The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival
Chapter 7: a blast from the past
Well, everyone, only a couple more chapters to go before I need to put this story on hold until Episode 3: In Harm's Way has been released. I apologize for this, but as you know, I am following the story. In the mean time, enjoy this chapter.
Lee opened up the door and made his way into the small station building, Clementine following him like usual. He held the door open for her for a moment for her to walk inside. The duo studied the small station from the inside, and they had to admit, this place looked twice as worse as the Motor Inn they used to stay at.
There was merely a single cot bed in the corner of the room, a couple of empty cans scattered across the room, a medium-sized trunk at the bottom of the window, and a shelf at the end with a knife and a couple of empty cans beside it. This place looked like a dump. But hey, it could be worse, and at least it was safe to sleep in by the looks of it.
"What a dump." Lee exclaimed, moving over towards the trunk to see if there was anything useful inside. After all, it did have a strong padlock attached across the lock tightly.
"Looks worse than my old tree house." Clementine admitted, making her way over towards the shelf, investigating for anything useful.
Lee knelt down to the trunk and attempted to pry it open with his bare hands, but it was too strong to break apart within his own strength. "Errrgh. Locked up tight. I don't see a key around here."
"That man probably had it." Clementine replied as she eyed the small survival knife set against the table, and by the looks of it, it did look like a good weapon. She picked up the knife within her hands, seeing the initials 'WM' carved on the casing. "Looks pretty good." she shifted her attention back towards Lee, offering him the knife. "Think you could open it with this, Lee?"
"Maybe, looks sharp enough after all. Thanks, sweat pea." Lee thanked, kindly accepting the knife into his hand. He knelt back down to the trunk, using the knife in an attempt to pry it open by breaking the padlock.
Giving it a couple of strong pulls with a couple of grunts, Lee was finally able to break the padlock, making the trunk accessible. He observed the inside of the trunk where he saw a few magazines on the left, and on the right were two canned foods. It must be the food the man mentioned on the bridge, but he did not seem to have as much as he though.
The door opened for a second time as Lee picked up both cans in his hands, and he and Clementine turned their attention towards the door to see it was Alvin, who walked inside to check for food, most likely for his wife. He sighed as he studied the station, surprised of how bad it looked. "Man, and I thought we had it bad. Look at this dump."
He approached Lee, who stood back up full height, holding both cans of food in his hands.
"Guess he did have food. Man, fuck Nick." Alvin sighed, still shocked about Nick's actions moments ago. Although he did feel sympathy for the younger man, he still had to admit it was crazy to what he did. "Nick's lost a lot of people, that's for sure. But that doesn't give him any excuse to start shooting up strangers."
"He was trying to help us. But I do agree with that he did was wrong." Lee agreed, having two separate opinions about the younger man with one being with him, and one being against him.
"Yeah, I know, I'm just saying..." Alvin explained. "I mean, you ever known anyone who would have done a thing like that?"
"Actually, yeah, I do." Lee answered, thinking back to the event more than two-years ago that caused a massive problem to their group shortly after the attack on the Motor Inn.
"What happened?" Alvin inquired.
"There was a woman in our group. Our home was attacked and we were forced to leave. She thought someone in our group was the traitor, and without hesitation, she shot this teenager." Lee answered, thinking back to that tragic day when Lilly caused so much pain and misery over her paranoid fears.
Kenny finished off the walker by slamming his foot down onto it's head, crushing it's head and killing it once on for all. He walked back towards the others, who were all looking towards him when he was dealing with the walkers, so he could catch up on what was happening. "Now what the fuck's the problem?"
Before anyone could answer, the sound of a gunshot was fired and everyone fell silent. They were shocked as they looked towards Lilly, who was pointing Carley's Glock 17 pistol to where Ben WAS standing, and what they saw next shocked everyone.
Ben was laying motionless on the ground with a bullet mark in between where his left eye was, and blood smearing across the ground. Lilly had shot him without hesitation, thinking that he was the traitor.
Although Lee and everyone was shocked for a few seconds, he swiftly charged towards Lilly like a rampaging bull and gripped her right wrist with his left hand, and slammed her against the RV with his right hand. "DROP IT." he ordered.
Lilly looked towards her hand, slightly regretting what she just did. Nevertheless, she obeyed and dropped the gun from her hand.
Everyone looked down to Ben's corpse, not believing what had just happened. Why would Lilly do this? Why would she just shoot Ben like that? Sure, she may have her suspensions, but there was no need to shoot Ben in cold blood just like that.
"Holy fuck..." Kenny mumbled to himself while he watched Carley kneel down to Ben's corpse to check if he was alive or not before he had his wife shouting for him. She must have heard the gunshot too.
"KENNY, what's happening!?" Katjaa called out from inside the RV, clearly hearing the gunshot from the Glock 17 shoot through her eardrums.
