Jane's POV
"But… but this is the only place we've really ever known! Most of us have raised families over here at some point!"
"It's not safe around here," I disagree as a couple of the less squeamish souls get to shoving Dave's lifeless body over the railing and into the water treatment sewers down below, where he'll most likely rot until something hungry comes along. Although, I doubt that even the walkers would want to touch something as nasty as that bastard. "Look, you do what you want, but I'm just telling you how it is. Where did you get your food from in the first place?"
Mulling it over for a few seconds, the older married couple sheepishly look towards each other before pointing over to David as he's finally tossed into the murky water below. Good riddance.
It turns out that the food that they were getting from David really was only the bare minimum. He'd have most of his hunters go out on scavenging runs, bring back the occasional deer or rabbit out from the wilderness, and hand off the expired food cans over to the hungry survivors that they had sworn to protect. When the situation had gotten most dire, people were actually trying to eat leftover dog and cat food just so that they could have a few more weeks to live if they were lucky. Most of the time, they weren't.
Sporting a knowing look on my face, I'm about to explain to them how staying here would be a huge mistake, but my voice is snuffed out when I spot Clementine off standing by herself; looking out a dirty window while Ellie sits on the bench and tries to keep it together. Some of the other kids have come to her side and have been keeping her occupied for the most part, but Clem's just standing there like a statue – watching. It's almost as if she's the only one in the room anymore.
If only I had been a little bit faster… maybe then she wouldn't have gotten messed up so badly…
"Jane?" the elderly couple ask me, trying to draw my attention back to them. I give them a little less than half of it. "What do you suggest we do then? If we can't stay here, then where else would we go?"
"…how are you doing on transportation?" I question, turning back towards them while still managing to keep a sharp eye on the fifteen year old. "Going out on foot with nothing to protect yourselves with is a dumb idea. Do you have any cars?"
"Well… David always kept a truck out back, but he never let any of us use it or come even close to it. Must've figured we'd break something or try to take off," the elderly lady replies as I remember that her name is Edna. Edna and Joe, that's who they are. Based off of appearances alone, you'd think that the two of them were just a frail, old couple who'd need all the help and support that we could muster, but if anything, they're more capable than a bunch of the others around here.
Still though, considering just how piss-poor the conditions have been in this metro, that's really not saying much.
"One of our people used to be a mechanic back in the day, so he could probably have it up and running in a jiffy. But…" Joe trails off, suddenly acting very anxious and concerned as more of the people start piling in.
Puzzled, I tilt my head to the side in anticipation. "But… what?"
"…you've seen us at our best – yes, our very best. Y'all came in on a good day if anything," he whispers so that the other residents can't overhear our conversation. "The cocaine that some of 'em think they're smoking up? It's scented chalk dust, nothing more. It's one of them placebo effects, you know? Making them think that they're getting an effect so that they can deal with all that we've been going through," he tells me as I start to fit the pieces together. That actually makes a lot more sense, seeing's how that amount of drug into their system probably would've caused those men and women to have heart attacks by now. They were literally inhaling fumes for hours on end. "How long would they be able to last out there? You said so yourself that the world outside is a dangerous place, and they're hardly able to move…"
Watching as Edna clutches softly onto her husband's wrinkly hand, smiling at each other with loving gazes, I realize that I'll have to try and suggest something pretty terrible, but not exactly out of my element. I had adopted an attitude of "survival of the fittest" for quite some time before spending the last few years with Clem and Lilly, but that sentiment sort of dissipated after a while. Under normal conditions, I'd say that we'd need to fit as many people on whatever trucks they can find and send them on their way to someplace secure, but having a bunch of stoned drug addicts who've become so addicted to chalk dust that they can barely stand is just going to slow them down. That's a risk that they can't take, not when they're out on the open road.
"You should take those that can move and function properly along with you. We'll head out back, clear out any walkers around, and get you and your people onto the trucks," I suggest before sighing deeply. This should be fun. "Anybody who can't move around… they have to get left behind."
"What?!"
"The only way you're going to live is if you get rid of the excess baggage," I illustrate, knowing fully well that heavy drug addicts won't be able to receive the same amount of help that they would in a normal, everyday society. We simply don't have the resources to help them anymore. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Cut off your loose ends and let them stay here – they can live out their days smoking up downstairs," I give them a snarky statement; trying to play it off as uncaring and emotionless as possible. I can't allow myself to care about these people too much, and simply try to give them a chance to start over and rebuild what they have.
