I don't own The Walking Dead. I only own OC's.
Sorry if you find any grammar mistakes. I'm still learning English because it's not my first language.
Darth krayt1: Yeah. Andre indeed has a police baton.
Jack rubbed his eyes, feeling the light peering into his room from the outside as he had just woken up from his slumber. Even if he got the usual amount of sleep he was getting nowadays at college, but it didn't make him any less sleepy. If he was honest with himself, staying asleep would have been much better than dealing with whatever was going on outside right now. Just as he began to consider falling asleep again, he got cut off by someone knocking on the door to his room.
"I'm coming!" He said in a lazy sleepy tone, getting up from the bed as he rubbed his eyes again and made his way to the door. When he opened them, he was greeted by the sight of Andre standing in front of him. The police officer continued to wear his uniform along with the overcoat that he kept stored in the trunk of his cruiser. He had a police baton attached to his hip as well. The blond haired young man smiled at his friend, "Morning, Andre."
"Good morning to you too, Jack." Andre smiled at him, "Sorry for waking you up if you were still sleeping, but I figured out I should wake you up as everyone is up at this point and you would definitely get an earful from Larry and Lilly if you stayed inside. Thought this is something you'd like to avoid."
"Yeah. I would definitely like to avoid going through it after waking up." Jack agreed with him with gratitude showing in his voice, stretching his arms above his head.
Andre looked at him questioningly, "How did you slept?"
"Pretty well. Or at least as good as you can in a situation like this." Jack gave Andre an honest answer as he pointed at his coat, "New outfit?"
Andre nodded in confimation, "Yeah. Had this stored in my cruiser for all this time and I thought I should finally start wearing it now that I know I will be staying in this place for a while."
"Alright." Jack said in understanding as he walked out of his room and closed the door behind him before following Andre into the motor inn's parking lot.
He looked around himself a second later, wanting to know what the others were doing right now and saw everyone occupied with their own stuff. He saw Clementine and Duck running around and playing tag with Katjaa watching over them. Katjaa gave Jack a kind smile and Jack smiled back at her, giving her a wave and continued to look around the place. It wasn't long before he saw Carley as he saw her keeping the watch on top of the RV.
It didn't took him long to notice Lee, Kenny and Doug as well as he saw all three of them pushing cars to cover the weak points of the motor inn. He couldn't see Larry and Lilly anywhere, though. If he were to guess, then Larry was probably sleeping right now due to him keeping the first night watch last night and Lilly was off doing her own stuff in her room. Unless he suddenly became blind and she was outside but couldn't see her.
He got pushed out of his thoughts a second later as Andre told him, "I'm gonna now. Lilly wanted me in her room as we have a few matters to discuss."
"Alright. I'll see you later, then." Jack said in understanding as Andre nodded at him and turned away from him, beginning to walk away from him towards Lilly's room. With him having been left alone by Andre, Jack decided to bother himself with something and went to Lee, Kenny and Doug with an intention of helping them with pushing the cars. He made his way to them and made his presence known to them, "Hey, guys."
Lee stopped what he was doing right now and looked at Jack, "Morning, Jack."
"Need any help?" Jack offered his help to them as Kenny and Doug followed Lee's example and stopped what they were doing as well, now glancing at Jack.
Doug smiled at Jack's offer, "I wouldn't mind that."
"Me too. Having another body would make this go a lot quicker." Kenny smiled, accepting Jack's offer as well.
"Alright. I'm on it, then." Jack replied as he walked over to the car and opened the fourth door on the car Kenny, Lee and Doug were currently pushing and started moving it as he could. As he continued to push it forward, he asked them, "Anything happened while I was asleep?"
Kenny shook his head, "Not really. It was really calm since I woke up from what I can tell."
"Doug came up how we can set up the defense of this place." Lee added, "He came up how we can use the dumpsters and the old wooden furniture to turn this place into a save haven. He's been thinking of using his tech skills to make an alarm system as well."
Jack turned towards Doug for a second, "Really?"
"Just trying to make myself useful in some way." Doug replied in a bit sheepish tone as he tried to change the subject of the conversation to something else, "How about we'll ask each other some questions? If we'll be living here together for who knows how long, it would be a good moment to try to get to know each other better."
"Sounds good to me." Jack in approval of the idea. Aside from Andre and partially Lee, he didn't know anything about people in this place. It could be a good moment to finally get to know them better in some way.
"Does anyone have any questions, then?"" Lee wanted to know.
"I think I have something. Do you have any freaky sex stories?" Kenny voiced his question to them as Jack and Doug blinked at Kenny, having not expected this question from him while Lee looked at him with an amused smile on his face.
"Are you serious right now?" Jack asked with a suprised expression on his face.
Kenny smirked at him, "You bet I am, pal. Judging from your reaction, I assume you have none."
"I think Doug can be ruled out too." Lee added, having some fun with it himself.
