"Goddammit!" Kenny shouted, as he kicked the metal frame of what used to be a boat, before slamming shut the door to the fifteenth boat shed of that day. Alex just rolled his eyes, knowing that it was just going to get worse before it got better. If he keeps this up, I will gladly let some biter eat me…but not before it gets him.
Alex felt as though the last few days had lasted forever; while it had only been a week since they left Lilly at the Motor Inn, 6 days since the group at lost Carley, and only 4 days since Alex had last seen Chuck alive, it felt as though it had been a lifetime ago. That, and having Kenny talking about nothing except for the boat that was going to save them, made it very difficult for Alex to focus upon Kenny's search for the illusive, miracle boat. No matter where they looked, all the group could find were the skeletal remains of what used to be boats, stripped of anything of that could be useful, or just empty and with each failure to find the boat, Kenny got just more and more angry; that, mixed with the lack of sleep, was probably driving the man to the point of insanity.
The other thing was, Alex wasn't sure how well the group was doing in general; based upon everything that he had seen, it seemed that everyone was dealing with something, and a lot of nerves were on edge, causing them to act different than normal. Lee seemed sure that someone was out to get Clementine, and made sure that the girl was never far away from him, even if that meant that he didn't leave the house the group had set up as home base; Clementine, on the other hand, seemed to be drawing away from the rest of the group and into herself, staring at the walkie-talkie that Lee wouldn't let go of whenever she thought no one was looking; and Ben…Ben's guilt seemed to be driving him to attempt to tell Kenny what happened, and it was only through Alex making sure that Ben wasn't alone with the redneck had managed to keep the teen alive. Then, add the massive amount of biters in the city, the weird messages coming the walkie-talkie for Clementine, the random bells ringing around the city, the creepy signs spray painted on doors, and the horrifying pile of corpses on at certain points around the city, it was no wonder the group was acting crazy.
On this most recent expedition to try and find the boat, Kenny had decided to check a grouping of boat sheds that were a fair distance away from where the group was staying, forcing Kenny and Alex to leave early in the morning and spend most of it dodging random hordes of walkers. Once they actually reached the sheds, it was obvious that most of them had already been searched, looted, and stripped, but that didn't stop Kenny from searching each and every one, just getting more and more upset after each failure.
"Kenny, maybe you should try and keep your voice down. Remember, this city is infested, in case you forgot when you forced me to leave Chuck to fight the horde alone?" Alex reminded the man sarcastically, as the redneck stomped down the sidewalk, barely even paying attention to his surroundings, forcing Alex to take even more care in trying to watch out for both them, each alleyway and shadow looking more and more ominous.
After the way that he just left Chuck to die, without any thought or remorse, I realized that he has gone farther downhill than I had originally thought, Alex thought, as Kenny just walked straight for the next door, as if it was the only thing keeping him alive, forcing Alex to stay close behind, pistol in hand. This isn't the same man that I met more than three months ago when I was saved by this group; this is a man who is so driven by his obsession of finding a boat that he might just might just lose it if he doesn't find one soon.
"As long as we find the boat, we're saved…" Alex heard the man mumble either to Alex or himself, he wasn't sure, as the man continued walking toward the next shed.
"What makes you think this is the one? For the last three days, we've been looking for your miracle boat, and all we've managed to find was a shit ton of walkers!" Alex nearly shouted, trying to keep his voice down. "Either this is the one, or we need to go back to the group and figure out something else, before you get this whole group killed!"
"This is the one…this has to be the one," Alex heard Kenny mutter to himself, as if he hadn't heard Alex at all.
Alex sighed to himself, as he attempted to keep his anger down, as he followed the man to the next shed, which looked like all the others, except that the door was blocked by a few garbage cans, which Alex thought was a little strange, but instead focused on helping Kenny move them out of the way. As soon as they had all been moved, Kenny grabbed the handle to the door and tried to turn, only for it remain where it was. He tried it again, and when he got the same result, a small smile broke across his worn face.
"Door's locked."
As Kenny reached into his pocked and pulled out a lock picking kit, Alex felt his anger recede slightly and a similar smile break across his face as well. This was the first one that we've found that has a locked door on one of these things; most of them had the door either barely handing on its hinges, smashed in, or just missing entirely, but this, this could be what Kenny's been looking for.
