Chapter 2: Brief Farm Life.
Taking a few deep breaths, Arthur calmed himself and reviewed the situation. He was in the year 2010, and some sickness made people into rotting corpses that could walk around. With one instinct, to eat the living. Arthur lightly kicked the dead girl he had stabbed through the head with his knife moments ago. Her body was decaying, rotting away and she certainly smelled dead.
"Please don't…" Clementine, the little girl he and Lee had come across whispered out. She was slowly backing away, while eyeing the corpse of the dead girl. "She was my babysitter…"
Arthur sighed to himself. He was such a damn fool. "Sorry… You umm, want me to bury her maybe?" Arthur offered, it was obvious that before turning into a flesh-eating monster, this girl and Clementine had been close.
"… That would be nice." Clementine spoke in a low hushed voice. Arthur wasn't sure if she was scared of him and Lee, or if she had just gotten used to staying quiet in fear of these monsters hearing her.
"Alright… you got a shovel around somewhere?" Arthur carefully asked, not wanting to spook her with any sudden movements. Clementine nodded and pointed to a shed outside in the backyard. Arthur nodded, and made his way towards the shed while Lee looked after Clementine.
"You think we have the time?" Lee asked, clearly worried about their safety here.
"I will be quick… We got a few hours of daylight left." Arthur grabbed the dead body of Clementine's babysitter by the ankles and dragged her out to the backyard. Going to the shed, Arthur found a bunch of tools. Some that could probably be useful to bring. Grabbing a hatchet from a workbench, Arthur put it in his backpack. Then he grabbed the shovel he came for.
Not overthinking it, Arthur started digging a hole by the tree. He didn't have time to dig a deep hole, but enough to fit a body at least. Lee and Clementine joined Arthur out in the backyard, watching as Arthur dug the hole. A little under an hour later, Arthur wiped the sweat from his brow. This Georgia heat was intense. Arthur then dragged the corpse into the hole, and started shoveling slabs of dirt onto it. "Alright… What was her name, sweetie?" Arthur asked while using his hatchet to chop a plank of wood from the deck of the backyard.
"Sandra…" Clementine sadly mumbled out the name, sniffling a little trying to hold back her tears.
"Alright…" Using his knife, Arthur carved the name Sandra onto the plank of wood, and used it in place of a tombstone at the head of the grave. "… She's in a better place now, I'm sure." Arthur was a bit awkward in these types of situations, he was good at writing down his thoughts, but not so good at expressing them.
"Thank you…" Clementine grabbed a hold of Arthur's hand, her tiny hand holding onto him tightly. Arthur looked in her eyes and saw genuine gratitude. Clementine then hugged Arthur tightly, sobbing into his coat. Arthur felt his heart melt a little, unsure of what to say, he just gently patted her on the back.
"It's okay kid…" Taking a look up, Arthur saw the smiling face of Lee. Who gave a respectful nod at Arthur. The two shared a look of understanding, they had to keep this girl safe, or at least find some safer place for her to be.
"What should we do now?" Clementine asked.
Lee put his hand on her shoulder, and knelt down to her eye level. "We need to get out of here before it gets dark."
"Yeah, it's not safe at night…" Clementine agreed, hesitantly looking at her treehouse. Like she was contemplating staying there for the night.
"Lee is right, we should leave before nightfall. These things… might be more active at night. I don't know… it will also be harder to see them." Arthur voiced out his concerns, especially seeing as Sandra hadn't made a sound as she snuck up on Arthur and Lee. These man-eating folk could be stealthy. "Alright, I recon I lead… you two stick closely together now." Arthur reached into his backpack, and took out his newly acquired hatchet. They needed stealth in this situation with the already limited amount of ammo they had.
Lee was ready holding the hammer Clementine had brought from the treehouse. Seeing this, Arthur reached towards his trusted hunting knife, he held it out by the blade with the handle pointed at Clementine. "Here."
"Whoa, man. What do you think you are doing?" Lee put his arm before Clementine starring at Arthur with a raised brow.
"Giving her a weapon to protect herself with." Arthur responded looking a little baffled at Lee's reaction.
"She's just a kid man. She shouldn't have to use those kinds of things." Lee argued, and Arthur responded with a sigh.
"She shouldn't have to do a lot of things…" Arthur took one look at Clementine, and saw she looked at the knife. Although was unsure of herself, and Lee seemed to be firm in his decision. Rolling his eyes, Arthur put his knife away. "We ain't got time to argue… let's just go." Moving towards the gate leading out to the suburbs, Arthur suddenly came to a halt as he heard rattling sounds. "Quiet… something's up ahead…" Arthur whispered and readied himself by raising up his hatchet. Slowly inching towards the gated fence, Arthur saw many abandoned cars out on the road.
Then Arthur spotted two young men pushing one of the cars, before letting out a tired sigh. "Maaan… I ain't never getting home to mama at this rate." The taller out of the two men whined.
"This sucks." The shorter darker haired man sighed, fighting back the urge to kick the car.
"Aw, it's hot dish night." The tall fat one complained.
They hadn't noticed Arthur, Lee and Clementine and continued to try and push the car out of the way. "What you reckon?" Arthur whispered to Lee, his careful outlaw instincts telling him to be wary of these strangers and wondering if they were a threat.
"I…" Lee whispered back, although stopped as he noticed Clementine lagging behind. Turning around to the hesitant little girl, Lee asked. "What's the matter?"
"Should I stay?" Clementine asked.
"What?" Lee asked a little confused.
"I don't want to sleep in the treehouse tonight, but I don't know if I should leave… What if my parents come home?" Clementine was obviously conflicted on the matter, and neither Arthur nor Lee could tell her they believed her parents were already dead.
"We won't leave you alone…" Lee quickly assured, causing the little girl to smile.
"Let's go somewhere safe that is close, ok?"
"That's a good idea." Lee agreed.
Arthur sighed, looking a bit hesitant. "Sure… We can do that. If we can somehow make it back to the highway. Maybe we could take Francis' car… he had a lot of supplies packed in there." Arthur suggested, as it probably was the best course of action. Lee seemed to agree, although Clementine looked a bit worried.
"But… the monsters were all close to the highway." She was right in that, on their way through the woods from the highway to Clementine's house. Lee and Arthur had encountered a lot of those dead people.
"We'll be okay… if we act smart about it." Arthur assured. He knew how to sneak around armed guards. How hard could it be sneaking around dead brainless monsters?
"Yeah, we're smarter than them. We'll be fine." Lee added comfort to Clementine's concerns and she seemed to like the idea.
"Okay… well, what about those two?" Arthur said as he looked at the two young men who still hadn't noticed them.
"What about them?" Lee asked shrugging his shoulders, clearly not seeing the problem.
"You think they could be dangerous?" Arthur asked, and Lee seemed a little baffled at the question. Arthur had a hard time remembering this was a civilized world now, or at least what used to be a civilized word.
"I don't think so… They don't seem like bad people." Lee said taking a look at them, they just looked like a couple of farm boys.
"… Well, I don't see any weapons on them." Taking a quick moment to think about their next course of action, Arthur gave a small nod. "Okay, let's go introduce ourselves." Clementine moved to the gate, and pushed it open. It sounded like the hinges hadn't been oiled for some time, as they made a squeaking noise loud enough to get the farm boys' attention.
"Whoa!" The short one turned around looking spooked, and the big one held his hands up.
"Don't eat us!" He pleaded.
"Take it easy." Arthur held his hands up, although still holding onto his hatchet his grip on it was loosened.
"We're not going to hurt you." Lee put the hammer onto his belt, and held his hands up. The two men seemed to be a bit relieved as they all took a deep breath.
Quick to defuse the situation, the two men looked to calm down, with the shorter dark-haired one breathing out a sigh of relief. "Phew, thought for a second you two and the little one were going to give us the chump."
Arthur found it weird that defusing the situation was that easy, had it been in the wild west most strangers would have their guns drawn if you got too close. "Yeah, well… we just need some help is all."
"You looking to get out of here? Because you should. These things are all over the damn place… Haven't seen a neighborhood this bad since downtown Atlanta, fifteen miles back." The short dark-haired one pointed out, which had Arthur wondering.
"It's that bad in the city now? I couldn't have left more than a… couple of hours at most. Other than the city riots it didn't look that bad to me." Arthur constantly thought back now to the crowd of people he and Francis left behind as they started their journey. Remembering the innocent folk there, the women and the children.
