Wow, this chapter took me a while to write mainly for two reasons: I don't have a workable copy of the Walking Dead right now, and I hit a mental block, even though I knew what was going to happen. So, if any of the characters sound a little off, bear with me, it is all from memory.
Anyway, please review, fav, follow, etc. I can use any ideas, advice, critiques, etc. So please, REVIEW!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Walking Dead, sad to say. All I own is Alex. Also, this is my first fanfic, which explains why I want advice. Please help!
"Alex! Wake up!"
Alex slowly raised his head from the pillow to see that Ben was standing over him, looking like a scared little puppy. Behind him, Alex could see that the moon was shining bright in the night sky.
"Dude, what is it? Its the freaking middle of the night!" Alex said, as he grabbed the pillow and pulled it over his head. Right then, he did not want to have to deal with Ben, especially after having to deal with Lee earlier.
"Alex, its important! I'm in serious trouble!"
Alex groan and threw off the pillow and the covers, got up, and looked Ben square in the eyes. "Alright, you have my attention. Now, what is so damn important you couldn't tell me in the morning?" This had better be good.
"It's the bandits!" Ben exclaimed, looking as if he was about to pee his pants in fear.
Alex quickly went from doubting to all seriousness. "What about them?"
Ben started pacing, nervously fidgeting with his hands as he began to tell what happened to him. "Well, I went to the restroom, outside the Motor Inn, when a group of them jumped me. They said they had one of my friends from the school and that if I didn't give them supplies, they would kill him and me!"
Didn't Lee mention something about missing supplies after we finished our little heart to heart?
"When did this happen?" Alex asked, as he went to go grab his gun from the desk. Luckily, he slept in his cloths, so that he could save time, if need be.
"About six days ago. I didn't know what to do, and since you made that whole promise thing earlier..."
Alex stopped dead in his tracks and turned to look at Ben. "You mean to tell me, that you waited six days before telling anyone! Not only that, but you waited until the middle of the night, before waking me up to tell me!
Ben looked at him sheepishly as he stopped pacing. "I was scared what the others would think."
Alex sighed, set the gun back down the on desk, and closing his eyes, laid back down on the bed. Ben looked at him, confusion covering his face. "What are you doing?"
"Getting some much needed sleep."
"But, what about the bandits? Shouldn't we do something?!"
Alex opened his eyes and looked at him. "If you told me five days ago, we would have headed straight out to go kill them, but since you waited, all we are going to do is wait till morning, and tell the others so that they know what is going on."
Ben opened and closed his mouth, trying to figure out how to respond. Alex sighed and tried to put him at ease. "Look, Ben, sure the group will be mad at you for a little bit, but they will forgive you. Just go back to bed and we will deal with this in the morning.
Ben, still slightly shocked about what the plan was, simply nodded before heading out of the room. Alex closed his eyes, and quickly fell back asleep.
The next morning, after Alex had gotten ready, checked his weapon, and cleaned up as best he could, he headed downstairs, to go talk to the rest of the group about Ben.
The rest of the group was doing what they normally did the morning: get ready for another day of survival. Lee and Kenny were both checking weapons, as Katjaa and Carley checked food and medicine. Lilly was heading toward her room, probably to go sulk again, and Ben was nowhere to be seen.
"Hi Alex, whatcha doin?"
Alex looked down to see that Clementine was smiling up at him, having paused from coloring underneath the stairs with chalk.
"Hey Clem, I'm just looking for Ben. Have you seen him?" He asked with a smile.
Clem shook her head. "Nope, I haven't seen him since yesterday. Have you seen Duck?" Alex shook his head, causing Clem to frown. "He's been acting really weird since the dairy."
Alex grimaced, remembering what the boy had to go through. I don't blame him for acting weird...not after everything that he saw there.
"Just give him some time," he said, trying to reassure her, "we all went through a lot there and it takes for some people to deal with it than others."
"Like Lilly?" Clem asked, looking at him with a questioning look. Dang, this kid is smart for an eight year old.
"Yeah, like Lilly..." Alex replied, trying to keep how he felt about Lilly off his face. It's not that I don't like Lilly. I feel bad that she lost her dad, I really do, but I also know how she feels about me and Ben. I don't know...
"Do you want to color with me?"
Alex was pulled back to reality to see that Clem was offering him a piece of chalk.
"Sure, Clem," Alex replied, as he sat down next to her and began to draw, "but only until Ben shows up, and then I have go."
"Okay." They both began to color and Alex could already tell, that Clementine was much better at it than he was. Then again, he thought as he watched her for a moment, I haven't colored since I was about five and I was bad even then.
Alex and Clem spent the next few hours coloring, or in Alex's case, attempting to color and Clem stopping to help him. While he attempted to draw a picture of what he remembered his house looked like, Clem was drawing an image of the group, including Mark and Larry. It made Alex remember what happened to them, but he forced himself not to show anything. Just when he started to get the hang of it, Ben finally came out of his room and stumbled down to Alex.
"Dude, you look like shit," Alex said, looking at Ben, who looked like as if he hadn't slept at all since last night.
"Swear," Clem said, not even looking up from her coloring.
Alex glanced at her. "I thought you only did that for Lee."
She smiled, still trying to appear as if she was concentrating on her art. "Maybe, maybe not."
Alex chuckled, before turning back to Ben, who looked as if he was about to throw up. "You okay?"
Ben shook his head and began to slowly head toward the RV, with Alex following close behind. "I didn't sleep at all last night. I kept thinking about what the group was going to do to me."
Alex caught up and started walking beside him. "They're going to do nothing. You're a part of the group. I mean, sure, you have made some mistakes, but you have never intentionally meant to hurt anyone."
