The Walking Dead: The Decimation of Mankind
Chapter 3: reunited
Hey everyone, Assassin here with chapter 3 of the story. I was going to update yesterday, but duty calls and I had work to do, but I'm here now so it's all good. Enjoy reading folks and if you don't like the story, I will eat your s-o-o-o-o-u-u-u-u-u-l-l-l-ls. I'm just kidding, I bet ya'll are thinking "What the hell is wrong with this dude?"
Six days. It took six long days for Lee, Clementine, Sarah and AJ to make from Ohio back to Carolina. Nothing much happened during their journey back, other than they began to bond over their stories up until the apocalypse began which was a little difficult for Sarah due to the mention of her father.
Lee continued down the same road until he spotted in a familiar building in sight and pulled up inside the Howe's Hardware parking lot. As he was about to park close to the building, his eyes widened when he spotted a familiar corpse in the middle of the parking lot, amongst other bodies.
It was the remains of Carlos.
Lee quickly turned the car away before Sarah would notice. It took time for Sarah to recover from her father's death and even now, she was still grieving. If she were to see her father's corpse, all that time they spent trying to help her recover would turn into a waste.
Lee parked the car only a few feet away from the building and stepped outside, deciding to walk from her just in case the others mistook them for someone else. That's if they were still here of course.
Lee carried their weapons and supplies while Clementine carried AJ. Sarah walked beside Lee who kept his arm on her shoulder to prevent her from looking back just in case.
"We made it." Sarah announced the obvious with a hopeful expression.
"It doesn't even look that damaged." Clementine stated while examining the building.
Lee looked up towards the roof of Howe's where he could just about make out the greenhouse, and a smile widened across his face when he spotted three familiar faces. "Luke! Bonnie! Mike!"
The trio above looked down and Lee could have sworn he heard Mike curse in excitement. Seconds later, the three of them disappeared and came running out the delivery door entrance that Troy broke.
Sarah ran towards Luke who was still limping slightly due to his injured leg but he seemed to be recovering nicely, and this was good. She threw her arms around him and embraced him in a hug.
"Hey, good to see you, Sarah." Luke greeted as he knelt down and returned the hug. He looked up to see the others and nodded to greet them. "I'm glad ya'll are back."
"We never thought we'd see ya'll again." Bonnie replied while she shared a hug with Clementine and AJ, relieved to have them back. "What happened? Couldn't you find Wellington?"
"We found it, but thing is, they were full. Didn't have any more room for any of us." Lee explained, shaking hands with Mike. "Glad that we found you guys again. If I'm being honest, I didn't think you'd still be here."
"Ya'll are here now and that's what matters." Bonnie assured with a slight nod. She noticed Lee struggling to hold his supplies slightly and took one of the bags from him. "Come on; let's get inside before the undead show up."
"I'll park the truck inside." Mike suggested, beckoning for Lee to throw him the keys to the truck. It might be useful to have a working vehicle just in case.
Lee threw him the keys while he proceeded to follow the others inside Howe's. Now he no longer had to worry about the others not being here.
Once they were inside Howe's, Lee was slightly surprised to see how untouched it looked despite the horde of walkers. The insides walls did not look damaged, the place was clean from walker corpses, and there was not a sight of blood anyway. Either the others had cleaned up or everyone in Howe's somehow escaped.
"This place looks untouched." Lee announced the obvious. "Did you guys do some house work?"
"Only had to move some bodies, but none of them were from Howe's...Except for Troy and Bill." Bonnie explained as they reached the bedroom area where the members of Howe's use to sleep. A lot nicer than that pit outside.
"Good thing is they left some guns behind, too." Luke added as they walked into a living room area that looked like it was man-made. "Few assault rifles and a couple of pistols. We're good on ammo."
"And supplies." Lee reminded. He took a seat on one of the couches and placed his feet up, exhausted from the long drive here. "We've been on the road for so long, it's crazy. I just want to sleep for a while."
"You go on ahead, we'll watch the kids." Bonnie reassured as she placed her rifle down in the corner.
Lee got comfortable and got some sleep for a while. He without a doubt needed it after the long journey from Ohio. While he got some rest, Clementine set AJ down on a small bed in the room while she took a seat on an armchair.
Luke went to go and keep watch with Mike for a while. Sarah, in the meantime was trying not to remember all the bad memories in here. This was the exact some place her father was killed. It was all because of Carver. That bastard. Why couldn't he just leave them alone? He claimed he was trying to help people for the greater good. Well if killing people is for the greater good, then what made sense in this world anymore?
Sarah was not going to let that happen anymore. When Lee woke up, she wanted to get started on her shooting training as soon as possible.
The next day, the group of seven gathered together for some morning breakfast before they would decide on what to do for the day. With their weapons and supplies, they were great to go on for a long time, but when it came to safety, Howe's clearly was not safe after the events that happened.