"Yeah, well the sound of the riots masked a lot of the screams from when those things walked in. The riots turned into pure chaos, we barely got out ourselves. I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene." The short dark-haired one introduced himself.
"Arthur Morgan…" Arthur briefly introduced himself.
"I'm Lee. This is Clementine." Lee introduced himself and the nervous Clementine who constantly hid behind him.
Seeing the nervous girl, the gentle big guy went down on one knee and waved. "I'm Chet." He briefly introduced himself to Clementine, seeming to ease her mind as now they weren't all strangers. At least by her standards.
Shawn took a quick look around, most likely looking to see if any of the dead folk were about to sneak up on them. "We shouldn't be out here in the open. How about you guys help us clear the way and we'll take you, and your friend and his daughter out of here and to my family's farm. It should be safer there." Shawn suggested, clearly thinking Lee was Clementine's father considering they shared similar ethnic backgrounds.
Lee however, quickly interjected with. "I'm not her dad… I'm…" But his words got caught in his throat, like he wasn't sure what to say. After all he was a criminal.
Arthur noticing this, quickly took control of the situation. "Lee here crashed on the way out from Atlanta. Me and my… cousin tried to help him in the wreck. Then those things came out of nowhere, killed my cousin, me and Lee ran and came across Clementine hiding in her treehouse. She's been… alone for a few days it would seem." Arthur figured it was best to be honest with Shawn, at least to some degree. Arthur figured it wasn't strange of them to decide to help out a girl all alone in these times.
"She's… all alone?" Shawn asked a little surprised that such a little kid survived for a few days in this by herself. "Well, we better get moving, staying put for too long is a mistake."
"I agree… But first, any chance you uh, could help us get back to the highway to Atlanta. My cousin's car was left behind, it had a lot of supplies. Would be a shame to leave all of it sitting there, you know…" Arthur figured he could take Francis' car, and use it to help find Lee and Clementine somewhere safe, and then set out to find those rock carvings to go back to 1899.
"Yeah, sure… We can try that." The moment Shawn agreed, Arthur got to work. And helped Chet push a car to clear the way.
"Wow… that was easy." Chet commented, then looked to Shawn with a taunting grin. "Better watch out Shawn, Arthur here has got you beat. I hardly even pushed the thing."
"Yeah, yeah, shut up and push Chet." Shawn and Chet shared a friendly chuckle.
Then the sudden sound of moaning and groaning came their way, as a couple of rotting corpses walked around the corner. "Them monsters coming, we better hurry!" Chet seemed to panic.
"Calm down and push the damn thing!" Arthur groaned as they pushed a second car out of the way. "Alright, come on! Let's go!" With the second car pushed out of the way, Shawn quickly made a run for the driver's seat of his pickup truck. With Lee and Clementine hoping into the seat next to him. "Come on you fat bastard!" Arthur dragged Chet up, as they jumped into the back of the truck, and they drove off.
As they were driving away, Shawn turned to Lee. "For just some guys, you seemed to have saved a few lives today."
The drive didn't last long, they reached the highway leading into Atlanta. And as they did, Arthur peeked up and his jaw went slack. "Sweet mother of-" Black smoke was beginning to rise from within Atlanta. The city he left a few hours ago had descended into chaos.
"Yeah, like Shawn said… chaos." Chet shook his head.
"Where is your car?" Shawn asked from the driver's seat.
"Should be up ahead… I don't like the look of this. Y'all stay here, I will go and check for the car on foot with Shawn as backup." Arthur jumped out from the back of the truck, and walked over to the window where Lee sat. "Here, take this… If trouble comes, start shooting and we'll come running back." Arthur handed his fully loaded Glock to Lee.
"You sure? I mean those supplies can't be worth all the trouble." Lee was having second thoughts on this.
"Well, maybe not… But every bit would help. Anyway, I will go take a look. Come on Shawn." Arthur and Shawn, who hesitantly followed Arthur down the highway.
Arthur handed his knife to Shawn, and they made their way down the highway. "Alright, let us keep it quiet… Those things can be lurking around." Arthur noted as the sun was about to go down, they needed to get this done before nightfall.
After a stealthy walk down the highway, they finally came across Francis' car. "Aww, hell!" Arthur held his voice back as much as he could, but he couldn't help but feel frustrated as he noticed the back of the car had been forced open.
"Fucking hell…" Shawn mumbled as they inspected the car. It had been looted for every crumb of food, water, blankets and the camping gear Francis had brought for the trip to find the rock carvings. "Looks like they even syphoned the tank for gas." Shawn noted, and shook his head. "Sorry Arthur."
"Dammit all. Fuck." Arthur groaned, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Even this future timeline wasn't short of looters and thieves.
"Shit, hide!" Shawn whispered as they hid behind Francis' car, as a truck drove by. "Wait, it's the military…" Shawn noted, he nearly even stood up to wave at the soldiers. Put Arthur quickly pulled Shawn down to hide. "Ah! Hey, what are you doing?" Shawn whispers.
"Look…" Arthur noted as the truck stopped, and US national guard troops stepped out armed to the teeth. As a family came running out from a car up ahead, while being chased by the dead.
"Help us!" The dad of the family called out, but quickly collapsed as the crackling shot from one of the soldier's rifles echoed and tore through the dad's skull. The mother screamed in shock, holding onto her crying son, but both went silent as the soldiers gunned them down.
"Targets down. Count four corpses coming our way." A soldier called out, as the soldiers gunned down the four rotting corpses.
Shawn was shellshocked, quickly following Arthur in hiding out of sight. "Holy shit… they killed them… They fucking gunned that family down."
"If we go out there… they will either think we're one of them. Or that we are infected. I don't think these army boys are taking any chances." Arthur held onto his Colt Python, if he had to gun down these army men to survive, he would. "We should sneak back…" Arthur waited a little, until the army guys drove into the city. They were here to fight no doubt. "Come on…" With the army truck out of sight, Arthur and Shawn made their way back to Shawn's pickup truck.
It didn't take long before they returned to the truck, with the lights on the truck turned off, and with Lee, Clementine and Chet laying low and nearly out of sight. The army men who drove by probably didn't notice them. Shawn entered the driver's seat, looking shocked as he started the car.
"What's going on? What happened?" Lee asked, noticing they had come back without any supplies.
"Car had been looted. The supplies are gone. Let's just go to Shawn's family farm." Arthur jumped into the back of the truck with Chet, rubbing the bridge of his nose feeling tired as nighttime came.
Not wanting to scare Clementine, neither Shawn or Arthur spoke of the army driving by, and gunning a distressed family down along with the walking dead corpses. A few hours of driving in silence, they arrived at Shawn's family farm in the middle of the night.
Chet jumped out from the trunk of the car, and looked to Shawn. "Hey, Shawn… I'm 'a run on home. My mama's gonna be in a snit."
"No sweat man. I will catch you tomorrow night." Shawn casually shrugged.
Chet turned to Arthur, Lee and Clementine. "It was nice to meet you guys." With that, Chet walked away offering them a parting wave.
The door to the farm house suddenly opened, and out came a balding white haired old man. "Thank God, you're okay." The old man smiled upon seeing Shawn.
"I was worried it would be bad here too." Shawn embraced the old man in a hug, and the man returned the hug giving Shawn a firm pat on the back.
"Been quiet as usual the past couple of days. Ol' Breckon down the way thinks his mare has gone lame but that ain't nothing new." The old man who was Shawn's father acted so casual despite the situation of the world. Probably because it hadn't affected him yet.
"I wouldn't have made it back without Chet." Shawn said, maybe as a way to tell his father how serious things were in the city.
"Well, I'm glad you took him with you then. I see you've brought a couple of guests." The old man turned to look at Arthur, Lee and Clementine.
Lee was the first to speak. "Your boy is a lifesaver."
"Glad he could be of help to somebody." The old man acted too casual around them. Almost like he was trying to figure them out. He in particular looked at Arthur with suspicion. "Hmm, I take it you all aren't related. Did you stumble upon this man and his daughter before meeting Shawn?"
"Oh, Lee's not her dad. He and Arthur found Clementine all alone at her house." Shawn cleared up the misunderstanding, but it seemed to have his father grow more suspicious.
