Racheal and Zayne nearly drop every ounce of medicine that they've carried in as they return to the grocery store, with Kazuki nervously closing the door behind them. That really doesn't surprise any of us, considering that their whole source of livelihood has now been stolen while they were away.
It's like coming home from work one day to find your house has been looted by armed robbers – you don't understand how something like this could possibly have happened to you.
"What in the ever-loving fuck…" Racheal gasps, dropping her stash of meds near my feet as she sprints into the food storage area. When she sees the situation for herself, she starts flipping her shit. "No… No! Everything we had, just… gone! What the hell happened in here?!"
"Ask Alden," James chastises, giving him a sideways glance as the guy shrivels up like a raisin in the sun. "He'd probably be more than happy to explain things. Isn't that right?"
While they engage in their pissing match over whose fault it was for this utter catastrophe, I turn my attention to Zayne and Kazuki, who both seem at least a little bit relieved to be back somewhere that they won't have their lives be in constant danger.
"You guys alright?" I ask, feeling slightly better than I did this morning. "Anything happen out there?"
"We got pretty lucky, but yeah, we managed," Zayne answers, nodding over at Kazuki with a small grin. "She saved my ass twice out there – took out two walkers that almost got me while I was checking out a nurses' station. Just pulled out her gun, and BAM!"
"Really?" I question, feeling impressed and slightly shocked that Kazuki would've done something like that. "Well… that was awfully nice of you. I'll be honest… I really wasn't expecting something like that. Good on you, Kazuki."
Smiling shyly, Kazuki looks away in embarrassment; saying that it was nothing. "Couldn't just let him get eaten alive," she remarks, having a fair enough point there. "But… what's gonna happen to us when – "
"We're royally screwed this time! All because of these two fuckers and their asshole group!" Racheal's booming voice interrupts us; pointing towards Alden and Kazuki as she stomps her foot on an empty chili can. I know what it is that I have to do… but I'm not sure if they'll hate me or not for it.
Only one way to find out, I suppose.
Forcing myself to my feet, I breathe deeply and step forward with a limited amount of confidence. I suppose this is one of my first real moments to take charge in the group, so hopefully this'll go nice and smoothly.
Clearing my throat, I stand in the middle of the group and proudly make my proclamation.
"Don't touch them – Alden and Kazuki are under my protection now."
A bunch of the people are offering up shocked, silent stares as I try not to falter under all of their gazes. Clearly that's not what they had expected to hear, least of all from me.
Racheal is the first one to break their stupor as she frowns in disagreement.
"You can't do that – not after what just happened!" she exclaims, getting backed by Elliot who also thinks this is a bad idea. "Look around you, Clementine! Our entire way of life here is obliterated, and now you're defending them?!"
"I can and I am. Alden and Kazuki are with me now… deal with it," I boldly tell her, having enough of pointless arguments and fighting amongst ourselves when we should really be looking for answers. For clarification, I look my two new recruits with a shrug. "It's not as if they have a lot of options anyways," I admit, recalling how Tracy basically just abandoned them when the opportunity called for it.
I realize that this is a delicate situation for all of them – Elliot, Racheal, Emily and Zayne have basically been living on scraps for a while now. But if things go properly, then I may have just picked up two fresh survivors to join our… ahem, cause.
I've made a mental note to refrain from speaking about the walker disease for as long as I can.
"How are we supposed to come back from this now?! The one thing we had going here was our food supply, and now it's all gone!" Racheal shouts, not seeing any bright side to this. How can I blame her for that? "It's like the Grinch came in and snatched up all of our food! Didn't even leave us a scrap!"
"We're lucky that nobody got shot!" Emily interrupts, but Elliot's not having any of it.
"How is this any better?!" he questions, his voice sounding gravelly from coughing so much this morning. "Without food, we might as well slit our own throats!"
"Now that's one hell of a thing to say! Way to set a great example for the kids, Elliot…"
Truth be told, I don't think any of us are really bothered by that kind of talk. If Ellie was here, then fine – keep your damn opinions on that kind of thing to yourself. But we've all been exposed to far worse than that kind of thing.
