Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Two: Lost

Previously on The Walking Dead: After their camp is overrun by walkers, Clementine and the survivors are forced to flee the hilltop. But when they discover that Donald has been bitten, they are forced to take drastic actions. Back inn Savannah, Molly leads a group of scavengers through The Marsh House, where they find Clementine's walkie-talkie, a tool that will soon save their lives.

Chad was flicking through the pages of the latest issue of Invincible when he saw the walker approaching the station. At least, it was the latest issue before corpses started walking – now it was nearly six months old. After what Chad had started calling "The Apocalypse" began, TV and Radio stations fell silent, Newspapers stopped being printed, and the Earth stood still, or Savannah did at least. But the Apocalypse had been going on without interruption for nearly half-a-year now, and Chad had a bad feeling it wasn't nearing its end anytime soon, and that Savannah wasn't the only place where the dead had stopped staying dead. Some days he would wake up and pray that the military would be at his doorstep to tell him that the Apocalypse was over and the dead had been sent back to their graves. But when Chad saw that walker stumble its way past a couple of gas pumps and slowly near his store, he decided that that day was not today.

Chad set the comic aside. He sighed a long and exaggerated sigh as he made his way to the store's entrance. The walker outside had interrupted his reading, although he had read that very same comic perhaps twelve times. The bell rang as Chad pushed the door open and marched out to face the walker. Without fear, he marched to face the walker, pulling a hatched from the back of his pants as he did so. The walker swiped at Chad as he raised the hatchet and forced it into the walker's skull. It took another couple of blows before the walker eventually fell. Chad pulled the hatched from its skull, and took a moment to bask in the moment's ambience. After deciding that he had to have been one of the best walker killers around, and that he should have comics written about him when this nightmare was over, he headed back inside his store. He was greeted back inside by the familiar ring of a bell as he picked up his comic where he left off and finished it for the thirteenth time.

Clementine felt herself jump when the RV door swung open again. A weary Omid must have heard it too, he began to murmur something in a tired voice and then drifted off to sleep again. Tom made a mess of the RV's table tops and cabinets, spreading tins, cans, magazines and other junk all over the place before finally finding what he had been looking for. He found it underneath his woolly jacket, now soaked with his wife and daughter's blood. He tested the weight of the axe as he held it upright in front of him, gripping it tightly with both hands. He turned around to see Clementine looking right at him, unsure of his intentions. Did he need something to chop wood for a fire with? From the sombre look in Tm's eye, Clementine somehow knew that that wasn't the case.

Tom was back, gripping the axe with both hands. When he returned, the rest of the group stood back minus Lilly, and of course Alice who was still holding onto her husband's hand for dear life. Tom wondered what was going on as he handed the axe to Lilly. But when Lilly, with her arms crossed, didn't move to take it, he looked around him and Tom realised all eyes were on him. Johnny and Alex were looking at him softly, Alex looked ready to cry. Christa was looking at him, but when Tom glanced back at her she looked at the ground instead. Alice looked at him with eyes that pleaded, maybe even begged him to do what they'd agreed upon. Lilly looked back at Tom with a stern expression on her face, and nodded. Tom nodded back, taking the task upon himself. It was time. He stood before Donald, who finally opened his eyes, and raised the axe into the air. The last shine of moonlight the group witnessed than night was reflected off of Tom's axe, nearly blinding Lilly. With his left hand Donald reached out and muttered something only Alice could hear. That was when Tom threw down the axe with all of his strength, as though he was chopping wood again. The horrifying noises that followed; the crunch of the axe sinking into Tom's thigh, Alice's harrowing screams, Donald's deep and hoarse cries, didn't prevent Tom from pulling the Axe back out of his thigh, raising it and letting it fall again. Rinse and repeat, Tom thought to himself sadistically. The axe crunched again as it sank into Donald's flesh, smashing his thigh bone like a mirror. Tom pulled the axe back and raised it again, dripping with blood and with pieces of flesh clinging to the metal, still reflecting the beautiful pale moonlight. As the cold metal sank into Donald's warm flesh a third time, the process of which once again failing to earn any kind of a reaction from Tom, Tom realised he was well and truly lost.

