AN: Well, I was certainly not expecting the amount of feedback that I got last chapter! Thank you guys so much – in total, you guys gave me about eleven OCs (including some through private messaging).
So, because there are so many characters here, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not going to introduce all of the characters at the same time, because I want to develop your guys' OCs and it wouldn't be fair to just randomly throw them all together. So I'm going to pick a handful at random, focus on them for a little bit, and then move onto the next batch – geez, it sounds like I'm baking cookies or something.
Oh and for the question about Joel… I dunno yet. We'll see ;)
And thank you for finally working, Fanfiction! Glad to see that whatever problems there were just got fixed – I hope.
Jane's POV
"Can you take her?" I ask, holding out the sleeping child in my arms as Lilly watches me against the wall. "Please?"
"Nope – it's a lot more fun watching you struggle for a change!"
"Fuck off, Lilly! Seriously!" I exclaim as I insist that she take Ellie away from me. When she just shakes her head, I let out and audible groan of annoyance. "Come on, Lil! You know I'm complete shit with kids! Just take her off my hands for a little while – I'll make it worth your while somehow, I promise!"
Scoffing, Lilly rolls her eyes as she folds her arms across her chest. She's seriously pissing me off right now… "I'm not so sure you've got anything that'd be worth the trade-off here," she says coyly with a smirk. "Besides, you're doing a good enough job on your own, and what makes you think that I'd be able to do any better?"
Sighing in defeat, I bounce the child on my hip until I get Ellie into a more comfortable position. It was actually kind of scary watching her rush up to me like that; tears burning her eyes and looking as if she just lost her very best friend – which she actually did, so that explains quite a lot.
I'm actually kind of surprised though that she came to me first. It could've just been because I was the first person (besides Clem, of course) that she saw, but you'd have thought that she would've gone straight to James or Bo – somebody that she actually knows a little bit.
…shut up. I'm not going soft, so don't start calling me that, alright? It's bad enough getting that shit from Mrs. Caul over here.
Damn… Mrs. Caul… That's still going to take a while to kick in.
"Out like a light, huh?" Lilly comments as she gestures to the red-headed bundle in my arms.
Nodding as she squirms around a little bit, I watch as Lilly finally walks over to me and takes Ellie out of my hands. Thank god, too – I'm pretty sure I would've ended up dropping the kid on the floor at that rate.
"Did she tell you anything? Anything about…?"
"I couldn't get a whole lot out of her – too frazzled," I admit, curious as to why Clementine gave her the poncho she had been wearing this whole time. It's not as if Texas is really cold, or anything. "Just that Riley was gone and that she felt scared and alone. I'm guessing Clem must've found her first."
When Lilly's face hardens a little bit and she frowns while slowly glancing to the floor, I raise an eyebrow in curiosity.
"What's up?"
Not answering me immediately, Lilly frowns deeply as I follow her gaze into the board room; watching as Clementine goes over some plans with the rest of their small group. "She's being too stubborn for her own good," Lilly remarks with scorn. "I tried asking her if she was alright, and she just blew up in my fucking face. Just flat-out stone-walled me when I told her to take it easy and get some time to grieve. I think the power might be going to her head already…"
"Lilly," I tell her with a laugh, "she's twelve!"
"So? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Think about it," I tell her smugly, finding it funny how she wouldn't realize what's probably going on here. "What starts to happen with kids her age around this time? We've all been through it – the moodiness, the wanting to be independent and figure things out yourself."
"…are you telling me that Clem's pregnant or something?"
"No, you dolt! Puberty!" I exclaim, practically smacking my forehead at the mere suggestion of that girl having a kid inside of her at twelve. "Girls mature faster than boys do, remember? So it'd kind of make sense why she'd be angry at you for something like that – just give her some time. I wouldn't be surprised if the puberty thing already started a while back with everything that's been going on already."
Giving up on carrying her and setting Ellie down on the floor, Lilly wipes her hands off on her jeans as she tries to wrap her head around it. Seriously, how is she not understanding this?
