A/N: Okay, nearly at 250 reviews my next aim! Thanks for everybody whose stuck by this story for so long. I can see it lasting until chapter 50 at most.

apathy- Thank you, Jane's getting easier to write now that I can mould her into my own sort of character and the 400 days characters are a delight to write about and expand on.

AquaDestinysEmbrace- Nope, Kenny's too stubborn. (But his a blast to write) and I'll be sure to leave more reviews for your story!

Eggopeggo- Thanks! Your review means a lot!

obsessed naruhina fangirl- Thanks for your review! Running into Steve again is slightly unrealistic, but It will serve an important plot purpose (as you'll discover this chapter) and I'm glad you're enjoying the story! So stay awesome (unfortunately I've run out of ideas at the moment)

P.S If this story was an actually episode which choice would be the hardest for you to make?

and Maximo, Rebloxic and Lockdown thank you all for the continued support.

BANG

The bedroom door nearly flew off it's hinges as it crashed against the wooden wall of the cabin.

Two men peered inside the room, only to see an empty bedroom gazing back at them.

"NOTHIN' IN HERE STEVE!" One of the men yelled, closing the door behind him, Nick and Sarah had laid perfectly still under the bed, during that time as Sarah looked at Nick nervously.

"Now what?" she whispered.

"The window" Nick said looking at it. Knowing there was no way in hell they would be getting out through the front door.

As Nick and Sarah slowly crawled up from up the bed and towards the window, as they did Nick heard a muffled voice from downstairs "Nope, nothing upstairs Steve" a man said.

"There has to be somebody lurking. You two guard the outside, me and Lilly will check the upstairs again. Just to be sure" Steve growled with a malice in his voice. Hearing the approaching creak of their footsteps made Nick dart to the nearby window, but he ducked down in the nick of time and muttered "Shit!"

"What's a matter?" Sarah asked.

"Three of them are outside! They'll spot us if we try to sneak out that way" He muttered through gritted teeth, as the footsteps creaked dangerously outside the door.

"Quick! Under the bed!" Nick hissed at Sarah, she managed to silently drag herself and the heavy bag of meds, in the dark dusty space under the bed without making a single side. Nick struggled however, as he was a tall man and bending his legs and arms into such a small space required effort. With a new sheen of sweat developing on his forehead, he managed to pull his ankle out of sight, just as the bedroom door opened once again.

"... I don't think she'll be here Lilly..." Steve was saying. Nick nervously watched his legs as they paced around the room. His chin resting on his wrist, where his golden watch ticked away. He hoped this noise wouldn't attract their attention, in fact he could barely breathe at all, all Steve had to do was look under the bed and it was game over.

To his sheer relief, Steve didn't. He peeked in the cupboard and the drawers, but he didn't think about looking under the bed. To make things even worse, the woman sat on the bed above them as Nick heard her sigh as he watched Steve's jeans place themselves next to her, as he also sat on the bed. Forming two large lumps above them, Nick and Sarah had to inhale and shuffle themselves slightly, so Steve or Lilly couldn't feel anything under the bed.

"Well, we came across a great place Lilly. But she ain't here" Steve told the woman (Lilly) with a murmur.

"I know she's around Steve. She's the only piece of my past I have left" Lilly said, she had a sharp sounding voice. However Nick couldn't care less about what they were on about, he was too busy listening to the sound of his own rapidly beating heart in his ears.

"Well... do you reckon their around?" Steve asked after a short silence in which Nick didn't seem to breathe, he had a good guess on who they were on about and sure enough when Lilly answered, he knew their fate was sealed.

"Those two. They had to have come through here at one point, the door wasn't locked due to a fucking coincidence"

"They looked like an odd pair, lugging around that heavy bag with them, must have had something worthwhile inside"

"For all we know, they could be dead now. I still have to find her Steve, that teenager and the tall man we've been tracking. They don't mean shit to me. This little girl... she does" the woman called Lilly said in a determined tone. This still failed to interest Nick, his mind was only focused on escape, as his eyes flickered to anywhere, that presented an opening...

