"What is that…?" Luke asked, in a hushed tone.
"Sounds like talking, and a little too close for comfort…" Christa said, quietly.
"Why are we whispering?" Clementine whispered.
"Just keep doing it, alright?" Christa said, ruffling Clementine's hair.
"O…kay…" Clementine said, scrunching up her face is confusion.
"What should we do?" Luke asked.
"Stay quiet…let them pass." Christa said. "It's all we can do."
"I don't like it. If they get too close we ain't gonna expect it, they'll catch us off guard. Why don't I check it out?" Luke said.
"You're exhausted, I don't need you toppling over and getting yourself killed. If they find you they'll search the area." Christa sighed.
"I-is someone going to hurt us…?" Clementine said, her breath getting shorter.
"No, fluffy, we'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you, remember?" Christa said.
"B-b-but I don't want you to be hurt either," Clem said, putting her hand in Christa's.
"I ain't gon' let either of you get hurt. I'm going to check it out." Luke said, grabbing his nearby machete and slipping it back in the holster.
Christa sighed and reluctantly handed him his pistol. "Don't screw this up."
Luke nodded and took the pistol. "Sit tight, I won't be long," Luke said, keeping low to the ground. He began to sneak towards the voices, who were still talking and cackling with each other. Just as he turned a corner in the forest he noticed three figures sitting in a circle. He gasped and hid behind a nearby tree, readying his pistol. He peeked behind the tree for a second before snapping back into cover.
"Yo, you see that?" One of the people said.
"Eh, it's that damn paranoia of yours. I didn't see anything." Another said.
Luke let out a sigh of relief, staying in cover for a few seconds. Noticing the three hadn't said anything. He went to peek again to see one of the men standing right in front of him. He grabbed Luke's shirt and threw him to the ground violently, taking out a pistol from a holster around his waist and aiming it at Luke. "The hell did you come from?" He interrogated.
"Tell 'im." One of the other men said, pointing a makeshift spear up to Luke's neck.
"Look, I don't want to hurt ya'll, alright? I come from a small settlement not far from here. I'm just out hunting." Luke said, rushing out a story.
"Yeah? Where is this place?" The man holding the gun asked.
"Look, just let me go, we can work this out," Luke said.
"I ask you a question, you answer, that's how this shit works, got that?" He yelled, angrily.
Luke opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say anything a loud gunshot rang in his ears. The man questioning Luke fell to his knees, before collapsing onto his front as a pool of blood gathered from his back.
He looked up to see Christa holding a smoking gun up where the man was standing. The two other men looked at the corpse before one of them clenched his fists and punched Christa across the face causing her to fall to the ground.
Luke quickly got up, grabbing the machete from his back and running over to the man with the spear, landing the machete in his head. He looked across to the other man who was holding a small revolver. Luke paused for a second before leaping to the ground, grabbing the pistol he had dropped and unloaded several bullets into the man.
"Shi-i-it. You okay?" He asked, standing back up to his feet, before holding his hand out to Christa.
Christa looked at Luke's hand for a second before smiling at him, taking his offer. "I'm alright. Ah,…he got me good, though." She said as she was helped back up to her feet, pressing her spare hand on her face where she was hit. Luke looked around at the bodies before picking up the revolver one of the attackers had, as Christa picked up the other man's pistol. "Grab anything else you can find, I need to get back to the baby, probably scared out of her mind."
He looked the bodies up and down, grabbing the holster on one of them, slipping his pistol in the back of his pants and the revolver into the holster.
Luke walked quickly back to the camp. Christa was already in the process of taking down the tent.
"Need any help?" Luke asked.
"Not with the tent, just…go check on Clem for me alright?" Christa said.
"Uh…I don't know..." Luke said.
"Look, I'm not asking you to babysit, just make sure she's good to get going," Christa said, still attempting to untie the tent. "And hey…thanks for taking care of those guys. I didn't know you held your own so well, my bad. But now we just need to get out of here."
Luke smiled before walking over to Clementine who was sat cross-legged on the other side of the camp. "Hey kid, you ready to move?" Luke asked, kneeling down in front of the tiny girl.
"I 'fink so. Are you ready?" Clem asked.
"Heh, yeah I think I'm good," Luke said, standing back up, looking over to Christa as she rolled up the tent.
"Alright, let's get moving. Think you can grab that bag for me?" Christa asked, looking over to a nearby dark green travel bag.
Luke did as he was asked, putting the strap over his head and around his torso. "What's in here?" Luke asked, noticing how light the bag was.
"That's our stuff. Nothing too exciting, a couple toys, ammo, clothes, diapers, that sort of thing." Christa said, picking up the backpack of food.
"She's still in diapers?" Luke asked.
"She's two years old, genius. Look, I'm working on stuff like that, it's hard to get things done when you're out here trying to dodge monsters." Christa said.
"Right. Okay, we should get things moving before…Christa! Get down!" Luke yelled, dropping to the floor.
Christa's eyes widened as she jumped to the ground, as a flurry of bullets passed over her. "Shit! He got me…"
"Think you can kill my friends and get away with it?" A deep and raspy voice shouted from the forest.
"Aargh…" Christa groaned, grabbing her shoulder. "I…it's okay, I'll be fine but-
"Get up or I swear to god I will shove this rifle up your ass and start firing!" The man growled, still firing in small bursts.
"C-Chrisda…" Clementine sobbed, keeping her voice down.
Christa looked over to Clementine and sighed, smacking her fist on the ground. "Grab her and run, I'll be right behind you," Christa said.
"What?" Luke questioned.
"I can't carry her like this, even if I do, I'll be slow and if I get caught I'm not taking her down with me. I'll start shooting at him, that'll distract him. You grab the baby and run, find a safe place and stay there, I'll find you." Christa explained quickly.
Luke sighed, hesitantly nodding his head in agreement.
"B-but…I…" Clementine said, her lip quivering, desperately trying to keep herself from bursting into tears.
"I need you to be my brave little girl, sweetheart. I need you to do that for me, and do whatever Luke tells you to, okay?" Christa said, as her eyes began to water.
"Hoo-boy, you people are fucked now!" The man in the forest said, shooting off the rifle again.
"Okay?" Christa repeated.
"O-okay…" Clementine gulped, her voice being a small squeak at this point.
"Ready?" Christa asked.
Luke nodded and readied himself to run.
Christa took a deep breath, taking her pistol and the other that she looted off one of the attackers, holding them both up. She quickly rolled around onto her back, her shoulder causing her blinding pain. She gritted her teeth, struggling through it as she shot both pistols blindly into the forest.
Luke took a deep breath, getting quickly back onto his feet, grabbing Clementine as fast as he could and sprinting into the forest as the girl he was holding cried for Christa, holding her arm over Luke's shoulder, trying to reach for her guardian.
So that's chapter 3, so far I'm loving this story, and I can't wait to continue it, and in my opinion, it only gets better from here.