"Sir, sir…please, just let go." The darker skinned man said.
"Get off me, man!" Lee's hostage growled, struggling to break free, to no avail.
"Hold still, asshole. What do you guys want?" Lee grunted, poking the pistol further into the red headed boy's neck.
Lee looked past the two men to see Christa and Omid climb out of their tent and grab their guns, Christa grabbed a pistol and Omid had the rifle Lee had looted from the woman in the field several hours ago.
The two men turned around, keeping their weapons lowered, desperately trying to show the group that they were friendly. The darker skinned man turned back to Lee. "Friend, we don't want to hurt you." The man held his gun in one hand and moved his other hand to his neck, lifting up his dog tags. "The world may have ended, but I stand by my oath. I'm willing to talk, but you need to let go of my friend."
Lee huffed and, despite his better judgment, sheathed his pistol and shoved the boy back to his friends.
"Lee…?" Clementine said, groggily.
Lee looked next to him to see Clementine, rubbing her eyes, standing outside the tent.
Lee hugged Clem to his side and looked at the army men. "Don't make me regret letting him go," Lee said.
"We won't. I'm Captain Joshua Reed. This is Lieutenant Will Jackson…" Joshua signaled to the bald man. "The kid's Private Allen Wayne."
Allen huffed, straightening and dusting off his shirt, not saying anything, just staring at Lee moodily.
"Lose the attitude, soldier," Will ordered.
"Yes, sir," Allen said, half-heartedly.
"I don't care. I want you and your friends to turn around and leave us be." Lee commanded.
"Alright…alright, that's fine. We're going to turn around and go…okay?" Joshua said, moving his hand to the barrel of his gun, carrying it by his side as he and his friends retreated into his forest.
After a minute of watching them retreat into the forest, Lee exhaled deeply, losing his strong and tall posture he was wearing while talking with them. Lee instantly turned to Clementine and picked her up, hugging her closely to him. "You okay, baby?" Lee asked.
"Mhm," Clementine mumbled, hugging Lee back.
"You two alright?" Lee asked, looking at Omid and Christa.
"Yeah, we're fine. You handled that well." Omid said, with a surprised smile.
"Thanks," Lee said, looking past the forest the men had retreated into. A large orange glow highlighted the forest. The sun was rising above the woods and slowly lighting up the night. "Well, sun's coming up, I think we should start moving."
Lee put Clem back down on her own feet and began to rip up the tent pegs. After ten minutes the four had taken down the camp and taken the remaining supplies they had and began walking up the road, passing several wrecked and broken down cars, checking a couple as they passed them, not finding anything of interest except a pair of binoculars and a small flip knife.
Lee walked slowly and tiredly. Clementine held his hand, sticking close to him. "Hey, Clementine…I believe we have unfinished business." Omid said, jokingly. "I spy…with my little eye something the color...hmm…orange."
"The sunrise," Christa said, confidently.
"See, this is why I play with Clem, you're too good!" Omid said.
"Alright, I spy with my little eye something the color gray," Christa said.
"Omid's hood?" Clementine guessed
"Nu-uh…" Christa said.
"Hmm…that cloud?" Clementine asked, pointing to a large rain cloud in the distance behind them.
"Nope…" Christa said.
Lee picked Clem up and whispered in her ear before setting her back down.
Clem smiled at Lee then looked over to Christa. "The road?" Clem asked.
"That's right," Christa said.
"Lee! Your turn!" Clementine said, enthusiastically, excited by the group wide game of I Spy.
"Alright…alright…uh…I spy with my little eye…something the color…black…" Lee said.
"You?" Omid laughed. He kept laughing, finding his joke extremely amusing. He slowly and awkwardly began to stop laughing, before scratching the back of his head.
"Your hair?" Clementine guessed, breaking the awkward silence.
"Close enough, it was your hair," Lee said.
"I don't like my hair." Clementine huffed.
"It looks cute," Omid said.
"I'll agree with that," Christa said.
"I'm offended," Lee said, obviously joking. "You don't like my work."
"No, I didn't say…I just…oh…" Clementine giggled, getting the joke late.
"Hold up," Lee said, gazing into the distance.
"Here," Omid said, passing him the binoculars.
Lee peered through the binoculars and spotted a small shopping village up ahead the way the road was following. He looked closely at a few of the shop signs. 'Jenna's Dry Cleaning.' Another one was an old antique shop called 'Joe's Antiques' and a small clothes shop, Lee recognized it from a large chain of other clothes stores from around the country. "Looks useful," Lee said, handing the binoculars to Christa for her to look.
"I spot a bunch of walkers by the parking lot, not a lot, though..." Christa said, passing the binoculars to Omid. He looked through them and tucked them into the Save-Lots plastic bag.
"Yeah, I count four…five…six," Omid said. "Worth a shot?"
"I'd say so," Lee said.
"What should I do?" Clementine asked.
"Stay close to Christa and Omid. You three are going to cover me, I'm going in with the pocket knife. And of them sneak up on me, you know what to do. But only as a last resort." Lee said.
"Alright…if you're sure. It sounds like a plan." Christa said.
Lee smiled at Clem at gently laid his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "Let's move up," Lee said.
If you think I wasted those army guys…I'ma just say this: Believe me, I didn't waste 'em ;)