The Walking Dead

Tales of Crawford Part II

Hey, guys! I hope you all enjoyed Episode Two of The Walking Dead: Season Two, and thanks for checking out this new chapter: Part II of Tales of Crawford. Not long ago, I published the first part in a two-part story called Tales of Crawford, a fan-made prequel to the video game that focuses on Crawford and its residents and gives an idea as to how the town and its people may have come to fall. This story takes place between Episodes One and Two of The Walking Dead: Season One. If you haven't already, check out Part One. Before we begin, however, here's a quick recap!

Previously on Tales of Crawford: Sheriff Jeremiah Winters keeps the peace day and night in Crawford, a small community in Savannah that has survived the walker outbreak thanks to its fearless leader: Oberson Crawford. His strict policies: no elderly, no sick and no children, are what he believes keep the town alive. But when Jerry discovers that is wife is pregnant, Jerry must confide in his trusted friend Dr Logan, as well as another Crawford resident Anna, whom Jerry has been sleeping with behind his wife's back. However, when Oberson is made aware of Jerry's secret, he takes drastic action. Jerry's wife is executed in front of him, and the ex-sheriff knows he has been betrayed. But by who? Now, he plots his revenge.

Tommy had never seen somebody drink to murder before, and yet, there before him stood Oberson pouring the contents of a nine-year old bottle of gin into a crystal clear glass filled with ice. The clear liquid swam through the blocks of ice beautifully as Johnny watched the liquid bubble. The drink was clear as water, but Tommy could smell the alcohol in the air. Or perhaps that had been the reeking stench of death that still lingered in his nostrils. He couldn't get rid of it. He could still taste, smell and see the blood that had been sprayed over him like a garden sprinkler of crimson rainwater when Doug had blown Jerry's wife's brains out in front of him. Oberson had given Jerry the task of executing her himself, but the ex-sheriff hadn't complied unsurprisingly. He had barely even been able to dish out the punishment to the bitch who had stolen the medicine from Dr Ashe – punishment she had well deserved. Though Oberson seemed angry at first, he hadn't taken long to warm to the idea of declaring Tommy the new sheriff of Crawford, an idea that pleased Tommy more than anyone.

Tommy stood beside Doug and Jackson as Oberson poured them each a drink from the opposite side of his desk. He poured his own glass last, and when everybody had a drink in their hand he raised his own and shouted: "To Sheriff Tommy Summers!", which the four of them then repeated slightly louder in a chorus. They swung their glasses in the air and clinked them together in a circle of cheers, spilling small drops of gin on Oberson's desk. Tommy downed his drink with a gulp in a feeble attempt to appear masculine in the presence of his men. But the bitter, choking sound he gave off as the gin burned through his throat and down his gullet diminished any hopes of appearing as hard-as-nails as he'd hoped. He heard Doug laugh and Jackson chuckle whilst Oberson simply looked embarrassed for Tommy as he rolled his eyes. They don't think I'm fit for this, Tommy thought in a sudden fit of panic. But then Tommy remembered how much faith Oberson had had in Jerry, and how the disgraced sheriff had let him and all of Crawford down in the end. Oberson obviously wasn't the best judge in character. Tommy knew that he was perfect for this job. I just have to prove it, he thought as he looked down at the silver badge pinned to his shirt with a smug smile. The badge didn't look half-bad on him.

The metal door to the dark and gloomy basement wailed as it was forced open, breaking the sullen silence that Jerry had long since become well-acquainted with. The first visitor that Jerry had received in all his time down in his cell stepped forward, their footsteps echoing across the small, square room. Jerry pulled himself out of the darkest corner of his cell where the ashamed, disgraced sheriff had been hiding his humiliated and wounded self. As he stepped out of the shadows, limping with every step, his visitor's face became clear in the light of the single lantern they held in their hand by their freckled face. The lantern's light danced frantically in the room's cold atmosphere sending shadows in the shape of monsters scurrying across the room's damp walls. Jerry could see his own shadow captured on the wall. He hadn't noticed how skinny he'd become. He looked down at the scrawny pieces of meat that supported him that were supposed to be his legs. Since he had first disappeared in the darkness of that prison cell, there had been no light so see the puny individual that Oberson and his failure to feed Jerry had turned him into. But now that he could see himself, Jerry knew that not even Lillian would recognise him like this. He let out a tired sigh as he remembered his wife and how she had met her undeserving end. He ran his dry fingers across his dirty, withered face and felt a sheet of hair that covered his jawline. He had grown a beard. He stood for a moment, barefoot wearing only a dirtied pair of briefs and a musty, old white (though it had now turned a shade of muddy brown) tank top. To his visitor, he must have looked like some kind of bum. Even a bum would be getting better treatment than this, Jerry thought.

