The Walking Dead: Season Two

Episode Three: Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Five

Previously on The Walking Dead: The group arrived at the Robins Air Force Base, where they'd hoped to find sanctuary. However, all hope seemed lost when The Sheriff and his men returned, demanding these trespassers off their property. Clementine was able to flee before being taken prisoner like the rest of the group, climbing over the fence after being given a chance to escape by Omid, who was brutally beaten in the process. Johnny was also able to flee the Base in the RV, with Donald in the back, although the old man was angry that he'd left his wife to die. Now, the remaining survivors await an uncertain fate at the hands of Jeremiah Winters a.k.a. The Sheriff.

When Lilly awoke, the first things she felt was a scorching pain from her forehead. She remembered the thug that had clocked her with the butt of his rife, but the pain could have just as easily been the symptoms of an oncoming migraine burning in her head. She sat up. Around her, Christa and Coach had already awoken. Alice was also awake. She hid herself in the loneliest corner of the room. Coach was slamming his fist against the sealed metal door to the room endlessly, barking at the men to open it and release them. Christa, however, had buried her head in her hands, making whimpering sounds that bounced off the room's metal walls and tormented Lilly even further. Occasionally, she would pull her head out of her hands to wipe away another waterfall of tears. When Lilly searched the rest of the room with her eyes, she knew what was wrong almost immediately. Omid wasn't here. Lilly wasn't sure who she felt more sorry for. Omid, it appeared, just couldn't catch a break. His leg had only just healed and now – this happened. As for Christa, she'd lost the only constant thing in her life since corpses started walking. That was of course except for Clementine. Then, a sudden stab of panic and dread cut Lilly like a knife. She was on her feet now, searching the room for Clementine, who she hoped to see hiding in the corner with her treasured walkie-talkie. She wasn't here either. Instead, Lilly could only spot Molly and Todd, who both still slept peacefully in each other's arms. Tom and Johnny were also missing, but Lilly could not have said why. Then, that same stab of panic and dread hit Lilly once again when she saw what lay opposite them in the small, contained and sealed room that felt more like a prison cell than the armoury that she had known from her days working on the Air Force Base with her father. Tom's body lied stiff and lifeless across from her as a pool of blood began to form around it from the gaping hole in his chest. Lilly knew what had to be done next, but she sure as hell wasn't looking forward to it.

Clementine was alone again. As she walked down the dark and lonely road away from the Air Force Base, her thoughts were with Omid, who she'd hoped hadn't suffered too much pain for helping her to escape. For some reason, it had appeared the attackers had wanted Clementine captured desperately. For allowing her to escape, even Clementine knew that Omid would be made to hurt. Whether than meant a couple of broken fingers or worse, Clementine could not be sure. She only hoped he was okay. He had been one of the few things that actually brought a smile to her face these days. When she couldn't walk any further, Clementine stopped. She pulled the pistol from the back of her trousers where she had tucked it away and opened the gun to check if any bulled remained inside. Clementine counted two bullets. It appeared Lilly had taken measures to keep her safe even before they had known they were not alone. Lilly wasn't stupid – it appeared she always had a backup plan – which is probably why Clementine had stuck by her since they had first been reunited at the Hilltop. Clementine hoped Lilly was okay. She had survived this long, Clementine reassured herself that Lilly wasn't going anywhere now, and neither was Omid or anybody else. Clementine burst into tears. How could she possibly know any of her friends were still alive? She was alone. And even if her friends were alive; would she ever see any of their faces again? The questions raced through Clementine's mind as two beaming lights began to lighten the road. The circles of bright light came closer to Clementine until they nearly blinded her in the night. She heard the vehicle the headlights belonged to clutter and screech as it slowly came to a halt. Clementine's heart had stopped. If there had been a chance to hide, she was already too late. They had found her. She took a deep breath when she saw the RV's door swing open.

Clementine!" Johnny exclaimed excitedly as he jumped out of the RV, eager to be reunited with the little girl. The guilt of leaving her had made his heart sink with dread of what might have happened to her. But here she was: safe. He ran to her, his arms wide open.

