The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Four: All Hell Breaks Loose

Previously on The Walking Dead: After leaving Savannah behind them, Lilly led the group to Robins Air Force Base, where she believed they would be safe. However, they soon realized that they weren't the only ones to go there in hopes of survival. Meanwhile, Tom confessed to Johnny that his daughter was bitten, and that he and Alex were not responsible for her death like he'd allowed them to believe. Angry for keeping this lie to himself, Johnny murdered Tom. Moments later. the group realized that the Base's original occupants had returned home. Now, Jerry and his men have returned, and they are not looking to share the sanctuary of the Base with strangers.

The two jeeps were at the gate now, filling Lilly with a deep sense of dread. Their tires spat dirt behind them as they honked their horns at the two men taking their time to open the gates to the base. Suddenly, Lilly realised she had stopped in her tracks, and that the entire group were looking to her for guidance. What were they to do? Where were they to go? They didn't know, so they looked to Lilly for answers. She pulled her gaze away from the men in the jeeps and cleared her throat before barking another round of commands to the group – her group. "Everyone," she shouted, the adrenaline shaking her voice. "Stand your ground. We don't know who these people are. They could be friendly." Maybe, she hoped.

"I know who they are," Coach claimed from behind her. "You said it yourself. Nobody would throw a place like this away. So here they are. And you can be sure as hell that, if they think we're here to take this place from them, ain't no chance they'll be friendly," he explained.

Coach's words had frightened Christa. Omid could tell that much from the way she chewed her lip as her mind seemed to be dwelling on something. Omid knew what she was going to say next, and he was not looking forward to it. Christa turned to face him.

"You need to take Clementine to the barracks," she told him earnestly. "If these people are dangerous, we have to be ready." She dug out her pistol and checked the low bullet count.

"No, I'm not leaving you," Omid tried desperately to reason with her. "You take Clementine and get out of here. I'll stay," he said trying to sound as courageous as he could, but Christa could hear the panic and fear in his wimpy but sweet voice.

"No, Omid," Christa told him. "You should take her. They need me out here," she explained. She knew Omid didn't want her out here in her condition, but if things did get tricky, she knew her way better around a gun than he did. "Besides, we both know you're her favourite." She smiled at Omid as she held his hand. They both knew it was true.

Omid sighed, but eventually nodded his head in agreement. "Okay," he agreed before kissing Christa on the cheek and taking Clementine's hand. "C'mon, Clem," he told her, "we're going to take another look around." Omid walked away at as fast a pace as his legs would carry him.

"Who are those people?" Clementine asked, fearing the worst. "Are they bad?"

"I don't know, sweetie," he admitted to Clem. He turned around for a final look at Christa. He watched her whip her hair back as she loaded her pistol. She looked more beautiful than she ever had before. "I just don't know."

Lilly stood tall as her heart continued to beat rhythmically in her chest. Beside her, Molly, Todd, Christa and Alice stood ready to face their uninvited guests. "Alice," Lilly said sternly, "get inside the RV." But Alice didn't move, so Lilly turned to face her. "Go," she told her.

"No," Alice replied. "I'm not leaving. Not after everything we did to get here. I'm not giving up that easily. I'm staying to fight for this place. I won't let everyone who died die in vain."

Lilly was taken aback by Alice's response. The older woman stood dutifully, a revolver in her hand, ready to fight for her friends. Although Lilly admired her courage, she couldn't help but feel concerned about her being out here. She should have been with her husband, inside the RV. Although, if these people did turn out to be trouble, they wouldn't be much safer inside the RV. "I understand," she told Alice. "OK. Get ready."

"So, we're just gonna talk to them, right?" Christa asked Lilly, watching her as she pulled her rifle from the sling over her shoulders.

"That's the plan," Lilly reassured her. "What else can we do?"

"What if they ask us to leave?" Molly wondered aloud. They had come too far to leave now.

"We'll cross that bridge when and if we come to it," Lilly told her. In other words, she had no real idea. All she knew was that she would do her best to avoid making any more enemies. But her best wasn't always enough. "Here they come."

