Lilly's POV
I swear, these two hunters that we were sent out with are nothing but a couple of emotionless robots. This is coming from me, the queen of pessimism and seriousness, so you know that it's gotta be pretty bad. The entire way here it's been Marcus either trying to tell some lame joke that neither of them even crack a grin at, or me asking them complicated questions to which they've given me simple "yes or no" answers.
Anybody want to tell me how "what do you think Tracy's group wants with your people?" warrants a yes or no answer? It's like they're not even paying attention!
I guess that's alright though – as cruel as it might sound, I don't really care for the two cyborgs up ahead, and I'm trying my best to absolutely hate the clown walking beside me. It's bad enough that he tried to hit on Jane the first time they met, but now Marcus won't stop grinning like he just won the jackpot of ten million dollars. It's driving me bonkers!
"You keep grinning like an idiot," I point out wisely as we cross further towards enemy territory, "and your face will get stuck like that."
Somehow managing to smile even more brightly, Marcus raises his eyebrows in amusement as we try not to fall too far behind from our companions. With how they act, you'd think we were their prisoners or something.
"Why don't you ever smile?" he genuinely asks me, to which I shrug my shoulders as my back starts to ache a little bit.
"There's not a whole lot of reasons to do so anymore."
"Pssh! Come on, don't be such a sourpuss! There's lots of things to be happy about!" he insists, twirling in a circle as he stares at a blue sky with puffy, white clouds. Just a little while ago the atmosphere was filled with nothing but dark grey and thunderclaps.
Maybe his happiness just magically changed the world around him, and put one single raincloud over my head instead.
"Oh yeah?" I probe further, having nothing better to talk about thanks to those two mutes up ahead. "Name some for me, then."
Nearly tripping over the muddy, grassy hill as we pass through a very open and very visible field, Marcus shields his eyes from the blaring sun as he suddenly remembers the busted sunglasses in his back pocket. Putting them on like a cocky little prick, he nods in content before turning back to me. "Hmm, let's see…" he contemplates, scratching his chin like some kind of philosopher. "Well, I've got my stunning good looks, my boy scout youthfulness, my dazzlingly bright white teeth – "
"I mean shit that actually matters."
"Keep up back there! We would've left the both of you behind if we had known you'd be this slow!" one of the assholes (Damien, I think his name is) yells at us as he and his friend disappear over the hill and down the other side. So much for him being a mute… he's just a monotone dick.
Getting here honestly wasn't too difficult – only one or two walkers roaming about aimlessly that we had taken down with ease. The walk over to this place has been pretty long, but then again, so has pretty much every trek we've ever done. I've never been a huge fan of travelling with strangers, but thankfully that hasn't come back to haunt me just yet.
Leaving Jane, Clem and Ellie with that fucking psychopath however, definitely does.
The entire time that he was talking about Hunter's Retreat and its occupants, about how they've prospered in that rat nest of an underground encampment, I wanted to hurt the bastard. I wanted to make him open his eyes and experience for himself just what those people were suffering through. That's no way to live – sitting there practically waiting to die while the whole world continues to revolve around them.
Despite what people might think, the world didn't actually end. It was reborn.
I'm not a religious person by any means – my parents were quite avid church goers back in their day, but I always hated it. I despised having to wear stupid dresses on Sunday mornings as a kid, and I never understood why we always had to sing songs. Was it somebody's birthday? Were we secretly at some sort of rock concert? And why did we have to pray all the time? Who the fuck was going to listen to a little shit like me? I remember one time in particular, when both of my parents and the rest of the congregation had lowered their heads and closed their eyes, I snuck away from the bench, grabbed as many of the cookies that they set out on a dinner plate as I could, and ran like the wind until I got to the parking lot outside.