That's what our group has to be about: second chances, along with giving people the opportunity to survive.
"Just… talk it over with your group some more. It's not an easy thing to swallow, I know," I continue, trying to sound a little less bitter than before. My gaze softens as it lands on Clementine once again, so I decide to break off the contact for now and check in. Joe and Edna nervously look over at their people, as if they're mentally preparing for whether or not they want to make the difficult choice of who stays and who goes.
Most of the kids that I pass by either ignore me or try to shy away, which I consider a blessing at this point in the ball game. I really don't feel like talking to anyone right now except for either Ellie or Clem, and right now, the latter only seems to be available for consoling.
With her fingers firmly grazing against the stone wall, Clementine stares blankly out the window; watching with troubled eyes as the smoke billows higher and higher across the field. Something sinister is happening over there, and our friends are all getting caught right in the middle of it.
More importantly to me anyways, Lilly's caught in the middle of all of it. That thought scares me more than anything else.
"Wanna talk?"
When Clem doesn't even budge an inch, acting as if I'm not even here, I realize just how shaken up the kid really is about all of this. Whatever David had said or done to her must have been pretty traumatic for her to clam up so tightly, as this usually only happens when the situation truly becomes desperate. Lilly had told me before about something like this happening way back when we were at the prison; saying how scared and hurt Clem looked when they had found each other.
"…I know what he wanted," she finally opens up as I'm about to make my exit. "He literally told me what it was, but I had figured it out before then. It didn't take a genius to know what David was trying to do. I could see it all over his face."
"Clem…"
Not stopping herself there, Clementine continues to reveal just what a sick fucker David turned out to be in his final moments, with my hatred of the asshole growing ever stronger. I can do nothing but listen as she vents about every single excruciating detail – from the way he licked his chapped lips, to the calloused hands that he had tightly wrapped around her neck, to the vulgar and demented things that he had said to her. Without missing a beat, she explains how close to death she had felt she was going, and how she had almost wished that he had just snapped her neck and been done with it; all just so that she could escape the trauma of it all.
Curiously enough though, she's actually not that visibly upset right now. It's almost as if she's become an entirely different person; putting on a stone-cold mask and not letting any kind of emotion come through. I can barely make heads or tails of what she's really going through, and the troubling part is that she's saying all of this as if it's just some average, run of the mill thing that she's gone through.
Death and killing is one thing, but potential sexual assault and rape is another matter entirely. That shit can destroy a person both mentally and physically.
"He wanted to hurt me so badly on that floor… but I still couldn't let Ellie kill him like that," she tells me; her eyes conveying the message almost perfectly as I understand where she's coming from. Once you let the anger and rage take control, there's almost nothing that can truly bring you back from it. "I'm supposed to be taking care of her, Jane. And I nearly let a nine year old girl beat a man half to death… What if… what if I'm a bad influence on her? What if I turn Ellie into a killing machine?"
"Hey now, none of that," I say, refusing to let Clementine beat herself up when none of this has actually been her fault. "Ellie's still alive because of you, Clem."
"What good is her being alive if she's gonna turn into a murdering psychopath?"
Biting my tongue and restraining myself from pointing out the irony of that statement, considering that the two of us aren't exactly angels ourselves, I instead stare out the same window and wait for her to continue speaking. Clearly there's more to all of this than she's letting on, so maybe if I play my cards right, she'll have less of a problem opening up to me.
Wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders, I pull her in close as I feel her body softly shaking against my side. The girl can put on a tough guise for as long as she wants to, but I know her better than she thinks I do.
After all, what are big sisters for?
"I'm… I'm scared, Jane…" she finally admits, her shields finally being lowered after such a long time of holding it all back.
Rubbing calming circles along her left shoulder, I spot Ellie staring over at us as I give her a slight smile. "I know," I tell her, offering up the only amount of sympathy I can physically give. "I think I am too, sometimes. I'm just way too stubborn to admit it. And you've got no idea how much Lilly would be poking fun at me for admitting something like that."
Giggling softly as she relaxes her head against the crane of my neck, Clem stays locked in that position as the tension surrounding us slowly dissolves. I've missed this – the nights that Clem and I could just be ourselves back at Houston Hills. Cracking jokes, keeping each other safe, and just enjoying each other's company… who could ask for more than that? It was better than I could've possibly asked for.
