(Anne Marshall belongs to AquaDestinysEmbrace.)
(Chris Rudy, Misty Rudy, and Chelsea Jernigan all belong to Chris Rudy!)
(I DO NOT own The Walking Dead, Code Lyoko or any of the names or brands that appear in this story. But I do own my OCs)
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Lilly was happy that Lee and Chris and the other teens all finally got back to the motel with backpacks full of looted medical supplies, and all of the new guns which they found were just the cherry on top. Fresh meds and new military-grade firearms obviously wasn't the issue.
The issue was that for some stupid reason, they decided to bring back a fucking mutt with them - another damned mouth to feed! And one which wasn't even human to begin with! Did they all not understand that they didn't have enough food as it was?!
"Easy, Lilly... the pup's with Anne." Chris tried to calm the angry woman confronting them. After all, it was only a puppy, and it wasn't like it or the teens were going to stay here for much longer. They'll all be gone long before the motel people starve.
Lee nodded in confirmation. "They're only gonna be here for another couple of days, Lilly... A week at the most." he reminded her. "then they'll be going back out there-"
"I don't fucking care! Get that fucking thing out of here or I'll do it myself!" Lilly growled in interruption. The dog wasn't even the thing which pissed her off most, it was the fact that Lee and Chris agreed to let them bring it back! How could they be this stupid?!
Blaze, who was nestled comfortably in Anne's arms, let out a worried whimper and nuzzled his face into Anne's arm as he listened to that angry lady speak. Did she not like him for some reason...?
Odd, Anne, Aelita, Chase, and Dylan exchanged glances with each other as they listened to Lilly's words. They knew she wasn't going to like that they brought back a dog with them, but to hate the poor little guy this much...
Aelita then stepped forward and got Lilly's attention. The girl was tired and hungry and wanting to reunite with Jeremie, but this issue needed to be settled first.
"Lilly, you have my personal assurance that Blaze isn't going to be any trouble for you, your group, or anyone else." Aelita promised the woman.
"Your 'personal assurance' means jack shit to me, Aelita." Lilly replied with her iciest tone yet.
Aelita had to put in some effort to not let herself look angered. "We're not going to be here for much longer..." she pointed out in as much of a de-escalatory tone as possible. "We'll only be here until Patrick is fixed up, and then we'll leave. We won't use up too much of your supplies."
Lilly opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't even get a word out before she heard some gasps from behind her.
She turned to see it was Duck and Clementine. The two kids must've been woken up by the noise...
"A puppy?!" Clementine's gasp of shock and excitement was very evident. She hadn't seen a puppy since before the outbreak!
"Dad! Dad, they brought back a dog!" Duck exclaimed with excitement. "Can we keep him?! Can we?!Canwekeephimcanwekeephimcanwekeep-"
"It ain't ours to keep, son." Kenny chuckled at his son's pure joy at seeing the pup. Admittedly, Kenny was also pretty happy to see a live dog, and he kinda wished Blaze had a brother they could take in for themselves.
Duck pouted with disappointment, but the boy did understand deep down. Wasn't his dog to keep... even though he desperately wanted one of his own.
Anne smiled and set Blaze down onto the asphalt, letting him run over to the two children himself so that they could meet him.
When the excited pup reached them, he jumped onto Clementine and made her fall onto her back, then made her start giggling uncontrollably by licking at her face.
Then another noise was heard, though this one was clearly a tone of annoyance and disgust. Everyone saw Larry walking down the steps from the second story of the motel and hurrying over to them, a look of utter disbelief on his face.
"A dog?! You brought a fucking dog back with you?!" Larry demanded to know. "Are you kids just a bunch of fucking morons or something?!"
"Keep your voice down, dad!" Lilly urged, though her dad continued on as if he didn't hear his daughter or care for what she said.
Larry was even more furious than his daughter was about the damn mutt. Did those idiot kids not understand that civilization itself has collapsed?! They couldn't take care of a stupid dog with what little food they have! Stupid!
The old man let out some more cusses and curses and insults for a few moments, then he stopped when he suddenly felt something nudging at his leg. When he looked down, he saw that Blaze had walked away from Clementine and Duck to him, the pup cheerfully wagging its tail as it tried to make a new friend...
Blaze tapping his nose against Larry's leg finally became too annoying for the old man to ignore. Larry growled at the stupid little mutt and he kicked it away with his foot, causing the little pup to run back to Anne while whining in fear. Luckily he didn't seem to hurt the poor thing, and Blaze's momma quickly engulfed the poor thing into her arms.
"You dig that stupid thing out from a trash can somewhere?" Larry frowned as Anne and the other teens looked at him with dagger-like eyes. "Don't you idiots know that we don't have a lot to eat to begin with?!"
"Hey!" Odd growled in protest. The Lyoko Warriors were angry that Blaze had been kicked by Larry like that, but Odd? He was furious.
"Enough!" Lilly demanded from Odd, her father, and from everyone else around them. Christ, this was giving her a headache...
Lilly pinched the bridge of her nose, having had more than enough of this bullshit.
The sooner the dog was kicked out of here, the sooner-
"Lilly?"
Surprised, Lilly turned to see that Odd had approached her. She glared at the kid, but he spoke before she had a chance to tell him to go away.
"It's just a puppy, Lilly." Odd reasoned to her one more time even though he knew it was probably pointless. "Please just let us keep him here for a couple of days before we head out again...?"
"Why the fuck should I?"
Odd cringed with sadness at the question. "... I already lost a dog, Lilly." he reluctantly explained to her. "I don't want to lose another... so just... please let us keep this one?"
As he spoke, Odd was forced to hold back tears at the memory of his beloved Kiwi. He failed, and by the time he finished speaking he already had a tear or two escape his eyes. Even to Lilly it was clear that Odd really cared about this new pup, Blaze...
The teens looked over to Lilly, seeing her expression soften... if only a little bit.
"... it better not shit in any of the rooms." Lilly warned, though finally conceded the issue. With an annoyed sigh, she turned and walked back to the RV, climbing onto its roof to resume her stint of guard duty.
The Lyoko Warriors and Anne all sighed in relief as they watched her leave. Blaze wasn't going anywhere...
