A/N: Hello all! Okay, I'm going to thank you for all of your reviews and ask you all one obvious question.
What did you make of episode 5?
I'll be ready to discuss it to death, so leave your reviews or opinions in PM's. Personally I liked it, I'd give it an 8 out of 10. It had it's strengths and flaws and I loved the fact our choices really did matter in the end (after seeing all the endings). The ending I ended up with (and the one I think is the best for Clementine) is the one where she ends up alone on the hills again. (I know this sounds horrible, but personally seeing how so many characters ended up determinant and therefore dead in my eyes, I no longer trusted anybody as Kenny snapped, Jane turned out to be a manipulating bitch, Mike and Bonnie ditched Clem and Arvo shot her. With this in mind I wanted Clementine to start on a clean slate with the baby, besides she was a pure badass in that ending, although I'm glad we got the option of the happy ending with Kenny)
Anyway I'm glad I got the baby's name right AJ, Alvin Junior. Although my prediction of episode 5 at the start of this story failed miserably, I enjoyed the episode and was my second favourite of the season. (I also thought Luke was 23 when he was 27, you'll notice I'll change Nick's age in this chapter based on this)
So make your thoughts known, and as for this chapter it's short but a lead up of what's to come. (If you're still reeling after episode 5 like I am, maybe this will get you hyped for something again) anyhow the next chapter the rebellion begins.
So... keep reviewing, you're all awesome!
Kenny was ready.
Sarita wasn't.
Sarita had to physically anchor Kenny down, by locking down his hand in her own, this was the only thing that prevented him from springing up and pacing in anticipation around the pen. However he expressed his anticipation by tapping his feet rapidly against the ground.
"Stop that" Sarita ordered, massaging her closed eyelids as she sighed.
Kenny slowly stopped patting his feet, as he gazed at his girlfriend.
"I'm kinda nervous" he blurted out shyly, looking up at the shutter, as the night had now fully descended upon the pen.
"I am too Kenny, I am too" she muttered.
They sat there in silence for a little while, before Kenny couldn't stand it any longer.
"Sarita... I'm just want you too know, that whatever happens... I was glad to have met you" he admitted, as she turned to face him.
"It, was great to meet you too Kenny. But I assure you, this is not the end" she told him, as Kenny raised his heavy eyebrows.
"You promise me, you'll shoot?" He begged of her, as she gave him a small smile.
"We don't do what we want Kenny, we do what we need" she said, quoting Carver. However unlike him, she meant what she said.
Bonnie gazed sadly at where Luke and Jane were leaning against each other.
"Are you okay?" Shel asked her, ever since their emotional reunion, she and Stephanie had been quietly talking to each other. But seeing the sad look on Bonnie's face had caused her to break away from Stephanie from a few seconds and check on her old friend.
"I'm fine Shel" Bonnie responded automatically, her gaze still trained on Luke and Jane. Shel followed her gaze and saw the problem.
"You had something with Luke, didn't you?" She inquired, knowing that in the past Bonnie used to follow Luke around everywhere, Bonnie couldn't see herself keeping quiet about this for much longer.
"We kissed a couple of times" Bonnie admitted, her gaze now fully trained on Luke's every feature. "But... he... moved on. Told me that we had to stop seeing each other. He left with Carlos and the others soon after, I wish I'd gone with them, but..." Bonnie made a long drawn breath, as she continued "It was never meant to be. I might still like him a little, but... his moved on and I guess I've got to as well" she summarised, as Shel gave her sympathetic look.
"Well, at least you had Luke and not Stan" Stephanie chipped in, with a faint smile.
Bonnie had to nod her head slowly at this, Luke may have stopped loving her in that way, a long time ago. Besides he had Jane now and Luke knew better than to act like the "jealous ex", but Luke had treated her kindly and left her with good memories. Things could have been so much worse, she could have been left with a dead baby and a beating.
"Anyway, you ladies ready for this?" Bonnie inquired of Shel and Stephanie, trying to sway the subject. Yet she regretted this instantly as knots grew tighter in her stomach as she looked upon the shutter.
"Ready as I'll ever be. I'm going to make sure Becca's killers pay" Was all Shel had to say, as Bonnie awaited Stephanie's answer.
Despite the condition she was in, Stephanie was ready to fight as she uttered "I'm with Shel here. After what happened to me today, I'm ready to kick some serious ass" she finished her statement as she looked up at Bonnie "And you?"
Bonnie gulped, before she gave her honest answer.
"More terrified then I would be if I was facing a swamp of gators. But...if I die tonight, I'll try to think happy thoughts" she said. Thinking of Luke and of all the good times she had in the past few weeks (despite everything that had happened to them)
She was treasuring the good moments.
"When we win this rebellion, promise me we'll paint the barricade with unicorns"
"Dude, when we win this thing. The first and only thing I'm promising, is too make you walker bait"
Mike walked up slowly to where Eddie and Wyatt were bickering away, with their usual light humour, he chuckled slightly at Wyatt's comment on walker bait, causing the pair of them too look up.