What a thrill-seeker I used to be! Needless to say I got grounded for a month from that stunt, and took more than one earful from my Dad that weekend and throughout the next few weeks, but it didn't matter to me. I wasn't meant to be cooped up in a place like that – I wanted to be as free as a bird. I had my own morals; my own standards that I wanted to follow, and as I grew into my teenage years in a military household (mainly from my mother since Dad was hardly ever there), I came to resent religion even more. What kind of supreme deity would let all of these boys and girls die in pointless wars over who had the bigger stick that year? None of these things made sense to me, and so I began to distance myself further and further from my church-loving family.
I may still have that opinion, but at least now I can kind of understand where they were coming from… and why they wanted to believe so badly.
If this – all of this, from the killings, to the dead rising, to the starvation and utter helplessness – was supposed to be some sort of lesson to us, then mission fucking accomplished. The human race has been beaten down, slaughtered to the axe and largely put to the torch. We're battered, bruised and on our last legs… but we've lived. Against all odds we've managed somehow to keep holding on, and maybe that's what was supposed to happen. Maybe all of this is some sort of big plan, regardless if it was a group of actual people or some other power that we can't see.
Either way, it doesn't matter – none of that does. What's important is that we keep pushing back and not just survive, but thrive.
Maybe I've outgrown that pessimism that's been my trademark for so long, I don't rightly know anymore. But I trust my gut, and my gut's telling me that Clementine won't lead us astray. If the way that she was getting along with those families in Hunter's Retreat was any indication, I'd say that she's been prepping for this for over three years now. Clem's ready for change, and I know that Jane is too.
Maybe it's time that I start feeling the same.
Plop!
…are you fucking kidding me?
"Hahahahahahaha! Oh my god… Holy shit, I wish I had a camera right now!" Marcus chuckles as I hold my arm out in utter disgust. Couldn't the birds aim their shit somewhere else?! Why did they have to fire away right on top of me?! "Whoa, who, not happening! Don't wipe that stuff on me! Not cool, Lilly!"
"C'mere," I hold my arms out wide, sporting one of those stupid grins that he kept bugging me to use more often. Not such a great idea now, is it? "I want a hug, Marcus! Maybe then you could stop whining about losing in the lady department!"
"That's not what I had in mind! Eww, eww, eww! That smells so bad! Quit it!"
"HEY!" Damien snaps us out of it, angrily pointing ahead as I wipe the bird poop onto the grass. "Eyes front, stay focused! We're here…"
This doesn't seem legit to me. No walls, no fences, nothing really to keep an entire army from basically marching in and taking over. That must've been what David had been talking about, but it's hardly a surprise from the looks of things why there'd be so many different groups in charge of this place. The rows of suburban homes could be a pretty nice touch I suppose, if they had wanted to find a relatively walker-free zone to rest their heads.
Now it's just a matter of springing our friends, wherever they might be.
"Nice and quiet – we get in and out as quickly and efficiently as we can," I tell the three of them, to which they all agree as we prepare to head into Ranger's Grove. "Try to be as silent as possible – we don't want to draw any unwanted attention. Once we're inside, we can either split up and meet back here, or go in as a group. Your choice," I add in, although it doesn't look as though either of David's men want to leave the group. Marcus is probably used to fighting on his own, but even he seems to be hesitant on it out here.
"Here – I've got a couple of silenced pistols with me. They're shit on range, but good in close quarters," Marcus mentions as I grasp it within my hands. The silencer basically consists of a severe amount of duct tape and part of a car tire that's been hastily stuck together. "Just think of it as a home-made killing machine!" he boasts, but I don't have time to complain about the shoddy quality.
"Everyone ready?" I question to a round of nods as we file down the hill one at a time. "Let's bring 'em home."
Clem's POV
"Here," David remarks, presenting me with a tray of what I can only assume is some sort of food. "You need to eat something – I could tell that you girls were pretty famished when you walked in here."
As soon as the tray is placed in front of me, I just stare at it – not even poking it to see if it'll move back at me, nothing. If it wasn't clear before that I don't trust the man, then this should certainly do just that.