"Have you ever wanted to go back to how things were before?" I question softly, correcting myself before continuing. "I mean… just with a few of us? You, me, Lilly and Ellie out on our own. It's not as if we haven't done it before, and we could probably get by with what we have. We're pretty smart that way."
"And just abandon everything we've worked for?" she cracks the faintest of smiles. "I can't say that I haven't thought about it… just running off and finding a place to call our own… but…"
"There's no way we can go back now," I sigh, removing myself from my daydream and scolding myself for being so selfish about it. Sure, our own personal happiness is important and all, but to just fuck all that we've been fighting for and drop it down the toilet? Not only would that be a massive slap in the face, but I've no doubt that our group members would raise hell in trying to get us to stay.
…surely James could take over though, couldn't he? I mean, wasn't it really his and Bo's idea to create this team in the first place?
"Jane?" she suddenly asks me as I glance down at her face. Even at fifteen, she still somehow can maintain that childlike look of wonder and exploration. I wish she would show this side of her more often. "What… what was it like?"
"You're gonna have to be more specific there, kiddo."
"When you and Lilly finally grew some brains and got together," she elaborates, making me wonder why she's asking about this in the first place, "what did it feel like? How did you know that she was the one for you?"
Still managing to get all warm inside whenever I think about it, I tell her to walk down the hallway with me so that we can have this conversation a little more privately. Ellie's preoccupied with talking to the other kids her age, so we manage to sneak out of that room almost undetected. Seriously, I need like some sort of teleportation device or an invisibility machine around here!
Moving closer towards the back, I figure that the two of us may as well check out that truck Joe had mentioned to see if there are any walkers lurking about. There's a path down the hallway that leads straight outside, so we don't have to follow all of the various steam-filled pipes and whatnot in order to move.
"Gimme a hand with this," I usher her as she follows in behind me and grasps onto the big, metal door. On the count of three, we shove it forwards as the door screeches and groans. The light is blinding as we step out into the fresh air, and it takes a little while for my eyes to adjust as we stumble upon a hidden gem out in this dreary, depressing place.
It's some kind of grove by the look of it, with little forest animals scurrying about like squirrels, chipmunks and a various assortment of birds. There's an old swing set nearby with the chain holding it together starting to rust, but as soon as I spot the thing, I know that we've got to check it out. How many times are we going to be able to do something like this?
"…damn it…" Clementine mutters sadly, crouching down as she points ahead to a scene that's very difficult to watch. Five walkers stand a little ways away, with most of them being nothing more than walking piles of skin and bone at this point, but the heartbreaking thing is how short and young some of them seem to be. "That girl over there… she looks like she's no more than ten… That… that could've been me… or Ellie…"
A bright red backpack is still wrapped around the zombified girl's shoulders, leading me to believe that she hadn't managed to take it off before getting nabbed by something out here. The bites on her arms tell me that she definitely died from the infection spreading, but the poor thing looks as though she's been like this for quite some time. She may have been the same height and size for years now.
We've done this same routine a thousand times beforehand, so taking out the walkers isn't really a hassle for us. Sneaking my way towards the girl, I try not to think about what I'm doing as my knife is quickly dug into the back of her undead skull; sending brain matter to splatter out as her head hits the ground. Clementine takes out two more of the walkers with no issue, and I quickly dispatch the fourth with a swift kick to the knee and a blade buried right through its eyeball.
"Keep your head down," she tells me as a gunshot goes off; killing the fifth and final corpse as it drops dead with its fallen comrades. The noise is a bit concerning, but out in the open like this will allow us to spot them from nearly any direction. Plus, with Hunter's Retreat just a short walking distance away from us, we're pretty much safe for the time being.
"Nice work there, partner," I quip, reminded of that time back at Parker's Run when we were first getting to know each other a bit better. "Glad to see your walker-handling skills are still on point. I think that I was getting a little bit rusty back there, you know?"
Smirking with pride at the compliment, Clementine shrugs her shoulders before looking over at me pointedly. "You didn't answer my question," she inquires curiously, wanting to know the deets as I roll my eyes. "Oh come on, Jane! It's not dorky or anything! If I didn't get invited to the wedding, then the least you can do is to tell me what it was like!"
"There was no wedding, you goofball," I remind her with a chuckle, but I am interrupted as my eyes catch the glimpse of something in the distance. Although it hasn't been kept nearly as fresh and clear-cut as it would've been beforehand, I can still make out what this place actually is. "No fucking way…" I mutter while jogging straight ahead and getting an excited glimmer in my eyes as I encourage Clementine to follow me. This definitely isn't just a small grove, that's for sure.