"He's not wrong, you know," Racheal voices her opinion. "What's worse? One person getting shot defending what we need to survive, or having the entire group starve to death because we didn't try to fight back?!"
Biting back Emily starts to untie James from his bindings as she keeps her gaze focused on her friend. "You weren't here, Racheal! They were prepared to butcher us like a herd of cattle if we didn't cooperate! I'd rather move out of here and try to find someplace better!"
"This whole fucking city is tapped dry!"
Breathing deeply, I look over towards James who reluctantly nods at me. Time to make another executive decision – this might be even bigger than the last one. I'm sure Jane, Lilly and Bo wouldn't really care either way (if they're even still alive) about me making this choice for the whole group, and the way I see it, doing this is only going to help our numbers.
Taking a look at their faces – Zayne, Racheal, Emily and Elliot – I feel reassured that this is the right course of action.
"No it's not…" I answer, knowing for a fact that there's still one place they haven't been to yet. "Come with us back to the space centre. We can keep the deal going, but if you're under our protection, then you're also under our rules. That means you treat everyone – and I mean everyone, including Alden and Kazuki – with respect."
"Wait… you're still willing to let us in? But what about the food? Wasn't that a part of the deal?" Zayne asks, looking rather excited at the prospect of leaving this broken down grocery store. A big building with a much nicer roof over their heads probably sounds like a dream come true for him.
Nodding eagerly, I make sure that Kazuki's joining in the little semi-circle that we've got here as the people start huddling around me. "We need people like you in our group," I explain, capturing their full attention for once. Usually when I talk, the group's already sped off to their own little conversations – not this time. "We've got more than enough room – there are empty beds and there's plenty of work to be done. We can build a real community and start over. So… who wants to join the Fireflies?"
"Huh? Fire…flies?" Kazuki asks me, no doubt wondering what the hell I'm talking about.
Smirking, I prepare to give the pitch that I plan on using for as long as I'm able. We need to get the people united under one roof; one group and one goal. United we stand and divided we fall, right? Strength in numbers and all of that.
We can't be separated anymore – we have to work together to survive.
Jane's POV
"Lilly, come on… You're being ridiculous! I thought you were starving!" I complain, frowning as she turns her head away in protest. Holding the packet in my hand, I try my best to make her take it out of my grasp, but she's being her usual stubborn self. "Don't make me force-feed you! I'll do the baby thing to you, I'm dead serious!"
When she keeps her head to the side like a child, I sigh before trying to make the situation a little more light-hearted.
"Here comes the train! Choo-choo!" I say in a silly voice, laughing as she pulls off the tiniest of smirks. "Open up, you stubborn oaf! I've seen five year olds that were less picky than you!"
Very reluctantly, Lilly accepts the stale crackers that I've got in my hand, but I don't say anything as I actually do have to feed her. No sense in making her feel even shittier about all of this, and I'm pretty sure she'd be really humiliated if I brought it up. Her pride and confidence are both delicate attributes for her, and they've really been lacking lately.
I'll have to make a habit of fixing that more often. She's better than she realizes.
"I know – they weren't very satisfying even when they weren't expired," I admit with an apologetic smile. "But anything edible is priceless these days. I've pretty much given up on being a vegetarian at this point. How are you feeling anyways?"
Not really capable of giving me a verbal response, Lilly gives me a thumbs-up as she swallows another cracker. I know that she's lying to me – the girl definitely feels like hammered shit. Who wouldn't after getting beaten and starved for days and weeks on end? If I was in her position, I likely would've caved and pleaded for mercy; begging for any scrap of food that they could scrounge together.
Hell, I'd make an attempt at eating the fucking grass if I had to. Anything to keep me going for a little while longer would be like finding a diamond in the rough. I have no idea how Lilly stays so strong all the time.
"Well," I sigh, sitting beside my partner as she leans her head softly on my shoulder, "what should we do now? I really don't want to stick around in a place like this, but if you and Bo aren't ready to move yet…"
"…we…go…" Lilly blurts out, struggling with every word as she shakes her head.
Knowing that Bo will likely not want to slow anybody down with the kind of person that he is, I bite my lip as I try and go over the different possibilities. Well, I suppose that settles it then. This could go really, really badly – really quickly. Lilly can't even stand let alone move around on her own two feet, and Bo's only got one working hand. He's gonna have to get used to shooting with his left arm really quickly, but the more immediate problem still remains.