Staring back into his brown eyes with doubt, I say nothing as I continue to sit there with my hands in my lap. Jane's off interacting with the locals as she somehow got wrangled up by some of the kids. Currently she's being wrapped in an entire roll of toilet paper – a mummy, as one of the children put it. Even Jane seemed to get a kick out of it when they started, but now she seems kind of worried that they're going to strangle her with it.
None of those kids can be over the age of six, Jane – come on now…
Chuckling mirthlessly, David sits to the right of me as he leans one knee up and places his arm overtop of it in a comfortable position. "Still think I'm gonna poison you, huh?" he questions amusedly, most likely not realizing what it is that Jane and I have in store for this place once we get our people back. "I'd act insulted, but I've been shown a gun to the face before just by offering the same meal. You don't need to be afraid around here – we're all a family now. We should get used to each other…"
"You haven't given me a whole lot of reasons to try."
"Maybe you just need to be a little more open-minded," he advises as I roll my eyes out of his sight. I'd really like to give him a peace of my mind and let him know what I really think, but we cannot under any circumstances get kicked out of this place right now. Something about this guy makes me think that he'd insist Ellie stay here for her own protection from Jane and I, but that would also only lead to more bloodshed. I won't allow that if I can help it.
At least, not until it's really and truly necessary.
"These people you have here," I remark, knowing fully well that he doesn't like it when I talk about his community, "how many are there?"
"Well, we haven't exactly been doing a head count lately."
"Approximately, then."
Tapping his fingers loosely against his thigh as he brushes a strand of greasy hair out of his face, David silently tries to figure this out as I spot Ellie sitting off by herself nearby; head buried in her knees as she brings them close to her chest. You can tell that she's been crying by the red, puffy rims surrounding her eyes, and it hurts me knowing that I was probably a major cause of this pit of misery. Stupid lack of insight… I should've just told her this right as soon as I found out, regardless if she was too young or not. At least I could've potentially proven the death to her, despite the mental scarring it could've left behind.
Every time I try to talk to her, she either just completely shuts me out, or she gives me one word answers and nothing more. Lilly and Jane seem to think that I've done the right thing, but now I'm not so sure. Ellie didn't even ask about her mother hardly at all before I just randomly decided to bring it up. Maybe she had already known deep down that she wasn't coming back, and so by me confirming the tragedy myself, I had just turned the aching sting into a torturous, scalding eruption. I don't even no anymore… there are too many doubts in my mind.
"I'd say close to fifty or so," David mentions, reminding me of what I wanted to say before. "Why does that interest you?"
"…how can you possibly protect all of them down here?" I wonder aloud as Jane starts to get a little annoyed with the toilet paper. Sure, it may have been all in good fun at the beginning, but now she looks almost like a combination of the Pillsbury Dough-Boy and the Michelin Man. "You need to clothe them, feed them, quench their thirsts and keep everyone from just straight up murdering each other in their sleep. And yet you sit here and they don't do any of that. How… how is that even possible?"
Picking something out of the small gap between his teeth, David pats me on the knee uncomfortably as he beckons me to follow him. "There's more to this place than you know," he states as he smiles at Ellie as he passes her by. "I've always wanted a daughter… I'd think if I were ever fortunate to become a father someday, I would hope that they'd be a lot like you…"
"Keep moving."
Under a watchful eye, David turns back to me with a wicked smirk as I return the glance with a steely glare of my own.
"No need to ruin that pretty face with all the jealous outbursts, Clem," he tells me as I try to keep a level head. There's too much at stake for me to just flush it all down the drain now. "Don't think that I'm not fully aware of what you're after. And know that I plan on keeping it for a very long time to come."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I feign innocence, but it's clear that David's not quite as naïve as I had anticipated beforehand. He's played the faithful, little leader card well for quite a while, and he knows this place backwards.