It took a few minutes for any of them to speak about what they had heard on the radio, and not one of them was sure where to start. They had made it to the stairwell, and were heading up to the second floor when Paul said: "So… What the hell do you think that was?", he wasn't exactly famous for being able to break the ice.

"I don't know," Molly said eventually, and it was the truest thing she'd said all day. Molly didn't know what to make of the little girl and the screams that followed her. She only knew that their day couldn't have possibly been going any better than theirs.

The four of them reached the second floor and turned to climb the stairwell further. Instead of another flight of stairs, they were faced with a pile of tables, chairs and drawers that blockaded the path to the next floor. "Looks like someone tried to keep the walkers out," Ryan suggested.

"Or maybe they were trying to keep them in," Paul pointed out. His theory was as good as any other, but that didn't stop them.

"C'mon," Molly said, leading them through the door to the second floor's hallway. "We can cut through here to the stairwell on the opposite side of the floor." It wasn't the best plan she'd had, but she was starting to think that coming to The Marsh House at all was a bad idea altogether. She wasn't sure what she was hoping to find higher up in The Marsh House, at this point it didn't really matter, but something at the back of her mind just wouldn't let her leave. Not yet.

The screaming finally stopped. As the rain continued to fall, Donald fell silent and slipped into a deep sleep. Christa moved forward until she could see what Tom had done. The leg had been removed. Tom had cut just below Donald's knee, a few inches above where he had been bitten. Now, all they could do was wait and pray. Pray that their plan worked, and Donald would recover. Alice was also quite now – the hardest part was over. Her husband had held her hand so tight it had turned beat red. She unwrapped his fingers and set his hand down. Lilly touched Tom's arm with her hand, but this seemed to frighten the man as though he were a timid child. He shook when he felt her touch. Lilly looked at the axe that he still held in his left hand. Lilly nodded at Tom and he dropped the axe finally.

"How do we know if it worked?" Alex asked from behind most of the group, he was still hiding in the shadows. With his finger in his mouth he looked very nervous about asking the question, but it was something that needed to be known.

"We don't," Lilly answered honestly, "All we can do is pray." Lilly still couldn't believe what was in front of her. When she saw the flesh where Donald's leg ended spray blood, she turned away and sighed. She couldn't help but keep asking herself why.

Johnny had been quick to tie his white shirt around Donald's wounded leg, even if it meant being shirtless in the rain. Alex couldn't complain, and Christa wasn't sure that she could either. Everyone had done their part when it came to helping Donald, it had even been Christa's idea, but they all struggled to feel good about it.

Christa could have sworn she had heard Clementine's voice at some point during the ordeal, but her eye's never left Tom. His attitude towards his actions had genuinely left her unnerved. She expected Tom to have dropped the axe and cried after what he had to do, but instead he just stood there – motionless and emotionless. That night left Tom changed. Christa couldn't put her finger on what had happened to him, but he was never the same again. When she turned to let the others into the RV she saw Clementine standing there still and stiff as the rain fell onto her and dripped down her oversized baseball cap. Christa gasped, hoping to any God there might be that the little girl hadn't been forced to witness a single second of the act that had just occurred outside of that RV. But as she held the little girl tight in her arms, noticing the walkie-talkie in her hands, she wondered what kind of a God would let something like this happen.

This hallway was just as gloomy as the last, and didn't lack the same sinister feel it gave off. They were on the second floor now, hoping it had more to offer them than the first in the way of supplies. Paul's words earlier had left the group feeling unsettled. He suggested the idea that perhaps whoever blocked the stairwell up with tables and chairs may have been trying to keep the walkers in, meaning that they were walking straight into their territory. Molly picked up the pace, as soon as she saw the green exit light that pointed to the stairwell, still glowing amidst all this gloom, she headed straight for it. She kept low as she took long strides to the stairwell, keeping her head from getting tangled in the many cobwebs that decorated the ceiling. Before she went too far ahead, she turned to see where the others had gotten to.