"I know but-" As Ben reached the RV, arrows began flying over the fence and hitting the ground, causing the group to scramble for cover. Alex grabbed Ben and pulled him behind the RV. Peeking around, he saw that bandits, wearing Save-Lots uniforms, had opened the gates and began to pour in, shooting at anything that was moving
"Bandits! Everyone take cover!" he yelled out, as he pulled out his pistol and began to shoot at them.
A firefight broke out as both members of the group and bandits, came running into the Motor Inn parking lot, firing at each other. Kenny came hurrying out of the RV with a rifle, passing Ben as he scampered inside it. Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Clem managed to go and hide inside the Motor Inn, while both Lilly and Lee came running out, shooting at anything that wasn't one of their group. Carley managed to break out a window in one of the rooms and shoot from there, but Alex couldn't see Katjaa or Duck. God, I hope they're okay...
Alex try to make sure that every shot counted; either for a kill, as holes appeared in the bandits' heads, or as a serious wound, causing them to go scrambling for more cover, to lick their wounds. For some part of him, he was enjoying this. Alex knew it was sick, but after everything the bandit's had done to them, especially him, he felt himself slip into some sort of blood frenzy, trying to make sure the bandits wouldn't be leaving, at least, not in good shape.
"Kenny! Help us!"
Alex snapped from his blood frenzy to see that Katjaa and Duck hadn't made it the RV yet. They had been pinned down behind some trashcans as bandits continued to shoot at them. Kenny turned, saw them, and began trying to provide some cover for them to make it to the RV.
"Alex! Go help them!" He cried out, as he had to pause to reload.
Alex started heading toward them when it happened:
Duck, breaking free of his mother's arms, raced toward the RV, but just before he could get there, a bandit spotted him and fired. The bullet, racing through the air, flew into Duck's chest, coming out of the other side, causing him to stumble and pitch forward onto the ground. Katjaa, trying to get to her son, started running after him, before the same bandit, seeing her, took her out as well. She landed next to Duck, blood pooling under her head from the bullet hole.
Alex stopped dead and fell to his knees, watching the blood pore from the holes in their bodies. He felt as if he couldn't move, no matter how much he tried. Its my fault...its all my fault.
Kenny turned to see how they were doing when he saw them, lying on the ground. With a roar of rage and despair, he charged out from cover, running past Alex, and began to shoot at the bandits, paying no attention to his own safety, but only trying to inflict as much death on them as possible. He shoots his wife's killer first, and running forward, began shooting at anything that moved.
By then, everyone else had noticed what had happened, and a sense of rage overcame them as well, causing them to shoot at them with more ferocity. The bandits, realizing that they had lost the element of surprise, began to retreat, running for their lives as Kenny took off after them, following them into the woods.
Lee, seeing that the bandits were gone, hurried to the Katjaa and Duck, checking on them before beginning to give out commands.
"Lilly, go close the gates." Instead of arguing about who was in charge, she simply nodded in response to Lee's request, and headed off toward the gates.
"Ben." Ben peeked his head from the RV. "Go watch Clem and try to keep her from seeing them." Ben, looking to see what he meant, gasped when he saw Duck and Katjaa lying on the ground, and hurried off, probably so he wouldn't have to see them.
"Alex, are you okay?" He looked up from the corpses of his friends to see Carley standing over him, looking worried. "You're not wounded, are you?
"Its my fault..." Alex started, returning his gaze back to them. "If I had been quicker, or seen them sooner..."
"Hey, you can't talk like that," Carley retorted, kneeling beside and pulling him into an embrace. "If you think about what you might have done, then they would have died in vain. What we need to do, is remember how this happened, so that we will make sure it will never happen again."
While Alex disagreed, feeling as if he had done what he wanted to earlier, finding and killing the bandits in their base, this wouldn't have happened, but to make her feel better, he forced a smile and nodded. She smiled back before getting up and heading over to Lee, who was drapping a sheet over Katjaa. Alex, forcing himself up, walked over and stood next to them, as they looked down at Duck. They stood quietly for a moment, as if reflecting on what had happened, or remembering the good times, before Lee spoke.
"We need to make sure that he doesn't come back," Lee said, emotion thick in his voice.
Carley looked at him in surprise. "Lee, he's just a kid."
"Yeah," he replied, "but he still will be a threat when he turns."
"I'll do it..." The three of them turned to see that Kenny had returned. Blood, leaves and dirt covered his body and his face seemed to have been attacked by a cat from the number of scratches on it. It was obvious that his previous gunshot wound was bothering as he walked up, but he seemed to be dealing with it.
"Are you sure Kenny?" Lee asked, worry covering his face.
"Yeah..." Kenny murmured, trying to sound sure, as a few tears began to fall from his eyes. "I mean, I just managed to kill a whole bandit camp, so I can probably manage to put down my dead son."
The rest of the group stood silent, in either shock or awe, as Kenny limped to the body of his son, picked it up, and headed toward the gates. Alex could tell that Kenny was going through a lot of pain and emotion right now. Its something I can relate too, he thought, as he watched him exit through the gates.
Lee and Carley quietly headed off, either to check on Clementine or clean up the mess, while Alex walked over and slumped down against the RV. Even though he had seen people die before, he thought he was used to it, but instead, tears began flowing down his face. Guess there is no getting used to it...
And, even though he knew it was coming, Alex couldn't help himself from jumping when the single gunshot rang out, following by the wail of someone losing someone very close to them.
Thanks for reading! Also, if any of you are actually keeping up with this, it will take me a little longer to update chapters. So, expect a week, maybe more for each update. And once again, thanks for reading!