The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival
Chapter 12: Carver's tyranny
Here's the next chapter. That's all I have say, really. Other than the fact I will be changing my profile picture soon.
Tavia had escorted Clementine towards a small greenhouse on the roof of their community where plans were growing. Clementine did find it to be impressive that they were able to grow plants still in this day and age. If only this place could be run by a better leader.
"Stay in here. I'm going to go and get Reggie. And don't touch anything at all. " Tavia ordered, leaving the greenhouse and closing the wooden door behind her.
After she was hone, Clementine observed the greenhouse and walked around slightly, but did not touch anything like Tavia ordered. At least she would be working with Reggie. She looked down and noticed Sarah sitting in the corner of the greenhouse, cradling herself in her arms that were around her knees. "Hey..." Clementine greeted. "You okay?"
"...Carley stood up for me, Clementine." Sarah replied, feeling somewhat guilty that Carley could have been hurt because of her, or worse. "...I wish I hadn't talked."
"Carley wanted help you, she did this to help you. She's not mad." Clementine assured. "Don't worry; Carley's a lot tougher than she looks. I've known her for a while now, and Carley has been like the big sister I never had. And I'm sure she treats you as family, too."
"Thanks...Clem...You're right." Sarah thanked, happy that she had a friend like Clementine to help her like they shared a sisterly-bond. "I just always wonder why people have to be so mean. "I got mad sometimes, but I don't want to hurt anyone. My dad always taught me that."
The door had opened again from the outside, and both girls turned around to see it was Reggie with Tavia. He stood by the entrance to the greenhouse for a moment when Tavia gave him a friendly warning. "Reggie, do not mess this up. Carver's close to letting you back in."
"Yeah, Tavia, I get it." Reggie assured. "You don't have to keep telling me over and over."
Tavia merely glared towards him and shifted her attention over towards the two girls, whom kept quiet while the adults were talking. "Girls, Reggie is going to be in charge here, alright? Listen to him and do whatever he tells you to do."
"No problem, Tavia, I think I can handle." Reggie reassured, wishing she would just go already and leave him be. His wish came true when Tavia walked out closed the door behind her.
He shifted his attention back towards the two girls, preparing to get them to work, but deep down, he took Tavia's warning into consideration, "Okay, we have to do a good job, girls. Alright? Everyone is counting on us. This job is super easy, even a baby could figure this out."
Clementine and Sarah followed him over towards a table with plants that had berries attached to them and baskets for the berries. "Pick up a pair of those shears." Reggie instructed in a friendly tone.
The two friends obeyed his order and both picked up their shears.
"Okay, all we need to do is pick the berries, put them in the basket, and if you see any dead branches, just cut them and stack them neatly for composting. Simple." Reggie instructed, but he hoped they would remember all this. "Think you can both do that?"
Clementine nodded in agreement and made her way over towards her work station. Sarah did not nod, and instead, began to play around with her shears.
Reggie caught this in the corner of his eyes, realizing this may be a bit of a problem, and decided to speak with Clementine. He did place his trust with this, but as for Sarah, he had some concerns for her. "Hey, is she going to be okay? She looks a little uneasy, and I have known Sarah for a while, and I know she has...A couple of problems."
"I'll take care of her, don't worry." Clementine assured with a slight smile across her face. "Like you said: it's simple."
"Good...I got to admit, I am bad when it comes to taking care of children. Look, just help me does this job, then I might be able to get back into the group, and then I can help you guys out so more." Reggie explained before he rose up his one hand and patted Clementine on the hat a couple of times. He took a step back when he noticed Clementine did not seem to like that. "Okay, that was a little awkward. I apologize. I think we should work now."
After he was gone, Clementine began her job collected the berries into the basket while cutting off any dead branches. But she turned towards Sarah, who continued fiddling around with her shears. Clementine did need to do her own work, but she did not want to leave her alone. She left her work just for a moment and went over to help Sarah with her job.
Fifteen-minutes later
Around fifteen-minutes had passed or so, and Clementine had eventually taught Sarah how to do her job. She watched for a moment while Sarah began cutting some of the dead branches off from the plant. "This isn't that hard you know, Sarah."
"I know it's not hard." she replied, a worried expression rose across her face. "I just didn't want to do a bad job."
