The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival
Chapter 8: the ski lodge
Hey, everyone, good news: there have been some leaked screenshots from In Harms Way from Telltale. Be sure to look them up, but in the meantime, enjoy this chapter.
Seconds after being interested with their once friend Lilly, the man (introduced as Walter by Lilly) held the glass door open for Lee, Clementine, and Carley as they walked inside the ski lodge.
When they were inside, Lee watched in amazement as he studied the sky lodge, seeing the entire place was full of decorations such as Christmas lights hanging around the ceilings and the wooden support beams, flags of different countries hanging on the ceilings, with peaceful music feeling the air, a nice, warm fire kept the entire place warm, and to top it off, there was a Christmas tree near the wooden stairs.
Walter moved beside Lee and Carley while both of them had nothing to say nothing for a moment. "Lilly and Sarita have been staying with us for several weeks. Used to be a ski lodge, obviously, so we have plenty of food." he paused just for a second and began walking up the small steps. "And believe it or not, we still get some power from that wind turbine out front. We tend to keep most of the lights off at night to avoid drawing attention. But after we found this stuff in storage, we couldn't resist making an exception."
"Looks like a great place." Lee admitted, but at the same time, cautious when he thought back to another place that they thought to be great but turned out to be something you would see from Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
"It's amazing!" Carley exclaimed, studying the decorations hanging around the ceilings and walls.
Walter shifted his attention back towards the exit when Luke, Nick, Alvin, and Rebecca had walked inside, studying the inside of the ski lodge like Lee and the others did moments ago. "Please, make yourselves at home. You can leave your things over there."
Rebecca looked towards where he was pointing that was a small bench by the side of the exit, and almost immediately, she showed an un-trusting attitude towards them. "The hell we will."
"Yeah, I'm holding onto my rifle, thanks." Nick declined, having the same attitude as Rebecca did: untrustworthy.
"You're our guests here." Walter reassured them, speaking in a soothing voice in an attempt to keep them from worrying. "There's no need to worry."
"Tell her to put his gun down, then." Nick quickly responded, referring to Lilly who was still holding her Winchester Model 70 in her hands.
Walter turned towards Lilly for support, wanting to show the other group they were trustworthy. "Lilly?"
Lilly hesitated for a moment before turning to Lee for support, knowing that he was good at making good delicious, and possibly due to her being a member of their group. "Can you trust these people, Lee? If you tell them their good, then I'm good."
"Hey, you were the one aiming the gun at us." Nick argued.
"Only because you drew first!" Lilly countered, allowing her temper to get the best of her that gave her a slightly angry expression.
"We're cool, okay? Hey, hey, we're cool, we're cool." Luke quickly assured them, sensing things were about to get bad again.
"Lee?" Lilly, still wanting an answer from him if he trusted this group or not.
Lee looked back at both groups for a moment while they were arguing with one and other. He did not want no-one else to get into more fights, especially with his girlfriend and adoptive daughter present. "Everyone, calm down. Look, everyone's cool, we'll all set our things there at the same time, okay?"
Everyone obeyed his request and remained silent for a moment, the only thing they could hear was the music in the background. The door opened shortly after, revealing it to be Sarita, whom had leaded Carlos, Sarah, and Pete into the cabin.
Sarah got somewhat a little enthusiastic when she spotted the Christmas tree near the stairs. "Dad! Look! A Christmas tree!"
"Not now, Sarah." Carlos declined, placing his hand onto her arm to keep her from wondering away. By the looks of it, he wanted to make sure this place was okay before letting his daughter out from his sight.
"Isn't it great?" Sarita said to Sarah. "We found it all in storage."
"It's amazing." Sarah admitted, admiring all the Christmas decorations around the ski lodge.
Lilly still hesitated for a moment, trying to decide whenever or not to put her rifle down, but when seeing Clementine and Sarah, it soothed her attitude for a moment. For the sake of their being children present, she walked over towards the small bench and set her rifle down.
The members from the opposite group finally decided to place their items down on the small wooden bench. Luke was the first to walk over there, and set his machete down. Nick followed suit, Carley set her Glock 17 down, and then the others did, too; setting their weapons and supplies down.