Doug rolled his eyes, "Thanks for showing the confidence in me, Lee."
Lee smiled at him, "I'm all ears if you have a story Doug."
"A gentleman never kiss and tells, right?" Doug replied, not giving him the answer.
"So, you don't have anything, then." Kenny continued to smirk and shifted his gaze to Jack, "Just like Jack here."
"N-No!" Jack stuttered out a bit too loudly in embarassment of the conversation
Kenny raised his brow in interest, "What? You mean to tell me you have some stories to tell?"
Jack blushed a bit, "I have one. You can call it my first and only time as it's from my only experience with this kind of stuff. It's pretty wild as well."
"Really?" Kenny's interest grew at this.
"Alright. Now you can consider me interested as well." Lee played along with the situation.
"Don't expect me to tell you this story, though." Jack told them. If he was honest with himself, he didn't really feel comfortable talking about it with the other people. Aside from them people who were a part of this story.
"Come on, pal." Kenny insisted on him, "If you'll tell us this story, then I'll share one of my stories with you."
Jack deadpanned at him slightly, "I'm pretty certain you would tell us some of those even if I wouldn't bring this up."
Kenny shrugged, "Maybe. You'll never know now."
Jack let out a sigh, beginning to explain his story to them, "It happened about two months ago. I have two friends in college. Yuki and Ashley. Yuki moved here with her parents from Korea. She's a typical bookworm and can get really shy. Ashley is a complete opposite of her. She's this one bubbly out-going girl who gets along with everyone. She once invited me and Yuki for a party and me and Yuki agreed. Even if both of us were reluctant about it due to both of us being a non-party type of people, we agreed to go to this party with her and hoo-boy. Neither of us knew what we were getting ourselves into..."
"Really? What did you get yourselves into?" Lee wanted to know.
"Was this party a prank or something?" Doug asked with a raised brow.
Jack shook his head, "Nope."
"What happened, then?" Kenny asked with genuine curiosity in his voice.
Jack took a deep breath and answered, "...Ashley took us to an orgy."
"What?" Doug asked with a suprised look on his face.
Lee chuckled, "No way."
"Are you fucking serious?" Kenny's smirk grew at this.
Jack rubbed the back of his head, letting out a chuckle, "Yeah. I knew Ashley was a pretty sexual person, but holy shit. I never expected something like this out of her." There was about 12 more people other than us there. Me and Yuki were a bit embarassed when we realized what we had just stepped into, but the embarassment in me slowly faded away when Ashley approached me and then, you know..."
Kenny crossed his arms with his smirk still evident on his face, "Yeah. I know."
"Talk about an eventful first time." Lee stated with an amused look on his face while Doug had a full smile on his face.
"You're telling me..." Jack agreed with him, "I scored a hat-trick that day."
"Hat-trick?" Kenny raised his brow in interest, "Who was the third woman as I assume your friends were the first two ones."
"Some German girl named Katharina. I dunno who she was as it was my first time seeing her." Jack explained, "I was in the middle of my fun with Yuki after she got off her own embarassment with some convicing from Ashley and she asked us if she can join in as the third wheel. Needless to say. I had no complains. Let's just say her assets were rather nice to look at."
"Really? How was she like?" Lee asked out of curiosity, having already deduced the answer from the way Jack talked about her.
"The kind of woman who would make a straight woman bisexual." Jack gave him an honest answer, "She made Yuki who is straight make out with her when they were on top of me and Yuki seemed to be getting really into it."
Kenny whistled, "Damn."
"You weren't kidding when you said this story is wild." Doug said, smilling. He had to admit. It was a fun story for just them guys.
"How was the stuff between you and your friends after this?" Lee asked out of curiosity.
"Everything was pretty awkward between me and Yuki for the first few days as shook off the feeling of the situation and realized what we had done with each other, but everything became normal between us again. Ashley, however, asked us if we would be up for some fun with her again soon." Jack gave him his answer.
Lee raised his brow, "Did you say yes?"
Jack winked at him, "Let's just say it's mystery."
"By what you said earlier about it being your only time, then I assume you said no." Kenny told him to mess with him.
"Thanks for showing hope in me." Jack rolled his eyes. By the time the group of four moved to the car to the place they had intended to take it to. It took them a bit longer than it should have due to them being more focused on Jack's story, but none of them paid much attention to it as they were having a good time, "Now how about you fullfil you part of the deal and tell us one of your stories."
"Alrighty. Just make sure not to tell Katjaa about it. I would have preferred if she didn't knew how wild I used to be back in the day." Kenny nodded at him, keeping his smile on his face. Jack, Lee and Doug silently nodded at him, promising him not to tell Katjaa about this story as Kenny wasted no time and began to share his story with them. As Kenny started to tell his story to Lee, Jack and Doug, all four of them moved to move another car as well.