"Honey, do you know these men?" The old man carefully asked Clementine.
"Yes…" Clementine nodded after a brief pause.
"We ran away from those man-eating things, and stumbled onto her all alone at her house. Did what any decent man would do, and helped her. That is all." Arthur crossed his arms, not really liking getting such suspicious looks from this old man.
"I see, well that's good." The old man eyed the guns holstered onto Arthur's belt, his knife and hatchet, and the shotgun strapped to his shoulder. "Do you regularly carry firearms with you?"
"I do whenever I go hunting, yes. And whenever man-eating things try and kill me." The old man probably was worried if Arthur was a bad man. Granted, Arthur Morgan viewed himself as anything but a good man. He was a bad man who tried to be good, and there were a whole lot worse men out there than him.
"Well, while on my land I would appreciate if you don't carry them around in the open. It's safe enough here as it is." At this Arthur got a little jumpy, he wasn't about to give away his weapons like that.
"With all due respect sir… But I don't think you know what safe means nowadays." Arthur pointed out, as with the world as it was now one could never be too careful. It was more like the wild west than modern times now, danger could be around every corner.
"Well, my farm, my rules." The old man was rather stubborn. And it being in the middle of the night, Arthur knew it was unwise to try and go out now with those things roaming around.
"Come on man, it's just for one night." Lee tried to negotiate with Arthur. Arthur was still hesitant, but taking one look at the worried Clementine changed his mind. With a heavy sigh, Arthur unbuckled his gun belt and put them in the trunk of Shawn's pickup truck. Arthur then put the hatchet and the shotgun onto the back of the truck as well.
Then he turned around to the old farmer. "I am keeping my knife on me." Arthur compromised, and the old man accepted it with a nod.
"Thank you." The old man then took notice of Lee, or more specific his leg. "Looks like you hurt your leg pretty bad there."
"Yeah, it's not doing so good." Lee could hardly walk let alone run, and as things were now that could be a death sentence.
"Well, I could take a look at it for you. Shawn, head on inside and check on your ma and sisters. They've been pretty worried. You go and take a seat up on the porch and I will go and see what I have that could help." As instructed, Lee limped his way over to the porch. Arthur crossed his arms and leaned in against Shawn's truck.
"Is Lee going to be okay?" Clementine sticking with Arthur asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Yeah, kid. I think he'll be fine. The old man seems to know what he is doing." Arthur assured the concerned Clementine. Even though back in the day, with a wound like that if it got infected it meant cutting the leg off. But with modern medicine, Arthur guessed that wasn't a problem.
Clementine looked to the back of the truck where Arthur's guns were. "… Do you think it's not safe here?" Clementine looked on edge.
"What?" Arthur was a bit caught off guard at the sudden question.
"You said to that man when he asked you to put your guns away that it wasn't safe…" Clementine clarified, and Arthur quickly realized why she was worried.
"Oh, nah it's just me being silly. I'm sure we'll be safe here for tonight. It's just that guns make it easier to stay safe from those monsters. Then again… maybe not, they do make too much noise. But don't you worry, I won't let anything happen to you or Lee." Arthur put his hand on Clementine's head, ruffling her hair underneath her baseball cap.
"Hey, careful." Clementine whined in-between giggles.
"Oh, I'm sorry little lady. Forgot you ladies worry about your hair." Arthur scoffed with a lighthearted chuckle. "Me and Lee will keep you safe. We'll all keep each other safe. It'll be okay." With that Clementine brightened up with a smile, and ran over to see how Lee was doing.
Taking one last look at his guns, Arthur sighed and walked over to join Lee and Clementine with the old man. "How you feeling?" Arthur asked as he walked up to Lee.
"Oh, you know, hurts like hell." Lee casually shrugged.
"It's pretty swollen. But I think he'll be okay after a little rest once I have disinfected the wound." The old man said while checking on Lee's leg. "I'm Hershel, Hershel Greene."
"Arthur Morgan." Arthur and Hershel introduced themselves to each other, and Arthur sat himself down on the stairs to the porch next to Clementine.
"How'd this happen again?" Hershel asked as he disinfected Lee's wound.
"Car accident." Lee was quick on the reply.
"Oh yeah? Were you both in the car?" Hershel looked over at Arthur.
"No… I was driving with my cousin out of Atlanta. Saw Lee's car here drive off road, and went to help him. My… cousin got killed, and I helped Lee escape and we found Clementine here." Arthur told as much of the truth as he could, of course he knew Lee wanted to leave out the part of him being in a police car at the time of the crash.
"Oh? Where were you headed?" Hershel asked a follow-up question.
"We was heading to Blackwater, Missouri. My brother and his family are there." Arthur awkwardly coughed as he didn't mention the fact that he had to also travel back in time to get there.
"I see, well, I hope they are okay. It's a long trip, but maybe things aren't so bad there." Hershel was a kind man, but also a careful man. Arthur didn't blame Hershel though. "And you?" Hershel looked to Lee.
"Macon… My family is there." Lee carefully replied.
"Hmm, well… The house is full up with my own family. And we got another displaced family of three sleeping in the barn. The three of you are welcome to stay there for the night." Hershel kindly offered. It was at least better than nothing.
"And our weapons? I may not be allowed to carry them around your property, but I would appreciate having them close by." Arthur didn't have any reason to distrust Hershel or his family. But with Francis' car having been looted, Arthur wasn't taking any chances and wanted to keep their means of defense close by.
"That is fine, you can bring them into the barn." Hershel relented. Then the kind old man turned towards Clementine. "I didn't catch your name darlin'."
"Cle-Clementine…"
"Can't imagine what you have been through Clementine." Hershel then returned to bandage up Lee's leg.
"We're looking after her till we can find her parents…" As Lee said that, Arthur gave him a look. He didn't speak up about it, but Arthur knew Lee heard the same messages left by Clementine's mom on the phone. Arthur firmly believed that Clementine's parents were dead, but of course he couldn't say that in front of Clementine.
"Is that so? I take it you are putting your trip on hold then?" Hershel looked to Arthur seeing as Arthur did say he was headed to Blackwater.
"Yeah… looks like it." In truth Arthur wasn't in a rush, but he also kind of didn't have a choice at this point. "At least… until Lee's leg is all healed up. And Clementine is brought somewhere safe."
Before anything else could be said, Shawn walked out from the front door to talk to Hershel. "Hey dad, so I'm thinking, first thing tomorrow we've gotta reinforce the fence around the farm."
Hershel quickly dismissed Shawn by saying. "That doesn't seem necessary." This seemed to annoy Shawn who visibly frowned.
"I don't know what you saw on the TV, or heard on the radio, but there is some serious…" Shawn held his tongue for a brief moment as he looked behind him and saw little Clementine, so Shawn carefully whispered his next word. "…Shit hitting the fan. I don't think anyone knows how big it is yet."
"Your son's right. You're going to want to fortify this place." Lee was quick to agree with Shawn.
But Hershel remained stubborn about it. "Stuff like that doesn't happen around here Shawn."
"Dad, I'm serious! Arthur, Lee, come on tell him what you guys saw out there." Shawn continued to argue with his father.
"The kid is right… if you don't fortify this place, you are going to regret it. And your family might end up paying the price for it." Arthur shared his opinion, which seemed to affect Hershel deeply as he looked to be in deep thought. "Things are changing… and they ain't changing back anytime soon. I saw a lot of those… undead things around. One of them pulled down and tore out my cousin's throat with its teeth."
With a relenting sigh, Hershel agreed. "Do what you think is best… but we still got plenty of chores as it is."
"Arthur, Lee and those folk in the barn could help out in the morning. We need to do this, really." Shawn added as they had the manpower needed to do all the chores around the farm, plus fortifying the fence.
"I already said ok." Hershel shook his head, as Shawn with a satisfied look on his face returned back inside the house. "Well, I'm all done here. Should start feeling better tomorrow."
"Thanks." Lee looked with gratitude as he inspected his patched-up leg.
"If your leg gets hot or the swelling doesn't go down… you are probably dealing with an infection."
"What do we do then?" Lee asked sounding a little worried.
"We'll probably just have to shoot you." Hershel said sounding serious, holding his finger out like a gun while doing so. Arthur looked with a raised brow, while Clementine and Lee both looked spooked. Hershel lightly chuckled as to say he was joking. "We'll clean it and redress it, and you will be fine." He assured which had Lee breathe a sigh of relief.
