Episode Two: Cry For Help

Chapter Eight: "We Don't Leave Friends Behind"

Previously on The Walking Dead: After finally arriving in Savannah, the group split up to find Molly and her friends. Clementine, Lilly, Johnny, Alex, Christa and Omid searched The Marsh House whilst the others waited in the RV for them to return. They found Molly and Todd on the roof, only to learn that their friend, Ryan had been bitten; and time was running out. Ryan turned and bit Alex, but Johnny shot his boyfriend to stop him form turning too. With walkers about to invade the roof, the group must find another way back to the RV before Tom and the others become tired of waiting and leave them behind. Episode Two: Cry For Help concludes in this final chapter!

Coach sat and watched as Tom continued to pace up and down the length of the RV, checking his watch and sighing every couple of minutes. Alice still sat beside her husband, who was fully awake now, but still barely opened his mouth. The others had been gone for almost an hour now, and Coach was getting worried. He bit on his fingernails, and watched Tom continue to march from left to right. Every now and again, Coach leaned forward and craned his neck to check for walkers through the windshield. He'd only seen the odd lurker pass the RV, and thanks to the headlights being switched off and the four of them remaining silent, each one had kept on moving and had disappeared back into the misty darkness from where they came.

"This is ridiculous," Tom said, checking his watch again. "We're like sitting ducks here. We stay here any longer and those things will sniff us out for sure!"

"Keep it down!" Alice whispered across the RV to Tom. "Keep shouting like that and they won't have to sniff us out to find us!"

"Coming here was a bad idea in the first place," Tom insisted, Coach could see he was panicking now. "We don't even know these people. They could be, thieves, killers or worse! And yet, we're all putting out asses on the line for them!"

"Not all of us…" Coach murmured under his breath loud enough for Tom to hear.

"Don't get smart with me," Tom told Coach, leaning down to look him in the eye. "Remember your place you little shit stain. Me and my family took you in when you had nothing. You owe me, and don't you forget that!" Tom explained all of this to Coach whilst pointing a fat finger in his round face. He looked over at the driver's cabin and through the windscreen, thick streams of raindrops now running down the glass, when he said: "Speaking of which, I think it's time to go."

At first, Alice couldn't see what Tom was pointing at on account of the raindrops covering the windscreen like curtains. But she soon made out a couple of blurred shapes coming closer to the windscreen, then another, and another. The shapes were dark figures, walking on two legs and staggering towards the RV, some with their arms raised as though they were begging for spare change. She could count over thirty walkers now, all closing in around the RV. It began to shake. At first, Alice blamed the storm passing over them, but then she saw the rotted hand flailing around the RV's windows, pushing from each side and leaving bloody handprints printed on the glass – a reminder that death now surrounded them. Tom's right, Alice realised suddenly. It's time to go.

That was when Coach got on his feet, reminding Alice of the man's incredible size. The giant of a man couldn't have stood much more than 6 foot 2, but it was the man's extraordinary width and muscle that made him appear so superhuman. The man resembled a wrecking ball.

"Get us on the first road out of this hellhole," Tom ordered Coach, looking around him warily, waiting for the first walker hand to smash through the weak glass and come clawing at his neck.

"No," Coach told Tom firmly as he made his way to the driver's seat. His answering back to Tom surprised even Alice. "We're not leaving them." That was when Coach repeated something he'd heard Clementine say earlier that day, and hadn't soon forgotten: "We don't leave friends behind," he turned and said to Tom's face, feeling the older man's breath on his face.