"This little girl you're on about. I told you ages ago that she's as good as dead and you're basing this whole theory on a drawing you found?" he asked her, with a light trace in humour in his voice. Nick could sense the aggression the woman's response as she snarled "I know she drew that, I didn't see her draw that, but look (she pulled out a crinkled piece of paper from her pocket, Nick couldn't see) this man, woman and child. They were part of group I was once with. There's no way it ended up here by mistake" she concluded.

"Or maybe bandits killed her a long time ago. Stole her stuff and then they dropped it?" Steve suggested.

"I don't think even those fuckers in the body bags would loot a corpse of a little girl just for a drawing" she snapped, as she rubbed her hands on her face. "I keep telling you Steve, I have to find her, it's the only way to make it up to Lee..."

At this point Nick's interest in the conversation was aroused. "Lee, Lee, Lee" he kept repeating that name in his head, knowing it had come from somewhere. Knowing he had heard it before and it seemed like a urgent matter to remember it. Yet to his frustration he couldn't place a face, or even a faint memory on where he had heard the name before. But knowing it was one of those obvious things he should have known, and that the answer was slapping him in the face.

"If Lee hadn't have let me stay, I would never have taken the RV and I'd be dead on the road somewhere" she continued, recounting her tale to Steve for the millionth time, as he spoke up.

"And you wouldn't have found us. You caught us just after Russ left and seven is the lucky number in this group" he said as Lilly nodded slowly, before chuckling slightly "I still remember you threatening me Steve, saying you'd shoot me at gunpoint and all..."

"You had some spunk that's for sure. Look how far we've come since then" He happily told her, as she nodded once again. as they were engulfed by a silence, before Steve began to talk about another member of their group "Heather was the same age as Russ, she says she's fine with killing people. But Rob tells me she cries at night. I don't want her pulling another Russell on us..."

As he spoke on, Nick felt Sarah tugging the sleeve on his trousers, he turned to face her.

"What?" he mouthed.

Her lips moved, but Nick couldn't decipher the words in the darkness, eventually the hissed whisper of "Russell" prickled at his ears. It took him a second to place it, before he realised...

Russell. Russell was one of the guards back at Howard's Hardware. A miserable young man who had clashed with Nick many times (especially as Carver gained more power, and Nick and his group fell out of favour with Carver). Russell used to angrily complain aloud (to anyone listening) about his first group consisting of a guy named Steve who would shoot anyone on site. He would argue that William Carver was a better alternative than a group like that. Nick disagreed completely, which only caused further beef between the pair.

He guessed now, he had found the group that Russell used to complain about. The so called "Lucky Seven" had been reduced to six with Russell's departure but now, this new woman "Lilly" had replaced Russell. Henceforth, Nick know knew about the background of this particular group of bandits.

Not that it helped calm him, in the slightest.

Yet, he was amazed that Sarah had remembered that detail. Either she and Russell were closer than he originally thought (which was highly unlikely, as Nick usually saw Sarah super-glued to Carlos and not interact much with anybody else) or else she was using her head and her wits when a time where Nick found it impossible to do so.

As the discussion on the other group member ended, Nick listened in as Lilly and Steve began another discussion about the mass group, using Walker skins to get around. He caught a quickl glimpse of their faces. Steve had to be in his late 40's to early 50's bold on top. With a deep wrinkles craved into his pale face, he had heavy eyebrows, a hooked nose and black-ish eyes that seemed to reflect no sense of warmth what-so ever.

The woman, Lilly. Had to be in her mid 30's, she was fairly plain looking, with her small brown chestnut eyes, a long drawn nose and permanent scowl etched onto her face. As she looked at Steve or across the room, Nick noticed a the age lines slowly starting to develop on her face, as her long brown hair that trailed down her back, was messy and unwashed (like so many other people these days).

"So, do you reckon the girl you're looking for is in that crazy cult of walker people?" Steve asked of Lilly, as Nick and Sarah listened in. Eager for more information about the "Walker Wannabe Religious Society" or "The WWRS" as Nick had labelled them.

"No way, I could never see Lee or her going to a group like that... but fuck... how many members do they have? 300? 400?"