"Weren't you a kid before, too?" I ask with a joking smirk. "Or were you born at like fifty years old or something and are just working your way down?"
"Jane, this isn't normal – I've never seen her this way before! Puberty doesn't just suddenly kick in at one moment!" Lilly emphasizes, sliding down the wall as she too sits on the tiled floor. "I mean… fuck! It's not as if we're strangers, for crying out loud! I thought we were past this sort of shit already! Why can't you back me on this?"
"Because you're overreacting!"
"Yeah? Well I don't think that you're reacting enough! Jesus, Jane! What if this gets out of hand, huh?!"
"It will if you don't cool your god damn jets, Lilly!" I end up shouting; losing my cool as I glare at the woman with slight intimidation. Once the words leave my mouth, however, I restrain myself from spewing out anymore. I don't mean to yell at her, but sometimes it… it just happens, you know? I lose my cool sometimes the same way that she does, and I end up saying things that I usually regret afterwards.
Or even do things that I regret later, such as leaving AJ in the car while telling Kenny that… yeah, you get the idea.
"…are we having a fight?" Lilly mumbles, not looking inclined to continue this pointless banter either.
Sliding down beside the slightly older woman, I shrug my shoulders while letting out a huge sigh. "Yeah, I guess we are…" I admit, not feeling that ashamed to say it like it is. "Heh… I suppose it was bound to happen eventually, right? We used to fight all the time when we first met."
"Those were the days," Lilly remarks with a smirk, getting a playful shove from me. "Travelling the countryside, biting each other's heads off until Clem had to calm us down… How the fuck did we not kill each other back then?"
"We tried our best, remember? We got pretty close a few times," I mention, getting a bitter laugh out of my partner in crime. "Hell… if that shit starts up again, then I want a divorce."
"Don't tell me that you're having second thoughts already!"
"Come on, Lilly – let's be honest here," I tell her with a grin, "by the time that we end up hating each other's guts again, it won't even matter. We'll both probably be dead by that point anyways. So no need to worry – we're stuck with each other."
"Way to be optimistic, Jane…"
As the door to the board room creaks open and Tommy beckons for us to all come inside, I put a careful hand on Lilly's shoulder as she motions to wake Ellie up once again.
"We do need to make sure that Clem's alright… but there's a fine line that we can't cross here," I mention, standing up as I see Clementine hunched over a map with tired eyes. "She'll come to us when she's ready, okay? I don't want to lose her either, but forcing ourselves into her life is just gonna make shit worse. You hear me?"
Noting her hesitation, I try to analyze Lilly's face to get a good sense of what she might be thinking, but this woman's tough to decipher sometimes. If she doesn't want you to find out about something, then there's almost nothing that you can do to change her mind.
She's practically a locked vault when it comes to secrets, and I can tell that she's harboring some – even from me.
"Yeah," she mentions finally, not looking at me in the eyes, "I get it. Nothing to worry about."
Watching her stroll off into the room with all of those other people kind of hurts me. I thought we were friends and partners for life? What happened to not holding anything back and just being ourselves? What happened to making it easier on each other and just being able to talk without having anything to hide?
Looking down at my busted and mangled hand, I sigh as I realize that I might be just as guilty of that crime as she is. I still haven't said a word to anybody about stabbing Lorna to a bloody paste; letting that rage engulf me until I felt a sickening satisfaction with my handiwork. I still can't believe that I allowed myself to dwell at that level of hatred and loathing… it's haunted me ever since it happened a couple nights ago.
"Come on, kid," I sigh, trying to ignore that aching in my hand as I slowly pull Ellie to her feet. "Might as well see what they want."
Clem's POV
Well, this is it. The map's been laid out, the plans have been drawn up, and the troops are assembled – okay, we only have a handful of group members, but still. Armed and very dangerous, the five of us (minus Tommy and Ellie, who ended up staying behind to cover the base of operations) are out in the streets of Houston; in a new area of the city which we haven't really explored much of recently. Bo and James know the region a little bit, but even they are in the dark on what might be living around here.