Too bad for him that the plan has already been set in motion.
Giving Jane the signal with two fingers behind my back, she instantly gets to work as she breaks free of the kids and heads down the stairs.
Let's see if she can start rumours and gossip as well as a news reporter can.
"Allow me to show you what we're dealing with behind the scenes," David invites, grabbing onto Ellie's hand before I can reach her. Unfortunately, as a guest, for now I simply have to obey and follow his rules while under his roof.
Heading up the stairs to the second level, I smirk as I hear Jane already bringing some of the people down below into a huddle. Three leaders is starting to work quite nicely.
Lilly's POV
"I'm telling you, Tom – this is fucked up! We just need to pack our shit, take off in the night and head out east," the man's friend insists, inhaling the last of his cigarette as he flick it out of his fingers and smooshes the embers underneath his foot. Noxious smoke plumes out of his nostrils as he and Tom prowl the street. "This place is cursed! I'm not making this shit up! There've been noises over here, man! These houses are haunted!"
A little bit closer, boys… That's right…
Smacking his friend Adam on the back of the head, Tom chuckles in amusement as he points up to some of the two story homes. "Are you afraid of a little dirt on the windows?" he mocks, waving his fingers around in a spooky manner while pretending to be a ghost. "Ooh…. I'm the ghost of leftover dust! I'm going to crawl into your nostrils at night and make you sneeze uncontrollably… You're just sleep-deprived, dude. Give it a few days and you'll be back on your feet. We're not at each other's throats anymore!"
"Tch… yeah, but not everyone feels that way…"
"Who, Joshua? That weird, little shit?" Tom remarks with skepticism as the pair of them walk right past our hiding spot; completely unaware as we slip through into the house on the left. Thank god that Emily flagged us down in time… "You've gotta be kidding me! He's a fucking coward hiding behind Tracy's skirt! I think even you could take him on with your bare hands!"
As Marcus prepares to shoot the both of them and be done with it, I carefully lower his aim and shake my head. There'll be other opportunities to make these bastards pay for what they've done – we need to do this when the time is right.
When the first of David's men break open the door, mentioning how we don't have a whole lot of time to spare, I walk in and sigh in relief. The remaining members of our group are all present and accounted for, but not without some injuries to boot.
"I was wondering if we'd ever see you again," Emily remarks with a laugh as she wraps her arms around my shoulders. "Jesus, you don't know how good it is to see you, Lilly," she mentions as Kelly and Elliot also come up to say hello. "But… where's Jane? Clem and Ellie, too?"
Reassuring them that they're fine (at least before I left), I move through the small crowd to a dusty couch where Alden's resting a very badly-injured ankle, and Kazuki is sporting a pretty nasty black eye. I'm not even sure if she can properly see at all now, what with the eye patch still plastered over her face.
"I think you caught us on a bad day," Alden remarks weakly; trying to crack a smile as I bend down to check on him. "Fuckers saw us out in the street so we all made a run for it. Racheal here managed to take one down but I tripped and sprained my ankle over a trash can… real graceful stuff, let me tell ya."
"I don't think I should be surprised at this point," I joke as I nod over towards Katie and Racheal; both looking like they'd rather be anywhere else than here. "I can't take all of you back just yet… I owe a favour to these two clowns over here."
As all eyes turn to the men waiting eagerly beside the front door, I expect the random assortment of disagreement and backlash that I receive as I run a hand through my hair.
"We need to get out of this fucking place! They outnumber us fifty to one at least!" Katie hisses quietly, drawing the curtain a little bit to peep out the window. Sure enough, as per usual apparently, there are more guards patrolling the streets for danger of any kind. "This place is deadly at every turn – the longer we stick around, the worse our odds are gonna be. Trying to take them all on at once is going to get us nowhere! We can't risk getting caught out in the open, Lilly!"