Now that the whole mess with Lilly was out of the way, Odd, Aelita, Dylan, Chase, and Anne all went to reunite with the rest of their group. After the standard "welcome back" kisses shared between Jeremie and Aelita, Rebecca and Dylan, and Chase and Jennifer, along with some high-fives and cheerful smiles between the five and all their platonic friends, it became time for the five to introduce the others properly to their group's new dog.
Blaze was a happy dog beforehand, having gotten five new friends to dote over him all the way back to the motel.
But now that he had another twelve friends focusing all at once on him, with each either petting him on his belly and head or telling him how much of a good boy he was, he felt like he had died and gone to puppy heaven.
... he liked his new friends, that was for certain.
"Fuckin' unbelievable." Larry threw up his hands in defeat, unwilling to deal with this shit anymore.
They wanna keep that stupid mutt? Let 'em - but he'll gladly throw the fucking thing out himself if it ends up being a resource drain like the kids already are.
... on the other hand, if they run out of food, maybe the mutt can make for some good eating if they get desperate.
"Fuck off, Larry." Kenny said to the angry man as he stormed off. For once Larry was just too pissed to get in an argument - a middle finger behind his back was enough of a reply to Kenny's comment, at least for now.
Larry and Lilly's opinions notwithstanding, the rest of the motel group seemed to enjoy the presence of a friendly adorable dog. Clementine and Duck most of all, as they viewed the little pup as a new playmate for as long as the Lyoko Warriors were here.
Blaze made a fine addition to the group...
Now that all of this nonsense with Lilly and Larry was out of the way, the scavengers each went to a table next to the RV and they each began unloading the medical supplies from their backpacks as well as all of the new guns they picked up...
Thanks to their effort and hard work, they were certain Patrick was going to be okay.
Hours went by after the scavengers returned, and Lilly and Mark went to work again on Patrick inside Lee's bedroom in the interim. The scavenger team had used that time to catch up on some much-needed rest.
By the time the scavengers got back out of bed, the early morning hours which greeted their return to the motel had become dusk. One by one they gradually all got up and went outside into the parking lot, they went to help out with whatever tasks needed finishing up that day. Mainly it was going through the rifles and pistols they snatched up from the hospital and sorting out the ammunition for them.
In agreement with the motel group, the Lyoko Warriors were allowed to take three rifles, four pistols, a few of the combat knives, and also four ammunition magazines per rifle and three per pistol. The motel group got the lion's share of the loot but the teens were happy to be armed with better weapons now, especially military-grade ones.
They'll leave in a few days with Patrick. After that... well, they'll have to figure out what to do next.
Eventually Lilly and Mark told the teens that they treated Patrick with the medical supplies, and that they were pretty sure he'd be alright. Some bed rest, food, water an annual dosage of antibiotics - the two prescribed the standard recovery crap for wounds such as his.
The teens all made sure to visit their friend in Lee's room after Mark told them he was awake again. Verity practically pushed people out of the way to get to the room first.
"Patrick!" Verity exclaimed with joy and relief when she charged into the room and found her boyfriend propped upright on the bed by some pillows.
Luckily, the violet-eyed girl remembered to restrain herself instead of jumping on him and engulfing him in a hug. She settled for taking a chair and moving it to the side of his bed so she could be close to him.
The other teens soon came into the room, soon making it feel very crowded. But the happy atmosphere made everyone ignore any sense of claustrophobia.
"Morning, sleepyhead." Jeremie joked as he and the others entered. "How are you feeling?" he also wondered.
"Sore..." Patrick cringed, but he still had a tired smile on his face.
Verity chuckled at what he said, then reached out to take one of his hands into hers. She had never felt such relief and joy at knowing Patrick was going to be okay.
That boy was a mess after the CDC explosion... and she remembered how at his worst he had asked the others to leave him behind in that forest...
She was happy they didn't...
"Alright, Verity can stay, but the rest of you guys need to leave." Mark instructed. "I gotta apply another round of antibiotics and change his bandages. Got some more work to do on Patrick, but you can come back and see him again later."
As Verity took a seat next to Patrick, the rest of the Lyoko Warriors went to wait outside so that Mark would have his space to treat their friend. A few of the teens also went out beyond the front "gate" to gather up fallen branches and tree bark and whatever other kind of wood they could find for a campfire.
Misty introduced herself properly to the teens and she was kind enough to let them borrow her lighter. With the use of that along with some dry grass and some scrounged-up paper scraps as kindling, it didn't take long for the teens to get comfortable around the heat of some roaring flames.
A couple of hours went by as the group sat around the fire, talking about whatever came to mind and just trying to stay warm together.
But soon they started to talk about their current business...
"There's seventeen of us, plus a dog now." Ulrich deadpanned to the others. "And there ain't any way we'll find more than one working car out there quickly enough to catch up to Rick. Let alone enough gas for multiple cars..."
"Can't we just find one car and send out a few of us to find the others?" Anne suggested an idea. One car, a team of three or four of the teens - they'd be able to cover a lot of ground a lot quicker than the entire group altogether.
"Personally I don't think it'd be a good idea for more of us to get separated..." Aelita stated her logical opinion. "The last thing we need is for more of us to end up lost out there while we're looking Rick and the others..."
"Assuming we can even find Rick or the others..." Miranda muttered with dejection. She knew it was likely that they'll never see Yumi, Kyra, Robert, or Charlie ever again.
Georgia was a big place, and they had gone far from Atlanta after the CDC exploded.
How on earth could they find their lost group, their lost friends...?
The Lyoko Warriors had to come up with some idea as to what to do next. They couldn't just wander back and forth across Georgia trying to find their group.
Perhaps Rick and the others finally decided to try for Fort Benning? After all, it was probably the only truly-safe place left in all of Georgia... but it was hundreds of miles away from both Atlanta and Macon, and there was a lot of dead between them and that fort.
Plus there was also the fact that Yumi, Kyra, Robert, and Charlie certainly wouldn't go to Fort Benning with Rick's group without at least sticking around for a bit to try and find them. After all, the Lyoko Warriors didn't leave their own behind if there was still any hope they were alive.
"You guys all hanging in there?" Chris asked as he approached them, coming to join the Lyoko Warriors by their fire. With him he had a small plastic bag with some food in it, mostly stuff like beef jerky or snack cakes or canned ravioli. Luckily he brought a can opener for the latter, and no one minded eating cold food when they're literally starving.
