward question. "So, how old are you?"
"...I'm nine." Clementine answered, revealing her age to be different that last time Lee or anyone had asked her. "My birthday was four days ago."
When she had first met Lee at her house, she contacted him on her walkie-talkie three months ago, Lee asked her how old she was, and she answered to be eight, and in return, Clementine asked Lee how old he was, revealing him to be thirty-seven. But the question was: why did Clementine not tell anyone about her birthday? Normally, young kids would be enthusiastic about their birthday.
Carley decided to ask the young girl why exactly didn't she tell anyone about her birthday, especially Lee. "Clementine, you are nine? Why didn't you tell anyone it was your birthday?"
"I guess I didn't think it was a big deal." Clementine answered, placing one hand over the other while she looked away from the older woman she was currently trying to bond with.
Carley could not help but smile at the young girl. Despite not being around Clementine for long, she remembered when Lee told her that Clementine was not like other girls. Clementine was more aware of what was happening, and she was smart for her age too and very mature. She could be a little shy sometimes around other strangers, but was soon as she gets to know them, she does not feel shy anymore.
Carley then placed her right hand on Clementine's left hand and held it carefully, smiling as the young girl turned her attention back to Carley. "Clementine, of course it is a big deal. Even if the world is not normal anymore, it is still important to remember the good times."
"I know." Clementine sighed, now feeling a little upset that she did not tell anyone, but nevertheless, she smiled and held Carley's hand in return.
"Tell you what. When Lee and Kenny are finished, how about we go and tell them you are nine now?" Carley asked, gently patting Clementine's hat with her free hand.
"I would like that." Clementine agreed, adjusting her hat after Carley had accidentally knocked the tip of her hat over her eyes.
Back with Lee Everett and Kenny, the two had made their way up to the cab of the train where a dead train engineer laid in the seat. Luckily for them, he had never turned into a walker and must have died in the crash. But as luck would have it, Kenny accidentally pushed a button out of curiosity that had allowed them to release the breaks, and revealing the train was still working.
While Kenny tried to figure out how to get this train moving, Lee made his way around the other side of the train to check things out until he spotted a crashed car. The man form Macon slowly approached the car where a dead body laid against the wheel.
Lee approached the car even more and was spooked in a split-second when a loud groan came jumping out from the car. "Jesus!"
Lee was about to pull out Carley's Glock 17 that she lent him just in case, but stopped when he saw the walker in the car was trapped in the driver's seat due to his seat belt still being buckled down. He considered just shooting the walker to put it out from it's misery but a gun shot was too loud to risk. "Too loud." he mumbled quietly to himself.
The walker trapped in the car groaned as it leaned out it's arms towards Lee, ready for a sweet, delicious meal of flesh and blood, but due to it's no intelligence, he could not get free to grab him.
Lee looked towards the walker and talked to himself about how seat belts were usually meant to save lives but it made this walker trapped in there for who knows how long? "I thought those things were designed to save lives."
Lee then looked towards the bottom of the seat where he saw a small box of animal crackers. He got the idea that those were food and maybe they were not out of date yet. But unfortunately for him, the former driver of that car won't be willing to just let him pick them up.
Opening the door slowly, Lee got an idea; a risky one but it just may work. He leaned close towards the walker and prepared to push the button of the seat belt buckle to set him free. "You aren't going to like this."
In a quick of a flash, Lee grabbed the walkers hand and swiftly pressed the buckle before moving back away. Now that the walker was free, it could move towards him. Lee waited for the walker to get closer to him as it crawled along the seat before he slammed the car door against it's head, crushing it's brains and finally putting it out from it's misery.
Now that it was dead, it was safe to get those animal crackers. He leaned in there and grabbed them from under the seat before checking the date underneath them. And lucky for him, these crackers were good enough to eat for another year.
Lee climbed back up the ladders and back into the train cad where Kenny sat in the drivers seat, not really doing nothing much except trying to figure out how this train works exactly. While looking around, Lee gasped a little at the sight of a possible of a miracle.
A piece of paper hung against a wall caught Lee's interest enough to make him look at them where he saw the words "Engine Start up" wrote on the top of the paper. "Shit, this is it. Instructions on starting the engine...Damn. Pages are gone...I can kinda see the indentations from the writing."
Lee took the papers with him while he tried to figure out a way he could find a way to read them. If he was to find a way to make the indentations clear, then they could definitely get this train started right now and be on their way out of here.
He moved his eyeballs upwards when he remembered something that Clementine had showed him yesterday back at the Motor Inn.
Lee walked over to Clementine where the young girl was sitting next to a wooden crate with some paper, pencil, chalk to keep her busy for the day. He knelled down to her so they could finally talk after Lee had just got back from Macon with Kenny after the hunt for supplies . "Hey, Clementine."
