Thankfully, it wasn't too far of a walk to the motor inn. Still, my feet are already starting to feel a little sore. It's been nothing but darkness and streetlights as far as we could see, and it's a good thing there haven't been any walkers. Man, that name has such a nice ring to it.

We're just on the sidewalks of the Motor Inn when something catches my attention. "Get down!" I whisper.

The three of us duck down behind a small brick wall as we hear a nearby Walker growl. Carley takes her gun out just in case we need to take it out. After a moment, the walker walks away and I let out a sigh of relief. I creek over the wall just to see how many more we could be dealing with. Let's see... That one just left, one is eating a body, gross. I think I can see one's legs over by the car on top of the service ramps. That makes three so far, should be-

"Did you two see that?" Carley asks us.

"What?" As soon as I wondered what Carley was talking about, I heard a creaking sound coming from a nearby ice box.

"Sure did." The old of the icebox opens partly as...something pounds on it from the inside. We stand up and Calrley points her gun at the icebox. "Be ready to shoot."

The lid opens and Glenn is inside. "Guys!" I exhaled, not even knowing I was holding my breath. Glenn climbs out, happy to see us. "Oh, man, I'm glad you're here."

"Jesus, Glenn!"

Now with Glenn, we all crouch behind the small brick wall. "Alright, that wasn't so hard."

"Piece of cake," I agree with Lee.

"Can we get out of here before any of these things notice us?"

"Not yet," Glenn answers Carley. "There's a survivor trapped up there."

We turn and look at the second floor of the motel, where we see two walkers pounding on a door to one of the doors. "Oh, shit." Make that five.

"No way," Carley scowled. "We gotta go, now."

"Listen. I was out here looking for gas. And then, up there in the corner room, I heard crying coming from inside."

"Who is it?" I ask.

"It's a girl. We talked and she got frightened. I was trying to get in and help her and she started yelling and saying I was bitten. I tried to convince her I wasn't, and that's when all these guys came out of the forest. A couple almost got me, and I ended up hiding in the ice machine."

"Lucky you, now let's go!"

"We can't just leave her."

"Damn right, we can't."

"Maybe we can help, it doesn't hurt to try, right?"

"You guys are suicidal over a girl!"

"I'm saving her, with or without you."

Lee turns to Carley. "Think about if it was you."

"I think we should try."

"...Fine. Let's go save Glenn's damsel in distress."

The four of us move to the next wall, crouching behind it. "Okay, this is the plan," Lee starts. "We don't know how hard it's gonna be to get her out of that room."

"Yeah, it's boarded up," Glenn adds.

"What do you suggest?" I ask.

"We're going to have to kill every one of them in here," Lee looks over to Carley who had just checked her pistol for ammo. "Quietly. Noise attracts these things. Now let's have a look at what we got here."

"I counted five so far, that includes the two on the second floor."

Lee nods at me. "Good to know." Lee peeks around the corner of the wall, he reaches over, and grabs something. Is that a pillow?

"Good luck smothering them to death..." Carley says sarcastically.

"That's not really what I had in mind."

"Then what were you thinking?" I ask.

Lee points to the slightly elevated car. "That walker is the only one out of sight of the others. I figure we can take that one out first."

"How?" Carley asks.

"Just follow my lead." Lee moves slowly along the wall and we follow. We reach the other side and Lee looks to Carley with the pillow in his hands. "Get out your gun."

"But the noise..."

"Like I said, follow my lead; stay right behind me." Lee breaks from cover and approaches the walker leaning his back against the car. It starts growling at Lee but he smashes the pillow over its face. Carley puts the barrel of her gun against the pillow and fires, killing the walker somewhat quietly.

"That was sick!" I hear Glenn say.

One down... I break from the cover and kneel beside Lee and Carley by the car. That's when I see another walker who's just standing by a fire axe attached to the wall. "We're still up to five," I say to myself. An idea pops into my head. I open the thankfully unlocked door, and carefully put the car in neutral so it can easily roll off of the ramps so it can pin the walker by the fire axe. I was just about to close the car door when I noticed something in the driver's seat. I pick it up in my hands and examine it.

Is this...a spark plug?

"Whatcha got there?" I hear Glenn ask me after closing the car door.

"I think it's a spark plug," I show him.

"That is a spark plug. You should hold onto that, could come in handy."

I nod. "Right," No idea how, though. I pocket the spark plug and get ready for my idea to play out. "Guys, go back to that truck over there. I'm gonna push this car so it'll pin down that fat walker over there."