Say another horde was to stumble their way, what were they going to do then? If the guards here could not hold them off with their weapons last time, then what chance did two men, a woman, two girls and a baby have? No, this place was not going to do. Once they were rested up, they were going to have to talk about leaving this place and finding somewhere else to settle in.
After breakfast was over, Sarah followed Lee and tugged on his arms to get his attention. "Lee?"
"Yes Sarah?" Lee replied, turning back to face her.
"Can you...? Can you teach me how to shoot now?" Sarah requested, placing both of her hands together nervously. With her past experience of using a gun, it scared her, but like it or not, she was going to have to get use to wielding one, otherwise someone else in their group was going to end up dying.
Lee thought about it for a moment. It may take a while to teach Sarah how to shoot, but then again, Clementine was younger than she was when she learned how to shoot yet she turned out to be almost a greater marksman than Carley. "Sure, I think we can get started right now."
Sarah smiled slightly in response. "I'd like that."
Lee proceeded into the next room where they were keeping their supplies and grabbed a couple of their weapons: a Glock 17 for himself, a Glock 17 and a blade for Clementine, and the revolver for Sarah. He located Clementine who was speaking to Bonnie until she noticed her guardian. "Hey Clementine, need your help for something."
"Sure thing." Clementine agreed with a nod.
"We're heading out for a while." Lee announced to the others, pointing his thumb towards the exit of Howe's. "I'm going to give Sarah some target practice lessons, get her acquainted with a gun."
Bonnie arched an eyebrow and placed a hand upon her hip. "You sure that's a good idea, Lee?"
"What do you mean by that?" Lee inquired, crossing his arms together. "We got more than enough ammo."
"...Never mind." Bonnie shook her head and dropped the subject for now. However, she did decide to assist them by picking up some empty bottles that they found scattered across the floor. "Here, use these to practice with."
"Thanks." Lee nodded and placed them in his backpack. He turned around and escorted Clementine and Sarah with him to the exit of Howe's. "Let's go."
The trio made their way outside via the delivery door that Mike was able to fix when they returned. They opened the door and stepped outside, walking towards the forest area. They decided to leave the truck, rather walking it instead. At first, Lee just considered practicing here in the parking lot, but the noise might attract unwanted attention.
Lee handed Clementine a pistol and a knife, trusting her to keep watch for them while he trained Sarah.
"How far are we going to practice?" Clementine inquired, placing her gun into the back of her pants.
"Not far, just far enough so the noise doesn't drive any walkers towards Howe's." Lee answered while he kept a sharp eye out for any walkers, or worse, people.
It took them a few minutes until they found a good area to practice shooting. Only problem was a single walker was roaming around the area until it noticed new prey and began to limp towards them, desperate for a tasty meal. Lee went to shoot it, but Clementine placed her hand out, beckoning for him to hold his fire.
"I got him." Clementine announced as she approached the walker slowly. She waited until it was close enough before using Jane's little technique advice to take him down.
Clementine kicked the walker down and stabbed it in the head with her knife. Now that it was dispatched, she helped Lee in setting up the bottles on some of the trees to get ready for target practice.
Now came the difficult part. Lee let Sarah hold the revolver and began to teach her about using a gun, how it works and when to use it. "Now first thing to remember is not to be afraid of it. It's just a thing, but we only want to point it at someone who's trying to hurt you like walkers or some people..."
Lee went on and showed Sarah how to reload a gun and how to take the safety switch off, but now it was actually time for her to shoot.
Lee stood behind Sarah who was already aiming, but before she continued further, Lee repositioned her arms. "Now don't lock your eyebrows. If you want, close one eye to get a better aim."
"Left eye or right eye?" Sarah inquired.
"Well, which hand do you write with?" Lee asked.
"My right hand." Sarah responded, looking up towards him.
"Then close your left eye." Lee suggested with a small smile. He placed his hand over her ears and allowed her to take a shot at the bottles. "Okay, whenever you're ready. Fire."
Sarah squeezed the trigger and the sound of the bullet echoed throughout the entire area. She panicked as the gun flipped out of her hand, but at the same time, she hit the bottle on the first try. "Eeek!"
She took a few steps back but Lee quickly stopped her from running away in fear.
Lee placed his hands upon her shoulders and looked into her eyes with a face of reassurance. "Hey, hey! It's okay, you did it. You hit the bottle."
"I-I-I did?" Sarah questioned, turning back towards where the bottles were stationed.
"Yeah, you did." Lee nodded before he proceeded to pick up the revolver and pass it back to Sarah to continue their practice. "In the future, try to keep a better grip on the gun. You'll get stronger in no time. Come on, let's try again."
Sarah adjusted her grip on the gun and get ready to fire again with Lee placing his hands against her ears. She took a small breath and aimed down the sights of the gun, getting her aim on the bottle. She squeezed the trigger and fired, taking down the bottle with one shot, and this time, she did not drop the gun.
"I got it!" Sarah enthusiastically announced, lowering the gun as she turned back to Lee.
