The Walking Dead: Fight for Survival
Chapter 24: the town
And here I bring you chapter 24, ladies and gentlemen or FanFiction. Since I am coming close to finishing this story, I thought I would give a few shoutouts to authors I know who have written great Walking Dead Game stories that I recommend checking out. Special shoutouts to:
A Writer With Mixed Interests
NeoTyson
I heart Lyoko
ClementineEverettTWDG
leafs nation
AquaDestinysEmbrace
iamclem
Rebloxic
SummertimeSadness1
TheBigBadWolf1
OreoAnarchy
AquaQuadrant
Bubbles2k100
All of these authors have great stories and great talent, and if you love The Walking Dead (which you must do otherwise you would not be reading this) I recommend checking out these authors if you're looking for some good stories to read.
Well, that's enough talking for one chapter. Down below you shall find the next chapter to my chapter. Enjoy the chapter, folks.
After spending the night at an old power station in the middle of the woods, the remaining group members woke up at first dawn and set off to make some progress on getting to that town. They had only a couple of supplies left for the group and a day's worth of baby formula left for AJ. It was just like the motor inn situation again. They prayed and hoped that this town was not going to be a bust.
As perusal, Lee led the group down the path. Clementine and Sarah behind him, Bonnie behind them, Mike who was behind Bonnie and holding the baby, and Luke who was now able to walk under his own strength without any resistance. They offered to help him walk, but he assured them he was all right and could walk.
As the group continued walking through the cold snow of the forest, Mike turned back towards Luke for a moment just to see if he required any assistance. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm all right." Luke reassured, having to limp whilst he was moving but as long as he could move on his own. "If I start to lose my balance, I'll let you all know."
Mike nodded in agreement as he turned around to face forward again and continued walking. "Okay. If you do, let us know. It's no trouble at all."
"I think we're almost there." Lee informed the group whilst he looked up and kept his eye on a nearby power line tower. If he could keep following it, then surely it would lead them to that town eventually. He hoped so anyway, otherwise he had no idea how they were going to get there. He could only hope and pray for the best.
Mike turned towards AJ for a moment when he heard him whimpering slightly, meaning he was going to cry soon. He became slightly nervous for a moment, unsure on what to do. "Uh, he's crying. What do I do?"
Clementine was about to offer to take him, but then she remembered yesterday when Mike did not want to help her take care of AJ, and now it was her turn to take revenge on him. "Oh, no, Mike. This one's your job."
Mike grinned in response when he realized she was trying to get back at him for yesterday's events. He began to improvise and simply rocked the baby side to the side whilst speaking to him in a normal tone. "Hey, uh, don't cry. All right, no need to cry. Everything's good." he noticed this was not working and decided to stick his tongue out at him like Clementine did.
Mike put his face back normal and was relieved to see this had worked. He watched as AJ merely stared at him now. "Whew. Glad that worked."
"I think he likes it when you put your tongue out at him." Sarah admitted after she had been watching AJ closely just in case Mike had more trouble than he did. He was even more nervous than she was.
"Yeah, probably." Mike agreed, looking back up to see where he was going.
"Well, well, look at Mike the big babysitter." Bonnie teased, slowing herself down slightly for her and Mike to walk at the same speed level.
"You're welcome to take him at any time." Mike offered, but he had the feeling that was not going to work.
Bonnie merely shook her head in response and saw right through his plan. "Uh-uh, he's all yours, Mike."
Mike rolled his eyes in response, knowing he was defeated before he even asked. He continued to hold AJ in his arms whilst following the group in a line, but occasionally, he would look back to see if Luke required help.
The group continued walking through the forest, remaining in silence as the cold air whistled through their ears and sent chills up their spines. The group was without freezing and it would be even worse once they made it further up north. They wanted to find shelter and some warm food as soon as possible before nighttime arrived, and that would make things much worse.
Lee continued marching through the snow until something in the distance caught his eye that caused him to halt in his tracks. He placed his hand up, beckoning for the group to stop. He could not believe it. For once, things were looking his way. "We're here."
Everyone stood beside Lee and was surprised to see they had made it to the town. There were a couple of stores alongside the road, a big building that looked like it was another museum, and a church. It was not very big, but it certainly was better than anything.
"You think it's safe?" Bonnie asked, concerned if this town was actually deserted or not. "Could be full of walkers or people."