I hope this is the bathroom, Paul thought as he stood in front of those double doors, squirming and fidgeting as he tried to avoid thinking about how much he needed to pee. The others had walked straight past the double doors, but something about them grabbed Paul immediately. Even after wiping away the thick layer of dust coating the door's glass, Paul still couldn't see through. On each side of the doors to the room there stood a plant pot, but the small tress inside each had died and fallen crooked. The entrance to the room alone reeked of death, but Paul was still curious to see what lingered behind those doors. His hands teased the door handles - he was ready to pull the doors open together to reveal the room's contents. The oak doors were calling to be opened now, and Paul took a deep breath. He grasped each of the handles tight and pulled back with all of his strength. When the doors opened, it took a while for Paul to call out to the others and alarm them of what was hidden in that room, but Paul knew one thing for sure: he didn't have to pee anymore.

"OH MY GOD!" Todd screamed when he saw the swarm of walkers. He was walking alongside Ryan, trying to catch up to Molly, when he heard Paul's cries. He wasn't sure what Paul shouted, but by the time he turned around, Todd could see the swarm of walkers marching out of the room closer and closer to Paul. A flash of orange flew past Todd and then he saw Molly take down one of the walkers. With Hilda buried in the skull of the first walker, Molly brutally punched the closest walker to her with the back of her fist. She pulled Hilda free – ready to fight. When Todd finally pulled himself back into the moment, he ran to Molly. Paul kept moving back until his back was against the wall, his eyes were still processing the display before him. Molly took down another couple of walkers and kicked another one back until the crowd of angry geeks had been pushed back into the lobby. Todd and Ran were already at the doors, ready to slam them in the geeks' faces. The last walker before Molly was on all fours. She kicked it in its chin, dislocating its jaw and sending it flying back into the lobby. It landed with a thumb in the middle of the crowd and hissed at Molly through venomous teeth one last time before the lobby doors were slammed in its face. Molly immediately weaved Hilda through the door's handles, keeping it shut for good, and the nightmare locked away.

The three of them were still catching their breath when Todd remembered Paul. He was happy to see Paul sat on the opposite side of the hallway, even though he looked ready to drop dead and join the walkers in the lobby. When Todd finally got his breath back, he smiled at Molly, whom he knew often got a joy out of taking walkers down. But this time it was different, Molly didn't smile back. This time, they almost hadn't made it. Todd realised then that they would have to start being much more careful.

"FUCK!" Ryan cried from beside him. "MOLLY! LOOK OUT!" Then, Todd saw it.

The walker wailed its arms at Molly from behind her. When she turned around, she saw how disgusting and vile a creature it was. It's jaw hung loosely, partly dislocated, and it's eyes stared deep into her as it bared its sharp bloody teeth – Molly wouldn't have been the creature's first meal that day. Todd wasted no time in taking Hilda, reaching over Molly's shoulder, and bashing the creature skull with Hilda's hilt. When the geek dropped to the carpet, Todd passed Molly and threw the ice tool down on its skull, this time using the sharp end. It sunk into the geek's brain, disabling it permanently. Having saved Molly's life, Todd thought that he may have looked pretty heroic, and he would have had he not embarrassed himself in the seconds that followed. He tried to tug Hilda back out of the creature's skull, but it was well-jammed into it. He pressed his foot against the walker's head to give himself some strength, pulled again, and freed Hilda from the walker's skull. However, the pull took him off his feet and he ended up falling onto his butt pathetically. When he got back on his feet, he realised he had removed the walker's head completely. Todd offered the ice tool back to Molly, but she put her hands up and said "Keep it. You just saved my ass with it after all." She smiled as Todd wiped Hilda, his newest treasure, clean using his shirt.