The first jeep came to a screeching halt as the shining sun bounced of the vehicle's windshield and near blinded Lilly. She shielded her eyes with her hand as she watched one of the jeep's doors swing open and a tall man in a police uniform and a cowboy hat step out of the car. Noticing the badge on his shirt, Lilly decided that, at some point, this man must have been some kind of sheriff. Whether he had claimed that honour himself or not she couldn't be sure. He rested his arm on the jeep's open door as his other hand grasped the pistol in its holster on his side. Behind him, men gathered frantically to pull something out of the back of the jeep. Not something, someone, Lilly decided when she saw three men pulling a bloody body out of the backseats of the jeep between them. Though she could hardly see past the man's blood stained clothing, Lilly could see that the man was missing one of his hands. Judging by the amount of blood pouring from the man's hole in his arm, and the deeply disturbing way the man cried out for his mother, Lilly decided he must have suffered his horrendous injury fairly recently. All the same, The Sheriff showed little concern for the injured man. Instead, his focus was on Lilly. He watched her carefully as Lilly's finger tightened around the trigger of the rifle in her hands.

"You're not thinking of using that now are you?" The Sheriff asked her sarcastically. He smiled smugly as Lilly lowered her rifle slowly. Smile now you smug bastard, she thought.

"What do you want from us?" Lilly asked him, cutting straight to the point.

This made the man in the sheriff's uniform laugh out loud. He admired her lack of beating around the bush. "What I want," he said, "is for you to get the hell off my property."

Lilly was stunned. She could feel the tension in the air. She exchanged a worried glance with Christa. She looked petrified. "Your property?" She asked back to The Sheriff.

"That's right," he confirmed with another smug look on his face. "It's been so for the past three months," he told her, giving himself a congratulatory pat on the back mentally. "We get a lot of folks like you who show up whilst we're out scavenging for supplies. You show up here – find the base abandoned with only a couple dozen walkers infesting it. You find yourself with a comfy bed, shelter and tall fences to keep the walkers out – all this, and you've got the place all to yourself. "It must be too good to be true!" you think. And guess what: you were right. It took us days, but we cleared this place of walkers ourselves. We think we earned the right to call this place our own. So, understandably, we're not gonna let a bunch of punks come and take our home away," The Sheriff concluded in a grave tone. Behind him, his men raised their guns to Lilly and her group, and The Sheriff smiled again.

"Keep away from the windows, Clem" Omid said as he peered out one of the small, square windows of the men's barracks. He felt his heart drop into his stomach when he saw the men point their weapons at Christa, Lilly and the others. Get out of there, Christa, Omid prayed, but he could clearly see that she was already trapped. The man in the sheriff's uniform had them outnumbered and outgunned. All he and Clem could do now was hide inside the barracks, but Omid knew they would find them both eventually. Unless… He felt Clementine shuffle past him as she climbed high enough to peep through the window. She gasped when she saw the men with guns, and grabbed Omid's arm in alarm when she saw them point their guns in her friends faces. They watched together as Lilly got down on her knees before The Sheriff, who held his revolver to her head. Clementine had been right – these were bad people. Omid then knew what he had to do.

"What's happening, Omid?" Clementine asked in fear. Omid could tell how helpless she felt watching her friends surrender to these invaders – he felt exactly the same.

Omid scanned the room. He saw the backdoor to the barracks. "You have to go, Clementine." It broke his heart, but it needed to be said. He choked up when he said it, but he knew it was what Christa would have wanted. We should never have come here, he thought with regret. "You have to go right now," he told her, his voice breaking up.

"What?" Clementine asked, confused and frightened. "No! I'm not leaving you!"

"I'm so sorry, Clem," he told her truthfully. "But you have to." Omid's heart began to race, and he felt the sweat drip frantically down his face, when he saw the man approaching the barracks, his weapon drawn. "You have to go now," he implored her.

"But, I don't want to leave you," she said, fighting back tears to no avail. The tears fell down her face as the little girl whimpered. "I don't want to be alone again."

Omid went down on his knees before the girl and put his hands on her shoulders as he tried desperately to comfort her. "Listen to me, Clem," he said to her. He began to cry with her. "Me and Christa – we couldn't be happier that we met you. But we promised Lee that we'd keep you safe. We made a mistake. This place isn't safe like we'd hoped. I'm so sorry, Clem, but you have to go." He failed to fight back the tears as he said those final words.

"Come with me," Clementine begged.