Racing down the hill as I try not to trip over my own two feet, I hear Clementine yell for me to slow down as I move over towards the sand trap. The grass has become much too long for a solid round of the sport, but the golf clubs that have been left down there are more than enough incentive for me to try and take our minds off of David for a little while.
"Come on, you've gotta see this!" I holler at her, pumped to try and hit something with the driver as I yank it out of the golf bag. Unzipping the side pocket, I grin and shake my head in wonder as I'm thrown back to yet another time spent with Jaime. "Man, this takes me back… I wish we had one of those golf carts to start driving around. You up for a golf game, Clem? Bet you that I could hit that clubhouse from here!"
Setting up the small tee as I place it in the ground and delicately place the golf ball on top of it, Clementine scoffs and shakes her head. Clearly she underestimates my PGA-worthy athletic abilities over here.
"Yeah, okay," she remarks sarcastically as I try to line up the shot like how I was taught to years ago. "I'd bet my last comic book that there's no way in hell that you'll actually – "
Swinging with precision, I watch as the ball sails high up into the air and gets carried forward by the wind. With gravity doing its work, the ball is soon brought down until it smashes straight through the clubhouse window; leaving a tiny hole in the process as I smirk in victory.
"…hit it…" she trails off, sighing in defeat as she grabs the driver out of my hands. "Alright, set me up here, sista. How'd you smack the ball like that?"
Lilly's POV
It took a heavy amount of convincing, but Racheal and I finally managed to get Kelly away from his body and get back on the road. Elliot's gone now… gone but most certainly not forgotten. The shock of his death is still fresh in our minds, and Kelly's been feeling more burnt-out about it than any of us.
How are we going to explain this to everyone else back home?
"Quit dragging your feet back there," Racheal tells me sharply as I'm drawn out of my reverie. "Stay sharp, alright? We need you on point, and having your head in the clouds isn't going to help anyone."
"How about you keep your eyes forward and keep your opinions to yourself? I'm fine back here…"
Casting one last steely glance over at me, Racheal huffs before doing as I've suggested and focusing instead on getting around the mass of people surrounding Ranger's Grove. I had told the two hunters that were with us to report their losses back at their camp, but mostly it was just so that the three of us could be left alone. If they had just stuck to the original plan and stayed with the group, then maybe they could've been around to save Elliot's life. Instead, they went off gallivanting to try and find their dead brethren while leaving us almost completely defenseless to the oncoming attack, so forgive me if I'm a little bit reluctant to keep them around right now.
Kelly's moving about as quickly as a walker behind me; looking as though she had just lost her best friend. In a way she actually kind of did, what with the two of them being rather close and all, but truthfully I would've thought that Racheal would be more upset than either of us. She'd known Elliot the longest and had almost always stuck by his side, and yet when he died she barely batted an eyelid.
"Do you have any idea where we're going? This doesn't look like the way we came in," I remark as we pass by yet another sketchy alleyway. Everything seems so unfamiliar, from the graffiti-stained brick walls to the rat-infested garbage cans. The muffled shouting coming from the north is pretty worrisome too, yet none of us really know what's going on up there. Isn't Tracy supposed to be keeping those people in line?
"As long as we keep heading east, we'll be fine," she insists; keeping her distance as a random walker patrols the street nearby. "Just stick to the plan, Lilly. Don't do anything stupid out here – the sooner we get back to your, ahem, wife over there, the sooner we can all get the fuck out of this hellhole. I'm done with Missouri and all of this bull crap. We shouldn't have come here in the first place."
"Tracy and Joshua would've come to sweep over our home and kill us all, you know that," I reprimand as the three of us scoot across the road and out of sight. Kelly accidentally knocks into a garbage can in the process, but thankfully the walker is too busy now chasing after a wild dog to notice us. "Clem made the right call – we all did. At least now we're sure of what's out here."
"Ha! More like we're even further in the dark than we were before!" she disagrees, apparently feeling the urge to have a real, solid argument with me today. Blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes, Racheal stops for the rest of us to catch our breath before we go to run towards the next house. "If we hadn't come out here, then people wouldn't have gotten hurt, and we could've just weathered out the storm! No part of this trip has been a success, Lilly! Face it – we fucked up!"