How the hell are we gonna move Lilly around? I didn't see any working cars on the way in here!
"Just wait here, alright? I'll be back in a jiffy," I inform her; resting her head gently to the floor as I jog out of this dull security office. This is all that she and Bo had to look at for all of that time? Yeesh, what a drag that must've been. I mean, I probably would've been satisfied with something to read possibly, but just sitting here in the dark with nothing to do would drive me absolutely bonkers.
Heading back into the department store with a heavy heart, I tiredly rub the sleep out of my eyes as Bo looks up at me curiously from his spot on the floor. Shrugging my shoulders, I head out into one of the aisles to try and find some things that we could use.
"Twenty percent off the latest cellphone," Bo reads aloud, shaking his head and chuckling as he glances at one of the signs. "Hell… really makes you realize how stupid and pointless some of our old worries were, doesn't it? Which phone would make me look cool…"
Feeling as though I'm not really meant to answer that question, I head on over to some of the abandoned clothing racks and aisles that at one time would've been crowded with people; all searching for something that they would look good in. Hmph, I guess I'm thinking about it now too, aren't I?
"She's alive, thank god…" I remark even though her present condition isn't that much better. Sorting through the tattered clothing racks, I play with the fabric in between my fingers before tossing them into the shopping cart that I had crashed earlier. You never know when somebody might need some of this stuff. "Bo, I don't mean to rush you or anything, but would you be alright to move? This place still isn't entirely secure, and I'd feel better if we were all back at our group. If you still need some time to heal up, though…"
"I can move well enough – no need to worry about me."
"You sure?"
"Yeah… this place has been nothing but a nightmare," he solemnly replies, watching me as I pile some more of the clothes into the cart. "You know, if Lilly can't move around on her own, then you're gonna have to find something to carry her in. Something like that."
Glancing down at the shopping cart, I find it difficult to believe that this is going to be our best means of transportation. I'm not even fully convinced that this thing will even fit a fully grown woman inside of it, let alone getting them from this mall all the way back to the grocery store. We'll be out there all night long!
"I don't think these things were really built for long-distance transportation," I tell him swiftly, worried that the whole thing might end up collapsing and leaving us stranded with dead weight out in the middle of nowhere.
"It might not be the most stylish or most comfortable thing in the world," he admits, slowly standing himself up as my eyes wander to his stump once again, "but it's the best we've got. I'm ready when you are."
Figuring that the clothes may be good for at least a little bit of cushion in order to ease the pain of this long trip, I dump some more into the cart before turning it around. I certainly can't carry her on my back the whole way there, so I suppose that this'll have to do.
Bo's not exactly raising my confidence as he stands up all wobbly and such, but if he claims that he's good to go, then who am I to say anything different?
It took quite a bit of effort (and some rearranging when I accidentally dropped her into the shopping cart head first), but we finally managed to get Lilly all settled in and are now officially back on the road. Obviously she's far too big to completely fit inside of this thing, so she's got her legs hanging out the side as she rests her head against the cold metal of our transportation method. It looks terribly uncomfortable.
This thing's not quite as heavy as I pictured it would be, which is definitely a bad thing on the whole – it means that Lilly's gotten way too light and is definitely not at a healthy weight right now. So, over the last twenty minutes or so, I've occasionally been popping a cracker or two into her mouth as the two of us travel onwards; Bo walking slightly behind at a snail's pace. He's fallen to his knees a couple of times so far, but the man insists that we keep going.
I told him that none of this would matter if he collapsed from exhaustion, but would he listen? Of course not.
"We keep this up and we should be able to get there by morning," I whisper back as Bo nods in my general direction. You can't really see much out here other than what's nearly right in front of you. "You still with me there, Lilly? I haven't heard anything in a while."
Felling her lightly rub the top of my hand to let me know that she's alright, I give her fingers a light squeeze as I keep my eyes peeled. This road was relatively clear the last time I came down this way, but not being able to see very well has got me anxious. Nothing says "safe" like wandering out in the middle of the night, barely being able to see ten feet in front of your face and having the possibility of walkers, people and wildlife creeping up on you from nearly every direction.