Tom stood motionless for a moment as Coach turned back and headed for the driver's cabin – he was losing control. That was when Tom made the second biggest mistake he'd made that day and put a hand on Coach's shoulder. "Listen, buddy-," Tom began to say before Coach shook his grizzled hand off his shoulder and the big man's enormous fist came soaring through the air to meet Tom's face. He felt the bones in his entire face rattle as the giant's fist came hammering through his face, sending him plummeting to the ground. Alice heard Tom's nose crack and gasped at the first sight of blood as Tom flipped onto his back to reveal his bloody mess of a face. Coach shook his bloody knuckles, and got in his seat. Tom sat up, still aghast at Coach's actions. He wiped his bloody nose with the sleeve of his jumper and braced himself as Coach slammed down the accelerator and rammed the first wave of walkers with the RV's bumper. Most of the walkers slipped under the RV, but the occasional one would come rolling over the bonnet, over the windshield, topple over the RV's roof and land behind it with a loud THUD. Eventually, Coach had steered the RV out of the swarm of walkers, and drove the vehicle down an alleyway beside The Marsh House. He was going to find his friends.

"Down here!" Molly bellowed directions loud enough for the entire group to hear. She pointed to a metal balcony that hung from the side of the rooftop. As Clementine got nearer, she could see a set of metal steps led down to another balcony below, and the layout was repeated until the metal steps reached ground level. Clementine was the first to go. The metal balcony creaked and racketed as she took each step one at a time with Christa and Omid following close behind her. Todd followed the three of them and Molly saw Johnny finally emerge from the other side of the roof, his head still bowed and wet tears still pouring from his red, tired eyes. He walked to the balcony, griping the bars tight as he followed Todd down the steps. That was everyone – if Molly still counted correctly. She shoved two fingers in her mouth and whistled a tune to Lilly, though she actually couldn't see the woman who had disappeared into the mist of darkness that now coated the rooftop. She could, however, hear the groans and cries of the walkers – Molly just hoped they were still on the other side of that door. When Lilly finally emerged from the dark mist, Molly smiled. But her heart sank when she saw the flood of walkers forming a crowd behind her. "GO!" Lilly screamed at the top of her voice, waving her arm and gesturing for Molly to move her ass. Molly joined the others as they made their way down the fire escape, and after a couple of loud rife shots that rang through the air, Lilly joined her too.

The fourth set of steps led to the final balcony. Still huffing and puffing, Clementine searched for another set of steps that would take them to ground level, but there was nothing, and they were still a good ten feet above the ground. Clementine heard gunshots ring above her, the sound bouncing off the metal frame of the fire escape and rattling her skull. "Oh shit," Christa cursed from behind Clementine after noticing the dead end. She tried to think of something, some other way, but there was nothing. "Up!" She finally decided. "Get back up!" She tried to usher the group back up the metal steps, but then she saw Lilly looking down at her from the top.

"That's not happening," Lilly told her, showing Christa her rifle to signify the army of walkers that had now flooded the roof. The notion seemed to upset Johnny.

"Alex…" He sobbed under his breath, realising that he would have been devoured by the walkers by now.

The group were stuck – trapped between an army of walkers and a ten foot drop. It was game over. At least, that was the thought going through all of their heads as the rain continued to beat down on them until a pair of white lights broke the pool of darkness underneath them and shone in their eyes, near-blinding them. At first, the two lights looked like they might have been the shining eyes belonging to some massive beast, but as the roaring monster came closer, Clementine saw that they were the headlights of a vehicle – and that vehicle was an RV.

"You guys look like you could use a little help," Coach said and chuckled, his head peering out of the window beside the driver's seat of the RV.

Christa looked around her, the rest of the group seemed happy enough to see the RV again, but how exactly did this help their current situation? "You wouldn't happen to have a ladder on that thing would you?" She asked Coach, knowing the answer.

"Nope," Coach said as he moved the RV closer to the metal balcony where the group gathered. "You're gonna have to jump."

"You can't be serious?" Christa asked Coach as she measured the distance between the roof of the RV and the balcony. Coach was moving the RV now, reversing the RV towards the balcony, but an awkwardly placed arrangement of recycling units kept Coach from being able to park the RV right up against the balcony, and the units were too low to be able to bridge the gap. Christa soon realised that jumping was their only option.