"Good." Sarita smiled, beckoning for the others to follow her once everything was settled now. "If you'll all follow me, I'll show you where you can sleep."
As soon as everyone else was gone, Lilly beckoned for Lee, Carley and Clementine to follow him where they could talk privately and catch up on old times. The four of them walked towards a small living room with comfortable chairs and a nice warm fire to keep them warm in this weather.
Lilly sat on the single sofa while the trio Lee, Clementine, and Carley sat on the big family couch with Clementine in the middle, Carley on the left, and Lee on the right. The four of them remained silent for a moment, unsure of what to say towards one and other.
Lilly was the first to speak after a moment of silence. She closed her eyes with her head lowered down sheepishly, looking somewhat regretful and in sadness. "...Lee...When I shot Ben...It's...It's haunted me ever since..." she paused and turned her attention towards the older man. "I...I never wanted to shoot him. I...I was just so worried for our group, I let the anger get the best of me..."
"...What are you trying to say exactly, Lilly?" Lee inquired, already knowing where she was going with this.
"...I'm sorry." she apologized, and this certainly left each of them shocked. In the past, Lilly was never one to be regretful or even apologize, but now hear she was, like a completely different person. "I'm sorry for what I did, for everything. I'm not mad for you leaving me on the side of the road, and I don't expect none of you to forgive me...But I thought you should know."
Lee fell silent for a moment and turned towards both his adoptive daughter and girlfriend for support in this matter. Both of them gave him a look like they were saying "You know what you need to do". Could he find it in his heart to forgive her or not? Would this finally make things right after they never had the best of relationships?
He sighed and shifted his attention back towards Lilly, who seemed patient enough to expect his answer soon. "Lilly...We forgive you for killing Ben. But we won't forget. And don't worry, we won't tell your group anything."
"Thanks Lee." Lilly smiled, showing her full gratitude towards him, knowing that Lee was always one to make the best decisions when it came to tough situations.
Now that was settled, Lee changed the subject at this very moment, wanting to catch upon old times since it had been more than two-years since. "So, how'd you end up here?"
"I was on my own for a while, being able to keep moving on my own. It was tough, but eventually, Walter and his partner Matthew found me in the woods a few months back. And I've pretty much been staying here." Lilly answered, not being able to give much detail since it was such a long time ago. "What about you three?"
"Just been moving, really." Carley simply answered, leaning back against the couch with her arms folded together.
"We were heading up north." Lee added, but did not want to give too much detail on their exact location for now.
"What happened...To the others?" Lilly inquired. "Did they...You know?"
Lee already knew what she meant by this, and quickly responded in a fast tone. "No, no, no! Kenny and his family got on a boat with these other two people we met on the way to Savannah." Lee answered. "We all could not fit on the boat, so we made our way out from the city, and just kept moving really."
At almost perfect timing with the end of his sentence, Sarita had returned to check up on the four friends with a smile across her face. "You four catching up?"
"Lee, Clem, Carley, this is Sarita." Lilly introduced them, looking back towards the trio and then towards Sarita for a moment. "She's been here for a while. Sarita, these are some people from my first group. This is Lee, Clementine, and Carley."
"Nice to meet you all." Sarita replied smiling, but turned her attention towards Walter whom was making his way towards the cafeteria to prepare food. "Hey Walter, where's Matty? Is he still out there?"
"Of course he is." Walter assumed, continuing his way over towards the kitchen area. "Well, I'll go and start dinner."
The rest of cabin group returned downstairs after settling in, and Sarita was the first to greet them, but she mainly had her attention focused on Carlos and his daughter Sarah. She approached the duo, and requested a little favor from the doctor. "Carlos, right? Mind if I steal your daughter for a secret mission?"
Sarah raised a slight smile and turned to her father for approval, wanting to help out Sarita with the decorations.
Despite the fact Carlos had some doubts with the rest of the group, he felt he could trust Sarita since she was kind to them, and agreed with letting them stay for the night, after all. "Stay in sight, sweetie."