"About that much, got a giant camp on the mountains east of here. Their fucking nuts, they'd shoot down anybody who doesn't want to join their little cult" Steve informed Lilly (and unknowingly Nick and Sarah) but Nick didn't really find it helpful or too informative.

"Well we just have to keep avoiding them then" Lilly said causally, as she stood up off the bed and turned back to Steve "I think there's another big community around here somewhere" she told him.

"I know, distant gunshots at night, and that girl and that man we've been following had to have come from somewhere" Steve agreed with her, as Nick learnt that these bandits had not yet discovered Howard's Hardware. But he doubted the seven of them would manage to overthrow Carver.

"Well, we'll stay here for the night. Seems pretty cosy..." Steve began before Lilly suddenly silenced him with a wave of her hand.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Is... there a clock in here Steve?"

Nick knew what she had heard instantly, he practically ripped his ticking golden watch from his wrist and placed it under his torso to muffle the sound it was making. He hoped his sudden movement hadn't made any noise, as he nervously watched Lilly's shoes from across the room, as the silence slowly engulfed the room and buzzing filled Nick's ears.

"I must be going crazy, I thought I heard ticking" She told him, as Steve also stood up.

"Must be from downstairs, let's go see if those idiots have found something" he muttered as (to Nick's sheer relief) he watched the bottom of the door swing open and heard Lilly and Steve descend the wooden stairs. Certain that they were gone, he quickly pushed himself from under the bed. Massaging his aching legs, as dust and sweat coated Sarah followed his lead, as she did she tiptoed to the large window opposite to the double bed.

"No one's out there, I think" She told Nick nervously, as she peered outside, adjusting her new black rimmed glasses on her slippery, slide, of a nose.

Nick looked out to see that the earlier guards has obviously shifted elsewhere. Nervously he slowly pushed open the large square panelled window. It didn't make any noise as the cold night air chilled the exposed parts of Nick's skin.

"Okay... climb out the roof and jump to the floor. The second you hit the floor, run for the treeline, I'll be right behind you" Nick reassured a clammy looking Sarah. Sarah remembered that this was the room she spent most of her time sealed in.

This was the room she hid from Carver in.

However this was also the room she had first learned to shoot in. But she didn't actually get to shoot anything.

She was leaving "This room" and her old life forever, as she stepped out into the cold night, dressed as a survivalist, the bag of meds and other supplies, still swinging from where she gripped the top of it. Her feet found the tiled roof, as she nervously made her way forward. Nick followed hot on her heel, looking down she saw that the drop from this roof and the bare ground, was quite a hard one.

But one she could make without dying.

"After three, okay?" Nick told her. All of their supplies they had on them.

"Three" Nick muttered.

The silence reigned as Sarah's legs shook... she could do this... she could make this jump.

"Two..."

Almost there...

"One..."

Sarah let the bag of meds fall from her fingers onto the floor below here and with a deep breath, she let leapt from the roof, for nearly 2 seconds she fell, before she hit the floor uneasily. Yet she wasn't damaged anywhere, picking herself up and grabbing the bag of meds from next to her, she heard Nick crash into the ground next to her, but just as he did.

"HEY!"

It came from the window. Turning back into the now brightly lit Cabin. Sarah's face fell as she saw the woman Lilly, the man Steve along with a few other hard faced bandits, with their faces pressed against the window in rage. Their rifles at the ready.

"RUN!" Nick roared, as everything seemed to spring to life all at once. The bandits seemed to dash out of the cabin, as Sarah ran as fast as she could. Nearly at the treeline... nearly at the treeline...

Lilly was the first one to reach the front door, swinging it open. She saw the two fleeting forms of the man and the girl sprinting into the treeline. Wasting no time, she saw that the girl was the one who was carrying the supplies. Their group needed those supplies and ever since she had killed Carley and been with Steve's group, killing survivors with supplies was a daily job for her.

Besides, many of them were assholes who deserved it anyway.

And those that weren't... Lilly tried to convince herself that they were better off dead. Kind people didn't belong in this world, they would only suffer a painful death by being ripped apart by walkers. She always tried to make her kills as painless as possible for these people. A quick bullet in the brain was the safest and quickest method.