Or, more importantly, who might be living around here. That's the main goal for right now – gather supplies, scout out the surrounding area, and get more people to join our community. I refuse to believe that this is some kind of army, and I won't let it come to that. Just because I'm the group-imposed "leader" doesn't mean that I'm ruling over everyone with an iron fist.
Imagine how stupid that would be if a twelve year old just started bossing everyone around! No, regardless of my position, we make these choices as a group. I just usually have the final say.
James at first seemed very weary and reluctant of my decision-making abilities, but thankfully he hasn't started to criticize anything just yet.
In time, maybe he'll come to respect me, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point. Not since Debbie got killed.
Speaking of which, I glance at the back of Lilly's head every so often as we move forward. I feel kinda bad for yelling at her like that, but what business is it of hers anyway?! Damn it! It's bad enough that I'm trying to hide this massive secret from everybody, but then she has to go prying into why I'm acting this way?!
…maybe I just need to divert her attention elsewhere.
"So why the hell are we going to this place again? What is it, some kind of grocery store?" Jane asks with skepticism as she wipes the sweat off her brow. It's kind of a crappy day to be doing this sort of thing, but it's still better than going out in the rain.
Sure wish that we had a giant fan or something, though.
"We need to eat, don't we?" I ask bluntly as we cross the narrow street. "There's not a whole bunch of food left back at the camp – maybe we could bring something back."
"Yeah… like a big, juicy steak, preferably," Bo mentions as he licks his lips humorously. "Damn… I shouldn't bring up food like that. I'm going nuts just thinking about it… but god damn, steak…"
Wrecked cars have been left haphazardly on the sidewalk; with a few having crashed into telephone poles and gotten crushed under the massive weight. You really don't realize how heavy those things actually are until they fall over, but the guy in the driver's seat certainly did. There's a wooden pole where his head should be, and I wince slightly as I see the dried blood painted out underneath.
"Come on," Jane encourages, turning me away from the gruesome scene as we come across a rather large, overturned transport truck flipped over onto its side. "We should probably check this thing out. Never know what could be inside."
"Let's get it open, then," I say, pulling out my pistol as Bo and Lilly grasp onto the door handles. As much as I'd like to think that I can do this kind of stuff on my own, my physical size says otherwise. I'm just too small.
As Bo pulls some sort of latch upwards with a whole lot of force, Lilly tries to open up her door as the metal screeches and blasts against our eardrums.
"Fucking… heavy…" she remarks, causing the rest of us to grasp onto the door to help her out. If the truck was upright, this would be a hell of a lot easier to break into, but thankfully as a team we manage to open the back of the truck.
We end up getting quite a lot more than we bargained for.
"Jesus…" Jane remarks, stepping inside as she inspects the various bags and cans and whatnot. "There's enough here for everyone six times over! Look at all this shit! Corn, beans, pears, peaches… How the hell are we gonna carry all of this back?"
Bo, climbing aboard as I pull myself up the ledge, lightly nudges one of the grocery bags until it shows the logo of the store we were heading towards. "I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth," he states, holding a can to inspect it, "but this right here is a gold mine. There's actually too much in here for us to just stumble upon."
"What do you mean, Bo?" James asks as I finally clue in to what he might be talking about.
"He's saying we might not be alone…" I acknowledge quietly, poking my head out and groaning as, sure enough, a couple of guys with pistols pop out from their hiding spots and aim their weapons at us.
Seeing no other choice, I raise my hands in surrender and encourage my posse to do the same.
"Easy," I tell them; glancing at two of them with caution. The two of them both look to be in their late teens, but they both seem very dangerous and ready to fire at will. "We don't want any trouble here… We were just out looking for food. Is this yours?"