"It's too late for me," he told her. "Just promise me you'll stay safe, okay? I'll find you again soon. I promise," he said to her between tears.

The door to the barracks burst open under the force of the man's boot as he charged inside the cabin. "Go! Now!" Omid shouted to Clementine. The man who charged towards them wore his hair down to his shoulders, his eyes grey and lifeless. Omid saw him raise his gun when he spotted Clementine dart across the room. Omid threw himself at the attacker, roaring as he wrestled him against the wall. He grabbed the hand in which the man held his gun and forced it against the wall until he heard the weapon drop to the floor. Omid turned around to see Clementine stood beside the open backdoor as she struggled to leave him behind. "GO!" he screamed at her as he pulled himself off the attacker. That was a mistake. The next thing Omid knew, the man had thrown himself onto him and sent him flying to the ground. Omid hit his head hard against the wooden floor. For a moment, Omid was dazed. He turned to see Clementine disappear outside the backdoor to the barracks. The attacker must have noticed this too as he left Omid to chase her. No, Omid thought as he picked himself up. You'll never hurt her. He raced after the attacker. Not Clementine. He had thrown himself against the man a second time and the two tumbled to the floor together. The attacker was on top of Omid now. His hands were closing around his neck. Omid threw his fist against the man's face and felt his nose crack as his knuckles hit bone. That was the first time Omid had ever hit another person. The man pulled his hands off Omid's neck to wipe his bloody nose. That was when Omid spotted the gun on the floor. The attacker must have spotted it too. He lunged towards the weapon, beating Omid to it. But Omid was on him now. He grabbed his legs and pulled the man back to him. He turned him around and sent two hard punches his way, each one spewing blood and saliva from the man's bruised mouth. He was about to pull out a knife when Omid wrung his hands around the man's neck. His hands tightened around the his neck, but not tight enough.

"What is she to you? That little girl?" the man barely managed to say as Omid continued to choke him. If he was going to die, he wanted to know why – and who Omid was protecting.

Omid had never so much as hurt a fly, but the moment someone had threatened to hurt Clementine, Omid had gone as far as to try to kill them if it meant keeping her from harm. He had made a promise to a dear friend, and it was one he intended to keep. His life had changed the moment Omid had met Clementine. He knew that, whatever happened, he would never forget her. "She's the best thing that ever happened to me," Omid confessed after a pause to the man dying in front of him. Then, Omid thought back to the wintery day he had first met Christa. A day he remembered so thoroughly as though it was yesterday. "Second best," Omid said, his thoughts now on Christa. The picture of the day he and her first met was still flowing through his mind. The snow in the trees and the breeze in the air, Omid remembered the day so vividly. He didn't see the attacker pull out his knife.

Omid hadn't noticed how much he'd loosened his grip on the attacker's neck – not until he felt the cold steel of the man's blade sink into his chest. He felt the knife before he saw it, and he felt the cold, steel bite enter his flesh before he saw the blade gleaming with white light. Omid went cold, though he could still feel the warm liquid that began to leak from the hole in his chest. As the blood began to pour from his wound onto the attacker, the man pushed Omid aside and left the barracks hurriedly. Omid might have heard him slam the door behind him if it weren't for the loud, thumping heartbeat echoing through his ears. Now, the only sound playing through his ears was the sound of the Bay City Rollers – Bye Bye Baby. This had been the song playing when Omid and Christa had shared their first dance together, despite Omid being the abysmal dancer he was. Omid's eyes flickered as he began to bleed out. He was cold. The dark and lonely atmosphere of the isolated barracks began to fade away as Omid became drowsy, and finally closed his eyes.

When Omid awoke, he was being carried by two men. He was almost certain he was not dreaming, even when he saw one of the men possessed a stump where his right hand should have been.

"Fuck!" Johnny cursed aloud when he saw The Sheriff throw his rifle in Lilly's face, clocking her with the butt of his weapon and sending her swiftly to the ground. Unconscious, Lilly laid in the dirt, blood dribbling form her bust up lip, as The Sheriff stepped over her limp body. He backed away from the RV's window and drew the curtain before he was spotted by one of his armed men. "We have to go," he told Donald who sat on the back seat of the RV, his eyebrows raised with concern for his friends and his wife. His eyes widened.

