The train finally comes to a stop and the three of us hop out of the boxcar to get a better look at what caused us to come to a halt. There's an overpass right above us...and a gas tanker is hanging off the edge, blocking our way. Shit, what the hell happened here? More importantly, how are we-

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK! FUUUUUUUCK!" Kenny shouted at the top of his lungs. I want to share the same sentiment, but it sounds like he already did that for me.

"Maybe we could walk?"

"...That's fuckin' stupid, Ben."

"I'm just...sayin'..."

"Just stop talking," I say.

Chuck climbs down from the front of the train and looks up at the tanker. "Hmm. I dunno. I ain't got much experience with y'all's fortitude but we could probably deal with that. We got a goddamn train."

"That thing's not full of milk, Charles," Kenny pointed out. "That's gas...or diesel; something that's gonna explode."

Chuck turned to him with a frown. "You gotta get a hold of yourself. This a crew here."

Kenny walks over to Chuck, getting near his face. "This ain't shit."

"This-"

"Yo!" A voice called out, turning our attention to the overpass above us. We see...a guy and a woman. "you keep screaming like that and you're gonna get your face chewed off!" The man said jokingly.

"Are you guys gonna be trouble?" The colored woman asked. "Because we could've just kept walking."

"No, we're friendly! Put your hand down, Ken." Lee whispered that last part to him, he was reaching for his gun.

"That's what everybody says," The woman remarked.

"Trus us, we know!" I shout.

"Do you guys have a problem with your train?" The guy asked us.

"Yeah, you're standing right in front of it," Kenny said, crossing his arms.

"Dude, it's a wreck. It's that so bad from up here. Send a few of your buddies to have a look."

Lee and I start moving to the ladder that leads to the top of the bridge, but Kenny stops us first. "Anything goes sideways up there, we won't let them escape."

We ignore what he says and go towards the ladder. Lee grabs onto it and looks up at the pair. "If we come up there, you two better not be murderers or thieves."

The woman looks over the edge at us. "I guess you'll have to find out."

I roll my eyes as Lee starts climbing.Don't have to be rude about it.I follow after him, a small pit forms in my stomach as we climb. I don't like heights, but once I'm up there, I should be alright. Lee helps me up as I reach the top and I'm met with the two new faces that called to us. A man with a buzzed haircut and beard with a brown California hoodie and a taller woman with a white and purple jacket.

"What's up, dudes? I'm Omid."

"Lee."

"Elijah."

"Christa. What's the deal with the train?"

"We're driving it," I answer.

"Oh, man!" The guy who we now know as Omid smiled like a kid in a candy store as the woman named Christa just rolled her eyes.

"Look, you wanna help us out?" Lee asks. "We could use some able bodies and...yeah, we really need some help."

"It's been...a helluva day," I add.

"What's in it for-"

"Oh, shit!" Omid claimed with excitement. "Goddamn, you guys have a kid!"

"Huh?" I looked to where he was, seeing Clementine pick herself up from the ladder. Seriously? Was no one watching her?

"What are you doing up here?"

"Do you know how long it's been since I've seen a kid?! Shit! What's your name?"

"Clementine." She smiled at the stranger.

"Oh, so he gets to swear?" Lee crossed his arms and smiled and I do the same.

"I see how it is, Clem."

"Well, this is great," Omid looks to Christa with hope in his eyes. "See? Things are looking up!"

"You guys aren't her family," The woman noted. "They down there?"

"Is it that obvious?" Lee asked.

"To me."

"And, no, they're not down there."

"But I'm close to family that she has left," I add.

"Oh, yeah? What's your guy's story?"

"I came across Clementine and Elijah here the first day all of this happened. I was...actually incarcerated."

"Sick, got any prison tats?"

"I, uh, didn't make it that far."

"What about you?" Christa asked me.

"I've known Clem here since she was...well, little-er. She's been my neighbor ever since her folks moved into my neighborhood."

"And everybody down there, they're cool?"

Lee and I look down at the others and he answers first. "Kenny lost his wife and kid."

"Man. How long ago?"

"What time is it?" I ask.

"I don't know. Uh, four?"

"Then around two hours ago."

"Goddamn..."

"We're sorry for anything that's happened to you guys," Omid expressed his condolences. "That train is awesome, though."

"That tank is your real problem," Christa said looking back at the tanker. "We'll help you with it, but if we see anything we don't like, we're moving on down the road. Alone."

"We understand," I express. "We would appreciate your help."

"Can't just blast through it, I guess?"

"Not unless you want to be part of a cool explosion."

"Polite pass."