What followed reminded Todd that nowhere was safe, and that the four of them would never find somewhere completely safe so long as the dead were still walking. The first clue that everything wasn't as peachy as he thought came from the look on Molly's face. Todd was halfway through telling her an extremely cheesy joke when her face dropped – she looked terrified. Todd wondered if she'd heard the joked before, and reconsidered telling it. But then he realised that Molly was looking at something behind him, and before he knew it she had snatched Hilda out of his hands to tackle the walker that had just grabbed Paul. By the time Todd was brave enough to turn around and face the situation behind him, the walker was on top of Paul. He saw the beast tear a sheet of flesh from Paul's neck after it sank its teeth deep into him. It chewed Paul's flesh and was going in for another bite when Molly swung the ice tool down and cleaved through the walker's head. The walker fell beside Paul, but he didn't get back on his feet like Todd hoped. Instead. Paul lied there, trying to keep the blood from oozing out of the hole in his neck. With both hands, he pushed against his neck, but the crimson liquid kept flowing. A loud crashing noise made Todd turn around and see the lobby doors slam open. A crowd of walkers burst through the doors, and that was when all hell broke loose.

Todd watched Paul roll on his back, like a turtle that had gotten stuck, as the blood kept flowing from the gash in his neck. Molly stood in front of him, unsure of how she was supposed to feel. She had seen so many people die in the last six months, but she never got used to it. Ryan zoomed past Todd and to Molly. He grabbed her hand tight and pulled her away from Paul and down the hallway. For a moment, Todd felt jealousy, but when he turned to see the swarm of walkers rapidly approaching him, the familiar feeling of fear returned. The adrenaline pumping through his veins, he chased Molly and Ryan, who had already made it to the end of the hallway and through the door to the stairwell. Todd never looked back, but if he had, he would have seen his friend Paul being slowly devoured by walkers as he became lost in the swarm of hungry carnivores.

As soon as he made into the stairwell, where Molly and Ryan were waiting for him, Todd slammed the door behind and put his back against it; partly to reinforce it and partly due to the fact that he couldn't bear to stand any longer. When he was done catching his breath, he looked at Ryan and Molly, unsure of where to start. Where had it all gone wrong? Ryan's arm was around Molly who was brushed up closely against him Todd was angry, but didn't let it show. He felt guilty feeling jealous towards the two of them when he had just watched his friend die. He wiped the sweat away from his brow and tried to go through what had just happened in his head. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to punch Ryan right in the nose after he had ran away with Molly instead of helping Paul. And now Paul was gone, and a room-full of walkers had them trapped. But when Todd saw that the stairwell, leading up to the third floor and beyond, was clear and unblocked, Todd made his way up the stairs to the next floor. As he took to the stairs, Todd wasn't sure whether or not Ryan and Molly were following him – at that point, he didn't care.

That morning at the Shop-And-Drive gas station was the same as any other for Chad. He would wake up, check the station for walkers and remove any roamers that had wandered too closely, eat some cereal and find another crossword to do. Chad knew that when he did run out of crosswords, he would go truly insane. He could only pray that the government and their helicopters and tanks would have rolled in to save the day and the city by then. The gas station was in a desolate location, far out of the city, but not far enough that Chad couldn't see Savannah from his store. He hoped to God every day that there was still some life left in that city. Chad hadn't interacted with another human being for almost half a year now. The long lost feeling of hope finally returned to Chad when he saw an RV approach the station from the south. Chad wanted to cheer, but before he did so, he grabbed the shotgun placed by the counter, and checked to see if it was still loaded.

Next time on The Walking Dead: After the shocking events of Chapter Two, the group make their way out of Savannah. When they stop at a Shop-And-Drive gas station. the group meets Chad. It's here that the group make some startling realisations about themselves and each other. Lilly and Chad clash, with tragic consequences.

Hey guys! Big thanks to everyone who has favourited/followed/ this story so far. An even bigger thanks to those of you who have reviewed The Walking Dead: Season Two! I'm currently working on Episode Three, but all of Episode Two is ready to be uploaded! So, here's another one of my famous ultimatums. THREE REVIEWS and I upload the next TWO chapters on TUESDAY! So get typing, whether you want to leave a sentence or a whole essay on why you loved/hated it (hopefully you loved it). ;)

See you guys soon!

-George