Well, here is chapter 4. Sorry that it took so long but school has been kicking my butt. But oh well, here it is...

Please remember to review, fav, follow, etc. If you have any advice to make it better, don't hesitate to either PM me or put it in a review.

Also, I don't own the Walking Dead. Only Alex

Alex laid the rifle down and quickly slid down the ladder, heading toward the rest of the group, who had started moving toward the kid they had just saved. Katjaa had laid him down in the back of the truck and appeared to be checking him for injuries, while Lee and Mark were cleaning themselves up. Carley was distracting the kids, keeping them away from the survivor, just in case there was anything to be worried about, while Larry was shutting the gate and making sure it was shut. Kenny, who was cleaning himself up as well, had started arguing with Lilly about the kid.

"We couldn't just let him die out there!" Kenny shouted, facing Lilly, looking pretty pissed.

"He will just be another mouth to feed. We can barely feed ourselves, let alone every stray that wanders up to us!" Lilly retorted, looking just as pissed as Kenny.

Guess I now know what Lilly thinks of me, Alex thought, as he walked up beside Kenny.

"Well, hopefully he can managed to pull his keep. After all," Alex said sarcastically, glaring at Lilly angrily, "that just what the last stray the group brought in did."

Lilly, realizing he had heard what she said, gave him a look that was entirely unapologetic and somehow also managed to convey the message of 'keep your mouth shut', which just making Alex even madder.

"How dare you talk my daughter that way!" Larry bellowed, storming past his daughter to stand in front of Alex and Kenny. "My daughter busts her ass to make sure this group keeps functioning and you pieces of shit question everything she does! And she's right," he continued, glaring at Alex specifically, "we should just throw that stray out, just like what we should have done with the last one."

Without thinking, Alex punched Larry on his nose, enjoying the feel of it crunching beneath his fist. Larry to staggered a few steps back, before attempting to charge forward, but was stopped by Lilly and Mark, who had come over during Larry's tirade, grabbing a hold of him. Kenny did the same to Alex, who kept trying to get to Larry, to hurt him anyway he could.

"Enough!" Lee shouted as walked over and put himself between Larry and Alex. "We need to work together, not fight amongst ourselves. If we keep this up, we won't make it. Alex," he said, looking at Alex with an understanding look about what just happened, "are you done now?"

"Yeah," Alex replied, as Kenny and Carley let him go, "I'm good."

Larry glared at Lee and looked like he was about to say something, but Lilly whispered something in his ear, and he stopped. Shaking off Lilly and Mark, he sulked off toward his room. Probably going to nurse his wound, Alex thought, glaring at Larry's back as he stomped away, and complain about it for another two weeks.

Lilly glared at Alex and Kenny. "I hope you're happy now," she said, before hurrying after her father. Mark looked he was about to go after her, but instead headed toward the RV, muttering something about keeping watch.

Lee sighed, watching Larry and Lilly storm off, before turning to Alex. Giving him a sad, small smile, he heading off toward Carley, who had gone back to the second floor of the motel and was reloading her gun.

"Damn kid, that was quite a punch. Lucky you beat me to it." Alex turned to see Kenny, with a big old grin underneath his mustache. "If it had me, well, we probably would be havin' to deal with more than a broken nose."

Alex shot a smile back back at the man. "Yeah," Alex said, jokingly, "but for who?"

"Hey now," Kenny replied with a laugh. "Well, if you excuse me, I'm gonna go see how Duck is doin." Kenny turned, and headed off to where Clem and Duck were sitting by the RV. I hope the kids didn't see that, Alex thought, watching Kenny go over and ruffle Ducks hair. It probably wouldn't have bothered Duck much, because nothing does, but with Clem, who knows?

Alex started walking toward his room, figuring he could grab a few hours of sleep before Lilly divided out the rations. Not like I will get any after that, but who knows, I might just get lucky.