He approached the girl stood before his cell, her free hand wrapped around one of the cell's sturdy metal bars. Somehow, Anna still recognised Jerry. Perhaps it was because she had seen him at his worst before. Or perhaps she just knew him better than anyone. Either way, seeing her alive was a relief to Jerry. He had feared the worst when his affair with Anna had become common knowledge of Oberson and his followers. "Hey," she said feebly and with regret. She had obviously hoped that the next time the two spoke, it would be under better circumstances. But such was not the case.

"Hey yourself," Jerry replied sharply, unsure of what else to say. The elephant in the room was there, and wasn't leaving anytime soon.

"Listen, Jerry," Anna said. "I'm so sorry about Lillian." The words alone cut Jerry deep like a knife a he relived the pain of losing his wife all over again. The gaping wound the knife left continued to throb with the pain of loss as Jerry tried desperately to think what he could possibly say next.

"Yeah, me too." He couldn't look her in the eye. Every time he did, it was a reminder of how unfaithful he had been. All the lies he'd told, and all the decisions he regretted so deeply.

Anna decided to swallow what she had planned to say next. Jerry guessed that she had intended to spit out another round of empty and pitiful apologies. Instead she skipped straight to the reason why she was down here. "Oberson's letting you go in the morning," she told him. This was news to Jerry, For all he knew, Oberson had locked him away, thrown away the key and forgotten all about Crawford's old sheriff already. "Tommy's got your room, but you can stay with me. That is, if you want."

Jerry gave Anna his best attempt at a smile, but it did little to convince her. The idea of moving in with her seemed in bad taste, and just plain disrespectful. "Listen, Anna, I…" Then her words really began to sink in. "Wait, Tommy has my room? The sheriff's room? They made that weasel sheriff of Crawford?"

"I don't know what to say," Anna admitted, and she couldn't have spoken more truthfully.

"You can agree how stupid that is, surely? He's just a kid, after all."

"A kid whose spent the last three months kissing Oberson's ass," Anna explained. "He learned a lot from you too. Oberson thinks he's ready. And so do I."

"What?" Jerry was more confused than ever now. He sat on his buttocks with his hands in his dirty, unkempt and shaggy hair.

"Don't you know what this means? You can finally retire, Jerry! With Tommy and his men playing Cowboys and Indians, there's nothing from stopping you living happily ever after."

"Happily ever after? My wife is dead, Anna! Oberson and his people murdered her right in front of me! I have nothing. Do you hear me? NOTHING! IT'S ALL GONE!" His voice bellowed across the room, shaking the bars of the old prison cell and causing Anna to pull away from him in fear.

"You have me…" She said before turning away from Jerry, taking her lantern with her. The last glimmer of light disappeared from the room as Anna slammed the door behind her. The sound played back in Jerry's ears for the next few hours as he sat alone in the darkness with his thoughts.

The next morning, they came for him.

"You don't speak to anyone. You don't touch anyone. You don't so much as even look at anybody else around Crawford or so help me God you'll be back in that swanky prison cell before you can even begin to apologise," Tommy dictated to Jerry, his silver badge reflecting the shine of the morning sun as he strode up and down in front of him. Tommy, or Sheriff Summers as the people of Crawford had been ordered to address him from here on out, looked awfully pleased with himself as Jerry dressed himself in some old man's rags that Doug had thrown at him after he had been dragged from his cell only minutes ago.

