Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Three: Chad

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. Tom removes Donald's leg with an axe, hoping to prevent the fatal infection from spreading, all whilst Clementine is watching. Over at a nearby Shop-And-Drive, Chad spots an RV approaching the gas station, the first visitors he's received in a long time, and grabs his shotgun.

They had been driving for nearly an hour when Alex spotted the small flat building at the side of the lonesome highway. Perhaps it wouldn't have taken them long if the highway road hadn't been littered with cars; each one missing an owner and starting to gather cobwebs. Once he made out the letters above the small glass building, and the gas pumps sitting in front of it, Johnny pulled into the dirt road that led to the station. He was making his best attempt to park the RV against one of the station's pumps when he heard the RV's door open.

Lilly was out of the RV before it had even fully come to a halt. She marched out of the door with her rifle in its sling over her left shoulder, and her pistol grasped tightly in both hands. The rest of the group watched as Lilly prowled towards the store below the large letters that read: SHOP AND DRIVE. Lilly held her breath as she slipped through the gas pumps between her and the door to the store, keeping an eye out for walkers and other dangers. There was fair amount of walkers surrounding the gas station, easily over fifty, but they were so spread out that one could easily slip through them. They would only be a threat as one collected group, but these walkers didn't exactly think so strategically, or so Lilly thought.

As she slowly approached the door, hung on which was a double-sided sign reading: CLOSED, Lilly turned to see the RV had stopped in its tracks. She caught eyes with Johnny in the driver's seat – he seemed lost as he gazed across the green and summery fields surrounding the gas station. A sudden high-pitched bell-ringing made Lilly turn back to the store door, which was now wide open. In the doorway stood a short and plump young man. His hair went down to his chin, and hazel sideburns smothered his cheeks. He wore a tank top vest, dirty with blood and sweat. However, right now Lilly's attention was on the shotgun that the man now had raised at Lilly.

It had been almost 6 months since Chad had even seen another woman, so Lilly was certainly a sigh for sore eyes. But that didn't keep Chad from keeping his shotgun firmly raised, with the barrel pointed at her belly. The woman was crouched down, causing Chad to believe she was planning on sneaking past him and stealing some supplies. If he hadn't seen her, maybe she'd have even tried to kill him in his sleep. The thought caused Chad to take the safety off of his shotgun. He held it tight with his eye down the sight of weapon as he barked a question at Lilly.

"What do you want? You tryin' ta steal from me?" Chad growled in a grisly southern accent.

Lilly looked behind her, hoping the rest of the group had already come to her aid. But she saw nobody. The RV was still there however, so she was at least grateful that her so called "friends" hadn't abandoned her just yet.

"I'm sorry for sneaking up on you," Lilly apologised as she slowly stood up, her hands raised to avoid panicking Chad. "We just need some gas."

Something behind Lilly caught Chad's eye. "That lil' girl over there yours?" He asked without taking either of his hands off his treasured gun.

Lilly turned slowly. She saw Clementine's peeping out of the RV door. When she realised the two had seen her, Clementine opened the door all the way. Christa stood beside her.

"Yeah, she is." Lilly lied through her teeth to Chad, hoping it would grant her her life.

Chad lowered his gun, taking one of his hands off of it. He waved at Clementine and smiled, revealing missing teeth. Clementine then waved back, but she didn't find it so easy to smile.

Lilly followed Chad into the store and heard the bell clang as she pushed through the glass door. Clementine, Tom, Johnny and Alex all followed, curious to see what the Shop-And-Drive had to offer. Lilly followed Chad back to the counter. He sat back in his chair and put his legs up once again, letting his guests make themselves at home. The store was made up of three aisles. The first ended with the counter and included miscellaneous products like chewing gum, crossword books and magazines. Clementine even spotted some batteries. Clementine jumped at the sight of the batteries, her walkie-talkie had died moments after hearing a voice on the other side. She remembered that moment clear as day. She was still inside the RV whilst the other were trying to help Donald. Christa had told Clementine to stay inside the RV, but when she heard another voice coming from the radio, Clementine wanted to show Christa herself. But she had opened the RV door just in time to see what the others had done to Donald, and that image still haunted Clementine.

