Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Six: To The Roof

Previously on The Walking Dead: On their way back to Savannah to find Molly and her friends, members of the group collided, and with near-fatal consequences. Tom brutally beat Alex for poisoning his daughter until Johnny intervened. The fight was split up by Lilly, but the group began to lose trust in each other. When they finally arrived in Savannah, the group find their path blocked by an enormous swarm of walkers infesting the city's streets. Now, with Molly and Todd trapped on the roof of The Marsh House trapped with their bitten and soon to turn friend, the group must find a way there to rescue them before it's too late.

Lilly could smell the zombies from within the RV; that familiar stench of rotting flesh filled her nose until her eyes began to water. The group had become familiar with herds, but this was unlike anything they had seen before. The swarm of walkers before them was more like an army; each soldier moaning and shrieking incomprehensible cries of pain and suffering as they reached and clawed the air before them, slowly making their way to the RV. As the swarm piled over each, coming closer and closer to the RV, Lilly knew she needed a plan. Some way of making it through Savannah and to The Marsh House and surviving this horde. But she had nothing. There was no plan, no opportunity, no hope left. The only option they had was to turn back, but Lilly knew that, as far as Clem and Alex were concerned, that wasn't an option to even be considered.

"SO?" Johnny cried out to Lilly who stood over him, still taking in the size of the walker horde before them. "WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW!?" He asked her in a voice that was much louder and much higher-pitched than usual thanks to the panic that was now flowing through his veins. Lilly could already see his hands shaking on the steering wheel. Realising that Lilly had nothing, Johnny looked around him, hoping to find some answer. But Alex was still asleep beside him, and Clementine stood by him with both hands on her radio – likely traumatized by the army of terror she had seen through the RV's windscreen. The rest of the group stood outside the driver's cabin, their heads peeping through to witness the massive size of the herd for themselves. Johnny put his right hand firmly around the gearstick – an idea sparking in his mind like a lightbulb. He was ready to slam his foot down on the accelerator and plow through the endless wave of walkers when the loud ringing sounds of a bell in the night sky stopped him in his tracks.

At first, Johnny thought that he may have just been hearing things. But when he exchanged looks with the rest of the group, he could immediately tell by the look on their quizzing and confused faces that they had heard the bell too. "WHAT THE HELL WAS-" Tom shouted from the back of the RV, confused and maybe even scared by the sounds of the bell ringing. "Shhh!" Johnny interrupted him, pressing a finger to his own lips as he did so. "Be quite you moron!" Tom looked down, almost looking ashamed in himself for acting so stupidly. For a moment, the group's focus was on Johnny. They could hardly believe Johnny had just put Tom down like that. Coach's big hairy eyebrows were raised high up on his head making him look pretty impressed by Johnny. Christa and Omid shared a worried look with each other, and Omid put a hand on Clementine's shoulder. Briefly, the group simply admired Johnny for silencing Tom, but their undivided attention was drawn back to the horde of walkers when they spotted the first walker turn to face the bell tower where the ringing sounds were still coming from, stare quizzically at the tower for a few long, excruciating seconds, and eventually leave the street through an alley to its left and follow the sounds of the ringing.

Walker after walker followed the first through the alley towards the bell tower as the ringing continued. It had only taken a single walker for the rest to pile in behind him and follow him out of the street. The RV remained still, so still it may even have been hidden in the dark of the night. Johnny's heart was thumping in his chest as the walkers stumbled and crawled and eventually disappeared through the alleyway, following the first walker like some kind of messiah. Johnny studied the bell tower in the distance, barely able to make out the shape of it in the night sky. He could clearly see the golden bell swing from side to side, and for just a moment, he thought he could see a shape beside it, dwarfed by its extraordinary size, pulling a rope with all their might and ringing the bell. The ringing was all Johnny could hear now, the withered moans and cries of the walkers having whisked away, which may have been why he didn't hear Lilly at first. "Johnny!" He finally heard Lilly shout in his ear loud and sudden enough to make him jump out of his skin. "We can go now," she told him, nodding at the view outside the windscreen. Johnny had been so distracted by the figure in the tower ringing the bell with hefty pulls of that rope, that he hadn't noticed the horde of walkers blocking the street had mostly dispersed, leaving only about a dozen lurkers wandering the street aimlessly, bumping into lampposts and newspaper vendors as they wandered. Johnny looked back to the tower – the figure had vanished. Typical, Johnny thought as he put the RV into motion again. He drove the RV slowly through the street, moving around the occasional walker in their path, as the rest of the group took their seats. When he heard confused murmurs coming from beside him, Johnny turned to see Alex sat up, his eyes finally back open (although he was only able to open his black eye a mere inch). Alex's face was a mess. The bruises had sent his cheeks a dark shade of purple, and his nose and mouth still showed cuts and cracks that bled from time to time. "What happened?" He tried to say through cracked, parched lips. Johnny barely heard him, but he wasn't the one who answered his question – he wouldn't even have known where to begin. "Someone saved us," Clementine said from between the two, though neither of them had noticed she was still there. Johnny looked to see Alex's reaction to Clementine's brief but truthful explanation, but all he responded with was a simple thumbs up gesture and a cheesy grin that made him look as though he'd been smoking weed. After that, Alex fell straight back to sleep, and Johnny laughed.