"What?" he barked at Johnny in disbelief. Was he really suggesting they abandon everyone?

"We have to go!" Johnny repeated, this time with alarm. "Now!" He cried worryingly loud.

"We can't leave them!" Donald spat at him, shocked that he had to even say the words. "My wife is out there, God dammit!" The coward, Donald thought, shaking his head in confusion.

"It's too late for them," Johnny said without shame. As much as the idea of abandoning these people left him feeling mighty guilty, he still had a chance to escape, and he wasn't about to waste it. "But it's not too late for us," he said, marching to the driver's cabin.

"No," Donald said strictly as he began to fumble with his crutches. "I'm not leaving."

Johnny turned to see Donald attempting to get back on his feet using his new pair of crutches. He paced towards Donald hurriedly and snatched the crutches out of the old man's hands. Donald looked at him with utter contempt. Johnny sighed and, though he felt no pleasure in doing so, walked away with the crutches, leaving Donald stuck to his seat.

Johnny placed the crutches in the passenger seat behind him and took his place in the driver's seat. When he took a brief glance out of the RV's windscreen, he locked eyes with the man in the Sheriff's uniform, who then raised his revolver in Johnny's direction.

The loud blast was followed by an explosion of glass in front of Johnny as the windshield was torn apart. Johnny felt glass fall into his lap, but the bullet must have missed him. He slammed his foot against the accelerator and drove the RV in The Sheriff's direction as he desperately reloaded his Snub Nosed. Glass slid up and down the RV's bonnet as the vehicle bounced over the bumpy terrain, racing towards The Sheriff. Finally, he looked up from his gun and, when he saw the RV driving towards him fiercely and fearlessly, leapt out of the way and into the dirt. Johnny whooped aloud, fisting the air, as he drove away from the armed men and out of the Base. Donald looked at him with disgust. He's just left his friends - my wife – to die here, he thought. "Turn this RV around. Right. Now," Donald ordered furiously. His eyes wide with anger and his fists curled up in stress. In the little time he'd known him, Johnny had never seen Donald so angry. In fact, he had never see him angry.

"I'm sorry," Johnny said with regret. But he was alive, and he allowed himself to be happy for at least that. Besides, he may have been leaving his friends behind, but only for now. He knew he would return. He just hoped he wouldn't be too late when he did.

Clementine had almost pulled herself to the top of the fence when she heard one of the men shout. "OVER THERE!" she heard him bellow gruffly as he spotted her scaling the tall fence that must have stood no less than ten feet high. Clementine kept her eyes shut, refusing to look down. She knew the height she had climbed to would be enough to send her legs wobbly and cause her to fall back into the dirt – far enough to hurt herself more than the men ever would. She felt herself reach the peak of the fence, and once she had slowly eased herself over, she began to lower herself down the other side of it, her hands clinging onto to the hot wires of metal for dear life. "I'VE GOT HER!" Clementine heard one of the men shout moments before a gun was fired. "NO!" Clementine heard Christa shout from across the base. Her eyes still closed, Clementine did not see where the bullet had hit. Taking one hand off the fence, she felt her chest. Her heart had stopped. For a moment, she thought she had been hit. There wasn't a scratch in her. When she finally opened her eyes, Clementine spotted the man with the gun racing towards the fence. He was mere feet away now. Her heart began to race. She looked down to the ground and judged the distance between her and the dirt beneath her. Then, Clementine let go. She pushed herself off the fence and landed on her hands and feet on the rough terrain below. She looked behind her to see the man with the gun approaching the fence, breathing hard from sprinting so far. "RUN CLEMENTINE!" Christa then shouted to her. Clementine turned back. There was nowhere to go. But that didn't stop her from running away from the base, down the dirt road that had taken her there, as fast as her little legs would carry her.

Next time on The Walking Dead: As the group come face to face with The Sheriff and his men after being taken captive, they must face the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, Clementine and Johnny are reunited, and must plan a way to rescue their friends. But when they encounter a couple of strangers on the road, can they trust them to help save their friends, or are they simply a new enemy in disguise? Lilly is forced to make a tough decision when she is locked away and tested by The Sheriff, pushing her to her limits.

Thanks all of you guys for reading as always. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this Episode so far, so leave some REVIEWS!

-George