Lee smiled at Clementine who was curled up in a ball next to him. Everyone else in the train was fast asleep, they had passed out minutes into laying down. He clicked the back of his neck and yawned, getting ready to lie down and go to sleep as well, until he heard shouting from outside the train.
Lee shot up and looked over to the closed train door. He nervously pulled out his revolver and snuck over to the train door. He took one of the handles of the sliding doors and slid them open slowly. He peeked through to see Mason red-faced, teary-eyed, pointing behind him and yelling. "I swear to god! We need to get this thing moving!" Mason yelled.
Lee looked over at the three members of the military, Allen was about to respond when out of nowhere a loud bang was heard from within the forest and his neck began spewing blood. He held his hand over the wound and collapsed shortly after. Lee immediately shut the door and spun around to the other side of the train. "What the shit?!" Christa exclaimed, scrambling back to her feet.
"Lee…?" Clementine gulped, beginning to stand up.
"Clementine, I need you to be a brave girl for me, okay? Stay close to me, and be fast, alright?" Lee said, frantically, looking Clem directly in the eyes.
"…Okay." Clementine said, breathing deep breaths.
"What's going on?!" Omid asked, quietly.
"Alright, assholes, open up." A deep raspy voice said from the side of the train facing the forest.
Lee looked to the other side of the train and approached it on the tip of his toes, before pressing his ear up against the sliding door. Lee looked over to Clementine and signaled with his hand to come closer.
She did as she was told and stuck close to him. Lee put his hand on the handle and slowly opened the door with one hand, holding his pistol in the other.
On the other side of the door, there were three people waiting for him. Lee immediately pulled the trigger on the one in the middle, they began shooting aimlessly, completely missing Lee, allowing him to take them down with minor difficulty.
Lee took Clementine's hand and ran as fast as he could, looking back for a split second to see Mason, Joshua, and Will fighting back the invaders. "Omid?! Christa?!" Lee yelled, looking back one more time.
"Get Clem out of here!" Christa yelled back, invisible to Lee.
Lee took a deep breath, keeping his hand in Clementine's as he sprinted through the forest. After they made it a few steps into the forest they let go of each other's hands to dodge the numerous trees spotted all around the woods. Lee ran from the train as far as he could. When he was sure he was far enough away he stopped, bent over his knees as he panted like a dog. "Baby, are you okay?" Lee asked, looking around him.
Clementine wasn't there. He looked around frantically, holding his hands behind his head, anxiously.
"Clementine!?" He cried. He couldn't hear a response. He broke down, falling to his knees as he looked down at his revolver. He took a deep breath before checking the ammo. "Okay…alright…four bullets left. Get it together."
He stood up and listened closely, attempting to ignore the gentle cricket chirps or the squawking of the crows in the trees. "Well, what do we have here?" A scummy, smoker's voice laughed.
Lee looked around the forest, there was no one around him; the voice was coming from a distance.
"I call dibs. I like 'em young." Another, equally disgusting voice cackled.
Lee clenched his fists around the revolver and stormed into the direction of the voice, his storming walk converting into a jog, the jog turning into a sprint as the repeated voices became more apparent.
He stopped at the sight which was now in front of him. Five men circling Clementine who was desperately looking around for someone to help her. These men looked like stereotypical prisoners, messy, greasy hair, repulsively long beards, all wearing filthy ripped clothing. Lee cocked the revolver and aimed it at one of the men from a distance before he was distracted by another voice.
"Gentlemen…" David panted, approaching the circle of attackers, pushing himself along with his cane. "Please, help an old man, hm?"
The men looked at him before bursting into a collective fit of laughter. "You kidding me?" One of the men chuckled. "Put a bullet in this jackass."
David held his hands up, dropping the cane by his side, although he was still standing up fine. "Just one thing," David said, slowly lowering his left hand.
"You got something to say, spook?" Another man said.
"Just…one thing…" David said, quickly throwing his hand down behind his back, he pulled out a short, easily concealed handgun. He took down three of the men with ease.
One of the rednecks held up his assault rifle, aiming it at David. Lee pointed his revolver at him and pulled the trigger without a second thought. The last man standing looked over to Lee and then back at David, before nervously holding up his machine gun up to David, clumsily switching it back between him and Lee. David, without a second thought, landed a bullet in his brain.
Lee ran over to Clem and David, before slipping the pistol in the back of his jeans. He crouched down to Clementine who was rolling around on the floor, squealing in pain, crying and sniffling. Lee breathed heavily as he slowly rolled Clementine around onto her back. There was a small, but apparent stream of blood covering her shoulder.
Lee's eyes filled with tears as he slowly picked Clementine up, holding her just above the ground. "Baby, stay with me, okay? Stay with me, it's okay. We'll get you fixed up okay? It's only a little hit in the shoulder." Lee said through shaky and half breaths.
"Lee…Lee, am I going to die?" Clementine squeaked, reaching for her shoulder.
"No…no, ssh, it's okay. You're not going to die, you'll be fine. You'll be okay." Lee said, holding Clementine's hand before she touched her shoulder.
"Keep pressure on the wound," David said, crouching down next to Clementine, moving Lee's hand to her shoulder. "Press down on it."
Lee did as David said, pressing his hand down on Clementine's shoulder as she clenched her fists, attempting to breathe through the pain.
"Don't keep it in, angel. Cry if you need to." David said, taking a knife out a pocket knife from his pants and flipping it open. He cut through the sleeve of his shirt and ripped it off.
Clementine at this point was sobbing and crying into her hoodie, trying to make as little noise as she could, whilst Lee was trying his hardest to keep strong for Clem's sake. David took the cutoff piece of his shirt and tied it around Clementine's shoulder, tied around under her arm.
Clementine looked over to Lee before her eyes rolled back and her head fell back onto the forest floor.
Holy balls on a potato stick...
I know what I said.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed that pretty damn intense chapter. I decided this story was drifting too much apart from Lee and Clementine, which is what this story is actually about xD So, this is the way I went with it. Again, I hope you enjoyed it!
See you next chapter!