"You'd better believe it – that's our truck, too, and you're standing right in it," the boy replies, holding his gun close to my head as he motions for all of us to get out. "On the ground, outside, right fucking now. Hurry up, or I put a bullet right between your eyes."
Keeping my cool, I nod as I look back to my companions; practically begging them to do the same. I don't really feel like getting shot today, thank you very much.
The boy's got a dark green sweater on, has light brown hair and dark brown eyes. On his back sits a machete that looks rather worn-down, reminding me slightly of Luke, but the face just screams Carlos and Sarah. He's got a kind of Hispanic vibe about him, and I shrug off his grip as he tries to hold onto me.
"Don't," I snarl lowly, not wanting to resort to violence but am still willing if it comes down to it. When he aims his pistol warningly towards me, I straighten up a little bit and step back. "Just… look, it doesn't have to be this way. We can leave the stuff here, and just be on our way."
"Elliot," the girl with him shrugs, "maybe she's got a bit of a point. They haven't actually taken anything yet – maybe we should just…"
"And do what, Nikita? Huh? Do you wanna be the one to tell Racheal the news about some group out wandering the streets, or should I?" Elliot questions, causing the girl's gaze to lower a bit. "It's just… fuck, we can't take the risk, alright? We'd get skinned alive if they found out we just let them all go! We can just shoot them all and be done with it – loot the bodies and take it back to camp!"
"You pull that trigger," Lilly warns, getting backed up by Jane and Bo as they all glower at the kid, "and you and your little girlfriend over here are both gonna end up dead. This is your last warning – walk away and let us go. I'm not gonna ask you again."
Feeling threatened, Elliot grabs onto me from behind my back and aims his pistol straight against my temple. Knowing fully well that this is gonna go south quickly if somebody doesn't do something quickly, I try another tactic.
Hopefully this one doesn't involve me having my brains splattered all over the concrete.
"Jesus, Elliot! What the hell are you doing?!" Nikita gasps, glancing back between me and her friend with vigor. "She's – she's just a damn kid, for god's sakes! This isn't how we do things – this shit isn't us!"
"It is if we want to live!" Elliot barks back, glaring as Lilly and Jane aim their guns directly at the new girl. James is kind of just watching the whole thing unfold, while Bo doesn't really know what to do in this situation.
Realizing that it's now or never, I try to come up with an excuse that'll keep everyone from pulling the trigger.
"We've got a shelter!" I explain loudly, trying to get the girl's attention as I make eye contact with her. "It can't be safe out here for you guys, right?! Not with the walkers around! Let me talk to your people, and we can work out some kind of deal! Nobody needs to fire a single shot!"
Managing to capture her interest a little bit, the girl looks over to Elliot with pleading eyes; partly because they probably need a new place to stay, but also because Lilly and Jane are about five seconds away from shooting her up like swiss cheese.
Thinking that he might just take me away regardless, I inwardly sigh in relief as his grip on me loosens and he puts his gun back into his pocket. "If this is some kind of fucked up joke, then I swear…"
"It's not – honest," I reassure, stepping back towards my people as they reluctantly lower their guns. They're not going to just put them away, but luckily this hasn't turned into yet another firefight. "We're making a community out here, and we were just looking for people to join up. That's it – we didn't want to rob you or anything."
"Could've fooled me," Elliot shakes his head. "Nikita? You alright? No bruises or cuts or anything from these assholes?"
"Watch it, jackass…" Lilly murmurs, but fortunately putting a muzzle on it after Elliot stares her down.
Seeing that the situation has simmered down a little bit, I look over to Bo for some guidance on what we should do next. Nodding, the older man steps forward in order to begin delegations.
Lilly and Jane give me a look that tells me how much they dislike this idea, but I can't back out on this now. Telling these two that we'd make a deal is what kept them from pulling the trigger in the first place, so that's what I'm gonna do.
"…and we're always looking for new recruits," Bo trails off, causing me to worry a little bit. Yeah, sure we need more people in our fold, but to ask a couple of strangers who almost tried to kill us a few seconds ago to join up seems a little… extreme. "Just let us talk to your people – maybe we could come to some kind of arrangement."