"If you could get it down, the rest would probably be pretty easy."

"Then we'll start there," I say. The five of us climb down the ladder and go back to the others by the train. "Guys, this is Omid and Christa." Kenny, Chuck, and Ben look at the newcomers but say nothing.

"Not big on welcomes..."

"Like he said, it's been a helluva day."

"We just wanted to say hi and say that your train is pretty cool."

"But we're not looking for charity."

"We could help you guys, though."

"Maybe."

"The plan is to cut that tanker down and be on our way," Lee stated.

"Seems like a plan enough to me," Kenny shrugged.

"You want to start in on that tanker?"

"I'll get to know the girl for a minute," Christa said to us. "If you two don't mind."

"And why don't I show you how this thing works," Kenny suggested to Omid. "in case...something happens."

"Kenny..."

"It's probably for the best, son. Someone might want to have a look inside of that station back there, too." Kenny and Omid climb the engine car and enter the cab. Christa and Clementine sit on the ground, talking. Chuck sits on a nearby rock, playing his guitar and Ben sits on top of the train.

I think we should at least check the station for anything that could help us get that tanker down, but I want to at least check on everyone first. Maybe get to know the new people too. I tell Lee to wait out here while I check on Kenny and the new guy Omid. Inside the cab, Kenny sat in the engineer's seat as Omid hovered over his shoulders.

"I don't know what that does yet," Kenny said to him. "Don't touch it," Omid doesn't listen as he reaches toward a lever and Kenny smacks his hand away. "I said don't touch it, jackass."

"Teach him anything?" I ask.

"Trying to..."

"Hey, man." Omid looks to me.

"Hey," He seems like an okay guy. "So, where are you guys from?"

"San Francisco."

"Damn, long way from home."

"Yeah."

"How long have y'all been away?"

"Like, six months. We were on the road for a while and then...you know."

"That's rough, buddy."

"...Our cat is gonna be pissed."

"So how have you two made it this far alone? You and your girl seem dangerously normal."

"Christa doesn't let us join groups, and I'm a fucking scrapper." He bragged.

"You make it sound like she takes care of you."

"Please. I've saved her ass hundreds...tens...some times."

I chuckle. Seeing that he's not going to be much trouble, I leave Omid with Kenny and go back outside the train. Lee is walking over to Christa and Clementine and I join him, I may as well try and get to know her too.

"You interrogating this woman for us?" Lee asked Clementine.

"Yep!"

"She set off any alarms? I cross my arms after I stand beside Lee.

Clem shakes her head. "Not yet."

"She's very thorough," Christa said with a smile.

"That's what I like to hear."

"I'd be careful with her though," I warn. "She's a good little shot now."

"You got this girl shooting guns?"

"She's gotta take care of herself."

"...Fair enough," Christa looks over to Clementine. "You know, that's a pretty useful radio for her to be holding onto, no?"

"It's broken," I say. "but it means a lot to her."

"Ah, I understand."

"So, where are you from?" Lee asked.

"San Francisco."

"Jeez, a long way from home."

"I blame the one in there," She nodded her head to the engine car. "He wanted the 'great American road trip'."

"Well, he got a little more than he bargained for," I point out.

"Who the hell is into Civil War history anyway? Other than old white guys."

"..."

"..."

Lee and I smile as we both slowly raise our hands. Christa just rolled her eyes but she smiled too. "Wonderful. You three will be thick as thieves."

"I'm actually more into World War II history, but Lee here was my professor before all of this."

"That so?"

"Yeah," Lee elbows me. "he was one of my best students. Still don't know why you chose an art degree though."

"What can I say? I love photography."

"You're a photographer?"

I nod at Christa. "Yep. Even in the apocalypse, I'm a photographer at heart. In fact," I pull my backpack off and grab my camera, Christa is baffled at the sight of my device.

"You carry a camera of all things?"

I nod. "Someone's gotta document what this whole thing is doing to the world around us, I may as well be its photographer."

"Huh. Wouldn't exactly be my priority, but I won't judge."

"Fair enough," I don't mean to pry, but I can't help but be curious. "So, why was Omid excited when he saw Clementine? I know he said it's been a while since you've seen a kid, but he just seemed a little too excited."

"...If it's all the same to you, we prefer to keep that to ourselves right now."

I nod in understanding. "Yeah, sorry I asked." I look off to the station that's not too far beyond the overpass. Well, might as well see what's in that station back there. "Lee, wanna go check out the station?"

"Yeah," He nods. "right behind you."

"Can I follow you over there?" Lee and I turn back to the sound of Clementine's voice after walking a few feet away.