"Which is why not all of you are going with me right now," I point out, feeling a lot more respect and trust in some of the people around me since I've worked with many of them in the past. "I'd only need two or three at the most. We need to rescue some captives out here… because we need a connection over at Hunter's Retreat. If we don't even have the forces to defend the space centre, then what hope would we have if Tracy and the rest decide to march on us again? I need volunteers…"
Since Alden's obviously not fit to do the task, and Kazuki looks a little under the weather from her recent battle scars, I look to some of the older folks for reassurance; my gaze landing firstly on Elliot as he begrudgingly accepts. Kelly is next as she heads up the stairs to collect her weapons, and finally, with an extreme amount of hesitance, I ask Racheal to come along as she simply shrugs her shoulders in acceptance.
"Fine, let's go get killed looking for your doomed friends out there."
"They're alive, I know they are – just have a little faith," David's man says as Kelly comes bounding down the stairs two at a time.
Before Marcus can follow me outside, I put a firm hand on his shoulder and tell him to stay here.
"Pfft, fucking unlikely," Marcus chuckles, but his face contorts in surprise as I shake my head. "Come on – I'm not a damn mercenary for nothing, you know! You need me out there! Shooting people is what I do!"
"Yeah? Well prove it to me then," I order, not giving him any choice as I hand him that assault rifle he seems to care for so much. "Help protect this place, and I promise you a spot in the Fireflies, got it? Food, shelter and all the necessities you need once we head back to Houston."
"The fuck are the Fireflies?"
"Nevermind… just keep these people safe," I tell him without another word; looking in through the window as Marcus awkwardly tries to get acquainted with the remaining group members.
I'd imagine that Emily would kick him straight in the balls if he tries to swoon her or any of them in the house right now.
Keeping the soccer field on our right shoulder, we quickly backtrack and make our way through the battle-torn alleyways and streets of this once pretty neighbourhood; now filled with nothing but angry, blood-thirsty bandits and not a lot of working brain cells.
"They were over by the fire department last we saw them," one of our guides remark, "this way, and watch your step. They haven't cleared out the mess from last time just yet."
"Last time…?" I ask, but my curiosity is sated as we come face to face with hundreds of rotting, decaying bodies riddled with nothing but blood, guts, maggots and bullet holes. These people were slaughtered, whether through the fighting or being executed I don't rightly know. Some of them look as if they had turned at one point, but probably not for very long.
"Come on," Elliot encourages as I slowly nod and follow the rest of our party closer towards the fire hall.
"Should we go in loud and stupid, or quiet and smart?"
Lifting the hood of her sweater up over her hair so that it partly covers her eyes and conceals her identity, Racheal makes sure that her pistol is fully loaded and her survival knife (more like a kitchen utensil if you ask me) is tucked firmly away, yet still ready for use if the need arises. Much like Jane, years of surviving out in the world have proven to be pretty kind to her fitness-wise. Her stern demeanor hasn't really changed much since I've known her, which hasn't exactly won her a lot of friends, but she's proven herself as a fighter. That's the other reason I wanted her to tag along – she's gotten pretty decent at getting in and out of tight spots.
Deciding to lighten the mood, since only Elliot, Kelly, her and I remain with David's men going around the back side, I set myself up at the top of the hill as I flip my radio on. Kelly turns theirs on as well.
"Well, we all know how you like big entrances, Racheal," I sarcastically respond as she replaces her pistol with the knife. Solid choice for this kind of thing – I've got enough firepower from my spot up here.
"Stealthy it is, then," she remarks, nodding to Elliot and Kelly as she snatches the radio and attaches it to her belt. "Watch my back – I'm going down the hill."
"Be careful, alright? And remember, we can't be spotted out in the open. Head for the tall grass."
"On it, boss…" she mutters in slight annoyance, something that I pick up on almost immediately but decide to keep to myself. I don't want to talk through this too much and risk ruining the entire operation over a silly mistake like that.