Tommy was wearing his old uniform, hat included, as he span his pistol around his finger like a character in a western flick. But Tommy only embarrassed himself when the gun span off his finger and out of his hand. He clasped at the pistol, but his hands found only thin air. He bent over to pick the gun up, noticing Doug and Jackson smirking as he did so. He pushed his glasses from the tip of his nose back to his eyes as he tucked his pistol away. "Just get out of here," he finally said. He signaled at Doug and Jackson to follow him and led them back towards the schoolhouse. Jerry stood and watched them as they disappeared inside. Looking around him, Jerry realised he was lost. Once upon a time, he thought he might have understood Crawford and its people, but in just a single night everything he though he knew had changed. Someone had betrayed him, and Jerry was going to find out who.

Jerry took Anna up on her offer and headed to her room, exchanging awkward glances with her neighbours as he did so. At first, they seemed curious as to why he was there after the argument they had witnessed between the two. But when Anna let Jerry into her room, they simply turned their noses up at him. The highlight of tomorrow's gossip would be the talk about how the widowed officer had already forgotten about his wife to move in with "that blonde girl from Block C". Jerry hated himself even more when he realised what he must have been putting Anna through. And that was the last thing Jerry needed right now; something else to feel guilty about.

The two didn't speak until Anna had shut the door behind Jerry, keeping the nosey neighbours out of their conversation. Anna then asked if she could take Jerry's coat – the dirty brown trench coat that sat over his shoulders and fell almost to his knees.

"No," he said a little too firmly. "I've got something I need to do." The last thing he wanted was to be rude, but there was somewhere Jerry needed to be. "I just came to pick up the item we discussed," Jerry explained vaguely as though a million ears were still listening.

Anna nodded, and disappeared for a couple of minutes before returning. She pulled Oberson's revolver from behind her back and placed it softly in Jerry's hand. She had held onto Oberson's weapon since Jerry had brought it to her the night he had been forced to use it to execute Molly's sister. Jerry had feigned ignorance when asked about Oberson's gun, and no one had ever considered questioning Anna about the gun's disappearance. Since that night, Jerry had known that they day might come when Oberson no longer trusted Jerry with a weapon, and Jerry no longer trusted Oberson enough to be able to walk round Crawford feeling secure without one. That day had come. Weapons in Crawford were scarce, so with any luck, Oberson was still without a weapon. Jerry smiled. His plan was starting to come together beautifully.

Anna, clearly concerned by Jerry's joy, watched as he tested the gun's weight in his hand. "What are you going to do?" She asked him. He could hear the fear in her voice.

Jerry sighed. Keeping Anna out of the loop had kept her alive for this long, and Jerry wasn't prepared to risk changing that. "What I have to," he said before turning to leave the apartment. But Anna clutched onto his shoulder and span him around before Jerry could leave. Something was wrong he knew immediately.

"Wait, Jerry," she said with alarm, panicked by the thought of him leaving her on her own. "There's something you need to know," she told him. She avoided his eyes during a long pause and swallowed hard before she finally met Jerry's gaze and told him the truth.

"I'm pregnant," she told him.

Still speechless, Jerry held Anna's hands as he allowed her words to sink in; the same two words his wife told that, despite being so simple, had changed both their lives forever. His heart was racing now as he began to relive the night Lillian died all over again – that terrible night – only it wasn't Lillian with a shotgun being held to her head. It was Anna.

Realising her words had truly stunned Jerry, Anna went on. "Dr Logan he… He's already planning a procedure to terminate the baby. But I can't do it. I…" She broke into tears. "I want to have this child, Jerry. More than I want anything." She fell into his arms and wept as Jerry stroked her hair and held her tight.

Suddenly, Jerry pushed Anna out of his arms. "Stay here," he said as Anna wiped her tears. He opened the revolver to check how many bullets remained inside. Five bullets, he counted before deciding how many he was going to need for this. Then, Jerry turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" She asked him, as another hot tear ran down her cheek.

Jerry turned back to her. He cupped her cheek and wiped the last tear away. "You know where I'm going," he whispered to her. And then, Jerry was gone, leaving Anna alone. She held her chest as she thought about the future, and whether or not there was going to be one for her, Jerry and their child. She hoped it was a boy.