"You don't wanna know the answer to that question, dude..." Jennifer sighed. The events of the last couple of days had been... stressful, to put it politely.
"We're all just mulling over some stuff together..." Aelita explained, her and Jeremie snuggled up together by the fire and sharing a blanket.
Chris nodded at that. "I know the feeling..." he said as he picked up a stick to stoke at the campfire a bit. He thought back to the first days of the outbreak, how he, Misty, and Chelsea came close to death over and over and over again. They got lucky.
As Chris thought to himself, Odd opened up his backpack and pulled out all the snacks and sodas he had looted from the hospital, handing everyone something to eat or something to drink. It was a good thing that he had enough to go around, the black hole of an eater that he was. Chris also handed out the stuff he brought in his own bag.
The snacks and drinks Odd scrounged up coupled with the food Chris gave to them ensured that the group at least wasn't going to go hungry tonight...
Silently, the teens by the fire opened up their chip bags or unscrewed bottle caps and started digging in. It wasn't much, but again - they wouldn't starve.
With a thoughtful look on his face, Chris set aside the stoking stick and he looked up at the Lyoko Warriors as they all ate and drank.
"So... what's your guys' story?" Chris asked, a look of curiosity on his face. "I can hear some of your accents when you speak, so I know some of you aren't American." he observed, then gestured over to people like Alex and Ulrich.
"You're correct, not all of us are." Aelita nodded at him. Good eye on his part, she thought to herself.
"Some of us were born here in the U.S., but all of us aside from Anne studied at a school in Paris." Dylan explained to the other teen. "Our school took a lot of its students and faculty here for a coast-to-coast Spring Break trip which the students, teachers, families, and some out-of-school donors all raised money for. We started in New York City but only got as far as Atlanta before everything went to hell."
"Where's the rest of your school?" Chris inquired.
The faces of all the Lyoko Warriors fell at that question. Their teachers, their fellow students, their friends... they didn't know if they were even alive or not...
"... we don't know." Jeremie responded, his tone sounding sad, but also almost defeated as well.
"Some of us haven't seen them since Atlanta got firebombed... but me and Jeremie and a few others haven't seen them since Paris, 'cause we left a bit later than the school did." Odd added, the tone of his voice matching Jeremie's.
Chris adopted an expression of genuine sympathy. "I'm really sorry to hear that..." he said to the others. "I really hope that you'll find them all alive and well out there somewhere, sooner or later."
Ulrich looked deeply pained by those words. Losing all of the others from Kadic was torturous enough on the teen, but knowing that Yumi was somewhere out there... and knowing that there was a good chance that he truly might never see her again...
... and then there was the likelihood that she was already dead ... or undead ...
In frustration, Ulrich suddenly stood up from the campfire and started heading back for the room he and the others were lent. The rest of the people by the fire watched him storm off so unexpectedly.
"Goodnight guys." was all Ulrich said to the others. He didn't even turn to face them.
No one had a chance to ask him if he was okay before he went into the room and shut the door behind him. He at least didn't lock it, as the others needed somewhere to sleep as well.
Ulrich, in a deep sorrow over Yumi, simply went to his sleeping bag and worked on getting himself to sleep. He didn't feel like staying out there with the others...
Outside, the Lyoko Warriors were silent after Ulrich stormed off. Thinking about their lost friends from Kadic Academy brought not only memories of them to the forefront of the teens' minds, but also the thoughts of their families who they haven't heard from since the start of the pandemic, and, in all likelihood, will never hear from again...
Waldo and Anthea Schaeffer... Jeremie's parents, Michael and Francine, along with his cousin Patrick who had also went on the trip to America...
The Ishiyamas, Hiroki, Takeho, and Akiko... Odd's parents and his five sisters back in Italy...
Dylan and Chase's grandfather up at his veterans home in Chicago, and their Uncle David in Paris...
Jennifer's family back at their ranch in Texas... Rebecca's in London...
The Lyoko Warriors' happiness soon turned to heartache that night as they sat around the fire. The memories of their loved ones which once brought the teens joy and comfort now only served to haunt all of them, or at least the ones who had family worth mentioning.
What was worse was not knowing if any of them were still alive or not. For all the teens knew, everyone outside of their group who they loved and cared for could be just some random walkers roaming the earth right now...
The teens missed their families, or at least most of them did...
And there wasn't a damn thing they could do about that...
A light rain was falling on Macon early the next morning, so many at the motel were either staying in their rooms or were just trying to stay dry if they had to be outside.
Lee was on top of the RV for his shift of guard duty. He had one of the scrounged-up National Guard rifles in his hands and an umbrella crudely tied to the back of his chair. A dark raincoat was even provided for him, though it had a couple of small rips and tears in it. The man felt miserable, but he was focused on just getting through the "torment" until Carley could relieve him in another hour.
Duck and Clementine were drawing stuff with chalk on the sidewalk in front of one of the ground-floor rooms, where it was dry thanks to the cover of the upper walkway. The little girl was also finicking with some old walkie-talkie which only she seemed to value, though none of the Lyoko Warriors knew why and they wouldn't risk being impolite by asking about it.
In the wet parking lot, Doug and Mark were busy trying to put up some more wood and barbed wire on a weak spot next to the dumpsters that served as "front gates." They were very wet and the breeze in the air wasn't helping - they wanted to get this over with so they can get back inside and dry themselves off. No one else volunteered for that particular chore.
And in the room provided to the Lyoko Warriors, the teens themselves were just hanging around and waiting for the weather to clear up so they can go back out and help out wherever they could to help repay the motel group for taking them in.
The people sitting in the room were having a really nice time. After the events of the last couple of weeks it felt very good for the teens to just wind down a little and relax. But they all knew this would not last...
Tomorrow morning, the Lyoko Warriors were going to pack up and move on to try and find Rick's group and the rest of their friends. Hopefully they were all still alive out there somewhere...
Ulrich had been quiet and stuck in his thoughts ever since he left the campfire last night. The others had tried to talk with him over the course of the morning, but it was clear that he just simply missed Yumi and the rest of their friends.
The others gave up trying to get to him for now, though they made sure he was aware that they were always there for him if he ever changed his mind.