Clementine stopped whatever she was drawing at the moment to greet her guardian. "Hey, Lee."
Lee looked towards Clementine's drawing where he saw a picture of half of a leaf. He decided to ask her what she was drawing to make conversation between them both. "What's that you're working on, Clem?"
"It's called a leaf rubbing. My teacher Miss Moore showed us to do 'em when we went to the Botanical Garden once." Clementine explained to Lee, before he picked up both the drawing and the leaf to show Lee that they were exactly the same. "See? It's the same! Uhm, kind of."
"That's really something." Lee praised, learning something new everyday, even though he use to be a history teacher before the apocalypse began.
"I'll make one for you, too!" Clementine said.
Lee snapped out from his thoughts, remembering how Clementine used a pencil for her leaf rubbing drawing. Maybe he could use the same idea to make the indentations clear. Although it was a long-shot, it may just work. But problem was, he did not have a pencil?
"Damn, I don't have pencil." Lee mumbled to himself, rubbing the back of his head nervously, until he remembered that Clementine loved to keep her drawings, and that gave him the idea she might have kept her pencil too. "Clementine!"
He ran out from the train and joined the others, who were still sitting where they had been sitting. When Lee got over to them, he saw Duck was feeling better after the walker incident back at the Motor Inn. The young boy was chatting away with his mother, who looked like she seemed to be listening, but then again, she could just be pretending to listen and simply nodding her head. Either way, he carried on talking.
Lee walked over to Clementine and Carley, who were both talking little ways with each other until they saw Lee coming towards them. He knelled down to Clementine, in hopes she had a pencil still. "Hey, Clementine, Carley."
"Hi, Lee." Clementine greeted, happy to see her guardian *even though he has only been away for a few minutes).
"How goes the train?" Carley inquired, wondering if the train was functional after she had heard a hissing noise coming from train. "Does it work?"
"That's what I'm here to talk." Lee answered, shifting his attention from Carley back to Clementine. "Clem, do you have a pencil I could borrow?"
"Yeah! I kept one in my backpack." Clementine replied, picking up her little pink backpack and opening up the zip. She placed her hand in the bag and scattered through it, feeling for anything wooden until she eventually found a pencil and gave it to Lee. "Here you go, Lee. Are you going to draw something?"
"You could see that, Clem." Lee smirked, standing back up onto his feet, followed by him patting Clementine's head a little. "Thanks."
Before leaving, Lee remembered the animals crackers he had found in that car nearby the train. He turned around and handed the box of animals crackers to Carley, who did not seem to ask where he got them from. "Here, Carley. Give these to Clementine and Duck to share."
"Will do, Lee." Carley smiled, before she attempted to open the box, but was struggling a little to open it. She eventually got them open and looked back towards Lee, who was merely smirking at her.
"First, batteries, and now boxes." Lee joked, smirking as he folded his arms together.
"Haha, you are so funny." Carley sarcastically replied, offering the box towards Clementine, who took a couple of the crackers into her hand to eat. "You are never gonna let me live down the batteries, are you?"
"Nope."
Lee left the two girls to get back towards the train cab in hopes he could get this train started by using the pencil Clementine had gave him in attempted to use the leaf rubbing trick to reveal the writing. He climbed back into the train cab where his friend Kenny was busy fiddling around with the buttons.
Now that he had the pencil, Lee would attempt to use the leaf rubbing trick on the piece of paper. Lee picked up the notepad and scribbled the pencil across the paper and was shocked to see it had worked! The indentations were clear now, and he could see what he needed to do. "Perfect."
"You can read it now?" Kenny asked, noticing what Lee had said after he had scribbled the pencil along the paper.
"Yeah." Lee answered, focusing carefully at the notepad where he saw a couple of pictures and a couple of numbers from the indentations. "Should be able to just follow the steps to get the engine on."
"Sounds good." Kenny agreed.
A few minutes had passed since Lee had discovered how to start up the engine, and as a miracle, it worked. The entire train was working perfectly and could take them all anyway they wanted to go. But unfortunately, the second boxcar was still attached to the first boxcar, and it was damaged, meaning they had to unhook it from the first boxcar.
Lee was the one to do this task by using a wretch he found inside the train cabin. After he was free, he climbed back into the first boxcar to get through back to the other side rather than walk around. He looked inside where he saw a mattress (along with other various things) scattered across the floor.
"You touch any of my stuff?"
Lee jumped at the sound of the voice and swiftly turned around where he saw a man who looked around in his middle fifties, wearing a greenish long coat, a red scarf, and dark greenish pants, followed by finger-less gloves. The man slowly walked towards Lee, waiting patiently for the man to answer his question.