"Hehe…" Arthur chuckled a little, Hershel had his kind of sense of humor. Clementine however was not so amused as she looked over at Arthur. "Sorry…"
"There are blankets and such in the barn. We'll be seeing your bright and early tomorrow." With that Hershel wished them goodnight, and they made their way over to the barn. With Arthur first going to Shawn's truck to pick up his weapons that he carried with him into the barn. In the barn, laid out two extra bedrolls.
"Take them, I will be fine." Arthur assured as he ended up sitting leaning up against the wall.
"You sure?" Lee double checked.
"You are the one with the injured leg. And I ain't about to take a little girl's bed. It's fine." Arthur assured, as he closed his eyes to get some rest.
Clementine wrinkled her nose as she laid down. "It smells like…"
"Horse shit." Arthur chuckled from where he sat, and then Clementine gasped.
"You said a swear…"
"Arthur…" Lee groaned a little, trying to sound scolding but the time traveling cowboy only chuckled in responds.
As they laid there, the sound of crickets chirping in the hot summer night, Clementine sadly mumbled out. "I miss my mom and dad."
"I bet, Clem."
"How far is Savannah?" Clementine asked sounding a little hopeful that maybe they could go there.
"Pretty far…" Lee replied, sadly dashing her hopes a little.
"Oh, okay…" Clementine silently closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. It had been a long day.
Arthur sat there leaned up against the corner wall of the barn, taking a long sigh as he felt sorry for Clementine. There was nothing he could do to make it better, Arthur knew that. And he thought Lee knew it too. Best thing they could do, was to make sure she stayed alive and safe. Better get some rest. Arthur thought to himself as he closed his eyes, keeping one hand on his gun belt next to him.
Arthur woke up bright and early, everyone else was still asleep. The sun had hardly risen. Looking over at his holstered guns, the shotgun from the dead cop, and the hatchet Arthur groaned as he remembered he couldn't carry them around Hershel's property.
"Hey…" A voice called out to him. Arthur looked up and saw a man in the other corner of the barn where the other family had been sleeping.
"Hey." Arthur greeted back, as the man got up and put on his fisherman hat. The mustached man walked over to Arthur and took notice of his guns.
"I'm Kenny." He introduced himself, looking to be taking note of the firepower Arthur had with him.
"Arthur… Arthur Morgan." Arthur accepted Kenny's handshake as he got up.
"So, Hershel took you lot in as well, huh?" Kenny asked as he also noticed the sleeping Lee and Clementine.
"Yeah… We came here pretty late last night. You?"
"Oh, a day or so ago. My truck broke down so I've been trying to get it up and running again before we move on." Kenny revealed as he grabbed a toolbox he had stashed inside the barn, ready to go and work on his truck. "How about you? Just needed a place for the night, or?"
"Yeah, pretty much. My friend there was hurt in a car accident, Hershel took a look at it for him. We're heading on out of here later today."
"Oh yeah? Where to?" Arthur didn't have a good answer to that question, he was most likely just going to tag along with Lee and Clementine wherever they were going for now.
"Well… I was supposed to head to Missouri. But it's far, you know… Until I can figure out what to do, I'm going wherever they are. Which is Macon I suppose." Arthur said as he nodded towards the sleeping Lee and Clementine.
"I see… are you a friend of their family or something?" Kenny looked with a raised brow, as Arthur, Lee and Clementine clearly weren't related.
"No… I helped Lee in his car crash and uh… We found Clementine all alone in her house. Couldn't leave her by herself, so guess we're looking after her for now anyway." Kenny nodded in responds, looking a little impressed.
"Poor kid… You looking for her folks then? Any idea where they might be?" Kenny much like anyone else they have met so far, showed great sympathy for Clementine.
"…" Making sure Clementine was still sleeping, Arthur looked over at her quickly. And to be extra cautious he whispered back to Kenny. "I think they might be… you know." Not needing to say anything else, Kenny got the idea and looked with wide eyes.
"Oh… shit. She doesn't know, does she?" Kenny asked and Arthur merely shook his head.
"And for now, we're keeping it that way. Can't have her lose all hope." Kenny understood, nodding his head he silently swore he wouldn't say a word about it to Clementine. "Well, Hershel wanted us all to help with some work around the farm. His son Shawn, wants help fortifying the fence." Arthur walked over to Lee, lightly kicking the sleeping man on his good leg. "Wake up."
Lee groggily opened his eyes, and sat up. Clementine yawned and stood up while itching her arms. "I'm itchy…"
"Well you just slept in a barn little lady. Lucky you don't have spiders in your hair." Kenny joked, and Clementine gasped with fear causing the two men to chuckle. "But I bet the big guy here scared them all off." Kenny said as he looked at Lee. "I'm Kenny."
"I'm Lee." The two men introduced themselves, and then suddenly the excited voice of a young boy came running towards the barn.
"Dad! We're going to build a fence! There is a tractor and everything!" Kenny's son no doubt, as he went as quickly as he came running out into the open field.
"We better get going, or we won't hear the end of it." Kenny smirked under his mustache as they all exited the barn together. "That's my boy, Ken Junior, but we call him Duck though."
"Duck?" Arthur snorted out a small laugh at the nickname.
"Yeah, you know, like water off a duck's back. Nothing bothers him."
"That's a valuable trait lately." Lee added as at least the boy had his spirit up despite the world situation.
"No kidding. But frankly, I think it's because he's dumb as a bag of hammers." Kenny lightheartedly added as he heard Duck call out to him in the distance. "But he makes up for it with enthusiasm." Kenny smiled as he walked over to his son who was standing by a blond-haired woman that was Kenny's wife. Kenny looked over to Lee. "Word is the three of you are on your way to Macon."
"My family is there." Lee replied.
"Well, Macon's on the way. And frankly I would appreciate bringing along two guys that can knock a couple of heads together if they have to." Kenny offered to bring them along. Which made Arthur realize why Kenny was looking so intently at his weapons in the barn.
Lee looked like he wanted to take Kenny up on that offer, but one glance at Clementine who wanted to stay somewhere close to her home in case her parents came back. "I'll ask what the girl thinks first."
Kenny nodded understanding. "Gotta consults the missus. I understand." Kenny then looked over to his family. "Honey, Duck, this is Arthur, Lee and Clementine."
Kenny's wife smiled as she saw Clementine shy away a little behind Lee. "That is a very pretty name."
"Thanks…" Clementine smiled as she seemed more comfortable now.
Shawn then came walking over. "Well, we should get to work. We've all seen what those things can do out there, so the faster we get this fence up the better."
"I want to build a fence!" Duck said with great enthusiasm.
"Yeah? Well I need a foreman. You can sit on the tractor and yell at me whenever I take a long water break." Shawn added to Duck's excitement as he rushed towards the tractor with wonder. "There are lots of other chores around the farm my dad could use help with. I'll work on the fence, and Lee if you could help that would be great."
"Of course." Lee nodded without hesitation.
"And me?" Arthur asked, wanting something to do to keep his mind of things.
"Well, the horses by the stable need feeding. My sister was supposed to do it, but she hasn't woken up yet. Do you know your way around horses by any chance?" Shawn's offer sounded like a dream to Arthur, he had been without a simple horse for more than six months now.
"Yeah, I know my way around a horse." Arthur was for once smiling with a hint of joy.
"I can look after Clementine here on the porch. We can visit." Kenny's wife offered, while Kenny went to work on the car, and Lee asking Kenny what his plans were moving forward. Kenny simply wanted to head back home with his family, hold up and wait for the government to clean up the mess of the dead walking around. But he wasn't without a backup plan, as Arthur overheard from their conversation that Kenny had a boat and that he was a commercial fisherman.
Lee sounded real interested in the boat idea. All this talk about boats had Arthur roll his eyes as he could hear Dutch talking about going to Tahiti and escape corporate America. Still, Arthur had to admit it sounded like a good plan. But of course, Arthur realized it couldn't be that original of a plan.
Arthur was then distracted by the sound of chatter and giggles from Clementine as she talked with Kenny's wife. "Nice to see you in a good mood kid." Arthur smiled as he walked over to the girls. "What you gals talking about?"
"Clementine was just telling me about first grade." Kenny's wife replied, looking with a refreshed smile as things was starting to feel normal for her.