"I don't know how you keep jokin' through all this" He told them, as Eddie merely shrugged.
"Like I told Clementine earlier, I need some humour otherwise I'll go insane" Eddie said simply, as Mike gazed at the comedic duo of the pen, as he let a serious question escape his lips.
"Aren't you two a little nervous? I know I am" he admitted. Mike had barely known this group at first. But over time he had grown closer to them and saw that they were good people. At first Mike seriously considered just abandoning this group if things got too bad... but now he could see they had humanity and if this rebellion succeeded, then he knew he would love to stick around.
"What happens, happens. There's no point getting nervous over it" Wyatt replied dryly. The most serious reply he would get from these two before Eddie cockily stated "Yeah, besides we'll all be fine, Kenny's here"
"And why is having Kenny here gonna help us?" Mike asked.
"Because he'll just argue Carver to death, if our guns fail"
All three of them were laughing hard after this comment, too Mike, it was so stupid and so random... but he couldn't help himself. For a few seconds he was able to laugh openly and forget about his (most likely) impending death.
"You ready for this Russ?" Vince asked of his silent younger companion, as Russell swept his black eyes over the pen dwellers once again.
"No, but we ain't got a choice right?" Russell responded sulkily, as rested his head on his arm.
Vince looked ahead at the shutter, before Russell spoke up again.
"Look Vince, I know it's been all round shitty situations lately, but if we actually make it through this. Then... then I just wanna thank you for helping me choose the right side" Russell's words were rushed, as if he was embarrassed to say this to Vince.
Vince eyes softened slightly.
"Well... thanks man" he finally said.
Russell merely grunted in response, clearly not up for a heart to heart. Vince knew this was just the way Russell was.
"You'll live to see this place without Carver" Vince found himself muttering to Russell, "I'll make sure of it" he added, a promise that he would abide too.
"You haven't changed Vince, you're still looking out for us, as our leader" Vince was glad to see he had managed to make Russell actually grin. Vince returned this with his own smile. He knew full well, that Russell would live through this rebellion.
As for himself... he wasn't as sure. But he knew put he'd be willing to lay down his life, as long as it meant he could save one of his friends lives.
"... I just want you too know, that even though it's only been a few days. Being with you Jane has been one of the best times of my life"
Luke reached the end of his emotional speech to Jane, who (despite her vow to try and yawn it off) was rather touched by it. She didn't say anything for a while, she wasn't a woman of much words, yet the pressure she applied to Luke's hand told him everything. It told him that she appreciated it, it told him that she was also afraid, even if she didn't say it.
"You know it was my birthday a few days ago" Luke piped up randomly.
"Must have been a shitty birthday then" Was Jane's only response as Luke chuckled lightly "You, bet it was" he replied.
"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Jane felt it was mandatory to ask him this.
"I didn't think it was important, there was no chance I was getting cake anyway" Luke explained, yet that familiar sadness lingered in his eyes as he said it. Either he as truly wanted Cake, or he was sad because...
"It's okay Luke I get it. I know you didn't want to tell everyone. But too me, age ain't nothing but a number. So hitting the big 5-0 doesn't bother me" she joked, as Luke's eyebrows rose in light humour.
"50? That's how old you think I am?" he asked in mock outrage.
"I know, a bit young for you really" Jane added.
"Well what if I said you looked 70?"
"Then I'd resort to very violent things Lukey boy"
Luke smiled back at her warmly, as they both had a short laugh on his topic, before Luke said (in a more serious tone) "Nah, I turned 27"
"Well, happy 27th birthday" Jane told him softly as she handed him an invisible gift.
"Here, it's an imaginary cookie. I thought getting a cake was too mainstream" she mused, as Luke grabbed her empty palm and pulled her closer to his face, as he whispered in her ear.
"I already got the greatest birthday present I could have asked for" he told her lovingly. As Jane felt slightly weak at the knees at Luke's corny comment (he was simply overflowing with them) yet Jane liked it. She never thought she'd be the one to fall for a guy who she would usually cringe at.
But in this world of so much death and destruction (and the upcoming rebellion) she didn't care. As long as she had someone there. Someone to care for her. Because the truth was that Jane couldn't do this alone. Not for much longer. She truly needed someone and she shuddered to think of what she would become, if she was left with no one to love. Or simply left on her own once again.
She would fight in this rebellion, but she would stop fighting alone.
She was part of a team now.
A team she would never leave.
"Hey Sarah, I lied"
Sarah looked back at Nick, fairly puzzled as they proceeded through the thinning treeline... no doubt they were getting closer to the hardware store.
"Lied about what?" she inquired.
"My age, I always say I'm 21 to people who don't know my actual age"
Sarah didn't seem too surprised by this information, so she wearily asked "So... how old are you really?"
"25 last time I checked"
Nick peered ahead of him through the darkness as Sarah went silent, he doubted that Sarah learning that he was 4 years older than she actually thought, was earth shattering news.
"So did it trick you?" he inquired after the silence grew too heavy.