Although Lee was not really sure what to do with this new stranger, he decided just to be honest to him due to him taking the map of the train routes he had found earlier. "I took the map of the train routes."
"That's fine, you can have that." the man replied, letting this stranger take the map of the train routes without any trouble at all.
"Really?" Lee inquired, thinking that this man could be just pretending to be nice so he could get the jump on him and the others, just like with the St. John's.
"Yeah, I got 'em all up here." the man replied, pointing his finger towards his head for Lee to understand he was referring to his memory. He turned back to his mattress and he even had to admit that this place was not pretty good. "I guess it's no worse for wear. Name's Chuck. Charles if you're fancy."
"Lee." Lee introduced himself, now knowing the strange to be named Charles (Chuck for short).
"That your crew outside?" Chuck asked, looking back for a quick second to the others who were still in the same position where they had been since they left the RV.
"Yeah." Lee responded, still being honest to the man he just met, despite the fact he did not look dangerous, but you never know when that could just change in the blink of an eye.
"And the guy in the cab?" Chuck added, nodding his head towards the direction of the train cab.
"Him too." Lee answered.
"I saw you walking through here and thought about scaring the pants off of you." Chuck admitted, smirking a little about the fact he just the perfect opportunity to scare someone in a zombie apocalypse.
"What?" Lee asked, raising up a curious eyebrow.
"But I couldn't force myself to do it." Chuck continued, wanting to show that he was not really a bad man.
"You're still kinda freaking me out." Lee admitted, still a little worried about Chuck.
"Train folk'll do that. Already met everyone outside; they all warmed to me right quick in direct sunlight." Chuck said, turning around from facing Lee and jumping out from the boxcar (or his so-called home) to go and join the others outside.
Lee followed the homeless man shortly and joined the rest of the group, who seemed to take a liking to the man. He walked back over towards Carley and Clementine to check on them, and Clementine was the first one to greet him.
She stood up and ran towards Lee with a smile on her. "You met Chuck!"
"Yeah...I did." Lee replied, gazing over towards Chuck, who was sitting next to Carley on the other side of the log with a guitar stood up next to him. Lee knew none of his group had a guitar before so he assumed it was Chuck's.
"It's so nice to meet someone normal for a change." Katjaa said to Chuck, finally a little bright full now that she finally met someone who was alive rather than seeing dead people walking around trying to kill people everyday.
"He gave us candy. Duck, too!" Clementine added.
The others looked towards the young boy who seemed to be doing a lot better than last time, sitting next to his mother, eating out from a candy bar. He looked up where he noticed everyone looking towards him. "What?"
Before long, Lee looked back towards Chuck and decided to thank him properly for giving the kids candy, and not scaring the living daylights out from him. "Welcome."
"Thank ya." Chuck grinned.
"You met, Kenny?" Lee asked, noticing that Kenny was still in the train cab and had not been out since he got in there.
"Sure did. Man shares my love of the road." Chuck answered, placing both of his hands upon both of his knees.
"That's for certain." Lee agreed, remembering how Kenny said that before the apocalypse began, he loved to travel. Kenny mentioned that every vacation they got, Kenny would take Katjaa and Duck on road trips around all of America.
Before long, Lee was greeted by Kenny, who had finally came out from that train cab to be with the others. He walked towards Lee to make sure for certain that the train was ready to move on out of here. "So that's it? We're cut loose?"
"Seems that way, yeah." Lee answered, shrugging his shoulders in mid-sentence.
"Great." Kenny grinned, before him and Lee walked back towards the others, getting ready to finally get out from here and get to somewhere where their will be boats. "We don't got much left, so just gather whatever you have. Let's go."
Lee and Kenny watched as the reaming survivors got what they had left from inside the RV and got into the back of the boxcar. All except for Chuck, who stopped where he saw in front of Kenny, who decided to ask him if he was coming too. "Want a ride?"
"Well, it sounds like you're taking my home." Chuck replied.
"That's a yes then." Kenny said, taking Chuck's answer to be a way of saying "Yes"?
"Haven't found anything for keeping the creepy-crawlies out than that boxcar." Chuck said, walking towards the boxcar door before he climbed inside with Carley, Clementine, and the others.
Now that everyone was in and accounted for, Lee and Kenny went to the train cab again for Lee to show Kenny how the train works so they could be on their way out of here before any lurkers showed up. Before long, the train began moving along the tracks, seconds later, it was moving at least forty miles per hour, taking them towards Savannah where hopefully, there will be boats for them to get out of here.
And chapter 3 is completed. Most of this is the same as the game except for Clementine and Carley began bonding with each other, and that Lee gave those animal crackers to Clementine and Duck rather than just for Duck. Stay tuned for chapter 4.