Much of the group was simply listening to some old Dean Martin records that Kenny had scrounged up along with a record player during one of his previous supply runs. Some were simply chatting with each other.
But others were carefully watching as Chris and Odd played a very intense game of Battleship with one another after Odd found the game in a cabinet somewhere.
"Okay, Odd, focus..." Miranda began to encourage Odd, as she wanted him to win. "You have your powerful ships. Your ships have their disciplined crews. And the one thing your crews want is simply to make their glorious Italia proud. You are the terror of the seven seas and you can send all of Captain Rudy's ships and men down deep into the cold watery hell where they all belong... The Italian Navy shall make Poseidon proud today, Odd!"
"Chris, sweetie, you got this..." Chelsea encouraged Chris, as she wanted him to win instead. "You and your fleet are the pride of the U.S. Navy. Admiral Della Robbia has pushed you too far for too long, and now is the time to strike him down. America is a country made strong by the ocean, so your ships can surely add to that strength by sending thousands of Odd's sailors to their doom, right? End that fucker for King Neptune and Uncle Sam!"
Chris blinked in genuine but slight offense. "Wait, how come Odd gets to be the admiral and I'm only a captain?" he asked his girlfriend.
"'Cause I said so. Now shut up and play." Chelsea teased, then gave him a kiss on the cheek for luck.
"I don't mind it." Odd smirked, his tone defiant and even holding a little mockery at "outranking" Chris.
"You guys know that this is just Battleship, right?" Verity blinked as she was surprised by how serious this game was to them.
Both Chris and Odd ignored Verity, but they both soon moved past the whole "admiral vs. captain" thing pretty quickly. They each devoted themselves to winning.
The two boys each had beads of sweat forming on their foreheads as they examined their boards with diligence and patience. Odd had already lost all but his aircraft carrier, and Chris had already lost everything but his battleship. If either of the teens had a chance to win over the other then they would need to think of something fast...
"Hmmm... B-4?" Odd guessed as he tried to intimidate his best friend by staring him down.
"Miss..." Chris replied, grinning a little at the miss.
Now it was Chris's turn to strike. "Hmm... How about C-9?" he took a wild guess since he was sure an enemy battleship was near that location.
Odd growled a little under his breath as he took a red peg and put it down on C-9, right at the bow of his aircraft carrier. Odd cursed a little under his breath when he realized that his carrier's location had been discovered.
Chris has been getting lucky far too often at this game, that's for sure...
"Hit." Odd frowned as he slowly twirled a white peg with his finger and his thumb for concentration.
"You can't win against the U.S. Navy, 'Admiral' Della Robbia. It's useless to resist." Chris smirked, taunting the other teen just a little bit. Just to add fuel to the fire, he said 'admiral' with a bit of mockery. "If you agree to surrender your remaining ship to me now, then I swear that I'll treat all your surviving sailors fairly in accordance with international law."
"Possano le tue navi trasformarsi in fosse comuni. (May your ships turn into mass graves.)" Odd frowned, giving a taunting reply in his native Italian.
"Sorry, I don't speak 'ravioli, ravioli, give me the formuoli', friend." Chris taunted right back in a way which only an American could master.
"Oh my god..." Misty muttered to herself in growing annoyance and disbelief. Seriously, what was with those two boys and board games of all things?
The game was becoming so interesting to watch that some of the Lyoko Warriors who were watching Odd and Chris's match began to take bets on which one of them would win. As the U.S. Dollar was completely useless by now, the participating teens were betting with whatever they had on them. Simple things like some beef jerky, a clean pair of socks, a can of soda, a couple of funny truths or dares - you get the idea.
But then there was one dare which took a couple of the teens completely off guard.
"You want what if Chris wins?!" both Jeremie and Aelita gawked at a very... specific dare which Miranda had betted specifically with Aelita in mind. It was such an unexpected request that Jeremie nearly choked on a pretzel he had been munching on when he heard it.
"A kiss on the lips from Aelita, yeah." Miranda confirmed to her friend, relishing the sight of her friend's cheeks turning as pink as her hair.
"You're aware she has a boyfriend, right?" Dylan deadpanned at Miranda, sticking up for his now visibly-embarrassed step-sister.
Miranda shrugged in a way which was far too casual for a request like what she was making.
"He can watch us if he wants." Miranda said, her tone making it seem as if she was talking about something as frivolous as the weather. "I don't mind." It was true - she definitely did not mind Jeremie or anyone else watching if it meant she got to kiss the adorable pink girl.
Jeremie and Aelita simply gawked at their friend... their very, very annoying friend... and they wondered how in the hell anyone could end up quite like Miranda did.
"Why the hell would I ever agree to such a thing?!" Aelita demanded to know. It was hard to tell if she was feeling more mad or more embarrassed right now.
"Is it not obvious?" Miranda deadpanned, as if the reason for her dare offer should have been extremely obvious.
"No, it's not!"
Miranda rolled her eyes before flashing a smirk at Aelita again. "You're hot, Princess," she purred, "and you're easily in the top five list of people I want to-"
Aelita made sure to not let her friend finish that. "I swear, if you say what I think you're going to say, then I'm gonna-"
"-kiss!" Miranda interrupted the pinkette with what she may or may not was going to say, a teasing grin on her face. "What, 'Lita? Did you think I was gonna say something... inappropriate?" she jokingly asked, though she had a deliberately husky tone to her voice when she said the final word.
Aelita wasn't having any of it. "There's no way I'm agreeing to kiss you in any scenario!" Aelita protested. "And even if by some incredible circumstance I did, I definitely wouldn't agree to anything more than that, you pervert!"
"My so-called 'perversion' notwithstanding - you kissing me would only happen if your horse loses the board game, cupcake."
"Horse?" Chris blinked in confusion at what he was dubbed, though his question was ignored by the girls since they were too focused on their talk.
Though Chris was confused by the kind of terminology Miranda used for him and Odd, his feeling paled to the sheer confusion Aelita felt at the word used for her.
"Cupcake?!" Aelita felt nothing less than utter bewilderment at a nickname like that. Jeremie looked just as shocked by the name as his girlfriend was.
"Yeah!" Miranda grinned flirtatiously at the pinkette. "Y'know, 'cause you're sweet and sugary and you probably taste so yummy."
The room seemed to stop for a second as all eyes turned in bewilderment toward Miranda, Aelita, and Jeremie.