Reggie had approached the two to check up on their work but he froze in his steps when he saw Carver marching towards the greenhouse. "Oh shit." he shifted his attention back towards the two girls, and fear spread down his spine when he noticed one of them had not finished their work. In fact, she did not even start. "Clementine, you didn't do any of your work. Oh, man."
"You told me to help Sarah, remember?" Clementine reminded him.
"Oh, no..." Sarah gasped.
Carver marched into the greenhouse, causing the trio to move back in fear. "Just thought I would come up here and check on their progress." he shifted his gaze towards Clementine's workstation and noticed those plants had not even been touched. He had only one person to blame for this: "Reggie. What the fuck is this?"
"Bill, it's just, well-" Reggie stuttered, nervously rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
"I want an explanation, not an excuse." Carver demanded.
"Yeah, Bill, I know-It's-It's just with my one arm-it's just-I, it's just not easy, I, uh..." Reggie was lost in words as the fear of his punishment prevented him from speaking properly.
Clementine felt responsible for getting Reggie into trouble like this and had to defend him before Carver would do something he would not regret. "Mr. Carver, it was my fault."
"...Nah, this ain't for fault, the only one to blame is the one in charge." Carver explained, staring evilly towards Reggie with his frightening face, causing him to take a couple of steps back. "Girls, go outside for a moment will ya while Reggie and I have a little chat."
Clementine and Sarah obeyed his order and walked out of the greenhouse, leaving Reggie alone with Carlos. The two hoped that their actions would not cause Carver to keep Reggie in the yard any longer, or worse, punish him by pulling off his other arm. Carver was crazy, and to get on his bad side was a mistake no-one wanted to make. He already killed Walter and Alvin, and he knows how many more unnamed people he has killed.
The two waited outside for a couple of moments until the door to the greenhouse had suddenly burst open where a panicking Reggie was forced back by Carver over towards the edge of the roof. For losing his breaking point for having to put up with Reggie's mistakes, Carver grabbed him by the scruff of his clothes and yelled at his face. "I've gave you too many chances, you piece of shit! Can't even handle a simple fucking cutting job! Let's see if this will make you learn!"
Clementine watched in shock as Carver pushed Reggie over the edge of the roof, and could only watch as he plummeted towards the ground. His screams stop at the same time a sickening thud was heard down below. She ran towards the edge to see Reggie lying motionlessly on the ground, blood smearing out from his cracked skull. Carver had just committed a murder!
Carver showed no remorse for Reggie's death and merely watched as he looked down towards the ground below. "Weakness...Incompetence...Failure. It puts us all at risk. If you can't prove your loyalty here and this is the price you pay for having too many chances to do nothing but screw up. Now, Clementine get downstairs. Bonnie's got a job for you to do." he notice Sarah about to follow, but placed his arm in front of her, stopping the girl in her tracks. "Not you, Sarah, we need to have a little talk."
Clementine walked back towards the fire exit on the roof, taking one more look behind her to see Carver with his hand on Sarah's shoulder while speaking to her. She could not believe what he had just done. Reggie was a kind man, and had done nothing but hard work just to prove his loyalty towards Carver, and this is the price he paid? She had to tell someone about this, maybe Bonnie to prove how evil Carver truly was.
Meanwhile, in one of the many small shopping stores outside of the community, Lee and Mike had been put to work inside, and so far, the seemed to be going off to a great start. At the current moment, Mike held a wooden barricade against the window while Lee was hammering it to the windows. Walkers could be heard outside of the wooden fence around the area, but with Troy on guard, they were certain he would not let any walkers working inside despite the fact they did not like him one bit.
The door to the store had opened from the outside, and the one who walked inside with a bucket in her hands, but by the looks of her face, she seemed worried. She set the bucket down and ran over towards them, standing only a couple of feet away. "Lee! Reggie's dead!"
Both Lee and Mike were shocked by the sudden news that had just taken in. Reggie dead? How was this possible? No way in the world could a walker get into this community. Neither of them got the chance to respond to the sudden news when the wooden barricade they were working on dropped down, exposing the window and revealing multiple walkers banging on the window outside Enough force from all the walkers caused the glass the shatter into pieces, and the walkers began to invade from the outside. Why the hell wasn't Troy doing anything about this.
"Shit!" Mike jumped out of the way just in time; a second later he would have been a goner.
"Oh, fuck!" Lee cursed, clutching his hammer tightly as that was his only weapon. "Arm yourself with something!"