"Yeah, why did you lie though?" she asked back of him, as she readjusted the square rimmed glasses from the bridge of her nose.
"Me and Luke had trouble growing beards when we were teens. So we thought we'd try and turn the situation on it's head and make light of it. From that day forward we wanted to convince everyone we met we were years younger than we actually were. I should have tried to say I was 18, but that would have been too obvious" he told a serious faced Sarah.
"You have a strange sense of humour Nick" she told him.
"I know"
She couldn't help but smile at this. Nick could scare her sometimes when he got mad, but when he was calm, he was dorky and socially awkward like her at times. She liked him best when he was like this.
She moved forward, until the two of them came across a lone walker in the trees, Nick wasted no time pulling out the kitchen knife from his bag (that he retrieved from the cabin) he used this to slice through the walkers skull, as it fell to the floor in a bloody heap.
"Nice" Sarah complimented, inspecting the corpse as Nick wiped the walker's blood from his knife, onto his trousers.
"Thanks" he said accepting the compliment, however as he did, he noticed that tree's themselves seemed to be moving, alarmed he peered through the black night to find that these things weren't trees, they were outlines of walkers...
They were surrounded by an incoming herd, Sarah shuffled closer to him, as Nick looked down at the walker corpse.
"What the hell are they doing?" Steve asked the air in front of him, as he watched the tall man slice the walkers' stomach open, and wipe it's guts all over himself and the girl. When they had rubbed themselves into two ruby red sheens of people, they proceeded forwards and too Steve's surprise the nearby walkers didn't notice them. None of them lunged for the odd duo, as they snuck past the walkers in the trees...
"Fuck. Guess they aren't too thick after all" Steve snarled, unable to believe that his group had missed this method of sneaking through herds, when this useless duo had somehow figured it out. Yet Steve already knew that he had learned to do something new, as of today.
"Glad you followed them now?" Lilly asked, as she approached a walker, ready to repeat the method she had just seen the duo perform.
"Yes" Steve replied honestly.
Lilly knew (as she smothered herself in the freezing wet clumps of walker guts) that she had almost made it, to her final destination.
She also knew (as her group of 6 moved behind her) that this would be the very last time she travelled with this group.
No matter what happened.
Rebecca had carefully balanced herself on the shelves, as she approached the two guards above the pen. The hatchet she had stolen from the armoury was hidden behind her back. She waited until the one of the guards had turned away before she struck.
She wasn't aware she could move so fast. The hatchet buried itself in the man's neck, as he made a choking noise. His splutters caught the attention of the second guard, but at this point, Rebecca had ripped the hatchet from the first man's neck, but before the second man could scream, or lift his rifle to eye level. Rebecca swung her hatchet at him with all her force.
There was a sickening Thunking noise, the hatchet left a large indent in the side of the man's skull. As blood began to leak from his wound, Rebecca pulled the hatchet from his head, as he fell to his knees before he landed on the floor with a dull thud. He twitched for a few seconds, before the puddle of blood around him grew too large and he went still. Rebecca wiped a layer of sweat from her forehead, as she gazed down at the men's corpses.
She had caught them by surprise, that was the only reason that she was alive and they were dead.
Still, the dull echo of when the second man hit the floor, signalled the start of the rebellion. It was like a war cry, but the cry to war, had been more like a whimper.
She tried hard not to think about this, she knew there was No Going Back now, as she left the corpses on the shelves above the pen shutter. She wanted to check on the pen dwellers, or wish them one last goodbye in case things went poorly.
But she thought it would be harder that way, she simply wished them the best and prayed they all got lucky tonight, as she had to face her final demon and overcome it.
She had reached Carver's office door in no time at all.
She was scared, oh so very scared. But she had to do this. She was the reason everyone was here. If she hadn't have let Carver knock her up in the first place, he wouldn't have hunted down the cabin group for his son. Kenny and Sarita wouldn't have been dragged here. She was the true culprit behind everything and now... she was going to make amends to them. By ending this, once and for all.
With her bloody hatchet raised, Rebecca opened the door...
Clementine was nervously waiting by the shutter, not speaking to anyone as she simply waited.
Her second chance had led her here.
This was truly it.
Was this just to be another death of her's? Dying in the hardware store rather than the snow? Where was the difference? She pulled out her old photo of Lee for some comfort.
"There's no going back now, is there?" she asked of the photo.
Of course the smiling image of Lee wasn't going to answer, but she could imagine him saying too her, in his deep voice that used to soothe her and calm her whenever she panicked, "No, there isn't sweet pea"
A shuffling noise made her head snap up in alarm, pocketing her photo of Lee, she turned towards the shutter as every member of the pen, saw the figures of three guards emerge from the darkness. One of them being the badly shaven man.
"Okay... Rebecca killed the guards. Get your asses moving to the armoury and grab what you can" the badly shaven man instructed.
The shutter was clanking open, everyone was bracing themselves, to make a beeline for the armoury. Clementine was ready to run faster than she had ever run in her life.
This was it.