Aelita let out an audible squeak at Miranda's words, quickly turning away her head so no one could see her shocked face. For a moment, Jeremie even had one of his classic freezes. And both of the teens were blushing so red from Miranda's words that their faces could easily be mistaken as bonafide tomatoes.
After a few moments of which she forced herself to calm down, Aelita took a deep breath and turned to face her would-be kisser again.
"... I wouldn't kiss you - or do anything more with you - in a million years, Miri." Aelita bluntly put an end to this insane bet and even more insane conversation.
"Aw, you're such a heartbreaker..." Miranda teased, then flashed a flirty wink which made Aelita roll her eyes. That woman was an expert in getting on people's nerves it seemed...
The others were extremely bewildered by what they had just listened to. Although a few of the teens like Odd or Alex or Jennifer looked a bit interested in seeing where that "bet" could go, they wisely decided to keep their mouths shut lest they earn the wrath of Lyoko's Princess, her brothers, or even her boyfriend.
Soon, Odd shook that kind of thought out of his head and he went back to the game.
"...A-5." Odd finally guessed where to attack after a moment of deliberation.
Chris's eyes widened once he saw that Odd's guess had hit his battleship dead-center. A lucky shot.
As Chris and Odd hilariously began to stare each other down and debate over the merits and possibilities of sinking each other's ships in Battleship, Dylan, Rebecca and Alexandr were watching the teens from the other side of the room.
"Tell me again as to why board games are so intense for some people?" Rebecca inquired to her boyfriend and her friend.
"No clue." Alex shrugged. "Do you remember that session of Monopoly with Patrick, Kyra and I a couple of years ago?" he then inquired, shuddering at the memory.
Rebecca and Dylan's faces paled a little as the remembered the event. Kyra may normally be a sweet and very polite girl, even to the point where the Canadian politeness stereotype becomes fact. But if you get on her bad side you'll definitely see someone's PlayStation get smashed into a million pieces...
Alex pushed that memory out of his mind and glanced out the corner of his eye. He saw Verity was still at the side of Patrick's bed and that she and him were in the middle of a conversation, a bit of a romantic one at that. He didn't hear much of it aside from them saying how much they loved each other.
It seemed like Patrick was recovering pretty nicely from his wounds. He even seemed pretty happy since not only Verity was there with him, he also had Blaze laying at the foot of his bed and peacefully sleeping.
As Alex mused, Rebecca gave Dylan a loving kiss on the lips before she stood up to go and get some fresh air, as the stuffiness in the room was getting to her a bit.
After another few moments of watching the others in the room, Dylan decided to go out and join his girlfriend. Even a few moments of the cool air and the scent of a rainy morning refreshed him tremendously.
He looked to his right and saw Rebecca sitting in a chair, enjoying the peaceful sight and sound of this morning. Dylan admired that soft little smile on her face, and he was glad that she was able to find time to relax in spite of everything they've been through thus far.
Rebecca saw Dylan out of the corner of her eye, and she flashed him a loving smile.
"Hey there..." Rebecca greeted him from her comfortable chair.
"Hey..." Dylan greeted back, his tone matching the love in hers.
Rebecca gestured over to an empty chair next to hers, an offer which Dylan gladly accepted. He sat down next to his girlfriend and they locked hands as they watched the rain together, listening to the sound of millions of droplets hitting the parking lot.
A very distant thunderclap could be heard as the couple sat there, simply enjoying each other's presence.
"I missed this..." Rebecca suddenly said, not looking away from the rainy scene in front of them. She looked happy. "Just you and I getting a chance to just sit and relax by ourselves and not let anything bother us for a moment..."
"I know... I've been missing this too." Dylan agreed. "I like being with everyone in there, but sometimes I just want to get some 'you and me time', y'know?"
"Haven't gotten much of that since before we left Paris..." Rebecca agreed with him.
Dylan nodded, trying to think back to the last time that he and Rebecca got to spend actual time alone together.
It was on her birthday if he remembered right. That was about four, maybe five, months ago now? Time wasn't easy for him to keep track of anymore, not in an apocalyptic and very deadly world like this.
God... it wasn't even half a year since then, but it honestly felt like it happened a whole lifetime ago.
Wordlessly, Rebecca suddenly leaned her head against Dylan's shoulder. The teen wrapped his arm around his girlfriend in response, enjoying the closeness.
"I hate to ruin the moment," Dylan apologized in advance. "but what do you think we should do after we leave with Patrick?"
Rebecca shrugged at the question. "Try for Fort Benning, maybe?" she suggested. "That's what I'd say we should do if we were still with Rick and the others."
"I honestly doubt we even can make it to Fort Benning..." Dylan sighed. "You know as well as I do that a trip there is going to be hellish. Fatal, even."
"I don't have much hope either, but we still have to try..." Rebecca insisted, even though she knew how crazy it was in the end.
Sensing Dylan's worry and hesitation, the teen looked up and planted a soft kiss on his neck, then another on his jaw.
"We're gonna be okay, Dyl..." Rebecca promised him, reaching out to take his hand into hers. "Whatever happens, whether we reunite with Yumi and the others or not, whether we try for Fort Benning or not, we're all going to be okay in the long run..."
Dylan took a moment to absorb Rebecca's words. He knew she meant well and he truly did appreciate how she was trying to help ease his worries, but it just... it just wasn't something he could truly believe at the moment.
It wasn't even just the fact that they'll probably be doomed to die after they leave the motel. It was the fact that they most likely would never see four of their closest friends ever agai-
"I DON'T WANT TO TAKE IT OFF!!!"
A loud voice from inside the bedroom suddenly interrupted his thoughts and made both him and Rebecca jump ten feet in the air. Even Lee, Mark, and Doug all turned their heads towards the room despite how far away they all were.
Dylan and Rebecca instantly jumped from their seats and ran toward the source of the scream...
"I-I wasn't trying to take it off, Anne, I swear!"
Dylan and Rebecca burst back into the room, finding everyone else aside from Patrick was up on their feet and looking at the opposite end of the room.
Carefully pushing their way past their friends, the young couple found what was causing all the commotion...
Anne looked utterly panicked as she pressed her back against the corner of the wall. She was hyperventilating, sweating, and looking as if everyone there was out to get her.