The redneck attempted to pick the lock, but after a few minutes of multiple failures, and a large amount of swearing, the smile was once again gone from his face and was replaced with the rage that Alex was used to seeing.
"Kenny, move over and let me try," Alex said, gesturing for the man to move, before the redneck tried to do something stupid. Kenny simply glared at him for a moment, as not quite sure to believe the teen, before handing over the equipment, stepping away from the door, and turning his attention to the road, though it still seemed as if the door held most of his attention.
While Alex knew how to pick locks, it had been awhile since he had done it. The last time I needed to pick a lock was when I was sneaking back into my house and I forgot my key and that was over a year ago; luckily, Dad never set the alarm or else that would have been that. As thoughts of his dad suddenly came flooding into his mind, Alex pushed them away and kept working on the lock, turning the pick this way and that, attempting to get the right angle. And…there we go.
With a final turn, both Alex and Kenny heard the click of lock, causing Kenny to shove Alex out of the way and throw open the door. He stood there for a moment, before slowly walking in, as if in a trance. Alex followed him in, fearing for the worst, only to see…a boat, that looked basically brand new, as if some rich asshole had decided to buy one, just because he could, took it out once, put it back in the shed, and forgot all about it. Thank God for whoever that person was.
"This is it!" Kenny shouted, looking much more like his old self, as the man began checking over the boat, verifying that it really was going to work. "Engine looks good...got oil and gas...battery checks out...we could leave today..."
"But only after we get the rest of the group," Alex reminded him, only to get silence as an answer. Alex started to repeat himself, but stopped himself when he saw the look on his face. "You weren't going to get the rest of the group, were you?"
The redneck sighed. "Alex, its not that..."
"No, of course it's not that; you're just watching out for yourself, right? Why would the rest of the group matter to you?" Alex shouted at the man, not giving a shit about whether or not there was anyone that could hear. "This time, just like every other time, you were only looking out for yourself-"
"This time?! This time?!" Kenny interrupted, looking at Alex with a mix of defeat and madness. "The entire time, I've been looking out for the group, and look at it got me: My wife is dead, and my son...I had to shoot his fucking face to make sure he didn't come back as one of THINGS! Whenever I hoped that someone would come help, whenever someone promised to help us, I was let down. Well, that is not happening again! Not this time!'
Kenny pulled his gun out and pointed it at Alex, to which the teen did the same; each one of them eying one another, not sure if one was going to give. I don't want to shoot the him; I mean, I'm still pissed about what he did to Chuck and what might happen if we keep him with us, but he did lose his family...
"Is this what Katjaa would have wanted?" Alex asked suddenly, causing Kenny to take a sharp breath. "Or Duck? Is this what they have you wanted you to do? To abandon the group that you've helped so much? To betray the trust that we placed in you?"
With each question, Kenny seemed to appear to be less sure of himself, the gun shaking in his hand, just Alex to keep going.
"And what about Clementine? You make think that the rest of the group let you down, but do you really think that little girl had anything to do with that? Do you want to make her pay for the mistakes of others? I thought you were a better man, Kenny, but hey, I've been wrong before."
Kenny's gun clattered to the floor, as the man fell to his knees, staring down at the ground. Alex holstered his own, and as he turned and started to leave, he stopped to look back at the man whom he once considered his friend.
"Kenny, I'm going to go get the rest of the group; if we come back, and your still here, then I know that you are the man that I've always thought you were; however, if we come back, and the boat is gone, then I will know that you've betrayed us and the next time I see you, I won't hesitate to kill you."
And with that, Alex headed toward house, hoping to God that everything would turn out alright.
"Hello? Is anyone here?" Alex called out as he attempted to locate anyone in the house. After a few hours of dodging walkers and expecting to find people, only top find an empty house, Alex felt that with each passing second, that something bad had happened. Not too mention, the footsteps I kept hearing the entire way here.
Alex had just pulled out his gun and was about go check outside in the backyard, when he heard the front door get thrown open and then slammed shut. He ran to go check out what happening, only to find Lee and Ben, panting and sweating.