Looking down at the gap made Christa feel queasy. She felt light-headed as she measured about seven foot between her and the RV. But the balcony was higher up, giving them an advantage. If she were to jump, she would have to climb up onto the balcony and jump from the top of the railing which disallowed her a running start. She knew one thing for sure; she sure as hell wasn't going first.

As the first few walkers began to circle the RV, Omid climbed up onto the railing. Clementine saw him take a deep breath before he leapt into the air and flung himself to the roof of the RV. Everyone's hearts stopped as they watched Omid fly for a good couple of seconds, though the jump seemed to last a lifetime. He slammed into the back of the vehicle, his legs dangling over the back. He forced himself up until his entire body was on the roof of the RV. Although he laid still for a couple for a couple of seconds, likely catching his breath, he eventually sat up and gave the group a big thumbs up. Now, Clementine was up. Christa helped her up onto the railing and kept her balance as she braced herself for the jump. On the roof of the RV, Omid held out his arms, ready to catch her. Like Omid, Clem took a deep breath. She crouched down and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she sprang up and lifted off into the air. For those long two seconds, Clem soared like a bird. Both her feet slammed onto the edge of the RV, and she threw out her hand for Omid to grab. He clutched her hand and pulled her into his arms before she could fall backwards. So far so good, Christa thought to herself optimistically, realising she was next up.

Walkers had begun to surround the RV, likely attracted by the loud THUD sounds each of them had made jumping the gap. They were mostly harmless, however, simply rocking the RV from side to side like a see-saw. Every now and again, Coach would drive the RV back and forth a few feet to shake the walkers off. But of course, he was careful not to do this when someone was jumping. Christa and Molly had both made the jump successfully. It was Todd's turn to jump as Tom opened up the hatch in the RV's roof to start letting people in. He quickly ushered Omid and Christa inside, but Clementine remained on the roof in Molly's care. Clementine turned sharply at the sound of another THUD as Todd closed the gap between the balcony and the RV – just about. Molly and Clem could see his hands where he had grabbed the back of the RV, his face peering slightly above enough to see his eyes. As Molly grabbed one hand and Clementine the other, together the two pulled Todd up onto the roof. He laid on his back for a while, still catching his breath, until he eventually disappeared into the RV, but not before he thanked Molly and Clem a few short of twenty times for saving his life. He was followed by Lilly, the sound of her boots hitting the RV's roof creating the loudest THUD so far. Lilly, however, did not require any help jumping the gap. Instead, she brushed herself off and joined the others in the RV. Clementine looked across the gap to see Johnny balancing himself on the railing as the fire escape continued to squeal and rattle. He looked terrified as the fire escape began to loosen from its hinges behind him.

Clementine couldn't tell if those were raindrops or tears running down Johnny's cheeks, but the sounds of Johnny whimpering and sobbing suggested the latter. Johnny rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand whilst the other held tight to a metal bar above him, keeping him balanced on the railing. For the longest time, Johnny didn't move. As though he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to jump or not. Then, something drove Johnny to push himself off his feet and into the air. Molly held out her hand, sure that he was going to make it. But Johnny kept falling before them both. At the last second, his hand lurched and grabbed the RV, and his body slammed against the back of the vehicle, shaking the entire RV. Then, his second hand grabbed the roof. Johnny was now dangling from the roof of the RV, desperately clinging to the edge of the roof. Molly and Clem raced forward, each grabbing one of Johnny's arms. When she came close to him, Clementine could clearly see that Johnny was in fact crying.

"Pull him up!" Molly told Clementine as she tried to heave Johnny onto the roof, but she wasn't strong enough.

"It's okay!" Johnny insisted. "I could climb down," he explained as he looked below him. He was sure that he would be able to climb down the back of the RV and jump inside from ground level. At least, he was before he saw the walker staggering towards him. From where he hung, Johnny could see the walker clawing for his leg, it's venomous teeth visible as it screamed for a taste of human flesh. "PULL ME UP!" He screamed at the two.

