River Street...

Lee didn't exactly take the news entirely well, I had to stop him from storming back into the house or he was gonna tear Ben's head off. I understand that anger, I wanna give the kid a proper jaw-breaking, but now is not the time. We can find a damn boat, get the fuck out of this godforsaken city, and deal with it then. I swear, I'm gonna have to call Kenny the 'Boat God' if he goes on any more about it.

So far, River Street has been quiet. Not a walker in sight ever since we left the house, but I know now that can change in an instant. Who knows if that Stranger is watching the house now that the three of us are gone, not to mention where that other person in the bell tower could've gone? I can't tell if they're being smart or if they're suicidal, who the fuck knows what's going on in this city.

"Keep your eyes out for Chuck," Lee tells us. "He might be waiting for us around here,"

"Yeah...sure."

"You guys think the others will be alright at the house?"

"I'm sure Christa can at least handle things," Lee reassures me.

"They're safe as anyone can be these days, son."

I sigh as I try to find the slightest bit of comfort in their words. "I just don't like leaving Clem alone. Walkers were bad enough, now we got some mother fucker following us."

GONG! GONG!

Oh, shit! Not again!

"Sone of a bitch," Kenny draws his pistol. "That bastard's fucking with us again! It's another trap."

"No. Listen," said Lee, taking a step beside Kenny on the sidewalk. "That's not the same bell as before."

GONG! GONG!

"He's right," I say. "Wherever that bell is, it's gonna get the dead moving there." Speak of the devil... Some walkers come from down the street behind us, and the three of us take cover by a wall. Lee peeks out in front of me and Kenny sits down on the ground behind us.

"What in the hell is going on?"

"I don't know," Lee answers. "but the person bringing that bell might be doing us a favor."

"Good point," I say. "At least we won't have to deal with walkers by the riverfront."

"Whatever. I find whoever's doing that, I'll ring their motherfuckin' bell for 'em!"

"Ba-dum-tss."

"Nice one."

The last of the Walkers move along down the street perpendicular to us, soon disappearing out of view. "Hmhp. Let's keep moving," Kenny says and I help him up to his feet.

"Still nothing moving behind us," Lee pointed out. "I think we're..." He stops moving once we reach the docks.

"What's...wrong..." Fuck... The docks are nearly empty, the only boat in sight has its stern half submerged in the water.

"Oh, my God." Lee places his hands on top of his head in stress.

"Fucking hell..." I grip my fists in anger.

"There's gotta be a boat...there's gotta be."

"I don't know, Kenny."

"Maybe it's time we start thinking about a plan B," I add.

"This is the plan, boys!" Kenny shouts, turning around at us in anger. "This is our best and only shot! You two said so yourselves back at the house! Y'all agreed with me!"

"Yeah, but that was before we-" Kenny runs off to the half-sunken boat before Lee can even finish, and we follow him soon after. Kenny jumps down onto the dock to examine the boat, Lee and I stand on the sidewalk behind the railing.

"This one...might be salvageable."

"Seriously?"

"Kenny, it's halfway underwater..."

"You two got a better fuckin' idea?"

"..." Kenny, come on man...

"I'll check it out. You two just look further along the waterfront. Maybe there's something at the other end."

"I don't think we should split up too far."

"We don't have to," Kenny points to a nearby telescope on the sidewalk. "See that telescope? You can see all the way along the waterfront from right there. See what y'all I can find." Kenny goes back to checking out the boat.

I sigh. "Well, might as well see what..." I notice something off about the street behind Lee, something is blocking the street. Lee and I took a closer look...and we couldn't even believe what we found. "...Jesus, Mary, and Joseph."

"What the fuck?"

The road has been completely blocked by a wall...of dead bodies. Some of them have been impaled on some pikes...moving. These people...they weren't walkers when they were put there. There's a wooden sign with the words, 'STAY OUT' written in blood at the bottom of the... Wait, that's a fucking kid at the bottom of the pile. Dear God...

"What is this meant to be, some kind of warning?" Lee questioned, taking a few steps back from the horrific sight. "Who would do this?"

"...I don't know," But I know I can't ignore this. I sling my backpack off and take out my camera.

"Elijah..."

"Lee," I look at him with a serious frown. "People have to know."

SNAP!

"May God have mercy on their souls..." I mutter as I put the picture and my camera back in my pack.

"FUCK!" We hear Kenny shout, he soon comes over to us and he looks more angry than before.

"What's up with the boat?"

"It ain't gonna work. Hull's cracked beneath the water line, plus someone's stripped out the battery."

"Well, damn."

"You can't fix it?"

"..." Kenny's eyes widen in shock when he looks past us, seeing the wall of bodies that we just did. "What the...what the hell is that?!"

"...A fate worse than death," Lee remarked...but that's not what had my attention right now.

I see...a figure standing on top of a nearby building, wearing...a red jacket. That could be the person who's been ringing those bells, the same person I saw at the church. The figure pulls out what I think is...an ice pickaxe, and they start climbing down the building.

"Get down!" I whisper. Lee and Kenny follow me and crouch on the dock, we look through the railing as the figure gets to the ground and approaches a nearby newsstand.