"Keep Duck away from the windows!" Kenny quickly responded towards his wife, not wanting his son to maybe lean through the window and witness what had just happened "Jesus CHRIST!". He hopped over Ben's corpse to stand on the other side of him to confront Lilly of her actions. "GET IN. We're leaving this crazy bitch!"
"He couldn't be trusted, Lee, I swear." Lilly promised, still being held under the group of Lee's strong grip. "Please."
"What are you gonna do, Lee?" Carley asked, although you could clearly tell by her face that she wanted Lilly gone, and that was that. "I say we leave her here!"
"I agree with Carley." Kenny agreed, still keeping his eyes locked on towards the woman he always had an argument with back at the Motor Inn. "I say we leave her for the walkers."
"Why. Why Lilly?" Lee inquired while he tried to figure out if she should be allowed back into the RV again. He thought to himself, what could happen if he took her with them? Would she attempted to kill one of them again? But if he left her behind, would he be any better than her?
Finally, Lee made up his mind his mind, and that was to leave her behind. He could not risk letting her hurt anyone again. If he was to be shot be her, then what would become of Clementine? He released his grip fro her while he looked deep into her eyes with a hateful look. "You're not coming with us."
"I'll die out here." Lilly countered, gesturing her arm towards the road where walkers could be seen walking towards them in the distance.
"I don't care." Lee replied, leaning down and picking up Carley's Glock 17 from the ground.
"You're a murderer, Lilly." Kenny nudged, pointing his finger towards her about what she had just done: committed a murder. "We can't have you with us."
"I'm a murderer?!" You've had Lee with you this whole time!" Lilly reminded, gesturing her hand towards Lee, knowing that he had killed before the zombie apocalypse had began.
"I don't care what he did before." Kenny replied, knowing about Lee's past after he had confessed it back at the Motor Inn to him, Katjaa, Clementine, and Carley (not knowing that she already knew).
"You know?!" Lilly said surprised, realizing that there was nothing else she could possibly say that would let her back into the group.
"Yeah, he told me. I don't give a shit." Kenny answered, before he turned this conversation about murders back over to Lilly. "If we keep you with us, how long until you get ME?"
"I was trying to protect all of us." Lilly added, hoping that her former group would let her back in if you tried to convince them she was just trying to look out for everyone else.
"By killing one of our own!?" Carley said, angry at Lilly that she could just kill her right now after she just shot one of her closet friends like that.
"I don't have anything left." Lilly said, remembering that her dad was he only thing she had left before Kenny dropped a salt lick on his head while she nervously rubbing her left arm with her right hand.
Kenny looked towards her for a few seconds before declaring it was time to go before they would attract any unwanted attention. "Get in, Lee. Let's go you guys."
Carley and Kenny each shot a hateful look towards Lilly before they got back into the RV now that the walker was dealt with. Lee did the same, except it took him a little longer. He looked towards her with a angry face before joining the others in the RV, closing the door behind him.
"Damn, what did you do?" Alvin asked, causing Lee to daze out from his thoughts.
"We left her on the side of the road. She was too dangerous to keep around." Lee answered, always wondering if he made the right choice or not by leaving Lilly at the side of the road like that.
"Oh." Alvin merely replied, unsure of what to say exactly. He accepted one of the cans into his hands from Lee, and a smile raised across his face as he showed the can to Clementine. "That's funny. She looks just like you."
Lee rose a smile across his face when seeing the resemblance between his adoptive daughter and the girl on the tin. He turned towards Clementine, whom did not seem to be amused by his remark, and folded her arms together, giving the two men a saucy look.
"Hey, Lee, there's not a lot of food, and Rebecca well...she's eating for two. You think we can keep this just between us three?" Alvin requested with a smile across his face, wanting to give all of the food for his wife that would allow her to keep up her strength. "I hate to even say it, you know, but...And I'd never go against the group. But I've got to put Bec and the baby first. You guys understand, right?"
Lee and Clementine thought about his request for a moment, but it did not feel right. Clementine thought the group should decide on who gets the food, and Lee was worried from what Luke told him earlier: the baby possibly being Carver's. Alvin was so concerned about feeding a child that was most likely not even his.
Lee was about to say not, but decided to let him give him the food this time for Rebecca and her unborn baby's sake. "Rebecca can have it. I won't say anything just this once."
"Thanks, Lee. I'm glad you, Carley and Clementine are with us." Lee thanked, turning back towards the exit of the station to join the others. However, he froze in his steps when he spotted something in the distance out from the window. "The hell is that?"
Lee walked beside him to investigate what was wrong. His eyes widened when the sight of multiple walkers could be seen crossing the bridge. "Shit, walkers."