Outside, Christa watched Clementine through the store's window as she topped up the RV's tank with fuel from the closest gas pump to them. She had left Omid in the care of Alice, who was now balancing her husband and Omid alone. At the same time, Coach stood on watch for any walkers. Many zombies circled the gas station, but so far none had drifted to near to threaten the group. Christa then looked at Lilly, who was keeping Chad's eyes on her whilst Christa took some gas from under his nose. She began to fill one of the empty gas cans using the fuel pumps, and then her thoughts drifted to Lilly. She wondered if she could be trusted, as she had only met her a couple of days ago. But then Christa remembered, the whole group was made up of strangers. She was just glad that Clementine was finally safe. She would do anything to keep her from harm. She had to – she had made a very important promise to a dear friend. Christa was then jolted by a sudden throbbing from inside of her. She put her hand on her belly, and felt a second kick. Although the pain was great, Christa knew what it signified, and it made her weep with joy.

Back inside the station, Johnny and Alex explored the store's second aisle. Most of the shelves were bare, but the two spotted the occasional loaf of bread and tin of vegetables – nothing that excited either of them. The two were silent. There was so much they needed to talk about, but this was not the time or the place. Alex then felt something tug the back of his jacket softly. He turned to see Clementine stood their innocently. Johnny then turned also, and got on one knee when he saw her so that his height didn't intimidate the little girl. Alex did the same, and listened to what she had to say.

"Could you get me some batteries?" She asked the two boys, who she now looked to as siblings after their time on the road.

"Just take them, Clem," Johnny insisted. "Nobody will mind."

"But ask the man at the counter first," Alex said, slight patronisingly. The two of them took Clementine to the counter where Chad and Lilly talked.

"So, how long have you been out here?" Lilly asked Chad, who was barricading himself from any social interaction with one of his comic books.

"How long ago did the dead start walking?" Chad answered her question with a question as he flicked through his book. Lilly thought about the question, deciding it had to have been a little under six months since the outbreak. She realised Chad had been all alone this entire time, which was probably why he made for such a poor conversationalist.

"Hey, you mind if we take a couple of packs of these batteries?" Johnny asked. Lilly hadn't seen him, Alex and Clementine approach the counter, but she was glad to see them all together.

"That'll be five bucks," Chad spat out, still not taking his eyes off his comic.

Johnny laughed, assuming Chad was joking. He stopped when Chad finally put the comic book down, and showed just how serious he was. "You're joking, right?" He asked.

"Do I look like a comedian to you?" He said, holding out his hand. Tom had also just showed up after finding nothing of interest in the frozen aisle, which had been completely sacked of any meats or other food.

"What good is our money now?" Alex asked, struggling to understand Chad's logic.

"I get people like you coming in here all the time," Chad explained, "People who have obviously been through a lot to get here. By the time they show up, simple things like batteries or fuel or damn bottles of water are like diamonds in a turd. I see people look at fresh, clean water like they've never seen anything like it, and that's how I know that I don't want anything to do with the world out there. Sooner or later, the military are gonna show up and sort out this mess once and for all, and you people won't believe that you resorted to cannibalism and killing each other to stay alive. There are people out there who have done truly evil things to survive, so don't act like I'm the bad guy just because I want some money in my pocket when things do get back to normal. And they will get back to normal."

They were all silent for a long time after what Chad said. Lilly considered what Chad had said whilst Alex looked sorry he'd asked. As for Tom, a smug smile showed that he was happy to see that he wasn't the only one foolish enough to think that being rescued wasn't out of the question just yet. Eventually, it was Johnny who pulled a five dollar bill from his wallet, and placed it in Chad's had that had remained out through his entire speech. Chad put the bill in his cash machine as though he was living a typical Sunday afternoon at work. He tipped his hat at his customers one by one as they left.

Before he left, Alex turned to Chad. "Does this place have a toilet?" He asked him.

"Yeah. Door to the right at the end of the third aisle," Chad replied pointing to his right.

Alex headed to the third aisle and eventually found the big red door Chad spoke of.