"Don't you have a damn heart anymore, Racheal? Jesus Christ, give it a rest already!" Kelly tiredly belittles her. "We just lost Elliot, and yet again here you are trying to find somebody to blame for all of this mess! Can't you just quit trying to go after our own people for one day? Is that seriously too much to ask?"
Turning her head towards the medical assistant, Racheal bends down in front of her as she glares sharply and points back in the direction that we had come from. "I cared more about that kid than either of you did, so don't you dare try to say that I don't give a shit!" she retorts in fizzled-out anger, resorting to venting to the only people around who are able to listen. "Second, if somebody doesn't question these kinds of things, or stop to take a minute and think this stuff through, then we're just going to keep making the same exact mistakes as before. So until we finally start acting as a democracy and make the choices that are best for everyone, then no, Kelly – I won't stop. I can't live like that… knowing that the decisions we're making are putting the people I care about at risk. There's… there's just no way we can keep doing this kind of thing…"
"…no point in arguing about it right now though. We've got a job to do, remember?" I point out; wielding the fire axe that I had used with both hands as I motion for the two of them to get on their feet. "I'll check the street to make sure it's clear – when I give the signal, cross the street and come towards me. Is that a good enough plan for you, Racheal?"
Shaking her head and muttering something unintelligible, I take that as acceptance as I breathe deeply and get ready for yet another sprint. I know that the way things are run within the Fireflies isn't always perfect, and even I've come to question some of the methods that we've been using with recruitment and such, but I've grown to trust Clementine and what she can do. Besides, with Jane and I also having a hand in deciding what the best courses of action should be, I'd say that we've done a pretty decent job so far. Setting up connections out here is going to be one hell of a big step in securing a long-lasting peace, and it kind of makes me wonder why we hadn't tried something like this before. After the world ended, everyone kind of just started drifting away from each other instead of banding together to try and recreate the society we had lost. Nobody wanted to step up and try to make peace. Most of us either tried to kill each other or simply ignored one another so that we could live a life of complete solitude.
That's not living, that's just… being. We could've solved a bunch of these problems a long time ago.
Suddenly, as I start my run across the cobblestone road and try making my way over to an abandoned SUV, I hear the shouting and unrest even more loudly than it was before. Looking ahead, I can see dark pillars of smoke and the heavy scent of fire burning in the air – melting flesh that makes you want to vomit if you get too many doses of it.
That's definitely not normal, I think to myself as I see the soccer field; scattered with people as they all look pissed off for some reason. It's almost as if an angry mob has suddenly been released onto the world, with the same mentality of a bull seeing nothing but red. Gunshots are going off like crazy in the distance, and the mass influx of Rangers trying to restore order makes me want to get back to Alden and the others quickly.
"You promised us food and protection! Where the fuck is all that shit now?!" one of the people demand as a roar of agreement follows. However, before the man can even utter another sound, he's silenced by a gunshot to the head as his buddie scatter like leaves to the wind. It's utter chaos over there, and we're right on the outskirts of it.
"YOU AIN'T NO LEADER! YOU'RE A MINDLESS BARBARIAN!" one of them shout as they fire a machine gun over to the side; obviously trying to kill someone as he and some of the other people pull back towards some of the houses.
Realizing that it's now or never, I hurriedly wave Kelly and Racheal forwards before any of these lunatics spot us out in the open.
What the fuck is going on over in Ranger's Grove?
"You may want to call it in… tell Clem and Jane that we've gotta move…" Racheal suggests as a young woman out in the streets in pulled back by her hair and stabbed right in the back by another crazed soul.
Nodding in agreement, I flick the switch on and try to find a signal for this damn thing to work, but the reception out here is absolute shit. Perhaps if we could get to the roof back where Marcus, Alden, Katie and Kaz all are…
"C'mon, let's get going," I tell them as the young woman's agonized screams fill the air behind us.
Tracy's POV
This is madness. Pure, unadulterated, fucked-up madness, and I've got little to no control over any of it. Two hundred or so people to control… I should've known that it wouldn't last out here. Too many mouths to feed, and too many idiots who'd have little problem with taking out their guns and setting the whole place ablaze just for a little fun. Dozens of men and women are dead now thanks to these so-called "rebellions", and our people have been unable to restore order.
How was I supposed to know that we'd run out of food around here? Nobody told me that Missouri was almost completely tapped!