"Only one way to find out." Lee admitted, taking out his Glock 17 from his back pocket. He turned back around to face the remaining group members and issued his instructions to them. "The faster we do this, the faster we can keep moving. Clementine, Sarah and I will check those stores. Mike, Bonnie, and Luke, you all check that church and that museum. Find whatever useful supplies you can and we'll all meet back up here. That sound like a plan?"
"Yup."
"Sure."
"On it."
"No problem."
"All right. If you encounter any walkers, you know what to do." Lee reminded them as he turned around and proceeded to make his way towards the town, Clementine and Sarah walking behind him closely.
Now that they had their assignments, Bonnie, Mike and Luke made their way over towards the church first, but they hoped they did not encounter any trouble along the way. With Mike holding AJ and Luke's injured leg, that was going to make it difficult. Let them hope that their luck holds out for just a little while.
Lee slowly entered the first store, leaning through the glass door with his Glock 17 raised. He surveyed inside the store for a moment that he was able to see clearly with the sun brightening up the place via the window. He got the feeling the store was clear and walked inside, holding the door open for Clementine and Sarah to walk inside.
Clementine walked into one of the shopping isles and a hopeful expression rose across her face when seeing these supplies. She quickly picked up a bag of chips and read the back of the label, and to even more of her relief, they were not expired. "Look at all this food. And it's not expired too. They even got baby formula for AJ."
"Wow." Lee smiled, surprised that they were even going to find a simple bottle of water, let alone a full store of food and drinks. "Looks like things are looking up. Okay, we should get as much as we can. We'll spread out, but don't go too far. And if you can, find something to carry them in."
Clementine nodded in agreement and did not hesitate to get some food and drink. She could not remember the last time they had a lot of food to eat (exception for the time they were served beans and peaches at the ski lodge). She gathered as much as she could and hoped to do it quick before walkers showed up.
Sarah searched around the isles for a moment on her own, but she was quite cautious just in case there happened to be walkers roaming around in here somewhere. She was so hungry and wanted to eat everything in here, but she decided she could wait a little longer.
When Sarah leaned around a corner, her foot came into contact with something and she ended up falling onto her stomach. She was about to cry for help, fearing it was a walker that was going to get up and bite her. She leaned up and adjusted her glasses, and sighed in relief when she saw it was not a walker, but instead, it was two black duffle bags. They seemed to be empty, and how she tipped over an empty bag was a mystery.
But nevertheless, she saw this as an opportunity to be useful. She picked up the empty duffle bags and ran back towards Lee who remained at the front of the store, keeping watch whilst grabbing food at the same time. "Lee, look! I found these bags we could use to carry the food!"
"Good job, Sarah." Lee praised that caused Sarah to smile proudly. He accepted one of the duffle bags and began to fill it up with different types of foods. "Why don't you take the other bag and go and help Clementine?"
"Yeah, sure." Sarah obliged and ran over towards her best friend who was not that far away. She dropped the duffle bag down in front of Clementine and began to help her. "I found these bag and Lee said I should help you."
"Nice job." Clementine praised, picking up all the food she got so far and dropped it all into the bag. She continued doing so for a moment until she stopped and held a Twinkie box in her hands. It brought back memories to her, memories that reminded her of what life use to be like when things were peaceful. "My parents always use to give a Twinkie every Friday. They sometimes gave me two on a special occasion."
"I love Twinkies!" Sarah admitted. "I never thought I could get another Twinkie again in forever."
"What did you guys eat back at the cabin?" Clementine inquired, unfamiliar with the group's lives until she, Lee and Carley had arrived and joined them.
"Pete and Luke always use to get us fish for dinner almost every night. And we use to drink juice boxes and water for something to drink." Sarah answered whilst she continued packing food into the bag. She turned back towards Clementine and only just realized she did not know anything about her backstory. "What about you, Clementine? Where did you guys live before you met us and how did you get food?"
Clementine had to stop filling the bag up for a moment and think back more than two years ago. It was getting harder and harder to remember everything that occurred in the past. "When I was eight, Lee found me at my home and we met up with other survivors and all lived at a motor inn for three months. We had a new guy join our group named Mark. He was nice. He brought a lot of food for us, but we ended up running low. It became hard, even for Lee. With our last supplies, Lee only had enough food to feed four people. And there were ten of us all together."
"Did he give you something to eat?" Sarah inquired, eager to find out.
"Yep." Clementine nodded. "He gave me an apple, he gave my friend Duck and his dad Kenny a box of cheese and crackers. And he gave Carley some beef jerky."