"Johnny!" Clementine shouted happily as she jumped into the older boy's arms who got down on one knee to embrace and comfort the frightened child.

Johnny held her tight in his arms and did his best to keep her warm in the night's cold breeze. The girl was shaking with fear and shivering in the chilly air, but she still wrapped her arms snuggly around Johnny. "We were getting worried about you, Clem."

"Did they kill him?" Lilly asked Christa continued to weep beside her, making no attempt to wipe the tears away. She cried for Omid, and Lilly knew it would be a long time before she dried her eyes. She mourned Omid as she hid away in the lonely corner of the armoury. She wiped the tears away again when she heard Lilly's question, though she wasn't sure she could bring herself to say the words. He was gone, and he was never coming back. The idea of life without Omid, to Christa, seemed like no life at all.

"Yes," Christa finally managed to say through a voice broken by tears. "He's gone." Though Lilly had still been unconscious at the time from the robust smack The Sheriff had given her with the hard butt of his rifle, a man had entered the armoury when Christa first awoke to brag about the "twerp" he had stabbed in the barracks. Christa had given the man, called Jackson, an earful of hateful threats. The "twerp" he spoke of was undoubtedly Omid.

"I'm sorry," Lilly told her sincerely. "He was a good man. I'm glad I met him."

"So am I," Christa replied with the faintest of smiles. Even after all this time, she still remembered the day she had first met Omid. "He died protecting her, you know. Clementine. She's alive because of him," she explained as she wiped away another round of tears with the back of her sleeve. "He loved her like she was his own."

"I know," Lilly told her, her head bowed in remorse. "I could tell just by the way he looked at her. The things he did for her, you'd have believed she was his daughter," Lilly almost began to smile, until she remembered what was happening. "He would have made a good Dad."

"Yeah," Christa said quietly, her thoughts still with Omid. She rubbed her pregnant belly with her hand as she felt where the unborn baby had kicked only days ago. "He would." He died for Clem, she thought. He would have died for all three of us a hundred times over.

"Guys?" Lilly heard a girl's voice from across the room ask. She turned to see Molly sat up, Todd snoozing on her shoulder. "What exactly are we gonna do about that?" Lilly could see she was pointing at Tom's body across the room which was still lying in a pool of wet, sticky, red blood. Lilly studied the corpse carefully. She could see it wasn't moving – for now. She sighed. What happened next couldn't be avoided, but that didn't mean she had to like it.

"Hilda," Lilly simply said in a deep and dutiful tone, calling Molly's ice tool by the name she'd absurdly given it. "Give her to me."

"I can't believe Jerry had the doctor fix this guy up," the first man said, taking most of Omid's weight as he held him slumped over his shoulder. "Way to waist the man's time. This fucker attacked me, and I defended myself." Though Omid dared open his eyes, he could feel the man's cold and deadly gaze on him. "Let him die, I say."

"Fuck, man," the one with the stump said. "This guy was only trying to protect that little girl," he defended. "Bodies, you know Jerry needs these guys. Quesada asked for six bodies." Omid listened in, wondering who Quesada was, and what he wanted them for.

"Yeah, five bodies," the first man confirmed. "This one, the black chick, the old lady, those couple of kids and the enormous dude with the big bald head," he counted.

Christa, Alice, Molly, Jimmy and Coach, Omid thought to himself. But where was Lilly? And had Clementine made it out okay? What about Donald and Johnny who had left in the RV? The questions were racing through Omid's mind when Omid felt the hard concrete floor rush up to meet him as his chin hit the floor with a loud smack. He felt blood fill his mouth having bitten through his lip. It wasn't quite as painful as being stabbed, Omid thought.

"Fuck, Tommy," the first man spat. "You just dropped the poor bastard flat on his face."

"Shit," Tommy said pathetically. "I'm sorry, Jackson," he apologised as he showed the man the bandaged stump where his missing hand was. "I can barely carry him like this," he explained, looking for pity. But Jackson simply rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Look," he said dutifully. "I'll carry the guy. You just hold the fucking doors open… With your good hand," he told him sarcastically. "Still can't believe the fucker did that to you."