Sarita led Sarah over to the Christmas tree, and the duo began to decorate it together to help brighten up the place. As long as Carlos did not keep constantly looking at his daughter ever two minutes, then it should be fun.
As for the rest of the group, Luke walked around Carlos with Nick , offering their assistance as a favor for letting them stay. "Can we do anything to help?"
"Could use a little hand outside." Lilly answered, standing back up to full height from where she was sitting. "We got a lot of supplies we need to bring in before that storm hits."
"Sure." Luke agreed, walking towards the exit of the ski lodge with Nick beside him.
"Clem, why don't you help Walt with dinner?" Lilly suggested to the young girl before she headed back outside to help Luke and Nick with the supplies.
"Sure, that sounds like a good idea." Lee agreed, placing his hand upon her shoulder for a moment in improvement. "Right Clem?"
"Yeah...Right." Clementine agreed, making her way over towards the cafeteria like they suggested.
"I'm gonna go check on the others." Lee told Carley, making his way towards the stairs where the remaining members of his group were.
Now that everyone had something to keep them occupied for a while, Clementine made her way towards the cafeteria to help out with dinner like Lilly suggested. She made her way over to Walter, who was stirring some food in a cooking pot with a wooden spoon.
"Hey Clementine." Walter greeted, taking his spoon out from the cooking pot. "You and your friends settling in well enough?"
"Yeah, thanks." Clementine smiled, already being able to tell this man was nice like a couple of the other people she knew like Lee, Carley, Alvin, Luke, Katjaa, and a couple others.
"Excellent. Want to help me prepare a little dinner?" Walter offered, smiling as he watched her observe the contents inside of the pot. He began stirring the food again while making conversation between them both. "So how do you know Lilly? She and Sarita have been a huge help. Matthew and I barely knew what to do around here the first week. "But Lilly, well, she never slows done."
"It's a long story." Clementine admitted, unsure of where to start.
Walter paused for a moment and looked towards her with a sad expression. He shrugged it off as he continued to make dinner. "Connecting with people is so important. I don't know what I'd do without Matthew." he admitted, tipping some salt into the cooking pan, being with Clementine reminded him of good times before the dead had risen. "Gosh, you remind me of my students. I can't imagine what it's like growing up in the middle of all this."
"Everyone underestimates me." Clementine replied, showing she was useful in many ways despite her young age.
"I expect you have used that to your advantage." Walter wondered.
"Sometimes." Clementine admitted, shrugging her shoulders slightly before crossing her arms together.
"Smart girl." Walter smiled, dipping his spoon into the food to get a little piece for him to taste. "Hmm. Almost done. Would you do me the honor of tasting the first course, madam?"
Clementine stared into his cooking pot for a moment, and the sight of it's contents made her feel a little queasy. "Looks..Good. What is it?"
"Le Walter Surprise. An autumnal legume salad with a peace roux." Walter answered, speaking in some kind of posh language that Clementine did not seem to understand. "It's peaches and beans. It's all we have got."
Walter paused for a moment and picked up one of the empty cans to show towards Clementine, and to her surprise, it looked very familiar. "Huh. Striking resemblance."
Her eyes widened for a moment when seeing the empty can but she quickly shrugged it off before he would notice. The man who Nick shot owned the exact same cans as he did. Could he be related to their group by some chance?
"Anyway, I'll take it from here." Walter replied, carefully picking up the cooking pot in his hands up from the stove. He began humming a song to himself as he walked away from Clementine's sight.
Now the cooking was out the way, Clementine wondered off on her own to check out the ski lodge more. She knelt down to the radio and picked up one of the CD's sitting beside it, reading it's contents. ""Cousin Jared's concert, October 13th, 1998.""
She looked towards the Christmas tree that was currently being decorated by Sarita and Sarah, and was happy to see it brought back some memories, memories from the past. "I haven't seen one of these since..."
While Clementine was observing the place, nearby Sarita and Sarah were still decorating the Christmas tree together. As they continued decorating, Sarita began humming a song to herself that Sarah seemed to take an interest to.
"What's the song you're humming?" Sarah inquired.