"I bet everyone else was starving." Sarah wondered, knowing the feeling what it was like to not have food for so long.
"Yep." Clementine repeated a second time. She was about to tell Sarah when they met the St. John's, but that would not be the best idea. They were almost as worse as the walkers. She decided to skip that part for now. "We found an abandoned car on our way back to the motor inn when we were out once. It was full of supplies that someone left there."
"Did you guys take it?" Sarah asked, hoping the answer was no since she was always taught by her father not to take things that were not theirs.
"I told them it wasn't right to take it, and Lee agreed with me, but the rest of the group did so anyway." Clementine answered that caused a sigh of relief to Sarah. She could not imagine what would have happened if she did take the food. Maybe Sarah would have lost respect for her.
"Oh. That's good, I guess." Sarah admitted, taking one more handful of food that she dropped into the bag.
The duffle bag was now full of food that would last for a long while. If they were careful, perhaps they could make it last even longer, and that was possible with Lee there to lead their group. The two picked up the bag together and made their way back over towards Lee who had just finished filling in his own bag. Even with the two of them holding it, it was still pretty heavy.
"Hey girls, got everything we need?" Lee asked whilst he lifted the bag up and placed the strap around his shoulder, holding it across his bag.
"A lot of stuff." Clementine answered, groaning slightly as she felt her arms about to give out.
"It's pretty heavy though." Sarah admitted, her too struggling to hold the bag much harder than Clementine, even though she was older than her.
"Here, I can hold it." Lee offered, accepting the bag from the duo that he held in his right hand. He didn't seem to be struggling at all to carry both bags, but he had the feeling they would slow him down slightly.
"Are you sure?" Sarah asked, placing her hand upon her arm. She did not want Lee to hurt himself by carrying that much weight on him. "Isn't that heavy?"
"Don't worry, Sarah, I'll got Mike to carry the other one when we regroup." Lee assured whilst he lifted the second duffle bag up and placed it over his other shoulder. He took out his Glock 17 again as they made their way back towards the store exit. "Come on. We should check out the second shop. Even with all those food, we could do with some ammunition."
"What's ammunition?" Sarah asked, obviously unfamiliar with that word.
"It means bullets that you put into a gun." Clementine explained as she too took out her own gun and emptied out one of the clips. "You put them in here to fire a gun. You'll understand better someday."
"I hope so." Sarah responded, and by the look across her face, she still looked uncomfortable with holding a gun. She was shaken up when she had to shoot that man the previous day that caused her ears to ring and her hands to hurt.
For now, it was time for them the trio to head out and continue searching the town. Their next location was the store right next to this one that looked like a gift shop from the outside. Sarah took a couple of more candy bars and stored them into her pockets before following Clementine out of the store.
After being issued their orders by Lee, the trio Mike, Bonnie and Luke stood outside the church and stood outside for a moment, preparing to head inside. The other building which turned out to be another museum was a bust and had nothing useful inside at all. Hopefully Lee, Clementine and Sarah had better like finding some supplies.
Bonnie approached the church door with her Beretta 92FS Inox pistol. She swiftly opened the door and aimed her weapon inside, slowly marching inside. She quickly checked her surroundings for any unexpected visitors, but by the looks of it, it was empty. "All right, come on in. Looks clear."
Mike and Luke made their way inside the church (Luke struggling due to his leg) with their weapons armed. They closed their door behind them and began to make their way down the aisle. The building was not very bright and was mostly covered in darkness. They needed to be extra careful inside, especially when in the darkness.
"What can we find inside a church anyway?" Mike asked, not expecting anything useful they could find inside here.
"You never know what you might nowadays, Mike." Bonnie replied, checking the seats inside for a moment for any walkers, but it seemed to be clear for now. "Let's just make sure the place is clear and have a look around."
Luke looked around the church whilst he was limping and could not help but raise a smile when happy memories began to appear in his mind. "I remember when I was younger. I use to come to church every Sunday with my parents. I always use to moan, saying he hated wearing a suit and tie. Man, those were good times."
"Sounds like you had a wonderful mom and dad." Bonnie stated, but her expression changed from a normal one into a sad one. She lost her parents a long time ago, even before the walkers had risen. Her mother died while she was in her teenage years and her dad ran away a long time ago and never came back. "You know, I always use to-"
Before Bonnie could finish, she was unaware of the danger ahead and was completely caught off guard for what happened next. A dead walker standing by the wall in the cover of darkness wearing a priest robes emerged out of nowhere and attacked Bonnie. It knocked her down on her back and placed itself on top of her, trying to take a bite out of her flesh.