It had all started with one pathetic excuse of a man bitching about how he had eaten nothing but leftover crackers all week, but then again – all it takes is one little spark for the fire to take place. That one man's complaints had gotten a bunch of them talking and questioning just how long they'd last around here, and cared nothing for all the hard work we planned on doing to make Ranger's grove into a thriving, liveable community. I didn't intend for that bastard to get shot, but Joshua just couldn't help himself.
I'd string him up on the soccer light post myself if I actually knew where he scurried off to. That little rat has basically left me to the wolves.
Getting a swift punch to the face courtesy of one of the enraged assholes, I quickly pull out a pistol and shoot him right in the stomach before he can land another one on me. Crawling away to safety, I hear his terrified squeals as those who were once close to him turn into walkers and attack; ripping into his legs and feasting as if it were a Thanksgiving dinner. With so many people dying left and right, with bullet shells riddling the ground and bodies littering the soccer fields as people just try to maul each other over whatever supplies they have, I try to keep my head down and make my way towards the administrative office on the other side. Maybe if I get there in time, I can just lock the door, wait it out and sprint away before anybody notices that I'm gone.
There's still a few bags of food left securely in that office if I recall correctly, unless of course Joshua manages to…
…that son of a bitch!
Gritting my teeth in anger, I watch as Joshua cowardly climbs up to the rooftop and tries to smash through the window with the butt end of his gun; whimpering as he disturbs some of the wounds that I was foolish enough to fix up for him. How I had ever made him to be the second in command is beyond me, but I know what I'm gonna do to that pompous fucker once I get my hands on him.
The world would be a much safer place without a maniac like him wandering around.
"FUCK! PULL BACK! EVERYONE PULL BACK!" bellows one of the men who was in charge before we had arrived a little over a week ago. "WE'VE GOT BITERS OUT HERE! PULL BACK TO THE SUBURBS! WE CAN TAKE 'EM FROM THERE!"
Idiots, I think to myself as I roll over to my side and avoid getting trampled on by a few scared boys running for their lives. I never meant for all of this to happen, you know. I truly wanted this to be a chance for us, and for me to actually take the reins and lead a group for once. Who would want to fuck with us when we had an army of a couple hundred strong? There wouldn't be any reason for us to have to sleep out in the mud and the rain, and we would've finally been able to maintain a sense of normalcy in these troubling times.
But would anyone listen to me? No, of course not – none of these pricks would stop for a minute to try and see the good that I planned on doing around here, instead only seeing me as another fucking dictator who's only goal it was to make their lives even more miserable.
Well, fuck 'em! If they all want to die like animals out here, then who the hell needs them?! I can find my own way in life and leave every single one of these assholes behind! No repercussions, no nothing! I'm in control of my own destiny, and I certainly don't need these other people getting in my way!
"Joshua, you traitorous fucker! Get back here!" I yell as I finally manage to get over to the office building; groaning in anger as he disappears through the smashed window. Clambering up the pipe that drops down from the eavestrough, I have vengeance on my mind as my adrenaline keeps me going like a steroid. If that bastard thinks that he's getting away with the loot, he's got quite another thing coming.
Exhausted after finally managing to climb up, I stumble towards the window and furiously storm past shards of glass as Joshua looks over like a rat in a trap.
"Drop the bag right now, Josh! I'm not going to ask this again!" I warn, aiming my pistol right at his head as he gets a murderous glint in his eye. "This is what you were after the whole time, wasn't it?! You wanted me dead ever since we arrived, you ungrateful bastard! I gave you everything!"
"You never listened to a word I said, not even once!"
"That's because you were constantly trying to kill everyone!" I point out with indignity. "For fuck sakes, man! How am I supposed to trust a damn word you say when you're off torturing people and cutting off their limbs for fun?! That isn't normal! People don't do that sort of thing! I wanted to create, but you constantly wanted to destroy!"
Setting the food down carefully, Joshua slowly moves closer towards me before glaring and bashing my head against the picture frame behind me; shattering it into pieces as I'm forcibly thrown to the floor.
Taking out a photograph, Joshua forces me to look at the same girl he had shown me a very long time ago. She has brown, lightly-flowing hair that covers her eye from view, a small bandana wrapped around her head, and a tiny smile that compliments her face. The girl looks pretty soft-spoken, but as I've witnessed beforehand, looks can be very deceiving.