"What's wrong?"

"Why the hell are we hiding?"

"Someone came down from the rooftops at the end of the dock."

"What?"

"Well, where'd he go?"

"I saw them run into that newsstand over there," I point.

Kenny nods. "Could be our bellringer. How about we go find out?"

"We didn't come here to cause trouble, Ken," Lee warns him.

"Yeah, well, it seems to have a way of finding us anyways. Look, this could be the guy from the radio, the one who's been messing with us. If he is, we can put an end to it, right now," Kenny climbs back onto the sidewalk and Lee and I follow him, hiding behind a few planted trees. "Okay, Elijah. You head up the middle of the street, Lee and I will go around the sides and cover your flanks. We'll come up quiet," He draws his pistol. "and take him by surprise."

"I'm just gonna talk to this guy, Kenny."

"Oh, we're gonna talk!"

Kenny quietly moves across the street and hides in the alleyway beside the newsstand, Lee takes the street we came here from. I sigh as I take out my sickle and I move across the street. I get a better look at the person in the red jacket as they scrounge whatever's left on the newsstand, they crouch and I see my opportunity. I stand, raising my sickle...only to find no one behind the counter.

"What the fuck?" I was just about to turn around...but my sickle is taken from my hand. The guy managed to swipe my weapon and they tried to swing it at me, only grazing my cheek. "Ah, fuck!" I punch the guy's hood-covered head and my sickle falls out of their hands and onto the concrete ground, they try to hit me back but I barely manage to dodge it and hit them again, causing them to fall to the ground.

Before they can react, I straddle myself down onto them, pinning them to the ground. I pull out my pistol and aim it at the stranger's head. My breath becomes heavy as their blue eyes meet my own, and I can feel a small trickle of blood going down my right cheek. I can't make out the rest of their face thanks to the medical mask they're wearing, but their body underneath me...doesn't feel like a man's.

"Elijah!"

I turn my head back to whoever called my name, seeing... "Clem?!" You had one job, Ben! The stranger underneath me moves but I plant the end of my gun against their forehead, making them stop. Slowly, they remove their hood, revealing themselves to be...a girl with short blonde hair and a blue hairpin.

Damn...she nearly kicked my ass.

"...You're...not from Crawford."

"Crawford?" I tile my head, pulling my gun back from her head. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"Mind if I get up?"

"...Slowly." I let her up but I keep my pistol pointed at her just in case she tries anything else, I hear two pairs of footsteps behind me, telling me that Lee had come out of cover and joined Clementine. The girl took off her medical mask and...gave me a small smile. I put my gun down and holster it. Kenny steps out from his hiding spot...pointing his gun at the girl.

"Kenny, don't!"

In one swift kick, the girl sweeps Kenny's leg, causing him to fall. He drops his gun and-

BANG!

It goes off when it hits the ground, making the impaled Walkers on the barricade react to the gunfire. The girl kicks Kenny's gun away and grabs her ice pick. "No, he's with us!" Lee shouts just in time, the girl is just a few inches away from stabbing Kenny. He grabs his gun and stands and the mystery girl puts her weapon away.

"Who the hell are you people?" She turned her head back at me.

"I think I asked you that first."

"...The name's Molly," She turns her body to face me directly.

"Molly," I nod. That's...a nice name. "I'm Elijah, that's Kenny, this is Lee and Clementine. We ain't lookin' for trouble."

"Hi." Clementine happily waves at the new girl.

"...You guys really aren't from Crawford, are you?"

I shake my head. "We don't even know what that is."

"Everything beyond that barricade," Molly points to the wall of walkers.

"It's a community or something?"

"What the hell happened here?"

"You sure you wanna know?" We all nod. "...When everything went to shit, some people got together and sealed off that whole neighborhood. Folks willing to do anything to stay alive, stop the dead getting in. I try to avoid 'em."

"Why?" Kenny asked.

"Let's just say they have a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who won't...or can't...live by their rules."

Rules? "So how did you know that we weren't them?"

"..." Molly looks at me, then down at Clementine with a sad frown. "Because there are no children in Crawford. Not anymore."

"What?"

"What do you mean, 'no children'?" Lee asked. "Why not?"

"...No children, no elderly, no one with an advanced medical condition," Molly listed off as she stood in front of the walker barricade. "Basically, no one who might be a burden on the community. Crawford's all about the 'survival of the fittest'. That's how they survived...while the rest of the world went to shit around them."

Christ alive...what kind of monsters were these people? "...What did they do to them?" I feel like I already know the answer to that but I ask anyway.

"Well," Molly looks at me as she gestures to the wall of corpses. "you met some of them already."

"Fuck me..."

"Cono..."

"Even...children?"

"...Yeah," Molly nods solemnly. "Anyone who got sick, anyone too old, anyone they figured wasn't strong enough to survive, pull their own weight. To them, those people were just mouths to feed, a drain on their precious resources."

"What does that mean, 'pull your own weight'?"

"It just means being able to help out," Lee answered Clementine.