The time passed after this and a little over an hour passed before any of them knew it. By this point, they managed to move a few cars to the weak points of the motel. They probably would have moved more of those if it wasn't for them keeping themselves invested in their stories and taking breaks every few minutes to give more attention to the stories all of them have been telling each other.
"You weren't kidding when you said how wild you were in your youth, Ken." Lee smiled at Kenny as Kenny had just finished the next story from his youth. Needless to say. All men were heavily invested in everything by this point.
"Do I look like a liar to you, Lee?" Kenny smiled back at him, "Just make sure you don't tell Kat about any of us. Just like we agreed on."
Jack nodded at him with a smile on his face, "Don't worry. I'm not a snitch."
"Guys. I smell trouble coming." Doug told Jack, Lee and Kenny in a slightly nervous tone, looking at something ahead of them as their fun came to an end when he mentioned it to them.
Jack raised his brow, "What do you mean?"
"Lilly is coming." Doug replied as Jack, Lee and Kenny looked in the direction he was looking towards right now and saw Lilly walking towards them. From the look on her face, all of them could tell she was not happy with them.
Kenny sighed, "Fucking great..."
Lilly made her way to them and quickly filled them in on how unhappy she was with their work, "I'm glad you four are having the time of your life with your little conversation right now, but how about you focus on your work instead? If you focus on what you're supposed to focus, then maybe you'll give yourself a chance to have more chats in the future."
Jack rolled his eyes in irritation, "Excuse us for having for wanting to have some fun while we're working."
Lilly crossed her arms, "Maybe if you focused on your job instead if your fun, then maybe you would get it done. Do you not get that the sooner we secure the motel, the sooner we can breath easier and not go to sleep with as much fear that those things might break in and wipe us out, the better?"
"I'm sorry if If we're not meeting your expectations princess. Maybe you should join us and how it needs to be done if that's such a big problem to you." Kenny told her with frustation evident in his tone.
"Yeah. Because I'm definitely interested in what got all four of you laughing like a bunch of kids in a candy store." Lilly retorted.
"Kenny's right, Lilly." Lee sided with Kenny, "If you want to make sure everything will be done your way and will be done as quickly as possible, then maybe you should help us out."
Jack nodded in agreement, "Yeah. What he said."
"I see how it is, then." Lilly shifted her gaze between Lee and Jack, "I had no idea Kenny was speaking for you two now."
Jack raised his brow, "What are you talking about? He doesn't speak for us. We just have the same opinion on the matter. If you can't accept that, then that's your problem."
"Really, now?" Lilly glared at Jack as she shifted her gaze to Doug, "What about you, Doug? What your opinion here?"
Doug got nervous at this, "U-Um, how about we just all calm down?"
Lilly pinched the bridge of her nose, "Come on, Doug. Try to help out a bit. You wanted to secure this place not that long ago and now you're okay with wasting time."
"I-I don't want to get involved here." Doug gave her his nervous answer.
"Leave him alone." Jack came in Doug's aid.
Kenny nodded in agreement with a glare on his face directed towards Lilly, "If he doesn't want to get involved here, then he shouldn't have. You have no right for giving us shit about not being finished here as well. No one here oppointed you as our leader."
Lilly shifted her glare to Kenny, "Really, now? Like you're the one to talk here as I haven't seen you stepping you by either planning the gun training with Carley and Andre or planning a supply run with Andre."
Lee raised his brow, "A supply run?"
"Yeah. This is why I'm here in the first place." Lilly nodded in confirmation, "I'm here to collect Lee and Jack. Me and Andre just finished planning everything out and will be heading out soon."
"Really?" Lee asked.
Jack looked at her questioningly, "Why us?"
"Because you seem like the best picks for it right now. You two have have your own weapons as well and have some experience with them." Lilly looked more annoyed by having to explain this to them, "Before you ask about anyone else, my dad should get some rest from staying up last night and Carley needs to stay here to keep watch."
"Alright. Makes sense." Jack said in understanding.
"When we will be moving out?" Lee wanted to know.
"In a moment." Lilly explained, "You two should go get everything ready."
Kenny pointed at the cars, "What about the job you insisted what so important not even a full minute ago?"
"I'm sure you and Doug can take care of it." Lilly directed one last glare towards him before turning away from the group of four and walking off to her room, presumably to prepare herself for the supply run. Jack and Lee exchanged glances with each other, letting out sighs at what just happened as said bid their farewells to Kenny and Doug and went to prepare themselves to leave the motor inn.
Jack walked out of his room, now having both his hatcher and pistol attached to his belt as he looked around himself and saw Andre, Lilly and Lee all waiting for him next to Andre's cruiser. Not wasting any time and not wanting to make Lilly more annoyed with him than she already was, because it would be annoying for him to deal with, Jack pushed himself into walk towards all three of them and reached them a few seconds later.
"We ready to move out?" He asked upon reaching them,
Lilly nodded in confirmation, "We have everything we need. Now just to get there in one piece."