But the girl was running away too fast, Lilly didn't have any time to aim at her head, she simply lined the rifle and fired. The rifle cracked as she heard the girl scream in pain as she bent double and ran herself to the ground.

Sarah lay on the floor, as the pain of being shot (for the first time) had reduced her to a squealing mess, as Nick hastily turned around to see Sarah clutching her bleeding torso "SHIT! SARAH!" He bellowed, running back for her, not caring in those seconds about his own safety, he had to put Sarah first. He felt his treasured red cap fall from his head, yet in those moments he didn't care, as he rushed back to Sarah.

Lilly watched the tall man run back to the girl on the floor. She still held on feebly to the large bag they needed, as he scooped her up in both of his arms and carried her back to the treeline at a sluggish pace. Lilly aimed the rifle for the tall's man back... ready to fire again before an empty click made her curse angrily.

"Fuck" she snapped. She had to reload.

She knew the pair would escape as she reloaded and sure enough they disappeared into the treeline, just as the other members of her group burst outside and fired into the vegetation where the pair had disappeared into. The stray bullets ripped the leaves to shreds, but didn't seem to kill any people. The only trace of them that remained was the man's red cap, That lay abandoned, next to a large shrub.

"Did you get em?" Steve demanded from Lilly.

"I shot the girl, but the guy picked her up and they ran off. They've still took the damn bag with them..." Lilly explained.

In the woods not to far away. Nick was running blindly along, when he felt the damp wet of Sarah blood trickle onto his fingers. He knew he had to stop and patch up the wound, if he kept on running along like this, she would (without a doubt) bleed out and die.

Ducking into a bush (trying hard to ignore the rough shouts of the approaching bandits) he reached into the bag of meds he and Sarah swore they wouldn't touch unless it was for extreme emergencies, and Nick knew that this was one. Pushing his soaked fingers past the books and camera, he finally started pulling out as many bottles and bandages as he could. He blindly tipped them all out onto the floor.

"Per... peroxide..." he thought desperately, looking for the familiar bottle in the darkness. In his panic, he must have missed it three times, before he finally found the brown bottle. Scooping it up, he wasted no time. Lifting Sarah green hoodie, he saw that bullet wound was fairly deep, and that a fountain of blood was spurting out from inside of it.

"Fuck... fuck" he hissed, pouring half the bottle on her wound instantly. This not only removed infection from the wound, but also the blood around the actual bullet wound itself. Wiping his sweaty forehead (only making it wetter with Sarah's blood) he heard the familiar sizzling sound, as the peroxide burnt against Sarah's skin. But she didn't react. Nick looked up to see that her eyes were closed and blood was leaking from a thin trail from her mouth.

"Fuck! Just fuck stay with me!" he whispered in desperation to Sarah. Knowing that she was unconscious and that she was bleeding from the mouth, were two signs that didn't mean anything good. Peering in at the wound, he saw that three small silver bullets had wedged themselves in Sarah's meaty pink flesh. A shot from that rifle at close range would have meant death. But since Sarah was hit from a distance... maybe she was lucky?

He pulled out the bullets one by one. Wondering by the end of this, how many bullets he would have to pull out of himself and others. He seemed to be a professional at it, yet as he grabbed the bandages, he suddenly noticed something that made his heart stop. Sarah seemed still... too still...

Sarah wasn't breathing.

"Oh shit... shit... shit... come on" Nick gasped, losing his head as he quickly pressed down on the still bleeding wound with one hand. He used the other to pry Sarah's mouth open and begin CPR, he inhaled deeply blew oxygen into her lungs.

Nothing happened.

"Come on... come on..." Nick muttered, now using a white pad and applying as much pressure as he could on Sarah's wound, as he tried once again to try CPR. He gave her a few compressions on her chest before returning to the mouth to mouth... air... compressions... air...compressions...

It went on and on. Nick was aware he was crying now, as he slowly gave up hope. He didn't know shit about how to save someone this near to death. Sarah's skin was cold, it chilled him too the touch...

"No Sarah... PLEASE!.." he sobbed and screamed in unison, as the tears fell from his blue eyes freely. Yet Sarah looked peaceful, as he continued to slowly try to hammer on her chest to get her breathing once again, but he knew now that it was hopeless.