"You don't like the new girl?" Lee asked.

"I do, but..it's like you said, we're all a team."

I chuckle. "Fair point."

"Yeah, alright. Come on," Lee looks to the others and calls out. "The three of us are gonna go check out this train station, alright? Hustle over if you hear anything."

Thankfully, it isn't too far of a walk. Lee, Clem, and I arrive at the station. I can vaguely see the words 'survivors inside' painted on the roof but with the state of the station is in, I doubt anything is living in there. Clementine goes on further ahead of us, eventually trying to open the door to the station on her own.

"You should wait for me or Elijah before trying to open doors."

"Sorry..."

"It's alright, kiddo. Luckily, it's locked. We'll get better at working together." I check the door, it's definitely locked. Lee and I could try to break it open but I don't think we should make a lot of noise. I see a small open window above the door... "Hmm..."

"What are you thinking?"

"There's an open window, could be a way in."

"Maybe I could look in?" Clem suggested.

"How about I put you on my shoulders and you can peek into that window up there?"

Clementine nods at Lee's plan. "Sounds good."

"I gotcha, Kiddo," I pick her up and place her on Lee's shoulders, she looks inside. "What do you see?"

"Lots of crates and stuff."

"Maybe we can find the key or figure out a way to knock this door down," said Lee. "Kenny'd probably have me pick the lock."

I laugh at the reminder of how Kenny assumed Lee knew how to do such a thing. "'Jesus man, I'm from Florida! Crazy shit just comes outa my mouth sometimes.'"

Lee laughs at my impression of Kenny. "Now all you need is a mustache to complete it."

"Agreed. Wish I had Randy Tudor's mustache."

Lee smiles. "Randy Tudor. Good man. Damn, fine man. Powerful 'stache."

"One of the greats."

"I think I opened it." Clementine interrupts our...I don't really know what it was.

"For real?"

"I think so!"

I help Clem down off of Lee and set her back on the ground, he opens the door. "I'll be damned."

"Let's go," Clem points at us. "Be careful."

"We're supposed to tell you that," Lee says and Clem smiles. We enter the station, and the only source of light is from outside the main door. "Damn, it's dark in here."

"I could hold the door and you guys look around," I volunteer.

"I don't like that, we need all hands on deck. Here," Lee props the door open with his monkey wrench. "There, now we can see."

I get a better look at what's inside. The place looks like a pigsty with all the trash and wooden crates scattered around the floor. There's a metal cage with a locked gate, inside...there seems to be what looks like a blowtorch. Perfect, that's exactly what we need. But how are we gonna get... I look over to Clementine, she's small enough to get through but how would she get out? I get a better look inside, finding a key hanging off the wall. Good, at least she can get out.

"There's some space at the top of this gate," I say.

"We're lucky I'm so little," Clementine proudly says.

"Yeah, we are," said Lee. "You okay going over the top of this fence?"

"Yeah," She nods. "definitely."

Lee and I boost her over the gate and Clementine climbs through the small gap. "Go on and grab the keys, Clem."

"..."

"Come on, scoot."

"..."

She looks...scared. "What's wrong?"

"Behind you!"

"RAAAH!"

"Fuck!"

"Cono!" Lee pulls out his gun and I do the same, but another Walker attacks me and knocks my pistol from my hand and it slides under the gate. "Shit!"

"Elijah!"

Lee tries to shoot the first Walker but it gets too close and it grabs him by the shoulders. I'm focused on my Walker who's only a foot away from chomping his eight remaining teeth into my neck. FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! The Walker slams me into the wall and keeps up its chomping. With one good push with my foot off of the wall, I manage to get the Walker off of me, and it falls to the floor. Now with the upper hand, I pull out my sickle and swing it down into the Walker's forehead, killing it. I look over to lee to help him but he's already taken care of the walker with his monkey wrench that was propping up the door.

"You good?"

"Yeah. Shit..." We both look at Clementine...who has picked up my gun. It shakes in her hands and her finger is close to the trigger. "It's okay. It's okay...everything's fine."

"We're alright, Clem. Now just-"

"Eeeeeugh..."

We all look toward the sudden sound. Out from the darkness...another walker. Its dried blood shined in the only window...revealing its hanging eyeball from its socket. "Keys, now!" Lee shouts. Clementine hurriedly grabs the keys off the wall and hands them to Lee, the Walker gets closer and closer as he unlocks the gate. I take my pistol from Clementine and aim it at the walker.

BANG!

The monster falls to the floor, dead. I sigh in relief. "Shit..."

"Goddamn..."

"That didn't go so good."