"Oh, fuck!" Bonnie screeched, quickly placing her hands upon the walker's shoulders in an attempt to keep him from biting her.
"Bonnie!" Mike shouted, immediately charging towards her the second he saw she was in danger. He first set AJ down onto one of the pews and charged towards the walker like a rampaging bull, and delivered a powerful to the walker's stomach, knowing him away from Bonnie and saving her life a second time.
Mike quickly bounced down onto the walker and held it down against its stomach, keeping it from getting up. "Quick, kill it!"
Luke quickly limped over towards Mike and pulled out his machete from his holster. He quickly jumped down and stabbed the walker directly in the side of its head, killing it and putting it out of its misery. He panted for a moment as he sat up and placed his machete back into the holster. "It's okay. I...I got it."
"Jesus, that was fucking close!" Bonnie admitted as she was helped back onto her feet by Mike. She checked herself for any injuries, but as luck would have it, she was safe and unharmed. She expressed her gratitude towards Mike. "Mike, you saved my life again. Thank you."
"Don't mention it." Mike assured whilst he made his way back towards AJ and picked up the young baby in his arms. He walked back towards the others who were now even more cautious after that recent attack. "We should be more careful."
"All right, I'll search around for anything useful. You two keep an eye out." Bonnie instructed whilst she made her way to the bottom of the aisle to search for supplies. And this time, she had her Beretta 92FS Inox pistol armed just in case she ended up being caught off guard again, and without Mike here, that would not end well.
Whilst Bonnie was searching, Luke groaned for a moment as he sat down at the end of one of the pews. He hurt his leg slightly when he had to run towards Bonnie and put a little more pressure on it than he should have.
"You okay, man?" Mike asked, concerned for Luke's condition.
"I'm good. Don't worry about me." Luke reassured, lifting his bad leg for a moment to check if he was bleeding again, but fortunately, he was fine and the cloth rag was holding. "I could with some morphine though." he joked.
"I think we all could do with a little something to take away the pain." Mike admitted with a slight grin across his face. He too sat down at the end of one of the pews. "We still got that rum? Bet you could do with another drink."
"I think Bonnie's got it." Luke replied, looking towards the direction Bonnie had walked off to for a moment. He turned back towards the church exit for a moment and could not help but show concern for the others. "You think Lee, Clem and Sarah are doing all right?"
"I'm sure they're fine, especially with Lee on the team." Mike answered, but he did know that for certain. "We'll just have to wait and find out."
Before long, Bonnie had returned and by the looks on her face, she seemed happy and that was a surprised, especially after her near death experience moments ago. She revealed something in her hands that was an emergency medical box filled with medical equipment. "Look what I found, guys. Bandages, pain killers, and other things. We can help heal those wounds a little better with this stuff."
"Good, my leg is starting to hurt like hell." Luke responded, using his AK-47 as a crutch for a moment to help him stand on his feet under his own strength. "Well, at least we found something useful."
"Something's always better than nothing." Bonnie stated whilst she took off her backpack and placed the medical box inside. "We'll take care of everyone's injuries once we're all together again. Come on, we better go and meet up with the others."
Bonnie led the way outside whilst Mike and Luke followed her outside. She could not help but wonder why she was still alive after all this. Not that she was ungrateful for being saved, but after all she did, lying to Clementine when they first met that led to them being kidnapped, claiming Carver's actions were accidental, and all those lives she helped ruin. After all that, why was she the one to still be alive? Rebecca and Carley were good people and they were dead now.
Questions would have to wait for now. At this very moment, all Bonnie wanted to do was regroup with the others and continue their journey to wherever they were going.
For the second time, Lee leaned inside a store and carefully checked inside for any walkers. Like the last store, the coast was clear. He made his way inside and held the door open for the girls before closing it behind him. He turned away and surveyed the store.
It was a gift/clothes shop. It did not look like they might find anything useful in here, but they never knew until they looked. For all they knew there could be an RPG in here, but that was very, very unlikely. Although it would be handy.
"Well, this was a bust." Clementine admitted whilst placing her Glock 17 back into her back pocket now that there was no sign of danger.
