The Walking Dead: The Decimation of Mankind
Chapter 9: trouble follows.
Yo, yo, it's me, your friendly neighborhood Assassin. Here's chapter 9 and not much to say on this chapter, other than enjoy the chapter.
The next day during late afternoon, the group continued their journey to the south in search of their new home. Everyone with the exception of Mike and AJ were awake and were keeping themselves occupied during the ride since sitting in an RV for a while can be quite boring.
Bonnie checked their supplies to see how much food and drink they had left. They were good on food, but they had only one bottle of water. "Lee, we're low on water."
"We don't have anything else to drink?" Lee asked. Despite having stocked up food, they needed water too otherwise they were going to dehydrated.
"Nope, just one bottle of water left and some formula for AJ." Bonnie answered as she placed their supplies back into the bag.
Luke, who was looking at the map, noticed something interesting that may be the answer to their problem. "There's a river not too far from here. We could get water from there."
Lee seemed to agree with that plan and nodded as he prepared to pull over. "Sounds good, but we'll need to boil it first before we can drink it."
"I have my lighter if that helps." Clementine spoke up from nearby.
"Then it's settled." Lee replied. He pulled over onto the side of the road when he made certain no walkers were around the area, or worse, more bandits. He turned off the engine and walked outside the others.
Bonnie volunteered herself to stay behind and watch AJ, Mike and the RV. "I'll stay here with Jane. Ya'll go ahead, but don't be too long."
"We won't." Lee assured as he grabbed a couple of weapons for them to use. He, Clementine and Luke took a Glock 17 while Sarah armed herself with a revolver. "Come on; let's get going."
The group of four made their way towards river through the woods. Along the way, everything seemed clear so far but they had to be cautious just in case walkers were to somehow sneak upon them. With all these trees and bushes, it was somewhat difficult to see.
"I think I can see the river." Sarah spoke up, pointing towards the mentioned area.
Lee placed his hand over his eyes to block out the sun and could see a glimpse of the river. "That's great. Come on."
The four of them proceeded towards the river and made haste to gather some water. Lee and Clementine took out their empty water bottles and began to fill them up. They would boil the water where they got back to the RV to make it safe to drink.
As the finished filling up water, the group jumped slightly in fear when the all familiar sounds of the walkers were heard nearby. A few walkers emerged from the way they came and limped towards the four humans, groaning with blood dripping from their bodies.
"It's only a few of them." Luke assured as he took out his machete. "We'll handle it."
Lee nodded and took his hatchet while the girls stood back and allowed the men to take care of the walkers. One by one, each walker fell and it looked like they were in the clear. However, the danger was not over yet. More walkers emerged out from the trees and ambushed the group, forcing the group to separate.
Lee and Clementine moved to one side with four walkers moving upon them while Luke and Sarah moved the opposite way with three walkers moving towards them.
"Oh, shit!" Lee cursed as he raised his hatched and struck a walker directly in the brain, pushing it aside.
Clementine, realizing she was going to shoot now, took out her Glock 17 and prepared to fire. She pulled the trigger and took down two walkers, but she never expected another walker to sneak up on her. She attempted to shoot it, but it lunged forward towards her and knocked her down, causing her to drop her gun.
"Clementine!" Lee shouted as he killed one more walker, but in the process, he got his hatchet stuck in the walker's head and attempted to retrieve it. "Oh, shit!"
Lee was about to retrieve his hatchet from the now dead walker, but one more of them ambushed him. He grabbed onto the walker and wrestled with it as it tried to take a bite out of him. Now he was in danger. Unless he thought of something soon, both he and Clementine were going to die.
Clementine desperately attempted to crawl back to safety, but the walker was slowly crawling towards her, desperate to bite. At one point, it grabbed her ankle and tried to pull itself up, but she kicked it back before it could bite her.
Clementine picked up a rock and threw it at the walker crawling towards her. Her gun was too far for her to reach it in time.
Running out of time, Lee punched the walker once and then flipped it to the ground by kicking his foot against its ankle and breaking it out of place. Now that it was on the ground an crippled, Lee stomped onto it's head and crushed it's brain, finally killing it.
He had no time to celebrate yet. He swiftly sprinted towards Clementine who was now pinned under the walker. She had her foot placed against the walker's chest to prevent it from getting any closer. Lee grabbed the walker and dragged it away. He wrestled it to the ground and crushed it's brain by stomping on it a few times.