"No, it did not go so good," Lee agrees with Clementine. "But we're okay. Everything's okay."

"What's going on?" A voice calls from outside. "I thought I heard a gunshot."

"We're fine," Lee answered as Christa came inside the station. How the hell did she get over here so fast? "We found some Walkers."

"..." Christa sees our work...but she looks at us with skepticism rising in her pupils. "You two and an eight-year-old versus three of them, huh?"

"We handled it," I said.

"Yeah, looks like it. What if you hadn't?" Lee and I look at each other. Why the hell is she criticizing us? "I'm gonna go make sure the noise didn't cause us any problems."

"That's a good idea," said Clementine.

Christa smiles and nods, then starts to leave. Before reaching the door, she turns back and looks at me and Lee. "I hope you two know what you're doing with her."

"..."

"We're still alive, aren't we?"

"...Yeah, you are," Christa leaves us and I kneel down to Clem.

"You okay, kiddo?"

"Yeah," She nods. "I'm a little shaky."

"You'll be alright." I give her a reassuring hug, Lee grabs the blowtorch from inside the gate and comes back out. "You got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Let's go outside now."

"Agreed."

"What did we learn?" Lee asked Clem.

She looks down, tugging at her sleeve sheepily. "That I'm not ready for a gun."

"No, Clem," Lee kneels down with me. "We learned that everything we will ever do is dangerous. We'll get better, smarter, and faster. Okay?"

"Okay?"

"And we learned to not be afraid," I add. "They almost got us, but we got them."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Fear is the thing that will kill us," Lee states. "you understand?" Clementine nods and the three of us leave the station.

"Elijah and I found a blowtorch in the station," Lee said to Omid as he climbed down from the engine car. "Should make quick work of the coupling up there."

"Excellent," The San Francisco man expressed. "I'll come up there with you guys to have a look."

"Stay here with Christa, okay?" I say to Clementine and she nods. I take the blowtorch from Lee before he and Omid start climbing the ladder...and I immediately regret my decision. Damn it... I climb the ladder with the blowtorch in my left hand. Halfway up and my arm is starting to feel sore. I finally reached the top and Lee gave me a hand.

"What took you so long?" He smirked.

"Ha. Ha," I roll my eyes and try to catch my breath. "You try climbing with one arm."

Lee laughs and takes the blowtorch from me before he goes over to the tanker. He sets it down on the road and turns it on...but it doesn't ignite. "Shit."

"What's up?" Omid asked.

"The hose has a leak in it."

Omid widens his eyes. "Turn it off, dude! I-I don't want my eyebrows burned off!" Lee does so. "Better plug that leak with something."

"Well, I'm not going back to that station, it's a dead end."

"What about that service van?" Lee points to the nearby vehicle.

"I'll take a look," I open the back doors, and inside are a bunch of empty shelves and a few traffic cones. Lucky for us, I found a small roll of yellow tape by one of the cones. "Bingo. Lee, catch!" I toss the roll over to him and he catches it in his right hand. He covers the leak and turns on the blowtorch again, this time igniting it.

"Hope this works."

"Dude, you're cutting metal with fire! Of course, it will." Lee gets to work on the coupling, looking away as the blowtorch cuts through the metal. "That's crazy, look at it go!"

"Just about got it." The tanker starts to slide down...and so does the other tanker along with it. Omid pulls Lee out of the way before it can knock him off the bridge. "Whoa," Lee gets back on his feet. "Thanks."

"No sweat, man."

"It's hanging by a thread," I point out. "The smallest cut and it'll go."

"Can't reach it though..."

"Well we could," I say. "But one of you ain't gonna like it."

"What do you mean?"

"To put it bluntly, I dangle one of you over the edge to cut the tanker."

"The hell you are!" Omid exclaimed.

"..."

"...Looks like we found our volunteer," I say to Lee, smirking and crossing my arms.

"Looks like we have."

Before we could even debate about it, I held onto Omid's left arm as he reached for the coupling with his other. Lee holds onto me to add extra support. "God, you guys are real sons of bitches, aren't you?!"

"Just shut up and start cutting."

"Guys!" Ben calls to all of us from on top of the boxcar "There's something coming!"

"Huh?"

I opened my eyes despite the blinding flashes of the blowtorch. Beyond the train, I see...Walkers, more Walkers than I have ever seen in one place. There are so many that they're gathering dust as they get closer to the train. There must be hundreds...no, thousands! Did they follow the sound of the train?

"What the what?!"

"There must be thousands..." I hear Lee mutter under his breath.

"We gotta go!"

"Shit! Omid, cut! CUT!" I yell.