"Good job, Sarah." Lee praised as he turned her back towards the bottles. "Let's keep going though; you're far away from becoming a great marksman."
Sarah continued her training and fired the remainder of her bullets and hitting all but one bottle. Once she was out of ammunition, Lee began to teach her how to reload a gun.
"Now just place the bullets in here, push it back in until you hear the click and then you're good to go." Lee instructed, passing her revolver back to her. "Now I'm going to let you hit the last bottle on your own. Good luck."
Lee took a few steps back and observed Sarah with Clementine. Sarah took a deep breath before aiming down the sights of her gun. With good concentration and good aim though her good lenses, Sarah fired and the bottles smashed apart and scattered across the ground.
Sarah smiled in satisfaction and lowered the gun down, turning back towards her friends. "I did it!"
"Nice job, Sarah." Clementine praised her older friend.
"How do you feel?" Lee inquired with his arms crossed.
"I feel like there's a ringing in my ears." Sarah answered, running one of her fingers inside her ear. "It sounds like, 'Eeeee!'"
"You'll get use to it in the future." Lee assured, patting her shoulder a few times. "Come on, that's enough training for today. I think we should get back-"
Lee cut himself off from his own sentence when he heard rustling nearby. The three of them quickly aimed their guns towards the source of the sound and prepared for the worse. A single walker emerged from the woods and limbed towards the humans, prepared to take bites out of their flesh for its own satisfaction.
"Only one of them." Lee spoke up, beckoning for them to lower their weapons. He easily shot it down without effort, but as they turned to leave, more rustling could be heard from the same direction.
Lee turned back and raised his weapon, but froze and his eyes widened when he saw not one, but a whole group of walkers emerging from the woods, heading straight for them. "Oh, shit. Run!"
The trio made haste to escape as soon as possible, running away from the walkers as they tried to make their way back to Howe's. Along the way, they began to panic further when walkers also began to emerge from the sides of the forest.
"Just keep running!" Lee shouted, shooting a walker that was blocking their way.
More walkers continued to appear out of nowhere. They must be the remainder of the herd that attacked Howes. Who knows how many of them remained? Regardless, Howe's clearly was not prepared to stop them and depending on if they were to find Howe's again, the group would have no choice but to move.
As they continued running, a couple more walkers appeared in front of them.
Lee took out his Glock 17 and shot one of them down and pushed the second one of his way.
Clementine kicked a walker down and stabbed it in the head with a knife. She quickly continued running with Lee and Sarah.
Eventually, the group made it out from the frost and there was Howe's in their sights with the walkers not far behind. They were exhausted, but if they stopped running now, then the walkers would catch them.
"Keep running!" Lee shouted, allowing Clementine and Sarah to run ahead. "Go!"
Lee shot down a few more walkers that were getting closer by the second. He kicked one more down before running towards Howe's.
The trio continued running towards Howe's until they were close enough to call for help. Lee could just about make out Luke and Mike on the roof of Howe's, and both men suddenly stood up, more than likely noticing the walkers heading straight towards them.
"Oh, shit!" Luke cursed, quickly grabbing his rifle and making haste with Mike to get downstairs. "Mike, get Bonnie and some guns!"
"On it!" Mike replied, running in another direction.
Lee, Clementine and Sarah finally made it to the outside of Howe's where the delivery door opened and out came Luke, Bonnie and Mike, all armed with AK-47's.
"Lee!" Bonnie called out, throwing him an extra rifle.
Lee caught it and stood in a defensive position with the others. He had no experience using an actual rifle, but now was the time to learn. The four adults began firing towards the walkers, taking each of them down one by one while Clementine and Sarah stood watching.
Clementine turned towards Sarah and both girls nodded towards each other before taking out their weapons and assisting everyone else in taking down the walkers.
One by one, each walker fell down until their numbers were beginning to thin out. There must have been at least thirty of them, but the group was able to take them down in no time. One walker remained and Lee was the last one to finish it off with his Glock 17.
Everyone lowered their weapons and proceeded back inside Howe's building, relieved that they escaped from the walkers unscathed.
"That was a LOT of them." Lee stated the obvious, placing his AK-47 down with the rest of their weapons.
"Jesus, I don't know how much longer we can stay here." Bonnie admitted, holding her hands against her head.
"This place clearly isn't stubborn enough to stop walkers." Mike announced the obvious.
"What are we supposed to do?" Clementine asked them. Wellington was their last hope, but with no access, they could not go back. "Where can we go?"
There was silence for a moment and everyone turned towards the other, expecting an answer, but no-one had any suggestions. Lee sighed and took a seat on a couch with his arms crossed, hoping that somewhere out there in this God-forsaken world was the answer to their prayers.
That's chapter 3 completed, folks. The group are reunited, but it is clear that Howe's is not capable of protecting them any further and with Wellington out of the question, what will our survivors do now? Only one way to find out...Next chapter coming soon.