In front of the panicked teen was Jeremie, who had a shocked, concerned, and very confused look on his face over whatever had just happened between them. Aelita was standing right behind him with an equal look of confusion and concern on her face.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Dylan demanded to know as he hurried up to Jeremie.
"I didn't-!" Jeremie began to stammer, himself close to freaking out. "I- I didn't- I..." he forced himself to gather himself back together. "I only suggested that she could take off her b- bandana if she wanted, just so she can-"
Jeremie was interrupted by Anne, who now had her hands tightly pressed against each side of her head as she struggled to keep herself together. The teen had her eyes shut tightly, as if there was a million horrible thoughts and sounds running through her brain which she couldn't even begin to control.
Whatever was happening to her, it was clearly unbearable...
"BACK AWAY!!!" Anne shouted at Jeremie, at Dylan, at everyone who was even remotely near her. "NOW!!!"
The confusion of the two boys only increased as they did what Anne demanded. Dylan and Jeremie backed a few steps away from Anne and shared a look, neither of them having any idea what could have set her off so badly.
Both of the boys - along with everyone else in the room - were very worried for the poor girl. What was wrong with her?
The screams Anne made quickly drew the attention of everyone else inside and out at the motel. Everyone who wasn't in their room immediately hurried in there to see what the hell was happening. Even the people who were sleeping were roused enough to go to the room and see if everything was okay.
The first person to make it to the door was Lilly, who had a look of absolute rage on her face.
"The fuck is going on in here?!" Lilly demanded to know as she practically pushed her way past some of the teens in an effort to get to Anne. "Are you fucking kidding me with this shit?! You know there's walkers in the trees out there-"
"I WON'T TAKE IT OFF, DO YOU HEAR ME?! I- I WON'T! I WON'T! I WON'T!!!"
Lilly's eyes went wide as Anne suddenly reached out and pushed Lilly away from her. Luckily Ulrich and Verity caught her before she could fall to the floor.
Anne wailed to herself in pure terror as she tightly clutched the bandana which covered her eye.
Lilly pushed herself out of Ulrich and Verity's grip. She looked even more pissed off than she was before on account of being pushed, but this time she held herself back.
Naturally, everyone else in the room was greatly confused and were extremely concerned by Anne's panic attack. What the hell was setting her off like this?!
Odd then carefully tried to approach the teen but she screamed and wildly thrashed at him almost like a cornered animal, immediately making him back off.
"What's going on?! What happened to her, Jeremie?!" Rebecca gasped as she heard the absolutely dreadful screams.
"The fuck-?! Did you set her off like this?!" Lilly demanded to know, her face a shade of red from how angry she had become.
"I- I don't know!" Jeremie exclaimed with worry. "I- I swear, all I was suggested was that she take her bandana off since we're inside!" He was horrified at the thought that he may have somehow caused Anne to react like this. Did he?!
Chase and Dylan tried to approach Anne to ask what was wrong, but like with Jeremie and Lilly, she began thrashing and she forced the two brothers to back away so they wouldn't get kicked or hit.
By then, the entire motel except for Larry had hurried over to the room. Even Clementine and Duck both came down to see what was wrong, and each looked very scared and worried.
The kids didn't like all the screaming...
"What the hell is going on?!" Kenny asked as he ran inside with Lee.
Anne seemingly didn't hear him or the others - it was like she was trapped somewhere deep inside a bad part of her subconscious, unable to escape whatever memories had flooded to the forefront of her mind.
"I!!! CAN'T!!! TAKE!!! IT!!! OFF!!!" Anne screamed as tears ran down the sides of her paled face.
Blaze, worried and frightened by all of the screams and shouts, only whimpered as he hurried to hide under the bed in the room. The poor pup shivered as he waited for all the yelling to stop.
"You don't need to take it off, Anne! It's okay!" Jeremie desperately tried to assure the girl and calm her down.
Chase also hurried forward. "Please calm down, Annie! Everything's fine!" he urged.
Anne had screamed and yelled so much that her throat got sore. Gradually she got less loud, and soon she just crumpled into herself and rocked herself back and forth in silence, staring wide-eyed toward nothing in particular.
Several long moments went by where Anne stayed like this, just pulling herself and her mind back together, but eventually she started looking calmer... albeit a lot more tired and drained now than before her panic attack.
Cautiously, Blaze crawled out from under the bed and he carefully stepped over to his momma. Anne glanced in his direction, and with a soft hand and a look of sadness in her eyes, she reached out to gently pet him as a way to apologize for scaring him like that.
Blaze accepted it, leaning himself into his momma with nothing but genuine love and comfort.
Wordlessly, Anne wiped away her remaining tears as she forced herself to stand back up on her feet. The poor girl didn't say a word as she hurriedly walked through several people and straight out the door, walking past the others who were gathered there too.
She needed a few moments of fresh air and lonesomeness to collect herself.
The people within the room were completely stunned. Without any hesitation, both Dylan and Chase hurried past the others and they went outside after Anne to figure out what the hell was going on. The other Lyoko Warriors and the motel group all watched from the door or the room's window so they could see what was going to happen next.
Anne was standing out by the front "gates", quietly crying to herself as Chase and Dylan cautiously approached her. Neither were sure of how she was going to react when they would ask her what's wrong.
The broken girl noticed the two brothers approaching her, but she didn't turn to look at them.
"Anne...? Anne, you freaked all of us out back there... you okay?" Chase hesitantly asked her with concern in his voice as he stopped a few steps away from her.
"Yeah, Anne, everything's okay... if you need to talk about something then you don't need to hesitate." Dylan assured in a soft tone as he approached her.
When Dylan gently set his hand on Anne's shoulder to try and get her attention, Anne suddenly turned and pushed Dylan away, causing him to stumble backwards and fall down onto the asphalt. Before they could ask why Anne pushed him away, she had already begun to storm towards them, reaching up to take her bandana off.
The two boys froze in place as Anne yanked the bandana off of her head and threw it to the ground, and when she got to the teens she moved her bangs out of her face to reveal her eyes.
One eye was a normal and very pretty forest-green, and if it was any greener then it would easily have looked similar to Aelita's emerald eyes.
The other eye, however, was a deep shade of crimson that appeared to literally be blood-red.
That eye was the source of so many of her troubles throughout her life...