Omid kept an eye on Clementine, who had remained in the driver's cabin with Johnny and Alex, as he sat with Christa, his hand in hers. Still shaken by the events that had transpired earlier that day, Omid couldn't help but be concerned for her safety around Johnny, who had almost killed another member of their group mere hours ago. When he looked away from Johnny, he met eyes with Tom briefly. Omid quickly moved his gaze elsewhere, not wanting to look Tom in the eye. Killers were all around him, he soon realised. Right now, the only people he felt he could really trust were Christa, Clementine and himself. Which was why he had been considering leaving the group, finding a vehicle and finding somewhere else to settle just with Christa and Clem. Though he hated the idea of abandoning these people, he had come to learn that staying in a group like this would never work out. He had made an important promise to Lee, and it was one he and Christa were going to keep. He felt Christa's soft touch as she stroked his hand delicately, as though he was so fragile he could break at any minute. "Are you okay?" He heard Christa ask him. He thought about the question for a few long seconds. "Fine," Omid lied through his teeth. He was pretty far from fine. Two people had died since they had joined the group at the camp on the hilltop; a wife and daughter. In the aftermath, three people had almost killed each other. They had even left an innocent man to die back on the highway. Omid had begun to wonder what kind of a group he had joined. What kind of a group he had allowed Clementine to be a part of. He hadn't been sure about them from the start, and today three more people had almost died. He wasn't going to let anything happen to Clementine. Not ever. Even if it meant abandoning these people and the three of them taking their chances on their own. "Are you sure you're okay?" Christa asked again, sounding more concerned than the first time. Omid looked down to realise he was shaking. He plastered another fake smile across his face and was about to spit out another lie when Christa gasped loud, grabbing her chest. She seemed in pain as she breathed in and out slowly, trying to cool herself and ease whatever the pain was. She was squeezing Omid's hand tight now, but when she looked up she was smiling like he'd never seen her smile before. He looked down where Christa was rubbing her chest, and smiled back at her. He knew exactly what she was so ecstatic about, and it made him lean in and plant a wet kiss on her cheek. "Never better," he finally told her.

Clementine shook Johnny's shoulder alarmingly when she first saw the golden letters of The Marsh House come into view. "That's it! That's it!" She screamed with excitement, as though Johnny somehow hadn't already worked that out from the bold, blatant letters that spelt out: THE MARSH HOUSE. The RV came to a halt outside the steps of The Marsh House, and Clementine ran back to Christa and Omid. Lilly quickly shot up to arm her rifle and load some weapons for the group, she smiled at Clementine as she zoomed past her. "We're here!" Clem told Christa and Omid as she jumped up and down like a child about to open their Christmas presents. Next to her, Lilly handed pistols to Johnny and Alex. When they were both up and armed, Lilly approached Christa and Omid. "So, are all three of you tagging along?" Lilly asked Christa, Omid and Clem. Omid and Christa shared an uncertain look. "You're not going alone," Omid told Christa, and the two took their weapons.

"What about Clementine?" Lilly asked the two, watching Clementine as she changed the batteries in her walkie-talkie.

"What about her?" Christa asked her back, unsure what she was implying.

"Is she coming with us or not?"

"Why would I even dream of bringing Clementine with us?" Christa asked Lilly sarcastically, rubbing Lilly the wrong way. Omid, meanwhile, looked unsure, as though he was considering bringing Clementine with them.

"Because she needs to learn to fend for herself," Lilly explained with deadly seriousness. "We all do. We've already lost too many people; people who died because they couldn't protect themselves or each other." Lilly looked at Tom, whose head was bowed. He was clearly thinking about his late wife and daughter. "Clementine's lucky to have you two to protect her. Very lucky." She paused, her thoughts were of her father for a brief moment. "But you won't be able to protect her forever."

Lilly gave the two of them a moment for her words to sink in. When she pulled a pistol from her satchel and placed it in Clementine's hands, Christa didn't say a word to intervene. Lilly looked up at Omid, who still seemed concerned. "Don't worry," she told him, "the safety's on," and winked.