As Elliot and Bo converse some more, Nikita glances up and hears James rustling around through the grocery bags back in the truck. How he managed to get back in there without anyone noticing is beyond me, but the girl certainly doesn't look too happy about it. "Hey, you – Nutty Professor! Nobody said you could go through our stuff s'more! Quit rummaging around back there!"
Crushing a can in his hands angrily, James tosses a grocery bag against the wall as the contents spill and roll about the floor of the transport truck.
Or at least, the empty cans of what used to be food.
"You were fucking with us!" James accuses, tossing a can at Nikita's feet as he stomps out to yell at the lying little bastards. "Where's the actual food, you lying shitheads?! Oh, let me guess – you ate it all and left the fucking scraps to lead people here to their deaths! Fess up! You wanted to kidnap us and force us to do your bidding!"
"Hmph… looks like they got more than they bargained for then," Jane remarks, for once not disagreeing with what the mad doctor has to say this time around. "I've had enough of prison camps for one lifetime, thanks."
Shrugging his shoulders, Elliot tries to explain himself to the group of angry, pissed off survivors.
"We don't do it all the time – just when we need to get shit done around the store," he tells us, not going into more detail than that. "But like you said before: nobody needs to get hurt. We'll play ball if you do, you feel me?"
Diffusing the time bomb that is James, Bo steps in front of him as he tries to settle this arrangement once and for all. "Fine – how's about this? We bring two people back with you to your group, meet with whoever's in charge, and try to figure something out?"
Looking over at the guy she's with, Nikita nods her head as she forces me to stay out in front along with the rest of our group. Clearly they don't trust us enough to be sure that we won't just gun the both of them down when their backs are turned, and you know what? They'd be totally right – I can't speak for everyone here. Spirits and tensions among our numbers have been high recently, and it's already taken a load of convincing for the two sides (Jane, Lilly and Tommy vs. Bo and James) to not murder each other in their sleep.
So you can imagine how pleased everyone is to be forced to deal with even more strangers like this.
"Clem…" Lilly whispers to me, appearing at my side as I look up at her. "Are you sure about this? I mean, these guys seem like trouble to me… And we haven't exactly had a great history with big groups. I know it's too late to back out, but should we even try to deal with them?"
"Well… I think it might be a good idea," I tell her, glad to see that our little incident beforehand has been temporarily forgotten. "We need more people on our side. Maybe they're not complete assholes… Just a little bit, umm… assholish."
I notice the hesitation and slight doubt in her eyes, but she nods regardless. We've learned to trust each other's judgement over the past year or so, and we've developed a level of trust that I never would've thought possible beforehand – least of all with Lilly.
And it kind of worries me what's going to happen if she finds out that Ellie is…
"Fuck! We've got roamers up ahead," Bo announces, pointing to a group of ten of them or so heading straight towards us. I was starting to wonder why we hadn't encountered very many on the way over here, but now I'm starting to wish that it had stayed that way. "Is there any other way to get to this place?!"
"No, it's a straight shot through to the grocery store," Nikita shakes her head, confirming my suspicions that that's where these folks were stationed. She goes to pull out her gun, but Elliot stops her as he places his hand over her arm.
"Let these guys take 'em out. Show their worth," he says, laying back a ways behind with a smug look that makes me want to tear his face off. "You folks deal with this mess, we'll deal with you and give you a handful of food to take back. Our treat."
"You son of a bitch!" Lilly snaps; gunning down two of the walkers as she sharply glares at the little shit stain. "I'll wring your head out if we make it through this! Quit being such a cocky prick and help!"
Sitting back with an neutral expression, I try to focus on the growing threat that's surrounding us right now. We're all pretty much seasoned professionals at this by now, but we try not to take any chances with these guys.