"Alex, would you come here for a moment?" Alex glanced over to see Katjaa beckoning him over.

He sighed and headed over toward Katjaa, who was standing by the truck, continuing to check over the kid. She must have been doing this the whole time that argument went on. Talk about committed. Either that, or she really just didn't want to be apart of it.

"How's he doing?" Alex walked beside the truck and looked down on the kid. Well, guess I can't really think of him as a kid. The "kid" looked to be in high school, at least according to the letter jacket he was wearing.

"Well," Katjaa started, wiping her hands on a towel she grabbed, "from what I can tell, he appears to be alright. He passed out after we brought him in, but since I couldn't find and bites or wounds, I think it might have just been from shock. Then again, he could have a serious medical problem. I just don't know." She looked down at him, looking as if she was trying to figure out what to do.

"All I can do now is hope he is alright. I'm used to dogs and cats, not people. Even If I had the right equipment, there would only be so much I could tell. It makes me feel just so useless sometimes."

Alex looked at her and couldn't think of anything to say that would make her feel better.

"So, um, what do you need me to do?" Alex asked, trying to change the subject and get her mind off of that depressing stuff.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Katjaa replied, placing the towel under the boy's head. "Would you mind watching him while I go get some supplies to help make his stay, however long it is, comfortable?"

"Sure, I can do that."

"Thanks Alex. I appreciate it." And with that, she turned and headed toward the RV, where most of the medicine was located. Even if Katjaa isn't a real doctor, I'm glad that we have someone with medical training, even if its for animals instead of humans, he thought, watching Katjaa pause for a moment to talk to Kenny and give Duck a hug.

Alex moved and sat on the back of the back of the truck, fairly sure that the kid was out, when a hand suddenly grabbed Alex's shoulder. With a yell, he quickly threw it off, jumped up, and turned to see the "kid" was now awake.

"Don't do that!" Alex shouted, anger replacing the fear he had just felt, as he attempted to get his heart until control. "If I had my gun on me, you wouldn't be moving anymore.

"I'm sorry." The kid stammered, looking slightly taken aback about how Alex had reacted.

"Geez," Alex continued, staring at the him, trying to get his heartbeat to slow down, "what if you had been a biter?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." The kid repeated as he started looking around, looking as if he was trying to figure out where he was.

"Well, you should have." Alex sighed, forcing down the last of the anger. "Just remember that for next time. I probably need to take it easy on this guy, Alex thought, watching the kid take in his surroundings. I don't know what he's gone through, and if it's anything like what I went through, he probably could someone to talk to, or at the very least, to think that someone is on his side, depending on how long he stays here. So, kid…"

"Ben. My name is Ben and how come you're calling me a kid?" the kid, Ben, turning his gaze from the Motel Inn to Alex, studying him for a moment before lowering gaze down to the ground. "You look about my age."

"I didn't know your name and kid sounds a lot better than boy." Alex could feel his frustration rising, but fought to keep it down. "My name is Alex, thanks for asking."

"Well, my name is Ben. So now you know…" Something in his voice made made Alex look at him closely. He's a walking toothpick...how has he survived so long?

"So, how have you survived so long?" Alex asked, as he sat back down next to him. Ben looked up at him, sadness covering his face.

"Well, at first it was just luck...I was with my high school band when, well, all this happened. We were visiting another high school for a playoff football, so we decided to stay at the school, waiting for it to all blow over. After a month, the other school decided to try and get back home, so they took the buses one night." A look of horror went across Ben's face. "We didn't know what happened to them until what used to be the other students started wandering back to the school."

"Over the course of the next two months, we lost so many people," Ben continued, his eyes glazed over in memory of what happened. "Most of the girls died when one of the cheerleaders committed suicide and subsequently, reanimated. We found out the next morning when the screams began. There was so much blood..." Ben shuddered at memory of it. "It was then we found out that when someone died, they came back as...one of those things."