Dr Logan's office was empty when Jerry stepped inside. Across the room a large mirror had been placed beside the doctor's video camera. Jerry stood and looked at his reflection. The man who stood through the looking glass was someone Jerry did not recognise. He wore an old and word out flannel shirt under the brown trench coat with ruined jeans, and his unkempt beard coated his jaw like a woolly jumper. The sound of the office door slamming behind him alarmed Jerry, and he turned around sharply to face Dr Logan, who stood impatiently with a clipboard in his arms.

"Something I can do for you, Jerry?" He said in a blunt tone. Jerry could tell the doctor clearly didn't want Jerry in here by the way the doctor tapped his foot on the floor repeatedly, the way he always did when he felt his time was being wasted.

"Doc," Jerry said pitifully, glad to see a familiar face. "I need to talk to you."

The doctor seemed nervous now. He crept over to his desk where he laid the clipboard down before sitting atop the desk with his arms cross, waiting to hear what Jerry had to say. When Jerry was silent, the doctor shrugged. "Well?" he asked.

"I…" Jerry stumbled, realising he should have planned out what he was going to say beforehand. Then he realised something. "Aren't you even going to ask where I've been?"

"I don't have to," Logan said. "I saw the little show Oberson put on outside when they dragged your wife from her bed… Horrible," He told Jerry with a look of what seemed like genuine regret. "I did warn you, Jerry. But even so, Lillian deserved better."

"So you weren't the one who told Oberson that she was pregnant?" Jerry asked him, earning an interesting reaction from the doctor. Logan shot out of his seat and stood before Jerry. His eyes were wide with disbelief.

"What? No… No, of course not," Dr Logan said. He sounded wounded by Jerry's question. "I can't believe you'd even think that. Jesus, Jerry!" He waved Jerry away with his hand as he paced across the room. He scratched his chin as he opened his office door to check for any unwanted visitors outside his door. When he saw that the hallway outside his room was empty, he slammed the door shut and sighed, still disappointed in Jerry for even thinking this way.

"I only ask because… someone did," Jerry explained coldly. He watched the doctor pace across the room nervously, showing all the known signs of a liar.

"How do you know? Maybe… I don't know, maybe she just started showing symptoms or… maybe she told somebody else or…" Jerry could see the doctor was panicking now. He was clearly afraid of Jerry and what he might do if he saw past his lies. He was scared of him, and Jerry liked it.

"She wasn't showing any symptoms and she didn't tell anybody. Hell, she'd have given me static if she'd have known I even told you," Jerry explained. "She didn't trust you. Apparently, she was right." He pulled Oberson's revolver out of his flannel shirt.

"Whoa, Jerry, please… Don't do this," Logan pleaded as he raised his hands to his head.

"Just answer me one thing," Jerry said to the doctor who now knelt before him, his hands still raised as he pleaded endlessly. "Would you have told Oberson about Anna too?"

"Anna?" The doctor seemed confused. He wiped the sweat from his brow as he tried to wrap his head around Jerry's question. "You and her? She's having your child?" He asked Jerry, pretending not to know about their affair.

"Yes. She is," Jerry dictated. "Because you're not going to say a word to Oberson, or anyone." He tucked the revolver away and marched towards the door. "We're having this baby, Walter. And you're going to help us. That's the only reason you're still alive…"

As Jerry's hand tightened around the doorknob, Dr Logan jumped back onto his feet. He turned sharply to Jerry. "I didn't tell a soul about Lillian, Jerry," he swore. He walked closer to Jerry, his eyes on the floor granite floor. When he reached Jerry, he put a hand on his shoulder and finally looked him in the eye.

"It was Anna," the doctor confessed.

That was the moment everything changed. The rug had been pulled from underneath him, and Jerry felt like an honest fool. All this time, it had been Anna. The lies she'd told, the game she'd played, all to place Jerry here and now, pointing a gun at Dr Logan's head and pulling the trigger, saving Anna and her unborn child. Jerry wondered what the next step of her plan was when Dr Logan took his hand off his shoulder.

"You're lying," Jerry said to him, despite how greatly he knew the doctor's words to be true.

"Oberson came here the day before Lillian's death, asking me if I knew. He told me that Anna told him all about Lillian and her pregnancy, but I didn't say a word. I swear to God, Jerry, I never told him anything, not even then," the doctor explained.