The walker swung at Johnny's leg uncontrollably until one of its claws ripped through his jeans, tearing his skin and drawing blood. Johnny cried in pain as Molly and Clem tried desperately to pull him up, but the walker had a hold of Johnny's leg now. The creature dug its claws into Johnny's thigh as it wrapped its cold, dead hands around him, leaning in to try and bite a chunk out of his ripe leg. Clementine pulled and pulled, but Johnny would not shift.

"Let him go," a voice bellowed from behind the two. Clementine turned, still clinging desperately to Johnny's arm, to see Tom poking his head out the open hatch to the RV. "Just let him go," Tom repeated, hoping the two would listen this time.

Clementine looked back at Johnny. His eyes seemed to tell her to listen to Tom. When he spoke, all he said was : "Please…", though Clementine wasn't sure what that meant. Did Johnny want them to leave him?

Johnny looked below him. He could see the walker about to dig its venomous teeth into his leg when the pick of an ice tool came crashing down, tearing through its skull and hammering the beast into the back of the RV like a nail in a bloody mess. Molly pulled Hilda free and let the zombie slump to the ground. Finally, with their combined strength, Molly and Clem pulled Johnny to the roof of the RV. When his feet were finally on the roof, the three of them laid back on the roof where they stayed to catch their breath for a good few minutes. When Clementine looked back, Tom was gone, and the RV was on its way out of the city.

When they were finally back inside the RV, Molly and Clem helped Johnny to a seat beside Todd, ignoring the questions being fired across the vehicle. Lilly barked the same question repeatedly. "Was he bitten?" she asked interminably as they lowered Johnny, whom they assumed Lilly was talking about, onto the sofa. Johnny had gone pale. He was silent, and his eyes didn't appear to move. Johnny sat, shaking slightly whether it was from the cold or the shock, showing no signs of emotion, lost in a trance. Clem sat beside Molly as she tore apart Johnny's jeans, a little bit too eagerly, where the walker had scratched him. The walker had sunk its claws in deep, cutting a deep gash into Johnny's thigh and sending the skin surrounding the wound a sickly shade of purple. Molly wiped sweat from her brow as she wondered whether or not Johnny would survive this. Could just a successful swipe from a walker's claws kill him? Would she need to put a bullet between his eyes like she should have done with Ryan – but couldn't? Not killing Ryan had gotten another innocent person bitten and killed. Now the pressure was on her to make the same decision again, but this time make the right choice. She tore a loose strand of material from Johnny's jeans and wrapped it around his thigh, just above the bite. Johnny didn't scream, but he grabbed Molly's shoulder and bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as she tightened it around his leg. As Molly pulled the two ends of the knot together, tightening it as much as possible, Johnny squealed. "Cry baby," Molly called him with only a hint of venom. They smiled at each other seconds before Johnny passed out. "I'll take it from here," a woman said from behind Molly as she patted her on the back for her good work. Alice was already prepared with a bucket of water, a flannel and a first aid kit. She cleaned up Johnny's leg as Molly took a seat beside him. She didn't take her eye of Johnny for a second as she slowly went to sleep on Todd's shoulder.

Sat inside the RV, Clementine watched Johnny for the next hour. He didn't take his head out of his hands even once. Even when he started to cry, he did his best to cover his tears. What had happened back at The Marsh House had changed everything. Tom had told Clementine to leave Johnny to die, but she hadn't done that, even when it seemed that Johnny himself had wanted her to. She took a good look around her. Molly slept on Todd's shoulder next to Donald and Alice. Donald's face had lit up when Clementine showed him the crutches Johnny had found, but he hadn't gotten a chance to test them out yet, as Coach hadn't stopped driving since they left The Marsh House, and understandably so. Omid and Christa sat beside Clementine. Omid sat and did nothing but rub Christa's belly for the first hour, except for taking the occasional swig of whiskey when he thought nobody was looking. Sat opposite them, Tom was silent. He seemed to look at the entire group the same way these days: with contempt. It didn't matter who had been responsible for the loss of his wife and daughter, Tom hated the entire group all the same. That was, except for Lilly, who seemed to be the only person in the group who was anything like him, which was likely why they had butted heads in the past. The RV still silent, Clementine took the walkie-talkie out of her backpack and started talking, even though she didn't press the red button when she spoke.