Jackson found himself having to double-take every time he looked where Tommy's hand should have been and saw only a stump. "Yeah…" Jackson growled as he picked up Omid from under his arms and dragged him across the hangar. "All the more reason we do what he asked. So what about the brunet?" He asked, still confused about their orders.

"Jerry doesn't want to hand her over to Quesada and his bandits for some reason," Tommy explained, looking as confused as Jackson was. "He said he needs her for something."

Tommy heard Jackson chuckle childishly as he dragged Omid along. "Yeah," he said between laughing out loud. "Right." He dropped Omid to wipe a wet blanket of seat from his brow.

"What's your thinking?" Tommy questioned him, wondering what he found so funny.

"C'mon," Jackson teased him. "The Sheriff obviously has a soft spot for the chick."

Tommy shrugged as he followed Jackson and the prisoner he dragged to the armoury. All Tommy knew was that Jerry wanted the girl called Lilly because she had mentioned working at the Air Force Base with her father, meaning she might be able to help them figure out this piece of machinery they'd discovered in one of Robins' hangars. Tommy took a moment to pause and admire it. The Helicopter stood little less than eight foot high, its colour and décor in as good condition as when it was left here. Lilly may have been the key to figuring out how to pilot this thing – creating an escape for the men that they desperately needed. He put his hand on the American flag inscribed in patriotic red, white and blue paint on the Military Chopper, just above where the name "Daisy" had been painted in a white, feminine font. When he heard Jackson hollering, Tommy ran after him. He stopped in his tracks and sighed helplessly when he noticed his stump was bleeding through its bandages.

That bitter cold night, Johnny was woken by voices outside the RV. He sat up from the sleeping bag he had wrapped himself warmly inside on the RV's floor, where he had moved from having Donald's manky, smelly feet dangled in front of him. Clementine was still sleeping where Johnny had left her, wrapped up in his leather jacket on one of the sofas. She was fast asleep, and judging by the sounds of his ghastly snoring, so was Donald. Johnny head the voices again. They spoke in whispers, but Johnny could hear them all the same. Wearing only a pair of jogging pants, Johnny crept to the RV's door, grabbing a pistol on his way out. He raised his weapon as he pushed the door open gently. The door creaked as it swung open. Barefoot, Johnny stepped outside, the cold of the earth viciously biting at his feet. He looked around him, his gun still raised. They were alone. Or so it seemed. The sounds of a rifle clicking proved otherwise. Johnny's heart stopped.

"You alone, boy?" The man with his rifle pressed to Johnny's head asked him in a gruff and hoarse voice. Johnny stuttered. His words got caught in his throat as he saw another man step out from the darkness in front of him. "I asked you a question," he said impatiently.

"Yeah," Johnny finally managed, struggling with sudden breathlessness brought on by the two shotguns now being pointed at him. "I'm alone," he lied to both men, though his eyes were on the man stood before him. The man wore a trench coat that billowed in the night's cold wind, and a white beard coated his jaw. The trench coat was a dark shade of green, though its true colours could barely be seen through the dirt and blood that stained it.

"Bullshit," the in the trench coat uttered, his grip around the shotgun tightening.

"Quite, Harold," the man with his gun to Johnny's head told him, his finger at his mouth.

"Dammit, Dick! We're not supposed to call each other by our names!" Harold argued from in front of Johnny. Johnny could tell he was panicking. The shotgun was shaking in his hands.

"Now look what you've done! See, this is why I don't let you do the talking," Dick, the man behind Johnny, shouted at Harold, waving his finger. "I should have left you back at the Farm, you're clear not cut out for this!" He had raised his voice to a worrying volume.

"Now you've just mentioned the Farm!" Harold lowered the shotgun in his hands as he began to pace in worry. He scratched his head. "You're the only idiot here," he declared, pointing accusingly at Dick. The two men were in each other's faces now, and Johnny got a better look at Dick. The two men were almost identical, both in appearance and clothing.