Jerry felt humiliated. He turned to leave the room, gripping the doorknob again, but he couldn't open the door. Out there awaited nothing but liars, cheats and killers. Could he not trust anybody? "What will you do about Anna?" He turned to ask the doctor.

"You know I can't lie to Oberson again, Jerry. I have to tell him. And you have to tell Anna that this procedure… As awful as it may be… It needs to happen," Walter said.

Jerry nodded and pulled the door open. On his way out of the room, he realised how lucky he had been to have the doctor though this ordeal. Even if he hadn't been able to save Lillian, he had damn well tried. After he left the doctor's office, Jerry realised that he should have at least thanked him for that. Outside, Jerry's heart sank when he saw Anna approaching Dr Logan's office from the hallways.

Anna appeared out of the hallway's gloominess with her hands in her pockets and her head bowed, though she perked up when she noticed Jerry stood outside Dr Logan's door.

"Hey," she said as cheerfully as she could. She noticed the revolver in Jerry's hand and wondered if it had been used.

"Hey yourself," Jerry replied with a half-smile. The list of questions Jerry had to ask her was endless. But simply why she had done it was all he really wanted and needed to understand.

"So, how'd it go," Anna asked him. She titled her head towards the door to the doctor's office. Jerry knew exactly what she meant, but he hadn't done as she hoped. He hadn't let himself fall into her trap or allowed her to trick him into destroying his life.

That was when Dr Walter's ugly head peered out of his open door, once again intruding on a conversation happening outside his office. One he was not a part of, but wanted to be.

Anna gave Jerry a look that sent a hundred daggers flying his way. He could see how angry she was that Jerry hadn't done what she'd hoped, despite his macho talk from before.

"Everything okay out here?" Walter asked, still sweaty from having his life flash before his eyes a good couple of times earlier with Jerry and the revolver being pointed in his face.

"Yeah," Jerry said. He put a hand on Anna's shoulder in an attempt to reassure her that things would be okay. "Fine."

"So, are we ready?" Dr Logan asked nervously. It was time.

Anna knew what the doctor meant immediately. "What? No! Jerry, I thought we said… I thought you…" Anna began to cry again as Jerry led her to Logan's office.

"Anna, I'm sorry, but we have to do this," Jerry told her, wiping her tears away as he did so. "I know you want this child, and so do I. Maybe one day things will change but, for now, we don't have any other choice." Despite everything, Jerry could still feel his heart breaking.

"It's okay, I'll take good care of you," Dr Logan said as he led Anna into his office with a hand on her shoulder. "It'll all be over before you know it."

Jerry heard Anna bawl uncontrollably as she disappeared into the doctor's office. Jerry left the doctor to his work and headed home. On his way, he struggled to remove the haunting sounds of Anna's cries from his head. Despite everything, Jerry felt overpoweringly guilty for betraying Anna like that, even after everything she'd done. Jerry was wondering whether Anna would have had a boy or a girl when he heard the first gunshots.

Jerry raced back through Crawford's dark hallways, retracing his steps back to Dr Logan's office, as the sounds of the gunshots still echoed through the halls. When he arrived outside Logan's office, he almost slipped on the pool of blood that dressed the floor. The blood belonged to Doug, who laid on his back bleeding out as he held his gunshot wound with his hands, blood flowing through the gaps between his fingers. "Help me," he cried to Jerry as he reached out with one of his bloody hands. The portly, bearded man looked terrified by the figure stood across the room who was hidden away in the darkness. Jerry could only see a pair of arms held out from the mist of black, pointing a 9mil pistol in Jerry's direction. Another gun shot fired, and the miniature explosion startled Jerry as he saw the bullet take Doug in the head. The bulled shot out the back of his skull as Doug's eye's rolled into his head, which then fell limp to the floor as though he had just fallen asleep. Around him, Jerry saw another couple of bodies, all still and lifeless. And all soaked in fresh blood. Jerry recognised the faces of the men, but knew not their names. Finally, the shooter revealed themselves as the figure emerged from the darkness, their gun still smoking form the rounds it had fired. Jerry recognised the gun, and its owner. The pistol had belonged to Dr Logan, and yet here stood Anna with the gun in her hands. She wiped tears away with the back of her sleeve as she raised her gun again. She was pointing the gun at Jerry now.