"We found Molly," she said into the radio, "and her friends."

"Yeah, you did," Lee said, sat to her right. Lee put his arm around Clem the way he always used to. "You did good today, sweet pea."

Lee's words did not convince Clementine, however, whose mind was still on Alex and Johnny. The image of Johnny looking at her as she tried to pull him up onto the roof of the RV, his eyes begging her to just let go, had been cemented into her brain. "Lee… does Johnny want to die?"

"I don't know, Clem," Lee admitted, stroking her shoulder as he said so. "He's very upset about losing Alex, but there's no reason for him to give up like that. The kid's just lost, that's all. But he'll find his way. We all do.. in time."

"Yeah…" Clem murmured, still uncertain and still worried about Johnny, who had drifted off to sleep in front of her. "I miss you, Lee…"

"I miss you too, Clem," Lee told her as Clementine fell asleep on his lap. Lee stroked her hair as the girl dreamt of better days, filled with better people.

As Molly slept soundly on his shoulder, Todd looked around him. He couldn't help but notice the group's many faults and weaknesses, things that made Todd feel very unsafe. He saw the old man sat beside his wife who was missing his leg, he had heard people talk about Tom, the man who had almost killed one member of the group earlier that day, and he watched as Lilly, the only member of the group who seemed to know what they were doing, try to piece together the fragments of a torn map. Two people had died since Clementine and her friend had shown up to "save" him, Molly and Ryan, including Ryan himself! He had hoped that whoever would come to their rescue, if they ever did come, would know of some safe haven where the group could drive to as the sun set and live happily ever after. Is that too much to ask, Todd thought to himself, just one simple stroke of luck? But there was no such happy ending to be heard of. Instead, the group were driving on the road to nowhere hoping to come across some place that was safer than Savannah. As he looked around him again, at the helpless group of survivors who had piled into this RV day after day losing more and more people every time the sun set, none of them with a shred of hope left, he began to wonder who it had been who had truly needed help the most. Who had really come to whose rescue? Because Todd sure as shit didn't feel safe piled in the back of that RV.

"I've got it!" Lilly cheered, breaking the silence. No one knew what to say. Whether that was because no one knew what she was talking about or because no one had ever actually seen Lilly cheer before remained to be seen. She held one half of the torn map in front of her. "Coach, you may want to take the next exit," she told the driver, whose eyes were still on the highway. "Because I think I've just found us a new home."

This seemed to get the attention of everyone in the RV, each and every member of the group sat forward, waiting for an explanation from Lilly as though she was some kind of prophet. But Todd remained laid back in his seat, and didn't bother to wake Molly. There was no reason to start getting excited. Wherever they went, however fast they ran, the walkers would always find them. Always.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Next time on The Walking Dead: As they set out to find a new home, Clementine and the group experience some trouble on the road. The group also become more and more concerned about Johnny, who hasn't been the same since the loss of Alex. Meanwhile, a new and terrifying evil emerges from nearby in the form of a group of bandits who are out for blood.

Big thanks to everyone who left reviews for my last couple of chapters! Getting feedback really helps and you guys have been great for that! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the final chapter in this episode. I promise big things are coming in Episode Three! Things that could make you hate or love this story - we'll see! But, before that, I want to show you guys Part II of Tales of Crawford. This will allow me some time to finish Episode Three and hopefully you guys will enjoy it just as much! So, Tales of Crawford is on its way, as is Episode Three. In the meantime, please let me know what you guys thought of this chapter and this episode overall! And what do you want to see next? Let me know, and the next chapter will be uploaded before you know it!

-George :)