"Where are going anyway?" Jack wanted to know.
Lee nodded at the question, "I've been asking myself the same question."
"My old airbase. Robins Air Force Base if you want to know the name." Lilly explained to both of them.
"You wanna rob a military base?" Jack asked with a slightly suprised look on his face as Lee's eyes slightly widened at this.
Lilly nodded in confirmation, "The Commissary would have as much, if not more, food, and we could use whatever guns are left there. But who knows how many walkers could be there, not only is it a tourist attraction, but the fence ain't airtight."
"Alright." Lee said in understanding, "If that's true, then it's definitely worth the risk."
"Let's just hope we won't get shot anyone there." Jack stated.
"You're telling me, bud." Andre nodded in agreement as he opened the door to his cruiser and climbed inside it to take seat on the driver's seat "We should get moving. If we'll leave now, then we will be back with the sun still up."
"Yeah." Lilly agreed with him, following his example by getting into the cruiser and taking her seat on the front seat. Lee and Jack exchanged glances with each other and shrugged as they got themselves into the cruiser as well and took their seats in the back. Upon making sure everyone was inside, Andre started up the car and drove out of the parking lot. Lilly glanced towards him as soon as they entered the road, "Just make sure to follow the road we had agreed on."
Andre nodded at her, keeping his eyes on the road, "I will."
"What road we will take to the base?" Lee wanted to know.
Lilly pulled out a map and showed it had a map marked on it to him and Jack, "Here."
Jack raised his brow at the road marked on it, "You want to go through the woods?"
"I'm not suprised by it." Lee told him, wanting to explain it to the only person from their supply run group who wasn't from around here, "It's the shortest road."
"Walkers will be infesting the towns and nomal roads as well." Lilly added.
"I see." Jack said in understanding, letting out a brief chuckle, "You really can tell I'm not from around here in the moments like this..."
Lee chuckled, "Yeah."
"Don't worry about it." Andre added, "We'll train you and you'll know this area like your own pocket by the time we'll be done. You'll see."
Jack smiled a bit at this, "Here's hoping."
The road to the airbase went mostly in silence as the group didn't have much to say to each other during their journey to their destination. Nothing interesting happened during the road to their destination as well. All they did was passing a few walkers on their way there. They didn't take care of them, though and passed them in the cruiser instead as they saw no reason in stopping just to kill them. They knew it would be a waste of time. It made them slightly concerned as well. because there were less and less of them in Macon, so where did they all go.
The cruiser stopped all of a sudden between the woods and Jack looked around himself, finding himself slightly confused by the place they had stopped at due to it not seeming like an airbase to him. He shifted his attention fron his surroundings a second later to Lee who remained next to him throughout the ride. He saw him having a look of understanding on his face, making him believe Lee must have recognized this area.
"We're here." His assumptions were confirmed a second later when Andre uttered those words to Lilly.
"Alright." Lilly nodded at him, folding the map she was holding for the entire ride to their destination and hiding it somewhere out of Jack's sight as she looked around everyone in the cruiser, "Everyone. Take everything you need. We'll move from there on foot."
"Do we have to walk for long?" Jack wanted to know.
Lilly shook her head, "No. We're only a few minutes away from the airbase. I wanted Andre to park here as I didn't want our car to be out in the open when we'll be inside."
"Alright." Jack said in understanding as he turned away from Lilly and looked down to take a look at his equipment. After making sure he indeed took him hatchet and pistol with him, he nodded to himself and got himself out of the cruiser.
The rest of the group wasted no time and got themselves out of the cruiser as well with Andre leaving the doors locked just in case if anyone or anything would try to get in. Once everyone was outside the cruiser, Lilly took the led of the group and pushed herself into walk down the road. The three men followed her and it was only a matter of a few minutes before they reached their destination as the outskirts of the airbase appeared in their view.
"Follow me." Lilly ordered her group to keep following her as she took Jack, Lee and Andre off the maid road and and took them into the brushwood a few meters away from the main entrance to the airbase. She knelt down after taking her group there, reaching into her bag and pulling out a pair of binoculars before handing them to Lee, "Here. Take a look and tell me what's out there."
Lee nodded in understanding, taking the binoculars from her as he scanned the area and saw only a couple of walkers walking around the place. There wasn't a single living person in right, "Hmm."
Lilly took notice of his reaction and asked him, "See anything?"
"Not much. Only a couple of walkers spread out across the place." Lee reported to her as he continued to look around the base from where he was right now, "There could be more, so let's do this quietly."
Jack shook his head, "Shit. The place can be overrun if that's the case."
Andre took his shotgun off his shoulder, checking if the weapon was loaded and said, "We should have seen this coming. It would be too easy of the place was free of those things."
"We should take this risk, anyway as it's either this or we starve to death." Lilly told her group, "I don't know about you three, but I prefer this over whatever shit we will go through if we won't get those supplies."