"You want to know what's wrong?!" Anne growled at the brothers, then yelled like never before. "YOU AND CHASE LEFT ME!!! YOU FUCKING LEFT ME WHEN I NEEDED YOU THE MOST!!!" she had shouted so loud that her vocal cords strained a little bit.
Dylan, Chase and everyone watching from the roomall went wide eyed in a stunned silence when they heard Anne's outburst. Dylan hurriedly got himself off of the ground and brushed himself off before he nervously looked at Anne, knowing that anything he would say to her could set her off even further.
"Anne?! I- I... Y- You gotta keep it down! There's walkers out in the forest!" Dylan stammered with shock as he tried to calm his friend down as best as he could.
"After you both left they started bullying me again!" Anne replied with an infuriated growl, ignoring his warning. Right now, she was letting out things she had wanted to say to the two brothers for a long time. "They kicked me! They pushed me! They called me 'Cyclops'! AND I DEALT WITH IT FOR FUCKING YEARS!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.
She needed to let the rest of this out. Those two owed her this...
Chase suddenly heard a growl come from a short distance away. Sure enough, Anne's shouts were drawing walkers since one had begun to drag itself out of the treeline.
Rather than shoot it, Chase simply unsheathed his combat knife from the sheath on his left thigh and then he cautiously walked towards the walker to deal with it.
As his brother went to deal with the walker and any others which might be out there, Dylan continued to try and calm Anne down. Both Rebecca and Aelita hurried out from the motel room to help him, but Anne didn't care about either of them at the moment.
"Do you want to know how my parents helped me?! THEY DIDN'T!!! They let it happen! They were both useless and weak!" Anne shouted as her rage consumed her. "The bullies did unspeakable things to me after you and Chase left, Dylan! I STILL HAVE NIGHTMARES ABOUT IT!!!" she shouted to the teens with tears of fury and trauma going down the sides of her face.
"Anne, what are you talking about?!" Aelita gawked with disbelief. What did Anne mean that her brothers had just "left her"?!
Anne was struggling as hard as she could to not just fall to her knees and break down. Aelita tried to walk up to Anne to pull her in for a hug, but Anne simply brushed her aside and caused the pink-haired girl to hurriedly go a few steps back so she wouldn't get pushed down like her stepbrother.
Chase finally hurried back to the scene after killing the walker, having not seen any others. Anne just glared at him and Dylan as she choked up on her rage-fueled sobs.
"I needed you guys and you both let me go through hell! You both let them crush me! IT'S ALL! YOUR! FUCKING! FAULTS!" Anne finally finished her outburst, taking very deep breaths as she struggled to regain some of her composure.
"Shut the fuck up already - I'm trying to fucking sleep up here!" they heard a very grumpy Larry suddenly call out from the walkway on the second floor.
"Fuck off, Larry!" Rebecca growled back at the old bloke up there, honestly not giving a shit if she was loud enough for a walker to hear. The fucker needed to be told off.
Larry and Rebecca soon got into an argument which Lilly and Doug hurried out to diffuse, but Dylan and Chase as well as Aelita were still focused on Anne.
Aelita was confused and shocked, but Chase and Dylan were absolutely horrified after listening to everything that Anne said. Both of them glanced at each other as if to wonder what the hell was going on.
Dylan had no words, but he cautiously began to approach Anne with a look of sympathy and pure regret on his face.
"A- Anne, we're sorry... I- I had no idea that-" Dylan began to try and speak to his friend.
Suddenly and without warning, Anne went to meet Dylan and she slapped him hard on the face before she could realize what she was doing.
Dylan didn't get sent to the ground this time, but he did place his hand on his now-red cheek and stared at Anne with bewilderment and sadness. Rebecca, who had finally turned her attention away from Larry, and also Aelita and Chase all gasped when they saw Dylan get slapped.
But even Anne also seemed to be shocked and deeply disturbed by what she had just did. Without a second thought, Anne engulfed Dylan in a hug and quietly cried in his chest as he hugged her. His face was stinging from how hard he hit her but he never could manage to get angry at her, even for something like this.
Anne was hurting terribly due to her past... Dylan understood, especially since he himself knew what that feeling was like...
"I- I'm sorry, Dylan!" Anne sobbed out as best of an apology as she could. "I- I didn't... I didn't mean... I- I-"
"I- It's okay, Anne... It's okay..." Dylan softly replied as he patted her back, reassuringly.
Anne nodded with a sniffle as they kept hugging for a long time. But eventually she pulled away and wiped the rest of her tears out of her eyes.
She didn't hate Chase and Dylan nor did she actually truly blame them for all that had happened since they left, as she remembered the explanation Chase gave her back at the department store in Atlanta.
The girl simply let her rage go unchecked too much as she dealt with her trauma. But then and there she mentally vowed to never release it upon Chase or Dylan or Jeremie or anyone else in their group ever again...
These people were all her friends... they might even be the closest thing she has to a family in her entire life...
Anne sniffled once more before she cleared her throat to continue speaking. It took her a moment to find her voice once more.
"...After you and Chase left," she began, "I went to the park to try and find you guys. When I got there I looked around for hours, but... I couldn't find either of you anywhere." Anne explained, her face falling as she remembered the event.
The look on Anne's face turned despondent, the memories haunting her. "One of the people bullying me was there. He noticed that you two were gone, and... he told all of the other people who were bullying me. They started doing it again, not even a day after you left..." she explained with a tone of sadness.
"Jesus fucking Christ..." Chase muttered to himself with shock. Those bastards, those cowards, waited until Anne was totally defenseless to go after her again...
Anne lowered her head and tried not to break down again before she noticed her bandana was on the ground. She remembered that in her anger she threw it there, so she walked back over to collect it again. After she picked it up, Anne sighed with sadness and a bit of shame at her outbursts before she turned to look back at the two brothers.
"They kept at it for four whole years..." Anne continued to explain. "I decided to wear this bandana to try and stop it, but honestly that only made it worse. Half of the school saw me with this on and they called me things like 'Freak', or 'Cyclops', or something like that... It kept going on like that. For weeks."
Anne swallowed. "But then... he came back from juvenile hall... and he noticed you two were gone."