Clutching his gun like a life preserver, Elliot kneels nearby as he breathes in and out in a rhythmic fashion. Closing his eyes, the man tries to calm his nerves before heading into the thick of things.
Wrapping a comforting arm around his shoulders, Kelly smiles even though she too doesn't have a whole lot of confidence. "We'll keep an out for each other in there – don't worry, Lilly's got us covered. Right?"
"I didn't get the watch job back at our main base for nothing…" I remark quietly, wondering why the two of them haven't left yet as I look at Racheal moving through the grass like a snake. Thank god her clothes are pretty similar to her surroundings and not sticking out with pink or gold or something.
Trying to calm himself as one of Tracy's goons is spotted on the second floor of the fire department, Elliot readies up as he tries to remain inconspicuous.
"Really wishing that we'd stopped and picked up those ghillie suits now…" he regrets as I bark out a bitter laugh.
"Those weren't ghillie suits," I point out, wondering how he can't spot the difference, "they were winter coats with camouflage all over them! Now get going before Racheal gets compromised!"
"Still would've made things easier," Kelly mentions, thankfully realizing that I'm right as Elliot slowly makes his way down the hill. Time to get some people back. "Keep an eye out for me on the scope, would you? If you see any bad guys, take 'em out."
Adjusting the sights a little bit by turning the dial on my weapon, I usher her to get down as one of the men look onwards in the same window as before. With the wind on my side this time, and trying to judge the direction the bullet will travel, I pull the trigger as the man goes down; a bullet caught in his throat as Kelly sprints forward through the grass.
"Rachael, one man's down and there may be more inside," I whisper through the speaker as she gives me a thumbs up from the garage door. "Just find what the people they need and get out of there. We don't want the whole camp to come barreling down on top of us."
"Moving in now. Nice to see you finally care, Lilly."
"Just shut up and move. I'll ty to get a better angle," I order as I pick myself off the ground and take down a walker that had managed to waddle its way towards me. Looks as though this place isn't quite as pest-free as they had assumed.
Swatting a mosquito away from my face before it can suck out my blood like a vampire, I reload the weapon before maneuvering closer to the fenced-off portion of what was once a backyard. From this side, it seems that the previous owners once had a pretty decently-sized pool with lawn chairs, a gazebo and a nice, granite porch. It's odd why they would have a fire department so close to this neighbourhood, but from the sounds of it this town wasn't very large, so having one in the vicinity would certainly make the emergency response times a lot quicker.
Picking a shadier spot to protect me from the blaring sun, as well as to potentially hide me from view, I lay flat on my stomach as the dirt caresses my cheek. Pulling the trigger, I scare off a flock of birds as yet another man goes down.
Racheal finishes the job as she jabs her knife straight into the guy's head. Elliot rushes by as the abandoned, worn-looking fire truck as Kelly stands up; waving her arms around as she gives me the all-clear. Looks like they didn't figure anyone would come looking for a couple of stragglers from Hunter's Retreat, which obviously worked to our advantage on this one.
But something seems off as I rush down the hill and enter through the garage door – where are the captives? And where are David's remaining men?
"We never saw them come in," Elliot pants as he shakes his head. "And they're not upstairs either – no bodies except for the ones you shot down. If they're not here, then… holy shit…"
Pointing behind me, I turn around as I try to peer inside the fire truck, but I don't see anything until Elliot walks over and wipes the window clean of dirt.
Sitting in the front seats are the two hunters that went missing – one strangled to death with the fire hose tied in a knot around the back of the head rest, and the other having a hole blasted through his chest from the water pressure. By the burn marks on his wrists, I'd say that he was tied down and forced to try and endure this for quite some time. His clothes are still soaked to the bone even after his death.
In some sort of sick, ironic joke, Tracy's troops had put fire chief helmets onto their heads; basically telling them that they apparently died like heroes. More like they were murdered like heroes…
"…why?" Elliot questions quietly, disgusted with the state of affairs. "They couldn't have known these two… couldn't have had a real connection to them. Why would they be this cruel? To fucking people no less?"