"You and me both." Lee agreed with her, pulling the binoculars away from his eyes and handing the back to Lilly, "How are we doing this?"
Lilly quickly gave him her answer, "If we want to get to the commissary, then we would get there quicker if we went through the front entrance. I'm not too fond of the idea, though as it would leave us exposed."
"Is there any other way, then?" Jack wanted to know.
"Yes. There's a hole in the fence somewhere in that direction." Lilly replied, pointing towards their left, "We should enter the base through it if you ask me. It will lose us a couple of minutes, but leave us less exposed once we'll enter the base."
"Alright. Sounds good to me." Andre voiced his agreement as Lee silently nodded in agreement.
"You're the one who used to work here." Jack added, going along with the hole in the fence plan.
"Alright, then. Let's move and stick behind me." Lilly nodded at her group, standing up as she turned away from them and moved in the direction she had just told them about. Jack, Lee and Andre wasted no time and followed her, making their way towards the hole in the fence.
The group of four walked through the woods for the next few minutes, making their way towards their new destination and it wasn't long until all of the found themselves near the fence. Upon reaching the fence, they stumbled upon a walker stuck halfway through a hole in the fence and all of them, even Lilly, cringed a bit at the sight of it as the sight was not pretty. Pretty much all of it's flesh was pilled off of his face and there was blood all over his uniform.
The noticed them as its head turned towards them, and the walkers began flailing its arms in their direction as its jaw opened and shut repeatedly in a vain attempt to bite them. Andre stopped in his tracks at the view of it, letting out a saddened sight as took out his police baton and hit the walker with it, pulling it out of it's misery. If the police office was honest with himself, leaving someone in state like this even if they were a walker now wouldn't feel right to him.
Andre shifted his gaze to Lee after killing the walker, "Is this the hole you told us about?"
"Yes." Lilly nodded in confirmation as Lee and Jack exchanged glances with each other, cringing a bit at the knowledge of them having to go through the place where this was walker was stuck.
"Alright." Andre said in understanding, attaching his police baton back to his hip as he grabbed the now deceased body and dragged it's body through the hole, "it's done. Let's go."
"I'll be right behind you." Jack nodded at him, shoting his friend a quick grin even if he was cringing on the inside as Andre climbed through the hole into the airbase and was followed by Jack. Lilly and Lee wasted no time and followed them through the hole as well, finding themselves in the airbase. Upon entering the airbase, all of them felt the tense aura of this place. The kind of you'd see in the abandoned places or graveyards.
"Everyone. Stay close and keep your eyes open. We don't know what can be waiting for us out there." Lilly told her group as she crouched down and began to make her way through the airbase.
Andre shifted his gaze to Lee and Jack fo a second, "You two go in the middle. I'll guard the back with my shotgun."
"Just try not to get lost by staying in the back." Jack smiled at him as Lee silently nodded in understanding and crouched down, beginning to follow Lilly.
Andre smiled at him, "I have no intentions of it."
Jack directed one last smile towads Andre as he turned away from him and crouched down, beginning to follow Lilly as well and Andre wasted no time and did the same. The group of four proceeded to make their way through the airbase, walking mostly behind the building and sticking to fences in order to avoid detection by anyone or anything. They only had to run through the open of field a couple of times in order to get close to their destination. They haven't seen any people as well. Only few walkers.
Andre looked towards the runway, seeing one of the many planes on it and looked at Lilly as the group of four was not walking through the open field, "Lilly. Do you know how to fly one of those?"
"No, I don't." Lilly shook her head, keeping herself in the front of the group, "I was never a pilot."
Andre sighed, "Shame, I was hoping you could get us to D.C. or somewhere safe."
"Best get comfortable, Andre." Lilly told him, "We're stuck here now."
"Yeah. A shame." Jack sighed, thinking back to his home state as he looked at Lilly questioningly, "Lilly. Are we close to the commissary?"
"Yes. It is..." Lilly began to answer. Her words died in her throat, though as she got cut off by a gunshot and she found herself nearly hit by the bullet. She instantly forgot about the conversation they were having right now and looked in the direction of the gunshot with an alarmed look on her face, seeing it came from one of the guard towers, "Shit! Sniper!"
"Take cover everyone!" Lee shouted. He didn't have to repeat himself. The group of four wasted no time as all of them split up from each other and left to find the nearest covers. They didn't have to search long and it was only a matter of seconds before all of them found their covers. Lee hid behind a metal box with a lightning bolt on it, Andre and Jack hid behind a garbage container to his left together and Lilly run towards a building to their right.
"I saw you fuckers sneaking around! You bandits won't get me like you did with the others!" The person on the guard tower cried out, revealing themselves to be a man.
"Shit! What now?!" Jack shook his head, pulling his pistol out of it's holster.