"Oh yeah? I wasn't much for school…" Arthur mumbled to himself, of course he never went to school. "How was it?"
"It's easy." Clementine smiled happily.
"Of course it is, you are a smart girl after all." Arthur ruffled the top of Clementine's head, causing her to pout a little annoyed.
"Hey… my hair is already a mess from sleeping in the barn." This had Arthur and Kenny's wife share a chuckle.
"Well, I will see if I can find you a hairbrush or something little lady." Arthur looked then to Kenny's wife, realizing he hadn't gotten her name. "I didn't catch your name ma'am."
"It's Katjaa. So tell me Arthur, what do you do for a living?" Katjaa asked trying to keep the conversation going, seeming eager to get to know new people.
"Well… nowadays I am mostly a man with a gun trying to survive." Arthur lightly joked.
"I meant before this mess. I am a veterinarian, like Hershel. Only more with cats and dogs rather than with cows and pigs."
"An animal doctor? Well that's neat. Even if you mainly worked on cats and dogs, any medical knowledge is good. Especially now." It certainly was very useful to have, especially if things got worse. And Arthur had a feeling things would get worse. Especially after he and Shawn saw those army men gunning down that family. Maybe he should share this information with Lee and Kenny?
"Well, what about you Arthur?" Katjaa was persistent in her questioning.
"Well… I was sort of an adventurer. Explorer and traveler mostly." Arthur used the made-up job Francis had made for him as an excuse for how he got TB in the first place.
"An explorer? My, sounds exciting. You must have traveled to a lot of places." Katjaa and Clementine both looked intrigued at hearing that.
"Oh no, well… It was a job I had only recently started in. I managed to travel to Guarma, and island east from Cuba. And then Africa… where I had to be rushed home as I got infected with TB." At this Katjaa gasped a little.
"My, sounds dreadful."
"Well, I luckily managed to get cured of it before all this shit went down." Arthur chuckled as he could at least consider that a stroke of luck.
"You said a swear again…" Clementine smiled and giggled this time.
"Ah, sh- Sorry kid. Guess I'm not used to talking proper in front of proper ladies like yourselves." Katjaa laughed at Arthur's silliness.
"Nonsense, I'm used to Kenny's… sailor-like language. I find it quite charming. What else did you use to do before all this?" Katjaa asked as she had caught on to Arthur saying he had only gotten the job of explorer recently.
"Heh, don't really matter now does it?" Arthur shrugged, although Katjaa seemed to not like that. Seeing as she hoped things would get better soon.
"I'm sure it does. Things are bound to get better, so that we can all return to our jobs and lives." Arthur hated to admit it, but the only difference for him with as things were now was that the dead were walking around. Other than that, he was used to living rough and outside trying to survive against nature.
"I wasn't nothing special… I mostly drifted around the country. Did some grunt work here and there. Hunting, ranching, camping… armed muscle." Arthur quietly says while reflecting on his past life as an outlaw. All those people he had robbed and killed for Dutch's cause. And it had all been for nothing, it had all been for a lie, or failed as Dutch went crazy. Either way, it meant nothing in the end.
"Well, in case things do get worse… it sounds like you would be a useful friend to have around." Katjaa spoke with some relief, as Arthur seemed to possess a lot of skills needed to survive in such a world.
"Heh, yeah well… I do hope things get better soon. Anyway, I got some work to do with the horses at the stable. I will leave you ladies to it." With that Arthur parted ways as the Katjaa and Clementine continued their talk.
Arthur walked into the stables and came across a few neighing horses. "Whoa, easy…" Arthur approached the animals calmly, carrying in some hay for them to eat. There was a particular angsty mare with brown fur and a white stripe on its face. "Whoa there, girl… easy girl, easy, it's okay." Arthur gently talked the horse down and approached it as he began petting and stroking its neck. "Whoa there, easy…. Yeah, that's a good girl." Arthur reached down for some hay and brought it to the horse's mouth feeding it. "Good girl…" Arthur stroked the horse as it seemed to finally calm down.
"You talk to all the girls like that?" A female voice came from behind him, startling Arthur a little as he quickly turned around to see a young woman in her twenties with neck-length brown hair smiling at him.
"Oh, hi…Umm, Shawn asked me to check the horses so…" Arthur awkwardly fumbled with his words.
"Heh, yeah, I know. I'm Maggie Greene, Shawn's sister." She stretched her hand out to him, and Arthur a bit hesitant at first, grabbed onto it giving her a firm shake.
"Arthur Morgan." Maggie then walked over next to him to help feed the other horses.
"I'm impressed, Nelly usually doesn't warm up that well to strangers." Maggie complimented as she gave the mare a few pats of her own.
"Well, I have some experience with horses. She just needs a firm and calming hand, ain't that right girl?" Arthur chuckled as he continued to feed Nelly.
"Is that right? Well, we call her nervous Nelly. She is easily spooked so she might just buck you if you tried riding her, calm or not. Especially if you run into a rattle snake."
"Is that a challenge I hear?" Arthur and Maggie exchanged a few looks at each other.
"Maybe… You say you have experience with horses, why not go for a ride?" Maggie went for a saddle and tossed it to Arthur.
"Heh, alright miss Greene. Your on. How about a little race around the farm?" Arthur saddled up claiming Nervous Nelly and took her by the rains to lead her out of the stables.
"Alright mister Morgan. And call me Maggie." Maggie chuckled as she saddled up a white stallion.
"Alright, Maggie." Arthur led Nelly to the open field, and then mounted on the mare giving her a few firm comforting pats. "Come on girl. Hiyah!" And just like that, the race around the farm began. The race was a close one, Maggie was right about Nelly being a skittish and nervous horse. But Arthur soon calmed her enough to gain the lead.
They made one final loop around the farm, and Arthur claimed first place. "That was fun." Arthur chuckled as he rewarded Nelly with a carrot.
"Well, you weren't lying. You are good with horses." Maggie congratulated Arthur on winning the race. They continued to ride their horse's side by side out in the field and talked. Maggie couldn't help but ask about the recent events on the news. "So, you've seen these sick folk up close, huh?"
"Yeah, wouldn't call them sick. They are dead." Arthur's reply seemed to have Maggie on edge, accepting the end of the world wasn't easy.
"How can they move around, and be dead? This has to be because of some new sickness or something." Maggie argued.
"Well, a sickness causing this is probably true. But I think the sickness kills people, and then something comes back. But that thing ain't alive if that makes sense. I saw it happen to uh… to my cousin Francis. One of those things tore his throat up, he bled out and died in front of me. Then he came back trying to eat me and Lee. I had to put him down." Arthur shared his experiences with these undead creatures.
"That's horrible. I'm so sorry that you had to go through that Arthur." Arthur responded with a light saddened chuckle. "I'm sure there are many more out there going through far worse right now."
"Yeah… my mom, well step-mom. And my sister Beth… they are terrified. They haven't left the house since the first news broadcast in Atlanta of the riots. And daddy, well he is too laid-back about all this… saying how stuff like that doesn't happen around here."
"Yeah, I heard. And I am sure lots of other people thought the same. I'm sure Clementine's babysitter thought the same, until she ended up dead. The girl, you've probably seen her around. She was alone for a few days, stuck in her treehouse, while her babysitter died and came back as one of them. That's how me and Lee found her… I had to put down the babysitter as well. Buried what was left of the poor girl after. That was just before we ran into Shawn."
"Jesus, I can't even begin to imagine what's going through that little girl's head in all of this. But in a way, she is lucky to have come across you and Lee. I have a feeling with good guys like you and Lee protecting her, she will be just fine." At Maggie's praise of him, Arthur scoffed.
"Maggie, with all due respect you hardly even know me. I ain't such a good man." At how he talked about himself, Maggie only chuckled. Almost like the Sister would when Arthur told her he was an outlaw.
"Well, then you are a tough guy with a good heart at least. Despite that mean face of yours."
"Hehe, now, I think I am more like a bad man trying to be good." Arthur despite his laughter about all of this, actually believed it. Despite his final act to help John, it didn't erase his past or change who he was.
"Well, nowadays Arthur… that is more than enough to save a little girl all alone." Maggie put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"How can you be so sure anyway? That I am a good man?" Arthur asked out of curiosity.