Lee and Mike moved out of harm's way and were prepared to take on the walkers, but Lee panicked when Clementine got separated from them and had to do something quick before she was devoured into pieces. "Clem, run!" Lee shouted.
Clementine backed away from a walker as she looked around for something to use as a weapon. She picked up a blank of wood and clobbered the closest walker a couple of times, but it did not stop him, and she was soon trapped in a corner.
Before realizing she was doomed, Clementine looked to her right and noticed a small gap through a collapsed isle that looked big enough for her to fit through. She dropped the wood and squeeze inside, desperate to escape. She continued moving through the gap, but the walker behind her soon gave chase, attempting to grab her. Eventfully, her luck ran out when three sharp objects sticking out of the isle (presumed to hold shelves up) blocked her way.
She placed both of her hands against the wall and pushed herself up against the isle, attempting to make enough room for her to squeeze through. With a groan and a quick yet hard push, the isle moved back just for a second, and she quickly jumped out of there. The walker pursing her was killed when the isle fell back down and one of the sharp object impaled him in the side of his head.
Clementine was about to make haste to escape, but she was cut off by three more walkers. She noticed ladders lined up against the wall and a sledgehammer resting beside her. She knew she was not strong enough to pick up the hammer and decided the ladders were her best bet. She grabbed the ladders and yanked them down towards the walkers, but it did not stop them and they continued to advance on her.
Clementine continued backing away from the two walkers and ran into the next room, but tripped over and got her foot tangled in a power cable. She panicked and attempted to pull her foot free from the cable, but it was too tight around her ankle and she was unable to escape. The flood light that was powered by the cable she was trapped in had collapsed down and broken, leaving her trapped in darkness. And simultaneously, the walkers collapsed down onto her.
Clementine placed her hands near the walker's neck and attempted to push it back, but the walker was strong and she would not be able to hold him back for long. She panicked when the walker's head was getting closer and closer towards her, preparing to take a fatal bite out of her neck. As she was on the verge on giving up, the walker no longer moved and blood smeared from the back of its head. Clementine sighed in relieve to see an arrow had been fired into the back of its head, killing the walker and saving her from certain death.
As she tried to push the dead corpse off of her, her savior had appeared and yanked the walker off of from her, but it was not who she wished to by saved by.
"Get your ass up!" Troy ordered, watching as Clementine go to her feet under her own strength. "Come on, go! Making me save you, Jesus! If it weren't for me, y'all would be fucked."
Clementine was escorted back into the same room where all of the walkers had been killed, and to her relief Lee and Mike were alive and okay.
Lee knelt down to Clementine's height and embraced her tightly, fearing that if Troy had not arrived, she might have been killed. "Clementine, thank God you're alright!"
"All right, enough mushy shit." Troy told them, not seeming too affected by the fact each of them could have died just then. "You get back to work right fucking now. I'm sure they got shit for you to do in there. Now! Think I'm fucking around? You!" he pointed at Clementine. "You get back where you came from, now!"
"Hey, don't you fucking speak to her like that!" Lee shouted, not afraid when it came to protecting his adoptive daughter.
"Shut the fuck up, motherfucker, or I will end you!" Troy threatened. "Now I got to sit down here and babysit you assholes. Can't do a simple fucking patch job without me here, watching you fucking idiots!"
Clementine nodded and proceeded to exit out of the workshop and make her way back to Bonnie like she had requested once she was done. As she was walking away, Clementine felt herself being grabbed by someone and pulled her inside the comic store. It all happened in a split-second. Whoever grabbed Clementine held their hand over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. It all happened so fast, she did not even get the chance to see who it was.
After a few seconds of struggling, Clementine bit into her attackers' hand and this finally caused them to let go. She swiftly jumped around to see the figure shaking their hand to ease the pain. "Aaargh! Shit, stop, Clementine, it's me!
Clementine gasped when seeing a familiar face. "Luke?"
"Yes!" Luke gasped before he knelt down to her height while examining his hand to make sure she did not leave any fatal injuries. "Man...You fucking bit the hell of it me. I think you might have pulled out so skin. I come all this way without any sleep or food, sneak in here, and this is the thanks I get? Perfect."
Clementine felt like she wanted to hit Luke for scaring her like that, but instead, she embraced him in a hug to which he returned. "Luke, I was worried about you. All of us were. Glad you're back."