"I'm thinking! Give me a fucking minute!" Lilly shouted at him, shaking her head at the situation at the situation she and her group had just found themselves in and peeked out of the cover at the guard tower with her sniper. Letting out a sigh, she gave her group the answer they were waiting for, "We need to rush to that tower! If we'll keep ourselves in one place, then we'll be just easy pickings for him!"
"That would only get us a bullet in the head." Andre pointed out to her, "We have to talk to him."
"TALK?!" Lilly looked far than pleased with the idea, "There's no way I'm walking with a fuck who shot at me."
"It's still better than rushing out there to get gunned down!" Jack voiced his agreement with Andre.
Lilly shook her head at Andre and Jack and shifted her attention to Lee, "Lee. What about you...?"
"Shoot shooting, dammit!" Lee cut her off in the middle of the sentence, trying to reason with the sniper as he looked around himself and noticed the walkers from the runway beginnng to make their way towards them. It made him hope he didn't make a mistake by siding with Jack and Andre here.
"Why should I?" The sniper demanded.
"Because we're not your enemy! We only came here to scavenge! We're not bandits!" Lee pointed out to him, hoping he will believe him and will stop firing at him.
"And why should I trust you? Do you have anything to prove that to me!?" The sniper asked him. All of them could have sworn he let out a scoff before uttering those words to them, "For all I know, you can be lying to me right now!"
"The fact that we're talking with you right now." Jack pointed out to him, joining the discussion as Andre shot a walker on their left with his shotgun "I think that should be enough."
"...Fine!" The sniper said after a few seconds of silence from him, "You better not make me regret this. Come on up here!"
Seeing how the man was convinced to give them a chance and seeing he had stop firing at them, Jack, Lee Andre and Lilly wasted no time and quickly pushed themselves into run towards the guard tower at the full speed. All of them had to dodge a couple of walkers on their way there as the gunshots from earlier dragged all of them, filling the previously non-filled runway with them and making everything harder for the group.
The group of four reached the guard tower a moment later and Lee quickly opened the door and rushed into the tower, making himself the first member of his group to enter it. He quickly held the door open for everyone as Lilly, Jack and Andre quickly joined him inside the tower. After making sure everyone from their group was inside the tower, he and Lilly pushed a metal locker to the floor to block the door and prevent ant walkers from entering place. Upon making sure they were safe, all of them allowed themselves to catch their breaths as the sniper walked down the stairs and revealed himself to be a man in his mid 30's with glasses over his nose to them.
The sniper looked at all of them with a slightly awkward look on his face as he introduced himself to them, "Hi there. I'm Mark."
"Nice to meet you, Mark. I'm Lee." Lee introduced himself in return and introduced the rest of his group to him, "That's Lilly, Jack and Andre."
"Thanks for letting us come here. It saved our asses." Jack added, letting out a deep breath to catch his breath.
"No problem." Mark nodded at him as the walkers began slamming their hands against the door. He turned away from the group of four and started to make his way back to the top of the tower, making a gesture with his hand to make them follow him. Lilly glared at him, doing her best not to make herself kill him on the spot for shooting at them, "What are you doing here, by the way? This place is far from safe if you ask me."
"We came here to get the food." Andre explained as he followed Mark. The rest of his group followed him as well.
"You'll find a lot of that at the commissary." Mark explained as they finally made it to the top of the tower.
Andre nodded in confirmation, "We know."
"We were on our way to it when you made yourself known to us." Jack explained.
"I see." Mark said in a mixture of an apologetic and sheepish tone, "Sorry about that. The base got attacked by the bandits after everyone except for me left yesterday and I didn't want to take any chances?"
"Does that excuse you shooting at us, then?" Lilly asked him with an angered look on her face.
"Lilly..." Andre began to say.
Lilly shifted her gaze to him, "Are you really okay with it? If it was up to me, then I would kill him on the spot!"
"Too bad you didn't react like this when your dad left Lee to die at the drugstore..." Jack muttered under his breath.
Lilly shifted her gaze to Jack, "What was that?"
"Let's try not to argue right now. Okay? Let's focus on getting to the commissary right now." Lee tried to defuse the situation before it will escalate into an argument. He set his eyes on Lilly, going further into his words before anyone could say anything, "Let's just wait for the walkers to leave and get to the commissary."
"Fine. Whatever." Lilly said in a displeased tone.
"What about Mark?" Andre asked.
"What about him?" Lilly asked with a frown on her face, not wanting to talk about it right now.
Andre shook his head at her question, "Are we just gonna leave him here?"
Lilly shrugged it off, "Either that or we shoot him for shooting at us without even getting provoked."
"Wait? What? But I'm not a threat to you!" Mark exclaimed, alarmed by her words, "Look. I'm sorry. You guys were sneaking around the base and it looked sketchy to me. What would you do in my place?"
Lee frowned at Lilly's words, "Lilly. We're not gonna shoot him like a rabid dog."