Alvin panicked slightly as he quickly departed from the inside of the station, joining the others outside, and by the looks on their expressions, they seemed to notice the situation as well. "We got a problem here."
"Yeah, we saw it." Luke replied, shifting his attention towards their group. "All right,we're heading up."
The former cabin group ran as fast as they could go in an attempt avoid the walkers that were pursing them. Hopefully, they could elude them on their way up and save themselves whatever ammunition they had left.
After a few minutes or running through the woods, everyone had managed to lose the pursing walkers (or so they thought so, at least) and made it to that ski lodge they spotted from the other side of the river. It took all of them a few minutes to catch their breaths back while they tried to find the entrance to the ski lodge.
Near the side of the ski lodge, Rebecca caught up to Carlos and Nick while panting slightly as she was desperate to get inside, needing to rest after walking for five days none-stop. "Well? What are we waiting for?"
"We have to be careful." Carlos answered, keeping a close eye on the cabin, obviously not wanting to rush in there just in case it was inhabited.
"Careful?" Rebecca repeated, placing both of her hands upon her hips. "We've been on the road for five days. My back is done being careful."
Alvin caught up to the others and began to study the ski lodge, noticing the entire place was nailed up tight with boards, leaving only a couple of windows exposed to see through. "Doesn't look like anybody's home. Damn. Nailed down tight."
"That's what we thought about this train we ran into once." Carley clashed, raising her Glock 17 in both of her hands, expecting trouble.
"What happened?" Alvin inquired.
"Some old guy was living there. At first, we thought he was dangerous, but he was nice, and accompanied us to this city we were heading." Carley answered, thinking back for a moment to that day when she or the others never got the chance to find out Chuck's fate after he had saved them. "He was surrounded by walkers. We never got the chances to find out what happened to him."
"Damn." Alvin sighed, feeling it was unfair when the good people in this world were always the first to die. He stood back up to full height after seeing there was no way in through the windows, meaning he needed to look for an alternative entrance. "I'll check around front."
"I'll go with you." Carlos offered, following him around the other side of the ski lodge.
While they were waiting for someone to declare if it was safe or not, Lee and Clementine rested their arms against a wooden railing , looking over into the distance towards the way they came.
The duo were soon accompanied by Luke, who had an expression across his face like he had the feeling someone could be tracking their group without them knowing.
"Well, it'd be good to know if anybody's actually back there." Luke admitted, shifting his attention towards the top of a small tower nearby. "Could probably get a better view from up top. I'd go up, but I think Clementine might have an easier time getting up there. It'll be just like climbing a tree house. You know, just a really tall treehouse. Made of steel."
Lee thought about his request for a moment about sending his adoptive daughter to the top of the tower. He had to accept the fact Clementine was grown up now, and she was no longer the little girl he met when this apocalypse began. "Sure. If she's up for it, that is?"
"I had a treehouse once." Clementine told Luke, turning away from him for a moment. "I hated it."
The second it was settled that she would be the Lee and Clementine followed Luke towards the tower. She approached the ladder and looked up, seeing it was quite high, and looked a little difficult to climb.
"Just take it slow, and I'll catch you if you fall, Clem." Lee assured her, already preparing for the worse if it were to happen.
Clementine placed her hands upon the ladders and began climbing up the ladders while Lee and Luke waited for her below, prepared to catch her is she were to slip and fall.
"Got a good grip?" Luke inquired.
"Yeah." she replied as she began climbing up the ladders, trying her best not to look down and keep focused on climbing up.
"Just keep going, Clem, and don't stop until you reach the top. And if you slip, I'll be right here to catch you." Lee assured her, merely watching as she continued climbing slowly as she could go, not wanting to risk anything if this ladder was unstable.
Luke watched as she continued climbing up the steps, and decided to speak up to her in a assuring tone like Lee was, and that this was nothing compared to what he use to do. "When I was a kid we used to jump rooftops downtown. Now that was fun."
"That sounds stupid." Clementine admitted, already half-way up the small tower.
"I kinda agree with her there." Lee agreed, shifting his eyes towards Luke with his arms crossed together, giving him a saucy look. "That does sound stupid."
"Yeah, yeah, it was." Luke admitted. "The trick was to not look down though."
The young girl continued climbing and almost reached the top of the tower, until suddenly, she cried out in panic as her left foot had slipped, almost losing her grip. She clutched on for dear life, closing her eyes as tight as she could.
"Whoa, whoa!" Lee panicked, holding his arms out in front of his body as high as they would go, preparing to catch her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're fine." Luke soothed, holding both of his arms up, preparing to catch her too in a similar way to Lee. "Just look at me, okay? You're fine...Alright, just-just slow down. Just for a second, okay? Got your grip?"
Clementine merely nodded her head in response, still with her eyes closed as she froze in her position. She took a couple of breaths as she looked up and took a couple of breaths before making her way up the tower.