Everybody had left the store now. Clementine walked back to the RV with Johnny, and Tom followed them a few steps behind. However, Lilly had spotted something on her way out, and was inspecting it still whilst the others headed back to the RV.

Chad noticed Lilly unfolding the map of Savannah as he counted the money in his cash machine. "That's two bucks. One –fifty if you have a store card," Chad joked. He laughed at himself as he finished counting his profits. When he looked back up, he noticed Lilly was about to open the store door and walk out. Chad grabbed his shotgun as he swiftly slipped around the counter. With both hands he raised his gun at Lilly for the second time within the hour. She still had her back turned to Chad when he cocked his gun and yelled at her to stop. When Lilly finally turned, Chad could see that she was smiling, and that made him very nervous.

"I hope you were going to pay for that," Chad said, still unsure why Lilly was smiling at him.

"You're not going to shoot me," Lilly told Chad. "If you do, you'll draw every walker within a mile from here to you, and your money will be no good then."

Chad realised what Lilly was saying, and he slowly began to lower his gun as Lilly stuffed the map into the back of her trousers. Lilly then opened the door, and heard the bell ring once again. It was music to her ears – the sound of victory. But the sound that followed took her completely by surprise. The first thing she heard was the glass of the store's window shatter. Blood was sprayed across the tiny fragments of glass that hit the floor and shattered into even smaller pieces. Chad dropped his gun, and held his neck with both hands. He fell onto his behind, and leaned back against the counter, blood flowing from his neck. The bullet had only grazed his neck, but that hadn't stopped blood from pouring from Chad's wound. He choked as he tried to put pressure on his neck. Lilly ran to him, putting both her hands around his neck. The bullet wound was deeper than she'd thought. Chad wasn't going to make it. Lilly turned to call for help, but she was silent when she saw Alex stood with his gun still raised and smoking from the bullet he had just fired.

"What the fuck did you do?" Lilly screamed at Alex, who was still motionless after shooting Chad. Blood was still pouring from his neck, but Lilly was more concerned about the dozens of walkers the sound would surely attract. She had hoped that after the incident on the hilltop, Alex would have learned. But some people obviously never did. She sighed as she let go of Chad's neck, realising there was nothing she could do. "I'm sorry," she said. She got back on her feet and headed for the door. Alex looked at Chad, and wondered if he should apologise too. In the end, Alex left without saying a word.

Alex watched as Lilly climbed aboard the RV, slamming the door behind her. When Alex reached the RV, he immediately began pounding on the door. He looked around him, he could already see the walkers surrounding the site from every angle. The door opened, and Johnny offered Alex a hand. He grabbed it and was pulled into the RV. Tom slammed his foot down onto the acceleration and sent the RV back on the dirt road, turning its back on Chad and the Shop-And-Drive. Clementine looked out the rear window of the RV where she saw something crawl out of the store door. At the time, she thought it was a walker, but she later realised that is had been Chad, likely cursing them all for leaving him to die.

He pulled himself out of the store and onto the concrete ground, leaving a trail of blood from inside the store to the ground between the store and the first set of gas pumps. When he made it there, Chad realised he couldn't make it any further. He saw blurs of walkers approaching from every direction. He knew eventually they would crowd around him and slowly devour him. I won't become one of them, he thought to himself. I can't. He opened his shotgun, which he had carried all the way out there. There was one bullet left inside. For about a minute, Chad laid on his back and was simply alone with his thoughts. But when he heard the groans of the walkers grow nearer, he knew he would have to make a choice soon. He was going to die, he knew that much. But how he died was up to him.

Next time on The Walking Dead: After Paul's death, Molly and her group make a desperate call for help to Clementine and her group. After losing their home at the hilltop, the group of survivors argue over whether or not to return to Savannah and help Clementine's friends. Many of the group's members clash, and chaos follows. Molly and her friends are quickly running out of time, but how can Clementine and her group hope to save them if they can't even work together?

Thanks to everyone who left feedback on my last chapter update. Although I didn't reach my aim of reviews, I did hit 1,000 views, which is crazy! So thanks everyone again for reading. Chapter Four is ready to be uploaded, so if you want to see it go up today, leave a REVIEW.

Take Care

-George