"Clem!" Jane hollers at me, causing me to turn around as she tosses a screwdriver my way. "Save the bullets! And don't forget – go for the knees!"
Nodding, I glance up at an approaching walker with determination, but also a little fright. You never fully get used to seeing dead corpses wandering around trying to eat you, but you never forget how to put them down and send them back to whatever hell they spawned from.
Maneuvering around the beast, I kick it as hard as I can in the knee as the thing takes a bit of a tumble. However, it doesn't fall flat on its face like I expected it to; instead grabbing my leg as I struggle to squirm out of its grasp.
BAM!
"NIKITA! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"
"BEING A FUCKING HUMAN BEING, ELLIOT!" she bites back; saving my sorry ass by shooting the walker's arm clean off. I manage to finish the job as I stab the monster in the head, but man was that close! "YOU'RE BETTER THAN THIS! GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS AND LET ME HELP THEM!"
"We don't need it," Jane remarks snarkily, stabbing the last walker with her hunting knife as she helps me to my feet. "You alright, Clem?"
Gasping for air, I manage to nod as the air re-enters my lungs. "Y-yeah… just a bit winded…" I tell her, rubbing my eyes as I try to regain my balance. No doubt my clumsiness is from staying up all night with the kids, and I make a mental note to never do that willingly ever again. It nearly cost me my life. "Is everyone else… cool?"
While most of the people nod, nobody suspects a thing as James quickly and quietly goes around the side, pulls out his own gun and bashes Elliot right across the face with it; sending the kid down to the ground as he gets ready to take the shot.
The bullet whizzes right past his ear into the ground as the guy sits there with a huge, bloody gash going across his face. If not for Lilly tackling James to the side, then the teen would more than likely be dead at this point.
Nikita looks less than amused, but Bo steps up to try and calm everyone's anxieties.
"Get off me, you fucking…!" James bites, probably not used to getting held back by a strong woman like Lilly before. The brown-haired lady knees him right where it hurts as she snatches his gun and tosses it to the side. The doctor groans in pain as he quickly doubles over.
"Get a fucking hold of yourself!" Lilly barks, smacking him across the face as his glasses fall to the ground beside him. "I'm pissed too, but trying to kill him is just gonna make shit hit the fan even faster! Is that what you want?!"
Spitting right in her face, Lilly wipes the man's saliva off of her cheek before socking the man multiple times in the head.
With nobody to stop her besides Bo (because nobody else really wants her to cease beating on him), Lilly roughly grabs James by the collar and snarls venomously. "You done now or what?!" she bellows as blood drips down his chin. When she finally drops the man back to the ground, he fumbles around for his glasses and painfully places them back on; glaring heavily at me for some reason.
"If your own people treat me like this," he snarls, "then you can pretty much consider our partnership over, Clementine! She's gone, or you're all gone!"
Glancing over at Bo, he rolls his eyes before shaking his head – I don't have anything to worry about on that front. He may be the only doctor we have in the group right now, but majority rules in this group. We're a democracy.
At least for now, anyways.
As tensions flare once again with Elliot standing up and threatening to shoot up our entire group, we're suddenly interrupted by a shrill whistle than causes all of us to cringe at the noise.
"STOP IT! EVERYONE, THAT'S ENOUGH!"
Turning to look at the new voice, Jane eyes her wearily as I stand there with a skeptical stare. How many of these people are there?!
"Who the hell are you?" Jane demands, keeping a firm grip on her knife just in case this all goes to shit.
"She's with us," Nikita points out, forcing Elliot to step back as she pushes him behind her. "Emily, what the hell? We told you we'd handle it ourselves!"
"Oh, and you sure did a mighty fine job of that now, didn't you?" she remarks, rolling her eyes as she tries to help clean some of the blood off of Elliot's face. When he stubbornly swats her hand away, the girl sighs and shakes her head. "I can't help you if you won't let me! Can't you go one day without getting into a scrap? Honestly, just one day, and then I could die happily!"