"Good King Winceslas." Sarita answered while tying more decorations to the tree. "It's my favourite Christmas song."
"What's it about?" Sarah asked.
"Well, it's about a king that brings food to a poor man. The King and his servant march all night through a cold winter storm to reach the man. The storm is very strong. After a long time, it gets so cold that the servant can't go on. But the king tells the servant to just step in his tracks." Sarita explained, taking a breath as she began singing some of the song to Sarah. ""Mark my footsteps, good my age. Tread thou in them boldly. Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood loss coldly.""
"I don't get it." Sarah replied, unsure to what these strange words meant exactly in English terms.
Sarita chuckled a little in response before trying to explain the song to her in a kind way. "It means that doing good things for people can be good for you, too."
"But the servant wouldn't have been out there in the first place if the king hadn't made him." Sarah queried, confused to how that was good.
"Good point." Sarita agreed, chuckling a little for a moment. She placed her hand upon her hip as she studied the tree before seeing a familiar face approach them both. "Clem, we could use some help. Here, Sarah, you take this and string them up over there."
Clementine helped out for a moment by hanging some more of the bulbs onto the tree since she had nothing to do for a while.
"You knew Lilly before. It must be incredible to see her again." Sarita admitted, remembering back to the day Lilly arrived to the ski lodge. "I remember when Walter and Matthew brought her back here...She use to be angry a lot, but...Well...She's different now... But you must be so glad."
"Did she say anything about before?" Clementine inquired, wondering how she had coped since leaving her on the side of the road.
"No. She didn't mention much before we met her." Sarita replied while she adjusted some of the decorations across the Christmas tree to make sure they did not fall off. She leaned back out to see the young girl staring at her. "Everything takes a little waiting these days."
The trio took a couple of steps back to observe the Christmas tree. It looked just about finished, but Sarita still had one more decoration to put on top. "Perfect. Now we just need the topper."
"We always had an angel on top of our tree." Sarah replied, [lacing her left hand placed upon her right arm.
"My family didn't celebrate Christmas, but I still love the decorations." Sarita admitted, proud to celebrate a tradition that she never took part in the past.
Before long, Clementine wondered off while she was talking to look for a topper for them. She had no idea where to look, but it should not take her too long.
Meanwhile in the upstairs of the ski lodge, Lee, Carley, Carlos, Alvin and Rebecca were discussing an important matter: the lights Clementine had spotted down below. They were trying to decide if this could be Carver and his followers or not.
"It's crazy. Why would they follow us this far?" Rebecca wondered, but deep down, she already knew the answer why, and had to keep quiet.
"We can't be sure." Carlos admitted, turning towards the wooden stairs for a moment when Clementine had arrived.
"It could have been anybody." Lee added, folding his arms together. "How do you know it wasn't just any random group?"
"We don't know that for sure, Lee." Carlos countered, picking out the flaws in each of their suggestions.
"It's been a week, man." Alvin reminded them, assuring them that they were miles away from Carver. "We got to be out of the woods." he placed his hands into his pockets upon finishing his sentence.
"We can't be sure. They might be tracking us." Carlos suggested, raising a worried expression across his face.
"Tracking?" Alvin repeated, taking his hands out from his pockets again. "Who do you think they are, ninjas?"
Rebecca merely shook her head in response before noticing Clementine had arrived, and this only just reminded her of why they were even arguing in the first place. "Clem, Lee said you saw some people in the valley?"
"It's true." Lee assured, kneeling down to Clementine's height level for a moment. "What did you see, Clem?"
"People? Way down there? How?" Alvin asked, wondering how anyone could see that far down.
"She's got binoculars, genius." Rebecca reminded him, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"Yeah, yeah." Alvin replied, crossing his arms together.
"What did you see, Clementine?" Carlos inquired; worried that he may be right about Carver's group still tracking them, and deep down, he wish he was not correct.
"I saw lights." Clementine simply answered.
"Which way did they go?" Rebecca inquired.
"Back into the woods." Clementine answered, but this was technically a lie since she had no idea where they went because of the whole two-groups-about-to-kill-each-other that caused her to shift her attention away from them.