My sarcasm knows no bounds.
"Ugh… damn it," I curse as I accidentally bump the cart over a dead walker that I had killed on the way over here. The wheels clang against one of its limbs as I quickly try to pass over it. That's the other thing I don't like about doing this – the cart can get pretty noisy when you move it around too much, and every step we take seems to be like a fucking bell for every single walker to follow us out here.
Luckily, we haven't come across any of those just yet. But I'm not holding my breath on that.
"So… how was Clem doing back at the store? Did she get any farther with that group?" Bo asks me, partly out of boredom but also a little bit of curiosity.
Realizing that he can't easily see me shrug my shoulders, I clear my throat before answering him. "She handled herself a lot better than me," I admit, feeling slightly bad that I was doubting her beforehand. "If she hadn't stepped in when she did, I'm pretty sure that we'd have all been kicked out by now. Clem's got a knack for that sort of thing."
"She's definitely one of a kind," he agrees as we bank a left on the abandoned street up ahead. This part was causing me some issues beforehand, but we'll manage just fine. I hope. "She really looks up to you guys, you know that? You and Lilly… She was always going on about how special you were and how much she cared about the two of you staying alive. I'm guessing the three of you must be a pretty tight-knit group."
Did I say that I was feeling crappy before? Well, now I've somehow managed to even surpass that level. God damn… I totally bitched at her for not immediately coming out to help me look, but what the fuck was I thinking? Clem's got bigger fish to fry now, what with this whole leadership business just starting up. And here I am giving her hell because she wasn't able to put aside her duties to the group in order to help me go out on a wild goose chase… I feel like a complete asshole right now.
Clearly I still have a long way to go. I'm just so used to being on my own or in really small groups that I couldn't see the bigger picture.
Grunting, I put a little more force into it as I struggle to push the cart up a small hill. My strength is starting to wane a little bit, but I need to keep chugging along. Despite what I told Bo about taking a break, this area's definitely not the safest place to do so.
"I figure we could all use a nice, peaceful nap when we get back. No bullshit, no worrying about guns or anything – just closing my eyes and dreaming about eating my way out a big tub of chocolate or something," I chuckle quietly, just thinking about all the delicious stuff that I haven't been able to have for years now. "Or maybe a nice, deep-dish pizza with extra thick crust… Mmm… Come on, Bo – even you have to admit that that sounds pretty nice… Bo?"
Stopping in my tracks, I turn my head left to right trying to find out where he might be. If he's just trying to play some practical joke on me, then I swear to god he won't have any hands left at all!
When he doesn't respond to my shouts, I frantically stick to Lilly and the cart like glue; holding out my pistol and calling out his name some more.
"BO?! WHERE'D YOU GO?!" I holler out, cringing at the stupid rhyme as I see a small light in the distance. It's not a flashlight or a street lamp or anything like that, but rather it's… a fire?
Oh shit.
"Hang on, Lils," I whisper to her, but I'm not even sure that the woman's even awake anymore. Rushing forward, I try to make my way towards the light in the hopes that Bo is still on our trail. He wouldn't have just taken off unless there was a reason to, and there's no doubt in my mind that he would've come this way if he managed to spot this.
Turns out that the fire is coming from a black truck; one that looks suspiciously like…
"GRAAAAAGGGHHHH!" moans a small pack of walkers, some of which have launched themselves through the windows of the truck to get at some corpses in the front seats. They don't seem to care that the flames are burning much of their faces away.
A few others have taken notice of our presence, so I aim my pistol out and start firing rounds off. If this doesn't cause Bo to come running, then nothing will.
Just as I had predicted, a second gun fires off behind me, though I hear Bo cursing under his breath as he takes two more shots than he normally would've to bring the third walker down. Shooting with his left hand is definitely going to take some getting used to.
As for the ones in the burning truck, we decide to leave them alone for now. Despite them not being able to feel the scorching-hot pain of the fire as their heads are engulfed, it likely won't take that long for their bodies to be burned and/or melted away. Besides, I'm definitely not gonna try and knife them in a burning truck, so they continue to feast on their prey unaware that we're standing behind them.