They nod and take cover behind the truck. I give the car a push and it begins to roll backward. I smile with glee when the car manages to crush the walker against the wall.

"That was awesome!" Glenn shouts to me in a whisper.

I return to the others where they're hiding a truck. Okay, one is now incapacitated. I take a look inside the truck, seeing an ice pick in the passenger seat. Perfect, that's just what we need. I try to open the door... Just our luck, it's locked. Well, I don't think breaking it is smart, that'd make too much noise. But we don't have a choice. I pull the spark plug from my pocket, thinking it's better if I break the window with something small rather than break my elbow. I reel back my arm and-

"Wait!" Glenn whispers, stopping me from throwing it. "Let me see the spark plug."

"Why?" I hand it to him.

"The porcelain inside these things turns car windows into tissue paper," Glenn places the spark plug on the ground and stomps on it. He takes a small piece from the shattered remains and hands it to me.

Okay, let's see if this actually works. I throw the piece of porcelain at the window and it shatters. I can hear the walkers upstairs as they turn to look in our direction, but they turn back to the girls' cries. Okay, that was close. I reach inside the broken window and grab the ice pick.

"That could scramble a brain pretty good."

I smirk at Glenn. "That's just what I was thinking."

The four of us crawl alongside the wall. Our next step should be taking out the walker still eating that corpse and the one that walked behind the RV that's parked in the middle of the parking lot. I hold the ice pick in my hand, ready to hop over the brick wall.

"Hold on," Lee stops me before I can move. "You sure you want to do this?"

I nod. "I got this."

I silently thank Lee for his concern as I hop over the brick wall. The walker is too occupied with its rotting dinner to even hear me approach from behind. With the ice pick held reverse in my hand, I stab the walker in the back of his head and it drops to the ground dead.

Two down...

I crouch down by the front of the RV, Lee follows close behind me to back me up. I peek around the corner, the walker behind the RV has its back toward me, giving me the perfect opportunity to take it down. I approach the walker, but it turns around just as I am about to stab it. This threw me off for a second but I managed to follow through with my stab and hit the walker straight into its eye.

Three down...

Everyone sneaks over to the walker trapped behind the car. I get closer so I can finish it off. The walker tries to claw at me but it can't even reach me. I wait a moment to find an opportunity to stab it, I take it but I stab the walker's head a little too hard, causing my weapon to get stuck in its head. Its head slams on the trunk of the car, making the awl go deeper and poke out the back of the walker's head.

Four down...

"Dude, where'd your weapon go?"

"Into that ice-pick-sized hole," I answer Glenn as I point to the dead walker.

He laughs at the sight. "Holy shit."

"But now," Lee walks past us, taking the fire ax from the wall. "we have this."

"Are the three of you done?"

"No," I answer Carley. "There's still two more left upstairs."

"I got those two," Lee looks back to us as he gets to the stairs. "Why don't you guys lag behind, just in case this goes to hell?"

I nod. "We'll be right behind you, sir."

Lee sneaks upstairs and the three of us loosely follow. He goes around the corner and stands up straight The first walker notices his approach and tries to attack him, Lee uses the axe and slams it right into the walker's head, instantly killing it. The second one soon tries to attack Lee like his friend did, it's growling comes to an end when Lee violently swings the axe and cuts its head clean off its body.

"Rad."

I laugh at Glenn's comment and come out of hiding with the rest of them. We find ourselves in front fo the door where the girl is being... Wait, it's boarded up? Did someone trap her in there? Why would someone...

"Hello in there?" Lee pounds on the hotel room door. "We're here to help."

"Please, just go away!"

That didn't sound so good...

"Let's go, guys."

"Carley, come on..." She was willing to save our lives, why is this different to her?

"If you open up," Lee continues trying to talk to the woman inside. "we can take you somewhere safer. We've got a group in town."

"No, no no! Please, no!"

"She's in trouble!"

Lee nods at Glenn. "Miss, we're coming in!" Lee brings the axe over his shoulder and swings it down onto the wooden plank, it breaks and falls off the door. Lee jiggles the handle, bit it's locked. He starts kicking on the door and the woman screams.

"Stop, just stop! I'm...coming out."

The girl opens the door and walks out. She looks like she's around my age, maybe a little older. She has short brown hair...but that's not what the four of us see about her. Her skin is completely pale...and there's blood coming out of a wound on her abdomen. I squint my eyes to get a clearer look, then they widen when I see them... Bite marks...

"Oh, no..."