"I never called you an idiot," Dick explained. "All I meant was…" The men broke into argument that quickly became incomprehensible to Johnny, he scratched his head in confusion and took a few steps back from the chaos erupting in front of him, as the two men shouted and screamed at each other. Johnny looked over his shoulder for walkers.

"Look, Old Jack told us to find some people to help around the farm," Dick explained to Harold. "We can't come off as psychos or people won't ever want to join us."

"Well, we can't be too trusting. And we certainly can't be naïve. This guy could be one of The Sheriff's men for all we know," Harold answered back. "Or worse…"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Dick said with a smile as he put a hand on Harold's shoulder. He was about to apologies for his temper when he heard a gun click from nearby.

"Now," Johnny said, all out of patience. He held his pistol high in his hands to both men, his fingers firmly around the trigger. Donald stood behind him, balancing unevenly on his crutches. And Clementine stood beside him, clutching his arm. "You mind telling me who the fuck you people are?"

Lilly stood over Tom's cold and lifeless corpse, the ice tool called "Hilda" raised high above her head. All eyes were on her as she tried to steady her grip on Hilda, though she couldn't stop herself from shaking helplessly. At any moment, Tom would jump up and sink his teeth into her neck and kill everyone in that room. She took a deep breath. What she was about to do was unforgivable, but it was for the good of the entire group. "Do it," she heard Molly say from behind her. Lilly closed her eyes, wishing desperately that she would finally wake up from this never-ending nightmare that had started the first day she saw the dead walk. "DO IT!" Todd shouted manically from across the room. Lilly's eyes shot open. Hilda came plummeting down through the air until her blade was buried in Tom's skull. The ice tool sank deep into Tom's temple, making a loud CRUNCH sound as blood was fired across the room. She heard Alice scream and gasp behind her as Lilly pulled Hilda free, spattering blood across her face, raised her higher into the air, and threw her down again with sheer force. She pulled it free again, lifted it up and sunk the blade into Tom's skull again until there was no way of recognising him. The man's head had been reduced to a bloody, dilapidated mess. Tom's skull had been smashed to shards, and his brain was now a bloody pile of blended flesh. The man looked as though he had had a salt lick dropped on his head – an image that would forever haunt Lilly's memory. Lilly stepped back. She dropped Hilda as she raised her bloody hands to her face and began to whimper pathetically at the sight of what she had done. Christa wept beside her, though she couldn't bear to see the bloody mess that remained of Tom. Coach pulled a disgusted face as he looked ready to barf. He backed into one of the room's corners where he sat, silent and afraid. Between her feet, Lilly spotted an eyeball sat alone with its sickly red tail. Lilly stared into the eye's dark green pupils, and she felt Tom looking back. Lilly wanted to vomit. That was when the armoury door finally swung open.

Christa cringed at the sound of a loud crack as the man's chin hit the armoury floor hard after being thrown into the room by Jackson, who then saw Tom's bloody, disfigured corpse. Even Jackson appeared queasy at the sight of the bloody mess, and this was the man who had stabbed and killed her Omid. Her blood ran cold just at the sight of him. Christa felt her muscles tense. She had lost control. She felt herself get up on her feet, ready to throw herself at Jackson and claw his eyes out. But Christa stopped herself. She had seen the face of the prisoner Jackson had thrown so brutally into the room. Though his face was bruised and bloody from being so viciously manhandled, and even though one of his yes were black and his lips were cut and swollen, Christa recognised that smile anywhere. "Omid," Christa simply said as the tears already came pouring down her face.

"Christa," Omid managed through broken teeth, spitting out blood as he spoke. Omid smiled having recognised his beautiful girlfriend who, has far as he could tell, appeared unharmed. But that smile soon disappeared when he remembered who followed him. Jackson stepped over him, towards Lilly.

Jackson looked at Tom's bloody, ruined corpse, then to Lilly, and then back at the corpse. "Congratulations," he said with a manic smile. "You passed," he told Lilly, who was still shaking and felt ready to hurl at any moment.