"Cause, Nelly here usually bucks mean jackasses. Done so to a lot of my ex-boyfriends." Maggie joked causing Arthur to smile and laugh a little at such a scene playing out in his head.
"That right? Well, horses never lie." Arthur patted Nelly some more.
"Ain't that the truth." Maggie shared in Arthur's laughter. "So, are you going to be ok? Looking after that little girl? It takes more than protection to raise a kid. Got any kids of your own?"
At that question Arthur grew somber and looked down in silence. "… I had a son, Isaac. But he passed away… a long time ago. Since then, I've helped my brother John raise his kid, Jack."
"Oh… I'm sorry." Maggie apologized, seeing how much it hurt Arthur to talk of his own son.
"Yeah, and I… well, I will help the best I can with Clementine. But… I also got somewhere else I need to be. And… I'm not sure I can bring them with me. It's a long story." Arthur still hadn't lost the sight of his goal, he needed to find someway to help John back in the past.
"So, what's your plan then?" Maggie asked.
"Well, first Lee needs to recover. Then I will see about helping them find somewhere safe. Then I was thinking about heading out, and find my brother John and his family."
"You sure your brother is alive?" Maggie asks, and although John was dead long ago since 1911. Arthur smiled and shook his head. "John may be a dumb and an ugly bastard. But he knows how to fight and survive. I'm sure they are fine." Arthur said with enthusiasm, as when he travels back in time, he will save John from dying in the first place.
They are then interrupted by the sound of screaming coming from the farm. Wasting no time, both Maggie and Arthur rushed up to the farm house with their horses. And what they came to see, was Shawn Greene with his leg trapped underneath a tractor wheel. And two dead people reaching for him, and little Duck who was sitting on the tractor driver seat. "Shit!" Arthur dismounted Nelly and rushed in to the scene, seeing Lee and Kenny were rushing in to save Duck. "Daddy!" Maggie went for the house, calling for Hershel to help.
"Arthur!" Shawn called out as he saw Arthur run towards him. Arthur pulled out his hunting knife, and stabbed it through the undead bastard's head who was reaching for Shawn. No time to pull the knife out, Arthur grabbed onto the tractor and prepared to lift with his back. "Hold on!" Arthur grunted as he lifted up the tractor.
A gnarling undead bastard then reached out and grabbed Arthur by the shoulder. Arthur let go of the tractor as he punched the dead bastard in the forehead knocking him down. Lee then came rushing in to help fend off anymore of those undead bastards as they were coming through the cornfield.
The whole Greene family came rushing out of the house, Hershel with his wife, Maggie and her younger sister a blond teenager named Beth. "Shawn!" Hershel called in panic as he loaded his shotgun.
Arthur grunted and with a mighty heave, managed to lift the tractor off of Shawn. "Come on!" Arthur grabbed Shawn by the collar and dragged him away from the fence. "You okay?" Arthur looked to Shawn, seeing his ankle was sprained. While simultaneously yanking out his hunting knife from the walker's skull
"Yeah… damned tractor. Kid must have accidently turned it on." Shawn didn't hold any resentment towards Duck, which was good.
Hershel then stepped in, and unloaded shell after shell into the incoming undead from the cornfield. Their dark blood splattering against the corn, as the last one fell to the ground in a thud. "Shawn!" Hershel rushed to check on his boy.
"I'm fine dad… Arthur saved me." Shawn smiled, looking thankful that Arthur saved his life.
"Yeah… that he did son." Hershel smiled warmly and then looked to Arthur giving a thankful nod.
"You okay Arthur? Did any of them get you?" Shawn asked.
"Nah, I'm fine." Looking at his shoulder where he was grabbed, his jacket had prevented him from getting any scratches. And his fist didn't have any scratches or bites from when he punched that undead fucker in the forehead. He was free of injury so to speak. "How's the boy?" Arthur looked over to Kenny and his family.
"He's fine…" Kenny looked with a regretful look that he hadn't even tried to help Shawn. And he had just frozen up after saving Duck. Hershel's face washed over with anger as he heard Kenny's voice, being the only one present who blamed Kenny for not trying to help Shawn.
Before Hershel can even yell, a bloodcurdling scream interrupts them. Hershel in panic looks over to his family, as another walker emerges having been lured in by the sounds of screaming and gunshots. "Run Beth!" Hershel's wife shoves their youngest daughter aside, as the dead bastard grabs onto Hershel's wife and sinks his teeth into her neck causing her to scream in pain.
"Annette!" Hershel screams out his wife's name, and rushes in followed by Arthur. Arthur is quick to kick the rotting dead bastard off of Hershel's wife, and bash its skull in by stomping his booth down onto it. "Annette!" Hershel tosses his shotgun aside and holds his wife, her blood already staining his shirt. She is unable to speak, as she gurgles up a lot of dark blood.
"Mom!" Beth cries and drops to her knees by her mother's side, followed by Maggie who grabs Beth in an embrace.
"Mom…" Shawn mumbles out in horror, as he drops next to his sisters trying to shake his mom awake. But she wasn't responding, having long since died.
Arthur seeing this exchanged a look with Maggie, who was near tears but trying to stay strong for her sister. Arthur gave a look that said "sorry" and Maggie in her grief responded with some sobs. Arthur looked to Hershel who was clenching his hands into the blood-stained dirt. "Hershel… I'm so sorry…"
"Get out…" Hershel mumbled out. In his grief, he blames the presence of these people for his wife's death. "Get the fuck out of here!" Hershel stood up screaming.
"I-I'm sorry…" Kenny mumbled out, but Hershel didn't want to hear it.
"Sorry?! You didn't even try to help my son! You could have tried to help after you pulled your boy away! But no! You…" Hershel looked to Arthur. "You saved my son… and you rushed in to try and help my wife. But this piece of shit was willing to leave them for dead!"
"I'm sorry, Hershel… But like Shawn said, you need to fortify this place." Arthur gave one last piece of advice as he walked over to Lee holding onto a crying Clementine.
"Just… get out! And never come back!" Hershel spoke in-between sobs.
"Of course…" Arthur sighed, not blaming Hershel for letting his grief get the better of him.
"You uh… you guys got that ride to Macon if you want it." Kenny somberly said as he and his family walked towards the truck.
"Thanks…" Lee and Clementine walked over to join them.
"Yeah, I will be there in a bit." Arthur walked towards the barn to get his weapons. Once he had put on his gun belt and holstered his sidearms, and put on his bandolier loaded with ammo. And shouldered his shotgun. Arthur walked out from the barn, and saw Hershel walking in carrying his wife's body.
"Should have let you keep the damn guns…" Hershel mumbled out as he walked in to place his wife's body in the barn.
Arthur hung his head low, as he walked towards the truck to join the others. He gave one last look at Maggie and Shawn, Maggie who gave him a small wave as they parted ways. And Shawn giving a small nod at Arthur. Arthur gave a small nod back at the both of them, and jumped into the back of Kenny's truck. And then they drove off.
Yet another long drive, the group had finally entered Macon. Arthur while sitting in the back of the truck was jolted awake as they came to a sudden stop, and then he heard Kenny from upfront. "Well, this is as far as we're going."
"Then it's far enough." Lee said as he exited the car.
"What happened?" Arthur asked from the back.
"Truck's outta gas." Kenny sighed as he and his family exited as well. Arthur shrugged and got off the truck whilst mumbling. "Ain't gonna see no horse run out of gas…"
Clementine was the last to exit the truck, and stayed close to Lee and Arthur. The sound of crows in the distance, suggesting they were gathering to eat which meant bodies. "This don't feel right…" Arthur mumbled out loud as they looked around and found the whole town filled with abandoned cars and trucks. Feeling he stepped on something; Arthur took a step back and saw an empty shotgun shell on the ground.
"Look!" Duck pointed out what looked like a person hunched down in front of a car.
"Hey there! You friendly?! Trucks run out of gas!" Kenny called out to this figure before Arthur could even yell shut up. As the person stood up, groaning with a piece of flesh dangling from its mouth. He had been feeding on a dead man on the ground. "Shit!" Kenny gasped as suddenly more crawled out from the corners of the abandoned cars.
"Shit! The whole town's gone to hell!" Arthur pulled out his Glock and started shooting his shots.