After a few more terrifying climbing seconds, Clementine finally made it to the top of the tower, finally feeling safe. She stood up as she looked beyond the valley, the only thing keeping her company was a black bird perched on the railing. "Made it."
"See anything?" Luke inquired, raising his voice a little louder for Clementine to hear him.
Clementine raised her binoculars back over her eyes, looking back into the distance, back the way they came. She spotted the bridge they had crossed over (and almost died on) on. "I can see the bridge! Wait, I see something!"
Near the end of the bridge, a light had emerged from the woods. There were multiple thoughts to what it could be racing around Clementine's mind. Could it be Carver and his men? Or maybe it was just other people passing through?
"You do?" Lee asked.
"What is it?" Luke inquired a hint of worry in his voice as soon as Clementine mentioned she saw something.
"A light-" Clementine stopped in mid-sentence when yet another light had emerged from the woods. "Wait, there's another. Lee! Luke! Lee? Luke?"
Clementine placed her binoculars down and turned around to see Lee was still waiting for her below, but had his attention turned towards the ski lodge. Luke, however, had run over towards the others. She watched as he joined the group who were now standing on the other side of what appeared to be another group. There were four of them, and it did not look good so far since Nick and one of them were aiming their weapons at each other. Figures."
"Clem, get back down here!" Lee requested, he too watching the entire thing from where he was standing to catch Clementine if she fell.
She carefully got back into a climbing position and carefully climbed back down the tower, praying she would not slip and fall. Hopefully, once she got down, Lee could quickly sort out this situation before any of them opened fire.
Nearby from where the two were aiming their weapons and one and other, Luke attempted to refuse the situation without any violence. "Listen, everyone, just stay calm."
A woman from the other group spoke to them in an Indian accent, angrily demanding answers. "Who are you?! Are you trying to rob us?"
"Excuse me, honey, but do I look like a fucking thief?" Rebecca responded to her.
"Everyone calm down." a man with a red and grey sweater soothed, raising his hands near the front of his body. "Just tell us who you are."
"Sarah, got behind me." Carlos ordered his daughter, preparing to protect her as he could sense the situation getting out of hand.
"Hey man, you calm the fuck down." Alvin told him. "We ain't here to rob nobody. Put the gun down, lady."
"You're outnumbered." Carley told them, but was unable to see them since she was standing behind everyone else, and she is quite small for her height, of course.
"Fuck you!" another female voice clashed.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." Luke soothed, realizing one of them were going to fire soon if nobody did anything to prevent this. It was just like the bridge situation again.
"Please, just do what she says." the Indian woman pleaded.
While they were arguing, Lee and Clementine moved in front of their friends to investigate what was happening. The duo marched their way in front of everyone else, keeping their attention focused on the woman with the gun.
Lee's eyes widened as he eyed the woman holding the rifle towards them, unable to believe she was here. She should be dead, but here she was, standing right in front of his eyes. "Lilly...?!"
That's right. The familiar face was no other than Lilly herself. The question of how she was here is a mystery. Lee and the others left her on the side of the road more than two-years ago, and now here she was, standing in front of her former group. She was now wearing army cargo pants, and was wearing a black hoodie zipped-up, similar to the one the Indian lady was wearing. Her hair had now grown a little longer, but she did not look that different overall.
Lilly slowly dropped her gun down after seeing her familiar friends, and rather than be angry at them for leaving her like they expected, she too was surprised. She eyed her three former friends, unable to believe if this was real or not. "Lee...? Clementine?! Carley?"
"Wait, you know this lady?" Luke asked Lee.
Lee was about to answer with the story about what she did to Ben over two-years ago, but what good would that do? That would make the situation even worse than it needed to be. For now, he told a lie to keep everyone from shooting each other. "Yeah, we're, uh, old friends. Right Lilly?"
Lilly could see what he was getting it, and decided to go along with this little lie of his. "Yeah. We knew each other a while back. We should, uh, get inside."
"Great. I just started dinner." the man with the sweater agreed.
Carlos looked towards the other group for a moment with his arms crossed together, now beginning to trust them since Lee, Clementine, and Carley knew one of them. His daughter looked happy enough, but he still had a couple of doubts. "Are you sure you don't mind?"
"It's going to storm soon." the man warned, offering them shelter for the night. "Please, come in."
Lilly's group leaded the other survivors around the cabin towards the man entrance inside. While they were walking, Lee and Lilly looked towards one and other for a moment, but even despite what happened in the past, the two raised a slight smile at each other. Maybe everything was going to be okay after all.
Lilly has returned, ladies and gentleman, and neither of the groups are aware of Lilly's past. Let us hope nothing will go wrong while they are staying at the ski lodge. Stay tuned for the next chapter, folks.