"I am!" I hear the creaking of the metal, its about to go. "It's going! Pull me up!"

The tanker snaps from the coupling, falling to the ground. It tilts toward the overpass, crashing into the ladder and knocking it off the column. There goes our way down.

"Kenny, go!" Lee shouts and the train slowly begins to move under us with everyone else on board.

"Shit, what the hell do we do now?!"

"The ladder's smashed to hell!"

"..." I look down at the tanker, and gasoline begins to pour out from the bottom of it. An idea pops into my head as I look down at the blowtorch. "Hope this at least slows them down!" I kick the lit blowtorch off the edge, igniting the gasoline immediately and setting the dry ground on fire.

"Holy crap!"

lee runs over to the railing. "We gotta jump!"

"What?! No way!"

"Hijo de puta!" I join him and step over the railing...the train somehow looks further away than it is. "...Fuck."

"Jump!" Lee shouted, more so at Omid than me.

"No!"

"Jump, damn it!"

"Still, no!"

"Fine!" Lee jumps off the overpass and lands on top of the boxcar.

I know you taught me not to, Mom, but... "...Oh, fuck it!" I follow after Lee, landing on top of the boxcar and nearly falling off the edge.

"AAH!" I look behind me, seeing Omid falling off the side and onto the ground after jumping.

"Shit!" Christa hops off the train and helps Omid onto his feet. "Run!"

Lee and I climb down and get to the side of the boxcar as fast as we can, Omid and Christa run as fast as they can. Omid has a limp in his running. Shit. "Take my hand!" I call out to Omid, he grabs it and I pull him in as Lee grabs Christa.

"That...was a lot of them!"

Once we're all inside, Clementine comes back and sees that we're all here. "Are you hurt?"

"No, we're alright."

"Speak for yourself," Omid remarked, holding his leg in pain. "My leg is fucked!"

"I officially hate heights even more now."

"We're fine, Clementine. We're fine."

"Let me look at your leg," I kneel down to Omid and pull up his pant leg, revealing a deep gash in his calf. Damn, he must've cut it against the car as he fell. "It doesn't look too bad. Lee, grab my duffel bag." He nods and hands me the bag and I grab a small bottle of peroxide and a few bandages. "This'll hurt like hell, but it's gonna help."

"Hold on, can't we first-" I ignored what he was about to say and poured a small amount over his wound. "AAAHHH FUCK!"

Some time passed, and I managed to clean Omid's wound as best I could despite his constant squirming. It took Lee and Christa to keep him from crawling away as I finished up, but there's no guarantee that it won't get infected as long as he takes it easy. I head up to the cab of the engine car, finding Lee and Kenny inside, along with Clementine who's fallen fast asleep in the chair. I notice Lee holding something in his hands, a drawing of Kenny, Duck, and Katjaa that I guess Clem must've drawn. Man, still can't believe they're gone.

"Next stop, the Atlantic," Kenny says to us...but I'm reminded of our initial plan.

"We're finding Clementine's parents when we get there," Lee didn't forget either.

"I thought they were dead."

"We're looking for them, then," I correct Lee's wording.

"That's not the plan."

"Well, It's ours," said Lee.

"..." Kenny looks away from us. I don't want to abandon anyone, but Clementine needs this closure.

"You'll be alright, Ken," I rest a hand on his shoulder.

"I be alive I guess. Blood in my heart, blood in my brain, at least."

"We'll leave you to your thoughts," Lee and I go over to Clementine, finding comfort for the first time today at how peaceful she looks. "She's out cold like I've never seen."

I chuckled "Yeah, just like old-"

ZZZTTT!

"Huh?" A sound coming from Clementine's backpack makes me stop talking. It sounded like...her radio. Lee noticed it too and grabbed the walkie-talkie, it continued playing static as Kenny walked over to us just as confused as we were.

"What the?"

"Can't wait for you to get to Savannah, Clementine," The three of us look at the radio and our eyes widen at the sound of...a man's voice. "I got your parents right here, and you be sure to find me whether Lee or Elijah wants you to or not. Now, what I need-" The radio cuts out.

"...Holy shit."

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph."

"I thought that fucking thing was broken."

"So did I," Lee looks at me, silently asking me if I knew.

"I had no idea, I swear!"

"It's alright, son, we know."

"...Who the fuck was that? If he's convinced Clementine has her parents..."

"Y'all might wanna rethink your plan..."

No doubt... Who the fuck is this guy? How long has Clementine been talking to him? What has she told him...and what has he told her?

Whatever it is, Savannah is already proving to have more questions than answers.