"Give me the gun, Anna." Jerry didn't waste any time. Anna was scared and armed. That was a dangerous combination. He sidestepped and tried to peer through the open door to Dr Logan's office, but couldn't catch a glimpse of Walter. There was no way the doctor was still alive. "Please, Anna. Nobody else needs to get hurt."

Jerry could see that Anna was shaking. The pistol rattled in her hands as she looked down the sight of the gun. Confused and afraid, Anna struggled to even put a proper sentence together. "Jerry… I… I couldn't let them," she began to lower the gun as her tears returned. "I'm sorry, Jerry. I couldn't let them take our baby." She began to weep as she looked at the corpses around her. They wouldn't stay dead for long. "Why were you going to let them take our child, Jerry? Why?" She asked manically.

"Because it's not my child, Anna," Jerry explained calmly, unfazed by the gun being pointed in his face. "My child died with their mother the night you gave her up to Oberson."

"What? I…" Anna had lowered the gun to her side now. Hot tears run down her cheeks in streaks that washed the blood from her face. "I did it for us," she told him innocently, as though Jerry should have already understood so.

"I know you did," Jerry told her as he approached Anna cautiously. "Now give me the gun, Anna. Let's stop this now." Jerry took a step toward Anna when she pulled the gun back up into his face, her grip tight around the pistol's butt and her finger itching on the trigger.

"NO!" She cried out, the gun now back in Jerry's face. She looked at the mess around her, and thought long and hard for a moment. "Let's run away together. You and me. We'll make a go of it out there in the city, or the countryside. Sure, it'll be dangerous. But anywhere's better than here. And I know we'll be okay so long as we have each other."

And then he saw it. The innocent young woman in front of him who had lost everything in the wake of the apocalypse. Her brothers, her sisters, her mother, her father – all had perished when the dead had risen, and she'd had only Jerry left, someone she'd have gone to extreme lengths to protect and have as her own. He saw the woman who would lie, cheat and even murder all to keep who she thought was her true love for herself. He saw the woman who was on the verge of losing her sanity, all because that same man had betrayed her. It hadn't been Anna who had killed Lillian, or Dr Logan, or Doug or anybody else. It hadn't been her that had caused the fall of Crawford. It had been Jerry. And now, with a gun to his head, Jerry could only pray that Anna would pull the trigger. Let's end this now, he thought.

"You know I can't do that, Anna." Jerry stared deep into Anna's eyes as the pistol continued to rattle in her shaking hands. "So if you're going to kill me, then just do it. Let me be with my wife. If not, just put the fucking gun down and let me do it myself." He bowed his head, hoping that Anna would pull the trigger. As he closed his eyes, he prayed that the next time he opened them , his wife would be waiting beside him. But Anna lowered the gun.

"No," she cried madly. "You don't get to do that. You don't get to be with her. I won't let you. I won't let you leave. What about me? What am I supposed to do?" Anna stared at him, eyes filled with tears, waiting desperately for the answer she needed.

"I don't care," Jerry said coldly. He stared back at her. Whatever happened next, it didn't matter to him in the slightest. Anna could go to hell. And so could all of Crawford.

Anna took the gun and pressed the barrel against the bottom of her chin, weeping when the cold metal touched her skin. He finger tightened around the trigger, and Anna closer her eyes.

"ANNA!" Jerry cried, but it was too late. Anna forced her finger down on the trigger and gun clicked. But all the gun did was click. It was empty. Out of ammo, Jerry thought, relieved. Anna, noticing his initial concern and his relief at the sight of her safety, began to smile.

"You do care," she said as she lowered the empty gun. She dropped the gun and was about to walk towards Jerry to embrace him, a manic smile still beaming across her freckled face, when a hand of sharp claws grabbed her leg and sunk deep into her calves.