It was Tom, Coach, Donald and Alice who remained in the RV whilst the others searched The Marsh House for Molly and her group. Donald had finally managed to stay awake for more than five minutes, but Alice still remained by his side. Tom watched the two enviously as Alice swept Donald's sweaty forehead with a wet towel and fed him water regularly. When Alice caught him staring, she offered him a look of loathing and disgust, which Tom didn't understand. He had saved her husband's life by removing his leg, and yet she'd gone out of her way to avoid him and had never come close to even thanking him. Tom had had a shitty day, that was the only truth he could think of. Not being in the mood for the wild goose chase in the walker-infested hotel the others had been so eager to take part in, Tom had remained in the RV, claiming that climbing those stairs and running from walkers would not have been good for him with his heart condition. Although he hadn't had any problems since being at the hilltop, he wasn't looking to get his heart racing again just in case. Instead, he handed the RV keys to Coach and told him to be ready to drive out of Savannah when the others returned. "And if they don't," he explained to Coach, "I don't have to tell you that we shouldn't wait around for too long." Coach nodded, seemingly understanding every word he said. "Don't hang around, Coach. You see too many walkers get near, get us the hell out of here. We got a cripple and a woman in the back after all."

The gloomy hallways had been engulfed by darkness – swallowed up by the apocalypse, its life sucked out of it, and spat back out. The end of the world had transformed the once golden, rich and beautiful glowing hallways of The Marsh House into endless paths of dank, depressing cold. The group weaved through the corridors, pushing aside the occasional cobweb or abandoned suitcase that blocked their path. The gun in her hand was heavy, pulling Clementine down to look like a hunchback. But when she noticed Lilly was watching her, Clementine stood up straight and marched by her side with the pistol in her hand. She didn't know why she was trying to impress Lilly so, but she felt like she was doing so in the right way. When they came to a corner, Clementine marched ahead, took cover by the wall, and peeked over the corner to check it was clear. It was. There wasn't a walker in sight. Lilly looked impressed and even told her "Good job," in a firm but friendly manner, which pleased Clem a lot. She didn't know why she had taken to Lilly so much. As much as she tried, she couldn't forget what Lilly had done – the people she'd killed. But for some reason, Clementine saw a lot of good in Lilly too. Lilly had lost her father just like Clem had, yet she'd still managed to pull through and survive for this long. That, Clementine admired.

"We need to take the stairwell to the roof," Lilly said, her voice echoing through the halls. The group approached another corner. Clementine was about to run towards it to take cover and impress Lilly again, but when she heard groans echo through the hallway, Lilly grabbed Clem's backpack and pulled her back. She shook her head at Clementine - this was no time to get cocky. Clem heard four guns click behind her when the group identified the groan as the sounds of a walker approaching. Clementine turned to see Omid struggling to figure out his pistol. Eventually, Christa grabbed his gun and cocked it for him. Clementine followed in everyone's footsteps and cocked her pistol. She could see the shadow now. The abnormal shape shuffled closer and closer until the walker finally reared its ugly head, appearing from around the corner. It groaned and clawed at the air as it drooled black liquid from its frothing mouth. The walker's skin was more pale than Clementine was used to, it may have been that it had only turned recently. It's clothes were also still intact, bearing only slight rips and tears. But the football jacket was covered in blood, and Clementine could see now that its chest had been opened, its entrails leaking from its open chest. The walker stumbled closer and closer to the group, and Clementine raised her gun.

"You can do it, Clementine," Lilly told her confidently, nodding at the walker fumbling towards them.

"What?" Clementine asked, looking at Lilly and Christa both. Christa was nodding in approval, encouraging Clementine.

"You can do it," Lilly insisted. "Just squeeze the trigger," she told her, as if it was that simple.

"I… I can…" Clementine tried to keep the gun raised, but the pistol was heavy. She began to struggle. The walker was getting closer now, the moonlight shone through the window it passed, revealing the walker's human face.

"Oh my God…" Alex muttered from behind Clem, having recognised the walker. "Paul…"

Paul came closer and closer to the group, swinging his claws through the air and crying out for a taste of fresh human meat. He shrieked, excited by the smell of food nearby, the sound was piercing. The shrieks cut through Clementine as her hands began to shake and her fingers around the trigger began to wobble. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger back. For the briefest instant, the room was lit up again by a blast of white light. The sound was deafening, and for a short while, Clementine felt nothing; her five senses all absent.

Next time on The Walking Dead: Clem and the group continue their search of The Marsh House for Molly and her friends, unaware of how unsafe they are. And Molly and Todd are forced to come to a decision of how to deal with Ryan, who has been bitten and is running out of time. Meanwhile, Tom's loyalty to the rest of the group is tested when walkers begin to surround The Marsh House, and he must decide whether to abandon his friends, or risk the safety of the rest of the group. As the two groups finally collide, only chaos is ensured to follow in Chapter Seven: By Your Side.