"Well, you never know when you find something useful. Let's just have a look around." Lee suggested, but whilst he was speaking, he had his eyes focused on a few jackets hanging on a clothes rack.
He made his way over to there and took off a black leather jacket that looked very similar to the one he use to have back at the motor inn, but he ended up losing it one day when he and Kenny were doing a supply run in Macon. It got snagged on a sharp pole and he was forced to take it off in order to escape.
Lee took both of his duffle bags off for a moment before he took the coat hanger out from the jacket and decided to put it on. He remembered what Jane told him about having a leather jacket and how they were tough to bite through. To his relief and comfort, the jacket fitted him perfect. "Hmm, not bad." he admitted whilst picking up the duffle bags and placing them back over his shoulders.
"Cool jacket." Sarah complimented whilst she and Clementine stood together nearby.
"What's with the jacket?" Clementine inquired as she folded her arms together across her chest. She seemed to have forgotten what Jane suggested.
"Remember what Jane said: a leather jacket would stop a walker from biting you." Lee explained, making his way over to the other jackets to see if they had any kid-sized ones, but unfortunately, there was only adult sizes. "Damn, they don't have any smaller ones. I could have got both of you one. Would protect you both much better."
"As long as we got you to protect us, Lee, then I know we'll be okay." Clementine responded with a slight smile across her face. She trusted Lee with her life and he never failed to protect her.
"Thanks, sweat-pea." Lee thanked, touched by her word. He remembered back to the past and never thought he would be good with kids, though he never thought he would have any because his ex-wife never wanted any. He was glad to have Clementine with him. "Well, let's get looking around. Let me know if you find anything."
"Will do." Clementine replied, making her way over towards the gift shop area to search for anything useful, but she doubt anything could be useful unless walker's were allergic to gifts.
Sarah was unsure on what to search for this time, but she just improvised and looked around for anything useful. She first thought she found a civil war gun that she was going to take but then she remembered it was only a prop. But she continued looking nevertheless.
After searching the entire store for a few minutes, the trio regrouped at the front of the store and did not find anything useful other than the jacket Lee required. They were down searching the stores they needed to check and decided to make their way over to the rendezvous point.
Luke, Mike and Bonnie stood just outside of the town and turned their attention back towards the path when three familiar faces made their way over to them, and by the looks of it, they made much more progress than they could. Lee was now wearing a new jacket and was carrying two duffle bags that looked like they were slowing him down slightly.
"Wow, looks like you three found some things." Bonnie stated as she turned to face them and folded her arms together. "What do you all find?"
"A store full of food and drinks." Lee answered whilst he had to stop for a moment and adjusted the straps across his shoulders. "We got a lot of stuff. How about you guys?"
"We found some medical supplies that could be good for the wounds you, Mike and Luke got." Bonnie replied, turning her attention towards Sarah for a moment who was eating a candy bar quietly.
Sarah merely stared back at her as she swallowed the food down. She pulled out another candy bar from her pocket and offered it to Bonnie. "Do you want a candy bar?"
"Sure, thanks." Bonnie thanked and kindly accepted the candy bar from her. She could not remember the last time she ate any candy.
"Need a hand with those bags?" Mike offered when he could see that Lee was struggling slightly.
"Would be nice." Lee admitted, taking off one of the duffle bags from around his shoulders that caused a lot of weight to be lifted from his body. He waited for Mike to hand AJ over towards Luke before he gave him one of the duffle bags for him to carry. As Lee knew, Mike was the strongest out of them all and had no problem carrying a bag.
"Well, what's the plan now?" Bonnie asked, turning her attention towards Lee for an answer.
Lee folded his arms for a moment and tried to think. But then he remembered that they were continuing their journey to Wellington, the safe zone he had heard about that may be a great place for them to live. "We should continue our way to Wellington. It's the best chance we got."
No-one really got the chance to say anything about this plan as Lee turned away and began making his way back towards the way they came, but instead of going down the right path which is where they came from, he turned to the left and headed north. The others followed suite and walked together in a line. Luck was beginning to turn on their side now that they had all these supplies that keep them going for a long while.
With everyone together, the group continued making their way towards north through the cold weather of the forest, and the snow that pressed against their feet each time they moved. They could not wait to get somewhere warm and out of the cold for good.
That brings us to the end of chapter 24, my fellow Walking Dead readers. The group's luck finally starts to look up on them and now they have supplies to help them survive for a long time. Keep tuned for chapter 25, ladies and gentlemen that may be here tomorrow.