Anna squealed as the walker dug it's deadly claws further into her flesh, sending her crashing to the floor. She was on the floor now. The walker was climbing up her leg and drooling all over her fresh and fleshy body. She reached out to Jerry and screamed for him to help her, but he stood motionless, watching the walker mount her and prepare to feast. Jerry watched the undead creature that was once his trusted friend Dr Logan sink it's teeth into Anna's soft neck, where Jerry had before planted many warm kisses, and tear a shred of flesh that dripped with the girl's red blood. Jerry felt nothing as he watched the walker chomp Anna's flesh and dive in for another bite. Jerry had not noticed, but Anna's eyes had never left Jerry right until the moment the final beacon of light left them.

"Why aren't you helping her?" Tommy asked with panic in his voice from beside Jerry having seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Jerry was silent, but when Tommy pulled out his gun, he pushed Tommy back and shook his head. He's too late anyway, Jerry thought.

"What the fuck happened?" Tommy asked Jerry as the walker continued to feast on Anna's flesh. Eventually, the walker had torn so much of the skin from Anna's body that the fleshy skeleton that remained was unrecognisable, and could have belonged to anybody. Tommy gipped at the sight of the half-eaten corpse and had to turn away. But Jerry didn't take his eyes off Anna for second. He watched as Dr Logan continued to devour her, and decided that justice had been served. As the walkers around them began to rise, Jerry decided it was time to go. Tommy drew his weapon again, but Jerry pushed him aside.

"Don't," Jerry said. The three walkers and Dr Logan got back on their feet as they caught a glimpse of the two men that could be their next meal. "Don't," he repeated. He had an idea.

Despite beginning to think the man might have gone insane, Tommy listened to Jerry and tucked his pistol away. The small crowd of walkers assembled and began to approach Tommy, their arms reached out and mouths made agape by the smell of more food. Tommy backed away from the swarm and fled, catching a glimpse of Jerry disappearing around a corner up ahead. Why had Jerry insisted he keep the walkers alive? How was he supposed to keep them from hurting anybody? "Unless…" Tommy thought aloud as he made a shocking realisation that shook him to his core. Jerry really had gone insane.

Oberson's office was empty. Outside the his window, Jerry took a moment to look around Crawford Square. Although most of the town had been absorbed by the mist of darkness that fell every night, he could still tell how far the town's fences were from here. It wouldn't take long to reach them, and he'd be able to do so whilst staying out of the streets too. Nobody would even see him leave. Jerry would put the town and his time there all behind him, and let Crawford crumble. In the window's reflection, he saw Jackson pull a gun.

"You've got some balls showing your face here, cowboy." Jackson's raspy voice was followed by the sounds of his gun clicking as he pointed the pistol in Jerry's face.

"Where's Oberson," Jerry demanded. His nonchalance towards having a pistol waved around in his face even scared Jackson slightly – he never even flinched.

"With his wife," Jackson explained, still with his gun raised. "You ain't got no business here."

That was when Tommy appeared behind Jackson, a gun in his hand too. "Fucker!" He shouted as he pointed his pistol in Jerry's face. "You should've seen what this asshole did."

Jerry now had two pistols pointed in his face, but he was yet to panic.

"What the fuck happened?" Jackson asked him. He watched as Tommy wiped his sweaty brow and tried to put what he'd seen into words.

"He killed us," Tommy explained. "All of us."

The Mexican standoff was interrupted by a sudden wave of noises coming from outside that door. The three of them heard crashing, shouting, screaming and firing as they turned to the door, unsure what lied beyond it, and unsure whether they wanted to know.

As he climbed the seemingly endless wooden staircase to the top of the bell tower, Jerry could still hear the destruction below him, as Crawford's survivors fought off the increasing number of walkers laying waste to the town and its inhabitants, and spreading the fatal disease each one carried. He wasn't sure if Tommy and Jackson were behind him – there was no time to check, but nothing was going to stand in his way now. He had seen Oberson flee the school to hide away up here. This may have been the safest place, but what kind of leader abandoned his people so easily? Finally, he had reached the top of the staircase. He turned to see Oberson himself stood at the edge of the balcony, a few feet away from the bell, tightening a hangman's know around his neck. When Oberson noticed Jerry's presence, a look appeared on his face that Jerry had never seen the man wear before: fear.