"What happened?" Alex asked, as hurried over to help push a table in the way of the door. Lee gestured for him to be quiet, as Alex began to hear about moans coming through the door. When they walkers began to slam against it, Lee motioned for them to grab what they could and head out the backyard. Alex quickly did what he could, and just as he was about finished, he heard the front door start breaking down, forcing him and the rest of the group to hurry out the back and over the wall.
After a few minutes of hurrying down the street, and making sure that there weren't any biters, Alex finally turned toward Ben and Lee, and asked the question that was bothering him:
"Where is Clementine?"
Lee looked downcast as he reached into his bag and pulled out Clementine's hat, the one that Alex knew that she would never part with and felt as if his heart stopped for a moment. Oh God, not her too.
At the look of shock on Alex's face, Lee explained."While I took a short nap, and Ben was supposed to be watching her," he said, with a glare shot in the teen's direction, who looked away ashamed, "Clementine was kidnapped by the guy that we heard on the radio. When we went to go get her, we ran into a bunch of walkers, forcing us back to the house, where we ran into you. Don't worry, we will get her back; I promise."
"Wait, how do we know it was the guy on the radio?" Alex asked as they continued on their way, making sure to watch out for any walkers.
"The only things that I could find when I went looking for Clementine was her hat and the radio, and soon after, the guy came over the walkie-talkie and told me that he had Clem; even made her talk to me, just to make sure that I understood what he was willing to do."
"Alright, so...where are we going?"
"The Marsh House. Clem mentioned it a few times whenever she spoke of her parents, and when the guy kept mentioning her parents, it all sort of clicked together."
"Hey Alex..."
Alex glanced back to Ben, who was trailing behind him and Lee.
"Where's Kenny? I thought you and him went to go look for a boat..."
Alex thought for a moment, trying to come up with a suitable answer for the teen. "Well...Kenny and I managed to find a boat that actually works, and Kenny is...guarding it for us, so we can make our escape after we rescue Clementine."
"Oh, okay."
Hopefully that is true, Alex thought, as the group turned the corner, only to see a massive horde ahead. Quickly turning back, Alex saw the way the came had been blocked off be a different horde, that was slowly making its way toward them. Making a split decision, Alex motioned to a door next to them, and they ran inside, leading them to an upstairs office. Lee walked over to a window and looked out, before turning back to the teens.
"Alright, we will take a moment to see if those walkers will go on their way; until then, we take it easy and see if we can find anything of use."
Alex looked around and all he saw was an office that might have once been decent, but either due to how the room looked as if it had been tossed, or due to the amount of dust on everything, he had little hope of finding anything of value. Alex glanced over at Ben, sitting dejectedly on a rickety looking chair,who seemed to be on the verge of shutting down and not doing anything, while Lee looked as if he was a dog trapped in a cage, pacing in front of one of the windows and glancing out onto the street, as if staring at the massive horde below would make it go away. Not that I blame him; if I had someone that close to me, I would probably be doing the same thing, though he does seem to be looking kind of sickly...and that bandage on his left arm is new...
"Lee, what happened to your arm?"
Lee glanced down at it, before turning his attention back out the window. "It's nothing important..."
Alex glared at Lee, feeling as though something was off. "Lee. What. Happened. To. Your. Arm?"
The man sighed, and began to unwrap his bandage, until it dropped to the floor. He slowly turned so Alex could see it and the teen gasped, taking a step back as he tried to register what he was seeing.
"You're fucking bit..."
AN: I'm baaaaaaaack! Yes, after a long time away, I, your glorious writer have returned to try and finish this before the end of summer. (I'm actually hoping more like a week or two, but we've seen the track record with that.) Anyway, sorry for the long wait, and just to let you know, this story is going to probably be finished in two or three chapters, so there's something to look forward to. Also, I will be continuing on to Season Two, so there's something you can look forward to.
Another note: The great leafs nation and I are co-writing a story called An Unlikely Alliance (co-written by spiderclone51), which is a mix of the Walking Dead and Life is Strange, so go check that out if you're interested.
And finally, please don't hesitate to PM or review if you have anything constructive to say, or just want to be nice; and, if you really like this story, you can follow or favorite, if you want to. Sooooooooooo...thanks again, and sorry for the wait.