"Yeah." Jack nodded in agreement, "Besides, he knows this place, just like you, and could help us a bit. Here and back home."
Lilly looked at Jack like he was an idiot, "What? You're not suggesting we taking him back home with us!"
"This is exactly what I'm doing." Jack nodded in confirmation.
"I'm with Jack here." Andre agreed with Jack, "We could use some help."
Lilly shook her head, "I'm saying no and that's final. He put us in danger by shooting us and we're not bringing anyone like this into our home."
Jack crossed his arms, "Really? Like you brought your dad into our home even after he punched Lee and left him behind to die?"
Lilly glared at him, "That was something different and..."
"Yeah? How as it different other than the fact that your dad did this?" Jack retorted, "Does he get a free pass on putting someone in danger? What will you do if he does it again? Will you give him a press pass again while someone else will be told to fuck off or be shoot?"
Lilly's glare worsened at this, "Now, listen here you..."
"What did I just say about arguing?" Lee got himself between them before either of them could escalate their argument, "Both of you know we have more things to worry about than arguing with each other right now. We should focus on getting the food from the commissary."
"I could help you get to it. I got the keys to it." Mark added, "Just give me a chance and I'll make up for what I did."
Lilly pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a sigh, "Fine, but you better not slow us down."
Mark nodded at her gratefully, "Will do."
"But it doesn't mean I'll trust you. If you try anything, I'll put a bullet in your leg and leave you for the walkers." Lilly told Mark with his glare remaining on her face, "Understood?"
"Y-yes. Like I said, I'll do everything I can to make up for shooting at you." Mark stuttered out his answer to her, getting one final glare from Lilly who turned away from him and walked off, leaving the four men together.
Lee shook his head in disapparoval, "Jesus, Lilly..."
"You'll get used to her." Jack told Mark, "Or at least this is what I've been telling myself since yesterday."
"As long as I don't get shoot by her, I'm cool." Mark replied.
Lee gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Don't worry, we got your go, now let's go."
"Yeah. Welcome to the team." Andre added, smilling at Mark.
"Thanks." Mark smiled back at him.
"We should get going. The princess will get angry again and I don't feel like dealing with it again." Jack added as Andre, Mark and Lee all nodded at him. The four men wasted no time and headed down the stairs, moving to join Lilly on the lower floor of the tower as all of the hoped to get this supply run over with as soon as possible due them feeling like they had enough excitement for today.
Luckilly for the group, they did not encounter any further obstacles in their mission and they succeeded in getting the food from the commissary. Needless to say. All of them were more than pleased with what they found as they knew this food will keep them feed for the next few months. In addition to the food they will definitely stumble upon during the future supply runs and duringn their hunting trips in the food, they knew their food situation was pretty much secured.
They didn't have to worry about having no space in Andre's cruiser to pack all of this food in as well as they packed everything in one of the trucks they found in a hangar with Mark's help. They left the airbase shortly after, knowing they were done with it and having no plans of returning to it anytime soon and began to make their way back to the motor inn. All of them took a short stop shortly after leaving the base to collect Andre's cruiser, though as Andre had no intention of leaving his trusted vehicle behind.
Jack sat up in his seat a bit, adjusting his sitting position as he was in the truck from the airbase with Lee, Lilly and Mark right now. Andre wasn't with them in the vehicle right now as he was driving his cruiser behind them. Lilly had her eyes on the road in front of them, driving the vehicle along the the road as Lee sat on the front seat next to her while Mark sat in the back of the truck next to Jack, staring out of the window. The drive went mostly in silence as everyone focused themselves on each other and their own thoughts.
"You ever gone hunting, Mark?" Lilly asked Mark a question of all a sudden, wanting to know the way Mark would make use out of himself at the motor inn as she broke the silence in the truck.
"I started going with my dad when I was a teenager, but I never really kept up with it after I moved away for college." Mark began to explain as he shifted his attention away from the window next to him to the woman in front of him, "Whenever I visited him during the summer, we would always find some time to go hunting, but it's not something that I'm an expert at."
"Where are you from?" Lee asked out of curiosity as Lilly nodded in understanding of the information she had just received from Mark. Perharps he won't be completely useless, after all.
"Pittsburgh." Mark gave him his answer.
"Long way from home." Lee stated.
Mark stated, "You're telling me."
"You'll get along with Jack just fine, then." Lee stated.
Mark raised his brow, "Really? Why?"
"I'm not from around here either. I'm from Louisiana." Jack explained to him.
Mark's eyes widened a bit, "Oh. You were kidding, then. You really are a long way from home."
"Yeah." Jack sighed. Trying not to think about his his family back home was doing right now, he quickly changed the subject of the conversation, "How are you all doing, by the way?"
"Fine." Lee gave him his answer, "I'm just happy we made it out of there."
"Same here." Lilly gave her answer shortly after Lee gave his, "Things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped they would, but we're bringing home food so that's more than enough for me." She looked over her shoulder to give both Jack and Mark a side glare for different reasons, "Even if we had some conflicts of our own there."