"Like you do all the time," I add and she smiles.

"Doesn't sound like any kinda way to live to me," Kenny remarked.

"Couldn't agree more."

"...How do you even know of all this?" I ask.

"...Everyone in Savannah knew. What was going on inside Crawford got passed around like a ghost story. Except this one was true."

"What about those bells all over town?" Lee questioned. "Do you know who's been ringing them?"

"Yeah," Molly proudly smirks. "that would be me."

I knew I recognized her jacket.

"I knew it!" Kenny got angry. "Lee, Elijah, I knew she was the one who's been following us, fucking with us!" He pointed his finger inches away at Molly's face.

"Get that finger out of my face, grampa, before I jam it straight up your ass," Kenny complied as Molly crossed her arms. "I haven't been following you. I don't even know who the hell you people are."

"Calm down, Kenny," said Lee. "The voice on the radio was a guy, remember?"

"Yeah, well, whoever you are, ringing those bells this morning nearly got us all killed, raised the dead all around us!"

"That's the idea, genius. It's how I get around. I ring a bell in one neighborhood to attract the local geeks toward it, buys me time to scavenge the areas they cleared out."

"'Geeks'?" I question. "You call them that?"

"Yeah. You know, like at the carnival. They'll eat anything, alive or dead."

I chuckle. "That's almost as good as 'Walkers'."

"That's also smart," Lee added. "with the bells."

"It doesn't take much to outsmart the dead. Bunch of dumbasses. You just gotta move fast, get in and out before they start to wander back again."

...She's badass.

"Look," Molly goes on. "I'm gonna ask you people again. You're not from Crawford, so who the hell are you? What are you doing here?"

"We're just surviving out here, like you," I say.

"And the only way we're gonna survive this is by getting on a boat and gettin' the hell outta here," Kenny added.

"Yeah, good luck with that. Anyone with a boat took it out of here as soon as people started eating each other. Any that got left behind, Crawford stripped 'em for parts. Cars too."

"...There's gotta be something."

"If there was, do you think I'd still be here? I've been over every inch of this city, this whole place is picked clean."

"Goddamn it!" Kenny walks away and kicks a nearby trashcan. "Fuck!"

"Hey, moron! You wanna keep your voice down?"

"..." Kenny shakes his head. "Shit..."

"Since you're not getting on any boat, I'd advise that you folks to go back to where you came from, before-"

"Euuuugh..."

"Raaauuuuugh..."

Oh, shit... I turn around, seeing Walkers coming down the street we came from. I recognize a few of them from earlier when Molly rang the bell. "Oh, Mierda..."

"Great. Just great."

"Isn't that the-"

"The way we came," Lee finishes Kenny's sentence.

"Fuck, gunshot must've brought 'em back."

Clementine starts backing up. "Isn't there another way back to the house?"

"Molly is there-" I turn around to see her running into the alley, the rest of us catch up to her only to see her climbing up to the fire escape with her ice pick. "Hey! Isn't there another way out of here?!"

"Don't know, don't care!"

"So what the hell are we supposed to do?!"

"I refer to you to my previous answer."

"But you have to help us!" Clementine begged. "Please!"

Molly turns around and sees Clementine's sad face, she rolls her eyes and reaches her hands down to us. Ha, no one is immune to her sad look. "Come on, make it fast!"

"Come on, Kiddo, you first!" Lee and I pick up Clementine and Molly pulls her up to the fire escape. I cup my hands together and squat down. "Kenny, you next!"

"Oh, fuck me," I help him up and Molly pulls him to the top, more walkers continue following us.

"Lee, now you!"

"No, you first-"

"Just come on!" I hoist Lee up, and Kenny and Molly pull him to the fire escape.

"Come on, son!" Kenny reaches his hand up to me. "One good jump!"

I hop up and grab Kenny's hand, only for my grip to slip and I fall on my ass on the concrete ground. FUCK! "No! Elijah!" Clementine calls to me.

I get back on my feet and try to run through the alley, a large dumpster blocks my escape. I push it out of the way as I hear the growling behind me get closer.FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! I finally got the dumpster out of my way and began running...only to be cut off by more walkers in front of me, cutting me from my escape. Cono...I'm cornered. I look down...and I see a manhole. YES!

"Elijah! Get the hell out of there!"

"Move your ass, son!"

I squat down and try to pull out the manhole cover. "NGH!" But it doesn't move a budge. "Can't get it open!"

BANG! BANG!

"Lee! No!"

"What the hell are you doing, man?!"

I turned my head back...Lee had just jumped back down and started shooting the walkers with his gun. "Lee?! What the hell are you doing?!"

"Just get that thing off!"

BANG! BANG!

"Here!" Molly tosses down her ice pick to me. "Use that to pry it open!"

I take it and jam the end in one of the holes, the cover comes off in seconds. "Lee! Come on!" I climb down the ladder and into the sewer, Lee soon comes after just before the Walkers nearly catch him. I hear someone shouting from outside...and I'm sure I know exactly who it is.

"LEE! ELIJAH!"

I'm sorry, Clem. Just hold on for a while, okay?