"We're trapped!" Katjaa screamed out in terror, and suddenly Duck cried out as a walker snuck up behind him. Before the dead bastard could even touch Duck, Arthur blew its brains out with a well-placed shot between its eyes. The blood still splattered onto Duck, and its body fell on top of him.
Suddenly a second shot was fired, but not from Arthur. Arthur turned around and saw young woman in her late twenties with short dark hair, with her own Glock. And next to her an anxious looking Asian man. "Run!" The Asian man called out as they all bailed towards a local drugstore. Arthur and this new woman continued to unload shots into incoming walkers, and the two finally entered behind the iron bar gates that the Asian man locked down tight behind them and they all went into the drugstore.
Once inside, Arthur heard the voice of another woman, this one sounding infuriated and annoyed. "We can't take risks like this!"
"And we can't just let people die either!" The woman who had helped them argued back.
"When I say that door stays shut no matter what! I fucking mean it!" The second woman threw back, making it sound like she was the leader of this group. "We don't know who these people are! They could be dangerous!"
"What's worse you led those things right to us!" A big old man that was taller than Arthur, reminded him almost of Tommy from Valentine. Just not quite as beefy and older.
"Where the hell is your humanity?!" The woman who had helped them threw dirty looks at the other woman and the old man.
"Dangerous? Yeah, like any desperate fool out there trying to survive we can be dangerous. But we ain't gonna hurt you, we got kids with us." Arthur as a showing of none hostility holstered his guns.
"I see one little girl!" The old man snarled.
Speaking of Clementine, she grabbed onto Lee's hand who looked down a little frustrated by the situation he asked. "What is it?"
"I… I have to pee…"
"In a minute Clem."
"They've got kids Lilly." The Asian man tried to appeal to the group leader.
"Those things outside don't care."
At this Kenny was infuriated. "Maybe you should go join 'em then! You'll have something in common!"
"Goddammit Lilly! You have to control these people!" The old man barked at Lilly, clearly, he was her father or something.
"Carley and Glenn just ran out there!" Lily argued with her father, revealing the name of the woman and the Asian guy who helped them. Carley and Glenn.
"She's an asshole that's for sure." Lee snarled as he and Kenny had taken a dislike to Lilly. None noticing Clementine sneaking around the drugstore looking for a bathroom.
"If that's what it takes!" Lilly spat back at Lee.
"Well you don't have to be a bitch about it!" Lee fired back.
The old man, having taken a notice of Katjaa and Duck gasped with wide eyes. "Holy shit… Son of a bitch, one of them is bitten!" He pointed out as he saw Katjaa cleaning Duck off the walker blood.
"He wasn't bitten. I shot that fucker before he even laid hands on the boy!" Arthur was quick to interject, yet the old man didn't seem to believe him and harshly shoved back.
"The hell he wasn't! We have to end this now." He made his way towards Katjaa and Duck only for Kenny to get in his way.
"Over my dead body!" Kenny snarled in the old man's face.
"We'll dig one hole." The old man threatened.
"You sure one hole is big enough for your fat ass old man?" Arthur threatened back, standing next to Kenny.
"I'm cleaning him up! There's no bite!" Katjaa in panic cleaned Duck as quick as she could.
"Don't you fucking people get it?! We've already seen this happen. We let someone with a bite stay and we all end up bitten!" The old man frantically argued.
"Shut up!" Kenny snarled at him, despite the old man towering over him in size.
"We gotta throw him out! Or smash his head in!" The old man ignored Kenny and continued to rant.
"Kenny! Stop him!" Katjaa frantically pleaded with her husband.
"Everyone! Chill the fuck out!" Carley tried to defuse the situation, but Lilly instantly interjected by saying.
"Nobody is doing anything."
"Shut up Lilly!" The old man told her off, and then turned to Carley. "And you! Shut the fuck up. They will find us and they will get in here. And none of this will fucking matter! But right now we're about to be trapped in here with one of them things!" The old man seemed to have good reason to be scared.
"What the hell are you talkin' about?!" Kenny asked.
"He's bitten! That's how you turn!" The old man revealed. And confirmed a suspicion Arthur had on how this plague spread.
"He's not bitten! Lee! Arthur! Please stop this! It's upsetting him!" Katjaa like a frantic mother looked after her son.
"Oh! I'm upsetting him?! Upsetting is getting eaten alive!" The way this old man argued, reminded Arthur of Bill Williamson. Dumb but not without his reason, but mostly dumb.
"What if this was your daughter?!" Lee asked, but the old man dismissed him quite easily.
"Never would have happened. She is not some snot nosed toddler, okay? She's United States Air Force!"
"Oh fuck you and her!" Kenny didn't give a fuck what this old man had to say. "I'm gonna kill him Kat! You just worry about Duck!"
"Lee…" Clementine called from the corner of the drugstore.
"Yeah?"
"There's someone in there…" Clementine said as she stood by the bathroom door.
"It's just locked. Keys behind the counter. Probably." Lee quickly made it sound like he just made a guess. But the shift of tone made it clear to Arthur that Lee had been in this place before.
"Hey, I'm not the bad guy here. I'm just looking out for my daughter." The old man continued to argue.
"Thought she was United States Air Force. She can probably look after herself just fine." Arthur's tone really upset this old man who was about to get up in Arthur's face about all this.
"Yeah! And you are just some guy arguing over killing a kid!" Kenny sided with Arthur and continued to stand up to this old man.
"He is covered in muck! She'll find the bite! Watch!"
"She won't!" Kenny spat back.
"And if she does? First thing the kid will do is sink his teeth into his mom's face." Arthur quickly interjected and pushed the old man back as he was getting too close for comfort.
"He ain't bit. I made sure of it. And even if he was bit, he is just a little boy. We would deal with him." Arthur argued but the old man didn't care, no matter how many times Arthur was going to tell him he shot the walker before it could even touch Duck.
"A little boy? He'll be an uncontrollable man eater."
"It's not gonna happen!" Kenny gritted his teeth, clenching his fists so hard that Arthur could tell he was about to snap.
"He is! And we're tossing him out now!" Larry stepped closer but once again Arthur pushed him back.
"Take one more step old man. And I will smash your head clean open." Arthur threatened, and the old man flinched a little. He was a little intimidated by Arthur, he had guns after all and was quite muscular and the big guy himself.
The old man regained his courage as he snarled back at Arthur trying to look as menacing as possible. "Make me, country boy."
"Knock this guy out!" Lee told Kenny, having had enough of this yapping old man trying to argue for killing Duck.
"Happy to!" Kenny threw a hit into the old man's face, yet the old man was all muscle and hardly flinched from Kenny's hit. In retaliation the old man knocked Kenny down in one hit.
Arthur looked to the fallen Kenny, and quickly back at the old man who now threw a hit at Arthur nailing him right at the bridge of his nose. Arthur groans and wobbles back a few steps. "Arthur…" Poor little Clementine gasps in shock as blood drips from Arthur's nose.
Arthur stands up straight and glares back at the old man, who was a little shocked that Arthur didn't go down. Arthur's glare intensifies as he wipes the blood off his nose. "You gotta hit harder than that." Arthur says as he smacks the old man across the face, knocking him down onto his fat ass.
"Argh!" The old man cried out in frustration, as Arthur's hit had busted up his lip. He snarled and tried to get back up in anger, but Arthur kicked him back down. And when the old man looked up, he faced the barrel of Arthur's gun.
"If you don't shut your nasty mouth old man, those dead folk out there will hear you screaming. And then it won't matter if the boy is bit or not. Because your fat ass is going to be lunch to all them out there." Arthur growled, his voice so threatening he actually had the big guy looking in fear.
"Back off." The old man's daughter, Lilly hisses at Arthur, pointing her own gun at him. Only to notice that Arthur was already a step ahead, pointing his second gun at Lilly from a low angle.
"You can shoot me… Or make me shoot you and your dad. Then, we're all dead. Or, you can calm your asses down and shut the hell up." Arthur didn't have patience for this father and daughter duo. Lilly however doesn't back down easily, and whispers to Arthur with a glare. "Put your guns down…"
Arthur responded by stepping on her father's chest pinning him down, while pulling back the hammer of his revolver with the gun pointed directly at the old man's head. "Ladies first." Arthur threw back as they were now in a stare off.
"This is ridiculous!" Carley whispered out loud, sounding harsh in her tone. "Both of you, put your guns down! Let's talk this out."