"Wait a minute!" Christa shouted at Jackson from behind him. "This here? This was all some kind of test? All a part of some sick game?" Christa was crouched beside Omid, her hands smothering his bloody, broken face as she tried to wipe the blood and sweat away. "What the fuck do you want from us anyway?"" She asked, fighting back tears. She couldn't believe what she was saying. She was talking her way into a shallow grave.

"Who said anything about you?" Jackson turned to Christa and asked. His evil eyes turned Christa's blood cold and sent shivers down her spine. They were the eyes of a killer.

"What do you want with me?" Lilly asked him as Jackson led her out of the room, a gentle hand on her shoulder. Jackson considered telling her, but then chuckled instead.

"You'll find out, in time," he told her ambiguously. "I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," he explained, smiling manically once again.

As the two stepped out of the room, Christa held Omid in her arms. His stab wound still healing, she felt Omid fight through a cold sweat. He squeezed her hand until it felt ready to burst. "It's okay," she whispered in his ear. But that was when Todd got up on his feet and marched towards Lilly and Jackson. Things were far from okay.

Hearing Todd's footsteps against the armoury's metal floor, Jackson took a sharp turn to see the boy stood up, his arms crossed with impatience. "Todd, sit down," Molly warned Todd with concern. But Todd didn't move. Jackson smiled and nodded at Molly, he would take core of this himself.

"There something I can help you with, son?" Jackson asked, almost sincerely, one of his eyebrows raised in questioning. Bite your tongue, kid, Jackson thought.

"Yeah," Todd said arrogantly, "there is." One look at Tom's corpse was enough to make Todd feel squeamish. He quickly tuned back to Jackson, though he didn't make him feel much more comfortable. "How about some answers? Huh?" Todd asked, his cockiness already rubbing Jackson the wrong way. Todd shrugged his shoulders. When he saw Jackson's lips weren't moving, he carried on with his rant. "You show up here, waving your guns in our faces. You lock us up – with a walker, I should mention! And then you waltz in here, take one of us away, and you won't even tell us why?" Todd raised his voice, and Jackson's blood boiled. "I mean, shit, if you're going to kill us, fucking do it already!"

Jackson thought carefully about Todd's words. For a moment, he looked as though he might have actually admired the kid for having the cojones to stand up and say what he said. After all, what position was he – or any of them – in to be demanding anything? Jackson must have figured the same. The man chuckled, that same maniacal smile plastered on his otherwise stone cold face. "Fair enough," Jackson said as he reached into his trousers for something. "I'll grant you this one wish." Christa's heart sank into her stomach when she saw what Jackson had drawn from his trousers. He clicked the pistol and fired it right at Todd, the gunshot near-deafening Christa, who had already covered Omid's ears. When she opened her eyes, Christa saw that the bulled had entered Todd's skull and shot out the back of his head, painting the white wall behind him a vibrant shade of red. Alice screamed again, and covered her eyes and ears, hiding herself away in that same lonely corner of the room where she had stayed this entire time. Todd stood for a few seconds, his mouth clicking incomprehensibly as blood seeped from his lips. Finally, his lifeless corpse fell limp to the floor beside Molly, who threw herself over Todd, weeping as she shook him desperately as though he could still wake up. Christa heard the armoury door slam as Jackson and Lilly left them alone again. Trapped with another corpse - one that wouldn't stay dead for long.

Next time on The Walking Dead: Clementine, Donald and Johnny meet Old Jack on his Farm after their encounter with Dick and Harold. There, they learn more about The Sheriff, and how he can be stopped. Back at Robins Air Force Base, Lilly confronts The Sheriff, whose mysterious agenda begins to unravel in surprising ways.

Are you guys still out there? Haha. Haven't heard from you guys in a long time. Would love to hear your thoughts on this episode so far. Definitely need some REVIEWS before I upload the next chapter. You could be loving it or hating it - I have no idea - so let me know! Anyway, thanks for reading as always!

-George