"I've asked you to help me look for Anne for over five fucking years now," he rages, kicking me in the side and pulling out a knife as he twirls it around precariously. "You told me you would; nodded your head and said you would come with me back to Georgia to help track her down. But did you ever follow through? Did you ever take the time to try and help me find her? Of course not – you were much too busy bossing me around and fucking our group in the ass."
Spitting blood out of the corner of my mouth, I snap at him darkly as Joshua pins me to the ground. "I saved you from a wild goose chase, you fucking psycho…"
"…do you know why her eye's covered like that? How she had gotten it that way?" Joshua suddenly questions as he flips me onto my backside. Slicing a part of my cheek with the knife, Joshua smirks devilishly as he starts to enjoy this far too much. If I could just reach that damn gun on the floor over there… "I really wish I could've drawn it out some more, you know. Anne deserved to be tortured more. It should've lasted longer than it did. You see," he continues as my breathing intensifies twofold, "she didn't have a whole lot of friends back then. Bullied constantly, and didn't really get a lot of sympathy from anyone. Except for one guy at school: me."
I try to reach my hand out to grab something, anything at all to help me gut this freak and end him once and for all, but Joshua instead drives the knife traight into my wrist and digs deep as I scream in pain and wriggle underneath his weight.
"Nuh uh, I don't think so, Tracy. Tsk-tsk, that was rude, you know – I was telling you a story," he mocks as the pain becomes almost unbearable. "Anyways, as I was saying, I came to Anne when we were younger. We played together, sang songs, drank beer when we knew we weren't allowed to, and just had a shitload of laughs back then. I really thought she was the one, you know? I thought that we had something special; something you couldn't just find out of nowhere," he reveals as I start to lose feeling in my left hand. "So one night, after we had swung back a few brews in the parking lot… I made a move. I thought she would care, and I thought she would love me as much as I loved her. But no… instead she broke away from me, saying she wasn't ready and that we weren't meant for each other. You're hurting me, she kept on saying, but I couldn't bear it. I couldn't bear the thought of not being with her. So when she went to run away, well… I made some adjustments."
Knowing fully well where this is going, I struggle to squirm away from him as he prepares to recreate the same scenario. This can't be happening… no, not by a fucking leech like him…
I scream and bellow for help as Joshua tilts my head back to the floor, chuckling sinisterly as the knife gleams with my fresh blood.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGHGHHHHHHHHH!" I screech as he slams my head and drives the knife directly into my eyeball; yanking it out before immediately going to the next one and striking again. My body recoils in shock and convulsions as I cry tears of red; falling over as he finally releases his hold on me.
"You were partly right about me, you know…" he states smoothly as if he's done nothing wrong. "But torturing people? Much more satisfying than killing, Trace. Have a nice life."
"YOU FUCKER! GAAAAAHHHHH!" I belt out in anger as I hear him pick up the food bag and calmly walk away without another word, leaving me to rot as I thrash about violently. I've been blinded for life by my own former ally.
But maybe I was just blind to what was in front of me the entire time.
AN: Aqua, if you're reading this, I'm sorry if I got that backstory wrong, but I needed an explanation that would kind of suit his personality somewhat. Your OC is absolutely terrifying lol.
And I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter out – I know, three or four weeks is a long wait. I've been kind of distracted with other projects and things in my life recently, but hopefully this chapter will have made up for it.
Lastly, I'm going to try and include more light-hearted and happy moments in this story like the golfing thing that you had just read about. I think that some of the charm from the original story has been lacking with these, partly due to the overwhelming number of OC's, but also because I've been getting so caught up in my own ideas lately. So yeah, expect to see more focusing on Lilly, Jane and Clem together in the coming chapters, and hopefully you guys will enjoy that.
Anyways, let me know what you guys thought of this chapter! I'm really happy that we managed to surpass 156 reviews, which beat the number from the first story, so please leave me your feedback! It's always appreciated, and I'll almost always try to get back to you guys through PM.
However, for the recent guest user who reviewed, here is my response:
Guest: I'd like to think that they won't just axe off Kenny and Jane early in season 3. For them to develop and make them into two such important characters in season 2, and to give you the option to stay with either of them in the end, it would seem like a huge slap in the face to just abandon them like that. Hopefully we'll get to spend some more time with them, otherwise the endings will have pretty much meant absolutely nothing. Give us some character development, please! We'll just have to hold onto some hope :)
Ok, that's all I've got for this chapter, so thanks for reading, and as always, stay classy, folks XD
Leafs Nation