"You're hurt."

"Oh, God."

"I..." The girl lets out a few sobs as she looks down. "I said stay away..."

"We need to get you help!" Glenn shouts.

"It's...too lat for that."

"Guys, she's been bitten." Carley comes to the same observation as me.

"What?!"

"She's right..."

"I told you. I said go away, I'm bit!" She cries. "But...you wouldn't just leave."

"Let's calm down," Lee says. "You could be fine."

"I won't be fine!" The girl looks at us, more distressed. "My boyfriend was bitten. You get sick an-and you die and you come back and you kill anything you can find!"

"...You have a boyfriend?"

"Glenn!"

"Dude!"

"I don't want that," She says with a sob. "It's not Christian. Please...just leave me, please go."

"...Okay, we'll leave," Lee agrees, seeing the girl's situation. But...I don't think we should...leave her like this to suffer alone. "Just...try to take care of yourself, for whatever time you have left."

The girl looks over to Carley, eyeing her pistol. "...You have a gun."

"So?"

"Can I...borrow it?"

Carley raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean, 'borrow'?"

"GIve it to me," She begged. "I can just, you know, end this and then...then there's no problem."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." Lee is baffled by her request.

"Please!" She cries out. "I don't want to be one of them. They're...they're...satanic."

"We can't let you do that to yourself," Lee claims.

"Then do it for me!"

"..."

"We need to get-"

"I'll do it..."

Carley, Lee, and Glenn turn to me in shock, not expecting me to make this kind of decision. "What?" Carley is the first to speak. "You can't be serious, kid."

"...I am."

"Are you insane?!" Glenn shouts.

"Elijah, you can't just-"

"Just look at her, guys!" I retort before Lee could go on. "She's paler than a corpse, the infection is already too far into her system. She's suffering...there's no happy ending to this."

"...You're really okay with-"

"Of course, I'm not," Who in there right mind would? "You guys go wait in Glenn's car, I'll...take care of this."

"Thank you," The girl says to me with a grateful smile. "I know how horrible this must be."

"I can't watch this," Glenn leaves, Carley soon follows but looks to me.

"You sure?"

"...Yeah."

Carley leaves but Lee doesn't move from his spot. "You don't have to stay, I can do it..."

Lee rests a hand on my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. "You remember when I said that I wouldn't leave Clementine alone? Well, that goes for you too, and Sandra."

"...Thank you," I smile at him. "...Lee." I let out a long breath of air, I try to calm myself down for what I'm about to do. I pull my gun from my pocket, checking and seeing that the bullet is still in the chamber. I raise it, aiming it right at the girl's head. It slightly shakes in my hand.

"Goodbye," Lee says, his hand never leaving my shoulder.

"Goodbye," She says, closing her eyes and smiling.

"...What's your name?" I ask.

The girl opens her eyes, looking to me. "...Irene. My name is Irene."

I smile back, ignoring the sting in my eyes from my tears. "It was nice to meet you, Irene. You're gonna go to a better place now, and we're here with you until the end."

"..." Irene smiles back. "Thank you. You're good men." She closes her eyes one last time, ready for her death.

"..." I look away. I can't bear the sight of what I'm about to do. The shaky grip on my pistol subsides, allowing me to squeeze the trigger.

BANG!

I hear Irene's body fall to the ground with a loud thump. I take a deep breath I didn't even know I was holding. Oh, God... What did I do?

"Come on," Lee calmly says, his hand squeezing my shoulder. "let's go."

"...Yeah, let's go."


Sandra

"You okay, Clem?"

The mixed girl rests a hand on the little one's shoulder. Clementine has been quiet ever since Lee, Carley, and Elijah left to help Glenn, Sandra couldn't help but feel concerned about the girl she thought of as a little sister. Or 'Secret Sisters' as Clementine would put it.

"Mhmm," She nods. "I'm just...worried. Do you think Lee and Elijah are okay?"

Sandra smiles. "I'm sure they're doing just fine."

So she says. But in truth, Sandra had been shaking with concern ever since she saw her childhood friend leave. She knows Elijah can handle himself, Sandra saw the way he smashed that...'walkers', as he's calling them now, head in with that lamp. She thought it was stupid how he just threw himself in danger for her sake. Yet, at the same time...she thought he was so cool.

"Sandra, are you okay?"

"Hmm?" The girl tilts her head at Clementine. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Your face is red," She pints at Sandra's face. "You're not sick are you?" Clementine whispered in worry. This causes Sandra to giggle.