Carlos now felt somewhat relieved that there was a chance whoever those people were in the valley might have gone the other way, but nevertheless, he still did not want to take any risks. "We cannot take any chances. We leave at dawn."
"But we're safe here for tonight, right?" Rebecca asked, only to get no respond from any of them if they were going to be alright.
"Clementine, you talk to that man Walter, right?" Carlos inquired, remembering when he heard Lilly suggest to her to go and help Walter with dinner. "What did he say? You didn't tell him anything about us, did you? We have to be careful. They could be hiding something."
"He didn't look like he was hiding anything." Lee said, standing back up to full height whilst speaking with the other members of his group.
"He seems like a nice guy." Carley added.
"No, nothing's wrong. I didn't tell him anything." Clementine reassured them, rubbing her left hand up her right arm. "We just talked about Lilly, and I helped him make dinner."
"Look, I don't care what that man said. We're staying here tonight." Alvin replied, trying to be serious with Carlos, but deep down, he was only doing this out of concern for his wife.
Carlos could see there was no changing their minds about leaving tonight, and decided to just accept their wishes for now. However, he did have a little task for Lee and Clementine while they were here. "Lee, Clem, just talk to the rest of them. They trust you both. See what you can find out. I'm going to go find Luke."
"I'll go with you." Carley offered, following Carlos down to the wooden stairs.
Seconds after Carlos and Carley were gone, Rebecca felt herself feeling somewhat light-headed, possibly from walking for five days when so close to giving birth. "Honey, I don't feel good."
"Bec, what's wrong?" Alvin inquired, kneeling down to her with a concerned face.
"I just need something to drink." Rebecca requested, this time, she did need him to do something for her.
"You got it." Alvin agreed, standing back up to get his wife a drink. "I'll be right back."
Now that Alvin was gone, it was only Lee and Clementine left to keep Rebecca company until her husband returned. Lee showed an concerned face when he noticed Rebecca not looking her brightest today. "Hey Rebecca, you feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, just need something to drink." Rebecca assured, taking a couple of breaths for a moment to recover.
Before doing back downstairs, Clementine looked into a small box near the stairs where she found what she was looking for: Christmas Toppers. Three Christmas decorations left there: a bulb, a star, and an angel. She was about to take the star, but remembered how Sarah mentioned she had an angel on top of her tree every year, and it might make her happy to see the angel.
Once she had the angel for the topper, Clementine made her way back to the top of the stairs and leaned over to place the angel carefully on top of the tree.
Down below, Sarah looked up to observe the topper Clementine had placed on top of the tree that caused her to smile in happiness. "She looks so cool!"
Sarita leaned up from the inside of the tree and observed the same topper on top of the tree. She would have preferred the star, but as long as everyone was happy, then she would be too. "Beautiful. I used to love this time of year. You know, now that your friends are here, this place is starting to feel like a real home."
Sarita sighed for a moment while remembering the kindness the two partners shared with them. "Matthew and Walter are amazing people. Honestly, it's dangerous to be this kind. But they can't help it. The first time I met Matthew, he called me Rita. So I call him Matty now. It's kind of our little war." Sarita explained, keeping a hand placed to her hip.
"What does Matthew look like?" Clementine inquired.
"Oh, charming person, he's Asian-American, around his middle twenties." Sarita described, and this left Clementine a little surprised. The detail she gave sounded just like the man Lee and Luke met on the bridge. She was not there, of course, but as watching the entire encounter through her binoculars.
"Clem, I wanted to ask you...Does Lilly seem different to you?" Sarita inquired. "She always use to be a little angry and tried to do things on her own, and well...I'm curious. She has good days and bad days like everyone else. But lately I get the feeling she's...struggling."
"She does seem different than I remember." Clementine admitting, recalling earlier when Lilly felt sad for what she did to Ben and even apologized for her actions.
"In what say?" Sarita inquired.
"I'm not sure." Clementine admitted.
Before any of them could discuss anything further, they were greeted by the same person they had just been talking about. "Been decorating the tree. Looks nice."