It wasn't long after that, the school was attacked and overrun by bandits." A look of anger went across Alex's face, but Ben was so focused on the memory, he didn't notice. "We fought as long as we could, but we had to escape in the chaos. I don't know what happened to the others, but only me, my friend Travis, and my music teacher, Mr. Parker, managed to escape together."

"Were they from Save-Lots?"

Ben, face now beginning to have tears streak down it, looked up in surprise. "What?"

"Were the bandits that attacked you, from Save-Lots?" Alex asked, tensely, making sure that each word was heard, loud and clear, but only loud enough that the other teen could hear it.

"Yeah, I think so," Ben replied, looking like he was trying to remember, "but I'm not sure. It happened so fast."

Alex's face contorted with rage. That means that they could be the same bandits that attacked my group are nearby. I thought I went farther than that, but if it is them, I wonder if that means the cannibals are nearby as well...

Ben continued, oblivious to Alex's anger. "We escaped into the woods, where we survived for a few days. It was this morning, that probably due to delirium from the lack of food or maybe dehydration, Mr. Parker stepped in a bear trap. Somehow, he managed to keep from screaming. Travis and I thought about yelling or ever looking for help, but we all agreed that it was safer if we tried to solve the problem ourselves. Even after we heard a nearby gunshot, we kept quiet, for fear of it being the bandits." I wonder if that was our hunting party they heard, Alex thought. If only they had made some sound, Lee or Kenny might have heard them and helped.

Tears started streaming down Ben's face as all the emotions he had just felt came flooding back. "No matter what we tried, the trap wouldn't open and despite our best efforts, Mr. Parker died from losing so much blood. Travis refused to leave him, believing that he could save him. So, when Mr. Parker came back, it tore a chunk of Travis' leg off. Travis panicked and started screaming, causing any walker around to come and head toward us. I tried to calm him down, but he just kept freaking out, getting louder and louder, and didn't see one coming behind him."

A look of shame went across Ben's tear-covered face. "I froze. I might have been able to save him...it was like I wanted to help, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't move. As they took him down and started tearing into him, I took off running. I just kept running, and running, until I managed to find you guys…"

Alex sat there, the anger of hearing about the bandits slowly diminishing over the pity he felt for Ben. He's like me...he's lost everything. While I had a week to cope with my loss, he lost the last people close to him, that he knew were alive, just today. Wow… Ben continued to sob and Alex let him, understanding what he went through. As the teen's tears started to slow, Alex decided to try and help him.

"Look, I can't promise you that everything is going to be all right. I can understand what has happened to you, but to be honest, its only going to get worse." Ben looked up, surprise and fear covering his face. "I'm not going to feed you crap about how the world is going to be fixed or how the military is going to come swooping in and save us. It is up to us to keep ourselves alive." Alex looked at Ben, hoping he grasped the seriousness of what he was saying. "I was the last survivor that this group brought in and while most people have accepted me now, there are still some that hold resentment. Just know that I will try and keep you alive, but only if you don't give up like that girl did, and," Alex continued, making sure he would understand what he was saying, "if you don't freeze up on me."

Ben looked down, shame written on his face. "I will try not to."

"Good," Alex continued, as he stood up and turned back to the other teen. Now, I have to get the…," Alex paused for a moment, trying to figure out what to say, "leaders of the group. They will want to meet you. And don't worry," he continued, in response to the look of fear that went across Ben's face," if you're honest like you were with me, you will be fine."

"Okay. Thanks Alex." Ben stretched out his hand and Alex promptly took it.

"No problem. Just don't freak on them." With a friendly smile, Alex turned and headed toward Kenny, who was relaxing on the couch in the middle of the parking lot. I'm not sure about Ben...he seems nice but I'm not sure how helpful he will really be. But hopefully he will follow my advice and we will be able to help one another...hopefully.

AN: Updated and corrected as of 8/6/15. Let me know if I missed anything, please and thank you!