"The fuck is he doing here?!" Private Allen yelled, approaching the group with fast heavy footsteps.
"Private! I ain't warning you again!" Lieutenant Will Jackson scolded, following him closely.
"Lieutenant, leave this to me." Joshua said, holding his hand up to him.
"Yes, sir." William said.
"Allen, stand in front of…" Joshua paused, having not known Lee's name.
"Lee, Lee Everett." He said.
Allen stood in front of Lee with an irritated scowl on his face. "I want you to men to make amends. Settle this like gentlemen, not like boys." The Captain said.
"I'm sorry. I was just trying to keep my people safe." Lee said.
"I'm sorry too. I was just following orders." Allen sighed.
"…Right, who's hungry? I'm hungry." Mason said, popping up between the two, gesturing for the group to follow him to the locomotive. The group followed him up to the closed doors of the locomotive. He tapped on the train rhythmically, as some kind of secret knock.
The train doors slowly slid open, pushed by a young girl shoving it along with a grunt. The girl jumped down and immediately smacked Mason over the head. "What is wrong with you?! Just disappearing like that!" The girl moaned before dropping her hands to her side and jumping into him, hugging him tightly.
The girl was short with a regular body. She had pretty features, smooth brown hair tied up in a short ponytail and sweet amber eyes. She was wearing a pair of jeans and canvas shoes. She was also wearing a black t-shirt with a plaid buttoned-up shirt over it.
"Alright…alright, I'm sorry. But, I made some new friends. And guys, they said they could get this train moving!" Mason said, excitedly.
"Sorry, about that…" The girl said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I'm Emily."
"We'll do introductions later…is this true?" Joshua asked.
"Yes. This was our train. It belonged to a man named Chuck. We lost him when we went into the city." Lee explained.
"You sure? We nabbed it off of a few guys with hoodies and bandanas, had some pretty nasty firepower." Private Allen said. "They were stationed here, we tried to approach them but they shot as soon as they saw us. We lost a man for it."
"They must've been the ones who moved it. It was just outside the city before. We came back it was gone." Lee said.
"Then they would've had to go through and around the city to get it to this point." Omid said.
"Well, David will be glad to hear this. Follow me." Joshua said, stepping up to the train carriage.
"It's okay, we'll take good care of your friends." Mason said.
"It's cool, Lee you go ahead. We're safe with Clint Eastwood over here guarding us." Omid said, panting Clementine's head.
"Haha, we'll keep that in mind." Emily laughed.
"He's not joking. She shoots better than me. Don't try anything." Lee said with a small smirk, laying his hand on Mason's shoulder.
Lee followed Joshua through the carriage and over the bridge to the main train. "So, why don't you trust us Lee?" Josh asked, knocking on the door to the controls of the train.
"We went into the city. That's why I don't trust anyone anymore." Lee said.
The door was opened by an elderly gentleman with dark skin, holding a walking stick with a golden ball as a hilt. He was tall, but slumped over his cane, he had a kind smile on his face as he looked to Lee. He was wearing an old blue shirt and slacks being held up by a pair of suspenders. He wore a shining necklace, with a cross on it. He held up his hand to Lee. "Hello, sir. It's nice to meet you." He said.
Lee paused for a second, taken back by the situation. He had never met anyone with his manners since the apocalypse started. He shook the man's hand politely. "Hi. My name's Lee." He said.
"I'm David, it's fantastic to meet someone with your manners." The old man said.
"Likewise." Lee said.
"David, Lee here knows how to control the train, in fact it belonged to his friend." Joshua said. "The man, is sadly no longer with us, but Lee knows how to get the train moving."
"God rest his soul." David said, holding his necklace. "I'm sorry for your loss, Lee. Now, as for the train, I'm afraid I've switched a few of the controls around, trying to get this thing moving, I hope it won't be too much trouble for you."
Lee smiled and took a look at the control panel. He stared at it closely, trying to remember the combination the switches went in. He flicked a few switches around as he remembered them. The train started making a chugging noise, slowly beginning to move again. Lee's eyes widened as he quickly turned around through a lever around, the train clicked to a halt again.
"I'll be dammed…" Joshua laughed. "Oh, sorry Father David."
"It's no problem, Captain." David said. "Just let me know when you want to get going and I'll start this up. "Thank you for your help, Lee."
Lee smiled at David and walked back over to the main carriage with Joshua, stopped in his tracks by Clementine standing in front of him, rubbing her arm, with a sigh. "I'll leave you two to talk, I'm going to make sure nobody was hurt when the train started moving." Joshua chuckled, walking into the carriage.
Lee crouched down in front of Clementine, pulling her into a hug. "I know this must be tough." Lee sighed. "I don't really like being back here either, but it's our best bet on getting moving."
"I know…just…don't go too far away from me, okay?" Clementine pleaded.
"I won't. What do you think of Emily and Mason? They been treating you okay?" Lee asked.
"Emily reminds me of Sandra, she's really nice. I like her." Clementine said. "Mason reminds me of the babysitter that came when Sandra couldn't come…and…he also reminds me of Ben…kinda."
Lee sighed and held Clem's hand with a smile. "It'll all be okay, Clem. I won't let anyone go ever again. This is our new group now. And I won't let these guys end up the same way." Lee said, looking Clementine in the eyes.
"Hello, Lee. Are you ready to…Oh, I'm sorry did I interrupt something?" David asked.
Lee turned around to David. "No, no, it's alright." Lee said with a polite smile, moving out the way for David to get through.
"Oh, hello, sweetheart." David said, crouching down to Clementine's height.
"Hi!" Clementine said sweetly.
"Oh, aren't you a little angel? My name's David." He said, with a small laugh and a smile.
"I'm Clementine." She said with a wide smile.
"And Lee's your father?" David asked.
"Nu-uh. He found me in my treehouse and took me with him." Clementine said, quickly.
Lee sighed with a small laugh. "It's not as bad as it sounds." Lee said.
"I'm sure it isn't." David laughed. I'm sure we'll all catch up soon enough, for now, I need to check if everyone's ready to get moving. It will take a large stress off of everyone's shoulders I'm certain."