"Elliot…"
"No, Kelly! I'm so sick of this shit! And don't even start with me, Racheal!" he glares sharply, looking at me as well as I keep my mouth shut. I know better than to try and calm Elliot down when he gets into one of his moods. "This… all of this is just so fucking meaningless! Why would people do this to each other?! Do they think this is all just some fucking game?! JUST LIKE NIKITA?!"
As the spirited young man tears himself away from the bodies for a brief moment, I toss one of the honorary firefighters out of the driver's seat as it plops to the ground in a sickening fashion. I never knew this man, but I sure as hell know that he wouldn't have deserved a death like this. I can't even imagine how much pressure it would take for a blast of water to literally puncture his body like a cannon ball.
Unable to wipe a thin layer of sticky blood off of the steering wheel, I try to search for any way that I could possibly hotwire the vehicle somehow. A firetruck would be pretty flashy for an escape attempt, but any method of transportation that could possibly fit all of us would be a welcome sight. It'd certainly make things easier on my legs.
My hope immediately dwindles for a nice, comfortable ride back to Hunter's Retreat when I notice that the cables I need under the wheel have already been slashed, and the fact that there aren't any sparks flying means that the battery's dead.
"Looks like she's had it," I comment as I step out of the truck and tiptoe around the dead body. "This place is a dud – come on, we need to find those two and get everyone back to safety. Let's spread out and find them."
"I'm going to bury these two… If we don't bring back our traditions, then how are we supposed to move forward?"
"Elliot, we don't have time!" I insist with a frown, not noticing that one of the men's fingers just gave out a twitch. "Look, I know that you're overwhelmed by all of this, but you have to snap out of it! These two are gone! Done! We have to move on!"
Coming to my side for once, Racheal seems to agree as she keeps an eye out through one of the windows. "We can't take the risk right now – if you want, just take them out back and drop 'em on the ground. I think we may have just woken up the sleeping giants over there."
Sure enough, up on the top of the hill where I was before stand about three more of the Rangers, most likely being more patrol guards that probably heard the gunfire from earlier. Had I have still been standing there for ten more minutes, they likely would've shot me without giving it a second thought.
Grunting, Elliot reluctantly mumbles under his breath as he refuses Kelly's help and insists that he can drag the bodies away himself. The guy's always been a bit stubborn with doing things on his own, having wanted to contribute to the group for as long as I've known him, but he's also had the tendency to shut people out from time to time. Nikita's death had hit him extremely brutally, and it's then that I finally start to clue in why he might be acting this way.
This is around the same time of year that she had been killed, and by these same people no less. No wonder the guy's feeling so adamant about these two strangers.
Kicking the emergency exit open and stepping outside, he drags the corpse along as the rest of us try to search for where the other hunters may have wandered off to.
Jane's POV
"W-what do you mean? We're safe here! David… he protects us… he loves us!" one of the elders try to tell me as I sit cross-legged in a circle of about fifteen others who have gathered to hear what an outsider like me has to say. A round of nods follows their protest as I find this task to be much more difficult than I had once believed it would be.
How the fuck does Clementine do this shit all day long?!
Trying a different approach rather than full-on bashing the leader they've known for years, I gulp as those darn, meddling kids come up to sit right in front of me. What are they expecting here? Story time?
"You need to think for yourselves right now. What's really the best for you and your families?" I ask, finding the whole inspirational speech thing to be a bit ridiculous when it's coming from me. "You don't wanna be stuck in a sewer like this for the rest of your lives, do you?"
"But… but David said that this is our home! This place is where we belong now!" one of the kids exclaim as I raise an eyebrow in confusion. Did he honestly feed these people with the lies that he kept telling himself?