Oberson reached into the back of his trousers, searching for his revolver. Jerry then pulled out Oberson's revolver. "Looking for this?" He asked mockingly. He studied the rope noose around Oberson's neck. It had been tied to the bell – Oberson had been about to jump. This disgusted Jerry even further. Not only had Oberson abandoned his people, he was about to take the coward's way out too. That same day, Jerry had wished to die too, but he had decided there was so much he needed to do first. And at the top of that list was revenge.

"What did you do, Jerry?" Oberson asked as he tugged on the rope that was now tight around his neck. He could tell from the manic look in Jerry's eyes that he must have had something to do with the outbreak. Oberson knew that look all too well, he saw it every morning when he looked in the mirror. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" He bellowed.

Oberson's question echoed up and down the bell tower and played over and over again through Jerry's ears. "What I should have done so, so long ago. And I'm so sorry I didn't, Lillian." Tears ran down Jerry's cheeks as he took a moment to speak to his wife. A moment that was quickly interrupted by Oberson, an action he'd later regret.

"Fuck, Lillian!" Oberson cried out. "Fuck her, and fuck you, Jeremiah!" He tried to pull himself out of the knot he'd trapped himself in as he lunged towards Jerry. "She died because of you! Because of a mistake you made!" He tried desperately to wriggle free, like a rabid dog on a leash.

"I know," Jerry said, his head still bowed like he was in prayer. He then approached Oberson, who finally stopped trying to kick and squirm out of the rope as Jerry stood at his feet, towering above him. "It was my fault. My mistake."

"So… What are you doing?" Oberson asked him sheepishly. Oberson had never been afraid of Jerry, but all that had changed now. As he stared into Jerry's cold, grey, vengeful eyes, he felt his own urine trickle down his thigh. He was scared just to hear his answer.

"I'm fixing it," Jerry told him innocently as he put a hand on Oberson's shoulder. A swift and sudden kick from Jerry then sent Oberson hurling back, crashing through the splintered wooden balcony and falling down the tower as the loose rope began to tighten. When the rope had stretched out to its limit, he heard the loud SNAP of Oberson's neck, and saw Crawford's fearless leader dangling from the rope noose a few feet below.

When Jerry turned, he saw Tommy stood with Jackson at the top of the wooden staircase. By the look on their faces, the two had obviously witnessed the entire ordeal, but the fact that they had chosen not to step in said a lot to him. Jerry approached Tommy, who was shaking in his boots. Tommy looked as though he was expecting Jerry to send him tumbling back down the staircase from where he came, but instead Jerry simply removed the silver Sheriff's badge from Tommy's uniform and pinned it back on himself, where it had always fit best. He then turned to the open window at the edge of the bell tower. The light at the end of the tunnel. As he approached the window, he heard the two chattering behind him.

"Ahem," Tommy coughed in an attempt to gain Jerry's attention. Though he still feared for his life around the man. Jerry turned back to him, tapping his foot against the floor impatiently the same way an old friend of his always had. "So… Are we, you know, okay to like… go with you…Jeremiah?" He asked Jerry shyly.

"I'm not expecting you to wait around for the walkers," he replied once he got his head around Tommy's sentence. "Just… don't call me Jeremiah."

"So, what do we call you?" Jackson asked, his eyes still watching Oberson swinging loosely from his rope, the wind sending him from side to side.

Jerry Winters thought about Jackson's question for a few seconds. "Just call me 'The Sheriff'," Jerry finally told them both as he turned to leave the tower through the window. Through it, the entirety of Crawford square could be seen under the rising sun. A new day was dawning, and Jerry liked it a whole lot better than this one. The grass is always greener on the other side, Jerry thought to himself as he finally put Crawford behind him, never to return.

THE END...?

Thanks you guys for reading Tales of Crawford! I hope you all enjoyed reading this short-story, I know I had a blast writing it! Episode Three is coming, but this one is proving to be the toughest Episode to write yet! So I hope you guys will bear with me. Chapter One is ready to be uploaded, and yes, we will see Jerry join the story as a regular character, which I can't wait for you guys to see! So, keep the reviews coming, and Episode Three will be up soon. Thanks as always for all your support :)

-George