"Looks like one of Tracy's trucks," Bo comments, grunting as he finds it difficult to reload. "I'm sure of it – they were all the same model. Those have gotta be some of the people that kidnapped us. Josh told me they were coming back to the grocery store as he was tying me up…"
"What?! And you didn't say anything?!"
"Would it really have made you go any faster? We could barely move as it was!" Bo retaliates, pointing over to Lilly before sadly shaking his head. "I wonder what came first for these guys… the fire or the walkers…"
Not wanting to dwell on it for too long, I push Lilly away from the fire and head off down the path that I was working towards before.
However, before I can make any real progress on that, Bo tells me to stop and turn back around.
"I didn't take off like that for shits and giggles you know! Come on!" he remarks, motioning towards a small trail that leads off into the woods. "One of Tracy's goons was saying something about this. Apparently this path is a shortcut for where we need to be!"
I wouldn't exactly want to trust the word of one of the dicks who took them away from us, but I suppose there's only one sure-fire way to find out. "Lead on, then," I tell him as we leave this burning pile of corpses behind us.
Hopefully there won't be any more surprises waiting for us in store.
Clem's POV
"You should probably get some rest, you know."
"I don't need anything. And I especially don't need you to tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing," I murmur sleepily; sitting against a window sill as Kazuki comes and sits down nearby. I'll sit here waiting all night long if that's what it takes – no rest until my family comes home.
I'm almost positive that that goes both ways.
"Racheal says that if they're not back by later this morning, then we're all leaving without them," she tells me, causing me to snort slightly as I shake my head. I'm already starting to feel a bit better thanks to a heavy dose of medication, but clearly staying up all night isn't gonna go over well.
"Is that right?" I mutter sarcastically; my crankiness coming out in full force. "Well, that's odd. She's gonna have a tough time finding that place when I'm still here waiting for Lilly, Jane and Bo to come back."
"Clem, what if – "
"They're coming, Kazuki. Just you wait…" I retort defensively, feeling (unsurprisingly) protective over them as I lean my head back while continuing to stare out the window. I have the utmost confidence in them – they're fighters, all three of them.
And even though James was too distraught to see otherwise, I could tell that Josh was lying through his teeth. I saw a slight hesitation on his face – he didn't know if he had killed Bo or not. It's pretty easy to tell what others are thinking if you can read the signs. I've had a lot of practice, and have been fed a lot of bullshit over the years to know when somebody isn't being honest with me. A twitch of the eyebrow, a slight quiver of the bottom lip, a rub on the arm… most people don't even realize that they're doing these things unless somebody points it out to them.
It's the people that never show any of these signs that you have to be careful around. They're the ones that've mastered the game and can manipulate anybody to get what they want. Everybody lies – they just don't like to admit it.
Maybe I fall into this category too.
"I wanted to ask you this earlier," Kazuki says, looking out her own window as she wipes a layer of dust from its otherwise clear surface. There's nobody up on lookout this early in the morning, so I suppose having two of us awake from inside isn't such a bad thing. "…why did you do that? Stand up for me and Alden, I mean. Our group jacked all your stuff and left you guys with nothing!"
"This isn't actually where I live, you know."
"Maybe not… but what made you do that? It couldn't have been because you were feeling nice last night," she points out, causing me to smirk slightly at the thought. "What changed your mind? I thought you were pissed at us before?"
Coughing into my sleeve, I pause for a moment to try and clear my head. Why did I make that choice? It's not as if we were best buddies beforehand, and their group was responsible for all of this nonsense that's been going on for the past month.
So if it wasn't any of that, then it could only be…
"You and Alden aren't like the rest of them – you just got caught up in a bad situation. Everyone makes mistakes," I remind her, stretching out and shaking my leg after having sat on it for too long. "Besides, our group really needs all the help it can get."
"So… you really are trying to save the world, then."
"…if that's what you want to call it," I reply, being purposefully neutral in how I say it, "then… yeah. Yeah, I guess we are."
Sometimes I really question on whether hiding this information from everybody (including Ellie herself) is such a fantastic idea. Is it really for Ellie's life that I'm doing this? Am I really saving her by keeping this startling information back?