"Yeah..." Jack replied, knowing Lilly was referring to the argument they had regarding Mark back in the way. If he was honest with himself, he was not going to apologize for it as he didn't feel like he had anything to apologize for.
"Hey, Mark." Lee called out to Mark a second later, "If you were at the base when everything went down, then what was it like through your point of view? You know. With the military and all."
"It was chaos. Pure chaos." Mark gave everyone an honest answer, "The base went on a lockdown. No one care about it, though. Everything just cared about leaving the place."
"But not you?" Lilly asked.
Mark shook his head, "No. I was hoping to wait it all out there. It was when you guys came."
"I see." Lilly said in understanding. Just as she was about to say more, something in front of her caught her attention and she quickly forgot about the conversation they were having right now, "...What the fuck?"
Jack raised his brow at this, "What's wrong?"
"There are dead walkers in front of us." Lee informed him as he looked ahead of him through the windshield and observed the scene in front of them. He saw several walkers laying on the road and there were at least a few bodies inside the base. He found himself growing nervous by the scene in front of him. His nervousness didn't last long, though as she glanced into the motor inn and saw everyone from the group was fine and seemed calm, "Our group seems fine, though."
"Good. You had me worried there." Jack replied in relief in his tone as he shifted his gaze to Mark, "Come on. Let's introduce you to the rest."
"Alright." Mark nodded at him, growing slightly nervous as he got himself out of the truck. Jack, Lee and Lilly got themselves out of the truck as well and walked into the motor inn. Andre did the same after parking his cruiser behind the truck. It didn't took their group long to notice them and all of them came rushing in to check on them.
"Lee!" Clementine exclaimed happily at the view of her caretaker as she rushed into his embrace. Lee smiled, hugging her back as Kenny came over to him and Jack with his family and gave them a friendly nod.
"Lilly." Larry smiled slightly at the view of his daughter as they shared a quick embrace.
"Hey, dad." Lilly greeted her dad in return and pulled away from him. She motioned to the bodies around them, "What happened while we were gone? They got inside?"
Larry nodded in confirmation, "A group of those things came walking down the road shortly after I woke up. Our fence is not done, yet so I guess you can imagine how easy it was for them get in."
"Good thing Carley was with us." Doug added, "If it wasn't for her and her shooting skills, then I'm sure we wouldn't be standing here in the full squad."
Carley brushed the praise off, "I was just doing my job."
"Did you get the food?" Kenny asked.
Jack nodded in confirmation, "Yeah. We took everything from the commissary."
"We should be fine for the next few months when it comes to food." Lee added.
Kenny smiled in a pleased manner at this, "Fucking good job."
Larry looked around the supply run group and his eyes quickly caught the sight of Mark. "Hold on a fucking second. Who is that?"
"It's Mark." Jack introduced Mark to the group as he glanced at him, "We stumbled upon him in the airbase and helped us out a bit. We allowed him to stay with our group in exchange for help."
Larry crossed his arms with a displeased look on his face at this, "You must be joking. We have enough mouths to feed around here. We don't need another one."
Jack rolled his eyes at him, "If it wasn't for him, then you would have to worry about not having any food in your belly tommorow. I think allowing him to stay with us is more than enough to express our gratitude."
"Exactly." Andre nodded in agreement.
"You can't be serious." Larry shook his head, starting to get angry as he glanced at Lilly, "Lilly. You can't be alright with this."
Lilly sighed, "As much as I had second thoughts about Mark when we first met him, he proved himself handy to us as we got to the commissary quicker thanks to him. We discussed everything at the base and in the truck and we agreed he should stay. Does anyone around here have any problem with that."
Doug shook his head, "Nope."
"I'm fine with it." Carley gave her answer.
"As long as the children will be safe around him." Katjaa added.
"If Lee, Jack and Andre are fine with him, then I guess I'm fine with him staying with us." Kenny shrugged, excluding Lilly from his words. Lilly took notice of that and glared at him.
"Thank you guys. I promise that I will do whatever it takes to pull my weight around here. You won't regret letting me stay here." Mark smiled at the people in front of him in a grateful manner as Larry sighed, grumbling under his breath at how he was apparently the only person around here with any brain.
Lilly shifted her gaze to Mark, "If you want to prove yourself, then how about you start unpacking the food from the truck?"
"I'm on it." Mark instantly reacted to this as he quickly turned around and went to the truck.
"Here. Let me help you." Doug said as he pushed himself into walk towards the truck with an intention of helping Mark with the unpacking. Jack and Andre exchanged glances with each other and nodded as they turned towards the truck as well, having the same intention as Doug. As they start unpacking the food to the commissary all of them had the same hope in them.
The hope of all of this ending before they will run out of this food...
Hope it wasn't so bad. See you in another chapter.