Lee helped Kenny off the floor, both eagerly looking for what was going to happen next. With Kenny hoping Arthur would actually pull the trigger for a brief moment. "Arthur…" Lee on the other hand, didn't want things to escalate any further.
Arthur sighed and looked at Lilly who still had her gun pointed at him. "I don't want to kill anyone here lady. But I suggest you and your old man calm down. I don't want to kill ya. But I swear, if your old man doesn't shut the hell up, and if he even tries to kill that boy. I will put a bullet in him." Arthur gives one last threatening glare, having Lilly shakingly back off and lower her gun. As she did, Arthur holstered his own guns and got his foot off the old man's chest.
Then surprisingly Arthur helps the old man up off the floor. He only glares at Arthur, while rubbing his sore jaw from where Arthur hit him. He kept his glare on Arthur and stepped away in silence with his daughter.
"Thank you…" Katjaa sobbed to Arthur as she continued to clean Duck off the walker blood.
"Yeah, thanks… for an old guy he hits pretty hard." Kenny hissed as he rubbed his chin.
"He got you good." Arthur lightly chuckled.
"Yeah, well he might have broken your nose." Kenny pointed out as blood continued to drip from Arthur's nose.
"Nah, I'm good." Arthur simply snapped his nose back into place, wasn't the first time he had taken a punch like that to the face.
The sudden scream of Clementine however, diverts everyone's attention. As a snarling walker crawls out from the now open bathroom reaching for her. "Clementine!" Lee limped towards her as fast as he could, but due to his injured leg he trips and falls.
"Dammit!" Arthur jumps over aisles and runs to Clementine, picking her up and getting her out of the way. The walker tries to grab him by the leg, but Arthur shakes it off and boots it right in the face stunning it for a moment. Arthur ran away a few steps to put Clementine down safely. Before he could turn around to finish the walker, a shot rang out as Carely shakingly held her gun seeing as the walker had been close in reaching Lee.
"Uh guys…" Glenn shakingly calls out to them in a whisper tone, as he and another slight overweight man backs away from the windows. Hearing walkers outside banging against the barricaded windows.
"Everybody down! Stay quiet!" Lilly whispered as everyone for once shut their mouths closed. Arthur readied his gun and hatchet should anyone of them break through the barricaded windows.
"They're gonna get in…" The old man gave a frightful whisper.
"Shut up." Kenny groaned, holding his wife and son close. Then coming to their rescue, the sound of machine gun fire. Everyone lifted their heads up, taking a close listen.
"Who's that? The military?" The slight overweight man asked.
"… Maybe." Arthur mumbled, still feeling uneasy as he remembered what he saw with those army men gunning that family down on the highway. "Stay away from the windows, just in case."
"Why?" Glenn asked.
"Well, last night I saw some army boys rolling into Atlanta. They gunned down a family trying to escape the dead. My guess is, they are not taking any chances in finding out who is infected or not. They just gun you down on sight." Arthur revealed, as right now it didn't matter if the kids hear. Because now they knew they had to stay quiet.
"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Lee whispered, and Arthur threw one look at Clementine for everyone to understand. "Oh…" Lee held Clementine close, who silently whimpered into his shoulder.
"Why the hell would they gun us down?" The old man snarled.
"Like I said, they aren't taking any chances. Like you with the boy." Arthur threw back which shut the old man up. They waited a few moments as the sound of the gunfire grew more distant, and the walkers had stopped banging on the barricaded windows. Once it was safe, Arthur holstered his gun.
"That was stupid!" Now that things were calm, the old man started lashing out at Carley. "We almost died because of this bitch and her itchy trigger finger! That was-" The old man gasped and collapsed onto one knee.
"Dad!" Lilly rushed to his side, as her old man was clenching his chest.
"What's wrong?" Arthur asked.
"It's his heart!" Lilly frantically tended to her father.
"My pills!" The old man groaned.
"Nitroglycerin pills?" Katjaa asked.
"Yes!" Lilly got up, looking like she was pleading for help. "We're out. We've been trying to get into the pharmacy since we got here! Please, try to get in there! Behind the counter where the pills are." Lilly pleadingly looked at Lee and Arthur. Arthur honestly could curse himself out for what he was about to say.
"We'll find a way. Lee, could you get on it?" Arthur asked giving Lee a knowing look that told Lee all he needed to know. Arthur knew Lee had some connection to this drugstore.
"Yeah… I will find a way in." Lee agreed not wanting to make a drama of things.
"Thank you. I will look after my dad." Lilly helped her father sit up against a wall.
"Everyone should get comfy and look for anything useful. We could be here for a while." Kenny started to take charge, stepping forth like Dutch used to whenever he would give out assignments.
"This drugstore isn't exactly a permanent solution." Glenn added.
"You are right. This isn't exactly Ft. Knox." They started planning, Glenn starting with saying they needed a lot of gas to get everyone out of downtown Macon.
"There's a motel not too far from here, out towards the end of Peachtree. I'll work my way towards it and then loop back, siphoning what I can." Glenn seemed to know his way around town, which was good.
"I will go with you." Arthur offered.
"I'm fine on my own." Glenn argued, feeling rather uncomfortable going in groups.
"Oh yeah? You know how to protect yourself if you get in a tight spot?" Arthur smiled as he tossed his hatchet up and down in his hand.
"… Yeah okay. But don't shoot your gun at anything unless we need to make a quick exit." Glenn relented and Arthur smiled as he walked by Glenn patting him on the shoulder.
"Relax kid. I've dealt with worse before." Arthur assured.
Lee walked over to them handing Arthur the walkie-talkie. "If you need backup, don't hesitate to call. Clementine's got the other one."
"You got it." Arthur handed it to Glenn, after all Arthur had no idea how to work the damned thing.
"And you? What's your name?" Kenny looked at the father and daughter duo.
"It's Lilly. My dad's Larry." Lilly a nasty look in her eye as she glared at Kenny.
"Keep a good eye on him. Lee will work on how to get you your medicine." Kenny tried to act nice with them, speaking softly even. Kenny then looked at the slight over weight man. "And you, keep an eye on that door. You are our look-out."
"It's Doug. You got it."
"And I'm Carley."
Now that everyone was acquainted, Kenny continued to assign tasks. "Alright Carley. You shift in with Doug when he needs it. For now, get some rest. With Arthur going out with Glenn, you are our best shot. I would like to keep it that way."
"You got it boss." Carley replied, causing Lilly to throw a glare at them on how quickly they dismissed her as leader. Arthur was the only one who took notice, as he and Glenn went out, Arthur whistled while rolling his eyes.
Glenn and Arthur made their way out the back and into an ally. "Man, those two are going to kill each other if we're not back quick enough." Arthur joked as he could see a power struggle growing between Lilly and Kenny.
"What?" Glenn asked sounding nervous, clearly not getting the joke.
"I was joking, relax kid." Arthur chuckled. But internally, Arthur sighed as he had to focus on keeping this dysfunctional group alive.
That's the end for now!
That's the second chapter done, and we're close to the climax of the first episode of the game. Now, usually in my stories, I make a review responds section at the end of each chapter. But now, I'm just going to answer some general questions you guys had in this author's note.
As to how far this story is going to go, I am thinking slight beyond the end of the Telltale game series. But not much further than that. And some characters that died in the game, will survive longer than they did in the original story simply because Arthur's here. But make no mistake, that doesn't mean they are safe in future content. And we might encounter Rick's group in the future, but I don't think that will happen until season 3 or 4 of the game series. Or maybe like mentioned, beyond that.
And also yes, if Arthur ends up traveling back to 1899, he brings the wildfire virus with him. The virus is in Arthur's system just like everyone else, and if he dies in any way he will be reanimated as a walker. But Arthur has next to zero medical knowledge being from 1899, so going back is still his goal for now. But since this is High Honor Arthur, he can't bring himself to abandon a kid like Clementine, not until he knows she is safe at least. Or maybe consider bringing her and the rest with him. He needs to find the rock carvings to do so anyway. But hey, this story will be a journey on how Arthur's mentality evolves through the apocalypse. He might do some low honor actions, but in general deep-down Arthur Morgan is a good man. Even if Arthur himself doesn't believe so. And to our group of survivors, he is by far their most valuable member at this point with all his skillsets.
Now, remember to leave a review with thoughts on the chapter, the story and such.
-Later!