Not allowing any of the little girls to sit on my knee as they scurry on back to their parents, I watch as most of the camp just strolls by and carry on with their feeble living conditions. It's like we've all gone back to the medieval ages, with one father trying to clean his family's clothes over a makeshift wash board, and some of the kids looking as though they've developed cases of the smallpox and various other diseases – the Black Plague, it almost looks like down here.
"It's good to be afraid," I point out, contradicting myself until I explain further. "Fear keeps you on your toes and makes you aware of your surroundings. But you don't have to be scared of your own shadow! Sure, there may be walkers out there, but you don't have to live in a box the whole time and just constantly be afraid of stepping into the sunshine! Nobody can force you to live like this, not anymore!"
"…how do we know we can trust you?" a middle-aged, scared shitless man asks me with a shaky finger pointing my way. "How… how do we know that you're not lying and trying to send us out there to die? How do we know that what you're telling us is true?"
Internally chuckling at how it somehow always comes back to this, I smirk slightly before shrugging my shoulders and admitting my reassurance to everyone.
"You don't – you have no idea if you can trust me or not," I tell them like a cold slap in the face. It's time to wake these people up out of their nightmare! "No matter what I tell you guys, it won't make a difference. You just… you just have to get out there and see the truth for yourselves. Don't let David keep you caged up anymore. In fact…" I remark, feeling unusually chipper about this whole encounter with the local inhabitants, "come with me. I'll show you what you're missing out on."
Even though not all of the people stand up and start to follow me, a pretty decent portion of them do as Clementine, Ellie and David finish their little tour of sorts. David, for his part, looks outraged at the display I've put on, and immediately charges down the stairs like a rhino as Clementine nods in approval.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" he demands as I fold my arms together; a dangerous glint in his eyes as he stares me down. No way am I losing this fight, not with the people at my back. "You're way out of line here, Jane! I won't stand for this, and neither will our people!"
"I'm showing them that there's more to life than this shit!" I yell as more of the people from Hunter's Retreat seem to gather to our cause. This is going better than I had hoped! "I've been asking around, David, and what you've done to these people is disgusting. Four different women have claimed that you sexually assaulted them, kids have gone missing from this place before without you even bothering to send out a search party, and you've let these people sit here to rot and die for over two years!"
Glaring daggers at Clementine as she stands firm, David visibly starts to panic a little bit as he sees the possibility of his fucked up community falling around him. This jackass has been living off of these people's misery! While he gets the high life up in the nicer areas of the metro, with a big group of hunters protecting him and a group of people so whipped that they won't even open their eyes, David's gotten all the protection he's needed from the outside.
"You… you put them up to this!" David accuses, yet this time he's guessed correctly. "I should've fucking slammed the doors on you lot the second that I laid eyes on you! You're nothing but an upstart little punk with a chip on your shoulder, Clementine! You know nothing of the world or how it truly works yet! I've kept these people alive, and where's your group now, huh?! Where's Clementine's little army at?!"
Pointing to us down below, Clementine wears the cockiest grin I've ever seen as everyone in Hunter's Retreat come to see all the commotion. Even the ones on the upper floor are staring at us; looking concerned and groggy as if they've just woken up from a years-long nap.
"If that's the case, then why am I still standing with you right now? Why not just shoot me and show these people what you really are?" she demands as all eyes point towards him. "I'll tell you why you won't do that – because we outnumber you. You've screwed these people over long enough, and now it's time for you to step down. Get out, pack your things and leave. Nobody's going to fall for this bullshit again."
"…don't test me here, girl… You don't know who it is you're dealing with right now…" he snarls lowly as he shoves her to the ground roughly. Feeling another life or death situation coming on, I spring into action but have to make my way through a sea of people in order to make my way up the stairs. I've practically knocked over five different adults as I've moved, but by the time that I finally make my way up, I'm too late.
David's snatched Ellie up in his grip and has sprinted out the doorway with her in tow; Clementine hot on his heels as she screams bloody murder.