In the dark night, Sarah's corpse lay peacefully.

It was over. Nick felt himself give in, as he...

A noise made his head jerk up, he was still faintly pushing down on Sarah's chest, as he heard her cough. He leaned in close to her face and could have screamed to the high heavens above in relief, when he felt her weak breath on his blood drenched fingers.

But he couldn't scream in relief, because bandits were nearby and it wasn't over yet.

His other hand was numb on where he had been inserting pressure on Sarah's wound. He held the white pad in place, as he begun to wrap as many layers of bandages as he could around her torso. Moving her slowly, terrified that she would stop breathing once again.

She kept on breathing as Nick finished wrapping up her wound. He watched the wound closely for ages... but the bleeding must have subsided somewhat as no more blood seeped through the layer of bandages he had laid there. He breathed in relief, the bullets hadn't hit any major veins or arteries then, although they had caused a lot of damage.

Sarah's skin was pale in the weak moonlight. She had suffered major blood loss for a start and her body would have gone into shock. Her skin was still freezing to the touch, without thinking, Nick used the thick blue coat around himself and draped it over Sarah to warm her up. As he waited... in the dark... slowly placing all the meds back into the bin bag...

It's a good thing they brought those meds with them. Or else Sarah would have died.

Wrapping up the bin bag, he lay close to Sarah. The bandits shouts had faded into the distance, Nick gathered that they were safe and he had chosen a great patch of vegetation to hide under. With nothing to occupy his mind, he removed Sarah's glasses from the bridge of her nose and placed them in his own trouser pocket. He used the back of his hand to inspect Sarah's temperature, by pressing it on her forehead, he made the judgement that she was still cold, but not as cold as she had been. Her breaths became stronger and more consistent.

She was injured... but she was going to pull through this.

Nick sat in the same spot for hours, watching her. Making sure that she didn't suddenly stop breathing once again. With his coat off he now only had a thin-t shirt to protect him from the cold lashes of night. It didn't work, as he sat there shivering, his arms, fingers, and forehead still soaked in Sarah's recently lost blood.

"You scared me Sarah, don't do that again" Was the last dazed thing he muttered, as he finally let sleep overcome him.

"They escaped once again it seemed, Rob says he couldn't find them" Steve told a stone faced Lilly, joining her on where she stood by the front door of the cabin.

"Damn it" was Lilly had to utter, as she buried her face in her hands and sighed.

"Still thinking that the girl could be with them?" Steve asked.

"I should have tried asking them rather than shooting them. But the only reason we've got this far is because we don't take any chances" Lilly muttered as Steve nodded in full agreement. After all, it was his policy, as he was the leader of this group.

"Either way, were running low on meds and food again and those two seemed to picked this cabin clean of things..." Steve began to explain as Lilly pulled out the drawing once again and store at it.

It showed the man she hated with all her heart... Kenny, with his stupid moustache, next to him was a much slimmer Kajtaa, and a child Lilly recognised as Duck. She knew when she saw this photo, who had drawn it. She didn't care for the three people in it, whether they were dead, or alive or worse. But she cared a great deal, for the artist.

"You really owe this Lee guy, if you're so desperate to find that girl he looked after" Steve noted, as Lilly was once again staring at the drawing. (he noticed she did this a lot, as Lilly spoke)

"I'd be dead a hundred times over if it wasn't for Lee. He helped my dad in that meat locker, he let me stay with the group rather than leave me at the side of the road. I don't know if his dead or alive now Steve, but I know for a fact..." she gestured at the drawing "That this little girl is alive and around here. I just know she is. I can't explain it..." Lilly said as she looked into the dark forest ahead of her and thought in her head...

"Clementine. I don't know where you are, but I know you're close, If something has happened to Lee... than It's my mission to help you"

It had been nearly two years since she last saw the 8 year old, but even if Clementine regarded her with distaste if they were too meet again (based on the fact she murdered Carley right in front of her). Lilly would ensure that she would help the girl. Back at the motor inn, she loved and cared about Clementine, almost as much as Lee.

And... she owed Lee that much.