Or is it just for my own personal pleasure?
I'm going to make a hypothetical scenario here. Let's go out on a limb and say that I head back to the space centre, admit my findings to James, and go from there. What'll happen next? After he does his little experiment thingy, would lives actually be saved? If do, how many? Surely a part of Ellie's brain wouldn't be enough to save the entire human race, right? I mean, she's just one person! Wouldn't it take a whole bunch of people in order to create a massive vaccine? James even told me himself that the stuff they had up in space wasn't a guaranteed success.
…so the question still remains – am I doing the right thing here? Have I completely lost my mind this time, and is all of this just a massive waste of time? Perhaps… but if we really want to try and survive out here, then we can't do it alone. I don't want to have to wake up in the morning worrying about whether Kazuki or Alden or Racheal are gonna come in and slit my throat for supplies. Cure or not, this is what our lives are right now. If people have to change because of it, then so be it.
I refuse to carry all of the world's problems on my shoulders. It's not as if it's really given me much to look forward to anyways. Both my parents are dead and dozens of other close friends are too.
"Sometimes I wonder if we're all beyond saving…" I mutter, forgetting that Kazuki is still sitting beside me. "Shit, I… I didn't mean – "
"Whoa… aren't those your friends outside?" Kazuki interrupts as she points straight out the window. Immediately turning my head, a beaming smile finds its way on my face as I make my way downstairs; having to move a little bit slower due to the illness.
I can't help but laugh as I walk out the front doors and glance at Jane, Lilly and Bo; with Jane grinning over at me in return.
"I'd hug you guys, but I'm kinda sick right now!" I remark, but putting a hand to my mouth as I glance down at Bo's hand… or what used to be a hand. "Oh my god… did they…? Bo, I'm so sorry they did that to you…"
"Nothing you could've prevented, Clem. No need to apologize," Bo tells me, looking more tired than I've ever seen before. Bending down in front of me, the man smiles as he carefully pats my shoulder. "Looks like you're running a real tight ship over here. You're doing an awesome job, Clem. Jane tells me you've been the one keeping the peace…"
Taking a peek behind Bo, I notice that Jane still hasn't come up to us yet. I get a really uneasy feeling in my stomach as I glance down at the broken heap of Lilly; looking like a shadow of her former self.
"Can I…?" I ask quietly, getting a small grin from Jane as I slowly approach the shopping cart. I'm not entirely sure if her eyes are open or not, but at least she's breathing. "She looks really tired…"
"Lilly? Look who's here!" Jane nudges her lightly; tapping her on the arm as she's slowly aroused from unconsciousness. She practically looks dead from this angle. "It's Clementine, see? I told you she'd be alright."
Opening the slits in her eyes about a fraction of an inch, I see Lilly smirk lightly as she tries her hardest to sit up. "…Clem…" she manages to say as I stop the urge to grab onto her hand and never let go. I should never have been so moody and obnoxious to her like I was back at the space centre. If I had known that she'd eventually end up like this… Well, I suppose I'll have plenty of time to make amends now, won't I?
"Kazuki?" I call back to the front of the store. "Could you start getting everyone up? They're gonna want to see this, but after that we've gotta move."
"Move? Move where?" Jane asks curiously. Having just gotten back, you'd think that they'd at least have a little bit of time for rest, but there's a space centre that's calling our name.
There's also the matter of what I'm gonna tell Ellie to excuse my extreme lateness. Now that's gonna be a fun conversation…
"It's a long story, but we're heading back home," I mention, adjusting my cap so that it fits more snugly on my head. "All of us together – back where we belong."
When James appears and notices Bo standing there alive and well, I get the feeling that despite our heated fights and differences, things might be able to go smoothly after all.
The Fireflies are starting to turn into a more legitimate community.
AN: Sorry if that seemed like a bit of a filler chapter, but most of the gang is now back together, and next chapter's gonna be kind of crazy lol. It's going to be the last chapter before I do a time skip – you know, those things I told you all about beforehand but haven't actually done yet? Yeah, those.
I've already got an idea of where I want to go for the next chapter, but if you have any suggestions feel free to leave them in the reviews. I'll always get back to you, 'cause you guys are my faves :D