Clearing my throat, I try getting their undivided attention as these three weirdoes continue to chat amongst themselves; almost lost in their own little world and acting as if we're not even there. "Umm… hello? Are you listening?"
"HEY! We're talking to you!" Lilly yells, getting an appreciative nod from me as they finally turn to our direction. Clearly I need to work on that sort of thing.
With a grunt, Emily stands and steps forwards towards us. "Mind telling me what you're doing around here? This here is our territory," she explains, causing Jane to chuckle slightly. "Something funny over there?"
"You don't own a whole fucking area – didn't you hear? The apocalypse came to town!" she remarks. "Your people ambushed us and held us against our will, and now you come over here all high and mighty? You folks have got a whole lot of nerve, don't you?"
"Jane, I've got this…" I tell her, trying to remind her about that whole needing more people thing that everyone seems to keep forgetting. "How about we try this again? I'm Clementine – that's Jane, Lilly and Bo. The guy with the broken nose is James…"
Seeing the man like this, all bloody and bruised, makes him seem like one of the dead that we just put down a little while ago. James has got so much anger in him nowadays – it's getting kind of over-bearing with all of these outbursts that he's having. What the hell happened to the kind, sensitive guy that welcomed me to the space center a while back?
Studying me for a moment, Emily looks around to see if we're all being serious. I don't exactly blame her – seeing a twelve year old kid as the person speaking for all of them is a little odd.
Once she's certain that I'm actually the person to talk to, she stares down at me with a doubtful look. "Well, I'm guessing that you've already met Elliot and Nikita," she mentions, ruffling her hair up a little bit. "So, are you here for some kind of deal or what? That's the only reason anybody stumbles around here anymore. We don't take too kindly to visitors – especially living ones."
Nodding her head, Nikita explains how we were willing to come to some kind of terms, mentioning how we've got a shelter deep in the heart of Houston.
All there is now is to see whether these folks are prepared to deal – I'm ready, but are they?
"…fair enough," she acknowledges with a nod; leading the way as she holds her rifle close to her chest. I take it that she might be the more reasonable one around here. "Come on then – the store's on the next street. Just keep your weapons sheathed, and I can promise you your safety."
You can't promise anything, I think to myself as we move forward – more divided than ever before. You can't even fully protect yourselves out here…
As we approach the decrepit and broken-down grocery store (and I mean broken – it's definitely seen better days), I stop to try and figure out how I'm going to do this. How are we supposed to gain their trust and friendship if this is how we start things off?
Way to think ahead, guys! Seriously – awesome job!
"Beyond this point, only two of you are allowed inside. No more than that – everyone else waits outside," Emily says, hearing no argument from me but getting a bunch of annoyed looks from everyone else. "So, who's it gonna be?"
Turning around, I glance over at my friends and weigh my options. Lilly's got a temper, but she's smart and would be able to tell if we were getting screwed over in a deal.
Jane's usually pretty level-headed and cunning, but do I really want to bring her inside and leave all the angry ones out here alone? Hmm… I'll have to think about this…
Bo's had my back on a number of occasions, and it was pretty much his idea to start this whole thing in the first place. However, I'm not so sure if he's gonna be able to help me out in there, or just sit back and let me do the talking the whole time.
And then there's James… well, he might not exactly like me at the moment, but it'd definitely keep him from lashing out around here.
With a big sigh and a heavy heart, I make my decision as I look towards Jane with a shrug.
"Mind tagging along?" I ask as the two of us head on inside; hearing the doors shut behind us as the rest of the Fireflies await our return. "And Lilly? They better all be alive by the time we get back!"
Hopefully my diplomacy skills are up to snuff this time around.
AN: If your OC wasn't introduced yet, don't worry – they will be eventually. I'm only gonna keep her at twelve years old for a little while longer before moving on, so more OCs will be in store when the time comes. Some of them might be introduced sometime later down the road, so please don't take offence if your character doesn't show up for a while.
Hopefully I got those three right so far :)