Chase and Dylan both appeared to be a bit confused by the mention of a 'he' in that sentence, but after a few moments their eyes slowly widened with realization. Obviously, however, Rebecca and Aelita had absolutely no clue on whomever Anne was referring to in her explanation.
"Who are you talking about? Who's 'he'?" Rebecca inquired to the three teens.
"... Josh Harrington." Anne, Chase and Dylan all replied at the exact same time, all with matching tones of anger and disgust at the memory of that boy.
Memories of Josh Harrington flooded Anne's mind after she, Chase and Dylan said his name, and unfortunately she began to remember all of the terrible, evil things that he had done to her over the years. But one took precedence over all others...
On one night, after seeing a movie with her grandfather, she ended up cornered in an alleyway by Josh, armed with a knife.
The monster pushed her down and got on top of her, keeping her pinned down as he started getting his pants off... then hers...
If it wasn't for the timely intervention of her grandfather who happened to look down the alleyway while searching for her... Anne would've been...
She would've been...
would've...
been...
...
...
... Anne couldn't let herself dwell on that any further. She couldn't let that trauma overtake her for the second time.
The teens noticed how Anne was beginning to tremble from some exceptionally terrible memory, so Rebecca gently took Anne's hands and she carefully began to lead her friend back towards their hotel room with Dylan, Chase and Aelita following close behind.
Aelita noticed how Chase and Dylan felt enormous guilt about the things they had heard. The two boys were mentally kicking themselves...
Anne depended on them... and they let her down by them and their family leaving town... leaving the country...
The motel group backed away and let the teens have some space as Anne was led back into the group's room. The first thing that Anne did when she went inside was to go to Jeremie and give him a hug, apologizing for everything which just happened. Jeremie didn't hesitate to hug her back, telling her that there was nothing for him to forgive. The two were okay and still on good terms.
Sitting down on the front of Patrick's bed, Anne was handed Blaze by Verity, who clearly saw Anne needed some more comfort. It helped a lot.
As Blaze relaxed in his momma's arms and gave her a lick to the hand as a kiss, Dylan and Chase went to sit on either side of her.
"I swear that we won't leave you ever again." Dylan swore with all his heart. Then, he sighed with guilt. "I'm so sorry, Anne... I'm so, so, SO sorry about all those things that happened to you after we left..."
"We should've tried convincing our dad more to not move us all away..." Chase also said, his tone full of just as much guilt as his brother's.
Anne glanced over at Dylan and Chase and she could tell that they both seemed to be truly remorseful about what had happened to her. They were her best friends when they were little and she spent years hoping that they would come back.
Now they were, and she wasn't going to push them away.
"You don't have anything to be sorry for, guys. You're my best friends, I can't stay mad at you..." Anne assured the two brothers, a small smile curving on her lips. "Agree to forgive me if I agree to forgive you?" she offered.
Both Chase and Dylan smiled with relief and happiness when they heard this, and even Rebecca and Aelita were happy to hear this as well.
"... agreed." the two brothers told her at the same time. Anne and the brothers shook each other's hands to seal the deal.
Finally, everything had calmed down again...
... or, rather, they did until they heard something outside again. Lee's voice, specifically.
"Whoever's out there, you better show yourself!"
What the fuck was it now?!
Dylan, Anne, Chase, Aelita, Odd, and Jeremie all hurried outside together with their guns at the ready. They could see Lee on top of the RV, but now he was standing and he was aiming his rifle out toward something which made some movement in the trees.
"What's going on?" Odd asked as he and the others approached the RV.
"Not sure," Lee replied to the teen, not looking away from the sights on his rifle for even a moment. "I know that I saw something moving out there on the road... Maybe it was a walker, but it moved quicker than any walker I've seen so far. Might actually be a person."
"A person...?" Aelita's eyes widened as she looked toward the trees.
Lee nodded at her. "Yeah, but I lost sight of whatever it was..." he explained. "I think it saw me and it went behind an old van out there to hide..."
Another person... a rare sight during days like this...
But if it was indeed another living, breathing, human being... were they friendly, or were they hostile?
"I'll go out and take a look." Chase informed the teens as he checked his magazine of his heirloom pistol, seeing it still had eight rounds.
"You're not going out there alone, Chase." Aelita told him before she readied her own pistol. "I'll go out there with you and watch your back. And before you try and stop me - no, I won't hear any objection."
Reluctantly, Chase nodded at the pinkette. "Okay, but just make sure you watch yourself too, sis..."
Aelita nodded before she and Chase made their way over to the front gate. Anne, Dylan, Jeremie, and Odd all hurried to the front fences to watch and to give any support if it was needed. All had guns in their hands too, after all.
The two siblings pushed open the dumpsters and walked out to the street, Lee keeping a close eye on them from the top of the RV like the others were down below. With great caution, Aelita and Chase began walking down the street toward that van, both keeping their guns ready just in case.
As the two teens approached the van, they caught the sight of what looked like fresh blood on one of the broken-opened windows of the driver's door...
... it definitely wasn't a walker, and it definitely wasn't some wild animal. It was a person, and it was one who didn't want to be seen by Lee or anyone else at the motel.
Readying themselves for whatever would happen, Aelita and Chase went around the van and to the two back doors, preparing to open them up and confront the person.
Chase silently looked at Aelita and mouthed out a countdown, so Aelita aimed her pistol at the doors and prayed that whoever was in the van wasn't going to try and fight them once they were opened up. When Chase mouthed the number: "zero", he then forced open the doors.
After he opened them, however, they saw something that absolutely unexpected.
Inside the van was indeed a person... but to their mutual shock, they knew exactly who this person was...
Chase holstered his pistol and Aelita handed hers over to him as she cautiously went inside the van and approached the frightened little girl that was hiding within.
The girl was sniffling, having been crying to herself for the last few minutes because she accidentally cut her hand and hurt it while entering the van. Her mother would take care of any of her cuts and bruises, but she had no clue where her mom was anymore...
Aelita had absolutely no clue how this little girl got here all by herself from somewhere so far away, but she needed to get her back to the motel to feed her and warm her up, and she also needed to find out where exactly she came from. The girl herself looked so astonished to see the two teens were there in front of her...
With a small smile, Aelita crouched in front of the girl and held out her hand, inviting her to come with her.
"Hello, Sophia..." Aelita smiled at her. "It's good to see you again..."