Lee panted as he took the time to recover for a moment along with Clementine. Despite saving themselves, Luke and Sarah were forced to go deeper into the woods due to the amount of walkers. He quickly retrieved his hatchet and ran with Clementine to go and find them.
Luke backed away while standing in front of Sarah in a protective manner. Three walkers were apprehending them and were desperate for a fresh human meal. When one of them got close, Luke raised his machete and decapitated the walker's head, leaving only two remaining.
He prepared to finish the other two of, but as luck would have it, another walker appeared out of nowhere and almost took a bite out of Luke. In the process, he was forced to drop his machete in order to stop the walker from biting him. The walker wrestled him to the ground, forcing him to use all his might to fight it.
"Luke!" Sarah screeched as she took out her revolver and remembered Lee's training. She fired all six of her round, but due to her panic and inexperience with a gun, she only managed to hit them in their torsos.
"Sarah!" Luke shouted. He groaned as he pushed the walker back. "Get out of here!"
The remaining two walkers were focused on Sarah, completely ignoring Luke.
Sarah picked up Luke's machete and back away as the two walkers moved on in her. If she continued going without making a move soon, than she was going to be cornered with no-one out.
Taking a deep breath, Sarah raised Luke's machete and stabbed one of the walker's directly in its skull, killing it with that one blow. However, in the process, she got Luke's machete stuck in its head. She attempted to pull it lose as the second walker was moving towards her.
With one good pull, Sarah got Luke's machete free but now the walker had lunged himself forward in an attempt to bite her. On instinct, Sarah placed the machete out and allowed the walker to meet its doom when it landed head first onto the machete that went through it's brain.
Saran sighed in relief and took a few breaths to calm her nerves down, but then she realized her friend was still in danger. She quickly ran back towards Luke who still continued to fight off the walker that was pinning him down.
When Sarah got close, she stabbed the machete through the walker's brain without hesitation, killing it just as it was about to take a bite out of Luke. She dropped the machete and helped Luke roll the now dead walker off of him and allowed him to stand up.
Luke panted as he stood up and kicked the walker a couple of times to make certain it was dead. After that, he and Sarah shared a hug, both relieved to see the other safe.
"Luke, you're okay." Sarah breathed in relief and struggled to hold back tears.
"Sarah, you saved my life." Luke expressed his gratitude as they released their embrace. He knelt down to her height and placed a hand upon her shoulder. "Good job, Sarah. Thank you."
Sarah nodded in response with a small smile. She was finally beginning to learn how to take care of herself in this world and was getting stronger by the day.
"Luke! Sarah!"
The duo turned around when Lee and Clementine came sprinting over to them (Lee was the one who called their names). The four of them were now reunited and they all looked relieved and happy to see one another alive and well.
"You guys all right?" Clementine inquired, but once she noticed the dead walkers, she assumed they were fine.
"We're fine." Luke reassured while catching his breath back. That was twice now he came close to death. First at the frozen lake, and now here. Unless they picked up their act in the future, someone else was going to die. "Sarah saved my life?"
Lee and Clementine appeared to be slightly surprised and turned towards the teenaged girl. "Really?" the asked simultaneously.
"Yep." Sarah nodded.
"Good job, Sarah." Lee praised. This proved that his teachings were beginning to pay off.
Luke retrieved his machete out from the dead walker and placed it back into his holster. "Come on, ya'll, let's get back to the RV."
The four of them proceeded to make their way back to Bonnie and the others, but neither one of them appeared to remember that they were forgetting something important. That was until Luke reminded them.
"Hey, did you get the water?" Luke inquired with a curious eyebrow raised.
That's when Lee stopped his steps when the realization hit in him in the face. "Whoops."
After going back and retrieving their water from the river, the group of four found their way out of the woods and joined Bonnie and Jane who were guarding the RV until they returned. The both looked worried, possibly due to the gunshots that were fired by Clementine and Sarah.
"Are ya'll all right?" Bonnie inquired. She wanted to run after them when she heard the gunshots, but she had to remain here to guard the RV. "I thought I heard gunshots."
"We got jumped by some walkers when we got the water." Lee explained as he set down the bottles of water. "We handled it now, thanks to Clementine and Sarah."
"Really?" Bonnie grinned and placed a hand to her hip. "Well, I'm glad to see ya'll are safe."
"I'll go with Luke to get some wood." Lee suggested as he grabbed an AK-47 for an extra precaution this time. "Do you have a pot to boil the water in?"