"I'm okay, Clem. You'll understand someday."

Dummy... You're not even here and you're making me feel like this...

The door of the drugstore office opens and Lee, Carley, Glenn, and Elijah come from within. Sandra smiles as soon as she notices them, but it falters when she sees Elijah's face.

...Is he okay?

"Everyone alright?" Kenny asks the returning squad.

"Yeah," Lee answers. "We had some close calls, but Glenn is fine, and... Well, yeah...we're okay."

"I've got a few cans of gas for your pickup in the trunk of my car," Glenn tells Kenny in a monotone voice, never even looking up at him.

"Good to hear it."

"And things back here?"

"Quiet," Kenny answers Carley. "Our 'friend' is still in and out over there. He won't survive any more stress."

"The next order of business is getting those pills out of the pharmacy," Lee states. He then turns to Elijah, offering a nod.

Elijah nods back and he makes his way over to Sandra and Clementine. Sandra looks down at the little one. "Clem, you think you can stay here for a minute? I'm gonna talk with Elijah for a minute. Okay?"

"Okay." The girl complies and Sandra goes over to Elijah, hugging him. "You okay?"

"..."

The boy kept his arms to his side. Sandra notices how he doesn't return her hug and pulls away. Elijah's eyes seemed a little bloodshot, this made Sandra even more worried than before What exactly happened out there? She thought. She takes his hand and guides him near the bathrooms so they can talk privately and out of earshot.

"Elijah," She says, squeezing his right hand. "What exactly happened out there?"

"...I..." He croaked, Elijah's voice sounded like he was on the verge of tears.

"Shh, shh..." Sandra gently rubbed her thumb over the back of Elijah's hand. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me. But I'm here for you, you know that, right?"

"..."

This was a conversation Elijah knew he couldn't keep to himself, he knew that he had to tell someone. And if there's anyone he knows he can trust, more than Clementine and Lee, it's Sandra.

"...We managed to get to Glenn," He starts. "but there was this girl who was trapped in one of the rooms of the Motor Inn. The four of us managed to kill all the Walkers that surrounded the place and get to the room where she was trapped. And..."

Sandra sees this is not an easy thing to say for Elijah, so she gives his hand another gentle squeeze, silently telling him that she's there, that she's always here, and that she's not going anywhere.

"...She was bitten. Her skin was so pale...and her eyes looked like they were already losing their color. It was...like she was already a walking corpse."

"What did you guys do?"

"...She begged for Carley's gun, she wanted to be put out of her misery."

Sandra gasped, slightly covering her mouth with her free hand. "Oh, my God..."

"...But I couldn't let any of them do it. And...I didn't want that girl to suffer any more than she had to."

"...Elijah...did-"

"Yes. I did."

"..." He...killed her?

"...She smiled at me as I was about to do it," Elijah goes on. "She said I was a 'good man'...and I killed her. All while I was telling myself that I was putting her out of her misery. She was suffering like a sick dog... Is that...is that how she felt, too?"

She? Who does he mean? "What do you mean?"

"...My Mom," Elijah sniffles. "She was sick the morning I found you and Clem, saying it was just a cold or the flu. So...I just went to class like normal. When I came home...I found her...but she wasn't her anymore."

"Elijah..."

"I had to," Elijah pulls something from his pocket, a photo of him and his mother relaxing on their couch. Elijah's mother is wearing the beanie Elijah's wearing on his head right now. "I was only protecting myself, and yet I killed her. No, she...she was dead before I got home. She was suffering...all alone...and I was just in some stupid class at college..." Elijah lets out a few, silent sobs. "Oh, God, Mom..."

Sandra wraps her arms around Elijah. Despite the height difference between the pair, Sandra firmly wrapped her slender arms around Elijah's abdomen and nuzzled her face into Elijah's strong chest. She doesn't know exactly what he's feeling right now but she knows it can' possibly be good. The only thing she knows is that she needs to be there for Elijah.

"It's okay, just...let it all out."

"..." Elijah, slowly but surely, wraps his arms around Sandra, returning the same amount fo firmness that she's giving. He rests his chin on top of her head, letting out a few sobs and allowing his tears to fall. "...I miss her so much."

"I know, Elijah... I do too," Sandra reached her left hand up to the back of Elijah's head, caressing him and letting his dark-brown hair tangle around her fingers. "I'm here...I'm here..."

Elijah lets out a content sigh in the embrace of his best friend. "...I'll keep you safe, you and Clementine, I promise."

"I know, Elijah. I know you will."