"Hey Lilly, looks nice, doesn't it?" Sarita asked her.
"Yeah...It does..." Lilly trailed off for a moment when a sadness expression rose across her face. This may be most likely because of the Christmas being a family tradition, and since the death of her father, she had no family left.
Lilly turned around and began walking away, and this caused Sarita sighed when realizing what she was talking about just happened in front of her own eyes. She turned back towards Clementine and sent her away in an attempt to change the subject "Why don't you see if your friends are ready for dinner, Clementine?"
Clementine nodded as she made her way back upstairs to check on Rebecca. The second she was up, she noticed the Lee was no longer present and Rebecca still looked a little unwell. "Are you okay?"
"Just got a little dizzy." Rebecca replied, lowering her head in sadness when worried as scary thoughts raced around her mind. "I can't even take care of myself. How am I supposed to raise a child? I mean, how can anyone now? Everything's fucked up."
"It's not going to be easy." Clementine admitted, rubbing her hand against her arm modestly.
Rebecca lowered her head in sadness, realizing the young girl's words were right. "I know it's going to be hard. But at the same time, I already feel a little less lonely." she placed her hand upon her belly. "Because I know that no matter what happens, I'll get to meet someone new."
Rebecca paused for a moment as she kept her hand onto her stomach, feeling her baby move around inside that made her happy. "She's kicking. Want to listen?" she offered, looking down towards her stomach where she began talking to her unborn baby. "That food smells good, huh? It's okay. We're going to get you something soon."
"Can I?" Clementine requested, wondering what it was going to be like to hear a baby kicking. She carefully placed the side of her head near Rebecca's stomach, hearing a slight thumbing noise inside.
"She's going to be runner." Rebecca joked, raising a smile as Clementine took her head off from her belly. Her smiled soon dropped as she struggled to hold back her tears, confessing something to Clementine that she had not told anyone else, even her husband. "It's not his."
Clementine was not really shocked about this since she already figured that out when speaking with Luke, but why she told her was a mystery. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I trust you. For some reason. And I can tell you've kept a few secrets." Rebecca explained, lowering her head down in sadness and fear. "If he finds out, he'll kill me. I don't know what to do...I can't believe I'm asking a little girl for advice. But I guess nothing is weird anymore."
"He won't kill you." Clementine assured, knowing that Alvin was nice just by looking at him.
Rebecca was about to reply further but suddenly changed the subject and her expression when Alvin had returned, carrying a bottle of water with him. "There's my man."
"You alright, baby?" Alvin inquired.
"I'm fine, you big dope." Rebecca assured, teasing him slightly while she accepted the bottle of water from him.
"Just need to get some food in you." Alvin replied, turning around for a moment to thank Clementine for keeping his wife company. "Thanks for staying with her, Clem."
Clementine smiled in response as she made her way back downstairs with the others. At almost perfect timing, Walter had declared it was time for everyone to eat, and this was great news for those who had not eaten in a while. "Well everyone, dinner is served. Come on, let's eat."
Both groups made their way over towards the cafeteria, eager for something to eat. Every sat down on the wooden bench tables as Walter carried the pot around, giving everyone their dinner. The former cabin group sat on one side while the ski lodge group sat on the other, obviously wanting to keep separate from each other.
Luke sat down the opposite side from Nick, and noticed he had a somewhat worried expression across his face. "You okay, man?"
"Yeah. I'm just...I just wish I hadn't pulled that trigger." Nick replied, closing his eyes as the thoughts of shooting Matthew raced around his mind.
"Just try to forget about it." Luke advised, acting like a brotherly-figure towards him.
Everyone had settled down and eaten their dinner, and despite the fact they lived in a world full of the undead roaming around and sickos out there who would try and kidnap, rape, and steal from those who were weak, this Christmas dinner seemed nice and even brought back some happy memories for some of them. Maybe there was still hope in this world, after all.
This chapter is written, beta read, and published for all of the, ladies and gentleman. I hope you all stay tuned for the next chapter that should be the last for a while, but I got the feeling the next episode is going to be released soon. Stay tuned, folks.