"Thanks, and it's good to see you too, Clementine." Luke admitted with a smile across his face, but decided he needed to get back to the reason why he yanked her in here. "All right, listen, we ain't got much time, okay? I followed y'all here best I could. Haven't had a night's rest since y'all got nabbed and...well, this is the first chance I got to talk to somebody. They're everywhere, okay? They got guards. Watching everything. Look, there's a herd of lurkers just south of us. It's bigger than I ever seen around these parts."
"I heard Carver mention that. He said he hopes it passes us, saying they weren't ready for it." Clementine replied.
Luke peaked open the door slightly, just enough for him to peak outside to check if anyone was now, and to his relief, no-one was around. He walked back over towards Clementine. "I know, I heard folks talking about that, but that ain't so, okay? It's going to hit this place. I know it is...I don't know when, but it's coming and it's going to be soon. See, I've been looking for places to...to get y'all free...but haven't been able to find anything yet. They plugged up all the holes we used when we got out."
Clementine had been paying everything he was saying, but did notice he did not seem his old-self. She could not put a finger on why he seemed different, but it was also something she could not notice. "Are you alright, Luke? You seem a little...Different."
"No...No, I mean...yeah, yes, sorry. I just need some sleep. Haven't sleep for a while." Luke answered a little too quickly for Clementine to believe him or not. "Hard to rest when you think a lurker's about to get the jump on you at any, any moment, but yeah. Yeah. I'm fine, okay? Don't worry about me."
"This plan...It seems dangerous to me." Clementine admitted, nervously rubbing her hands together.
"Well the whole situation's dangerous, but, well, we're in it now...It's what we got. " Luke reminded her, pacing up and down the room to help him think in his current state. "We just...We just need a plan...you know, a way to get you and...and everyone..." he fell silent again, looking like he was on the verge on passing out from lack of sleep.
Clementine turned towards the exit when someone had passed yet again, but her luck lasted when no-one had yet decided to come inside and investigate. She had to make this quick now. "Luke..."
"Oh, sorry, sorry." Luke dazed out from his tired state and hurried back over towards Clementine. "Shit...okay. Troy ain't going to like you being late." he knelt down to Clementine's height while quickly discussing their plan. "Listen, Clem, I need you to meet me here tomorrow, about this time, because I-I need you to get me one of those radios, okay? Do you think you can do that? Just-just one of those walkie talkies. I just need to be able to tell y'all what's going on with them guards...you know, I'll figure out the schedule their patrols are on. I mean, they're-they're all over the place but I can keep an eye on them for y'all from out here. Look, we ain't going to be able to shoot out way out of here so we got to be careful. W-we just got to be smart, okay? We got a plan. That radio is crucial to that."
"Where can I get one?" Clementine inquired, having yet to learn the layout of this place and where everything was located.
"I think they keep them in the stockroom. I ain't too sure, though." Luke admitted.
Clementine crossed her arms together and nodded in agreement to every sentence he said.
"Just...keep your eyes out for the charging station. They put most of them back on there at night. Remember, you meet me here tomorrow." Luke instructed. "I'll try and be here around this time, but if I ain't...just wait as long as you can, because I really need one of those radios. Just let everybody know I'm all right, okay? I'm worried that, uh-"
"Clementine!" Troy had shouted from outside of the store, startling them both and leaving them worried that someone could have been listening the entire time if he knew she was in there. "Get the fuck out where I can see ya right now!"
Luke felt somewhat relieve when Troy had not mentioned his name, meaning he did not know he was in there. "Go on, Clem! Get out of here."
Clementine obeyed his request and made her way outside while Luke went to go and hide just in case Troy decided to take a look around inside. She walked outside onto the walkway where Troy was waiting for her, armed with his AK-47.
"The fuck were you doing, huh?" he inquired. "Answer me, girl!"
Clementine did not answer question, unable to think of any excuse. She merely shrugged and remained silent.
"You're even stupider than, Sarah." Troy admitted, knowing he was not going to get an answer out of here. "Just go back to where you're heading, and don't fucking go in there again, you hear me? It's off limits."
Clementine obeyed and practically ran back inside the building, secretly praying that Luke could keep himself out of harm's way. As soon as out of his sights, she had to tell the others as soon as possible once they were together again in the yard. This was the perfect opportunity to get out of this place now, and they had to take it while they had the chance.
Chapter is completed, ladies and gentleman. Reggie has perished, Luke has returned, and now it is time for all of the group to form a plan and get out of here.