"There's one in the RV." Bonnie answered, nodding her head back towards the mentioned vehicle.
"We won't be long." Lee assured. He and Luke took out their weapons and proceeded to fetch some wood for them to burn.
Since they might be here for a little while longer, everyone decided to settle in for a while. Bonnie climbed onto the top of the RV to keep watch for a while. Clementine and Sarah sat inside the RV for a while with AJ who was sleeping in a small box they used for him as a crib. Jane kept watch from outside, causally walking around the area with her arms crossed.
At one point, Clementine quietly snuck into the bedroom to check on Mike. The older man was in the bed resting for his injuries. His grey hoodie was torn up slightly due to bear's attack and he had bandages preserved around him to keep him stable until they could find proper medical help. At least he was still breathing.
Not wanting to disturb him, Clementine quietly closed the bedroom door and sat back down at the table with Sarah.
"Is Mike okay?" Sarah inquired. She liked Mike as a friend and did not want him to die from his injuries.
"He's okay." Clementine reassured her older friend. "It might take a while before he gets better again, but I'm sure he will be better in no time."
"That's good." Sarah agreed.
A couple of moments later, Lee and Luke returned, holding some wood and rocks for them to build a fire to boil their water and maybe keep them warm for tonight. They been on the road for a long time now and they could do with a rest from sitting in a moving vehicle all the time.
"We're back." Lee announced, dropping the wood down in an area they could light the fire.
Lee and Luke set down the wood and rocks until they were done. Now all they needed was an actual fire. Clementine came outside from the RV and took out her butterfly lighter.
"I got it." Clementine assured as she clicked the lighter a few times until the fire lit. It was hard to believe it still worked, especially after falling into an freezing cold water at that frozen lake. She placed her lighter near the wood until the wood lit up in flames and got a nice fire started.
"Good job, Clem." Lee praised as he went inside the RV to get the pot. He returned a moment later and set it down next to the fire.
Everyone grabbed the bottles full of river water they found and tipped it all into the pot until there was not a drop left in any of the bottles. Now that it was full, Lee proceeded to place the pot on top of the fire and they all they had to do was wait patiently until the water was boiled and any harmful effects in the water was destroyed.
As the sun began to disappear and the night arrived, the group gathered around the fire for the night. After eating some food to keep their hunger level low and their energy high. Now they were sitting around the fire to keep them warm for a while until it was time to go again.
Right now, Jane was telling the group a funny incident that happened to her as a kid. "When it was my turn to get up while I was waiting for the doctor, my left leg had completely fallen asleep on me. As I stood up, I lost feeling in my leg and fall over face first onto the ground."
This got a good laugh out of everyone.
"I bet it was embarrassing." Clementine spoke up with a smile.
"Damn right." Jane agreed with a smile in return. "Anyone else got a funny incident to tell?"
Lee raised his hand as if he were in a classroom asking for permission. "I got one. When I was a kid, I always had trouble getting of bed because I was always too lazy. My mom came into my room one day and decided to play a tuba right in my ear. I literally jumped out of my bed. I swear I went deaf in my ear."
The others chuckled in response. Now it was Luke's turn to tell a funny story.
"When Nick and I started our own pawn shop business, we were carrying some fridge inside or shop that someone wanted to sell. It was going well, and then Nick lost his grip and dropped his side of the fridge onto his foot. He screamed like a girl and jumped around while holding his foot like a cartoon character."
While it did not seem that funny since Nick could have broken his foot, everyone laughed hysterically for a moment. How they missed Nick and the others. The only good thing about their friends being gone was that they could finally be at peace and were probably together in Heaven with their friends and family.
Jane or Mike had never got the chance to meet Nick, but from what they told them about him, they probably would have liked to have met him along with his uncle Pete and Alvin too. How they wished there was a way to go back in time and prevent them from dying. It was all Carver's fault they were dead. They never felt so relieved when Lee had killed him.
Before long when the fire began to die out, the group got their supplies and hoped back into the RV where it would be safe to sleep for tonight rather than outside. However, just to be safe, Lee drove a couple of miles down the road in case any walkers or people stumbled upon their previous fire.
When all was clear, Lee parked the RV and everyone got to sleep for the day, secretly hoping they could find somewhere permanently safe soon.
And that's chapter 9, folks. How much longer will the group keep coming close to death and getting away from it unscathed? Their luck won't hold out forever. Stay tuned for chapter 10.